ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, September 2, 2015

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

For the sake of healing, we call on Pope Francis to aggressively do outreach in each of the ten nations where archbishop Josef Wesolowski spent time as a cleric. The pontiff should publicly beg anyone who was hurt by Wesolowski to come forward and get help.

(The nations are: Poland, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Dominican Republic, Italy and Puerto Rico.)

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bweso.html

For the sake of justice, we call on Pope Francis to insist that church staff in each of these nations turn over files about Wesolowski to law enforcement. It’s possible that some of this predators’ colleagues intimidated victims, threatened witnesses, destroyed evidence, stonewalled police, shredded documents or broke laws in other ways. If so, they should be prosecuted, and Francis can help make this happen.

Regardless of what the pontiff decides, we call on the bishops of these nations to take these steps immediately.

Why?

Because it’s likely Wesolowski hurt kids in many (perhaps all) of these countries.

Because Catholic officials recruited, educated ordained, trained, promoted and moved Wesolowski.

Because Catholic officials call themselves “shepherds” who search for and help “lost sheep.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Fayetteville Observer

By Bill Kirby Jr.

Joan Dayton let two assistant principals know, and in no uncertain terms.

“This is my school,” the principal and co-founder of Freedom Christian Academy was telling Lin Wheeler and Hall Powers, according to an affidavit, who were concerned in 2012 about why she allowed a registered sex offender to perform odds jobs at the school. “I’m in charge here, and I can do whatever I want.”

Paul Conner, 50, the registered sex offender, was arrested May 28 and charged with violating the Sex Offender Registration Act.

On Tuesday, Dayton stood before Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons and entered a plea of responsibility to aiding and abetting and conspiring with Conner’s breach of the Sex Offender Registration Act on multiple occasions dating to 2010 at the private school.

“I am agreeing to what I did,” Dayton, 64, told the judge. “I did know he was a past sex offender. It’s a heavy price.”

But Dayton, her lawyer said, was little more than a good-hearted woman trying to help someone along life’s way.

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
Fayetteville Observer

By Michael Futch Staff writer

Joan Dayton, the former head of Freedom Christian Academy, had not spoken to the media since she and her school fell under scrutiny more than three months ago in a Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigation.

On Tuesday, she talked for the first time publicly about why she allowed a registered sex offender on the school campus in 2011.

“I do want to say this: What I am agreeing to is what I did,” she told Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons during a plea hearing.

Dayton faced Ammons and spoke softly, her back to her family and supporters in the courtroom. Some were weeping.

Her comments came one day after being charged with violating the Sex Offender Registration Act by “failing to report and aiding and abetting the violations committed by Paul Conner of being on school property.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
WRAL

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The former head of a Fayetteville private school told a judge on Tuesday that she takes full responsibility for hiring a convicted sex offender to perform work on the campus.

Joan Ellen Dayton, co-founder of Freedom Christian Academy, turned herself in Monday on a felony charge of violating the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act. Authorities said she failed to report, and aided and abetted, Paul Conner, a registered sex offender who worked at the school.

In her appearance Tuesday in Cumberland County Superior Court, Dayton accepted a plea agreement of 11 months of probation, 50 hours of community service to be performed within 180 days and payment of court costs. She also is not allowed on campus during her probation.

If she completes the requirements, the felony charge will be dismissed.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
01 SEP 2015

Freedom Christian Academy co-founder Joan Ellen Dayton was expected enter a plea on Tuesday to charges that she knowingly allowed a sex offender to work around students and then tried to cover it up.

According to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina, Dayton violated the Sex Offender Registration Act by “aiding and abetting the violations committed by Paul Conner of being on school property,” the Fayetteville Observer reported.

Investigators said that Dayton allowed Conner to work at Freedom Christian Academy during the 2011-12 academic year while his wife was working as a teacher. The sheriff’s office was notified after a parent discovered that Conner was a sex offender.

Dayton surrendered herself at the sheriff’s office on Monday. She was charged with three Sex Offender Registration Act violations, including conspiracy to allow a sex offender on protected premises.

“There’s a duty, particularly on the school principal – a statute that provides a duty for persons who are aware of a sex offender violating the registration act,” Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office attorney Ronnie Mitchell told the Observer. “Their duty is to report that. Not to cover that up. And so a failure to make that report to law enforcement is itself a separate felony.”

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.

SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland met with Dave Sharp after issuing an apology following the publication of the McLellan report

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow has met with a survivor of abuse within the Church.

Dave Sharp was granted the one-to-one meeting after the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland apologised to victims on behalf of the Church.

The 56-year-old, who was assaulted as a child at a Catholic brothers’ school in Falkland, Fife, said the discussion was very positive and he raised his concerns with the archbishop (above) in a ‘very open and frank’ way.

“I got the feeling I was the first victim the archbishop had spoken to in depth,” Mr Sharp said after the meeting took place. “I think it was eye-opening for 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.

UNITED STATES
Forward

September 1, 2015
By Elana Sztokman

Many members of the Jewish community are scratching their heads these days about the seemingly bizarre decision by the board of the Riverdale Jewish Center to keep on Jonathan Rosenblatt as their communal rabbi despite significant evidence that he has been acting inappropriately in his leadership role. To be fair there are people like Dr Steven Bayme who, according to the New York Times , decided that they cannot morally justify staying in such a synagogue, despite four decades of commitment, and for that they should be commended. And yet, despite what seems like an obvious history of violations of some basic moral and Jewish tenets, the board is retaining Rosenblatt, making victims of sexual abuse and their allies question the ethical backbone of the entire Orthodox community.

In fact, though, we should not be so surprised by the support that Rosenblatt has gotten from some of his balabusim and some of his peers. There is a long list of sexual predators and other Torah offenders who have received enviable support even as their sins come to light. Motti Elon , for example, who was convicted of sexual assault against his male students, has a strong following in Israel and abroad, and is frequently invited as a lecturer around the country. Marc Gafni , another long-time sexual offender, is considered a celebrity in many places, while his offenses barely find mention in his bio or on his Wikipedia page (“Best-selling author” it is). Michael Broyde , whose bizarre crimes of fraud were not sexual but nevertheless far out of the bounds of Torah, seems to be leading a new minyan of followers. And while Barry Freundel is largely condemned for his outrageously hurtful crimes of mikveh voyeurism, he had many vocal supporters before the undeniable evidence against him came to light, and many voices of support during sentencing – including Orthodox machers and pundits declaring, “It’s not rape” and therefore he should have gotten a much shorter sentence.

It is not only in the Jewish world where high-profile sexual predators find high-profile support. It has taken dozens of testimonies of women and several decades before anyone began taking seriously the allegations against Bill Cosby – and he still has some major celebrity supporters. Accusations against Dominique Kahn-Strauss were dismissed by some of his peers with a jovial, “Everyone knows he likes women.” And in fact all we have to do is look to the Supreme Court where Clarence Thomas has been sitting silently for over two decades despite powerful testimony about sexual harassment against him. It seems as if it is often easier for men in positions of power to wiggle out of accusations of sexual abuse than it is for victims to be believed.

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.

ITALY
The Local

A priest in Italy has suspended all parish activity apart from Sunday mass, after being dogged by rumours that he fathered a child with a married member of his congregation.

Father Luciano Venturi, a 50-year-old parish priest in Monteobizzo di Pavullo, in the province of Modena, had endured the claims for over a year – but on Sunday he took decisive action, Gazzetta di Modena reported.

As the Sunday morning service was about to start, Venturi approached the pulpit, flanked by the parishioner he allegedly impregnated, her husband and their three young children.

Venturi then delivered a short homily on the subject of his supposed affair with the woman, addressing his congregation while reading a statement.

“I am not the father of that child,” Venturi told his flock.

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
Leader

ALLEGATIONS  of sexual abuse at the former Bayswater and Box Hill boys’ homes are the subject of a hearing in October.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced it will hold a public hearing to inquire into the experiences of children who lived in Salvation Army institutions between 1940 and 1990, which includes the notorious Bayswater Boys’ Home.

The home in Liverpool Rd, The Basin, operated from 1897 to 1986 and housed hundreds of boys who had been placed in legal custody.

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
Care Apppointments

Fewer than 2% of residents at a Catholic-run training school in Northern Ireland made abuse allegations, a lawyer told a public inquiry.

Police considered some of the claims surrounding St Patrick’s in West Belfast to be “demonstrably” false, Joseph Aiken said. Of more than 4,000 residents only 66 individuals (1.45%) made allegations to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry of some form of abuse.

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is leading the HIA probe, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations. On Tuesday it focused on St Patrick’s, where sexual abuse by a member of staff has been proven.

Mr Aiken said: “Its size in percentage terms (1.45%) is striking in comparison to, for instance Rubane where approximately 20% of the 1,050 children who passed through that institution had made allegations of abuse in one form or another.”

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TEXAS
KXII

[with video]

BONHAM, Texas — The trial of Lyle Huddlestun, 43, began Monday with opening arguments.

Huddlesten is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child under 17 years of age.

Bonham police officer Terry Bee testified saying these 20 to 22 incidents happened between 2007 and 2009 in Huddlestun’s home.

The victim reported these allegations to authorities in 2013, claiming the incidents happened when he was 13 or 14 years old.

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CANADA
CBC News

Two former students of Métis schools in Manitoba are suing the Roman Catholic Church and the province for alleged sexual abuse.

The lawsuit outlines allegations that date back more than 50 years, naming a priest and a nun, both deceased, as the perpetrators.

The plaintiffs’ counsel, Israel Ludwig, hopes to settle the case outside the courtroom.

“What I would like to see is something that’s non-adversarial. These people that suffered abuse are very sensitive people. They are fragile,” Ludwig told CBC News.

“One of the things that personally bothers me when I take these cases forward is seeing my clients being re-abused by having to go through the process of telling their story and being subjected to some very tough questions.”

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INDIA
The Hindu

The Sagar police have arrested a priest, Manjunatha Acharya, who was serving at Kalika Parameshwari temple in Sagar city, on the charge of sexually assaulting a minor girl on Monday.

According to the police, a father and daughter had gone to the priest’s house for astrological consultations.

The priest allegedly told the father the problem would be solved by offering worship at the nearby temple, and asked him to go there immediately. When the father left, the priest attempted to sexually abuse the girl. When the victim raised a hue and cry, the priest fled.

The police were able to nab him later.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Miriam Dalli / Jurgen Balzan
2 September 2015

Gozo bishop Mario Grech refused to answer questions on his decision to stand by a priest who was defrocked by the Vatican more than two years ago.

Asked by this newspaper for his reaction, Grech retorted “do you mind if I don’t?” and when pressed to give an answer he said “all your premises are wrong”.

Asked to elaborate, Grech said “I’ll tell you some other time.”

On Sunday, MaltaToday revealed how a Gozitan priest who was defrocked by the Vatican in 2013 had not yet been notified of his dismissal by Grech.

The priest in question, 63-year-old Dominic Camilleri, was investigated by the Maltese Church over the sexual abuse of minors. He had been accused of abusing a number of boys in Gozo over a number of years. Details are hazy since the cases were never reported to the police.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Elizabeth Mohr
emohr@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/01/2015

Private, sensitive information provided by victims of clergy sexual abuse could be disseminated to more than 1,000 people across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis if a bankruptcy judge approves a request from parishes to expand access to confidential documents.

Attorneys representing victims oppose the broad request, saying many victims came forward hesitantly and with the understanding that the court had strictly limited who would have access to their claims, filed as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel will hear oral arguments on the issue at 2 p.m. Thursday at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in January, citing an operating deficit and concerns about more lawsuits for clergy sexual abuse.

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KANSAS
KWCH

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas priest has been charged with alleging stealing nearly $151,000 from his two parishes and the Catholic Diocese to fund his extensive gambling.

