ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIEN
religion@orf

[Surivors of sexual abuse have criticized plans for a memorial at a cathedral in the Armidale diocese.]

Die katholische Diözese von Armidale in Australien will mit einem Mahnmal an die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs erinnern. Missbrauchsopfer üben Kritik an der Entscheidung.

Das Mahnmal vor der Kathedrale Saints Mary & Joseph werde aus einer Statue der Gottesmutter Maria, einer Gebetsbank und bunten Schleifen der sogenannten „Loud Fence“-Bewegung bestehen, berichtete das australische Nachrichtenportal Cathnews am Dienstag.

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PARAGUAY
Cafe Paraguay

[The Catholic priest Estanislao Arévalos Pedrozo was sentenced to six years imprisonment after being declared guilty of the sexual abuse of two children. These children took part in the catechism classes in the parish “Espíritu Santo de San Vicente” in Asunción.]

DANIEL WIENS KEINE KOMMENTARE 15. NOVEMBER 2016

Der katholische Priester Estanislao Arévalos Pedrozo wurde zu sechs Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt, nachdem er als schuldig des sexuellen Missbrauchs von zwei Kindern erklärt wurde. Diese Kinder nahmen teil am Katechismus-Unterricht in der Pfarrei „Espíritu Santo de San Vicente“ in Asunción.

Während dem Gerichtsprozess offenbarten die Staatsanwältinnen Clara Ruiz und Cinthia Espínola, dass der Priester der katholischen Kirche seine Opfer schon im Jahr 2013 mehrmals missbraucht hat. Zu der Zeit waren die Minderjährigen 12 und 13 Jahre alt. Die jungen „Apostel“ nahmen gerade am Katechismusunterricht in der oben erwähnten Pfarrei teil.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016

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

The Memphis Public library has suspended a former youth minister who is accused of molesting at least three kids. That’s not enough.

[Local Memphis]

Police reports have been filed. An alleged child molester walks free. His reported victims are suffering. And other kids are at risk. So officials at the main public library downtown and the Church at Schilling Farms in Collierville (formerly Immanuel Baptist Church) must take aggressive steps to reach out to anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Chris Carwile or cover ups by church officials.

Rev. Scott Payne admits he didn’t call police and now asks forgiveness. But forgiveness is premature. Payne must help police, prosecutors and Carwile’s victims first, by doing everything he can to help ensure that Carwile is successfully prosecuted. The same is true of current and former supervisors and colleagues of Carwile’s.

Church officials should make pulpit announcements, use church websites, post notices in church buildings and mail congregants (current and former) begging anyone with information or suspicions to come forward, get help, safeguard kids and call law enforcement.

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GEORGIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, November 16, 2016

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

Atlanta area church officials admit they had a convicted child molester in their midst but kept this information from their flock. Now he’s hurt more kids. This is alarming. Heads must roll.

[11 Alive]

Mark Greer volunteered in youth ministry at Harvest Baptist Church in Acworth, despite being convicted in Tennessee for sexual battery.

Now, members of the congregation say their church didn’t tell them about Greer’s past and want to know why they were kept them in the dark. The answer is both sad and simple: Church officials who hide abuse are never punished. So they keep doing it, because it’s easy and convenient and self-serving for them. Being brave enough to honor our civic and moral duty to call police is hard.

So three steps must be taken now.

We call on law enforcement officials to investigate church officials and see if any of them can be prosecuted for intimidating victims, threatening witnesses, destroying evidence, endangering kids, obstructing justice or similar charges.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

John O’Connor | Post News Staff

Superior Court Judge Anita Sukola has recused herself from hearing a civil case filed by Leo Tudela against former Guam priest Rev. Louis Brouillard and the Archdiocese of Agana, stating that she was “closely related to several members of the Neocatechumenal Way, an organization within the Archdiocese of Hagåtña.”

Sukola added that she is also a regular attendant in the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Church in Tumon, which has exposed her to information regarding the case through prayers, announcements and petitions – specifically, a petition requesting that Governor Eddie Calvo veto Bill 326-33. That measure was ultimately enacted into law, lifting the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases, allowing Tudela and others to bring civil suits against the church and their alleged abusers.

Moreover, Sukola stated that she knew Archbishop Anthony Apuron personally. The archbishop is implicated in other civil cases from victims of alleged sexual abuse. Tudela, now in his 70s, levied similar complaints against Brouillard.

Brouillard statement

But while Apuron has denied the allegations against him, Brouillard has publicly admitted to abusing boys in his ministry. Supplements to Tudela’s suits include a written statement from Brouillard in which he admitted to abusing boys in the 1950s and that Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner, the bishop of Guam at the time, and others in the church knew about the abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Nov. 16, 2016

Watching the USCCB meeting this week was frustrating. The conference seems stuck. At a time when the country desperately needs a strong moral voice, the united voice of the bishops is sidelined, fretting about things that don’t matter and tepidly addressing the things that do. And, it was apparent to all that the concerns of Pope Francis are far from the concerns of the USCCB.

In his update to the body on the work of the ad hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, Archbishop William Lori said they were making a difference. Are they? The centerpiece of their campaign, the “Fortnight for Freedom,” garners little attention. In the popular press, religious liberty is now usually accompanied by scare quotes. In the popular mind, the cause of religious liberty is linked to discrimination against gays and lesbians, and not without reason. If that will be the faultline for religious freedom litigation in the years ahead, I shudder at the prospects for religious freedom.

I heard almost no mention of the environment or Laudato Si’ at the USCCB meeting. Think about that for a minute. The pope issues an encyclical, the only one he has issued so far, and it is dedicated to concern for the environment. And the bishops of the country that has caused more damage to the environment than any other are silent. How is this possible? If they fancy themselves to be pro-life, why are they so unconcerned with one of two threats, the other being nuclear proliferation, that could kill us all? Fighting abortion is a moral thing to do, to be sure, but it makes no sense to defend unborn life so the kids can grow up to live in an increasingly unlivable world. The bishops of other countries are not so reticent. Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar gave a recent talk at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in which he said, “Unless rich countries agree to reduce the global warming, more people will die. This to me is a criminal genocide, when the poor and the weak are exposed violent nature created by unrestricted use of fossil fuels by rich countries.” Criminal genocide. And the U.S. bishops can’t be bothered.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The government needs to intervene in the inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales, after another of its lawyers resigned, Labour says.

Aileen McColgan quit amid concerns about the inquiry’s leadership.

Labour said the inquiry was facing a “crisis of credibility” but the PM said she had “full confidence” in it.

Meanwhile, the IPCC has confirmed it is investigating officers involved in the Met Police’s investigation into paedophile allegations against VIPs.

‘Clearly not working’

The investigation was set up to examine whether public bodies, including the police, had failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse and to examine allegations of abuse involving “well-known people”.

The inquiry has suffered a series of setbacks, including resignations of three chairwomen and senior lawyers.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016

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

A Newark NJ Catholic priest faces child pornography charges and a court hearing this week. We hope he’s convicted. We call on Newark’s top Catholic official, Archbishop John Myers, to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have information or suspicions about his crimes.

And we hope this news prompts others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes to call police so Fr. Kevin A. Gugliotta might be charged with and convicted on other offenses and be kept away from kids even longer.

[Asbury Park Press]

All too often, when child sex offenders are caught, their supervisors and colleagues clam up. But if kids are to be safer, everyone who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes must call law enforcement immediately. Those who hire or work with predators must do all they can to find others who have been assaulted and beg them to call law enforcement. This is especially true of Catholic bishops, who recruit, educate, ordain, hire, train and often transfer and cover up for predator priests. These bishops can’t wash their hands of these pedophiles just because they’ve been sent somewhere else or have moved somewhere else.

We hope that no one in the NJ Catholic hierarchy ignored or concealed Fr. Gugliotta’s alleged crimes. But we also hope police and prosecutors have investigated or will closely investigate this possibility. We also hope that officials Newark Catholic officials will find the courage to do what’s right – search for and help anyone else who is in pain because of Fr. Gugliotta.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Nov. 14, 2016

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP – Although the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was confirmed in June, its formal exit from U.S. Bankruptcy Court is being stalled because of a legal dispute between two other parties.

As a result of the dispute, the Gallup Diocese marked yet another anniversary in the bankruptcy court system Saturday. The diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition three years ago on Nov. 12, 2013.

The two parties in the dispute are the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the Pennsylvania religious order that founded St. Michael Indian School in St. Michaels, Arizona, and Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor, who filed a civil lawsuit in Arizona on behalf of a Navajo woman who claims she was sexually abused as a child at St. Michael Indian School by Brother Mark Schornack, a Franciscan friar. Schornack died in 2012.

The Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscans and St. Michael Mission Church have already entered into a settlement agreement with another Navajo woman for the abuse she was subjected to by Schornack at the St. Michael Parish. That settlement agreement was part of the diocese’s bankruptcy case and confirmation of its Chapter 11 reorganization. As a result, the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscans and St. Michael’s Church are protected parties and not named as defendants in Pastor’s lawsuit.

However, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and St. Michael Indian School did not contribute any funds to the Diocese of Gallup’s settlement; therefore, they are not protected parties under the terms of the Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

The dispute centers on a claim the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament filed against the Diocese of Gallup on May 9, 2016, related to Pastor’s lawsuit. In documents and brief court hearings, attorneys for the diocese have stated they are “sympathetic to the plight” of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, but they are asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David T. Thuma to disallow the religious order’s claim.

Thuma has scheduled a final hearing on the matter Dec. 12. The deadline for Pastor to file a response with the court is Nov. 28, and the deadline for attorneys for the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to file a reply is Dec. 9

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LUXEMBOURG
Journal

[After thousands of cases of sexual abuse in the churches of the USA and Ireland, there is a scandal in the Catholic Church of Luxembourg, which has now landed in court.]

Der 60-Jährige bestreitet die Vergewaltigungen

Nach tausenden Fällen von sexuellem Missbrauch in den Kirchen der USA und Irlands gibt es einen Skandal in der katholischen Kirche Luxemburgs, der nun vor Gericht gelandet ist. Es ist damit der bislang aktuellste Fall von sexuellem Missbrauch im Land, denn Fälle die Anfang 2010 bekannt wurden, lagen oft 30 Jahre und mehr zurück und sind verjährt. Auf der Anklagebank des Bezirksgerichts Luxemburg sitzt jetzt ein ehemaliger Pfarrer des katholischen Pfarrverbands Belair-Merl-Zessingen.

