ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
St. Catharine’s Standard

By Don Fraser, QMI Agency
Sunday, August 23, 2015

Bethany Community Church released a Sunday video statement in response to sex charges laid against Christopher Witte.

Witte, 31, a volunteer church youth program coordinator, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and three counts of invitation to sexual touching.

The sexual assault unit of the Niagara Regional Police launched an investigation earlier this month into allegations of historical sexual abuse of young boys at the St. Catharines church.

None of these allegations has been proven in court.

“This incident has had an impact on all of our church families,” said board chair Liz Froese, reading from a statement in the video. “We want to extend our prayers, and with God’s grace we are certain a sense of peace and justice will prevail.”

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AUSRALIA
SBS

AAP

Pope Francis has not yet shown the type of leadership needed to deal with child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, a bishop has told a royal commission.

In a withering appraisal of how the church shrouds itself in secrecy when it comes to confronting its own faults, retired bishop Geoffrey Robinson said it had still not found the leadership it needed to tackle child sex abuse effectively.

The former auxiliary bishop of Sydney has for decades called for profound changes to deal with the church-wide blight.

On Monday he told the sex abuse royal commission those changes could mean examining the role of celibacy, putting women on the same footing as men and even re-visiting the misapplied notion of infallibility.

He said these suggestions would be viewed as heretical by most other bishops.

The church moved slowly, he said, and remarked that a 1922 papal instruction imposing a code of silence around child sex abuse crimes was so secret not even all bishops knew of it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Rob Parsons
Monday 24 August 2015

It was a 153-page report that sent shockwaves through a South Yorkshire town and the nation at large, sparking a raft of senior resignations and months of turmoil in local child protection services at all levels.

And a year on from the bombshell Alexis Jay report which laid bare the scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner says he is still at a loss to understand why police in the town turned away from hundreds of young victims.

Dr Alan Billings was elected last year as a direct result of last August’s Jay Report, after his predecessor Shaun Wright was forced to resign in its wake.

The retired Anglican priest and former deputy leader of Sheffield city council recalled how the scale of the offending in Rotherham revealed “seemed scarcely believable”.

He said everyone – public and police – first had to come to terms with the reality of what Professor Jay uncovered.

“We had to first of all accept that what Professor Jay had turned up was true, that this was the reality,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Bridie Jabour
@bkjabour
Sunday 23 August 2015

Cardinal George Pell “destroyed the unity” of the Catholic church’s response to child sex abuse, an Australian bishop has told the royal commission.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who played a key role in developing the Australian church’s response to child sex abuse, also said Pope Francis was yet to show strong leadership on the issue and one of his predecessors, John Paul II, responded “poorly” to revelations of child abuse.

Robinson worked with other bishops on an Australia-wide clergy response to abuse, Towards Healing, from 1994. When Towards Healing was close to finalisation in 1996, Pell created the Melbourne Response, taking the country’s largest dioscese out of a united response.

Robinson said Pell, then the archbishop of Melbourne, created the rival program because he wanted to be seen as a leader on abuse.

“What he came up with has a lot to recommend it, but I had very big problems with it too,” Robinson told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse in Sydney on Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AUGUST 24, 2015

Gina Rushton
Journalist
Sydney

A retired Catholic bishop has slammed Cardinal George Pell and the Vatican for impeding the church’s ability to adopt a “profound and enduring” approach to victims abused by clergy.

“Some popes gave out the wrong message,” outspoken Bishop Geoffrey Robinson told the child abuse royal commission in Sydney. Oh, and some archbishops.”

In the early 1990s, Pope John Paul II should have pledged there was “no place” for sex abusers in the church but instead “silence”was the default response, Bishop Robinson said.

“It didn’t fit into (John Paul’s) image of the church,” he said. “Real leadership like that from the Pope would have been marvellous and from subsequent popes … we still haven’t had that kind of leadership, not even from (Pope) Francis.”

The former Sydney auxiliary bishop said Cardinal Pell undermined unanimity across the clergy by dropping a “bombshell” in 1996 and announcing Melbourne would release its own protocol for responding to complaints despite having participated in a decade of work for a comprehensive countrywide approach.

“(Pell) would later claim that this meant he was the first person in Australia to have such a protocol,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Paul Donoughue

Former pope John Paul II handled sex abuse claims within the church “poorly” because he simply could not grasp the scale of the problem, a retired senior Bishop in Sydney says.

Geoffrey Robinson, a key player in the church’s response to child sexual abuse by members of the clergy between 1994 and 2003, is giving evidence today before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

Bishop Robinson said he felt the Vatican was far behind in its understanding of the problem worldwide, and that John Paul II — the Pontiff from 1978 to 2005 — showed little leadership on the issue.

“If I am honest, he handled abuse poorly,” Bishop Robinson told the inquiry.

“It didn’t fit into his image of church, and he couldn’t deal with it.”

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

When Catholic bishop Geoffrey Robinson told an international conference he wasn’t happy with the level of support Rome was offering the Australian Church on child sexual abuse he was reprimanded by the Pope’s man in Canberra.

The outspoken former Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney is giving evidence about that “condemnatory” 1996 correspondence with the then papal nuncio and about other run-ins with the hierarchy and its response to abuse at a royal commission in Sydney.

Gail Furness, SC, counsel advising the commission, said the retired bishop, a canon lawyer, would give evidence about how the church handled abuse allegations over four decades.

She said the Catholic Church has operated under a papal instruction of the strictest secrecy when it came to sexual abuse by clergy which has been renewed and expanded by many popes and was still in place.

In his evidence Bishop Robinson, who is terminally ill, said the church’s response to sex abuse allegations over the years was partly to protect reputation and partly to protect fellow priests.

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OREGON
KGW

[with video]

SHERWOOD, Ore. — A Portland archbishop led the first Sunday mass at a Sherwood church since an arrest warrant was issued for the church’s priest.

The warrant was issued for Father Ysrael Bien, who was accused of placing a hidden camera in a bathroom at St. Francis Church.

Bien is now in his native Philippines and police are trying to track him down.

Archbishop Alexander Sample apologized to the congregation, adding he knows this is a difficult time.

“I know your faith has been shaken by recent events,” Sample said. “I understand. I am sorry beyond words for the pain and anguish you have been suffering.”

A group called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) handed out pamphlets to churchgoers after mass.

The group wants all victims and witnesses to come forward, and for the archbishop to disclose all churches where Father Bien spent time.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A former NSW priest was shifted out of the priesthood and the state after complaints he was grabbing boys by the genitals and squeezing, a retired Bishop has told the child abuse royal commission.

Geoffrey Robinson, a key player in the church’s response to child sexual abuse by members of the clergy between 1994 and 2003, is giving evidence today before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

Bishop Robinson said that shortly after he became a priest in the 1960s in Croydon, he was told of the actions of the fellow priest, referred to by the inquiry as TS.

“This priest was about three years senior to myself,” Bishop Robinson said.

“He was not the brightest student in the [seminary], but he was probably the strongest.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

[with live stream]

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney on Monday 24 August 2015.

The hearing will start at 10:00am AEST.

The public hearing will hear the evidence of retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson regarding the history and development of the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse prior to the introduction of Towards Healing.

Location
Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney.

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

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to hear the evidence of retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson regarding:

1. The history and development of the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse prior to the introduction of Towards Healing.

2. His membership of the College of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

3. The operation of Encompass Australasia.

4. His discussions with senior Vatican officials.

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IRELAND
Tony Flannery

About two months ago I got an invitation from the Pastoral Council of the parish of Killeagh in Cloyne diocese to come and give the keynote talk at a weekend parish fest they were organising for late September. The request was that I would speak on the subject of where the voice of the Spirit could be heard in today’s Church. I was happy to accept the invitation.

When notice of this talk first went out, a few weeks ago, the bishop of Cloyne, William Creanexpressed concern. He called the parish priest, Tim Hazelwood, to come to meet him. He made it clear that he was not happy that I was coming, saying he had been in touch with the RedemptoristProvincial to ascertain my ‘status’, and was informed that I was forbidden to minister publicly as a priest. The parish priest brought the bishop’s concern back to the pastoral council. They were unwilling to cancel the invitation, but they compromised by saying that the talk would take place, not in the church, but in the community hall.

Still the bishop was unhappy, and he made further contact with the Redemptorist Provincial. It seems to me that what he possibly wanted was that the Provincial would order me not to go to Killeagh. The Provincial of the Redemptorists did not give me any direction in respect of the talk in Killeagh.

Further developments took place early this past week, when the bishop came to Killeagh and met the subcommittee of the pastoral council who were delegated to organise the weekend festival. At that meeting he gave orders that the invitation be cancelled. I got a phone call from the parish priest that evening to tell me that the talk would no longer take place.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fiona Gartland

A move by Bishop of Cloyne William Crean to prevent outspoken priest Fr Tony Flannery from giving a talk in his diocese was “surprising and depressing”, the priest has said.

In a statement issued on his website on Sunday, Fr Flannery said since his suspension from ministry in 2012, he has given numerous talks in Ireland, England and the US.

“With one exception in the US, there had been no problem, and my talks mainly consisted of highlighting the message of Pope Francis,” he said.

“To find an Irish bishop extending the notion of ‘silencing’ to a talk in a community hall is very disappointing.”

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UNTIED STATES
Daily Kos

by Betty Clermont

Two and a half years after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s elevation as head of the Church, the dust has settled. He has packed the Vatican with vulture capitalists and those who support them. Three cardinals have emerged as the most powerful in this papacy; all have close ties to Opus Dei. Two now control Vatican finance.

Except for its clergy, Opus Dei is a secret society of global financiers, bankers, businessmen, politicians and their supporters. Still the most exhaustively researched book written about “The Work”€ as it is referred to by its members, Their Kingdom Come (1997, 2006) by Robert Hutchison, a Canadian financial journalist, traces the growth of Opus Dei financial power “by all available means”€ – deception, dirty tricks, even “€œphysical muscle.€” “What gives Opus Dei its importance is the influence it wields and also that it deploys its immense financial resources. Opus Dei knows very well that money rules the world,” Javier Sainz Moreno, professor of Law at Madrid University, told Hutchison. One of their goals was to control the Vatican’s wealth, now closer than ever to being realized.

Investigative journalist, Martin A. Lee, wrote in 1983: “Opus Dei has emerged internationally as one of the most powerful and politically committed of the Catholic lay groups. Detractors have likened the organization to a ‘€˜saintly Mafia’€™ for its members control a large number of banks and financial institutions … The tentacles of Octopus Dei, as it is sometimes called, stretch all the way to the U.S. … Opus Dei powerbrokers have gained enormous influence inside the Vatican since they helped install the current pope.” (i.e Pope John Paul II)

The first action Bergoglio took as pope was to name a Council of Cardinals.

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, named coordinator of the group, has become “€œvirtually a €˜vice pope.” Rodriguez is “€œthe leader of Opus Dei”€ in Honduras which “participated actively in the 2009 coup against the constitutional [and progressive] president, Manuel Zelaya … Active members of this clan are making intromissions in Honduran national politics.”€

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa “€œforged ties with then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio on the Latin American Episcopal Council in the decade before the Buenos Aires, Argentina, prelate became pope … When Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998, on orders of a magistrate judge in Madrid investigating atrocities against Spanish citizens during the Chilean dictatorship, Errazuriz denounced the move. He later criticized human rights lawsuits in Chile against Pinochet and other officials of the former regime, saying, ‘€˜Excessive justice could be detrimental to reconciliation and social peace.’€™” Errazuriz linked Chile’s economic success with reforms carried out during former General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973 -1990). Martin A. Lee noted the close ties between Opus Dei and the Pinochet regime. …

The pope later appointed Pell as “tsar”€ over Vatican finance. (Murdoch tweeted: “€œPope Francis appoints brilliant Cardinal Pell from Sydney to be no.3 power in Vatican. Australia will miss him but world will benefit.”)

