ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Philly

BY CAROL GLATZ
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors received temporary approval of its first set of statutes.

U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston — one of the pope’s top cardinal advisers and president of the pontifical commission — had submitted a draft of the statutes, which were approved “by mandate of the supreme pontiff” April 21 by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

The Vatican released a copy of the approved statutes May 8. Their approval is good for three years.

The four-page document outlines the structure, nature, activity and goals of the commission, which Pope Francis established in December 2013.

The commission, made up of 17 members in addition to the president and secretary, is “an autonomous institution” within the Holy See and serves as “an advisory body at the service of the Holy Father.”

Because “the protection of minors is of paramount importance,” the statutes said, the commission’s main purpose is to make recommendations to the pope on how best to promote “local responsibility in the particular churches for the protection of all minors and vulnerable adults.”

When drafting proposals, the commission will consult with staff and offices in charge of child protection at parishes, national bishops’ conferences and religious institutes as well as other Vatican offices when appropriate.

The president, secretary and members — who are all appointed by the pope — can serve for a three-year term, which can be renewed, the statutes said.

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CALIFORNIA
Think Progress

BY JACK JENKINS POSTED ON MAY 7, 2015

Pope Francis has been widely lauded as a champion of the oppressed, advocating for the victims of war and passionately declaring that “to discriminate in the name of God is inhuman.”

But in September, the pontiff is planning to canonize, or declare a saint, a man who some Native Americans say not only discriminated in God’s name, but also subjugated thousands of Indians along the West Coast using missionary tactics that effectively enslaved his Christian converts.

On Wednesday, the Vatican formally sanctioned plans to proclaim the saintliness of Junípero Serra, an 18th century Franciscan missionary who converted thousands of Native Americans to Christianity in California before his death in 1784. The Spanish priest is renowned by many Catholics for his devoutness, and Francis is scheduled to make his sainthood official in an elaborate outdoor mass during his papal visit to the United States this fall. The pontiff has expressed deep admiration for Serra, showering him with praise in a recent address to seminarians for exhibiting “generosity and courage” while “usher[ing] in a new springtime of evangelization in those immense territories, extending from Florida to California.”

“Such zeal excites us,” Francis said.

But many argue the impact of Serra’s “zeal” is more complicated than the pope suggests. Native American activist organizations such as Mexica Movement have staged several protests outside Catholic sites across California since January, when Francis first announced his intention to canonize Serra. On Monday, demonstrators gathered outside of Mission Dolores in San Francisco, making speeches condemning Serra and unfurling banners emblazoned with slogans such as “No Sainthood for Serra” and “Native Lives Matter.”

“My ancestors were directly enslaved at Mission Dolores here, and at Mission San Jose in Fremont, and I want to make sure that the Vatican knows that we, and Native people allies, do not agree with the canonization of Junipero Serra,” said Corrina Gould, a woman who claims Karkin and Chochenyo Ohlone ancestry, according to Indybay.org.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Stephen Betts, BDN Staff

Posted May 06, 2015
.
ROCKLAND, Maine — A state judge ruled Wednesday that a convicted sex offender did not violate probation by attending church where children were present.

Justice Daniel Billings issued his ruling in Knox County Unified Court, allowing 47-year-old Jason S. Simpson to be released. Simpson had been in jail since his arrest on March 26.

Simpson was arrested after his probation officer determined he had violated probation by attending a church service on March 22 in Augusta. A woman reported Simpson to the probation office, voicing concern her grandchildren were in church as well. The report by the probation officer indicates Simpson did not speak with any child while at the church.

Defense attorney Jeremy Pratt said he was pleased with the judge’s decision because his client had done nothing wrong by attending a religious service.

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ITALIA
Il Messaggero

[Priest Pascal Manca was already suspended for suspect child abuse but now he faces new charges.]

di Stefania Piras

Era stato già sospeso dalla Curia quando la notizia dell’indagine era circolata giorni fa. Ora don Manca è finito in carcere con l’accusa gravissima di pedofilia.

I primi abusi, secondo i carabinieri, risalirebbero a tre anni fa quando don Pascal Manca, ex parroco di Villamar prestava servizio a Mandas, due piccoli centri del Cagliaritano.

Nell’inchiesta coordinata dal pm Liliana Ledda emergono abusi su quattro ragazzini nel 2012 e nel 2014: due dodicenni nel primo caso, quando era ancora a Mandas, e due sedicenni a Villamar. Si parla di atti sessuali non completi. In tutte e due le comunità il parroco aveva a disposizione delle canoniche ed è proprio lì che si sarebbero consumati gli abusi. In alcune circostanze pare che abbia usato anche dei sonniferi per agire indisturbato.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Aachener Zeitung

[A priest from Krefeld, sentenced to six years in prisons for child abuse, has challenged the judgement.]

DÜSSELDORF. Ein wegen Kindesmissbrauchs in Krefeld zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilter katholischer Priester hat das Urteil beim Bundesgerichtshof angefochten. Georg K., der früher auch im Bistum Aachen gearbeitet hat, habe Revision eingelegt und die Begründung fristgemäß eingereicht, sagten sein Anwalt und ein Sprecher des Landgerichts am Freitag.

Anfang Februar war der Geistliche wegen schweren sexuellen Missbrauchs schuldig gesprochen worden. Nach Überzeugung des Landgerichts hatte er zwei Brüder missbraucht.

In seinem Schlusswort hatte sich der Pfarrer bei den Opfern entschuldigt. Sein Verteidiger hatte in dem Prozess bereits für ihn erklärt: „Der größte Teil der Vorwürfe ist richtig.” Der Anwalt hält die verhängte Strafe aber für zu hoch. Der Seelsorger war im vergangenen Juli von Südafrika nach Deutschland ausgeliefert worden. Dort war wegen ähnlicher Vorwürfe gegen ihn ermittelt worden.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Etwa ein Jahr nach der Gründung der Päpstlichen Kinderschutzkommission hat der Heilige Stuhl an diesem Freitag die Statuten der Kommission veröffentlicht. Franziskus hatte das Gremium zum Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen vor sexuellem Missbrauch innerhalb der Kirche am 22. März 2014 eingerichtet. Es war das erste konkrete Arbeitsergebnis des neunköpfigen Kardinalsrates gewesen, der den Papst bei den Schritten zur Kurienreform berät.

Der Kinderschutz sei eine Frage „vorrangiger Bedeutung“, heißt es in den Statuten der Kinderschutzkommission. Das Gremium berate den Papst in Fragen des Kinderschutzes und schlage ihm diesbezüglich Maßnahmen und Initiativen vor, die Anwendung innerhalb der Weltkirche finden sollen. Die Kommission, die maximal 18 Mitglieder umfassen soll, habe die Form einer „unabhängigen Institution, die mit dem Heiligen Stuhl verbunden“ sei. Juristischer Sitz dieser Institution ist der Vatikanstaat, wo sich auch das Archiv der Kinderschutzkommission befindet. Wie die Kommission im Detail mit der Glaubenskongregation zusammenarbeiten soll, welche die Missbrauchsfälle aufarbeitet, und wie „unabhängig“ sie agieren kann, geht aus den Statuten nicht hervor. Bisher war immer von einer „engen Zusammenarbeit“ die Rede gewesen. Die Kompetenz der Glaubenskongregation in Fragen des Kindesmissbrauchs durch Kleriker werde durch die Kinderschutzkommission nicht beschnitten, hatte Kardinal Sean Patrick O´Malley, Leiter der Kommission, betont.

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For immediate release: Friday, May 8, 2015

It’s happened again today in Rome.

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

[Statutes of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors]

Some Catholic commentators will no doubt herald this latest tweaking as something big. It’s not. Maybe in other realms of church life, policies like this matter. In abuse and cover up cases, they do not.

Those who break church policies in child sex cases never really suffer consequences. So church decision-makers routinely ignore church policies. It’s irrational to expect otherwise.

Nearly every Catholic figure always has and still does act in nearly every case with one guiding principal: “What gets me out of this with as little time, disclosure and embarrassment as possible?”

Based on observing their behavior for 26 years, we see little evidence that church officials ask themselves: “What am I required to do, according to secular and church rules?”

The word that matters most here is “advisory”. Vatican officials are making it clear that the pope’s abuse panel has no teeth. All it can do is “advise”. As always, decisions about clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes will remain with their clerical colleagues.

Consider this: There are more than 4,000 bishops on earth. Not one of them could summon the strength to publicly criticize – let alone take action against – even one of their complicit colleagues, not even convicted Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn. No refining of words on paper will change this timid, self-serving clerical culture.

Today’s tweaking is signature Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Here’s what O’Malley virtually always does: say nice things in public, make symbolic gestures, hold healing masses, meet with a few victims, settle abuse and cover up lawsuits, and tweak nearly meaningless internal church abuse policies, then claim ‘a new day has dawned’. He makes smart financial and public relations moves while pretending they’re substantive reforms.

Here’s what O’Malley virtually never does: denounce, discipline or demote enablers, publicly release secret files, turn over abuse records to prosecutors, reform predator-friendly secular laws or take any meaningful steps that would stop current clergy sex crimes or prevent future cover ups.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 May 2015 (VIS) – To complete the publication of the Statutes, the Chirograph by which the Pope instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on 22 March 2014 was also published today.

“The effective protection of minors and a commitment to ensure their human and spiritual development, in keeping with the dignity of the human person, are integral parts of the Gospel message that the Church and all members of the faithful are called to spread throughout the world. Many painful actions have caused a profound examination of conscience for the entire Church, leading us to request forgiveness from the victims and from our society for the harm that has been caused. This response to these actions is the firm beginning for initiatives of many different types, which are intended to repair the damage, to attain justice, and to prevent, by all means possible, the recurrence of similar incidents in the future.

For these reasons, and after having received the counsel of many cardinals and members of the college of bishops, together with other collaborators and experts in these matters, I decided to continue the work begun by my Predecessors by establishing a permanent Commission attached to the Holy See. The aim of the Commission is to promote the protection of the dignity of minors and vulnerable adults, using the forms and methods, consonant with the nature of the Church, which they consider most appropriate, as well as through their cooperation with individuals and groups pursuing these same objectives.

As I had the opportunity to highlight during an encounter with several victims of sexual abuse, I rely on the members of this Commission for the effective protection of minors and vulnerable adults, regardless of religion they profess, because they are the little ones on whom the Lord looks with love. To my collaborators in this work, I ask for all efforts possible to assist me in responding to these needs of these little ones.

The Commission’s specific task is to propose to me the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church. The Commission is to promote local responsibility in the particular Churches, uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 May 2015 (VIS) – On 21 April, Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, approved by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, “ad experimentum” for three years, the Statutes of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the draft of which had been presented by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the aforementioned Commission.

The Statutes will be published today in the Italian original and in English translation. The document is composed of six articles: Nature and Competence, Composition and Members, Plenary Assembly, Personnel, Working Groups, and General Norms.

The first part explains that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is an autonomous institution linked to the Holy See with a public legal personality and has an advisory function in the service of the Holy Father. The protection of minors, the text continues, is of the first importance, and therefore it is the role of the Commission to propose initiatives to the Pontiff, following the modalities indicated in the Statutes, to promote the responsibility of the particular Churches in the protection of all minors and vulnerable adults. These proposals will have to receive prior approval by the majority of two thirds of the members of the Commission. For the elaboration of the proposals, when the matter falls within the competence of other ecclesial bodies, the president of the Commission, with the assistance of the secretary, will consult the competent entities for the protection of minors in the particular Churches, the episcopal conferences, the conferences of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as the dicastery of the Roman Curia competent in the matter. This consultation will take place in a transparent manner with the members of the Commission, based in Vatican City State.

