ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

March 1, 2016

PA–Victims on Altoona: “Probe is on-going, so act!”

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

The Altoona abuse and cover up investigation is on-going. It’s key to remember that. Just because there are no criminal charges now doesn’t mean there won’t be any later.

We believe it’s the moral and civic duty of every Altoona area Catholic to actively seek out others who saw or suspected or suffered crimes by these 50 predator priests. We believe Altoona area church staff have the same duty. But we know that virtually none of them will take action, because they’re too timid, whether they’re a bookkeeper or a bishop. And since they won’t, it’s crucial that rank-and-file church members do this outreach.

We beg Catholics and citizens to read carefully the parts of the report that deal with how Catholic officials deal with abuse reports now. It’s worth reading this piece from PennLive.com:

The bishop controlled the Allegation Review Board.

Bishop Adamec created the Allegation Review Board to allegedly determine the credibility of an allegation of abuse.

However, the purpose of creating the board, the grand jury said, was to convince people that the days of a mysterious bishop deciding how to handle a scandalous and heinous report of child molestation were over.

“In reality, the bishop still exclusively makes the decision how or what to do with a report of child molestation,” the grand jury said. “Nothing has changed but the trappings of how a report is procedurally made.”

The grand jury said victims who believed they were reporting to a board of unbiased and neutral observers “would be sadly mistaken.”

Diocese ‘victim advocate’ looked out for the church, not the victims.

The grand jury concluded, upon interviews with victims and reviews of documents, that the diocese “victim advocate” is an advocate for the diocese against the interest of the victims. The victim advocate was identified as Sister Marilyn Welch.

“Where the advocate can shuffle a victim into the Allegation Review Board without the involvement of legal representation for a victim, she does so,” the grand jury reported.

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

PD: Seymour priest arrested for embezzling money from church

CONNECTICUT
WTNH

By Macy Corica, WTNH.com Staff

SEYMOUR, Conn. (WTNH) — A Roman Catholic Priest has been arrested for allegedly embezzling money from his church.

On Monday, 50-year-old Father Honore Kombo of Weston turned himself in to Seymour police after learning of a warrant for his arrest. Kombo was a Pastor at the St. Augustine Church, located at 135 Washington Avenue in Seymour.

In April of 2015, police began investigating Kombo after representatives from the Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation told them of concerns that Kombo had stolen money left to the church by a deceased parishioner. Police say that parishioner had left the money through a series of monetary annuities. It was believed that four annuities had been left for St. Augustine parish, but detectives found that a fifth annuity had been left, but was never reported to church officials by Kombo.

Police say that Kombo had filed the necessary paperwork requesting the proceeds for the fifth annuity and that on May 6, 2013, Kombo received a check made payable to the St. Augustine Church for the large sum of money. According to police, Kombo then opened a bank account at a local bank, deposited the annuity proceeds into the account, then withdrew a large sum of it and deposited it into his personal bank account.

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.

Police Say Seymour Priest Embezzled From Church

CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

SEYMOUR – A 50-year-old local Catholic priest is facing charges after police say he embezzled more than $20,000 from St. Augustine Church.

Police charged Honore Kombo, the former pastor of St. Augustine Church on Washington Avenue, with first-degree larceny after they say they were alerted to funds missing from the parish in April of 2015.

The investigation revealed that Kombo deposited an annuity left to the church by a deceased parishioner into a church account but then wrote a check to himself for a “large sum of money” and deposited it into a personal account in his name.

Police said that Kombo also opened a line of credit in October of 2013 under the church’s name and would deposit funds from the line of credit into his personal account.

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.

Gun-toting priest’s behaviour ‘abhorrent’

ROME
9 News

AAP

A gun-toting Melbourne priest’s behaviour in making children kneel between his legs during confession is “abhorrent”, Cardinal George Pell says.

The church failed to remove Doveton parish priest Peter Searson, whom Cardinal Pell described as a disconcerting man and a difficult customer, despite years of complaints.

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.

San Diego resident and consultant on ‘Spotlight’ says priest sex abuse still happening

CALIFORNIA
Fox 5

[with video]

BY MISHA DIBONO

SAN DIEGO – “Spotlight” won Hollywood’s highest honor – taking home the Oscar for Best Picture Sunday night. One of the most important players portrayed in the movie lives in San Diego.

The movie tells the true story of how Boston Globe investigative reporters exposed the sex abuse scandal involving priests and children within the Catholic Church.

“You’re fighting Goliath and all you have in your sling is words and truth and you sling it… but the Roman is Goliath – bigger – and is not going to go down easily,” Richard Sipe told FOX 5 Monday.

Sipe, a former Catholic priest who lives in La Jolla resident, has been collecting data on pedophile priests since the 60s.

“In the movie they use my words quoting me directly,” he said.

We only heard his character’s voice in the film by phone as he provides key statistical information to the team investigative reporters in 2001, as they expose the sex abuse scandal in Boston archdioceses. Sipes says there are thousands of these stories.

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.

NJ–Victims urge bishop to announced predator’s death

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

New Jersey predator priest has passed away. We hope his death of brings some comfort to the courageous victims who came forward and reported his horrific crimes.

[NJ.com]

He is Fr. John M. Banko. His brave victims overcame their own pain to work with police and prosecutors to have him arrested and convicted. Because of their courage and their wisdom to work with secular authorities rather than church officials other children were spared abuse.

We hope Metuchen Catholic officials will announce his death in the diocesan newspaper, on the diocesan website and in all church bulletins, noting his crimes and conviction. We fear other Fr. Banko victims are still suffering in secrecy and shame and will find some small comfort knowing he cannot hurt anyone else.

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.

Cardinal George Pell remembers Peter Searson, a ‘disconcerting, unpleasant man’

ROME
9 News

By Nick Alexander

George Pell has continued to flounder early on the third day of his testimony before a Royal Commission, following a potentially disastrous performance yesterday, which threatens to turn the cardinal into an international pariah.

A particularly damning headline on one Italian daily screamed “see no evil, hear no evil, stop no evil”, with reports locals are harbouring growing levels of resentment that Cardinal Pell has brought the shame and degradation of endemic clergy abuse in Australia to Rome.

In addition to hostility from the local press, Cardinal Pell was confronted yesterday by survivors of abuse who travelled to Rome to watch Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic face a relentless grilling by the Commission.

Today the Commission’s focus shifts to Cardinal Pell’s time as an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, an appointment then-Archbishop Sir Frank Little was less than happy with.

Taking up the position in 1987, a year before the church would draft a secret set of protocols for dealing with abuse allegations, Cardinal Pell had responsibility for the “southern region”, where similar claims about his alleged blind-eye to sexual abuse by priests have long fermented.

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.

Uncovering Decades of Sexual Abuse in a Pennsylvania Diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
The Atlantic

ADAM CHANDLER

On Tuesday, two days after a film about a massive Catholic sex-abuse scandal in Boston won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Pennsylvania’s attorney general released a grand jury report chronicling “staggering and sobering” accounts of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnston.

The report alleges that, dating back to the 1970s, “hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators” in abuse cases that involved over 50 priests and religious leaders in the area:

As wolves disguised as the shepherds themselves—these men stole the innocence of children by sexually preying upon the most innocent and the most vulnerable of our society and of the Catholic faith.

But there at the heart of the report isn’t just the criminal behavior, but criminal callousness in the desire of high-level officials to “avoid public scandal” by keeping abuse quiet and even allowing known predators to remain in commission as members of the clergy.

The information uncovered by the report had previously been kept in files to which only top diocese leaders had access. The documents show that several priests were reprimanded, reassigned, or otherwise briefly sent off to treatment programs or vacations, only to return to serving their original communities or new ones. Others retired and a few were eventually kept from the ministry.

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.

State College Law Office Investigating Altoona-Johnstown Diocesan Sex Abuse Scandal

PENNSYLVANIA
Sys-Con

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — An attorney who represented many of the Penn State child sexual abuse victims says the new Pennsylvania grand jury report on widespread sexual abuse of children in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese reveals the all-too-common pattern of a powerful institution enabling and empowering child predators at the root of the Penn State-Sandusky and other sex abuse scandals.

Andrew Shubin, a State College child sexual abuse attorney who represented multiple Sandusky Penn State sexual abuse victims, and whose work was recently featured in Happy Valley, a documentary detailing the Penn State abuse scandal, announced that his firm is investigating sexual abuse allegations against priests in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese. Shubin said he will be working to ensure that predator priests and the indifferent church hierarchy that provided them with access to a stream of children, are held accountable in court for the catastrophic harm they inflicted.

“When the highest and most powerful officials in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese gave pedophile priests access to an unending stream of children, and the time, space and cover to groom and abuse them, they betrayed children, families and a community,” Shubin said. “We give schools, churches and coaches our children and trust and they give pedophiles the ammunition essential to abuse – indifference. How many children could have been saved had diocesan leaders cared more about kids than the church’s reputation?”

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.

Victims of Altoona Diocese child sex abuse have lost their faith; struggle for normalcy

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com

ALTOONA — Victims interviewed during the investigation into allegations of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown told investigators their abuse – which in some cases happened decades ago – continues to affect their lives today.

“They said they lost their faith,” said Daniel J. Dye, state Deputy Attorney General. “That is a profound thing to think about. A lot were from very devout Catholic homes and having a priest take interest in them was a status symbol.”

In some cases, Dye said, parents encouraged their children to spend time with the predator priest, not knowing that the priest was molesting their child.

“They found themselves offended on not only by the person they trusted most but the physical representative of God on Earth,” Dye said. “The way they described it to us is the violation was total. They were violated in spirit, mind and body.”

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.

Hundreds of Children Allegedly Abused Over 40-Year Period in Pennsylvania Diocese, Grand Jury Determines

PENNSYLVANIA
Mother Jones

By Grace Wilson | Tue Mar. 1, 2016

After an exhaustive, two-year investigation, a statewide grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused by priests and other religious leaders serving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in western Pennsylvania over at least 40 years.

The grand jury issued a 147-page report, made public today, that details widespread alleged abuse involving at least 50 priests and religious leaders, and the findings include accounts of how Diocese superiors took action to conceal the accusations in order to protect the Church’s image.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, who spoke at a news conference today in Altoona, a small city located two hours east of Pittsburgh. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.”

In April 2014, the Office of the Attorney General brought the matter to the State Investigating Grand Jury. None of the alleged criminal acts detailed in the report can be prosecuted at this point because many of the alleged abusers have died, the statute of limitations for these crimes has passed, and many of the victims are too “deeply traumatized” to testify in court, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

The news comes comes two days after the movie Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film is about the Boston Globe’s 2001 investigation of the Catholic Church’s long history of sexual abuse, particularly in Boston parishes.

The investigation in Pennsylvania is ongoing, Kane said.

“We will continue to look at this matter and consider charges where appropriate, which is why it is so important for those with information to come forward,” she said. “At the very least we must continue to shine a light on this long period of abuse and despicable conduct.”

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.

Advocate doubts latest clergy-abuse report will effect change, Pa. Catholic Conference backs current statute of limitations

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Steve Marroni | smarroni@pennlive.com

When state Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a grand jury report Tuesday, detailing four decades of sexual abuse among clergy and church leaders in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the founder of the Pennsylvania-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse wondered why it was even news.

“This is what the Catholic church has been doing for decades,” said John Salveson, who has been an activist fighting child abuse since 1980. “I would say it’s unbelievable, but I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Salveson said the news caused an outcry with every report and every case that made headlines over the years, from clergy abuse cases coming to light to the Jerry Sandusky case.

And every time, talk of the statute of limitations for civil cases and criminal prosecution came up with little or no change, he said.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take for Pennsylvania’s legislators to do something about this,” Salveson said. “What the hell is wrong with these people?”

But as of now, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference backs a task force recommendation made in 2012 that no changes should be made to the state’s current statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, which their report says is adequate.

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.

Pell says should have done more on abuse

ROME
7 News

Cardinal George Pell concedes he should have done more when he was told of rumours about a Christian Brother’s activity with children in the 1970s.

Cardinal Pell has said he heard vague and unspecific rumours about Brother Edward Dowlan from about two students and two priests, but was told by the school chaplain at Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College that the Christian Brothers were dealing with it.

“I regret that I didn’t do more at that stage,” he told the child abuse royal commission.

Cardinal Pell said he did not take any further action to determine what the Christian Brothers did about Dowlan after speaking to the chaplain.

“No I didn’t, but I soon became aware that Dowlan was shifted,” he told the inquiry from Rome on the third day of his evidence.

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

Pell starts third day of abuse evidence

ROME
SBS

AAP

Cardinal George Pell has resumed giving his testimony to the child sex abuse commission sitting.

Watch the proceedings live by clicking here.

He arrived at the Hotel Quirinale in Rome earlier on Wednesday as plain-clothes state police officers kept journalists back.

Cardinal Pell is being questioned about what he knew of pedophile priests operating in Ballarat and Melbourne when he served there in the 1970s and 1980s.

On Tuesday, he told the commission he did not know about repeated complaints against the now-imprisoned pedophile Father Gerald Ridsdale because former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns did not tell him.

