ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK
Frum Follies

The Rabbinical Council of America and Yeshiva University were critical of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt’s practice of mentoring boys and young men in extended mutually nude interactions in showers and saunas. However, the Orthodox Union (OU) used Rosenblatt for rabbinic mentoring events starting in 2009 and 2010. These events ran through 2013 but it is not clear if he was used for all of the remaining events, though the OU did not claim otherwise when I inquired.

According to a 2010 email by OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Steven Weil,

In Toronto I attended a three-day conference for over 30 rabbis from large, medium and small shuls across North America. This is part of a regular series of gatherings organized by the OU, which occur on-site in numerous locations; last year, the rabbis met in Chicago, while next year’s conclave is planned IY”H for Kansas City.

Many of the rabbis who participate in this group are relatively new to the pulpit (within the past decade, but most newer). They are mentored by more experienced rabbis, foremost among them Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center. This event was held at Shaarei Shomayim, following which, I was privileged to remain behind in order to serve as Shabbat scholar-in-residence. (emphasis added).

In a reply, OU spokesman *Mayer Fertig wrote, “Rabbi Rosenblatt was featured at the request of the participants, as were other guest speakers.” (See full statement below).

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

To show that the church’s abuse and cover up crisis is “much more widespread than anyone realizes,” SNAP is making available its first-ever, on-line virtual “Predator Priest Tour” of St. Louis’ central corridor. It exposes the names and photos of dozens of child molesting clerics and where they work/ed and live/d.

SNAP is inviting the hundreds of US bishops, who are meeting this week at the Hyatt, to watch it and urging them to make similar information available to their own parishioners. And SNAP is urging St. Louisans to watch it and circulate it, especially to local Catholics.

Each of the nearly 50 clerics have been publicly accused of abuse through criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits, church disclosures, financial settlements, or mainstream news reports. About ten of the clerics, who were sent here from elsewhere, have never been exposed as having been in St. Louis.

The tour includes almost 20 accused predators from a dozen states (one from MI, WV, KS, WA, IN, NY, PA, IA, CT and two or more from IL, WI, and MN).

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Noted Catholic church observer and blogger Rocco Palmo reports that “in his new job as catechesis czar for Pope Francis’ Evangelicism panel ,” German prelate Tebartz Van-Elst is in our town advising some of the 200+ bishops who are meeting this week at the downtown Hyatt. Van-Elst is better known as “The Bishop of Bling,” after he generated world-wide headlines by spending $43 million renovating his mansion. (The papal pick was also fined for perjury having sworn he and a colleague flew coach to India when, in fact, they’d flown first class).

ON THE EVE of the U.S. Conference of Bishops annual confab here, SNAP is posting online a virtual “Predator Priest Tour” concentrating on about 50 “proven, admitted or credibly accused molesting clerics” who lived or worked (still do) in the central corridor. . .

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

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By MARY ALEXANDER June 10, 2015

SURVIVORS of child sexual abuse will be able to detail their experiences at private sessions with a royal commissioner in the Warrnambool district.

It will also hold a community information forum in Warrnambool on Wednesday, June 17, for people interested in learning more about the commission’s work.

Commissioner Justice Jennifer Coate will provide an overview of the commission and answer questions from the public.

Royal commission CEO Philip Reed said the community forum was open to anyone who had an interest in the royal commission.

“We particularly encourage people who have been affected by child sexual abuse in the care of an institution to attend,” Mr Reed said.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 9, 2015

ROME A group of some 20 American community organizers and union leaders are holding meetings with Vatican officials this week to sway Pope Francis into addressing a number of lingering national social justice issues in his upcoming visit to the United States.

Organized by the national faith-based action network PICO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the leaders are meeting with four pontifical councils, the head of two pontifical academies, leadership of two global religious orders, and the executive director of Caritas Internationalis.

Among the key issues they are asking officials to advise the pope to consider discussing with President Barack Obama or during his address to Congress: immigration reform, economic injustice for low-wage workers, pervasive racism in U.S. institutions and society, and mass incarceration.

In an interview Monday at the beginning of their visit, five of the organizers laid out the specific requests they might make to Vatican officials and what brought them to make the trip from various parts of the U.S.

“Pope Francis’ words and example really resonate with people,” said Joseph Fleming, who helped organize the group as the Catholic engagement coordinator for PICO.

The pope, Fleming said, is “speaking to a spiritual hunger that people feel and a sense that things are out of balance. There’s growing economic insecurity and pressures on families that are not being spoken to and addressed.”

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN JUNE 10, 2015

The handling of child sexual abuse by Australia’s most prestigious private school, Geelong Grammar, could be aired for the first time after the royal commission into child sex abuse called for victims to come forward.

The call came as it was ­reported yesterday that an ­exclusive Melbourne school, Scotch College, could face fresh claims of abuse of its students.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday asked anyone who was sexually abused or knew of sexual abuse at Geelong Grammar to contact the commission.

In 2005 former Geelong Grammar staff member Phillipe Trutmann pleaded guilty to abusing more than 40 boys under the age of 16 while he was working as a boarding house ­assistant at the school’s Highton campus between 1985-95. The charges included 19 counts of gross ­indecency, 22 counts of ­indecent acts with a child and one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to ­6½ years’ jail.

In a letter sent to school community members last month, principal Stephen Meek wrote that Geelong Grammar had provided the commission with ­material relating to conduct by some former staff members since the 1960s.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Lexi Belculfine / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A former Homestead bishop who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a boy will spend up to nine years longer in prison for violating his probation by abusing another child, an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge decided Monday.

“This man, with an ankle [monitoring] bracelet on his leg, was still molesting children,” the second boy’s mother said during Duane Youngblood’s probation violation hearing.

The former bishop at Higher Call World Outreach Church will be incarcerated for 54 to 108 months for violating probation, Judge David R. Cashman said.

“He has lied and he has scammed and he has conned me from the minute he stood before me,” the judge said.

That sentence will begin once Youngblood, 48, completes a 16- to 48-month jail term imposed in March by Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos after Youngblood pleaded guilty to corruption of minors in December.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune Review

By Patrick Cloonan
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The former pastor of a Homestead church was given additional jail time Monday for violating probation when he sexually abused two boys he was counseling.

At a probation/parole violation hearing Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman sentenced Duane E. Youngblood to 54 to 108 months in prison for violating terms Cashman set for probation on March 3, 2008.

At that time Cashman sentenced Youngblood, 48, of Wilkinsburg to a year of house arrest and seven years probation as part of a plea deal.

On Dec. 15, 2014, Youngblood pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony count of corruption of minors before Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.

On March 10, Rangos sentenced Youngblood to 16 to 48 months in prison for sexually abusing two teenage boys he was counseling between 2009 and 2011.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
09 JUN 2015

A former Pennsylvania bishop who was sentenced to probation for sexually assaulting a child had his probation revoked this week after he was caught molesting another child.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, then-Higher Call World Outreach Church pastor Duane Youngblood was sentenced to probation in 2008 after he admitted sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy who he was supposed to be counseling.

In December, Youngblood was sentenced to serve up to 48 month in jail over allegations that he sexually assaulted another boy for more than 2 years during counseling sessions at the church.

And then on Monday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman sentenced Youngblood to serve an additional 54 to 108 months for violating his probation.

“He has lied and he has scammed and he has conned me from the minute he stood before me,” Cashman said at Monday’s hearing. “A year after he was on probation, he faced new charges. The court has been misled, deceived and lied to so he could prey on children.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Rebecca Tinsley
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

“The Great Reformer: Francis and the making of a radical Pope”
by Austen Ivereigh, publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2105

A recent profile of Pope Francis in Der Spiegel* reports a Vatican whispering campaign against the Argentine pontiff. When Francis highlighted the pomp and ostentation of the clergy, it was “an unspoken declaration of war, especially against the Vatican Curia.” By challenging corruption in the Vatican bank, and ex-communicating Mafia bosses, Francis also confronted Rome’s unsavoury vested interests, the article suggests. Those plotting against Francis accuse him of caring little for tradition or theology, wondering if his “confusion” will abate by the Synod of Bishops in October.

This whispering campaign makes Austen Ivereigh’s biography of Jorge Bergoglio all the more timely.

The story of Bergoglio, as Ivereigh tells it, is also the story of Argentina. The reader must therefore be prepared for his rendering of the junta’s dirty war in the 1970s and 1980s, liberation theology, and the resulting splits within the Catholic Church. To this day Bergoglio is a divisive figure because of what he did, or did not do during the dirty war.

There is also much about Peronism, a political label that defies Anglo Saxon understanding of left and right. Hence it is too simple to label Pope Francis as a liberal or a conservative, when he should be viewed in the Argentine context.

Some commentators suggest the transformation of the authoritarian Bergoglio to the Francis who savages exploitative capitalism is due to a life-changing reassessment of his role during the dirty war. But Ivereigh carefully describes a more complex journey, where profound compassion has co-existed with a rejection of political extremes. Bergoglio was always more comfortable among the poor than the Church’s ideologues and intellectuals. He also preferred attending fiestas in the slums rather than cocktail parties because “the poor celebrate Christ, not themselves.”

Ivereigh conveys a wonderful sense of the keen, earnest, bright young Bergoglio, and the lower middle class Buenos Aires in which he grew up. He has surprised people all his life with his frugality, shunning the trappings of office, using public transportation, making his own phone calls, and cooking and cleaning for himself and colleagues who are unwell.

During the dirty war Bergoglio’s superiors instructed him to both protect Jesuits and assist the victims of the repression, which he did, at great risk to himself. “What he did not do was speak out publicly against the regime, but he could hardly have done so without sacrificing his objectives, for no obvious gain,” writes Ivereigh.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims invite bishops on “virtual tour”
Group launches new on-line “slide show”
It shows where 50 predator priests worked/lived
Many of them were sent here from other dioceses
Ten of them have never been “outed” in St. Louis before
SNAP: “Public & prelates should see how extensive the crisis is”
And bishops should make similar disclosures to their flock, SNAP says

WHAT
Outside the hotel where 250 US Catholic bishops are meeting, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will try to hand them fliers. The leaflets urge bishops to

–take an on-line virtual “tour” of places where 50 St. Louis predator priests live/d and work/ed, and
–make similar disclosures to back home: the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of all child molesting clerics who’ve been in their dioceses (especially ones from out-of-town or out-of-state and whose local presence has likely gone unnoticed).

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, June 9 from 4:45 p.m. until 6:15 p.m.

WHERE
On the northeast corner of Chestnut & Fourth, outside the Hyatt, in downtown St. Louis MO

WHO
Three-five adults who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (including two of the organization’s long-time leaders)

VISUALS
They will also hold signs and childhood photos.

WHY
To show that the church’s abuse and cover up crisis is “much more widespread than anyone realizes,” SNAP is making available its first-ever, on-line virtual “Predator Priest Tour” of St. Louis’ central corridor. It exposes the names and photos of dozens of child molesting clerics and where they work/ed and live/d.

SNAP is inviting the hundreds of US bishops, who are meeting this week at the Hyatt, to watch it and urging them to make similar information available to their own parishioners. And SNAP is urging St. Louisans to watch it and circulate it, especially to local Catholics.

Each of the nearly 50 clerics have been publicly accused of abuse through criminal prosecutions, civil lawsuits, church disclosures, financial settlements, or mainstream news reports. About ten of the clerics, who were sent here from elsewhere, have never been exposed as having been in St. Louis.

The tour includes almost 20 accused predators from a dozen states (one from MI, WV, KS, WA, IN, NY, PA, IA, CT and two or more from IL, WI, and MN).

Some prelates, SNAP admits, grudgingly and belatedly disclose partial information about predator priests when forced to do so. But few (if any) of them, SNAP says, voluntarily release such information or

Include “the level of detail that really helps parishioners, police, prosecutors, parents and the public protect kids from predators.”

Such disclosure is crucial, SNAP says, because “it takes only a few seconds for a predator to shove his tongue in a girl’s mouth or his hand down a boy’s pants, potentially causing a lifetime of serious harm to an innocent child.” It’s also important, the group feels, because most clergy sex offenders are “well-educated and shrewd, few of them are ever prosecuted and, if convicted, few end up behind bars for long, so they are particularly dangerous and apt to molest again.”

Because several church-run housing and treatment centers are in the St. Louis area (including ones in Franklin and Jefferson County), SNAP contends that this archdiocese “has been and is a ‘magnet’ for predator priests, attracting a disproportionate number of them from across the US,” some of whom stay in St. Louis and work in or for church institutions.

The tour will be posted on line later today.

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

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 9

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN SNAP director ( 218-340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

On Friday, the St. Paul archdiocese was charged with six offenses. They stem from accusations that top church officials ignored or hid suspicions and actual reports of sexual misdeeds by a now-convicted predator priest.

Duluth’s current bishop was involved in this alarming case. At this point, no Catholic staff person faces individual charges. But we hope that changes. But Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said there was “a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the archdiocese… over the course of decades.”

And Choi said his investigation is “on-going.” So it’s crucial that more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers keep stepping forward with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover up anywhere in Minnesota.

We hope prosecutors will pursue Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba for his role in this disturbing crimes of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer and other Twin Cities abuse cover ups.

According to records – from the church and the St. Paul prosecutor, a priest was concerned about Fr. Wehmeyer’s actions around kids. Here’s how Commonweal, a respected national Catholic publication, reports the story:

[Commonweal]

“(That priest) contacted the vicar general, then-Fr. Paul Sirba, to see whether he had been in touch with the mother of the boys who camped with Wehmeyer. If Sirba didn’t, he would, the priest warned. Sirba said he would speak with her.

