ABUSE TRACKER

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Independent

Victim of paedophile Brendan Smyth: ‘I still don’t know where the pictures are that he took of my body’

Louise Kelly

One of the victims who was “violated, raped, abused and humiliated” by Irish priest Brendan Smyth has said that the paedophile “will never be dead to her”.

“I have flashbacks, I get triggers and sometime there’s no warning,” Loreto, who was previously known as Samantha, spoke under her real name on the Pat Kenny show this morning.

“He’ll never be dead, when you’ve s**t like this going on on television, all these inquires going on and everything. It’s more real, it’s always going to be there.

“I still don’t know where those pictures are that Brendan Smyth took of my body. Who has seen them? Have they been published?

The comments, taken in a pre-recorded interview earlier this morning, come following a number of revelations emerging from the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.

Smyth was convicted of 117 indecent assaults against 41 children across Ireland. He died in prison in 1997 after a heart attack.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty
Banbridge Co Down

Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth wrote to the late Cardinal Cahal Daly from prison to deny that his sexual abuse of boys and girls had caused serious damage to the Catholic Church, the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry heard on Tuesday.

Smyth, it emerged at the inquiry, was angered that Cardinal Daly had publicly stated that the allegations against Smyth had “done serious damage to the church”.

Smyth, who was convicted in 1994 for sexual abuse of children in Northern Ireland, wrote from Magilligan Prison in Co Derry to Cardinal Daly protesting at his remarks.

Brendan Smyth: told doctor after his arrest he may have abused 50-100 children, and that ‘number could even be double or perhaps even more’. Photograph: PacemakerBrendan Smyth may have sexually abused more than 200 children, inquiry told

He said if the cardinal had been misquoted then he could dump the letter but if he had been properly quoted then he had to “express my anger and disbelief that a person with your lofty intellectual qualifications could possibly have made such a statement”.

“Whatever my sins and failing, and they are many, it is not they but the media reporting of them which has created an atmosphere of mixed shame and embarrassment for the superficial Catholic,” he added in the letter.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Farming Life

Disgraced priest Fr Brendan Smyth penned an angry letter from jail denying he had damaged the Catholic Church, an inquiry has heard.

Just months after he was jailed for sexually assaulting more than 100 children, the prolific paedophile wrote to former Catholic Primate Cahal Daly claiming he had pleaded guilty to “false” allegations to spare the reputation of the church.

In a letter sent from Magilligan Prison, Co Londonderry, in December 1994, Smyth wrote: “I wish to express my anger and disbelief that a person with your lofty intellectual qualifications could possibly have made such statements.

“Whatever my sins and failings, and there are many of them, it is not they but the media reporting of them which was created an atmosphere of mixed shame and embarrassment…

“I pleaded guilty to wildly exaggerated and in some cases false allegations to try to limit the media coverage. In that I admit I failed dismally.”

The letter was shown to Northern Ireland’s long running Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA) which is examining whether systemic failings allowed Smyth – a member of the Norbertine order – to perpetrate the abuse over more than four decades between the 1960s and 1990s.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Yahoo! News

The Journal

By Catherine Healy

One of the VICTIMS of paedophile Brendan Smyth has said that her life was “turned upside down” by the abuse she suffered.

“He raped [me], he abused [me], he took pictures [of me], he humiliated [me], he took my life – and every time it happened another part of me died,” Loreto told Pat Kenny in an interview broadcast on Newstalk this morning.

“To this day I don’t know where those photographs are that Brendan Smyth took of my body,” she said, speaking under her real name for the first time.

Where are they? Who has seen them? Are they published? That continues the abuse.
School

Loreto said the priest abused her on the grounds of her boarding school over the course of five years.

But she was initially too afraid to tell anyone because he had told her that she “was going to go hell, and that he was the one that was going to cure me, to save me from the fires of hell”.

My body was on fire, the parts that he had raped. I thought what would it be like if the rest of me were in the flames, because it really felt like I was on fire. He had me sucked in.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI

The paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth wrote an angry letter from prison, criticising his Church and the media over their response to his conviction.

The letter emerged at the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.

Smyth castigated a former leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland – the then Bishop Cathal Daly – for stating that his case had damaged the Church.

The serial child abuser’s letter also blamed the media for creating an atmosphere of “shame” over his crimes.

The HIA inquiry, which is being held in Banbridge courthouse, County Down, is examining child abuse allegations in church, state and voluntary children’s residential institutions dating back to 1922, but has set aside a dedicated module on the case of the late Brendan Smyth.

Writing from his cell in Magilligan prison in 1994, Smyth said that he wanted to express his “anger and disbelief” that Cathal Daly had said his case had “done severe damage” to the Catholic Church.

Describing the then Bishop Daly as “lofty and intellectual”, the convicted child abuser went on to blame the media.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

23 June 2015 13:23 by Christopher Lamb

Today the Vatican published the October’s gathering working document – Instrumentum Laboris – that takes into account submissions from bishops’ conferences and others from around the world.

The working text puts forward a “penitential road” for divorced and remarried couples – under the authority of the bishop or accompanied by a priest – as was suggested last year by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The text does not spell out the destination of the “pathway” and would require chastity. In this context, the implication is that it may well lead to the reception of the sacraments.

Divorced and remarried couples should be “integrated” into the Church, the document points out.
Speaking at a press conference to launch the document, Archbishop Bruno Forte, special secretary to the synod, said the gathering’s role is not to give a “yes or no” answer to the question of whether divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to receive Communion, but to reflect on it as bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Vatican City, 23 June 2015 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press Office a press conference was held to present the Instrumentum Laboris of the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme, “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and contemporary world” (4-25 October 2015). The speakers were: Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops; Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, general rapporteur of the 14th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops; and Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, special secretary of the 14th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

The Instrumentum Laboris, explained Cardinal Baldisseri, is divided into three parts following the structure of the Relatio Synodi, demonstrating the close link between the Third Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2014, dedicated to “The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation”, and the upcoming Ordinary General Assembly. The first part, entitled “Listening to the challenges of the family”, relates most directly to last year’s Synod, while the second, “Discernment of the family vocation”, and third, “The mission of the family today”, introduce the theme of the next one.

The cardinal highlighted certain novelties in the first part, which refer principally to the anthropological-cultural, socio-economic and ecological contexts, “now happily enlightened by the new Encyclical letter Laudato si’”. The challenges, he explained, are “poverty and social exclusion, old age, widowhood, bereavement in the family, disability, migration, the role of women, emotional life and education in sexuality, and bioethics”.

In the second part, “Discernment of the family vocation”, the Relatio Synodi is enriched with an extension of the themes regarding natural marriage and sacramental fullness, indissolubility as a gift and a duty, family life, union and fruitfulness, the missionary dimension, faith, prayer, catechesis, the intimate bond between Church and family, the young and fear of marriage, and mercy.

The third part, devoted to “The mission of the family today”, begins with a broad-ranging reflection on the family and evangelisation, and explores in depth a number of other issues such as the family as subject of pastoral ministry, nuptial liturgy, renewed language and missionary openness.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 23, 2015

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican document outlining the initial working positions for October’s highly anticipated global meeting of bishops on family life issues offers little to no clear indication of how world prelates have responded to Pope Francis’ call to openly discuss difficult issues facing families, such as divorce and remarriage.

The document, which many anticipate as a possible barometer for how the bishops’ discussions at the fall event might evolve, instead mainly focuses on restating many positions adopted at the meeting held last year with an occasional emphasis on showing mercy to those facing burdensome situations.

The document also appears to reiterate some of the culture-war language that has sometimes marked the church’s language in recent decades and reaffirms the church’s moral teaching in several areas, including the prohibition on the use of birth control.

It also does not seem to offer substantially new options for divorced and remarried people seeking the ability to take Communion in the church.

Released by the Vatican on Monday only in Italian, the document is the preparatory working instrument for October’s Synod of Bishops, the second of two back-to-back global bishops’ meetings on family life called by Francis.

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CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
Radio Vaticana

[P. Zollner: Francis is increasingly engaged in combating abuse.]

E’ in corso alla Gregoriana una conferenza sul tema “Protezione dei minori, un approccio spirituale e teologico”, promosso dal Centro per la protezione dei minori dell’ateneo pontificio, in cui i rappresentanti della Conferenze episcopali di lingua inglese si confrontano sull’impegno nella prevenzione degli abusi sessuali sui minori. Su questo evento, Alessandro Gisotti ha intervistato il presidente del Centro, il padre gesuita Hans Zollner:

R. – Questa volta abbiamo voluto concentrarci su una cosa che, stranamente, per trent’anni e più, nessuno ha preso molto sul serio: cioè la risposta teologica alla crisi degli abusi. Abbiamo dimenticato che c’è anche una dimensione spirituale e teologica, cioè cosa possiamo dire, come questa crisi degli abusi ha stravolto l’immagine della Chiesa, come ha impattato nella nostra relazione con Gesù, come comprendiamo oggi i Sacramenti del sacerdozio e dell’essere vescovi? E quindi, questa è la prima conferenza in assoluto – per quanto ne sappia – che ha come tema unico la risposta teologica e spirituale agli abusi, anche come un’occasione di ripensare la teologia del sacerdozio, del ministero, la missione della Chiesa, la domanda della continua purificazione necessaria affinché noi possiamo proclamare con verità e credibilità la “buona novella” di Gesù.

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AUSTRALIA
Anglican Communion News Service

By ACNS staff

The Anglican Communion Safe Church Network (ACSCN) has welcomed steps that the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle of the Anglican Church of Australia is taking to address past cases of abuse within the Diocese.

The Diocese of Newcastle has launched the initiative Facing the past: Shaping a healthy future to address a “history of abuse within the Anglican Church in its area,” Bishop Gregory Thompson has announced.

In an open letter of apology, Bishop Thompson expressed “profound shame and regret that individuals within the Church harmed people and harmed them again when they came forward to speak of what had happened”.

He spoke openly about a culture in the Diocese that allowed bullying and abuse to happen, and the inadequate responses to survivors. He vowed that under his leadership there would be “no accommodation to cultures that minimise the conduct of perpetrators and diminish victims and survivors”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

He abused boy while training in Rome… yet he was still allowed to prey on kids for 40 more years

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 23 JUNE 2015

The Catholic Church has been accused of “protecting their own” rather than the child abuse victims of notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Decades of failures by individuals and Church institutions to deal with Smyth and prevent further abuse are currently under examination by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI).

During a day of shocking revelations yesterday, it emerged that suspicions within the Catholic Church about the serial child abuser were discussed even before he was ordained into the priesthood.

The inquiry team was told that the Church had been aware of allegations that Smyth had abused a young boy in Rome while he was there studying as a student priest.

His superiors within the Norbertine Order ignored warnings from a senior priest in Rome not to ordain him, the inquiry heard.

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CANADA
Georgia Straight

by Carlito Pablo on June 22nd, 2015

A lawyer has accused John Furlong of not wanting to see his defamation suit against a journalist tried in court because he was afraid more people would come forward and testify that he allegedly abused them.

Bryan Baynham—counsel for Laura Robinson, author of an in-depth article published by the Georgia Straight about Furlong’s previously undisclosed early years in Canada and the abuses he allegedly committed at that time against First Nations students—said today (June 22) in B.C. Supreme Court that the former Vancouver Olympics CEO was interested only in litigating the matter in the court of public opinion.

