ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Louella Losinio | Post News Staff

Walter Denton, who has accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual molestation, yesterday attended a prayer vigil in Agat, the site of his alleged rape, and disclosed that he has spoken to other victims of sex abuse by the archbishop.

“I’ve spoken with other victims but it is up to those victims to come out,” Denton said. “I am encouraging them to please come out.”

Denton and Doris Concepcion, accompanied by family and supporters, walked the path toward the building which used to be the rectory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Agat – the same building where Denton said then-parish priest, now Archbishop Anthony Apuron raped him nearly four decades ago.

Denton and Concepcion, the mother of Joseph Quinata, comforted each other at the steps of the building, which is now an administration office of Mount Carmel School.

Conception has said that Quinata told her he was sexually abused by Apuron in the late 1970s shortly before his death in 2005.

“That is the door that I opened but couldn’t go anywhere. That is the door that I opened up. It was so dark outside. I couldn’t leave. I was so afraid. I closed that door and I just stayed in that living room,” Denton said.

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

WALES
Wales Online

BY TYLER MEARS

A Roman Catholic priest arrested on suspicion of historical child sexual abuse died on the day he was due to report to police.

An inquest held at Aberdare Coroner’s Court on Wednesday heard how Father Ernest Sands, 67, was found hanged at his home in Hirnant, Oswestry, on April 11.

Father Sands was arrested last year on suspicion of sexually abusing five boys aged between 11 and 15. The allegations related to him serving as a Catholic priest in the late 1970s and 1980s.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Natonal Catholic Register

by CNA/EWTN NEWS 06/09/2016

PHILADELPHIA — A proposed Pennsylvania bill unfairly targets religious entities over public institutions — despite its claim to aid sex-abuse victims, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said June 6.

“The problem with HB 1947 is its prejudicial content. It covers both public and religious institutions — but in drastically different and unjust ways. The bill fails to support all survivors of abuse equally, and it’s a clear attack on the Church, her parishes and her people,” the archbishop said in a letter to the parishioners of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

He charged that the bill poses “serious dangers” to Catholic parishes and ministries.

“In other states where similar legislation passed, local parishes have been sued, resulting in parish and school closures and charity work being crippled,” the archbishop wrote.

The bill passed the state House of Representatives by a vote of 180-15.

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KANSAS
KCTV

[with video]

By Kylie Callura, Digital Producer
kylie.callura2@kctv5.com
By Jeanene Kiesling, Reporter

LENEXA, KS (KCTV) –
A Lenexa church is facing a hefty lawsuit after a teenage member sexually abused children and one of the assaults happened at the church.

In October 2015, Kessler Lichtenegger was convicted on half a dozen charges including rape and sodomy after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the parking lot of the Westside Family Church. He was also accused of using social media to make sexual advances toward an 11-year-old girl who was also a member of the church.

On Wednesday, the young girls’ families filed a lawsuit against the church insisting church leaders knew Lichtenegger had a previous conviction for sexual assault from 2012.

“We weren’t aware of events of 2012 where he was convicted of some kind of sexual offense,” said Brad Russell, who represents the church.

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UTAH
Herald & Review

BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY – A fourth Navajo is suing the Mormon church, alleging religious leaders didn’t do enough to protect him from sexual abuse he endured by his foster father in a now-defunct church program that placed thousands of American Indian children with Mormon families.

The man says in a complaint filed this week in Navajo Nation court that he reported the abuse that occurred in the late 1970s in northern Utah to workers in the Mormon program, but he was told to remain at the home.

The man, who is identified as L.K. in the lawsuit, said he felt relief to discover that he wasn’t alone when he read an article in March about two Navajo siblings who filed the first lawsuit making similar allegations. He has spent most his adult life trying to avoid facing the abuse, struggling with feelings of inferiority, he said after a news conference held by his attorney and sexual abuse prevention advocates.

“It’s horrible. You relive it. You see the person who did this. You see their silhouette,” he said about abuse that occurred when he was a seventh-grader. “It broke me. When a Native American is broken, he has to fix himself.”

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NEW YORK
Epic Times

May 19, 2016

Matthew Sandusky, the abused son of infamous child molester Jerry Sandusky, has revealed plans to join anti-abuse protesters at a Whole Foods Market demonstration in New York City at the end of May.

The upcoming protest is supported by the junior Sandusky’s organization, Peaceful Hearts Foundation, with additional support by Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests (SNAP), and the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (NAASCA).

The protest targets Whole Foods co-CEO and co-founder John Mackey’s ties with so-called “spiritual leader” Marc Gafni, who has been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children.

The New York Times described Gafni as a former rabbi with a “troubled past.”

Mackey has referred to Gafni as a “bold visionary,” and has yet to disavow the spiritual leader.

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CANADA
Catholic Register

BY CATHOLIC REGISTER EDITORIAL
June 9, 2016

Change comes slowly at the Vatican. On the issue of clerical sexual abuse of children, Rome’s methodical approach has caused Pope Francis to endure barbs for dallying on a pledge to get tough on abusers within the Church.

So it was good news on June 3 when Francis was able, at last, to issue an edict that puts bishops on the front line of accountability. By formalizing new rules that provide for the removal of bishops who fail to act, or who act insufficiently, when becoming aware of an abuser priest, the Pope has not only advanced the cause of justice for child victims and vulnerable adults, but has taken a small but important step on the long road towards repairing the Church’s wounded reputation.

The apostolic letter is appropriately titled “As a loving Mother.” That is how bishops are expected to act — like mothers nurturing their children. Of course, the vast majority of them already do. Many individual dioceses have been way ahead of the Vatican in implementing strict guidelines and accepting responsibility on this subject.

But there has also been numerous cases of bishops, confronted by a guilty priest, who have protected, transferred or covered up for an abuser. Almost as much as the crime itself, that response appalled the general public and particularly horrified Catholics. A see-no-evil response also left many dioceses exposed to multi-million-dollar lawsuits while undermining trust and tarnishing the Church’s moral authority.

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UNITED STATES
Boston.com

By Bryanna Cappadona

Though Spotlight, the movie about The Boston Globe’s uncovering of a sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, took home the biggest award of the night at the 2016 Academy Awards, humble guy Mark Ruffalo, who was nominated for his supporting role in the movie, didn’t think the movie would actually nab the trophy.

“That kind of blew my mind a little bit,” Ruffalo said on Wednesday’s The Tonight Show when host Jimmy Fallon mentioned Spotlight’s Oscar win.

“You guys didn’t think you were going to win?” Fallon asked.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Worcester Magazine

By Walter Bird Jr. -June 9, 2016022

He has been bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester for 12 years and celebrated his 17th anniversary of being ordained as bishop in February. Late last month, he observed his 38th anniversary of being ordained as a priest. Bishop Robert McManus will turn 65 in July, and it is safe to say he has seen a lot transpire in and around the Catholic Church. The clergy sex abuse scandal would qualify as the lowest of lows during his time with the Church, and the closing of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Worcester earlier this year has generated more controversy for the Diocese – and McManus, in particular. We sat with McManus recently to talk about the state of Church, the drama surrounding Mount Carmel and more.

What is the overall health of the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church? I would say it is in a weakening position, only because as I said I was ordained as a priest 38 years ago. If you had told me the Church in New England would be in the state it is today, I would have found it very hard to believe. My first parish, there were four full-time priests. There were 120 people in what is called CYC here. There were 50-60 kids on our ski trip every winter. Every Mass was packed. There were a number of sisters of mercy teaching at school. That same parish today has one priest. The school is closed. Attendance at Mass is less than superlative. A perfect storm descended on the Church, in New England, especially. I was astounded that New England has now become one of the most un-churched areas, sections of the U.S.

Has it? When you say un-churched, you mean number of churches closed? No, the people claiming to be religious, whatever their religious denomination in terms of church practices. And I have not seen the statistic myself, but someone said to me in passing a couple weeks ago that there was a survey done of religiosity — a practice of any religion throughout the country, the 50 states — somebody told me that Massachusetts was 49th, 50th being the worst. It’s hard to believe, because New England especially, for example growing up in Rhode Island, we were 65 percent Roman Catholic. Same with Massachusetts, they used to call it Catholic Boston, it was so, so catholic.You say “perfect storm.” Talk about that. I would describe the perfect storm as radical secularism that has descended on our country, western civilization, but certainly on the United States. That scandal that happened broke out with terrible ferocity in 2002, and the effect that it had on people of the faith, those three things came together and it has weakened the position of the church in New England and here in Massachusetts and … the Catholic Diocese Worcester. However, what it has forced us to do is to commit ourselves to what Pope John Paul II, what Pope Benedict and Pope Francis now has coined: the new Evangelization. I believe that there is what is called a vestigial Catholicism. If people were trained and raised as Catholics in a real solid fashion, there is a basis there of the faith that I hope, with the grace of God, can be revitalized and brought to the floor.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

JUNE 9, 2016 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

FACT SHEET:
On the Constitutionality of HB 1947

Background: Currently in Pennsylvania, a survivor of child sex abuse has until age 50 to file criminal charges and age 30 to initiate a civil suit if the abuse occurred after 2002. Anyone abused before that year has much less time to report abuse.

HB 1947 seeks to eliminate time barriers to file criminal and civil cases for those abused after the bill becomes law. It would affect both private and public institutions, however much misinformation has been spread about this bill and its constitutionality.

Claim: HB 1947 is unconstitutional.

Fact: This charge has been leveled against attempts to reform the statute of limitations in numerous other states, including California, Delaware, Massachusetts and Connecticut. In all of these cases, the legislation was found to be constitutional.

Claim: HB 1947 does not apply to public institutions.

Fact: HB 1947 will apply equally to private and public institutions going forward. Due to the sovereign immunity protections afforded to state institutions by the Constitution
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it appears that this reform cannot apply retroactively to them.

Claim: HB 1947 specifically targets the Catholic Church.

Fact: Statute of limitations reform is not limited to any specific group or organization, religious or otherwise. In fact, there are countless institutions that have protected abusers, such as schools, hospitals, scout organizations, sports programs and juvenile facilities. Furthermore, over 90 percent of survivors were abused by family members or close acquaintances, which will also be covered by HB 1947.

From the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse – Protecting Children/Restoring Hope

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UNITED STATES
The New Yorker

By Rebecca Makkai , JUNE 8, 2016

Last week, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office released a victim-impact statement written by the twenty-three-year-old woman raped on the Stanford campus. The statement, which has gone viral, is sharp, clear, stunningly open, occasionally funny. Its author is a very good writer in the purest way: she makes us feel some sliver of what she felt.

I was startled to learn that she’d read this statement out loud in court to her assailant—that she hadn’t just been able to slip it under the judge’s door in the middle of the night and leave it at that. I wrote my own victim-impact statement at sixteen, and, on Monday, as I read about the Stanford case, I tried to remember what the procedure had been; I thought I had handed mine in like a term paper, or sent it through the mail. And then, on Monday night, it came back to me, twenty-two years after the fact: I did read my own statement out loud, in court, to my abuser. I’d had a choice, and I chose to do it. I might have been braver then than I am now.

That I didn’t remember this before has less to do with my blocking it out than with the fact that the memory is overshadowed by bigger plot points. Because as soon as I delivered the statement, I was accused of plagiarism.

