ABUSE TRACKER

FRANCE
Washington Post

By Associated Press November 7

LOURDES, France — France’s Roman Catholic Church is trying to make amends for years of silence surrounding pedophilia among priests with a day of prayer and fasting for victims of sex abuse — and to fix the problem, notably with a prevention program for priests.

Bishops who gathered in the town of Lourdes, a leading pilgrimage site, for their biannual plenary assembly prayed on Monday “for forgiveness for the sins committed by clergy members.”

During a Mass at the Rosary basilica, Bishop Luc Crepy gave the homily, exhorting his peers to play their part in “this fight against scandalous and criminal actions.”

Crepy, who was appointed earlier this year as the head of a church panel targeting pedophilia, announced a series of measures to fight child sexual abuse, including giving victims a voice and an ear, and a means to confide an act of pedophilia against. A prevention program starting in seminaries where young men are being trained for the priesthood and extending into individual dioceses is in the process of being set up. Legal procedures in the event a priest is accused of pedophilia are to be taught.

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MARYLAND
Inside Baltimore

Payment Also Requires Recipient To Relinquish Any Future Claims

By Tom Nugent

November 2016 – Reading, Pa. – After more than 40 years of struggling to get the Catholic Church to “acknowledge the crimes” that were committed against her, a Pennsylvania woman who says she was raped by two priests and a policeman while attending a Catholic high school in Baltimore was recently awarded more than $40,000 from an Archdiocese of Baltimore funding program aimed at “promoting healing for . . . victims of abuse.”

The $40,000-plus payment was accompanied by a letter of apology from an Archdiocesan official who wrote to the victim: “I am sorry for the pain you have experienced.”

Most of the money paid to the victim by the Archdiocese of Baltimore came via a check drawn on the PNC Bank of Baltimore. The check number was 313504634, and it was signed by Archbishop William E. Lori.

“This is a huge step forward for dozens of women who have been trying to get the Catholic Church in Baltimore to publicly acknowledge sex crimes that were committed against them during the past several decades,” said the reported childhood rape victim, Donna Wallis VonDenBosch, a nurse practitioner with a master’s degree who is now working on her doctorate. “For the first time that I’m aware of, the Archdiocese is validating our nightmarish experience by confirming on the record that it actually took place.”

In a statement released via email on November 1, Archdiocesan Executive Director of Communications Sean T. Caine said that the money was paid to VonDenBosch as part of a “longstanding practice of promoting healing for victims by offering therapeutic counseling assistance to victims of abuse for as long as it is helpful. . . .

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed:

– Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., metropolitan of Indianapolis, United States of America, as metropolitan Archbishop of Newark (area 1,328, population 3,157,000, Catholics 1,459,000, priests 730, permanent deacons 162, religious 1,092), United States of America. He succeeds Archbishop John J. Myers, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese was accepted by the Holy Father.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

NEWARK — A month ago, Joseph Tobin learned Pope Francis was promoting him to cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Two weeks after that, he learned the pope was appointing him head of the Archdiocese of Newark.

“I am not sure that my central nervous system can take much more news,” Tobin said as his appointment was announced Monday. “So, you will forgive me the occasional stutter or facial tick.”

Signaling a new era for New Jersey Catholics, Pope Francis officially announced Cardinal-designate Tobin as the new head of the Archdiocese of Newark early Monday. NJ Advance Media first reported Friday that church sources said Tobin was slated to get the job.

Church officials made the announcement at a morning press conference at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark before members of the media and several hundred priests, church officials and parishioners.

Standing at a podium at the foot of the altar, Tobin said he accepted his appointment with “both shock and sadness” as he leaves his current job as the archbishop of Indianapolis. The relaxed Detroit native stood with a hand in his pocket as he cracked jokes, answered questions and showed off his ability to speak Spanish in a 47-minute press conference.

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NEW JERSEY
Inside Indiana Business

By Alex Brown, Multimedia Journalist

NEWARK, N.J. –
Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin says while he is saddened to leave Indiana, he is ready to begin his journey as the new Archbishop of Newark. Tobin has served as Archbishop of Indianapolis for the last four years after being appointed to the position by Pope Benedict XVI.

Tobin announced his new position Monday morning and, at a press conference in Newark, said he learned of his appointment two weeks ago. He joked about being named a Cardinal by Pope Francis two weeks prior to that, saying, “I’m not sure that my central nervous system can take much more news.”

Tobin says the phone call he received informing him of his appointment to the Archdiocese of Newark invoked shock and sadness.

“I recently marked four years as the Archbishop of Indianapolis and have come to love deeply the people of central and southern Indiana,” said Tobin. “It is gut-wrenching to think of leaving those wonderful clergy, religious and faithful as well as the many friends I have among peoples of other faiths and those of no faith.”

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NEW JERSEY
San Antonio Express-News

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The Latest on Pope Francis selecting a new leader of the Archdiocese of Newark (all times local):

12:20 p.m.

The new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, is asking Catholics not to fall prey to the political polarization that has overtaken the country.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin made his first public comments Monday after being chosen to replace Archbishop John Myers, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Tobin says he was surprised when he returned to the U.S. after being away since the 1990s by what he termed the “red-state, blue-state stuff” he saw in the country.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

BY ELISE HARRIS/CNA/EWTN NEWS 11/07/2016

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican announced Monday that recently nominated Cardinal-elect Archbishop Joseph William Tobin of Indianapolis will soon be taking over as the new head of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, Archdiocese.

Born in Detroit May 3, 1952, Cardinal-elect Tobin has served as the sixth archbishop of Indianapolis since 2012. He was ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1978 and served as the order’s superior general from 1997 to 2009.

On Oct. 9, Pope Francis named him as one of three Americans on his list of 17 new cardinal-elects, who will be elevated during a special Nov. 19 consistory set to coincide with the end of the Jubilee of Mercy.

Other Americans getting the red hat are Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago and Bishop Kevin Farrell, former head of the Dallas Diocese but who recently moved to Rome to carry out his new role as prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Laity, Family and Life.

As head of the Newark Archdiocese, Cardinal-elect Tobin will be taking over for Archbishop John Myers, who will retire after having reached the age limit of 75 in July.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY MARY JO LAYTON AND MONSY ALVARADO
STAFF WRITERS | THE RECORD

Pope Francis on Monday appointed Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin, a staunch supporter of social justice as the next spiritual leader of the Newark Archdiocese to succeed retiring Archbishop John J. Myers.

Myers is scheduled to hold a press conference, along with Tobin, at 10:30 a.m. today at the Newark Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Tobin, the oldest of 13 children, is due to be elevated to cardinal in two weeks, which would make him the first cleric of that exalted rank in the 163-year history of the archdiocese, serving 1.2 million Roman Catholics in Bergen, Essex, Union and Hudson counties.

Archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness said Tobin will likely start in January.

Related: As he exits, Newark Archbishop Myers opens up; criticizes secular culture

Cardinals usually preside over the nation’s largest and most important cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Kaitlin L Lange and Vic Ryckaert, IndyStar November 7, 2016

Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Indianapolis who tangled with Gov. Mike Pence over Syrian refugees, announced Monday that he has been chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.

“I immediately thought of you, the people of this great Archdiocese whose pastoral care was entrusted to me four years ago,” Tobin said in a statement posted on the Indianapolis Archdiocese website.

“The thought of leaving you devastated me,” Tobin said. “I have had many sleepless nights and shed more than a few tears.”

Tobin will be officially introduced during a news conference in Newark that starts at 10:30 a.m. Monday and will be live-streamed on the Archdiocese of Newark’s Facebook page. He will be installed in the new post on Jan. 6.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named the Archbishop of Indianapolis, Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., to be the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, USA. Archbishop Tobin succeeds Archbishop John J. Myers, whose resignation the Holy Father accepted on Monday.

BIOGRAPHY OF ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH TOBIN, C.Ss.R.
(From the Archdiocese of Newark)

The Most Reverend John J. Myers, fifth Archbishop of Newark, was born in Ottawa, IL on July 26, 1941 to M. W. “Jack” and Margaret Donahue Myers. He is the eldest of seven children.
The Archbishop’s family traces its roots to Ireland, England and France; relatives settled in northern Illinois in the late 1800s.

Earlier ancestors of Mrs. Myers (Spaulding was the family name) served in the Revolutionary War.

The Myers family farmed near Earlville, IL, a town of 1,400 located 20 miles north of Ottawa. The Myers children all worked with their father and shared the family chores; prayer was very much a part of their everyday routine. Young John Myers was an altar server in his parish, St. Theresa, from an early age.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin was upending the apple cart, and he was making no apologies for it.

It was 2010, and Tobin was a new archbishop hand-picked by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as secretary of the Vatican congregation overseeing religious orders.

In that role, he had inherited an investigation into U.S. nuns, criticized by conservative theologians as too secular and too quick to steer away from established church orthodoxy. The investigation, Vatican observers said, was meant to send a message to the American sisters to fall in line with Rome.

And then Tobin did the unthinkable. He sided with the nuns, angering his superiors and making his Vatican assignment a short-lived one. Two years into a five-year term, he was reassigned to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

“As a result of that dispute, he made a lot of enemies, and he was basically chased out of Rome and given Indianapolis just as a way to exile him,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of the book “Inside the Vatican” and a senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.

Six years later — and three years into a new papacy — Tobin is about to become a cardinal and was named Monday as the new leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, a dizzying reversal for the 64-year-old Detroit native.

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VATICAN CITY
CBS 4

NOVEMBER 7, 2016, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is pressing his campaign to remake the U.S. church more in his likeness, tapping one of his new cardinals, Joseph Tobin, to replace the Newark archbishop criticized for mishandling sex abuse cases and spending lavishly on his retirement home.

The Vatican on Monday announced Tobin would replace Archbishop John Myers, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in July.

Tobin, currently archbishop of Indianapolis, is one of three Americans whom Francis will formally elevate as cardinal Nov. 19.

His new assignment cements evidence of Francis’ high esteem and marks a transition away from an archbishop focused on drawing hard lines about Catholic orthodoxy.

The leadership change also provides a fresh start for an archdiocese that has been battered recently by controversies over Myers’ leadership.

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

By SYDNEY EMBER and GRAHAM BOWLEY
NOV. 6, 2016

Lise-Lotte Lublin started a petition and testified before lawmakers in Nevada last year, part of a successful effort to extend that state’s statute of limitations for sexual assault.

In Colorado, where lawmakers made a similar change this year, legislators had been lobbied hard on the bill by Beth Ferrier and Heidi Thomas.

