ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
Canton Daily Ledger

Hannah Schrodt
Daily Ledger reporter

Posted Aug. 13, 2015

LEWISTOWN
A former pastor convicted of sexual criminal abuse who is now accused of violating sex offender registry terms will be pleading not guilty to the felony charges against him.

In Fulton County Court Wednesday, Jason Phillips, 41, of Glasford, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and said he plans on pleading not guilty to four counts of being present on the property of a child care facility. The charges are Class 4 felonies.

Phillips is requesting a trial by jury, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 19. He has hired legal counsel.

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
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Friday, August 14, 2015

The Diocese of Gallup’s assets are “virtually non-existent” and insurance coverage is “extremely limited” for settling the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, an attorney for an insurance company said in court records.

At least 17 of the 57 sexual abuse claims filed in the case predate 1965, when the Diocese of Gallup had no insurance coverage, attorneys said in motions.

The company that insured the diocese from 1965 to 1977, Home Insurance Co., is insolvent and went into liquidation proceedings in 2003.

The 25 sexual abuse claims that date to that period are now covered by New Mexico Property and Casualty Guaranty Association, which was created by New Mexico state law in 1978 to cover insurance policies issued by defunct companies.

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

SCOTLAND
Press and Journal

12 August 2015 by Ben Hendry

A child safety campaigner is seeking an urgent meeting with Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House as part of an inquiry into allegations of sex abuse at a Moray monastery.

Andi Lavery claims he was treated dismby a call handler when he attempted to report the accusations of two men who claim they were assaulted at Pluscarden Abbey.

Police last night insisted they would “listen and investigate” whenever allegations of child abuse were brought to their attention.

However, Mr Lavery, who heads the White Flowers Alba support group, said the response he received could deter others from reporting 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.

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

(CHICAGO) Two new lawsuits were filed Thursday alleging sexual abuse by convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The plaintiffs — two men identified only as John J.M. Doe and John K. Doe — filed the suits Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Both plaintiffs claim in their separate suits that McCormack groomed them and engaged the boys in sexual and abusive relationships from 2000 to 2003 while the priest was a pastor at St. Agatha’s Parish on the West Side.

McCormack was removed from the priesthood in November 2007 and pleaded guilty that year to abusing five other children at St. Agatha’s.

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
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

REBUTTAL to the title: First of all, “Criminalizing the Bible” – means the Bible has committed a crime and the Bible is charged with crime in secular civil court of justice — and the blame is on the ancient book, an inanimate object. It’s tantamount to saying “criminalizing the gun”. Or “criminalizing the knife”. It’s blaming the gun or the knife – instead of the murderer and the violent person who used these tools in his crime.

The fact of the matter is, in this case – it is Swiss Bishop Huonder that is charged with having committed a crime – by using the Bible – as the tool of his crime –– when he cited a specific verse from the Bible that instruct people to kill homosexuals. It was in his 50 minutes speech at a conference on marriage in Germany that he incited murder against homosexuals. Swiss Bishop Huonder is the person being criminalized, not the Bible. The Swiss Bishop is inciting murder by using the words of the Bible as his specific command, instruction and justification for murder of gays.

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
Tzedek

Posted on 14 August 2015

Statement Regarding Tzedek bringing Dr. Goldwasser to Australia by Josh Bornstein, President of Tzedek:

“Tzedek’s mission statement is to support and advocate for victims of sexual abuse in the Jewish community. Several months ago, a decision was made by Tzedek to invite Dr Goldwasser to speak at the Jewish Community Education Forum in Melbourne on 6 September. The decision was made because of his considerable experience dealing with the dynamics of sexual abuse in the Jewish community.

More recently, we have become aware of other matters and controversies relating to Dr Goldwasser. Amongst other things, we have taken on board concerns raised by the LGBTI community. As a result we have reviewed the matter and decided that it is no longer appropriate for Dr Goldwasser to speak at the forum.

We wish to make clear that Tzedek does not in any way endorse or condone what has been described as “reparative therapy”. Such “therapy” has been completely discredited.

Our forum will proceed on September 6th and we encourage all members of the community to attend. ”

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.

ISRAEL
JTA

August 13, 2015

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The wife of a Safed rabbi charged with sex crimes said she knew about his sex acts with two women.

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg’s wife told Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, that she knew her husband had sex with two women, she is heard saying in a recording of the conversation played on Israel Channel 2. The sex, she said, was part of their therapy.

The wife, whose name was not given, refers to the acts as “relaxation message,” a euphemism for sex.

Sheinberg, 46, was charged last month in Nazareth District Court, on 13 counts of rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment, fraud and obstructing an investigation.

His wife said her husband only told her about two women; 13 have come forward to accuse him. The women had come to the rabbi with religious questions.

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
Canonical Consultation

08/13/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Since his resignation in June of 2015, there has been a great deal of speculation about the whereabouts of Archbishop John Nienstedt. In a July 19, 2015, interview with the StarTribune, Nienstedt said that since his resignation he has been ‘spending time with friends and family’, while other journalists have tracked his appearance at significant events such as the recent Napa Institute. If recent rumors are true, however, the former Archbishop’s whereabouts are really no mystery at all. He lives where he has always lived- in the Residence connected to the Chancery on Summit Avenue in Saint Paul.

While at first glance the idea seems outrageous, once you consider the options it is really not surprising at all. The Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Hebda, is not often in residence because of his responsibilities out east. Bishop Piche, who resigned along with Archbishop Nienstedt, is said to be living in the territory of the Diocese of Saint Cloud. The Archbishop’s apartments on the campus of the University of Saint Thomas are already occupied by an Emeritus Archbishop, and given Nienstedt’s frosty relationship with UST I can’t see them giving him a home even if the institution had one to provide. Bishop Cozzens, a member of the Companions of Christ, has the obligation of community life and therefore is likely to live at the Companion’s home in Saint Paul. There is always the Byrne residence, which has long provided sanctuary to disgraced clergy, but its proximity to the seminary is problematic and besides, most priests would rather celebrate three weddings each Saturday than take up residence at the Catholic Services Appeal-funded home for retired priests (hence the exceedingly high vacancy rates).

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.

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Clifford Ward
Chicago Tribune

Priest who gambled parish money is transitioning back to ministry.
A Catholic priest who gambled away almost $300,000 that he stole from his Roselle parish could conclude his court-ordered probation this week as he continues to transition back to ministry following the disgrace of pleading guilty to felony theft.

The Rev. John Regan is scheduled to appear Friday in DuPage County Court, four years after he was sentenced to jail time and 48 months of probation and ordered to make restitution for money he stole to St. Walter’s Parish, where he was pastor.

Regan, 51, has completed the jail and work-release requirements that were imposed as part of his sentence, but he still owes more than $250,000 in restitution, according to court records.

Regan, through his attorney, declined a request for an interview this week.

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., August 11, 2015

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

ALBUQUERQUE — The Diocese of Gallup racked up nearly $500,000 more in legal fees and expenses over a recent three-month period in its bankruptcy case.

The diocese’s legal costs now top more than $2.7 million, according to quarterly billing statements submitted to U.S. Bankruptcy Court by more than a half-dozen law firms, accountants, insurance researchers and real estate appraisers.

The total legal costs, as of June 30, are now $2,704,865.31. At the end of March, the legal costs were $2,258,084.14.

The Gallup Diocese owes more than $1.5 million to Quarles & Brady LLP, its lead bankruptcy law firm. It owes more than $600,000 to the law firm that provides legal counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of clergy sex abuse claimants. In addition, the diocese owes more than $360,000 to its accounting firm.

The professionals listed below have submitted the following quarterly and total billing figures. Most of these bankruptcy fees and expenses will not be paid until the Gallup Diocese has an approved plan of reorganization.

Quarles & Brady LLP: The Tucson law firm submitted the year’s second quarterly statement for legal fees and expenses of $252,944.33. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now $1,597,610.38.

Keegan, Linscott & Kenon, P.C: The Tucson accounting firm submitted a second quarterly statement for fees and expenses of $52,475.16. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $367,291.60. This firm continues to run the Diocese of Gallup’s finance office because the diocese hasn’t been able to hire a new chief financial officer since the previous one resigned just months before the Chapter 11 filing.

Stelzner, Winter, Warburton, Flores, Sanchez & Dawes, P.A: The diocese’s special counsel law firm from Albuquerque billed $1,149.06 for the second quarter. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $11,899.82.

Insurance Archaeology Group: This insurance research company did not submit a second quarterly billing statement. The company has previously billed the Gallup Diocese $47,929 and has been paid that amount.

Estate Valuation Consultants Inc.: This real estate appraisal company submitted a second quarterly statement for $9,900 in fees. The company’s total bill of $22,100 has been paid by the diocese.

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

Walker & Associates P.C.: The diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy law firm has not submitted a billing statement in 2015. To date, the firm has billed $18,062.40 in post-petition fees and expenses.

Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP: This law firm is the legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing sexual abuse claimants. The firm submitted a second quarterly statement for fees and expenses of $180,312.62. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now $639,972.11.

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
Our Stories Untold

By CAMERON ALTARAS on Aug 13, 2015

Representing the Anabaptist Mennonite Chapter of SNAP, Dr. Cameron Altaras delivered the following speech at the Annual SNAP conference in Alexandria, Virginia on August 2, 2015. More than 300 survivors of sexual abuse in faith communities and their loved ones gathered to hear speakers from around the world who educated and inspired us to “protect the vulnerable and expose the truth” about sexual abuses of power in our own denominations. BG

(Note: Although a male pronoun for the pastor and female pronoun for the victim is used here, victims and perpetrators can be any gender.)

A woman went to her pastor for advice.

Not for sex.

She never imagined her pastor would do something so egregious as to manipulate her into having sex with him.

The worst part was that because they were both adults, the woman blamed herself for having an “affair” with her pastor and then hid silently in her shame.

But it was not an affair.

It was an abuse of power.

Sex between two parties where there is a power differential is not and can never be labeled “an affair.”

Sex between persons with unequal power is not even about sex. It’s about power and control over someone with less power.

If approached by a stranger at a party, the sexual advances would have been obvious to the woman. But when her pastor became amorous, the woman was caught completely off guard. She thought she was making more out of the situation than her pastor intended. She ignored her screaming intuition, warning her that something was terribly wrong. It was not easy to rebuff her pastor, whom she held in the high esteem afforded by his position. She didn’t want to offend her pastor by refusing his pastoral hug the first time and it became increasingly awkward to refuse to hug him each time after that.

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

CALIFORNIA
Toronto Sun

BY BILL HARRIS, POSTMEDIA NETWORK

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Jay Leno wonders why we believe men who say they were raped by priests decades ago, but we don’t tend to believe women who say they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby decades ago.

“Well, 50 women come forward and people call them liars,” said Leno, the former host of The Tonight Show, at the Television Critics Association tour on Thursday. “And they go, ‘Oh, you waited 40 years.’ You know, men waited 50 years to say, ‘A priest touched me.’ And they got 7 million dollars.

“How come we believe them and we don’t believe the women? You know, it does seem awful sexist to me. A woman says, ‘Oh, this happened to me, but I was too ashamed to say anything.’ Oh, you’re lying. But a man says it? ‘Oh, when I was 12 a priest raped me,’ or whatever it might be, then we have sympathy. It does seem terribly sexist that way. It does seem very unfair, and I’m surprised no one has ever made that analogy.