In a September 29, 2009, memo, Sirba informed (Archbishop John) Nienstedt of Wehmeyer’s DUI charge. He explained that Wehmeyer had been under the supervision of the Clergy Review Board, Tim Rourke (the POMS monitor), and his therapist. Nienstedt replied that in fact Wehmeyer was not being supervised by the Clergy Review Board or Rourke. In a memo sent the next day, Sirba told Nienstedt that Wehmeyer “has not been faithful to the program,” and that Bishop (Lee) Piché suggested he speak with (Fr. Kevin) McDonough about the case, because he had worked with Wehmeyer about sexual-boundary issues before. Sirba reported that he was waiting for a return call from McDonough. Prosecutors found no evidence that McDonough replied.

In October, Wehmeyer phoned Nienstedt to apologize for the DUI. Nienstedt wrote in a memo that the cleric seemed repentant. He determined that “this had been a good lesson” for Wehmeyer, and took no disciplinary action against him. Nienstedt would later testify that he never saw the police report, and that no one told him Wehmeyer had been trying to pick up teenagers. He did not read Wehmeyer’s court-ordered chemical health assessment until June 2012—three years after the incident.

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

MINNESOTA
Howie Blog

St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin today made the following statement addressing the issues of the reporting of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in the Duluth Diocese and, specifically, the matter involving Father Cornelius Kelleher:

“The sexual abuse of a child is a felony offense. Jurisdiction to prosecute the case after investigation by law enforcement lies with the County Attorney’s Office. To enable us to hold offenders accountable and to protect our children, response to a report of sexual abuse needs to be compassionate and according to the law.

All allegations involving the sexual abuse of children by a priest or anyone, should always be reported. Allegations of sexual misconduct occurring within three years of the disclosure are required to be reported to either law enforcement or social services under the Minnesota Reporting of Maltreatment of Minors Law. These agencies then cross-report with each other. All other incidents should be reported, as they involve the alleged violation of criminal statutes. The issue of whether the statute of limitations has expired should be left up to the investigating agency. This is what should be done whether or not the victim wishes to remain anonymous. If there is any doubt about whether reporting is mandatory, the appropriate action is to report the matter to the responsible law enforcement agency or social services.

Earlier this year after conducting an internal investigation with the assistance of a professional, independent investigator, the Diocese of Duluth disclosed it had received from an adult in 2012, a credible allegation of sexual abuse by Father Cornelius Kelleher which abuse had occurred many years ago. The reporting victim requested that her privacy be respected and as a result, the Diocese did not report the allegation to law enforcement or social services. However, the Diocese did take immediate appropriate action to remove Father Kelleher from where he was residing as requested by the victim and has, pursuant to Church law, prohibited him from further acting publicly as a priest.

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

NEW YORK
Jewish Journal

by Jared Sichel

Nearly two years after his arrest in Beverly Hills on sexual abuse charges, Mendel Tevel was sentenced on June 8 in a Brooklyn court to one year in prison, a spokesperson with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office confirmed with the Jewish Journal.

On Apr. 24, Tevel pleaded guilty to two counts of a “criminal sexual act in the third degree,” which, as described by the New York penal code, constitutes anal or oral sex with someone who a minor or is otherwise incapable of providing legal consent. Upon his arraignment in late 2013, he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of sexual abuse—most either first-degree or third-degree—and was released on $100,000 bail.

Tevel, who is now 31 or 32, was arrested in October 2013 in Beverly Hills and then extradited to New York and charged for sexually abusing a minor there in 2007. His arrest came two months after the Journal published an investigative report in which four of Tevel’s alleged victims described sexual abuse that they said occurred from about 1995 to about 2004, when their ages ranged from 6 to 14.

Allegations against Tevel first became public in October 2012, when Meyer Seewald, the founder of Jewish Community Watch (JCW), listed him on the group’s website on its “Wall of Shame,” which spotlights people JCW’s internal review board believes are sexual predators within Orthodox communities.

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

POLSKA
RP

Episkopat oficjalnie przedstawił dokumenty dot. procedur w sprawach o molestowanie seksualne nieletnich, które od marca obowiązują w polskim Kościele. “Rzeczpospolita” jako pierwsza pisała o nich dwa tygodnie temu.

Nowe wytyczne, które biskupi oficjalnie przyjęli w czerwcu 2014 r. watykańska Kongregacja Nauki Wiary zatwierdziła na początku marca tego roku.

Zakładają one, że biskup może natychmiast zawiesić księdza podejrzanego o molestowanie i rozpocząć postępowanie wyjaśniające. Ofiary molestowania mają otrzymać pomoc duchową, psychologiczną i prawną. Ofiara musi zostać poinformowana o możliwości oraz sposobach złożenia doniesienia o popełnieniu przestępstwa.

Jak informuje biskup Artur Miziński, sekretarz generalny episkopatu w prace nad dokumentem zaangażowani byli prawnicy, psycholodzy, terapeuci. – Były to głównie osoby świeckie, którym jestem winien wielkie podziękowanie – precyzował abp Wojciech Polak, który koordynował wszystkie prace.

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

POLAND
The News

Primate of Poland Archbishop Wojciech Polak took part in a conference on Tuesday concerning reforms on how the Church is dealing with child abuse within its ranks.

Recently enforced regulations on how the Church combats child abuse were presented at the conference, in two separate documents.

Father Adam Żak, coordinator of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate’s Department for the Protection of Children, said that the documentation “gives everyone – the public, believers, the clergy, but most of all victims – certainty regarding the law, the activities of the Church, and the principles upon which it is based.”

As of March 2015, a priest suspected of child abuse must be immediately suspended and psychological aid provided for an alleged victim, who is immediately informed of his or her right to file a complaint with a local prosecutor. “

The Church is interested in purifying itself,” Father Żak stressed.

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

NEW YORK
Jewish Daily Forward

At least 44 members of a New York synagogue are calling for the resignation of their rabbi, whose custom of inviting young men to meet with him naked in a sauna has brought extensive media attention.

In an email petition sent Sunday, members of the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox congregation in the Bronx, urged Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt to resign, the Riverdale Press reported.

“We in Riverdale have had a grueling week, trying to manage the crisis that has engulfed our community. It is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that our rabbi of almost thirty years, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, is unfortunately but irrevocably unable to lead our community,” the email says, according to the Press.

The petition comes in the aftermath of a recent New York Times article about Rosenblatt’s longtime custom of inviting male congregants, some as young as 12, to play squash or racquetball, then join him in the public shower and sauna or steam room, often naked. No one cited in the story accused Rosenblatt of sexual touching, but several expressed their discomfort with the practice and described the behavior as deeply inappropriate for a rabbi and mentor.

At various times Rosenblatt, 58, was told by rabbinic bodies or his congregation’s board to limit such activity. The Bronx District Attorney’s office said it was looking into whether Rosenblatt broke the law.

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

MINNESOTA
The Daily Beast

Justin Glawe

Jeff Anderson’s fight for justice has nearly bankrupted the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and helped bring criminal charges against its leaders over sexual abuse–and he’s not done yet.
“Greg” walked into Jeff Anderson’s St. Paul office one day in 1983 and began telling a story that was then virtually unheard of: he’d been raped by a priest as a child.

Father Thomas Adamson was the culprit, Greg said, a priest who would eventually admit to abusing children throughout his 30-year career. Greg couldn’t turn to the police, his family, or his church so he sought Anderson’s help. Over the next 30 years, starting with Greg’s case, Anderson won a series of devastating lawsuits against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, making a career out of outing priests for their misdeeds.

Partly as a result of that dogged pursuit, criminal charges were filed last week against the archdiocese, an unthinkable development to victims of abuse that span the better part of four decades. But it all started that day in 1983, with a man named Greg whose true identity Anderson has protected to this day.

“I went to the police and they said they couldn’t do anything because of the statute of limitations,” Anderson said, recounting his first foray into the murky legal territory of clergy sexual abuse. “Then I went to the archdiocese and asked them what they were going to do. They said ‘nothing,’ so I sued them.”

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

NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

By JACKIE DAVIS, Gazette Staff Writer

More than 60 Assembly members are asking their leader for a chance to vote on the Child Victims Act as the session winds to a close.

Backed by 62 Assembly members, the Child Victims Act aims to eliminate criminal and civil statutes of limitation for those who have been sexually abused. A one-year “window” would also allow older victims who wish to revive their cases in civil courts where a previous statute of limitation has expired.

“There is no limit on what is a life-time of suffering and anguish for so many victims of child sexual abuse,” said Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, the bill’s sponsor and long-time champion. “That is why there should be no limit on the ability of victims and society to prosecute abusers and no limit on holding accountable those institutions and organizations that have deliberately protected and hidden pedophiles.”

According to a recent FBI study, one in five children are abused before the age of 18. Of these crimes, only 10 percent of the abuses are reported. Many times the child knows and trusts the predator. Current New York law states that a victim of childhood sexual abuse has within five years after their eighteenth birthday to report the crime. If adopted as law, the Child Victims Act would allow victims to report the abuse and seek legal action whenever they are ready.

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

NEW NERSEY
NJ.com

By Mai Fernandez

Imagine living in a state ranked in the bottom half of the country in protecting victims of child sexual abuse and letting molesters off the hook. Believe it or not, if New Jersey is your home, you live in such a state, according to an analysis of all 50 states by SOL-Reform.com. This doesn’t have to be the case. New Jersey should be leading the charge on this issue.

According to data from the Crimes Against Children Research Center, one in five girls and one in 20 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. In more than half those cases, the child was abused by a trusted person, such as a family member, an athletic coach or a scoutmaster. Despite the prevalence, up to 90 percent of the cases are never reported.

It often takes years or even decades for victims to acknowledge, let alone discuss, their horrifying experience. Victims of childhood sexual abuse tend to suppress awareness of the abuse; they have a hard time connecting their dysfunction as adults to the abuse they suffered as children; and when they finally realize the connection, they have to gather the courage to act. Unfortunately, at that point, New Jersey law puts the burden on them by requiring that they prove why they didn’t sue earlier.

Adults victimized as children in New Jersey only have two years to file civil suit from the time they first realize the sexual abuse damaged them. This small and inadequate window fails to account for the psychological scars and trauma that interfere with victims’ ability to remember the abuse, realize its effect and come forward. Many states have adopted bills that significantly lengthen or even discard statutes of limitations for sexual abuse claims, and many other states are considering such legislation.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Virgilio Elizondo was ordained a priest of the San Antonio TX diocese in 1961. He has assisted in parishes, pastored a cathedral, was chaplain of a boys’ day and boarding school, has served as dean of studies and vice-rector of a seminary, and was founder and president of San Antonio’s Mexican-American Cultural Center. Elizondo has gained prominence though his career as a professor of Latino theology, and has been called the founder of Latino theology in the United States. He has been a Notre Dame University faculty member since 1999. In in a civil lawsuit filed May 22, 2015 Elizondo was accused of sexually abusing a male minor in 1983 in San Antonio. His accuser said the abuse occurred when he sought help from Elizondo for sexual abuse he said he had suffered by former seminarian and then Rev. Jesus Armando Dominguez. The lawsuit says Elizondo was driving the boy in a car when the boy told the Elizondo of the abuse by Dominguez, and that Elizondo reached over, kissed him and fondled him. Elizondo denies the abuse.

Ordained: 1961

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

MINNESOTA
dotCommonweal

Grant Gallicho

On Friday, a Minnesota county attorney filed criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, alleging that for years church leaders—including Archbishop John Nienstedt—failed to protect children from a priest who would eventually plead guilty to molesting children and possessing child pornography. Owing to its acts or omissions, according to prosecutors, the archdiocese endangered children by mishandling a series of warnings about Curtis Wehmeyer dating back to his seminary days. He applied to seminary in 1996 and was jailed in 2013. (Prosecutors also filed a civil petition alleging the same offenses.) “It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused [to his victims],” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi during a press conference, “but it is the archdiocese as well.”

In a statement released late Friday, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens apologized for the suffering of all victims of sexual abuse, and pledged to cooperate with civil authorities. Nienstedt did not make a public statement. But on Saturday, June 6, he sent a letter to Twin Cities priests commenting on the charges. “The events of the past twenty-four hours have been disturbing to me,” the archbishop wrote. While prosecutors “had not indicated their findings to us before noon this past Friday,” he continued, “my staff and I will continue to work with them closely and collaboratively to meet their concerns.” Nienstedt concluded: “As we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, we acknowledge that the grace of the Holy Eucharist elevates us beyond our all too human nature so as to be united in the one Body of Christ.”

In late 2013, the archdiocese was plunged into scandal after Nienstedt’s former top canon lawyer went public with damning accounts of how the archdiocese had handled cases of accused priests—including Wehmeyer. In December of that year, Nienstedt himself was accused of groping an eighth-grader (he denies the allegation and has not been charged). Adding to the controversy, in July 2014 it came to light that Nienstedt was himself being investigated by an outside law firm—hired by the archdiocese—for multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other adult men. Nienstedt denies any wrongdoing. Following a series of sexual-abuse lawsuits, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January. Amid calls for his resignation, Nienstedt has said that he will not step down.

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

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would like anyone who has information regarding child sexual abuse at Geelong Grammar School to contact the Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission is tasked with investigating how institutions, including schools, responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.

If you were sexually abused at Geelong Grammar School, or have any information about sexual abuse of a child at Geelong Grammar School, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.

The identity of anyone that provides information will be protected and will be kept confidential. At this stage, no public hearing into Geelong Grammar School has been announced. If a hearing is announced at a later date, victims of child sexual abuse will not be compelled to give evidence if they do not wish to.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

LUCIE MORRIS-MARR HERALD SUN JUNE 09, 2015

VICTORIA’S most exclusive private boarding school, Geelong Grammar, is being investigated for child abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has announced it would “like anyone who has information regarding child sexual abuse” at the school to come forward.

The school, whose fees are among the most expensive in the country at $34,000 for year 12, has some highly notable alumni including Prince Charles, Kerry Packer and novelist Peter Carey.