A criminal information filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas charges Father Thomas H. Leland with bank fraud. The court issued a summons for a Sept. 23 initial appearance.

Leland was assigned in 2010 as the sole priest at St. Francis Parish in St. Paul and St. Ambrose Parish in Erie, both located in southeast Kansas.

Court records do not show a defense attorney, and church officials had no contact information for him.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

David O’Reilly
POSTED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

The Religion Newswriters Association met in Philadelphia this weekend. I stuck my head in for part of it on Friday. On Saturday I was a panelist to talk about covering papal visits like the one Francis is making to Cuba and the U.S. in September.

I’m not sure I can do justice to my co-panelist’s remarks, since I was not taking detailed notes, but here I thought I’d share a summary of my own remarks.

I was invited to speak because I’ve covered three papal visits since becoming The Inquirer’s religion reporter in 1995, and because I’ll be traveling with Pope Francis on his planes, and with the media pool, during his travels next month. …

When I look back on that whole adventure now, I’m struck by two things: how plain-vanilla my reporting was, and how plain-vanilla these papal appearances were. Crowds would gather at Giants Stadium, Aqueduct Race Track, Central Park, and Oriole Stadium in Baltimore. And with as much grace and dignity and warmth as he could summon, John Paul would appear, celebrate Mass in the company of many bishops and cardinals, speak to the crowd, and withdraw.

In preparing for my RNA remarks I looked up only one of those stories, JP’s appearance at Aqueduct, and could only shake my head. It described the wind blowing his cassock, the weather, the fact that the race track was so muddy from overnight rains that they cancelled the popemobile circuit, and that the water fountains weren’t working, so people got bottled water instead. John Paul spoke on familiar themes about choosing life, and I interviewed several in the crowd who spoke of how touched they were to see him.

Hmmm.

I suspect the other stories were equally bland, and ask myself now what I could have done better, but frankly I don’t have an answer. Apart from the celebration of Mass, the reason-for-being of these papal appearances was… the papal appearance. The Catholic Church talks about a thing called the “theology of presence” that’s supposed to help explain the why of these things, but looking back I am now of the opinion that John Paul’s public appearances were also intended as assertions of his authority and the authority of Rome. I failed to note it in my stories at the time, but at each venue the attending cardinals and host archbishops were required to read a public statement of loyalty – almost a medieval declaration of fealty – to John Paul. Looking back, these appearances – with John Paul seated on what can only be called thrones — were even reminiscent of a Roman emperor touring his provinces.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

NOTE – SNAP members went door-to-door yesterday (8/31) in the Brookside neighborhood handing out these fliers. (See media coverage on Channel 5 and KMBZ radio.)

Help us protect kids!

WHO WE ARE
We were molested as kids by priests, nuns, seminarians and bishops. We belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org).

WHY WE’RE HERE
Fr. Michael Tierney lives around here. He has been accused repeatedly of abusing kids and giving them drugs, liquor, pornography and ‘massages.’ His Catholic supervisors won’t let him work in a parish. Several child sex abuse lawsuits against him have been settled.

WHAT WE WANT
We want kids to be safe, victims to be healed, and people to be given the full truth about clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Kansas City area.
HOW YOU CAN HELP

–Please ask your neighbors or loved ones if they were hurt by Fr. Tierney (or by any of the other 25 publicly accused predator priests in KC Missouri or the 11 in KC Kansas).
–If they were, please urge them to get help (from independent sources) and call police, not priests.
–Please call/write Archbishop Naumann. Urge him, for the safety of children, to permanently post names of prove, admitted and credibly accused predator priests on his website (Roughly 30 other bishops have taken this step, which is a simple, inexpensive, common sense way to safeguard kids.)

Besides Fr. Tierney, the publicly accused KC MO area priests are: Fr. Thomas Reardon, Fr. John C. Baskett, Fr. Michael Brewer, Fr. Thomas J. Cronin, Fr. James H. Ford, Fr. Martin Froeschel, Fr. Richard Geimer, Bishop Joseph Hart, Fr. Mark Honhart, Fr. Sylvester Hoppe, Fr. Earl Johnson, Fr. James Lawbaugh, Fr. Francis E. McGlynn, Fr. Hugh F. Monahan, Fr. Stephen J. Muth, Fr. Thomas J. O’Brien, Fr. Thomas Parrott, Fr. Bede Parry, Fr. Shawn Ratigan, Fr. Isaac True, Fr. John Tulipana, Fr. James Urbanic, Fr. Thomas Ward, Fr. James Wegenek and Fr. Francis L. Wise.

The publicly accused KC KS area priests are: Fr. Thomas F. Cawley, Fr. Thomas A. Conway, Fr. William A. Finnerty, Fr. James A. Forsyth, Fr. William M. Haegelin, Fr. Finian Meis, Fr. Anthony Putti, Fr. Dennis E. Schmitz, Fr. John H. Wisner, Fr. Norman C. “Chuck” Wolfe and Fr. Camillus Wurtz.

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
Erin Matson

Less than two weeks ago, I used a pen to fix a cover story in The Washington Post on Jared Fogle. I crossed out the word “underage sex” and wrote in “statutory rape” in the headline, and then changed a few more words in the story: “having sex with” and “sexual encounters with” became “raping” and “rapes of” underage girls. Then I took a picture and posted the image to Twitter and Facebook.

The image went viral. Using the most conservative estimates that don’t account for people copying and pasting on their own, the image has been shared well over 40,000 times. I want to talk about why that image resonated so strongly and make some suggestions about where to go from here.

People are sick and tired of rape culture. Rape culture is the way media, law, language, sexism, and social norms interact to create a world where sexual assault is commonplace. It manifested in the Post story by wrapping Fogle’s sexual misconduct with minors in the language of consensual sex.

We can, and should, talk about why this happened. It happened, in part, because of the inadequacy of the charges against Fogle: “Distributing and receiving child pornography, and conspiring to do so, as well as repeatedly traveling to engage in commercial sex acts with underage minors.” Here’s the problem: Legal language and technicalities can obstruct telling it like it is and pursuing justice to the point where it becomes an open question whether the law is designed to protect victims of sexual crimes or powerful, popular men like Jared Fogle and Bill Cosby.

In plain language and the lived experiences of victims of sexual assault, if a person is unable to consent to sex – it’s rape, and that includes the circumstance of an adult preying upon minors below the age of consent. The exchange of money does not override other factors that make a person unable to consent to sex. Fogle engaged in criminal sexual conduct with minors – and while journalists can say that, they can’t say he raped them unless or until the law says he did.

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
Haaretz

Rabbi Zvi Telsner, the head of the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne, Australia, resigned under pressure on Tuesday over his handling of a child sex abuse scandal, Australia’s ABC reported.

Telsner testified before a royal commission investigating the affair in February, and amongst other things told them he thought gay people and pedophiles could be cured through therapy, as well as counseling and spiritual guidance. The royal commission was examining how Jewish schools had responded to accusations of sexual abuse of children since the 1980s.

Telsner apologized to the Yeshivah community, as well as friends and supporters in a letter announcing his immediate resignation on Tuesday. He had allegedly called the sexual abuse victims “crazy.”

Telsner said he endorses the Yeshiva Centre’s values, policy and message of support and compassion for child sexual abuse victims and their families, according to Australian ABC. “I recognize that my conduct towards victims and their families did not demonstrate these values or behavior to the extent necessary of a rabbi in my position,” he said in the letter.

The royal commission uncovered a culture of ignoring issues within the Yeshiva Centre, a lack of knowledge about child abuse and of sympathy for victims assaulted between the 1980s and 2010. It also revealed a teacher and other men linked with the school who were known to be or suspected of being child abusers were allowed to make contact with 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
9 News

AAP

Australia’s Jewish community is in shock after one of its most senior rabbis stepped aside, apologising for his treatment of child sex abuse victims at a Melbourne Jewish school.

Rabbi Zvi Telsner has said he will step down immediately as head of Melbourne’s Yeshiva Centre, which manages schools including Yeshiva College, apologising for his behaviour towards victims.

In a letter to the Jewish community on Tuesday evening, Rabbi Telsner apologised for the way he dealt with child sex abuse victims and their families.

“We must all be aware of how our words and actions impact on others and therefore would like to apologise for my conduct and urge everyone to show compassion and support towards victims and their families,” he said.

Yeshiva College was among the Jewish schools in Melbourne and Sydney examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concerning their response to sex abuse.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

on August 27, 2015

Police and church leaders have neither seen nor heard from the Rev. Ysrael Bien since a judge signed a warrant for his arrest last week.

The reality that the priest may not return from the Philippines leaves the criminal investigation unfinished and his Sherwood congregation without a chance to face the man they once admired.

“I don’t ever expect to see him again, but I think in his heart of hearts he knows how many people he’s hurt,” said parishioner Peter Hainley. “Owning it would be a really good step toward helping people heal.”

Bien was the beloved pastor of St. Francis Catholic Church. He was trusted, even considered charmingly innocent.

Now, he’s AWOL.

Bien, 34, is accused of hiding a camera in a bathroom at the church.

He left the country without permission shortly after Archbishop Alexander Sample put him on administrative leave in June, according to the archdiocese. He declined when the archbishop instructed him to return, then he stopped responding altogether. Sample has not heard from Bien since early August.

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

By Patricia Montemurri, Detroit Free Press
September 1, 2015

Catholic priest Edward Belczak pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud in connection with embezzling $573,000 of money from St. Thomas More church in Troy, the prosperous parish he led as pastor for nearly 30 years.

Belczak agreed to forfeit a plush Florida condo he bought with parish money and pay $573,000 in restitution. His sentencing will be Dec. 1; the sentencing guidelines call for him spending 33 to 41 months in prison.

Belczak wore his priestly collar during the hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow.

Belczak initially said he thought some donations to the parish were intended for him, but his comments did not seem to sit well with Judge Tarnow.

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.

OHIO
YouTube

Carol tells her story of how she was sexual abused by her Steubenville parish priest between the ages of 3 and 6 years old. [ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ] If you wish to connect with this survivor, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY JAMIE DUNCANAAP
SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

A MAN who was molested while studying at a Melbourne Jewish school is celebrating after one of Australia’s most senior rabbis stepped down over his handling of child sex abuse allegations.

RABBI Zvi Telsner has said he will step down immediately as head of Melbourne’s Yeshiva Centre, which manages schools including Yeshiva College, apologising for his behaviour towards victims.

Manny Waks told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was molested by the son of a senior rabbi and teacher at Yeshiva College, bullied by classmates who knew of the abuse and shunned by his community for speaking out.

In a jubilant tweet, Mr Waks said on Tuesday: “Finally. The news we have all been awaiting. I commend all those who stood up and voiced their views.”

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UNITED STATES
Frum Follies

Rabbi Tvi Telsner was finally forced to resign as head of Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre. His misconduct over the years included helping accused molesters flee the country just ahead of the cops (e.g., Malka Leifer), threatening and shunning victims who went to the police, and orchestrating a barrage of abusive comments about victims who dared to go public with their charges.

ABC in Australia reports

Manny Waks, who went public in 2011 with allegations he was repeatedly sexual abused as a boy at Yeshivah College and accusations of a cover-up, said the rabbi was “at the heart” of the scandal, and said his position had been untenable for a long time.

“He has caused immense pain and suffering to the victims, to our families, but also to the broader Jewish community — not just to the Yeshivah community — because he has tainted all of us,” 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.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Judge Guthmann’s Order Paves the Way for Trial in Ramsey County

Doe 30 Order on Summary Judgment

(St. Paul, MN) – The first civil trial regarding clergy sexual abuse of a minor under the Minnesota Child Victims Act will begin in the Doe 30 case on October 19, 2015, in Ramsey County District Court. The Diocese of Duluth is the defendant. An order issued by Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthmann denied the Diocese of Duluth’s attempt to be dismissed as a party in the case, meaning the jury trial will begin October 19 before Judge Guthmann.

