ABUSE TRACKER

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

October 26, 2016

N.J. priest accused of uploading child porn in Wayne County

PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Tribune

BY DAVID SINGLETON / PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 26, 2016

A Roman Catholic priest from Mahwah, New Jersey, is charged in Wayne County with dozens of child pornography-related felony counts.

The Rev. Kevin Gugliotta, 54, was taken into custody Thursday night in Toms River, New Jersey, and is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania, Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards said today.

His arrest follows what Ms. Edwards described as a multi-county, multi-state investigation.

It began in August when a detective in Monroe County received information that images of child pornography were uploaded to an internet chat room from a specific Internet Protocol address.

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.

Parish roundup: Halloween, holy door in prison, mourning miscarriage

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Oct. 26, 2016

What to do about Halloween? Avoid glorifying the demonic, consider having a parish Halloween event rather than trick-or-treating, and bypass Freddy Krueger costumes, advise some moms and a Vatican-trained exorcist.

Prison ministry volunteer Jim Preisendorfer believes that New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, N.H., might be the only prison in the world with a door designated as a holy door for the Holy Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis. The holy door was blessed and dedicated by Bishop Peter Libasci of the Manchester diocese in response to a request made by an inmate during a Mass celebrated by the bishop in the prison chapel, reports Katie Fiermonti in Parable Magazine. A 10-year prison ministry veteran, Preisendorfer also works with Kairos Prison Ministry and oversaw what might be the first application of the small-group, faith-sharing program All Hearts Afire in a prison setting. …

Things have not been as peace-oriented at Assumption School in Bellingham, about two hours north of Seattle on the I-5 corridor. The issue: If a parent of a student is a registered sex offender, should school officials notify all parents, notably if the parent in question drives the student to campus? The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests has called for the principal’s firing.

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George Pell faces more questions over sex abuse claims

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 27, 2016

TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Victoria Police has broadened its investigations into historical sexual assault allegations against ­George Pell after an interview in Rome led to blanket denials from the cardinal in the presence of an Australia-based lawyer.

Amid growing signs police are refusing to surrender their pursuit of Cardinal Pell, the church is ­increasingly bewildered by what it sees as factually flawed allegations by several people.

Police said yesterday that ­investigators were drawing on the interview to help determine whether the world’s third most powerful Catholic will be charged with child sex offences.

Cardinal Pell has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and agreed to be interviewed in Italy. The interview was conducted in the presence of an Australian lawyer, but not criminal barrister Robert Richter QC, who was engaged by Cardinal Pell earlier this year after some of the allegations were made public.

The Australian understands several key claims by alleged victims have fallen over because of basic factual errors, but police are using the contents of the interview to conduct further inquiries.

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CA-–Sex offender returned to ministry by Antiochian Orthodox Church

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Bishop pleaded guilty to groping a woman in a Michigan casino in 2004
Cleric spent time in jail and was on the sex offender registry
Retired after his conviction, the head of the Antiochians recently appointed him to lead the Diocese of Los Angeles
A victims’ group condemns this action, calling it “unbelievable, dangerous and callous”

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, sex abuse victims and their supporters will hold a press conference outside the cathedral of the Diocese of Los Angeles and the West to:

— publicize the recent appointment of Bishop Demetri Matta Khoury to assist Metropolitan Joseph G. Al-Zehlaoui in the administration of the diocese,

— provide information about Khoury’s 2003 arrest, and subsequent 2004 conviction and sentence, and

— blast the Church for making such a misguided decision and placing women and girls at risk.

When:
Wednesday, October 26, 2016, at 11:30 am.

Where:
Outside Saint Nicholas Cathedral, 2300 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles (cross street, South Grand View Street)

Who:
Two or more sex abuse victims and their supporters who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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

Child porn charges for poker-playing priest

NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Alex N. Gecan, @GeeksterTweets October 26, 2016

TOMS RIVER – A fugitive Catholic priest and nationally ranked poker player wanted on dozens of child-pornography-related charges in Pennsylvania is now in the Ocean County jail after being arrested by township police.

Officials with the Archdiocese of Newark Wednesday confirmed that the priest, Kevin A. Gugliotta, 54, of Totowa, had been removed from his ministry at Holy Spirit Church in Union.

A criminal docket from a Wayne County, Pennsylvania, magisterial court listed 20 allegations against Gugliotta of possessing or viewing child pornography and of disseminating photographs or video of child sex acts. The date of all 40 alleged offenses is July 9 of this year, according to court records.

Prosecutors in Wayne County said that Gugliotta is in jail awaiting extradition out of New Jersey.

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.

Listen and give us a say, children speak about their safety

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

26 October, 2016

Researchers from Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Southern Cross University (SCU) will present findings from three research projects, commissioned by the Royal Commission, involving 1,400 children and young people, including those with a disability.

“The Royal Commission has commissioned a series of research projects into children’s views of safety,” Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said.

“Through this research we have heard directly from children and young people about how they perceive safety, the safety issues they confront in institutional contexts, and how these could be best addressed,” Mr Reed said.

Friday’s symposium – Listen and give us a say: children and young people’s views about safety in institutions – is part of a broader program of research undertaken on behalf of the Royal Commission.

“This forum is an opportunity to hear directly from the researchers commissioned by the Royal Commission about their research reports and they will be joined by a panel of young people from their reference group,” Mr Reed said.

Presenters:

Professor Morag McArthur and Dr Tim Moore, Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University

Dr Sally Robinson, Centre for Children and Young People, Southern Cross University

Panel of children and young people that were part of the researcher’s reference group.

Event details
Friday 28 October 2016, 9am-12.30pm
University Hall, University of Technology Sydney
15 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007

Presenters are available for interview. Please contact media@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

For more information about the research, visit www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/giveusasay

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Tuam Home vigil

IRELAND
Galway Independent

A candlelight vigil in memory of residents of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home will take place next Wednesday, 2 November, All Souls Day.

The vigil will begin at 7pm at the site of the unofficial burial grounds on the Dublin Road in Tuam and proceed to the Town Square. The vigil, organisers say, follows in the footsteps of the “home children”.

Research by Tuam historian Catherine Corless indicates that the remains of 796 children, most of them infants, may be buried at the site. A preliminary site excavation by a team of specialist archaeologists, requested by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, is ongoing and expected to be complete by mid-November.

The vigil is part of a series of events recognising the legacy of Mother and Baby Homes, which includes a national art project titled ‘Tuam Spirit Babies’ by artist Sadie Cramer.

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Welsh speakers to man phonelines of major child sex abuse inquiry

WALES
Daily Post

BY TOM DAVIDSON

A team of Welsh speakers will man phonelines for a major inquiry into child sex abuse.

Professor Alexis Jay is in Cardiff today to launch the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s Welsh office.

It will also mark the start in Wales of the inquiry’s “truth project”, through which victims and survivors of abuse can share their experiences.

Prof Jay said: “I am delighted be in Cardiff today to meet with representatives from across Wales to discuss the work of the Inquiry.

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‘No crisis’ says head of abuse inquiry, Prof Alexis Jay

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The latest head of an inquiry into historical sexual abuse says it remains focused on its work, as an office is opened in Wales on Wednesday.

Prof Alexis Jay, the fourth chairwoman of the troubled probe, will attend the launch event in Cardiff.

Its “truth project” is being rolled out in Wales, where victims and survivors of abuse can share their experiences.

The inquiry has been beset by controversies – including the three previous chairwomen resigning.

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Child sex abuse inquiry opens Welsh office in Cardiff

WALES
BBC News

By Jenny Johnson
BBC News

Victims of historical sexual abuse are being urged to come forward and give evidence to an independent inquiry as it opens an office in Wales.

Prof Alexis Jay, the fourth chairwoman of the troubled probe, will attend the launch event in Cardiff.

Its “truth project” is being rolled out in Wales, where victims and survivors of abuse can share their experiences.

The inquiry has been beset by controversies – including the three previous chairwomen resigning.

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INSIGHT-Pope Francis the manager – surprising, secretive, shrewd

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

* Keeps aides guessing with unexpected decisions
* Works around the bureaucracy when he deems it necessary
* No right-hand man, two secretaries keep out of sight

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Father Ernest Simoni, a 88-year-old Albanian, was watching Pope Francis on television this month when, to his astonishment, he heard the pontiff mention his name.

Francis announced that the simple, white-haired Roman Catholic priest, who had spent many years in jail during Albania’s communist dictatorship, was to become a cardinal.

It was the first that Simoni, or any of the other 16 new cardinals named by Francis at the same time, had heard of their elevation to the prestigious rank.

“I did not believe either my ears or eyes,” Simoni told Reuters in Albania. “The pope said it, but I could not believe it. ‘Can he be talking about another Ernest?’ I said to myself.”

But more significantly, the pope had also kept nearly the entire Vatican hierarchy in the dark about his decision, which he announced on Oct. 9 to thousands of pilgrims.

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‘He assaulted me sexually, threatened at knife point’: Seminary priest arrested on student’s complaint

INDIA
The News Minute

Haritha John| Wednesday, October 26, 2016

“He threatened him with a knife, even physically assaulted me when I refused to withdraw my complaint given to the seminary,” says a 20-year-old young man in his complaint registered at the Iritty police station.

The young man’s determination to pursue a case of sexual assault has lead to the arrest of 41-year-old Father James Thekkemury, a priest working as a lecturer in Bengaluru.

Fr James Thekkemury has been accused of assaulting the young man in 2015 when he was a rector at the Deiva Matha Seminary at Iritty in Kannur district. After getting dismissed from the seminary, he had joined a college in Bengaluru as guest lecturer.

The victim had joined the seminary in 2012 when he was 16 years old. According to the police, the priest made the first attempt to sexually abuse him in 2015.

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New laws make life safer for our children

AUSTRALIA
Stawell Times-News

The Andrews Labor Government has introduced new laws to better protect Victorian children by strengthening Working with Children Checks.

The Working with Children Amendment Bill 2016 will make the application process more rigorous, addressing five key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Under the reforms, any criminal charges laid against an applicant for serious sexual, violent or drug offences will be considered as part of Working With Children Check assessments, regardless of whether they resulted in a conviction or finding of guilt. The WWC Check Unit can now consider non-conviction charges that may have been dismissed on a technicality, or did not proceed because of the impact on the victim, when deciding on whether to grant an application.

Kinship carers – a family member or other person of significance to a child who has been placed in out-of-home care – will now be required to obtain a WWC Check. From May next year, all new kinship carers will be required to obtain a WWC Check within 21 days of becoming a carer. Existing kinship carers will have three months from May 1 to apply, and all applications for new and existing kinship carers will be free of charge.

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Bill to aid sex abuse victims dies in Pa. House

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Maria Panaritis and Karen Langley / Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG — A controversial proposal to extend the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims appeared to collapse Tuesday after supporters in the House of Representatives said it was unlikely to move an amended version of the bill or reintroduce the original measure.

With little chance of it passing, they said they would try to revive it when the assembly reconvenes next year.

“The process is over at this point,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Reading Democrat and clergy abuse victim who had been the bill’s fiercest advocate.

Both the GOP-controlled House and Senate had supported expanding victims’ rights to sue but split sharply on whether those rights should be applied retroactively for victims abused decades ago.

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Judge says Xavier College can see allegedly abused ex-student’s psychiatric records

AUSTRALIA
The Border Mail

Adam Cooper, Bianca Hall, Timna Jacks
26 Oct 2016

Xavier College is a step closer to accessing the psychological records of a man who claims he was sexually abused as a student at the school more than 40 years ago.

Janusz Skarbek alleges he was raped when he was a student at the exclusive, Jesuit-run school between 1971 and 1974.

The man he named as his abuser, Father John Byrne, died in 1974, but the Catholic Church has previously acknowledged he was an abuser.

Mr Skarbek has launched a Supreme Court lawsuit against his former school, claiming it was negligent in its treatment of him and seeking compensation for his pain and suffering. A jury is expected to hear his case next year.

