ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 15, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Guam’s interim Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai will be leaving the Archdiocese of Agana temporarily. According to the latest issue of Umatuna Si Yu’os, Hon says the local church will be under the watch of the delegate of the administrator, Father Jeff San Nicolas.

Father Jeff will be assisted by the chancellor, Father Lito Abad. His scheduled absence is a result of pastoral visits abroad. These commitments were made months prior as part of his duties as secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples. Hon was just in Saipan over the weekend for the ordination of Bishop-Elect Ryan Jimenez.

Hon’s travel is scheduled for August 17 through 25.

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

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 15, 2016

By Krystal Paco

Their numbers are growing. Picketers continued their Sunday ritual outside the Hagatna Cathedral. Their signs demand that Archbishop Anthony Apuron be defrocked as well as question the actions of Guam’s interim Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai.

Archbishop Hon was appointed by the Vatican to care for the Archdiocese of Agana while Apuron was placed on leave amid allegations of molestation.

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

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A pedophile priest who “overlooked” one victim when he confessed to sexually abusing dozens of boys should not be sent back to jail, a judge has been told.

Former NSW Hunter region priest Vincent Gerard Ryan, who was released in 2010 after 14 years behind bars, said when he had tried to “wipe the slate clean” he had “no memory” of a case now before the District Court.

The 78-year-old’s lawyer, Mark Preece, submitted it would be a “truly crushing and horrible outcome” for the aged and rehabilitated offender to return to jail.

The notorious pedophile has pleaded guilty to attempting homosexual intercourse with a male under 18, indecent assault and gross indecency of an altar boy in the mid-1980s.

The abuse was revealed when that victim faced a sentence hearing for sex offences.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

15 Aug 2016

If a nation’s greatness is gauged by how it treats its weakest members, then its morality must also be gauged on how it treats its most innocent.

And, if we are to use barometers such as the royal commission and exposure of extreme disciplinary measures at the Don Dale detention centre in the Northern Territory, then we, as a country, have failed.

And we continue to fail.

However, is the very public disclosure of abuse doing more than just exposing our deep-seated wrongdoings and failings?

Is the fact that we are being forced to watch on as the undeniably horrific truth is laid bare in front of us, and not be given a chance to look away like we had conveniently done in the past, helping to build momentum for real change about how we deal with our youngest and most vulnerable?

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MAINE
Law Office of Mitchell Garabedian

August 15, 2016

1.2 million dollar settlement reached between Diocese of Portland, Maine, and six (6) plaintiffs in fraudulent concealment lawsuits who are also childhood victims of sexual abuse of Fr. James Vallely

What – A press conference announcing a 1.2 million dollar settlement of six (6) fraudulent concealment lawsuits between the Diocese of Portland, Maine, and six (6) plaintiffs and childhood sexual abuse victims of Fr. James Valley

When – Monday, August 15, 2016 at 11:30 am

Where – Law Office of Mitchell Garabedian, 100 State Street, Boston, MA, 02109

Who – Lawrence Gray, a plaintiff in fraudulent concealment lawsuits; Attorney Mitchell Garabedian; and, Dr. Robert Hoatson, President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families

Why – As a result of litigation in an earlier case against Fr. James Vallely and the Diocese of Portland, Maine, the diocese produced a copy of a letter written by a currently-retired priest in 2005 which revealed that the Diocese of Portland, Maine, and Bishop Daniel J. Feeney had knowledge of multiple accusations of sexual abuse of minor children against Fr. James Vallely as far back as 1956. Fr. James Vallely was assigned to St. John’s Parish in Bangor, Maine, in the 1950s. Instead of removing Fr. James Vallely from priestly ministry and notifying the public, Bishop Daniel J. Feeney transferred Fr. James Vallely to another parish where children were placed at risk of further sexual abuse by a serial pedophile priest. The Diocese of Portland, Maine, was aware of this information for decades but fraudulently concealed it. Approximately two weeks ago, the Diocese of Portland, Maine, and six (6) plaintiffs, childhood victims of sexual abuse by Fr. James Vallely, settled the fraudulent concealment lawsuits for 1.2 million dollars.

Contacts – Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, 617-523-6250; Dr. Robert Hoatson, 862-268-2800

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
CHARLES COWELL
ANTHONY VENTURA
ANTHONY CLARK
JAMES COTTER
CHARLES GIVENS
ED KLESS
ANTHONY NOTAROBERTA

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, August 15, 2016

We are graduates of Chaminade, the Catholic boy’s high school in Mineola, L.I. All have, at one time or another, made charitable contributions to, or paid to attend events at or in support of the school.

We made lifelong friends there. The children of many of our closest friends are graduates or current students. Some of us worked there in the past. Some of our classmates are current or former teachers there, as well as at Kellenberg in Uniondale and St. Martin de Porres in Hempstead, schools also run by the same Marianist Province of Meribah that administers Chaminade.

We are not inclined easily to criticize publicly the school or its leaders; we are not detractors, opponents or enemies, but only seek answers to important questions.

We have been guided for decades by the ideals instilled in us during our four challenging years at Chaminade. We have tried to live up to the standards the faculty set for us as students and as men, and to which we believed they held themselves.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

By Alex McKinnon
Source: The Feed 15 AUG 2016

“It’s a sad story, and not of much interest to me.”

Back in March, that’s how Cardinal George Pell recalled the crimes of paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale. That throwaway comment, given during testimony to the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, resonated so profoundly for more than its apparent callousness. For abuse survivors and their loved ones, it perfectly encapsulated the culture of silence, blame-shifting and sheer apathy among church and secular authorities that allowed men like Ridsdale to commit their crimes in the first place, and operate unchecked for decades.

Watching Peter Dutton’s 7.30 interview with Leigh Sales last week, after the Guardian Australia’s release of the Nauru Files revealed in horrifying detail the extent of abuse, assault, and mental anguish inflicted on asylum seekers in Australian offshore detention, those words came to mind again.

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.

Manny Waks

14/8/2016

Today is Tisha b’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, when we commemorate the destruction of the Jewish temples. Traditionally we read from Eicha, the Book of Lamentations.

A courageous victim/survivor of child sexual abuse has written their own powerful version, which I’m sharing below with their permission:

Kinah, from a survivor of child sexual abuse.

אֵיכָה
How
How did you let this happen to her?

בָּכוֹ תִבְכֶּה בַּלַּיְלָה וְדִמְעָתָהּ עַל לֶחֱיָהּ אֵין לָהּ מְנַחֵם מִכָּל אֹהֲבֶיהָ כָּל רֵעֶיהָ בָּגְדוּ בָהּ הָיוּ לָהּ לְאֹיְבִים:

She weeps, yea, she weeps in the night, and her tears are on her cheek; she has no comforter among all her lovers; all her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

How do you, a rav, an askan, a dayan, a teacher, see the pain of an adult still hurt from the pain inflicted upon them as a child, and turn the other check ‘because it happened ten years ago’?

How do you, a rav, an askan, a dayan, a teacher, see the pain of a parent begging on behalf of their betrayed child, and say, well, we can’t believe the testimony of a child, and there is no one else who witnessed the act?

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

CALIFORNIA
CBS News

STOCKTON, Calif. — A Northern California Catholic church is embroiled in a sexting scandal.

A Stockton parishioner claims he was fired from his job after his priest sent him an explicit text message, CBS San Francisco reported.

Now the parishioner has filed a lawsuit.

The incident allegedly happened at the Presentation Church and School. The man bringing the lawsuit has maintained the fountains and pool there for the past seven years.

His attorney, Irvine-based John Manly, said while the married man in his 40s cleaned the pool, Pastor Lawrence McGovern would often sunbathe and make flirtatious comments, “Laying around in a speedo, making our client very uncomfortable.”

“Our client’s a married man,” said Manly. “This is his pastor.”

The suit claims in late July, McGovern texted the man a picture of his genitals.

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

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Helen Gregory
@HGregory_Herald

15 Aug 2016

THE chair of the royal commission into child sexual abuse believes institutions should have to adopt a 10-point checklist of national standards to be classified as “child safe” – and monitored for compliance.

Justice Peter McClellan discussed implications of findings from the royal commission in a key note address to be given on Monday at the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies National Conference.

Justice McClellan said the commission had identified a preliminary list of 10 “elements” it considered “fundamental to a child-safe institution”.

The list included that children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously; families and communities are informed and involved; staff are equipped to keep children safe through continual education and training; and physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse to occur.

“Child safe standards should be nationally consistent and there should be some form of compliance mechanism,” Justice McClellan said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Angie Mason, amason@ydr.com August 14, 2016

The pastor at St. Joseph Church in Dallastown on Sunday urged parishioners to report suspected abuse, after a York Daily Record story that named a priest accused of abuse in Boston who later worked in Dallastown for a period.

In response to the York Daily Record, the Diocese of Harrisburg recently acknowledged by name 15 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children and who at one time worked in the diocese, which covers York County and 14 others. One of the priests was the Rev. Raymond Prybis, who was accused of abuse during his time at a Boston-area parish before he was transferred to St. Joseph’s in Dallastown, where he worked from April 1989 to June 1990.

The diocese said it had no record of any credible allegation against Prybis during his time in the Harrisburg diocese.

Rev. John McCloskey reinforced those points with parishioners during the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday. He called abuse “evil” and “criminal” and said that it should not happen, though it does throughout society.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 15, 2016

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Children are being put at risk of sexual abuse because of gaps and contradictions between different state and territory legislations or systems of oversight.

“These inconsistent systems are impossible to justify,” the chairman of the royal commission, Peter McClellan, will tell the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies conference in Sydney today.

“The safety of a child should not depend on the state or territory in which they reside,” he will say, arguing that it is time for a greater uniformity of laws across the country.

Over the past three years, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has held 42 public hearings and referred more than 1600 matters to police across the country, Justice McClellan will say. More than 60 matters are before the courts as a result.

As a result of its work, Justice McClellan will say the commission has identified inconsistencies and flaws between com­pet­ing systems of child protection, particularly the lack of a national system of working-with-children checks.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Tom McIlroy

Authority and respect for trusted institutions in Australian society should never override reports of danger to young people, the chair of the royal commission into child sexual abuse will argue on Monday.

Justice Peter McClellan will use a speech to the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies in Sydney to call for allegations made by children to be appropriately heard and investigated, regardless of where they originate, and without institutions or their leaders being able to diminish the preparedness of adults to act.

The speech comes days after human rights groups called for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to investigate Australia’s immigration detention centre on Nauru amid leaked reports of sexual violence, abuse and self-harm by refugees and asylum seekers detained at the facility.

The commission says investigating alleged child abuse on Nauru or Manus Island is outside its jurisdictional powers, and the speech does not cite immigration detention abuse allegations.

Justice McClellan will tell the conference the commission has heard from more than 5500 survivors of abuse in Australia in private sessions so far, and has referred more than 1600 allegations to police and other authorities.

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.

NIGERIA
Information Nigeria

Wonders they say, shall never end. Parishioners of the Queen of Apostles Catholic Church, Kakuri parish, Kaduna State, are still reeling from shock after the revelation that Very Reverend Father Peter Zuni, 54, was secretly married to two women.

