ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Editorial

The accusations of the sex abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy on Guam must be investigated and those who perpetrated and enabled such heinous activity must be exposed and brought to some semblance of justice.

On Monday, 73-year-old Leo Tudela accused three members of the clergy, by name, of sexually abusing him in the 1950s. His allegations followed those made in the last few months against Archbishop Apron who has been accused of molesting four altar servers when he was a parish priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

It is our understanding that the allegations against Apuron are being investigated by the Vatican and we expect that the results of that investigation will be made known. We also expect that Apuron will return to Guam to face the lawsuit that has been filed against him by his accusers. We understand that he has not been charged with a crime, at least in part because of statutes of limitations. But the accusations against him are serious and must be investigated.

The accusations made by Tudela are particularly troubling. We have since learned that Rev. Louis Brouillard, who was named by Tudela as one of his molesters, was transferred to Minnesota after 33 years of ministry in Guam, and within four years he was removed from active ministry. He was later named by the Diocese of Duluth as a priest who had been “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of young persons.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sussex Express

The head of an inquiry looking into sexual abuse by the former bishop of Lewes Peter Ball has made a shock resignation.

New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard announced her immediate departure as chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, in a brief letter to home secretary Amber Rudd yesterday evening (Thursday).

She later released a statement saying the inquiry is suffering from a “legacy of failure” .

Goddard was the third chairwoman of the public inquiry, which is investigating safeguarding failures in the Diocese of Chichester as well as abuse by the disgraced former bishop Peter Ball.

Ball, now 84, was jailed last year for sex offences against 18 vulnerable young men between 1977 and 1992.

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ST. LUCIA
St. Lucia Times

Archbishop Robert Rivas has asserted that adequate systems must be put in place to deal with child sexual abuse in Saint Lucia.

Rivas noted that the Catholic Church has had its own challenges dealing with the matter of sexual abuse of children by the clergy.

However he noted that over a period of time the church has been working out systems to deal with the issue to ensure the protection of children and justice for victims.

Archbishop Robert Rivas said measures are being adopted to make penalties imposed on the perpetrators are commensurate with the gravity of the offence.

He disclosed that every member of the clergy in the archdiocese has to complete a whole day workshop on the matter of child sexual abuse, what their boundaries are in dealing with children and what their responsibilities are as Priests and deacons.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Annette Blackwell
Newcastle [AAP]

A former assistant bishop at a NSW Anglican diocese where child sex abuse by clergy was widespread will continue his evidence to a royal commission on Friday.

Bishop Richard Appleby, who served as auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Newcastle in the Hunter region of NSW from 1983 to 1992, said on Thursday he was not aware during that time of allegations of child sex abuse against clergy and lay workers in the diocese.

A child sex abuse victim has given evidence that he spoke with Bishop Appleby in 1984 about being abused by a parish priest.

Bishop Appleby, who spent several hours in the witness stand on Thursday, told the commission that before 1985 there was a ‘caveat list’ where the names of clergy who commit serious offences could be recorded.

He had been asked how so many child abusers could make it through screening processes to become licensed clergy.

The list, used by bishops to check on job applicants, was abandoned in 1985 for legal reasons and it was 20 years before the church introduced a register to serve the same purpose, Bishop Appleby said.

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CANADA
Kingston Whig-Standard

By Sue Yanagisawa, Kingston Whig-Standard
Thursday, August 4, 2016

The sexual molestation trial of a retired 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest, who served in this area in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, concluded Thursday with his lawyer acknowledging that his client’s accuser “has had a very difficult life.”

“We’re all sympathetic,” defence lawyer Clyde Smith told Superior Court Justice Wolfram Tausendfreund, “but we don’t get to make the decision in this case on sympathy. We don’t get to make it on speculation either.”

Smith’s client, Robyn Q. Gwyn, was put on trial on five charges arising from a time period between the fall of 1984 and the summer of 1993. They include two counts of sexually assaulting the complainant when he was an adolescent and young teen; touching him when he was under 14 for a sexual purpose; sexually exploiting a position of trust; and invitation to sexual touching. Gwyn pleaded not guilty to all of them.

But assistant Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis told the judge Thursday that he’s seeking convictions only on the first two counts of the indictment — the sexual assault charges. And “the issue,” he told the judge, “is really sexual touching without consent and without the capacity to give consent,” because of the complainant’s age at the time.

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GUAM
KUAM

[statement from Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, SDB]

Updated: Aug 05, 2016

By Krystal Paco

A former Guam priest admits to molesting young boys. In an interview with KUAM News, Father Louis Brouillard says he’s repenting for his sins every day.

Earlier this week, 73-year-old Leo Tudela testified in support of Bill 326, a measure to lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases. In his testimony, he gave personal and painful details of at least three incidents where he was molested by members of the church. One of his alleged perpetrators was Father Brouillard. At the time, Tudela was 13 and serving as an altar boy at Santa Teresita Church.

Tudela testified, “I looked up and saw Father Louis sitting to my left and told me, ‘It is OK. You will feel good and don’t worry about anything.’ I was shocked and felt very uncomfortable. I was shaking, scared, and started to cry. I was totally embarrassed and ashamed of what Father Louis was doing to me. He was supposed to be a man of God.”

Father Brouillard is 95 years old today and lives in Minnesota. In a phone interview with KUAM, transcribed below, he admits there were others.

KUAM News – Did you molest some boys?

Father Louis Brouillard – Yeah.

KUAM News – You did? Do you know how many?

Father Louis – No.

KUAM News – Did you molest some boys while being a priest on Guam?

Father Louis – Yeah.

KUAM News – Do you remember a boy named Leo Tudela?

Father Louis – No, I don’t remember him.

KUAM News – Do you remember or have any estimation of how many boys you may have molested while on Guam?

Father Louis – No, I don’t have recollection of the number. No.

When asked why he molested young boys, the priest only had this to say, “Hard to say…I guess mostly it pleased the boys. I thought they were happy.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

A mother who is an Anglican priest says her church showed no compassion once she reported her son had been abused by a man training to be a priest.

The woman, using the pseudonym CKR, said Bruce Hoare, archdeacon in charge of ordinations at Morpeth College near Maitland, laughed when she told him a 28-year-old theology student had given her 13-year-old son a wind-up figurine of a man thrusting his penis into a sheep.

And she said Bishop Roger Herft, now Archbishop of Perth, “berated” her when she complained the diocese had not recorded her son’s sex assault complaint against the trainee priest.

CKR’s son CKU also gave evidence at a royal commission on Thursday and said he reported to police in 2002 about being groomed, shown pornography, molested and hounded by Ian Barrack when he lived with his mother at St John’s College in Morpeth in 1997.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A clergy abuse survivor has told a royal commission’s hearings in Newcastle that the Anglican church fought very hard to deny its duty of care.

The man, who can only be identified as CKU, gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The public hearings at Newcastle courthouse are looking at the past and present systems, policies and practices within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

CKU told the commission he lived with his mother at St John’s college at Morpeth while she trained to be a priest.

He said he was 12 years old when he met trainee priest Ian Barrack, who was aged 28.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

The Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, “berated” the mother of a child abuse victim after she discovered his diocese kept no records of a complaint that her son had been assaulted by a trainee priest, a royal commission has heard.

The woman, who cannot be named, subsequently received a $2000 “gift” from the diocese, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard today.

“I believe that the payment was an attempt at buying us off,” she said.

Her 14-year-old son, who also cannot be named, was preyed upon by trainee priest Ian Barrack, in the NSW diocese of Newcastle during 1998, the commission heard. Archbishop Herft was bishop of the diocese at the time

The woman, who was herself training to become a priest, said Barrack would buy her son presents including a wind-up toy figure of a man having sex with a sheep.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A jury has been told a veil of silence lasting 30 years has been lifted during the trial of a Catholic priest accused of child sex offences.

John Patrick Casey had been a police chaplain for two decades before he was arrested in July last year and charged on 27 counts relating to 18 allegations of child sexual abuse.

The 68-year-old is accused of molesting three boys on four separate occasions when each was staying with him at the Mallanganee Presbytery, west of Casino in northern New South Wales, in the mid 1980s.

Mr Casey, who has been on bail, pleaded not guilty to the charges, when he appeared in the Lismore District Court for the trial that began on July 16.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

A New South Wales priest forced to resign after abusing a child presided over a high profile memorial service two years after being pushed out of his job.

The now-dead Anglican paedophile priest Stephen Hatley Gray was placed on a good behaviour bond in 1990 for abusing a boy at Wyong on the central coast.

His case is a focus of a royal commission hearing into the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.

Parishioners and the boy’s family said they were assured Gray would never practice again.

But the ABC has learned he presided over a televised memorial service in the Belanglo State Forest in honour of two backpacker victims of Ivan Milat in 1992.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A mother who is an Anglican priest says her church showed no compassion once she reported her son had been abused by a man training to be a priest.

The woman, using the pseudonym CKR, said Bruce Hoare, archdeacon in charge of ordinations at Morpeth College near Maitland, laughed when she told him a 28-year-old theology student had given her 13-year-old son a wind-up figurine of a man thrusting his penis into a sheep.

And she said Bishop Roger Herft, now Archbishop of Perth, “berated” her when she complained the diocese had not recorded her son’s sex assault complaint against the trainee priest.

CKR’s son CKU also gave evidence at a royal commission on Thursday and said he reported to police in 2002 about being groomed, shown pornography, molested and hounded by Ian Barrack when he lived with his mother at St John’s College in Morpeth in 1997.

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GUAM
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agana

In the wake of a new allegation of sexual abuse involving the Catholic Church on Guam, I reassure all Catholics and the people of Guam that the Archdiocese of Agana takes all accusations of abuse very seriously. Sexual abuse is a grave matter and is to be treated as such.