The Commission, according to the second part, is composed of a maximum of eighteen members appointed by the Holy Father for a three-year period, which may be reconfirmed, and are selected from persons of recognised competence in various areas linked to the activity entrusted to the Commission. Both the president and the secretary are appointed from among the members by the Holy Father for a period of three years, a mandate that may be reconfirmed.

The plenary assembly, as explained in the third part, will be convoked twice yearly. Upon request by two thirds of the Members and with the consent of the president, an extraordinary plenary assembly may be convoked. For the plenary assembly to be considered valid, at least two thirds of the members must be present; they may participate via video conference.

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ROME
Commonweal

Robert Mickens

For the first time ever a woman bishop has been welcomed inside the Apostolic Palace for an official meeting with pope. But don’t expect to find any photos in the Vatican’s official newspaper. L’Osservatore Romano buried within its pages a brief, picture-less article of Pope Francis’ high-level meeting on Monday with Lutheran Archbishop Antje Jackelén of Uppsala, the first woman to head the Church of Sweden. It seems the Centro Televisivo Vaticano (CTV) and the Vatican’s You Tube channel also tried to prevent any widespread distribution of visual images of the gathering—especially of the pope and Archbishop Jackelén greeting one another. Holy See media that did provide photos for the event generally showed solo pics of the visiting female prelate, although one of Vatican Radio’s departments displayed a screenshot from the CTV footage that showed Francis shaking the archbishop’s hand. In his talk, he addressed her as “Esteemed Mrs. Jackelén, esteemed Sister.”

It should be noted that this was not the first time Pope Francis has had a close encounter with a mitred woman. Last autumn he briefly greeted Bishop Catherine Waynick of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis at the end of a general audience in St. Peter’s Square. There are photos of that event, too. But officials at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, have downplayed such incidents. It could be that they, like those in the noli me tangere lobby inside the Vatican, are not comfortable with Francis welcoming people that popes usually don’t even meet. Or maybe they’re trying to protect the pope from being further attacked by the most extreme Catholic traditionalists. In any case, the Christian Unity folks followed the same strategy when Francis sent a homemade smartphone video to a conference of televangelists last year in the United States and when, some months later, he met a delegation of TV preachers at his Santa Marta residence.

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MISSOURI
Riverfront Times

By Sarah Fenske Fri., May 8 2015

Two people being sued by First Christian Church of Florissant and its pastor, Steve Wingfield, are firing back, with motions to dismiss the church’s lawsuit and a press release challenging the pastor’s claims.

As this week’s Riverfront Times cover story detailed, Dawn Varvil met with Wingfield in 2012 and shared her concerns about a youth minister at the church named Brandon Milburn.

Two years later, Milburn was arrested for molesting two boys he had met through the church — and a church member named Doug Lay prepared a report questioning what Wingfield knew about Milburn and whether he took appropriate action. The report focused in part on what happened at Varvil’s meeting with Wingfield.

Wingfield responded by suing both Lay and Varvil, as well as former members Titus and Kari Benton, who’d criticized him on Facebook.

Lay hired a lawyer almost immediately, and filed a response in late April. Thanks to a GoFundMe campaign, Varvil has also hired a lawyer.

That lawyer, Nicole Gorovsky, sharply criticized Wingfield and his legal action in a prepared release.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic World Report

Vatican City, May 8, 2015 / 06:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After meeting for the first time as a complete entity in February, the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors has published their formal statues, effective for three years.

“The effective protection of minors and a commitment to ensure their human and spiritual development…are integral parts of the Gospel message that the Church and all members of the faithful are called to spread throughout the world,” the Pope said in his chirograph for the commission.

Dated March 22, 2014, the chiropraph is the official papal document which established the foundation of the commission. It was published May 8 along with the statutes.

The statues were approved by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin April 21 by mandate of Pope Francis. They were published in the original Italian and in English.

Effective “ad experimentum,” meaning “to the test” for three years, the statutes serve as temporary, yet formal acting guidelines for the commission.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Statutes for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors were made public on Friday. They were approved by Pope Francis on April 21st, and will be in effect “ad experimentum” for three years.

The Commission was officially instituted last year, and is headed by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., the Archbishop of Boston.

The text of the statutes is below

♦ Statutes of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

Statutes

Chirograph of the Holy Father Francis for the Institution of a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of minors (22 March 2014)

On 21 April the Cardinal Secretary of State approved by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, ad experimentum for three years, the Statute of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the draft of which had been presented for approval by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., President of the same Commission.

The Statutes will then be published in the Italian original and in English.

To ensure the completeness of the documentation, the Chirograph of 22 March 2014, by which the Pope officially instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, will be published contemporaneously.

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

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | May. 8, 2015 Distinctly Catholic

The Holy See this morning published the statutes for the Commission for the Protection of Minors, giving that body canonical and juridical status within the Roman curia. Reading the statutes this morning, it may not seem like they are very earth-shattering or, in the event, Church-shattering, but they are.

First, there is the fact of a commission. One of the ways any bureaucratic body decides to highlight the significance of an issue is to create a section of the bureaucracy tasked specifically with addressing that issue. So, in the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education, separating it from what had been the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, giving the new department its own staff and budget and focus. The new statutes do something similar for the Commission for the Protection of Minors. They members and staff of the commission do not have to focus on other issues, only this one.

In the 1990s, part of the initial problem with getting the Vatican to address the problem of clergy sex abuse was that no one knew precisely which dicastery had authority to address the problem. Eventually, it was decided to refer all cases to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by the uber-competent Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rather than to the Congregation for Clergy, then led by the abuser-coddling Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. The latter congregation never got over the snub and, to this day, has resisted the efforts of the CDF to remove pedophiles from the clerical state. But, the Prefect, members and the staff of the CDF have many responsibilities, and while they will continue to handle issues relating to laicizing accused pedophiles, or meting out other judicial sentences such as a life of prayer and penance, they had never been authorized to work with episcopal conferences around the world to establish procedures and policies that help protect minors. Here is the second major change: The new commission specifically has the task of working with local churches, and coordinating efforts within the Roman curia, to deal with the scourge of clergy sex abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Bolletino

[Italian]

Statutes

Chirograph of the Holy Father Francis for the Institution of a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of minors (22 March 2014)

On 21 April the Cardinal Secretary of State approved by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, ad experimentum for three years, the Statute of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the draft of which had been presented for approval by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., President of the same Commission.

The Statutes will then be published in the Italian original and in English.

To ensure the completeness of the documentation, the Chirograph of 22 March 2014, by which the Pope officially instituted the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, will be published contemporaneously.

Statutes

Art. 1

NATURE AND COMPETENCE

§ 1. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is an autonomous institution attached to the Holy See, with public juridic personality (can. 116 CIC). The Commission is an advisory body at the service of the Holy Father.

§ 2. The protection of minors is of paramount importance. The purpose of the Commission is to propose initiatives to the Roman Pontiff, according to the procedures and determinations specified in these Statutes, for the purposes of promoting local responsibility in the particular Churches for the protection of all minors and vulnerable adults.

§ 3. Proposals submitted to the Holy Father by the Commission must be approved by a majority of two-thirds of the Members.

§ 4. In developing the proposals referred to in § 2, when the matter concerns the competence of other ecclesial bodies, the President of the Commission, assisted by the Secretary, shall consult promptly the offices responsible for the protection of minors in local churches, episcopal conferences, conferences of superiors of institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, as well as the dicastery of the Roman Curia competent in the matter. This consultation will be shared in a transparent manner with the Commission Members.

§ 5. The Commission may require an account of the effectiveness of work carried out by the competent bodies mentioned in § 4.

§ 6. The legal seat of the Commission is in the Vatican City State.

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MALLORCA
El Diario

The Bishop of Mallorca has been held by a court to be vicariously liable for a priest accused of abuse of a minor.]

La titular del juzgado número 3 de Inca (Mallorca) ha impuesto una fianza de responsabilidad civil de 100.000 euros al expárroco de Can Picafort Pere Barceló, imputado por violar presuntamente a una menor, y ha declarado al Obispado de Mallorca responsable civil subsidiario.

El auto dictado por la jueza de Inca establece que la diócesis mallorquina habrá de responder con sus bienes de la parte de lo 100.000 euros que no pueda cubrir el expárroco, imputado por un delito de agresión sexual continuada y otro de abusos.

La finanza, a la que no se ha opuesto la Fiscalía, fue reclamada el pasado 18 de marzo por la acusación que representa a la mujer presuntamente violada cuando era menor por el sacerdote, que fue apartado hace dos años de sus responsabilidades religiosas por el Obispado mallorquín.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic News

A Motherwell diocesan priest has been cleared by police after being falsely accused of sex abuse, but his family says he was denied ‘natural justice’ as he was unable to defend himself against the unfounded historic allegation.

While Fr Paul Morton, 55, formerly of St Bride’s Cambuslang, cannot return to active ministry until the Church concludes its own separate investigation, Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell said he now hopes the Church investigation will conclude as quickly as possible.

“We will all require to be patient during this process, which is the prescribed way to proceed,” the bishop said. “I pray that this case will quickly proceed to a just conclusion and we will be able to welcome Fr Morton back to active ministry.”

A statement from Fr Morton’s four brothers and two sisters says, though their sibling had been ‘completely exonerated,’ he was also subjected to a ‘damaging and distressing ordeal that lasted for eight months.’

“The traumatic events for him and our family began in October of the previous year when an allegation was made against him by an anonymous individual,” they say. “Paul was immediately removed from his parish duties and also asked to leave the parish house for a period of ‘administrative leave.’”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WHBL

MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) – A court hearing has finally been scheduled on a plan by the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese to get out of bankruptcy.

Judge Susan Kelley says she’ll hear arguments in November on the church’s plan to keep its 200-plus parishes and schools running, while compensating victims of previous sex abuse by priests.

The 10-county archdiocese originally proposed $4 million in compensation for 128 abuse victims — just over a quarter of the 575 victims who filed claims in the nearly four-and-a-half year old bankruptcy case.

The matter has been held up by legal issues — including the church’s effort to protect $66 million in church cemetery upkeep funds.

A federal appeals court reversed a judge’s ruling that the cemetery fund was off limits to the creditors — and the archdiocese now says it will set aside an undisclosed amount for the abuse victims.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville News

[with video]

Lyn Riddle, lnriddle@greenvillenews.com

Five abuse survivors held a silent vigil outside the main gate of Bob Jones University Thursday protesting what they called the university’s tepid response to a report that criticized the way faculty and staff counseled students who had been sexually abused or assaulted.

They said their biggest concern was that no action had been taken against Jim Berg, the former dean of students who handled most of the counseling, and Bob Jones III, who was president during the time most of the situations occurred.

Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, a non-profit independent organization that BJU contracted with to conduct the investigation, recommended personnel action against both men.

BJU President Steve Pettit said earlier this year that all of Berg’s writings had been studied and found to be biblically correct. He remains on the faculty; Jones remains chancellor, said university spokesman Randy Page.

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KENTUCKY
The Ledger Independent

CHRISTY HOOTS christy.hoots@lee.net

VANCEBURG | A former Vanceburg resident is facing charges of sexual abuse and has been extradited from his home in Indiana after being indicted by a Lewis County grand jury.

Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Joe Veeneman said Duncan Aker, 63, of Greensburg, Ind., was recently arrested and charged with five counts first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of sodomy, after an indictment was handed down against Aker in April.

A representative with the Greensburg, Ind. Police Department said Aker was arrested on May 3, on a warrant from Vanceburg, but no further information was available.

“The investigation into the incidents took about three to four months,” Veeneman said. “Then we had to wait on the extradition from Indiana.”

According to the indictment, Aker allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse and sexual contact through forcible compulsion with a male under the age of 12 between October 2007 and March 2010.