What the congregation didn’t know is that, one of the wives is dead, while the surviving one who leaked the age-long secret about three weeks ago, is nursing a child for the embattled priest.

The doctrine of the Catholic Church forbids men ordained into priesthood to get married. They are by obligation, to swear to an oath of celibacy and observe perfect and perpetual service for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. This, it is believed, would enable the priests to easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart, and dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and the congregation.

Checks at the Queen of the Apostles parish confirmed the report as parishioners were shocked and surprised to learn of a petition to the Bishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Bishop Ndagoso Manoso, that two women had children for their parish priest, an act considered to be an abomination and grave sin against the Catholic doctrine.

They pointed out that in order to cover up the priest’s ‘sin’ from spreading to the larger public, the Archdiocese allegedly organised a send off for the embattled priest to a remote village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

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

SPAIN
The Daily Beast

Itxu Diaz

The ex-pontiff says his crypto-Fascist church (which made Franco a saint) was only ever intended, really, to bring its leaders sex and money.

ORENSE, Spain — She was called Nieves, and he, Gregorio. They fell in love in torrid, romantic Andalusia. She had had her eye on him, it was said, since they were teenagers and she was an aspiring nun. Now he was 56 and they could confess their mutual adoration. It would be one of those beautiful love stories that plays well on daytime television, and nothing more, had Nieves not spent years digging into certain scandals surrounding the Palmarian Catholic Church, and were Gregorio not Gregorio XVIII, said by the several thousand followers of the schismatic sect to be the one true Catholic pope.

Since May there has been a new pope, Peter III, in the would-be “Spanish Vatican,” because Gregory XVIII “lost his faith,” he said, and eloped with Nieves. She had uncovered plots against him, according to various reports. And, having left the fold, he decided to tell all he knew (or said he knew) about this sect and the millions of dollars in donations the Palmarian Church receives each year.

If you have never heard of it, you are forgiven.

Ex-Pope Gregory XVIII, now simply Ginés Jesús Hernández, told the press that “from the beginning,” when the church was founded in 1974, “everything was a farce” created to satisfy the tastes of its leaders, both financially and sexually.

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NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance

By Mira Wassef | mwassef@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The father of the 13-year-old West Brighton boy who committed suicide posted an emotional video where he calls the kids who bullied his son “monsters.”

“They’re monsters.. disgusting little monsters,” Daniel Fitzpatrick says in the nearly 20 minute Facebook video. “I hope the memory of what you’ve done to my son is burned in your brain for the rest of your life and you suffer as much as he has suffered.”

“Danny was a kind, gentle, little soul,” he said. “He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

On Thursday, the younger Daniel Fitzpatrick hanged himself in the attic of his Davis Avenue home, his family told the Daily News. Daniel’s older sister found him dead around 5:30 p.m., the report said.

In a letter penned last month, Daniel detailed his struggle with bullying at the Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.

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

NEW YORK
CBS New York

[with video]

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A 13-year-old Staten Island boy took his own life after he was mercilessly bullied by his classmates at a private Catholic school.

CBS2’s Brian Conybeare reported Danny Fitzpatrick hung himself in the attic of his home on Thursday. The teen left behind a hand-written note describing the abuse by five boys at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

“They did it constantly,” Danny said in a note, adding that he told his teachers, but they did nothing.

“I gave up the teachers…they didn’t do anything,” Danny wrote.

Daniel Fitzpatrick, Danny’s father, said in a video on Facebook his son “was a kind, gentle little soul” and “didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

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.

NIGERIA
NAIJ.com

Adams Odunayo

Parishioners at Queen of Apostles Catholic Church, Kakuri parish in Kaduna state were left in shock when they got to know that their 54-year-old parish priest, Very Reverend Father Peter Zuni, was married to two women.

A case which negates the doctrine of the Catholic church. Only unmarried men are ordained into the priesthood and they are to swear an oath of celibacy. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Very Reverend Father Peter Zuni

The Sun reports that although one of the two wives was late, the second wife who is still alive and has a baby for the priest, blew the whistle about three weeks ago. When some of the parishioners were interviewed, they confirmed the report, which they said was initially thought to be mere rumour.

One of them who spoke on the condition of anonymity revealed that the case of the priest who had children from two women had gone to the Bishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Bishop Ndagoso Manoso. And that in order to help cover up for the embattled priest, the Archdiocese allegedly organised a send off for him to move to a remote village in Jaba local government area of the state.

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.

WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

It begins tentatively. A polite hug by strangers thrown into a horrific, tumultuous situation by a roll of the dice of the fates.

In seconds it becomes real — arms holding each other tight. Emotions draining. Tears flowing. I mutter the only words I can find at the moment.

“I am so sorry.”

The words seem trite — small in comparison to the gravity of the verdict that has rocked the courtroom audience. But in the shock of the moment I am at a loss for eloquence.

What does one say to the victim of a child sexual predator who is victimized, once again, by the state’s judicial system?

•••

I ignore the hard seat of the wooden courtroom pew as I watch Timothy Probert’s facial expressions. As in previous hearings, he keeps his head low, avoiding eye contact with victims and others in the room.

Silently, I will him to turn his head. Be a man. Look at those who have been harmed through his depraved, sexual appetites. It does no good. His head remains bowed.

I am reminded of a bully who is busted, when the world is shown his true colors.

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.

MALAYSIA
New Straits Times

BY NST EDITORIAL – 14 AUGUST 2016

THE rising number of child sex abuse cases in Malaysia is a wake-up call for us to get a grip on the situation. It is an appalling crime, perpetrated on the most innocent and vulnerable members of society. For many Malaysians, the thought of an adult sexually abusing a child is inconceivable. We seem reluctant to bring up the issue in polite conversation, even when the crime recurs day after day in our homes, schools and institutions, including religious establishments that house the young. Social activist Syed Azmi Al Habshi, who actively champions the prevention of child sex abuse on social media, reports cases of pupils being sexually attacked by their peers in religious schools, or maahad.

A news report last year stated that instances of child abuse, molestation and rape in the country were on the rise. In the first half of 2009, 2,193 of such cases were reported to police, while in 2007 and 2008, the number stood at 4,278. The forecast is that there will be more than 10,000 cases in Malaysia over the next 10 years. The figure is just the tip of the iceberg, as most cases of child abuse remain unknown, with the victims suffering in silence. The growing number of cases underscores the need for stricter scrutiny of those who work with children and youth. It feels horrible to regard fathers, guardians, uncles, brothers, teachers and social workers, among others, with suspicion and distrust, but we have reached a stage where there is little choice in the matter. Reverend Father Gregory Chan, director of the Archdiocesan Single Adults and Youth Office of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Bukit Nanas, agrees. The Richard Huckle case exposed the shortcomings of the church system, which calls for the screening and supervision of volunteers and pastoral workers prior to and during their recruitment, to assess how they interact with youngsters. Mainstream society is just beginning to learn about the nature of sex predators, who are usually people with authority, such as teachers.

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MALAYSIA
New Straits Times

BY SUZANNA PILLAY – 14 AUGUST 2016

EARLIER this month, a 50-year-old English teacher at a primary school in Jerteh, Terrenganu, was detained for allegedly molesting three children at the school’s computer lab.

Serial child abuser Richard Huckle, 30, a British photographer suspected of abusing up to 200 children aged between 6 and 12 months during his stay in Malaysia from 2006 to 2014, had volunteered as an English teacher and at a church while insidiously targeting poor and marginalised communities.

Social activist Syed Azmi Al Habshi, who actively champions the prevention of child sexual abuse on social media, shared stories from Facebook followers of how students were sexually attacked by their peers in religious schools or maahad.

These cases highlight the fact that preventing child sex abuse requires strict scrutiny of child protection policies in schools and organisations that work with children and youth.

Director of the Archdiocesan Single Adults & Youth Office of the Roman Catholic Diocese, Bukit Nanas, Reverend Father Gregory Chan says child sexual abuse cuts across all boundaries and involves babies, preschoolers and primary and secondary school students.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Donal O’Regan
14 Aug 2016

A COUNTY Limerick priest, who is one of the youngest in Ireland, has defended the national seminary in Maynooth from anonymous allegations of “homosexuality and misconduct”.

Fr Ger Fitzgerald, Castleconnell, who only left St Patrick’s College in 2011 and is still in contact with priests there, says it is being portrayed as a “golden house of debauchery, sin and squalor”.

“In my time, this was not the case. No parties were had and there were no drinks in rooms. This simply did not happen during my years,” said Fr Fitzgerald, who entered the seminary in August, 2005.

Now based in Ennis, the 36-year-old says he felt he “should say something considering the recent storm that appears to have engulfed my old alma mater”. To have an image of Maynooth as a replica of a Christmas party in The Wolf of Wall Street is an “inaccurate representation”, he said.

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UNITED STATES
truthdig

Author and activist Nancy Levine on Thursday published an open letter on Medium directed at Liz Spayd, The New York Times’ public editor. Levine asked the Times to provide better coverage of child sexual abuse.

Levine also asked for transparency about a potential conflict of interest she believes is limiting the publication’s coverage of the proposed Child Victims Act, a piece of New York state legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for prosecuting cases of abuse against underage children. So far, 38 survivors of abuse and advocates fighting against the problem have signed Levine’s letter.

“As advocates working to raise awareness of issues surrounding child sexual abuse, we would like to ask The Times to elevate its editorial sensitivity to covering related news,” Levine writes. “Can we, the community of survivors of child sexual abuse and advocates, count on The Times to elevate its editorial sensitivity to covering news that affects us?”

In the letter, Levine also refers to “an appearance of a conflict of interest” in “The Times’ absence of recent coverage of the Child Victims Act of New York.” In a separate piece, also published on Medium, Levine outlines the potential conflict and shares her correspondence with Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Daniel Boffey
Saturday 13 August 2016

Lawyers for nine men said to have been repeatedly sexually abused at school have accused Justice Lowell Goddard of treating their clients with contempt and costing them money by “walking off” from the troubled child abuse inquiry.

The men who attended Stanhope Castle approved school in Co Durham travelled to the high court in London, days before the judge from New Zealand resigned, to offer evidence as to why they should take part in the independent inquiry into child sex abuse.

Even though the men – one of whom has been bed-bound for more than a decade – are vulnerable individuals who claim to have been “seriously and repeatedly sexually abused” as children, they were not offered any resolution on their application for “core participant” status before Goddard quit.

Their lawyer, David Enright of Howe & Co solicitors, has written to Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, to complain about the treatment of his clients by the judge, who was on an annual pay package of £500,000. In a letter obtained by this newspaper, Enright says: “My clients were shocked that, subsequently and just days after they had made their renewed application for core participant status to Justice Goddard, she resigned with immediate effect.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Zoltan Szekely

August 13, 2016

I would like to acknowledge the alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse and their families who came forward with complaints in the last few months. Their testimonies detailing events that happened over 40 years ago must be heard with attention and sincerity. The proposed bill tries to make justice for the alleged victims. However, some of the circumstances of this piece of legislation raise concerns.

Parts of the bill remain unclear and unexplained. It applies to alleged victims whose claimed abuse occurred a long time ago and the statute of limitation prevented them in the past and still prevents them now from filing a lawsuit. The Guam Legislature had already chosen a solution in 2011. The statute of limitation was lifted for two years, but nobody came forward with a sexual abuse complaint.

