ABUSE TRACKER

MISSOURI
Kansas City Star

BY MATT CAMPBELL
mcampbell@kcstar.com

Betrayal, regret, healing and forgiveness were key words at a special Service of Lament on Sunday at Kansas City’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for victims and survivors of sexual abuse within the church.

Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. went straight to the point in his homily before a full congregation that included most if not all priests from the nearly 100 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

“I am here to confess, apologize and repent for the sins of those who held a sacred trust in the church and who betrayed that trust,” Johnston declared, saying he was speaking “for the priests and bishops and anyone in the service of the church whose actions or inactions harmed the lives of children entrusted to their care.”

This diocese, like many others, has been rocked by accounts of sexual abuse of children. It has settled multimillion-dollar legal cases involving scores of victims and their families. Former Bishop Robert Finn was charged with a criminal offense for failing to report suspected child sexual abuse. He lost his bishopric.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

John O’Connor | Post News Staff

More than two weeks have passed since the arrival of Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, but protests have continued in front of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagåtña despite Archbishop Anthony Apuron having been removed from local church matters amid sexual abuse allegations against him.

For months, the Concerned Catholics of Guam have protested at the cathedral, demanding that Apuron resign from his position as archbishop. But yesterday morning, that message had changed, and more than a dozen protestors holding signs stated plainly in red letters that they are now calling for Apuron’s laicization from the church. Laicization, or defrocking, is the removal of a bishop, deacon or priest from his status as a member of the clergy.

Jose Martinez, a member of CCOG, said the credibility of the church and confidence in its leadership has been damaged by Apuron’s actions.

Mockery

“The allegations are serious enough that he should have stepped down a long time ago,” Martinez said. “It’s getting to the point where it’s almost a mockery to be hidden so far away and not address any of the situations going in the church.”

Apuron’s last official communication to the people of Guam was a video message sent from Rome in which he stated that the pope had granted his request for an apostolic administrator, sede plena, meaning Hon would be in charge of pastoral duties while Apuron remained archbishop of the archdiocese.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Kathleen E. Carey, Delaware County Daily Times

POSTED: 06/25/16

As a bill that extends the time childhood sexual abuse victims could file a suit against organizations that harbored their abusers sits in the state Senate Judiciary Committee, victim advocates, including former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, say the entirety of the bill should be law.

Describing herself as the first prosecutor in the United States to “name names” in a priest-related childhood sexual abuse case, Abraham was Philadelphia’s lead prosecutor when the 2005 grand jury was convened against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Their findings, combined with another grand jury in 2011, found more than 60 priests in the diocese with evidence of abusing dozens of victims. Many of them had ties to Delaware County.

The bill, passed in the House by a 180-15 vote in April, removes the criminal statue of limitations for childhood sexual abuse cases; increases the statute of limitations from 30 years to 50 years for the filing of civil lawsuits for plaintiffs; and removes immunity for organizations found to be grossly negligent.

“I am very concerned because they are going to strip it of the retroactivity,” Abraham said of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s not unconstitutional to have it back to 30 now. What’s the difference? Somebody has to tell me that.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

As state lawmakers debate a plan to make it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice, abuse survivors are coming forward to tell their stories.

When Mark Berkery was a boy, he was raped by a family friend, and afterward his parents knew he’d need good counseling to heal.

So they introduced him to the man they trusted most to help, the Rev. Stanley Gana, a priest at Ascension of Our Lord Church in Kensington.

The Berkerys were Catholic and lived in that north Philadelphia neighborhood, and Gana convinced them he could help the boy more than a private counselor.

Gana’s archdiocese bio included “youth counseling” among his talents and interests.

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UNITED STATES
UU World

ELAINE MCARDLE | 6/24/2016

With an emphasis on power dynamics and the critical need for scrupulous honesty and truth, the Rev. Gail Seavey on Tuesday night took on the painful topic of clergy sexual misconduct and exhorted her fellow Unitarian Universalist ministers to stop keeping secrets so that UU congregations and the faith can thrive and grow in a healthy manner.

“I have seen smart people, good people, fail to understand the impact of sexual misconduct, how pervasive and systemic it is, not just among us but throughout our culture,” said Seavey, speaking at the 196th Ministerial Conference at Berry Street, known as the Berry Street lecture. “For years the system at the UUA and in many of our congregations has been to protect the privileged instead of the vulnerable.”

In her talk, “If Our Secrets Define Us,” Seavey gave an historical context of clergy sexual misconduct in UU congregations, including the reluctance of UU ministers to criticize their colleagues. Some who did, she noted, were censured. Estimating that one-third to one-half of UU congregations in the U.S. have been affected by clergy sexual misconduct within recent memory, Seavey described the psychological trauma to individuals and the severe damage to congregational health, and noted the problem isn’t limited to male ministers. Facing the issue head-on rather than concealing it is not only the moral thing to do, but also results in healthier congregations and a healthier denomination, Seavey said.

“Keeping secrets about the times we fall short of our ideals stops us from developing an ever more nuanced power analysis with others who have also suffered from intersecting cultural secrets,” said Seavey, senior minister at First UU Church of Nashville, Tennessee, a congregation that suffered from ministerial misconduct before she arrived there. Since then, First Nashville became a denominational leader in addressing the problem through the creation of UU Safety Net, which seeks to effect changes in policies and procedures around clergy sexual abuse in Unitarian Universalism.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

Adam Holmes
@AdamHolmes010

June 26, 2016

THE Catholic Church will meet with members of the Bendigo community on Monday night to answer questions about the church’s history of child sexual abuse.

The chief executive officer of the church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, will hold a “Spirituality in the Pub” event at the Queens Arms Hotel in Quarry Hill.

The sessions will help form the Catholic Church’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr Sullivan said hearing the concerns of parishioners and the wider community was an important step in the healing process.

“It is always encouraging to come to community meetings such as this one and hear how ordinary people on the streets and in the pews are responding to the Royal Commission and to the changes being made in the church,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD / PUBLISHED: JUNE 25, 2016

Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops recently appealed to their congregations to help defeat a bill that enhances the ability of sexual abuse victims to sue. But the church’s credibility issue that gave rise to the legislation in the first place likely will be difficult to overcome.

The reforms to criminal and civil child sex crime laws are aimed at all private institutions that deal with children, rather than just the Catholic Church alone. But the legislation clearly is inspired by a blistering report by the state attorney general’s office relative to an investigation of child sexual abuse by priests and its cover-up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

The bill, which easily has passed the House, would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations regarding sex crimes against children. It also would raise 20 years, from 30 to 50, the age by which victims must file civil litigation.

Church leaders contend that provision unfairly would expose the institution to far greater liability and ignores reforms that they have implemented.

But four Catholic state representatives who support the bill — Patrick Harkins and Ryan Bizzaro of Erie, Mark Rozzi of Berks County and Madeline Dean of Montgomery County — countered that the church helped create the liability and the need to increase the statutory deadline to file suit.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

Editor’s note: This story contains explicit content.

The harrowing stories are each unique. They’re set in different neighborhoods. They revolve around different characters. They outline different circumstances.

But a common thread binds them together.

Each begins with a child whose youth and innocence, they say, was ripped away by a man they trusted above all others and who wielded incredible power over their lives. And each ends with an adult, who decades later, is still grappling with the pain.

As Pennsylvania and neighboring states consider whether to partially reopen a window for people sexually abused as children to seek legal justice, more abuse survivors are stepping out of the shadows to tell their stories.

They seek to remind politicians that the wounds and scars left by abuse are very much part of the present.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

June 26, 2016

From The Most Reverend John M. LeVoir – Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, Minn.

On behalf of the Diocese of New Ulm, I want to thank the victims and survivors of sexual abuse by priests who shared their heartbreaking stories with The Journal over the past few weeks.

I hope through courageously sharing their experiences, they are helped in their healing journey. I hope in hearing their stories, awareness is raised about the scourge of sexual abuse.

I offer a sincere apology to victims and survivors of past abuse and a solemn pledge to continue to do everything I can to prevent abuse of children and young people in the future.

The Church, in partnership with parents, parish and Catholic school leadership, is working to foster a safe environment for children and young people within Church ministry and throughout our broader community.

All priests and others who work or volunteer with children in Catholic parishes or schools undergo a background check and adhere to a strict Code of Conduct. Over the past decade, thousands of local people, including all priests, have participated in abuse awareness education. Thousands of local children have received age-appropriate personal safety lessons.

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GUAM
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agana

I would like to reassure the faithful and all people of good will that Church has taken into serious consideration the allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, OFM Cap., in recent months by Mr. Walter Denton, Mrs. Doris Concepcion, Mr. Roy Quintanilla, and Mr. Paul Lizama Sondia, and that all of the relevant documentation received by the Church related to these allegations has been duly sent to the Holy See, which has final authority in cases related to Bishops. I would further like to assure everyone that I have recognized the issues raised by all those concerned and, being deeply moved by the way they expressed themselves, am earnestly praying for them, without prejudice to both the alleged victims and the accused and ask for the prayers and support of the entire Church community.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai, SDB
Apostolic Administrator
Archdiocese of Agaña

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jun 25, 2016
By Sabrina Salas Matanane

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai issued a statement Sunday afternoon to reassure the island community that sexual abuse allegations against Archbishop Anthony Apuron are under investigation by the Vatican. In recent weeks several former altar boys alleged Apuron sexually molested them when he was a priest at Mt. Carmel Church in Agat.

Amid the allegations, Archbishop Hon was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana by Pope Francis. Apuron was relieved of his pastoral duties but he retains his title as Archbishop.

Here is the statement released by Archbishop Hon:

“I would like to reassure the faithful and all people of good will that Church has taken into serious consideration the allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, OFM Cap., in recent months by Mr. Walter Denton, Mrs. Doris Concepcion, Mr. Roy Quintanilla, and Mr. Paul Lizama Sondia, and that all of the relevant documentation received by the Church related to these allegations has been duly sent to the Holy See, which has final authority in cases related to Bishops. I would further like to assure everyone that I have recognized the issues raised by all those concerned and, being deeply moved by the way they expressed themselves, am earnestly praying for them, without prejudice to both the alleged victims and the accused and ask for the prayers and support of the entire Church community.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

As state lawmakers debate a plan to make it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice, abuse survivors are coming forward to tell their stories.

After years of suffering in silence, Craig Gribbin mustered the courage to ask for an apology.

It was early 2002. He was about 50 and finally ready to take the last step in confronting the sexual abuse he said he suffered as a teen at the hands of a priest and teacher at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia.

Through years of self-reflection, Gribbin had started to come to peace with what happened to him. He’d become a born-again Christian, was ordained as a nondenominational minister and began helping couples through marriage counseling.

By ministering to others, he began the painful process of confronting the demons in his own past. And by the late 1990s, Gribbin knew he had a final step to take before putting his abuse behind him: Confronting the people on whose watch it happened.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

As state lawmakers debate a plan to make it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek justice, abuse survivors are coming forward to tell their stories.

The day is seared into Thomas Humma’s memory.

It was the moment, he said, that he finally broke free of the priest who snaked into a central role in his life only to sexually molest him.

Though Humma hasn’t told his story publicly until now, parts of it have been recounted in media reports, at press conferences, even during state legislative sessions.

His story is intertwined with that of his childhood friend Mark Rozzi, who’s since become a state lawmaker representing part of Berks County and an advocate for abuse victims.