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Pastor barred from ministry after sexual abuse plea

OREGON
Herald and News

By STEPHEN FLOYD H&N Staff Reporter Oct 25, 2016

A local pastor arrested last year has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a congregation member and been barred from practicing ministry while on probation.

Larry Marshall Murrell, 63, pleaded guilty Oct. 10 to two misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and was sentenced to three years of probation and 30 days in jail with credit for time served. A felony count of second-degree sexual abuse was dismissed as part of a plea deal. He otherwise faced up to five years in prison.

Under the terms of sentencing, Murrell may no longer “work, volunteer or act in any capacity as a minister, pastor or counselor during probation,” according to his plea agreement. Murrell may also have no contact with minors or frequent places where minors gather, must register as a sex offender and enroll in sex offender treatment, and must pay for any counseling costs incurred by the victim.

Murrell was arrested Oct. 7, 2015, for forcing “deviate sexual intercourse” on a female victim Feb. 6, 2015. At the time Murrell was the long-serving pastor of the House of Prayer for All Nations church in Klamath Falls, where the victim had been attending.

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Defining the worth of an apology: Presbyterian Church statement at AFN can help past wounds heal

ALASKA
News-Miners

News-Miner opinion: On the closing day of the Alaska Federation of Natives’ 50th annual convention, one statement made waves across the state. The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A., prompted by its Alaska members, extended an apology to AFN and its members for abuses of Alaska Natives in church schools and boarding schools its members ran or participated in. The abuses of Alaska boarding schools are well established but poorly documented, and by offering an apology, the Presbyterian Church has taken a step to bridge divides of resentment and suspicion.

When Alaska became a territory in 1867, no formal system of education existed in villages across the state — what schools there were had been established outside of any organized effort, and were focused mostly on religious education. The federal Organic Act of 1884 marked the first real effort to institute a school system in the territory; it established a system of government-run “day schools” and a smaller number of centralized boarding schools across Alaska. Some schools were run directly by the government, while many were run as contract schools by missionaries from the Catholic, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Swedish-Evangelical faiths.

Institutional attitudes toward Alaska Natives in the 1800s and well into the 1900s took a dim view of their traditional culture and language. “They are savages, and with the exception of those in Southern Alaska, have not had civilizing, educational, or religious advantages,” Presbyterian missionary and Alaska school administrator Sheldon Jackson said in an address to Congress. “(Missionaries) must try to educate them out of and away from the training of their home-life. They need to be taught both the law of God and the law of the land,” Jackson said in the same address.

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Ballarat’s children: dirty secrets hidden in the confession box

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 26, 2016

PETER HOYSTED
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider

The Sacrament of Penance, better known as the Rite of Confession within the Roman Catholic Church, is a ritual many non-Catholics find bemusing. It is fertile ground for sketch comedy and often features in movies as a plot device. A man enters, slides the screen across to reveal a murky figure on the other side.

The Rite of Confession raises all manner of legal and ethical dilemmas and conflicts between Canon Law and the law of the land. If a priest hears a confession from a person who confesses to planning to commit a murder at some point in future, is the priest bound by law to report to the police? If a priest takes confession from a man who has committed serious crimes and the priest does not inform the police, can the priest be charged with offences such as being an accessory or conspiracy?

The answer is grey and uncertain and police and prosecutors inevitably give it a wide berth. A priest cannot be compelled to give evidence in a trial based on admissions made in the confession box in any Australian jurisdiction.

There have been times when the royal commissioners have alluded to confession as offensive to non-Catholics, that one person can be absolved of guilt for a crime due to his or her faith while those of other or no religious persuasion cannot.

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Australian police interrogate Vatican treasurer cardinal George Pell over sexual abuse claims

AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Lara Rebello
October 26, 2016

Australia’s police have questioned cardinal George Pell with regards to sexual abuse allegations made against him. Three Victoria state officials travelled to Rome where they met with the Vatican treasurer who denied all claims.

A police spokeswoman said in a statement on 26 October that the 75-year-old priest “voluntarily participated in an interview” and that “as a result of the interview, further investigations are continuing.”

The cardinal’s office released a statement of its own stating: “The cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to co-operate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalised. The Cardinal has no further comment at this time.”

Pell, who was the archbishop in Australia before moving on to higher roles in the Vatican, is being accused of supposedly exposing himself to three young boys at Torquay Life Saving Club in the summer of 1986 or 1987.

In another case, two former St Alipius students told ABC that Pell allegedly touched their genitals while swimming with them at the Eureka pool in Ballarat in 1978-1979, during which time he was the episcopal vicar for education at the diocese there.

Pell has dismissed all allegations as a “smear campaign” against him and the Catholic Church. Earlier this year he testified at an Australian government inquiry into institutional child abuse, during which he admitted that the Roman Catholic Church had made “catastrophic” mistakes in handling reports of abuse.

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Australian Police Interrogates Cardinal Pell over Child Sex Abuse

AUSTRALIA
Latin American Herald Tribune

SYDNEY – Australian Cardinal George Pell, in charge of Vatican finances, was questioned last week in Rome by Australian police over charges of alleged sexual abuse between 1976-2001, the media reported on Wednesday.

The cardinal “voluntarily participated in an interview,” said a spokesperson for Victoria police, who added investigations were still underway and did not provide more details, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

The police of the state of Victoria in southern Australia announced in August the possibility of filing charges against Pell for sexual abuses allegedly committed in the city of Ballarat between 1976-1980, and in Melbourne between 1996-2001.

Two men have accused Pell, 75, of touching their genitals in the 1970s, while a third says Pell had stood naked in front of young boys.

“The Cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to co-operate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalized,” read a statement from Pell’s office in the Vatican, confirming the interview with three police officers from Victoria.

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Pell interviewed by Vic police in Rome

AUSTRALIA
7 News

Liza Kappelle – AAP on October 26, 2016

Victorian police have questioned Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, as they continue to investigate alleged historical sexual assaults on boys.

Three police travelled to Rome last week to talk to the former Ballarat priest and Melbourne archbishop, who rejects all the allegations and voluntarily took part in the interview.

Victoria Police said in August they were considering laying charges over alleged sexual assaults in Ballarat between 1976 and 1980 and claims in East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.

“As a result of the interview, further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time,” police said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Cardinal George Pell interviewed in Rome over sexual assault allegations

AUSTRALIA
Goondiwindi Argus

Melissa Cunningham and AAP
26 Oct 2016

Victorian police have questioned Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, as they investigate allegations of historical sexual abuse made against him.

Three police travelled to Rome last week to meet the former Ballarat priest and Melbourne archbishop, who rejects all the allegations and voluntarily participated in an interview.

“As a result of the interview further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time,” police said in a statement on Wednesday.

Police are investigating multiple allegations of sexual assault said to have occurred in Ballarat East between 1976 and 1980, and East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001

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Seminary priest from Kannur arrested on student’s complaint of sexual assault

INDIA
India Live Today

Published by : Avinash Nandakumar

Irrity,Kannur,Oct26:A 20-year-old young man in his complaint registered at the Iritty police station alleged that a seminary priest has been sexually assaulting him.The young man’s determination to pursue a case of sexual assault has lead to the arrest of 41-year-old Father James Thekkemury, a priest working as a lecturer in Bengaluru.

Fr James Thekkemury has been accused of assaulting the young man in 2015 when he was a rector at the Deiva Matha Seminary at Iritty in Kannur district. After getting dismissed from the seminary, he had joined a college in Bengaluru as guest lecturer.

The victim had joined the seminary in 2012 when he was 16 years old. According to the police, the priest made the first attempt to sexually abuse him in 2015.

Sajesh Vazhalappilly, Iritty circle inspector told The News Minute that the young man was subjected to sexual assault many times later by the priest, and he was unable to return home due to financial problems.

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Pa. legislators abandon bill to extend rights of child sex-abuse victims

PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

OCTOBER 25, 2016

by Maria Panaritis and Karen Langley, HARRISBURG BUREAU

HARRISBURG – A controversial proposal to extend the civil statute of limitations for child sex-abuse victims appeared to collapse Tuesday, after supporters said the House was unlikely to move an amended version of the bill or reintroduce the original measure.

With little chance of its passing, they said, they will try to revive it when the Assembly reconvenes next year.

“The process is over at this point,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks), a clergy-abuse victim who had been the bill’s fiercest advocate.

Both the GOP-controlled House and Senate had supported expanding victims’ rights to sue, but split sharply on whether those rights should be applied retroactively for victims abused decades ago.

The House approved such a provision, but the Senate, after fierce lobbying from the insurance industry and the Catholic Church, removed it from the bill this summer and sent it back to the House.

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Victoria Police detectives interview Cardinal George Pell in Rome

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Keith Moor and Mark Buttler, Herald Sun
October 25, 2016

CARDINAL George Pell has vowed to cooperate with Victoria Police in its ongoing probe into child sex abuse allegations made against him.

His office confirmed he has been voluntarily interviewed by Victorian detectives who flew to Rome last week.

“The Cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to co-operate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalised,” a statement from Cardinal Pell’s office in Rome said.

“The Cardinal has no further comment at this time.”

It was the first time the sex allegations made against Cardinal Pell have been put directly to him.

“Three members of Victoria Police travelled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault,” Victoria Police spokeswoman Leonie Johnson said today.

“As a result of the interview, further investigations are continuing.

“We are not prepared to comment further at this time.”

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Cardinal George Pell interviewed by Victoria Police in Rome over sexual assault allegations

AUSTRALIA
9 News

Cardinal George Pell has voluntarily participated in an interview with Victoria Police in Rome, about allegations of sexual assault.

Three officers travelled to Rome last week to interview Cardinal Pell, Victoria Police said in a statement.

Investigations are continuing as a result of the interview, the police statement advised.

“We are not prepared to comment further at this time,” it read.

Victoria Police in mid-August revealed it was considering laying charges over alleged historical sexual assaults in Ballarat between 1976 and 1980 and East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.

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Australian Cardinal Pell interviewed by police over child abuse allegations

AUSTRALIA/ROME
Deutsche Welle

Cardinal George Pell has been interviewed in Rome by Australian detectives over child abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s. The cleric denies the charges.

The office of Cardinal George Pell released a statement on Wednesday repeating his July rejection of “all and every allegation of sexual abuse.”

The Cardinal, who is the Vatican’s Australian-born financial controller, was interviewed in Rome last week, by Victoria Police detectives over child abuse allegations, Victoria Police confirmed in a statement on Wednesday. “Three members of Victoria Police travelled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault,” the statement confirmed.

“As a result of the interview further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time,” the police statement added.

The Cardinal “will continue to cooperate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalised,” his office confirmed. “The Cardinal has no further comment at this time,” it said.

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Pope aide interviewed by Australia police over abuse claims

AUSTRALIA
Rappler

AFP

SYDNEY, Australia – Vatican finance chief George Pell has been interviewed by Australian police in Rome over sexual assault claims, authorities said Wednesday, October 26, but no charges have yet been laid.

It follows explosive allegations against Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in July, which he strongly denied.

Victoria state police said in a statement that 3 officers “travelled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault”.

“As a result of the interview further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time.”

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Top Vatican cardinal questioned over sex abuse allegations

AUSTRALIA
CT Post

Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Tuesday, October 25, 2016

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police flew to Rome to interview a top Vatican cardinal about allegations of sexual assault dating back decades, officials said Wednesday.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser and one of his most trusted aides, has long been dogged by allegations he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney. In recent months, Pell has faced accusations of child abuse himself when he was a young priest in the 1970s.

On Wednesday, police in Australia’s Victoria state confirmed that they had interviewed Pell over the allegations.

“Three members of Victoria police traveled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault,” police spokeswoman Amara Bostock said. “As a result of the interview, further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time.”

The allegations involve two men, now in their 40s, who say Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s. Separately, a man told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he saw Pell exposing himself to three young boys in a surf club changing room in the late 1980s. Pell was at the time a senior priest in Melbourne.