Simply overriding an existing law without substantial and compelling reason raises serious doubts. Bill Pesch writes in the PDN on June 26: “Although appellate courts may allow a legislature to alter the civil statute of limitations for pursuing cases of child sexual abuse once, there is serious doubt that they will allow it twice. This may well be considered an ‘expo facto’ law,” a law enacted backward in time.

It was said that the “intent is to remove the current section requiring ‘certificates of merit,’ as such information would have a chilling effect on those sexual abuse survivors who choose to seek justice against their victimizers.” Well, was it not the Guam Legislature that created the Certificates of Merit section in the current law at the first place? We need at least some explanation here.

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

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY ADAM SHRIER ROCCO PARASCANDOLA THOMAS TRACY NANCY DILLON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Friday, August 12, 2016

Before he took his own life, Daniel Fitzpatrick, taunted and bullied, wrote a final, heartbreaking letter lamenting that nearly no one tried to help him.

The 13-year-old Staten Island boy, mercilessly badgered over his weight, grades and his innocent heart, pleaded to his school for help.

But teacher after teacher at Holy Angels Catholic Academy — the principal, too — turned a deaf ear, refusing to intervene, he said in the letter that was never sent.

Finally, overwhelmed by the torment, Daniel hanged himself, his family said.

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

CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

AUGUST 12, 2016, BY KAY RECEDE

STOCKTON — As a monsignor, Larry McGovern is supposed to be a person Catholics can respect and trust. However, with recent allegations of sexual harassment, it seems that trust has been broken.

According to attorney Vince Finaldi, his client, a parishioner with the Church of the Presentation, claims McGovern sent him sexually explicit pictures.

“It’s extremely disturbing that the person’s who is head of this parish would be sending text with photographs of his exposed genitals,” Finaldi said.

Finaldi claimed his client, who is also a pool maintenance contractor for the church, was sent a text message of McGovern’s private parts in July.

“Someone’s who’s engaging in that type of conduct has very, very serious credibility issues and issues with judgement,” Finaldi explained.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS 13

[with video]

August 13, 2016 By Shirin Rajaee

STOCKTON (CBS13) — There’s more trouble for the Catholic church. A Stockton pool man claims he was fired after a priest sent him sexually explicit text messages. He has now filed a civil lawsuit and wants the priest removed.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Joaquin County

Monsignor Larry McGovern is not just the head of Presentation Church in Stockton, but also the head of a Catholic school. Some parishioners say he’s been a role model to them and the allegations against him are unbelievable.

“I cannot believe it, I cannot believe, there are so many things that I just pray to God that this is not true,” says parishioner Claudia Liborio.

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IRELAND
New Ross Standard

David Looby
PUBLISHED
13/08/2016

So the hallowed halls of the National Seminary Maynooth are, in fact, dens of hormonal young men seeking companionship and love.

Surprise, surprise. The Catholic Church has tried to shape the sexual mores of this country’s people for hundreds of years. I have clear recollections – as recent as the bank holiday weekend – of my father recalling the proselytising and pontificating of men of the cloth on the pulpit, getting all hot and bothered as they told the poor souls in the congregation about how they’ll go to hell for sins of the flesh.

Today we live in less prehistoric times and yet the church is still clinging to its dogma.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s decision to transfer three seminarians to Rome smacks of other transfer decisions made by the Irish Catholic Church down through the years. For men of faith who avouch believing while not seeing, it seems strange that they so often believe that shunting the trouble makers out of sight will get rid of the ‘problem.’

From what I gather some seminarians were using the gay dating website Grindr and there was some homosexual activity in the college. I have friends who are gay and can clearly recall how difficult it was for them to come out. The country still treats gay people as second class citizens and that is wrong.

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IRELAND
The Sligo Champion

PUBLISHED
13/08/2016

The Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran has not ruled out sending a local seminarian for training to St Patrick’s Seminary in Maynooth.

In a statement to The Sligo Champion, Bishop Doran said: “As it happens, the Diocese of Elphin does not currently have any seminarian in Maynooth. When making a decision as to where a candidate would be sent for seminary formation, the bishop is guided by the particular formation needs and personal aptitudes of the individual concerned.” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there were “strange goings-on there”.

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NEDERLAND
BN

[The Brothers of Tilburg pay more than three million euros to victims of abuse.]

TILBURG – De misbruikaffaire in de katholieke kerk is formeel bijna afgesloten. Bij de Fraters van Tilburg resteren nog vijf gevallen die moeten worden afgehandeld.

Overste Jan Koppens verwacht dat zijn orde straks in totaal ruim drie miljoen heeft betaald aan slachtoffers van (vooral) seksueel misbruik en geweld.

De Fraters van Tilburg zijn ‘koploper’ als het gaat om misbruik zoals die door de commissie-Deetman is onderzocht. De orde heeft met 123 slachtoffers een financiële regeling getroffen, na klachten over in totaal 74 fraters.

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TURKEY
Hurriyet Daily News

The Constitutional Court has ruled to annul a provision that punishes all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse,” stirring outrage from academics and women’s rights activists who warn that the decision will lead to cases of child abuse going unpunished.

The Constitutional Court discussed the issue upon an application from a district court, which complained that the current law does not discriminate between age groups in cases of child sexual abuse and treats a 14-year-old as equal to a four-year-old.

The local court said the law does not provide legal consequences for the “consent” of victims in cases where the child victim is from 12 to 15 years of age and able to understand the meaning of the sexual act. “This creates an imbalance between legal benefits and sanctions that should be preserved in crime and punishment,” the application stated.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

During a sentencing hearing for Timothy Probert, who pleaded guilty in April to 37 charges related to sexual abuse of boys while a church volunteer and mentor for at-risk youth, two victims addressed the court. Following is the full statement of one of those victims:

“I am thankful for the opportunity to address this court. I intend to do so plainly, directly and honestly.

“I am here as a victim of Tim Probert.

“I am here because Tim Probert systematically and methodically groomed me as a 14 year old boy to feed his twisted, pathetic sexual appetites. Tim Probert was an elder in my church. He was a family friend. He was trusted by the family of my closest friend.

“Tim Probert was strategic to establish a friendship with me so that I would become increasingly sexual with him. Over the course of approximately two years I spent about four different nights at Tim Probert’s house. The progression was always the same. First friendship through shooting pool; sharing meals; watching movies. Along the way alcohol was always introduced. Then Tim would provide us with pornography to watch with him. As a 14-year-old, pubescent boy with my earliest access to alcohol I masturbated in the presence of Tim Probert. As a grown man, a trusted citizen of our community, a family friend, an elder of the church of Jesus Christ, Tim Probert masturbated in my presence. Tim Probert asked me if he could masturbate me, which I declined. I was unable to see it at the time, but have come to believe this was the carefully choreographed work of a seasoned sexual predator.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

12 Aug 2016

FOR the past two weeks, the Hunter public has heard graphic and often shocking details of sexual abuse of children by priests of the Anglican diocese of Newcastle.

Other actions, while perhaps not illegal, are nonetheless hard to reconcile given the role of the church in its devotion to the spiritual and pastoral well-being of its flock.

As its title suggests, this Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is more concerned with the ways that allegations of abuse were historically handled, than with the detail of the allegations themselves.

That said, the commission has established that at least 30 cases of child sexual abuse by priests were known to the diocese. It has also become clear that senior figures in the diocese had ample knowledge of the misdeeds of its clergy, at the time their crimes or moral failings were committed, or very soon after. Unfortunately, it was not until the current director of professional standards, Michael Elliott, began in 2009 at the behest of business manager John Cleary that the diocese did anything to clear the sexual skeletons from its closet.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 13, 2016

SIMONE FOX KOOB
JournalistSydney
@SimoneFoxKoob

A former bishop of Newcastle who presided over the diocese while convicted pedophile Peter Rushton was a priest has admitted the Anglican Church’s policy on abuse allegations during the 1990s was “totally unacceptable”.

Roger Herft, now the Anglican Archbishop of Perth, gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday and admitted he took the word of priests accused of sex offences.

“The view that I had of the priesthood was one in which the person who had made the commitment to sacred orders was of such a high calling and calibre they would seek to tell me the truth and seek to be responsive to vulnerable people,” he said. “It was difficult to me to associate that people living by these vows could even begin to associate with this kind of ­offence.”

The archbishop was in charge in Newcastle from May 1993 to February 2005, a time when there were numerous abuse allegations against priests in the diocese.

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Sarah Mac Donald | Aug. 12, 2016

A prominent Irish theologian has strongly criticized the absence of Irish bishops from the funeral Mass of moral theologian, Marist Fr. Sean Fagan, who was censured by the Vatican in 2008, and who died on July 15.

Augustinian Fr. Gabriel Daly, 88, wrote in a blog on the Association of Catholic Priests’ website that the presence of a bishop at Fr Fagan’s funeral would have been “a golden occasion to express metanoia and the readiness to respond more sensitively to the message of the Gospel” and it would have meant so much to the Marist priest’s family.

The Augustinian, who recently published The Church — Always in Need of Reform, said the presence of a bishop at Fagan’s funeral would have given witness to the triumph of Gospel values over institutional church attitudes. “Regrettably no bishop was present,” he wrote. “I believe that this omission was not personal; it was institutional.”

“It is highly probable that many bishops knew that the Roman Curia had behaved in a thoroughly unjust and unchristian fashion when it attacked six Irish priests who were giving admirable and enlightened service to God’s people,” he continued. “No bishop expressed public disapproval of what was happening, or came to the defense of priests who were being treated so appallingly by men who would have described themselves, somewhat implausibly, as Christians.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Phoebe Wearne, Newcastle – The West Australian on August 13, 2016

Perth’s Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft has told a royal commission that he struggles “to find an answer” for failing to act on warnings about a notorious paedophile priest abusing at least one boy in his diocese.

Archbishop Herft gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday, focusing on his level of knowledge of historic claims of child sexual abuse during his time as Bishop of Newcastle between May 1993 and February 2005.

Asked by counsel assisting the royal commission Naomi Sharp if he dropped the ball with serial abuser Father Peter Rushton, Archbishop Herft said he “should have acted more effectively” but did not.

“I don’t know whether ‘dropped the ball’ is an adequate phrase,” Archbishop Herft said.

“I’ve asked myself a number of times why was I not more alert, why weren’t the people around me more alert, why weren’t the other Archdeacons outside of the particular group that we have spoken about more alert. And I struggle to find an answer for that.”

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Jonah Hicap 13 August 2016

A church official in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia who exposed the child sex abuse cover-ups in an Anglican diocese has disclosed that he has been subjected to attacks by unidentified vandals.

Director Michael Elliott of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle professional standards board on Thursday testified before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he had to transfer residences several times because of the attacks.

He said spiked objects were placed under his car, the fly screens were removed from his children’s bedrooms and his dog is now missing, according to News.com.au.

Elliott told the Royal Commission, which is investigating the child sex abuse scandal, that the diocese made a move to undermine the board as it began investigating the case against four clerics and a teacher.

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SCOTLAND
The National

AUGUST 13TH, 2016

JANICE BURNS

VICTIMS wept in court as the headmaster and a teacher from a former Catholic school for troubled boys were jailed for a total of 15 years for a catalogue of horrific physical and sexual abuse against six pupils more than 30 years ago.