Baynham offered a possible reason why: “Mr. Furlong, you never wanted to appear before the 30 individuals that have been named in the response to evidence in court, isn’t that right?”

Furlong, who was alleged to have racially taunted and physically abused students in eight sworn statements gathered by Robinson for the Straight story, denied this was the case.

“It’s not right. I just gave you the reason we did it,” Furlong responded.

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CANADA
The Tyee

By Bob Mackin, Today, TheTyee.ca

Former Vancouver 2010 Olympics CEO John Furlong said under cross-examination June 22 that he dropped his defamation lawsuit against Laura Robinson because he felt “vindicated in the court of public opinion,” but did not say why he never sued over allegations of sexual abuse.

Bryan Baynham played CBC news reports from September 2012 and October 2013 that included allegations of sexual abuse by former student Beverly Abraham that were not in Robinson’s Georgia Straight story.

“You never sued CBC for the allegations of sexual abuse, you never sued [Ontario aboriginal newspaper] Anishinabek News at all, you never sued Laura Robinson for publishing allegations of sexual abuse,” Baynham said in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. “You didn’t add that to the claim, did you?”

Replied Furlong: “I sued Laura Robinson for her behaviour and conduct in the whole matter.”

Furlong later explained that the three lawsuits by people claiming to be ex-students of his took precedence. “These three which were far and away the worst things said about me in my life, which she had advanced and had been involved in my view all the way along. I had been completely vindicated in the court of public opinion and it was time to move on in my life.”

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

JEHOVAH’S Witnesses say they are fully co-operating with a royal commission that will hold a public inquiry into the denomination’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations.

A SPOKESMAN for the Witnesses said in a statement released on Tuesday that they consider the safety of children to be of utmost importance and were committed “to doing all we can to prevent child abuse”.

On Monday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse announced it would hold a public inquiry into the denomination.

The hearing, which could run for two weeks, will start in Sydney on July 27.

The experience of survivors of child sexual abuse within the sometimes controversial Witnesses will be presented in evidence.

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FLORIDA
WSVN

[with video]

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Surveillance video has surfaced that may show a South Florida rabbi accused of inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl, giving a parent an envelope believed to contain money to stay quiet over the entire ordeal.

The video, taken from a Miami Beach restaurant, appears to show a man who witnesses identified as Rabbi Steve Karro, sitting next to a woman and handing her an envelope.

The woman’s child, according to Miami Beach Police, was molested by Karro. They said he kissed the girl on the neck and touched her backside.

A closer look at the video appears to show a child who was with the mother walking up to the rabbi to give him a hug. That child is not the one who accused Karro of molesting her. There then appears to be an exchange of an envelope.

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

Carey Codd

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – New surveillance video is focusing attention on part-time Rabbi Steve Karro, and his actions in the days before he was arrested last month for molesting a child.

The man in the video is believed to be Karro, who is accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl at an art gallery he owns on Miami Beach.

The woman – whose face was blurred to protect her child – is the mother of the victim.

CBS4’s Carey Codd was told the woman was at work at a restaurant when Karro gave her an envelope.
It’s unclear what was inside that envelope.

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CANADA
CTV

Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 22, 2015

VANCOUVER – The former Vancouver Olympics boss has testified he was told allegations he physically abused a former student decades earlier could be made to “go away” for a payment of $5,000 – but he denied ever insinuating a freelance journalist was complicit in the extortion.

John Furlong told a civil court trial he holds Laura Robinson accountable for making his life “unbearable,” which included circumstances relating to the accidental death of his wife in a car crash in Ireland.

But he said he never suggested Robinson was involved in an extortion attempt that came just months before the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“That stunned me. It was a shocking moment. I sat at my desk and I wondered, is this about embarrassing me or embarrassing the Olympics?” Furlong told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, revealing details of a secretive meeting publicly for the first time.

Furlong was testifying in his defence as Robinson seeks damages for defamation over comments Furlong made after the journalist wrote two articles carrying allegations about him.

The stories reported allegations of abuse stemming from Furlong’s position teaching physical education at a Roman Catholic school that was mostly attended by First Nations students in British Columbia’s Interior.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Jason Proctor, CBC News Posted: Jun 22, 2015

Former Olympics CEO John Furlong says he blames a damaging Georgia Straight article for the death of his wife.

Furlong testified in B.C. Supreme Court that Deborah Furlong died in a car accident in April 2013 while the two were in Ireland escaping stress from publication of allegations he abused children in Burns Lake more than 40 years earlier.

“It cost me my wife,” he said.

The two had been married 299 days.

Furlong says a doctor at a Dublin hospital told him she was dead: “It was the most broken I think I’ve ever felt.”

‘One of the worst mornings of my life’

At times emotional and at times testy, Furlong took the stand in his own defence at the start of the second week of a landmark civil defamation suit.

The reporter who wrote the September 2012 article, Laura Robinson, claims Furlong defamed her in his responses to the piece, implying she was unethical, unprofessional and motivated by a personal vendetta.

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ALASKA
SitNews

June 22, 2015
Monday PM

(SitNews) – Clint Michael Landry, 58, of Fairbanks, Alaska, was sentenced by Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline to 10 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime period of supervised release for Attempted Enticement of a Minor. At the time of the offense, the Landry was employed as a priest with the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks, Alaska. He had been in that position since June 2011.

According to the filed plea agreement and sentencing memoranda in the case, in May 2014, the defendant was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography through his Yahoo email account. A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines. In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino coconspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.

Between June 2013, and May 2014, the defendant engaged in negotiations with individuals in the Philippines for the purpose of viewing online sex shows. The defendant communicated with at least eight different Yahoo accounts for the purpose of viewing live videos through Skype or other streaming services of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In at least three of these communications, the defendant sought access to sex shows involving children younger than 11 years old.

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CANADA
The News Review

The Canadian Press

IQALUIT, Nunavut – There’s a smell that brings it all back.

One whiff, and once again he’s a little boy being raped by a priest in a dank furnace room at the Catholic mission in Igloolik, Nunavut.

“Whenever I smell moldy wood, it takes me back to that place,” the man told a court in Iqaluit on Monday during the sentencing hearing for his onetime tormentor. “It makes me angry.”

Eric Dejaeger, a defrocked Oblate priest, was convicted last fall for 32 sex crimes ranging from indecent assault to bestiality against Inuit children. A long lineup of his former victims, who were children between 1978 and 1982 when the assaults occurred, are finally getting their chance to tell Dejaeger what he did to them in a two-day hearing which began under heavy security.

More than a dozen people were expected to testify on Monday, including the man haunted by that odour.

– See more at: http://www.yorktonnews.com/community/sex-abuse-victim-tells-priest-s-sentencing-hearing-wood-smell-triggers-memories-1.1735340#sthash.dRTni4wy.dpuf

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 23 JUNE 2015

Ireland’s most notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth admitted to having potentially abused more than 200 children during his years in the priesthood, it has been revealed.

The full extent of the serial sex abuser’s offending has never been revealed.

However, Smyth himself believed the number of victims he abused could be in the many hundreds.

In his own words, which were yesterday made public for the first time during a hearing of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Smyth told a doctor in 1994: “Over the years of religious life it could be that I have sexually abused between 50 and 100 children. That number could even be double, or perhaps even more.”

The inquiry heard that Smyth received psychiatric treatment many times during his time in the priesthood.

Smyth was convicted of more than 100 indecent assaults against children across Ireland, offences which took place over a 40-year period. He died in prison in 1997 after a heart attack.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

SUNNY DHILLON
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jun. 22, 2015

The former CEO of the Vancouver Olympics says allegations contained in a newspaper article that said he physically abused students when he was a gym teacher in northern British Columbia and separate claims of sexual abuse were “absolutely not true, not ever.”

John Furlong began his testimony in a B.C. Supreme Court defamation case on Monday.

Freelance journalist Laura Robinson authored an article about Mr. Furlong that was published by the weekly newspaper Georgia Straight in September, 2012. The physical-abuse allegations against Mr. Furlong stemmed from his time as a gym instructor at Immaculata Roman Catholic Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C, in 1969-70.

Mr. Furlong had filed lawsuits against Ms. Robinson and the Georgia Straight, but ultimately abandoned both. Ms. Robinson, however, has continued her case against Mr. Furlong, alleging his response to the story was defamatory because he alleged she did not carry out due diligence and had a vendetta.

Mr. Furlong said the story received an avalanche of attention when it was published, calling it “one of the worst mornings of my life.” Alleging someone abused or sexually abused children is “about the worst thing you can say,” he told the court.

Mr. Furlong said he was flooded by calls when the story was posted and pressure was building to respond, so he held a news conference to read a prepared statement.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER – The former Vancouver Olympics boss has testified he was told allegations he physically abused a former student decades earlier could be made to “go away” for a payment of $5,000 — but he denied ever insinuating a freelance journalist was complicit in the extortion.

John Furlong told a civil court trial he holds Laura Robinson accountable for making his life “unbearable,” which included circumstances relating to the accidental death of his wife in a car crash in Ireland.

But he said he never suggested Robinson was involved in an extortion attempt that came just months before the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“That stunned me. It was a shocking moment. I sat at my desk and I wondered, is this about embarrassing me or embarrassing the Olympics?” Furlong told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, revealing details of a secretive meeting publicly for the first time.

Furlong was testifying in his defence as Robinson seeks damages for defamation over comments Furlong made after the journalist wrote two articles carrying allegations about him.

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CANADA
Georgia Straight

by Carlito Pablo on June 22nd, 2015

The northern B.C. town of Burns Lake may not have gotten a mention in John Furlong’s autobiographical book, but according to the former Vancouver Olympics CEO, it’s a special place for him.

“My time in Burns Lake is precious to me,” Furlong said in his first day of testimony in the defamation suit filed against him by freelance journalist Laura Robinson.

Robinson was the author of “John Furlong biography omits secret past in Burns Lake”, an article published in the Georgia Straight on September 27, 2012.

According to the article, the former Vanoc boss first came to Canada in 1969, five years earlier than 1974, the year Furlong wrote in Patriot Hearts that he and his family arrived.

The story also reported on eight sworn affidavits by former students of Furlong at the Immaculata Elementary School, alleging that the native of Ireland taunted, bullied, and hurt First Nations students.

On the day Robinson’s story came out in the Straight, Furlong explained why he didn’t mention Burns Lake in his book.

“My time in Burns Lake was fairly brief and fairly uneventful,” Furlong said at a news conference.

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CANADA
CTV

Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 22, 2015

VANCOUVER — For a payment of $5,000, John Furlong testified he was told that allegations he physically abused a former student decades earlier could be made to “go away.”

Furlong told a civil court trial that the bribery attempt came just months before the 2010 Winter Olympics, as the former Vancouver Games boss was preparing for the international sporting event.

“That stunned me. It was a shocking moment. I sat at my desk and I wondered, is this about embarrassing me or embarrassing the Olympics?” Furlong told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday.

Furlong was testifying in his defence against a lawsuit by freelance journalist Laura Robinson. She is seeking damages for defamation over comments Furlong made after she wrote two articles carrying allegations about him.

