ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
The National

KATHLEEN NUTT

A THIRD member of a campaign group that has been fighting for a judge-led statutory inquiry into historical abuse of children has died while waiting for the inquiry to get under way.

The 34-year-old man, who had been abused as a child, took his own life earlier this month after a failed legal battle.

The sad news emerged as, in a separate development, The National can reveal a key announcement initially planned for the end of April regarding the inquiry has been beset by a further delay.

Ministers put back a statement last month until after the General Election with the indication it would be made in the Scottish Parliament by the end of May.

But last night it emerged it will not be made until later, and no definite date has been set.

Alan Draper, parliamentary liaison officer for In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), said the longer the delay continued, the more survivors began to suspect they would not agree with some of the terms of reference of the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 20, 2015

Konrad Marshall
Senior writer

The stories being heard in Ballarat are gruesome and humiliating and raw, and have been described by one victim as “the unseen carnage.”

But that characterisation is not true for everyone – and certainly not for the front-line workers who deal with sexual abuse in this community every day, all year long.

Definitely not for Shireen Gunn, manager of the Centre Against Sexual Assault in Ballarat.

Gunn has listened to the first two days of testimony at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, and the sadness is all too real – and sadly all too familiar.

“This is what we have witnessed for the last 20 years. They are survivors of war – of abuse they could not escape,” she says. “This inquiry is the external realisation of what we already know. But the fact that these guys can get up and give these graphic details and tell their stories – it’s just a huge achievement.”

Gunn grew up here in a large Catholic family. Her dad was a horse trainer, and her mum a mother to seven children. The girls went to Mary’s Mount and the boys to St Patrick’s. She started her career as a primary school teacher.

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AUSTRALIA
The Hindu (India)

Australia’s highest ranking member of the Catholic Church has been accused at a Royal Commission hearing of knowing about child sexual abuse claims against a Victorian priest for more than 30 years.

Cardinal George Pell has come under pressure to reveal if he had covered up the abuse claims against former Catholic Church priest Gerald Ridsdale in the Victorian town of Ballarat, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

A Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has heard evidence on Monday and Tuesday, was told that Pell, now a prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy in Rome, may have known about Ridsdale’s crimes years before Ridsdale first faced charges.

Gail Furness, senior counsel, told the commission that a group of priests advised Ronald Mulkearns, a Ballarat-based bishop at the time, to move Ridsdale between parishes after claims of “inappropriate behaviour” and sexual abuse against children came to light.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Cardinal George Pell has been accused of dismissing a victim’s accusations against a pedophile priest at a Victorian Catholic school.

Timothy Green, 53, told the abuse royal commission that he told then Father Pell that something had to be done about Brother Edward Dowlan touching boys.

“Father Pell said don’t be ridiculous and walked off,” Mr Green said.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said the commissioners expect to make a finding about what Cardinal Pell was told as it relates to how the church responded to allegations overall.

Counsel Peter Gray SC said he had been instructed that the church would not seek to dismiss Mr Green’s claims.

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AUSTRALIA
Bernama

MELBOURNE, May 20 (Bernama) — Australia’s highest ranking member of the Catholic Church has been accused at a royal commission hearing of knowing about child sexual abuse claims against a Victorian priest from more than 30 years ago, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

Cardinal George Pell has come under pressure to reveal if he had covered up the abuse claims against former Catholic Church priest Gerald Ridsdale in the Victorian town of Ballarat.

A Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has heard evidence on Monday and Tuesday, was told that Pell, now a Prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy in Rome, may have known about Ridsdale’s crimes years before Ridsdale first faced charges.

Gail Furness, SC, told the commission that a group of priests advised Ronald Mulkearns, a Ballarat-based bishop at the time, to move Ridsdale between parishes after claims of “inappropriate behavior” and sexual abuse against children came to light.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 20, 2015

GEORGE Pell tried to bribe the nephew of notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale to keep quiet about his abuse at the hands of his uncle, it has been alleged.

David Ridsdale told the royal commission today he phoned Pell in 1993 to tell him about the abuse but instead of offering help he tried to silence him.

He said Pell asked “what would it take” for him to keep quiet about the abuse.

Mr Ridsdale said he responded: “F— you George and everything you stand for.”

Mr Ridsdale said the conversation, by telephone, took place a month before Pell controversially supported Ridsdale in court when he pleaded guilty to a string of abuse charges.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Bombshell claims against Cardinal George Pell comes from a victim of sexual abuse at the Ballarat Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 20, 2015

Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe a victim of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale to keep quiet and dismissed another abuse victim’s complaint as ridiculous, the royal commission has heard.

The Vatican’s finance chief will again have to answer to the sex abuse royal commission after David Ridsdale, the nephew of Australia’s worst pedophile priest, said he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse at the hands of his uncle.

David Ridsdale, the nephew of Australia’s worst pedophile priest, says he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse at the hands of his uncle.

He told the royal commission today that Cardinal Pell, a family friend, asked him in a phone call: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Mr Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell started talking about his growing family and that he may soon have to buy a car or house.

He said his response was “f… you George and everything you stand for”.

After he hung up, Mr Ridsdale said he told his sisters about their phone conversation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Wednesday 20 May 2015

A senior Vatican official, who is also Australia’s highest ranking cleric, has been accused of attempting to bribe a victim of child sex abuse to keep quiet about the molestation he suffered from a paedophile Catholic priest.

The victim, David Ridsdale, told an Australian royal commission into child sexual abuse that he called Cardinal George Pell in 1993 to report being abused by his uncle Gerald Ridsdale, a former priest who is in prison after committing more than 130 offences against children as young as four between the 1960s and 1980s.

David Ridsdale said Pell had a “terse” response to being told of the abuse, before offering him money to buy his silence.

“George then began to talk about my growing family and my need to take care of their needs,” Ridsdale told the royal commission hearing. “He mentioned how I would soon have to buy a car or house for my family.

“I remember with clarity the last three lines we spoke together. Me: Excuse me, George, what the fuck are you talking about? George: I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet. Me: Fuck you, George, and everything you stand for.”

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TENNESSEE
WMC Action News

Posted by Jessi Turnure

JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) – A Jonesboro Police Department report revealed more misconduct allegations against Tony Waller that date back to November 1999.

The report, filed with JPD in April 2000, states an 11-year-old girl could have been the victim of sexual abuse.

Waller, the former children’s pastor at Jonesboro First Assembly of God, was not arrested or charged based on this report, but a detailed investigation showed he was asked to leave a school he had been visiting.

The report states Waller met an 11-year-old girl at CitiTeam Ministries Center, now known as CityYouth Ministries.

Police said Waller began a friendship with the girl’s family, coming to their home and the girl and her siblings spending the night at his home.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 19, 2015

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2015 – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently named three people to the National Review Board that advises on child and youth protection. Mr. Donald Wheeler, a former federal investigator, Mrs. D. Jean Ortega-Piron, an attorney and child welfare services expert, and attorney Mr. Howard Healy were appointed by USCCB President Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville.

“The Church is grateful for the time and talent these individuals will bring to our shared work of ensuring safe environments,” Kurtz said. “None of us has a more important responsibility than protecting children.”

Donald Wheeler lives in the Diocese of Arlington and is a Senior Investigator with the law firm of Hunton & Williams, LLP. He served for 30 years in various federal law enforcement and investigative positions with the U. S. Department of Labor and the General Accountability Office (GAO).

D. Jean Ortega-Piron lives in the Diocese of Joliet, retired from the Illinois Department of Children of Family Services in 2013 and continues to serve as a consultant on child welfare services. While with that state agency, among other positions, she served as its acting Director and the statewide legal guardian for all the children in foster care in Illinois. She is an attorney and has worked in the Office of Special Counsel for Child Welfare Services for the Governor of Illinois.

Howard Healy lives in the Diocese of Green Bay and is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Winnebago County Bar Association. He is a partner at the Di Renzo and Bomier Law Firm and served in the U.S. Army Reserve as an Officer in the Judge Advocate General Corp.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Roberts | May. 19, 2015 NCR Today

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops named three new members, all lawyers, to the National Review Board on Child and Youth Protection.

The appointees are:

* Donald Wheeler from the Diocese of Arlington, Va., worked for 30 years in various federal law enforcement and investigative positions with the U.S. Department of Labor and the General Accountability Office (GAO). He is a senior investigator with the law firm of Hunton & Williams, LLP.

* D. Jean Ortegao-Piron from the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., is retired from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. An attorney, she has worked in the Office of Special Counsel for Child Welfare Services for the Governor of Illinois.

* Howard Healy of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wis., is a partner at the Di Renzo and Bomier Law Firm and served in the U.S. Army Reserve as an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corp.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC

[with video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Police have linked a child enticement investigation in the Park Hill School District to a tip from a Catholic church in Platte County.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Kansas City Catholic Diocese said that on May 13, the pastor at St. Therese parish was alerted to a parishioner’s alleged behavior involving minors receiving gifts of iPhones for the purpose of exploitation.

Police said the teenagers were offered phones and other incentives to do or look at sexually explicit acts. Police said there are at least six victims in the case.

Investigators said the man used the grounds at Prairie Point Elementary School to try to meet one child. Another alleged meeting spot is Riverside’s Edge Gymnastics, which also alerted police after suspicious behavior.

Edge Gymnastics said the man didn’t work at the gym, didn’t volunteer there and none of the employees knew him. The manager said the man would come to the gym on Saturday nights during the open gym period this winter with a group of seven or eight boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By FIONA HENDERSON May 20, 2015

DISGRACED priest Gerald Ridsdale was continually moved around the Ballarat diocese due to abuse complaints, according to the counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

In her opening address on Tuesday, Gail Furness said Ridsdale was relocated several times by the College of Consultors – a group of priests advising former bishop Ronald Mulkearns and which included now Cardinal George Pell.