Their alleged abuser, Edward R. Graff, died in 2002 while awaiting trial in Texas on charges he abused a 15-year-old boy there.

Humma, who grew up in Reading and now lives on the West Coast, figures Graff pushed his luck the day he took both boys together into the rectory at Holy Guardian Angels in Muhlenberg Township. At the time, Humma was 12, and Rozzi was 13.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Jonathan Lai, STAFF WRITER

The chairman of the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee said Saturday he will recuse himself from all matters regarding a contested bill that would expand the ability of child sex-abuse victims to sue individuals and private institutions decades later.

State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) said he had recently learned of his law firm’s involvement advising a Catholic clergyman serving as a witness in child sex-abuse suits. Neither that nor his firm’s previous representation of a Catholic religious order sued by an abuse victim represent conflicts of interest, Greenleaf said, but he will no longer participate in proceedings regarding the measure to reassure the public.

“Perception and appearance in ethical matters are important – especially public perception of what legislators do in Harrisburg,” Greenleaf said in a statement Saturday. “In order to project a positive perception, I voluntarily will no longer participate in any further proceedings regarding H.B. 1947, nor will I vote on the bill.”

Greenleaf had not taken a public position on the bill. As head of the Judiciary Committee, he led a hearing earlier this month on the constitutionality of the legislation to extend the statute of limitations for child sex-abuse victims.

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UNITED STATES
The News Hub

William H Bowen

This summer over eight million Jehovah’s Witnesses will attend their conventions to be informed this just might be the last meeting they will attend. You see, they have a version of the zombie apocalypse called the “Great Tribulation” in which members are taught the police and local authorities are going to be taken over by Satan to attack JW men, rape JW women, and kill JW children. Members are told to prepare a go-bag with survival materials so they on a moments notice can flee to bunkers till God delivers them. This message is somewhat consistent as it is the same one that has been told for over one hundred years. Each year members believe this is the very last time they will have a summer convention and they go home in a form of mental hysteria to discard material possessions and simplify their lives so they can sell more books for one of the wealthiest per capita tax deductible publishing corporations in the world.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society produces over one billion pieces of literature each year and by declaring they are a religion can use slave labor to sell their books and pay not one dime in taxes. They go one step further by each year giving all members a piece of paper to write down the exact amount of donations they are willing to provide each month to keep God’s work moving forward. Each congregation is required to send in a specified donation each month or they will be disbanded.

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ARGENTINA
La Nacion

[Scandal in the Church of Santa Fe: A bishop is denounced for harboring a priest accused of pedophilia.]

Los padres de la víctima de tres años apuntaron al jefe de la diócesis de Reconquista, Ángel José Macín, y a la asesora legal del obispado por encubrimiento

SEGUIRJosé E. Bordón
PARA LA NACION
SÁBADO 25 DE JUNIO DE 2016

SANTA FE.- Escándalo en la iglesia de Reconquista, el norte de esta provincia. El sacerdote Néstor Monzón, de 47 años, acusado del delito de “abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante” en perjuicio de una nena de 3 años, que visitaba la Parroquia “María Madre de Dios”, en el barrio Hospital de esa ciudad, vecina a la vivienda de sus abuelos, fue liberado tras 60 días de prisión preventiva domiciliaria. Los padres de la víctima denunciaron penalmente por encubrimiento al obispo de la diócesis, Ángel José Macín.

La causa, además, involucra a la asesora legal del obispado, Gabriela Contepomi, a quien los defensores de la familia de la menor denunciaron porque en una escucha telefónica que se incorporó al expediente, la profesional dialoga con el cura Monzón y le señala que por orden del obispo Macín debe “borrar” todos los mensajes enviados o recibidos en su teléfono móvil. El diario Reconquista Hoy publicó el audio entre la abogada y el cura en su portal.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

Politicians seek political cover while gutting child sex abuse law
I wanted to begin this column with a great rant about politicians from an old “Monty Python” episode.

It’s presented in the guise of an apology for some previous content and scrolls down the screen as a very-proper narrator reads it and “Pomp and Circumstance” plays.

I didn’t have space for the whole thing — you can find it on YouTube — but here’s an excerpt:

“We would like to apologize for the way in which politicians are represented in this programme. It was never our intention to imply that politicians are weak-kneed, political time-servers who are concerned more with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government … nor to imply that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today …”

I won’t endorse some of the specific language in the rant — I wouldn’t call anyone “crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin” — but the general sentiments fit my disgust with the state Senate Judiciary Committee, which has been hard at work fashioning an appropriate excuse for gutting a bill that would reform statutes of limitations for child sex abuse survivors. I’d have added something about subservience to powerful special interests.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 25, 2016

Judy Courtin

An international spotlight is shining starkly on Australia this weekend as representatives from the United Nations, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Chile, the UK, the US and Australia are gathering in Chicago for a three-day conference on sexual assault and the Catholic Church.

As the Australian speaker at this conference I am, inter alia, highlighting the fact that Australia continues to be the only country in the common law world in which there is no legal entity for the Catholic Church (and some other religious organisations) that can be sued by victims for the historical sex crimes of its clergy. This burdensome barrier to justice holds firm, despite the royal commission making a sound and easily implemented recommendation that, unless a proper defendant with sufficient assets to meet its liability is nominated by the church authority, then the property trust (the only legal entity that does exist) can be sued.

This recommendation, the implementation of which is the responsibility of our state and territory governments, was made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in its report on redress and civil litigation, published in September 2015. Critically, and unlike a recommendation of the earlier Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse, the royal commission’s recommendation has both prospective and retrospective effects, meaning it would apply not only to future victims, but also to existing victims.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 25, 2016

The archbishop Pope Francis sent to temporarily administer the Archdiocese of Agana has started laying the groundwork for the reorganization of the Catholic church in Guam.

But the Concerned Catholics of Guam said the two more urgent tasks should have been: reaching out to those who have said they are victims of sex abuse by Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron; and the permanent removal not only of Apuron but also three other individuals.

Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai announced the formation of four ad hoc committees that could lead to a reorganization of the embattled Catholic church in Guam.

Hon also named the Rev. Patrick Castro as the new contact person “for those coming forward with allegations of having been sexually abused by a member of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Agana.”

Monsignor Brigido “Bibi” Arroyo, who also got special assignment from Hon as spokesperson for the archdiocese, said on Friday the formation of the four committees are part of the task of promoting unity, and that the church is listening to the people.

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

Professor Marci A. Hamilton
Jun 25, 2016

Here is what the rumor mill says some Pennsylvania Senators are considering, with a guide to help you understand it….

When it comes to behind-the-scenes chicanery against child sex abuse victims, no one holds a candle to the insurance and Catholic Conference lobbyists and bishops. They have pulled out all the stops against victims’ access to justice, especially when states have considered windows or revival bills that permit survivors with expired statutes of limitations (“SOLs”) to go foreard despite the SOL. One or more have pulled some stunners in various states, with the result that they shut victims out of court and preserved the secrets of predators and the institutions engaged in self-protection.

As I discuss in Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, in Colorado, Bishop Chaput put to work a public relations strategy to mislead Catholics in the pews into thinking a window is “anti-Catholic” and succeeded even though that is false. In Ohio, the night before a window would have passed in the House, the bishops persuaded members to strip out the window portion of the bill and replace it with a useless and unconstitutional “civil registry,” which has done zero for survivors.

In every state to consider revival legislation, the bishops have also trotted out lawyers with little knowledge of constitutional law to argue that a window or revival legislation is “unconstitutional.” Then when the bill passed, they challenged its constitutionality and lost in court—in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.

In the latest Pennsylvania chapter, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Stewart Greenleaf, put together no less than 5 people to testify that it is supposedly unconstitutional to revive an expired SOL in Pennsylvania. To quote survivor Michelle Gonsmann in her published letter to the Altoona Mirror: “Greenleaf lined up a parade of attorneys, most of whom had no true constitutional expertise but were deeply involved in the Catholic church or Catholic universities. These experts were clearly biased toward the Catholic church.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

The responsibility of the diocesan bishop remains”

Entgegen der Behauptung des Bistums Trier, dass Bistum habe erst jetzt (2016) von den Vorwürfen aus dem Jahr 2006 erfahren, konnte inzwischen belegt werden, dass das Bistum Trier bereits 2006 von der Staatsanwaltschaft informiert wurde. In der bischöflichen Personalkommission, in der die Meldung der Staatsanwaltschaft 2006 bekannt gegeben wurde, saßen sowohl der damalige Trierer Bischof Reinhard Marx als auch der heutige Bischof Ackermann. Damals fand auch ein Gespräch mit dem ehemaligen Freisener Pfarrer statt. Dieser versicherte dem Bistum gegenüber schriftlich, dass die Vorwürfe ihm gegenüber nicht zutreffend seien. Hätte das Bistum Trier den Verdacht gegen den ehemaligen Priester als unbegründet angesehen, hätte das Bistum Trier laut Leitlinien allerdings “die notwendigen Schritte unternehmen müssen, den ‘guten Ruf der Person’ wiederherzustellen”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Caritas

BERLIN, 23.06.2016 // In einer heute in Berlin vorgestellten Studie setzt sich der Fachverband Caritas Behindertenhilfe und Psychiatrie (CBP) mit der Situation auseinander, dass Kinder und Jugendliche mit Behinderung in den Anfangsjahren der Bundesrepublik in katholischen Einrichtungen Gewalt, Missbrauch und Leid erfahren haben.

Die Studie “Heimkinderzeit. Eine Studie zur Situation von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Einrichtungen der katholischen Behindertenhilfe in Westdeutschland (1949 – 1975) wurde im Auftrag des CBP vom Institut für Angewandte Forschung, Entwicklung und Weiterbildung (IAF) in Freiburg durchgeführt. Mitfinanziert und mitgetragen wird sie von der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK), dem Deutschen Caritasverband (DCV), der Deutschen Ordensobernkonferenz (DOK) und der Veronika-Stiftung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Welle

[Study: Violence in Catholic disabled homes was common.]

Das Leben von behinderten Kindern und Jugendlichen in katholischen Heimen zwischen 1949 und 1975 war geprägt von Isolation, Unterordnung und Gewalt. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine erste umfassende Studie zu dem Thema.

“Weinen war nicht erlaubt. Und wenn doch, gab’s auch dafür Schläge”, erinnert sich die Bewohnerin eines katholischen Behindertenheims. Und ein anderer berichtet: “Da wurden wir in einen dunklen Raum gesperrt (…) das war für mich das Schlimmste, was es gab.”

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UNITED STATES
The Times of Israel

JUNE 24, 2016

Michael J. Salamon

In the last few days, following the ruling by a Beit Din in Israel, a ruling that received support from a number of prominent rabbis in Israel and the United States who represent all shades of Orthodoxy, several highly personal articles have appeared. These intimate articles describe the pain inflicted upon them by a Rabbi Meir Pogrow who was supposed to be their educator, mentor, and spiritual advisor but was in effect their abuser. The Beit Din ruling was clear: “It is forbidden,” the Beit Din wrote, for him to have any contact with women and women were warned to have no contact with him; women should not even go to his Torah website and were instructed to avoid any contact with a woman who was and seems to still be his booking agent.

The implication was clear in their ruling that this woman solicited for him and in the Beit Din’s words “functions as his agent for sin, and in this way they have knowingly (ensnared and) lowered girls into the lowest spiritual depths”.