In a statement, the commission said: “If you were sexually abused at Geelong Grammar School, or have any information about sexual abuse of a child at Geelong Grammar School, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.” …

Trutmann, a boarding house assistant at the Anglican co-educational school, abused eight to 13-year-old boys over a decade from 1985.

Mr Meek said the school would send the notice to former students and the school community and would also offer details of a counselling service.

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

ARKANSAS
5 News Online

SPRINGDALE (KFSM)- The mayor of Springdale released a statement Monday (June 8) in response to suggestions of misconduct by Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley after the police department released an incident report regarding sexual molestation allegations that were made against Josh Duggar of “19 Kids & Counting.”

In his statement, Mayor Doug Sprouse writes:

“The City will not dignify suggestions of misconduct in this matter by Chief O’Kelley with any comment beyond labeling them as outrageous and categorically false. Chief O’Kelley is a dedicated public servant whose career in law enforcement has been committed to duty and the adherence to the law.”

The statement comes after former Springdale alderman Ray Dotson filed a complaint with the Civil Service Commission on June 2 regarding the release of the Duggar incident report. In his complaint, Dotson asks the commission to see if any laws have been broken.

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

UNITED STATES
Salon

The editorial director of InTouch says there’s a whole lot more to say about the Duggars.

David Perel, who runs the magazine which broke the story about Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation of several sisters, told the Washington Post that they are not done yet.

“Do I have more information on the Duggars in general?” Perel said to the Post. “Yes, I’d say we have some significant things coming out.”

The Post also reconstructed where the Duggar story originated from — and suggested “a woman named Tandra Barnfield apparently was a helpful guide.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

By Ann Cahill
European Correspondent

The Justice for Magdalenes group is gearing up to sue the State over the hundreds of women who died and were buried in mass — and often unmarked — graves all over the country.

The long-running scandal of women who were frequently imprisoned and forced to work because they were unmarried mothers was raised by the UN committee on economic and social rights in Geneva.

Two committee members did not appear to accept the Government’s claim that they had properly investigated the Magdalene laundries issue and that the women were not detained against their will.

The State quoted the London-based Irish Women Survivors Support Network as saying: “We hope that time is not wasted calling for more statutory inquiries or demanding yet more bureaucratic statutory processes.

“In their advanced years, the women have repeatedly told us they have no wish for conflict or confrontation.”

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Government representatives are facing a second day of questioning by a UN committee examining Ireland’s human rights mechanisms today.

A delegation is in Geneva to explain how the Government has complied with the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

A number of civil society organisations including Threshold, Atheist Ireland and Justice for Magdalenes Research, are also attending.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice was asked about reparations to survivors of Magdalene laundries, the system of direct provision for asylum seekers and abortion laws.

Dr Katherine O’Donnell, of the Justice for Magdalenes Research group, wants the Government to be reprimanded by the UN committee.

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

AUSTRALIA
WA Today

A former Salvation Army church official accused of historic child sexual abuse over 25 years intends to plead not guilty.

William Edwin Steele, 71, from Thornlie briefly appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with four counts of indecent acts, three counts of indecent dealing with a boy under 14 years, two counts of indecent assault and one count of aggravated indecent assault.

His lawyer said he intended to fight the charges.

Outside court, Salvation Army spokesman Bruce Redman said the organisation was shocked by the charges.

He said the Salvation Army had been in contact with the alleged victims.

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

BY SARAH MOTHERWELL AAP JUNE 09, 2015

A 71-YEAR-OLD man will fight allegations he sexually abused boys over three decades as a Salvation Army member, a West Australian court has heard.

WILLIAM Edwin Steele is accused of abusing boys aged between 11 and 18 from 1963 to 1989 when he was associated with several Perth churches.

Steele was a band member and assisted in organising trips during that time, police say.
It is also alleged Steele used a rented flat in South Perth where he encouraged the boys to engage in sexual behaviour with him.

Steele briefly appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday where his lawyer said he intended to fight the 10 charges.

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

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Erin Edgemon | eedgemon@al.com
on June 08, 2015

A former Dallas County pastor accused of sexually assaulting a young family member pleaded guilty to rape and incest.

William Best, 48, was set to stand trial today on charges of sodomy, rape, sexual abuse and incest, court records show. He was originally arrested in April 2014. He was held on $2.5 million bond.

Court records show Best pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and incest today. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape and 10 years for incest.

Best formerly served as pastor of Living Waters Worship Center in Valley Grande for three years. He was fired shortly after his arrest.

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

ALABAMA
New York Daily News

BY NINA GOLGOWSKI

A former Alabama pastor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of first-degree rape and incest involving a teenage girl.

William Best’s plea came before he was due to face trial Monday for additional charges including sodomy and sexual abuse, AL.com reported citing court records.

The 48-year-old was being held on $2.5 million bond after his arrest last year while serving at a Valley Grande church north of Selma.

That’s when his victim told a family member about the sexual abuse that she said took place at not only the church but his home over several years’ time, the Selma Times-Journal reported.

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

ALASKA
Alaska Native News

It was announced by the Justice Department on Monday that a priest with the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese was sentenced on charges of for Attempted Enticement of a Minor on Friday by Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline.

Clint Michael Landry, who has been with the Fairbanks Diocese since June of 2011, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release in connection with his plea agreement filed in May of 2014.

Landry “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 co-conspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications,” DoJ’s Attorney Karen Loeffler reported.

According to the press release, Landry engaged in negotiations with people in the Philippines through at eight different Yahoo email accounts to view live videos and other streaming services of minors engaged in sexual conduct. In his communications, Landry sought videos of children younger than 11 years of age.

Some of the examples of Landry’s communications during the summer of 2013, included:

* On June 13, 2013, the defendant communicated with a co-conspirator, asking “[c]an you show me young boys[?]” He went on to ask, “what handsome young boys do you have?” When told that the available “young boy” was 10 years old, the defendant’s response was “ok,” and he inquired “how much.” The defendant then attempted to offer 1600 Philippine pesos for online access to the child, or approximately $35.

* On July 26, 2013, the defendant initially resisted an offer to view an 11-year-old girl. However, when the only other option offered by the defendant’s co-conspirator was an 18-year-old male, the defendant “ask[ed] for your young show,” and said that he would “send money tomorrow.”
On August 7, 2013, the defendant wrote, “I like to see you boy or girl because they are cute. Only see on yahoo.” When told by his co-conspirator that he had children available who were “10 and 8 yrs old,” the defendant replied, “I send you some western union tomorrow.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Pottstown Mercury

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@21st-centurymedia.com
POSTED: 06/08/15

PHILADELPHIA >> A former Catholic priest with ties to Chester and Delaware counties pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges involving child pornography and other offenses involving sexual misconduct with children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Rev. Mark Haynes, 56, of West Chester, pleaded guilty In U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to all counts contained in a superseding information filed by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger charging child exploitation. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

Haynes, a former parochial vicar at a number of churches in the Delaware Valley, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Public Radio

By PATRICIA RICE

Two-hundred-fifty U.S. Catholic bishops are meeting in St. Louis this week to discuss earthly and heavenly concerns, ranging from the airborne danger posed by drones, to the smuggling of migrants on turbulent seas, to the environmental impact of underground shale oil recovery. The bishops say their concerns will be tempered to model Pope Francis’ emphasis on the gospel themes of love and mercy.

The formal 2015 spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops begins its hard work in committees, much like Congress does. On Monday at the Hyatt Regency downtown, some three dozen committees and sub-committees began candid discussions after hearing the views and research of experts and theologians. No sessions are open to the public; the Wednesday day-long and Thursday morning sessions will be open to the press.

The administration will not set an agenda until late Tuesday when most of the three dozen committees, sub-committees, ad hoc committees and agency boards have met and asked for time at the assembly’s microphone.

On Wednesday — when the group’s president, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, rocks his gavel to open the formal session — much of the program will be updates on the yearlong work from the committees. Any votes or decisions will likely require just a tweaking: a word change or a paragraph to amend a document.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Westmoreland Times

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Mark Haynes, 56 years of age, of West Chester, PA, pleaded guilty to all counts contained in a superseding information charging child exploitation. Haynes, a former parochial Vicar, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 10, 2015. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

According to court documents, around 2010, Haynes posed as a 16-year old girl named “Katie” on a teen dating website. As “Katie,” Haynes would meet minor girls online and allegedly request that they take and send sexually explicit pictures. Haynes is also charged with distributing other images and videos of children being sexually assaulted over the Internet in 2014, again posing as “Katie.”

The case was investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Chester County Criminal Investigative Division. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rotella.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The Council of Cardinals, the 9-man body appointed by Pope Francis to provide advice on reorganization of the Roman Curia, is meeting in Rome this week.

After the most recent meeting of the Council, in April, the Vatican disclosed that the cardinals expected to continue their work on plans for a reform of the Roman Curia at least into 2016. Their 3-day session this week will further their work on the preparation of a new apostolic constitution to define the roles of the Vatican’s dicasteries.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Editorial

The Cathedral of St. Paul serves the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which contains more than 200 parishes with about 825,000 Catholics.

Criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been a long time coming. Evidence of what Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called “institutional failure” to protect children from abusive priests has been accumulating for years.

Yet while not surprising, Choi’s announcement Friday that he has charged the archdiocese with six gross misdemeanor counts in connection with its oversight of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer is stunning for its courage. By asserting the bedrock principle of American justice that no one is above the law, Choi is proposing to hold one of St. Paul’s most powerful institutions to account.

Wehmeyer is now in prison after being convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing two boys whose mother worked with him at Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul. Choi’s related charges against the archdiocese spring from an investigation that took 20 months — a sign of painstaking prosecutorial diligence.

“This case is not about religion,” St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said Friday. “It’s about allegations of misconduct and crimes that were committed.”

That may be true in a legal sense. But intrinsically, the archdiocese is “about religion.” That is what makes the crimes of which it is accused so repulsive, yet the prosecution of those crimes so risky. If, as accused, the archdiocese systemically looked the other way as Wehmeyer manipulated the faith of children and their families in order to prey upon them, it has betrayed the trust not only of the Roman Catholic faithful, but also the entire community. On the other hand, if the prosecutor overreaches, the damage he can inflict will be widely felt.

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

NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

Paul BergerJune 8, 2015

A tony New York congregation is standing by its embattled rabbi.

Morris Tuchman, president of The Hampton Synagogue, in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., said that Rabbi Marc Schneier “has served, and continues to serve, our congregation in an exemplary manner and we are proud to have him as our rabbi.”

Schneier was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America earlier this year, according to a source with first-hand knowledge of the expulsion who refused to be named.

The RCA did not publicize Schneier’s expulsion at the time.

The rabbinic group continues to refuse to comment on when and why Schneier was expelled.

Reached by phone on June 5, Schneier said that the RCA never informed him that he has been expelled and that the idea of him being expelled was “crazy.”

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

UNITED STATES
Salon

Former homeschooler on the Duggar family’s horrifying fundamentalist “education”: “It’s literal rape culture”

JENNY KUTNER

Almost as soon as it was revealed last month that Josh Duggar sexually assaulted his younger sisters when he was a teenager — and that his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, did what they could to cover it up — the Internet erupted with speculation about how the family’s intensive fundamentalist Christian homeschooling program may or may not have contributed to the abuse.

You’ve likely seen some of the lesson plans from Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute, for which the Duggars have advocated persistently, and which pushes an educational curriculum apparently comprised of some of the most damaging, unbelievably misogynistic viewpoints imaginable. To much of the public, the ATI lessons on sexual assault that have circulated online are basic examples of what we mean when we talk about rape culture and victim-blaming; to children who are raised in the homeschooling program — like the 19 Duggar kids — the lessons are “the truth.”

Nicholas Ducote, a self-identified “homeschool survivor,” was one of those children once. Now 27, Ducote was raised in Louisiana and homeschooled by his mother, a fundamentalist Christian and ATI devotee. As he grew up and began to question the homeschooling movement and religion more generally, Ducote stayed in touch with a number of other ATI alumni whom he met through a homeschool speech and debate program. Together, they gave voice to their shared history of shame, anxiety and confusion perpetuated by their experiences with the program.

“When I was in church, I was the special kid, because I was being homeschooled to be a culture warrior,” Ducote told Salon. “Homeschoolers were like the exemplary, perfect Christian children who exemplified everything that most American Christians think children should do and believe — that they should be fighting for a Christian America. There were so many people who thought that no one else had experienced that.”

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

ALASKA
KTVA

ANCHORAGE – A Fairbanks priest was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography, authorities say.

Clint Michael Landry — who was employed as a priest with the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks since 2011 – will be under a lifetime period of supervised release after serving his prison sentence, according to a statement from the Alaska District Attorney’s office.

Landry was caught using a work computer to receive child porn through his Yahoo email account in May 2014.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” the statement says. “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.”

The talks with people in the Philippines took place from June 2013 to May 2014. Investigators found Landry communicated with at least eight different Yahoo accounts to see videos of minors engaged in “sexually explicit conduct,” the DA’s office said. In at least three instances, Landry sought children younger than 11 years old.

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

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Eric Zorn

Several people have asked me why the state can’t pursue sex abuse charges against former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert if, as has been widely reported/insinuated/alleged, he had sexual contact with students in the 1970s when he was a teacher and coach at Yorkville High School.

Why do we have statutes of limitations that, in effect, wipe the slate clean on most offenses after several years have elapsed? Why should we reward those not lucky enough to get caught near the time of their offense?

I addressed this issue in a 1999 column, the bulk of which went like this:

When I hear the words “statute of limitations,” I think of a skeleton in a closet disintegrating slowly, year by year, until at last it is a formless pile of dust.

I think of the maxim, “Time heals all wounds,” and of the moral and practical notion that the person you are today is not the same person you were, oh, say, 21 years ago. I think of pages torn from a calendar serving as a greater and greater counterweight to culpability.

