ABUSE TRACKER

MISSOURI
Courthouse News Service

By JOE HARRIS

ST. LOUIS (CN) — A federal judge sanctioned the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and of its two leaders for violating her orders in a defamation case filed by a priest who claims he was wrongfully accused.

The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang sued St. Louis, two city police officers, the parents A.M. and N.M., the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and SNAP leaders David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris in June 2015.

Jiang claimed in the lawsuit that the allegations were brought by a deeply troubled 12-year-old boy, that the officers failed to fully investigate the claims, and that SNAP embarked on a smear campaign.

Criminal charges against Jiang were dismissed by the city prosecutor.

U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson ordered SNAP to produce the boy’s identity and the amounts of contributions made to SNAP from 2005 to 2012 by the law firm of Chackes, Carlson & Gorovsky so that Jiang’s attorneys could prepare their case.

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.

MISSOURI
TheMediaReport

David Pierre

In a monumental victory for truth and justice in the Catholic Church abuse story, a federal judge has ruled that the lawyer-funded group SNAP indeed defamed St. Louis priest Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang and conspired to falsely claim the priest of child sex abuse.

In her ruling, the judge sanctioned SNAP, its national director David Clohessy, and its “outreach director” Barbara Dorris and ordered them to pay for Fr. Jiang’s attorney fees and expenses.

[**Court docs: Click to read the federal judge’s ruling against SNAP (pdf)**]

As we reported back in June 2015, Fr. Jiang filed a federal lawsuit against SNAP, who continued to publicly accuse the cleric of being a child molester even after being twice cleared of crazy sex abuse claims.

The abuse claims were outlandish from the beginning. The accuser “had made previous unfounded allegations of sexual abuse” and already had a reputation of being “a serial exaggerator to the point of being ‘delusional.'”

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
26/08/2016

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said the Catholic Church in Ireland needs to introduce better admission standards for trainee priests to attract the right candidates for priesthood.

Acknowledging that the national seminary in Maynooth “has to change”, Dr Martin, who is a trustee of the college, told RTÉ’s ‘Morning Ireland’: “Maynooth is not to be condemned but it is not to be canonised either.”

He said there was a “recognition of the problems” facing Maynooth among the trustees and that the seminary has to change, “not just because of current allegations but because of the fact that we are living in a different world”.

Referring to the trustees’ statement on Wednesday outlining a series of changes on seminary formation, the Archbishop said there was a need for new ways of identifying, screening and training candidates.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Michael Kelly
PUBLISHED
26/08/2016

The trustees of Maynooth – the 17 most-senior Catholic bishops – agreed this week to work on a new policy to protect whistle-blowers at the national seminary. It comes after a wave of allegations, many of them anonymous, of homosexual relationships between seminarians.

Further allegations were made that the college authorities did not treat such allegations with sufficient gravity. Critics of the college quickly seized on the controversy as evidence of a corrupt underbelly, while defenders of Maynooth rounded on the detractors and insisted that anonymous allegations should be treated with contempt.

Now, there are broadly two reasons why people make anonymous allegations: either they are bitterly spiteful, or they are petrified about the consequences of raising their concerns. A coherent policy that protects people who raise legitimate concerns is a must for every institution.

But, whistle-blowing aside, perhaps, in time, the bishops’ pledge to review what sort of training would-be priests should undertake in 21st Century Ireland will prove more important. What emerges could kickstart an authentic reform and renewal of Irish Catholicism.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Editorial

PUBLISHED
26/08/2016

Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Maynooth is not to be condemned, but it is not to be canonised either, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, speaking on RTÉ. If this was an endorsement, it was less than whole-hearted. He also said that the seminary would have to change not just because of allegations, but because we are “living in a different world”.

After bishops admitted to having concerns at the “unhealthy atmosphere” at the seminary, Archbishop Martin tried to draw a line under the controversy. Unfortunately, his comments are unlikely to put matters to rest.

The church has endured a relentless barrage of criticism for elevating its interests and reputation above the needs of its followers. It has been charged with being aloof, arrogant and out of step. It has further been attacked for failing to confront weaknesses and for retreating into its shell.

It therefore has a responsibility to be open and transparent. Maynooth’s board of trustees have said they will review social media policies and procedures for handling whistleblowers following allegations of trainee priests using dating apps. This came after Dr Martin’s stated intention to send seminarians from his archdiocese to Rome, instead of the national seminary, due to his worries over “strange goings-on” in St Patrick’s.

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.

IRELAND
Breaking News

26/08/2016

Trainee priests in Maynooth will be supervised at meal times under new stricter rules.

The move comes after claims that seminarians were using the gay dating app Grindr, and a suggestion that a gay subculture exists at the National Seminary.

The Irish Independent reports trainees will be required to eat breakfast and evening meals in the college instead of being allowed to choose where they dine.

Senior staff will eat with them.

A review of social media use at Maynooth has also been ordered.

The Archdiocese of Dublin confirmed earlier this month that it would not be sending its trainee priests to Maynooth.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
26/08/2016

A closer eye will be kept on how Maynooth’s seminarians spend their time from now on as part of a stricter regime being introduced in the wake of the gay dating app scandal.

The Irish Independent has learned that all trainee priests will now be required to eat their evening meal in the college rather than being allowed to dine wherever they choose. They will also be required to attend evening rosary at 9pm, which hasn’t been obligatory until now.

The seminary council will now eat both breakfast and dinner with the seminarians in the historic Pugin Hall rather than in the Professors’ Refectory.

The tighter controls are part of a suite of measures announced on Wednesday by the trustees of Maynooth which included a review of “appropriate use of the internet and social media” by the 50 or so trainee priests and their staff.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of ­Dublin withdrew his seminarians from Maynooth following allegations that students were using gay dating app Grindr.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter
August 26 2016
The Times

The failed inquiry into a teacher’s alleged abuse of boys at Britain’s leading Catholic school may be reopened after four new witnesses came forward.

The Times revealed yesterday how Ampleforth College hushed up a potential scandal in 1989 when children complained of being touched inappropriately by Paul Sheppard, a science teacher. He was asked to leave but police were not told and the school, in North Yorkshire, gave him glowing references.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A police force is investigating claims by The Times that it bungled an inquiry into alleged sex abuse at a school.

It centres around the case of Paul Sheppard who was cleared last year of indecently assaulting a boy in 1989 at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.

The Times says North Yorkshire Police failed to speak to two ex-pupils whose accounts could have led to Dr Sheppard being questioned about other child sex offences.

He denies any wrongdoing.

The force has asked the newspaper for details of the two former pupils.

The Times also says former pupils, who were told at the 11th hour they would not be giving evidence against Dr Sheppard, were falsely assured by police they were not required in court because their written statements had been accepted by the defence.

That explanation was not true, the paper says, while the former pupils claim the way the case was conducted by police and the prosecution was “shambolic”.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY MARTIN PHILLIPS, SENIOR FEATURES WRITER 26th August 2016

NESTLED in a tranquil North Yorks valley, Ampleforth College is where for two ­centuries the sons of the wealthy have been instilled with a “compass for life” by the monks who run it.

The independent school charges more than £33,000 a year for this special recipe for learning.

And there seems no doubt that it works, with talented ex-pupils including former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and actors Rupert Everett and James Norton.

But now a darker side has been uncovered at the country’s leading Catholic school, ­following an investigation this week by The Times.

It involves the cover-up of alleged sex abuse of children at the school 27 years ago, which has been linked to the suicide of at least one former pupil.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Gazette & Herald

Nadia Jefferson-Brown, Deputy news editor

PAST pupils at one of Britain’s leading Catholic schools have spoken of their dismay over the way a trial involving a former teacher charged with sexual abuse was handled.

An investigation by The Times newspaper raised questions about the inquiry and subsequent trial last year, involving Paul Sheppard, now 53, a Canadian who taught at Ampleforth College.

He was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of serious sexual offences in 1989 against another pupil, who later committed suicide.

He was due to stand trial last year, accused of seven charges of indecent assault against five former pupils, but the charges involving all but one of the boys were dropped following rulings by the judge.

Judge Colin Burn ruled that the alleged incidences, including when the teacher was said to have stroked and kissed a boy as he slept, did not amount to “circumstances of indecency”.

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.

SCOTLAND
The Courier

by Michael Alexander
August 26 2016

What makes the grave of 14-year-old Alexander Harvey, who died in 1960, particularly unusual is that he is buried between two men of the Christian Brotherhood – Richard Albeus Fitton, who died at Falkland aged 75 in 1958, and John Kevin Nugent, who died aged 78 in 1977.

There has been local speculation that the young boy buried in Falkland cemetery is a “forgotten victim” of the recently publicised abusive regime at the former St Ninian’s School.

Rumours have been circulating the Fife village recently that Harvey, thought to be an orphan, may have died at St Ninian’s in suspicious circumstances.

However that appears unfounded, according to an investigation by a local councillor.

Former teacher Paul Kelly, 64, and head teacher John Farrell, 73,were jailed for 10 years and five years respectively at Glasgow High Court after being found guilty of abuse said to have taken place at the school between 1979 and 1983.

For our exclusive report, see Saturday’s Courier

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Chris Johnston

A former Jehovah’s Witness elder recently convicted of child sex offences is back working with children from a Melbourne parish run by his father-in-law.

Richard Hill was found guilty last year of the offences against his six-year-old female cousin, who was also in the religion. He was put on the sex offenders’ list and fined. The offences happened in 1981 when he was 20.

Hill, a roofing plumber of Doreen with an office in Brunswick, this week maintained his innocence and confirmed he was working with children while doorknocking as part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious practice called ‘proselytizing.’