“Several of the consultors had been present at meetings of, or were members of the College of Consultors on each occasion in the past when Ridsdale had been moved,” Ms Furness said.

Minutes show Pell was present at a meeting when Ridsdale was moved from Mortlake after several complaints of inappropriate behaviour with young boys.

“The minutes do not disclose what the bishop said about why it became necessary (to move Ridsdale),” Ms Furness said.

“However … it is expected that there will be evidence that Bishop Mulkearns knew it was because Ridsdale had abused boys in Mortlake and that he had offended in this manner in 1975.

“The principal (of the school) told the Catholic Church Insurances investigator that she was forbidden by the bishop to speak to the rest of the staff about what had happened.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: First let’s go to Ballarat where the royal commission into child sexual abuse has been hearing extraordinary evidence of brutality in Catholic institutions in the Victorian city.

A survivor of abuse at the St Josephs children’s home has told the commission he was sexually abused by priests and physically and mentally abused by nuns at the home.

Samantha Donovan is at the commission hearing in Ballarat.

And a warning some of the evidence you hear will be disturbing.

So Samantha, tell us a little more about this witness who’s been revealing his story today?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well the first witness today Eleanor was Gordon Hill. He’s 72 now, but as a young child he was put into the St Josephs home in Ballarat, which was run by the female Catholic order, the sisters of Nazareth.

This is what Mr Hill told the commission about the conditions in the home.

GORDON HILL: We were, as I used to call it the drones of St Joeys. We didn’t go to school and we did all the work around the orphanage. Most of us didn’t even know our full names and we were just given a number. My name was 29 because that was my locker number. I didn’t learn of my surname until I was 10 or 11 years old. When I started working that’s when I started working in the kitchens. Sister Reginald who was in charge of the kitchen said to me ‘not another Hill’. I didn’t know what that meant.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

[with video and tweets]

Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe an abuse victim, the royal commission has heard.

David Ridsdale, the nephew and victim of Australia’s pedophile priest Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, says he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse.

He told the royal commission on Wednesday Cardinal Pell, a family friend, asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Cardinal Pell told a boy “don’t be ridiculous” when told a Christian Brother was molesting children, the abuse royal commission has also heard.

Cardinal Pell has previously denied being told about the abuse but will have to make a statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about what he knew.

Timothy Green, 53, said he told then Father Pell that Brother Edward Vernon Dowlan was abusing boys at Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College in late 1974.

“I said Brother Dowlan is touching little boys,” Mr Green told a commission hearing in Ballarat. “Father Pell said ‘don’t be ridiculous’ and walked out,” Mr Green said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Wednesday 20 May 2015

Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe an abuse victim, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard.

David Ridsdale, the nephew and victim of Australia’s worst pedophile priest Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, says he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse.

He told the royal commission on Wednesday Cardinal Pell, a family friend, asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Ridsdale said his response had been, “Fuck you George and everything you stand for.”

After he hung up, Ridsdale said, he told his sisters about the February 1993 phone conversation.

“I remember saying to both my sisters, ‘The bastard just tried to bribe me’,” Ridsdale told the hearing in Ballarat.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

KAITLIN THALS PM News Reporter

Cardinal George Pell to defend new allegations against him in Royal Commission.

Cardinal George Pell will be called on to defend allegations he ignored child sex abuse complaints within Victorian institutions – including those by a nephew and victim of a notorious pedophile priest.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continued on Wednesday, with David Ridsdale, the nephew and victim of Australia’s worst pedophile priest Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, telling the royal commission he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse.

David told the commission Cardinal Pell, a family friend, asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

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AUSTRALIA
TVNZ

Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe a victim of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

David Ridsdale, the nephew of Australia’s worst pedophile priest, says he told Cardinal Pell in 1993 about the abuse at the hands of his uncle.

He told the royal commission today that Cardinal Pell, a family friend, asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Mr Ridsdale said Cardinal Pell started talking about his growing family and that he may soon have to buy a car or house.

He said his response was “f*** you George and everything you stand for”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Danny Tran and Loretta Florance

Cardinal George Pell tried to bribe the nephew of paedophile Gerald Ridsdale to stay quiet about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his uncle, an inquiry has been told.

Justice Peter McClellan said Cardinal Pell would be called on by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to make a statement about the Catholic Church’s response to alleged abuse.

David Ridsdale, the nephew of Ridsdale, told the inquiry hearings in Ballarat that he reported the abuse by his uncle to Cardinal Pell in 1993.

He said Cardinal Pell was not shocked and instead allegedly asked Mr Ridsdale what it would take for him to stay quiet.

“George then began to talk about my growing family and my need to take care of their needs. He mentioned how I would soon have to buy a car or house for my family,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

May 20, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal Affairs Reporter for The Age

Cardinal George Pell will be asked to make a statement to the royal commission into child sexual abuse over claims he tried to bribe a victim to stay silent about his abuse and ignored claims by another that a now-convicted sex offender was abusing children at a Ballarat school.

David Ridsdale was abused by his uncle, convicted sex offender and former priest Gerald Ridsdale, from when he was 11 years old.

Mr Ridsdale told the commission on Wednesday that he called then Father Pell to tell him about the abuse in February 1993. He chose to phone Father Pell because he had known him since birth and: “He was the only human being in the church whom I believed was still a friend and who I could trust.”

He said Father Pell’s tone became angry, and he started talking about the things he would need to buy for his growing family, such as a car.

He said Father Pell asked him: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Mr Ridsdale said his response was: “F— you George and everything you stand for.”

After he hung up, Mr Ridsdale said he told his sisters about the phone conversation.

“I remember saying to both my sisters: ‘the bastard just tried to bribe me’,” Mr Ridsdale told the hearing.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A trial is set to begin this week for a former Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy in Hastings from 1989 to 1991.

Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/1djgvCD ) reports jury selection started Tuesday in the case of 64-year-old Francis Hoefgen. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office says the selection of jury members will continue Wednesday and will be followed by opening statements, unless a plea agreement is reached.

Hoefgen is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Prosecutors say he abused the boy from the time he was about 9 to 12 years old while serving as a priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Hastings.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

‘Father wants to cleanse you, 29’: Nun’s chilling words to a young boy, 5, who was given a NUMBER instead of a name when he was raped by a priest in ‘horror room’ for the first time

By AAP and John Carney for Daily Mail Australia

A victim of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of a paedophile ring involving Catholic clergy in Ballarat has told how he was assigned a number and a locker number, instead of a name, and that nuns used to pull out his teeth with pliers.

Speaking at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gordon Hill, 72, described how he was sexually and physically abused at Ballarat’s St Joseph’s Home in what he called ‘horror rooms’ and ‘dungeons’, and did not know his own surname until he was 10 years old.

ABC News reports that Mr Hill told the inquiry he was taken to the St Joseph’s Home as a three-year-old in the 1946, and was initially abused by a priest at age five, in a place called ‘the horror rooms’.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

AAP

A nun laughed after a five-year-old orphan was abused by a priest at a Victorian Catholic home, the sex abuse royal commission has heard.

Gordon Hill, 72, told the commission he was sexually and physically abused at St Joseph’s Home in Ballarat, in what he called horror rooms and dungeons.

Mr Hill – whose name at “St Joey’s” was 29 because that was his locker number – said he was five when he was first abused by a priest.

A nun told him: “Father wants to cleanse you, 29.”

He blacked out after being given a drink by the priest, and when he came to he “hurt like bloody hell” and was bleeding from his back down to his shins, he told the royal commission on Wednesday.
The priest pushed him out the door where the nun was waiting.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By: Donovan Vincent News reporter, Published on Tue May 19 2015

The Assembly of First Nations and a lawyer representing some survivors of Canada’s residential schools are set to ask a judge Wednesday to order Ottawa to search further for documents related to abuse that victims suffered in the schools.

The First Nations umbrella group wants Canada to search all federal departments and agencies for the historical records, while Ottawa lawyer Fay Brunning, who is representing nine former attendees of one particular school in Ontario, wants the search to “at least’’ involve the RCMP, Health Canada and Department of Justice.

“The RCMP had jurisdiction over the vast majority of Indian residential schools in Canada when they were operating,’’ Brunning said in an interview.

The First Nations group, Brunning and lawyers representing the justice department and other interests are scheduled to argue the matter in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto Wednesday, before Justice Paul Perell.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Cardinal George Pell accused of ‘helping to shift Australia’s worst paedophile priest’ from town to town

By AAP and John Carney and Lucy Thackray for Daily Mail Australia

A royal commission has uncovered church documents that reveal Cardinal George Pell helped move Australia’s worst paedophile priest between parishes at the height of his reign of terror.

The former Archbishop of Melbourne, who is now based in The Vatican where he oversees the Catholic Church’s finances, was involved in at least one decision to move pervert priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, the inquiry heard.

Then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew Ridsdale had abused boys ‘so he was taken out of there’ and again moved to another parish, the abuse royal commission heard on the opening day of three weeks of hearings in the city devastated by decades of abuse.

Cardinal Pell supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in 1993, but he has repeatedly denied knowing that any children at all were abused in Ballarat parish when he was working there.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said relocating Ridsdale from a Ballarat parish was discussed at a meeting of the bishop’s advisers – the College of Consultors – in September 1982, where Cardinal Pell was present.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON May 20, 2015

A SURVIVOR of St Joseph’s orphanage in Sebastopol has given an emotional testimony to the second day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Gordon Hill told about being raped by a priest at the age of five and waking up bleeding down to his shins and with bite marks on his genitals.

“My genitals and bottom were the worst, they hurt like they were on fire,” he said.

He was also forced to masturbate priests while they were in the confession box hearing parishioners’ confessions.

It eventually escalated to “dungeon type” assaults.

“I used to be stripped down, tied up and sexually abused,” he said.