Pogrow, often referred to as a brilliant and charismatic Torah, scholar taught at Yeshiva University High Schools in Los Angeles, Michlahlah seminary in Jerusalem, and at the Kollel of Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem and Austin, Texas. He first appeared on my radar about eight years ago when Riva (not her real name) a woman in her early twenties came to therapy following some time at the seminary in Israel. She was anxious, depressed, and afraid that she could never get married or ever trust men. She described a relationship with a rabbi at the seminary who was challenging but also extremely demanding. She complained, “He got into my head somehow and it messed me up.” As we worked through Riva’s anguish and concerns, she described how a man of prominence used his position and his intellect to groom her, manipulate her, and ultimately have her do his bidding. With time, she told me his name.

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CALIFORNIA
San Diego Reader

By Dorian Hargrove, June 24, 2016

A San Diego Superior Court judge has ordered the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses, also known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, to pay $4000 a day for every day that it fails to produce documents requested in a civil lawsuit brought by former parishioner, Osbaldo Padron, who claims a church elder sexually abused him when he was seven years old.

In a June 23 ruling, expected to be made final today, judge Richard Strauss admonished the church for willfully ignoring a court order to produce all documents associated with a 1997 Body of Elders letter that church leaders sent to parishes around the world in a quest to learn about sexual abuse of children by church leaders.

Over the course of the past year, the Watchtower Society and its lawyers have fought hard to keep the letter confidential, claiming that turning over the documents would infringe on the privacy of those mentioned in the letter that were not associated with the case.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 24, 2016

Philadelphia forensic psychiatrist Robert Toborowsky Friday refuted claims that some of a Christian Brother’s actions at Mount Cashel in the 1950s amounted to sexual sadism.

“No? countered Will Hiscock, a lawyer for four John Does in the Mount Cashel civil trial. “What was it? Was he loving?”

“It wasn’t loving and it wasn’t sadistic,” replied Toborowsky, a expert witness for the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s, which disputes claims it should be held liable for the sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by certain Christian Brothers at the orphanage during the era late 1940s to early 1960s.

“How was it not sadistic?” demanded Hiscock.

“What happened was not sexual sadism,” Toborowsky replied.

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NEW MEXICO
Los Alamos Daily Post

By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post

Police arrested former Los Alamos Pastor Paul Cunningham last Friday evening on San Ildefonso Road and charged him with two counts of sexual exploitation of children.

According to court documents obtained by the Los Alamos Daily Post, investigators executed a search warrant at Cunningham’s home, at 4732 Brisa Del Bosque, and found more than 400 explicit images of children and nine pornographic videos on computers belonging to Cunningham.

Twenty-two of the images had been shared through several social media sites.
Cunningham, 54, was caught after authorities received information in February from a detective working in the Westminster Police Department in Colorado. He was investigating a case in his jurisdiction related to child pornography and in the process found that an IP address belonging to Cunningham was suspected of sending child pornography related material to a subject in Colorado.

The detective provided a zip drive of the material to Los Alamos Sheriff Marco Lucero and Deputy Sheriff John Horne who turned it over to Los Alamos police. Police launched an investigation, which led to the former pastor’s arrest.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

PATRICK MCGREEVY

The state Senate approved a measure on Wednesday that would end the statute of limitations for rape and several other sex crimes in California.

The measure by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) would allow the indefinite criminal prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation and sexual penetration.

Currently, prosecution of rape must take place within 10 years, unless DNA evidence is discovered afterward.

“SB 813 will help to prevent rapists and sexual predators from evading legal consequences in California simply because the statute of limitations has expired,” Leyva said. “Regardless of when a rape or sexual assault is reported, survivors must have an opportunity to pursue justice in a court of law for the unthinkable crimes committed against them.

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CANADA
The Gaurdian (UK)

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Friday 24 June 2016

Catholic priests in Montreal will be banned from being alone with children to provide a “safety net” against allegations of abuse.

Archbishop Christian Lepine has issued a decree to implement the policy, which also covers lay workers and volunteers.

According to the decree, the move was to “ensure the safety and integrity of the people to whom we bring the Gospel message and offer our pastoral care”. But, it added, it was also “to preserve the integrity, security and good reputation of God’s people”.

In an accompanying letter, Lepine said: “Recent events brought to light the horrific reality of abuse of minors and vulnerable people by members of the church. These intolerable situations have shocked and shaken the Universal Church as well as the entire population.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

BY MARY SANCHEZ
msanchez@kcstar.com

Nearly incomprehensible suffering preceded where the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph will humbly place itself on Sunday.

The diocese seeks reconciliation.

The new bishop, installed last fall, will make a public apology for decades of sexual abuse committed by diocesan priests.

Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. will lead a Service of Lament at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Johnston has asked every priest in the diocese to attend. He has requested that they bring purple vestments, a sign of penance.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

California man demonstrates importance of court access for child sex abuse victims

I got an email this morning from a San Diego man who wanted people in Pennsylvania to know how his state’s statute of limitations reform bill helped him and that the tactics being used to fight a statute bill here are similar to those he has seen elsewhere.

California legislators in 2002 voted to open a one-year window for all child sex abuse victims to file suits, even if they were blocked by the statute of limitations. Paul Livingston and his brother — abused as small children by the same Catholic school custodian — were among the victims who filed suit, and the court settlement with the Los Angeles Archdiocese helped Paul finally get help with the aftermath of his abuse.

This reinforces one of the most important points in these efforts to give more victims access to the civil courts. When they’re blocked by statutes of limitations, the cost of treating their problems — and the social cost of leaving the damage untreated — must be borne by the victims and by society at large. The people responsible are left unscathed.

These bills — including House Bill 1947 in Pennsylvania, now being considered by the state Senate after overwhelmingly passing in the House — have the potential to change that.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

Saunders says he hopes to lead a ‘victims and survivors’ consultative panel’ to assist the commission

British campaigner Peter Saunders has insisted he is still part of the Vatican’s commission on protecting children from abuse.

In a letter published in today’s Catholic Herald, Saunders says that, although he was encouraged to resign after his strong criticisms of the speed of Vatican reforms, he is only on a “leave of absence”.

He says he hopes to lead a “victims and survivors’ consultative panel” to assist the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This was suggested by the commission president, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who had consulted the “C8” group of cardinals.

Saunders, the founder of NAPAC (National Association for People Abused in Childhood), had been an outspoken member of the Vatican commission until February, when he went on leave after questioning Pope Francis’s commitment to reform.

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MINNESOTA
MPR News

Martin Moylan Jun 24, 2016

Minnesota Catholic Church leaders in St. Cloud, Crookston, New Ulm and Winona are weighing what to do as their dioceses face the financial fallout from hundreds of sex abuse claims between them.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Duluth sought bankruptcy court protection after being overwhelmed by clergy sex abuse claims. Soon, some of the state’s smaller dioceses will be forced to choose.

Experts are divided on the path they might take.

“It’s unlikely that they’re going to bankruptcy, based on national trends,” said Charles Zech, director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University.

“Every diocese in the country virtually has had some abuse cases. And only 13 have felt the need to go to bankruptcy,” he said. “So, the odds are, it probably won’t happen.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 24, 2016

It was a fiery exchange at the Mount Cashel civil trial this morning when a Philadelphia psychiatrist was challenged for not giving more weight to the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the lives of two men.

The men are among four John Does who say the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. should be held liable for physical and sexual abuse by certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers.

The church contends it did not run the orphanage.

The heat came mostly from the Does’ lawyer Will Hiscock who asked Robert Toborowsky, an expert called by church lawyers, if the fact one man’s low sex drive and single status of 60 years was a red flag.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter – Global Sisters Report

by Dan Stockman Jun. 23, 2016

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are among the recipients of letters from the Vatican asking congregations to explain matters learned during the apostolic visitation.

In addition to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Loretto Sisters also received letters from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL).

The Sisters of St. Joseph said in a statement their letter invited them to Rome for a “prayerful conversation” about “a few points mentioned in the letter.” The statement did not say what those points were, and congregational leaders declined to say anything beyond the issued statement.

A copy of the subsequent letter sent by leadership to Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sisters was obtained by Global Sisters Report. It says that all CSJ Province Leadership Teams received the same letter from CICLSAL and quotes from it on five matters “voicing the following concerns”:

• Your desire to help bring about an ’emerging new form of religious life’;

• Your Congregation’s policy regarding members of the community who are known to hold positions of dissent from the Church’s moral teaching or approved liturgical practice;

• We also urge you to evaluate your efforts to promote ‘communion with creation’, especially in light of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si, a comprehensive presentation on the responsible care of creation, in view of integrating its principles enunciated in the encyclical into your current efforts in this area.

The congregation’s statement said the letter was presented as a follow-up to the on-site visit to the order in St. Paul, Minnesota, in late 2010. The congregation’s leadership team discussed whether to accept or decline the summons, but decided the “benefits outweigh the challenges of expense and some inconvenience.”

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Archbishop Hon also created four new ad hoc committees in his continuing efforts of “promoting unity.”

Guam – Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai is making some major changes within the archdiocese. This morning he issued a protocol for shuffling around of clergy and priests and he also appointed a new spokesperson and a new point of contact for sex abuse victims.

Another major move from the new apostolic administrator of the archdiocese Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai—it appears now he’s looking to implement some major changes in the leadership roles within the church. Today, he issued Protocol Number 2016-009 in which he appointed a new spokesperson, Msgr. Bibi Arroyo, as well as a new point-of-contact for sex abuse victims, Father Patrick Castro, who currently heads the St. Fidelis Friary.

Archbishop Hon also created four ad hoc committees for developing strategies. The four are Scenario of the Archdiocese, which will develop a scenario of what the situation should be once the new archbishop’s mandate is fulfilled. The second is Ongoing Formation which is to draw up a plan for formation of clergy members. Next is Proposal for Repositioning of Priests which focuses on a shuffling of leadership roles and priests that would quote result in a more unified Archdiocese. The final ad hoc committee will be Seminary Visitation which is to get more information on all the major seminaries on Guam.

The members appointed to these new committees are:

For scenario of situation: Fr. Adrian Cristobal (chairperson), Msgr. Arroyo, Father Jeffrey San Nicolas, Msgr. David C. Quitugua and Father Patric Castro.

For ongoing formation, Father Mike Crisostomo (chairperson), Father Lito Abad, Msgr. David I. A. Quitugua, Father Joe English and Father Gus Gumataotao.

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AUSTRALIA
Crikey

Paedophile priest John Joseph Farrell wrote a masters thesis on another paeodphile priest, who served the same diocese. And two bishops helped him write it, writes freelance writer Kate Doak.

New documents show two Catholic bishops helped paedophile priest John Joseph Farrell with his postgraduate thesis on another paedophile priest, Crikey can reveal.

The current bishops of the Dioceses of Maitland-Newcastle and Wagga Wagga, William Wright and Gerard Hanna respectively, assisted Farrell with his postgraduate masters of letters thesis at the University of New England between 1988 and 1991.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By GIUSEPPE VALIANTEThe Canadian Press
Thu., June 23, 2016

MONTREAL—Priests and anyone else in “the orbit of the church” will be forbidden from being alone with children and other vulnerable people as part of a pilot project, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Montreal said Thursday.

The goal is to create a “safety net” for everyone associated with the Catholic Church in Montreal, canon François Sarrazin said in an interview.