This is the sense in which most of us use the expression informally–for instance, in talking about violations of marital vows or allegations of past abuse of legal and illegal substances among certain Republican presidential hopefuls and committee chairmen, as well as certain prominent Democrats. “That was a long time ago,” we say when we’re in the mood to be fair. “The pain caused has faded, the damage repaired.”

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

ALASKA
KTUU

Chris Klint, Senior Digital Producer, cklint@ktuu.com

U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler’s office previously said little about the charges against 58-year-old Clint Landry, who had served as the parish priest at the Sacred Heart Cathedral since June 2011. That silence ended Monday, however, in a statement announcing Landry’s sentencing after he pleaded guilty to attempted enticement of a minor.

According to Loeffler’s office, Landry used at least eight different Yahoo accounts to negotiate Filipino sex shows involving children between June 2013 and May 2014. He paid for the child porn using Western Union money transfers.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” prosecutors wrote. “In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino co-conspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.”

Prosecutors provided numerous examples of transactions, some with explicit descriptions of the content Landry had bargained for.

“On June 13, 2013, the defendant communicated with a co-conspirator, asking ‘[c]an you show me young boys[?]’” prosecutors wrote. “He went on to ask, ‘what handsome young boys do you have?’ When told that the available ‘young boy’ was 10 years old, the defendant’s response was ‘ok,’ and he inquired ‘how much.’ The defendant then attempted to offer 1600 Philippine pesos for online access to the child, or approximately $35.”

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

ALASKA
News-Miner

By Dorothy Chomicz dchomicz@newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS – A former Fairbanks priest was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for child sex crimes, according to a news release from the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Alaska.

Clint Michael Landry, 58, was employed by the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks when he used a work computer to view videos of prepubescent boys and girls engaging in sexual acts.

Landry will be on supervised release for life after he is released from prison.

Landry began working for the diocese in June 2011. The offenses occurred between June 2013 and May 2014, according to the news release.

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

MINNESOTA
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Jun 08, 2015

The criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis are very bad news for Archbishop John Nienstedt. He now becomes the American bishop most clearly in the cross-hairs of Church critics; the calls for his resignation will be louder and more frequent.

Like his most recent predecessor on the hot seat, Archbishop Nienstedt has a reputation for stalwart defense of Church teachings. For that reason, some Catholics will be delighted to push for his removal, while others will be inclined to think that the attack against him is ideologically driven.

No doubt there is an ideological tinge to the uproar in Minnesota. But the prosecutor’s charge lists serious problems with the archbishop’s handling of abuse complaints. If Archbishop Nienstedt was ignoring clear evidence of priestly misconduct, he should be held accountable.

Still there’s another element in this story, which has been almost completely ignored by the media in Minnesota. The case that led to the criminal charges—the case of the notorious Father Curtis Wehmeyer—did not arise under Archbishop Nienstedt’s leadership.

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

GERMANY
Headlines from the Catholic World

Berlin, Germany, Jun 8, 2015 / 01:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican confirmed on Monday, June 8 that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Heiner Koch of Dresden-Meissen as Archbishop of Berlin.

As Archbishop of Berlin, he will shepherd a population of 5.7 million, of whom 407,000 are Catholics. The Berlin archdiocese also has 421 priests and 668 religious.

Bishop Koch was born in 1954 in Duesseldorf, and studied theology in Bonn. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne on his 26th birthday, in 1980. …

Bishop Koch is also involved in preparations for the Synod on the Family being held in Rome in October, and joins Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, of Osnabrueck as the bishops who will represent Germany at the synod.

All three delegates are known to support the ‘Kasper proposal’, which would allow some divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics to receive Communion after a period of penance.

According to a list of participants compiled by Edward Pentin and published by the National Catholic Register, Bishop Koch was present at the “Shadow Council” held May 25 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. That meeting aimed to promote “a pastoral opening on issues such as communion for the divorced and remarried, and the pastoral care of homosexuals,” according to one of its participants.

And in a February interview with a German newspaper, Bishop Koch called for changes in the pastoral care of homosexuals, saying that to “portray homosexuality as a sin is hurtful,” adding that the Church “needs a different language when it comes to homosexuals … I know gay couples who value reliability and commitment and live these in an exemplary manner.”

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

CANADA
Toronto Star

Published on Mon Jun 08 2015

Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, now a saint, have apologized in the past 25 years for all manner of wrongs done in the name of the Catholic Church over the centuries.

Those sins include clerical sex abuse of children in the United States, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere. Historical persecution of Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Protestants, Jews, Roma and others. Abuse of women. The cowardice some Christians showed during the Nazi Holocaust. The slave trade. Missionary abuses of indigenous peoples. And the condemnation of Galileo, who challenged the false idea that the Earth is the centre of the universe.

These apologies didn’t always live up to the hopes of those who were wronged. But they were an expression of official contrition that went some way toward acknowledging the Church’s human frailty, healing the hurt, and setting the historical record right.

Canada’s 80,000 aboriginal survivors of the church-run residential school system deserve no less. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper should seek a papal apology on their behalf when he meets Pope Francis on Thursday. Some 150,000 children were ripped from their families in a racist attempt to “kill the Indian in the child” that was abetted by Catholic and other Christian clergy, and 6,000 died in the schools. Many were abused emotionally, physically and sexually. It was a dark chapter in our history.

The Anglican Church in Canada has long since apologized. Back in 1993 then-primate Archbishop Michael Peers declared “I am sorry, more than I can say.” Others involved with the schools, including the United Church, Presbyterians and Jesuits have similarly expressed sorrow and regret.

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

UNITED STATES
Diary of a Whimpy Catholic

June 7, 2015 by Max Lindenman

Last week, at a Sacra Liturgia conference in Manhattan, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone warned his audience that “gender ideology” threatens the foundation of the faith. To illustrate his point, he went on to list the “grand total” of 14 gender identities recognized by a major university, adding, “I’m sure even more will be invented as time goes on.” A parent at one Marin County’s Catholic schools objected, calling the archbishop’s statement “ill-considered, hurtful and lacking in knowledge and compassion.”

Whatever may be said about Cordileone’s impish tone, he’s right that opening a gap between people’s anatomy and their self-conception upsets the whole apple cart of Catholic anthropology. Not only does it overthrow the Catholic view of the unified person for a system of body-soul dualism, it demotes the body to junior partnership. With no automatic regard for the equipment we were issued, we risk losing sight of how God meant for the sexes to complement one another, and, by uniting physically, to create new life in a way that mirrors his own creation of the world.

So that’s how gender ideology threatens Church teachings. Fair enough — it bore repeating. But if we accept that gender dysphoria is a real condition, we really ought to consider how Church teachings threaten the faith of the people it affects, and the people whom they affect.

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

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 2, 2015

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

ALBUQUERQUE — Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup have asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma to approve a plan to auction off about 115 mostly vacant parcels of land in Arizona and New Mexico to help the diocese fund a plan of reorganization.

In a motion filed May 18, diocesan attorneys also asked Thuma to approve the hiring of Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group, a California firm, to conduct the auction as well as conduct a public marketing campaign to get the property sold within 90 days of the court order.

Susan G. Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the Gallup Diocese, retained those two companies to direct similar property sales in the Diocese of Tucson’s bankruptcy case in 2005. Statements submitted by both companies assert the firms have “extensive experience marketing difficult, rural properties” in the Southwest.

According to the diocese’s motion, properties to be auctioned are “for the most part, excess real property not otherwise currently utilized for Diocesan purposes. The Sale Assets consist mostly of unimproved, vacant land in rural areas.”

Any objections to the plan need to be filed with the court by June 11.

Six Gallup parcels

With a few possible exceptions, most of the properties do not appear to have a high dollar value.

Based on the list of proposed parcels to be auctioned, officials with the Diocese of Gallup are not parting with many of the diocese’s more valuable properties. The diocese’s commercial property in Winslow, Ariz., with the busy McDonald’s restaurant located on the lot, is not listed, neither is the G-Bar Ranch, also known at the Barth Ranch, located outside of St. Johns, Ariz., or Gallup’s Downtown Plaza shopping center on West Aztec Avenue.

Some of the properties are made up of just one parcel of land, while other properties include multiple parcels. The list includes 18 parcels scattered across Apache and Navajo counties in Arizona, and 98 parcels located in nine New Mexico counties, including 64 parcels outside of San Rafael, N.M., in La Vega Estates. Six parcels are located in Gallup.

If Thuma approves the diocese’s motion, diocesan officials will be able to add or delete properties from the list as the marketing and sale process proceeds.

Auction plans

Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group have agreed to be compensated $45,000 for the marketing costs related to the auction and a commission of 10 percent of the purchase price of each property that will be paid as a buyer’s premium. Any cooperating third party broker will be paid 2.5 percent from the broker’s fee. The sales will be on an all cash, no contingency basis.

The companies are planning to conduct an “open outcry” and “absolute and without reserve” auction for some of the properties. An “open outcry” auction is one with live bidding, and an “absolute and without reserve” auction means there is no reserve or minimum bid, with the property being sold to the highest bidder regardless of price. Some properties, however, may be sold with a reserve price set.

Other properties may be sold in a “sealed bid” program where sealed bids will be submitted and the Diocese of Gallup will recommend to the Court the bid to be accepted.

Marketing strategy

Tucson Realty & Trust and Accelerated Marketing Group plan to run a heavily marketed sales campaign for about six weeks prior to the auction that targets print, broadcast, consumer, business and trade news media organizations in Arizona and New Mexico.

The firms are also planning a direct and electronic mailing campaign of promotional information to developers, land improvement companies, environmental agencies, real estate brokerage companies, accountants and attorneys.

The $45,000 marketing fee will be the only cost to the Diocese of Gallup related to the sale of properties.

If Thuma approves the motion, diocesan attorneys stated the auction would likely be held approximately 60 to 90 days after the court approval. Proceeds from the sale will help fund the Gallup Diocese’s plan of reorganization, including payment of administrative expenses.

The next major event in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case is a court ordered mediation June 10-11, which will involve the diocese and nine other parties.

Properties to be auctioned

Apache County, Ariz:
■ Concho: three vacant parcels
■ St. Johns: one vacant parcel
■ Springerville: one vacant parcel

Navajo County, Ariz:

■ Holbrook: four vacant parcels
■ Show Low: three vacant parcels
■ Snowflake: two vacant parcels
■ Snowflake: one vacant parcel
■ Winslow: three parcels used by Vincent de Paul Society’s Food Bank

Cibola County, N.M:

■ Near San Rafael: La Vega Estates, 64 vacant parcels
■ Near Bluewater: three vacant parcels
Luna County, N.M:
■ Near Deming: nine vacant parcels
McKinley County, N.M:
■ Gallup: six vacant parcels
■ Thoreau: one vacant parcel
Rio Arriba County, N.M:
■ Lumberton: vacant land
Sandoval County, N.M:
■ Near Guadalupe: one vacant parcel
■ Rio Rancho: three vacant parcels
San Juan County, N.M:
■ Blanco: one vacant parcel
■ Farmington: one vacant parcel and land used by Catholic Charities
■ Near Navajo Dam: one vacant parcel
Socorro County, N.M:
■ Near Belen: one vacant parcel
Taos County, N.M:
■ Near Colorado border: two vacant parcels
Valencia County, N.M:
■ Near Los Lunas: four vacant parcels

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

UNITED STATES
Wonkette

by Kaili Joy Gray
Jun 08

What kind of fair and balanced “news” network would Fox be if it didn’t have its own rightwing whackadoodle Catholic priest on speed dial to pronounce God’s own truth to the half-comatose octogenarian audience? (That’s a rhetorical question.) As Fox’s official “religion contributor,” Father Jonathan Morris is often called upon to explain, in his priestly garb, what Jesus said about slut pills, or how Obama is raping the First Amendment — or, as he did on Tucker Carlson’s Sunday show, why the Duggars should not have to lose their reality TV show just because Josh molested four of his sisters and a babysitter:

We’re hearing such outcry. Get the Duggars off TV! It’s so bad for America! This is a bad example! How can you possibly allow them to stay on? Really?!? […] A social outcry, that they are somehow bad people, they should not be allowed on television — I don’t think so.

Lucky Duggars, they get their very own Catholic priest to go on TV and defend their right to be on TV, despite their past unpleasantness. Not that we’d expect a Catholic priest to understand the outcry over a family covering up sexual abuse of children — yes, that’s a pointed dig at the Catholic Church’s widespread cover-up of sexual abuse of children, in case you missed it — but we’re a little surprised that Father Morris appears so emotionally invested in protecting the Duggars’ reality TV career. After all, he says, if the Kardashians get to be on television, why not the Duggars, HUH??? And, like the rest of the “journalists” on Fox — and the Duggars themselves — he’s appalled that anyone would criticize this particular family or point out its “family values” hypocrisy when the Duggars never claimed they were without sin anyway:

What’s been shocking to me is all of these very secular headlines rejoicing at the downfall of the family that never said it was perfect.

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

NEW MEXICO
Gallup IndependentgALL

Published in the Gallup Independent, June 6, 2015

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

GALLUP — Local civic leader Mary Ann Armijo is weighing in on the controversies that have surrounded her Catholic parish and the Diocese of Gallup over the last month.

“I know that we’re all afraid that at some point they are going to close St. John Vianney, but I think as parishioners, instead of being upset we should maybe all just come together and not give them a reason to close St. John’s,” Armijo said in an interview Thursday.

On May 10, the Gallup Diocese announced it was immediately transferring the Rev. James Walker, the parish’s popular pastor, to another assignment and reducing St. John Vianney Parish into a chapel with only two weekly Masses and no religious education program for children.

After a swift and vocal public outcry, Bishop James S. Wall reversed those decisions and announced the church would remain an active parish. Wall also appointed the Rev. Kevin Finnegan, his chancellor and vicar general, as pastor. Parishioners, however, continued to be frustrated with Wall’s lack of response to their phone calls, letters and requests for a meeting.

