ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Larry Altman, Daily Breeze
POSTED: 06/03/15

A South Bay assistant basketball coach recently named head coach of the girls team at West High School in Torrance was arrested today on suspicion of raping one of his former players, police said.

Timothy Lucas, 32, of Cypress was taken into custody at Manhattan Beach Middle School, where he worked as an instructional assistant, police and school officials said.

Detectives released few details of the allegations against Lucas, but said the forcible rape occurred at a Hermosa Beach residence about 18 months ago. …

According to police, Lucas is a girls basketball coach who worked for several South Bay schools, including Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Manhattan Beach Middle School and Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance.

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UNITED STATES
Truthdig

Posted on Jun 3, 2015

By The Rev. Madison Shockley

Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, is to Washington what many a pedophile priest has been to the Vatican: an accused sexual predator who is treated as if he deserves more protection than his alleged victims.

An FBI indictment issued last week says that “in or about 2010,” Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to a person known only as “Individual A” to cover up unspecified misconduct that had occurred years earlier. Though there are few clues in the indictment itself, several major news outlets have since reported that Individual A was a male student of Hastert’s when Hastert was still a high school teacher in Yorkville, Ill., and that the unspecified misconduct against the student was sexual. In addition, while I was writing this article, ABC News reported that a second student from the same high school made similar accusations against Hastert but did not seek compensation.

Leaving Hastert’s actual guilt or innocence aside, I am astonished that both the Washington political establishment and the press corps have consistently expressed disbelief that a person in his position could be capable of sexually abusing a child. The press has done everything possible to take the focus off of the question of child sexual abuse and to place it on Hastert’s alleged violations of banking laws—thus turning the story into a prototypical financial scandal that fits the political narrative in ways that a child sexual abuse scandal cannot.

To accept that a former speaker of the house—once one of the most powerful people in government and second in the line to succeed the president—might have sexually abused a child when he was a high school teacher is too much for some politicians and pundits. But by ignoring that dimension of the story, they do a great disservice to victims of childhood sexual abuse and to the public at large. They imply that a person who has served at the highest levels of government is incapable of such behavior—behavior that is rightly regarded as so reprehensible that perpetrators are not only exiled from the halls of power but spurned by society as a whole.

Members of the American political elite feel they are protecting the establishment by giving Hastert the benefit of the doubt, just as the Vatican and its subsidiaries have done for accused priests. But they do so by sacrificing Hastert’s alleged victims on the altar of organizational integrity. Even current House Speaker John Boehner has said: “The Denny I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the country.” This is no time to be providing character references for a man that agreed to pay millions of dollars to a former student who accused him of a sexual offense.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

04 JUNE 2015

A confessional and paintings of “saintly” monks are among items under the hammer at notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth’s former abbey this weekend.

Pictures and statues of boys, girls and cherubs are also among the nearly 600 lots for sale as the serial child abuser’s former order has been forced to sell off Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan.

The doomed home of the Nobertines in Ireland, near Ballyjamesduff, was where Smyth sheltered for years during the 1990s on the run from police in Northern Ireland.

The scandal led to the collapse of Dublin’s Fianna Fail/Labour coalition government, under then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

The abbey has since been sold for 610,000 euro to a US-based religious organisation known as Direction For Our Times.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has appointed the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Lefebvre, to be the first-instance trial judge in the case against a Lefebvrian priest who is accused of a serious crime

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY

He announced it himself during the course of a sermon at Our Lady of the Angels church in Arcadia, California, on May 10, 2015: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has appointed the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay, as first-instance judge in a case involving a Lefebvrian priest. The former Holy Office is in charge of dealing with a number of “delicta graviora”. The one that pops up most frequently, is the one involving the sexual abuse of minors. Fellay presented this as an example of the “contradictions” in the Holy See’s approach to the Fraternity.

“We are labeled now as being irregular, at best. “Irregular” means you cannot do anything, and so for example they have prohibited us from saying Mass in the churches in Rome, for the Dominican sisters who had their pilgrimage in Rome in February. They say, “No, you cannot, because you are irregular”. And these people [who] say that, were people of [Pontifical Commission] Ecclesia Dei.”

“Now, sometimes, unfortunately,” Bishop Fellay said, “also priests do silly things, and they need to be punished. And when it is very, very serious, we have to make recourse to Rome. So we do. And what does the Congregation of the Faith do? Well, they did appoint me as the judge for this case. So I was appointed by Rome, by the Congregation of the Faith, to make judgements, canonical Church judgements on some of our priests who belong to a non-existent Society for them (for Rome, Ed.). And so, once again, a beautiful contradiction indeed.”

This is not the first time the SSPX has made recourse to Rome when it comes to “delicta graviora” and dispensations from priestly obligations. What is new in this case is that the former Holy Office headed by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has decided to entrust the case to Mgr. Fellay himself, making him first-instance trial judge. An expression of attention. A sign that the path toward full communion with the Lefebvrians continues, as Archbishop Guido Pozzo confirmed in a statement to Vatican Insider. He archbishop, who is also Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, said: “The decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not imply that existing problems have been resolved, but it is a sign of benevolence and magnanimity. I see no contradiction here, but rather, a step toward reconciliation.”

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OHIO
Fox 8

JUNE 4, 2015, BY DAVE NETHERS

NORTHFIELD, Ohio- A national advocacy group for victims of sex crimes is asking Bishop Richard Lennon of the Diocese of Cleveland to formally discipline a local priest for his support of a high-profile sex offender.

Fr. Ralph Wiatrowski of St. Barnabas Church wrote a letter to Judge Richard Reinbold in April asking for leniency in the sentencing of former Nordonia Hills School Board President Steven Bittle.

Bittle pleaded guilty to child pornography charges. He also staged armed standoff with authorities outside of his Sagamore Hills home last September.

Court records reflect he had long been a member of St. Barnabas Church, where he served on the parish finance council and ministries that served children from preschool to junior high age.

In his letter to the court Fr. Wyatrowski asked judge Reinbold “for any leniency that could be shown to Mr. Bittel.” Twice in the letter, the St. Barnabas pastor asked the court not to send Bittel to prison.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

Back in 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Canada’s aboriginal peoples for Ottawa’s role in trying to “kill the Indian in the child” by removing 150,000 children to residential schools where cultural assimilation was the goal and 6,000 perished. He called it a “great harm” and vowed his support for communities that are struggling to this day to recover.

“We are now joining you on this journey,” he pledged.

Yet when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its report this week calling for a bold new era in Crown/native relations, Harper mustered little more than an indifferent shrug. He took credit in Parliament for setting up the commission. And he defended his government’s record, saying “vast amounts of money” have been earmarked for jobs, schooling, and health.

But he didn’t say a word at the commission’s closing ceremony. Unlike Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, he couldn’t bring himself to utter the words “cultural genocide.” And apart from throwing a token $1 million to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to help house its records, he didn’t endorse any of the commission’s 94 recommendations.

This was a missed opportunity to showcase Ottawa’s willingness to invest more than lip service in the new, healthier relationship the commission called for with the country’s 1.4 million indigenous people. Canadians expect better of their leadership.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

BILL CURRY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 04, 2015

The most horrific stories of abuse at residential schools may never become public as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission prepares for a legal battle this fall to block the destruction of key documents.

Even though the commission wrapped up four days of closing ceremonies this week and has released its final recommendations, it is still fighting in court to preserve sensitive transcripts of stories told by nearly 38,000 former students. But not all former students support the TRC’s position and the legal case has created unusual alliances.

Children and staff at a residential school in Fort Providence, NWT in 1921. The Canadian government funded such institutions from the 1870s to the 1990s, which saw more than 150,000 children taken from their homes.

The government of Canada is also seeking to preserve the documents, while Catholic churches and the Assembly of First Nations have expressed concern about their potential release.

At issue are the specific stories of former students who suffered sexual abuse or severe physical abuse that were told during private hearings called an Independent Assessment Process. The adjudicated hearings were set up through the same out-of-court residential schools settlement that created the commission. Former students were eligible for financial compensation based on the severity of the abuse they suffered.

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ZIMBABWE
Zimeye

The woman who took on bravery against odds to expose the preacher (who flaunted himself as God’s High Commissioner) Walter Masocha, taking on herself “the Samson mantle,” Jean Gasho, has launched a powerful charity organisation to support victimised church people. The legendary Samson of the Bible used the jaw bone of a donkey in a flash to kill one thousand men, and Jean Gasho picked up her own “jaw” to crush the injustices of the man who called himself God’s High Commissioner and everyone’s “Daddy,” and yet was no holy man at all, being soon revealed as a sex offender preying on simple minds using God’s name.

Her organisation is called JAW – Just A Woman and seeks to help female victims of religious abuse. In a statement to ZimEye.com, Jean said, “JAW is a non-profit charity organisation with a primary goal of educating and empowering women against religious and domestic abuse.

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CALIFORNIA
Mountain News

Posted: Thursday, June 4, 2015

By Glenn Barr, Reporter

A federal jury in Los Angeles returned a guilty verdict Friday against a Catholic priest, formerly assigned to a church in Lake Arrowhead, who was charged with abusive sexual conduct for groping a sleeping woman on an airline flight last Aug. 17.

Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Laura Eimiller said Father Marcelo De Jesumaria, 46, is not in custody and is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 24. He is currently free on a $15,000 bond, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Los Angeles office. Jesumaria could face a maximum two-year prison sentence

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Brew

Fern Shen June 4, 2015

After a bench conference with Circuit Court Judge Wanda K. Heard, Heather Cook and her lawyers stepped back and explained why they were in court today asking for a postponement.

“We need time to finish our investigation,” said attorney David B. Irwin. “There are some things we need to get together. . . some discovery to the state.”

Looking down at the trial table, Cook began to sign the papers waiving her right to a speedy trial when she was addressed sharply by Heard, “Ms. Cook, I need you to listen.”

“Yes, your honor,” Cook said, looking up and waiting while Heard officially informed her of her speedy trial rights. The former Episcopal bishop said she understood and resumed signing the paperwork.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC South East SA

By Kate Hill

As horrendous cases of child sexual abuse in institutions are continuing to make headlines across the nation’s media, the Victims of Crime Support Service has said the coverage can prompt ’emotional triggers’ and traumatic memories in people.

In the south east this week was Diane Newton, a Victim Support Services (VSS) counsellor working with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, who encouraged such individuals to come forward and contact the service.

VSS held forums this week in Kingston and Naracoorte to give individuals and service providers information on contacting the commission and what local support services were available for survivors of child sexual abuse.

As more sexual abuse stories emerged from the commission’s hearing this week in Ballarat, Ms Newton said the spotlight had been thrown onto a dark corner of human society.

“The public are now becoming more aware of this major issue in our society,” she said.
“This is a huge opportunity for the Australian public to be able to come forward, have support, have a voice and say ‘we need to change things’.

South east Victim Support Coordinator, Virginia Hill said a number of south east residents had come forward to contact the commission about their experiences.

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UNITED STATES
Pewsitter

By Frank Walker
Pewsitter.com

Things are looking grim and ominous for Cardinal Pell, high-level curial reformer yet famous defender of the Faith at that heresy-laden Synod on the Family. He appears to be getting the evil eye from Cardinal O’Malley, the man in charge of those caustic pro-gay professional victims who are spreading their hate from within the offices of the Church itself.

Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere writes:

External experts brought in by Pope Francis to help tackle the tiny city state’s ills are answering the papal call for openness — and infuriating some Holy See stalwarts in the process.

Over the past few months members of the pope’s commission for child protection — handpicked by Francis to help root out sex abuse in the Catholic Church — have publicly attacked a cardinal and a bishop.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | June 3, 2015

NEW YORK (RNS) Amid the national buzz over transgender celebrity Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner revealing her new female identity, a leading culture warrior in the Catholic hierarchy on Wednesday (June 3) denounced the spread of “gender ideology” and warned that it threatens the very foundation of the church’s faith.

“The clear biological fact is that a human being is born either male or female,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said at the start of an address in Manhattan at a conference aimed at promoting an older form of the Mass in Latin.

“Yet now we have the idea gaining acceptance that biological sex and one’s personal gender identity can be at variance with each other, with more and more gender identities being invented,” said Cordileone, who is the point man in the battle against gay marriage for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cordileone said a friend recently pointed out to him that a major university advertised housing “for a grand total of 14 different gender identities.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SFist

As if more confirmation were necessary, “controversial” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has again revealed himself to be a sanctimonious ass. He’s done it this time by openly mocking trans people and the LGBT community as a whole. According to the Religion News Service, Cordileone’s current target is the “gender ideology” which “threatens the very foundation of the church’s faith.”

“The clear biological fact is that a human being is born either male or female,” Cordileone said at a Manhattan conference. (He is incorrect.) And, no joke, this conference was “aimed at promoting an older form of the Mass in Latin.” Talk about bringing the church into the 21st Century.

“[N]ow we have the idea gaining acceptance that biological sex and one’s personal gender identity can be at variance with each other, with more and more gender identities being invented,” Cordileone continued. Mentioning that a friend cited a number of gender identities advertised as options for university housing, Cordileone scoffed, adding “I’m sure even more will be invented as time goes on.” That one got a hearty laugh from the audience of 200 bigoted Catholics. Of the LGBT acronym, Cordileone noted “Those initials keep getting longer and longer.”

So, for that matter, does Cordileone’s rap sheet. Most recently, the Archbishop stepped in it with a move to include “morality clauses” in the contracts of teachers and staff at Catholic high schools asking that they “affirm and believe” “homosexual relations,” birth control, and masturbation to be “gravely… intrinsically” evil. That’s gotten the Archbishop in hot holy water, most notably with 100 local catholic leaders who bought and signed a full page ad in the Chronicle this April calling on the Pope for Cordileone’s immediate removal.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Tim Harper National Affairs, Published on Thu Jun 04 2015

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper can only have one item at the top of his agenda when he visits the Vatican next week.

The prime minister must formally invite Pope Francis to travel to Canada to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in this country’s shameful residential schools era.

It is a demand of the commission and it has the backing of church leaders in this country.

Harper’s position — that he will wait for the final report of the commission later this year before reacting — looks like a bid to move this off his plate until after a federal election.

But there is no need to wait on this request.

The Roman Catholic church has often appeared to be, first and foremost, consumed with protecting the Roman Catholic church and initially church leaders here seemed headed along that same path when Justice Murray Sinclair called for an apology from Pope Francis, on Canadian soil, within a year.

They equivocated, explaining it was up to the church in Canada, not the Pope, to deal with this, that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission didn’t understand the decentralized nature of the church or the autonomous nature of the bishops, that the demand was “bold” and putting a deadline on such a gesture made it that much more difficult.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Peter Feuerherd | Jun. 4, 2015

Eugene Cullen Kennedy, a writer, psychologist, and former Maryknoll priest transformed into a lay Catholic activist, died Wednesday. He was 86.

Kennedy died in Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph, Mich., with his wife, Sara, beside him and surrounded by family.