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MINNESOTA
KDAL

by Dave Strandberg

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (MNN) – Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson says a new plan by Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis still doesn’t do enough to compensate priest sex-abuse survivors, because church officials are hiding the truth about their ability to pay. Anderson says the plan, “instead of putting the survivors first, puts the archdiocese first and the insurance companies second, and then the survivors last in line.” Archdiocese attorney Charles Rogers responds there’s “no other asset that hasn’t been brought forward.”

Rogers says to go with another plan will put survivors in legal battles with insurance companies. He says “then there would be an assignment of rights of recovery under those policies, and all that would be ensured is years upon years of litigation.” Victims’ attorney Anderson responds, “The assertion that it will result in years and years of litigation will only be because it was the archdiocese that chooses not to tell the truth, to disclose their assets and to work with the survivors.”

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 16, 2016

By Isa Baza

After controversy in Guam’s Catholic church stretched on for years over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona, the head of the Concerned Catholics of Guam group says he’s cautious, but relieved, that the multimillion dollar property has finally been restored to the Archdiocese of Agana.

“Cautionary elation,” said Dave Sablan of his feelings after yesterday’s announcement at the Hagatna Cathedral. “I’m happy that Archbishop Byrnes has done what he did.” However, Sablan, the head of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, says it’s not over yet. He adds his organization will not rest until the documents are reviewed to ensure that two key aspects have been resolved – one of which is to remove the provision tying the seminary to the Neocatechumenal Way.

“And if he removed that provision, great. Secondly, I wanted to see how he removed the board of directors,” he said.

Meanwhile on Tuesday Mother Superior Dawn Marie of the Carmelite Nuns in Guam also spoke out revealing that her order was asked to lie for Archbishop Anthony Apuron in an attempt to cover-up the misuse of the RMS. Mother Dawn told local media that she was able to secure the $2 million that was used to pay off a loan to purchase the Yona property.

“Mother Dawn Marie, a very courageous person to come out, and speak the truth of what was asked of her of her order of Carmelites to do,” said Sablan.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 15, 2016

BALTIMORE—Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) during today’s annual fall General Assembly in Baltimore. Cardinal DiNardo has served as vice president of the USCCB since 2013. Archbishop Jose Gomez was elected as USCCB vice president.

Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Gomez are elected to three-year terms and succeed Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, and Cardinal DiNardo, respectively. The new president and vice president terms begin at the conclusion of the General Assembly on November 15.

Cardinal DiNardo was elected president on the first ballot with 113 votes. Archbishop Gomez was elected vice president on the third ballot by 131-84 in a runoff vote against Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans.

The president and vice president are elected by a simple majority from a slate of 10 nominees. If no president or vice president is chosen after the second round of voting, a third ballot is a run-off between the two bishops who received the most votes on the second ballot.

Cardinal DiNardo was born May 23, 1949, and ordained a priest of Pittsburgh on June 16, 1977. He previously served as bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, from 1998-2004 before being appointed to coadjutor bishop, then archbishop, of Galveston-Houston. Pope Benedict XVI named him a cardinal in 2007, making him the first cardinal from Texas. Archbishop Gomez was born December 26, 1951, in Monterrey, Mexico. He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1978. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Denver in 2001, and in 2004, he was appointed archbishop of San Antonio. He was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles in 2010, and was installed as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011.

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UNITED STATES
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

November 15, 2016

BALTIMORE—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted on a new MRS chairman and approved several items, including, establishing a permanent Subcommittee on the Church in Africa and extending the Retirement Fund for Religious Appeal, during their annual Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, November 15.

In November 2015, Archbishop Gomez was elected to chair the USCCB Committee on Migration for a term beginning this week. Since his election as USCCB vice-president prevents him from assuming leadership of the committee, the bishops elected a new chairman. Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, was elected chairman of the Committee on Migration in a 109-91 vote over Archbishop John C. Wester.

The bishops voted 155 in favor, 8 against and 1 abstaining, to approve a 10-year extension of the Retirement Fund for Religious Appeal. This annual collection was initiated to address the profound deficit in retirement funding among religious congregations in the United States. The National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) coordinates the collection and distributes the proceeds to religious communities in need.

The bishops also approved establishing a permanent Subcommittee on the Church in Africa. The proposal received a vote of 164-26-12. The USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Church in Africa works as part of the Committee on National Collections. It administers the voluntary Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa and allocates the revenue received as grants to African episcopal conferences and their regional associations in Africa for programs that support the growth of the Church, especially in the areas of leadership training, church administration, evangelization, communications, justice and peace.

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WASHINGTON
Yakima Herald

By Jane Gargas
jgargas@yakimaherald.com

Bishop Joseph Tyson of the Yakima Catholic Diocese has lost an election to chair a committee for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Instead, Bishop Timothy Doherty of Lafayette, Ind., is the new chairman-elect of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People.

Elections were held Tuesday during the fall meeting of the national bishops’ conference in Baltimore.

Doherty received 128 votes to Tyson’s 86.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas, was elected president of the national bishop’s group, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky. The bishops also chose the chairmen-elect of five committees and new members of the board of Catholic Relief Services.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

Tom McIlroy

A national system to compensate victims of child sexual abuse looks to be in doubt as states and territories withhold their support amid questions about the efficacy of an opt-in redress scheme.

The federal government surprised some states with Social Services Minister Christian Porter’s November 4 announcement of a $4.3 billion scheme, following a recommendation of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The government has announced a plan to give victims of institutional sexual abuse compensation and counselling. Courtesy ABC News 24.

No further details have been provided, leaving states including Western Australia and Victoria seeking answers and the development of some state schemes in limbo.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett told Fairfax Media he’d had no consultation from the federal government, despite Mr Porter saying it would seek national co-operation and even force the ACT and Northern Territory governments to sign up.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Scotland

Martin Williams , Senior News Reporter / @MWilliamsHT

A Scots university graduate is the latest to senior solictior to resign from the struggling national inquiry into child abuse.

It is understood that Aileen McColgan, has quit because of serious concerns over the leadership within The Independent Inquiry into Child Abuse set up by then Home Secretary Theresa May.

Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, and holding degrees from Trinity College Cambridge and Edinburgh University, Ms McColgan was the barrister leading the inquiry’s investigations into the Anglican and Catholic Church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY FELIX ALLEN 15th November 2016

THE shambolic £100m probe into Establishment child sex abuse was rocked today by the resignation of ANOTHER senior lawyer.

Aileen McColgan – in charge of investigating paedophiles in the Anglican and Catholic Church – quit because of serious concerns over the inquiry’s leadership, BBC Newsnight reports.

The high-profile probe into VIP paedophiles in Westminster, councils, the Church and schools has been blighted by resignations and cover-up claims and is now on its fourth chairman.

It is understood barrister Ms McColgan, who is also a professor of law at King’s College London, had concerns over the competency of the inquiry’s leadership and the way it had responded to the earlier resignation of her colleagues.

Two other lawyers also reportedly plan to quit over similar worries, the BBC reports.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

By Jake Morris
BBC Newsnight

The Independent Inquiry into Child Abuse has been hit by the resignation of another senior lawyer.

BBC Newsnight understands that Aileen McColgan has quit because of serious concerns over the inquiry’s leadership.

She was the barrister leading the inquiry’s investigations into the Anglican and Catholic Churches.
The inquiry said that lawyers come and go according to their professional obligations – and a spokeswoman declined to “comment on specifics”.

It is understood Aileen McColgan had concerns over the competency of the inquiry’s leadership and the way it had previously responded to the resignation of lawyers instructed by it. As well as working on the inquiry, she is also a Professor of Law at King’s College London.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Another senior lawyer has reportedly quit the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Aileen McColgan has resigned from the investigation due to concerns over its leadership, BBC Newsnight reported.

Ms McColgan, who is also a law professor at Kings’ College London, was involved in the inquiry’s investigations into the Anglican and Catholic Church.

Her reported departure follows senior counsel Ben Emmerson’s resignation a day after he was suspended.

Mr Emmerson’s junior colleague, Elizabeth Prochaska, also stood down.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Matthew Weaver

The troubled inquiry into historical child sexual abuse is facing further questions from MPs about its future after another senior lawyer resigned and two more are threatening to do so.

Aileen McColgan, who was leading the inquiry’s investigation into abuse in the Anglican and Catholic churches, quit over concerns about the inquiry’s leadership, according to BBC Newsnight.

Two other barristers have told the inquiry of their desire to leave over similar concerns, the programme reported. An inquiry spokeswoman refused to comment on McColgan’s departure.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the House of Commons home affairs select committee, called on the inquiry to be more transparent and said her committee would be seeking evidence from McColgan about why she quit.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PRESS ASSOCIATION

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said she still has confidence in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse despite the resignation of another senior lawyer.

Aileen McColgan, a law professor at Kings’ College London involved in the inquiry’s investigations into the Anglican and Catholic Church, reportedly quit due to concerns over the inquiry’s leadership.

Her departure follows the resignation of the inquiry’s senior counsel Ben Emmerson and his junior colleague, Elizabeth Prochaska.

The inquiry has also had four different chairwomen since it was set up in 2014.

Asked about the latest departure, Ms Rudd said: ” Yes, I still have confidence in the inquiry.”

Speaking at a policing conference in London, she said: “I saw the latest news on the inquiry today. I would say it is a matter for the inquiry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
November 16, 2016

A former Newcastle Anglican bishop says “vehement” supporters of a priest accused of abusing children were out to get him from the moment a professional standards probe began.

The abuse commission has heard a group of Newcastle parishioners are concerned about the process that led to the highly influential former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence being defrocked in 2012.

“They were out to get me,” Bishop Brian Farran, who was the head of the diocese from 2005 to 2012 and oversaw the defrocking of Lawrence, said on Wednesday.

“I got this anonymous text … saying, ‘Have a great holiday. Come back and resign’.'”

The royal commission has previously heard Lawrence, who had been the second most senior priest in the diocese, faced allegations of abuse against numerous children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By REBECCA CAMBER FOR THE DAILY MAIL

A law professor leading inquiries into child sexual abuse in the church became the latest to desert Britain’s biggest public inquiry last night.