Colored by disability

Armijo, a Gallup businesswoman, former City Council representative and the current chair of the McKinley County Democratic Party, said although she respected fellow parishioners who have spoken out in the media, she does have a different opinion on a couple of issues.

One of those opinions, she said, is colored by her own personal experience with having a visual impairment disability.

A number of parishioners have been upset that Finnegan, who has paraplegia, requested adult volunteers help him during Mass rather than youth servers. Armijo said after seeing Finnegan celebrate Mass, she understood why he might have made that request.

“That’s how I feel about my own disabilities,” Armijo said. “I wouldn’t want a 15-year-old that just got a learner’s permit to drive me around. I would want someone with experience, someone that’s been with me through my disabilities to be with me.” “And I guess that’s why I feel a little more compassion to the fact that, you know, Father Finnegan has the right to ask for adult servers,” Armijo said, adding she thought he might be concerned about falling down near a child.

Sparse attendance

Armijo also noted that church attendance was “very sparse” on Sunday, and she attributed that to parishioners protesting the recent decisions coming down from the Gallup chancery. Armijo said she believes such protests are unfair to Finnegan, and also unfair to other members of the parish.

“We all have to remember the purpose that we’re there,” Armijo said. “We’re not there to serve Father Walker, but we’re there as Christians to serve our Lord. I just still feel it’s unfair that Father Finnegan has been put in that position by people not showing up.”

“As Christians, we’re called to stand together,” Armijo added. I mean, it’s what Jesus said, ‘Upon this rock we’re going to build the church.’ We are the church. And if we let them do this, and we don’t go to church, and we continue to protest, then we’re giving them every reason. And I’m just not the person that’s going to give them that reason.”

Lack of communication

Armijo did agree with parishioners who have criticized Wall’s lack of communication regarding the decisions of the last month. Although Armijo said she was “trying to understand” if the bishop truly needed to act quickly regarding St. John Vianney, she said she believes Wall should have personally visited the parish and explained those decisions.

“They could have really stopped a lot of this if they just would have communicated,” Armijo said of Wall and his chancery officials. She said the Gallup Diocese needs to do a better job of communication and expressed the hope they will correct this in the future.

“I think he needs to go to communications class,” Armijo said of Wall, “or if he’s got a communications person, that person really needs to communicate. It’s just simple. That’s all people want. People just want to be heard.”

“And I believe in transparency, whether it’s from the church or government,” Armijo added. “They need to be more transparent and let us know and communicate better.”

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

NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, June 8

For more information: Amy Smith 281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Victims seek help from NC group
It funded and sent missionary abroad
He was fired after admitting child pornography
Self-help organization now wants “outreach” to “others who may be hurting”

A North Carolina-based non-profit fired a missionary it sent abroad after he admitted viewing child pornography. Now, a support group for child sex abuse victims is urging the organization to “aggressively reach out to others he may have hurt and perhaps help law enforcement file charges against him or others who shielded him.”

A Charlotte group called SIM (Serving in Mission), funded and sent Jordan Root to East Asia to spread Christianity in 2014. While there, Root confessed to SIM officials that he “has been sexually attracted to prepubescent female children for many years and that during his service with SIM he has been viewing nude photographs of children via the Internet to gratify this sexual desire.” The group fired Root.

[SIM statement on outcome of the investigation of Jordan Root]

But now, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are urging SIM “to find and help others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Root’s crimes” and to help law enforcement prosecute Root and others.

“It’s possible that Root or his supervisors or colleagues might be criminally charged with violations like endangering kids, intimidating witnesses, destroying evidence, obstructing justice or failing to report suspected child sex crimes,” said Amy Smith of SNAP, a blogger who has followed the case closely and has been in touch with Root’s wife who has recently gotten her marriage annulled. “Aggressive outreach by every church official who dealt with Root could make a real difference here.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Monday, June 8, 2015

A suspended Chester County priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal child pornography counts and charges of destroying evidence.

Mark Haynes, 55, previously of SS. Simon and Jude Parish in Westtown, admitted to trading hundreds of pornographic images of children over Instagram and enticing teenage girls he met online to send him explicit photos of themselves.

He contacted the teens while posing online as a 16-year-old girl named Katie Caponetti between 2010 and 2014.

Prosecutors have alleged that he had illicit online contact with 25 minors. And federal investigators previously said they received a host of additional allegations against Haynes since his arrest last year, including reports from three accusers who say the priest molested them in the 1990s.

Haynes has denied he sexually abused anyone, and prosecutors did not charge him in connection with those allegations, saying they appeared to fall outside the statute of limitations.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Metro

A suburban priest who created a fake identity as a teenage girl online to obtain nude pictures of his underage victims pleaded guilty in federal court today.

Mark John Haynes, 56, a former priest at Saint Simon and Jude Church in West Chester, PA, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and charges of destroying evidence.

He could face up to 10 years in jail.

Haynes was arrested in October 2014 after Chester County police tracked the source of child porn being posted on the internet to the church.

Haynes had created the identity of a 16-year-old girl, “Katie Caponetti,” which he used online to communicate with other minors and to exchange nude pictures and videos with them.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Local News

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@dailylocal.com, @ChescoCourtNews on Twitter

PHILADELPHIA >> A former priest at Ss. Simon and Jude Church in Westtown pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges involving child pornography and other offenses involving sexual misconduct with children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mark Haynes, 56, of West Chester, pleaded guilty In U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to all counts contained in a superseding information filed by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger charging child exploitation. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10. Haynes faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum sentence of life, possible fines, and at least five years up to a lifetime of supervised release.

Haynes, a former parochial vicar at a number of churches in the Delaware Valley, pleaded guilty to using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, transfer of obscene material to a minor, distribution of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and destruction or concealment of evidence.

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

PORTUGAL
DN

[Priest accused of sexual abuse of minors is released at expiration of his term of probation.]

Luís Mendes foi condenado em 2013 a dez anos de cadeia pelo Tribunal do Fundão, mas a decisão ainda não transitou em julgado. Prazo para permanecer em prisão domiciliária expirou no domingo.

O bispo da Guarda, Manuel Felício, disse hoje à agência Lusa que “devem ser dirigidas ao tribunal” as perguntas sobre o fim da prisão domiciliária do padre e ex-vice reitor do Seminário do Fundão condenado por abuso sexual de menores.

Em dezembro de 2013, Luís Mendes foi condenado a 10 anos de cadeia pelo Tribunal do Fundão, mas a decisão ainda não transitou em julgado e, entretanto, o prazo para a manutenção da prisão domiciliária (situação em que se encontrava desde que foi detido há exatamente dois anos e meio) expirou no domingo.

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

ARGENTINA
Nuevo Diario

El abogado defensor del sacerdote acusado de abuso sexual recibió los estudios médicos realizados por profesionales y los resultados “dieron negativo”.

Estos resultados médicos serán presentados por la defensa técnica para ser sumados al expediente judicial que investiga al sacerdote Julián Ruiz, acusado de haber abusado sexualmente a un menor de edad de la localidad de Monte Quemado, departamento Copo.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Janell Ross June 8

Two days after former House speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) indictment became public, a small group of sexual abuse survivors gathered at Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago. The group, made up of members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), was there say thank you to prosecutors for exposing Hastert’s alleged crimes.

It was also there to issue a distinct challenge to Illinois lawmakers.

One year after pushing state legislators to enact changes in the criminal statute of limitations – the time during which a person can be prosecuted for sex crimes involving minors — sex abuse survivors and their advocates, some legal scholars and anti-rape activists are pushing Illinois and other states to go further. Much further.

They want to see Illinois and other states extend, eliminate or — at the very least — temporarily lift the often short time frames during which alleged victims have to report sex crimes and the system has to peruse these cases in criminal and civil court. And some of these same forces are now pushing Congress to use its ready weapon – federal funding – to incentivize states that do so. In late May, just hours before the charges against Hastert became public, retiring Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told a Nevada newspaper that he is seeking co-sponsors for just such a bill.

At first glance, the statue of limitation reform movement can seem like the kind of push for civil and criminal procedure reform with meaning to only a small subset of Americans involved in such cases. To others, it might seem like one of those causes so deep in the legislative weeds that rallying support will be difficult. And the reforms do have their critics.

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

IRELAND
RTE News

The number of abuse survivors using the Catholic Church’s confidential counselling and support service has fallen for the first time since it was founded four years ago.

The 2014 annual report of Towards Healing published today, records that 1,100 people received face-to-face counselling.

This is a reduction of 9.1% on the 2013 figure.

The number of new clients contacting the service fell from 426 in 2013 to 348 last year.

There was also a reduction in the numbers re-engaging with the services which declined from 72 in 2013 to 58 in 2014.

Towards Healing took over from the Faoiseamh service, which had provided counselling from 1996 to 2011.

Since 1996 a total of 5,470 people have been supported by both Faoiseamh and Towards Healing and a total of 365,820 counselling sessions have been provided.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis is meeting now for three days with Cardinals Sean O’Malley and George Pell. The pope needs now, after over two years of papal foot dragging, to stop playing games on curtailing priest child abusers and on holding bishops accountable. He needs to fund and staff adequately his presently almost illusory abuse advisory commission. The pope also needs to tell Pell emphatically to stop using legal threats to try to intimidate Peter Saunders, and thereby other commission members as well. Inexplicably, other than Marie Collins, the other members seem almost invisible and even indifferent to the abuse Saunders and Collins continue to be subjected to. Francis’ silence now is reminiscent of his earlier failure to stand up squarely and bravely for his two tortured Jesuit confreres in Argentina.

The pope and O’Malley appear to have used a shameful “bait and switch” strategy with Saunders and other abuse commission members. They selected Saunders to meet with the pope to unload privately his abuse survivor stories. Last July, Saunders and five other survivors attended a private Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, where he made the first promise by any pope to hold bishops accountable for preventing sexual abuse by clergy. The pope said, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.” See Vatican Information Service here.

As Bishop Accountability’s intrepid Anne Barrett Doyle correctly recently indicated, the only meaningful measure of the sincerity of the pope’s historic vow will be whether he removes church officials who fall short of his “utmost care” standard. Disciplining such powerful colleagues as Pell will be politically tough, but for the pope to make good on his promise, accountability must begin at the top. Diocesan bishops cannot be expected to comply with standards that Vatican officials have ignored with impunity.

Then the pope and O’Malley picked Saunders, a devout Catholic, for the abuse commission. After Saunders and others publicly accepted commission membership, the pope and O’Malley farcically told the commission members that the commission will not address “individual cases”. If the commission fails to address individual bishops’ accountability, yes, it is a farce! Thank God the brave Saunders was unswayed by the papal ruse. He has prophetically pursued the individual cases of both Pell and Chile’s Bishop Barros. Amen!

Pope Francis must rebuke Pell and insist that he immediately withdraw his threatening, even menacing, approach to Saunders. The pope should then take this opportunity to launch a review of the evidence of Pell’s harshness towards victims that has emerged in two government inquiries in Australia.

Meanwhile, US bishops are set to hold their last national meeting before Pope Francis’ US visit, the pope and bishops’ 2016 US presidential election strategy appears to be in a “free fall”. Pope Francis, with his seemingly discredited No. 3, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the pope’s criminally investigated Minneapolis USA Catholic officials, may turn out to be more of a net liability than an net asset, as a supporter for US Republican candidates and their low tax billionaire backers, at least by the time the elections are held in November 2016, given the current negative papal trajectory.

Two new US criminal court proceedings have uncovered revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals that have significant US national political connections. These cases, as well as the recent overwhelming negative Irish vote on one of the pope’s marriage positions, and the unending public relations miscues of the combative and shameless Pell (with at least some tacit yet shameful papal blessing, it appears), have important and potentially adverse implications for Pope Francis’ upcoming US trip and for his potential effectiveness in helping to elect Republican candidates in next year’s US elections.

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

CANADA
Anglican Communion News Service

[Anglican Journal] National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald said he is hopeful that the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) outlining concrete actions that would respect the sovereignty and integrity of Canada’s Indigenous peoples would help Indigenous Anglicans’ own struggle for self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada.

What resonated with him the most in the report, said MacDonald in an interview, was its call for “a full and complete acceptance of the values, protocols and ideals of Indigenous people and their equal weight in governance, in life, in culture. It adds a lot of weight to what we’re trying to do.”

Indigenous Anglicans believe that “the Gospel, the living word of God, wants to be living and real in Indigenous life,” said MacDonald. “You can’t do that if you have no respect for Indigenous life.

“What we have looked for, hoped for and longed for in the church and in the larger society is something that this report asked,” he added. “What the TRC report describes so well is that Indigenous concerns are woven into the fabric of Canadian life so completely that you cannot have justice unless you have indigenous justice, and indigenous justice means justice for all.”

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

UNITED STATES
Crying Out for Justice

BARBARA ROBERTS ♦ JUNE 7, 2015

How should a church deal with a person who has been professsing Christianity, but has been committing heinous sexual immorality? The Bible’s answer to this question should tell us how The Village Church ought to have dealt with Jordan Root.

At John Pavlovitz’s article Matt Chandler, Village Church, Acts 29 Network, and The Long Overdue Funeral For Frat Boy Christianity a reader asked the following question (link):

What would people who claim to be Christians like to see The Village Church do to Jordan Root? Kick him out? Tell him he isn’t welcome anymore? Shun him? Make him draw a sign on his shirt that says he is a child molester? What would be appropriate?

I believe that Jordan Root’s admissions to watching child porn are not anything like a full confession. My reasons? When first pressed by Karen, he admitted to viewing images of adult porn. Only when Karen repeatedly pressed him did he admit to watching child porn. And then he virtually rubbed her face in it by describing some of the porn in lurid detail — imagine how that defiled Karen’s mind! It was not a confession made in humility, nor did it have any of the signs of genuine contrition and repentance. It was squeezed out of him, and then he used the confession to HURT Karen further (by describing the images in gross detail). Want verification? See endnote at bottom of this post for links.

