ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Newcastle court has heard hundreds of pages of evidence are being considered by the Crown, as part of efforts to establish a pattern of behaviour by a Catholic brother extradited from New Zealand to face child sex charges.

Bernard Kevin McGrath, 68, is facing 252 child sex charges, relating to 35 victims, dating back to the 1970s.

The alleged offences happened in the Lake Macquarie region, near Newcastle.

Sporting a thinning grey goatee beard, McGrath showed little emotion as he appeared by audio visual link in Newcastle Local Court today.

The police brief is 8,000 pages long, and the court was today told an additional 500 pages of so called ‘tendency evidence’ material is now being assessed.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS AND BRITTNY MEJIA

Maria Delrefugio Chavez turned to Pablo Pinto Mata, a Santeria spiritual leader, for healing.

The El Monte woman met Mata — a self-proclaimed priest whose followers sometimes called him “El Padrino,” or the Godfather — at a botánica he owned in Montebello, where he performed healing rituals.

He became her spiritualist. Eventually their relationship became intimate. Though Mata was already married with children, he fathered a daughter with Chavez, authorities said.

Then, in 2009, Chavez disappeared. Authorities investigated, but the trail eventually went cold — until this month. Human remains were found buried in the backyard of a San Gabriel Valley home. Los Angeles County authorities said Tuesday the remains are those of Chavez and that Mata is now charged in her slaying.

The 46-year-old, who is of Salvadoran descent, disappeared two years ago after allegedly assaulting a teenage girl, authorities said. Detectives said they can’t be sure he’s still in the country.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

A group of dentists has hit out at what it claims is the Government’s “failure to honour” promises made to Magdalene laundry survivors on medical care.

Dental care provided only entitles the women to “limited and incomplete” treatment that the dental treatment services scheme (DTSS) provides for most medical card holders.

The disclosure in a letter, to the Journal of the Irish Dental Association, is signed by Dr Padraig O’Reachtagain, Dr Maurice Quirke, and Dr Desmond Kennedy.

It states: “It is believed that more than 90% of these women who live in the State already have a medical card.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

26 August, 2015

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published on its website the written submissions provided to the Royal Commission in relation to the public hearing for Case Study 26: St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol.

The public hearing inquired the experiences of a number of men and women who were resident at St Joseph’s Orphanage, Neerkol operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

The submissions can be found on the Case Study 26 page on the Royal Commission’s website.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

A group of victims with claims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy on Tuesday criticized its latest reorganization plan as inadequate, saying it does not do enough to ensure the protection of children or hold the archdiocese accountable for its past actions.

In a news conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee, victims called for an independent review of the estimated 570 claims filed by men and women detailing their sexual abuse as children by priests and others connected with the 10-county archdiocese.

And they said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley should release all claims now under seal — redacted to shield victims — so the public can assess for itself the scope of the abuse scandal in southeastern Wisconsin and whether the church has done enough to protect children.

“All of these reports need to be investigated,” said Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He cited assertions by victims’ attorneys in court that the sealed records identify at least 100 offenders whose names have never been made public.

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HAWAII
Seattle PI

Posted on August 25, 2015 | By Joel Connelly

Cardinal William Levada, formerly the highest-ranking American prelate at the Vatican, was arrested for driving under the influence last week while vacationing in Hawaii.

The former archbishop of Portland and San Francisco, Levada headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Under his auspices, the Vatican began a years-long investigation of U.S. nuns. A report by the congregation accused the sisters of succumbing to “radical feminist” tendencies and not devoting enough time to Catholic moral teachings.

Levada was arrested Thursday night on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway between Kailua and Kona. He posted $500 bail and was released. He must appear in person Sept. 24 in Kona District Court.

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MINNESOTA
WJON

[with video]

By Alex Svejkovsky August 25, 2015

ST. CLOUD — Two women who were sexually abused as minors by a priest, have filed lawsuits against the St. Cloud Diocese.

The two cases were filed this (Tuesday) morning under the Child Victims Act.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says the lawsuit states the women were abused by Father Donald Rieder, at different churches in the 1960s when they were between the ages of 11 and 15.

“We have evidence there were reports of Rieder prior to these two victims and that he continued to abuse girls in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s,” says Anderson.

During his 40 years as a priest, Rieder work at parishes in Alexandria, Randall, Kimball, Morris, Roscoe, Paynesville, Little Falls, Sobieski and St. Cloud.

Susan Fuchs-Hoeschen is a third party who filed a sexual abuse suit against Rieder over 20 years ago. She says she felt she needed to be brave about her story so others would tell theirs.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By DALE VINCENT
New Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — The prosecution Tuesday afternoon rested its case in the Merrimack County Superior Court trial of Owen Labrie, accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at St. Paul’s School during graduation week 2014.

Defense attorney J. W. Carney said Labrie will take the stand today.

The final prosecution witnesses were two criminalists from the New Hampshire State Police Laboratory.

Kevin G. McMahon said testing found a “strong indication of semen” in a small sample taken from the alleged victim’s underwear. He turned the testing over to a DNA expert.

Criminalist Katie Swango performed tests on a larger fabric swatch from the underpants, which the defense contends were never removed during the alleged encounter between the freshman girl and Labrie, now 19, who was a graduating senior.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

[with video]

By: Rachel Spotts – @whec_rspotts

A local pastor is charged with attempted rape for an assault that prosecutors say happened at his church.

Samuel McCullough, age 84, of Gates is charged with two counts of attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child.

What’s most troubling to prosecutors is the age difference. Pastor McCullough is 84 and his alleged victim is under seventeen. To make matters worse, prosecutors say the attempted rape happened multiple times at McCullough’s church Caring and Sharing Christian Ministry.

Assistant District Attorney Meredith Vacca said, “The allegations involve one victim — although I can tell you that it’s an ongoing investigation.”

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By TWC News Staff
Tuesday, August 25, 2015

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Time Warner Cable News is learning more information about the case against a Rochester pastor accused of attempting to rape a teenage girl while at his place of worship.

Samuel McCullough, 84, is charged with two counts of Attempted Rape and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. According to court paperwork, McCullough is accused of attempting to engage in sexual intercourse with the alleged victim while at the Caring Christian Ministry on Maple Street.

Investigators said the victim is under the age of 17. The alleged abuse occurred over the course of about a year. The victim said McCullough admitted to some of the reported abuse to members of his congregation.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com August 25, 2015

Two women who say they were sexually abused by a now-deceased St. Cloud Diocese priest sued the diocese and two parishes where they say the abuse happened on Tuesday.

The women, who were not named, accuse Donald Rieder of sexually abusing them at parishes in Randall and Kimball in the 1960s when the girls where between the ages of 11 and 15. The lawsuits allege negligence and accuse the diocese of common law nuisance, a legal claim that has led to the release of dozens of priest personnel files in other religious orders.

And that’s the intent of the negligence claim in the lawsuits filed Tuesday in Stearns County District Court.

“The reality is that these suits are necessary to disgorge the truth about Rieder’s history and all of the other known offenders,” said Jeffrey Anderson, the attorney representing the women.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen

A judge has denied a bid by alleged child-sexual-abuse victims to obtain broader access to documents maintained by the Diocese of Duluth.

In an order filed last week, 6th Judicial District Chief Judge Shaun Floerke ruled that an accuser suing the diocese is entitled only to documents related to abuse that is alleged to have occurred between 1956 and 1974.

The order appears to have little practical effect, as a judge in Ramsey County earlier this year ordered the diocese to turn over all abuse documents from 1978 and earlier.

Attorneys representing Doe 28, an unidentified man suing the diocese over alleged abuse by a priest in the early 1970s, asked Floerke in May to order a full release of abuse documents as part of the discovery process, asserting that information could be relevant to their negligence claims.

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CANADA
Lerners

Written by Elizabeth K.P. Grace, Anna Matas
August 2015

As reported in a recent CBC News story, the Anglican Church of Canada apologized recently for failing – for over 20 years – to make public a confession of sexual misconduct by one of its priests. Gordan Nakayama, father of well-known Canadian writer Joy Kogawa, confessed his crimes to the church in writing in 1994. In reference to his “sexual bad behaviour”, Nakayama said he was “sincerely sorry [for] what [he] did to so many people.”

It is hard to predict what impact this apology might have had on Nakayama’s many victims, had it been made sooner. Victims of sexual abuse often struggle with guilt, shame, anger, and fear. In cases where the abuser was a powerful or trusted community figure, like a priest, victims are often too scared to come forward. Historically, victims who did come forward were frequently disbelieved and shamed back into silence. Acknowledgment of the wrong inflicted upon them by the perpetrator of their harms, or an institution like a church that may be vicariously liable for their harms, can be of enormous psychological value to those whose lives have been impacted by sexual abuse. Those who work in mental health often speak of the significant health benefits associated with earlier intervention and support. Delays often result in more entrenched harms and injuries, which make healing more difficult.

The Apology Act, 2009 is an Ontario law that protects from liability in civil lawsuits and other proceedings those who apologize for wrongs they have committed or allowed to occur. Under this legislation, an “apology” is “an expression of sympathy or regret, a statement that a person is sorry or any other words or actions indicating contrition or commiseration, whether or not the words or actions admit fault or liability or imply an admission of fault or liability in connection with the matter to which the words or actions relate.”

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Aug. 25, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — A Freeport man whom a jury last month found was reckless and negligent in publicly accusing a former Catholic brother of molesting children has filed a motion for a new trial.

Paul Kendrick claims in the motion that Maine law does not entitle Michael Geilenfeld to damages for the time Geilenfeld was jailed in Haiti.

The jury awarded Geilenfeld and an affiliated nonprofit, Hearts with Haiti, $14.5 million in damages for harm to his and the organization’s reputation and for direct fundraising losses the jury found were attributable to a scandal prompted by Paul Kendrick’s allegations from 2011 through this year.

The jury’s decision included $2.5 million in damages on claims Kendrick was negligent and reckless in his statements about Hearts with Haiti. The jury awarded Geilenfeld $7 million on similar claims.

Another $5 million was awarded to Hearts with Haiti based on interference with its business, or fundraising losses.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
10TV

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee would add 33 victims to the group receiving payouts for clergy abuse. But advocates for those victims claim that the reorganization would hide documents on abuse by priests who haven’t been publicly identified before.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests told reporters Wednesday that all of the cases should be investigated by an independent panel so the abusers can be prosecuted and prevented from harming more children.

In a statement, the Milwaukee archdiocese responded that it has “worked closely with abuse survivor attorneys to provide full transparency” and has taken steps “to ensure the safety of children.”