The stories made allegations of abuse related to Furlong’s work decades before as a physical education teacher at a Roman Catholic school mostly attended by First Nations students in British Columbia’s Interior.

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IOWA
Quad-City Times

June 20, 2015

BETTENDORF — James M. Janssen, 93, of Bettendorf passed away Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at Genesis Medical Center-West Central Park, Davenport. Private burial took place in Davenport.

James was born in Davenport on Nov. 5, 1921, the son of Orey and Margaret (Tierney) Janssen. He is survived by his sister, Dorothy, Davenport; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and several brothers and sisters.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 22

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

One of Iowa’s most prolific predator priests has passed away and a victims’ group wants Davenport Catholic officials to “aggressively seek out and help” others who the priest assaulted.

[Quad-City Times]

Fr. James M. Janssen reportedly abusing many boys, often along with other pedophile priests Fr. Francis Bass, Fr. Theodore Anthony Geerts, and Fr. James W. Murphy, and of pimping his victims to Bass, Murphy and Fr. William Wiebler. Janssen allegedly used sacrilege and petty crime to groom his victims, and sometimes took them out of state to abuse them. Janssen’s “stable of boys” ranged in ages from 5 to 18. He continued to abuse at least one into his twenties, and he kept in touch with several into their adulthood, according to multiple sources (see BishopAccountability.org)

Davenport Catholic officials were “warned about Janssen in 1948 before his first assignment, and he admitted abusing kids to a bishop in 1958. Yet he worked as a priest for 42 years in 14 parishes and was pastor at four of them for a total of 23 years. He was on the Priests’ Personnel Board for 13 years and was a Boy Scout chaplain for a decade.

Despite repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes, Janssen’s long-time colleagues and supervisors in the Davenport Catholic diocese apparently has told no one in the public or the parishes. We suspect he didn’t tell police or prosecutors either. Sadly, none of the dozens of current or former Davenport diocesan employees saw fit to spread the news either.

Being honest about the death of a credibly accused predator priest matters for several reasons:

First, it’s comforting when victims know that their perpetrator can no longer hurt any other kids. But that doesn’t happen (or happens years later) if the predator’s death is kept secret.

Second, sometimes victims who are trapped in fear, shame and self-blame feel ‘liberated’ when their perpetrator dies. They are then more apt to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoing and start healing. But that doesn’t happen (or happens years later) if the predator’s death is kept secret.

Third, it’s important and reassuring when bishops keep their promises to be open about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. And it’s distressing – for victims, witnesses, whistleblowers and parishioners – when they do not.

So it’s callous and selfish for bishops and other Catholic staff to keep secret about the death of a pedophile priests.

We call on Davenport Bishop Martin Amos and every single diocesan or parish employee in the Davenport Diocese to show some courage, break their silence, act with compassion and use every possible means to reach out to and help others who were sexually violated by Janssen and his complicit clerical criminal colleagues. It’s not enough for a church official to say “We’re sorry for their crimes.” Church officials must use their vast resources – parish websites, pulpit announcements, new releases and church bulletins – to seek out and console those who have been suffering for decades because of these predators.

Finally, we commend the brave men who were hurt as kids by Janssen and found the strength to expose Janssen and those who protected him for decades and sought – and won – justice in the courts. We hope his passing brings them comfort, knowing that Janssen will no longer ever be able to assault anyone else.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY LESLEY-ANNE MCKEOWN

The notorious cleric made the admission in February 1994 – the year he was jailed for his crimes

Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth told a doctor he may have sexually abused hundreds of children, an inquiry has heard.

The notorious cleric made the admission in February 1994 – the year he was jailed for his crimes.

He said: “Over the years of religious life it could be that I have sexually abused between 50 and 100 children. That number could even be doubled or perhaps even more.”

Northern Ireland’s long-running Historical Abuse Inquiry is holding a focused module into how Smyth, a member of the Norbertine Order, was allowed to continue offending for more than four decades.

Joseph Aiken, counsel for the inquiry said it was the first time the serial child molester’s comments had been made public.

Mr Aiken said: “The story that’s about to unfold over the coming days is steeped in deep and prolonged human suffering of the abused.

“The inquiry will have to consider whether it is also a story of a litany of missed opportunities to properly deal with Smyth by a significant number of individuals who were themselves in positions of considerable trust, power and influence not only over him, his victims and their families.”

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NEW YORK
Long Island Exchange

(Long Island, NY) The Fourth Squad reports the details of an arrest for Unlawful Imprisonment that occurred on Saturday, June 20, 2015 in Cedarhurst.

According to detectives, defendant Yan Kossa, 39, of Far Rockaway was worshiping at the Chabad located at 74 Maple Avenue when he approached a 7 year old female victim and asked her if she wanted to come outside with him. The defendant led the victim outside and placed her into his automobile.

The defendant then returned to the Chabad and notified the child’s father what he did. The child was found safe inside the vehicle which was parked down the street from the Chabad.

Defendant Yan Kossa is being charged with Unlawful Imprisonment 2nd Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He was arraigned on Sunday, June 21, 2015 at First District Court, 99 Main Street, Hempstead.

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Queens man was arrested for luring a child into his car on Long Island, according to police.

On Saturday, Yan Kossa, 39, of Far Rockaway, was worshiping at the Chabad located at 74 Maple Avenue when he approached a 7-year-old girl and asked her if she wanted to go outside with him, police said.

Kossa then led the girl outside and put her inside his car, police said.

He then went back into the Chabad and told the girl’s father what he did, according to authorities.

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NEW YORK
WPIX

JUNE 22, 2015, BY JEREMY TANNER

CEDARHURST, Long Island – Police arrested a man accused of luring a young girl from a synagogue on Long Island over the weekend.

Yan Kossa, 39, was worshipping at Chabad of the Five Towns on Maple Avenue Saturday when he struck up a conversation with a 7-year-old girl, according to Nassau County police. After convincing her to walk outside with him, he then allegedly lured her into his vehicle.

With the child inside the automobile, Kossa walked back to the synagogue and confessed what he had done to the girl’s father. Police officers responding to the scene found the man’s daughter still inside the vehicle, which was parked down the street.

The girl was unharmed, and Kossa now faces charges of unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Michelle Bellefontaine, CBC News

Premier Rachel Notley has apologized to indigenous Albertans for the government’s past silence on residential schools.

“We want the First Nation, Métis and Inuit people of Alberta to know that we deeply regret the profound harm and damage that occurred to generations of children forced to attend residential schools,” Notley told the legislature Monday.

“Although the province of Alberta did not establish this system, members of this chamber at the time did not take a stand against it. For this silence, we apologize.”

As survivors of residential schools looked on, Notley told them that “in the journey of reconciliation, you no longer have to walk alone.”

She vowed that the government will make a “fundamental shift” in its relationship with First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.

Notley became emotional as she called for the establishment of a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

“We join the families, national aboriginal organizations, the province, the territories to lend our voice to the call for a national inquiry, because it is the right thing to do,” Notley said.

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IOWA
Sioux City Journal

REMSEN, Iowa | Monsignor Nicholas J. Ruba, 89, of Remsen died Saturday, June 20, 2015, at Happy Siesta Health Care Center in Remsen.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Remsen. Burial will be in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery at Remsen. Visitation will be anytime after 4 p.m. Tuesday, with a parish rosary at 5 p.m. and a vigil prayer service at 7 p.m., followed by a Knights of Columbus rosary, at Fisch Funeral Home & Monument in Remsen.

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IOWA
Daily Sentinel

Sunday, June 21, 2015

(Photo) Msgr. Nicholas J. Ruba, 89, of Remsen, died Saturday, June 20, 2015, at Happy Siesta Health Care Center, in Remsen.

Msgr. Nicholas was born Aug. 7, 1925, at rural Remsen, the son of Nick and Catherine (Loutsch) Ruba. He was raised and educated in both rural school and St. Mary’s School, graduating in 1943.
He then attended Trinity College, in Sioux City, graduating in 1947.

He then enrolled in Kenrick Seminary, in St. Louis, for four years and was ordained a priest in 1951.

Over the years he served at many Catholic parishes.

From 1951 to 1954, he was the assistant at St. Peter Paul Parish, in Carroll.

From 1954 to 1958, he was the assistant at Blessed Sacrament, in Sioux City.

From 1958 to 1961, he was the pastor at Christ The King Parish, in Dayton,.

From 1961 to 1968, he was the pastor at St. Benedict Parish, in Algona.

From 1968 to 1986 he was the pastor at St. Michael’s Parish, in Sioux City.

From 1986 to 1992, he was the pastor at St. Mary’s Parish, in Alton.

From 1992 to 1996, he served as pastor at St. Andrews Parish, in Sibley.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Retired Archbishop of Armagh Cardinal Sean Brady has stated there was a culture of “secrecy and silence” in the Catholic Church which believed issues of child abuse could be managed internally.

Cardinal Brady, who as far back as 1975 heard allegations of sexual abuse against Fr Brendan Smyth, is to give evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down on Thursday.

The inquiry is this week examining whether the church was guilty of systemic failings in how it dealt with the paedophile priest who faced allegations of sexual abuse relating back to the late 1940s.

Failings that allowed notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth (above) to abuse children for four decades will be examined by a public inquiry on Monday Brendan Smyth may have abused more than 200 children

In a statement to the inquiry about the overall issue of sexual abuse, Cardinal Brady said that “sadly at that time there was a culture within the church of secrecy and silence” where “it was felt that matters could be dealt with within the church structures themselves”.

He added: “Further, there was not a proper understanding of the devastating consequences of child abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Robert Mickens | Jun. 22, 2015

Certain Catholics love to repeat ad nauseam that the church is not a democracy, especially when it comes to decision-making and the selection of leadership.

And thank God it is not.

Nor should it aspire to be if the democratic model is the dysfunctional political and electoral system at work in places like the United States.

But that doesn’t mean all is well with the way the Roman church makes its pastoral-administrative decisions, discerns the call of the Spirit, or chooses its bishops.

Quite the contrary.

The inadequate leadership displayed by too many bishops in the United States and other parts of the world the past couple of decades has made that point painfully clear. One wonders how some of these men were ever put in a position of such weighty responsibility.

The most recent case that has American Catholics scratching their heads is that of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Story by Chris Chambers @chris_utv

The comment was said to have been made by Smyth to a doctor in 1994, the year he was jailed for his crimes.

Joseph Aiken, counsel to the Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA), said the priest admitted: “Over the years of religious life it could be that I have sexually abused 50 to 100 children – that number could even be doubled or perhaps even more.”

The latest module of long-running inquiry began on Monday and is focusing on how Smyth, who was eventually convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges over a 40-year period, got away with his crimes for so long.

It is looking at whether any steps taken or not taken to deal with him amount to systemic failings, and is expected to last a week.

Smyth was at the centre of one of the first clerical child sex abuse scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Journal

THE CRIMES OF Fr Brendan Smyth, one of the first Catholic priests to be outed as a paedophile in the early 1990s, are being focused upon this week by Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA).

In a statement read before the inquiry this morning by Junior Counsel Joseph Aiken in Banbridge, Co. Down, Fr William Fitzgerald, of the Norbertine Order to which Smyth belonged, said that the notorious abuser “ought never to have been ordained”.