I acknowledge the tremendous pain of Mr. Leo Tudela as he came forward to testify about allegations of abuse against Father Louis Brouillard and some others in the mid-1950s during public testimony at the Guam Legislature on August 1, 2016.

Upon learning of the news Monday, August 1, I immediately contacted Deacon Leonard Stohr and Father Patrick Castro, OFM Cap. and asked them to focus on contacting Mr. Tudela. Respectively, they are our Sexual Abuse Response Coordinator (SARC) and clergyman whom I designated to reach out to persons who make such allegations.

I also publicly announced our desire to meet with Mr. Tudela during news interviews on the following days. Now by way of this public announcement, I extend my prayers to Mr. Tudela and reiterate my desire to meet with him.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, SDB
Apostolic Administrator

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News August 5, 2016

Guam’s Catholic Church on Friday apologized to victims of a former island priest who told Pacific Daily News on Thursday “it’s possible” he abused altar boys in Guam in the 1950s.

A man on Monday publicly accused the priest of sexually abusing him as a child.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai issued the statement of apology after Father Louis Brouillard, 95, told the media he regrets the abuses and is seeking forgiveness from his victims.

“With the news that Father Louis Brouillard, a priest who served on Guam confessed to having abused altar boys on Guam in the 1950s, I convey my deepest apologies and that of the entire Church to Mr. Leo Tudela and all other persons who were also victimized,” Hon said.

The Vatican sent Hon to Guam in early June to temporarily oversee the local Catholic Church after sex abuse allegations against the clergy, specifically Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, started coming out in May. Apuron has so far been accused of molesting four altar boys in Agat in the 1970s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
August 5 2016
The Times

The huge British public inquiry into child abuse was thrown into disarray last night when the judge in charge of it resigned from her post.

Dame Lowell Goddard stepped down within hours of revelations made by The Times that she had spent three months of her first year in the job either on holiday or overseas, primarily in New Zealand, her home country.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Press Association

Britain’s troubled inquiry into child sex abuse has been thrown into doubt as New Zealand high court judge Dame Lowell Goddard became its third chairman to resign.

Dame Lowell said the investigation has struggled to shake off its “legacy of failure” with her shock resignation leaving abuse victims fearing there may be delays to the long-awaited inquiry.

Dame Lowell, 67, who was appointed in April 2015, had spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday during her time in charge.

An inquiry spokesman said she had spent 44 days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business and was entitled to 30 days’ annual leave.

Campaign groups and politicians have called for a replacement to be found “urgently”.

Dame Lowell did not give full reasons for leaving but said that accepting the job had been “an incredibly difficult step to take, as it meant relinquishing my career in New Zealand and leaving behind my beloved family”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Joseph A. Slobodzian, STAFF WRITER

A Philadelphia judge has set May 1 for the retrial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Catholic church official in the nation to be convicted over his supervision of priests accused of sexually abusing children.

Lynn, 65, who was released from state prison Tuesday on $250,000 bail, said nothing during the brief hearing Thursday before Common Pleas Court Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright.

Unlike previous court appearances in which he dressed in the traditional black suit and white collar of a Roman Catholic clergyman, Lynn entered court in dark slacks and a light blue polo shirt, looking thinner than at his first trial in 2012.

In addition to the new trial date, Bright ordered Assistant District Attorney Brian Zarallo and defense attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom to file all pretrial motions by Dec. 12.

Zarallo told the judge he believed several days of hearings will be needed to decide how much evidence from church personnel files on priests accused of sexually abusing children will be presented to a jury in the new trial.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

Kenneth Mahan
August 04, 2016

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is facing another lawsuit due to claims of covering up sexual abuse.

A press release from the Law offices of Brad D. Hall claims that Fr. Arthur Perrault used his position to access and abuse children in the Albuquerque area from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.

The suit asserts that Perrault used his position to access parishes, Catholic schools and Kirtland Air Force Base. It continues to say that the Archdiocese knew and protected Perrault while he was abusing children.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Duluth Aug 4, 2016

A federal judge has approved payment of about a half million dollars in fees and expenses for law firms working on the bankruptcy of the Diocese of Duluth.

Most of the money goes to law firms representing the diocese. Attorneys for the creditors committee, which represents sex abuse victims and other claimants, received about $60,000. The diocese is on the hook for those legal costs.

The church filed for bankruptcy in December. saying that’s the only way it can compensate clergy sex abuse victims and continue the church’s mission.

The move came after a jury ordered the diocese and a Catholic religious order to pay more than $8 million in damages to a man who was sexually abused by a priest. Despite some insurance coverage and some savings, the diocese said it didn’t have enough assets to cover it’s $5 million share of that judgment and possible compensation for other abuse victims.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By JOE SOUCHERAY | jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com
PUBLISHED: July 21, 2016

The story inside the story, apparently, was that John Nienstedt, who lived in the house across Summit Avenue from the Cathedral, was himself the subject of an investigation into alleged sexual improprieties. And that furthermore, the Vatican’s guy in Washington, D.C. — the temptation is to write this in the style of Mario Puzo — tried to stuff the investigation.

As the Pioneer Press reported Thursday based on newly available records, the guy in Washington, Apostolic Nuncio Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican’s ambassador, allegedly told Lee Piche and Andrew Cozzens to back off and shut down the investigation into Nienstedt. Piche was then an auxiliary bishop. Cozzens was an auxiliary bishop. Daniel Griffith, the pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis, worked with Cozzens and Piche as the liaison between the church and the law firm Greene Espel.

Greene Espel had been hired in January 2014 to investigate claims that Nienstedt had made inappropriate sexual advances over the years on a number of priests, seminary students and other men and that he allegedly sometimes interfered with the careers of the men who turned him down.

Judas Priest, as a guy I knew used to say. In other words, while the archdiocesan boat was taking on water and starting to list with the allegations of those sexual corruptions of children by priests, Nienstedt himself was also being investigated and even signed off on the investigation.

It sounds like Griffith told the law firm: “You are going to have free rein. We want to get to the bottom of this.’’

Four months into the investigation, preliminary findings included 10 sworn affidavits detailing behavior by Nienstedt that sounded simply tawdry but would have an added layer of seriousness if he was, in fact, using his power to influence careers. There was also evidence that Nienstedt had a close relationship with Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to sexually abusing three boys. Nienstedt and Wehmeyer were quite the social couple, apparently. Nienstedt even made Wehmeyer a pastor against the advice of people who apparently knew better than to put that character in charge of anything, much less a parish.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY KODY LEIBOWITZ THURSDAY, AUGUST 4TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG – Months after a grand jury report pointed to systemic child sex abuse spanning decades at the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, diocesan leaders are taking steps for supporting survivors.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is “partnering with state and local agencies to offer support to survivors of sexual abuse,” according to a release on its website. The release goes on to add that “resources and educational information will be featured regularly” in its biweekly newspaper publication, The Catholic Register.

The diocese says additional information will be shown on Proclaim!, the Diocesan television ministry.

Attorney general Kathleen Kane announced findings in March from a grand jury report that alleged a half-century long child sexual abuse scandal at the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Hundreds of children were sexually abused by more than 50 religious leaders and priests of the diocese, according to the report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Dame Lowell Goddard has resigned as head of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said.

The announcement comes just hours after the revelation that Dame Lowell had spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday in her first year in the role. …

An inquiry spokesman said she had spent 44 working days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business in the first financial year of the inquiry and that she is entitled to 30 days’ annual leave.

The inquiry has been beset by delays and controversies since it was first announced by the then home secretary Theresa May.

Baroness Butler-Sloss stood down in July 2014 amid questions over the role played by her late brother, Lord Havers, who was attorney general in the 1980s.

Her replacement Dame Fiona Woolf resigned following a barrage of criticism over her “establishment links”, most notably in relation to former home secretary Leon Brittan, who died in 2015.

Mrs May officially reconstituted the probe under Dame Lowell in March 2015 and placed it on a statutory footing, meaning it has the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Martin Evans, crime correspondent Robert Mendick, chief reporter
4 AUGUST 2016

The future of the independent inquiry into child sex abuse was thrown into doubt last night after Dame Lowell Goddard became the third chairman to resign.

Abuse victims said the inquiry had “descended into farce” and said they felt “betrayed” by her shock resignation. The inquiry,which they had complained was already beset by delays, is now in danger of collapse.

The 67-year-old, who is a high court judge in New Zealand, had faced criticism over the scale of her pay and benefits and also the amount of time she has spent abroad since taking on the role in April last year.

Under her generous package she had become one of Britain’s highest paid public servants with a £360,000 salary, a £110,000 accommodation allowance and regular free return flights to New Zealand for her and her family.

Since taking on the role she had spent more than 70 days overseas, either on holiday or working abroad.

She also admitted in a preliminary hearing last week that she did not have a clear understanding of aspects of English law.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard DNZM has today offered her resignation as Chair of the Inquiry which has been accepted by the Home Secretary.

The Home Secretary has confirmed the Government’s commitment to the Inquiry to ensure it continues in its important work.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Reuters

The head of a public inquiry into decades of child sex abuse in Britain resigned on Thursday, the investigation’s third leader to quit in the last two years.

The inquiry, which will last at least five years and is expected to cost about 18 million pounds ($27 million), was set up in July 2014 after a series of child sex abuse scandals dating back to the 1970s, some involving celebrities and politicians.

On Thursday its chairwoman, New Zealand High Court Judge Lowell Goddard, quit without publicly explaining her decision.

Her appointment was seen as an attempt to give the inquiry a credible head without links to the British political establishment after her two predecessors resigned amid criticism over conflicts of interest.