The former senior Australian Catholic, now the third-most powerful man in the Vatican, shocked abuse survivors who are in Rome to watch him give evidence via video link, when he said on Tuesday Ridsdale’s offences were “a sad story” but had not been of much interest to him when they were happening in the 1970s in regional Victoria.

“I had no reason to turn my mind to the evils that Ridsdale had perpetrated,” the cardinal said from Hotel Quirinale, where he is giving his evidence.

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

Harrisburg Catholic diocese statement on abuse case

PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg released the following statement Tuesday after the release of a grand jury report that alleged two former Catholic bishops in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese covered up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children.

The grand jury’s report lists parishes in which the accused priests served. No York County parishes are listed.

The diocese’s statement:

“We are deeply saddened and shocked by what the Attorney General has released today. We ask for prayers for all of the victims.

The sexual abuse of minors is an appalling sin and a crime. That is why the Diocese of Harrisburg has made strong and aggressive steps to combat it.

The Diocese of Harrisburg maintains a zero tolerance policy regarding sexual abuse. Any priest or deacon, employee or volunteer, who has committed even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor, whenever it occurred, is permanently removed from ministry.

The Diocese of Harrisburg is ever vigilant to make sure that children are protected. That is why when a report of possible abuse surfaces in the Diocese of Harrisburg we promptly relay it to public authorities fully and transparently.

Our efforts to protect youth go beyond what is required by the State of Pennsylvania. Additionally we have passed yearly audits by an independent firm to be sure that we are complying with standards set forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Since 2004 over 31,000 employees and volunteers in the Diocese of Harrisburg have taken and passed an online course that instructs them in how to recognize child abuse and how to report it to the proper public authorities. Each of those individuals has also been screened with multiple background checks.

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.

Abuse lasted years; victims were paid: Key findings in Altoona diocese child sex abuse case

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

BY IVEY DEJESUS & CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN

ALTOONA – The abuse was rampant, horrific, complicit and concealed, and even at times dismissed by law enforcement officials.

Those are some of the highlights that emerged from a grand jury report that found more than 50 priests and religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown sexually molested hundreds of children over the course of four decades.

The findings of the two-year investigation, announced Tuesday in Blair County by Attorney General Kathleen Kane, provide a graphic account of the abuse of hundreds of boys and girls – the youngest of them 8 years old – dating to the 1950s.

Some of the most damning (and graphic) evidence included in the grand jury report:

The abuse was rampant.

More than 50 priests and religious leaders, including monsignors, were named and implicated among the reams of evidence culled from victim testimony and documents seized from the diocese.

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.

Cardinal George Pell testifies to the child sexual abuse royal commission from Rome, day three – live

ROME
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Tuesday 1 March 2016

Child sexual abuse survivors in Rome to watch Pell’s evidence have called for a global campaign of tying ribbons to fences and letterboxes to show support for abuse victims.

The campaign, called Loud Fence, began in Ballarat, with survivors and their supporters tying thousands of colourful ribbons tied to the fences surrounding Catholic schools and churches in the town.

Following the last round of gruelling hearings in December, the ribbons began cropping up on fences and people have not stopped adding to them since in a show of support for the survivors.

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 grand jury finds widespread sex abuse by priests

PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters

HARRISBURG, PA. | BY DAVID DEKOK

Hundreds of children in western Pennsylvania were sexually assaulted by about 50 Roman Catholic priests over four decades while bishops covered up their actions, according to a state grand jury report released on Tuesday.

The report found that former Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor, Joseph Adamec, who retired in 2011, worked to cover pedophile priests’ tracks and that some local law enforcement agencies also avoided investigating abuse allegations, said state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” Kane told reporters in unveiling the report, based on a two-year investigation. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.”

Revelations that some priests had habitually sexually abused children and that bishops had systematically covered up those crimes burst onto the world stage in 2002 when the Boston Globe reported widespread abuse in the Boston Archdiocese.

That report, which won a Pulitzer Prize and was the subject of last year’s Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” set off a global wave of investigations that found similar patterns at dioceses around the world. They led to hefty lawsuits and seriously undermined the church’s moral authority.

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.

Grand jury report blasts PA bishops; Victims respond

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Another grand jury has found that Catholic officials respond deceitfully to child sex abuse reports. We’re saddened but not the least bit surprised. It proves what we’ve long maintained: that even now, under the guise of “reform,” bishops continue to deceive parishioners and the public about their on-going efforts to hide abuse.

[Post-Gazette]

[Attorney General]

We hope this investigation will prod similar ones across the US.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FINDING IN THIS REPORT: The diocesan review board “is a fact-finding (tool) for litigation, not as a victim service function” (p. 124).

“Nothing has changed but the trappings. . .” and “Victims who believe they’re reporting to an unbiased observers (on a church panel) would be sadly mistaken.”

In other words, a purported “reform” move by bishops – an internal “lay review board” – is actually a self-serving move. Ostensibly set up to help wounded victims, it actually helps church officials.

Catholics, citizens, police and prosecutors should be outraged over this.

Other grand juries, notably on Long Island and Philadelphia, have reached similar conclusions.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that the grand jury found that “as recently as 2005, the Altoona-Johnstown diocese was hiring private investigators to look for ways to undercut the credibility of an alleged abuser.”

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT RECOMMENDATION IN THIS REPORT:

It recommends opening a civil window and abolishing the criminal statute of limitations, so that more victims of child sex crimes can expose and punish those who committed and concealed them and so that more crimes and cover ups can be stopped and deterred in the present and future.

This is a “no-brainer.” Pennsylvania lawmakers should stop being cowed or fooled by slick Catholic lobbyists. For the safety of children, legislators should pass these long-overdue, common sense reforms now.

Other noteworthy facts and findings:

— “the men of God were devils in disguise”

— “Offending priests knew they faced no risk of exposure because Bishop James Hogan and Bishop Joseph Adamec were cover ups” such crimes.

–Bishop Joseph Adamec pled the Fifth when questioned by the grand jury.

— More than 50 child molesting clerics operated in a relatively small diocese in which abuse “was rampant for decades.” (p. 130),

— They were “assisted by priests and bishops who covered up abuse rather than report it.”

— The diocese “sought to protect the image of the institution rather than the children.”

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

MA–Victims blast Boston Cardinal over “posturing”

MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 1

Statement by Ann Webb, former co-director of Boston SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (annhaganwebb@gmail.com)

It’s so tiresome watching Cardinal Sean O’Malley posture about clergy sex crime and cover ups

. The latest example: his comments today about Spotlight. By shrewdly using words like “historical” and “forgiveness,” he perpetuates the comforting but irresponsible myth that most of this is “in the past,” when he knows that’s just not true.

[Boston Pilot]

[ABC News]

Months ago, we urged O’Malley to tell all Catholic employees to go see “Spotlight.” As best we can tell, he ignored us. He’d obviously rather posture for the public in meaningless ways rather than advise his parishioners in helpful ways.

No one ever asks “Do teachers still molest kids?” Or day care workers. Or Scout leaders. We know child molesters always have and always will seek out those jobs. It’s the same with priests.

O’Malley knows that last month, Vatican officials lifted the suspension of a priest who pled guilty to molesting a girl last year. (Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul)

O’Malley knows that in January, two US bishops who’d resigned for hiding child sex crimes were quietly put back on the job in different states. (Bishop Robert Finn and Archbishop John Nienstedt)

O’Malley knows that seven year old girls and 12 year old boys don’t ride their bikes downtown to the prosecutors’ office to report current child sex crimes. There always has been and always will be decades of delay between when child sex crimes happen and when they’re reported. So years from now, we’ll hear from the kids being assaulted today by priests. It’s silly to assume otherwise.

O’Malley knows that last month, a high-ranking Catholic official told bishops in Rome they need not report child sex crimes to police.

O’Malley knows that no bishop on earth has been defrocked, demoted or disciplined for enabling child sex crimes.

Yet instead of aggressively prodding his colleagues to reform, and denouncing those who won’t, he insists on repeating platitudes that comfort adults (“Protecting children must be a priority in the Church”) instead of taking action that protects kids.

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.

Ex-priest in prison for sexually assaulting altar boys dies

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Craig Turpin | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

John Banko, a former Hunterdon County and Somerset County priest serving 41 years for sexually assaulting two altar boys, died Monday at the New Jersey Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

Matt Schuman, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, confirmed to mycentraljersey.com that Banko, 69, was pronounced dead at 9:29 a.m. Monday.

Banko is a former Catholic priest who was convicted in 2008 of sexually assaulting a young boy at St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Milford. He was previously convicted of assaulting another boy at the same church, and was also accused of assaulting boys at other churches dating back to the 1970s, it was previously reported by NJ Advance Media. Banko maintained his innocence throughout the trial and an appeal.

The victim testified when he was between the ages of 9 and 10 he was assaulted several times in the church bathroom and threatened by Banko to tell no one. The boy reported the abuse to his mother in 2005 after suffering depression for years.

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.

Cardinal shielded paedophile priests

ROME/AUSTRALIA
IOL (South Africa)

By: AFP

Sydney – Evidence is emerging that Australian Cardinal George Pell covered up the sexual abuse of children by priests on his watch, survivors told AFP on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a hearing into the top Vatican official’s culpability.

“We’re starting to see solid evidence that he did cover it up, even though he’ll still deny it,” said Anthony Foster, father to two girls who were abused, one of whom went on to commit suicide while the other ended up in full-time care.

Vatican finance chief Pell has been giving evidence from a hotel in Rome via video-link to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney, under the watchful gaze of abuse victims.

“We hear stories from victims, and what has happened as the Royal Commission has progressed, those stories have been confirmed with solid evidence,” said Foster, who travelled to Rome with his wife for the four-day hearings.

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.

‘Staggering’ abuse cover-up in Altoona-Johnstown Catholic diocese, grand jury says

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

March 1, 2016

By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ALTOONA, Pa. ­ Hundreds of children were molested, raped and destined to lasting psychological trauma by at least 50 priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown across half a century, a state grand jury has found in denouncing coverups orchestrated by two bishops and enabled by the law enforcement officials they controlled.

The conspiracy amounted to “soul murder,” said the report by the 37th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, released today nearly two years after the grand jury was impaneled.

At a press conference here this morning, Attorney General Kathleen Kane said that horrendous acts of abuse were committed by priests, and called it a ”day of reckoning.”

The report said no one could be charged for the crimes it detailed, either because they happened too long ago under the statute of limitations for such prosecutions, a time limit that the report recommends be extended, or because of witness trauma.

“These findings are both staggering and sobering,” said the report. “Over many years hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators wrapped in the authority and integrity of an honorable faith. As wolves disguised as the shepherds themselves ­ these men stole the innocence of children by sexually preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable…. ”

The two previous bishops leading the diocese ­ James Hogan, who served from 1966 to 1986 and died in 2005, and Joseph Adamec, who served from 1987 to 2011 and is now retired ­ “took actions that further endangered children as they placed their desire to avoid public scandal over the wellbeing of innocent children,” the report said. “Priests were returned to ministry with full knowledge they were child predators.”

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown issued a statement responding to the report, noting that it had “cooperated fully with authorities throughout the investigation, and will continue to do so as part of our commitment to the safety of all children.”

“This is a painful and difficult time in our Diocesan Church,” said the Most Rev. Mark L. Bartchak, Bishop of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. “I deeply regret any harm that has come to children, and I urge the faithful to join me in praying for all victims of abuse.”

The report includes extensive testimony from a key aide to Bishop Hogan, Monsignor Philip Saylor, who said a Blair County president judge, sheriff and other law-enforcement officers deferred to the diocese to let it handle investigations of abusive priests, rather than prosecuting them. And Monsignor Saylor said a mayor of Johnstown sent candidates for police and fire chief to him for interviews, and he would tell the mayor whom to pick. “That happened in Johnstown and Altoona,” he said.

The grand jury report quoted former Altoona Police Chief Peter Starr as crediting his own appointment to such arrangements and saying that the “politicians of Blair County were afraid of Monsignor Saylor” given his role as editor of the diocesan newspaper.

With such influence, “Hogan saw no obligation of faith or law to the children of his parishioners,” the grand jury report said.

The report added that even a diocesan review board, impaneled amid growing public outrage over sexual abuse by priests, often turned into a travesty, with investigations focusing not on the accused but on those reporting abuse by priests. In one case, the review board sought gynecological records of a survivor, the report said.

And in another case, a top diocesan official suggested to an abuse victim, himself now a priest, that he could be excommunicated for suing the church ­ before the official admitted he was reading from an expired canon in church law and that this couldn’t happen. But, the priest said, he felt he was being threatened with hell to intimidate him.

The report excoriated Bishop Adamec for the diocese’s 1992 statement regarding the dismissal of a lawsuit involving the Rev. Francis Luddy, whom the diocese knew molested, sodomized and performed oral sex on at least 10 children.

The diocese called the lawsuit “frivolous” even while Adamec knew “with certainty that Francis Luddy had admitted to molesting the very children for whom the bishop bore the most responsibility.”

The report added: “The grand jury notes that the chilling impact of such a victory lap on the victims of child abuse throughout the diocese is incalculable.”

