ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victim’s group: “Bishop must do outreach now”
SNAP: “others may be suffering alone and in silence”
First court appearance for the accused is September 19th
Survivors also urge officials to teach kids that women can be predators too

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

— discuss the case of a newly-arrested abusive school teacher,
— stress the likelihood that she may have hurt kids at TWO schools, not just one,

They will also beg Catholic and school officials to

— educate kids and parents that women abuse too,
–“reach out to girls who may still be suffering alone and in silence,”
— use their resources to beg those who may have experienced, witnessed or suspected abuse by this teacher to come forward, and
— “come clean” to law enforcement investigators about any prior allegations of inappropriate behavior with students in the interest of public safety.

WHEN
Tuesday, August 23rd at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Cathedral of Christ the Light, 2121 Harrison Street (between 21st & Grand) in Oakland CA

WHO
Two-three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
A public school teacher who had also taught at an Oakland Catholic school was arrested last week for sexually abusing a 15 year old girl.

[SFGate]

Heather Amanda Butts, a teacher at Taylor Middle School in Millbrae, was arrested on August 17th on suspicion of having sexually violating the teen. Butts had been a drama teacher at St. Elizabeth High School in Oakland from 1999 to 2002.

Melanie Sakoda, the East Bay Director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is concerned that Butts may also have had victims at the Oakland facility.

“Unfortunately, those who abuse kids rarely have just one victim, and they do not just wake up one day and decide to begin molesting. It’s highly unlikely that the Millbrae victim was this teacher’s first,” Sakoda said.

“Oakland’s bishop and his staff should aggressively reach out to girls who may be suffering alone and in silence,” she continued. “They need to know that they are not alone.”

The San Francisco Director for SNAP, Tim Lennon added, “Catholic officials should use every resource at their disposal to prod anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by this teacher to call police. The diocese must also ‘come clean’ – to the public and the police – about any other reports of misconduct by Butts.”

Lennon also hoped that the Oakland bishop, as well as the school district, would take the opportunity to educate students and parents. “People are used to thinking about abusers as male, and often overlook the fact that women can, and do, abuse children of both sexes.”

Sakoda concluded, “Kids are always safer when predators are jailed. People in the Oakland Diocese may have information that can help insure that happens here.”

Butts’ first court appearance will be on September 19th at 8:30 a.m. in the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.

Anyone with information on the case can call police at (650) 616-7100 or email sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov.

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.

GROSSBRITANNIEN
Contra

[According to an internal document, bishops of the Church of England were instructed not to apologize for sexual assaulst in order to avoid lawsuits.]

Einem internen Dokument zufolge wurden die Bischöfe der Church of England angewiesen, sich nicht für sexuelle Übergriffe zu entschuldigen, um so Klagen zu vermeiden.

Von Marco Maier

Sexueller Missbrauch ist bei den christlichen Kirchen ein Thema, welches von deren Religionsführern nicht gerne aufgegriffen wird. Denn egal ob nun die Katholische Kirche oder auch diverse andere christlichen Konfessionen und Sekten – quer durch die Bank ziehen sich Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen deren Vertreter. In Großbritannien macht nun ein internes Schreiben der Church of England die Runde, welches für großes Aufsehen sorgt.

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 JERSEY
CBS New York

Justice for seven alleged victims of child sex abuse – years after they claim it happened. It’s the end of a long and emotional journey. Gus Rosendale 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.

NEW JERSEY
CBS New York

[with video]

ORADELL, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Bergen Catholic High School has reached a nearly $2 million settlement with 21 alleged sex abuse victims – all former students at the private school in Oradell, New Jersey.

As WCBS 880’s Mike Smeltz reported, the former Bergen Catholic students reached the settlement for alleged cases abuse that took place over a 15 year span.

Peter Alrutz, who attended the school in the 1960s, said he saw a lot of teacher-on-student physical abuse at the school.

“A lay teacher punched with a closed fist and knocked teeth out of a student’s mouth,” he said.

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NEW JERSEY
News 12

ORADELL – Officials at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell have reached a settlement with 21 former students over alleged sexual abuse.

The school will offer no formal admission of guilt or apology, but gave $1.9 million to the 21 alleged victims who went to the school in the 1960s and 1970s. They were allegedly abused by 11 teachers and staff members.

Road to Recovery, an organization dedicated to helping survivors of sexual abuse, helped some of the victims in the group.

“It is an acknowledgement first of all from the school – yes, it did happen. They are credible. These are not made up allegations,” says Co-Founder Robert Hoatson. “No amount of money will ever bring these men’s lives back and the damage that was done to them.”

Hoatson says that it took a year of talks and protests to come to the settlement. He says the Road to Recovery organization also wants the school to release all files regarding any other sexual abuse. They believe there could be more 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.

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Sara Jerde | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

ORADELL—Peter Alrutz, 67, cannot recall exactly how old he was when he was first sexually abused, but he can still remember when a teacher asked to see him outside of class at Bergen Catholic High School and took him to a closet where the school stored books.

Alrutz said Brother Charles Borromeo Irwin asked him to move some books and when the student bent over, Irwin put his hand down his pants.

He said there was a physical struggle, but beyond that, “my recollection after that point is not real clear.”

Victims of alleged sexual abuse at the all-boys high school in Oradell stepped forward Monday to announce a $1.9 million settlement that will be shared among 21 men who accused staff of the school of abusing them years earlier.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Bergen Catholic High School has agreed to pay $1.9 million to 21 men who say they were molested by 11 teachers during the 1960s and 1970s, but the former student who sparked the settlement talks is not part of the deal because he has refused to take down a website detailing sexual and physical abuse at the school.

Kobutsu Malone said lawyers for the Oradell, N.J., school want to silence him in hopes of making the sex-abuse scandal go away with as little fanfare as possible.

“Considering the charges we are making, to find the school in a– covering mode rather than healing mode is really disgusting,” said Malone, a 66-year-old Buddhist monk who now lives in Maine.

The school agreed to the settlement in November, but the deal was not made public until Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
August 23, 2016

AUSTRALIA’S most notorious Catholic diocese for paedophile priests has added another serial child abuser to its number.

Former Ballarat priest Leslie John Sheahan was today found guilty by a magistrate of two charges of indecently assaulting a young girl from his time as a young priest in the 1960s.

The girl is his fourth known victim after Sheahan last year admitted molesting another three victims from the Ballarat and Horsham areas.

Sheahan was ordained alongside former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns in 1956, and like so many priests under his watch, was left to work alongside kids after allegations of misconduct surfaced.

Sheahan, 85, denied the most recent allegations, refused to be interviewed by police and declined the opportunity to give evidence at today’s hearing at the Ballarat Magistrates Court.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Marion Warnica, CBC News Posted: Aug 22, 2016

Brett Mittelsteadt was a family man, trusted teacher, coach and active member of the Catholic church when he started sending sexual text messages to a girl less than half his age — who was also one of his students.

The details are outlined in the agreed statement of facts, a list of details agreed on by the court when Mittelsteadt pleaded guilty on Monday morning to luring and touching a minor for a sexual purpose.

Brett Mittelsteadt, teacher, facing sex charges against a student​

The girl, who cannot be named because of a court order that protects her identity, was 14 years old when her teacher at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Sherwood Park started grooming her for a sexual relationship. He was already a close friend of the family. And at that time, in March 2013, the child’s parents say she was a “hard-working, bright-spirited girl,” whose spirit and flame were extinguished by the dark “narcissistic” decisions Mittelsteadt made in secret.

Seemingly sweet texts like “I love you,” and “You are beautiful” were mixed in with increasingly explicit language and photos over several weeks.

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UTAH
Daily Herald

BRADY McCOMBS
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — LDS Church attorneys argued Monday that a lawsuit accusing religious officials of not doing enough to protect four Navajo children from sexual abuse in a now defunct church-run foster program belongs in federal court because the alleged incidents occurred off tribal land.

U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby heard nearly three hours of arguments Monday about whether to keep the case in tribal court. Shelby said he’ll issue a ruling at a later date.

The alleged victims say they were sexually abused between the 1960s and early 1980s in the Indian Student Placement Program, which placed thousands of Navajo children in Mormon foster homes in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.

Craig Vernon, an attorney for the victims, conceded that the alleged abuse didn’t happen on tribal lands, but he said decisions about where to place children and the inaction after the kids reported the abuse occurred on the Navajo Nation.

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UTAH
Gephardt Daily

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Aug. 22, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A U.S. District judge on Monday said he won’t decide quite yet whether Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be forced to provide deposition testimony in a sex abuse lawsuit against the church.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby said several other key issues in the case should be decided before he rules on the subpoena issue, according to a report by Fox 13.

Monson — who turned 89 on Sunday and who has served as the president of the LDS church since 2008 — was subpoenaed by attorneys for four people who say they were sexually abused decades ago by members of their host families while participating in an LDS church placement program for Navajo children.

The four alleged victims, two males and two females who filed their cases in Arizona’s Navajo Tribal Court, say they were abused in the 1960s and 1970s while participating in the church’s Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP).

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NEW JERSEY
The Daily Beast

After Gregorio Martinez was convicted of sexually abusing a boy, he vanished. Two reporters working on one tip did what law enforcement couldn’t: Find him.

KATIE ZAVADSKI

It took a jury 30 minutes to find preacher Gregorio Martinez guilty of molesting a 13-year-old boy.

The New Jersey preacher was convicted February 2015 of aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child, for which he was expected to be sentenced to probation.

But more accusers came forward before the sentencing phase began, opening up the possibility of more prosecution for Martinez.

Facing at least a decade in prison, Martinez disappeared.

For the next year and a half police, U.S. Marshals and prosecutors searched in vain for the pervert pastor. It was only thanks to two journalists that he was found—living 2,000 miles away.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 22 August 2016

Bishops in the Church of England were instructed to give partial apologies to victims of clergy child sex abuse to help minimise the cost of being sued, it has been disclosed.

Confidential legal advice to bishops seen by The Telegraph said the furthest the bishops should go was to “express regret”. It warns bishops to be careful before meeting victims, and not to do so without first talking to a lawyer.

It warns of the “unintended effect of accepting legal liability” for sex abuse and the danger of “inadvertently” conceding guilt.

The advice, issued in 2007 and replaced last year, indicates that any apology to a victim of clergy sex abuse should be drafted in a way that would avoid making the Church liable for compensation.

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IRELAND
The Tablet (UK)

22 August 2016 | by Sarah Mac Donald in Dublin

Among their main concerns is the appointment of ‘inadequate’ bishops

The Papal Nuncio to Ireland has come under fire from a prominent group of Irish priests over his selection of a series of what they say are “like-minded” new bishops whom the priests claim are “inadequate” for the needs of the Irish Church today.

In a statement, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), which has a membership of over 1,000 Irish clerics, charged Archbishop Charles Brown with choosing “narrow-minded” bishops whom the reform-minded priests say are out of sync with the majority of the faithful.

Speaking to The Tablet, Fr Brendan Hoban, a spokesman for the ACP, warned that Irish priests, and not just ACP members, have lost confidence in the process of selecting bishops and specifically with the lack of consultation.

According to Fr Hoban, the Nuncio has “drawn from a very narrow mind-set, out of tune with the theology of the Second Vatican Council and the realities of Irish Catholic life today”.

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

By Andrew Marra – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, Aug. 22, 2016

BOCA RATON — At Saint Andrew’s School, no rules barred student-teacher sleepovers, a school-commissioned report released to parents Friday says. Faculty members received little training about child abuse. The student handbook said little to nothing about sexual harassment.

