ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By CINDY TRAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

The royal commission has referred more than 1,500 child sexual abuse cases to the police to consider for further investigation, a hearing has heard.

Up to 71 people were prosecuted after 1,659 matters reported since 2013 were passed on, imposing strains on resources of police forces in Australia, ABC News reported.

Chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Peter McClellan​ told a Sydney hearing the cases have led to a growing pressure to investigate allegations of paedophilia across the country.

‘Because of the volume of references, the resources of the various police forces have been placed under significant pressure,’ Justice McClellan said.

Justice McClellan said the commission had received information about 4,000 institutions but found it would be difficult to hold public hearings into all the cases.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

12 SEP 2016

A Catholic priest was given “a new start” at a NSW parish despite being under a cloud of child sex abuse complaints, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told that John Joseph Farrell, 62, was appointed to a clergy position at Tamworth east in 1984, not long after he’d left the Moree parish because of complaints he’d sexually abused a number of boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

Senior members of the Catholic Church were first informed a priest had molested young boys in 1984 but he continued to move around parishes in NSW for almost a decade before being suspended, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding a public hearing into former priest John Joseph Farrell who was jailed for a minimum term of 18 years in May after being found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children.
When Farrell was confronted with the allegations, the commission heard he admitted to church officials “he had done something stupid”.

Ms Furness told the commission Farrell was treated by psychologist Gary Boyle, declaring himself “a new man” after one session. Dr Boyle found that, “Farrell did not present as a man with true paedophilia”, the commission heard.

Farrell was moved to Tamworth and then to Merrylands and Kenthurst in Sydney.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

Catholic church officials were strongly opposed to the ordination of a priest who was later accused of molesting children and who was repeatedly transferred despite concerns from clergy and parishioners, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating how Catholic church authorities at Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, and Armidale, in northern New South Wales, handled allegations of abuse by the former priest John Joseph Farrell.

In her opening statement, counsel assisting the inquiry Gail Furness SC said that, at one point, Farrell told a Bishop there were incidents that could have “brought him 14 years apiece”, but that he was not questioned about that.

Ms Furness said concerns were raised about Farrell from the beginning of his career.

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Catholic

PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
BY DWAIN HEBDA
ARKANSAS CATHOLIC

When the movie “Spotlight” won the Best Picture Oscar earlier this year, some Catholics may have rolled their eyes given the movie’s true-story subject matter. Based on the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the priest sex scandal there and the archdiocese’s attempts to cover it up, it seemed to the uninitiated another case of Hollywood rewarding films that kicked around the Universal Church.

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor was not one of those people.

“I saw the movie, and I thought it was well done,” he said. “It wasn’t about something in the Church that we can be especially proud of, but I thought it represented what happened and how the reporters did their jobs in a way that didn’t overly-sensationalize things.”

Bishop Taylor’s assessment of the film was shared by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and sums up the attitude he’s brought to the Diocese of Little Rock. In his eight years in Arkansas, Bishop Taylor has made proper conduct between the clergy and the Catholic faithful a top priority.

“One of the most important obligations I have here in the diocese is to ensure the relationship between our clergy and our faithful is appropriate in every way,” Bishop Taylor said. “It’s not a particularly enjoyable part of the role of bishop, but it’s absolutely necessary for people to feel connected to the Church and know that their children are safe.”

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

12 September, 2016

The Royal Commission’s report into Case Study 33 – The response of The Salvation Army (Southern Territory) to allegations of child sexual abuse at children’s homes that it operated, was released today.

The report follows a public hearing held in Adelaide, which examined the experiences of former child residents, as well as the response of The Salvation Army (Southern Territory) (TSAS) to allegations of child sexual abuse of former residents of boy’s homes in Eden Park (SA), Box Hill and Bayswater (Victoria) and Nedlands (WA).

The Royal Commission heard evidence from 12 former residents of these institutions who spoke of physical and sexual abuse by officers and employees of TSAS, and other residents, that they suffered while they lived at the institutions.

TSAS operated 55 separate children’s homes between 1894 and 1998. TSAS estimates that more than 3,000 officers and employees were engaged to work at the homes over that period. Approximately 15,000 to 17,000 children passed through the homes operated by TSAS.

The Royal Commission found that many former residents of the institutions run by TSAS did not report their complaints of sexual abuse at the time it was occurring because they did not think there was anyone to tell, they did not think they would be believed or they were threatened with physical harm.

The Royal Commission also determined that some former residents were physically punished after telling officers or employees of The Salvation Army about their complaints of sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission found that before 1990, The Salvation Army had no policies or procedures which governed how to handle and respond to complaints of sexual abuse received in respect of its institutions.

However, the Royal Commission notes that at least from 1895, the Orders and Regulations for Soldiers of The Salvation Army (and its ancillary volumes), provide different bases for disciplinary action against an officer, soldier or employee of The Salvation Army for any physical or sexual abuse of a child within the care of The Salvation Army.

The Royal Commission concludes that in failing to take action against its staff and officers who were breaching Orders and Regulations prohibiting the mistreatment of children, TSAS provided a culture in the institutions in which staff and officers were able to continue their prohibited behaviour.

The Royal Commission heard that from 1995 through to 2014, TSAS had received a total of 418 claims and paid approximately $18 million to former residents of their institutions. The Royal Commission found that in the resolution of claims were instances in which TSAS relied on technical legal defences, statutes of limitations and vicarious liability principles.

TSAS has since reviewed settled claims, prioritising cases where claimants were not represented and cases where new factual material has come to light after a claim was settled.

The Royal Commission recommends that represented claimants who settled their claims at a time when TSAS relied on technical defences should be included in the review.

Read the full report.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

John O’Connor | Post News Staff

Another slew of bills are slated for the legislative floor today as senators begin session. At the top of the agenda is Bill 326-33, a measure that seeks to eliminate the statute of limitations for civil claims involving sexually abused children.

A series of public hearings on the bill saw testimony from alleged victims of Archbishop Anthony Apuron and other priests. Leo Tudela, the eldest of the accusers at 73 years old, alleged for the first time during his testimony in early August that he was sexually abused by Rev. Louis Brouillard in the 1950s.

Apuron’s accusers, on the other hand, each made public statements about their alleged abuse at different times. All four accusers, however, have filed a $2 million libel and slander lawsuit against Apuron and other officials of the Archdiocese of Agana.

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KANSAS
KSHB

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – The FBI is investigating a Kansas priest after the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas received a report that one of its priests had visited inappropriate internet websites depicting minors.

The Archdiocese said they notified the FBI immediately on September 9 and have suspended Father Chris Rossman of the Annunciation Church in Baldwin City and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lapeer, Kansas.

The Archdiocese asks anyone who has knowledge of inappropriate conduct by any priest, deacon, employee or volunteer to please contact the confidential report line at (913) 647-3051 to make a report to Jan Saylor, Archdiocesan Report Investigator, or call law enforcement directly.

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KANSAS
KMBC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, said a priest has been suspended from ministry during an investigation that he had visited inappropriate websites, including those depicting minors.

Officials said they received a report about the Rev. Chris Rossman on Friday and notified the FBI immediately.

Rossman is the pastor at Annunciation Church in Baldwin City, Kansas, and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lapeer, Kansas.

Officials said his suspension will depend on the outcome of investigations by law enforcement officials and the archdiocese. The archdiocese promised full cooperation with police and will make additional comments after the police investigation ends.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A priest claimed he was in love with a 14-year-old girl so the judge aquitted him because, “It was love.”]

Don Marino, 55 anni all’epoca dei fatti, è il parroco di un paese in provincia di Campobasso. Per molto tempo ha intrattenuto una relazione sessuale con una ragazzina di 14 anni che era rimasta orfana. Secondo quanto denunciato, i rapporti tra i due sarebbero iniziati però quando la giovane di anni ne aveva 13. La vicenda, denunciata dai portali locali, è divenuta di rilievo nazionale grazie anche al portale Rete L’Abuso, gestito dall’associazione che raccoglie le vittime dei preti pedofili. La ragazzina cresce e la relazione si consolida, finché a 17 anni non cambia tutto e la giovane decide di ribellarsi: è ottobre di quattro anni fa.

Secondo la giovane, le violenze del parroco le avrebbero provocato disturbi psichici e fisici, oltre a causarle la caduta nel tunnel dell’anoressia. Denuncia tutto al vescovo, Monsignor Gianfranco De Luca, ancora oggi a capo della diocesi, che chiede spiegazioni a don Marino. Questi conferma la versione della ragazza e viene allontanato per questo dalla parrocchia. La ragazza a quel punto denuncia tutto alla Procura, ma non lo fa subito, fa passare qualche mese, spaventata forse dalle voci che potrebbero correre in paese.

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ITALIA
Palermo Today

Avrebbe chiesto ai ragazzini che frequentavano la parrocchia di aiutarlo a soddisfare i “desideri dello spirito”, mentre alle giovani conquiste fatte tramite internet avrebbe regalato ricariche telefoniche in cambio di fotografie delle loro parti intime. Sono alcuni dei retroscena – riportati dal Giornale di Sicilia – dell’arresto di Giusto Francesco Palazzotto, il novizio originario di Misilmeri accusato di tentato adescamento di minori, detenzione di materiale pedopornografico, violenza sessuale e tentati atti sessuali con minore.

Palazzotto, 46 anni, appartiene all’ordine dei Cusmaniani e stava facedo il suo percorso di fede nella chiesa del Cuore eucaristico di corso Calatafimi. Adesso è ai domiciliari e, interrogato dai magistrati, ha respinto ogni accusa. L’ordinanza di custodia cautelare è stata emessa dal gip su richiesta del pool coordinato dal procuratore aggiunto Salvatore De Luca.

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CANADA
Canadian Jewish News

By Janice Arnold, Staff Reporter

Twenty-one rabbis in Canada are among 300 Orthodox rabbis who have signed a strongly -worded warning of the necessity to respond in a forthright manner to sexual abuse of children in the Orthodox Jewish community.

Released in August, the proclamation was prompted by victims’ suicides “committed as a direct result of child sexual abuse,” as well as other physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences.

Ignoring abuse allegations, shaming accusers and not bringing suspected incidents to the attention of secular authorities is immoral and contrary to Jewish law, they say.

The rabbis, who are mainly from the United States and Israel, acknowledge that perpetrators include family members, teachers, counsellors, youth leaders, professionals and rabbis.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Sep. 10, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — An arbitration process with 30 victims in the St. George’s School sex-abuse scandal “will be wrapping up in the next few days,” and they will probably receive their undisclosed compensation “within the month,” according to Carmen L. Durso, one of their attorneys.

Meanwhile, five of the 31 other victims identified in an independent investigator’s report — released Sept. 1 — are talking with lawyers Durso and Eric MacLeish about possibly filing claims, MacLeish said.

Also, a nascent group of survivors and advocates are planning on pushing for comprehensive reforms, so that the future does not repeat the past, the lawyers say.

“We are not going to let this whole incident pass without advocating for real reforms in the future,” said MacLeish.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

September 10, 2016

THE Press Council considered a complaint by Margaret Masters about two articles in The Sunday Times headed “Swan Homes hired killer” on 13 September 2015 and “Church calls cops over Swan Homes” on 20 September 2015. The articles were also published online by PerthNow with different headlines. The articles reported on allegations by former child residents of the Swan Homes orphanage of abuse by a former house master, Leonard Darcey, and Mrs Master’s father, children’s home director Angus Peterkin.