Pell’s only previous financial expertise was cheating clerical sex abuse victims out of an adequate compensation known as his “Melbourne response”€ and “€œEllis defense” where Pell “€œinstructed his lawyers to crush this victim.”€ Pell brought his Sydney business manager, Danny Casey, “who is known to have close ties to Opus Dei,”€ to the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 23, 2015

Jill Stark

Children in care are suffering significantly higher rates of mental health problems than their peers and are far more likely to smoke, drink and abuse drugs, a damning new report has revealed.

They are also five times more likely to be admitted to hospital than children living with their own families and are at greater risk of dropping out of school.

The figures, to be released by Anglicare Victoria this week, paint a bleak future for children in Victoria’s residential care system, who are lagging well behind on a range of developmental, educational and social milestones.

Forty-one per cent show high levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties compared to 18 per cent in the broader community.

Only 15 per cent of the 353 children surveyed have contact with their siblings and just 31 per cent have regular contact with friends, compared to 54 per cent in the broader community.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

[with video]

By Anna-Lysa Gayle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Just hours after the Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville spelled out the allegations against the former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish Friday, Stephen Pohl was apprehended in Florida.

Pohl was arrested Friday night in Pinellas County, Florida, and charged with possession of child pornography.

According to a WLKY affiliate in St. Petersburg, Florida, Pohl’s sister maintains a home in Pinellas County.

Father Mark Spalding, appointed the temporary administrator at St. Margaret Mary, led mass Saturday.

Laurie Roberton said Spalding tried to uplift parishioners, who have been shaken by the news.

“Our priest is not my faith, our God is my faith, and that was the message,” she said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By JEREMY BLACKMAN
Monitor staff
Saturday, August 22, 2015

It began with a headline moving across the wire last weekend: “Rape case points to sordid tradition at elite prep school.”

“When his trial begins Monday, prosecutors are expected to call current and former students to testify about the sexual culture at one of the country’s most selective boarding schools,” Associated Press reporter Lynne Tuohy wrote in her article.

The case, of course, was that of Owen Labrie, St. Paul’s School graduate accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl last year, as part of an annual ritual among seniors to have sexual contact with younger students. Labrie’s arrest last July drew regional attention, and local news outlets have been covering the claims against him – and those involving the school’s response – ever since.

But the world had not yet taken note.

Then, kaboom. The Washington Post ran Tuohy’s piece last Sunday. By Monday, CNN was following with its own coverage, and the New York Times and NBC had each sent correspondents to Concord. By Tuesday morning, the rickety old courthouse downtown was swarming with journalists and camera crews, poised for opening arguments.

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SCOTLAND
The Observer

Catherine Deveney
Sunday 23 August 2015

They process slowly to the altar, Scotland’s Catholic bishops, their elaborate robes and red zucchettos symbols of their power and status. Around them, the light, honey-coloured stone arches of St Andrew’s cathedral in Glasgow soar, Italian-style embellishment spiralling up the slender columns in Madonna-blue paint and gold leaf.

On one side of me, Peter Howson’s depiction of the Scottish martyr, St John Ogilvie, seems luminous, glowing gold amid black, a study of unbowed resignation. To the other side, archbishop Philip Tartaglia is nervously welcoming publication of the McLellan report into abuse in the Scottish Catholic church, apologising to victims in a carefully worded statement. As he talks I am struck – not for the first time since the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien two years ago – by the way opulence sits cheek by jowl with ugliness inside the Catholic church.

“The bishops of Scotland are shamed and pained for what you have suffered,” says Tartaglia. “We say sorry. We ask for forgiveness. We apologise to those who have found church reaction slow, unsympathetic or uncaring and we reach out to them as we take up the recommendations of the McLellan Commission.”

Only hours earlier, I had been on the east coast, in Edinburgh, listening as Dr Andrew McLellan, a minister and former moderator of the Church of Scotland, delivered what he referred to as, “the most important report of my life”. His words were emotional, impassioned, gathering momentum until they became a kind of hymn to justice. He talked of the “dark past” of the church, of the enormous damage it had caused victims, of the need for the church to act “from the heart”. Crucially, he had grasped not just events but a culture, a culture of cover-up in which the church said one thing and did another. McLellan had promised a report that was neither timid nor deferential. He delivered it.

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CANADA
CJAD

The 111 victims of sexual assault at the hands of the Redemptorist Fathers Seminary Saint-Alphonse in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré have finally received nearly $14 million in compensation.

Former students who had been sexually assaulted by nine priests while they attended the Seminary between 1960 and 1987 had until April 17 to file their claim.

A five-year legal battle and trial ended Nov. 20, 2014, when the Redemptorists finally deposited $20 million in an account to compensate victims. It was then the largest sum ever paid in a resort of its kind in Quebec.

After attorney fees and other costs, victims divided up the remaining $14 million.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

Updated August 22, 2015

On August 16, 2015, the New York Times published the news “ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape” citing the rape by an Islamic State fighter on a Yazidi 12 year old girl. Similar MSM journalists quickly mimicked the NYT reportage stating clearly the two words “ISIS and rape” in their headlines. Cases in point: “Systematic rape, slavery: The horrifying conundrum of ISIS”. “How Isis has established a bureaucracy of rape”, (see more in news compilation below). On the same day, on the other side of the globe, in far away Down Under Australia – the Sydney Morning Herald published the news with the heading –– “Australian diplomat’s son in Tokyo St Mary’s child sexual abuse story”.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Aug. 22, 2015

Lyons — They walked, mother and son, along a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.

Angie Roscioli had come with other Catholic women for a spiritual retreat led by the Rev. Domenic Roscioli on the infinite nature of God’s love. During a lull, they broke away, just the two of them, to walk and talk for a while.

To this day, Angie cannot say why she chose that moment to tell him. Maybe, she says, the prayers of the day spoke to her. Or the lesson he was trying to impart: Nothing they could do, he told them, no experience in their lives could diminish God’s love for them.

Whatever the reason, on that fall day 37 years ago, Angie told her son she had been sexually assaulted as a little girl by her parish priest.

“I can’t remember what triggered me to tell him,” she says, sitting at her kitchen table, wiping the tears from her blue eyes. “But somehow, I knew it was time.”

Her son stood for a while in silence, devastated. Then, he wrapped his arms around her.

“When I asked her why she didn’t tell me before I was ordained, she said she didn’t want to stand in the way if God wanted me to be a priest,” says Domenic Roscioli, who is nationally known for his work with Catholic women and with children who have cancer.

“That kind of faith just floored me,” he says. “I thought, ‘How can someone love God that much?’ I don’t know ifIcould love God that much.”

A voice for her generation

At 91, Angie Roscioli is thought to be the oldest of the estimated 570 men and women who filed claims in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy.

She learned Saturday that she is among the survivors to be compensated in the $21 million settlement that will be part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan the church is scheduled to file on Monday. …

“I actually think the bankruptcy has caused more pain — like pouring salt in the wounds,” says Domenic Roscioli, who fills in at parishes around the 10-county archdiocese and serves as spiritual director for its Council of Catholic Women.

“You don’t issue a call for healing and then pick them off … like a sniper. And that’s what the lawyers have been doing.

“It was like a false invitation to mercy.”

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

A Kentucky priest was arrested Friday night in Indian Rocks Beach on a charge of possession of child pornography.

According to WTSP 10News, Stephen Pohl is under investigation by the FBI after the Archdiocese of Louisville found child pornography on his computer. He is accused of taking inappropriate photos of children.

Pohl, 57, resigned from St. Margaret Mary parish in Kentucky on Thursday. Pinellas sheriff’s deputies received a tip that he was in Indian Rocks Beach and arrested him Friday at 313 Hidden Harbour Drive, WTSP 10News reported.

Pohl was living in a rectory on the same grounds as the St. Margaret Mary campus, where more than 700 children attend school, according to WDRB-TV in Louisville.

He was booked into the Pinellas County jail, where he remained Saturday.

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FLORIDA
WTSP

Marcus A Grayson
August 22, 2015

A national manhunt ends here in the Bay Area. Stephen Pohl was a Catholic Priest from Louisville Kentucky but the FBI is also calling him a child pornographer.

Fifty-six-year-old Pohl was arrested by the FBI and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office late yesterday. He’s facing federal charges of being in possession of child pornography on his computer.

The sign on the door reads ‘gone to the beach’, but that is not true for Stephen Pohl. He is in the Pinellas County Jail facing federal charges of child pornography. Many neighbors saw the police activity yesterday, “I saw a few undercover cars that definitely [did] not fit in. It was something out of a movie” saying Lauren Fechtmann. Many in here say they are shocked this priest lived a double life.

“It makes me feel very uncomfortable to think we might have had a child pornographer living among us”, saying Rudy Croce a Neighbor

According to Karen Tancredi, the sister of Pohl, they allowed their brother, Stephen Pohl to stay at their home for the summer while they are in Indiana.

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Group to leaflet at Catholic church
They challenge archbishop on accused cleric
Priest fled the US during police investigation
SNAP: “Church officials must do aggressive outreach”
Staff must also warn families abroad about wrongdoer, victims say

What:
As parishioners leave mass with Portland’s archbishop, two leaders of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims will hand out fliers. The leaflets urge church goers to

–seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered misdeeds or crimes by a priest fleeing the law, and
–question former church members about the cleric and urge them to call law enforcement.

The fliers also urge Portland Catholic officials to

–use church resources to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered the cleric’s alleged crimes,
–write their Philippine colleagues and urge them to keep the priest away from children, and
—promise that the next time a priest, nun, seminarian, brother or other church employee is accused of or suspected of sexual misdeeds, church supervisors will insist that his or her passport be turned over to the archbishop, to prevent the accused from fleeing overseas.

When:
Sunday, Aug. 22 at 11:00 a.m.

Where:
Outside St. Francis Catholic Church, 15651 SW Oregon St. in Sherwood, OR (503-625-6185)

Who:
Two members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Portland woman who is the organization’s Oregon director

Why:
This weekend, Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample will be at St. Francis, talking about Fr. Ysrael Bien who has fled the US and returned to the Philippines. Sherwood police have issued an arrest warrant for Fr. Bien in connection with a hidden camera he apparently bought and installed in a parish bathroom.

For the safety of parishioners, SNAP wants Sample to write his colleagues in the Philippines begging them to keep Fr. Bien away from kids and out of parishes.

The group also wants Sample to “aggressively urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups by Fr. Bien to contact law enforcement.” If more victims, witnesses or whistleblowers step forward, SNAP says, Fr. Bien may be charged with more crimes which will increase the chances that he’ll be extradited, convicted and imprisoned, which makes everyone safer and deters similar crimes and cover ups in the future.

SNAP also contends that Sample should have yanked Fr. Bien’s passport when this crime was reported. Or Sample should have acted decisively when it was clear that Fr. Bien lied to parishioners, by telling them he had contacted police when in fact he had not.

Some church members or staff who may have seen, suspected or suffered” crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Bien may have quit the parish in frustration or fear, SNAP says. So the organization is appealing to church-goers to contact former members or employees and ask them to share any information or suspicions they may have with law enforcement.