In California, it was Lili Bernard, Victoria Valentino, Linda Kirkpatrick and Janice Baker Kinney who helped organize a campaign, EndRapeSOL, and rallies as part of a movement that this fall eliminated that state’s statute of limitations for rape altogether.

The seven women live in different places and have different lives. But they were all stirred to activism, they say, by a shared history: They all say they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby. And in each case, by the time they decided to come forward, many years after they say they were attacked, their ability to press for criminal charges was precluded by a statute of limitations.

None of the women will benefit directly from changes in the laws, but they said they still felt compelled to get involved.

“If I’m going to be attached to him the rest of my life, then I would like something good to come out of it,” said Ms. Ferrier, who says Mr. Cosby drugged and assaulted her in the mid-1980s.

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FRANCE
Fox News

Published November 07, 2016
Associated Press

LOURDES, France – French bishops are holding a day of prayers and fasting for victims of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The bishops, who have gathered in the city of Lourdes for their biannual plenary assembly, prayed Monday “for forgiveness for the sins committed by clergy members.”

During a Mass at the Rosary basilica, Bishop Luc Crepy gave the homily, exhorting his peers to play their part in “this fight against scandalous and criminal actions affecting the smaller ones.” Crepy was appointed earlier this year as the new head of a church panel targeting pedophilia acts.

Following a call from Pope Francis to hold a worldwide day of prayers for victims, the church says meetings about pedophilia will also be organized in Lourdes, as well as Masses across the country.

Several French church officials have been accused in recent months of failing to report pedophile priests to judicial authorities. In August, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was cleared of allegations he shielded a priest charged with sexual aggression and rape of a minor.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San Martín November 7, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME- The past month has been a whirlwind for Joseph Tobin: on Oct. 9 Pope Francis surprised the world by including him on the list of the 17 new cardinals he’ll create later in the month. And on Monday, the Vatican announced his new destination: Newark, New Jersey.

“One of my favorite descriptions of the experience of faith is ‘a willingness to be surprised by God’,” Tobin said in a statement on Monday.

“By that standard, the last weeks have been exceptionally ‘faith filled’.”

As of Nov. 19, when the pontiff formally elevates Tobin, 64, to the Church’s most exclusive club in a ceremony held in Rome known as a consistory, the US prelate will become Newark’s first cardinal, in the diocese’s 163-year history.

His fluent Spanish will come useful for leading the city’s 1.2 million Catholics, an estimated half of whom are Hispanic.

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VATICAN CITY
America

Gerard O’Connell

In yet another decisive move to reshape and give a new direction to the church in the United States, Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal-elect Joseph (“Joe”) Tobin, 64, a man of simple lifestyle, committed to dialogue, encounter and the poor, as the new archbishop of Newark.

The Vatican announced this at midday, Nov. 7, confirming the news that was broken some days earlier in the United States. It said the pope accepted the resignation presented by Archbishop John J. Myers and appointed Archbishop Tobin of Indianapolis to succeed him

At the time of his appointment, the Detroit-born archbishop was the leader of the archdiocese of Indianapolis with its 250,000 faithful, which he had served since Oct. 2012. He now moves to the much larger Archdiocese of Newark, whose 1.2 million faithful have suffered many trials in recent years during the leadership of Archbishop John Myers, who now retires having reached the age of 75 last July.

Francis understood well that this diocese needed a new style of leader, and he found the man in Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R., a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, a Catholic missionary order of priests and brothers founded by St. Alphonus Maria de Liguori in 1749.

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TEXAS
Stop Baptist Predators

Christa Brown

The media coverage of Baylor University’s sexual assault scandal continues, and I give thanks that the outside world is keeping the world’s largest Baptist university in the spotlight.

In one of the more recent news accounts, the headline proclaims that Baylor’s scandal is “far worse than previously disclosed.” This “far worse” reality should come as no surprise to anyone who read the Pepper Hamilton investigatory report, released last May, because the horror of the scandal’s scope was always right there, both in the lines and between the lines. As one Dallas radio host recently said: “We knew it was all going to come out someday. It was a matter of time.”

With multiple legal claims now pending against Baylor, I predict that still more of the ugly truth will come out via the slow drip of revelations from depositions and discovery. Here are a few common misconceptions that I expect will be completely debunked in the coming months.

Baylor’s failure in dealing with sexual assault is not a recent anomaly.

Many have talked about the Baylor scandal as though it were an anomaly of recent years coinciding with Baylor’s push toward becoming a football powerhouse. This is a mistaken assumption that is not supported by the Pepper Hamilton investigatory report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, above, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has apologised for its part in the ‘hurt’ caused to young unmarried women who were pressured into handing over their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Nichols acknowledged the “the grief and pain caused by the giving up of a child through adoption”, adding:

Sadly for unmarried mothers, adoption was considered to be in the best interests of the mother and child because of the associated stigma and the lack of support for lone parents.

A documentary telling the stories of some of the women – who gave up an estimated half a million children during a period when the Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Salvation Army ran “mother and baby homes” and adoption agencies in the UK – is to be broadcast on ITV on 9 November.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

7 November, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a research report which suggests that up to 14 per cent of children with disability are likely to experience sexual abuse.

The report – Disability and child sexual abuse in institutional contexts – was written by Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Dr Sarah Wayland, and Ms Gabrielle Hindmarsh from the Centre for Disability Research and Policy at the University of Sydney.

The extent of sexual abuse of Australian children with disability is not known and internationally research on prevalence and risk of sexual abuse of children with disability is in its infancy. The researchers also drew attention to the relative absence of children with disability from Australian child protection frameworks and policy documents.

The researchers found the most reliable prevalence data suggesting that between nine and 14 in every 100 children with disability are likely to experience sexual abuse.

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FRANCE
France Inter

[The bishops of France have set aside today, Nov. 7., as a day of prayer and penance for the victims of sexual abuse. About 120 bishops have been invited to fast and will gather at Lourdes for their traditional autumn plenary assembly. Elsewhere in France, dioceses and parishes will join the event.]

C’est une des réponses de l’Eglise aux scandales de pédophilie. La Conférence des évêques de France (CEF) organise ce lundi 7 novembre une “journée de prière et de pénitence” pour les victimes d’abus sexuels. Les quelque 120 évêques français, invités à jeûner, seront réunis à Lourdes pour leur traditionnelle assemblée plénière d’automne. Ailleurs en France, diocèses et paroisses pourront s’associer à cet événement.

Cette idée d’une journée mondiale de prière pour les victimes d’abus sexuels de la part de membres du clergé avait été annoncée le 12 septembre par le Vatican, à l’initiative du pape François. Sa déclinaison en France prend une dimension particulière, alors que l’Église est touchée depuis plusieurs mois par des révélations d’affaires de pédophilie ou d’abus sexuels impliquant des prêtres.

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AUSTRALIA
The Educator

by James Reid
07 Nov 2016

The former principal of a north Queensland school allegedly discouraged the parents of a girl who was raped by four boys from reporting the matter to police, the Royal Commission into Child Abuse has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is investigating how Townsville’s Shalom Christian College handled the sexual assault of a 14-year-old female student in 2006.

Last week, the school’s former principal, Christopher Shirley, told the Commission that the school – which he said dealt with about 20 sexual assaults a year – was “very under-resourced”, having been forced to divert money from its education budget to health and wellbeing programs to try to look after its students.

However, the parents of the girl told the Commission they believed the school tried to cover up the 2006 rape and that they were treated like “dumb black people” by Shirley.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Wendy Squires

As someone who has followed the child sex abuse royal commission with horror and fury, my desire (make that demand) has been consistent – make them pay!

My greatest fear was that those innocents, whose dignity, self-esteem and human rights were ripped away by those they trusted, would be abused all over again in their quest for justice. The retelling of their stories would be mere fodder for a news cycle, and then once the hearings concluded, we would all tut tut and go our merry way, grateful that “times have changed” and the culpable institutions had “learnt a lesson”.

But justice has arrived, for living victims at least. Last Friday, the Social Services Minister, Christian Porter, announced a national compensation scheme with payments to victims of up to $150,000. One entity would process claims, with federal backing, thus cutting red tape.

I was jubilant. But I kept reading and my anger returned. Not only is the maximum amount $50,000 lower than the commission’s suggested cap, but a clause allows the (mostly religious) institutions and the states to opt out of contributing.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, November 7, 2016

The beating took place 70 years ago, but the pain is still fresh.

When “Don” told the priest who ran St. Michael’s Home for Children on Staten Island that one of his employees had molested him repeatedly over the previous two years, the clergyman gave the boy a lecture about damaging another man’s reputation.

Then he told Don, who asked the Daily News to withhold his last name, to report to the employee who allegedly sexually abused him for his punishment.

“When he (the employee) got a hold of me, he beat me with a paddle that was three inches wide and about one inch thick,” said the 80-year-old Florida resident, his voice quivering as he recalled the beating during a recent telephone interview.

“He beat the back of my legs like he was really mad. I thought he would never stop.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) –- Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, New Jersey, and named Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis to succeed him.

Archbishop Myers, Newark’s archbishop since 2001, is 75, the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation to the pope.

The 64-year-old cardinal-designate, who is a member of the Redemptorist order, has been the archbishop of Indianapolis since 2012 and was named a new cardinal by Pope Francis Oct. 9. He also is former archbishop-secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. As secretary, he was credited with helping change the tone of a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of U.S. women’s religious communities from an investigation into a dialogue.

The changes were announced in Washington Nov. 7 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

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INDIANA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indiana

November 7, 2016

Statement of Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin on his appointment as the Archbishop of Newark, N.J.

(Related: A news conference from Newark will be live-streamed this morning, Nov. 7, at 10:30 a.m. EST at this link.)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

One of my favorite descriptions of the experience of faith is “a willingness to be surprised by God.” By that standard, the last weeks have been exceptionally “faith-filled.” The first jolt came on October 9, when I learned that Pope Francis had named me to the College of Cardinals. The second tremor arrived on October 22, when I received a phone call from the ambassador of the Holy See to the United States, the papal nuncio, who informed me that Pope Francis had appointed me as the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. This assignment was announced publicly today and I will be installed in Newark on January 6, 2017.

Receiving that second shock, I immediately thought of you, the people of this great Archdiocese whose pastoral care was entrusted to me four years ago. I remembered how you welcomed me, offered your support in so many ways, forgave my mistakes and limitations and always assured me of your love and the precious backing of your prayer. The thought of leaving you devastated me. I have had many sleepless nights and shed more than a few tears.