Kennedy, retired psychology professor at Loyola University Chicago, was comfortable both inside powerful church circles — he was a confidante to the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and authored books about his friend — and on the outside, lobbying for changes about how the hierarchy handled sex abuse and other issues. Much of his retirement was spent talking to groups such as Voice of the Faithful, galvanizing lay action on church issues.

“In many ways, he was right in the middle of the church and he looked around. He also stepped to the edge and looked deeper at some aspects of the church,” said Msgr. Ken Velo, a Chicago priest, former aide to Bernardin, and friend of Kennedy’s.

In an essay for NCR, posted online in June 2002, soon before the bishops met in Dallas to chart a response to the sex abuse crisis, Kennedy blamed the scandal on the “characteristic passivity of American bishops” and warned against the secretiveness of clerical culture. He castigated what he called a “Pontius Pilate Syndrome” in the hierarchy, a “getting along by going along.”

In 2006, Kennedy told a Voice of the Faithful meeting in Long Island, N.Y., “The world of hierarchy has come to an end. Don’t fight with it. Let it disintegrate.”

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 30, 2015

Part one of a two-part series

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

THOREAU — Officials with St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School are breaking their silence about their long-simmering property dispute with the Diocese of Gallup.

It’s a dispute that was triggered when the diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and listed more than a dozen properties in Thoreau as real property that might possibly be sold to help finance the diocese’s plan of reorganization.

But from the perspective of stunned St. Bonaventure officials, that property belonged to the mission. They had been using that property for years.

Now, with a recent court order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma, mission officials have found themselves as the only Catholic school in the Gallup Diocese being ordered to participate in the diocese’s mediation meetings scheduled for June 10-11.

Chris Halter, executive director of the mission, and Cindy Howe, the mission’s office manager, spoke out about the impact of the property dispute in a series of interviews over the last week. Halter wanted local community members to understand the properties in Thoreau are not merely vacant pieces of land that have little use.

Halter and Howe asserted the Thoreau properties are being used by St. Bonaventure for its school and charitable programs, and the impact on the local Navajo community will be severely affected if St. Bonaventure either loses the land in mediation or has to pay the Diocese of Gallup to continue using the property.

“If the mission and school go away, how will it affect the community?” Halter said in an interview May 21. “What happens to 40 years of Christian service?”

Halter, who said he believes “a real injustice is being done” by having St. Bonaventure property included in the Gallup Diocese’s bankruptcy case, said the Catholic mission is “seeking justice from the courts” as it heads into mediation.

School and charitable programs

According to Halter and Howe, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School includes both its PreK-8 school and a number of charitable programs that serve surrounding Navajo communities. They said the school provides a tuition-free, private Catholic education for approximately 200 students each year, most of whom are Navajo children from low income families.

Charitable programs run by the mission, they said, include a 4,000 gallon water truck that regularly delivers mission well water to about 200 Navajo families without running water, a thrift store that provides area residents with inexpensive clothing and household items, a home rehabilitation repair service and a program that provides limited utility bill assistance to needy families.

Howe said the mission offers college scholarship assistance to former St. Bonaventure students, partners with other nonprofits and ministries to help Native families build hogans, and cooperates with law enforcement agencies in promoting the Project Safe Neighborhood program. The mission also helped build a community playground in Thoreau, Halter added, on what is now a piece of the disputed property.

In addition, Halter said the mission’s two mobile home parks in Thoreau provide low income housing for area residents.

St. Bonaventure’s annual budget is about $4 million, Halter said, with 90 percent of that money coming from private donors across the country. The remaining 10 percent, he added, comes from government funding programs for schools and small grants from churches or other organizations.

Halter said the mission and school, which he said receive no money from the Diocese of Gallup, currently employ 65 people.

Seeds of dispute

The seeds of the St. Bonaventure’s dispute were sown in a series of property title transfers over several decades. According to Halter, Phillips Uranium Corporation originally donated most of the Thoreau property to the Diocese of Gallup for St. Bonaventure’s use. Halter said the diocese later transferred the property titles over to St. Bonaventure.

However, he said, during the tenure of Robert D. O’Connell, the mission’s former executive director, the property titles were transferred back to the diocese although St. Bonaventure continued to use the land.

In a 2014 interview, O’Connell said he transferred the titles back to the diocese at the request of the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte and his chancery staff, but he did so with the knowledge of St. Bonaventure’s Board of Trustees. O’Connell said that action should have been reflected in the board minutes.

Halter, who emphasized that he respected O’Connell, said, “We do know that he transferred the titles. Under what circumstances we don’t have a clear understanding of.” Halter said all the board minutes from that time period have been located and none indicate there was discussion between O’Connell and the board about the title transfers.

Halter added he wasn’t sure how important those transfers would have ever been if the Diocese of Gallup hadn’t filed for bankruptcy. But soon after the diocese filed its Chapter 11 reorganization petition, officials at St. Bonaventure learned they were about to be pulled into the diocese’s bankruptcy case by virtue of a dispute over those oft-transferred property titles. It’s a dispute that is now heading to the mediation table.

Neither Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, nor Suzanne Hammons, the diocese’s media coordinator, responded to questions posed about the St. Bonaventure situation.

“Regarding your questions about St. Bonaventure – those issues will be addressed as part of the Chapter 11 process, so I can’t comment on them at this time,” Hammons said in an email Thursday.

Editor’s Note: On Monday, St. Bonaventure officials discuss their unsuccessful attempts to resolve the property dispute with the Diocese of Gallup and their concerns for the mission’s future.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 1, 2015

Part two of a two-part series

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

THOREAU — When the Diocese of Gallup filed for bankruptcy in November 2013, Chris Halter, the executive director of St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School, was jolted by the contents of one of the diocese’s court documents.

More specifically, from Halter’s perspective, the document featured an oversight — a “big oversight” — that threatened troubles ahead for St. Bonaventure.

It was a 120-page document signed by Gallup Bishop James S. Wall that included a number of U.S. Bankruptcy Court “schedules” that provided details about the Diocese of Gallup’s assets, debts and creditors. When Wall signed the document on Nov. 26, 2013, he declared the information was true and correct.

But for Halter and other St. Bonaventure officials, Schedule A, the schedule that listed real property owned by the diocese, featured a glaring and alarming omission.

St Bonaventure omission

Wall and his bankruptcy attorneys had listed more than a dozen properties in Thoreau as being real property owned by the Gallup Diocese. However, they neglected to note in the court document that most of the Thoreau property had been used by St. Bonaventure for decades.

“I have zero idea,” Halter said of the possible reason behind that omission. “There was no mention of St. Bonaventure.”

According to Halter, “99 percent” of the Thoreau property listed in Schedule A is being used by the nonprofit mission for its charitable work. Some of the property, he said, is being used for the mission’s tuition-free, private Catholic school that annually educates about 200 students, mostly Navajo children from low income families. Other property is used by the mission’s administrative offices, thrift store, two low income mobile home parks and a community playground. A well on the property supplies safe drinking water for the mission’s 4,000 gallon water truck to deliver to Navajo homes without running water.

In contrast, diocesan attorneys included information on Schedule A that noted other properties were being used by the Vincent de Paul Society’s Food Bank in Arizona, Gallup Catholic School in Gallup, Catholic Charities in Farmington, the San Juan Catholic Center Mission in Kirtland, and various churches and missions in New Mexico.

“It was laid out pretty clear what those properties were used for, but St. Bonaventure’s was not,” Halter said.

Legal complaint

According to Halter, St. Bonaventure’s officials wrote the diocese a letter asking diocesan attorneys to modify Schedule A to indicate the mission’s use of the property, but to his knowledge that has never happened.

“I’ve requested on numerous occasions to speak to Bishop Wall, but there has been no response,” Halter added, explaining he has made personal visits to the Gallup chancery, and unsuccessfully tried to reach the bishop through phone calls and letters. In the six years Wall has been bishop, Halter said, he only recalled the bishop visiting the mission twice, with the last visit in 2010.

St. Bonaventure did hire Albuquerque attorney Charles R. Hughson, who filed a complaint against the diocese in bankruptcy court in January 2014. Hughson argued that the Thoreau property had been given to St. Bonaventure by the diocese, and that the mission’s former chief executive had transferred the property back to the diocese without authorization.

Less than three weeks later, Hughson withdrew the complaint. That decision, Halter said, was made after diocesan attorneys cited case law regarding the mission’s possible share of litigation costs.

Neither Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, nor Suzanne Hammons, the diocese’s media coordinator, would respond to questions posed about the St. Bonaventure situation.

Ordered into mediation

The Thoreau properties became further embroiled in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case earlier this year when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma approved the diocese’s request to appraise the value of five “key properties,” including the disputed St. Bonaventure property.

And on April 27, Thuma ordered St. Bonaventure to participate in mediation with the Gallup Diocese and eight other parties June 10-11.

“I am not certain as to why we are the only Catholic School in the Diocese of Gallup that has been ordered to participate in the mediation except for the fact that we believe a real injustice is being done by having our lands included in this bankruptcy issue…” Halter said.

Halter also questioned why the Southwest Indian Foundation, another nonprofit charitable organization operating in the diocese, had not been ordered to participate. SWIF, which was founded by chancery officials, operates a successful national mail order catalog business that specializes in Native American-themed products. Bishop Wall has served on its board. In a recent court motion, diocesan attorneys asked Thuma for permission to auction off select real properties. Although the motion only includes one small piece of property in Thoreau, it leaves the door open for adding more properties in the future. That provision has left Halter and other St. Bonaventure officials worried.

Hardship for mission

Halter said mission officials are concerned the diocese will put additional Thoreau properties on the auction list, and they are also concerned the diocese may require St. Bonaventure to purchase the property it has been using for decades.

“Is it fair for us to have to buy back property that we feel are already ours?” he asked.

St. Bonaventure has purchased other property in Thoreau, Halter said, and officials have considered the expensive and difficult option of moving all the operations of the school and mission off the disputed property and onto the other property.

“This option has been discussed,” Halter said. “It is not our favorite option but is certainly within the realm of possibilities.”

Halter said any loss of the disputed property will severely affect St. Bonaventure’s school and charitable work, and any amount of money it has to contribute to the diocese’s plan of reorganization will create hardship for the mission and the people it serves.

Cindy Howe, St. Bonaventure’s office manager, echoed those concerns. She outlined a lengthy list of charitable programs that she said St. Bonaventure provides to low income Navajo families living on the eastern portion of the reservation.

“There’s a really big need on the Navajo Nation,” Howe said. “If there’s no St. Bonaventure, I don’t know where these people will go.”

“I’m hoping all this goes away one day and we’re still here,” she added.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 3

Statement by Susan Vance of Knoxville, Eastern TN SNAP leader ( 865-927-2923, 865-748-3518 cell, vancefamily1@comcast.net )

McDowell County, N.C., during a Monday morning appearance in General Sessions Court, according to Greene County Circuit Court Clerk Gail Davis Jeffers.

On Monday evening, Capt. Victor Hollifield, of the McDowell County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Department said by telephone from Marion, N.C.

We’re sad that an admitted predator priest is rubbing salt into the wounds of his victims by making yet another desperate legal move to escape responsibility for his heinous crimes by exploiting legal technicalities.

[Greeneville Sun]

Shame on Fr. William C. Casey for his latest hurtful, self-serving legal maneuver. We hope he fails and that this “Hail Mary” filing will prompt more people with information or suspicions about his crimes to step forward.

We call on every bishop who supervised Fr. Casey to publicly denounce this hurtful move, especially Knoxville Bishop Richard Stika.

Finally, we in SNAP call on other victims of Fr. Casey to come forward and help police and prosecutors keep this dangerous cleric locked up and away from kids.

We wish that Catholic officials who helped Fr. Casey conceal his crimes would be charged and convicted and that every single person who was hurt by Fr. Casey gets help. That might happen if those who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes by Casey or cover ups by Catholic officials will speak up.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

David Clohessy | Jun. 4, 2015 Examining the Crisis

In a disclosure that’s eerily reminiscent of several recent predator priest cases, an ex-police officer says that a reality TV show star lied about the extent of his son’s child sex crimes. This isn’t an isolated incident. And there’s a crucial lesson in this case for all of us.

Jim Bob Duggar is an arch-conservative former politician whose 15 minutes of fame comes from the program “19 Kids and Counting,” centered on his huge family and conservative values. As a 2002 U.S. Senate candidate in Arkansas, Jim Bob argued that “rape and incest represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes.”

Jim Bob and his family are making headlines these days because of disclosures that his son Josh had been investigated for “forcibly fondling” at least five girls. A police report indicates that Josh admitted his wrongdoing in 2002, and the following year, Jim Bob told the elders of his Baptist church about the crimes. Those elders decided to handle the situation quietly and “in house.”

So no one told the police.

Months later, Jim Bob and several church elders sat Josh down with an Arkansas state trooper who gave the young man a “very stern talk.” No official course of action was launched.

The now-ex-trooper said last week that both men told him that that Josh had molested only one girl.

This set of facts should sound familiar to NCR readers. It’s almost exactly what Kansas City Catholic officials did with the sexual images of children on a cleric’s computer: minimized how much wrongdoing the predator did and misled a police officer about it.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

The Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has finally been forced to admit that Father Anthony Bongiorno committed sexual crimes against children during his 30 years working in Melbourne parishes. Anthony Salvatore Bongiorno began training for the priesthood about 1960, aged 25, in the same trainee group as George Pell and Denis Hart, both of whom eventually became archbishops of Melbourne. In 1994, Pell (then an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne) officiated at a requiem mass for Bongiorno’s brother Sam. Bongiorno’s crimes were covered up until the mid-1990s.

A Melbourne man, “Rex”, has been awarded compensation from the Victorian Government’s Crimes Compensation Tribunal for sexual crimes committed upon him by Father Bongiorno. The tribunal, in 1997, accepted evidence that Father Bongiorno had indecently assaulted the boy repeatedly at St Ambrose’s parish in Sydney Road, Brunswick beginning in 1981-82. The compensation was for the damage that this church-related abuse caused to the victim’s adolescent development.

Bongiorno has also been investigated by the commissioner on sexual abuse for on the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, Peter O’Callaghan QC. Mr O’Callaghan accepted that Bongiorno had committed child-sex abuse while at Brunswick.

Rex’s story

Acccording to legal depositions, Rex testified that in 1981 Father Tony Bongiorno invited him to stay overnight at the Brunswick presbytery, where he shared the priest’s bed. Bongiorno touched the boy’s genitals in the bedroom and again later while showering with the boy. This genital touching continued regularly for years.