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MINNESOTA
WDIO

[with video]

A Hibbing priest is charged with five felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Twenty-nine-year-old Brian Michael Lederer was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon by the Hibbing Police Department and is being held in the St. Louis County Jail.

Formal charges were filed on Thursday, listing three victims. Two of the victims were under 13 years old, and one was under 16.

Lederer faces three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree, and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree, which also list him as a being in a position of authority over the complainant.

In the criminal complaint, a victim said Lederer would pull on her bra strap and rub her butt. The complaint describes another incident in which Lederer allegedly touched one victim’s crotch through her underwear.

The complaint says one victim was “sobbing” while recounting the alleged incidents to police. Another told police she would “sweat very badly and have a bad feeling around (lederer).”

The alleged victims came forward this week, saying that the sexual abuse started about a year ago and happened on a school playground, by a drinking fountain there and in classrooms. The most recent incident, allegedly occurred while Lederer was a guest in a parishioner’s home for a family celebration.

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KENTUCKY
Lex18

A former Kentucky pastor has been returned to the Commonwealth to face sexual abuse charges.

Duncan Aker Jr., 63, served as pastor at the Vanceburg Christian Church until 2011 when he moved to Indiana. Police say he sexually abused a boy under 12-years-old between 2007 and 2010. According to the indictment, investigators say the abuse took place in a vehicle along the AA Highway, in Aker’s home, in an outbuilding he owned, and in the church.

Aker faces four counts of first degree sodomy and five counts of first degree sexual abuse. He was indicted last month and booked into the Lewis County Detention Center Monday.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

A Hibbing priest was charged Thursday with five counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly inappropriately touching three girls in incidents starting last year and continuing through this week.

The Rev. Brian Lederer, 29, parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hibbing, faces up to 25 years in prison and $35,000 in fines for each of three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, and up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines for each of two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Lederer, who was arrested Tuesday and made his first appearance in court on Thursday, is being held at the St. Louis County Jail on $250,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court again next week.

Lederer also was involved with Assumption Catholic School associated with Blessed Sacrament Parish. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth said Thursday that Lederer “has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the legal process. While on leave, he is not allowed to minister as a priest and or have contact with anyone under age 18.”

According to the criminal complaint:

On Tuesday, Hibbing Police Department investigators met with a woman who reported that her two daughters — one younger than 13, the other between the ages of 13 and 16 — had been sexually assaulted by Lederer.

The two girls were interviewed and each reported that Lederer had touched them inappropriately on multiple occasions over several months — at school, and most recently at their home on Sunday. Lederer, whom the older girl described as a close family friend, was at the home for a family celebration. The older girl told investigators that while playing checkers, Lederer extended his right hand out and touched her genital area over her shorts, and also made contact with her bare thigh. She said she cried and felt scared after the incident.

Lederer was arrested at his office later Tuesday and declined to give a statement to Hibbing police.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

[with video]

By Kevin Jacobsen

Hibbing, MN (NNCNOW.com) — A Hibbing priest accused of criminal sexual conduct with three minors could face life in prison, if convicted.

Father Brian Lederer made his first appearance before a judge in St. Louis County Court on Thursday.
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The criminal complaint paints a disturbing picture of the priest’s alleged actions over the past nine months.

Two of the victims came forward on Tuesday alleging they had been sexually assault by the 29-year-old, which led to the arrest of Lederer who has been a priest at Blessed Sacrament Church since 2012.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY CAITLIN GUILFOYLE AAP MAY 08, 2015

A COMMITTEE linked to an orthodox Jewish school organised for a “manipulative” headmistress accused of sexually abusing female students to fly overseas, a Melbourne court has heard.

FORMER committee member Mair Ernst admits his wife Hadassa arranged plane tickets for then Adass Israel School headmistress Malka Leifer, so she could leave for Israel in 2008.

“We had accusations only and very, very little information that Mrs Leifer had molested girls,” he told the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday.

The school and Ms Leifer are being sued by an ex-student who says she was sexually abused up to several times a week from age 15.

Last August Ms Leifer was arrested in Israel and is facing extradition to Australia.

Mr Ernst said the committee met urgently when the allegations surfaced in 2008, and a “collective” decision was made to arrange flights for Ms Leifer and her family.

“She was manipulative and we wanted to do everything possible to protect these poor girls,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Adass Israel School principal Malka Leifer helped by officials to flee from student sex abuse claims

SHANNON DEERY NEWS LIMITED MAY 08, 2015

AN ultra orthodox Jewish principal fled to Israel under the cover of night with the help of school officials after she was publicly accused of molesting students, a court has heard.

Just days after one of Malka Leifer’s victims first spoke out about the ongoing abuse at the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick the principal boarded an early-morning flight to Israel.

Members of a committee closely linked with the school helped organise the tickets after a decision was made to sack Mrs Leifer.

Travel agent Tammy Konisarski told the Supreme Court today she was asked to arrange urgent tickets about 10pm on March 5, 2008.

She said she was told “people have to go to Israel urgently.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 8, 2015

Patrick Hatch
Reporter for The Age

A school committee conspired to fly its principal out of the country after allegations of child sex abuse were raised against her, a court has heard.

Malka Leifer fled to Israel on an early morning flight in March 2008, just days after allegations were made that she had abused students at Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

Mair Ernst told the Supreme Court on Friday of an emergency meeting where the Congregation Adass Israel committee decided to sack Mrs Leifer and arrange for her and her family to leave Australia.

Mr Ernst said he then asked his wife Hadassa to arrange plane tickets through the eastern suburbs travel agents she worked for, owned and run by Tammy Koniarski.

Mrs Koniarski told the court how Mrs Ernst called her about 10pm on March 5, telling her she needed urgent tickets out of the country.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

MEMBER for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby has described child abuse as “a pernicious evil” adding that “anyone found responsible should face the full consequences of the law” after it was revealed yesterday that he had helped former Adass Israel principal Malka Leifer secure a visa allowing her to work in Australia.

A former student at Adass, who alleges Leifer sexually abused her over a number of years, has launched a lawsuit against the school and Leifer which is currently being heard in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Two letters written by Danby to the Department of Immigration in support of Leifer’s visa application before she took up her role at the ultra-Orthodox Melbourne school were submitted to the court on Thursday

Meanwhile, the former student gave graphic evidence to the court this week about the sexual assaults, which she said had resulted in “nightmares and anxiety and flashbacks” that have marred her life.

Questioned by barrister Dyson Hore-Lacy SC today on Thursday, the second day of the trial under Justice John Rush, she said she received psychological counselling for feeling “suicidal”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 08, 2015

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide allegedly concealed child abuse while he was in office, failing to reveal his knowledge of abuse committed by a priest before the abuser died, a court has heard.

Archbishop Philip Wilson did not appear in Newcastle Local Court yesterday for the first hearing in the case since he was charged in March. His lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

Court documents show police allege he concealed the sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy by Hunter Valley priest Jim Fletcher in 1971, which took place in the Maitland area of NSW, where Fletcher and Archbishop Wilson worked as priests and lived together during the late 1970s and early 80s.

The documents allege Archbishop Wilson concealed Fletcher’s abuse from April 2004, three years after his appointment as archbishop, to January 7, 2006, the day Fletcher died. In May 2006, Archbishop Wilson was elected president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, making him one of the most senior clerics in the country. He remains the organisation’s vice-president, although on indefinite leave since being charged.

In December 2004, Fletcher was found guilty of raping and sexually abusing another teenage boy, and was jailed for 10 years. Police allege Archbishop Wilson knew “he had information which might be of material assistance to the prosecution” of Fletcher for the 1971 abuse but failed “without reasonable excuse” to provide that to detectives.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

By JC Reporter, April 29, 2015

A woman who claims she was sexually abused as a teenager by a strictly Orthodox teacher burst into tears in court as she described being ordered to “enjoy it” while she was molested.

The woman said she was attacked by Todros Grynhaus when she was aged between 14 and 15.
Mr Grynhaus, the son of a rabbi, was a respected member of the Charedi community in Salford.

It is alleged he inappropriately touched the girl in a hotel Jacuzzi on one occasion and on another forced her to perform a sex act on him, when he said: “It’s really not too bad. Give it a try.”

The woman described the attack to a jury at Manchester Crown Court this week where Mr Grynhaus is facing a retrial on five counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault. He denies the allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

By JC Reporter, May 7, 2015

A Jewish teacher accused of molesting two teenage girls described one alleged victim’s tearful courtroom description of an attack in a Jacuzzi as “pure fiction”.

Todros Grynhaus, 50, denied that he touched the girls inappropriately when they were between the ages of 14 and 15, describing the claims against him as “horrific” and part of a “revenge plot”.

The father-of-10 is on trial at Manchester Crown Court charged with five counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

He denies the allegations.

Giving evidence on Thursday, he said: “I went into the Jacuzzi as it was my first experience. I had never been in one before and I can’t swim. I called her over. She hadn’t seen one before so it was an experience for her.

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ARKANSAS
KAIT

[with video]

JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) – A longtime children’s pastor in Jonesboro has been charged with computer child pornography, according to documents filed in Jonesboro District Court Wednesday afternoon.

Tony Waller, 39, had tens of thousands of files of nude or scantily clad pubescent girls in his possession, according to the Jonesboro Police Department.

Detective Brandon King, who is investigating Waller’s case, said it is one of the largest child pornography cases he has ever seen.

According to the affidavit, Waller’s wife told police she found child pornography on a laptop she and her husband shared. She told police while looking for a file, she stumbled across folders she did not recognize, which turned out to be thousands of videos and pictures of little girls.

When Waller’s wife confronted him, he admitted to having a child porn addiction for more than 20 years. He turned over the laptop and two drives to her, which she then gave to police.

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ARKANSAS
The Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
07 MAY 2015

Arkansas youth pastor is facing child pornography charges after his wife reportedly found images of underage girls on his computer and turned them over to police.

According to KAIT, an affidavit filed in Jonesboro District Court on Wednesday alleged that 39-year-old First Assembly of God Pastor Tony Waller “had tens of thousands” of photos and videos of “nude or scantily clad pubescent girls” on a laptop that he shared with his wife, Angela.

Waller’s wife told detectives that she was searching for a file when she came across a folder that she did not recognize. The folder contained “thousands of images of prepubescent girls either completely nude or scantily clad,” the affidavit said.

When he was confronted by his wife, she said that he admitted having a child pornography addiction for more than 20 years.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan May 7, 2015

A federal judge today chastised the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for trying to reach sex-abuse victims through legal notices placed in newspapers.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel was not happy to hear that the archdiocese has relied on legal notices to inform abuse victims that they have until Aug. 3 to file a claim in the church’s bankruptcy.

The judge lamented that “no one reads the legal notices.”

Archdiocese attorney Richard Anderson said the church will address the judge’s concerns.

“He indicated he’d like to see broader ads in the general circulation part of the paper and we’re in the process of doing that,” Anderson said.

The archdiocese, abuse victims, insurers, parishes and other parties are now in mediation, trying to devise a plan that ensures the future of the archdiocese and compensates victims.

Kressel also approved the formation of a bankruptcy committee that will represent the interests of nearly 200 parishes.

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

HIBBING — The associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish has been formally charged.

Brian M. Lederer, 29, was arraigned before Judge Mark M. Starr in St. Louis County Court in Hibbing this afternoon. He was charged with three felony counts of sexual conduct in the second degree and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.

He is accused of sexual misconduct with three persons under the age of 16.

Lederer remains in custody. Bail was set at $250,000.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune MAY 7, 2015

The 187 Catholics parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will have a greater voice in the church’s bankruptcy proceedings.

On Thursday U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel ruled that the court would appoint a creditors committee representing parishes.