One person shouted “hope you enjoy every day of it” as priest John Farrell, 73, and Paul Kelly, 64, were led away to serve their jail terms.

The pair preyed on youngsters between the ages of 11 and 15 at St Ninian’s in Falkland, Fife, run by the Christian Brothers organisation before its closure in 1983.

Sentencing the pair at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, the judge condemned them for committing a “gross abuse of trust” in one of the biggest abuse inquiries of its kind ever carried out by Police Scotland.

Farrell, of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, was jailed for five years for three counts of indecent assault. Kelly, of Plymouth, Devon, was given 10 years in prison for four counts of indecent assault and two assault charges.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Victim sexually abused by Probert describes ‘every parent’s nightmare’

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — Tears flowed down anguished faces in a Mercer County courtroom Friday as victims of a man described as “every parent’s nightmare” learned he would spend a mere fraction of time behind bars rather than the hundreds of years he was facing.

Members of the courtroom audience sat in shocked silence as the judge delivered his sentence and they watched deputies lead a handcuffed Timothy Probert out of the room.

Victims, family members, prosecutors and others then lingered in the courtroom, sharing hugs, openly weeping and expressing dismay at the judge’s mandate.

•••

Probert, 58, of Princeton, pleaded guilty in April to 37 charges related to child sexual abuse that occurred while he served as a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.

Probert, who was facing 171 to 489 years in prison, was sentenced to 15 to 35 years by retired Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers. Vickers was appointed as a special judge on the case in 2015 after Mercer County Circuit Court judges Omar Aboulhosn, Derek Swope and William “Bill” Sadler recused themselves citing conflicts of interest.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

• December 12, 2013: Timothy Probert, a former youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor with the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect program, is arrested on 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges.

• December 18, 2013: A Bluefield Daily Telegraph investigation reveals Probert was accused of similar crimes in 1999.

• February 4, 2014: Graphic testimony is recounted during Probert’s preliminary hearing by Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the West Virginia State Police Crimes Against Children Unit. Probable cause is found, and the case is bound over to the grand jury.

• March 2014: Probert is placed on house arrest after a man testifies at a hearing that he was propositioned by Probert when he went to his Bluefield home seeking to do yard work or other labor.

• February 10, 2015: Probert is indicted on 50 charges related to alleged sexual abuse of children. The new charges stem from another alleged victim coming forward, and additional charges added in other cases.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Nassim Benchaabane St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • An advocacy group won’t be allowed to appeal a federal court’s order to hand over private information about people who accused a St. Louis-area priest of sexual abuse of a minor.

A federal judge in St. Louis ruled Friday that the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests has to hand over emails, text messages and contact information of people who accused Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang of sexually abusing a boy in a Catholic school bathroom on charges that were later dropped.

Jiang filed a civil lawsuit against the boy’s parents, police and SNAP leaders David Clohessy and Barbara Davis, alleging they conspired against him for monetary gain, and that police officers went after him because of his religious and racial background.

SNAP refused to comply with the order, which also required turning over all records of donations attorneys for SNAP have made to the organization. The order said federal law does not guarantee privacy in the production of pre-trial evidence.

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NEWMEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Friday, August 12th, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico native has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused in the 1970s by a former priest who turned up in Morocco earlier this year, more than a quarter century after he vanished from his Albuquerque parish.

Arthur Perrault, who helped ignite the clerical abuse crisis in New Mexico in the 1990s, was served with an unrelated lawsuit in May at an English-language school in Tangier where he apparently worked at the time.

The new lawsuit, filed Aug. 4 in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, alleges that an unidentified man was sexually abused by Perrault from 1975 to 1977, both on and off church property.

The man, who now lives outside New Mexico, was abused when he was a child parishioner at Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Albuquerque, the suit says.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

by Michael Alexander
August 13 2016

As two men are jailed for abuse at the former St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, what are the long term consequences for survivors of child abuse as they move into adulthood? Michael Alexander spoke to some of the survivors to find out.

It was the day that the headmaster and a teacher of a former Fife school for troubled boys were finally convicted of physical and sexual abuse against six pupils more than 30 years ago.

John Farrell, 73, and Paul Kelly, 64, were sentenced to five and 10 years respectively for assaulting vulnerable pupils at St Ninian’s in Falkland, Fife, which was run by the worldwide Congregation of Christian Brothers.

The pair abused the boys – many who already had a chaotic upbringing and whom they should have been protecting – to satisfy their depraved needs.

On Friday August 12 at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Matthews said they had committed a “gross abuse of trust”.

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CALIFORNIA
News-Sentinel

Friday, August 12, 2016 1

By Christina Cornejo/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Allegations of sexual harassment have surfaced against Monsignor Lawrence McGovern, the pastor of Presentation Catholic Parish in Stockton.

Attorneys at Manly, Stewart and Finaldi, a Southern California law firm, filed suit on Thursday in San Joaquin County Superior Court on behalf of a victim who alleges that McGovern sent sexually explicit pictures to him. The victim was working as a pool maintenance contractor for the pastor and also alleges that McGovern ended the victim’s employment in retaliation for reporting the behavior to police.

After he received the photograph, attorneys said the victim asked why McGovern texted him a graphic photograph of his naked genitalia, pointing out that he assumed the priest was celibate. McGovern allegedly responded that “celibate means not married,” according to victim.

“This would be a clear violation of the law by any employer, but it is even more disturbing when committed by a member of the clergy,” said attorney John Manly.

Since hearing about the allegations for the first time on Friday, the Diocese of Stockton announced that Bishop Stephen Blaire has placed McGovern on administrative leave pending a full and complete investigation.

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IRELAND
The Argus

Anne Campbell
PUBLISHED
13/08/2016

Recently retired Knockbridge Parish priest, Fr Gerard McGinnity, has revealed how he is thinking of writing a book about his life and his role in highlighting problems at St Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth, days after Archbishop Diarmuid Martin revealed he is to send trainee priests from his diocese to the Irish College in Rome.

A series of senior bishops have backed the college amid allegations of a ‘gay culture’ in St Patrick’s College. Archbishop Martin has withdrawn his trainee priests from Maynooth due to what he described as allegations of a ‘homosexual, gay culture, that students are using an app called Grindr, a gay dating app’.

However, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and Dundalk’s parish priest, will continue to send trainee priests to Maynooth. A spokesman for Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, the Primate of All Ireland, said the Archdiocese was ‘extremely grateful to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for the spiritual, human, pastoral and academic formation that he received there’.

Fr McGinnity is a former senior dean at Maynooth and in the 1980s was relieved of his post after he raised complaints seminarians then had brought to him. Speaking to RTE Radio 1’s News at One last week, Fr McGinnity he said the current controversy was ‘like deja vu in many respects’ and recalled what happened when he brought trainee priests’ complaints to the hierarchy.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

12 AUG 2016

BY PAUL O’HARE

DAVE SHARP endured hell at the school run by the Catholic order and says the sentences handed down to Priest John Farrell and teacher Paul Kelly today were not enough.

A VICTIM of historical child abuse today blasted the sentences handed down to two paedophile teachers at a residential school run by a Catholic order.

Priest John Farrell and teacher Paul Kelly were jailed for a total of 15 years for brutalising young boys at St Ninian’s in Falkland, Fife, in the 70s and 80s.

But Dave Sharp, who endured hell at the school run by the Christian Brothers, said the men should have been caged for longer.

Dave said: “Child abuse on this scale should carry a life sentence.

“To destroy somebody’s life as a child should not be treated the same as burgling a house or robbing a bank.

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TEXAS
TXKtoday

By Field Walsh – August 12, 2016

Texarkana pastor David Farren was arrested Friday on a sexual assault charge for the second time this month.

Farren, 41, was taken into custody Friday on a felony charge of second degree sexual assault and a misdemeanor charge of violation of mandatory reporting requirements. Farren was arrested Aug. 3 on three counts of felony first degree sexual assault for misconduct which allegedly occurred in 2013 when the girl was 16, according to an earlier press statement from Texarkana, Ark., police. The newest sexual assault charge involves a different alleged victim than the charges which led to Farren’s Aug. 4 arrest.

Farren currently serves as pastor of Anchor Church in Texarkana. Previously he worked as a youth director and pastor at Heritage Baptist Church, Trinity Baptist Church and Faith Church, according to statements made in court at a hearing Aug. 4.

Violation of mandatory reporting requirements involves the legal duty of people in certain professions, such as the clergy, medical professionals, and teachers to report to law enforcement any allegation of child abuse. If a mandatory reporter fails to disclose alleged child physical or sexual abuse whenever they become aware of its possible existence.

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CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record

By Jason Anderson
Record Staff Writer

Posted Aug. 12, 2016

STOCKTON — Attorneys from a Southern California law firm announced Friday they have filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation by a pastor at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockton.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Joaquin County Superior Court, alleges that Monsignor Larry McGovern sent sexually explicit photographs to the victim, a pool maintenance contractor, and then terminated his employment after the victim reported the incident.

“This is a classic case of sexual harassment and retaliation,” attorney John Manly, who is representing the unidentified victim, said in a written statement. “Monsignor McGovern texted a graphic photograph of his naked genitalia to my client, then terminated his employment after my client reported the lewd photo to the police. This would be a clear violation of the law by any employer but it is even more disturbing when committed by a member of the clergy.”

The diocese, which oversees Catholic parishes in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, has not commented on the lawsuit. Sister Terry Davis, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said “we’re in the process of deciding what we’re going to do,” adding that she expected to issue a statement later this afternoon.

The lawsuit comes as another blow to the diocese, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2014 after paying millions of dollars to settle years of child sex abuse lawsuits. According to the Manly, Stewart and Finaldi law firm, the diocese spent $14 million in judgments, settlements and legal expenses in dozens of cases of clergy sexual abuse filed over a period of 20 years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 12/08/2016
Reporter: Anne Connolly

One of Australia’s most senior Anglican’s has admitted he didn’t act on complaint of a paedophile ring operating in the Newcastle diocese, which he led for more than a decade. Roger Herft said he regretted he had not been more alert to what was going on.

Transcript
MATT WORDSWORTH, PRESENTER: One of Australia’s most senior Anglicans today admitted he didn’t act on complaints about sex abuses within the diocese he led for more than a decade.

It comes after 7:30 revealed last month that a senior priest, Father Peter Rushton, led a paedophile network in the Hunter region for years. The focus of today’s Royal Commission hearings was Roger Herft, now the Archbishop of Perth.

Anne Connolly has been following the stories of the victims whose lives have been destroyed by the dark deeds within the church.

And a warning: this story contains material that may distress some viewers.

(Footage of Paul Grey giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse)

PAUL GREY (sobbing): I was chased by two men… to the edge of the cliff and I hid in the bushes. After a while, I was dragged from the bushes. I was raped by the two men. And while I was being raped, I could hear another boy screaming.

(Footage ends)

ANNE CONNOLLY, REPORTER: Paul Grey is describing the horror he experienced as a victim of an Anglican paedophile network. The ringleader was his godfather, Father Peter Rushton, one of Newcastle’s most powerful Anglican priests.