Professor Aileen McColgan has quit the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) amid serious concerns about the competency of its fourth chair, Professor Alexis Jay.

The law professor at Kings College London who was the lead lawyer in the inquiry’s investigation into child abuse in the Anglican and Catholic Church is the seventh lawyer to leave.

Another two barristers are also poised to quit after telling the inquiry that they have no desire to work there any more, BBC Newsnight reported last night.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

The beleaguered child sex abuse inquiry has been hit by the resignation of another senior lawyer.

Aileen McColgan has reportedly resigned from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse because of leadership concerns.

The inquiry is not on to its fourth chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay, after Dame Lowell Goddard resigned at the end of the summer amid claims over her conduct, which she has denied.

Since then the inquiry’s lead counsel Ben Emmerson QC has quit, days after he was suspended. His junior colleague Elizabeth Prochaska also left.

Ms McColgan was leading the inquiry’s investigations into the Anglican and Catholic Church.

Speaking at a policing conference on Wednesday, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “I saw the latest news on the inquiry today. I would say it is a matter for the inquiry.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Mother Dawn Marie Tuesday revealed that Archbishop Apuron asked the carmelite nuns to lie.

Guam – Mother Prioress Dawn Marie confirms that there was a plot against her life after she dropped a bombshell on Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Mother Dawn Marie revealed yesterday that she, on behalf of the Carmelite Order, was the anonymous donor of $2 million dollars to the Archdiocese back in 2003. The purpose of the donation was to pay off a loan for the acquisition of the Yona property.

Mother Dawn Marie says Archbishop Apuron pressured the Carmelite Order to lie about the what the donation was intended for. The Carmelite Order, she notes, never intended for the seminary to be run as a seminary under the Neocatechumenal Way.

On News Talk K57’s Mornings with Patti, Mother Dawn said she had received word that there is a credible threat against her life.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 16, 2016

A group of Catholics seeking Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s removal over multiple sex abuse allegations and other leadership decisions they find questionable has recommended a seven-point plan to address child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Agana, including tapping the resources of other agencies on Guam.

The Concerned Catholics of Guam reached out to those who believe they are victims of clergy sex abuse, including those who have publicly accused Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, who has not been charged with any crime, and former priest Louis Brouillard, who admitted to sexually abusing at least 20 minors when he was on Guam.

Andrew Camacho, vice president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, said the group wants the archdiocese to provide every possible option and opportunity for survivors of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy and officials within the archdiocese and its organizations.

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CANADA
LifeSite News

Pete Baklinski

KENTVILLE, Nova Scotia, November 14, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Rev. Brent Hawkes, Canada’s most celebrated homosexual activist minister, is in court for allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy in the 1970s.

The Court in Kentville heard the first witness testify that he saw Hawkes performing oral-genital actions on a teenage male at the pastor’s Nova Scotia home about 40 years ago.

Witness Douglas Aylward said he was 16 years old when a group of friends returned to Hawkes’ home after drinking at a local tavern. At one point, the minister pulled the teenager inside a small bathroom, told him he had been watching him and was “80 percent sure I was gay.”

“It was pretty uncomfortable,” the witness said.

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

TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Jay R. Jordan, jjordan@hcnonline.com Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Prosecutors filed additional child sexual assault charges against a Magnolia pastor accused of coercing a 16-year-old congregation member into sex on multiple occasions.

Body of Christ Church pastor Ronald Mitchell, 56, is now facing four second-degree felony counts of sexual assault of a child – one for every time prosecutors say Mitchell had sex with the underage girl over a four-month period from 2015 into 2016. He is facing up to 80 years in prison for those charges, but Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office detectives believe there could be more victims.

“As the investigation goes on in any type of case and you learn additional facts and get information from victims and witnesses, we’re able to potentially add additional charges as things progress,” Assistant District Attorney Tyler Dunman said. “We’ve had people come forward, and we’re still requesting people come forward with more information whether they’re victims or witnesses.”

Court documents show Mitchell had the girl staying with him at his church in the 40200 block of Garwood Court near Magnolia, telling the girl’s mother that she needed to be “watched” and have “more supervision.”

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TENNESSEE
WBRC

[with video]

By Sasha Jones

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) –
Allegations against a current Memphis Library worker have not only prompted a city and police investigation, but tied a Mid-South church to the case.

The City of Memphis has confirmed a current Memphis Public Library worker is on paid leave while they investigate previous allegations of sexual abuse.

Kenny Stubblefield says he suffered at the hands of Christopher Carwile.

He says it the reason he filed this Police Report with the City of Memphis, and why he is speaking out about the alleged abuse he says he suffered at the hands of Christopher Carwile.

What he told us, is what he says he told police.

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TENNESSEE
Local Memphis

[with video]

By Maria Hallas | mhallas@localmemphis.com
Published 11/15 2016

MEMPHIS, TN

New information tonight on an investigation the Local I-Team broke last night. Three men claim Memphis library worker Chris Carwile sexually abused them as teens nearly 20 years ago when he was an associate youth minister at Immanuel Baptist Church in Germantown.

Victims tell Local I-Team’s Maria Hallas they believe they suffered lasting spiritual and emotional damage in the way the church responded to their claims.

“The coverup of the way the leadership of our church handled our situation created long lasting pain,” says Kenny Stubblefield, one of the victims.

Boz Tchividjian a former prosecutor, grandson of Reverend Billy Graham, and victims’ rights advocate said the three men’s feelings are not unusual.

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GUAM
Crux

Associated Press
November 15, 2016

HAGATNAM, Guam – Guam is preparing a series of events in late November to welcome the man who could become its next archbishop.

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes will arrive from Detroit on Nov. 28 and be welcomed by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai and other clergy members, the Archdiocese of Agana told The Pacific Daily News.

Hon was sent to Guam in June to temporarily replace current Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron on an administrative basis.

Apuron, 71, has been Guam’s highest Catholic leader for 30 years but faces a trial in Rome over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s.

Byrnes, 58, will have the right to succeed Apuron if he resigns, retires or is removed. Byrnes was auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit before Pope Francis appointed him to the Guam post.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

DAN PROUDMAN
16 Nov 2016

FORMER Christian radio station boss and evangelical preacher Dr Gary Alexander Forbes has admitted to a court that he abused two brothers more than 20 years after first admitting his “sins” and 50 years after the abuse took place.

Forbes, 73, was committed on Wednesday to face Newcastle District Court for sentencing on three counts of assaulting a male and committing an act of indecency.

Agreed facts tendered during the committal proceedings said Forbes had abused one brother before moving onto his younger sibling when the older boy started in the workforce.

He had met them at a Christian gospel church in suburban Newcastle and had become friendly with the boys’ family.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

By Neil Pang | Post News Staff

The Mother Superior Dawn Marie of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, an order of cloistered nuns dedicated to prayer, held a press briefing yesterday in which she explained why the sisterhood had left Guam.

After 50 years of prayer for the island’s faithful, the Carmelite order celebrated their final mass on June 14 of this year and, the next day, left for their new home in California, Marie said yesterday.

Marie said she decided to hold the briefing in which she explained the reasons behind the move as an act of responsibility to the truth.

“Because we didn’t have a hope for a viable future, that’s the reason we had to move,” she said.

As Marie tells it, the decision to relocate came after a series of events that eventually resulted in what she called a “toxic environment” that made it too difficult for the nuns to continue in their way of life. That series of events, she said, stemmed from the Archdiocese’s acquisition of the former Hotel Accion property in Yona and the subsequent establishment of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary and the formation of the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Theological Institute (BDTI).

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY KODY LEIBOWITZ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG — It was reported for years that the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown paid for settlements and fees involving alleged clergy abuse through insurance and investment profits.

The Associated Press reported in May 2004 that “the diocese said it will continue discussions with various insurance companies to recover the cost” of a 21-person settlement that cost the diocese millions.

“To provide for immediate payment, however, it will use the surplus from the Mutual Aid Plan, the deposit and loan fund for parish savings accounts,” wrote the AP. “None of the parish deposits [or] interests will be use, just the investment profits that are owned by the diocese, according to the diocese’ news release.”

The release came in 2004 after the diocese settled with 21 people who claimed sexual abuse at the hands of clergy for $3.7 million.

The diocese acknowledged “there were minors who have been harmed and are entitled to be compensated,” in a released statement.

“The settlement,” the statement at the time read reported on by the AP, “reflects our deep desire both to aid the healing of victims of clergy abuse and to not incur the inordinate financial burden of lengthy litigation.”

Since the release of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown grand jury report in March, 6 News Investigates began digging into past settlements of our local catholic church and looking into how the catholic church covers costs for child sex abuse allegations.

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NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe New Mexican

November 15, 2016

Associated Press |

GALLUP — A new legal dispute has stalled the final resolution of a bankruptcy case prompted by a sexual abuse case involving the Diocese of Gallup, lawyers say.

The dispute involves a new lawsuit filed by attorney Robert E. Pastor against the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order that founded St. Michael Indian School in Arizona.

The suit claims a Navajo woman was sexually abused at the school by a Franciscan friar, The Gallup Independent reported.

The Gallup Diocese, the Franciscans and St. Michael Mission Church have already reached a settlement agreement with another Navajo woman related to abuse.

That settlement was part of the diocese’s bankruptcy case that was confirmed in June. As a result, the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscans and St. Michael’s Church are protected parties and not named as defendants in Pastor’s lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

Tom McIlroy
16 Nov 2016

A national system to compensate victims of child sexual abuse looks to be in doubt as states and territories withhold their support amid questions about the efficacy of an opt-in redress scheme.

The federal government surprised some states with Social Services Minister Christian Porter’s November 4 announcement of a $4.3 billion scheme, following a recommendation of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

No further details have been provided, leaving states including Western Australia and Victoria seeking answers and the development of some state schemes in limbo.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett told Fairfax Media he’d had no consultation from the federal government, despite Mr Porter saying it would seek national co-operation and even force the ACT and Northern Territory governments to sign up.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
16 Nov 2016

A Newcastle solicitor and prominent lay member of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle has defended his role in pushing against the current and former bishops of Newcastle, and justified his support for the defrocked cleric, Graeme Lawrence.