Finally, to help law enforcement and reassure local Catholics, the group wants Sample to disclose all church facilities where Fr. Bien spent time.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Philippa McDonald

A Sydney Catholic Bishop who is dying of cancer and has been as advocate for a more compassionate approach by the church to victims of clergy abuse is to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday.

“I have cancer and it’s terminal. It’ll be better they take the evidence now than wait for later,” retired bishop Geoffrey Robinson told the ABC.

Bishop Robinson was a key player in the response of the Catholic Church to child sexual abuse by members of the clergy between 1994 and 2003.

“I’ll be telling the royal commission what I know of the story of the Catholic Church’s response, the good and the bad,” he said.

Bishop Robinson was a member and chairman of the Bishops’ National Committee for Professional Standards, part of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, which dealt with complaints of sexual abuse.

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ITALY
Bloomberg

John Follain
Flavia Rotondi
August 22, 2015

The Vatican’s financial czar has called for more honesty and transparency in the way the church handles its wealth, warning that it might be targeted “for financial irregularities” in the near future.

Cardinal George Pell, addressing a Catholic conference in Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, said on Saturday that modern accounting methods being adopted by the Vatican were “probably the best way of ensuring honesty and efficiency.”

The Australian Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, said reforms to increase transparency currently under way “would be impossible” without Pope Francis.

“Now is the time to have or place our affairs in order and arranged in such a way that this can be demonstrated to the outside world,” Pell said. “The next wave of attacks on the church could be for financial irregularities.”

Pell quoted an unidentified European princess as once telling him “that some looked on the Vatican as being like an old noble family that was going bankrupt, losing all its money. They expected it to be incompetent, extravagant and easy pickings for thieves. We are all working hard in the Holy See, under the leadership of Pope Francis, to change this image.”

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MEXICO
Sipse

[MEXICO, DF The Legionaries of Christ acknowledged that an accusation of sexual abuse of two minors by priest Fernando Cutanda is credible. This follows an independent investigation.]

MÉXICO, D.F.- Los Legionarios de Cristo reconocieron que el sacerdote Fernando Cutanda, 35 años después de haber sido acusado, abusó sexualmente de dos menores, por lo que denunciaron al ex rector del seminario menor en New Hampshire, Estados Unidos, ante las autoridades locales.

En una carta fechada el 6 agosto y firmada por el padre John Connor, director territorial de la Legión de Cristo en EU, se da a conocer el resultado de una investigación privada que mandó a hacer la congregación.

Recuperar confianza

Al recordar que la misión de la orden es contribuir a la evangelización de los niños, Connor menciona sentir orgullo de los esfuerzos que hacen los Legionarios para que se tenga plena confianza en su trabajo.

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UNITED STATES
Jerusalem Post

More than 100 prominent haredi rabbis and Jewish educators from across the United States have signed a public declaration stating that it is an obligation of Jewish law on all Jews to immediately report and notify law enforcement officials when a reasonable suspicion of child abuse exists.

The declaration was described as “a historic watershed” for its broad-based support from a large number of haredi rabbis from major Jewish communities in the US.

The letter addresses the need to prevent and eradicate the epidemic of child abuse adversely affecting the Jewish community.

“We, the undersigned, affirm that any individual with firsthand knowledge or reasonable basis to suspect child abuse has a religious obligation to promptly notify the secular law enforcement of that information,” the declaration reads. “These individuals have the experience, expertise and training to thoroughly and responsibly investigate the matter. Furthermore, those deemed “mandated reporters” under secular law must obey their State’s reporting requirements.”

The rabbis said in their declaration that “lives can be ruined or ended by unreported child abuse, as we are too often tragically reminded” and cited the Biblical injunction “Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed,” as the basis for reporting suspected cases of child abuse.

Among the signatories are Rabbi Nota Greenblatt, the head of the rabbinical court in Memphis, Tenn., Rabbi Dov Aharon Brisman, head of the rabbinical court in Philadelphia, Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, co-chairman of the rabbinical court of the Agudath Yisroel organization and Rabbi Yechiel Perr, Dean of the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway/Derech Ayson Rabbinical Seminary

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INDIANA
Daily Mail (UK)

By CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The pastor of a Catholic parish has stepped down after being seen walking around naked in an accompanying school.

Father Bill O’Toole, 45, has taken a leave of absence from his position as the head of St Casimir Catholic School, which enrolls preschoolers through middle schoolers in the Chicago suburb of Hammond, Indiana.

Police were called on the priest after he was spotted through a window walking alone and naked through the school around 5pm on August 9, a Sunday.

‘School officials … were already on scene and had knowledge of the situation,’ police told the NWI Times.

Debbie Bosak, a spokeswoman for the diocese of Gary, Indiana, said that there were no children present.

A secretary was in the school but not aware that O’Toole was walking around.

St Casimir had been offering summer school during the two weeks before and after the incident.

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CANADA
CTV

The 111 victims of the Redemptorist Order of the Saint-Alphonse Seminary in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré have finally received nearly $14 million in compensation.

Former students who were sexually assaulted by the nine priests named in the case had until April 17 to file their claim.

After a five-year battle and a long trial, the Redemptorists finally deposited $20 million into an account to compensate victims, the largest sum of ever paid in a restitution case of this kind in Quebec.
After attorney fees and other expenses, victims of the Redemptorist priests will share nearly $14 million.

Quebec Superior Court ruled back in July 2014 that the Redemptorist Order will have to pay at least $75,000 in damages to each victim who attended the Saint-Alphonse Seminary between 1960 and 1987.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Jeff Watkins
August 22, 2015

Father Stephen Pohl, who resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary church this week after a child porn investigation, was arrested Friday in Pinellas County and jailed for possession of child pornography.

An ongoing FBI investigation has found that Pohl had child porn on his computer as well as up to 200 photos of St. Margaret Mary school children, officials said. All of the students were clothed, but investigators deemed some of the photos inappropriate. Investigators also told the archdiocese that Pohl had downloaded child porn on his personal computer.

During a news briefing hours before the arrest, Chancellor Brian Reynolds said the FBI cyber crimes investigation — prompted after a child told a family member about a photo that was taken that “bothered the child” — is still ongoing and could take months. The information the archdiocese shared Friday was from an interim investigation report officials received a day earlier.

Pohl, 57, who had been pastor of the parish at 7813 Shelbyville Road since 2008 and an ordained priest since 1985, was put on leave last week. On Thursday night, after Pohl resigned, the archdiocese shared the preliminary findings with an upset school staff and parents, offering counselors and information.

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KENTUCKY
News 14

By Sarah Eisenmenger

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A Roman Catholic priest who resigned as pastor of his Lyndon parish has been arrested in Florida.

Father Stephen Pohl was booked into custody in the Pinellas County Jail, located in Largo, Florida at 8:42 p.m. Friday.

Earlier Friday, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and Chancellor Dr. Brian Reynolds confirmed Pohl had submitted his resignation Thursday, eight days after the Archdiocese of Louisville placed him on leave following admissions that the FBI cyber-crimes task force was investigating whether he possessed child pornography.

The FBI has declined comment, but Reynolds said investigators have confirmed that a search of Pohl’s personal computers and data devices revealed pornographic pictures and photographs of students at St. Margaret Mary School were taken on school grounds.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Catholic Church bishop Ronald Mulkearns likely to avoid facing child sex abuse royal commission because of ill health

THE man who was in charge of the Catholic Church in Ballarat while paedophiles preyed on young children is likely to escape being forced to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Former bishop Ronald Mulkearns has been admitted to Ballarat’s St John of God hospital, where he on Saturday was in intensive care.

His ill health casts doubt over whether the commission will force him to give evidence.

The 84-year-old has been accused of shuffling offending priests to different parishes, but has previously maintained a stony silence when questioned.

Father Mulkearns finally spoke publicly last month after being ordered to give evidence over the alleged offending of a former priest. But he gave little away and said he could not remember most events.

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FLORIDA/KENTUCKY
WLKY

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. —Former St. Margaret Mary pastor Stephen Pohl was arrested Friday evening in Florida.

According to arrest documents, Pohl was booked into jail in Pinellas County just before 9 p.m. Friday on a charge of possession of child pornography.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said he learned of the investigation into Pohl on Aug. 12 and placed Pohl on administrative leave.

Kurtz said he accepted Pohl’s resignation on Thursday.

According to the Archdiocese of Louisville, federal investigators said child pornography was found on electronic devices belonging to Pohl.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE CHILEAN GOVERNMENT has decided to deport an Irish priest who was convicted last year of sexually abusing a young girl, the interior ministry said.

The Irish-born priest, John O’Reilly, was sentenced to four years’ probation in November for repeatedly molesting the girl from the time she was five.

The abuse took place from 2010 to 2012 at an exclusive school where O’Reilly was the spiritual advisor at the time.

The interior ministry said it was revoking O’Reilly’s permanent residency and that he would have to leave the country after completing his sentence in 2018.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

[with video]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A Louisville priest has been arrested on child porn charges in Florida.

Officials with the Pinellas County, Florida Sheriff’s Office tell WDRB that Father Stephen Pohl was arrested Friday night near Tampa.

Pohl is charged with possession of child pornography.

The Louisville Archdiocese also released new information about Pohl, who was under investigation relating to the child pornography allegations.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, church leaders told reporters that Pohl, former pastor of St. Margaret Mary parish, submitted his resignation Thursday afternoon.

Church leaders said they first learned of the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit investigation of Father Pohl on Aug. 12. The Archdiocese told reporters that the investigation began after a child told their parents about a picture that was taken. The parents obtained a copy of the picture, reviewed it, and immediately contacted authorities.

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FLORIDA/KENTUCKY
WTSP

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A Louisville, Kentucky priest under investigation by the FBI for child pornography was arrested in Pinellas County, Fla. Friday night.

Father Stephen Pohl resigned from his pastor position at St. Margaret Mary Parish on Aug. 20, following the FBI investigation.

It is unknown why Pohl was in Florida.

Pohl was arrested on one count of child pornography.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune AUGUST 21, 2015

The first court hearing in Ramsey County’s criminal case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been postponed to Oct. 29.

Ramsey County District Judge Teresa Warner issued the order Friday to reschedule next week’s hearing. It’s the third time the hearing has been postponed since the original June 24 court date.

In June, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi charged the archdiocese with “failure to protect children,” stemming from its lack of oversight of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer.

Wehmeyer was found guilty of sexually abusing two boys in 2010, at times plying them with alcohol and showing them pornography. Some of the incidents occurred in a trailer he parked near the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, where he was pastor.

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INDIANA
Chicago Tribune

The Rev. William F. O’Toole has stepped down from his post as pastor of St. Casimir and All Saints Catholic churches in Hammond after he was spotted walking naked through St. Casimir Catholic School on Aug. 9, according to the Diocese of Gary.

In a statement, diocese spokesperson Debbie Bosak said Bishop Donald Hying requested that O’Toole take a leave of absence and undergo a psychological evaluation in accordance with diocesan policies.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Aug. 9, a caller contacted Hammond Police after seeing O’Toole, 45, through a window at the school, located at 4329 Cameron Ave., in a “state of undress.” When officers arrived, O’Toole was found and school officials from the Diocese of Gary were already on the scene and aware of the situation, according to Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda.

Hoyda said that police allowed O’Toole to get dressed and did not arrest him. Hammond Police are still investigating the situation, and upon the investigation’s completion, it will be sent to the Lake County Prosecutor’s office for further review.

Police did not identify the man, but the Diocese of Gary did. Bosak said a secretary was the only other person present at the school at the time, but she didn’t know that O’Toole was there.