“Dame Lowell Goddard wrote to me today to offer her resignation as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and I have accepted,” interior minister Amber Rudd said in a statement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired clergyman has been convicted of “sinister and deliberate” sex abuse in the 1970s and 80s.

Granville Gibson, 80, abused two men aged 18 and 26 while he was vicar at St Claire’s Church in Newton Aycliffe, Durham Crown Court heard.

He denied the charges but was convicted of two counts of indecent assault after trial. He was cleared of five other charges.

The Church of England issued an “unreserved apology” to the victims.

The court heard Gibson, who was later made an archdeacon, was guilty of “sinister and deliberate” sex abuse and a gross breach of trust.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Thursday 4 August 2016

A senior Church of England clergyman has been found guilty of sex offences committed against two young men in the 1970s and 80s amid claims of a church cover-up.

A jury at Durham crown court found George Granville Gibson, 80, the former archdeacon of Auckland, guilty of two counts of indecent assault against two men, then aged 18 and 26. He was found not guilty of buggery and four other charges of indecent assault. Two charges of indecent assault were dropped.

The court was told that the former bishop of Durham, John Habgood, had been told about Gibson’s inappropriate behaviour, which occurred when he was a vicar at St Clare’s Church in Newton Aycliffe. A former clergyman told the court he “got the push” from the church after raising concerns about Gibson.

Gibson was found guilty of indecently assaulting that man.

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TEXAS
TXKtoday

By Field Walsh – August 4, 2016

After an initial court appearance Thursday morning, Anchor Church Pastor David Wayne Farren was released from the Miller County jail on a $25,000 bail bond.

David Wayne Farren, 41, appeared at the Miller County courthouse with Texarkana attorney Jason Horton for a first appearance on three counts of first degree sexual assault before Circuit Judge Brent Haltom. Horton handed the judge a motion asking that the case be sealed and that a gag order preventing police and court officials from speaking about the case be issued.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell expressed strong opposition to the gag order.

“I don’t believe this case should be treated any differently than other defendants,” Mitchell said. “We’ve not put gag orders in place in these cases before.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hartlepool Mail

The Bishop of Durham has offered an unreserved apology to the victims of a former archdeacon who was convicted of historic sex crimes.

Retired clergyman Granville Gibson was found guilty after a trial at Durham Crown Court of two counts of indecent assault, dating back to the late 1970s.

Right Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, said would commission a full and independent review of the circumstances surrounding the case.

“Following the conviction today of the Venerable Granville Gibson on two charges of indecent assault, we offer an unreserved apology to all the survivors and those affected by this news,” he said.

“We commend the bravery of those who brought these allegations forward, acknowledging how difficult and distressing this would have been.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Province of St. Philip the Apostle, Joseph Maffei was ordained in 1958. He worked in minor seminaries, retreat houses for youth, and parishes in Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and, for several years, in Montreal, Quebec. He died in 2009. Maffei was accused in a lawsuit filed in 2013 of having sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at the Marian Shrine in New Rochelle, New York, in 1978. His accuser also claimed abuse by Maffei’s fellow Salesians, Rev. Sean Rooney and Bro. Alan Scheneman. The case was settled, as announced in September 2013.

Ordained: 1958
Died: December 29, 2009

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A major inquiry into historical child sex abuse in England and Wales is to examine claims made against local authorities, religious organisations, the armed forces and public and private institutions – as well as people in the public eye.

Why has the inquiry been set up?

Reports of historical sexual abuse have sparked concern in recent years. Following the death of BBC DJ Jimmy Savile in 2011, hundreds of people came forward to say he had abused them as children. The spotlight has also fallen on sexual assaults carried out in schools, children’s homes and at NHS sites.

At the same time, there have been claims of past failures by police and prosecutors to properly investigate allegations.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up by the then Home Secretary Theresa May in March 2015. It will be conducted on a statutory basis – meaning it has the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

An attempt to launch an inquiry in 2014 was abandoned after two proposed chairmen resigned amid victims’ concerns over their links to establishment figures.

How will the inquiry work?

The focus for the IICSA will be on the failures by institutions to protect people under the age of 18 from sexual abuse. A report containing recommendations for the future will be published at the end.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

The THIRD person to chair a major inquiry in child sex abuse has sensationally resigned after facing mounting criticism.

Dame Lowell Goddard was brought in after two others stood down from the job amid controversy.

Baroness Butler-Sloss quit in July 2014 after questions were raised over the role played by her late brother, Lord Havers, who was attorney general in the 1980s.

Her replacement, Dame Fiona Woolf resigned following a barrage of criticism over her “establishment links”, most notably in relation to Leon Brittan, the former home secretary who died in 2015.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

The 67-year-old New Zealand high court judge was appointed to lead the inquiry following the resignation of two previous chairwomen.

But she faced heavy criticism today when it emerged she had spent three months of this year wither on leave or working abroad.

Mrs Rudd said: “I can confirm that Dame Lowell Goddard wrote to me today to offer her resignation as chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse and I have accepted.

“I want to assure everyone with an interest in the inquiry, particularly victims and survivors, that the work of the inquiry will continue without delay and a new chair will be appointed.

“I would like to thank Dame Lowell Goddard for the contribution she has made in setting up the inquiry so that it may continue to go about its vital work.”

The inquiry was set up in 2014 by the then Home Secretary Theresa May amid claims of an establishment cover-up following allegations that a paedophile ring operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Dame Lowell Goddard has written to Home Secretary Amber Rudd to resign as the head of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

This is the correspondence which passed between the two on Thursday 4 August.

From Dame Lowell Goddard:
Dear Home Secretary,

I regret to advise that I am offering you my resignation as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, with immediate effect. I trust you will accept this decision.

Hon Dame Lowell Goddard QC

From Home Secretary Amber Rudd:

Dear Dame Lowell,

Thank you for your letter today, offering your resignation as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

I know that this will have been a difficult decision for you to make, and something you will have carefully considered. I was sorry to receive your letter, but I accept your decision.

We all recognise that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is the most ambitious public inquiry ever established in England and Wales. Under your leadership, the Inquiry has already instituted and made progress on each of its three core projects: the Research Project; the Truth Project; and the Public Hearings Project. I am grateful to you for bringing your experience to bear in devising how the Inquiry will operate, guided by its three fundamental principles: that it will be comprehensive, inclusive, and thorough.

I know how personally committed you have been to ensuring that the Inquiry is a success for those at its heart: the survivors and the victims. You have consistently demonstrated your desire to leave no stone unturned in order that the voices of those victims might be heard. It is a testament to your commitment that you have taken the difficult decision to stand down now, having set the Inquiry firmly on course, and allow someone else to lead it through to the end. With regret, I agree that this is the right decision.

I know you will want to be reassured that work continues without delay, and most importantly that victims and survivors know that the Government’s commitment to this Inquiry is undiminished. I want to be absolutely clear. The success of this Inquiry remains an absolute priority for this Government. I am determined to keep the process on track and am taking immediate steps to appoint a new Chair as soon as possible. I will, of course, consult with victims and survivors groups before making a public announcement about the appointment.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manx Radio

Thursday, August 4th, 2016

Dame Lowell Goddard has resigned as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Home Secretary has confirmed.

It comes amid reports she spent three months on holiday or abroad in her first year in the £500,000 job.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, reassured victims of abuse that “the work of the inquiry will continue without delay and a new chair will be appointed”.

Dame Goddard, a New Zealand judge, was appointed after two previous chairwomen quit.

The inquiry was established in 2014 to look at claims of a cover up by the establishment, after allegations a paedophile ring operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Sandra Laville
Thursday 4 August 2016

The head of the public inquiry into institutional child abuse has resigned just over a year after setting out her vision for an unprecedented five-year investigation into historical abuse and its cover up.

In a decision that will throw the future of the major inquiry into doubt, Justice Lowell Goddard announced on Thursday evening that she was stepping down. Her resignation came 24 hours after reports criticising her for spending three months away from the UK since she was first appointed last year to lead the inquiry, which had been beset with difficulties finding a chair who was acceptable to a powerful lobby of victims’ groups.

In her letter of resignation to the home secretary Amber Rudd published on Thursday night, Goddard gave no reason for standing down. She wrote: “I regret to advise that I am offering you my resignation as chair of the Independent Inquiry into Institutional child abuse with immediate effect. I trust you will accept this decision.”

In a statement, Goddard said that deciding to take on the inquiry after it was beset with problems last year, “was a huge step to take as it meant relinquishing my career in New Zealand and leaving behind my beloved family”. She said the inquiry had a “legacy of failure” which had been “hard to shake off”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Caroline Mortimer @cjmortimer

Dame Lowell Goddard has resigned as head of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, the Home Secretary has said.

The embattered New Zealander became the third chair of the inquiry to resign after controversy over holidays and comments she made about not understanding English law.

The high court judge was appointed as chair of the inquiry by then-Home Secretary Theresa May after the two previous charis were forced to stand down over their links to establishment figures.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said in a statement: “I can confirm that Dame Lowell Goddard wrote to me today to offer her resignation as Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and I have accepted.

“I want to assure everyone with an interest in the inquiry, particularly victims and survivors, that the work of the inquiry will continue without delay and a new chair will be appointed.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Nick Butterly – The West Australian on August 5, 2016

Perth’s Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft promised to remove a priest at the centre of historic child sex allegations, an abuse victim has claimed, but no action was taken.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was also told how a notorious paedophile priest was found with a hoard of hard-core pornography, but Archbishop Herft recommended the priest be given only spiritual counselling.

The royal commission is examining claims of child sexual abuse in the Hunter region of NSW dating back decades.

Archbishop Herft was Bishop of Newcastle between 1993 and 2005.

