ABUSE TRACKER

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Guardian (UK)

Henry Barnes and agencies
@HenryHBarnes
Sunday 28 February 2016

Mark Ruffalo has joined survivors of paedophile priests in a protest outside downtown LA’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, hours before he is due to attend the Academy Awards.

Ruffalo, who is nominated in the best supporting actor category for his performance in Spotlight, joined members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) to call for the names of priests who had been convicted of abusing minors to be made public.

Spotlight follows a 2002 investigation by reporters from the Boston that uncovered the widespread sexual abuse of children by scores of the district’s clergy. Ruffalo plays Mike Rezendes, a veteran on the Globe’s investigative journalism team, which the film is named after.

The film details the cover-up of sexual abuse cases by Boston’s then archbishop Cardinal Bernard Francis Law. In 2013 SNAP accused the Catholic Church in LA of a similar cover-up and demanded that Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of the LA archdiocese in the 1980s, reveal the names of all priests who had been relocated after an incident of abuse. It’s one of a series of protests taking place across the US. “In LA and nine other US cities, SNAP urged bishops to disclose and post on church websites the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of all predator priests,” said SNAP’s national director David Clohessy.

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ROME
Reading Eagle

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — One of Pope Francis’ top advisers acknowledges that the Catholic Church “has made enormous mistakes” in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests over centuries in testimony at an extraordinary public hearing of an Australian investigative commission just a few blocks from the Vatican.

Cardinal George Pell testified late Sunday via videolink from a Rome hotel to the Royal Commission sitting in Sydney. In the front row of the conference room were two dozen Australian abuse survivors and their companions who had travelled across the globe to be on hand for Pell’s testimony.

The lead counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, is questioning Pell about current Vatican efforts to address the scandal as well as Pell’s past in Australia, including how he dealt with abuse allegations.

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ROME
Daily Mail

By FREYA NOBLE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Cardinal George Pell’s security have been accused of ‘pushing and punching’ Australian media in Rome as he arrived to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

Cardinal Pell is speaking to the commission in Ballarat, Victoria, via video link from a hotel near his home at the Vatican in Rome despite public pressure to bring him home for the event.

As he arrived at the high-end hotel, heavy-handed security are said to have forcefully pushed waiting media away from Pell as he arrived through a side door.

Channel Nine reporter Amelia Ballinger told the Sydney Morning Herald one reporter was punched, while cameramen were pushed and shoved out of the way.

‘Before he even got out of the car a number of big, burly security guards got out before him and they basically assaulted, I guess, for want of a better word, the [television] crew that was waiting there for him,’ Ballinger said.

She added that a journalist waiting to question Pell was ‘punched in the stomach’, and Pell entered the building without having to face any questions.

Italian Police have been informed of the alleged incidents and the Royal Commission have been notified

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ROME
Daily Examiner

CARDINAL George Pell has admitted the church had a “general practice” of not calling the police when it learned of sexual assaults, instinctually acting to protect the institution ahead of victims.

Cardinal Pell was being asked about his views — given in the 1980s — that the church generally did not believe children when they made these allegations.

The Cardinal said he believes those were now an “over-statement” but conceded that children were often not listened to.

He said there was no formal policy to dismiss such allegations but unofficially, “sometimes they were dismissed in absolutely scandalous circumstances”.

These were when victims made “very, very,very plausible allegations made by responsible people that were not followed up sufficiently”.

Cardinal Pell said the instinct of many was to protect the church and its community “from shame”.

When asked if there was a tendency not to refer such incidents to police, Cardinal Pell said it was “general practice” but that people were not prevented or impeded “but they were certainly rarely encouraged”.

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ROME
9 News

AAP

Cardinal George Pell says a number of complaints of clergy abuse of children were wrongly dismissed.

“I don’t have the statistics on that but too many of them certainly were dismissed and sometimes they were dismissed in absolutely scandalous circumstances,” Cardinal Pell told the child abuse royal commission via videolink from Rome.

He said the tendency to dismiss complaints was more about protecting the church.

“At that stage, the instinct was more to protect the institution, the community of the church, from shame,” he said.

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ROME
9 News

By Nick Alexander

Cardinal George Pell has begun testifying before a Royal Commission via video-link from Rome under the watchful gaze of 15 Australian abuse survivors, who are present in his room at the Hotel Quirinale.

Having sworn on a Holy Bible to tell the truth Cardinal Pell began his third appearance before the Royal Commission by saying that he does not intend to “defend the indefensible”.

“The church has made enormous mistakes and is here to remedy those,” Cardinal Pell said, but conceded that the church has “mucked things up and let people down.”

“Unfortunately original sin is alive and well, the tendency to evil in the Catholic Church too,”Cardinal Pell said.

“For good or for ill the church follows the patterns of the society in which it lives.”

Cardinal George Pell has begun testifying before a Royal Commission via video-link from Rome under the watchful gaze of 15 Australian abuse survivors, who are present in his room at the Hotel Quirinale.

Having sworn on a Holy Bible to tell the truth Cardinal Pell began his third appearance before the Royal Commission by saying that he does not intend to “defend the indefensible”.

“The church has made enormous mistakes and is here to remedy those,” Cardinal Pell said, but conceded that the church has “mucked things up and let people down.”

“Unfortunately original sin is alive and well, the tendency to evil in the Catholic Church too,”Cardinal Pell said.

“For good or for ill the church follows the patterns of the society in which it lives.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Hollywood Reporter

‘Spotlight’ director Tom McCarthy and screenwriter Josh Singer also took part.

Hours before the 88th Oscars were set to start, the Spotlight team of actor Mark Ruffalo, director-cowriter Tom McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer joined a protest outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. They stood with members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, outside the cathedral calling for the names of pedophile priests to be released.

Ruffalo confirmed on Twitter on that he participated in the protest, tweeting, “Standing with the survivors of Priest sexual abuse!”

Spotlight follows the Boston Globe investigative journalists who uncovered the Catholic church scandal of priests involved with child molestation. The film has earned Ruffalo an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor as well as five other nominations, including best picture, best director and best original screenplay. On Saturday, it took home five trophies at Film Independent’s Spirit Awards, including best feature.

SNAP is also hosting a viewing party for the Oscars at the Next Door Lounge, at 1154 North Highland Avenue, in Hollywood.

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UNITED STATES
Newsweek

BY ZACH SCHONFELD ON 2/28/16

At the 49th Academy Awards, two instantly iconic depictions of journalism on film—one fictional, the other stranger than fiction—competed for top prizes.

It was 1977. Network, the ever-quotable portrait of a “mad prophet” TV anchor whose on-air breakdown leads to soaring ratings, nearly swept the acting categories: Peter Finch (in a posthumous victory) won Best Actor for his performance as Howard Beale; Faye Dunaway took home Best Actress; and Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting despite spending a record-short five minutes on screen. All the President’s Men, the sprawling, step-by-step unraveling of the Watergate investigation that inspired a generation of reporters, garnered eight nominations and four wins, including Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards).

And in the Best Picture category, for which both movies were nominated, the award went to—well, it went to Rocky.

Movies about the news media get Best Picture nominations. They just don’t seem to win. The pattern is an old one. Citizen Kane, the story of a newspaper mogul loosely based on William Randolph Hearst, got a nomination in 1942 but lost to John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. The prior year, Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent—starring Joel McCrea as an American reporter tracking enemy spies—lost to a very different Hitchcock film, Rebecca. Broadcast News lost to The Last Emperor at the 1988 awards, several years after The Killing Fields lost to Amadeus. More insultingly, Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney’s thoughtful depiction of a McCarthy-era Edward R. Murrow, lost to a movie sometimes considered the worst Best Picture winner in Oscars history: 2005’s Crash.

It has been nearly 70 years since a journalism movie won Best Picture. The deserving Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) has Gregory Peck as a reporter assigned to write an article about anti-Semitism, so he poses as a Jew to experience prejudice firsthand.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Christie D’Zurilla

Call it what you want — this was a “Spotlight” celebration.

Liev Schreiber, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, with wife Sunrise Coigney, all made it to “Spotlight” producer Michael Sugar’s pre-Oscar party just hours after the film took four Independent Spirit Awards, including best feature.

The film is up for six Oscars, with nominations including supporting actor for Ruffalo, supporting actress for Rachel McAdams and best picture.

The event, co-hosted by Sugar’s Anonymous Content colleagues Steve Golin (also a “Spotlight” producer) and Doug Wald, started late Saturday and ran over into Sunday morning high atop Sunset Tower in West Hollywood.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP

A black ribbon has been tied around a tree outside the abuse royal commission hearing room in Sydney where Cardinal George Pell’s evidence by video link will be transmitted from Rome.

The ribbon was put there to mark the death on Sunday of 71-year-old Gary O’Neill, who was raised in a Catholic Church boys’ orphanage in Westmead Sydney, said Leonie Sheedy who heads up a survivor support organisation.

Members of Care Leavers’ Australasia Network, linked hands and held a silent vigil for Mr O’Neill and hundreds like him, who suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy.

Ms Sheedy said Mr O’Neill had suffered awful abuse as a child at the St Vincent’s Boys’ Orphanage.

People have been gathering outside Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney’s CBD where the commission is sitting on Monday.

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ROME
Gold Coast Bulletin

AAP

Cardinal George Pell says he is “not defending the indefensible” in the Catholic Church’s handling of child sexual abuse by clergy.

Cardinal Pell says the church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy them.

“The church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up, has let people down. I’m not here to defend the indefensible,” Cardinal Pell told the child abuse royal commission from Rome.

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ROME
7 News

The cardinal, who was too ill to return to Australia for questioning, is testifying via videolink from the Hotel Quirinale in Rome in front of a group of survivors from Ballarat.

Before giving evidence, he swore on the Bible that he would tell the truth.

He will be questioned over three to four days about what he knew of historic pedophile activity by priests when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

First up, he detailed his role at the Vatican, describing it as “something equivalent to a treasurer” but would not concur that he held the third most senior position in the church.

“I wouldn’t say it was. People like to make these hypothetical lists. Some people would see the financial affairs of the Vatican as very low on the list,” he said.

“I’m a senior official in the Roman curia.”

He was then asked about financing of compensation for victims of clergy abuse.

He said he had given advice, as one of the nine cardinals on an informal council advising the pope, prior to the establishment of the pontifical commission for the protection of minors in March 2014.

Cardinal Pell, under questioning, said child sex abuse had been an issue for centuries.

“The church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy those but the church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up, has let people down,” he said.

“I’m not here to defend the indefensible.”

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ROME
Reuters

ROME/SYDNEY | BY PHILIP PULLELLA AND JANE WARDELL

Australian Cardinal George Pell said on Sunday the Catholic Church had made “enormous mistakes” as he became the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify on sexual abuse of children in the Church.

Pell, 74, held up a Bible as he was sworn in to answer questions by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in front of victims in a Rome hotel room.

Around 15 abuse victims and support staff traveled to Rome on the back of a crowd-funding campaign to see the Vatican’s treasurer give evidence after he said he was unable to travel to his native Australia because of heart problems.

While strictly speaking an Australian affair concerning events decades ago, the hearing has taken on wider implications about accountability of Church leaders because of Pell’s high position in the Vatican, where he serves as finance minister.

“The Church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy those but the Church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up, has let people down,” Pell said as he began answering questions via video link to the commission in Sydney. “I’m not here to defend the indefensible.”

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ROME
ABC News

Cardinal George Pell is giving evidence about sexual abuse in Ballarat and Melbourne, with his testimony live-streamed to Australia via video link from a Rome hotel.