Fitzgerald confirmed that “warning signs had surfaced” as to Smyth’s nature prior to his ordination.

This pattern of behaviour to maintain his freedom to do as he chose was already apparent while in formation.

Fitzgerald maintained that from his knowledge Smyth was “a very intelligent man”.

On reflection it is clear that he used that intelligence and naked cunning to engineer circumstances in which to abuse children, and also to intimidate and oppose the efforts of those who sought to confront him and restrict his activities

I am of the view that, while he never held any significant position within the church, he had a significant presence and influence with which he silenced and ridiculed those who would oppose him.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

22 JUNE 2015

The activities of Ireland’s most infamous paedophile priest sparked concerns years before he was ordained, an inquiry has heard.

There was suspicion that Fr Brendan Smyth, who admitted sexually assaulting hundreds of children, had abused a boy while training in Rome during the late 1940s.

The revelations were made to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, which is examining whether systemic failings allowed Smyth – a member of the Norbertine order – to perpetrate the abuse over more than four decades.

Jospeh Aiken, counsel for the inquiry, said: “The Norbertine order believes that knowledge of Brendan Smyth’s activities exists prior to his ordination yet he was ordained as a priest in any event.

“A complaint had been made about Smyth when he was a student in Rome in the 1940s. He was accused of abusing a child in the vicinity of the college.”

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

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NORTHERN IRELAND/IRELAND
Irish Times

The following is a selective list of articles from Irishtimes.com referring to the late Fr Brendan Smyth.

March 22, 1996

BRENDAN SMYTH was back in Magilligan Prison, Co Derry, last night after senior Garda officers interviewed him in Belfast about further allegations of sexual abuse in the Republic.

Senior Garda officers, including a chief superintendent, travelled to Antrim Road RUC station in Belfast yesterday to question the 68 year old convicted paedophile about the alleged offences in Dublin, Mayo and Cavan.

Smyth has been in prison since 1994 when he pleaded guilty to 17 charges of indecent assault involving the sexual abuse of five girls and three boys. In September last year he was sentenced to a further three years in jail after he pleaded guilty to 26 charges of sex abuse in Northern Ireland over a 20 year period.

At the time it was reported that the priest may face further charges in the Republic. Smyth has applied for release on parole. He becomes eligible at the end of this month.

However, his solicitor, Mr Denis Maloney, complained this week after reports that the RUC may want to interview Smyth again. Mr Maloney said that it was clearly understood that the file on his client in relation to offences in Northern Ireland was closed after he pleaded guilty last September.

March 22, 1997

BRENDAN SMYTH (71), the paedophile priest, arriving at Limavady Court in Co Derry yesterday where an order was made for his extradition to the Republic to face 74 sex abuse charges.

The Norbertine priest had been released from Magilligan Prison, where he served a four-year term for sexually abusing children over a 20-year period in west Belfast.

During the hearing, Smyth stood in the dock beside an RUC sergeant. He remained silent except to reply “Yes” when asked if he understood five specimen charges. After the hearing, people outside the court shouted abuse at him. He was driven to City of Derry airport. Accompanied by two gardai, he was then flown to Dublin.

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TEXAS
WRIC

TARRANT COUNTY, Texas (WRIC) — The defense began presenting its case Monday in the Geronimo ‘Pastor G’ Aguilar trial. The former Richmond megachurch pastor is accused of sexually assaulting two young girls in Texas back in the 90’s, when he was their youth pastor.

The first witness to take the stand Monday was Samantha Aguilar, Pastor G’s wife. Samantha said on the stand that she was just a few months shy of 18-years-old when she got married to Geronimo Aguilar.

Samantha told the jury she learned that Child Protective Services (CPS) was investigating her husband after she returned from a solo trip to California. She said she never saw anything inappropriate and CPS never talked to her.

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FLORIDA
New Times

BY CHRIS JOSEPH

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2015

Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and pastor at Fort Lauderdale megachurch Coral Ridge Presbyterian, has resigned from his pulpit after admitting to an affair.

Aside from being known as Billy Graham’s grandkid, Tchividjian — who has been married since 1994 and has three children with his wife, Kim — is also nephew to Franklin Graham, who famously blamed the ills of the world on homosexuality and recently blamed the Charleston shootings on Hollywood.

In a statement released to the Washington Post on Sunday, Tchividjian revealed that he had discovered that his wife had been having an affair. The statement goes on to say that he sought comfort from a friend, whom he eventually also became intimately involved with.

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By Zachary Fagenson

MIAMI (Reuters) – A grandson of famed evangelist Billy Graham resigned his post atop a prominent south Florida church after admitting to “moral failure,” according to a statement from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.

A statement on the church’s website said that several days ago Tullian Tchividjian, 42, had acknowledged that “his actions disqualify him from continuing to serve as senior pastor or preach from the pulpit, and resigned – effective immediately.”

The website did not specify what Tchividjian’s “moral failure” was and church officials did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Tchividjian said his problems began after returning from a trip and learning his wife was having an affair. The couple later separated, according to the statement.
“Sadly and embarrassingly, I subsequently sought comfort in a friend and developed an inappropriate relationship myself,” he said.

In another letter to the newspaper, Tchividjian’s wife Kim was less apologetic while asking for privacy and thanking supporters.

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FLORIDA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 6/22/15

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — A prominent Florida megachurch says a grandson of the Rev. Billy Graham has stepped down as its pastor after a “moral failure.”

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church said Monday that Tullian Tchividjian resigned last week for actions that “disqualify him from continuing to serve as senior pastor.” The Fort Lauderdale church offered no further details.

Tchividjian did not comment on the matter on his webpage and did not respond to a call seeking comment. In a statement to The Washington Post, he acknowledged having an affair.

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FLORIDA
Washington Post

Billy Graham’s grandson steps down from Florida megachurch after admitting an affair

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey June 21

Billy Graham’s grandson Tullian Tchividjian has resigned from his pulpit at Coral Ridge Presbyterian, a high-profile church in South Florida, after admitting he had an affair. He released the following statement to The Washington Post:

“I resigned from my position at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church today due to ongoing marital issues. As many of you know, I returned from a trip a few months back and discovered that my wife was having an affair. Heartbroken and devastated, I informed our church leadership and requested a sabbatical to focus exclusively on my marriage and family. As her affair continued, we separated. Sadly and embarrassingly, I subsequently sought comfort in a friend and developed an inappropriate relationship myself. Last week I was approached by our church leaders and they asked me about my own affair. I admitted to it and it was decided that the best course of action would be for me to resign. Both my wife and I are heartbroken over our actions and we ask you to pray for us and our family that God would give us the grace we need to weather this heart wrenching storm. We are amazingly grateful for the team of men and women who are committed to walking this difficult path with us. Please pray for the healing of deep wounds and we kindly ask that you respect our privacy.”

Tchividjian, 42, has been married to his wife, Kim, since 1994 and they have three children. Kim Tchividjian sent the following message to The Post Monday morning:

“The statement reflected my husband’s opinions but not my own. Please respect the privacy of my family at this time, thank you. I do thank everyone for the outpouring of love for my family as well during this difficult time and we appreciate all the prayers and support we are receiving.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

[Berlin (kath.net/KNA) Federal Government Abuse Commissioner Johannes Wilhelm Rörig has demanded an increase of scientists doing research on sexual violence.]

Bundesmissbrauchs-Beauftragter: Das Thema dürfe nicht als «Nischenthema» betrachtet werden. Laut Weltgesundheitsorganisation sind in Europa rund 18 Millionen Kinder von sexueller Gewalt betroffen.

Berlin (kath.net/KNA) Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat einen verstärkten Einsatz von Wissenschaftlern bei der Forschung zu sexueller Gewalt verlangt. Notwendig seien mehr Wissen und mehr Vernetzung der Forschungsdisziplinen, sagte Rörig am Donnerstag in Berlin. Das Thema dürfe nicht als «Nischenthema» betrachtet werden. Laut Weltgesundheitsorganisation sind in Europa rund 18 Millionen Kinder von sexueller Gewalt betroffen.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 23, 2015

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

The child abuse royal commission will investigate the mistreatment of children within the Jehovah’s Witnesses church, with a public hearing into the Christian denomination to be held in Sydney next month.

The church, which has about 89,000 followers in Australia, is the latest in a series of religious organisations called before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The inquiry, which is expected to hear from a number of victims, will also hear evidence about how the church and its associated company, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd, responded to abuse in the past.

A previous Victorian state inquiry into child abuse heard that church leaders who heard allegations of abuse had been instructed to contact the organisation’s lawyers to check their obligations under state law, before going to police.

Asked whether church leaders would report allegations of child abuse to police, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society director Terrence O’Brien told the Victorian inquiry “that is within the decision-making of the victim, not the minister”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham June 22, 2015

A BALLARAT clergy sexual abuse survivor says he was targeted by perpetrators due to his disability and claims Cardinal George Pell ignored his pleas for help.

Paul Lyons who is profoundly deaf told The Courier he will submit a witness statement to challenge the senior Catholic at the second round of Royal Commission hearings later this year.

Mr Lyons said he had been inspired by the strength of other survivors to go public.

Mr Lyons will allege Cardinal Pell was present when he told another priest he had been brutally raped by Christian brother teacher Robert Best, aged 9, at St Alipius in Ballarat East.

Cardinal Pell said he was studying at Oxford at the time the rape.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Prospect

by John Cornwell / June 19, 2015

Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment—a formal church document, released yesterday, in which he calls for action on climate change and pollution—has been greeted with enthusiasm by an impressive array of the “people of good will” to whom he addresses it.

But in the long run, the reception of the Pope’s pronouncements may tell us more about the state of the Catholic Church and of the papacy than about how to solve the degradation of the planet.

The document has been praised by the many secular institutions that blame the actions of humans for climate change. Representatives of the United Nations (UN) have enthusiastically endorsed it, as has Greenpeace—institutions that have no brief for Christianity, let alone Catholicism. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday noted that the encyclical expressed “a very solid scientific consensus” showing that most global warming in recent decades is “mainly a result of human activity.”

At the same time, though, there is a subterranean theme within the encyclical’s 184 pages that has prompted strong reactions inside the Catholic Church. It has been harshly criticised by some leading Catholics who believe that it goes beyond the papal remit by expressing uncompromising views on politics and economics.

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FRANCE
La Croix

[The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was relieved of his clerical obligations a French priest, who then returned to the lay state. He was sentenced in 2000 for sexual abuse of minors.]

Le P. Jean-Marie Vincent, curé de la paroisse Notre Dame de La Source à la Réunion, a été relevé de ses vœux par un décret de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi. Après avoir célébré sa dernière messe le samedi 13 juin, il est donc revenu à une vie de laïc.

En 2000, la cour d’appel de Nancy avait condamné ce prêtre pour agressions sexuelles sur mineurs, à 5 ans de prison, dont 4 ans ferme, pour des faits commis en Italie et en Suisse, alors qu’il était directeur de la chorale de Bar-le-Duc.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in the North heard on Monday that paedophile priest Brendan Smyth admitted that he could have sexually abused more than 200 children during his period in the religious life.