Parishes aren’t adequately represented by the official creditors’ committee, which is composed of five clergy abuse survivors, argued Mary Jo Jensen-Carter, an attorney representing about 100 parishes.

Parishes have significant claims against the archdiocese, parish attorneys argued, including overpayments to its insurance funds and liabilities from clergy abuse of priests appointed by the archdiocese.

Rob Kugler, the attorney representing the creditors committee, argued against the appointment of a separate committee for parishes. He said it was a conflict of interest for parishes, as they are an arm of the archdiocese.

At the hearing Kressel also chastised the archdiocese for the relatively small legal notices is it running to notify clergy abuse victims of their Aug. 3 deadline to file a claim.

“Nobody reads legal notices,” said Kressel. “That’s not going to notify anyone. If that’s what you’re doing, that needs to change.”

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KENTUCKY
WSAZ

VANCEBURG, Ky. (WSAZ) — A former minister at a church in Lewis County, Ky. has been arrested after being indicted on sexual abuse and sodomy charges, allegedly involving a child under 12 years old.

Duncan Aker, Jr, 63, of Greensburg, Indiana, formerly of Vanceburg, is charged with four counts of 1st Degree Sodomy and five counts of 1st Degree Sexual Abuse.

Aker, Jr. was indicted on April 24, and returned to Lewis County on Monday.

He is being held in the Lewis County Detention Center and will be arraigned on the charges next week.

According to the indictment the alleged incidents took place between October 2007 and March 2010.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Patrick Hatch

A school principal used a student’s abusive home life as a way to groom and then sexually abuse her over several years, a court has heard.

A former student of Adass Israel Girls School, in Elsterwick, is suing the school for damages stemming from abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of former principal Malka Leifer.

The school sacked Mrs Leifer in March 2008 after allegations of impropriety came to light.

The Supreme Court heard on Tuesday that a member of the school’s committee arranged the plane tickets so Mrs Leifer could leave the country within two days of being sacked.

Mrs Leifer was arrested in Israel in August last year and extradition proceedings are underway to bring her to Victoria to face sex abuse charges.

The court heard on Wednesday that the former student’s abuse started in 2002, when she was 15, and as a result had suffered flashbacks, nightmares, persistent depression, post traumatic stress disorder and at one point was suicidal.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 07, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

A woman suing an ultra-orth­odox Jewish school and the former principal for sexually assaulting her as a student says the school provided no sex education or pathways for reporting the abuse.

Mother of eight Malka Leifer and the Adass Israel school in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs are facing court action brought by the former student, who says Ms Leifer repeatedly ­assaulted her over four years in the mid-2000s.

Ms Leifer swiftly left the school when allegations concerning several students came to light in 2008, resigning after an internal investigation and flying to ­Israel with her family the next day. She has previously denied the allegations, but is not mounting a defence in the civil case.

There are ongoing court proceedings in Israel to extradite her to face criminal charges.

Her former student, who was 15 when the alleged abuse began, yesterday told the Victorian ­Supreme Court she initially felt “privileged” by Ms Leifer’s attention. “I trusted her, I trusted what she said to me,” said the woman, who is now 27.

“She would tell me that she loved me and that she really cared for me … (that) this was her way of showing how close she felt to me.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

Female school principal ‘sexually abused girl to prepare her for marriage’ at ultra-Orthodox Jewish school, court hears

By SARAH DEAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

The former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school allegedly abused a 15-year-old student to ‘prepare her for marriage’.

Malka Leifer, the ‘strict’ former principal at Adass Israel School in Melbourne, was named in a negligence and injury lawsuit against the school by a former student who claims Leifer abused her and her two sisters over several years.

Leifer allegedly began grooming the student, using the girl’s physically abusive home life as a way to get close to her, Victoria’s Supreme Court heard this week.

‘She liked to hug me like a baby, and rock me. She said I should consider her like a mother who loved me, and that I was special,’ the woman told the court, the Herald Sun reports.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 07, 2015

A WOMAN suing an ultra-orthodox Jewish school over an explosive sexual abuse scandal says its former principal sexually abused her up to three times a week.

The woman, now in her 20s, says she was abused by Malka Leifer while she was principal at Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

She said the former principal took a special liking to her before starting to molest her during private religious educations classes.

The woman told her Supreme Court trial today Ms Leifer assaulted her two to three times a week while she was a student.

The abuse, at Ms Leifer’s home, at the school and at school camps, continued after she started teaching at the school.

The court heard the woman started suffering flashbacks, nightmares and suicidal thoughts because of the abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 7, 2015

Steve Butcher and Patrick Hatch

One of three sisters allegedly sexually abused by the principal of the Adass Israel Girls School has told a court how the woman “begged” her to reveal “what was going on” before she was sacked and then flew to Israel days later.

The Supreme Court of Victoria heard earlier that Malka Leifer used one student’s abusive home life as a way to groom and then sexually abuse her over several years.

It was alleged in evidence on Thursday that four people once visited and harassed the student’s older sister in London to pressure her to pressure other family members to drop the “charges” against Mrs Leifer.

That former student of the Elsternwick school is suing it for damages stemming from abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Mrs Leifer.

Justice Jack Rush heard this week that a member of the school’s committee arranged plane tickets to enable Mrs Leifer to leave Australia within two days of being sacked in 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

MP Michael Danby unwittingly helped Jewish principal later accused of molesting children get her visa, court told

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN MAY 07, 2015

FEDERAL Labor MP Michael Danby helped an ultra orthodox Jewish principal accused of molesting a string of students secure a visa to work in Australia, a court has heard.

Two letters written by the Melbourne Ports MP in support of Malka Leifer were today tendered in a Supreme Court trial against the former principal and Elsternwick’s Adass Israel School.

However, Mr Danby, who was boarding a flight to Melbourne from the Ukraine today, said if the allegations against Mrs Leifer were true she should face criminal charges.

“Child abuse is a pernicious evil. Anyone found responsible should face the full consequences of the law,” he said.

The civil action has been brought by a former student, in her 20s, who says she was molested by Mrs Leifer up to three times a week over several years.

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AUSTRALIA
Forward

JTA

The former principal of a haredi Orthodox girls’ school in Melbourne who was extradited from Israel last year is on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a former student.

The trial began Tuesday in Australian Supreme Court against former principal Malka Leifer.

The mother of eight ran the Adass Israel girls’ school from 2001 to 2008, until she was fired amid accusations that she molested students. She fled to Israel some 24 hours after the allegations became public where she lived in the haredi Orthodox West Bank settlement of Emanuel until her arrest and extradition last year.

Leifer denies any wrongdoing.

The alleged victim said she was too scared to speak up about the abuse she described during the trial because of Leifer’s powerful position in the community.

The Adass Israel community is a small, ultra-orthodox Jewish group of about 150 families.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 08, 2015

Pia Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne

Labor MP Michael Danby intervened on behalf of an ­ultra-orthodox Jewish school to help seek a visa for a teacher who then allegedly abused several of her students.

One of the students, now aged 27, is suing Malka Leifer and the Adass Israel school in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs, claiming Ms Leifer repeatedly assaulted her over four years in the mid-2000s.

The Victorian Supreme Court yesterday heard that Mr Danby — whose Melbourne Ports electorate covers suburbs with large Jewish populations — had written twice in support of Ms Leifer’s temporary residency.

The first letter, to the school, asked the Immigration Department to “favourably” consider the school’s request. Another letter, sent to the department two months later, again asked for the visa application to be granted, saying Adass Israel believed Ms Leifer had special religious expertise.

The court has heard Ms Leifer began abusing the former student within a few years of starting at the school, where she rose to become principal. She resigned in 2008 when the allegations came to light and left for Israel, where proceedings are under way to extradite her. She has previously denied the allegations, but is not mounting a defence in the civil case.

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AUSTRALIA
JTA

(JTA) — A former student at a Jewish girls’ school in Melbourne testified in a civil suit that she was suicidal after she was sexually abused by the principal at the time.

The student, now 27, sued the Adass Israel school over the alleged abuse by Malka Leifer, who fled to Israel in 2008 some 24 hours after the accusations that she molested students became public. Leifer, who lived in the haredi Orthodox West Bank settlement of Emanuel until her arrest, is awaiting extradition.

The court heard on Wednesday, a day after the trial began, that the abuse started in 2002, when the student was 15, the Age reported. The student said that along with feeling suicidal, the abuse spurred flashbacks, nightmares, persistent depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

The alleged victim said she was too scared to speak up about the abuse because of Leifer’s powerful position in the community.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Members of an orthodox Jewish community threatened a Melbourne woman with ostracism if her sister didn’t drop a civil sex abuse claim against a headmistress, the Victorian Supreme Court has heard.

The woman, whose two sisters made a complaint to police about alleged sexual assault at the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick Melbourne, was harassed and pressured shortly before her death from a heart attack at age 39, the court heard.

“They threatened her with her job, and her reputation and her children’s marriage prospects,” the woman’s sister, and the claimant in the civil matter, told the court on Thursday.

The Adass Israel School in Elsternwick Melbourne and its former headmistress Malka Leifer are being sued by an ex-student who says she was sexually abused up to several times a week from age 15.

Last August Ms Leifer was arrested in Israel, where she fled in 2008 when sex abuse allegations emerged, and is facing extradition to Australia.

Another sister, who also alleges sex abuse, told the court it was impossible for people to speak out against authority figures in the insular, orthodox community.

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MASSACHUSETTS
East Boston Times-Free Press

By John Lynds

A former East Boston deacon that once worked at two neighborhood parishes back in the 1980s pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three children and will serve four years in prison.

Deacon Ricardo Gonzalez pleaded guilty back on March 11 to sexually assaulting the three victims between the ages of 12 and 14 during the 1990s at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Eastie.

In all he pled guilty to 10 counts of Rape, Indecent Assault and Battery of a Child Under the Age of 14 and Unlawful Dissemination of a Matter Harmful to Minors. Subsequent to release, Gonzalez must stay away children under the age of 16, register as a sex offender, remain alcohol free and undergo a mental health evaluation to determine treatment.

Prosecutors recommended 10 years in state prison followed by 10 years of probation. A judge sentenced him to seven and a half years in a house of correction followed by seven years of probation.

According to Suffolk County District Attorney spokesman, Jake Wark, for procedural reasons Gonzalez moved for a re-sentencing and was granted one on April 30. He got four years in a house of correction followed by five years of probation.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

KATHRYN POWLEY HERALD SUN MAY 07, 2015

ANOTHER elite Melbourne school has been rocked by revelations of sexual abuse.

A former student of St Kevin’s College in Toorak, now 60, has received a formal written apology and a settlement of his claim over sexual abuse by a teacher, Brother Maurice Howard, in 1969.

The man told the Herald Sun that Brother Howard touched him in the change rooms after cricket practice.

He said he knew of other victims of Brother Howard, who died in 1984, and is angry others have not been encouraged by the school to come forward.

The school did not respond to questions, referring the Herald Sun to Christian Brothers Oceania for comment.

The man said it was well known that Brother Howard, known as the Wombat, would get boys to pose alone in the art room so he could draw them, then touch them.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

By Edmund H. Mahony

A once well-regarded Bridgeport priest who became a drug addict and large-scale distributor of highly-addictive methamphetamine, was sentenced to 65 months in prison during a legal hearing heavy with discussion of atonement and packed with 100 or more of his supporters

Suspended Bridgeport Monsignor, Kevin Wallin, who over 30 years as a priest was chief assistant to two Bishops, said his arrest two years ago saved him from almost certain death from drug abuse. In lengthy remarks to Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello, he said his sole remaining ambition is to repay family, parishioners and the church for their support and attempt to become again a productive clergyman.