Plaintiff Doe 30 was sexually abused in approximately 1978 by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald, a priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (“Oblates”) religious order he met as a young parishioner at St. Thomas More Church in Lake Lillian, Minn., in the Diocese of New Ulm. Fitzgerald brought Doe 30 to St. Catherine’s Church in Squaw Lake, Minn., in the Diocese of Duluth, where he molested Doe 30. Fitzgerald was working as a priest at St. Catherine’s Church at the time of the abuse.

In 2014, Doe 30 filed a civil lawsuit against the Diocese of Duluth, the Oblates and the Diocese of New Ulm, regarding the abuse. Doe 30 brought his lawsuit under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which was enacted in 2013 and gives child sexual abuse victims until May 25, 2016, to file civil lawsuits. The Doe 30 case will be the first to go to trial in a case brought under the Child Victims Act.

“This trial will mark the first time that the Diocese of Duluth’s secret documents will see the light of day,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for Doe 30.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.205.5531

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

First time Diocese of Crookston Secret Documents Will Be Turned Over

Doe 19 Order Compelling Discovery

(St. Paul, MN) – Mahnomen County District Court Judge Kurt J. Marben has ordered the Diocese of Crookston – a Defendant in the Doe 19 clergy sexual abuse lawsuit – to produce all records pertaining to sexual abuse reported to have been committed by any priest before 1985. The secret documents will be produced to Doe 19 under seal as a result of a protective order previously obtained by the Defendants in the lawsuit.

The documents will provide a clearer picture of the Diocese of Crookston’s practices regarding abusive priests. The Diocese of Crookston has refused to provide these documents to Doe 19. The Diocese previously released a list of credibly accused priests but has refused to publicly release related documents. The other Defendant in the Doe 19 case – the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (“Oblates”) – was ordered to release similar documents in a separate clergy sex abuse case in Ramsey County in January.

“The Diocese of Crookston must finally disclose to Plaintiff what it knew about abusive priests, when it knew, and how it responded,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for Doe 30. “We again urge the Diocese to publicly disclose this information. Only then, through full, public disclosure, will there be transparency, justice and healing for survivors.”

Doe 19 was sexually abused by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald, an Oblate priest he met as a young parishioner at St. Ann’s Parish in Naytahwaush, Minn., on the White Earth Indian Reservation, in the mid-1980s. Doe 19 brought his lawsuit under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which gives child sexual abuse victims until May 25, 2016, to file civil lawsuits.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.817.8665
Mike Finnegan: Office/651.964.3458 Cell/612.205.5531

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MINNESOTA
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

Lawyers representing more than 400 clergy sexual-abuse victims will head to court this week to fight a request from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s parishes for permission to review victims’ confidential bankruptcy claims.

Victims’ lawyers said that if the parishes’ request is approved by a judge, it could result in the dissemination of “unusually detailed and intensely personal” information to more than 1,000 additional recipients.

“Many of the additional permitted parties will reside in smaller parishes outside of the metropolitan area where confidential information is more likely to be linked to specific claimants,” Robert Kugler, a lawyer for the committee representing abuse victims, said in court papers.

Lawyers for the parishes, however, say the information included in the claims is crucial to efforts to broker a settlement with victims.

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MISSOURI
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests canvass a street in Brookside with fliers.

The flier stated that a man that lives in Brookside is a retired priest, who was the subject of several sexual abuse claims. The priest in question, Father Michael Tierney, was never convicted of a crime.

SNAP’s David Clohessey would like priests with credible claims of sexual abuse to be permanently removed from the clergy and kept in communes in rural areas.

“We think it is just unbelievably irresponsible for church officials to exercise no control, no supervision over these potentially dangerous men,” said Clohessey.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

1 September 2015

I am pleased that Yeshivah Centre’s (Melbourne) Rabbi Zvi Telsner has finally taken responsibility for his gross and repeated failures and has resigned from his role as Senior Rabbi and Head of the Yeshivah Synagogue.

Rabbi Telsner was at the very heart of this scandal. He was more than just a by-stander to the re-victimisation, bullying and harassment of victims and their families – he actively led his community down the terrible path which they pursued towards their victims. While some of the other rabbis and leaders at Yeshivah preached one thing but practiced another, Rabbi Telsner used the pulpit to encourage, normalise and actively participate in the excommunication of victims and their families.

On a personal note, I would significantly attribute my departure from Australia to him. He had the power and authority to ensure I was treated humanely. Instead he mobilised the forces against me, my family, additional victims and others. So the pain and suffering that resulted due to Rabbi Telsner’s actions and inactions is profound – something several of us have experienced until this very day. …

Letter from the Yeshivah Centre Interim Committee of Management

י”ז אלול תשע”ה
1st September, 2015

Dear Yeshivah Community Members, Friends and Supporters,

At the Yeshivah Centre we are currently working hard to ensure that we have the appropriate policies and processes in place to guarantee a safe environment for our children. As well as appropriate policies, our values and behaviours need to reflect support to those who have been affected by this both now and in the future.

Today, Rabbi Telsner has notified the Committee of Management of his decision to stand down from his position as Rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre, effective immediately. This follows a recent event in which such values or behaviour to the extent required of a Rabbi in his position were not demonstrated. We support his decision and immediate resolve.

In Rabbi Telsner’s letter to the community he apologises for his past conduct and urges everyone to show compassion and support towards victims and their families throughout the moised and broader community. We echo Rabbi Telsner’s apology and his message of consideration and compassion and we resolve to make every effort to continue to move forward and improve in this regard.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

RABBI Zvi Hirsch Telsner has stood down, effective immediately, as the senior rabbi of the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne.

In a letter to the community tonight Rabbi Telsner told the community he endorses Yeshivah Centre’s “values, policies and message of continued support and compassion for victims of Child Sexual Abuse, their families and all of the community”.

He said that Elul is a time to reflect on ones values and behaviours as we prepare to herald in the New Year.

“I recognise that my conduct towards victims and their families did not demonstrate these values or behaviour to the extent necessary of a Rabbi in my position,” Rabbi Telsner said.

“Accordingly, I have decided to stand down from my position as Rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre, effective immediately.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The head rabbi of Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre has announced he is stepping down, after months of pressure to resign over his handling of child sex abuse.

Rabbi Zvi Telsner appeared before the royal commission into child sex abuse in February, and while he denied shunning victims, he admitted he was complicit for not speaking out against it.

He has also told the royal commission he believed paedophiles and gay people could be “cured” by therapy.

In a letter sent to the “Yeshivah community members, friends and supporters” on Tuesday night, Rabbi Telsner apologised the way he had treated victims of child sex abuse.

“As a senior Rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre I acknowledge and endorse its values, policies and message of continued support and compassion for victims of child sexual abuse, their families and all of the community,” Rabbi Telsner wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

September 1, 2015

Chloe Booker

Yeshivah Centre chief rabbi Zvi Telsner has stood down after he allegedly accused sex abuse victims of trying to destroy his community, calling one “crazy”.

Rabbi Telsner resigned after it was revealed he had berated a victim during a conversation about the centre’s leadership following a cover-up of sexual abuse within the centre.

He wrote a letter to the community on Tuesday, apologising for his conduct towards victims and their families, saying it did not demonstrate the centre’s values.

“I have decided to stand down from my position as rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre, effective immediately,” he wrote.

“We all must be aware of how our words and actions impact on others and therefore would like to take this opportunity to apologise for my conduct and urge everyone to show compassion and support towards victims and their families throughout the moised and broader community.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has been hearing today that Victoria’s prestigious Geelong Grammar School failed to act on reports of abuse from students.

The commission is examining the handling of abuse at the school from the 1950s to 2007.

Several former students are to evidence they were assaulted by teachers or staff.

Samantha Donovan is following the commission hearings and joins us now in Melbourne. And a warning her report will contain some disturbing information.

So Sam, what has the commission heard about Geelong Grammar School today?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well counsel assisting the royal commission, Eleanor, David Lloyd has started off by describing the school’s history and a little bit about its campuses this morning. He’s said its Australia’s largest co-educational boarding school; it was first established in 1855 and many of its former students have risen to prominent positions in business, law, politics and medicine.

It’s known of course to many Australians, Eleanor, because Prince Charles attended its Timbertop campus in the 1960s.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Two former Geelong Grammar students have testified about their brutal treatment, and the school’s dismissive response, at the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.

Established in 1855, Geelong Grammar has enjoyed a prestigious reputation – attended by Prince Charles and boasting a list of successful students including Rupert Murdoch and the late Kerry Packer.

However, in its long history there have been some dark chapters, read today as the Royal Commission examines its 32nd case study.

Former students recalled their experiences of sexual abuse while boarding at GGS in the 1960s and 1970s.

The reported offending was allegedly done by chaplains, a house resident and other students.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

September 1, 2015
SHANNON DEERY
Herald Sun

ONE of the country’s most senior rabbis has resigned after he was accused of covering up sex crimes and shunning child sex abuse victims.

Yeshivah Centre chief rabbi Zvi Telsner stood down indefinitely today amid claims he had continued to berate victims who exposed a widespread abuse cover-up within the Jewish community.

The Herald Sun understands Yeshivah’s interim committee of management was pressured to act after a heated exchange with a victim of abuse that saw him claim whistleblowers were trying to destroy the Yeshivah.

Rabbi Telsner, the leader of the biggest Chabad community in the Southern hemisphere, is the third person to lose a senior position after the child abuse royal commission probed the Yeshivah cover-up earlier this year.

Rabbi Telsner has notified the Committee of Management of his decision to stand down from his position as Rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre, effective immediately.

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BANGLADESH
UCA News

Stephan Uttom, Dhaka
Bangladesh
September 1, 2015

A Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against a Catholic priest on Aug. 30, about a month after a woman accused the priest of abuse and refusing to marry her after nearly 10 years of an alleged intimate relationship.

Felicita Murmu, 44, a Catholic from the indigenous Santal community, filed her case against Father Patras Hembrom, 43, also a Santal, on July 28 under the country’s Women and Children Repression Act.

Murmu’s lawyer Debendra Nath said that if found guilty, Father Hembrom could face 10 years in jail plus a fine. “Having a physical relationship with a woman with a false promise of marriage is a serious crime according to the law,” she said.

Murmu said she was left with no option except to pursue a legal claim against the priest for his past alleged abuses.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

[with document]

08/31/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

The diocesan priesthood differs from membership in a religious order or institute (i.e. the Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans, etc.) in several ways. Priests who are members of religious orders vow to observe the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and they offer their ministry in service of the charism of their order. Diocesan priests, on the other hand, do not take vows. They make a promise of obedience and are obliged to perpetual sexual continence, but unlike religious priests they are under no obligation of poverty, communal life, or the communal ownership of property. Diocesan priests are incardinated into a particular diocese, meaning that at the time of their ordination they offer their life’s ministry in service to the people of a particular diocese. In return, the faithful of the diocese are to see that the priests have what is necessary for their decent financial support both while they are in active ministry and during their subsequent retirement (delicately referred to as their ‘third age’). Generally, this is achieved through a defined benefit pension plan.

Given the bargain that exists between priests and the dioceses they serve , I am sure more than one priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis considered jumping ship after receiving last week’s letter announcing that the Pension Plan for Priests is currently funded at only 44%. It has been acknowledged for years that the plan has been underfunded, but I have never seen an actuarial valuation this low before. The letter does state that the Pension Plan Board anticipates that the plan will be fully funded in the next 15-20 years, but that claim is based in part on a continued annual funding level of $17,400 per priest per year. The unspoken variable is the presumed level of mortality of the priests currently drawing a pension.