The hearing will run for three days and hear four hours of evidence each day.

Follow our live blog for updates.

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ROME
The West Australian

Cardinal George Pell has started giving testimony from a Rome hotel to the royal commission into child abuse.

A group of survivors of child sex abuse at the hands of priests has arrived at the hotel where Cardinal Pell is giving evidence.

Cardinal Pell arrived earlier, three hours ahead of the scheduled 10pm (0800 AEST) start of the special hearing at the elegant Hotel Quirinale.

He was too ill to return to Australia for questioning and will give his videolink testimony to the commission in Sydney.

Reporters outside the hotel say Cardinal Pell’s security team was heavy handed, pushing camera crews aside as he entered the hotel.

He will be questioned over three to four days about what he knew of historic pedophile activity by priests when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

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ROME
7 News

Natasha Christian
February 29, 2016

Australian journalists were allegedly shoved and punched by ‘extremely aggressive’ security guards surrounding Cardinal George Pell in Rome.

Cardinal Pell arrived at the hotel via side gate on Monday, where he will make his third appearance before the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse

Cameramen were reportedly pushed and shoved and another reporter was punched.

Channel Seven reported Chris Reason said the visiting abuse survivors were not surprised by the heavy-handed tactics.

“We’re used to it,” Victim Anthony Foster said.

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ROME
Huffington Post

By Cayla Dengate

A cameraman and journalist were allegedly punched and shoved by private security guards surrounding Cardinal George Pell ahead of his video link appearance in the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.

SBS News Europe Correspondent Brett Mason said security guards ‘obscured’ his camera crew while they were waiting for Pell’s arrival at a Rome hotel and Italian Police were reviewing the footage.

Journalists who observed the scene outside Hotel Quirinale said an Australian crew were punched and shoved.

In footage shared by Channel 9 News, an Australian can be heard saying: “…excuse me, we have a right to be here, this is a public street” as several men approached.

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ROME
The Australian

[with live stream from Rome]

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Jacquelin Magnay
European correspondent

John Lyons
Associate Editor
Sydney

7.55am: I am inside the Verdi Room at the Hotel Quirinale and it is already full, reports Jacquelin Magnay. Several priests are standing alongside the walls, looking very prominent. Everyone just chatting at the moment.

Cardinal Pell will give his evidence in an area at the front of the room. He will have his own large TV screen to be able to watch the royal commission in Sydney. Adjacent to him in Rome will be one of his lawyers, although his barrister is back in Sydney.

All of the questioning of Cardinal Pell will occur from Sydney – there will be no cross examination from anyone in Rome.

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UNITED STATES
Peter Borre

Spotlight and the Oscars: Hooray for Hollywood – A look behind the camera (February 27, 2016)

Summary

American viewers (almost 37 million last year) will tune in for the Oscars’ pageant on Sunday evening, February 28. One of the contenders will be Spotlight, the true story of how the Boston Globe’s specialized team of investigative reporters, known as The Spotlight Team, broke wide open in early 2002 the story of clergy abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Boston. The movie’s six Oscar nominations are for:

Best picture; Best director; Best supporting actor and actress; Best editing; Best original screenplay.

From anecdotal information, many moviegoers have stayed away from Spotlight fearing that it is a graphic portrayal of child abuse. Not so. The center of gravity of the movie is the real-life tension in the Globe’s newsroom, and the relentless efforts of the Spotlight team that would not be pushed off the story. The movie has just about broken even, with box office receipts through mid-February of $38 million which is almost double the production budget of $20 million. That is close to break-even under the Hollywood 2:1 rule of thumb for box office coverage of post-production marketing and distribution costs. But one of the executive producers, Pierre Omidyar, has truly deep pockets, a net worth of almost $9 billion thanks to his eBay and Paypal investments. Interesting that a French-born member of the Iranian diaspora chose to bankroll this movie.

IMO, Spotlight is the best media movie since All the President’s Men and the Watergate scandal; and there is a family link between these two pictures:

Ben Bradlee père, was the Washington Post’s managing editor who stood up to major heat from the Nixon White House; and Ben Bradlee Jr fils, was #2 in the Globe’s newsroom hierarchy, but in the movie he seemed to curb his enthusiasm when it came to support for the Spotlight team.

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ROME
9 News

Cardinal George Pell will give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, via video link from a hotel room in Rome this morning.

He will answer questions over Case Study 28 in the commission, concerning how Cardinal Pell handled allegations of child sex abuse in the Catholic church in Ballarat and Melbourne.

We will bring you the live stream of Cardinal Pell’s testimony here on 9news.com.au. The hearing is expected to begin at 8am (AEDT).

Cardinal Pell will be asked to address allegations as outlined below.

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ROME
3AW

Italian Police are investigating after private security guards surrounding Cardinal George Pell allegedly assaulted journalists this morning.

The incident happened while Cardinal Pell was arriving at the Rome in which he is due to give evidence via videolink to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.

It’s believed a cameraman was shoved and a journalist was punched.

The Royal Commission has been notified.

Channel 10 reporter Joe Hill in Rome told Ross and John the atmosphere was “tense”, fuelled by the presence several security companies and a worldwide media contingent.

“This is a story that will be heard around the world,” he said.

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ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

February 29, 2016

Marissa Calligeros

Members of the Australian media have allegedly been shoved and punched by security guards surrounding Cardinal George Pell in Rome.

The Cardinal arrived at an elegant Rome hotel, where he will make his third appearance before the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, via a side gate three hours early on Monday.

As the Cardinal was arriving at the hotel however, his security guards allegedly took forceful action to protect him from the waiting media.

Channel Nine reporter Amelia Ballinger said cameramen were pushed and shoved, while one reporter was punched.

“Before he even got out of the car a number of big, burly security guards got out before him and they basically assaulted, I guess, for want of a better word, the [television] crew that was waiting there for him,” Ballinger said.

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ROME/AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

[live stream from Rome]

Case Study 28, February 2016, Ballarat

Cardinal George Pell will give evidence from 29 February 2016 by video link from Rome concerning Case Study 28: Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat and Case Study 35: Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. The Royal Commission will sit in Sydney and, in accordance with a request from Cardinal Pell, the hearing will commence at 08:00am AEDT.

Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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ROME
Corriere Quotidiano

E’ arrivato all’Hotel quirinale di Roma il cardinale australiano George Pell, Prefetto della Segreteria per l’Economia vaticana. Il chierico è giunto, poco dopo le 19 in albergo, da dove, a partire dalle 22 e fino alle 2 di domani, farà la sua deposizione via video con la Royal Commission australiana che indaga sugli abusi del clero sui minori. Pell è chiamato a rispondere sugli abusi commessi da sacerdoti quando era responsabile delle diocesi di Sidney e Melbourne. Pell è stato fatto entrare nell’albergo da una porta secondaria protetto dalla sicurezza.

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ROME
news.com.au

FOR three months, child sex abuse survivor Paul Levey has been carrying a dog-eared envelope with him.

Addressed simply, to “Cardinal George Pell, The Vatican” the one page inside puts into words what he has not been able to say to his face — his thoughts on the abuse he suffered as a child and what needs to be done to fix it.

“It’s very to the point,” he said, standing jet-lagged outside his Rome hotel. “I want to hand him that letter…It’s about I am a survivor and I want to be heard.”

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ROME
9 News

[with video]

Bodyguards believed to be protecting George Pell appear to have manhandled an Australian news crew as the cardinal arrived at the Italian hotel where he will testify before a Royal Commission later today.

The footage, shot on the rain-slicked street outside the Hotel Quirinale in Rome, show men purported to be in the cardinal’s service apparently attempting to obstruct Australian media workers.

“Let go of me, you have no role at all,” one of the crew can be heard saying, as another man strides over and appears to grab at the camera.

“Excuse me, we have a right to be here, this is a public street,” the Aussie journalist says, telling his cohort to “go around” the street so they can keep filming.

Cardinal Pell’s appearance today, expected to be the first of three or four gruelling sessions before the Royal Commission, is hotly anticipated.

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ROME
The Australian

Cardinal George Pell has arrived at the Rome hotel where he will make his third appearance before the child sexual abuse royal commission.

A group of survivors will watch the cardinal, who was too ill to return to Australia for questioning, give his videolink testimony to the commission in Sydney from a conference room at the Hotel Quirinale from 8am Monday (Australian time).

The cardinal arrived at the hotel via a side gate three hours early.

Reporters outside the hotel say Cardinal Pell’s security team was heavy handed, pushing camera crews aside as he entered the hotel.

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EL SALVADOR
La Pagina

POR JOSÉ NAPOLEÓN MORALES

El arzobispo de San Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas, confirmó este domingo la suspensión del sacerdote José Antonio Molina por estar implicado en dos casos de abuso sexual.

Molina Nieto estaba destacado en la iglesia Santa Cruz de Roma, del municipio de Panchimalco, en San Salvador.

Escobar Alas reveló que se trata de dos casos ocurridos hace más de 20 años y que éstos fueron denunciados en las oficinas episcopales. Asimismo informó que el acusado -quien no ha aceptado las acusaciones- se encuentra recluido en su casa al lado de su familia.

Sin entrar en mayores detalles sobre el delito cometido por el religioso, Escobar Alas afirmó que investigan al respecto y reiteró que no están dispuestos a tolerar esa situación ya que la Iglesia está de lado de las víctimas.

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EL SALVADOR
barrigaverde

[SAN SALVADOR, February 28, 2016 (PL) .- The archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar, revealed today the suspension of priest Jose Antonio Molina for being involved in sexual abuse. Molina served as parish priest in Santa Cruz de Rome in the town of Panchimalco.]

SAN SALVADOR, 28 febrero, 2016 (PL).- El arzobispo de San Salvador, José Luis Escobar, reveló hoy la suspensión del sacerdote José Antonio Molina por estar implicado en otro hecho de abuso sexual.

El párroco Molina se desempeñaba en Santa Cruz de Roma, de la localidad de Panchimalco, en el departamento de San Salvador, y quedó suspendido desde el pasado 15 de este mes de febrero.

Escobar, quien dijo que la Iglesia católica salvadoreña no está dispuesta a tolerar ese tipo de hechos, aseguró que el caso está en investigación.

El prelado religioso recalcó en conferencia de prensa este día, que están del lado de las víctimas.

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UNITED STATES
KCCI

By Brian Stelter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) —The six journalists featured in “Spotlight” have spent the past three months answering questions instead of asking them. They’re ready to get back to their day jobs — but not before getting a taste of Hollywood life via the Academy Awards.

“Spotlight,” a contender for Best Picture, has already been praised as the most influential and critically acclaimed movie about journalism since “All The President’s Men” in 1976. It is a contender for the Best Picture award on Sunday night.

The movie dramatizes the 2001-2002 investigation by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight unit into sex abuse by Catholic priests. CNNMoney spoke with the journalists at the heart of the story: Marty Baron, editor: Liev Schreider Ben Bradlee Jr., projects editor: John Slattery Walter “Robby” Robinson, Spotlight team leader: Michael Keaton Sacha Pfeiffer, reporter: Rachel McAdams Mike Rezendes, reporter: Mark Ruffalo Matt Carroll, reporter: Brian d’Arcy James

Hollywood stories

What have the journalists learned from the awards season experience?

SACHA PFEIFFER: People keep asking us, ‘Is this fun?’ I say it’s more fascinating than fun.

MATT CARROLL: It’s been totally surreal. Surreal.