The Council’s Standards of Practice require publications to take reasonable steps to ensure factual material is accurate and not misleading and presented with reasonable fairness and balance (General Principles 1 and 3). If the material is significantly inaccurate or misleading or not reasonably fair and balanced, publications must take reasonable steps to provide adequate remedial action or an opportunity for a response to be published (General Principles 2 and 4). …

The publication said the articles were based on the recollections of seven former residents which included allegations of sexual and physical abuse by Mr Peterkin; that it reported the experiences of the two brothers on the basis of compelling and believable first-hand accounts and it also took into account the statement made by the Anglican Archdiocese of Perth confirming it had assessed four cases of abuse. The publication said that on considering the complaint from Mrs Masters it had changed the online article to refer to confirmation of complaints instead of confirmation of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

As with any text, there are a number of different ways one might approach Vincent Panettiere’s new novel These Thy Gifts (Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2016). The plot certainly deserves attention. It’s frankly engrossing, spanning the history of American Catholicism from the post-World War II period to the present in a way that mimics the action of a camera scanning back and forth from period to period. The camera metaphor is not beside the point, since the novel itself makes frequent references to classic films and is self-consciously aware of the way in which it mimics theater and probes the thin (perhaps nonexistent) line between fact and fiction.

Another way to approach These Thy Gifts is as commentary on what has happened to American Catholicism as it emerged from its ethnic ghettoes with their family-centered parishes in mid-20th-century America and became the thing it is now — in much of the country, a suburban phenomenon with priests and bishops raised in families with little connection to the working-class struggles that gave the Catholicism of the past such strong sympathy for working people, and caused many Catholics to vote Democratic. Whereas today, the pastoral leaders of the church, raised in families without strong concern for those who labor and struggle, do everything but stand on their heads in many cases to assure us that real, honest-to-God Catholics vote Republican. . . .

These Thy Gifts focuses on the priestly life of an Italian-American priest ordained in the post-war period — Stefano (Steve) Trimboli, son of Sal, a taxi driver and committed union member, and Gloria, a dressmaker. It moves in a series of flashbacks from Father Trimboli’s discovery, after he has been made a monsignor, that a young priest sent by his bishop to his parish has sexually abused a boy in the parish who happens to have a personal connection to Trimboli himself. The flashbacks survey Trimboli’s entire clerical history, as he seeks to come to terms with the recognition that there are bad priests and bad bishops in a church in which he himself had genuinely sought to fulfill his vocation to serve the people of God.

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FRANCE
Atlantico

[Isabelle Gaulmyn, deputy editor of the Catholic daily La Croix, says in a new book that she alerted Cardinal Barbarin of the pedophile behavior of Father Bernard Preynat from 2004-2005 while the cardinal had said he was not notified until 2007.]

Isabelle de Gaulmyn, rédactrice en chef adjointe du quotidien catholique La Croix, dit dans un nouveau livre avoir alerté le cardinal Barbarin des comportements pédophiles du père Bernard Preynat dès 2004-2005, alors que le cardinal avait dit n’en avoir été averti qu’en 2007, à l’époque où les faits étaient prescrits. Dans La Croix, Philippe Barbarin avait déclaré avoir été alerté pour la première fois en 2007, par “une personne qui avait grandi à Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon”. Isabelle de Gaulmyn révèle qu’elle était cette personne.

“Lorsqu’il a avancé la date de 2007, cela m’a surprise, parce qu’à cette époque, j’étais à Rome, et on ne s’était jamais vus.

C’était donc impossible. J’ai ensuite recomposé les événements en fonction de ma propre présence à Lyon et je suis allée faire une déposition en ce sens auprès des enquêteurs, en mai. Immédiatement aussi, je me suis dit que je ne pouvais pas être la première personne à l’avoir averti, et effectivement ce n’est pas vrai”, dit-elle dans une interview à l’Obs. “Aujourd’hui, je ne peux pas m’empêcher de penser qu’en 2004-2005, la plupart de ces crimes n’étaient pas prescrits et que l’histoire aurait pu être tout autre…”, ajoute-t-elle.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, September 9, 2016,

ALBANY — The upstate investor who created a political action committee to advocate for child sex victims is backing candidates in 12 state primaries this coming Tuesday.

Gary Greenberg, who was sexually abused as a child, has used the Fighting for Children PAC he created earlier this year to help fund and support the different candidates who support the Child Victims Act that remains bottled up in the Legislature.

Greenberg has held three rallies across the state — including one in New York City Thursday for Marisol Alcantara and Carmen de LaRosa. Alcantara is involved in a four-way Democratic state Senate primary in upper Manhattan, while de LaRosa is challenging incumbent Democrat Assemblyman Guillermo Linares in the same area.

Greenberg was also supposed to hold a rally in Rochester Friday for Rachel Barnhart, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Harry Bronson. The Rochester rally, however, was cancelled after a local assemblyman committed suicide earlier in the day.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

WHEN the chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Justice Peter McClellan, thanked the Newcastle Herald for its reporting of crimes against children, he was recognising the bravery of those whose determination to step forward has allowed the Herald to campaign as it has.

Although we like to believe that the truth will always find a way to emerge, and that good will eventually triumph over evil, history shows that this is not necessarily the case.

Not all perpetrators are caught. Not all bad deeds are punished. Not all victims or survivors are properly recompensed for the pain and suffering inflicted on them. But thanks to this Royal Commission, the spotlight has been shone like never before on the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, and, just as importantly, on those who have protected them.

It will be three years this week since the commission held its first public hearing. Although conducted in Sydney, it, too, related to events in the Hunter Region, examining the response of various agencies to a former head of the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, Stephen Larkin, who was prosecuted in 2012 for offences committed some 15 years earlier.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
9 Sep 2016.

THE Royal Commission’s hearings into the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese have concluded, and its Newcastle Anglican hearings resume in Sydney on Wednesday, November 16.

After watching 16 of the commission’s 18 sitting days at Newcastle Court House (I had two days off to cover the ICAC Operation Spicer findings) it is clear to me that while the details of every act being examined were different – obviously enough – the underlying pattern was the same, no matter if the perpetrator was a priest or a brother, an Anglican or a Catholic.

These were men with gigantically over-inflated self-importance – thanks largely to the pedestal of “clericalism” – whose gross sexual perversions were either ignored or covered-up by bureaucracies whose instincts and actions made the reputations of themselves and their organisations the cornerstone of their responses (if any) when forced for whatever reason to account for themselves.

And while the commission heard its share of apologies from various high-ranking church figures during the Newcastle hearings, it seemed to me that at least some of the contrition was grudging, at best. A good example of this came two Fridays ago when the chairman of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan, put it to Bishop Bill Wright that there were some Catholics “who don’t really accept that the spotlight . . . should have shone on the church to the extent that it has”.

I doubt I was the only one expecting the bishop to say the spotlight was warranted. Instead, he said: “I myself, your honour, you know, wonder – it sometimes seems that so many of the case studies are delving into matters of 30 and 40 years ago and I kind of wonder where the more contemporary spotlight should be falling.”

He had “this awful misgiving that there’s an awful lot of stuff going on out there now and we spend so much time on decades ago”. Justice McClellan saw things differently: “Thank you for that, but we have been charged with, and the community wanted the church, your church, amongst others, to face up to what happened in the past in a public way.” It was, as they say, a telling exchange.

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ROME
Crux

Inés San MartínSeptember 10, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME- When the clerical sexual abuse scandals first erupted in the English-speaking world, above all in the United States, many Catholic observers in other parts of the world, very much including the Vatican, dismissed the revelations as an “Anglo-Saxon” problem.

Eventually, however, awareness dawned that sexual abuse is actually a global scourge, which is a large part of the reason Pope Francis shortly after his election created a new “Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors” to advise him on reform.

Headed by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, the commission was established in 2014 and now has 15 members: 7 women and 8 men, both religious and laypeople, all of them experts in their fields, inclduing child protection trainers, psychologists, lawyers, survivors and specialists in human rights.

Among those joining the commission was Doctor Gabriel Dy-Liacco from the Philippines, an adult and adolescent psychotherapist and pastoral counselor for individuals, couples, families and groups, including both victims and perpetrators of abuse. Trained at Maryland’s Loyola University and the St. Luke Institute, he currently lives in the Philippines with his wife and children.

Dy-Liacco was in Rome this week, participating in the commission’s general assembly.

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AUSTRALIA
Starts at 60

Michael Grogan

As most Australians would be aware the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse has been holding hearings in Newcastle, New South Wales gathering evidence into how the Anglican Church handled child sexual complaints.

I think in this day and age it is not unusual to find someone you know who was either a victim or a perpetrator.

I was not a victim but I certainly knew at least three perpetrators. One was a teacher when I was at school who has since met his just desserts, another a priest I was friends with as a teenager, now deceased and in recent times a work colleague.

At the Newcastle hearings evidence has been given from a number of victims covering a long span of time, we know this atrocity has been going on a long time before anyone really took seriously the claims of the victims.

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OHIO
Vindicator

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

In its ongoing efforts to ensure that children are safe in every Catholic facility, the Diocese of Youngstown will expand its already existing safe-environment program in three ways.

First, it will implement an internationally recognized and respected program called VIRTUS to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Second, it has appointed retired Detective Sgt. Delphine Baldwin-Casey of the Youngstown Police Department as victim-assistance coordinator.

And third, Monsignor John A. Zuraw, chancellor of the Diocese was appointed coordinator of the Safe Environment Program.

In choosing the VIRTUS program and making these appointments, Bishop George V. Murry said, “These efforts will further strengthen our public commitment to protect children and vulnerable adults from any immoral and illegal activities by church personnel. Nothing is more important than protecting those who are defenseless.”

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MISSOURI
KCUR

[with audio]

Around a year ago, Bishop James Johnston came to Kansas City to lead the Catholics of northwest Missouri at a challenging time. He came in with an agenda not of his choosing: to clean up the mess of the sexual abuse scandal that engulfed his predecessor. But he also has hopes and priorities of his own.

Bishop Johnston spoke with guest host Brian Ellison on KCUR’s Central Standard about what his job entails, and about his journey from electrical engineer to getting the call from the Vatican to come to Kansas City.

These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity.

On his background

I grew up in east Tennessee, in Knoxville. I went to a Catholic grade school and high school, then I went to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (go Vols) and studied electrical engineering. It was there that I really began to look at my life.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

by MICHAEL RUBINKAM, The Associated Press

A nearly 40 percent increase in the number of reported cases of child abuse in Pennsylvania is straining the resources of county district attorneys’ offices, with one prosecutor saying her staff is overwhelmed by the rising workload.

Prosecutors say they support a 2014 legislative overhaul of the state’s child abuse law, which, among other things, expanded the definition of child abuse and made more adults legally responsible for reporting suspected cases of it. But they’re having trouble keeping up with the resulting surge in abuse claims.

In Centre County, investigators handled more than twice as many abuse claims in 2015 as the year before.

“We’ve become absolutely crushed by the increase in numbers,” District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said.

Pennsylvania lawmakers approved about two dozen measures in response to the child sexual abuse scandal involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Advocates say the overhaul was badly needed to help Pennsylvania improve its response to child victims.

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GEORGIA
News4Jax

By Elizabeth Campbell – Reporter
September 09, 2016

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A Glynn County magistrate judge on Friday found probable cause to order Pastor Ken Adkins to stand trial in Superior Court on two counts of child molestation.

Adkins, 56, pastor of the Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship, has drawn fire in the past for his remarks about homosexuals.

A young man who used to be a member of Adkins’ church told the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that Adkins molested him in 2010, when the boy was under the age of 16.

In court, prosecutors showed two pictures of Adkins’ private parts that were allegedly emailed from his phone to the boy. Adkins’ lawyer said that since the defendant had multiple businesses, he could have had more than one phone and others could have had access to them. He also said the timing doesn’t add up, as the pictures were sent in November 2014 to prove something that happened in 2010.

