ABUSE TRACKER

RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Wednesday, January 27, 2016
GoLocalProv News Team and Kate Nagle

Despite promises by the leadership of St. George’s to be transparent and get to the bottom of the sexual abuse scandal that has claimed more than 40 children as victims, the prep school has hired the controversial Boston public relations firm Rasky Baerlein. The firm worked to create the message for the Diocese of Boston’s effort to avoid payment to victims by declaring bankruptcy.
In 2002, Rasky Baerlein was hired by the Diocese’s law firm Goodwin Proctor “to advise the firm on communicating the complexities of a bankruptcy filing to several audiences, including priests, parishioners, and the wider public, according to the sources,” reported the Boston Globe.

Despite representing two of the most widespread sex abuse cases in New England history, the PR firm denies this is a specialty. In an email to GoLocal, President of Rasky Baerlein Joe Baerlein writes, “No (we do not have a sexual abuse specialty) we are a communications and public affairs firm with offices in Boston and DC. We have mostly corporate and institutional clients across a series of vertical industries, i.e., healthcare or energy. We do a significant amount of work in reputation and crisis management.”

The Board of St. George’s hired Rasky Baerlein to manage the communications tied to questions about the years of sexual abuse. The firm prominently claims that they are experts at crisis communications:

A smart, strategic communications plan – developed in close coordination with the legal team and executed with care – helps confront misinformation, advance positive messages, and condition the environment for a favorable result. We’ve worked with leading law firms to guide clients through contentious legal battles, including complex multi-state litigation, civil and criminal proceedings in state and federal courts, and class action lawsuits.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

Survivors of child abuse within the Catholic Church are taking their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up going back decades. The claims – dating back to the 1950s and featuring pupils at a church school in the north west of England – mirror those in the recent Spotlight film, tipped for Oscars success for its real-life depiction of similar allegations in the Catholic Church in Boston, US, in the 1980s. Lawyers acting on behalf of the British victims, who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse, said they hope the positivity met with Spotlight’s release will help give other victims the strength to come forward and make allegations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancaster Evening Post

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Survivors of child abuse within the Catholic Church are taking their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up going back decades.

The claims – dating back to the 1950s and featuring pupils at a church school in the north west of England – mirror those in the recent Spotlight film, tipped for Oscars success for its real-life depiction of similar allegations in the Catholic Church in Boston, US, in the 1980s.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the British victims, who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse, said they hope the positivity met with Spotlight’s release will help give other victims the strength to come forward and make allegations.

Thomas Beale, representing victims with London-based child abuse lawyers AO Advocates, said there were “significant” similarities between Spotlight and the allegations of abuse at St Bede’s Catholic school in Manchester decades ago.

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FLORIDA
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

An Irish priest who has been serving in Florida since 2000 claims he has been ostracised by the church for reporting abuse-related activities of a fellow priest to local police.

Fr Jose Palimatton was arrested and charged with possession of pornography and distributing it to a minor. He later pleaded guilty in court, served a sentence, and has been deported to his native India.

Fr John Gallagher (48) from Strabane, Co Tyrone, has since initiated canon law proceedings against Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach at the Vatican.

He has also spoken about the case with Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Fr Gallagher was critical of Cardinal O’Malley’s handling of the case, saying the commission should discuss the matter but had failed to do so.

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LOUISIANA
WBRZ

By: Trey Schmaltz

BATON ROUGE – Officials are trying to distance their church from a sex abuse investigation.

A teenager who identified himself as a minister at Jesus Name Apostolic Temple was arrested Monday on indecent behavior with a juvenile charges. Kentrell Jackson, 18, remained in jail as of this writing. He is being held on a $30,000 bond. Tuesday night, authorities added more charges for Jackson after they learned of two more victims. One victim’s accusation led to an additional indecent behavior charge while the other added sexual battery and another count of indecent behavior to his list of charges.

Police said Jackson admitted to molesting 19 children over the last ten years.

On Tuesday, Linda Grant, who identified herself as a co-pastor at the church, said in a phone interview with WBRZ Jackson first confessed to clergy and the congregation and was then turned over to authorities. Police, though, said in arrest documents, they were made aware of potential abuse after a disturbance at a home near the church off Mohican in North Baton Rouge.

“He came to the church and made a confession,” Grant said in the conversation. She refused to be interviewed on TV.

Grant added although Jackson claimed to be affiliated with the church, he was not an employee and had preached at the church on occasion though not recently.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Colin James
The Advertiser

HORRIFIC details of child sex abuse perpetrated by a paedophile network within the Anglican Church — including a South Australian with an estimated 80 victims- have been detailed to a royal commission.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, this morning publicly apologised to victims of the network — which operated in South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania between the 1960s and 1990s.

His lawyer told the Royal Commission into the Institutional Response into Child Sexual Abuse that he was “deeply sorry” for the pain and anguish suffered by young boys sexually abused by members of the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS), including priests.

“The Archbishop is deeply sorry that this terrible abuse of trust occurred,” she said.

“He apologises to the survivors for this breach of trust.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

A royal commission witness in Hobart has blamed now-Archbishop of Brisbane Phillip Aspinall for the abuse he suffered at the hands of a convicted paedophile.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining responses to sexual abuse allegations in the Church of England Boys Society (CEBS), which is run through the Anglican Church.

The witness known as BYF said he was heavily involved in Anglican Church youth groups and told the hearing it was common for youth group members to stay on floors in rectories or people’s homes while travelling.

BYF told the commission he stayed at the rectory with Tasmanian rector Garth Hawkins while travelling with another youth, Phillip Aspinall, who is now Archbishop of Brisbane.

The hearing heard he and Mr Aspinall were sleeping on the floor when Hawkins came into the room, sat next to BYF and ran his fingers through his hair, telling him he was good looking and offering for him to sleep in his bed.

BYF refused.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A victim of child sexual abuse has blamed the now-Brisbane Anglican archbishop for putting him in bed with the perpetrating priest.

Giving evidence to a royal commission in Hobart on Wednesday, the 52-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons recounted how he was raped in January 1981, then aged 17, at Triabunna on Tasmania’s east coast.

Former priest Garth Hawkins has since been convicted of the abuse but the victim insists it was incumbent Archbishop Phillip Aspinall who set up the opportunity.

‘I wouldn’t have been there without Archbishop Aspinall,’ the victim said.

‘He put me in that bed.’

A group of youths linked to the Church of England Boys’ Society had gathered at Triabunna where Hawkins was then priest.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Spotlight (M)
Director: Thomas McCarthy (Win Win)
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci.
Rating: ****1/2

Some kept hoping, while others kept preying

Both a cry from the heart for victims of sexual abuse and a vivid reminder of the fading art of investigative journalism, Spotlight is deservedly one of the frontrunners for the next Best Picture Oscar.

Superbly acted and scripted, this powerful factual drama tells the true story of The Boston Globe’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of systematic molestation of the young by Catholic priests.

The role played by the higher reaches of the Catholic Church in keeping a cover-up firmly in place for several decades became a crucial focus for the Globe.

The end result was a series of revelations which shocked America — and also, the general public’s perception of organised religion — to its foundations.

Many of the Globe’s key findings have since been echoed in disturbingly similar scenarios all over the world, including right here in Australia.

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NORTH DAKOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Tom Dennis Today

Two weeks ago, the Archdiocese of Seattle published a list of its clergy and other employees who’d been credibly accused of sexually assaulting children.

The archdiocese took this step on its own—not because of a court ruling, not because a legal settlement forced its hand, but because the publication was the right thing to do.

“This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward,” as the archbishop of Seattle wrote in a letter to the archdiocese.

North Dakota’s two Roman Catholic dioceses should follow the Seattle archdiocese’s lead, and release their own lists of priests who’ve been accused.

Thus far, the North Dakota dioceses have refused to do so, a Forum News Service story reported on Sunday (“Lists of North Dakota priests accused of sex abuse still under wraps,” Page A4).

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 26 January 2016

The former Australian governor general Peter Hollingworth is expected to apologise to a victim of child sexual abuse during a royal commission hearing in Hobart.

Outlining the evidence that will be presented during eight days of evidence, counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp said on Wednesday that Hollingworth had been alerted to the alleged abuse of a boy in Brisbane in 1993 when he was head of the Brisbane Anglican diocese.

“Archbishop Hollingworth will also give evidence and it is anticipated he will apologise to [the victim] and his family and say that the approach he took … was a ‘serious error of judgment’,” Sharp said.

Hollingworth is one of 28 witnesses expected to face the hearing, among a list of survivors and perpetrators from allegations dating back to the 1960s across Tasmania and in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.

The evidence linked to Hollingworth relates to John Elliot, who was a lay member of the Church of England Boys’ Society from the late 1950s. The first report of his misconduct against a boy was made to the Brisbane diocese in mid-1993 and was immediately escalated to Hollingworth, the commission was told.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

A Tasmanian sexual abuse survivor who started a victims advocacy group said a member of the clergy took a special interest in him and cultivated a father-figure relationship before beginning to abuse him.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining responses to sexual abuse allegations in the Church of England Boys Society, or CEBS, run through the Anglican Church.

Stephen Fisher told the hearing Garth Hawkins, a rector from Devonport, associated with leaders of CEBS despite not being officially involved.

“Sometimes Hawkins treated me with respect and provided me with respect and encouragement, but as soon as I relaxed he would try to take advantage of me,” he said.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Houston Chronicle

January 27, 2016

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Two victims of childhood sexual abuse have renewed calls for the Catholic Diocese of Charleston to publish a list of priests accused of misconduct with minors.

The diocese told The Post and Courier of Charleston in 2014 that 32 priests have been accused of having abused minors in its jurisdiction since 1950, but the priests have never been publicly identified by the church.

The Post and Courier (http://bit.ly/1S9OjUy) reports that 68-year-old Barbara Dorris of St. Louis and 49-year-old Allen Sires, both abuse victims, stood outside the diocese’s property Tuesday, saying that the release of the names is both necessary and long overdue.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

Kate Jacobson
Sun Sentinel

A day after a local priest accused the Palm Beach Diocese of kicking him out for reporting sexual misconduct, church officials fired back and called the priest a liar.

Father John Gallagher said officials from the Palm Beach Diocese strongly suggested he take a leave of absence after he reported a visiting priest had shown child pornography to a 14-year-old boy after Mass.

But Church officials said they did no such thing, and said Gallagher’s accusations are “a complete misrepresentation.”

“Father Gallagher is blatantly lying and is in need of professional assistance as well as our prayers and mercy,” the diocese said in a statement Tuesday.

Gallagher said he contacted the Sheriff’s Office about the Rev. Jose Palimattom’s interactions with the boy, and church officials were angry at him for not coming to them first.

“[The Church’s] response was, ‘We used to put people like this on the plane,'” Gallagher said. “I said, ‘that’s fine, but the Sheriff’s Office is on its way.’ They asked how much they knew.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Post and Courier

Christina Elmore

Two victims of childhood sexual abuse renewed calls Tuesday for the Catholic Diocese of Charleston to publish a list of priests accused of misconduct with minors.

The local call came on the heels of recent litigation alleging that a man was left out of a 2007 class-action suit against the diocese and the release earlier this month of 77 names by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

The list of priests and other clergy represents those who have lived or served in western Washington since the 1920s and “for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established or determined to be credible,” according to The Associated Press.

The Charleston diocese told The Post and Courier in 2014 that 32 priests are alleged to have abused minors in its jurisdiction since 1950, but the priests were never publicly identified by the church.

Standing a stone’s throw from the church’s waterfront property on West Ashley’s Orange Grove Road, two abuse victims said the release of the names is both necessary and long overdue.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Jim McDermott | 27 January 2016

Spotlight (M). Director: Tom McCarthy. Starring: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber. 129 minutes

When word first circulated a few years ago of a new film chronicling the 2001-2002 Boston Globe investigation into sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, I think most expected something along the lines of a scathing excoriation. More than 13 years after that story broke, as cases and cover-ups continue to be revealed (and perpetrated), you can hardly say such an approach wouldn’t be warranted. Mainstream Hollywood is also not generally known for painting with a delicate brush.