The reorganization plan needs approval from creditors and a bankruptcy judge. A confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Nov. 9.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Aug. 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE
Compared to preliminary reports, more sexual abuse victims will be compensated under the formal reorganization plan filed in bankruptcy court late Monday night by the Milwaukee archdiocese. But, too many are still excluded, according to the chairman of the creditors committee who said he is optimistic that the plan is still evolving.

According to the 103-page plan supplemented by nearly 300 pages of documents, about 330 victims of sexual abuse by clergy will receive more than $21 million. The plan also creates a $500,000 fund to provide therapy for all victims, including those who may come forward later. Each of the archdiocese’s 199 parishes is being assessed $2,500 to pay for it.

A hearing to confirm the plan is scheduled to begin Nov. 8.

While 33 victims were added to categories of those who will receive some payment, the creditors committee wants more included. Among those included are victims who had lawsuits dismissed in state court in the 1990s after the state Supreme Court found that the archdiocese could not be sued for negligence. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy almost five years ago just as a number of other cases were about to go to trial after the same court said the church could be sued for fraud for not removing known pedophiles.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Aug. 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE
The names of all priests accused of abuse in the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case need to be released and an independent investigation of all 570 sexual abuse complaints need to be conducted before the reorganization plan is approved, according to Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Isely spoke to NCR following a press conference about the organization held on the steps of the federal courthouse in Milwaukee where the bankruptcy case is being heard by Judge Susan V. Kelley. The case was filed almost five years after the first of four mediations failed to result in a settlement.

The original plan filed with the bankruptcy court offered $4 million in compensation that would have been shared by 128 of the 570 who filed complaints; the rest would have received nothing. The revised plan filed with the court on Monday Aug. 24 offers $21 million to more victims but still denies compensation to 124, some of whom had received earlier settlements.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WKOW

[with video]

By Matt Cash

MILWAUKEE (WKOW) — It turns out a bankruptcy reorganization plan filed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee includes compensation for 33 more clergy abuse victims than originally announced.

A group called, ‘The Network of Those Abused by Priests’ is upset with the current agreement.

Officials with SNAP say thousands of pages of criminal reports are being kept secret, along with the names of clergy members they say abused children and who may still be in the ministry.

“If parents and families do not get to find out who these offenders are, where they are, what the church has done with them, who supervising them and can guarantee children are being reasonably by these individuals,” said Peter Isely, member of SNAP. “Then this bankruptcy has been a complete failure.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Washington Times

By GREG MOORE – Associated Press – Tuesday, August 25, 2015

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A group of clergy sexual abuse victims called Tuesday for an independent commission to investigate molestation accusations sealed in a bankruptcy case involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

The move comes a day after church lawyers formalized a $21 million settlement between nearly 400 abuse victims and the archdiocese. It advances a position the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has held for years: that church officials shouldn’t be the first authorities to review clergy abuse reports.

The victims’ group fears the settlement would expose only some of the abuse allegations, but church officials have firmly maintained that claims have been properly and transparently investigated and that they’ve worked to make sure children are safe.

In the settlement filing, the church outlines the steps it has taken, including conducting annual outside audits, which have resulted in “exemplary reports from the independent auditors.” It also says that every report of clerical sexual abuse of a minor, provided the accused cleric is still alive, is handed over to prosecutors.

The settlement shows that some of the accusations and associated narratives have been reviewed by victims’ lawyers and published on the archdiocese website in accordance with a 2013 court ruling.

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MICHIGAN
Macomb Daily

By The Associated Press
POSTED: 08/25/15

A guilty plea appears likely in the case of a Detroit-area Catholic priest accused of conspiring to steal nearly $700,000 from his church.

A court filing shows a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 1 in Detroit federal court.

The Rev. Edward Belczak is charged with conspiring with a parish administrator to take money from St. Thomas More church in Troy. The indictment says he helped himself to $110,000 from a church account to pay for a Wellington, Florida, condominium.

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CALIFORNIA
LAist

BY JULIET BENNETT RYLAH ON AUG 25, 2015

Investigators have identified the human remains found in the backyard of a family’s San Gabriel Valley home as a woman who went missing in 2009. They also announced a suspect this morning—a Santeria priest who also disappeared after he was accused of raping a teenage girl.

Pablo Pinto Maria, 46, has been on the lam since 2014, when police were investigating allegations that he raped a 16-year-old girl while performing a healing ritual on her. Now, police are looking for Mata in connection with the murder of Maria DelRefugio Chavez, whose remains were discovered in the backyard of a Valinda home earlier this month, City News Service reports.

DelRefugio Chavez went missing in 2009 after leaving her job at the East L.A. Indoor Swapmeet in the 4700 block of Whittier Blvd. on May 7, 2009 just before 9 p.m., according to the Charley Project, a site that profiles missing persons cold cases. Earlier that night, she sent a text message to a friend telling them that she was in trouble and may be in danger. That’s the last anyone heard from DelRefugio Chavez. Her friend reported her missing and her 1998 Honda Accord was later found abandoned in the 17000 block of PCH near Sunset Boulevard.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS contact the reporter Crime Sexual Assault Homicide

A Santeria spiritual leader who performed healing rituals at a Montebello business was named Tuesday as the suspect in the disappearance and killing of a woman six years ago.

Maria Delrefugio Chavez’s skeletal remains were found Aug. 7, buried behind a house in the 700 block of Elsberry Avenue in unincorporated Valinda in the San Gabriel Valley. The El Monte woman had been missing since 2009.

Sheriff’s detectives said they believe Pablo Pinto Mata, 46, murdered Chavez.

Chavez got to know Mata when she patronized Los Angeles Import, a botanica he owned in the 2400 block of Whittier Boulevard, sheriff’s homicide Lt. Vic Lewandowski said.

Mata acted as Chavez’s spiritualist, and though he was already married and had a family, he fathered a daughter with Chavez, Lewandowski said. The daughter was 4 years old when Chavez was reported missing on May 7, 2009. The girl is now living with other family members, he said.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Los Angeles

[with video]

By Jonathan Lloyd

A Santeria priest is suspected in the 2009 disappearance of a woman whose remains were found earlier this month in the backyard of a Southern California home.

The remains of Maria DelRefugio Chavez, 39, were found Aug. 7 behind a Valinda home in the 700 block of Elsberry Avenue, located in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. New information in the 2009 disappearance of the El Monte mother led authorities to pursue a search warrant to begin excavation in the home’s backyard.

Pablo Pinto Mata, who remains at large, was identified as a suspect in her disappearance, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mata, known as a Santero who performed healing rituals in Montebello, also is wanted in connection with a sex assault involving a child, police said.

“Since the day that victim Chavez went missing, suspect Mata has been a person of interest,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Victor Lewandowski. “He is also wanted by the Montebello and West Covina police departments for multiple sex crime felonies, including rape and sex acts with minor children.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Vincent Arthur Yzermans was a St. Cloud MN diocesan priest, ordained in 1951. In addition to serving in parishes throughout the diocese, Yzermans was a writer and editor. He served as a communications consultant during three sessions of Vatican II and was named “Monsignor” in 1965. He was also a press advisor to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington DC in the mid-1960s, and editor of the national Catholic paper, Our Sunday Visitor. Yzermans struggled with alcoholism for which he was in and out of treatment more than a dozen times. In the late 1960s he was moved out-of-state to an IN convent, spent a year in Santa Rosa CA in the mid-1970s, a year at St. Thomas College in Minneapolis, and later did a stint in residence at a parish in Anchorage AK. He was on medical leave 1979-1984 before returning to St. Cloud. Yzermans died May 4, 1995 in Albuquerque NM. His name was among 33 released by the St. Cloud diocese January 3, 2014 of clergy involved in incidents of likely claims of sexual abuse of minors.

Born: December 2, 1925
Ordained: June 2, 1951
Died: May 4, 1995

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

Statement by Becky Ianni of Burke VA, DC area director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (703 801 6044, SNAPvirginia@cox.net)

We doubt Fr. Espinoza was ever on the Arlington bishop’s payroll. But we know seven things.

First, he admitted raping a teenager.

Second, he was around kids in the DC area (including in the Arlington diocese).

Third, Catholic officials recruited, educated, ordained, trained, and hired him.

Fourth, one year ago, every US bishop was told that Fr. Espinoza’s archbishop suspected he was in Maryland, but apparently no church official warned police, prosecutors, parents or the public.

Fifth, he says two Catholic officials told him to flee overseas.

Sixth, so Catholic officials helped conceal his crimes.

Seventh, if more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers speak up, the chances of prosecuting him and protecting kids increases.

So we believe that Catholic officials – in DC, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Ecuador – have a moral and a civic duty to aggressively reach out to anyone who

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Star Tribune

Associated Press AUGUST 25, 2015

CONCORD, N.H. — The attorney for a young man accused of raping a fellow student at an elite prep school in New Hampshire is questioning whether his client was fairly treated by police.

Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin testified Tuesday in the trial of 19-year-old Owen Labrie of Tunbridge, Vermont.

Labrie faces charges stemming from an encounter two days before he graduated from St. Paul’s School last year.

As she says in an affidavit, Curtin testified that Labrie told her he had a playful encounter with the then-15-year-old girl but stopped short of having sex after a moment of “divine inspiration.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By Allison Manning @allymanning
Boston.com Staff | 08.25.15

Detectives who investigated the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl described on the witness stand Tuesday the stunned arrogance of their suspect when he was questioned days after his encounter with the younger classmate.

Owen Labrie, now 19, admitted he’d been with the girl days before he graduated from the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, but no, it wasn’t rape, he said. They didn’t have sex, he told detective Julie Curtin. Her underwear didn’t even come off.

Yes, he’d invited her to check out a secret spot on the roof of a campus building on May 30, 2014, part of a tradition called the Senior Salute, where upperclassmen invite students to hang out, or hook up, before they graduate. But what happened with her “was never a means to an end.”

Labrie repeatedly denied having sex with her. He told Curtain all the reasons why he wouldn’t have: his age, her age, and his position as a student leader.

The detective recalled him saying, if he had penetrated her, it “would be the end of my life.”

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Danielle Salisbury | Danielle_Salisbury@mlive.com
on August 25, 2015 at 10:00 AM, updated August 25, 2015 at 1:18 PM

JACKSON, MI – Baseball fields have been his sanctuary, places of respect, places of comfort.

They give him peace, and respite; they take his mind from the abuse that he said damaged his soul.

