AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Rachel Baxendale
Reporter
Melbourne

Catholic Church sex abuse victims say that if Cardinal George Pell will not travel to Australia to give evidence at the child abuse royal commission, they will go to Rome to watch him testify.

Earlier this month, commissioner Peter McClellan accepted the evidence from the cardinal’s lawyers that a worsening heart condition would prevent the 74-year-old attending a third public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat, which is due to begin in Sydney at the end of the month.

Cardinal Pell will instead give evidence via videolink from Rome, where he manages the Vatican’s finances.

A group of victims, including Andrew Collins, Anthony and Chrissie Foster, Paul Levey, Maureen Hatcher, David Ridsdale and Stephen Woods, yesterday called on the commission to ensure Cardinal Pell gives evidence under conditions as close as possible to an Australian court setting.

“While it was always preferable that Cardinal Pell appear in person, we accept the ruling of the commission and seek to move forward in the most equitable fashion possible,” the group said.

“Attending in person was an opportunity for the cardinal to ­ensure the evidence given was unambiguous and within a courtroom setting.

“It was also an opportunity to provide direct ­responses to the survivors of the crimes committed under the auspices of the Catholic Church.”

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IOWA
KWQC

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KWQC) – An ex-priest who was arrested last week and charged with raping and murdering a beauty queen in Texas over 55 years ago also spent time in Dubuque. David Clohessy, Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) says the group fears he may have hurt a woman in Iowa too.

Last week, John Feit was arrested in Phoenix for killing a 25-year-old parishioner in McAllen, Texas in 1960. Two years later, he pleaded “no contest” to assaulting another young woman.

After Irene Garza’s murder, SNAP says Catholic officials quietly moved Feit several places including “a monastery in Dubuque, Iowa,” according to a 7,100 word investigative report on the case in Texas Monthly.

SNAP argures that even though Feit’s time in Iowa was allegedly “brief,” it takes just seconds to assault a vulnerable person. They say even if he did not hurt a single Iowa woman, “the prudent, caring move now would be for Iowa Catholic bishops to use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to urge anyone with information or suspicions about Feit to call secular authorities.”

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Matt Sepic · Feb 15, 2016

Advocates for clergy abuse victims are criticizing a decision by Catholic church officials in India to reinstate a priest convicted of sexual assault in Minnesota.

After he was extradited to the U.S., the Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul pleaded guilty last year to assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Greenbush, Minn., in 2005.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Ootacamund told The Associated Press that Jeyapaul’s suspension was lifted following approval from the Vatican.

David Clohessy of the victims group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests says Jeyapaul should have been banned from ministry permanently.

“I think this convicted predator is being put back on the job for the same reason that bishops continue to conceal child sex crimes all across the globe,” Clohessy said, “simply because they can.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Aodhan O’Faolain
PUBLISHED
15/02/2016

Three people sexually abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth want the Supreme Court to permit them sue a Catholic Bishop here over the church’s alleged failure to act to prevent Smyth abusing children.

If the church kept “under wraps” facts that would have identified Smyth as being an abuser of children, that is a matter of “significant public importance” entitling his side to appeal to the Supreme Court, Michael Counihan SC, for the three, said.

The Court of Appeal last November granted Bishop Leo O’Reilly orders halting the three actions brought here against him, in his capacity as representative of the Kilmore diocese, over the church’s alleged failure to move to stop Smyth’s abuse.

The three – a man, his sister and a cousin – settled Northern Ireland court actions in 1998 for Stg £25,000 damages each over being sexually abused over years as children by Smyth.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Marie Collins is tired, not surprisingly. Dealing with the grinding, mechanical mindset she has encountered again and again at senior levels in the Catholic Church would have long since killed off the determination of a lesser person.

In her seventh decade, she has spent the last three of those focused on one thing – making the Catholic Church a safer place for children. In her own young life she knew it to be otherwise. She later discovered the lengths to which it would go to protect itself, even if that meant further violation of the innocent.

She was aged 13 in 1960 when she was sexually abused by the then chaplain at Dublin’s Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. He has since been convicted of the crime and of the abuse of other children.

In the 1980s, while receiving counselling for her abuse, she was advised to report it to church authorities. The priest she approached refused to take details and implied the abuse was her fault. “Shattered”, she returned to silence for 10 more years.

Prompted by the furore following the jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in Belfast, after a 40-year career of abusing children, and fearful that her own abuser might still be active, she went to Dublin church authorities in 1995.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor February 15, 2016

One could have an argument about this, I suppose, but I’m going to state the claim baldly anyway: There’s no public figure in the world today with an image defined by a more misleading soundbite than Pope Francis, whose signature line from almost three years ago remains, “Who am I to judge?”

Uttered in connection with his attitude toward gay people, that celebrated phrase has been taken to suggest an accepting and laid-back sort of pontiff, more or less “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” in a white cassock.

Reality couldn’t be more different.

In truth, Francis is one of the most “judgmental” figures around, in the sense of never pulling punches when he thinks something is wrong. We’ve had several stinging reminders during his current trip to Mexico, from his thundering denunciation of drug dealers with their “hands drenched in blood” to his strong pleas for justice for immigrants and indigenous persons.

There’s yet another constituency in Mexico right now feeling rather thoroughly judged by the pontiff, and, for the record, found not altogether up to snuff: the country’s roughly 170 Catholic bishops.

In a remarkable 4,500-word address to the bishops on Saturday, one of the most developed and detailed speeches of his papacy, Francis laid out a vision of the kind of prelate he believes the Church needs today — and left little doubt that it’s not always the kind of shepherd it actually has.

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FRANCE
Liberation

[Cardinal Philippes Barbarin has been accused of not reporting a suspect pedophile priest.]

Par Bernadette Sauvaget — 12 février 2016

Le cardinal Barbarin accusé de non-dénonciation de pédophilie

Relativement épargnée ces dernières années par le scandale de la pédophilie, l’Eglise catholique en France est à la veille d’une grande tempête. En cause, l’un des plus puissants et médiatiques évêques de l’Hexagone : le cardinal-archevêque de Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, grand pourfendeur du mariage pour tous.

«Dans les prochains jours, des plaintes vont être déposées contre lui pour non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie», indique à Libération François Devaux, le président de l’association La Parole libérée. Fondée en décembre, elle regroupe les personnes qui auraient été victimes du père Bernard Preynat, un prêtre du diocèse de Lyon, mis en examen le 27 janvier pour «agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de moins de 15 ans par personne ayant autorité».

Les faits (reconnus par l’accusé) se seraient produits entre 1986 et 1991 dans le cadre d’un groupe de scouts d’une paroisse de Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon. «L’affaire Preynat est désormais dans les mains de la justice. En revanche, l’attitude de l’évêque de Lyon a été déplorable. Il l’a laissé en poste jusqu’en août 2015 et au contact des enfants, un prêtre dont il connaissait les agissements», souligne le président. Il précise que les faits ne sont pas prescrits.

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FRANCE
La Vie

[The case grows. While the diocese of Lyon announced in October 2015 that one of its priests was impeached and indicted for sexual abuse of minors, a victims association was constituted and put into question the silence the diocese and Cardinal Barbarin.]

LAURENCE FAURE
CRÉÉ LE 12/02/2016

L’affaire prend de l’ampleur. Alors que le diocèse de Lyon a annoncé en octobre 2015 qu’un de ses prêtres était destitué et mis en cause pour abus sexuels sur mineurs remontant à plus de 25 ans, une association de victimes s’est constituée, mettant notamment en cause le silence du diocèse et du cardinal Barbarin.

De quoi s’agit-il ?

Le père Bernard Preynat, septuagénaire, prêtre du diocèse de Lyon, est soupçonné d’avoir commis des attouchements sexuels dans les années 1980, sur des scouts âgés de 7 à 11 ans, dans le cadre des activités paroissiales de la paroisse Saint-Luc à Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, où il était vicaire de 1972 à 1990. Quatre plaintes ont été déposées en mai 2015, et certainement « plusieurs autres à venir », prévient François Devaux, ancienne victime (en 1990, à l’âge de 11 ans), joint par téléphone, qui rappelle que « techniquement », toutes ne sont pas « victimes » au sens juridique du terme « car il y a prescription » – celle-ci s’appliquant 20 ans à compter de la majorité de la victime.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Priest Diego Rota is arrested and charged with sex with minors.]

Solza, Arrestato Don Diego Rota: Sesso Con Minori, Le Intercettazioni

Lombardia
redazione web – 13 febbraio 2016

Le intercettazioni telefoniche tra il prete di Solza, don Diego Rota, e le sue due vittime minorenni: uno smartphone in regalo in cambio di sesso. Gli incontri avvenivano spesso al cimitero di Seriate

Stupore, sgomento e profondo dolore. Confidiamo nella giustizia, vogliamo che tutto il cuore che la verità si affermi”. Questa la nota con cui la curia bergamasca ha replicato alla notizia dell’arresto di Diego Rota, giovane parroco – ha 45 anni – di Solza, piccolo Comune di meno di 2000 abitato che si trova nell’Isola, ad una quindicina di chilometri dal capoluogo.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[More and more people have stopped believing because of the pedophilia problem in the Catholic Church. They see pedophilia as the Anti-Christ.]

Sempre più persone smettono di credere. La pedofilia nella Chiesa è l’Anticristo, una piaga che va sanata con denunce immediate.

“Troppi preti pedofili, basta! Smetto di credere in Dio”, capita spesso di sentire questa frase lanciata tra i passanti, per le strade del centro o in metropolitana. Ormai, la gente è sfiduciata, ha smesso di credere nella figura del sacerdote e di conseguenza ha deposto anche la fede. Nulla di più sbagliato. La religione è una pratica, ma la fede è un sentire. Cosa ha a che fare con i preti pedofili? Dietro l’abito talare si nasconde sempre un uomo con pregi e difetti umani, questo non va mai dimenticato.

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MEXICO
El Pais

[The curia does not smell of sheep. This morning, the shadowy figure of the Archbishop Primate of Mexico Norberto Rivera in the back seat of the popemobile was moving portrait of the uneasy relationship between Francis and the conservative Mexican hierarchy; and especially with the wing of Rivera, who at the time of John Paul II was powerful but in the last ten years has been declining, especially for an ominous reason: The way in which he defended to the hilt, the Mexican and founder the multimillion congregation of the Legionaries of Christ Marcial Maciel Degollado, icon of the Church pedophilia.]

Esta mañana, la figura sombría del Arzobispo Primado de México Norberto Rivera en el asiento de atrás del papamóvil era el retrato en movimiento de la incómoda relación entre Francisco y la conservadora jerarquía mexicana; y muy especialmente con el ala de Rivera, que en tiempos de Juan Pablo II fue poderosísimo pero en los últimos diez años ha ido menguando, sobre todo por una razón ominosa: la manera en que defendió, a capa y espada, al mexicano y fundador de la multimillonaria congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo Marcial Maciel Degollado, icono de la pederastia eclesial.

La curia que no huele a oveja Norberto Rivera, el cardenal que no quiso escuchar a las víctimas

“Norberto fue un cachorro de Maciel. Cuando fue ungido cardenal hizo su fiesta en la casa de la Legión de Cristo en Roma. Y aunque sigue manejando la arquidiócesis más grande del mundo, ahora todos saben que es un mariscal de la derrota”, afirma el antropólogo experto en religión Elio Masferrer.

Sobre el cardenal Rivera pende la sospecha de haber encubierto a lóbregos curas como Carlos López Valdés y Nicolás Aguilar, acusado de actos como convencer a un niño de que si no le hacía sexo oral su madre podría morirse o violar a otro en la rectoría mientras se escuchaba oficiar misa en el templo. Otros casos –estos ajenos a la incumbencia de Rivera– son los del sacerdote Eduardo Córdova, que se calcula que abusó al menos de 20 menores y está prófugo, y el de Gerardo Silvestre, supuesto violador de niños indígenas. “México tiene a los pederastas más crueles de la Iglesia”, ha dicho Alberto Athié, un exsacerdote de la propia Arquidiócesis de México convertido en valeroso catalizador de denuncias de víctimas, y que exige que el Vaticano entregue a los violadores a la justicia civi

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FRANCE
BFM TV

[avec video]

[Cardinal Barbarin could be prosecuted for “non denunciation of pedophilia”. One of the victims of sexual assault by Father Preynat father in the 90s decided to press charges against the Archbishop of Lyon, one of the heads of the Catholic Church in France. He said the cardinal has maintained the priest in his post despite the allegations.]