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CALIFORNIA
PRNewswire

STOCKTON, Calif., Aug. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Attorneys representing a victim of alleged sexual harassment and retaliation by the Pastor of a Stockton Roman Catholic parish filed suit yesterday in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

The suit alleges that on July 26, 2016, Monsignor Larry McGovern sent sexually explicit photographs to the victim, a pool maintenance contractor, then terminated his employment after the victim reported the incident.

“This is a classic case of sexual harassment and retaliation,” said victim’s attorney John Manly. “Monsignor McGovern texted a graphic photograph of his naked genitalia to my client, then terminated his employment after my client reported the lewd photo to the police. This would be a clear violation of the law by any employer but it is even more disturbing when committed by a member of the clergy,” said Manly.

After receiving the photograph, the victim asked him why he sent it, pointing out, “I thought you were celibate, Monsignor,” to which Monsignor McGovern replied with a statement that is directly contrary to Catholic theology, stating, “celibate means not married…”

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 12, 2016

For more information: Amy Lorenz-Moser 314 312 4979 (attorney), David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003,SNAPdorris@gmail.com

Twice-accused priest wants his deposition stopped
Cleric claims “I’m innocent & want to clear my name”
“So why delay and what are you hiding?” SNAP asks
Meanwhile, support group seeks to appeal to another court

In a bizarre civil case, a St. Louis priest who has twice been charged with child sex crimes wants a judge to block his deposition. SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) calls the move “hypocritical” and the group’s attorney is planning to proceed with the deposition.

Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, has been criminally charged in two eastern Missouri counties with molesting a boy and a girl. Last summer, Fr. Jiang filed a civil lawsuit alleging “a conspiracy” by SNAP, prosecutors, two police officers and the parents of a boy, to deprive the priest of his civil rights because he is Chinese and Catholic.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

SNAP calls the accusation “absurd yet chilling.” The group believes Fr. Jiang’s testimony will show that his claim has no merit.

“Time and time again, Fr. Jiang claims ‘I’m innocent and want to clear my name,’” said SNAP outreach director Barbara Dorris. “If that’s true, he should welcome the chance to testify. If he’s innocent, what’s he got to hide?”

“We have turned over hundreds of pages of emails and other records to this alleged child molester,” said SNAP director David Clohessy. “Fr. Jiang, on the other hand, has responded to none of our document requests. He can’t have it both ways – insisting that we give up information so the case can move forward while he stonewalls and dodges and delays.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News August 13, 2016

At least two former altar boys have reached out to the Catholic Church to say priests abused them, the church’s new sexual abuse response coordinator said.

Deacon Leonard Stohr, who Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai recently appointed as the church’s new sexual abuse response coordinator, said he’s “very encouraged” that people are reaching out to the church for help.

Stohr said he’s following up on both cases, but declined to comment further.

A sexual abuse response coordinator is a person appointed by the archbishop to coordinate the archdiocese’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Stohr encourages others who’ve been abused by priests or other members of the clergy to contact him at 727-7373.

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CANADA
CBC News

A Buddhist monk in Windsor is facing two counts of sexual assault against a child.

Windsor Police allege the crime took place two years ago, when child was six, and they believe there could be more victims.

Rob Hogendoorn is a Dutch journalist who is investigating 17 abuse cases involving Buddhist monks in the Netherlands.

Hogendoorn is also a Buddhist.

CBC News spoke to him over the phone from Maasland, Netherlands.

Here are edited excerpts of the interview.

In Windsor, this case is rare. But elsewhere in the world, how common are allegations of sexual assault within the Buddhist faith?

Unfortunately, there have been widespread reports on abuse cases within Buddhist communities worldwide; not just in Asia but in the West as well, especially in the United States but also in many European countries.

How has the Buddhist leadership handled these allegations elsewhere?

There have been some exceptions but mostly the Buddhist community has remained silent.

For instance, the Dalai Lama has spoken out against sexual abuse in the past. But, so far, he has never [outlined] concrete steps to end it or to help remedy it. But, in Buddhism, there is no central hierarchy. So, the Dalai Lama has very little to say to, for example, Zen Buddhists. So that’s part of the problem I think.

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AUSTRALIA
4 BU

Details of confidential phone calls to an Anglican Church abuse helpline were handed over to the legal team defending the priest accused by the caller of being a child sexual predator.

A royal commission inquiry into an apparent web of collusion by some clergy and officials associated with the NSW Anglican Diocese of Newcastle to cover-up child abuse is hearing evidence from Peter Mitchell, a former registrar.

Mr Mitchell, who has spent time in jail for defrauding the diocese of about $193,000 said on Wednesday he produced the helpline information for the legal team defending his “close friend” a priest referred to by the pseudonym CKC.

On Wednesday Mr Mitchell was asked about CKC, a priest who may now face a re-trial for allegedly sexually molesting two brothers CKA and CKB is the 1970s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alice Ross
Friday 12 August 2016

The Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation is under increasing pressure to address its handling of sexual abuse allegations as it faces legal setbacks, bills of over £1m and a fight to prevent the Charity Commission examining its records of abuse claims.

Last month a judge upheld a ruling against the UK’s leading Jehovah’s Witnesses charity, the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Britain (WTBTS), that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had failed to protect a woman, known in proceedings as A, from sexual abuse starting when she was four years old.

Now the supreme court has rejected a highly unusual attempt by the WTBTS to block a Charity Commission inquiry into how the Jehovah’s Witnesses charity handles allegations of abuse.

The extent of the charity’s challenges and the length of time they have gone on for are unprecedented in recent times, a spokesman for the Charity Commission said.

In A’s case the high court awarded damages and the WTBTS have been left facing legal fees totalling about £1m after attempting to appeal against the judgement three times.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
12 Aug 2016

TWO weeks of Royal Commission sittings have finished with sensational evidence that former Newcastle bishop Roger Herft tipped off his dean at the time, Graeme Lawrence, about child sexual abuse allegations against him.

Reverend Herft has been Archbishop of Perth since leaving Newcastle in 2005 and he opened his evidence by telling the commission he put in place the first system to investigate sexual abuse by priests when he arrived in 1993.

But by the end of his evidence, the reverend had to admit his handling of the issue had been “totally unacceptable” and he never did “find out what on earth was going on”, despite being repeatedly warned about paedophiles in his diocese.

Just before the commission adjourned until Monday, August 29, Reverend Herft was asked about a husband-and-wife team of youth camp leaders who had told him in 1995 that two “boys” had told them of being sexually abused by Lawrence.

The couple, from Muswellbrook, had made a statement to the commission, saying that Reverend Herft was “more interested in standing up for Lawrence” than anything else, and that “if they continued to complain about Lawrence, they would be facing legal action for defamation of character”.

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UNITED STATES
Homeschoolers Anonymous

Recently, Homeschoolers Anonymous was given access to a worksheet from The Institute of Basic Life Principles‘ training center. It is titled ”Why Did God Let A Four Year Old Boy Be Molested By A Fifteen Year Old Neighbor?’. The Institute of Basic Life Principles is run by Bill Gothard, who is currently facing a lawsuit for molestation, rape, and sexual harassment. The Institute of Basic Life Principles has many training centers around the world.

Most of these training centers were used for all ATI students, offering “apprenticeship opportunities” and training. However, this piece of literature (dated around 1994-1995) came from the Indianapolis Training Center, which was special. This training center was used for for troubled teens and juvenile delinquents. This literature, while old, reflects the current beliefs of the Institute of Biblical Life Principles.

Each handout of this type contains a lengthy list of victim blaming statements, complete with verses. They detail the reasons God not only did not prevent the abuse, but allowed it for His purposes. Victim blaming is very common in fundamentalism, with leadership doing everything they can to assign responsibility to the victim instead of the abuser. The stated goal of such literature is supposed to prevent bitterness and force repentance upon abuse victims. In reality, it revictimizes victims, causing them more pain.

According to them, we are to recognize our own culpability and then confess our sins.

Fundamentalism, by its very nature, requires victims to submit their pain and their autonomy to the leadership. The leadership is always presented as a spokesman for their God and demands complete abject obedience.

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UNITED STATES
Friendly Atheist

August 11, 2016 by Hemant Mehta

The folks at Homeschoolers Anonymous recently got their hands on some old workbook pages used at the Institute of Basic Life Principles. That would be the Christian ministry founded by Bill Gothard, a man who resigned as President a couple of years ago after 34 women accused him of sexual harassment.

In these workbook pages, which are approximately 20 years old but still aligned with the ministry’s current teachings, students are presented with a question: “Why did God let a four year old boy be molested by a fifteen year old neighbor?”

Besides the odd phrasing that suggests the four-year-old did something to get molested instead of focusing on the teenager who committed the crime, it’s also a really weird way to talk about why God allows bad things to happen…

And the responses on the page were no better, blaming the victim time and time again.

Just look at Reason #3: “To give him a ‘moral vaccination’ against future temptations.”

God will severely judge the fifteen year old boy for the evil that he did. However, your son can turn what was meant for evil into good. The vaccinations we receive for various diseases contains a small amount of the actual disease. Our immune system builds up a reaction to it so that if our body is exposed to the disease, it is prepared to fight it off. A similar result can occur in the life of your son if this matter handled in a Scriptural way.

So… it’s a good thing the boy got molested because, now that it’s happened, he’ll be better equipped to fight it off in the future? That is some fucked up reasoning right there. I don’t need to get stung by a swarm of bees, either, to know I never want it to happen.

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VERMONT
Brattleboro Reformer

By Robert Audette
raudette@reformer.com @audette.reformer on Twitter

POSTED: 08/11/2016

BELLOWS FALLS — Attorneys for the Bellows Falls Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses are asking the United States District Court for the District of Vermont to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a congregation member committed sexual abuse 25 years ago.

The lawsuit, filed by Annessa Lewis, names congregation member Norton True and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York as co-defendants in the suit. The attorneys are asking that the congregation and Watchtower be dismissed from the suit. They do not represent True.

The abuse is alleged to have occurred in the early 1990s at True’s home in Rockingham, while his adult daughter was babysitting Lewis, who is now 29 and lives in Texas. True’s daughter was a friend of Lewis’ mother.

“To be clear, the (Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower) do not concede that there was an incident of abuse,” wrote attorneys from Downs Rachlin and Martin, which is representing the congregation and Watchtower.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Aug 11, 2016

“Who is going to save our Church? Do not look to the priests. Do not look to the bishops. It’s up to you, the laity, to remind our priests to be priests and our bishops to be bishops.”
– Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Archbishop Sheen was right, as usual. Our pastors cannot lead us out of the current crisis in the Catholic Church, because they, as a group, do not recognize the nature of the crisis. In fact, despite the abundant evidence all around us, they are not prepared to admit that there is a crisis. They do not see the problem, because they are the problem.

The crisis is—let’s speak plainly—a crisis of clerical corruption. Our priests and especially our bishops have failed as Church leaders, because they adopted the wrong standards of leadership. They are using the wrong yardsticks to measure success and failure. And this clerical system tends to perpetuate itself: bishops train and promote priests who adopt the same skewed standards.