But Spotlight, released in the US last October (and in Australia this week) and now an Academy Award nominee, forgoes the predictable and the preachy in favour of a quiet, nuanced story hard to turn away from. The set-up: Globe Spotlight editor Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton) runs a small team of investigative reporters given complete independence; they follow the stories they think worthy of in-depth coverage, and print only when they’re ready.

Until, that is, new editor-in-chief Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) asks them to look into the case of Father John Geoghan, who was being accused of sexually assaulting a child. None of the team — played by Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James — want to take the story: Boston’s an Irish Catholic enclave; to cross then-Cardinal Bernard Law was to find yourself at odds with not only him but most of the city’s important people.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

TIM PALMER: The child sex abuse royal commission has heard that three decades ago, the current Archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, brushed off a complaint that a priest had abused a boy.

A witness gave evidence to the commission that Phillip Aspinall had some time before the complaint suggested the teenager sleep in the priest’s bed.

The inquiry is in Hobart examining how the Church of England Boys Society and the Anglican dioceses of Tasmania, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane handled abuse allegations against five paedophiles connected with the church.

And a warning: Samantha Donovan’s report contains graphic material.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The royal commission has heard that paedophile Anglican priests Garth Hawkins and Louis Daniels raped or sexually abused several boys in Tasmania in the 1980s.

The commission was told that Phillip Aspinall, now the Archbishop of Brisbane, was a leader in the Tasmanian Church of England Boys Society at the time and involved in its camps.

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FLORIDA
Belfast Telegraph

A US-based priest from Co Tyrone who was frozen out of the Catholic Church after exposing abuse should be treated as a hero, it has been claimed.

The Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee said it was outraged after Fr John A Gallagher was effectively fired for reporting a colleague to police after he showed sickening child porn images to a boy aged 14.

Father Jose Palimattom – who had been at the parish of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church in West Palm Beach for just four weeks – showed the teenager up to 40 images. Police believe he was grooming his victim.

Fr Gallagher, who is originally from Strabane, is living in a friend’s home after the locks at his parochial house were changed and he was placed on medical leave by his bishop in the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida.

The 48-year-old claims he was told by a Church official to put Palimattom on a plane rather than co-operate with police.

Yesterday, the Catholic Whistleblowers – a network in the Church dedicated to supporting survivors of abuse and exposing cover-ups – said Fr Gallagher “has been treated shabbily”.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Central

Dara Kelly @irishcentral January 27,2016

The crisis in Catholicism apparently has one source: women. According to Cardinal Raymond Burke, since the 1960’s women have “feminized” the church and discouraged “manly” men from participating in clerical life.

Burke, 66, the firebrand conservative who was recently demoted by Pope Francis to the ceremonial post as patron of the Order of Malta, pointed to the introduction of altar girls as an example.

Serving mass is a “manly” job argues the Irish American Cardinal, and so the participation of women and girls in the daily life of the church has had a chilling effect that has led to a drop in morale and priestly vocations.

“Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural,” Burke, a Wisconsin native with Tipperary roots, told a group called The New Emangelization (a conservative organization that exists to put the “man” back in evangelization).

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Jan 26, 2016

A major real estate developer wants to buy the Summit Avenue chancery of the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Minneapolis-based United Properties has offered $2.75 million for the chancery, but other parties could top that offer for the nearly 4 acre site in St. Paul. Any sale will be subject to court review.

The sloping chancery property could accommodate a five-story building without blocking views of the nearby Cathedral of St. Paul, said Paul Donovan of the firm selling properties for the archdiocese.

“Any reasonable developer wants to respect the grandeur of Summit Avenue,” Donovan said. “And this would be a great opportunity to make a very tasteful development that complements the rest of Summit.”

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MEXICO
Vanguardia

A menos de tres semanas de la visita del papa Francisco a México, un grupo de activistas retomó hoy su lucha contra la pederastia clerical en el país al acusar a la Iglesia de proteger a un cura acusado de abusar de 100 niños y adolescentes en zonas indígenas y encarcelado por corrupción de menores.

El protagonista central de la historia es el sacerdote Gerardo Silvestre Hernández, al que se le atribuyeron inicialmente en 2006 abusos contra un niño de nueve años en la parroquia de San Pablo Huitzo, indicó en una rueda de prensa el representante del Foro Oaxaqueño de la Niñez (FONI) Alejandro de Jesús al exponer el caso.

Según De Jesús, después de aquello “se han rastreado a más de 100 víctimas” en los años posteriores en que Silvestre fue destinado a siete comunidades por la Arquidiócesis de Antequera-Oaxaca en la sierra de ese estado sureño, uno de los más pobres e indígenas de México.

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MEXICO
Telemundo

[The Oaxacan civil organization called Forum for Children along with several priests and activists on Tuesday accused the Mexican Catholic Church of protecting a priest who may have abused hundreds of children. Priest Silvestre Gerardo Hernandez since 2013 has been in prison after allegations were made that he abused minors.The accusation against the priest was made at a press conference in which a letter from the mother of a victim sent to Pope Francis was presented. The pope will visit Mexico in February. The pope is asked to bring justice for children and teenagers so that such abuse will not happen again.]

La organización civil Foro Oaxaqueño de la Niñez, del sur de México, junto con varios sacerdotes y activistas, acusó el martes a la Iglesia mexicana de proteger a un cura que pudo haber abusado de un centenar de menores y que desde 2013 está en prisión para ser procesado por la justicia por corrupción de menores.

La acusación fue realizada en una rueda de prensa en la que se leyó una carta de la madre de una de las víctimas dirigida al papa Francisco, que visitará México en febrero, en la que pide al pontífice “justicia” para los niños y adolescentes blanco de esos abusos y que “no vuelva a suceder”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Ann O’Loughlin

A woman who claims she was forced to work unpaid in a Magdalene laundry for 10 years has challenged the minister for justice’s decision excluding her from the State’s redress scheme for victims of those institutions.

The woman claims she was used as forced and unpaid labour from the age of eight to 18 at two laundries, in Waterford and Dublin, during the 1970s and early 1980s.

She had applied to be included in the redress scheme established in 2013 to compensate survivors of the Magdalene laundries but her application was turned down on the grounds that, at the relevant time, she was a resident of industrial schools and not the laundries themselves.

Michael Lynn, counsel for the woman, said the minister had, in her refusal, told the woman she should have sought compensation under the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme. However, his client, because she lives abroad, did not hear about that scheme in time, and her application for inclusion in it was refused as being out of time.

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LOUISIANA
KPLC

By Johnathan Manning

LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) –
The prosecution questioned a panel of 21 potential jurors Tuesday in a former priest’s sex abuse trial.

The defense must now question the panel, then both sides will question another panel as the two sides work to put together a 12-person jury.

Former priest Mark Anthony Broussard is accused of sexually assaulting boys when he was a priest in Calcasieu between 1986 and 1991. He faces five sex charges – two counts of aggravated rape, one count of aggravated oral sexual battery, one count of oral sexual battery and one count of molestation of a juvenile.

Broussard was initially indicted on 224 counts of sexual abuse, but the charges were reduced to five which reflect the entirety of the accusations.

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AUSTRALIA
Mercury

PATRICK BILLINGS
Mercury

A FORMER Anglican bishop of Tasmania promoted a paedophile priest to Archdeacon of Burnie despite being told about his abuse of young boys, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding public hearings in Hobart today.

Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp’s opening address has given harrowing details of persistent sex abuse against young boys in Tasmania at the hands of Anglican priests during the 1970s and 1980s.

The commission is inquiring into abuse perpetrated by Anglican priests and other men involved in The Church of England Boys’ Society and how that institution responded when the abuse was revealed.

The society was a youth movement connected to the church, known for its camping trips.

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FLORIDA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach

By: DPB Office of Communications
Date: January 25, 2016

In response to an article recently published in a newspaper in Ireland, the Diocese of Palm Beach is issuing the following statement:

“The recent article written by Greg Harkin for the Irish Independent Newspaper in Ireland regarding the allegations of Father John Gallagher against the Diocese of Palm Beach is a completely inaccurate representation of the facts. The diocese stands by our January 6, 2015, Press Release (included below) regarding the criminal charges against Father Jose Palimattom, OFM. In this widely-distributed statement and made available in print and on our website the Diocese of Palm Beach stated our immediate response, contact and cooperation with authorities regarding the investigation. Additionally, the diocese released a letter on January 8, 2015, to the parishioners of Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church (included below). We once again release those items.

As for the other allegations which the article reports were made by Father John Gallagher, the Diocese of Palm Beach deems them to be a completely inaccurate reflection of the facts. Father Gallagher’s reassignment was not related to the incident with the visiting priest.

In part, these inaccuracies include:

* Father Gallagher was not demoted but given a new assignment with residence.
* The locks were not changed at Father Gallagher’s former parochial house, leaving him homeless.
*Father Gallagher requested a medical leave freely on his own and has been negligent in informing the Diocese of his current residence.

The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach encompasses the five counties of Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee. Comprised of 280,000 Catholics in 53 parishes and missions, the Diocese also serves the faithful community through its schools.

***
The following are copies of the January 6, 2015 statement released by the Diocese of Palm Beach and the January 8, 2015 letter to the parishioners and congregation of Holy Name Catholic Church.

Diocese of Palm Beach Releases Statement Regarding the Criminal Charges of Reverend Palimattom, OFM

(Palm Beach Gardens, FL) January 6, 2015 – In response to the arrest and criminal charges filed against Reverend Jose Palimattom, OFM, a priest visiting from India, the Diocese of Palm Beach is issuing the following statement:

“The Diocese of Palm Beach is greatly concerned and takes very seriously the charges against Father Jose Palimattom, OFM. Father Palimottom is a priest of the Franciscan Province of St. Thomas the Apostle in India and began serving in December 2014 at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in West Palm Beach, a parish of the Diocese of Palm Beach. Father Palimattom was arrested yesterday on charges of possession of pornography and distributing it to a minor.

Upon learning about the allegations, the Diocese of Palm Beach immediately contacted authorities and cooperated in the investigation conducted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. This cooperation resulted in the arrest of Father Palimattom.

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FLORIDA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach

By: DPB Office of Communications
Date: January 26, 2016

In response to recent media coverage of allegations made against the diocese, the Diocese of Palm Beach is issuing the following statement:

“The Diocese of Palm Beach is very disappointed in the actions of Father John Gallagher who, through a complete misrepresentation of the case of Father Jose Palimattom, has brought unfair and slanderous allegations against the Church and the Diocese of Palm Beach. Father Gallagher has acted in a similar manner in other situations in the past and has been given every opportunity for correction, including the possibility of professional assistance.

Father Gallagher has publicly stated that he contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office the evening the incident occurred. The sheriff’s report indicates that Father Gallagher was not the one who made the report. He also publicly stated that he contacted the Diocese the evening the incident occurred. The Diocese of Palm Beach did not receive any communication from him until the next day. Upon learning of the allegation, the Diocese of Palm Beach immediately contacted authorities and learned that the incident had already been reported to them by the boy’s family, not Father Gallagher.

The Diocese of Palm Beach acted in a prompt, thorough, and cooperative manner in regard to Father Palimattom. Father Gallagher was not in any way demoted or removed because of the incident. He was not named as pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Church for a number of reasons not related to the incident involving Father Palimattom. He was given a new assignment with all the reasons explained to him. Access to his residence was never denied him, nor was he refused the sacraments. At his request he was placed on medical leave and continues to receive salary, health insurance and benefits. At the present time he has not made known to the Diocese his whereabouts.

Father Gallagher is blatantly lying and is in need of professional assistance as well as our prayers and mercy.

The Diocese is very concerned regarding the manner in which the media is presenting this case, especially when the Diocese had released to it information that should have caused more than reasonable caution in presenting misleading information from Father Gallagher.”

The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach encompasses the five counties of Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee. Comprised of 280,000 Catholics in 53 parishes and missions, the Diocese also serves the faithful community through its schools.

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.

FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Joe Capozzi – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

PALM BEACH GARDENS —
A day after a priest blasted the Palm Beach Diocese’s handling of a sexual abuse case, diocese officials struck back, calling Father John Gallagher a liar in need of professional assistance.

In an extraordinary public rebuttal, the normally reticent diocese blasted as “unfair and slanderous” Gallagher’s assertion that he had been demoted and locked out of his parish months after reporting a fellow priest’s sex crime.

“Father Gallagher is blatantly lying and is in need of professional assistance as well as our prayers and mercy,” the diocese said in a statement.

The statement reads in whole:

“The Diocese of Palm Beach is very disappointed in the actions of Father John Gallagher who, through a complete misrepresentation of the case of Father Jose Palimattom, has brought unfair and slanderous allegations against the Church and the Diocese of Palm Beach. Father Gallagher has acted in a similar manner in other situations in the past and has been given every opportunity for correction, including the possibility of professional assistance.

Father Gallagher has publicly stated that he contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office the evening the incident occurred. The sheriff’s report indicates that Father Gallagher was not the one who made the report. He also publicly stated that he contacted the Diocese the evening the incident occurred. The Diocese of Palm Beach did not receive any communication from him until the next day. Upon learning of the allegation, the Diocese of Palm Beach immediately contacted authorities and learned that the incident had already been reported to them by the boy’s family, not Father Gallagher.

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.

FLORIDA
CBS 12

BY AL PEFLEY TUESDAY, JANUARY 26TH 2016

PALM BEACH GARDENS (CBS12) — A West Palm Beach priest who says the church shunned him after he turned in a pedophile priest is getting a show of support.

Demonstrators came together outside the Diocese of Palm Beach in Palm Beach Gardens Tuesday afternoon.

About 10 members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, gathered on the sidewalk near the Diocese to support Father Gallagher.

A couple of them held signs at a news conference. But they did not conduct a demonstration or march.

“Instead of being praised for protecting a child victim of sexual abuse, it seems as though the Bishop and the Church are punishing the ones who are doing the right thing,” said SNAP member David Pittman.

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.

FLORIDA
WPBF

[with video]

By Angela Rozier

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. —Supporters of a local catholic priest who says he’s been ostracized from the church because he blew the whistle on a church sex scandal is getting support.

Nearly a dozen supporters stood outside the Palm Beach Diocese offices at 9995 N. Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens Tuesday afternoon to show support for Father John Gallagher.

David Pittman, who is a local member of SNAP which stands for Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, attended the rally.

“We want to know why because he did the right thing, he reported a sexual predator. A predator who was convicted,” said Pittman.

Gallagher was a priest at The Holy Name of Jesus in West Palm Beach in January of last year.

Mireille Kulikowski also attended the rally. Kulikowski said she attends The Holy Name of Jesus Parish and said Gallagher is a good priest.

“I want Father Gallagher back in good spirit and good health,” said Kulikowski.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

This year will see an increased focus on safeguarding in the Catholic Church in England and Wales with the start of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, led by Judge Lowell Goddard. In agreement with the Bishops, the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission and the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service the CCN has put together the following update on safeguarding in the Catholic Church in order to ensure that Catholic parishioners are aware of the importance placed on safeguarding in the Church and the safeguarding procedures used across England and Wales.

All allegations of abuse reported to the Church in England and Wales are immediately passed on to the police. The Church works closely and cooperatively with the statutory authorities as these allegations are investigated. Following this investigation, which follows UK law, the Church conducts its own internal investigation, following Canon law.

The safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults is at the heart of the Church’s mission. There is no place in the Church, or indeed society, for abuse, a grievous crime which can affect people for their entire lives.

Victims come first. This has not always been the case. The Church deeply regrets all instances of sexual abuse and the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, and accepts that grave mistakes were made in the past.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

A youth group operated by the Anglican Church will come under investigation during a week of public hearings in Hobart by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Hearings into the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS), a children’s group similar to Scouts, run by the Anglican Church, will run from January 27 until February 5.

The Anglican dioceses of Tasmania, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane will come under scrutiny as the hearings investigate their responses to allegations of child sexual abuse connected with CEBS.

Of particular interest will be convicted paedophiles Louis Daniels, Garth Hawkins, Robert Brandenburg, Simon Jacobs and John Elliott.

The Anglican Church set up a board of inquiry in 2003 to examine allegations of a tri-state paedophile ring operating from the early 1960s into the 1990s.

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

NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Media Release – January 26, 2016

Jesuits of the Northeast Province are insensitive and re-victimizing Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood clergy sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased, serial, pedophile Jesuit priest

Jesuits admit to having credible information from approximately five (5) persons (besides the victim) about Neal E. Gumpel’s childhood sexual abuse by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ and still refuse to settle Neal E. Gumpel’s claim reasonably

Jesuits have refused to reasonably settle the childhood sexual abuse claim of Neal E. Gumpel

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners of a Jesuit-sponsored parish, and the general public that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), has insulted and re-victimized a childhood sexual abuse victim of a Jesuit priest by refusing to settle his claim reasonably. The Jesuits have already settled at least one public claim against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ.

When
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue (between East 83rd and East 84th Streets), New York, NY 10028 – 212-288-3588

Who
Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a serial pedophile Jesuit priest; Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its Co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
The Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) knows that Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, was a serial molester of minor boys. The Province settled at least one public claim against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, in the past. Neal E. Gumpel’s credible factual account of having been sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, when Fr. Roy Alan Drake was a professor and Jesuit priest at Maine Maritime Academy, was credibly supported by approximately five (5) individuals, in addition to Neal E. Gumpel. Now, the Northeast Province of the Jesuits, which has found that Neal E. Gumpel’s claim is credible, has insulted and re-victimized Neal E. Gumpel by refusing to reasonably settle his claim. Demonstrators will ask parishioners and the general public to voice their outrage to the Jesuits of their parish and the Northeast Province (whose headquarters are around the corner on East 83rd Street) and demand of the Northeast Jesuit leadership that they treat Neal E. Gumpel with compassion, fairness, and justice.

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

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FLORIDA
Irish Independent

Greg Harkin
PUBLISHED
26/01/2016

VICTIMS of clerical sex abuse have staged a protest in Florida in support of an Irish priest who claims he was ostracised by the Catholic Church for calling police to arrest a paedophile cleric.

The march and protest at the Diocese of Palm Beach came after a spokeswoman for the church there finally issued a statement on the affair and denied a decision to move Fr John Gallagher was linked to the incident.

Tonight, Fr John Gallagher, from Co Tyrone, stood by his allegation that the Catholic Church was unhappy that he had called police before telling his Bishop about the actions of Fr Jose Palimattom.

The Indian-born cleric was arrested at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach in January last year after showing child porn images on his phone to a 14-year-old boy.
Fr Gallagher, who called detectives, alleged that a church official had told him to put Palimattom on a plane.

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UNITED STATES
PanAm Post

DANIEL DUARTE JANUARY 26, 2016

In 2003, the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of reports about how the Catholic Church had concealed cases of pedophilia in the Boston area for decades.

The newspaper’s investigative team, called Spotlight, discovered that the archdiocese had shielded priests with a history of sexual assault from prosecution and transferred them from parish to parish, knowing they were likely to prey on children again (which they eventually did.)

The scandal sparked a wave of criticism in the United States and abroad. It shook the Church to its core, leading to internal investigations and the eventual resignation of Boston’s archbishop, Cardinal Law. The Church, amid much soul-searching, has never fully recovered from the ensuing backlash.

Spotlight, the movie, is the story of how the courageous Boston Globe reporters — several of them practicing Catholics —put the pieces together in the pre-Internet era, talked to the victims, and confronted a millennial institution of great power.

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.

FLORIDA
WPBT

A South Florida priest says the diocese ostracized him because he cooperated with police on an investigation involving another priest. Angela Rozier reports.

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.

NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims want decision reversed
They’re worried about controversial MO prelate
Convicted ex-head of KC diocese now works in NE
“He shouldn’t be in ministry of any kind,” group says
SNAP: “Lincoln bishop should meet with his flock about this”

WHAT
Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, leaders of a victims’ group and concerned Lincoln citizens will hand deliver a letter to Lincoln’s Catholic bishop and
publicly urge him to:

–revoke his permission to let a convicted Missouri bishop minister in Nebraska,
–hold an open public meeting to explain and apologize for his decision, and
–disclose whether he’s importing other “wrongdoer clerics” into his diocese.

The victims will also urge anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups to call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.”

WHEN
Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
In Lincoln NE, on the sidewalk outside the Lincoln diocese headquarters/chancery office, 3394 Sheridan Blvd.( corner of High St. next to Cathedral of Risen Christ.) In Lincoln

WHO
A concerned Nebraska woman and two leaders of a nation-wide support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHY
The only bishop in the US to be convicted for concealing child sex crimes has just started working in the Lincoln diocese and abuse victims want him ousted.

He’s Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City. Last year, he resigned as head of that diocese. (Only three complicit US prelates have resigned.) In 2012, he was found guilty in criminal court of refusing to tell police about suspected child pornography being created by a priest.

[New York Times]

He is also accused, SNAP says, of being reckless and secretive about other predator priests.

[SNAP]

In 2014, he was found to be violating child safety steps he had pledged to take. As a result, an arbitrator made Finn’s diocese pay $1.1 million to 40+ victims as a result.

[New York Times]

But despite this “proven wrongdoing,” Lincoln Bishop Paul Conley is letting Finn minister in his diocese. SNAP wants Finn kept out of ministry all together. And it wants Bishop Conley to hold an open meeting with his flock to discuss the controversy and to reveal whether Conley is letting other troubled or controversial or accused wrongdoer priest

“Finn has endangered kids, stonewalled police, deceived victims, hidden predators and betrayed thousands of Catholic families,” said Barbara Dorris of SNAP. “Why give him more chances to hurt more families? Why take the risk?”

Some church officials claim Finn should be forgiven. “There’s a difference between forgiving a wrongdoer and enabling a wrongdoer to do more wrong,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “We can forgive a drunken school bus driver. But we’re irresponsible and cruel if we give her the keys to another school bus. That’s what Nebraska Bishop Paul Conley is doing with Finn: giving him another opportunity to put his career and comfort above the safety of innocent youngsters, the wounds of suffering victims, and the feelings of Catholic families.”

“Finn retains his title – bishop – and all the privileges that come with it: a pay check, health insurance, dental insurance, car allowance, and the prestige of belonging to a rarified group. And he gets to perform sacraments and say mass and hear confessions and begin to ingratiate himself with Nebraska families, and win the trust of, and perhaps hurt or betray more Catholics. Again, why take the risk?” asked Dorris. “In nearly every other workplace, he’d be unemployed, for one or all of the allegations he faces.”

“If the Finn learns of and conceals child sex crimes in Nebraska, will kids be hurt less because Finn works with nuns instead of parishes? If he ignores strong signs of possible abuse, will kids be hurt less because Finn is only ‘helping out’ or ‘here temporarily’ or whatever other excuse Conley may offer?” asked Clohessy.

“The reasons, roles or duration of Finn’s work in Nebraska are irrelevant,” said Judy Jones of SNAP. “What really matters is how he has behaved in clergy sexual abuse and misconduct and cover up cases. And plenty of evidence shows and suggests that he’s acted callously and deceitfully, time and time again, with many of the 25 publicly accused predator priests in the Kansas City diocese.” (See bishop-accountability.org)

“Two disturbing signals are sent by Finn’s new position. Victims, witnesses, whistleblowers and betrayed Catholics are essentially being told “Your pain doesn’t matter. We’ll put any cleric anywhere we like, no matter how clear or horrific or devastating his wrongdoing is in child sex cases,” said Jones. “And Catholic employees are essentially being told “No matter how much hurt you cause, if you’re a priest or bishop, you’ll always have a place in ministry and on the Catholic church payroll.”

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.

ISRAEL
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A haredi rabbi from the port city of Ashdod, Rabbi Avraham Shemesh, has been indicted for allegedly fondling the genitals of young teen boys, Ha’aretz reported.