TEMOIGNAGE BFMTV – L’une des victimes d’agressions sexuelles du père Preynat dans les années 90 a décidé de porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon, l’une des têtes de l’église catholique en France. A travers son association la Parole libérée, il dénonce le fait que le cardinal ait maintenu le prêtre pédophile dans ses fonctions en dépit de son passé. BFMTV l’a rencontré.

François Devaux a été victime d’agression sexuelle en 1990 par le père Bernard Preynat alors qu’il était jeune scout. A l’époque, ses parents avertissent l’Eglise, le curé est alors affecté à d’autres fonctions. L’histoire aurait pu s’arrêter là mais il y a quelques mois, le jeune père de famille découvre ce qu’est devenu son agresseur.

“Doyen jusqu’en août 2015”

“Pour la première fois de ma vie, j’ai tapé sur Google le père Bernard Preynat et j’ai vu qu’il était doyen jusqu’en août 2015 et qu’il donnait des cours de catéchisme à des petits enfants”, rapporte-t-il.

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FRANCE
Riposte Catholique

[Victims of Father Preynat wish to file a complaint against the Archbishop of Lyon for failure to report a statutory rape offense.]

Une affaire compliquée qui n’est pas sans rappeler l’affaire Mgr Picon. Sans diminuer les manquements des prélats dans cette affaire, il est difficile de ne pas comparer le profil dérangeant de ceux que l’on voudrait mettre en accusation.

Des victimes du P. Preynat souhaitent porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon pour non-dénonciation d’infraction sexuelle sur mineur

Alors que le cardinal Philippe Barbarin dit avoir été mis au courant « vers 2007-2008 », des « comportements » d’un prêtre lyonnais mis en examen pour des agressions sexuelles sur de jeunes scouts entre 1986 et 1991, des victimes de ce prêtre, le P. Bernard Preynat, pourraient porter plainte contre l’archevêque de Lyon pour non-dénonciation d’infraction sexuelle sur mineur.

« Nous porterons plainte pour non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie en fin de semaine prochaine ou début de semaine suivante », explique François Devaux, président de l’association La Parole libérée, fondée en décembre pour regrouper les victimes du P. Preynat.

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Outraged by the presence of Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera with Pope Francis on his arrival in Mexico, Juan Carlos Cruz Chellew, victim of sexual abuse of Catholic clergy and one of the most important Latin American complainants to the Holy See, said he is very disappointed the pope . The presence of Cardinal Rivera is a symbol that the Pope does not take importance the victims of priestly pedophila. He said the cardinal has protected Mexican priests and abusers.]

Sanjuana Martínez
Especial para La Jornada
Periódico La Jornada
Domingo 14 de febrero de 2016, p. 8

Indignado por la presencia del cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera junto al papa Francisco a su llegada a México, Juan Carlos Cruz Chellew, víctima de abusos sexuales del clero católico y uno de los más importantes denunciantes latinoamericanos ante la Santa Sede, dice sentirse muy decepcionado del pontífice.

“La presencia del cardenal Rivera es símbolo de que al Papa no le importamos las víctimas de pederastia sacerdotal. El cardenal es un monstruo para todos nosotros porque ha protegido a los curas mexicanos abusadores, y pasearse con él en el papamóvil y verlos juntos como grandes amigos me produce repulsión y un dolor enorme. Ambos se burlan en nuestras caras. Al Papa se le cayó su máscara de sacerdote bondadoso; no le interesan las víctimas de pederastia clerical”.

Desde hace 20 años, el cardenal Rivera Carrera ha sido denunciado ante el Vaticano por víctimas de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes. Lo acusan de no solamente proteger a los perpetradores con sotana, sino de ser cómplice de sus crímenes.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[BBC documentary: Pope John Paul II is said to have close links to women.]

Über Jahrzehnte soll Papst Johannes Paul II. in engem Kontakt mit einer verheirateten Frau gestanden haben. Das berichtet die BBC. Es soll gemeinsame Skiferien und Campingausflüge gegeben haben.

Papst Johannes Paul II. soll laut einem Bericht der BBC über viele Jahre eine enge Verbindung zu einer verheirateten Frau gehabt haben. Demnach war die Beziehung mit der Philosophin Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka rein platonisch; es gebe keinerlei Hinweis darauf, dass der spätere Papst das Zölibat gebrochen habe. Die BBC-Doku, die im deutschsprachigen Fernsehen am Dienstagabend auf Arte ausgestrahlt wird, stützt sich auf Hunderte Briefe und Fotos, die die jahrzehntelange Beziehung dokumentieren.

Der spätere Papst und Tymieniecka lernten sich demnach 1973 kennen; die Frau hatte sich nach einem Buch erkundigt, das er geschrieben hatte. In den folgenden Jahren hätten sich die Frau und der damalige Erzbischof von Krakau öfter getroffen und häufig Briefe geschrieben. Es soll gemeinsame Spaziergänge, Skiferien und Campingausflüge gegeben haben. Ein Foto zeigt die beiden vor einem Zelt stehen, der spätere Papst in kurzer Hose und T-Shirt.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Tim Clarke
February 15, 2016

The Catholic Bishop to Australia’s Defence Forces has been found not guilty of sexually molesting five boys while he as teaching at a Benedictine boarding school in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Max Leroy Davis had denied six charges of gross indecency relating to five different boys aged between 12 and 15 at the time they say they were all assaulted while pupils at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

The five victims, who are all now in their 50s, alleged remarkably similar abuse while boarding at the school – and all say it was Mr Davis who abused them.

But after four hours deliberation following a week-long trial, the jury at Perth District acquitted him of all charges, after hearing Mr Davis categorically deny it had been him who had abused them.

The 70-year-old was at the time a Dorm Master, and dean of discipline at the school, which was run under the Benedictine order of monks who still reside in the town north of Perth.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The head of the Australian Defence Force’s Catholic diocese has been found not guilty of sexually abusing five students more than 40 years ago.

Catholic bishop Max Davis, 70, was on trial in the Perth District Court accused of six counts of indecent dealings with male children between 1969 and 1972, when he was dormitory master at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, north east of Perth.

He stood aside from his duties as Catholic Bishop of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) when he was charged two years ago.

The prosecution alleged Bishop Davis performed indecent acts on five students aged between 13 and 15 years old.

One former student testified he was sexually abused while he was being examined in the first-aid room because he had injured his groin playing football.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Herald (UK)

The director and co-writer of Spotlight, the Hollywood film about the Boston Globe’s investigation into the cover-up of clerical abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston, paid tribute to British abuse survivor Peter Saunders while accepting an award at the Baftas ceremony.

Tom McCarthy and his co-writer Josh Singer, who was not in attendance, won the Bafta for best original screenplay.

During his acceptance speech, McCarthy said Saunders, who recently refused a request to “take a leave of absence” from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors after a vote of confidence, was “an inspiration”.

In his short speech, McCarthy commended “the courageous survivors (of abuse) who came forward and shared their stories with us and the world.”

“They continue to do that now, continue to put pressure for change,” he said.

“I’ll give a shout out to Peter Saunders, a UK citizen and survivor and the great work he is doing now in this country and at the Vatican. You are an in inspiration to us all, quite truly.”

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INDIA
Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Roman Catholic church has lifted the suspension of a Tamil Nadu priest convicted last year of sexually assaulting a 14 year-old girl in the US more than a decade ago, a spokesman said on Saturday .

The suspension of Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was lifted last month after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in Tamil Nadu consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund (Ooty) had referred Jeyapaul’s case to the Vatican’s ‘congregation for the doctrine of the faith’, and the suspension was lifted on the church body’s advice, he added. The Vatican office of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith declined immediate comment.

Jeyapaul was sent to Minnesota in 2004. He was suspended in 2010 after being charged with sexually assaulting two girls who were both 14 at the time.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunshine Coast Daily

Kathy Sundstrom | 15th Feb 2016

FATHER Joe Duffy admits he feels embarrassed by the extent of the abuse which has been revealed in the Catholic Church.

The Maroochydore Parish Priest was ordained during the dark period of history when priests were abusing children and getting away with it.

But he said if he was to blame for anything within the church in the 1950s to 1980s, it was that he was “naive and unaware” of what was going on.

“I grew up in a decent, good family and child abuse just wasn’t talked about,” he said.

“I had no personal experience of this type of thing and in the 1950s, it was either a taboo topic or wasn’t mentioned.

“We can’t excuse ourselves on that basis any more than we can excuse ourselves for buying a ticket on a plane that crashed.”

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

February 14, 2016 Joelle Casteix

The first step to transparency is being, well … transparent. And when your former bishop is a three-time-accused (that we know of) predator, that makes transparency even more important.

Victims to Hawai’i Bishop: Make all predators’ names public
Thirty other dioceses have exposed accused clerics
Seattle list included abuser in hiding in Honolulu
Former bishop should also be on list, group says
Releasing names is public safety imperative, SNAP says

Victims of sex abuse are demanding that the Catholic Bishop of Hawai’i publicly release the names of all clerics, employees, and volunteers who have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

In a letter to Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), say that releasing the list is an “important step for transparency, healing, and child protection.”

More than 30 other dioceses have released the names of accused clerics, and a recent list released by the Archdiocese of Seattle exposed a 50-time accused former Irish Christian Brother who is living “under the radar” in Hawai’i.

The group fears that Hawai’i’s credibly accused predator clerics could be living in local neighbors where they have unfettered access to children.

“How many credibly accused predators are living ‘under the radar’ here and elsewhere, where they can continue to prey on children?” the letter said. “Releasing these names is a public safety imperative.”

The letter also stresses the importance of releasing names of all of the accused, living and deceased. For example, former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario has been publicly accused of sexual abuse by at least three men. The first came forward in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

15 February, 2016

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Sydney commencing on Tuesday 15 March 2016 at 10.00am AEDT.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experiences of survivors of child sexual abuse in an institutional context in the criminal justice system as complainants against an accused who was the subject of allegations by more than one complainant.

2. The admissibility and use of evidence variously described as:

a. tendency and coincidence evidence
b. propensity and similar fact evidence
c. evidence of discreditable conduct, and
d. evidence of bad character,

and the law and practice concerning when charges in relation to multiple complainants of child sexual abuse in an institutional context against a single accused may be tried together in a joint trial.

3. The experiences of survivors, particularly young children and people with disability, in reporting child sexual abuse in an institutional context to police and in being complainants in prosecutions.

4. How the requirements of the criminal justice system, including in relation to oral evidence and cross examination, affect the investigation and prosecution of allegations of child sexual abuse in an institutional context, particularly where the complainant is a young child or a person with disability.

5. Any related matters.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 1 March 2016.

Applications for leave to appear should be made using the form available on the Royal Commission website.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2016

KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ | STAFF WRITER

The news that former Sacred Heart priest John Feit was arrested last week in connection to the 1960 homicide of Irene Garza did not come as a surprise to Dale Tacheny.

For 52 years, Tacheny has believed Feit, now 83 years old, killed the young Texas beauty queen the night before Easter, because he said he heard about the crime from Feit himself.

Tacheny also believed that the pastor of Sacred Heart at the time worked in concert with McAllen police to cover up Feit’s involvement in the murder that was to become perhaps McAllen’s most notorious unsolved crime ever.

“He mentioned he had heard the (sacrament of) confession of Irene Garza and after hearing her confession he assaulted her, bound her, and gagged her,” Tacheny told The Monitor last week.

“He removed her clothing from the waist up and fondled her.”

Tacheny, now 86 years old, recalled Feit’s words Wednesday afternoon from his office in Oklahoma City, where he works as a tax preparer.

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UNITED STATES
Patch

By LORRAINE SWANSON (Patch Staff) – February 15, 2016

An ex-Catholic brother and teacher who left a trail of sex abuse complaints from New York to Chicago to Seattle, has surfaced in Hawaii.

Throughout his three decades as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers, Br. Edward Courtney was badgered by allegations that he had sexually abused children, including students at Chicago’s Brother Rice High School and St. Laurence High School in Burbank.

in 2013, 80 alumni of Brother Rice, St. Laurence and Leo High Schools, were part of a $16.5 million settlement with over 400 accusers nationwide during a bankruptcy reorganization between creditors and the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North American Province, known as the Irish Christian Brothers.

The order also agreed to enforce a no-tolerance policy for brothers accused of sexual abuse.