“Imagine if you are alone in a room and a child accuses you of hitting them, how will you react?” Sarrazin asked. “Whether it’s true or not, you need a witness. Not being in the room alone with someone who is vulnerable is simply being prudent.”

He said the policy will be introduced in a handful of churches across the city, starting in September.

For Carlo Tarini, a spokesman for an association of victims of priests, the new rules are “too little too late.”

He said the policy is just a way for the church to protect itself against lawsuits stemming from child-abuse scandals that have rocked the city’s diocese and the Roman Catholic Church across the globe.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A leading cardinal has said the Catholic Church should apologise to the gay community for its scandalous and terrible treatment of them, which had not changed until “very recently”.

Speaking in Dublin, Cardinal Reinhard Marx said: “The history of homosexuals in our societies is very bad because we’ve done a lot to marginalise [them].”

As church and society “we’ve also to say ‘sorry, sorry’ ”.

The German cardinal is a member of the council of nine cardinals chosen by Pope Francis to advise him.

Until “very recently”, the church, but also society at large, had been “very negative about gay people . . . it was the whole society. It was a scandal and terrible,” he told The Irish Times after speaking at a conference held in Trinity College.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jun. 23, 2016

With the election of Pope Francis, hopes were raised that the Vatican bureaucracy would finally be reformed. Sadly, that does not appear to be happening, except perhaps in the area of finances. Instead, the offices created after Vatican II are being downsized and reorganized while the older pre-Vatican II congregations and tribunals have been left untouched.

There is a good argument for this reorganization. The hope of the Council of Cardinals advising the pope is that the reorganization will make these offices more efficient and encourage better coordination. But if this “reform” was being done by any other pope, say Benedict, it would be portrayed as regressive, as an attempt to de-emphasize the issues that came out of the Second Vatican Council.

The truth is that the Vatican old guard never liked these offices and did not think much of them. The “real” Roman Curia, in their view, were the older congregations that dealt with doctrine, liturgy, clergy, religious, bishops, oriental churches, the missions, education, and making saints. The prefects or heads of these congregations have to be cardinals.

The newer councils were seen as peripheral and less prestigious. These councils dealt with ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, laity, family, migrants, healthcare workers, charity, culture, mass communications, and justice and peace. The presidents or heads of these councils do not need to be cardinals, although many of them have been.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith

As state senators mull possible changes to a proposed overhaul of Pennsylvania’s child sexual abuse laws, victims groups are ratcheting up their calls to preserve what they say is the most important part of the plan.

Specifically, supporters of the plan want to see it include a provision that would allow victims to move forward with now-expired lawsuits against their abusers and organizations that shield them.

The calls come after reports Wednesday that the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to remove that part of the bill and replace it with a provision to give victims a way around the limits if they can prove an extreme cover-up.

John Salveson, founder of the Delaware County-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, said Thursday that move would be more window dressing than substance.

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ALABAMA
West Alabama Watchman

A Marengo County grand jury has indicted Gregory Lucy, 59, on five counts of first degree sexual abuse and attempted rape. Lucy was arrested following the indictment.

Lucy is the pastor of the El Shaddai AOH Church of God in Dixons Mills, Ala.

According to authorities, the charges in the case involve underage church members. Lucy is out on a $375,000 bond.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

BY AMANDA CHRISTMAN / PUBLISHED: JUNE 24, 2016

A Hazle Township man who volunteered in greater Hazleton, admitted to molesting a minor at a church camp nearly six years ago, police say.

Zachary M. Lee, 24, was arrested Monday and charged with felonies for unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, unlawful restraint and one misdemeanor count of indecent assault with a person less than 16 years old.

He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Daniel O’Donnell, Sugarloaf Township, who released him on $25,000 unsecured bail.

O’Donnell ordered him to not have any contact with the victim, the victim’s family or any minors.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • June 23, 2016

HARRISBURG, Pa. (ChurchMilitant.com) – A Pennsylvania senate committee is set to scrap a provision within proposed reforms to the current child sex abuse statute of limitations that would apply the amendments retroactively.

According to two sources in the legislative process, the Republican-controlled state senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to remove, potentially as soon as this week, the controversial clause in House Bill 1947 (HB 1947) that allows alleged child sex abuse victims to file lawsuits over decades-old molestations, amid criticism from the Pennsylvania Catholic Church and local businesses.

In a letter distributed to parishes earlier this month, Philadelphia archbishop Charles Chaput outlined the issues with the proposed legislation, which he described as posing “serious dangers” for local parishes and a “clear attack on the Church.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Why PA should change statutes of limitation on sex abuse crimes

I am not Catholic.

I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. From the ages of 10-12, I was repeatedly violated by a man my parents trusted. My abuse only ended when my abuser became engaged to be married. I remember feeling relief that my nightmare was over. I didn’t understand at age 12 that it was not over, nor would it ever be over.

At the age of 17, I ran into him at a local town carnival. He was pushing his newborn daughter in a stroller. He creepily proceeded to tell me how much he enjoyed changing her diapers because he found it fascinating to look at her anatomy.

I summoned the courage to report my abuse at the age of 25. I learned I had waited too long. I lost my criminal rights at age 14 and my civil rights at age 18 because of Pennsylvania’s statutes of limitations at that time. To my horror, I also learned that he now had more daughters and was employed as a school janitor.

Legally I knew I couldn’t just accuse him without the very real threat of a slander or defamation lawsuit. I needed incontrovertible proof.

I hired a private investigation firm, contacted my abuser and arranged to meet him. He didn’t know we were surrounded by private detectives, who clearly heard him confess that he had molested me and then apologize for what he had done to me as a 10-year-old girl.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Hold The Front Page

by David Sharman Published 24 Jun 2016

A claim that newspapers should not be allowed to report on the sexual abuse of children by a long-dead bishop has been rejected by the press watchdog.

Last year the Bishop of Chichester issued a former apology following the settlement of a civil claim against one of his predecessors, George Bell, who was alleged to have abused a young woman while leading the Diocese.

Marilyn Billingham wrote to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over the Chichester Observer’s coverage of the story, arguing that the press should only report historic allegations as fact in circumstances where a court has found this to be the case.

But IPSO rejected the complaint, saying the newspaper had been entitled to rely on the information provided by the Church in an official press release.

The Observer had reported Bell, pictured above left, had “abused a young victim while leader of the diocese”, and that this news would “come as a great shock to people who regarded him as a hero”.

In February, HTFP reported that the victim had spoken exclusively to Brighton daily The Argus seven decades on from her ordeal.

Ms Billingham claimed the Observer’s report had breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, stating it was inaccurate to report as fact that Bell had sexually abused a child, because he had not been found guilty in a court of law of such offences and there was no further evidence to corroborate the allegations.

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CANADA
National Post

Graeme Hamilton | June 23, 2016

MONTREAL – Invoking past sexual abuse scandals and the need to create a “healthy and safe environment” in its churches, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Montreal has announced new guidelines to ensure priests and lay workers are never alone with children.

“Recent events have brought to light the horrific reality of abuse of minors and vulnerable persons by members of the Church,” Christian Lépine, archbishop of Montreal, wrote in a message to the faithful dated Wednesday.

“These intolerable situations have shocked and shaken the Universal Church as well as the entire population to whom we wish to proclaim the Good News of Christ.”

A pilot project to begin this fall in 10 parishes and eventually extend to all 194 in Montreal will prohibit priests, staff and volunteers from being alone with minors. Following the lead of other organizations like amateur sport associations and the Scouts, the archdiocese will institute police screening of new hires and volunteers working with children or the vulnerable.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Dan Campana
Aurora Beacon-News

A three-count indictment issued against the pastor of a North Aurora church includes an allegation that the 39-year-old “begged” to have sex with the teen girl he has been accused of sexually assaulting.

Ralphael Robinson “grabbed (the girl) by the wrist … and begged her to have sex with him,” the indictment states in connection to the charge of attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse, which was added to single counts of criminal sexual assault and sex abuse on which Robinson was arrested in April.

Authorities have said Robinson fondled and inappropriately touched the teen girl, who later confronted him about the incident April 18 at Kingdom Church on South Lincolnway Street. Robinson, a registered sex offender, remains held in Kane County Jail on $107,500 bond. He appeared in Kane County Court Thursday for a hearing during which his arraignment was scheduled for July 14.

Robinson is described as Kingdom Church’s “senior leader” on the bio page for the Ralphael Robinson Ministries website. Although the church’s website was taken down shortly after Robinson’s arrest, the ministries’ site features several photos of Robinson as it touts “prophetic advisement” and credit repair among its offerings. Robinson, who has been in jail since April 22, is also featured in a graphic for an event called “Manifesting Your Prophecy” which was scheduled for May 21.

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GEORGIA
Raw Story

BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
23 JUN 2016

Questions are being raised in Marietta, Georgia, as to how a man charged with sexually abusing a child when he worked as a youth pastor in 2013 could be hired as a youth pastor this year, in a position where he is again accused of sexual abuse, 11Alive reports.

Alexander Edwards has been charged in two cases, one from 2013 and one from this year.

He worked as a youth pastor at Providence Baptist Church in downstate Leesburg, where he was charged with two felony counts for making sexual advances on a 13-year-old boy in 2013.

Yet the case wasn’t prosecuted at the time, and Edwards was hired by another church as a youth pastor, this time at Cobb County’s Eastside Baptist Church, 11Alive reports. This despite a $5,000 bond with limitations requiring that he not have any contact with children under 18 years old.

He was arrested in April on suspicion of molesting an 11 year old in Cobb County.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

Jurors in Paterson started deliberating Thursday in the trial of a former Passaic priest who is accused of sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl three years ago.

Passaic County prosecutors said during a trial in Superior Court in Paterson that the Rev. Jose Lopez took the girl to his private living quarters inside the St. Mary’s Church on Market Street, placed her on his lap and touched her inappropriately.

Witnesses for the prosecution testified that the girl told them Lopez tried to rape her but she ran out of his suite. They also said he admitted that he took the girl into his suite and that he went “too far.”

Lopez was removed from the church after the allegations were reported to the Catholic diocese and later to authorities in 2013. Lopez maintains that he is innocent and that he never touched the girl in a sexual manner.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Frank Juliano Published Thursday, June 23, 2016

A priest charged with stealing thousands of dollars from his Seymour church has applied for pre-trial probation, a program for first offenders, the Valley Independent Sentinel reports.

If the Rev. Honore Kombo’s application for accelerated rehabilitation is accepted, the felony charge of first-degree larceny could be dismissed. He was arrested in late February, eight months after he was relieved of his duties at St. Augustine Church by the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Kombo, 50, said during an appearance Tuesday in Milford Superior Court that he intends to repay the nearly $34,000 by his next court date on July 26, the Valley Indy reports.

The former St. Augustine pastor, now living in Weston, allegedly embezzled at least $20,000 willed to the parish as well as checks written to the church. He is free on a $10,000 bond.

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IOWA
Clinton Herald

DAVENPORT — A local priest has been cleared of accusations that he inappropriately touched minors three decades ago.

The Diocese of Davenport through a press release announced that Father John Stack will be assigned to priestly ministry and service to the Diocese.

According to the release, the Diocese received a report in 2013 that stated Stack, then a chaplain at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton, inappropriately touched minors in approximately the 1980s. The Diocese reported this to the Scott County Attorney’s Office in compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Diocese and the county attorney. Stack was removed from ministry while this matter was investigated.