O’Toole has apologized and said his actions showed a regrettable lack of judgment, Bosak said.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The Bishop of Cork and Ross has backed the calls of campaigners to make the vandalised mass grave of Magdalene women at Sunday’s Well accessible to the public.

Bishop John Buckley’s support comes following his call for the exhumation of the remains of Little Nellie — the “unofficial patron saint” of Cork — so people can pray at her grave.

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and a number of Magdalene survivors had expressed concern that there was no mention of the mass grave on the site of the former Magdalene Laundry when making his call.

However, after a query from the Irish Examiner, Bishop Buckley said he fully supported calls for the grave to be made accessible.

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CHILE
Los Tiempos

[Priest John O’Reilly, accused of abusing a minor in Chile, has been deported back to his native Ireland.]

Santiago de Chile |

El Gobierno de Chile expulsó del país al cura irlandés John O’Reilly, exlíder local de la orden de los Legionarios de Cristo, quien cumple una condena de cuatro años en libertad vigilada por abuso sexual contra una menor.

“Revóquese el permiso de permanencia definitiva en el país al extranjero John Joseph O’Reilly de nacionalidad irlandesa ( ) deberá hacer abandono del país en un plazo de 72 horas, a contar del momento que sea notificado, si no existiesen causas o penas pendientes”, indicó una resolución del Ministerio del Interior de Chile difundida ayer por medios locales.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Tom Doyle on Hypocrisy in Spades in Milwaukee Settlement with Abuse Survivors

Today’s National Survivor Advocates Coalition News features an op-ed piece by Tom Doyle entitled “Milwaukee: Hypocrisy in Spades.” I’d provide a link for you to read it in its entirety, but don’t yet find it online. I highly recommend that you subscribe to NSAC News. You can do that by clicking here. If I find down the road that NSAC has published Tom Doyle’s essay online, as I think will happen, I’ll provide you with a link. (Later: MarkWilliam has kindly emailed to point out to me that the text is at We Are Church Ireland; If NSAC also publishes it, I’ll provide that link, too.)

Tom is commenting on the proposed settlement recently offered abuse survivors in the Milwaukee archdiocese. The settlement was presented in one media headline after another as a stunningly generous offer of church officials to settle with abuse victims and put the abuse crisis behind them.

But as Marie Rhode has pointed out, the settlement stunned survivors, since it actually excludes 240 survivors and their claims, and is, as Rhode quotes Milwaukee SNAP leader Peter Isely to say, “exponentially the lowest bankruptcy compensation for victims in the United States.” Here’s Tom Doyle’s summary of what the settlement means and offers, in effect:

A few weeks ago Francis LoCoco, Listecki’s lead lawyer, threatened to spend down the phony cemetery trust that Cardinal Dolan created to try to divert $56 million, by challenging the validity of every claim of the nearly 400 remaining survivor-claimants. The survivors had already been treated with more than enough cruelty brought on by the hard-ball legal tactics. Continued litigation would have resulted in more insult, pain and debasement. The archbishop and his lawyers forced them to accept a grossly unjust and unreasonable option in exchange for one that was even worse.

As he notes,

The main points need to be stressed to get greater clarity of the hypocrisy:
-At least 80 victims were secretly removed from the settlement without the creditor committee’s knowledge, among them appear to be the deaf victims of Fr. Murphy
-The five survivors on the committee were given nothing in writing about the settlement, were not allowed in the mediation to see any of the case reports of the victims they represented and were not told when the settlement was going to be announced
-The archdiocesan lawyers and Listecki decided unilaterally which claims were valid
-Among the 575 claims that came forth 100 involved newly alleged clergy perpetrators. The archbishop decided without any investigation that none were a danger to children.

This travesty brings even more discredit and disgrace to the already tarnished office of bishop. It is also an insulting and arrogant perversion of the federal bankruptcy process and it surely justifies every debasing pejorative joke about lawyers.

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CANADA
CBC News

Police say a long-standing St. Catharines church member and volunteer has been charged with sexual assault.

Niagara Regional Police say 31-year-old Christopher Witte faces two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and three counts of invitation to sexual touching.

Police say Witte co-ordinated many youth programs at Bethany Community Church.

The arrest follows a police investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of young boys at the church.

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CANADA
St. Catharines Standard

A volunteer church youth program coordinator facing sex charges appeared briefly in St. Catharines court Friday.

Christopher Witte, 31, of St. Catharines had a bail hearing scheduled for Monday morning.

A publication ban on the proceedings was put in effect.

Witte was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and three counts of invitation to sexual touching.

Niagara Regional Police said on Thursday its sexual assault unit launched an investigation earlier this month into allegations of historical sexual abuse of young boys at Bethany Community Church in St. Catharines.

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FIJI
Fiji Times

Serafina Silaitoga
Saturday, August 22, 2015

CHURCH pastors should confront and discuss with their members issues that affect society, including sexual-related cases.

Assemblies of God Church pastor Reverend Vilitati Ratotodro said it was time for such issues, particularly rape cases, to be discussed among church members.

Speaking to about 500 youths at the AOG church conference in Labasa, Mr Ratotodro said it was time for the truth to be confronted and dealt with by church leaders.

“It’s about time pastors in the churches confront, head-on, the truth from the pulpit,” he said.

“Many times we tend to ignore the truth because we want to refrain from punishing our relationship with people and forget the mere fact that we are not helping curb these growing problems.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WISN

[with video]

By Colleen Henry

MILWAUKEE —Police are investigating threats against the Milwaukee archbishop sent via email.

As the head of Milwaukee’s Catholic archdiocese, Archbishop Jerome Listecki has found himself at the center of many public controversies — priest sexual abuse, gay marriage and a papal portrait woven with condoms.

Newly unsealed court records show Listecki was the target of two threatening emails in May.

The first read, “Archbishop Listecki, your behavior and attitude reflects that you’re a loser. I have been indirectly responsible for the murder of at least 80 people in the Milwaukee area.”

The writer appears to believe the archbishop has some relationship to Marquette’s law school, which he doesn’t, and threatened, “Your kids coming out of Marquette law are spineless, common, simple thinkers. There have already been about 25 killed. You want more? I was raised to do this.”

Investigators tracked the emails to a computer at the YWCA on North Martin Luther King Drive.

WISN 12 News obtained a copy of the subpoena for the writers’ email accounts: james@wi.rr.com and rockit@yahoo.com.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Liz Zemba
Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015

The attorney for a Somerset County priest accused of traveling to Central and South America to have sex with orphaned boys doesn’t want jurors to hear from a psychologist who treats sexually abused children and sex offenders.

The Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio has been held in the Cambria County jail on a federal detainer since Sept. 25, when he was arrested on a grand jury’s allegations he visited a Honduran orphanage under the guise of performing charity work but really wanted to have sex with boys.

His trial, expected to last at least three weeks, is set to begin Sept. 8 in U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

In pretrial motions, Maurizio’s attorney, Steven Passarello of Altoona, has asked Judge Kim R. Gibson to bar federal prosecutor Amy E. Larson from calling clinical psychologist Veronique Nicole Valliere of Fogelsville to testify.

Valliere did not interview any of the alleged victims. Passarello contends she will be called to testify in general regarding Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome, or CSAAS. He said the syndrome purports to identify common behaviors of child sex-abuse victims, including secrecy, delayed disclosure and retraction.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Ireland’s Catholic bishops have been praised by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, for the compassion with which they dealt with marriage-equality issues before May’s referendum.

He also says that the description of the referendum result as a defeat for humanity by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was more nuanced in the original Italian than translation.

The nuncio warns against Catholics becoming a caricature of themselves through a seeming preoccupation with moral issues to the exclusion of all others and rejects criticisms that there has been less consultation before the appointment of bishops since his arrival in Ireland, in 2012. He will not be drawn on whether priests have declined invitations to become bishops. …

On the Vatican’s handling of the clerical child sex-abuse crisis generally, he believes there was a growing awareness of the gravity of the issue through the 1990s but that there had been differences of approach by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he worked for 17 years before his arrival in Ireland, and that of the Congregation of Clergy.

The declining number of priests in Ireland is a huge problem, he said, but he remains very positive about the faith of the people.

His office as nuncio played no role in the disciplining of Irish priests by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, such as that of Fr Tony Flannery, but he says was kept informed in such cases.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran Aug 21, 2015

The first hearing in the criminal case against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been pushed back for the third time.

The hearing in Ramsey County District Court is now scheduled for Oct. 29.

The first court appearance in the criminal case had been originally scheduled for June 24, and was later rescheduled to July 17 and then to Aug. 25.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi charged the archdiocese in June with six gross misdemeanor counts for allegedly failing to protect children from Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest now in prison for sexually abusing children and possessing child pornography.

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VIRGINIA
WJLA

BY JOCE STERMAN, ABC 7 NEWS FRIDAY, AUGUST 21ST 2015

WASHINGTON (WJLA) — The 7 On Your Side I-Team has confirmed a New Jersey priest accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a minor has ties to local schools. Manuel Gallo-Espinoza has never been criminally charged. His church believed he fled the country more than a decade ago, but ABC 7 discovered Gallo-Espinoza spent nine years teaching children in our area, although there were no accusations of wrongdoing during his time in two area facilities.

Becky Ianni waited 40 years to deal with the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of the Alexandria priest that became a family friend. She said, “I was told I’d go to hell if I told on this priest.”

Ianni eventually spoke up, coming forward decades after her abuser committed suicide. She received a settlement from the church, but not justice. That’s what she helps others try to find through SNAP, The Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests.

“It’s to let victims know they’re not alone and to encourage them to go to prosecutors,” Ianni said.

The Burke, Virginia resident’s most recent cause involves Manuel Gallo-Espinoza, spotted in a Visa photo obtained by NJ.com, which first reported on his case. Records obtained by the 7 On Your Side I-Team show the priest was removed from his post in 2003 following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

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OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

Ed Langlois
Of the Catholic Sentinel

Archbishop Alexander Sample on Thursday sent a two-page letter to parishes and Catholic schools updating them on the case of a priest being sought by Sherwood Police.

In the letter, the archbishop said the Archdiocese of Portland and St. Francis Parish in Sherwood owe “a debt of gratitude” to a teen boy who discovered a spy camera in a bathroom used by altar servers, and to the boy’s family, who diligently made sure police knew about the incident.

Records uncovered by the Oregonian showed that Father Ysrael Bien purchased the $295 camera, which was disguised as an electrical outlet.

Archbishop Sample says he was “shocked and stunned” when he heard the warrant had been issued. Until that time, police had told the archdiocese only that there was “an ongoing investigation.”

Father Bien, 34, has been charged with invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence and initiating a false report — all misdemeanors.

Without telling anyone, Father Bien returned to his native Philippines in June and has stayed, despite repeated requests by Archbishop Sample that he return to Oregon.

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CHILE/IRELAND
RTE News

The Chilean government has decided to deport an Irish priest who was convicted last year of sexually abusing a young girl, according to the Chilean interior ministry.

John O’Reilly was sentenced to four years’ probation in November for repeatedly molesting the girl from the time she was five.

The abuse took place from 2010 to 2012 at an exclusive school where O’Reilly was the spiritual advisor at the time.

The interior ministry said it was revoking O’Reilly’s permanent residency and that he would have to leave the country after completing his sentence in 2018.

The decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

O’Reilly, 69, was once an influential figure in Chile as the local head of the Catholic Church’s ultra-conservative Legion of Christ order.

He arrived in Chile in 1984 and was granted citizenship in 2008 – but had it revoked in March by Congress.

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KENTUCKY
WKYT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A Louisville Catholic priest has resigned from his church and police say there were hundreds of images of schoolchildren from the parish on his computer.