Courtney, among others, were named in a lawsuit against the order for allowing the men to continue teaching despite allegations that they had sexually abused children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Paul Vallely

Even by Vatican standards the timing is spectacularly inept. The six Oscar nominations for the movie Spotlight have refocused the attention of the world on the issue of paedophile priests inside the Catholic church – almost certainly the biggest scandal to plague the institution in the past century. And yet, with disdain or disregard for world opinion, just two weeks before the Oscars the most outspoken member of the pope’s commission to combat sex abuse has been sacked.

Pope Francis is busy elsewhere. After Friday’s historic meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church – the first for almost 1,000 years – he has been about his usual business: visiting prisoners, migrants, indigenous people and the families of victims of the violence of drug traffickers, this time in Mexico.

But in his absence a hidden civil war inside the Vatican continues. On one side are reformers who want public accountability for abuser priests and the bishops who have overseen them. On the other is the recidivist Roman old guard whose instinct for cover-up continues.

Two years ago Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. It is made up of clerics, theologians, psychiatrists, therapists and – most significantly – two survivors of priestly sex abuse. The most vocal member was Peter Saunders, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, one of the world’s most forthright anti-abuse campaigners.

His sacking last weekend is a signal that, behind the scenes, the Catholic church is reverting to its old bad habits.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Chris Elliott

Two recent complaints about the Guardian’s reporting of historical sexual abuse allegations illustrate the difficulties and pitfalls facing journalists writing about such cases. The first concerned the settlement by the Church of England of a civil claim brought against George Bell, the late bishop of Chichester, who died 57 years ago.

The story, headlined “Church’s ‘deep sorrow’ over abuse by bishop”, published on 23 October 2015 said: “The bishop abused a young child, whose identity and gender has not been disclosed, in the 1940s and 50s. The survivor first came forward 20 years ago, but the matter was not investigated or referred to police at the time.”

There was also an online story published on 22 October with the headline “Church of England Bishop George Bell abused young child”.

Peter Hitchens, a newspaper columnist, complained to the readers’ editor that both the headlines are inaccurate; as neither makes clear that the claims of abuse were allegations, not tested in a criminal court.

I rejected the complaint on the basis that the church had settled the civil claim and accepted his guilt. A statement by the church in October 2015 said: “A formal claim for compensation was submitted in April 2014 and was settled in late September of this year. The settlement followed a thorough pre-litigation process during which further investigations into the claim took place including the commissioning of expert independent reports. None of those reports found any reason to doubt the veracity of the claim.”

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MARYLAND
Washingtonian

By Tiffany Stanley on February 14, 2016

Pam Palmer was at a barbecue when she heard the news.

It was 2011, five years after her family had left Covenant Life Church. But the Gaithersburg congregation and its founder, C.J. Mahaney, remained on her mind. Now one of her relatives was telling her that amid controversy Mahaney had surrendered the top post at the organization he had built into an international empire. “Literally,” Pam says, “that moment changed my life.”

Pam had been one of the church’s early followers back in the 1980s. And she’d given 22 years of her life to the megachurch, in the all-in manner that many members embraced. Early on, her husband, Dominic Palmer, whom she’d met there, led one of the small fellowship groups that underscore church life, and she dutifully assisted him. When the couple had children, Pam homeschooled them, as so many women in the church did. Every step of the way, a foundational principle of the church was reinforced—that Christian men knew best.

But in the years since the Palmers left Covenant Life, Pam had come to see its culture as toxic.

After the barbecue, she went online to find out more about the revolt inside Sovereign Grace Ministries, the religious conglomerate that Covenant Life had grown into. A few years earlier, a pair of disillusioned followers had launched a blog called SGM Survivors. It was like a public square, and an increasingly crowded one at that, where former congregants of Sovereign Grace churches—there were roughly 90 at the time—gathered to vent.

Pam had visited the blog before. But this time, she encountered a whole new narrative. Parents were reporting that their children had been sexually abused by other church members. And they were sharing stories, saying they were mistreated by churches when they spoke up. Until that moment, Pam had no idea there were other families out there just like hers.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on Feb 14, 2016

The Diocese of Duluth and attorneys representing dozens of child sexual abuse victims have agreed to enter mediation talks ahead of a May deadline for filing claims, according to documents filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Gregg Zive, a federal bankruptcy judge in Arizona with experience in diocesan bankruptcy cases, is expected to assist in negotiations between the parties.

His appointment, which was requested by the diocese, is subject to approval by Judge Robert Kressel, who previously encouraged mediation. Attorneys have said they expect to reach an amicable agreement — as has been the case in all 14 previous diocese and religious order bankruptcies in the United States.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after being hit with a $4.9 million verdict in the first case to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which opened the way for victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by statutes of limitation.

With an annual budget of about $3.3 million — and facing dozens of additional claims — diocese officials stated that bankruptcy was the only way they could fairly compensate all victims while maintaining essential church operations.

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UNITED STATES
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Phil Bronstein / February 14, 2016

Those of us who report and publish the news always notice that we rank somewhere south of head lice in public opinion polls. So only a journalist who’s delusional would spend Feb. 14 waiting for the inbox to fill with hearts, candy and flowers.

But this year, we’ve got “Spotlight,” a giant, ongoing Valentine’s Day gift to the power, efficacy and necessity in our society of investigative journalism. This is extra sweet at a time when that kind of expensive, hard reporting is seriously threatened by failing business models, failure of imagination and the media world’s obsession with substance-free, adrenalized news bursts.

The film is now well known as the story of The Boston Globe team that uncovered the scope and virulence of the Catholic Church’s pedophile priest problem and the accompanying massive cover-up.

What’s less known – despite the previously inconceivable fact that members of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors sat down in Rome just last week and watched “Spotlight” before engaging in a panel on clerical sex abuse – is that this is a Valentine’s gift that keeps on giving.

The film came out in November. But since then, the church has released names of accused priests in Yakima, Washington, and files on delinquent clergy in Minneapolis. Well over a dozen dioceses and archdioceses from Chicago to Seattle; Albany, New York, to St. Petersburg, Florida; Raleigh, North Carolina, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, have issued statements citing “Spotlight” in recommitting themselves to vigilantly weeding out the guilty and comforting and supporting victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By Melissa Cunningham
Feb. 15, 2016

Clergy abuse survivors are pushing to fly to Rome to front Australia’s most senior Catholic in person when he gives evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this month.

On Monday morning survivors released a public statement outlining a request to the inquiry to allow them to travel overseas to face Cardinal George Pell. They also pushed for his evidence to be given outside of the walls of the Vatican.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Pell succeeded in a bid to remain in Rome after the inquiry accepted a doctor’s report which said he was too sick to return to Australia to testify. He is scheduled to give evidence on February 29.

Speaking on behalf of survivors, David Ridsdale, victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale said the conditions of his evidence must replicate an Australian court setting.

“(Evidence) should be given in the Australian embassy or somewhere with broadcast quality connection to ensure there are no technical difficulties,” he said. “As the commission hearings are open to the public we request the ability for interested parties to travel to Rome and attend the evidence in person.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[fundraising link]

February 15, 2016

Melissa Cunningham

Clerical abuse survivors are pushing to fly to Rome to be present when Cardinal George Pell gives evidence via videolink to a Royal Commission this month.

On Monday morning, survivors released a public statement outlining a request to the inquiry to allow them to travel overseas to face Cardinal Pell, the Ballarat Courier reports.

They also pushed for his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to be given outside of the walls of the Vatican.

Earlier this month, Cardinal Pell succeeded in a bid to remain in Rome after the inquiry accepted a doctor’s report which said he was too sick to return to Australia to testify.

He is scheduled to give evidence on February 29.

Speaking on behalf of survivors, David Ridsdale, victim and nephew of disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale said the conditions of his evidence must replicate an Australian court setting.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

February 14, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

VICTIMS of child sexual abuse are planning to confront George Pell in Rome when he gives evidence to the child abuse royal commission.

The Cardinal is due to testify at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink from the Vatican from February 29.

He was excused from personally attending the Ballart hearing because of ill health.

Questions have been raised about the 74-year-old’s sudden decline in health, with sceptics accusing him of trying to avoid coming face to face with victims.

But he could still be forced to testify in front of victims, with a delegation planning a trip to Rome.

Members of the Ballarat and District Child Abuse Survivors group have called for the commission to ensure the Cardinal is forced to testify publicly.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2016

An arrest is made more than five decades after perhaps the most notorious crime to befall the Rio Grande Valley. But as some celebrate the shocking development in the Irene Garza murder case, the question must be asked: how hard will it be to prosecute former priest John Feit, who has been charged with murder?

Join us at noon on Tuesday for an online MonitorChat, a Live Stream discussion about the challenges of prosecuting this crime nearly 56 years after it happened.

The Monitor will be joined by renowned defense lawyer Rolando Garza, who is board certified in criminal law and criminal appellate law, to discuss the legal complexities of this case.

Readers are encourage to send in their own questions by emailing news@themonitor.com or by tweeting #monitorchat.

Remember to join us at noon on Tuesday at www.themonitor.com

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Monica Tan
@m_onicatan
Friday 12 February 2016

Tim Minchin has written a song about Cardinal George Pell, in which he lambasts Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric over the fact he won’t be returning from Rome to testify at the royal commission into institutional child abuse.

“It’s a really nice song, the chorus just goes ‘come home, Cardinal Pell / we hear you’re not feeling well’,” Minchin said at a press conference in Perth on Friday. “There’s also a bit where I call him a fucking coward.”

Pell is due to appear via video link at a royal commission to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within his parishes. Victims were hoping Pell’s medical condition would improve so he could appear in person, but on Monday were told he was still too unwell to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne.

Minchin made the comments while promoting the Perth International Arts festival’s outdoor extravaganza, Home.

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INDIA/UNITED STATES
Independent (UK)

Chloe Farand

An Indian priest convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than 10 years ago has had his suspension lifted by the Roman Catholic church.

Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61, had the suspension lifted by the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state after he was instructed to do so by authorities at the Vatican, spokesman for the diocese Rev Sebastian Selvanathan told CBS News.

“After Jeyapaul’s release from the United States and his return to India, this matter was referred to Rome, and according to the guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the suspension against Jeyapaul was removed,” Rev Selvanathan said.

The Vatican office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declined ito comment, when approached by CBS News.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

By Richard Townley
Herald Staff

Sex abuse survivor expresses frustration at Vatican, Francis’ reluctance to tackle child molestation

The Catholic Church has lost “all moral responsibility” for tackling ongoing child abuse by its clergymen, a member of a papal panel appointed to deal with the issue has told the Herald, adding that he feels he has been personally “deceived” by Pope Francis. “The Church is failing in the protection of children”, Peter Saunders said.

Peter Saunders, an outspoken member of Francis’ commission set up to tackle child abuse, was at the centre of war of words last week after he was controversially told to take “a leave of absence” from the panel. He has refused, saying only Francis can dismiss him, and has renewed his criticism of both the Church and the pontiff for lacking the resolve to tackle the issue.

“On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his (Francis’) part to effectively make change,” said Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child.

Just a year after the Argentine-born pontiff was ordained head of the Catholic Church, Francis set up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to address the endemic sexual abuse of children.

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ARIZONA
Newsday

Associated Press

PHOENIX – For nearly 20 years, John Feit was known around the St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit agency as one its most compassionate employees.

The former priest worked in downtown Phoenix with food-pantry volunteers and even raised money to buy a house for a needy family. His desire to help others was apparent at his church and whenever he showed up on the doorsteps of the poor with donated food or furniture. He also mediated disagreements when local agencies were first planning a campus to house multiple services for the homeless.

Feit was able to do all this charity work despite public knowledge that he had long been a suspect in the 1960 rape and killing of a Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen.

Now 83, he was arrested Tuesday for the murder of 25-year-old Irene Garza in McAllen, Texas. She was last seen at the church where Feit was a priest. Her bludgeoned body was discovered in a canal days later.

A grand jury brought the charge based on yet-to-be-disclosed evidence. Feit, who uses a walker, is now in jail and plans to fight extradition to Texas.

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HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016

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

An abusive Catholic cleric – who worked in Nevada, may have molested 50 kids and whose whereabouts were deemed “unknown” by church officials – has turned up in Hawaii. Though his church supervisors knew of his crimes as far back as the 1960s, they let keep teaching for years.

[Los Angeles Times]

He’s Brother Edward C. “Chris” Courtney. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he taught at parochial schools and churches in MI, NY, IL and WA. In the 1980s, he also taught in public schools in Reno.

[Seattle Weekly]

We urge Reno Bishop Roque Calvo to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other tools to aggressively seek out others in Nevada who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Courtney or cover ups by his colleagues.