As a result of the investigation and with the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board, Bishop Martin Amos petitioned the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, requesting the case be brought to trial. The trial process could have resulted in one of three judgements: innocent, guilty or that the accusations of sexual abuse of minors were not proven.

The three judges, all from outside of the Diocese of Davenport, found that the accusations of sexual abuse of minors by Stack were not proven. There was not a finding of innocence or guilt. In order to assure the rights of all, the decision was appealed for further review. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith concurred with the finding of the judges.

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NEW YORK
The Legislative Gazette

By Simon Rosenbluth, Gazette staff writer on June 23, 2016

Victims vow to hold lawmakers accountable, Catholic League calls legislation a ‘sham’

Child abuse victims and their advocates are going on the offensive after the Legislature failed yet again to pass the Child Victims Act (S.7296/A.9877) a bill that would make it easier for child abuse victims to seek justice.

Specifically, the omnibus bill would eliminate the criminal and civil statutes of limitations for future victims of child sexual abuse and create a one-year window for previous victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil legal claims against their attackers and culpable institutions such as schools and churches.

An outspoken advocate for the bill, Melanie Blow, highlighted the importance of eliminating the statute of limitations for victims saying, “It takes an average of 21 years for a victim to come forth,” explaining that, by the time a victim has the courage to take legal action, it is often too late.

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KANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 23, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbra Graber (540-214-8874, mennonite@snapnetwork.org), Stephanie Krehbiel (734-678-2185, stephaniekrehbiel@gmail.com)

Five names added to list of sex-offending Mennonite church workers
Each admitted to sexual misconduct but none have been charged
Four live in Kansas; One, a Canadian, is a painter on cruise ships
Group demands that Mennonite Church USA end its practice of keeping secret files on clergy with sexual misconduct charges

A support group for survivors of sexual abuse is announcing the addition of five new names to their Mennonite Abuse Prevention (MAP) list. To be placed on the MAP list, offenders must have been named elsewhere through established media sources, internal institutional documents, court records, or any combination of the above.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mennonite_map

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says that each of these five men admitted to sexual misconduct, one of them with a teen-aged girl. However, none have faced criminal charges. Four of them live in Kansas. The fifth, a Canadian, is a painter on cruise ships. Brief histories of these predators are set forth below. Documentation and photos can be found at the associated links.

However, MAP list researcher and SNAP Mennonite member Stephanie Krehbiel of Lawreence, Kansas added, “We’ve learned recently that the Mennonite Church USA keeps sealed files on pastors who have had charges of sexual misconduct against them. We’ve even learned about pastoral search committees who have hired pastors without being informed that the pastor in question has charges of sexual misconduct against him in previous jobs. This is unacceptable. Have we learned nothing from watching the Catholic church quietly move abusive priests from one diocese to another? We demand transparency about how the church keeps track of sexual misconduct charges against individuals.”

SNAP Mennonite leader Barbra Graber of Harrisonburg, Virginia, chimed in, “There’s absolutely no place in a faith community for sealed files concerning a church leader’s sexual misconduct.”

The survivors group called on Anabaptist/Mennonite officials to publicly release the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of each and every abusive church worker.

David Clohessy, a Saint Louis, Missouri, man who is the long-time Executive Director for SNAP, also wanted to remind people that sexual predators are not just a danger within a religious group.

“Churches are quite often too quick to forgive, and when church officials keep the identity of men – or women — who abuse kids and vulnerable adults ‘in-house’ instead of reporting to the authorities, it’s not just members of the faith community who are endangered. Anyone, including members of the public, can be at risk. Wounded victims should not have to bear the burden of warning police, prosecutors, parents and parishioners!”

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Thursday, June 23, 2016

The archdiocese of Montreal is implementing a plan that would forbid priests and church volunteers from being alone with children.

Final details of the plane are still being worked out as the Catholic Church looks for ten parishes in and around the city to implement the pilot project later this year.

Canon Francois Sarrazin said that given the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church, the plan makes sense.

“There is a time for everything,” he said, pointing out the idea has been in the works for several years.

“The diocese of Montreal has been working on a plan to ‘filter’ volunteers, to investigate parish staff, and not just the priests, but all people who are involved in the parish.”

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet

Published on June 23, 2016

The potential lost income for two John Does because of the effect on their lives from their Mount Cashel experiences might have hit as high as roughly $3.5 million combined.

The figures given for the two men differ because one man is retired from the military and the other is a retired teacher, but that figure is sum total based on testimony today in the Mount Cashel civil trial.

Calgary forensic psychologist Cara Brown was called to testify by Paul Kennedy, one of the lawyers for four John Does who claim that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s should be held liable for physical and sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers during the era late 1940s to early 1960s.

The church contends it did not oversee the orphanage.

Many complicated factors go into the potential loss income calculations – from earnings statistics to psychological reports on the men. Brown explained the bottom line figures are based on various scenarios of the men’s’ potential earnings if they had no impairment (due to their experiences.)

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Economist

ABOVE the announcement for confessions on Tuesday at 7pm, the weekly bulletin for St Rose of Lima’s church near Philadelphia had an unusual notice for parishioners with the heading, “JUST SO YOU ARE AWARE”. It stated that Nick Miccarelli voted in favour of House Bill 1947. The legislation would abolish the criminal statute of limitations for future child sexual abuse cases, including rape, incest and statutory sexual assault. In addition to sitting in the statehouse, Mr Miccarelli is a member of the parish.

Many states are revising their statutes of limitations for assault. Delaware has done so—a wave of lawsuits followed—as has California. New York’s statehouse considered a bill this month that would have extended its statute of limitations by five years. Pennsylvania’s bill would allow civil cases for child sexual abuse to be filed against public and private institutions, and extend the statute of limitations for civil cases from 30 to 50 years (the average male victim does not come forward until he is in his late 30s, women come forward even later on average). The state senate’s judiciary committee is considering whether to send the bill to the floor for a vote.

Mr Miccarelli, the lawmaker and parishioner, was not the only representative singled out by the church for supporting the bill. Martina White, who represents a district in Philadelphia, has been disinvited from several church events. Another was told by a priest that he had betrayed his faith. Earlier this month a letter written by Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, was distributed at Sunday services saying the bill was a “clear attack” on the church and “poses serious dangers” for parishes, charities and schools. Archbishop Chaput helped defeat a similar bill in Colorado when he was Denver’s Archbishop.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

Amid reports that the fix is in to gut House Bill 1947, the bill that would reform statute of limitations laws in cases of child sex abuse, a group of current and former Philadelphia district attorneys issued a press release supporting the bill in its current form.

I don’t ordinarily run press releases, but I’ll make an exception, because these are people whose investigations into predators in the Philadelphia Archdiocese led to two damning grand jury reports.

I’m hearing that there’s a chance the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the bill this week. Here’s a Philadelphia Inquirer story reporting some of the same things I’ve been hearing about the bill’s likely fate.

I’ve also heard from a West Philadelphia woman who wanted people to know that many Catholics don’t support the lobbying efforts of Catholic officials who strongly oppose the bill. Below the D.A. release, I’ll share her email, with links to some excellent comments she received in the midst of gathering 3,000 signatures.

Finally, I want to recommend that you read a great op-ed column that will appear on the mcall.com website this evening and in The Morning Call Friday. It’s by Kristen Pfautz Woolley of York, a strong advocate for the bill and a victim of abuse by a family friend when she was a child. I wrote about her a few years ago.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Ben Horowitz | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

on June 23, 2016

PATERSON — Friends and relatives of a Passaic priest accused of inappropriately touching and kissing a 14-year-old girl spoke on his behalf during his trial Wednesday, depicting him as a moral and caring person, according to an account in The Record.

As reported by The Star-Ledger, the Rev. Jose Lopez, now 37, was charged in 2013 with luring the girl to his church residence and kissing her. He is charged with attempted sexual assault, criminal sexual contact, luring and child endangerment, The Record said.

Seven character witnesses testified on Lopez’ behalf in Superior Court in Paterson, including church member Cindy Negrete, who said she had known Lopez “a long time” and called him “an amazing person … I know he would never, ever do something like this,” The Record reported.

Gloria Shope, a retired school administrator, said she had known Lopez at a Morris County church she attended, according to the newspaper. “He is a loyal friend, trustworthy and very responsible, caring and one of the holiest priests I know,” she said.

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CANADA
Windsor Star

TREVOR WILHELM, WINDSOR STAR

Victims of an alleged pedophile priest, whose trial was repeatedly delayed, say his death this week has robbed them of the chance to confront him.

Linus Bastien died June 19 at home in Petrolia after his case dragged on with repeated delays for five years. He was 89.

One of Bastien’s alleged victims from St. Mary church in Maidstone said he was disappointed when he learned of the priest’s death.

“I knew it meant the end of the court case,” said the 52-year-old man whose identity is covered by a publication ban. “A sense of loss and knowing that me and the 11 other witnesses, we’ll be denied that sense of closure that the criminal court case would have given us.”

Bastien served at many churches throughout Essex County, starting with Most Precious Blood in Windsor in 1951.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup IndependentI

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 22, 2016

Bishop apologizes

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE – The Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 case took a dramatic and emotional turn during a confirmation hearing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court Tuesday.

The first hour of the hearing was devoted to walking the court through all the legal details that comprise the diocese’s plan of reorganization, which will be funded in excess of $21 million. However, the second hour of the hearing featured an apologetic statement by Gallup Bishop James S. Wall to survivors of clergy sex abuse, followed by emotional remarks by several abuse survivors from Arizona and New Mexico.

“I want to first begin by acknowledging the reason why we’re here today, and the reason is because bad people, bad men committed bad and sinful acts against good people,” Wall told the small group of abuse survivors in the courtroom. “And there’s no excuse for that. There never was and there never will be an excuse for that.”

“These are men who are supposed to represent Jesus Christ and draw people into a deeper relationship with him,” Wall added. “And they did the complete opposite. So I want to start by saying I’m sorry for that.”

Wall, who repeatedly referred to clergy sex abuse survivors in the Gallup Diocese as “our survivors,” thanked the abuse claimants in the courtroom.

“Thank you for your courage to stand up, to come forward to tell your story,” he said. “I know it wasn’t easy. I know it was very difficult, but I’m grateful for your courage, so thank you very much.”
The bishop said he wanted to do all that he could do to heal past abuse, harms and hurt. He also said he was “personally looking forward to having healing services” throughout the diocese, as well as writing letters to abuse survivors.

“And the reason why I want to do that is I want to bring the light of Christ into this in order to help our survivors heal,” he said

Generational crime

Attorney James Stang, legal counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of abuse claimants in the case, asked for and received permission from Judge David T. Thuma to allow abuse survivors to gather around a table usually reserved for attorneys so they could support one another as they made statements to the court.

Stang noted that this has not been a regular bankruptcy case where the claims are paid, the ledgers are cleared and people simply move on.

“These folks will live with this experience, obviously, the rest of their lives. And I refer what happened to them as a generational crime,” he said, explaining the lifelong impact clergy sex abuse has on the survivors, their parents and their children.

“I want to apologize,” Stang added. “I want to apologize because our system doesn’t do justice to these folks.”

Four of the abuse claimants, two women and two men, stood to deliver remarks to the bishop and the court. All agreed to be publicly identified.