The Archdiocese of Louisville says Stephen A. Pohl has resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish. The eastern Louisville church has a private school on its campus.

Archdiocese officials said in a release Friday that they were told police found 200 images of students from the school on Pohl’s computer. The students were all clothed but some of the images were “inappropriate.” Police say they also found child pornography on the computer. He was placed on administrative leave last week.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A talk to be given by Fr Tony Flannery at a community centre in Cloyne diocese has been cancelled by order of Bishop William Crean.

It’s understood the invitation was issued to Fr Flannery by the parish pastoral council of Killeagh in east Cork and he had agreed to give the opening address at its Spiritfest 2015 over the last weekend in September.

In 2012 Fr Flannery was suspended from public ministry by the Vatican’s Congregation of the Faith (CDF) for his more liberal views on women priests, homosexuality and contraception.

Personal representations

When he became aware of the invitation to Fr Flannery, Bishop Crean made personal representations to the parish priest of Killeagh, Fr Timothy Hazelwood, and to Fr Flannery’s superiors in the Redemptorist congregation.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

By John P. Wise
By Joey Brown

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – The local priest who was put on administrative leave pending a child porn investigation had photographs of some of the students from his parish and has resigned as pastor of the church.

A letter sent from the Archdiocese of Louisville to St. Margaret Mary parishioners indicated that Father Stephen A. Pohl “had numerous (up to 200) photos of St. Margaret Mary school children on his computer that were taken on the parish grounds.”

“We were informed that children were fully clothed in the pictures, but the authorities described some of these pictures as ‘inappropriate,'” the letter continued.

A second revelation in the letter indicated that “Fr. Pohl had downloaded child pornography on his personal computer and other technology.”

Pohl was placed on leave on Aug. 12, the day Archdiocese leaders “first learned of this situation,” the letter read.

Pohl had reported to church officials that FBI investigators had visited him.

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

KENTUCKY
WLKY

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Archdiocese of Louisville officials on Friday addressed the resignation of and allegations against Father Stephen Pohl of St. Margaret Mary Church pastor.

Read the letter sent to St. Margaret Mary parishioners

The archdiocese said a child told his or her family about a photo that was taken that bothered the child. The family got a copy of the picture and gave the photo to authorities, who began investigating Pohl.

Watch the complete press conference with Archbishop Kurtz

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz said he learned of the investigation on Aug. 12 and placed Pohl on administrative leave. Kurtz accepted Pohl’s resignation on Thursday.

Archdiocese Chancellor Dr. Brian Reynolds said the archdiocese received an interim report from the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit on Thursday.

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.

KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Chris Kenning, @ckenning_cj August 21, 2015

Louisville Catholic priest Stephen A. Pohl has resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary after investigators found child porn on his computer and that Pohl had taken “inappropriate” images of parish school children, Archdiocese of Louisville leaders said Friday.

An ongoing FBI investigation has found that Pohl had up to 200 photos of St. Margaret Mary schoolchildren on a computer, officials said. All were clothed, but some photos were deemed inappropriate by investigators. Investigators also told the archdiocese that Pohl also downloaded child porn on his personal computer.

“I personally, and all of our archdiocese, were deeply grieved” about the allegations and “the impact that this investigation will have on the faithful throughout the archdiocese,” Archbishop of Louisville Joseph Kurtz said at a news briefing Friday, when he pledged full cooperation and transparency.

Chancellor Brian Reynolds said the FBI cyber crimes investigation — prompted after a child told a family member about a photo that was taken that “bothered the child” — is still ongoing and could take months. The information the archdiocese shared Friday was from an interim investigation report officials received a day earlier.

Pohl, 57, who had been pastor of the parish at 7813 Shelbyville Road since 2008 and an ordained priest since 1985, was put on leave last week. On Thursday night, after Pohl resigned, the archdiocese shared the preliminary findings with an upset school staff and parents, offering counselors and information.

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

OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 21

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)

A lying, disobedient and creepy Catholic priest is now back in his home country. Portland’s archbishop, who brought him to Oregon and let him escape, should take steps now to protect Philippine families from him and help law enforcement nab him.

We call on Archbishop Alexander Sample to

—write his Philippine colleagues and urge them to suspend Fr. Ysrael Bien and keep him away from children. That’s what a compassionate shepherd would do.

—ask every priest in the archdiocese to read an impassioned plea this weekend from the pulpit, urging anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Bien to call police.

—personally visit St. Francis parish in Sherwood – and every church facility where Fr. Bien spent any time at all – begging anyone with knowledge or suspicions (If prosecutors are able to charge Fr. Bien with more crimes, their chances of successfully extraditing him improve.)

—promise that the next time a priest, nun, seminarian, brother or other church employee is accused of or suspected of sexual misdeeds, church supervisors will insist that his or her passport be turned over to the archbishop, to prevent the accused from fleeing overseas.

It’s not enough for Sample to say “Geez, sorry, I’m powerless here.” He has massive resources and bully pulpits and church bulletins and parish websites and thousands of volunteers and hundreds of employees. He should use them to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and help law enforcement. Vague apologies and tepid regrets are inadequate. Decisive action is needed.

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.

KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 21

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)

Fr. Stephen Pohl is at least the 65th Louisville Catholic cleric to be accused of child sex crimes.

We’re glad church officials are talking about this case but hope they use this opportunity to aggressively prod anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Pohl to call law enforcement immediately.

[WDRB]

It’s a simple but crucial question for Louisville Catholic officials and church members: Do you help law enforcement, or not, in a child porn investigation against a priest? We hope they find the courage to do what’s right and work hard to seek out anyone who might have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by this priest and other priests.

[WHAS]

When Fr. Pohl was suspended from St. Margaret Mary parish for possible child pornography charges, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz issued a vague and disingenuously timed news release.

In our experience, in cases like this, Catholic officials do the bare minimum. Rarely do they use church websites, parish bulletins and pulpit announcements to repeatedly prod victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward. Rarely do they ask their flock to reach out to ex-parishioners who may have knowledge or suspicions of wrongdoing by Fr. Pohl. But those are the caring, responsible and moral steps they should take.

We urge anyone – Catholic or not – to call law enforcement if they have any information that might help prove or disprove these troubling allegations.

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.

KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Louisville Archdiocese has released new information about a priest who is being investigated for child pornography allegations.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, church leaders told reporters that Father Stephen Pohl, pastor of St. Margaret Mary parish, submitted his resignation yesterday afternoon.

Church leaders said they first learned of the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit investigation of Father Pohl on Aug. 12. The Archdiocese told reporters that the investigation began after a child told their parents about a picture that was taken. The parents obtained a copy of the picture, reviewed it, and immediately contacted authorities.

A search warrant was executed last Wednesday.

“Pastorally, I’m feeling the grief that I can only imagine parents are feeling,” Rev. Joseph Kurtz, the Archbishop of Louisville said.

Anger, hurt and fear. That’s how parents felt after the Archdiocese of Louisville met with parents at St. Margaret Mary Thursday night.

“Father Pohl had numerous, up to 200 they reported photos of St. Margaret Mary children on his computer, cell phone or other places. These pictures were apparently taken on parish grounds,” Brian Reynolds, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Louisville said.

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

KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 21

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)

Louisville’s archbishop claims he’s ‘cooperating’ with law enforcement in the child porn case involving Fr. Stephen Pohl. That’s not enough.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and his staff must use their vast resources – church websites, parish bulletins and pulpit announcements, across the whole archdiocese – to aggressively seek out victims, witnesses and whistleblowers and actively help police and prosecutors pursue this criminal cleric.

In our experience (26 years), we’ve learned that when a Catholic official claims he’s ‘cooperating’ with secular authorities, that essentially means he’s merely responding to – rather than fighting – subpoenas. That’s not optional. Ignoring subpoenas is illegal.

As president of all US bishops, however, and the head of a particularly scandal-ridden archdiocese, Kurtz, however, can and should do much more than this.

Kurtz should

—publicize the names of every church facility where Fr. Pohl worked, even briefly,
—personally visit each of them, begging those with information or suspicions to call police,
—turn over Fr. Pohl’s full personnel file to law enforcement, whether asked to do so or not, and
—ask his flock to seek out former church staff and members who spent time with Fr. Pohl and specifically ask them if they saw, suspected or suffered any crimes or wrongdoing by the priest.

This case brings to mind the horrific Fr. Shawn Ratigan situation in Kansas City Missouri, which ultimately led to the belated resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, the only US bishop ever convicted of withholding evidence and endangering kids. (Fr. Ratigan also took “inappropriate” photos of parishioners’ kids.)

We urge anyone – Catholic or not – to call law enforcement if they have any information that might help prove or disprove these troubling allegations. We especially urge church employees to speak up. It may sound trite, but you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. If you know or suspect anything – however old, small or seemingly insignificant it may seem – you have a moral and civic duty to call secular authorities.

Finally, our hearts ache for St. Margaret Mary parishioners who must wonder whether their son, daughter, niece, nephew or neighbor’s child is one of the kids that Fr. Pohl took “inappropriate” photos of and may have shared with others. We urge these families to prod their church officials to do more to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

In a lot of ways, the new Fr. Manuel Gallo Espinoza case is much like the old Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul case. But it’s worse.

Fr. Jeyapaul generated international headlines when he was pled guilty this summer – after a long, hard extradition process – to sexually assaulting a Minnesota girl in the Crookston diocese. (Thanks to the courage of another victim, Megan Peterson.)

Now comes Fr. Espinoza who, like Fr. Jeyapaul, fled overseas after abuse reports against him were made. (He worked in Newark and taught in Virginia, Maryland and Equador.)

Here’s the difference.

First, Fr. Jeyapaul claims it was coincidental that he was home in India before law enforcement could nab him. But Fr. Espinoza says two Catholic colleagues urge him to escape abroad before law enforcement could nab him.

And Fr. Jeyapaul denied his guilt for years. Just weeks ago, Fr. Espinoza admitted his guilt.

Fr. Espinoza is, frankly, just a run-of-mill predator making the same sorry excuses predators make. (He “was drunk,” “made a mistake,” “only did it once,” the boy “wanted it,” and “wasn’t so innocent” and “now wants money.” Bla, bla, bla.)

Let’s focus instead on the Catholic hierarchy.

At least four bishops are involved: Newark Archbishop John Myers, Maryland Archbishop William Lori, Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde and Equador Bishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus. When did they know that Fr. Espinoza:

–was accused of abuse,
–fled overseas,
–returned to the US,
–was teaching in two more states,
–fled overseas again, and
–admitted his crimes?

And when did those bishops issue strong, clear public warnings to police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners in the public? (The answer, of course, is basically NEVER.)

We’ll soon get answers to all these questions, of course. Why? Because bishops are “open and transparent” in clergy sex cases these days, right? Because the days of secrecy by bishops are over, right?

Don’t hold your breath.

How about Fr. Jevie Hercules and Antonino Salazar. They’re the two Newark archdiocesan staffers who reportedly told Fr. Espinoza to hightail it out of Dodge. Think Catholic priests and employees and church members will defrock, demote, discipline or denounce them?

Again, don’t hold your breath. That continues to be the Rubicon that the Catholic hierarchy refuses to cross: punitive action against those who conceal abuse.

It’s also worth noting when all this took place. As New Jersey SNAP leader Mark Crawford pointed out, “The ink wasn’t even dry on the new US church abuse policy when these two Catholic officials were telling an accused pedophile to hop on a plane and escape.”

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.