Robert Caddies, a parishioner at Christ Church Cathedral since 1987 and the holder of various lay positions, including diocesan solicitor from 1996 to 2005, was resuming evidence he began when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was adjourned at the end of August.

At that time, he was questioned about letters that he and others had signed in support of the former dean, who was defrocked in 2012 by the previous bishop of Newcastle, Brian Farran, who retired the same year.

Mr Caddies said evidence given by abuse survivor CKH against Mr Lawrence was “impressive and credible” but he still believed the former dean had been denied natural justice by the church.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Michael McGirr

FICTION
Crimes of the Father
TOM KENEALLY
VINTAGE, $32.99

There are a growing number of novels prepared to tell the story of paedophilia within various church communities, not least the Catholic Church. Few of them have needed to stray far from the grim facts. Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me and John Boyne’s The Long History of Loneliness are just two examples. Both these books draw the line between good and bad clergy. But they also have solid reason to call into question an entire ecclesiastical culture. They are valuable books but they don’t make comfortable reading.

Tom Keneally’s new novel, Crimes of the Father, is the same but different. One distinction is the undeniable affection Keneally has for Catholicism, evident in the moving final paragraphs of this novel. This affection can be seen in a number of places in Keneally’s work, including his memoir, Homebush Boy, one of the few kindly portrayals of the Christian Brothers in Australian Literature. At the same time, Keneally has visited clerical sexual abuse before, notably in An Angel in Australia.

Crimes of the Father is based in more recent church history. Much of it is set in 1996, an important year in the history of the awareness of sexual abuse in Australia, the year in which the Towards Healing process came into being. Here, a similar process is called In Compassion’s Name.

A key case in Crimes of the Father concerns a Dr Devitt, whom the church seeks to deny access to an open legal process. Parts of this bring to mind the unfortunate case of Dr John Ellis. But this novel would be diminished if it were treated simply as a roman-a-clef. It is a work of grief at least as much as an account of the perversion of justice. Its interests are more profound than the law. The word Keneally uses in his introduction is “mourn”.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Toni Hassan

“It takes a village…” was perhaps Hillary Clinton’s most memorable line. It was given a macabre twist in the Academy award-winning movie Spotlight, about the cover-up of sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy in Boston. One of the actors observed that “if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one”.

We are about to learn more about the NSW “village” of Newcastle, in which an extraordinary number of respected citizens appear, through action or inaction, to have helped cover up allegations of sexual abuse.

Four years after, Julia Gillard announced the royal commission into institutional responses to abuse, the Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, will take the stand on Wednesday in Sydney when the commission reconvenes for case study 42. He has already given evidence privately, as perhaps the most senior clergyman to do so. He grew up in the Hunter Valley and was sexually abused while a student in Newcastle. After serving as a priest in many parts of Australia, including Canberra, he returned to Newcastle as bishop in 2014.

He says he was greeted by senior community figures keen to “groom” him. One legal figure recommended a system of internal reviews; an opportunity for the new bishop to “learn” but also, he realised, be potentially compromised. Thompson went straight to the police.

Within months he issued a formal apology to victims and announced he wouldn’t live in the “house on the hill” traditionally occupied by the bishop, as the stately mansion had come to represent all that was wrong with religious power. It’s since been sold.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

[with video]

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Archdiocese has paid a dozen settlements for allegations against a priest at Keough, now dead.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has paid a series of settlements to people who allege they were sexually abused by a priest who worked at Archbishop Keough High School decades ago.

The payments stem from allegations of abuse by A. Joseph Maskell, who denied an initial accusation before he died in 2001.

Sheldon Jacobs, an attorney representing people who have alleged abuse by Maskell, said about a dozen have reached settlements within the past few months.

“There’s no amount of money that could ever adequately compensate the survivors for what they’ve gone through,” he said.

Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Baltimore archdiocese, confirmed that “settlements with victims of Joseph Maskell have been ongoing since at least 2011.” He said he did not have information Monday on how much has been paid to the victims.

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MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore

[with video]

By Rick Ritter

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Archdiocese of Baltimore paid a series of settlements to people alleging they were abused by a local priest decades ago. The alleged acts took place at Archbishop Keough High School.

For some it has been more than 40 years of hiding in the dark – waiting to come forward with their stories of being sexually abused. Now decades later the healing process can begin.

The stories are monstrous:

“He wanted me to touch her between her legs, he was doing like an anatomy lesson,” said one victim.

“I remember him letting me use his bathroom while he watched,” said another victim.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

JOE LOFARO, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, OTTAWA CITIZEN 11.15.2016

More than a decade before the Archdiocese of Ottawa told Jacques Faucher he could no longer be a priest, it paid tens of thousands of dollars to a former altar boy who had accused the reverend of molesting him.

Faucher was convicted in March of historical sex offences against three other children, but newly obtained documents by the Citizen show the diocese wrote a $50,000 cheque to a former altar boy when he was an adult in 1998, more than a year after he told the church about the alleged sexual abuse.

The payment was made on the condition he keep details of the out-of-court settlement confidential.

The 80-year-old former priest was found guilty of six counts of indecent assault and gross indecency to three of five boys who testified against him.

The cheque and other historical documents were filed as exhibits at Faucher’s criminal trial, and Ontario Superior Court Justice Pierre Roger recently granted the Citizen’s request to access the exhibits.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

A former senior member of Newcastle’s Anglican church has told the child abuse royal commission he has not been actively trying to ‘destroy’ the career of a bishop working to uncover child abuse in the diocese.

A hearing into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s 42nd case study has resumed in Sydney after a two-month break, with two former bishops and the current bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, expected to give evidence.

The commission has previously heard of widespread child sexual abuse within Newcastle’s Anglican Church, spanning several decades.

Former diocesan solicitor Robert Caddies resumed his evidence this morning, where he was questioned about a “bloc” within Newcastle’s cathedral seeking to undermine Bishop Thompson.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tory Cooney, St. Paul Pioneer Press on Nov 15, 2016

ST. PAUL—The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has filed an updated bankruptcy plan with more money for victims of clerical sexual abuse, but critics claim it doesn’t go far enough.

The new plan would raise the proposed trust fund for claimants from $65 million to more than $130 million.

That could amount to nearly $300,000 for each of the 440 victims, archdiocese attorney Charlie Rogers said during a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul.

“Our goal all along has been to promote healing… to express our goodwill in action not words,” Rogers said. “And I hope this is seen as…evidence (of that).”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
16 Nov 2016

THE Royal Commission has reopened in Sydney with a combative cross-examination of Newcastle solicitor and prominent lay Anglican figure Robert Caddies over letters that he and others signed complaining about the Bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson.

One letter was sent to the Royal Commission and others were sent to senior Anglican figures known as the Metropolitan and the Primate.

In the letter to the commission, Mr Caddies had complained that Bishop Thompson had potentially put youth in the church at risk by not reporting an allegation that he had been groomed and sexually abused by Bishop Ian Shevill and another senior priest of the diocese when he was 19 years old.

Under intense questioning from the commission chairman, Peter McClellan, and from counsel assisting, Naomi Sharp, Mr Caddies denied he was trying to “undermine” the bishop, although he agreed he was “drawing attention to” matters he believed were impairing Bishop Thompson’s performance as bishop.

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

[with video]

Dakarai Turner
Nov 15, 2016

BALTIMORE –
For the past several months, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has been holding mediation talks with a group of about a dozen people who said they were sexually abused by the same person.

The abuse is alleged to have stretched over a couple of decades and may have happened some years ago, but the alleged victims are just now beginning to feel what they may call justice.

Before it became what is now Seton Keough High School, during the 1960’s and 70’s it was known by a different name — Archbishop Keough.

Teresa Lancaster, a Baltimore area woman, attended classes at Archbishop Keough in 1970 and endured years of sexual abuse at the hands of Fr. Joseph Maskell who worked there as a chaplain.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

Associated Press
November 15, 2016

BALTIMORE – While one American diocese has paid settlements to end legal challenges related to clerical sexual abuse claims, another currently finds its exit strategy from bankruptcy proceedings stalled in court.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has paid a series of settlements to people who alleged that they were sexually abused by a priest who worked at a high school decades ago.

The Baltimore Sun reports Tuesday that the payments stem from allegations of abuse by A. Joseph Maskell, who denied an initial allegation before his 2001 death.

Attorney Sheldon Jacobs says about a dozen people, mostly women, have reached out-of-court settlements in recent months. He declined to say how large the settlements are.

Maskell is included on the public archdiocese list of what it calls credibly accused clergymen. Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine confirmed that “settlements with victims of Joseph Maskell have been ongoing since at least 2011,” but he didn’t have information Monday on how much has been paid.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
16 Nov 2016

THE previous Bishop of Newcastle has told the Royal Commission he had “a terrible time” in the city and only gradually worked out that he had a “significant problem” with child sexual abuse in his diocese.

Brian Farran, who was Bishop of Newcastle from 2005 until 2012, gave about 45 minutes of evidence on Wednesday afternoon before the hearing was adjourned until Thursday.

He said he received no handover from his predecessor, Roger Herft, when he arrived, and said it was only after Michael Elliott, the diocese’s director of professional standards, briefed him and he met some people from the Wallsend parish – where the subsequently disgraced priest Peter Rushton had been – that he realised there must have been “some sort of network”.

Mr Elliott began his job in 2009. Mr Farran said he was “not sure, actually”, if he ever saw the yellow envelopes that contained the misconduct files: he “presumed” some of them contained allegations of child sexual abuse.

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MINNESOTA
Business Insider

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has offered to pay $132 million to settle hundreds of child sex abuse claims against its clergy under a revised bankruptcy reorganization plan filed in court on Tuesday.

The archdiocese, one of 15 U.S. Catholic districts and religious orders driven to seek Chapter 11 protection by the church’s sex abuse scandal, said its plan would mark the second-largest such bankruptcy settlement of pedophile priest claims in America.

The sum is more than double the $65 million previously offered by the archdiocese and rejected by plaintiffs.

But lawyers representing the bulk of nearly 450 claims at stake in St. Paul-Minneapolis denounced the latest proposal as still far too small and accused church officials of trying to conceal their ability to pay much more.