Jordan used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access some or most of the porn. That is one of the reasons why the FBI have not been able to charge him with anything. But if he were genuinely repentant, he would be giving the FBI full and comprehensive details of what he viewed, how they can verify that he viewed it so they can charge him, and how he obtained it, so that the FBI can use that info to prosecute the makers and purveyors of that child porn. Jordan has done nothing like this.

Jordan Root, if he were genuinely repentant, would have signed himself up for a five- or seven-day a week pedophile treatment program of the highest quality. He has not done anything remotely like that.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Matt Sepic Jun 8, 2015

Some Catholic faithful in the Twin Cities have expressed hope that criminal charges filed last week against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will result in major changes in the way the church deals with allegations of sexual abuse.

Others say the charges would not have been necessary had church officials handled abuse allegations properly.

The archdiocese is facing six gross misdemeanor counts for allegedly failing to protect children abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who’s serving a five-year prison sentence.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 June 2015 (VIS) – This morning, the Holy Father’s tenth meeting with the Council of Cardinals began. The “Council of Nine” will continue its work until Wednesday 10 June.

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

UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

WASHINGTON—The 2015 Spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be broadcast via satellite from St. Louis, June 10-11, to Catholic television outlets and all broadcasters wishing to air it. The satellite feed will run Wednesday, June 10, (10:15 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Eastern), and Thursday, June 11, (9:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Eastern). Media conferences will follow open sessions of the meeting.

The proceedings will also be live streamed at www.usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/index.cfm. News updates, addresses and other materials will be posted on this page. For those wishing to follow the proceedings on social media, updates from the meeting will be live tweeted at http://twitter.com/USCCBLive with the hashtag #USCCB15. Updates will also appear at www.facebook.com/usccb.

The meeting agenda will include a report from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, USCCB president, on the consultation of U.S. dioceses for October’s Synod of Bishops on the Family in Rome. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia will provide an update on the World Meeting of Families. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami and Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico, will discuss the themes of Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on ecology. Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will unveil new digital resources available to U.S. dioceses in time for the papal visit.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by David V Barrett
posted Monday, 8 Jun 2015

Saunders had called the cardinal a ‘dangerous individual’

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer has called on his critic Peter Saunders to withdraw allegations he made on Australian television.

Calling the cardinal “a dangerous individual”, Mr Saunders, a member of the Vatican’s advisory commission on child sexual abuse, had accused him of knowing that a paedophile priest, Fr Gerald Ridsdale, had abused children, which the cardinal has repeatedly denied.

“He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – [it’s] almost sociopathic I would go as far as to say, this lack of care,” Mr Saunders said in the interview.

He went on: “In all the interviews, in all I’ve read, in all I’ve heard, I have seen not a shred of evidence that George Pell has any sympathy, empathy or any kind of understanding or concern for victims and survivors of these crimes.”

Mr Saunders called on Pope Francis to remove Cardinal Pell from his position as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Despite legal threats from Cardinal George Pell, 60 Minutes defends its interview with Vatican advisor who said Pell was ‘sociopathic’ towards abuse sufferers.

08/06/15

60 Minutes brands Catholic Church ‘out of touch’

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

MONTANA
Missoulian

RICHARD GEARY

I was 12 years old when our local priest molested me. I thought I was younger at the time, but the lawyers who deposed me said he arrived in Helmville in 1959, so I had to have been 12 when it happened.

I had already spent two summers working on the hay crew, doing adult work for adult wages, but it was a big deal when he asked if I wanted to paint his kitchen. Working for the family was one thing, but getting a real job working for an authority figure like the priest was a big step toward adulthood. I took the job.

He was always touching and hugging the altar boys, rubbing his hands under our shirts as he gave us a hug when we arrived to help at Mass. Often, he loaded us into his car and took us to dinner in Helena or Lincoln. None of us liked to sit beside him in the car, because he was always rubbing our legs in a playful manner. Just naive country kids, we didn’t have a clue about his intentions, but it was still uncomfortable.

As I was painting one afternoon, he called me into the guest bedroom of the rectory. I thought he wanted help moving something, so I put down my brush and went to him.

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

MISSOURI
Restore FCCF

Why is there a Restore FCCF movement?

Mission: Our purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission, spread the Gospel of Christ through our community, help the hurting and restore the unity of leadership, staff, and the congregation.

Why did we create restorefccf.org?

The simple answer – to combine all the issues and documents concerning First Christian Church of Florissant and present them in one location. This gives everyone a chance to read all of the information and commentary about the problems facing First Christian Church and its members.

The primary goal is to get to the truth. It is difficult to make an intelligent assessment concerning everything going on at First Christian if you don’t have the facts.

The Short Version of a Long Story

In 2005 FCCF First Christian Church of Florissant hired Brandon Milburn to serve in the Children’s Ministry. He was hired by Steve and Ruth Wingfield.

In August 2011, inappropriate actions by Brandon were brought to the attention of Steve Wingfield by one of the elders who witnessed it first-hand.In February 2012, Dawn Varvil in a conversation with Steve Wingfield and Scott Strandell told them of the following inappropriate actions by Brandon Milburn: buying a minor expensive gifts, spooning with a minor and a minor stating he was spending the night at the Varvils’ when he was actually staying with Brandon. No action was taken to address these concerns.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Monday 8 June 2015

Stephen Naysmith
Social affairs correspondent

Victims and the groups that represent them have been cautious about the announcement that Susan O’Brien QC will lead the Scottish National Inquiry into historic child abuse, set up by the Scottish Government.

The remit of the inquiry is to examine abuse of children in formal institutions, such as children’s homes. Crucially while that will include homes run by churches, the inquiry will not cover abuse in more general faith settings.

The latest voice to object to this limitation comes from churches themselves. The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, a Christian charity based in Kent, but also registered in Scotland, says this is simply letting churches off the hook.

Instead, it says, the Scottish Government should have adopted the methodology currently being employed by the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry.

Abuse, it says, is just as likely to have occurred at churches in settings such as Sunday services. Paedophiles often seek out places of worship, CCPAS argues, as they are seen as a soft touch.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 8, 2015

Timna Jacks, Henrietta Cook

At least two new alleged victims have contacted Scotch College amid its revelations that students were sexually abused at the school.

The Hawthorn private boys’ school admitted in late May that it had settled at least five historical claims, dating back to the 1960s. It sent a letter to its alumni urging those who suffered abuse to contact the school and seek support from its psychologist.

Scotch has since been contacted by a new group of victims, a school spokesman confirmed.

“Since Scotch’s very public invitation to contact the school, some old boys have called to discuss their time at Scotch,” the spokesman said.

“When contacted, the school advises old boys to speak to the school psychologist, and it is suggested that they speak to support services and seek their own independent legal advice. At all times, Scotch acts in the interests of the old boys in an effort to help them.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Reuters

A lawyer representing Australian Cardinal George Pell has written to a member of a Vatican commission on sex abuse requesting that he withdraw “false allegations” made in a recent television interview, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Commision member Peter Saunders, in an interview on Australian television last week, said Pell had shown a lack of concern for victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia that was “almost sociopathic”, and his position at the Vatican had become “untenable”.

Saunders comments, which included a call for Pell to be dismissed over allegations he failed to take action to protect children years ago, were widely criticised by senior Catholic Church officials in Australia who defended Pell’s record and consideration for victims of abuse.

The 17-member Vatican commission on sex abuse, which is advising the Pope on how to root out sex abuse in the Church, also distanced itself from Saunder’s criticism saying it “has no jurisdiction to comment on individual cases or inquiries”.

Richard Leder, a lawyer for Pell, sent a letter to Saunders on Thursday requesting that he withdraw “the false allegations” and “correct the record”, adding that it was clear his comments weren’t supported by the Vatican, the newspaper reported in an online article on Sunday.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 8, 2015

Rory Callinan
Investigative journalist

“It has been confirmed that you have been touching the private parts of bodies of girls at this school …while at this point in time we don’t intend to press charges we must warn you we have witnesses…”

With the reading of this statement to a paedophile teacher on November 29, 1982, the cover-up of more than a decade of child sex abuse at St Agnes Catholic Primary School in Matraville was complete.

The abuse of girls by school teacher and netball coach Michael Drew had just been erased with the collaboration of some of the highest officials in Catholic Education.

The Herald has obtained a copy of the confidential dismissal statement read by the then headmaster, William Joseph Rooney, which allegedly provides written proof of how teachers and officers from Catholic Education discretely removed Drew without contacting police.

The document, which was highlighted during a recent civil court case involving Drew, is likely to send a shudder through the Catholic Church’s educational section as it potentially provides proof of the offence of misprision of a felony – the covering up of a crime.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Lewis Dean
June 8, 2015

Nadine Dorries has revealed that she was sexually abused as a child by Liverpool vicar Reverend James Cameron and that she took revenge by naming a character in her book after him.

The Mid Bedfordshire Conservative MP told BBC Radio 5 Live she endured two years of abuse from the age of eight by her local vicar Reverend James Cameron, who died in 2011.

Speaking about the abuse for the first time, Dorries said the ordeal began after her mother started working at her church.

“That’s when I’d wake up in the middle of the night and he was by my bed,” she said.

“From that moment on, you just become totally different from everyone else in society. You are unlike all of your friends. You have this dirty, shameful, disgusting knowledge that no-one else has, and it’s just awful.”

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey June 7

Mark Driscoll, the preacher who stepped down from his Seattle megachurch in October 2014 after being accused of plagiarism, bullying and an unhealthy ego has been trying to return to some kind of speaking tour at Christian conferences. But the attempt was cut short Sunday when Hillsong, one of the most influential international megachurches, cut him from the speaker list at its upcoming conferences in the United Kingdom and in Australia.

Hillsong is an international megachurch based in Australia that has exported its influence to major global cities and into churches’ music across the United States. Hillsong’s founder, Brian Houston, released a statement saying he did not want the 30-minute interview with Driscoll to distract from the larger five-day conference.

“The teachings of Christ are based on love and forgiveness, and I will not write off Mark as a person simply because of the things that people have said about him, a small minority of people signing a petition or statements he has made many years ago for which he has since repeatedly apologised,” Houston said.

Houston called one or two of Driscoll’s remarks “outrageous,” though he did not note what they were.

“Clearly Mark has held some views and made some statements that cannot be defended,” Houston said in the statement. “One or two of the more outrageous things he is purported to have said, I have heard for the first time through the media exposure over the past week.”

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

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Lilly Fowler

FLORISSANT • A nine-piece band plays inside a church auditorium, and three projection screens hang overhead, including one in the center that flashes lyrics. The band’s repertoire consists of Christian songs that could easily be mistaken for mainstream pop music. First Christian Church of Florissant members stand, clap and sway in response.

Yet, as he prepares to deliver his sermon, Pastor Steve Wingfield apologizes for the small crowd at the long-standing megachurch.

Wingfield has strawberry blond hair and is dressed in a black, long-sleeved, buttoned shirt and gray khakis as he digs into the current series of sermons focusing on the “Path to Restoration.” Today’s message is about broken relationships, a hardship afflicting even the closest knit families, including church families.

“If you want to be part of an imperfect church family, where flawed people are trying to figure this thing out together, you’re welcome here,” Wingfield tells a half-filled auditorium, while revealing details about his home life, including his role as a grandfather.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Independent

Lindsay Watling
PUBLISHED
08/06/2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

The former ‘I’m a Celebrity’ contestant, who grew up in a working class family in Liverpool, says she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Reverend William Cameron when she was nine.

Ms Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the Haleford vicarage on the pretence of looking at his stamp collection.

The man, now dead, showed her a ‘Playboy’ magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire said in an interview.

She claims he also used to visit her family home and perform sex acts near her when she was in bed.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

[video: Cardinal Pell]

June 8, 2015

Statement by Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director, BishopAccountability.org (cell 781-439-5208)

Cardinal Pell’s lawyer reportedly has sent a letter to survivor and papal commission member Peter Saunders, accusing him of making “false allegations” about Pell’s response to abuse victims and ‘inviting’ Saunders to withdraw the statements.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

The cardinal’s apparent attempt to intimidate Saunders is inappropriate. That the Vatican’s third most powerful official would act with implied menace against a survivor who is serving Pope Francis and the church with such generosity and whole-heartedness supports the main point made by Saunders in his controversial interview – that Pell is unfit to hold a senior position in an administration ostensibly dedicated to survivor outreach and child protection.

The next move belongs to Pope Francis: the credibility of his promise of ‘bishop accountability’ is at stake.

Unless Saunders is defended against Pell by the pope or by a papal representative, like commission president Cardinal Sean O’Malley, other commission members will be silenced and discouraged, and the public’s confidence in the group’s integrity will be undermined.

Pope Francis must rebuke Pell and insist that he immediately withdraw his threatening approach to Saunders. The pope should then take this opportunity to launch a review of the evidence of Pell’s harshness towards victims that has emerged in two government inquiries in Australia.

Last July, Saunders and five other survivors attended a private Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, where he made the first promise by any pope to hold bishops accountable for preventing sexual abuse by clergy. The pope said, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.”

[Vatican Information Service]

The only meaningful measure of the sincerity of the pope’s historic vow will be whether he removes church officials who fall short of his “utmost care” standard. Disciplining such powerful colleagues as Pell will be politically tough, but for the pope to make good on his promise, accountability must begin at the top. Diocesan bishops cannot be expected to comply with standards that Vatican officials have ignored with impunity.