An abuse victim given the pseudonym CKA told how he was abused by a priest, dubbed CKC, over a prolonged period when he was a boy, beginning in the early 1970s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the Philadelphia District Attorney’s ongoing vendetta against Monsignor William Lynn:

For the third time, the Pennsylvania court system has tossed out the unjust conviction of Msgr. William Lynn over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against other priests. And for the third time, the Philadelphia District Attorney vows to pursue the discredited case. Today, a judge has set a date—May 1, 2017—for yet another trial, even though Msgr. Lynn has now served all but two months of his minimum three year sentence for a conviction that has been repeatedly reversed.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the trial court “abused its discretion” in allowing evidence unrelated to this case. But D.A. Seth Williams, in a clear abuse of his prosecutorial discretion, “is just hell-bent on trying this case,” as Msgr. Lynn’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, noted. Msgr. Lynn has “done 33 months along with 18 months house arrest for something the Superior Court has now ruled was an unfair trial,” Bergstrom points out. Yet, “for some reason” Williams “continues to want to beat up on this guy.”

From the start, this case has been a flagrant anti-Catholic witch-hunt, perpetrated by Williams, his predecessor Lynne Abraham, and others. (Click here to read the shocking details.) One would think they would by now be satisfied that they have extracted their pound of flesh from this innocent man. But such is their maniacal hatred for him and the Catholic Church he serves, that they will not give up—no matter how many times the courts tell them what should have been obvious from the start: that they have no legitimate case, and never did.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Amy Remeikis

After scrapping the statute of limitations for institutional child sex abuse survivors, the Palaszczuk Government is moving to add some pages to Queensland’s law books and allow class actions.

As it stands, the Sunshine State has no class action structure in its legal system, forcing those who had cause, including the Queensland flood victims, to lodge their action in interstate courts.

Queensland will allow class actions in its court system for the first time, under legislation to be introduced later this month

After speaking to stakeholders following its announcement Queensland would follow New South Wales and Victoria and remove the statute of limitations preventing adult institutional child abuse survivors from applying for civil justice, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the government would also introduce legislation to allow class actions to be filed in the Queensland court system.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Thu 04 Aug 2016
By Alex Williams

The judge leading an inquiry into the extent the Church and other UK institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse spent three months of her first year in the position abroad.

In addition to an annual leave entitlement of 30 days, Dame Lowell Goddard also spent 44 working days in Australia and New Zealand, her home country.

A spokeswoman for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse told Premier Dame Goddard spent a portion of her time away from the UK learning from the experiences of the Australian royal commission on child abuse.

She added: “The chair spent 44 working days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business in the first financial year of the inquiry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chronicle Live

BY LAURA HILL

Former Archdeacon, George Granville Gibson, was found guilty of two counts of indecently assaulting men at Durham Crown Court

The Bishop of Durham has apologised after a former vicar was found guilty of indecently assaulting men at his church in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Church of England has also said it will investigate accusations that the then Bishop of Durham, John Habgood, swept concerns about the former Archdeacon George Granville Gibson “under the carpet” after one of his victim’s approached him.

Gibson, 80, of Worsley Park in Darlington was found guilty of two counts of indecently assaulting vulnerable men, at St Clares Church, in Newton Aycliffe , where he was a vicar.

One vulnerable victim was just 18-years-old.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Record Searchlight

By The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A former Philadelphia church official will be retried next year over his handling of priest-abuse complaints even though his child-endangerment conviction has twice been overturned.

Monsignor William Lynn will face a pared-down trial May 1, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court faulted the trial judge for allowing weeks of testimony from 21 victims to show the alleged cover-up by the Roman Catholic church.

The court found that testimony prejudiced the jury against Lynn, who was charged with endangering a single boy abused by a problem priest transferred to his parish in the late 1990s.

Lynn, 65, returned to court Thursday, two days after leaving prison, but did not speak at the brief hearing. The defense hoped prosecutors would drop the case, given that he’s served all but three months of his three-year sentence. But Lynn has emerged as a pivotal test case in the move to hold church and institutional leaders responsible for protecting pedophiles.

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GUAM
Washington Post

By Grace Garces Bordallo | AP August 4

HAGATNA, Guam — The archbishop of Guam told church investigators to contact those who say they were sexually abused by clergy after learning this week that another former altar boy accused a priest of molesting him decades ago.

Leo B. Tudela, 73, gave emotional testimony about the abuse he says occurred in the mid-1950s during a hearing Monday at the Guam Legislature. He urged senators to support legislation that would lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits against those who sexually abused children. It’s now two years.

It comes after three former altar boys and the mother of another filed a $2 million libel and slander lawsuit against former Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and the archdiocese, saying they were called liars when they raised allegations that Apuron sexually abused boys in the 1970s.

He has denied the abuse and not been charged with any crime. The Vatican appointed Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai as a temporary administrator after the allegations surfaced.

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IRLAND
Katholisches

(Dublin) Die Erzdiözese Dublin bestätigte am Mittwoch, daß Erzbischof Diarmuid Martin „vorübergehend“ die Aufnahme neuer Studenten in das größte Priesterseminar Irlands untersagt hat. Grund für den Aufnahmestopp ist der Verdacht des Erzbischofs, daß sich am Priesterseminar eine „Homo-Kultur“ eingenistet habe. Der Aufnahmestopp ist nur eine Maßnahme, um gegen die Homosexualisierung des Priesterseminars vorzugehen.

Am Dienstag sagte Erzbischof Martin gegenüber dem staatlichen Rundfunksender RTE, er sei „unangenehm“ berührt wegen anonymer Anschuldigungen gegen eine nennenswerte Zahl von Seminaristen des Sankt-Patrick-Kollegs von Maynooth, die schriftlich und im Internet verbreitet wurden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[Has the priest from Ettal abused even more children?]

Der wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs in 21 Fällen verurteilte ehemalige Ettaler Benediktinerpater G. muss sich seit Donnerstag erneut vor einem Münchner Gericht verantworten. Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem 46 Jahre alten Geistlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern in „zehn tatmehrheitlichen Fällen“ vor. Der Beschuldigte habe 2004 und 2005 mehrmals sexuelle Handlungen an einer Person unter 14 Jahren vorgenommen oder an sich von dem Kind vornehmen lassen. Seit April dieses Jahres sitzt G. in Untersuchungshaft.

Der Mann ist laut Auskunft eines Sprechers des Klosters Ettal inzwischen aus dem Orden ausgeschlossen und darf das Priesteramt nicht mehr ausüben. Die Entscheidung habe die römische Glaubenskongregation Mitte 2015 getroffen. Seit Herbst 2010 lebe der Betroffene nicht mehr in Ettal. Die Abtei übernehme beim neuen Prozess keine Kosten für den Beschuldigten, wie sie dies zuvor getan habe.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Former priest from Ettal acknowledges allegations.]

Von: Elmar Voltz und David Herting
Stand: 04.08.2016

Zum zweiten Mal musste sich heute ein ehemaliger Pater aus dem Kloster Ettal vor dem Münchner Landgericht wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs an einem Internatsschüler verantworten. Er räumte zum Prozessauftakt die Vorwürfe ein. Das Urteil soll nächsten Mittwoch fallen.

Gerichtssprecherin Andrea Titz bestätigte dem Bayerischen Rundfunk, dass es im Vorfeld ein Gespräch zwischen allen Verfahrensbeteiligten gegeben habe. Die Verteidigung erklärte, der Angeklagte wolle mit dieser Entscheidung dem Opfer eine weitere Aussage vor Gericht und dem Kloster Ettal weitere, „negative Publicity“ ersparen. Damit dürfte eine Haftstrafe für den heute 46-jährigen Jürgen R. unausweichlich sein, die Staatsanwaltschaft hatte offenbar im Vorgespräch mit den Verfahrensbeteiligten eine Gefängnisstrafe von acht bis neun Jahren gefordert, die Verteidigung will dagegen nur fünf Jahre unter Einbeziehung des vorherigen Urteils. Auch die Vorsitzende Richterin spricht von einer Gesamtstrafe von sechs bis acht Jahren. Die Plädoyers werden nächsten Mittwoch gehalten, dann soll auch das Urteil gefällt werden.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 4

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)

A trial date has been set for the only US Catholic official to ever do jail time for hiding and enabling child sex crimes. So now it’s time for church staff to stop protecting Msgr. William Lynn like Lynn protected predator priests. It’s time for every current and former church employee – from bookkeeper to bishop – who has information or suspicions about Msgr. Lynn’s complicity to overcome their fears, do their duty and call Philly prosecutors.

“This is excessively punitive,” some will claim. They’re wrong. This is about smart deterrence and simple justice. All of us have a duty to safeguard kids by holding those who don’t responsible for their wrongdoing.

No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Philly

Posted August 4, 2016

Although Msgr. William Lynn is free from prison after posting $250,000 bail on Tuesday, Aug. 2, he will be retried next year on the same charge of endangering the welfare of a child for which he was convicted and incarcerated for most of the past three years.

The former secretary for clergy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was arrested and charged in February of 2011, and convicted by a jury in 2012, for failing to properly supervise a now-laicized priest, Edward Avery.

Avery pleaded guilty at that time to sexually abusing a 10-year-old altar boy in 1999 at St. Jerome Parish in Northeast Philadelphia.

Msgr. Lynn, now 65, was the first high-ranking clergyman to be convicted in the United States for a crime related to the clergy sexual abuse scandal that surfaced in 2002. Locally it led to two Philadelphia grand jury reports, in 2005 and 2011, and a Pennsylvania grand jury report on the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in March of this year.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Adrienne Sanders and Lee Higgins, lhiggins2@lohud.com August 4, 2016

Yona Weinberg: A timeline

June 2008: Brooklyn district attorney indicts Yona Weinberg, a 29-year-old licensed social worker and bar mitzvah tutor, on numerous charges including nine misdemeanor counts of second-degree sexual abuse and six of child endangerment.