(It should be obvious, I hope, that I am making sweeping generalizations. There are many exemplary priests, and some of them become fine bishops. But the most energetic and evangelical clerics, I would argue, rise to leadership despite a system that rewards timidity and complacency. Individual priests may be holy men, but the clerical system is corrupt. By that I mean that while there are both good men and bad men in the system—as in any human institution—the good men are unable to establish control and institute reform.)

In June 2002, I was one of the scores of reporters covering the historic Dallas meeting of the US bishops’ conference. With the sex-abuse scandal at its peak, and ugly new stories exploding across the headlines every day, the atmosphere crackled with a sense of urgency, if not outright panic. The American bishops were under intense public pressure to take decisive action, and they did; the “Dallas Charter” was born. Even before they left Dallas, the bishops were proclaiming the Charter a great leap forward in the handling of sexual abuse, congratulating themselves for their achievement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sussex Express

Huw Oxburgh huw.oxburgh@jpress.co.uk
Friday 12 August 2016

A new chairwoman has been appointed to an inquiry looking into sexual abuse by the former bishop of Lewes Peter Ball following a shock resignation last week Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced yesterday (Thursday) that Professor Alexis Jay will lead the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

A child protection expert and former social worker with over 30 years’ experience, Professor Jay led the independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham which found that at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Her appointment comes after the shock resignation of New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard last week. Dame Lowell was the inquiry’s third lead since it was established in 2014.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Mail

Press Association

Two men convicted of sexually abusing boys at a Catholic-run school in the 1970s and 80s have been jailed.

John Farrell, 73, and Paul Kelly, 64, were found guilty of several charges against six former pupils of St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, after a lengthy trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

The prosecution followed one of the biggest abuse inquiries of its kind ever carried out by Police Scotland

Farrell, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, was jailed for five years after being convicted of three counts of indecent assault.

Kelly, from Plymouth, Devon, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for four counts of indecent assault and two assault charges at the school, which was run by members of the Catholic religious order the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Two former teachers at a school in Fife run by the Christian Brothers order have been jailed for a total of 15 years after being convicted of the physical and sexual abuse of pupils.

Former headmaster John Farrell, 73, from Motherwell, was jailed for five years and Paul Kelly, 64, from Plymouth, for 10 years.

The offences were committed at the former St Ninian’s school in Falkland.
Farrell and Kelly had denied all charges.

They were convicted last month after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Communion News Service

[ACNS, by Gavin Drake] The silencing of abuse victims is itself a form of abuse “as bad if not worse than the first betrayal,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said. The Archbishop made his comments in a forward to the current issue of Crucible, which bills itself as the journal of Christian social ethics. Its current issue focuses on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

In it, Archbishop Welby said that when he was appointed to the post of Archbishop of Canterbury he “had mistakenly believed that the major changes needed in outlook had already been achieved” but that “it very quickly became apparent that [safeguarding] would have to be an area of major concern.

“Not only were some of the measures already taken only a beginning, the proper response to survivors and the embedding of a proper culture of safeguarding in every part of the Church still had a very long way to go.”

He said that one article in particular, Surviving the Crucible of Ecclesiastical Abuse by Josephine Anne Stein, was “particularly hard to read, but vital to absorb.”

“As you read Josephine Stein’s article so it becomes apparent that the culture around how survivors of abuse are heard has in effect been to tell them to be quiet, and to keep them away from the love of Christ.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 12 August 2016

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, says that the Church must be a “safe place” where a “culture of silencing” must be overturned when it comes to abuse.
The Church must overturn a “culture of silencing” and be “compassionate and attentive to those who have been abused and sinned against,” the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

In a foreword to the July 2016 edition of the social ethics journal Crucible, Justin Welby says that on becoming Archbishop, he knew that safeguarding would be a key issue, “but had mistakenly believed that the major changes needed in outlook had already been achieved”.

The whole of the Archbishop’s article is devoted to the issue of safeguarding in the Church, which he says must be a “safe place” in which a “culture of silencing” must be addressed.

“To address that whole culture of silencing in the Church is vital,” he writes. “It is vital because failure to do so is a form of abuse for the second time, as bad if not worse than the first betrayal.”

Archbishop Welby says the Church must be “far, far more attentive” to the pastoral care of those who have been abused. “We have to go back to first principles, which is to let Jesus be heard through us. That means being compassionate and attentive to those who have been abused and sinned against. It means being far, far more attentive to their pastoral care and the establishment of ways in which they can feel safe to tell their story and be listened to,” he writes. “Yes we have to be rigorous, and responsible in ensuring the Church is a place safe for all, but that is only half the story if we fail to take seriously and to listen to those who have been abused by those who minister in the Church or through Church organisations.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

The Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, has agreed children were put at risk during his time as bishop in the NSW diocese.

He was in charge of the Newcastle diocese from 1993 to 2005. On Friday he said for the first half his tenure there was no framework in place to deal with abuse allegations and after that he kept the problems at a distance because he was advised to do so. The archbishop said there was a “niggle” in his soul after a 1998 meeting with Deirdre Anderson who was head of a committee dealing with misconduct and with Paul Rosser QC then deputy-chancellor of the diocese.

Notes of the meeting were shown on Friday at a royal commission examining the Anglican diocese’s responses to numerous allegations of child sex abuse by clergy across three decades.

Commission chairman Peter McClellan asked the archbishop if at the 1998 meeting Ms Anderson’s concerns about a rule that required a complaint to be made in writing was her saying this was putting “children at risk”.

The archbishop agreed it was.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Fri 12 Aug 2016
By Alex Williams

A decision on who should lead an investigation into child sexual abuse has been met with approval by the Church of England (CofE).

Leaders are pledging to work with Professor Alexis Jay and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in a “constructive and transparent manner”.

Bishop of Bath and Wells, Peter Hancock, the CofE’s lead bishop on safeguarding, said: “We welcome the news …of the appointment of Professor Alexis Jay as the new chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and her public commitment to continue the important work it has done so far in hearing the voices of survivors and looking at institutional failings.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury requested that the Church be one of the first institutions to be considered in the work of the inquiry and we will continue to work in a constructive and transparent manner with IICSA under Professor Jay’s leadership.”

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ILLINOIS
Journal Courier

By Ivan Moreno – Associated Press

A group of pastors is suing over a law that bars therapists and counselors from trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation, saying in a Thursday filing that the prohibition violates free speech and religious rights.

The federal lawsuit seeks to exclude clergy from the ban that took effect Jan. 1, arguing that homosexuality is “contrary to God’s purpose” and a disorder that “can be resisted or overcome by those who seek to be faithful to God and His word.”

Illinois is among five states with bans on so-called gay conversion therapy for youth under 18, a practice critics have decried as psychologically damaging. The laws in California and New Jersey have withstood legal challenges, but an attorney for the pastors said the prohibitions in those states did not include clergy.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

12 AUG 2016

An Anglican bishop’s decision to suspend rather than depose a priest accused of sexual misconduct was “offensive” to the victim, a church official has told a national inquiry.

Michael Elliott, director of the professional standards board for the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle said on Friday he saw Bishop Brian Farran’s 2012 decision to ban priest Graeme Sturt for five years rather than follow a recommendation to defrock him as an “affront” to the church’s efforts to protect children.

The board – a church investigative body – had upheld a complaint by abuse survivor CKH against Sturt and three other priests Andrew Duncan, Bruce Hoare and former dean of Newcastle Cathedral Graeme Lawrence.

Mr Elliott returned to the witness box for the second day at a royal commission hearing into how the Newcastle diocese responded to sex abuse allegations against clergy and church lay workers.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

IAN KIRKWOOD
12 Aug 2016

BISHOP Roger Herft has acknowledged to the Royal Commission that the sexual assault reporting mechanisms during much of his time in Newcastle were inadequate for dealing with allegations of sexual assault on children by priests.

Questioned by counsel assisting the commission Naomi Sharp, Mr Herft agreed that a 1998 report by the church’s Tasmanian diocese had revealed large numbers of paedophile Anglican priests in that state, and that the Wood Royal Commission had also examined paedophilia, putting it on the national stage.

Mr Herft initially said he created the church’s policies but when Ms Sharp took him to those policies it emerged that they were more geared towards sexual matters between adults than child sexual abuse by priests.

When one document did mention child sexual abuse, it said: “Certain sexual behaviour with children constitutes a criminal offence.”

Bishop Herft began his evidence by confirming he had provided a statement to the commission on July 25, 2016, and a further statement dated today, August 12, 2016, as well as a further statement, dated November 6, 2013, in relation to another matter.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

12 August, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published 44 submissions received in response to Issues Paper 11.

Issues Paper 11 invited submissions about any factors which may have contributed to the occurrence of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions or may have affected the institutional response of the Catholic Church to child sexual abuse.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the Royal Commission received submissions from survivors of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, advocacy groups, academics and other professionals, individual Catholics and one Catholic diocese.

“The submissions made in response to Issues Paper 11 considered issues such as the operation of canon law and the impact of clericalism in the Catholic Church in Australia.

“Further, a number of submissions focused on the structure and governance of the Catholic Church in Australia and the current approach of Catholic Church authorities to survivors of child sexual abuse.

“These submissions will be taken into account in the Royal Commission’s further work in relation to the Catholic Church in Australia,” Mr Reed said.

The Royal Commission will hold a final hearing regarding the institutional response of the Catholic Church to child sexual abuse in February 2017.

To access the submissions to the Royal Commission’s Issues Paper 11, please visit here.

Submissions for Issues Paper 11

1. Aldo Bayona
2. Australian Lawyers Alliance
3. Australian Psychological Society
4. AYB and Mary Adams
5. Bernadette Jee and Rosina Gordon
6. Bernadette Tobin AO and Terence Tobin QC
7. Bravehearts
8. Catholics for Renewal Inc
9. Chrissie and Anthony Foster
10. Concerned Queensland Catholics 1
11. Concerned Queensland Catholics 2
12. David Bullard
13. David Collits
14. Denise Sullivan
15. Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office
16. Dr Christopher Geraghty
17. Dr Keith Thompson
18. Dr Michael Leahy
19. For The Innocents
20. Fr Peter Maher
21. Graham English
22. Independent Commissioners (Melbourne Response)
23. James Miller
24. Jessica Leach
25. Joan Isaacs
26. John Casey
27. Joseph Azzopardi
28. Kieran Tapsell
29. knowmore
30. Marilyn Hatton
31. Mary Clare Meney
32. Micah Projects
33. Name Withheld
34. Name Withheld
35. Name Withheld
36. Paul Tobias
37. Peter Holmes
38. Philip Riordan
39. Professor Michael Quinlan
40. Professor Patrick Parkinson
41. Professor Sandra Lynch
42. Steve Hyndes
43. The Melbourne Victims’ Collective and In Good Faith Foundation
44. Waller Legal

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
August 12, 2016

A LAW professor formerly employed by the Catholic Church says he fears the Royal Commission will have a limited effect on entrenched cultural problems surrounding systemic child sexual abuse.

In a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse published today Patrick Parkinson questioned the preparedness of the church to implement change.

He also raised concerns that the commission failed to probe some of the church’s most notorious sex offenders.

Professor Parkinson has previously reviewed the church’s Towards Healing protocol for dealing with victims of sexual abuse but formally disassociated himself from the work of the Church in 2011.