I had always understood my vocation as that of a missionary disciple, one whom Jesus called to be with Him so that He might send me out to preach and heal. Becoming your archbishop, I realized that this missionary also had to become a pastor. The model for all pastoral ministry is Jesus the Good Shepherd, who “knows his own” and his “own know him” (Jn 10, 14). Since October 18, 2012, all of you, the beloved People of God, became “my” people. God created among us bonds of love, mercy, forgiveness and joy. Together we accepted our call to work together to respond in love to God, who loved us first. We are an outward-looking Church, asking where God was opening a door.

Now Pope Francis has asked me to become a missionary disciple and pastor in another local Church. I hope that you will commission me—send me forth with your blessing to preach and heal in the Archdiocese of Newark. I know that I will leave a considerable chunk of my heart here in the Catholic communities of central and southern Indiana. I trust that God will fill that void with overflowing gratitude for the gift of sharing a portion of the pilgrimage with you.

The Archdiocese is not helpless in the face of this change. Just as what happened after the resignation of Archbishop Daniel, the Church will provide stable leadership for the Archdiocese until the new Archbishop is named. I believe you will receive a good pastor and you will not have to wait as long as you did before I was named.

You may know that the Archdiocese had already planned a special celebration on Saturday, December 3, to celebrate the feast of our patron, St. Francis Xavier, and to ask a blessing on a new cardinal. Now, that celebration will also be a moment for us to say good-bye in faith. We will remain united in the communion of saints as well as in the breaking of the bread.

Your brother in Christ the Redeemer,

+ Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

By David Gibson

(RNS) Pope Francis had already delivered the Catholic Church’s version of an October surprise when he included Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin in the batch of new cardinals he announced last month – promising a red hat to the leader of a relatively small Midwestern diocese of 230,000 Catholics that had never before had a cardinal, nor would ever expect one.

Then on Monday (Nov. 7) the pontiff doubled down with a November stunner as the Vatican announced that Francis was moving Tobin to head the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey.

In a statement release early Monday after the Vatican announcement was official, Tobin compared these last few weeks to an earthquake, saying the news on Oct. 9 that he would become a cardinal was his “first jolt” and the phone call on Oct. 22 informing him that he would be going to Newark was a “second tremor.”

Never before has a cardinal been moved from one diocese to another, and church observers across the board also expressed shock at the unprecedented transfer, which seemed to signal a new stage in Francis’ effort to revamp a U.S. church that had become increasingly conservative under the pontiff’s two predecessors.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 7, 2016

VATICAN CITY

Pope Francis has moved Cardinal-designate Joseph Tobin from Indianapolis to Newark, N.J., giving the New York area two cardinals for the first time and assigning him to take over for an archbishop who has been sharply criticized in recent years for his handling of clergy sexual abuse.

Tobin, 64, was named by Francis as one of three new U.S. cardinals last month and will officially take up that role in a ceremony in Rome Nov. 19. He replaces Archbishop John Myers, 75, who has led the Newark archdiocese since October 2001.

The appointment comes a week before the U.S. bishops’ annual meeting, which will be held in Baltimore Nov. 14-17.

Tobin was the first cardinal in history chosen from the Indianapolis archdiocese and will be the first Cardinal archbishop of Newark. In an NCR interview shortly after his appointment as a cardinal, Tobin reflected at length on Francis’ focus on mercy and said his wish is that the church would become “a sacrament of mercy” in our world.

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NEW JERSEY
New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
NOV. 7, 2016

In his latest move to reshape the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, Pope Francis on Monday named a moderate known for standing up for refugees and nuns to be the next leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, a large and troubled diocese.

Francis’ pick is Joseph W. Tobin, currently the archbishop of Indianapolis. He made national headlines last year when he rebuffed Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee, by refusing to stop Catholic Charities from resettling a family of Syrian refugees.

Archbishop Tobin is so clearly in the pope’s favor that he is among 17 churchmen being made cardinals in Rome later this month. The Archdiocese of Newark has never before been led by a cardinal, the rank of those entrusted to select new popes.

His transfer to New Jersey places a second cardinal in bridge-and-tunnel proximity of the nation’s media capital, where Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York is now the undisputed spokesman on Catholic matters.

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VATICAN CITY
Herald Malaysia

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican announced Monday that recently nominated Cardinal-elect Archbishop Joseph William Tobin of Indianapolis will soon be taking over as the new head of the Newark, N.J. Archdiocese.

Born in Detroit May 3, 1952, Tobin has since 2012 served as the 6th Archbishop of Indianapolis. He was ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1978 and served as the order’s superior general from 1997 to 2009.On Oct. 9 Pope Francis named him as one of three Americans on his list of 17 new cardinal-elects, who will be elevated during a special Nov. 19 consistory set to coincide with the end of the Jubilee of Mercy.

Other Americans getting the red hat are Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago and Bishop Kevin Farrell, former head of the Dallas diocese but who recently moved to Rome to carry out his new role as prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Laity, Family and Life.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

The Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey, Joseph Tobin, will be called upon to reach out to victim/survivors of sexual abuse by Archdiocese of Newark clergy and other clergy, religious men/ women (such as those in religious orders) and personnel who have worked in the Archdiocese of Newark, settle their claims in a fair and timely manner, release all information about cases of sexual abuse by Archdiocesan clergy and other clergy and religious men and women (such as those in religious orders) and other personnel, and pledge to be honest and transparent about ALL sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey

In particular, the Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey, Joseph Tobin, will be called upon to fairly settle six claims of childhood sexual abuse in a timely manner against Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters who allegedly sexually abused children at St. Cassian’s Parish, Upper Montclair, NJ and St. John Nepomucene Parish in Guttenberg, NJ

Road to Recovery, Inc. will call on the Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey, Joseph Tobin, to support the passage of statute of limitations legislation in the State of New Jersey that will give victims of sexual abuse their day in court

What
A press conference calling on the Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey, Joseph Tobin, to treat victims of sexual abuse by Archdiocesan clergy and other clergy, religious men/women (such as those in religious orders) and personnel who have worked in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, with fairness, honesty, and transparency by settling their claims in a timely manner. In addition, demonstrators will call on the Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey, Joseph Tobin, to support statute of limitations legislation in New Jersey that will give victims of sexual abuse their day in court

When
Monday, November 7, 2016, following the 10:30 am press conference announcing the appointment of Joseph Tobin as Cardinal Archbishop-designate of Newark, New Jersey

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, 89 Ridge Street, Newark, New Jersey 07104

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., a sexual abuse victim and former priest of the Archdiocese of Newark

Why
The Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, has been wracked by allegations of sexual abuse by archdiocesan clergy and by clergy, religious men/women (such as those in religious orders) and personnel who have worked in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. To this day, information about cases of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Newark has been withheld from the victims, their advocates, and the general public. Archbishop John Myers has been secretive about allegations of sexual abuse, the names of the abusers, and the documents associated with the cases that are in the possession of the Archdiocese of Newark. This practice must end. The Cardinal Archbishop-designate, Joseph Tobin, must treat victim/survivors of sexual abuse with compassion, honesty, and transparency. Information about sexual abusers must be made public, and a list of abusive clergy and other personnel must be placed on the Archdiocese of Newark website.

Contact
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims to leaflet outside Catholic church
The pastor was accused of molesting a boy
And they oppose archbishop’s pending promotion
Soon, it’s likely he will become head of all US prelates
But group says DiNardo should “withdraw from the race & stay home”

SNAP: “For kids’ safety & victims’ healing, he should work on prevention here”

WHAT
Handing out fliers to church-goers as they leave mass, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will urge Houston’s top Catholic official to

–end his campaign to become head of all US bishops next week, and
–post names, photos & records of ALL predator priests (not just the ones who are sued), and
— do the same with religious order clerics, so that kids can be protected and victims can heal.

They will also urge
–parishioners to be careful around their pastor who was accused of molesting a boy and
–anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups by Houston clerics to “come forward, protect kids, expose secrets, deter wrongdoing and start healing” by calling independent sources of help (therapists, police prosecutors, support groups), NOT church officials.

WHEN
Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016 from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Prince the Peace Catholic Church, 19222 Highway 249 (near Perry Road) in Houston TX

WHO
Three-four adults who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). Some were molested as kids; others are concerned Catholics.

WHY
1)Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston is the vice-chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the organization that includes all of the prelates in the nation. According to custom and practice, he is considered to be the front runner to become president when the group meets in Baltimore Nov. 14-16. Nine other bishops are also running for the post.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[In 2012, Father Federico Lombardi told journalist Federico Tulli which, according to the Holy See, pedophilia by the clergy in Italy is an intermittent issue. We produced a map showing the known cases. Lombardi’s statement seems to squeak a lot because in Italy we know of about 100 priests currently under investigation and more than 120 have been convicted in the last 15 years. Many of these priests are untraceable, other reappear after year and may be in parishes far from where they committed abuses. Others are said to be healed within the church institutions. There should be an inquiry by parliament.]

Written by Redazione Web on 5 novembre 2016

Nel 2012 padre Federico Lombardi ha dichiarato al giornalista Federico Tulli che secondo la Santa Sede, la pedofilia del clero, in Italia è un problema sporadico.

mappa italiana2A vedere la mappa che abbiamo prodotto raccogliendo i casi noti, quella dichiarazione sembra stridere parecchio perche nella sola Italia si contano la bellezza di circa 100 sacerdoti attualmente indagati e più di 120 condannati solo negli ultimi 15 anni.

Di molti di loro se ne sono perse le tracce, altri invece ricompaiono dopo anni passati non si sa dove in altre parrocchie, lontani da dove avevano commesso gli abusi. Altri vengono invece mandati si dice a curarsi in strutture della chiesa.

Siamo così andati a cercare di capire quanti di questi “rifugi” esistono in Italia. In questi luoghi vengono ospitati sacerdoti con varie problematiche tra cui la pedofilia, spesso per nasconderli da occhi indiscreti in attesa di una futura destinazione, altre volte per scontare la pena agli arresti domiciliari, una permanenza comoda e confortevole che piace anche ai tribunali che si tolgono così il problema di dover proteggere un pedofilo in un carcere.

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NEW JERSEY
Whispers in the Loggia

Fifteen years ago this autumn, at the installation of his successor in Newark, the newly-created Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington memorably tipped his red hat to the North Jersey crowd – a gesture intended to say that he owed the scarlet to them.

And now, it appears Uncle Ted has fully returned the favor, landing a cardinal to lead the 1.3 million-member fold in its own right.