Adkins shook his head as GBI Agent James Feller testified that the alleged victim, who they are calling AJ, said his relationship with Adkins started when he was 15. The boy told authorities that he met Adkins through a mutual friend. After he joined Adkins’ church and entered a mentoring program, That’s when a sexual relationship with Adkins began, he told the GBI.

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WISCONSIN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (September 9, 2016) — Bishop David L. Ricken received notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) at the Vatican that Michael Carroll has been found guilty of sexual abuse of minors and is permanently restricted from priestly duties and ordered to live a life of prayer and penance.

A life of prayer and penance, as defined by The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, states Carroll is no longer permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to administer the sacraments. Furthermore, he is no longer able to wear clerical attire, or to present himself publicly as a priest.

Restrictions in Force Since 2002

Allegations first came to light in 2002, at which time Carroll was temporarily restricted from the exercise of public priestly ministry. The temporary restrictions have been in force since that time. Following diocesan policy, civil authorities were notified of the allegations against Carroll, which he categorically denied.

Following a determination by then Bishop David A. Zubik, that there was credible evidence supporting the allegations, the Diocese of Green Bay began the canonical penal process. This resulted in a trial utilizing three canon lawyers/judges from outside the diocese who ruled that Carroll was guilty and forwarded their findings to the CDF. At this point, Carroll’s canon lawyer filed an appeal with the CDF. A second trial was then ordered by the CDF and facilitated by the Archdiocese of Detroit. The second trial also returned a guilty verdict.

Bishop Ricken expressed his personal regret for the pain and suffering of all those abused by Carroll and for the long canonical process. We ask for prayers for all victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Diocesan Policies Rigorously Enforced

Diocesan policies for keeping children safe are and will continue to be rigorous. The policies include:

* Mandated background checks and abuse prevention training of all staff and volunteers in our parishes, schools and diocesan offices (approximately 36,000 people).

* Barring from ministry any clergy who have a credible allegation of abuse of a minor against them.

* Mandatory reporting of all credible allegations of abuse to local law enforcement authorities. This has ensured that due process within our legal system takes place. Year after year, the Diocese has demonstrated its compliance with its policies, with national standards, and adherence to state law.

* More information is available on the diocese’s website (www.gbdioc.org) under the section titled “Protecting Our Children.”

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WISCONSIN
NBC 26

GB Diocese priest stripped of duties – Former Green Bay Diocese Priest Michael Carroll has been stripped of his duties following being found guilty of sexual abuse of minors.

Carroll has been permanently restricted from priestly duties by the Vatican and can no longer administer sacraments, wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest.

The allegations against Carroll first surfaced in 2002 when he was the priest for a Wittenberg church. He was temporarily restricted from the exercise of public priestly ministry, then found guilty in a Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, a church version of court. That board ordered Carroll to be removed from his duties.

In a statement from the Green Bay Diocese, Bishop David expressed his personal regret for the pain an suffering of all those abused by Carroll and for the long Canonical process.

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BY GABRIELLE MAYS, FOX 11 NEWS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH 2016

GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Prayer and penance, that’s the life a former priest, found guilty of assaulting children, has been ordered to live.

The order came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) at the Vatican.

Allegations against 72-year-old [MIchael] Carroll came in 2002, according to the Diocese of Green Bay. The four allegations date back to the late ’70’s and early ’80’s, according to the diocese.

Since then, the diocese says Carroll was temporarily restricted from the exercise of public priestly ministry.

The former priest presided over three parishes, St. Mary in Marion for eight years, St. Anthony, in Tigerton and Holy Family-St. William in Wittenberg.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Sep 08, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Attorneys representing the Archdiocese of Agana and Archbishop Anthony Apuron have until Monday to file responses in a $2 million libel and slander lawsuit filed against them. The plaintiffs listed are Roy Quintanilla, Walter Denton, Roland Sondia, and Doris Concepcion on behalf of her son, the late Joseph “Sonny” Quinata.

Each of the plaintiffs alleges Apuron molested them decades ago while he was a priest at Mount Carmel parish in Agat. The suit follows press release and video statements from the archdiocese and Apuron, which defended Apuron’s innocence and called his accusers liars who were out to destroy the church.

The only filings to date were made on behalf of the church which requests that off-island attorneys from San Francisco firm Swanson & McNamara assist in the case alongside local attorney Jeffrey Cook.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Joanne McCarthy

“During the service, all I could think about was running to my mate’s parents’ place and grabbing the biggest two knives he had and killing Father Ryan. I didn’t do it. I should have.

“The damage that bastard’s done to my life, my family, my friends and to everybody else. I feel guilty that I didn’t do it and he went on to abuse other boys,” Gerard McDonald told the royal commission this week.

Four years after the Hunter region campaigned for a royal commission following the suicide of child sex abuse victim John Pirona, public hearings have taken place on how the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese responded to child sexual abuse allegations about a notorious paedophile priest and three Hunter Marist brothers.

McDonald was giving evidence about Vince Ryan, who was convicted in 1995 for offences against more than 30 young boys. Pirona was one of his victims, and his death in July 2012 – and suicide note with the final words “Too much pain” – became the final straw for the Hunter community.

In Newcastle Courthouse this week, two of Ryan’s victims, Scott Hallett and McDonald, gave shocking evidence of Ryan giving them wine as nine-year-old altar boys and urging them to have anal sex with each other in front of other boys, and of the priest having oral sex with the boys.

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ESPANA
Diario de Mallorca

[The Menorcan Sebastia Taltavull succeeds Bishop Salinas who was ousted for misconduct.]

08.09.2016

Mateu Ferrer Palma

El menorquín Sebastià Taltavull, obispo auxiliar de Barcelona, liderará provisionalmente la Iglesia de Mallorca tras fulminar el Vaticano a Javier Salinas por la conducta mantenida con su secretaria particular. Taltavull dirigirá la diócesis mallorquina hasta que el Papa nombre al sustituto definitivo del obispo defenestrado. Tras un tiempo prudencial para que Taltavull analice la situación eclesiástica local, y transmita los correspondientes informes, él mismo tiene muchas opciones de ser el elegido.

Se da por hecho que monseñor Salinas se irá de número tres del cardenal Antonio Cañizares en Valencia, como su tercer obispo auxiliar. Una rebaja de categoría que confirmaría el malestar de Roma por el daño generado con el virulento enfrentamiento de Salinas y el marido de la secretaria, Mariano de España. Las acusaciones de romper su matrimonio católico han pasado factura al prelado. La confirmación de su nuevo destino no se conocerá hasta que la Santa Sede lo divulgue oficialmente, esta misma semana.

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ESPANA
Agencia Baleria

La Nunciatura Apostòlica a Espanya comunica a la Conferència Episcopal Espanyola (CEE) que a les 12 h d’avui, dijous 8 de setembre, la Santa Seu ha fet públic que el Papa Francesc ha acceptat la renúncia presentada per Mons. Javier Salinas Viñals al govern pastoral de la Diòcesi de Mallorca i l’ha nomenat bisbe auxiliar de València, assignant-li la seu titular de Monterano, Forum Clodii.

A la vegada, el Papa Francesc ha nomenat Mons. Sebastià Taltavull Anglada, actualment Bisbe Auxiliar de Barcelona, Administrador Apostòlic de la Diòcesi de Mallorca.

Mons. Javier Salinas i Vinyals
Mons. Javier Salinas va néixer a València el 23 de gener de 1948. Va cursar estudis eclesiàstics al Seminari valencià, rebent l’ordenació sacerdotal el 23 de juny de 1974. És Doctor en Catequesi per la Pontifícia Universitat Salesiana de Roma (1979-1982). El seu ministeri sacerdotal el va desenvolupar en l’Arxidiòcesi de València. El seu primer destí va ser la Parròquia de Sant Jaume, a Montcada, de la qual va ser Coadjutor de 1974 a 1976. Aquest últim any va ser nomenat formador del Seminari Menor de València, càrrec que va exercir fins a 1977, quan va ser nomenat, per un any, Consiliari diocesà del Moviment Júnior d’Acció Catòlica.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[CARTA DE S.E. MONS. JAVIER SALINAS VIÑALS ALS DIOCESANS DE MALLORCA]

[The Vatican has removed the bishop of Mallorca after an alleged affair but Javier Salinas will be transferred to Valencia after the controversy of an “improper relationship”. He is alleged to have had an affair with his secretary. The situation become known after the woman’s husband became suspicious.]

LUCÍA BOHÓRQUEZ
Palma de Mallorca 8 SEP 2016

El Vaticano ha apartado al obispo de Mallorca Javier Salinas tras develarse que supuestamente mantenía una relación sentimental con su secretaria. El papa Francisco ha ordenado su traslado a Valencia como auxiliar y ha nombrado como sustituto temporal al auxiliar de Barcelona, el mallorquín Sebastiá Tartavull.

En diciembre de 2015, el Diario de Mallorca reveló una serie de informaciones que señalaban que Salinas había mantenido una “relación impropia” con su secretaria. Según el diario, el esposo de la colaboradora del obispo comenzó a sospechar de la relación estrecha que ambos mantenían, debido al gran número de horas que ella pasaba en el Palacio Episcopal y la cantidad de actos a los que acudían.

El marido contrató a un detective privado para seguir los pasos del obispo y su secretaria, y documentó sus movimientos con numerosas fotografías que desvelaban que ambos pasaban muchas horas juntos y que el prelado incluso recibía a su colaboradora de noche en el Palacio Episcopal. El esposo también recogió el cruce de llamadas de teléfono entre ambos y descubrió que su mujer llevaba un anillo con las iniciales del obispo. Entonces decidió enviar el expediente al Vaticano para denunciar una “relación impropia” del prelado con su colaboradora.

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UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

With pedophile priests, Twin Towers, and war crimes, USA is now The Falling Man
*
“There was something going on that was not familiar American territory about dealing with tragedy. There were things about that day that you weren’t supposed to say, you weren’t supposed to see.” – Tom Junot, The Falling Man

I’ve seen the mentality to which Junot refers in the pedophile priest crisis, and as a result we get news like this:

Cardinal Vincent Nichols wants to ban employers asking about criminal records – Tue 06 Sep 2016 By Antony Bushfield – The leader of Catholics in England and Wales says employers should not be allowed to ask about a person’s criminal record on a job application form. Normally applications require a declaration of any past dealings with police but Cardinal Vincent Nichols said people should not be compelled to disclose their conviction. Speaking at the Conference of Prison Chaplains, he said stopping the practice would allow convicts to “put their past in context and show who they really are. It is hard to envisage the crushing disappointment of someone who has worked hard to move away from crime and learn new skills, only to be rejected for job after job and never even given the opportunity to explain how he or she has changed since being convicted years before. (Read the entire story here at Premier UK.)

The British Cardinal delivers a wonderful well-timed, compassionate argument but-

Did any reporter ask the Cardinal if pedophile priests are included in his advocacy for recovering criminals?

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ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Daily

Friday 9th September 2016

A ROMAN Catholic priest from Bulawayo has allegedly impregnated a nun, leading to her banishment.

The Archbishop of Bulawayo, Alex Thomas, confirmed that Father Kevin Mthunzi Takaendesa had been disciplined for the offence.

He, however, dismissed reports that Father Takaendesa fled to England after impregnating the nun.

“Father Kevin was disciplined for impregnating a nun and I have it in writing but he went to England on holiday which was planned at the beginning of the year. As you know that it’s not easy to walk to England,” said Archbishop Thomas.

He declined to reveal details of the disciplinary measures, saying it was a private and confidential matter.