On the positive side, at least at this point the pension funds have not been liquidated as part of any bankruptcy settlement. Whether that situation will continue remains to be seen.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Geelong Grammar School student was threatened with expulsion after reporting a chaplain for molesting him during a hypnosis session, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The same chaplain tried to hypnotise a bullied student in an effort to have sex with him before later becoming a church vicar in suburban Melbourne, the inquiry heard.

Counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd said former student BKO will give evidence that Rev John Davison touched him during one of two after-school sessions in which the chaplain tried to hypnotise a group of students.

BKO reported the incident to a teacher but found the subsequent process very threatening and was told he may be expelled, Mr Lloyd said.

Another former student Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones, who was 15 at the time, said Rev Davison offered him support because he was being bullied, including incessant “mocking” or verbal bullying.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Sex abuse royal commission: Geelong Grammar chaplain tried to hypnotise students before sexually assaulting them

September 1, 2015

Henrietta Cook
Education Reporter at The Age

A chaplain at one of the country’s most prestigious private schools tried to hypnotise students before sexually assaulting them, a victim told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

The royal commission turned its focus to Geelong Grammar, where serious and ongoing sexual abuse occurred from the late 1950s until 2007.

Former student and Sydney psychiatrist Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones told the commission on Tuesday that the school’s chaplain, the now deceased Reverend John Davison, befriended him in 1971 and then tried to hypnotise him with a watch in his locked office.

Reverend Davison then indecently assaulted him, before accusing Dr Llewellyn-Jones of propositioning him.

“There was a subculture of brutality,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
1 SEP 2015

A Geelong Grammar School chaplain hypnotised boys so he could molest them, boarders were sexually abused as they slept and students were subjected to incessant bullying and even abuse by their peers, an inquiry has heard.

A code of silence discouraged students from reporting five decades of abuse which continued until as recently as 2007 while those who did speak out were met with inaction or even threatened with expulsion, the child abuse royal commission heard.

Victim BKO has told the commission that Rev John Davison abused him during one of two after-school sessions in 1970 in which the school chaplain tried to hypnotise a group of students.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Emma Nelson Star Tribune AUGUST 31, 2015

Bob Rich was in his 20s when he won an $850,000 settlement from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — compensation for years of sexual abuse at the hands of the Rev. Robert Michael Thurner.

Rich and his family were hopeful the lawsuit, settled in 1992, would bring closure. But within four years, the money was gone. Some Rich gave away. Some went to a California beach house and a Porsche. Some he used to fuel a cocaine habit — an effort, he said, to ease the pain.

More than 20 years later, hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse have filed claims against the archdiocese. Many were urged forward by the 2013 Minnesota Child Victims Act, which extended the statute of limitations for civil claims in child sex abuse cases.

Unlike Rich, these survivors won’t file suit. Instead, the assets of the archdiocese, which filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy in January, will be divvied up among them. And settlements are unlikely to reach the amount that Rich’s did.

In 2004, 171 victims in the Portland archdiocese split $90 million. In August, negotiations in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee led to a $21 million settlement for 330 victims out of more than 500 who filed claims. In the Twin Cities, the archdiocese’s assets are estimated between $10 million and $50 million and more than 400 people have filed claims.

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MISSOURI
KCTV

[with video]

By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager
deann.smith@kctv5.com
By Heather Staggers, Reporter

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
He is one of the most controversial priests in the history of the Kansas City Catholic Church, and one group is upset that he has quietly moved into a neighborhood that’s popular with families.

Father Michael Tierney is no longer an active priest, but he has not been defrocked by the Vatican despite the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph paying money to settle sex abuse claims involving Tierney.

Members of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests put fliers on the doors of those living near Tierney’s home near Oak Street and East 64th Terrace. They said that residents have a right to know about the predator living among their midst.

“If a predator priest is so dangerous that a bishop won’t let him work in a parish then he is too dangerous to live among families who don’t know what he’s done,” said SNAP’s David Clohessy.

The diocese settled with 32 sex abuse victims for abuse suffered at the hands of 14 priests including Tierney. Four child sex abuse lawsuits against him have been settled, and he has long been subject of SNAP’s ire with the Catholic Church. Then Bishop Robert Finn apparently first learned of the allegations against Tierney in 2008 but apparently didn’t remove him over “credible reports” of abuse until June 2011. The allegations dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Fox News

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. – A New Hampshire prep school graduate convicted of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old classmate as part of a game of sexual conquest must register as a sex offender for life, a punishment his lawyer likens to being branded.

Legal experts and reform advocates say the punishment exceeds the crime.

Nineteen-year-old Owen Labrie was convicted Friday following a two-week trial that exposed a practice at St. Paul’s School in Concord known as Senior Salute, in which graduating students try to have sex with younger classmates.

The Tunbridge, Vermont, resident faces up to 11 years in prison. He can ask the court to take him off the registry 15 years after he finishes his sentence.

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VATICAN CITY
WQOW

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Eight minutes of silence instead of a homily marked the Vatican funeral Monday of a former papal diplomat, whose trial on charges of possession of child pornography and sexual abuse of minors had begun this summer in a Holy See courtroom.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said time for silent reflection followed the Gospel reading at Jozef Wesolowski’s funeral in a Vatican administrative palazzo’s chapel.

The Holy See, citing preliminary autopsy results, has said Wesolowski, 67, died of a heart attack in his room at the Vatican on Aug. 27.

During the funeral, a ritual prayer was recited so God might “cancel the sins that (Wesolowski) had committed with human fragility.”

Cameras were banned during the funeral. Burial will be in Wesolowski’s native Poland.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Created: 08/31/2015

By: Jennie Lissarrague

A judge has ordered the Diocese of Crookston to produce all records about sexual abuse reported against any priest before 1985.

The diocese is a defendant in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit, and the documents will be produced under seal, according to lawyer Jeff Anderson. The lawsuit alleges that the victim was sexually abuse by the Rev. J. Vincent Fitzgerald; the victim says he met Fitzgerald at St. Ann’s Parish in Naytahwaush, Minnesota, in the mid-1980s.

The diocese previously released a list of credibly-abused priests but hasn’t publicly released the related documents, Anderson said. Anderson said the documents will show what the diocese knew about abusive priests, when it knew and how officials responded.

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WATYKAN
TVP

[The body of Jozef Wesolowski was dressed in cassock and he wore the bishop’s ring. The Vatican held the funeral Mass monday. He was given the ceremony because although accused of pedophilia and expelled from the clerical state, the judgment did not become final.]

W sutannie i z pierścieniem biskupim złożono do trumny ciało Józefa Wesołowskiego, byłego nuncjusza apostolskiego na Dominikanie. W poniedziałek w Watykanie odbyła się msza żałobna za zmarłego. Zachowano odpowiedni ceremoniał, bo choć oskarżonego o pedofilię byłego arcybiskupa co prawda wydalono ze stanu duchownego, to jednak wyrok się nie uprawomocnił.

Mszę żałobną w intencji Józefa Wesołowskiego odprawiono w kaplicy Gubernatoratu Państwa Watykańskiego. Odprawił ją papieski jałmużnik arcybiskup Konrad Krajewski.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Autopsy on Archbishop Accused of Sexual Abuse Coordinated by the Same Man Who Performed the Disputed Autopsy on Two Murdered Swiss Guards

Betty Clermont

Posted on August 31, 2015

A Vatican trial for Pope Francis’ ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, age 67, was scheduled for July 11 but was halted due to the archbishop’s “illness.” Wesolowski was accused of soliciting sex for money from Santo Domingo’s poorest boys and possession of child pornography.

Had the trial taken place, testimony would have confirmed that the pope allowed Wesolowski to remain a free man for 14 months regardless of how many times the pope said he was taking “action” against prelates on the issue of sex abuse; and that, during this time, Wesolowski acquired more than 100,000 computer files of pornography with disturbing photos of children who were likely victims of human trafficking – an issue on which Pope Francis wants to be seen as a world leader. At a July 21 conference for mayors from around the world held in the Vatican, the pope told the group he hoped they would address “how climate change affects the trafficking of people.”

Wesolowski’s body was discovered on August 28 in his Vatican quarters. The next day, the Vatican announced that an autopsy was performed by “a commission of three [unnamed] experts, coordinated by Giovanni Arcudi, Professor of Forensic Medicine … From the first conclusions reached by the macroscopic examination, it is confirmed the natural cause of death was a cardiac event.” No mention was made where the postmortem was conducted.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Kieran Tapsell on Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s Testimony Before Australian Abuse Commission: Vatican’s Belief That Church Law Trumps Civil Law Is Big Obstacle for Commission

Highly recommended: Kieran Tapsell’s conversation with Noel Debien of ABC Australia yesterday evening. Kieran Tapsell is an attorney and author of the book Potiphar’s Wife: The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sexual Abuse (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2014). In introducing Tapsell, Debien notes that the testimony last week of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson before the Australian Royal Commission about Sexual Abuse has gotten surprisingly little media coverage. I suspect this may be the case because, as I noted in my posting last Wednesday about Robinson’s testimony, he was unsparing in his criticism of the silence of the powerful Pope John Paul II about the abuse crisis in the Catholic church, and he also stated bluntly that the popular Pope Francis has not provided real leadership for the church as it addresses this crisis.

In his discussion with Debien, Tapsell reads between the lines of Bishop Robinson’s testimony, and points out that the Australian bishops — along with other bishops in other countries — could not address the abuse crisis effectively, when it began to come to their attention, because the Vatican had tied one hand behind their backs. Because the crisis deals with clerics, the Vatican insisted that all cases of clerical sexual abuse be referred specifically to the Vatican itself, and be treated as matters to be resolved by canon law — though canon law is frequently in conflict with civil law regarding sexual abuse of minors.

This strategy was crafted specifically by John Paul II and his right-hand man in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, who chose to respond to the Irish Murphy Commission report by maintaining that bishops, and not the Vatican, were creating the problem of ineffective response to the abuse crisis, since bishops were not following canon law. Though Irish civil law requires that priests abusing minors be referred to Irish criminal officials and not to the Vatican, to be dealt with per canon law . . . . And though the Vatican has simultaneously sought to maintain that priests abusing minors are independent agents who are in no way under the control of the Vatican or even of their diocesan bishops . . . .

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a Catholic League-Polling Company survey of Catholics:

Earlier this month, the Catholic League commissioned The Polling Company, headed by Kellyanne Conway, to conduct a nationwide survey of Catholics. In addition to the usual questions asked of respondents, we asked about issues the media have little interest in pursuing. We also dug deeper, seeking to tap the ways Catholics are conflicted over various matters.

The problem with many surveys is that they seek to elicit a black and white response to contemporary subjects; this is especially problematic when contentious issues are being weighed. Our survey was designed to allow for a more nuanced, and therefore accurate, response.

The findings suggest that most Catholics are faithful sons and daughters, and this is especially true of practicing Catholics. To read my analysis of the survey data, click here. The analysis has been sent to the bishops of every diocese in the nation.

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VATICAN CITY
The News (Poland)

The funeral of a defrocked Polish bishop who died on Friday while being tried for the sexual abuse of minors is being held at the Vatican on Monday afternoon.

The service for the late Józef Wesołowski is being held in a chapel behind St. Peter’s Basilica, although his body will be flown back to Poland for burial, the Vatican has confirmed.

Initial autopsy results indicated that Wesołowski, who turned 67 last month, died of a heart attack.

His trial at the Vatican began on 11 July, but was immediately adjourned after the defendant fell ill.

The child abuse charges, which concern Wesołowski’s tenure as papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic between January 2008 and August 2013, were based on evidence submitted by the judicial authorities of Santo Domingo.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
AGI

[Laicization of former nuncio Jozeph Wesolowski has upheld by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and rejected Wesolowski’s appearl. Wesolowski died on Aug. 28.]