The grand jury investigation began with a referral by the Cambria County district attorney’s office to the state Office of the Attorney General regarding alleged abuse at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown.

The grand jury probe expanded into a sweeping look at abuse dating as far back as the 1940s. A dramatic highlight of the investigation came in August 2015 when investigators executed a search warrant at diocesan offices in Altoona and seized 115,000 documents, many from filing cabinets and safes where the most sensitive church documents were kept.

Reports of many of the alleged abusers have appeared in various media over the past two decades, with the grand jury singling out extensive investigations by Johnstown’s Tribune-Democrat in 2002 and 2003.

Ms. Kane also cited “heroic” whistleblower George Foster, a layman who exposed Altoona-Johnstown priest abuse, during the press conference.

That was in the wake of Boston Globe investigations, recently dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” into the shocking levels of abuse and coverup in the Archdiocese of Boston. That investigation led to revelations of similar coverups worldwide and to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas mandating on June 14, 2002 the removal of any priest from ministry who committed even a single act of abuse.

Yet the ink was barely dry on that new policy when Bishop Adamec met with the victim of a Rev. Martin Cingle, who had groped the genitals of the then-15-year-old boy while sleeping next to the boy on a trip he had taken him on. Bishop Adamec then met with Father Cingle, who denied remembering such an event, then sent the priest for what the grand jury said was a travesty of a psychological review. With the review inconclusive, Adamec returned the priest to ministry, where he remained until Cingle admitted to the grand jury under threat of a perjury charge that he had molested the boy.

After that, Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye wrote to current Bishop Bartchak, who agreed to his request to remove Father Cingle immediately from ministry.

And although the Dallas scandal mandated the creation of review boards, the grand jury report noted that as late as 2005, the Altoona-Johnstown diocese was hiring private investigators to look for ways to undercut the credibility of an alleged accuser.

Ms. Kane called for the abolition of statute of limitations on child sexual abuse for criminal and civil cases, one of the recommendations from the grand jury.

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Sandusky victim’s lawyer finds Altoona-Johnstown Diocese sex-abuse cases, ‘horrific,’ yet not surprising

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Steve Marroni | smarroni@pennlive.com

It’s difficult for a victim to come forward.

And while it might be the toughest thing in the world for someone to do, reporting the sexual abuse of clergy to the authorities can help prevent other young people from being victimized.

That’s part of the message state Attorney General Kathleen Kane relayed from a grand jury investigation into hundreds of cases of children being sexually abused and raped by more than 50 Roman Catholic priests and religious leaders in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown over 40 years.

And that’s also what an attorney who represented a Jerry Sandusky victim, as well as other children in other clergy sexual abuse cases, had to say following Kane’s announcement on Tuesday in Blair County.

“The advice I would have is to come forward to help prevent this despicable behavior from victimizing other people who are younger or more vulnerable,” said attorney Michael Boni.

And David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is hoping this will encourage anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to come forward, as well.

But from working with many victims over the years, both know this is no easy task.

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Harrisburg Diocese ‘saddened and shocked’ by report on Altoona-Johnstown clergy sex abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Steve Marroni | smarroni@pennlive.com

As the state attorney general released a grand-jury report detailing four decades of sexual abuse at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, local church officials say they are “sad and shocked” and are asking for prayers for all of the victims.

“The sexual abuse of minors is an appalling sin and a crime,” Diocese of Harrisburg spokesman Joseph Aponick said Tuesday. “That is why the Diocese of Harrisburg has made strong and aggressive steps to combat it.”

And at the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, church officials are saying they cooperated fully with the investigation and will continue to do their part to protect children.

Hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of 40 years by priests or church leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, a grand jury investigation has concluded.

“This is a painful and difficult time in our Diocesan Church,” Bishop Mark L. Bartchak said in a statement released Tuesday. “I deeply regret any harm that has come to children, and I urge the faithful to join me in praying for the victims of abuse.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday released a grand jury report containing information about many cases of children being sexually abused and raped by more than 50 Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown priests and religious leaders over 40 years.

The report calls for reforms, such as abolishing the statute of limitations for sexual offenses against minors and urging the state General Assembly to suspend the civil statute of limitations on sexual-abuse claims.

In the press release issued by the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, spokesman Tony DeGol said the diocese’s youth protection policy calls for mandatory reporting for all abuse allegations to civil authorities. It also requires criminal background checks and education for clergy, employees and volunteers who work with children.

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New hotline set up for victims of Altoona-Johnstown priest sex abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com

ALTOONA — If you have information about sexual abuse by a priest or religious leader in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office wants to hear from you.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Tuesday that a new hotline has been created for victims of the sexual abuse and rapes committed by leaders in the diocese. The hotline comes amid the release of a grand jury report documenting the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by diocese priests and religious leaders over 40 years.

Kane said the hotline — 888-538-8541 — will be staffed by attorney general agents or attorneys fluent in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese abuse case.

“We will be able to answer phones until about 9 p.m.,” Kane said. “We know people have jobs, we know that they have families now and we’re trying to accommodate [them at that time] for that reason.”

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Key findings of investigation into sexual abuse in Altoona Diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

WRITTEN BY IVEY DEJESUS AND CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN

ALTOONA – The abuse was rampant, horrific, complicit and concealed, and even at times dismissed by law enforcement officials.

Those are some of the highlights that emerged from a grand jury report that found more than 50 priests and religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown sexually molested hundreds of children over the course of four decades.

The findings of the two-year investigation, announced Tuesday in Blair County by Attorney General Kathleen Kane, provide a graphic account of the abuse of hundreds of boys and girls – the youngest of them eight years old – dating back to the 1950s.

Below are some of the most damning (and graphic) evidence included in the grand jury report:

The abuse was rampant.

More than 50 priests and religious leaders, including monsignors, were named and implicated among the reams of evidence culled from victim testimony and documents seized from the diocese.

Investigators found that priests molested children in church sacristies, rectories, basements and confessionals; schools, including St. Patrick’s in Newry, orphanages, including St. Mary’s in Cresson; boy’s locker rooms, retreat cabins, hospitals, including the Altoona Hospital; St. Francis Seminary; the children’s homes, cars.

One priest, William Rosensteel, would take the boys on trips to Canada and Pittsburgh. The priest would pick one boy to sleep in his bed and engage in “passionate deep throat tongue kisses” and fondle their genitals, according to the grand jury report.

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A Report of the Thirty-Seventh Statewide Investigating Grand Jury

PENNSYLVANIA
Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane

SECTION VII
CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The Grand Jury finds the acts of the predator priests and their enabling Bishops detailed in this rep01i to be criminal. However, they cannot be prosecuted at this time.

The statute of limitations for many of the loathsome and criminal actions detailed in this report has expired. In some limited cases the unnamed victim or victims are too deeply traumatized to testify in a court of law.

There is no applicable legal provision which would apply to religious ministers or church officials to permit the extension of the statute of limitations. Many of the accused are dead; answerable now only to a higher authority.

Pennsylvania law has changed since many of these offenses occurred. Some penalties have increased, some charging periods extended. The Grand Jilly finds additional legislative action is required.

Abolish the statute of limitation for sexual offenses against minors.

The Grand Jury recognizes this recommendation is not new. Victin1 advocates and previous grand juries have recommended such action. However this Grand Jury again recognizes a terrible fact. Child predators will offend on children, consume their innocence and escape justice until there can be no temporal escape from their crimes.

This repo1i detailed an account of a 70-year-old victim who came forward to report the devastating trauma of their youth. The victims of child sexual abuse never escape their victimization; it is inequitable and unjust to allow their victimizers to escape accountability.

Open a window to allow child sexual abuse victims to have their civil actions heard.

The ·Grand Jury recommends that the Pennsylvania legislature suspend the civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims for a designated and fmite period of years.

This relief would allow adults who were victims of child sexual abuse to have their cases heard in a court oflaw. The statute oflimitations in effect leaves insufficient time to seek relief for crimes that are inherently undeneported or are delayed in reportin.

The Grand Jury took testimony and reviewed evidence which showed many of the child sexual abuse victims who sought relief from the Allegation Review Board alleged conduct which was beyond the civil statute oflimitations. The lives of child abuse victims are pe1manently altered by their assaults; they deserve to. be made whole.

Organizations which have a history of secrecy in regards to child abuse allegations will consider meaningful refo1m when their failures have financial cost.

Victims deserve the opportunity to seek a full and fair settlement, not as one Church official stated, “settle for what they can get.”

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“Spotlight” Shines Brighter, Wins Best Feature Oscar!

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Well. This is amazing news to have awakened to this morning. Even as His Eminence Cardinal George Pell was saying the following in Rome after his security guards had strongarmed Australian journalists,*

I can’t remember
I’m struggling to remember
I can’t clearly recall
I have no clear recollection of my knowing
It’s difficult to answer that absolutely
My memory is not infallible,

“Spotlight” was winning the coveted top-picture Oscar, and its producer Michael Sugar was telling the world,

This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican. Pope Francis, it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith.

Talk about prophetic juxtaposition! As if the Cardinal Pells of the church are precisely what Pope Francis needs to restore the faith from — as if they have so brutally and sinfully betrayed the faith that it can be restored only by removing such men from the center of the church, and building it anew on a sounder basis, one that, can we possibly dream it?, might include women at the center, and which would actively welcome survivors and what they have to tell us about their experience of the church.

Poor Cardinal Pell can’t remember. And yet remembering is front and center in the Christian tradition, since Jesus enjoined his followers to break bread and share cups of wine in memory of him. He enjoined his disciples quite precisely to pass memory on as a living and not a dead thing — not to forget; always to remember; to find him and the entire significance of his life in bread that’s broken and wine that’s poured out.

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Grand jury: Hundreds of children abused by priests in Pa. diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

ALTOONA, Pa. (WHTM) – A grand jury says priests assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown sexually abused hundreds of children for at least 40 years.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced the grand jury’s findings on Tuesday. She said the widespread abuse involved at least 50 priests and other religious leaders.

The grand jury’s 147-page report further alleges that two bishops concealed the abuse to protect the church’s image, allowing the crimes to continue for decades.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” Kane said at a news conference. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.

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Priests abused hundreds of kids in Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, report says

PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Philly

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

ALTOONA, Pa. (CNS) — Hundreds of children were sexually abused over at least 40 years by priests and other religious leaders in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, a statewide grand jury found.

At least 50 priests or religious leaders were involved in the abuse and diocesan leaders systematically concealed the abuse to protect the church’s image, according to a grand jury report released March 1 by Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane.

The report identifies priests and other leaders by name and details incidents going back to the 1970s. Kane said that much of the evidence revealed in the report came from secret archives maintained by the diocese that was only available to the bishops who led the diocese over the decades.

Victims also testified to the grand jury, which was convened by Kane in early 2014 after local law enforcement officials and district attorneys of several counties approached her office with information about the abuse.

Kane said during a 75-minute press briefing that the investigation was continuing. She said that the actions of law enforcement also are part of the investigation.

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Grand jury calls priest abuse in Altoona “Soul Murder”

PENNSYLVANIA
Your Erie

Altoona, PA

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a scathing grand jury presentment that outlines hundreds of incidents of abuse of children by Catholic priests in the Altoona and Johnstown area over the past 50 years.

That report outlines what was called a conspiracy by priests, two bishops and some members of law enforcement to hide the extent of the damage by at least 50 priests over 50 years. The allegations involve hundreds of children during that time.

Members of the grand jury admit that no charges can be brought in the case because of the time that has lapsed but the report called the abuse both “staggering and sobering.”

Attorney General Kane called the releasing of the report “a day of reckoning.”

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Pervasive sex abuse by priests found in Altoona-Johnstown area

PENNSYLVANIA
Sharon Herald

By DAVE SUTOR | CNHI News Service

ALTOONA – At least 50 priests and religious leaders from the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese in western Pennsylvania sexually abused hundreds of children since the 1950s, a state grand jury report has concluded.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane released the 147-page report Tuesday at a news conference. She described the findings as “heinous crimes” that were “absolutely unconscionable.”

The grand jury investigated sexual abuse in the diocese for two years in response to complaints. It said the inquiry concluded the findings were “both staggering and sobering,” disclosing a “dark and disturbing history.”

The diocese covers eight counties and 89 parishes. They serve more than 94,000 Catholics in the region.

The Pennsylvania grand jury report comes 12 years after the Boston Globe disclosed widespread abuse by pedophile priests in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The scandal, which spread to many Catholic parishes in the U.S. and elsewhere, was portrayed in the recent popular movie “Spotlight,” a winner on Sunday of Academy Awards for best picture and best original screenplay.

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The Latest: Diocese says it ‘regrets’ harm to abused kids

PENNSYLVANIA
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on a clergy abuse scandal in Pennsylvania (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

The bishop of a Roman Catholic diocese in central Pennsylvania says it’s a painful time for the church following revelations of 40 years of sexual abuse by diocesan priests and other religious leaders.

A grand jury report issued Tuesday claims two previous bishops in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children going back to the 1960s.