Shemesh is a teacher in a haredi school in the city. His alleged victims are three boys aged 13 to 14. The sexual abuse took place repeatedly over an extended period of time, and was based on misleading them about their halakhic (Jewish legal) status immediately after their bar mitzvahs.

Shemesh allegedly had private meetings with individual students in the teachers’ room of the school. The students were told the meetings were to tutor them one-on-one to help them learn material they missed while away from school.

Shemesh would lock the door to the teachers’ room and close its curtains. Then he would tell the boys that in for them to be judged halakhicly fit to lead prayers, he had to check to see whether they had pubic hairs (the actual halakhic definition of when a boy has become a man).

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

UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Julia Duin

I had been at the Washington Times for more than seven years editing the pop-culture page, when I was tapped to become the paper’s religion editor in 2003. I’d been doing a fair amount of religion reporting before that, but I hadn’t covered the beat full-time since my stint at the Houston Chronicle in the late 1980s.

One thing that had changed in the intervening years was how the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church was all over the news, and had been since early 2002. That was the year that religion reporters around the country had to grind out piece after piece on all the revelations first pouring out of Boston and then in dioceses around the country.

That was the part of the beat I didn’t want to take on, as it entailed a return to my days as a police reporter – although this time the criminals were erring clergy. Many of the other facets of the police beat: interviews with traumatized victims, pouring over court records, showing up at hearings, were there, all with the added monstrosity that those responsible were acting in the name of God while the faith of many were destroyed. I quailed from volunteering to do stories no one else in the newsroom wanted to touch. So did other reporters, as GetReligion has reported in the past.

However, I did take on the beat and ended up doing many clergy abuse stories, as it turned out, which is why I have so much respect for reporters who continue to plug away at all the ripples the scandal continues to have.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

Happy 75th anniversary to the St. Louis Review, the official weekly publication of the archdiocese, under the guidance of editor Teak Phillips, formerly a photographer with the Post-Dispatch. (One of his predecessors is the now disgraced ex-bishop of Kansas City, Robert Finn, who has just taken a job ministering to nuns in Nebraska.)

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NEDERLAND
NOS

[Film Spotlight is an ode to investigative journalism.]

Het is een journalistiek jongensboek: Spotlight. De film vertelt het waargebeurde verhaal van de Amerikaanse krant The Boston Globe die in 2002 het grootschalige kindermisbruik binnen de Rooms-Katholieke kerk blootlegde.

De film is genomineerd voor zes Oscars en werd begin deze maand door Amerikaanse filmcritici bekroond tot beste film van 2015. The Boston Globe kreeg in 2003 de Pulitzerprijs voor beste journalistieke daad.

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Joe Capozzi – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

PALM BEACH GARDENS —
About 15 people picketed in front of the Diocese of Palm Beach headquarters today, urging Catholic leaders to return Father John Gallagher to Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church in West Palm Beach.

The protestors, including three people who said they were abused by priests when they were kids, also called on the diocese to hold a public meeting to answer questions about Gallagher’s case and to post the names and photos of predator priests in parish bulletins and church websites.

“Father John Gallagher has been, in his words, locked out, ostracized and run out by the local diocese. We want to know why because he actually did the right thing. He reported a sexual predator,” said David Pittman, a local leader for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.

The diocese did not attend the rally and had no immediate comment on the demands of the protestors, who included parishoners from Holy Name who spoke glowingly about Gallagher.

On Monday, the diocese denied Gallagher’s claims that church leaders punished him for alerting law-enforcement authorites about a fellow Holy Name priest who had shown pornographic material to a 14-year-old parishoner after mass on day in January 2015.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee – c/o P.O. Box 279, Livingston, NJ 07039 – 862-368-2800

MEDIA RELEASE – JANUARY 26, 2016

Catholic whistleblowers should be hailed as heroes and protectors of children, not villains

The Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee, comprised of lay men and women, religious sisters, priests, and former religious brothers and priests, is outraged that a fellow whistleblower, Fr. John Gallagher, formerly assigned to Holy Name of Jesus Parish in West Palm Beach, Florida, has been treated shabbily by officials of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida.

Instead of hailing Fr. Gallagher as a hero for holding a fellow priest accountable for alleged sexual misdeeds against a minor child, the Diocese of Palm Beach in essence fired Fr. Gallagher from his priestly ministry at Holy Name of Jesus Parish, purportedly changed the locks on his home, and prevented him from ministering to the people of Holy Name Parish – all because he wasn’t silent about alleged sexual abuse of minor children. Fr. John Gallagher has suffered bodily, spiritually, and psychologically as a result, and the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee demands that officials of the Catholic Church, including Pope Francis, intervene justly in this matter.

It is outrageous that Fr. John Gallagher, who has been complimented and lauded by law enforcement officials for contacting them about alleged sexual abuse of a minor child by a priest, is not being treated as a hero by Catholic Church officials, including his bishop. The Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee demands that Fr. John Gallagher be restored immediately to priestly ministry with all related faculties, benefits, and apologies. In addition, Bishop Gerald Barbarito should be fired immediately by Pope Francis for his mishandling of the Fr. John Gallagher matter.

Signed by Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee Members:

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., West Orange, NJ
Sr. Sally Butler, OP, Brooklyn, NY
Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D., Milwaukee, WI
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN, New Castle, DE
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, J.C.D., Vienna, VA

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims seek help from prelates

“Each MI bishop should do outreach,” SNAP says
Their colleague is accused of abusing seminarians
Group also wants Kalamazoo bishop to hold meeting
SNAP: “Is he letting other accused abusers work in parishes?”
“He should explain his decision & answer questions,” they say
And group wants Battle Creek priest disciplined “for deception”

WHAT
Holding signs at a sidewalk news conference, abuse victims and concerned Catholics will hand-deliver a letter and publicly urge Michigan bishops to seek out anyone who may have been hurt by a now-disgraced Twin Cities Archbishop. In addition to endangering children by covering up sex crimes, the archbishop allegedly made “unwanted sexual advances” toward at least six seminarians when he led a Detroit school for prospective priests.

The victims will also urge Kalamazoo’s bishop to:

–hold an open meeting to explain why he let an accused archbishop work in the Kalamazoo diocese,
–discipline the Battle Creek pastor who was deceptive about the move, and
–reveal whether he’s letting other sexually troubled or complicit clerics into his parishes.

And the victims will also urge “anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual misdeeds, crimes or cover ups” to “call police, expose wrongdoing and protect others.”

WHEN
Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 1:15 p.m.

WHERE
In Kalamazoo, on the sidewalk outside the Kalamazoo Catholic diocesan headquarters (a.k.a. “chancery’) 215 N Westnedge Ave. (corner of Eleanor St.) 269-349-8714

WHO
Four – five members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including aChicago woman who is the organization’s founder and president

WHY
In a hand-delivered letter, victims of sexual abuse are asking that Michigan’s bishops “come clean” and hold a public meeting about a disgraced archbishop who has also been accused of making “unwanted sexual advances” against students at a Detroit seminary.

Last week, the disgraced Twin Cities archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt was removed from a temporary position in a Battle Creek Parish after the media and SNAP informed the public and parishioners about the clerics’ past.

[National Catholic Reporter]

In addition to covering up child sexual abuse in Minnesota, Nienstedt has also been accused of making “unwanted sexual advanced” against at least six seminarians while he was rector at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

[Star Tribune]

Members of SNAP are asking Michigan’s Bishops, especially Kalamazoo Bishop Paul Bradley, to hold a public meeting to address parishioners and victims concerns. They also want the bishop to punish the pastor of the parish, who mislead parishioners about Nienstedt’s past.

“Despite extensive press coverage and your knowledge of the six men and their credible allegations—as well as Nienstedt’s well-documented role in the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Twin Cities—the bishop of Kalamazoo allowed Nienstedt to act as a priest in a parish,” the letter says. “Bishop Bradley also did nothing when the pastor at that parish was deceptive to parishioners about Nienstedt’s past. In the parish bulletin. Fr. John Fleckenstein did not inform parishioners in Battle Creek about Nienstedt’s past in the Twin Cities or Detroit. Parishioners only learned about the risk of that Nienstedt poses through the media and SNAP.”

The group also wants the bishops to reach out to anyone who may experienced, seen or suspected abuse. .

“It’s incumbent on YOU to do everything possible to get to the bottom of these accusations and help those who are suffering. You must do everything possible to make sure the Nienstedt is not allowed to work with vulnerable populations and that your colleagues and priests do not mislead the public about his past,” the letter says.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Unabhängiger Beauftragter für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs

[Commission on child abuse starts in January.]

26.01.2016

Unabhängiger Beauftragter für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs beruft die sieben Mitglieder für die unabhängige Aufarbeitungskommission.

Die Vorsitzende der Kommission, Prof. Dr. Sabine Andresen: „Mit der Kommission ergibt sich die große und auch international einzigartige Chance, die Dimensionen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs in Familien und Institutionen aufzudecken und so einen Beitrag auch für Kinder und Jugendliche heute zu leisten.“

Berlin, 26.01.2016. Der Unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, hat die sieben Mitglieder für die Aufarbeitungskommission Kindesmissbrauch berufen. Damit kann erstmals eine auf nationaler Ebene angesiedelte unabhängige Kommission sexualisierte Gewalt an Kindern in Deutschland umfassend aufarbeiten.

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SWITZERLAND
swissinfo

A study has found evidence of child abuse from the 1930s to 50s at a Catholic educational institution in Switzerland. At least 21 people are thought to have been affected.

The historical study led by Bishop Charles Morerod, found that 11 perpetrators were involved in the “mistreatment, and serious and repeated sexual abuse” of the children and young adults who were pupils at the Catholic Marini Institute in canton Fribourg between 1929 and 1955.

Researchers began to collect evidence and information a year ago after the bishop held a meeting with victims of abuse in Catholic institutions, where problems at the Marini Institute surfaced.

The study said it had so far managed to uncover 21 cases of abuse, and t who came from particularly precarious social backgrounds and difficult family situations. It added that the stigmatisation associated with poverty, and the ostracism of children born out of wedlock, contributed to the silence and disinterest of the public and the authorities.

Lack of justice

Among the 11 verifiable abusers were two successive directors of the institute who were priests, and two clergymen at the institute. There were only two cases that went before a court – one involving an institute clergyman and one a lay supervisor

The report went on to say that “the will to prevent any publicity surrounding the perpetrators of sexual abuse” was absolute for the authorities of the diocese and the management of the institution. A few victims were intimidated into silence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Florence Taylor JUNIOR STAFF WRITER 22 January 2016

Michael Keaton has spoken out about his Catholic upbringing, the value of faith and the danger of institutions ahead of the release of his new film, Spotlight, in the UK.

Keaton plays Boston Globe journalist Walter “Robby” Robinson in the film, which premiered in London on Wednesday. Robinson was the lead journalist in a team that exposed a child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in 2001.

The actor said, “I haven’t been Catholic since I was an altar boy… I’m lapsed”, but added that he still “drops in” to church and would always defend the value of faith.

Rather than an attack on the Catholic faith, Spotlight is a critique of the institution, he said.

“As much as I hate what’s happened in the world based on organised religion and people’s alleged faith, I’m a defender and think it’s good for people.

“I’m totally cool with my vision of what people call God and I’m good there, but what this movie’s about is not religion, but institutions. It’s about people who take power and seek power and use that power to disadvantage the disenfranchised and the powerless and it happens in a lot of places, literally all over the world.”

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims blast Palm Beach bishop
Catholic officials punish whistleblowers
And they wanted to help a predator flee
Support group wants law enforcement to investigate
SNAP: “Those who conceal abuse should also face charges”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast Palm Beach’s Catholic bishop for retaliating against a whistleblower priest who called law enforcement when a colleague admitted child sex crimes and a nun who helped the whistleblower. The victims will also urge the bishop to

–hold an open public meeting to answer questions about the troubling allegations that his diocese tried to help a predator flee,
–explain whether he or his colleagues have done this with other child molesting clerics, and
–post all predator priests’ names in parish bulletins and on church websites, and
–include their photos, work histories and whereabouts.