And Pell’s strike against Peter Saunders is nothing new for the Australian prelate: he has a documented history of using legal tactics to silence assertive survivors. No case documents this more thoroughly than his treatment of survivor John Ellis when Pell was archbishop of Sydney. Ellis had been sodomized and molested for years, starting when he was 13, by Father Aiden Duggan, a priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Sydney. Ellis’s harrowing struggle as an adult to find justice and healing under Pell was investigated and assessed in a case study that is part of a large ongoing nationwide inquiry by Australia’s government, its high-powered Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In January 2015, the royal commission produced Report of Case Study No. 8: Mr. John Ellis’s experience of the Towards Healing process and civil litigation.

[Royal Commission]

* The royal commission found that when a devastated Ellis finally turned to litigation in 2004, after the archdiocese had botched and delayed his Towards Healing process, Pell decided to mount a “vigorous” attack on his claims, not only to defeat Ellis but “to encourage other prospective plaintiffs not to litigate claims of child sexual abuse against the Church” (Finding 18, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* In June 2005, Pell allowed his lawyers to continue a legal strategy that centered on the archdiocese’s dispute of the fact that Ellis had been abused — despite previous conclusions by Pell’s vicar general and church investigator during the Towards Healing process that Ellis’s claims were credible (Findings 24-26, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* Part of the archdiocese’s “non-admission” strategy involved cross-examining Ellis in excruciating detail about his years of rape by Duggan. Church lawyers later admitted to the royal commission that this questioning was not necessary, given that the court case concerned only whether Ellis’s claims were within statute. And Cardinal Pell conceded to the commission that his instructions had resulted in Ellis “being cross-examined and challenged as to whether the abuse occurred, in circumstances which were harmful and painful to him” (p. 13, Report of Case Study No. 8).

* The archdiocese finally won its case in 2007, with the Court of Appeal finding that Cardinal Pell could not be sued as a representative of the archdiocese or as a corporation sole. Nor could he be held liable personally, since he was not archbishop while Duggan was abusing Ellis. The Trustees also could not be held liable, the court ruled, because they have no supervisory role over priests. Just as Pell had intended, the case created an encompassing legal shield – the so-called “Ellis Defence” — that protected it against future lawsuits.

* In a November 2007 memo, Pell’s lawyers exulted that the Court of Appeals decision placed “a number of significant obstacles that will need to be addressed by any claimant seeking to resolve claims litigiously rather than through Towards Healing. Refocusing the resolution of these claims through Towards Healing has alone been a significant and favourable outcome of this litigation …” The memo continued, “Finally, as this decision has provided significant protection to the Cardinal and the Trustees, this in turn will give rise to a significant reduction in damages exposure and therefore the risks that are presently insured against” (page 16, Report of Case Study No. 8).

About BishopAccountability.org

Founded in 2003 and based near Boston, Massachusetts, USA, BishopAccountability.org is a large online archive of documents, reports, and news articles documenting the global abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. An independent non-profit, it is not a victims’ advocacy group and is not affiliated with any church, reform, or victims’ organization. In 2014, its website hosted 1.5 million unique visitors.

Contact for BishopAccountability.org

Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, barrett.doyle@comcast.net, 781-439-5208 cell
Terence McKiernan, President and Co-Director, mckiernan1@comcast.net, 508-479-9304

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

‘Once again the Catholic Church is out of touch and closing ranks’: 60 Minutes hits back at Cardinal George Pell after he demands apology from sex abuse victim

By LEESA SMITH FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and CINDY TRAN

Australia’s highest ranking Catholic threatening legal action has not stopped the 60 Minutes TV program from hitting back at Cardinal George Pell and his fellow leaders across the country.

Child sex abuse victim Peter Saunders, who was handpicked by Pope Francis to sit on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, broke his silence on last Sunday’s show about his thoughts on Cardinal Pell describing him as ‘dangerous’ and claiming his position was ‘untenable’.

Despite turning down invitations from 60 Minutes to respond to the damning remarks, Cardinal Pell remained tight-lipped – until after the show aired when a spokesperson stated that he was left with no choice but to seek legal advice.

‘The false and misleading claims made against His Eminence are outrageous,’ the statement said.

‘From his earliest action as an Archbishop, Cardinal Pell has taken a strong stand against child sexual abuse. There is no excuse for broadcasting incorrect and prejudicial material.’

But 60 Minutes journalist Tara Brown claimed otherwise and launched a scathing attack on Cardinal Pell and the Catholic Church within Australia on this Sunday’s program.

‘The Catholic Church in Australia stands in crisis,’ Brown announced at the beginning of the show.

‘The men who lead it have put themselves on a collision course with the victims of child sexual abuse by expressing their unfailing support for George Pell.’

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Bishops Meet As US Plans Slip, +Pell Threatens and US Bishops & House Leader Hastert Are Linked To Child Abuse Related Crimes

As US bishops get set to hold their last national meeting before Pope Francis’ US visit, the pope and bishops’ 2016 US presidential election strategy appears to be in a “free fall”. Pope Francis, with his seemingly discredited No. 3, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the pope’s criminally investigated Minneapolis USA Catholic officials, may turn out to be more of a net liability than an net asset, as a supporter for US Republican candidates and their low tax billionaire backers, at least by the time the elections are held in November 2016, given the current negative papal trajectory.

Two new US criminal court proceedings have uncovered revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals that have significant US national political connections. These cases, as well as the recent overwhelming negative Irish vote on one of the pope’s marriage positions, and the unending public relations miscues of the combative and shameless Pell (with at least some tacit yet shameful papal blessing, it appears), have important and potentially adverse implications for Pope Francis’ upcoming US trip and for his potential effectiveness in helping to elect Republican candidates in next year’s US elections.

The pope’s and his worldwide subordinate bishops’ credibility with many Catholics continues to nosedive as Irish voters showed. And yet Pell and Australian bishops continue to act as if they are ‘out of touch’ with Catholics lived reality. The Australian 60 Minutes news program has replied to Pell’s direct complaints and indirect legal threats about their first segment featuring the pope’s handpicked abuse survivor adviser, Peter Saunders, with their latest scathing segment on Cardinal Pell here. Pell and the pope seem to be getting poor media management advice. 60 Minutes is surely not FOX TV! Pell, by his shameful and public combativeness against Saunders, a survivor of sexual abuse by two priests, is arrogantly mostly making Saunders case against Pell for him, as the pope shamefully and silently observes.

Pope Francis and Cardinal Sean O’Malley appear to have used a shameful “bait and switch” strategy with Saunders. They selected him to meet with the pope to unload privately his abuse survivor stories. Then they picked Saunders, a devout Catholic, for the abuse commission. After Saunders and others publicly accepted commission membership, the pope and O’Malley farcically told the commission members that the commission will not address “individual cases”. If the commission fails to address individual bishops’ accountability, yes, it is a farce! Thank God the brave Saunders was unswayed by the papal ploy. He has prophetically pursued the individual cases of both Pell and Chile’s Bishop Barros. Amen!

Also, Canadian government officials recently demanded that the pope visit and apologize for “cultural genocide” and for the Catholic Church’s historical negative role with “native Canadian” aborigines. The pope objects fairly to genocide-like atrocities AGAINST Catholics, like Armenian, Iraqi and Syrian Catholics. What about genocide-like atrocities BY Catholics against indigenous populations?

The Canadian demand just further buttresses California Native Americans’ objections to the unwarranted and unnecessary canonization process for Fr. Junipero Serra. The Hispanic Franciscan’s flawed canonization is evidently mostly another offensive political sop to try to attract US Latino voters for the pope’s US Republican candidate, as Pope John Paul II earlier tried to do with Serra’s beatification six weeks before the US election in 1988 aimed at drawing US Catholic Latino voters to a “Vatican friendlier” Republican candidate, G.H.W. Bush, it appears.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

Sunday Star Times

JONATHAN CARSON

A former Catholic priest, now living in Nelson, has been charged with historic sex offences, including indecently assaulting young girls and rape.

Peter Joseph Hercock, 71, a former chaplain at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt and administrator at a Nelson school, appeared in the Nelson District Court last week.

He is charged with two counts of rape, five counts of indecently assaulting girls aged under 16, assault and unlawfully entering a building.

He is yet to enter a plea.

All of the charges relate to alleged offending in the 1970s and 80s in Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool Echo

Diocese of Liverpool vows thorough investigation will take place into claims about St Mary’s Anglican Church priest Reverend William Cameron

Liverpool-born Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has alleged she was abused by an Anglican vicar as a child.

The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool, detailed the allegations after revealing stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

Ms Dorries alleged she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Reverend William Cameron when she was nine.

He was better known to parishioners by his middle name James and made priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Halewood in 1966 shortly before the abuse began, she told the Mail on Sunday.

The Diocese of Liverpool today vowed the allegations would be “thoroughly, appropriately and sensitively investigated”.

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

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

To get the Josh Duggar story, InTouch utilized solid investigative journalism

By Paul Farhi June 7

Until Caitlyn Jenner displaced it in the tabloid firmament last week, the hottest story in America’s booming celebrity-gossip industry was the revelations about Josh Duggar. The eldest kid on the popular “19 Kids and Counting” reality TV series, Duggar, now 27, was identified in a 2005 police report as the alleged molester of five young girls, including four of his sisters, when he was a teenager.

Unlike the highly orchestrated Jenner story, the revelations about Duggar came from actual journalistic digging. And it came from a somewhat unlikely source: InTouch Weekly , a magazine and Web site not known as a giant of investigative journalism, even within the Kardashian-centric universe it inhabits.

InTouch’s last big splash, so to speak, was in January, when it photoshopped Jenner’s head onto a female model’s body to suggest what he might look like as a woman. At the time, Jenner’s intentions were rumored but unconfirmed, and InTouch’s cover was widely denounced as trashy and insensitive.

Yet InTouch has led coverage of the sordid Duggar story with what looks like solid reporting. Although rumors about Duggar’s past have appeared periodically on the Internet for years, the magazine nailed it by disclosing the police investigation and incident report. It subsequently revealed that Duggar’s father, Jim Bob, waited a year before reporting the allegations to authorities.

Not long after InTouch dropped its first bombshell, Josh Duggar resigned from his job at the Family Research Council, a conservative-advocacy group based in Washington. His parents later acknowledged the veracity of the allegations, and Josh Duggar has apologized for “my wrongdoing.” Meanwhile, TLC, the cable network owned by Discovery Communications of Silver Spring, Md., has put “19 Kids and Counting” in limbo, its return to the air uncertain.

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

COLOMBIA
Imneuquen

Colombia

“El taita” Édgar Orlando Gaitán, director de la fundación Carare y premiado internacionalmente, fue detenido por las autoridades por el abuso de unas 50 mujeres, algunas de ellas menores de edad.
A través del suministro del ancestral yagé, habría abusado sexualmente de decenas de mujeres, varias de ellas menores de edad, que habrían acudido a él para realizarse limpiezas físicas y espirituales, según acusó la Fiscalía.

María Soledad Franco, directora seccional de Fiscalías, manifestó que el indígena “ejercía sus actividades delictivas en una finca de La Vega (Cundinamarca)”, sede de la fundación Carare, dirigida por Gaitán, que se autodenomina el último descendiente de la etnia Carare.

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

COLOMBIA
Latin Times

By Cedar Attanasio | Jun 07 2015

Neo-Shaman and ayahuasca ceremony leader Édgar Orlando Gaitán Camacho has been charged on suspicion of assaulting eight women while serving as their spiritual guide, Colombian prosecutors announced on Thursday. Suspecting multiple assaults over a period of decades, authorities calculate that Camacho drugged and raped as many as 50 women while serving as an ayahuasca priest. Ayahuasca, also known as yagé, is a hallucinogenic tea traditionally used by indigenous peoples of the Amazon. Authorities allege that Camacho, also known as “El Taita,” added sedatives to the ayahuasca he administered, allowing him to prey on women who attended his ceremonies.

Participants in ayahuasca ceremonies report significant improvements in mental well’being, along with life-changing epiphanies as a result of taking the drug. Western anthropologists and biomedical researchers working in Amazonian communities have long supported these claims. A recent small-scale study in Brazil suggested that ayahuasca could be an effective treatment for depression. Larger-scale clinical studies are expected in the future. Regardless of the drug’s potential benefits, ayahuasca imbibing requires leaders to guide participant’s “trips.”

According to regional Colombian prosecutor María Soledad Franco, Camacho took advantage of his position as a spiritual leader to assault dozens of women seeking physical and emotionally healing, including at least one minor.

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

CANADA
CTV

Michelle Zilio, CTVNews.ca
@michellezilio

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for its involvement in Canada’s residential school system.

Mulcair made the comments in an interview with CTV’s Question Period, days ahead of Harper’s trip to Vatican City. The Prime Minister will meet with the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, including Pope Francis, on Wednesday and Thursday.

“With all of the evidence that’s now on the table, the Vatican should issue a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential schools. While the Prime Minister is with the Pope, he should simply ask him if he’s willing to issue that sort of an apology,” said Mulcair.

Last week, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its report on the residential school system. The report made 94 broad recommendations, touching on areas of child welfare, justice, health and education.

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

AUSTRALIA
60 Minutes

JUNE 7, 2015

60 Minutes broadcasts an extraordinary development surrounding Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell.

“I think it’s critical that George Pell is moved aside, that he is sent back to Australia, and that the Pope takes the strongest action against him.” These are the damning words of Peter Saunders, the man handpicked by Pope Francis to sit on the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

In an interview with Tara Brown in Rome, Peter gives a wide-ranging and damning assessment of Cardinal Pell’s actions to date, and calls for Pope Francis to move against him.

STATEMENT FROM SPOKESPERSON FOR CARDINAL GEORGE PELL

31 May 2015 10.45pm

Cardinal Pell has been informed of the contents of the 60 Minutes program this evening. The false and misleading claims made against His Eminence are outrageous.

From his earliest actions as an Archbishop, Cardinal Pell has taken a strong stand against child sexual abuse and put in place processes to enable complaints to be brought forward and independently investigated.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Sunday 7 June 2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed that the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels are based on her own experience.