The current bishop, Mark Bartchak, issued a statement saying he deeply regrets “any harm that has come to children.”

He says the diocese will continue cooperating with authorities.

He did not comment specifically on the report’s findings. He says the diocese is reviewing it.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says one of the grand jury’s most significant findings was that a diocesan review board was not focused on helping victims.

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Grand jury reports finds Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec covered up hundreds of abuse cases in Pennsylvania

PENNSYLVANIA
news.com.au (Australia)

TWO Roman Catholic bishops who led a Pennsylvania diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over 50 priests or religious leaders over a 40-year period, according to a grand jury report issued Tuesday.

The report on the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese was based partly on evidence from a secret diocesan archive uncovered through a search warrant executed last year, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe,” Ms Kane said in a statement.

No criminal charges are being filed because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatised to testify, she said.

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How the lights almost went dark on Oscar winner ‘Spotlight’

UNITED STATES
Chicago Tribune

Christopher Palmeri
2016, Bloomberg

The newspaper drama “Spotlight” pulled off a surprise win over frontier saga “The Revenant” for best picture honors at the Academy Awards Sunday night. The bigger plot twist, though, may be that the film ever made it into theaters in the first place.

The back story of how the movie got done shows the perilous and often winding road films without obvious commercial appeal face and the crucial role independent financiers can play in keeping such projects going forward. “Spotlight” had the added challenge about covering a topic that could make audiences squeamish — the cover-up of a pedophilia scandal in the Catholic church.

“It wasn’t ever going to be a movie for the big studios,” said Jonathan King, an executive at Participant Media, which backed the film. “Major studios are interested in ‘Deadpool,'” he said, referring to the 21st Century Fox Inc. superhero film that has led the U.S. box office for the past three weekends. “That’s their business model.”

A critically acclaimed film like “Spotlight,” which had already won several honors before its victory on Oscar night, can produce returns for its investors. The movie. which cost $20 million to make, has taken in $61.8 million worldwide since its release in November, according to Box Office Mojo. Last year’s winner “Birdman” cost $18 million to make and ended up with $103 million in box office returns. Box office receipts must be split with theaters, and movie budgets don’t include expenses for marketing.

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Spotlight on ‘Spotlight’

VERMONT
Times-Argus

Editorial

The movies have been paying attention to the news business lately, and now the Best Picture Oscar has gone to “Spotlight,” which chronicles The Boston Globe’s successful efforts to report on widespread sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and the pervasive cover-up by high officials of the church, including Cardinal Bernard Law.

It is one of the best newspaper movies in recent years, underscoring the importance of aggressive and thorough investigative reporting as a means of holding to account people in power who are guilty of crimes and other abuses. Journalists everywhere ought to enjoy a morale boost from the movie, but also by the success of the Globe in pursuing its series back in the early 2000s.

These are not easy days for the media. The Republican primary has become a noxious swamp, and yet it is the press’s job to report the lies, bigoted statements, scapegoating, mudslinging and playground provocations that have become the norm for Republican candidates. The media are tainted by association.

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Oscar-winning ‘Spotlight’ through Filipino eyes

PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By: Boying Pimentel
@inquirerdotnet

The movie “Spotlight,” which just won this year’s Oscar for best picture, had a short run and did not get much attention in Manila, according to a friend.

That’s unfortunate.

“Spotlight” is a powerful, engrossing film that’s so relevant to Filipinos, on two levels.
The movie dramatizes how a team of Boston Globe reporters exposed the way the Catholic Church systematically covered up the way hundreds of priests abused children.

The investigative report had a global impact as the movie noted at the end. Before the final credits roll, the film lists the cities, towns and countries where priests were later exposed for abusing children. The Philippines is one of them.

This isn’t news.

When the Boston Globe broke the story in 2002, it quickly triggered investigations in other countries, including the Philippines. That year, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines acknowledged that hundreds of its priest may have been guilty of “sexual misconduct,” including child abuse, over the past 20 years.

The controversy just kept getting bigger.

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Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley Recognizes ‘Impact’ of ‘Spotlight’

UNITED STATES
ABC News

By MICHAEL ROTHMAN
Mar 1, 2016

After “Spotlight” took home the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, who currently serves as the Archbishop of Boston, addressed the impact he believes the film and its real-life investigation have had on the Catholic Church and the victims of abuse.

O’Malley called “Spotlight” an important film “for all impacted by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse.”

He then addressed the real story behind the movie, the investigation by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team and the articles that were published, starting in 2002, that broke the story wide open and raised awareness about the abuse all over the world. In the film, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and others portray the Spotlight team and show how the team was able to expose what Cardinal O’Malley admits were “crimes” against children.

“By providing in-depth reporting on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the media led the Church to acknowledge the crimes and sins of its personnel and to begin to address its failings, the harm done to victims and their families and the needs of survivors,” the Cardinal said in a statement to ABC News. “In a democracy such as ours, journalism is essential to our way of life. The media’s role in revealing the sexual abuse crisis opened a door through which the Church has walked in responding to the needs of survivors.”

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March 1, 2016 – Statement of Cardinal Seán

MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Spotlight is an important film for all impacted by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse. By providing in-depth reporting on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the media led the Church to acknowledge the crimes and sins of its personnel and to begin to address its failings, the harm done to victims and their families and the needs of survivors. In a democracy such as ours, journalism is essential to our way of life. The media’s role in revealing the sexual abuse crisis opened a door through which the Church has walked in responding to the needs of survivors.

Protecting children and providing support for survivors and their families must be a priority in all aspects of the life of the Church.

We are committed to vigilant implementation of policies and procedures for preventing the recurrence of the tragedy of the abuse of children. These include comprehensive child safety education programs, mandatory background checks and safe environments training, mandatory reporting to and cooperating with civil authorities with regard to allegations of abuse, and caring for survivors and their families through the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach. The Archdiocese consistently provides counselling and medical services for survivors and family members who seek our help and we remain steadfast in that commitment. We continue to seek the forgiveness of all who have been harmed by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse and pray that each day the Lord may guide us on the path toward healing and renewal.

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Cardinal O’Malley praises media in statement on ‘Spotlight’

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston.com

By Dialynn Dwyer @dia_dwyer
Boston.com Staff | 03.01.16

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley praised the media for its role in leading the church to acknowledge systemic sexual abuse by priests in a statement released Tuesday on the importance of the film Spotlight. The film, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday, chronicles the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by reporters for The Boston Globe that ultimately exposed the abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church.

The archbishop of Boston didn’t mention the paper by name or reference the film’s awards in the statement posted to the Archdiocese website:

Spotlight is an important film for all impacted by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse. By providing in-depth reporting on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the media led the Church to acknowledge the crimes and sins of its personnel and to begin to address its failings, the harm done to victims and their families and the needs of survivors. In a democracy such as ours, journalism is essential to our way of life. The media’s role in revealing the sexual abuse crisis opened a door through which the Church has walked in responding to the needs of survivors.

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Kane: Hundreds victimized over 40 years in Altoona-Johnstown diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
Centre Daily Times

BY LORI FALCE
lfalce@centredaily.com

Forty years of abuse was brought to light Tuesday as Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane gave a news conference to announce the results of “major investigation” of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Kane released the results of the 37th statewide investigating grand jury, a report that showed a pattern of not just abuse but the cover-up of actions by more than 50 priests and other religious leaders.

Among those was the Rev. Martin Cingle, a former priest at Our Lady of Victory in State College, the Rev. Robert Kelly, last posted to Philipsburg’s Sts. Peter and Paul Parish and others.

“Today is not the day that I stand up here and announce that charges have been filed against individuals who have committed the worst sins against children … Today is not the day that the victims get to go into a courtroom into a public courtroom and tell the story … Today is not that day. Today is the day of reckoning though,” Kane said.

“Today is the day the Office of the Attorney General steps in and tells the stories the victims of abuse cannot tell themselves,” she said. “Today is the day we tell exactly what happened in Pennsylvania.”

The released grand jury information detailed a long list of priests and others committing acts from fondling to oral sex to anal rape on boys and girls, as well as other behavior like providing alcohol.

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Grand Jury: Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Hid Sexual Abuse Of Children

PENNSYLVANIA
WPSU

By MARY WILSON

A statewide grand jury has found that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown concealed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children at the hands of priests and religious leaders for decades, giving known child molesters the chance to prey on additional victims.

In a presentment released by the state attorney general’s office Tuesday, the grand jury indicated two former bishops, the late James Hogan and retired bishop Joseph Adamec, as being “at the forefront” of a cover-up of abuse allegations. However, the grand jury says the crimes discovered cannot be prosecuted due to a combination of factors: the alleged abusers have died, the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse crimes has expired, and victims are unable to testify.

The grand jury is calling for state lawmakers to scrub the statute of limitations on child sex abuse offenses and to suspend the statute of limitations for civil sexual abuse claims.

The Altoona-Johnstown diocese did not immediately have a comment in response to the grand jury’s findings.

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 Catholic diocese covered up decades worth of child abuse, grand jury report finds

PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Steve Esack
Call Harrisburg Bureau

Pennsylvania Catholic diocese covered up decades worth of child abuse, grand jury report finds.
Two bishops who ran a Catholic diocese in western Pennsylvania systematically covered up decades worth of child abuse committed by priests and other religious leaders they supervised, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday by the state attorney general’s office.

The statewide grand jury investigation, which started in 2014 with a referral from the Cambria County District Attorney’s office, discovered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown kept a secret archive detailing hundreds of abuse claims against 50 priests and other religious leaders since the mid-1960s, the attorney general says.

The archive stretched from the mid-1960s to 2011 and included Bishop James Hogan’s notes on the abuse claims and letters and other documents sent to Bishop Joseph Adamec. Both bishops also intervened to stop law enforcement investigations over the years, the grand jury report found.

But no criminal charges can be filed against anyone, Attorney General Kathleen Kane said at a news conference, because the statute of limitations has run out, abusers have died and victims are fearful of testifying in open court.

The grand jury report, Kane said, recommends the state Legislature lift the statute of limitations on when child abuse claims can be filed.

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AG Kane Reveals Results of Church Investigation

PENNSYLVANIA
PA Homepage

ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane is revealing details on a case she says goes back forty years involving priests sexually abusing children, and the church covering it up…

Kane called this a day of reckoning.

She says more than 50 priests in the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown committed what she calls horrendous acts on hundreds of children.

Kane also says the diocese leadership failed to protect children.

Officials allege bishops tried to cover up the sexual assaults that happened in camp sites, foster homes, orphanages even a cathedral.

We are following this story and will have much more on upcoming editions of Eyewitness News.

Attorney General Kane: Press Release- NOTE: Graphic Content

ALTOONA — A statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s office announced today.

The widespread abuse involved at least 50 priests or religious leaders. Evidence and testimony reviewed by the grand jury also revealed a troubling history of superiors within the Diocese taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image. The grand jury, in a 147-page report made public today, stressed this conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed proven child predators to abuse additional victims.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Kane, who addressed the media this morning at a news conference at the Blair County Convention Center. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.

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.

Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown officials covered up the rapes of hundreds of children: grand jury report

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com

ALTOONA — A two-year grand jury investigation has revealed the depths reached by leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown to cover up the rape and sexual abuse of hundreds of children.

Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced the findings of the grand jury investigation Tuesday in Altoona. The investigation found that dozens priests and religious leaders with the diocese sexually abused or raped hundreds of children.

The results of a state grand jury investigation released Tuesday found that hundreds of children were sexually abused and raped by diocese priests and religious leaders over the past 40 years.

While PennLive digs deeper into the 147-page grand jury report, here are some highlights:

* More than 50 priests and religious leaders within the diocese were involved in the rapes and sexual assaults.
* The earliest abuse case took place 40 years ago.
* The bishop kept a “secret archive” of files on abuse incidents.
* Diocese officials used their power and influence to keep incidents of abuse from being investigated.
* Diocese officials claim to have used their power to handpick public officials — including mayors and police chiefs.

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Cardinal O’Malley lauds role ‘Spotlight’ played in exposing clergy sex abuse

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kathy McCabe GLOBE STAFF MARCH 01, 2016

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley praised the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” for showing the critical role investigative journalism played in exposing the clergy sex abuse crisis that shook the Roman Catholic church to its core.

“Spotlight is an important film for all impacted by the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse,” O’Malley said in a statement released Tuesday, two days after the movie about The Boston Globe’s groundbreaking coverage of the clergy sex abuse crisis won the Oscar for Best Picture. “By providing in-depth reporting on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the media led the Church to acknowledge the crimes and sins of its personnel and to begin to address its failings, the harm done to victims and their families and the needs of survivors.”

O’Malley did not mention the Globe in his statement, nor did he acknowledge the film winning the top prize at Sunday’s Oscar ceremony in Hollywood.

He added, “In a democracy such as ours, journalism is essential to our way of life. The media’s role in revealing the sexual abuse crisis opened a door through which the Church has walked in responding to the needs of survivors.”

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Kane: Children Abused by Priests in Altoona-Johnstown Diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

MARCH 1, 2016, BY DAVE BOHMAN

ALTOONA — A grand jury investigation found that hundreds of children were abused by priests in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnston, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Tuesday.