“Disciplinary procedures are there in every field and as a church we’ve a Code of Canon Law which lays down administrative policies. If there is any misconduct we use it to discipline members.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
8 Sep 2016

THE Marist Brothers have formally apologised to the family of Andrew Nash, whose suicide in 1974 at the age of 13 has been one of the prime symbols of the pain and suffering caused by child sexual abuse, examined at the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic hearing of the Royal Commission.

In an emotional seventh and final day of the Catholic case study, the head of the Marist Brothers in Australia, Brother Peter Carroll, acknowledged that three of its predatory brothers – Dominic, Patrick and Romuald – had many more victims than the dozens who had come forward so far.

At the close of proceedings, the commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said it was appropriate to acknowledge that the investigation was “founded upon the suffering of a great many people across many institutions throughout Australian society”.

Paying tribute to Gold Walkey-winning journalist Joanne McCarthy, Justice McClellan said it was important for the commission to come to Newcastle, where the suffering of “so many” was “first recognised by journalists and brought forward by the Newcastle Herald.

“Without those efforts it is unlikely that this Royal Commission would have taken place,” Justice McClellan said.

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ISRAEL
The Guardian

Giles Fraser

The Legion of Christ was founded in Mexico in 1941 by the Vatican’s favourite fundraiser, Father Marcial Maciel. A friend of Pope John Paul II, in his time he made millions of dollars for the Roman Catholic church and recruited thousands of young men into the priesthood. He was feted by wealthy Mexican widows and the neocon right. But that was before he was outed as a serial abuser of children and young men and discovered to have fathered at least three children with two women, whom he kept in luxury apartments in different countries. He embezzled funds. He was a drug addict. He was even accused of abusing his own children. As he was considered too old for a trial, the Vatican quietly retired him to Florida in 2006. He died two years later. But the order he founded struggled on, under new leadership.

The year after Maciel died, a digger on a construction site in the Galilee region hit something solid in the ground. The Legion of Christ had bought the site for $16m in order to build a hotel and retreat centre on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee – a freshwater paradise of fish and fruit blighted by occasional earthquakes and a long history of terrible politics. Jesus was born and died in the Jerusalem area. But the location for most of his adult ministry was Capernaum in Galilee, just up the road from the construction site. For Christian pilgrims, this tiny area has long been the perfect location for a “Jesus experience”.

But when experts from the Israeli Antiquities Authority arrived, what they found was the first-century town of Magdala, complete with an extremely rare first-century synagogue. Destroyed by the Romans after the Jewish rebellion some time around AD67, the Magdala synagogue (unlike that in Capernaum) was not overbuilt and so provides a fascinating portal to the world in which Jesus lived and taught. Arfan Najar, the Muslim archeologist who made the original find, showed me around.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston.com

By MICHELLE R. SMITH AP, updated on September 8, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Two victims of sexual abuse at the elite Rhode Island boarding school St. George’s have filed complaints with state licensing officials about the school’s former psychologist.

They tell The Associated Press that Peter Kosseff did not do enough to address and prevent abuse during his 35 years at the school, and they want his license revoked.

Kosseff, who still practices and has offices in South Kingstown and Newport, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The first complaint was filed in December and the other soon after, the two women told the AP. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesman for the Department of Health, which oversees such licenses, said such complaints are confidential and he could not confirm them. The department said Kosseff’s license was last renewed in May.

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NEW YORK
The United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York

Goal of the Alleged Scheme Was to Obtain a Religious Divorce for the Victim’s Wife

Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and William J. Bratton, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced the filing of a federal criminal complaint charging SHIMEN LIEBOWITZ and AHARON GOLDBERG with conspiring to kidnap and murder an individual in order to obtain a religious divorce for that individual’s wife. LIEBOWITZ and GOLDBERG were arrested yesterday in Central Valley, New York, while meeting to plan the kidnapping and murder. They will be presented later today before Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman in federal court in Manhattan.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “The defendants are charged with a chilling plot to kidnap and murder the intended victim. Over a period of months, the Complaint alleges, they met repeatedly to plan the kidnapping and to pay more than $55,000 to an individual they believed would carry it out. Thanks to the exemplary work of our partners at the FBI and NYPD, Liebowitz and Goldberg are now in custody.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said: “As if the plan to kidnap the victim and force him to divorce his wife in this alleged conspiracy wasn’t bad enough, the plotters allegedly decided halfway through the arrangement to go a step further and add murder to the list of their planned crimes. Our country protects freedom of religious beliefs and practices, but no one is allowed to plot a kidnapping and murder regardless of their motivation.”

According to the allegations in the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1]

According to Jewish religious law as observed in certain communities, in order to effect a divorce, a husband must provide his wife with a document known as a “get.” A woman whose husband will not consent to a divorce is known as an “agunah.” In the absence of the husband’s issuing a get, an agunah may be released from her marriage only through the husband’s death.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

JOEL KELLY, AAP
September 8, 2016

A WA Catholic schoolteacher has been charged with sexually abusing two female students.

The Maylands man, 47, indecently assaulted two female students aged 13 to 14 between January 2014 and July 2015 when he was a teacher at a Catholic college, police say.

He has been charged with five counts of indecent dealing with a child over 13 and under 16 and is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A West Australian teacher has been charged with child sex offences after allegedly indecently assaulting two female students at a Perth Catholic college.

The Maylands man, 47, is alleged to have indecently assaulted two female students at the school between January 2014 and July 2015.

Police said the girls were aged 13 to 14 years of age at the time of the alleged offences.

The man has been charged with five counts of indecent dealing of a child over 13 years and under 16 years.

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ROME
Chiesa

Dozens of executives and officials have been left jobless by the suppression of their offices. Including some bishops and one cardinal

by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 9, 2016 – It made news this summer when two new dicasteries consolidated no fewer than six previous curial offices.

The first consolidation unified as of September 1 in a new “dicastery for laity, family, and life” the functions carried out until then by the pontifical council for the laity and by the pontifical council for the family, plus reinforced supervision of the pontifical academy for life and of the pontifical John Paul II institute for studies on marriage and family.

The second consolidation will unify effective next January 1 in a new “dicastery for the service of comprehensive human development” the functions of the pontifical council for justice and peace, of the pontifical council “Cor Unum,” of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of migrants and itinerants, of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of health care workers.

To preside over the new dicastery, Pope Francis has called from the United States the bishop of Dallas, Irish by birth, Kevin J. Farrell.

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KENYA
SDE

By Kevin Ogutu | Friday, Sep 9th 2016

Pope Romanus Ongombe of the Legion Maria sect has denied allegations from one of the sect’s cardinals that he eloped with a married woman.

Cardinal Samson Arogo, the Head of Administration of the church headquartered at Got Kwer, Migori County, claimed that his pope eloped with three women.

Pope Ongombe denied the allegations, explaining that, “I have moved up the ranks from a padre, to bishop then cardinal, and now I am the pope. Everyone knows that I never engaged in such conducts. I am a pope installed by God.”

He said that the women he is said to have eloped with were brought to Got Kwer by God as well-wishers to help the church finish constructing the tomb of the sect’s founder, Messiah Melkio Ondeto, who died 26 years ago.

“To those peddling such propaganda, be assured that I will not tolerate idle talk next time. You will face God, not me,” warned the ‘pope,’ adding that the said woman will accomplish her mission, because several harambees that were held in the past did not accomplish much, and that there were even allegations of embezzlement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Eric Allison and Simon Hattenstone
Thursday 8 September 2016

Even the fiercest critic of Dame Lowell Goddard must admit she’s got a point. Earlier this week, Goddard revealed why she resigned last month as chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. She sent a 10-page critique of the setup of the inquiry to the home affairs select committee, saying it was too big, took in too many institutions (church, councils, schools, Westminster, Medomsley detention centre – to name but a few of its 13 strands), was too complex, went back too far (60 years), would take too long (possibly 10 years), and was underfunded.

Many commentators have been too busy sniping at the New Zealand judge’s annual financial package of £500,000, her apparent failure to grasp key legal issues, the amount of time she has spent overseas in the past year, and the lack of progress, to acknowledge the one crucial fact: Goddard is right.

It was to widespread approval that Theresa May, then home secretary, announced the launch of the public inquiry in 2014. But what a mess it has been. Its remit was to investigate whether public bodies and other non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales. In other words, pretty much all child sex abuse that has or might have occurred over the past 60 years. It was a remit so broad as to make success impossible.

In her memo this week Goddard wrote: “I have recommended in my report to the home secretary that my departure provides a timely opportunity to undertake a complete review of the inquiry in its present form, with a view to remodelling it and recalibrating its emphasis more towards current events and thus focusing major attention on the present and future protection of children.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Thursday 8 September 2016

An independent inquiry into the sexual abuse of children has been dealt another blow after hundreds of alleged victims of abuse threatened to boycott it.

Former inmates at Medomsley detention centre in Consett, County Durham, where abuser Neville Husband preyed on children and young adults over a 15-year period from the late 1960s onwards, have written to their lawyers stating that they want to withdraw from the inquiry after learning that it will not hear evidence from people who were aged 18 or over at the time they were abused.

The inquiry has been beset by problems. This week Dame Lowell Goddard, the third chair to resign, sent a 10-page critique of its setup to the home affairs select committee, calling for a complete review and remodelling to focus it “more towards current events and thus focusing major attention on the present and future protection of children”. She said the scope of the inquiry, including every state and non-state institution, meant that “the terms of reference in their totality cannot be met”.

On Wednesday the inquiry was further undermined when another group of victims, Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, threatened to pull out after suggesting that the independence of the inquiry had been undermined by the fact that the new chair, Prof Alexis Jay, had spent 30 years working in social services.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
September 9 2016
The Times

Almost a quarter of staff of the national child abuse inquiry have been recruited from the Home Office, its chairwoman disclosed yesterday, as she tried to allay fears that the body was not independent of the government.

Alexis Jay said that the 155 staff at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) were “bound together by a commitment to make this inquiry a success”. She added: “Their duty and loyalty is to the inquiry, not to any government department.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY PATRICK GYSIN 9th September 2016

THE new head of the nationwide child sex abuse inquiry has said the probe will not be scaled back.

Professor Alexis Jay, 67, admitted it was a “substantial challenge” but added she would not seek to revise nor reduce the terms of reference.

Last month, Dame Lowell Goddard, also 67, became the third chairwoman to quit the inquiry, which has been plagued with problems since it launched in 2014.

The former chairwoman told a judge this week that there should be a “complete review” into the probe, adding there was a problem with its scale and size.

One survivors’ group has said it may pull out of the inquiry because it does not believe it is “truly independent”, citing concerns about the involvement of the Home Office.

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MARYLAND
WUSA

Scott Broom, WUSA September 08, 2016

ROCKVILLE, MD (WUSA9) – The youth minister of a well-known Rockville church spent at least two years grooming a girl for eventual sexual abuse, Montgomery County prosecutors said Thursday.

Brian Patrick Werth, 32, was ordered held on $300,000 bail after his first court appearance in the case.

“There was an extended period of grooming,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Hannah Gleason. “He’s a danger to this juvenile and to the community.”

Werth’s relationship with a 16-year old girl he is accused of sexually abusing goes back to middle school prosecutors said.

Werth is accused of meeting the girl in a private area of the St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church on Montrose Road in Rockville the night of May 20th during a youth ministry “lock-in” overnight event.

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OHIO
Plain Dealer

By Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A North Olmsted youth pastor will spend a decade in prison for carrying on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old member of his church.

Brian Mitchell, 31, sat Thursday with his brow furrowed for most of the 90-minute hearing where Cuyahoga County Judge Patrick Corrigan sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Mitchell — a husband and father of three children under the age of 8— was the youth pastor at Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted when he met the victim.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual battery.