The lax rules and poor training helped to enable a teacher’s months-long pattern of “inappropriate” behavior with boarding students at the Boca Raton Episcopal school, including sleepovers, long embraces and late-night excursions, concludes the report by New Hampshire attorney David Wolowitz.

No evidence of sexual misconduct has been found, but the report criticizes the school for exposing students to “potential abuse” and says it failed to comply with a law requiring that child abuse concerns be reported to state authorities.

While the investigation blames several administrators for failing to report the former teacher’s actions, others call it an indictment of the school’s top leaders and board of trustees, whose members include Bishop Peter Eaton of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, a non-voting member.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

By Elaine Ayala
August 22, 2016

A national organization leading efforts to expose the sexual abuse of children by priests has turned its attention to the Archdiocese of San Antonio for giving refuge to a Chicago priest removed from ministry last fall for an “inappropriate relationship with an adult man.”

Now at a South Side parish and seeking a formal transfer to the archdiocese here, Father Marco Mercado has been assigned to hospital ministry but his duties might expand in the future, according to a statement Monday from Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller.

“Father Marco Antonio Lopez Mercado, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, is in residence at St. Lawrence Church in San Antonio,” the statement said.

“Following his removal from ministry in his last assignment in Chicago, we have conducted our own independent review of the facts and, following that effort, as well as the counseling Father Marco has undertaken and his acceptance of responsibility in the situation in question, we are satisfied that he is suitable for ministry here,” García-Siller’s statement said.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

Aug 22, 2016

By Marcus Green

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The parents of a boy who attended St. Margaret Mary School have sued the Archdiocese of Louisville, alleging the church should have known that a former parish priest who took inappropriate photographs of students was “dangerously unsuitable” for his job.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Jefferson Circuit Court, is at least the second such action related to ex-pastor Stephen Pohl, who pleaded guilty in January to possessing child pornography and was sentenced in March to 33 months in federal prison.

Among other claims, it accuses the Roman Catholic archdiocese of failing to report Pohl’s behavior to police and giving “meaningless assurances of child safety” despite pledges to find and remove abusive priests in the wake of a sweeping abuse settlement in the 2000s.

“The fact that for decades Pohl could engage in the possession and distribution of child pornography and take thousands of sexually exploitative photographs of children tells the faithful followers of the Church, including the parishioners and families of St. Margaret Mary students, that their children are not safe and that the decades of callous leadership, denial and complacency did not change with these promises,” attorney William F. McMurry, the parents’ attorney, wrote in the complaint.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

A man who is demonstrating chained to a cross outside Glasgow’s St Andrews Cathedral is receiving regular offers of help from the Archdiocese of Glasgow over his history of childhood abuse, a spokesman for the Catholic Church has claimed.

Dave Sharp began his protest yesterday, saying the church had failed victims of abuse and had not apologised after the recent conviction of two former schoolteachers for abuse carried out at St Ninian’s School in Fife, which was run by the Christian Brothers.

He said chaining himself to a wooden cross was a symbol of his inability to escape from his past without acknowledgement from the Church.

However a spokesman for the Archdiocese said Archbishop Philip Tartaglia had issued a full public apology a year ago, when he described child abuse within the Catholic Church as inexcusable and intolerable. Asking for forgiveness, the Archbishop’s statement said: “We apologise to those who have found the Church’s response slow, unsympathetic or uncaring and reach out to them.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Siobhan Fenton, Dina Rickman @siobhanfenton

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis have banned women from going to university, The Independent has learned.

The strict Satmar sect issued the decree, seen by The Independent, warning that university education for women is “dangerous”. Written in Yiddish, the decree warns: “It has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education. Some attend classes and others online. And so we’d like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah.

“We will be very strict about this. No girls attending our school are allowed to study and get a degree. It is dangerous. Girls who will not abide will be forced to leave our school. Also, we will not give any jobs or teaching position in the school to girls who’ve been to college or have a degree.

“We have to keep our school safe and we can’t allow any secular influences in our holy environment. It is against the base upon which our Mosed was built.”

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MAINE
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Ordained in 1949, James P. Vallely started his priesthood in in the Archdiocese of Portland OR. In 1951 he transferred to the Diocese of Portland ME, where he was incardinated in 1952. He assisted in parishes in Waterville, Bangor and Portland, and was chaplain for a hospital and an orphanage. He served as temporary administrator of a Limestone parish before being named pastor in Machias and then South Berwick. He retired in 1988, spending winters in the Orlando FL diocese and assisting in area parishes.

In 1993 a ME man reported to the diocese that Vallely sexually abused him in the late 1950s over a two to four-year period at St. Dominic’s in Portland. He said the abuse began when he was a 9-year-old altar boy. He and a second man with similar allegations went to the media. As a result, a third man came forward alleging abuse as a boy at St. Dominic’s by Vallely. The diocese received five complaints about Vallely between January and March 1993, and he was sent to outpatient treatment in FL. He died in 1997.

Vallely accusers continued to emerge. In 2007 a woman told the diocese she was sexually abused by Vallely in 1976, when she was an 11-year-old altar server at St. Michael’s in Berwick. She received a settlement in 2009. In 2013 two brothers alleged abuse by Vallely when they were St. Michael’s altar boys in the 1970s, and in 2015 four more men reported abuse by Vallely as boys at St. Michael’s. Six men sued the diocese in November 2015, claiming Vallely abused them between 1956 and 1977, and that the diocese knew he was a sexual predator. The abuse is said to have included rape, and the victims were 8 to 15 years-old. The men cited a 2005 letter which indicated that at least five boys at St. John’s in Bangor reported in the 1950s that Vallely was abusing them. The diocese settled with the six men for $2.1 million in August 2016.

Ordained: 1949
Retired: 1988
Died: December 12, 1997

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CALIFORNIA
New York Daily News

LEONARD GREENE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, August 22, 2016

California’s state assembly is close to accomplishing something New York lawmakers could not do — change the way sexual assault is prosecuted.

Inspired by Bill Cosby, of all people, elected leaders in the Golden State passed a bill last week to end the time limit for prosecuting rape and felony sex crimes.

Under the California’s current law, rape and felony sex crimes must be tried within 10 years, unless DNA evidence comes to light after that time period.

And sex crimes against children younger than 18 must be prosecuted before the victim turns 40. Cosby stands accused of assaulting more than 35 women in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, but in several of their cases, the statute of limitations has expired.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priestsi

For immediate release: Monday, Aug. 22, 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 may soon get 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.

[Courier-News]

[Chicago Tribune]

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.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

PALAKKAD/COIMBATORE: AS the chargesheet is being readied against defrocked priest, H Arockiaraj, accused in the suspicious death of a teenage girl at the pastor’s residence attached to the St. Stanislaus church in Walayar in 2013, the Coimbatore Bishop and three members of the clergy are likely to be made approvers.

According to police summons might be issued to Bishop Thomas Aquinas and the priests, Fr BF Madalaimuthu, Fr Kulandairaj, Fr Lawrence Melcure arrested and later released on bail for withholding information, to give a statement under section 164 before the Magistrate. If they supported the prosecution, they are likely to be made approvers. The Bishop and the three priests would have to give a statement to the Chief Judicial Magistrate which will determine the course of the case.

On July 23, 2013, the body of Fathima Sofiya was found in the living room of Fr Arockiaraj’ residence attached to the St. Stanislaus church in Chandrapuram. She was then 18 years and 4 days old. Subsequently, four weeks after the ‘murder’, a canonical court was set up by the Coimbatore Bishop, which found that Fr Arockiaraj guilty. He was suspended from the diocese and defrocked.

Sources, privy to the investigation, said the post mortem report by police surgeon Dr PB Gujral has clearly stated that rape had been committed on the girl while ruling out ligature strangulation. However, Shanthi Roselin, the mother of the girl, continued to maintain that her daughter was strangulated. As such, investigators are learnt to have sought medico legal opinion on whether under these circumstances Section 302 (murder) could be included in the chargesheet.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

“It is time to return the property to the Archdiocese of Agana,” said David Sablan, newly elected president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam.

In a press conference yesterday, Aug. 22, CCOG officials responded to Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai’s recent statement regarding the ongoing dispute over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona.

In a statement Thursday, Aug. 18, Hon reported findings presented to him and the Archdiocese’s Presbyteral Council detailing the current status of the seminary property. Hon said that while the property was “acquired” by the Archdiocese of Agana, its use had “been conceded in perpetuity to RMS and (the Blessed Diego Theological Institute).”

“Archbishop Hon’s announcement is an admittance that the seminary property is not controlled by the Archdiocese of Agana,” Sablan said. “An asset of the church worth anywhere between $40 million and $75 million was given away for free with no benefit to the local Catholic church.”

While Hon claimed that legal rights to the Yona property belong “uniquely” to the Archdiocese of Agana, Sablan and CCOG take issue with a “deed restriction” that Archbishop Anthony Apuron filed with the Department of Land Management in November 2011.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Roman Catholic priest accused of historical sex offences against five victims has appeared in court.

Laurence Soper, 72, appeared at Ealing Magistrates’ Court accused of assaulting boys, one under 14, over a period from 1971 to 1983.

The nine charges include offences of buggery, gross indecency and indecent assault, and all allegedly took place in Ealing, west London.

Mr Soper was returned to the UK from Kosovo after a five-year police hunt.

He 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.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Sara Jerde | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bergen Catholic High School has reached a $1.9 million settlement with 21 alleged sex abuse victims, a lawyer representing group told NorthJersey.com.

The men said they were assaulted by brothers at the parochial school between 1963 and 1978.

The lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said the victims he was representing were between 13 and 17 years old at the time of the alleged assaults. Each will receive sums that range from $65,000 to $115,000, Garabedian told NorthJersey.com.

A lawyer for the school, Thomas Herten, said in a statement last year that Bergen Catholic had done a “good faith mediation” of the accusations, but wasn’t admitting guilt by doing so, according to the report.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

[with video]

22 AUG 2016
BY JAMES MONCUR

DAVE Sharp was raped and sexually assaulted by a Christian brother – he wants to see compensation and more support for the victims.

AN ABUSE survivor is protesting outside one of Scotland’s largest cathedrals chained to a cross.

Dave Sharp was raped and sexually assaulted by a Christian brother at St Ninian’s residential school, in Fife.

A former headteacher and ex-teacher from the school were convicted at Glasgow’s High Court last month of abusing and sexually assaulting six boys there in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dave spent six years at the school and would have given evidence at the 3-month trial but the man who brutalised him – former head teacher Brother Gerry Ryan – is dead.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Bishop Ronald W. Gainer

August 22, 2016

Your Aug. 14 article detailing the priests in the Diocese of Harrisburg accused of child abuse in the past casts an important light on the scourge of child sexual abuse in society. I want to acknowledge the role of media in bringing this issue forward and thank you for reporting on the Diocese’s efforts to combat and prevent sexual abuse.

Let me be clear: The sexual abuse of children is an appalling sin and a crime. Since the 1990s, the Diocese of Harrisburg has a well-established zero-tolerance policy for clergy. We report all allegations of sexual abuse immediately to law enforcement, even if the cleric is deceased and no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

I also want to assure you that no one in active ministry in our Diocese has a credible accusation of abuse against them. It has been our policy and practice for decades that all persons in a child-serving position must pass rigorous background clearances and checks, specifically the Pennsylvania State Police, Department of Human Services, and, in some cases, FBI fingerprint checks. This certainly applies to all priests and deacons as well as to priests coming into our Diocese from both Religious Orders and other Dioceses. The Religious Orders or Dioceses who send these priests to us must also provide clear assurances that there have been no credible allegations of abuse against the priests who they are sending to minister in our Diocese. This is a standard set by the USCCB since the 2002 Charter (article 14)

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ILLINOIS
Courier-News

George Houde
Chicago Tribune

A possible plea deal is under consideration for the founder of an Islamic school accused of sexual abusing a former student and a former employee.

Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, an imam who founded the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, is charged with molesting a female student dozens of times between 2001 and 2003, when she was a student at the school and he was principal.

That allegation of aggravated criminal sexual abuse came after Saleem, 77, had already been charged with groping a woman who worked for him at the school. The case is in court Monday morning.

If the case goes to trial, Saleem faces the prospect of having not just the two alleged victims testify against him in open court, potentially in explicit detail. Cook County Judge James Karahalios has also ruled that he will allow testimony from two other women who say they too were groped by the imam — a turn that presumably puts more pressure on Saleem to strike a plea deal.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY STEFANIE DAZIO AND NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITERS | THE RECORD

ORADELL — A Boston lawyer for seven alleged child sexual abuse victims at Bergen Catholic High School said 21 victims settled with the parochial school in November for $1.9 million. Two advocates — neither of whom were abused at the Oradell high school — hosted a press conference today in front of the school to announce the settlement.

Mitchell Garabedian said nothing has changed legally since November but “victims want to come forward now.”

Garabedian said at the time of the alleged abuse, his clients were between 13 and 17 years old between 1963 and 1978. They are now between 53 and 68 years old. They were allegedly abused by brothers at the school. Each victim receives between $65,000 and $115,000, Garabedian said.

Road to Recovery, Inc., hosted the press conference outside the high school in Oradell. The organization assists victims of sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Thomas P. Doyle via BishopAccountability.org

Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.
ANNUAL SNAP CONFERENCE
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

June 24 to 26, 2016
Revised August 16, 2016

In the original presentation I followed the basic format suggested for speakers at Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step meetings: What it was like before. What Happened. What it is like now. I have revised the original and expanded it to article length and have retained to this format. [See also a PDF of Doyle’s original Word file.]

WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEFORE

The present era of awareness of sexual violation by Catholic clerics began in 1983 in two Catholic dioceses: the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana. This was not the start date of the problem of sexual violation but the beginning of widespread public awareness.

The reality of sexually dysfunctional clerics preying on minors and adults goes back through the centuries. In our lifetime it had been covered with a thick blanket of secrecy. It was unknown to the vast majority of lay persons and clerics as well. Many bishops knew about it but when they had to confront real cases they did so in secret with only a very small number of their closest advisors, all clerics, involved. Although they knew about sexual violation of minors in general, they were incapable of comprehending both its deeply pathological nature and its disastrous effects on victims.

Few knew about such abuse in the Church and even fewer believed it existed and this was due to the nature of the Catholic Church at the time. Back in the forties and fifties there was only one Catholic Church and it was the visible monarchical structure, a stratified society with a clerical aristocracy that was made up of celibate men and the vast ocean of lay commoners. The wall between the clerical caste and the “faithful” as the commoners are known, was steep and almost totally impenetrable.

Catholics were programmed either from birth or from the process of conversion to believe that the bishops and priests were exalted, privileged beings because of their ordination and the fact that God had chosen them to be his representatives on earth. They were taught that priests were “ontologically different” and “conjoined to Jesus Christ, “ thanks in great part to the largely incomprehensible theology of Pope John Paul II.

The Church we knew was often referred to as the “Church Triumphant.” The Vatican II definition of the Church as “The People of God” was an unknown and alien concept…. alien because it could be construed to lead people to believe there was some degree of equality with the sacred clerics, a threat not to be tolerated. The Church was totally identified with the external structures and the clerical establishment.

Bishops, priests and religious were an aristocracy within a vast monarchy with the pope presiding over all as an absolute ruler, answerable to no earthly power. Priests and bishops lived behind the mists of the clerical citadel. Their private lives were shrouded in mystery but one thing was certain and it was the presumption that these private lives, like their public lives, were clearly marked by holiness, virtue and knowledge. We took this all for granted because for most of us it was simply inconceivable to think of it in any other way.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Peter Mickelburough, Herald Sun
August 22, 2016

A SENIOR administrator of Yeshivah College is suing for libel, claiming she had been accused of pressuring child sex abuse victims not to pursue their complaints with police.

The orthodox Jewish school’s former general manager, Nechama Bendet, has lodged a writ in the Supreme Court seeking damages over five Facebook posts by Bruce James Cooke, whom she describes as a “vocal member of the Jewish community”.

Now the school’s director of development, she claims Mr Cooke suggested she had sought to ostracise two victims by calling them “mosers” for going to police and had thereby tried to pressure them not to pursue their complaints.

“Moser” is an offensive ­Hebrew term for one who breaks a code banning Jews from informing on one another to secular authorities.

This year, Ms Bendet told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse that the college had never discussed investigating claims of a cover-up after a former Yeshivah guard, David ­Cyprys, was accused of child sex crimes.

In 2011, it approached Robert Richter, QC, who ­advised it on public relations and dealing with victims, she said.

In her statement of claim, she says Mr Cooke’s posts suggested that she knew of abuse but did not report it to police; that she had shown complete disregard for victims by asserting the school had no legal obligation to report their abuse; that she condoned not reporting child sex abuse and rape to police unless there was a legal requirement to do so; and that there were reasonable grounds for police to investigate whether she had engaged in criminal conduct in relation to abuse.

Ms Bendet claims he also suggested she bullied and intimidated teachers and staff at Yeshivah and at Beth Rivkah Ladies College; that she abused her position by terminating a security contract for personal reasons; and that by her behaviour she was destroying the Yeshivah Centre and must be immediately removed.

She claims the posts were published without an honest belief in their truth or with reckless indifference, that her feelings, credit and personal and business reputation had been gravely injured, and that she had been humiliated and embarrassed.

Ms Bendet is also seeking a permanent injunction restraining Mr Cook from making such publications.

Mr Cooke’s lawyer, Chris Stakis, said his client would defend the case because he believed the publications were part of a legitimate debate on matters of importance.

peter.mickelburough@news.com.au

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ITALY
news.com.au

A MONSIGNOR. A murder. A missing treasure. It’s a mysterious crime that has gripped Italy. But now the story of April 25, 2014, is about to be told.

It was 7.30am. Housekeeper Eleanora Dibitonto knocked on the door to Monsignor Giuseppe Rocco’s small, Spartan room, in a manse in Trieste. It was her job to make sure the frail 92-year-old would wake in time for morning mass.

This morning, there was no response.

So Eleanora opened the door. She saw Rocco lying, fully dressed, on his back on the floor.
He was dead.

First she called an ambulance. Then she called another priest.

Father Paolo Piccoli, 52, gave Rocco his last rites.

But when the ambulance officers arrived, they noticed something odd.

The dead clergyman had a broken bone sticking out of his neck. Then two spots of blood were seen under his body.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Deborah Hill Cone

This is not a topic which is easy to write about. But maybe someone has to. Deep breath. Last week there was outrage in a community in Hamilton after two men with convictions for sexual offending against children were found to have been living in a boarding house where children were also living.

And another family with two young girls were apparently told by the Department of Corrections to play on the other side of their house after a paedophile was moved in next door. This horrifies us. Most of the public discourse around sexual offending on young children is hysterical and terrified, with the impression of a lynch mob assembling in the background.

But this fear and anger, far from protecting children in the future, may be doing the opposite. The desire to have sex with a child is considered so shocking and perverse that we aren’t inclined to try to understand it. But experts say the repugnance we feel when we read about crimes like these is getting in the way of trying to explain them and prevent them from happening.

Last week the Economist magazine, noting Dame Lowell Goddard’s resignation as head of the UK’s child sex abuse inquiry, published a well-informed editorial cautioning that the need to punish child sex abusers is sometimes being pursued at the expense of prevention. The Economist argued governments need to put more resources into research in this area because at this stage, there’s almost no way to identify child abusers before they commit a crime. If we want to keep children safe we need to get over our repugnance and try to understand it in a rational manner. Yes, even if you find the topic yucky and would prefer to turn the page.

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GUAM
KUAM

By Krystal Paco

It’s the Archdiocese of Agana’s biggest asset. (Or at least it was.)

Once a hotel but converted into a seminary, the Redemptoris Mater Seminary is estimated to value up to $75 million. In a secret transaction back in 2011 however, Archbishop Anthony Apuron gave the property away for free – and for the last year has directly disobeyed Pope Francis’ orders to rescind and annul a deed restriction.

While apostolic administrator Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is asking for the new owners to hand back the property without going to court, the Concerned Catholics of Guam organization is preparing for what could be a lengthy litigation.

It’s the new multi-million dollar question, posed by CCOG president Dave Sablan: “We ask – will the board of guarantors and the board of directors of the RMS Corporation do the right thing and return the property to the Archdiocese of Agana?” In a press conference on Monday, he said the group is preparing for what could be a lengthy court battle to take back the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona. As we reported, a declaration of deed restriction essentially assigned the RMS property, which once belonged to the Archdiocese of Agana, to the non-profit Redemptoris Mater Seminary Corporation in perpetuity or forever.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 22, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Concerned island Catholics continued their weekly protest outside the Hagatna Cathedral on Sunday morning. With the recent admittance that the Redemptoris Mater Seminary is no longer owned by the Archdiocese of Agana, Jose Martinez, who was among the picketers, says there’s plenty of unanswered questions to follow.

He told KUAM News, “As far as the seminary itself and the accreditation and everything else about I guess the validity of the priests that are coming out of there, that’s another subject. That if the deed restriction is all settled, we still need to address that also. Because that has been one of the major sticking points in our archdiocese is that group, the Neocatechumenal Way.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

[with video]

Kyle Daly, kjdaly@guampdn.com August 22, 2016

The president of a group that has repeatedly called for the removal of Guam’s archbishop said Monday that a nonprofit organization that has a deed to use Yona property on which a seminary sits should return the property to the local archdiocese.

David Sablan, president of the Concerned Catholics of Guam, held a press conference Monday afternoon in Tamuning.

Sablan’s remarks were a response to a statement released last week by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai regarding the property. Hon currently oversees the local archdiocese. He was put in charge of the archdiocese after several allegations of sexual abuse were made against Guam’s archbishop, Anthony S. Apuron, earlier this summer.

In a written statement released last week, Hon said Apuron didn’t follow instructions by Pope Francis to rescind and annul a deed restriction on the property, which the Concerned Catholics have said is valued between $40 million and $70 million.

The deed gives Redemptoris Mater Seminary, a Guam nonprofit corporation, the authority to use the property indefinitely.

Sablan, on Monday, reiterated statements that the Concerned Catholics made in October 2015 that the deed conveying the property to RMS was recorded at the Department of Land Management by Apuron in November 2011, without the knowledge of the Archdiocesan Finance Council, nor the Vatican, which, the group has said, is required by church law to give their consent before such a major transaction is made.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KEN LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, August 22, 2016

Here is an expanded version of the second item from my “Albany Insider” column from Monday’s editions:

The creator of a political action committee pushing for enactment of a Child Victims Act has endorsed Marisol Alcantara in a three-way Democratic upper Manhattan state Senate primary.

“She has a strong background in health care and understands the issue well,” said Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor and child abuse survivor who founded the Fighting For Children PAC.

Greenberg said Senate Independent Democratic Committee Leader Jeffrey Klein’s support of Alcantara also helped. “He’s been a friend to us,” he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By MARTIN ROBINSON, UK CHIEF REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

A Catholic monk has been returned to Britain from Kosovo following a five-year police manhunt and charged with a string of historical sex offences.