BEN BRADLEE JR.: It’s been heady and quite fun in all honesty.

MIKE REZENDES: We’ve been given this opportunity to spread the word. I always pivot the conversation to, A, the survivors, and B, the importance of investigative reporting.

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ROME
ABC News

By Michelle Brown

Cardinal George Pell will today give evidence to the child abuse royal commission via video link from Rome about the Catholic Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell has been called to give evidence about two case studies — number 28 about the Diocese of Ballarat and number 35 about the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

The time frame for the case studies stretches from the 1960s through to the 1990s.

Case Study 28 deals with the response of the Christian Brothers in Victoria to allegations of child sexual abuse involving six brothers — all of whom spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.

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ROME
euronews

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – Australian Cardinal George Pell on Sunday becomes the highest-ranking Vatican official to testify on sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church at a hearing that victims have flown half way around the world to attend.

Pell, 74, who said he was unable to travel to his native Australia because of heart problems, will answer questions from a Rome hotel put via video link by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse.

While strictly speaking an Australian affair concerning events decades ago, the hearing has taken on wider implications about accountability of Church leaders because of Pell’s high position in the Vatican, where he serves as finance minister.

After the Commission allowed Pell to testify from Rome, it bowed to demands by victims’ groups to observe. A national crowd funding campaign raised the money to fly about 15 victims and supporters so they could be in the same room with Australia’s most senior Catholic clergyman.

“This is the most Catholic city in the world, in every sense,” Andrew Collins, who was a abused by priests as a boy and is one of the victims who travelled to Rome, told the Australian newspaper The Courier.

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ROME
news.com.au

Stefanie Menezes
AAP

A Sydney man who confronted Cardinal George Pell when he first gave evidence to the child abuse royal commission two years ago says he hopes Australia’s most senior Catholic finally “tells us the truth”.

John Hennessy, 80, will join dozens of other abuse victims at a public hearing in Sydney on Monday morning to watch Cardinal Pell give evidence via video link from a hotel in Rome.

“We hope he does the right thing. We hope everything finally comes clean,” Mr Hennessy, a former deputy mayor of Campbelltown Council, told AAP.

Cardinal Pell is expected to be questioned about several different matters on Monday including claims that he knew offending priests were moved from parish to parish.

“I cannot believe he didn’t know what was going on,” Mr Hennessy said on Sunday.

“It’s up to Cardinal Pell. He must tell us what really happened,” he said.

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ROME
Herald Sun

Former police inspector Peter Fox, who alleged church and police cover-ups of pedophile priest offending in NSW’s Hunter Valley, has turned up to support abuse victims attending the testimony of Cardinal George Pell in Rome.

Mr Fox, who calls himself a “self-funded retiree”, is in Rome on holiday with his wife, Penny, but on Monday will be at the elegant Quirinale Hotel to hear Australia’s senior Catholic cleric give evidence by video link to the child abuse royal commission sitting in Sydney.

Cardinal Pell will be questioned over three to four days about what he knew of historic pedophile activity by priests when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

He is chief of the Vatican’s finances and has asked to give evidence by video link because of a heart condition that prevents him travelling to Australia.

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ROME
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — A group of Australians who were raped and molested by Catholic priests when they were children are hoping to learn the truth about what a top Vatican cardinal knew about their attackers when he testifies Sunday before an investigative commission at a Rome hotel.

Thanks in part to a crowd-funding campaign, about two dozen Australian sex abuse survivors and their companions travelled across the planet to be on hand when Cardinal George Pell testifies via video link before Australia’s Royal Commission. It’s the third time that Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser, has testified about the sex abuse scandal, but the current round has generated intense international attention because it is taking place a short walk from the Vatican.

The commission, which is half-way through a 435 million Australian dollar ($300 million) government-authorized probe into how all Australian institutions dealt with abuse, agreed to let Pell testify from Rome because he was too ill to travel home. Two weeks ago, it also agreed to let victims be on hand to re-create the type of public hearing that Pell would be subject to in Australia.

David Ridsdale, who was abused for four years by his uncle, the notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale, said he had done 17 press interviews before Pell’s testimony even began — and was grateful that the horror of what transpired in Ballarat was finally getting known outside of Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell is to testify from Rome via video link to an Australian inquiry into child sex abuse.

Cardinal Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, will be asked whether he knew if paedophiles were active in churches under his watch.

Abuse survivors have flown to Rome to face the cardinal, who was excused from returning to Sydney due to ill health.

The hearing is expected to run at least three days.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse is holding its second round of inquiries into child sex abuse that occurred in the city of Ballarat in Victoria state.

Cardinal Pell was a priest in Ballarat and lived in a seminary with a notorious paedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, in the early 1970s.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Review of Books

Garry Wills

Investigative reporting got a boost in 1976, after the movie All the President’s Men showed what a small team (two men) could do if an editor and owner like Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham at The Washington Post let them keep digging for a long time. Another such coup was brought off by The Boston Globe in 2002, when its own investigative team of four people, called “Spotlight,” broke the story of Cardinal Law’s protection of priests who sexually preyed on children. In this case, Spotlight, which normally chose its own subjects, had not followed up on leads fed to the paper. It took an outsider, Martin Baron (played by Liev Schreiber), who had become editor of the paper in 2001, to jog the team into action. Baron was sent by the Globe’s new owner, The New York Times, to trim costs, yet he spent heavily on the priestly abuses scandal. An instinctive deference to the Church had inhibited the press in this Roman Catholic city from recognizing a scandal in its own backyard. Baron was not subject to that thrall. He was initially thought of as outside the Boston culture—an unmarried man, a Jew, not interested in the sacred Boston Red Sox.

In Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight—which has received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Film and Best Director—The Boston Globe story has been given a movie treatment like that of The Washington Post story. Both films retain some of the clichés of such tales—the resistance of society to what the enterprising reporters are trying to do, the difficulty of prying evidence from fearful witnesses, the final victory of the good guys over powerful resistance. But there are many differences. Woodward and Bernstein were outside the normal political reporting of Washington. The “Spotlight Four,” though not churchgoers, were all Catholic-raised or influenced. The crimes being investigated were more personal and religious, combining sexual and theological inhibitions.

As the team begins, lethargically, to go into the one case that had been superficially handled in the Globe, the serial abuses and regular moves of Father John J. Geoghan, they saw that other priests had been treated the same way—four, they turned up; then eleven. In diocesan records they began tracing the patterns of such frequent shiftings-about for priests. They were stunned as they found that large numbers of priests fit the pattern. They called on Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and psychotherapist who has studied priestly sexual activity for decades. (He is a respected scholar whom I have consulted for my writing and speaking on priests.) He tells the Spotlight team over the phone (his voice supplied by the actor Richard Jenkins) that he had found a high quotient of predatory priests in America, almost uniformly protected by bishops, and by that quotient the number of offending priests in Cardinal Law’s domain would be ninety—which was eerily close to the number they had turned up in diocesan records—seventy-six.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Steven Zeitchik and Mark Olsen

“Spotlight” was the big winner at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, as Hollywood’s debate over diversity also took center stage.

Tom McCarthy’sa tale of the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal and the newspaper investigation that uncovered it scored best feature, director, screenplay and editing ‎prizes at the annual indie-movie ceremony in Santa Monica, as well as the previously announced ensemble-oriented Robert Altman Award‎.

“It is very rare to make a film that has impacted the world as significantly as this one has,” said “Spotlight” producer Michael Sugar upon accepting the feature prize. “By honoring it,” he added, “more lives can be spared from abuse‎.”

Co-screenwriter Josh Singer, accepting the writing prize with McCarthy, paid tribute to abuse survivor Phil Saviano, who was given a huge standing ovation. Many of the real-life‎ Boston Globe journalists portrayed in the film also were at the show and took the stage for the final prize.

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ROME
The Australian

LLOYD JONES, AAP EUROPE CORRESPONDENT
FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Cardinal George Pell has tied a ribbon at the Vatican in support of sex abuse victims, but Ballarat abuse survivors expect he’ll still put the church before victims when he testifies to a royal commission.

A group of survivors and supporters have travelled to Rome to hear the senior Australian cleric’s testimony at the elegant Quirinale Hotel from Monday (Australian time).

Cardinal Pell will be questioned over three to four days about what he knew of historic pedophile activity by priests when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

The Ballarat-born churchman, now in charge of the Vatican’s finances, has asked to give evidence by video link from Rome because of a heart condition that prevents him travelling to Australia.

On the eve of his testimony it emerged he had tied a yellow ribbon at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens in support of Loud Fence, a movement supporting abuse victims that started in Ballarat and spread worldwide.

“This is my gesture of support, especially for the people of Ballarat,” Cardinal Pell said in a statement.

“I hope the coming days will eventually lead to healing for everyone.”

In Rome on Sunday, Ballarat survivors welcomed the gesture, but said they wanted to see Cardinal Pell follow it up with strong words in support of victims during his testimony.

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CALIFORNIA
YouTube

Published on Feb 27, 2016

Spotlight wins Best Feature at 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

The 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards, broadcast live on IFC Saturday, February 27 at 2:00pm PT / 5:00pm ET with hosts Kumail Nanjiani and Kate McKinnon.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Why is it important that predator priests’ names are exposed?

First, because it’s the quickest, easiest, cheapest and most effective way to protect kids now. If a chemical company CEO knows of 20 or 30 places in a city where toxic chemicals have been dumped, her first duty is to warn the public. (Then, she must of course fence in the properties, put up ‘DANGER’ signs and take other remedial steps.)

Since bishops recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded these predators – often until criminal statutes of limitations expired so prosecution wasn’t possible – the LEAST bishops can do is make it easier for police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public to learn who these predators are so they can keep their loved ones away from them.

Second, because it helps heal the wounded. Somewhere, there’s an elderly Catholic mom on her knees praying “God forgive me for being a bad parent. Sally has an eating disorder and Bill is an alcoholic. I’ve obviously done something wrong.” When she sees Fr. John Smith exposed as a predator, she calls her kids and they acknowledge “Yes, he molested me,” and the whole family begins to stop blaming themselves and start their recovery. (“The truth,” the Bible says, “shall set us free.”)

Third, because it helps reassure Catholics. Until bishops “come clean” about all predator priests, parishioners must look up from the pews at their pastor and wonder “Has he committed or concealed child sex crimes?” They must wonder “Is the priest who baptized our kids or performed our wedding a predator?” and “Did Fr. Jack really retire or did they take him out of the parish because he’s an abuser?”

Fourth, because it’s what bishops have repeatedly pledged, for decade, to do: be “open and transparent about clergy sex crimes and abuse.” In fact, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ national abuse policy, adopted in 2002, mandates “openness.”

Has this been done before?

Yes. About 30 US bishops have posted predators’ names.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Betty Clermont

Australian Cardinal George Pell will testify before the Royal Commission on child sex abuse today. Because his doctors claimed he was too ill to travel, Pell is allowed to give his testimony via video link from a hotel room in Rome between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. for three or four nights to coincide with 8 a.m. to noon, Sydney time.

Coincidentally, the Academy Awards show – in which Spotlight, about the Boston Globe‘s exposure of clerical sex abuse in Boston and an Oscar nominee for Best Picture, will be featured – will begin as Pell’s testimony concludes.

Pell will have to answer charges that he attempted to bribe a victim, he dismissed a victim’s complaint, knew about Australia’s worst predator priest, Gerald Ridsdale, and did nothing, and was complicit in moving Ridsdale from parish to parish.