The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who grew up in Liverpool, says she was abused by Anglican vicar and family friend Rev William Cameron when she was nine.

Better known to parishioners by his middle name James, he was made priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Anglican church in Halewood in 1966, Dorries told the Mail on Sunday (MoS).

Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the vicarage on the pretence of looking at his stamp collection.

The man, who is now dead, showed her a Playboy magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, the Mid Bedfordshire MP told the newspaper.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard

GARETH VIPERS

Published: 07 June 2015

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has revealed that she was abused by a vicar as a child.

Ms Dorries, who once appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, has said she was abused by and Anglican vicar and family friend while growing up in Liverpool.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the Mid Bedfordshire MP revealed the stories of child sexual abuse described in her novels were based on her own experience.

Ms Dorries, who never went to the police, claims the abuse began when she was summoned to the local vicarage on the pretence of looking at the vicar’s stamp collection.

The man, now dead, showed her a Playboy magazine as well as photos of him and his wife having sex, she told the newspaper.

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

UNITED STATES
Mirror

7 JUNE 2015

BY MIKEY SMITH

The Tory MP has revealed tales of child sexual abuse in her new novel were drawn from her own experiences

Tory MP Nadine Dorries has revealed the tales of child sexual abuse in her novels are based on her own experience.

She says she was abused by a vicar and family friend when she was just nine years old, living in an Irish-Catholic community in the 1950s and 60s.

The Anglican vicar, Reverend James Cameron, would pay frequent visits to her family – often after she was tucked up in bed – and perform sex acts.

She told the Mail on Sunday the abuse started when she was called to the vicarage, under the pretense of seeing the vicar’s stamp collection.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 7, 2015

Georgina Mitchell

Current affairs program 60 Minutes has launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church, saying senior officials are “out of touch” and have alienated victims of sexual abuse by issuing statements in support of Cardinal George Pell.

As the program opened on Sunday night, journalist Tara Brown began an editorial that suggested

“The Catholic Church in Australia stands in crisis,” Brown declared within the first ten seconds of the program.

“The men who lead it have put themselves on a collision course with the victims of child sexual abuse by expressing their unfailing support for George Pell.”

Last week, the program interviewed Peter Saunders, a member of the commission that advises the Pope on the protection of children, who made a number of allegations about Cardinal Pell relating to whether he had knowledge of the actions of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

GRANT MCARTHUR HERALD SUN JUNE 07, 2015

CARDINAL George Pell has sent a legal letter demanding Peter Saunders withdraw allegations which the Cardinal claims present him as a sociopath who lied to cover up child sexual abuse matters.

Through his lawyer, Cardinal Pell accused Mr Saunders, who sits on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, of adopting the authority of the church committee in a misleading manner during an explosive 60 Minutes interview.

A British child abuse survivor, Mr Saunders last week told the program Cardinal Pell’s treatment of abuse victims had been callous and his position was untenable.

A letter from Cardinal Pell’s lawyer Richard Leder states Mr Saunders’ comments were “either uninformed as to the relevant history, or were deliberately selective” and that they were “inconsistent with the position of the church and the church committee of which you are a member”.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald

Catholic News Service

The Dutch-born, London-educated Libero Milone was chairman of Deloitte Italy

More than a year after establishing special structures to oversee the Vatican’s finances, Pope Francis has named an Italian accountant and expert in corporate risk management as the Vatican’s auditor general.

The Vatican announced the appointment of Libero Milone, the Dutch-born, London-educated chairman and managing partner of Milone Associates, on Friday.

He has worked for Flack Renewables, Wind Telecom and Fiat. Until 2007, he was chairman of Deloitte Italy and served three years as a member of the audit committee of the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

The statutes Pope Francis approved in early March for the Council and Secretariat for the Economy specify that the auditor general will have the power to audit the books of any Vatican office and will report directly to the pope.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 7, 2015

Georgina Mitchell

A man who called Cardinal George Pell “sociopathic” over his alleged treatment of survivors of child sexual abuse has been asked to withdraw his comments in a letter from Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, after members of the Church defended the Cardinal in public statements.

In an interview on 60 Minutes on May 31, Peter Saunders – a member of the Vatican’s advisory commission on child sexual abuse – said Pell’s position had become “untenable” and the Pope should act now to remove him from the Vatican because he was “a dangerous individual” who displayed a cold-heartedness and contempt for abuse victims.

“He has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, cold-heartedness – [it’s] almost sociopathic I would go as far as to say, this lack of care,” Mr Saunders told the program in an interview in Rome.

“I think he is somebody who, understandably, victim survivors will have a huge, huge issue with.

“In all the interviews, in all I’ve read, in all I’ve heard, I have seen not a shred of evidence that George Pell has any sympathy, empathy or any kind of understanding or concern for victims and survivors of these crimes.”

In the 15-minute segment, which featured historical comments from George Pell but which the Cardinal refused twice to be interviewed for, Mr Saunders said it was highly likely Pell and his peers knew paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale had abused children. He called for them to face criminal charges if this knowledge was proven.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 6 June 2015)

The Catholic Church sheltered Father John Stockdale for 31 years in parishes in northern Victoria while he committed sexual crimes against boys. Publicly, Father Stockdale upheld the strict morality which the church imposed on all lay Catholics. Privately, Father Stockdale was going to a gay club to have casual sex. On New Year’s Eve in 1995, Fr Stockdale was found dead in a sex cubicle at the “Club 80” gay venue in Melbourne.

A Victorian man (“Joe”) told Broken Rites in August 1994 that, when he was an altar boy 20 years earlier, he was molested by Father Stockdale. Broken Rites advised Joe to report the crime to the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit. Joe was slow in contacting the police and, when the police finally learned about Stockdale’s activities, the priest was dead.

The church inserted a death notice in the Melbourne “Herald Sun” on 4 January 1996, saying that Fr John Stockdale had died “suddenly” in Melbourne. A colleague told parishioners that Stockdale had had a heart attack.

Nine months later, the full circumstances of this death were revealed. The Herald Sun” (7 September 1996) reported that Father John Stockdale’s death occurred about 11.30 PM on 31 December 1995 — New Year’s Eve — in a sex cubicle at Club 80, a “men-only” club in Collingwood, Melbourne.

At Club 80, patrons retire to these cubicles to have random, anonymous sex. In fairness to Club 80, Broken Rites acknowledges that this club is not just about sex cubicles. It also has rooms for first-run movies (including art-house, not just porn, movies), plus areas for reading, socialising and refreshments. The club was advertised as “for men only”.

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

MINNESOTA
Whispers in the Loggia

SATURDAY, JUNE 06, 2015

Two years since a storm of revelations of abuse and cover-up began bearing down on the archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, yesterday saw the tumult take yet another eruptive turn as the bankrupt Twin Cities church was institutionally charged with six “gross misdemeanors” of child endangerment stemming from its handling of a now-jailed and laicized cleric whose pattern of misconduct is alleged to have continued into 2011.

Nearly 13 years since the US bishops enacted the Dallas Charter and Norms to mandate stringent safe-environment provisions as the church’s national law, the latest criminal proceeding over post-2002 lapses centers on the case of Curtis Wehmeyer, a thrice-convicted abuser ordained in 2001 and removed from ministry in mid-2012 following years of concerns expressed to archdiocesan officials.

After pleading guilty to a combined 20 abuse and child pornography counts later in 2012, Wehmeyer was dismissed from the clerical state by the Vatican earlier this year.

In a 44-page presentment that veers between graphic disclosures of Wehmeyer’s conduct and a detailed timeline of the Chancery responses to alarms sounded over the priest’s activity – including a 2004 incident where he solicited young men for sex in a Barnes & Noble bookstore – Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said the findings amounted to “a disturbing institutional and systemic pattern of behavior committed by the highest levels of leadership of the archdiocese… over the course of decades.”

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

IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Brendan Hoban

Here’s a question: when the Irish bishops decided to actively support the No side in the recent referendum, who actually made that decision?

Presumably there was some kind of consultation, some input from their paid advisors, some assessment of how a particular policy might sit with their priests and their people. In that process, who is listened to? Or more to the point, who is not heard?

I’m being ironic, I’m afraid. There was no consultation (as far as I could see) with priests or people.

Even the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), representing about a third of Irish priests, weren’t asked for an opinion, but then again we’re used to being ignored. There was no consultation either with the Association of Catholics of Ireland. We were not listened to; we were not heard.

The bishops’ decision to support the blunt strategy of outright opposition had all the hallmarks of a policy decided behind closed doors in Maynooth, without testing it against the wisdom of people and priests – and then people wonder why the bishops can get things so unerringly wrong?

That decision, it is now clear, supported by groups like Iona, Catholic papers desperate to hang on to their readers, and right-wing Catholic groups, was disastrous. The bishops, ignoring their people and their priests, got it exactly wrong.

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

CANADA
Rabble

Truth and Reconciliation Commission challenges Canadian churches

BY DENNIS GRUENDING | JUNE 7, 2015

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) has released a summary of its final report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools. The first paragraph in the Introduction describes Canada’s entire Aboriginal policy and its implementation as “cultural genocide.” The TRC defines that term as “the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group.” This includes seizing lands, the forcible relocation of populations, restrictions upon movement, banning languages and spiritual practices, disrupting families and the removal of children.

This is strong language but Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and former Prime Minister Paul Martin have both used the same term in recent months.
Beyond words to action

Justice Murray Sinclair, the TRC chair, has made numerous speeches and provided many interviews over the past several weeks and he has said repeatedly that what Canada needs now is move beyond words and apologies to action and reparation.

A major TRC recommendation, which appears repeatedly throughout the report, calls on governments across Canada to adopt and implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The TRC says that the UN declaration “is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society.”

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Recent US criminal court revelations relating to child sexual abuse scandals in Illinois and Minneapolis, that both have US national political connections, suggest that US leaders, including House leaders, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama, may hardly be more forthcoming about “insider child sex abuse scandal” related matters than secretive Pope Francis and his Vatican “old boys’ club” have been about numerous cardinals.

Some of these recent revelations relate to two separate and significant new US criminal proceedings: (A) one involving abuse allegations and the former No. 3 US political leader, longtime Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and (B) the other involving several priest child abuse cover up allegations and former longtime Minneapolis Catholic Church top official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, brother of Democratic President Barack Obama’s well regarded Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough.

The Minneapolis revelations, on top of the ongoing Cardinal George Pell revelations from Australia, raise serious questions about Pope Francis’ real agenda in holding bishops accountable. The pope’s US representative or nuncio reportedly has been directly involved in the Minneapolis Archdiocesan decision making. Indeed, as intrepid grandmother and advocate for children, Betty Clermont, has very pointedly reported recently, Pope Francis defiance in practice of the UN committee seeking to protect children from torture is extremely troubling and raises even more questions about the pope’s real agenda.

Fortunately for US children and their parents, these recent revelations are arising in independent and public US criminal judicial proceedings that promise full future disclosures, rather than secretive and captive Vatican proceedings ultimately controlled by the pope, like the current one for disgraced and admitted multiple child abuser, Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski.

Disappointingly, the Vatican clique and the US political establishment appear to share elements of the same flawed approach to “insiders” who abuse children sexually or who protect child abusers — “DON’T ASK ! DON’T TELL !”. This approach will change soon, one way or another.

Reviewing some US politicians’ seeming silence about these scandals, brought to my mind the memory of my former Harvard Law mentor, Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who would likely have asked here, “What did they [politicians and bishops] know and when did they know it?”

A former Democratic Congressman, Rep. Melvin Watt, reportedly heard over 15 years ago an “unseemly rumor” about about Hastert’s sexual misconduct. Moreover, a sister of a second alleged Hastert sex abuse victim as a high school student, now deceased, credibly told ABC TV’s Brian Ross in this recent video how she tried futilely to get the media and others, including ABC TV, to listen in 2006 to her story about Hastert’s alleged abuse of her brother. That was around the time Hastert was being pressed for being so lax for so long on the Congressman Mark Foley scandal, which did political damage to the Republican Party in 2006.

Foley resigned amidst accusations of inappropriate sexual communications with young male House pages, that Boehner and Pelosi were both at some point aware of. Hastert unexpectedly resigned as well the following year.

Did John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi hear the rumor about Hastert? When? How about others from Illinois like President Obama, Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Hillary Clinton? If they knew of the rumor, why did they not speak up? Did protecting Hastert, and possibly others, have anything to do with the national political establishment’s surprisingly very muted reaction to the 2002 and subsequent Boston Globe’s bombshells on the priest sex abuse scandal.

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

MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

6/06/2015

This afternoon, priests of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis received the following message from Archbishop Nienstedt.

——————–

From:
“Wohlers, Laurie”

Subject: Statements on Charges Filed Against Archdiocese Friday

Date:
June 6, 2015 at 1:36:50 PM CDT

To:
Undisclosed recipients: ;
June 6, 2015

Dear Brothers in Christ,

The events of the past 24 hours have been disturbing to me and, I am sure, to all of you, too. We have been working cooperatively with the St. Paul Police and the Ramsey County prosecutor’s office. They had not indicated their findings to us before noon this past Friday. My staff and I will continue to work with them closely and collaboratively to meet their concerns. The Archdiocese Office of Communications will keep you informed of further developments. As we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, we acknowledge that the grace of the Holy Eucharist elevates us beyond our all too human nature so as to be united in the one Body of Christ. Let us, therefore, be one in communion and mission. Let us remain united in our prayer for one another.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

——————–

I would be the first to admit that there is little that the Archbishop could say at this moment that would propitiate my sense of indignation and outrage. At the same time, this message seems notable as much for what it doesn’t say as what it does. I am sure that many reading this would agree that what we would most like to see from the Archbishop are the simple words ‘I am sorry’.

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