June 2009: Weinberg convicted of nine counts for victimizing two boys — seven counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two of child endangerment

September 2009: Weinberg sentenced to 13 months in jail. At his sentencing, Judge J. Reichbach criticizes the Orthodox Jewish community for supporting Weinberg, noting 90 letters were sent attesting to his character and innocence — and mentioning nothing about the victims.

September 2009: Weinberg loses appeal.

2010: Weinberg released from jail after serving roughly a year. He returns to his Brooklyn home, where he lives with his wife and young children. Weinberg is designated a Level 3 sex offender (high risk of repeat offense and threat to public safety).

June 2014: Police investigate a complaint Weinberg allegedly groped an 11-year-old boy after they were watching television in Weinberg’s apartment earlier that year. Prosecutors declined to bring charges, according to the Daily News.

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NEW YORK/ISRAEL
The Journal News

Adrienne Sanders and Lee Higgins, lhiggins2@lohud.com August 4, 2016

A child molester who moved from New York to Israel as he was being sought on a new misdemeanor assault charge has turned to the Israeli court system to quiet a Rockland County rabbi intent on spreading the word about his crimes on the internet and in Jerusalem.

Yona Weinberg, who spent roughly a year in jail for sexually abusing two boys in Brooklyn, lost his bid Tuesday in an Israeli court for an order of protection against Rabbi Yakov Horowitz of Monsey.

Horowitz was visiting Jerusalem to teach a child-safety class in Weinberg’s neighborhood, Har Nof. The order would have prevented the rabbi from lecturing there because the community center where he was teaching is within a third of a mile of Weinberg’s home.

The bid for the protection order followed Weinberg’s filing a defamation lawsuit against the rabbi, who put out tweets warning Weinberg’s neighbors in Israel of his presence. The lawsuit remains pending.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

4/8/2016

​The letter below was recently sent by the Adass Israel School to its community. This school has been embroiled in the Malka Leifer affair. While the letter is a welcome development, and contains both positive and important information, there are two glaring omissions.

Firstly, there is no acceptance of responsibility or an unequivocal apology – for that matter, there is no apology whatsoever. From the victims’ perspective, the letter would be meaningless, if not downright offensive.

Secondly, the encouragement to report allegations of child sexual abuse is vague. Adass should have made it absolutely clear that community members must report all allegations directly to the police. Indeed this requirement should have been supported with a clear endorsement by their most senior rabbis.

I suspect these omissions were deliberate, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, this letter is at least a positive development.

27 July 2016

Dear Parent and Community Members

We wish to advise the community of the steps we have taken to comply with the Government’s Child Safe Standards, which aims to change the culture in organisations to enhance the protection of children from abuse, including prevention and effective response. We strongly support and accept these measures.

​We are pleased to advise many of the requirements have been in place for some years and we are ready for legal compliance on 1 August 2016. A copy of the Adass Israel School statement of commitment and associated policies and procedures are available for perusal at the School Office. The process will involve continual review and we will keep you up to date with progress in terms of the enhancement of our policies and procedures.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

[with video]

By Morgan Zalot

Two days after he walked free from a northeastern Pennsylvania prison on bail, Monsignor William Lynn, accused of shielding pedophile priests, learned when he’ll face a new trial.

Lynn served nearly three years in prison before a judge granted him bail earlier this week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s decision to overturn his conviction, granting him a new trial. At a hearing Thursday morning, a Philadelphia judge set Lynn’s new trial for May 2017.

In the wake of Lynn’s release, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams vowed to re-try the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official, contending that he endangered thousands of children throughout the city’s Catholic parishes when he knowingly transferred child-molesting priests to cover up abuse.

Lynn’s now-overturned conviction is historical, because he is the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States ever to be charged with shielding pedophile priests.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News August 4, 2016

Guam church still funds priest removed from ministry 31 years ago for sex abuse

A former Guam priest who was publicly accused during a Legislature hearing this week as having molested an altar boy in the 1950s said Thursday “it’s possible” he abused altar boys on island and he’s asking for forgiveness from those he may have hurt.

Father Louis Brouillard, now 95, was removed from his position in 1985 while serving in a Minnesota diocese.

Brouillard spoke to Pacific Daily News on Thursday via telephone from his residence in Pine City, Minnesota, about 70 miles north of Minneapolis. Brouillard said he’s sorry about the possible abuses.

Leo Tudela, 73, a former altar boy, told Guam senators on Monday that Brouillard and two other church members sexually abused him around 1956. Tudela, who spoke during a public hearing on a bill that would lift a time limit on filing lawsuits against accused child molesters, is the latest in a growing number of former island altar boys who’ve accused members of the local Catholic church of sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Independent Catholic News

Thursday, August 4, 2016

From September, fifteen seminarians from the Saint John Vianney College Seminary (SJV), from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, will pursue their academic formation at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome, and are to transfer their residency from the university’s Bernardi campus to the Pontifical Irish College, Rome. The new arrangement will initially run during the academic year 2016/17.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin and the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Pontifical Irish College, along with the board of Saint John Vianney College, approved the new partnership at their June meeting. Welcoming the seminarians Archbishop Martin said: “The presence of these United States’ seminarians will enrich and consolidate the seminary community in the Pontifical Irish College, under the overall leadership of its rector, Monsignor Ciaran O’Carroll. Together with Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Saint Paul Minneapolis, I wish the project every blessing and success.”

According to SJV Rector Father Michael Becker: “This new partnership is a testament to the strong collaboration between the University of Saint Thomas’ Catholic Studies Rome Program and Saint John Vianney College Seminary. Our association with the Pontifical Irish College will only enhance what has already been established.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Miguel Otárola GLOBE CORRESPONDENT AUGUST 04, 2016

A 55-year-old woman has sued her former teacher and coach at a Catholic high school in Framingham, alleging that she sexually abused her for nearly two years.

The woman, who filed the lawsuit anonymously, claims that Diane Ryszewski abused her from 1975 to 1977, her first two years at Marian High School. During the woman’s freshman year, Ryszewski arranged for her to live with her, the suit claims, and “engaged in continuous acts of sex abuse and rape.”

Administrators and teachers were aware that Ryszewski lived with the student, but “took no action to protect [her] or to end the relationship,” the suit claims.

In an interview Wednesday at the Boston office of her attorney, Carmen L. Durso, the woman said that her relationship with Ryszewski was common knowledge.

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ARIZONA
AZCentral

Anne Ryman, The Republic | azcentral.com

Actor Michael Keaton portrayed Robinson in 2015 movie about investigative reporters revealing clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

The Boston Globe editor who led the investigations team portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” is coming to Arizona State University to teach.

Walter “Robby” Robinson will be a visiting professor, beginning in January, ASU officials announced this week. He will teach an investigative-journalism class at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and work with Cronkite News reporters.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 3, 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)

Boston area Catholic officials are accused of committed and concealing child sex crimes by a female teacher against a girl. We hope this lawsuit will bring comfort to some, knowing that an alleged sex offender has now been “outed” and knowing that youngsters are now safer. We also hope this case will expose what her colleagues and supervisors did and didn’t do to protect kids. And we hope others who have information or suspicions about her crimes will come forward now to protect others and begin healing.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Aug. 3, 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)

A female teacher who now lives in Charlotte is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl. For the safety of children, we call on Charlotte Catholic officials to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about the alleged predator.

We hope this new lawsuit, filed today in Boston, will bring comfort to some, knowing that an alleged sex offender has now been “outed” and knowing that youngsters are now safer. We also hope this case will expose what her colleagues and supervisors did and didn’t do to protect kids. We hope others who have information or suspicions about her crimes will come forward now to protect others and begin healing. And again, we hope Charlotte Bishop Peter Jugis will use his vast resources to sound the alarm about this credibly accused child molester.

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UNITED STATES
Forward

Sam Kestenbaum
August 2, 2016

Applications are now being accepted for a year-long course on New Age tantric sex, which include instruction on “total body orgasms,” “Prayer Sexing” and “Pleasure Dharma.” Classes begin in October and applicants who enroll before August 15 receive a generous discount.

One of the course’s teachers? Controversial one-time rabbi Marc Gafni.

Gafni, a New Age guru and former rabbi accused of abuses of power through his career, including molestation of a teenage girl, has another venture — as “wisdom teacher in residence” at the Institute for Integral Evolutionary Tantra.

“We need to be willing to stand with each other in sexuality,” Gafni wrote in an introductory message on the organization’s website. “We need to learn what that means with all of its complexity, with all of its shadows.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Burton Mail

A 77-YEAR-OLD man from Burton has been accused of sexually abusing a pupil at a Derbyshire school “twice a week” over a four year period, a court has heard.

The victim, who is now in his 50s, said John Thompson, a former junior school teacher, turned Baptist minister, would make him undress in his office at Crich C of E Junior School and then went on to touch the boy sexually.

The victim said his experiences at the hands of Thompson ‘destroyed my life’ and that he did not come forward until 40 years after the alleged abuse as he was “ashamed and embarrassed with myself”.

Thompson, of Tutbury Road, Burton, faces charges of six counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency with the-then pupil for offences that date back to the 1970s.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 04, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

The Concerned Catholics of Guam group is questioning why a priest accused of child sex abuse is still getting paid by the Archdiocese of Agana. As a matter of fact, the CCOG has been questioning the alleged actions of this priest since January 2015.