“God was watching over me the day I was arrested,” Wallin, 63, said. “The ability to get out of that, I owe to the people in this room, to the people who have written to me, to others. The drugs, the shame that I experienced, the remorse, the embarrassment? That would have killed me. They saved me. They did this to me after what I did to them.”

Covello said he had not seen what he called such abundant and eloquent support for a criminal defendant in 22 years on the bench. But he said the law required Wallin to spend more time in prison, in addition to the 28 months he has served since his arrest.

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UNITED STATES
The Tablet (UK)

07 May 2015 by John Quinn

When Francis travels to the US in September he will canonise a Spanish Franciscan friar, Fr Junipero Serra (1713-1784), who founded the first missions in California that converted native Americans to Catholicism.

Last Saturday Pope Francis described Serra as “one of the founding fathers of the United States, and a special patron of the Hispanic people of the country”.

Meanwhile Fr Vincenzo Criscuolo, a Franciscan from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said Serra was “a man of his times”.

Neither of these statements necessarily contradicts suggestions that, as the San Francisco Chronicle put it, “the missions were little more than concentration camps where California’s Indians were beaten, whipped, maimed, burned, tortured and virtually exterminated by the friars”. But the paper’s claims might prove difficult to reconcile with Francis’ comments about Serra’s “holiness” and “saintly example”.

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SHARON (MA)
Patch

By DANIEL LIBON (Patch Staff)
May 6, 2015

Temple Israel has found their new senior rabbi after a vote at the annual Congressional Meeting.

Tuesday night, Ron Fish was appointed to the position

The vote ends a year-long search to replace Rabbi Barry Starr, who resigned in May 2014 amid controversy and accusations that checks made to the rabbi’s discretionary fund were compromised.

A graduate of Brandeis University, Fish was ordained in 1996 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. According to his biography, He has served as the president of the Norwalk Clergy Association and was the first president of the Rabbinic Council of Norwalk and Westport. He was the driving force behind a number of crucial communal projects such as Taste of Torah, an evening of learning involving the entire community. Rabbi Fish also headed the organization of a communal basic Judaism course involving rabbinic educators from the entire religious spectrum.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
St. Louis Catholic

[The Father Lockwood letter]
[Letter from Jean Peters Baker, prosecutor]

I guess this is America.

The Jackson County Prosecutor has seen fit to write a letter directly to the parishioners of Christ the King Parish to counter the letter of the pastor, Fr. Gregory Lockwood, who wrote to them in support of Bishop Robert Finn.

Just wrap your mind around this, people. A pastor writes a letter to his flock, giving his opinion about a Church matter involving their bishop. First, SNAP wants him disciplined. Now, a county prosecutor uses the power of her office to attempt to refute him. Why? Because the Church cannot be allowed to support a faithful bishop against the secular power, no matter the reason.

You see, Fr. Lockwood has committed Thoughtcrime, and after the Ministry of Truth has stated it wants him thrown down the memory hole, we now hear from the Ministry of Love with a not-so-subtle shot across the bow.

This letter, and Fr. Lockwood’s original letter, can be read in full at the link above. But here are some key excerpts with my commentary. It begins this way:

“The recent letter sent out by your pastor laid out misinformation regarding State of Missouri v. Robert Finn. This letter is to address some of those misstatements.”

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CONNECTICUT
WFSB

[with video]

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB/AP) –
A suspended Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 65 months in prison for operating a drug ring.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin faced a judge on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. He had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possessing and distributing methamphetamine.

As part of his 2013 guilty plea, the 63-year-old priest agreed to a possible prison sentence of 10 to 11 years. He asked for four years in prison and 500 hours of community service.

Prosecutors wanted at least a 10-year prison sentence.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By FEROZE DHANOA (Patch Staff)
May 7, 2015

A suspended Roman Catholic priest, who served as pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in Danbury has been sentenced to 65 months in prison for dealing crystal meth, the News Times reports.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, 63, also known as “Monsignor Meth” was sentenced on Thursday in Hartford.

Wallin had asked for leniency from a judge asking for no more than 4 years followed by a year of home confinement and 500 hours of community service and drug treatment.

His public defender filed a sentencing request in March citing the priest’s charitable work and letters of support, including one from late New York Cardinal Edward Egan.

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KENTUCKY
Legacy

WHITLEY CITY – Carroll Dale Howlin, 81, died Tue. In accordance to Mr. Howlin’s wishes, his remains were cremated. Hickman-Strunk Funeral Home is serving the family.

Published in Lexington Herald-Leader on May 6, 2015

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 7

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

A notorious Joliet predator priest, whose case shows continuing recklessness by Catholic bishops about kids’ safety, has passed away.

[Legacy]

Repeated child sex abuse allegations in two states, deemed credible by law enforcement and church officials, were made over the years against Fr. Carroll Howlin. And repeated settlements were paid to his victims.

[Chicago Tribune]

Still, for years, Joliet Bishop Daniel Conlon and his predecessors let Howlin live and work unsupervised in a remote, poverty-stricken part of eastern Kentucky where he reportedly used his influence with a social service agency to use food and gifts to manipulate desperate youngsters into sex acts.

Just yesterday, we urged the newly-installed bishop of Lexington to warn his flock about Howlin. Now, we urge him, and Conlon, to use their vast resources to seek out and help others who were sexually assaulted by this shrewd predator.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

A prosecutor has disclosed that a now-imprisoned admitted serial child molester who is a Louisville native and worked in Louisville churches abused at least three Louisville kids.

We call on his former church supervisors and colleagues in Louisville at Southeast Christian Church to aggressively seek out others he may have assaulted. And we call on Louisville police to investigate whether any of those church supervisors or colleagues might be charged with ignoring, concealing or enabling his crimes.

[Riverfront Times]

A St. Louis newspaper is reporting that St. Louis County prosecutor Michael Hayes says Brandon Milburn molested three victims Louisville, Kentucky dating back to 2000, when Milburn was in his early teens and the three boys in preschool.

Last year, Milburn pleaded guilty to molesting two eleven-year-old boys in St. Louis. Hayes argued for the stiffest possible sentence for Milburn. In March, the offender got 25 years behind bars.

“Your Honor,” Hayes begins, “Mr. Milburn has plead guilty to the seven counts of statutory sodomy, first degree. These seven counts represent a pattern of abuse that took place over a period of years, from the summer of 2007 till the spring of [2009]. The defendant had ingratiated himself with the victims’ families and with the church that they all participated in.”

We strongly suspect there are others in Louisville who were hurt by Milburn and are now suffering in shame, silence, confusion and self-blame. It’s the duty of his former employer and co-worker to reach out to those vicctims.

As horrific as this case is, there are some heroes here. They are the brave men, women and teenagers in St. Louis who have exposed and are exposing an allegedly complicit church hierarchy. They are Dawn and Roger Varvil, Titus and Kari Benton, Jacob and Carrie Anderson, Doug and Tammy Lay, Sarah Thiele, Nathan Rayner, Scott Seppelt, and Lisa Womble. (Some of these are pseudonyms.)

We applaud them for their strength, courage and caring. We are saddened by their suffering. But we hope other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers like them emerge in Louisville.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .A St. Louis priest now working in Kansas City is creating controversy over his defense of his convicted colleague Bishop Robert Finn. Fr. Gregory Lockwood, in a letter to his parish, claims Finn pled no contest to a “politically motivated charge” filed by “an ambitious prosecutor with strong ties to the abortion industry.”

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ILLINOIS
State Journal-Register

By Chris Dettro, Staff Writer

Posted May 6, 2015

The director of a national support group for clergy abuse victims said he’s glad the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand has been permanently removed as a pastor, but he wants Springfield Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki to do more for victims and less for the priest accused of sexual misconduct.
“We’re glad that if Bishop Thomas Paprocki keeps his promise, Father Robert ‘Bud’ DeGrand won’t ever work in a parish again,” said David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP.

But Clohessy urged the bishop to stop using church funds to pay DeGrand’s attorney’s fees and to post notices about DeGrand and the credible accusations against him on the diocesan website and in parish bulletins. SNAP also wants Paprocki to personally visit each parish where DeGrand has worked to encourage “all victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers to call police.”

DeGrand is alleged to have sexually abused a minor while he was serving in Jacksonville in 1980, the same year he was ordained to the priesthood.

Paprocki met Saturday with parishioners of St. Michael the Archangel in Sigel, St. Mary of the Assumption in Neoga, St. Mary Help of Christians in Green Creek and Sacred Heart in Lillyville to inform them of DeGrand’s immediate removal.

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ROME
LifeSite News

Hilary White

ROME, May 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For some time, observers have expected the final outcome for Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, who was ordered by Vatican officials to tender his resignation last month. The predictable sides have lined up: either condemning and saying, ‘It’s about time,’ or defending him. With all the noise made, it may be difficult for most readers to tease out the truth, but an examination of the facts of the Finn case and that of another high-profile prelate may be enlightening.

If Finn, why not the many, and much worse, others?

With Finn’s 2012 conviction of the misdemeanor offence of “failure to report” a priest caught with images of children on his computer, some of which were judged to be pornographic, it has been expected by supporters and enemies alike that the bishop would be asked by Rome to step down. But while the mainstream secular and liberal Catholic press are triumphing, some very pertinent questions are being left unanswered, primary among which is, if Finn, why not others? All the others…all the many, many others?

Bishop Finn was removed from his diocese and is now being almost universally reviled as a “criminal” and a shielder of sex-abuse. But he never covered up molestation of young people by a priest, and has never been charged with that.

At the same time, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, after being shown to have personally covered for a man who for years had sexually assaulted his own nephew, has been allowed to retire honourably at the normal retirement age, from his position as the enormously powerful head of the archdiocese of Brussels, Belgium. Last year, Danneels was personally invited by Pope Francis to consult at the Synod of Bishops on the Family.

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BELGIE
HLN

[A priest who told a court he may have unconsciously abused minors during sleep was acquitted in court because the judge decided to give him the benefit of a doubt.]

Priester die “mogelijk onbewust tijdens slaap misbruikte” vrijgesproken

De correctionele rechtbank van Brussel heeft vandaag een priester vrijgesproken die ervan verdacht werd tussen 2010 en 2011 in een Brussels internaat minderjarigen seksueel te hebben misbruikt. De rechter besloot om de verdachte het voordeel van de twijfel te geven en stelde dat de bewijzen in het dossier onvoldoende waren.

De priester heeft de hem ten laste gelegde feiten altijd ontkend. Hij verklaarde onder andere dat indien hij effectief kinderen had betast tijdens zijn nachtdienst in het internaat, dat onbewust, tijdens zijn slaap, moet zijn geweest. Hij verwees naar de aandoening ‘sexsomnia’ waarbij een persoon gedurende zijn slaap seksuele handelingen stelt zonder zich daar nadien iets van te herinneren.

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ITALIA
La Stampa

[A priest in Cagliari, who has previous allegations of sexual abuse, has been arrested again for sexual violence against children.]

NICOLA PINNA
VILLAMAR (CAGLIARI)

Li seduceva promettendo regali e quando non bastava li sedava. Così don Pascal riusciva ad abusare dei ragazzini che frequentavano la parrocchia di Villamar: dodicenni e sedicenni che a lungo avevano subito le sue attenzioni morbose. Da quando è scoppiato lo scandalo lui ha sempre negato, ma questo pomeriggio i carabinieri lo hanno arrestato con l’accusa di violenza sessuale su minori.

L’ordinanza di custodia cautelare emessa dalla procura di Cagliari ricostruisce diversi episodi e si basa principalmente sul pericolo di reiterazione del reato. Perché don Pascal Manca, 43 anni, è già recidivo: le prime contestazioni risalgono al 2012, quando era parroco a Mandas, altro paese della provincia di Cagliari.