The San Diego diocese settled sex abuse claims in 2007 for a total of $198 million after filing for Chapter 11. The Los Angeles archdiocese, the nation’s largest, reached a $660 million civil settlement the same year, though that was not part of a bankruptcy proceeding.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

November 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has announced an amended plan of reorganization tied to its bankruptcy case.

The case involves financial reorganization and clergy abuse claims.

According to the announcement, the plan raised the proposed trust for claimants from $65 million to more than $130 million.

Court filings indicate most of the new money is coming from settlements with additional insurance carriers. The original plan included settlements with three carriers worth over $33 million. The archdiocese has now reached settlements with 11 of its 13 insurance carrier groups totaling over $92 million. The archdiocese says it still hopes to get “many millions of dollars” from the two remaining carriers that have not settled.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic Telegraph

Catholic News Service / November 15, 2016

BALTIMORE — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston was elected president of the U.S. bishops’ conference Nov. 15 for a three-year term to begin at the conclusion of the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore.

Cardinal DiNardo collected a majority of votes on the first ballot of voting during the second day of the bishops’ public session. Based on the number of bishops voting, 104 votes were needed for election, and Cardinal DiNardo — the current vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — received 113.

He will succeed Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, whose three-year term as president concludes at the end of the meeting.

Elected vice president was Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles. By virtue of his election, Archbishop Gomez will not take over as chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Migration. He was elected last year as chairman-elect of the committee and was to succeed the current outgoing chairman, Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo of Seattle, at the end of this year’s general assembly.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune NOVEMBER 15, 2016

The fund for victims of clergy sex abuse would double from a proposed $65 million to $130 million under an amended bankruptcy reorganization plan filed Tuesday by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The increase is likely the result of new insurance settlements reached by the archdiocese, which is holding a news conference at 1 p.m. to offer details.

More than 400 individuals have filed claims against the archdiocese in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, alleging its clergy had sexually abused them as children.

In May, the archdiocese filed a reorganization plan which established a $65 million trust fund for victims, a fund that it said would grow as insurance settlements were reached. Victims’ attorneys denounced that amount as inadequate.

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MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

Late this morning, the Archdiocese filed an amended Plan of Reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Plan increases the proposed Trust for claimants from $65 million to more than $130 million. For more information, check www.thecatholicspirit.com and click the links below.

* Amended Plan of Reorganization
* Amended Disclosure Statement

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

November 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has announced an amended plan of reorganization tied to its bankruptcy case.

The case involves financial reorganization and clergy abuse claims.

According to the announcement, the plan raised the proposed trust for claimants from $65 million to more than $130 million.

Court filings indicate most of the new money is coming from settlements with additional insurance carriers. The original plan included settlements with three carriers worth over $33 million. The archdiocese has now reached settlements with 11 of its 13 insurance carrier groups totaling over $92 million. The archdiocese says it still hopes to get “many millions of dollars” from the two remaining carriers that have not settled.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

UPDATED:NOV 15 2016

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – Lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have announced a fund of $130 million is now available for victims of sexual abuse, doubling the previous total.

According to court documents, most of the new money is coming from settlements with additional insurance companies. The archdiocese has now reached settlements with 11 of its 13 insurance companies, and still hopes to get millions more from the companies that haven’t yet settled.

The attorney representing the victims, Jeff Anderson, says the new plan is still in adequate and represents less than one percent of the archdiocese’s assets.

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MINNESOTA
Tommie Media

By Associated Press | Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has filed an updated bankruptcy plan with more money for victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The archdiocese said in a statement Tuesday the new plan raises the proposed trust fund for claimants from $65 million to more than $130 million.

Court filings indicate most of the new money is coming from settlements with additional insurance carriers. The original plan included settlements with three carriers worth over $33 million. The archdiocese has now reached settlements with 11 of its 13 insurance carrier groups totaling over $92 million. The archdiocese says it still hopes to get “many millions of dollars” from the two remaining carriers that have not settled.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

11/15/2016

Jeff Anderson to Respond to Plan at 2:30PM
Press Conference Today in Minneapolis

The amended plan also lets the Archdiocese’s insurance companies off the hook and significantly undervalues their exposure

Archdiocese First Amended Disclosure Statement
Archdiocese First Amended Plan of Reorganization
Brownell Affidavit
Declaration of Benjamin Gurstelle

WHAT: At a news conference today in Minneapolis, Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will:
• Discuss the details of the amended bankruptcy reorganization plan filed today by the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis;
• Demand the Archdiocese uphold its pledge made to sexual abuse survivors to be transparent and accountable throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 2:30PM
WHERE: Outside the United States District Courthouse – Minneapolis
300 South Fourth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.318.2650 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.318.2650 Cell/612.205.5531

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BALTIMORE (MD)
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Nov. 15, 2016

BALTIMORE
Electing a president and vice president from regions with high immigrant populations, the U.S. bishops’ conference could be seen to be doubling down on the pledge to stand with immigrants and refugees.

Meeting in Baltimore this morning for the fall annual meeting, the U.S. bishops elected Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Texas, to serve as president for the next three years and Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles as vice president for a three-year term.

DiNardo’s election was expected. He had been elected vice president three years ago, and by tradition the vice president is elected president. He won with 113 votes, 55 percent of votes cast, on the first ballot.

It took three votes to elect a vice president. Gomez had the plurality of votes in the first two ballots and won with a simple majority on the third ballot with 133 votes. Second place in the three votes was Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Mon., Nov. 14, 2016

KENTVILLE, N.S.—Witnesses at the trial of Toronto pastor Rev. Brent Hawkes described the religious leader performing a sexual act on a teenage male and walking down a hallway nude during an alcohol-fuelled party at his Nova Scotia trailer in the 1970s.

One witness said he watched Hawkes perform oral sex on his friend on the floor of his home in the Greenwood, N.S., area during a party sometime in the mid-1970s.

“I couldn’t believe it,” the man testified in Kentville provincial court Monday at the trial of Hawkes, an influential gay rights advocate who officiated at former NDP leader Jack Layton’s state funeral in 2011.

The witness said he knew Hawkes when he was a student and that Hawkes was a basketball coach and teacher at a school in the Annapolis Valley.

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TENNESSEE
Local Memphis

[with video]

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com)

The City of Memphis is investigating an employee, named Chris Carwile, who works at a Memphis library, and is accused of abusing children while he worked with church youth almost two decades ago.

Three men filed a police report stating Carwile sexually abused them about 20 years ago while he was an associate youth pastor Immanuel Baptist Church in Collierville. Immanuel later changed its name to the Church at Schilling Farms.

The church fired Carwile, but admits it never reported the alleged abuse to law enforcement. Carwile went on to work at another church and is now employed at the city’s main library on Poplar. Last week, a city spokesperson says he was placed on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of an investigation.

The three men met exclusively with the Local I-Team. They say they are speaking out on social media and in the news now to prevent other children from possibly being victimized. They also say they would like to see changes in the Baptist Church to ensure allegations of child abuse are reported to law enforcement. The Local I-Team has repeatedly attempted to contact Carwile, but he has not responded.

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NEW YORK
Business Insider

Sonam Sheth

Neal Gumpel, a 57-year-old screenwriter, said he was elated when he heard in October that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, announced that the church was setting up a fund to compensate sexual-abuse victims. Gumpel said that when he was 16 the Rev. Roy Drake, a Jesuit priest, sexually assaulted him.

The program, called the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), is intended to “bring a measure of peace and healing to those who have suffered abuse,” Dolan said.

The IRCP has many phases. The first, which spans from October to January, covers only those who had previously filed claims of sexual abuse against the church. The second phase, for which an implementation date has not been announced, will cover new claims filed against clergy members.

“I thought, finally, they’re acknowledging the victims,” Gumpel told Business Insider. “Finally, they’re admitting the pain they’ve caused us, not just by abusing us, but by turning their backs on us when we tried to come forward.”

But then he heard the bad news. Gumpel’s claims would not be covered and he would not receive a public acknowledgement from the church.

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INDIA
Times of India

KOZHIKODE: A central government employee here on Monday demanded action against Nadakavu St Mary’s English Church parish priest Jain T A for making sexual advances towards her through e-mail and chat communication.

The complainant alleged that the Malabar diocese of the Church of South India, instead of protecting the believer, was trying to protect the accused priest.

“The clergy secretary of the bishop even told me “there are so many other churches in Kozhikode” indirectly telling me to move out of St Mary’s Church instead of seeking action against the offender,” said the complainant woman at a news conference.

The complainant is a widow and is working in a central government office in Kolkata. According to her, she contacted the priest on August 16 to request him to pray on the birth day of her daughter.

“He offered special prayer and I thanked him. But he did not stop there; instead he continued chatting with me even though I tried to avoid it. Slowly he started crossing the limit and I warned him many times. It was a real shocker for me to expect such behaviour from a parish priest,” the woman said amid tears.

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INDIA
The News Minute

A woman central government employee of Kozhikode alleged in a press meet conducted on Monday that a parish priest was making sexual advances towards her through email and chat.

The woman said that she had contacted Nadakavu St Mary’s English Church parish priest Jain TA in August to conduct prayers for her daughter’s birthday. “He offered special prayer and I thanked him. But he did not stop there; instead he continued chatting with me even though I tried to avoid it. Slowly he started crossing the limit and I warned him many times. It was a real shocker for me to expect such behaviour from a parish priest,“ she said in the press meet with tears, The Times of India reports.

The complainant said that though she approached the Malabar diocese of Church of South India under which this particular parish comes, the diocese authorities tried to protect the priest.

She alleged that the secretary of the Bishop asked her to move out of St Mary’s Church instead of taking action against the priest. “The clergy secretary of the bishop told me “there are so many other churches in Kozhikode” she said.

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NEW JERSEY
Robert M. Hoatson

[note: This release does not connect to a web site.]