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

By LAHAV HARKOV \ 02/14/2016

Proposal includes first legal definition of an abusive cult; leading a cult would be considered a crime carrying a 10-year prison sentence.

Legislation defining abusive cults and giving the authorities tools to fight them was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday.

MK Orly Levy-Abecassis (Yisrael Beytenu) called the bill, which she proposed, “the first step towards formulating an overarching policy and building a broad and effective system to fight abusive cults.”

If the bill becomes law, it will be the first time a cult is defined by law and differentiated from other, non-abusive religious groups.

The bill states that an abusive cut its “a group of people, incorporated or not, who unite around a person or idea in a way that takes advantage of a relationship of dependence or authority or of emotional distress of one or more members by using methods of control through thought processes and behavioral patterns and acts in an organized, systematic and sustained pattern while committing crimes according to Israeli law.”

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 15 February 2016

Cardinal George Pell has had a long-standing “heart problem” but this didn’t stop him from making a secret trip by air to Australia in March-April 2015, Broken Rites has learned. Even the Australian bishops’ spokesman on Royal Commission matters (Mr Francis Sullivan, from the church’s “Truth, Justice and Healing Commission”) didn’t know about the trip until journalists told him in May 2015; and, by then, Pell was safely back in the Vatican. Now, in 2016, Pell is refusing to re-visit Australia, preferring to give his next batch of evidence to the Royal Commission by video-link from Rome without having to face the church’s victims. Some victims are offering to pay first-class air fares for a medical heart specialist to accompany Pell on a flight to Australia for the Royal Commission. But, clearly, Pell is avoiding Australia while civil investigations are under way about church sexual abuse that occurred on Pell’s watch. As for Pell’s “heart problems”, church victims say that Pell is behaving towards them as though he was born without a heart.

Pell’s trip to Australia in March-April 2015 included a visit to Ballarat, the town at the centre of church-abuse allegations (and the cover-up) in western Victoria. And the trip was just a few weeks before the Royal Commission was due to hold a public hearing in Ballarat (the hearing was from Tuesday 19 May to Friday 29 May 2015).

Pell’s trip to Australia was revealed in the April 2015 edition of the magazine of St Patrick’s College, Ballarat — the school where Pell had been a pupil. The magazine indicates that Pell’s visit to the school occurred about 27 March 2015, “during a short vacation in Australia”. There is a photo of Pell, together with headmaster John Crowley, while touring the school to see its latest extensions.

It is not known what else Pell did during his 2015 trip to Australia but it would have been an ideal opportunity to have discussions with his Australian lawyers and his communications strategists, to figure out how to handle the Royal Commission and the victims. (Did the Royal Commissioners realise that Pell had privately visited Australia from Rome in March 2015?)

Pell’s testimony, by video link, in May 2015 was a technical disaster, with disruptions to the vision and/or the sound. And, with the Royal Commissioners sitting in a court-room in Ballarat, it was difficult for the commissioners to show certain documents to Pell when seeking his comment about those documents.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

February 15, 2016

Tom McIlroy
Legislative Assembly reporter at The Canberra Times

The ACT government will move to create a new independent authority to oversee legal reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect, ahead of the completion of the royal commission.

Under the plan put forward by Chief Minister Andrew Barr, organisations with responsibility for children will be legally required to report any allegations of abuse or neglect to a new statutory authority. The move is designed to end internal reporting and handling mechanisms, previously used by churches and other organisations seeking to handle abuse allegations outside legal structures.

The scheme would be based on systems already in place in NSW, which the government believes would bring effective reporting requirements to the territory and complement measures already in place in the ACT.

The proposed scheme would to increase statutory responsibility by creating a new independent oversight body armed with powers to provide further protection for children and young people.

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CALIFORNIA
Boston Globe

GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 14, 2016

“Spotlight,” the film about The Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, won best original screenplay at the 2016 Writers Guild Awards Saturday night.

The newspaper drama, which already won best ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, was written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

The Writers Guild Awards cermony was held concurrently in Los Angeles and New York. The guild honors excellence in film, television, new media, video games, news, radio, promotional and graphic animation.

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CALIFORNIA
Variety

Dave McNary
Film Reporter
@Variety_DMcNary

“The Big Short” and “Spotlight” won the Writers Guild of America’s top screenplay trophies Saturday, while the fourth season of “Veep” and the final season of “Mad Men” took the top TV series awards.

“The Big Short,” a darkly comic look at the 2008 financial meltdown, won for best adapted screenplay for Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, while “Spotlight” took the original screenplay award for Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

The guild’s 68th annual awards, based on voting by the 12,000 members of the WGA, were announced Saturday in concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza and the Edison Ballroom in New York City. …

The award for “Spotlight,” which details the Boston Globe’s investigation into pedophile priests, was first announced in New York as the WGA continued its tradition of not being able to coordinate the announcement of its two top screenplay awards.

“Spotlight,” which is also nominated for an Oscar, won over the scripts for “Bridge of Spies,” “Sicario,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “Trainwreck.”

McCarthy thanked Open Road “for letting us make the movie we wanted to make” and saluted the Globe reporters and survivors of sexual abuse who are the heart of the story.

In Los Angeles 30 minutes later, “Spotlight” was announced as the winner. “It’s humbling to be here in front of such great storytellers,” said Singer.

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CALIFORNIA
The Virginian-Pilot

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar contenders “Spotlight” and “The Big Short” won the top awards for screenwriting from the Writers Guild of America at a ceremony Saturday that was held in Los Angeles and New York.

“Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s effort to uncover a priest sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, won for best original screenplay. The writers are Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy.

“The Big Short,” about the 2008 financial crisis, won for best adapted screenplay. Writers Charles Randolph and Adam McKay wrote a screenplay adapted from the book of the same title by Michael Lewis.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By ALEXANDER ROBERTSON FOR MAILONLINE

A BBC documentary will explore the possibility that Pope John Paul II fell in love with a married Polish-American academic.

The latest Panorama programme will delve into the late Pope’s relationship with women and is thought to have discovered a stack of letters sent between him and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.
Tymieniecka worked with the Pontiff in the 1970s, when he was still known as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, on his philosophical treatise The Acting Person.

Monday night’s show will investigate claims the Pope and Tymieniecka engaged in a four-year correspondence during the period in which they were working together on the book, when they were both in their fifties.

Tymieniecka, a philosopher and academic, was born into an aristocratic Polish family before later marrying a Harvard professor in 1995, but remained close to the Pope up until his death in 2005.

It is understood that the show will not make the claim that the Pope ever breached his vow of celibacy nor make any firm statements about his relationship with the academic, who died in 2014.

Carl Bernstein, a journalist who wrote a John Paul II biography, conducted interviews with Tymienecka, in which she denied any romantic involvement with the Pope.

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VATICAN CITY
Radio Poland

14.02.2016

The Vatican has dismissed an upcoming BBC documentary expected to probe whether late Polish-born pontiff John Paul II led romantic correspondence with a married female academic, a newspaper has reported.

The 30-minute “The Secret Letters of Pope John Paul II” documentary will be aired on BBC One on Monday.

“Pope John Paul II ruled the Catholic Church for 27 years until 2005. He was one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, revered by millions and made a saint in record time.

Now reporter Edward Stourton can offer a new perspective on the emotional life of this very public figure,” the BBC writes on its website.

The documentary is expected to delve into the correspondence between the Pope and Polish-born American academic Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka who translated at least one book penned by the Pope while he was still a Cardinal in Kraków.

The two are believed to have written a series of personal letters over four years, and the BBC documentary will explore the possibility the letters had a romantic tone to them, British newspapers have reported.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Dean Balsamini February 14, 2016

Alleged S&M priest Peter Miqueli never broke his vow of celibacy and is a “man of faith” who wants to return to the altar, his attorney said.

The Catholic cleric — who resigned as pastor of his Bronx church after The Post revealed that he was accused of pilfering $1 million in parish funds to pay for bondage sessions with a slave master — denies he engaged in kinky sex or stole any money, said lawyer James Pascarella.

“Absolutely no theft. The sexual allegations are completely untrue,” Pascarella said. “He loves what he does, and he wants to be a priest . . . He’s never violated his vows.”

The 52-year-old priest is being smeared by “unreliable sources” and a “small group of parishioners who don’t care for him,” Pascarella said.

Miqueli “knows” Keith Crist, the 41-year-old hardbody alleged to have been his slave master, but “it’s not a sexual relationship,” the lawyer said.

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ESPANA
El Pais

“Now I understand that it was not normal to be touched.” Because of insistence of the father of a victim, 30 years of repeated sexual abuse has been uncovered at a Marist school in Barcelona.]

ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA
CAMILO S. BAQUERO

El Beni, como los alumnos del colegio barcelonés Maristas Sants-Les Corts conocían a Joaquín Benítez, tenía un sueño. Que el shootball o balón tiro fuera un deporte reconocido. En los 30 años que enseñó gimnasia intentó promover esta actividad entre sus alumnos. Les dedicó el reglamento que escribió: “Vosotros aglutináis gran parte de mis aptitudes positivas”. Durante ese tiempo, este pederasta confeso abusó de al menos dos menores y tiene cuatro denuncias en su contra.

El caso de Benítez, que dejó el colegio en 2011 tras la denuncia de una familia que no prosperó, desencadenó un rosario de denuncias que involucran al centro concertado religioso de los Hermanos Maristas. Los indicios sobre abusos se han extendido a otros dos exdocentes (M. M. y A. F.), un subdirector que ha sido cesado de manera cautelar (F. M.) y un monitor de comedor en prácticas en el centro en 2015. Las primeras denuncias se remontan a hechos a principios de los años 80. La comunidad educativa pide que no se meta “a todos en el mismo saco” y trata de recuperarse del golpe. Todos se preguntan por qué nunca trascendieron los casos ante las autoridades.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[The Marist order faces lawsuits involving five teachers and school monitors.]

ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA
CAMILO S. BAQUERO

Emili Turú, el actual Superior General de la Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas, aseguró ayer que los protocolos antipedofilia de los centros en los que está presente su orden “están muy claros y estudiados”, pero que “no sabe a qué se debe el silencio” de la dirección del colegio barcelonés respecto a la media decena de docentes y empleados que han sido denunciados. Las críticas del director de la orden llegaron el mismo día en el que trascendió que los ‘mossos’ detuvieron en diciembre a un monitor del mismo centro por haber abusado de cinco niñas.

El Superior General de los Maristas defendió en una entrevista a Catalunya Ràdio que inicialmente el centro había emprendido “los pasos correspondientes” pero después reprochó el silencio sobre nuevos escándalos, por los que pedirá explicaciones a la dirección provincial de su orden. Turú reveló que trabajó en la década de los 80 en ese mismo centro durante dos años, en los que coincidió con el profesor de gimnasia, y agresor sexual confeso, Joaquín Benítez. El Superior General negó ayer que cuando él trabajaba como docente en el centro existieran las sospechas de abusos.

El colegio solo ha enviado hasta ahora dos comunicados de prensa en los que explica que en 2011 remitió a Fiscalía el caso de Benítez, que entonces fue despedido. El centro no se ha posicionado sobre los nuevos casos a pesar de que la lista de personal involucrado ya asciende a cinco profesionales, que han sido objeto de denuncias ante los jueces y los Mossos d’Esquadra, aunque algunos casos han prescrito. La policía autonómica confirmó ayer que el pasado mes de diciembre detuvieron a un monitor de comedor del centro por haber abusado de cinco niñas.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[Sexual abuse involving three teachers has been uncovered at Marist College Sants Les Corts.]

CAMILO S. BAQUERO
ALFONSO L. CONGOSTRINA

Una semana después de que se destaparan los casos de pederastia en el colegio Maristas Sants Les Corts —que ya alcanza a tres exprofesores, un directivo cesado cautelarmente y a un monitor de comedor— la pregunta principal sigue sin resolver: ¿Qué falló en los sistemas escolar y judicial para que no se detectaran los abusos? En los últimos días el centro concertado, el departamento de Enseñanza y la justicia han intercambiado reproches sobre sus respectivas participaciones en los hechos que, a la larga, llevaron a que se invisibilizaran los casos.

El último episodio de estos reproches fue ayer. El colegio concertado por la Orden de los Hermanos Maristas desmintió al Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña (TSJC) sobre su supuesta negativa a colaborar con la investigación de 2011, cuando una familia le comunicó al centro que su hijo, un exalumno ya mayor de edad, había sido abusado por el aun profesor de gimnasia, el confeso pederasta Joaquín Benítez.