It was the summer of 1994, and I’d been listening to “Janie’s Got a Gun” on repeat since May. That summer, I read James Joyce for the first time; I also still had an American Girl doll in my closet. I was ten years past learning to ride a two-wheeler; I was ten years from publishing my first short story. From the age of seven to thirteen, I had been sexually molested by a family friend who occasionally lived in our house; in the summer of 1994, I was a few months from losing my virginity to someone I liked. I was closer to a healthy sense of sexuality, both chronologically and emotionally, than I was to the abuse.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Special to syracuse.com
on June 09, 2016

The writer is an adjunct professor at Onondaga Community College, serves on the board of Vera House and speaks publicly about the issue of sexual abuse.

By Jennifer Nadler

I went back and forth about writing about the Child Victims Act that appears to be dead in the water. The state Senate recently voted it down 30 to 29. I can’t change the vote. Sen. DeFrancisco’s opinion is the statutes of limitations in child sexual abuse cases should not be eliminated. I probably won’t change his opinion. While there are many things I cannot change, I choose to focus on what I can. I stayed silent for so many years about the sexual abuse that was destroying my life. I can no longer stay silent. Today, I choose to use my voice.

I am a professor, a wife, a mother, and I am a sexual abuse survivor. I was repeatedly abused by a family member when I was 12 and 13 years old. It took 25 years to be able to say this without embarrassment or shame, without guilt or regret, without fear or self-loathing. It was 25 years too long.

I did not tell. I could not tell. I would not tell a soul. Frequently, children don’t tell. They believe it is their fault. I believed it was mine. I carried around a suitcase full of guilt and shame. With every passing year, that suitcase became heavier and heavier. In my mid-20s, my life unraveled until there was nothing left of me but that scared, ashamed, broken little 12-year-old girl.

Many people don’t understand why it takes so long for survivors to come forward. It is not a choice. It is a coping mechanism. Each survivor has his or her way of dealing with the trauma and emotional pain of sexual abuse. Drinking, doing drugs, binge eating, being a workaholic, gambling, acting out sexually are just some of the destructive behaviors that get survivors through their darkest of days. Eventually our coping mechanisms are no longer enough to keep our secrets and our pain at bay.

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IRELAND
KCLR

By MaryAnn Vaughan

A local hospital is being included in an investigation into Mother and Baby homes.

St Columba’s Hospital in Thomastown is one of just four county homes to be included in the investigation.

14 mother and baby homes are also being looked into.

The Commission of Investigation are appealing to any locals who may have been a resident in or worked in St Columba’s, or any of the other institutions, up to 1998 to contact them.

Their freephone number is 1800 80 66 88.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westdeutche Zeitung

[Georg K. has been defrocked by the Vatican for sexually abusing minors.]

Willich/Kreis Viersen. Der aus Willich stammende Georg K. ist nicht länger Priester. Das teilt das Bistum Aachen in einer Presseerklärung mit. Zu Beginn 2015 war K. vor dem Landgericht Krefeld zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt worden, weil er sich an Minderjährigen vergangen hatte.

Aus der Presseerklärung geht auch indirekt hervor, warum dieser Schritt jetzt so schnell erfolgte. Zwar hatte die Glaubenskongregation in Rom die Akten geprüft, letztlich hatte aber wohl den Ausschlag gegeben, dass K. selbst seine Laisierung angestrebt hatte. Diesem Entlassungsgesuch war Papst Franziskus nachgekommen. Mit dem Verlust des Priesteramtes verbundes ist, dass Georg K. kein Amt mehr ausüben darf, das die Weihe voraussetzt. „Von Herzen wünsche ich den betroffenen Opfern, dass der Abschluss des Verfahrens und die Entlassung aus dem Priesteramt bei der Verarbeitung des erlittenen Leids hilft“, erklärt Andreas Frick, ständiger Vertreter des Diözesanadministrators. Und: „Wir werden weiterhin das uns Mögliche tun, hierbei zu helfen“, so Frick weiter.

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VATICAN CITY/SPAIN
Crux

Inés San Martín
June 9, 2016
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

After Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of Valencia said “we have legislation contrary to the family, the action of political and social forces, with added movements and actions of the gay empire,” a coalition of pro-LGBT groups charged him with hate crimes under Spanish law.

ROME- Criminal proceedings under hate speech laws have been initiated against a Spanish cardinal for his commentary on theories styling gender as a personal preference, in which he termed them “the most insidious ideology in the history of humanity,” and for his warnings against a “gay empire.”

The Spanish Network of Help to Refugees has filed a complaint against Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of Valencia for his remarks, made on May 13. Under Spanish law, such a charge is required to be investigated.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis warned on Thursday against an excessive rigidity, saying those within the Church who tell us “it’s this or nothing” are heretics and not Catholics. His remarks came the morning Mass on Thursday celebrated at the Santa Marta residence.

In his homily the Pope reflected on the harm caused by Churchmen who do the opposite of what they preach and urged them to free themselves from a rigid idealism that prevents reconciliation between each other.

Taking his cue from Jesus’ warning to his disciples that unless their righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees they will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Pope Francis stressed the importance of Christian realism. Jesus, he said, asks us to go beyond the laws and love God and neighbour, stressing that whoever is angry with their brother will be liable to judgement.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

The new temporary leader of the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon, met with local clergy, religious and dedicated lay faithful this afternoon as part of a mass at St. Anthony’s Church in Tamuning. Archbishop Hon was appointed by the Pope on Monday as the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana amid sex abuse allegations against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Archbishop Hon delivered his homily with a message of love and unity. He explained what his responsibilities are as apostolic administrator. He said that although Archbishop Apuron is still archbishop, he will not make any decisions about the archdiocese and should cooperate in total fulfillment of the apostolic administration. He asked that as he fulfills his task and mission that each and everyone present during the mass and outside put their energy toward unity of the church.

Archbishop Hon has been tasked by the Pope to take stock of the present pastoral situation of the diocese, to identify the difficulties present among the clergy, religious and lay faithful and to take urgent measures, at the earliest, in order to promote and restore unity and harmony in the local church.

After carefully discerning the archdiocese needs he will take all necessary actions to assure that that goal is implemented.

Parishioners from Barrigada and Santa Rita reacted to the call for unity with hope.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP

Abuse survivors have reacted angrily to a Salvation Army decision to top up less than a quarter of compensation claims for South Australian abuse victims.

The Salvation Army Southern Territory revisited payouts to hundreds of people who were brutally abused in Salvo homes in Adelaide between 1940 and 1990.

The review followed a child abuse royal commission hearing last October, which found the SAST’s approach to redress was legalistic and at times uncaring.

Floyd Tidd, the army’s territorial commander in South Australia committed to a review of the claims during the commission hearing.

He announced on Wednesday the review was completed and 73 of 422 claims had been identified as warranting a top-up payment because victims may not have been “treated fairly and consistently relative to the bulk of other settled claims”.

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KENTUCKY
Insider Louisville

By SARA HAVENS | June 8, 2016

Kentucky State Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, has been quite busy working on a passion he’s had for years. Somewhere in the midst of serving in public office (since 1991) and working as a psychotherapist, he went back to school and received his MFA in fiction from Spalding University in 2012. And now, he’s debuting his first novel, “The Unfinished Man,” a fictional story that examines sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Wayne says the idea for the book had been brewing for years, and after he received his formal training from Spalding, he used his downtime to write.

“To tell you the truth, I most often relax when I write,” he tells Insider. “Most of my work in psychotherapy and the legislature taxes the side of my brain that is logical, sequential and focused on goals. In writing, some of those skills are used, but the writing muses play best in the other side of the brain. It all keeps me balanced.”

The story of “The Unfinished Man” tackles a subject that is important to Wayne: Throughout his time as a representative, he has worked closely with victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse and sponsored legislation to tighten the reporting requirements and penalties for sexual abuse of minors.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

A former Archbishop of York is under investigation by police over allegations he covered up for a paedophile colleague.

Lord Hope is suspected of shielding the Very Reverend Robert Waddington, who died in 2007.

North Yorkshire police yesterday confirmed it was looking into the Church of England’s ‘handling of allegations of historic child abuse’. Officers said the inquiry is ‘at an early stage’.

Lord Hope, 76, quit his post as a bishop in the Diocese of Bradford shortly after a damning report was published into sex abuse within the Church in 2014.

Judge Sally Cahill’s findings claimed that while serving as Archbishop, he had put children in harm’s way by protecting Waddington from a series of allegations.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

By Krystal Paco

It was an emotional homecoming for former Agat residents Walter Denton and Doris Concepcion. United by tragedy, but moving forward with one purpose – to ensure the removal of Archbishop Anthony Apuron – who they believe is hiding behind the cloth. Both live in separate cities in Arizona, but are here on Guam to share with everyone and anyone their story.

“That’s where it happened – right there. That’s the room. Right there where everything happened,” said Denton tearfully upon approaching what used to be the rectory for the Mount Carmel Catholic Church, now the used as the administration building for Mount Carmel School. He alleges he was 13 years old when he was raped by archbishop apuron. Denton was an altar boy at Mount Carmel Church in Agat and Apuron a priest. On Thursday, he looked back at the scene of the alleged crime.

“I always believed, when I left the island, I always knew there were others,” he shared. “Coming here brought back the pain. It brought back the pain and it hurts.”

Last week Concepcion came forward alleging her son Joseph “Sonny” Quinata was on his deathbed 11 years ago when he shared his secret – that he too was allegedly molested by Apuron when he was an altar boy in the southern village. Concepcion was compelled by Roy Quinatanillla – who just weeks prior – publicly accused Apuron of molesting him.

Since the allegations of sexual abuse, the archbishop denied them, and the archdiocese stood by him claimed he was the victim of a malicious smear campaign and conspiracy to take him down. Concepcion said, “He’s not a man of God, I’m sorry. He hides behind that cloth. That’s all he does. And we are not attacking the church or our religion.”

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ILLINOIS
Univision

[Break the silence victim of sexual abuse by the Father Wellems.]

El hombre de 50 años de edad, casado y con hijos, asegura que el padre Wellems abusó de él cuando era un niño.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Anthony Heaton-Armstrong and David Wolchover
June 9 2016
The Times

New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was primarily tasked with scrutinising failures by officials to investigate abuse allegations. But with the revelation last month of the vast scale of the IICSA’s so-called “truth programme” it has become clear that the inquiry has taken on itself a pseudo-judicial function quite beyond its original remit, write Anthony Heaton-Armstrong and David Wolchover.

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NEW YORK
Times Newsweekly

BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@ridgewoodtimes.com @robbpoz

Things are getting personal in the fight over legislation designed to help child sex abuse victims seek justice from their attackers and those who may have protected them.

Maspeth-based Assemblywoman Margaret Markey told the Daily News on Tuesday that Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, leader of the Diocese of Brooklyn, offered her a $5,000 payment nearly a decade ago in exchange for dropping her support of legislation known as the Child Victims Act that would expand the statute of limitations for lawsuits over child sex abuse allegations.

Markey has advocated for the bill’s passage for more than a decade and it is currently under consideration in the state legislature. The Daily News is currently running a series of articles about the bill and supports its passage.

But the Diocese of Brooklyn, which leads 1.5 million Roman Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens, opposes the act, claiming that the bill’s provisions would open the church up to a fresh round of lawsuits that would put its parishes in financial peril.

Markey claimed that DiMarzio made the offer at a December 2007 meeting at his chancery in the nowclosed Bishop Ford High School in Brooklyn. The meeting, which focused on the bill, also included Assemblyman Joseph Lentol of Brooklyn, the late Assemblyman Vito Lopez, Monsignor Kieran Harrington (now communications director for the diocese) and Sister Ellen Patricia Finn, a child sex abuse victim’s advocate and former employee of Catholic Charities.