In 1985, Rex told a social worker about Bongiorno’s sexual abuse. When the Catholic diocesan office heard the complaint, it asked another priest, Father O (who was a close friend of Bongiorno from seminary days) to “investigate”. Bongiorno denied the allegation and Father O reported this orally to the archdiocese, which dropped the matter.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 1 June 2015)

For years, the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese knew that Father Peter Searson was committing sexual offences against boys, girls and women but he was allowed to continue in parishes, including at the Doveton parish (in Melbourne’s south-east), where he survived for years under the supervision of the regional bishop for the south-eastern suburbs, Auxiliary Bishop George Pell. The Victoria Police investigated Searson for sexual offences in parishes but found it difficult to extract evidence from “loyal” church people. Eventually, after 35 years as a priest, when Searson’s record was about to become public, the church authorities dumped Searson from parish work. Later, hoping to protect the church’s public image, the church also removed his name from the published list of retired priests.

Originally a Marist Brother

Broken Rites research has ascertained that Peter Lloyd Searson was born on 4 April 1923 in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was a pupil at Sacred Heart College, a Marist Brothers school in Somerton Park. He was recruited to become a Marist Brother, and he adopted the “religious” name “Brother Bonaventure”. (There was a “Saint” Bonaventure in medieval Europe but Peter Lloyd Searson was certainly no saint.)

The Broken Rites research confirmed that Peter Searson’s name is included in a list of Marist Brothers who entered the Melbourne province of this religious order. (The Melbourne province provided Marists for South Australia and Western Australia, as well for Victoria.)

In the 1950s, Brother Bonaventure Searson taught at a Marist Brothers college in Mount Gambier, South Australia. A former Mount Gambier student, born in 1942, told Broken Rites in 2002 that he was a boarder at the school in the 1950s. Brother Bonaventure, he said, had a fetish for strapping students on their naked buttocks.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 1 June 2015)

One of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests, Father Kevin O’Donnell, committed sexual crimes against children throughout his 50-year career in Melbourne Catholic parishes while his superiors and colleagues looked the other way. In his final years, he even received public praise from one of his superiors, Bishop (later Cardinal) George Pell (see further down in this article, under the sub-heading “Praise from George Pell”). Eventually some of O’Donnell’s victims (with help from Broken Rites) contacted the police and got O’Donnell convicted and jailed. Cardinal George Pell has some explaining to do about how the church covered up for Father Kevin O’Donnell.

O’Donnell is dead but his numerous victims — and their families — still bear the scars of his crimes.

Father Kevin O’Donnell was a child abuser from 1942 to 1992. He fitted Masses, weddings and funerals in between his sex-abuse activities.

The Catholic Church now admits that O’Donnell was a child-abuser from day one. Broken Rites has seen a typed transcript of an interview that Mr Peter O’Callaghan QC (sex-abuse commissioner for the Melbourne archdiocese) had with an O’Donnell victim on 23 March 2003. In the transcript, Mr O’Callaghan commented that O’Donnell was engaged in sex abuse from the time he was ordained — and (said Mr O’Callaghan) he did it in every parish he was in.

During his career, the Melbourne church authorities were told of O’Donnell’s crimes but chose to keep him in the ministry, thus inflicting him on further victims. Some of O’Donnell’s fellow-priests knew that he was a danger to children but they remained silent. Certain other priests, when consulted by O’Donnell victims, just “didn’t want to know about it”.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 4 June 2015)

Broken Rites has forced the Catholic Church to admit that it protected one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests, Monsignor John Day, for many years while he was committing sexual crimes against children. At one stage, Monsignor Day had another criminal priest, Father Gerald Ridsdale, working under him. One church leader — Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, of the Ballarat diocese — spoke in defence of Monsignor Day. And a eulogy of Monsignor Day was published in the diocese’s magazine (about this time, Father George Pell became editor of this magazine).

Monsignor John Day was a senior priest of the vast Ballarat Diocese, which covers western Victoria, extending from the city of Mildura (on the New South Wales border in the north-west) to the city of Warrnambool (on the coast in the south). Ballarat is merely the town where the bishop lives. The major part of Monsignor Day’s career was spent in Mildura (Sacred Heart parish), from 1957 to 1972. Mildura was an important parish and Day was promoted to the rank of Monsignor — one rung below a bishop.

When Broken Rites established its national telephone hotline in September 1993, one of the first calls we received was about Monsignor John Day. Now, years later, we are still receiving occasional calls and emails about him.

In late 1993, Broken Rites began researching Monsignor Day. Our investigation led us to a former Victoria Police detective, Denis Ryan, who worked in Mildura in 1962-72. Broken Rites discovered that, in 1971, after Day had been in Mildura for 15 years, Detective Ryan gathered 16 sworn written statements, from 14 boys and two girls at Mildura, detailing how Day had committed sexual offences against them during the 1960s. The offences included buggery, attempted buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency. Parishioners and police notified Day’s boss, Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, in 1971-2 about this evidence. But Mulkearns denied that there was any substance in the allegations against Day and he retained Day in the ministry. Thus, the Ballarat diocese managed to keep the lid on the Monsignor Day scandal for two decades … until Broken Rites ended the cover-up.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Matt Coker Thu., Jun. 4 2015

An author and speaker who has appeared several times in OC Weekly and on ocweekly.com for her tireless advocacy on behalf of young sexual abuse victims–and who was herself molested years ago by a choir director at Mater Dei Catholic High School in Santa Ana–receives a well-deserved honor Friday.

Our Lady of Perpetual Protest: Joelle Casteix has spent the past five years fighting for Catholic Church sex-abuse victims. But there’s one molester she hasn’t nabbed yet: Her own

The Violence Prevention Coalition of Orange County (VPCOC) includes Joelle Casteix among its 19th annual Ambassador of Peace Awards recipients being feted starting at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Turnip Rose, 1570 Scenic Ave., Costa Mesa.

A former journalist, educator and public relations professional, Casteix has taken her own experience as a victim of child sex crimes and devoted her career to exposing abuse, advocating on behalf of survivors and spreading abuse prevention strategies for parents and communities. Since 2003, she has been the volunteer Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. That has taken her around the world to expose abusers, help victims and train families, churches and communities to raise empowered children and keep communities safe from child sexual abuse.

She is the author of The Well-Armored Child: A Parents’ Guide to Preventing Abuse and The Compassionate Response: How to Help and Empower the Adult Victim of Child Sexual Abuse. You can keep up on what she is up to at Casteix.com.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors headed by Sean O’Malley, has issued a statement in light of the fracas between Peter Saunders and Cardinal George Pell

IACOPO SCARAMUZZI
VATICAN CITY

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors headed by US cardinal Sean O’Malley, has intervened with a statement in light of the recent clash between Peter Saunders, a member of the Commission who was abused by a paedophile priest when he was a child and Australian cardinal George Pell, Secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.

Speaking on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes Australia programme, Saunders accused Pell of showing indifference to the victims of a paedophile priest in Australia when he was a young priest, even going as far as to define Pell’s attitude “sociopathic” and expressing the hope that the Pope would remove him from his Vatican role. The prelate – who will be giving evidence at a hearing before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Child Sex Abuse after already speaking in a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria – was defensive in his response: he stressed that he never covered up any complaints made against paedophile priests and said he would resort to legal action. The Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi also issued a comment, saying that the statement made in recent days by Cardinal Pell in response to the accusations made by the Australian Commission, was “worthy of respect and attention”. The Vatican spokesman added that the statements made by Saunders “were clearly entirely personal and were not made on behalf of the Commission”. Now, the Commission Saunders is a member of has also expressed itself.

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MICHIGAN
Upper Michigans Source

by Aaron Boehm

MARQUETTE — In 2014, the Catholic Diocese of Marquette was again found to be in compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

This charter was adopted by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002 to address the problem of child and youth sexual abuse by clergy. StoneBridge Business Partners of Rochester, New York conducted the audit of the diocese’s compliance with the Charter. During the audit period of July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014, 2600 children and youth received training in safe environment awareness in diocesan Catholic schools and parishes.

In addition, 356 diocesan, parish and Catholic school employees and volunteers from throughout the U.P. were trained in the prevention of child and youth sexual abuse, bringing the total number of adults trained since 2002 to 4,000. Currently, the diocese rechecks the background of every priest, religious, employee and volunteer every three years.

Bishop John Doerfler said, “Since the audits first began in 2003, the Diocese of Marquette has been found to be in compliance with the Charter year after year, which underscores our commitment to keeping children safe. To extend Christ’s love and healing, I am open to meeting with those who have been harmed by clergy sexual abuse of minors.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

JUNE 05, 2015 1

Verity Edwards
Reporter
Adelaide

Serious failings by St Ann’s ­Special School in South Australia, police and the Catholic Church have been found by a royal commission inquiring into the sexual abuse of intellectually disabled students.

The findings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concern a school bus driver who repeatedly abused several disabled children in the 1980s.

Brian Perkins was convicted in 2003 of five sexual offences against three students at St Ann’s and sentenced to 10 years, but later died in jail.

Perkins worked at the southern suburbs Adelaide school ­between 1986 and 1991 and was responsible for driving children with intellectual disabilities to and from school.

Many were unable to communicate with their parents and tell them they had been abused by Perkins.

The royal commission found complaints were made about Perkins in 1991, when police found pornographic photos of the students at his home, but he was not convicted for more than a decade.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

By Mark Sullivan
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted Jun. 3, 2015

ASHLAND – A church whose members allegedly were targeted in a $3.5 million Ponzi scheme run by a former elder of the congregation says it is encouraging members who “may have fallen victim” to assist in the investigation.

Charles L. Erickson, former director of MetroWest Ministries in Ashland, is alleged to have bilked investors of millions in a pyramid investment scheme he claimed was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

A complaint filed by the securities division of the Massachusetts secretary of state’s office charges Mr. Erickson defrauded at least 25 investors, about a third of them recruited from his Ashland congregation.

The Connect Community Church in Ashland released the following statement:

“Five months ago, one of the members of the church, Charles Erickson, resigned his membership in the church acknowledging that he had deceived several members in a commodities investment scheme.

“The Board of Elders has removed Mr. Erickson from his position as an elder as the result of his actions.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 4

For more information: David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org ), Barbara Blaine ( 312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org )

Church staff help sex offender
Victims denounce their letters
Bishop should reprimand pastor, group says
SNAP: “He should visit parish & educate his flock”

At least ten staff, volunteers or members of a Cleveland Catholic church wrote a judge seeking a shorter prison term for a convicted child sex offender who brandished a gun at a police officer. A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Cleveland’s top Catholic official to visit the parish and discipline the pastor.

The controversy stems from a March guilty plea on child sex charges by Steve Bittel, an active parishioner at St. Barnabas church in Northfield. An investigation revealed that most of the 67 videos found on Bittel’s computer featured children between 3 and 16 years old. Of the 67 files found, one of the files downloaded to Bittel’s IP address is described in court records as a five-minute video of a “slightly pubescent girl” undressing and performing sex acts on herself, according to Stow Municipal Court records.

More than 25 of Bittel’s relatives, friends and fellow Catholics wrote to Judge Richard Reinbold urging leniency for him before his sentencing. Among them were ten individuals with ties to St. Barnabas parish, including its pastor.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are asking Bishop Richard Lennon to go to the church this weekend, reprimand the pastor and “tell your flock that it’s wrong, reckless and hurtful to help a predator get back out on the streets sooner.”

In a letter to Lennon, SNAP says he has “a duty to put the safety of innocent kids above the wishes of misguided adults and to make sure that church members and staff do so too.”

“School and church officials should always put the safety of the innocent above the preferences of their friends. Helping sex offenders get shorter sentences is hurtful and irresponsible,” said Judy Jones of SNAP.

“When officials write letters urging lighter punishments for sex offenders, they are being selfish and short-sighted and they rub even more salt into the already deep and usually still fresh wounds of victims and their loved ones,” said Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP’s outreach director. “And it’s not enough for Lennon or another church official to say ‘We’re sorry.’ The only way to prevent these misdeeds in the future is for Lennon to punish the pastor.”

Those writing to the judge on Bittel’s behalf include St. Barnabas pastor Fr. Ralph Wiatrowski and others associated with the parish: James Vinson, John Marion, Nancy Zajac, Toni Zobel, Luella Merecki, Bob and Annette Fischer, and Thomas and Kathleen Raffay.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Shepherds, shamers, and shunners: The rise of church discipline in America (Part 1)

Jonathan Merritt | Jun 3, 2015

When Karen Hinkley decided to have her marriage annulled, she had no idea it would lead to a public shaming from one of the largest mega-churches in America.

After learning her husband was entangled in a decade-long child porn addiction that led to a pattern of lies and a heap of secrets, Karen decided to call it quits. But as a member of The Village Church (TVC), a congregation of more than 10,000 outside of Dallas, Texas, such action triggered formal disciplinary action that included sharing the details of her situation with their entire church body.

While no major religious polling organizations posses recent data on how many American churches utilize similar discipline procedures, many believe the number is growing, particularly among conservative congregations. As more cases come to light over time, they raise questions about the biblical basis and legal implications of such practices. Are these churches doing their best to care for their flocks or are crossing a ethical line?

Jonathan Leeman is author of “Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus” and editorial director of 9 Marks, a Washington D.C.-based ministry that believes rigorous church discipline is one of the nine central components that comprise a “biblical church.” He says that if a church member is found to be participating in unrepentant, outward, and significant sins, the congregation should enact discipline. This may include excommunication or public disclosure of their situation, but usually it only requires personally confronting the sinner.

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

The HSE raised concerns in 2012 that up to 1,000 babies may have been illegally adopted to the United States, in “a scandal that dwarfs other, more recent issues with the church and state,” according to a report in the Irish Examiner.

The warning is contained in an internal note of a teleconference that took place in October 2012 with the then head of Medical Intelligence Unit, Davida De La Harpe, and then assistant director of Children and Family Service, Phil Garland.

This suggestion was made more than two years before the discovery of a mass grave at the home, containing the bodies of 796 children, which forced the Government to launch an enquiry into all mother and baby homes in the country.

The note echoed the concerns of the principal social worker for adoption in HSE West, who had discovered “a large archive of photographs, documentation, and correspondence related to children sent for adoption in the USA,” and “documentation in relation to discharges and admissions to psychiatric institutions in the Western area”.

Letters from the home to parents were also discovered, asking for money towards the upkeep of children that had been adopted or had died by that time. The social worker compiled a list of up to 1,000 names, but claimed it was unclear “whether all these relate to the ongoing examination of the Magdalene system, or whether they relate to the adoption of children by parents, possibly in the USA”. It did note the possibility that death certificates of children were falsified in order to facilitate illegal adoption.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

DANI-ELLE DUBE, POSTMEDIA NETWORK

OTTAWA — The Truth and Reconciliation report is considered the beginning of the healing process for aboriginal survivors of Canada’s residential schools.

But for some, like Ottawa’s Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the report and its recommendations spark debate.

Postmedia Network sat down with the city’s ninth bishop to discuss his perspective on the issues surrounding the report. The responses have been edited for space.

Q: One of the recommendations in the report asks for Pope Francis to issue an apology to aboriginal Canadians on behalf of the Catholic church, despite Pope Benedict having issued one back in 2009. Do you agree with this recommendation?

