ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

February 23, 2016

Former St Patrick’s College, Ballarat, principal took no action after learning teacher kissed boys

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

February 23, 2016

SHANNON DEERY
Herald Sun

A SENIOR Christian Brother saw nothing wrong with one of his colleagues kissing every boy in his class before they left school for the day.

Br Paul Nangle also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today that child abuse may not always be a sin.

The commission heard Gerald Leo Fitzgerald, known as Br Leo to his grade three class at Ballarat’s St Alipius’s Primary School, had long been considered a danger.

As early as the 1950s he had been censured “as strongly as possible” after it was discovered he had kissed a boy and was routinely entering boys’ bedrooms.

But when the policeman father of one of the students complained of the group kissing practice Christian Brothers superior Br Nangle In 1975, he thought nothing of it.

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

IBAC to investigate Pell allegations leak

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

AAP

Victoria’s corruption watchdog is the right body to investigate into how details of allegations against Cardinal George Pell became public, the state’s attorney-general says.

Victoria Police’s Taskforce Sano has spent a year investigating allegations Cardinal Pell sexually abused five to 10 victims while he was a priest in Victoria, the Herald Sun reported on Saturday.

The Catholic Church has described the allegations as being “without foundation and utterly false”.

It believes they were leaked at a time “clearly designed to do maximum damage to the Cardinal and the Catholic Church”.

Cardinal Pell is due to give videolink evidence from Rome to the child sex abuse royal commission in Sydney about unrelated matters.

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

Cardinal Pell to give evidence at Rome hotel steeped in operatic drama

AUSTRALIA/ROME
The Age

February 23, 2016

Suzanne Carbone
Journalist

The ornate four-star Rome hotel where Cardinal George Pell will give evidence in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is steeped in drama because the property is connected to an opera house where human tragedy has been played out since 1880.

The imperial-style Hotel Quirinale​ was built in 1865 and is where Cardinal Pell and 15 clerical-abuse victims and supporters from Ballarat will gather for the public hearings.

At the request of Cardinal Pell, the hearing will start at 10pm on Sunday in Rome, which is 8am Monday in Australia. The evidence will be transmitted to the commission’s hearing in Sydney.
His evidence will be streamed on the Royal Commission’s website. A room at the Ballarat Town Hall has been set up for people to watch the webcast.

In the eternal city, Hotel Quirinale is linked to the Teatro dell’Opera​ via its courtyard and is located on the popular Via Nazionale shopping strip that leads to Piazza della Repubblica​.

From the hotel, it is a 10-minute walk to the Colosseum. The Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps are a 15-minute stroll, and the Vatican is 10 minutes by car.

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

Cardinal George Pell: more sinned against than sinning

AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 23, 2016

Frank O’Shea

Isn’t it time someone spoke up for George Pell? I have never met him and have no ambition to do so. He seems to lack what you might call warmth; he comes across as remote, patrician, above the ordinary herd. But you could say the same about many academics or judges or public figures and it is hardly a reason to excuse the poor press that he gets.

In fact, the strident common tone of the media treatment of Pell should be a signal to people to wonder whether we are being manipulated. When all public commentary seems to agree on something, it is a duty of those who do not take their opinions from the media or from shock jocks to raise a small squeal of protest.

Modern Australia has long forgotten the widespread sectarianism of a former era, but perhaps there are buried shoots, ready to sprout at the least provocation. And the clerical abuse crisis is just the kind of stimulant to get these weeds growing again.

You may still hear comments from those times in surprising places – your local golf club, the butcher shop where you pick up doggy scraps, a restaurant meal – comments which pass over your head because you are among friends. Offence was not intended and in your case, not taken, but you may subsequently wonder where the remark came from, what caused someone you know well to make a statement more appropriate to the Mannix days of the 1920s.

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

Police refer leak against Cardinal George Pell to anti-corruption commission

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey

Victoria police have referred the alleged leak of an investigation into Cardinal George Pell to the state’s anti-corruption commission.

The police said they were concerned details had been made public about the investigation into allegations of historical child sexual abuse.

The allegations, which Pell has vehemently denied and described as “outrageous”, were first reported on Friday night, allegedly as the result of police leaks to News Corp.

As a result, Victoria police said it had referred the matter to the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission. The commission will now review the case to see if it requires an investigation.

When the abuse allegations came to light, Pell called for an investigation into Victoria police to identify the source of the leaks. He also wrote to the Victorian police minister requesting the investigation.

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

A sexual abuse survivor reveals his identity

AUSTRALIA
ABC – RN Breakfast

Monday 22 February 2016 Gregg Borschmann

Ballarat sexual abuse survivor Tony Wardley had previously chosen to remain anonymous. Now, thanks to the efforts of a crowd-funded campaign, he’s off to Rome to see Cardinal George Pell give evidence in person. Gregg Borschmann reports.

Tony Wardley can’t quite believe it.

He’s packing his bags for Rome, one of a group of 15 victim/survivors of child sexual abuse from Ballarat.

More than $203,000 has been raised in the past week to send the group to Rome to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Commissioner Justice Peter McClellan said today that the desire of the group to attend the hearings in Rome was a ‘reasonable request’. The venue is likely to be a hotel room, which will be tested later today for the quality of the video link it can provide.

‘That’s unreal. I wasn’t expecting it. You can’t see my face, but I’m smiling,’ Wardley, who was abused from the age of six at three different schools in Ballarat in the late 1960s and early 1970s, told RN Breakfast.

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

‘Sexual revolution’ cause of child abuse

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1970s may have contributed to Christian Brothers sexually abusing children in a Victorian community, a religious superior says.

Brother Paul Nangle suggested the cultural change made it possible for things to occur that would not be accepted by society today, when asked to explain how so many Brothers could have abused children under his watch.

Br Nangle said the abuse and rape of children could never be justified but society became more relaxed about sexuality in the 1970s.

‘I wouldn’t say that it caused it,’ he said.

‘I’d be inclined to say that it might have contributed to creating a climate in which such things may have become possible.’

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

Child sexual abuse: are churches covering up or opening up?

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

[with video]

February 23 2016

John McMillan

Recent media coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s recall to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has ignited public debate on whether churches are willing to face up to child sexual abuse. Tim Minchin’s “musical attack” on Cardinal Pell has been a lightning rod for debate on social media.

Against a background of negative commentary, it is easy to lose sight of positive changes that are taking place across churches and the broader community.

On the same day last week that support for an “anti-Pell campaign” was building, the NSW Ombudsman’s office tabled a report in Parliament that told a different story – a story of church openness, not a “cover-up”.

The report, Strengthening the oversight of workplace child abuse allegations, comes after all of NSW’s Catholic and Anglican archbishops and bishops jointly called on the NSW Parliament at the end of last year to enact legislation that would open their churches’ work with children to further external scrutiny. These church leaders are asking Parliament to put measures in place to ensure that all allegations of sexual or other abuse of children made against their clergy, employees and volunteers must be reported to and oversighted by the Ombudsman.

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

French cardinal criticised over handling of abuse allegations

FRANCE
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Catholic News Service posted Tuesday, 23 Feb 2016

French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon is facing questions about how he dealt with a priest who faces abuse and rape charges.

Proceedings opened on January 27 against Fr Bernard Preynat, charged with “sexual aggression and rape of minors” between 1986 and 1991 at Lyon’s Saint-Luc parish, where he ran a large Catholic Scout group over two decades.

French newspapers said the priest had been moved to a new parish in Neulise after his alleged crimes were reported to Lyon Cardinal Albert Decourtray, who died in 1994. Fr Preynat was removed from parish work last August.

In a statement, La Parole Liberee, an organisation supporting abuse survivors, said 45 alleged victims of the priest had now come forward, adding that the group had filed charges against Cardinal Barbarin for failing to report abuse. Under France’s penal code, failure to report abuse carries a three-year jail term and a nearly €45,000 (£35,000) fine.

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

Never again will the Catholic Church be part of my life

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Elise Elliott
Herald Sun

I WAS brought up a strict Catholic. I attended a Catholic convent school for 13 years and was taught by nuns.

My family went to mass every Sunday. As a little girl I cherished it: those massive doors, the cool serenity of church, the shafts of sunlight piercing through the stained-glass windows, the sombre magnificence of it all.

By the age of five I knew all the prayers by heart. Most memorable was the Penitential Rite: “I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.”

In my 20s I no longer attended mass regularly, but I would sometimes stop in to a church after going for a run, just to rekindle that sense of reverence and reflection.

But now, as a woman, I can no longer go inside a Catholic Church. The reports of abuse and cover-up have made the religion hollow to me.

I know at least six people who have been abused by priests. Some are friends, some family friends, others are relatives. Their harrowing stories are depressingly similar: they were singled out and preyed upon by someone they trusted and revered. They were too scared to confess for fear of going to hell.

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

‘Spotlight’ Oscar campaign screenings: an unconventional support environment for abuse survivors

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Amy Kaufman

Frank and Virginia Zamora were among the last to file out of the movie theater. The couple had seen “Spotlight” before, but still it was a jolt. Especially watching one particular actor with green eyes. He looked a lot like their son, Dominic, who died last year following a battle with alcoholism, an addiction his parents believe began after he was molested at age 8 by a priest in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

“One day, when he was about 12, he told us he didn’t want to be an altar boy anymore,” recalled Virginia. “He and his dad got into an argument. Frank said, ‘It’s an honor to be an altar boy.'”

“I was an altar boy,” Frank interjected. “I always had respect for the priests. They were second to God.”

“Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe investigation that uncovered rampant child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, brings all these memories to the surface for the Zamoras. Which would seem to be a reason to stay away from the film and its Oscar campaign as it competes for six Academy Awards, including best picture.

Instead, the couple went out of their way to make the Culver City screening, which had all the trappings of an awards season gathering: a logo-patterned backdrop for photos, chicken skewers, a Q&A with movie talent.

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

Child sex abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat school headmaster ‘cannot remember’ complaints

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jessica Longbottom

The former headmaster of a Ballarat school where a notorious paedophile operated says he cannot remember any sexual abuse complaints ever being made against the teacher, a royal commission has heard.

Brother Paul Nangle, who was headmaster of St Patrick’s College from 1974 to 1979, has given evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He was questioned about his knowledge of Brother Edward Dowlan who worked at the school at the time, and was later convicted of molesting dozens of boys.

In a frustrating day of evidence for survivors, Brother Nangle answered many questions with “I can’t recall”, or “I can’t remember”, despite previous evidence at least four complaints were made to him about Brother Dowlan.

The now 84-year-old said he only remembered one accusation of corporal punishment levelled against Brother Dowlan, and never anything of a sexual nature.

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

Catholic headmaster who was in charge of a school where Christian Brothers sexually abused children said he thought a teacher kissing his students was simply an ‘expression of an eccentric old man’

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By BELINDA GRANT GEARY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A senior brother in the Catholic Church did not consider a teacher kissing his students to be sinister and thought it simply an ‘expression of an eccentric old man’ as it is revealed he hugged an accused child paedophile right after he admitted to physically abusing a year five student.

Paul Nangle, who was headmaster for St Patrick’s College in Ballarat during the 1970s, presented evidence the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday.

The hearing is focused on the Catholic order’s handling of child sex abuse allegations involving six Christian Brothers, all of whom spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.
Four have been convicted of child sex offences while another died in 1986.

The 89-year-old brother said he regrets the horrific child sex abuse committed by Christian Brothers under his watch, but insists he only knew about two complaints and had taken appropriate action.

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

Sex abuse victims to face Cardinal George Pell in Rome

AUSTRALIA/ROME
BBC News

Catholic Cardinal George Pell will face an audience of child abuse survivors when he testifies to an Australian inquiry from a Rome hotel.

Cardinal Pell was excused from returning to Australia to testify at the royal commission into child sex abuse due to ill health.

Abuse survivors and their supporters have raised enough money to attend Cardinal Pell’s testimony in Rome.

A room at the Hotel Quirinale will be the venue for next week’s hearing.

The cardinal’s testimony begins on Monday morning Australian time and is expected to run for three to four days.

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

Insider: Pope’s Child Abuse Commission Is ‘Smoke and Mirrors’

UNITED STATES
The Daily Beach

Jason Berry

Pope Francis portrays himself as a man who leads by example, but his protection of bishops who protected child-abusing priests continues.

Pope Francis, speaking to reporters on the flight from Mexico City to Rome last week, gave his strongest comment yet on the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Francis called such acts “a monstrosity,” according to the Associated Press. In the Holy See’s transcript, the pope went beyond current Vatican policy in stating: “A bishop who moves a priest to a different parish if he detects a case of paedophilia is without conscience and the best thing for him to do would be to resign.”

But the official church policy on such bishops remains unclear, and the Vatican reform on this issue, charitably put, is a lurching work in progress.

By using the present tense—“a bishop who moves”— Francis may be signaling a going-forward stance when new cases surface. But what is the policy on bishops with past transgressions?

The pope echoed a Vatican Radio statement earlier in the week by one of his key advisors, Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who chairs the Pontifical Commission on the Protection of Minors: “The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must not be kept secret for any longer.”

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

How ‘Spotlight’ missed the story: Column

UNITED STATES
USA Today

William F. Baker February 23, 2016

It is just a single line of dialogue from Spotlight, up for Best Picture and five other Academy Awards this Sunday, but it could be a movie in itself. It’s an allusion to an entire unknown chapter in the history of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals: the role of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in first uncovering the clerical conspiracy to shield abusing priests.

“Have you read Jason Berry’s book? He wrote about the Gauthe case,” an abuse survivor asks the team of investigative reporters featured in the film.

The survivor, Phil Saviano as portrayed by Neal Huff, holds up a copy of Berry’s 1992 book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children, which expanded on Berry’s reporting for the Times of Acadiana in partnership with the NCR.

The June 7, 1985, edition of the NCR was earth-shattering. Berry — whose child had recently been baptized Catholic — published a lengthy piece on Father Gilbert Gauthe’s sexual crimes and their concealment by the highest clerical authorities in Gauthe’s diocese in Lafayette, La. In the same issue, reporter Arthur Jones detailed the concealment of pedophile priests throughout America, and NCR wrote an editorial accusing American Catholic bishops of systemic inaction and silence.

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

Father Bob Is Not A George Pell Fan But Loves Tim Minchin

AUSTRALIA
Noise 11

by PAUL CASHMERE on FEBRUARY 23, 2016

South Melbourne priest Father Bob Maguire added further to his comments about George Pell and Tim Minchin earlier this week clarifying his feeling for the Catholic Cardinal saying he is “not the greatest admirer (in Church matters) of Cardinal Pell”.

Father Maguire says Tim Minchin has done sexual abuse victims a favour releasing the song. “Its the kind of thing that victims of clerical abuse needed to hear in the public forum,” Father Bob said. “Tim Minchin’s done them a favour”.

Tim Minchin released his damning ‘Come Home (Cardinal Pell)’ about the Australian cardinal George Pell, the third highest ranking Catholic in the world. Pell has angered abuse victims by calling in sick for the Royal Commission into sexual abuse next week and instead choosing to stay in exile in The Vatican and give evidence via a video link from halfway around the world instead.