During a recent public hearing on Bill 326, legislation to lift the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases, Leo Tudela alleged he was abused by members of the clergy when he was 13 years old. He came from Saipan to Guam to attend Catholic school and eventually became an altar boy at the Santa Teresita Church in Mangilao. That’s where he encountered Father Louis Brouillard, who he alleges sexually molested him.

“I was shocked and felt very uncomfortable,” Tudela said earlier this week. “I was shaking, scared, and started to cry.” Since his testimony, apostolic administrator Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai has gone on various media, including KUAM Radio, acknowledging the tremendous pain Tudela is experiencing for coming forward and assures the community the matter has been referred to the archdiocese’s sexual abuse response coordinator (SARC).

Ironically, allegations involving Fr. Brouillard have been reported to the former SARC before. Matter of fact, in a report compiled by the CCOG in January 2015 it states that the priest was stripped of his faculties by former Archbishop Felixberto Flores after credible allegations arose against him. Fr. Brouillard then went back to his home state of Minnesota.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

NEIL KEENE, The Daily Telegraph
August 4, 2016

PRIESTS within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle conspired to burn a collection of child and gay porn videos owned by a paedophile priest.

A Royal Commission heard this morning that serial paedophile Father Peter Rushton recruited the help of another priest within the diocese to dispose of “hundreds” of pornographic videos stored in his home.

Former Archdeacon Colvin Ford told the commission that he was told the videos were burnt in the backyard of a rectory.

“He needed to use a 44-gallon drum in order to get rid of them,” Mr Ford said.

“He also told me that the covers of some of the videos depicted men and boys which I took to mean primary school age children.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

[with video]

By Joe Holden

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Debbie and Mike McIlmail say they couldn’t stomach watching the video, on Tuesday, of Msgr. William Lynn leaving state prison.

“My son was abused because of his decisions,” said Mike. Sean McIlmail was a sixth grader at Resurrection Parish School when it’s alleged that he was molested by Father Robert Brennan. Sean kept quiet about what allegedly occurred for a dozen years, until one day in 2012.

“I was blown away. I’m thinking wow. Everything I was always taught about the Catholic Church…a lie.” Mike said.

Sean made a report to police, all the while his parents say he was fighting a drug addiction. Just days before he would testify against Brennan at a hearing, he died from an overdose. Sean was 26.

His parents hold Msgr. William Lynn responsible for bringing Brennan into their lives. “He is responsible for so much pain and suffering,” Mike said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Fox 9

[with video]

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF/AP) –
A former Philadelphia church official is due back in court two days after he was released from prison when his child-endangerment conviction was overturned.

Monsignor William Lynn, 65, has served all but three months of his three-year sentence since his high-profile 2012 trial.

But Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams insists he will retry the case. A judge could set a trial date at the 10am Thursday hearing.

Lynn is the first church official ever charged or convicted over his handling of complaints that priests were molesting children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

[with video]

By Morgan Zalot

Two days after he walked free from a northeastern Pennsylvania prison on bail, Monsignor William Lynn, accused of shielding pedophile priests, is expected to appear in Philadelphia court on Thursday.

Lynn served nearly three years in prison before a judge granted him bail earlier this week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s decision to overturn his conviction, granting him a new trial. At his hearing on Thursday, a new trial date will likely be discussed.

In the wake of Lynn’s release, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams vowed to re-try the former Archdiocese of Philadelphia official, contending that he endangered thousands of children throughout the city’s Catholic parishes when he knowingly transferred child-molesting priests to cover up abuse.

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TEXAS
TXKtoday

By Field Walsh – August 3, 2016

A youth pastor at the Anchor Church in Texarkana is in the Miller County jail on charges of sexual assault involving a teen church member.

David Farren, 41, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on three charges of first degree sexual assault, according to officials. Farren’s alleged misconduct with the girl occurred when she was 16 and 17 years of age.

Farren is expected to make an initial court appearance before a Miller County judge sometime Thursday. Bail is expected to be set at that time.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

An Anglican Church abuse survivor has told a royal commission’s hearings in Newcastle his abuse continues to prey on his mind, 40 years later.

The man, who can only be identified as CKA, gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The public hearings at Newcastle courthouse are looking at the past and present systems, policies and practices within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

CKA told the commission he was an altar boy between 1971 to 1975 when he was sexually abused by a priest, known to the commission as CKC.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Alan O’Keeffe
PUBLISHED
04/08/2016

Following Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s decision, it was rumoured Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan would send his seminarians to Rome.

Reports suggested the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore had let it be known he would be withdrawing trainee priests from St Patrick’s College.

As the fallout from Dr Martin’s comments on the culture at Maynooth continued, Bishop Cullinan did not confirm his position on the issue.

However, late on Tuesday night, the Bishop confirmed to the Irish Independent that he had no plans to withdraw seminarians from St Patrick’s.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Una Mullally

The dogs on the street of Maynooth and everywhere else know that gay priests exist in large numbers.

The gay priest is so common, he is a cliche. This week, Catholicism’s most open secret was given another public airing when Archbishop Diarmuid Martin stirred things up by confirming that the archdiocese of Dublin will move three trainee priests to Rome, so that they will avoid St Patrick’s Maynooth seminary, where gay priests have allegedly been using the sex and dating app Grindr.

One would imagine many clergy members are furious at Archbishop Martin for drawing attention to Maynooth, and the sexuality and sex lives of gay priests. The church operates behind closed doors, resents answering to anyone but its own hierarchy, and has massive self-interest in maintaining a pious position in society. Why did Archbishop Martin draw attention to Maynooth now? Maybe he wanted Maynooth to get their act together. Maybe he wanted to get ahead of the second aspect of this news story, which is the much more serious aspect of sexual harassment.

So there seems to be two elements to the Maynooth story. One is around gay priests; that gay priests exist within the seminary, that they are having sex, that they are using the dating and sex app Grindr to communicate with other gay men or other gay priests in order to hook up.

The other is around accusations of sexual harassment, with one former trainee priest saying he was harassed by a member of staff. Men having consensual sex is obviously not illegal, but sexual harassment or assault very much is. Although the church’s warped attitude towards sexuality tends to categorise all sexual contact that takes place outside of heterosexual married partnerships as wrong, it’s important to separate these two elements. The church might view homosexuality as wrong, but it isn’t. Historically, the Catholic Church has failed miserably in adopting a proactive stance on harassment and abuse, as Ireland and other countries witnessed when the devastating incidents of child rape, torture, abuse and assault were exposed over decades, along with the church’s subsequent protection of paedophiles within its organisation.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Nicola Anderson, Ciara Treacy and Alan O’Keeffe
PUBLISHED
04/08/2016

A former lecturer at Maynooth has claimed a culture of “excessive drinking” and “sexual intimidation” at the college dates back decades.

Mark Dooley, a former philosophy lecturer at the seminary, yesterday claimed the culture in Maynooth was “all-pervasive” among staff as well as students.

“One was almost expected to conform to this culture and if one expressed any desire to be faithful to one’s vocation, one was made to feel like a pariah,” he said.

Dooley’s comments come after Archbishop Martin explained his decision to send seminarians to Rome instead of Maynooth due to allegations of a “homosexual, gay culture – that students are using an app called Grindr, a gay dating app”.

Martin’s controversial stance has left him isolated by his colleagues. Yesterday, an Archbishop and six bishops said they will continue to send priests to the embattled college in Maynooth regardless of the controversy.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Nicola Anderson

PUBLISHED
04/08/2016

The former senior dean at Maynooth College – who was “demoted and humiliated” after expressing concerns about activities at the college in the 1980s – has said the current saga reads “like deja vu”.

And Fr Gerard McGinnity warned “any would-be whistleblowers” to “be prepared for a difficult passage” unless they have someone there to protect them.

He said he can see “the features of what occurred 30 years ago repeated” in a lot of the recent narrative about the national seminary and said that it raises doubts that anything has changed there in the intervening years.

In 1984, as Senior Dean, Fr McGinnity took up senior seminarians’ concerns over the behaviour of then college vice-president Monsignor Micheál Ledwith in relation to junior seminarians – “including concerns of a sexual nature”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, August 04, 2016

Joe Leogue

A former senior dean at St Patrick’s College Maynooth said he has a sense of “déjà vu” when reading of the current culture at the college and that he was “shafted” by his superiors when he raised concerns about complaints made against a vice-president there in the 1980s.

In 2005, the Ferns Inquiry found it was “entirely understandable” that Fr Gerard McGinnity felt he was victimised as a result of his raising the concerns of seminarians.

The report detailed how seminarians had expressed concerns over the “allegedly extravagant lifestyle” and “alleged sexual orientation and propensity” of Monsignor Micheal Ledwith, who was vice-president at the college at the time.

Fr McGinnity said reports this week of a culture of secrecy and gay dating at Maynooth had features of what occurred in the college when he raised his complaints.

“It sounds and reads like a déjà vu in many respects, because I can see the features of what occurred 30 years ago repeated in a lot of the narrative about it,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Fourteen of the 26 Catholic diocesan bishops in Ireland have so far indicated they will continue to send seminarians to Maynooth, with some saying they will also send trainee priests to the Irish College in Rome.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said this week he had decided not to send seminarians to Maynooth due to “an atmosphere of strange goings-on there”.

He said it seemed like “a quarrelsome place with anonymous letters being sent around”, adding, “I don’t think this is a good place for students.”

Dublin seminarians would go to the Irish College in Rome instead.

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IRELAND
Christian Today

James Macintyre 04 August 2016

Fourteen of the 26 Catholic diocesan bishops in Ireland have said they will continue to send seminarians to the national seminary, despite the decision by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin to cease sending trainee priests there.