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George Pell voluntarily interviewed by Victoria Police in Rome over historic child abuse allegations

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Louise Milligan, staff

Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has been interviewed by Victoria Police detectives over historic child abuse allegations.

In a statement, Victoria Police confirmed to the ABC’s 7.30 program that “three members of Victoria Police travelled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault”.

“As a result of the interview further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time,” the statement said.

The ABC’s 7.30 program revealed the allegations on July 27, with complainants Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan interviewed on the program about alleged inappropriate touching at Ballarat’s Eureka pool in the 1970s.

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Australian police say they interviewed Vatican treasurer over abuse allegations

AUSTRALIA
Reuters

Australian police said on Wednesday they have interviewed the Vatican’s Australian-born financial controller, Cardinal George Pell, in relation to allegations of sexual assault.

Victoria state police said investigations were continuing as a result of last week’s interview in Rome, but declined to comment further.

Pell, who was a priest and then archbishop in Australia before taking the Vatican role in 2014, confirmed he participated in the interview but denied the allegations.

“The cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to co-operate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalised,” his office said in a statement.

Pell, 75, this year testified at an Australian government inquiry into institutional child abuse, where he said the Roman Catholic Church made “catastrophic” choices by refusing to believe abused children, shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counseling of priests to solve the problem.

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October 25, 2016

Vatican’s Argentina archives ready to be shown to victims of dictatorship crime

VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Associated Press in Vatican city
Tuesday 25 October 2016

The Vatican and Argentina’s bishops have finished cataloguing their archives from the country’s dictatorship era, and will soon make them available to victims and their relatives who have long accused the church of complicity with the military rulers.

A joint statement on Tuesday said the process of digitizing the archives had been completed and that procedures to access the information would be forthcoming. No date was set, and the opening for now is restricted to victims, detainees, their relatives and the religious superiors of victims who were priests or nuns.

Official estimates say about 13,000 people were killed or disappeared in a government-sponsored crackdown on leftist dissidents during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship. Human rights activists believe the real number was as high as 30,000.

The statement said the decision to open the church’s archives was taken at the express direction of Pope Francis, “in the service of truth, justice and peace”.

Francis – then the Rev Jorge Mario Bergoglio – was the young Jesuit superior in Argentina during the military dictatorship, making his decision to open the archives all the more remarkable.

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Vatican, Argentine church to open “dirty war” archives

VATICAN CITY
Daily Republican

By The Associated Press Posted Oct. 25, 2016

VATICAN CITY (AP) ” The Vatican and Argentina’s Catholic Church say they have finished cataloguing their archives from the country’s brutal “dirty war” and will make them available to victims who have long accused the church of complicity with the military dictatorship.

A joint statement Tuesday said the process of cataloguing and digitalization had been completed and procedures for victims to access the information would be forthcoming. The statement said the decision to open the archives of the Vatican, its Buenos Aires embassy and the Argentine bishops’ conference was taken “in the service of truth, justice and peace.”

Pope Francis had pledged to open the archives when pressed by relatives of “desaparecidos” or disappeared, particularly the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. He was the Jesuit superior in Argentina during the country’s 1976-1983 dictatorshi

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Judge says girls suing church can remain anonymous

KANSAS
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | OCTOBER 25, 2016

A Kansas judge has ruled that two victims of sexual assault suing a Southern Baptist church will remain anonymous in court proceedings.

Johnson County District Court Judge Kevin Moriarty granted a motion last month allowing the plaintiffs to proceed using pseudonyms in their case against Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kan., a Southern Baptist congregation founded in 1977 with an average attendance of 4,700.

In June the church filed a motion claiming the teenage sisters and their parents were using their anonymity to generate “a Pearl Harbor-style barrage of negative publicity” timed to coincide with the congregation’s Vacation Bible School.

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said it was the first time in his 28 years of advocacy work he had witnessed a religious organization trying to “out” a minor coming forward to allege sexual abuse.

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NY–Ex-Brooklyn predator priest seeks parole; Victims respond

NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016

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

A former Brooklyn priest who was convicted of child sex crimes is up for parole in northeastern Pennsylvania. We hope he’s kept in prison. And we hope this news prompts others who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes to call police so he might be charged with and convicted on other offenses and be kept away from kids even longer.

[New York Daily News]

[Wayne Independent]

In March 2008, Steven Wolpert pled guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a felony, with an eight year old in 2006 and 2007 in Hawley Borough, PA. He was sentenced in June 2008 to nine to 18 years in prison.

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VA–Minister to hold meeting about “cover up charges”

VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016 For more info: Barbra Graber, SNAP Leader, 540-214-8874, mennonite@snapnetwork.org

Support group posts info about lawsuit against him

On Wednesday, he will talk about concerns with congregants

A minister who was accused and sued for covering up sexual abuse within his church is reportedly holding a meeting Wednesday with his congregants to discuss the matter. A support group plans to email members of the congregation with information about the accusations.

Rev. Samuel G. Wenger is head pastor at Freedom Fellowship, an independent church he started in Broadway VA after he was denied a vote of affirmation from his congregation at Cornerstone Church also in Broadway.

In 1990, he was named in a civil lawsuit along with Living Word Christian School and Living Word Fellowship Church in Stryker, Ohio, where he was administrator and pastor, respectively. He and his co-defendants were charged by a victim of a predatory youth pastor at Living Word with “fail[ing] to act upon the supplied information of [perpetrator Curtis Monk]’s conduct and attempting to hide the guilt of Monk by directing the blame and humiliation upon the minor plaintiff and making her believe that the actions of Monk were caused by her behavior.” The case was eventually settled out of court.

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Joint Press Release of the Argentine Episcopal Conference and the Holy See, 25.10.2016

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

On Saturday 15 October 2016 in Vatican City, the Executive Commission of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, composed of the President Archbishop José María Arancedo of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz, first deputy president Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli, archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, second deputy president Archbishop Mario Antonio Cargnello of Salta, and the secretary general Bishop Carlos Humberto Malfa of Chascomús, met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States, and other officials of the Secretariat of State, for an evaluation of the work of cataloguing and digitalisation of the archive material from the period of the Military Dictatorship (1976-1983), conserved in the Archives of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, the Secretariat of State and the Apostolic Nunciature in Buenos Aires.

It was acknowledged that this process of organisation and digitalisation, which was carried out in compliance with the decisions and indications of the Holy Father and represents the continuation of work already initiated years ago by the Argentine Episcopal Conference, has been completed.

On the basis of a protocol to be established shortly, access can be given to the relative documents for consultation by victims and direct relatives of the desaparecidos and detainees and, in the case of religious or ecclesiastics, also their major superiors.

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The Cancer of Clericalism

UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • October 24, 2016

I was dismayed over the weekend to learn this:

In 2004 Bishop Demetri of the Antiochian Archdiocese entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of attempted fourth degree criminal sexual misconduct. To be specific he “grabbed the breast of a North Carolina woman seated next to him at a slot machine in the Turtle Creek Casino outside Traverse City” and was “highly intoxicated” (see here for more) as was evident from the closed circuit video that captured the event. He was drunk, he was gambling, and he sexually assaulted a woman.

Bp. Demetri was relieved of his duties and then suspended (it should be noted that the Antiochian Archdiocese recently deleted their pronouncement on this issue from their website, but a cached version is available here). In 2008 he was “restored as vicar of the Iglesia Católica Apostólica Ortodoxa De Antioquia México-Venezuela-Centroamérica-El Caribe in the Exarcado De El Caribe”(see more here). This was all covered on this blog some years ago (see here).

In a surprising new chapter to this saga, it seems Met. Joseph is making Bp. Demetri a locum tenens of sorts (a pseudo-locum tenens) for the Diocese of Los Angeles and the West.

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Discussion paper on trauma-informed approaches to child sexual abuse released

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

25 October, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a discussion paper examining the growing interest in trauma-informed care and the implementation of trauma-informed approaches to support survivors of trauma, including survivors of child sexual abuse.

The discussion paper, Principles of trauma-informed approaches to child sexual abuse, was produced by Dr Antonia Quadara and Cathryn Hunter from the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Authors described trauma-informed care as emerging from the growing awareness of the impacts of trauma on victim/survivors of child sexual abuse and recognition that human-service systems needed to avoid inadvertently re-traumatising survivors of child sexual abuse.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the discussion paper provides an important contribution to our understanding of the key principles of trauma-informed care. These principles include:

* having a sound understanding of the prevalence and nature of trauma arising from interpersonal violence and its impacts

* ensuring practices and procedures promote the physical, psychological and emotional safety of consumers and survivors

* adopting service cultures and practices which empower consumers in their recovery by emphasising autonomy, collaboration and strength-based approaches

* recognising and being responsive to the social and cultural contexts which shape survivors’ needs and healing pathways

* recognising the importance of relationships in overcoming trauma and supporting healing.

“The concept of trauma-informed care is about building an understanding of the traumatic impacts survivors will face at all levels of an organisation or system,” Mr Reed said.

“The discussion paper suggests that effective implementation of trauma-informed approaches will assist survivors of abuse and should help inadvertently re-traumatising them,” Mr Reed said.

Read the paper.

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More than a song

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

[with video performance of “99 Candles in Ballarat”]

Alicia Thomas
@aliciajthomas
25 Oct 2016

In 1973 Ian Whitehead was a young man boarding in Ballarat.

What occurred around him at the time could only be described as a nightmare.

What Ian didn’t know about those nightmares was that his school friends were part of them.

They were victims at the hands of a clergy child sex abuse scandal that would not fully be understood until almost half a century later.

But Ian can understand, he was a victim himself while a student at St Kevin’s College in Toorak in 1972.

He later learnt of the stories from his friends, while others he will never know.

But more than 40 years on he returned to Ballarat for one very particular reason.

That reason was to film a videoclip for his new song “99 Candles in Ballarat”.

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Former Salvation Army worker Robert Burnett found guilty of abusing children

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
October 24, 2016

A FORMER Salvation Army worker who has faced off against 12 juries this year can finally be exposed as a deviant sexual predator who tortured small children.

Remorseless rapist Robert Burnett continues to defiantly maintain his innocence, despite being found guilty of abusing a string of kids in a reign of terror spanning three decades.

Now the 77-year-old is behind bars and facing the prospect of a 20-year jail term that could see him never released from prison.

From 1978 Burnett routinely raped children.

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In a First, a Brooklyn Yeshiva Agrees to $2.1 Million Child Sex Abuse Settlement

NEW YORK
Forward

Larry Cohler-Esses
October 24, 2016

An Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva has agreed to pay two of its former students $2.1 million for alleged sexual molestation they suffered at age six from a senior rabbi on the school’s faculty—the first known case of such a settlement by a Jewish day school.

Yeshiva Torah Temimah, a prominent school on Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway with more than 600 students, originally made the court settlements secretly with the plaintiffs. But the settlments were disclosed Sunday by the New York Post, which reported that attorneys for the two students had filed papers complaining that the yeshiva had failed to make the payments.

“This is unheard of,” Rabbi Yosef Blau, a spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University in Manhattan, told the Post. “I am not aware of any other settlements,” said Blau, who is a longtime advocate for victims of child sexual abuse.

In fact, most such suits are peremptorily dismissed—or never filed—because New York State law bars alleged victims from filing a civil complaint after they turn 23; one of the strictest statutes of limitation for child sex abuse allegations in the country.

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ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH PAYS €30 MIL. DAMAGES TO SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS

NETHERLANDS
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on October 25, 2016

So far the Roman Catholic Church paid nearly 30 million euros in damages to Dutch victims of sexual abuse, De Limburger reports.

A complaint committee set up to investigate the abuse received a total of 3,678 reports of people being sexually abused in the Roman Catholic Church. Of these 2,060 were sent through for further investigation and 1,000 were determined to be grounded. At least 300 people dealt with exceptionally serious abuse, for which the compensation can be up to 100 thousand euros.