Andy Russell, 47, umpires more than 70 high school baseball games a year, and earlier this month, he returned to Lumen Christi High School’s baseball field for a series of alumni games.

It was the first time he had been to the field since he publicly identified himself in June as a victim of James Rapp, a former Lumen Christi priest now charged with 19 counts of criminal sexual conduct. Rapp, 76, is accused of crimes against multiple students from 1980 to 1986.

“It was healing,” Russell said of going to the field, which shares a name — Crowley — with his mother’s family. “It was awesome.”

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — U.S. Marshals are bringing a priest back to Louisville after he was arrested in Florida.

Father Stephen Pohl resigned from St. Margaret Mary last week, and was arrested in Florida on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.

Authorities say they found evidence that Pohl looked at images of naked children between the ages of 6 and 16 on two work computers. He is also accused of taking pictures of students in provocative poses, but those children were fully clothed.

The investigation started after a 10-year-old boy told his parents… that Pohl asked him to pose for pictures that were “weird.”

“You know I think it’s a good lesson for all children, if they feel uncomfortable that something isn’t right it probably isn’t right, you know, go to the parents, parents go to the police — they’re the ones who are gonna take it serious and look into it.”

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, August 22, 2015

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

GALLUP — With the Diocese of Gallup’s first auction of real property just three weeks away, a marketing campaign has been launched to sell about 118 parcels of unwanted church-owned land in Arizona and New Mexico.

The first auction is scheduled for Sept. 12, at the Downtown Sheraton Hotel in Phoenix. That auction will include 18 parcels of land the Gallup Diocese owns in northern Arizona.

The second auction will be held Sept. 19, at the Airport Sheraton in Albuquerque. The New Mexico auction will feature 100 parcels of land in nine New Mexico counties, including 64 residential parcels outside of Grants, near San Rafael.

Both auctions will open at 11 a.m., with the actual auction taking place at noon, according to Todd Good, the CEO and president of Accelerated Marketing Group. Good’s company has partnered with Tucson Realty & Trust Company to advertise and conduct the auctions. The companies held a similar auction for the Diocese of Tucson during its bankruptcy.

All church-owned properties will be sold to the highest bidder and the auction prices will not be subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Good said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“They sell for whatever they sell for,” he said.

Tucson experience

The Phoenix auction will also include Arizona property that does not belong to the Diocese of Gallup. Good said organizers selected Phoenix and Albuquerque as “central hubs” for the auctions because the properties are located across both states. In New Mexico, the church-owned properties are “literally from the Colorado border to the Mexican border,” he explained.

While some of the parcels owned by the diocese are located within communities or are easy to reach in a vehicle, Good said about one-third of the parcels are in remote locations or are landlocked. Of the six parcels in Gallup, four are located on steep, rocky hillsides and three are landlocked.

Good was asked if buyers at the Diocese of Tucson auction bought the property because they really wanted the parcels of land or whether they bought the property to help out the diocese.

“We have purchasers on both side of the fence,” Good said, adding he expected the same will be true for the Diocese of Gallup’s auctions.

Good said he thought buyers interested in helping the diocese might be able to donate the property back to the church and get a charitable tax write-off, but he said such individuals should first seek out the advice of an accountant or attorney.

Assessed values

According to the assessed values listed for the parcels being auctioned, the Gallup Diocese is not selling its most valuable property. In Arizona, the parcel with the highest listed value is vacant land in Springerville, located near Maricopa and Alta Vista drives. Its actual value is listed at $92,825.

In New Mexico, the property with the highest listed value is the downtown Gallup property on the corner of Aztec Avenue and Fourth Street that is currently being used by the city of Gallup as a parking lot. Its actual value is listed as $119,280.

In contrast, the Arizona property to be auctioned that does not belong to the Gallup Diocese has generally much higher value. Two of the non-church owned properties have values of at least $1 million, and one southern Arizona property valued at $750,000 is located next to Beatle Paul McCartney’s Tucson ranch.

Anyone interested in learning more about the auctions, the terms of sale or the property to be sold should call the toll free number operated by Accelerated Marketing Group. The company will email an information packet. Information provided by the marketing company can then be compared with information from the local county assessor’s office and local real estate brokers in the county where property is located.

Auction information: 800-791-0913

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.

HAWAII
Washington Post

U.S. cardinal, former head of Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, is charged with drunk-driving

By Michelle Boorstein August 25

One of the Catholic Church’s most senior U.S. leaders, who recently led the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after police said his car was swerving around midnight on a Hawaii highway.

Cardinal William Levada, 79, was stopped late Thursday in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday. Levada, who was archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005, was charged with driving under the influence and released from custody after posting $500 bail, the Tribune-Herald reported.

A message left Tuesday morning with the archdiocese of San Francisco was not immediately returned, but the Tribune-Herald said the archdiocese had issued this statement: “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperate with the authorities.”

From May 2005 until 2012 the California native was the prefect, or head, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was created in the 1500s to defend Catholicism from heresy. Today, according to the Vatican’s Web site, its role is to “promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world.” Levada was appointed to the position by Pope Benedict XVI.

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HAWAII
Daily Mail (UK)

Catholic cardinal and former top Vatican official, 79, arrested for DUI while vacationing in Hawaii with priest friends

By SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Roman Catholic cardinal from California was arrested last week on a drunken driving charge while vacationing on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Police say Cardinal William Levada, 79, was seen driving erratically before he was pulled over Thursday night on Hina Lani Street in Kailua-Kona.

Levada, a former archbishop of Portland and San Francisco, was charged with DUI and released after posting $500 bail.

Before his retirement as archbishop in 2012, Levada was the highest ranking American cardinal within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

In a statement released in the wake of his arrest, the clergyman said he regretted his ‘error in judgement’ and promised to continue cooperating with police, reported Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Reuters

CONCORD, N.H. | BY TED SIEFER

A teenaged student at an elite New Hampshire boarding school who has accused a former student of raping her last year crumpled when describing the alleged attack, said a detective who is due back on the witness stand on Tuesday.

Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin, who led the investigation into the alleged May 2014 rape at St. Paul’s School said the victim had been poised during an initial interview but broke down when brought to the steps of the building where she said the incident occurred.

“She had very a significant physical reaction. She crumpled into her mom’s arms and her family took her out of there,” Curtin testified on Monday in the trial of 19-year-old Owen Labrie, who is charged with sexually assaulting the girl days before his graduation.

The trial has cast a harsh light on the culture at the exclusive boarding school, whose alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry. Students have testified that it was common for graduating seniors to extend invitations to younger students to get together for so-called “senior salutes,” often for sexual purposes.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

08/24/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Last Friday it was announced that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has managed to secure yet another delay in its pending criminal case in Ramsey County. The Archdiocese was scheduled to appear on August 25 as a result of previous requests for postponement that had pushed back the date from June 24 to July 17 and now all the way to October 29. On the one hand, such a delay works in the Archdiocese’s favor, as it permits additional time for negotiations with insurance carriers without any conviction ‘on the books’. At the same time, it leaves the clergy and faithful of this Archdiocese in limbo. We can’t move on until these issues are resolved, and the delays mean that resolution, amongst other things, has once again been put on hold.

That is not to say, however, that nothing of interest will be happening in the coming weeks. On September 3, for instance, there will be a hearing before bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel on a motion by the already-controversial Parish Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the parishes of the Archdiocese who have presented themselves as a group on par with victims in terms of being owed money by the Archdiocese for abuse claims and other administrative reasons). The Parish Committee is seeking expanded access to the confidential proofs of claim filed against the Archdiocese by abuse victims. Specifically, the Parish Committee wants pastors, parish trustees, and members of the parish finance council to have access to the confidential information contained in those proofs of claim when either the abuse alleged or the perpetrator of the abuse is connected to the parish.

According to the arguments of the attorneys for the Parish Committee, such access is necessary in order for the pastors, trustees, and finance council members to properly exercise their fiduciary duty to the parish. There is a certain logic to that argument, at least as it reads on the page. However, it seems more than a little self-serving for the Archdiocese (which is not opposing the motion) to suggest that the parish representatives need access to such information on victims when, of course, it denied them access to similar confidential information on clergy that may have prevented the abuse from occurring in the first place.

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ALABAMA
WIAT

By Mike McClanahan

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Birmingham police are actively investigating the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl Sunday morning at a local church.

According to police the assault happened in a women’s bathroom inside the church as the church service was underway.

Investigators say the girl was accosted by someone who entered the church then entered the women’s bathroom.

Investigators said it happened around 11:45 am at the Greater Temple Missionary Baptist Church on 4th Ave., West.

Lt Scott Thurmond with the Birmingham Police Department says officers located a person of interest matching the description of the attacker several blocks away. Thurmond says the person of interest had an outstanding warrant with another agency on an unrelated charge. The person of interest has not been identified, but has been transferred to the other law-enforcement agency and is being held with no bond according to investigators.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

August 24, 2015

Statement from Charles Linneman, Chair, Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Michael Finnegan, Counsel for Certain Abuse Survivors

The settlement the Archdiocese reached with the Creditors’ Committee on July 17 incorporated a claims classification review process that was and is still ongoing. When the mediation settlement was reached, it included descriptions of different claims classifications for the various claims filed in the Chapter 11 proceeding. The settlement allowed for a protocol for the Committee and lawyers for individual claimants to review the initial classification of any claim and to address any concerns to the Archdiocese, which has fully cooperated to review and examine each and every concern raised under the terms of the settlement agreement.

Attempting to remain true to the settlement agreed to in mediation, after a thorough claims review process, where the Archdiocese is working together with the Committee and the individual lawyers, many more claimants have been and will be moved into different classifications where they will now receive more or some form of compensation under the Plan.

The final class of claims receiving no monetary compensation is limited to the following categories of claims:

• Claims previously settled through mediation or prior litigation (over half of the class)

• Claims filed which are really duplicates of claims already filed

• Claims from survivors alleging abuse by priests not associated with the Milwaukee diocese

• Claims that do not involve sexual abuse of a minor

• Claims which were withdrawn

We are satisfied with the work that has been and is being done in the claims review process and believe that we should continue to move forward in this bankruptcy.

Contact Mike Finnegan: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 612.205.5531

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

SAN FRANCISCO — Police in Sherwood, Oregon, have issued an arrest warrant for a Filipino priest who allegedly placed a hidden camera in a church bathroom, but he has fled to the Philippines.

After a boy discovered a camera hidden in an electrical socket in the bathroom of the St. Francis Church in Sherwood in April. Court documents say Father Ysrael Bien told his parents an elaborate story over the course of a month about a police investigation that never actually took place.