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

Annette Blackwell
August 14, 2015

A member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ governing body will give evidence at a royal commission hearing into child sex abuse on Friday.

Geoffrey Jackson, who started his ministry in Tasmania in the 1970s, is on the powerful seven-member governing body of the controversial church. The body helps shape the bible-based doctrine by which Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world live.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been inquiring into how the church and its legal entity in Australia – the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society – handle abuse allegations.

Mr Jackson is in Queensland for “private, compassionate” reasons but chief commissioner Peter McClellan requested he take the witness stand.

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

GERMANY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 13

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)

German Catholics, who were deceived and exploited by a selfish bishop, are apparently being rebuffed by Pope Francis in their effort to seek justice. It’s the same old pattern: corrupt Catholic officials are given “mercy” while their victims are given nothing.

[Deutsche Welle]

Bild reports that Germany’s “bling bishop” – Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst – may get off without paying damages to his diocese for his excessive spending on his 31.3 million-euro home and misleading parishioners and the public about it. We’re saddened but not surprised.

Pope Francis can keep gradually changing church finances, governance and morale. But until he finds the courage to harshly discipline reckless, selfish and deceptive bishops, he won’t change the damaging clerical culture of the church. And clergy crimes and misdeeds – financial and sexual – will continue.

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

OKLAHOMA
News-Star

Posted Aug. 13, 2015

A former Shawnee youth pastor who was arrested in late July on complaints involving sex crimes is now formally charged with four felony counts.

Brian K. Burchfield, 42, of Edmond, is charged in Pottawatomie County District Court with four counts of soliciting sexual conduct or communications with a minor by use of technology.

Those charges stem from an investigation by Shawnee police that reportedly involved text messages between Burchfield and several teenagers from the area.

At the time of his arrest, Burchfield’s online LinkedIn page listed him as being the young adult pastor at Quail Springs Baptist Church in Edmond, but he was the former youth pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee from June 2006 to April 2014.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

August 13, 2015

Kate Aubusson
Journalist

A US clinical psychologist who practised therapies aimed at curing homosexuality has been billed as a star speaker at an Australian event hosted by a Jewish advocacy group for child sexual abuse victims.

Dr Norman Goldwasser, who applied conversion or reparative therapies to treat same-sex attraction, is the keynote speaker at Tzedek Australia’s Melbourne education forum in September.

Several survivors of child sexual abuse in the Jewish community have condemned Dr Goldwasser’s involvement, including the founder and former chief executive of Tzedek.

Several Tzedek board members have threatened to resign if the clinical psychologist attends the event.

Dr Goldwasser has recently disassociated himself from conversion therapy and the US-based group JONAH, which claimed it could cure homosexuality.

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.

ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Nir Har Zahav

The wife of Ezra Sheinberg, the disgraced former head of Orot Ha’ari Yeshiva in Tzfat, said he told her about two cases in which he performed indecent acts with women he was supposedly treating.

The wife is heard saying this in a conversation with Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi of Tzfat, a recording of which reached Channel 2.

“I knew,” she said in the recorded conversation. “It is not something that ‘went out of the house’ without my knowledge. I knew about all of the ‘relaxation massage,’ I knew, I knew he did it.”

The Hebrew word she used, “harpaya,” which is best translated as “relaxation massage,” is also a euphemism for certain sexual acts.

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

And speaking of the upcoming papal visit to the U.S. (I just did so in my previous posting, didn’t I?), SNAP has published a very valuable Q and A written by David Clohessy, on Pope Francis and the abuse/cover up crisis. I highly recommend this document to you. It does an outstanding job of arguing that the so-called “Francis effect,” in collusion with an adulatory media, give many of us the impression that Pope Francis has done something substantive to address the issue of child abuse by clerics in the Catholic church.

When he has not done so . . . . Not yet, at least.

Here’s an excerpt from the Q and A’s conclusion, in response to the question, What would you like to see Francis do?:

Turn over every document about clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes to law enforcement. Insist that bishops lobby for, not against, secular legislative reforms to protect kids. And quickly, publicly and harshly fire dozens of complicit bishops.

(Note: on 3/7/13, we listed 20 steps Pope Francis should take in this crisis.

Put the phrase “Francis should” – in quotes – in our website search box and find 28 statements outlining what we’d like to see him do.)

With lightning speed, Francis ousted a German bishop who mismanaged church money. But with glacial speed, Francis ignores bishops who endanger children and protect predators.

He’s making major strides in improving church finances, governance, and morale. But he’s posturing on abuse and cover ups. He’s making nearly no meaningful strides to actually prevent abuse and cover ups.

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.

SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

Vitus Huonder, the Catholic bishop of Chur, has apologised if anyone felt hurt when he quoted a Bible verse calling for homosexuals to be put to death, but he says he stands by his literal reading of the Bible.

In his 50-minute address on marriage at a forum in Germany on August 2, Huonder quoted two verses from the book of Leviticus, including Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

In response to applause, he continued: “Both of these passages alone suffice to clarify unambiguously the church’s position on homosexuality”.

This triggered a public outcry and a criminal complaint from a private individual in St Gallen and Pink Cross, the umbrella association for Swiss gay groups, which accused 73-year-old Huonder of “inciting people to crime or violence”.

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
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Leonard P. Cowley was ordained for the St. Paul archdiocese in 1938. He was longtime assistant at a St. Paul parish before being assigned in 1949 as pastor of another, in Minneapolis. Cowley held numerous chancery positions. He was elevated to Auxiliary Bishop of St. Paul in January 1958. From 1963 until his death in August 1973, Cowley was pastor of St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral in Minneapolis.

Cowley’s name was among 17 made public February 11, 2015 of clergy with accusations against them of sexual abuse or misconduct with a minor in the archdiocese. A man is reported to have filed a claim that Cowley sexually abused him during a trip to northern Minnesota in 1968, when the man was a 15-year-old boy.

Ordained: June 4, 1938
Ordained Bishop: January 29, 1958
Died: August 18, 1973

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.

TOWSON (MD)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims expose another Catholic predator
Group releases nine pages of records about him
Archdiocese admits “a number of allegations” against priest
Yet two archbishops refuse to tell public or parents about him
SNAP also urges Catholic officials to drop legal case against a victim
Man who was molested at Calvert Hall now faces trespassing charges

WHAT:
A month before Pope Francis comes to DC, holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will release nine pages of previously-secret records about a never-before-publicly accused predator priest who apparently had several victims. They will also urge Baltimore Catholic officials to

–“come clean,” for the sake of public safety, about other predator priests and
–post their names on church websites (like Baltimore’s previous archbishop did).

And they’ll beg anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” clergy sex crimes or cover ups at Calvert Hall and in the Baltimore area “to step forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.”

WHEN
Thursday, August 13th at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside in front of the Baltimore County Circuit Courts Building, 401 Bosley Avenue, Towson, MD (410-887-2139, circuitcourt@baltimorecountymd.gov)

WHO
Two-three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and supporters http://www.snapnetwork.org/

WHY
SNAP is releasing nine pages of never-before disclosed emails and letters between two current archdiocesan headquarters staffers, a prosecutor and a victim.

They show that 1) Msgr. Joseph A. Davies has been repeatedly accused of molesting children and 2) at least one church official believes he’s guilty. But Baltimore Archbishop William Lori and his staff refuse to disclose these facts to parents, parishioners or the public.

One letter, to a victim from a high-ranking church official, Msgr. Richard Woy (410-464-4000, RWoy@archbalt.org) says “I want to apologize for the abuse you suffered at the hands of Msgr. Davies.” Another letter by Msgr. Woy admits that the archdiocese “has received a number of child sex abuse allegations” against Msgr. Daviess.

The emails are to/from Alison J. D’Alessandro (410-547-5348, adalessandro@archbalt.org) who deals with abuse victims for the archdiocese).

SNAP wants Archbishop Lori to “come clean” about Msgr. Daviess and “all other admitted, proven or credibly accused child molesting clerics.” (Msgr. Daviess is deceased.)

SNAP also wants Lori and Calvert Hall officials to drop trespassing charges against an abuse victim who goes on trial today.

In 2014, Kurt Gladsky was charged with trespassing at Calvert Hall High School for what he describes as civil disobedience designed to warn others about clerics who commit or conceal child sex crimes. Saying “Kurt has suffered enough,” SNAP wants church and school staff to ask prosecutors to drop the case.

In 1968, Gladsky was molested by Brother Xavier B. Langdon at the school. In 2012, Gladsky was paid a six figure settlement by the school administration.

In 2004, Calvert Hall officials responded to public criticism by re-naming a golf tournament and an education program it had honored Br. Langton. They also took down his photo.

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.

AUSTRALIEN
Bruderinfo

Zum Beispiel Max Horley, ein Ältester der Zeugen Jehovas, bei seiner Zeugenaussage zum Thema Kindesmissbrauch in Australien vor der Kommission.

Der folgende Artikel wurde von einem NICHT-ausgeschlossenen Leser von JWSURVEY.ORG geschrieben.

Wie bereits in vielen Zeitungen und Medien auf der ganzen Welt berichtet wurde, geht die australische ROYAL COMMISSION den Hinweisen nach, dass Zeugen Jehovas in Australien 1006 Missbrauchsfälle an Kindern NICHT der Polizei gemeldet haben. 100 dieser Fälle seien angeblich Wiederholungstätern zuzuschreiben.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND/VATIKAN
Tagesspiegel

Der Vatikan hat einen Bericht der “Bild” zurückgewiesen, wonach Papst Franziskus Schadenersatzforderungen gegen den Limburger Ex-Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst abgelehnt hat.

Die “Bild” hatte berichtet, dass der emeritierte Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst wegen der überhöhten Kosten für die Limburger Bischofsresidenz keinen Schadenersatz zahlen muss. Wie das Blatt am Donnerstag unter Berufung auf Insider im Vatikan berichtet, habe Papst Franziskus diese Entscheidung schon im Juli getroffen.

Die deutsche Abteilung im päpstlichen Staatssekretariat sei darüber bereits informiert worden. Die Entscheidung solle dem Administrator des Bistums Limburg, Manfred Grothe, in der ersten September-Woche im Vatikan von Mitarbeitern des Papstes erläutert werden.

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

GERMANY/VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Germany’s “bling bishop” might get off without paying damages to his diocese if a report in the mass-circulation “Bild” is to be believed. Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst had lived large in a 31.3 million-euro residence.

On Thursday, the mass-circulation newspaper “Bild” reported that the disgraced bishop would not have to pay damages for going about 25 million euros ($28 million) over budget. Quoting a Vatican insider, the Thursday edition of the newspaper, Germany’s biggest by circulation, reported that Pope Francis had made the decision back in July.

The professed papal confidant reportedly told the newspaper that Francis made the decision “out of sympathy and not out of a sense of justice.”

According to the newspaper, German officials of the Catholic Church have already been informed. Limburg Diocese administrator Manfred Grothe is expected to formally announce the decision in December, “Bild” reported.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant forced to stand down over intimidating child sex abuse victims returns to teaching

SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED AUGUST 13, 2015

A DISGRACED rabbi forced to step down from a string of posts after he was caught intimidating and vilifying victims of child sexual abuse is now teaching Jewish Studies at an orthodox ladies college.