In February 2015, the Royal Commission – the highest form of investigation in Australia – found that Pell “placed the Church’s financial interests above his obligation to victims of clerical sex abuse as part of an aggressive legal strategy to protect the assets of the Sydney archdiocese.”

Prior to being elevated to Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy by Pope Francis, Pell’s previous financial expertise was cheating the victims out of an adequate compensation known as his “Melbourne response“ and “Ellis defense” where Pell “instructed his lawyers to crush this victim.”€

To understand how Pope Francis was elected to a position to appoint Pell, we need to look at the state of the Vatican’s financial affairs preceding the 2013 conclave in which Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen.

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AUSTRALIA
The Austrlian

Rebecca Puddy
Reporter
Adelaide

Worshippers have described the return of Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson to his role as head of the Adelaide archdiocese as “wonderful”, despite criminal charges which allege he failed to report child sexual abuse committed by a priest.

Archbishop Wilson said mass yesterday at St John Vianney’s Church in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, nearly a year after being charged by NSW police with concealing a serious offence involving clerical child-sex abuse in the Hunter Valley in 1976.

In a decision criticised by some senior church officials, he ­resumed saying mass in January after taking leave in March last year when the charges were laid.

Archbishop Wilson yesterday declined to respond to questions about his return to work.

Parishioner David Carey said he supported the archbishop’s ­return, saying it was good for him and for the church community.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By Tracy Seipel tseipel@mercurynews.com
POSTED: 02/27/16

SAN JOSE — As passersby drove by honking their horns or cheering in support, four demonstrators waved signs in front of the Diocese of San Jose headquarters on Saturday as part of a nationwide protest to pressure U.S. Catholic bishops to disclose the names of 2,800 predator priests.

“Today, 30 dioceses in the U.S. have listed those priests in their dioceses that have been credibly accused or convicted or admitted guilt,” said Tim Lennon, 68, who said he was molested at age 12 by a Catholic priest in Iowa, then often driven by that priest to another parish to say confession.

“What we are saying is that the 165 other dioceses in the U.S. should make public their internal lists and open the books — and that includes San Jose,” said the San Francisco resident.

The demonstrations in 10 U.S. cities — including one at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Oakland Cathedral — are taking place on the same weekend as Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, which will feature best picture nominee “Spotlight.”

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ROM
Radio Vatikan

Von Sonntagabend an wird der australische Kurienkardinal George Pell in Rom per Videoschaltung vor der australischen Missbrauchskommission aussagen. Zehn Missbrauchsopfer flogen dafür nach Italien ein. In Australien wurde die Aussage mit Spannung erwartet.

Im Mittelpunkt der mehrtägigen Befragung stehen Missbrauchsfälle im australischen Bistum Ballarat aus den 1970er Jahren. Damals war Pell dort als Priester tätig und stand in freundschaftlichem Kontakt zu einem Priester, der inzwischen wegen Missbrauchs verurteilt wurde. Pell gehörte zum Beratergremium des Bischofs, bevor er selbst erst Weihbischof und später Erzbischof von Melbourne wurde.

Grund für die Aussage per Videoschaltung ist der Gesundheitszustand Pells, der deshalb nicht zur Aussage nach Australien reisen wollte. Die Kommission stimmte Anfang Februar einem entsprechenden Antrag des Kardinals zu, der seit Februar Leiter der zentralen Finanz- und Wirtschaftsbehörde im Vatikan und einer der einflussreichsten Mitarbeiter des Papstes ist.

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ROME
Cowra Guardian

ON the eve of his much anticipated evidence to the Royal Commission, Cardinal George Pell has made a gesture of support for victims by taking the Loud Fence movement into the heart of Vatican

The Ballarat generated movement that expresses support for victims of sexual abuse by tying colourful ribbons to fences has spread to cities across the world but this is its first step into the Catholic Church’s Rome headquarters.

While schools and clergy across the Ballarat Diocese including Bishop Paul Bird have joined the movement, Ballart born Cardinal George Pell is the highest ranked clergyman to make the gesture so far.

In a quiet area of the Vatican Gardens at the Lourdes Grotto, Cardinal Pell tied a yellow ribbon supporting the Loud Fence campaign in support of victims of sexual abuse.

In a statement from his office it said Cardinal Pell went to the grotto with the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes the day before the hearing began to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA/ROME
Australian Network News

Australian Cardinal George Pell will go through international media scrutiny when he sits for the Royal Commission hearing. The hearing will be conducted to receive institutional responses into child sex abuse.

In Sydney, the public hearing will be held at the Royal Commission’s hearing room. Cardinal Pell would lay down the evidence from Hotel Quirinale via videolink.

The Cardinal will be appearing before the Commission for the third time.

The Commission is meant to investigate what knowledge Cardinal Pell had about the activities of paedophile priests, belonging to the Catholic Church in Melbourne.

According to Ballart Deputy Mayor Belinda Coates, Cardinal Pell’s testimony before the Royal Commission could act as a “catalyst” for more victims of paedophile priests to approach.

“There are so many survivors that we have who have been affected by clergy abuse within Ballart,” she said. “We know that with a crime like child abuse the majority of people don’t come forward and haven’t told anyone.”

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AUSTRALIA
Boston Globe

By John L. Allen Jr. GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 27, 2016

MELBOURNE, Australia — A human rights lawyer and anti-death penalty activist named Julian McMahon, who was recently proclaimed “Australian of the Year” in his home state of Victoria, is every bit as much a part of the Catholic story in Australia today as the embattled Cardinal George Pell.

You really wouldn’t know that, however, from coverage of the church in this country’s media.

Pell, 74, is at the center of a national storm related to his record on handling child sexual abuse cases, both as a priest in the city of Ballart and later as archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney. He’s scheduled to begin testifying, for the third time, before a royal commission investigating institutional responses to the abuse scandals on Monday via video link from Rome, and talk about Pell is pervasive in the national press.

I spent 72 hours in the country last week, and spoke to scores of national and local news outlets on the Pell story. What I picked up is that many Australians believe Pell is getting a long-overdue comeuppance, while others think he’s being railroaded.

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ROME
9 News

AAP

Clergy abuse victims have a message for Cardinal George Pell: no more trucking analogies.

Cardinal Pell has said the Catholic Church is no more legally responsible for priests who abuse children than a trucking company which employs a driver who molests women.

That 2014 comment to the child abuse royal commission attracted outrage, and abuse survivors say they do not want a repeat in Cardinal Pell’s evidence this week.

Ballarat victim Peter Blenkiron said he ground his teeth so hard the night after Cardinal Pell’s trucking analogy that he cracked a tooth, which had to be removed.

“It’s time for no more of that,” said Mr Blenkiron, who will be in the Rome hotel conference room for Cardinal Pell’s testimony.

“We’re hoping for the best but preparing for the worst – hoping that George will get up and say ‘yes we got this wrong, this is what we need to do’, and no more spin doctoring and trucking analogies.

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ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

February 28, 2016

Melissa Cunningham, Rome

The 14 sex abuse survivors who have travelled to Rome to face Cardinal George Pell as he gives evidence to the royal commission have described their visit as like being dragged into “the belly of the beast”.

Survivor Andrew Collins, who was sexually abused by numerous priests as a boy, said the group was made up of broken men, but together they were a formidable force. More will join them at the hearing.

“You put a group of broken men together and if one falls down, they pick the other one up,” Mr Collins said.

“Together we have strength. We could never have come here and done this alone. It’s not the abuses of our past that unite us, it’s our quest for justice which has brought us all to this place.

“This is the most Catholic city in the world, in every sense. It is enemy territory and we are being dragged into the belly of the beast. But we’re not here for a bloody battle. We’re here for the truth.”

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

The hype surrounding Cardinal George Pell may be allowing others in the Catholic Church to fly under the radar over the handling of child sex abuse, observers say.

Australia’s most senior Catholic, described as a “lightning rod” for anger at the church, will this week be questioned about pedophile clergy in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese and the Melbourne archdiocese.

Lawyer Dr Judy Courtin said Cardinal Pell’s appearance at the child sex abuse royal commission was significant given his seniority but others must also be held accountable.

“They don’t want to get lost under the radar,” said Dr Courtin, who specialises in institutional sexual abuse.

“Although Pell has to be accountable so do all the others.”

Dr Wayne Chamley of clergy victims’ advocacy group Broken Rites also believes others in the Catholic Church hierarchy are hiding behind all the attention on the third most powerful person in the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Saturday 27 February 2016

It was not easy for Paul Levey to make it to Rome today to watch one of the most senior officials in the Catholic church, Cardinal George Pell, face questions about what he knew about rampant

The 47-year-old, who was sexually abused more than three decades ago by one of the most notorious pedophile priests in the church’s recorded history, needed doctors’ notes, an ultrasound for his leg, and even began taking blood thinners to prepare himself for the nearly 16,000km (10,000-mile) journey from Melbourne to Italy, with a 48-hour stopover in Abu Dhabi that was required on doctors orders because of a severe leg injury that requires him to walk with a cane. But he did it.

“It is important for us to sit in a room and see him testify. We all testified in a public arena and we didn’t think it was fair that he would be sitting in the Vatican and testify by video link, practically in his lounge room,” Levey said.

“We spoke in front of the world [when we testified], really, so we believe he should feel a little bit of that pressure,” he said.

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LOUISIANA
Democrat-Gazette

By The Associated Press
Posted: February 28, 2016

BATON ROUGE — A Louisiana judge struck down a state requirement that clergy members report suspected child abuse even if they learn about it during a private confessional.

State District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled Friday that the requirement — a Louisiana Children’s Code provision — violates the constitutionally protected religious freedom rights of a Roman Catholic priest accused of neglecting his duty to report a teenager’s abuse allegations to authorities.

The Advocate reports that Caldwell ruled in favor of the Rev. Jeff Bayhi in a lawsuit that Rebecca Mayeaux, 22, filed against the priest and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge in 2009.

Mayeaux says she was 14 in 2008 when she told Bayhi during confession that a 64-year-old parishioner was sexually abusing her. Mayeaux claims Bayhi, pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption church in Clinton, told her to “sweep it under the floor and get rid of it.”

The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual abuse, but Mayeaux went public with her case in a 2014 interview with WBRZ-TV.

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AUSTRALIA/ROME
SBS

AAP

Australian Cardinal George Pell will come under international scrutiny when he testifies, from Rome, before the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Catholic sex abuse victims and their supporters are now also in Rome for his appearance.

Victims remember Pell’s trucking analogy

Clergy abuse victims have not forgotten that Cardinal George Pell compared the Catholic Church to a trucking company in terms of legal responsibility.

This is Cardinal Pell’s third time at the child abuse royal commission.

The focus this time is on the Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse allegations in Victoria’s Diocese of Ballarat and the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell was a Ballarat priest (1973-1984) and as the diocese’s episcopal vicar for education oversaw schools including St Alipius where four Christian Brothers were pedophiles.

He was one of Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns’ advisers, at a time when there were pedophile priests in the diocese and was at meetings where the appointment of priests was discussed.

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AUSTRALIA/ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

Cardinal George Pell is likely to be grilled on when he first learned of child sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy when he fronts the sex abuse royal commission this week.

Cardinal Pell, one of the church’s strongest defenders against public criticism over its handling of the abuse scandal, will be cross-examined by commissioners for the first time on Monday about his early career as a priest in Ballarat and later as auxiliary bishop in Melbourne.

He has previously been questioned on this period by MPs at a Victorian parliamentary inquiry. Cardinal Pell has always denied having known children were abused in Ballarat when he was there.