Some of the alleged abuse took place in parishes in Clinton and Centre Counties, the report from the attorney general said.

Thousands of pages of documents and hand-written reports were seized from the diocese during the investigation.

Kane is urging lawmakers to suspend the statute of limitations in order to prosecute some of the alleged crimes.

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Grand jury says Altoona-Johnstown priests sexually abused hundreds of children over decades

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY BRAD BUMSTED AND DEBRA ERDLEY | Tuesday, March 1, 2016

ALTOONA – Hundreds of children were sexually abused over four decades by at least 50 priests or religious leaders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, according to a statewide investigative grand jury report released Tuesday morning.

Clergy leaders allowed the abuse to continue by concealing it to protect the institution’s image, the grand jury alleged.

But none of the priests or supervisors were charged by the attorney general’s office, which supervised the two-year investigation. They could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations for the crimes expired, some of the priests died and some victims are too “deeply traumatized” to testify, the attorney general’s office said.

“As wolves disguised as the shepherds themselves – these men stole the innocence of children by sexually preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society and of the Catholic faith,” the grand jury report said.

Decrying “a cover up perpetrated by clergy leaders” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said the investigation is ongoing. “This is by no means the end of our investigation. We will continue to look at this matter and consider charges where appropriate, which is why it is important for those with information to come forward.”

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‘Predator priests’: 50-plus Altoona-Johnstown Catholic leaders involved in widespread sexual abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com

Allegations of rape, abuse and coverups have trickled out of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown for decades.

On Tuesday, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced that a statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of 40 years. At least 50 priests or religious leaders had been involved in sexual abuses, she said.

Evidence and testimony gathered by the grand jury revealed a history of diocese superiors taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image.

Bishop-Accountability.org collects news reports of priests and religious leaders that have been suspended from duty, named in a lawsuit or investigated on allegations of sexual abuse.

The nonprofit organization has a list of dozens of priests and religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown that have been named in media reports as being accused of sexually abusing children.

Here are 28 priests named on the website against whom claims or successful lawsuits were filed, according to media reports. The inclusion of the priests in the list below does not necessarily mean they were found guilty of criminal charges.

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AG Kane: Central Pa. diocese covered up widespread child abuse for decades

PENNSYLVANIA
Metro

After a two year investigation, attorney general Kathleen Kane announced that she discovered caes of hundreds of young victims being abused by priests in the Altoona-Johsntown diocese — but cannot bring criminal charges against any of the alleged predators.

The conduct by priests that Kane’s office discovered was “monstrous,” she said at a Tuesday morning press conference, where Kane announced at a press conference that her office discovered church leadership labored to protect abusive priests from consequences for their actions for years.

Allegations range from anal rape of teenage boys inside the rectory at St. Agnes Church in Lock Haven to a 16-year-old girl in foster care being sexually abused by a priest — and then being blamed for seducing the priest.

“Hundreds of children have fallen victim to child predators wrapped in the authority and the faith of those that they served,” Kane said Tuesday. “This abuse lasted for four decades. Not only was it covered up, priests were moved around … to avoid further scandal.”

None of the allegations will lead to criminal charges, Kane said.

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Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown’s disturbing history of sexual abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com

The legacy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown now will include countless stories of child sexual abuse, broken trust and millions of dollars paid for the sins of religious leaders.

The results of a state grand jury investigation released Tuesday found that hundreds of children were sexually abused and raped by diocese priests and religious leaders over the past 40 years. The widespread acts of abuse were perpetrated by more than 50 priests and religious leaders.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Tuesday in Blair County.

“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.”

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Grand jury: Hundreds of children sexually abused by priests in Altoona-Johnstown diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
Fox 43

MARCH 1, 2016, BY VALERIE WALTZ

ALTOONA, Pa. — A statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s office announced today.

The widespread abuse involved at least 50 priests or religious leaders. Evidence and testimony reviewed by the grand jury also revealed a troubling history of superiors within the Diocese taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image. The grand jury, in a 147-page report made public today, stressed this conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed proven child predators to abuse additional victims.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Kane, who addressed the media this morning at a news conference at the Blair County Convention Center.
“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.

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2 Pennsylvania Bishops Hidebuse of Hundreds of Children: Grand Jury

PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

By Joe Mandak

Two Roman Catholic bishops who led a central Pennsylvania diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over 50 priests or religious leaders over a 40-year period, according to a grand jury report issued Tuesday.

The 147-page report on sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese was based partly on evidence from a secret diocesan archive uncovered through a search warrant executed in August, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who announced the findings.

“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe,” Kane said in a statement. “Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades.”

No criminal charges are being filed in the case because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatized to testify, she said.

The report is especially critical of Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec. Hogan, who headed the diocese from 1966 to 1986, died in 2005. Adamec, who succeeded him, retired in 2011.

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Grand jury: Hundreds of children sexually abused by priests in Altoona-Johnstown diocese

PENNSYLVANIA
Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane

3/1/2016

Editor’s note : The following news release contains graphic content related to the sexual abuse of children.

ALTOONA — A statewide investigating grand jury has determined that hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least 40 years by priests or religious leaders assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s office announced today.

The widespread abuse involved at least 50 priests or religious leaders. Evidence and testimony reviewed by the grand jury also revealed a troubling history of superiors within the Diocese taking action to conceal the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the institution’s image. The grand jury, in a 147-page report made public today, stressed this conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed proven child predators to abuse additional victims.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” said Kane, who addressed the media this morning at a news conference at the Blair County Convention Center. “These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.

“Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades,” Kane added. “They failed in our society’s most important task of protecting our children.”

The grand jury’s findings followed two years of exhaustive investigation by the Office of Attorney General, which brought this matter to the grand jury in April 2014. While Attorney General Kane stressed the investigation is ongoing, none of the criminal acts detailed in the grand jury report can be prosecuted. This is due to the deaths of alleged abusers, deeply traumatized victims being unable to testify in a court of law and the statute of limitations for the crimes being exhausted.

As a result, the grand jury in its report made a series of recommendations, such as abolishing the statute of limitations for sexual offenses against minors and urging the state General Assembly to suspend the civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims.

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Grand Jury: 2 Bishops Hid Sex Abuse of Hundreds of Children

PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

By JOE MANDAK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALTOONA, Pa. — Mar 1, 2016

Two Roman Catholic bishops who led a central Pennsylvania diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by over 50 priests or religious leaders over a 40-year period, according to a grand jury report issued Tuesday.

The 147-page report on sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese was based partly on evidence from a secret diocesan archive uncovered through a search warrant executed in August, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who announced the findings.

“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe,” Kane said in a statement. “Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades.”

No criminal charges are being filed in the case because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatized to testify, she said.

The report is especially critical of Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec. Hogan, who headed the diocese from 1966 to 1986, died in 2005. Adamec, who succeeded him, retired in 2011.

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Cardinal George Pell went by the book and not the heart

ROME
Herald Sun

March 1, 2016

Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell ­on Tuesday uttered words that will stain his reputation forever.

Referring to notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, Pell fatefully declared: “It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.”

Here is the question now for the royal commission into sex abuse of children: is the Vatican’s third-most powerful leader a liar when he says he never knew what Ridsdale, his colleague, was doing in Ballarat?

Or was he just dangerously indifferent to his responsibilities and to the warning signs that children were being raped?

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George Pell agrees to interview with Andrew Bolt

AUSTRALIA/ROME
The Australian

MARCH 1, 2016

Michael Bodey
Film editor/media journalist
Sydney

Columnist and broadcaster Andrew Bolt has secured an exclusive interview with Cardinal George Pell at the conclusion of his evidence to the Royal Commission into child abuse.

The columnist for News Corp Australia newspapers is in Rome covering the Cardinal’s evidence as a special contributor for the Sky News channel.

Bolt has secured a one-hour interview with the Cardinal to be broadcast live-to-air to Australia on Thursday morning, directly after his final day giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Catholic Church is understood to have agreed to the interview with Bolt, who has defended the Cardinal in his writings, even deriding his own paper, the Herald Sun’s exclusive reporting of Victoria Police investigations into the Cardinal.

But Bolt turned after the second day of evidence from Rome, when the Cardinal denied having knowledge of the activities of notorious paedophile priest Father Gerard Ridsdale and dismissing it as a “sad story” that “wasn’t of much interest to me”.

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‘What kind of fresh media hell is this?’: Sky News under fire for sending harsh child sex abuse royal commission critic Andrew Bolt to report on Cardinal Pell’s testimony in Rome

ROME
Daily Mail

By LUCY THACKRAY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP

Sky News is being slammed for sending controversial commentator Andrew Bolt to report on the royal commission into sex abuse in Rome, as Bolt has previously referred to Cardinal George Pell as ‘the victim of a witch hunt.’

Social media users have voiced their shock after seeing the columnist reporting from Rome, where Cardinal George Pell is appearing before the Royal Commission into Insitutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Pell is being questioned about his knowledge of the abuse of children by members of the Roman Catholic church in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s.

Assuming the role of ‘Sky News contributor’, Bolt has spent much of his time on air defending Pell and speaking about ‘the enormous hate campaign’ against the cardinal.

Last month Bolt wrote a column for News Corp proclaiming: ‘Cardinal George Pell is the victim of one of the most vicious witch hunts to disgrace this country. It is shameful. Disgusting. Frightening.’

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Cardinal George Pell on outer, but where were the rest?

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONETHE AUSTRALIAN
MARCH 2, 2016

Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally and child abuse victim David Ridsdale say George Pell threw his former boss, retired Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns, under a bus in evidence yesterday.

If only someone could have done the same thing 40 years ago — preferably reporting Mulkearns to the papal nuncio (ambassador) in Canberra — dozens of innocent people’s lives would not have been wrecked by Gerald Ridsdale and other criminal priests who were answerable to Mulkearns.

The former bishop’s leadership, as Pell said yesterday, was a “gigantic’’ failure: “I would have to say that I can’t nominate another bishop whose actions are so grave and inexplicable. There might be some, but they don’t come to mind. His repeated refusal to act is absolutely extraordinary.’’

Pell did not emulate that pattern: when he became archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, he did not hesitate to suspend errant priests when warranted.

Yesterday, Pell agreed with commissioner Peter McClellan that those who had known of Ridsdale’s “dreadful story’’ but did nothing were culpable. Pell, however, insisted he was not privy to what the bishop knew and at the time had not heard rumours about Ridsdale.

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The priest that played grab-ass with me

WISCONSIN
WHBY

In the 4:00 hour of the show today I am going to talk about something some might find controversial, but that’s exactly why I want people to hear the story.

I’ve eluded to it on the air in the past, but after the movie “Spotlight” won best picture at the Oscars it got me thinking about a couple of things.

1) I need to go see that movie now
2) I have a connection to that movie whether I want it or not. And now, I think I have an obligation to talk about it as well.

Just seeing his picture brings back a lot of memories, shoved somewhere deep in the back of my brain.

But events like learning about this movie remind me that those memories will always be there somewhere, as is the anger.

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FEIGNED OUTRAGE OVER SEXUAL ABUSE

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the sexual abuse of minors:

Most Americans are truly outraged over the sexual abuse of minors, but there are many who feign anger. Take Mark Ruffalo, star of “Spotlight”: he held a protest outside a Cathedral—almost no one showed up—before the Oscars. Upon receiving his award, the movie’s screenwriter, Josh Singer, took the occasion to lecture Pope Francis. He’s a little late: most of the homosexual abuse in the Church took place between 1965 and 1985. If these people were sincere, they would focus on all abusers, not just priests. For example, the following recent cases elicited no protests.

* In January, a Saint Paul, Minnesota man was sentenced to 270 days in jail for molesting two girls under the age of 15
* In January, a Schenectady, New York man who had previously raped a disabled woman was sentenced to six months in jail for abusing two girls: one was 7 and the other was 9
* In January, a rabbi from East Brunswick, New Jersey was convicted of indecent assault of a child under the age of 13; he was sentenced to 11-23 months

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Assignment Record– Rev. John B. Baud, S.J.

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A native of Lyons, France, Baud was ordained in 1932 for the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in California. He spent the better part of three decades stationed in Nulato AK at St. Peter Claver’s Mission, later renamed Our Lady of the Snows. He was a teacher, artist and musician, and is said to have had “a special concern” for children and youth. In 1962, when the Diocese of Fairbanks was established, Baud was moved to Copper Valley School in Glenallen AK. He later served briefly in St. Mary’s, then as a hospital chaplain in Kodiak and Ketchikan, in the Archdiocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau. He died in 1968. Baud’s name is included on the Fairbanks diocese’s list of “admitted, proven or credibly accused perpetrators of sexual abuse.” He is noted in February 2016 to have had one complaint against him.

Born: August 11, 1897
Ordained: June 20, 1932
Died: December 6, 1968

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MEDIA RELEASE – FEBRUARY 29, 2016 (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee – 862-368-2800

Catholic Whistleblowers, a national organization of lay men and women, religious sisters, priests, former religious brothers, and former priests which advocates for and supports victim/survivors of sexual abuse by clergy and other religious persons, was thrilled with the Academy of Motion Pictures’ selection of the movie “Spotlight” as Best Picture of 2016. We extend our congratulations to the producers, directors, cast, and crew of the movie for their excellent depiction of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston.