Bien was not charged with a crime at the time due to insufficient evidence, and the Archdiocese of Portland placed him on administrative leave on June 28.

However, a customer sent a query to Spyguy Security of Dallas, Texas, if it had sold any hidden cameras to anyone in Sherwood, Oregon.

A spokesman said they Googled for any news item about Sherwood and found Bien’s name, which matched with one of their receipts.

An arrest warrant was issued for Bien on Tuesday, August 18 on charges of personal invasion of privacy, tampering with physical evidence and initiating a false police report.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Sam McBride
sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk
Monday 24 August 2015

A DUP MLA has said that it is “indefensible” for the Kincora scandal to be left out of a UK-wide inquiry into historic child abuse after declassified files showed that civil servants in the 1980s privately believed that aspects of the scandal had never been fully investigated.

East Belfast MLA Robin Newton said that documents reported in Monday’s News Letter meant that the Secretary of State’s opposition to Kincora being included in the Home Office’s UK-wide inquiry was “indefensible”.

Files show a consensus among senior civil servants that the scandal should be investigated by the most thorough form of public inquiry – yet that did not happen.

Different high-ranking officials repeatedly gave the view that an inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 was unavoidable given the level of concern about allegations that boys had been abused over 20 years at Kincora by senior public figures and that their crimes had been covered up. But the officials were ultimately overruled.

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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

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

We are glad that a judge has awarded a brave victim of a Yakima predator priest a $5 million judgment. We hope this victim’s courage will inspire others who are in pain because of child molesting clerics to step forward, seek justice, expose predators and protect kids.

[KIMA]

[KAPP]

As we said back in February 2014, Catholic officials should now aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Calhoun’s crimes and beg them to call law enforcement.

Fr. Calhoun was ordained by the Beaumont Diocese and he faced his first child sex abuse lawsuit in 1988.

According to BishopAccountability.org, Fr. Calhoun’s personnel file “shows he should never have been ordained.” In 1969, he raped a 15 year old and was transferred to the Yakima Diocese where he continued to abuse.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Parents said they were shocked to learn the details of what their former parish priest is accused of.

Stephen Pohl now faces a child pornography charge, and he resigned from St. Margaret Mary last week.

Pohl allegedly took several inappropriate pictures of students, some where their underwear was visible, according to an arrest warrant.

Parents now want to know of whom he took pictures.

“I just asked them so basic questions like has he taken their picture that they’re aware of, have they been touched by him, anything like that,” said Mary Hall, a parent who has three children at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

The Vatican and one of Australia’s top clerics had failed to properly deal with child sex abuse victims, a retired bishop has said.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson told a national inquiry the Church had failed to speak out strongly about the abuse.

The bishop played an important role in developing the Australian church’s response to the issue in the 1990s.

Australia is holding a national inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Popes and archbishops, including the Vatican’s finance chief, Australian Cardinal George Pell, had sent out the “wrong message” about the issue, Bishop Robinson told the inquiry on Monday.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Naked pictures of children as young as six years old have been discovered on the computer of a Louisville priest.

Disturbing new evidence against Stephen Pohl was uncovered in court today.

The federal court records were unsealed Monday against the former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish. They reveal both the nature of the pictures on Pohl’s computers, and how they were brought to light.

Court records graphically detail nude photos with kids appearing to be between the ages of six and 16 in the Internet records of the computers in Pohl’s office and rectory. Pohl is also accused of having more than 150 pictures of St. Margaret Mary students, but none of them are considered child pornography.

Instead, most are deemed child erotica.

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KENTUCKY/FLORIDA
Houston Chronicle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville priest has appeared in Florida on child pornography charges and will be returned to Kentucky.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Louisville says 57-year-old Stephen Pohl was charged in a complaint unsealed Monday with knowingly accessing with intent to view images of child pornography on two computers at St. Margaret Mary Parish. The church has a school on its eastern Louisville campus.

Pohl was arrested Friday night in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, and is in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service. He will be transported to Louisville for a detention hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

25 August, 2015

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Adelaide commencing on 6 October 2015 at the Roma Mitchell Commonwealth Law Court Building, 3 Angas Street, Adelaide.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experiences of former child residents of the following institutions operated by the Salvation Army (Southern Territory) between 1940 and 1990:

a. Eden Park Boys’ Home, South Australia (Eden Park);

b. Box Hill Boys’ Home, Victoria (Box Hill);

c. Bayswater Boys’ Home, Victoria (Bayswater); and

d. The Salvation Army Boys’ Home (also known as Hollywood Children’s Village), Nedlands, Western Australia (Nedlands).

2. The response of the Salvation Army (Southern Territory) to allegations of child sexual abuse of former residents of Eden Park, Box Hill, Bayswater and Nedlands.

3. The past and current policies, practices and procedures of The Salvation Army (Southern Territory) for responding to claims of child sexual abuse in the institutions it operated.

4. Some aspects of the criminal law that govern the prosecution of child sexual abuse offences in South Australia, in particular the issue of joinder.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

A PUBLIC Royal Commission hearing in October to examine the Salvation Army’s response to child sex abuse allegations at its institutions will include a former WA boys’ home.

The hearing, starting on October 6 in Adelaide, will look into the experiences of former child residents between 1940 and 1990 at The Salvation Army Boys’ Home in Nedlands — also known as Hollywood Children’s Village — as well as the Eden Park Boys’ Home in South Australia and Victoria’s Box Hills Boys’ Home and Bayswater Boys’ Home.

The scope of the hearing into the organisation’s institutions in the southern territory will include the Salvation Army’s response to child sex abuse allegations and its past and current policies in dealing with these matters.

People or groups who believe they have a direct or substantial interest in the hearing can lodge written applications for leave to appear by September 18.

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VIRGINIA
WUSA

ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA9) — A group of protestors stood outside the Arlington Diocese Monday to bring attention to sexual abuse allegations against a priest who taught in Maryland and Virginia.

According to a church memo obtained SNAP chapter of Washington D.C. and Virginia, Catholic Church officials knew that Rev. Manuel Gallo Espinoza was in Maryland years after he fled the country in the wake of sexual abuse allegations.

In 2003, Rev. Espinoza allegedly had sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy at a New Jersey church. According to SNAP, two church officials urged Rev. Espinoza to go back to his native Ecuador before he got in trouble.

In 2005, SNAP says Rev. Espinoza returned to the United States and taught for three years at Beville Middle School in Woodbridge, Va. Then, from 2008 to February 2014, he taught Spanish at Parkdale High School in Riverdale, Md.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee would compensate more sexual abuse victims than it originally stated as part of a $21 million settlement announced earlier this month, under the reorganization plan it filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Members of the bankruptcy creditors committee raised concerns about the archdiocese’s announcement, saying it had excluded 72 survivors they believed were to be compensated when they agreed to the settlement in July. Thirty-three of those would now be eligible for compensation, according to the revised plan.

“We’re much closer to where we thought it was going to be,” said Charles Linneman, who chairs the creditors committee, which is made up of abuse victims but represents all creditors in the case.

“The archdiocese has worked with us in the last two weeks, and a lot more claims have moved to a higher class,” he said. “And there’s more to come that we are still working on.”

Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Archbishop Jerome Listecki, said in an email that the church is continuing to work with survivors’ attorneys to address questions regarding the treatment of their claims “and will continue to do so until the plan is confirmed.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Inquirer

Associated Press

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee filed its bankruptcy reorganization plan Monday, formalizing a recent settlement deal that will divvy up $21 million among more than 300 victims of clergy sex abuse.

The archdiocese submitted the bankruptcy reorganization plan Monday night, archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 to address its sex abuse lawsuit liabilities. The bankruptcy plan is scheduled for review in November, and church officials are “hopeful this is approved by the judge,” Topczewski said.

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OKLAHOMA
KJRH

TULSA – A former Tulsa pastor accused of sexually abusing and impregnating a minor was sentenced Monday.

Documents show that Gregory Ivan Hawkins will serve seven concurrent life sentences for allegedly impregnating a teen, under the age of 18, in 2013.

Hawkins was the former pastor of Zion Plaza Church in north Tulsa and also owned Zion Childcare and Learning Center.

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INDIANA
WTHI

WHITE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) — A former pastor accused of child molestation admitted his guilt in a White County courtroom Monday.

James Crawn, 46, is a former pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Idaville. He was arrested in late April and charged with two counts of child molesting, as well as child seduction and sexual misconduct with a minor.

According to court documents, Crawn is accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy during counseling services arranged by the boy’s mother. The alleged molestation took place in 2006 while Crawn was a pastor at a Monticello church.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Paula McMahon
Sun Sentinel

Former church youth pastor, charter school leader and unofficial foster parent Jeffery London faces a maximum of life in federal prison when he is sentenced today for using a cellphone to lure an underage boy into sexual activity with him.

But London’s defense says he should get a maximum punishment of 15 years for the lone sex crime he has been convicted of committing.

London, 51, was acquitted of 27 state child sex abuse charges after a jury trial in state court in Broward in April 2014.

But in June, another jury found him guilty of persuading, inducing, enticing and coercing a 16-year old boy to engage in sexual activity after a separate trial in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Abuse royal commission: Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns’ cancer

TESSA AKERMAN
THE AUSTRALIANAUGUST 25, 2015

The man who is key to answering the question of why the Diocese of Ballarat was the site of extensive sexual abuse by Catholic ­clergy may not give evidence to the royal commission after being diagnosed with cancer.

The Ballarat Diocese told The Australian yesterday that Bishop Ronald Mulkearns underwent surgery last week and his prognosis was uncertain.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard evidence the former bishop knew of Gerald Ridsdale’s offending and moved him from parish to parish when complaints were made. Ridsdale was Australia’s worst pedophile priest and abused scores — and possibly hundreds — of children in Victoria and NSW.

Bishop Mulkearns avoided the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse in institutions, citing ill health and memory loss after a stroke in 1998.

Broken Rites’ Wayne Chamley said the seriousness of Bishop Mulkearns’s condition was unknown and hopefully he would be stabilised by the time the second public hearings into Ballarat began in November.