WHEN
Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Palm Beach Catholic diocesan headquarters (“chancery”), 9995 N. Military Trail (corner of Holly Dr.) in Palm Beach Gardens

WHO
Two adults who were sexually abused as children who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for people who have been sexually abused in religious or institutional settings.

WHY
Hundreds of accused predator priests have fled or tried to flee the US, SNAP says, and one of the latest attempts, SNAP says, involves the admitted and now-convicted predator, Fr. Jose Palimattom.

In recent years, the Dallas Morning News (“Hiding in Plain Sight”), the Chicago Tribune and the Global Post (Will Carless) have documented this trend.

For the safety of kids, both in this country and abroad, SNAP wants Florida law enforcement agencies to investigate whether Palm Beach Catholic officials may have concealed evidence, obstructed justice, intimidated victims, threatened witnesses or violated any laws in the Fr. Palimattom case, especially in light of credible accusations by Fr. John Gallagher that church officials urged him to put the admitted predator on a plane instead of calling police.

For years, SNAP has urged bishops to take the passports of priests when abuse suspicions arise or reports against them surface. Since priests take vows of obedience to bishops and voluntarily give up many rights other US citizens have (the right to get married, to have sex, to volunteer at Planned Parenthood, the right to live where they want), it’s entirely appropriate for a bishop to tell a priest “Give me your passport until these allegations are cleared up,” SNAP says.

SNAP also wants local Catholic officials to post these predators’ names on church websites. Last week, Seattle Catholic officials posted 77 such names. About 30 US bishops have done this. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm

“It’s the quickest, easiest way to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about predator priests,” says SNAP director David Clohessy. “It’s the very least church officials should do to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth.”

According to BishopAccountability.org (an independent on-line archive of the church abuse and cover up crisis), the publicly accused child molesting clerics in the Palm Beach diocese are: Edwin Collins, Frank Flynn, Elias Francisco Guimaraes, Francis F Maloney, Jose Palimattom, Joseph Keith Symons.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Survivors of alleged child abuse within the Catholic Church are taking their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up going back decades.

The allegations date back to the 1950s at St Bede’s School in Whalley Range, Manchester.

At the time it had a reputation for being one of the finest Catholic grammar schools in the north west.

The allegations relate to three senior figures.

Monsignor Thomas Duggan, Father Charles Mulholland and Father Vincent Hamilton.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Tue 26 Jan 2016

A lawyer representing alleged victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, has accused the church of denying in the courtroom any compassion they are showing in public.

It comes as a group of survivors prepare to take their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up.

The claims date back to the 1950s and relate to pupils at St Bede’s in Manchester.

Lawyers have begun proceedings on behalf of the victims who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse.

Kathleen Hallisey, of London-based child abuse lawyers AO Advocates, said they and other victims are made to suffer again.

“They hear something that the Church is saying publicly, or a statement that the Pope has made about supporting victims, and they expect that that is going to affect the litigation, which is vigorous, well defended, well fought litigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

Caroline Frost

Mark Ruffalo appears as genial an A-list actor as it’s possible to meet – polite, smiley, willing to chat fully and openly on many a topic – but his big beating heart for social justice is clearly not far below the surface.

On the subject of his Oscar-nominated film, ‘Spotlight’, the true story of how the Boston Globe’s investigative team of journalists exposed the appallingly widespread cover-up of paedophiliac abuse within the Catholic Church, Mark reveals his fury on reading the script was built on his long-held suspicion of diocese practices, dating back to his childhood in Wisconsin.

“A long time ago, I felt the Church I experienced wasn’t observing the teachings I’d read about. It happened to me very young,” he tells HuffPostUK.

“When I left my Catholic school, I was around 10 or 11 years old, and it started to unravel for me there. Kids pick up on things, if you’re interested and inquisitive. I was seeing things that were not in line with what I’d been taught about Jesus. It didn’t jive with me.”

Despite his growing cynicism for the church’s role in his small community, Mark credits those early teachings for what drives him to want to make a film like ‘Spotlight’ – “it’s a paradox I know,” he smiles.

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FLORIDA
CBS 12

[with video]

BY JILLIAN BRYNNE TUESDAY, JANUARY 26TH 2016

PALM BEACH GARDENS (CBS12) — A priest says he has been frozen out by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach after blowing the whistle on a pedophile priest.

Father John Gallagher says one of his priests – Jose Palimatton – showed a 14-year old boy pornography.

In 2015, Gallagher alerted PBSO. He says his Dioceses asked him to cover it up. Instead he reported the incident to authorities. Priest Palmitton was then arrested.

Since then, Father Gallagher says the Dioceses has demoted him. Gallagher accuses the church of changing the locks on the rectory where he lived and removing all his possessions while he was on medical leave.

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FLORIDA
WFLX

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Father John Gallagher is breaking his silence.

In 2015, the priest alerted law enforcement to the behavior of Father Jose Palimattom at a West Palm Beach Catholic Church.

He says he got information that the priest showed pornography to a 14-year-old boy.

“I had been asked by my diocese…the whole process was to cover him up and put him on a plane. And I said, ‘The Sheriff’s office is on the way to make the arrest.’

Palimattom received 6 months jail, a year’s probation, and then was deported.

However, Father Gallagher says ultimately he got into trouble for being the whistleblower.

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FLORIDA
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 26 January

A US Catholic diocese has countered claims that an Irish priest who called police after a colleague showed child pornogaphy to a 14-year-old boy has since been “frozen out” by the Church.

The Diocese of Palm Beach said an article published in Ireland was “completely inaccurate”.

The diocese also said that the “reassignment” of Father John Gallagher was “not related” to the incident with the visiting priest.

Father Gallagher said he is living in a friend’s home after locks at his parochial house were changed and he was placed on medical leave by his bishop. He claimed he was told by a church official to put a priest accused of paedophilia on a plane rather than cooperate with police. He said he has written to bishops and failed to get a satisfactory response.

He reported Father Jose Palimattom, who in December 2014 was visiting the Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church in West Palm Beach from the Franciscan Province of St Thomas the Apostle in India. According to an arrest report, four weeks after Palimattom arrived at the church, he approached a 14-year-old boy after Mass and showed him images of naked boys.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

[Regensburg Bishop breaks silence: “I’m in the soul hurt.”]

Von Andreas Glas, Regensburg

Der Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer hat sein Schweigen gebrochen und eigene Fehler bei der Aufklärung der Fälle von Missbrauch und Misshandlung bei den Domspatzen eingeräumt.

“Bedauerlicherweise waren die in der Vergangenheit unternommenen Versuche einer Selbstkorrektur zu wenig wirksam”, sagte Voderholzer am Sonntagnachmittag im Regensburger Dom, wo er den dritten Jahrestag seiner Bischofsweihe feierte.

In seiner Ansprache kritisierte der Bischof außerdem diejenigen, die Prügelstrafen als legitime Form der Erziehung der Fünfziger-, Sechziger- und Siebzigerjahre verteidigen. Dieses Argument, sagte Voderholzer, “rechtfertigt in keiner Weise die Exzesse körperlicher Züchtigung, wie wir sie beklagen müssen, und erst recht nicht die Fälle sexueller Gewalt, die zutage getreten sind”.

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SUISSE
Diocese Lausanne, Geneve et Fribourg

Le 26 janvier s’est tenue à l’évêché une conférence de presse destinée à présenter les résultats de l’étude sur les abus sexuels et maltraitances commis à l’époque à l’Institut Marini (institut catholique situé à Montet-Broye). Cette étude, indépendante, a été mandatée par Mgr Morerod en janvier 2015 suite à la découverte de documents dans les archives de l’évêché. Elle a été confiée à trois chercheurs.

Rapport final
Résumé du rapport final
Retour

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SCHWEIZ
NZZ

[Sexual abuse uncovered at Catholic school – swissinfo]

von Simon Hehli
26.1.2016

Die Aufarbeitung von sexuellen Misshandlungen an Kindern beschäftigt die katholische Kirche seit Jahren. Ein Historikerbericht hat nun im Bistum Lausanne, Genf und Freiburg eine weitere schmerzliche Geschichte ausgeleuchtet, die sich vor längerer Zeit abspielte. Im Zentrum steht das Waisenhaus und Pensionat Marini im Freiburger Broyebezirk. Dieses war von 1929 bis 1955 der direkten Verantwortung des Bistums unterstellt. Das Institut ist zwar seit 1979 geschlossen. Aber weil frühere Bewohner den heutigen Bischof Charles Morerod über ihre traumatischen Erfahrungen berichteten, veranlasste dieser eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Vorfälle.

Die Historiker haben sich durch die Archivbestände gearbeitet und mit vierzehn Zeitzeugen gesprochen. Ihr Résumé lautet: «Die Übereinstimmung der Zeugnisse und die Enthüllungen der Archive bestätigen, dass sich Misshandlungen sowie schwerwiegende und wiederholte sexuelle Missbräuche während der untersuchten Periode im Institut Marini ereignet haben, und dass die Hauptsorge der Verantwortlichen darin bestand, diese zu vertuschen.»

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Joe Capozzi – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Father John Gallagher is a priest without a parish — the result, he said, of his decision to tell authorities about a West Palm Beach priest who showed pornographic material to a minor.

He received praise from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, whose chief deputy urged Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley to make sure Gallagher receives “accolades” for helping prosecute the priest.

Instead, Gallagher said he has been “frozen out” by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, which changed the locks on his parochial house at Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church on Military Trail and placed him on medical leave.

The diocese denied Gallagher’s assertions, which were detailed in a story published Monday by The Irish Independent newspaper, calling them “an inaccurate representation of the facts.’’

But Gallagher stands by his claims, which he says point to a larger problem in a diocese that in 2002 pledged a zero-tolerance policy after the resignation of the second of two bishops in four years over charges of improper sexual relationships with teenage boys.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

By LIZ JONES

The child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church continues to raise new questions. For one victim in Western Washington, the question is “Why is my abuser not on this list?”

TRANSCRIPT

It wasn’t until age 63 that Steve O’Connor told his full story — to a jury in King County.

O’Connor: “When Dan Adamson came to my house and I’m 12 years old, he says, ‘I’ve selected Steve as my special boy.'”

Adamson was O’Connor’s seventh grade teacher at St. Benedict School in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. And for two years, he raped O’Connor routinely at school, in motels and in a basement room O’Connor calls the “torture chamber.”

He says he tried to tell his story back then.

O’Connor: “I told a lot of people. The principal of Dominican nuns, Sister Marie. Father Conrad, the pastor. My parents. My brother. The emergency room physician at the University of Washington hospital when I was injured by this person. This was wide out in the open.”

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NEW YORK
DNAinfo

By Eddie Small | January 25, 2016

THE BRONX — A Bronx priest accused of abusing minors has resigned from the board of the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts.

Father Richard Gorman, director of prison chaplains for the archdiocese, has been accused of abusing minors 30 years ago, and he will not be allowed to function publicly as a priest until the accusations are resolved, according to the Archdiocese of New York.

Gorman had previously sat on the board of the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, a Lehman College institution that showcases events like concerts and ballets, but he decided to resign in light of the recent allegations, the center wrote in a statement.

“The PAC is saddened to hear of these allegations regarding Fr. Gorman,” the statement reads. “We hope these allegations are addressed fairly and with deliberate speed.”

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KENYA
Citizen

A pastor in Amalemba, Kakamega County escaped death by the whiskers after he was busted having ‘sexually abused’ his neighbour’s chicken.

The man of the cloth, who ministers at a Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) church, was reportedly spotted sneaking the mangled body of the dead creature out of his house, just a day after the hen went missing.

According to residents, the bowels of the dead animal were hanging out of the bird’s backside-proving that the chicken had suffered sexual abuse. The man’s bed was also found to have evidence that the animal had l between the beddings.

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IDAHO
KTVB

Katie Terhune, KTVB January 25, 2016

BOISE — An Eagle couple who admitted to sexually abusing at-risk girls placed in their care through a church program will face additional charges, prosecutors confirmed Monday.