Markey told the Daily News that she saw no reason to report the offer at the time: “Who could I report it to? He said, I said,” she was quoted as saying in the report. Although she originally stated the meeting took place in 2010, she later corrected the date.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Greg Daly
June 9, 2016

The sole Irish member of the Vatican’s child protection commission has cautiously welcomed new rules to enable the removal from office of bishops whose actions endanger children.

The personal papal decree Comeuna madre amorevole (‘Like a loving mother’) facilitates disciplinary action against negligent bishops and their equivalents in canon law, including patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches and major superiors of religious orders.

Marie Collins, who has been a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors since its foundation two years ago, welcomed the decree, telling The Irish Catholic that “anything that can improve accountability is welcome in my book”.

“What’s important to me is that it emphasises the gravity of being negligent in the area of child protection,” she added, continuing, “It’s very important that that emphasis is there now, and it’s very clearly a reason for removing a bishop.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Before we left for our recent vacation, I made a promise here, I seem to recall, to read and comment on the 22 May affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, former Chancellor for Canonical Affairs of the Catholic archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The affidavit is Haselberger’s testimony in the bankruptcy case of the archdiocese now pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota (case no. 15-30125).

I believe it was Mary Q, a good reader of this blog, who pointed me to this document, which is uploaded to the website (pdf file) of Jeff Anderson, who is representing abuse survivors suing the archdiocese. At her blog, Haselberger wrote about the affidavit the day after she made it. As she explains in this posting, she testified in support of “substantive consolidation.” She explains:

Substantive consolidation is an equitable remedy available to bankruptcy courts whereby the assets of entities closely related to the debtor, in this case the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, are combined into the bankruptcy estate.

At the heart of a motion for substantive consolidation is the question of equity and fairness. American law does not allow a corporation like the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to misuse the benefits of the separate corporate forms of, say, parishes or foundations, to unfairly deprive creditors like the victims of sexual abuse by clergy. In other words, the test for whether substantive consolidation is appropriate in a given case is determined by the degree of interrelatedness between the entities to be consolidated and the parent organization.

And then she provides four reasons for why she supports a motion for substantive consolidation in this case:

1. “The request to consolidate does not include Catholic Charities or Commonbond Communities.” And so these Catholic, but quasi-independent entities doing works of mercy, will not be pulled into a bankruptcy settlement requiring that the archdiocese itself bear responsibility for having covered up sexual abuse cases, and can continue doing their works of mercy without penalization.

2. “The request seeks to make more assets available to compensate the victims of sexual abuse of minors by clergy.” And why is this necessary? “I believe we cannot turn a blind eye to the harm and suffering experienced by those individuals, most of whom are or were members of our Catholic community, to preserve advantages for others.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT MICHAEL O’KEEFFE STEPHEN REX BROWN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, June 9, 2016

The state Assembly may have inadvertently done the unthinkable — getting sexual abuse survivors and the Catholic Church to agree.

Advocates for reform and the church said Wednesday they opposed a bill to reform New York’s statute of limitations on claims of child sexual abuse — but for different reasons.

Advocates don’t believe the bill gives victims enough time to bring lawsuits.

“To me it’s just garbage,” said Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor who says he was sexually abused in 1966. “It’s not what we want. I think if that’s what they want to pass, don’t waste our time. We’ll just come back next year.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 9 2016

Christopher Knaus

Damian De Marco sat in the gallery of ACT parliament on Thursday, watching as new laws were introduced that could have stopped the Catholic brother who abused him so many years ago.

“In all probability, it would have saved lives,” Mr De Marco said.

It took the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and repeated revelations about cover-ups of child abuse within the Catholic Church and other institutions to get to this point.

But, on Thursday morning, Chief Minister Andrew Barr introduced his reportable conduct scheme to the Legislative Assembly, a law designed to force institutions to report abuse complaints to an independent authority.

“The royal commission has shown that there are still too many dark places within institutions to hide those who would harm children, and there are still those who draw the blinds rather than face the embarrassment or damage that illumination may bring,” Mr Barr told the Assembly.

The scheme is modelled on the NSW system, which has been described as the best of its kind in the world.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Verdict

9 JUN 2016 MARCI A. HAMILTON

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia is circulating a letter to parishioners and schools to enlist Catholics to join him in his scorched earth battle against the child sex abuse victims his institution created as well as the rest of them, including the incest victims. As someone who is familiar with Chaput’s tactics against victims and statute of limitations reform ten years ago in Denver, Colorado, I am performing the public service of providing the public a factual translation of his letter, which leaves out a few details.

Dear friends,

A bill is currently pending in our state senate, HB 1947, that poses serious dangers for all of our local parishes, schools, PREP programs, charities and other Church ministries.

Translation: Well, HB 1947 is actually a watered-down version of the robust statute of limitations (SOL) reform in Delaware, Hawaii, and Minnesota. It caps all civil claims at age 50, which is actually a pretty big win for us bishops, who know that there are many victims well over the age of 50 who have yet to tell their story publicly. Especially good news for us is that many of the survivors of serial Philly predator Stanley Gana will be blocked. Thank God for small miracles! Between us: we have insurance to cover claims, and the insurance guys don’t want to have to pay on those policies, so we do have some powerful friends on our side.

With this letter, I urge you to write or telephone your local state senator and members of the state Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against HB 1947, and especially to oppose any retroactivity provision in the civil statute of limitation covering sexual abuse.

Translation: The Grand Jury reports of the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses have already revealed way too many facts about our callous disregard for Catholic children. If a retroactive bill is enacted, more truth will be spilled and we will look really, really bad. Look at the tens of thousands of pages released in California! Besides, we need to get this bottled up quickly so we can divert everyone’s attention to the glorious Fortnight for Freedom for us to impose our faith on others in as many arenas as possible, whether we are talking abortion, contraception, or same-sex “behavior.” It starts June 21. I can’t wait!

All of us are rightly angered by the crime of sexual abuse.

Translation: The crime itself is just, well, despicable. The cover up, was, well, you know, necessary.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Times Herald

By Nick Miccarelli, Times Guest Columnist
POSTED: 06/09/16

I was nothing short of shocked when a dear friend of mine sent me a picture of the St. Rose of Lima Church bulletin on Saturday. It read, “State Representative Nick Miccarelli voted in favor of House Bill 1947 which states that private institutions can be sued as far as 40 years ago for millions of dollars, while public institutions may not be sued for any crimes committed in the past.” This statement, printed in the church bulletin, is patently untrue. The simplicity of this statement leaves out much, but most glaringly it leaves out the true goal of the bill. I did vote in favor of HB1947 because as I reviewed the legislation, forefront in my mind was justice for the victims, not sympathy for the predators that committed heinous crimes against children or any public or private institution that allowed sexual abuse to continue unaddressed. HB1947 will allow those who have been molested as children to have their day in court.

There is no one, and I mean no one, with any understanding of the law who would claim “public institutions may not be sued for any crimes committed in the past.” Google “Jerry Sandusky Penn State Lawsuit” if you need to see evidence that public institutions can be sued. What this bill did was to expand the statute of limitations for claims of child molestation. Put simply, it allows those people who are raped as children more time to face those who raped them. I was one of 180 members of the House of Representatives who believe this bill will help victims. We also believe that this bill would let child predators across Pennsylvania know that they will not be free from punishment if they simply run out the clock.

At first, I was shocked that my own parish would print something so misleading without so much as a phone call to me. I myself sat in the pews of St. Rose two days before the bulletin was brought to my attention by my friend. Lastly, many of my constituents have my cell phone number, and my office number is a 10-second google search away. I would have gladly made myself available to discuss this legislation with Father Canavan, a man I have immense respect for, or anyone else from St. Rose or any other organization that had concerns regarding the intent of this legislation.

It wasn’t until today that I realized the lies about this bill are being preached at more places than St. Rose. When I arrived in Harrisburg, I saw Rep. Tom Murt of Montgomery County. Tom is a fellow Iraq War veteran and possibly the kindest and most mild-mannered person I’ve met since being elected. By the way, Tom goes to a Catholic Church every single day. For the first time in almost eight years, I saw Tom Murt visibly upset. He told me how his parish, sold the same falsehoods to their parishioners as did St. Rose with him sitting right in the pews.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Updated: Jun 08, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

During an interview Thursday morning on Isla63-AM, Walter Denton revealed that the Vatican has been investigating his allegations of rape since August 2015. On Tuesday, Denton appeared before island media and alleged that he was raped by Archbishop Anthony Apuron when he was 13 years old. He alleged that the sexual abuse happened when Apuron was a priest in Agat and Denton was an altar boy.

Denton in his interview with radio host Jess Lujan said he was on Guam in January 2015 when he had heard about his cousin who had allegedly been sexually abused by Apuron several years ago. Denton said his cousin was a seminarian at the time. Denton said he realized he needed to come forward and sought advice on how he should go about filing a complaint about what happened to him.

He realized that he could not report it to the local archdiocese because the Archbishop was the accused and controlled all investigations of sexual abuse. He says he was referred to Archbishop Martin Krebs, the Apostolic Delegate to the Pacific Islands. Although Archbishop Krebs was on Guam in January 2015, Denton said he was not aware of the visit. Denton says it wasn’t until August 2015 that he sent a notarized letter to Archbishop Krebs detailing what happened to him.

He said Archbishop Krebs then took his statement directly to the Vatican. From there he said it was around October or November of that same year he was contacted by Bishop Olmsted in Phoenix, Arizona for an interview. Denton said Bishop Olmsted told him that he had been appointed by the Vatican to gather information about the alleged abuse. Although he has not heard from the Vatican since, he did say Bishop Olmsted assured him that the Vatican is conducting an investigation.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Two people who’ve recently accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse visited Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Agat today for a scheduled prayer vigil.

One of the accusers, Walter Denton, publicly alleged earlier this week that Apuron raped him in April 1977. The other accuser, Doris Concepcion, recently said her son, who passed away 11 years ago, told her Apuron molested him as a child. Both Denton and Concepcion are Arizona residents.

Apuron has not been charged with any crime. The Vatican, however, recently appointed another archbishop, Savio Tai Fai Hon, to temporarily govern the Archdiocese of Agana while the allegations against Apuron are investigated.

Three people have come forward in recent weeks with accusations of sexual abuse against Apuron.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

National Board staff will be facilitating a training session on conducting a preliminary investigation

On the 6th of July 2016
Between 10.00 and 15:30.
At the Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth
Price is 60 euro per person
Given the imminent change over to a new website- online booking for this event is not available.

Should you wish to book places on this course please contact ann.doyle@safeguarding.ie or imeldaashe@safeguarding.ie.

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IRELAND
National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church

The National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) published its annual report today. It details the work done by the Board and its National Office during the year ending 31st March 2016. The Annual Report for 2015 and the accompanying press release can be downloaded by following the links below.

Press Statement

NBSCCCI Annual Report 20l5

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

A total of 116 new allegations, suspicions or concerns of sexual abuse were reported to the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children, in the year to the end of March last.

There were a further 37 allegations of physical and emotional abuse against one religious congregation.

In total, 153 allegations were made to the board in the year April 1st, 2015 to March 31st, 2016.

It represents a reduction of 112 on the 265 total (including those from one organisation as a batch) reported to the board in the 2014/15 year.

The figures were published on Thursday morning in the board’s annual report for the 2015/16 year.

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FRANCE
The Nation

AFP

LYON – One of France’s most powerful Catholic leaders, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was questioned by police on Wednesday over allegations he covered up the sexual abuse of Scouts, a source close to the case said.

Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon in central France since 2002, has been accused of failing to remove a priest from his diocese when he became aware the man had sexually abused young boys 25 years ago.

Barbarin was being questioned by the police’s family protection unit as part of a preliminary investigation, but has not been taken into custody, the source said.

State prosecutors will have to decide whether to pursue the case against Barbarin, which has shaken France’s Catholic Church.

The scandal has raised questions over how deep Church authorities should dig into abuse cases lurking in their past.

Barbarin’s interrogation comes four days after Pope Francis issued a decree that senior Catholic officials guilty of negligence in child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office.

It was not immediately clear whether the papal decree would affect the Barbarin case.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

[with audio]

The lawyer for several victims who claim they were abused by Guam’s archbishop is accusing him of a coverup, and says he expects more people to come forward with allegations against him and other priests.

Transcript

The lawyer for several victims who claim they were abused by Guam’s archbishop is accusing him of a coverup, and says he expects more people to come forward with allegations against him and other priests.

A claim of rape against Archbishop Anthony Apuron came shortly after Pope Francis appointed an administrator to manage the Catholic Church in Guam while an investigation is conducted into abuse claims.

Jo O’Brien reports:

Walter Denton is the third person to make an allegation of sexual abuse against the Archbishop. In an emotional account to the media reported on the Pacific News Center website, the 52 year-old says he was raped by Archbishop Apuron in 1977 when he was just 13 years old.

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FRANCE
Premier

Thu 09 Jun 2016
By Aaron James

French investigators have questioned a prominent cardinal about alleged failures to report on suspected paedophilia by a priest under his watch, in the highest-profile church abuse investigation in France to date.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was named in two investigations of accusations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

Mr Barbarin, one of the highest-ranking figures in the French Catholic Church, is among several church officials accused of failing to report paedophile priests to judicial authorities.

He has denied covering up abuse, but acknowledged some mistakes in handling and appointing priests.

His lawyer, Andre Soulier, said the cardinal is being questioned in Lyon as part of normal proceedings. “He is a witness, and is being questioned as a witness,” Mr Soulier said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

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FRANCE
The Local

One of France’s most powerful Catholic leaders, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, has been questioned by police over allegations he covered up the sexual abuse of Scouts.

Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon in central France since 2002, has been accused of failing to remove a priest from his diocese when he became aware the man had sexually abused young boys 25 years ago.

Barbarin spent 10 hours at the police’s family protection unit on Wednesday where he was interrogated as part of a preliminary investigation, but has not been taken into custody, his lawyer said.

State prosecutors will now have to decide whether to pursue the case against Barbarin, which has shaken France’s Catholic Church.

The diocese of Lyon said in a statement after Wednesday’s quizzing that the cardinal would continue to cooperate with the inquiry and that he hoped his testimony would “contribute to the establishment of the truth”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

NEWS that former Adass Israel head teacher Malka Leifer will not be returning from Israel to face justice any time soon and will be freed from home detention has caused shock waves in Australia, prompting more than 3500 people so far to sign petitions protesting last week’s ruling by an Israeli court.

Child sex-abuse victims group Tzedek has launched an online petition calling on Israel’s Minister for Justice Ayelet Shaked to “stop this injustice” and extradite Leifer, stating, “It’s heartbreaking – this school teacher left vulnerable children traumatised. She can’t get away with it.”

Meanwhile, Canberra-based Tzedek supporter Fiona Sweet-Formiatti has also launched an online petition, expressing “profound shock” at the ruling and urging Israel’s Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to place Leifer in a state hospital until she is fit to face ­proceedings.

The petition added, “We are concerned that Israel’s reputation is also suffering from being perceived as a haven for alleged paedophiles wishing to avoid justice.”

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WASHINGTON
Seattle PI

BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle must release “all files” and settlements related to credible claims of abuse by clergy and religious who have ministered in the diocese, according to an on-line letter petition addressed by lay Catholics to Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.

“Full disclosure of secret files and the ongoing involvement of an independent Review Board are necessary to create a sustainable culture and structure of deterrence and accountability, thereby significantly reducing the possibility that this systematic evil will ever happen again,” said the letter, which has garnered 155 signatures.

The archdiocese, last January, released the names of 77 priests, members of religious orders and one nun where allegations had been admitted, established or able to be substantiated.
Forty one of the individuals on the list were deceased.

The Archdiocese has released names but not investigative reports. Two early signers of the petition are Seattle University law professor and former King County Superior Court Judge Terry Carroll, and ex-U.S. Attorney Mike McKay.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

BY ERIKA STANISH WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8TH 2016

HOLLIDAYSBURG – The Diocese of Harrisburg sent out a letter warning its parishioners of financial hardship to the church if the statute of limitations changes.

The new law would allow for a victim of child abuse not over 50 to seek criminal investigations in their case and allow them to file civil lawsuits.

The letter was sent to Harrisburg’s Catholic School Community, openly opposing some of the proposed law to eliminate the statute of limitations.

The letter goes on to say more lawsuits could flood their diocese and force the closing of parishes, schools and ministries.

Tony DeGol, secretary of communications for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, told 6 News if the law passes, the Catholic Church would be in the position to address cases up to 50 years old.

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KANSAS
KMBZ

LENEXA, Kan. – A rally outside a Lenexa church had members of SNAP, members of those Sexually Abused by Priests, voicing their support for the families of two girls who were sexually assaulted by Kessler Lichtnegger. The families have filed a lawsuit against Westside Family Church, claiming they knew about Lichtnegger’s past crimes, but still allowed him to have access to children. Rebecca Randels is handling the case for the victims, and says that Lichtnegger was a “table leader for a small group, and also a volunteer at vacation Bible school, where he had direct contact with students, and at vacation Bible school is where the sexual abuses occurred.” The attorney for Westside Family Church says since the allegations came to light they’ve made some changes, including more background checks and requiring parents to sign off on minor volunteers.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 9, 2016

Archbishop Hon to lead prayer meeting as vigil planned in Agat

The archbishop appointed by the Vatican to temporarily oversee the Catholic church in Guam now is on island and is expected to remain here while accusations of sexual abuse against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron are being investigated, according to the church.

Pope Francis on Monday gave Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon temporary authority to govern the Archdiocese of Agana, but Apuron remains the island’s archbishop.

In a statement Wednesday, Hon said the priority of the apostolic administrator is to “take stock of the present pastoral situation of the diocese; to identify the difficulties present among the clergy, religious, and lay faithful and to take urgent measures, at the earliest, in order to promote and restore unity and harmony in the local church.”

“The Apostolic Administrator, after carefully discerning the needs of the Archdiocese will take all necessary decisions to assure that this goal is being implemented,” the statement adds. …

Hon is scheduled to lead a prayer meeting 4 p.m. Thursday at Saint Anthony and Saint Victor Church in Tamuning, church pastor Monsignor Brigido Arroyo said Wednesday.

“It is open to everyone — priests, deacons, religious leaders, lay people. It is a prayer meeting,” Arroyo said.

A prayer vigil also is scheduled for noon Thursday, at the old rectory of Agat Catholic church, where the alleged sexual abuses by Apuron happened in the 1970s.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill WhiteContact Reporter

Go to the Philadelphia Archdiocese website, and you’ll immediately be confronted by a pop-up:

“Click here to send a message to your legislator opposing HB 1947.”

We are in the midst of a broad Catholic Church lobbying campaign to squash House Bill 1947, which passed the House in April and would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal cases of child sexual abuse and extend the statute for civil cases until the victim reaches age 50, retroactively, from the present age 30.

This latest effort to persuade Catholics to pressure legislators comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for a hearing Monday on the bill’s constitutionality and gets nearer to a promised vote.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput and others have been encouraging Catholic pastors to read or distribute lobbying materials at their church services. This spring, I criticized a similar effort by Allentown Bishop John Barres, whose letter opposing HB 1947 was inserted into church bulletins to the dismay of some local parishioners.

One of Chaput’s letters and other lobbying materials also are being distributed to parents of parochial school children, which prompted this email response from Gretchen Dahlkemper of South Philadelphia:

“I am horrified, disgusted, and sick to my stomach that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia instructed its principals to send the below information to the parents who have chosen to send our children to receive a Catholic education. I send my 7-year-old boy each day to the school expecting the principal and the teachers to protect him and guide him — not to shield the pedophiles that were for decades abusing boys, just like my 7-year-old, with the protection and systematic collusion of the Catholic Church.

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ISRAEL
Australian Jewish News

JERUSALEM – Former Adass Israel head teacher Malka Leifer has been enjoying a taste of freedom this week, as her alleged victims come to terms with the knowledge that she’s unlikely to face extradition proceedings any time soon.

Israeli state prosecutors made a last-ditch attempt on Tuesday to convince the courts to keep her under house arrest – appealing to Judge Ram Vinograd to factor Israel-Australia relations into his decision.

But the request fell on deaf ears and, in the second bombshell of the case in six days, the judge made it clear that there’s no room for appeal, and despite the fact that 74 charges of indecent acts committed against students wait for her in Victoria, she can live as a free woman in Israel with no immediate threat of extradition.

Last Thursday, Judge Amnon Cohen decided Leifer is too mentally unstable to face extradition proceedings, and shocked alleged victims and activists by deciding that, instead of going to hospital until she can face proceedings, she can live a normal life and just go for occasional therapy.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 08 June 2016

The Baptist Union of Great Britain has written to its ministers about an investigation into historic safeguarding issues.

British Baptists are carrying out a review of cases of “inappropriate behaviour or abuse” by ministers in an investigation that goes back as far as the 1940s.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) has reviewed 4,500 files covering everyone who has served as a Baptist minister, including those who have retired, died or been removed from the list of accredited ministers.

BUGB has written to ministers informing them that some files have been passed directly to the authorities and that others are now being scrutinised by an independent panel of safeguarding experts before further action is taken.

Its statement says: “Where, in the view of the panel, there is a clear case to consider removing a minister from the accredited list, these cases will be passed to our Ministerial Recognition Committee and handled using our normal ministerial disciplinary procedures.”

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FRANCE
Ouest France

[Cardinal Philippe Barbarin left police headquarters after 10 hours of questioning during an investigation into failure to report sexual abuse.]

Le cardinal Barbarin a quitté les enquêteurs après 10 heures d’audition. Il était interrogé dans le cadre d’une enquête sur la non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie.

L’audition du cardinal Philippe Barbarin par la police lyonnaise dans le cadre d’une enquête pour non-dénonciation de faits de pédophilie reprochés à un prêtre de son diocèse a pris fin mercredi après dix heures d’interrogatoire, a annoncé un de ses avocats.

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MEXICO
Sipse

EFE
GUADALAJARA, Jalisco.- La casa Alberione, ubicada en el municipio mexicano de Tlaquepaque, fue un hogar de acogida para sacerdotes involucrados en casos de pederastia, confirmó hoy el cardenal emérito Juan Sandoval Íñiguez.

En una entrevista con Efe a propósito de la reciente publicación de su libro de memorias, “Con mi propia voz”, asegura que ese recinto fue un centro de rehabilitación de religiosos hasta que Juan Pablo II envió en 2001 una carta a los obispos para pedirles que no encubrieran estos casos.

“Desde que estaba yo en el cargo, antes sí, pero cuando en el 2001 el papa Juan Pablo II dijo que los pederastas tenían que salir del ministerio, entonces di la disposición a la casa Alberione que no admitieran ningún sacerdote pederasta”, afirma.