His wife’s father, Ken Hall, is the senior elder at the Plenty Kingdom Hall in outer Melbourne, where Hill now worships. “I am allowed to attend under strict conditions,” Hill said. “The police know about that.”

Hill appealed his conviction but then dropped the appeal.

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.

UNTED KINGDOM
This is Local London

A retired headmaster who was honoured by the Queen for his services to young people is facing jail after being found guilty of gross indecency with a 14-year-old boy.

John Coatman, 75, of Leyburn Gardens, Croydon, was today convicted of having sexual activity with the teenager in the 1970s following a trial at the Old Bailey.

He was headteacher at St Andrew’s Church of England High School at the time and also worked with a Christian youth group, of which the victim was a member.

The abuse came to light in 2014 after the breakdown of the victim’s marriage and problems at work, jurors were told.

He told the court earlier this week that Coatman made him feel “safe” and “valued” and he came to see himself as a “willing partner” in the sexual activity.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Malaysia

“In Australia, we seem to have reached a critical juncture. Not only are we afflicted by such things as the decline in Sunday worship, the fall in religious practices, the dearth of the priesthood and religious life etc…, we also face the biggest challenge to date, which is, the loss of our moral credibility and trust capital due to the sexual abuse crisis,” said Vietnamese-born Australian Bishop Vincent Long. He has called for a “prophetic reframing” of the Church’s attitudes rather than a “retreat into restorationism,”

Delivering the Ann D. Clark Lecture, Bishop Long of Parramatta diocese in western Sydney observed that the Australian Church is living a “watershed” moment in the wake of a series of recent crises,

Nevertheless, Bishop Long continued, the unexpected election of Pope Francis “and the way he exercises his leadership give us a breath of fresh air and a source of great hope.”

“I make bold to say that this is the unexpected way of God. Watershed moments can be catalysts for renewal and transformation.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Crux

AP

EBENSBURG, PA – A former houseparent at a Pennsylvania Catholic school who’s accused of sexually assaulting two Chinese international students has waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Twenty-eight-year-old John Bowman Thornberry, of Mills River, North Carolina, appeared in a Cambria County court on Tuesday. A judge reduced his bond to $100,000.

Thornberry was hired in 2014. He was removed in February from his job overseeing Chinese international students at Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg. One student said Thornberry fondled him. Another boy said he fought off a molestation attempt.

Authorities say Thornberry denied touching the students in a sexual manner during an interview with investigators. He faces charges including attempted indecent assault and institutional sexual assault.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

One of the more remarkable features of the clerical child sexual abuse scandal has been the low conviction level of alleged perpetrators in the courts.

Last September the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the Catholic Church watchdog in Ireland, published a report looking at 325 allegations made against 141 members of six religious congregations.

Of those, the report found, only eight led to convictions.

Whatever the explanation, there is no doubt a sense of justice denied can compound the distress of abuse victims.

One such person is Jim. He is in his 30s, and his life “has been destroyed by the negative effects of sexual abuse”. So said his psychiatrist in a 2011 report seen by this newspaper.

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.

UNITED STATES
Newsbusters

By Tim Graham | August 25, 2016

“It’s important to say right up front that this isn’t a story about pedophile priests,” began the NPR reporter on Wednesday night….in a story with the online headline “Catholic Church Groups Fight Bills To Revive Old Sex Abuse Cases.”

Legislators have tried to pass retroactive windows to allow a so-called “grace period” for old sexual-assault allegations. Brian Mann reported New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat, “wanted to open a one-year window — a kind of grace period — so that [alleged] victims who’ve waited too long can get a second chance to sue in civil court. New York’s Catholic bishops hate this idea and spent more than $2 million lobbying to block the measure.”

The people who call their show All Things Considered didn’t consider this: what if a priest is unjustly accused? Does that ever happen? Just this week, a federal judge in St. Louis ruled for an accused priest named Xiu Hui Jiang in a defamation case against the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). District Court judge Carol Jackson ruled that SNAP defendants conspired “to obtain plaintiff’s conviction on sexual abuse charges” and that it was because of “discriminatory animus against plaintiff based on his religion, religious vocation, race, and national origin.”

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.

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

A judge has granted the Diocese of Duluth an extension to file its plans for reorganization.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel on Thursday approved the diocese’s motion to extend the deadline from Sept. 1 to March 17.

The diocese had requested the extension earlier this month, citing a planned mediation session in November with the creditors’ committee representing victims of child sexual abuse. No objections were filed, as both sides have expressed a desire to reach a settlement.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A Yorkshire police force has said it is “hugely disappointing” that a number of historic child sexual abuse allegations made against a teacher at a leading private Catholic school were not put before a jury.

North Yorkshire Police today issued a statement in relation to the case of Paul Sheppard, a former teacher at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire who was last year acquitted of indecently assaulting a pupil.

The force said it had carried out a “complex investigation” into allegations made against Dr Sheppard and made “considerable efforts to present a strong case on a number of allegations” to prosecutors.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, four charges of indecent assault were made against the former teacher when the case was brought to trial at York Crown Court in 2015. Prosecutors said they believed “there was sufficient evidence to allow a jury to consider four charges of indecent assault”.

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.

ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org)

We are grateful that an abuse case against a prominent Chicago Muslim cleric has been resolved. But now is not the time for complacency. It’s time for every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Mohammad Abdullah Saleem – or cover ups by or at the Institute for Islamic Education – to come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids. If he committed other crimes, he should be prosecuted for them too.

[Courier-News]

[Courier-News]

[Chicago Tribune]

We’re glad Saleem will be on the sex offender registry for life. That will make it harder for him to win the trust of unsuspecting parents and hurt their kids.

Our hearts go out to the four extraordinarily brave women who report having been molested and assaulted by this cleric and to the 23 year old who is cooperating with law enforcement. We are grateful that some of these women are also seeking justice in the civil courts. Victims of sexual violence should use every avenue they can to warn the public about dangerous predators.

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.

ILLINOIS
Courier-News

George Houde
Chicago Tribune

A suburban Islamic leader who was accused of molesting an underage girl and a female employee pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon and was sentenced to 24 months of probation.

Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, 77, who founded the Institute for Islamic Education in Elgin, must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

He was accused of repeatedly fondling a young woman who worked for him at the school, as well as a student who was a minor at the time, in some cases while making them sit on his lap.

The arrest of the conservative scholar on sex abuse charges was especially shocking given Saleem’s stature in his community made up largely of Islamic immigrants from India and Pakistan. He is said to espouse a code of separation between genders and discourages even hand-shaking. The institute, which provides boarding to some students, runs separate programs for girls and boys.

The elderly, white-bearded imam had appeared to be close to accepting a plea bargain in recent days and had made two earlier court appearances this week as lawyers negotiated in private in the judge’s chambers. On Tuesday, Judge James Karahalios gave Saleem until Sept. 2 to accept the proposed plea deal.

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

JTA

August 25, 2016

(JTA) — Three hundred Orthodox rabbis have signed a proclamation urging those suspecting child sex abuse to notify secular authorities and calling on Jewish institutions to take preventative measures to prevent abuse.

The letter, which was released Thursday and signed by rabbis from the the United States, Canada, Israel and Europe, recognizes that Orthodox communities “could have responded in more responsible and sensitive ways to help victims and to hold perpetrators accountable.” It also condemns attempts to ignore or silence abuse victims and witnesses.

Those suspecting sexual abuse do not need to seek rabbinic approval before contacting civil authorities, the proclamation states.

“We condemn attempts to ignore allegations of child sexual abuse. These efforts are harmful, contrary to Jewish law, and immoral,” it said. “The reporting of reasonable suspicions of all forms of child abuse and neglect directly and promptly to the civil authorities is a requirement of Jewish law.”

The letter strongly condemns ostracizing victims of sexual abuse and calls upon synagogues and schools to set up policies to prevent sex abuse, including carefully screening new employees, raising awareness of the issue, and teaching children about sexual development and safety.

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.

MISSOURI
Catholic World Report

St. Louis, Mo., Aug 25, 2016 / 10:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A group for clergy sex abuse victims made false statements “negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth” against a St. Louis priest to try to convict him on abuse charges, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson said that the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests failed to comply with a court order that the group supply details about those who accused Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang of sexual abuse. This made it impossible for him to litigate the claims against him.

Jackson said the court will establish that SNAP’s statements “were false and that they did not conduct any inquiry into the truth or falsity of these public statements.”

The court will also establish that defendants conspired to secure Fr. Jiang’s conviction on sex abuse charges due to “discriminatory animus against plaintiff based on his religion, religious vocation, race, and national origin,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

AUG. 24, 2016

Sophia Bollag

Sex offenders would be required to report their email addresses, usernames and other Internet identifiers to law enforcement under a bill California state senators sent to the governor Wednesday.

The bill, SB 448, would amend parts of California law enacted when voters passed anti sex-trafficking law Proposition 35 that have since been challenged in court. The bill now goes to the governor.

SB 448 would apply to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 2017 who used the Internet to carry out sex crimes.

Proposition 35 passed by statewide ballot in 2012 with more than 80 percent of the vote. It increased punishments for human traffickers and expanded the definition of human trafficking to include the creation and distribution of child pornography.

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.

UNITED STATES
The Feminine Collective

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Nancy Levine

“She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her.” I read the quote twice.

It chafed at me like a scratchy thread sticking out on a sweater. You pull the strand, keep yanking, and pretty soon, the whole garment starts to unravel.

I was sitting at my kitchen table on Christmas morning last year, with coffee and laptop, as I do every morning. This headline from The New York Times popped up in my Facebook news feed:

“A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past,” with a photo of former rabbi turned spiritual guru, accused sexual predator Marc Gafni. “14 going on 35” was how Gafni described one of his accusers.

