ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Temima G. Shulman
Award winning and seasoned writer

The Center for Integrity Wisdom held its annual board meeting this week, by invitation only. It is a good bet that leading some of the sessions was the Center’s master spiritual teacher, Marc Gafni.

Gafni, 55, has created a following in post-modern spirituality, called the Unique Self, where he offers the wisdom of many faiths and philosophies in order for each person to access their unique self.

But he has also created a following of a different sort: Alleged sexual abuse victims by the tens, over three decades’ worth, from different ends of the globe, who want to see justice done. Gafni, also known as Mordechai Gafni, help found the California-based CIW, and continues to garner support for himself and the organization from the likes of John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, and media personality Arianna Huffington.

The alleged victims, who live in the US and Israel, seem to have two common denominators: They are female and have spoken up after the statute of limitations expired on their individual cases against Gafni. Some allege abuse when they were as young as 13. Their story reappears in the media every few years, usually following a story about a new enterprise of Gafni’s or a new alleged victim speaking out. Some stories seem to attest to his brilliance and charisma, and others to his ability to defy justice and continue life with a new alibi. And just as quickly as the stories appear, and garner an endless stream of responses, they die fast.

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

NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Patrick Lohmann | plohmann@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The 23-year-old woman who is accused of producing child pornography with an infant is an employee at a Syracuse elementary school.

School officials have declined to answer any questions about her employment or background.

Emily Oberst of Syracuse is accused of helping Jason Kopp, 40, of Liverpool, to sexually exploit a baby girl, according to federal prosecutors.

Oberst also allegedly sent explicit photos of the child to Kopp, including one labeled “4 John March 16”. John was the pseudonym of an investigator who authorities say caught Oberst and Kopp.

Oberst lists her employment on Facebook as being with an after-school program at All Saints Elementary School, and her mother, Janet, describes having Emily volunteer at the school from the age of 15 to 19, according to biographies on the school’s website.

School officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment Monday and asked a Syracuse.com reporter to leave the premises. Principal Rosalie Pollman said through an aide that she was “with students” all day Monday and could not comment. …

All Saints is a pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade independent school that opened in September 2006. It’s located in rented space in the former St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School, at 112 S. Wilbur Ave., near West Fayette Street.

The school was established after the Catholic Diocese closed St. Patrick’s School, and parents worked to establish the All Saints school. It offers a “Catholic curriculum” but cannot label itself a Catholic school without the blessing of a local bishop.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com

Syracuse, NY — The Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office is probing whether any students at All Saints Elementary School were physically abused, an official confirmed.

Their probe comes amid a federal child pornography case against school aide Emily Oberst, 23, who was fired Monday after being charged with sexually exploiting a 16-month-old girl.

Oberst, of Syracuse, is accused of helping Jason Kopp, 40, of Liverpool, sexually exploit the young girl for pornography.

A letter sent to All Saints parents Monday warned that students might also be victims.

“Unfortunately, this morning in a meeting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we learned that there may be additional victims of Miss Oberst’s criminal activity, including students at All Saints,” the school’s letter read. …

All Saints is housed in an old parochial school building at 112 Wilbur Ave., but is not sanctioned by the Syracuse Catholic Diocese.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Patrick Lohmann | plohmann@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The principal of All Saints Elementary said in a statement Tuesday that the FBI may be contacting parents of students regarding photos that could be connected with a federal investigation into a part-time aide at the school.

Principal Rosalie Pollman also said she is praying for the parents of the aide, Emily Oberst, “who are being told of other crimes their daughter has (allegedly) committed.”

Oberst, who was fired by the school, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly allowing a 40-year-old man, Jason Kopp, to exploit a 16-month-old girl. Oberst, 23, of Syracuse, and Kopp, of Liverpool, were charged this weekend with sexual exploitation of a child and distribution of child pornography.

Pollman would not say anything further about what the photos were or what they might have depicted or what “other crimes” Oberst may have committed. She said she could not comment because of an ongoing investigation and stressed that she was speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the elementary school.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Samantha House | shouse@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Shocked. Sickened. Saddened.

That’s how Michael Collins and his wife felt when they heard a teacher’s aide at their son’s school, All Saints Elementary School, was accused of sexually exploiting a baby.

When they learned the FBI was investigating whether Emily Oberst had victimized students, their disgust turned to fear.

“You hurt for the girl, the victim. That’s where your heart goes,” Collins, of Westvale, said Tuesday. “And then you’re also angry because that person happened to work with your child very closely.”

Oberst, 23, of Syracuse, and Jason Kopp, 40, of Liverpool, were charged this weekend with sexually exploiting a baby girl and sharing photographs of the abuse on an online messaging app. The child pornography was shared with an undercover federal officer on Kik, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Oberst was fired after her arrest. She and Kopp are in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Patrick Lohmann | plohmann@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, NY — Parents of students at All Saints Elementary School were told late Monday that their students may have been victims of “criminal activity” allegedly committed by an employee recently charged in a child pornography case.