Advocate for victims of sexual abuse, former Newark Archdiocesan priest and West Orange Town Council candidate, and honored educator to announce a run for the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey

Church reformer and whistleblower to bring “reform” agenda to the State of New Jersey

What
A press conference announcing the candidacy of Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., for the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey

When
Tuesday evening, November 15, 2016, from 5:30 pm until 8:30 pm
(Media invited to attend announcement from 6:45 pm until 7:30 pm)

Where
Wilshire Grand Hotel, 350 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ, 07052-2918

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., his family, neighbors, and supporters will gather to announce his run for the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., a native and current resident of West Orange, NJ, has lived in New Jersey for more than forty (40) years and has resided and/or worked in many New Jersey cities and towns, including Newark, West Orange, Bayonne, Hackensack, Closter, Midland Park, East Orange, South Orange, Jersey City, Glen Rock, Scotch Plains, and Little Ferry. He served as a deacon and/or priest for thousands of Catholics in parishes and schools throughout the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and was Principal of three schools; a high school in Newark, and two elementary schools (one in Newark and one in Hackensack). He founded and has served as President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey, since 2003. Road to Recovery, Inc. assists victims of sexual abuse and their families. Robert Hoatson, Ph.D., has lobbied for years in the New Jersey state legislature for reform of statute of limitations laws regarding sexual abuse of children. He has acted as a whistleblower of numerous cases of sexual abuse against children throughout the State of New Jersey, and was an integral part of the uncovering of facts surrounding the Newark Archdiocesan cover-up of the Fr. Michael Fugee sexual abuse case. In his work with Road to Recovery, Inc., Dr. Hoatson has traveled the State of New Jersey, helping to heal victims of sexual abuse and their families and advocating for justice and fairness for all. Dr. Hoatson’s perseverance in holding the soon-to-be-replaced Archbishop of Newark, John Myers, accountable for his mishandling of cases of clergy sexual abuse was influential in Pope Francis’ appointment of Archbishop Bernard Hebda, as co-adjutor Archbishop of Newark in 2013. Dr. Hoatson will announce his run for the Democratic nomination for Governor and speak about his theories and practices of leadership which will help to restore hope in the leadership of the State of New Jersey.

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

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Adoption campaigners have called for an audit of all records in the hands of the State but there has been no willingness at official level to comply, says Conall Ó Fátharta

A DOCUMENT showing that the religious order that operated Bessborough Mother and Baby Home altered records is just one of thousands of records the Commission of Investigation will have to examine in order to get to the bottom of how these institutions operated.

Rumours that records were altered in mother and baby homes have been rife in adoption circles for years. These latest revelations raise more questions about the vast number of records now in State hands.

The document, outlining a number of changes made to records relating to vaccine trials, has been in the possession of the HSE — and now Tusla — since 2011.

The changes were made to files in 2002 — just weeks after a discovery order from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA). Its examination of the issue was shut down in 2003 following a Supreme Court ruling, but it is being re-examined by the current Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A call for a commission of inquiry into forced adoptions has been strongly supported by the Coalition of Mother And Baby Home Survivors (CMABS).

The call was made in a letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny by former assistant national director of child and family services with the Health Service Executive, Phil Garland.

He was also director of child protection in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin from 2003 to 2009.

There was “undeniable evidence of cases of forced adoption within the mother and baby homes that had been uncovered as a result of the Magdalene inquiry” which published its report in February 2013, he said.

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GEORGIA
11 Alive

Joe Henke, WXIA November 14, 2016

ACWORTH, GA. – Members of an Acworth church congregation said their church didn’t tell them one of their youth ministry volunteers had a history of sexual assault.

Two parents said their learned of Mark Greer’s criminal history for themselves after he was charged last year with crimes against their teenage girls and also a third victim.

Greer began volunteering at Harvest Baptist Church several years ago, according to the church’s incoming pastor.

During his volunteer work, court records show Greer was charged last year with sexual battery and sexual molestation against three girls, all under the age of 16. He was arrested in Cherokee County in July of 2015.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Archbishop Byrnes reversed and canceled the deed of restriction that gave the Yona property away.

Guam – It’s his first move but perhaps will be his boldest–newly appointed Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes annihilated the Redemptoris Mater Seminary boards and reversed the highly contested deed of restriction that gave the RMS property away.

He hasn’t even stepped foot on the island and already coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes is cleaning house from 7,500 miles away. Today at a last minute press conference, Father Jeff San Nicolas made the stunning, but welcome announcement.

“I am pleased to announce that the Archdiocese of Agana, through Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes and concurred by Archbishop Savio Hon, with advice and support of both the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Presbyteral Council, has acted to transfer complete and unrestricted control and possession of the Yona property back to the Archdiocese of Agaña,” said San Nicolas.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Updated: Nov 15, 2016

By Jason Salas

Prior to today’s press conference given by the Archdiocese of Agana, another one was held – by an unlikely individual who, by the nature of her work, has spent a majority of her life shielded from the public.

But the mother superior of the Carmelite nuns in Guam is speaking out sharing her story about the Redemptoris Mater Seminar property in Yona. Mother Superior Dawn Marie is the last Carmelite standing in Guam. “The move to go to California was a very difficult one,” she admitted to island media.

One month after celebrating their 50th anniversary locally, in June all the remaining Carmelite nuns that were living here in a large house in Tamuning left, except for their mother superior. She cited the ongoing controversies in the local church as some of the reasons for their departure, saying conditions were, as she said, “Pretty toxic environment for the nuns to live in.”

In a rare press conference, Mother Dawn talked to local media to share her side of the story relating to the RMS property in Yona. You see, after years of speculation about who was the mystery $2 million benefactor that allowed for the archdiocese’s acquisition of the RMS property.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Agana regained full control of its seminary property in Yona after Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes used his authority to cancel deeds signed several years ago by Archbishop Anthony Apuron, according to the church.

Byrnes on Nov. 9 signed a decree, canceling, repealing and rescinding a five-year-old declaration of deed restriction that allowed a seminary and theological institute controlled by the Neocatechumenal Way to use the Yona property indefinitely.

The seminary will continue to operate, church officials said.

The Concerned Catholics of Guam, a group that has been pushing for Apuron’s removal, was poised to file a lawsuit to ensure the archdiocese doesn’t lose ownership and control of the Yona property.

Byrnes, who was appointed by the Vatican as Apuron’s successor, also used his authority to sign documents to replace the Redemptoris Mater Seminary’s board of directors, abolish the RMS Corporation’s board of governors, take personal control of the seminary, and sign all rights to the property back to the archdiocese. These include amending the RMS Corporation’s by-laws.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com November 15, 2016

Carmelite nuns donated the $2 million used by the Archdiocese of Agana to buy a former hotel in Yona, and they considered suing the church after finding out the property was not being used by the archdiocese, but for a seminary operated by the Neocatechumenal Way, said Mother Superior Dawn Marie, of the Carmelite Monastery on Guam.

She said Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, the Rev. Pius Sammut and others in 2014 tried to get the Carmelites to lie, by saying the Carmelites had purposely earmarked their gift for the use of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary and for the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania.

The mother superior was the person who got the Carmelite nuns in the United States to donate $2 million to the archdiocese on Guam to buy the Yona property over a decade ago.

She said the identity of the donors at the time was supposed to be anonymous, but Apuron and others violated that agreement from the beginning, she said.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 15, 2016

By Nestor Licanto

The Archdiocese of Agana says it has taken back complete and unrestricted control of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. Legal documents were filed with the Department of Land Management on behalf of newly-appointed Archbishop Michael Byrnes that repeal a controversial 2011 consent decree by former Archbishop Anthony Apuron that essentially gave control of the multimillion dollar property to a board controlled by the Neocatechumenal Way.

Archdiocese spokesman Father Jeff San Nicolas made the announcement, saying, “The legal filings abolished the RMS Board of Guarantors and replaced the current board of directors with Bishop Byrnes as the sole director, as well as designated him as the chairman, president and secretary of the RMS Corporation.”

The legal authority cited is that Byrnes is now the corporation sole of RMS by virtue of his new appointment as archbishop of Agana. Apuron had used that same power to transfer control to the Neocatechumenal Way-controlled board. And while the seminary is now back with the archdiocese, it has not yet decided what it will do with it.

“While the governance has changed the administration and the day-to-day operation has not changed,” said Father San Nicolas.

But while the church says for now RMS will continue as it has, critics of Apuron and the NCW say the seminary has been used for the formation of off-island priests, not local priests which they believe it was intended for. The seminary is also seen as one of the church’s most valuable assets, with estimates ranging from $40 million to $70 million.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Gordon Friedman , Statesman Journal November 14, 2016

Donald Mansell, a former Christian school teacher and athletics coach, will serve 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of harassment. The misdemeanor convictions stem from incidents where Mansell, 37, fondled two teenage female students and asked them for sex between 2010 and 2013.

Mansell, who worked at Livingston Adventist Academy and who is also the son-in-law of Marion County Judge Vance Day, was sentenced to five years of probation to begin after his release from jail. He’ll also have to register as a sex offender.

The sentencing conditions allow Mansell to have his probation ended two years early if he fully complies with its terms, court documents show. He can also have the convictions erased from his record in time.

The attorneys representing the two victims were not happy with Mansell’s sentence.

Ron Sayer, an attorney representing Mansell’s victims, said the sentence is the “worse miscarriage of justice that occurs in our system.”

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CANADA
Canoe

JOE LOFARO, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Nov 15, 2016

OTTAWA – More than a decade before the Archdiocese of Ottawa told Jacques Faucher he could no longer be a priest, it paid tens of thousands of dollars to a former altar boy who had accused the reverend of molesting him.

Faucher was convicted in March of historical sex offences against three other children, but newly obtained documents by the Ottawa Sun show the diocese wrote a $50,000 cheque to a former altar boy when he was an adult in 1998, more than a year after he told the church about the alleged sexual abuse.

The payment was made on the condition he keep details of the out-of-court settlement confidential.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY
14 Nov 2016

NEWCASTLE District Court Judge Ralph Coolahan slammed the charging of an Anglican priest with child sex offences as a “disgrace”, and described the priest’s alleged victims as “ridiculous”, in a controversial 2001 court case under renewed investigation by NSW Police and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A transcript of the court case under consideration by the royal commission shows the late Judge Coolahan questioned the laying of charges against the priest and told a 2001 Newcastle court hearing: “The fact that someone is brought to trial, 26 years after an alleged offence, is in itself a disgrace.”

Judge Coolahan questioned how old the two alleged victims were, noted that “when people turn 18 the law places upon them enormous responsibilities”, and criticised the 20-year delay between when they turned 18, and when they reported the alleged sexual abuse to police.

“So they’ve waited 20 years since they attained their majority? Well that’s just ridiculous. It is truly ridiculous,” Judge Coolahan told the court.