“I’m so sorry to (the) family,” Mitchell said. “I can’t imagine the work and effort you’ve had to put into fixing your family.”

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OHIO
Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
08 SEP 2016

An Ohio judge sentenced a “delusional” former youth pastor to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage member of the church where he served as a volunteer.

Brian Mitchell pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of sexual battery, and a Cuyahoga County judge rejected his attorney’s recommendation for house arrest but did not impose the maximum 20-year prison term, reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The 31-year-old Mitchell, a father of three children under age 8, began sending text messages to the victim, then 16 years old, that quickly turned to complaints about his marriage.

The girl, who told the judge in a letter that she had sought spiritual guidance from Mitchell, said she was afraid to ask the volunteer to stop sending the texts because he was a respected and powerful member of Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted.

Church leaders heard from a congregant about the texts, which stopped for awhile, but Mitchell eventually resumed his messages and then kissed her after driving the girl home in August 2015.

The next time he drove her home, she said, he began sexually abusing her, and the abuse continued for another month.

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IRELAND
KCLR

By Mary Ann Vaughan

A local solicitors’ office is looking into claims of sexual abuse at St Mary’s Cathedral in Kilkenny.

Smithwick Solicitors are urging anyone who may have either suffered abuse or have information about abuse there between 1970 and ’74 to contact them.

According to an article in the Kilkenny People, Joe Fitzpatrick from the Smithwick’s office says it was not a member of the clergy and a number of people have already come forward.

However, the article states they’re looking to hear from others that they believe are out there.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Jeffrey Blum September 8, 2016

Bishop Ronald Gainer recently submitted a letter to the newspaper stating that his “heart aches” for victims of sexual abuse. He apologizes “for the harm that has been inflicted on them.”

All well and good, Bishop Gainer. However, may we remind you that reconciliation is not as simple as saying you are sorry? It is also promising not to sin again by totally righting the wrong, not just partially.

Do your faithful Catholics contributing to the Sunday collection realize that a significant amount of their donation is taxed by your office and spent to fund the Catholic Conference? The title sounds like an organization dedicated to doing good works: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, not protecting pedophiles!

Do the faithful realize that dollars were spent on lobbying and lawyers to sway the Senate into stripping House Bill 1947, a bill that had been overwhelmingly passed by the House, to give voice to victims of sexual violation?

Do the faithful realize that this action gives a free pass to the 95 percent of sexual predators who are not members of the clergy? That it enables them to continue to violate a hundred thousand children?

Do they even hear the word “violate” in your toothless apologies? Abuse, rape, molestation are soft words. Shatter. Traumatize. Violate, Destroy. These words all more appropriately describe what happens to an innocent victim of sexual violence.

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CANADA
APTN

September 8, 2016

Jorge Barrera
APTN National News

The federal government says an Ontario judge’s ruling which eviscerated the handling of a residential school rape case threatens the multi-billion dollar Indian residential school settlement agreement, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Ontario Superior court Justice Paul Perell ordered Ottawa this past July to enter into compensation negotiations with a man who was raped as a boy by a priest at the Spanish Boys Indian residential school which was located near Spanish, Ont. Perell ruled the officials tasked with determining the legitimacy of claims and compensation levels under the settlement agreement’s Independent Assessment Process (IAP) botched the case.

Ottawa appealed the decision and in a document filed Wednesday argued Perell’s ruling overreached in its decision to accept the claim and oversee the setting of the compensation level instead of sending it back to the IAP for a rehearing.

“At issue are the finality and integrity of the IAP and IRSSA (Indian residential school settlement agreement),” said Ottawa’s appeal factum, which was filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal by Catherine Coughlan on behalf of the deputy Attorney General of Canada William Pentney.

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Matters

LITTLE ROCK,Ark.–According to the Arkansas Times, a letter from Bishop Anthony Taylor said that the diocese found at least two cases of sexual abuse several years ago by a former priest.

Robert “Bob” Torres, was accused by someone who said he had been abused when he was a child.

A family member of the person contacted the Diocese of Little Rock and a report was made to the Department of Human Services.

The following letter was issued to the Diocese of Little Rock about Torres on September 4 by Bishop Anthony Taylor:

“Last month, the Diocesan Review Board and I met with and listened to someone who had been the victim of clergy sexual abuse as a youth in our diocese. We earlier had been contacted by a concerned family member and at that time ensured that a report was made to the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and then began conducting our investigation. In the course of our investigation, we also established a second victim, and we immediately offered assistance to these two known victims and their family members. This abuse occurred over 35 years ago, and at that time both victims were members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Little Rock.

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ARKANSAS
KATV

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — A Catholic Bishop has acknowledge that a former priest in the Diocese of Little Rock sexually abused at least two victims more than 35 years ago.

In a letter to the Diocese of Little Rock, Bishop Anthony Taylor revealed that Robert Torres, who is a former priest who served in the Diocese of Little Rock from 1966 to 1994, was found to have sexually abused at least two children. Torres also admitted to sexually abusing “at least two or three other young people.”

In the letter, Taylor said that this happened more than 35 years ago to members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Little Rock.

Torres’ assignments and/or places of residence included the following: Ashdown and Hope (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Our Lady of Good Hope); Little Rock (Cathedral of St. Andrew; Catholic High School; Christ the King; Good Counsel; St. Theresa); Malvern and Arkadelphia (St. John and St. Mary); North Little Rock (St. Mary and Immaculate Conception); and Paragould (St. Mary)

Here is the full letter from Bishop Taylor from www.arkansas-catholic.org:

Last month, the Diocesan Review Board and I met with and listened to someone who had been the victim of clergy sexual abuse as a youth in our diocese. We earlier had been contacted by a concerned family member and at that time ensured that a report was made to the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and then began conducting our investigation. In the course of our investigation, we also established a second victim, and we immediately offered assistance to these two known victims and their family members.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

THE bishops and brothers have had a hard time of it.

At royal commission public hearings in Newcastle over the past month, senior Anglican and Catholic clergymen have struggled with their memories, stumbled over words, made concessions after documents have been produced and, on occasion, been forced to say they’ve not told the truth about their responses to child sexual abuse allegations.

They have “not recalled” a lot.

One of the Australian Anglican Church’s most senior clerics, Perth Archbishop Roger Herft, did not recall receiving serious child sex allegations about the now defrocked former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, in 1995, 1997 and 1999 from three separate sources, including another bishop and a priest, or of speaking to Lawrence on those three occasions and accepting his denials.

“Are you seriously suggesting to the commission that you have no recollection of raising an extraordinarily serious allegation with one of the most senior priests in the diocese?” said counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Naomi Sharp, on August 12, before the archbishop was shown a letter, written by him in 1995 to one of the complainants, confirming the allegation and his subsequent acceptance of Lawrence’s denial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

The Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has insisted its remit can be met, despite criticism from one of her predecessors and a survivors’ group.

Professor Alexis Jay is the fourth person to lead the inquiry after Dame Lowell Goddard quit last month.

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.

In a memo seen by The Times earlier this week, Dame Lowell said the inquiry was too ambitious, and called for a “complete review”.

The New Zealand High Court judge said there was an “inherent problem” in its “sheer scale and size”.

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ARKANSAS
Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor issued the following letter, Sept. 4, 2016, to the people of the Diocese of Little Rock about former priest Robert “Bob” Torres.

“Last month, the Diocesan Review Board and I met with and listened to someone who had been the victim of clergy sexual abuse as a youth in our diocese. We earlier had been contacted by a concerned family member and at that time ensured that a report was made to the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and then began conducting our investigation. In the course of our investigation, we also established a second victim, and we immediately offered assistance to these two known victims and their family members. This abuse occurred over 35 years ago, and at that time both victims were members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Little Rock. The abuser was Robert Torres, a now laicized former priest who served in the Diocese of Little Rock from 1966 to 1994. During that time, his assignments and/or places of residence included the following: Ashdown and Hope (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Our Lady of Good Hope); Little Rock (Cathedral of St. Andrew; Catholic High School; Christ the King; Good Counsel; St. Theresa); Malvern and Arkadelphia (St. John and St. Mary); North Little Rock (St. Mary and Immaculate Conception); and Paragould (St. Mary).

“Unfortunately, by Mr. Torres’s own admission and from the information we have been able to gather, it is evident that he likely sexually abused at least two or three other young people, whose names Mr. Torres no longer remembers and whom we have been unable to identify or locate. As best we can tell, the most recent of these acts would have been committed over 35 years ago, but I also know that his victims continue to suffer the damaging effects of his actions. Moreover, although we have received no substantiated allegations of offenses by any priests that were committed in recent years, I am deeply concerned for other possible victims of clergy sexual abuse from the decades prior to the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the implementation of our Safe Environment policies shortly thereafter — victims to whom we need to offer whatever assistance we can provide. Accordingly, if you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon, please know that you are not alone and that the Diocese of Little Rock stands ready to offer assistance. Please contact our victim assistance coordinators at (501) 766-6001 or Deacon Matthew Glover, chancellor for canonical affairs, at (501) 664-0340. Other than making any required reports to the civil authorities, your identity can remain confidential.”

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Online

By Brandon Riddle

CLARIFICATION
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described former priest Robert “Bob” Torres’ withdrawal from the Catholic church. According to terminology used in the church, Torres was laicized, or removed from status as a member of the clergy.

A now laicized former Catholic priest sexually abused at least two victims decades ago while in his role, the Diocese of Little Rock said in a statement released this week.

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor, who issued a letter Sunday to members of the diocese, said the abuse occurred more than 35 years ago involving Robert “Bob” Torres and members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Little Rock.

Information was not released regarding the victims’ ages at the time, though one was described as a youth.

That letter was distributed Tuesday through the diocese’s newspaper, Arkansas Catholic, detailing that an investigation began after the diocese was contacted by a concerned family member. A report was made to the Arkansas Department of Human Services, and the Diocesan Review Board met last month with the victim.

Taylor said in the letter that over the course of the investigation, the diocese found evidence of a second victim, immediately offering assistance to both victims and their families.

“Unfortunately, by Mr. Torres’s own admission and from the information we have been able to gather, it is evident that he likely sexually abused at least two or three other young people, whose names Mr. Torres no longer remembers and whom we have been unable to identify or locate,” Taylor wrote.

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MAINE
WABI

SEP 8, 2016

CATHERINE PEGRAM

A former youth pastor in Canaan accused of sexually abusing a young girl has pleaded not guilty.

27-year-old Lucas Savage, formerly of Clinton, is charged with unlawful sexual contact.

Savage was the director of ministries for the Youth Haven Ministry when he was arrested in March.

According to court documents, the abuse took place at his home, sometimes with his wife in the house.

Savage was indicted in July after the District Attorney says he rejected a plea deal.

Savage is free on bail.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Sarah Mac Donald | Sep. 8, 2016

One of Ireland’s best known priests, who is one of six clerics in the Irish church censured by the Vatican in recent years, claimed that a number of women who were sexually abused by notorious pedophile Norbertine Fr. Brendan Smyth, later committed suicide because of their ordeal.

In an interview with the Irish magazine, Hot Press, popular BBC radio presenter Passionist Fr. Brian D’Arcy, says he personally knew “young women, who took their own lives because of what Brendan Smyth did to them.”

Criticizing the mentality of protecting the institution which dominated the church’s approach to child abuse in the past, D’Arcy suggested these women “could have been saved, if it [the abuse by Smyth] had been reported earlier.”

“They could have been saved from abuse, which often leads to suicide. Abuse is an entirely evil concept, with consequences,” he told the magazine. “The church was one major part of society that did not do what it should have done to prevent abuse. Society and the church are both learning, but we should never take anything for granted — abusers will find a way around the system to continue their evil ways.”