A: I didn’t know there was going to be this other request from the Pope and what struck me as rather demanding in the apology is that they wanted it delivered within a year in Canada and that they wanted it to address certain things, like the spiritual abuse they suffered.

Q: Why did this particular recommendation stand out to you?

A: Because I look for things that touch the church. I know the report does say that the church for them is important, but they also asked for royal proclamation from the Queen, but don’t make the recommendation that she come to Canada and make a statement like they’re asking of the Pope.

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UNITED STATES
Politics USA

By: Jason Easley
Wednesday, June, 3rd, 2015

The Duggars interview on Fox News backfired. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar showed no remorse, claimed that they were victims of the police and media, and revealed to the world why they should never be allowed back on television.

The interview intro featured Megyn Kelly referring to Josh Duggar’s admitted child molestation as “allegations.” Megyn Kelly’s intro sounded like it came directly from the Duggars agent.

The interview began with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar repeating their press release. The Duggar parents said that they were devastated. Jim Bob said that Josh was just curious about girls, and the girls didn’t even know that he did it. (Jim Bob and Michelle are working hard to whitewash their son’s crimes.) Jim Bob said, “Looking back, we did the best we could under the circumstances.” The Duggars claimed that this happens in a lot parents’ homes. Jim Bob said, “Again, this is not rape or something like that.” …

Michelle Duggar was asked if she feared for the safety of her daughters, and she answered that they put safeguards in place, but she expressed no fear for her daughters. Jim Bob Duggar admitted that they didn’t try to protect their daughters as much as, “Josh’s heart went astray.” Jim Bob tried to explain it away again by saying that none of the girls knew about it or understood what he had done. Duggar was claiming that Josh Duggar’s child molestation was a victimless crime.

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VATICAN CITY
Zee News (India)

AFP

Vatican City: External experts brought in by Pope Francis to help tackle the tiny city state`s ills are answering the papal call for openness — and infuriating some Holy See stalwarts in the process.

Over the past few months members of the pope`s commission for child protection — handpicked by Francis to help root out sex abuse in the Catholic Church — have publicly attacked a cardinal and a bishop.

The cardinal in question is the Vatican`s finance chief George Pell, who was accused by commissioner Peter Saunders of being an “almost sociopathic” man who covered up abuse and tried to buy the silence of at least one victim.

Australian Pell, who was described by Saunders as “a massive, massive thorn in the side of Pope Francis`s papacy”, threatened legal action and was defended by the Vatican, who stressed Saunders was only expressing his personal views.

Despite the anger among red hats in the gilded corridors of Saint Peter`s, Saunders — a British child abuse victim — stood his ground and has not apologised.

The anti-paedophilia body has strong ties to survivor groups who are highly critical of the Vatican, and its members readily draw attention to the Church`s flaws, even if it embarrasses the very man who appointed them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Fr Mark Drew
posted Thursday, 4 Jun 2015

As the crucial family synod approaches, his critics could prove his greatest allies

A French journalist working on a documentary about opposition to the Pope recently asked Cardinal Raymond Burke if he was an enemy of Francis. The reply was illuminating. “Well, I certainly hope he’s not my enemy,” retorted the former head of the Vatican’s supreme court, who now occupies a largely ceremonial sinecure as patron of the Knights of Malta.

Does the Pope really have enemies? Catholics used to pray in the liturgy that he would be saved from them, but it was taken for granted then that we were referring to enemies outside the Church. There remain terror groups like ISIS that would like to harm him physically. But what might shock some Catholics is the notion that the Pope might have “enemies” inside the Church. And, as I will argue, they may actually turn out to be his greatest allies at this October’s crucial family synod.

Since the Counter-Reformation, and the definition of papal infallibility in 1870, the authority of the Roman pontiff has seemed absolute. But after the Second Vatican Council what was always a reality has become more visible: all popes encounter questioning and even opposition in implementing their policies for the governance of the Church.

Resistance is often to be found not only in the diverse reality of the wider Church, but even within what has to many appeared as the inner sanctum of absolute papal power: the Roman Curia. Benedict XVI resigned precisely because he believed that only a younger and stronger man could overcome this insidious internal foe.

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

LOUSVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Allegations of child pornography have cost a Trinity High School teacher and assistant football coach his job.

Patrick Newman will answer to the charges in court on Friday, June 5.

Federal detectives say Newman’s social media accounts contained sexually explicit videos and messages between him and a teenage boy in Texas.

Trinity sent a note home to parents, stating that neither the school nor the Archdiocese of Louisville have ever received any reports of this nature involving Newman with any of the schools where he has taught.

The letter read as follows:

WEDNESDAY, 03 JUNE 2015 09:57
June 3, 2015

Dear Parents,

We learned yesterday that Mr. Patrick Newman, a Trinity teacher, is facing criminal charges involving internet pornography with a minor, while using his home computer. Neither Trinity nor the Archdiocese of Louisville have ever received any reports of this nature regarding Mr. Newman, and there are no indications of any involvement of the schools where he has previously worked.

Based upon the complaint and Mr. Newman’s statements, he will not be returning to work in any capacity at Trinity.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Sun Chronicle

SCITUATE – Protesters occupying a closed church say they’ll continue their nearly 11-year vigil after being granted another court reprieve.

The Friends of St. Frances X. Cabrini said late Wednesday that a single justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court stayed a lower court ruling that would have forced the group to vacate the Scituate church by Friday at 5 p.m.

The group says its Appeals Court hearing is scheduled for June 10 at 11 a.m.

The group says it remains hopeful for “open and constructive dialogue” with the Boston Archdiocese, which took them to court in order to end the protest. The archdiocese has declined to comment on the ongoing legal case.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

Royal Commission findings slam St Ann’s Special School, police and church over notorious bus driver paedophile Brian Perkins

THE child-abuse royal commission has released damning findings into the response of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and SA Police over the handing of horrific child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School.

The findings, released today, found the school, police and church had failed to protect the school’s intellectually disabled children, many of whom were abused by notorious bus driver paedophile Brian Perkins.

Perkins was employed as a bus driver at the school in 1986 driving children with intellectual disabilities to and from school daily while unsupervised.

The Royal Commission report found:

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
4 JUN 2015

The sex abuse royal commission has detailed a litany of failures against a south Australian school, the police and the church over their handling of sexual abuse of disabled children.

In March last year the inquiry investigated Adelaide’s St Ann’s Special School and its bus driver, Brian Perkins, who sexually abused intellectually disabled children between 1986 and 1991.

A report by the commission into the case says police failed to issue a warrant for Perkins’ arrest in 1991, despite having information about three prior convictions, the nature of sexual allegations against him and the risk he posed of further sexual offences against children.

Despite police seizing child pornography from Perkins’ in 1993, the photos were not examined.

“The photographs strengthened the case against Mr Perkins in relation to (one victim) and revealed another offence against (another victim), a former St Ann’s student who had been in the care of Mr Perkins,” the report said.

“The failure by SAPOL to fully investigate material seized from Mr Perkins in 1993 contributed to the years of delay in bringing Mr Perkins to trial.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
WHDH

SCITUATE, Mass. (WHDH) – Parishioners of a Scituate church who have kept a constant vigil for the past 11 years have been granted another temporary reprieve.

A court order would have forced them to leave the property by Friday afternoon.

A hearing is now set for next Wednesday.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, June 04, 2015

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Evidence that An Grianán training centre and High Park Magdalene Laundry were “one and the same thing” was uncovered by the HSE in 2012 — yet An Grianán was excluded from the Magdalene redress scheme.

The revelation is contained in a memo sent from the then assistant director of the Children and Family Services, Phil Garland, to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs representative on the McAleese committee, Denis O’Sullivan, and the national director of the Children and Family Services at the HSE, Gordon Jeyes, on June 26, 2012, while the HSE was examining the laundries issue as part of the McAleese inquiry.

Mr Garland points out that the HSE had uncovered evidence that showed “quite categorically” that An Grianán and High Park Magdalene Laundry, which were on the same site in Donnybrook in Dublin, were “one and the same thing”.

He said evidence “describes the functions of the laundry and the training centres and states quite categorically that all of the girls underwent some degree of training in the laundries, in addition to other tasks of ‘housewifery’, that is cookery classes and domestic science”.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

BY JOSHUA FECHTER : JUNE 3, 2015

A former youth pastor at Second Baptist Church in Odessa pleaded guilty Tuesday to having sexual relations with an underage girl in 2009.

Under a plea deal, Robert John Weber pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony that carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and will serve 90 days in jail and 10 years deferred adjudication, Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Weber also may not serve as a pastor or be near children that aren’t his own without supervision or permission from the child’s parents or guardians, Bland said.

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UNITED STATES
Us

BY RACHEL MCRADY

Speaking out. Fox News has revealed that both Jill and Jessa Duggar will appear on their parents’ interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File, speaking as molestation victims of their older brother Josh Duggar.

During part of the interview obtained by Us Weekly, the now-pregnant Jessa reflected on her brother’s actions when he was a teen, calling them “very wrong.”

But that didn’t stop Jessa, 22, from defending Josh against those who have spoken out against him.

“I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist, some people are saying,” Jessa told Kelly. “I’m like, ‘That is so overboard and a lie really.’ I mean people get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”

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UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

By Tribune wire reports

Reality TV star Jessa Duggar told Fox News Channel on Wednesday that she was a victim of her older brother Josh Duggar, who fondled five girls when he was a teenager.

Jessa Duggar, featured like her brother in the family’s TLC series, “19 Kids and Counting,” told Fox in an interview conducted in Arkansas on Wednesday that she wanted to defend him. She said allegations he’s a child molester or pedophile are “so overboard and a lie,” Fox reported.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual mistreatment. But Jessa Duggar is speaking publicly, in an interview that Fox’s Megyn Kelly also conducted with her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. While Fox distributed Jessa Duggar’s quote Wednesday, it didn’t show it during the one-hour special about the case, with Kelly instead saying Fox would air the interviews with Jessa Duggar and her sister Jill Duggar on Friday.

The Duggar parents said Josh Duggar, who’s now 27, fondled four of his sisters and a family baby sitter when he was a teenager and confessed to them. The fondling was done over the girls’ clothes and, except in two cases, happened when the girls were asleep, Jim Bob Duggar said.

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AUSTRALIA/VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

SYDNEY — Jun 4, 2015
By KRISTEN GELINEAU and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Cardinal George Pell has been dogged for years by allegations that he mishandled the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis in his native Australia, and now the scrutiny is more intense than ever. Australia’s latest inquiry is as high-level as it gets, and since Pell is now the Vatican’s third-most-powerful official, the same can nearly be said for him.

Pell, whom Pope Francis placed in charge of the Vatican’s finances last year, is accused of creating a victims’ compensation program mainly to protect the church’s assets and of using aggressive tactics to discourage victims’ lawsuits, all while he was a bishop in Australia.

Pell is also facing accusations from earlier in his career when he was a priest and auxiliary bishop and not in the ultimate position of authority: that he ignored warnings about an abusive teacher, bribed the victim of a pedophile priest to stay silent and was part of a committee that moved that priest from parish to parish.

Pell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and defended his record on confronting the abuse scandal as archbishop of Melbourne, and later of Sydney. But the investigation by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is raising eyebrows in the Vatican, where the pope promised to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect children and care for victims.

The Vatican’s position was further complicated this week when Peter Saunders, a member of Pope Francis’ sexual abuse advisory commission, spoke out against Pell. The issue has now become so fraught that three Vatican offices have issued statements trying to limit the damage by distancing themselves from Saunders’ comments and, to some degree, what is happening Down Under.

Pell testified twice last year before the long-running Royal Commission — the highest form of investigation in Australia — and with pressure mounting, he offered to appear again. On Monday, the commission took him up on that, asking him to testify at a later date.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Pilot

By Jeremiah Dobruck
June 3, 2015

The trial for a former church volunteer accused of sexually abusing young boys will begin Monday with jury selection, an Orange County prosecutor said Wednesday.

It was unclear until this week whether the trial would be delayed while the district attorney’s office worked out getting a witness who lives out of the country to the courtroom.

Officials have secured a visa for the man and can move forward, prosecutor Heather Brown said.

The witness is one of seven people whom officials allege Christopher McKenzie, 48, sexually assaulted over more than a decade.

McKenzie is facing 24 felony charges related to child pornography and sexual abuse of minors, according to court records. He has pleaded not guilty to all 24 counts.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 4, 2015

Steve Lillebuen

Australia’s most senior Catholic clergy have been criticised for endorsing Cardinal George Pell’s handling of child sex abuse cases during the middle of the royal commission.

Seven bishops and archbishops have signed a statement backing Cardinal Pell, saying he was one of the first bishops in the world to set up a response to abuse in the church.

“He is a man of integrity who is committed to the truth and to helping others, particularly those who have been hurt or who are struggling,” said the statement, signed by two NSW bishops and five
“His style can be robust and direct; he does not wear his heart on his sleeve. But underneath he has a big heart for people.”

But Nicky Davis, from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the statement is offensive and yet another example of the church trying to protect its reputation above all other considerations.

She said clergy abuse survivors deserve far more respect from senior church leaders.

The clergy statement, which claims credit for helping survivors, may actually silence and undermine those who have been brave enough to testify, she said.

“If Australia’s bishops, including Cardinal Pell, are truly men of integrity, they would cease trying to silence survivors, and call for police to investigate every single case of clergy child sexual violation for any cover-up,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Royal Commission findings slam St Ann’s Special School, police and church over notorious bus driver paedophile Brian Perkins

POLICE REPORTER JORDANNA SCHRIEVER THE ADVERTISER JUNE 04, 2015

THE child-abuse royal commission has released damning findings into the response of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and SA Police over the handing of horrific child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School.

The findings, released today, found the school, police and church had failed to protect the school’s intellectually disabled children, many of whom were abused by notorious bus driver paedophile Brian Perkins.

Perkins was employed as a bus driver at the school in 1986 driving children with intellectual disabilities to and from school daily while unsupervised.

The Royal Commission report found:

THE school did not comply with its own policy requiring that volunteers be supervised by a registered teacher, which created further opportunities for Perkins to sexually abuse children in his care.

THE Catholic Education Office did not have a policy on respite care by employees or volunteers.

AFTER complaints were made about Perkins in 1991, police investigated and pornographic photographs of students who attended the school were found at his home. However it was not until 2003 that he was convicted of five sexual offences against three students at St Ann’s and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

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SCOTLAND
Care Appointments

The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) has today called on the Scottish National Inquiry into Historic Child Abuse to include within its remit abuse which involved churches.

CCPAS say there is a growing chorus of concern, being voiced by many survivors of abuse, that churches are being “let off the hook” in this process. This is despite them being places where abuse is just as likely to have occurred as institutions that are covered by the Inquiry, such as residential care homes and independent boarding schools.