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MINNESOTA
Legal Examiner

Two Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Father Donald Rieder Filing Lawsuits against Diocese of St. Cloud

Posted by Mike Bryant
August 24, 2015

In 2003 Rieder Pled Guilty to Abusing a Young Girl in the 1990s, and Admitted to Abusing Others in his 40 Year Career as a Catholic Priest

One Survivor Whose Case was Settled Will Speak Publicly About Her Sexual
Abuse by Rieder at Paynesville Church in the 1970s

WHAT: At a press conference tomorrow in St. Cloud, attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant will:

• Announce the filing of two lawsuits on behalf of women abused as minors, identified as Does 65 and 67, naming the Diocese of St. Cloud and two individual parishes as defendants. The women were sexually abused by Rieder at St. James in Randall, Minn., and at St. Anne’s in Kimball, Minn., in the 1960s when they were ages 11-15. They are able to bring these lawsuits as a result of Minnesota’s Child Victims Act, which gives child abuse victims until May 25, 2016, to file civil lawsuits.
• Introduce another courageous survivor, who will speak publicly about her own abuse by Rieder, giving her name and the details of the case she settled with Diocese.
• Discuss the lawsuits, which name St. James and St. Anne’s, and the Diocese as defendants, and allege that Rieder’s abuse of Plaintiffs resulted from the Diocese’s and churches’ negligence and concealment of information about the danger of sexual abuse by Rieder and others in the Catholic Church. By refusing to publicly release information on abusers, the Diocese continues to put children at risk. The survivors and attorneys will urge the Diocese and Bishop to come clean and release the files of all offenders. The lawsuit seeks an order requiring the Diocese to release this information to help keep children safe.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 1:00 PM CDT

WHERE: Stearns County Courthouse
725 Courthouse Square
St. Cloud, MN 56303

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Bryant: Office/320.259.5414 Cell/ 800-359-0061

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Diocese of St. Cloud will soon be facing new legal charges over allegations of sexual abuse.

Two unidentified women say they were abused as minors in Randall, Minnesota by Father Donald Rieder, a 40-year priest with the church. They say it happened when they were ages 11 to 15 in the 1960s.

Attorneys say they’ll announce the filing of two lawsuits on behalf of the women at a press conference Tuesday in St. Cloud. The lawsuits name St. James and St. Anne’s as defendants, in addition to the Diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Kristina Keneally

In a day of remarkable evidence before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson offered damning assessments of the most senior Catholic clerics on the planet. Pope John Paul II “handled the abuse poorly”. Cardinal George Pell was a “most ineffectual bishop” and “the majority of the priests wished he’d get transferred somewhere else.” Even Pope Francis is not providing “real leadership”.

But his most chilling and telling statement about the Catholic church was the one he made about the church hierarchy’s response to revelations about child sexual abuse: “What we got was silence, so bishops were loyal to the silence.”

Robinson’s statement is simple, but it speaks of the extent to which the church hierarchy exercises control – and enforces silence – through a combination of rigid orthodoxy, secretive practices, intimidation, and threat of exclusion or excommunication. Even many Catholics may not be aware of the how the church leadership manages the institution, as most of us in the pews interact only with our local parish priest.

For nearly 25 years I have been engaged with what can be broadly termed “the progressive movement” in the Catholic church: theologians and activist groups agitating to modernise the institution and break open the undemocratic, celibate male stranglehold on power in the church.

I have known many priests over the years who privately cheer the progressives on, but publicly stay silent. These priests walk a fine and dangerous line, fearful sometimes that one comment in a homily will cause a parishioner to report them to the bishop and invite a world of pain. I’ve known of priests and theologians who faced a fate similar to outspoken Toowoomba bishop Bill Morris: forced out after a “sham process instituted in Rome to get rid of (him) at any cost, and regardless of any particular charges.”

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HAWAII
Hawaii News Now

KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII (HawaiiNewsNow) –
A retired Roman Catholic cardinal has been arrested on the Big Island for driving under the influence on Thursday.

Police say The Most Eminent Cardinal William Levada was weaving in and out of traffic when they pulled him over late Thursday night on Hina Lani street in Kailua-Kona.

Levada was arrested for DUI and released after posting $500 bail.

The 79-year-old, from California, was the highest ranking American Cardinal under Pope Benedict the 16th, and retired in 2012.

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HAWAII
Huffington Post

Chris D’Angelo
Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii
Posted: 08/24/2015

One of the Roman Catholic Church’s most senior clergymen was arrested last week for driving under the influence during a trip to Hawaii.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday that 79-year-old Cardinal William Joseph Levada, of Menlo Park, California, was stopped at about midnight Thursday in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island after a patrol car saw him swerve.

Levada, formerly the highest ranking American official in the Vatican, was charged with driving under the influence and was released from police custody after posting $500 bail.

In a statement emailed to The Huffington Post by a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Levada said, “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperating with the authorities.”

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WASHINGTON
The Spokesman-Review

Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review

A federal judge in Spokane awarded an Oregon man $5 million in damages stemming from sexual abuse by a Catholic priest in Yakima more than 30 years ago.

The priest, Ernest Dale Calhoun, did not contest the allegations made by the man, who was identified only by his initials in court documents. The case was filed with the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in August 2014.

Both the Corporation of the Catholic Bishop of Yakima and the Beaumont Diocese in Texas where Calhoun served before arriving in Yakima in 1977 had previously been dismissed from the case. The Beaumont Diocese settled with the man for an undisclosed amount of money, and the Yakima diocese paid $75,000 to settle the case, according to local news accounts.

The victim’s attorney, Vito de la Cruz, of Yakima, called the award “the largest civil judgment entered against an individual priest in Central and Eastern Washington.”

“The judgment entered by Court is significant because of the amount, but more importantly, because it holds Calhoun accountable for decades of emotional trauma he inflicted on our client,” de la Cruz said in a statement.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[An association of lay people who oppose appointment of Juan Barros as bishop of Osorno are continuing their efforts. They have met with Juan Carlos Cruz, who was abused by former priest Fernando Karadima, and are speaking of a possible trip to Rome to explain their views to Pope Francis.]

La Agrupación de Laicos de Osorno continúa con su misión de que el obispo Juan Barros deje el cargo, a quien acusan de estar vinculado al sacerdote Fernando Karadima. Dentro de su agenda tienen contemplada la visita de Juan Carlos Cruz, víctima de abusos del ex párroco de El Bosque, y además un posible viaje a Roma, de modo de explicar al Papa Francisco el clima de división en el mundo católico osornino.

Mario Vargas, vocero del movimiento, detalló que esperan la visita de Juan Carlos Cruz, denunciante del caso Karadima, extendiendo la invitación al propio Juan Barros para que exponga su verdad junto a Cruz.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald-Republic

By Jane Gargas
jgargas@yakimaherald.com

SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal district court judge in Spokane has issued a $5 million judgment against a priest who served in the Catholic Diocese of Yakima in the 1970s and ‘80s.

The civil lawsuit, brought by a man known as C.S. in court documents, alleged that the Rev. Dale Calhoun sexually abused him beginning in 1977 when he was 12 and ending when he was 17.

The settlement is the largest civil judgment against an individual priest in Central and Eastern Washington, according to attorneys Bryan Smith and Vito de la Cruz of Tamaki Law.

The Catholic Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, where Calhoun was ordained, was removed from the lawsuit after agreeing to settle with C.S. for between $20,000 and $25,000.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox News

Published August 24, 2015
Associated Press

MILWAUKEE – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee expects to file its bankruptcy reorganization plan Monday, formalizing a recent settlement deal that will divvy up $21 million among more than 300 victims of clergy sex abuse.

Church lawyers have until midnight to submit the documents and were “dotting the I’s” on various forms throughout the day, archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski said.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2011 to address its sex abuse lawsuit liabilities. The bankruptcy plan is scheduled for review in November, and church officials are “hopeful this is approved by the judge,” Topczewski said.

“We’re confident she will appreciate the work that’s been done getting to this point,” he added.

The creditors’ committee, which comprises five abuse victims, is expected to endorse the deal, committee chairman Charles Linneman said.

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CALIFORNIA
LAist

BY JULIET BENNETT RYLAH IN NEWS ON AUG 24, 2015

A Catholic priest who molested a woman on a flight from Philadelphia to LAX has been sentenced to go to jail. Prosecutors say the priest interpreted the woman he groped as “coy” even though she was actually asleep.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, a 46-year-old Catholic priest originally from Lake Arrowhead, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell after being found guilty in May of abusive sexual contact, according to a release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office. His one-year sentence is to be split between six months in jail, then six months of house arrest. De Jesumaria will also have to register as a sex offender, and was let go from his position as clergy in November. The maximum sentence for De Jesumaria’s conviction was two years.

The incident happened on August 17, 2014 on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. De Jesumaria was not seated next to the victim at first, but eventually asked a flight attendant if he could switch seats in order to sit next to his ‘wife.’ De Jesumaria moved to sit in a middle seat between a man, who was seated next to the window, and the victim, whom De Jesumaria had claimed was his wife.

The victim said she fell asleep during the flight, but woke up when De Jesumaria touched her high on her left leg, close to her crotch area. She said De Jesumaria then put his arm around her and grabbed her breast. She said he held her tightly for a while, but eventually loosened his grip and she got up. She went to the bathroom, then used a call button to get a flight attendant’s attention and reported De Jesumaria’s behavior.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Los Angeles

By Joel Grover and Matthew Glasser

A Southern California Catholic priest was sentenced to federal prison Monday for sexually assaulting a female passenger aboard a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

Father Marcelo De Jesumaria, 46, formerly of Lake Arrowhead, was sentenced in federal court to six months in prison and six months of home detention for the crime of “abusive sexual contact” on the August 2014 flight. He was convicted in May of this year.

In February 2014, the NBC4 I-Team revealed that there had been a spike in the number of sexual assaults aboard airplanes in the last year. Most of the crimes took place on overnight flights while passengers were asleep.

In this recent case, the US Attorney’s Office said Father De Jesumaria touched a woman’s breast, inner thigh, and groin on the red-eye flight to LA.

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CALIFORNIA
Contra Costa Times

A Lake Arrowhead priest will register as a sex offender and spend a year in custody after a federal jury sentenced him Monday for touching a woman’s breast and inner thigh on a cross-country airplane trip.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, 46, a Catholic priest formerly of Lake Arrowhead and who now lives in the High Desert community of Valyermo, was sentenced this morning by United States District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

De Jesumaria was on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 2014, when he was able to move to the last row of the plane after asking a flight attendant if he could “sit next to his wife,” according to a news release. After moving to a seat between a man and the woman, she awoke sleeping much of the flight to feel De Jesumaria’s hand on top her left leg, near her groin. She then felt him wrap his arm around her body and grab her breast, DOJ officials said in a news release Monday.

When he relaxed his tight grip on the woman, she got up and went to the plane’s bathroom, official said. She used a call button to summon a flight attendant and reported that De Jesumaria had been touching her inappropriately, according to the DOJ.