And this grabbed me:

“A co-founder of Whole Foods, John Mackey, a proponent of conscious capitalism, calls Mr. Gafni ‘a bold visionary.’ He is a chairman of the executive board of Mr. Gafni’s center, and he hosts board meetings at his Texas ranch.”

I have spent the better part of 30 years as an executive recruiter. I started out after college at American Express corporate headquarters in lower Manhattan. I was ghostwriting announcements for executives about company shakeups and reorgs. So I’ve been around CEOs for a long time.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Sarrbruecker Zeitung

[Abuse: Expert urges external investigators.]

Von Matthias Zimmermann, 24. August 2016

Was haben die Nachforschungen bei den Missbrauchsvorwürfen in Freisen ergeben? Und wie setzen sich Verantwortliche dafür ein, dass es nicht zu sexuellen Übergriffen in der Kirche kommt? Ein Opferverband verlangt mehr Aufklärungswillen.

Bei den bistumsinternen Ermittlungen zu den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen einen ehemaligen Freisener Pfarrer geht es nur schleppend voran. Das kritisieren Betroffene. Deshalb fordern Vertreter der Opferorganisation „Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Trier“ (Missbit) eine von der Kirche unabhängige Aufarbeitung. Nur dann rechne Missbit damit, dass wirklich aufgeklärt werde, sagt Claudia Adams. Die Merzigerin betreibt den Missbit-Blog, eine im Internet wie ein Tagebuch geführte Seite mit Berichten und Kommentaren.

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.

INDIA
Indian Express

Written by Shaju Philip | Thiruvananthapuram | Published:August 14, 2016

hree years after a woman from Coimbatore was found dead at the parsonage of the Catholic Church in Chandrapuram, in Kerala’s Palakkad district, Palakkad police Friday arrested Coimbatore diocese Bishop Thomas Aquinas and three other priests of the same diocese for allegedly withholding information on the death.

Bishop Acquinas and the priests — Kulantha Raj, Madalai Muthu and Lawrance Melcure — were held under IPC Sections 201 (destroying evidence or giving false information) and 202 (intentionally omitting information). They were given bail after recording their statements, the police said.

Coimbatore native Fathima Sofia, 19, was found dead at the parsonage on July 23, 2013. The then parish priest of St Stanlisalus Church in Chandrapuram, Fr H Arockyaraj, was arrested last year in connection with the death.

In May this year, the district court of Palakkad asked the police to look into the role of Bishop Acquinas and the three priests in allegedly suppressing information on the crime.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 26, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Two senior advisers relied on by the current Anglican Archbishop of Perth to handle claims of child sexual abuse by priests were subsequently defrocked for having group sex with a teenager, ­according to evidence before a royal commission.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Graeme Lawrence and Bruce Hoare served as dean and archdeacon respectively of the Newcastle diocese in NSW under Archbishop Roger Herft, the bishop at the time. Archbishop Herft relied on each to personally respond to claims of child abuse by priests, dealing directly with victims and their families and, in Mr Lawrence’s case, answering the diocese’s sexual abuse hotline, the commission has heard.

After he left the diocese for Perth, both men were defrocked for having group sex with a 19-year-old, who told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he had endured “years of sexual grooming and abuse” by priests.

Archbishop Herft and Mr Lawrence will both face cross-examination before the commission next week. Mr Hoare has not been called to give evidence.

In a witness statement released by the commission, Archbishop Herft said Mr Hoare spent years dealing directly with a child abuse victim and his mother, who confided in him that the boy had been abused by another priest.

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.

FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

[with video]

Emily Miller
Sun Sentinel

After scathing report, St. Andrew’s School to find new director of dorm life, reassign roles
Boca Raton police are taking a fresh look at a 2014 student-fondling case in which St. Andrew’s School officials allegedly knew of a sex crime on campus and failed to report it, an agency spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Police plan to look into why the department didn’t fully explore the school’s lack of reporting two years ago. “We’re going to look into it further to find out why it wasn’t addressed at that time,” Boca police spokeswoman Officer Sandra Boonenberg said.

In May 2014, a 15-year-old freshman told a school counselor, dean and student resident coordinator at the Boca Raton private school that she was fondled over her clothing by an 18-year-old male senior in the girls’ dorm.

None of the school officials reported the allegation to the Boca Raton Police Department or the Department of Children and Families, according to a Boca Raton police report.

The girl’s mother later reported the fondling to police, and it resulted in a felony battery charge against the 18-year-old.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By EMMA GLANFIELD FOR MAILONLINE

A bungled inquiry into alleged sex abuse at Britain’s leading Catholic School denied justice for potential victims, former pupils claim.

An investigation and subsequent trial into allegations that Dr Paul Sheppard, 53, sexually abused a ten-year-old boy Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, was said to be marred with problems.

The teacher, who taught at the £33,000-a-year school for one term while on a teacher training course from his native country, was accused of indecently assaulting the boy 27 years ago.

The school boasts a star-studded alumni including former England Rugby Captain Lawrence Dallaglio, actors James Norton and Rupert Everett, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and the sculptor Sir Antony Gormley.

Former pupils claim that, at the time, several schoolchildren complained of Dr Sheppard’s behaviour including stroking, touching and kissing boys.

The school’s headmaster, Father Dominic Milroy, interviewed 11 children over the teacher’s alleged inappropriate conduct and Dr Sheppard subsequently left the school.

It is unclear whether he was asked to leave is position or if he went on his own. He has long maintained that he chose to leave on his own accord, while the school claims it was a mutual decision. He received a glowing reference from Father Milroy during his departure.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

Louise Thrower
@ThrowerLouise

25 Aug 2016

A CHRISTIAN Brother has been acquitted on six historical sex charges.

At the same time the Judge has criticised the Catholic Church’s handling of the matter and said he accepted the accused did sexually assault the complainant.

Christopher Rafferty, 65, of Ryde, left immediately after Judge David Frearson handed down his decision in Sydney District Court on August 25.

He was acquitted on three counts of indecent assault and three of homosexual intercourse. Police alleged this occurred on a St Patrick’s College, Goulburn student aged 14 to 16 between 1984 and 1987.

Rafferty pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

AUGUST 25, 2016

Sophie Tarr
Australian Associated Press

A Sydney judge has found a Christian Brother not guilty of a string of child sex offences but says he believes the man did abuse a teenager three decades ago and that the Catholic Church’s handling of historical allegations failed the victim.

On Thursday morning, as he prepared to acquit Christopher Rafferty and send him from the dock a free man, Judge David Frearson said he believed the 65-year-old was a sexual predator whose abuse drove a former pupil to thoughts of suicide.

In an extraordinary verdict delivered in the Downing Centre District Court, Judge Frearson found the veteran teacher not guilty of six sexual and indecent offences that were alleged to have been committed against a student at St Patrick’s College in Goulburn in the 1980s.

He said the evidence against the accused did not meet the high bar required in criminal trials, in which specific incidents must be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy Father has named Father Jorge H. Rodríguez-Novelo, of the Archdiocese of Denver, USA, as Auxiliary Bishop of the same Archdiocese. Father Rodríguez has been serving as Pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Denver, and professor at the archdiocesan Seminary of St John Vianney. Bishop-elect Rodríguez will hold the titular see of Azura.

Biography of Bishop-elect Jorge Rodriguez, S.T.D.

Bishop-elect Rodriguez was born March 22, 1955, in Merida, Mexico, located in the state of Yucatan. He is the son of Nery Maria Novelo and Ramon Rodriguez (deceased), and he has two brothers and four sisters, who live in Merida. In Merida he attended a primary school run by the Maryknoll Sisters, and then secondary and preparatory schools run by the Marist Brothers. When he finished high school, he joined the Legionaries of Christ to study and become a priest. He was ordained Dec. 24, 1987.

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.

MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com

August 24, 2016

Attorneys representing St. John’s Abbey and the Rev. Timothy Backous are asking a Stearns County judge to block the release of hundreds of pages of Abbey documents about Backous.

The Abbey is seeking the protective order after Jeff Anderson, the attorney representing two men who claim Backous abused them years ago, threatened to release the documents if the Abbey didn’t meet several of his conditions.

Anderson asked that the Abbey add Backous to its list of credibly accused, remove him from ministry and have Abbot John Klassen issue a public apology and retract statements about Backous being innocent of the allegations. He also asked the Abbey to release the Backous file or he would.

If the Abbey agreed to those conditions, they would be tantamount to admissions by Backous, and the Abbey and Backous have vehemently denied the accusations, said Robert Stich, who represents Backous.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

25 August, 2016

A new research report conducted for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has examined the long-term effects of disclosures of institutional child sexual abuse on survivors and their families.

Read the full report – Family relationships and the disclosure of institutional child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission appointed the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) to undertake research into the long-term effects of disclosures which included 50 in-depth interviews with survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and family members who received such disclosures.

Royal Commission CEO, Philip Reed, said the research was invaluable in assisting understanding of the long-term impacts of disclosures on survivors and their families. It also added new understanding to the international evidence base on disclosure of child sexual abuse.

The report found that many adult disclosures were triggered by crises such as relationship difficulties, job loss or work pressures, anxiety and depression.

Disclosures by young adults (aged 18-23 years) often occurred in the context of key life transitions such as finishing high school, beginning university study, leaving home or entering into an intimate relationship.

Disclosures by younger children were more likely to be indirect, non-verbal or the result of direct questioning or discovery by primary carers.

Mr Reed said he hoped the research would better inform service planning and development.