When Minchin released the song last week it shot to number one on Australia’s iTunes chart generating a response from Melbourne’s Archbishop Denis Hart who took the side of Pell and not the victims over the song’s content.

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

February 22, 2016

George Pell to give evidence to child abuse royal commission from Rome’s Hotel Quirinale

AUSTRALIA/ROME
ABC News

Cardinal George Pell will give evidence to the child abuse royal commission via video link from the Hotel Quirinale in Rome from next Monday.

The four-star hotel is located in the heart of the Italian capital, near the Piazza Della Repubblica.

A group of survivors will fly to Italy to hear Cardinal Pell’s evidence in person after a GoFundMe campaign raised funds for their trip.

The royal commission has called for people to register their interest to witness Cardinal Pell’s evidence given in Rome, which will be video streamed to a public hearing in Sydney.

Australia’s most high profile Catholic has hit back at criticism over his inability to return to Australia to appear in person before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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

Parishioners of priest investigated for child porn get answers from St. Paul-Mpls. archdiocese

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Twin Cities archdiocese leaders met with parishioners at St. William’s Church in Fridley Sunday, following last week’s announcement that their priest is under investigation for possible possession of child pornography.

The priest was temporarily removed from ministry Thursday after Edina police searched his home. He is not identified by the Star Tribune because he has not been arrested or charged. According to a search warrant affidavit, he admitted to police he had viewed pornography on his computer.

Auxiliary bishop Andrew Cozzens and Tim O’Malley, the archdiocese’s head of child safety standards, answered questions about future operations of the church and why the archdiocese didn’t tell parishioners sooner about the investigation. The Edina police met with officials of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Feb. 6; parishioners were notified Friday.

“I explained the situation that … as requested by Edina Police Department, we did not take action that could have interfered with that investigation,” O’Malley said. O’Malley, a former chief of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the archdiocese followed its new child safety protocols.

An Edina police spokesperson confirmed the request.

With no parish priest, St. William’s parishioners found Cozzens celebrating two Sunday masses and participating in an informational meeting in the sanctuary Sunday afternoon.

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

Magdalene Laundries inquiry move welcomed

IRELAND
Derry Journal

Brendan McDaid
Brendan.McDaid@jpress.co.uk

Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Maeve McLaughlin has welcomed a new working group to look into a possible inquiry around Magdalene Laundries and mother and baby homes.

The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were institutions run by the Catholic Church for decades with the knowledge of the State.

Thousands of women were incarcerated in such facilities and made to work in laundries run by the Church.

Many of these women were taken there because they were deemed to be ‘fallen women’ for reasons that could include that they had become pregnant out of wedlock or even for flirtatious behaviour.

Many suffered horrific abuse, many were forced to sign over their own babies for adoption, and the women were also forced to endure separation from their families and the outside world.

Many died without ever getting their lives back.

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

GUANTANAMO

MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

…A PRIEST WHO WORKED IN MANCHESTER AND GLENCOE with fellow clerics Gerard Welsch, Robert Schwaig, Larry Damato and Edmund Griesedieck has passed away. He’s Fr. Carl F. Peltz who was sued for allegedly forcing a 12 year-old boy to drink whiskey and raping him on a Navy base in Iceland. The case was settled for $25k and the priest kept working until 2009. Peltz also spent time at a treatment center for sexually troubled clerics called the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer.

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

Catholics Protest During Archdiocese Sweetheart’s Ball

GUAM
Pacific New Center

[with video]

Written by Janela Carrera

The Concerned Catholics of Guam and other members of the catholic church reiterated their concerns regarding Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s actions in recent years.

Guam – Another silent protest was held yesterday by some members of the Catholic community to coincide with Archdiocese of Agana’s Sweethearts Ball that was held at the Outrigger Guam resort.

Dozens of Catholics showed up, holding signs opposing Archbishop Anthony Apuron, some even calling on his resignation. Some of those we interviewed reiterated their stance regarding the controversial Redemptoris Mater Seminary that the Archbishop allegedly gave away to the neocatechumenal sect.

Others also called upon Archbishop Apuron to restore two beloved priests who were removed from their duties.

“To give a huge multimillion dollar property to an entity that does not belong to our archdiocese just doesn’t make sense, and as my sign says here, the church property is not his to give away,” says MaryLou Diaz Martinez. “I don’t have any personal grudges with any individual members of the neo, and everybody should be able to worship the way that they prefer, but if you don’t follow the catholic church– and I would think the archbishop would be the first one to point out those differences in our teachings in our beliefs–if you don’t follow, then don’t claim to be catholic. And that’s what we’re opposing also.”

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

SPAIN–A former Spanish priest quietly ousted twice in the US

SPAIN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016

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

A priest who spent at least three years in Spain has been ousted from ministry in two US dioceses for having “inappropriate images of students” in one and having “inappropriate conduct with parishioners” in the other. Now, his whereabouts are unknown. We fear he may have hurt parishioners in all or some of the six places he worked or studied. And we fear he’s still on the job in a parish somewhere.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

An on-line biography of Fr. Peter Balili says that he “earned a Doctorate in Theology at the University of Navarra, Spain, under the auspices of the Opus Dei Fathers. He stayed in Navarra for three years where he developed a fluency in Spanish.

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

Victims set to fly to Rome to face Pell

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Feb. 22, 2016

Arrangements are underway to allow Ballarat clergy child sexual abuse survivors to fly to Rome to witness Cardinal George Pell give evidence next week. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse chair Justice Peter McClellan said the requests of survivors to attend the Cardinal’s evidence in person on February 29 were “not unreasonable”.

The third round of hearings into sexual abuse that occurred within the Diocese of Ballarat began on Monday morning. Justice McClellan announced in the opening address Cardinal Pell looked set to give evidence via video link from a room inside a hotel in central Rome. He said the room was yet to be tested to ensure it would provide an effective signal back to Australia. Justice McClellan said the room would be tested late Monday and he would confirm on Tuesday whether it was suitable.

The inquiry is yet to confirm if the room would be open to the public. Earlier this month, the commission accepted a medical report which said Cardinal Pell, 74, was at risk of heart failure if he flew back to Australia to give evidence.

Clergy abuse survivor David Ridsdale said the group of survivors and representatives from Ballarat planned to fly out of Australia on Friday evening. He said Cardinal Pell was the highest ranking Catholic in Australia and had intricate knowledge of the movements of paedophile priests who were shifted from parish to parish.

Another survivor Paul Levey has already booked his flights.

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

Case Study 28, February 2016, Ballarat – Live hearing

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

[live stream]

Stage 3: February 2016
The Royal Commission will hold the third part of the public hearing regarding the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat commencing on 22 February 2016 at the Ballarat Magistrates Court.

Read Witness List (PDF 217 KB)

Read Witness List (DOC 226KB)

Read Opening Address (PDF 333KB)

Read Opening Address (DOC 248KB)

Read Statement by the Chair regarding arrangements for Cardinal Pell’s evidence (PDF 220KB)

Read Statement by the Chair regarding arrangements for Cardinal Pell’s evidence (DOC 363KB)

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.

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

How to attend the Hearing

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

How to attend the hearing in Sydney

Date: Monday 29 February 2016 to Thursday 3 March 2016 (estimated)
Time: The Royal Commission hearing room will open to the public from 7:00am
Hearing hours: 08:00am – 12:00noon AEDT
Venue: Royal Commission, Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney

How to attend the screening in Ballarat

Date: Monday 29 February 2016 to Thursday 3 March 2016 (estimated)
Time: The Ballarat Town Hall will open to the public from 7:30am
Hearing hours: 08:00am – 12:00noon AEDT
Venue: Trench Room, Ballarat Town Hall, Sturt St, Ballarat

How to attend the venue in Rome

Date: Central European Time Sunday 28 February 2016 to Wednesday 2 March 2016 (estimated)
Hearing hours: 10:00pm – 02:00am CET
Venue: Hotel Quirinale, Rome, Italy

Anyone wishing to attend in person in Rome should register their interest with the Royal Commission by emailing contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au or calling 1800 099 340.

Media wishing to attend must register interest by emailing media@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

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

Cardinal Pell to give evidence from Hotel Quirinale in Rome

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Instituional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

23 February, 2016

The Royal Commission will hear evidence from Cardinal George Pell from 29 February 2016 at the Hotel Quirinale in Rome as part of its public hearings into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat and the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

The public hearing will be held at the Royal Commission’s hearing rooms in Sydney. Cardinal Pell will give evidence via videolink from the conference room at the Hotel Quirinale in Rome. His evidence will be live streamed on the Royal Commission’s website and a dedicated room at the Ballarat Town Hall will be available for the public to watch the webcast.

In accordance with a request from Cardinal Pell, the hearing will commence at 8:00am AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday 29 February 2016, which is 10:00pm CET (Central European Time) on Sunday 28 February 2016. The hearing is expected to run for four hours per day, including a half-hour adjournment, for three to four days.

The Royal Commission requests that anyone wishing to attend in person in Rome register their interest with the Royal Commission by emailing contact@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au or calling 1800 099 340. Media wishing to attend must register interest by emailing media@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

Anyone wishing to attend the public hearing in Sydney or watch from the Ballarat Town Hall does not need to register their interest.

Please note that as this hearing is taking place in Sydney, legal representatives will not be granted leave to appear in Rome.

Information for the public on how to attend the hearing can be found here.

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

French cardinal under fire for dealings with priest charged with abuse

FRANCE
National Catholic Reporter

Catholic News Service | Feb. 22, 2016

LYON, FRANCE
French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon is facing questions about how he dealt with a priest who faces abuse and rape charges.

On Jan. 27, proceedings opened against Fr. Bernard Preynat, charged with “sexual aggression and rape of minors” between 1986 and 1991 at Lyon’s Saint-Luc parish, where he ran a large Catholic Scout group over two decades.

French newspapers said the priest had been moved to a new parish in Neulise after his crimes were reported to Lyon Cardinal Albert Decourtray, who died in1994. Preynat was removed from parish work last August.

In a Feb. 14 statement, La Parole Liberee, an association set up to aid victims at Saint-Luc, said 45 victims of the priest had now come forward, adding that the group had filed charges against Barbarin for failing to report abuse. Under France’s penal code, failure to report abuse carries a three-year jail term and a nearly $50,000 fine.

The group said it was also suing Cardinal Gerhard Muller and Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, respectively prefect and secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, for failing to act.

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

Greek Orthodox priest pleads guilty to church embezzlement

WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 22, 2016

A Greek Orthodox priest pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling more than $100,000 from his former parish in Wauwatosa, but under a deferred prosecution deal he will get only a misdemeanor conviction if he stays out of trouble for a year.

Neither the Rev. James Dokos nor his attorneys, Patrick Knight and Franklyn Gimbel, made any comment after a hearing before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen.

Dokos, 63, of Chicago, was charged in 2014 with using about $100,000 intended for Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church for lavish dinners, jewelry for his wife, and everyday expenses. He had been the pastor at the church about 20 years.

By the time he was charged, Dokos had already been transferred to Sts. Peter and Paul in Glenview, Ill., one of the largest and most affluent Greek Orthodox churches in the Chicago area.

Theft in a business setting of more than $10,000 — which is a felony — carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, plus five years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine. But Conen agreed to withhold entry of judgment, and if Dokos meets various reporting and community service requirements, in a year he will instead enter judgment for misdemeanor theft. As part of the agreement, Assistant District Attorney David Robles said he will recommend an unspecified fine at that time.

Robles also told Conen that he met earlier in the month with members of Annunciation to explain the agreement and take questions. He said Dokos has already paid restitution of more than $10,000, and that the plea settles all known criminal and civil actions arising from Dokos’ conduct.

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

Trump wasn’t the only one disappointed in the pope’s Mexico trip

UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 22, 2016

By virtually any standard, Pope Francis’ recent trip to Mexico, which began with a brief stop in Cuba to meet the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, was a triumph. Large crowds showed up everywhere he went, and the visit drew saturation coverage, especially with the pontiff’s dust-up at the end with Donald Trump.

Certainly if you were an undocumented immigrant on the US side of the border, or a prisoner or worker or victim of drug violence or an indigenous person inside Mexico, you have special reason to feel good about the pope’s presence, since he made a point of reaching out to these groups.

On the other hand, any papal trip is by definition an exercise in choice, and there are always others on the outside looking in – groups which, for one reason or another, feel neglected, or unheard, or disappointed in whatever the pope said or did. …

Abuse survivors

During the Pope Benedict XVI years, it became a standard feature of papal travel that when the pope visited a country that had been hard-hit by clerical abuse scandals, he would meet with victims. That was seen not only as an important gesture of sensitivity, but also a way of encouraging local bishops to do likewise.

On that score, Mexico certainly qualifies. It’s the birthplace of the Legion of Christ, a religious order launched in 1959 whose founder, the late Marcial Maciel Degollado, was found guilty by the Vatican in 2006 of various forms of sexual abuse and misconduct and sentenced to a life of “prayer and penance.”

In late December, a Mexican archbishop said that a meeting with victims and their families was in the works, but in the end, it never happened.

Such a meeting would have come at a good time for Francis. In recent weeks, the Vatican has faced controversy over its response to the abuse scandals on three different fronts:

* A survivor on the pope’s own anti-abuse commission was given a leave of absence after he was publicly critical of Francis for appointing a bishop in Chile known as an ally of that country’s most notorious abuser priest.

* A Vatican training session for new bishops came under fire for inviting a French monsignor who told the bishops they have no obligation to report abuse charges to police and failing to mention the Church’s extensive efforts in various parts of the world to develop cutting-edge abuse prevention programs.

* The pope’s top financial official, Cardinal George Pell, is facing a new round of allegations in Australia related to an ongoing probe by a Royal Commission into the Church’s handling of abuse cases.

Whatever Francis’ reasons for not meeting survivors in Mexico, it will add to the questions already being raised about where the Vatican, and the pope himself, presently stand in terms of the commitment to turning over a new leaf.

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

NJ–Victims urge bishop to disclose info on accused priest

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 22, 2016

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

Apparently, a New Jersey priest is accused of beating a 70 year old man and putting him in a coma. We hope Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan will shed some light on this troubling accusation.

[Daily Post]

The accused is Father Mike Steve Ezeatu. He reportedly attacked a 70 year old man after mass and beat him to coma.

Fr. Ezeatu is apparently with Project Educate Africa, Inc. (445 White Horse Pike West Collingswood, NJ 08107, info@projecteducateafrica.org) His email is mezeatu@yahoo.com

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

IL–Another troubled priest quiet ousted; Victims respond

ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 22, 2016

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

Once again, a priest who was ousted elsewhere for having ­­“inappropriate images of students” was quietly sent to our area to work with no warning to parishioners. And once again, a priest who engaged in “inappropriate conduct” here has been quietly sent away, with no notice to parishioners, and is probably working now among unsuspecting colleagues and congregants in Philadelphia, Phoenix or Portland.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

And Catholic officials try to convince us they’re changing and being more “transparent.” Hardly.

Two dioceses – San Francisco and Belleville – have kicked the cleric out. Neither told the public or parishioners that they had done so or the reasons behind their decisions.