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ITALIA
Corriere del Veneto

[An 80-year-old priest has been indicted for putting his hands inside the underwear of two girls during

VICENZA Mani sotto la maglia e gli slip durante le confessioni e le chiacchierate a tu per tu con due giovani fedeli, due sorelle di tredici e quattordici anni. Il giudice di Vicenza Roberto Venditti ha rinviato a giudizio, con la pesante accusa di violenza sessuale aggravata su minore – violenza nella forma delle molestie – don Giovanni Baccega, più conosciuto come don Gianni, ottantenne originario di Fontaniva e ora in pensione in una parrocchia del Trevigiano.

All’epoca dei fatti che gli vengono contestati e che sarebbero avvenuti tra l’ottobre 2007 e la primavera del 2008, era parroco di Sant’Antonio del Pasubio, nel comune di Valli del Pasubio. Secondo l’accusa il sacerdote avrebbe abusato del suo ruolo di ministro di culto e approfittato dei momenti in cui rimaneva solo con ciascuna delle due ragazze per abbracciarle e accarezzarle, allungando le mani sotto la maglia per toccare i fianchi o sotto le mutandine per palpare il sedere. Accuse da cui il sacerdote dovrà difendersi in aula.

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OSTERREICH
Wien.orf

[A sacristan who was involved with oral sex with a 14-year-old in a Vienna church has been blackmailed. The boy’s cousin is said to have forced the 39-year-old to pay “hush money” and this was condemned in Vietnna on Thursday.]

Ein Mesner, der in einer Wiener Kirche Oralsex mit einem unter 14-Jährigen gehabt hatte, ist erpresst worden. Der Cousin des Burschen zwang den 39-Jährigen zur Zahlung von „Schweigegeld“. Dafür wurde dieser am Donnerstag in Wien verurteilt.

2013 und 2014 hatten sich die sexuellen Kontakte zwischen dem Mesner und dem anfangs unter 14-Jährigen in einer Kirche abgespielt. Davon erfuhr der 18-jährige Cousin, der sonst nichts damit zu tun gehabt hatte, und zwang den 39-Jährigen zur Zahlung von insgesamt 6.000 Euro.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Crisis Magazine

FRANK KESSLER

Two weeks ago, Bishop Robert Finn, the embattled bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph in Missouri, had his resignation accepted by appropriate authorities in the Vatican. Canon law accepts “graves reasons” other than things like age, infimity and so on as sufficient reason for the Church to accept a bishop’s resignation because of incapacity to continue as shepherd of a particular diocesan flock. Several commentators from the Catholic News Service, the National Catholic Reporter (based in Kansas City) and secular media like the Huffington Post said that Bishop Finn was ‘low hanging fruit” after his conviction of a misdemeanor failure to make a timely report of accusations of child endangerment against one of his priests to civil authorities in 2010. The term “low hanging fruit” is typically used to convey someone who is vulnerable in the lower branches of the vine. It implies you need to get the “low hanging fruit” so that you get to the higher ups. He was the most senior Catholic Church authority to be “convicted” in a matter involving sex and a Catholic priest.

Finn’s Early Days

When Finn was assigned as coadjutor bishop in 2004 I called my relatives in St. Louis County to ask if they knew anything about him. Since I had lived and worked as a full-time political science professor and advisor to the Missouri Western State University Catholic Newman Club, for over thirty years after coming to the St. Joseph, Mo. college as a newly minted Notre Dame Ph.D., I had seen the prevailing diocesan politico-religious culture and wondered how he would be received in Kansas City. Several of my extended family in St. Louis had been in parishes Fr. Finn served in Webster Groves and Florissant. They described a Fr. Finn as a “holy man” who was sought out as a confessor and spent countless hours regularly serving long lines of penitents. My spirits were raised by the news.

When it became clear he intended to emphasize youth ministry, evangelization and vocations, my hope for Newman Centers and the end of a vocation drought in the diocese were buoyed. It took very little time for me to realize, if there had been a welcome mat extended for him in Kansas City, it was pulled out from under him almost immediately. His views on the priorities of the church for the future in the diocese, like those of Pope St. John Paul II, who selected him, seemed almost diametrically opposed to a highly vocal segment of the laity and clergy in the diocese. Entrenched bureaucracies and long-standing cultural values do not lend themselves to a change in emphasis and priorities.

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CONNECTICUT
CT News

Monsignor Kevin Wallin has been sentenced to 65 months in prison for dealing crystal meth, the highly addictive drug made famous on TV’s “Breaking Bad.”

Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello handed down the sentence Thursday in Hartford.

“This was an incredible fall from grace for a highly respected monsignor who was well loved in the Catholic community,” said Ed Gavin, a devout Catholic and Bridgeport criminal defense lawyer who has represented people facing mandatory minimums.. “All the good things he did as a religious leader were washed away in a very, very short period of time.”

As a priest, Wallin was an inspiration to his clergy. He led fundraisers to renovate both St. Peter’s Church in Danbury and later St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport. His beautiful voice, nimble piano-playing and love for Broadway show tunes garnered headline status on parish variety-show fundraisers.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Francis Phillips posted Thursday, 7 May 2015

Bishops deferred to authority and priests and seminarians mainly followed suit. The lesson? That we must always speak out when our conscience is challenged

Anniversaries are crowding in on us this year: it is 70 years since the end of the Second World War; the anniversary of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp was last week; VE Day is tomorrow. All this alongside the general election today. Are all these events linked? Yes, in a way. We are not facing the German elections of 1933, but it is worth remembering that Hitler was voted into power – it wasn’t a Nazi putsch. Voting, or registering “None of the above”, does matter, as Fr Lucie-Smith argued yesterday. How should a Christian vote? Hard to say – though it’s worth noting that the Greens would like to shrink the number of people on the planet and that Ukip is the only party that has included Christianity in its manifesto.

These thoughts follow on from a book I have struggled to read this week; struggled because the topic makes for very gloomy reading. It’s called Wehrmacht Priests: Catholicism and the Nazi War of Annihilation (US, UK) by Lauren Faulkner Rossi and Catholics ought to read it, if only to ask themselves where their ultimate loyalties lie: with their faith or with their country? St Thomas More is famously said to have stated before his execution: “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” It seems this maxim was forgotten or neglected by the German Catholic Church during the whole of the Third Reich.

The author makes it clear she thinks this period was a shameful episode for the Church in Germany. Basically, there was simply no collective or sustained resistance to Nazism on the part of the hierarchy. Their “silence” might have been due to their patriotic feeling, shared by almost all the population, that the Treaty of Versailles was deeply unfair; their mistaken belief that the real enemy to be fought was Bolshevism and thus that Nazism was the lesser evil; and their further mistaken attempt to distinguish between the German army (good) and the Nazi ideology (bad). It is also true that the German hierarchy did not raise its voice to protest about the treatment of the Jews, even though this was being carried on underneath its nose. A latent anti-Semitism was no doubt an influence here, just as it also affected the general population.

In this account there was only one bishop who consistently and courageously spoke out against the Nazi party throughout their 12-year regime: this was Konrad von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin; indeed he did more; with the help of a lay assistant, Margarete Sommer, he did his best to help the plight of the Jews in Berlin. Bishop Clemens von Galen of Munster did protest against the euthanasia programme (although he left it until 1941), but his voice was not representative of the German hierarchy as a whole.

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UNITED STATES
Brent Detwiler

Monday, March 30, 2015

Two years ago a “hush fund” masquerading as a benevolence fund was deceptively set up by Mark Prater (Executive Director for SGM), Paul Buckley (Chairman of the SGM Board), and Tommy Hill (Director of Finance & Administration for SGM) in order to surreptitiously meet the demands of a SGM pastor whose son was sexually abused by the son of another SGM pastor in the same church.

The fund came about because the father of the victim was thinking about joining the sex abuse lawsuit against SGM if SGM did not agree to reforms and if he did not receive restitution monies from SGM for harms done. Insurance lawyers told SGM leaders they would lose their liability coverage if payouts were made thereby arguably admitting fault. Instead, SGM lawyer Chip Grange suggested a plan whereby monies be raised for the victim’s family as “a collection and private gift to help him avoid eviction.” This plan was approved by C.J. Mahaney and the SGM Board of Directors and implemented by Mark Prater.

As a result many SGM pastors who knew the pastor and father of the victim were contacted and asked to give benevolence to the family. Prater, Buckley, Hill and the Board deceived these pastors into giving personal and church monies to a benevolence fund that effectively functioned as a hush fund. The pastors had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes. They were intentionally deceived in the matter.

People inside and outside of SGM must come to grips with the corruption that characterizes the leadership of SGM starting with C.J. Mahaney. He was the President of SGM when this hush fund was set up. No one should be supporting or following any of these men. As I’ve demonstrated countless times, you cannot believe anything they tell you.

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GERMANY
New Ways Ministry

Germany’s bishops voted in favor of new employment policies favorable to church workers in same-gender relationships this week, proving that the firing and forced resignation of LGBT church workers need not be the only response to marriage equality’s spread.

More than two-thirds of dioceses voted to approve the ecclesial policy change which allows church workers in same-sex unions, as well as those who have remarried after divorce, to keep their jobs, reports Reuters. Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne explained the policy further:

” ‘The point is to limit the consequences of remarriage or a same-sex union to the most serious cases (that would) compromise the Church’s integrity and credibility.’ “

Though German courts have been limiting the scope of religious exemptions, churches are still free to disregard civil law when it comes to employment protections, meaning the bishops also chose this option fairly freely. Germany’s bishops explained that “multiple changes in legal practice, legislation and society” prompted the change. Such honesty about rapid shifts in public support for LGBT rights and the emerging reality of marriage equality, as well as the harm these firings cause, is rare.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Is there one criminal law for childless bishops and another for lesser Catholic Church officials and non-clerics who endanger or harm innocent children? Two different standards appear to be the case so far.

An Australian Archbishop pleads not guilty to criminally concealing a predatory priest’s child abuse. A Belgian Archbishop is judicially determined to have behaved similarly with a predatory priest he supervised. He may retire. A KC USA bishop, in effect, pleads guilty to similar charges and resigns after four years.

A defrocked 66 year old Polish Archbishop, who has been found, it appears, by the Vatican to have sexually abused minors in the Dominican Republic, may die of old age in a comfortable Vatican residence before the Vatican even begins his secretive trial.

Why are any of these bishop misdeeds tried in biased church courts? Why are bishops not being convicted and imprisoned for misdeeds that lesser officials and ordinary citizens are imprisoned for? How can an estimated hundreds of thousands of children worldwide been abused by priests, yet no bishop is really being held accountable to the full extent of the law?

In Philadelphia, where Pope Francis will soon honor the local Catholic hierarchy with a visit, Msgr. William Lynn, who had overseen more than 800 priests as former top priest personnel aide for a dozen years to the Philly Archdiocese’s Cardinals Justin Rigali and Anthony Bevilacqua and the first Catholic Church non-bishop senior official convicted in the clergy sex-abuse scandal, was recently order returned to prison, following a higher court ruling, by Teresa Sarmina, a judge educated at the Jesuit’s Georgetown Law and at Notre Dame’s St. Mary’s. “Well, I think things are back where they were when I sentenced Msgr. Lynn,” Sarmina said. “The same reasons I stated then exist.” “Somebody call for a sheriff,” the judge added, before leaving the bench. She had lectured Lynn on his failure to stand up to his cardinal bosses, who got off with impunity and Vatican honors, as did shamed Boston Cardinal Bernard Law before them.