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VATICAN
La Croix

[Monsignor Tony Anatrella said there has never been a question that allegations of child sexual abuse should be reported to law enforcement. He said one line in his text has been taken out of proportion.He particularly blamed British media for reporting that he said allegations do not necessarily have to be reported.]

Nicolas Senèze avec I.Media, le 12/02/2016

Accusé par la presse britannique d’avoir expliqué aux nouveaux évêques que la dénonciation des abus sexuels aux autorités ne serait pas obligatoire, le prélat français dénonce un « mauvais procès ».

Dans un entretien à l’agence romaine I.Media, Mgr Tony Anatrella a assuré qu’il n’a « jamais été question de ne pas signaler à la police les délits sexuels sur mineurs », contrairement à des titres de la presse britanniques affirmant que, dans un cours donné aux nouveaux évêques, à Rome, il aurait dévoilé de « nouvelles règles » du Vatican en la matière.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ AND LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITERS

EDITOR’S NOTE: In Monday’s edition, former priest Dale Tacheny details in a taped interview with The Monitor John Feit’s confession to Irene Garza’s murder.

EDINBURG — Noemi Sigler stood over her cousin Irene Garza’s grave Friday and felt the weight of a decades-long fight to bring the young woman’s killer to justice had finally been lifted from her shoulders, she later said.

“You can’t even imagine. I had so many doors closed in my face, and I would often get so discouraged,” said Sigler, who for the past 32 years tirelessly pressed law enforcement to get the man who killed her cousin.

“Many times I would try to stop and I’d try to leave it alone, but Irene would always bring me back,” she added.

But in a stunning development last week, Sigler’s efforts finally seemed to pay off as news broke that the man she believes killed her 25-year-old cousin the night before Easter in 1960 had been arrested in Arizona.

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MEXICO
BBC Mundo

[The specter of sexual abuse that haunts the Pope’s visit to Mexico.]

Alberto Nájar
BBC Mundo, Ciudad de México

En su primera visita a México el papa Francisco encuentra una Iglesia Católica que no logra superar uno de los mayores escándalos de su historia reciente: las denuncias de abuso sexual contra menores cometidos por algunos de sus sacerdotes.

Organizaciones de sobrevivientes de los ataques dicen que las víctimas son cientos, y la mayoría de los casos están impunes.

Las acusaciones alcanzan a altos jerarcas de la Iglesia, acusados de proteger a los agresores.

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MEXICO
CNN

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

(CNN)Imagine this split screen: On one side is Donald Trump, repeating his campaign pledge to build a big wall between the United States and Mexico. On the other is Pope Francis, kneeling to pray for the thousands of undocumented immigrants who have died trying to cross the border.

As the Pope visits Mexico February through February 17, he is not expected to tussle with Trump or directly criticize U.S. immigration policy. Papal aides said Francis wants to avoid appearing to intervene in the presidential election.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking aim at the Pope.

“I think that the Pope is a very political person. I think that he doesn’t understand the problems our country has,” Trump said in an interview Thursday on Fox Business. “I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.” …

Some Catholics say the Pope may also seek to atone for the sexual abuse perpetrated by Marcial Maciel Degollado, the disgraced founder of the Legion of Christ who sexually abused seminarians and fathered several children. Degollado, who died in 2008, was a powerful figure in the Mexican church for decades.

“It will be the first time a pope has been in Mexico since that blew up,” said Kesicki. “That’s another flashpoint that I think he may have to address.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016

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

We are grateful that the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina is admitting that a rector has been accused of sexual abuse while working at a Waynesville church for 12 years.

[Citizen-Times]

He is accused of molesting “at least three boys” at a Rhode Island school and is now being investigated by North Carolina police department for perhaps abusing a Waynesville NC.

[Providence Journal

Rev. Howard W. White Jr. worked at two places in North Carolina. In the 1980s, Rev. White Jr. was headmaster of what was then the Asheville Country Day School in Asheville, North Carolina and was rector of Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville.

He now leads St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford, Pennsylvania and also worked at a school called Chatham Hall in Chatham, Virginia. But most of the accusations against him stem from his years in Rhode Island at St. George’s Episcopal School in Middletown.

A report issued by the school says that Rev. White — whom it refers to as “Employee Perpetrator #2” — had “inappropriate and potentially sexual misconduct with at least three male students.” School officials quietly “fired Rev. White in 1974 after a student’s parent reported the misconduct, which Rev. White admitted to the headmaster, but “the school never notified child-protection authorities — as required by the state’s 1974 mandatory reporting law,” according to the Providence Journal.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

February 13, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Eric Johnson is the man who was sexually abused by Fr. Bruce Wellems when Wellems was teen and Eric was seven (photo above). In the piece below, he responds to Bruce Wellems’ statements to the Chicago Tribune. He also responds to commenters on this blog, who say that they are parishioners who say that they love and have forgiven the accused priest.

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune ran a page-one piece about the case of Fr. Bruce Wellems, a Chicago priest who admitted to luring a seven-year-old boy from basketball games and then sexually abusing him multiple times during the course of a year. Wellems was an older teenager at the time.

Did the Claretians (the religious order to which Wellems belongs) adhere to their promises of transparency and tell Catholics about Wellems?

No … in fact, Claretian officials ordered their priests to destroy emails about Wellems and his crimes.

In 2014, did the Archdiocese of Los Angeles adhere to their promises of transparency and give parishioners in San Gabriel the correct information about Wellems? Did they post information about Wellems’ admission on their website, the parish website, or attempt to reach out to other potential victims?

No. They made one announcement from the pulpit, and then kept parishioners in the dark about the allegations. In fact, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Archbishop Jose Gomez allowed parishioners to believe that the allegations and admissions stemmed from a “consensual dating relationship.”

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HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

February 13, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Yesterday’s LA Times told the story of Edward Courtney, former Irish Christian Brother who is accused of molesting upwards of 50 kids. He’s living “under the radar” in Hawaii.

The bigger story is that EVERY cleric in Hawaii who has been accused of abuse (including former Bishop Joseph Ferrario) lives or has lived under the radar.

Why? Because unlike more than 30 other dioceses across the US, the Diocese of Honolulu and Bishop Larry Silva (pictured above) aren’t telling us who the perpetrators are.

These are men like:

* Former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. When one of his victims came forward in the 1980s, the diocese said that according to an internal investigation, the accusations were “groundless.” The diocese’s sham investigation and repugnant treatment of the first accuser, David Figueroa, are well-known.

* George DeCosta, a retired priest who still runs retreats on the Big Island. Two civil suits have been filed against him, and he was reportedly forced to retire from the priesthood in 2002.

* Joseph Henry, who has been accused of sexual abuse by at least 18 boys. Although the diocese had known about Henry and his crimes for decades (Henry died in 1974), the diocese last November finally removed a plaque that named the hall at Kailua’s St. Anthony’s Parish after the serial child molester.

* Larry Spellen, who has been accused of abuse by at least two boys. After he was removed from ministry in 1993 by the Bishop of Salt Lake City, he moved to Orange County, CA, where he worked as a hospital chaplain (so much for that suspension) before he died in 2003. You’ll note in the obituary that he is survived by “two foster sons.” Does that remind you of anyone?

And what about the guys who are living “under the radar?” What about the 60 lawsuits? Who’s in there? What about the predators that the diocese knows about, but no victims have filed cases?

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UNITED STATES
Boston.com

What is Spotlight?

By Kristin Toussaint @kristindakota
Boston.com Staff | 02.12.16

“This 2015 drama shows how The Boston Globe uncovered abuse claims against the Catholic Church.”

What is Spotlight, a major motion picture chronicling the Globe’s reporting, and now an answer on Jeopardy!?

Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe reporter, columnist, and member of the Spotlight team that broke the 2002 story on the systemic sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, tweeted out Friday a picture of the game show’s nod to the film.

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Bulletin

by Paulyn Abando
February 14, 2016

It has been earning praise from critics even before it was nominated for Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards. Now, we know why.

“Spotlight,” award-winning director Tom McCarthy’s inside look at a newspaper exposé on child abuse by the Catholic Church, is gripping.

It helped that the ensemble cast, including big Hollywood names like Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schrieber and Brian d’Arcy James, were convincing in their respective roles.

The film is based on a true story of Boston Globe’s Pulitzer prize-winning investigative team dubbed the Spotlight spending some two years painstakingly pinning down pedophiles within a Catholic Church in Boston.

It wasn’t exactly an easy subject, probably why the film earned an R-16 rating, but the film braved the sensitive issue to become a truly absorbing thriller.

To be clear, the film is not about religion or God. It simply highlights the plight of child molestation victims and their search for justice.

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Religion Digital

[Peter Saunders and Juan Carlos Cruz, two brave men vetoed by the cardinals.]

(Mario Vargas Vidal, en RyL).- Personalidades del mundo cristiano coinciden en que Roma silenció a un valiente, Peter Saunders, uno de los expertos de la Comisión vaticana contra la pedofilia; víctima en su infancia de abusos sexuales por parte de sacerdotes, fue informado sorpresivamente por la Santa Sede que: “Se decidió que el señor Peter Saunders tomaría una licencia para ausentarse de su pertenencia y ver cómo podría apoyar mejor el trabajo de la Comisión” especializada en el trabajo y denuncia de los abusos sexuales a menores por parte del clero.

Así recibió el día Peter Saunders, sorprendido por la noticia la cual calificó de indignante. ” Nunca me dijeron antes de dicha decisión y me resulta indignante que no me lo dijeran “. Pero Saunders estaría muy lejos de renunciar como al parecer lo desean altos dirigentes curiales. Esta víctima, convirtió en una espina para el vaticano cuestionando abiertamente que no han hecho nada, ningún progreso en relación a esta delicada materia de los abusos: ” Nuestro Papa podría hacer mucho más, hacer que las cosas sucedan ahora “.

Saunders, también es un crítico de la forma y el fondo que a la Comisión le han querido atribuir. “Hacer lo que los funcionarios han hecho por décadas: astutamente fijarse en las políticas internas y discutir sin sentido en el papel que dan la impresión de progreso, mientras no se cambia prácticamente nada”.

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Clerical pedophilia has left more than a thousand victims in Mexico: Alberto Athié.]

Periódico La Jornada
Sábado 13 de febrero de 2016, p. 10

El presidente de Morena, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, consideró que la presencia del papa Francisco en México es esperanzadora. Como se expresó en la frase bíblica, nuestro pueblo tiene hambre y sed de justicia, señaló.

Aseveró que aunque corresponde a los mexicanos cambiar su amarga realidad, las palabras del Papa en favor de la justicia, como todo sentimiento espiritual humanitario o cristiano, inquietan, asustan a los poderosos y, lo más importante, reconfortan y alientan a los débiles y desposeídos. …

Es uno de los pendientes que tiene la Iglesia católica, sostuvo en conferencia, y urgió a que la Santa Sede acate las recomendaciones emitidas por el Comité de los Derechos del Niño de Naciones Unidas. ¿A qué viene el Papa a México: a decirnos palabras maravillosas o a comprometerse con la comunidad cristiana?, preguntó.

Athié mencionó que en el país hay por lo menos cinco arzobispos responsables de encubrimiento de curas pederastas: tres de la arquidiócesis de San Luis Potosí; el cardenal Norberto Rivera en la Ciudad de México y algunos de sus obispos auxiliares, así como la arquidiócesis de Oaxaca.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Kim Bellware
Reporter, The Huffington Post

As the Catholic church reckons with decades of indifference to clergy abusing children, some followers are finding both their faith and their patience tested.

Catholics world wide are intently watching how the Vatican addresses the issue, while a new controversy has revealed just how far the church has to go in making amends for this dark chapter.

Training guidelines for new bishops prepared by French Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a controversial psychoanalyst and clergy member, include a section that says bishops are not legally obliged to report abuse.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” Anatrella said, according to Crux.

As several reports note, the guidelines were drafted without any input from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, the group created by Pope Francis to highlight “best practices” for stamping out clergy abuse. …

SNAP has been highly critical of the Vatican’s response to child abuse revelations, with Blaine characterizing the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — made of up both clergy and laypeople — as little more than an empty gesture.

On Tuesday, the commission reportedly tried to oust one of its members, abuse survivor Peter Saunders. Saunders said the commission accused him of being difficult to work with and too open with the media, Reuters reported. Saunders, head of Britain’s National Association for People Abused in Childhood, resisted pressure to step down.

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GlobalPost

Will Carless
Feb 13, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A member of a commission set up by Pope Francis to advise him on child abuse says the group is a “token body” exercising in “smoke and mirrors” that won’t help children stay safe from abusive priests.