Junior counsel for the inquiry Joseph Aiken said that new information had emerged from its investigations about Smyth including how after his arrest he told a doctor in 1994 that more than 200 children may have been abused by him.

Mr Aiken said that Smyth admitted that over his years in the religious life that he could have sexually abused 50-100 children” and that “number could even be double or perhaps even more”. The abuse is believed to have run from the late 1940s to the early 1990s.

Mr Aiken said that Smyth was convicted of 117 cases of indecent assault against 41 children in the North and South. There were 74 convictions against 20 children in the Republic and 43 convictions against 21 children in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland convictions were between 1964 and 1984 and the Southern convictions between 1967 and 1993.

Mr Aiken referred to how Smyth also spent time in Wales, Scotland and the United States where he faced allegations of “similar abuse” and that there were many more allegations against Smyth, some of which he accepted.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

22 JUNE 2015

Concerns were raised about the activities of a notorious paedophile priest before he was ordained, an inquiry has heard.

There was suspicion that Fr Brendan Smyth, who went on to sexually assault hundreds of children, had abused a boy while training in Rome during the late 1940s.

The revelations were made to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, which is looking at how Smyth – a member of the Norbertine order – was allowed to continue offending for over four decades.

Jospeh Aiken, counsel for the inquiry said: “The Norbertine order believes that knowledge of Brendan Smyth’s activities exists prior to his ordination yet he was ordained as a priest in any event.

“A complaint had been made about Smyth when he was a student in Rome in the 1940s. He was accused of abusing a child in the vicinity of the college.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
news.com.au (Australia)

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest told a doctor he had sexually abused hundreds of children, an inquiry in Northern Ireland has heard.

FR Brendan Smyth made the admission in February 1994 – the year he was jailed for his crimes.

He said: “Over the years of religious life it could be that I have sexually abused between 50 and 100 children. That number could even be doubled or perhaps even more.”

Northern Ireland’s long-running Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is holding a focused module into how Smyth, a member of the Norbertine Order, was allowed to continue offending for more than four decades.

Joseph Aiken, counsel for the inquiry, said it was the first time the serial child molester’s comments had been made public.

“The inquiry will have to consider whether it is also a story of a litany of missed opportunities to properly deal with Smyth by a significant number of individuals who were themselves in positions of considerable trust, power and influence not only over him, his victims and their families,” he said.

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RHODE ISLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 22

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

A priest who molested Rhode Island kids, who “abused hundreds of children over decades” and should have never been ordained, a Northern Ireland government panel.

The testimony comes as part of a week-long inquiry into “what opportunities there were to (stop the priest’s abuse) of children and whether any action, or inaction, amounted to systemic failings.”

[RTE News]

[BBC News]

At least three abuse and cover up lawsuits (in 2010 and 2008) have been filed in Rhode Island because of child sex crimes by Fr. Brendan Smyth.

One of those victims is Helen McGonigle, a Connecticut attorney, who disclosed in 2006 to the Providence diocese that Smyth had sexually abused her as a child, beginning when she was in 1st grade and attending Our Lady of Mercy School in 1967. She said that Smyth threatened her with death if she told. (WBUR, January 27, 2010)

In 2007, Providence Catholic officials admitted that they had received eight abuse reports about Smyth. (East Greenwich Pendulum, October 25, 2007)

Smyth died in prison after being convicted of indecently assaulting 74 children in the Republic of Ireland and 43 others in Northern Ireland.

We call on Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin and every single diocesan or parish employee in the state to show some courage, break their silence, act with compassion and use every possible means to reach out to and help others who were sexually violated by Smyth and his complicit clerical colleagues. It’s not enough for a church official to say “We’re sorry for his crimes.” Church officials must use their vast resources – parish websites, pulpit announcements, new releases and church bulletins – to seek out and console those who have been suffering for decades because of this predator.

Finally, we commend the brave individuals who were hurt as kids by Smyth and found the strength to expose this pedophile and those who protected him for decades and sought – and won – justice in the courts. We hope his passing brings them comfort, knowing that Smyth will no longer ever be able to assault anyone else.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Farming Life

Concerns were raised about the activities of a notorious paedophile priest before he was ordained, an inquiry has heard.

There was suspicion that Fr Brendan Smyth, who went on to sexually assault hundreds of children, had abused a boy while training in Rome during the late 1940s.

The revelations were made to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, which is looking at how Smyth – a member of the Norbertine order – was allowed to continue offending for over four decades.

Jospeh Aiken, counsel for the inquiry said: “The Norbertine order believes that knowledge of Brendan Smyth’s activities exists prior to his ordination yet he was ordained as a priest in any event.

“A complaint had been made about Smyth when he was a student in Rome in the 1940s. He was accused of abusing a child in the vicinity of the college.”

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

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MICHIGAN
The Republic

The Associated Press
Published: 6/22/15

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Michigan — The pastor of a Detroit-area Catholic church is resuming his duties after being ordered in October to step aside amid an FBI investigation of church finances.

The Archdiocese of Detroit says the FBI has indicated that the investigation into funds at St. Kenneth Church has been closed. The resumption of duties for Rev. Thomas Belczak is effective June 27 and parishioners were given the update Saturday.

The archdiocese says it has appointed a delegate to the parish in Wayne County’s Plymouth Township to provide more financial oversight.

Belczak’s lawyer Karen Woodside tells the Detroit Free Press he cooperated with investigators while maintaining his innocence.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A public inquiry has been told that a paedophile priest admitted he may have sexually abused hundreds of children.

Northern Ireland’s Historical Abuse Inquiry has begun an examination on the activities of Fr Brendan Smyth.

Smyth was at the centre of one of the first paedophile priest scandals to rock the Catholic church in Ireland.

The inquiry heard he told a doctor in 1994 that “Over the years of religious life, it could be that I’ve sexually abused between 50 and 100 children.

“That number could have been doubled, or perhaps even more.”

Disgrace

Smyth was convicted of 117 indecent assaults against 41 children across Ireland.
He died in prison in 1997 after a heart attack.

The wide-ranging inquiry is conducting a week-long focus on how Smyth got away with his crimes, many carried out in a number of former children’s residential homes, for so long.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Chairman Sir Anthony Hart gives an opening address at the start of the sixth module of Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) in Banbridge, County Down.

This module will focus on the crimes of Fr Brendan Smyth following allegations made by numerous witnesses who have already given evidence.

He is due to speak at 10:00 BST.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

At its opening session in Banbridge Co Down this morning, the inquiry heard that the Norbertine Order priest abused hundreds of children over a period spanning several decades.

He was convicted of indecently assaulting 74 children in the Republic of Ireland and of indecently assaulting 43 others in Northern Ireland.

Some of the abuse took place in care homes run by religious orders.

In a written statement to the inquiry a representative of the Norbertine Order acknowledged that warning signs had surfaced prior to Brendan Smyth’s ordination in the 1940s and that he ought never to have been ordained to the priesthood.

The retired archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Sean Brady, is to give evidence on Thursday.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Failings that allowed notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to abuse children for four decades will be examined by a public inquiry on Monday.

Northern Ireland’s long-running Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is holding a focused module into how Smyth got away with his crimes for so long.

The serial child molester frequented Catholic residential homes and was convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges.

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

Smyth, who was at the centre of one of the first clerical child sex abuse scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland, was eventually convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges on both sides of the Irish border over a 40-year period.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

The public inquiry into historical institutional abuse is to examine the case of notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth later.

Story by UTV Staff, Belfast

It will focus on how Smyth, who was eventually convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges over a 40-year period, got away with his crimes for so long.

This, the latest module of the long-running Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA), begins on Monday and is expected to last a week.

Smyth was at the centre of one of the first clerical child sex abuse scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Allegations surrounding the priest were investigated as far back as 1975, however it was almost 25 years before he was jailed.

He died in prison in 1997 following a heart attack.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
22 JUN 2015

Jehovah’s Witnesses, the sometimes controversial Christian church, is to face public examination by the royal commission into child sexual abuse in institutions.

A public hearing into the church will be held in Sydney starting on July 27, the commission announced on Monday.

The experience of survivors of child sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Australia will be investigated as will its responses and those of its company – the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd – to allegations made against members.

The Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door proselytising as they spread the message of what they believe is the true meaning of the bible. They have sometimes gained publicity for their refusal to accept blood transfusions and have been accused of being a “cult”.

In 2012 the church in the United States was involved in a court case in California which tested its obligation to tell parents of the child-abuse history of a member who molested a nine-year-old girl.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

22 June, 2015

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing on 27 July 2015 at 10:00am.

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.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 10 July 2015.

Applications for leave to appear should be made using the form available on the Royal Commission website.

The form and the submission should be lodged with the Royal Commission via: Email: solicitor@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au; or Mail: GPO Box 5283, Sydney NSW 2001.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 22, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Australia is the latest religious group to come to the attention of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The child sex abuse royal commission will hold a public hearing into controversial Christian group the Jehovah’s Witnesses, next month.

The inquiry, to be held in Sydney, will hear from people who were allegedly sexually abused within the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Australia.

It will examine how the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church and its company, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, responded to claims of child sexual abuse within the organisation.

A Victorian inquiry into how churches handle child sex abuse claims has previously taken submissions from former Jehovah’s Witnesses who alleged instances of paedophilia, sexual assault, blackmail and death threats.

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AUSTRALIA
Insights

The Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Justice Peter McClellan AM will address the Uniting Church in Australia’s 14th Assembly meeting in Perth next month.

Justice McClellan will address the meeting on Wednesday 15 July at the University of Western Australia.

UCA President Rev. Prof. Andrew Dutney has welcomed Justice McClellan’s agreement to address the Assembly and thanked him for the Commission’s important work to date.

“Justice McClellan has graciously agreed to speak to our Assembly meeting and we will listen very closely to what he has to say,” said Rev. Prof. Dutney.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI

The crimes of the notorious paedophile priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, will be examined at a public inquiry later.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is looking at abuse allegations across a range of church, state and voluntary institutions.

The inquiry decided to investigate the late priest’s activities following allegations made by numerous witnesses who have already given evidence.

They were residents at a number of former institutions being investigated.

Scandal

These institutions include Rubane House Boys Home, run by the De La Salle Order in Kircubbin, County Down, and two Sisters of Nazareth-run homes on the Ormeau and Ravenhill roads in Belfast.

Later this week, the inquiry will hear from a number of prominent members of the Catholic Church, including its former leader in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Two Government departments had access to a 2012 report on “shocking” levels of infant deaths at Bessborough Mother and Baby home — despite initial claims that it did not have the report.

Earlier this month, the Irish Examiner revealed that a 2012 HSE report highlighted the “wholly epidemic” infant deaths rates at the Cork home and said: “The question whether, indeed, all of these children actually died while in Bessborough, or whether they were brokered into clandestine adoption arrangements, both foreign and domestic, has dire implications for the Church and State, and not least for the children and families themselves.”

The report, compiled as part of the HSE’s examination of the State’s role in the Magdalene Laundries under the McAleese inquiry, was based on an examination of Bessborough’s own records between 1922 and the late 1970s. Bessborough’s death register records 478 children died there between 1934 and 1953 — one infant a fortnight for nearly two decades.