The troubled cleric is Fr. Peter Balili, a native of the Phillipines. He worked at St. Mary Parish in Sesser and St. Andrew Parish in Christopher. (He also worked in parishes in two California dioceses – San Bernardino and San Francisco – and studied in Orange, California for six years in the 1990s. He studied at Notre Dame University, is a native of the Phillipines and was once with a religious order called Opus Dei Fathers.

[Belleville diocese]

He was also affiliated with a group called “Shrines of Europe Pilgrimage.”

No Catholic official in any of the five places where Fr. Balili spent time has bothered to alert Catholics or citizens about him and or detail the accusations against him. “The Belleville Diocese dismissed him because of instances of what it viewed as ‘inappropriate conduct regarding certain of his parishioners.’ The notice did not specify the nature of that conduct or the age of the parishioners,” according to the Post-Dispatch.

We’ve seen this kind of language time and time again used by Catholic officials. It usually refers to sexual misdeeds or crimes. But bishops owe their flocks more honesty than this.

Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton is among the most secretive bishops in the US.

We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Balili, to show courage, call police, protect others and start healing.

(Fr. Balili also worked in parishes in two California dioceses – San Bernardino and San Francisco – and studied in Orange, California for six years in the 1990s. He studied at Notre Dame University, is a native of the Phillipines and was once with a religious order called Opus Dei Fathers.)

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

The Statue of Limitations for Child Sexual Abuse Victims in Civil Court Could Extend

TENNESSEE
WGNS

A change in the statue of limitations for child sexual abuse victims to file a civil suit against a suspect in a Tennessee courtroom is on the horizon. State Representative Dr. Bryan Terry of Murfreesboro commented….

The bill as proposed by Representative Daren Jernigan, extends the statue of limitations for civil actions against the accused child rapist or person who committed sexual crimes against a child.

In civil litigation, the victim of a child sexual attack can file suit against the suspect for illnesses or injuries related to the abuse, even though the abuse occurred when the victim was a child and did not come forward with the allegations until adulthood. The bill will extend the statute of limitations by three years from the date of discovery.

Currently, victims of child sexual abuse only have one year to file a civil claim after the discovery of the reported crime. One in ten children are victims of sexual abuse by the time they turn 18 in Tennessee, according to the Child Advocacy Center of Rutherford and Cannon Counties.

The Civil Justice Committee will review the proposed bill on Tuesday (2/23/2016).

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

Top Catholic Church clergy could face child neglect charges

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

THE AUSTRALIAN
FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Tessa Akerman

Victoria Police are investigating senior Catholic Church figures, with the idea of charging them with child neglect or ­endangerment.

The Australian can reveal that Task Force Sano detectives have been examining charging church figures with failing to protect children when they were facing potential danger.

Former Victorian crown prosecutor and chief magistrate Nick Papas QC said he would prosecute a case against church officials for endangering a child provided the legal threshold was met.

Several senior clergy in Vic­toria knew that pedophile priests were operating, but failed to report the crimes to police, the sex abuse royal commission has been told, with many victims, perpetrators and church officials now dead.

Details of the investigation emerged as George Pell ­announced he had written to the Victoria’s Acting Police Minister formally requesting an inquiry into the “maliciously timed” leaking of details of a police investigation into allegations against him.

Mr Papas, one of Australia’s most experienced prosecutors, said people needed to face the courts if police uncovered a proper basis for taking action. “As a private barrister who both defends and prosecutes, my personal opinion is if the evidence is there and there’s no other factors that prevent the matter being prosecuted properly and fairly, then you should prosecute them,” he said.

Neil Wileman, 55, was abused by former Christian Brother Ted Dowlan at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat more than 40 years ago.

He told the royal commission he reported the physical abuse to the college in 1973 but was punished for complaining and the abuse continued, both physical and sexual. “They had a duty of care for those underage children,’’ he said. “They did nothing and they allowed them to be raped.”

The child sex abuse royal commission has heard evidence that officials in the Ballarat diocese knew of pedophile priests but ­failed to report the offenders to the police. At the time, failing to report knowledge of child sexual crimes was not an offence, however misprision of a felony — or concealment of a felony by someone other than a participant — was a common law offence until 1981 and conduct endangering people ­became an offence in 1985.

Detectives have been reviewing evidence of when victims of abuse made complaints to church officials.

The royal commission has received evidence former bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns moved one of Australia’s worst pedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale, between parishes when complaints were made. Ridsdale, who had possibly hundreds of victims, was moved to the western Victorian parish of Horsham to serve as assistant priest in 1986.

The royal commission also heard evidence Ridsdale committed further offences in Horsham.

Cardinal George Pell served as auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne archdiocese from 1987 until 1996, when he was appointed archbishop. Pedophile priest Peter Searson served in the archdiocese and many complaints were made about his conduct, which included holding a knife to a schoolgirl’s chest. Searson is dead.

Archbishop Denis Hart told the royal commission there was a failure in the handling of complaints and he would have expected Cardinal Pell to have an “adequate ­degree of knowledge” about the situation. “Whether he knew all these awful things, which make me feel ashamed, I’m not sure,” he said.

Mr Papas said there was an ­imperative to ensure the truth was told. “Sexual abuse in the context of breach of trust, especially in the environment such as priest and parishioner and child, can’t simply be swept under the carpet,” he said.“If there’s a proper basis to bring criminal proceedings, no matter when they occurred, they need to be brought. Ultimately, the prosecution of all serious sexual offences is in the interest of the community, but always subject to competing factors.”

He said the factors included the length of time since the matters occurred, ability to obtain evidence and fairness to all parties.

Cardinal Pell yesterday announced he had written to the Victorian Acting Police Minister formally requesting an inquiry into the “maliciously timed” leaking of details of a police investigation into allegations against him.

Victoria Police confirmed that Cardinal Pell’s complaint had been referred to the state’s peak anti-corruption body for investigation. “Victoria Police takes this allegation seriously and accordingly we have referred the matter to IBAC,’’ a spokeswoman said.

Additional reporting: Chip Le Grand

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

Sex-case headmistress Malka Leifer to face psychiatric tests

AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Australian

The Australian – February 23, 2016

Jamie Walker – Middle East Correspondent

Fugitive Jewish school principal Malka Leifer will be called to account for apparent discrepancies in her psychiatric record used to justify controversial absences from extradition proceedings in Israel.

The psychiatric re-evaluation ordered by the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday shapes as make or break — both for state prosecutors, who are trying to get Ms Leifer on a plane back to Australia to face child sex abuse charges, and for her defence fighting hard to keep her in Israel.

The former headmistress of Melbourne’s Adass Israel School, a strictly religious Jewish college for ultra-orthodox children, failed to attend the hearing on Sunday, citing stress-induced psychosis that allegedly incapacitates her before court dates.

The pattern has been entrenched since Ms Leifer was arrested 18 months ago by Israeli police on an extradition request from Australia on 74 counts of child sexual abuse alleged to have been committed while she was at Adass between 2000 and 2008.

In Melbourne, families of her alleged victims have accused Ms Leifer of exploiting loopholes in Israeli law to avoid being extradited. Her Israeli lawyers have produced medical reports from a battery of psychiatrists to show her panic attacks and psychosis are genuine, induced by the stress of having to face court.

They are pressing for the proceedings to be stayed or abandoned.

However, judge Amnon Cohen’s latest ruling has tasked a senior state psychiatrist to focus on two aspects of her behaviour when she was checked in to hospital on January 3, two days before she was to report for her second-to-last court appearance.

Her letter of referral to the hospital had recommended she go in on December 30, and the judge said it was unclear why the admission was delayed. She checked herself out soon after the court date passed.

Judge Cohen asked for the admission delay to be explained.

He also noted a “discrepancy” between Ms Leifer’s behaviour on the ward in groups and in phone conversations with her family, compared to how she responded during formal sessions with psychiatric staff.

The judge noted a prosecution submission, made on Sunday, that Ms Leifer had “no interest” in recuperating when the status quo stopped her being extradited.

In his written decision, Judge Cohen said Ms Leifer’s lawyers had opposed the prosecution’s application for the re-evaluation, saying the medical material was copious and should be relied upon.

The judge said he had full confidence in the District Psychiatrist, a state doctor who had evaluated Ms Leifer and who would carry out the court-ordered review. If necessary, Ms Leifer would be committed to state care for this.

But he said he made the order “not without reservation”, and the examination should take place as soon as possible so a report could be presented on March 20.

“I think it’s a minor victory,” said Manny Wax, a 39-year-old survivor of sexual abuse at another Melbourne Jewish orthodox school who was in the court on Sunday.

“The judge could have decided to have dismissed the case … the tension builds as the final decision is in the hands of the psychiatrist’s report.”

Ms Leifer remains in home detention in the orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in central Israel.

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

Judge orders psychiatric assessment of alleged molester during extradition hearing

ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Malka Leifer, a dual Israeli-Australian national, fled to Israel in 2008 after she was accused of engaging in sexual behavior with eight students at an Australian school where she was principle.

A Jerusalem judge on Sunday ordered that a haredi woman at the center of an Australian sexual abuse scandal must undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine if she is fit to be extradited, ABC News Australia reported.

Malka Leifer, a dual Israeli-Australian national, fled to Israel in 2008 after she was accused of engaging in sexual behavior with eight students at the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, where she was principal. She was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to house arrest pending extradition but has managed to fend off any further action, exhibiting panic attacks prior to multiple hearings and claiming that she is “mentally unfit” to take part in the judicial proceedings.

Late last year Australian media reported that Adass Israel may face a criminal investigation due to the role that its board members played in spiriting Leifer out of the country. In September, a local court found the school liable in a civil suit, ordering it to pay more than a million dollars to one of the victims.

In his ruling on Sunday, Judge Amnon Cohen called for the accused to undergo further mental examinations.

“This seems to be a big game. A strategy on her behalf. We don’t need to be Einsteins to work out what is happening here,” former Australian ultra-orthodox sexual abuse victim and survivors’ advocate Manny Waks told ABC outside the court on Sunday.

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

Jesuit priest remains as Vatican spokesperson, retires as head of radio

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
2.22.2016

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi will retire as head of Vatican Radio Feb. 29, as the Secretariat for Communications takes on the general administration of the radio.

Giacomo Ghisani, an Italian layman and vice general director of the secretariat, will be the “ad interim” administrative director and legal representative of Vatican Radio starting March 1. Ghisani had been director of international relations and legal affairs at Vatican Radio for many years.

Father Lombardi, 73, will still head the Vatican press office for the time being and continue serving as Vatican spokesman.

The personnel changes were announced by the Vatican Feb. 22.

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

Latest: Former Milwaukee-area priest pleads guilty to theft charge

WISCONSIN
Fox 6

MILWAUKEE — James Dokos, a former Milwaukee-area priest accused of stealing from his church, entered a guilty plea to the theft charge on Monday, February 22nd.

Prosecutors and Dokos’ attorney agreed to what is called a deferred judgment agreement. In other words, the court found Dokos guilty, but withheld entry a judgment of conviction.

Dokos was ordered to pay back the money to the church — which has apparently already done. Dokos must also complete 40 hours of community service and not have any brushes with the law for one year.

The cash is set for review on February 22, 2017 — to see if Dokos upheld his part of the deal.

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

Abuse royal commission: ‘Survival of fittest’ at Ballarat college

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Rachel Baxendale

The Christian Brothers at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat shut down the Student Representative Council and accused its members of “spreading scurrilous lies” when they tried to report sexual abuse, the royal commission has heard.

Timothy Barlow, a student and SRC member in the mid 1970s, gave evidence yesterday of being physically assaulted by Christian Brothers, who told him “you’ll ­regret this, you f. king lying prick’’ when he tried to alert principal Brother Paul Nangle to the abuse.

The commission’s third hearing in the western Victorian city opened yesterday, focusing on the response of the Christian Brothers Catholic order in Victoria to allegations of child sexual abuse made in relation to six brothers.

They were Stephen Farrell, ­Edward Dowlan, Gerald Leo Fitzgerald, and three brothers referred to by the pseudonyms CCK, BWX and CCJ.

All six Christian Brothers being investigated have been convicted of child sex offences, and all taught at institutions in the Ballarat diocese, including St Alipius Boys School in Ballarat East, St Patrick’s Primary School, St Patrick’s College and St Paul’s Technical School in Ballarat, and St Joseph’s Primary School and St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College in Warrnambool.

In her opening, counsel assisting the royal commission Gail ­Furness SC noted that, ­between January 1980 and February 2015, 853 people, 98 per cent of them male, and 75 per cent of them under 13 at the time of the ­alleged offence, made a claim or substantiated complaint of child sexual abuse against one or more Christian Brothers.

Across Australia, 281 brothers have had claims or substantiated complaints made against them. The reported amount of compensation paid by the brothers in relation to the claims has reached $37.3 million, with an average payment of $64,000. Tasmanian and Victorian cases account for 45 per cent of the complaints.

Mr Barlow spoke of a “survival of the fittest” environment at St Patrick’s College when he ­arrived as a Form Three boarder in 1973. “The kids referred to the boys who were being abused as the brothers’ bum buddies,” he said.

Mr Barlow spoke of raising the issue of the abuse at an SRC meeting after a younger student told him he wanted Brother Dowlan to stop molesting him and his brother. “I had observed Brother Dowlan doing this myself,” he said.

“He used to walk around the handball courts with three or four junior students around him. He would have his hands down the back of one of the boy’s pants as they walked around. This may not have been a daily occurrence, but it was frequent enough for it to be noticed by students.”

Mr Barlow said that, as a Form Three SRC representative, he had moved at the next meeting that the SRC request Brother Nangle speak to Brother Dowlan. “I don’t recall the exact words I used, but I believe that I would have said something quite basic like, ‘We should ask Brother Nangle to tell Brother Dowlan to stop putting his hands down kids’ pants’,” Mr Barlow said.

He said he had been studying the night after the SRC meeting when he was struck on the back of the head by a dorm master called Brother Barr, who was a close friend of Brother Dowlan. “They then hauled me to the other end of the corridor where I was subjected to physical and ­verbal assault by both men,” Mr Barlow said.

“I was a slight and average sized 15 year old at the time. As they were beating me, they said things like: ‘You’ll regret this, you f. king lying prick’ and ‘Who the hell do you think you are, you little smart-arse’.’’

Mr Dowlan was sentenced last year to a maximum of six years’ jail, increased to eight on appeal, after he pleaded guilty to 33 charges relating to 20 victims.

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

Pedophile Christian Brother ‘wanted love’

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A Christian Brother who sexually abused 30 boys wanted to love and to be a great lover, an inquiry has heard.

Br Edward Dowlan wrote in the 1980s of “his desire to love and be loved”, the child abuse royal commission heard.

His letter to the then leader of the Christian Brothers St Patrick’s Province said: “The greatest aim in my life over a number of years has been to be a great lover.”

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said Dowlan also admitted to then provincial Br Paul Noonan that he was perhaps too affectionate.

“But as far as I am concerned this is me and I have this dream that love can be the motivating force within my classroom,” Dowlan wrote.

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

Greek Orthodox priest could enter plea Monday in church theft case

ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

Robert McCoppin
Chicago Tribune

A Greek Orthodox priest charged with stealing more than $100,000 from his church is expected to enter a plea Monday.