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CALIFORNIA
New York Post

Reuters

A Catholic priest convicted of groping a woman on a U.S. airline flight was sentenced to six months in federal prison on Monday after the victim testified that she was still traumatized by the ordeal, prosecutors said.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, 46, was also sentenced to six months of home confinement by a federal judge who ordered him to register as a sex offender, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors say that the incident took place on a US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 2014 when De Jesumaria moved from his assigned seat to the last row of the aircraft, telling a flight attendant he wanted to “sit next to his wife.”

The victim, who had been sleeping, told authorities that she awoke to find De Jesumaria touching the top of her leg and then wrap his arm around her body to grab her breast.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC News

LOS ANGELES — Aug 24, 2015

By AMANDA LEE MYERS Associated Press

A California-based Catholic priest was sentenced Monday to six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement for groping a sleeping woman seated next to him on an airliner.

Marcelo de Jesumaria, 46, was sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles. A jury found him guilty in May of abusive sexual contact.

Jesumaria touched a sleeping woman’s buttocks, breast and groin during a nighttime flight last August from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, according to prosecutors.

The woman, a model, says she woke up as Jesumaria was touching her and reported the abuse to flight attendants and later an FBI agent. Jesumaria told the agent that he enjoys “cozy flights” with women and purposefully changed his seat to be next to the woman, but he initially denied touching her breast, according to prosecutors.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

By Jennifer Weigel

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —WLKY has obtained the arrest warrant in the case against Stephen Pohl.

(Editor’s note: At this time, we have chosen not to post the warrant because of the sensitive nature of the case and the fact that it involves dozens of local children.)

According to the warrant and the detective in charge of the case, photos taken by Pohl, a former priest at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church constituted “child erotica.”

Louisville Metro Police Crimes Against Children Detective Dan Jackman described child erotica as images, materials or items that are sexually arousing to certain individuals, but do not rise to the level of child pornography.

Pohl was arrested Friday evening in Florida. He resigned Thursday from his position at St. Margaret Mary.

According to the arrest warrant, Pohl took a group photo of St. Margaret Mary students during a meeting of an after-school club, but then pulled a 10-year-old boy to the side to take individual pictures. …

The student’s mother asked Pohl via email the next day to send her the photos. Pohl replied by sending the group picture and the first picture of the boy. The mother asked Pohl to send the other photos, but received no response. Soon after, the boy’s mother sent another email to Pohl, asking for the other photos of her son, and received no response. The boy’s father left a voicemail for Pohl asking to meet with him about the photos, according to the warrant.

Pohl called the mother to say he was out shopping and that the pictures had been deleted. Moments later, the parents saw Pohl walk into the store in which they were shopping.

The parents saw that Pohl had his cellphone in his front pocket and approached him.

The student’s father told the detective that Pohl was “shaking like a leaf” as he handed over the phone. The student’s father found the photos of his son and several photos of other children. He recognized one boy as a St. Margaret Mary student posed in a similar manner to his son, according to the warrant.

The father told Pohl that the types of pictures on his phone were highly inappropriate, but Pohl said the boys chose their poses to show off their muscles.

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OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

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

We’re grateful that Rev. Gregory Ivan Hawkins has gotten a tough sentence. Now, however, others at Zion Plaza Church and Zion Child Care& Learning Center must launch an aggressive outreach campaign to find and help others who are in pain because of Rev. Hawkins’ crimes.

[Tulsa World]

Too often, when law enforcement pursues a child molesting cleric, his supervisors, colleagues and church members stay silent. That’s wrong. They have a moral and civic duty to aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered the minister’s crimes. They must urge these victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing, protect others and start healing.

Only a fool would believe that this brave 15 year old girl is Rev. Hawkins’ first and only victim. And only timid, self-serving church members and staff would sit passively by and let others who were hurt by Rev. Hawkins suffer in shame, isolation, confusion and despair.

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WASHINGTON
KAPP

By Kevin Uretsky. Published Monday, August 24th, 2015

A federal judge issued a $5 million civil judgment against former Yakima priest Father Dale Calhoun following a lawsuit filed by a man Calhoun sexually abused between the ages of 12 and 17. The Plaintiff filed his lawsuit under the pseudonym “C.S.” to protect his privacy.

According to lawyers representing “C.S.”, Calhoun’s abuse of young boys in Yakima and Beaumont has been the subject of several lawsuits over the years, including one case that was appealed to the Washington Supreme Court in 1998. That case, C.J.C. v. Corporation of the Catholic Bishop of Yakima, confirmed the right of victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring claims against priests and the Churches that hire them.

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WASHINGTON
KIMA

BBOLD ADVERTISING NEWS RELEASE — On Thursday, August 20, 2015, the Honorable Rosanna Malouf Petersen (Chief Judge of the Federal District Court, Eastern District of Washington) issued a civil judgment against Father Dale Calhoun in the amount of $5 million in a lawsuit filed by a man Calhoun sexually abused between the ages of 12 and 17. The Plaintiff filed his lawsuit under the pseudonym “C.S.” to protect his privacy.

Fr. Calhoun, is still incardinated as a priest in the Diocese of Yakima. This means that, despite multiple claims against him, Calhoun remains a priest enjoying the protections of the Catholic Church. Calhoun, who currently lives in the Beaumont, Texas area, sexually abused C.S. when C.S. was a teenaged boy. That Fr. Calhoun remains incardinated as a priest continues a disturbing pattern of conduct by the Bishops of Beaumont and Yakima especially in light of the early warnings about him.

When Calhoun was still in seminary, underclassmen complained about Calhoun asking them to discuss sexual fantasies and masturbation as part of a bogus “study” into human sexuality. Calhoun was sent for evaluations. A psychiatrist warned superiors against ordaining him as a priest. The Bishop of Beaumont ignored the warnings and ordained Calhoun as a priest.

Fr. Calhoun’s abuse of young boys in Yakima and Beaumont has been the subject of several lawsuits over the years, including one case that was appealed to the Washington Supreme Court in 1998. That case, C.J.C. v. Corporation of the Catholic Bishop of Yakima, confirmed the right of victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring claims against priests and the Churches that hire and place them in the community. Many of the victims of clergy abuse, including C.S., suffer life-long trauma as a result of the sexual abuse by priests including depression, anger and violence issues, alcohol and drug dependency, alienation from their faith, and relationship deficits. Often it takes years of therapy for sexual abuse victims to address their trauma.

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UNITED STATES
Quartz

WRITTEN BY
Katherine Tarbox

August 23, 2015

As the case for accused rapist Owen Labrie began in New Hampshire on Aug. 18, it put a spotlight on St. Paul’s School. At the heart of the matter is the “senior salute,” described by the media as a competition among upperclassmen at the storied, elite boarding school to take the virginity of new female students. This has been described as a decades-old tradition dating back to the William Randolph Hearst days, but it’s actually a new development for life at St. Paul’s.

The “senior salute” was not part of the culture when I attended St. Paul’s from 1997 to 2000, nor was it around for students who graduated just five years ago. The conditions that enabled this deplorable lie to take hold are not unique to one boarding school, but are part of a centuries-old custom that the well-educated and privileged adhere to. They don’t discuss sexual crimes, therefore, consequences of such behavior are misunderstood or ignored. How else can we explain how male students felt so justified, perhaps even entitled, to tally the number of virginities they can claim?

Last year, a friend of mine toured the University of Pennsylvania when a fraternity came out of their house naked, and circled the group, chanting, “We want your daughters.” This is the mindset that allowed the young men of St. Paul’s to develop the “senior salute.” When my friend called the school to report the incident, she says she was essentially hung up on by the administration.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Reuters

CONCORD, N.H. | BY TED SIEFER

A former student at an elite New Hampshire prep school, who is on trial for allegedly raping a younger student last year, told a friend he was in competition to “score” with the most girls before graduation, the friend testified on Monday.

Prosecutors have said Owen Labrie, now 19, took a 15-year-old girl to the roof of a campus building before sexually assaulting her in a machine room at St. Paul’s School.

Central to the trial has been an alleged, long-standing tradition among students at the nearly 160-year-old school known as “senior salute”: an invitation from graduating students to younger students to get together, often for sexual purposes. St. Paul’s has said any such allegations do not reflect the school culture.

The friend testified that he had encouraged the girl to accept Labrie’s invitation for a “senior salute” after Labrie said he was competing with another student to have sexual encounters with as many girls as possible before graduation.

“I said he’s a nice guy. I just kind of played it down, I guess. It’s just a senior salute,” said the student, who was not named. The judge in the case has ordered the identities of all minors who testify to be kept confidential.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Guardian (UK)

JM Lawrence in Concord, New Hampshire

Monday 24 August 2015

Boys at an elite New Hampshire prep school crowded into a senior’s room asking if rumors were true Owen Labrie had sex with a freshman girl during an unofficial school tradition known as “Senior Salute”, his friend testified in court Monday.

Labrie, 19, who is accused of raping the underage girl, told the students “No” while nodding yes and smirking, one of his friends at the St Paul’s School testified.

Now in its second week, the trial held in a packed, small courtroom has put a spotlight on St Paul’s, where annual tuition exceeds $50,000 and alumni include Secretary of State John Kerry.

The witness, a stocky hockey player who wore a suit coat and tie and will be a junior this year, told jurors Labrie later told him he had sex with the girl.

“I asked him in a pretty serious manner if he had sex with her, and he told me he did,” said the boy, who also testified he coaxed the girl to meet Labrie after she initially declined.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

BY ALLISON MANNING @ALLYMANNING

Three young men took the stand in their friend’s rape trial today, describing in sometimes graphic language the traditions of “scoring” and the “Senior Salute” at their New Hampshire prep school.

Prosecutors are trying to prove that Owen Labrie, a now-19-year-old graduate of the prestigious St. Paul’s School, targeted a younger classmate months before she agreed to meet up with him as part of the longstanding Senior Salute tradition. The two went to a secluded room on campus on May 30, 2014, where she says she was raped. He says it was consensual.

Interspersed with questions about Labrie were inquires about the Senior Salute tradition. Prosecutors asked: What exactly was it?

“It was a term that was used to explain … the feeling of a last-chance-dance kind of atmosphere in the last spring term of every year,” said Malcolm Salovaara, a 2013 graduate who now goes to Dartmouth College.

Though he had graduated a year before, Salovaara was in a Facebook group with Labrie and another recent grad called “Slayers Anonymous.” He said it was just a way to keep in touch, and wasn’t any kind of competition.