Hill was hospitalised after an accident and tried to report the abuse but wasn’t believed.

He was taken back to the orphanage and given a type of electric shock therapy to find out what he had told the doctors.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

Nuns used pliers to pull out the teeth of a child sex abuse victim at a Ballarat orphanage, and he was also locked in a dungeon known as the “horror room” and abused by a priest, an inquiry has heard.

Giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gordon Hill – now in his 70s – said he was taken to the St Joseph’s Home as a three-year-old.

He told the inquiry he could still remember “all the little kids getting on the bus” in 1946.

Mr Hill said he was among a group at the home known as “the Drones”, children who had no-one and instead of going to school were put to work.

He said he was assigned a number and a locker number, instead of a name, and did not know his own surname until he was 10 years old.

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MINNESOTA
KSFY

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it placed an active priest on a leave of absence after it received an allegation of past sexual abuse.

Archbishop John Nienstedt says in a statement there is a “credible allegation” that the Rev. Gerald Dvorak sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. A credible allegation is one that’s “not manifestly false or frivolous.”

Nienstedt says law enforcement was notified, and Dvorak will not carry out priestly ministry during the investigation.

Dvorak released a statement saying he’s never abused anyone. He asked for prayers for everyone involved.

Dvorak has been pastor of St. Peter in Richfield since 2011. He’s worked in many posts since 1978, including as pastor of St. Joseph in Hopkins and pastor of St. Michael in St. Paul.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Pope Francis urged to force Cardinal George Pell to explain role in paedophile sex abuse cover-up

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 20, 2015

POPE Francis is being urged to force Cardinal George Pell to explain any involvement he may have had in the cover-up of paedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

Secret church documents tendered to a royal commission yesterday revealed that the Cardinal helped move Australia’s worst paedophile priest between parishes.

The move came decades after complaints were first made about Ridsdale and years before his last known offending.

It is not clear whether Cardinal Pell knew of the offending.

Now a social media campaign is demanding Pope Francis act on the stunning revelation.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Riham Feshir May 19, 2015

A former Hastings priest accused of sexual abuse 25 years ago is set to go on trial this week.

Jury selection in Francis Hoefgen’s criminal case began Tuesday in Dakota County and will continue Wednesday, according to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office. Opening statements will follow jury selection unless Hoefgen reaches a plea agreement.

Dakota County prosecutors charged Hoefgen, 64, last year with first degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly abusing an altar boy from the time he was about 9 until 12 years old.

The alleged abuse occurred while Hoefgen was a priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Hastings from 1989 to 1991, according to the criminal complaint. Hastings police were notified in November 2013. The victim is not named in court documents.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Live stream.

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Ballarat from Tuesday 19 May 2015 at 10:00am AEST. The first public hearing commences on Tuesday 19 May 2015 and the second will commence on a date to be announced.

Please note that the audio on the webcast may be frequently cut to protect the identity of people who have been granted a pseudonym in this hearing.

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OHIO
WFMJ

By Glenn Stevens, Reporter

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio –
A mother from Poland staged her own demonstration Tuesday in front of the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown to commemorate the death of her son 12 years ago.

Barbara Aponte’s son, Luke Bradesku, who took his own life, was among nearly 39 sexual abuse victims of Brother Stephen Baker, who at one time was assigned to John F. Kennedy High School in Warren.

While the Diocese settled the cases of 11 victims in 2012, Aponte says the cases of 28 others have yet to be acknowledged.

“This needs to be over for me, it needs to be over for the other victims and families that are struggling, I have forgiven Brother Steve and I’d like to get on with forgiving the church, but I don’t think I can,” Aponte said.

The Diocese says because the claims are still in mediation it cannot address specifics. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon the Diocese said.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran May 19, 2015

The Rev. Gerald Dvorak, pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Richfield, Minn., has taken a leave of absence following an allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s, according to a statement from Archbishop John Nienstedt released Tuesday.

Nienstedt called the allegation “credible” but did not provide details. “A ‘credible allegation’ is one that is ‘not manifestly false or frivolous.’ It is not a presumption of guilt,” he wrote.

In a separate two-line statement, also released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Dvorak denied the allegation. “I pray for all victims of sexual abuse, but I have never abused anyone,” he wrote. “Please pray for me and all those involved.”

Dvorak, 61, could not be reached for comment. He did not immediately respond to a phone message on Tuesday.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 19

Statement by Frank Meuers, Minnesota SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )

Another Twin Cities priest is accused of abuse and again, Catholic officials aren’t honoring their pledges.

[CBS Minnesota]

[St Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese]

Credibly accused child molesting clerics are to be suspended. But Archbishop John Nienstedt is letting Fr. Gerald Dvorak take a leave of absence.

The church’s national abuse policy says nothing about voluntary leaves by alleged predators.

Nienstedt is also circulating a statement from Fr. Dvorak.

The church’s national abuse policy makes says nothing about bishops to circulate statements to the public by alleged predators.

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TEXAS
ABC 7

[with video]

By Foti Kallergis
Tuesday, May 19, 2015

PASADENA, TX — A church music director is on the run after accusations surfaced that he was having sex with one of his 13-year-old students.

An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Jose David Rivera, 30. According to the pastor at Casa De Oracion in Pasadena, Rivera was the music director for at least three years.

According to court papers, Rivera met his teenage victim at the church, and they began texting each other. The girl told a psychologist that her mother allowed Rivera to take her to church choir practice on Monday nights. According to court papers, Rivera an the girl had sex at least four times since June of last year. The victim told investigators, in one instance they had sex in the back seat of his car and also in or near the church.

“Kids are usually sexually abused by people that they know,” said Dr. Lawrence Thompson Jr. , director of Therapy and Psychological services at the Child Assessment Center in Houston. “As a society, we would like to think that there are some places where our children can be safe.”

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Jennie Lissarrague

A Twin Cities priest is on a leave of absence after Archbishop John Nienstedt said the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis received a credible allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s.

Rev. Gerald Dvorak, who is the pastor of St. Peter in Richfield, will not be part of the ministry during the investigation. Nienstedt says law enforcement has been notified of the claim and they are notifying his previous parishes.

Dvorak denied the allegations. In a statement, he said, “I pray for all victims of sexual abuse, but I have never abused anyone. Please pray for me and all those involved.”

Nienstedt says Dvorak has never had any other allegations against him.

Here’s a list of Dvorak’s assignment history, as provided by the Archdiocese:

Pastor at Saint Peter in Richfield from July 1, 2011, to the present
Canonical Administrator at Blessed Trinity Catholic School from July 1, 2011, to July 1, 2014
Pastor at Saint Joseph in Hopkins from Sept. 3, 2002, to July 1, 2011
Pastor at Saint Michael in Saint Paul from June 14, 1989 to Sept. 3, 2002
Parochial Administrator at Saint Andrew in St. Paul from Jan. 20, 1989 to June 14, 1989
Parochial Administrator at Holy Cross in Minneapolis from Oct. 9, 1987, to June 14, 1989
Spiritual Director, Legion of Mary, St Paul Comitium, North Mpls Curia from March 23, 1987 to June 14, 1989
Parochial Administrator at Saint Cyril in Minneapolis from June 10, 1986 to March 23, 1987

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MINNESOTA
Seattle PI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says it placed an active priest on a leave of absence after it received an allegation of past sexual abuse.

Archbishop John Nienstedt says in a statement there is a “credible allegation” that the Rev. Gerald Dvorak sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. A credible allegation is one that’s “not manifestly false or frivolous.”

Nienstedt says law enforcement was notified, and Dvorak will not carry out priestly ministry during the investigation.

Dvorak released a statement saying he’s never abused anyone. He asked for prayers for everyone involved.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has received a credible allegation that the Rev. Gerald Dvorak, pastor of St. Peter in Richfield, sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. A “credible allegation” is one that is “not manifestly false or frivolous.” It is not a presumption of guilt. Law enforcement has been notified and, per our protocol, Rev. Dvorak is on a leave of absence and will not exercise priestly ministry during the investigation. We are in the process of notifying the previous parishes where he was assigned. Rev. Dvorak has never had any other allegations against him during his ministry.

Read a statement from Rev. Gerald Dvorak on his voluntary leave of absence.

Statement from Rev. Gerald Dvorak On his voluntary leave of absence

“I pray for all victims of sexual abuse, but I have never abused anyone. Please pray for me and all those involved.”

###

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Twin Cities priest has been removed from active ministry after the Archdiocese received credible allegations of sexual abuse.

Rev. Gerald Dvorak was removed from ministry at Saint Peter’s in Richfield, where he most recently practiced, after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. The Archdiocese said Tuesday that local law enforcement has been notified of the case. Dvorak had also been an administrator at Blessed Trinity Catholic School in Richfield from 2011-14.

“Rev. Dvorak is on a leave of absence and will not exercise priestly ministry during this investigation,” Archbishop John Nienstedt said Tuesday in a statement. “We are in the process of notifying the previous parishes where he was assigned. Rev. Dvorak has never had any other allegations against him during his ministry.

Dvorak has been in active ministry since 1978. He denied the allegations in statement released Tuesday.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . . Marianist Catholic cleric Brother Bernard Hartman is said by church goers that he is living here on a church property where the Marianists are based. He was convicted in Australia of a string of sex offenses and later apologized in writing to a girl he molested. . .

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MICHIGAN
C and G News

By Thomas Franz
Published May 19, 2015

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — The preliminary examination in the case of a former employee at a local Catholic high school began on May 13 at 42-A District Court in Romeo.

Joseph Sturza, a former director of admissions at Austin Catholic High School in Ray Township and a former youth minister at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Macomb Township, is charged with four felony counts: child sexual abuse activity, accosting a child for immoral purposes, and two counts of using a computer to communicate with a minor in order to commit a crime.