The Rev. James Dokos was accused of taking the money from a trust fund that was intended to benefit Annunciation Church in Milwaukee and spending it on himself, family members and other church leaders, including cash gifts to a high-ranking church official in Chicago.

Dokos was later transferred to Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Glenview but was suspended after he was charged with felony theft in Milwaukee.

Prosecutors there announced this month that a plea deal was expected in the case, but terms of the proposed settlement — such as whether it would include jail time — were not disclosed. Dokos has missed several court appearances since he has been charged, absences that have been mostly attributed by his lawyers to health problems.

The felony charges roiled the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, causing rifts between the church hierarchy in Chicago and some leaders and members of both the Glenview and Milwaukee parishes. Metropolis leaders, who oversee dozens of churches in the Midwest, ousted the parish council president in Glenview after he raised questions about how the internal investigation was handled, and other members left in protest. The priest who replaced Dokos in Milwaukee, and who had spoken out about the case, was later transferred.

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

In bankruptcy dealings, Helena diocese sets alternate example

MONTANA
National Catholic Reporter

Marie Rohde | Feb. 22, 2016

Bishop George Thomas admits that when his already struggling diocese in Helena, Mont., was hit with 30 lawsuits because of decades-old sexual abuse by priests, his instincts were to fight.

But that defensive posture fell away after he visited a victim’s home for a family dinner, he said.

“I realized how soul-searing this has been for him,” said Thomas, who has worked in community mental health. “While the abuse was decades ago, the suffering is in the present.”

Eventually, the diocese faced 362 claims of sexual abuse and filed for bankruptcy, like a dozen other American dioceses have done. Unlike many of the others, Helena took “the road less traveled,” as Thomas put it.

“We chose mediation and conciliation over acrimony and litigation,” Thomas said. “Every day, I am affirmed that this was the best way to go.”

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

Kind sexuell missbraucht? Priester aus Horstmar beurlaubt

DEUTSCHLAND
Osnabrucker Zeitung

[Horstmar / Münster. The Bishop of Münster, Felix Genn, has put a priest on leave who last year served in Horstmar. The priest faces allegations of child abuse.]

Horstmar/Münster. Der Bischof von Münster, Felix Genn, hat einen Priester beurlaubt, der zuletzt in Horstmar im Einsatz war. Gegen den Geistlichen werden Vorwürfe erhoben, im vergangenen Jahr sexuell intendierte Handlungen an einem Kind vorgenommen zu haben.

Der Beschuldigte hat die Gemeinde verlassen und hält sich derzeit in einem Kloster auf. Die „Kommission für Fälle des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Geistliche“ des Bistums Münster wurde im Januar über die Vorwürfe informiert. Sie hat mit den Beteiligten Gespräche geführt und den Fall gemäß den Leitlinien der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz am 16. Februar an die Staatsanwaltschaft in Münster weitergeleitet, heißt es in einer Pressemitteilung des Bischöflichen Generalvikariats Münster – Beschuldigter hat Gemeinde verlassen: Kind sexuell missbraucht? Priester aus Horstmar beurlaubt | noz.de – Lesen Sie mehr auf: http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/nordrhein-westfalen/artikel/673509/kind-sexuell-missbraucht-priester-aus-horstmar-beurlaubt

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

Missbrauch am Knabenkonvikt war kein Einzelfall

DEUTSCHLAND
Kolnische Rundschau

Bad Münstereifel/ Köln.

50 Jahre benötigte der Kölner Zahnarzt Prof. Dr. Werner Becker, bevor er den Mut fand, öffentlich über die traumatischen Erlebnisse in seiner Zeit am erzbischöflichen Knabenkonvikt „Collegium Josephinum“ in Bad Münstereifel zu sprechen. In einem Gespräch mit dieser Zeitung schilderte er 2011 die sexuellen Grenzverletzungen durch einen Priester in leitender Funktion, unter denen er als 17-Jähriger gelitten hatte.

Nachdem er sich von der Seele geredet hatte, was ihn über fünf Jahrzehnte hinweg belastete, folgten andere seinem Beispiel. Knapp vier Jahre später hatten sich insgesamt fünf ehemalige Schüler dem Erzbistum gegenüber als Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs und körperlicher Gewalt im Konvikt offenbart.

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

WIR BRAUCHEN EINE KAMPAGNE GEGEN SEXUELLEN MISSBRAUCH

DEUTSCHLAND
Opinion Club

[WE NEED A CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEXUAL ABUSE]

Von Sebastian Grundke am 22. Februar 2016

Odenwald-Schule, Pädophile bei den Grünen, Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche – diese Fälle sind weitgehend aufgeklärt. Was aber immer noch fehlt, sind adäquate Konsequenzen.

Wir sollten kommenden Generationen Europas Skandale wie jene in der Grünen Partei, der Odenwald-Schule oder in der katholischen Kirche ersparen.

Das klingt selbstverständlich, gerät aber in Vergessenheit. Dazu sollten sexuelle Belästigung, und sexuelle Nötigung sowie Vergewaltigung in Deutschland härter bestraft werden. Zudem sollten die Verjährungsfristen für Sexualverbrechen verlängert oder ganz abgeschafft werden. Auch eine Aufklärungskampagne ist überfällig. Sie sollte sich gegen die Scham der Opfer und die Verharmlosung der Täter und Taten richten. Der Gesetzgeber hat dies alles verschlafen und somit aus den Skandalen nicht die nötigen Konsequenzen gezogen. Hätte er anders gehandelt, wäre vielleicht auch die Silvesternacht in Köln anders verlaufen.

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

Dien een klacht in, het is nog niet te laat

BELGIE
De Standaard

[File a complaint, it’s not too late.]

Meer dan vijftig slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de Kerk, van wie velen zelf voor het eerst naar buiten treden, doen een oproep aan alle andere slachtoffers om een klacht in te dienen, zowel tegen de daders als tegen de kerkelijke hiërarchie.

Wij lanceren deze oproep aan alle Belgen die in hun kindertijd of jeugdjaren werden aangerand en misbruikt door de clerus van de katholieke Kerk in België en die daarover tot heden nooit een klacht hebben ingediend.

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

KERK BETAALT 3,9 MILJOEN NA MISBRUIK

BELGIE
VTM

[In Belgium, the Catholic Church has heard from 1,064 victims of sexual abuse in the past four years and the bishops have paid out 3.9 million euros in damages.]

De afgelopen vier jaar hebben zich in ons land 1.064 slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk gemeld. De Belgische bisschoppen betaalden 3,9 miljoen euro aan schadevergoedingen uit in die periode. Dat blijkt uit het rapport ‘Van taboe naar open beleid’ dat prof. Manu Keirse, emeritus hoogleraar aan de KU Leuven en voorzitter van de Interdiocesane Commissie voor de Bescherming van Kinderen en Jongeren, heeft opgesteld en dat vanmiddag in het Interdiocesaan Centrum in Brussel wordt voorgesteld.

Professor Manu Keirse lijst de initiatieven op die de Belgische bisschoppen hebben genomen om de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door pastoraal aangestelden op te vangen. Zo worden alle slachtoffers van niet-verjaarde feiten geholpen om een klacht in te dienen bij de gerechtelijke instanties. Daarnaast worden ze opgevangen en ondersteund door het opvangpunt. Er werden elf laagdrempelige opvangpunten (één in elk bisdom en twee voor de religieuze congregaties) opgericht en een centraal informatiepunt waar slachtoffers terechtkunnen.

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

A priest on his way to breaking an abuse record

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy

It seemed like a one of those sports records that would never be broken. But given what’s just happened, Fr. Joseph Jeyapaul could surpass Fr. Norman Rogge in the annals of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Rogge is the only priest, as best we can tell, who was put back into ministry twice, after two child sex abuse convictions.

Jeyapaul is half way to equaling this achievement. He’s just been convicted once. But last week, we learned that Vatican officials lifted Jeyapaul’s suspension and his bishop plans to reassign him soon.

This is no joke. This is really happening. In 2016. With the Vatican’s OK.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Rogge’s convictions were in 1967 and 1985. Jeyapaul’s conviction was last year.

[BishopAccountability.org]

We hope, of course, that Jeyapaul equals Rogge in the number of convictions. Though we know of no pending legal action against him, we hope that this breathtakingly reckless decision will prompt other Jeyapaul victims to come forward and pursue more prosecution.

Let’s put it another way: It’s clear that Catholic officials won’t keep Jeyapaul away from kids. So the secular justice system must.

When you get down into the details of the Jeyapaul case, it gets even worse. At least two girls reported being sexually assaulted by Jeyapaul. Both filed civil suits. While those suits and the criminal charges were pending, Jeyapaul’s supervisors let him oversee a group of schools in the Ootacamund Diocese in the Tamil Nadu region of India.

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

Child sex abuse survivors to travel to Rome to sit in the same room as Cardinal George Pell as he gives evidence to the royal commission via video link

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By ISABEL HUNTER IN ROME and LIAM QUINN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Child sex abuse survivors will be able to sit in the same room as Cardinal George Pell as he gives evidence to the royal commission via video link from a hotel in Rome.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan ruled the request from survivors and anti-child abuse advocates was ‘reasonable’, clearing the way for them to make the trip and to watch Cardinal Pell’s testimony.

‘The royal commission has received requests from some survivors that they be able to be present in the room where Cardinal Pell give evidence in Rome next week,’ Justice McClellan said before delivering the opening address at commission’s third stage of hearings in Ballarat, Victoria, on Monday. …

Ballarat victim Andrew Collins said it was important Cardinal Pell’s testimony was given under the same conditions as survivors – in a public forum rather than sitting in a room by himself.
‘It’s also very important for our healing as well to be a part of that,’ Mr Collins said.

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

Susie O’Brien: Cardinal George Pell should step aside while police investigate child sexual abuse claims

AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

February 22, 2016

SUSIE O’BRIEN
The Advertiser

CARDINAL George Pell should immediately be stood down while child sexual abuse allegations are investigated by Victorian police.

Revelations in The Advertiser on Saturday of the police investigation into allegations Cardinal Pell sexually abused between five and 10 boys are serious enough to warrant this move.

Cardinal Pell has strongly denied the allegations, which cover the time he was a priest in Ballarat as well as archbishop of Melbourne.

However, while I am not saying the cardinal is guilty of the allegations, the church cannot ignore the fact that more than a dozen detectives are investigating the matter, involving adults now aged from their late 20s to early 50s.

Cardinal Pell remaining in his current position as the third most senior Catholic globally undermines all of the efforts being done within the church to heal and help victims of child sexual abuse.

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

Removal of international Catholic priest from Belleville Diocese kept quiet locally

ILLINOIS
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Jesse Bogan

CHRISTOPHER, Ill. • Southern Illinois farming communities produce a lot of corn and soybeans, but not many priests these days.

The Belleville Diocese, the organization that oversees Roman Catholic churches in the region, depends on the church’s international ties to recruit missionary priests from across the globe. In Latin, they are called fidei donum, or gift of faith.

The Rev. Peter Balili, of the Philippines, was one such gift, with a tough assignment. He was called to replace the Rev. Steven F. Poole, who was arrested in 2010 for theft.

By many accounts, Balili was a good-hearted priest who was well-liked at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Christopher and St. Mary’s in Sesser, both small towns near Rend Lake. And not just because he kept the parishes alive amid pressures to close churches in remote areas.

Balili seemed to have the spirit to lead his flock out of an embarrassing time. He’d sing “You are my sunshine” and interact with parishioners of all ages.

Then, without fanfare, he left in 2014. Another international priest replaced him. …

There was nothing mysterious about the Rev. Poole’s exit.

Newspapers wrote about how he’d been caught stealing an old tavern sign in 2000 from a Ladue antique store. Then, a decade later, he was arrested trying to steal butter and a sofa cover and swapping price tags on a foam mattress at Walmart in West City, Ill. After treatment, he has since returned to ministry elsewhere.

Churchgoers never knew why Balili left, according to several interviews with parishioners over the past few months.

When asked Thursday, a receptionist at St. Andrew said: “That I have no comment on, goodbye.”

None of the congregants contacted for this story said they were aware that the Belleville Diocese had, in fact, kicked out Balili and requested that he be sent back to the Diocese of Tagbilaran in the Philippines.

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

Pedophile priest treated for anxiety

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Counselling organised for pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale by the Catholic Church amounted to treating him for anxiety, which disappeared when he realised he would not face criminal charges.

Ridsdale was sent to a psychiatrist in 1975 after an abuse complaint was made against him.

Counsel assisting the child abuse royal commission Gail Furness SC said psychiatrist Peter Evans had three or four sessions with Ridsdale, who denied the allegation.

Dr Evans will tell the commission he made no judgment on whether Ridsdale was guilty, Ms Furness said.

“He simply treated him by allaying his anxiety pending the outcome of police investigations,” she said on Monday.

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

Child sex abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat student ‘beaten up by convicted child abuser’

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth
Updated February 22, 2016

A former student of St Patrick’s College in Ballarat says he was beaten up by convicted child abuser Brother Edward Dowlan after reporting him to the school for “putting his hands” down students’ pants.

Timothy Barlow told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he took it as “common knowledge” that boys were being abused at the school as rumours about brothers sexually assaulting students in their dorms was well known.

“It was survival of the fittest,” he told the inquiry.

Mr Barlow was on the student representative council at the Christian Brother’s school in 1973.

He said he saw Brother Dowlan putting his hands down the pants of students, describing it as frequent enough for all students to know it happened.

Mr Barlow was asked to help by younger students and moved that the student council ask principal Brother Paul Nangle to intervene.

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

Christian Brother ‘gyrated’ against me: Catholic sexual abuse victim

AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 22, 2016

Chris Johnston

Martinus Claassen was a Catholic schoolboy in Ballarat through the late 1960s into the 1970s. This, as we now know from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, was potentially dangerous. And he wasn’t spared.

The 54-year-old’s mother was waived from paying fees at St Patrick’s College, a Christian Brothers high school, because her husband, Mr Claassen’s father, had died. One weekend just after Mr Claassen started at the school in 1974 he went to Melbourne for the weekend and forgot to take his homework.

Back at school, he was confronted in class by Brother Edward Dowlen, now jailed for child sexual abuse offences. Mr Claassen was sitting at his desk. He told Monday’s royal commission hearing in Ballarat the brother leaned in close to him, spoke very softly to him about his missing homework and started stroking his thigh and genitals.

The royal commission heard 853 Australians have claimed child sexual abuse against one or more Christian Brothers, with 75 per cent of victims under the age of 13 and 98 per cent of them male. The church has paid out more than $37 million in compensation, averaging $64,000 per victim.

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

Get me my conversion therapist

MALTA
Malta Today

Saviour Balzan 22 February 2016

I am sure the Maltese Archbishop has been privy to studies and reports which he has opted not to publish for public consumption. Archbishop Charles Scicluna chose to publish the Church’s position paper on conversion therapy because he deems it fit and because somehow it contributes to the way he believes things should work out.

I am sure for example that, for reasons known only to himself, he opted not to publish the reports he has seen on paedophilia and sexual abuse in the Maltese church.

With the plethora of unknown cases of priests who have abused young children abroad and in Malta I can understand his line of thinking.