In a watershed decision signaling a new era after the controversial reign of Archbishop John Myers, on Monday the Pope is prepared to name Cardinal-designate Joseph William Tobin CSSR – the 64 year-old archbishop of Indianapolis whose impending elevation at this month’s consistory stoked widespread shock – as head of New Jersey’s marquee diocese, which has been roiled by years of tumult and low morale following assertions of the Newark church’s lax handling of cases of clerical misconduct, coupled with broad distaste over Myers’ austere, distant management style.

To be sure, the reported nod isn’t merely a blockbuster, but even more historic than the Cubs winning the World Series – never before has an American cardinal been transferred from one diocese to another… and with New York just across the Hudson River, the move portends an ecclesiastical scenario heretofore unseen on these shores nor anywhere else in the Catholic world: two cardinals leading their own local churches not just side-by-side, but within the same media market.

While the move was reported late Friday night by the online affiliate of the local Star-Ledger, after credible yet unconfirmed word of the nod was received by Whispers early Thursday, two ranking ops ducked comment on the pick in deference to the pontifical seal, and – as the notoriously leak-prone Newark crowd went into overdrive on Friday – a document from the archdiocese’s Chancery was obtained by these pages bearing Tobin’s name. (Complain all you want, but this house has its due diligence to carry out.) On a separate front, late Friday the archdiocese alerted reporters to a press conference scheduled for 10.30am Monday in the Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart – keeping with standard practice on a yet-unannounced appointment, the event’s topic was not disclosed.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Jane Mathews
6 NOVEMBER 2016

A London church built by a Victorian sex cult is at the centre of a legal battle over who should receive the proceeds from its sale.

The £1 million grade II* listed building was erected by a sect called the Abode of Love, which was founded by a defrocked priest alleged to have had sex with a virgin on a billiard table in front of his followers.

Henry James Prince started the cult in Somerset in 1846 using donations from wealthy, unmarried women after being expelled from the Anglican church.
As the group gained popularity they built other churches around the country, including the Ark of the Covenant in Clapton, north London.

When Prince died in 1902, he was succeeded by John Hugh Smyth-Piggott, another defrocked priest who gave racy sermons and told his followers that he was the second coming of Christ.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

Marcial Maciel, once the founder of the Catholic Church’s most lucrative new order, died mired in a massive pedophilia scandal. Now his former number two is also being accused.

JASON BERRY
11.06.16

Roberta Garza felt a familiar tearing this week on reading an Associated Press report that her older brother, Father Luis Garza, 58, had been accused of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit filed in Waterbury, Conn.

The siblings have not spoken in several years. Roberta is a columnist for Milenio newspaper in Mexico City. Luis, for nearly two decades the second-ranking figure in Rome of the Legion of Christ, now seems to her an exiled figure, cast into an outback as the Philippines regional director of the Legionaries.

In the lawsuit, an adult identified as “John Roe 1” alleges that Father Garza, and two other priests, including the late Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Legion’s charismatic founder, abused the plaintiff as a young adolescent at a center the order ran near Mexico City in the early 1990s.
Father Maciel launched the order in Mexico in 1941, established a campus in Rome in the 1950s, and later an American headquarters in Cheshire, Conn. Maciel, who died in 2008, was the greatest fundraiser of the modern church. He was celebrated by Pope John Paul II for inspiring young men like Garza to become priests, for Maciel’s record in launching prep schools, several universities and religious colleges in Latin America, North America and Europe.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is expected to name as his successor Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin, an historic appointment of a leader who has close ties to Pope Francis, is a staunch supporter of social justice and has called for a greater role for women in the church.

Tobin, the oldest of 13 children, was already due to become a cardinal in two weeks, which would make him the first cleric of that exalted rank in the 163-year history of the archdiocese, serving 1.2 million Roman Catholics in Bergen, Essex, Union and Hudson counties.

Cardinals usually preside over the nation’s largest and most important cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Myers’ predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, served as archbishop, and was elevated to cardinal after being reassigned to Washington D.C.

Myers is expected to make the announcement, which a noted Catholic blogger called “a watershed moment signaling a new era” at a press conference in Newark Monday morning.

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INDIANA
Indianapolis Star

Kaitlin L Lange, IndyStar

NJ.com reported that sources close to the Newark archbishop said they expect him to announce Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Indianapolis, as his successor.

Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Indianapolis, could be the next leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.

NJ.com, the online affiliate of the Star-Ledger, reported Friday that three people close to the current Newark archbishop told the paper that they expect him to announce Tobin as his successor Monday.

Whispers in the Loggia, a well-known Catholicism blog, also reported the likely successor.

Greg Otolski, the director of communications for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, did not return phone calls to the IndyStar on Saturday about Tobin’s future.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in July. He has a news conference scheduled for 10:20 a.m. Monday at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark. However, the content of that press conference has not been released.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Phoebe Wearne, Canberra – The West Australian on November 6, 2016

Churches, State governments and other institutions are under pressure to “opt in” to a national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse.

Survivors will be able to access up to $150,000 each in compensation under the Commonwealth-led program, which invites States and institutions to join.

The establishment of a national redress scheme was at the heart of 99 recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in a report released last year.

Governments and organisations that opt in will be required to fund the cost of their own eligible redress claims.

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OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ellis N. Harsham was ordained in 1968 for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He taught in Catholic high schools in Dayton, Cincinnati and Hamilton while assisting in local parishes. He was also a St. Gregory Minor Seminary faculty member, and director of campus ministry at Wright State University.

In a lawsuit settled in 1994, a man alleged that Harsham sexually abused him as during 1975-1977, when the man was a high school student who met Harsham while attending a pre-seminary program on weekends at St. Gregory’s Minor Seminary. The man said Harsham plied him with alcohol, marijuana and pornography. In a suit filed in December 1993, another man claimed Harsham sexually assaulted him when the man was a Badin High School student; Harsham taught at Badin 1977-1981. Further, former students of Carroll High School in Dayton, where Harsham taught 1968-1973, stated in the 1990s that the priest showed them pornography and seduced or attempted to seduce them.

Harsham was placed on administrative leave by the archdiocese in June 1994, and he resigned from active ministry later that year. His status remained “administrative leave” until sometime in 2006, when he was laicized.

Ordained: 1968
Laicized: 2006

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno , gdumat-ol@guampdn.com November 5, 2016

Editor’s note: The Pacific Daily News this week takes a closer look at government of Guam leases.

Today: Catholic Church is landlord for some mayors.

While most of the landlords to GovGuam offices are in the business of real estate, one stands out for not being a business enterprise at all.

The administrative entity for Guam’s Catholics, the Archdiocese of Agana, makes some money – $55,200 a year – renting separate offices where the Piti Mayor’s Office and the Inarajan Mayor’s Office conduct their official business, bid documents show.

The Inarajan and Piti mayors’ offices’ annual rent falls under one lease agreement, which was signed by Archbishop Anthony Apuron in January 2014 .

The archdiocesan office wasn’t immediately available for comment on how the rent money is being used by the church.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 5, 2016

When newly appointed Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes arrives on Guam Nov. 28, he’ll bring with him hopes of healing the island’s large Catholic church — fractured by multiple priest sex abuse allegations, a multimillion-dollar property dispute and disagreements between different factions of the church over how to worship.

“Especially in times of difficulty or times of challenges, it’s important to go back to the foundation of our faith, which is Jesus,” said Byrnes, 58, in a phone interview from Detroit, where he was born, raised and served as priest and bishop until his appointment to lead the Catholic church on Guam.

Pope Francis last Monday appointed Byrnes as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana, which gives Byrnes 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.

Byrnes’ pending arrival on Guam comes at a time when Apuron faces a canonical trial in Rome over allegations that he sexually abused and raped altar boys in the 1970s, when he was parish priest in Agat. Apuron has denied all allegations of sex abuse, and any criminal conduct that may have occurred is long past the criminal statute of limitations. …

Protecting children

Byrnes said he was involved in the actual removal of a priest from office over sex abuse allegations in Detroit. Byrnes has worked with a canon lawyer, among others, who has helped him navigate canon and civil legalities in addressing sex abuse allegations involving the church. He said the U.S. Conference of Bishops also has protocols to better protect children.

“I would hope that we will be able to strengthen all our parishes’ ability .. .the kind of sensitivity and awareness of protecting God’s children,” he said.

Byrnes said the Guam church’s victim response coordination team is “a very good first step.”

Regardless of what happens in the Apuron trial, Byrnes said the initial assumption is that he, Byrnes, will still hold the title coadjutor archbishop.

“It’s all up to the disposition of the Holy Father, of course. But the title of coadjutor bishop assumes that once he (Apuron) retires or resigns, I would be the archbishop,” he said.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

Ken Kolker
Published: November 4, 2016

BRONSON, Mich. (WOOD) — Every day, Rev. Richard Fritz walked past the Ten Commandments plaque outside his church. And, nearly every day, he walked across the street to the convenience store, workers there said.

Workers at the Viking Express store told 24 Hour News 8 said Fritz, who is under investigation for allegations of embezzlement, spent hundreds of dollars a day on lottery tickets, sometimes up to $500. They say he usually bought $20 tickets.

A woman at a gas station near his other church, St. Barbara in Colon, also said the priest stopped in to buy lottery tickets.

State police confirmed that gambling is the “undertone” of their investigation. They’re investigating allegations the priest embezzled $213,000 since 2010 from both St. Mary’s and from St. Barbara Church about 12 miles away in Colon.

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AUSTRALIA
America

November 14, 2016 Issue
From CNS, Staff and other sources

Australian police questioned Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, in Rome regarding accusations of sexual abuse. Cardinal Pell was “voluntarily interviewed” by Victoria police in late October, said a statement on Oct. 26 from the cardinal’s office. “The cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to cooperate with Victoria police until the investigation is finalized,” the statement said. Allegations surfaced in July in a report by Australia’s ABC News featuring several people who accused Cardinal Pell of sexual assault; at least one of the accusations had been found to be unsubstantiated by an Australian court in 2002.

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TEXAS
Click2Houston

[with video]

By Keith Garvin – Anchor/Reporter
November 04, 2016

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – A family is in fear for their loved one’s safety after the arrest of a Montgomery County pastor charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Ronald Wayne Mitchell, 57, remains in jail now on four counts involving a girl who was 15 years old at the time.

Demetrius Ellis said her older sister Angela Edwards, a member of Mitchell’s Body of Christ Ministry in Magnolia, has had no contact with the family for the past 10 years.

She said Mitchell drew her suspicion years ago by constantly demanding church members’ money.