He criticised the handling of the case by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, describing aspects of it as a “disgrace”, a “complete disgrace”, and a “farce”.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Liam Heylin

An elderly priest on trial for the alleged sexual assault of a schoolboy during sex education in a school office was found not guilty yesterday.

Judge Gerard O’Brien thanked the jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and discharged them from further jury service for a period of two years ,stating that it had been a difficult case.

The priest said during the three-day trial in Cork: “I never touched him sexually, improperly — never.”

The complainant said he was in third year in school when he was called to the priest’s office for sex education. He said the priest masturbated him.

He said: “I can clearly remember one of the questions — when a man gets an erection what caused it?”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Kerrin Thomas and Caitlin Furlong

Plans to set up a memorial for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse at a church in Armidale, in northern New South Wales, are being criticised by a support group.

The Catholic Diocese of Armidale is one of a number of organisations to have come before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with the findings of a case study relating to a former priest yet to be handed down.

Bishop Michael Kennedy said the planned memorial on church grounds would replace a “temporary” memorial made up of ribbons tied to the cathedral’s fence and was an indication that the survivors and victims of child sexual abuse would not be forgotten.

“We do need something that will ensure there isn’t a continued silence on child abuse which unfortunately did occur for some years,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

Inés San Martín November 14, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

Today the U.S. bishops gathered in Baltimore will elect new leaders, in a ballot likely to be taken as a referendum both on what they think of Pope Francis and also how they want to react to the presidency of Donald Trump. Here are sketches of the ten candidates.

For the second time in a month, Americans are going to the polls, although this time it’s only the few hundred bishops who compose the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the U.S. who’ll be casting a vote.

As they do every three years, the American bishops will be electing their leadership, including their president and vice president.

Beyond electing new leaders, during their Nov. 14-16 fall general assembly, taking place in Baltimore, the American bishops also will discuss ways to promote peace in U.S. communities torn apart by violence, and will vote on an action plan to support the priorities they approved last year.

The list of ten nominees to replace Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky and Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston in their respective roles as president and vice-president was released late October. The bishops will elect the president first from this set of ten names, and then will select a number two from whoever’s left.

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KANSAS
WIBW

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A former priest in Osage County is accused of engaging in unprofessional conduct with an adult.

The Leaven, a Catholic-based newspaper, reported Rev. Anthony Kiplagat, a priest from the Dioceses of Eldoret in Kenya, was on assignment in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas and the Saint Patrick Catholic Church of Osage City.

The woman who lodged the complaint was not a member of either parish.

Johnson County Court records show an order of protection from stalking was granted to a woman in February. The woman claimed Kiplagat sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her and harm her family if she told the church what happened.

The Leaven reports the woman went to Overland Park Police in January, and the Archdiocese immediately launched an investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IT IS more than 15 years since the late Newcastle District Court Judge Ralph Coolahan had a heated exchange with a lawyer from the Director of Public Prosecutions in a case involving a Newcastle Anglican priest.

The charges were child sex allegations against the priest dating back 26 years. The alleged victims – two brothers aged 38 and 36 – were in the court.

Judge Coolahan lashed the DPP’s handling of aspects of the case as a “disgrace”, a “complete disgrace” and a “farce”, and said it was “just ridiculous” the brothers had “waited 20 years” after they turned 18 before reporting allegations to police.

His comments make disturbing reading given what we know after more than three years of evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse. They are also disturbing given what judges should, and would, have known about disclosures by alleged victims even back in 2001, when the Newcastle Anglican priest case was heard by Judge Coolahan, and eventually dropped.

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BELGIEN
De Redactie

Hanne Decré, Sofie Demeyer

De paters Augustijnen worden verdacht van sociale fraude, mensenhandel en schriftvervalsing. Onder het mom van een priesteropleiding zouden de paters Augustijnen een twintigtal jongemannen uit Afrika en Vietnam naar België hebben gehaald, waar de mannen gratis moesten werken. Volgens hun advocaten worden de leidinggevenden echter veroordeeld voor praktijken die behoren tot de traditie van de kloosterorde.

Het Openbaar Ministerie wil vzw paters Augustijnen, drie leidinggevende kloosterlingen waaronder de abt, en vzw Thagaste Trefpunt Augustijnen voor de rechter brengen. Ze worden verdacht van sociale fraude, mensenhandel en valsheid in geschrifte.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

[The court in Belgium will prosecute the Augustinian Fathers of Ghent for trafficking and forgery. Investigation revealed that three senior monks provided false documents for at least 19 people. It is alleged they had African men working illegally with promise to obtain a residency visa. The men were not paid and were not allowed to freely leave the monastery, according to the investigators.]

Het gerecht wil de Paters Augustijnen van Gent vervolgen voor mensenhandel, zwartwerk en schrift­vervalsing. Onderzoek bracht aan het licht dat drie leidinggevende kloosterlingen voor minstens 19 personen valse documenten hebben opgesteld. Ze zetten vooral Afrikaanse mannen illegaal aan het werk met als doel een verblijfsvisum te bekomen. Dat meldt het Gentse arbeidsauditoraat.

De Paters Augustijnen zouden vooral jonge Afrikanen onder het mom van een opleiding in het klooster aan het werk hebben gezet, zonder hen te betalen. Ook mochten de mannen het klooster niet vrij verlaten.

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UNITED STATES
Forward

Sara Kabakov
November 14, 2016

Editor’s note: Earlier this month, the Forward published Marc Gafni’s own words defending himself against accusations that he sexually abused Sara Kabakov when she was 13 and he was 19. Here is Kabakov’s response.

I struggle with the impulse to respond to Marc Gafni’s letter regarding my January 2016 article about him sexually abusing me. Should a survivor even dignify her abuser with any response at all?

I wrote my account of sexual assault not as part of an “orchestrated smear campaign”, as he claims, but as a personal description of an experience that impacted my life in profound and immutable ways. I have no vendetta against Gafni and don’t spend time thinking about his career or reputation.

I do, however, care about girls and women and protecting them from sexual predators. I care about the way so many predators make excuses for sexually criminal behavior. I care about the way the term “youthful mistake,” is used to explain away deplorable actions that can turn a survivor’s life into a nightmare. I care about the New York State legal system, with its outdated statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, which protects alleged abusers and prolongs their access to more children. Indeed, if a sexual predator is stopped when a victim comes forward, whenever that may be, many souls could be saved from his subsequent actionable behaviors.

Gafni’s use of the words, “romance” and “dating”, when describing our association, leaves me speechless. Seriously? Is it romantic when someone creeps into a girl’s room at night, wakes her up, and sexually assaults her? Is it romantic when a man forces his hands and fingers on, and in, a girl’s body, against her will? Is it romance, when she says “No!” unheeded, while repeatedly pushing him away? Perhaps it is the selective memory, or fantasy of a predator that can spin this horrific scenario into a normal, consenting relationship.

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CANADA
CTV

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, November 14, 2016

Miykhaela reaches back in her memory to the summer day when it all began. Her older brother had taken her into the bush on their northern Ontario reserve to join a few of their cousins, young teenaged boys like her sibling who had all been attending residential school together for several years.

They gang-raped her.

She was five or six years old.

As a mother years later, Miykhaela had to confront the ugly reality of familial sex abuse once again — but this time it was her daughter, who one day confessed that her teenaged half-brother had raped her a couple of years earlier.

She was 10 or 11 years old.

Miykhaela and her daughter are just two of the faces of intergenerational sexual abuse, a dark legacy connected to almost 120 years of government-sanctioned, church-operated residential schools, where aboriginal leaders say many First Nations, Metis and Inuit children were physically and sexually molested by clergy and other staff, spawning a cycle of mimicked behaviour in generations to come.

Extensive interviews with social scientists, indigenous leaders and victims undertaken over the past few months by The Canadian Press suggest child sexual abuse is an open secret in many aboriginal communities — and its prevalence in some is shockingly high.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 14, 2016

Preparations are underway for a series of events to welcome Guam’s next archbishop on Nov. 28, including a Nov. 30 gathering in which all the island’s faithful will have the opportunity to see and hear him.

Upon his arrival, Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes will be welcomed by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai and other clergy members, the Archdiocese of Agana said.

As coadjutor archbishop, Byrnes, 58, has the right to succeed Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron if Apuron, 71, resigns, retires or is removed. Under church law, bishops are required to resign at 75.

Apuron, Guam’s highest Catholic leader for 30 years, is facing a canonical trial in Rome over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s. Prior to Pope Francis’ decision to appoint him on Oct. 31, Byrnes was auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

14 November, 2016

The Royal Commission will hold a series of public hearings in Sydney to inquire into the current policies and procedures of the following institutions in relation to child protection and child-safe standards, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse:

Case Study 47 YMCA New South Wales

Case Study 48 Scouts New South Wales

Case Study 49 The Salvation Army

Case Study 50 Catholic Church authorities in Australia

Case Study 51 Commonwealth and the State and Territory governments

Case Study 52 Anglican Church authorities in Australia

Case Study 53 Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi

Case Study 54 Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd

Case Study 55 Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches

Case Study 56 Uniting Church in Australia.

The public hearing into YMCA New South Wales, Scouts New South Wales and The Salvation Army will commence on 5 December 2016 and is expected to end on 9 December 2016.

The public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Australia will commence on 6 February 2017 and is expected to end on 24 February 2017.

The public hearing into Commonwealth, State and Territory governments will commence on 6 March 2017 and is expected to end on 10 March 2017.

The public hearing into Anglican Church authorities in Australia, Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia Ltd, Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches, and the Uniting Church in Australia will commence on 20 March 2017 and is expected to end on 24 March 2017.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

TOM PETERKIN

Friday 11 November 2016

Abuse survivors have accused the Scottish Government of failing to do enough to investigate crimes against children carried out within the Catholic Church.

Those campaigning for justice for survivors believe the Scottish Government’s inquiry into historical abuse will not have a broad enough remit to uncover the full extent of the crimes committed against youngsters in the care of the Church.

The investigation is looking at the treatment of children who were in residential care, those who had long-term stays in hospital, boarding schools and those under foster care.

Incas (In Care Survivors) want to extend the scope of the inquiry so that it includes all those who had a duty of care towards children.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been warned that unless he establishes a commission of inquiry into forced adoptions by the end of this month, the matter will be reported to the Garda.