According to the committee, structural abuse happened in the church. “Not all church officials did wrong. But the fact that tere are so many perpetrators justifies calling it strucutral abuse.” Wiel Stevens, chairman of the committee, said to the newspaper.

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October 24, 2016

Retired priest admits being repeat sex offender

CANADA
Kingston Whig-Standard

By Sue Yanagisawa, Kingston Whig-Standard
Monday, October 24, 2016

Retired Roman Catholic priest Robyn Q. Gwyn, who was found guilty in late September of sexually assaulting a Kingston man when his accuser was still a boy in the late 1980s to early 1990s, pleaded guilty Monday to victimizing a second child between 2000 and 2002.

Assistant Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis said the second victim first came to light in May 2014 when Deacon William Gervais, the archbishop’s delegate for misconduct, filed a report with Kingston Police.

He told Superior Court Justice Brian Abrams that Gervais disclosed a former altar boy, by then in his early twenties, had revealed the abuse to church officials because he was having “flashbacks” about it.

The young man subsequently provided a statement to police in late July 2014 and officers laid additional charges against Gwyn in November that year.

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PA–Victims blast Philly archbishop

PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims blast Philly archbishop
He brings controversial group here
Its founder & his top aide abused kids
Several with the order are now in Philly parish
Advocates say Chaput “must denounce predators”
SNAP also charges “Pope’s visit last year changed nothing”
Local Catholic officials “ignore Francis’ pledges,” victims allege
Pontiff said ‘enablers’ would be ‘held accountable’ but they aren’t, SNAP feels

WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will urge Philly’s top Catholic officials to:

“come clean” about importing a controversial, ultra-conservative Catholic cult-like order (Sodalitium Christianae Vitae) whose founder is a confirmed child molester,
stop promoting the order and start warning other US bishops about it, and
act on the promises Pope Francis made in Philly a year ago by exposing and disciplining even a few priests who hid or ignored child sex crimes, and disclose more about clergy sex abuse cases.

WHEN: Monday, Oct. 24 at 1:00 pm

WHERE: Outside the Philadelphia Catholic archdiocesan headquarters, 222 North 17th Street (corner of Race) in Philadelphia

WHO: Five-seven members of an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Chicago woman who is the organization’s founder

WHY:
1) In recent years, Chaput has brought to Philadelphia a controversial Catholic sect based in Peru whose founder molested kids. The sect’s founder and seven aides are also accused of kidnapping and assaulting youth. Several members of the group, including a priest, now run the parish and Newman Center at both Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. But as best SNAP can tell, Chaput has never disclosed or discussed the crimes of the group’s Peru-based officials, or explained or apologized for his vigorous support of the group, either in Pennsylania, Colorado or Peru.

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Ex-Brooklyn priest who pleaded guilty of child sex abuse in 2008 is eligible for parole, but critics want him to serve full 18-year prison sentence

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, October 24, 2016

A former Catholic priest from Brooklyn who pleaded guilty in 2008 to sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy is up for parole — but a relative of the victim and an abuse survivors’ organization say he should remain in prison.

Steven Wolpert, who served as a priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn during the 1980s, pleaded guilty in 2008 to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 13, a first-degree felony.

A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Wolpert to nine to 18 years in prison.

The Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole reviewed Wolpert’s case in August, but has not yet decided whether to grant him early release.

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NY cardinal’s new compensation program for victims will keep sex abuse hidden

NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Anne Barrett Doyle | Oct. 24, 2016

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is trying something new. After years of successfully opposing legislation that would give New York abuse victims more time to sue, he has launched a victims’ compensation program — a first for the New York archdiocese.

This is the Year of Mercy, and the cardinal said he was inspired by the “grace and challenge” of this fact.

“I just finally thought: ‘Darn it, let’s do it,’ ” he told The New York Times.

The surprise move is winning the cardinal praise. The often critical New York Daily News commended him, citing his “remarkable moral courage.”

As a researcher of the Catholic abuse crisis, I see his plan differently. While the fund certainly will help some victims, its biggest beneficiary will be Dolan and his management team. This is a legal strategy in pastoral garb, a tactic by the powerful archbishop to control victims and protect the church’s assets and its secrets.

On its face, the plan is reasonable. A victim submits a claim form with documentation about rape or molestation by a priest or deacon. If deemed credible, the victim receives an award, which the archdiocese promises to disburse quickly — within 60 days.

The program is being administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the 9/11 fund and mediated the settlements between Jerry Sandusky’s victims and Penn State.

But there’s a catch — two catches, actually. Victims must sign a legal agreement to abide by “all requirements pertaining to privacy and confidentiality,” and they must release the archdiocese from future liability — i.e., never sue it. (See section III, paragraph G of the IRCP’s Protocol webpage.)

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Another sentencing delay for priest in child porn case

DELAWARE
The News Journal

Jessica Masulli Reyes , The News Journal October 24, 2016

A judge once again postponed the sentencing for a former Navy chaplain and Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to taking pornographic pictures of a teen boy and then distributing the images.

Several sentencing dates for John Thomas Matthew Lee, 50, have been canceled since March, including the most recent one scheduled for Tuesday. He now is expected to be sentenced in February.

The request for a delay was granted after Lee’s attorney complained in court filings that prosecutors initially said they would likely recommend a 25-year prison sentence, but now are asking the judge for a maximum of 50 years.

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En aumento el maltrato infantil; ya se toman cartas en el asunto

HEROICA PUEBLA DE ZARAGOZA (MEXICO)
Megalopólis [La Paz, Puebla de Zaragoza, Mexico]

October 24, 2016

By Pedro Morales

Read original article

Para revertir dicha tendencia, el gobernador Mariano González Zarur y el secretario ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Protección Integral de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes, Ricardo Bucio Mújica, instalaron este órgano en la entidad, con el objetivo de garantizar y velar por el desarrollo y bienestar integral de los menores tlaxcaltecas.

Las denuncias por maltrato infantil en Tlaxcala han aumentado entre 15 y 20 por ciento en los últimos 2 años, lo cual afecta esencialmente a niños de entre 14 a 17 años de edad.

De 13 municipios con averiguaciones previas, Apizaco es el de mayor incidencia, donde personas desconocidas son las principales agresoras.

En el foro “Situación de Maltrato Infantil en Tlaxcala”, autoridades alertaron que el problema tiende a crecer y urgieron combatirlo de fondo, ya que predomina la violencia física y la psicológica, perpetradas tanto en el hogar como en la escuela.

La directora de Programas y Atención a la Sociedad Civil de la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos (CEDH), Jacqueline Ordóñez Brasdefer, dio a conocer que el agravio contra menores de edad no solamente se define por la acción cometida, sino por la omisión y la negligencia.

Con datos de la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE), Ordóñez Brasdefer señaló que 60 por ciento de las 86 indagatorias, es decir, alrededor de 51, corresponden a violencia ejercida en agravio de niños de 14 a 17 años de edad.

Mientras que 20 por ciento, que son casi 17 averiguaciones previas, a menores de 11 a 13 años; 13 por ciento, que suman aproximadamente 11, a infantes de 7 a 10 años y 7 por ciento, esto es alrededor de 6, a niños de 1 a 6 años.

En tanto, de 60 por ciento de las demandas solo a 51 se les ha ejercitado acción penal, ya que en 5 por ciento “se emitió opinión” de no proceder de tal forma. Aún quedan 30 en trámite, lo cual significa 35 por ciento.

De 13 municipios con registro de indagatorias, Apizaco es el de mayor incidencia, con alrededor de 15; le siguen Tlaxcala con 10 y Chiautempan con 5, por lo que estos se ubican con el índice más alto.

Los 10 restantes tienen menos averiguaciones, entre ellos Contla con 4, Calpulalpan y Huamantla con 3, e Ixtenco, Tzompantepec, Ixtacuixtla, Teolocholco, Totolac y Tepeyanco con 2 cada 1.

En cuanto al vínculo existente entre el imputado y la víctima, el reporte de la PGJE dado a conocer por la CEDH indica que:

En 42 casos el agresor es un desconocido, en 17 por un conocido, en 10 es el padre biológico, en 7 el padrastro, en 2 un tío, en 2 un amigo y en 1 el exnovio y en otro un amigo.

Al respecto, el expresidente de la CEDH, Francisco Mixcóatl Antonio, advirtió que el fenómeno tiende a crecer y desbordarse.

Las muñecas rotas de Muñoz de Domingo Arenas

Un drama de nuestro tiempo viven tres niñas, quienes presuntamente son abusadas sexualmente y son víctimas de violencia intrafamiliar en el ejido de Muñoz de Domingo Arenas.

Padres alcohólicos, un padrastro también alcohólico y abusador, además un medio hermano afectado de sus facultades mentales abusaban de las niñas, la gente del ejido de Muñoz las llama “Las Muñecas Rotas de Muñoz de Domingo Arenas”.

Eran amordazadas para que no gritaran, tenían prohibido hacer ruido, hasta que los extraños se fueran y si hacían ruido, les pegaban.

Fueron rescatadas por la fuerza pública municipal, llevadas a la ciudad de Apizaco a la agencia especializada de la PGJ, estuvieron un par de semanas, les realizaron todo tipo de análisis y exámenes, pero no se aplicó la mano de la justicia.

La burocracia e inconsciencia de malos servidores públicos estatales y municipales se hizo manifiesta, hace más de tres años, justo durante el relevo de gobierno municipal, las regresó a su martirio.

Regresaron a su pesadilla, sus padres se embriagan cada día y siguieron los abusos, cuando ven gente extraña obligaban a las niñas a meterse dentro de un ropero desvencijado.

De nada vieron las denuncias de sus profesoras, de sus compañeritos de escuela, de trabajadoras sociales, la intervención del edil de Muñoz, de funcionarios del Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), de aquel entonces, de la procuradora de la defensa del menor y de agentes especializados de la procuraduría.

El dictamen médico fue brutal, reveló que “apenas había señales en los cuerpos de las niñas de abuso sexual, que no eran pruebas contundentes, que eso no bastaba y la emprendieron en contra del personal del DIF, por haber llamado a los medios de comunicación y hacer “escándalo”.

Las vecinas comentan que es infame lo que las autoridades hacen porque no es posible que digan que “sí hubo daño, pero es muy leve, por eso nos dan ganas de tomar la justicia por mano propia y castrar a los infames que las han violado”, advirtieron.

Pederastia sin culpables

Dos casos de presunto abuso sexual a menores de edad se presentaron, con sus respectivas denuncias en la entidad.

Elementos de la Policía Ministerial, adscritos a la PGJE, detuvieron al párroco Roberto Durán Camiña, acusado de violar en agosto de 2004 a un menor de edad, al que lo auxiliaba como acólito en la parroquia de San Antonio de Padua, localizada en el municipio de Calpulalpan.

Los efectivos lograron la captura del sacerdote, quien tras haber sido denunciado, se refugió en el convento franciscano de San Gabriel, localizado en Cholula, Puebla, tras hacerse pasar como fieles que solicitaban los servicios religiosos del ahora detenido.

En las pesquisas realizadas por la Procuraduría General de Justicia de Tlaxcala, se supo que además de haber violado por 2 años consecutivos a un menor de 12 años, a quien lo ayudaba en las ceremonias religiosas, Durán Camiña acosaba sexualmente a otro adolescente de 16 años.

Según la denuncia presentada en agosto del 2004 y cuyos hechos quedaron asentados en la querella número 194/2004, los padres del menor narraron que el descubrimiento de la violación de su hijo salió a flote tras detectar un comportamiento extraño en la conducta.

El juez segundo de lo penal del distrito judicial de Sánchez Piedras, Carlos Tadeo Galindo Aceves, declaró formalmente preso a Roberto Durán Carmiña tras ser detenido en Cholula, Puebla.