I cannot of course agree.

Yesterday’s decision to publish the paper as a reaction to the government’s decision to criminalise the conversion therapy of homosexuals goes to prove that the bubbly, intelligent, devout hard core Nationalist, semi-modern cleric is nothing but a conservative and a dinosaur.

I know that the contributors to the church’s report are all eminent scholars or academics but it does not change the fact that blocking the criminalisation of the conversion therapy is equivalent to taking the clock back. The only conversion therapist I have heard of is a Gordon Manche, a Maltese evangelist who looks and sounds like an anorexic version of Emy Bezzina and who thinks that God’s grace is awarded according to how many times you can say Jesus in one sentence.

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

Family recounts interactions with South Side pastor charged with assault

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

Matt McCall
Chicago Tribune

For more than a decade the modest Gresham neighborhood church was the center of the family’s life.

The mother was a church council member, praise leader and Sunday school teacher. Her daughter was in the youth ministry.

They said they felt the Rev. George Waddles Sr., the charismatic pastor and leader of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, was a true man of God. Three to four days a week, the family served the church in some way.

That ended in 2014 after the then 15-year-old daughter alleged Waddles had abused her during a counseling session in his office, according to court records.

Waddles was charged in September with aggravated criminal sexual abuse after turning himself in to police, a Class 2 felony that carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. He later pleaded not guilty. Under Waddles’ bond conditions, he is allowed to preach at the church but is barred from contact with minors when adults are not present.

The victim’s family is concerned that Waddles is still at the church and a group that advocates for sexual assault victims is asking that he step down from his leadership position while the case is pending.

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

Abuse victims can attend Pell testimony in Rome, inquiry says

AUSTRALIA
BBC News

An inquiry into child sex abuse in Australia has cleared the way for victims to be present when Australia’s most senior Catholic gives testimony.

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief, will speak to the inquiry from Rome next week.
He has been excused from returning to Australia because of ill health, which has angered child abuse survivors.

The commissioner, Justice Peter McClellan, said it was “reasonable” for victims to watch Cardinal Pell speak.

The logistics of having Cardinal Pell testify in front of victims were previously in question, but Justice McClellan said a suitable hotel room had been found in central Rome.

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

Child sex abuse victims to come face-to-face with Cardinal George Pell

AUSTRALIA
7 News

AFP

An Australian inquiry into child sex abuse has agreed that victims may be present when Cardinal George Pell gives evidence from Rome, as Catholic bishops called for him to be treated fairly.

Vatican finance chief Pell, who claims he is the subject of a smear campaign, has said he is too unwell to travel to Australia and will give evidence via video-link from Rome next week.

The Royal Commission, which is looking into how Catholic authorities in Melbourne and the Victorian city of Ballarat responded to claims of abuse, said it had received requests from survivors to be present for Pell’s questioning.

“The Commission considers that to be a reasonable request,” chair Justice Peter McClellan said.

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

Victims of Catholic child sex abuse to hear evidence from Pope’s confidante

AUSTRALIA
Express

By KIERAN CORCORAN
Feb 22, 2016

Victims of historic sex crimes will witness the pontiff’s finance minister give evidence to a royal inquiry.

Ailing Cardinal George Pell, 74, will speak from Rome to a commission in Australia, where the abuse took place.

A judge running the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said Cardinal Pell could testify via video link because he is ill.

But some affected by the scandal, which has been rumbling in Australia for decades, will make the trip to Rome to be there in person.

Cardinal Pell, a native of Ballarat, a one-time hotbed of abuse, will be charged with explaining how church bosses responded to the abuse claims at the time.

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

Our search is for the truth concerning allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Pell

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell’s strident supporters are wrong to characterise the Herald Sun revelations of a secret Victoria Police investigation into the Cardinal as a “witch hunt” or a “smear”.

Our exclusive front page report by senior reporter Lucie Morris-Marr that Sano Taskforce has been secretly investigating the Cardinal was investigative journalism at its finest.

It was in the public interest to reveal that the third most powerful Catholic leader in the world was the subject of a secret police investigation. There has been far too much secrecy surrounding the Catholic Church and as much light as is possible needs to be shone in its direction.

This is a search for the truth.

A statement from the Vatican, as well as vehemently denying allegations on the Cardinal’s behalf, also called for a public inquiry into what it claimed was a police “leak.’’

This has been refused by the Victorian Government with Treasurer Tim Pallas declaring an inquiry into the police inquiry would be “a bit like a dog chasing its tail’’.

Mr Pallas said it was more important that the substance of the issues were determined by the royal commission into child sex abuse and Victoria Police investigations.

The extraordinary allegations made against Cardinal Pell may soon lead detectives to question Australia’s most senior cleric at the Vatican, where he is the third in the church’s hierarchy.

The allegations, while unproved, are manifestly serious and involve claims of sexual abuse against between five and 10 boys.

The Herald Sun repeats it is not suggesting the Cardinal is guilty of these latest allegations, only that the claims are being investigated.

They come from a period when the Catholic Church and other churches and institutions were found to harbour clergy who have preyed upon children rather than protect them. Cardinal Pell is alleged to have committed offences against several child victims at a swimming pool in Ballarat in 1978. Other incidents are alleged to have taken place with altar boys at St Patrick’s Cathedral between 1996 and 2001 when Cardinal Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne.

The cardinal has always made himself available to investigations into widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests and is about to be questioned by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse over video-link to Rome where it is expected these latest claims will be put to him.

Cardinal Pell, who is 74, declared he was unable to come to Australia because of heart complications.

The royal commission into child sex abuse at its Ballarat hearings this week expects to hear evidence from Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who was in charge of the Ballarat diocese between 1971 and 1997.

Priests, including the convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale, were being moved between parishes rather than reported to police. Cardinal Pell served on a committee chaired by Bishop Mulkearns, which was concerned with the movement of priests. The cardinal, who was then a young priest, has denied all knowledge of these incidents.

The royal commission has insisted on questioning Bishop Mulkearns, although sex abuse victims say he has failed to give evidence on previous occasions because of ill health and the commission has been told he has terminal cancer and his answers may be vague at best.

The commission, while accepting that Cardinal Pell is too ill to undertake a long flight to Australia, has agreed that child abuse victims can travel to Rome to be present at his video-link hearing.

This is expected to take four days and lawyers representing victims have also indicated they want to attend the video-link hearings.

The truth will only be realised with utter transparency on the part of all concerned and is the priority of this newspaper in publishing these latest harrowing allegations.

Our interest is the public interest. The truth must out.

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

February 21, 2016

No need for Pell leak inquiry: Pallas

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

There’s no need for an inquiry into how Victoria Police’s investigation of sexual assault allegations against Cardinal George Pell was made public, Treasurer Tim Pallas says.

Allegations Cardinal Pell abused between five to 10 boys during his time in Victoria were in the Herald Sun newspaper on Saturday, and Mr Pallas said he was concerned the allegations had been made public.

“(But) ultimately we’ve got royal commissions, we’ve got police investigations, if you added inquiries into that quite frankly it’s a bit like a dog chasing its tail,” Mr Pallas told reporters on Monday.

“It’s more important that the substance of the issues are determined and the matters are properly before the royal commission and Victoria Police investigations.”

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

Hundreds of child sex abuse complaints made against Christian Brothers, royal commission hears

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Sunday 21 February 2016

In Australia, 853 people have made a claim or substantiated complaint of child sexual abuse against one or more Christian Brothers, with 75% of victims under the age of 13 at the time, a royal commission has heard.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has turned its attention to the Christian Brothers as the third round of its hearings into the diocese of Ballarat began on Monday. A religious community within the Catholic church, the Christian Brothers primarily worked in educational facilities for children.

In all, 281 individual members of the Christian Brothers in Australia have been subject to one or more claims or substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse, the commission heard, with 45% of that abuse occurring in Tasmania or Victoria.

The commission’s data showed that the highest number of claims of child sexual abuse were against a brother identified only as Brother CCK, who had 46 complaints made against him about incidents in Victoria and Tasmania. The average age of his victims was 11 years old and the abuse occurred between 1963 and 1987, including in Ballarat.

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

Andrew Bolt lashes out at Herald Sun reporter over George Pell story

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Amanda Meade
Sunday 21 February 2016

A Herald Sun report claiming Cardinal George Pell is being investigated by police over child abuse allegations has sparked angry words between the paper’s top columnist Andrew Bolt and the reporter behind the exclusive story.

Bolt, who calls himself a friend of the Vatican official, labelled Lucie Morris-Marr’s report that police were investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Pell a week before he was due to appear before the royal commission a vicious and shameful smear which was part of a “sinister” campaign to destroy the cardinal.

But Morris-Marr, a senior writer on the Herald Sun, defended her story, saying it was not the result of leaks or a smear campaign but grew out of an old-fashioned investigation.

Pell has strongly denied allegations of involvement in child sexual abuse, saying they are without foundation and utterly false.

In his column in Monday’s paper Bolt said the Pell report published in the Herald Sun on Saturday was worse than “vicious and shameful” and the leak to the paper “stinks”.

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

Child sex abuse victims to hear cardinal’s testimony in Rome

AUSTRALIA
Washington Post

BALLARAT, Australia — Victims of clergy abuse have won permission to be present next week when Pope Francis’s finance minister testifies from Rome to an Australian inquiry into child sex offenses within the Roman Catholic Church.

The inquiry’s chairman Justice Peter McClellan said Monday that child abuse victims angry that Cardinal George Pell will not return to Australia to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have requested that they be allowed to hear in person Pell’s testimony by video conference.

McClellan said: “The commission considers that to be a reasonable request.”

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

Christian Brother hugged after complaint

AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

A pedophile Christian Brother was hugged by a superior after a child sex abuse complaint was made against him, an inquiry has heard.

Convicted pedophile Stephen Farrell has told the child abuse royal commission he was given a cuddle by Brother Paul Nangle after the 1970s St Patrick’s Christian Brothers’ superior received an abuse complaint involving Farrell and a year five student.

“He just put his arms around me and gave me a long cuddle. No words were said,” Mr Farrell told the commission during a private hearing, the inquiry heard on Monday.

“He then just walked out. And this was Brother Nangle’s way of coping with this, you know, of helping me.”

The hearing in Ballarat is focusing on the Catholic order’s handling of child sex abuse allegations involving six Christian Brothers, all of whom spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.

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

Can Australian Catholicism Save Itself From Its Ultra-Conservative Forces?

AUSTRALIA
New Matilda

By Hugh Harris on February 22, 2016

Led by George Pell, the Catholic Church in Australia has lost its way. Hugh Harris believes there’s only one path to reform.

The leaked allegations of child abuse against Cardinal George Pell aren’t surprising, nor should they particularly diminish anyone’s opinion of him. Simply, there’s no room below rock-bottom. No need then for a new Tim Minchin song, or any reappraisal at all. Whether they have basis in fact remains to be seen.

The only certainty is that, regardless of the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, or the outcome of police investigations, Pell will never face a punishment commensurate with his failures.

This is just the latest in a series of recent public relations disasters for the Catholic Church. The aftershocks will reverberate for some time. But amidst these ructions, Australian Catholicism might find a ray of hope in casting out some of its more vocal and acidulous conservative colleagues. A more progressive and non-partisan church leadership would be a good thing – and dare I say, one more in line with the Christian values espoused by Jesus.

Pell cited health grounds to avoid appearing in person for the hearings of the Royal Commission. Given the year-long investigation into multiple allegations of abuse against him by the Victoria Police SANO taskforce, many will conclude he had other reasons for refusing to come. Pell cannot be compelled to answer questions whilst he remains in Rome.

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

“¿Ahora en quién vamos a confiar?”

GUADALAJARA (MEXICO)
Periódico AM Noticias [León, Guanajuato, Mexico]

February 21, 2016

By Jesús Garcia

Read original article

Una familia abrió las puertas de su casa a un sacerdote al que estimaban, y éste abusó de una niña de 11 años y de otra de cinco. Las víctimas del pederasta podrían ser muchas más.

Por veinte años, María y Efraín abrieron las puertas de su casa al sacerdote Francisco Javier García Rodríguez. Lo querían y respetaban como un miembro más de la familia. 

El religioso traicionó esa confianza, al abusar sexualmente de una sobrina de la pareja, de 11 años de edad, y al hacer tocamientos a su nieta, de 5 años.

Sentada a un costado de la hamaca que cuelga en la entrada de su casa, los ojos verdes de María expresan tristeza, dolor, rabia y coraje mientras platica cómo el padre Javier afectó el hogar conformado por sus tres hijos y cuatro sobrinos.

Desde hace seis años la mujer habitante de la comunidad de Punta Perula, municipio costero de La Huerta, Jalisco, tiene la patria potestad de 4 hijos de una hermana mayor que falleció en 2009.

Cuando se le pregunta cómo va el proceso que se sigue contra el sacerdote Francisco Javier, por la violación de su sobrina Dulce (pidió no revelar su nombre real), la mujer duda en hablar. Luego ofrece una silla al reportero y comienza a platicar.

“¿Ahora en quién vamos a confiar?”, suelta enojada, dolida por la traición del padre Francisco Javier, quien está preso por violación de su sobrina, en un proceso que se lleva a cabo en un juzgado de Cihuatlán, Jalisco.

“Se supone que le teníamos la confianza por ser sacerdote, por la edad y el tiempo que teníamos conociéndolo”.

Abusos en Jueves Santo

Trae a su mente aquel Jueves Santo del 2015 que nunca olvidará. Ese día el sacerdote le dijo que llevaría a su nieta de cinco años y dos hermanos de Dulce a bañar en una alberca del hotel que hay en la comunidad.

Dulce quería ir también, pero le pidió que se quedara para ayudarle en el negocio de comida que tienen a 30 metros de la playa.

Por la tarde, cuando el sacerdote regresó con los niños, una de las empleadas del hotel les platicó que había visto al religioso tocando a la niña de cinco años. 

Cuando María le preguntó a su nieta lo que el padre le hacía en las albercas, la menor dijo que le “tocaba”.

“Yo dije: ¿por qué hace eso? Yo todavía no quería creer, porque era una persona que en la noche nos ponía rezar el rosario, a la hora de la comida la bendecíamos y el domingo nos decía levántense que vamos ir a misa”, relata confundida María.

La violación

Las peregrinaciones por la Semana Santa en el pueblo comenzaron en la tarde y el sacerdote participó en ellas junto a los seminaristas que llegaron de Guadalajara. María lo observaba muy contento y se negaba a creer lo que le contaron. Aunque ya no confió que se llevara a los niños para estar con ellos a solas.

Los actos religiosos por Semana Santa terminaron y el domingo por la noche el sacerdote llegó a casa a dormir, como los anteriores días. 

“Pensé: pues voy a esperar a ver qué. Mi esposo se fue a pescar de noche, me acosté y ya no me podía dormir. En eso me venció el sueño. Cuando desperté me acordé y dije: ¿por qué serán las cosas así?”, recuerda María.

Se levantó y se asomó al cuarto de los niños, en donde también dormía el sacerdote que había sido párroco en El Grullo, Jalisco, y otras comunidades.