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MEXICO
Fox News Latino

The Alberione house, located in the western Mexican municipality of Tlaquepaque, was a refuge for priests involved in pedophilia cases, Cardinal Emeritus Juan Sandoval Iñiguez said on Wednesday.

In an interview with EFE after the recent publication of his memoirs entitled “Con mi propia voz” (In my own words), the cardinal said that the house was a rehabilitation center for clergy until Pope John Paul II in 2001 sent a letter to bishops asking them not to conceal those cases.

“Since I was in the post, and certainly before, but when in 2001 Pope John Paul II said that pedophiles had to leave the ministry, then I gave the order to the Alberione house not to admit any pedophile priest,” he said.

Since that time, a group of physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists were connected to the house – located several kilometers from where Sandoval lives – attending to priests suffering from alcoholism, depression or who had “problems with authority,” said the 83-year-old prelate.

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CANADA
The Packet

Barb Sweet
Published on June 08, 2016

Philadelphia, Pa., psychiatrist Dr. Robert Toborowsky was qualified as a expert in forensic psychiatry after a contentious morning at the Mount Cashel civil trial.

Toborowsky is a witness for the Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s, which says it should not be held liable for sexual abuse of boys by lay order Christian Brothers during the era 1940s to ’60s.

Contention — in questioning by former orphanage residents’ lawyer Will Hiscock — largely surrounded Toborowsky’s specific experience with patients who were sexually abused as children.

Noting his imminent career, Justice Alphonsus Faour accepted him as a forensic psychiatry expert in sexual abuse as a range of causes of symptoms.

Toborowsky met with the four John Does who are test case plaintiffs in this Newfoundland Supreme Court case in 2010. This afternoon will delve into his opinions on those men’s files.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Maria Panaritis, STAFF WRITER

HARRISBURG – One lawmaker called it “electioneering.” Another grew emotional as she recounted being snubbed by a priest. A third penned a Facebook screed that became the buzz of the House of Representatives.

Legislators expressed outrage this week after they said they had been named by priests at Mass, in church bulletins or in some other way rebuked by the Catholic Church for supporting a bill that would let child sex-abuse victims sue individuals and private institutions decades after the abuse occurred.

Rep. Nick Miccarelli, a devout Catholic from Delaware County, said he was stunned on Sunday to see his name printed alongside what he called “lies,” and “distortions” in the weekly bulletin at his Eddystone parish. By his count, at least a dozen other House members reported having been singled out by the church or its advocates in recent days.

“A lot of the members would tell you responses have been nothing short of threats to claims of betraying their faith,” Miccarelli, a Republican first elected in 2008, said the day after his Facebook post about the campaign quickly made the rounds in Harrisburg.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

The Stormont Executive is committed to finding a way to ensure abuse allegations that fall outside the remit of Northern Ireland’s on-going judge-led inquiry are addressed, Martin McGuinness has said.

Clerical abuse victims and some former residents of Magdalene laundry-type institutions in the region have demanded to know why the crimes inflicted on them are not being examined by the Stormont commissioned investigation headed by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry, which is currently gathering victim testimony, is examining alleged child abuse perpetrated inside residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.

However, the probe’s remit does not cover abuse inflicted on victims who were over 18 when they were inside residential facilities, such as woman forced into Magdalene-style laundries, or clerical abuse committed outside of an institutional setting.

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ROME
Commonweal

Robert Mickens
June 8, 2016

Pope Francis has been both applauded and criticized for creating a new process for investigating and eventually removing bishops for negligence, especially in their oversight of sexual abuse cases. He lays it out carefully in a new motu proprio published last Saturday under the title Come una madre amorevole (Like a loving mother).

Some see this initiative as the start of a Copernican revolution in the Vatican’s approach to the (still very far from over) clergy sex abuse crisis, while others think it is actually much ado about nothing.

Most commentators have claimed that Canon Law (can. 192-195) already provides for the removal of bishops, and the new motu proprio merely spells out a process whereby one of four different Vatican congregations actually go about this. But, in fact, bishops are not specifically mentioned in those canons, which deal only generically with “removal of ecclesiastical office” at all levels.

In his new document, Pope Francis removes all doubt and says a congregation can investigate a bishop and issue a “decree of removal” if it deems the prelate has been negligent of his pastoral duties in a “very grave” way. Furthermore, it says such negligence need only be “grave” when concerning the abuse of minors or vulnerable adults.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

POLICE are considering an investigation into the former Archbishop of York.

Lord David Hope resigned from his position as an honorary assistant bishop in 2014 after a report into allegations of child abuse by a former cathedral dean found “systemic failures” by the Church of England.

The report said Lord Hope failed to follow policy and take advice after he was told of complaints against Robert Waddington relating to boys in Manchester and Australia, between 1984 and 1993.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the investigation had been prompted by publication of a report into how the allegations were handled, which was commissioned by the current Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and carried out by Judge Sally Cahill QC.

Judge Cahill QC said Lord Hope’s actions meant “opportunities were missed” to start an investigation which may have led to a prosecution before Waddington’s death in 2007.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue is calling for a formal investigation of New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey. Her defamation of Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio warrants a probe as to whether she has violated New York State’s ethics laws.

To read Donohue’s request, click here.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com June 8, 2016

More than 20 yeshivas targeted by the New York state Education Department for overdue fire-safety inspections turned to Ramapo and Kaser officials this week to get their paperwork done, sidestepping attempts by the county to send its own team into the facilities for review.

Education Department spokeswoman Jeanne Beattie said in an email that 22 schools have filed inspection reports done by either private inspections or Ramapo inspectors. The filings mean the schools won’t be required to be inspected by the county.

The Education Department had deputized Rockland to review between 49 and 53 schools, some of which had not filed fire safety certificates for several years.

Dennis Lynch, the lawyer for the recently-formed School Religious Freedom Coalition, said that come Wednesday, “There could be many yeshivas that Ed Day’s representatives will not have to step foot into” since they have complied with the law.

An irritated Rockland County Executive Ed Day said the Education Department accepted the new reviews even though it had recently criticized Ramapo for its poor record on fire and building code inspections.

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NEW YORK
Post-Bulletin

Let me begin by saying I detest all forms of abuse against another human being, especially a child.

Throughout the past several years we have heard plenty about the abuse scandals within the Catholic church, and I am terribly upset by what has happened. These priests will be held accountable by a higher judge than us, for Christ said in Matthew 26:24, “Woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”

Did not these men betray their calling?

Why does the Catholic church get so much attention from lawyers and the media, when child abuse is just as prevalent in many other institutions? Because the Catholic Church is an easy target. What other institution is willing to settle cases from decades ago and is willing to work with investigators? The church wants to right its wrongs.

People say that the Catholic church didn’t handle things properly. The fact is that, like society in general during the 1960s and ’70s, the church followed the prevailing view at the time that sex offenders could be treated and rehabilitated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY KIM PILLING

A Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing nine girls and one boy has been cleared by a jury.

Father Mortimer Stanley, 82, had denied a string of indecent assaults said to have been committed in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, between the late 1970s and 2002.

The Crown alleged the Limerick-born priest targeted most of the complainants, aged under 11, in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, when he would sit them on his knee.

Fr Stanley, from Ballybunion, County Kerry, said children would often climb on his knee of their own accord but nothing inappropriate ever happened.

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GERMANY
Leadership (Nigeria)

— Jun 8, 2016

A German diocese on Wednesday announced that the catholic priest convicted of child sexual abuse has been defrocked after an order by Pope Francis.

It said in a statement in Aachen (Germany), that the 58-year-old priest, who had worked in the western city of Aachen, was sentenced to six years in jail in 2015 for taken advantage of minors in his care.

It said the priest who abused his godchild and the child’s younger brother had not carried out priestly duties since 2010.

The priest in Aachen had also faced charges stemming from time he spent working in South Africa, but the charges were dropped.

“Nonetheless, a family there did receive compensation payments from the church.

The diocese, however, said the order from the pope meant that he was permanently barred from priesthood and would no longer receive pay from the church.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Louella Losinio | Post News Staff

The Vatican’s newly appointed apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai has announced his priorities as he temporarily takes over administration of the Archdiocese of Agana.

In a news release issued by the archdiocese yesterday, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai said his priority is to take stock of the present pastoral situation of the diocese and to identify the difficulties present among the clergy, religious and lay faithful.

Savio also said he will take “urgent” measures, at the earliest, in order to promote and restore unity and harmony in the local Catholic Church.

“The Apostolic administrator, after carefully discerning the needs of the archdiocese will take all necessary decisions to assure that this goal is being implemented,” he said.

He also confirmed his appointment stating that the pope, in his concern for the good of the whole church and with due consideration for the good of the faithful in Guam, has temporarily entrusted him with the administration of the Archdiocese of Agana.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Ari Yashar

The central witness against Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the fugitive head of the Shuvu Banim sect who was finally arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa two months ago, has spoken out on shocking details of the sexual abuse case against Berland.

Berland fled from Israel in 2012 after several women as well as a 15-year-old girl laid charges of sexual assault against him. He evaded capture in the US, Switzerland, Morocco and Zimbabwe and managed to avoid extradition from Holland, before being finally arrested in South Africa in April – now he faces extradition to Israel to stand trial.

Central witness Itay Nachman Shalom, formerly a member of Shuvu Banim, exposed his testimony against Berland to Walla on Wednesday, and spoke about the persecution he faces from the sect.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

Papst Franziskus hat einem wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilten Priester des Bistums Aachen den Priesterstatus aberkannt. Der Papst bekräftige damit seine Null-Toleranz-Haltung in der katholischen Kirche bei erwiesenen Missbrauchsfällen, teilte das Bistum Aachen am Mittwoch mit.

Der 58-Jährige, der in Haft sitzt, darf demnach keine priesterlichen Handlungen mehr ausüben und bekommt auch keine Bezüge von der Kirche.

Der Priester war 2015 vom Landgericht Krefeld wegen schweren sexuellen Missbrauchs, Kindesmissbrauchs und Missbrauchs von Schutzbefohlenen zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Das Gericht sah 25 Taten als erwiesen an.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole , jstole@guampdn.com June 8, 2016

Sexual assault allegations against an archbishop are supposed to be investigated by the Vatican, and not locally, according to an expert in the laws of the Roman Catholic Church.

Although Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron has been accused of sexually assaulting children in the 1970s, the alleged crimes happened so long ago they could not be criminally prosecuted, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger, an expert in church law, said Vatican policy dictates that only Rome can investigate bishops who are accused of sexual abuse.

The Archdiocese of Agana on May 17 announced it had launched a local investigation in the sex abuse allegations against Apuron, which church officials have called “lies.” An attorney representing alleged abuse victim Roy Quintanilla has questioned the fairness and validity of the local investigation.

While Catholic churches have their respective policies to respond to sexual abuse allegations, the Vatican also has guidelines, Haselberger said.

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IOWA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux City – The Catholic Globe

[Alleged abuse victim speaks out against former Sioux City priest – KTIV]

The Diocese of Sioux City has received information that Father Peter B. Murphy committed sexually abusive acts against a minor in 1960 while a temporary assistant at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sioux City.

Father Murphy was ordained in 1955 and died in 1980. In addition to Blessed Sacrament Church, he served at St. Mary Church, Danbury; Assumption Parish, Emmetsburg; Sacred Heart Parish, Fort Dodge; St. Michael Parish, Whittemore; St. Joseph Parish, Bode; St. Rose of Lima Parish, Denison and Sacred Heart Parish, Spencer.