We also wish to thank the members of the Boston Globe “Spotlight” team and Boston Globe editor Marty Baron for their pursuit of the facts and evidence of sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Boston and the cover-up by Boston Archdiocesan leaders that eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law. As actor Stanley Tucci, who portrays Attorney Mitchell Garabedian in the movie, said so well, “It takes a village to abuse a child,” and Catholic Whistleblowers concurs wholeheartedly.

We, Catholic Whistleblowers, are particularly grateful to and affirming of the courageous victim/survivors who were part of the film and all victim/survivors. We are heartbroken that Patrick Mc Sorley, one of the early heroes of the Archdiocese of Boston scandal, and who is portrayed in the movie, is no longer with us to share in the fruits of his and many others’ labors. Fortunately, Phil Saviano is still with us and we celebrate with Phil his quarter-century of determined, relentless advocacy on behalf of all victim/survivors and principal role in the production of “Spotlight.” To victim survivors Joe Crowley, Jim Scanlan, and all other victim/survivors who were characterized or referenced in the movie – thank you for your contribution.

“Spotlight” dramatizes so beautifully for Catholics and the general public the deleterious effects of sexual abuse in a family, organization, church, institution, and society. It also demonstrates what happens when a family, organization, church, institution, or society covers up that sexual abuse. Nothing good comes from sexual abuse and its cover-up. Catholic Whistleblowers recommends openness, honesty, transparency, and just resolution in all cases of childhood sexual abuse.

Finally, Catholic Whistleblowers extends an open invitation to the members of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, Pope Francis, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and head of the Papal Commission on Child and Youth Protection, and especially members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to dialogue with us regarding the scandal of childhood sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church so that, together, we may put an end to childhood sexual abuse, help heal victim/survivors, and restore all to life in Jesus Christ.

Signed by some members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee:

Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D., Milwaukee, WI
Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert, Peekskill, NY
Rev. Patrick W. Collins, Ph.D., Douglas, MI
Mrs. Helen Rainforth, Lincoln, IL
Sr. Sally Butler, OP, Brooklyn, NY
Sr. Claire Smith, OSU, Bronx, NY
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN, New Castle, DE
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., West Orange, NJ
Rev. Bruce Teague, Sheffield, MA
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, J.C.D., Vienna, VA
Msgr. Kenneth E. Lasch, J.C.D., Pompton Plains, NJ

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Israeli Lawmakers Across the Aisle Support Criminalizing Sex Between Spiritual Leaders, Followers

ISRAEL
Haaretz

Recent cases of rabbinical and other leaders’ physical and mental exploitation of female believers sparked legislation initiated by Meretz MK.

Sharon Pulwer Mar 01, 2016

Israeli lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are moving forward with legislation that would outlaw sex between a religious or spiritual leader and one of his believers, comparing that situation to sexual relations between a therapist and a client, which is a criminal offense.

The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will soon discuss the bill, which was initiated by MK Michal Rozin (Meretz) and passed its preliminary reading in January. Legislators from Habayit Hayehudi, Kulanu, Yesh Atid, the Joint Arab List and Zionist Union all support the legislation, part of a broader effort to address the phenomenon of cults and the role of rabbinic leaders in the country.

According to the proposal, sexual relations would be deemed a criminal offense if they take place as part of a relationship in which “ongoing advice or guidance is passed on through face-to-face meetings,” and if the sex acts are carried out “during or right after a period in which guidance or advice is given, exploiting palpable emotional dependence that results from the advice or guidance.”

The legislative effort derives, among other things, from Israel Police and state prosecution efforts to indict cult leader Goel Ratzon, who lived in Tel Aviv and had multiple wives and dozens of children, for sexual offenses and enslavement. It took years of unsuccessful investigations before he was finally arrested, in 2010, and charged.

For its part, the state tried to create a legal precedent that determined that Ratzon held his wives in what was called “spiritual slavery.” The prosecution argued that he emotionally controlled 21 adult women with whom he had sex, taking away their freedom of choice and making them enslaved to him. The Tel Aviv District Court convicted Ratzon on rape and sexual offenses counts, but acquitted him of the enslavement charges, rejecting the prosecution’s broader interpretation of the offense.

Prosecutors have tried to equate such relations to sexual ties between psychologists or psychiatrists and their clients, as in the case involving Ofakim resident Shimon Amar. Amar was indicted last October for having sex with women and girls during personal consultations while posing as a rabbi.

Other cases, such as that of Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, head of the Orot Ha’ari yeshiva in Safed, involve rape resulting from fraudulent behavior – i.e., a situation in which the perpetrator uses deceit to obtain consensual sex. Sheinberg was charged last July for having sex with 12 women after “exploiting the fact that he is considered to be a righteous person with special powers, that they had unconditional faith in him, and that they saw what he said to be the words of a living god.”

“We’re talking about emotional dependence just like that existing between a therapist and a client,” says MK Rozin. “It’s the legislator’s place to determine that sexual relations through such dependence cannot be legal and needs to be outlawed as a crime.”

Attorney Liat Klein, legal adviser of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, which was a partner in formulating the bill, asserts that the number of instances in which such relations occurs is significant.

“Rabbis and people with spiritual powers create great dependence among those who turn to them, mostly at times of distress and crisis,” Klein explains. “It is extremely difficult for people to report such incidents, so it is important to encourage such complaints so that those same religious leaders who exploit their authority to hurt their believers will be punished and justice will be served.”

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Why Spotlight’s Oscar win is a great thing for journalism

UNITED STATES
The Guardian

Alicia Shepard

Most people don’t know a journalist. They only know journalists are rated at the bottom of trust polls along with used car salesmen. They only hear presidential candidates trashing reporters daily from the stump.

Spotlight, which just won the Oscar for best picture, allows viewers to peek behind the byline, authentically portraying the tediousness of strong investigative reporting, the fierce determination of reporters, the bravery of top editors and how persistence can bring about real change – as long as management has your back.

That’s why it’s a great thing for journalism that Spotlight won the Oscar for best picture. Highlighting the Boston Globe’s 2002 expose of the Catholic Church’s systemic cover up of priest molestation, Spotlight is this generation’s version of the 1976 movie All the President’s Men.

The win should do wonders for the news business, the public’s understanding of journalism and those of us who believe passionately in journalism’s mission to ultimately inform and do good.

“Mom, I feel like I finally get what you and Dad do now that I’ve seen Spotlight,” said my son, the offspring of two journalists. I’m not alone. Globe Spotlight reporter Sacha Pfeiffer told CNN, “Family members have said to some of us, ‘Oh, now I understand what you do.’”

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PSNI inquiries into video of Catholic priest Fr Stephen Crossan ‘snorting cocaine’

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish News

Brendan Hughes
01 March, 2016

THE PSNI is making inquiries about video footage of a Catholic priest apparently snorting cocaine in a room with Nazi memorabilia at his Co Down parochial house.

Fr Stephen Crossan can be seen sniffing a white substance through a bank note during a night of drinking at the house beside St Patrick’s Church, Banbridge.

The 37-year-old places a cigarette in an ashtray and seems to say “I shouldn’t” before snorting the powder off a plate, The Sun on Sunday reported.

In a statement yesterday, Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey said Fr Crossan has taken an “extended leave of absence”.

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Out of the Spotlight: Does the Phoenix Deserve Credit for the Globe’s Scoop?

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Magazine

Kristen Lombardi of the Phoenix connected the dots in 2001. The Globe’s Spotlight Team debuted their series in 2002. Where’s the confusion?

By Kyle Clauss | Boston Daily | October 30, 2015

People forgo plenty of things in order to become journalists, chief among them sleep and independence from caffeine. What journos do fuss over, and with great fervor, is credit for their work. With the release of Spotlight, the star-studded early Oscar favorite chronicling the Boston Globe‘s award-winning investigation into sex abuse and subsequent coverups inside the Catholic Church, a 13-year-old debate over who deserves credit for breaking the story first has arisen again.

Kristen Lombardi, a BU alum, arrived at the Boston Phoenix in 2000 as a news and features reporter, following stints at the Brookline and Newton Tabs and the Phoenix’s sister publication in Worcester. In January 2001, Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, was named a defendant in a number of ongoing, under-the-radar cases involving pedophile priests, including one involving Father John Geoghan. Figuring the judge’s decision likely meant the victims had enough evidence to prove that knowledge of Geoghan’s abuse had stretched far enough up the Church hierarchy to implicate Cardinal Law, Phoenix editor Susan Ryan-Vollmar told Lombardi to start digging.

“[My editors] were convinced that the Globe or the Herald would do something with that,” Lombardi says. “But they didn’t. I did.”

She pored through court documents and spoke with victims, receiving ample pushback from the Church along the way. She looked at other sexual abuse cases involving Catholic priests across the country, and developed relationships with attorneys who specialized in such cases. Her first-ever investigative piece for the Phoenix, “Cardinal Sin,” ran in March 2001. The findings were damning, and the lede, a punch to the gut:

ASK MARK KEANE who orally raped him when he was a teenage boy, and he’ll answer: Father John Geoghan. Ask him who should bear the cross for this heinous act, and he’ll answer: Cardinal Bernard Law.

Law, Keane believes, had direct knowledge that Geoghan, who worked in the Archdiocese of Boston from 1962 to 1993, was molesting children. And Law, Keane alleges, didn’t just let the priest keep working; he allowed Geoghan to stay at parishes where he enjoyed daily contact with children — one of whom was Keane.

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‘Spotlight’ Win ‘Vindication’ For Chicago Activist Abused By Priest

CHICAGO (IL)
DNAinfo

By Joe Ward | March 1, 2016

CHICAGO — With its Oscar win Sunday, “Spotlight” not only honored the Boston Globe reporters who uncovered the sex abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church but it also shined a light on a Chicago-based group that has been fighting for victims of priest abuse for decades.

The film shows how SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests) helped Globe reporters find victims and track down pedophile priests in Boston. While that was happening, SNAP leader Barbara Blaine was in Chicago trying to make it very clear that this issue went much further than Boston’s Irish Catholic enclave.

“This movie is vindication,” Blaine said Monday. “It says what we’ve been wanting to say for a long time.”

Before the film won Best Picture, “Spotlight” actor Mark Ruffalo joined the film’s writers and director to attend Blaine’s rally in Los Angeles. Their message? The film was a victory, but there must be more accountability in the Catholic Church’s handling of its sex abuse scandal.

Blaine, a River North resident, said her group is working to capitalize on the buzz surrounding “Spotlight,” which shows how reporters exposed pedophile priests who had abused hundreds of children in Boston.

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Attorney general to hold press conference in Blair County, likely linked to Baker abuse case

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane will hold a press conference at the Blair County Convention Center on Tuesday.

Her office would not confirm the subject matter.

However, it is believed the department has been conducting a grand jury investigation into alleged cases of child molestation in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown.

Reports about the grand jury being convened surfaced shortly after molestation accusations were made against Brother Stephen Baker, a former athletic trainer at what was then called Bishop McCort High School.

“There is a Pennsylvania grand jury that has been hearing testimony,” said Richard Serbin, an Altoona lawyer who has represented some of Baker’s reported victims. “Of course, that testimony is not public.”

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Bankrupt Twin Cities archdiocese employees getting new office

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Feb 29, 2016

Employees of the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are getting a new home on St. Paul’s East Side.

The staffers will be moving to 777 Forest Street, once the corporate headquarters of 3M. The archdiocese will lease space in the building, and it hopes to be moved in by early fall. Terms of the deal were not available.

The lease will be subject to approval by the federal judge overseeing the church’s bankruptcy reorganization. Most of the 120 employees of the archdiocese are now at the Hayden Center, not far from the St. Paul Cathedral. The Hayden Center is being sold to the Minnesota Historical Society for $4.5 million.

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Samantha Bee slams anti-Girl Scout archbishop who wasn’t ‘sure’ child molestation was a crime

MISSOURI
Raw Story

ARTURO GARCIA
01 MAR 2016

Samantha Bee put her money where her Thin Mints were on Monday as she offered support to the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri against St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson.

“You have underestimated our love of girl power — and our love of cookies,” Bee said to Carlson before revealing that the program bought a “sh*t-ton” of Girl Scout cookies to give to her audience. She also directed viewers to her website, which is encouraging them to “ruin an awful archbishop’s day” by either buying cookies or donating to the Girl Scouts directly.

Carlson drew Bee’s ire after he contacted local parishes and urged them to cut ties with the Scouts, saying they were “becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values.”

Among the behaviors troubling Carlson, Bee noted, was the fact that the Scouts were working with Amnesty International.

“I guess trying to stop the beheading of political prisoners doesn’t count as ‘pro-life’ enough for him,” she quipped.

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A reader’s guide to the Jehovah’s Witnesses child sex abuse scandal

UNITED STATES
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Trey Bundy / February 29, 2016

Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders are fighting on multiple fronts to hide what they know about child sexual abusers in their religion.