Entre penumbras, notó que el padre no estaba en su cama y lo vio cerca de donde dormía la niña Dulce, de 11 años, y su hermanito. En otra cama dormían dos niños más. María pasó de largo hacia la cocina para tomar agua y en ese momento escuchó un ruido de los resortes del colchón. El padre Javier había regresado a su cama.

La mujer nuevamente volvió a su cuarto. El sueño se le había espantado. Estaba inquieta. ¿Por qué el sacerdote se había levantado de su cama y se había acercado a donde dormía su sobrina?

Apenas pasaron unos minutos y escuchó nuevamente el ruido del colchón. El padre Javier caminó hacia su cuarto. María lo vio entrar y se enderezó de la cama.

“Yo quiero pedirte perdón, sé que lo harás porque eres una mujer buena”, le dijo el sacerdote mientras se arrodillaba frente a María, quien escuchaba desconcertada. 

“Ya me voy”, dijo el padre y salió de la casa.

El religioso no iba a pescar como otras veces. Aquella noche salió huyendo de Punta Perula al verse descubierto. No paró en su huída hasta El Grullo, su pueblo natal ubicado a tres horas de la costa.

La confesión

María ya no pudo dormir y esperó a que amaneciera. Llamó a su sobrina para preguntarle si el sacerdote la había tocado, porque ella había visto cuando se había levantado de su cama.

-Quiero pedirte que me digas si él antes te ha faltado al respeto -le preguntó a su sobrina, de 11 años.

-No tía, nunca -respondió la niña asustada.

-Mira, hay niñas que las tocan y por miedo no dicen nada y a veces hasta las embarazan –le insistió María. 

Dulce comenzó a temblar y sus manos no paraban. Estaba muy nerviosa y tenía miedo a hablar. Entre lágrimas le dijo a su tía que el padre Javier  le tocaba las piernas y que luego le daba abrazos y besos en el cachete, cuando se ponía a ver películas con él y se encerraban en un cuartito de la casa.

Luego, con crudeza, confesó que el padre la había violado.

-¿Pero por qué no me decías? –le preguntó María a la niña.

-Es que yo tenía mucho miedo porque el padre me decía que no sé qué tanto me iba a hacer y que iba a violar a mi hermano –contestó la menor entre llanto.

María abrazó a su sobrina que no paraba de llorar. Le pidió que fuera a bañarse para después almorzar.

“Le dije, él ya no va a volver a esta casa, no te va hacer daño, ni te va reclamar ni nada, la abracé, yo quería llorar pero me aguanté, porque si no ¿cómo la voy ayudar?”.

‘¡Me va escuchar!’

Con rabia, María tomó el celular y le escribió al sacerdote para reclamarle.

-¿Cómo está usted? –le dijo.

-Bien, muchas gracias, aquí estoy desayunado con mis papás –le respondió.

-Pues qué bueno que usted esté bien. ¿Y su conciencia cómo está? Porque la niña está destrozada, acabo de hablar con ella y ya me confió toda la verdad de todas las babosadas que usted le ha hecho.

-Luego hablamos, estoy desayunando con mis papás –acotó el sacerdote.

-Me vale madre, me va a escuchar ahorita –dijo furiosa María. ¿Por qué lo hizo? ¿Qué motivos tuvo para hacer eso? ¿No pensó en que la niña podía quedar embarazada?

-No podía quedar embarazada porque sólo hubo tocamientos –contestó con cinismo el padre.

Estos mensajes y otros más forman parte del expediente en el juzgado de Cihuatlán, Jalisco, donde está siendo procesado Javier García Rodríguez desde junio pasado.

“Hizo sus babosadas en los días más grandes que se respetan (la Semana Santa), me arrepiento de haberle abierto las puertas de mi casa, pero eso nos pasa por buenos y pendejos que somos”, dijo María, la tía de la niña violada por el padre.

Ofrecen 500 pesos

Unos días después de la violación, María recibió una llamada del padre Javier García, donde le avisaba que uno de sus hermanos le había dicho que tenía que reparar el daño.

“Me dijo que me iba a depositar 500 pesos. Le dije: no, padre, con dinero no se paga el daño y la burla que le hizo a mis criaturas”, recordó. 

Dos semanas después, la mujer acudió a poner la demanda en contra del padre Javier García, quien fue detenido el viernes 26 de junio del 2015 en la comunidad El Chante, municipio de El Grullo, donde se encontraba escondido en la casa parroquial.

Un día antes de la detención, el entonces Obispo de Autlán, Gonzalo Galván Castillo, dejó su cargo y la Santa Sede anunció mediante un comunicado que había aceptado la renuncia del sacerdote leonés “por causas graves”.

‘Es un enfermo mental’

Compañeros de clero del sacerdote Javier García y familiares reconocieron que hay indicios de que el religioso cometió más abusos contra menores de edad, en las distintas comunidades en donde desempeñó su ministerio.

En El Chante, Jalisco, lugar donde fue detenido Javier García por la Fiscalía General de Jalisco, su compañero de clero Gabriel Uribe Naranjo lo describió como un enfermo mental.

“No se han dicho las cosas exactas, él ya no era sacerdote, tenía 5 meses que no era cuando lo detuvieron aquí, pero Javier es un enfermo mental”, dijo Gabriel Uribe.

Desde el pasado 7 de octubre, Uribe Naranjo está a cargo del templo de la Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa en El Chante. En este lugar se escondía el padre Javier luego de que se enteró de la orden de aprehensión.

“Una persona que le prohíben ejercer (como sacerdote) pues lógico que es culpable, internamente él (el padre Javier) ya había sido separado por la Iglesia, ya no tenía parroquia, aquí lo detuvieron pero no era párroco”, dijo enfático el sacerdote Uribe.

La misma situación describe otro de sus compañeros de clero, el señor cura Martín Pelayo Díaz, encargado de la parroquia de la comunidad El Chico, Jalisco.

“Hacía 5 meses que ya había llegado de Roma su dimisión y desde un principio tenía esa problemática (de abusos), se sabían cosas así, que tenía problemas psicológicos, yo mismo le aconsejé que fuera a atenderse”.

Platicó que el padre Javier siempre les expresaba que estaba “enamorado” de su sacerdocio, que no lo quería dejar.

“Yo mismo le decía: mira, tú no estás bien, porque aunque no había habido denuncias se sabía por debajito del agua que habían algunas faltas de respeto, no eran denuncias, sólo eran algunas quejas”.

Martín Pelayo lo ha ido a visitar al lugar donde está recluido en Cihuatlán, Jalisco, y asegura que lo ve tranquilo.

“Yo fui a verlo, lo veo tranquilo, él dice que es inocente y que se siente bien ahí adentro, que es como si estuviera haciendo su apostolado con los presos”.

‘Se lo advertí’

Guillermo García Rodríguez, uno de los hermanos del padre Javier, preso por abusar de una niña, reconoció que conocía de las debilidades de su hermano.

“Yo tuve muchas diferencias con él, yo se lo advertí, estoy distanciado desde hace muchos años, no somos muy cercanos”.

Jaime García, otro de sus hermanos que lo está apoyando en el proceso judicial, se limitó a decir: “El abogado de San Patricio Melaque no nos ha dicho nada y yo no quiero hablar porque luego se tergiversan las declaraciones de uno, es algo muy delicado que a la familia nos ha afectado”.

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

Cardinal George Pell: Child abuse royal commission trying to find location for survivors to hear testimony

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Farnsworth
Updated February 22, 2016

The child abuse royal commission has announced it is trying to find a suitable location in Rome to allow abuse survivors to be present when Cardinal George Pell gives evidence next week.

A group of survivors has been pushing to be allowed to hear Cardinal Pell’s evidence in person, after he was given permission to give evidence via video link from Rome due to ill health.

Commissioner Justice Peter McClellan told the third public hearing sitting in Ballarat it was a “reasonable” request.

He told the inquiry a suitable hotel room in central Rome had been located and tests would be carried out to ensure the hearing could be video linked back to Sydney.

He added if that room was not suitable, another location would be found.

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

Abuse victims’ request to hear Cardinal Pell’s evidence in Rome a ‘reasonable’ request, Royal Commission says

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

It is a reasonable request for clergy abuse survivors to be in the room in Rome when Cardinal George Pell gives evidence via a video link, an inquiry chair has ruled.

Child abuse royal commission chair Justice Peter McClellan on Monday said technical testing was still being carried out at a hotel in central Rome for Cardinal Pell’s evidence to the hearing in Sydney next week.

A crowd funding campaign has raised more than $200,000 to send a group of clergy abuse survivors and support personnel to Rome to hear Cardinal Pell’s testimony over three days from next Monday.

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

Commission says abuse victims will get to hear Cardinal George Pell give evidence from Roman hotel room

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 22, 2016

Chris Johnston
Senior Writer for The Age

Clerical abuse survivors from Ballarat will be able to listen to Cardinal George Pell’s evidence before a Royal Commission from a hotel room in Rome next week.

A Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Ballarat was told this morning the request to fly to Rome – paid for by a successful crowd-funding campaign – to hear Cardinal Pell from Rome rather than Sydney was, according to Justice Peter Maclellan, “reasonable.”

Cardinal Pell’s evidence will be heard while the Commission sits in Sydney next Monday.

However Justice Maclellan said the Australian embassy in Rome had secured a hotel room with the appropriate technical facilities to get a signal of his evidence to Sydney and accommodate the survivors who want to be in Rome to hear it.

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

George Pell evidence: royal commission says victims can be present in Rome

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey
@MelissaLDavey
Sunday 21 February 2016

Arrangements are being made for child sexual abuse survivors to witness Cardinal George Pell give evidence in person in Rome after the chair of the commission found their request “not unreasonable”.

The third round of hearings into abuse that occurred within the Diocese of Ballarat began on Monday morning. Justice Peter McClellan opened by addressing the campaign by survivors and their supporters to go to Rome to see Pell’s evidence on 29 February.

“The royal commission has received requests from some survivors that they be able to be present in the room where Cardinal Pell give evidence in Rome next week,” McClellan said before the delivering of the opening address.

“The commission considers that to be a reasonable request. With the assistance of the Australian embassy in Rome we have located a room in a hotel in Central Rome which I am advised has the technical facilities to ensure an effective signal to Australia.”

Testing of that room would occur Monday, McClellan said. He would make an announcement on Tuesday as to the suitability of the room.

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

Leifer fails to show

ISRAEL
J-Wire

February 22, 2016 by J-Wire Staff

At a hearing in the Jerusalem District Court Sunday the Judge issued a ruling that Malka Leifer, former principal of the Adass Yisroel Girls School in Melbourne, accused of sexual abuse, be re-evaluated by a State psychiatrist.

Her fight to avoid extradition to Australia to stand trial has dragged on for 18 months. She has so far successfully evaded being sent back because of alleged panic attacks every time a court hearing has been set. This time, her defence lawyer unsuccessfully argued to have the case dismissed because of his client’s medical condition. However on this occasion the judge rejected the plea and ordered another evaluation by a state psychiatrist which will be presented to the court on 20 March at which time he will decide on if and how the case should proceed.

The State prosecutor maintained that Malka Leifer’s panic attacks were designed to permanently postpone her return to Australia and that the question of whether she was fit to stand trial was a matter for the Australian courts to decide.

The former principal at Melbourne’s Adass Israel girls’ school fled Australia in 2008 ahead of formal complaints.

Although this case has been virtually ignored by the Israeli media in the past, it now seems that local support groups of sexual abuse s are rallying behind the victims and demanding that the matter be speedily resolved.

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

An unholy mess

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 22 February 2016

Cardinal George Pell still has a lot of questions to answer before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. On medical advice he has decided not to risk the long plane flight home from Rome. This makes things much harder for victims seeking closure.

It makes things harder for others, including members of the Catholic Church and citizens wanting certainty about the appalling offences of the past and clarity about the failures of church leaders adequately to protect children from repeated abuse by pedophiles.

Given the response to Tim Minchin’s song, it also makes things harder for Pell. But that’s his decision. The rest of us have to live with his decision, and do the best we can to ensure the that royal commission can do its job well, primarily for the good of the victims and to ensure the future protection of children in institutions.

Victims travelling to Rome have asked that Pell meet with them. He has said he will. They have also asked to be present in the room while he gives his evidence. That request is not one Pell can grant; it needs to be considered by the royal commission.

This request could be granted only if it were possible to provide a suitable court room in Rome where Pell could give his evidence in the presence of the public. Such a room would need to be open to the public, and not just to victims.

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

Case Study 28, February 2016, Ballarat – Live hearing

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

[live steam]

Stage 3: February 2016

The Royal Commission will hold the third part of the public hearing regarding the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat commencing on 22 February 2016 at the Ballarat Magistrates Court.

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.

The Trench Room at Ballarat Town Hall will be made available for members of the community during the public hearing, including Cardinal Pell’s evidence.

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

Israeli judge rejects former Melbourne Jewish school principal’s plea to drop extradition over sex abuse claims

ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill
Updated February 22, 2016

An Israeli judge has rejected a plea to drop the extradition case of a former principal accused of molesting students at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne.

At a hearing on Sunday at the Jerusalem District Court, attorney Yehuda Fried told Judge Amnon Cohen that former Adass Israel School principal Malka Leifer went into “panic attacks” whenever her court date approached.

“The attempts to extradite her to Australia has put her in a panicked state. Since then she has started to get waves of panic causing depression,” Mr Fried told the court.

“Why are we doing this to her?”

It was the seventh court hearing to determine whether Ms Leifer was mentally well enough to be extradited to Australia.

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

Bischof beurlaubt Priester aus Horstmar

DEUTSCHLAND
Westfalische Nachrichten

[Stellungnahme von Pfarrdechant Johannes Büll]

[Priest originally from Nigeria has been on leave from Horstmar after allegations of child sexual abuse were made.]

Horstmar/Münster –
Weil er ein Kind sexuell missbraucht haben soll, hat der Bischof von Münster, Dr. Felix Genn, einen Geistlichen beurlaubt, der seit 2012 in der Kirchengemeinde St. Gertrudis in Horstmar tätig war. Der 48-Jährige hat auf Weisung des Bischofs die Gemeinde inzwischen verlassen und hält sich derzeit in einem Kloster auf.

Von Axel Roll

In Horstmar steht ein Priester in Verdacht, ein Kind sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Der Bischof von Münster, Dr. Felix Genn, hat den Seelsorger beurlaubt. Der Geistliche war zuletzt in der Kirchengemeinde St. Gertrudis im Einsatz.

„Gegen den aus Nigeria stammenden Geistlichen werden Vorwürfe erhoben, im vergangenen Jahr sexuell intendierte Handlungen an einem Kind vorgenommen zu haben“, heißt es wörtlich in der Pressemitteilung des Bistums zu diesem Vorfall.

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

«Spotlight»: Formidabler Thriller um Missbrauch

DEUTSCHLAND
MV

Berlin (dpa) – Mit sechs Nominierungen gehört «Spotlight» mit zu den Favoriten bei den diesjährigen Oscars. Kurz vor der Verleihung kommt das packende Drama rund um sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche von Boston nun auch in die deutschen Kinos.

Inszeniert von US-Regisseur Tom McCarthy («Station Agent») ist der Thriller, der auf wahren Ereignissen basiert, mit Darstellern wie Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber und Michel Keaton stark besetzt.