“I don’t care if it’s pennies, if you just got paid. He want it,” recalls Ellis. “He don’t care if your bills were due or nothing. He wanted your money.”

According to the warrant served at Mitchell’s home, which also serves as the church where members live, he allegedly raped the girl on numerous occasions there and at nearby hotels.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 5, 2016

A group that has been pushing for Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s removal said it’s ready to file a lawsuit between now and Nov. 21 to ensure the Archdiocese of Agana doesn’t lose ownership and control of a $40 million to $75 million Yona property.

David Sablan, president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, said the five-year statute of limitation expires on Nov. 21, unless the property ownership and control is challenged in court by then.

That’s five years since the declaration of deed restriction on the Yona property, given by Apuron to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary without restriction, was recorded with the Department of Land Management on Nov. 22, 2011, Sablan said.

“The archdiocese is working diligently on the matter of the seminary property,” the Archdiocese of Agana said in a statement. “We will comment in due time.”

Sablan said Concerned Catholics understands Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is giving the community that controls the Redemptoris Mater Seminary and a theological institute an opportunity to return ownership and control without resorting to a lawsuit. Hon said on Tuesday the archdiocese is addressing the issue.

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TEXAS
CW 39

[with video]

NOVEMBER 3, 2016, BY CIARA ROUEGE

MAGNOLIA, Texas — Investigators released disturbing details Friday in the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl who claims she was forced into a sexual relationship with her pastor, and her mother gave her to the man fearing that if she didn’t, the teen would lose her soul, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.

SWAT officers arrested pastor Ronald Wayne Mitchell, 56, at The Body of Christ Ministry around 7 p.m. Monday and charged him with sexual assault of a child. The church, which sits in the 40200 block of Garwood Court in Magnolia, doubles as the pastor’s home, court documents said.

Investigators said the victim was a member of Mitchell’s church and was sent to live there for at least 21 days at Mitchell’s request in November 2015. The teen’s mother tried to get her daughter back after the time period had passed, but the pastor refused and said “God would kill her.” The teen was forced to live with Mitchell’s wife, her sister and other church members, and was forced to have sex with the pastor on multiple occasions.

The teen girl said Mitchell would lock her in his dimly lit room and would play “old people music” when he was assaulting her.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register

BY KELLY PUENTE / STAFF WRITER

SANTA ANA – In a courtroom, the women addressed their former pastor – a man they once trusted who sexually assaulted them.

“I’m not going to paint every detail of the pain you’ve inflicted on myself and those around me, because you know exactly how much damage you’ve caused,” one victim said.

“We are not here today because of some story we’ve spun, we’re here because of the truth of what you did. … God have mercy on your soul. ”

On Friday, a former Lake Forest 39-year-old youth pastor, Sean Patrick Aday, pleaded guilty to two felonies and two misdemeanors of sexual battery – each count tied to a different victim.

After the plea deal was officially accepted in a courtroom filled with current and former parishioners, three victims and several of their family members addressed Aday while many in the audience cried and wiped away tears.

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TEXAS
KHOU

Michelle Homer, KHOU November 04, 2016

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – A Magnolia teen who said she was sexually abused by a pastor said the suspect told her she would “drop dead” if she told anyone because God would kill her.

She also told investigators the pastor’s wife drove her to a clinic to get birth control shots.

The allegations are part of a graphic court document detailing the alleged sexual abuse by Ronald Wayne Mitchell.

Mitchell was arrested earlier this week and charged with sexual assault of a child.

The victim lived with Mitchell and his wife at the home where he also operated his Body of Christ Ministry. Several other parishioners also lived in the home.

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

GERARD HENDERSON
Columnist

If there is to be a media prize for unbalanced advocacy in journalism then last Monday’s coverage by the ABC’s 7.30 of Cardinal ­George Pell deserves to be short-listed at the very least.

Louise Milligan reported on the submission of Gail Furness, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which had been released earlier that day for consideration by commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan. For the third time in recent months, the tone of Milligan’s ­report on Pell was hostile. She claimed it was “considered likely” that the royal commission “will make some adverse findings against the cardinal”. Milligan did not say precisely who (allegedly) considers this to be the case.

Early in her report, Milligan said the “royal commission found” that, from 1976, the consultors (who, for a time, included Pell) to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns in Ballarat “had known … that [the Catholic priest Gerald] Ridsdale was abusing children”.

In fact, what was released on Monday was Furness’s submissions to the royal commission. Not the findings of the royal commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Matthew Condon, The Courier-Mail
November 4, 2016

ONE of Queensland’s most prestigious private schools has had at least one pedophile on staff at any given time over the past six decades, it can be revealed.

As the child sex abuse royal commission tours the country hearing evidence, The Anglican Church Grammar School, or Churchie, in East Brisbane, is battling the legacy of its own historic pedophilia.

It can also be revealed the school last year backflipped on naming a building after venerated former headmaster Henry Emmanuel (Harry) Roberts, following complaints from students who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Churchie staff when Roberts was head.

The decision sparked a furious squabble between the school and some Churchie Old Boys who dubbed the decision a “hysterical pursuit of scapegoats” and “a cruel and panicked exercise in revisionism”.

The flashpoint of the debate was former Churchie boarding master Harry Wippell, who allegedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in 1967.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Stephanie Convery, Lucy Clark and Steph Harmon
Friday 4 November 2016

Crimes of the Father by Tom Keneally (Vintage)

It’s a sad fact of humanity that abuse in the church is a perennially timely subject, but Tom Keneally’s latest novel seems to be particularly well timed with the ongoing royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Keneally’s story explores faith, marriage, celibacy and the Catholic church through the story of Father Frank Docherty, an excommunicated priest who returns to Australia and finds himself privy to stories of abuse by a now-senior cleric. A dramatic wrestle with conscience – and pursuit of justice – follows.

Available now.

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UNITED STATES
Hevria

BY DINA FRIEDMAN • NOVEMBER 3, 2016

Every year, in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think about my rape. It’s not the anniversary of the first time I was sexually assaulted, and it’s not because I will see my rapist at synagogue. It is because even though I – sort of – got what many rape victims want from their attacker(s): an apology; and even though I told him I forgave him (when put on the spot), I am not so sure I did.

I believe in Jewish karma: I want G-d to forgive me, so I have to forgive others. In the Jewish tradition while we need to ask G-d for forgiveness for sins against G-d, forgiveness for sins against other people can only be granted by the person injured. And we are encouraged to forgive. One tradition even holds that if forgiveness is not granted, the sin then belongs to the person not accepting the apology – the injured party!

This requirement to forgive is heavy.

Every holiday season for the past many years, this pressure to forgive filled me with anxiety – because I don’t feel like I truly forgave my rapist when he asked. Each year, I pray with as much devotion I can muster. But I emerge from Yom Kippur feeling as if I emerged from a mikvah holding a dead rat – technically pure, but holding something filthy.

Finally, I had to talk to someone. Gritting my teeth with utter humiliation about telling the gory details to another person, I called my rabbi’s wife. Her response shocked me. First, she said, “I have to double check with my husband, but I don’t think you have to forgive this.”

“What?”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on November 04, 2016

In a historic moment for the Archdiocese of Newark, Archbishop John J. Myers on Monday is expected to announce his successor, Cardinal-designate Joseph W. Tobin, NJ Advance has learned.

Tobin, a moderate leader who has supported a greater role for women in the church, has also expressed the need for more dialogue over gay parishioners and sparred with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the resettlement of Syrian refugees..

Tobin, the archbishop of Indianapolis since October 2012, was named a cardinal by Pope Francis last month. The designation takes effect. Nov. 18.

The appointment would make him the first cardinal in the 163-year history of the archdiocese, which serves about 1.2 million Roman Catholics in Essex, Union, Hudson and Bergen counties.

He also would be the first member of a religious order to preside in Newark. Tobin was ordained a priest in the Redemporist order in 1978. …

Monday’s press conference is expected to be streamed live on the archdiocese’s Facebook page.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

11.4. 2016 Written By: Barbra Graber

Barbra Graber is a leader of the Anabaptist Mennonite Chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests). She attends Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. [The perpetrator] appeals to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering.”— Judith Herman

Sometime in the early 1990s, Meetinghouse, a consortium of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ editors, commissioned James Coggins, associate editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, to write an article he entitled “Should We Report Scandal in the Mennonite Press?” It appeared in the April 1991 issue. Coggins answers the question with a resounding yes.

Coggins writes: “Why do we name the names of church leaders who have violated and betrayed the trust instilled in them by brothers and sisters of their faith communities? Why drag it all back into the open? Why not let it go? Think of their wives and children. Is it really worth all the embarrassment they will feel?

“Any abuse of power, in any form, must be dealt with publicly, swiftly, with termination of duties, and ongoing support for any victims. These decisions can either pave the way toward a truly vibrant, redeemed and renewed pacifist denomination or continue to promote denial, complacency and inaction.”

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VIRGINIA
Eastern Mennonite University

September 28, 2016Last updated October 17, 2016 by Lauren Jefferson

The fall Sexuality Series at Eastern Mennonite University brings together campus experts with authors and advocates from a variety of settings to address sexuality, spirituality, healing and wholeness.

“With this series, Campus Ministries is contributing to campus conversations with resources to reflect on these themes,” says Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor. “Hopefully this approach opens discussion and engagement. We’re eager to see if there is interest in continuing the series into spring semester.”

Adds Ken L. Nafziger, vice president for student life and dean of students, who is one of the speakers: “In the midst of appropriately heightened concern about sexual assaults on college campuses, this sexuality series adds an important perspective and holistic emphasis that moves beyond safe sex towards an exploration of the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of truly knowing your partner.”

The series opens Oct. 5 with Professor Carolyn Stauffer presenting a chapel talk on “Sex & Millennials: #NewScripts,” a spiritual and relational framing for sexuality. Stauffer, who teaches in the Applied Social Science Department and in the MA in Biomedicine program, has spent much of her career listening to women on three continents tell of violence in their lives. Her three-year “Silent Violence” project researched the resilience of domestic abuse survivors from within communities of homeless women, undocumented Latinas and Mennonite women from Old Order or conservative church communities. …

Father Tom Doyle, a Catholic priest who has worked with survivors of priest sex abuse for more than three decades, gives a 40-minute presentation Nov. 7 in Martin Chapel on “The Spiritual Impact of Sexual Abuse in Religious Contexts.”

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MINNESOTA
Albert Lea Tribune

By Sam Wilmes

A local catholic church is protecting its children from abuse.