KENTUCKY
WHAS

LOUISVILLE (WHAS11) – Father Stephen Pohl resigned on Thursday, Aug. 20, from his position as a pastor of the St. Margaret Mary Parish.

Pohl is under investigation by the FBI and is accused of taking inappropriate pictures of children.

The Archdiocese of Louisville said Pohl’s ministry as a priest remains suspended. He cannot present himself as a priest, wear clerical garb or provide ministry.

The archdiocese said Pohl resigned so he could give his full attention to the situation he is facing and “…so that St. Margaret Mary Parish can move forward…”.

The archdiocese said they have talked to police and will continue to cooperate with the investigation as is continues.

The Archdiocese of Louisville said Pohl had up to 200 photographs of St. Margaret Mary School students in his computer and were taken on parish grounds.

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By DALE VINCENT
New Hampshire Union Leader

CONCORD — During his cross-examination of an alleged rape victim Thursday, defense attorney J.W. Carney focused on what he said the girl didn’t do.

“You didn’t tell Owen you were scared,” he said of his client, former St. Paul School student Owen Labrie, now 19.

The 16-year-old who says Labrie sexually assaulted her two days before graduation last year has testified that she told Labrie “no” three times, but he continued the assault.

The alleged victim was a freshman at St. Paul’s School when she accepted a traditional “Senior Salute” from Labrie, then 18, an athlete headed for Harvard and later divinity school. The girl said her expectation was that there would be kissing and “making out,” but that Labrie’s actions went way beyond that and were unwelcome

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.

KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Chris Kenning, @ckenning_cj August 21, 2015

The Archdiocese of Louisville will hold a 1 p.m. briefing today on the investigation into one of its priests related to child pornography.

Last weekend, the archdiocese announced that Father Stephen A. Pohl, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish at 7813 Shelbyville Road, was put on leave after the archdiocese said it learned of an investigation about “inappropriate photos of children that have been taken and collected by Father Pohl to determine if he has possessed or distributed child pornography.”

Dr. Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrative officer, and Archbishop of Louisville Joseph Kurtz will conduct the briefing.

Archdiocese officials last week named The Rev. J. Mark Spalding, Vicar General and pastor of Holy Trinity Parish, as the temporary administrator of St. Margaret Mary Parish.

Previously, Kurtz called it a “painful situation” in a letter to parishioners dated Aug. 14, and said he would provide updates as more information became available.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Aug. 21, 2015

Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns is gravely ill and a shadow hangs over his anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission in November.

The Ballarat Diocese confirmed Bishop Mulkearns underwent surgery on Thursday night where it was found he had cancer but a spokesperson would not confirm the kind or severity of the illness.

While the royal commission has requested Bishop Mulkearns testify at hearings beginning November 23 the latest developments add some uncertainty following his non-appearance at the Parliamentry inquiry in 2013 on grounds of ill health.

Clergy sex abuse survivor spokesperson Andrew Collins said he hoped Bishop Mulkearns’ state of health would not compromise the Royal Commission’s objectives to get at the truth over claims of a decades-long sexual abuse cover-up in the church.

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

CONCORD, N.H. —A New Hampshire prep school that has educated some of the nation’s elite for more than a century and a half is confronting a campus practice of sexual conquest after a senior was charged with raping a 15-year-old freshman girl.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
WCVB

In a series of letters over the past year to students, parents and alumni, St. Paul’s School Rector Michael Hirschfeld candidly acknowledged the sexual assault charges and vowed to re-examine campus culture to see how a practice known as “Senior Salute” had been allowed to develop.

“While the allegation and the people it involves will not be a topic of conversation at the school, the broader issues it raises – the use of social media to perpetuate unhealthy relationships, the ‘hookup’ culture and unsanctioned student ‘traditions’ – will be,” Hirschfeld wrote on Aug. 7, 2014, a month after Owen Labrie was charged with rape and other felonies.

Labrie is on trial in Concord, home to the Episcopal prep school founded in 1856.

Set on a leafy, shaded campus on the hem of New Hampshire’s capital city, St. Paul’s looks more college than high school. Red brick buildings with soaring arches and columns dot rolling hills and athletic fields are emerald in mid-August heat. The school has seen future Nobel winners pass through its doors, along with Pulitzer Prize winners, senators, international business executives, bishops and diplomats.

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INDIANA
NWI.com

Carmen McCollum carmen.mccollum@nwi.com, (219) 662-5337

HAMMOND | St. Casimir Pastor William “Bill” O’Toole has stepped down from his position as pastor at St. Casimir and at All Saints Catholic Church after he was seen Aug. 9 walking naked through St. Casimir Catholic School.

Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda said police were called to St. Casimir School in the early evening of Aug. 9. He said a caller told the dispatcher a man was seen through a window walking around the school naked.

“Officers located an adult male in a state of undress inside of the school,” Hoyda said. “School officials … were already on scene and had knowledge of the situation. The man was allowed to dress and at that time he was not placed under arrest.”

Hoyda said detectives are investigating the incident. Once the investigation is complete, the information will be referred to the Lake County prosecutor’s office for review.

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.

KENTUCKY
WDRB

Updated: Aug 21, 2015

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Dr. Brian Reynolds and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz will conduct a press briefing at today at the Chancery at 212 East College Street to discuss allegations against St. Margaret Mary priest Stephen Pohl. The press conference is set to start at 1 p.m.

WDRB will stream the news conference live when it begins.

The Archdiocese tells WDRB it met with parents Thursday night to discuss the case. The Archdiocese says he’s on leave while the FBI determines if he possessed or distributed child pornography.

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.

INDIANA
ABC 7

HAMMOND, Ind. (WLS) — A northwest Indiana pastor will undergo a psychological evaluation after police found him wandering naked at a school building on Sunday, according to a statement from the Diocese of Gary.

Father William O’Toole, who was the pastor at St. Casimir and All Saints churches, both in Hammond, Ind., stepped down from his role at the two Catholic churches and will be on a leave of absence during the evaluation.

“Bishop Donald J. Hying was made aware of the event and begin taking the appropriate actions in accordance with our Safe Environment and diocesan policies,” the statement said.

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

OREGON
Inquisitr

Ysrael Bien, an Oregon priest on the run, has been accused of installing a hidden camera within the wall socket of a men’s restroom at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood, Oregon, where he worked.

The Philippine native has reportedly gone back to his home country, with a spokesman for the church stating that there was no way they could have prevented him from traveling.

“The church has no ability to confiscate a priest’s passport,” said spokesman David Renshaw in comments reported by Opposing Views. “We are not a law enforcement agency and do not have the authority to take such a document.”

The church had suspended Ysrael Bien from leadership duties in June, and police believe he left the country shortly thereafter on June 30.

The hidden camera he allegedly hid in the men’s restroom was discovered by a 15-year-old boy. Police speculate that if they are able to extradite Bien from the Philippines, he will face misdemeanor charges of invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence, and initiating a false police report, the Oregonian notes.

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

OREGON
KGW

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample spoke with KGW’s Tim Gordon about Father Ysrael Bien, a Sherwood priest who waited nearly a month to report a hidden camera found in a church bathroom.

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

OREGON
The Oregonian

By Emily E. Smith | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on August 20, 2015

The Archbishop of Portland sent a letter to parishioners Thursday afternoon addressing the case of a Sherwood priest who apparently left the country as police investigated the hidden camera discovered in his church’s bathroom.

Church leaders say they learned on July 29 that the Rev. Ysrael Bien had gone to The Philippines.

Sherwood police learned the same about three weeks later when they went to arrest him Tuesday in Portland. Investigators now believe he left the country on June 30, six days after he was suspended from leading the congregation at St. Francis Catholic Church.

Read Archbishop Alexander Sample’s letter to parishioners.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
JTA

By Suzanne Pollak

August 20, 2015

WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week via JTA) – When prominent Washington, D.C., Rabbi Barry Freundel was arrested last year for secretly videotaping dozens of women using the mikvah, the ritual’s sense of sacredness was shattered for some local Jewish women.

Local artist Rena Fruchter recently spearheaded a community project to put the pieces back together: A mural created by female members of Orthodox Ohev Sholom – The National Synagogue in Washington inside their mikvah.

After months of work, the mural was dedicated on Sunday.

The project gave the women “something they could own, something they could feel part of,” said Fruchter. It allowed them to take “something shattered; make something whole.”

“We have a broken system. We don’t throw it out. We take the pieces. We put them together and make something beautiful together.”

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune AUGUST 20, 2015

The Rev. Thomas Andert, the prior at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, has been removed from his leadership position following an allegation of student sex abuse.

The allegation was made in a letter by a former student at St. John’s Preparatory School, where Andert served as headmaster from 1988 to 1994. It alleges abuse about three decades ago. The abbey is not providing details of the complaint.

“We asked Father Andert to step back from public ministry and from his work until an investigation is completed,” said abbey spokesman Aelred Senna in an e-mail.

Andert, who was ordained in 1975, held key positions at the abbey, St. John’s University and a Twin Cities Catholic school. He was president of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park from 1981 to 1987, during which time he also served as associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in St. Louis Park.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Will Newark Archbishop John Myers Be at Papal Events in U.S. Next Month? Yet Another Sordid Tale of Clerical Abuse (and Cover-Up) from Newark Diocese

A question that comes to my mind as I read Mark Mueller’s article at Religion News Service about New Jersey priest Manuel Gallo Espinoza, who is now being sought by New Jersey authorities after he has admitted raping a 15-year-old boy, Max Rojas Ramirez:

Will Newark archbishop John Myers be attending the various east coast events next month featuring Pope Francis? I would imagine so. And what about Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, in whose dioceses Espinoza worked after, it now appears, Newark church officials knew that Espinoza had molested a minor?

I would imagine they, too, will be at the various events to honor Pope Francis next month.

As Mueller reports, Espinoza is blaming the boy he raped and claiming that Ramirez seduced him. He has published an extraordinary statement to this effect.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

A royal commission decision to hear from retired Catholic bishop Geoffrey Robinson has been welcomed by a key organisation representing survivors of abuse in institutions.

Author and theologian Bishop Robinson, who will give evidence on Monday at a public hearing of the child sex abuse royal commission, is described as a “voice in the wilderness” within the church by Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN).

CLAN – which has 1000 members, the oldest aged 90 – is a support, advocacy, research and training network for people who grew up in Australian orphanages, children’s homes, foster care and other institutions.

The network’s executive officer, Leonie Sheedy, said Bishop Robinson has actively supported the rights of care leavers and abuse survivors for many years.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA
Capital Journal

By Stephen Lee stephen.lee@capjournal.com

The senior pastor of Morningside Community Church in Brookings says he and the congregation are trying to minister to “everyone involved,” in the sex crime of a former pastor sentenced this week to prison. The congregation changed its name late last year to Abundant Life.

Tim Bariteau, Morningside’s worship pastor until last summer, is headed to prison after being sentenced this week to eight years for having sexual contact with a child.

Bariteau, 38, was sentenced to 12 years in prison with four years suspended, according to news reports. Because it was ruled a crime of violence, he must serve at least half the time before he’s eligible for parole, Brookings Radio reported. He faced a maximum sentence of 15 years.

He will be credited with 305 days he’s served since his arrest and he must register as a sex offender and pay restitution to the victim.

Bariteau was indicted last November and arrested in California, where he had been living. He was convicted in June after a Brookings County jury deliberated for about five hours, according to The Associated Press.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Fiji Village

By Swastika Singh
Friday 21/08/2015

The judge is yet to sum up the case in relation to the trial of a pastor of a Fijian fellowship church in Hutt Valley.

The Crown earlier told the jury that the two girls did not plan an elaborate set of allegations of sexual abuse about the pastor they knew.