In response to queries from this newspaper, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) said it had not been given the report by the HSE in 2012. However, it has since confirmed that both it and the Department of Health were given the report in 2012.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

22 JUNE 2015

Failings that allowed notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to abuse children for four decades will today be examined by a public inquiry.

Northern Ireland’s long-running Historical Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is holding a focused module into how Smyth got away with his crimes for so long.

The serial child molester frequented Catholic residential homes and was convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges.

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

Smyth, who was at the centre of one of the first clerical child sex abuse scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland, was eventually convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges on both sides of the Irish border over a 40-year period.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

Mon, Jun 22, 2015

Anyone who has doubts as to the severity of the “Francis revolution” currently blowing through the Vatican should probably take a look at last Monday’s Bollettino or news bulletin from the Holy See press office. Two items make for significant reading.

Firstly, the Holy See confirms that the pope has accepted the resignations of the Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of St Paul and Minneapolis in the United States,and Lee Piché respectively.

They announced their departures less than two weeks after prosecutors in St Paul accused the archdiocese of wilfully ignoring warning signs of a paedophile priest.

Trial of former nuncio

The bulletin also announced that the former papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Polish archbishop Jósef Wesolowski, is to stand trial next month in a Vatican City court on charges related to alleged sex abuse.

Essentially, the pope’s hard line is making itself felt. The two US bishops have been forced to resign because of an alleged cover-up or failure to correctly handle a sex-abuser priest in their diocese.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said last week he’d continue to investigate the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis after Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned.

Choi has filed criminal charges against the archdiocese as a corporation. No individuals are charged, though Choi hasn’t ruled out that possibility.

Court documents show church leaders missed several opportunities over the years to report or disclose information about Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest convicted in 2012 of molesting two boys.

The documents say Nienstedt named Wehmeyer a pastor, despite warnings. They say Bishop Lee Piche seemed to disregard a report that Wehmeyer was found in bed with a boy, a report Piche told police he didn’t remember. Authorities say the Rev. Kevin McDonough repeatedly said Wehmeyer wasn’t a danger.

Meanwhile, Sunday June 21 was the first Sunday since Nienstedt resigned last week. Many who attend mass said they look forward to a time of healing and renewal.

“There has been a lot of hurt in the Catholic Church. I don’t know how to fix that immediately, sometimes change can facilitate that.” Nate Hilderand said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reproter

Ken Briggs | Jun. 21, 2015

Pope Francis is a pungent preacher. His blunt rhetoric has electrified the world and effectively changed the church’s image from moribund to rejuvenated just as I suspect he was elected to do. The narrative has been extensively revamped.

But preaching doesn’t go as far as it once did without something to back it up. Not that long ago, a pope’s admonitions were enough. If Pius XII had decided to add a fishless Tuesday to the discipline in 1949, chances are that his word alone would have won overwhelming compliance. No more. Catholics like their fellow citizens are far less willing to obey authority on its face.

To win over audiences, preachers of reform are much more likely to succeed by admitting that their own houses have contributed to the crisis and that they are determined to do something about it.

Francis’ diagnosis and prescriptions, compelling as they are, need persuasive confession that the church itself has been a polluter and a profiteer in the building of the fossil fuel empire. So far as I can tell, the church’s implicit collusion in damaging the climate never enters into the pope’s encyclical. Neither does any indication that the Vatican will back up his eloquent alarm by divesting the portion of its estimated $8 billion bank account that’s tied up in global oil.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The plague of child abuse in the church.]

SAVONA. Giorgio Barbacini è stato il primo caso,ma le cronache degli anni Duemila sono arricchite da altri due preti condannati per pedofilia. Si tratta di Luciano Massaferro, alassino, nei guai per aver abusato di una parrocchiana dodicenne e Nello Giraudo, che ha chiesto di tornare allo stato laicale e che ha patteggiato un anno di carcere per aver molestato un quindicenne durante un campo scout nel finalese. Entrambi, come peraltro Barbacini, avevano contatti diretti con i parrocchiani minorenni. Don Lu era il parroco di San Vincenzo ad Alassio, don Nello gestiva una comunità per minori. E per entrambi i vertici della curia non erano intervenuti per allontanarli dalle potenziali vittime. Don Luciano Massaferro, però, il carcere lo ha fatto. Prima a Chiavari, poi a Villa Andreini dove fino a qualche settimana fa stava scontando la condannaa7annie8mesiper avere molestato sessualmente una chierichetta della parrocchia di San Giovanni ad Alassio. Il Tribunale ha infatti accolto la richiesta dei legali per l’affidamento in prova ai servizi socialidiImperia e don Massaferro ha trovato ospitalità alla Casa della Carità.

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UNITED KINGDOM
NSPCC

Shocking figures from our latest report show sexual offences against children in England Wales are up by more than a third

Figures revealed today, in our How safe are our children? report, show that the number of sexual offences against children recorded by police in England and Wales soared by more than a third last year (2013-14).

A total of 31,238 offences – 85 a day – including rape, sexual assault and grooming, were reported to police. The majority of victims were aged 12 to 16, although more than one in three (8,282) were younger than 11. Among these were 2,895 aged five and under – including 94 babies1.

The number of offences recorded against girls (24,457) was nearly five times higher than that of boys (5,292).

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KANADA
kath.ch

[Priest Paul-Andre Harvey admitted in court to abusing 40 minors.]

Chicoutimi, 21.6.15 (kath.ch) Ein kanadischer Priester im Ruhestand, der des sexuellen Missbrauchs angeklagt war, anerkennt seine Schuld. Paul-André Harvey, Priester in der Diözese Chicoutimi, hat am 16. Juni zugegeben, zwischen 1963 und 1987 40 Kinder missbraucht zu haben. Die meisten von ihnen waren zur Tatzeit zwischen sechs und zwölf Jahre alt. Harvey drohen drei bis acht Jahre Gefängnis.

Die ersten Anschuldigungen gegen den Priester der Diözese Chicoutimi gehen aufs Jahr 2012 zurück. Der Geistliche wurde der Unzucht mit Kindern und grober Anstössigkeiten gegenüber 39 Mädchen angeklagt, wie die katholische Informationsseite Proximo berichtet.

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HAWAII
Damon Tucker

A Catholic bishop recently led a funeral for an accused predator priest who was hiding in another country.

We just learned that Fr. Anthony Bolger, a priest who is publicly accused of sexually abusing a child in Hawai’i, died months ago while in hiding in Tijuana, Mexico.

Obituary: FATHER ANTHONY BOLGER | 1943-2015

Hawai’i Bishop Clarence Silva even presided over Bolger’s funeral.

Memorial Mass for Father Anthony Bolger

We are upset by Silva’s recklessness, callousness, and secrecy.

Fr. Bolger joins a long list of credibly accused child-molesting clerics who have been allowed by their Catholic supervisors to live unsupervised in the Mexico border town among unsuspecting families and vulnerable children. As best we can tell, the local Tijuana community was not warned of the accusations against Bolger and that children were put in direct risk.

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ITALY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 21, 2015

TURIN, ITALY
Pope Francis has again publicly indicated he is not considering appointing women to leadership positions in the nearly all-male Vatican bureaucracy, saying to do so would be to promote a “functionalism” of women’s roles in the Catholic church.

But the pontiff has also indicated an equality in ministry between men and women in the church, saying that all women have the “same work” the Virgin Mary had in receiving the Holy Spirit along with the twelve apostles at Pentecost.

Speaking in a rambling off the cuff address to priests and religious of the Salesians of Don Bosco in this northern Italian city Sunday, the pope said he is often asked: “But don’t you have to make stronger decisions on women in the church?”

“Oh, certainly,” Francis replied to his own question. “But do you think nominating the head of a dicastery will be a strong decision?”

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MINNESOTA
Washington Times

By AMY FORLITI – Associated Press – Sunday, June 21, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – When Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned last week as leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he’d “allow the facts to lead the way” in his ongoing investigation into an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse.

Choi filed criminal charges against the archdiocese as a corporation this month, and hasn’t ruled out charges against individuals if evidence warrants. So far, that hasn’t happened.

“In a criminal investigation that’s being undertaken by someone as careful as John Choi, it’s very hard to guess what they are doing … because there’s a lot that goes on under the surface,” according to Mark Osler, a criminal law professor at the University of St. Thomas.

The initial charges could be a prelude to something more, or not: “A prosecutor is going to hold their cards pretty close to the vest,” Osler said.

The court documents list several instances in which church leaders missed opportunities to report information about Curtis Wehmeyer, 50, a former priest convicted in 2012 of molesting two boys.

Here’s how prosecutors say key church leaders handled the Wehmeyer case:

FORMER ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT

Nienstedt became archbishop in 2008. About a year later, Wehmeyer asked to become a pastor. Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger repeatedly warned Nienstedt that Wehmeyer had engaged in risky behavior, which included a 2004 incident in which he approached two younger-looking males about sex in a bookstore.

Nienstedt appointed Wehmeyer as pastor of two parishes in 2009.

In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Nienstedt said he knew about the bookstore incident but that Wehmeyer had been evaluated and there was nothing “that would indicate he would be a danger to young people.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

LUCIE MORRIS-MARR HERALD SUN JUNE 22, 2015

AN abuse victim who claims Cardinal George Pell overheard his pleas for help after being raped as a child is preparing for a showdown with the senior Catholic.

Waiving his anonymity for an interview with the Herald Sun, Paul Lyons, 55, has challenged Cardinal Pell to prove he was not in Ballarat at the time of the alleged incident, ahead of the cardinal’s appearance at the second round of royal commission hearings in the town later this year.

“I want Pell to produce the pages of his passport as proof that he was visiting Australia at the time,” Mr Lyons said.

Cardinal Pell has said he was studying at Oxford at the time Mr Lyons says he was brutally raped, aged 9, in a Ballarat school by a Christian Brother teacher.

Mr Lyons says Cardinal Pell, then a young priest, ­ignored his plea for help.

He claims Cardinal Pell, 74, “kept his arms folded and walked away” when he went to St Alipius Presbytery a few weeks after the attack in 1969.

The victim, who still lives in Ballarat, said he sought help after his parents ignored his account of the abuse at the hands of Robert Best, who was later jailed for the crime.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 21 June 2015)

Broken Rites has helped to obtain justice for schoolboys who were sexually assaulted by Marist Brother Francis William Cable (also known as “Brother Romuald”) in Catholic schools around Sydney and the Newcastle region. During Brother Romuald’s life of crime, his Marist colleagues and superiors looked the other way, protecting him from the police and giving him access to more victims. Eventually, some of his victims (acting separately) began to contact Broken Rites and/or the New South Wales Police. Detectives from Newcastle then found more victims. On 18 June 2015 “Romuald” Cable, aged 83, was sentenced to at least eight years jail regarding 19 victims. These 19 were not Brother Romuald’s only victims — these are merely those who have spoken to the detectives. Other victims have remained silent.

The crimes against these 19 victims (usually including several assaults on each victim) were committed between 1960 and 1974. Any victims of Cable before 1960, or after 1974, have not contacted the police. When sentencing Cable, the judge calculated a jail sentence based on the total number (and seriousness) of assaults committed on these 19 victims.