(AGI) – CdV, 31 ago. – La condanna alla riduzione alla stato laicale dell’ex nunzio apostolico Joseph Wesolowski, deceduto nei giorni scorsi, era stata confermata in appello dalla Congregazione della Dottrina della Fede, che aveva respinto il ricorso dell’imputato. Il provvedimento canonico, tuttavia, non era stato ancora pubblicato, presumibilmente per non interferire nel processo penale iniziato lo scorso luglio con un rinvio a data da destinarsi.

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WATYKAN
SE

[Funeral ceremonies Jozeph Wesolowski, who died on Friday August 28, will be held on Monday 31 August. As determined by the Italian media, the former archbishop is to be buried as a man of the cloth. La Repubblica reports that the deceased was dressed in a cassock wore his episcopal ring. We still do not know, however, where he will be buried.]

Uroczystości pogrzebowe Józefa Wesołowskiego, który zmarł w piątek 28 sierpnia, odbędą się w poniedziałek 31 sierpnia. Jak ustaliły włoskie media, były arcybiskup ma zostać pochowany jako osoba duchowna. La Repubblica podaje, że zmarły przed złożeniem do trumny został ubrany w sutannę, zaś na palec włożono mu biskupi pierścień. Wciąż nie wiadomo jednak, gdzie zostanie pochowany Józef Wesołowski.

Józef Wesołowski zostanie pochowany w Polsce. Uroczystości pogrzebowe Wesołowskiego odbędą się 31 sierpnia (w poniedziałek) po południu w Watykanie. Później, po załatwieniu wszelkich formalności, ciało byłego duchownego zostanie przetransportowane do Polski. To właśnie w kraju zostanie on pochowany, Nie wiadomo jednak, gdzie odbędzie się pogrzeb. Obecnie trumna z ciałem zmarłego jest wystawiona w kaplicy Gubernatoratu Państwa Watykańskiego. Jak ustaliły włoskie media, Józef Wesołowski przed złożeniem do trumny został ubrany w sutannę, zaś na palec włożono mu biskupi pierścień. Wciąż nie wiadomo jednak, gdzie dokładnie zostanie pochowany Józef Wesołowski.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

[Many dioceses in Germany are seeing seniors leaving the church which is evidence that the Catholic Church cannot even hold on to elderly members.]

Düsseldorf. In vielen Bistümern der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland hat sich die Zahl der ausgetretenen Senioren verdoppelt. Dies ist ein Beleg dafür, wie schwach die Kirchenbindung selbst bei älteren Menschen geworden ist. Von Lothar Schröder

Der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland gehen jetzt auch die Senioren verloren. So hat sich die Zahl der Austritte von über 60-Jährigen 2014 im Vergleich zum Vorjahr fast verdoppelt. Dies ergab eine Umfrage unserer Zeitung unter allen 27 deutschen Bistümern. Elf von ihnen verfügten über Erhebungen der Austritte nach Altersgruppen – darunter die Bistümer von Aachen und Bamberg, Essen, Münster und Würzburg.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

[An 81-year-old ex-priest, who abused youngsters in Austria, must continue to be incarcerated.]

Mit 81 Jahren ist August M. einer der ältesten Gefangenen in der Strafvollzugsanstalt Stein in Krems (NÖ). Er sitzt seit März hinter Gittern, davor war er in einer Seniorenresidenz in Wels untergebracht. Der wegen jahrelangen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Zöglingen im Jänner vom Oberlandesgericht Linz rechtskräftig zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilte Ex-Konviktsdirektor des Stiftes Kremsmünster (OÖ) gilt als problemloser Häftling. “Er ist ein sehr ruhiger Insasse, er grüßt und sagt Bitte und Danke. Hätten wir lauter Gefangene mit derart angenehmen Umgangsformen, wäre unser Leben leichter”, lobt Anstaltsleiter-Stellvertreter Roland Wanek. Der betagte Häftling falle auch nicht durch “aufdringliche” Religiosität auf, führe ein mönchisches, eher zurückgezogenes Leben. “Er besucht aber regelmäßig den Gottesdienst.”

M.s Verhalten war jedoch nicht immer so mustergültig. Zwischen 1967 und 1996 lebte der Ex-Pater seine pädophile Neigung an Generationen von Stiftsschülern aus. Manche der minderjährigen Opfer wurden körperlich schwer misshandelt, teils ging er mit Ochsenpeitsche, Tritten oder beidhändig ausgeführten “Stereowatschen” auf die Schutzbefohlenen los. Es kam auch vor, dass er Kinder einfach für “vogelfrei” erklärte – Mitschüler durften den Betreffenden dann drangsalieren, ohne Konsequenzen befürchten zu müssen. M. drohte einigen auch damit, seine Pumpgun zu holen, die er bis 2010 illegal besaß.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Brendan Hoban, writing in his column in the Western People, gives his reaction to Bishop Crean recently forcing a Pastoral Council to withdraw an invitation to Tony Flannery to speak in a local community hall.

“It has brought the Irish Catholic Church once more into disrepute in that it showed that other voices have no place in it, even if Pope Francis encourages them in the wider Church. It insulted Tony Flannery …… it shows once again that the people are ahead of the priests, the priests are ahead of the bishops and the bishops, caught in the nineteenth century, are either out of touch or in abject denial.” …

Fr Tony Flannery has paid a high price for his membership of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP). A founder member, over five years ago, in the dog-days of the Pope Benedict era, Tony and others (including myself) spelled out as our platform the need for an agenda of reform for the Church we had served for decades – and which everyone (or almost everyone) could see was dying by the day.

That we struck a nerve with our fellow-priests was obvious. Within a year or so over 1,000 priests has signed on as members. But because we didn’t fit into the tradition of priests being seen and not heard and because bishops were in denial of the reality of Catholic life in Ireland, we were regarded as ‘dissidents’, partly responsible (as Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Visitation team would later report) for the bleak situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. The high-powered ‘Visitors’ from overseas (Cardinals and archbishops) looked in from afar for scapegoats and the ACP, to their mind, fitted the bill. We were part of the reason, they concluded, why the Church in Ireland was in such disarray!

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Live

BY LESLEY-ANNE MCKEOWN

The inquiry will also focus on allegations arising out of St Patrick’s Training School, Rathgael Training School in Bangor and Lisnevin Training School, Newtownards

A long-running public inquiry will examine allegations of historic child abuse at juvenile justice institutions when it resumes this week.

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is leading the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) probe, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations.

Its seventh module, expected to last until November, will focus on allegations arising out of St Patrick’s Training School and Hydebank Young Offenders’ Centre in Belfast, Rathgael Training School in Bangor and Lisnevin Training School in Newtownards.

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SCOTLAND
Express

By GREG CHRISTISON
Sun, Aug 30, 2015

Senior officers have warned that the probe – due to begin within the next month – will place a “significant demand” on the crisis-hit force.

The inquiry, which will be chaired by Susan O’Brien QC, will investigate historic abuse cases involving children in care, including both church and state-run children’s homes, boarding schools, foster care and hospitals.

Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone told a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority that there would be an impact on resources.

“It’s an inquiry that Police Scotland totally welcomes,” he said.

“It’s going to give victims of sexual abuse in the past a forum in which to raise their concerns but, inevitably, there will be an impact for us. There are demands of investigating historic crime as opposed to current crime, and how you balance current demand against historic demand is one which we are actively engaged with.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Recommendations on how to compensate thousands of people who were abused in orphanages and children’s homes across Australia will be sent to the federal government on Monday.

The recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are a key outcome for the national inquiry, which will run until the end of 2017.

The recommendations will be made public once they are considered by the Attorney-General’s office but there is no indication how long that will take.

On Sunday CLAN, a key support and advocacy network for care-leavers, called on the government to publish the recommendations without delay.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Sunday Nights

[with audio]

Sunday, August 30, 2015
by Jennifer Fleming

STORY 1

You may or may not Have been keeping your eye on the Royal Commission into sexual abuse, but on Monday last week, there was some important testimony given.You probably heard the bishop’s opinion about Cardinal Pell – that he broke the unity of the Australian Catholic bishops response. Those were the headlines

But Retired Catholic bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who led the church’s response to sexual abuse right up until 2004 gave MUCH more significant testimony than that. And the media seems to have largely ignored it.He got an earlier hearing because the bishop has terminal cancer.

Not only his words, but the documents TABLED in evidence are quite important in understanding how Australian Catholic leaders had one arm tied behind their back the whole time. By the Vatican. More importantly, they still do in 2015. Right now.

These matter caught the eye of our special guest , Kieran Tapsell. He’s a lawyer, and the author of a book called Potiphar’s wife- about the deep secrecy surrounding sexual abuse in church circles. The Pontifical Secret.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

30/8/2015 0

The following letter was sent by a Yeshivah Centre Melbourne victim/survivor of child sexual abuse to a member of the current (interim) Committee of Management. It is being reproduced here with the express permission of the victim/survivor.

Dear [REDACTED],

I hope you are well.

It is important that I relate to you the following ‘conversation’ that transpired between Rabbi Telsner and myself yesterday.

After raising an important issue with Rabbi Telsner relating to positions of authority within the Yeshivah institution, I was shocked by his inappropriate and disgraceful response.

In addition to the fact that he did not attempt to understand or address the particular issue I raised (merely referring to it as an accusation from me alone, despite several complaints of similar nature by other individuals and victims), he proceeded to attack, in his words: “Individuals that are wanting to destroy the mosed [institution]”.

Rabbi Telsner referred to Manny Waks and particularly his father as a ‘Meshugane’ [crazy].

Rabbi Telsner referred to [REDACTED – another Yeshivah victim/survivor] as a problem – that he is intent on destroying the Yeshivah. He referred to the fact that [REDACTED – the same victim/survivor] wrote a “defamatory” article about him as recently as last week in the [REDACTED], “for no reason”.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Abogado del Arzobispado de Santiago: “Nuestro compromiso fundamental es con las víctimas de Karadima y con la verdad”

[The lawyer for the Santiago, Chile, archbishop said their fundamental commitment is to the victims of Fernando Karadima and to truth. This sets the stage for presentation of evidence in the cil trial which begins this week.]

Sergio Rodríguez G.
30 de agosto del 2015

“Este proceso comenzó hace casi tres años. Durante ese período hemos trabajado intensamente, analizando con cuidado todos los antecedentes de lo sucedido, para determinar si existe algún indicio de lo que señalan los demandantes respecto del arzobispado. Y no hemos encontrado nada”, dice el abogado Nicolás Luco Illanes, quien representa legalmente a la Iglesia de Santiago.

El profesional se refiere a la demanda civil entablada en 2013 por Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton y José Andrés Murillo, víctimas del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, respecto de la supuesta complicidad o encubrimiento del arzobispado en los abusos cometidos por el religioso. Específicamente, demandan $ 450 millones.

La Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago acaba de terminar la fase de revisión de los puntos de prueba. Ahora, el expediente volverá al ministro de fuero, Juan Manuel Muñoz, quien esta semana dictaría el cúmplase, con lo que comenzará un plazo de 20 días para que las partes presenten las pruebas. Frente a esta inminente etapa decisiva, Luco explica la estrategia de defensa del arzobispado.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

30 August, 2015

A LONG RUNNING public inquiry will examine allegations of historic child abuse at juvenile justice institutions when it resumes this week.

Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is leading the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) probe, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations.

Its seventh module, expected to last until November, will focus on allegations arising out of St Patrick’s Training School and Hydebank Young Offenders’ Centre in Belfast, Rathgael Training School in Bangor and Lisnevin Training School in Newtownards.

In June, the HIA, spent a week examining the failings that allowed notorious paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth to continue abusing children over four decades.