At the preliminary examination, a sergeant with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department and Macomb Area Computer Enforcement team provided background into the department’s investigation.

The Sheriff’s Office received a complaint from the Archdiocese of Detroit offices on Nov. 19 regarding an employee at Austin Catholic possibly having inappropriate contact with a student through use of a computer.

The student was identified during the exam as a 15-year-old boy.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 19, 2015

Members of a Twin Cities youth group seeking a safe space to discuss life as an LGBT person of faith found none at an area Catholic church after the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese intervened in the May 16 event.

Instead, the LGBTQ Catholic Student Coalition, led by seven high school students, held a LGBTQ+ Catholic Youth Summit on Saturday at Edina Community Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, about a mile south from the Church of Christ the King, where the group originally planned to host the event.

The students received notice May 10 — a week before the summit that attracted nearly 200 people — from parish staff that the chancery had informed them the parish could no longer host the summit. The group in April received confirmation from Christ the King staff and also paid a portion of the insurance deposit.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

A Jewish teacher turned businessman is facing a ”substantial” jail sentence after being found guilty of seven sex abuse charges on Tuesday.

Todros Grynhaus, 50, was convicted of five counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault against the girls when they were aged around 14 and 15.

Grynhaus, a prominent member of the Charedi community in Salford, was accused of a course of conduct against the two alleged victims over a number of years which involved touching them inappropriately and forcing himself on them.

He denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of a “revenge plot” and that the girls, now adult women, were lying.

But he was convicted after a two-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By FIONA HENDERSON May 20, 2015

CLERGY sex abuse survivor Philip Nagle asked for a minute’s silence following his testimony to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday.

Mr Nagle was honouring his 12 fellow St Alipius Christian Brothers Primary School pupils who have committed suicide – out of a class of 33.

The shocking statistics were some of the evidence presented about abuse on the first day of the hearings that victims have described as a “carnage” that has fractured Ballarat.

Mr Nagle was repeatedly assaulted by disgraced priest Stephen Farrell when he was a grade five pupil.

“I would know when an attack was coming because he would always remove his glasses first,” Mr Nagle said.

“It was a scary time. I couldn’t work out what I was doing that made the abuse happen because the physical pain made it feel like I was being punished.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 20, 2015

Molestation by now notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was “no secret” in his local parish, with at least two reports flowing to his bishop before a leadership group including current Cardinal George Pell decided to move him.

The royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse yesterday heard damning claims about the Catholic Church’s behaviour on the first day of hearings in ­Ballarat, where hundreds of children are believed to have ­suffered throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said evidence would show Ridsdale’s behaviour with boys was common knowledge in the parish of Mortlake and there were at least two reports to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about Ridsdale’s ­offending in the town.

She said Bishop Mulkearns was recorded telling a Catholic Church Insurance investigator in 1993 that there were complaints of inappropriate behaviour by Ridsdale with young boys from Mortlake “so he was taken out of there”.

Bishop Mulkearns also said he “did not take it as his position to report Ridsdale to police”, Ms Furness said.

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LOUISIANA
The Louisiana Record

May 19, 2015

By KYLE BARNETT

GRETNA – A local minister and the church he works for are being sued by a parishioner who claims he used his position of influence within the church to engage in inappropriate sexual conduct with her.

Lori Pelitire filed suit against Craig Wayne Rinker, and his employer First English Lutheran Church, and their insurers in the 24th Judicial District Court on April 2.

Pelitire alleges she was a parishioner at the First English Lutheran Church located at 3701 Cleary Ave. in Metairie when she sought counseling from Rinker, which included sessions at the church as well as at her home. The plaintiff contends that in January 2014, when she was 42-years-old, Rinker, who was 69-years-old at the time, began to make sexually suggestive comments during their counseling sessions that eventually escalated to inappropriate touching and Rinker exposing himself to her.

On April 2, 2014, Pelitire asserts that Rinker gave her communion wafers at the church before performing oral sex on her. The plaintiff claims Rinker told her that the touching and sexual activity was part of her counseling sessions and “to prepare her for a future husband.” Pelitire further claims Rinker also snuck into her home when she was sick and fondled her in her sleep and sent her explicit emails containing pornographic photos.

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ITALIA
Il Secolo XIX

[con il video]

[Genoa – Don Riccardo Seppia , the former parish priest of the district of Genoa Sestri Ponente who was arrested for pedophilia and imprisoned in Sanremo, he returned to freedom it will be housed in a church community of Lombardy.]

Genova – Don Riccardo Seppia, l’ex parroco del quartiere genovese di Sestri Ponente che fu arrestato per pedofilia e rinchiuso nel carcere di Sanremo, è tornato in libertà: sarà ospitato in una comunità ecclesiastica della Lombardia.

Don Seppia era stato condannato in appello a 8 anni e 6 mesi di reclusione, ma lo scorso novembre la Cassazione aveva annullato la sentenza, rinviando gli atti a Genova con una nuova qualificazione del reato: tentati atti sessuali con minorenne e induzione alla prostituzione.

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ITALIA
Ravenna and Dintorni

[A priest in Italy was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in jail for abusing minors.]

10 anni e 8 mesi per l’ex parroco Desio

La sentenza del giudice è stata più pesante della richiesta dell’accusa: il 53enne Giovanni Desio, ex parroco a Casalborsetti dal 2001 al 2014, è stato condannato a dieci anni e otto mesi (18 mesi in più della richiesta del pm) per violenza sessuale su minori. Un anno dopo l’arresto nella canonica di Casalborsetti è arrivata quindi la condanna in primo grado per Desio che da lunedì scorso non è più un sacerdote: il Vaticano aveva trasmesso alla diocesi di Ravenna il decreto con cui lo ha dimesso dallo stato clericale e contemporaneamente gli ha dato la dispensa dal celibato.

Desio, originario di Milano, è accusato di avere fatto sesso tra il 2010 e il 2014 con alcuni ragazzini tra gli 11 e i 15 anni a lui affidati dai familiari. Quattro i giovanissimi individuati dalla Procura tra le parti offese: sono delle province di Ravenna, Bergamo e Treviso. Ma è accusato anche di violenza sessuale per avere millantato qualifiche infermieristiche al fine di visitare un paio di giovani. L’ex prelato, difeso dall’avvocato Battista Cavassi, dopo sette mesi di carcere a Forlì, si trova da mesi in un apposito centro di recupero della provincia di Perugia.

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LOUISIANA
The Advocate

JOE GYAN JR.| JGYAN@THEADVOCATE.COM

A Baton Rouge pastor accused more than a year ago of raping an intellectually limited 20-year-old woman at the behest of her father will not be charged, a prosecutor and the pastor’s attorney said Thursday.

David “Scott” Lemley, pastor of New Harmony Baptist Church on Antioch Road, had told sheriff’s investigators that the woman was prone to making up stories for no reason.

East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Sue Bernie said that is not why prosecutors decided not to prosecute the 44-year-old Lemley, who was booked early last year on an aggravated rape count.

“That determination was not made because we think she makes up stories,” Bernie stressed. “There was a legal analysis done.”

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LOUISIANA
Addicting Info

RANDA MORRIS MAY 18, 2015

A Louisiana pastor will not face charges of rape, after allegedly having sex with an ‘intellectually limited woman’ on multiple occasions, at the request of her father.

According to The Advocate, the 20-year-old victim has the mental capacity of a seven-year-old child. The girl’s father was arrested in November 2013 on multiple sex charges, including aggravated rape. Although he confessed to police that he had sex with his own intellectually impaired child, he was not convicted on any charges related to that. Instead he plead guilty to a lesser charge of ‘cruelty to a juvenile.’ The victim’s father served a minimal jail sentence and is currently out on probation.

Pastor David ‘Scott’ Lemley was arrested in March of 2014, following an investigation into allegations that the girl’s father also told her to have sex with him, because his wife is ‘ill’ and ‘bedridden’.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Cardinal George Pell helped shift paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale between parishes, royal commission hears

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 19, 2015

SECRET church documents tendered to a royal commission reveal that Cardinal ­George Pell helped move Australia’s worst paedophile priest between parishes.

The revelation at the inquiry into child sexual abuse has sparked calls for the former Archbishop of Melbourne to return from The Vatican — where he now oversees the Catholic Church’s finances — to explain his involvement in the handling of vile pervert Gerald Francis Ridsdale.

The shamed priest has spent decades behind bars and has admitted molesting at least 54 children across Victoria.

But the total is thought to be more than 200, as he was routinely moved ­between parishes despite a string of complaints against him.

Cardinal Pell has persistently denied knowing the ­extent of Ridsdale’s offending.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A nun told a Ballarat abuse victim what had happened was “God’s secret”, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The man, who was also abused by three Christian Brothers at Ballarat schools, said the nun abused him when he was in grade one.

“I don’t remember how long the incident of abuse lasted but when she was done the nun took me off her lap and said what had just happened was God’s secret,” the man told the royal commission.

“She told me if I told anyone what had happened I would go to hell.”

The victim told the royal commission he was also abused by Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald and Brother Robert Charles Best at St Alipius primary school.

He said he was in constant fear at school.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 19 May 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– Rev. Fr. James Massa and Rev. Fr. Witold Mroziewski as auxiliaries of Brooklyn (area 466, population 4,838,406, Catholics 1,403,137, priests 604, permanent deacons 225, religious 1,053), U.S.A.

Bishop-elect Massa was born in Jersey City, U.S.A., in 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1986. He holds a master’s degree in theology from the Yale University School of Divinity, New Haven, and a doctorate in systematic theology from Fordham University, New York. He has served in a number of roles in the diocese of Brooklyn, including parish vicar, chaplain and professor at the Kansas Newman College, professor at the Pope John XXIII national seminary and the seminary of the Immaculate Conception, executive director of the ecumenical and interreligious committee of the U.S.A. episcopal conference, consultor of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, professor of the St. Joseph seminary, moderator of the curia and administrator of the Holy Name Parish.