If you have information concerning any sexual misconduct against minors by Father Murphy, or are yourself a victim, please call Mercy Child Advocacy Center at (866) 435-4397, or the diocese at (712) 279-5610.

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VATIKAN
Radio Vatikan

Ein des sexuellen Missbrauchs für schuldig befundener Priester des Bistums Aachen ist laisiert worden. Das gab das Bistum an diesem Mittwoch in einer Pressemeldung bekannt. Demnach habe Papst Franziskus nach Prüfung der Akten durch die römische Glaubenskongregation und einem eigenen Entlassungsgesuch des Priesters die Laisierung von Georg K. veranlasst und somit einmal mehr seine Null-Toleranz-Politik gegenüber sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche bestätigt. Mit der Entlassung aus dem Klerikerstand endet auch die Fürsorge- und Versorgungsverpflichtung, die der Bischof mit dem Tag der Priesterweihe für einen Priester übernimmt Der ehemalige Priester darf keine priesterlichen Handlungen mehr ausüben, und ihm kann kein Amt übertragen werden, das die Priesterweihe voraussetzt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
RP

Aachen/Willich. Papst Franziskus hat einem wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilten Priester des Bistums Aachen den Priesterstatus aberkannt. Der Mann hatte sein Patenkind missbraucht.

Der Papst bekräftige damit seine Null-Toleranz-Haltung in der katholischen Kirche bei erwiesenen Missbrauchsfällen, teilte das Bistum Aachen am Mittwoch mit. Der 58-Jährige, der in Haft sitzt, darf demnach keine priesterlichen Handlungen mehr ausüben und bekommt auch keine Bezüge von der Kirche.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

[Convicted of abuse: Pastor dismissed from the priesthood.]

Bistum Aachen: Glaubenskongregation schließt kirchenrechtliches Verfahren mit Laisierung ab – Am 6. Februar hatte das Landgericht Krefeld Pfarrer K. zu sechs Jahren Haft wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger verurteilt

Aachen (kath.net/iba) Nach Prüfung der Akten durch die römische Glaubenskongregation und einem eigenen Entlassungsgesuch des Priesters aus dem Bistum Aachen hat Papst Franziskus die Laisierung von Pfarrer K. veranlasst. Auch im Heiligen Jahr der Barmherzigkeit bekräftigt der Papst damit seine Null-Toleranz-Haltung in der katholischen Kirche bei erwiesenen Fällen des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Priester oder kirchliche Mitarbeiter. „Wir begrüßen, dass der kirchenrechtliche Prozess verhältnismäßig schnell abgeschlossen werden konnte“, betont Dr. Andreas Frick, Ständiger Vertreter des Diözesanadministrators. „Von Herzen wünsche ich den betroffenen Opfern, dass der Abschluss des strafrechtlichen Verfahrens und die Entlassung aus dem Priesteramt bei der Verarbeitung des erlittenen Leids hilft. Wir werden weiterhin das uns Mögliche tun, hierbei zu helfen“, so Frick weiter.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Aachen

[Pope Francis has dismissed priest Georg K. from the priesthood after the church concluded he was guilty of sexual abuse of minors. A secular court sentenced him to six years in prison last February.]

Aachen, (iba) – After examination of the file by the Roman Congregation and private resignation of the priest from the Diocese of Aachen Pope Francis led the laicization of Father K..

Even in the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pope affirmed that his zero-tolerance

Aachen, (iba) – Nach Prüfung der Akten durch die römische Glaubenskongregation und einem eigenen Entlassungsgesuch des Priesters aus dem Bistum Aachen hat Papst Franziskus die Laisierung von Pfarrer K. veranlasst.

Auch im Heiligen Jahr der Barmherzigkeit bekräftigt der Papst damit seine Null-Toleranz-Haltung in der katholischen Kirche bei erwiesenen Fällen des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Priester oder kirchliche Mitarbeiter. „Wir begrüßen, dass der kirchenrechtliche Prozess verhältnismäßig schnell abgeschlossen werden konnte”, betont Dr. Andreas Frick, Ständiger Vertreter des Diözesanadministrators. „Von Herzen wünsche ich den betroffenen Opfern, dass der Abschluss des strafrechtlichen Verfahrens und die Entlassung aus dem Priesteramt bei der Verarbeitung des erlittenen Leids hilft. Wir werden weiterhin das uns Mögliche tun, hierbei zu helfen”, so Frick weiter.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Tim Fontaine, CBC News

A new national survey found three-quarters of non-Aboriginal Canadians believe the residential school system harmed Aboriginal people, yet just 5% believe the federal government should pay compensation to try to heal those wounds.

National Chief Perry Bellegarde believes the survey results show the views of non-Aboriginal Canadians are still tainted by negative stereotypes.

“If you want reconciliation, you need to make space in your mind, your heart and spirit to get rid of the misconceptions you have about Indigenous Peoples,” he said. “The stereotype that Indigenous Peoples are dumb, stupid, lazy, drunk and on welfare — put that aside.”

The Environics Institute telephone survey of 2,001 non-Aboriginal adults from across the country conducted in January and February found 66 per cent are learning about Indigenous Peoples and their issues, but 10 per cent still believe Indigenous Peoples receive “special treatment” from government.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Statement by Becky Ianni, Virginia Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (703-801-6044,SNAPVirginia@cox.net)

A Catholic priest who worked in Virginia has been accused of abusing a male child in another state in 1990. Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are grateful to the brave victim who spoke up, but they are disappointed in the response of Catholic officials in the Diocese of Arlington.

[Arlington diocese]

Father Kevin J. Downey has been employed as the pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Triangle since 2011. While the priest has denied the allegations, he has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The survivors’ group expressed gratitude that the diocese notified parishioners about the allegations, and they were relieved to learn that the allegations have been reported law enforcement. However, victims think that the announcement should have included more details. The group is also very disappointed that the bishop is not aggressively reaching out to anyone who may have been harmed by the priest in Virginia.

Becky Ianni, the Virginia Director for SNAP, commented, “As a mother and grandmother, I’m concerned that we don’t know where Father Downey is now. As someone who may be a threat to young people, I can only hope that he is being housed in a remote, secure location away from children while the allegations are investigated.”

The SNAP leader also expressed concerns about what Father John O’Connor had to say in Saint Francis’ parish bulletin.

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KANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

New abuse & cover up lawsuit is filed
It’s against big Lenexa non-denominational church
Officials there knew man had molested others before
Still, they let him volunteer at Vacation Bible School
And he assaulted two young kids and is now in prison
He told one girl he’d go after her youngster sister if she didn’t comply

SNAP: Independent ‘mega-churches’ are “next frontier” in abuse cases

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

— disclose a new civil abuse and cover up lawsuit against a large KC area mega-church, and

— urge parents and congregation members to require these churches to enact policies to protect children.

The group predicts that more and more sex scandals are emerging and will continue to emerge in large, independent ‘mega-churches’ because their pastors are often very powerful and charismatic and there’s little or no lay oversight or church hierarchy that might hold predatory preachers accountable.

WHEN
TODAY, Wednesday, June 8 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Westside Family Church, 8500 Woodsonia Drive (off of W. 83rd) in Lenexa

WHO
Three-four victims of clergy sex abuse who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including a St. Louis man who is the organization’s long time director

WHY
Last October, Kessler P. Lichtnegger was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually abusing two girls as a volunteer leader at Vacation Bible School at Westside Family Church (913 422 8257), a large, non-denominational ‘mega-church’ in Lenexa Kansas.

A new lawsuit, brought by those two children and their families, charges that church officials knew Lichtnegger had committed similar crimes years before but still gave him access to kids. Church staff claim they told Lichtenegger that he could be in the building only with his father. But they still let him be a leader in his small group and volunteer in Vacation Bible School.

In April 2012, church officials knew that Lichtenegger pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and one count of battery against an adopted child who found just before dark by police at Windsor Park in Johnson County “catatonic,” with cuts, torn clothes and a fat lip.” At the time of the crimes, Lichtenegger was a freshman at Shawnee Mission East High School.

In the new lawsuit, two youngsters say that Lichtenegger engaged in lewd, lascivious and sexual behavior with them at church after having gotten their contact information in his role as a Vacation Bible School leader and volunteer. The suit charges that one of the girls was raped on church property. Lichtenegger forced her to perform sex acts on him under threat of going after her younger sister if she did not comply.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 8, 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)

Sioux City Catholic officials are admitting, for the first time, that Fr. Peter B. Murhpy has been credibly accused of molesting a child. We are grateful for this belated move, made at the request of a brave victim, and hope it will bring comfort to others who were hurt by this cleric. We also hope that Bishop Walter Nickless will be more forthcoming about other predator priests who have lived or worked in his diocese.

http://www.catholicglobe.org/?p=7218

Since this priest worked at several parishes, at a bare minimum, Nickless should also publish notices about him and his crimes throughout the diocese.

Fr. Murphy’s work history and photo are here:

http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Murphy_Peter_B.htm

Here’s our earlier statement about Fr. Murphy:

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ia_group_applauds_victim_prods_bishop_on_abuse

No matter what 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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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Press Event:

Victim of former Back of the Yards priest speaks out
Archdiocese, Claretian Order “not truthful” about admitted predator
He was put back in ministry after admitting abuse in 1995
Now, church officials withholding “new information,” possible other victims
Community mislead about risk
Man abused by cleric to hand-deliver “list of questions” to both groups about ongoing cover-up
“Time of ‘passing the buck’” must stop, victim says

What:
At a press conference, the victim of admitted child predator and former Back of the Yards priest Rev. Bruce Wellems, CMF will speak out in Chicago for the first time.

The victim will:
~ Discuss how archdiocese and Claretian officials promised in 1995 that Wellems would not work alone with children
~ Show how the Chicago Archdiocese kept secret for two months their decision to remove Wellems
~ Demand that the Archdiocese and Claretians make public all “new” information about Wellems and any inappropriate sexual activity
He will also hand-deliver a letter to the Archdiocese of Chicago and the offices of the Claretian Order. The letter has ten questions about Wellems and his status, including:
~ Why did they keep their decision to remove Wellems secret from the public?
~ Why was Wellems allowed to act as a priest in Chicago after being booted from Los Angeles?
~ What is the “new information” that pushed a review board to remove Wellems?

Where/When:
Wednesday June 8th at 1:30 pm
Outside of the offices of the Claretian Ministries
205 W. Monroe Street (at Wells) in Chicago
At approximately 2:30, they will then proceed to:
Outside of the offices of the Archdiocese of Chicago
835 N Rush St (at Pearson) in Chicago

Who:
A man who was molested by Back of the Yards priest Bruce Wellems and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), including a California woman who is a bestselling author on child safety.

Why:
In January, the Chicago Tribune published a story about Back of the Yards priest Rev. Bruce Wellems CMF, a Claretian priest who admitted to abusing seven-year-old Eric Johnson when Wellems was 15. Wellems was removed from the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2014 when church officials there learned of the allegation, stating that Wellems broke their promises of “Zero Tolerance.” When Wellems returned to Chicago in 2015, Archbishop Blase Cupich and the Claretians reinstated him, although as far back as 1995, both groups officials promised Wellems’ victim Eric Johnson that the priest would not have unsupervised contact with children.

When an advocate reported the exact same allegations to DCFS in 2015, Chicago archdiocese officials responded and said that Wellems could not act as a priest. Despite this, Wellems was pictured by the media and others still working and acting as a priest in Back of the Yards.