“The report shows there is a need for delivery of therapeutic and non-therapeutic support services to survivors and their families, not just in the aftermath of disclosure, but as their needs change throughout their lives.”

Family relationships and the disclosure of institutional child sexual abuse was written by Dr Antonia Quadara, Mary Stathopoulos and Rachel Carson.

The report contains extensive discussion of child sexual abuse. If you experience distress you can call 1800 Respect (1800 732 732).

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.

OKLAHOMA
News-Star

By Kim Morava

Posted Aug. 24, 2016

A former Shawnee youth pastor who was arrested last year for alleged inappropriate text messages with teenagers was sentenced Wednesday to serve six months in the county jail.

Brian K. Burchfield, 43, of Edmond, was charged in Pottawatomie County District Court last August with four counts of soliciting sexual conduct or communications with a minor by use of technology.

Those charges stem from an investigation by Shawnee police that reportedly involved text messages between Burchfield and four teenage boys.

As part of a plea agreement, Burchfield pleaded guilty at a previous hearing. Wednesday, he appeared in court again for formal sentencing.

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.

IRELAND
Daily Mail

By CHRIS SUMMERS FOR MAILONLINE

The Catholic Church in Ireland is considering restricting trainee priests’ access to the internet amid claims that young seminarians have been meeting up using the gay dating app Grindr.

The Church is also looking at ways of encouraging young priests to mix more with women, families and lay people.

Earlier this month the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said he was ‘somewhat unhappy’ about rumours that students at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth were using the app, which he claimed ‘fostered promiscuous sexuality’.

He said he would be boycotting the centuries-old college, just outside the Irish capital, and send students to a school in Rome instead.

The most senior Catholic in the Irish Republic said he made the decision some months ago because of an ‘atmosphere that was growing in Maynooth’ exposed through anonymous accusations in letters and online blogs.

He said: ‘There are allegations on different sides.

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.

IRELAND
Journal

HOW PRIESTS ARE trained has to change, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

The Archbishop told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that Irish society has changed and the Church has to move with the times.

The change that has been taking place in Irish culture and in Irish religious culture is radical change, and the response to radical change has to be more than just tweaking.

Martin admitted there are problems in Maynooth seminary, something he said is recognised by others in the Church.

Earlier this month, Maynooth training college made headlines after it was reported that a gay culture is prevalent on the campus, with some trainees using gay dating apps such as Grindr.

At the time, the college said there was “no concrete or credible evidence” that such a culture exists.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Vivienne Clarke

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said Maynooth seminary “has to change, not just because of current allegations but because of the fact that we’re living in a different world.”

The change that has been taking place in Irish culture and Irish religious culture is radical change and the response to radical change has to be ‘more than just tweaking’, he said.

St Patrick’s seminary in Maynooth is not to be condemned, but it is not to be canonised either, Dr Martin said on Thursday.

“I’ve never criticised the teaching in Maynooth, this is something people have said is behind my activity, that isn’t what I’ve been talking about at all.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
25/08/2016

The Catholic Church hierarchy has admitted concerns about an “unhealthy atmosphere” at the country’s main seminary amid claims trainee priests there are using the gay dating app Grindr.

Church leaders have ordered a review on the “appropriate use of the internet and social media” at the centuries-old St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, as well as an overhaul of its approach to whistleblowers.

The college trustees – four archbishops and 13 senior bishops – met for crisis talks after the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin confirmed he was boycotting the seminary.

As 14 new seminarians began their six years of training for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College this week, Maynooth’s trustees issued a range of directives aimed at rebuilding the seminary’s tarnished image.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk
August 25 2016
The Times

North Yorkshire police has previously said that its file on Paul Sheppard is closed.

This week, however, The Times informed the force of two former Ampleforth pupils to whom the police had not previously spoken. Each has described incidents involving the teacher in 1989 that this newspaper considers merit further investigation.

Were police to reopen the case, and should they subsequently decide to charge Dr Sheppard with new offences, the Crown Prosecution Service would need to consider the status of the charges that the Canadian was due to face at last year’s trial.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter
August 25 2016
The Times

A sun-soaked day in late June was drawing to a close. As shadows lengthened across the valley that has been the school’s privileged home for more than 200 years, a group of young boys waited nervously outside the headmaster’s study.

One by one, each was summoned. For Paul Sheppard’s career at Ampleforth College, what they had to say proved terminal.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Andrew Norfolk, Chief Investigative Reporter
August 25 2016
The Times

A bungled inquiry linked to a cover-up of alleged sex abuse at Britain’s leading Catholic school denied justice to a teacher’s child victims, former pupils have claimed.

Paul Sheppard, a Canadian who taught at Ampleforth College, was found not guilty last year of indecently assaulting a boy there 27 years ago. The jurors at his trial were under the impression that the former pupil, aged 11 when the crime was said to have been committed in 1989, was the sole complainant.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY TESS DE LA MARE 25th August 2016

AN INQURY into alleged sexual abuse at one of Britain’s leading Catholic schools denied victims any hope of justice, according to former pupils.

Dr Paul Sheppard, a Canadian who taught at the £33,000-a-year Ampleforth College in north Yorkshire, was last year cleared of sexually abusing one pupil 27 years ago.

Famous students of the prestigious school include former England Rugby Captain Lawrence Dallaglio, actors James Norton and Rupert Everett and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.

Sheppard was first arrested on suspicion of serious sexual offences in 1989 against a pupil who later committed suicide.

He was charged with seven counts of indecent assault against five students, but charges relating to all but one of the boys were thrown out by the judge at York Crown Court.

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.

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 25, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Could a lengthy legal battle be in store for the take back of the multi-million dollar Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona? While the Concerned Catholics of Guam group prepares to go to court, Guam’s apostolic administrator, Archbishop Savio Hon Ton Fai, is asking the new owners to simply give it back.

And now, the rector of the seminary defies every claim made to date from the CCOG and Archbishop Hon.

No takeback of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary is necessary, according to Father Pius Sammut. In an emailed response to KUAM’s questions, the rector challenges statements made by the Concerned Catholics of Guam and Archbishop Hon, who contend the Yona property was handed over to the non-profit group, RMS Corporation, through a declaration of deed restriction. That deed lists the board of guarantors as Archbishop Anthony Apuron, Father Angelo Pochetti, and Guisseppie and Claudia Gennarini. Guisseppie is the founder of the Neocathemunal Way in the United States mainland.

According to Father Pius, Apuron was protecting the seminary and the theological institute to give them permanence and stability to defend the RMS for the church. He wrote, “The deed restriction is simply an act according to canon law that allows the archdiocesan RM seminary to use that Yona property. The building is not ours, we have permission to use it until the archbishop wants, and only the archbishop or his successor can decide on this building.”

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

A former Catholic school teacher and army sergeant has appeared in Newcastle court, after being charged with more than a dozen child sex offences.

Last month former St Pius maths teacher Edward (Ted) Hall was charged with 13 child sex offences, dating back to the 1980s.

Charge sheets tendered in Newcastle Local Court allege the abuse relates to four boys, all under 16.

The alleged abuse took place at the Adamstown school as well as at places in Merewether.

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.

INDIA
NDTV

[with video]

Written by J Sam Daniel Stalin | Updated: August 25, 2016

COIMBATORE: A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing and murdering a college student in Kerala’s Palakkad district.

Four other clergymen, including a bishop — who had conducted an internal inquiry and found the priest guilty but failed to inform the police — were arrested for allegedly covering up the case.

Back in July 2013, the 18 year-old woman was found dead at the home of Fr Arockiyaraj, whom she knew well since he attended his spiritual discourses.

The family — residents of Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, an hour’s journey from the state border — alleged that he had taken her home in their absence.

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.

INDIA
Catholic Culture

August 19, 2016

Bishop Thomas Aquinas Lephonse of Coimbatore, India, has been arrested, along with three priests of the diocese, and charged with withholding information about the suspicious death of a young woman.

Fathima Sofia was found hanging in the rectory of a church in Chandrapuram in July 2013. After originally ruling the death a suicide, police reopened their investigation last year, at the prompting of the deceased woman’s mother, who charged that her daughter had been molested by the pastor. The accused priest, Father H. Arockyaraj, was arrested last year; he has subsequently been laicized, a diocesan official said.

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

INDIA
The Irish Catholic

A bishop and four priests in the Indian state of Kerala have been arrested following the re-opening of an investigation in to the death of a 17-year-old girl at a rectory in 2013.

When Fathima Sofia was found hanging at the home of a priest church in Palakkad, Kerala, her death was originally ruled a suicide by investigators. However, following accusations by the girl’s mother of sexual abuse and an alleged admission by Fr H. Arockyaraj that he had murdered the girl with whom he was having a relationship, police decided to re-examine the case. Investigators have now arrested Bishop Thomas Aquinas Lephonse of Coimbatore and four priests and charged them with withholding evidence of importance to a criminal case. Arockyaraj, now laicised by a canonical court, was previously arrested and charged with rape. He denies the charges.

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.

FLORIDA
The Palm Beach Post

By Andrew Marra – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016

BOCA RATON — In May 2014, a 15-year-old freshman at St. Andrew’s School went to administrators with an upsetting accusation: A senior boarding student had barged into the girls’ campus dormitory with his friends and, in the middle of a card game, fondled her repeatedly in front of several other students.

But the school never notified police or child-welfare investigators, despite a state law requiring schools to report suspicions of sexual abuse against minors, police records obtained by The Palm Beach Post show.

Instead, the Boca Raton private school conducted its own investigation, which administrators resolved by sending the girl to counseling sessions and writing a stern email to her 18-year-old attacker, who already had graduated and returned to his home in Russia, police records show.