Michael and Jennifer Nicole Magill, 31 and 32, were originally set to be sentenced Friday on charges of sexual battery on a minor and sexual abuse of a child. But Prosecutor John Dinger said he asked for the hearing to be set over because he plans to bring child pornography charges against the couple.

Dinger said a forensic review of the couple’s computer uncovered child porn investigators believe was created by Michael Magill.

The Magills were working as “house parents” at the Christian Children’s Ranch on Duck Alley Road in Eagle when the abuse happened during the summer of 2015. The victims, a 17-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl, told investigators the Magills had touched them inappropriately and played sexual games of Truth or Dare with them. Prosecutors say Jennifer Magill also encouraged the older girl to perform oral sex on her husband.

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WASHINGTON
Church Militant

by Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • January 25, 2016

SEATTLE (ChurchMilitant.com) – According to a Seattle Times analyst, most of the 77 priests listed by the Seattle archdiocese as sexual predators were never convicted.

The list of the accused was published on the archdiocese’s website January 15, and include clergy and religious who either “served or resided” in the archdiocese from 1923 to 2008. Names were made public for those “whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established or determined credible.”

The Seattle Times reported Sunday that after analyzing this list, it could only substantiate sex abuse convictions for five of the priests.

Those accused of sex abuse included 30 archdiocesan priests, 16 priests from religious orders, 14 brothers from religious communities, two deacons and 14 priests from other dioceses.

Archdiocesan spokesman Greg Magnoni related that it took two years to put the list together. “In early 2014 we brought in a private consultant, a former FBI agent who does this kind of work; she came in with an associate and was given full access to our files. It took about 1,000 staff hours to put it together.”

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WASHINGTON
KIRO

[with video]

By DAVE WAGNER

SEATTLE — It has been 55 years since Steve O’Connor was first abused by a teacher at St. Benedict School, in Seattle. As he talks about it, there are still tears and pain in his eyes.
“It will never go away,” said O’Connor.

In 2012, a King County jury awarded O’Connor $8 million for the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of Dan Adamson. Adamson was a teacher, who became principal at St. Benedict School.
When the archdiocese released the names of known abusers 10 days ago, Adamson was not on the list.

“It really put me back in 1962 at St. Benedict’s, in the boy’s bathroom, in the stall, in the projection room, in the choir loft in the pipe room, in the attic in his house, where he lived with his mother,” said O’Connor.

Attorney Mike Pfau says he has represented more than 100 victims of abuse in the Seattle Archdiocese. He believes there are more names that have not been released.

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WASHINGTON
KAPP

By Eugene Buenaventura. Published Monday, January 25th, 2016

Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Seattle published a list of clergy and other church personnel accused of sexual abuse — a move the church says is intended to highlight “further transparency and accountability and encourage more victims to come forward.”

The 77 names on the list include those with claims against them who either admitted to those claims, or whose claims were determined to be credible — three priests associated with Yakima are on the list.

Yakima’s Lay Advisory Board is considering following in the same footsteps as Seattle’s church — that discussion is expected to come up at it’s meeting in March.

The Yakima church has already spent the last few years putting resources into extensive background checks and providing education to Hispanic and English-speaking children.

“We’re not a big-city archdiocese like Seattle, we have to be very strategic [with] How we use our staff and our resources,” said Bishop Joseph Tyson, “I’m certainly open to having the advisory board look at this and give me a recommendation.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Tue 26 Jan 2016
By Marcus Jones

A group of survivors of child abuse within the Catholic Church are preparing to take their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up.

The claims date back to the 1950s and relate to pupils at St Bede’s in Manchester.

Lawyers have begun proceedings on behalf of the victims who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse and say they hope the positivity given to the release of a Hollywood movie about abuse will help the case.

Thomas Beale, of London-based child abuse lawyers AO Advocates, said there were “significant” similarities between the film ‘Spotlight’ and the allegations of abuse at St Bede’s Catholic school in Manchester decades ago.

The movie which is due to be released in the UK next week has been tipped for Oscars success. Starring Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, it tells the true story of how the Boston Globe’s journalists uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic archdiocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Somerset County Gazette

SPOTLIGHT (15) 129 mins. Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery.

AT its best, investigative journalism is a scalpel that slices through fatty rhetoric and cuts readers to the bones of institutions that should be defending our interests.

In early 2002, the Spotlight Investigations team of the Boston Globe ran a series of meticulously researched articles, exposing the sexual abuse of minors in the Boston archdiocese.

Coverage of the scandal rippled far beyond the city and compelled other victims to come forward, which sent shockwaves through the Roman Catholic Church.

The newspaper was subsequently awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in Journalism for its courageous and comprehensive coverage, which lifted a heavy veil of secrecy stretching back several decades.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Lewis Kamb
Seattle Times staff reporter

When the list came out and he didn’t see the name on it, Steve O’Connor felt victimized all over again.

“It’s like ripping a scab off one’s arm,” O’Connor said Monday. “And they just keep ripping it off and ripping it off.”

Where was the name Daniel Adamson, a Catholic schoolteacher who sexually abused O’Connor as a child?

“I was shocked when I read the archdiocese’s list,” said O’Connor, 67, of Spokane.

But not especially surprised. After all the secrets, lies and threats to keep him quiet, O’Connor, a retired police officer, said little about the Catholic church surprised him anymore.

Earlier this month, the Seattle Archdiocese released a list identifying 77 clergy members “for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established or determined to be credible.”

The list represents the most detailed accounting of its kind for the archdiocese spanning Western Washington. It includes priests and other clergy, most of them now dead, who served or lived in the archdiocese dating to the 1920s.

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NORTH DAKOTA
InForum

The two Roman Catholic dioceses of North Dakota should disclose lists of priests accused of sexual abuse. Spokesmen for the Fargo Diocese of eastern North Dakota and the Bismarck Diocese of western North Dakota rejected requests from The Forum to release complete lists of priests who spent time in the diocese and were accused of sexual abuse. (See Forum story, Jan. 24.) Citing policy “consistent with policies followed by other public and private institutions,” the church said employee privacy was one reason complete lists of offending priests would not be forthcoming.

That’s a weak argument. The Catholic church is not just another public or private institution. The priest sex scandal is not a routine matter of employee privacy. The two North Dakota dioceses do not exist in isolation from a worldwide scandal that has rocked the church for at least a decade.

No less than Pope Francis has pledged again and again to root out the evil of priest sexual abuse. He has been extraordinarily candid about the problem, and has emphasized the vital need for the church to be transparent and cooperative as the church struggles to put the scandal to rest.

Stonewalling of the sort displayed by the two dioceses of North Dakota does not comport with the pope’s message. The flat-out refusal to reveal priests accused of sexual abuse smacks of precisely the kind of official church conduct that deepened the scandal and subsequently seriously harmed the church.

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FLORIDA
Irish Central

Cathy Hayes @irishcentral January 26,2016

A priest, originally from County Tyrone and now based in the United States, claims he has been “frozen out” of the Catholic Church after calling the police to investigate a fellow clergyman who had shown child-porn images to 14-year-old parishioner.

Fr John A Gallagher (48), from Strabane, Co Tyrone, is now living in a holiday home belonging to one of his friends and parishioners. He says the locks on his parochial house were changed and he was placed on medical leave by his bishop in the Diocese of Palm Beach, FL. Gallagher says he was told by the Catholic Church to put a pedophile priest on a plane back to India rather than cooperate with the police.

Gallagher has been living in the United States since 2000. Prior to this he served in the Long Tower parish in Derry. He is well-known in the Catholic community in the US and has made several religious music records and TV appearances. In 2012 he received a personal note from Pope Benedict XVI thanking him for his work, but Gallagher said this was little comfort as he felt “the wrath” of the Church in the past year.

A local police chief in Palm Beach has also voiced his concern over the treatment of Gallagher and wrote to the Church to complain.

The incident took place in January 2015. Gallagher, who has remained silent on the matter until now, has written to bishops and cardinals in Ireland and America as well as the Vatican but has been unable to locate the Indian clergyman in question. He said he has not received a satisfactory response from the Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Peter Feuerherd | Jan. 25, 2016

Sin and the Trinity.

These are two elementary points of Catholic theology in the work of Michael W. Ryan, a retired U.S. Postal security specialist, who has spent more than two decades alerting church authorities to fixing accounting lapses in parish collections.

First, sin.

Ryan has focused since 1988 on what he calls the point “between the collection basket and the bank deposit.” The resident of Milton, Mass., worked for the postal service in security, and knew from first-hand experience that, even with top-of-the-line procedures in place, there will be at least some postal employees tempted to embezzle.

“It only takes a second to scoop up a bunch of twenties,” warns Ryan.

There are parallels between the neighborhood post office and the local Catholic church. Both deal in cash payments. Both involve people with access to cash. But, says Ryan, “there is much more control over a postal clerk.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancaster Evening Post

Harrowing testimony from three survivors of historical child abuse at St Bede’s Catholic school describe in gruesome details the level of torment they suffered from those they trusted.

They spoke of the constant reccurring nightmares and the “burden” of carrying the secrets with them for more than half a century, prompting one to make a failed suicide attempt several decades after the abuse ended.

The allegations focused mostly on Father Vincent Hamilton, Monsignor Thomas Duggan and Father Charles Mulholland, all of who are now dead.

In police witness statements, seen by the Press Association, Rick Merrin described how “Catholic guilt was rampant” at the school in Manchester, and “provided a potent mechanism for controlling the boys”.

He said he was initially in his abuser’s thrall, having been invited to meet members of the Manchester United squad with him.

But he described this as enabling his abuser to groom young victims, insisting they sleep naked in bed with him on school trips. The boy would later be forced to perform oral sex on his tormentor.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Sun (Australia)

AAP

Survivors of child abuse within the Catholic Church in Britain are taking their former diocese to court after allegations of an institutional cover-up going back decades.

The claims – dating back to the 1950s and featuring pupils at a church school in the northwest of England – mirror those in the film Spotlight, tipped for Oscars success for its depiction of similar allegations in the Catholic Church in Boston, US, in the 1980s.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the British victims, who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the abuse, said they hope the positivity Spotlight’s release met with will help give other victims the strength to come forward.

Thomas Beale, representing victims with London-based child abuse lawyers AO Advocates, said there were “significant” similarities between Spotlight and the allegations of abuse at St Bede’s Catholic school in Manchester decades ago.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY RYAN HOOPER

Former pupils of a leading Catholic secondary school in south Manchester, who are suing church bosses over sex abuse claims, have spoken of their horror experiences.

Ex-students of St Bede’s College in Whalley Range say they suffered appalling treatment at the hands of priests at the school.

Harrowing claims from three former pupils, who have bravely waived their right to anonymity, describe in detail how they suffered at the hands of senior staff.

They are among a group of former pupils who are suing the Catholic diocese of Salford, which previously operated the former boys school, which is now an independent mixed-sex school.

The allegations dating back to the 1950s focus mainly on former senior staff members, Father Vincent Hamilton, Monsignor Thomas Duggan and Father Charles Mulholland, all of who are now dead.

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LOUISIANA
KPLC

CALCASIEU PARISH, LA (KPLC) –
It could take a week to seat a jury in the case of a former priest facing child sex charges.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Mark Broussard. He was first arrested in March of 2012 after one alleged victim approached authorities claiming he was abused 25 years earlier by Broussard. He was rearrested twice more the same year on additional charges.

At one point, Broussard faced more than 200 criminal charges. But that number has been reduced to five.

Broussard is out of jail on bond. Broussard resigned from the priesthood in 1994.

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.

FLORIDA
WPTV

[with video]

Jason Hackett

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Father John Gallagher is breaking his silence.

In 2015, the priest alerted law enforcement to the behavior of Father Jose Palimattom at a West Palm Beach Catholic Church.

He says he got information that the priest showed pornography to a 14-year-old boy.

“I had been asked by my diocese…the whole process was to cover him up and put him on a plane. And I said, ‘The Sheriff’s office is on the way to make the arrest.’