Yet since he last testified to the royal commission in 2014 about establishing the church’s internal compensation scheme, the Melbourne Response, it has uncovered mounting evidence the opposite was true.

This will be the first time the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has questioned Cardinal Pell on evidence from survivors and the Ballarat diocese that he may have been aware of abuse and its cover-up at a number of Ballarat schools in the 1970s.

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ROME
news.com.au

CARDINAL George Pell missed delivering his usual Sunday mass at the magnificent Domus Australia in Rome, but he was very much in the thoughts of the small congregation and clearly front of mind among senior clergy of the Catholic Church.

The Very Reverend Terence Bell twice mentioned Pell by name during his delivery of Sunday mass at the Domus which is situated in the middle of Rome, the heartland of the Catholic Church. Pell often gives mass at the Domus, which is the Australian Catholic church’s presence in Rome but he missed this week in preparation for his four day appearance before the Royal Commission via video link this morning.

Reverend Bell said in his opening address that he prayed for Cardinal Pell. Then during the prayers he alluded to the battering the church has received in light of the clergy sexual abuse. He said: “we pray especially for Cardinal Pell, and in particular the future of the Church. The truth will set us free, we must look forward not back.”

But only five people were at the Domus mass to hear and give the prayers for Cardinal Pell.

Outside the church, several coloured ribbons had been tied to the window grates, but it was unknown if this was in support of Loud Fence, the support group that has encouraged ribbons on church property to acknowledge the victims of child sexual abuse.

Earlier, the Vatican appeared to want to distance itself from the Australian Royal Commission into church child abuse and Cardinal George Pell’s much anticipated appearance at its public hearings in the Italian capital.

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ROME
Herald Sun

Charles Miranda in Rome

CLERGY abuse survivor Peter Blenkiron wore a T-shirt as he arrived in Rome, emblazoned with the face of a smiling toothy 11-year-old boy full of life, dreams and promise.

“That was me as a child, when he got me, I looked like that,” the now 53-year-old said haltingly as if still sensing a monster lurking close.

He was abused at St Patrick’s Secondary School in Ballarat each time he could not finish homework and was made to complete it in the room of Christian Brother and now convicted paedophile Edward Dowlan.

He said he came to Rome today to bear witness and keep other children safe.

He said he now had two children of his own, aged 8 and 10, and hoped they and other children would be kept safe with changes to laws, notably within the Church.

He says he bore no malice against the church and was thankful the royal commission was seeking out the truth of those in charge.

“I was born a Catholic and I know some good Catholic people and I’m friends with good Catholic people, I just struggle with the whole institution,” he said.

“I believe there is a God by many different names and I find solace in meditation which is a form or prayer. But I’m hoping George Pell finally … says he does remember and not like all the bishops and other clergy in Australia that have said ‘I can’t recall, I can’t remember I don’t know the details’.”

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ROME
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery and Charles Miranda
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell will today come under the toughest scrutiny of his career when he is asked to explain how he ­remained unaware of the child sexual abuse crisis that plagued the Catholic Church.

But he will not be quizzed over a present Victoria Police investigation into allegations he abused up to 10 boys — ­allegations he emphatically denies.

Cardinal Pell, the Vatican’s third most powerful figure, has long maintained he knew nothing of the crimes being committed by his fellow clergy on hundreds of innocent children across Victoria.

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ROME
news.com.au

[Note: The hearing can be seen in the United States at 4 p.m. EST today (Sunday, Feb. 28) on the Royal Commission site.]

THE connections have been tested and the flights are behind them. On Sunday evening, in an opulent hotel near the heart of the Catholic Church, an extraordinary event will take place.

At 10pm, Australian cardinal George Pell will testify from Rome in a live stream beamed to the Victorian town of Ballarat and Sydney headquarters of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sex Abuse.

It’s the third time the Vatican’s finance boss, who ranks number three to beloved Pope Francis, will face the public hearings into what went on in the Catholic Church in Victoria.

This time, Pell will have an audience of 15 survivors and supporters who have travelled from Australia to look him in the eyes, after a popular crowd-funding campaign raised more than $200,000 for their journey.

Here’s everything you need to know about the unprecedented events at Hotel Quirinale.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

Cardinal Pell is being called on to give evidence about his time in the Ballarat and Melbourne diocese where he served as a priest before becoming archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne and eventually moving to the Vatican.

During his time there, several paedophile priests were operating, including at St Alipius school in Ballarat where children were subject to abuse from Gerald Ridsdale, Australia’s most prolific paedophile who described himself as “out of control” at a hearing last year.

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ROME
news.com.au

STANDING outside the Vatican as storms clouds overhead were moments from erupting, Chrissie Foster has just six words for Cardinal George Pell as he today faces his accusers — “be a man, tell the truth”.

After a year of debate, weeks of planning and a lifetime of heartache for some, Cardinal Pell will take the stand at the royal commission into institutionalised sexual child abuse in a specially convened sitting in a hotel room in Rome.

Here he will be grilled, at the ungodly hours set at his request of 10pm to 2am local time, each night for an expected four nights on what he knew of the abuse by several priests under his watch as head of the church firstly in Melbourne then Australia.

His much-anticipated appearance before the commission today has become an international sensation with more than 60 media from across the globe registering to attend, notably from media outlets that have exposed their own sordid abuse scandals in their Catholic churches notably in Boston, Dublin, London and New York.

It could have been a nonplussed affair held in Ballarat but instead the cardinal’s inability to travel abroad due to poor health forced today’s inquiry to the Italian capital and a scene tantamount to a Roman Circus with police deployed to throw the venue into lockdown and protect attending senior church figures, security guards tasked with body and bag searches and room sweeps, and doors sealed.

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ROME
news.com.au

Victoria Craw
news.com.au

AUSTRALIAN Cardinal George Pell will come under international scrutiny when he faces the Royal Commission into institutional responses into child sex abuse, which will be covered by a range of European and North American media.

The Boston Globe, New York Times, BBC as well as European and Australian outlets are expected to show at Rome’s opulent Hotel Quirinale for the Cardinal’s third appearance at the Commission to investigate exactly what he knew about the actions of paedophile priests operating within the Catholic Church in Melbourne.

It comes as US film Spotlight, covering a group of reporters who exposed abuses in the church, vies for up to six Oscars on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

But despite Pell’s long-awaited testimony, many locals in the Italian capital remain oblivious to the emotionally charged events. On Saturday the hotel was full of Scottish rugby fans in town for the six-nations game with many unaware of what was happening or who Cardinal Pell was.

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ROME
Cairns Post

Charles Miranda, European Correspondent, in Rome

THE Vatican appears to want to distance itself from the Australian Royal Commission into church child abuse and Cardinal George Pell’s much anticipated appearance at its public hearings starting tomorrow in the Italian capital.

At the time of publication, the Vatican had not decided who or indeed if they would send anyone officially to support Cardinal Pell as he fronts the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, despite the fact he is the Roman Curia’s chief of the secretariat of the economy and effectively the pope’s number 3.

The Vatican’s official mouthpiece and head of the Holy See press office Father Federico Lombardi, who is fluent in multiple languages notably English, would not comment Saturday about Cardinal Pell’s appearance to give evidence nor whether he still enjoyed the support of the Vatican.

Then speaking in Italian he described the questions as “rompipalle”, derogatory slang literally meaning “ball breaker” and said he did not understand what was happening tomorrow before the telephone call was abruptly discontinued.

A Vatican press office colleague of his later suggested there may have been an issue with Fr Lombardi’s mobile telephone and hearing of the questions but she also declined to discuss Cardinal Pell and the royal commission.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, February 27, 2016

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

The leaders and members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) are grateful to and empowered by our fellow Australian survivors now in Rome for the testimony of ex-Melbourne Archbishop George Pell. We admire them for their courage and resourcefulness and hope their trip brings them healing and inspires hope and bravery in other survivors across the globe.

The importance of the presence of this group of survivors at the Vatican’s door-step cannot be over-stated. Pell, the Pope, and all within the Vatican have a responsibility to their followers and the world to show – by actions, not words – that they are in support of victims and survivors. To do this, they must expose and punish ALL those within their institution who have or are committing or concealing sexual violence. And that will only happen when victims, witnesses, whistleblowers, police, prosecutors, parishioners and secular authorities follow the lead of these brave Australian survivors and publicly pressure the church hierarchy to reform.

Soon Pell will answer questions via video link to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. We hope he’ll be honest but suspect he won’t be. But no matter what Pell does or doesn’t do, these brave Ballarat victims have already won, by making this trip, regaining their power, and showing the world what a fraud the third highest ranking Catholic official on earth is.

As the oldest and largest organization of clergy abuse survivors, we in SNAP have promoted healing and justice for survivors world-wide and protection of children and vulnerable adults from future clerical abuses. When we get discouraged, we are buoyed by the strength, courage and persistence shown by these dedicated Ballarat survivors.

We thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

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UNITED STATES
CNNMoney

by Molly Shiels @CNNMoney

CNNMoney’s Brian Stelter talks to “Spotlight” director Tom McCarthy and writer Josh Singer about how the movie is influencing a profession that has seen massive cutbacks in recent years.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Steven Zeitchik

Like moms and your friend with the garage band, there’s no surer way to speak to the souls of journalists than to tell them no one appreciates them the way you do. Who doesn’t want to be told they’re better than people give them credit for?

Such was the strategy this season in the race for Oscar best picture, of all places, where “Spotlight” has made a strong case ahead of Sunday’s show.

Tom McCarthy’s deftly executed film — a story about reporters — used reporters to tell its story to reporters. The message they delivered was simple: Journalism has become an undervalued profession, and this movie was here to correct that.

Since it rolled out nearly six months ago, the campaign for the Open Road release has needed to follow a unique path. The low-key procedural abut how Boston Globe reporters slowly unearthed the story of Catholic Church sex abuse and the conspiracy to cover it up was initially in a tough spot. The film was about a subject uncomfortable at worst and process-based at best, and about a profession that can be, well, let’s just say not super-cinematic to watch on the big screen.

So the campaign made the groundbreaking journalism the thing. Any fact-based movie is keen to trot out the real-life personalities, especially if they’re heroic. But “Spotlight” — one of three front-runners to win best picture prize on Sunday, along with “The Revenant” and “The Big Short” — had the added benefit of having many of its personalities available and appealing. (It also made the heroic survivors of the sex abuse a focal point of coverage.)

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MASSACHUSETTS
Curbed

BY TOM ACITELLI @TOMACITELLI FEB 27, 2016

Spotlight is poised to collect several Academy Awards on Sunday night. The movie depicts the Boston Globe’s 2001-2002 investigation into the Catholic child-abuse scandal in an admirably forthright and unsentimental way (we think). Most of the movie was shot in Toronto, with only about four days of filming in Boston. Therefore, the local flavor in the movie is of the exterior kind: outsides of buildings, skyline panoramas, street sweeps of the South End and Charlestown, one character waiting for the Red Line. Still, such shots layer the movie with an authenticity that makes it that much more engrossing. Here are 10 Boston sites that made the cut.

1 Fenway Park
The ballpark provided the backdrop for an early scene wherein Globe editors and reporters realize the possible extent of what they’re about to uncover. Real-life Spotlight reporter Mike Renzendes can be seen a few rows behind the actors, including Mark Ruffalo, who plays Rezendes.

2 South End Buttery
The cafe is used as a backdrop for a scene of a meeting between Rachel McAdams, who plays reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, and a victim-survivor. The actual South End Buttery did not open until 2005, while the depicted meeting took place in 2001.