He did so after a report he authored on serious issues concerning the Salesians of Don Bosco, one of the world’s largest orders, was suppressed by the Church.

“All those involved in that cover-up continue to be in good standing in the Church, some still holding senior leadership positions. That is not reassuring,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

One of Australia’s most senior Anglicans, the Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft, has told a royal commission he would not report child sexual abuse allegations if he did not know the name of the alleged victim.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding public hearings in Newcastle.

The case study is examining the way the local Anglican diocese responded to allegations of child sexual abuse made against clergy and lay members of the church.

In giving evidence today, Archbishop Herft conceded the reporting mechanisms for dealing with child sexual abuse allegations were inadequate while he was the Bishop of Newcastle from 1993 to 2005.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

The Breaux Bridge priest arrested on child pornography charges told investigators he knew viewing the images was wrong and that he “‘repented’ after every episode,” according to an arrest warrant obtained by our investigative team.

Father David Broussard was arrested on July 27 on 500 counts of child pornography after images allegedly were found Broussard’s computer. The images included both male and female children ranging in age from infancy to 12 years old, and included photos of children involved in sexual activity with other children and adults, according to the arrest affidavit.

During an interview with investigators, Broussard allegedly admitted that he used the computer to search and view child pornography.

The computer was found at Broussard’s office or living quarters at St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church, where Broussard was a priest, according to the affidavit.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

John Silvester

On the ground floor of the Victoria Police Centre is the Honour Board For Courage that lists the names of nearly 500 police who risked their lives in the line of duty.

But in policing there are two types of courage. There is the instinctive act of physical bravery and the moral type that requires the strength of character to uphold the law when pressured to compromise.

When former policeman Denis Ryan walked in to meet present Chief Commissioner, Graham Ashton, he knew his name would never appear on the honour board, although he is a hero who was prepared to sacrifice his career on a point of principle.

He refused to buckle when his bosses wanted him to ignore a paedophile priest and then was hounded from the job in a conspiracy that many believe went all the way to the chief commissioner’s office.

Now, 44 years after he was forced to resign because he cared more for children than his professional future, he has been vindicated in the very office where his career was destroyed.

It was only a few words and a handshake but when Ashton formally apologised on behalf of the police force it was the final vindication for a man who refused to be crushed by two powerful institutions.

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GUAM
Catholic News Agency

Hagatna, Guam, Aug 12, 2016 / 12:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A priest in Guam has admitted to abusing around 20 children, a revelation that comes amid an ongoing investigation into abuse accusations surrounding the local archbishop.

Accusations against Fr. Louis Brouillard, 95, were made during a public hearing last week to lift Guam’s statute of limitations on child abuse. The accusations were raised by a man who lives in Hawaii and said he was sent to a Catholic school in Guam, where he was abused twice, including by Fr. Brouillard in the 1950s.

The priest served in Guam between the 1940s-1970s, during which he taught at San Vicente and Father Duenas Memorial Catholic schools.

According to The Associated Press, after the accusations were made, Fr. Brouillard admitted in an interview to having abused “a couple of boys” while teaching at the schools.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Bruce MacKenzie

Catholic priest and former police chaplain John Patrick Casey has been found not guilty of 16 charges relating to the sexual abuse of children in northern New South Wales in the mid 1980s.

A jury did not deliver a verdict on 11 other charges relating to the same offences.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has until September 21 to decide if those matters will be pursued.

Casey was accused of molesting three boys on four separate occasions when each were staying with him at the Mallanganee Presbytery, west of Casino.

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AUSTRALIA
Huffington Post

Eoin Blackwell

Decades of child sexual abuse aided by an alleged network of supporters inside the NSW Newcastle Anglican Diocese has been wrenched into the public spotlight by the Sex Abuse Royal Commission.

For the past two weeks the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been examining abuse within the diocese dating back to the 1970s, and heard testimony of the harrowing experiences of survivors amid allegations of a pedophile network in the southern NSW city.

The Royal Commission is looking at the diocesan response to abuse over the years, and has heard survivor testimony of rape, torture and mental abuse.

Michael Elliott, a former police officer who has been the diocese professional standards director since 2009, told the commission there had been a high level of interference in his work by the diocesan hierarchy.

“It was apparent that there were a number of clergy and laypeople associated with the church who had criminal convictions, in many respects for child sex abuse offences, where there had been no internal or additional outcomes with regard to risk management or discipline,” he said.

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IRELAND
America

Rhona Tarrant | Aug 11 2016

In the tumultuous and often bewildering news cycle of 2016, the Archbishop of Dublin taking to the national airwaves to address “Grindr, which is a gay dating site,” still managed to jolt the listening public in Ireland.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was clarifying why he recently decided to withdraw three seminarians from St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, because of “strange goings-on.” Archbishop Martin told listeners that Ireland’s national seminary had a “gay culture” and that “people are sexually active in the seminary. People are on an app or website called Grindr.”

Archbishop Martin expressed concern that investigations into sexual harassment and other misconduct were carried out by the college council rather than independent investigators. He added that a culture of “quarrelsome” anonymous accusations and “poisonous” anonymous letters was creating an unhealthy atmosphere for seminarians.

The archbishop’s intervention lent credibility to long-standing rumors surrounding the college. One former seminarian last week testified to its so-called gay culture, one that was widely known about but not addressed. Another former seminarian claims he was expelled from the college after he failed to report two colleagues for engaging in sexual activity. The reports revealed a deep disconnect between church authorities and the experience of some seminarians, along with the challenges the Irish church is struggling to address: homosexuality as a reality in the church, celibacy, accusations and secrecy and a formation process that is quickly becoming antiquated.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

EARLE CORNELIUS | Staff Writer

Four priests who previously served Lancaster County parishes are among 15 priests accused of child sexual abuse within the Diocese of Harrisburg, according to an investigation by the York Daily Record.

The 15 priests were named in a story this week after the diocese acknowledged them by name.

The priests who served Lancaster County parishes are:

– Guy Marsico, who was assigned to St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Rohrerstown, in 1976 and from 1979 to 1982. The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News reported in 2011 that a Lancaster County man alleged he was sexually abused by Marsico at St. Rose of Lima Church in York in the 1980s when he was a boy. It was reported that no records could be found to show whether Marsico was ever charged.

-Gerald Bugge, who served at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 501 E. Orange St., Lancaster, from August of 1986 to April 1988. He was one of 57 priests accused of child sexual abuse and were named by the Archdiocese of Baltimore in September 2002.

-William Geiger, who served two assignments at Our Mother of Perpetual Help, 330 Church Ave., Ephrata — from July 1987 to August 1993 and from August 1999 to June 2007 — and at St. Anthony of Padua in Lancaster from April 1994 to August 1999. According to the Daily Record, Geiger and another priest were sued by Toledo, Ohio, attorney David Zoll on behalf of three men who said the priests molested them when they were boys. The alleged abuse occurred in the 1970s at a church in Lima, Ohio.

-Frederick Vaughan, who was assigned to St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 1840 Marshall Road, Elizabethtown, from 1966 to 1970. The Harrisburg diocese said it received allegations of abuse against Vaughn after his death but not while he was alive.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Annette Blackwell – AAP on August 12, 2016

Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft is expected to be in the witness stand at a royal commission investigating child sex abuse in a NSW diocese where he presided as bishop for 12 years.

Archbishop Herft’s appearance has been brought forward by the commission which says it will not complete the hearing into the Diocese of Newcastle in the time allotted.

For the past two weeks witnesses giving evidence into the Anglican Church’s handling of child abuse allegations against clergy and lay workers in the diocese in the Hunter region of NSW have faced lengthy cross-examinations.

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NEW YORK
auburnpub.com

Robert Harding robert.harding@lee.net

Democratic candidate Jermaine Bagnall-Graham received two endorsements this week in his bid to unseat state Sen. Jim Seward in the 51st Senate District.

Bagnall-Graham, D-Sherburne, announced the support of the state Women’s Equality Party, a minor party line that was created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2014. …

The political action committee founded by Gary Greenberg, a New York businessman, has one goal: To advocate for the adoption of the Child Victims Act.

The legislation would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse cases. It would also give victims a one-year window to revive claims that previously denied due to the state’s existing statute of limitations.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016

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

A priest accused of abusing in Virginia has been “outed” as an alleged predator in Pennsylvania this week. We call on Richmond Catholic officials and parishioners to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have been hurt by the cleric.

[York Daily Record]

An investigation by the York PA Daily Record found that “(Fr.) John Bostwick III was accused in 1996 of abuse that allegedly took place from 1980-82. . . The Harrisburg diocese said it contacted the Diocese of Richmond (Va.), where Bostwick was in 1996, and he was removed from ministry.”

As best we in SNAP can tell, the allegations against Fr. Bostwick have never been publicly disclosed in Virginia and they were revealed only one other time, in 1996 in Louisiana:

[BishopAccountability.org]

So we firmly believe that Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer, Lafayette LA Bishop Douglas Deshotel are putting kids in harm’s way by continuing to hide the names and whereabouts of predator priests. So are other church employees and members in these three dioceses. Shame on them.

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NEVADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy 314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003 cell,bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

Predator priest from Michigan is now in Nevada
Earlier this year, Catholic officials disclosed allegation
They deemed child sex report involving girl “credible”
She now wants Las Vegas/Reno church staff to “warn others”
Retired cleric, now married, owns considerable property here
Victims group writes to two bishops: “Protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded”

A few months ago, Catholic officials in Michigan admitted that one of their former priests, who now lives in Henderson NV, likely molested a girl years ago. His victim and a support group are now calling on Nevada’s bishops to warn the public about him.

In March, Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron disclosed that his staff had deemed “credible” a child sex abuse report against Fr. Richard R. Lauinger. They also admit that they’ve kept secret about abuse charges made by two other women for 14 years.

[Detroit archdiocese]

One of his accusers is Judy Larson (PH here, judysorrows1957@gmail.com) who now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. In January, 2016, she began writing Detroit church staff about the ex-priest.

“We applaud Judy for coming forward, contacting police, and pushing Catholic officials to be honest about this pedophile,” said David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “But that’s not enough. He’s still around. So now, Nevada’s church hierarchy must warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about this potentially dangerous man.”

SNAP is writing to Las Vegas Bishop Joseph Pepe and Reno Bishop Randolph Calvo, urging them to use church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements to alert “unsuspecting families and neighbors” about Lauinger.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Freethinker

Paedophile Catholic priest Philip Temple, 66, above, was today jailed in London for 12 years after admitting the sexual abuse of 13 children dating back to the 1970s.

Temple, a former children’s home worker, was sentenced at Woolwich crown court after pleading guilty to 20 charges of sexual assault in April and a further seven charges this week.

Temple twice stood trial in the late 1990s. In the first case the jury was unable to reach a verdict and Temple was acquitted in a retrial.

Before passing sentence today, judge Christopher Hehir, apologised to one of Temple’s victims, saying that justice was not done when you came to court in 1998 and 1999.

The court heard that the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had become a self-harming recluse and had attempted suicide following the trials.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Croyden Advertiser

By Tom_Matthews | Posted: August 11, 2016

The NSPCC has praised the courage of the victims of a sex predator who abused girls and boys at Shirley Oak’s Children’s Home

Philip Temple, 66, was handed a 12-year jail sentence yesterday after he admitted 27 counts of non-recent sexual assault against children in his care and perjury.