Retired Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady was among those who gave evidence and said he hoped light would be shed on a “dark chapter” in the church’s history.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Tim Diacono 30 August 2015

A defrocked priest who was convicted of sexually abusing boys at the former St. Joseph Home in Santa Venera in the 1980s has applied for parole, Sunday newspaper Illum has reported.

If parole is granted, it would mean that Carmelo Pulis would only have spent half of his six-year prison sentence behind bars.

Police investigations into allegations of paedophilia by three members of the Missionary Society of St. Paul commenced in 2003, after one of the victims, Lawrence Grech, went public about the abuse he suffered while residing at St. Joseph’s Home. Other victims eventually followed his suit, and the scandal let to the home’s closure later that year.

In 2011, Pulis, 78, and Godwin Scerri, 78, were defrocked and jailed for five and six years respectively after a court found them guilty of sexually abusing ten boys in their care in the 1980s.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Rubén Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 08/29/2015

Many people would love an audience with Pope Francis, my kind of pope, during his weeklong U.S. trip next month to Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia.

Tom O’Connell of Hudson, Wis., is one of them. Heck, as a humble but still wretched sinner, I also want to hug or shake his Holiness’ hand — I don’t kiss rings — and then bend his ears. But I would gladly have Tom take my place on the long line of remote hopefuls.

“I realize there are hundreds of others who would like to meet you and all have very great need,” the funeral home owner wrote in a typed letter he sent the pope at his Vatican address in February.

“I feel my circumstances and situation needs to be heard, not just because my family needs to heal, but also because the tragic chain of events that led to the loss of three lives, damage to other young lives and damaged faith in God is being repeated over and over,” the two-page missive continues. “Helping my family to heal will hopefully lead to healing for many other families and the Catholic Church. It would show your healing power to the many who have suffered.”

On Feb. 5, 2002, a medical examiner arriving to get signatures on a death certificate found Daniel, 39 — O’Connell’s second-oldest son and the director of the family-run business — shot to death in his office at the O’Connell Funeral Home in downtown Hudson. Nearby lay the body of James Ellison, 22, a University of Minnesota mortuary sciences intern. For nearly two years, the case remained unsolved and the subject of rumors about who did it. A double homicide is big news in a bucolic place like Hudson.

PRIEST’S SECRET LIFE REVEALED

Cops, after chasing well over 1,000 tips and leads that went nowhere, dug up evidence pointing at the most shocking and unlikeliest of killers: an associate pastor at nearby St. Patrick Church.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Acento

[VATICANO.-The Office of the Promoter of Justice announced that the Vatican appointed a commission of experts to conduct the autopsy on the body of Joseph Wesolowski, who died on Friday at dawn, and who was awaiting trial on charges of sexual violation minor when he was ambassador in Dominican Republic. Wesolowski’s sudden death has aroused doubts and suspicions in Dominican Republic and other countries.The Vatican authorities insist that the former papal nuncio died of “natural causes.”]

VATICANO.-La Oficina del Promotor de Justicia del Vaticano anunció que nombró una comisión de de expertos para llevar a cabo la autopsia al cadáver de Jósef Wesolowski, muerto el viernes en la madrugada, y quien estaba a espera de juicio por cargos de violación sexual de menores cuando estuvo de embajador en República Dominicana.

La muerte repentina de Wesolowski ha despertado dudas y sospechas en República Dominicana y en otros países.

Las autoridades vaticanas insisten en que el ex nuncio del papa murió por “causas naturales”.

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CHILE
ADN Radio

[Juan Carlos Cruz, who spoke out against abuse he suffered by priest Fernando Karadima, arrived in Osorno, Chile, to participate in a series of activities by people who want the resignation of Bishop Juan Barros. Barros is accused to witnessing abuse of minors by Karadima but not acting on that knowlege.]

Juan Carlos Cruz llegó hoy a la ciudad sureña para participar de una serie de actividades en la zona, donde se exige la renuncia del obispo.

ADNRADIO.CL | AGOSTO 29 DE 2015

Esta jornada llegó a Osorno Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los denunciantes del caso Karadima quien viajó a la ciudad sureña realizar una serie de actividades con los laicos de la zona, quienes exigen la salida del obispo Juan Barros por encubrir al ex párroco de El Bosque.

“No tengo palabras para describir cómo fue encontrarme con cientos de personas en el aeropuerto, es gente tan valiente y tan comprometida que no entiendo como Juan Barros no ve eso y no renuncia”, dijo Cruz en conversación con ADN, quien también se reunirá con el clero diocesano de Osorno.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By RAY DUCKLER
Monitor staff
Saturday, August 29, 2015

During the Watergate investigation 41 years ago, Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, wondering about Richard Nixon’s role in the scandal, asked, “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

Baker’s succinctly worded curiosity has resonated through the decades, and it remains relevant as we examine the nationally covered rape trial that ended in superior court Friday.

What did those in charge at St. Paul’s School, trusted with teenage students at a college-like campus, know about something called the “senior salute,” and when did they know it?

Owen Labrie, charged with raping a 15-year-old St. Paul’s School freshman while he was an 18-year-old senior, was acquitted of the most serious charges, aggravated felonious sexual assault.

He was, however, found guilty of statutory rape because of the victim’s age and a felony charge of using a computer to lure a minor.

At least one school official, we heard, knew something was going on, before the national media descended on the city to cover what’s been called a culture of sexual misconduct.

“I came to understand the senior salute as one element of a larger vernacular the kids at St. Paul’s used to describe a wide range of relations between students, some of which, I would say, included sexual (activity),” Chad Green, dean of students at the school, testified this week.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Aug 28, 2015

When the abusive behavior of Christian leaders is uncovered, all too often the immediate response is not an unconditional admission or a genuine expression of authentic repentance. Instead, a common response is a new narrative. A false narrative. A narrative that attempts to paint a picture of the situation without any regard for truth. A narrative designed to protect reputations and preserve future incomes. A narrative designed to keep the leaders in the spotlight and the victims out of the way.

Since many of these leaders tend to be narcissistic, the primary purpose of the false narrative is to enable them to hold onto the spotlight as they crave affirmation and continued relevance in a world that is quick to turn the spotlight elsewhere. Seeking out friendly media interviews is one way that provides opportunities for offending leaders to elaborate and “sell” their new narrative. Social media is also a very effective means to communicate this narrative because it tends to attract those who crave the leader’s attention and who will be quick to “like”, “share”, “comment”, “reply” or “re-tweet” the leader’s narrative. These same followers will often be quick to vilify and attack anyone who questions or criticizes the leader or the narrative.

Though false narratives vary with each offending leader and each situation, three types seem to be common amongst offending leaders:

Redefine Narrative: Offending leaders are often quick to try and change the narrative from one of abuse to something less offensive and more acceptable to the watching public. One way this is accomplished is to re-defining the abuse with terms such as “mistake”, “misjudgment”, “failure” or “misunderstanding”. Such a redefining is usually coupled with the offending leader publicly expressing sorrow and asking for forgiveness. Do you see what’s happening? The false narrative subtly minimizes the actual abuse, as the offending leader appears to be repentant about a far less serious offense. The hope is that this approach will prompt many to express support for the offending leader as “humble” and “Godly”, while castigating anyone who expresses doubt or who attempts to point out the false narrative.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Steve Duin | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on August 29, 2015

The major independent Catholic institutions in the area – including Marylhurst University, the University of Portland, and high schools like St. Mary’s Academy – have a simple code of conduct:

Live out your faith. And stay off the Archbishop’s radar screen.

Alexander King Sample – who was installed 29 months ago, replacing John G. Vlazny – is more conservative than most Catholics in town. He’s also more alert to challenges to his authority.

That preeminence provides essential context to the Lauren Brown debacle at St. Mary’s. The administration’s attempt to bury the story after her dismissal is a reminder of the tactics that prolonged the priest sexual-abuse crisis, a scandal that should have ended the unforgiving Catholic lectures on sexual morality.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A network for people who were raised in orphanages and children’s homes has called on the government to publish without delay recommendations on redress for thousands of abuse survivors.

On Monday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hand over its findings on how to compensate people who were abused as children while they were in care at government and non-government facilities.

It is not known when the government will publish the recommendations.

The recommendations from the commission are a key outcome for the national inquiry, which will run until the end of 2017.

Commission chair Peter McClellan announced last week the August 31 hand-over to the Attorney General’s office.

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JAPAN
Japan Times

Requests for legal advice from women who suffered sexual abuse in childhood have been on the increase since a 2014 court ruling that granted a woman’s request for compensation.

With the aid of lawyers, the woman is campaigning for a suspension of the statute of limitations, which often prevents victims from filing lawsuits or criminal complaints.

Since the Sapporo High Court ruling in September 2014, lawyer Toko Teramachi, who worked for the plaintiff, has received about 20 inquiries from women in their 30s and 40s who claim to have experienced similar sexual abuse.

“I was surprised to learn there were so many victims,” Teramachi said.

The high court ruling, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in July this year, ordered an uncle of the plaintiff, in her 40s, to pay her about ¥30 million ($246,000), including ¥20 million in damages and ¥9 million to cover medical costs for treating depression attributed to the abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY DAVID SINGLETON AND BOB KALINOWSKI, STAFF WRITERS

Published: August 30, 2015

The simple rite unfolded on a lazy summer afternoon, light on pomp but weighted with possibility for the Diocese of Scranton.

Parishioners filled almost every pew last month at Our Lady of the Eucharist Parish in Pittston to witness history in the making as the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., bishop of Scranton, installed Sister Mary Ann Cody, I.H.M., as parish life coordinator to shepherd the faith community in the absence of a resident priest.

The Rev. Jeffrey Walsh, based at St. Peter’s Cathedral Rectory in Scranton, will serve as the sacramental minister, but Sister Cody will provide Our Lady of the Eucharist’s day-to-day pastoral and organizational leadership in a role the bishop described as “faithful witness, wise teacher and servant leader.”

Sister Cody, a longtime Catholic educator who previously acted as the parish’s pastoral associate, is the first parish life coordinator within the diocese.

She won’t be the last.

After a long period of tumult and upheaval during which it shuttered churches and schools, consolidated parishes, wrestled with finances and dealt with fallout from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Diocese of Scranton confronts a new challenge.

A diminishing number of active priests to minister to the spiritual needs of the nearly 280,000 Roman Catholics in Northeast Pennsylvania in the coming years will require the diocese to embrace other forms of pastoral leadership.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Jurgen Balzan
30 August 2015

A Gozitan priest who was defrocked by the Vatican in 2013 has not yet been notified of his dismissal by the Gozo bishop, Mario Grech.

Grech’s dithering has led to calls for his resignation, with a number of Gozitan priests reporting the bishop’s misconduct to the Vatican.

MaltaToday is informed that in March 2013, the Vatican had upheld its original decision to defrock Dominic Camilleri, who in 2003 was first investigated by the Maltese church over the sexual abuse of minors.

However, the Gozo bishop has not executed Camilleri’s dismissal and sources have told MaltaToday that this could be connected to the shamed priest’s alleged threats to expose other cases of sexual abuse involving Gozitan priests.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos – Love, Joy Feminism

Breaking: Leadership of Josh Duggar’s Treatment Center Allegedly Involved in Sex Abuse Coverup

August 28, 2015 by Libby Anne

Earlier this week Josh Duggar checked into Reformers Unanimous (RU), a Christian residential addiction treatment program in Rockford, Illinois, run by North Love Baptist Church and co-founded by the church’s authoritarian Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) pastor, Paul Kingsbury. Over the past twenty-four-hours, I have spoken with a number of individuals involved with or affected by either North Love or Kingsbury. Of primary importance are allegations that Kingsbury is actively supporting an accused sex offender, Richard DeVall, who is serving as a missionary in Bolivia and is sponsored by North Love Baptist Church. If true, this would seem to disqualify Kingsbury from running a recovery program for individuals suffering from porn addiction and sex addiction*, but Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches seem to run by their own rules.