Police were not alerted until more than a month after the incident, when the girl and her mother went to the Boca Raton Police Department to report the incident themselves.

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.

MISSOURI
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Carol E. Jackson that dropped the hammer on the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

As I previously demonstrated, SNAP executive director David Clohessy is a professed liar who runs a phony “victims group” whose real goal is to attack the Catholic Church. But he is protected by the media because, for the most part, those who work in journalism are not exactly Catholic-friendly, and some are seriously anti-Catholic.

Now Clohessy is back in the news, this time for being slapped down by a federal judge. And as we shall see, he is now smearing St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson.

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.

NEW YORK
NRP

August 24, 2016 – Heard on All Things Considered

BRIAN MANN

It’s important to say right up front that this isn’t a story about pedophile priests.

Bridie Farrell is Roman Catholic, but she says it was her speed skating coach who sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.

“It happened at his house, in his car, in his hotel room,” Farrell says.

Farrell did what a lot of kids do when they’re molested: She kept silent. But 18 years later, when she was 31 years old, she went public with her story.

The problem is that there’s a ticking clock. In a lot of states, including New York, where Farrell was assaulted, if you don’t report a rape or file a civil lawsuit fast enough, the perpetrator – whether it’s a coach or relative or a priest – gets off scot-free.

But there is a growing effort in state houses across the country to make it easier to prosecute or sue people who sexually abuse children. Victims rights groups hope some old cases can be reopened, but they face opposition from Roman Catholic leaders, who say the changes could target them unfairly and could bankrupt church organizations.

‘It’s Broken’

New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat, pushed to extend the deadline for reporting sexual assaults against kids. He also wanted to open a one-year window, a kind of grace period, so that victims who’ve waited too long can get a second chance to sue in civil court.

“The statute of limitations for child sexual abuse is just too short,” Holyman says. “In a word, it’s broken.”

For Sexual Assault Victims, An Effort To Loosen Statutes Of Limitations

New York’s Catholic bishops spent more than $2 million lobbying to block Holyman’s effort.

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.

OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: George J. Cooley was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1976. While a seminarian he had been placed on leave of absence for fondling a fellow seminarian; a year later he was deemed a good candidate for priesthood by Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Pilarczyk. Cooley went on to to assist at Sacred Heart parish in Fairfield, then Guardian Angels in Cincinnati. He was also chaplain at a summer camp for children, Fort Scott. In 1978 a 10-year-old boy told camp authorites that Cooley had molested him the night before. There were no consequences for the priest. The following summer another boy alleged abuse. Archbishop Joseph Bernardin was informed; Cooley was sent to counseling. During his time at Guardian Angels in the early 1980s, Cooley was accused of molesting several boys. The father of one of the boys went to the rectory and punched Cooley in the face. Cooley was removed from the parish and made chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was also chaplain at the College of Mount St. Joseph and worked as a part-time counselor at Christian Family Services. At Good Samaritan, a wheelchair-bound man complained of inappropriate advances by Cooley. The priest was ultimately accused of having sexually abused at least 6 boys at Guardian Angels, ages 8-15.

Cooley was arrested in 1990 after several men reported past abuse by him as minors. He pleaded guilty to molesting 4 boys and spent 3 months in jail. In 1994 he was sent to jail for 15 months for stalking one of his victims. He was arrested again in 1996 for soliciting sex from a police decoy posing as a male prostitute. This time he was placed under house arrest and given 3 years’ probation. He was laicized in 1998.

Ordained: 1976
Laicized: 1998

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.

MISSOURI
Riverfront Times

Posted By Danny Wicentowski on Wed, Aug 24, 2016

A messy lawsuit that accuses a victim advocacy group of defaming Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang reached a turning point this week — and it could spell defeat for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP, and executive director David Clohessy, who maintains that Jiang is a sexual predator.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson sanctioned SNAP for failing to turn over records that Jiang’s lawyers say would reveal a conspiracy to destroy the life of a promising young priest, who came to St. Louis after fleeing religious persecution in China. Jiang has twice been accused in court of sexual abuse, in Lincoln County and St. Louis City, but prosecutors in both cases ultimately dropped those charges.

“Do we think Jiang is dangerous? Absolutely,” says Clohessy. “We’re trying to take the long view. For almost 30 years we’ve helped victims and helped expose those who commit sex crimes. We’ve been sued for slander maybe five times and never lost.”

This time could be different. Jiang was charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in a Catholic school bathroom in 2011 and 2012. The charges were dropped in June 2015 — one week later, Jiang filed a defamation lawsuit against the boy’s parents, as well as SNAP, the city of St. Louis and two metro police officers who investigated the case.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Nick Butterly – The West Australian on August 25, 2016

Perth’s Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft has said he cannot recall being told a senior Church figure in NSW was abusing children, even though documents suggest he raised concerns with the priest at the time.

The royal commission into child sexual abuse has published new statements from Archbishop Herft ahead of hearings next week when he will face more questioning over his response to historic claims of child sexual abuse in Newcastle.

Archbishop Herft was Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005. In one of the statements, given on July 25, Archbishop Herft claimed he was unaware of serious claims against the former dean of Newcastle Cathedral, Graeme Lawrence.

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.

IRELAND
Newstalk

St Patrick’s College in Maynooth is to review its procedures for dealing with whistleblowers following allegations about the use of dating apps by student priests.

The seminary’s trustees said internet and social media policies will also be evaluated, citing concerns over anonymous accusations.

The announcement comes in the wake of claims in letters and online blogs about a “gay subculture” on campus. The college has previously denied that there is any “concrete or credible evidence” for the existence of such a culture.

A number of former seminarians subsequently alleged that they were required to sign confidentiality agreements before beginning their studies.

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.

IRELAND
Telegraph (UK)

John Bingham, religious affairs editor
24 AUGUST 2016

Trainee Roman Catholic priests in Ireland could face curbs on their internet access and are to be encouraged to mix more with women after claims over the use of the gay dating app Grindr at the country’s main seminary.

Ireland’s Catholic hierarchy voiced concerns about what it called an “unhealthy atmosphere” at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, and ordered a review of the “appropriate use of the internet and social media”.

It follows remarks earlier this month by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, about “strange goings-on” at the 221-year-old seminary.

Dr Martin, the most senior Catholic cleric south of the border, disclosed that he had decided to send students from Dublin – the largest diocese in Ireland – to Rome for priestly formation, rather than to Maynooth just a short drive from the capital.

The Archbishop spoke of an “atmosphere” at the college following a string of allegations about a “gay culture” made in letters and blogs and concerns about “promiscuous sexuality”.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME- Trying to get ahead of the curve when it comes to sex education for children, the Vatican has issued an alternative to the standard treatments. The new project seeks to avoid approaches that teach either too much about human sexuality to impressionable youth or too little.

Amid the frenzy of World Youth Day, which gathered millions of young people in Krakow, Poland at the end of July, the Pontifical Council for the Family, headed by Italian Archbishop Vicenzo Paglia, launched a website with materials both for students and educators called “The Meeting Point, project for affective and sexual formation.”

“Cultural, legislative and educational projects directly or indirectly challenge the Christian vision of the body, of the difference and the complementarity between man and woman, the exercise of sexuality, marriage and the family,” Paglia wrote in the project’s introduction.

These projects, he wrote, want to legitimize the different ways in which sexuality is lived in society “by proposing visions that constitute a real anthropological change, which impedes the affirmation of sexual identity, virtues, values and attitudes that integrate the body and the affections in the vocation to love that is the basis of the whole project of human life and of the good life according to the Gospel.”

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.

IRELAND
Journal

THE TRUSTEES OF St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland’s national seminary, have said procedures for handling whistleblowers will be reviewed, following allegations of trainee priests using gay dating apps.

Earlier this month, the training college made headlines after it was reported that a gay culture is prevalent on the campus, with some trainees using gay dating apps such as Grindr.

At the time, the college said there was “no concrete or credible evidence” that such a culture exists.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said he would send trainee priests from his own diocese to Rome rather than Maynooth, citing “an atmosphere of strange goings-on”.

The governing body of the college has today said it will also ask seminary authorities to “evaluate and review the policy regarding the appropriate use of the internet and social media”.

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.

IRELAND
Breaking News

Catholic Church hierarchy has admitted concerns about an “unhealthy atmosphere” at the country’s main seminary amid claims trainee priests there are using the gay dating app Grindr.

Church leaders have ordered a review on the “appropriate use of the internet and social media” at the centuries-old St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, as well as an overhaul of its approach to whistleblowers.

The college trustees – four Archbishops and 13 senior Bishops – met for crisis talks after the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin confirmed he was boycotting the seminary.

Dr Diarmuid Martin said earlier this month he is sending student priests to Rome rather than Maynooth.
The church leader said he made the decision some months ago because he was “somewhat unhappy” about “an atmosphere that was growing in Maynooth” exposed through anonymous accusations in letters and online blogs.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Independent

IRELAND’S Catholic Church hierarchy has admitted concerns about an “unhealthy atmosphere” at the country’s main seminary amid claims trainee priests there are using the gay dating app Grindr.

Church leaders have ordered a review on the “appropriate use of the internet and social media” at the centuries-old St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, as well as an overhaul of its approach to whistleblowers.

The college trustees – four archbishops and 13 senior bishops – met for crisis talks after the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin confirmed he was boycotting the seminary.

Dr Diarmuid Martin, the most senior Catholic in the Irish Republic, said earlier this month he is sending student priests to Rome rather than Maynooth – just 26km from the capital.