Simon Bass, CEO of CCPAS, commented: “This serious omission is all the more surprising when one considers that there is, taking place right now, another Inquiry into abuse within institutions where churches are most definitely having to give account of their actions. This is the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which in this respect could quite easily serve as a model for Scotland.

“The Australian approach is highly relevant to the forthcoming Inquiry in Scotland, for it has since 2013 been hearing extensive evidence of incidents of abuse within institutions. These have included children’s homes and schools run by churches and other religious organisations. But it is also taking evidence of abuse perpetrated by members of the institutions of church denominations themselves – and how they have responded to those disclosures. Churches have therefore had to give evidence and explain why they acted as they did.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

4 June, 2015

The Royal Commission’s Report of Case Study no. 9 – the responses of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and the South Australian Police to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School, was released today.

The report found that a lack of requirements surrounding police checks on employees enabled a man previously convicted for sexual offences to work as a bus driver at a special school in Adelaide. This man later went on to sexually abuse children with intellectual disabilities.

St Ann’s Special School was established in 1975 and catered for 50 to 60 students with intellectual disabilities aged between five and 20 years.

In 1986 Brian Perkins was employed by the school as a bus driver. He took children with intellectual and communication disabilities to and from school each day unsupervised. He also undertook volunteer work and provided respite care for students during his employment.

A public hearing into the matter which was held in Adelaide in March 2014, examined the circumstances surrounding Mr Perkins employment and the monitoring, supervision and oversight of his activities at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A number of failings by St Ann’s Special School, the police and Catholic Church have been found by an inquiry examining the sexual abuse of a number of intellectually disabled students.

About 30 students were sexually abused by bus driver Brian Perkins in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

But it was not until 2003 that he was convicted of abusing three children.

The abuse often went unreported because most of his victims could not speak.

Perkins took children with intellectual and communication disabilities to and from school each day unsupervised from 1986 to 1991.

He also undertook volunteer work and provided respite care for students during his employment.

The commission found a lack of requirements by the school and the Catholic Education Office surrounding police checks on employees enabled Perkins’ employment.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 03 June 2015

Witch-hunts are not just a feature of the past. Justifiably, people are upset about the Catholic Church’s failures to deal with child sexual abuse.

On Monday, I was doing my best to answer questions upfront about all manner of things from Indigenous constitutional recognition to child abuse when ABC presenter Ian Henschke from Adelaide questioned my right to deliver the homily at the funeral mass for the ex-Keating Minister Bob Collins in Darwin Cathedral eight years ago. He said ‘a lot of people wonder at why you did that’.

He wanted to know if I had spoken to any of Collins’ victims. When Collins died, nothing was proved against him. No one then or since has ever approached me saying they were a victim of abuse by Collins. Henschke’s producer later defended the question as ‘appropriate within the context of the interview and the climate we find ourselves in’. The climate is one of witch-hunt.

I told Henschke’s listeners that Collins, like anyone, was entitled to Christian burial.

In my homily, I had said, ‘God alone is our judge, and God alone is Bob’s judge. This is not a day for judging Bob, his political opponents or his accusers. There have been plenty of splinters and logs in evidence these past days. Putting aside the splinters and logs, we come to the table of the Lord, all of us sinners and all of us praying, “Lord I am not worthy to receive you. Say but the word and I shall be healed.” We pray healing for all who have spoken for and against Bob these days.’

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MINNESOTA
India West

ROSEAU, Minn. — Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, a Catholic priest from India, pleaded guilty May 22 to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while serving in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota.

According to the Pioneer Press, the guilty plea comes nearly ten years after the incident occurred at his home in Greenbush, Minn.

Jeyapaul, 60, was extradited from India to the U.S. in November to face criminal charges brought in two different cases in Minnesota 9th District Court in Roseau, Minn., both alleging sexual abuse by Jeyapaul of underage female parishioners.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

Volgelingen van de Thaise monnik Mettavihari tonen zich geschokt over de omvang van het seksueel misbruik waaraan hun leraar zich schuldig heeft gemaakt. Ze zeggen overweldigd te zijn door het nieuws en de mate van het misbruik”.

Maar hoe verrassend kan het nieuws werkelijk voor hen zijn? Uit een reconstructie van de NOS blijkt dat kopstukken van het boeddhisme al begin jaren 80 over het misbruik werden geïnformeerd. Ook in een grote misbruikzaak in Middelburg werden prominente Nederlandse boeddhisten al in een vroeg stadium, in 2004, gewaarschuwd.

Rode draad in die twee zaken: de gewaarschuwde bestuurders en anderen bagatelliseerden het misbruik, keken weg en lieten afdoende maatregelen na, waardoor de verantwoordelijke monniken door konden gaan met het maken van slachtoffers.

1. Mettavihari (misbruik van 1974 tot tenminste 1992)

Eind 1980 of begin 1981 belt de politie de Buddharamatempel in Waalwijk. Bestuurslid Patrick Franssen neemt op. De politie vertelt hem dat er een melding is binnengekomen van seksueel misbruik van een minderjarige door hoofdmonnik Mettavihari.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Jun 4, 2015 by Janene Van Jaarsveldt

Buddhist authorities ignored the warnings they received in at least two cases of Buddhist monk sexual abuse, NOS reports based on a reconstruction of events.

According to the broadcaster, leaders of Buddhism were informed about the abuse committed by Thai monk Mettavihari in the early 80’s. And in the major abuse case in Middleburg, involving Gerhard Mattioli, prominent Dutch Buddhist were warned in 2004. In both cases the warned authorities and others downplayed the abuse, looked the other way and only implemented inadequate measures.

In late 1980 or early 1981 police officers visited the Buddhist temple in Waalwijk and spoke to board member Patrick Franssen. The police told him that they have received a report of sexual abuse of a minor committed by head monk Mettavihari. Franssen already had had bad experiences with Mettavihari in this area. In 1974 he had forced a 19 year old boy – at that time still legally underage – to have sex with him and, according to Franssen, it happened 40 to 50 more times in the two years that followed. Franssen decided that Mettavihari had to go and went to Chicago to report his behavior to a high priest, who in his words represented the Thai “Ministry of Religious Affairs”.

Franssen told NOS that this high priest immediately decided to replace Mettavihari with another head monk. In June 1981 Mettavihari was dismissed as president of the temple administration and replaced by Henk Barendregt. But to Franssen surprise, Barendregt allowed Mettavihari, who was his teacher, to return to the temple administration just a few months later. Barendregt was supported by Aad Verboom, president of the Foundation for Young Buddhists Netherlands, and a loyal supporter of Mettavihari. A fierce debate arose with Franssen insisting those attending the temple, Thai Dutch people, would not support a monk that is secretly not celibate and Brendregt insisting that this view is old-fashioned. According to Franssen, the fact that it involved involuntary sex with minors did not play a decisive role in the discussion. In 2015 Aad Verboom admitted that he did not believe Franssen story about the abuse and apologized for it.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN JUNE 04, 2015

Australian Archbishops write open letter to support Cardinal George Pell, a ‘man of integrity’

AUSTRALIA’s most senior Catholics have thrown their support behind Cardinal George Pell amid calls for him to step aside from his post at the Vatican.

The Cardinal was this week formally asked by the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse to appear at a second round of hearings at Ballarat later this year.

It followed damning evidence during two weeks of hearings last month that alleged the Cardinal had been involved in a widespread cover-up of child sexual abuse in Ballarat in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cardinal Pell, who denies all allegations of wrongdoing, had offered to attend the hearings before the formal request was made.

Pressure has been mounting for the Cardinal to step down from his top post at the Vatican where as the Secretariat for the Economy he controls the church’s finances.

In an open letter published yesterday five archbishops and two bishops endorsed the Cardinal as a man of integrity.

The joint-statement was signed by the Archbishops of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Canberra-Goulbourn as well as Broken Bay bishop Peter Comensoli and Sydney’s auxiliary bishop.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 4, 2015

Steve Lillebuen

Australia’s most senior Catholic clergy have endorsed George Pell’s handling of child sex abuse cases during the middle of a royal commission.

Seven Catholic bishops and archbishops have signed a statement backing Cardinal Pell, saying he was one of the first bishops in the world to set up a response to abuse in the church.

“He is a man of integrity who is committed to the truth and to helping others, particularly those who have been hurt or who are struggling,” said the statement, signed by two NSW bishops and five archbishops in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Hobart and Canberra-Goulburn.

“His style can be robust and direct; he does not wear his heart on his sleeve. But underneath he has a big heart for people.”

Cardinal Pell, who is now based at the Vatican, has been accused of trying to bribe a survivor to keep quiet and ignore the child abuse reports of another during Ballarat hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He has repeatedly denied the claims and has told the royal commission that he’s willing to return to Australia to give evidence when Ballarat hearings resume again later in the year.

The archbishops’ joint statement commended Cardinal Pell for how he’s handled criticism, saying he has acknowledged mistakes frankly, and apologised for them.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Seven prominent Catholic officials from around Australia have written an open letter endorsing Cardinal George Pell ahead of his next appearance at the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Five archbishops and two bishops signed the statement which described the former archbishop of Sydney as a “man of integrity who is committed to helping others”.

“His style can be robust and direct; he does not wear his heart on his sleeve,” the statement said.

“But underneath he has a big heart for people.”

The statement also said Cardinal Pell had previously acknowledged his mistakes and apologised for the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

“Cardinal Pell was one of the first bishops in the world to put in place a comprehensive church response to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and to provide survivors with redress and counselling,” the statement said.

“He has responded to criticisms that have been made of his handling of these matters over the years, acknowledged mistakes frankly, and apologised for them.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By DANIEL LIBON (Patch Staff)

Former Temple Israel Rabbi Barry Starr pleaded not guilty to larceny over $250 and embezzlement by a fiduciary Tuesday in Dedham Superior Court.

The former leader of the conservative Sharon temple is accused of taking nearly $500,000 from his synagogue to pay a Quincy man who was blackmailing him.

Prosecutors say that Starr altered the amount on checks written to the rabbi’s discretionary fund. Those checks were allegedly deposited by Quincy man Nicholas Zemeitus or Alexa Anderson, who use to live with Zemeitus in Milton according to the Boston Globe.

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TENNESSEE
WCYB

By Lenny Cohen, Digital Media Manager

A former East Tennessee priest wants his child sexual abuse conviction thrown out and a new trial granted.

That’s what lawyers for William Casey filed motions for in a state appeals court, Wednesday.

They claim his attorneys were ineffective during his trial, so the conviction should be overturned.

They also want the trial judge and prosecutors off the case.

In 2011, a jury convicted Casey of sexually abusing a boy while he was a priest at St. Dominic’s parish in Kingsport, nearly 40 years ago.

Casey essentially received a life sentence.

He was also convicted of similar offenses in North Carolina.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 3

Statement by Mary Caplan of Manhattan, national board member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 917-439-4187, Mcaplan682@aol.com )

We’re grateful that Bronx prosecutors are using their bully pulpit to beg possible victims of a rabbi to come forward. At the same time, we’re disappointed in synagogue officials who are selfishly acting timid and callous.

[New York Times]

Rabbi Rosenblatt of Riverdale Jewish Center is accused of taking “young congregants to a gym to play squash or racquetball and then to the shower, and, often naked, to the sauna or hot tub.” Some of the boys, now grown, said that he “gawked at their naked bodies, or would often rest a hand on a clothed leg during one-on-one nighttime chats at the rabbi’s house.”

We urge anyone with information or suspicions about Rosenblatt to call law enforcement authorities – not synagogue staff – right away.

Finally, shame on Rosenblatt for attacking his accusers and their alleged motives. We see predators doing this all the time – impugning the intentions of those who expose their misdeeds. Rosenblatt has no idea why some are accusing him and speculating about what drives them will only deter others who have seen, suspected or suffered sexual misconduct from speaking up.

Rosenblatt can defend himself without assailing others. That’s what he should do.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A bold Australian priest, noting in the UK Tablet that Catholics are humiliated by priests’ sins being revealed at the Royal Commission, has acknowledged “It’s hard being a Catholic today; it’s hard being a Catholic priest today…”. Fr. Peter Daly sadly adds, “Indeed, such is the extent of the crisis that in some circles priest and paedophile have become interchangeable words.”

The head of the Australian bishops conference, Archbishop Philip Wilson, is under indictment with an alleged priest child abuse cover up charge, while Australia’s lone cardinal, George Pell, shamefully publicly threatens legal action against an abuse survivor, Peter Saunders, selected by the pope to advise him. What a mess!

Daly’s prohetic, and yet perceptive and sensible, if not urgent suggestion, is (in italics): ” … I suggest, then, that our Pope consider convening an Ecumenical Council of the Church – Vatican III – in which the “hired men” culture is addressed and called to account, victims are afforded a voice, a collective wisdom is given room to breathe and act, and the “feminine genius”, the voice of women, is given a central role.

It is better for a man, for a church, to roam the streets destitute, foraging for the bread of truth, than to roam the corridors of power feasting on privileges and food that does not last. Ours is a profound responsibility: to humbly and gently walk alongside others, especially the most vulnerable, no matter the cost. …”

That’s what it means to be a truly Catholic Church.”

Pope Francis likely knows well by now that his current Vatican reform strategy needs some major redirection. The pope’s (1) well publicized Curia shaming and reshuffling, (2) limited financial management makeover, (3) clerically dominated Family Synods, and (4) slow moving abuse commission, as presently structured, cannot likely stop the Catholic Church from sinking further and faster in the escalating tsunami of scandals. That seems clear enough.

Moreover, the pope has yet even to address publicly the most needed structural “fix” — establishing transparent procedures for the selection and oversight of the 0.01% Church leadership by the worldwide Catholic 99.9% faithful. As presently planned, the Final Synod will not even discuss this key reform, which is absolutely required to avoid more scandals under future popes.

Importantly, informed Vatican journalist, Robert Mickens, had recently reported on a “rumor” that some experts at pontifical universities in Rome have been “asked to quietly prepare preliminary documents for an ecumenical council to be called during or after the 2015 Synod.”

While Mickens understandably appeared skeptical, this rumor makes a lot of sense. Pope Francis may have no strategic choice at his Final Synod in four months but to call in for a full ecumenical council, as Pope John XXIII did over half a century ago, to keep Francis’ reform effort alive as he begins his eightieth year. After the flawed Synods, a council with a broad and representative participation of lay Catholics, female and male, will likely be Pope Francis’ final chance to save the Catholic Church and to compel his successor to follow Francis’ lead. It is also how the Catholic Church resolved many earlier crises.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

June 3, 2015

After 88 years of staffing Affton’s Seven Holy Fathers parish, a religious order known as the Servites are pulling out because their numbers are declining.