Meir Shlomo Kluwgant was forced to resign as Australia’s top rabbi amid a humiliating scandal in the wake of the child abuse royal commission’s probe into Yeshivah College.

But in a move that has outraged victims of abuse Rabbi Kluwgant is now teaching religious studies at Beth Rivkah Ladies College — operated by the Yeshivah Centre who has backed the move.

He has been teaching at the school for several months on a volunteer basis, but is remunerated by the Yeshivah Centre for performing other duties.

The move has outraged victims of child sexual abuse who say it is evidence the centre is not serious about tackling the scourge of 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.

ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Paul Vallely
Thursday 13 August 2015

At 6.30 on the morning of 28 June 2013 – just three months into the reign of Pope Francis – officials of the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian law enforcement agency for financial crime, pulled up in front of a rectory in Palidoro, a quiet seaside town west of Rome. When they rang the bell, the cleric who came sleepily to the door was informed that he was under arrest. A few hours later, wearing a well-cut grey suit, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was shown into a cell in the Regina Coeli, Rome’s most overcrowded prison.

Scarano, a suave, handsome priest known for his extravagant lifestyle (his nickname among other priests was Monsignor Cinquecento, My Lord Five Hundred, because of his habit of carrying only €500 banknotes), was head of accounting at the Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica (APSA) – the body that then managed the Vatican’s property holdings and controlled its purchasing and personnel departments. His arrest made front-page news. He was accused of trying to smuggle €20m on a private plane across the border from Switzerland in a money-laundering conspiracy involving the Vatican bank, an agent of Italy’s secret services and an Italian broker under suspicion for running a Ponzi scheme.

Doubts about Scarano had first been aroused six months earlier, when he had reported a burglary at his apartment in the city of Salerno, south of Naples. Paintings from his art collection had been stolen, he claimed. When the police arrived at the 17-room apartment on Via Romualdo Guarna, in one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, they were startled by its opulence. It was furnished with valuable antiques, and a spectacular display of art lined the walls in hallways divided by Romanesque columns. Scarano’s collection included a painting attributed to Chagall. Police reports estimated the missing artworks were worth €6m.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

Brendaliss Gonzalez
Aug 12, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Instead of offering an apology to all victims, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph offered a healing service on Wednesday for anyone who has been abused by someone in the church.

The diocese sent letters to victims of abuse who filed lawsuits against the church on Tuesday, inviting them to several services specifically aimed toward spiritual healing for victims of abuse.

Michael Sandridge received one of the letters.

“What is the purpose now?” he said. “This healing means it’s closed. It’s not closed. There are still so many people that have been damaged.”

Sandridge says he was abused by his priest when he was 11.

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

AUGUST 12, 2015, BY ABBY EDEN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The reaction from priest sex abuse victims following the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese announcement of a series of healing prayer services, was it’s all a publicity stunt dodging the real issues, which comes too little, too late.

The church says it’s just one thing they’re doing to change the way sex abuse allegations are handled.

Pope Francis asked Catholics worldwide to make the next year, a year of mercy.

And the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says that’s part of the reason they wanted to start these healing prayer services.

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MISSOURI
KCTV

By Laura McCallister, Multimedia Producer
By Jeanene Kiesling, Reporter

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is apologizing to victims of sexual abuse while also trying to begin the healing process in the first in a series of prayer and healing services.

The first is held Wednesday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church. Those attending will receive a brochure. It reads “Hope” on the front, but at least one victim doubts the church’s sincerity.

“It’s a publicity stunt. I think it’s too little too late,” said Michael Sandridge

Sandridge was sexually abused on a field trip when he was 11. His abuser was his priest at St. Elizabeth.

Sandridge was a plaintiff in a 2014 settlement against the diocese. He said coming forward and seeking justice was hell.

“We were painted as liars and money grubbing. That was not the case. Originally we didn’t even want the money, just to get rid of the people,” said Sandridge.

Now he says the same church that called them liars is apologizing and trying to fix what was kept a secret for so long.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 30

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)’

A priest who fled the US after raping a teenager in New Jersey later quietly taught at a Maryland school. Catholic bishops in both states should aggressively seek out his victims and warn the public about him.

[NJ.com]

Fr. Manuel Gallo Espinoza fled back to South America from the Newark archdiocese after a victim reported having been raped by the priest. (Catholic officials admit the report was “credible” and law enforcement sought to interview Fr. Espinoza.) A few years later, however, Fr. Espinoza quietly returned to the US and began teaching at a Prince George’s County, Md. School. He abruptly left in February.

We call on bishops in both Maryland and New Jersey to use their vast resources – parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements – to warn police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public about Fr. Espinoza. They should turn over every shred of paperwork they have about this priest to law enforcement. Bishops should personally visit parishes in the areas Fr. Espinoza worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward.

Catholic officials recruited, educated, ordained, hired, supervised, trained and sheltered Fr. Espinoza, then tipped him off as police were about to question him. So aggressive outreach is the bare minimum they should do at this point.

We hope law enforcement will also consider criminal charges against those who ignored or concealed Fr. Espinoza’s crimes.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Chackes, Carlson & Gorovsky

August 11, 2015 – St. Louis, MO

Chackes, Carlson & Gorovsky, LLP, seek dismissal of Fr. Joseph Jiang’s lawsuit against the mother of the young boy who accused Jiang of sexual abuse.

The victim’s mother is speaking out publicly for the first time:

“As a parent I selected and paid for Catholic school because I thought the Archdiocese would protect my child and educate him in the ways of God and man. Instead, I am horrified about the criminal abuse that happened to my child under their care. I chose to entrust the Archdiocese with my son, and they grossly failed to protect him. In addition, I am being sued for believing my child. I am also appalled that I am being accused of being a racist. I am further being accused of discriminating against Catholics. This is ridiculous. God has not given me a spirit of fear. As a mother I will do everything within my power to protect my child and to see those who perpetrated and allowed these heinous crimes to take place brought to justice. May God have mercy on their souls.”

A copy of the Motion to Dismiss is attached. In it, the mother’s attorneys state:
“In what appears to be a brazen attempt to frighten other potential victims of his from coming forward, on June 25, 2015, Plaintiff Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang filed a Complaint frivolously accusing the mother of a child who he sexually abused of violating his rights. Plaintiff Jiang’s Complaint reads like a 32 page self-serving press release which was filed without regard to the law or common sense. Despite alleging that he was falsely accused, Plaintiff includes serious unfounded allegations in his Complaint and labels them “upon information and belief.”

“Of course, N.M. has the ultimate defense to all claims in this case in that the allegations of sexual abuse against Plaintiff are TRUE, but this case should never get that far. Plaintiff has not even come close to making a sufficient claim against N.M. in this case. His facts about N.M. are startlingly sparse. The lack of facts here is so striking, in fact, that it appears that this entire case reeks of a publicity stunt designed to harass N.M. and her family and to prevent other victims of childhood sexual abuse from coming forward. This lawsuit is malicious, frivolous and harassing. The lawsuit lacks merit and is strongly against the public policy that encourages people to come forward when they are victims of childhood sexual abuse. With regard to N.M., it is purely harassing.”

The mother is being represented by Attorneys Ken Chackes (880-4465), Nicole Gorovsky (880-4469), and Scott Rosenblum (862-4332).

Motion to Dismiss

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MISSOURI
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has apologized to victims of priest sexual abuse and invited them to a series of prayer services, but some say the move is inadequate and does little to prevent abuse.

The diocese sent letters last week from Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann and placed local ads to let those “directly or indirectly affected by any form of sexual abuse” know about the services, which begin Wednesday. Naumann, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, has been the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese’s apostolic administrator since the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn.

Finn also issued a public apology in 2008 to abuse victims as part of a $10 million settlement. But last year, when victims asked for a similar apology to be part of a $9.95 million settlement in another case, the diocese refused, The Kansas City Star reported.

Finn resigned last April, three years after he was convicted of failure to report suspected child abuse by a now-imprisoned priest.

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SPAIN/CHILE
Prensa Latina

Madrid, Aug 12 (Prensa Latina) The Church conceals information about the disappearance of Spanish religious Antonio Llidó in October 1974 in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, today unveiled the online journal Publico.

The source says the Spanish Episcopal Conference and the Archbishop of Valencia refused to release the documents related to the case of the priest, one of the victims of the recently deceased Chilean general Manuel Contreras.

He adds that when the historian Mario Amoros (author of Antonio Llidó, a revolutionary priest, published in 2007) wanted to get the documents, the Archbishop said that should take 50 years to release those files.

When it was requested to the Spanish Episcopal Conference Amorós was informed that the access time is 100 years, according to journalist Danilo Albin, author of the research.

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INDIA
Times of India

INDORE: A 21-year-old man committed suicide in an ashram on the premises of Lal Mandir under the jurisdiction of Malharganj police station on Tuesday. The man wrote a suicide note on his wrist with henna (mehendi) accusing the ashram’s priest of harassing him.

According to police, the deceased Gajendra Sharma hailed from Narsinhpur who had come to Indore to study Hindu rituals. He used to take lessons along with many other students in an ashram behind Bada Ganpati temple in the city. These students used to live in the ashram itself. On Tuesday, Sharma was found hanging from the ventilation shaft of his room by some devotees. A suicide note was found on the man’s wrist which held the temple priest responsible for the act.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Neal E. Gumpel is a clergy sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased former professor at Fordham University, Bronx, NY, and Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, where Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, sexually abused Neal Gumpel when he was a minor child

Fordham University and the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), who staff Fordham University and were responsible for Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ for decades until his death, refuse to acknowledge and bear responsibility for the allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ in Maine and give any assistance to Neal E. Gumpel, settle and validate his claim, and help him heal

The wife of Neal E. Gumpel, Helen Gumpel, retired fashion model and actress, thwarted a sexual attack in Bill Cosby’s dressing room on the set of “The Cosby Show,” and was featured recently in a New York magazine cover story on the sexual abuse of women by Bill Cosby. Helen Gumpel has become an advocate for her husband, a clergy sexual abuse victim, and the women who were sexually abused by Bill Cosby

What
A press conference and leafleting alerting the media, general public, and Fordham University alumni that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Fordham University refuse to assist a clergy sexual abuse victim of one of its priests, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ

When
Wednesday, August 12, 2015 from 5:30 PM until 7:30 PM

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the Spring Lake Bath and Tennis Club, 1 Jersey Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ 07762

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including the co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, a Fordham University alumnus, Ph.D., 1988

Why
Fordham University President Rev. Joseph Mc Shane SJ, along with new men’s basketball coach, Jeff Neubauer, will update alumni and friends about the university and the men’s basketball program, while continuing to ignore the request of childhood sexual abuse victim, Neal E. Gumpel, for help and healing from the injuries he incurred from the sexual abuse of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased Jesuit and Fordham University professor. Demonstrators will call on Fr. Mc Shane and the Jesuits to help Neal E. Gumpel heal by doing the right thing and acknowledging his sexual abuse claim.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Fordham University, ‘88
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA, 617-523-6250

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A native of the The Netherlands, Peter D. Snyers received seminary training at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and St. John’s in Collegeville. He was ordained for the St. Cloud diocese in 1953. He was assigned to parishes in Rice, Breckenridge, Ogleville, Foreston, Eden Valley, Holdingford and St. Cloud. Snyers was Assistant Director of the Catholic Boy Scouts in the diocese through the 1960s and ’70s. He retired in 2002 to Sauk Rapid, Minnesota, moving in 2009 to Sartell, where he died January 19, 2012. Snyers’ name was included on the Diocese of St. Cloud’s list released January 3, 2014 of 33 clergy ” likely involved in the sexual abuse of minors.”