Father Laurence Soper is accused of abusing five boys as young as 14 between 1972 to 1986.

The nine charges include offences of buggery, gross indecency and indecent assault.

The 72-year-old was arrested as he arrived at Luton Airport on Sunday by officers from Scotland Yard’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.

Soper, who was detained under a European Arrest Warrant in Kosovo in May, will appear at Ealing Magistrates’ Court today.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sun

BY BRITTANY VONOW 22nd August 2016

A FORMER monk who had been at the centre of a five year manhunt has returned to the UK and charged over nine historic child abuse allegations.

Laurence Soper, now 72, had been on the run since 2011 after skipping bail while on accusations of child sex abuse.

He had been arrested after a man in his 20s came forward to police in 2010, alleging that Soper had been involved in sexual assaults at St Benedict’s School in Ealing.

But the monk, who had been the abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London from 1991 to 2000, skipped bail in March 2011, managing to avoid authorities for five years.

Soper has now been charged with nine offences that allegedly targeted five victims, including an act of gross indecency towards a boy of 14-years-old and indecent assault of a boy under the age of 16.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

Fr Laurence Soper was arrested on Sunday after being returned to the UK from Kosovo

A former abbot of Ealing Abbey accused of child sex abuse offences has been arrested after returning to the UK from Kosovo following a five-year police search for him.

Fr Laurence Soper, 72, was arrested at Luton Airport on Sunday on suspicion of a series of sexual offences allegedly committed at St Benedict’s School in Ealing where he taught in the 1970s and 1980s.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed the arrest and said Fr Soper was “arrested on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986.”

Fr Soper, who was the abbot of Ealing Abbey from 1991 to 2000, was arrested in May under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in Kosovo, but Kosovan courts twice blocked extradition attempts due to the fact that the country has a 30-year statute of limitations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Reuters

British police have charged a former priest with child sex crimes after he returned to the UK from Kosovo, where he had been on the run for around five years living under a false name.

Laurence Soper, 72, was due to appear at a west London court later on Monday to face charges for crimes he is accused of committing from 1972 to 1986. He was arrested at Luton Airport on Sunday after he flew back to Britain.

He faces nine charges in total, according to a police statement, which said there were five victims.

Described by police as a monk, Soper had lived in the town of Peja in Kosovo for about five years under the name Andrew Charles Kingston. British media said the former abbot from Ealing, west London, who was a teacher in the 1970s and 80s, had jumped bail in 2011.

Kosovan authorities detained Soper on an international arrest warrant in May but two extradition requests were rejected by courts in the country, the second because the crimes were committed too long ago.

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UNITED KINGDOM
National Secular Society

Posted: Mon, 22 Aug 2016 by Richard Scorer

Richard Scorer, a specialist child abuse lawyer at Slater & Gordon draws attention to organisations seeking more lenient treatment over child abuse-connected matters because they are religious and makes the case for no concessions being given.

Which is more important: religious freedom, or safeguarding children from abuse? Should churches and religious organisations be exempt from secular standards of child protection? Two recent court cases involving the Jehovah’s Witnesses raise this issue in its starkest form.

Some background. Over the past two decades a significant number of abuse cases have emerged in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Clients of mine who allege they have been abused within the organisation describe a culture which is profoundly collusive with child abuse. It’s hard enough for abused children to speak out in any setting; in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s bordering on the impossible. The organisation is notorious for its “two witness” rule: anyone who accuses an adult of abuse must have a corroborating witness. Since the vast majority of child abuse occurs in secret, the effect of this rule is to silence abuse victims. Moreover, if there is no corroborating witness, the complainant is often treated as having made a false accusation. This leads to the complainant being “disfellowshipped”, or ostracised by other Witnesses. A terrifying prospect if, like most children growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, your entire family life revolves around them. In this way, victims say, the culture of the Jehovah’s Witnesses facilitates and protects abusers.

The two legal cases have opened a window into this culture. The cases involve the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the legal entity through which the Jehovah’s Witnesses operate. One case concerns the Watch Tower Society’s liability to pay damages to a proven victim of abuse. The Society sought to argue that its devolved structure means that it cannot be ‘vicariously liable’ for the actions of its officials who abuse children. It’s a variation of the argument advanced by the Catholic Church, which maintained for many years that priests were not employees and therefore the Church could not be liable for their actions. The Catholic Church’s long running battle to evade responsibility on that basis ended in failure in 2012. The Watch Tower Society’s defence failed at first instance in 2015, and its attempt to take the case to the Court of Appeal was dismissed last month.

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INDIA
Global Sisters Report – National Catholic Reporter

by Jose Kavi

Two top bodies of the Catholic church in India are now busy finalizing a policy to address sex abuse and other forms of abuse by clergy.

“A draft policy is in the final stage now. It has been circulated among all bishops and major superiors in India,” says Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Mascarenhas, who in July also became spokesperson for the church in India, says the standing committee, the executive body of the bishops conference, will finalize the draft at its biannual meeting Sept. 21-23 in Bangalore, southern India.

The bishop spoke to Global Sisters Report following a June 24 story citing an increase in cases of clergy sex abuse of women religious, withholding sacraments as punishment and otherwise denying rights to nuns. The issues were detailed in a “letter of concern” that the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group for women religious, addressed to the bishops and major superiors in February. Also in February, Mascarenhas was elected secretary general of the bishops conference.

Mascarenhas says the new policy, tentatively titled “policy on sexual harassment in work places,” will address all such issues systematically and comprehensively.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Michelle Brown

A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted boys during wrestling bouts has been sentenced to a minimum of five years and four months in jail after being convicted of 44 child sex offences against six victims.

Priest David O’Hearn committed the assaults in the Hunter region while working as a trainee priest and priest in parishes including Cessnock, Muswellbrook and Windale in the 1980s and 90s.

O’Hearn, who is already in jail, was sentenced to 18 years and three months for the offences to be served from the December 18, 2012.

With time served, he will be eligible for release on parole on the February 17, 2022.

The crimes committed against the boys, aged between 10 and 15, included sexual intercourse, indecent assault and inciting a minor to commit an indecent act.

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AUSTRALIA
The Islander

JOANNE MCCARTHY
22 Aug 2016

NOTORIOUS Hunter paedophile priest David O’Hearn was “like a standover man in his local community”, a judge has told a Sydney court.

Judge Richard Cogswell said O’Hearn, 55, had the public profile of a holy man but in private was “a major criminal”.

Judge Cogswell is sentencing O’Hearn who was found guilty of 44 child sex offences against six boys in the Hunter in the 1980s and 1990s.

His victims are in the court – several in tears – as Judge Cogswell described O’Hearn’s offences against them. O’Hearn used wrestling as a “deliberate and calculated” way of engaging sexually with boys who were vulnerable, or from devout families.

He committed offences “under the guise or cover of a legitimate sporting activity”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Carey Lodge CHRISTIAN TODAY JOURNALIST 22 August 2016

Soper allegedly committed the offences at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, where he was a teacher.

A former Catholic priest accused of abusing five boys in the 1970s and 1980s has been returned to the UK and arrested after skipping bail in 2011.

Father Laurence Soper, 72, was arrested on suspicion of nine charges including indecent assault, gross indecency and buggery.

He was arrested in Kosovo in May under a European Arrest Warrant but a Kosovan judge blocked his return to the UK because Soper’s alleged crimes had occurred too long ago.

However, UK police announced on Sunday that the priest had been arrested at Luton Airport “on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Journal (Ireland)

A BRITISH PRIEST accused of child sex offences was arrested at London’s Luton airport yesterday, five years after he went on the run.

Laurence Soper was arrested as he arrived back in the UK from Kosovo, police said in a statement.
Soper, 72, was taken into custody in London and is accused of nine sexual assault offences committed between 1972 and 1986.

His arrest concludes a lengthy legal battle between the UK and Kosovo, where Soper was arrested in May on a European warrant issued by Britain.

Police in Kosovo said at the time he was known as “Father Laurence” and gave his full name as Andrew Charles Kingston Soper.

Earlier this month a Kosovo court refused for the second time to extradite the Catholic priest, ruling he could not be extradited because the statute of limitations for the alleged crimes had been reached.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Times LIVE (South Africa)

AFP

A British priest accused of child sex offences has been sent back to the UK from Kosovo and arrested at London’s Luton airport, five years after he went on the run, police said.

Laurence Soper was detained on Sunday as he arrived back in the country, British police said in a statement.

Soper, 72, was taken into custody in London and later charged with nine sexual assault offences committed between 1972 and 1986.

He was due to appear in Ealing Magistrates’ Court on Monday, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

His arrest concluded a lengthy legal battle between the UK and Kosovo, where Soper has been arrested in May on a European warrant issued by Britain.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former Catholic priest accused of historical sex offences has been returned to Britain from Kosovo after a five-year police hunt.

Lawrence Soper, 72, was arrested as he arrived at Luton Airport on Sunday on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault allegedly committed over a period from 1972 to 1986.

Mr Soper had been detained in May under a European Arrest Warrant in Kosovo.

He is now being held in custody at a west London police station.

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.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

1.9 MILLION DOLLAR SETTLEMENT REACHED BETWEEN BERGEN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL, ORADELL, NEW JERSEY, AND TWENTY-ONE (21) CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS OF TEN (10) IRISH CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND ONE (1) LAY TEACHER

A 1.9 million dollar settlement was reached between twenty-one (21)) childhood sexual abuse victims from Bergen Catholic High School. The abusers are identified as:

1) Br. Richard Daniel Berryman, C.F.C. – he is no longer an Irish Christian Brother and allegedly lives in Florida

2) Br. John Bonaventure Chaney, C.F.C. – he is still an Irish Christian Brother and may be living in New Rochelle, New York

3) Br. Ronald Alexis Howe, C.F.C. – he left the Irish Christian Brothers, married, and is deceased

4) Br. Charles Borromeo Irwin, C.F.C. – he is a deceased Irish Christian Brother, and may have been a chief financial officer of the Eastern American Province of the Irish Christian Brothers for many years

5) Br. Lawrence Sean Mc Elhatton, C.F.C. – his location and status are unknown

6) Br. Eugene David Mc Kenna, C.F.C. – he is a deceased Irish Christian Brother and the founding Principal of Bergen Catholic High School. A prestigious graduation award at Bergen Catholic High School may still bear his name.

7) Br. Timothy Joseph O’Sullivan, C.F.C. – he is no longer an Irish Christian Brother and may have worked for several years as a professor of science at a Massachusetts university

8) Br. Robert Jogues Roepke, C.F.C. – he is a deceased Irish Christian Brother and may have been Principal of Blessed Sacrament High School in New Rochelle, New York, in the 1970s

9) Br. John Peter Seibert, C.F.C. – his location and status are unknown

10) Mr. James Sokoloski (Lay Teacher) – his location and status are unknown

11) Br. Donald Dominic Walsh, C.F.C. – his location and status are unknown

Bergen Catholic High School currently refuses to reasonably settle an additional claim of sexual abuse by the Reverend Kobutsu Malone, Buddhist monk, formerly Kevin Malone, who was sexually abused by Br. Charles B. Irwin, C.F.C. at Bergen Catholic High School because Reverend Kobutsu Malone, age 66, continues to practice transparency regarding clergy sexual abuse cases in order to protect children. His website, bergencatholicabuse.com, has been a major source of transparency and information for Bergen Catholic victim/survivors and many others.