Fr. John Brennell, an archdiocesan priest, is now the pastor. Records about abusive Servite priests – and clerics from two other religious orders that operate here, the Carmelites and the Redemptorists – were recently released in California

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

MEDIA RELEASE

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

WHAT
A demonstration and leafleting at a New York City Catholic girls’ high school graduation (Notre Dame School) alerting the families of graduates, faculty and staff, and the general public of the re-victimization of a sexual abuse victim who is an alumna of the school, former teacher at the school, and former nun

WHERE
On the public sidewalk outside The Cooper Union, 30 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003 where the Notre Dame School graduation will be held

WHEN
Thursday, June 4, 2015 from 5:00 PM until 6:30 PM

WHO
Cecilia Springer, an 84 year-old alumna of Notre Dame School, Class of 1948, who was approximately 14 years of age and a sophomore at Notre Dame School when the Principal of the school, a nun, sexually abused her; Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families; and other supporters

WHY
Cecilia Springer became a Sister of St. Ursula following graduation from college in spite of the fact that she was sexually abused by a nun, Sister Mary Andrew (aka Sr. Frances Doyle, SU) when Cecilia Springer was a high school sophomore at Notre Dame School in Manhattan. She left the Sisters of St. Ursula many years later after it became unbearable for her to remain in a religious order of women which tolerated her sexual abuse at her alma mater, Notre Dame School. After being interviewed by representatives of the school and religious order, the Sisters of St. Ursula and Notre Dame School refused to offer her any assistance that will allow her to live a decent life as a senior citizen and allow her to try to heal. They refused to believe Cecilia Springer’s credible allegations. Cecilia Springer and her supporters will call on Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula to do the right thing by acknowledging that Cecilia Springer is a sexual abuse victim of Sr. Mary Andrew, apologizing for what happened to her, and assisting her to live a life that is more free of worry and directed toward healing.

CONTACTS

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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AUSTRALIA
The Morning Bulletin

Lisa Benoit | 4th Jun 2015

MELISSA Davey’s job is to help victims of abuse in the Catholic Church system tell their story and begin the healing process.

The pastoral response co-ordinator for the Rockhampton Diocese yesterday spoke about the immense courage displayed by victims of abuse to come forward.

She said it was vital these people knew there was support for them.

“This role gives that opportunity for people to start the process of healing, ongoing healing and reconciliation,” she said.

Catholic Bishop Michael McCarthy, who has been in the top role for just over a year, said the church had taken steps to ensure the church’s dark history of sexual abuse was never repeated.

He appointed Ms Davey to the position in September last year before the Royal Commission held a public hearing, in April, into child sex abuse in Rockhampton.

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UNITED STATES
San Jose Mercury News

[with video]

Compiled by Martha Ross

A 15-year-old Josh Duggar confessed to molesting his 5-year-old sister while he held her on his lap and read her stories, according to a newly released police report obtained by In Touch Weekly.

The 2006 report also provides other new details about how his reality TV star parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of TLC’s “19 and Counting,” failed to alert authorities for more than a year that their oldest son had inappropriately touched his sisters and a family friend, said the New York Daily News.

The new information comes the same day that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar will address the allegations in a pre-taped interview with Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly, airing 6 p.m. tonight.

“We will sit down with Megyn Kelly on Fox to share our hearts with you about the pain that we walked through as a family 12 years ago, the tears we all shed and the forgiveness that was given,” the Duggars posted on their website.

Kelly said the interview is the Duggars’ attempt to save their show, according to Deadline Hollywood. TLC pulled repeats of the show from its lineup as 20 of its sponsors lined up to say they would not advertise on the program.

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TEXAS
Norwalk Reflector

Aracely Meza claimed to perform miracles. The Balch Springs pastor said on her website and to her neighbors that God had helped her heal the sick, return movement to a paralyzed man and make her daughter grow instantly taller — one leg at a time.

But on March 22, Meza would later admit to police, her supposed supernatural powers failed. In a ceremony, Meza tried unsuccessfully to resurrect a 2-year-old boy who died after she ordered food withheld from him for 25 days until he looked like an “alien” because he “had demons,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The boy and his parents were among eight adults and six children who authorities said lived in Meza’s home-based church, Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Rey located in Balch Springs.

Five children, ages one to 13, from “several families,” were moved from the home into foster care following Meza’s arrest, Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said Wednesday.

The agency was not previously involved with the household and is assisting in the search for the boy’s body and the parents, Gonzales said.

The dead boy’s parents wrapped him in a blanket and took him to Mexico for burial, church members who lived in the house told police. On Wednesday, local police and Mexican authorities continued searching for the boy’s body and his parents.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 29, 2015

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

GALLUP — Local Catholics from Gallup’s St. John Vianney’s Parish are frustrated that their own bishop will not talk with them.

They had hoped Bishop James S. Wall or the Rev. Kevin Finnegan, the current diocesan chancellor and vicar general, would meet with them Wednesday evening to discuss the bishop’s recent controversial decisions regarding their parish and the reasoning behind those decisions.

However, according to Bryan Wall, a parishioner and a former Gallup city councilor, the bishop and Finnegan ignored the meeting request, so the media was invited instead. Bryan Wall, who is not related to the bishop, has been serving as the chairman of an informal group of concerned parishioners. He said he tried to contact Bishop Wall through a personal visit to the Gallup chancery, two phone calls and two letters.

Because the group did not have permission to use the parish hall, about two dozen church members gathered at a local restaurant for a 90 minute meeting that opened and closed with prayer.

“I’m very disappointed with the bishop on this,” parishioner Gene Pacheco said during Wednesday’s meeting. Pacheco, a longtime Gallup businessman and Gallup’s Senior of the Year, has served as a vice chairman of the parishioners’ group.

“Just meet with us, we’re people … ,” parishioner Kathy Schmitt agreed. “You know, Jesus was accessible.”

“It is, from my perspective, it is wrong for the bishop not to speak,” parishioner Emilio Barriga told the group. As Bishop Wall is the spiritual shepherd of the Gallup Diocese, Barriga added, his refusal to speak with his sheep, his own Catholic people, causes dissention in the Church.

Public Outcry

The parish controversy erupted on Mother’s Day weekend when it was announced that Bishop Wall was immediately transferring the church’s popular pastor, the Rev. James E. Walker, to Bloomfield to replace the Rev. Bob Mathieu, who had resigned from ministry because of inappropriate use of social media. It was also announced that the church would be reduced to just a chapel, with only two weekly Masses, no religious education program, no resident priest, and the loss of some sacraments like baptism and marriage.

A public outcry, including the formation of the parishioners’ group, resulted in Bishop Wall reversing some of those decisions. Walker was still transferred, much to the dismay of his congregation, but it was announced the parish would not be reduced to a chapel, and most of the weekly Masses and religious education programs for children would continue. The fate of sacraments offered in the church has not been decided.

Finnegan has now been appointed pastor of St. John Vianney. His announced decision to replace youth altar servers with adult volunteers continues to be controversial.

Chancery’s Response

Suzanne Hammons, the diocesan media coordinator, was asked Thursday why Bishop Wall or Finnegan did not agree to meet with parishioners. She was also asked why Bishop Wall does not respond to emails, letters, phone calls and requests for meetings from Catholics in the Gallup Diocese.

Hammons, who said she sympathized with the parishioners because she also attends St. John Vianney, did not answer either question. Instead, she said Finnegan “has spoken directly to several parishioners” about their concerns.

“Once again, we welcome anyone to come to us directly – we do wish to address their concerns, but cannot productively do so through a newspaper article,” she added.

Closure Fears

Eddie Ward, another vice chairman of the parishioners’ group, said church members are relieved the parish will continue as an active church. However, he admitted many parishioners are concerned that chancery officials may still close St. John Vianney in the future.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re doing it gradually,” said parishioner Norma Jean Jones, who questioned the purpose of the meeting since Bishop Wall wasn’t there to answer questions.

If the bishop had agreed to meet with church members, parishioner Richard Schmitt said, he would have asked the bishop what more can they do to keep the parish going.

“But he won’t talk to us,” Schmitt said. “I wish they’d just give us a reason for these decisions.”

Ward’s wife, Anna, who described herself as “a Catholic for 80 years,” said she felt somewhat assured after Finnegan celebrated his first Mass but is still concerned about a possible closure.

“We don’t want a chapel,” she said. “We want our little church.”

Since the initial announcement, a number of local Catholics have expressed the fear that St. John Vianney will be closed eventually as a tactic to force parishioners into attending the bishop’s more conservative Cathedral.

Devastated Reaction

When asked about Finnegan’s decision to eliminate youth altar servers, Ward said he wanted to know from Finnegan if the decision was related to Finnegan’s physical disabilities or was rooted in other reasons.

Two fathers from the parish, however, shared how the decision has impacted their families.

Barriga, who said he had been an altar boy as a youth, said his own son was personally hurt by the announcement. According to Barriga, his son has been volunteering as an altar server and interpreted the announcement as meaning he was no longer wanted at the parish. Barriga said he is willing to be an adult altar server for Finnegan, but with his son at his side.

“If you don’t want my son up there, then I’m not going to be up there,” Barriga said.

Duane Casias said he and his wife have encouraged their 17year-old to serve as a reader at the parish and have encouraged their younger son to consider being an altar server.

“We were so devastated,” Casias said of his family’s reaction to the Mother’s Day announcement. A week later, he said, they experienced another blow when they heard Finnegan wanted to eliminate youth servers.

“What is this saying to our children?” an emotional Casias said. “You’re not needed.”

Barriga, who referred to his military background, said he understood the importance of following a chain of command. However, he compared the sometimes authoritarian actions of Catholic bishops to military generals who expect blind obedience.

“They failed us,” Barriga said of Gallup’s chancery officials. “Not because of what they did, but because of what they didn’t do.”

Barriga encouraged others in the group to be articulate and intelligent as they continue to try to communicate their concerns to chancery officials.

“The most important thing people need to do is keep praying,” Barriga said, adding parishioners should follow Jesus’ example of showing love and kindness to those who treat them unfairly.

“We would if we could see them,” Kathy Schmitt replied.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

03 June 2015 by Fr Peter Day

This past couple of weeks the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia has shone yet more light on the terrible abuse committed by church leaders; this time in Ballarat, Victoria. It’s enough to bring a man to his knees.

The public hearings have revealed some gut-wrenching personal accounts: stories of young people (and their families) crippled by sexual abuse; stories of utter betrayal; stories we would rather not hear – stories we must hear.

It’s hard being a Catholic today; it’s hard being a Catholic priest today.

Indeed, such is the extent of the crisis that in some circles priest and paedophile have become interchangeable words. It is as if we have moved from an unhealthy, “A priest would never do that”, to a just as unhealthy, “He’s a priest, so he probably did do that.”

The following question in a letter in The Weekend Australian epitomises this collapse in trust: “Are there any parents with young children who still take them to church? If so, can they explain why?”
Our collective shame is deep because good people are being condemned by association.
But we must not fall prey to self-pity because, we are not nearly as innocent, or as damaged, as the children who are only now being given a voice.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
03 JUN 2015

The lawyer for a Pennsylvania youth pastor who has been charged with rape suggested this week that the underage victim may have been lying because she consented to sex on other occasions.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, court documents filed against 31-year-old Daniel Allen Jack of Amplify Church alleged that the youth pastor first met the victim in December 2014 when she joined the church youth group.

By January, Jack was using text messages to gain the trust of the girl, the complaint alleged. And he created fake identities on Google and gave her a second cell phone so the two could talk privately.

Before Easter, Jack was said to have taken to girl to his parents’ home, where he suggested that the two should have sex. But when he started kissing and touching her, she cried and refused to cooperate, the complaint said.

When she refused to have sex with Jack again, he allegedly held her on the floor and forcibly raped her.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis can no longer project to the world an image that is merely a mix of a winning smile, sound bites and Tweets, public relations photo ops, media focused trips and vague pronouncements on capitalism and climate change, all seemingly amplified by outlets of opportunistic billionaires like Rupert Murdoch that appear to need papal support with fundamentalist voters to elect ‘low tax” politicians.

Reality has overtaken the pope’s non-stop 24/7 image making. The pope’s meager two year record makes clear that protecting children from abusive priests and their complicit bishops, and administering justice to abuse survivors, were always and still are much lower priorities than protecting cardinals from prosecutors and Vatican wealth from survivors’ lawyers.

Francis has failed spectacularly as pope, as he did in Argentina as cardinal, to protect children from abusers and to give justice to survivors. He is continuing to fail to meet this top challenge, as two current events confirm.

The pope has now let his top adviser, Cardinal George Pell, use public legal threats to bully prophetic Peter Saunders. The pope himself, after an intensive one one one private meeting, selected Saunders as his personal choice as an abuse survivor member of the pope’s farcical “go slow and lightly” priest child abuse commission. The pope must now, out of basic human decency, stand by his choice of Peter Saunders, who has already suffered too much from clerical abuse. Instead, the Jesuit pope and his Jesuit mouthpiece, Fr. Lombardi, have shamefully failed to do so.

The pope has also let his Archbishop of Milwaukee continue to behave with cruelty to abuse survivors, including some of the 200 deaf victims sexually abused as children by a single priest, as Fr. Tom Doyle recently noted here. The Archbishop reportedly continues, in effect, to dissipate scarce resources on his lawyers’ stonewalling efforts over the $50+ million of Archdiocesan cash that the Vatican let Cardinal Timothy Dolan earlier bury in a cemetery trust, evidently to make it unavailable for desperate survivors’ just claims.

The pope could likely with a phone call order the Archbishop to restore the funds to the Archdiocese’s regular assets, but he has failed to do this. Instead, the pope utilizes his limited time on meeting with the Harlem Globetrotters, the passengers of the “Children’s Train” , and even Pentecostal pastors in advance of next year’s US presidential election for which the pope is evidently allying the Vatican and his US bishops with US evangelicals to elect a “Vatican friendlier” US Republican president.

Now, the Vatican’s top clerical expert on the pope’s abuse commission with Saunders, Jesuit Hans Zollner, has confirmed that currently there is no canonical recourse to hold accountable local bishops who cover-up sexual abuse in their diocese. After years of Vatican “zero tolerance bulloney”, the pope should be ashamed over his lack of serious efforts to curtail priest sexual abuse by making bishops accountable — the only way this stain on the Church can be eradicated.

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UNITED STATES
International Business Times

By Caitlyn Hitt

Even more disturbing details have emerged surrounding the Josh Duggar molestation scandal. New reports reveal the nature of the “19 Kids and Counting” reality star’s crimes as well as just how many times his alleged behavior occurred.

According to a police report, issued by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas and obtained by In Touch, Josh, now 27, had inappropriately touched five underraged girls on several occasions between 2002 and 2003. The report reveals that Josh “had just turned 14” when he first went to his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, about his behavior. The eldest Duggar child reportedly admitted that he “had been touching [redacted, his sisters] on the breasts and vaginal areas” as they slept. He claimed this “occurred four to five times.” Josh also said he once “fondled” the breasts of a close family friend who had been sleeping on the family’s couch.