Palimattom received 6 months jail, a year’s probation, and then was deported.

However, Father Gallagher says ultimately he got into trouble for being the whistleblower.

“I then was threatened by the diocese, offered a denotation, and I was asked to resign from priesthood,” he says.

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.

FLORIDA
CBS 12

BY AL PEFLEY MONDAY, JANUARY 25TH 2016

WEST PALM BEACH (CBS12) — A priest from West Palm Beach says the Catholic Church has tried to force him out after he blew the whistle about a pedophile priest.

Father John Gallagher is breaking his silence.

“The Bishop’s responsibility is to take care of his priests and that’s not happening. I have been ostracized,” said Fr. John Gallagher.

Father John Gallagher was about to be named pastor at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in suburban West Palm Beach last January, when he learned one of his priests, Jose Palimatton, had shown child pornography to a teenage boy.

He reported it to the Diocese of Palm Beach. But he says they didn’t want to hear it.

“When I made the initial phone call to the Diocese, I was told we are used to this, we normally put people like this on an airplane,” Gallagher said.

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

UNITED STATES
Baptist News

In the works for 10 months, a story in the February 2106 Washingtonian brings to the public details of an alleged conspiracy to cover up sexual abuse by a prominent evangelical megachurch.

By Bob Allen

The story behind a sex-abuse scandal at an evangelical megachurch near Washington, D.C., kept out of court by a statute of limitations, has hit newsstands in a long-form story in the Washingtonian, a monthly lifestyle magazine read by 400,000.

Written by Tiffany Stanley, managing editor of the online journal Religion & Politics who formerly worked for The New Republic and Religion News Service, the “The Fall of a Mega Church” details what some have called “the largest sexual abuse scandal to hit the evangelical church.”

The magazine, available online only by paid subscription, contrasts the decline of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., with former pastor and Sovereign Grace Ministries founder C.J. Mahaney, who came away relatively unscathed.

“A college dropout with no formal training, he became an in-demand public speaker and befriended influential New Calvinist leaders,” the article introduces Mahaney — “a group that included prominent Baptist minister John Piper; Albert Mohler, president of the powerful Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Mark Dever, leader of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, a go-to place of worship for evangelical Hill staffers.”

No longer officially in leadership of Sovereign Grace Ministries, Mahaney now is senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Ky., a church plant which recently joined the Southern Baptist Convention.

Along with Mohler, Dever and Presbyterian Ligon Duncan, Mahaney is a founder of Together for the Gospel, a biennial preaching conference first held in 2006. Mahaney dropped out of the T4G gathering in 2014, saying he didn’t want public questions about his handling of the scandal to be a distraction.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

[A priest suspected of sexual assaults on minors was taken into custody at Lyon.]

Un prêtre soupçonné d’agressions sexuelles commises sur de jeunes scouts il y a plus de 25 ans a été placé en garde à vue aujourd’hui à Lyon. Le septuagénaire est actuellement entendu par la police. Il est soupçonné d’agressions sexuelles aux dépens d’au moins trois mineurs, ex-membres d’un groupe scout indépendant qu’il a encadré pendant une vingtaine d’années, du début des années 1970 à 1991 à Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, dans la banlieue ouest de Lyon.

Le prêtre, qui était doyen de plusieurs paroisses dans le Roannais jusqu’en août dernier, est visé par plusieurs plaintes d’anciens scouts du groupe Saint-Luc, aujourd’hui quadragénaires, déposées depuis mai 2015. Une enquête préliminaire “pour agression sexuelle” avait été ouverte cet été par le parquet de Lyon. Compte tenu de l’ancienneté des faits, certaines plaintes devraient être prescrites mais d’autres sont jugées recevables par la justice. Le prêtre a continué à être en contact avec des enfants, via notamment l’enseignement du catéchisme, après avoir été écarté du groupe Saint-Luc à la suite d’un signalement d’une famille au cardinal Albert Decourtray, alors Primat des Gaules.

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INDIA
Times of India

Mahir Haneef | TNN | Jan 25, 2016

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday declined to grant bail to a Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a minor girl from the community.

Justice Sunil Thomas considered the bail plea of 41-year-old Edwin Figarez, who was the priest of a church at Puthenvelikkara under Kottappuram diocese. He had gone into hiding since April last year after Ernakulam rural police registered a case against him. He was arrested in December.

According to the police case, the 14-year-old girl was exploited by the priest several times between January and March last year, with the latest incident being on March 28th. The complaint was filed by the girl’s mother after the victim revealed her trauma to the family. The priest who was active in the field of Christian devotional songs allegedly lured the girl by exploiting her interest in music.

Police had booked the priest for rape under provisions of Indian Penal Code (section 376) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. He was arrested after his petitions for obtaining anticipatory bail was turned down by the high court and then the apex court.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 25, 2016

Last week Newsweek published a cover story from veteran Philadelphia journalist Ralph Cipriano that dives even deeper into the credibility of an alleged victim of clergy sexual abuse that resulted in landing three priests and one teacher in prison.

In June 2012, Msgr. William Lynn became the first U.S. church official convicted for his handling of abuse allegations. Seven months later, a jury found Fr. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero guilty sexually assaulting a former altar boy, the same whom former priest Edward Avery had previously pleaded guilty of sexually assaulting. The altar boy at the center of each of the four convictions was “Billy Doe,” the prosecution’s star witness in an apparent landmark trial situated in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Flash forward to last week. Under the scathing headline “Catholic Guilt? The Lying, Scheming Altar Boy Behind a Lurid Rape Case” Cipriano recaps for Newsweek the priests’ cases and the credibility of Billy Doe — whose actual name is Daniel Gallagher — in addition to revealing new information from recent reports, gathered ahead of civil suits that have since been dropped, that raises new questions about the reliability of his story.

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GEORGIA
WTOC

By Sean Evans

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) –
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, says they want the public to be aware of seven credibly accused Catholic clerics who have worked in Georgia, but haven’t been publicly called out until now.

The SNAP representatives WTOC spoke to want the names of those priests out there, in case there are any victims who might not have come forward yet.

There are seven altogether, most notably a Father Donald McGuire, a convicted Jesuit priest who was Mother Teresa’s spiritual advisor, according to SNAP. McGuire led three retreats in central Georgia in the late 1990’s. And from 2000 to 2003, two Georgia families wrote Catholic Church officials in Savannah about McGuire’s suspected sexual and psychological abuse of their teens.

The SNAP team say they have requested several things of the Diocese of Savannah. One, is that the Church permanently post on all their websites the names of all predator priests who have worked or lived – or now work or live – in the diocese.

Another request is that the church spread the word about a new Georgia law that makes kids safer by enabling child sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against “those who commit or conceal sexual violence.”

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

UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

By the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) claims a Zero Tolerance policy regarding priests and deacons who have sexually abused a minor or a vulnerable adult. Yet, church documents show otherwise and potential victims could be at risk now.

The USCCB does not exercise the leadership necessary to assure that known sexually abusive priests and deacons are removed from the community and that the community is warned about the sexually abusive priests and deacons. This misrepresentation is deliberate and systemic in nature, and sexually abusive clergy still could be in ministry.

Three stunning realities focus the concern and explain the need for a Vatican investigation.

First, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI changed the church’s statute of limitations so that cases of sexual abuse of a minor or of a vulnerable adult by a priest or a deacon cannot be barred from a church court because of a failure to report the abuse within a prescribed time frame. Moreover, church law provides that such cases can address both the crime as well as the reparation for damages that result from the crime. The USCCB and its member bishops should follow the example of these popes by working to change the states’ statutes of limitations. It’s about protecting minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse, and about protecting their moral right to reparation.

Second, the USCCB established a particular law for the church in the United States with respect to all priests and deacons in the ministry of the church. But, in reality, an important rule within that particular law dilutes the church’s process to identify those allegations of sexual abuse of a minor or of a vulnerable adult by a priest or a deacon that are required by universal church law to be submitted to the Vatican for judicial action. As a result, some priests and deacons who ought to be removed from ministry might still be in ministry, thus continuing to be a danger to minors and vulnerable adults.

Third, the USCCB engages the services of an independent consulting firm to audit local dioceses for compliance with USCCB-established policies and procedures intended to provide a safe environment within the church. Yet, this audit process is flawed, thus furthering the risk of harm rather than providing protection. For example, the USCCB prevents the auditors from verifying that all sexual abuse cases that should be sent to the Vatican actually are sent. Some diocesan bishops or major superiors might not send cases to the Vatican and this would go undetected. Another example is that some diocesan bishops forbid the auditors from conducting onsite parish reviews. The minors and vulnerable adults who need protection are in the parishes, not in the diocesan offices. But, these bishops are able to discard onsite parish audits.

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

MINNESOTA
Behind the Pine Curtain

On Sunday, January 24, 2016, Father Dan Ward gave a presentation (via Skype) to an audience of 50-75 people on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

One of Father Ward’s alleged victims attended. Father Ward admitted to the audience that he met with the alleged victim in the vice-president’s office [at the College St. Benedict] years ago, but he didn’t want to have a discussion about something that “was settled.”

Note: In October of 2012, Saint John’s Abbey confirmed that Father Dan Ward was under investigation for sexual misconduct. The public has yet to learn the results of that investigation, though Father Ward resigned from as Executive Director of the RCRI in May of 2013. Father Ward taught at St. John’s Prep School and St. John’s University.

Abbot John Klassen hosted the event which was advertised in the January 15, 2016 edition of The Visitor, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota.

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
Financial Times

The finances of the Holy See are nowhere near transparent enough

Vatican folklore has it that a former pope was once asked how many people worked at the Holy See. “About half,” the Pontiff is said to have replied. Those now charged with directing the affairs of the Catholic Church are prone to observe that the Holy Father must always be generous in his judgments.

The problems of the Roman Curia run deeper than chronically inefficient administration and overstaffing. An Italian court has just handed down a two-year suspended sentence on Nunzio Scarano, the former Vatican accountant.

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.

WASHINGTON
Kirkland Reporter

by TJ MARTINELL, Kirkland Reporter

Three former priests, who worked at several different Kirkland churches, were named last week by the Archdiocese of Seattle in a list of clergy and religious leaders who the church believes were involved in sexual abuse of a minor in Western Washington.

However, not among the names of accused was former youth minister Jim Funnell at St. John Vianney Church who was alleged to have molested a child in the mid-1980s for more than a year. A lawsuit was filed and scheduled before the parish district settled out of court for $635,000 in 2012.

The three priests named in the Archdiocese release who served in Kirkland at some point included Harold Quigg and Stephen Trippy, both of whom are deceased. The third priest is Gerald Moffat, who is listed as being in “permanent prayer and penance,” a status which applies to a priest permanently removed from all public ministry.

In 2003, a 43-year-old man committed suicide in the parking lot of the Kirkland church where Moffat served in the 1970s after the man filed an anonymous lawsuits against Moffat, alleging sexual abuse. Five other men had also filed similar lawsuits against two other local priests in the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese at the same time.

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.

For immediate release: Monday, Jan 25, 2016

Statement by: Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511,SNAPJudy@gmail.com

It’s heartbreaking and infuriating that Catholic officials are retaliating against a whistleblower priest who acted exactly as he should by calling police on an admitted predator.

Our hearts go out to Father John Gallagher. Shame on Bishop Gerald Barbarito.

[Irish Independent]

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

FACT SHEET ON HIDDEN GEORGIA PREDATOR PRIESTS

According to legal records, church documents and mainstream news accounts (mostly from outside Georgia) and other sources, these proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting Catholic clerics have worked in Georgia but attracted little or no public attention in the state.

Because we want to protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded and expose the truth, we want Georgia Catholic officials to permanently post on church websites the names of all predator priests who have worked or lived – or now work or live – in the Savannah diocese and Atlanta archdiocese. (More on this at the end of this fact sheet.)

Information (and sometimes photos) of these men are available at BishopAccountability.org

The Predators

–Fr. Donald J. McGuire, a high profile, now convicted Jesuit who was Mother Teresa’s spiritual advisor. He led three retreats in central Georgia in the 1990s. Attendees included Savannah area potential seminarians.