VIRTUS — a program that has been in place at St. Theodore Catholic Church and school for five years — is a mandatory diocesan program for each church employee and volunteer, and raises awareness of the issues that are caused by child abuse, such as the harm it causes to its victims, the parish and the community, according to the church and school leaders.

An awareness session — led by a trained facilitator — helps adults learn to recognize the warning signs of abuse and shows them the appropriate way to respond to suspicious behavior.

St. Theodore church and school have taken steps to ensure children are safe, such as ensuring that rooms that are not in use are locked.

All church employees and volunteers must pass a background check.

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OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Thomas Feldhaus was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1976. He assisted at parishes in the communities of Mt. Airy and Delhi Hills before beginning an eleven-year pastorship in Ripley in 1990, followed by a pastorship in Cincinnati in 2001. Feldhaus also spent several years in the late 1970s-early 1980s in Rome for graduate studies, and was a hospital chaplain for several years in the late 1980s-early 1990s.

In November 2003 a man reported to the archdiocese that Feldhaus had “inappropriately touched” his young son in 1979 while assigned to St. Therese, The Little Flower in Mt. Airy; Feldhaus was placed on administrative leave. In a lawsuit filed in March 2004 another man accused Feldhaus of having sexually abused him as a boy. This accuser, a former student of Our Lady of Victory in Delhi Hills, said the abuse occurred 1986-1991.

Feldhaus remained on administrative leave until October 2014, when his laicization was announced by the Vatican.

Ordained: 1976
Laicized: 2014

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Michael Madigan, The Courier-Mail
November 4, 2016

CHILD rapes, ritual humiliations, sadism and physical violence – Queensland’s known history of child abuse reaches back almost a century, impacting on every demographic and leaving thousands of people emotionally crippled, incapable of conducting a normal life.

Today’s revelation of the number of convicted pedophiles employed between 1947 and 2010 at one of Queensland’s most prestigious schools, the Anglican Church Grammar School, popularly known as “Churchie” is yet another hideous chapter in a story of misery and betrayal.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the terms of reference for which were established nearly four years ago on January 11, 2013, has played a pivotal role in uncovering hundreds of ugly stories of child abuse which may have remained untold and in reminding us of other cases.

In Queensland, we were reminded of the horrors perpetrated by Toowoomba Catholic primary schoolteacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes – the school’s “child protection officer’’ who, in 2010, pleaded guilty to 44 child sex offences involving young girls, including rape, between 2007 and 2008.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

November 5, 2016

SARAH MARTIN
Political reporterCanberra
@msmarto

A national compensation fund for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse is expected to cost more than $4 billion, with the federal government challenging states, charities and church groups to fund the long-awaited redress scheme for tens of thousands of victims.

NSW and Victoria yesterday welcomed the Turnbull government’s announcement for a ­national opt-in compensation scheme to be rolled out over 10 years from 2018, but victims’ groups warned of a “two-tiered” system dependent on where ­victims were abused if some states refused to sign up.

Announcing the federal government would provide between $550 million and $770m to the fund for cases where it was the ­responsible entity, Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the “best practice” scheme would provide psychological support and individual payments of up to $150,000 for each victim.

He said the “simple and supportive” system would attempt to make the process of redress as easy as possible, and would also provide trauma counselling for survivors and the opportunity for victims to tell their stories to the relevant institution.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY LUCINDA CAMERON

THE report into allegations of abuse made a number of recommendations but Very Rev Andrew McLellan says bishops are ignoring them.

THE Catholic Church in Scotland has denied suggestions that it is not implementing recommendations made in a report into allegations of abuse.

A commission led by the Very Rev Andrew McLellan made a raft of recommendations in August last year, including that justice must be done for those who have been abused, and the church’s safeguarding policies and practices are rewritten and subject to external scrutiny.

But in a letter sent to the Bishops’ Conference, Dr McLellan said the bishops are “appearing to ignore” the recommendations of the report.

He said he believes the recommendation to put survivors first and introduce an independent element into safeguarding within the church has not happened.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Friday 4 November 2016

Pressure is mounting for a public inquiry into the adoption of hundreds of thousands of babies born to unmarried women over a 30-year period amid claims from some mothers who say they were coerced into handing over their children.

A letter will be sent to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, next week from solicitors at two eminent law firms calling on her to convene a public inquiry into historical adoption practices in the UK. The solicitors say an inquiry would uncover the truth about the practices – stretching over three decades after the end of the second world war – and hold agencies to account.

Meanwhile more women have come forward to tell their stories of being pressured into having their babies adopted.

The call for an inquiry will be sent to Rudd on Thursday, the day after the broadcast of a television documentary relating the stories of several women. That film has prompted an apology from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, and a statement expressing regret from the Church of England. Religious institutions and agencies handled most adoptions until 1976, after which the process became the responsibility of local authorities.

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AUSTRALIA
Chinchilla News

Janine Hill | 3rd Nov 2016

UPDATE 1.50PM: The principal of Peregian Beach College has become emotional at the conclusion of his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Chris Shirley was previously the head of Shalom Christian College, a Townsville school for predominantly indigenous students, where a 14-year-old female boarder was allegedly gang raped in 2006.

Mr Shirley, who has been at Peregian since 2009, blinked and appeared to battle to express himself when asked at the commission how safety concerns had been managed at Shalom following the alleged incident.

“Safety concerns were an ongoing issue and probably still are. It takes a toll on everybody,” Mr Shirley said.

The girl’s parents had told the commission earlier in the week that Mr Shirley had painted their daughter as promiscuous and tried to discourage them from taking the matter further, saying the boys were from influential families.

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AUSTRALIA
Townsville Bulletin

VICTORIA NUGENT, Townsville Bulletin
November 3, 2016

THE principal of Shalom Christian College told a Royal Commision he did not have the resources to guarantee students’ safety just hours before a wild brawl erupted at the school yesterday.

And a former principal told the commision the school dealt with about 20 sexual assaults a year, with a third of students having sexually transmitted diseases when a 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by four male sudents.

The Townsville boarding school has been under the spotlight this week at the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.

The commission is examining the school’s response to the alleged gang rape in 2006.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Lauren Martyn-Jones
The Courier-Mail

THE former principal of an indigenous boarding school in Townsville has told the royal commission the school dealt with about 20 sexual assaults a year.

Christopher Shirley, who was the principal of Shalom Christian College in 2006 when a 14-year-old female student was allegedly gang-raped by four boys, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that his school was “very under-resourced”.

Mr Shirley said the indigenous boarding school was forced to divert money from its education budget to health and wellbeing programs to try to look after its students.

The parents of the teenage victim told the royal commission on Wednesday they believed the school tried to cover up the 2006 rape and that they were treated like “dumb black people” by Mr Shirley.

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VATICAN CITY/GUAM
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 3, 2016

The papal appointee given authority to take charge of a Guam archdiocese rocked by allegations of sexual abuse against its archbishop has said the Vatican is preparing to put the prelate on trial.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, who Pope Francis appointed in June to step-in over Agana Archbishop Anthony Apuron, told reporters Tuesday that “they just formed all the conditions for the trial.”

“I’m going to receive some news, some updates later,” said Hon, who has been serving as the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator while also remaining the second-in-command of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Hon, a native of Hong Kong, spoke to journalists Nov. 1 following Francis’ appointment Oct. 31 of Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes as the new coadjutor archbishop of the Agana archdiocese, the island’s only Catholic diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
November 3, 2016

ONE of Victoria’s most infamous child sex abusers has admitted more evil offending.

Christian Brother Robert Best is currently serving a minimum 11-year jail term for crimes against children.

Today he pleaded guilty to a string of fresh charges laid by Sano Taskforce detectives in August.

The offending relates to abuse of children during the 1960s, 70s and 80s in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong.

Best pleaded guilty at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, appearing via video link from prison.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Adam Cooper

The Christian Brothers have made no moves to expel paedophile Robert Charles Best from their order despite him pleading guilty to another slew of child-sex offences spanning 20 years.

Best appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, via video link from prison, to plead guilty to sexually abusing 15 boys in Ballarat and Box Hill between 1968 and 1982 and in Geelong in 1987 and 1988.

The 75-year-old was in 2011 jailed for 14 years for abusing 11 boys he taught at schools in Ballarat, Box Hill and Geelong between 1969 and 1988.

Soon after his plea, the Christian Brothers Province of Oceania issued a statement reiterating their “unreserved apology” for Best’s “grievous betrayal of trust”, and urging people to contact police if they had been sexually assaulted.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Jody Harrison , Reporter / @JodeHarrisonHT

SURVIVORS of sexual abuse at Catholic churches and institutions say they continue to be ignored by Bishops who once pledged to involve them in reforms.

Alan Draper, of the In Care Abuse Survivors group (INCAS), said that many of the 400 people represented by the organisation were still waiting to be approached by the church and had been offered no compensation for the abuse they suffered at the hands of priests, staff and teachers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By political reporters Dan Conifer and Alexandra Beech

The Federal Government has announced a compensation scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

The Commonwealth will lead the program, while states, territories and institutions, including churches, will be able to opt in.

Victims will be able to access up to $150,000 each.

The cost for just the Commonwealth over the 10-year period was estimated to be between $570 million and $770 million.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters in Perth that the scheme would run for 10 years with an option to extend.

He said an advisory council would be established to help oversee its delivery.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth

Convicted paedophile Robert Best, a Christian Brother, has pleaded guilty to more cases of child sexual abuse dating back nearly 50 years.

Best, 75, appeared via video link in the Melbourne Magistrates Court from Ararat Prison were he is serving a sentence for child abuse.

He has now admitted to abusing 15 boys between January 1968 and October 1988, at Box Hill, Geelong and Ballarat.

Dressed in a green prison jumper, Best sat still, blinking slowly before he pleaded guilty to 22 offences including indecent assault and false imprisonment.

Lawyers informed the court 17 other charges against him had been dropped as the matter had been resolved in a guilty plea.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

November 4, 2016

RACHEL BAXENDALE
ReporterCanberra
@rachelbaxendale

The Turnbull government has today announced a Commonwealth-led opt-in compensation scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse, giving them access to up to $150,000.

Social Service Minister Christian Porter said the scheme would be lead by the Commonwealth, with states, territories and institutions, including churches, strongly encouraged to opt in.

The establishment of a national redress scheme was a key recommendation of the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse, but Mr Porter said the Commonwealth did not have the jurisdiction to force states or territories to be part of the scheme.