What
A press conference announcing a 1.9 million dollar settlement between Bergen Catholic High School, Oradell, NJ, and twenty-one (21) men who were sexually abused as minor children by ten (10) Irish Christian Brothers and one (1) lay teacher at Bergen Catholic High School, Oradell, NJ in approximately the 1960s and 1970s

When
Monday, August 22, 2016 at 11:00 am

Where
On the public sidewalk outside Bergen Catholic High School, 1040 Oradell Avenue, Oradell, NJ, 07649, 201-261-1844

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Inc., who spent 23 years as an Irish Christian Brother and is a victim/survivor of sexual abuse by Irish Christian Brothers. Road to Recovery, Inc. assists victims of sexual abuse and their families and advocates on behalf of several of the victim/survivors involved in this settlement

Why
For decades, students at Bergen Catholic High School were sexually abused as minor children by several teachers, many of whom were members of the Irish Christian Brothers religious order and one lay teacher. Bergen Catholic High School reached a settlement of 1.9 million dollars with twenty-one (21) of those students who were childhood sexual abuse victims of ten (10) Irish Christian Brothers and one (1) lay teacher. These men were found credible. However, Bergen Catholic High School currently refuses to settle the sexual abuse claim of Reverend Kobutsu Malone, age 66, because he continues through his website, bergencatholicabuse.com, to practice transparency regarding clergy sexual abuse in order to protect children.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Reverend Kobutsu Malone, Maine – 207-359-2555 (victim/survivor of Br. Charles B. Irwin)

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Katie May
Posted: 08/21/2016

Some residential-school survivors seeking compensation for sexual abuse were wrongly required to try to prove their abusers’ motive, Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench has ruled.

The recent decision from Justice James Edmond could set a precedent for how residential-school compensation claims are settled, affecting “at least dozens, possibly hundreds” of residential-school survivors, a Winnipeg lawyer says.

The case involves a man, identified only by his initials, J.W., who attended residential school in Manitoba. He told an adjudicator at his initial compensation hearing that he had been molested by a nun as a young boy – that she had called him over while he was waiting in line to use the shower and grabbed his penis. When he pushed her hand away, she took him by his left ear and tried to slam his head against the wall, he testified. The adjudicator said she believed J.W.’s account and didn’t question that what happened to him had caused him embarrassment and “certain harms,” but she denied compensation because she was “not satisfied on a balance of probabilities that there was a sexual purpose associated with [the nun’s] conduct,” the decision states.

That logic meant J.W. was held to a stricter standard of proof for sexual assault than is required under the Criminal Code, said his lawyer, Martin Kramer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Camilla Turner
22 AUGUST 2016

A Catholic priest who skipped bail five years ago has been arrested on suspicion of nine counts of historic sexual assaults.

Father Laurence Soper, 72, the former abbot of Ealing Abbey, was wanted on a European Arrest Warrant over allegations of child abuse.

The accusations date back to when he taught at St Benedict’s School, a private independent Catholic school which is part of Ealing Abbey in west London.

In March 2011, Fr Soper was believed to have been living in a monastery in Rome and was due to return to London to answer bail but he failed to show up, sparking an international search.

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NEW JERSEY
Philly.com

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) – Authorities say a church pastor who fled the country after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy has been detained in the Honduras.

Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced the capture of Gregorio Martinez on Sunday. She said he was apprehended Tuesday in the town of Danli, but further details were not disclosed.

Suarez says her office will be “exploring all options” to return Martinez to New Jersey, where he faces sentencing for the sex assault conviction. He’s also facing charges stemming from the alleged sexual assaults of three other males who came forward following Martinez’s conviction in February 2015.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

An evangelical preacher who has been on the run since a jury convicted him last year of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy has been arrested in Central America, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said Sunday.

Gregorio Martinez, whose flight from justice was chronicled in a special report by NJ Advance Media this spring, was detained in Danli, Honduras, on Tuesday, Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a statement.

Few details were immediately available, but Suarez said Honduran police made the arrest. The U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI had been involved in the hunt for Martinez. It was not clear if representatives of either agency were present when the fugitive was detained.

In February of last year, a jury took less than 30 minutes to convict Martinez of aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Free on $250,000 bail, the Jersey City resident failed to appear for a pre-sentencing review weeks later.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

22 AUG 2016
BY DAVID WILCOCK

Laurence Soper, 72, disappeared after failing to answer bail in March 2011 over allegation of sexual assault at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London.

A former Catholic monk who went on the run after being arrested over historic child sex abuse allegations was last night being quizzed by police after being returned to the UK.

Laurence Soper, 72, disappeared after failing to answer bail in March 2011 over allegation of sexual assault at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London.

Soper, who was abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London from 1991 to 2000, had been arrested in September 2010 after a man aged in his 40s made a complaint to police.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued for Soper in 2012, when police said they believed he had been living in Italy.

He was finally arrested in Kosovo in May this year. He had reportedly been living in the city of Pec for several years.

Scotland Yard last night said the former monastic leader had been flown back to the UK from the eastern European country.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

AUGUST 21, 2016

by Dan Geringer, STAFF WRITER

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has decided to close three worship locations in the region, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.

Worshipers learned during weekend services that the St. John of the Cross Church building in Roslyn (Queen of Peace Parish), the Mater Dolorosa Church building in Frankford (Holy Innocents Parish) and the St. Cecilia Church building in Coatesville (Our Lady of the Rosary Parish) no longer will serve as Roman Catholic churches as of Sept. 16.

The Archdiocese explained that no one lost a parish church as a result of Sunday’s announced closings because the three churches’ congregations already had merged into other parish churches.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

John Bingham, religious affairs editor
21 AUGUST 2016

Survivors of child sexual abuse have accused the Church of England of “acting like Pontius Pilate” as a previously unseen document revealed that bishops were explicitly instructed only to give partial apologies – if at all – to victims to avoid being sued.

Legal advice marked “strictly confidential” and circulated among the most senior bishops, told them to “express regret” only using wording approved by lawyers, PR advisers and insurers.

The guidance – written in 2007 and finally replaced just last year – also warns bishops to be wary of meeting victims face to face and only ever to do so after legal advice.

It speaks of the “unintended effect of accepting legal liability” for sexual abuse within their diocese and warns them to avoid “inadvertently” conceding guilt.

The paper, seen by The Telegraph and confirmed as genuine, advises bishops to use “careful drafting” to “effectively apologise” without enabling victims to get compensation.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

JOANNE MCCARTHY
21 Aug 2016

HE is the Catholic priest who stole boys’ lives.

Father David O’Hearn spent eight years fighting the men he sexually abused as vulnerable young boys in the 1980s and 1990s. On Monday some of them will be in a Sydney court to watch him pay the price.

They will pay for the rest of their lives, the men said in victim impact statements.

“We will never know what it’s like to live a normal life as we had that opportunity taken away from us as young boys,” said one of O’Hearn’s victims.

“I think my life could have been totally different if the abuse had never occurred. I would be a different person but I will never know what that person would have been like. I know that I can’t blame everything in my life on the abuse but I do know it’s had a significant impact on me.”

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 20, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

Concerned Catholics continue their weekly protests outside the Hagatna Cathedral. They want Archbishop Anthony Apuron defrocked.

Aside from multiple allegations of sexual molestation, just this past week Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai revealed that Apuron was disobedient to the Pope’s directive a year ago to nullify and rescind the Deed of Restriction for the Redemportis Mater Seminary in Yona.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Brandie Kessler, bkessler@ydr.com August 21, 2016

Fifteen priests accused of sexually abusing children were identified recently by a York Daily Record investigation.

The Diocese of Harrisburg has been reluctant to publicly name all clergy accused of sexually abusing children, but therapists who work with trauma survivors say the Catholic Church should be completely transparent.

Fifteen priests accused of sexually abusing children were identified recently by a York Daily Record investigation. The list of names was compiled using court documents, news articles and other sources. In July, the Harrisburg diocese provided information about those 15 priests. The diocese did not provide the names or other information about all priests with ties to the diocese who were accused at some time of sexual abuse of children, despite numerous requests from the York Daily Record.

In 2007, the diocese said publicly that it had received allegations against 24 priests since 1950, but it did not name those priests.

Naming alleged abusers has some risk, primarily to the institutions or organizations and the accused, “but I don’t think it’s as painful as having this practice be concealed,” said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a trauma psychiatrist and a post-traumatic stress disorder specialist.

“You have to be darn sure that your facts are clear” because you can ruin reputations, said Ochberg, who founded The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, based at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Publishing the names of alleged abusers in the media or on church or diocese websites might also be painful for some survivors, he said, since, for some, just reading their abuser’s name can cause discomfort.

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INDIA
The News Minute

TNM Staff| Sunday, August 21, 2016

Not all is well in the sanctum sanctorum of some of India’s Churches as stories of violence and sexual abuse, fear, deaths, denial of burial rights, suicides and cover-ups start to trickle out slowly but surely. The whistle-blowers in many cases are from within. On July 23, 2013 a 17-year-old from Tamil Nadu who was found dead at the home of a Kerala priest. The grieving mother took the Catholic Church head on resulting in the arrest of five priests including a Bishop. Read here.

The Church preaches charity, kindness and compassion towards everyone but Sr. Mary Sebastian, a 45 year-old nun was afraid the very institution that she has served for a quarter century could turn on her. Reason?

In January this year she decided to quit the Church because of daily harassment by her superiors at the Syro-Malabar Church’s Cherthungal Nasrathubhavan Convent in Pala, Kottayam in Kerala. When she rebelled, she was harassed further, threatened and as she appealed to the appropriate organisations, her rightful pension was denied. Worse, she found herself being accused of harassing children.

“I am scared for my life…they are so powerful that they may even harm me, she had told The News Minute over the telephone. Read here.

Cut to the Coimbatore (Tamil-Nadu) tragedy where Arun Janardhanan of the Indian Express details the heart-breaking and bone-chilling details of an adolescent girl whose faith in the Church, her belief in her preacher who eventually became her tormentor led to her death. In 2013, Fathima Sophia, Shanthi Roselin’s daughter was found dead in the guest room of Father Arockiaraj, the priest of the St. Stanislaus Church in Walayar (Palakkad), a district that shares a border with neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

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INDIA
Times of India

May 29, 2016

Coimbatore: The Palakkad court has ordered the Kerala police to arrest four priests from Coimbatore in connection with the murder of Fathima Sofiya of Kottaimedu. Shanthi Roselin, Fathima’s mother, said they were informed that the court directed the police to register cases under Section 201 and Section 202 of the IPC.

Fathima Sofiya died on July 23, 2013 and the Walayar police closed it after nine months concluding that she had committed suicide. But Shanthi had alleged that she was strangulated by H Arockiaraj, a priest. Shanthi said that police tried to dismiss the case as suicide.

Later, she came across a letter written by Fathima, where she said that if anything ever happened to her, Arockiaraj would be responsible.

She had also written about her affair with him.

“After this, I petitioned several higher officials in Kerala who said a CBI probe would begin soon. But since no action was taken, I decided to go to a television channel to bring out the truth,” she said.

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INDIA
The Indian Express

Written by Arun Janardhanan | Updated: August 21, 2016

A 17-year-old from Tamil Nadu is found dead at the residence of a priest in Kerala. Is it a suicide? Or murder? Arun Janardhanan tells the story of the girl’s mother taking on the Catholic church, leading to the arrest a week ago of five senior priests, including a Bishop

How do you say no to God?” a victim of sexual abuse asks a team of investigative reporters in the Oscar-winning Spotlight, a movie based on Boston Globe’s months-long investigation into cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. At her home in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Shanthi Roselin, 42, says a similar line, over and over again: “Avar engalin kadavulaaka irunthaar (He was our God).”