Bishop-elect Mroziewski was born in Augustow, Poland in 1966 and was ordained a priest in 1991. He holds master’s degrees in theology and canon law, and a doctorate in canon law from the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. He has served in a number of roles, including parish vicar in the diocese of Lomza, Poland, and in Brooklyn, parish vicar, administrator, parish priest, judge at the diocesan tribunal, coordinator of the Polish apostolate, adjunct promoter of justice for criminal causes, member of the presbyteral council and defender of the bond. He is currently parish priest of the Holy Cross parish in Maspeth.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Cardinal George Pell was involved in the decision to move a priest who was later found to be a prolific child sex abuse offender from the Victorian parish of Mortlake, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse heard.

The offending of Gerald Ridsdale, who has been found guilty on four occasions of more than 100 separate offences against children as young as four, was laid out in confronting detail during public hearings in Ballarat.

Pell, who supported Ridsdale during his first court appearance for child sex offences in 1993, was part of a Catholic church clerical group called the College of Consultors that decided to move Ridsdale between parishes. Pell later became the Bishop of Sydney before taking up a senior role at the Vatican.

The hearing was told that Ridsdale was discussed at a meeting of the College of Consultors in September 1982 where the minutes recorded “it had become necessary for Fr Gerald Ridsdale to move from the parish of Mortlake”.

No reason for the transfer is recorded in the minutes. Pell as always denied any knowledge of children being abused in Ballarat.

The commission heard Catholic priests involved in the sexual abuse of young children were repeatedly moved to different parishes in Victoria and sent on “treatment” trips to the US and Italy before eventually being convicted of their crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
19 MAY 2015

A Ballarat bishop buried his head in the sand and didn’t think he had to tell police about clergy who sexually abused children, the royal commission has heard.

Convicted Ballarat priest Paul David Ryan says Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew about him in 1977 but did not revoke his faculties until 1993.

“Ryan thought Bishop Mulkearns buried his head in the sand about the sexual abuse issues in the diocese,” senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said in her opening address.

She said Bishop Mulkearns also did not think it was his job to tell police about Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale, who abused more than 50 children as he was moved between nine Victorian parishes and church locations.

Ms Furness said it was not until June 1988 that Ridsdale was suspended for 12 months, 13 years after Bishop Mulkearns first knew he was sexually abusing boys he met during his work as a priest.

Ridsdale is believed to have abused every boy aged between 10 and 16 at the school in the town of Mortlake, a royal commission hearing into abuse by Catholic clergy and other church personnel in the Ballarat diocese has heard.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

May 19, 2015

Konrad Marshall
Senior writer

From the witness box Philip Nagel held the black-and-white picture aloft – his grade-four photo from St Alipius Primary School in 1974.

There were rows of boys in uniform, the taller ones smiling and standing up the back, the little ones seated and cross-legged at the front.

They should all be middle-aged by now, like Philip Nagel, 50. But instead, a third of the boys in the image are dead, believed by suicide.

Mr Nagel, the first person called in Ballarat on Tuesday at the opening of the Royal Commission on Institutional Child Sex Abuse, knows why.

He remembers how it started, watching the Christian Brothers at the school playing “catch and kiss” with the younger boys.

He remembers how it escalated into clumsy and confusing, degrading and demeaning sexual abuse in the sick bay.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
19 MAY 2015

PHILIP NAGLE, 50

Abused by Brother Stephen Francis Farrell at St Alipius primary school.

“St Alipius Boys’ Primary School was a place where there was true evil.”

Nagle was “absolutely disgusted” when Farrell was given a two-year suspended sentence in 1997 and the magistrate said the person who committed the offences was not the person being dealt with now.

“I was pretty disappointed that the magistrate would say something like this about such an evil predator.

“The whole thing was treated like it was a traffic offence.”

BAC, 52

Also abused by Farrell at St Alipius.

“I remember when I started at St Alipius, I was told by other kids to steer clear of Brother Robert Best, to go nowhere near him and never let him get you alone.

“I was also told to be careful around Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald. Nobody said why but I remember the other kids were scared of these two Brothers.”

BAS, 69

Sexually abused by a Christian Brother at St Patrick’s primary school from age 12 or 13.

Told his parents about the physical abuse but not the sexual abuse.

“It doesn’t matter what people say to me. I’ll never forget what happened to me by the Catholic Church.

“I’ve had 10 sessions of counselling but it still hasn’t taken any of the hurt away.”

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

RUSS MOSES

Published on: May 18, 2015

The Indian Residential Schools experience looms large in the history of my family, just as it does for so many Native families across the country. Written from the vantage point of December, 1965 when he was 33 years old, the following excerpts from his memoir recount my late father Russ Moses’ experiences at the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School (“the Mush Hole”) in Brantford, Ontario which he attended from 1942 to 1947.

Russ and his older brother Elliott and younger sister Thelma had the misfortune of attending the Mohawk at the height of the Second World War, when any pretence toward providing education or training had largely been abandoned. The children were there to provide the forced agricultural labour necessary to keep the large farming operation going, as a contribution to the industrial-scale food production effort on the home front. The Mohawk sat on 350 acres of prime southern Ontario farmland with livestock and numerous crops and orchards under cultivation.

The children themselves derived no benefit from this, and were reduced to begging on the streets of Brantford to sustain themselves. Russ’s memoir remains of historical interest, predating as it does our current era of retrospection and reflection concerning the schools. It is presented here in recognition of the upcoming closing national event of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be held in Ottawa from May 31 to June 3. Russ refused to be defined by his residential school experiences. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, as well as a proud Korean War veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy and later the RCAF, and finally a federal public servant specializing in employment equity matters. He died in Ottawa on May 22, 2013 and is buried at his home community of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Examiner

By Laura Dudnick @LauraDudnick

The controversial pastor of a Catholic elementary school in San Francisco has been removed from his post, though some parents remain concerned that the change is only temporary.

The announcement came late last month that a new chaplain was appointed to oversee the Star of the Sea Elementary in place of Rev. Joseph Illo and Rev. Patrick Driscoll, said Christy Brooks, a parent of two sons at the Richmond district school.

“The only way we’re going to be satisfied is if we have a guarantee [that] over the course of our children’s lifetimes at Star of the Sea, Father Illo and Father Driscoll will not [be involved],” Brooks said.

Illo, the school’s pastor since last summer, came under fire in recent months after he announced a new policy to no longer train girls as altar servers and later distributed sexually explicit pamphlets to children before confession, the latter of which he apologized for.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 19, 2015

Konrad Marshall
Senior writer

Cold rain fell heavy and hard on the roof of the former church hall next to the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court.

These days it is a restaurant, on Tuesday it provided overflow seating for those who came to listen to day one of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in this small regional town west of Melbourne.

It was a strange place to hear the sins of the clergy. The stained-glass window in the sanctuary had been appropriately covered.

Ostensibly this was to mitigate the glare bouncing off the screen of closed-circuit camera feed from courtroom five next door, but you had to imagine the curtain also served to mute the mockery the evidence gave to these religious surroundings..

This was the first day of up to three weeks of testimony from victims, perpetrators and experts about the scope and impact of a period of cruel and systemic abuse, subsequent neglect and shunning, resultant loss of faith and connectedness.

And so sat victims, fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters, listening to the catalogue of crimes committed, aided and abetted by other Fathers, Brothers, Mothers and Sisters, Monsignors, Bishops and Cardinals, and the concomitant substance abuse, post traumatic stress and endemic suicide that followed.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

[with video]

By Eden Checkol

May 18, 2015
Updated May 18, 2015

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — An Olivia, Minnesota woman filed a lawsuit Monday against the Diocese of Duluth for alleged sexual abuse by a former priest.

Quin Buchtel said she was sexually abused by Father Charles Gormly at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Brainerd.

Buchtel said she was first harassed by Gormly, who is deceased, when she was 12-years-old in 1960.

According to Buchtel, the sexual abuse continued until 1961.

Her lawyer, Mike Finnegan, said the Diocese of Duluth continues to conceal information about pedophile priests.

The lawsuit is asking the Diocese to publicly release names of all clergy accused of child sex abuse to keep minors safe.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

The impacts of the gross violations of children by Catholic clergy in Ballarat has been felt throughout the community, the royal commission chair says.

Justice Peter McClellan says a public hearing in Ballarat will hear the personal stories of a number of survivors as well as perpetrators of the abuse.

‘That evidence will describe the gross violations of individuals by ordained members of the Catholic Church,’ Justice McClellan said on Tuesday.

Justice McClellan was told of the significant scale of the abuse in the Ballarat region during private sessions in the Victorian regional city.

He said the great suffering of many people extended beyond individual survivors to their families and friends.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Royal Commission has heard harrowing evidence of child sexual abuse at Catholic institutions around Ballarat, west of Melbourne.

Stephen Woods, one survivor who was raped and later blamed for what had happened, spoke in court today.

“I want to share about how it has really affected me so personally, so deeply, and it’s affected my family, it’s affected my friends, it’s affected my life on so many levels,” Mr Woods said.

“I was told as a child that I was bad, that I was evil, and that this was my fault.”

The group of abusers included Gerald Ridsdale, jailed for eight years for molesting more than 50 children across a dozen parishes and churches in Victoria.

At one school Ridsdale had molested every male child aged between 11 and 16.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Tuesday 19 May 2015

A history of child sex abuse and its legacy of suicide is like an “unseen cancer” in the Victorian town of Ballarat, say abuse survivors who have criticised the Catholic church over its response to the crimes.

Speaking at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse, former students of Catholic institutions in the Ballarat area explained the legacy of more than three decades of abuse that went unreported by senior Catholic clergy.