Prosecutor Ian Murray closed the Crown’s case of 42-year-old pastor of the Kingdom Ambassador International Fellowship Church Jone Conikeli saying it defied belief that an 11-year-old had hatched a plan for revenge on Conikeli for introducing her recently bereaved father to another woman.

Murray told the court that Conikeli took opportunities to touch the two complainants in inappropriate ways while one was sleeping and when visiting the other’s home.

Defence lawyer Chris Nicholls said Conikeli was a man of God, a married family man with no convictions, who had earned the right to be taken at his word.

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

AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

A Catholic bishop who more than a decade ago called for an end to the worldwide cover-up of child sex abuse by the church will take the stand at a royal commission hearing in Sydney.

Former Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who helped write the church’s sex abuse policy in Australia, will give evidence at a public hearing of the abuse royal commission on Monday.

The retired bishop will be questioned on the history and development of the Catholic Church’s approach to abuse victims, and the 1996 establishment of Towards Healing, the internal church process for handling allegations.

The process has had mixed success.

Bishop Robinson, an expert on canon or church law, has for many years been outspoken on child sex abuse.

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.

MAINE
Portland Press Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Freeport man ordered to pay $14.5 million in damages to a Haiti orphanage founder he accused of sexually abusing boys is asking for a new trial.

A jury ordered Paul Kendrick to pay $7 million to Michael Geilenfeld, founder of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys.

Kendrick must also pay $7.5 million to North Carolina-based Hearts with Haiti after an email campaign that Geilenfeld says resulted in his being imprisoned for 237 days in Haiti and cost the charity millions in donations.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 20

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 saddened but not surprised that another St. John’s cleric is accused of child sex crimes. For decades, this Catholic school has been a hotbed of abuse and cover ups.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

And for years, the institution has postured as being “ahead of the curve” on abuse when in fact that’s a deceitful claim.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered assaults or cover ups by Fr. Tom Andert or any current or former St. John’s staff will call police and prosecutors immediately. That’s the only safe course of action – trusting in the independent, unbiased professionals in law enforcement.

We appeal particularly to those who used to work for or attend the school. We suspect dozens of these individuals have knowledge or suspicions that should be reported to secular authorities. We hope no one is naieve enough to report them to church figures.

Fr. Andert is the school’s second in command.

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.

VICE News

The widespread reaction to the now-public trove of stolen user data from extra-marital dating service and social network Ashley Madison has generally not been one of sympathy — but it is quickly becoming clear that there is a darker effect of the massive hack, which could now be threatening people lives.

On Tuesday, a hacktivist group called Impact Group posted nearly 10 gigabytes of Ashley Madison users’ personal information online, including email and street addresses, partial credit card numbers and transaction details, passwords, physical descriptions, and partial names.

But the data is not limited to emails and names — it also includes deeply personal information about people’s sexual preferences and habits. In other words, if you had an account on Ashley Madison, everyone in the world can now see if you are interested in cross-dressing, spanking, or any of the other 62 available sexual fantasy categories on the site. …

According to a partial list of Ashley Madison users posted on PasteBin.com, there is at least one iran.gov email. In Iran adultery is illegal, and can be punished with stoning, lashing, or death. There are also more than 100 Vatican email addresses on the Pastebin list. If these are linked to the identity of priests, the users could be ex-communicated from the Catholic Church.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

A number of Vatican addresses are listed among the 37 million users

People working at the Vatican are reportedly among the 37 million users of infidelity website Ashley Madison.

Websites of at least two dozen people with the .va address are among those who had signed up to meet married people for liaisons. There are also 15,000 people with US military addresses and 140 British government workers.

The 9.7 gigabyte file called “Time’s Up!” was posted on the internet by hackers, and includes names ages, addresses, phone numbers and credit card details.

The business works on the promise of anonymity and the motto “Life is short. Have an affair”. The hackers from the “Impact Team” carried it out because they the people are “cheating dirtbags”.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Names of 37 million cheating spouses are leaked online: Hackers dump huge data file revealing clients of adultery website Ashley Madison – including bankers, UN and Vatican staff

By MARTIN ROBINSON and ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR MAILONLINE

Hackers today outed millions of cheating spouses using the Ashley Madison infidelity website by publishing all their personal details and sexual fantasies online.

The names, ages, addresses, phone numbers and credit card details of up to 37million users including 1.2million in the UK were revealed in a 9.7 gigabyte file called ‘Time’s Up!’ posted on the dark web.

Bankers, civil servants, UN peacekeepers and even Vatican employees have been outed by hackers from the Impact Team because they are considered ‘cheating dirtbags’.

The Ashley Madison website, which is known as the ‘Google of cheating’, has called the data breach ‘an act of criminality’ and the FBI is now investigating.

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

UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho
August 20, 2015

Jared Fogel, thirty-seven, former Subway pitchman, video-game star, will plead guilty to possessing and transmitting child pornography (some of which depicted children as young as six), to traveling in order to pay for sex with minors (“the younger the better,” he told one of the seventeen-year-old girls he patronized, asking her to find more girls for him). In exchange, the government has agreed not to seek a sentence of longer than twelve and a half years (and Fogel won’t seek one shorter than five). A judge may decide to impose a stricter sentence.

Shawn Ratigan, forty-eight, former Catholic priest, catalyst for the removal of Robert Finn, the former bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, admitted to creating and possessing child pornography, to taking surreptitious photos of five girls between the ages of two and twelve, to posing some of them, removing their clothing to expose their genitalia. In exchange, the prosecution sought and received a fifty-year sentence, which Ratigan has been serving since 2013.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – St. John’s Abbey says its No. 2 leader, the Rev. Tom Andert, has stepped aside because of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a former student at Saint John’s Preparatory School.

The abbey’s spokesman, the Rev. Aelred Senna, tells Minnesota Public Radio that Andert will “step back from public ministry and from his work until an investigation is completed.”

Andert declined to comment.

Senna says the decision to remove Andert came in response to a letter sent earlier this month by a former student at Saint John’s Prep. He says the letter alleged sexual misconduct by Andert more than three decades ago but contained very few details.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran Aug 20, 2015

The prior of the monastery at Saint John’s Abbey has stepped aside because of an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a former student at Saint John’s Preparatory School, according to a spokesperson for the abbey in Collegeville, Minn.

The Rev. Tom Andert will “step back from public ministry and from his work until an investigation is completed,” the Rev. Aelred Senna, the abbey spokesperson, said in an email to MPR News. Andert declined to comment.

Senna said he did not know if the abbey had reported the allegation to law enforcement. “It is our policy to do that,” he said.

However, local law enforcement have no record of any report, according to Lt. Jon Lentz, of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, who searched records for the sheriff’s office and local police.

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

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

By: Mike Finnegan – August 18, 2015

The deadline to file timely proofs of claim in the Bankruptcy Court has come and gone. In total, over 600 claims were filed against the Archdiocese by the August 3, 2015 deadline. This included 407 abuse survivor claims.

Now that the deadline has passed, mediation will continue with the survivors, the Archdiocese and its insurance companies. In addition, the Archdiocese and its insurers will begin to evaluate and take a closer look at the claims.

Even though the deadline to file timely claims against the Archdiocese has passed, there are several issues remaining in the case. This includes issues such as what assets are available to pay survivors’ claims, whether there is insurance available to pay claims, and in some instances, how to address survivor claims involving the parishes, schools, and religious orders. These issues will take time to address and it could be a while before the case is resolved.

Not only do legal issues remain in the case, but some survivors are experiencing and addressing their own issues after recently sharing their stories (some for the first time) and disclosing the secrets they’ve kept for so long. Survivors represented by our office can contact us to be connected to therapists and other support services while the case proceeds.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on an article that appeared yesterday in the Trentonian by L.A. Parker about the Catholic Church:

Looks like the Trentonian wants to compete with the Philadelphia Inquirer as the most anti-Catholic newspaper in the area. The contribution of L.A. Parker puts it in the running.

Follow this if you can. Some guy who worked for a fast food restaurant, Jared Fogle, recently plead guilty to having sex with minors. So if Pope Francis does not apologize for crimes he had absolutely nothing to do with, he should stay at home next month.

I’m not making this up. This is the mind of Mr. L.A. Parker. He would have been better off just showcasing his ignorance and bigotry by simply launching into a diatribe against the Catholic Church. There was no need to offer a segue that is so forced that even a high school dropout would laugh at it.

To demonstrate why the pope should apologize, Parker trots out “Billy,” a guy who claims to have been molested by Philly priests and teachers. That was a mistake. “Billy” is a drug- dealing, congenital liar. But who cares about the facts when the goal is to smear the Church.

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

UNITED STATES
Yahoo! Celebrity

Josh Duggar has confessed to cheating on his wife Anna Duggar, just one day after the emails of millions of users on infidelity website Ashley Madison were exposed, including the eldest Duggar son’s information.

In a statement released on the Duggar family’s official website on Thursday, Aug. 20, Josh admitted to being unfaithful to his wife Anna, also the mother of his four kids.

“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote. “I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.”

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

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Aug. 18, 2015

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

ALBUQUERQUE – Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup, its insurers and clergy sex abuse claimants met for a second round of court-ordered mediation in Albuquerque Wednesday and Thursday, but once again the mediation talks stalled.

In a hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma Friday, attorneys praised the efforts of the new mediator, attorney Frank “Dirk” Murchison, but indicated disputes over insurance coverage — and money — were at the heart of the stalemate.

Attorney James Stang, legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants, told Thuma “the fact we’re here this morning and that we’re not all smiling” indicated that the mediation was unsuccessful. Several other attorneys, however, expressed the belief that a mediated settlement was still a possibility.

“Nobody walked out and told Mr. Murchison that nobody was going to call him again, and he made it very clear that he remains available to continue to work,” Susan G. Boswell, the diocese’s lead bankruptcy attorney, told the court.

Objections and apology

Friday’s hearing was scheduled as a preliminary hearing on the motions for relief from the automatic stay filed by three clergy sex abuse claimants. An automatic stay is an injunction that halts lawsuits against the debtor once a bankruptcy petition is filed.

Two of the sex abuse claimants had filed lawsuits in Arizona against the Diocese of Gallup prior to the diocese filing its Chapter 11 petition in November 2013. The third claimant recently filed a clergy sex abuse lawsuit in Arizona in spite of the automatic stay. The three claimants, who are represented by Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor, are requesting that Thuma lift the stay and allow their clergy sex abuse cases to proceed to trial in an Arizona state court.

The first half of Friday’s hearing was devoted to disagreements about those motions: whether they were filed with the proper legal terminology and procedures, and what court might possibly have jurisdiction over them. Attorneys for the diocese and its insurers all filed objections to the motions.

Diocesan attorneys pointed out that the diocese had removed the first pending lawsuits to the Arizona Bankruptcy Court in February 2014, and subsequently the venue was transferred to the New Mexico Bankruptcy Court, where the cases are pending as adversary proceedings. In bankruptcy court, adversary cases are separate lawsuits filed within a bankruptcy case.

Stang, who submitted a memorandum in support of Pastor’s motions, apologized to the court for forgetting that the cases had been removed. He suggested that Pastor will file new motions to correct the error and cover the proper legal bases.

Diocesan attorneys also argued that the deadline to remand the cases has expired, but if Thuma allows the cases to proceed to trial, they will not go to the Arizona state court but rather they will go to U.S. District Court where they will face a long wait.

A final hearing on the matter is slated to be scheduled in October.