Too bad no one earlier called the sheriff on Lynn’s cardinal bosses. Both cardinals managed to avoid prosecution for their aide’s misdeeds done apparently on their behalf. Bevilacqua died soon after giving a two day video deposition (that is still being kept secret, it appears) in the Lynn criminal case, and Rigali left town in a hurry, by “retiring” after Lynn’s indictment. He may now be seen in good form with Pope Francis attending Vatican ceremonies along with his former pal, the infamous Cardinal Law. The pope likely knew Bevilacqua from their Vatican committee work and appears to be personally acquainted with Rigali. Apparently failing to supervise priest predators of children is not an impediment to being honored at the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The 11th Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, has announced his retirement after 15 years in the job.

Bishop Harrower will formally leave the position on September 12.

He said it was time for him to bring his leadership of the church to a close.

“It seemed like 15 years was a good innings and we’ve absolutely enjoyed the time here,” Bishop Harrower said.

“There have been exciting times and there have been challenging times too.

“The issue of sexual abuse in the church and seeking to understand and being taught and helped by survivors of abuse to understand what really happened, and then to seek to respond in love and to walk with them in some way.”

Bishop Harrower said he took the issue of sexual abuse at the hands of priests very seriously from the moment he took office.

“[I made] an apology, in my very first media conference as Bishop of Tasmania, to survivors, victims of sexual abuse,” he said.

“And then way back in 2002, 13 years ago, I called for a Royal Commission.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

The judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy has scheduled a November hearing on the church’s reorganization plan, now being revised, that if approved would allow it to emerge from its 4-year-old bankruptcy.

Attorneys for the archdiocese told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley that the church will be putting more money from its disputed now $66 million cemetery trust into the bankruptcy estate in response to a recent decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

They did not specify a dollar figure or say how much would go to attorneys vs. victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Other legal battles loom before any reorganization plan can be approved. Among them, whether Kelley has jurisdiction to grant parishes a blanket protection against future lawsuits — a key provision of the archdiocese’s plan — and whether the archdiocese must provide its creditors committee with additional documents involving the cemetery trust.

“Is there any middle ground here?” a clearly frustrated Kelley asked the nearly 20 attorneys assembled, some by telephone, for a contentious status hearing on Wednesday. “We need to move this case forward,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (a background article, written in 2010, still relevant in 2015)

A prominent Australian Catholic Church leader, Archbishop Philip Wilson, has claimed (in 2010) that during his rise from junior priest to church administrator, he “knew nothing” about the sexually-abusive behaviour of fellow-priests — even though he lived and worked with some of these criminals. Does Wilson’s “know-nothing” attitude help us to understand his rise to the top of the Australian church hierarchy? Wilson’s senior roles eventually included the managing of the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse.

From 1996 onwards, Wilson was a long-time member of the Australian bishops’ National Committee for Professional Standards — the body that was established to oversee the management of the church’s sexual-abuse crisis.

In 2001, Wilson’s fellow bishops elected him as the chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference — at a time when the worldwide Catholic hierarchy was being accused of having covered up clergy sex-abuse crimes. He held this top position for the next ten years.

This career rise is quite significant for someone who says he formerly “knew nothing” about clergy sex crimes.

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CANADA
Romania TV

Un preot ortodox român a recunoscut că a agresat sexual 10 femei, în timpul spovedaniei sau al slujbelor.

Ioan Pop, în vârstă de 56 de ani, a încercat şi să sechestreze şi să întreţină relaţii sexuale cu o femeie, pe care a ameninţat-o apoi că o va blestema dacă spune cuiva ce i s-a întâmplat, potrivit România TV.

Preotul este judecat în prezent pentru aceste fapte, petrecute între 1999 și 2013. Potrivit procurorilor, victimele aveau între 20 şi 35 de ani. Identităţile lor nu au fost făcute publice.

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CANADA
Toronto Sun

BY SAM PAZZANO, TORONTO SUN
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 06, 2015

TORONTO – A disgraced Romanian Orthodox priest has admitted to sexually assaulting 10 women, exploiting his position to victimize them in church, during confessions and in other places.

Ioan Pop, 56, used his holy position to fondle, kiss and make unwanted sexual advances at women from April 1, 1999 through September 2013. The assaults occurred while victims were seeking religious services such as confessions, weddings and funerals.

Pop also tried to confine, seduce and spark an affair with a despondent woman in 1999. He vowed to curse her and her family for generations if she exposed him, court heard.

Pop pleaded guilty to seven sexual assault charges but he also admitted the facts on three other allegations. Those facts can then be weighed by the judge as an aggravating factor on sentencing, which could result in a more severe sentence.

Crown attorney Jackie Garrity read out the disturbing facts to Justice Peter Hryn.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 07, 2015

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, did not appear in court this morning to face a charge of concealing child abuse committed by another priest.

His lawyer, Simon Buchen, said the archbishop is pleading not guilty to the alleged offence and hopes to apply for the case to be moved from the court in Newcastle, in the NSW Hunter Valley, to Sydney.

“There is a plea and I enter the plea of not guilty,” Mr Buchen told the court.

Today’s hearing was the first time the matter has been heard in court since Archbishop Wilson was charged in March this year. He is the most senior Catholic official worldwide to be charged for concealing child abuse.

Court documents show the alleged abuse of a 10-year-old boy was committed by a Hunter Valley priest, James Patrick Fletcher, in 1971. Archbishop Wilson has been charged with concealing the abuse between 2004 and 2006, when he was serving as the Archbishop of Adelaide.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 7, 2015

Gabriel Wingate-Pearse

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing child sex abuse in the Catholic church via his lawyer in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday.

Archbishop Wilson, who did not appear, was represented by barrister Simon Buchen, who said his client was pleading not guilty and he was anticipating a lengthy hearing.

He flagged with Magistrate Robert Stone there may be an application to “change the venue”.

One issue was the possible length of any hearing but Mr Buchen alluded to other issues which he did not specify.

“That’s not the only reason,” he said.

Mr Stone said he could make an application but if a magistrate could be made available at Newcastle, if that was where most witnesses were located, it may not be granted.

The prosecution asked for six weeks to prepare the brief of evidence to be served by June 3, reply on June 17, when Archbishop Wilson, who is not on bail, would again be excused from attending.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

[with video]

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop has pleaded not guilty to a charge of concealing child sexual abuse committed by a colleague.

Archbishop Philip Wilson was charged in March with one count of concealing information about a serious indictable offence, namely the 1971 sex assault of a 10-year-old boy by priest James Fletcher in Maitland in NSW.

Wilson was excused from appearing today at Newcastle Local Court, but his lawyer says he’s pleading not guilty.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB

[with video]

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker fired back after Fr. Gregory Lockwood wrote a letter to his parish at Christ the King Church claiming charges against the now-resigned Bishop Robert Finn were politically motivated.

Baker sent a letter to the temporary Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese leader Archbishop Joseph Naumann and Christ the King parish.

In it, she says Fr. Lockwood is spreading lies about her and Bishop Finn.

“As your prosecutor, I am guided by this truth: No one is above the law, no matter our position or title. Children especially need this to be true, and abused children’s lives may depend upon it,” Baker wrote.

She also said everyone has a moral duty to report abuse.

Bishop Finn was convicted in 2012 for failing to report suspected child abuse by another priest. He stepped down as diocese leader in April.

Fr. Lockwood blames Finn’s critics, not the scandal, for his resignation. He claimed Finn pleaded no contest to the charges to prevent a painful, public trial.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4

[with video]

MAY 7, 2015, BY FOX 4 NEWSROOM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In a letter to his parishioners, a Kansas City priest defends Bishop Robert Finn and lashes out at the Jackson County prosecutor for charging him with failing to report a priest who had child pornography.

Father Gregory Lockwood at Christ the King Parish wrote a two page letter about Bishop Finn’s resignation.

In it, he says the resignation is no cause for celebration, calling out fellow Catholics who support it and for saying “mean and vicious things.”

He went on to question why, “there is no forbearance or forgiveness for this man who pled no contest to a politically motivated charge filed by an ambitious prosecutor…”

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker saw the letter and wrote her own to Christ the King Parish to address what she calls “misstatements.”

“I run this office as a prosecutor,” she wrote, “not a politician; and seeks convictions for people who harm our community.

She went on to say Bishop Finn did not plead no contest, but a judge found him guilty of the charge against him.

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CONNECTICUT
Fox News

May 07, 2015

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. – A suspended Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine and bought a sex shop to possibly launder his drug money is asking a federal judge for leniency at his sentencing Thursday in Connecticut.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, whose lawyer says was lonely and overworked when he turned to drugs and became an addict, agreed as part of his 2013 guilty plea to a possible prison sentence of 10 to 11 years. He’s now asking for four years in prison and 500 hours of community service.

The 63-year-old priest has been incarcerated for the past two years.

Prosecutors say he headed the meth distribution conspiracy, and they are seeking a sentence of at least 10 years, which they say is appropriate for the crime.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

AIMEE GULLIVER

Advocates for child abuse victims say the Government’s plan to “fast-track” payouts for people alleging historic abuse in state care is deeply flawed and underfunded.

The historic abuse claims relate to sexual, physical, and psychological abuse or neglect of children while they were in a wide range of social welfare, health, education and church-run homes, as well as foster care and family homes.

The claims involved a wide range of allegations from people who had been in state care, covering a 70-year period, with most between the 1960s and 1980s.

The Ministry of Social Development has received 1572 claims since 2004, with payouts totalling $8.4 million awarded in the 583 cases resolved so far – an average of just under $14,500 per case.

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said the average time taken to resolve a claim was more than two years, and people with unresolved claims would be given the option of a “fast-track settlement”.

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BELGIUM
The Tablet (UK)

06 May 2015

The Archbishop Brussels, André-Joseph Léonard, has been ordered to pay €10,000 in damages for failing to act on allegations of sexual abuse in the 1990s when he was bishop of Namur. The civil case was brought by a former seminarian who was abused by a priest in the late 1980s,when he was a 14-year-old altar boy.

Joel Devillet, now 42, filed an abuse complaint with a church tribunal, but it advised counselling for him and did not alert the police, said an appeals court in Liege that overturned an earlier judgment exonerating Léonard.

It also said Léonard, who is head of the Belgian bishops’ conference, did not discipline the offending priest, who went on to commit further abuse in another parish. “The way in which Archbishop Léonard treated the case of Joel Devillet constituted misconduct,” the court said.

Archbishop Léonard’s lawyer said his client disagreed with the court judgment but had not yet decided whether he would appeal. “The court lists various things that certain people should have done, but nothing that Archbishop Léonard categorically should have done,” he said. “That nuance is important.”

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

A Hibbing priest is in jail, facing allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor, KSTP sister-station WDIO reports.

The 29-year-old was arrested Tuesday afternoon by the Hibbing Police Department and is being held in the St. Louis County Jail. A formal charge has not yet been filed, but documents indicate he faces a potential charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving his position of authority and a victim under the age of 16.

The Diocese of Duluth says the man is a parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hibbing. The sign at Immaculate Conception Church in Hibbing also lists him as being an associate pastor at that church.

“While the circumstances leading to his arrest are currently unknown to us and while we believe (the man) is entitled to the presumption of innocence, we take this development very seriously and are monitoring it closely,” the diocese said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson pleads not guilty to concealment of child sex abuse charges

Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing child sex abuse.

The charges relate to abuse allegedly committed by fellow priest Jim Fletcher when the pair worked at NSW’s Maitland Diocese in the 1970s.

Court documents reveal the concealment charges involve the case of a 10-year-old boy allegedly abused in 1971.

Fletcher was convicted of nine sexual abuse charges in 2006.

He died shortly after being sentenced to at least seven and a half years for his crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson pleads not guilty to abuse cover-up at Newcastle hearing

NEIL KEENE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MAY 07, 2015

ARCHBISHOP Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to covering up sexual abuse in the Catholic Church dating back to the 1970s.