Josh’s behavior was not limited to sleeping victims. According to the police report, he groped one of his sisters as she sat in his lap reading in March 2013. At the time, Josh’s sister was reportedly 5 years old. The young girl, whose name had been redacted from the document, went to Jim Bob, who is referred to by his legal name, James, in the report, and Michelle following the incident.

“James said that [redacted] was reading to his 5 year old sister and as she was sitting on his lap, he had touched her breasts and vaginal areas. James said that [redacted] then ran out of the room and called him and told him what he had done,” reads the police report.

Rather than report the crime, the “19 Kids and Counting” stars sent Josh to a Christian program where he was forced to do manual labor. It wasn’t until nearly 16 months after the initial confession that the now-famous reality TV parents got Josh and his victims into counseling. It remains unclear if the counseling was by choice or court ordered. Legal sources claim Jim Bob and Michelle could face jail time for their failure to take action after learning about the abuse.

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RHODE ISLAND
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Providence RI diocese, ordained in 1978, Barry Meehan worked in parishes in West Warwick, Cranston, and Providence. In December 2012 a man reported to the diocese that Meehan had sexually assaulted him between 1986 and 1991, when the man was a teenage boy. State Police were notified; during their investigation a second accuser was discovered who said Meehan sexually abused him when he was a teenager in 1991 and 1992. Meehan was placed on leave in January 2013. He denied the allegations. In November 2014 he was arrested and charged with five counts of first degree sexual assault; he pleaded not guilty. Meehan was laicized May 7, 2015.

Ordained: June 10, 1978
Laicized: May 7, 2015

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

The Bronx District Attorney’s Bureau on Child Abuse and Sex Crimes has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center.

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the president of the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, writes:

I am sad to send this out, but protecting our children and those vulnerable is paramount. It is important to aid the authorities in any way we can.

The Bronx County District Attorney Bureau on Child Abuse and Sex Crimes is investigating the story and stories in The New York Times article about Rabbi [Jonathan] Rosenblatt. Individuals with pertinent information to the investigation are asked to call (718) 838 7382, a dedicated line for this investigation, to speak with an Assistant District Attorney on a team handling the case. Please reach out even if you would like to remain anonymous and not have your name on the record, as they are in an information gathering phase at this point. Please also do so even if you believe your experience lies outside a statute of limitations as any information on patterns of behavior can be useful.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Week reported that leading RJC members tried to organize a buyout of Rosenblatt’s contract three years ago over his alleged ogling of nude boys and young men, but Rosenblatt insisted he had done nothing wrong and would not take it. And Rosenblatt’s wife, an attorney, threatened to sue the RJC if it fired her husband or did anything to shame him or hurt his employment.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

Wed, 06/03/2015
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor and Publisher

Three years ago several prominent members of the Riverdale Jewish Center (RJC), the 700-member Modern Orthodox congregation, met privately with their longtime rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, and offered to arrange a generous buyout for him. They told him that the persistent rumors about his allegedly inappropriate behavior with boys and young men were bound to become public at some point and it would be in his and his family’s best interest, and for the congregation as well, if he accepted an offer to resign quietly.

If he didn’t, he was told, “this could all end badly,” according to a member of the congregation with knowledge of the meeting.

“It was not meant as a threat, but rather that it would hit the press eventually and no one would see things as he did,” the person explained this weekend.

“Unfortunately, he refused, and now it’s all out there,” the person said, referring to the thorough New York Times May 31 report on Rabbi Rosenblatt’s “unusual” behavior that included inviting young men to discuss personal matters while sitting naked in the sauna with him.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By ANDY NEWMAN and SHARON OTTERMAN
MAY 29, 2015

For years, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, the leader of an affluent Modern Orthodox synagogue in the Bronx, did something unusual with the boys in his congregation.

He took them, some as young as 12, to the gym to play squash or racquetball, then showered beside them and took them into the sauna, where — often naked, and with them often naked — he engaged the boys in searching conversations about their lives, problems and faith.

Some liked talking to the rabbi. But others felt uncomfortable. At the time, the late 1980s, people at Rabbi Rosenblatt’s synagogue, the Riverdale Jewish Center, quietly urged him to stop. He said he would. They believe he eventually did. And because the rabbi was not accused of sexual misconduct, and because this was a time less attuned to issues of clerical impropriety, not much more came of it.

As Rabbi Rosenblatt, an accomplished scholar who married into rabbinical royalty, grew to be one of New York City’s most prominent Orthodox leaders, he took older squash partners to the sauna: college students, rabbinical interns, young men from his congregation.

Many enjoyed the sauna discussions. Rabbi Rosenblatt acquired a reputation as a great mentor. He told several people the sauna talks — in the Jewish tradition of men enjoying fellowship in the shvitz, or steam baths — were a key to his success.

But some people objected to the practice. They said the rabbi was using his authority and position to see his disciples naked. Major Jewish institutions told Rabbi Rosenblatt that inviting his charges to the sauna was not appropriate rabbinical conduct.
hodox rabbis, later made him agree to a plan to limit his activities with his own congregation.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By ANDY NEWMAN
JUNE 3, 2015

Prosecutors in the Bronx are asking people to come forward in the case of a prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, who frequently took boys as young as 12 into the sauna naked.

“If something happened within the statute of limitations, we will investigate,” Terry Raskyn, a spokeswoman for the Bronx district attorney’s office, said on Wednesday.

An article in The New York Times on Sunday described how in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rabbi Rosenblatt, of the Riverdale Jewish Center, would take young congregants to a gym to play squash or racquetball and then to the shower, and, often naked, to the sauna or hot tub. He would have long talks with them in the sauna that he described as part of his mentoring process.

Some of the boys, who are now grown, said that Rabbi Rosenblatt gawked at their naked bodies, or would often rest a hand on a clothed leg during one-on-one nighttime chats at the rabbi’s house.

No one has accused Rabbi Rosenblatt of sexual touching.

For all but the most serious crimes, the statute of limitations in New York State is generally, at most, six years.

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt Credit David Goldman for The New York Times
Even if an offense occurred outside the statute of limitations, Ms. Raskyn said, the district attorney’s office provides counseling and other services. “We will help anyone who is a victim of a crime in the Bronx,” she said.

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UNITED STATES
Haaretz

By Rabbi Dan Dorsch | Jun. 3, 2015

Recent scandals involving rabbis who violated clergy-congregant boundaries are making it difficult for good, honest leaders to counsel the people we serve. Between Barry Freundel, who clearly broke the law when he spied on naked women in the mikveh, and Jonathan Rosenblatt, whose custom of mentoring young men whilst naked in the sauna lies somewhere in the legal gray area, one thing is clear: these rabbis’ errors in judgment have eroded the public’s trust in religious leaders as sources of safe, spiritual guidance.

Since graduating from seminary five years ago, I, myself, have felt ill-equipped, at times, to handle pastoral care issues related to sexuality when working with congregants confronted by infidelity, marital problems and divorce. None of the popular rabbinic “handbooks” on the subject made any mention of how to handle these issues as they relate to sex, and none of my classes at the seminary ever talked about how to deal with them. So I decided to sign up for an online course called “Sexual Issues for Jewish Clergy.”

During this program, I discovered that rabbis often struggle with the same kind of challenges concerning sexuality and boundaries that their congregants face. Actions that for me seemed common sense and worth undertaking for my own protection – like giving counsel with my door open, and almost never agreeing to meet a person without someone else being present in the building – were far from established common practice. But what may be common sense for some rabbis is not for others. The New York Times article about Rosenblatt is a stark reminder of this fact.

There is also the issue of protecting both rabbis and congregants. A 2008 Baylor University study presented the testimonies of 47 people who described their personal experiences with clergy misconduct. As I watched the videos, I was struck by how often the victims’ communities discouraged them from speaking out. Even when the victims were repeatedly violated, the congregation or their movement’s umbrella organization ultimately sided and protected the violating rabbi.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Jewish Daily Forward

A Boston-area rabbi pleaded not guilty to charges that he stole from his temple to pay off a man who was blackmailing him for an alleged affair with a teenage male.

Rabbi Barry Starr, 65, who resigned last year from Temple Israel in Sharon, Massachusetts, entered the plea Tuesday in Norfolk Superior Court, the Boston Globe reported. Several former congregants were in the courtroom to support him, according to the newspaper.

Starr is charged with embezzlement and larceny over $250. He is facing a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison.

The rabbi allegedly paid a total of $458,300 between 2012 and 2014 — more than $360,000 of that from his discretionary fund — according to prosecutors.

He also is accused of altering donated checks for up to 100 times their value and borrowing thousands of dollars from an elderly congregant, a Holocaust survivor.

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UNITED STATES
Talking Points Memo

By CATHERINE THOMPSON
Published JUNE 3, 2015

A 5-year-old was among the young girls Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the family made famous by TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” allegedly molested when he was a teenager, according to a sheriff’s report published Wednesday by tabloid magazine In Touch.

In Touch previously published a 2006 report from the Springdale, Arkansas Police Department that showed Duggar was investigated for allegedly molesting five girls from 2002-2003, when he was 14 years old. That report was heavily blacked out throughout.

The age of one of Duggar’s alleged victims was revealed in a contemporaneous report from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, which was also involved in the investigation. That report appeared to have blacked out only Duggar’s and his alleged victims’ names.

Both reports contain the same interview sheriff’s Detective Gary Connor conducted with the Duggar family in December 2006.

In the interview, Jim Bob Duggar told Connor that one of the incidents of molestation occurred in March 2003. He said that Josh Duggar had called him to say that he’d inappropriately touched a 5-year-old girl who was sitting on his lap as he read to her. The Duggar patriarch also told the detective that his son put his hand up a girl’s dress “sometime during this time frame.”

The sheriff’s report, which reads more cleanly than the Springdale police report, also makes it easier to ascertain the timeline of the alleged molestation incidents. Jim Bob Duggar told the detective that his son came crying to him in March 2002 to say that he’d inappropriately touched girls “4 to 5 times” while they were sleeping. He said Josh Duggar came to him again in July 2002 to say that he’d inappropriately touched another girl, according to the report.

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TENNESSEE
Greeneville Sun

Ken Little

A new lawyer for William Casey has new strategies to get another trial for the former Roman Catholic priest.

Francis X. Santore Jr. plans to file a formal petition by Thursday in Sullivan County Criminal Court seeking post-conviction relief for Casey, who was convicted in 2011 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of aggravated rape in connection with the molestation of then-altar-boy Warren Tucker between 1979 and 1980.

Casey, now 81, was a longtime resident of the Camp Creek community in Greene County.

He was sentenced after conviction to a minimum of 35 years in prison by then-Sullivan County Criminal Court Judge Robert H. Montgomery Jr., who is now a judge on the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

Since sentencing in July 2011, Casey has been an inmate at the Tennessee Department of Correction’s Northeast Correctional Facility in Mountain City. He will not be eligible for parole until at least 2026, when he is 92.

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NEW YORK
Times of Israel

BY AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN June 3, 2015

Decades of eyebrow-raising at male bonding methods morphed into suspicions of abuse this week as the Bronx Country District Attorney Bureau on Child Sex Abuse and Sex Crimes opened an investigation against New York Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt.

On Friday, Rosenblatt, for over 30 years the rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center Synagogue, was the topic of a lengthy New York Times article portraying his decades-long allegedly inappropriate behavior with young unclothed males. The article described how Rosenblatt would invite boys as young as 12 to play squash, followed by bathing and a sauna.

Some of those involved, now men, claimed the rabbi gawked at their nakedness; others weren’t bothered at all. But what is clear from the NY Times article and follow-up media pieces is that Rosenblatt’s questionable behavior over the past three decades was an open secret that left many boys and young men uncomfortable.

Now, the Bronx District Attorney is calling upon these men to describe their experiences — even anonymously — and aid in charting the rabbi’s behavior patterns.

This simple step — the on-record recounting of an uncomfortable encounter — is a key step to ending abuse, say activists. The more light is shed on irregular or abusive experiences, the greater is the deterrent for perpetrators.

There is evidence of the beginnings of change, say experts, as social media and online survivor communities provide anonymous or nonthreatening platforms for survivors to testify. And, they predict numbers of incidents in the clergy will wane as rabbinical seminaries take increased screening precautions and institute mental health formation as part of the student rabbis’ training.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Attorney Kevin Mulhearn has been battling for sexual abuse victims for years: The Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney overcame numerous legal obstacles to settle a landmark lawsuit filed by a dozen men who claimed Poly Prep covered up years of assaults by the elite Brooklyn school’s longtime football coach, Phil Foglietta. Mulhearn has also represented men and women who claimed two other iconic New York schools, Horace Mann and Yeshiva University, also covered up years of sexual abuse by staff and faculty members.

In the following column, Mulhearn explains why New York lawmakers should pass the Child Victims Act. The bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) calls for the elimination of criminal and civil statutes of limitations for future child abuse victims; it would also open up a one-year window for victims of past crimes to pursue criminal and civil cases.

Last week, the Honorable Leslie Crocker Snyder (ret.), founder of the Manhattan DA’s Sex Crimes Prosecution Bureau and co-author of New York State’s Rape Shield Law, issued her report on sexual abuse that occurred at the elite Horace Mann School in the Bronx in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The report, titled “Making Schools Safe,” commissioned by the Horace Mann Action Coalition, concludes that at Horace Mann at least 64 students were sexually abused by as many as 22 faculty and staff. Judge Snyder’s report describes the scope and extent of the parade of sexual abuse at Horace Mann and makes pointed recommendations for how independent schools can protect our children. For anyone with children in New York schools, especially private schools, this thoughtful and insightful Report, despite (or maybe because of) its repugnant subject matter, should be required reading.

The squalid abuse facts themselves are horrendous in their own right but the most disturbing component of the report is the craven response of various school officials and trustees to sex abuse complaints made by abused students. The report describes a prolonged, multi-decade Horace Mann cover-up, highlighted by the loss or destruction of voluminous sex abuse records and the deliberate indifference of a former headmaster who himself engaged in the sexual abuse of young boys. Like with the Catholic Church, Horace Mann officials confronted with direct allegations of sex abuse by soul-shattered victims were too often far more concerned with protecting the reputations of both institution and sex predator employees than the children entrusted to their care.

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UNITED STATES
Charisma News

JESSILYN JUSTICE

When sexual abuse rocks the church, the reactions split believers into many camps: some avoid it, some preach forgiveness, some condemn.

And according to Boz Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s grandson and an advocate for sexual abuse victims, evangelical leaders remain largely quiet.

“Such an approach to sin is incredibly damaging to so many precious individuals who were sexually victimized for years and manipulated by perpetrators and church leaders into remaining silent,” Tchividjian writes of case of sexual abuse in the church.

“It tells them that their voice and experience doesn’t matter nearly as much as the voice of a judge or jury. It tells them that the reputation of the institution is more important than the beauty of their soul. The silence from Evangelical ‘leaders’ regarding the issue of child sexual abuse within the Church was deafening and spoke volumes.”