From 2000 to 2003, two Georgia families whose teenage sons worked as ‘personal servants’ to Fr. McGuire wrote to Savannah church officials describing the teens “being shown pornography, sharing a bed with Fr. McGuire, nudity, psychological abuse, sexual teasing as well as other suspected sexual abuse.”

[BishopAccountability.org]

–Fr. Jonathan W. Franklin, a Benedictine who committed suicide before his criminal trial on charges of sexually assaulting 12 year old boy. (He worked in Savannah, Atlanta, Florida and Louisiana.)

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

–Fr. Charles G. Coyle, a Jesuit who was suspended and is accused of molesting at least two boys and spent time in Boston MA, Houston TX, Mobile AL, New Orleans LA and Baltimore MD. (He was in Atlanta from 1991-1995 at Ignatius House.)

[BishopAccountability.org]

–Fr. Charles Arnold Bartles, a Jesuit, who worked in Kansas, Florida, Alaska, Louisiana, Jamaica and Brazil and was, in 2010, accused of molesting at least one child. (He was at in Atlanta the Marist School, with about 700 students, from 1972-78.)

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

NORTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 25, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Catholic bishops in Bismarck and Fargo are refusing to disclose names of predator priests. Shame on them. Their self-serving secrecy leaves kids in harm’s way and parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public in the dark.

[InForum]

Last week, the Seattle Catholic archdiocese released a list of 77 child molesting clerics who worked there.

[OregonLive]

Last year, six Minnesota-based church institutions did likewise.

Yesterday, the Yakima daily newspaper reported that church officials there may do the same thing in March.

Over the past dozen years or so, more than 30 US bishops have released such lists.

[BishopAccountability.org]

For the safety of kids, North Dakota bishops should do the same. It’s the quickest, easiest way to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about predator priests. It’s the very least bishops should do, since they recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded these predators for years, often helping them evade prosecution by keeping their crimes secret until the statute of limitations expired.

Only 13 North Dakota predators have been exposed, compared with 32 in South Dakota, 50 in Montana and 186 in Minnesota (according to the independent website BishopAccountability.org). It’s sad that families just across the border from North Dakota are arguably safer from predator priests than families that are in North Dakota.

So we hope Fargo Bishop John Folda and Bismarck Bishop David Kagan will find the courage to do what they know is right: protecting the vulnerable, healing the wounded and exposing the truth by posting predators’ names on parish and diocesan websites.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

Three decades ago the priesthood was one of the most trusted professions, but a new poll shows that nowadays people are more likely to trust their hairdressers than priests.
However, priests still fare better than politicians in the trust stakes.

According to this report, politicians remain the least trusted profession with only 21 per cent of the public saying they trust them. They are followed closely by estate agents and journalists, both on 25 per cent.

Bobby Duffy, Director of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos MORI, said the public’s lack of faith in politicians signified:

A new crisis of trust. From this long-running survey we can see that public trust has been an issue for politicians for at least the past 33 years.

Other professions, though, have seen a long-term decline in trust, most notably the clergy, who were the most trusted profession when we started the series in 1983 and have fallen behind seven other groups.

The latest survey shows that people are more likely to trust each other than establishment figures, with 69 percent trusting ordinary people on the street, compared to civil servants (59 percent), lawyers (51 percent), NHS managers (49 percent) and charity chief executives (47 percent).

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IRELAND
RTE

Director: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schriber, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery.
Duration: 128 minutes
Certificate 15A

Spotlight is essentially All The President’s Men rebooted, with the quarry being the real-life Cardinal Law and errant Boston clergy rather than Richard Nixon and his associates.

Instead of the Washington Post, it’s the Boston Globe doing the hunting down. So you get the long strip-lit office, the serious news story simmering away while the mostly male hacks rib each other about poker and golf and attend baseball games together.

The year is 2001 and a new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schriber) has taken over. After initial suspicions are allayed, he assembles the editorial team and gently but forcefully probes what kind of stories the journalists have been chasing down.

As an outsider – Jewish, non-Catholic – Baron has no residual loyalty to the city, nor indeed has he any particular appreciation of, or much interest in, the city’s Catholic clergy who are respected and admired by many seemingly well-heeled locals for their charity work.

Picking up on a column that he has noticed in the paper which refers to a priest who had been moved to another diocese in 1976, he begins to nudge the team towards taking on the church, in a way that have been hitherto reluctant to do.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 25, 2016

There I was, standing in an empty ballroom that seated over 500 people in a downtown hotel in St. Louis just three days after Christmas. I had been invited by Intervarsity to speak at Urbana 2015 about the plight of child abuse within the church. Urbana is an international student missions conference sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship that brings together over 15,000 students, young people, and ministry workers every three years in St. Louis. This year’s conference made national headlines with its focus on social justice as it boldly embraced #BlackLivesMatter. What didn’t make the headlines is what happened in that hotel ballroom.

As I arrived thirty minutes before my scheduled session, I have to admit that I thought I was in the wrong room. After 20 years of speaking on this issue, I was sure that the room for my session would be much smaller. The sad reality is that people seldom flock to hear about sexual abuse in the church, especially when they have many other available seminar options to choose from. At least that’s what I expected that afternoon. When I expressed my doubts to one of the room hosts, she assured me that I was in the right room and that they were expecting a large turn out. I remained skeptical.

Then it happened.

At first, it was just a trickle of students. But, just as I was about to tell my host, “See, I told you so”, the trickle turned into a steady stream. Over the next 30 minutes, I watched as students and young people poured into this once empty massive room. And they kept coming. I was blown away that so many young men and women had decided to come and hear about a topic that much of the Church has worked hard to keep quiet for generations. As I got up to speak, I was blown away by what I saw. The ballroom that just 30 minutes earlier was empty, was now crowded. Very crowded. Crowded with young people who looked eager to hear about this heart-wrenching topic. Crowded with young people who came not just to listen, but wanting to do something about it. There is something hopeful about this generation.

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

It’s easier than ever to fly to another country. There are looser borders, more flights and even websites explaining extradition laws across the world.

So of course, child molesters are fleeing overseas more often. Or at least it sure seems that way.

Here’s a thought: in many places, there are automatic penalties – X number of years – if you use a gun while committing a crime.

Because a predator who flees abroad makes an already expensive, slow and complex prosecution process even more expensive, slow and complex, why not an automatic X years tacked on to his or her sentence after conviction? Maybe it might make a child molester think twice before evading the law by jumping on a plane?

What got me thinking about this was a year-long investigation by Global Post made public last year. It reveals that at least five predator priests from the US and Europe were quietly moved to South America where they continued to work in ministry. This is an increasing trend: child molesting clerics being sent abroad to evade justice. We suspect there are hundreds of proven, admitted, and credibly accused abusive clergy working who’ve moved to other nations.

The Post’s findings mirror similar investigations made in 2013 by the Chicago Tribune and an even more thorough one in 2004 by Dallas Morning News.

The Tribune found that “Since 1985, at least 32 priests have left the US for foreign countries while facing criminal charges or a police investigation over (child sex) allegations. Only five have been returned to the U.S. to face trial.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Gareth Davies, Reporter
Monday 25 January 2016

VERBAL abuse, risk to children and physical assaults are all listed in a damning Ofsted report of Brighton and Hove’s biggest school.

Cardinal Newman Catholic School has been graded as requiring improvement by the government’s education watchdog after inspectors were sent in amid safeguarding fears.

It comes after we exclusively revealed yesterday that a teacher at The Upper Drive site, Hove, was suspended last year over an alleged sexual relationship with a pupil.

Simon Hughes, who compiled the report, said: “The inspection was scheduled in response to qualifying complaints of a child protection nature, and that these had been investigated by the appropriate authorities.”

In 2012 the school was just one grade from the best possible Ofsted rating. But the latest inspection, on December 9, saw the school slump to one grade from the worst.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

MEADE COUNTY, Ky. —The Meade County trial of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young boy decades ago has been delayed.

Joseph Hemmerle was set to stand trial Monday on six counts of sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse.

Hemmerle’s accuser said the crimes took place in the 1970s.

The trial has been moved to Nov. 28.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By David Hurst
dhurst@tribdem.com

A St. Michael priest has been placed on leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown due to an allegation he sexually abused children several decades ago, Diocese officials said Sunday.

The Rev. Charles F. Bodziak, 74, has been suspended from his post at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church in St. Michael and is being moved to an unnamed housing facility while diocese officials review the matter, spokesman Tony DeGol said.

DeGol said the allegation accuses Bodziak of sexual misconduct with minors more than 30 years ago. The allegation had been reviewed once before, but Bartchak made the decision this week to “re-examine” it, DeGol said.

He offered few other details, saying he has not been informed whether the diocese was first made aware of the allegations months, years or decades ago.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Daily News

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — A central Pennsylvania priest has been placed on leave over a child-sex abuse allegation from more than 30 years ago.

Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak announced the precautionary measure Sunday involving the Rev. Charles Bodziak.

The bishop says the allegation against the 74-year-old priest is more than three decades old. However, the bishop has decided to review the allegation, though a diocesan spokesman won’t say why that’s happening.

The priest has pastored St. Michael Parish in the town of the same name since 2010. St. Michael is located about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The priest hasn’t been charged with a crime. He couldn’t immediately be located for comment.

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MONTANA
Helena Independent Record

DAVID CLOHESSY

A recent Independent Record article discussed ways to prevent clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Catholic church (“Attorneys, author, bishop weigh in on how to prevent sex abuse by clergy”). But one obvious and crucial step was not mentioned.

How about defrocking, demoting or disciplining church staff who ignore or conceal known or suspected child sex crimes? In our view, that’s the quickest and easiest way to catch predator priests after victim one or two, instead of after victim 22 or 33.

This virtually never happens. Catholic officials admit that more than 6,200 US priests have been publicly accused of sexually assaulting kids. (See bishopaccountability.org) But virtually never has a Catholic employee lost a promotion or a day’s pay for hiding these crimes. (Three U.S. bishops have voluntarily resigned their posts for their reckless, callous or deceitful actions in clergy sex scandals. But again, no one in the church hierarchy has been really punished.)

Nothing will deter such complicity like firing those who enable such horror. But it hasn’t happened. And sadly, there’s no real sign that Pope Francis is willing to do this either.

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UNITED STATES
GQ

STORY BY HELEN O HARA

MONDAY 25 JANUARY 2016

Despite being the last of this year’s big Oscar contenders to hit general release in the UK, Spotlight is still a front runner. On paper, it could hardly be less appetising. The trailers haven’t quite managed to communicate any real tension, and the plot involves paedophile priests, Boston city politics and a team of defiantly unglamorous people talking in rooms. Worse, they’re trying to uncover a story you probably feel you already know. But don’t be fooled: this is going to have you on tenterhooks throughout.

Set in 2001, incoming Mary Baron (Liev Schreiber) has just taken office at the Boston Globe, and assigns the paper’s long-form investigation team, Spotlight, the job of looking into allegations made by a victim’s lawyer that the Catholic Church has known about abuser priests for decades and covered the scandal up. The team is sceptical, wary of taking on the Church in a thoroughly catholic town, but led by Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton) they start to investigate anyway, and uncover a trail that suggests problems far greater than anyone imagined.

It’s another story rooted in Boston’s peculiar parochial psyche, but unlike all those crime dramas – most recently the scattershot Black Mass – this feels like a recognisable city. Its incidental characters are not gangsters or grotesques but ordinary people who, for the most part, thought they were doing the right thing when they trusted a priest, or turned a blind eye. That’s the film’s real power: the Spotlight team strips away the comfortable lies that everyone tells themselves, including their own.

Director Tom McCarthy works from an almost flawless script, but his real weapon is a cast who dig in and play down to form a true ensemble with almost no grandstanding moments. Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci and even those in smaller roles like Billy Crudup don’t try to steal focus from one another; they just lift the story. It’s not going to be for everyone – the closest thing to an action beat involves the race to photocopy something before closing time – but if you’re ok with talky dramas, they don’t get much better.

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