Born: June 8, 1925
Ordained: December 27, 1953
Died: January 19, 2012

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Business First

Stephanie Guzman
Reporter
Albuquerque Business First

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup has more than 120 properties in both New Mexico and Arizona that are set to go on the market as part of a court-ordered auction. The auction comes after the diocese’s bankruptcy proceedings which began in 2013.

Accelerated Marketing Group and Tucson Realty and Trust Co. are offering the properties in two auctions, the first of which is in Arizona. About 100 properties in New Mexico will be auctioned in Albuquerque on Sept. 19 at the Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel located at 2910 Yale Blvd SE.

Todd Good, president of Accelerated Marketing Group, said auctions are an effective way to quickly liquidate real estate assets. Some properties up for auction include a Catholic Charities building in Farmington and a 151-acre residential subdivision — La Vega Estates — in Cibola County.

At the auction, the properties will be sold regardless of the price, Good said. “If you’re the high bidder, you win the property and are not subject to court approval.”

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MICHIGAN
The Morning Sun

POSTED: 08/11/15

A Mt. Pleasant priest suspended last month for improper behavior is not returning to the pulpit and has been replaced.

The Rev. Denis Heames, priest at St. Mary’s University Parish in Mt. Pleasant, was put on administrative leave for inappropriate behavior related to his ministry in early July.

Heames has been replaced by The Rev. Thomas McNamara, a popular priest who served nine years as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Mt. Pleasant in the 1990s.

McNamara – who assumes his new role immediately – will also continue serving the SS. Francis and Clare Parish in Birch Run, Bishop Joseph R. Cistone said in announcing the appointment.

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AUSTRALIA
PS News

The Department of Justice and Regulation has released a Consultation Paper exploring the possibility of establishing a redress scheme for victims of institutional child abuse.

According to the Consultation Paper, the absence of broad support required for a national redress scheme, particularly from the Federal Government, has led the Victorian Government to press ahead with a State scheme in order to meet its commitment to work on the implementation of recommendations made in the 2013 Betrayal of Trust Report.

“The release of this Consultation Paper is a critical step in that process, and the input received will be of great value to the Government in determining what form of Redress Scheme is adopted in Victoria,” the Consultation Paper said.

The Family and Community Development Committee of the Victorian Parliament’s Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non-Government Organisations recommended in its Report, Betrayal of Trust, that an alternative to courts be established for survivors to bring claims against institutions.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

August 12, 2015
By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror

The trial for a Somerset County priest charged with sexual offenses against Honduran children will take about three weeks, according to estimates in a memo issued by U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown.

Gibson held a status conference on the case against the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. of Central City on Friday with Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Haines and Maurizio’s Altoona attorney, Steven P. Passarello. The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Sept. 8.

The prosecution said it will present its case beginning Sept. 9 and expects to finish by Sept. 21, although it could conclude as early as Sept. 16 or 17.

The defense told the judge it would take a week to present its case.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas-St. Joseph is apologizing to victims of priest sexual abuse and inviting them to a series of prayer and healing services that starts Wednesday.

The move drew mixed reviews from those abused by clergy, some saying it was too little, too late.

In 2008, they noted, then-Bishop Robert Finn issued a public apology to victims as part of a $10 million settlement. But last year, they said, when victims asked for a similar apology to be part of a $9.95 million settlement in another case, the diocese refused.

Last week, the diocese sent letters from Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann and placed ads in local media to let those “directly or indirectly affected by any form of sexual abuse” know they were welcome to attend the services. Naumann, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, has been the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese’s apostolic administrator since Finn resigned in April.

The first service, to be led by Naumann, is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 11822 Holmes Road. Several other services will follow over the next 10 months at parishes in the diocese, leading up to a lamentation service on June 26, 2016, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the reaction of gay activists to a bishop who quoted the Bible:

They want him behind bars. His offense? He quoted from the Bible. The accused: Swiss Bishop Vitus Huonder. The accusers: gay activists in Europe and the United States.

On July 31, Bishop Huonder spoke at a Catholic forum in Germany, and in his remarks he quoted from Leviticus the passage condemning homosexuality. He also criticized gender theory.

Pink Cross, the umbrella group for Swiss LGBT groups, has now filed a criminal complaint against him. Citing the nation’s hate speech laws, he is accused of fomenting violence against
homosexuals. So far, more than a dozen gay groups and media outlets have pledged their support for Pink Cross. If found guilty, he could serve up to three years in prison.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WHBL

MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – There’s a new dispute over how many victims of priest sex abuse should be compensated in the settlement of the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy case.

The 10-county Catholic church has said that 157 people would not get any money from a $21 million settlement announced last week. But the creditors’ committee said only 84 victims should be omitted — those who received earlier cash payments from the archdiocese.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Washington Times

By – Associated Press – Tuesday, August 11, 2015

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Creditors in the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy case say some clergy abuse victims have been excluded from the $21 million settlement announced last week.

Creditors committee members say about 73 victims they believed would be compensated when they negotiated the settlement won’t be compensated. Committee chairman Charles Linneman says members believed only victims who had received prior cash settlements from the church would not be compensated. That’s about 84 people.

That contradicts the statement issued by the archdiocese last week that said 157 individuals would not receive money.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Clergy and senior lay leaders in Jersey’s Anglican Church have had training in protecting islanders from abuse, the Bishop of Dover said.

The Right Reverend Trevor Willmott said new safeguarding measures are in place to reassure everyone in the church.

It follows a decision by the church’s governing body – the Synod – that improvements must be made.

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NEDERLAND
Katholiek Nieuwsblad

[Allegations of abuse against the late Bishop Jan Blyseen have been deem plausible by a special investigating committee.]

De deze week naar buiten gebrachte beschuldigingen van ernstig seksueel misbruik door oud-bisschop Jan Bluyssen zijn door de Klachtencommissie onvoldoende aannemelijk bevonden.

Dat blijkt uit het advies van de Klachtencommissie dat door bisschop Anton Hurkmans van Den Bosch is overgenomen. De commissie heeft de bisschop geadviseerd de klacht ongegrond te verklaren.

Herhaalde verkrachting

Eerder deze week werd zijn voorganger, Jan Bluyssen (1926-2013), beschuldigd van ernstig seksueel misbruik. In een uitzending van Radio EenVandaag zei een oud-leerling van het kleinseminarie Beekvliet in de jaren ‘50 tientallen keren door Bluyssen te zijn verkracht.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
BBC Mundo

[No trial date has been set for Josef Wesolowski who is accused to abusing boys in the Domincan Republic.]

“Monseñor Wesolowski dejó el hospital a la semana de haber sido internado, sigue bajo arresto en el Vaticano y aún no se conoce la fecha en la que se retomará el juicio en su contra”.

Es la escueta respuesta del Vaticano cuando se le pregunta sobre Jozef Wesolowski.

El exdiplomático de la Santa Sede en el país caribeño debía acudir el 11 de julio, hace
exactamente un mes, a la primera audiencia del juicio en su contra en un tribunal del Estado de la Ciudad del Vaticano, pero no se presentó.

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AUSTRALIA
iWire

11 August 2015 By Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Australians can now stream Royal Commission hearings live to any device, also allowing ‘media commentators, affected parties and impaired audiences to engage with the commissions in real time.’

A new initiative supported by digital agency Get Started is giving Australians the opportunity to ‘stream the Royal Commission hearings into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Royal Commission into Family Violence live from any device they choose.’

It will also now allow ‘media commentators, affected parties and impaired audiences to engage with the commissions in real time.’

A media release from digital agency Get Started explains these changes ‘are the result of a fundamental shift in the way government agencies are approaching the accessibility and sharing of information online.’

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By: Laurel J. Sweet

A retired Salesian priest already serving a decadelong stretch at the state prison in Gardner for rape of a child pleaded guilty yesterday to a separate abuse indictment brought against him after a second victim recognized the former reverend from his photo in the Herald.

Richard McCormick, 74 and on medication for heart and thyroid ailments, was charged with rape of a child, but pleaded out in Salem Superior Court yesterday to a charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14 in exchange for not raising any potential statute of limitations issues.

The 8-to-10-year sentence imposed by Judge Timothy Feeley will run concurrently with the 8 to 10 years the Boston native received in November after a jury convicted him of child rape. The new sentence, however, starts today and McCormick is not credited with time already served.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Child sex abuse royal commission: Ex-Knox Grammar headmaster Dr Ian Paterson did not commit crime in failing to assist police, inquiry hears

By Nicole Chettle

A long-serving former Knox Grammar School headmaster did not commit a crime by failing to assist police investigating teachers at the exclusive Sydney boys’ school, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

The commission is looking at how the school responded to allegations of abuse by teachers between 1970 and 2009. Five teachers were later convicted of child sex offences.

During verbal submissions in Sydney on Monday the commission heard counsel assisting, David Lloyd, was seeking findings against Dr Ian Paterson, who was headmaster at Knox for 30 years.

The commission has the authority to refer alleged crimes to police.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The creditors committee in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy is challenging the terms of the $21 million settlement announced by Archbishop Jerome Listecki last week, saying the church excluded about 73 victims who committee members believed would be compensated when they agreed to the deal, its chairman said Monday.

Charles Linneman, who heads the five-member committee, said members understood that the only survivors who would not be compensated were those who had received prior cash settlements from the church — about 84 people.

That contradicts the statement issued by the archdiocese last week that 157 individuals would not be compensated.

“We want some answers about who is really in this group,” Linneman said.

Frank LoCoco, lead attorney for the archdiocese, said it is in talks with plaintiffs’ attorneys to determine how their clients will be treated under the plan, which is scheduled to be filed Aug. 24. He said some of the 157 who were deemed to receive no cash payment could be compensated as a result.

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PAKISTAND
Outlook India

ANEES JILLANI

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide phenomenon. The Catholic Church has been tarnished due to the involvement of dozens of its priests and pastoral workers in the sexual abuse committed over a period of 60 years and the bishops and other seniors downplaying it. The British papers reported just the other day about the involvement of former British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, in abusing children. A few months back, it was reported that some Pakistanis had been abusing dozens of under-age girls in Rotherham in England.

Does the fact that such abuses have taken place worldwide make the sexual exploitation of children in the Hussain Khan Wala village in the Qasur District of Punjab Province, near the border with India and about an hour’s drive from Lahore palatable and tolerable? Should we cover it up because the publicity surrounding the incident will adversely affect Pakistan’s reputation? Should the families remain silent to cover their honour?