Prudence Jones, of Gallup, who was molested as a child on the Navajo Nation by Brother Mark Schornack, a Franciscan friar, was the first to speak.

“Bishop Wall, I want you to know that I accept your apology,” an emotional Jones said. “But I also want you to know that the amount of suffering I endured because of Brother Mark is immeasurable and lifelong. The pain he caused me reverberated through my family, and sadly my daughters were raised in the shadow of that pain.”

Jones told the bishop he could further her healing process by releasing the files of abusive clergy — something Wall has declined to do.

“I had been opposed to approving the reorganization plan because the non-monetaries did not include releasing these documents,” Jones said. “Bishop Wall, the first time we met, I told you I forgave Brother Mark because it was the right thing to do. And I asked you to do the right thing. I’m still waiting.”

‘Unrepentant criminals’

“The misdeeds of the clergy and the suffering to those we represent is not illusory, it is real,” Criss Candelaria said. “I have seen it. People must believe that it is true because it is true.”

Candelaria, an attorney in Pinetop, Arizona, is a former longtime Arizona prosecutor. He has been public in the past about being targeted as a child for grooming by the Rev. James Burns. During Tuesday’s hearing, Candelaria called clergy abusers “unrepentant criminals.”

Candelaria, who has served as chairman of Stang’s committee, said he was disappointed that Gallup diocesan officials rejected some of the non-monetary provision proposals the committee made that would enhance the protection of children and vulnerable adults. Candelaria asked the diocese to reconsider those recommendations.

“Please do more, not less,” he said.

Candelaria, however, gave credit to some in the diocese.

“And I’d like to thank some clergy — almost all unknown — who took action to protect children and vulnerable people through the years,” Candelaria said, specifically citing the Rev. Tim Farrell, the pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Farmington, who was not in attendance at the court hearing.

JoAnn Stoltenberger, a resident of the Farmington area, also credited Farrell’s support.

“He helped me through this whole process,” she said. “If it wouldn’t have been for him, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Stoltenberger, who was abused as a child by the Rev. Julian Hartig, a Franciscan friar, talked about her healing process.

“But through all this I’ve learned forgiveness, especially toward myself,” she said. “I felt so much guilt over the years even though I knew it wasn’t my fault. And Father Julian, I forgive you. You can’t have another day of my life.”

Plan approved

Phoenix resident Larry Hellman was the final abuse survivor to speak. Hellman shared how his abuse by the Rev. Clement Hageman, which started with a horrific rape when he was 11, destroyed his childhood dream of becoming a priest, left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and set him up for years of self-sabotaging behavior.

More recently, he said, the Diocese of Gallup reneged on its commitment to pay for the psychological counseling that was assisting him.

“The Catholic Church promised to cover the cost of these visits,” Hellman said. “Ultimately, I was released because guess what? The Catholic Church refused to pay the bill. I know how it feels to be violated 50 years after the first assault.”

In spite of those criticisms, Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, reported to the court that the abuse survivors in the case voted to approve the diocese’s plan of reorganization. From the 57 claimants, Boswell said, 50 “timely ballots” were filed by the voting deadline. Of those, 46 claimants voted to approve the plan. Four claimants did not vote either way so their ballots were not counted. Three more ballots arrived after the voting deadline. Although those ballots weren’t counted, the claimants had voted to accept the plan. The remaining four claimants who didn’t cast a vote signed certifications and releases.

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s hearing, Thuma agreed to confirm the plan, which is slated to have an effective date in July.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Insurance Journal

Andrew G. Simpson | June 23, 2016

Two sisters have sued a Catholic priest, his central Pennsylvania diocese and two ex-bishops who supervised him, saying the cleric molested them repeatedly as girls — including one at her first Communion party.

The younger sister, who is now 47, said she met the Rev. Charles Bodziak at St. Leo Church in Altoona, where he was the parish priest, when she was in second grade. At the party her parents threw after her first Communion, Bodziak groped her buttocks and gave her an open mouth kiss, according to the lawsuit.

Bodziak, now 74, repeatedly molested the girl until she was in sixth grade, taking her on school trips where she was fondled, kissed and assured “that what he was doing was ‘OK’ because he was a priest,” her lawsuit said.

The lawsuit filed by her older sister, now 49, makes similar allegations against Bodziak, covering the time when she was 8 to 14 years old. She said Bodziak gave her wine on several occasions before molesting her. Bodziak assaulted her in the rectory after summoning her from school and molested her while she practiced the organ in church, according to her lawsuit.

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AUSTRALIA
4BU

A predatory ex-Catholic priest has been jailed for drugging and raping a student after inviting the boy to play computer games in his office.

Michael Scott Aulsebrook, 60, was the boarders’ co-ordinator at Salesian College Rupertswood when he attacked the boy in the 1980s.

He lured the boy to play on his computer after lights-out and gave his victim a soft drink spiked with a sedative.

After raping him, Aulsebrook said: “Get out of my sight. You disgust me”. He was found guilty of the rape, but also pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against two other victims, one male and one female.

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FRANCE
BFM

[Darantiere Thierry, a French citizen, 52, former director of a Catholic retirement home, was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for raping and sexually abusing at least 66 boys in at least 3 different countries.]

Thierry Darantière, un Français de 52 ans, a été condamné ce mercredi à 16 ans de réclusion criminelle pour avoir violé ou agressé sexuellement au moins 66 garçons dans au moins 3 pays différents.

Après plus de 5 heures de délibérations, le verdict est tombé. Thierry Darantière, un Français âgé de 52 ans, a été condamné à 16 ans de réclusion criminelle pour avoir violé ou agressé sexuellement au moins 66 garçons au Sri Lanka, en Tunisie et en Egypte. Une peine assortie d’une injonction de soins dans le cadre d’un suivi socio-judiciaire de dix ans, qui est inférieure aux réquisitions de l’accusation qui réclamait 18 ans de réclusion. L’avocat général a parlé d’un dossier “hors norme” de pédophilie.

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SCHWEIZ
cath.ch

Lausanne, 22.6.16 (kath.ch) Personen, die durch einen Priester oder Seelsorger missbraucht wurden, können sich in der Westschweiz an eine neue Kommission wenden. Die Kommission mit dem Namen «Cecar» soll anhören, schlichten, urteilen und wiedergutmachen. Sie wurde am Dienstag, 21. Juni, in Lausanne den Medien vorgestellt. In der Kommission wird die katholische Kirche durch Bischof Charles Morerod und einen ehemaligen Freiburger Staatsrat vertreten. Gegebenenfalls kann sie auch in der Deutschschweiz aktiv werden.

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SUISSE
La Croix

[The Catholic Church in Western Switzerland has created a neutral, independent commission for the repair of pedophilia crimes or offenses. In Germany an internet page was opened by the church to promote anonymous testimony about sexual abuse.]

Isabelle Demangeat avec cath.ch, le 22/06/2016

L’Église catholique en Suisse romande a créé une commission neutre et indépendante pour la réparation de crimes ou délits de pédophilie. En Allemagne, une page Internet a été ouverte par l’Église pour favoriser des témoignages anonymes sur les abus sexuels

Une commission indépendante d’écoute, de conciliation, d’arbitrage et de réparation sur les questions de pédophilie a été créée par l’Église catholique en Suisse romande. Dès le mois de septembre, les victimes d’abus sexuels commis au sein de l’institution vont pouvoir demander réparation auprès d’elle, y compris pour des faits prescrits.

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BOLIVIEN
Katholisch

La Paz – 21.06.2016

Boliviens Regierung will Missbrauchsfälle innerhalb der katholischen Kirche vom Justizministerium untersuchen lassen. Vizepräsident Alvaro Garcia Linera sagte am Montag (Ortszeit) bei einer Pressekonferenz, nicht nur aktuelle, sondern auch länger zurückliegende Vorwürfe aus den vergangenen 15 Jahre müssten Gegenstand der Untersuchung werden.

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BOLIVIA
Vice Presidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia

[The justice ministry will investigate complaints of sexual abuse made against members of the Catholic Church.]

(LA PAZ).- El vicepresidente del Estado, Álvaro García Linera, manifestó, hoy, en conferencia de prensa, que el Ministerio de Justicia investigará casos de abusos por parte de algunos miembros de la iglesia católica hacia menores de edad, en los últimos 15 años.

“He pedido a un funcionario del Ministerio de Justicia que me haga un resumen de las denuncias de violación a niños y niñas, cometida por algún funcionario de la iglesia católica”, expresó el mandatario de Estado.

En este sentido, García dijo, “las personas y familias en las que sus niños o niñas hayan sido objeto de violación por parte de algún funcionario de la iglesia, por favor, (se les pide) se acerquen al Ministerio de Justicia para relatar y denunciar este delito”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Eifel Zeitung

[Allegations of abuse in the Diocese of Trier: Allegations in secret archives disappeared?]

Trier. Das Bistum Trier hat offenbar kirchenrechtliche Untersuchungen zu Missbrauchsvorwürfen verschleppt. Das haben Recherchen des WDR 5-Magazins „Diesseits von Eden“ zum Umgang des Bistums mit Missbrauchsfällen ergeben.

Demnach wurden das Bistum und sein damaliger Bischof Reinhard Marx, heute Vorsitzender der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, bereits 2006 von der Staatsanwaltschaft über Ermittlungen gegen einen Priester informiert, die wegen Verjährung eingestellt wurden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The Mannheim Central Institute of Mental Health will launch in July an online poll for asking about sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons and other members of the Catholic Church.]

Berlin – 21.06.2016

Das Mannheimer Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit startet im Juli eine Online-Umfrage zum “Sexuellen Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch Priester, Diakone und andere Mitarbeiter der katholischen Kirche”. Betroffene können sich melden und “ihr erlittenes Leid mitteilen”, heißt es in einem entsprechenden Flyer, den der Psychiater Harald Dreßing am Dienstag in Berlin vorstellte.

Die Auswertung der Umfrage wird Teil der Studie der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz zur Aufarbeitung des 2010 bekannt gewordenen Missbrauchsskandal sein. Ziel sei es, “Licht in das Dunkel des lange Zeit totgeschwiegenen Tatbestands des sexuellen Missbrauchs im Verantwortungsbereich der katholischen Kirche bringen”. Die Betroffenen seien dazu die eigentlichen Experten. Die Studie soll Ende 2017 abgeschlossen sein.

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DEUTSCHLAND
EPD

[Abuse in the Catholic Church: Researchers launch online survey]

Das Forschungsprojekt der katholischen Kirche zum sexuellen Missbrauch durch Priester, Diakone und Ordensangehörige wird um eine Online-Befragung ergänzt. Wie die Forschungsleiter Harald Dreßing und Dieter Dölling am Dienstag in Berlin mitteilten, werde dazu ein Fragebogen ins Internet gestellt, der helfen soll, das Dunkelfeld von Missbrauchstaten besser zu beleuchten. Angesprochen sind Betroffene, die dort anonym Angaben zu ihren Erfahrungen machen können.

Zu finden ist der Fragebogen auf der Seite http://flevaweb.zi-mannheim.de. Für den Start der Umfrage muss die Losung “MHG2016” eingegeben werden. Die Befragung startet am kommenden Montag (27. Juni) und soll Ende Juni 2017 enden. Die Online-Umfrage als Teil des Forschungsprojekts erfolgt den Angaben zufolge in Kooperation mit dem Unabhängigen Beauftragten für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig.