He was highly critical of Cardinal Sean Brady, the retired Primate of All Ireland, over his role as a 35-year-old priest in a canonical investigation into allegations of child abuse made by two teenage boys against Smyth in 1975.

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ILLINOIS
Patch

JOLIET, IL — A former Joliet priest accused of sexual abuse in 2010 has died.

Father Francis Lee Ryan passed away Friday, Sept. 2. He was a resident at Watseka at the time of his death, according to his obituary. He was 83.

The alleged sexual abuse began in the 1970s when the then 14-year-old boy was a student at Providence Catholic High School, according to a Chicago Tribune article. The abuse lasted more than a year.

When news of the abuse broke in 2010, Joliet Diocese Bishop Daniel Conlon originally removed Ryan from ministry. Two years later, Conlon reversed his decision to allow Ryan to do “limited religious work by ministering to homebound parishioners in Watseka and Crescent City.” Conlon again reversed this decision a week later.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Isla Binnie | VATICAN CITY

Former Pope Benedict has acknowledged he was a better professor than a leader, revealing in a new book that he sometimes struggled to take decisions during his time in charge of the scandal-plagued Vatican.

However, in a book-long interview, the German-born Benedict, who is now 89, said he did not regard his eight-year stint as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as a failure.

Benedict stepped down as pope in 2013, becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, leaving behind a Church tainted with scandals and snarled by mismanagement.

In excerpts of the new book published on Thursday by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Benedict said he had not been comfortable in a leadership role. …

Benedict described difficult moments including scandals around child sex abuse by priests, which he was accused of not doing enough to stop, and over his lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

He also mentioned the “Vatileaks” case in which his butler leaked documents alleging corruption at the Vatican, but said overall there had been a “positive movement” during his papacy. …

A more unexpected anecdote emerged on Thursday when Seewald told German magazine Die Zeit that Benedict, found “serious” romance when he was a “good-looking young man”.

“One of his fellow students told me that he had an effect on women, and vice versa. The decision in favor of celibacy was not easy for him,” Seewald said.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
9.8.2016

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While retired Pope Benedict XVI said organization and governance are not his strong suits, he also said, “I am unable to see myself as a failure.”

In a book-length interview with the German author Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict said that when he resigned he had the “peace of someone who had overcome difficulty” and “could tranquilly pass the helm to the one who came next.”

The new book, “Last Testament,” will be released in English by Bloomsbury in November. The German and Italian editions were set for release Sept. 9, but some excerpts were published Sept. 8 by the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Pope Benedict insisted once again that he was not pressured by anyone or any event to resign and he did not feel he was running away from any problem. …

Seewald also asked Pope Benedict about reports that during his pontificate there was a so-called “gay lobby” in the Curia and the group protected certain priests by threatening to blackmail others.

The retired pope replied that a commission of three cardinals he had named to investigate a major leak of reserved documents and conduct an administrative review of Vatican offices and procedures identified “a small group of four, perhaps five persons,” which a few Vatican officials and the media later would refer to as the “gay lobby.”

“We dissolved it,” Pope Benedict said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Anne Rohrbaugh September 8, 2016

What is the motivation of the York Daily Record in publishing these articles?

Being forewarned by one of the Catholic priests in York regarding the York Sunday News’ printing the articles concerning the “shadowed history” of the handling of the abuse by Catholic priests in the Harrisburg diocese, I read that article and the articles that followed it.

I am a Catholic woman and a survivor of sexual abuse as child – not by a priest but by more than one adult man in my family. I agree that this “sin” is one that leaves a person in much pain – emotionally, physically and spiritually. I also agree that it needs to be addressed and punished.

I wonder, though, what is the motivation of the York Daily Record in publishing these articles and giving so much space to them in your newspapers? I see the motivation as two-fold: The first and most important, in my estimation, is for you to sell newspapers. The second is for you to embarrass and try to bring down the Catholic Church.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

A presentation Thursday highlighted Guam residents’ support for a bill that would help child sexual abuse victims.

Sen. Frank Blas Jr. received petitions containing more than 3,000 signatures in favor of his bill that would lift civil statutes of limitations in child sexual abuse cases.

Members of Silent No More, the Concerned Catholics of Guam and the Laity Forward Movement attended the presentation of petitions for Bill No. 326-33 (COR) at the Guam Legislature in Hagåtña. Family members of people who alleged clergy sexual abuse also attended.

The bill was authored in May and was later strengthened to help victims sue individuals and institutions.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Sep 08, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Members of the group Silent No More presented their petition to lawmakers on Thursday. According to founder Joseph Santos, the group collected 3,000 signatures in support of lifting the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, which is mirrored in Bill 326.

The bill was introduced amid allegations of molestation against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, as well as other members of clergy.

One of the alleged victims to come forward was Roland Sondia, who said, “For me and the other victims, we were traumatized for almost forty years by this darkness. We’ve kept a secret. I’m just glad that groups like the Concerned Catholics [of Guam], Silent No More, the Laity Forward Movement, that they were here to support us.

“And without them, I don’t think we would have had the courage to come out and share our stories.”

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VATICAN CITY
News-Herald

KIRSTEN GRIESHABER and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged that governing the church wasn’t his strong suit but says he doesn’t see his papacy as a failure and that he succeeded at least in breaking up the Vatican’s so-called “gay lobby.”

In a first-ever book by a retired pope reflecting on his papacy, Benedict also says he was shocked, and initially uncertain, about the election of Pope Francis as his successor. But he said he immediately realized the significance of electing a Latin American pope and has been very happy with Francis’ papacy.

Excerpts of the book, titled “The Last Conversations,” were published Thursday in Italian daily Corriere della Sera and German weekly Die Zeit and daily Bild. The book was prepared as a long interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, who has conducted several interviews with Benedict from the time he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. …

In the excerpts, Benedict acknowledges the “difficult moments” of his papacy — the sex abuse scandal which reignited in 2010, the scandal over his exoneration of a Holocaust-denying bishop, and finally the leaks of his personal papers by his own butler.

“Practical governance is not a strong point, and this certainly is a weakness,” Benedict told Seewald. “But I don’t see myself as a failure. For eight years I did my service” and many people found a new path to their faith, he said.

One governance success was the dissolution of the so-called “gay lobby” in the Vatican, Benedict said.

The existence of this group of gay prelates — who purportedly used blackmail to promote and preserve their interests — has been mythologized in Italian media, particularly after Benedict named a commission of three cardinals to investigate the leaks of his papers in 2012.

Seewald asked if such a clique existed.

“Indeed a group was pointed out to me, in the meantime we have dissolved it,” Benedict said. “This was mentioned in the report by the commission (of three cardinals), who were able to nail down a small group of four or five people maybe, which we dissolved. I don’t know whether something new will form again. In any case, it’s not like there are things like this all over the place.”

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Acento

[The father child allegedly raped by a Polish priest Alberto Gil in Juncalito recounted the anguish experienced by the families of the victims.]

Por Máximo Laureano. 7 de septiembre de 2016

Padre niño violado por sacerdote polaco en Juncalito narra la angustia que viven las familias de las víctimas y reclaman la compensación prometida por autoridades de Polonia

SANTIAGO, República Dominicana.-Ramón Arcadio Rodríguez, padre de uno de los niños abusados por el sacerdote de nacionalidad polaca, Wojciech Waldemar (padre Alberto Gil), denunció que aún están a la espera de la indemnización, para siete de los afectados, en el distrito municipal de Juncalito, comunidad de la Cordillera Central, en la provincia de Santiago.

El padre de un adolescente que fue víctima de los abusos del párroco de la comunidad, explicó que están en una situación que no saben que hacer, porque no tiene la orientación de las autoridades.

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MEXICO
La Opinion

[Priest Carlos Lopez Valdes is charged with sexual abuse and his trial is underway.]

POR: GARDENIA MENDOZA
07 SEPTIEMBRE 2016

MÉXICO – Después de 22 años del primer abuso sexual, Jesús Romero logró ver a su agresor tras las rejas: el sacerdote católico Carlos López Valdés, quien durante más de cuatro décadas alterno las misas, las palabras de Cristo y las escuchas de confesiones con presuntos ataques contra menores de edad.

Pero Jesús aún no está conforme: “El juicio apenas comienza”.

Y un proceso judicial frente a las autoridades judiciales mexicanas no es cualquier cosa: la mayoría de las veces es una revictimización. Bien lo sabe cualquier ciudadano y mucho más los abogados del Grupo de Acción por los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Social, quienes llevaron el caso.

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FRANCE
France Soir

[The prosecution at Grenoble requested Wednesday five years in prison for a Jesuit priest accused of child sexual abuse.]

Cinq ans de prison, dont deux ferme, ont été requis mercredi 7 à l’encontre du Père Dominique Peccoud, 70 ans, jugé en appel à Grenoble pour atteintes sexuelles sur mineurs, mais qui n’a reconnu que des “massages sensuels”. La cour a mis sa décision en délibéré au 19 octobre.

“Je n’ai jamais voulu avoir de contacts sexuels avec ces enfants. Ils me mettaient sur un piédestal, ils n’arrivaient plus à m’aborder avec la moindre simplicité. J’attendais (de ces massages) qu’on puisse avoir des relations plus simples”, a déclaré à la barre le jésuite, ancien conseiller du directeur général du Bureau International du Travail (BIT) de 1996 à 2007.

Après de premières accusations contre lui, le religieux avait été contraint de se dénoncer, sur pression de sa hiérarchie, dans une lettre adressée au parquet en avril 2008. Il a été condamné à deux ans de prison avec sursis par le tribunal correctionnel de Grenoble, en avril 2015, pour des atteintes sexuelles sur trois mineurs. Le parquet, qui avait déjà requis cinq ans de prison dont deux ans ferme, a fait appel.

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FRANCE
Paroissients Progressiste

[Pedophilia: The collective silence in the church at the heart of a book.]

“Pendant 25 ans, nous avons tous préféré nous taire” : dans le premier livre sur l’affaire de pédophilie qui a ébranlé le diocèse de Lyon et l’Église de France, Isabelle de Gaulmyn tente de comprendre les raisons du silence de “toute une communauté” comme nous le montre LeParisien.fr le mardi 6 septembre 2016. L’auteure d'”Histoire d’un silence”, qui paraît jeudi au Seuil, a un point de vue avisé sur l’affaire Bernard Preynat, ce prêtre qui, de 1972 à 1991, est soupçonné d’avoir abusé de jeunes scouts entre huit et 12 ans, “faisant entre 65 et 100 victimes”, estime-t-elle.

Rédactrice en chef adjointe de La Croix, cette spécialiste des questions religieuses a grandi à Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, fréquentant pendant quatre ans le groupe Saint-Luc, la troupe scoute du père Preynat, éloigné de cette paroisse en 1991 mais enchaînant les postes jusqu’en 2015. Elle sait la singularité d’un territoire où “l’Église compte”, l’aura que pouvait y avoir un prêtre dynamique et autoritaire.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Hessenschau

[Dioceses pay different amounts of compensation. Nearly 100 victims of abuse in Hesse have not received compensation from the Catholic Church.]

Von Meliha Verderber

Manfred Kopp betritt seit Jahren keine Kirche mehr. “Ich kann das nicht mehr”, sagt der 61-Jährige aus Wiesbaden. Der Grund: Er war ein Heimkind im katholischen St. Antoniusheim in Wiesbaden und wurde dort über mehrere Jahre hinweg von einem Pfarrer sexuell missbraucht. Dieser war dorthin strafversetzt worden, weil er zuvor in Augsburg straffällig geworden war. Auch dort hatte er sich an Kindern vergangen.