Pakistan is passing through a semi-anarchical situation at present, with hardly any institution, appearing to be in a satisfactorily functioning order. At times, I feel that the top priority of every Pakistani is to invest in real estate. Just last night, while appearing in a TV program on the Qasur scandal with a minister from the ruling party, I could hear the minister talk about real estate investments in the 50 minute program during the intervals. He obviously was more concerned about this subject than the sexual abuse of a few village boys.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Dialynn Dwyer @dia_dwyer
Boston.com Staff

Richard McCormick, a former Roman Catholic priest, was convicted last November and sentenced to eight to ten years in prison for raping a boy multiple times at a summer camp in Ipswich in the early 1980s.

On Monday, the 74-year old McCormick plead guilty to indecently assaulting another boy during the same years, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

The boy was only six years old when he began attending the camp, and McCormick sexually abused him at different times between 1981 and 1983, according to The Globe. The Globe said the victim recognized McCormick as his abuser when he saw the former priest’s picture after his conviction on five counts of rape in 2012.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

10 August, 2015

The Royal Commission’s public hearing into the Jehovah’s Witnesses will recommence in Sydney on Friday 14 August 2015 at 11:00am.

It is anticipated that the hearing will hear from one witness, Mr Geoffrey Jackson, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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

1. The experience of survivors of child sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Australia.

2. The responses of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd to allegations, reports or complaints of child sexual abuse within the Church.

3. The systems, policies and procedures in place within the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd for raising and responding to allegations of or concerns about child sexual abuse within the Church.

4. The systems, policies and procedures in place within the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd to prevent child sexual abuse within the Church.

5. Any related matters.

Date: Friday 14 August 2015
Hearing times: 11:00am start
Location: Hearing room 1, Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

EXCLUSIVE: The sordid truth behind Australia’s worst paedophile ring: The girl, 13, ‘forced into sex slavery by her own father’ and the ‘God-loving’ pastor who gave her amyl nitrate before raping her

By Daniel Piotrowski In Perth, Western Australia For Daily Mail Australia

A teenage girl allegedly abused by a shocking paedophile ring of eight men including her own father was drugged with amyl nitrate and raped by an evangelical preacher.

David Volmer, 41, a married father of two and the South African-born pastor of the ACTS Christian Church in Perth, pleaded guilty to 12 charges relating to the 13-year-old girl’s abuse last month.

Among the offences were three counts each of sexually penetrating a child, indecently dealing with a child under 13 and indecently dealing with a child aged over 13 and under 16.

Court documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Mr Volmer also pleaded guilty to three counts of administering amyl nitrate – a ‘stupefying vapour’ – with intent to sexually penetrate and indecently deal with the girl.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WBUR

By LISA CREAMER

BOSTON A former high-ranking Catholic priest found guilty last November of repeatedly raping a boy at an Ipswich summer camp pleaded guilty in court Monday to an additional charge that he sexually assaulted another young boy at the same camp, officials said.

According to Essex District Attorney spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan, the ex-Rev. Richard McCormick, 74, pleaded guilty in Salem Superior Court to a charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in exchange for McCormick agreeing to not pursue the statute of limitations appeal on the alleged rape.

At age 71, McCormick was arrested inside his residence and workplace, the Salesian Brothers of Don Bosco facility in New Rochelle, N.Y., and later found guilty on charges he took a boy from a dormitory and raped him in an office at the now-closed Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart Retreat House — a summer camp — in the early 1980s. He currently is serving eight to 10 years in prison in that case.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Salem News

Posted: Monday, August 10, 2015

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — A retired Roman Catholic priest who is already serving eight to 10 years in prison for the rape of a boy back in the early 1980s has received a second state prison term after admitting to molesting another child.

Rev. Richard McCormick, 74, the former provincial of the Salesian Society of North America, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Salem Superior Court to a reduced charge of indecent assault and battery.

The charge was reduced as part of plea negotiations, after McCormick agreed not to challenge whether the statute of limitations had expired in the case. He was originally charged with raping the boy during a period between 1981 and 1983, when the child was between 6 and 8 years old.
The victim, who grew up in Salem, the child of a struggling single mother, was sent to a summer camp in Rowley through the Salem Boys Club, he said.

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NORTH DAKOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John J. Owens was ordained for the Bismarck, North Dakota diocese in 1960. He assisted at parishes in Minot, Mandan, Williston and Trenton and went on to pastor parishes in towns including Leipzig, Douglas, Wilton and Menoken. Owens was longtime director of diocesan communications and editor of the diocesan paper. He also hosted a radio program which focused on outreach to area youth. He retired in 1999 to Forest Lake Minnesota, where he provided temporary assistance in parishes until 2004. Forest Lake is part of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese.

In 2002 a report was made to the Bismarck diocese that Owens had engaged in sexual misconduct toward a minor. Owens’ faculties were removed by the diocese, but he was allowed to continue as a fill-in priest in Minnesota until 2004; his faculties were removed there in 2005. The accusation wasn’t made public until October 23, 2014, when the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis included Owens’ name on a list of clergy with substantiated claims against them of child sexual abuse. Details of the abuse have not been released, except that it is said to have occurred in North Dakota. He is said to be living a “life of atonement.”

Ordained: 1960

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PAKISTAN
Reuters

HUSAIN KHAN WALA, PAKISTAN | BY MEHREEN ZAHRA-MALIK AND MUBASHER BUKHARI

Parents at the center of a growing child abuse scandal in Pakistan accused police on Monday of failing to do enough to break up a pedophile ring in Punjab province, the prime minister’s political heartland.

Villagers in the central Punjabi village of Husain Khan Wala told Reuters that a prominent family there has for years forced children to perform sex acts on video. The footage was sold or used to blackmail their impoverished families.

Rubina Bibi says her 13-year-old son was a victim, but when she tried to file a report at the Ganda Singh Wala police station a month and a half ago, “the police station clerk told me to get lost and I was thrown out”.

“My son is in the videos, he is a victim,” she said. “Our children were forced into this. They were humiliated. But the police are treating them like criminals.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
NECN

The former Rev. Richard McCormick pleaded guilty Monday to indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

Judge Timothy Feeley of Salem Superior Court sentenced him to 8 to 10 years in state prison.

McCormick is currently serving an 8 to 10 prison sentence following his conviction on 5 counts of child rape in Nov. 2014.

The Commonwealth reduced the charge from child rape to indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 after the defendant waived his right to assert the statute of limitations.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WHDH

A former priest pleaded guilty to indecent assault and battery of a child under 14 on Monday.

Richard McCormick was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, however, he is already serving 8 to 10 years from a 2014 child rape conviction, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

McCormick assaulted his victim, who was 7 years old at the time, on several occasions between June 1982 and September 1983.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Archdiocese secretly removed 80 victims from settlement after agreement
Chair says victims were “duped” in mediation
Time for an investigation by the Federal Bankruptcy Trustee and the Department of Justice

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

The Chair of the Creditors Committee of the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s nearly five year old child sex abuse bankruptcy is saying today that the committee can no longer support the settlement agreement unilaterally announced by Archbishop Jerome Listecki last week.

According to Charles Linneman, the Chair of the Creditors Committee, at least 80 victims were removed from the settlement without the committee’s knowledge.

The settlement, which has per victim compensation amounts at an average ten times lower than all other church bankruptcy settlements in the United States, appears to have been mediated by the archdiocese to “dupe” victims into an agreement.

Linneman was interviewed today in a breaking story by the National Catholic Reporter.

Perhaps even more alarming is that the five survivors on the committee, who represent 575 victims who filed cases into court, were never given anything in writing about the so called settlement, were not working off of written drafts, and were not allowed in the mediation to see any of the 575 case reports of the victims they were negotiating for. The committee members were also told nothing of when the settlement was going to be announced.

Also, unlike any other bankruptcy mediation in the United States, no one but the archdiocese was allowed to determine which claims were valid.

Of the 575 reports by victims, the criminal and sexually abusive acts of at least 100 newly alleged offender clergy have been detailed. Astonishingly, the archdiocese, which has a demonstrated history of concealing and transferring known sex offenders, was allowed to determine, without any outside investigation and apparently no involvement by law enforcement, that every single one of the over 100 newly named clerics were not a present danger to children.

Lawyers for the bankruptcy will be receiving nearly 70 percent of the total money. Over $20 million dollars will be pocketed by church, bankruptcy and church cemetery trust lawyers. Another $7 million will be distributed to lawyers representing individual creditors.

The archdiocese has between $250 to $300 million dollars that the settlement does not require they make available to victims, including a $60 to $65 million dollars of a fraudulently created “Cemetery Trust Fund” that the US Federal 7th Circuit Court has now ruled must be part of the archdiocesan bankruptcy estate. Not one single piece of property will have to be sold. No parishes or other church assets will be included, even though at one time the archdiocese listed its net worth at $1.3 billion dollars. (See details of what survivors believe the settlement should have been here.)

It’s hard to determine exactly how many lawyers have been involved in the bankruptcy, but for argument sake, of the 20 major lawyers “of record”, one can calculate that on average each one will be making about $1.5 million dollars. Compare that to the 330 clergy rape and sexual assault victims that the archdiocese has “allowed” into their settlement who will be getting on average $44,000 dollars each. (Keep in mind as well that 245 victims were excluded, including the 80 secretly removed after the archdiocesan announcement. They will receive nothing from the settlement as it stands.)

Average settlement amounts from other church bankruptcies after attorneys’ fees, is just over $300,000 dollars.

Among the secretly excluded 80 appear to be deaf victims sexually assaulted as children by the notorious Father Lawrence Murphy, a case which gained international attention. After removing lawyer fees, their settlement offer will be about $1,300 dollars. With archdiocesan billable hours at $450 to $475 dollars an hour this means a deaf victim assaulted by Murphy over a period of several years would receive less money than four billable hours by a church lawyer, hardly a single morning’s work defending the archdiocese for abusive priests and cover ups.

Isn’t it time with these new and alarming revelations today that the Federal Bankruptcy Trustee and the bankruptcy division of the Department of Justice begin a long overdue investigation?

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Aug. 10, 2015

MILWAUKEE The chairman of the creditors committee for the Milwaukee archdiocese bankruptcy said the outline of the settlement released this week does not match his understanding of what was in the agreement and that neither he nor the other victims on the committee can support it in its present form.

“It makes me feel like I was duped in mediation,” said Charles Linneman, chairman of the committee, adding that on Aug. 6, the committee discussed the version released by the archdiocese two days earlier and concluded “what they announced was not what we agreed to.”

Linneman contends that the archdiocese’s Aug. 4 statement outlining the key points in the settlement does not match what the creditors committee agreed to during the mediation. The committee had gotten nothing in writing and were not given copies of the statement before it was released.

“I didn’t even know it was coming out,” Linneman said. “I didn’t know anything about it until I started getting calls from survivors.”

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SWITZERLAND
Newsweek

Reuters

A gay rights group has filed a criminal complaint against a Roman Catholic bishop after he quoted Bible verses calling for gay people to be killed and said the passage made clear what Church policy was on homosexuality.

Vitus Huonder, the Catholic Bishop of the city of Chur in eastern Switzerland, made the speech on 31 July, during a debate on marriage and family organised by the German Catholic Forum in Fulda, Germany.