Now that the Duggar family is at the center of molestation allegations, Tchividjian reiterates that the Church needs to return to the gospel message.

“The gospel we preach is about a God who sacrificed himself for the individual,” Tchividjian tells the LaCrosse Tribune. ” … If we are preaching that gospel, churches need to sacrifice the church and stop sacrificing the individuals.”

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UNITED STATES
Leslie Vernick

Morning friends,

I recently became aware of a tragic story that I want you to know about. Karen and Jordan Root were missionaries when she discovered that her husband was viewing child pornography. She was devastated, yet took the appropriate action, disclosed it to her mission board and church, where they promptly brought them home for an evaluation.

Jordan repented, and said he was never inappropriate with a child despite having a long-standing sexual attraction toward prepubescent females. Karen didn’t know if she could believe him, nor would ever be able to trust him or live with him since he’d lied to her for years. She filed for a legal annulment (and qualified for one) as she felt Jordan married her under fraudulent circumstances and lied to her even before their marriage.

Her mega church (Matt Chandler’s – The Village Church, in Dallas) embraced Jordan’s repentance, sought a path of healing and restoration for him with boundaries to his access to children in their church. Although they were seemingly sympathetic to Karen’s pain once they heard that Karen decided to seek an annulment of her marriage they began church discipline against Karen because she, as an adult Christian woman, made this decision without their knowledge, consent or approval.

(Karen was a member of The Village Church – which gives them the right to have some say in her life, however Karen respectfully withdrew her membership before she filed for annulment stating that she didn’t believe the church could effectively deal with both her and Jordan’s needs).

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NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 2, 2015

For more information:
David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Predator priest from ND passes away
Victims urge Catholic bishops to “do outreach”
“Others may be suffering in shame and silence,” SNAP says
Attorney believes he may have assaulted at least 100 children

A credibly accused child molesting Catholic priest from North Dakota has passed away and a support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging two bishops to “aggressively reach out” to others he may have hurt.

Last week, Catholic officials at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville Minnesota announced that Fr. Richard Eckroth has died.

[CBS Minnesota]

On Friday, documents about Fr. Eckroth, a “credibly accused” predator, according to his church supervisors, were made public by an attorney who says that the cleric may have assaulted 100 kids.

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TEXAS
Baptist News

By Jeff Brumley

A Dallas megachurch got some unwanted publicity recently thanks to its harsh disciplining of a member some leaders believed improperly ended her marriage.

On May 28, however, Pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church stepped in, stopped the process and later offered an apology to the woman who had left her husband when he admitted to a years-long child-porn habit, Christianity Today reported.

Public discipline actions like that brought against the woman at Village Church, a Southern Baptist multi-site congregation, may have been more common decades and centuries ago when Matthew 18 was followed more closely. But experts tell Baptist News Global such practices are increasingly rare today — and especially so in moderate and even conservative Baptist churches.

“I don’t think we gain very much by the public trashing of someone,” said Frank Broome, who has served as executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia for close to two decades. “In 18 years I have no example of anyone being dressed down.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Lawyer denies report on higher abuse toll among members of the Domspatzen boys choir.]

Regensburg – 02.06.2015

Der Regensburger Anwalt Ulrich Weber hat Berichte zurückgewiesen, wonach die Zahl der Misshandlungsfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen höher liege als bisher angenommen. “Ich kann keine abweichenden Zahlen nennen”, sagte er am Dienstag in Regensburg der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA). Es sei falsch, von einem Anstieg zu sprechen. Weber untersucht zurzeit im Auftrag des Bistums Regensburg Fälle von Misshandlung und sexuellem Missbrauch bei dem Chor in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten. Bisher ging man von mindestens 72 Geschädigten aus.

Der Bayerische Rundfunk hatte am Montag unter Berufung auf Weber von einem Anstieg der Opferzahlen berichtet. Mit Blick auf die ersten Gespräche mit Opfern hatte der Rechtsanwalt dabei unter anderem von einem “Domino-Effekt” gesprochen. Dies habe sich aber nicht auf Zahlen bezogen, sondern auf die Auskunftsbereitschaft der Betroffenen, sagte Weber der KNA. Die Betroffenen fassten nach und nach Vertrauen zu ihm. Sein Abschlussbericht werde voraussichtlich nicht, wie ursprünglich geplant, bereits nach einem Jahr vorliegen, erläuterte der Jurist. “Ich gehe davon aus, dass es länger dauert.”

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VATIKAN
kathweb

[The Vatican child sexual abuse commission is concerned that current church law does not hold bishops accountable for covering-up sexual abuse. “Currently there is no canonical recourse against local bishops who fail to meet their responsibilities and cover-up sexual abuse in their dioceses,” said Fr. Hans Zollner, a member of the Child Protection Commission.]

Rom, 03.06.2015 (KAP) Der Vatikan prüft ein konsequenteres Vorgehen gegen Bischöfe, die sexuellen Missbrauch vertuschen. Die zuständigen Behörden begutachteten derzeit einen Entwurf der päpstlichen Kinderschutzkommission, wonach das Vertuschen von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Bischöfe ein eigener Straftatbestand im katholischen Kirchenrecht werden soll, wie der Präsident des Kinderschutzzentrums der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom, P. Hans Zollner SJ, am Mittwoch im Interview mit “Kathpress” sagte.

“Derzeit gibt es keine kirchenrechtliche Handhabe gegen Ortsbischöfe, die ihrer Verantwortlichkeit nicht nachkommen und sexuellen Missbrauch in ihrer Diözese vertuschen”, so Zollner, der Mitglied der Kinderschutzkommission ist. Diese Situation sei aus Sicht der Kommission “unbefriedigend und dringend zu ändern”.

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UNITED STATES
InTouch Weekly

[with copy of the police report]

Josh Duggar confessed to his father Jim Bob Duggar on THREE separate occasions to multiple acts of sexual molestation against his sisters and a family friend, according to a new police report obtained exclusively by In Touch magazine.

The document also makes clear that Josh was 15 years old when he molested his 5-year-old sister and committed at least SEVEN acts of sexual molestation.

The new report is from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and was obtained by In Touch using the Freedom of Information Act. In Touch broke the story about Josh’s dark past and previously obtained and published a Springdale Police Department report about the molestations, also by using FOIA.

With fewer redactions than the first report, the Washington County Sheriff’s document makes it clear that despite Josh’s chilling confessions the Duggars waited at least 16 months before contacting authorities about the molestations, even though the behavior was continuing and growing worse. During that period they did not get professional counseling for Josh or his victims. Legal experts tell In Touch that Jim Bob and Michelle could have faced six years in prison for their inaction, if the statue of limitations had not expired.

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MALLORCA
Radio Aleman

[The complaint of sexual abuse against the priest in Sa Pobla in Mallorca has been withdrawn. The alleged victim, a 32-year-old Spaniard, announced the withdrawal on Monday morning before the court.]

Die Anzeige wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs gegen den Pfarrer in Sa Pobla auf Mallorca ist zurückgezogen worden. Das mutmaßliche Opfer, ein heute 32 Jahre alter Spanier, gab am Montagmorgen eine entsprechende Erklärung vor dem Gericht in Inca ab. Hier wurden seit der offiziellen Beschwerde am 10. März entsprechene Ermittlungen durchgeführt.

Der Mann hatte angegeben, als Kind zweimal durch den Priester vergewaltigt worden zu sein. Gegenüber spanischen Medien hatte er von Drohungen gesprochen, die der Geistliche ihm gegenüber gemacht habe, falls er zur damaligen Zeit von den Fällen berichte. Zudem hatte er ausgesagt, seit den sexuellen Übergriffen in psychologischer Behandlung zu sein.

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MALLORCA
Radio Aleman

[The Mallorca diocese paid 30,000 euros to a woman who was abused by a priest.]

Der Bischof von Mallorca hat angekündigt, einer Frau 30.000 Euro an Ausgleichsleistungen zu zahlen. Die Frau hatte den ehemaligen Pfarrer von Can Picafort, Pere Barceló, angezeigt, sie als Kind sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Gegen den Geistlichen läuft derzeit ein juristisches Verfahren.

Wie die Diözese Mallorca am Dienstag mitteilte, sei die Entscheidung in Absprache mit der Klägerin und deren Rechtsbeistand gefallen. Ungeachtet einer möglichen Schuld oder Unschuld des Priesters sehe sich die Diözese in der Pflicht, den “moralischen Schaden” in irgendeiner Form auszugleichen.

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AUSTRALIEN
Domradio

Kurienkardinal George Pell soll vor der australischen Missbrauchskommission zu Vertuschungsvorwürfen Stellung nehmen. Ihm wird die Zahlung von Schweigegeld vorgeworfen. Pell wird zu einer Anhörung in seiner Heimatstadt Ballarat erwartet.

Das teilte die Royal Commission laut australischen Medien am Montag mit. Zuvor hatte ein Mitglied der päpstlichen Kinderschutzkommission den früheren Erzbischof von Sydney und jetzigen Finanzchef des Vatikan als “unhaltbar” bezeichnet. Der Vatikan nahm Pell umgehend in Schutz.

Peter Saunders, eines von zwei Missbrauchsopfern in der von Papst Franziskus eingerichteten Kinderschutzkommission, hatte Pell in einem Fernsehinterview am Sonntag “hart, kaltherzig, fast soziopathisch” genannt. Der Kardinal sei mit einigen teils später zurückgezogenen Leugnungen, von Missbrauchsfällen gewusst zu haben, ein “massiver Stachel im Fleisch” des Papstamtes. Franziskus müsse den Kardinal aus dem Vatikan entfernen. “Ich persönlich denke, dass er unhaltbar ist”, sagte Saunders dem australischen Sender Nine Network.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Tages Anzeiger

Papst Franziskus stellt die von ihm initiierte Kurienreform unter das Leitwort «Absolute Transparenz». Jetzt scheint sich das Ideal gegen einen der prominentesten Reformkardinäle zu kehren: gegen George Pell, 73 Jahre alt, ehedem Erzbischof von Sydney, seit Februar 2014 Chef des neuen vatikanischen Wirtschaftssekretariats und damit Finanzminister des Vatikans. Pell ist einer der neun Kardinäle des von Franziskus geschaffenen K9-Rates, der die Kurie transparent und effizient reformieren soll.

Zum Reformprojekt gehört auch die neu eingerichtete Kinderschutzkommission mit der Aufgabe, den Missbrauch Minderjähriger in der Kirche effektiver zu verhindern und die Aufklärung von Delikten zu beschleunigen. Zwei der siebzehn Mitglieder sind selber Missbrauchsopfer. Eines von ihnen, der Brite Peter Saunders, hat nun Pell im australischen Fernsehen bezichtigt, dieser habe als früherer Erzbischof von Melbourne und Sydney zu Fällen von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Priester geschwiegen und Täter gedeckt. Pell sei «kalt, hartherzig, fast soziopathisch» und wegen seiner Rolle im australischen Missbrauchsskandal unhaltbar. Kurzum: Papst Franziskus solle den Kardinal, der stets als Saubermann in Sachen Kirchenmoral auftritt, aus dem Vatikan entfernen.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
3 JUN 2015

Australia’s Catholic archbishops have backed Cardinal George Pell as a man of integrity.

The archbishops of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Canberra-Goulburn said they know Cardinal Pell well and while his style can be robust and direct, underneath he has a big heart for people.

“He is a man of integrity who is committed to the truth and to helping others, particularly those who have been hurt or who are struggling,” the joint statement said on Thursday.

Cardinal Pell was one of the first bishops in the world to put in place a comprehensive church response to investigate allegations of sex abuse by Catholic clergy and to provide survivors with redress and counselling, the statement said.

“He has responded to criticisms that have been made of his handling of these matters over the years, acknowledged mistakes frankly, and apologised for them.”

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly rejected claims he tried to bribe one victim to keep quiet, ignored complaints and was involved in moving Australia’s worst pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, to a different parish.

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IRELAND
Catholic Herald (UK)

Church in Ireland appeals for new inclusive language

The head of the Irish bishops’ conference has distanced himself from comments made by American Cardinal Raymond Burke concerning Irish voters who backed same-sex marriage.

Reacting to the May 22 poll, in which voters supported the redefinition of marriage by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, Cardinal Burke told the Newman Society, Oxford University’s Catholic Society: “It’s just incredible. … Pagans may have tolerated homosexual behaviors, they never dared say this was marriage.”

Asked about the comments during an interview with RTE Radio, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, president of the bishops’ conference, said yesterday: “I wouldn’t use that language.”

He said: “Throughout the debate and the discussion, we did ask people to try to be respectful and inoffensive in language.”

The archbishop also referred to comments by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, that the result represented a “defeat for humanity”.

“I think what Cardinal Parolin was expressing is our deeply held conviction about marriage … he was trying to express the loss that occurred here,” he said.

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BELGIUM
Catholic Herald (UK)

Archbishop Léonard submitted his letter of resignation on May 6 upon reaching the age of 75

Pope Francis swiftly accepted the resignation of Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and Primate of Belgium.

As required by canon law, Archbishop Léonard submitted his letter of resignation on May 6 upon reaching the age of 75. The Belgian archdiocese announced on Monday that the Pope had accepted it, despite Archbishop Léonard only being in the position since 2010.

A Belgian court recently ruled that Archbishop Léonard was guilty of misconduct in failing to take action in a sex abuse case, which dated back to when he was Bishop of Namur, from 1991 to 2010. The court ordered him to pay €10,000 to a former Catholic seminarian, Joel Devillet, who was sexually abused as a choirboy in Aubange by a Catholic abbot, Fr Gilbert Hubermont.

The Catholic Church in Belgium has been dogged by abuse allegations for the past five years. In a 2010 pastoral letter, the bishops’ conference asked forgiveness from victims, after Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges resigned following an admission that he had molested his nephew.

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KENTUCKY
Lex 18

A Louisville high school teacher accused of engaging in a sexually explicit online relationship with a young teen boy faces federal charges.

Federal prosecutors charged Patrick Newman, 33, with engaging in unlawful online communications with a 13-year-old boy, along with possession of child pornography. Newman teaches at Trinity High School and serves as an assistant football coach.

According to a press release sent out by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, Newman and the boy “used social media applications VINE and KIK for their communications.” …

Trinity High School released the following statement Tuesday afternoon.

“We have been informed that a faculty member has been charged with a crime involving internet pornography. We do not believe this has any relationship to the school. He has been placed on an indefinite leave pending further investigation. We are always concerned for the safety and well-being of young people and we will assist authorities as we can.”

Chief Communications Officer for the Archdiocese of Louisville Cecelia Hart Price said they learned of Newman’s arrest on Tuesday. She released a statement that read in part, “The Archdiocese has not received any reports about Mr. Newman, and there are no indications of any involvement of the schools in this matter. Trinity has placed the teacher on leave pending further investigation. As always, the Archdiocese will cooperate with the authorities as they investigate this situation.”

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