Im Jahr 2003 erhielt das renommierte, 1872 gegründete Traditions-Blatt «The Boston Globe» den Pulitzer-Preis für eine Reihe von Artikeln, in denen ein Missbrauchsskandal unerhörten Ausmaßes innerhalb der katholischen Kirche Bostons aufgedeckt wurde. Atemlos und sehr stringent erzählt uns Regisseur und Drehbuchautor McCarthy in «Spotlight» nun, wie es zu den Enthüllungen kommen konnte.

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

Obispos involucrados en casos de abuso sexual, deben renunciar: Papa Francisco

Diario de Morelos

[The pope said bishops must resign if they moving pedophile priests from parish to parish.]

El papa Francisco declaró el jueves que cualquier obispo que transfiera a un cura sospechoso de abuso sexual de una parroquia a otra debe renunciar.

El pontífice habló del tema del abuso de menores por parte de curas en su viaje de regreso desde México, donde las víctimas del padre Marcial Maciel aún están traumatizadas por las violaciones que él cometió.

“Es una monstruosidad”, declaró el papa en referencia al abuso sexual de menores, “porque un sacerdote está consagrado a traer a un niño a Dios. Y si lo que comete es un sacrificio diabólico, lo destruye”.

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

Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to give evidence to royal commission into child sex abuse

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The royal commission is expected to hear from the former Bishop of Ballarat as it continues to investigate historic child sex abuse in the western Victorian city.

Ronald Mulkearns was in charge of the Ballarat diocese during one of its darkest periods.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has already heard that the former bishop received numerous complaints about paedophile priests over three decades.

But those complaints were not referred to police.

The royal commission heard Bishop Mulkearns instead moved the priests around western Victoria where they continued to offend.

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

Cardinal Pell may never return to Australia

AUSTRALIA
3AW

February 22, 2016

Cardinal George Pell says he doesn’t know if he’ll ever return to Australia amid claims he’s being investigated by Victoria Police for alleged sexual abuse.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the bombshell report in the Herald Sun, Cardinal Pell reportedly said he doesn’t know if he’ll ever come back to Australia, where he is reportedly under investigation by Victoria Police for alleged sexual abuse of up to 10 boys across four decades.

Having issued a lengthy statement on Friday strongly denying the allegations, the 74-year-old said he has said enough already and has co-operated.

Senior police are yet to decide whether there is enough evidence to justify seeking an interview.

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

How Spotlight cast the ‘Voice of God,’ and how the Church has (or hasn’t) changed

UNITED STATES
Entertainment Weekly

BY JEFF LABRECQUE • @JEFFLABRECQUE

Posted February 19 2016

The Spotlight cast boasts one of the deepest acting benches in recent memory. Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams received Oscar nominations for playing two of the Boston Globe reporters who exposed decades of clerical sex abuse in 2002, but the entire ensemble — which includes Billy Crudup, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, and many others — has been justly celebrated, winning the group acting prize from the Screen Actors Guild. There’s one player, however, who hasn’t necessarily enjoyed the same attention, even though he’s an Oscar-nominated actor who plays a pivotal role in the film: Richard Jenkins.

If you don’t recall seeing Jenkins, you’re not wrong. He’s never seen, but his performance is loud and clear. Jenkins plays Richard Sipe, the ex-priest whose detailed research about sexual proclivities of Catholic clergy members helped guide the Spotlight reporters when they were still stumbling around in the dark. Some of his accusations are shocking, to the Globe reporters and the movie audience: he estimated that 6 percent of priests act out sexually with children and alleged that Boston’s esteemed Cardinal Bernard Law buried a study that raised similar questions and concerns years before. “Richard understood the culture of secrecy that was generated by the celibacy requirement that resulted in the clergy being a wonderful place for pedophiles and other abusers to hide and prey on children,” says Globe reporter Mike Rezendes, who’s portrayed by Ruffalo in the film. “He became kind of our guru for the entire project for the rest of a year and a half.”

In fact, Sipe had met face-to-face with the Globe reporters at least once, but most of their communication was via phone, which writer/director Tom McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer quickly latched on to for dramatic effect. “Tom and I referred to him almost as the Voice of God,” says Singer. “There was something really interesting about hearing these facts over the phone. That way, you get them unvarnished: there’s no person or personality attached. You can really focus on the facts. I think it makes the audience lean-in and listen.”

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

Deaf victims of Catholic abuse in Quebec get a huge pay-out

CANADA
The Freethinker

A judge has ordered a Catholic religious order, the Clercs de St Viateur du Canada, and the church-run Montreal Insitute for the Deaf to pay $30 million to a group of former students who were sexually assaulted by priests.

According to this report, the settlement for sexual assault is the largest in Quebec history.

At least 60 deaf students were assaulted by members of the religious community and lay people working at the school between 1940 and 1982. The school changed its name to the Institut Raymond-Dewar in 1984.

The judgment brings to an end a long and painful process that began with the authorisation of a class action suit in 2012.

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

Cardinal George Pell speaks out for the first time since allegations he sexually abused minors – and says his health is ‘holding up’ and he would ‘of course cooperate’ with a police investigation

ROME
Daily Mail

By ISABEL HUNTER IN ROME FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Cardinal George Pell was in good spirits today as he repeated his insistence that he would ‘of course cooperate’ with Victoria Police’s investigation into allegations that he sexually abused between five and ten boys.

The Cardinal and top aide to Pope Francis has rejected the allegations as ‘utterly false’ and said that he has still not been contacted by police on the matter.

He is the subject of a year-long investigation by Victoria Police for the alleged sexual abuse of up to ten minors from 1978 to 2001.

Regarding his health, which has prevented him from flying to Australia to give evidence to the Royal Commission on allegations that he covered up the abuse of minors while he was a priest in Ballarat, he said he was ‘holding up’.

‘I can’t travel on my doctor’s advice,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

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

Israeli judge orders tests in Melbourne case

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 22, 2016

Jamie Walker – Middle East Correspondent

Israel’s prosecution service has persuaded a judge to order fresh psychiatric evaluations of a former Melbourne Jewish school principal who is fighting extradition to Australia to answer child sex abuse charges.

Judge Amnon Cohen, of the Jerusalem District Court, will use the expert advice to decide whether the proceedings should continue against Malka Leifer, who faces 74 charges in Australia of indecently dealing with girls at the Adass Israel School.

In ruling she should be seen again by a state psychiatrist, Judge Cohen rejected a defence application that the extradition proceedings be suspended because Mrs Leifer suffers panic attacks ahead of each hearing, preventing her attendance.

State prosecutor Avital Ribner-Oron told Judge Cohen on Sunday local time that Mrs Leifer was dragging out proceedings to avoid being sent to Australia to face prosecution, and the accused pedophile had “no interest” in becoming well.

But Mrs Leifer’s lawyer Freid Yuhuda, insisted she was in such mental distress that continuation of the case would cause her permanent harm.

For more than 18 months, the mother-of-eight has been in hospital ahead of each court date, forcing repeated adjournments.

She was absent again for Sunday’s hearing, staying this time in her Bnei Brak home in central Israel.

The impasse is set to finally be broken after Judge Cohen ordered that Mrs Leifer be seen again by the district psychiatrist, one of the state doctors who have evaluated her previously and found she was not faking her symptoms.

Judge Cohen will bring the case back on March 20 when he could make a decisive finding on whether it should continue, and if so, how.

For the first time Mr Yuhuda argued there should be no further hearings due to the anguish it causes Mrs Leifer from stress-induced psychosis.

Mr Yuhuda said she did not suffer from psychotic episodes “24/7”, but only when an impending court date triggered a panic attack.

“This is not a fraud, this is not an act and the doctors at the end of the line think it is a psychotic attack,” he said.

But Ms Ribner-Oron, arguing for extradition, said the “elephant in the room” was that Mrs Leifer had no interest in getting well, as this meant she would have to go to Australia to face her accusers.

The argument about whether the former principal was fit to stand trial there was not one that the Israeli court had to consider; “this discussion is for Australia”, the state prosecutor said.

Leifer went to Israel in 2008 within hours of being stood down by the Adass school board over the allegations, and has been under house arrest since being arrested by Israeli authorities in 2014 in response to the extradition request by the Australian government. She had been recruited from Israel to run the girls’ school in 2000.

But the case has been unable to proceed because Mrs Leifer’s lawyers say her stress-induced psychotic episodes are too severe to allow her to respond to summonses to appear in court or to properly communicate with them if she did, as required by Israeli law.

After being virtually ignored by the Israeli media, the case is gradually gaining traction, with Israeli sex abuse victim support groups rallying behind the former Adass students and their families who are demanding that Mrs Leifer be extradited from Israel, where she is under house arrest.

Outside the court, Manny Waks, a survivor of alleged sex abuse at Jewish orthodox school in Melbourne, said he was disappointed for Mrs Leifer’s alleged victims that the case was up in the air.

But he said he was encouraged that the judge had accepted the prosecution for Mrs Leifer to undergo psychiatric re-evaluation. “But with this great news the tension builds as the final decision is in the hands of the psychiatrist’s report, Mr Waks told The Australian.

Last September, a Melbourne judge awarded one of Mrs Leifer’s alleged victims $1.27 million in civil damages for sexual abuse.

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

Christian Brothers focus of abuse inquiry

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A clergy abuse victim hopes the royal commission exposes the extent of “hideous” child sex abuse by Christian Brothers.

The child abuse royal commission returns to Ballarat on Monday to focus on allegations involving the Christian Brothers and hear from a key Catholic bishop who knew about pedophile priests.

Four members of the Catholic order abused children at a Ballarat school but this week’s hearing will extend beyond that diocese to cover the wider St Patrick’s Province of the Christian Brothers.

Stephen Woods, who was abused by two Christian Brothers and Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale, wants the commission to expose the cover-up.

“I know that there’s going to be a lot of hideous stuff come out,” Mr Woods said.

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

Anti-Pell hysteria only undermines abuse victims

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Editorial

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

George Pell has already appeared twice before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — once in person and once via video link from Rome — and always made it clear he was prepared to do so again.

It would be better for all concerned, especially the cardinal, if he did not have a serious heart condition that precludes long-distance flying at present. If that were the case, he could give evidence in person about Ballarat, where he served as a young priest but had no authority in the diocese, and the Archdiocese of Melbourne, where he established the Melbourne Response shortly after his appointment as archbishop in 1996. It was one of the first formal processes of any church in the world for dealing with child sexual abuse. Victim groups regarded it at the time as “the best of a bad lot’’.

In giving evidence electronically, Cardinal Pell will still be subjected to the same rigorous cross-examination he would have faced here. He deserves to be heard respectfully, like all witnesses. That is not good enough for his antagonists, however, who have whipped up a dangerous lynch-mob mentality rarely seen in Australia even against prominent child murderers. It needs to be contained and the tensions surrounding it examined in a clear light.

Last week, singer Tim Minchin hurled verbal abuse at the cardinal, branding him “scum’’, a “buffoon’’ and a “coward’’ on Network Ten’s The Project, with ABC’s 7.30 rerunning the foul-mouthed ditty. As The Australian noted in Cut & Paste, Minchin is hostile to the church, with the The Pope Song also a litany of hate speech: “F..k the motherf..ker,” it runs. “F..k the motherf..king Pope.”

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

Too effective in Rome for his enemies’ liking

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE
THE AUSTRALIAN
FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Plenty of people want George Pell to come unstuck. Chief among them are the Vatican old guard, the mafia and heavies whose money laundering, tax evasion and possibly worse will come to an abrupt halt if crucial reforms instigated by the cardinal, such as the professional auditing of all Vatican agencies, including the Vatican Bank, come into force in coming months.

It’s needed. The cardinal, 74, and his team have uncovered more than €1 billion ($1.5bn) in Vatican funds unaccounted for, busted a multi-million-euro rort centred on a children’s hospital funded by a Catholic charity and the Italian government and exposed millions in unexplained transactions. Crunch time is coming, and some in prominent Vatican positions want a return to the “old ways’’. As in Australia, where he injected energy into the church in Melbourne and Sydney, he has been too effective in Rome for his enemies’ liking.

Last week, Pell’s supporters and ideological opponents alike recognised the visceral hatred fermenting in the blogosphere, egged on by Tim Minchin’s tasteless warbling, had become a toxic, dangerous witch hunt of a kind rarely if ever seen in this country. Then, on Friday night, came the well-timed “bombshell’’. It’s not known who made the complaints reportedly being investigated by Victoria Police or who leaked the details. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton should clarify the matter. Justice must be done and be seen to be done, the presumption of innocence afforded unless otherwise proven.

At least one supposed incident reportedly occurred at the Ballarat pool, where then Father Pell used to swim in summer. Claims that supposedly relate to his time as archbishop at the cathedral in Melbourne are also an utter mystery.

The notion Pell “groomed’’ young males between 1978 and 2001 — and got away with it — beggars belief.

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

Principal accused of molesting Melbourne students wants Israel to block extradition

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Andrew Friedman and Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

A SCHOOL principal accused of molesting a string of Melbourne students will ask Israel’s attorney general to block attempts to have her extradited.

Malka Leifer is wanted by Victorian police but has spent more than 18 months fighting attempts to have her return to Melbourne.

She is accused of molesting a number of young female students while principal at ultra-Orthodox Jewish school Adass Israel School in Elsternwick.

She fled to Israel in 2008 after allegations she had been sexually abusing students were made public.

Ms Leifer has been under house arrest since 2014, is required to wear a GPS tracking device and is subject to 24 hour supervision.

She failed to appear at an Israeli court hearing on Sunday, the seventh she has skipped, with her lawyers asking the court to adjourn the case for up to two years because of an alleged psychiatric condition.

The court heard her legal team would also ask the Israeli attorney general to dismiss extradition proceedings.

Victims advocate Manny Waks said he was “galled” by defence calls for justice for their client, who they said was now being tried in the media instead of in court.

“How appalling to hear representatives of Mrs Leifer talk about ‘justice’, when that is all the victims dream about back in Australia,” Mr Waks told the Herald Sun.

“Justice in this case means appearing in court and facing the charges against her. I certainly appreciate that coming to court to charge 74 counts of abuse would be stressful for anybody but there is no shortage of medications to help control her condition.

“To say that we were frustrated in court is mild, to say the least. All I can say is that I was actually glad the victims weren’t here to see this farce. It’s appalling, really.”

Ms Leifer has missed all seven hearings in the extradition request that is before the Jerusalem District Court.

A court-appointed psychiatrist has confirmed that the stress of appearing in court brings on psychiatric episodes that prevent her from attending the hearings.

Victims advocates in Israel and Australia said the ongoing saga has made a “joke” of the Israeli justice system.

“As a society, this set a dangerous precedent. As a society, we must focus on protecting children, not the perpetrators of abuse. We will not sit back and watch this farce,” said Miriam Friedman, a member of the Israeli group Magen and a resident of the Orthodox town of Beit Shemesh.

Sources close to the case claim Ms Leifer routinely breaks conditions of her house arrest.

Last year one of her alleged victims was awarded more than $1 million by the Supreme Court of Victoria after launching a lawsuit against her former principal.