Peter Saunders, the commission member, is now on a leave of absence as he considers whether to continue with an effort he says he has lost faith in.

Meanwhile, new Catholic bishops are still being taught they’re not obliged to report cases of child abuse by priests to the police.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Francis set up with much fanfare in 2014, was supposed to issue guidelines for the Vatican on how to deal with child abuse. But the body was never consulted about the training for new bishops on exactly that topic.

These are just some of the signs that Francis’ reform efforts, and his pledge to clean up the Catholic Church’s most damaging crisis, seem to be unraveling before they’ve even really gotten started.

The problems come as Pope Francis pays a visit to Latin America, a region where, as GlobalPost has reported, the church is accused of reassigning and protecting many alleged predator priests. Among the latest scandals in the region, Chileans are outraged that the pope appointed a bishop accused of shielding the country’s most despised pedophile priest from investigation.

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INDIA
ABC News

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI — Feb 13, 2016

The Roman Catholic church in southern India has lifted the suspension of a priest convicted last year of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the United States more than a decade ago, a spokesman said Saturday.

The suspension of the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was lifted last month after the bishop of the Ootacamund Diocese in India’s Tamil Nadu state consulted with church authorities at the Vatican, said the Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese.

Bishop Arulappan Amalraj of Ootacamund had referred Jeyapaul’s case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the suspension was lifted on the church body’s advice, Selvanathan said.

“After Jeyapaul’s release from the United States and his return to India, this matter was referred to Rome, and according to the guidelines of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the suspension against Jeyapaul was removed,” Selvanathan said. …

Bishop Amalraj lifted the suspension in mid-January, but Jeyapaul has not yet been assigned any responsibilities, Selvanathan said. “That will be decided in May, when decisions are taken by the diocese on changes and assignments,” he said.

Jeyapaul could not be contacted, with Selvanathan saying the church did not know his whereabouts.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

PRESS RELEASE SENT STATEWIDE 2-11-16
– – – – – – – –
2016 CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURE
Elimination of Civil & Criminal Statutes of Limitations pertaining to sex crimes against children.

San Francisco, California – William Lynch (Proponent) announces granting of Title and Summary by the California Attorney General and the beginning of the qualification process for a 2016 California ballot measure. http://www.StopChildSexAbuse.org

William Lynch was sexually assaulted when he was 7 years old. Like a textbook case of child sex abuse, Will told no one. When the truth came out 20 years later, Will was informed that the criminal statute of limitations had expired when he was 13 and the priest could not be prosecuted.

After exhausting every legal remedy to bring his attacker to justice, Will confronted the retired priest. A physical altercation ensued, and Will was arrested. Will’s trial brought international media attention to the issue of child sex abuse. During the trial, Will took the stand, and told the truth. In a landmark victory and contrary to the law, the jury acquitted Will of all charges exercising jury nullification.

After his acquittal Will founded RISE (http://www.RiseAboveAbuse.org), an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting other children from a similar fate.

After Gov. Brown vetoed SB 131, Will declared that politicians and the legislative process could no longer be trusted to protect children. He has developed a solution that relies on the collective will of the voters to stop child sex abuse once and for all by passing the 2016 California Ballot Initiative that eliminates the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on sex crimes against children.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

[with video]

BY PARKER GAVIGAN, NBC 10 NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH 2016

During a taping of 10 News Conference Friday, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said he was “outraged” over recent comments made by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families related to reporting sexual abuse of children.

The comments were made on the heels of the scandal that has plagued the elite St. George’s School in Middletown. Alumni and former students have alleged rape and sexual misconduct by teachers from the 1970s and 80s and said the school did nothing to help them or report the alleged abuse.

On Thursday, the NBC 10 I-Team uncovered a more recent police report from Middletown, where in 2005, a former student told police he was sexually molested by his dorm master in the fall of 2004. He told a detective he was touched inappropriately about 15 times.

Police investigated the teacher, identified by the report as Charles Thompson, but closed the case with no corroborating evidence of an assault. The school told police he took a leave of absence and that families in his dorm were notified. However, lawyers for some alumni and the student involved in the 2005 report said St. George’s did not report to police or child protective services, other student complaints they allegedly received about Thompson.

“There was an absolute legal obligation in 2004 to make reports to social services,” said Carmen Durso, a Boston attorney who is representing the former student and alumni. “Why did the school not take action? Why were teachers allowed to continue there? Why were students put in a situation like this, continually, even after they made complaints?”

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Register

But its chief spokesman insists it has responded appropriately to the allegations of financial and sexual misconduct leveled against the parish priest.

by BRIAN FRAGA 02/12/2016

NEW YORK — Shortly after he was assigned to a parish on Roosevelt Island in New York City, Father Peter Miqueli told a local newspaper that he hoped his parishioners would help him become a good priest.

“I am a regular person from the community who has been called upon to serve the community,” Father Miqueli told The Wire in February 2002.

Today, Father Miqueli, while still a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, has no parish or any assignment. He has been sued by parishioners from two churches who accuse him of embezzling $1 million and of alienating the faithful with an aloof and abrasive demeanor. The embezzling allegations — extensively detailed in a lawsuit filed in December 2015 — are being investigated by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

The lawsuit also details, in lurid fashion, an alleged long-running paid homosexual relationship that Father Miqueli is said to have had with Keith Crist, an alleged male escort whom parishioners say they often saw around their churches, and who Father Miqueli allegedly assigned to run a parish-operated thrift shop on Roosevelt Island.

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MEXICO
La Jornada

[Mexico City . A few hours before the Pope arrives in Mexico, former priest Alberto Athie said the clerical pedophilia continues. “There are hundreds of children abused by clergy, locked in their homes, helpless, frustrated,” he said at a press conference.]

Ciudad de México. A unas horas de que arribe a México el Papa Francisco, Alberto Athié señaló que la pederastia clerical sigue vigente.

“Hay cientos de niñas y niños abusados por clérigos; encerrados en sus casas, impotentes, frustrados”, señaló en conferencia de prensa el exsacerdote.

Preguntó si ante los pendientes que tiene la Iglesia -uno de ellos la pederastia-, el pontífice viene a decir palabras maravillosas o a comprometerse con los feligreses. Athié resaltó la importancia de que se eleve la voz ante los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes, en el marco de esta visita, y de que el Papa Francisco se pronuncie.

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MEXICO
Aristegui Noticias

[The Holy See is guilty of covering up cases of pedophilia: Alberto Athie.]

El ex sacerdote aseguró que el Papa Francisco, quien llega la noche de este viernes a México, tiene conocimiento de varios casos.

El sacerdote Alberto Athié declaró este viernes que la pederastia clerical sigue vigente, aun durante el papado de Francisco, quien arribó la noche del viernes a la Ciudad de México para comenzar con su visita de seis días.

Athié también presentó documentos relacionados con denuncias de pederastia contra sacerdotes como el padre Eduardo Córdova, de San Luis Potosí, y Gerardo Silvestre, de Oaxaca.

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ITALIA
Bergamo News

[Priest Diego Rota has been arrested and is charged by the Brescia public prosecutor of child prostitution with aggravated soliciation of children through the internet.]

In un’inchiesta della Procura di Brescia, che vede coinvolte 11 persone in varie province lombarde, figura anche un procedimento giudiziario nei confronti di don Diego Rota, parroco di Solza.

È la stessa Curia di Bergamo a informare di aver ricevuto nella mattinata di mercoledì 10 febbraio notizia di un procedimento giudiziario nei confronti di don Diego Rota, 45 anni, parroco di Solza e di dover quindi nominare un amministratore parrocchiale per garantire il servizio alla comunità dei fedeli di Solza.

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MEXICO
Fusion

by Rafa Fernandez De Castro | February 9, 2016

MEXICO CITY—When Pope Francis visits Mexico from Feb. 12-17, many people will be watching to see if he finally addresses the Vatican’s failures to prevent and punish cases of child sexual abuse by some members of the Mexican clergy.

There’s plenty of such scandals to address—from a priest in Oaxaca accused of abusing indigenous minors to the fugitive priests of San Luis Potosí on the run from sexual abuse charges. There are other cases of the Church hierarchy allegedly protecting accused pedophile priests such as Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, who was transferred from Puebla to Los Angeles, California, after facing several accusations in Mexico.

But perhaps the most notorious case is that of Marcial Maciel, a priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of minors during his tenure as the leader of the powerful Catholic order known as “The Legionaries of Christ.” Maciel founded The Legion in Mexico City in 1941 as a movement to prepare young men for the priesthood and Catholic leaders from across Latin America. Today, the Legion is best known for creating dozens of private schools and universities that primarily serve Mexico’s middle- and upper-classes.

In a recent interview with a Mexican reporter, Pope Francis said Maciel, who died in 2008, was “sick, greatly sick.” But he downplayed the Vatican’s involvement in any cover-up. The pope told Televisa that Maciel most likely had an enabler within the Vatican—someone who “suspected and didn’t know” about the priest’s pederasty.

But many Mexican victims who were sexually abused by Maciel believe the pedophile priest must have been protected by more than one individual in the Vatican. A cover-up of that magnitude would require the protection of many.

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MEXIKO
Christ und Welt

Unterstützt der Papst in Mexiko die Reformer? Es sieht so aus. Doch beim sexuellen Missbrauch der Legionäre Christi bleibt er zu mild

Sein Wunsch wurde erhört: Als der mexikanische Bischof Raúl Vera gefragt wurde, welche Orte der Papst bei einem Besuch in Mexiko aufsuchen sollte, ließ er sich nicht lange bitten: »Er sollte die Route der Flüchtlinge kennenlernen, die in die USA auswandern wollen«, erklärte er im Juli 2014 gegenüber der spanischen Zeitung »El País«. Vera empfahl dem Papst auch einen Gefängnisbesuch, einen Abstecher in die vom Drogenhandel gezeichneten Armenviertel und die Begegnung mit Mexikos Indigenen.

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MEXICO
Urgente24

[Francisco in Mexico, overcoming the stigma of Maciel and Wojtyla.]

¿Estaba en sus cables Juan Pablo ll cuando el 05/12/1994 le envió una carta de felicitación a Marcial Maciel Degollado, publicada en los diarios más importantes de la Ciudad de México, llamándolo “guía eficaz de la juventud” que “ha querido poner a Cristo […] como criterio, centro y modelo de toda su vida y labor sacerdotal…”? Maciel Degollado fue un depredador sexual. En noviembre de 1997, 8 ex Legionarios de Cristo publicaron una carta a Juan Pablo II, luego de que hicieron público a través del diario Hartford Courant, de Connecticut (USA), el abuso sexual que sufrieron. Juan Pablo II tampoco se interesó en el tema. En marzo de 2015, el papa Francisco dijo en entrevista con Valentina Alazraki, corresponsal de Televisa en el Vaticano, acerca de Marcial Maciel: “Uno puede presumir que sí (hubo encubrimiento), aunque siempre en justicia hay que presumir la inocencia, pero sería raro que no tuviera algún padrinito por ahí, medio engañado, medio que, que sospechaba y no supiera”. De todos modos, la visita a México debió lidiar con el tema.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

By Liz Leydon

As the film Spotlight brings the Boston Catholic Church clerical abuse crisis back to the forefront of our minds, reopening old wounds for all involved, it draws inevitable but inaccurate comparisons between the abuse crisis and cover up in the church in the US, dating from the turn of the millennium expose, and what is happening in the Scottish Church at present.

I have had the demanding privilege of working on Church abuse stories on both sides of the Atlantic during my time with the Boston Herald group at the height of the Church abuse crisis and now as editor of The Scottish Catholic Observer (SCO), Scotland’s independent national Catholic newspaper. It is clear from survivors’ accounts in both countries, others such as in Ireland and from subsequent investigations that crimes occurred, serious mistakes were made and the Church as an institution had a steep learning curve on reporting and handling accusations of abuse, issues too repulsive to imagine. While I have respect for the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning-team featured in Spotlight, wider mistakes were also made in the early reporting on the abuse issue – such as sensationalism of already horrific news– due to a lack of understanding about such an emotive subject and of the Catholic Church; also, because of agendas.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Courthouse News Service

By EVA FEDDERLY

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (CN) – A West Virginia Baptist church accused of covering up the sexual and emotional abuse of a minor shouldn’t expect anyone but itself to bear the cost of its legal defense, the church’s former insurer says.