In a letter to the Taoiseach last week, the former assistant national director of child and family services with the Health Service Executive, Phil Garland, said that in October 2012 he notified statutory authorities and the then inquiry into Magdalene laundries about “the high rate of infant death in mother-and-baby homes and the possibility of forced adoption of children from within the State”.

There was “undeniable evidence of cases of forced adoption within the mother-and-baby homes that had been uncovered as a result of the Magdalene inquiry” which published its report in February 2013, he said. Such evidence was also available in the 2009 Ryan report, which investigated the abuse of children in orphanages, industrial schools, and reformatories, he said.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

November 14, 2016 by J-Wire Staff

The Royal Commission will hold a series of public hearings in Sydney to inquire into the current policies and procedures of the Jewish institutions in relation to child protection and child-safe standards, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

Case Study 53 Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi

The public hearing into Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi, will commence on 20 March 2017 and is expected to end on 24 March 2017. Other institutions will appear during these hearing.

The scope and purpose of the public hearings is to consider:

1. The current policies and procedures of each named institution in relation to child protection and child-safe standards, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.
2. Factors that may have contributed to the occurrence of child sexual abuse in each named institution.
3. Factors that may have affected the institutional response of each named institution to child sexual abuse.
4. The responses of each named institution to relevant case study report(s) and other Royal Commission reports.
5. Data relating to the extent of claims of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia.
6. Data relating to the extent of claims of child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church in Australia.
7. Any related matters.

The purpose of these public hearings is not to inquire into individual sets of facts or particular events as has occurred in previous Royal Commission case studies.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Big Issue North

NOV 14 2016

The largest ever inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in England and Wales is battling claims it is unmanageably large and already failing in its remit, two years after Theresa May, then home secretary, set it up to examine the failures of institutions to recognise and address child sexual abuse going back decades.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was launched after the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal came to light in 2012 and revealed widespread exploitation by prominent media and political figures over a long period, as well as the inability of institutions and organisations to safeguard vulnerable children.

“There has not been anything of its kind in UK history, in terms of scope and size,” says IICSA panel member Ivor Frank, a human rights barrister with more than 30 years experience. A public inquiry, he admits, is usually about a single issue over a relatively contained period.

Frank says there are a lot of “vested interests in not allowing the inquiry to succeed”

“We’re an inquiry about multiple institutions over decades. That makes it different, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

Despite the strides taken by the Catholic Church to address a concerned laity, the weekly protests outside the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica continued yesterday with the clockwork-like precision that all have come to expect from them.

According to Laity Forward Movement spokeswoman Lou Klitzkie, the protests will continue until their demands are met – namely, the removal of Archbishop Anthony Apuron as the Ordinary of the Archdiocese and the return of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary to church patrimony.

While Apuron’s exact status remains tenuous, pending a canonical trial in Rome that is supposed to be ongoing, the appointment of coadjutor archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes at least suggests that a clear line of succession is now in place in the eventuality that Apuron is removed.

According to Concerned Catholics of Guam president Dave Sablan, Apuron’s removal is a foregone conclusion – especially with the filing of the suits against him by child sex abuse survivors Roland Sondia, Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla and Leo Tudela.

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

November 14, 2016

by Michael Pender

Recently Bishop Patrick Dunn has made presentations around the Auckland diocese telling of some of the challenges he perceives our Church to be facing. One theme he developed was to do with the numbers of people in our congregations. He explained that if one looks at census returns then it seems that Catholic numbers are holding up rather than declining as is happening for some other denominations. However, it appears that we in the Auckland diocese are being misled simply because the number of Catholic immigrants gives the impression that our churches are just as full as they have ever been.

Bishop Dunn went on to explain that the phenomenon of people leaving the Church occurs right across the western world; he even used the phrase “collapse of Christendom”. In the United States the decline has been such that the largest denomination is now former Catholic! Pope Benedict spoke on many occasions about decline of belief in Europe. In 2001, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, when he was the Archbishop of the London diocese of Westminster, commented about the diminishing influence of Christian belief in Britain.

In recent issues of NZ Catholic, the bishop’s remarks have been well reported; they have also drawn responses from letter writers.

Why have people departed from the pews? There is probably no simple answer as many factors are likely to have contributed: marriage problems, the scandal of sexual abuse, the way in which a very large organisation can sometimes seem to be cold and unwelcoming, personality clashes, the seeming irrelevance of religious belief in a materialistic consumer society . . . . But are these issues sufficient cause?

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NEW YORK
Evening Tribune

By Stephen Borgna sborgna@the-leader.com

CORNING | A former Corning resident has reached a settlement for sexual abuse he says he received at St. Mary’s Church in Corning in the 1960s.

Thomas Mclaughlin, who lived on West 6th Street at the time and now lives near Wilmington, North Carolina, settled for an undisclosed sum with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester for abuse he allegedly received from former priest John Gormley.

Gormley is no longer affiliated with the church. He left the priesthood in 1971. The Diocese of Rochester confirmed that Gormley was with St. Mary’s Church in Corning from 1962-1965 as an assisting priest.

Mclaughlin said he was a 10-year-old altar boy at the time. He said the abuse took place for one summer.

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NEW JERSEY
New York Times

By JAMES BARRON
NOV. 13, 2016

NEWARK — Bishop Manuel A. Cruz opened with a head count. “Four,” he said, looking out at the four parishioners in a small chapel behind the soaring Gothic sanctuary of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart here. “The perfect number, because it is the number we are here.”

Then Bishop Cruz said the evening Mass — the nightly service in English. Of the four worshipers, one was a lay reader, Edna Tan, who came to the United States from the Philippines 27 years ago. Also at the service was the cathedral’s head sacristan, Sister Ana Julia Frias, a nun from the Dominican Republic. The third worshiper was black, the fourth white.

Ninety minutes later in the same chapel, another Mass began, the weekly evening service in Spanish. The pews were full, about 50 people in all.

The difference in attendance illustrates one of the main challenges facing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark as it prepares for the arrival of a new leader, Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, currently the archbishop of Indianapolis. The cathedral is the seat of a troubled archdiocese stretching across four counties in northern New Jersey. It encompasses some of the state’s wealthiest communities, and some of its poorest.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 14, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

Even with a new bishop heading to Guam it’s not enough to quiet the protests every Sunday at the Hagatna Cathedral. Additionally just today new documents have been filed in the defamation lawsuit filed against the local Catholic Church and Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

On any given Sunday, you’ll find them in front of the cathedral. Concerned Catholics and members of the Laity Forward Movement have been protesting for several months and according to Gerry Taitano they’re not going to stop. “We don’t want to hear his name during the masses Thanksgiving prayer, God bless Apuron, Archbishop Apuron we just want him out,” he explained.

But Archbishop Apuron isn’t out officially despite allegations of sexual molestation and questions as to whether the Redemptoris Mater Seaminary property in Yona still belongs to the local archdiocese. Currently Archbishop Apuron along with the archdiocese are being sued for defamation and most recently a complaint for damages was filed by four victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse. Documents filed with the court even indicate accused pedophile priest Father Louis Brouillard confessed to abusing boys when he was a priest and a teacher of sex education on Guam in the 1940’s through the 1970’s.

Father. Brouillard also admitted on video that he told the church’s higher-ups who responded to pray about it. Weekly protestor CCOG’s Andrew Camacho said, “So that’s a scary thought that abusive priests were known about and nothing concrete was done about it, so that means young people were at risk for many, many years.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Archbishop of the Canberra-Goulburn region has responded to criticism over his absence at an abuse healing service at Marist College earlier this week.

Advocates for victims of child abuse hit out at Archbishop Christopher Prowse, labelling his decision not to attend “appalling”.

In a statement, Archbishop Prowse said “some victims of child abuse have been offended by my non-attendance at the recent Liturgy of Lament at Marist College, Canberra”.

“In hindsight, I believe they are correct,” he said.

The all-boys Catholic school in Canberra’s south held a liturgy for abuse survivors on Thursday, at which its headmaster and the Provincial of the Marist Brothers apologised for abuse that took place at the school, and subsequent failures to deal with it effectively.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Christopher Knaus

The Catholic archbishop for Canberra says he regrets his decision not to attend a healing ceremony for Marist abuse victims, asking “sincerely for forgiveness from those whom I have offended”.

Archbishop Christopher Prowse was invited to Marist’s healing ceremony on Thursday night, but declined to attend.

A spokeswoman said on Friday that the Catholic church’s leader in Canberra and Goulburn had viewed it as a “Marist-specific” event, and that he’d wanted to wait for the royal commission to end so the archdiocese could hold its own.

The decision angered abuse survivors, who viewed his absence as a continuing sign of a flawed attitude on the abuse crisis from the Catholic Church.

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ISRAEL
The Daily Beast

ADRIENNE SANDERS
11.13.16

One would think that a convicted sex offender might want to stay out of the courts in his new country of residence.

Not so with Yona Weinberg.

The Brooklyn sex offender who moved to Israel in 2014 the day after police knocked on his door over new charges, is suing a New York rabbi for defamation after the rabbi, Yakov Horowitz, tweeted Weinberg’s whereabouts in Jerusalem. Israel does not have a public sex offender registry so the rabbi, a child advocate, warned residents via Twitter that Weinberg was a dangerous presence in their midst.

Weinberg’s Brooklyn-based lawyer Samuel Karliner, who helped him manage sex-offender registry requirements while he was in the United States, said his client did not flee to Israel, as Horowitz’s tweets contended, and that he had been planning to move there with his family for some time.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Ian Kirkwood
13 Nov 2016

CLERGY abuse survivors say a prominent Newcastle Anglican at the subject of this week’s Royal Commission hearings should be stripped of his Order of Australia Medal and his position as a Freeman of the City of Newcastle.

Graeme Lawrence, who was rector of Christ Church Cathedral and dean of Newcastle from 1984 to 2008, is one of the people at the heart of the Royal Commission’s investigations into “the experiences of child sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and lay people involved in or associated with the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle”.

He is one of eight Anglicans named in the terms of reference for case study 42, which ran for 11 days in August and which reconvenes on Wednesday for a scheduled five further days.

The commission is looking at Mr Lawrence’s own sexual behaviour and at the way he is alleged to have used his office to help protect himself and others.

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