There are some striking similarities here. After Josh Duggar molested his younger sisters as a teenager, he was sent to one of Bill Gothard’s training centers to take part in a construction program while receiving Christian mentoring. A decade later, Bill Gothard resigned after several dozen women leveled accusations of sexual abuse against him. This time Josh has been sent to Reformers Unanimous, a program founded by a church that has a history of involvement in Gothard’s Institute for Basic Life Principles and which focuses on physical labor and Bible study. Paul Kingsbury, co-founder and chair of Reformers Unanimous, is alleged to be providing financial support through his church to an accused sex offender who has refused to return to the country to face charges. In other words, the Duggars appear to have sent Josh for round two of the same failed treatment. …

Kingsbury’s Alleged Support for an Accused Sex Offender
Several years ago, Bob Jones University invited GRACE, an organization run by Billy Graham’s grandson and Liberty University professor Boz Tchividijian, to conduct an investigation of their handling of rape and sexual assault on campus. The final report released by GRACE detailed a situation in the early 1990s where BJU expelled and then readmitted a man accused of sexual assault. According to the GRACE report, “the alleged perpetrator minimized the extent of his crime, but he admitted to touching her inappropriately without her consent while he believed she was sleeping.” The perpetrator was readmitted to BJU after claiming that he had reconciled with his victim, but this was later revealed to be a lie.

This man, identified as Richard DeVall, is currently serving as a missionary in Bolivia. According to the GRACE report, his victim finally went to the authorities in 2012. Shortly after this she received a letter of apology from DeVall. Not satisfied, she contacted DuVall’s missionary agency, Baptist Pioneer Mission (BPM), asking them to remove him from the field “due to potential risks he could pose to others.” They refused, telling her that DeVall “had been repentant to the mission board by confessing his offense and writing a letter of apology.” When she asked whether BPM would encourage DeVall to return to the United States to face charges for his crime, the board responded that they would “use any legal means to protect” DeVall. In spite of claiming in his apology letter that he would “cooperate and work with all those who are involved in the issue,” DeVall insisted that the matter must be handled “in a Biblical way” and, according to GRACE, has refused to return to the United States to face criminal charges.

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UNITED STATES
Raw Story

BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
29 AUG 2015

A leader at the Christian rehabilitation center Josh Duggar supposedly checked into is helping another accused sexual predator avoid prosecution by keeping him abroad, Patheos reports.

Duggar has purportedly sought treatment at Reformers Unanimous — a facility run by North Love Baptist Church. The pastor of North Love Baptist, Paul Kingsbury, helped a man accused of sexual assault remain on a religious mission overseas to avoid prosecution in the United States, according to Patheos.

Richard DeVall, a missionary currently serving in Bolivia with Baptist Pioneer Mission Agency, was accused of committing sexual assault in the 1990s on the campus of Bob Jones University (BJU), according to Patheos. DeVall was expelled as a result of the allegations, but then readmitted.

The victim went to authorities in 2012 with the accusations. Shortly thereafter, DeVall contacted her asking for her forgiveness.

The victim contacted Baptist Pioneer Mission Agency, asking that DeVall be removed from fieldwork because of the risk he posed to others. When she requested DeVall be returned to the United States to face criminal charges, she was told the missionary agency would protect him. DeVall then refused to return to the U.S., insisting the matter would be handled “in the Biblical way.”

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.– The National District prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso said Friday that the death of former Polish archbishop and the Vatican’s former ambassador to Santo Domingo, who faced trial on charges of pedophilia in the Dominican Republic, is “unfair” to the victims.

“I always wondered why a new date was not given for the trial of Wesolowski, not even after leaving the hospital,” the National District prosecutor wrote on her Twitter account.

According to a statement from the Vatican, Jozef Wesolowski, 67, was found dead in his Vatican room early Friday, where he had lived since last year, after he was placed under house arrest.

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VATICAN CITY
Courier-Mail (Australia)

THE former papal envoy to the Dominican Republic, who went on trial at the Holy See this summer for alleged sexual abuse of minors, died of a heart attack, according to initial autopsy results, the Vatican said Saturday.

A Vatican statement indicated that laboratory results, expected in coming days, could elaborate on the cause of the sudden death of Jozef Wesolowski, a 67-year-old Pole, on Thursday evening at the Vatican.

The Vatican announced the death on Friday.

After work performed so far, “and from the initial conclusions based on the macroscopic examination, a natural cause of death, due to a cardiac event, is confirmed,” said the Vatican statement.

The Vatican prosecutor’s office appointed a panel of three experts coordinated by a forensic medicine professor at Rome’s Tor Vergata University to determine the cause of death.

A Vatican trial against Wesolowski was an opportunity for Pope Francis to show he’s carrying out pledges to punish high-ranking churchmen accused of sexually abusing minors or covering up abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Sat, Aug 29, 2015

The Holy See today stated that the autopsy on the former papal nuncio Josef Wesolowski, who died on Thursday night in the Vatican, has concluded that he died as a result of a “heart event”.

In its statement, the Holy See said that the autopsy was carried out by a “commission of three experts”, led by professor of forensic medicine Giovanni Arcudi of Rome’s Tor Vergata University, adding:

“The autopsy took place [Friday] afternoon and, from initial examination of the corpse, it was determined the natural cause of death was attributed to a heart event.”

Archbishop Josef Wesolowski was charged with child abuse and possession of child pornography. In June 2014, he was found guilty by a church disciplinary panel and deemed no longer fit to serve as a priest. Photograph: Danny Polanco/EPAArchbishop on trial for paedophile crimes found dead in Vatican

The statement said that, in the coming days, “the [chief prosecutor] will receive further results of the usual laboratory tests . . . ”

Archbishop Wesolowski (67), formerly papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, was about to stand trial in a Vatican City court, accused of a wide variety of criminal offences relating to paedophilia.

His sudden death has prompted intense specultation.

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INDIA
Business Standard

A ten-year-old girl was allegedly molested by a priest of a Gurdwara in Jagjitpur village near here.

The incident took place on August 22 when the girl was returning home from the Gurdwara, police said today.

Phagwara DSP Manpreet Singh Dhillon said the accused ‘Baba’ Roshan Singh tried to molest the girl but she ran away.

The matter was first brought to the notice of the village panchayat, he said.

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

By Kelly Grinsteinner Editor kgrinsteinner@hibbingdailytribune.net

HIBBING — The Hibbing priest charged with sexual misconduct in May now faces an additional charge of criminal sexual conduct and a new charge of possession of child pornography.

Brian M. Lederer, 29, appeared before Judge David E. Ackerson in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing Thursday. During the hearing, Ackerson granted the prosecution’s motion to amend the formal complaint to reflect the two additional charges.

Lederer was ordained in June 2012 and was an associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament when was arrested and charged. He often had contact with children of the parish and students at Assumption School.

Once charged, Lederer was placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Duluth. While on leave, he is not allowed to minister as a priest and/or have contact with anyone under age 18.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

“Blind eye: Pope Francis has done little to combat priest sex abuse.” That’s the headline in the latest issue of Ms. Magazine penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael D’Antonio. “Nearly all of the recent action taken by the church has been spurred by whistleblowers, victims and advocates outside the church speaking out,” he writes, citing the KC Bishop Robert Finn case as an example. (Finn hails from our town.)

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

The much awaited “Vatican trial of the century” of ex-Papal Nuncio pedophile pimp Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski hanged around Pope Francis’s neck and it spoke louder than all his Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team script speeches – and louder than his papal necklace with a crucifix… so it had to be rid off … (especially before his USA-Cuba papal visit) – either by divine intervention or human intervention – and as everyone already knows – anything is possible inside the Vatican State filled with secrets of Pope Crimes and Vatican Evils throughout the centuries.

Ex-Papal Nuncio Archbishop Wesolowski was really the epitome archetypal embodiment of the Vatican crimes against humanity’s children in half-of-20th-century and 21st century and he was one of the biggest living proofs of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
La Rosa Rossa

L’ex nunzio Jozef Wesolowski, deceduto la notte scorsa in Vaticano, è stato trovato morto questa mattina intorno alle 5.00, davanti alla tv accesa, da un francescano del Collegio dei Penitenzieri – i frati che confessano i fedeli nella Basilica di San Pietro -, presso i quali l’ex presule polacco abitava, con divieto di lasciare i confini vaticani, in attesa del processo per pedofilia e pedopornografia. Era sotto processo in Vaticano per gli atti di pedofilia che avrebbe commesso a Santo Domingo e per il possesso di materiale pedopornografico all’interno del proprio PC.

La notizia della morte di Wesolowski è stata confermata dalla Santa Sede. Józef Wesołowski, già Nunzio Apostolico. “Il Santo Padre è stato doverosamente informato di tutto”, chiude la nota della Santa Sede.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Die Autopsie an den verstorbenen ehemaligen Nuntius Józef Wesolowski hat ergeben, dass er wegen einem Herzstillstand gestorben ist. Das teilte der Vatikan an diesem Samstag mit. Die vatikanische Justizbehörde hatte kurz nach dem Tod des wegen Kindesmissbrauch beschuldigten ehemaligen Vatikandiplomaten eine Untersuchung verordnet. Die Autopsie wurde von drei Experten durchgeführt unter der Leitung eines Experten der römischen Universität Tor Vergata. Die Untersuchung fand am Freitagnachmittag statt, so die Vatikannote. Wesolowski war am Donnerstagabend im Vatikan verstorben. Die Autopsie hat ergeben, dass es sich um „einen natürlichen Tod“ handelte. In den kommenden Tagen werde die vatikanische Justizbehörde weitere Resultate, die von einem Labor getätigt werden, in Betracht ziehen.

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PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBN

Shelby Sebens, Reuters
Posted at 08/29/2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – Authorities in the Philippines are searching for a Catholic priest from Oregon who went missing while facing criminal charges for allegedly hiding a camera in a church bathroom, officials with the Archdiocese of Portland said on Friday.

Father Ysrael Bien is accused of personal invasion of privacy, tampering with physical evidence, and initiating a false police report, according to a search warrant issued last week by a Washington County Circuit Court judge.

The camera, disguised as an electrical outlet, was found in late April near a toilet in the men’s bathroom of the St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood, Oregon.

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INDIANA
WANE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A former pastor from West Virginia appeared in a LaGrange County courtroom Thursday afternoon to face a felony charge of child molestation.

Police arrested James R. Smith, 24, in West Virginia on August 11, according to our partners at KPC Media. He was extradited to LaGrange County and has been held in the LaGrange County Jail.

Detectives started investigating after a young boy said Smith assaulted him in the bathroom of a home while the two were visiting family in LaGrange County.

West Virginia officials charged Smith, a former pastor, with a similar offense last year. He was charged with first-degree sexual abuse after a young boy there said Smith assaulted him numerous times over the course of five years.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Bolletino

[An autopsy performed on the late Jozef Wesolowski shows he died of a “cardiac event.”]

A seguito dell’improvvisa scomparsa, avvenuta nella tarda serata di giovedì 27 agosto u.s., del già Nunzio Apostolico Józef Wesołowski, l’Ufficio del Promotore di Giustizia vaticano, nell’ambito degli adempimenti di propria competenza, ha disposto l’effettuazione di un esame autoptico, nominando una Commissione peritale di tre esperti, coordinata dal Prof. Giovanni Arcudi, docente di Medicina Legale nell’Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”.

Gli accertamenti sono stati effettuati nel pomeriggio di ieri e, dalle prime conclusioni tratte dall’esame macroscopico, risulta confermata la causa naturale del decesso, riferibile ad evento cardiaco.