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CONNECTICUT
Valley Independent Sentinel

BY Ethan Fry | JUN 22, 2016

The Seymour priest accused of stealing money from his church applied for a pretrial program Tuesday meant for first-time offenders.

If the Rev. Honore Kombo’s application for “accelerated rehabilitation” is accepted and he complies with the court’s requests, the criminal case could be dismissed.

Kombo was relieved of his duties at St. Augustine Church on Washington Avenue in July 2015, after discrepancies were found in the church’s financial statements.

Seymour police arrested Kombo in March, alleging he took tens of thousands of dollars intended for the church. He was charged with first-degree larceny, a felony.

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NEW YORK
Irish Central

Dara Kelly @irishcentral June 23,2016

New York’s state legislatures ended their 2016 session at the weekend without acting on new legislation to help survivors of child sex abuse.

Responding to the news, Catholic League spokesperson Bill Donohue was jubilant, writing on his website: “The bill was sold as justice for the victims of sexual abuse, when, in fact, it was a sham: the proposed legislation that failed to make it to the floor of the New York State legislature in the wee hours of Saturday… was a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.”

Critics have called Donohue’s language appallingly insensitive, given the international scope of the child sex abuse crisis in the church, but the outspoken lobbyist was taking no prisoners.

“If the statute of limitations were lifted on offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors, the only winners would be greedy and bigoted lawyers out to line their pockets in a rash of settlements,” Donohue continued.

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NEW YORK
WKTV

[with video]

By Joleen Ferris Jun. 22, 2016

Twenty-four hours before his trial on murder and other charges was set to begin, Word of Life defendant Bruce Leonard entered a guilty plea in Oneida County Court. Before Leonard, the father of the two teen victims, could plead guilty to two charges of assault, he had to make a plea allocution, where he detailed his involvement in the beating death of Lucas, 19, and the assault of Christopher, 17. The process was clearly painful for Leonard, who faltered at the podium, having to sit down several times.

“How many times would you estimate you whipped Lucas?” asked Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara, the prosecutor. “I’m going to say 20,” replied Leonard. “It was forceful.”

Leonard acknowledged that he and Word of Life Pastor Tiffanie Irwin were upset that Lucas had gone with his sister to another church. McNamara revealed Lucas’ punishment from Irwin.

“Assignment, write 700 times, ‘I will not lie. I will not be rebellious. The rebellious will be cast out. Psalms 5.10,'” said McNamara.

The prosecutor tried to establish how much control Tiffanie Irwin, still facing murder and other charges, had over Bruce Leonard.

“Would it be fair to say that Tiffanie Irwin had a lot of control over you and your family?” asked McNamara. “On that particular….um, substantial influence. I don’t know if you could say a lot of control but substantial influence,” replied Bruce Leonard. McNamara read several text messages from Leonard to Irwin, where he tells her how much time he spent reading the Bible that day and what parts he’d read.

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GEORGIA
11 Alive

[with video]

Valerie Hoff and Michael King, WXIA June 22, 2016

MARIETTA, GA – 11Alive News has learned a Marietta youth pastor accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy was charged in another incident near Albany, Ga., three years ago.

But Alexander Edwards’ case was never prosecuted there until recently.

11Alive News is looking into how a serious felony charged involving sexual abuse of children could fall through the cracks.

The District Attorney in Lee County says he has a backlog of cases and this one has not been a priority until recently, when they found out about the Cobb County charges.

Edwards was re-arrested and indicted in Lee County late last month. He is now out of jail on bond, but with heavy restrictions, including an ankle monitoring bracelet, and no access to children, the internet or social media.

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BRAZIL
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse on Jun 22, 2016

Brazil has extradited a US sect leader accused of 59 felony counts of criminal sexual assault against young girls, allegedly committed “in the name of Christ,” prosecutors said Wednesday.

Victor Arden Barnard, 54, fled the United States in 2014 after he was charged with the assaults. He was arrested in February 2015 in the tourist beach town of Pipa in northeastern Brazil.

Brazil gave the go-ahead for his extradition last week, prosecutors said in a statement.

Barnard is the founder of the so-called River Road Fellowship in the northern US state of Minnesota.
The self-proclaimed pastor stands accused of assaulting the daughters of his followers from 2001 to 2009 at a campsite where they were living.

Two of the girls, aged 12 at the time, escaped the camp in 2009, and accused Barnard of repeatedly assaulting them.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

Jun 22 2016 | Blase J. Cupich

Safeguarding young people is at the core of the church’s ministry.

A year ago this July, as Pope Francis apologized to a group of victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, he said the church must ask for “the grace to weep before the execrable acts of abuse which have left life-long scars.” He told them that his heart weeps in anguish when he recognizes that what was done to victims was “something more than despicable actions. It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God.” He also pledged decisive action that would bring this sense of horror, utter violation and sacrilege to the structure of church leadership by issuing policies that would hold bishops and religious superiors accountable. This spring, Pope Francis did just that, with the publication of “Like a Loving Mother.”

This decree has received wide coverage by the media and commentators. The major part of the decree outlines a process for the removal of church leaders for acts that do grave damage to the church. As a result, most reports and comments (whether favorable or not) have framed this decree as a tool to punish church leaders.

Those who applaud it note that finally church leaders will be held accountable. Those who criticize it object that nothing has changed. They decry that there is no tribunal as originally announced, and they question if handing this task off to four different Vatican offices will dilute the resolve to dismiss bishops for negligence, as the new document promises.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Nicole Sotelo | Jun. 23, 2016

During my youth, I passed through the heavy doors of St. Theresa Parish hundreds of times after Mass. While most of those memories have vanished into an amalgam of childhood impressions, I do recall a specific encounter one Sunday with Fr. George Bredemann. My mother chatted with him as we three children stood near. I recall him looking down at us and me feeling uncomfortable. Mostly, I remember his eyes.

It was only years later that I learned he was one of the most notorious of the priests who abused children in my home diocese of Phoenix, Arizona. Fr. George was eventually arrested, convicted, and jailed. Justice did not arrive because our bishop, Thomas O’Brien, stood with the survivors; in fact, he wrote a letter to the court asking for leniency in Fr. George’s sentencing. Justice was served because a Catholic parishioner saw what was happening and took action.

Currently, little is being done to hold bishops accountable when it comes to their negligence in handling abuse cases. So it should be no surprise that U.S. Catholics across generations gave Pope Francis only a 54 percent approval rating of “excellent” or “good” when asked how they would evaluate his performance in addressing the sex abuse crisis.

While Catholics gave Pope Francis better marks than his predecessor, he still falls short when you compare his 54 percent approval rating on sex abuse with his 81 percent rating at “spreading Catholic faith.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lexology

Bolt Burdon Kemp

Dino Nocivelli

United Kingdom June 21 2016

I am a solicitor specialising in child abuse cases and this sometimes results in me pursuing the Catholic Church.

The issue

Child abuse is abhorrent, regardless if you are TV star or a priest or a family member.

I have had a number of personal difficulties however in dealing with cases against the Catholic Church. I direct you to a recent case that I settled against them.

The issue with the Catholic Church, more than any other organisation or faith that I have been against, is their lack of compassion and their overly aggressive nature. In the abovementioned case, there were a number of allegations that raised particular concern:

* To allege a 15 year old boy consented to his family priest (who was in his 60s) performing sexual relations?

* To allege the same 15 year old may have been experimenting even though he had girlfriends at the time and has had never had another sexual relation with a man?

* To allege the fact that this boy continued to see the priest indicated consent?

These allegations all fly in the face of psychiatric opinion that holds the power imbalance and process of manipulation and grooming often results in individuals “letting” offences to take place and this can continue even after they have reached the age of 16. It is this same manipulation and grooming process that frequently prevents victims of child abuse from reporting the assaults for a number of years, if ever.

The solution

I have listened to Pope Francis for a number of years discuss the Vatican’s need to expose and to finally deal with child abuse –

At the same time, I have seen firsthand how the Pope’s words are merely that and that the church continues to treat survivors with the same disdain as they always have. It appears as clear as day that the church cares more about their own priests rather than survivors of child abuse. In my view, protecting the Vatican’s money and reputation can never be worth more than addressing the needs of a survivor of child abuse.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 22, 2016

New York forensic psychologist Alan M. Goldstein, in his last hour testifying at the Mount Cashel civil trial in Newfoundland Supreme Court Wednesday, painted a scene at the orphanage that became the “worst-case scenario” in which boys there lacked love, support and stability.

With some 200 boys placed in the facility due in many cases to the death of a parent, Goldstein questioned the training the Irish Christian Brothers had to handle the boys — some of them troubled — and speculated about their ability to manage with counselling rather than with yelling and beating.

For the four men at the centre of the civil case, Goldstein said they had memories of life before Mount Cashel and were vulnerable because of the pain of loss and the need to adjust.

And he said superimposed on the situation were certain Brothers who had a proclivity to abuse boys.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLIve

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com

on June 22, 2016

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who last week stacked a hearing in favor of opponents seeking to defeat a proposed child sex crime reform bill, on Wednesday evening struck a more sensitive tone to victims of child sex abuse when asked why the panel had not taken action on the bill.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery County, said House Bill 1947 had not been taken up during a breakout meeting of the session on Wednesday because of ongoing negotiations to the bill.

Greenleaf, chairman of the committee, said members of his committee were still considering negotiations with “regards to the legislation that give victims the ability to sue such as fraudulent concealment.”

As of midday Wednesday, it had not been confirmed whether the judiciary committee would take up the bill, amid negotiations to amendments. The panel met after a recess but did not take up the bill.

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RHODE ISLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 22, 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

We’re very sad that Rhode Island’s highest court has sided with corrupt Catholic officials and against child sex abuse victims of a notorious predator priest. Many judges across the US acknowledge that bishops have committed fraud by hiding the crimes of child molesting clerics and that, as a result, victims should get their day in court. We are distraught that wounded Rhode Island victims apparently won’t have this opportunity to expose and deter wrongdoing.

[Providence Journal]

No matter what lawmakers or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Jun. 22, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld a Superior Court decision denying damages to two plaintiffs who alleged they were sexually abused more than four decades ago by a Roman Catholic priest.

The court affirmed Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel’s ruling that the statute of limitations had elapsed, and that the plaintiffs did not meet the threshold for “unsound mind disability.”

Helen L. (McGonigle) Hyde and Jeffrey Thomas had separately sued The Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence in 2008, alleging they were molested by the late Rev. Brendan Smyth, who served as visiting priest, counselor and teacher at Our Lady of Mercy School and Church in East Greenwich for three years. Theirs were cases of recovered memory: both were between 6 and 9 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.

Smyth became notorious after he was convicted of 141 indecent assaults against children across his native Ireland over four decades. He died in 1997 in prison in Ireland.

Hyde, an attorney from Connecticut, and Thomas, a Massachusetts resident, argued in their appeal that Vogel erred when she decided that the statute of limitations barred their claims. They also argued that Vogel unfairly denied their request to seek discovery “on the alternate tolling theory that the defendant fraudulently concealed their causes of action from them.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

Several relatives and friends of a Passaic priest accused of sexual conduct testified Wednesday on his behalf, describing him as a humble and caring person who strengthened the church he worked for.

“I have known him for a long time and he is an amazing person,” Cindy Negrete, a member of the church, said about the Rev. Jose Lopez as she testified in Superior Court in Paterson. “It’s very sad because he shouldn’t be in this position. I know he would never, ever do something like this.”