States, territories or institutions which do opt-in will be required to fund the cost of their own eligible redress claims.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Tom McIlroy, Rachel Browne

States, churches and charities are under pressure to support the federal government’s national scheme to compensate victims of child sexual abuse with payments of up to $150,000.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter announced the national opt-in scheme on Friday, a key recommendation from the child sex abuse royal commission and a long-held demand of victims and advocates.

Advocacy groups have welcomed the announcement but slammed the “opt-in” element.

Care Leavers Australia Network chief executive Leonie Sheedy said states must be compelled to contribute and churches and charities should be penalised if they try to dodge their obligations.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Elle Hunt
@mlle_elle
Friday 4 November 2016

A new national compensation scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse has been designed to have “maximum reach to Australian victims”, the social services minister has said.

Survivors may be entitled to up to $150,000 each under the scheme, which Christian Porter announced on behalf of the federal government in Perth on Friday.

States, territories and institutions , including churches and charities, will be able to opt in to the scheme, which will be run by the commonwealth.

Members of the scheme would opt in on the understanding that they fund the cost of their own eligible redress claims, in accordance with the recommendations of the royal commission into institutional child abuse made late last year.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

COUNSELLING, individual payments and the opportunity for survivors to tell their story will be available under a new Commonwealth Government scheme to compensate survivors of child sex abuse.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter announced the Commonwealth Redress Scheme on Friday.

The scheme would invite state governments and institutions to “opt-in” to the scheme on the basis that the entity found to be responsible — whether it be church, institution, charity or government — would compensate the individual survivors.

Survivors could seek a maximum payment of $150,000 for the sexual abuse they suffered as children.

The Minister said a guiding principal would be to try to avoid survivors being re-traumatised by telling their stories as they applied to the scheme.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The jailed former pastor of a Marrero church was accused of rape and other sex crimes against seven child victims Thursday (Nov. 3) in a nine-count indictment handed up by an Orleans Parish grand jury.

Algiers’ Sherman R. Smith, 56, was a pastor at Marrero’s Second Highway Baptist Church, at 1533 Haydel Drive. Authorities said Smith took advantage of his position of trust to rape or sexually abuse young girls who often were friends of his own children. Seven different victims are named in the indictment, which charges Smith with sex crimes against juveniles alleged to have occurred between September 1989 and November 2001.

Criminal District Court Judge Ben Willard raised Smith’s bond amount from $2.35 million to $5 million after the new indictment was read.

Smith initially was arrested last November on first-degree rape and sexual battery charges after three people came forward. He was booked with additional charges Sept. 13, court records showed, that included indecent behavior with a juvenile, sexual battery and molestation of a juvenile or person with a disability.

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AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Anne Lu @chelean on November 04 2016

The Australian government has announced up to $150,000 compensation to sexual abuse victims. The Commonwealth redress scheme was announced on Friday as key recommendation from the child sex abuse commission.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters in Perth that the Commonwealth will lead the program, with states, territories, churches and institutions allowed to “opt in.” The scheme, which will provide emotional, mental and other support to victims of sexual abuse, will run for 10 years, starting in early 2018, with an option to extend.

The maximum payout for individual victims is $150,000.

“A fair, simple and generous process for redress is the most significant thing that we can do for survivors of sexual abuse,” Porter said.

While the government would like all jurisdictions to opt in, it was unable to compel them to do that. Instead, it would just encourage that opt in is to be clear and transparent. In the case of territories, though, the Commonwealth has the right to legislate to compel them to join if they did not opt in.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ

EMMAUS, Pa. – A monsignor with the Diocese of Allentown will stand trial in a child pornography case.

John Mraz, 66, waived his preliminary hearing Thursday morning.

In September, Mraz was charged with sexual abuse of children, criminal use of a communications facility and obscene and sexual material and performances.

Mraz was the pastor at St. Ann’s Church in Emmaus, Lehigh County.

On July 25, Mraz asked a friend and parishioner to update his laptop computer. The friend subsequently discovered files in the computer’s recycling bin depicting images of nude males of an unknown age, according to court documents.

After completing the update, the friend returned the computer to Mraz, who asked him to update another laptop. On that laptop, the friend reported finding a file named “naked little boys,” or “something similar to that name,” according to court paperwork.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Chris Wong | Post News Staff

With the Oct. 31 announcement of Bishop Michael Jude Byrnes’ appointment as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana, the Post contacted Byrnes yesterday morning Guam time and spoke with him to get a better understanding of the newest leader of the Catholic Church on Guam.

Below are the archbishop’s responses to the Post’s questions:

Question: Is there any update on your expected date of arrival on Guam?

Answer: Yes, my initial visit is now scheduled for Nov. 28, 2016. I will stay in Guam for three weeks and return back to Detroit during the holiday season to visit my family. Around mid-January, I will have a specific date set when I arrive on Guam, of when I expect to move into my residence on Guam.

Q: What was your reaction upon being chosen by Pope Francis to head the archdiocese on Guam?

A: I was shocked. The first thing I asked was “Where is Guam?” I had no idea I was appointed for the position.

Q: With news of the appointment, some in the local community feel that an outsider would not be able heal the deep divisions and issues the Catholic Church is dealing with on Guam. Others feel that your appointment is a welcome breath of fresh air. What initial steps will you take to heal the community?

A: First and foremost to listen to and to talk with the congregation. I cannot come in with preconceptions of any issue. I need to listen [about] what we can do to resolve and heal the wounds left in the community.

Q: Have you encountered and experienced controversial issues in the community during your time as a member of the clergy?

A: Yes, in 2011 when a priest in our diocese went before a canonical trial after being accused of sexual abuse and misconduct. I have experience in dealing with financial issues and personal issues that were controversial within our congregation of 1.3 million Catholics, in a metropolitan area of 3.4 million people.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

3 November 2016

The New Zealand judge who formerly headed a major child sex abuse inquiry in Britain says false and defamatory articles were placed in the media by her political opponents.

Dame Lowell GoddardDame Lowell Goddard Photo: SUPPLIED
In a letter to British MPs explaining her resignation, Dame Lowell Goddard said she decided to quit in August when three members of the inquiry’s panel met her to voice their dissatisfaction with her leadership.

Read the 10-page letter, dated 28 October 2016 (PDF, 140KB)

Dame Lowell told the MPs she was not aware of tensions within the inquiry until then, and believed intense media pressure damaged perceptions of her.

“I have been the subject of extensive, false, and defamatory comment in the British media, and have had to instruct London lawyers in these matters. These are current and not resolved,” she wrote to Home Affairs Committee chair Yvette Cooper.

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CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

OCTOBER 31, 2016, BY SONSEEAHRAY TONSALL

SACRAMENTO — Three and a half months after thieves entered a Sacramento home and left a 60-year-old man dead as they fled, new details are emerging about the last person arrested in the case and what may have motivated the killing.

While the crime, a vicious stabbing, according to witnesses, is alarming enough, the fact that the latest alleged murderer is a Hindu priest is sending shock waves through the Hindu community.

Ashok Kumar was killed in August in his home on Grandstaff Drive.

A month later Sacramento police arrested Tiwan Greenwade, Vicky Rainone and the victim’s wife, Rohini Kumar, for murder.

Last week Raghua Sharma was charged with the same, and officers announced they believed there were no more suspects outstanding.

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CALIFORNIA
AOL News

SACRAMENTO (KTXL) — Three and a half months after thieves entered a Sacramento home and left a 60-year-old man dead as they fled, new details are emerging about the last person arrested in the case and what may have motivated the killing.

While the crime, a vicious stabbing, according to witnesses, is alarming enough, the fact that the latest alleged murderer is a Hindu priest is sending shock waves through the Hindu community.

Ashok Kumar was killed in August in his home on Grandstaff Drive.

A month later Sacramento police arrested Tiwan Greenwade, Vicky Rainone and the victim’s wife, Rohini Kumar, for murder.

Last week Raghua Sharma was charged with the same, and officers announced they believed there were no more suspects outstanding.

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UTAH
The Davis Clipper

by BRYAN GRAY
Nov 02, 2016

I have seldom written about religion or spiritual matters. There are three simple reasons. First, there are people who are more knowledgeable and passionate than I am. Second, religion is deeply personal, not the type of thing to bait in a weekly newspaper column. Third, what someone believes is nobody else’s business!

But as most of you are aware, the number of people attending church services in the U.S. continues to creep lower. Furthermore, the fastest-growing “religious group” in America are the “nones,” comprising people who have fallen away from established religions and found a personal spiritual life apart from church buildings, services, and dogma. Among Americans under age 35, there are reportedly more “nones” than membership in any single organized religion. The Pew Research Group finds a decreased membership and activity in almost every single religious faith.

Utah families recognize the fallout. Every family I meet admits to a son, daughter, or grandchild, sometimes even a spouse – of leaving his or her previous faith. Often, those who leave don’t join a different faith either.

The reasons vary of course. Some would trace it to the urbanization of America. Others point to an anti-religious sentiment from the entertainment industry. Still others blame the publicity surrounding the pedophile priest scandal. Then, of course, some religious stalwarts give all the credit to Satan himself!

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TEXAS
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: John T. Keller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in 1974. He assisted in parishes in Houston and Spring and, in 1983, became pastor of his first of three Houston parishes. He also spent a number of years on the archdiocesan Presbyteral Council.

In 2002 the archdiocese received a complaint that Keller had sexually abused a 16-year-old altar boy in the early 1980s, while assigned to Christ the Good Shepherd in Spring. The complaint was made by the boy’s father, who had been a parish dean and a friend of Keller’s. He said that on a camping trip with his son, Keller plied the boy with alcohol, then invited him into his bed where he put his hands into the boy’s pants. Keller’s accuser said that in the mid-1990s he and his therapist met with Keller, who reassured him that “he was the only one.” The accuser’s mother wrote to Bishop Fiorenza in Fall 2002 saying, in part, that shortly after the camping trip she found in her son’s room “love letters” to the boy from Keller. She said she confronted Keller, who said he was “dealing with his problem in therapy.” Keller admitted that he “crossed a proper boundary,” but denied his behavior was abuse. The archdiocesan review board determined that Keller “acted very inappropriately” but that his behavior was not sexual abuse. Keller was kept in ministry, including during the investigation.

Ordained: 1974

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TEXAS
Houston Chronicle

By Andrew Kragie and Mike Glenn November 3, 2016

Montgomery County Sheriff’s detectives arrested a Magnolia pastor Tuesday on charges he sexually assaulted a young girl – and officials believe there could be more victims.