The move by Martin came because of what he described as “strange goings-on” at Maynooth, in north County Kildare, amid reports of a “gay sub-culture” and claims that some of the 60 resident seminarians were using the gay dating app Grindr.

Martin this week told The Irish Times: “I wasn’t happy with Maynooth…There seems to be an atmosphere of strange goings-on there, it seems like a quarrelsome place with anonymous letters being sent around. I don’t think this is a good place for students”.

Following the archbishop’s comments, The Irish Times emailed bishops asking if they were planning to continue to send their seminarians to Maynooth. Fourteen said they would.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Vivienne Clarke

An American canon lawyer says he suspects there is a great deal more to the story of what is happening in Maynooth seminary.

Fr Tom Doyle told RTE’s Morning Ireland that he has great respect for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and his judgement.

His comments come after the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin said earlier this week that he had decided to transfer three seminarians to Rome after concerns emerged about “strange goings on” and a gay subculture at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

Fr Doyle said he believed Dr Martin’s decision to withdraw seminarians from Maynooth was “an excellent decision.”

There is a toxic subculture in some American seminaries, he said, with a lot of backbiting. “If that’s the discord in Maynooth then he was right to take the steps he took and I respect him for that.

“If there is a subculture going on then it has to be addressed immediately and decisively. In the US seminarians who reported were not believed and the subcultures continued.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Nicola Anderson and Ciara Treacy
PUBLISHED
04/08/2016

A former lecturer at Maynooth has claimed “excessive drinking and dubious sexual practices” were in the air for decades at St Patrick’s College.

Mark Dooley, a former philosophy lecturer at the seminary, yesterday claimed the culture in Maynooth was “all-pervasive” amongst staff as well as students.

“One was almost expected to conform to this culture and if one expressed any desire to be faithful to one’s vocation, one was made to feel like a pariah,” he said.

Mr Dooley explained how he had been approached by a number of students in 2010 who asked him to sit down because they had a things to “get off their chest”.

The meeting was mediated by a priest and was attended initially by around 10 or 11 students who were “very hesitant” and “terribly upset”, he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

Dame Lowell Goddard, the head of Britain’s inquiry into child abuse, has spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday in her first year in the role.

This was made up 44 working days abroad and 30 days of annual leave, according to The Times.

Dame Lowell, 67, a New Zealand high court judge, was appointed to lead the inquiry following the resignation of two previous chairwomen.

It was set up in 2014 amid claims of an establishment cover-up following allegations that a paedophile ring operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

An inquiry spokesman told The Times: “The chair spent 44 working days in New Zealand and Australia on inquiry business in the first financial year of the inquiry. In addition she is entitled to 30 days’ annual leave.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Telegraph Reporters
4 AUGUST 2016

The head of Britain’s inquiry into child abuse has reportedly spent more than 70 days working abroad or on holiday during her first year in the role.

Dame Lowell Goddard, who is Britain’s highest paid civil servant, worked for 44 days in New Zealand, her home country, and Australia after taking up the role in April last year, according to the Times.

This is in addition to her 30 days of annual holiday leave, the newspaper reported, bringing the total to 74 days – which equates to three working months.

Dame Justice Goddard, 67, a New Zealand high court judge, was appointed to lead the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) following the resignation of two previous chairwomen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Thu, 04 Aug 2016

One of the most senior cardinals in France, Lyons’ Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, has been told by the prosecutor that he will not face charges following allegations that he had failed to report suspicions of child abuse by a priest under his control, as is required by French law.

Bernard Preynat, a priest in his diocese, was charged in January after admitting to sexual assaults on four boy scouts between 1986 and 1991 — crimes which his lawyers say he can no longer be convicted of. There are thought to be many more victims.

Associated Press has reported that the “statute of limitations had expired for some of the allegations” against the Cardinal and the evidence for other accusations was not “sufficient”.

In May at the height of prosecutors’ investigations into Cardinal Barbarin’s actions, the Pope said publicly that it would be “nonsensical and imprudent” to seek the archbishop’s resignation at this stage, although Cardinal Barbarin admitted last month to “errors in the management and nomination of certain priests”, while vehemently denying any cover-up.

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LOUISIANA
KLFY

[with video]

BREAUX BRIDGE, La. (KLFY)—Father F. David Broussard, Pastor of St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Breaux Bridge is accused of having hundreds of child porn images on his computer.

News 10 filed a freedom of information act request with Louisiana State Police. According to the initial complaint, the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office contacted the State Police Special Victims Unit on July 15.

The complaint says Father Broussard searched for child porn between July 2014 and July 2016.

Investigators found more than 500 images of child sexual abuse on Broussard’s desktop computer and hard drive.

The complaint says Broussard did the searches from the rectory where he lived.

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CANADA
Kingston Whig-Standard

By Sue Yanagisawa, Kingston Whig-Standard
Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The man accusing a retired Roman Catholic priest of sexually molesting him as child wanted Superior Court Justice Wolfram Tausendfreund to know, Wednesday, that he never wanted to be sitting where he was sitting in the courtroom.

Asked by assistant Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis what he was feeling when he bolted from the witness stand a day earlier, the 41-year-old said “frustration, having to be up here talking about my life in front of so many people I don’t know.

“Having them looking at me, smiling at me, winking at me.”

He spent the better part of two days this week testifying at the trial of 68-year-old Robyn Q. Gwyn, who stands accused on two counts of sexually assaulting the complainant when he was an adolescent and young teen from the mid-1980s into the early 1990s; touching him when he was under 14 for a sexual purpose; sexually exploiting a position of trust; and invitation to sexual touching.

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LOUISIANA
The Advocate

BY JAMES GILL | jgill@theadvocate.com AUG 3, 2016

It’s been seven years since Rebecca Mayeux filed suit against her parish priest and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, but the case has gotten nowhere as the courts mulled the competing claims of state and church law.

The case revolves around what Mayeux told Father Jeff Bayhi during confession. The diocese has maintained that the confidentiality of the confessional should prevent her from testifying about it, but a state Court of Appeal panel ruled last week that she can’t be gagged.

The vote was only 2-1, but this should have been a clear-cut issue. It would be a strange justice system that allowed defendants to evade legal liability simply by asserting the supremacy of their own doctrine.

Bayhi, being sworn to secrecy under pain of excommunication, will not be able to contradict what Mayeux says in court. But that is hardly reason enough to deny an aggrieved parishioner the right to speak and seek redress. We have judges and juries to weigh the truth of testimony.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Profile: Micheál Ledwith

Luke Byrne
PUBLISHED
04/08/2016

The current crisis at St Patrick’s College seminary is not the first time it has been subjected to controversy and allegations of sexual misconduct.

Micheál Ledwith, a former president of the institution, was defrocked as a priest by the Pope in 2005.

It came just over a decade after he suddenly stood down from his role at the college, amidst allegations against him of sexual abuse of a minor.

Mr Ledwith, who in recent times has lectured for a religious cult group in the US, was a rising star of the Catholic Church when he was appointed at the age of 42 as president of St Patrick’s in 1985.

He had served as its vice-president, a professor of dogmatic theology, written its history, and was due to celebrate the college’s bicentenary when he unexpectedly stood down in June 1994. At the time, there were rumours of allegations made against him.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

A church-run telephone hotline for child abuse victims was answered by a senior cleric who was later defrocked for having group sex with a teenager, a royal commission has heard.

Graeme Lawrence, then the dean of Newcastle’s Anglican Cathedral in NSW, also failed to tell those calling the hotline that he had a close working relationship with at least one priest who was the subject of repeated allegations of abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard Mr Lawrence was part of a powerful “Gang of Three” within the church, who protected another serial child abuser, the later Father Peter Rushton.

One victim, who cannot be named and who reported his abuse to Mr Lawrence on two occasions in the 1990s, said “it never occurred to me to ask ‘Are you a pedophile and who is your offsider?’

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell – AAP on August 4, 2016

A furniture removal crew was so shocked by pornography they found at an Anglican priest’s home in NSW that they refused to go back to finish the job, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

Colvin Ford, former archdeacon of the Upper Hunter in the diocese of Newcastle, told the commission on Thursday a manager of a local furniture removal company rang him in 1998 to say distressing pornography had been found at the home of Peter Rushton, a senior priest in the diocese.

Rev Ford said the manager Jim Jackson said “our men are no angels but they were shocked by the material”.

Rev Ford reported the conversation to Bishop Roger Herft and had a meeting with him, a retired bishop and Rushton.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 4 August 2016

An Anglican priest accused of child sex abuse 15 years ago may face a retrial, a royal commission has been told.

The trial against the priest, given the pseudonym CKC, fell over when his defence team, made up of prominent church people, produced a register showing that the abuse could not have happened when the complainant said it did.

CKA, the man who alleged serious prolonged abuse by the priest, told a hearing of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Newcastle on Thursday he would never recover from the impact of the church’s response, which was to throw its full weight behind the priest who ruined his life, he said.

“I cannot get over the sheer frustration of dealing with bishops and clergy who, I believe, knew full well what CKC was doing and did nothing,” CKA said as he outlined how at every turn he was met by a wall of friends all focused on supporting one another.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Ian Kirkwood

A former Anglican altar boy has told a royal commission of four years of abuse at the hands of a priest code-named CKC.

A trial against the priest was discontinued soon after it started and the 55-year-old former altar-boy – given the pseudonym CKA – told how his family suffered abuse and death threats as a result of him taking action against CKC.

He said an elderly woman from the church spat on him and said he was “nothing but a troublemaker”.

He said he had nails put in his tyres and could have died when he realised the car he was driving felt funny and he pulled over to find all of its rear wheel nuts had been loosened.

CKA named the person he believed responsible, a prominent lay figure in the Newcastle Anglican church.