According to Swiss media reports, Huonder, 73, read out a passage from Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” His reading was followed by applause, before Huonder continued: “Both of these passages alone suffice to clarify unambiguously the church’s position on homosexuality,” according to a statement released by Pink Cross, an umbrella association for Swiss gay groups that is filing the complaint.

Pink Cross, supported by the Swiss Lesbian Organisation, argues that these comments amount to “inciting people to crime or violence,” and handed a lawsuit to the public prosecutor of Canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland on Monday. If found guilty, Huonder faces up to three years in prison.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Volksfreund

[Children at a Catholic daycare center in Mainz were sexually harassed and assaulted.]

(Pfungstadt/Mainz (dpa)) In einer katholischen Kindertagesstätte im südhessischen Pfungstadt sollen Kinder sexuell belästigt worden sein. Im Verdacht steht ein

Bundesfreiwilligendienstleistender, der dort gearbeitet hat. Das Bistum Mainz hat am Montag einen entsprechenden Bericht des «Darmstädter Echos» bestätigt. Die dortige Pfarrei St. Antonius ist Träger des Kindergartens und gehört zum Bistum Mainz.

Wann es zu dem Übergriff kam, war nach Angaben eines Bistumssprechers zunächst unklar. Die Polizei habe die Ermittlungen übernommen, sagte er. Als die Pfarrei dem Bistum am 30. Juli den Fall gemeldet habe, seien sofort die Ermittlungsbehörden und das zuständige Jugendamt eingeschaltet worden. Der mutmaßliche Täter sei fristlos entlassen worden. Das Bistum bedauert in einer Mitteilung den Vorfall und sagte den betroffenen Kindern und ihren Eltern Unterstützung zu.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[The shame of the Swiss Church – Rapper Gimma and blue musicians Philipp Fankhauser have shocked people by saying publicly they were abused by clergy in a Catholic boarding school and they are not the only ones by far. They were reacting to statements by Swiss Bishop Vitus Huonder who inferred by quoting certain bible portions that homosexual people should be put to death.]

Gimmas Plädoyer gegen Schwulenhass und sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche hat hohe Wellen geschlagen. Nach den Äusserungen des Churer Bischofs Vitus Huonder, der die Homosexualität während einer Rede zum Thema Familie als «Gräueltat» abstempelte, holte der Rapper zum Gegenschlag aus und setzte wirkliche Gräueltaten auf die Agenda – der Kindsmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche.

Für seinen offenen Brief an den Churer Bischof – «Lieber Herr Huonder, ich weiss ja nicht, ob Sie das Interessiert, aber ich wurde in meinem Leben von gut und gerne einem halben Dutzend Gläubigen und Würdenträgern sexuell genötigt» – hat Gimma jüngst gar von prominenter Seite Zuspruch erhalten.

«Danke Gimma, danke vielmals», schrieb etwa Bluesmusiker Philipp Fankhauser auf Facebook und gewährte einen nicht minder schockierenden Einblick in den Alltag katholischer Kloster: «Ich war von 1975 (mit 11) bis 1976 im katholischen Collegio Don Bosco in Maroggia bei Lugano», erzählt Fankhauser. «Der damalige Direktor und viele weitere Priester haben uns alle missbraucht.»

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PAKISTAN
The Guardian

Jon Boone in Islamabad

Monday 10 August 2015

The parents of victims of a child sexual abuse scandal that has horrified Pakistan say police tried to downplay the scale of crimes committed by a paedophile ring in a village in the country’s east.

It has been claimed that up to 280 girls and boys under the age of 14 were filmed being abused in Hussain Khan Wala, a village in Punjab province, near the Indian border. The videos were then used to blackmail their families as well as being sold to websites that host child abuse images.

Locals say police were reluctant to take action until it became a national scandal.

“Police did not even listen to me when I went to the station,” said the mother of one rape victim, who did not want her name revealed and who first took video evidence to the police in July.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
MSN

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A political pope is sure to seize his opportunity when he addresses a political body. So both Democrats and Republicans are looking forward to Pope Francis’ remarks to Congress next month — and bracing for them, too.

The pope thrills Democrats with his teachings on climate change, social justice and immigration. At the same time, his message on life and the Catholic Church’s traditional opposition to abortion comfort Republicans.

There is genuine giddiness among Catholic Democrats — many of whom have long been uncomfortably at odds with their church over abortion rights — about the pope’s strong emphasis on addressing poverty and the environment.

“I’ve been waiting for this pope all my life,” said liberal Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern, 57. “I find him inspirational and I know a lot of other people do, not just Catholics.”

The pope comes to the Capitol on Sept. 24, where he will be the first pontiff to ever address a joint meeting of Congress. He will also appear on a West Front balcony to greet the public.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

THE Royal Commissioner examining South Australia’s child protection system has revealed plans to take evidence from 13 foster care or welfare agencies, but all hearings will be closed to the public.

At least two of the witnesses giving evidence say they would be happy to do so openly and the Opposition has called for open hearings to be the “default position”, unless discussing details of sensitive child abuse cases.

Applications can be made to the Commissioner, former Supreme Court Judge Margaret Nyland, for a hearing to be opened to the public or Justice Nyland can declare a hearing open if she believes the evidence is of public interest.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The Drum

OPINION
By Paul Grundy

The Royal Commission into child abuse has highlighted a number of flawed areas within the Jehovah’s Witness Church. It’s time for the elders to instigate real change from within, writes former Witness Paul Grundy.

I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and for many years followed the doctrine of the religion.

I believed the teachings of the religion’s guiding magazine, Watchtower, and thought I was never going to die. I didn’t even expect to finish school before Armageddon – where God would kill the billions of people who were not Jehovah’s Witnesses and leave the few million witnesses to live on this planet forever.

According to the teachings of Watchtower:

Only Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the “great crowd”, as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil.
In my teen years I “pioneered” – meaning I devoted 20 hours a week to preaching – and at 21 I moved to the Bethel Watchtower headquarters, where I spent three-and-a-half years as a volunteer worker.

I personally came to know a number of the people who have recently been called for interview before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Terry O’Brien, the Australian Branch coordinator, was in my pioneer training school in the 1980s. Geoff Jackson, one of the religion’s governing body, lived in Tasmania, and his wife’s family brought my family into the religion in the early 1970s. Vincent Toole, the Bethel lawyer, was someone I knew well and looked up to.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

PAUL NUSSBAUM
LAST UPDATED: Sunday, August 9, 2015

The massive security efforts planned for next month’s papal visit to Philadelphia are unnecessarily burdensome and might not be effective, according to some security and counterterrorism experts.

The closure of major highways and bridges for more than two days, a three-square-mile traffic-free zone in Center City, restricted transit access, and the closing of offices and businesses “is a disproportional reaction,” said Scott White, a former security agent for the Canadian government and now a professor of homeland security and security management at Drexel University.

“What are we attempting to do here? Are we attempting to protect the pontiff, who already has – and always has – rings of security? Or are we attempting to protect one million or two million people?”

“We can’t protect 40 people in a cinema,” White said, referring to the spate of recent theater shootings. “How are we going to protect two million people?”

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SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

AUG 10, 2015

Pink Cross, the umbrella association for Swiss gay groups, is filing a criminal complaint against Vitus Huonder, the Catholic bishop of Chur, for “homophobic comments” made in a recent speech in which he quoted bible verses calling for gays to be put to death.

The lawsuit was set to be handed in to the public prosecutor of canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland on Monday.

Pink Cross, backed by the Swiss Lesbian Organisation, accuses 73-year-old Huonder of “inciting people to crime or violence” with his remarks made at a religious forum in Germany on July 31.
If found guilty, Huonder faces up to three years in prison.

In his 50-minute address on marriage, the bishop quoted two verses from the book of Leviticus, including Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

In response to applause, he continued: “Both of these passages alone suffice to clarify unambiguously the church’s position on homosexuality”.

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ILLINOIS
CI News Now

CANTON, Ill. — A former youth pastor convicted of criminal sexual abuse of a minor four years ago now faces felony charges after allegedly stepping foot onto the property of a daycare.

According to the Peoria Journal Star, 41-year-old Jason Phillips of Glasford was arrested Thursday after being seen dropping off two children at His Little Children Child Care Center in Canton.

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SCOTLAND
The National

AUGUST 10TH, 2015

A SURVIVOR of abuse at Fort Augustus Catholic boarding school has asked Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House to meet with him amid fears the force is not capable of dealing with survivors of child abuse. The call comes ahead of a wide-ranging public inquiry into historic child abuse that, campaigners believe, will lead to a substantial increase in the number of people coming forward to report abuse.

Andi Lavery, from White Flowers Alba, an advocacy group for child sex-abuse survivors, claimed the force were trying to trash his reputation ahead of the start of the Scottish Government’s public inquiry into historic child sex abuse in Scotland.

Lavery’s claim came after police denied a force call-handler had shouted at him when he tried to report abuse on behalf of two men at Pluscarden Abbey.

As reported in the National on Friday, detectives from Police Scotland are now investigating claims of historic child sex abuse at the Moray abbey in the 60s and 80s.

The two men, who say they were abused at that time, went to Lavery who then reported their abuse to Police Scotland.

Lavery says the call handler did not deal with him in a manner appropriate for the crimes he was reporting.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Monday 10 August 2015

A former headmaster of Knox Grammar did not commit a crime by failing to give police information about alleged sexual assaults at the elite private school, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd has sought findings against Dr Ian Paterson under the Crimes Act, it has been revealed.

Paterson, the head of Knox Grammar from 1969 to 1998, gave evidence during an appearance before the commission in March that he had not told everything he knew to an investigating police officer.

But Paterson later retreated from the admission and told the commission he had not misled police.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A former Knox Grammar teacher is threatening legal action against the child abuse royal commission over what he claims was his unlawful arrest on a warrant and evidence that, he believes, defamed him.

Christopher Fotis, who taught at the elite Sydney school in the 1980s, appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in April after being arrested on a warrant for failing to appear at an earlier date.

The commission heard in April that Mr Fotis had been suspected of being a balaclava-clad intruder who sexually assaulted a boy in his school dormitory bed in 1988.

Mr Fotis denied being the intruder and also told the court he had not known he was considered as a suspect until this year.

On Monday Mr Fotis’ barrister, Margaret Bateman, told the commission her client was “pretty cranky” about what he believed was “unlawful behaviour from the commission”.

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AUSTRALIA
Bega District News

By Ben Smyth Aug. 10, 2015

BEGA District News readers may remember “John”, a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Marist Brothers who previously shared his story.

In the continuing saga of Maurice Van Ryn, John has once more been in touch to offer sympathy and support to victims and their families.

He has also shared his experience of finally receiving an apology from the Church – 55 years after the abuse began.

“Everyone should have the courage to stand up for the child and speak out against the paedophile,” John writes.

Read his story below

The nature of child sexual abuse

IT TOOK me 55 years to make the decision to deal with the sexual abuse that happened to me.

The decision was made in 2009 and since then the road has been a rocky one – but it has been the right one.

The legacy of the sexual abuse is complex and it is now understood the harm caused by the abuser is deeply psychological.

See your ad here
The problem as I see comes with the word “child”.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

10 AUG 2015

A member of the Jehovah’s Witness church governing body has been summoned to appear before the child abuse royal commission after previously being excused on compassionate grounds.