3 Union Park
The South End park served as a backdrop for another scene between Pfeiffer/McAdams and the victim-survivor.

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ROME
ABC News

By London bureau chief Lisa Millar

The royal commission has received evidence by video link before but it is normally from the controlled environment of a court room.

Because of the speed with which this session has been organised, the four-star Hotel Quirinale was chosen.

It had a room large enough to fit the expected number of media and supporters and the facilities to assist with this logistically complicated exercise.

Seats for 168 people have been provided in the Verdi Room. There are strict rules regarding media coverage.

No photography, filming or photography is allowed of the room or those in it.

Cardinal Pell will sit at a table by himself at the front and his evidence will be streamed live back to the royal commission in Sydney.

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ROME
9 News

Cardinal George Pell’s royal commission testimony in Rome could prompt more victims of pedophile priests to come forward, says Ballarat Deputy Mayor Belinda Coates.

She’s in Rome to support 15 victims who have flown there to hear Cardinal Pell’s response to questioning over what he knew of sex abuse by clergy when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

The Ballarat-born cleric, who is now in charge of the Vatican’s finances, has asked to give evidence by video link because of a heart condition he says prevents him from travelling to Australia.

His testimony to the child sex abuse royal commission will be given from a conference room in the elegant Hotel Quirinale over three to four days from Monday (Australia time).

Ms Coates told AAP in Rome on Saturday night it was important the city and people of Ballarat showed they supported sex abuse survivors.

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UNITED KINGDOM
West Briton

THE Bishop of Truro has apologised to a survivor of abuse by clergy who claimed he failed to act after he revealed his suffering to him more than a decade ago.

The victim of the abuse, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he named Garth Moore as his abuser to the Right Reverend Tim Thornton in 2003 when he was Bishop of Sherborne in Dorset.

Moore, who was an authority on ecclesiastical law and chancellor of the dioceses of Southwark, Gloucester and Durham, died in 1990.

The alleged victim said the abuse by Mr Moore took place when he was a teenager.

But after he made the disclosure to The Bishop no record was made and nothing happened, he said, adding that The Bishop suggested he could come in and inform the diocese but there was no further help offered.

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ROME
Sky News

[with video]

The stage is set in Rome for George Pell’s appearance before the Royal Commission, with survivors of sexual abuse arriving in the Italian capital to hear Pell give evidence tomorrow.

More than $200,000 in crowd funding donations has helped the victims, family members and advocates make it to Rome for the Commission focusing on the abuse of vulnerable children in the town of Ballarat during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Pell had earlier argued he was too unwell to return home to Australia to give evidence and will instead appear via a video link from Rome, with the travelling survivors in the same room.

The Cardinal has been keeping a low profile ahead his appearance, but was spotted emerging from his home near the Vatican.

He confirmed he’s planning on meeting the victims that have travelled to be at his appearance in person.

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ROME
ABC News (US)

By NICOLE WINFIELD, ASSOCIATED PRESS VATICAN CITY — Feb 27, 2016

One of the highest-ranking Vatican officials is being compelled to testify in public starting Sunday about clerical sex abuse, an unusual demonstration of holding even the most senior Catholic bishops accountable.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser, will testify in a Rome hotel conference room for three nights running, answering questions via video link from Australia’s Royal Commission with his accusers on hand to confront him.

The arrangements, including the 10 p.m.-2 a.m. testimony window to suit Australian time zones, were made after the 74-year-old Pell asked to be excused from traveling home to testify because of previously undisclosed heart conditions that made flying too risky.

The arrangement has had the unintended consequence of magnifying the event, which might otherwise have remained confined to a few news cycles in Australia. Now European and American media will be covering a story about pedophile priests, the rape of children and the church’s botched cover-up — a story the Vatican wants absolutely nothing to do with.

Pell’s testimony will begin just hours before “Spotlight,” the drama of the Boston Globe’s investigation into how the church systematically shielded pedophiles for years, vies for as many as six Academy Awards.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

Fr. Richard Powers, deceased Pastor of St. Luke’s Parish in Belmont, MA, who has never been publicly named, has been accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a minor child

Fr. Richard Powers, who died in 2007, has been accused of repeatedly sexually abusing “John Doe” from approximately 1974-1975 when Fr. Powers was assigned as Pastor of St. Luke’ Parish, Belmont, MA. Fr. Powers was the Pastor of St. Luke’s Parish, Belmont, MA, from approximately 1974-1996

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners, and the general public that Fr. Richard Powers will be named publicly for the first time as a repeat sexual abuser of a minor child from approximately 1974-1975 when Fr. Powers was assigned as Pastor of St. Luke’s Parish, Belmont, MA

When
Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 3:15 pm until 5:30 pm (before and after the 4:00 pm Mass)
Sunday, February 28, 2016 from 9:00 am until 12:30 pm (before or after parish Masses)

PRESS CONFERENCE AT 12:30 PM

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church, 132 Lexington Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478 – 617-484-1996. St. Luke’s Parish is now part of a combined parish (with St. Joseph’s Parish, Belmont, MA) known as New Roads Catholic Community

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, Dr. Robert M. Hoatson

Why
The clergy sexual abuse scandal is far from over, particularly in the Archdiocese of Boston, where cases of clergy sexual abuse continue to emerge. A deceased priest, who is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a minor child but has never been publicly named before, Fr. Richard Powers, will be named publicly for the first time. Fr. Richard Powers is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing “John Doe” from approximately 1974-1975 when “John Doe” was a minor child. “John Doe” has suffered terribly since he was repeatedly sexually abused when he and his family were parishioners of St. Luke’s Parish in Belmont, MA. Fr. Richard Powers served as Pastor of St. Luke’s Parish in Belmont, MA from approximately 1974-1996, and demonstrators will alert parishioners to the repeated sexual abuse that allegedly occurred in their parish and ask them to support the victim/survivor who has come forward.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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CALIFORNIA
San Diego Union-Tribune

By Gary Warth Feb. 23, 2016

SAN DIEGO — When a Harvard graduate recently decided to sue the prestigious school for not taking her claims of sexual assault seriously, she turned to a law firm about 3,000 miles away to file a suit with two North County attorneys.

“We’ve gotten out there,” said Irwin Zalkin about the growing reputation of the Zalkin Law Firm in Carmel Valley. “We’ve gotten to be known.”

After becoming known for taking on the San Diego Catholic Diocese and representing victims of clergy abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses across the nation, the firm is earning a new reputation for representing college students who have sued their schools for mishandling their reports of sexual assault or harassment.

While Zalkin has represented victims of clergy abuse for more than a decade, Alex Zalkin, his 31-year-old son who joined the firm about five years ago, has focused on university cases.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Despite his small body, Francesco Zanardi is a very stubborn man and an inexhaustible source of strength and courage. Of his personal drama he has managed to make a close battle against the widespread phenomenon of clerical pedophilia becoming, in fact, the worst nightmare of bishops and cardinals who still are scrambling to cover the misdeeds of the abusers in clerical garb.]

di Francesca Lagatta

A dispetto del corpo minuto, Francesco Zanardi è un uomo estremamente testardo e caparbio, una fonte inesauribile di forza e coraggio. Del suo dramma personale è riuscito a fare una serrata battaglia contro il diffuso fenomeno della pedofilia clericale, diventando, di fatto, l’incubo peggiore di Vescovi e Cardinali che ancora si affannano a coprire le malefatte degli orchi in abito talare.

Da vittima di abusi sessuali, diventa, con le sue sole forze, il Presidente di una colossale organizzazione no profit che ad oggi è il più grande osservatorio permanente sui crimini sessuali commessi in Italia dalle confessioni religiose. Rete l’Abuso onlus (visita il sito) attualmente segue i casi di quasi 500 vittime di preti pedofili, tutte legalmente e psicologicamente supportate da un piccolo esercito di volontari.

Per non subire influenze o pressioni di alcun tipo, infatti, l’impavido savonese ha rifiutato qualsiasi contributo pubblico e le tante “caritatevoli” offerte giunte negli anni al suo indirizzo. Con cui forse qualcuno avrebbe voluto comprargli anima e silenzio. Ottenendo l’esatto contrario.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Robert McCoppin
Chicago Tribune

Greek Orthodox church leaders from Chicago to Istanbul have remained publicly silent about the fate of a priest who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 from his former parish, while some church members continue to push for action against not just him but also his superiors in Chicago.

Some critics have called for the Rev. James Dokos to be removed from the priesthood following his plea Monday in Milwaukee to a felony theft charge. Others say the larger scandal is how leaders in the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago have dealt with the controversy, and they want to see changes among its top spiritual leaders.

Leaders in the Metropolis, which oversees dozens of churches throughout the Midwest, initially determined that Dokos did nothing wrong and declined to put him on leave from Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Glenview after a criminal investigation commenced over how he spent money from a trust fund for his previous church, Annunciation, in Milwaukee. Dokos was placed on leave after he was charged, but the resolution of the case has brought no clarity on whether the priest will return to his spiritual duties.

Church officials in Chicago and in the office of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodox Christianity’s spiritual leader in Turkey, have not responded to requests for comment. Just this month, the Metropolis of Chicago announced the formation of a new office of media relations, but no one from that office has offered any comment or returned phone calls or emails since Dokos’ plea deal was completed. A spokesman for the archdiocese of America in New York, which claims 1.5 million members nationwide, said it was too early to say whether there would be disciplinary action in the case.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

John Ferguson
Victorian Political Editor
Melbourne

It was approaching first light in Rome on February 19 when Cardinal George Pell was informed a Victoria Police investigation into sexual abuse allegations against him was about to be made public.

As his team carefully considered the predicament, crowds were starting to gather in the 5C cold for their Vatican pilgrimage. Back in Australia, the attention was turning to the weekend.

For Pell and his closest minders — religious and legal — the response to the claims that he had abused between five and 10 boys was as sharp as an Italian suit.

“The allegations are without foundation and are utterly false,” read the statement published by The Australian that night. “The timing of these leaks is clearly designed to do maximum damage to the cardinal and the Catholic Church and undermines the work of the royal commission.”

The statement was a pre-emptive strike to position Pell ahead of an inevitable media fracas, with the church savaging police for (allegedly) leaking the information.

During that weekend, several of Australia’s most senior Catholics united in support of the Vatican’s Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, the world’s third most powerful leader of the faith.

While being extensive and targeted, the Pell statement told only part of the story.

For many weeks the church had been aware that the police’s Sano Taskforce was circling Pell, executing warrants to search records and locations connected to his past.

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ROME
Huffington Post

Australian clerical abuse victims have arrived in Rome as Cardinal George Pell gets set to take the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Ballarat clerical abuse victims have made the 16,000 kilometre trip to the Italian capital as Pell readies to front the commission on Monday, Australian time, to give evidence about his time as an adviser to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns.

Some of the survivors are said to have touched down in Rome on Saturday morning.

The commission usually hears evidence in Australia, but Pell has been excused from fronting it in person for medical reasons.

Abuse survivor David Ridsdale said the group didn’t know what to expect.