The Bible Baptist Church, in Belva, W.Va., its Blue Creek Academy, in Clendenin, W.Va., and two of their employees are accused in an underlying lawsuit if subjecting a minor in their care to among other things, sexual abuse, starvation and isolation.

The plaintiff in the current action provided the defendant church and academy with liability insurance from June 13, 2011, to June 13, 2014.

“Some of the Church Defendants have requested insurance coverage (defense and indemnity) from Brotherhood for the allegations and claims in the Underlying Action,” according to Jan. 21 complaint filed by Brotherhood Mutual. “Brotherhood denies that it has or had any obligation to defend or indemnify any of the Church Defendants.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Young Herald

Keith Porteous Wood, NSS executive director, commented: “It is unfortunately no surprise that these guidelines encourage bishops not to report suspected abuse, rather than obligating them to do so as the United Nations recommended specifically to the Vatican in 2014”.

A document that spells out how senior clergy members ought to deal with allegations of abuse, which was recently released by the Vatican, emphasised that, though they must be aware of local laws, bishops’ only duty was to address such allegations internally.

As The Crux says, “If the Church is to recover from the abuse scandals, bishops need every tool available, and these courses provide a chance to equip them”.

The report claims that church officials believe they are under no legal obligation to report child sex abuse allegations to law enforcement officials; evidently, church officials believe they have no moral imperative to report such allegations either. The guidelines on child abuse was presented to new bishops last September in the annual training course organised by the Congregation for Bishops, Allen noted.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Elle Farcic
February 13, 2016

A Jehovah’s Witness elder who sexually assaulted two vulnerable teenagers he met through the church was sentenced to three years jail yesterday over the “destructive” abuse.

David Frank Pople, 68, met the boys through the Safety Bay congregation of the church and assaulted them between 1989 and 1996.

One of the teens reported the sexual assaults to elders in 1997 but police were not made aware of the abuse until he filed a police report in 2014.

Pople was forcibly ejected from the church for being “insufficiently repentant” in 1997 and readmitted the following year at his request.

District Court judge Troy Sweeney accepted Pople was genuinely remorseful but said he had interfered with his victims’ natural maturing process in a “very destructive way”.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

The pastor of a Union City church has been charged with offenses related to the alleged sexual contact with two juvenile girls in Clifton over a two-year period, authorities said Friday in a news release.

Vicitacio Rivas-Valle, 68, was arrested on Tuesday and is accused of abusing two teenagers who were members of his church, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said. The girls, she said, were between 13 and 16 years old when the alleged abuse took place.

“The crimes are alleged to have occurred in Clifton, New Jersey, over a two-year period,” Valdes said. She did not provide details about when the alleged crimes occurred.

Rivas-Valle was charged with two counts each of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, the prosecutor said. His bail was set at $50,000, Valdes said.

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NEW JERSEY
NBC New York

A 68-year-old New Jersey pastor has been arrested, accused of sexually abusing two teen girls who attended his church, authorities said.

Passaic County prosecutors said Vicitacio Rivas-Valle of Union City was arrested Tuesday after investigators say he had criminal sexual contact with two girls who attended his Union City church over a period of two years.

The girls were between 13 and 16 years old when they were allegedly molested.

Rivas-Valle was charged with child endangerment and criminal sexual contact. He remains jailed on $50,000 bail.

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Journal

by Naomi Pfefferman

“Marty belongs in the pantheon of great Jewish heroes,” Josh Singer, a co-writer of the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” said during a recent interview at a Santa Monica coffee house.

He was discussing the real-life newsman at the center of the much-lauded film about how Boston Globe reporters exposed a conspiracy of silence about pedophile priests some 15 years ago.

Martin Baron, then the Globe’s brand-new editor, seems rather stiff and hardly heroic as he attends a meeting with the newspaper’s investigative team on his first day of work in 2001.

To be sure, it’s not the most welcoming environment for this former editor of the Miami Herald. Boston’s media had already pointedly noted that Baron – who in real life is now executive editor of the Washington Post – was to become the first Jewish editor at a publication whose readers were 53 percent Catholic, while Baron’s reporters on the Globe’s investigative team all were raised Catholic. And one character remarks that not only was the new editor coming from Florida, he was also an “unmarried man from the Jewish faith who hates baseball” in a town obsessed with the Red Sox. Later in the film, a church leader insinuates that Baron is a meddling outsider as he gives the editor a copy of the church’s Catechism, advising him to “think of it as the Cardinal’s guide to Boston.”

Unabashed, the reserved but intense Baron (played by Liev Schreiber) tells his reporters he wants them to look into the highest echelons of the church, because he’s noted a news item about a priest accused of child abuse. He wants to see if there’s more to the story.

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ARIZONA
Hawaii News Now

By Janice Yu

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) –
The Roman Catholic Church told newly ordained bishops that they are not obligated to report sexual abuse to authorities, stating the responsibility to report the abuse falls on the victims and their families.

This was first reported by a journalist with Crux, a Catholic news website.

Tucson Diocese Bishop Gerald Kicanas said there is a lot of effort in the U.S. to make sure bishops report any sexual abuse to authorities.

He also said bishops are well aware of their responsibility to report.

Locally, the diocese screens those working in the ministry, as well as volunteers and staff.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they are upset by the news.

“No mention was made that you should call the police when a crime is reported to you and we found that deeply disturbing,” said Barbara Dorris, with SNAP.

Dorris said there has been a lot of talk about changes that will be made within the church, but nothing has actually been accomplished to make sure those responsible for sexual abuse are held accountable.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Sexual abuse and sexual assault, robbery, escape and assault on a police officer were among the indictments handed down by the February 2016 term of the Mercer County Grand Jury.

James Lilly, 24, of Bluefield was indicted on 22 charges including sexual abuse first degree, sexual assault third degree and incest. Lilly allegedly started abusing a female juvenile when she was 9 to 10 years old and continued abusing her until she was 16.

Lilly, by his own admission, is transgender and in the process of becoming a woman, Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department said at the time of the arrest.

Lilly once served with youth ministry at the Christ Episcopal Church in Bluefield. Rector Chad Slater told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that Lilly had been hired with a grant from the Diocese of West Virginia, and came highly recommended. His position at the church ended Sept. 15, 2015 because the grant funding had ended and because “he really wasn’t doing a whole lot.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Citizen-Times

Emily Patrick and Julie Ball, jball@citizen-times.com February 12, 2016

The Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina in an open letter to parishioners this month acknowledged a rector has been accused of sexual abuse while serving at a Waynesville church for 12 years.

The diocese said a member of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville reported being sexually abused by the Rev. Howard White while she was a juvenile. In the letter, Bishop G. Porter Taylor urged anyone who might have been a victim contact the diocese.

Waynesville police said the department is investigating, but White has not been charged with a crime. The diocese in its letter also said White has not been charged, though he also faces similar accusations elsewhere. White served as rector of Grace Episcopal from 1984 to 2006.

Waynesville police Lt. Chris Chandler said the investigation is ongoing.

“It’s still the beginning stages of this investigation,” he said, adding this type of inquiry operates with a “different time frame.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A Hunter Valley child sexual abuse victim is urging anyone who suspects a crime has been committed to contact police.

Peter Gogarty said he was relieved Adelaide’s Archbishop Philip Wilson will have to defend a charge of concealing child sexual abuse.

Wilson’s application was yesterday denied by magistrate Robert Stone, who said “elements of the offence may be able to be proved”.

If you suspect that a crime has been committed then you need to say something.
Peter Gogarty, Hunter Valley sexual abuse victim
During the hearing, the court was told the charge against Wilson was invalid as there was no evidence the offence he is accused of concealing ever happened.

The concealment charge relates to abuse in the 1970s by the now-dead paedophile priest James Fletcher.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Feb 12, 2016

This week I read dozens of headlines about a new Vatican document that allegedly instructed bishops not to report sex-abuse complaints to the local police. For example:

* Catholic Church Tells Bishops They Are Not Obliged to Disclose Child Sex Abuse: Report (Time)
* New Catholic bishops told they don’t have to report sexual abuse to police (Newsweek)
Catholic bishops not obliged to report clerical child abuse, Vatican says (The Guardian)
* Vatican: Bishops not required to report abuse to police ( UPI)

Here’s what was wrong about those stories:

* There was no new document.
* Neither the “Vatican” nor the “Catholic Church” had taken any new stand on the topic.
* The controversial statement reflected in the headlines was the personal opinion of a French monsignor.

How did the headlines get so far from the truth? Oddly, every one of the reports cited above gave proper credit to the original source for the story: an item posted on the Crux site on February 7 by the respected Vatican journalist John Allen. But Allen had the story right. Somehow dozens of other journalists read his report and dashed off in the wrong direction.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Citizen

A CHURCH elder who sexually abused vulnerable children was invited to speak at his first victim’s wedding, a court heard.

A court was told Harry Holt, 71, now of Rutland Street, Nelson, went on to attack seven more girls as young as nine after the Jehovah’s Witnesses failed to report him to police.

When the matter was raised, a local beat officer advised parents to ‘just keep your children away from him’, the court heard.

Holt is facing a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of attacks against eight girls in Scotland dating back over 40 years.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

By David Clohessy, director of SNAP (davidgclohessy@gmail.com, 314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)

Francis has done more about the abuse crisis than his predecessors. Isn’t that encouraging?

First, we should judge church officials NOT by what their terrible predecessors did but by what responsible officials would do. It’s little comfort to a girl who’s been raped under Francis to say “Well, under Benedict, there might have been an even smaller chance of your predator being ousted.”

Neither Benedict nor Francis has exposed a single child molesting cleric or really punished a single complicit church official. They’ve made lots of reassuring talk but taken little meaningful action.

But several bishops have been forced out because of abuse. Isn’t that good news?

We don’t think this is true. A tiny handful of bishops (Finn in Kansas City, Nienstedt and Piche in St. Paul) have resigned. Were they forced out? Who knows. Continued Vatican secrecy means that no one can be sure whether they were forced and if so, what the real reason or reasons might have been.

There’s nothing new about bishops resigning, while keeping their titles and paychecks and honors. A pope firing bishops would be new. And it would deter wrongdoing. But it didn’t happen under Benedict and it isn’t happening under Francis.

What about the Paraguay bishop? Francis ousted him.

That’s true. But within hours, the official papal spokesman said that this move was NOT because the bishop mishandled abuse. (Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano had promoted Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, who has been described by bishops from Switzerland to Pennsylvania as ‘dangerous,’ ‘abnormal,’ and ‘a serious threat to young people’ and against whom a $400,000 settlement was paid.)

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UNITED STATES
Out

BY NICHOLAS RICHARD REES

Spotlight has thoroughly captured the attention of critics and moviegoers with its dramatic retelling of the Boston Globe Spotlight team’s investigative efforts to expose sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. Praised as a realistic and compelling portrayal of journalists at work, the film showcases the Boston Globe’s revelatory discovery of the Church’s misdeeds.

Nominated for six Oscars, Spotlight has brought much needed attention to the victims, abuse, and the advocacy done on their behalf. Phil Saviano—a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest—represents the Spotlight team’s original source. As a leader of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), Saviano is a pivotal character in the film, and though he’s only in a handful of scenes, his name and tale inform the Spotlight team throughout.

When tasked with the immense responsibility of playing Saviano, Neal Huff—an actor known for roles in HBO’s The Wire and Show Me a Hero—embraced the importance of getting the role right. Huff spoke with Out about Spotlight’s success and cultural impact, his career-defining advice from Ian McKellen, and how Phil Saviano changed his life.

Out: I just watched Spotlight and absolutely loved it. In many ways it’s doing exactly what you hope a film will: inspire conversation, win awards, and make money so more films like it can be made in the future.

Exactly. This is kind of the dream. You hope that you can do a project with this sort of purpose behind it, and it’s so rare that something like this makes it. It’s a rare thing to be in [a film] that hits a nerve like this with everyone. It’s been really unprecedented in my life, to be honest….

How did you prepare to for the role?

Josh Singer [Spotlight’s writer] and Tom McCarthy [Spotlight’s writer/director] got me in touch with him. Right from the get go Phil and I started talking and spending time together. We became great friends. He came down to New York [and] I spent time with him up in Boston.

He’s got a very interesting body language and the way he communicates is very kinetic. He’s connected to his body, so I thought there’s all this amazing material to draw on that is specific and original. So when I first met him I thought, Oh I need to learn all of these mannerisms of Phil. But the more I got to know him, that kind of took a backseat to what I was learning. What initially was a treasure trove of interesting detail quickly became a huge responsibility, because I realized I was going to be the proxy for Phil and for all the people Phil was representing. Some actors don’t like to get to know the people that they might represent if it’s a real person, but I felt in this case that Phil and I were an absolute team.