Facing more than a dozen civil lawsuits in the United States and a government investigation in the United Kingdom, the Witnesses are continuing to withhold court-ordered documents from authorities. In England this month, the religious organization went to court for a fourth time attempting to block investigators from looking at their child abuse records.

It’s been just over a year since Reveal began publishing and broadcasting stories about Jehovah’s Witnesses covering up child sexual abuse. Since our first story aired, hundreds of Witnesses and ex-Witnesses have contacted us, mostly to share their stories.

We’re continuing to report on the issue, but in the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of nine major findings so far:

1. For more than 25 years, the global leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses has instructed elders to keep cases of child sexual abuse secret from law enforcement and members of their own congregations.

2. The Witnesses’ parent corporation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, issued the directives in a series of confidential memos dating back to 1989. The child abuse memos were approved by the Watchtower’s governing body, a group of men who are the spiritual leaders of the religion, like the Pope in the Catholic Church.

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Catholic leaders react to ‘Spotlight’s’ big Oscar win

UNITED STATES
Deseret News

Compiled by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News

“Spotlight” took home the top prize at Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, earning “Best Picture” honors for its depiction of The Boston Globe reporting team who exposed years of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Catholic leaders joined journalists, moviegoers and advocates for sexual abuse victims in celebrating the win, sharing their gratitude for the reporters whose work resulted in a global call for the church to address the problem.

“The priestly abuse of children (and) cover up by bishops is one of the most heinous scandals in history. Thank God journalists discovered it,” tweeted Christopher Hale, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and leads the Diocese of Louisville, retweeted his November reflection on “Spotlight” in the wake of the Oscar win.

“We can only be healthy as a Church and as a society if we honestly confront the sexual abuse of children and rebuild relationships one at a time,” he wrote on his blog around the time of the film’s release.

“Spotlight” has had a similar impact on the Catholic community as the original reporting, leading sexual abuse survivors to step forward, talk about their experiences and, in some cases, join lawsuits against church leaders, The Boston Globe reported after Sunday’s ceremony.

“I’m happy and I’m proud of the filmmakers and the actors,” David O’Regan, the Boston-Worcester director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told the Globe.

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An evasive Vatican must face clerical sex abuse directly

UNITED STATES
San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial

If Rome won’t, maybe Hollywood will. That would be getting the Catholic Church moving on clerical sex abuse, a scandal more than a decade old that’s drawing pledges to reform but pathetically thin results.

The movie “Spotlight,” which depicts the Boston Globe’s disclosures of pedophile priests and an archdiocese that hid the problem, should galvanize a global public that is impatient with Vatican foot-dragging. Determined digging by the paper overcame an evasive and insulated church that masked the scandal of dozens of clerics who preyed on children. The movie underscores the timely and focused worth of serious journalism up against a powerful interest.

An Oscar should come in handy for another reason. The church is essentially rolling with the punch of this scandal. It’s hearing out critics and abuse victims and paying out enormous settlements in some cases. But Rome has stopped short of adopting the sweeping household rules that will prevent a recurrence and put church higher-ups on notice that they are responsible.

The infuriating stories spread far beyond Boston with church leaders in Los Angeles and Minneapolis shown as cover-up organizers. The church has been all too forgiving of itself. Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law was kicked upstairs to a sinecure in Rome and never faced criminal charges or defrocking for his negligence.

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Cardinal George Pell formally refuses to make funds available for church abuse victims

ROME
news.com.au

[with video]

MARCH 1, 2016

CARDINAL George Pell has formally declined an appeal to make available church funds in restitution to victims of Catholic Church abuse, conceding he had no sway in the Vatican.

Despite being the effective treasurer of the Holy See the cardinal said there was nothing available for Melbourne Response — a program he set up himself in 1996 when he was the archbishop of Melbourne.

Anthony Foster, the father of two girls sexual abused by the clergy who had travelled to Rome for answers, said after his impromptu meeting with Cardinal Pell it was clear he had washed his hands of the program.

The father of Emma and Katie, abused by Father Kevin O’Donnell in the 1980s, said the Cardinal had previously told him in a meeting in Sydney he could lift funds available to victims to somewhere near to $100 million.

Mr Foster had just finished a TV interview when he inadvertently bumped into the cardinal sometime after the second day of his testimony to the child abuse royal commission hearing.

“I offered my hand to him which he shook, it was pretty tough,” said an emotional Mr Foster who added he had been in contact with the cardinal over many years and always had a cordial association.

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George Pell: Father of abuse victims says he has given up hope Cardinal will help fix things

ROME
ABC News

A man whose two daughters were raped by a priest has confronted George Pell, telling him “I am a broken man” after the Cardinal’s second day of testimony via video link to the child abuse royal commission.

Cardinal Pell faced the commission from a Rome hotel, drawing gasps from survivors as he declared the crimes of notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale were a “sad story” but “not of much interest” to him at the time.

Anthony Foster’s daughters Emma and Katie were raped by Melbourne priest Father Kevin O’Donnell when they were in primary school in the 1980s.

Mr Foster confronted Cardinal Pell outside the hearing at the Hotel Quirinale, saying he had given up hope the Cardinal would fix the church’s so-called Melbourne Response to the abuse scandal.

“He held my hand for the whole duration of the chat that we had and I expressed to him that he was holding the hand of a broken man, and he put his other hand on me and tried to I suppose connect in some way, but I didn’t feel it,” Mr Foster said.

“Quest over. It was the smooth Cardinal Pell, not the Cardinal Pell we saw on the stand.”

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Cardinal Pell’s ignorance of abuse ‘unfathomable’, says victim

AUSTRALIA
Daily Advertiser

A victim who was raped daily while living with notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale at a presbytery in Mortlake says he finds it unfathomable that Cardinal George Pell didn’t know he was being sexually abused.

Paul Levey was sent to live with Ridsdale in the Mortlake presbytery after his parents separated when he was 14 in 1982.

In a harrowing statement presented to the hearing Mr Levey said he was “sexually abused all the time just about every day”.

“I had my own bedroom at the presbytery but that was just a front. I always slept in Ridsdale’s room where there were two beds. No-one else lived in the presbytery,” it read.

Australia’s most senior Catholic accepted no responsibility for Ridsdale’s offending telling the inquiry he had no knowledge of his crimes.

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George Pell wasn’t much interested in stories of abuse by priests. Which was lucky for his career

ROME
The Guardian

David Marr

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Here’s my theory. George Pell returned to Ballarat as a young priest with big plans. And why not? He’d gone from Rome to Oxford, where he reckons he was the first Catholic priest to earn a doctorate of philosophy since the Reformation.

Big things were expected of him back in Australia. He expected big things of himself. But for the next 25 years he found himself serving bishops whose record of handling paedophile priests was (in Ballarat) appalling and (in Melbourne) seriously flawed.

Pell is seeing out his career as cardinal in charge of the Vatican’s finances. But what would have happened to his mighty career if early on he had crossed those bishops?

Had young Pell made it his business to find why the paedophile Father Gerald Ridsdale was being shifted from parish to parish in the 1970s – in later years by a committee on which he himself sat – he might well be living the twilight years of his career not in Rome but the seaside parish of Warrnambool.

From Pell’s evidence on the second day of his Roman cross-examination there emerged a picture of an ambitious and capable young priest who decided, early on, to steer clear of this dangerous issue.

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Pell’s attempt to explain the ‘indefensible’

UNITED STATES
Crux

By Sarah Kaplan
The Washington Post February 29, 2016

“I’m not here to defend the indefensible,” Cardinal George Pell told an Australian courtroom Sunday.

What he did was attempt to explain: how one of the most notorious pedophilia rings in the country could have taken place on his watch, how he could have heard about priests who engaged in “misbehavior” — kissing boys, swimming naked with students — and not reported it, how thousands of children were raped and molested by priests in Australia and elsewhere while the Church did nothing.

“The Church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy those,” he said via video conference from Rome. “But the Church in many places, certainly Australia, has mucked things up . . . has let people down.”

The investigation into the widespread sexual abuse of children in the city of Ballarat, where Pell was a priest, has brought allegations of exploitation and cover-up extraordinarily far up the Catholic Church’s chain of command; Pell is the Church’s secretary for the economy, a position described as the second most powerful in Rome, and he spoke from a hotel that was just blocks from the Vatican.

The hearings before Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse also come at a time when the Catholic Church’s handling of child abuse is more generally under scrutiny. The film “Spotlight,” which depicts the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into serially abusive priests, won the Oscar for best picture just hours after Pell concluded his testimony.

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For clergy sex abuse survivors, ‘Spotlight’ Oscar win brings joy and tears

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By David Filipov GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 29, 2016

The phones of clergy sex abuse survivors and their advocates were lighting up Monday, a day after “Spotlight,” the movie that tells their story, was awarded Oscars for best picture and best original screenplay. Most of the calls expressed a renewed sense of validation among those who first spoke up against a sweeping conspiracy in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.

But some of the calls reflected the reality that many victims have yet to tell their stories, their secrets still cloaked in guilt and shame that never should have been theirs.

“Very early this morning a person called me who is a survivor who had not come forward previously,” said Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston attorney who represented many of the victims in the scandal and is one of the heroes of the film, played by Stanley Tucci. “Because of ‘Spotlight,’ that survivor has regained lost dignity that was stolen by clergy sexual abuse.”

Garabedian, his voice still hoarse from cheering while watching the Academy Awards, said he still has 500 clergy sex abuse cases in which he has either filed a lawsuit or sought claims on behalf of his clients. Because of “Spotlight,” Garabedian said, he has been contacted by survivors from “Cambodia, Turkey, Australia, many, many countries.”

His hope, he said, is that the attention provided by the movie, which documents The Boston Globe’s investigation starting in 2001 into the abuse and the coverup by church officials, will empower other survivors to come forward.

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The priests and brothers who preyed on children

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

March 1, 2016

Beau Donelly, Jane Lee

As Cardinal Pell appears before the royal commision to answer questions about his role in the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal, just who are some of the worst offenders in Victoria?

Father Gerald Francis Ridsdale

One Australia’s worst paedophiles, former Ballarat priest Gerald Ridsdale has been convicted of 138 sex offences against children – some as young as four – involving more than 50 victims.

Ridsdale was ordained at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat in 1961. The first complaint about his behaviour towards children was received by the church that same year. Ridsdale would continue to abuse children over the next three decades.

Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns moved Ridsdale to a number of parishes around Victoria and Sydney amid abuse allegations against him over many years before Ridsdale asked him for leave in 1988 “so that I may be removed from the kind of work that has proved to be a temptation and a difficulty to me”.

Cardinal Pell said he accepts no responsibility for Ridsdale’s movements when he was a member of the College of Consultors, which advised the Bishop on movements of parish priests.

Cardinal Pell said he was never told about Ridsdale’s offending while he was in Ballarat, including as an adviser to Bishop Mulkearns from 1977.

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Australian Cardinal Denies Deflecting Child Sex Abuse Blame

ROME
ABC News (US)

By ROD MCGUIRK, ASSOCIATED PRESS CANBERRA, Australia — Feb 29, 2016

Interrupted by jeers from observers, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers on Tuesday denied an accusation that his testimony to an inquiry into child sex abuse was an attempt to deflect blame for the Catholic Church transferring Australia’s worst pedophile priest from parish to parish.

Australian Cardinal George Pell was a priest in the 1970s in the town of Ballarat where he advised Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about the placement of priests within the diocese.

Pell, now the pope’s top financial adviser, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had no idea that priest Gerald Ridsdale was repeatedly transferred by the bishop for more than a decade because of pedophile accusations.

Pell rejected an accusation made by the lead counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, that his answers were designed to remove his own responsibility for Ridsdale’s crimes.

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‘Spotlight’ Win Renews Calls To Release Names Of Priests Accused Of Abuse

CALIFORNIA
CBS SF Bay Area

OAKLAND (KCBS) – After the movie “Spotlight” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse are renewing their call for local Catholic bishops to release the names of accused priests.

Tim Lennon of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said there’s no reason the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the Diocese of Oakland and the Diocese of San Jose should not release the names of those accused.

“What I’m saying is the church has a responsibility, not only to help survivors like me, but they have a responsibility to reach out to those children that are harmed, that are suffering in the dark,” said Lennon, who said he was raped by a priest at the age of 12.

Melanie Sakoda of SNAP said the crisis is not over. She told KCBS of another member’s experience.

“Her abuser was convicted in Minnesota of raping her, and he also abused another girl. And the Vatican just freed him up to return to ministry in India,” Sakoda said.

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VATICAN LAUDS ‘SPOTLIGHT’ FOR GIVING VOICE TO ABUSE VICTIMS

VATICAN CITY
Eyewitness News (South Africa)

Reuters

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican newspaper on Monday lauded the film Spotlight, which took home this year’s Oscar for best picture, for giving voice to the pain of the victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.

The film tells the story of how the Boston Globe uncovered a massive scandal of child molestation in the city’s archdiocese.

The Osservatore Romano said the film did not take a hostile position against the Church.