Shifting conflicts

The issue of insurance coverage, or how much money insurance companies should contribute to a settlement, dominated the remainder of the hearing and appears to be the major logjam that is obstructing the settlement talks.

The insurance discussion also revealed the shifting conflicts and allegiances between the Diocese of Gallup and its insurers.

David Spector, an attorney for Catholic Mutual, advised Thuma that his company is planning to file an adversary case against the New Mexico Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association possibly this week, and he said Catholic Mutual would be asking Thuma for an expedited resolution of the dispute.

The guaranty association provides protection to the Diocese of Gallup for the insurance policies the diocese had from 1965 to 1977 with the Home Insurance Company, which is now insolvent.

“It’s a coverage issue that could materially advance the resolution of this case,” Spector said, explaining Catholic Mutual had just recently become aware of the issue. “It involves very considerable amounts of money, and it’s important and it involves positions taken by the New Mexico Guaranty Fund.”

Edward A. Mazel, an attorney for the guarantee association, appeared to be caught off guard by Spector’s announcement. The day before, Mazel had joined both the Diocese of Gallup and Catholic Mutual in their objections to the stay relief motions. In April, the two insurers were allies in their public dispute with the diocese regarding their requests for more information about sex abuse claims.

“It changes the whole dynamic, and I’m not sure that’s the best way to proceed here,” Mazel said of Spector’s plans to file an adversary case. Mazel argued that an attempt to amicably resolve the insurance coverage issues should be made before litigation is pursued.

Boswell urged both insurance providers to work cooperatively to resolve the insurance coverage dispute.

“If I could manufacture money — legally — I’d have this case resolved tomorrow,” Boswell said. “I can’t do that. And the diocese alone does not have the resources in order to get this case resolved without the participation of its insurers.”

Thuma concluded the hearing by reminding the attorneys about their mounting legal fees and expenses.

“Let’s all stay reminded of the fact we’re running this for the creditors and not the professionals,” he said. “And if we end up with no money for the abuse survivors, that’s going to be a failure of the whole process. And I’d consider that I failed, and that you all had too. Let’s avoid that scenario.”

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 20

Statement by SNAP leader Karen Polesir (267-992-9463, karenpolesir@yahoo.com)

We are both sad and glad that a civil child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against Philly Catholic officials has settled.

[Philadelphia Inquirer]

We’re glad because this brave victim deserves healing, justice and closure. But we’re sad because when cases like this go to trial, more complicit Catholic officials are exposed.

We hope this resolution will prod others who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Philadelphia to come forward, expose predators, protect kids and start healing. We also hope it brings some measure of comfort to anyone who may have been hurt by Fr. Edward Avery, Fr. Charles Engelhardt, Catholic teacher Bernard Shero or other predators, be they priests, nuns, seminarians, brothers, bishops or other church staff.

Finally, we hope it will also help remind everyone that clergy sex crimes and cover ups are best dealt with in the open, impartial and time-tested secular justice system, not behind closed doors in chancery offices with secretive and self-serving Catholic bureaucrats.

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.

TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 20

Statement by Amy Smith, Dallas co-leader of SNAP (281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com)

A Dallas area hospital may close soon but before it does, its staff should aggressively reach out to anyone who may have been hurt by an ex-employee who is an admitted sex offender.

[The Dallas Morning News]

In 2014, Jordan Root admitted his crimes:

[document]

In 2014, Jordan Root admitted his crimes:

[document]

For three years (from 2011 to 2014), Root worked for Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas.

Timberlawn officials put kids in harm’s way by hiring Root. The very least they can do now is to seek out and help anyone with information or suspicions about his crimes and beg them to call police and prosecutors. Using news releases, employee announcements and letters to ex-patients, Timberlawn officials should help find and support others who may have been hurt by Root and beg them to call law enforcement.

We urge current and former Timberlawn staff and patients to come forward if they saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or other wrongdoing by Root (or cover ups of Root’s crimes by others at the hospital). Kids will be safer if Root is prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. And that just might happen if Timberlawn officials and employees act responsibly and aggressively reach out to those he might have assaulted at the facility.

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

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 20, 2015

The UN Committee for the Rights of the Child recently released their “Concluding observations on the combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of Mexico.”

Much in the June 5 report wasn’t surprising: drug cartels are recruiting and using children for violence and children have been murdered and/or have gone missing in non-state violent activities. The committee also stated that migrant children are being targeted for abuse, killings and sexual violence.

But sections 35 and 36 of the report were striking (emphasis mine):

35. The Committee is deeply concerned about corroborated reports that hundreds of children have been sexually abused for years by clerics of the Catholic Church and other religious faiths The Committee is particularly concerned about the general impunity which perpetrators have enjoyed so far, as recognized by the State party’s delegation, about the low number of investigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators as well as alleged complicity of state officials, as well as about the lack of complaints mechanisms, services and compensation available to children.
36. The Committee strongly urges the State party to:
(a) Take immediate measures to investigate and prosecute all members of the Roman Catholic clergy and other religious faiths involved in or accomplices of sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and ensure that those found guilty be provided with sanctions commensurate with the gravity of their crime;
(b) Provide children victims of sexual abuse with all necessary services for their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration, and adequately compensate them;
(c) Ensure that specific measures taken to prevent sexual abuse by clerics become part of all policies related to violence against children and that empowered children learn how to protect themselves from sexual abuse and are aware of the mechanism they can refer to in case of such abuses;
(d) Take concrete measures to raise awareness on this type of abuse in order to overcome social acceptance and taboo surrounding these crimes;

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 20

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 an Ohio man is being charged with child sex crimes. And we call on anyone in the Wapakoneta Ohio area who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes to call law enforcement immediately.

We also applaud the brave victim who is helping prosecutors pursue this abusive pastor. And we call on current and former church members and staff to aggressively seek out others who may have been hurt by this preacher.

[StarNews]

Donald Dwayne Ramsey is charged with felony second-degree sexual offense. He was arrested last month at his home in Wapakoneta, Ohio and was a youth pastor at Peace Baptist Church in North Carolina.

Too often, in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, law enforcement focuses only on clerics who commit child sex crimes and ignore church staff who conceal child sex crimes. We urge police and prosecutors to investigate whether others at Peace Baptist may have ignored or hidden Ramsey’s crimes. If so, they should also be prosecuted.

And too often, in these cases, church officials do little or nothing to help police and prosecutors. We urge members, volunteers and employees at churches in Ohio and North Carolina where Ramsey spent time to work hard to find those who may have seen, suspected or suffered Ramsey’s crimes and beg them to call secular authorities.

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

OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 20

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)

The spokesman for Portland’s Catholic archbishop is either lying or dead wrong about the church’s ability to supervise sex offender clergy.

David Renshaw claims that church officials could not have taken Fr. Ysrael Bien’s passport. (Fr. Bien has fled to the Philippines despite his facing charges of using a hidden camera in a church restroom.)

[OregonLive]

That’s simply not true. Archbishop Alexander Sample could have insisted that Fr. Bien give him his passport the minute the camera was discovered.

Priests can’t do whatever they want. They can’t date, marry, masturbate or volunteer for Planned Parenthood. They can’t live or work where they want, take Sundays off.

Priests can’t even say whatever they want. (Watch what happens if one of them advocates married or women clergy.)

The church is a monarchy. The bishop is the lord of his kingdom, the diocese. Every priest must swear to obey his bishop. And bishops often use their nearly limitless power to discipline priests who disobey them.

There’s a simple test that proves Renshaw is wrong or lying. Have you ever heard of a priest successfully suing his bishop for anything? Nope. It doesn’t happen. And one reason why: priests, like Catholic laypeople, are essentially powerless serfs in an ancient, rigid, medieval hierarchy in which bishops have vast, almost unchecked power. (Ever heard of a priest filing a grievance against his bishop through the International Union of Priests? Nope. There is none.)

Here’s a hypothetical: What if we’re wrong? What if Sample had taken Fr. Bien’s passport and later, a higher ranking church official told Sample he erred and must return the passport? That would have been virtually unprecedented in Catholic history: a bishop criticized for doing TOO MUCH – instead of TOO LITTLE – to protect kids. What a stunning breath of fresh air that would have been. We suspect that Portland Catholics would have enthusiastically rallied around a bishop who took strong action against a suspected criminal cleric.

So we call on Archbishop Sample, who refuses to give interviews about the Fr. Bien case, to honor his pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sexual abuse. He should answer questions in public about his role in this troubling case. And he should issue an apology and correction today about the misleading, self-serving comments of his spokesman.

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE
KLFY

[with video]

A former student of the St. Paul’s School tells CBS News the faculty was aware of the “Senior Salute” ritual, in which senior boys tried to meet up with younger female students, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

“It’s generally more cute than malicious. And the person approached can always say ‘No,”‘ the recent graduate said.

She said she knows the teenage girl who has accused 19-year-old Owen Labrie of rape at the elite New Hampshire prep school, as well as the defendant.

She said the school was aware of the tradition and terms associated with it, such as “scoring” — or hooking up — and “the score web” — a wall where participants would write their names.

“I remember a few times specifically when the words ‘Senior Salute’ were brought up and faculty definitely addressed it,” she said.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

By PAIGE SUTHERLAND

Thursday Aug. 20, 11:30 AM:

In day three of the St. Paul’s rape trial in Concord, the alleged victim pushed back against the defense’s aggressive questioning.

The 16-year-old former freshman at the elite prep school was on the stand for more than 8 hours before being dismissed at around 11 a.m.

When J.W. Carney, a high profile defense lawyer who represented mobster Whitey Bulger, asked the alleged victim about her interview with Concord Police last June, the accuser repeatedly asked to see the transcript before answering.

She also made sure Carney read the entire script including all the “umms and likes.” When she repeatedly told Carney to rephrase the question or tried to elaborate on answers, Carney raised his voice and ordered the judge to have her answer his questions with a yes or no. But the judge said she had a right to explain herself.

And when pushed on why she was dazed after the alleged incident with then senior Owen Labrie – she broke down.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By Allison Manning @allymanning
Boston.com Staff | 08.20.15

A prep school girl who accuses a senior of raping her left the courtroom in tears Tuesday after a defense attorney accused her of giving mixed messages: laughter when they were together, and “hahahas” in messages following the encounter.

J.W. Carney spent about 90 minutes questioning the girl, who says she agreed to meet Owen Labrie and went willingly with him to a secluded room in a building on the campus of St. Paul’s School on May 30, 2014. She was 15 years old at the time; Labrie was two days away from graduating.

The rendezvous was part of a longstanding game called Senior Salute, in which graduating seniors tried to hook up with as many people as possible before they left campus. Prosecutors say Labrie and his friends were in a contest to see how many girls they could “slay.”

The girl, who Boston.com is not naming, told Labrie he could “count” their encounter toward his numbers.

Labrie maintains the hookup was consensual, and that they never had penetrative sex. The girl says it was rape, even if she didn’t kic

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
NBC News

[with video]

by JON SCHUPPE

A girl who says she was raped at an elite New England prep school broke down on the witness stand Wednesday when her alleged attacker’s lawyer pointed out inconsistencies in how she described the circumstances surrounding her encounter with the older student.

The outburst happened as defense attorney Jay Carney pressed the 16-year-old girl on why some of her recollections at the trial differed from those she outlined in a police interview five days after the alleged May 2014 attack in a secluded room at the top of a campus building at the St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.

The girl said her mind had been “cloudy” when she spoke to a detective.

“Why were you cloudy?” Carney asked.

“I was raped,” the girl said, crying suddenly. “I was violated in so many ways. Of course I was traumatized. I was cloudy because I was traumatized.”

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.