Nei prossimi giorni l’Ufficio del Promotore di Giustizia acquisirà le ulteriori risultanze degli usuali esami di laboratorio effettuati da detta Commissione.

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VATICAN CITY
Mercury News

The Associated Press
Posted: 08/29/2015

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says an autopsy has determined that its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who went on trial at the Holy See this summer for alleged sexual abuse of minors, died of a heart attack.

It indicated Saturday that laboratory results coming later could better describe the “cardiac event” responsible for the sudden death of Jozef Wesolowski, a 67-year-old Pole, on Thursday evening at the Vatican. A Vatican statement says initial conclusions point to a heart attack.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Alcohol, beatings and sex predators: Inside Sunbury’s Salesian mansion of pure evil

Shannon Deery

JAMES was in year 9 when he was first called to the principal’s office.

It was the late 1980s and he was expecting “six of the best” — a favoured punishment of Father Julian Fox, whose weapon of choice was a pool cue.

Entering the office he saw an older priest sitting in an armchair, and felt a little safer. At least he wasn’t alone. But not even an audience could stop Fox.

He beat the boy then ordered him to drop his pants, sexually assaulting him.

As James left the office, he was stopped by the older priest who handed him a toy puzzle — a reward.

“Good boy,” he told him, patting him on the shoulder.

James is one of hundreds of boys abused by the very men who had been entrusted with his care.

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DOMINIKANISCHEN REPUBLIK
DomRep Total

Santo Domingo.- In der Dominikanischen Republik war Josef Wesolowski lange Zeit der Nuntius des Vatikan. Als damaliger Botschafter des Papstes hatte der Kirchenmann sich an minderjährigen Jungen vergriffen und wurde wegen mehrfachen sexuellen Missbrauchs, Besitz von pornographischem Material (Kinderpornos) und anderer Verbrechen angeklagt. Die Katholische Kirche hatte den Ex-Erzbischof aller Ämter enthoben und danach lebte Wesolowski in der Vatikanstadt, unter strengen Auflagen. Sämtliche elektronische Geräte wurden ihm untersagt (Tablet, PC, Smartphone) und bei dem ersten Prozesstag fehlte Wesolowski. Die Anwälte entschuldigten die Abwesenheit durch eine plötzliche Erkrankung, der Prozess wurde verschoben.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
La Tribuna

[Yeni Reynoso, the Dominican prosecutor who led the investigation against Wesolowski in the Caribbean country, said on his Twitter account that the death of the ex-nuncio is “unfair to the victims.” ​​The official wrote that he always wondered why the trial was stopped.]

VATICANO (AP). El exembajador del Vaticano en República Dominicana, que fue acusado por fiscales de la iglesia de abusar sexualmente de menores en el país caribeño, falleció de causas aparentemente naturales, anunció el viernes la Santa Sede.

Jozef Wesolowski fue encontrado muerto en su habitación en el Vaticano a primera hora del viernes, dijo un comunicado del Vaticano. El fiscal de la ciudad-Estado ordenó una autopsia de inmediato y que sus resultados serán dados a conocer cuanto antes.

El Vaticano dijo que el papa Francisco estaba al tanto de lo sucedido.

Yeni Reynoso, fiscal de la capital dominicana y quien encabezó la investigación contra Wesolowski en el país caribeño, dijo en su cuenta en Twitter que el deceso del exnuncio es “injusto para las víctimas” del exsacerdote.

La funcionaria escribió que “siempre me pregunté por qué el juicio de #Wesolowski fue dejado sin fecha el día de la suspensión y después de salir del hospital”.

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VATICAAN
KerkNet

BRUSSEL (KerkNet) – De Pool Jozef Wesolowski (67), de van kindermisbruik verdachte voormalige apostolische nuntius in de Dominikaanse Republiek, werd vrijdagmorgen dood in zijn kamer aangetroffen. Volgens een onderzoek stierf hij een natuurlijke dood. De resultaten van de autopsie worden weldra bekendgemaakt. De Pool, die onder huisarrest stond, was al enige tijd ziek. In juli verbleef hij geruime tijd in een ziekenhuis in Rome. Jozef Wesolowski werd in 2014 wegens het misbruik door het Vaticaan teruggezet in de lekenstand en van al zijn priestertaken en rechten ontheven.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

AUGUST 28, 2015

Below is a statement from the victim and her family following the verdicts in the St. Paul’s School rape case.

“Our family, like many others, have read several articles on campus sexual assault in recent years with concern as our daughters progressed through school. But never in our worst nightmares could we have imagined that we would be experiencing this issue firsthand with our 15-year-old daughter during her first year of high school. The reality of this national epidemic has hit home and there is overwhelming sadness for the large number of students suffering from sexual violence everyday in this nation.

Today, a measure of justice has been served for victims of sexual violence. While he was not convicted on all charges, Owen Labrie was held accountable in some way by a jury of his peers for crimes he committed against our daughter. This conviction requires him to take ownership for his actions and gives him the opportunity to reflect upon the harm he has caused. There is no joy in this outcome, however, as our daughter can never get back what she has lost nor can St. Paul’s School ever be our community again.

We still feel betrayed that St. Paul’s School allowed and fostered a toxic culture that left our daughter and other students at risk to sexual violence. We trusted the school to protect her and it failed us. We continue to feel anger and disappointment for the lack of character and integrity that the young men of St. Paul’s School showed, laughing and joking with Owen Labrie at graduation about “slaying” our daughter. Both the school and these young men should bear the shame of these crimes along with Owen Labrie.

While we stood together as a family through this process, it was our young daughter who took the stand to speak the truth and request justice. We admire her bravery in coming forward and speaking out in the face of great adversity. It is truly her courage that has made this measure of justice possible today.

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CALIFORNIA
New York Daily News

BY NICOLE HENSLEY

A priest caught with a hidden camera in a Sherwood, Ore., church fled to the Philippines to evade an arrest warrant signed last week, local reports said.

Rev. Ysrael Bien left the country in defiance of the Archdiocese of Portland’s orders to stay put while on administrative leave from the St. Francis Catholic Church.

“I didn’t expect him to disobey,” Archbishop Alexander Sample told the Oregonian.

A teenage boy had found a hidden camera disguised as an electrical outlet in a church bathroom and handed it over to Bien.

The ensuing drama has left parishioners not expecting the 34-year-old priest to return or ever be found.

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POLONIA/CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
La Tercera

Tras la muerte del ex nuncio apostólico en República Dominicana Josef Wesolowski, la fiscalía estatal polaca archivará las investigaciones en su contra por abuso sexual, según señaló un vocero de la fiscalía del distrito de la capital Varsovia. “Una vez muerto el sospechoso, congelaremos el proceso”, señaló.

La Fiscalía de Varsovia investigaba de forma independiente las acusaciones de abuso sexual contra el ex nuncio de origen polaco.

Un sacerdote que trabajó durante la época de Wesolowski como nuncio en República Dominicana fue condenado en mayo a siete años de cárcel por abuso sexual de niños en el Estado caribeño y en Polonia. Además, fue suspendido del sacerdocio.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

Below is a letter from the St. Paul’s School administration to the school community addressing the Owen Labrie verdict:

By now you have likely learned of the verdicts in the trial of Owen Labrie ’14. The trial has been deeply painful for all of us in the St. Paul’s community, but especially for the young woman who has suffered through this nightmare. From the beginning – some 15 months ago – to the conclusion of the trial, she and her family have shown remarkable moral courage and strength. Her resolve and unwavering commitment to the pursuit of the truth have been inspiring to us and to many outside our School community.

In June of 2014, when we first learned about these disturbing events, and informed you of the arrest of Owen Labrie, we pledged that we would use this case and the issues raised by it to learn more about ourselves and to make our School better. We began more than a year ago by conducting a comprehensive review of the safety of our School environment and of our reporting procedures to ensure they continue to meet the highest standards. We also made policy changes and enhanced programming in several key areas to further support our students in making St. Paul’s the healthiest residential learning environment possible. In addition, we invited independent experts and researchers to our campus to advise us on the best ways to strengthen the trust, respect and understanding that is so critical for a tight-knit, fully residential community like ours. More information about the speakers and the topic areas they covered can be accessed on the “From the Rector” page of our website under the “Focus on Healthy Community” section.

With advice and guidance from a team of public health professionals, we developed and began implementing additional programming to strengthen our community through enhanced education and prevention efforts in such areas as harassment, bullying, gender-based violence, and substance abuse. Our work continues as we strive to strengthen our Living in Community curriculum, develop new bystander intervention training for all students and heads of house, and conduct a review of School policies and practices surrounding student conduct and discipline. Our expectation is that these efforts will allow our faculty, staff, administration, and students to continue to be engaged in critical introspection with an eye to improving how we live together.

The topics raised by the trial have been an area of focus for the School for some time, and these same issues have been highlighted for the broader St. Paul’s community through testimony in court and recently in the press. To the frustration of many, the public discussion of the trial over the past two weeks has inaccurately portrayed St. Paul’s School and our culture. The allegations about our culture are not emblematic of our School or our values, our rules, or our student body, alumni, faculty, and staff.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 28

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Kids are safer now that Wesolowski has passed. But sadly, now no one will ever know how many Catholic officials concealed his crimes for how many months or years.

Had Vatican officials turned over Wesolowski to secular authorities, as they should have, he might have already been tried, convicted and imprisoned. And more truth about wrongdoers in his case might have surfaced.

Two weeks ago, the BBC reported that Wesolowski was walking freely in Rome:

[BishopAccountability.org]

Last year a church official disclosed that he saw Wesolowski walking freely in Rome:

[SNAP]

This is incredibly irresponsible and dangerous. During his time in Rome, we hope Wesolowski did not hurt more children.

We hope Wesolowski’s passing brings some measure of comfort to his victims. We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered Wesolowkski’s crimes to contact secular authorities. Though he obviously won’t be prosecuted, it’s possible that some clerics who ignored or concealed his crimes might be brought to justice.

We also hope that Vatican officials stop their centuries-old practice of handling clergy sex crimes and cover ups. Child molesting clerics should be dealt with by the independent, unbiased professionals in secular law enforcement, not by biased, secretive church colleagues.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Catholic News Service reports that:

In its official statement about his death, the Vatican referred to him as “His Excellency Monsignor Josef Wesolowski,” even though he was dismissed from the clerical state in June 2014 after an investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

His appeal of the dismissal was denied, Father Benedettini said, “but was not officially communicated so as not to aggravate the situation” while he was awaiting the separate criminal trial. He was still listed as an archbishop in the 2015 edition of the “Annuario Pontificio,” the Vatican yearbook.

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UNITED STATES
The Catholic Report

Please allow me to say I know how this hurts but there is a path to healing and moving forward. When you are ready to tell someone, we are here for you. It helps to tell someone, I know it is scary, you are at your all time low, your trust factor it at the lowest point, but when you do you, you will feel better about yourself. This will lead to control, which leads to moving to a better way of life.

Once you are on the path to talking to someone , you will want your life back and you will have to make decisions. These are the steps I took and found to be of value.

* Telling Someone: This is a is tough one to figure out. What I did was start small. Start with your closest friends and family. Now the next step is talking with the police. In the past some police forces were reluctant to file a report. In fact, in my case it took multiple times for the police to file a report. That is not the case anymore. I do recommend that someone be there with you as this will be a big challenge, but it is necessary. The last thing you want is for another child to go through what you went through, file the report. The police will take it from there and inform all concerned parties. The next person who needs to know is a lawyer. You will need to understand what your rights are. If you do decide to move forward with legal proceedings, you need to have someone who’s job it is to protect you. If you are worried about information being revealed you are protected by attorney client privileges and they are bound by law to keep everything confidential. On a side note, for me it was educational, illuminating and empowering. While the last paragraph was a few sentences it is hard to do but rewarding.

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