“The Catholic church seems remorseless and unapologetic,” said Paul Auchettl, 57, who was molested while he attended the St Alipius primary school. “They have supported the offenders and they have paid some victims, but often that has not helped.”

A raft of suicides in Ballarat has been linked to the widespread abuse of children in five Catholic institutions. Philip Nagle, 50, told the hearing that of 33 boys in his school year, he believed 12 had killed themselves.

Auchettl said: “Shame is rife; it’s like an unseen cancer in this town. There is no collective memory or place to mark the abuse and the horror of the number of suicides. There is nothing that brings us together to talk about this. It is like an unseen carnage.”

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

Westminster United Church’s minister will be reinstated to his post despite a ruling that upheld a sexual harassment complaint against him.

Robert Campbell, the 61-year-old longtime leader from the Wolseley-area church who was suspended with pay from his duties in late January, will return to his post next month.

The move comes after a formal hearing under the United Church of Canada’s sexual abuse prevention and response policy and procedures that was held last week.

The executive secretary of the United Church’s Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario announced Sunday that the complaint of sexual harassment and pastoral sexual misconduct was upheld during that hearing. Another complaint involving another individual was dismissed.

“Based on the evidence put forward by the parties, including a report of Reverend Campbell’s treating psychiatrist, the Committee restored Reverend Campbell to the functions of the ministry effective June 1, 2015 with specific terms and conditions that were put forward in a joint recommendation on behalf of Reverend Campell and the Presbytery Commission,” Rev. Shannon McCarthy announced in a news release.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston.com

[with video]

By Allison Pohle @AllisonPohle Video by Guru Amar Khalsa @GuruAmarK
Boston.com Staff | 05.18.15

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross cast a shadow over his face, but Richard Orareo stood tall, with one hand holding his cane and the other holding a poster of a girl who was raped by a priest from kindergarten through the seventh grade.

The church bells began ringing just as Orareo began to speak to a crowd of 20 other survivors gathered in front of the church.

“It’s my competition,” Orareo said of the bells.

“But you can stand up to it,” said Paul Kellen.

Orareo has stood up to the bells, and up to the Catholic Church, for more than 13 years.

After The Boston Globe released its investigation into sexual abuse by clergy members, he became one of the first survivors to take his place as a self-proclaimed sidewalk protester in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 18/05/2015
Reporter: Hamish Fitzsimmons

Both victims and abusers will give evidence, when the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse holds public hearings in the Victorian city of Ballarat. Lateline’s Hamish Fitzsimmons was given exclusive access to a support group for survivors

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Both victims and abusers will give evidence tomorrow when the Royal commission into child sexual abuse holds public hearings in the Victorian city of Ballarat.

It was one of the worst places for abuse by Catholic clergy and the damage they caused continues to ruin lives.

One survivor has told Lateline the death rate from suicide is now higher than the road toll in Ballarat.

It’s been revealed that at one stage in 1971, the entire male staff of the St Alipius primary school was molesting children.

One of the most notorious abusers in Ballarat was Father Gerald Ridsdale. He’ll be giving evidence to the commission this week via video link from prison.

While the Federal Government opposes a national redress scheme for victims, support is available. It’s often provided through the Catholic Church, but there are others, like the Centre Against Sexual Assault in Ballarat.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Catholic priests involved in the sexual abuse of young children were repeatedly moved to different parishes in Victoria and sent on “treatment” trips to the US and Italy before eventually being convicted of their crimes, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard.

The opening day of hearings in the Victorian town of Ballarat featured the start of evidence from 17 men who said they were abused at five Catholic institutions in the area.

The widespread abuse, over the course of three decades from the 1960s onwards, has been linked to at least a dozen suicides in the Ballarat area due to the trauma endured by abuse victims.

The prolific offending of Gerald Ridsdale, who has been found guilty on four occasions of more than 100
Gail Furness, counsel assisting the royal commission, said Ridsdale abused children “at parishes or church locations throughout Victoria” from the 1960s to 1980s, including in Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay, Ballarat and Mortlake.

Gail Furness, counsel assisting the royal commission, said Ridsdale abused children “at parishes or church locations throughout Victoria” from the 1960s to 1980s, including in Mildura, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, Apollo Bay, Ballarat and Mortlake.

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AUSTRALIA
Digital Journal

By Megan Hamilton

Ballarat – After conferring with the archbishops of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Francis Sullivan, head of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, reiterated their pledge to keep the Ellis defense in the past and not the present or future.

Sullivan’s comments arrive just as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA) began hearings on Monday regarding cases of abuse in Ballarat, CathNews reports.

What is the Ellis defense?

John Ellis was an altar boy who suffered sexual abuse during the 1970s, and when he tried to sue the church over the abuse, the courts rejected the claim, ruling that the Church wasn’t a legal entity, and it wasn’t liable for abuse committed by a priest, A.M. reports.

This was labeled the “Ellis defense” and the Catholic Church has used this tactic for years to avoid making payments to those who are survivors of sexual abuse, A.M. reports.

There’s been conflicting reports about what the Church was planning to do, and earlier on Monday, The Age reported that the Church was planning to use this controversial defense.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

BY MEGAN NEIL AAP MAY 19, 2015

A BALLARAT bishop knew Australia’s worst pedophile priest had abused boys when he moved him between parishes with Cardinal George Pell involved in at least one decision to move him, an inquiry has heard.

THEN Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale had abused boys “so he was taken out of there” and again moved to another parish, the abuse royal commission heard on the opening day of three weeks of hearings in the city devastated by decades of abuse.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said Ridsdale was discussed at a meeting of the bishop’s advisers – the College of Consultors – in September 1982, where Cardinal Pell was present.
The meeting minutes say the bishop advised it had become necessary for Ridsdale to move from Mortlake parish, but do not disclose what reasons Bishop Mulkearns gave.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell may have known about priest’s crimes against children, royal commission hears

May 19, 2015

Jane Lee

Cardinal George Pell may have known about disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale’s crimes against children years before he faced charges and may have been involved in decisions to move him between parishes, a royal commission has heard.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gail Furness, SC, described on Tuesday how the College of Consultors – a group of priests who advised the Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns – decided to move Ridsdale between parishes.

Cardinal Pell, who supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in 1993, was previously a member of the group. Now a Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See in Rome, Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied knowing children were abused in Ballarat when he was there.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jack The Insider
Columnist

Today the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse begins public hearings in Ballarat. It is a Herculean task.

Much but not all of the abuse occurred within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church’s Ballarat Diocese. The Royal Commission has examined profound failures to protect children in a range of institutions, religious and secular, government and non-government. This time it must deal with the sordid business of Catholic clerical abuse within the Ballarat Diocese.

The Ballarat Diocese extends across most of western Victoria, from Portland in the southwest of the state along the south coast, excluding Geelong, all the way north to the border city of Mildura in the state’s northwest corner. There is not a country town or city in that vast geographical space not affected by clerical child sex abuse.

It was an epidemic of rape and torment of children. I have ventured that nowhere in Australia has there been more institutional child sex abuse and as far as I know nowhere else on the planet.

Some of the culprits are well known. There is Gerard Ridsdale, a now laicised priest serving an 18 year jail sentence. By his own admission he counts his victims in the hundreds. There is Christian Brother, Robert Best jailed for 14 years. Many of his victims lived in the Ballarat diocese.

And finally there is Monsignor John Day, a name that has stubbornly refused to seep into the national consciousness. Day has been the subject of more than a hundred Towards Healing claims. He was a pedophile who monstered children for five decades in Horsham, Ballarat, Apollo Bay, Beech Forest, Colac, Ararat and Mildura.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The impacts of the gross violations of children by Catholic clergy in Ballarat has been felt throughout the community, the royal commission chair says.

Justice Peter McClellan says a public hearing in Ballarat will hear the personal stories of a number of survivors as well as perpetrators of the abuse.

‘That evidence will describe the gross violations of individuals by ordained members of the Catholic Church,’ Justice McClellan said on Tuesday.Justice McClellan was told of the significant scale of the abuse in the Ballarat region during private sessions in the Victorian regional city.

He said the great suffering of many people extended beyond individual survivors to their families and friends.

‘The impacts have been felt throughout the community,’ he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A Ballarat bishop did not think it was his job to tell police about child abuser Gerald Francis Ridsdale, Australia’s worst pedophile priest.

Ridsdale is believed to have abused every boy aged between 10 and 16 at the school in the Victorian town of Mortlake, the royal commission looking into abuse by clergy and other members of the Catholic Church in the Ballarat diocese has heard.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said Ridsdale was a prolific offender while parish priest in Mortlake from January 1981.

‘There will be evidence that his behaviour around boys was no secret in Mortlake,’ Ms Furness said on Tuesday.

Ms Furness said it was not until June 1988 that Ridsdale was suspended for 12 months, 13 years after the Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns first knew that he was sexually abusing boys he met during his work as a priest.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 19, 2015

A former student of Ballarat’s St Alipius Boys Primary School has told the Royal Commission it was a place of “true evil’’ where up to dozen of his Year 4 classmates went on to take their own lives after they were abused.

Giving evidence on the first day of hearings in the Victorian town, Philip Nagle said he was abused as a boy at the school and his home by St Alipius teacher Brother Stephen Francis Farrell.

He told the commission that he knew when an attack was coming because his teacher would remove his glasses.

Mr Nagle said the abuse started when he was in grade five and had Brother Farrell as a teacher.

Later that year at a school camp, Mr Nagle first thought of taking his own life.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Child abuse royal commission: Priest abused every young boy at regional Victorian school, inquiry hears

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

The child abuse royal commission is set to hear details of the “gross violations” of victims by members of the Catholic Church in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat.

A notorious paedophile priest abused every boy at a regional Victorian school between the age of 10 and 16, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding long-awaited public hearings in Ballarat to examine historical abuse suffered by children at a number of schools in the regional centre, at the hands of Catholic clergy and other members of the Church.