The court heard how between 1972 and 1977 Temple sexually assaulted girls and boys in various care homes where he worked.

A spokesperson for the NSPCC said Temple’s victims had all been abused in places where they should have felt safe and protected from “predators” like him.

“He was responsible for the care of children but instead abused his position of trust in the most shocking way.

“Children in care will have experienced tumultuous lives and the vital thing for them is to have someone who is reliable and always there for them.

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NEW JERSEY
The Jersey Journal

By Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal
on August 11, 2016

A former Guttenberg priest reportedly facing a criminal investigation for allegations that he sexually abused a young parishioner in the 1990s is now the focus of a lawsuit filed by one of his alleged victims.

The plaintiff —a man in his 30s, according to his attorney — is suing the Rev. Michael “Mitch” Walters, the Archdiocese of Newark and Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick. The man is accusing Walters of sexually abusing him in 1994 and 1995 when Walters was pastor at St. John Nepomucene in Guttenberg.

The plaintiff, identified in the 21-count complaint as John Doe, is also accusing McCarrick, former archbishop of Newark, and the archdiocese of being negligent for not protecting him. McCarrick and the archdiocese either should have known about Walters’ alleged behavior or knew about it and covered it up, the plaintiff alleges.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis Home affairs editor
Thursday 11 August 2016

Prof Alexis Jay is to take over as chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse following the resignation of Dame Lowell Goddard, the home secretary has announced.

Jay, a child protection expert with more than 30 years’ experience, led the official inquiry into the Rotherham scandal, which found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Amber Rudd, announcing Jay’s appointment, said: “She has a strong track record in uncovering the truth and I have no doubt she will run this independent inquiry with vigour, compassion and courage.”

Goddard, a New Zealand judge who was the third person to have been named as inquiry chair, offered her resignation last week, saying the inquiry had been beset by a “legacy of failure”.

Jay said she was committed to ensuring the inquiry did everything it had set out to do and did so “with pace, with confidence and with clarity.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE and TIM SCULTHORPE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

Professor Alexis Jay has been appointed to head up the troubled inquiry into child sex abuse, it was announced today.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Ms Jay, who wrote a key report into abuse in Rotherham in 2014, would be promoted from the inquiry’s advisory panel to take over from New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard.

The move is intended to ensure some sort of continuity in the massive £100 million Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), after Dame Lowell dramatically resigned as chair last week with no warning.

Ms Jay becomes the fourth woman to take the helm at the beleaguered probe which has been running in various guises for two years but has so far heard little evidence despite racking up huge bills.
Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz today warned it must be ‘fourth time lucky’ for the vast inquiry, which has already cost taxpayers £18million and is due to draw together a staggering 13 different probes – a task branded ‘unmanageable’ by former DPP Lord Macdonald last week.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Ben Riley-Smith, political correspondent

11 AUGUST 2016

A former social worker who helped expose the Rotherham abuse scandal has become the fourth chair of the beleaguered independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Prof Alexis Jay vowed to “fearlessly examine institutional failures, past and present” as she took up the role after the resignation of Dame Lowell Goddard.

Prof Jay has over 30 years’ experience of child protection during a career in local government which saw her become Scotland’s chief social work adviser.

The families of child abuse victims appeared supportive of the choice when she emerged as the front-runner for the job in recent days.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

11 August

The Home Secretary has today announced that Professor Alexis Jay OBE is to be the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse with immediate effect.

In a message to everyone involved with the work of the Inquiry in particular victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, Professor Jay said;

“I am committed to ensuring this Inquiry does everything it has set out to do and does so with pace, with confidence and with clarity.

“Be in no doubt – the Inquiry is open for business and people are busier than ever working hard to increase momentum. The Panel and I are determined to make progress on all parts of the Inquiry’s work, including speaking to victims and survivors.

I am determined to overcome the challenges along the way. I will lead the largest public inquiry of its kind and together with my fellow Panel members we will fearlessly examine institutional failures, past and present and make recommendations so that the children of England and Wales are better protected now and in the future.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Professor Alexis Jay, who led the Rotherham abuse inquiry, is to be the new chairwoman of the inquiry into child sex abuse in England and Wales.

The appointment was announced by the home secretary after the resignation of judge Dame Lowell Goddard last week.

Prof Jay was already among the panel of advisers taking part in the independent investigation into claims made against public and private institutions.

She becomes the fourth head after the three previous chairwomen stood down.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “The independent inquiry has a vital role to play in exposing the failure of public bodies and other major organisations to prevent systematic child sexual abuse.

“I’m delighted Professor Alexis Jay has agreed to chair the inquiry. She has a strong track record in uncovering the truth and I have no doubt she will run this independent inquiry with vigour, compassion and courage.”

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UNITED STATES
Nancy Levine

Dear Ms. Spayd,

We are a global community of survivors of child sexual abuse and advocates. We were heartened when, under your editorial direction, the Columbia Journalism Review published a piece by Steve Buttry, Director of Student Media at LSU: “The voiceless have a voice. A journalist’s job is to amplify it.” We would like to ask you and The New York Times to consider amplifying our collective voice; we reiterate our request, emailed to you on July 11, 2016.

Our previous correspondence raised questions about The Times’ absence of recent coverage of the Child Victims Act of New York, and an appearance of a conflict of interest. Presumably there is no causal relationship between The Times’ absence of recent reporting on the Child Victims Act and Publisher and Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.’s family financial interests in Whole Foods Market. But to quell concerns about an appearance of a conflict, we think this matter warrants further response.

We understand that the public editor is not responsible for The Times’ coverage decisions and deals specifically with issues of journalistic integrity. As advocates working to raise awareness of issues surrounding child sexual abuse, we would like to ask The Times to elevate its editorial sensitivity to covering related news. We believe Executive Editor Dean Baquet’s response to questions about this matter underscores the need for further attention. Scope of impact:

* approximately 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of child sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

* more than 43 million survivors of child sexual abuse in the U.S.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Josefin Dolsten
August 11, 2016

A rabbi who left his flock after word got out that he went on sauna trips with young male congregants recently reemerged as a psychological counselor at a luxury health center, but his seeming comeback has hit a wall.

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt was once a prominent Orthodox figure as the longtime rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, but a New York Times exposé revealed in May 2015 he had visited the showers and sauna, often naked, with boys as young as 12.

He resigned from his position as senior rabbi in February and reportedly found a job as a counselor in Scarsdale, a posh New York suburb, but the medical practice in question denied he worked there.

“He was never with us,” Su Y. Heo said. “He was subleasing a place so he can see his own patients. He did it for a month, but he is no longer subleasing with us.”

Heo said Rosenblatt had rented space from the practice from June through July but declined to say why the rabbi was no longer subleasing with the practice.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

Former social worker and Catholic priest Philip Temple was jailed on Wednesday after he admitted abusing children over three decades.

He also admitted lying on oath during trial in the 1990s when he was cleared of child sex abuse charges against a teenage boy.

The boy, now a man in his 30s, has been speaking to the BBC about the case.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Reports of childhood sexual abuse by Fordham University and Fordham Prep Jesuit priests and lay teachers continue to surface in the aftermath of the recent announcement by Fordham Prep alumnus, Michael Meenan, that religion teacher, Fernand Beck, sexually abused him in 1984

For example, Neal E. Gumpel was a high school student from Westchester County, New York, who was sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, deceased Fordham University and Fordham Prep teacher, who was teaching at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, while Neal E. Gumpel was visiting his brother, a student at Maine Maritime Academy. Jesuit leaders have refused to help Neal E. Gumpel heal by validating his claim which they have found to be credible

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, Fordham University and Fordham Prep students, parents, and alumni, and communities, and the general public about the growing number of reports of sexual abuse against Fordham University and Fordham Prep faculty and staff members in the aftermath of the recent announcement (NY Times and New York Post) by Michael Meenan, Fordham Prep ’84, that he was sexually abused by his religion teacher, Fernand Beck, during a graduation party in Westchester County, New York. Demonstrators will also draw attention to the claim of Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased Fordham University and Fordham Prep teacher, who sexually abused Neal E. Gumpel at Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, Maine and was found credible by Jesuit leaders of the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus

When
Thursday, August 11, 2016 – 11:00 am until 1:00 pm

Where
Outside the gates of Fordham University and Fordham Prep near 400 Southern Boulevard, which is also across the street from the entrance of the New York Botanical Gardens

Who
Neal E. Gumpel, a sexual abuse victim/survivor of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ; Helen Gumpel, the wife of Neal E. Gumpel; and Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why
Michael Meenan was a Fordham Prep senior in 1984 when his religion teacher, Fernand Beck, sexually abused him at a graduation party in Westchester County, NY. On Monday, August 8, 2016, the New York Times and New York Post published stories about Michael Meenan’s allegations which were found credible by attorneys for Fordham Prep. Fernand Beck has been fired by Fordham Prep. Since Michael Meenan’s story went public on August 8, 2016, reports of alleged sexual abuse against Fordham Prep faculty and staff members, including Fernand Beck, have been made. In addition, while the Jesuit priests and brothers of the Northeast Province have found allegations of childhood sexual abuse against one of its deceased members, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, credible, they have refused to help childhood sexual abuse victim/survivor Neal E. Gumpel heal by validating his claim

Contacts

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Thursday, August 11, 2016

by Claire Caruana

The Curia reported today that its net surplus dropped sharply last year but it managed to stay in the black due to cost cutting.

It saw income decline to €6.4 million last year from €7.9m the previous year as revenue from interest dropped to €3.9m from €5.3m in 2014 and a dividend received from APS Bank in 2014 was not repeated. Revenue from donations and collections increased to €223,020 from €150,378 in 2014 but was not enough to make up for the shortfall.

Expenditure went down by €500,000 to €6.2m, with remuneration to clergy and lay workers accounting for two-thirds of the total outlay. Operational costs dropped by 45% to €378,609 after bad debts were recovered.

Taxation amounted to €1.1 million.

Michael Pace Ross, Curia Administrative Secretary, Robert Agius, Financial Controller and Rose-Anne Abdilla, Assistant Financial Controller, explained at a press conference that although income was higher than expenditure, final results were influenced by the payment of subsidies to ecclesiastical entities (€844,957), which declined by a quarter, and unrealised gains on exchange.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Helena Grech
Thursday, 11 August 2016

The Archdiocese registered a net surplus of €2.7 million, up €300,000 from the previous year. It is made up of the Curia, Maltese parishes, the Mdina Cathedral, homes for the elderly, children’s homes, homes for persons with disabilities and the seminary.

In contrast, the Archbishop’s Curia registered a sharp drop in its net surplus, from €1.1 million in 2014 to €172,365 in 2015.

The Curia cut its operational costs by about half, while full expenditure was reduced by €500,000 – preventing the entity from falling back into the red. Income declined from roughly €8 million in 2014 to €6.4 million in 2015.

Donations sent to the Curia went up in 2015, from €150,378 in 2014 to €223,020 last year. The bulk of expenditure went to remuneration, which remained relatively stable between 2014 and 2015 – €2.9 million in remuneration was paid to priests while lay employees cost a total of €1.3 million.

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