Prosecutor Catherine J. Ruffle asked what “slaying” was. Salovaara said it was a synonym for scoring or hooking up.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By ARIANNA PICKARD World Staff Writer

A Tulsa minister was sentenced Monday to seven concurrent life terms in prison for sexually abusing and impregnating a 15-year-old girl.

Gregory Ivan Hawkins, 56, was sentenced in Tulsa County District Court by Judge James Caputo.

Hawkins was charged with seven counts of child sex abuse in Tulsa County in 2013 and pleaded guilty to two of the counts and no contest to the others on June 15.

A 15-year-old girl told Tulsa police that Hawkins had begun abusing her in 2012 and was the father of her then-unborn child.

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KENTUCKY
Lex 18

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) FBI officials say that the Louisville priest arrested for child porn charges took some very strange photos of students at his parish school.

Father Stephen Pohl was arrested Friday night in Florida, just hours after he resigned from his position at St. Margaret Mary, and days after he was placed on leave pending the investigation, WAVE 3 News reports.

It was in the nine page police report that two of the students at the school detailed an interaction with Father Pohl.

One of the boys said he was part of a group photo taken outside the church. The report goes on to state that as the students were walking back inside, Pohl asked the boy if he could take photos of him individually, which the boy allowed. The boy told investigators that he told Pohl “this is weird.”

The boy reported the incident to his mother, who called Pohl requesting to see the photos.

Pohl sent the group photo and one of the individual photos, but not all of them, the documents claim. The mother emailed twice more and even called Pohl, requesting to see all of the photos. The boy’s parents ran into Pohl the next day out shopping and asked to see his cell phone.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo August 24, 2015

Ex-pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish Stephen Pohl now faces federal charges of accessing child pornography.

Pohl, 57, was charged Monday and is due to appear for arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli, at 2:00 p.m., in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida.

According to a criminal complaint, Pohl accessed child pornography in 2015 on a laptop and desktop computer in the office and rectory of St. Margaret Mary Parish, 7813 Shelbyville Road.

Those images were of naked young boys ranging in age from infancy to mid-teens, according to the complaint.

The images were never downloaded to the computer, the complaint notes, but were viewed online by Pohl and detected through forensic analysis of the computer hard drives.

More than 150 photos depicting students at St. Margaret Mary were also found, though none of those photos constitute child porn, the complaint states.

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AUSTRALIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 24

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

Finally, a Catholic bishop tells the truth: Pope Francis isn’t showing real leadership on abuse and Cardinal George Pell took action on abuse only because a secular official threatened him.

Retired Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson made this brave observation and this disappointing disclosure in testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

Francis is masterful at powerful gestures. But gestures aren’t reform. Gestures aren’t leadership. Gestures don’t protect kids.

We hope that Catholics, citizens and secular officials start taking a hard look at Francis’ real track record – past and current – on child sex crimes and cover ups. We hope they stop saying “Well, at least he’s doing something” and start asking “Is anything he’s doing effective in any real way?”

In our view, the answer is a distressing but resounding NO.

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AUSTRALIEN
religion.orf@at

Ein australischer Bischof hat im Zusammenhang mit den Skandalen um den Missbrauch Minderjähriger in der katholischen Kirche Vorwürfe gegen den 2005 gestorbenen Papst Johannes Paul II. erhoben.

Den Umgang mit dem Thema Missbrauch durch Johannes Paul II. (1978-2005) nannte Bischof Geoffrey Robinson (78) am Montag nach Medienberichten vor einer staatlichen Untersuchungskommission in Sydney „armselig“. Statt die Bischöfe zu Solidarität mit den Opfern zu verpflichten, habe er ein „Schweigen“ gefördert. Selbst Papst Franziskus zeige in dieser Sache nicht die nötige Führungsstärke. Allerdings gebe es einflussreiche Personen, die sich Reformvorhaben des derzeitigen Kirchenoberhaupts „mit Zähnen und Klauen“ widersetzten.

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AUSTRALIEN
Katholisch

Sydney – 24.08.2015

Der australische Kardinal George Pell, bis 2014 Erzbischof von Sydney, ist von einem seiner früheren Weihbischöfe für den Umgang mit dem Missbrauchsskandal kritisiert worden. Aus Profilierungsdrang habe Pell ein eigenes Aufklärungsprogramm für sein Bistum gestartet und so eine gemeinsame Aktion der australischen Bischöfe unterlaufen, sagte der 78-jährige emeritierte Weihbischof Geoffrey Robinson vor einem staatlichen Untersuchungsausschuss am Montag in Sydney.

“Er hat unsere Einheit zerstört”, zitierten australische Medien Robinson. Dieser selbst hatte seit 1994 mit anderen Bischöfen an dem Programm “Towards Healing” für eine Aufklärung von Kindesmissbrauch durch Kirchenmitarbeiter gearbeitet. 1996 rief Pell, damals gerade zum Erzbischof von Melbourne ernannt, als eigene Initiative “Melbourne Response” ins Leben. Robinson warf Pell vor, er habe sich als führende Gestalt in der Missbrauchsaufklärung etablieren wollen und zugleich zu hohe Hürden für eine Kontaktaufnahme durch Opfer aufgestellt.

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AUSTRALIEN
Zeit

Der emeritierte Bischof Geoffrey Robinson (78) hat schwere Vorwürfe gegen die katholische Kirche erhoben. Vor einer Untersuchungskommission in Sydney, die den Missbrauch Minderjähriger in der Kirche aufklären soll, äußerte er sich über das Verhalten Papst Johannes Pauls II.: “Von ihm kam dazu nur Schweigen, und die Bischöfe zeigten ihre Loyalität, indem sie auch schwiegen.”

Die australischen Bischöfe seien sich des Problems seit Mitte der achtziger Jahre bewusst gewesen, berichtet die australische Zeitung The Sydney Morning Herold. Auch der ranghöchste Vertreter der katholischen Kirche in Australien, Kardinal George Pell, habe versagt. Pell hat oft bestritten, dass Missbrauch in der Kirche weit verbreitet war. Heute ist er im Vatikan für die Finanzen zuständig.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Den meisten Eindruck auf die Richterin hat die Schilderung eines Zeugen gemacht, dessen körperliche Nachwirkungen der in seiner Kindheit widerfahrenen sexuellen Misshandlungen im Verhandlungsaaal ganz offensichtlich wurden: Zitternd und mit Zähneklappern erinnerte sich der Mann an die Erlebnisse bei den Schulbrüdern in Wien-Strebersdorf.

„Es war dem Zeugen anzusehen und anzumerken, welche Überwindung es ihn kostete, über die Ereignisse zu sprechen“, schreibt Richterin Daniela Fitz im (nicht rechtskräftigen) Urteil.

Abgewiesen

Mit diesem Spruch des Landesgerichts für Zivilrechtssachen wurde das Begehren des Ordens der Schulbrüder auf Unterlassung von Behauptungen über jahrzehntelange sexuellen Missbrauch in den Einrichtungen des Ordens abgewiesen.

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UNITED STATES
Arutz Sheva

Over one hundred prominent haredi rabbis and Jewish educators from across the United States have signed a landmark public pronouncement, urging the public to help combat the scourge of sexual abuse.

The kol koreh (public pronouncement) has already garnered 108 signatures, affirming the obligation under Jewish law to immediately report and notify secular law enforcement when a reasonable suspicion of child abuse exists.

While there is no indication of higher levels of abuse within the haredi Jewish community than among the wider public, victims rights activists and victims of abuse themselves have long complained that too often cases are not dealt with properly, due in part to some community leaders preferring to deal with abuse themselves instead of reporting it to police.

In some cases, abusers have even been encouraged to leave the country on a self-imposed “exile,” thus evading police while remaining free to carry out their crimes elsewhere.

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CALIFORNIA
My News LA

A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted a sleeping woman aboard a cross-country flight to Los Angeles faces up to two years in federal prison when he is sentenced Monday.

Marcelo De Jesumaria, who previously served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, was convicted in May of abusive sexual contact on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia last summer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to court papers, a female passenger, identified only as “BD,” woke up during the August 2014 flight to find the priest’s “hands on her breast, groin, and buttocks.”

De Jesumaria was removed from the ministry last November when the allegations against him surfaced.

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

SNAP volunteers, including Portland SNAP leader Jeannie Cratty, handed out this flier in Sherwood on Sunday, at the parish where Fr. Ysrael Bien allegedly installed a hidden bathroom camera. Fr. Bien has reportedly fled to the Philippines.

We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Our mission is to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth to deter future cover ups of sex crimes and misdeeds by clergy of any faith group.

We apologize if we seem intrusive. But we’re here because we fear that Fr. Ysrael Bien

–may hurt innocent kids or vulnerable adults in the Philippines or
–may have hurt innocent kids or vulnerable adults in Oregon.

We’d like your help in safeguarding others. We respectfully ask that you:

–seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered misdeeds or crimes by Fr. Bien,
–track down former church members and parish staff, and ask them about Fr. Bien, and
–urge anyone with information or suspicions (however small, old or seemingly insignificant) to call law enforcement.

(If more victims, witnesses or whistleblowers step forward, Fr. Bien may be charged with more crimes which will increase the chances that he’ll be extradited, convicted and imprisoned, making everyone safer and deterring similar crimes and cover ups in the future.)

We also hope you will ask Archbishop Sample to

–write his colleagues in the Philippines begging them to keep Fr. Bien away from kids and out of parishes
–aggressively urge anyone in Oregon who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups by Fr. Bien to contact law enforcement, and
–pledge to SNAP also contends that Sample should have yank the passport of the next priest who is accused or suspected of sexual misconduct, and
–disclose, to help law enforcement and reassure local Catholics, all church facilities where Fr. Bien spent time.

Thanks for reading this flier. We hope you’ll pass it on to others who care about safety and healing.

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IRELAND
Kildare Nationalist

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

New research suggests five women may have been buried in an unmarked mass grave, along with hundreds of children at the Tuam Mother and Baby home in County Galway.

Historian Catherine Corless, who uncovered evidence that nearly 800 children were buried on the grounds of the home, now believes that the five women are buried with them.

A report in today’s Irish Mail on Sunday says nine unmarried mothers died during their time at the home, but the historian has only been able to find burial certificates for four of them.

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IRELAND
The Irish Mail on Sunday

How five unmarried mothers were buried in an unmarked mass grave alongside 796 babies who went missing at Irish nuns’ Mother and Baby home of horrors

By Alison O’reilly For The Irish Mail On Sunday

The bodies of five women who died at a home for unmarried mothers are believed to be buried in an unmarked mass grave with nearly 800 missing children, according to new research.