Some of Australia’s most notorious abusers were part of a paedophile ring operating in and around Ballarat for years, including Gerald Ridsdale, Robert Best and Edward Dowlan.

In her opening address, Senior Counsel Assisting the Commission, Gail Furness SC, outlined the extent of Ridsdale’s offending.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Cardinal George Pell may have aided cover-up of Australia’s worst paedophile, royal commission hears

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 19, 2015

CARDINAL George Pell may have unwittingly helped protect Australia’s worst paedophile priest by moving him between parishes and covering up his evil crimes, it had been alleged.

In explosive allegations before the royal commission into sexual abuse this morning it was alleged the high-ranking Cardinal sat on a committee that protected notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale.

Ridsdale, who has spent decades behind bars, has admitted molesting at least 54 victims but it has been estimated he molested more than 200 children while being shuffled around parishes.

Cardinal Pell has persistently denied knowing the extent of offending by notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale before he controversially accompanied him to a court hearing in 1993.

But the commission heard this morning he sat on a committee in September 1982 that considered Ridsdale’s offending when deciding to move him on.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 19, 2015

Jane Lee

One of Australia’s most notorious paedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale, will give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Allegations of Sexual Abuse during its first hearing in Ballarat.

The former Catholic priest and serial child sex offender will give evidence via video link from prison, where he is serving time for 30 offences committed against 14 children.

It is the first time a convicted perpetrator will publicly provide evidence to the royal commission in Victoria.

Ridsdale, 81, was part of a notorious paedophile ring involving the clergy that operated in Ballarat in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Seventeen male victims of child sexual abuse at Catholic-run schools in Victoria will also give evidence at the Ballarat hearing.

One survivor will tell the commission that of 33 boys in his 1974 grade four class at the now-closed St Alipius Boys’ School, 12 are believed to have taken their own lives.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By ALEX HAMER May 18, 2015

THE royal commission will hear how paedophile Edward Dowlan was allowed to continue teaching years after his abuse of children became common knowledge among Ballarat’s clergy.

St Patrick’s College is one of the five Roman Catholic institutions in Ballarat to come under the microscope in a three-week sitting, which starts on Tuesday.

College headmaster John Crowley, in a statement to students and parents on Friday, said he would attend the hearings. “The coming weeks will be a very difficult time for both victims/survivors of sexual abuse, as well as the broader St Patrick’s College community, including many past Christian Brothers who have committed their lives to educating and inspiring young men in the Edmund Rice tradition,” he said.

“Our thoughts and prayers will be with the victims/survivors throughout this time. It is important that their stories are heard and listened to.

“It is for this reason that I will attend the royal commission as the college’s representative.”

Dowlan was sentenced to 12 months in prison in March for abusing boys at the school in 1973 and 1974, as well as in five other schools. It is expected his victims will give evidence to the royal commission.

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CHICAGO (IL)
14 News

CHICAGO (AP) –
An attorney says the Archdiocese of Chicago has reached a $1.25 million settlement with a man who claims he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest.

Plaintiff’s attorney Eugene Hollander announced Monday the settlement was reached over the weekend.

The plaintiff, now in his 20s, claimed Daniel McCormack repeatedly abused him while he was a fourth- and fifth grader at St. Ailbe Catholic School on the South Side.

McCormack was removed from the priesthood and pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children at St. Agatha parish in Chicago. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and remains at a state mental health facility. He was charged last year in a 2005 case involving a 10-year-old victim at St. Agatha.

A message seeking comment was left for the archdiocese.

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WASHINGTON
Q13 Fox

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — The Seattle Archdiocese has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she was molested by a priest in the 1960s and ’70s.

Jeri Hubbard, a 63-year-old from Sedro Woolley, sued in Whatcom County Superior Court in 2012, alleging she was abused by former priest Michael Cody, who was pastor of St. Charles Parish in Burlington and Assumption Parish in Bellingham.

In a deposition, Cody, now 84, acknowledged having inappropriately touched girls, but said he didn’t have relations with Hubbard until after she turned 18.

Her lawyers, including Seattle attorney Michael Pfau and Mount Vernon attorney John Murphy, said a psychiatrist in 1962 advised then-Archbishop Thomas Connelly that Cody had molested at least eight girls. The archbishop sent Cody to treatment but allowed him to return to work.

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WASHINGTON
KIRO

By Alison Grande

A Sedro-Woolley woman who was molested by a priest settled for $1.2 million dollars Monday after she sued the Seattle Archdiocese.

Jeri Hubbard, 63, was sexually abused as a teenager by Father Michael Cody at St. Charles Parish in Burlington. Hubbard’s attorneys say the Seattle Archdiocese knew Father Cody was a pedophile and instead of taking action, just moved him from parish to parish allowing him to victimize more children.

The Archdiocese settled during Hubbard’s trial in Whatcom County Superior Court, admitted it acted negligently and recklessly.

KIRO 7’s Alison Grande spoke with Hubbard in Mt Vernon today and is putting together her story for KIRO 7 Eyewitness News at 6 p.m.

“The Archdiocese of Seattle acknowledged responsibility for the emotional distress of Michael Cody’s victim in keeping with our commitment to healing we worked to reach a fair and just resolution,” Seattle Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran May 18, 2015

A woman sued the Diocese of Duluth on Monday as part of an effort to force the Catholic diocese to release thousands of documents on priests accused of child sexual abuse.

In the lawsuit, Quin Buchtel said the Rev. Charles Gormly sexually abused her during his tenure at St. Francis of Assisi in Brainerd, Minn. Buchtel said the abuse took place from about 1960 to 1961, when she was 12 to 13 years old.

Gormly died in 1968.

“I’m coming forward on behalf of other victims,” Buchtel said at a news conference Monday.

“Hopefully by seeing me come forward and using my name, they will feel comfortable to do that, also.”

The lawsuit filed in St. Louis County accuses the Duluth diocese of creating a public nuisance by not warning the public about Gormly and other priests who had been accused of abusing children. It also accuses the diocese of negligence, arguing that the diocese “knew or should have known that Gormly was a danger to children” in the 1960s.

Buchtel is seeking more than $50,000 in damages and a court order that would require the diocese to release its files on priests accused of sexually abusing children.

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KANSAS
KSHB

[with video]

Brendaliss Gonzalez
6:45 PM, May 18, 2015

SHAWNEE, Kan. – A Kansas woman is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, alleging administrators falsely accused her of child abuse.

The woman’s attorney filed the lawsuit against the Diocese, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Shawnee and the principal for the church’s school last week.

According to the lawsuit, Melissa Schroeder claims she first notified her daughter’s teacher of bullying against her daughter in April 2014.

She also notified the Sacred Heart School’s principal later that month.

However, she alleges nearly a month later, nothing was done, even after she provided notes from her daughter’s doctor stating the girl was suffering from severe migraines possible caused by “some of the bullying at school.”

According to the lawsuit, the principal told Schroeder that “perhaps this school is not for you.”

Schroeder alleges she later found out the principal filed a complaint against her to the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) alleging that she “was abusing and neglecting her ten-year-old daughter.”

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen Today

More than half a century has passed, but Quin Buchtel says she still is dealing with the effects of being sexually abused by her priest.

Buchtel has long battled what she describes as severe chronic depression — requiring hospitalization at least four times — and said Monday that her life has been marked by a series of “questionable choices.”

“I would like to know what my life would’ve been had I not been abused by this priest,” she said. “I don’t know if what he did resulted in my anger, which turned ultimately into depression, or not. But I feel that it must’ve had some impact on my life as an adult.”

Buchtel, a 65-year-old social worker living in Olivia, Minn., filed a lawsuit Monday against the Diocese of Duluth, alleging that she was abused by the Rev. Charles Gormly in the early 1960s.

Her lawsuit is the fourth filed against the Duluth diocese under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which opened a three-year window for victims of decades-old abuse to file claims.

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UNITED STATES
The Good Men Project

May 18, 2015 by Christopher M. Anderson

Comedians, if it’s not too much trouble – can you please stop using me and millions of other rape and sexual abuse survivors as a punch line?

I mean, come on Louis C.K. – do you think that just because you allowed your character to be raped on your show (perhaps more than once) that somehow you could get away with comparing pedophilia to your love of candy on Saturday Night Live this past weekend?

And hey- everyone at Saturday Night Live (especially you Pete Davidson, Cecily Strong, and Keenan Thompson)- don’t for a second try to pass off that Teacher Trial skit last month as some kind of piercing commentary on Barbara Walters’ recent interview of child rapist Mary Kay LaTourneau. It was nothing more than a shameless and unapologetic reinforcement of every toxic stereotype of male sexual victimization.

Look – I’m not trying to call for a ban on all rape jokes. I actually think the “Football Town Nights” piece from this season’s Inside Amy Schumer was masterfully done (and the rare exception that proves the rule that rape isn’t comedic). And I’m not saying we should not speak of these matters ever – far from it. Rape and sexual assault thrive on silence.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 21

Avery Neuville, Reporter, aneuville@kqdsfox21.tv

DULUTH, Minn. –
A 65 year old, Oliver woman, is suing the Diocese of Duluth over allegations of Sexual Abuse.

“What a real big deal this was in our life that was totally glossed over by our school and perish,” said Sexual Abuse Survivor, Quin Buchtel.

Buchtel says she was sexually abused by Father Charles Gormly, who is now dead, in a Brainard Church in 1960.

Her lawsuit asks the Diocese to publicly release the names and documents of all clergy accused of child sex abuse.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SFGate

By C.W. Nevius on May 18, 2015

The announcement that priest Joseph Illo would be removed (see final item) as chaplain of Star of the Sea School took a lot of people by surprise, but was Illo one of them?