The church leader said he made the decision some months ago because he was “somewhat unhappy” about “an atmosphere that was growing in Maynooth” exposed through anonymous accusations in letters and online blogs.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 25, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

The former dean of Newcastle’s Anglican cathedral allegedly sent an explicit greetings card to a teenager he had been having sex with for several years that read “Thank Heaven for little boys! For little boys get BIGGER every day.”

The card, tendered in evidence to the Royal Commission into ­Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, provides an insight into how brazen senior priests ­associated with the NSW diocese were about their alleged activities.

Its author, Graeme Lawrence, would subsequently work closely with the then bishop of New­castle, Roger Herft, now the Anglican Archbishop of Perth.

Other exhibits tendered to the commission allege Archbishop Herft was told on at least three ­occasions that Mr Lawrence was a sexual abuser, including of children, although he has given evidence saying he has no memory of this taking place.

Both men are due to face cross-examination next week.

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.

IRELAND
Irish Times

Ciarán D’Arcy

There will be a review of social media policies and procedures for handling whistleblowers at St Patrick’s seminary in Maynooth following allegations of trainee priests using dating apps, the college’s board of trustees has announced.

During a meeting in Maynooth on Tuesday, the board also asked the Irish Bishops’ Conference which is based in St Patrick’s College to commission an independent audit and report into the governance of Irish seminaries.

Those who oversee the management of St Patrick’s came in for criticism earlier this month when media reports surfaced of trainee priests using the Tinder dating app as well as its gay equivalent, Grindr.

Following those reports, a number of ex-seminarians came forward with accounts of alleged bullying and sexual harassment they had suffered during their time at the Maynooth college, and in a statement released on Wednesday the trustees say they “share the concerns about the unhealthy atmosphere” there.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

24 August, 2016

The Royal Commission has published nine audio stories based on survivors’ experiences as revealed in private sessions.

These stories are accurate summaries of what was said in the private session, and use real quotes taken from the session. However, names have been changed and the stories have been narrated by actors to protect the identity of the survivors.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the stories promote community awareness of the impacts of child sexual abuse, while protecting the privacy of private session attendees.

“Bearing witness to the experiences of survivors in private sessions has been a defining feature of this Royal Commission,” Mr Reed said.

“Commissioners have now heard more than 5,500 stories in private sessions,” Mr Reed said.

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

ILLINOIS
Courier-News

George Houde
Chicago Tribune

The founder of a suburban Islamic school who is accused of sexually abusing a former student and a former employee has been given until Sept. 2 to decide if he will accept a plea deal.

Cook County Associate Judge James Karahalios issued the deadline Tuesday after the imam, Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, declined to accept the terms of a plea deal offered by prosecutors. Karahalios said he intends to take Saleem to trial on Sept. 12 if the imam does not agree to the plea arrangement by the Sept. 2 deadline.

Saleem, 77, a conservative scholar and former principal of the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, is accused of groping a woman who worked for him at the boarding school and of molesting an underage female student. In both cases, authorities allege that the imam forced the woman and the girl to sit on his lap while touching them in a sexual manner, and that both were victimized multiple times.

The terms of the proposed plea bargain have not been made public. The sentencing guidelines for those convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse include the possibility of probation. Someone convicted of the crime could also be required to register as a sex offender.

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.

AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP on August 24, 2016

A 73-year-old former Sydney Catholic priest has had his six-month minimum jail term halved for sex offences against boys more than three decades ago.

Robert Flaherty, who was given between six and 12 months to live 11 months ago, was granted bail pending his appeal so he will now spend his first night behind bars.

He was jailed in February for two years and three weeks with a non-parole period of six months, being subject to the sentencing standards of the time the offences were committed.

Flaherty had pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault relating to two boys and a jury found him guilty of two other offences relating to a third boy.

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.

KENTUCKY
The Record – Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville

Record Staff Report

Attorney William McMurry filed suit Aug. 19 against the Archdiocese of Louisville on behalf of the parents of a child whom, according to the suit, Father Stephen A. Pohl photographed while pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church.

Father Pohl was sentenced on March 29 in federal court to 33 months after he pleaded guilty to accessing child pornography.

In addition to accessing child pornography online, the priest had more than 150 photos of St. Margaret Mary School children on his computer and other devices, court records say. While not pornographic, investigators described some of the photos as inappropriate, characterizing them as “child erotica.”

The Aug. 19 suit claims the archdiocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision of the priest. McMurry also filed suit against the Archdiocese of Louisville March 29 on behalf of another set of parents of a child whom, according to the suit, the priest photographed.

Claims in a lawsuit represent only one side of a legal case. The archdiocese does not comment on pending litigation.

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.

MISSOURI
KMOX

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is ordered to help pay the legal fees of a Catholic priest who accuses SNAP of conspiring to ruin his reputation.

SNAP refused to turn over some documents in the civil suit filed by Father Joseph Jiang – who was once charged criminally with sexual misconduct involving a child, but the charges were dropped. They say it would compromise the privacy of alleged victims.

“Legally, this is certainly the most potentially harmful ruling we have ever faced,” David Clohessy of SNAP says. “We’ve already turned over more information in this case, than we ever have had to before.”

Jiang’s attorneys want the records to show the alleged conspiracy against Jiang.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Huffongton Post

[with videos]

Eoin Blackwell Senior Associate Editor, HuffPost Australia

(Warning: some of this material is confronting and disturbing. If the stories cause you sadness or distress and you need help, you can access support services here.)

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse has for the first time published nine audio accounts of survivors’ experiences, in a move it hopes will bolster community understanding of abuse.

The nine private session stories tell of abuse that occurred in schools, children’s homes, state-run institutions and Aboriginal missions from the 1950’s to the 2000’s.

The Commission said the stories are accurate summaries of what was said in the private sessions, however names have been changed to protect the identity of the survivors, and actors have been used in the recordings.

Natalie’s Story Features A Catholic Priest Who Visited Her Primary School In The 1980s. She Was 11 Years Old.

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.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Rohan Smith
news.com.au
@ro_smith

WARNING: Disturbing content

NATALIE wanted desperately to become a model. So, when a Catholic priest set up a studio in his office, she jumped at the opportunity to be photographed.

Soon, she realised there was a problem. Father Collier, who assisted at the primary school attended by the 11-year-old in 1985, asked her to change out of her uniform and into something more flattering.

He handed her a white, see-through shirt and told her: “Don’t put any underwear on because you’ll see lines and it’ll ruin the photos.”

This year, telling her story to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Natalie said the photographs were the beginning of something worse.

“He asked me to pose like Elle McPherson,” she said. “I knew he was taking photos of my private parts … I was begging to go home.”

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.

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Source: Tom Halden, Director of Communications

From Archbishop Bernard Hebda

The judge has asked all parties to negotiate in good faith, and that is what we are endeavoring to do. Our consistent goal remains the same: a fair and just resolution for all.

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.

MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

By: Samuel King
POSTED:AUG 23 2016

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – Attorneys for clergy abuse victims are touting an alternative restructuring plan to the one offered by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis during its bankruptcy proceedings.

The Archdiocese filed its bankruptcy reorganization plan in May, calling for a total of $65 million in payments to abuse survivors and other creditors. The alternative plan would provide at $80 million in payments to survivors.

“The plan that they proposed of paying the survivors $16 million is deceptive and misleading and a betrayal of a pledge to transparency,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the abuse victims. “This provides for transparency and a fair measure of accountability.”

The plan from the Committee of Unsecured Creditors also calls for a release of all documents related to the investigation of former Archbishop John Nienstedt to be made public, including documents from the Vatican.

“They funded that investigation. They can’t now hide it because they don’t like it,” Anderson said. “No more secrets, no more concealment.”

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.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By TORY COONEY | vcooney@pioneerpress.com
August 23, 2016

A group of sexual abuse victims who suffered at the hands of clergy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have filed a counter plan for the proposed settlement.

The archdiocese’s plan, submitted to bankruptcy court in May, is “grossly underfunded and grossly deficient,” said attorney Jeff Anderson during a press conference Tuesday. Anderson is a St. Paul attorney representing hundreds of people claiming sexual abuse by priests.

The plan submitted by the survivors, as the Creditors’ Committee in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, would require the archdiocese to pay $80 million to victims instead of the $16 million it proposed.

“The reality is that what the Archdiocese did (in submitting its plan) … was a scam,” Anderson said. He also claimed that the archdiocese has vastly under-reported its true ability to pay and has sheltered funds.

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.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

UCC Plan 8-22-16
UCC Plan Disclosure Statement 8-22-16

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune AUGUST 23, 2016

The committee representing clergy abuse victims in bankruptcy court has proposed its own financial reorganization plan for the Twin Cities Archdiocese, including provisions to mortgage the St. Paul Cathedral and to halt support payments to abusive priests and give the money to abuse victims instead.

The plan, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Monday, requires the archdiocese to contribute $80 million to abuse victims in its financial reorganization instead of the $13 million proposed by the archdiocese.

“This is a plan that would fairly compensate the more than 400 survivors who have ben so egregiously harmed,” victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson saidat a news conference Tuesday.

Anderson said the archdiocese has the ability to contribute far more to abuse victims than it proposed in its financial reorganization plan filed in May. That plan calls for the creation of a $65 million trust fund for victims, which could increase if further insurance settlements are reached.

The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese would contribute about $13 million to that fund, with insurers picking up most of the rest.

Of the $80 million in archdiocese contributions proposed by the victims’ committee, $38 million would come from loans leveraged from archdiocese assets such as the cathedral and property leased to several high schools, said Anderson.

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.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Clay Center Dispatch

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A former pastor at a New Hampshire church has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor.