Kopps Leidensgeschichte ist kein Einzelfall. Bereits vor zehn Jahren hatte sich der heutige Frührentner an eine Hilfsstelle in Berlin gewandt und als einer der ersten ehemaligen Heimkinder seinen Missbrauch publik gemacht. “Damals hatte das allerdings keinen interessiert. Die Resonanz ging gen null”, erinnert er sich.

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FRANCE
L’Express

[Isabelle Gaulmyn, also deputy editor at The Cross (La Croix), a Catholic publication, attended for four years the Scout troop that included priest Bernard Preynat. She said she tried to alert the diocese since 2005 that he had abused youngsters.].

Isabelle de Gaulmyn, par ailleurs rédactrice en chef adjointe à La Croix, a fréquenté pendant quatre ans la troupe scoute du père Preynat. Elle dit avoir essayé d’alerter le diocèse dès 2005.

“L’incroyable impunité dont a bénéficié le père Preynat est le fait des évêques. Mais le silence est celui de toute une communauté”. Dans le premier livre sur l’affaire de pédophilie qui a ébranlé le diocèse de Lyon et l’Eglise de France, Isabelle de Gaulmyn tente de comprendre les raisons de ce silence. “Pendant 25 ans, nous avons tous préféré nous taire”, avoue-t-elle.

L’auteure d’Histoire d’un silence, qui paraît jeudi au Seuil, a un point de vue avisé sur l’affaire Bernard Preynat, ce prêtre qui, de 1972 à 1991, est soupçonné d’avoir abusé de jeunes scouts entre huit et 12 ans, “faisant entre 65 et 100 victimes”, estime-t-elle.

Rédactrice en chef adjointe de La Croix, cette spécialiste des questions religieuses a grandi à Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon où elle a fréquenté pendant quatre ans le groupe Saint-Luc, la troupe scoute du père Preynat.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

“The Fordhams” (Prep and University) resume academic years under clouds of sexual abuse allegations from former students and complete strangers against Jesuit priests and lay teachers

Reports of childhood sexual abuse by Fordham University and Fordham Prep Jesuit priests and lay teacher, including Neal E. Gumpel’s credible claim of sexual abuse by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, S.J., continue to surface in the aftermath of the recent announcement by Fordham Prep alumnus, Michael Meenan, that religion teacher, Fernand Beck, sexually abused him in 1984

Neal E. Gumpel was a high school student from Westchester County, NY, who was sexually abused by as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, deceased Fordham University and Fordham Prep professor and teacher, who was teaching at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, while Neal E. Gumpel was visiting his brother, a student at Maine Maritime Academy. Jesuit leaders thus far have refused to help Neal E. Gumpel heal by validating and reasonably settling his claim which they have found to be credible

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, Fordham Prep and University students, parents, alumni and the general public about the growing number of reports of sexual abuse against Fordham University and Fordham Prep faculty and staff members, and focusing attention on the credible claim of Neal E. Gumpel

When
Thursday, September 8, 2016 from 11:00 AM until 1:30 PM

Who

Neal E. Gumpel; his wife, Helen Gumpel; victim/survivor Kevin Waldrip; and Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the main gates of Fordham University, 400 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY

Why
Neal E. Gumpel’s account of having been sexually abused by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, has been found credible by the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), but the Jesuit leaders have yet to reasonably settle Neal E. Gumpel’s claim. Recently, in a media report, the Jesuits expressed their willingness to help victims of childhood sexual abuse heal. It is time for the Jesuit Priests and Brothers of the Northeast Province to reasonably settle the childhood sexual abuse claim of Neal E. Gumpel.

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Fordham University Ph.D., 1988 – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

8 September, 2016

The Royal Commission has published 35 submissions received from a range of organisations and individuals in response to its consultation paper: Best practice principles in responding to complaints of child sexual abuse in institutional contexts.

The Commission received submissions from sector peak bodies, government agencies, survivor advocacy and support groups, religious institutions and other interested parties.

The consultation paper, which was released in March this year, sought input into which matters should be canvassed in a complaint handling policy and how those matters might be addressed, as well as the Royal Commission’s suggested best practice principles.

Royal Commission Acting CEO, Marianne Christmann, said that child sexual abuse should never happen, however when it does, complaints should be dealt with in a manner that protects the child, provides justice to the victim and holds perpetrators to account.

“The Royal Commission is striving to ensure that all complaints of institutional child sexual abuse are dealt with in an appropriate, timely and responsible manner, no matter the scenario or institution,” she said.

Most of the submissions received supported the Royal Commission’s best practice principles and its guidance to institutions on responding to child sexual abuse complaints. Many submissions also made valuable suggestions for improving and streamlining the Commission’s work in this area.

Ms Christmann said all of the submissions would be considered, alongside information from relevant case studies, private sessions and the Royal Commission’s broader policy and research work.

Together, this material will inform recommendations the Royal Commission may make in order to better respond to complaints of child sexual abuse.

Most of the submissions the Royal Commission received in response to the Consultation Paper are published on our website.

However, submissions were not published if:

* the author expressly requested that their submission not be published
* the Royal Commission made the decision not to publish a submission to ensure fairness.

The Royal Commission’s terms of reference require it to consider how institutions identify, report and investigate allegations of child sexual abuse in institutions.

Read the submissions.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A Liverpool child pornographer molested a newborn baby and sexually exploited or abused seven other children, according to a federal prosecutor.

The total of eight victims is six more than Jason Kopp admitted to sexually exploiting when he pleaded guilty in May, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher wrote in court papers.

The victims ranged in age from 6 days to 17 years old, Fletcher said in a sentencing memorandum.

Kopp, 40, of Liverpool, is scheduled to be sentenced next week in federal court.

He pleaded guilty in May to to taking sexually explicit photos of two children with help from an aide at All Saints Elementary School in Syracuse. Neither of those victims was a student at the school.

Oberst is accused of exploiting those two victims, plus a third who was a student at the school, photographed naked in a bathroom, sources have told Syracuse.com.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

ROAD TO RECOVERY, INC. IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE AN EXHIBITION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS AND STORIES OF CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM/SURVIVORS BY PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER AND WRITER CARMINE GALASSO AS PORTRAYED IN HIS BOOK CROSSES

Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 7:00 PM

On the campus of BLAIR ACADEMY
Romano Gallery – Armstrong – Hipkins Center for the Arts
2 Park Street
Blairstown, New Jersey 07825 – 0600
908 – 362 – 6121

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC Newsnight

By Jake Morris
BBC Newsnight

A 600-strong survivors’ group has lost faith in the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse, its leaders have said.

Shirley Oaks Survivors Association told the BBC it would recommend withdrawing from the Lambeth strand of the inquiry because it was not “truly independent”.

Ex-inquiry chair Justice Lowell Goddard has said she was prevented from picking her own staff, and that civil servants were prioritised by the Home Office.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd denied this.

The treatment of children in care in Lambeth, south London, during the second half of the 20th Century is one of 13 areas that the inquiry is looking at.

But the Shirley Oaks group said the Home Office was one of the institutions that had failed children in care in Lambeth in the past – and that the scale of its presence in the inquiry staff represented a conflict of interest.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Aine Fox

A survivors’ group has said it may pull out of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse because it does not believe it is “truly independent”.

The probe, launched two years ago and described as the most ambitious public inquiry ever in England and Wales, has been beset by problems and is now working under its fourth chairwoman.

Raymond Stevenson, from the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, told BBC Newsnight the inquiry had failed to meet group members when asked to in recent weeks.

Mr Stevens, representing survivors of the Lambeth-run Shirley Oaks home in Croydon, said: “We have to recommend at this moment in time that we pull out. We have given the inquiry an opportunity to meet us. We contacted them two weeks ago and we are still waiting for a meeting.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Register

Dame Lowell Goddard, the former chairwoman of the UK’s high-profile inquiry into historic child sexual abuse, has blamed “bureaucratic” officials and a lack of adequate systems for “critical delays” in the investigation.

In written evidence to Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, which was published this week, Goddard said it became evident in July that the inquiry was not able to deliver on its commitment to hold public hearings in 2016.

Goddard, a New Zealand high court judge, became the third chair to step down from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) last month. The inquiry was set up in 2014, and was officially under way last year.

“The delays in proceeding to hold any substantive public hearings have regrettably resulted from the inquiry’s inability to obtain in any timely way the vital infrastructure necessary to prepare for and conduct public hearings,” wrote Goddard.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Christopher Knaus and Ian Kirkwood

A Marist Brothers principal who failed to report now-notorious paedophile Francis “Romuald” Cable to police has been labelled a “coward” and a “liar” after claiming he could not remember visiting the home of a student who had hung himself.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is currently examining the response of the Marist Brothers to abuse reports against three brothers, including Brother Romuald, working in the Hunter.

Brother Romuald’s case is closely linked to Canberra.

He arrived in the ACT to teach at St Edmund’s College from 1979 to 1989, after committing heinous and cruel acts of abuse against at least 19 victims in Marist Brothers schools in Sydney and Newcastle.

Brother ‘Romuald’ among three Marist brothers alleged to have abused children in Newcastle
He came to St Edmund’s despite being the subject of complaints to two principals during his time with the Marist Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press

Thursday 8 September 2016

The leader of the Marist Brothers in Australia has publicly acknowledged a 13-year-old Newcastle boy was probably sexually abused before his suicide more than 40 years ago.

Andrew Nash went to Marist Brothers high school at Hamilton where, the royal commission has heard, boys were groped in class, abused in a chapel and raped in an office.

The boy, who died in 1974, was in the daily care of two since-convicted paedophiles known as Brother Romuald and Brother Dominic, the royal commission has been told.

“I want to acknowledge today in public that I accept on behalf of the Marist Brothers that all the evidence points to Andrew having been sexually abused,” Australian Provincial Brother Peter Carroll told the sex abuse royal commission on Thursday.

“I express admiration for the way they [Andrew’s] family have summoned the courage to give evidence this week.”

Andrew’s 90-year-old mother, Audrey Nash, has testified she thinks Andrew was abused by Brother Romuald, whose real name is Francis Cable.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

A fiery exchange at the child sex abuse royal commission has seen the former principal of a Marist Brothers high school in Newcastle labelled a “coward and a liar”, after saying he cannot remember the circumstances surrounding a boy’s suicide.

Christopher Wade was questioned for a second day at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing into the Hunter region’s Catholic Church.

Brother Christopher was principal of the Marist Brothers’ Hamilton school during the 1970s, when 13-year-old student Andrew Nash killed himself after he was sexually abused by a teacher.

Brother Christopher told the commission today he “could not remember” going to the Nash family home the night of the death, when Andrew’s mother Audrey recalled paedophile Francis Cable, known as Brother Romuald, asked her if her son “left a note” or “said anything”.

Mrs Nash’s barrister, Hilbert Chiu, became heated during his questioning of Brother Christopher:

Mr Chiu: You were relieved that Andrew told nobody before he died.
Brother Christopher: That’s not true.
Mr Chiu: You were relieved because in your mind the problem had gone away.
Brother Christopher: That’s not true.
Mr Chiu: And when Brother Romuald moved schools two months later you were even more relieved because he was no longer your problem.
Brother Christopher: That’s not true.

Mr Chiu ended his grilling of Brother Christopher with an accusation.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
8 Sep 2016

THE chairman of the Royal Commisison, Justice Peter McClellan, says one of his inquiry’s final case studies will look at “why this has happened” in the Catholic Church and elsewhere.

Justice McClellan was questioning the current head of the Marist Brothers in Australia, Brother Peter Carroll.

Justice McClellan said: “You may not know, but one of the final hearings of the commission will look at the question of ‘why’, in an endeavour to understand in the Australian context why this has happened, and not just in the Catholic Church, we hasten to add, but in other parts of societ, which of course the commission has discussed in its various case studies.”