New York-based Geoffrey Jackson is in Australia to visit a sick family member and the commission had previously been told he would not be able to give relevant information about how the church formed its policies around handling of sexual abuse complaints.

Commissioner Peter McClellan decided after hearing further evidence that Mr Jackson should be summoned.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Scotland

Judith Duffy, Reporter / Saturday 8 August 2015

Police operations:

*Operation Fairbank: Umbrella inquiry

In 2012, Labour MP used parliamentary privilege to raise allegations that a paedophile network existed “linked to Parliament and No 10” and called for the Metropolitan Police to examine the issue. This helped lead to the setting up of Operation Fairbank in the same year, which is the Metropolitan police’s umbrella inquiry into child sex abuse claims involving high-profile political figures. It has established a number of criminal investigations.

Cost: £720,000 (as of March 2014)

*Operation Fernbridge: Grafton Close Children’s Home/Elm Guest House, London. Now closed.

A criminal investigation launched in February 2013 to examine allegations of abuse arising from Operation Fernbridge. It focused on abuse allegedly carried out at Grafton Close children’s home and Elm Guest House, both in London. Two men were charged in connection with Grafton House. One was was found dead at his home before the trial began. In March, Catholic priest Father Anthony McSweeney, 68, was found guilty of abusing a teenage boy and jailed for three years.

*Operation Athabasca: Elm Guest House, London

This investigation took over from Operation Fernbridge after McSweeney was sentenced in March to investigate allegations of a ‘VIP’ paedophile network centred on Elm Guest House in 1970s and early 1980s. Cyril Smith, the late Liberal MP who was exposed as an alleged paedophile in 2012, is known to have visited the premises.

In April, Richard Kerr, who suffered abuse at Kincora Children’s home in Belfast, said he was one of three youngsters taken from the home to London in the 1970s, where they were allegedly molested by politicians and other high-profile figures at Elm Guest House and Dolphin Square.

*Operation Midland: Dolphin Square, London

This was established in November 2014 to examine claims of systematic child abuse by a VIP Westminster paedophile ring during the 1980s and investigate claims three boys were murdered. It centres around Dolphin Square, an apartment block in London where many MPs lived. Among those who have been accused of being involved in the paedophile ring include former home secretary Leon Brittan, who died in January. Scotland Yard is also thought to be investigating claims against former Prime Minister Edward Heath as part of Operation Midland.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 10, 2015

Judy Courtin

Survivors of clergy sex in Ballarat are unhappy with the unexpected announcement last week by the royal commission that hearings scheduled for November will be held in Melbourne, instead of their home city. This is not the only reason, though, for despondency, hurt and exasperation in the Ballarat survivor community.

In 2011 and 2012, The Age published a series of important articles reporting on the premature deaths, including by suicide, of 43 men who allegedly had been sexually assaulted as children by since-convicted Catholic clergy paedophiles, including Gerald Ridsdale​ and Robert Best.

The findings of Operation Plangere are flawed, worthless and misleading.

There were mounting calls at the time, including by this author, for the Victorian coroner to reopen these 43 cases based on new information – the common history of alleged clergy child sexual assault of these men.

In July 2012 the coroner, having considered the matter, referred it back to Victoria Police to investigate, and since that time victims and their families have been waiting for the findings of this critical investigation.
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The Sexual Crimes Squad of Victoria Police completed its report, known as Operation Plangere​, in December 2012. It was not made public until May 2015.

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MEXICO
NSS Oaxaca

[Organizations require maximum penalty for pederast priest in Oaxaca.]

Los hechos sucedieron durante los años 2009 y 2010; tras la investigación de la Procuraduría General de Justicia, se dictó una orden de aprehensión y se ejerció hace 19 meses.

En el documento se señala la gravedad del caso, ya que desde el 2006, en su primera parroquia, se realizó el primer señalamiento hacia Silvestre Hernández por violencia sexual contra un niño; luego fue removido a Camotlán, parroquia en la que se presume hay cerca de 45 niños víctimas, las agresiones se repitieron en posteriores parroquias de Villa Alta, San Juan y Santa María Ozolotepec por un periodo total de 6 años.

Al respecto, Alejandro de Jesús Ramírez, coordinador de Espiral por la Vida e integrante del FONI, comentó que las exigencias para la procuración de justicia y reparación del daño van en relación a las recomendaciones que hiciera el Comité de los Derechos del Niño de la ONU tras la reciente comparecencia del Estado Mexicano realizada en mayo de este año.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Herald

THE size and scope of the unprecedented number of inquiries into historical child abuse in the UK can be revealed for the first time today following a Sunday Herald investigation.

The Sunday Herald has learned that there are currently 14 major police operations, four public inquiries and six other investigations – including probes by the BBC, the police watchdog, and two government departments – are either ongoing or have been carried out to date.

Although, full details on cost are impossible to gather at this stage, it has been uncovered that nearly £66 million has or is being spent on half of the investigations.

Last week, Edward Heath became the latest high-profile figure to be linked to sex abuse allegations, with seven police forces alone investigating the former prime minister.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said they were not surprised by the scale of the investigations into abuse.

“Society in general is waking up to the true scale and scope of the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation,” she said.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Editorial

The $21 settlement that the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese has reached in its five-year-old bankruptcy opens the door to a new beginning for the church and for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

It should allow the victims to find some measure of the justice and peace to which they are entitled while at the same time allowing the church to focus on its mission of being a force for good in the community.

While not perfect, the settlement — if approved by the bankruptcy court — brings to an end a struggle that was longer and more bitter than it needed to be. And while not all the victims of sexual abuse will receive what they were seeking, the deal appears to be the best they could get and offers a reasonable conclusion to the bankruptcy.

The $21 million is far more than the $4 million the archdiocese was offering when it filed an initial reorganization plan in February 2014, as is the number of victims who will be compensated: 330 of the 570 men and women who filed sex abuse claims, more than double the number in the initial filing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Independent

Mary Kenny

09/08/2015

It has frequently been pointed out that attitudes to sexuality were different in the 1960s and 1970s: and this has been especially stressed when personalities from the past – like the late British prime minister Edward Heath – are retrospectively suspected of sexual abuse.

Attitudes certainly were once very different: an individual’s sexual conduct was generally considered to be something private – unless it emerged in a sensational divorce case, or a major sex scandal like the Profumo affair.

In the Westminster village – which extended to Fleet Street – there was plenty of casual gossip, and loud guffaws of laughter in the various watering-holes about the sexuality of certain personalities, but it wasn’t regarded as a public issue.

If (the late) Tom Driberg, ennobled as Baron Bradwell – a crony of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson and one of the grandees of British politics of the time – liked to engage teenage rent boys for his entertainment, well, he was sensible enough not to get caught, wasn’t he? Driberg, strong socialist and High Anglican, once explained to a colleague of mine in El Vino that he found the best protection against any member of the constabulary collaring him in a compromising situation was a handy £50 note in his breast pocket. This was met with chortles of laughter, as I recall. Wise old Tom! …

It was known, in those days, that the best proof-readers on The Times were unfrocked clergymen. They were valued because they usually had a classical education, and were meticulous about spotting printing errors that might occur. What, I asked, had they been unfrocked for? “Oh the usual – interfering with a choirboy,” I was told lightly.

They tended to be Anglican rather than Roman Catholic (ie, posher), but though they had been unfrocked from priestly duties, I don’t recall any case where they were actually prosecuted. When, later, the Catholic church tried to deal with paedophile clergy within the institution – they sent Brendan Smyth to a shrink six times – they were following in a tradition of virtually all other institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

By NICK BIELBY Aug. 9, 2015

The former Marist Brother who was the cause of an apology to a Hunter abuse victim last week terrorised students while he was the headmaster of a Maitland Catholic school in the 1970s, a former student says.

Fairfax Media reported on Saturday that the Marist Brothers issued a formal apology to Patrick Garnham as part of a settlement over his sexual abuse at the hands of Brother Nestor at Marist Maitland in 1976, when Mr Garnham was 11.

Brother Nestor, also known as John Littler, was the school’s principal at the time he committed the abuse.

Vacy man Peter Gogarty, who was sexually abused by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s, also attended the school when Brother Nestor was principal.

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UNITED STATES/IRELAND
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Francis Xavier Markey was ordained in 1952 for the Clogher diocese, Ireland, and was assigned to a parish in Magheracloon, Co Monagahn. He was suspended from there in 1964 and sent to a treatment facility when the first known accusation of child sexual abuse against him emerged. Markey was reassigned after 5 months of treatment to a parish in Threemilehouse, Co Monagahn. He was removed from that parish in 1973 when a report was made to the gardaí (Irish police) that he had sexually abused another child. This time Markey was sent to England for treatment at a facility run by the Servants of the Paraclete. He was allowed to work “under supervision” there in a temporary mission.

In 1981 Markey was sent to the United States for further sex offender treatment at the Servants of the Paraclete’s facility in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. In December 1981 he moved to the Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota to receive training toward becoming a substance abuse counselor. While there he was allowed to serve as a fill-in priest at several rural parishes. In June 1981 Markey was removed when parents of one of the parishes complained that the priest was too affectionate with boys. Markey returned to Jemez Springs and became an affiliate of the Servants of the Paraclete (while still officially a priest of the Clogher diocese); he left the Order sometime before September 1985.

Markey’s whereabout in the late 1980s are murky. He is said to have had a stint as a rehabilitation counselor at a Betty Ford Clinic in the 1990s. The Official Catholic Directory places him in 1991-1992 as a chaplain at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana. He settled sometime before or during the 1990s in South Bend, Indiana and worked as a substance abuse counselor in nearby Niles, Michigan from 2001-March 2009.

In June 2006 a man reported to Irish police that Markey raped him on two occasions in 1968, when the man was a 15-year-old boy. In the Spring of 2008 a judge in Ireland issued warrants for Markey’s arrest on each of the two charges. In November 2009 U.S. Marshals arrested Markey at his home in South Bend. He was extradited to Ireland in July 2010. In January 2011 he was accused of the sexual abuse of an 8-year-old Minnesota boy in 1982. A June 2013 lawsuit names Markey as having perpetrated sexual abuse against a 15-year-old rural Minnesota boy and his two brothers 30 years previously.

Markey died in September 2012 in Ireland while awaiting trial.

Ordained: 1952
Died: September 2012

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Diocese spokesman: Attorney general’s office executes search warrant at Altoona-Johnstown administrative offices

Posted: Saturday, August 8, 2015

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG – The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office executed a search warrant on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown on Friday.

Officials from the AG’s office would neither confirm nor deny the information.

However, diocese spokesperson Tony DeGol wrote in an email: “On Friday, agents from the state attorney general’s office came to the central offices of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown to execute a search warrant. The Diocese cannot offer further comment at this time.”

The reason for the warrant execution was not known as of Saturday morning.

But it has been reported Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office is conducting an investigation into Brother Stephen Baker, who was accused of sexually abusing male students at what was then known as Bishop McCort High School. Baker served as an athletic trainer at the school from 1992 through 2001.