“What I do know is that everything we’ve achieved is because of the group of survivors who have come forward and stuck together,” he told Macquarie Radio Network.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

AAP

FEBRUARY 27, 20167

CARDINAL GEORGE PELL’S CAREER IN THE CHURCH

June 8, 1941 – Born in Ballarat, Victoria
December 16, 1966 – Ordained
1971-1972 – Assistant priest Swan Hill parish
1973-1983 – Assistant priest Ballarat East parish
1973 – Shared St Alipius presbytery with Gerald Ridsdale and Monsignor William McMahon
1973-1984 – Episcopal Vicar for Education in Diocese of Ballarat
1981-1984 – Principal of Institute of Catholic Education (now merged with Australian Catholic University)
1984 – Administrator of Bungaree parish
July 16, 1987 – Ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Melbourne
1987-1996 – Parish priest Mentone, Bishop for the southern region of Melbourne
1988-1997 – Chair of Caritas Australia
May 27, 1993 – Accompanies Ridsdale to his first court appearance; later says it was a mistake to show priestly solidarity and he did not know full extent of Ridsdale’s crimes
June 16, 1996 – Appointed Archbishop of Melbourne by Pope John Paul II

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Bulletin

By Beatriz Valenzuela, San Bernardino Sun
POSTED: 02/26/16

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> A Pomona church youth pastor arrested last month for allegedly sexually abusing at least one boy pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and will be sentenced Monday, court records show.

Marquis Kidd, 32, had originally pleaded not guilty to all charges Jan. 20, according to court documents. But only a few days later, he pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18.

Kidd, an elder and youth minister at the Mt. Sinai Church of God at 936 West Ninth St. in Pomona, was arrested Jan. 14 at the Upland Police Station following an investigation into allegations that Kidd had been having inappropriate relations with at least one underage boy, officials said.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Sam Griffin
February 27 2016

Concerns have been raised that visiting priests from overseas are being granted access to children without providing the proper documentation to prove they are of good standing.

It is understood the issue was raised by the Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at a recent meeting of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland which advises and monitors best practice in relation to keeping children safe.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

By Ramona Marozas

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — The St. Louis County court cases against the Diocese of Duluth are being put on hold while the Diocese goes through the bankruptcy process in Minneapolis federal court.

As the bankruptcy trial is underway, nothing can happen in the case of Doe Five versus the Diocese of Duluth.

Under Minnesota state law, people still have until May 25 to bring a lawsuit against the Diocese.

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UNITED STATES
Rhode Island Public Radio

Transcript

DAVE DAVIES, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Dave Davies sitting in this week for Terry Gross. In the Neil Simon film “California Suite,” Maggie Smith plays a film star up for an Academy Award. But when she doesn’t win, she doesn’t take it well and leaves before the evening’s over. So later that night…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “CALIFORNIA SUITE”)

MAGGIE SMITH: (As Diana Barrie) What was the best picture?

MICHAEL CAINE: (As Sidney Cochran) The best picture? You were there when they announced it. It came after the best actress.

SMITH: (As Diana Barrie) I was in a deep depression at the time. What was the best bloody picture?

CAINE: (As Sidney Cochran) You mean what was the best picture of the year or what did those idiots pick as the best picture of the year?

SMITH: (As Diana Barrie) What won the award you [expletive]?

CAINE: (As Sidney Cochran) I am not an [expletive]. Don’t you call me that.

SMITH: (As Diana Barrie) Sidney, I have just thrown up on some of the best people in Hollywood. Now is no time to be sensitive. What was the best picture?

DAVIES: What was the best picture from the past year is a question we’ll have the answer to late Sunday night at the conclusion of this year’s Academy Awards. We’ll be talking about two contenders on today’s FRESH AIR. In the second half of the show, we’ll hear an interview with the director of “The Big Short” about the global economic crisis of 2008. We’ll start with “Spotlight,” the story of a group of journalists at The Boston Globe who in 2002, published a groundbreaking investigation of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The film has earned six Oscar nominations. Our guest, Tom McCarthy, is nominated for best director and for best original screenplay, which he co-wrote with John Singer. Joining us in this interview is Walter Robinson, a veteran reporter and editor who headed the investigative unit at The Globe known as the Spotlight Team. The Globe’s work on the clergy sex abuse scandal won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. I spoke to Tom McCarthy and Walter Robinson last fall. We began with a scene from “Spotlight.” The Globe’s new editor, Marty Baron, played with Liev Schreiber, is having a strategy meeting with the investigative team. The clip starts with Walter Robby Robinson, played by Michael Keaton, talking about how Boston’s cardinal, Bernard Law, must have been aware all along of the church scandal they’re uncovering. The other two reporters are played by Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil
February 26, 2016

Cardinal George Pell needs to acknowledge the Catholic Church got it wrong in handling child sex abuse by clergy, survivors say.

Ballarat-born Cardinal Pell should be leading church efforts to help victims, particularly in the Victorian regional city, Ballarat clergy abuse survivor Philip Nagle said.

“George is the one that should be standing up and saying ‘hey we got this wrong and this is what we’re going to do to fix it’,” Mr Nagle told AAP.

“Being the third most powerful person in the church, he has the power to do that.”

Mr Nagle is among a group of 15 survivors headed to Rome to be there when Cardinal Pell gives evidence about widespread abuse by clergy in the Diocese of Ballarat and the Melbourne archdiocese.

They will be in the Rome hotel conference room as Cardinal Pell testifies via videolink to the child sex abuse royal commission in Sydney from Monday (Australian time).

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

February 26, 2016
AAP

WHAT CARDINAL GEORGE PELL HAS TO ANSWER BEFORE CHILD ABUSE ROYAL COMMISSION

WHY HE’S APPEARING AGAIN

Now the Vatican’s finance chief, the former Melbourne and Sydney archbishop and Ballarat priest will give evidence about abuse in the Ballarat diocese and Melbourne archdiocese.

Between 1973 and 1984 Pell was a Ballarat East priest, Episcopal Vicar for Education in the Ballarat diocese and an adviser to the Ballarat bishop.

Pell presided over St Alipius primary school where four Christian Brothers were pedophiles. He and another priest lived in a presbytery with Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in 1973.

Pell was Melbourne auxiliary bishop (1987-1996), responsible for a region including Doveton which had a succession of pedophile priests, and then Melbourne archbishop (1996-2001).

CLAIM HE ATTEMPTED TO SILENCE A VICTIM

David Ridsdale claims when he told Pell in 1993 he had been abused by his uncle Gerald Ridsdale, Pell said: “I want to know what it will take to keep you quiet.”

Pell denies the allegation.

CLAIM HE DISMISSED A VICTIM’S COMPLAINT

Timothy Green, 53, said when he was 12 or 13 he told Pell that Brother Edward Dowlan was abusing boys at Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College in 1974. “Fr Pell said `don’t be ridiculous’ and walked out.” Pell says he has no recollection of a conversation with Green and it did not happen.

CLAIM HE REMARKED RIDSDALE OFFENDING AGAIN

Former altar boy BWE said he overheard Pell tell Fr Frank Madden before a funeral in Ballarat in 1983: “Ha, ha, I think Gerry’s been rooting boys again.” Pell’s barrister Sam Duggan said the allegation was utterly false.

Madden said Pell never said that and had never used that kind of language.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MEGAN NEIL
AAP
FEBRUARY 27, 2016

Cardinal George Pell was a strong presence in Phil Nagle’s life as a Catholic schoolboy in Ballarat.

Mr Nagle grew up in a strong Catholic family and was eight when he transferred to the Christian Brothers-run St Alipius Boys’ School in Ballarat East in 1973.

But as Mr Nagle told a Victorian inquiry in 2013: “Ballarat’s St Alipius Primary School in Victoria Street was certainly not the place to be if you were a Catholic boy going to school in the 1970s.”

Its 1973 staff included three pedophile Christian Brothers, with another also teaching there in the early 1970s.

The school chaplain was pedophile Gerald Francis Ridsdale, the Ballarat East assistant priest.

Cardinal Pell was the Ballarat East priest form 1973 until 1984 and, as episcopal vicar for education, oversaw Catholic schools in the Ballarat diocese during that time.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Cardinal George Pell faces “the moment of truth” about his knowledge of paedophile priests, a victims’ advocacy group says.

If any “silver bullet” exists it will come out during cross-examination of Pell in the child abuse royal commission next week, Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley said.

Pell has already given evidence to the commission twice but Chamley noted that was largely about process – the Melbourne Response complaints handling scheme he set up as Melbourne archbishop in 1996 and the “Ellis defence” case as Sydney archbishop.

Pell’s evidence about any knowledge of paedophile priests during his time in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese and as a Melbourne bishop has a much sharper edge on it, Chamley said.

“This is the moment of truth,” he said. “It’s beyond belief that he didn’t [know]. It’s just beyond belief.”

Chamley said the hearing will be the time for any new documents involving Pell to come out.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 27, 2016

Peter FitzSimons
Columnist

Stand by, Australia.

This will be the week that Cardinal George Pell, a pillar of the Catholic Church in Australia for much of the last four decades, and now the third most powerful figure at the Vatican, faces the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse.

Sadly he will not be be giving his evidence in Australia, as – despite being capable of continuing his normal work running the Vatican finances – 24 hours in a Qantas First Class is quite beyond him.

And yes, even that light observation will no doubt get the hackles up of the Cardinal’s few remaining defenders. But I’d invite them to read my erstwhile colleague David Marr’s devastating piece in The Guardian this week.

With forensic fervour, Marr dissects Cardinal Pell’s position noting that, even though the abuse of children was happening all around him for 30 years, even though many witnesses have come forward and explicitly testified that they TOLD Pell it was going on, still the Cardinal maintains “he knew nothing – nothing while he was a priest in Ballarat about the paedophiles around him, and little about these men and their victims in his years as an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne. He was never in the loop. No one warned him. No one complained to him. He didn’t read that letter or this report. It never came up at meetings. There’s nothing in the minutes. There’s nothing in the files.”

It will, of course, be for the Royal Commission to wade through all that, and Marr makes the point that this will likely be the last chance to actually get to the bottom of it.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

ELIZABETH EISENSTADT-EVANS | COLUMNIST

A few nights ago, scrolling down my Facebook feed, I came across a chilling post shared by a friend — that of a dad putting out an all-points bulletin for his absent daughter. Although he described her in detail, down to the tattoo on her ankle, it is her face that haunts me — bright, hopeful, poised. He fears, said the father, that she’s been abducted and trafficked in another state.

It was her face that I had in mind when I called Linda Crockett, director of education and consultation for the SafeChurchSafePlaces project at Lancaster’s Samaritan Counseling Center. Crockett and I last spoke in 2012. At that time the program designed to raise awareness of child sex abuse and better protect children in congregations had been launched in nine local congregations, with the hope that the model would work in other churches across the nation.

Coming to fruition

Four years later, that hope has become a reality.

“The first few years we stayed local. Then we caught on like wildfire,” says Crockett. “I think God has kind of been nudging people (saying): ‘it’s time that those of us who are people of faith do something to stop sexual abuse of children.’ ”

In 2014, the center received funding for a pilot program that enabled them to train approximately 20 leaders in other communities around the country. The program has trained facilitators in areas as diverse as Atlanta, Sewickley (a Pittsburgh suburb) and Harlem.

The mission of the SafeChurch program, says Crockett, “is to shift the culture of congregations so that adults know how to protect children from harm in the church and the community.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
New York Times

By FRANCIS X. CLINES FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Archbishop Robert Carlson’s recent caution to his parishes in St. Louis about the “troubling pattern of behavior” of the Girl Scouts is stirring stark recollections of the prelate’s past role in managing accusations against priests for sexually abusing children. In a deposition two years ago, he insisted that he was not certain sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a criminal act in 1984, when he was auxiliary bishop for St. Paul and Minneapolis handling sex scandal cases.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Archbishop Carlson testified when asked in the deposition about the 30-year-old case. “I understand today it’s a crime.”