The pre-lunch session of this final day of Maitland-Newcastle Catholic hearings began with Brother Peter reading a prepared statement apologising to the family of Andrew Nash, who took his own life at the age of 13 in 1974

Brother Peter said “all the evidence indicates” that Andrew Nash was sexually abused, and that this evidence also pointed to him taking his own life.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Sep. 8, 2016

ROME Retired Pope Benedict XVI has said the work of governing the global Catholic church was not his “strong point” and that he had a weakness of “little resolve” before the difficult decisions he faced.

But in his first substantial comments since his renunciation of the papacy in 2013, to be published in a new book-length interview Friday, the retired pope also says that while there were difficult moments in his reign it was “also a period in which many people found a new life in the faith.”

“A weak point of mine was maybe little resolve in governing and making decisions,” admits the ex-pontiff in the book, titled Ultimi Conversazioni (“Last Conversations”), and excerpted Thursday in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. …

Speaking to his 2005-13 reign as pontiff, Benedict admits there were “difficult moments,” citing specifically three scandals that occurred during his papacy: Continued questioning of the church’s handling of sexual abuse; his decision to lift the excommunication of traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson, who denies aspects of the Holocaust; and the so-called Vatileaks trial at which his butler was found guilty of publishing secret documents.

Setting aside the scandals, he states, “it was also a period in which many people found a new life in the faith and there was also a great positive movement.” …

The retired pontiff bluntly rebuts those who have claimed he resigned the papacy due to threats of blackmail or some other malfeasance.

“No one tried to blackmail me,” he states. “If someone had tried to blackmail me I would not have left because you cannot leave when you are under pressure.”

“It is also not true that I was embittered,” he continues. “In fact, thanks to God, I was in a peaceful state of soul, of one who has overcome the difficulty — the state of soul in which you can tranquilly pass the helm to who comes next.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Item

By Francis Scarcella The Daily Item

PAXINOS — The superintendent of the Penn Jersey District of the Wesleyan Church said he was made aware one of the church’s pastors was charged with failing to report alleged sexual abuse after reports began to surface Tuesday.

Gregory Clendaniel, pastor of the Augustaville Wesleyan Church, in Paxinos, was charged by Stonington state troopers Tuesday with failing to report an alleged indecent assault that occurred on July 13 after troopers say Seth Sparrer, 22, of Middleburg, fondled a 14-year-old girl on a trip home from a Valley amusement park, according to court documents.

Sparrer was also charged in the alleged incident, according to troopers.

District Superintendent Dr. Karl D. Eastlack said on Wednesday he did not receive a message seeking his comments to the charges and that a wrong number may have been used by the media when trying to contact him Tuesday.

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ALABAMA
WTVM

By Mike Brantley, Digital Content Producer

MOBILE, AL (WALA) –
Alvin Norman McNeil, 54, of Prichard, was in Mobile County Metro Jail Wednesday night on child sexual abuse and first-degree rape and sodomy charges, according to jail records.

McNeil was arrested earlier Wednesday evening on grand jury indictments.

McNeil’s Facebook page states that he has been a pastor at Open Door True Worship Apostolic Church in Mobile. FOX10 News was unable to immediately ascertain McNeil’s current status with the church.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By DAVID FERRARA
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

One young woman told a Clark County judge of “the man I hate the most” and the “foul, repulsive” things her pastor did to her. She recalled weeping on the floor of her shower, “afraid of everything.”

That man, Otis Holland, “damaged our family,” the woman’s mother said Wednesday.

Another told the judge he “robbed me of my innocence and my free will.”

The 59-year-old Holland, who prosecutors said created a church as an outlet to rape several minor girls, maintained his innocence.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted him on 15 counts, related to three young girls, including sexual assault of a minor and lewdness with a child.

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NEVADA
KSNV

BY JAMI SEYMORE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH 2016

LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) — Otis Holland, the former pastor convicted of raping young girls in his congregation, was sentenced in a Las Vegas courtroom this afternoon.

Just before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Judge Stefany Miley sentenced Holland to life in prison with the possibility of parole on multiple charges of sexual assault and lewdness with minors.

Holland was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 25 years for 14 counts of sexual assault with a minor under 16 years of age. Counts 1-10 will run concurrently with each other, count 11 will run consecutively with counts 1-10, and counts 12-14 will run concurrently with the previous counts. He was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 10 years served for one count of lewdness with a child under the age of 14, which will run consecutively with the previous counts.

Sentences for both charges — sexual assault and lewdness — were combined for a total of life with eligibility for parole after a minimum of 60 years served.

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OHIO
WFMJ

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio –
The Diocese of Youngstown is expanding a program to ensure that children are safe in Catholic facilities.

The Diocese says they’ll expand on their safe environment program in three ways: implementing the VIRTUS program, appointing a Victim Assistance Coordinator and appointing a Coordinator of Safe Environment Program.

VIRTUS is an internationally recognized program to protect children and vulnerable adults, according to the Diocese.

Retired Youngstown Police Department Detective Sergeant Delphine Baldwin-Casey was appointed as the Victim Assistance Coordinator.

As Victim Assistance Coordinator, Baldwin-Casey is the first point of contact for those who claim to have been sexually abused by clergy, religious, church personnel or volunteers.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Recently, the pastor of St. Elizabeth’s parish in Rockville received a complaint regarding a case of alleged child sex abuse by Mr. Brian P. Werth, the parish’s youth minister. The pastor immediately contacted the Archdiocese of Washington’s Child and Youth Protection Office, which reported the case to Montgomery County law enforcement.

Additionally, in compliance with the Archdiocese of Washington’s Child Protection Policy, Mr. Werth was immediately suspended from his duties at the parish and school; his employment has since been terminated. After an investigation, law enforcement authorities charged Mr. Werth and he was arrested this morning.

Meetings have been scheduled with parish and school staff, and letters are being sent to the parish and school families to brief them on this matter. All have been asked that if anyone has relevant information regarding this matter to please contact the Montgomery County Department of Police Special Victims Investigation Division at 240-773-5400.

The Archdiocese of Washington takes seriously its responsibility to the children entrusted to its care. The Child Protection Policy of the Archdiocese of Washington mandates criminal background checks, applications and education for all employees and volunteers who work with young people. Mr. Werth had cleared the background check and accompanying requirements. The policy also mandates immediate reporting of suspected abuse to the authorities and an employee’s/volunteer’s immediate removal from work or ministry following a credible allegation. This requirement was also met in Mr. Werth’s case.

If at any time you become aware of improper conduct by a person involved in archdiocesan ministry, please contact the director of the archdiocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection, Courtney Chase, at 301-853-5302.

The archdiocese’s Child Protection Policy, which has been in place since 1986, is publicly available online at www.adw.org.

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MARYLAND
Washington Post

By Justin Wm. Moyer September 7

A Rockville youth minister was arrested and charged with sex offenses and assault Wednesday after allegedly having inappropriate sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl, police said.

On May 20, 32-year-old Brian Patrick Werth of Montgomery Village, a youth minister at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Rockville, had inappropriate sexual contact with the girl during a youth event at the church, Montgomery County Police said in a statement. Werth had sent the girl graphic sexual texts since the summer of 2014, the statement said.

Charging documents said Werth had known the girl since middle school and allegedly forced himself on her at an overnight event in May. The girl said she “did not want to engage in this sexual activity,” but “felt she had no choice” because Werth “had helped her with so many things up to that point,” according to the documents.

Werth was charged with one count of fourth-degree sexual offense, one count of sexual abuse of a minor and second degree assault, police said.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Washington said Werth had cleared a background check. Werth’s alleged conduct was reported to the church pastor who contacted the diocese which reported the case to Montgomery County law enforcement, the diocese said in a statement. Werth has been terminated from his job, according to the diocesan statement.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Rohan Smith
news.com.au
@ro_smith

WARNING: Disturbing content.

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest laughed while he watched boys as young as six years old have sex with one another.

One of those boys, Scott Hallett, says he is scarred by what he was forced to do by NSW priest Vincent Ryan but, at the time, he did not realise he was being abused.

“At the time I didn’t know what Father Ryan was doing was wrong,” Mr Hallett, 51, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week.

It was 1975 and Ryan was routinely abusing alter boys at a primary school in East Gregford, near Dungog, two hours north of Sydney.

The former Catholic priest previously spent 14 years in jail for abusing dozens of boys aged between six and 14 during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

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CONNECTICUT
Crux

Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – An insurance company has appealed an order by a federal judge in Connecticut to reimburse the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford $945,000 for payments church officials made to settle sexual misconduct cases involving priests.

Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven ruled in July that Chicago-based Interstate Fire & Casualty breached a contract when it refused to reimburse the archdiocese for more than $1 million in payments made in four abuse cases involving minors.

The company had reimbursed the archdiocese for previous settlements in priest abuse cases, but joined other insurers across the country that have balked at paying legal settlements in such cases.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Andy Park

Former Armidale Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell has been charged with nine counts of child sexual abuse.

The charges relate to alleged assaults against two boys, one at Gunnedah in 1975, about 85 kilometres west of Tamworth in northern New South Wales, and the other at Narrabri in 1983, about 175 kilometres north-west of Tamworth.

Farrell, 62, was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of indecent assault, and buggery.

Some of the ex-officio indictments were first laid 28 years ago, but the judge dismissed the account of one of the alleged victims, Damian Jurd, in favour of Farrell at a committal hearing.

Mr Jurd later took his own life.

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AUSTRALIA
New South Wales Police Force

Thursday, 08 September 2016

Additional charges have been laid against a former Catholic priest over alleged historical child sex assaults in Northern NSW.

Strike Force Glenroe was established in July 2012 and comprises detectives from the Sex Crimes Squad and the New England and Barwon Local Area Commands to investigate alleged historical child sexual assault offences committed by a former Catholic Priest.

Following ongoing inquiries by Strike Force Glenroe detectives, a further nine charges have been laid against a 62-year-old man relating to child sex assaults in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of indecent assault, and buggery.

The charges relate to alleged assaults against two boys, one at Gunnedah in 1975, and the other at Narrabri in 1983.

The ex officio indictment was filed with the court last Friday (2 September 2016), with all matters set down for trial from Monday 10 April 2017 at Sydney District Court.

Investigations are ongoing.

State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad is comprised of experienced detectives dedicated to investigating crimes of a sexual nature, regardless of the passage of time. Any person who has been a victim of sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the incident occurred, is encouraged to make a report at their local police station.

Anyone with information about sexual abuse should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page: https://www1.police.nsw.gov.au/. Information you provide will be treated in the strictest of confidence. We remind people they should not report crime information via our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A former Catholic priest has been charged over alleged sex assault of two underage boys from northern New South Wales in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The 62-year-old was charged as a result of investigation by Strike Force Glenroe, established in 2012 to investigate the alleged offences.

The charges – four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, four counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery – relate to one boy in Gunnedah in 1975, and another boy at Narrabri in 1983.

An ex officio indictment was filed with the court on Friday, and all matters have been set down for trial at Sydney District Court in April next year.

Investigations are continuing.

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ISRAEL/RUSSIA
BBC News

Israel has reportedly begun the extradition of a Russian priest accused of sexually abusing young girls, nearly three years after Russia asked for it.

Gleb Grozovsky was handed over to the Russian prison service and Interpol officers for the flight to Moscow, Russian prosecutors say.

He denies corrupting two girls aged nine and 12 at a Russian Orthodox summer camp in Greece in June 2013.

Prosecutors accuse him of similar attacks in Russia itself in 2011.

Russia first asked for the priest’s extradition in November 2013, when he was in Israel on Church business.

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