Detectives, prosecutors and the MCSO SWAT team raided The Body Of Christ Ministry Church in the 40200 block of Garwood Court and later apprehended 56-year-old Ronald Mitchell.

Police say they found evidence of the alleged sexual assault and a “large cache of weapons and ammunition” in a residence at the church.

MCSO SWAT members made the arrest near Texas 75 and Texas 105 in Conroe, jail records show. Mitchell is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

Since Mitchell led his church from different locations around the greater Houston area, including Tomball, South Houston and Montgomery County, investigators believe there could be more victims who have yet to come forward.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

Published November 3, 2016

BY KATY BERGEN, LAURA BAUER AND MARÁ WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star
kbergen@kcstar.com, lbauer@kcstar.com, mdwilliams@kcstar.com

David, 60

For about four or five years as a teenager, I was repeatedly molested by a priest. But I came to realize this only after long-repressed memories surfaced in my 30s, sending me into a sudden downward spiral. (I’d long made inexplicable and self-destructive decisions and struggled with intimacy and self-worth. Learning I’d been sexually violated, however, led to a real emotional tailspin for months and months.)

Fortunately, I had (and still have) a remarkably supportive partner. Though I just turned 60, I’m still in therapy but have also made great strides in healing through my work with an amazing self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The wisdom and resilience of the hundreds of victims I’ve met inspires me every day and reminds me that it wasn’t my fault, I did nothing wrong, I can recover from this trauma, and I can help prevent other kids from suffering in the same way I have suffered. …

Mark, 56

I was 14 years old when I met Father R. at my high school. He groomed me in the hallways and took me to city parks where gay people met for sex. We partied in his apartment many evenings. The frequency of our visits increased and so did the sexual advances he made. I always froze. It was never pleasurable. This relationship lasted for almost two years. I was told to leave the school when the principal discovered this and accused me of being a drug addict, which I was.

As a teenager, I was preoccupied with trying to survive the numerous expulsions of being gay by the public at large, from family members, followers of the church, and other predators within the gay community. I was not able to determine what was right and what was wrong during those years. I wish I could experience what it would be like to exist as a young gay man with dignity and not have experienced the behaviors caused by a pedophile. I have made so many misguided decisions since then and because of this.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

By Lou Baldwin • Posted November 3, 2016

New financial statements for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia released Nov. 3 by the Office for Financial Services covering the fiscal year (FY) ended June 30, 2016 show continuing progress on the path to financial stability, especially in addressing the core operating deficit.

The financial statements, which were audited by the independent auditing firm Grant Thornton, show the core operating deficit for FY 2016 to be $0.3 million as opposed to $0.7 million in FY 2015.

That is down from $2.3 million in FY 2014, $4.9 million in 2013 and a whopping $17.6 million in 2012, the first year of Grant Thornton’s audits.

Over the same period, underfunded balance sheet obligations have decreased from $354.4 million to $236.6 million.

“Our recurring deficit of $300,000 shows well and continues our recent trend of a somewhat stabilized result,” said archdiocesan Chief Financial Officer Timothy O’Shaughnessy. “It’s a deficit though and we’re still too fragile. I don’t believe we can sustain even at this slight deficit without further changes. We are committed to achieving a break-even result for our fiscal year ending June 30, 2018 and we are reviewing plans for that. These plans do not include a reduction in staff.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

EMMAUS, Pa. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest in Pennsylvania has waived a preliminary hearing on child pornography charges.

His attorney says Monsignor John Stephen Mraz, of Bethlehem, gave up his right to a preliminary hearing because he committed the crime.

Attorney John Waldron tells The Allentown Morning Call (http://bit.ly/2f5r0uL ) that 66-year-old Mraz downloaded and he viewed pornographic computer files as alleged.

He says “the important thing” is he never tried to contact children.

Waldron says he expects the case to be resolved in a guilty plea and not go to trial.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

By Dan Stamm

A lawyer for a Roman Catholic priest in the Lehigh Valley says his client downloaded and viewed child porn but he says “the important thing” is the priest never tried to contact any children.

Attorney John Waldron says Monsignor John Stephen Mraz, of Bethlehem, has waived his right to a preliminary hearing on child pornography charges because he committed the crime.

Waldron tells The Allentown Morning Call he expects the 66-year-old priest will plead guilty and the case won’t go to trial.

Prosecutors said a friend of the priest’s discovered a file labeled with a reference to nude boys while working on Mraz’s computer. Some of the terms Mraz searched for online included “nude boys wrestling,” “teen boys spanked,” “small boy nudes,” “handcuffed nude boys,” “boy bondage” and other terms involving boys and sexual acts, said police.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

BY
RICHARD VERNALLS
BEN HURST

A disgraced imam who fled to Bangladesh after being convicted of historical sex attacks on two girls he tutored has been jailed for 11 and a half years in his absence.

Hifiz Rahman was captured on CCTV boarding a plane to Dhaka the day after a Wolverhampton Crown Court jury found him guilty of five counts of indecent assaults on victims as young as six.

During his sentencing it emerged that Rahman had a Bangladeshi passport, which the British authorities knew nothing about, allowing him to flee.

Rahman, who had diabetes, was on bail during the two criminal trials which saw him convicted, and was unable to attend some days after complaining of feeling unwell.

Sentencing the 58-year-old for a “gross breach of trust”, Judge Nicholas Cartwright said Rahman had “deceived” not only the parents of his victims, but also his own solicitors and barrister at trial by lying about being sick.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An imam who fled the country after being convicted of historical sex attacks has been jailed for eleven and a half years.

Hifiz Rahman, 58, was found guilty of five sexual assaults at Queens Cross mosque in the West Midlands between March 1986 and August 1987.

He took a flight from Birmingham Airport to Bangladesh the day after his conviction last month.
Rahman was sentenced in his absence at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Judge Nicholas Cartwright said the father-of-seven from Netherton, who had not attended some of his trial because he claimed he was too unwell, had deceived his victims and own solicitors by lying about being sick.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 3, 2016

The papal appointee given authority to take charge of a Guam archdiocese rocked by allegations of sexual abuse against its archbishop has said the Vatican is preparing to put the prelate on trial.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, who Pope Francis appointed in June to step-in over Agana Archbishop Anthony Apuron, told reporters Tuesday that “they just formed all the conditions for the trial.”

“I’m going to receive some news, some updates later,” said Hon, who has been serving as the archdiocese’s apostolic administrator while also remaining the second-in-command of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Hon, a native of Hong Kong, spoke to journalists Nov. 1 following Francis’ appointment Oct. 31 of Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes as the new coadjutor archbishop of the Agana archdiocese, the island’s only Catholic diocese. …

Hon explained that Francis had appointed Byrnes to have special faculties over the Agana archdiocese, saying: “This appointment suggests a more permanent solution.”

“As a matter of fact, in this appointment the Holy Father has expressly granted His Excellency Msgr. Byrnes all the faculties, rights and obligations of the archbishop of Aganda, civilly and ecclesiastically without any exception,” Hon continued.

“In other words, as coadjutor archbishop, Msgr. Byrnes has the complete right of responsibility over everything concerning the archdiocese,” said Hon.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Catholic Church in Scotland has denied claims that it has failed to implement changes after the publication of a report into child abuse.

In August 2015, Dr Andrew McLellan made a raft of recommendations following a review into abuse allegations connected with the church.

He said that since then bishops seemed to be “ignoring” his findings.

However, the Catholic Church said it accepted his recommendations and that they would be implemented in full.

Dr McLellan, a former Church of Scotland moderator, was tasked with coming up with proposals aimed at making the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland “a safe place for all” in January 2014.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)

By KELLY MCLAUGHLIN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A bishop at one of the largest African-American Christian churches in the United States has been accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a female member of the denomination for more than 20 years.

Kimberly Pollard, who is now 37, filed a $12.2-million lawsuit against the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and Bishop James L’Keith Jones, accusing the church of allowing her to be sexually assaulted by the high-ranking bishop for 20 years, according to court papers obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.

Pollard claims that Jones not only groomed her into what became a 20-year sexual relationship and extra-marital affair, but also tried to groom her six-year-old daughter, telling her she looked ‘sexy’ and that he would wait until she was 18 to date her.

The mother-of-one from Lubbock, Texas, says that the relationship between her and Jones turned sexual in or around 1995, when she was still a minor.

She says that during a Holy Convocation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jones used his relationship as a then-pastor to sexually assault her and engage in an illicit sexual relationship.

And over the next 20 years, as Jones was promoted to higher rankings and given more responsibility in the church, he continued the sexual relationship through coercion, threats and his position as a spiritual adviser, Pollard claims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Educator

by Heather Jane
03 Nov 2016

A principal of a top private school told the Royal Commission into child abuse that the sensationalist tendencies of the media are a “strong disincentive” for principals to report abuse allegations, Sky News reported.

The comments were made by The King’s School principal, Dr Timothy Hawkes, as he responded to suggestions that his failure to report an indecent assault was influenced by his concern for the school’s reputation.

David Lloyd, the counsel assisting the Commission, referred to an email from Hawkes to other private school heads about his attitude to reporting abuse following negative media reports about sex abuse allegations at Trinity Grammar School in 2000.

In the email tendered to the commission, he wrote:

“If in reporting an incident, it means the broad flapping ears of the press will be allowed to sensationalise the case on the front page of their newspapers, then this will be a very strong disincentive to report anything,” he wrote.

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AUSTRALIA
Townsville Bulletin

VICTORIA NUGENT, Townsville Bulletin
November 2, 2016

THE former principal of a Townsville boarding school said a rape victim was sent to a different campus to prevent the offenders from fleeing the school and escaping investigation.

Christopher Shirley, who was Shalom Christian College’s principal at the time of the 2006 assault, said the 14-year-old girl, referred to during the commission as CLF, was sent to the school’s Crystal Creek campus after disclosing the incident.

He added that he wanted to prevent the boys from “absconding from the school” if they thought the matter was being under investigation.

“My main concern was to make sure CLF was safe,” he said.

“My intention was to keep things calm, let them think no punishment was going to happen.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Two boys at a Queensland boarding school ‘boasted’ to staff they’d had group sex with a female student but it was five days before the incident was formally reported, the abuse royal commission has heard.

Shalom Christian College is under the spotlight at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse over a gang rape in 2006.

A 14-year-old girl, referred to as CLF, was sexually assaulted by four male behind the school, the commission heard.

Counsel assisting David Lloyd said staff in the boys’ and girls’ dormitories noticed students were missing on the night of March 23, 2006.

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