In March of this year, the Archdiocese review board decided that Wellems could not return to ministry They dwaited two months to inform Johnson, despite his numerous attempts to get an answer from the board and other archdiocese officials. He was told that the archdiocese and the Claretian order, of which Wellems is a member, was given new information, but they refuse to tell Johnson or the public what that information is.

Johnson and members of SNAP believe that this secrecy and the archbishop’s refusal to tell the Back of the Yards community of the risk Wellems poses a significant risk to children.

Contact:
Joelle Casteix IN CHICAGO (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com, SNAP Western Regional
Director
Barbara Blaine, (312) 399-4747, snapblaine@gmail.com, SNAP Founder and President

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 7, 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)

Disgraced Archbishop John Neinstedt of Minnesota, accused of both committing and concealing clergy sexual misconduct, is apparently still on the board of a prominent Catholic seminary in Rome. That’s disgraceful and reckless, especially because he allegedly sexually exploited several seminarians himself.

January 2016 Roman Echoes

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Catholic officials should remove him from this post, and all posts, immediately and apologize for their callous and irresponsible behavior. Every person with information or suspicions about Neinstedt’s wrongdoing should call law enforcement and seek help from independent sources.

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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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

David Clohessy | Jun. 8, 2016

In the latest installment of an otherwise helpful series of articles, Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea paints a depressing and incomplete picture of the church’s ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover-up crisis.

Because she’s a therapist, she understandably focuses on the “healing” half of the crisis. But she gives remarkably short shrift, we feel, to the other and more pressing half: “prevention.” And she also offers a very limited portrayal of our organization.

No one doubts Frawley-O’Dea’s sincerity, academic qualifications, therapeutic skills or commitment to making the church a more healthy and safe place for all. But familiarity with individual abuse victims in one-on-one counseling sessions doesn’t necessarily translate into a sophisticated understanding of the ever-growing victims’ movement to, in the words of the SNAP mission statement, “protect the vulnerable, heal the wounded, expose the truth and deter future cover ups.”

Perhaps her most surprising claims are that “the church resolutely ignores SNAP’s voice” and that we have no “organized” approach to healing. Nearly 30 years of our history strongly suggests otherwise.

If one equates “church” with “bishops,” in a very narrow sense, Frawley O’Dea is right: in the short run, bishops often seem to ignore us. I can’t ever recall an instance in which, face-to-face, a Catholic official told a group of SNAP members “Gosh, I guess you’re right. I will take the action you’re seeking.”

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

Editorial

Victims and their advocates are understandably skeptical about Pope Francis’ latest plan for disciplining bishops who schemed for years to protect abusive priests in the church’s devastating pedophilia scandal.

The pope dropped last year’s plan to create a special tribunal to investigate offending bishops. Instead, last week, he handed the task to existing Vatican agencies, accompanied by a personal order to investigate and remove diocesan leaders found guilty of engaging in cover-ups.

The fief-like powers of bishops, plus the Vatican’s failure to act, made cover-ups possible. After Francis became pope, he promised that the Vatican would do more to address a scandal that, as the news media revealed, had reached staggering proportions.

In the United States alone, where more than 700 priests were eventually dismissed, no bishops were punished by Rome as the scandal unfolded. This despite an investigation by lay leaders who warned “there must be consequences” for those who provided refuge for priests accused of raping schoolchildren, which often meant that the accused priests were shifted from parish to parish.

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GUAM
Rappler (Philippines)

AFP

GUAM, USA – The head of the Catholic Church in Guam has denied sexual abuse allegations after the Vatican appointed an administrator to perform his duties while an investigation is underway.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron has handed over his responsibilities to Vatican-appointed Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, the Archdiocese of Agana said on Tuesday, June 7.

It said Hon would remain in the US Pacific territory “pending the investigation of an abuse allegation.”

The allegations surfaced last month and date back to the 1970s, with former altar boys alleging they were molested by Apuron, then a parish priest.

In an emotional video address from Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome posted to social media Tuesday, Apuron denied any wrongdoing.

“I reaffirm my innocence and I am a victim of these horrible calumnies,” he said, urging “my dear people to pray for me, your shepherd and for our church”.

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ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic

Doris Yamashita Concepcion of Prescott, says her son, Joseph A. Quinata, told her he was molested by Archbishop Anthony Apuron in Guam in the 1970s. Quinata told his mother this just before he died 11 years ago. David Wallace/azcentral.com

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GUAM
KUAM

Posted: Jun 08, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

Recently appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Agana Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon says he was appointed by the Pope because of his concern ”for the good of the whole church and with due consideration for the good of the faithful in Guam”, a press release stated. He is being assisted by Rev. Fr. Tadeuz Jan Nowak, OMI.

“The priority of the Apostolic Administrator is to take stock of the present pastoral situation of the diocese; to identify the difficulties present among the clergy, religious, and lay faithful and to take urgent measures, at the earliest, in order to promote and restore unity and harmony in the local Church. The Apostolic Administrator, after carefully discerning the needs of the Archdiocese will take all necessary actions to assure that this goal is being implemented. The Holy Father kindly asks for the trust and prayers of the local Church and sincerely hopes that the entire Catholic Community will pull all of its energy in promoting unity, harmony, and stability of the Church,” the release went on to state.

Archbishop Hon and Rev. Fr. Nowak were on Guam in January 2015 for what the Archdiocese at the time described as a pastoral visit to foster reconciliation and understanding within the Archdiocese. Their visit followed multiple controversies which divided the local Church in 2014 which included the removal of Father Paul Gofigan from the Santa Barbara Church, the sudden removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector because of alleged financial discrepancies, and allegations of sexual harassment against Archbishop Anthony Apuron. While the Archdiocese at the time said it was a pastoral visit, critics claimed the visit was to conduct an investigation.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
June 8 2016
The Times

A former archbishop of York is under police investigation over his failure to tell the authorities about complaints that a fellow senior Anglican was a child abuser.

North Yorkshire police is investigating Lord Hope of Thornes, 76, for a possible offence of misconduct in public office over his handling of the case of Rev Robert Waddington, the former dean of Manchester.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 08 June 2016

The former Archbishop of York, Lord Hope, may be prosecuted for failing to tell the authorities about allegations that a cathedral dean was a child abuser.

He may be charged with misconduct in a public office, according to The Times, the same charge that saw the former Bishop of Gloucester, Peter Ball, imprisoned after he admitted sexual offences.

Hope was criticised in a judge-led inquiry in 2014 over his handling of the case of Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, who abused choirboys and schoolboys for more than half a century. It said Hope’s failure to report concerns had put children at risk and meant opportunities to prosecute Waddington before he died in 2007 were missed.

According to The Times, the North Yorkshire police force has been investigating the case for several months and has consulted the Crown Prosecution Service for advice on how to proceed.

Hope served as Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005. He was notified of allegations about Waddington in 1999, 2003 and 2004. On the last occasion he stripped Waddington of his permission to officiate at church services but did not report him to police.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on June 07, 2016

It was the first time she had ever seen her father cry, a woman said of when her brothers were dropped off several decades ago at the former Newfoundland orphanage known as Mount Cashel.

Father Francis Puddister, a vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. John’s, was one of two witnesses who testified at the Mount Cashel civil trial Tuesday.

One of the woman’s brothers is a John Doe who says the Catholic Church should be held liable for abuse by certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers at the infamous orphanage during the 1940s to early 1960s.

The church contends it did not oversee the orphanage’s operations, and therefore is not responsible.

The John Doe — one of four test cases representing about 60 former orphanage residents who say they were physically and sexually abused by the Brothers — has already told the civil trial at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador that his once-promising career and marriage were ruined by the after-effects of the abuse, as his life spiralled downward due to alcoholism.

Like others, he’d described life at Mount Cashel as horrific.

The woman who testified Tuesday, however, described her time at the private Littledale girls’ boarding school in St. John’s run by Sisters of Mercy nuns as “wonderful.” She went on to join the convent and receive a post-secondary education before leaving the order in her middle age.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

By Bella English GLOBE STAFF JUNE 08, 2016

The headmaster of St. George’s School, which has been embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal, has informed trustees that he won’t seek to renew his contract, which expires June 30, 2017.

Eric F. Peterson, whose resignation had been sought by many alumni, did not mention the scandal in his letter to trustees but referred to recent months as challenging. The controversy at the school became public in December, after Anne Scott and two other alumnae told of being molested or raped by athletic trainer Al Gibbs in the late 1970s.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the St. George’s community announcing Peterson’s departure, board of trustees chair Leslie Heaney referred briefly to the scandal: “Throughout this transition, the school’s commitment to addressing past instances of sexual abuse and to supporting our survivor community will remain steadfast.”

Peterson, 50, was appointed headmaster of the Episcopal prep school in 2004. His letter included a quote from the poem “Ulysses,” in which Tennyson writes of Greek hero Odysseus “and his desire to return to the sea in search of adventure.” Peterson wrote that he loves the poem “because it describes so well the tension between staying home in a familiar, comfortable setting or chasing the horizon towards an unknown, exciting future.”

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RHODE ISLAND
News 24

Providence – The headmaster of a prestigious boarding school has announced his departure days after state police concluded an investigation into dozens of sexual abuse allegations there with no criminal charges.

The St George’s School Board of Trustees announced on Tuesday that headmaster Eric Peterson won’t seek to extend his contract, which ends June 30, 2017. Peterson has been headmaster of the Episcopal school in Middletown, near Newport, since 2004.

In an email to the school community, board chairperson Leslie Heaney expressed profound gratitude for Peterson’s leadership and briefly addressed the abuse scandal.

“Throughout this transition, the school’s commitment to addressing past instances of sexual abuse and to supporting our survivor community will remain steadfast, as will our efforts to advance educational innovation, support our faculty and challenge our students,” she wrote.

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UNITED STATES
Register Citizen

Editorial

Pope Francis has made empathy for the downtrodden and the powerless a hallmark of his papacy, but he has been less deft in dealing with the Roman Catholic Church’s own most defenseless victims — children sexually abused by clergy.

At the outset of his visit last fall to the United States, the pope spoke feelingly of the pain and suffering endured by American bishops who had withstood the ongoing clergy sex-abuse scandal. His words of sympathy for the actual victims of that abuse — those whose lives have been scarred and destroyed by priests — came on the final day of his journey and, to many survivors, seemed nearly an afterthought.

Three years into his papacy, Francis is trying to hit the reset button on his sputtering efforts to add muscle to the church’s stated policy of zero tolerance for clerical abuse. After trying and failing for 12 months to establish a special Vatican tribunal that would hold negligent bishops accountable, he has issued a decree, in the form of an apostolic letter, serving notice that bishops can and should be removed from office if they actively or passively sanction sex abuse in their dioceses.

That Francis is making such a proclamation now, 14 years after explosive revelations of the church’s complicity in allowing and covering up the sexual abuse of minors in the United States, is a measure of how slowly, partially and inadequately the Vatican has come to terms with the scandal. Even after countless disclosures, year after year, Catholic bishops — who in many cases shuffled pedophile priests from one parish to another, allowing them to abuse again and again — continue to enjoy something approaching official impunity from Rome.

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GUAM
KUAM

Posted: Jun 08, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

One organization accused of being a part of the plot to topple Archbishop Anthony Apuron is the Concerned Catholics of Guam. And the group’s vice president says the archbishop’s decree to ban contact with his group is nonsense.

“I believe he’s lost his moral authority to really tell us what to do,” said Dave Sablan. He maintains that the Concerned Catholics of Guam say they don’t need the archbishop’s blessing, adding, “First off, we’re not formed under any provisions of Canon Law.”