Tras exhaustivas pruebas psicológicas y físicas, se determinó que el sacerdote era inocente, fue absuelto de los cargos y al no existir delito salió en libertad.

Fuera del Cereso de Apizaco, lo esperaban cientos de feligreses de Calpulalpan, quienes en procesión y con imágenes religiosas acompañaron al franciscano al salir en libertad, se fue a Cholula y solo la autoridad le dijo “Usted dispense”.

Un caso más.

Denuncian a párroco de El Carmen Tequexquitla

El exprocurador General de Justicia del Estado, Pedro Flores Vázquez, informó que fue denunciado el ahora expárroco Blas Abelardo Rojas Valadez o José Rojas Valadez mejor conocido como El Padre Rojas, por abuso sexual a un menor de edad, de aproximadamente 10 año y que radica donde el padre predicaba, en el municipio de El Carmen Tequexquitla.

Al romper el silencio ante Megalópolis guardado durante seis años al ser acusado de pederastia, el sacerdote José Rojas Valadez lacónicamente dijo que todo fue mentira, “nada me pudieron, ni me han comprobado”, refiere.

“Todos es parte de un complot entre las corruptas autoridades municipales, estatales y algunos representantes de la iglesia Católica, encabezados por el exobispo de Tlaxcala, Francisco Moreno Barrón”, sostiene.

Han dicho que yo soy pederasta.

¡Pruébenmelo! pero no han podido.

Aprueba Congreso Ley de los Derechos de las Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes

Por mayoría de votos, los diputados locales aprobaron la Ley de los Derechos de las Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes del Estado de Tlaxcala.

Esta se integra de 134 artículos y 10 transitorios, se prevé la creación de un sistema de protección integral, la cual contempla la atención médica y psicológica; seguimiento a las actividades académicas y entorno social y cultural, entre otros.

El titular de la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos del Tribunal Superior de Justicia y un representante del Congreso, se encargarán de coordinar todas las políticas públicas a favor de estos.

Establecieron la obligación a las autoridades para que en el ámbito de sus respectivas competencias, adopten medidas de protección especial de derechos de niñas, niños y adolescentes.

Para una efectiva protección y restitución determinaron que “el estado de Tlaxcala contará con una Procuraduría para la Protección de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes, la cual formará parte de la estructura del Sistema Estatal DIF.

Instalan el SNPINN

El gobernador Mariano González Zarur y el secretario ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Protección Integral de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes, Ricardo Bucio Mújica, instalaron dicho órgano en la entidad, el cual tiene como objetivo garantizar y velar por el desarrollo y bienestar integral de los menores tlaxcaltecas.

González Zarur dijo que este organismo está conformado por autoridades de los tres poderes, abonará a la mejor calidad de vida de la niñez y juventud del estado.

“Es grato saber que con la instalación de este sistema, que también se replicará a los municipios, vamos a generar más oportunidades de desarrollo, de alimentación, de salud, educación e integración familiar; hoy estamos estableciendo nuevos cimientos para garantizar que las futuras generaciones tlaxcaltecas sean escuchadas, respetadas y felices”, señaló.

Disminuye trabajo infantil en Tlaxcala

El trabajo infantil en la entidad disminuyó 15.9 por ciento entre abril de 2014 y febrero de 2015, reveló el director general de Inclusión Laboral y Trabajo de Menores, José Arturo Contreras Mejía.

Refirió que en dicho periodo el número de niños, niñas y adolescentes que están ocupados pasó de 31 mil 718 a 26 mil 667, por lo cual, la entidad se ubica en el lugar número 18 en el ámbito nacional

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Son of former archbishop arrested over sex abuse claim

UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

Rev Mark Carey, 51, above right, the son of former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, was arrested last week in connection with an assault on a young girl in the 1980s.

According to this report, his alleged victim, now in her 30s, claimed she was assaulted by Carey Jr when he was in his late teens and Lord Carey was a priest in the North-East.

Rev Carey was released on police bail and has since been suspended by the Church of England pending inquiries.

Father of three Rev Carey, who followed his father into the church in 1995, has not been seen since his arrest.

In a Twitter message posted after he was released by police, Rev Carey, whose father was Archbishop between 1991 and 2002, wrote:

I’m having a social networking break for a while.

He was joined at his home in Harrogate, North Yorks, yesterday by his father and mother Eileen. His wife Penny, 53, whom he married in 1988, refused to comment.

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MICHELLE REYNOLDS, SCOTT HARPER ON ID’S ‘KILLER CLERGY’: CHURCH MINISTER’S SEX AFFAIR LED TO MURDER OF THAD REYNOLDS, IN ROME, GEORGIA

UNITED STATES
Inquisitr

OCTOBER 24, 2016

TRACIY REYES

Murderers Michelle Reynolds and Scott Harper will have their story air on tonight’s Killer Clergy on Investigation Discovery (ID). The salacious crime story made headlines more than a decade ago in Rome, Georgia, where authorities say that Michelle Reynolds had a sexual affair with youth minister Scott Harper. That affair, they say, led to the stabbing death of Michelle Reynolds’ husband, Thad Reynolds.

The Killer Clergy episode that will reenact the crime case is titled “Unholy Confessions.” Michelle Reynolds and Scott Harper are currently in prison. The story will be recounted through interviews with local police and friends or family members of the victim.

July 2004: Man Found Dead In Frito Lay Distribution Center

The body of Thad Reynolds, also known as Thad John Glenn Reynolds, was found in his office at the Frito Lay Distribution Center in Rome, Georgia. The 36-year-old man was a popular church member and deacon at the Hollywood Baptist Church. An autopsy report conducted on Reynolds showed that he had suffered multiple stab wounds to the body. Many of the wounds were defensive wounds as he fought for his life inside the office, according to Northwest Georgia News.

At the crime scene, police could see blood and papers strewn about the room. It was obvious that it was a targeted attack. Thad Reynolds was a good man with a good reputation in the town of Rome. It was baffling to consider who would want him dead.

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Independent body to investigate sex abuse complaints

AUSTRALIA
Anglican Communion News Service

[ACNS, by Gavin Drake] Complaints of church-based sexual abuse in Australia’s internal province of Victoria will be investigated by an independent body with its own board of directors. The dioceses of Melbourne and Bendigo have already approved the new structure, which will be considered by the dioceses of Wangaratta, Ballarat and Gippsland next year. The new body is being established by the Church but is separate from the dioceses and their archbishop. It will work across a number of dioceses.

The new body is included in new legislation approved by the Melbourne Synod at its meeting last week. The new legislation – created in part as a response to the Royal Commission and the 2013 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into child sexual abuse – is “aimed at improving transparency, independence and avenues of redress for victims,” a diocesan spokesman said.

“There’s a need to act, and there’s a need to act now because we know enough to know what we should be doing,” Melbourne registrar Ken Spackman said, as he addressed the Synod meeting. He said that the chairman of the Royal Commission, Peter McClellan, had spoken twice to meetings of Anglican bishops and “dismissed the difficulties that we have”.

Mr McClellan added: “He has come back to ‘You have the ability to act if you wish, and you should wish’, and we do wish and this is why we are before you tonight.”

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Child abuse lawyer who quit LAST MONTH still drawing £1,700-a-day of your money

UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By LAURA MOWAT
Sun, Oct 23, 2016

A CHILD abuse lawyer continues to be paid £1,700 a day even though he has officially quit and does not go to the office.

Ben Emmerson QC quit the child abuse inquiry one day after he was suspended following concerns about his leadership.

The lawyer will continue to work on the £100 million inquiry until the end of November, which is two months after he officially quit.

Chairwoman of the inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay said: “He was continuing to be instructed for a short period to conclude the work. I believe it was two months.”

It is thought that Mr Emmerson has received £700,000 in two years as the leader of the inquiry.

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I let down abuse victims, admits former archbishop

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs Correspondent
October 24 2016
The Times

Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has said that he deserves to face personal criticism from the national child abuse inquiry for his support of a bishop later convicted of indecent assault, it is understood.

Lord Carey was told last week that he may be subject to “explicit criticism” from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse because of the way he handled revelations about Peter Ball, then bishop of Gloucester.

Lord Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury when allegations of abuse came to light in 1992 and when Ball received a police caution in 1993. Last week Alexis Jay, the professor leading the inquiry, said that Lord Carey’s application to the inquiry acknowledged that he “had a pastoral and disciplinary role in relation to Peter Ball at that time”.

A source close to Lord Carey was reported by the Sunday Telegraph as saying that he admitted he deserved criticism. “Clearly the Church didn’t handle it well and Lord Carey was naive in trusting Peter Ball. The acknowledgment now is he wasn’t doing the Christian thing by the victims.”

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Trinity Grammar School principal admits to management failures over student sexual assaults

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Michelle Brown

The principal of Sydney’s elite Trinity Grammar School has given evidence to the child abuse royal commission that is at odds with testimony already given by his deputy.

The commission is examining whether the private Sydney boys’ school responded appropriately to allegations of the rape and attempted rape of boarding house students, sometimes with a wooden dildo.

Deputy principal Peter Green last week told the commission he provided incident reports alleging multiple assaults to the principal Milton Cujes on August 11, 2000.

The reports detailed the assault of a younger boarder by senior students, as well as allegations there had been other boys subjected to rape and simulated rape.

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Trinity head delegated responsibility over rape claims

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 24, 2016

SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES
Journalist
Sydney

The headmaster of a prestigious inner Sydney independent school says he was unaware one of the school’s pupils had been raped repeatedly with a wooden dildo because he “delegated” the responsibility to find out what had happened and he was not told.

Milton Cujes, the headmaster of Trinity Grammar School in Sydney’s inner west, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse he didn’t follow up when reports of an incident were brought to him in August 2000, partly because they were brought to him “in the context of a Friday afternoon.”

Over months, the commission has previously heard, a student at the Anglican boys school was raped about 50 times by older pupils with a variety of items — including a wooden dildo. The student gave staff a written statement outlining what had happened.

However, Mr Cujes denied that details of the rape were brought to his attention, stressing he was only told was there were “junior boys involved in an altercation with some more senior boys”. It was recommended to him some of the boys should be suspended.

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Trinity Grammar School: Rape claims ‘dealt with adequately’ during exam season<

AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Ashleigh Gleeson, The Daily Telegraph
October 23, 2016

TRINITY Grammar’s headmaster has told a Royal Commission the school was making a decision about rape allegations “in the context of a Friday afternoon before trial HSC exams”.

Milton Cujes was today asked about whether he believed the way the school handled rape allegations made by a boy in August 2000 were “adequate”.

“They were adequate in terms of ensuring the safety of the boys. They were, in the context expeditious, bearing in mind that we couldn’t stop trial HSC exams,” Mr Cujes told the commission.

“… My impression… Was that the consensus was this was a dormitory incident that had gone too far, it needed attention and therefore in the context of the Friday afternoon before the trial examinations we needed to act and demonstrate that it was completely unacceptable, hence the endorsement of the suspension.”

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Prestigious schools accused of placing reputation above student welfare at royal commission

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

Two of Sydney’s most prestigious private boys’ schools have been accused of placing their reputations ahead of student welfare at a royal commission.

A teenager who was allegedly indecently assaulted while studying at The King’s School told the inquiry the school had a culture of silence.

“The culture at The King’s School was that you could stand up and make a complaint about the behaviour but then it would get worse,” he said. “It was better to say nothing and hope for the best.”

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told the witness, now 19, was called “cum rag” and “cum dumpster” by other boys after a fellow student allegedly ejaculated on his sleeping bag at a school camp in April 2013.

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Elite private school principal says he did not follow up on claims boys were ‘raped with a wooden sex toy’ because he was busy with HSC trial exams

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By RACHEL EDDIE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

The principal of an elite private school has admitted allegations boys were raping fellow students with implements were not properly investigated.

A boy, known as CLB, claimed older students at Trinity Grammar had tried to rape him by ‘lifting his legs in the air and pumping at his bottom’ on August 11, 2000.