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UNITED STATES
JD Supra

Lex Est Sanctio Sanctaa

Timely Topics

The decision by the United States Supreme Court on same-sex marriage has been greeted with praise and disdain by different corners of the country. The faith-based community has been especially outspoken. This is not surprising inasmuch as every faith addresses sexual ethics in some fashion. As discussed below, the Court’s majority sought to assure the faithful opposed to the ruling that the First Amendment continues to protect their right to express their opposition to same-sex marriage, but did not go so far as to assure them of their right to exercise their religion in a consistent manner. In oral argument, the Solicitor General of the United States represented that the tax-exempt status of conservative religious schools may now be called into question. The dissent expressed serious concerns about the repercussions of the decision for religious freedom in America. Indeed, reaction to the decision will pose one of the greatest tests to America’s First Freedom. Will we now penalize or even outlaw the expression of sincerely held religious convictions due to the equally sincerely held convictions of same-sex marriage supporters or will we now reach a constitutional détente respectful of each other’s rights? Religious institutions aligned with the dissent are well-advised to prepare for the worst even as they hope for and work for the best. Toward this end, some are advocating new federal and state legislation to protect their tax-exempt status and other rights. Religious institutions should look to adopt the facility use policies discussed in prior issues of Religious Institutions Update clarifying the uses of their facilities consistent with their theological views and analyze their governance structure and employment relationships with the assistance of church-state counsel, so as to maximize constitutional and statutory defenses. We can assist in this area.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Sat, Aug 8, 2015

Less than 20 years ago, Marie Collins’s parish priest in Dublin warned the congregation at Mass that her story of abuse by a priest was not to be believed. Now she advises Pope Francis on child protection and is a member of the only Vatican commission with direct access to him.

This Dublin abuse survivor got the invitation to join the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors last year. She believes it arose from a 2012 Vatican symposium on child protection she went to.

She accepted the invitation, albeit with caution. “I’ve had churchmen lie to my face and who felt justified in misleading and being economical with the truth.”

But she felt she should join the commission. “I’ve been let down so often and so many survivors have been let down so often. We’ve had so many false dawns that if this commission doesn’t follow through it will be so . . . I think it’s the church’s last chance to get it right.”

It hasn’t been plain sailing. Some in the Vatican “find it a little difficult to work with lay people, women in particular. There’s been no overt stumbling block or anything put in our way. It’s just my own personal feeling, my own lack of trust, my own cynicism because of my history.”

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MISSOURI
Fox 2

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. (AP) _ A woman claims in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Louis that she was sexually abused by a former coach at her Roman Catholic high school.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the woman filed the suit last week in Missouri’s Ste. Genevieve County south of St. Louis, identifying herself only as “K.B.”

The lawsuit alleges she was abused by Martin Weiler as a teenager in the locker room, weight room and faculty parking lot at Valle Catholic High School in Ste. Genevieve.

Weiler committed suicide in 2009, after the accuser contacted police.

The suit says the plaintiff now is imprisoned for drug-related crimes and blames her “downward spiral” on Weiler.

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SCOTLAND
Press and Journal

8 August 2015 by Jon Hebditch and John Robertson

A mediaeval monastery in Moray has been rocked by allegations of child sex abuse.

Pluscarden Abbey is now at the centre of a police probe into claims youngsters were molested.

It is understood the investigation is focused on allegations a young boy was violently sexually abused and two others suffered physical harm at the 13th century Roman Catholic site in the 1960s and 1980s.

Two men have separately come forward to discuss the alleged abuse with support group White Flowers Alba.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
7 August 2015

Cardinal George Pell should give evidence to the child abuse royal commission in Ballarat, not Melbourne, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says.

The commission has moved the second stage of public hearings into clergy abuse in the Ballarat diocese to Melbourne for logistical reasons, but Ballarat MPs want the former local priest’s evidence to be heard in the regional city.

“I’m confident that the royal commission will do the right thing and come and hear evidence that is directly relevant to the people of Ballarat in that great city,” Mr Andrews told reporters on Friday.

The premier said it was respectful and appropriate to hear at least the most high-profile witnesses in Ballarat.

“The people of Ballarat, survivors and their families, those who’ve spent so much time dealing with the grief and the pain and the loss of this terrible abuse, I think they’re entitled to hear evidence in their own local area,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Aug. 7, 2015

THE Marist Brothers have apologised to a Hunter man who is the first to complain he was sexually abused by a Maitland Catholic school principal in the 1970s.

Patrick Garnham received the apology as part of a settlement after telling the Marist Brothers he was sexually abused by Marist Maitland principal Brother Nestor, whose real name is John Littler, in 1976 when he was 11.

Mr Garnham is speaking out because he believed the Marist Brothers were genuinely sorry for the abuse and the impact it had on his life, and because he believes other boys were victims of Brother Nestor, who was principal from 1972-1977 and went on to be charged with multiple child sex offences.

‘‘I know what effect it had on my life, until I spoke about it. For me to come out the other side and be the man I am today, it was important for me to step out of the shadows,’’ Mr Garnham said.

He told the Marist Brothers he was a ‘‘blond-haired, blue-eyed, happy fellow’’ in year 7 in late 1976 when a school loudspeaker crackled into life one morning while he was playing handball near Nestor’s office, and a voice said ‘‘Patrick Garnham wanted in the office by Brother Nestor’’.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Liz Zemba
Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015

The trial for a Somerset County priest accused of traveling to Central and South America to sexually abuse orphaned boys is set to start in September and last for approximately three weeks.

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

Prosecutor Stephanie L. Haines and defense attorney Steven P. Passarello of Altoona told U.S. District Court Judge Kim R. Gibson on Friday that they anticipate a three-week trial, with both sides requiring government-provided translators because they will be bringing witnesses from Honduras to testify.

Maurizio, who has been suspended as pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City, did not attend the brief hearing at the federal courthouse in Johnstown. Some two dozen parishioners who packed the tiny gallery for every other hearing for the Roman Catholic cleric, known as “Father Joe,” were absent as well.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

An international support group for clergy abuse victims, Snap, has called on Canadian authorities to move to apprehend Godwin Scerri before he disappeared.

Mr Scerri, a defrocked priest and a member of the Missionary Society of St Paul, was three years ago jailed five years after he was found guilty of sexual abuse on young boys in his care. He was paroled yesterday.

He is wanted by the Ontario provincial police in Canada having avoided prosecution there two decades ago when he fled to Malta.

“We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered Scerri’s crimes – in Canada, Malta or elsewhere – to find courage, speak up, call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

“We urge Catholic officials in Canada to use pulpit announcements, church bulletins and parish websites to warn parents, police, parishioners and the public about Scerri,” they said.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils

Paris Arrow

On May 28, 2015, after the Irish Catholics of the Catholic country of Ireland voted for same-sex marriage in their referendum, Cardinal Burke, the Grand Master of (millionaires & billionaires-only Catholic club) Knights of Malta, quickly condemned the Irish people as “worse than pagans” and that they “defied God”. Burke is the archetypal Catholic bureaucrat scorning the laity of Ireland who – as a nation – has defied big-time the Vatican and its Catholic obsolete doctrines that condemn homosexuals committing same-sex acts as “intrinsically evil”. But the Irish lay people did not “defy God” who created them and who created gay people as well. The fact is, the Irish, despite being one of the oldest Catholic nations, has defied Pope Francis and all popes, cardinals and priests who self-claim to represent God, to monopolise God, and to speak for God and even claim to have supernatural magical powers to reincarnate God’s flesh in the Eucharist (when they cannot even clone an ant or a dog LOL). The Irish demonstrated they no longer fear and no longer kowtow to (VA) Vatican Autocracy.

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MASSACHUSETTS
WHDH

[with video]

An investigation is now underway into how gruesome photos that claim to show the body of a murdered pedophile ex-priest ended up for sale on a “murderabilia” website.

The photos are for sale on the website “Serial Killers Ink.” On the company Facebook page, it says the morbid pictures of the dead pedophile priest Father John Geoghan are unusual. It said they are more valuable because they are allegedly autographed by his killer.

The “Serial Killers Ink” page boasted the gory photos are “unique” and “one of a kind.”

Attorney Mitchell Garabeian represented Geoghan’s victims. The former Catholic priest was convicted of molesting and sexually abusing more than one hundred children. He was sentenced to life in prison and was later beaten to death in his cell by another inmate, Joseph Druce.

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VATICAN CITY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Vatican City, Aug 7, 2015 / 12:35 pm (CNA).- Originally selected as an alternate synod delegate, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago will in fact be an attendee at the Vatican gathering on the family this fall, a Vatican source told CNA.

The source also said that another American bishop will likely be chosen to attend as well, bringing the total U.S. delegation of bishops up to six.

The Synod on the Family, which will be held at the Vatican in October, will bring together bishops from around the world to discuss a wide variety of matters related to marriage and family across the globe.

Last fall, the U.S. bishops selected delegates to represent them at the upcoming synod.

They chose Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, the president and vice-president respectively of the U.S. bishops’ conference, as well as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who is hosting the 2015 World Meeting of Families and Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the highest-ranking Hispanic bishop in the country, who leads the nation’s largest diocese.

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VATICAN CITY/UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | August 7, 2015

(RNS) Pope Francis is set to name Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, viewed as one of his top allies in the American hierarchy, as a special delegate to a Vatican summit on family issues in October that is shaping up as a key test of the pontiff’s efforts to reform the Catholic Church.

The appointment was first reported Friday (Aug. 7) by Catholic News Agency. It was confirmed by other church sources.

The church officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not official, also said Francis was going to appoint another U.S. bishop to the synod. The sources said it would be Youngstown, Ohio, Bishop George Murry. Murry is a Jesuit like Francis and one of a handful of African-American bishops.

If these appointments are confirmed, it means Francis will have passed over more conservative candidates such as San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, an outspoken culture warrior and the U.S. hierarchy’s point man in the fight against gay marriage.

When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last November elected a four-person slate of delegates to the global meeting of bishops, called a synod, they also chose Cordileone and Cupich as the two alternates.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Betty Clermont

“For the umpteenth time, Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega shows his corruption and iniquity. And for the corresponding umpteenth time, the Vatican and the Pope (current and past) will do absolutely nothing about it,” noted Alberto de la Cruz who tweets and blogs “Reports from Cuba.”

Pope Francis will be visiting the Pearl of the Antilles – as Cuba is known for her natural beauty – September 19-22. Pope Benedict XVI went in 2012 and Pope John Paul II in 1998.

De la Cruz was referring to an incident this past 4th of July at a celebration hosted by the head of the US Interests Section in Havana. Officials from the U.S. and accredited diplomats were in attendance. When two members of the opposition to Castro approached Ortega to deliver a list of 51 political prisoners compiled by the Forum for Rights and Liberties, the cardinal claimed that there were no political prisoners on the island and that “the information all of you [the opposition] receive comes from ‘worm-infested’ Miami.”

“There exists a sector in the national Church that has not only turned its back on dissidents, but just like the government, it also attacks them,” said Victor Manuel Dominguez, a poet and independent journalist. “What can you expect from … the religious institution that supposedly should give shelter to all believers but repudiates dissidents,” another guest told a reporter.

During his 2012 visit, Pope Benedict XVI not only refused to meet with dissidents, but their treatment actually worsened during his time on the island. In a speech shortly after Benedict’s trip. Ortega referred to Cuban human rights activists as “low class delinquents.”

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