On June 5, just 24 hours before Pope Francis appointed an apostolic administrator to temporarily oversee the local archdiocese, Archbishop Apuron issued a decree accusing the group of promoting opposition, instigating, soliciting and disseminating fraudulent and malicious allegations against him. The archbishop further declared the CCOG a prohibited society and issued a stay away order.

Sablan as CCOG vice president continued, “He’s making a last-ditch effort to put a gag order on us so we don’t do anything further – especially with this new apostolic administrator.”

The organization was formed in December 2014 following controversies that arose that year including the removal of Father Paul Gofigan as pastor of the Santa Barbara Church, the removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector amid allegations of financial mismanagement and allegations of sexual harassment made by John Toves against the archbishop.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Intelligencer

By James Boyle, staff writer

The priest at a Bucks County parish received applause at Sunday Mass after encouraging his congregation to fight a bill that would extend the time a person claiming child abuse can file a civil suit.

“Getting involved in political issues is nothing new for this parish,” said Monsignor John Marine, of St. Bede the Venerable in Northampton’s Holland section. “We will speak up on any moral issue, whether it’s the disrespect of human life or restriction on the expression of religious freedom.”

Marine said the call to act came after Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered a sharp rebuke against House Bill 1947, which, if passes, would extend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims to file civil lawsuits. In a letter directed to archdiocese parishioners, Chaput says the legislation unfairly places a larger liability on private and faith-based organizations than public institutions.

He urged parishioners to ask lawmakers to oppose the bill, calling it a “clear attack on the church, her parishes and her people.”

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston.com

By MICHELLE R. SMITH

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The headmaster of a prestigious boarding school has announced his departure days after state police concluded an investigation into dozens of sexual abuse allegations there with no criminal charges.

The St. George’s School Board of Trustees announced Tuesday that headmaster Eric Peterson won’t seek to extend his contract, which ends June 30, 2017. Peterson has been headmaster of the Episcopal school in Middletown, near Newport, since 2004.

In an email to the school community, board chairwoman Leslie Heaney expressed profound gratitude for Peterson’s leadership and briefly addressed the abuse scandal.

“Throughout this transition, the school’s commitment to addressing past instances of sexual abuse and to supporting our survivor community will remain steadfast, as will our efforts to advance educational innovation, support our faculty and challenge our students,” she wrote.

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UTAH
Good4Utah

[with video]

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 Utah) A fourth person has come forward claiming they were sexually abused while in the foster care program by run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Lamanite Placement Program put Native American children in LDS foster homes from the 1940s to the 1990s. The man filing the lawsuit says he was placed with a family in Roy, Utah and sexually abused by his foster father.

The lawsuit accuses the LDS Church of not reporting the abuse to the proper authorities.

“We believe this was a well-intentioned program, but in a lot of ways it was a pedophiles dream to have basically a captive child from hundreds and hundreds of miles away, separated from their family and their culture,” said David Clohessy, victim advocate.

Attorneys also said officials with the LDS Church have filed motions to move these cases from the Navajo tribal court to Utah.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com

One of Pennsylvania’s most prominent rape awareness organizations and nearly 80 faith leaders from across the state have called on members of the Senate to support the child sex crime reform bill that is about to go before the chamber next week.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and scores of religious leaders have signed a letter urging Senate members to approve House Bill 1947, which would reform the statute of limitations.

“Reform is in the best interest of public safety,” said Kristen Houser

PCAR, chief public affairs officer. “It’s an opportunity to identify offenders who may be perpetrating crimes against children, shift the cost of abuse back to the offender and the institutions that protected them. We know that child sexual abuse does come with a high price for victims. They have ongoing health problems, ongoing health costs…addiction, loss of education attainment. We feel that when an adult is finally in place to come forth they deserve to recoup the losses they’ve incurred. This is a way of shifting the cost to the person who harmed them rather than shouldering it themselves.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

[with video]

By Mike Parker
Published: June 7, 2016

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg is preparing to distribute a letter in opposition to child sex abuse reform legislation. The letter takes aim at PA House Bill 1947, which would eliminate statutes of limitations on future child sex abuse cases, and expand statutes of limitations for which both future and past victims of child sexual abuse can file civil lawsuits.

“I can say, regarding the legislation, that the church is not opposed to the criminal statute of limitations being eliminated,” says Joe Aponick, spokesman for the Harrisburg Dicocese. “What we’re opposed to is the retroactive portion of this.”

While HB 1947 addresses all cases of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, Aponick says the retroactive portion of the bill is “unfair” due to the potential countless number of lawsuits that could be filed against the church based on findings of previous sex abuse investigations. In most cases, including scathing findings in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, the statute of limitations for victims to file suit against alleged abusers has expired.

“Abuse happens everywhere in society, and this is not a Catholic problem,” adds Aponick. “That’s why this legislation is so unfair. Because it just really targets a small section of victims. It really created two classes of victims.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

ALBANY — Assembly Democrats have agreed on a new bill that would make it easier for child sexual abuse victims to seek justice as adults.

The bill would extend the time that criminal or civil cases against predators can be brought, treat public and private institutions equally when it comes to sex abuse cases, and provide a window to revive cases barred under current law.

“Child sex abuse victims deserve justice, and this bill will help them find their voice and give them the courage to come forward,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).

The emerging legislation represents a compromise between a more expansive bill pushed by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) and a more restrictive one by Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Staten Island) that is supported by the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Tom Nightingale

A group of parents in a parish in Melbourne’s south-east are talking to MPs about a bill to clarify the separation of responsibilities in Catholic schools between the priest and principal, following sexual abuse allegations.

The group of parents from the Catholic community have been demanding the removal of Father John Walshe from his Mentone-Parkdale parish.

An internal Church investigation found he sexually abused an 18 year old in the 1980s, although Father Walshe has denied the allegation, saying it was consensual sex.

The victim was paid $75,000 compensation and received an apology.

Angela Sdrinis, a lawyer acting on behalf of the parents group, said the issue could have wider implications for Catholic schools across the country.

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AUSTRALIA
The Cairns Post

June 7, 2016

Kimberley Vlasic
The Cairns Post

ALMOST 10 years ago to the day, Joanne McCarthy received the phone call that would irrevocably change her life and the lives of thousands of others.

It was the call that started to untangle the web of lies spun by the Catholic Church to conceal the ghastliest of secrets.

It was the call that later led to two police strike forces, resulting in the arrests of at least 12 religious brothers and priests on nearly 500 criminal charges.

It was the call that set into motion a series of government inquiries into child sexual abuse, including a Federal Royal Commission, which is ongoing.

Joanne clearly remembers that phone call in early June 2006.

“It was a man who rang me because he knew my name from writing stuff in the paper but also stuff in the paper about my sons. He rang out of the blue and he wanted to know why no media outlet had ever reported the fact that five years earlier, a Catholic priest from the Hunter region west of Newcastle called John Denham had been convicted of child sex offences,” she says.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Posted: Jun 08, 2016

By Krystal Paco

While Archbishop Anthony Apuron claims it was he who asked the Vatican for a temporary replacement, one local critic disagrees. Self-proclaimed watchdog and blogger Tim Rohr says the recent appointment of an apostolic administrator for the Guam archdiocese means the Vatican is cleaning up house.

In a video message from Rome on Tuesday, Archbishop Apuron says he called on the Vatican for a temporary replacement so an investigation into molestation allegations could proceed. But Rohr says that’s all an act. For the last three years, Tohr has documented the local Catholic church controversies in his blog, JungleWatch. Just last year, Guam’s newly-appointed apostolic administrator, Archbishop Savio Tai Fai Hon, visited Guam with others as part of an apostolic visit.

According to Rohr, they were investigating Apuron then. Hon’s return to the island, Rohr says, could be a cue their investigation is complete. He told KUAM News, “The fact that Archbishop Hon has been assigned to Guam as an apostolic administrator tells us that the results of the investigation, which they began in January 2015, have determined that Archbishop Apuron is incapable of performing his duties as bishop of this diocese. And Pope Francis saw the need to assign someone who would run the diocese.”

According to code of Canon Law, apostolic administrators are appointed due to “special and particularly grave reasons.” In Guam’s case, Apuron has been publicly accused four times of molestation – three of the alleged victims were altar boys at Mount Carmel Church in Agat, where Apuron was a priest. The archbishop has vehemently denied any allegations of sex abuse and has claimed he is the victim of a malicious smear campaign and conspiracy to remove him after uncovering discrepancies with the church’s finances.

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FRANCE
francetvinfo

Que savait Philippe Barbarin ? L’archevêque de Lyon (Rhône) est auditionné mercredi 8 juin par la police lyonnaise, afin de faire la lumière sur l’affaire du prêtre lyonnais Bernard Preynat, suspecté d’abus sexuels sur de jeunes scouts catholiques il y a vingt-cinq ans

Le cardinal Barbarin, figure de la hiérarchie catholique en France, est arrivé, mercredi vers 8 heures, dans les locaux de la Brigade départementale de protection de la famille, à Lyon. Il a été convoqué pour une audition libre –sans placement en garde à vue– dans le cadre de deux enquêtes préliminaires. Il est mis en cause pour des faits de “non dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs” et de “mise en danger de la vie d’autrui”.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

VIDÉO – Mis en cause pour des faits de «non-dénonciation» d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs, l’archevêque de Lyon répond aux questions des policiers sous le régime de l’audition libre. Il n’est pas en garde à vue.

Son audition avait été annoncée comme imminente. Depuis 8 heures, ce mercredi matin, le cardinal Philippe Barbarin, est entendu par les policiers de la ville. Mis en cause par deux enquêtes pour des faits de «non-dénonciation» d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs et de mise en danger de la vie d’autrui, le prélat répond aux questions des policiers sous le régime de l’audition libre. Il n’est pas en garde à vue.

«Il est entendu comme témoin» indique l’un de ses avocats, André Soulier, «et comme à chaque témoin, on lui demande ce qu’il sait». Le conseil du cardinal Barbarin ajoute que cette audition par la Brigade départementale de protection de la famille «ne sera suivie ni par une mesure de comparution, ni par un renvoi, ni par l’ouverture d’une information judiciaire».

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FRANCE
swissinfo

LYON, France (Reuters) – French police questioned the Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop of Lyon on Wednesday in an investigation into the activities of a paedophile priest in the early 1990s and why they were not reported to the civil authorities.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 65, who has denied covering up the activities of Father Bernard Preynat, was questioned as a witness by officers of the child and family protection brigade at a police station in the central city, his lawyer said.

“Like any witness, he is being asked what he knew,” lawyer Andre Soulier said, adding that the questioning “will not be followed by any obligation to appear in court, any opening of a judicial investigation or any indictment”.

Several victims of alleged paedophile abuse have filed complaints against the prelate, who holds the honorific title of Primate of the Gauls, for failing to report the incidents to the justice authorities and leaving the accused priest in place.

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FRANCE
mo4ch

Cardinal Barbarin arrived at a police station in Lyon early on Wednesday

The Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, is being questioned by police over allegations that he failed to act against a priest in his diocese accused of child sexual abuse.

The French Catholic Church has been hit by claims of covering up abuse, though the cardinal has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Pope Francis has approved measures to sack bishops who mishandle such cases.

But it is unclear if the decree will affect Cardinal Barbarin.

Police are investigating whether he failed to take action against a priest, Bernard Preynat, who is accused of abusing boy scouts between 1986 and 1991.

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