CLB reported the incident to the Summer Hill, inner-west Sydney, school the same day with allegations they had raped him with objects more than 50 times. He said they had been sticking a 30cm wooden dildo made in wood-tech class up other students’ bottoms.

Principal Milton Cujes told the royal commission into child abuse the school had to decide on a punishment for the culprits ‘in the context of a Friday afternoon’ ahead of trial HSC exams the following week.

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King’s boy details ‘disgusting’ bullying

AUSTRALIA
7 News

Andi Yu – AAP on October 24, 2016

A former student of The King’s School in Sydney has told the abuse royal commission he was driven out of the school by relentless bullying that started after a boy ejaculated on his sleeping bag.

The now 19-year-old is the first from the prestigious private boys’ school to testify at the inquiry, which is examining institutional responses to harmful sexual behaviours by students.

On Monday, the young man, referred to as CLC, described being a happy boarding student with plenty of friends until a cadet camp at the beginning of year 10 in 2013.

“During the night I woke up to hear laughing and one of the boys saying: ‘Did you really do that? That’s disgusting’,” he told the commission.

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Celibacy For Priests. The Defense Takes the Floor

ROME
Chiesa

It will not be discussed at a synod, but pressure is growing in favor of the ordination of married men. The most highly esteemed of the Italian theologians has puts a spotlight on the question in an authoritative magazine. And he is opting to hold on to celibacy: not only “opportune,” but “necessary”

by Sandro Magister

ROME, October 24, 2016 – Interviewed a few days ago by Gianni Cardinale for the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference, “Avvenire,” the secretary general of the synod of bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, confirmed that the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the new session in 2018 – “Young people, faith, and vocational discernment” – was the same one that the fourteen cardinals and bishops of the synodal secretariat had put on the top of the list of their proposals.

But Baldisseri also said that just after it, on the list, were the ordained ministries. Without specifying further but with the obvious, implied question of the ordination of married men.

Already once before, in 1971, a synod had addressed this issue. And many voices had been raised in favor of the ordination of “viri probati,” meaning “married men of mature age and of established probity.” That request was put to a vote and defeated only narrowly by the opposing side: 107 against 87.

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EXCLUSIVE: PAC founder believes passage of Child Victims Act will be priority for Cuomo in 2017

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Monday, October 24, 2016

ALBANY — The creator of a political action committee pushing to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice as adults is convinced the governor will make passage of the measure a priority next year.

Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor and child sexual abuse survivor who created the Fighting For Children PAC, spoke with Cuomo at a recent fund-raiser the governor headlined for state Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Nassau County).

Greenberg, whose PAC is supporting Kaminsky, said he believes Cuomo might include the call for passage of the Child Victims Act in his January State of the State address.

“He said he would propose it in early 2017 and that it’s going to get done,” Greenberg said.

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Church apologizes for Native boarding schools

ALASKA
KTOO

Associated Press
October 23, 2016

The Presbyterian Church of America has apologized for the experiences of Native Americans at boarding schools that had ties to the church.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports a group of people who attend a Presbyterian church in the state gave the official apology at the end of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention on Saturday.

Convention co-chairman Jerry Isaac thanked the church and said he hoped other governments and groups take similar action.

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Priest used youth drop-in centre as ‘giant spider web’ to catch victims

CANADA
CBC News

New allegations of sexual assault have emerged against a Winnipeg priest and convicted sex offender, CBC News has learned.

Four men have come forward alleging Ronald Léger, 78, sexually assaulted them beginning when they were children aged 10 to 12, during the 1980s. All frequented the youth drop-in centre he founded, Teen Stop Jeunesse (TSJ).

Ronald Léger, former priest, pleads guilty to sex assault
Winnipeg police confirmed Friday afternoon Léger has been charged with eight counts of sexual assault and remains in custody.

“When I look at it now, the place was just a giant spider web,” said one of the men. CBC News is protecting their identities because of the nature of the allegations.

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Musician aims to inspire Catholic abuse survivors with song ‘99 Candles in Ballarat’

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

KATHRYN POWLEY, Herald Sun
October 23, 2016 9:06pm

A MELBOURNE-based musician has released a stirring song to inspire and celebrate survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic education system.

Ian Whitehead’s “99 Candles in Ballarat” is dedicated to the brave survivors, their victims and families.

The song also pays tribute to those who suffered abuse and committed suicide.

Mr Whitehead, who was himself abused in a Catholic school, gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in a closed session in Ballarat.

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October 23, 2016

Sexual abuse claims widen against former Catholic boarding school in Granby

CANADA
CBC News

A class-action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in Granby has been expanded to include the names of 11 religious brothers.

The lawsuit was initially launched earlier this month by an anonymous 56-year-old man, who says he was sexually abused more than 300 times at Mont-Sacré-Coeur College between 1973 and 1975.

His lawsuit named one priest, Brother Claude Lebeau, a member of the Les Frères Sacré Du Sacré-Coeur congregation, which ran the school at the time.

The claims in the lawsuit have not been tested in court. Lebeau is believed to be living in the Montreal area.

Since the lawsuit was launched, several more people have come forward saying they were abused at the school between 1940 and 1980, the plaintiff’s lawyer said.

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In Texas, ‘evil’ pastor’s wife gets five life sentences

TEXAS
The Freethinker

Misty Rae Hopkins, above, the widow of a Burnet pastor, has been sentenced to five life terms and four 20-year terms after she was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and indecency.

According to this report, prosecutors say she and her late husband confined and sexually abused their children over a period of seven years.

Assistant District Attorney Stacy Burke called Hopkins:

A truly evil person who tortured her children.

Hopkins, 49, and her late husband, John Hopkins, lived in Burnet where John Hopkins was the pastor of a church when the offences occurred.

The offences, committed from 1999 through 2005 in Burnet County, involved “numerous acts of sexual abuse” that she and her husband committed individually and in tandem.

When the oldest victim was 14, the family moved to Blanco County and later to Llano County.

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Geelong Grammar seeks to heal wounds with survivor coordinator for child sex abuse victims

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Freya Michie

Prestigious independent Victorian school Geelong Grammar says it wants to encourage survivors of past child abuse at the school who have not yet come forward to contact them for “guidance and support”.

In a letter to all parents, the school announced it had appointed a new “survivor liaison coordinator” to help support those who were sexually abused at the school.

Principal Stephen Meek said the school believed there were former students who were survivors of past child abuse who had not yet come forward.

He said those people could be reluctant to come forward, because they did not want to speak to the school which they held responsible for their abuse.

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Victims split over sex abuse compo scheme

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 24, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Plans to provide compensation and medical support to tens of thousands of child sex-abuse victims have run into disagreement between the federal and state governments, with victims themselves saying they are likely to reject the Prime Minister’s preferred response.

Thirteen months after the Royal Commission into Instit­utional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended that a $4.3 billion national redress scheme be set up, those who work with victims say they fear the ­opportunity to achieve this may be lost.

The royal commission recommended establishing a single, ­independent body able to order institutions to apologise, pay compensation to and help with the medical expenses of an ­estimated 65,000 victims.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wrote to a psychiatrist who works with child-abuse victims earlier this month, saying “redress should be operated as a single national scheme by the federal government to provide equity and consistency for survivors”.

“We are committed to working with the federal government and other states and territories on the development of a single NRS ­(national redress scheme),” her letter said.

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Ex-student says in lawsuit teacher targeted her for sex

MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Mike Martindale, The Detroit News October 22, 2016

Pontiac — An Oakland Circuit judge has been asked to dismiss a lawsuit by a graduate of a Madison Heights parochial school who claims she was exposed to sexual demands of a male teacher.

“Jane Doe” says she was a 17-year-old honors student at Bishop Foley Catholic High School in 2008 when her art teacher, Richard Fischer, allegedly initiated a relationship with her that encompassed inappropriate teacher-student physical contact on and off school grounds. She claims Fischer annually targeted and manipulated underage female students to be what he called his “girlfriend.”

It wasn’t until last November — nearly eight years later — that the teenager reported the matter to police after hearing the parent of another student had complained of Fischer to a guidance counselor in 2006 and nothing was done. “Jane Doe” said she was so ashamed she had never told anyone of the alleged sexual misconduct.

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Why Several Native Americans Are Suing the Mormon Church

UNITED STATES
The Atlantic

LILLY FOWLER

Native Americans who were part of a little-known Mormon program from 1947 to the mid-1990s share much of the same story. Year after year, missionaries or other members of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints approached these families and invited their children into Mormon foster homes. As part of the Mormon Indian Student Placement Program, Native American children would live with Mormon families during the school year, an experience designed to “provide educational, spiritual, social, and cultural opportunities in non-Indian community life,” according to the Church. Typically, the Mormon foster families were white and financially stable. Native American children who weren’t already Mormon were baptized. And some of them now claim they were sexually abused.

“They knew there were things going on. They just turned around and closed their eyes to it,” said BN, a former participant of the program who has filed a sexual-abuse lawsuit against the LDS Church, and who remains anonymous in court documents, in an interview. So far, three sexual-abuse lawsuits involving four past participants have been filed in Navajo Nation District Court. No criminal charges have been brought against the defendants, who are also anonymous in all pleadings. The alleged victims include a brother and sister who were both in the program. The brother, referred to in court documents as RJ, claims in the lawsuit that he was not only sexually abused, but physically and emotionally abused, and forcibly had “his mouth washed out with soap whenever he spoke Navajo to the other placement children in the home,” according to court documents. A fourth lawsuit is pending, according to their lawyer, Craig Vernon.

The LDS Church maintains that the “plaintiffs’ allegations are just that—allegations,” according to David Jordan, its lawyer. While many of the perpetrators named in the suits are dead, “I can tell you that the surviving family members of the alleged abusers with whom we have been able to speak do not believe the allegations,” Jordan claimed. “I also want to emphasize that the Church would have had absolutely no motive to send a child back into an abusive environment if a report of improper conduct had been made by any of the plaintiffs.” The Church has not answered the allegations other than to challenge the jurisdiction of Navajo court, and has asked a federal judge to prevent the cases from going forward in tribal court.

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Ballarat’s Children: ‘superiors ignored my urgings to set up child-abuse inquiry’

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 24, 2016

PIA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@pia_akerman

PETER HOYSTED
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider

A detective who helped build the case against one of the country’s most notorious pedophiles has ­revealed he urged his superiors to establish a taskforce to properly investigate the scourge of clerical sexual abuse and how he lament­ed the general lack of resourcing by the force.

Former detective sergeant Blair Smith said he was shocked to learn the extent of pedophilia within Catholic institutions when it first came across his desk in 1993, sparking years of “a total fight” with the church.

Mr Smith, who was part of a small Victoria Police unit investig­ating domestic violence and sexual assaults, has spoken publicly for the first time in The Australian’s podcast Ballarat’s Children.

He said he had received minim­al support from his commanding officers as he pursued alleg­ations of child sexual abuse against former Christian Brother Edward (Ted) Dowlan.

“I recall saying to someone — and it probably would have been the chief inspector — ‘these files and all these clerical complaints should have been handled by a taskforce’,” Mr Smith said.

“You’re like a one-man band …. as it goes up the ladder, it’s just ­another file.”

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Brooklyn yeshiva settles with sexual assault accusers for $2.1M

NEW YORK
New York Post

By Susan Edelman

October 23, 2016

A prominent Orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn agreed to pay an unprecedented $2.1 million to two former students who charged their teacher — accused serial molester Rabbi Joel Kolko — of sexually assaulting them, The Post has learned.

Kolko’s case marks the first time a New York yeshiva has paid off victims of sex abuse, experts said.

“This is unheard of. I am not aware of any other settlements,” said Rabbi Yosef Blau, a spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University in Manhattan and longtime victims advocate.

Secret settlements between Yeshiva Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway and two boys — 6 years old when molested — were filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court a week ago when the yeshiva failed to make payments.