Ms Leifer chose not to defend the legal action.

Shannon.deery@news.com.au

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

St. Louis archbishop urges Catholic priests to sever ties with Girl Scouts

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Trib Live

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is urging priests to sever ties with the Girl Scouts, saying the organization promotes values “incompatible” with Roman Catholic teachings.

The open letter to priests, Scout leaders and other Catholics was posted Thursday on the archdiocese website. It urges parishes that host Girl Scout meetings to consider alternative programs for girls that are more Catholic- or Christian-based.

“We must stop and ask ourselves — is Girl Scouts concerned with the total well-being of our young women? Does it do a good job forming the spiritual, emotional, and personal well-being of Catholic girls?” Carlson wrote.

The letter stops short of demanding an end to Girl Scout meetings at parishes, a common gathering site in the heavily Catholic St. Louis region.

Brian Miller, executive director of the Catholic Youth Apostolate, said Friday that the letter is not meant to pressure priests into pushing out Girl Scouts.

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

Cold case arrest gives hope to other families

TEXAS
The Monitor

KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ | STAFF WRITER | Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2016

The recent revival of Irene Garza’s 55-year-old cold case brought new hope to many families across the Rio Grande Valley whose loved ones were killed and the cases were never solved.

John Feit, 83, was arrested Feb. 9 on a murder charge after a Hidalgo County grand jury found enough evidence to prosecute the former Sacred Heart Priest in connection to the 1960 rape and murder of Irene Garza.

Elizabeth Garza, 65, remembers getting the news that day and watching on television as Feit walked into an Arizona jail with the help of a walker.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Garza said. “I said, ‘Pinky’s case is next.’ There is hope that there will be a break in the case of my little brother.”

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

Eduardo Córdova y los más de 100 casos de pederastia en los que estaría involucrado

MEXICO
Sin Embargo

[Priest Eduardo Cordova and the more than 100 cases of pedophilia in which he is said to be would be involved.]

Por Redacción / Sin Embargo febrero 20, 2016

El Papa calificó, tras su visita a México, la pederastia como “una monstruosidad” y es justo esa práctica, la que en fechas recientes ha puesto en los reflectores a la Iglesia Católica Potosina.¿La razón? Según testimonios que en 2014 hizo públicos Alberto Athié, habría cerca de 100 casos de pederastia en los que estaría involucrado el ahora ex cura Eduardo Córdova Bautista; algunas víctimas habrían informado de la situación a tres arzobispos a lo largo de casi tres décadas… aún ahora esperan justicia.

Ciudad de México, 20 de febrero (SinEmbargo/Pulso).- “Un Obispo que cambia a un sacerdote de parroquia cuando se detecta una pederastia es un inconsciente y lo mejor que puede hacer es presentar la renuncia”, dijo el Papa Francisco este jueves, tras concluir su visita a México.

Francisco dio estas declaraciones a la prensa durante su trayecto en el avión que lo llevó de México a Roma, luego de que fuera cuestionado sobre qué pensaba del tema de la pederastia en México, sobre el padre Marcial Maciel, que si en algún momento ha pensado reunirse con las víctimas, y sobre la idea de que cuando un sacerdote es acusado sólo son cambiados de Parroquia.

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

Charity with links to Charles is targeted in paedophilia probe

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

THE GODDARD Inquiry into child sexual abuse is investigating links between the Paedophile Information Exchange and a charity once headed by a trusted adviser to Prince Charles.

By JAMES FIELDING, EXCLUSIVE
Sun, Feb 21, 2016

Investigators have trawled through files relating to PIE and the Albany Trust, a gay advocacy group chaired by Sir Harold Haywood in the 1970s.

PIE was a pro-paedophile activist group, founded in 1974 and disbanded in 1984.

In 1976, records show the Albany Trust worked briefly with PIE to produce an “informative pamphlet” on the “sexuality of children”.

Minutes from a meeting held in Stockwell, south London, in February 1976 show it was attended by Sir Harold, who was also director of the Royal Jubilee and Prince’s Trust, as well as prominent PIE members Keith Hose and Warren Middleton.

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

Abuse survivors fear bishop ‘could take secrets to grave’

AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 21, 2016

Steve Lillebuen

A former Ballarat bishop’s forthcoming evidence about what the Catholic Church knew about paedophile priests could be a “game changer”, according to a victims’ group.

But others fear Ronald Mulkearns, who has terminal cancer and been given only months to live, may end up taking his secrets to his grave.

The former bishop has been scheduled to give his long-awaited evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission this week when hearings begin again in Ballarat on Monday.

The city will be decorated in ribbons as residents show their public support for abuse survivors.

Bishop Mulkearns presided over the Ballarat parish between 1971 and 1997 – when priests facing child sex abuse allegations, including convicted paedophile priest Gerald Risdale, were moved between parishes. He has told his doctor his memory is vague and the commission has been warned his cognitive impairments mean he may not be able to effectively answer questions.

But victims’ group Broken Rites spokesman Wayne Chamley said Bishop Mulkearns had nothing to lose by being honest about what he knew.

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

The Whole Story of Pope Francis’ Interview: Anti-women, Anti-gay, Contempt for Sex Abuse Victims, Support for Putin, Refusal to Face the Argentines and US Politics

UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Betty Clermont

If anyone needs an example of how the corporate media can manipulate and pervert public opinion, they could look no further than how the in-flight interview with Pope Francis has been reported. Indeed, they should study the U.S. media’s misrepresentation of this pontiff since the day he was elected.

Zika virus

Pope: “Abortion is to throw someone out in order to save another. That’s what the Mafia does … You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario. Or to live comfortably, no? On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, or in the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these two mosquitoes that carry this disease. This needs to be worked on.”

While saving a woman’s life is condemned as “what the Mafia does,” the pope reiterated the position of the Catholic Church that birth control is acceptable.

When talking about avoiding pregnancy in connection with the Zika virus, the pope may not necessarily have been implying artificial contraceptive use, but may have been referencing Natural Family Planning, Dr. Melissa Moschella, a philosophy professor at The Catholic University of America, said. …

Moschella also explained that in the Africa case referenced by Pope Francis, the dispensation for the nuns was “not really an exception if you understand the rule.”

The case in question took place in the early 1960s, when the Vatican granted a dispensation to religious sisters living in the Belgian Congo who were in grave danger of rape due to civil unrest to use oral contraceptives.

“In the case of rape, the person who’s raped – from the moral perspective – has not engaged in a sexual act,” Moschella said. Rather, rape is an act of violence and a “violation of the woman’s body without any free choice or acceptance on her part.”

The larger question is whether the pope’s off-the-cuff remarks will be persuasive in Latin American countries where “women are seen mainly as child-bearers and mothers. Such discriminatory stereotypes remain deeply rooted in a conservative and patriarchal culture which still relegates women to the sphere of social reproduction – a culture widely promoted … by conservative forces including the Catholic Church hierarchy,” according to an Amnesty International report.
_____

Same-sex unions

“Pope Francis has not failed to speak out against the law on civil unions , in the midst of this struggle in the Italian Parliament.” In a speech in Mexico, he made his “umpteenth his jab against ‘ideological colonization,’” pope-speak for his opposition to same sex marriage.

While Pope Francis has not spoken directly about the Italian legislation, “Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has told the Catholic Church to butt out of the debate on providing gay couples with legal recognition and limited adoption rights,” specifically the Italian bishops’ conference.
However, in this on-flight interview Pope Francis did say:

“Every Catholic parliamentarian must vote according their well-formed conscience. … I
remember when matrimony for persons of the same sex was voted on in Buenos Aires and the votes were tied. … And, the other said: ‘I prefer to give it to Kirchner and not Bergoglio.’ This is not a well formed conscience.

On people of the same sex, I repeat what I said on the trip to Rio di Janeiro. It’s in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

The Catechism states that homosexual acts are a “grave depravity.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later Pope Benedict XVI – added in 1997 that even the homosexual “inclination” is “objectively disordered.”
So, unlike the Church’s position on abortion and contraception, this is something Pope Francis CAN change anytime he wants, but he won’t.
_____

Question to the pope: “The subject of pedophilia … Did you at any moment consider meeting with the victims? And, in general, this idea that when the priests are detected in cases of this nature, what is done is that they are moved to another parish, nothing more?”

The pope didn’t answer the question of why he refused to meet with victims in Mexico. Instead he said: “A bishop who moves a priest to another parish when a case of pedophilia is discovered is a reckless man and the best thing he can do is to present his resignation. Is that clear?”

Again through his words and lack of action, the pope is giving the green light to prelates around the world that they will not be removed from office for aiding and abetting sexual assaults against children. Rather, the pope said he is strengthening procedures against priests: “I decided to name a third secretary adjunct for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to take charge solely of these cases [and forming] an appeals tribunal.”

Pope: “Another thing that is working very well is the commission for the protection of minors.” Yes, because the only member who was an outspoken critic of the pope was booted off earlier this month.

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

Muscat ‘immensely disappointed’ by Church committee report on conversion therapy for gay people

MALTA
Times of Malta

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that he was immensely disappointed by comments by the committee which advised the Church on conversion therapy for gay people.

It was unbelievable, he said, that in this day and age, some people thought that sexual orientation was something that could be healed by medication and therapy.

This was an offence to the gay community and all those who wanted to live in a European society which respected the people’s freedom. It was a similar offence to link homosexuality with child abuse.

Dr Muscat said he would defend the right of the Church to speak out, but the government would carry on with its legislation against such conversion therapy.

He could never accept a situation where any Maltese was called a sick or a pedophile because of a particular sexual orientation.

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

As a newspaper drama, ‘Spotlight’ is available for home views

UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times

Noel Murray
Spotlight

Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $34.98
Available on VOD Tuesday

One of the best newspaper dramas ever made, the multi-Oscar-nominated film is based on the true story of a Boston Globe investigative reporting team that uncovered a pattern of sexual abuse and hush-money payoffs within their local Catholic diocese. Writer-director Tom McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer look into the decay of venerable institutions, like the church, the government that protected priests “for the good of the community” and a press shedding necessary resources in the Internet age. The film avoids big speeches and instead just watches as a talented cast (including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams) inhabits the roles of diligent professionals doing some of the most important work of their lives. The “Spotlight” DVD and Blu-ray offers strong follow-up with a trio of featurettes that look at the movie, its source material and the future of journalism.

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

Essay of the week: For the love of God, let Catholic clergy love women

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Kevin McKenna / Saturday 20 February 2016

I WAS curiously enchanted by claims in the BBC’s Panorama programme last Monday that Pope John Paul II had enjoyed a close friendship with a female academic. The late pontiff, now in the process of being made a saint by Rome, captured the imagination of the world and the hearts of the Church when he became Pope in 1978. His personal charisma became evident almost as soon as he appeared on the balcony at St Peter’s to greet the world and his flock. That he was also possessed of a chiselled and handsome face and a voice of operatic depth helped make him the our first rock’n’roll pope.

A few years later a friend of mine, captivated by the charms of a fellow student in his English class, was thrilled when she invited him for tea at her flat. Believing that romance and perhaps something else was in the air he rocked up to her west end abode suffused with optimism and Hai Karate only to be startled by the giant-sized poster of John Paul in her kitchen. “How in the name of God are you supposed to compete with that?” he asked me later.

The revelation was a disturbing one: not only was John Paul the successor to Saint Peter and Christ’s vicar on earth, but he was also a poet, footballer, mountaineer, linguist … and the man who brought down the Soviets. If Catholic women are going to judge us all by the standards of this Polish superman then we’ve all got a problem, I thought.

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

A personal story of child sexual abuse

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

February 21, 2016

Michael Short
Journalist

A few months ago, I caught up for lunch with lawyer Judy Courtin, one of the staunchest advocates for the victims of the rape and sexual abuse of children and vulnerable others by, in particular, Catholic priests, and one of the people instrumental in the successful campaign to establish the royal commission into the response of churches and other institutions to these crimes. She did her PhD on the issue, was a guest of mine in 2012 in the advocacy column I have written for the past six years, The Zone, and is now representing victims at the commission.
In an eerie coincidence, when I returned from lunch to my desk, there was a joint email from the headmaster and chairman of the board of Ballarat and Queen’s Anglican Grammar School, which I attended for the final five years of my secondary education.

The email read in part: “Ballarat Grammar is seeking to ascertain whether members of its community have experienced abuse at the school. Anyone who has suffered such abuse is encouraged to come forward, with the assurance that disclosures will be treated with confidentiality, and with the utmost sensitivity…This letter has not been prompted by any revelation at the royal commission, but by a desire to assist anyone who might be helped by the affirmation and support of the school.”

It hit me like a physical blow. The image of the priest’s genitals flooded my mind. I could also visualise the hideous, massive flakes of dandruff. I had suppressed the memory for more than 35 years. This is common.

He used to ply us with alcohol in his home. Despite striving, I simply can not fully recall what happened; I might remember more, but at this stage I do not recall being severely sexually abused. However, and this is the most disturbing part, I suddenly recalled that I knew he had done so to at least one boy. I do not remember – and, again, perhaps I will – how I know that, and I am wracked with guilt at not having acted on this knowledge. Sexual abuse is so insidious; victims feel guilt.

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

George Pell leaks undermine child sex abuse royal commission: archbishop

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla
Sunday 21 February 2016

A senior Australian Catholic church figure has called for an investigation into the “leaks” at Victoria police, following reports that police were investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell a week before the 74-year-old was due to appear before the royal commission.

The Melbourne archbishop, Denis Hart, who succeeded Pell in the role in 2001, said the allegations that Pell had committed “multiple offences” both as a priest in Ballarat and in his later role as archbishop of Melbourne “do not reflect the man I have known for more than 50 years”.

“It is very disturbing and concerning to read reports based on leaks to the media that Victoria police has been investigating allegations of abuse against Cardinal George Pell for the past year and that his first knowledge of these allegations has come from those media reports,” Hart said in a statement issued on Saturday.

“The leaked allegations coming at the end of a week in which Cardinal Pell was publicly denigrated and a week before he appears at the royal commission appear designed to do maximum damage to Cardinal Pell and undermine the work of the royal commission. In this environment it is the responsibility of the royal commission to provide a fair and balanced forum for all who appear before it.”

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

Leaked claims against Cardinal Pell aim to destroy

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun

LAST week I called the witch hunt against Cardinal George Pell vicious and shameful. I thought it could not possibly get worse.

On Saturday, it did.

Now the campaign to destroy Pell has become sinister as well, after it was joined by — in my view — elements of Victoria Police.

VICTORIA POLICE INVESTIGATING CARDINAL PELL

Sources which to me clearly seem to be well-informed police leaked to the Herald Sun unverified and even improbable claims that Pell sexually abused as many as 10 boys between 1978 and 2001.

These sources gave intimate details of the police Sano Taskforce now investigating those claims, including what its members now want from their bosses to go after Pell. Yet Pell himself had not been told of these allegations, which the Sano Taskforce has investigated for a year without senior police approving any charges, or even any questioning of the cardinal.

This leak is clearly timed to hurt Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic.

It seems to me a scandalous injustice and abuse of state power to leak information that the leaker must have known any newspaper would feel compelled to report, if not endorse.

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