The single mothers, aged between 24 and 42, were inmates in the controversial Tuam institution run by the Bon Secours nuns in County Galway, Ireland, from 1925 to 1961.

The home made headlines around the world in June 2014 when the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that no burial records existed for 796 children who died there – and prompted the establishment of a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes.

Reports show that the children suffered malnutrition and neglect, which caused the deaths of many, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.

Evidence gathered by local historian Catherine Corless strongly suggests the babies were buried in a mass grave behind the property.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

THE UK could be on the brink of one the most shocking child sex abuse exposés in history, according to Scotland’s most respected social work expert.

A five-year inquiry has been launched to uncover institutional paedophile activity and cover ups, and Professor Alexis Jay who is on the panel of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, has warned that the range of abuse is potentially enormous.

The investigation has been launched amid allegations of abuse rings in Westminster. Professor Jay said: “Regrettably, what I think we are seeing is the uncovering of a scale of abuse, across many institutions, which we have never anticipated.

“We don’t know yet exactly what we will find but it stretches back a long, long way.”

Scotland’s former chief social work adviser has previously issued damning indictments on the systematic failures which allowed for the abuse of at least 1400 children in Rotherham.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Press

By: Menachem Rephun
Published: August 23rd, 2015

One-hundred-and-seven rabbanim and dayanim have contributed their signatures to a kol koreh (public pronouncement) affirming the halachic obligation of all Jews to immediately report and notify secular law enforcement when they know of an instance of child abuse. The kol koreh is a historic watershed, due to its unprecedented, broad-based support from a large number of haredi rabbanim.

Some of the signers include Rabbi Nota Greenblatt, dayan, posek, and rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedola in Memphis; Dovid Goldwasser, rav of Bnei Yitzchok in Brooklyn; Rabbi Dov Aharon Brisman, rosh beis din of B’datz Philadephia; Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, co-chairman of Bais Din Agudath Yisroel in Kew Garden Hills; Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Toras Chaim; Rabbi Noach Isaac Oelbaum, rav of Nachlas Yitzchok in Kew Gardens Hills; Rabbi Kalman Epstein, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah in Queens; and Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst, dayan of Agudas Israel of Illinois, who was heavily involved in putting the kol koreh together.

As its foundation, the kol koreh refers to the Torah’s statement in Leviticus 19:16, admonishing Jews to “not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.” In the view of the kol koreh and the rabbanim who signed it, this “obligates every member of the community to do all in one’s power to prevent harm to others.” According to the document, “Every individual with firsthand knowledge or reasonable cause for suspicion of child abuse has a Torah obligation to promptly notify the proper civil authorities.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 24, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

A retired Catholic bishop has told a royal commission that the Vatican failed to show leadership on the issue of clerical sexual abuse and Cardinal George Pell had “destroyed” a unified Australian response to victims.

Geoffrey Robinson, former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney and an architect of the church’s response to abuse claims, told a royal commission no one wanted to tackle the issue of clerical sexual assault.

In a day of testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Bishop Robinson said sexual abuse had been covered up by the church and suspect priests were moved between parishes due to a failure of leadership within the church.

“The message the popes have been giving out have been very important and I think that some popes gave out the wrong message … and some archbishops too,” he said.
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The 78-year-old, who is undergoing chemotherapy for terminal cancer, told the royal commission he was shocked when he first heard allegations about Australian priests abusing children at a meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in the mid-1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Scottish Catholic Observer

The retired auxiliary bishop of Sydney has called on Pope Francis to show more leadership when dealing with historical child abuse within the Catholic Church.

Bishop Emeritus Geoffrey Robinson (above) is giving evidence today before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. He feels that the Vatican did not understand the scale of the problem and that St John Paul II ‘handled abuse poorly’ during his Papacy from 1978 to 2005.

The bishop told the commission of his ideal scenario where John Paul II had come to the microphone in St Peter’s Square in 1997 and told the crowd he had received reports of widespread sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious which had shocked him to the core.

“A real leadership like that from the Pope would have been marvellous, and from subsequent popes, now we still don’t have that kind of leadership, not even from Francis,” Bishop Robinson said. “It didn’t fit into his image of Church, and he couldn’t deal with it. Instead, what we got from him was silence. And so bishops were loyal to the silence.”

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Melissa Binder | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on August 23, 2015

It had taken years to get comfortable in the church.

Now this.

“I am sorry beyond words for the pain and the anguish that you have been suffering,” the archbishop said, scanning the silent crowd. “You need to hear that again: I am sorry.”

Heartache hung in the air. Peter Hainley watched the archbishop skeptically from the back row of pews, his wife and three sons by his side.

Hainley was abused by a priest at 12 years old, he said. Now his youngest son is 11 and the priest at St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood is wanted for allegedly placing a hidden camera in a church bathroom.

“I’m so disillusioned right now,” he said, shaking his head.

His wife, Leocadia Hainley, patted his chest. “It’s too much,” she said.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Emily E. Smith | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on August 23, 2015

The Rev. Alexander Sample, the archbishop of Portland, said Sunday he feels betrayed by a priest suspected of hiding a spy camera in a church bathroom and was too trusting in letting him live with a friend.

The priest left the country and returned to his home in the Philippines, avoiding arrest last week on charges of invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence and initiating a false report.

Apologizing to parishioners, Sample said he never anticipated 34-year-old Father Ysrael Bien’s deception and understands how they could feel deep hurt and confusion of their own.

“People should expect more from us,” he said.

The case began April 26, when a 15-year-old parishioner of St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood discovered the camera disguised as an electrical outlet affixed to a wall near a toilet at the church. He turned it over to Bien.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

[with video]

Jeff Watkins and Kirsten Clark, The Courier-Journal August 23, 2015

Louisville priest Stephen Pohl was still in a Florida jail this weekend after being arrested on a federal warrant for possession of child pornography Friday by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department.

The arrest, prompted by an alert from the Louisville FBI office, came only hours after Louisville archdiocese leaders held a news briefing in which they outlined results of an FBI investigation of the former pastor of St. Margaret Mary parish.

They said the investigation found child porn on Pohl’s computer and also found up to 200 digital photos of St. Margaret Mary schoolchildren. All of the students were clothed, but investigators deemed some of the photos inappropriate.

Pohl, 57, who had been pastor of the parish since 2008, was recently put on leave in connection with the investigation, and he informed the archdiocese Thursday that he was resigning as pastor of the church.

He was next found in Pinellas County near Tampa Bay, Fla., by county deputies. According to Channel 10 TV in Tampa Bay, the sheriff’s department had been alerted by the FBI that Pohl was in the area and was wanted on a federal warrant.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Telegraph

A FORMER Catholic bishop has told the child abuse royal commission nobody at high levels of the church wanted to know about the abuse.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, a critic of the church’s response to abuse, gave evidence at the commission on Monday.

He said a document dating to 2001 given to high level meetings of Catholic bishops showed the church held crimes against the doctrine as more important than crimes including pedophilia.

Bishop Robinson said the document may never have become public had it not been for the commission’s investigations.

He said it was a “completely foreign language” to him, and he was shocked by the concept that “crimes in relation to sacraments are a more serious crime than pedophilia”.

“What upsets God is when a child gets abused, that’s what makes God angry,” he said.

“The whole thing here is, it just got to me; how can I talk to people who think this way?”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell destroyed the unity of the Catholic church in Australia when he dropped a ‘bombshell’ by launching his own response to abuse victims, a bishop has told the child sex abuse royal commission.

Retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson said the establishment of the Melbourne Response by then Archbishop Pell in 1996, months before the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference launched the nation-wide Towards Healing, was totally unexpected.

Bishop Robinson was the architect of Towards Healing, which is used by all dioceses except Melbourne. He had steered long negotiations to develop the protocol, which was launched in 1997.

On Monday, he was critical of Dr Pell’s actions, which he said were taken without any reference to the bishops’ conference.

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AUSTRALIA
IOL

Sydney – A retired Catholic bishop told an inquiry into child sex abuse on Monday the Vatican and church leaders had failed to show leadership in dealing with abuse by the clergy, a report said.

The former auxiliary bishop of Sydney, Geoffrey Robinson, said sexual abuse by clergy had been covered up by the church and suspect priests were moved from one parish to another.

“In one way it’s cover up; in another way it’s more than a cover up,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported Robinson as saying to the inquiry.

“It’s solving the problem, it’s getting rid of it.”

Robinson, 78, has terminal cancer, but volunteered to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

Sam McBride
sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk
Monday 24 August 2015

Declassified Government files on Kincora reveal that there was a consistent consensus among senior civil servants that the scandal should be investigated by the most thorough form of public inquiry – yet that did not happen.

Time and time again, different high-ranking officials gave the view that an inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 was unavoidable given the level of concern about allegations that boys had been abused over 20 years at Kincora by senior public figures and that their crimes had been covered up.

In a 30 March 1982 meeting at Stormont Castle to discuss the issue, a detailed minute records: “Given the importance of securing public confidence in the inquiry, it was agreed that [four words underlined] in the absence of powerful arguments to the contrary it would have to be held under the authority of the 1921 Act.”

The Hughes Inquiry – eventually set up as a much weaker and more limited form of inquiry – would ultimately say that there was no evidence of either a homosexual vice ring based at Kincora or of a cover-up by the authorities.

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WALES
South Wales Argus

THERE are no records of a complaint made to the former Gwent County Council about a Newport head teacher who allegedly abused a number of his pupils, according to Gwent Archives.

The Argus had previously reported the accounts of two former Malpas Church in Wales school pupils, who have both alleged that Jon Styler carried out a series of sexual assaults on boys at the school in the 1970s.

Styler, who lived alone at Queens Hill Crescent, Newport, committed suicide while on police bail in 2007.

He had been arrested on suspicion of similar offences, allegedly committed 27 years earlier.

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ALABAMA
WVTM

By Meg Pace

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —Birmingham police are investigating the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl at a local church.

A man entered the Greater Temple Missionary Baptist Church around 11:45 Sunday morning.

Once inside, the suspect entered a ladies restroom. Police said that’s when the suspect encountered a 14-year-old girl and sexually abused her by touching her private areas.

Church members told WVTM 13 News that no one at the church recognized the suspect. They said he ran out of the building after the assault.

“Why would you mess with a child?” one church member, who asked not to be identified, said.

“You’re supposed to be safe in church,” said another church member.

Detectives questioned a person of interest in the case. Police said the person of interest was released to another law enforcement agency on an unrelated outstanding felony warrant.

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