Lawyers for the two plaintiffs filed a judgment for $1 million — the total the yeshiva still owes both boys for the trauma they suffered.

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COLUMN: Catholic Church is trying to buy silence of victims

NEW YORK
Glens Falls Post-Star

Ken Tingley

The New York Roman Catholic archdiocese has announced it is willing to pay off the victims of pedophile priests in exchange for their silence.

Any records of such abuse and what the church did about it would also remain private.

It’s an attempt by the church to again avoid accountability and responsibility for the abuse of children.

It should hit home in this community.

It should be an outrage here because of what Father Gary Mercure did in Queensbury and Glens Falls.

He served as priest at Our Lady of Annunciation in Queensbury from 1982 to 1991.

He was the campus minister at Adirondack Community College from 1982 to 1999.

He was the principal at St. Mary’s-St. Alphonsus Regional Catholic School from 1991 to 1995 as well as a priest at St. Mary’s.

And he was convicted in a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, courtroom in 2011 of three counts of forcible rape on a child younger than 14.

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Thoughts on the Iowa Caucus of the Catholic Church

VATICAN CITY
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. October 22, 2016
EDITOR

Although nobody believes there’s going to be a papal election anytime soon, the consistory taking place next month to create 17 new cardinals, 13 eligible to vote, is nevertheless the closest thing the Catholic Church has to the Iowa Caucus, when all the candidates are on display.

It may be election season in America, but that’s definitely not the vibe one gets in ecclesiastical Rome these days. Pope Francis is in good health, he remains fully in charge and operating at a breakneck pace, and there’s no sense that a transition is imminent.

As a result, no one’s spending a great deal of time thinking about papabili, meaning potential candidates for the papacy, because most people don’t believe the job is going to be available anytime soon.

On the other hand, there’s a consistory next month, meaning the event in which a pope creates new cardinals, so at least in theory the candidate pool is getting fresh blood. Moreover, virtually all the cardinals of the world will be in Rome for the event, which makes a consistory the closest thing in the Catholic Church to the Iowa Caucus – an early campaign milestone, when all the candidates are on display and anything seems possible.

Granted, from a faith point of view there’s something far more important than a political cattle call that will be happening on Nov. 19.

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Presbyterian Church apologizes for boarding school abuses as AFN wraps up its convention

ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch News

Lisa Demer

FAIRBANKS – For the first time, a church organization has apologized to the Alaska Federation of Natives for its treatment of Native people and especially for abuses in boarding schools.

The Presbyterian Church’s national general assembly agreed in June, at the prompting of Alaskans, to issue an apology to all Native Americans abused, mistreated or diminished through church schools and boarding schools or otherwise.

An expression of sorrow for long-ago wrongs was delivered in person at the AFN convention on Saturday by the Rev. Curt Karns, the Anchorage-based executive presbyter – or administrator – of the Presbytery of the Yukon.

“To those individuals who were physically, sexually and emotionally abused as students of the Indian boarding schools in which the (Presbyterian Church USA) was involved, we offer you our most sincere apology. You did nothing wrong; you were and are the victims of evil acts that cannot under any circumstances be justified or excused,” Karns told the AFN convention.

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October 22, 2016

FRANCIS URGES BISHOPS TO VET PRIESTS AHEAD OF ORDINATION

VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)

22 October 2016 | by Christopher Lamb in Rome

Pope Francis has urged bishops to carefully vet who they ordain as priests so they ensure the world is served by “mature and balanced” clergy.

“When it comes to vocations to the priesthood and those entering the seminary, I beg you to discern the truth, to have a shrewd and cautious look,” Francis told a Vatican conference on vocations this week, adding that this discernment should be done without “shallowness or superficiality.”

He went on: “especially to my brother bishops, I say: vigilance and prudence. The Church and the world need mature and balanced priests, pastors who are intrepid and generous, capable of closeness, listening and mercy.”

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Padre denuncia que su hijo “se tiró al vicio” tras abuso sexual cometido por un cura

MEXICO
Regeneracion

En Oaxaca, el sacerdote Gerardo Silvestre Hernández hace una década destrozó la vida de al menos 40 niños, pese a las pruebas nadie creyó a las víctimas y persiste impunidad.

Regeneración, 22 de octubre 2016.- El párroco de las localidades de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca, Gerardo Silvestre Hernández abusó sexualmente de al menos 40 niños hace diez años, siendo denunciado por otro sacerdote, Manuel Arias, quien ha sufrido amenazas de muerte.

De acuerdo con el cura Manuel Arias, uno de los 10 religiosos que han denunciado a Silvestre, se enteró de los casos en 2009 en la comunidad de Santiago Camotlán, en donde un profesor le entregó una carta, en la cual aseguraba que Silvestre “metía a los jóvenes al cuarto, los emborrachaba y luego tenía relaciones sexuales con ellos”.

Al tener los elementos, buscó al arzobispo José Luis Chávez Botello, con documentos y grabaciones, pero no le creyó, cuenta Arias.

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Parent speaks out about priest’s abuse

MEXICO
Mexico News Daily

Saturday, October 22, 2016

The father of one of the children in the eight documented cases of pedophilia committed by a priest in Oaxaca has spoken out about the forgotten victims of the crime: the relatives of the abused child.

Pedro Mendoza, whose son was allegedly a victim of Catholic priest Gerardo Silvestre, says he and his wife suffered along with their son when the crime was uncovered.

“The suffering continues, and now includes our other children. It is a chain, and sadly the seed planted by the sexual abuse has taken root,” he said.

His son, who now lives in the State of México with his mother and siblings, has “given in to a life of vice and crime,” he told the newspaper El Universal.

Silvestre allegedly abused over 40 youths over a decade ago in mountainous indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca. Of those cases, only eight have been documented. Witness reports said Silvestre’s modus operandi was to invite the boys into the parish house, where he got them drunk before sexually abusing them.

Mendoza’s official accusation against the priest, filed in 2012, was the first received by the authorities, but the Catholic church had had knowledge of the priest’s crimes since 2009 when another priest, Manuel Arias, informed the archbishop of Oaxaca, José Luis Chávez Botello, about what was happening.

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Former Archbishop of Canterbury admits he deserves criticism over ex-bishop sex abuse ‘cover up’

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Robert Mendick, chief reporter
22 OCTOBER 2016

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has admitted he deserves to be criticised over his support for a bishop convicted of sexual assault, as it emerged separately that his son, a priest, has been arrested for historic child sex abuse.

The retired Anglican Archbishop has been warned he can expect to face “explicit criticism” over claims the criminal activities of Peter Ball, the then Bishop of Gloucester, were covered up by the Church of England.

Lord Carey, who was a friend of Ball’s, has now been given his own lawyer, paid for by the Church of England, to represent him personally at the national child sex abuse inquiry.
Lord Carey had previously been using the Church’s own lawyers but last month requested his own team over concerns of a “conflict” between the Church’s interests and those of its former leader. A source close to Lord Carey said he accepted that he would be criticised for his handling of the allegations against Ball.

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Central Texas judge says pastor, wife committed worst child sex abuse he’s ever seen

TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News

Liz Farmer, Breaking News producer

A Central Texas woman was sentenced Wednesday for sexual assault of her children, who reported the abuse after escaping from her house, officials said.

The trial started Monday in the 424th District Court in Burnet, about 60 miles northwest of Austin, regarding allegations of sexual abuse by both Misty Rae Hopkins and her late husband, John Hopkins, who acted together, as well as apart, according to a press release from the district attorney’s office.

John Hopkins was a pastor at a church in the area during the time of the offenses.

Assistant District Attorney Stacy Burke told the jury Hopkins is the worst pedophile she’s seen in her career, adding that Hopkins is a truly evil person who tortured her children.

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What it’s like to experience the 2016 election as both a conservative and a sex abuse survivor

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Nancy French October 21

“Should we pick him up?” The preacher pointed to the side of the road to a hitchhiker.

“No!” I shrieked, but the idea was intoxicating. I’d lived in a one-festival town my whole life. Pulling over seemed like the kind of careless, wild action that could possibly blow up the roteness of small-town life. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

I was disappointed when he laughed and sped up. Nothing ever happens here. The most exciting thing that had happened to me was that morning’s vacation Bible school — all Kool Aid and butter cookies with holes in the center we wore as rings on our pinkies. The preacher offered to take me home when my mother needed to run errands. I was honored to be in his car, giggling as we sped by the hitchhiker. This preacher was younger than most and wore cool glasses. I tried to match his gregarious spirit. I should’ve said yes to the hitchhiker, I thought. That’s what cooler, older people would’ve done.

After winding down the long gravel road to my house, the preacher walked me in. I was too young to have rules for boys in the house, but this wasn’t a boy.

“Here’s the living room, and here’s the sitting room,” I said, flipping on some lights. There was a blue and white love seat up against the wall, in the room that my grandmother had used as a bedroom before she died. She’d once been alive but now was dead. It felt odd to just repurpose her room into a TV room without acknowledging that a person had so recently dwelled there.

I was thinking of her, when the preacher’s thin mouth pressed against mine, his wiry tongue stuck down my throat. He pulled me down onto the love seat and ran his hands over my budding breasts. Though I’d failed the hitchhiker test, I had another chance to prove I was cool enough to deserve attention.

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Former Bishop of Bath and Wells’s son is arrested over allegations of historic sex abuse

UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol Post

By Ian Onions | Posted: October 22, 2016

The son of Lord Carey, former Bishop of Bath and Wells, has been arrested over allegations of child sex abuse which date back to the 1980s.

The Rev Mark Carey, 51, was arrested by police at his home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and later released pending further inquiries.

Lord Carey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, became Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham after he retired.

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US bishops’ vote likely to be seen as referendum on Pope Francis

UNITED STATES
Crux

John L. Allen Jr.October 21, 2016
EDITOR

As it turns out, the Trump v. Clinton showdown isn’t the only election of interest to American Catholics this fall.

The U.S. bishops are also going to be voting for their own new leaders in mid-November, and in some ways their choices are almost certain to be read as a referendum on how the American hierarchy wants to position itself vis-à-vis the new winds blowing in the Church under Pope Francis.

By tradition, a slate of ten candidates is nominated for the presidency and the vice-presidency of the conference, and they select both positions from among those nominees. The new president will replace Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, who’s served the usual three-year term.

The nominees are:

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., of Philadelphia
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston
Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore
Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit
Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami
Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe

If one were to open a betting line right now, I suspect a DiNardo/Gomez ticket would attract a lot of money, but of course that’s why we hold elections rather than letting bookmakers and pundits settle things – because anything can happen.

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Melbourne Anglican church flags abuse body

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Australian Associated Press

The Anglican diocese of Melbourne will establish an independent body to investigate sexual abuse complaints.

The move comes as part of the church’s response to the 2013 Victorian parliamentary inquiry and the royal commission, and is aimed at improving transparency, independence and avenues of redress for victims.

The new complaint body is separate from the diocese and the archbishop, and can work across any number of dioceses, the church said on Saturday.

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Clergy sex abuse topic is relevant today: Michael Rezendes

INDIA
Daiji World

By Sugandha Rawal

New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS): “Spotlight” — a film which infused life into an award-winning investigative teams story that exposed a Catholic paedophile scandal involving priests in Boston — was named as the Best Picture at the Oscars this year. And Michael Rezendes, one of the journalists who worked on the story, says the relevance of the issue doesnt end with the movie.

In the film, Tom McCarthy’s dramatic depiction shows the whole process of the 2002 investigation that blew open the child sex abuse in the Catholic Church and also puts in the spotlight the emotions that the journalists went through as it questioned their faith and religion. The investigative team of The Boston Globe won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for the story.

“The clergy sex abuse topic is very relevant today. The Catholic Church has taken some steps to deal with these issues, but I think the church has a long way to go, particularly outside the United States. American bishops have adopted a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sex abuse.

That has not been adopted by others around the world,” Rezendes told IANS on the phone from Boston.