Francis William Cable was born on 3 May 1932. As a child, he attended a Marist Brothers school, where he was introduced to the ways of the Marist Brothers. Eventually he was selected to undergo training to become a Marist Brother. He was a member of the Marist Brothers from 1952 to 1978.

One of his first roles (in the late 1950s) was on the staff of a Marist-operated boys’ orphanage — St Vincent’s Boys Home at Westmead in western Sydney. Broken Rites has been aware for some time that Brother Romuald Cable was targeting boys at St Vincent’s Boys Home but, fortunately for Cable, no former St Vincent’s boys have contacted the police during this current investigation.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press

June 20, 2015

Banned from his parish for nearly nine months, a popular Catholic priest will return to St. Kenneth in Plymouth after an FBI investigation ended, according to his attorney and the Archdiocese of Detroit.

News of the Rev. Thomas Belczak’s return drew a standing ovation from roughly 500 parishioners attending Saturday evening mass at the church on Haggerty Road near 5 Mile Road.

“Father is not a thief. Father will never be a thief,” said Robert Frigerio, of Plymouth, after attending the Mass. “I’m in tears. I’m a grown man, I’m 73 years old, and I’m in tears.”

Belczak, 61, was removed in October during an investigation into whether he improperly used parish funds — as his brother, also a priest, is accused of doing at a Troy parish.

Thomas Belczak isn’t facing any charges resulting from the investigation. He’ll resume his duties June 27 with a delegate appointed to provide a closer watch over the parish’s finances. An Archdiocese spokesman declined to specify what was found during the investigation, but said in an email that it had “identified concerns” regarding administrative and financial practices at the parish.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY JAMES WARD

Unlike the Commission on Child Abuse in 2002, victims will not be provided with free legal advice

Survivors of Ireland’s hellish Mother and Baby Homes are facing a €500,000 legal bill in their battle for compensation.

Unlike the Commission on Child Abuse in 2002, victims will not be provided with free legal advice.

The previous inquiry racked up more than €55million in lawyers’ bills but survivors were not asked to pay.

Support groups, already unhappy with the terms of reference for the probe, say this is another obstacle to justice.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Sunday, June 21, 2015

by Mgr Charles Vella

For ages, the boat of Peter had to row amidst heavy storms. Pope Francis has exhorted us “to row with him in the storm”. Since the Pope set out to reform the Church and the Vatican Bank and to sort out the Curia finances he has had to face many a storm. All the opposition he faces worries him, though he looks serene and determined to overcome the storms. When one touches money in the Vatican, there will be opposition. Quite rightly a Vatican journalist recently describ­ed the situation as “an open war”.

The camp is divided in two fronts. On one side we have the Pope, Cardinal George Pell, the Council of Cardinal Advisers and the Secretariat for the Economy. The secretary of the latter is the Gozitan Mgr Alfred Xuereb and the co-ordinator is Joseph F.X. Zahra, who both enjoy the confidence of the Pope.

On the other side we have some cardinals and bishops from within and outside the Curia. Some have been ousted from power and from the management of the Vatican finances. This is quite a strong group, which also opposes any changes with regard to marriage and divorcees in the forthcoming Synod on the Family. They are not rowing with the Pope.

These include Cardinal Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, or as known in the past, the Holy Office. Very vociferous is the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was removed for the Apostolic Signatura to be the patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta.

A strong ally of Pope Francis is Cardinal Walter Kasper, who was selected by the Pontiff to address last year’s extraordinary consistory on the family. Another heavyweight is German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and head of Vatican financial control. Zahra is a close advisor to him.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Basingstoke Gazette

by Press Association 2014

Almost one in every 35 men could pose a sexual risk to children, new figures suggest.

The research by the National Crime Agency found that as many as 3% of men could be a potential sex abuser or have an interest in online child porn.

The NCA’s deputy director Phil Gormley told the Mail on Sunday that of those, as many as 250,000 men were “true paedophiles” – attracted to pre-pubescent girls under 12.

He said a new approach was needed to protect children from potential abusers, saying: “If all we have is arrest and incarceration, that will not help them come forward.

“Like most people I am shocked by the estimated number who have this interest. It tells us some unhealthy things about human nature.”

The issue of child sex abuse has been thrust violently into the spotlight in recent months and years through high profile scandals including DJ Jimmy Savile’s sex abuse on an epic scale and the grooming gang scandals in Rotherham and Oxford.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Exodus of millions of Catholics

Vatican highly paid Pied Pipers are out in full force tooting out deceptions for Pope Francis for his upcoming US visit in September and brainwashing idiots Americans Catholics to welcome him as if Emperor Caesar will land in Washington, Philly and New York. The Vatican-owned mainstream media and their Opus Dei Beast PR Deceits Team’s pathological lies are hitting the heavens like the Tower of Babylon in all languages in all nations.

Another Pope Francis Emperor’s New Clothes Vatican Empire PR campaign was released this week in a new Gallup poll that said, “Confidence in Religion at New Low, but Not Among Catholics” — which really sounds like Enron and Bernard Maddof and those Wall Street traders who exaggerate and falsely amplify their stocks’ market values in order to deceive and trap more investors.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Kill the Indian, save the man

If idiots Americans Catholics refuse to believe that their zealous missionary soon-to-be saint Junipero Serra was capable of committing “cultural genocide” to the American Native Indians in California, they can go visit their next-door neighbors in Montreal, Quebec, or Vancouver, BC, or throughout Canada, or read the recent findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report on Canada’s residential schools ––to see Serra’s similar zealous missionary zeal and common denominator with the Catholic zealous clergy and nuns which was –– to separate the native children away from their parents and communities in order to Christianize them by the modus operandi and goal “to take the Indian out of the child to save the man”.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER JUNE 20, 2015

Archbishop Bernard Hebda took the temporary reins of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese last week, bringing an Ivy League law degree, an impressive list of Vatican connections and a touch of Pope Francis’ populism.

Hebda, who traveled to Minnesota wearing a backpack, is commuting from his three-room priest apartment in New Jersey. Known for his affable disposition, he’s also serious about his faith. He is fluent in Italian, having long lived in Rome, but also speaks Midwest Catholicism.

Hebda will need to tap his impressive skill set, say Catholic church experts, as he steps into one of the most tumultuous archdioceses in the nation. His job — being watched across the country — is daunting: Heal a Twin Cities Catholic community of some 800,000 people who are reeling from a child sex abuse scandal, bankruptcy, fundraising pains, and frustration in the pulpit and the pews.

And he’s expected to do this in a style reflecting that of Pope Francis, who sent him to the Twin Cities archdiocese following the June 15 resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

“Archbishop Hebda’s challenge is to restore trust in the archdiocese both for lay people and the priests,” said Robert Kennedy, chairman of the Department of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, and a lifelong St. Paul Catholic.

“As a temporary administrator, he can come in, make the tough choices and clear the path for the next archbishop. I think he was chosen specifically because of his background.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Editorial

The message from Rome and from civil authorities in St. Paul is quite clear: Bishops and other church leaders will be held accountable for their actions in dealing with clergy who abuse children.

The departure of Archbishop John Nienstedt from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is overdue. His resignation, whether it was his decision or at the direction of the Vatican, had to happen. In fact, it should have been done months ago.

The archdiocese must immediately begin the painful process of establishing trust. Otherwise, there is little reason for the 800,000 Catholics in the archdiocese to believe anything that comes from the leadership.

Of course, the embattled archdiocese faces criminal charges and a civil petition because of what is alleged to be a failure to protect children from a former priest who church officials should have known posed a risk.

While dealing with the court action must be a priority, convincing people church leaders can be trusted is even more important.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

SARA VANDEKERCKHOVE

[A letter from an angry young Belgian priest has caused a stir. The document sent to church officials, which the newspaper got hold of, is an indictment of the attitude of the church to victims of sexual abuse, a serious lack of transparency and the lack of cooperation of the ecclesiastical authorities to the court. The priest has gotten a lot of support from young colleagues.]

Een brief van een jonge priester en een nieuwe case waarbij iemand die grensoverschrijdend gedrag vertoonde, mocht blijven. Het toont aan dat er vijf jaar na het ontslag van bisschop Roger Vangheluwe aan de houding van het bisdom weinig veranderd is.

Een brief van een verbolgen jonge priester zorgt voor beroering. Het document, dat deze krant in handen kreeg, belandde vorige maand bij bisschop Jozef De Kesel, de vicarissen en een heleboel medewerkers van het bisdom. Het is een aanklacht tegen de houding van de kerk tegenover slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik, een nijpend gebrek aan transparantie en de gebrekkige medewerking van de kerkelijke instanties aan het gerecht.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Father Giorgio Barbacin,i a fugitive since 2010, returned to his house and was arrested. He will serve a three-and-a-half year prison sentence.]

La giustizia italiana non si era dimenticata di lui, ed è così che quando ieri don Giorgio Barbacini è rientrato nella sua casa di Lusignano (Albenga) i militari lo hanno tratto in arresto.

Quella di Barbacini è una storia analoga, anzi identica a quella di don Nello Giraudo, tanto da meritarsi il titolo di “compagni di merende”. In entrambe i casi infatti ci sono inquietanti analogie, per esempio entrambi gestivano una comunità per minori in difficoltà e a entrambi, fu il vescovo Dante Lafranconi che pur sapendo delle loro tendenze pedofile, lasciò che i due sacerdoti aprissero delle comunità per minori. L’unica cosa che cambia, si fa per dire, sono le vittime, italiane quelle di Giraudo e extracomunitari quelle di Barbacini.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

[The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart has paid around half a million euros in compensation for victims of sexual violence. At the same time 1,600 people have been trained to prevent new acts. A total of 170 cases of sexual abuse are known to the diocese.]

Die Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart hat bisher rund eine halbe Million Euro an Entschädigungen für Opfer sexueller Gewalt bezahlt. Gleichzeitig sind 1.600 Mitarbeiter geschult worden, um neue Taten zu verhindern. 170 Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch sind der Diözese bisher bekannt, mit 120 hat sich die katholische Kirche inzwischen näher befasst. Diese Zahlen nannte heute Monika Stolz von der Kommission sexueller Missbrauch der Diözese. Fünf Priester wurden aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen, sieben weitere sind suspendiert oder lassen ihr Amt ruhen.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

D.J. Tice is at Doug.Tice@startribune.com.

On Monday, John Nienstedt ended his fight to retain leadership of the 800,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Church and state in Minnesota have been united by recent events — united in disgrace, that is, as each finally has been called to account for long-standing and long-denied injustices.

Real reform and recompense will be difficult for each of these sinfully proud institutions. But at least the truth has come out.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and a chief lieutenant resigned last week after years of pressure culminated in criminal charges against the Twin Cities archdiocese, alleging that church officials covered up and essentially tolerated clergy sexual abuse of children for decades.

Meanwhile, at long last, state government’s decisive day in court also arrived last week, when federal District Judge Donovan Frank found the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) unconstitutional and a threat to “the moral credibility of the criminal justice system.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

SUBMITTED ON JUNE 18, 2015

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office dismissed criminal charges June 17 against a former associate pastor at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Parish in the Central West End of St. Louis.

Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang was charged April 18, 2014, in St. Louis with two felony counts of statutory sodomy of a minor under the age of 14. The allegation of abuse was reported through the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline. The archdiocese noted that the priest’s canonical privileges had been revoked while the allegations were being considered. The archdiocese also said it was fully cooperating with law enforcement during the investigation.

In 2012, Father Jiang was accused of a separate incident of misconduct with a high school aged minor in Lincoln County and was placed on leave at the time. Those criminal charges were dismissed in November 2013, when the court determined that the evidence established the priest had never been alone with the child; a civil suit against the priest is pending. The archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection had notified the Missouri Division of Family Services immediately upon learning of the allegations in 2012.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
CBS St. Lous

Kevin Killeen (@KMOXKilleen)
June 19, 2015

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Earlier this week, the St. Louis city prosecutor dropped a child molestation charge against Father Joseph Jiang.

David Clohessy with the survivor’s group SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is calling the Archbishop to be careful with Jiang.

“We want Archbishop Carlson to keep Father Jiang on suspension, reveal his whereabouts and take his passport so he can’t flee overseas like hundreds of other predator priests have done,” says Clohessy.

The Archdiocese released a statement saying Jiang passed an independent lie detector test supporting his denials of sex abuse of a minor at any point in his life. They are also reviewing Jiang’s status after the charges were withdrawn. Barbara Dorris with SNAP is not convinced.

“…and we suspect there are other children, there’s witnesses, whistle-blowers…they have to come forward now and help with this case,” says Dorris.

Doris says to put everything on the shoulders of one young victim is not realistic. She believes that is a factor in the problem with the charges.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

06/19/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

There is little doubt that Monday’s announcement of the double-resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Bishop Lee Piche was a pivotal moment for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. While much remains unknown about what happened and why, I think almost everyone would agree that the resignations, and the appointment of Apostolic Administrator Archbishop Bernard Hebda, are important steps forward. Question remains, however, regarding what further actions need to take place to prevent this from becoming another lost opportunity, and another heartbreaking breach of trust between the Church and its faithful. Let me offer a few suggestions.

1). The Archdiocese needs to stop lying- to itself and to others

For years, if not for decades, the leadership of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has been intentionally misleading, deceiving, or otherwise misrepresenting itself and its actions to the lay faithful, the clergy, the civil authorities, and even to the universal Church. By doing so, the Archdiocese has created a situation where ‘doing the right thing’ has often become impossible because it would mean exposing or acknowledging previous deceptions.

You do not have to take my word for it. There is sufficient evidence publicly available now to convince even the most stalwart supporter of our embattled Church that the Chancery deliberately misled the public. Take, for instance, a March 31, 2011, article in The Catholic Spirit (below) where my former colleague assures the faithful that ‘We can safely say that today there’s no clergy in a ministerial position who have been credibly accused of child abuse…We know that for certain’. This statement, we now know, was made after Chancery officials had learned that Father Wehmeyer had been found sharing the bed of one of his minor victims. That fact, along with the rash of removals and public notices since September of 2013, establish the 2011 statement as patently untrue, but in order to truly appreciate how the lies have built upon themselves you should review these email exchanges (email one, and email two) between that same coworker and I from July of 2012- after we had learned of arrest of Curtis Wehmeyer on charges of sexual abuse.

These type of lies did not stop once the public became aware of Curtis Wehmeyer’s history, as is evident from the Archbishop’s interview with Minnesota Public Radio in October of 2013, or even his deposition- taken under oath- in April of 2014. The falsehoods, deceptions, and misrepresentations also were not limited to statements by Archbishop Nienstedt or his staff, as was made clear in a December 2013 hearing in the Doe 1 case when attorneys for the Archdiocese claimed that there had only been one priest accused of sexually abusing a minor since 2004. At that time the Archdiocese and its attorneys were aware of several other accusations post-2004, including one involving Father Fredy Montero that had been reported by Nienstedt to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2008 and had ended in a settlement negotiated by the same law firm.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Rome, June 19 – An Italian cardinal has been caught on a police wiretap allegedly claiming he deliberately kept Pope Francis in the dark about a 30-million-euro financial move he was planning to make.

Although he is not under investigation and denies all wrongdoing, Cardinal Gisueppe Versaldi looks set to be embarrassed by the probe, which is linked to the allegedly fraudulent financial collapse of a southern Italian nursing-home chain run by an order of nuns.

Rome prosecutors have asked colleagues in the southern city of Trani for copies of the case papers, judicial sources said late Friday.

Police said Friday the wiretap of a conversation between Cardinal Versaldi and a manager is among those to feature in the probe into the alleged fraudulent bankruptcy of the Divina Provvidenza (Divine Providence) chain. In the conversation, Versaldi allegedly suggests the pope should not be informed that 30 million euros belonging to Rome’s Bambino Gesù children’s hospital and stemming from Italian public coffers were to be used for the acquisition of the IDI skin hospital company.

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ITALY
Catholic Culture

An Italian police wiretap reportedly caught a ranking Vatican official saying that Pope Francis should not be informed about a proposed €30-million ($34 million) transaction.

In an investigation into the bankruptcy of the Divine Providence nursing-home chain, police reportedly captured a recording of Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, discussing the possible purchase of a stake in an Italian corporation, and saying: “You have to keep mum about this €30 million.”

The purchase was never made, and Cardinal Versaldi apparently faces no charges of wrongdoing, although the recording will cause him consider embarrassment. The cardinal has denied attempting to mislead the Pontiff; he told reporters that he only wanted to avoid complicated explanations of the financial deals that were contemplated.

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ITALIA
Il Tempo

L’obiettivo era di «riprendersi» il nosocomio ecclesiastico Istituto dermopatico dell’Immacolata (Idi), gravato da un buco pari a un miliardo di euro. Dirottare illecitamente denari pubblici, 30 milioni di euro destinati con la Legge di Stabilità all’ospedale Bambino Gesù, verso l’Idi. Di questo ne sarebbero stati al corrente anche i vertici della Santa Sede: i cardinali Tarcisio Bertone, ex segretario di Stato, e Giuseppe Versaldi. Ma l’operazione doveva essere celata «a Papa Francesco». Questo racconta l’incartamento giudiziario della Procura della Repubblica di Trani, nell’indagine sul crac da 600 milioni di euro della casa di cura Divina Provvidenza, per la quale pende a Palazzo Madama una richiesta di arresto per il senatore di Ncd Antonio Azzollini. Gli atti, però, restituiscono altri spaccati che torneranno utili anche alla Procura della Repubblica di Roma, che ha un procedimento aperto sul crac da un miliardo dell’Idi, in cui risultano indagate 40 persone, tra le quali padre Franco Decaminada, presidente della struttura dal 2004 al 2012. Tuttavia, in entrambi i filoni d’indagine salta fuori il ruolo di Giuseppe Profiti, ex presidente dell’ospedale Bambino Gesù. Il manager si muove su due diversi fronti: da una parte si preoccupa di «influenzare a livello del ministero dello Sviluppo economico la nomina di commissario straordinario» per la Divina provvidenza e dall’altra di spostare i 30 milioni di euro dal Bambino Gesù all’Idi. Ma andiamo per gradi.

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ITALIA
Il Gionale Italia

Si arricchisce dell’ennesimo colpo di scena l’inchiesta sul crac della casa di cura Divina Provvidenza, per cui sono stati chiesti gli arresti domiciliari per il senatore Ncd Antonio Azzolini. Spuntano nuove intercettazioni choc dalle quali emergerebbe una volontà di nascondere a Papa Francesco una presunta distrazione di fondi pubblici destinati all’ospedale pediatrico Bambino Gesù in favore dell’Idi. Con l’affaire che rischia di provocare un terremoto in Vaticano.

Nelle telefonate captate dagli inquirenti, agli atti dell’inchiesta della Procura di Trani, spunta il nome del cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, ora prefetto dell’Educazione Cattolica. Che in una conversazione (del 26 febbraio 2014) registrata con il manager Giuseppe Profiti, presidente del Bambino Gesù e commissario straordinario della Provincia italiana dei Figli dell’Immacolata, chiede di tacere al Pontefice su 30 milioni (oltre altri 50) da indirizzare all’Idi. E assegnati al Bambino Gesù dalla Legge di Stabilità ma da utilizzare – secondo gli inquirenti – nelle intenzioni dei due per un’altra struttura sanitaria, l’Istituto dermopatico dell’Immacolata, in Amministrazione Straordinaria e al centro di un’altra indagine giudiziaria. Lo scopo – sostengono i pm – sarebbe quello di far riacquisire l’Idi, che prima era della provincia italiana dei Figli dell’Immacolata, alla Congregazione religiosa generale, utilizzando risorse provenienti dal nostro Stato.

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ITALY
Daily Mail

By REUTERS

ROME, June 20 (Reuters) – Italian magistrates suspect a Vatican cardinal may have diverted 30 million euros in state funds destined for a children’s hospital to save a Church-owned institution and kept the operation from Pope Francis, Italian media reported on Saturday.

Both Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi and the Bambino Gesu hospital, denied any wrongdoing in separate statements.

Leading Italian newspapers said magistrates in the southern city of Trani suspected the two violated laws on inappropriate use of public funds. The southern magistrates asked their Rome colleagues to take up the investigation.

The reports were based on leaked documents from magistrates, including transcripts of police wiretaps, that emerged from another investigation into a fraudulent bankruptcy of a health institution in the south.

They said Versaldi and former Bambino Gesu President Giuseppe Profiti agreed to divert 30 million euros ($34.07 million) of the 80 million euros the Italian senate had destined for Rome’s Bambino Gesu paediatric hospital in 2014.

The magistrates suspect that the money may have gone instead to save the Istituto Dermatologico dell’ Immacolata (IDI), a dermatological clinic in Rome owned by a Catholic religious order.

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MINNESOTA
LaCrosse Tribune

ST. PAUL (AP) — The former archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt, interfered with an investigation by an outside law firm into allegations of his misconduct, Minnesota Public Radio reported Friday.

While Nienstedt authorized the investigation in the hope of clearing his name, the results threatened to ruin it. Several of his top advisers gathered privately in April 2014, and read sworn statements gathered by the lawyers that accused Nienstedt of inappropriate behavior, including sexual advances toward priests. Each adviser agreed he should resign.

A few days later, Auxiliary Bishops Lee Piche and Andrew Cozzens traveled to Washington to tell the papal ambassador; MPR was unable to learn what transpired there. But soon after the bishops returned home, the investigation as originally conceived ended, with Piche limiting the probe to allegations of crimes and grave sins. A new law firm eventually took over.

The Vatican announced Nienstedt’s and Piche’s resignations Monday. They stepped down amid an intensifying scandal over how the archdiocese handled cases of clerical sexual misconduct. The archdiocese sought bankruptcy protection in January as abuse claims rose, and prosecutors filed criminal child-endangerment charges against the archdiocese earlier this month for allegedly turning a blind eye to Curtis Wehmeyer, a now-imprisoned former priest convicted of molesting two boys.

In a statement Friday to The AP, Cozzens said Nienstedt has resigned and the archdiocese is moving forward.

“Concerning the investigation, we are limited in what we can say, similar to any other personnel matter,” Cozzens said.

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