Lopez’s cousin, the Rev. Leonardo Lopez, said he has known the 37-year-old Lopez for 34 years, going back to the days when they were young boys growing up in the same neighborhood in their native Colombia.

“He is a very good person and I have never seen anything inappropriate in his life,” Leonardo Lopez said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Kristen Pfautz Woolley June 22, 2016

The Catholic Church and others stand in the way of reforming Pa.’s child sex abuse statute of limitations.

I am not Catholic.

I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. From the ages 10-12, I was repeatedly violated by a man my parents trusted. My abuse only ended when my abuser became engaged to be married. I remember feeling relief that my nightmare was over; now someone else would take care of my abuser’s sexual needs. I didn’t understand at age 12 it was not over, nor would it ever be over. I did not understand that my abuse was something I would have to learn to carry.

My first lesson that it would never end came when I was 17. It had been five years since I had seen my abuser. I ran into him at a local town carnival. There he was pushing his newborn child in a stroller. He creepily proceeded to tell me how much he enjoyed changing the child’s diapers because he found it fascinating to look at the child’s anatomy – a flashback-inducing conversation that sent a cold chill down my spine. I was left paralyzed in fear. This was his own child he was talking about.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

JUNE 22, 2016

by Angela Couloumbis and Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITERS

HARRISBURG – A Senate committee is expected this week to strip out the most contentious aspect of a bill that would expand the ability of child sex-abuse victims to sue for decades-old attacks, according to two legislative sources familiar with the move.

The Republicans who control the Senate Judiciary Committee plan to remove the provision that would have applied the law retroactively, said the sources, who said they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plan. Hailed by victims’ advocates, such language could have opened the door to a wave of new lawsuits for attacks that occurred as far back as the 1970s.

The bill easily passed the GOP-led House this spring – and is supported by Gov. Wolf – but became the source of intense lobbying in the Senate, its last stop before becoming law.

Opponents, most notably the Catholic Church, have argued that it would unfairly cripple if not bankrupt churches and their members who deserve no blame for decades-old abuse. Four lawyers, including Solicitor General Bruce L. Castor Jr., told senators last week that such a provision would also violate the state constitution.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 22, 2016

A John Doe left the courtroom this morning, followed by his friend and fellow John Doe, during cross-examination of New York forensic psychologist Alan M. Goldstein in the Mount Cashel civil trial.

The man left quietly and returned after a break, rubbing his face. He told The Telegram outside court he understands the principles of what lawyers do to break down liability, but said “It all gets too much.”

The man, retired from the military, was hearing his file come up in the cross-examination of Goldstein by Chris Blom, who represents the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s. At the point Doe left the room, Blom had been asking a series of questions in which Goldstein allowed he did no intelligence testing on Doe. Blom had also pointed out none of Doe’s siblings had gone to college or university.

It was part of a line of questions seeming, as a defence strategy, to point the cause of the man’s issues in a direction other than abuse at Mount Cashel, specifically sexual abuse, or to point out a lesser impact on his life of any abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
on June 21, 2016

UPDATE: The Senate Judiciary Committee was set to vote on House Bill 1947 on Wednesday but pulled the hearing, which was set for 2 p.m. This report has been updated to reflect the information.

A state House lawmaker who has become the defacto leader in the General Assembly for an effort to reform child sex crime laws has asked a Senate panel to invite him to its voting meeting for a proposed legislation that would reform the law.

Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) on Monday sent Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a letter in which writes:

“As the maker of the revival amendment that was the subject of last Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, I respectfully request to be invited to the voting meeting on House Bill 1947 in order to address the committee on the merits of my amendment as to the intent and effect on House Bill 1947.”

In an email to PennLive, a spokesman Greenleaf (R-Montgomery), noted general procedural policy that only the prime sponsor of the legislation be invited to address the committee at a voting meeting.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
These Stone Walls

POSTED BY FR. GORDON J. MACRAE ON JUNE 22, 2016

Federal Judge Joseph LaPlante dismissed without testimony Fr Gordon MacRae’s recent hope for justice. No U.S. court has allowed this defendant to utter a single word.

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Ryan A. MacDonald, author of “The Trial of Father MacRae: A Conspiracy of Fraud.”

I am not here to cast Donald Trump-like aspersions upon a judge whose decision I simply do not like. I have no doubt that Father Gordon MacRae would bar me from publishing here if I did. I am simply here to describe a grievous error that occurred in United States District Court in Concord, New Hampshire, and other facts that continue to trouble me greatly a year after I published an important article on this site: “Judge Joseph LaPlante Denies Priest’s Appeal.”

Many people have come to believe that the 1994 prosecution and trial of Father Gordon MacRae, and subsequent appeals, have left an innocent man in prison and a gaping wound on the integrity of the criminal justice system. One issue that I and others simply cannot comprehend is that no one in this system – absolutely no one – has allowed this accused priest to utter a single word in his own defense.

After the prosecution rested its case in 1994 – with lots of theatrics but no evidence – Judge Arthur Brennan addressed MacRae directly, outside the presence of the jury. He cautioned MacRae against testifying in his own defense. If he did so, the judge warned, the door would be opened to allow other claims from Thomas Grover, his brothers, and others to come before the jury and taint its view of this case.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

Alyssa Zaczek, azaczek@stcloudtimes.com June 22, 2016

Minneapolis playwright and actor John Woehrle will bring his play “Trust” to The Black Box Theatre & Gallery this August.

The play is centered on Michael, a young man who returns to his fictional alma mater in Minnesota to find that Father Daniels, the priest who abused him in his youth, is now the president of the institution.

Michael Novak, partner at Donohue Novak at Law in St. Cloud, plays a bishop in the production, and feels that the play offers a timely, tactful look at a sensitive subject.

“The play was written, in a sense, to be an intervention,” Novak said. “It is a riveting tale of survivorship.”

Novak went on to explain that the clergy abuse survivor’s group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) had a role in the development of the project.

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CANADA
CBC News

Linus Bastien, an 89-year-old charged with several sex-related offences he was alleged to have committed while serving as Catholic priest in southern Ontario decades ago, has died.

Police charged Bastien, of Chatham, Ont., with several offences over the years, dating back to the 1950s.

Locally, Bastien was assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Maidstone and St. Paul’s Catholic Church in LaSalle.

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CANADA
Ici Radio

Un prêtre catholique retraité accusé d’agression sexuelle sur des enfants est mort avant la fin de son procès.

Le père Linus Bastien est décédé le 19 juin à Pétrolia. Âgé de 89 ans, il avait servi dans différentes paroisses de la région entre 1951 et 1997, notamment aux paroisses Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire de Windsor, Saint-François-Xavier à Tilbury et Saint-Joachim à Saint-Joachim.

Arrêté en 2011, le père Linus Bastien était accusé d’avoir agressé une dizaine d’enfants dans trois paroisses du sud-ouest de l’Ontario dans les années 1970. Son procès devait commencer prochainement.

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CANADA
CTV

Last Updated Wednesday, June 22, 2016

A retired Windsor-Essex priest, who was facing several sex-related charges, has died.
Linus Bastien, 89, passed away on Sunday.

First arrested in 2011, Bastien was facing 30 criminal charges including; gross indecency, indecent assault and one count of sexual assault on a person under 14 years old.

His death means there will be no criminal trial, which was scheduled to begin in October.

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CALIFORNIA
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A Laotian man in the United States on a religious worker visa is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in state court on charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, following a probe by the Riverside County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Kounzong Saebphang, 26, of Laos, is charged with two felony criminal counts. He was arrested June 1 at the Wat Lao Buddhist Monastery in Riverside where he resided as a monk. The arrest came following the execution of a federal search warrant at that location.

The probe began last year when investigators on the SAFE Task Force received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the possible distribution of child pornography. The SAFE investigators sought assistance from HSI after determining there could be international implications.

Based on the evidence in the case, Saebphang allegedly possessed child pornography on at least one digital device found at his residence at the monastery and he is charged with distributing child pornography to another person through a social media website. The investigation, including forensic examinations of the items seized during the execution of the search warrant, is ongoing.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Daily News

By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News

POSTED: 06/20/16

A two-month sweep of suspected child predators wanted for everything from negotiating sex tourism on the internet to possessing and selling pornography netted 238 arrests across Southern California, including a Buddhist monk, authorities announced Monday.

The sweep was part of a national effort called Operation Broken Heart, launched by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a multi-agency effort. Operation Broken Heart was first conducted in 2014.

The latest operation, which was conducted in April and May, included agents with federal Homeland Security Investigations and child exploitation units from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County and Fontana.

Those arrested included a 26-year-old Buddhist monk from Riverside and an Australian man who came to Los Angeles specifically to buy a 6-year-old boy who was being sold on the internet, officials said during a news conference in Exposition Park. Nationwide, 61 task forces conducted similar operations between April and May. A total of 1,368 arrests were made across the country as part of Operation Broken Heart, officials said.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Veronica Rocha

A monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III” targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Among those arrested during sweeps in April and May were entertainers, community leaders, white-collar professionals and clergy members, said John Reynolds, acting special agent in charge for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

“The incidence of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,” he said at a news conference.

Law enforcement officials said the arrests underscore the importance of families maintaining an open dialogue about Internet safety.

“Parents and kids need to have frank conversations about how to stay safe in cyberspace,” Reynolds said.

Children and teens, he said, are spending more time on the Internet and social media sites, where child predators often look for victims.

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

A monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III” targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Among those arrested during sweeps in April and May were entertainers, community leaders, white-collar professionals and clergy members, said John Reynolds, acting special agent in charge for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

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CALIFORNIA
New York Daily News

Hundreds of suspected child predators were busted in a two-month sting across Southern California, police announced Monday.

Among the 238 people arrested in the “Operation Broken Heart III” sweep by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force were clergy members, community leaders, entertainers and white-collar professionals, John Reynolds, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations special agent said at a press conference.

There had been nearly 900 investigations with 250 search warrants out for possible predators during the sweep in April and May.

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MINNESOTA
Herald Review

By Kelly Grinsteinner Hibbing Daily Tribune

HIBBING – Not guilty was the verdict of a 12-member jury for the former Hibbing priest accused of sexual misconduct.

Brian M. Lederer, 30, was facing four counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.

The alleged incidents occurred during the 2014-2015 school year after school hours at Assumption School. One incident took place in a residence, and other actions occurred on a school bus.

Lederer, the former priest at Blessed Sacrament Parish and Assumption Catholic School, was arrested and charged on May 7, 2015. He was then placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Duluth.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By John Myers

The St. Louis County Attorney’s Office still is deciding whether to move forward with a charge of possessing child pornography against Brian Lederer, the Catholic priest who on Monday was found not guilty on separate charges of inappropriately touching four girls.

A jury of six men and six women took less than two hours to find Lederer not guilty of charges that stemmed from allegations by four girls, ages 11-13 at the time, that Lederer had touched them inappropriately.

Lederer, 30, who had been a priest at Blessed Sacrament Parish and Assumption Catholic School in Hibbing, was charged in May 2015 with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

With those charges now behind him, Lederer still faces a felony charge of possessing child pornography that allegedly was found on his computer when investigators used a search warrant looking for evidence in the other cases.

Sixth Judicial District Judge David Ackerson in December ruled the pornography charge should not be tried as part of the abuse allegations

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