Thirty-seven-year-old old Stephen Jesmer was employed as a pastor at The Dialogue Church in Manchester.

He was arrested Monday night on three counts of felonious sexual assault and one count of witness tampering.

Police started investigating several months ago when they were told of potentially inappropriate behavior involving Jesmer and a minor.

WMUR-TV reports Jesmer is free on $100,000 bond. It was not immediately known if he is being represented by an attorney.

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.

OHIO
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: G.R. Keith Albrecht was was ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1977. Prior to that, in the early 1970s, he was a Franciscan friar preparing for solemn vows when the Order voted him out. As a Cincinnati archdiocesan priest, Albrecht assisted in parishes in Beavercreek, Xenia, and Coldwater OH, where he was named pastor in 1987. He also spent a year as a hospital chaplain in Dayton.

In 1986 Albrecht took nude photos of a “young man,” who then tried to blackmail him for money. Despite knowledge of this incident, the archdiocese elevated him to pastor the following year. In 1993 Albrecht was placed on leave after a man alleged molestation as a minor by Albrecht in the 1970s in Beavercreek. A second person subsequently came forward with allegations that Albrecht had molested him when he was an 8th grader in the late 1980s, during a trip with the priest to New York. Albrecht admitted to sexual behavior with youths, explaining that he thought he was acting “out of love.” He would reach out to troubled adolescent males, then molest them. At least two lived with him for a time in the rectory of his Coldwater parish. In 2004 a man filed suit against Albrecht and the archdiocese with claims of abuse 1977-1981, when the man was a 14 to 17-year-old boy. The suit was dismissed in 2006 due to a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that victims must file suit before the age of 20. Albrecht was laicized in 2005.

Ordained: 1977
Laicized: 2005

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.

MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

[with video]

UCC Plan 8-22-16
UCC Plan Disclosure Statement 8-22-16

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Survivors of sexual abuse by priests say the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis can pay victims a lot more than the church has proposed in bankruptcy filings.

A group of victims released its proposal on Tuesday for the Archdiocese’s reorganization. It says $80-million should go to victims. In May, the Archdiocese proposed paying around $16 million.

“The plan that they proposed of paying the survivors $16 million is deceptive, and deceiving and a betrayal of a place of transparency,” Jeff Anderson, the attorney representing abuse victims, said.

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

TENNESSEE
WMC

[with video]

Tuesday, August 23rd 2016

By WMCActionNews5.com Staff
By Tiffany Neely

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) –
A Memphis church hired a crisis management team to do an internal investigation after a former employee’s arrest.

Rick Trotter, former voice of the Memphis Grizzlies, was arrested for filming “upskirt” videos of women at Downtown Church and Fellowship Memphis.

Members at Fellowship Church, where Trotter worked at the church from 2005-2010, said it looks more like the church is doing damage control.

“Members of the church body should be able to trust their leaders,” said a church member, who asked to remain anonymous. “Fellowship had an independent outside form to investigation any, all facts surrounding this matter … So, when I heard that, I thought, ‘OK, they’re looking into it.'”

Members said they received an email containing more information about the firm handling the investigation; one member said something doesn’t seem quite right.

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.

CALIFORNIA
ABC 7

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Victims of sexual assault are staging a protest in the East Bay after a teacher was arrested, accused of having a relationship with a teenager.

Heather Butts, 40, used to teach at St. Elizabeth High School in Oakland. She was arrested in San Bruno last week, when someone said they spotted her acting inappropriately inside a car with the teen.

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.

KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo
August 23, 2016

Parents of a young boy who claim their son was inappropriately photographed by a Roman Catholic priest, now a convicted sex offender, are suing the Archdiocese of Louisville for negligence.

The Rev. Stephen Pohl pleaded guilty in March to a federal charge of viewing child pornography, admitting to accessing more than 100 pornographic images of nude underage boys on computers at the St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church rectory and office.

While the criminal charge didn’t involve St. Margaret Mary students, investigators did discover hundreds of photos on Pohl’s computers depicting clothed Louisville students, some of which police deemed “child erotica.”

In the newly filed lawsuit, parents Daniel and Mary Agnes Hayden said their elementary school student was among the students secluded by Pohl, ordered into “inappropriate physical poses” and photographed.

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.

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Exasperated by nearly two months of defiance of a court order to supply details about people making sexual abuse claims against a St. Louis priest, U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson dealt a heavy blow this week to the advocacy group SNAP and others.

In an order filed Monday in a suit by the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, Jackson says that the SNAP defendants did conspire together “to obtain plaintiff’s conviction on sexual abuse charges” and that it was because of “discriminatory animus against plaintiff based on his religion, religious vocation, race, and national origin.”

She also said that SNAP’s public statements “were false and that they did not conduct any inquiry into the truth or falsity of these public statements, but instead made these statements negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Jiang filed a defamation suit last year against the boy’s parents, police and SNAP leaders David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris, claiming they conspired against him for monetary gain, and that police went after him because of his religious and racial background. He had been named on criminal charges that were later dropped.

Jackson’s sanctions appear to apply specifically to SNAP.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Courier

Alicia Thomas
@aliciajthomas

23 Aug 2016

A former Ballarat priest has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a young girl in her own bed more than 40 years ago.

Leslie Sheahan, 85, who was an assistant priest of St Columba’s Church at the time of the offence, will return to the Ballarat Magistrates Court next month for sentencing over the historic indecent assault.

The woman assaulted as a young girl by the former Ballarat priest while she slept told the court the traumatic experience still haunted her.

The woman, who was aged nine or 10 at the time of the incident, gave evidence she woke one night in the 1960s to find Sheahan in her bed with his hand down her pants while he forced her hand on his penis.

“He kept telling me how nice it felt for me and I kept thinking no it wasn’t nice at all,” she told the court.

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.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Aug 23, 2016

The committee representing sex abuse victims and other creditors in the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is proposing the church raise more money for victims by mortgaging the Cathedral of St. Paul and land leased to three Catholic high schools.

That move is part of an archdiocese reorganization plan filed by the committee late Monday. It says the archdiocese has far more resources to compensate abuse victims than the church has reported.

The church plan filed in May called for the archdiocese to provide about $13 million out of its own pocket. That was part of a $65 million proposed reorganization plan that included contributions from insurers, parishes, schools and other Catholic organizations.

But the creditors’ committee insists the archdiocese can come up with $80 million, with additional contributions coming from insurers and other parties that could raise the total available to creditors above $100 million.

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.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
NH1

MANCHESTER — A former pastor of a Manchester church is facing sexual assault charges involving minors.

Stephen Jesmer, 37 of Manchester, turned himself in on Monday. He was being investigated by Manchester juvenile investigators for several months following an alert of inappropriate behavior involving the former pastor and a minor. The investigation led to an arrest warrant.

Jesmer is charged with three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, three counts of felonious sexual assault, and one count of witness tampering.

He was previously employed as a pastor with The Dialogue Church, 516 Pine Street at the time of the alleged assaults.

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.

NEW HAMPSHIRE
NECN

By Marc Fortier

A former pastor at a New Hampshire church was arrested Monday on charges that he sexually assaulted a minor.

Stephen Jesmer, 37, of Manchester, turned himself in to police on Monday night. He is charged with three counts of felonious sexual assault and one count of witness tampering and appeared in court on Tuesday.

Manchester Police said Jesmer was employed as a pastor with The Dialogue Church on Pine Street at the time of the alleged assaults. Church officials are cooperating with the investigation.

The investigation began several months ago when police were first alerted to potentially inappropriate behavior invovling Jesmer and a minor.

Police said the investigation is ongoing, and they are asking anyone with information regarding Jesmer to contact the juvenile investigative unit at 603-792-5551.

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.

ITALY
Daily Mail (UK)

By OLLIE GILLMAN FOR MAILONLINE

A Catholic priest has been charged with murdering a 92-year-old Italian monsignor who allegedly caught him stealing sacred statuettes.

Giuseppe Rocco had a broken neck and had been strangled to death when he was found in his bedroom in the Cleric House in Trieste, Italy, in April 2014 by a housekeeper who came in to check on him.

Prosecutors believe Father Paolo Piccoli – who read Rocco his last rites – killed the older priest because he had reported him for allegedly stealing a set of figurines.

Rocco told Catholic authorities in the weeks before he was killed that statuettes of the Madonna, horse and a ship had gone missing.

They suddenly reappeared after his complaint, but he was suspected Piccoli was to blame, news.com.au reported.

Piccoli, 52, had been accused of stealing relics from another parish in the past and is believed to have a fetish for old artifacts.

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.

MISSOURI
Crux

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A federal judge has admonished an advocacy group for clergy abuse victims for defying her orders to release personal information about people who accused a priest of sexual misconduct.

In a ruling Monday in St. Louis, U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson cited the “deliberate and willful refusal” by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to turn over information to Father Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang.

Jiang is suing SNAP, St. Louis city, two police officers and the boy’s mother for defamation. His lawsuit, filed in 2015, names the accuser’s parents – by initials only – along with St. Louis police Officers Tonya Porter and Jaimie Pitterle, the city of St. Louis, SNAP and the group’s leaders, David Clohessy and Barbara Dorris.

In the lawsuit, Jiang claimed he’s the victim of both religious and racial discrimination, asserting that the priest had fled religious persecution in China only to face further harassment in the United States. He is seeking information about the people who lodged the accusations against him.

Jackson says she’ll direct that it has been established that SNAP plotted against Jiang.

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.

DEUTSCHLAND
Wir Sind Kirche

[Sexual violence is still lowercase in the Catholic Church.The We Are Church people’s movement wants an explanation of why Cardinal Reinhard Marx failed to address sexual abuse allegations when he was Trier bishop.]