On July 23, 2013, Roselin’s 17-year-old daughter Fathima Sophia was found dead in the guestroom of Father Arockiaraj, the priest of St Stanislaus Church in Walayar in Palakkad, a Kerala district that borders Tamil Nadu. Police registered a case of suicide and the matter was soon closed.

What followed were a series of bizarre events — Father Arockiaraj allegedly confessing to the victim’s mother that he killed her, a ‘letter’ that pointed to a relationship between Sophia and Arockiaraj, a secret canonical court that resulted in the defrocking of Arockiaraj, some secret correspondence with Rome, transfer of police officers in Kerala. All along, Roselin says, she knew her daughter hadn’t killed herself.

Three years later, Roselin’s fight against the powerful Catholic Church for allegedly colluding to cover up the “murder” of her 17-year-old daughter has reached a key turning point. Last week, five top Catholic priests, one of them a Bishop, were arrested and subsequently released on bail. The arrests were under Sections 201 and 202 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deal with “causing disappearance of evidence” and “intentional omission of information”. The sixth priest, Arockiaraj, who is accused of killing the girl, was arrested in December 2015 and is now out on conditional bail. He has now been booked for rape and sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher, article updated 19 August 2016

Catholic priest David Anthony O’Hearn, 55, has been in jail in New South Wales for the past four years, and now he is about to learn how many more years he must remain behind bars. In jury trials during the past four years, he has been found guilty of 44 child-sex offences against six victims. For legal reasons, those trials could not be reported in the media until the final jury completed its work in May 2016. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday 22 August 2016 at 10.30am by Judge Richard Cogswell in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court (the court list still refers to David O’Hearn by his initials, “DO”). This article includes some Broken Rites research about O’Hearn.

A series of separate juries (in the Sydney District Court) from 2012 to 2016 found O’Hearn guilty of offences against six young boys, including sexual intercourse, indecent assault and inciting a minor to commit an indecent act.

The offences occurred in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, north of Sydney, while O’Hearn ministered in various parishes in the 1980s and 1990s. Victims ranged from nine to 13.

During the series of jury trials, the NSW District Court imposed an order prohibiting the media from publishing O’Hearn’s name until the final jury would finish its work. The trials were delayed somewhat when O’Hearn launched appeal proceedings.

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OHIO
NBC 24

BY JIM NELSON FRIDAY, AUGUST 19TH 2016

SANDUSKY — An Erie County pastor is accused of having sexual contact with a young child over a period of four years — and it’s not the first time he has been charged with sex crimes involving children.

Pastor Richard C. Mick of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sandusky has twice been charged with rape; court documents show he has faced other charges in addition to the newest charges which are outlined in a grand jury indictment that was returned on August 11th.

Mick, 55, is alleged to have made sexual contact with a young child an unknown amount of times between the years 2006 and 2010. The child would have been between the ages of five and nine during that time.

Mick’s first known run-in with the law came in 2012 when he was charged with two counts of rape for alleged incidents involving a female from 1998 to 1999. The case was dropped 13 months later when prosecutors said they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mick was guilty.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2016

A GROUP of Catholic priests is concerned that the next Bishop of Cork and Ross will be ‘an outsider’, and there has been criticism of the way the Church selects bishops.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has hit out at the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Ireland, Papal Nuncio Charles Browne. The association says that since Browne’s appointment, in 2011, he has been recommending bishops who are not from the dioceses they are charged with leading and who do not match the philosophies of Pope Francis.

Bishop John Buckley tendered his retirement two years ago and his successor is expected to be announced in the coming months, but Cork-based priest, Fr Gerry O’Connor, a leader within the ACP, said that there has been no consultation with the diocese.

Fr O’Connor pointed to Kerry, where Bishop Raymond Browne was recommended, despite having spent his career in Roscommon and Sligo. By contrast, Bishop Buckley, appointed by Pope John Paul II, was born in Inchigeela and served in Farranferris and Turner’s Cross, before serving as an Auxillary Bishop of Cork and Ross, and then taking the top job.

This time, the diocese cannot be sure that its bishop will be someone who has experience in Cork.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Tagespost

[Trier: Diocese speaks of learning process.]

Trier (DT/KNA) Das Bistum Trier beruft sich im Umgang mit einem zehn Jahre zurückliegenden Missbrauchsverdacht auf einen Lernprozess. Der Staatsanwalt habe das Bistum im November 2006 über eine wegen Verjährung eingestellte Ermittlung gegen einen Priester „wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs von Jugendlichen und Körperverletzung“ informiert, sagte Bistumssprecher Andre Uzulis am Mittwoch der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur. Der damalige Bischof, Reinhard Marx, heute Erzbischof von München und Freising, und sein Generalvikar Georg Holkenbrink hätten daraufhin „weitere Untersuchungen nicht für erforderlich gehalten“.

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GERMANY
The Eponymous Flower

The President of the German Bishops’ Conference is being criticized in a suspected case of sexual abuse of a minor ten years previously by a priest in the diocese of Trier.

Trier (kath.net/KNA) The President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Reinhold Cardinal Marx is being criticized in a suspected case of sexual abuse of a minor ten years previously by a priest in the diocese of Trier.

As reported by Saarland Broadcasting, Marx knew as the then Bishop of Trier in 2006 of the legal proceedings against the clergyman. While the accused had partially confessed to the abuse of a young person, the charges had reached the statute of limitations and the authorities discontinued the investigation. The diocese of Trier had thoroughly questioned the pastor, after the latter had denied the allegations. The files of the judiciary were not requested.

As a spokesman for the prosecutor of Saarbrücken confirmed on Wednesday for the Catholic News Agency (KNA). the diocese was informed in 2006 about the termination of the criminal proceedings. However, that was probably done informally – without giving any reasons, such that the adjustment was made ​​due to the statute of limitation.

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GERMANY
One Peter 5

BY MAIKE HICKSON AND STEVE SKOJEC ON AUGUST 18, 2016

Since 16 August 2016, many reports have been published in Germany indicating that Cardinal Reinhard Marx — Archbishop of Munich, head of the German Bishops’ Conference, and one of the close collaborators of Pope Francis — may be guilty of negligent conduct concerning a sexual abuse case in the Diocese of Trier (of which he was then-bishop) ten years ago. The reports have been so numerous that Katholisch.de, the official website of the German Bishops, had to publish an article on the matter to clarify known details.

As the German magazine FOCUS reports on 16 August, Cardinal Marx had knowledge of the abuse case of one of his priests in Trier, but did not take further steps to remove him from his office.

In 2006, a legal investigation from the state against this abusive priest was suspended due to the statute of limitations. According to the FOCUS, however, later in 2013 and 2015, other law suits were filed against that same priest. Only recently, after the new bishop of Trier finally requested the state’s files on the matter earlier this year, was the priest in question forbidden to offer Holy Mass or to have contact with children and youth. As FOCUS put it: “According to Church’s Law, these deeds [of sexual abuse of minors] are not time-barred.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Jim Purcell | Aug. 20, 2016

VIEWPOINT What we need in today’s Roman Catholic church is a redistribution of power and authority. Pope Francis’ openness to the possibility of having women deacons is not nearly enough to achieve this essential organizational revolution.

Yes, opening the diaconate to women would be a good and much-needed change. But as some commentators have pointed out, it still leaves women in a “secondary” position to priests.

Some of those same commentators argue that women need to be ordained priests to level the playing field. While I support the ordination of women as priests, I would argue for a different and more important change first.

Francis should change canon law so one does not have to be a priest to be the “pastor” of a parish. Give qualified lay men and women and male and female deacons real power and authority to lead some of our faith communities.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

Statement on the election of bishops

For some time now the membership of the Association of Catholic Priests has been concerned with the issue of the appointment of bishops in Ireland. At our AGM last year the following resolution was passed:

The ACP expresses its grave disquiet at some of the policies presently being pursued in relation to the appointment of bishops in Ireland: the lack of any credible process of consultation; the preference in the main for candidates drawn from a particular mind-set; the apparently haphazard policy of appointments to distant dioceses that pays little regard to the traditions and heritage of a diocese; and not least the choice of candidates who seem to be out of sync with the realities of life in Ireland today and uncomfortable with the openness of Pope Francis to change and reform the Church.

At a recent meeting, the Leadership of the ACP discussed the on-going concern of our members, and our regret that the Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Browne, refuses to meet us, though the issue at hand is of compelling concern not just to our own membership – we represent over 30% of Irish priests – but to the vast majority of Irish priests.

In less than five years since his appointment in November 2011, Archbishop Brown has played a central role in the appointment of ten bishops – Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Cashel, Cloyne, Derry, Elphin, Kerry, Kildare, Killaloe, Limerick and Waterford – and is at present in the process of appointing six more: Clonfert, Cork, Galway, Meath, Ossory and Raphoe. That’s 16 (or 60%) of the 26 dioceses in Ireland.

The ACP believes that, at this most critical juncture for the Catholic Church in Ireland, the policies being pursued by Archbishop Browne in the choice of bishops are, in the main, inadequate to the needs of our time, at odds with the expectations of people and priests and out of sync with the new church dispensation, ushered in by the election of Pope Francis over three years ago and the changed perspective of his renewed commitment to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A GROUP OF Catholic priests has criticised the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Ireland, at a time they describe as the Catholic Church’s “most critical juncture”.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) raised concerns over the appointment of bishops in Ireland.

The priests were critical of the candidates chosen by the Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Browne, who they describe as being “out of sync” with the realities of life in Ireland today and uncomfortable with the openness of Pope Francis to change and reform the Church.

‘Out of tune’

“… It’s [The Vatican’s] attitude and values are now clearly out of tune with a Church regaining confidence and credibility under the watch of Pope Francis.”

The ACP said policies being pursued by Archbishop Browne in the “choice of bishops are, in the main, inadequate to the needs of our time, at odds with the expectations of people and priests and out of sync with the new church dispensation, ushered in by the election of Pope Francis over three years ago and the changed perspective of his renewed commitment to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council”.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ronan Smyth

An archive of papers and images donated by the Justice for Magdalenes research group is due to be made fully searchable online by Waterford Institute of Technology.

Researchers at the institute were awarded funding through the Heritage Council’s Heritage Management Grant Scheme 2016 to digitally conserve and manage the archive.

The project, which is being supervised by Dr Jennifer Yeager, Kieran Cronin and research assistant Sue Goona, will create an online search facility.

According to Dr Yeager, “analyses of the laundries are constrained by the lack of access to the records of the religious orders, resulting in an absence of intervention, as well as a failure to remember officially. Official documentation is essential in order to encourage public engagement with Magdalene history.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

A man who says he was abused for years in the care of the Catholic church is to chain himself to a cross in Glasgow in protest.

Dave Sharp, who grew up in Catholic orphanages, and attended St Ninian’s school, run by the Christian Brotherhood, is calling for the church to do more to help victims of abuse such as himself. He is also demanding an apology for the treatment children received at St Ninian’s.

A former headteacher and an ex-teacher from the school were convicted at Glasgow’s High Court last month of abusing and sexually assaulting six boys there in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dave Sharp, who spent six years at the school over the same period says he was repeatedly raped, beaten and drugged when he was in his early teens.

From Monday, he plans to chain himself to a home-made seven foot wooden cross outside St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow every day for 10 days, to highlight his claim that the church has turned its back on victims.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News August 20, 2016

Up to 10 people from Samoa and American Samoa studying to be future Catholic priests at a Yona seminary were withdrawn from the institution earlier this summer, according to local church officials.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, who currently oversees Guam’s Catholic Church, said these withdrawn seminarians all were from the Diocese of Samoa in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and the Archdiocese of Samoa in Apia, Samoa.