The controversial pastor of the Star of the Sea parish sent out an odd letter to parents and faculty last week that said, “indications thus far are that I will remain administrator of Star of the Sea Parish for the foreseeable future.” However, nothing is said about the school.

We now know that Bishop Salvatore Cordileone has replaced Illo with Father Vito Perrone, who had been at Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco. Perrone has quickly set out to lower the volume of the discussion about gender roles and morality pamphlets that’s been raging around the school for the past few months and reassure school parents.

“Father Vito showed up and the first thing he did was schedule 40-minute appointments with every parent,” said Christy Brooks, who has a sixth and a fourth grader at the school. “He’s a wonderful human being and a wonderful spiritual teacher.”

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HAITI
Daily Reporter

By DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press
First Posted: May 18, 2015

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian justice authorities are making plans for a new criminal trial against a U.S. citizen who has been accused of physically and sexually abusing boys in an orphanage that he has run for decades in the impoverished Caribbean country, a top government official and lawyers said Monday.

Michael Geilenfeld, an Iowa native and former brother with Mother Teresa’s Brothers of Charity, opened the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in the Haitian capital in 1985. He was arrested in September, but freed last month when a Haitian judge dismissed the case following a brief trial that was not attended by the five accusers, now adults.

Justice Minister Pierre-Richard Casimir told The Associated Press that an appeal filed by lawyers for the alleged victims, allowing the case to be re-examined, has been granted. Without disclosing specifics, he said Monday the prosecutor “didn’t do the case correctly” and has since been sanctioned.

“There should be another trial in this case,” Casimir said in a phone interview.

Manuel Jeanty, a lawyer for the accusers, said he and his clients were not notified about the recent trial beforehand, but hope they “will see justice” in Haiti now that an appeal has been granted.

Defense lawyer Alain Lemithe said he and other attorneys are prepared to “go back to court to defend Mr. Geilenfeld’s interests.” He alleged that the government’s decision to grant the appeal was made “under pressure,” adding that “what they are doing is not illegal but it’s very unusual.”

Geilenfeld’s lawyers blame an email and blog campaign by U.S. activist Paul Kendrick of Freeport, Maine for their client’s arrest, and for the granting of the appeal.

Kendrick, co-founder of the Maine chapter of a Catholic lay reform group, launched a campaign against Geilenfeld in 2011 after learning of the abuse allegations.

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UNITED STATES
JTA

By Uriel Heilman
May 18, 2015

(JTA) – Rabbi Barry Freundel was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for installing hidden cameras in the mikvah shower room adjacent to his synagogue and surreptitiously recording naked women.

The sentence meted out last Friday in D.C. Superior Court represented 45 days each for the 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism to which Freundel, the longtime rabbi of the Orthodox Washington congregation Kesher Israel, pleaded guilty in February. The terms will be served successively.

How does the sentence stack up with other prison terms doled out to Jews in America for their high-profile crimes?

Here are some cases for comparison:

Perpetrator: Rabbi Baruch Lanner, principal of an Orthodox yeshiva high school in New Jersey and an official at the Orthodox Union’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Arrest date: March 2001.
Crimes: Child endangerment, aggravated criminal sexual contact, sexual contact and harassment.
Plea: Not guilty.
Sentence: 7 years in prison. Lanner began serving his sentence in 2005 and was paroled in 2008.

Perpetrator: Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist in Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidic community.
Arrest date: Feb. 23, 2011.
Crimes: 59 counts of sexual abuse against a teenage girl.
Plea: Not guilty.
Sentence: 103 years in prison.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jewish Week

05/18/15
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer

Rabbi Barry Freundel will appeal the 6.5-year sentence he received for 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism, according to his lawyer, Jeffery Harris, who said the sentence was “illegal.”

Rabbi Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on Friday for videotaping dozens of nude women at a ritual bath.

“You repeatedly and secretly violated the trust your victims had in you and you abused your power,” Senior Judge Geoffrey Alprin of D.C. Superior Court said at the sentencing, the Washington Post reported. Alprin also fined Freundel more than $13,000.

Bethany Mandel, one of Freundel’s victims who attended the sentencing, said she thought the sentence was fair.

“A lot of us worried that he would only be given a year,” she said. “We wanted this crime to be taken seriously, not for our own sake, but because if sexual crimes of this nature go largely unpunished, people will be more hesitant to press similar charges in the future.” Freundel’s sentence set an important precedent, she said.

In February, Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism for installing secret cameras in the shower room of the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, the prominent Washington Orthodox synagogue he led for some 25 years.

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Margaret Burin

As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse begins its first public hearings in Ballarat, five victims call for recognition, justice and a national scheme to support survivors.

As Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse begins its first public hearings in Ballarat, five victims have called for recognition, justice and a national scheme to support survivors.

During the 1960s and 1970s, a notorious paedophile ring preyed on children in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat.

Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, Brother Robert Best, Brother Ted Dowlan and Brother Stephen Frances Farrell were among the convicted paedophiles who operated in the area.

Beginning on Tuesday, May 19 and continuing for the next three weeks, the royal commission will hear evidence from survivors of abuse at Catholic Church institutions in Ballarat.

They will hear evidence from students, parents and other witnesses, as well as the response of five Catholic institutions to clergy abuse.

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MINNESOTA
WDIO

An Olivia, Minnesota woman spoke out on Monday, about her alleged abuse at the hands of Father Charles Gormly, who served in the Diocese of Duluth.

“I was molested by Father Gormly. But I was abused by the Diocese, because I believe the nuns knew what was going on, the other priests knew, and that the Diocese must have known,” explained Quin Buchtel.

She was a girl at a school in Brainerd when the alleged abuse took place, approximately 1960-1961. It came up again in her life when she attended a school reunion, and she said her classmates discussed what had happened to them.

Buchtel said when she checked in the 90s if anything could be done, she was told the statue of limitations had been reached. But recently, the Minnesota legislature lifted that limitation, so more alleged victims could come forward.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

A 63-year-old Sedro-Woolley woman who sued the Seattle Archdiocese over sexual abuse she says she suffered as a child reached a $1.2 million settlement with church officials late Sunday night, days before the civil case was to go to a Whatcom County jury, according to her attorneys.

Jerri Hubbard accused Father Michael Cody of sexually abusing her in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Cody served as pastor of the St. Charles Parish in Burlington, Whatcom County, according to her lawsuit. He was also pastor of Assumption Parish in Bellingham during that time.

The Seattle Times does not typically name alleged victims of sex crimes, but Hubbard agreed to be publicly identified, according to her lawyers.

Hubbard was sexually abused after a psychiatrist diagnosed Cody as a pedophile in 1962, and at that point, church officials knew he had already molested at least eight young girls under the age of 12, Hubbard’s attorneys — Michael Pfau, John W. Murphy and Rand F. Jack — said in a news release Monday.

Archbishop Thomas Connelly sent Cody to treatment but then allowed him to return to the church and transferred him to St. Charles Parish, despite knowing he was a danger to children, Hubbard’s attorneys said.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

By Caoimhe Young

ROT in hell are the words I would usually use for paedophiles and this week one pervert had his prison sentence reduced from six to two years.

The judge in the case said he was taking the “significant contribution” the convicted man made to his community into account.

Patrick Barry was the principal of a Co. Clare school, the type you’d love your kid to go to because the classes are small and everyone looks out for everyone.

This was 30 years ago and it was a two-teacher school.

In fact, Barry was so sure of his position of power in Moyasta National School that he indecently assaulted 11 girls there from 1964 to 1985 in front of the whole class.

Ancient history? Not if he did it to you.

One girl said: “He took advantage of us, he used to grope at us at every opportunity.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

LeeAnn Shelton

The Archdiocese of Chicago has reached a $1.25 million settlement with a man who claimed he was sexually abused by convicted child molester and former priest Daniel McCormack.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Eugene Hollander, announced the settlement Monday, saying “while it has been a difficult journey, my client refused to suffer in silence.”

The $1.25 million settlement was reached over the weekend, Hollander said. The case had been scheduled to go to trial later this month.

The plaintiff, now in his 20s, claimed McCormack repeatedly abused him when he was in the fourth and fifth grades at St. Ailbe parish on the South Side, according to a statement from Hollander.

The plaintiff said he had suppressed the memories of abuse, but started to remember what happened in 2011 after seeing news coverage of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, the statement said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — A lawyer for an alleged sex abuse victim said the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has settled another lawsuit involving former priest Daniel McCormack.

Attorney Eugene Hollander said his client, a man now in his late 20s, will receive a settlement of $1.25 million from the church.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit claimed McCormack abused him at the former priest’s first parish assignment, St. Ailbe Church, at 90th and Harper.

“The client is really struggling,” Hollander said. “He was sexually abused in 4th and 5th grade; primarily 4th grade.”

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MINNESOTA
KDAL

by Dave Strandberg

DULUTH, MN (KDAL) – The Duluth Diocese has been named in a lawsuit filed Monday by a woman who was molested by a priest in Brainerd in the early 1960’s. The attorney for Quin Buchtel, Michael Finnegan, says the diocese should have known that Father Charles Gormly was a danger to children before the plaintiff was molested. The suit says the Diocese of Duluth continues to conceal information about pedophile priests and asks that all information be publicly released. Buchtel is also seeking damages in excess of 50 thousand dollars plus costs.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

The Archdiocese of Chicago has reached a $1.25 million settlement with a man who claimed he was sexually abused by convicted child molester and former priest Daniel McCormack.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Eugene Hollander, announced the settlement Monday, saying “while it has been a difficult journey, my client refused to suffer in silence.”

The $1.25 million settlement was reached over the weekend, Hollander said. The case had been scheduled to go to trial later this month.

The plaintiff, now in his 20s, claimed McCormack repeatedly abused him when he was in the fourth and fifth grades at St. Ailbe parish on the South Side, according to a statement from Hollander.

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