Pressemitteilung München/Deggendorf 19. August 2016

Wir sind Kirche zu den Vorwürfen: Kardinal Marx wusste als Trierer Bischof vom Missbrauchsverdacht

Die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche hält die heutigen Erklärungsversuche, warum Kardinal Marx als Bischof von Trier Missbrauchsvorwürfen nicht konsequent nachgegangen sei, für „Vertuschung light“. Nur ein freimütiges Eingestehen des Versagens öffnet die Türen für eine wirkliche Aufarbeitung der Vertuschung sexualisierter Gewalt.

Sich heute darauf zu berufen, die Leitlinien der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz seien damals nicht so eindeutig gewesen, gibt einen Fingerzeig darauf, wie wenig ernst diese genommen wurden und immer noch werden, und das in mehrfacher Hinsicht.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

YDR invited Bishop Ronald W. Gainer to meet with our editorial board to discuss abuse cases. He declined.

After the York Daily Record published a story naming 15 priests with connections to the Harrisburg diocese who had been accused of sexual abuse of children, we invited Bishop Ronald W. Gainer to meet with our editorial board.

Some of the 15 names were a revelation because they had not been previously acknowledged publicly by the diocese.

We believe it’s important to get that information out there so victims of abuse can know they are not alone. In many cases, victims have only come forward after learning through published reports that their tormentors have been accused of harming others.

Those 15 names might have been a revelation to some, but we know there are other priests who have been accused who were not included on that list. That’s because in 2007 the church said publicly that 24 priests with connections to the diocese had been accused of sexual abuse either here or elsewhere.

We know 15 names. Who are the others? Since 2007, has the diocese become aware of even more? Is the number still 24 – or is it more?

We just don’t know.

The Harrisburg diocese acknowledged the accused clergymen that YDR had become aware of through other sources but declined to shed light on other cases.

We wanted the opportunity to discuss these issues with Bishop Gainer. Through a diocese spokesman, he declined our invitation. Instead, his spokesman provided a guest column addressing the issue of abuse.

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

TENNESSEE
Fellowship Memphis

By Fellowship Memphis and Downtown Church Leadership Aug 11, 2016

To ensure our congregations are fully informed, Fellowship Memphis (Fellowship) and Downtown Church (Downtown) have come together to provide a joint narrative with the facts as we understand them regarding Rick Trotter and his employment with our institutions.

Let us first say we are here for the victims. Trotter’s actions are contrary to our values, and we are deeply sorry for the suffering of the victims.

Trotter was employed as a Worship Director by Fellowship from August 2005 to February of 2010. In February 2010, it was reported that Trotter was engaged in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature at the corporate headquarters of Fellowship. Specifically, a single incident of Trotter recording people in a bathroom was reported. This was immediately reported to Fellowship’s lead pastor at the time. When confronted, Trotter did not deny the charges and was thereby terminated.

The individuals victimized, all adults, by this incident were notified of Trotter’s misconduct, made aware that he had been terminated, and asked whether they wanted to press charges. The victims were also offered independent professional counseling paid for by the church. It is our understanding that none of the victims at that time chose to press charges.

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.

TENNESSEE
Watch Keep

Former Memphis Grizzlies announcer Rick Trotter was arrested on August 9, accused of filming “upskirt” videos while women were kneeling at worship services at Downtown Church earlier this year. Stotter reportedly recorded women and minors at another church, Fellowship Memphis, in 2010, where he was on staff as a worship leader from 2005-2010. After the camera was discovered at Fellowship, Stotter was fired, but church officials did not report this incident to law enforcement, according to Memphis Police Department’s Lt. Karen Rudolph. Two of Trotter’s alleged victims that he recorded are minors. Everyone in Tennessee is a mandated reporter under state law.

Fellowship Church lead pastor John Bryson and Downtown Church lead pastor Richard Rieves issued a joint statement after Trotter’s arrest. The full statement is here.

To ensure our congregations are fully informed, Fellowship Memphis (Fellowship) and Downtown Church (Downtown) have come together to provide a joint narrative with the facts as we understand them regarding Rick Trotter and his employment with our institutions.

Let us first say we are here for the victims. Trotter’s actions are contrary to our values, and we are deeply sorry for the suffering of the victims.

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

TENNESSEE
Catholic Standard – Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

By Mark Zimmermann
Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Pope Francis has appointed Washington Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley to become the new bishop of Memphis, Tennessee, and the pope has accepted the resignation of Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib, 76, from pastoral governance of the diocese. The Vatican announced the appointment on Aug. 23.

“I am deeply humbled in my appointment as the fifth bishop of Memphis by His Holiness, Pope Frances and I thank him for expressing his confidence in me through this new assignment at this time in my life,” Bishop Holley said after his appointment was announced.

He will be installed as the bishop of Memphis at the Cook Convention Center on Oct. 19 at 2 p.m.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News August 23, 2016

The rector of a seminary in Yona said Tuesday only Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron or his successor can lift the deed of restriction that gives the seminary and a theological institute the legal right to use the local Catholic church’s property.

The Rev. Pius Sammut, rector of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona, said the sole owner of the Yona property is the Archdiocese of Agana. Sammut said the archbishop who currently oversees the local archdiocese, Savio Hon Tai Fai, has said this repeatedly.

The deed restriction allows the Archdiocesan Redemptoris Mater Seminary to use the Yona property, Sammut said.

“The only one who can lift the deed of restriction is the ordained Archbishop of Agana, Mons. Apuron or, eventually, his successor,” Sammut told Pacific Daily News.

Proper legal action must be done in order for the Archdiocese of Agana to again take control of the property, said attorney and former island Sen. Robert Klitzkie.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 24, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

The Anglican Archbishop of Perth was allegedly told a senior priest was a sexual predator, including of children, on at least three occasions, documents tendered to a royal commission reveal, ­although his evidence says he “cannot recall” this happening at the time.

The priest in question, Graeme Lawrence, was dean of Newcastle Cathedral during the 1990s when Archbishop Roger Herft was ­bishop of the NSW diocese.

Mr Lawrence, whom the commission has heard was part of a “Gang of Three” that protected a serial pedophile priest, was subsequently defrocked after having group sex with a teenage boy.

Archbishop Herft and Mr Lawrence are to face cross-examination before the Royal Com­mis­sion into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse next week.

“To the best of my knowledge, I cannot recall the dean’s name being connected to child abuse within my time as bishop,” Archbishop Herft said in a witness statement tendered to the commission and released yesterday.

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.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

UCC Plan 8-22-16
UCC Plan Disclosure Statement 8-22-16

August 23, 2016

St. Paul News Conference Today

Sexual Abuse Survivors File Proposed Bankruptcy Plan

Plan Calls for Archdiocese to Pay $80mFor the first time in any diocesan or religious order bankruptcy proceeding, sexual abuse survivors file their own reorganization plan

What: At a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul, Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan will:

· Discuss the details of the proposed bankruptcy plan filed Monday by the Creditors’ Committee in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis bankruptcy case;

· Among other provisions, the proposed plan calls for the immediate release of the investigative report concerning former Archbishop John Nienstedt, all communications with the Vatican Embassy and requests an end to all payments currently being made to priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children;

· Demand the Archdiocese uphold its pledge made to sexual abuse survivors to be transparent and accountable throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 1:00PM

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St. Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

NEWS CONFERENCE WILL BE LIVE-STREAMED FROM OUR WEBSITE – LINK WILL BE AVAILABLE SHORTLY BEFORE NEWS CONFERENCE AT www.andersonadvocates.com

Please note there is construction on Jackson and 5th Streets so please allow for additional time to find parking.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531 Office: 651.227.9990

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.

SCOTLAND
STV

An 83-year-old former priest at Fort Augustus Abbey in the Highlands has denied assaulting eight pupils.

The incidents are alleged to have happened between June 1974 and July 1988 when Thomas Seed was a teacher at the school on the banks of Loch Ness.

Seed, of Brora, Sutherland, who went by the name Father Benedict, denied all charges at Inverness Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

His trial was due to begin next month but has been adjourned and is now expected to go ahead in Inverness on January 23.

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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Today

A former Roman Catholic priest accused of historical sex offences against five boys at St Benedict’s School has appeared in court.

Laurence Soper, 72, has appeared at Ealing Magistrates’ Court facing nine charges which all allegedly took place at the school where he taught in the 1970s and 80s.

Mr Soper was arrested in 2010 and bailed, but failed to return to a London police station in March 2011. A European Arrest Warrant was issued for him in 2012 and he was detained in Kosovo in May.

He gave his name in court as Andrew Charles Kingston Soper – Laurence being the name he took when he was ordained as a priest.

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.

SCOTLAND
BBC News

The trial of a former priest accused of assaulting eight boys while teaching at Fort Augustus Abbey School has been adjourned until next year.

Father Benedict Seed, 83, denies the charges, which include striking pupils aged between 11 and 18 with a cane and a spiked golf in the 1970s and 80s.

A trial date has been fixed for 23 January for further investigations.

It also allows time to arrange for one witness to give evidence via a video link from Hong Kong.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

LAUREN NOVAK, POLITICAL REPORTER, The Advertiser
August 22, 2016

SCREENING clearances to work with children will remain valid for five years and applicants will be tracked by an electronic identification number, under changes prompted by the Nyland Royal Commission.

The State Government has today revealed proposed changes to background screening laws which follow recommendations made by Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland earlier this month.

A key change will establish a single check for working with children, which will be portable across different roles.

Teachers will be required to undergo the same check, despite currently being assessed under a different system.

Applicants will no longer be able to start working with children while their clearance is being processed.

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.