American Samoa is a U.S. territory, while Samoa is an independent state that was formerly called Western Samoa.

Hon said the Samoan seminarians were studying to be priests at their respective dioceses, not the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam.

“Archbishop Hon first started hearing at the start of July that the Samoan seminarians would be leaving Redemptoris Mater Seminary,” the Archdiocese of Agana said in response to questions from Pacific Daily News.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Justin Wm. Moyer August 19

Two men who work with youths at churches in Virginia were arrested this week in separate incidents after they had inappropriate contact with juveniles, police said.

On May 29, Derrick Ryan Trump of Centreville was reported to have had inappropriate contact with a victim at the Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Nokesville sometime in May, Prince William County police said in a statement. An investigation found that Trump, the church’s youth director, had inappropriate contact on more than one occasion with a 16-year-old girl at the church and at his home in Fauquier County, the statement said.

Trump, now a resident of Fairfax, was arrested Tuesday and charged with indecent liberties by a custodian, police said. He is being held on a $3,500 bond.

On July 7 in a separate case, 25-year-old Jordan David Baird of Warrenton was reported to have had inappropriate contact with a victim at the Life Church in Manassas in 2015, Prince William County police said in a statement. An investigation found that Baird, a youth pastor at the church, sent inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old girl and inappropriately touched her on more than one occasion at the church between January and September of last year, the statement said.

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VIRGINIA
WUSA

MANASSAS, VA. (WUSA9) – A youth pastor at a Manassas church is being accused of touching a 16-year-old girl inappropriately and sending her inappropriate text messages, Prince William County police said.

The incident happened at the Life Church located at 11234 Balls Ford Rd. in Manassas, according to authorities.

The investigation shows that the accused, 21-year-old Jordan David Baird, of Warrenton sent the victim inappropriate text messages and touched her inappropriately on more than one occasion between January and September of 2015.

Police said the incidents happened at the church.

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VIRGINIA
NBC Washington

By Julie Carey

Two men who were leading separate church youth groups in Prince William County, Virginia, are facing charges they had inappropriate relationships with underage girls at their churches, police say.

Jordan Baird, 25, is the youth pastor at The Life Church at 11234 Balls Ford Road in Manassas. Police said Baird sent inappropriate text messages and inappropriately touched a 16-year-old girl at the church numerous times between January and September 2015.

Baird’s father, David Baird, is the senior pastor at The Life Church, which has four locations in Northern Virginia.

In a statement to News4, The Life Church said a church volunteer first notified leaders of Baird’s alleged misconduct on June 10, 2016 and the church placed Baird on a leave of absence as they conducted an internal investigation.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Tim Gihring

When allegations of a sex-abuse coverup began to leak out of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis a couple years ago, they were always accompanied by another, seemingly unrelated set of accusations: the bumbling attempts of Archbishop John Nienstedt, then the leader of the archdiocese, to have sex with men.

“The archbishop has been known to go ‘cruising’ (and I am not referring to the type of cruising one does on a ship in the Caribbean) and, on one occasion, purchased ‘poppers’ (and not the exploding candy preferred by elementary school students) and followed another gentleman to his car for, well, the type of activity that men purchase ‘poppers’ for…,” wrote Jennifer Haselberger, the whistleblower whose allegations prompted Nienstedt’s resignation last summer. On her website, Haselberger helpfully links to Wikipedia’s entry on poppers: basically disco-era sex drugs.

In late July, more stories of Nienstedt’s “promiscuous gay lifestyle,” as a fellow priest put it, were released by prosecutors. Most relate to his time in Detroit, where he moved up the clerical ladder in the late 1970s and ’80s. He’s said to have frequented a gay bar just across the border in Canada, whimsically called the Happy Tap.

But even if the allegations are true, it doesn’t mean that Nienstedt is sympathetic to sexual abuse — a link between homosexuality and priestly pederasty is as unproven as it is enduring. Nor does it mark Nienstedt as unusual. Catholic researchers estimate that as many as 58 percent of priests are homosexuals. To confirm that he desired men would be like discovering that the pope is Catholic.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

On Thursday, Archbishop Hon, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, released a statement in which he addressed issues concerning the Redemptoris Mater Seminary (RMS) property in Yona.

Questions surrounding the current status of ownership of the Yona property have circulated within concerned parties and Catholic laity since documentation filed in November of 2011 when a declaration of deed restriction was filed in the government of Guam.

During his first official address to the media, Hon responded to a question regarding the RMS by stating that the property was still entirely within the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Agana. However, in Thursday’s statement, Hon clarified his stance in saying, “The ‘property’ was no doubt acquired by the Archdiocese, and yet its use has been conceded in perpetuity to RMS and Blessed Diego Theological Institute.”

He concluded his statement with the following: “Thus, I hereby sincerely ask the collaboration of all the faithful to act with obedience to the directive of the Holy See. And, in particular, I request that community which now enjoys in perpetuity the use of the “property” to spontaneously and effectively renounce, without any litigation, such a benefit obtained from the Archdiocese of Agana.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Haaretz

Allison Kaplan Sommer Aug 19, 2016

Renewed attention on a $100 million class-action suit against Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was imprisoned for installing cameras in ritual baths to ogle naked women as they showered and prepared for immersion, has reopened old wounds.

Nearly two years after his arrest and more than a year after Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars, the civil action against the rabbi and the religious institutions that allegedly enabled his crimes is only gearing up now.

The lawsuit, which consolidates three separate civil actions filed back in 2014 after Freundel’s arrest, has expanded the number of institutions it is targeting. In addition to suing Freundel personally, the list of targets includes the National Capital Mikvah where the crimes took place, Freundel’s synagogue of 25 years Kesher Israel, and the Rabbinical Council of America, the umbrella organization for Orthodox rabbis. Another target has been newly announced – the Beth Din of America, the religious court.

All these organizations “flagrantly broke their promises, egregiously breached their duties to the women who used the mikveh, and let Rabbi Freundel’s crimes go unchecked for years,” said David Sanford, lead counsel in the class-action suit. “We will ask a D.C. jury to hold all defendants liable and impose punitive damages in order to send a strong message that even institutions draped in the cloak of spirituality won’t escape punishment when they violate their legal obligations.”

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

David Jackson
Chicago Tribune

Standing before the religious icons that line his Ukrainian Orthodox church in Humboldt Park, the Rev. Nicholas Chervyatiuk has ministered to followers who arrived in Chicago as refugees after surviving Nazi Germany’s prison camps.

Now the Cook County public guardian is accusing the priest of improperly taking more than $500,000 from the savings of one of those displaced persons, a 93-year-old former church secretary diagnosed with dementia.

Chervyatiuk has not been charged with a crime, and he denied any wrongdoing during a sworn probate court examination and in a Tribune interview.

He says Nelly Bridgeman wanted him to have her money, which he saw as payment for the care he provided as her health and mental faculties failed.

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GERMANY
Catholic News Agency

By Anian Christoph Wimmer

Trier, Germany, Aug 19, 2016 / 12:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Accusations have been raised in a number of German media that Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising failed to remove from office a priest accused in 2006 of sexually abusing a minor.

The alleged abuser, it appears, was allowed to stayed on as parish priest for a number of years, even going on overnight excursions with youth.

A spokesperson for Cardinal Marx has said that the prelate had acted in accordance with relevant guidelines that were in place at the time.

Saarland public broadcaster SR reports that Cardinal Marx, who was then Bishop of Trier, knew authorities were investigating a parish priest – identified only as “M” – for allegedly sexually abusing a 15 year old boy.

Citing the victim’s legal counsel as a source, SR reports that “M”, who was then 52, had partially confessed the crime to authorities. However, he appears to have avoided prosecution because the alleged crime fell just outside the statute of limitations.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by priests

For immediate release, Friday, August 19, 2016

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

San Antonio’s archbishop is letting a priest who was suspended for sexual misconduct quietly work in his archdiocese. He should reverse this reckless decision.

[NBC Chicago]

Last year, Fr. Marco Mercado was stopped from working in the Chicago archdiocese because of “an inappropriate adult relationship.” These are the words used by Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich. Note he didn’t say “ALLEGED relationship.” Nor did he say “one time incident.” http://www.archchicago.org/

This was, we strongly suspect, a repeated series of selfish, hurtful violations of a vulnerable young person, one who was likely taught since birth to revere and trust priests. And every sexual contact between a Catholic cleric and a Catholic parishioner is, by definition, improper and unhealthy, in part because of the huge power differential between the two.

Cupich and San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller are doing what bishops have done for decades: splitting hairs and making excuses instead of protecting parishioners.

García-Siller, who was a bishop in Chicago, is putting his flock in harm’s way. He is protecting a colleague’s career and pretending to have “investigated” when we strongly suspect he hasn’t even contacted Fr. Mercado’s victim.

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UNITED STATES
Our Stories Untold

by BARBRA GRABER on Aug 18, 2016

“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. [The perpetrator] appeals to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering.”

— Judith Herman

Sometime in the early 90’s, associate editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, James Coggins, was commissioned by a consortium of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ editors to write an article entitled “Should we report scandal in the Mennonite press?” It was printed in the April 1991 issue of MBH. Coggins answers the question with a resounding yes. His reasons for reporting scandal and naming names include these positive outcomes:

* Warn potential victims
* Discourage charlatans
* Enhance the credibility of the church press and the church
* Demonstrate commitment to the truth
* Help us remember who we are
* Coogins goes on to say:

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Colm Ward
19 Aug 2016

A PRIEST based in west Limerick has been suspended from duty as a result of what is understood to be an allegation of sexual impropriety.

A letter was read out to mass-goers in the parish last weekend explaining that the long-serving priest would step down from his duties pending an investigation into the allegation.

It is understood that the allegation relates to an isolated “historic” event. However the nature of the complaint has not been made public by the diocese of Limerick.

Locals who spoke to the Limerick Leader this week said they were surprised and shocked when the letter was read out at masses in the area.

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GERMANY
Christian Today

James Macintyre 19 August 2016

An unprecedentedly low number of Catholic priests in Germany are being ordained, new figures show, as a crisis appears to be engulfing the Church in that country.

Only 58 men joined the clergy in 2015, according to the figures released by the German Episcopal Conference this week.

The number of ordinations has dropped by half in the past decade: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained, and five decades ago, in 1965, the number was 500.

Today, there are 14,000 Catholic priests active in Germany, down from almost 20,000 in 1990.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

A society that refuses to rally against its own criminals at least with same roar as it rallies against other sectors of society is indeed doing a lot of harm to itself.

David Fachler Aug 19, 2016

Last week in a bold and unprecedented move, Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau penned an open letter to Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) educators cautioning them to “deal seriously” with instances of child abuse that have been reported at educational institutions and in some homes. “Burying our heads in the sand is not the answer to these difficult and painful issues,” Lau wrote, urging members of the community to take responsibility for the atrocities.

Lau’s letter came in the wake of a report that as many as six teachers from a Hasidic school in Tel Aviv have been charged with abusing almost two dozen preschool and elementary school students. This is by no means an isolated incident: In the last few months at least three Israeli Torah scholars have been accused of sexually abusing women and girls, and in two of these cases the victims involved close members of the perpetrators’ families.

To make matters worse, such abuse within the ultra-Orthodox community has not been confined to Israel. Similar abuse cases, in which rabbis preyed on naïve young women, have been reported in the United States and the United Kingdom, while Australia has established a royal commission to investigate why a school had concealed the abuse of its students for 20 years. We know about these cases because the authorities have managed to prosecute and punish these criminals. There are other cases where offenders have evaded punishment by exploiting the Law of Return and escaping to Israel. Sadly, there are some rabbinical miscreants who not only go unpunished – they continue to occupy their pulpits owing to the victims refusing to press charges and the communities that wish to sweep such allegations under the rug.