“The Vatican, in fact, 15 years later, is still studying the issue but has not come out with anything. I think the issue is very much alive. One of the reasons that I love the movie is because it puts the spotlight on the issue,” he added.

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Wythe minister facing sexual abuse allegations

VIRGINIA
Southwest Virginia Today

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl in August, a then Wythe County minister is facing two felonies.

Nathan Phillips, 59, of Austinville was indicted Monday on charges of aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration following an investigation by the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office.

Both allegations, which have an Aug. 13 offense date, involve the same teenage girl, according to the indictments.

Police said that Phillips was pastor at the Austinville Pentecostal Holiness Church when the allegations came to light but that he has since resigned.

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Pastor Charged With Procurement of Child Prostitution

CAMBODIA
Cambodia Daily

BY SEK ODOM | OCTOBER 22, 2016

A South Korean pastor accused of raping several girls who lived with him at his church was charged on Friday with procurement of child prostitution and sexual abuse of a minor.

Park Youl, 62, who was arrested on Wednesday after being called in for questioning by Siem Reap municipal police based on a tip, was charged in the Siem Reap provincial court and sent to the provincial prison on Friday morning, court spokesman Riem Channy said.

Mr. Park was accused of abusing eight girls, including six who lived with him at the Christian church, and buying them and their families off with gifts of rice, cash and motorbikes, according to Duong Thavry, the province’s anti-human trafficking police chief.

She said Mr. Park admitted to raping some of the girls, who were now aged between 13 and 21.

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“There Were No Witnesses”

IOWA
Blog for Iowa

October 22, 2016 | Author Dave Bradley

That is a quote from Donald Trump denying that he committed the dozen or so episodes of sexual assault on women that he is accused of.

Of course there weren’t, you dolt. Sexual assault is not usually something that you want to do in front of an audience. It is a crime and therefore something that is done in secrecy. It is also frequently done by someone who has some form of power to another person that the first person has that power over.

This pattern should be familiar to anyone who followed the stories of the boys and some girls who were abused by priests. As a victim of priestly abuse myself, when the stories started coming out I recognized the pattern as if it were taken from a textbook. Powerful person corners a victim in a situation where the powerful person can force their attention on the victim. Often the assaulter has created the situation to make sure that there is little chance of discovery yet looks to be a spur of the moment thing.

When the assault is done the victim is often warned that any attempt to report on this incident will be denied by the assaulter. Who do you think authorities will believe, a liar like you or someone with a pristine reputation like me? If you do anything I will destroy your life in some way. Thus the victim is silenced.

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October 21, 2016

Police: Dozens of photos show Bishop McDevitt teacher’s abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

[with video]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Dozens of photos of a Midstate teacher performing sexual acts with a student — that’s what court documents show police found during their investigation.

Police filed the paperwork yesterday in charging 33-year-old Randi Zurenko of Millerstown with sexual abuse of children and sexual assault, among other crimes.

The arrest affidavit details two relationships the Bishop Mcdevitt High School social studies teacher had with students.

“Sexual violence is a widespread problem in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape CEO Delilah Rumburg said.

And make no mistake, she added, this is sexual violence.

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Vicar son of former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey arrested over historic child sex abuse claims

UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

21 OCT 2016
BY KEITH PERRY

Rev Mark Carey, 51, is accused of assaulting a young girl in the 1980s when he was in his late teens

The vicar son of a former Archbishop of Canterbury has been arrested over claims of historic child sex abuse .

Rev Mark Carey, 51, whose father is Lord Carey, was held at his church-owned home on Wednesday.

His alleged victim, now in her 30s, claimed she was assaulted when he was in his late teens and Lord Carey was a priest in the North-East.

Rev Carey was released on police bail and has since been suspended by the Church of England pending inquiries.

Father of three Rev Carey, who followed his father into the church in 1995, has not been seen since his arrest.

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REV’S ABUSE ARREST Vicar son of outspoken former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey ‘molested young girl’ in 1980s

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY PAUL SIMS 21st October 2016

THE priest son of a former Archbishop of Canterbury has been arrested over claims of historic child sex abuse.

Rev Mark Carey, 51, whose father is Lord Carey, was held at his church-owned home on Wednesday.

His alleged victim, now in her 30s, claimed she was assaulted when he was in his late teens and Lord Carey was a priest in the North-East.

Rev Carey was released on police bail and has since been suspended by the Church of England pending inquiries.

Father of three Rev Carey, who followed his father into the church in 1995, has not been seen since his arrest.

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Priest son of former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey is arrested over claims of historic child abuse

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By PADDY DINHAM FOR MAILONLINE

Mark Carey was detained at his home after claims that he abused a girl in the 1980s

A priest son of former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has been arrested over claims of historic child abuse.

Mark Carey was detained at his home after claims that he abused a girl, who is now in her 30s, when he was in his late teens and his father was a in the north east during the 1980s.

A Durham Police spokesman told MailOnline: ‘A 51-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of historical sexual offences. He has been bailed pending further enquiries.’

A Church of England spokesman added: ‘A 51-year-old priest in the Diocese of Leeds has been suspended by the Bishop following his arrest by Durham Constabulary concerning allegations of historical abuse.

‘No further statement will be made at this time.’

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Clifton church cut ties with priest accused of choking baby over drinking problem

NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

BY RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

The former pastor of a Clifton Ukrainian Orthodox church who was charged this week with choking a baby in a Walmart store in Kansas was told to leave the church last year because of a drinking problem, the parish council vice president said Friday.

Oleh Zhownirovych had led the Ukrainian Orthodox Holy Ascension Cathedral for 15 years, and had been married with two children. But his wife and children eventually left him, and last year, the church severed ties with him because of his drinking, said Walter Mohuchy, vice president of the Holy Ascension church council.

“We essentially asked him to leave because he was battling alcoholism,” Mohuchy said. “He knew people in Florida, and we thought he was there to get himself well. But Kansas? How did he end up there?”

Zhownirovych, 54, is now being held in the Johnson County Jail on $100,000 bail, charged with aggravated battery. He was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday following a bizarre incident at a Walmart in Overland Park, which is about 15 miles southwest of Kansas City.

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The Priests Should Have Given Trump His Last Rites Last Night

NEW YORK
Esquire

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
OCT 21, 2016

Well, I have to say that, when it comes to appearing before an audience of influential clergy, Joan of Arc got a better reception than Donald Trump did. Usually, you can’t get the Roman Catholic hierarchy booing you unless you’re carrying a condom, or maybe a subpoena.

But, seriously, folks…

Before we get to the Los Alamos of after-dinner speeches, let’s pause for a moment and pay tribute to the founder of the feast, our jovial host, His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Yankee fan, and otherwise inexcusable presence in the country’s spiritual life. Never one to miss a chance to preach to the spotlight, Dolan spouted off on the subject of some mildly critical comments on conservative Catholics that allegedly were exchanged by members of the upper echelons of the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The remarks attributed to John Podesta, who is Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff, are just extraordinarily patronizing and insulting to Catholics. What he would say is offensive. And if it had been said about the Jewish community, if it had been said about the Islamic community, within 10 minutes there would have been an apology.”

Poor Dolan of New York, beset on all sides by heretics on the Intertoobz. You know what else is extraordinarily patronizing and insulting to Catholics? Hiding money in a diocesan cemetery fund so you don’t have to pay it out to the victims of your depraved diocesan clergy, that’s what. This guy should be studying Scripture in a monastery on the side of a cliff in Turkey, under a vow of silence, rather than yukking it up with posh Fifth Avenue Catholics.

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Winnipeg priest, out on day parole, facing more historic sex abuse charges

CANADA
Metro

WINNIPEG — Police have laid more charges against a former Winnipeg priest previously convicted of sexual abuse.

Ronald Leger, who is 78, faces eight counts of sexual assault.

Leger is accused of abusing four boys who were between 10 and 12 years old when the alleged crimes began in 1981.

Police say the abuse spanned more than 10 years.

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Italian priest is arrested on suspicion of molesting women and a 12-year-old girl while carrying out EXORCISMS

ITALY
Daily Mail (UK)

By SARAH DEAN FOR MAILONLINE and AFP

A priest has been arrested on suspicion of molesting women while carrying out exorcisms and spiritual ‘healing’.

The priest in Palermo, Sicily, was arrested on sex abuse charges along with an army colonel, local media reported Friday.

Father Salvatore Anello, 59, is suspected of molesting four women and a 12-year-old girl during ‘healing prayers,’ supposedly intended to help them recover from illness or liberate them from possession by the devil, the AGI news agency reported.

Anello’s arrest follows a six-month investigation into Salvatore Muratore, 52, an army colonel who was active in the Renewal of the Holy Spirit Catholic community.

Muratore has been accused by alleged victims of similar assaults.

Both men have been detained in custody and the investigation is still ongoing to ascertain if there were more victims, police told AGI.

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Accused priest Fr Neru Leuea will never get his life back, warns a man who has been there

AUSTRALIA
The Times

A MUCH-LOVED Riverina priest acquitted this week of raping a 10-year-old girl will never escape the black mark against his name, according to a former Griffith mayor who himself was cleared of serious charges.

Griffith councillor Mike Neville said Father Neru Leuea will always be stalked by the unproven allegations he sexually assaulted the girl in 2003.

Cr Neville faced a high-profile sexual assault case in 2012, while he was Griffith mayor, but was not found guilty.

“No matter where he (Fr Neru) goes or what he does in the future, this will follow him,” Cr Neville said.

“You don’t get your life back; you have to make a new life and it was not just for me, it was for my family – all of those lives have been changed.

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“Via il demonio” e palpeggiava le fedeli. Arrestato a Palermo padre Anello, esorcista dei Cappuccini

ITALIA
La Repubblica

Il sacerdote era anche cappellano dell’ospedale Civico. In manette anche un colonnello dell’esercito, Salvatore Muratore: è accusato di aver violentato quattro donne. L’inchiesta nata dalla denuncia di una vittima, scoperti 10 casi. Il drammatico racconto di una dodicenne, affetta da epilessia: “Mi toccava e diceva, così guarisci”

di SALVO PALAZZOLO

E’ uno dei sacerdoti più noti di Palermo, conosciuto come “guaritore” ed “esorcista”. Questa mattina, padre Salvatore Anello è stato arrestato con l’accusa di violenza sessuale. Gli investigatori della sezione di polizia giudiziaria della polizia di Stato in servizio presso la procura dei minori lo hanno fermato all’interno del convento dei Cappuccini. Il 59enne sacerdote, che faceva anche da cappellano all’ospedale Civico, è accusato di aver palpeggiato due donne e tre minorenni che si erano rivolte a lui per essere aiutate. Fra riti e benedizioni avrebbe commesso violenze. “Preghiere di guarigione”, le chiamava lui. E nessuno aveva mai avuto il coraggio di reagire. Poi, il racconto di una vittima ha infranto il muro dell’omertà. Non solo sul prete che diceva di essere un esorcista, anche se ufficialmente non era riconosciuto come tale dalla diocesi di Palermo.

Le testimonianze raccolte dalla polizia hanno portato in carcere pure un ufficiale dell’esercito, si tratta del colonnello Salvatore Muratore, ha 59 anni, è in servizio alla caserma Turba: era uno degli animatori più attivi della comunità del Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo di Palermo. Secondo la ricostruzione del sostituto procuratore Giorgia Righi e del procuratore aggiunto Salvatore De Luca, l’ufficiale avrebbe approfittato di quattro donne e di una minorenne che si trovavano in uno stato di fragilità psicologica, alcune erano anche gravemente ammalate. “Io faccio preghiere di guarigione”, si vantava. Le violenze sarebbero avvenute nelle abitazioni delle vittime. Quando le donne mostravano qualche perplessità, il colonnello Muratore rassicurava: “E’ il diavolo che ti fa dire queste cose, io sto solo invocando il demone della lussuria per liberarti”.

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