It gives “a voice to the shock and profound pain of the faithful who confront the discovery of this horrible reality”, said an opinion piece by columnist Lucetta Scaraffia.

“It’s by now clear that in the Church too many were worried about the image of the institution and not the gravity of the act.”

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Teen living with priest: Pell didn’t know

ROME
The Advertiser

Cardinal George Pell said he did not know that notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale had a 14-year-old boy living with him in the presbytery in 1980s – despite widespread rumours about the priest’s abuse of children.

Paul Levey has previously told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that in Easter 1982, when he was 14, he was sent to live at the presbytery at Mortlake with Ridsdale for about six months.

He slept in the same room as the priest and was abused all the time.

Mr Levey said it was common knowledge he was living there.

Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday – his second day of evidence to the child abuse royal commission – said he did not know about it even though by then he was privy to the “scandalous” rumours about Ridsdale when he was in Ballarat in the 70s.

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Why Catholics should be grateful for ‘Spotlight’

UNITED STATES
Royal Gazette (Bermuda)

Christopher White

A new film serves as a painful reminder of one of the darkest periods in Roman Catholic Church history, where more than 200 priests and religious were accused of abusing minors and were reassigned in a cover-up.

Spotlight, which won Best Picture at the Oscars on Sunday night, chronicles The Boston Globe’s groundbreaking coverage of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston that would go on to win the paper a Pulitzer Prize in 2003.

Reflecting on the ten-year anniversary of the Globe’s revelations, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said that “the media helped make our Church safer for children by raising up the issue of clergy sexual abuse and forcing us to deal with it.”

And as New York Times columnist Ross Douthat observed in 2010: “The Catholic Church has always had enemies. … but Catholics — and especially Catholic leaders, from the Vatican to the most far-flung diocese — should welcome it, both as a spur to virtue and as a sign that their faith still matters, that their church still looms large over the affairs of men, and that the world still cares enough about Christianity to demand that Catholics live up to their own exacting standards.”

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Pell blames bishop for Australia child abuse cover-up

ROME
BBC News

Cardinal George Pell says he was deceived by a senior clergyman over the activities of a paedophile priest.

Australia’s most senior Catholic is presenting evidence from Rome via video link over several days to an Australian Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

On Tuesday Cardinal Pell was questioned about paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, a priest who was repeatedly moved between parishes in the 1970s and 80s.

He accepted no responsibility for the failure to report Ridsdale’s abuse.

Survivors have flown to Rome to see the cardinal testify after he was excused from returning home due to ill health.

‘Implausible’

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Our instinct is to look away from stories like Spotlight. Don’t.

CANADA
Metro News

By: Rosemary Westwood Metro Published on Mon Feb 29 2016

One well trodden story, about good people whose inaction clears a path for evil, won an Oscar on Sunday night.

Spotlight, the tale of how Boston Globe reporters broke a Catholic-priest sexual-abuse scandal, took home the best picture award, highlighting the need for such costly reportage just as media companies cut jobs.

The film charts the journalists’ triumphs, but also underscores how many people looked the other way for so long. Priests, cardinals, the Vatican; members of Boston’s Catholic community, lawyers, judges; even Globe journalists, who had been sitting on stories of priest abuse for years without much follow-up.

It’s particularly ironic, then, that when I went to see Spotlight, it was by accident. I was even dreading it. We wanted light fun, but we arrived too late. As a Catholic, I shrunk from yet another story of horrific abuse and the institution that, in effect, condoned it.

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SNAP hails the Oscar winning movie Spotlight for work on priest abuse

MISSOURI
Fox 2

[with video]

(KTVI) – Spotlight was the surprise winner at the Oscars, but the investigative work done by the real life spotlight team was no surprise to one St. Louisan.

‘We were in touch with the Boston Globe investigative team before they wrote their first story and certainly throughout 2002 and 2003 when they ran almost 800 stories about predator priests,’ says David Clohessy, Director Snapnetwork.org.

The story of the Boston globe’s investigation into clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese was turned into an Oscar-winning movie.

But for David Clohessy it’s not the closing of a chapter, but instead more work that still needs to be done.

‘The only thing that makes the Boston Archdiocese different if you will than the St. Louis Archdiocese is that there’s just been greater scrutiny,’ says Clohessy.

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You still don’t get it, George Pell

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Wendy Tuohy

He speaks in a monotone about issues that destroyed untold numbers of lives, he avoids eye contact with survivors of child sexual abuse (according to eyewitness reports from journalists), he dodges and weaves as well as Muhammad Ali ever did.

All that aside, some of Cardinal George Pell’s words to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have been breathtakingly callous.

Yes, yesterday the world’s third most powerful Catholic official did concede the Church’s handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by paedophile priests had been “catastrophic” and that he was not there to “defend the indefensible”.

Yet today he stunned people sitting in front of him who survived childhood assaults by those very priests and was able to describe the revolting serial abuse of 53 children by Father Gerald Ridsdale as “a sad story (that) wasn’t of much interest to me”.

The gasps of onlookers were audible and understandable.

Does this man still not get the pain, hurt, grief and anger still fresh in the hearts of victims, their families and supporters — a whole town — as a result of such insidious violations?

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‘It was the smooth Pell on the stand’: Father of abuse victims

ROME
news.com.au

A FATHER of two girls who were raped by a priest while in primary school said it was “the smooth Cardinal Pell” testifying to the child abuse Royal Commission from Rome.

Anthony Foster, whose daughters Emma and Katie were both assaulted by Melbourne priest Father Kevin O’Donnell, said he had “given up hope” that George Pell would fix the Church’s response to institutional paedophilia.

“Quest over,” said Mr Foster, according to the ABC. “It was the smooth Cardinal Pell, not the Cardinal Pell, we saw on the stand.”

The husband and father confronted Pell outside the hearing at the Hotel Quirinale after the Cardinal’s second day of testimony via video link, telling him “he was holding the hand of a broken man”.

After two of Mr Foster’s three daughters were raped, Emma became addicted to drugs, had eating disorders and self-harmed before overdosing on medication at 26. Katie was hit by a car after a drinking binge in 1999, leaving her brain damaged.

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Pell points finger at former mentor

ROME
9 News

AAP

George Pell says it would be hard to find another bishop whose actions were as “grave and inexplicable” as those of Ronald Mulkearns who knew about the crimes of pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale but kept moving him from one parish to another.

In an extraordinary day of evidence to the sex abuse royal commission on Tuesday, Cardinal Pell squarely laid the blame on Bishop Mulkearns – his former mentor – for decades of cover-up which put hundreds of children at risk from Ridsdale.

As Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997, Mulkearns presided over decisions to move priests, including Ridsdale, between parishes rather than deal with child sexual abuse allegations.

Cardinal Pell told the royal commission Bishop Mulkearns deceived him, lied to him and described his former boss’s actions as “reprehensible” and “absolutely extraordinary.”

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Pell answers frustrate abuse survivors

ROME
9 News

AAP

Australian child sex abuse survivors danced “as if they won the Oscar” in a Rome hotel when a movie about exposing pedophile priests won best film at the Academy Awards.

But the survivors’ group who travelled to Rome to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence by videolink to the child abuse royal commission sitting in Sydney were brought back down to earth on Tuesday by his testimony of denial and sheeting home blame to others.

The previous day they had detected a conciliatory tone in the cleric’s evidence, noting he had backed off blanket denials that he knew nothing of pedophile priests offending in the Ballarat diocese and Melbourne when he served there in the 1970s and 1980s.

After that day of evidence, members of the survivors’ group left the plush Quirinale Hotel where the cardinal’s evidence is being heard and went on to watch the Oscars in their hotel and be thrilled when best film was won by Spotlight.

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Cardinal Pell pressed over denials he knew about paedophile priests

ROME
The Guardian

Ben Doherty and Melissa Davey
Monday 29 February 2016

Cardinal George Pell’s repeated insistence he knew nothing of paedophile priests being shielded by the church in the 1970s and 80s was “implausible”, the royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.

On Tuesday the most senior Australian Catholic was warned he would be “culpable too” if the commission decided he did know of abuse being covered up.

In a combative appearance, Pell resolutely defended his position that while he was a priest in Ballarat he was unaware paedophile priests were being moved between parishes to escape prosecution, and to protect the reputation of the church.

Pell claimed he knew nothing of the offending of priests, and that he was lied to and deceived by more senior church members who hid from him the activities of paedophiles in the clergy.

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Oscar Ceremony Puts Spotlight On Sexual Abuse Survivors

CALIFORNIA
KEYT

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. –
Moviegoers will see Santa Barbara and other cities where priest sexual abuse occurred mentioned in the credits at the end of the film “Spotlight.”

“The Spotlight story really is a microcosm of a much larger story that has taken place in nearly every major city in this country, including here in Santa Barbara where we have seen the scandal at the Mission, at St. Anthony’s Seminary, at Our Lady of Guadalupe at nearly every Catholic church around town,” said attorney, Tim Hale.

Hale said awareness makes it easier for people to come forward and speak out about what they have been through. “Don’t look to institutions to change their ways. The way to make children safer is to empower people to come forward and report to law enforcement,” Hale said.

Hale is already working on a similar case involving the Presbyterian church. He said a hearing is scheduled for next Monday.

Hale represents victims of abuse on the central coast including the son of Ray Higgins.

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‘I am a broken man’: What the father of two church sex abuse victims told George Pell as he confronted the ‘smooth’ Cardinal following his royal commission evidence

ROME
Daily Mail

By LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP

A father whose two daughters suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of a priest has confronted Cardinal George Pell, telling him he is a ‘broken man.’

Anthony Foster cornered the former Archbishop of Melbourne outside his Rome hotel room after his second day of testimony via video link to the child abuse royal commission, but said the man he spoke to was the ‘smooth Cardinal Pell, not the Cardinal Pell [he] saw on the stand,’ The ABC reported.

Mr Foster’s daughter Emma was raped by Melbourne priest Kevin O’Donnell in the 1980s and she died in 2008 the age of 26 from a drug overdose and years of battling eating disorders, self harm and addiction.

His other daughter Katie, who was also raped by Father O’Donnell, became a binge drinker and requires round the clock care after being left disabled from a car accident in 1999.

Mr Foster said they held hands as they spoke, but admitted he felt no connection and instead said the Cardinal was ‘holding the hand of a broken man.’

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Vatican Cardinal Pell: Pedophile Priest ‘Wasn’t of Much Interest’

ROME
NBC News

by ALASTAIR JAMIESON

There were audible gasps Tuesday when Vatican treasurer George Pell said a notorious Roman Catholic Church sex-abuse case “wasn’t of much interest” to him.

The Australian cardinal — the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify on systemic sexual abuse of children by clergy — said senior clergy lied to him to cover up abuse in the 1970s.

He insisted there was no reason for him to know the extent of the abuse carried out by his one-time roommate — pedophile priest Father Gerald Ridsdale — who was later convicted of 138 offences against more than 50 children.

Pell denied there was any discussion of Ridsdale being a pedophile at a meeting he attended in 1982 where it was discussed that Ridsdale should be moved to another parish.

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No Spotlight in India: Sex abuse in Catholic Church a blind spot?

INDIA
Hindustan Times

Paramita Ghosh, Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Updated: Mar 01, 2016

For Roman Catholics, February has not been a good month to be Christian. Pictures of one of its latest saints, the much-revered Pope John Paul II, surfaced, showing the late pope in the company of a married woman; one photograph is of them skiing. An exchange of letters also came to light that suggested a relationship of ‘more-than-friends-and-less-than-lovers’.

March, the month that did Macbeth in, seems to be no better. The 2016 Oscars, in which the journalism drama Spotlight won Best Picture , brought focus back on sex abuse by priests, a reality that intermittently stalks the Catholic Church and undermines the institution – mainly for its culture of cover-up.

Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston attorney for many victims who is also portrayed in Spotlight, said the film restored to survivors the “lost dignity that was stolen by clergy sexual abuse”.

Paedophilia and other instances of sexual coercion have blown up in the face of the church at a time when it is being forced to re-think many of its rigid controls. Some priests are demanding the right to marry while women are demanding the right to be priests. Celibacy, some say, is the Reformation moment of the Catholic church in this century. It is certainly a big challenge.

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Australian cardinal says he was decieved by bishop about reason for priest’s repeAustralian cardinal says he was decieved by bishop about reason for priest’s repeaated transfers

ROME
TH Online

Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia — One of Pope Francis’ top advisers told an Australian inquiry into child sex abuse on Tuesday that an Australian bishop had deceived him about the reason a pedophile priest was repeatedly transferred from parish to parish.

Australian Cardinal George Pell was a priest in the town of Ballarat in 1970s who advised Bishop Ronald Mulkearns about the placement of priests within the diocese.

Pell, now the pope’s top financial adviser, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that while Mulkearns and another priest at the regular committee meetings, Monsignor Leo Fiscalini, both knew about serious sexual assault allegations against notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale, neither mentioned them.

“It probably would be possible to imagine a greater deception, but it’s a gross deception,” Pell told the Sydney inquiry via videolink from a Rome hotel.

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