To the contrary, a document released by the alleged victim’s lawyers after the deposition showed the cleric’s clear concern for criminal law. He told his diocesan superiors in 1984 that the parents in another case were considering complaining to the police, noting the law’s statute of limitations was applicable for two more years.

There was little uncertainty in the archbishop’s letter this month about the threat he found presented by Girl Scouts’ affiliation with Catholic parishes. He contended the organization’s global associations were “incompatible” with church teachings on such issues as contraception and abortion. He urged pastors to search for alternatives, but Catholic parents quickly defended the wholesomeness of Girl Scouts.

After the pedophilia deposition was made public, the archdiocese released a statement that, whatever Archbishop Carlson’s earlier legal uncertainties, they were distinct from his “moral stance on the sin of pedophilia, which has been that it is a most egregious offense.” Vatican reforms in the wake of the widespread coverup of sexual abusers now order dioceses not to keep allegations under wraps, but to report them to state authorities for criminal investigation.

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LOUISIANA
KLFY

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – A judge ruled Friday afternoon that a priest does not have to disclose possible allegations of sexual abuse against a teenage girl that heard during confession.

There is a Louisiana law that says clergy, who are considered mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse, must report privileged information to the proper authorities if a child’s physical or mental well-being is in danger. District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled the law unconstitutional as it applies to a case against Father Jeff Bayhi.

Father Bayhi testified Friday during the a hearing in the case saying he would be automatically excommunicated from the church if he ever disclosed what anyone said in the confessional, according to The Advocate.

Bishop Robert Muench released the following statement Friday on district court decision:

“As Bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge I extend my compassion and offer prayer not only for the plaintiff who may have been harmed by the actions of a man who was not an employee of the church, but also for all who have been abused by anyone.

The court’s decision to uphold the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion is essential and we appreciate the ruling.

The Diocese of Baton Rouge will continue to do all that is legal and possible to prevent and stop the abuse of children and young people by faithfully following the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Angela Mollard

I was 16 when I watched The Thorn Birds. Riveted hardly describes it. Rachel Ward’s softly beckoning breasts, Richard Chamberlain’s torturous conundrum between God and girl. To my teenage hormones, the romance was captivating and the sexual tension thrilling.

But after four episodes and a speed read through Colleen McCulloch’s 692 breathless pages, I came to a single blinding conclusion: How dumb is it that priests can’t have sex?

I raised it with my maths teacher. How can you concentrate on trigonometry when there’s a nonsensical rule called celibacy preventing the lovely Rachel from getting it on with gorgeous Richard? (Somewhat concerning was the priest being called Ralph, but I digress).

Mr Thomas, as well as teaching Grade 11 maths, also headed up the school’s Christian Fellowship club. Poor man. Imagine having your benign little lesson in tangents hijacked by 20 teens pouring scorn on a central tenet of your faith. From memory, Mr T had a crack at convincing us of the merit of abstention but, as I say, we were 16 and throbbing to the beat of Culture Club. Not having sex for your whole life seemed utterly illogical.

What a validation it is to fledgling adolescent instinct to therefore learn that the Pope at the time was enjoying, if not a sexual relationship, then certainly an intimate one.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

MIRANDA DEVINEThe Sunday Telegraph

TOMORROW at 8am our time, Cardinal George Pell will give evidence via videolink from the Hotel Quirinale in Rome to the child sexual abuse royal commission.

It will be the third time he has testified to the commission. He has hardly been hiding. And yet the point of much of the unrestrained vitriol spewed at him is that he is a coward who has refused to “come home” to testify.

But Pell, 74, has a heart complaint and has been told by doctors not to fly, a fact accepted by royal commissioner Peter McClellan after some delay, which served to add to pressure on the star witness of the $500 million exercise.

Watching Pell tomorrow will be a self-invited group of about 120, including 50 journalists and assorted victims, supporters and Pell-haters who have travelled to Rome, on the proceeds of an abusive ditty by anti-Catholic crooner Tim Minchin, calling Pell “scum” and “coward”.

The royal commission has sent “support staff” and media people, at unknown cost, to assist this unofficial lynch mob.

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UNITED STATES
National Review

by KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ

A movie that should be a catalyst for prayer, healing, and forgiveness Thank God for the Boston Globe.

Thank God for Spotlight. I watched Spotlight, the movie about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting that uncovered a clerical-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan one Sunday morning after Mass this fall. I went right after a morning Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

I cried watching that movie. I looked around and saw sorrow. I couldn’t help wondering if someone around me had been hurt by someone who professed to be a man of God. As a member of the body of Christ, which is what the Church is, I wanted to embrace her or him, a son of God, a daughter of God, a brother or sister in Christ. I wanted everyone there to hear the words of Pope Francis during a Mass with people who had been abused by priests in Ireland, Britain, and Germany: “Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you.

And I humbly ask forgiveness.” It’s been more than a decade since the Boston Globe shined light in the darkest of places. The Church is a different place now. As my friend Ed Mechmann, who runs the Safe Environment program in the Archdiocese of New York, put it in the New York Times, “The Catholic Church in America has done something no other organization in the world has done — we’ve made a huge, across-the-board change in our corporate culture so that now every leader and every worker has child protection as a high item on his agenda. And we’ve been a great success.”

The story Spotlight doesn’t tell is the one that comes after — “a story about learning from tragic mistakes and then committing to a course of transformation,” in Mechmann’s words.

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ROMA
Rete L’Abuso

“Dall’Australia arriverò a Roma con il mio psicologo per assistere all’audizione del cardinale George Pell sui preti pedofili nella sua diocesi. Sarò nella stessa stanza. Voglio guardarlo negli occhi”.

Le parole di Andrew Collins giungono dall’altro capo del mondo. Partono dalla città di Ballarat dove l’uomo, ora quarantaseienne, è nato e cresciuto. E dove è rimasto vittima di quattro sacerdoti che lo hanno violentato ripetutamente dall’infanzia all’adolescenza.

“Pregavo Dio perchè fermasse gli stupri, ma non è successo. Le violenze includevano stupro anale, penetrazioni, carezze e molestie. Avevo fede ma me l’hanno strappata dal cuore”, racconta all’Huffington Post. Un orrore che lo ha segnato per sempre: “Un giorno decisi di impiccarmi, è stata mia moglie a tagliare il cappio per salvarmi”.

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ROM
Katholisch

Von Sonntag an wird Kurienkardinal George Pell per Videoschaltung vor der australischen Missbrauchskommission aussagen. Im Mittelpunkt der mehrtägigen Befragung sollen Missbrauchsfälle im australischen Bistum Ballarat aus den 1970er Jahren stehen. Damals war Pell dort als Priester tätig und stand in freundschaftlichem Kontakt zu einem Priester, der inzwischen wegen Missbrauchs verurteilt wurde. Pell gehörte zum Beratergremium des Bischofs, bevor er selbst erst Weihbischof und später Erzbischof von Melbourne wurde.

Grund für die Aussage per Videoschaltung ist der Gesundheitszustand Pells, der deshalb nicht zur Aussage nach Australien reisen wollte. Die Kommission stimmte Anfang Februar einem entsprechenden Antrag des Kardinals zu, der seit Februar Leiter der zentralen Finanz- und Wirtschaftsbehörde im Vatikan und einer der einflussreichsten Mitarbeiter des Papstes ist.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A priest was sentenced to five years in prisons for abusing minors.]

Sette i ragazzi vittime di Don Massimo Iuculano, 47 anni, direttore dell’Istituto salesiano “Sacro cuore di Gesù” di Vercelli. Li invitava in una sala all’interno della struttura, li depilava e li massaggiava con dell’olio. Seguivano palpeggiamenti e rapporti orali.

Ha risarcito le vittime e ha ringraziato la procura per essere intervenuta a fermarlo, ma non è bastato. Il gup Luca Del Colledel Tribunale di Torino ha condannato a cinque anni di carcere don Massimo Iuculano, 47 anni, parroco e direttore dell’Istituto salesiano “Sacro cuore di Gesù” di Vercelli, accusato di diversi episodi di violenza sessuale su minori. All’uscita dal palazzo di giustizia il religioso ha preferito non rilasciare dichiarazioni. “Prendiamo atto – ha detto il suo avvocato, Carlo Blengino – e valuteremo se presentare appello”.

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ROME
ABC News

By London bureau chief Lisa Millar

The parents of two girls who were abused by a paedophile priest have arrived in Rome ahead of Cardinal George Pell’s highly-anticipated royal commission appearance.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster were among the first of an estimated 20 people — including survivors, their families and counsellors — to travel from Australia to watch Cardinal Pell’s testimony from a hotel.

“We’re here with some trepidation, of course. It’s been a very big decision to come over here and we wouldn’t have if we didn’t think it was very important,” Mr Foster said, as they left Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

“We really thought there should be victim representatives to hear what Cardinal Pell has to say.”

Other Australians will arrive on Saturday (local time).

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UTAH
KUER

[with audio]

By WHITTNEY EVANS

The Utah House passed a bill today that would allow victims of sexual abuse to bring civil action against alleged perpetrators even after the statute of limitations has expired.

Last year state lawmakers, passed House Bill 277, which abolished the statute of limitations for sex-abuse victims who were 22 or younger as of March 23rd 2015.

“We thought if we protected children going forward that would be a good step for the future,” says Republican State Representative Ken Ivory. The bill barred anyone who was older than 22 by even a day from bringing their claims. That’s why, when the bill passed, Ivory says, he started getting phone calls from victims.

“People that have lived in Utah as children and they would tell me their horrifying story of their experiences as a child and then they would ask does 277 help me?” Ivory says. “And I would ask them, how old were you on March 23, 2015? And invariably they were older than 22 and I would have to say no, I am sorry.”

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

Dakarai Turner

BALTIMORE – The Archdiocese of Baltimore has banned a priest from serving or returning to work within the diocese after they say he admitted to sexual abuse of a minor.

The Archdiocese said Fr. Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez had sexual contact with a teenage girl multiple times beginning in 2007 and possibly continuing into 2010, the last year Velez-Lopez served within the diocese.

The information came to light in January when the victim told the Archdiocese about it, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese said Friday. The Archdiocese says they began looking into it immediately and filed charges with the Howard County Police Department, where Valez-Lopez served at St. John the Evangelist in Columbia from 2003 to 2010.

The victim was a parishioner at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in Laurel, the spokesman said.

Valez-Lopez also ministered to members of Spanish-speaking communities at Resurrection of Our Lord, Holy Trinity in Glen Burnie, St. John the Evangelist in Frederick, Sacred Heart in Glyndon and St. Joseph in Cockeysville.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Harry Themal February 26, 2016

Elders of Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have the same privileged communications exemption as religious advisers in a sacramental confession if the confession does not involve a penitent.

The potential landmark “first impression” ruling, reported by Delaware Law Weekly, was made recently by Superior Court Judge Mary Miller Johnston in refusing to throw out a case filed by the state against the Laurel Congregation of the Witnesses.

The state said the elders should have reported a case child abuse between a juvenile and an adult member of the congregation.

The elders met with the juvenile, her mother and an adult member who confirmed the relationship after the boy reported the matter to his mother. They then excommunicated the juvenile and the adult involved. The state sought civil penalties but the Jehovah’s Witnesses said they were exempt from reporting under the Delaware law of “clergy/penitent privilege.”

That law is similar to the attorney/client privilege but the judge ruled that the conversations were not a “sacramental confession.” The defendants said the congregation members were “seeking spiritual advice and counsel from us as elders in a private setting.”

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