The Archbishop of Adelaide — the highest-ranking member of the church anywhere in the world to be charged with concealing child sex abuse within Catholic ranks — did not appear for this morning’s brief hearing in Newcastle local court.

The court heard that Wilson would plead not guilty to the charge laid in March following investigations by Strike Force Lantle, established to investigate allegations of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in the Hunter Region during the 1970s.

Police allege Wilson was a junior priest in the region in 1976 when he failed to alert authorities after learning of another priest’s abuse of a child.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Wednesday 6 May 2015

The Catholic archbishop of Adelaide will plead not guilty to a charge of concealing child sexual abuse.

Philip Wilson, 64, has been charged with one count of concealing information about a serious indictable offence, namely the 1971 sex assault of a 10-year-old boy by a former priest, James Patrick Fletcher, in Maitland in the NSW Hunter region.

Wilson was excused from appearing on Thursday at Newcastle local court.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing child sexual abuse allegations against a paedophile priest.

Wilson was not in court today but he was represented by his lawyer, Simon Buchen.

Police allege that between 2004 and 2006, Wilson concealed a child sexual abuse allegation that had been made against the late Hunter Valley paedophile priest Jim Fletcher.

Court documents say Wilson believed Fletcher had indecently assaulted a 10-year-old boy in 1971, and knew he had information which might help with Fletcher’s prosecution.

The documents say, without reasonable excuse, Wilson failed to bring that information to the attention of police.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sun Daily

SYDNEY: An archbishop in the Australian city of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, pleaded not guilty in court Thursday to concealing child abuse in the Catholic Church, media reports said.

Police allege that Wilson concealed a child sexual abuse allegation made against a fellow priest in the 1970s when Wilson was an assistant parish priest in the east Australian town of Maitland.

Wilson is one of the most senior Catholic clerics in the world to be charged with concealing child abuse.

The defendant did not appear in court himself but was represented by his lawyer Simon Buchen, the Newcastle Herald newspaper reported.

The court adjourned the case until June 17.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

Forum News Service
POSTED: 05/06/2015

HIBBING, Minn. — A Hibbing priest has been arrested on suspicions of having sex with a minor.

The Rev. Brian Lederer, 29, a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth, was arrested in Hibbing on Tuesday as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a news release from the diocese office.

Lederer was in the St. Louis County Jail in Duluth on Wednesday on preliminary charges of second-degree felony criminal sexual conduct with a person between ages 13 and 15 by a person of authority.

Hibbing police said they could not comment on the case because it remains an active investigation and that a criminal complaint is expected to be filed in court Thursday or Friday.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

[The Father Lockwood letter]
[Letter from Jean Peters Baker, prosecutor]

Brian Roewe | May. 6, 2015 NCR Today

KANSAS CITY, MO.
A priest’s letter alleging political motivations for the prosecution of Bishop Robert Finn prompted responses Wednesday from both the local prosecutor and the apostolic administrator of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese.

Fr. Gregory Lockwood, parochial administrator of Christ the King Parish in southern Kansas City and a close friend of Finn, said while mistakes occurred in the case of former priest Shawn Ratigan, currently serving 50 years in prison for child pornography, he questioned the legal process that led to Finn’s 2012 misdemeanor conviction.

Finn resigned April 21 as head of the diocese, with Kansas City, Kan., Archbishop Joseph Naumann named as its administrator. In October 2011, Finn and the diocese were charged with failure to report suspected child abuse in relation to Ratigan, who pled guilty in 2012 on federal charges of possessing and producing child pornography. In September 2012, a Jackson County judge found Finn guilty on one misdemeanor count of failing to report.

“There were definitely mistakes made in handling the situation by people who, it turned out, were in over their heads, but there was never any malice, or impulse to cover up anything,” Lockwood said in a letter inserted in the weekend bulletin addressed to Christ the King parishioners.

He continued: “There is no forbearance or forgiveness for this man who pled no contest to a politically motivated charge filed by an ambitious prosecutor with strong ties to the abortion industry, so that he might save his local church the pain and cost of a public trial. The statute used was not even applicable to what happened, but such is our legal and political society.”

The accusation of ulterior motives led Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, who brought the charges against Finn, to respond by saying Lockwood’s letter contained “misinformation” and “misstatements.”

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Newsroom Staff

Updated May 6, 2015

Hibbing, MN (NNCNOW.com) — A priest with the Diocese of Duluth is in police custody, accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Police arrested the 29-year-old man in Hibbing on Tuesday.

The Diocese released a statement today saying they are taking the situation very seriously and are monitoring developments closely.

They add they will cooperate fully with the authorities.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran May 6, 2015

A Catholic priest who serves at a parish in Hibbing was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of sexually abusing a teenager, according to the Diocese of Duluth and law enforcement records.

The Hibbing Police Department booked the priest into the St. Louis County Jail, where he remains pending a possible charge for second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor between the ages of 13 and 15, according to the county jail roster.

The priest was ordained in the Diocese of Duluth. Diocese spokesman Kyle Eller said the diocese first learned of the arrest from the police. He declined further comment.

In a statement released Wednesday, the diocese said the priest was arrested “as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct of a minor.”

It continued, “While the circumstances leading to his arrest are currently unknown to us and while we believe (the priest) is entitled to the presumption of innocence, we take this development very seriously and are monitoring it closely.”

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

HDT Staff Report news@hibbingdailytribune.net

HIBBING — An associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hibbing has been arrested and is being held on suspicion of sexual misconduct.

Brian M. Lederer, 29, was arrested by the Hibbing Police Department and booked into the St. Louis County Jail Tuesday evening, according to the jail roster report.

He was being held with probable cause on an anticipated charge of felony criminal sexual conduct in the second degree.

Lederer was ordained in June 2012 and is parochial vicar at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hibbing, the Diocese of Duluth confirmed in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“While the circumstances leading to his arrest are currently unknown to us and while we believe Father Lederer is entitled to the presumption of innocence, we take this development very seriously and are monitoring it closely,” said Kyle Eller, director of communications for the Diocese of Duluth.

“We will cooperate fully with civil authorities in any investigation, and as more facts emerge in this case, we will uphold our responsibilities to civil law, to church law and under our policies and procedures for the protection of young people. We continue to pray for all those affected by sexual abuse and urge anyone who has been a victim of it to come forward to church authorities and to civil authorities.”

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ITALIA
Go News

Sarebbe stato rintracciato ad Haiti Padre Jean Baptiste, Padre Giovambattista come veniva chiamato a Ca Raffaello frazione del comune di Badia Tedalda (Arezzo) da dove un anno fa è scomparsa la 50enne Guerrina Piscaglia.

Il religioso, che sostituì la scorsa primavera il parroco padre Faustin quando questi si trovava in Africa, non è mai stato sentito dagli investigatori della procura di Arezzo dal momento che fu trasferito subito dopo la sparizione di Guerrina, denunciata nei primissimi giorni come probabile allontanamento volontario.

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ITALY
Gazzetta del Sud

Arezzo, May 6 – A priest prosecutors want to question in connection with the disappearance last year of 50-year-old Guerrina Piscaglia has been located in Haiti, investigators said Wednesday. Father Jean Baptiste was transferred away from the parish of Badia Tedalda, near Arezzo, shortly after Pisascaglia vanished. Baptiste shared the rectory with Friar Gratien Alabi, who is in prison after being arrested in April on charges of murder and tampering with a corpse in the probe into Piscaglia’s disappearance. The housewife and mother of a 22-year-old son went to the rectory of the local church after a family lunch on the afternoon of May 1, 2014, and was never seen again. Extensive police searches using dogs conducted in the surrounding countryside failed to turn up any trace of Piscaglia, who lived in the hamlet of Ca’ Raffaello in Arezzo province. Prosecutors later placed Alabi, a Congolese national, under investigation on suspicion of kidnapping and possible murder after he told a TV show about missing persons that Piscaglia had told him she was pregnant and that he was the father.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

. . .Rev. Steve Wingfield of First Christian Church in Florissant has failed in his bid for a restraining order to make whistleblowers take down Facebook posts critical of how he handled the case of Brendon Millburn. Millburn, a former church staffer, is now behind bars for 25 years after admitting molesting boys. Barrister Al Johnson foiled Wingfield’s effort. Johnson’s no “newbie” with clergy sex cases. In the 1980s, he prosecuted Fr. Joseph Ross on child sex charges. .

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ILLINOIS
KMOX

Fred Bodimer (@FredBodimerKMOX)
May 6, 2015

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KMOX) — Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki has removed Father Robert “Bud” DeGrand as pastor of four central Illinois parishes following a credible abuse allegation from 30 years ago.

DeGrand was at St. Elizabeth’s Parish in Granite City from 1991 to 1996.

Paprocki went to DeGrand’s most recent parishes in the Effingham area Sunday to give the news about their pastor’s removal.

“Paprocki said on Sunday that not only is (Degrand) suspended, but his pay has been reduced,” says David Clohessy of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The case first surfaced in 2013 and has been going through the Vatican disciplinary process.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

German Catholic bishops, clearly concerned about protecting their $7+ billion annual governmental subsidies (the Catholic Church’s largest guaranteed revenue stream worldwide, with roots in Pope Pius XII’s 1933 “evil bargain” that helped make Hitler), have apparently seen enough from Pope Francis and his flawed “fatherless and motherless” Family Synod farce. The Bishops appear unwilling to wait passively for the final Family Synod in October to reform their rules on same sex marriages and divorced and remarried Catholics. Who knows? German bishops, under considerable competitive pressure from Evangelical Lutherans and governmental child protection officials, may soon reverse the papal contraception ban and even (God willing!) hold German bishops really accountable for covering up priest child predators, as apparently even the ex-pope did in Munich and his brother did as the Regensburg choirmaster.

As reported by veteran Vatican journalist, Sandro Magister, ” … Not only do the German bishops approve of giving absolution and communion to the divorced and remarried, but they also express the hope that civil second marriages be blessed in church, that Eucharistic communion also be given to non-Catholic spouses, that the goodness of homosexual relationships and same-sex unions be recognized. …”, see here,

[Chiesa]

The German bishops are on a Synod collision course with the pope over sexual morality issues, see Yale educated prophetic theologian, Jamie Manson’s insightful and informative “To have a truly just church, Pope Francis must move beyond complementarity” here,

[National Catholic Reporter]

The collision is being accelerated by truth tellers on bishop cover-up schemes like courageous Fr. Tom Doyle in his recent “Bishop Robert Finn: the rest of the story” here,

[National Catholic Reporter]

Pope Francis’ failed Synod strategy has for two years sought, and still seeks:

* To protect cardinals and bishops from governmental investigators and criminal prosecutors
* To protect Church leaders’ assets from excessive corruption and from lawyers for priest sex abuse survivors
* To protect unaccountable bishops’ local monopolies over their dioceses and the local Catholic faithful
* To protect bishops’ key salesmen — their captive celibate priests who collect top Church leaders’ money and who depend on bishops’ funds to survive, especially in retirement
* To create an illusion, through public imagery and misleading promises, that the Vatican is changing its unchristian ways, as well as its warped sexual teachings that are designed mainly to preserve and protect the Church leaders’ power and wealth.

The German bishops see and understand well the future implications, it appears, of the Catholic revolt in Chile and the likely coming USA revolt when the pope visits in September. The USA revolt has already begun with brave Jesuit students at a New York university, with their petition here on Change.org (SIGN IT NOW PLEASE), and related anticipated civil disobedience seeking to reject, in light of evident child protection and homophobic failures, prominent New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as graduation speaker, see here, Catholics Revolt: Jesuit Grads Shun Dolan As Goldman Sachs Bankers Woo Him

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