This shocking situation obviously does not mean that the ultra-Orthodox community is uniquely guilty of sexual abuse. A community as large and diverse as this one surely deserves the presumption that most of its adherents are decent individuals who strictly uphold religious law. Indeed, the overwhelming majority frowns upon any sexual impropriety, and barriers are set up to avoid such eventualities. Men and women are rarely on a first name basis and meetings between the sexes are always held with open doors to prevent any hint of intimacy. Children, from a young age are not placed in close confines with relatives of their extended families of the opposite sex, and religious teachers are trained to spot and report suspicious signs of child abuse.

The problem is that the community often fails to report and publicly protest crimes such as child and sexual abuse – a failure that may be traced to Haredi culture. From a young age, the Haredi child is taught that emunat hakhamim, belief in Torah sages and rabbis, is such an important principle that it renders many sages infallible in their eyes. They are also familiar with the dictum that the Torah serves as an antidote to one’s evil inclination. These combined beliefs place Haredi children in a double bind, so that not only are their teachers “incapable” of erring, they have also been “immunized” from committing evil acts.

Given such a framework, what is a Haredi child (or naive adult) with personal knowledge of sexual crimes meant to think when he knows the perpetrators are Torah scholars? How can he contemplate that his teachers or mentors are sexual deviants? And if these perpetrators are so evil, why is it only the Chief Rabbinate that reacts? The only body that counts within this community is the Council of Torah Sages; while it regularly calls for mass protests when it feels its religious lifestyle is under threat, the council has remained eerily silent on the subject of abuse. How are these children to know that such actions are intolerable and that any Torah taught by such offenders is worth very little?

Sadly, they probably won’t. A child growing up in an insular Haredi neighborhood will learn by the ever-present posters he sees, and by the demonstrations he attends, that sexual deviancy is not all that important. It certainly does not trump the issue of dead bones being exhumed to make way for a highway or hospital. It is no more important than secular Jews wishing to enjoy themselves at the cinema on a Friday night, and is probably no less evil than a Haredi traitor who dares put on an army uniform.

In such an environment, why should there be any incentive to report sexual offenses? This is especially true where reporting comes at a cost: whistleblowers and victims are keenly aware that any exposure severely harms their own and their progeny’s marriage prospects. Is it any wonder then that abuse continues as long as it does until one courageous man or woman has the guts to go to the police?

Unfortunately, this situation is not mitigated by the argument that the Haredi sector’s individual members and organizations have done much to benefit society as a whole. And yet a society that ignores its own internal problems, that refuses to rally against its own criminals at least with same roar as it rallies against other sectors of society, and that steadfastly conceals its misdeeds, is indeed doing a lot of harm to itself.

If the Haredi community in Israel and abroad is to reclaim the public’s trust it must shun all acts of sexual abuse. It must act seriously and it must act now. The time has come for the community to demonstrate to itself as well as to others that there is zero tolerance for harming the sexual integrity of anyone created in G-d’s image, especially children.

David Fachler has a Masters in Law from South Africa (LLM) and a Masters in Contemporary Jewry from Hebrew University, Jerusalem (MA). He is contactable at davidfachler@yahoo.com.

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UNITED STATES
Times of Israel

Michael J. Salamon

Why don’t people report abuse?’ is one of the most common questions asked. “If they were really abused wouldn’t they want to tell someone?’ Well yes and no. We know that most people, perhaps the overwhelming majority of those abused do not report what happened to them for three basic reasons. They are afraid to say anything because their abuser has threatened them or their families as part of the grooming they were subjected to. Often, people do not report abuse because they are sure that they will not be believed. And, individuals who have been abused see that when members of their own community have reported abuse they were shunned by the community, even sent packing, having to move away from a beloved home. Overriding all of this is the tendency among many to blame the victims of abuse despite the fact that they were forcibly coerced or were very young or were in some other way unable to protect themselves.

None of this is new information. Anyone working with individuals who have suffered from abuse have seen these dynamics. There is, however, another motivation that keeps people from reporting. It is not simply fear of disbelief, abandonment or being hurt. It is even beyond the antipathy of indifference or the desire not to get involved. It is a sanctimonious belief that not reporting a crime is the best, most protective way to shelter a community. Let me give you a personal example. My experience is not nearly so life altering as abuse – in fact it is, at best, an annoying but simple event rectified rapidly by insurance and the assistance of some friends. Still it suggests a mindset that underlies the environment that allows evil doers to get away with their offenses.

A few short weeks ago I parked my car in a legal spot in the parking lot of a supermarket. I ran in for a few items and was done in less than five minutes. I came out to find that my car had been hit and the front fender and bumper were hanging down. The car that was on the side where the damage was was rapidly leaving the lot. I jumped in my car to see if I could catch the person or at least get the license plate number. I was unable to so I returned to the lot and called the police. While waiting for the police to arrive I notified the store manager and asked if the videos of the lot were working. The manager said they were and were monitored at a sister store a few short blocks away. The manager called the other location to confirm that the video was in fact operating and as the police arrived told them who they can speak with at the monitoring site.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Jennifer Ludlow, CBC News Posted: Aug 19, 2016

Former church properties in Nova Scotia continue to be sold by the Roman Catholic Diocese in Antigonish as a way to pay for the 2009 sex-abuse settlement, with the buildings’ fates ranging from new businesses to arson.

A $15-million settlement was reached in 2009 with victims of sexual abuse by priests dating back to 1950. The diocese is selling land and properties to cover that cost.

“That was our first priority — to make sure that the victims were compensated,” said Rev. Paul Abbass, chairman of the diocese’s real estate committee. “That’s all been complete, but we’re still paying on loans.”

He said some churches like St. Anthony Daniel in Sydney are attracting attention, but not sales. He says it can take a year to seal a deal.

Holy Family converts into funeral home

Trevor Tracey of Glace Bay bought the former Holy Family Church. He now runs TJ Tracey Cremation and Burial Specialist out of the old sanctuary.

“This building met the criteria that I would need for a funeral home,” he said. “It was unfortunate for the church having to close, but it was a blessing for me to receive it and still to have it as a place where people can come to gather to celebrate a life.”

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CHICAGO (IL)/TEXAS
NBC Chicago

[with video]

The Rev. Marco Mercado was removed last October by the Chicago Archdiocese, saying he was involved in “an inappropriate relationship with an adult man” has moved to Texas and begun working in hospital ministry. Mercado tells the Telemundo affiliate in San Antonio that “I’ve been able to refocus in my vocation, in my ministry, my priesthood. That’s why I’m extremely grateful for all the people who’ve supported me, all the people who’ve prayed for me.”

Sources tell NBC 5 Mercado initially returned to Mexico for several months after being removed in October as the rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines. However, now he’s received a new position in the San Antonio Archdiocese where its Archbishop Gustavo Garcia Siller has welcomed him. Garcia had previously been a bishop in Chicago.

The San Antonio Archdiocese released a statement saying “we have conducted our own independent review of the facts and, following that effort, as well as the counseling Father Marco has undertaken and his acceptance of responsibility in the situation in question, we are satisfied that he is suitable for ministry here.” The statement adds “we are working very closely with Father Marco through this process of rehabilitation as he seeks to gradually assume additional responsibilities in ministry in this part of the church in South Texas.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on August 18, 2016

A former Anglican priest convicted in 2010 was back in provincial court in St. John’s Thursday on new charges.

Robin Barrett, 57, was sent to jail in September 2010 to serve 2 1/2 years after he pleaded guilty to possessing and unlawfully distributing child pornography.

Thursday, Barrett was back in court on three charges — distributing or selling child pornography, accessing child pornography and possessing child pornography.

The Crown obtained a number of conditions to be placed on Barrett, who is not in custody while the matter is before the courts. He hasn’t entered a plea in the case and will be back in court on Oct. 5.

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AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury

JOANNE MCCARTHY
19 Aug 2016

THE Hunter Catholic priest who was once punched by a teacher, and who fought child sex allegations in court for eight years, will be sentenced on Monday.

Father David O’Hearn has spent most of the past four years in jail, but will learn on Monday how many years he will remain in custody after he was found guilty of more than 40 child sex offences involving six victims.

The offences occurred in the Hunter while O’Hearn worked as a trainee priest and priest in parishes including Cessnock, Muswellbrook and Windale in the 1980s and 1990s. Victims ranged from nine to 13.

In a statement in May after the last of O’Hearn’s trials, Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Bill Wright expressed “great shame that another member of the clergy has been guilty of crimes of this kind”.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Adrienne Sanders, asanders@lohud.com August 17, 2016

This article is staff writer Adrienne Sanders’ latest in an ongoing series that looks at the East Ramapo school district with its unique blend of private and public schools.

NEW SQUARE – Each year, when registering their children for private school, parents in the all-Hasidic village of New Square must agree in writing to follow a detailed list of very specific rules — or risk the expulsion of their children from the only school in town.

For example, mothers are banned from driving, and they must shave their heads and wear only clothing that extends at least 5 or 6 inches below the knee. The far more abbreviated list of rules for fathers requires them to pray regularly with a quorum and refrain from cutting their beards.

This fall, however, New Square authorities introduced several new rules that reflect the community’s fears about the dangers of the Internet. The changes have renewed critics’ condemnation of the Skverer sect’s attempts to control its followers — particularly women.

The new rules include:

* Mothers are prohibited from using smartphones — even for business purposes.
* Mothers and fathers must cease using WhatsApp, a popular smartphone messaging application.
* As announced last month on a large flier taped to the village’s synagogue wall — no one may use cellphones without web filters.

Authorities posted the notice after it was discovered that some adults were keeping second, unfiltered phones in addition to their approved “kosher” ones.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

19 August, 2016

The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is making an address today to the Judicial College of Victoria.

The address is titled “Meeting and managing community expectations”, and is being given as part of the Judicial College of Victoria’s Historical Sexual Offences program.

A copy of Justice McClellan’s speech is available here.

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MAINE
Castine Patriot

by Monique Labbe

Emerson Hall was standing room only Tuesday, August 16, as residents of Castine and the surrounding area listened to former Boston Globe editor Ben Bradlee Jr. recount his experience as part of the “Spotlight” team that brought the sexual misconduct cases of the Catholic Church to the forefront of the Boston community.

Bradlee led the team in its investigation into several priests in the community, uncovering solid evidence that these cases of sexual misconduct had occurred and were covered up by the diocese.

“Calling it sexual misconduct seems too gentle a word,” said Bradlee during his talk. “They were rapes, is what they were, mostly to altar boys.”

After several stories made it into the Boston Globe in the 1990s, the case started coming up cold, as the reporters were unable to obtain church documents that would convict the priests of the crime. That changed in 2002, when, after a successful lawsuit against the Boston diocese, the reporters on the Spotlight team were able to comb through those church documents, finding case after case of reported sexual abuse to the children.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
18 AUG 2016

A Christian brother accused of sexually abusing a student decades ago has told a court he had no sexual contact with the boy “whatsoever”.

Christopher Rafferty, 65, has pleaded not guilty in the District Court in Sydney to six sex offences from when the boy was aged 14 until he was 16.

They allegedly occurred in the mid-1980s at a school in the NSW town of Goulburn.

On Thursday, the teacher of 43 years was asked under oath if he had had any sexual contact with the student.

“None whatsoever,” he replied.

Rafferty also denied an allegation that he took the boy when he was in year 9 into his bedroom, saying he could not have done such a thing without anyone seeing.

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