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LOUISIANA
Catholic News Agency

Baton Rouge, La., Aug 4, 2016 / 12:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A state appeals court in Louisiana reaffirmed that Catholic priests cannot be forced by law to violate the seal of the confessional.

According to local news station WBRZ, the court ruled on Friday that Father Jeff Bayh does not have to disclose any discussion that took place during the Sacrament of Confession.

Catholic priests are bound to observe the seal of confession and cannot reveal to anyone the contents of a confession or whether a confession took place. Priests who violate the seal are automatically excommunicated.

At issue is a civil lawsuit involving a woman who said that in 2008, when she was a minor, she told Fr. Bayhi that she was being abused by a parishioner. The alleged conversation with the priest took place during the Sacrament of Confession. The woman is now in her mid-20s.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

[with video]

by MICHELLE R. SMITH and DENISE LAVOIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, August 3rd 2016

The elite St. George’s School has agreed to a sexual abuse settlement that would provide compensation for up to 30 former students who were assaulted.

The Middletown boarding school announced the pact on Wednesday in a joint statement with a group representing victims, saying the institution will provide an undisclosed sum to settle the claims. Paul Finn, a mediator who also worked on the clergy sex abuse settlement in Boston, will determine how much each person will receive.

The announcement was greeted with relief by some victims, dozens of whom have come forward in the past several months with stories of abuse by school employees and fellow students as far back as the 1970s and as recently as the 2000s.

“This was never about the money. This was about being heard, and St. George’s realized that what they have done to us in the past is completely wrong,” abuse victim Katie Wales Lovkay said in an interview. “It’s nice to know it’s done, it’s over.”

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RHODE ISLAND
CBS News

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — St. George’s School has agreed to a settlement that would provide compensation for up to 30 former students who say they were sexually abused, the elite Rhode Island boarding school announced Wednesday.

The Middletown school announced the pact in a joint statement with a group representing sex abuse victims, saying the institution will provide an undisclosed sum to settle the claims. Paul Finn, a mediator who also worked on the clergy sex abuse settlement in Boston, will determine how much each person will receive.

Katie Wales Lovkay told the headmaster in 1979 that an athletic trainer abused her, but he sent her to the school therapist and did not report it to authorities. A week before her 1980 graduation, she was expelled.

“This was never about the money. This was about being heard, and St. George’s realized that what they have done to us in the past is completely wrong,” Lovkay said. “It’s nice to know it’s done, it’s over.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Fox 25

[with video]

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. —
A former student at a Catholic school in Framingham is suing the school for alleged sexual abuse in the 1970’s.

The lawsuit claims a catholic high school and the Boston archdiocese looked the other way while a teacher repeatedly raped one of her students.

“The teachers knew, the kids knew. It was not a hidden thing. That’s why I thought there was nothing wrong with it,” said the victim.

The woman, who is now in her 50’s, says when she was a 14-year-old at Marion High School when the abuse began. The lawsuit claims the former teacher repeatedly raped her over a two year period.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Milford Daily News

By Brad Avery

Posted Aug. 3, 2016

BOSTON – A former student at a private Catholic school in Framingham is suing the school and the Boston Archdiocese for failing to stop a female gym teacher from sexually abusing her while the two lived together in the mid-1970s.

The student, referred to as “Jane Doe” in a complaint filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, accuses Diane Ryszewski, a former gym teacher at Marian High School in Framingham, of sexually abusing her while she lived at the teacher’s home in Hopkinton, starting at age 14, according to Doe’s lawyer, Carmen Durso, who held a press conference Wednesday in his Boston office.

At the age of 14, in 1975, Doe said she moved in with Ryszewski in Hopkinton because of some troubles with Doe’s family. At the time, Ryszewski taught physical education and sexual education at Marian. She also coached several school sports teams; Doe played on some of the teams.

Doe is now 55 and no longer lives in Massachusetts. In 2015, she came to terms with the victimization she suffered as a teenager and sought out Durso last year to seek compensation, she said in a press conference at Durso’s Boston law office. The woman agreed to speak to the press as long as she is not identified.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Source: Most Reverend Bernard A. Hebda

July 20, 2016, was an important day for this local Church. In open court, the archdiocese reported significant progress on its efforts under the Civil Settlement Agreement — reached and announced last December — to create the safest environment possible for children. Ramsey County District Court Judge Teresa Warner then commended the archdiocese and described our actions taken in concert with the Ramsey County attorney as “the right thing to do.”

A few moments later, in that same courtroom, it was announced that Ramsey County Attorney John Choi would be dismissing the criminal case later in the day. I’m convinced the fair resolution of those charges was an answer to the prayers of so many of you throughout the archdiocese, and for that I am most grateful.

Many have asked how it came to be that the Ramsey County attorney dropped the criminal charges. It was a long, involved process of calm dialogue, relationship-building and respect. That process began last fall when we attempted to negotiate a resolution of both the criminal and civil cases. I personally spent hours with Mr. Choi and his team and know that the archdiocesan staff and attorneys spent many more. I continue to be grateful that from the time of our very first meeting, we were able to agree on the paramount goal of protecting children.

However, from the outset, we disagreed with the county attorney over one important thing: an insistence that the archdiocese plead guilty to the criminal charges in some way, shape or form. The simple truth is that if we believed we were guilty, we would have pled guilty. But, I had received advice from experts in this area of criminal law and discussed the matter with the various consultative bodies in the archdiocese, such as the Finance Council, the Board of the Corporation and the College of Consultors. There was a broad consensus that the archdiocese was not guilty of a crime.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Aug. 3, 2016

In the wake of the dismissal of criminal charges, the head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese is maintaining its legal innocence in its response to abuse allegations concerning former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, drawing a distinct line between a failure and a crime.

In addition, Archbishop Bernard Hebda stated he will not release the investigative report into sexual misconduct allegations raised against his predecessor Archbishop John Nienstedt, calling it “unwise” at this point.

Hebda made the comments Tuesday in a column and interview published in the archdiocesan newspaper. They came nearly two weeks after the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office ended its criminal case against the archdiocese after it agreed to include an admission of wrongdoing into an earlier civil settlement along with several additional provisions.

The criminal case, brought last summer and soon followed by the resignations of Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, alleged that the archdiocese failed to protect children in relation to three minors sexually abused by Wehmeyer, a priest in the Twin Cities before he was laicized in March 2015. He is currently in prison in Wisconsin.

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OHIO
WDTN

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A Huber Heights priest who stole from his own church was sentenced in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Former St. Peter Pastor Father Earl Simone was sentenced for aggravated theft Wednesday afternoon in Judge Dennis Langer’s courtroom.

In March, Simone took a plea deal, admitting he stole more than one million dollars from St. Peter Catholic Church over a more than 20 year period. As part of a plea deal, Simone will spend five years in prison and will have to pay back $1.9 million to the church.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016

Statement by Barbra Graber, SNAP Leader, 540-214-8874, Mennonite@snapnetwork.org

We are grateful that the Mennonite Panel on Sexual Abuse Prevention did not affirm the choice of D. Stafford and Associates as EMU’s chosen consulting firm. For a range of reasons, we believe it is inappropriate and even potentially harmful for this law firm to ‘investigate’ EMU or any other Mennonite institution regarding sexual misconduct by church leaders.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Aug. 3, 2016

The Rhode Island director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) credited alumni survivors of sexual abuse at St. George’s School on Wednesday for a settlement agreement reached with the school.

St. George’s and representatives of alumni survivors Wednesday announced the undisclosed settlement with up to 30 people, whose compensation will be determined individually.

“We applaud the brave, compassionate and persistent victims … for being smart enough to unite, brave enough to share their pain, wise enough to consult attorneys and strong enough to endure a long process of justice, prevention and healing,” said Ann Hagan Webb, Rhode Island director of SNAP. “Their success should deter would-be wrongdoers and inspire suffering victims.”

Hagan Webb said, “We suspect that there are others who were molested at St. George’s who are still suffering in shame, silence and self-blame. We hope they’ll be inspired by the courage of their former colleagues and step forward now so they can recover and so that others can be spared.”

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Since holding his first press conference last week, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, has been meeting with local media outlets to address concerns of the public. In recent months, the Catholic Church has come under scrutiny for its failure to address child sexual abuse allegations that surfaced earlier this year.

Starting in mid-May, four people – Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia and Doris Concepcion – have made allegations of sexual molestation of altar boys by Archbishop Anthony Apuron when he was a parish priest altar boy at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

Hon arrived in Guam in early June to serve as the apostolic administrator for the island in the place of Apuron who had been put on leave by Pope Francis on June 6.

Apuron’s whereabouts are unknown and Hon reaffirmed his lack of information regarding Apuron. “He (Apuron) is on leave so he has free reign to travel where he wants,” Hon told the Post. Hon dispelled any reports that Apuron is on island.

Hon reiterated that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith was the Vatican authority responsible for investigating matters of alleged child sex abuse against members of the clergy.

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CONNECTICUT
WNPR

By RAY HARDMAN

Last week, the Hartford Archdiocese won a case against the insurance company who refused to reimburse the Archdiocese for payments made to victims of priest sexual abuse.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton found that the insurance company, Interstate Fire and Casualty, was in breach of it’s contract for refusing to reimburse the Archdiocese for payments it made to four victims of priest sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s and ’80s.

Under the terms of the insurance contract, Interstate agreed to reimburse the Archdiocese “for all sums arising out of any occurrence.”

“Occurence” was defined as an “accident or continued exposure to conditions which unintentionally results in personal injury.”

In federal court in April, Interstate said they nullified the claims based on the “occurence clause” because they believed the Archdiocese was aware that the three priests in this case were predatory priests, and did nothing to keep the four victims out of harm’s way.

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