How did that preparation translate into filming your scenes?

I knew Phil felt a certain level of adrenaline going into the Spotlight office and meeting them. So there was a certain level of nerves and anticipation, and I knew that talking to Brian d’Arcy James, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Michael Keaton would serve me well because any nerves and anticipation I had about going in and talking to those unbelievable talents would hopefully translate in a similar way to how Phil felt.

How did Saviano respond to your portrayal?

The fact that Phil Saviano said he felt vindicated by a film and my portrayal of him is more than I could ever ask for. [Also] when I finished that scene where I come and meet the Spotlight team, Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes walked up to me and they said, “Just want you to know that that was what it felt like. What just happened is exactly what we felt.” They were being so generous to me. So between those guys and Phil saying he felt vindicated, it’s more than you could ever hope for as an actor.

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UNITED STATES
Newsweek

BY LUCY WESTCOTT ON 2/11/16

Updated | New Catholic bishops have been told that they have no obligation to report clerical child abuse, according to reports.

During a presentation for newly appointed bishops, French Monsignor Tony Anatrella said they don’t have a duty to report abuse because it should be the responsibility of victims and their families to go to the police. The comments were first reported by John L. Allen at the Catholic news site Cruxnow.com earlier this week.

Anatrella, a psychtherapist and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, is known for his controversial views on homosexuality, including that the acceptance of homosexuality in the West is creating “serious problems” for children. He also helped to write a training document for newly appointed bishops that further spells out the church’s stance on clerical sexual abuse.

“According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds,” the training document, which was released by the Vatican earlier this month, reads. The document says bishops are required only to report the suspected abuse internally.

A Vatican source told Newsweek that the comments made during the presentation are Anatrella’s opinion and not an official Vatican position. The source added that in some countries it is difficult for clergy to report abuse to authorities due to the “quite hostile” relationship between church and state. In countries with corrupt police forces and hostile governments, for example, there is greater risk of not having a presumption of innocence and a fair trial, he said. …

“In one sense, this isn’t surprising. As BishopAccountability.org has pointed out, ‘zero tolerance,’ while often uttered by Catholic officials, isn’t even the official policy of the global church,” Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement emailed to Newsweek.

“But it’s infuriating—and dangerous—that so many believe the myth that bishops are changing how they deal with abuse and that so little attention is paid when evidence to the contrary—like this disclosure by Allen—emerges,” she said.

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ILLINOIS
Telemundo Chicago

La oficina del fiscal del Condado de Kane ha presentado cargos de abuso sexual a un sacerdote de Aurora que presuntamente abusó sexualmente de dos niños.

Alfredo Pedraza Arias, de 49 años de edad y con dirección en la cuadra 200 High Street, ha sido acusado de dos delitos grave de abuso sexual criminal.

Las autoridades alegan que entre enero del 2009 y noviembre del 2014, Pedraza Arias, sacerdote en la Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón en Aurora, habría abusado sexualmente de dos víctimas que en ese momento eran menores de 13 años.

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MICHIGAN
Life Story

April 1, 1951 – December 26, 2015
Kalamazoo, MI

Through the life he lived each day, Fr. Carl Peltz was a man of purpose as well as a true servant of God who cared deeply about his fellow man. He was highly intelligent and deeply devoted to the people he served including during his time spent in the military. Fr. Peltz possessed a compassionate heart and will be fondly remembered for his sense of humor and tireless commitment while he faced debilitating health conditions. He was also a person who was loving and accepting toward all.

The 1950s were a time of great change in America. Rosa Parks brought civil rights to the forefront when she refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, Alaska and Hawaii became our country’s 49th and 50th states, and by the time the decade was drawing to a close the United States and the Soviet Union were deeply invested in a race to make history in space. It was just as this exciting time was dawning that Carl F. Peltz was born on April 1, 1951, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, the oldest of 5 children born to William and Theresa (Olszewski) Peltz. Like most young people of that era, Carl was influenced by the ever changing events of the 1950’s and 1960’s and society’s challenge to the norm. These times would help shape his character and ministry.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

THE Governance Review Panel’s (GRP) proposal for the restructure of the Yeshivah Centre would only be possible if trustees and Interim Committee of Management (ICOM) members were to break their promise to the community.

Both the trustees and ICOM members told the community last year that they would step down and relinquish control at the end of 2015, but that time has been extended because the implementation of a new governance structure is taking longer than expected.

However, under the proposal put forward by the GRP, both groups would be embedded in the Yeshivah Centre’s leadership for at least three years. For the first three months, until elections are held, the centre would be run by two former ICOM members, two people nominated by the trustees and a fifth person appointed by the four board members.

There would then be elections, and for three years the centre would be run by a nine-person board (the YCL), which would include three former ICOM members and two members appointed by the trustees. As a result, the ICOM-trustee bloc would have a controlling interest on the YCL board.

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HAWAII/MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

for immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

An abusive Catholic cleric – who is suspected of molesting more than 50 kids and whose whereabouts were deemed “unknown” by church officials – has turned up in Hawaii. Though his church supervisors knew of his crimes as far back as the 1960s, they let keep teaching in Michigan and four other states.

[Los Angeles Times]

He’s Brother Edward C. “Chris” Courtney. He taught at a Catholic school in Birmingham, Michigan (and worked at church institutions in IL, NY, NV and WA).

We urge Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins, church websites and other tools to aggressively seek out others in Michigan who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Courtney or cover ups by his colleagues.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

Iowa lawmakers are trying to reform child safety laws. We applaud this effort.

[KCCI]

A new bill has been introduced into the legislature that will protect more kids from child molesters by reforming the state’s archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statute of limitations. We wholeheartedly endorse this long-overdue measure that will make families safer from predators.

We applaud Sen. Janet Petersen for her concern for kids, victims and crime prevention. We hope every Iowa lawmaker backs House Bill File 6 so that more adults who commit or conceal heinous crimes against kids will be exposed, punished and stopped. We hope legislators will also reform Iowa’s dreadful civil statute of limitations.

The vast majority of child sex offenders go undetected. That’s one reason why one in four girls and one in eight boys are molested.

One reason for such widespread trauma is because short, rigid statutes of limitations prevent victims from using the courts to publicly expose those who commit child sex crimes and deter those who conceal child sex crimes. These legal deadlines reward wrongdoers who successfully intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, discredit whistleblowers, destroy evidence, fabricate alibis and sometimes even flee overseas.

When lawmakers extend or eliminate these deadlines, criminals know they can no longer just “run out the clock” and evade justice.

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.

LOUISIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

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

Shame on Alexandria’s bishop for urging victims of a predator priest to call him instead of calling police. Child sex abuse is a crime. It should be reported to the independent, unbiased professionals in law enforcement, not to the biased, self-serving Catholic officials who, even now, work to keep a tight lid on clergy sex scandals.

Bishop Ronald Herzog knows this. Still, he insists – as Catholic officials have done for decades – on trying to handle this horror internally. Again, he should be ashamed of himself.

or the safety of kids, Herzog should put Fr. Antonio Jorge Velez in a remote, secure, independent treatment center.

He should use church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements to aggressively seek out other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers. If Fr. Velez molested in Maryland, he very likely molested in Louisiana. Herzog has a moral and civic duty to try to find this out and prod people with information to call secular authorities.

No matter what the church hierarchy does or doesn’t do, every Louisiana Catholic church member and employee should beat the bushes, spread the word and ask their loved ones if they saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. Velez or cover ups by his clerical colleagues. Anyone with information or suspicions about Fr. Velez should find the courage to call law enforcement, expose all wrongdoers, protect the vulnerable and start healing.

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.

IDAHO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release, February 12, 2016

Statement by Barbra Graber, Leader of the Anabaptist Mennonite Chapter of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (540-214-8874, Mennonite@SNAPnetwork.org)

Our hearts go out to Clayton Peaster and his family, and anyone else who may have been hurt by any Mennonite predator. We applaud Mr. Peaster for his courage and we hope his seeking justice will protect others and bring healing.

[CDA Press]

We urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual violence, either as a child or an adult, to come forward, get help, protect others, deter cover ups, start healing and expose those who commit or conceal assaults on the innocent and vulnerable. We especially urge them to contact independent sources of help, like therapists, police, prosecutors and support groups like ours. Sadly, calling church officials often leads to more pain and secrecy, not less.

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

TEXAS
The Monitor

ARCHIVE: State Police Get Garza Case Files; No Suspects Are Charged

ARCHIVE: More Than 500 Questioned In Garza Slaying

ARCHIVE: Police Still Sift for Murder Clue

ARCHIVE: Killer Reward Up to $2500

Editor’s Note: This article about Irene Garza was originally printed in the April 21, 1960, edition of The Monitor.

The badly beaten body of Miss Irene Garza, missing 25-year-old McAllen school teacher was discovered floating in the Second Street canal near the Sears Roebuck Co., store at 7:40 a.m. today.

The body; clad in the clothing Miss Garza was wearing when she disappeared, was floating face downward.

Police chief Clint Mussey announced he was questioning suspects “although we have no strong leads.”

An intensive police manhunt for the abductor and slayer of the attractive, dark-haired woman was spurred by a $1,000 reward offered by Whalen’s for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of the person of persons responsible for the crime.

Later in the morning, O. Terry, local department store owner, announced he was offering an additional $500 reward.

Autopsy Being Held

At noon today pathologists were still working on the body at the Kreidler Funeral home to determine the immediate cause of death and police said the autopsy report would not be released until afternoon.

Justice of the Peace Harley Jackson said he had been ordered to report his death verdict only to the police.

Although police refused to confirm reports that the body was mutilated, an observer at the autopsy said the face was badly beaten and that there were other severe beating marks over the body. The autopsy was expected to show if the victim had been criminally assaulted.

The body was discovered almost simultaneously by Mrs. W. Arnold. 206 First Street, and George Pearson, 200 Peking Avenue. They were passing by the canal when they saw the sack floating in the water only a few yards away from the busy intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and South Second Street opposite the Sears store.

The body was floating face downward. It was removed to the Kreidler Funeral Home where positive identification was made by members of the family. According to police, she was wearing the clothing which she was wearing when she left her home on North 15th Street at 6:45 p.m. Saturday to attend services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

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UNITED STATES
Journalists Resource

Walter V. Robinson, editor at large for The Boston Globe, offered his thoughts on the future of investigative journalism during a talk he gave at Harvard Kennedy School about his newspaper’s coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the movie that is based on the investigation. An audio file of the taped conversation is offered through Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Robinson, who’s played by actor Michael Keaton in the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight,” said it was a “small miracle” the movie was ever made. “None of us thought how we made the sausage was interesting at all,” he said, describing the tediousness of the news gathering process. But in 2003, he was asked to write an article for Nieman Reports magazine about the making of the investigation. Later, Columbia University published a case study about it. The writer of the case study was introduced to some film producers, who showed an interest in the story. After a year, Anonymous Content, a production and management company, put up money for the development of a screenplay. But the production stalled without the commitment of additional financing or actors. Then actors Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Keaton read the script and agreed to sign on — at which point Participant Media, an entertainment media company, offered a modest budget to produce the film. “The actors loved the film so much they all worked for whatever the industry minimum is,” Robinson said.

Robinson discussed the evolution of the Catholic Church investigation by the Globe‘s investigative team, known as the Spotlight Team. “We were asked to do an investigation on one priest by Marty Baron,” said Robinson. “I confess that our reaction was more out of fear of a new boss than any conviction that there was a story we could get. The four of us called everybody we could think of … and because we put so many feelers out, we very quickly discovered that it wasn’t just one priest, that there were 12 or 15, and from that point the number kept growing as we investigated.”

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Janelle Walker
Elgin Courier-News

Bail was set at $50,000 for a priest, who was previously affiliated with two Aurora-area parishes, accused of molesting girls in Kane County.

The Rev. Alfredo Pedraza Arias, 49, was arrested by Kane County sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service on a warrant at his Rockford residence Thursday. He appeared at Kane County’s bond call Friday morning.

Pedraza Arias, recently of the 200 block of High Street in Aurora, is charged with two Class 2 felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor under age 13.

Authorities launched an investigation into Pedraza Arias after receiving reports of alleged abuse in 2014, according a release Thursday evening from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford. Pedraza Arias was asked to remove himself from all ministries, including the Hispanic Ministry in the DeKalb County Deanery, the release stated. He has not been active in any ministries since October 2014, the release 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.