The letter, which was obtained by Syracuse.com, said the FBI told staff Monday morning that “there may be additional victims of Miss (Emily) Oberst’s criminal activity, including students at All Saints” and that some parents may be contacted by the FBI. Oberst was also fired “effective immediately,” the letter said.

Oberst was charged over the weekend for allegedly allowing a 40-year-old man to sexually exploit a 16-month-old child. It was later learned she worked at the elementary school and began volunteering there beginning at age 15. Her mother is also a teacher at the school, according to the school’s website.

School officials declined to comment despite repeated requests Monday, and the letter was the first contact parents had after news of Oberst’s arrest became public on Saturday.

The letter said officials could not confirm the identities or the number of students who may be involved.

The full text of the letter is below.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

BY LAURA HAND TUESDAY, MARCH 22ND 2016

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Parents are anxiously waiting to hear if their children were targeted as victims, by a now-fired aide at All Saints School on Tipperary Hill. This, as the principal tells us she’s concerned about the future of the school, in light of the criminal case.

A school aide, 23 year old Emily Oberst, from Syracuse was arrested last week for trading pictures on the Kik phone app with 40 year old Jason Kopp, from Liverpool. The criminal complaint filed in Federal Court says Kopp also shared pictures with an officer of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which began the investigation. Both Oberst and Kopp are being held at Syracuse’s Justice Center with no bail.

The school’s board sent a notice to parents, that Oberst has been terminated, and also advised that the FBI is investigating whether there are additional victims, including students at All Saints.

An outreach worker from McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy spent time at the school on Tuesday. Maureen Foran-Mocete tells us the agency has lots of resources, including information, counseling and reading lists, both on-line and in person, to help in abuse cases. She says 90% of such cases involve people the victim knows, and will sometimes try to protect. She also offers strategies for parents, to talk to their children about what is going on.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

by Justine McDaniel, STAFF WRITER

Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn have asked the state Supreme Court to reject prosecutors’ appeal of a court decision granting Lynn a new trial, calling the request “breathtakingly dishonest.”

In court documents filed Tuesday, lawyers for Lynn, who was granted a new trial in December after being convicted for his role in supervising pedophile Catholic priests, contend that there are no grounds for appeal under state rules.

A Superior Court panel overturned Lynn’s conviction and granted a new trial after finding that evidence about priests not involved in Lynn’s case swayed the jury.

In its petition, filed less than two weeks ago, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office argued that the jury needed to hear historical evidence of child-abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

But Lynn’s attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom, argued that the case does not meet the general standards for appeals because the Superior Court’s decision was an unpublished opinion.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Washington Times

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Attorneys for a Roman Catholic church official are asking the state Supreme Court to reject prosecutors’ appeal of a decision granting him a new trial.

Monsignor William Lynn’s attorneys on Tuesday called the request “breathtakingly dishonest,” saying there were no grounds for an appeal under state rules, The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/1pHmvLC) reported.

Lynn was the first U.S. church official charged for keeping accused priests on the job. A Philadelphia jury found in 2012 that he endangered an altar boy by sending a known pedophile priest to the boy’s parish in the late 1990s. The priest was at the top of a list of known or suspected predators that Lynn prepared while he was secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, a post he held from 1992 to 2004.

The Superior Court has twice thrown out the conviction after finding that Lynn, 65, was wrongly charged or did not get a fair trial.

The Philadelphia district attorney’s office argued in its appeal to the state’s highest court that jurors needed to hear historical evidence of child abuse in the archdiocese. But defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom accused prosecutors of using emotions and the case’s high profile to persuade the court to hear a “passion-based” appeal.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Statement by Judy Jones, SNAP associate Midwest director 636 433 2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com

Columbus Catholic officials seem to be blaming seminarian Joel Wright for fooling them. This seems like a convenience dodge.

Catholic officials want to have their cake and eat it too. They claim they did everything right with Joel Wright. (“Due diligence was carried out,” they claim.) But they also claim they’re proposing possible changes in the future. It’s hard to square these two contradictory claims.

It’s also worth noting that school officials can’t even bring themselves to mentioned Joel Wright by name in their news release. That’s not encouraging.

All the policies, protocols, procedures and pledges aside, the simple fact is that for several reasons, the pressure on Catholic officials to attract and keep seminarians – even sexually troubled ones – is greater than ever and the “costs” or penalties of making risky choices are less than ever. So we strongly believe that at Catholic seminaries across the world, sexually troubled men like Wright will continue to be accepted, child sex crimes will continue to happen and cover ups of those crimes will happen too.

But what we know for sure is that Catholic officials – in Vermont, Ohio and Kentucky – should be doing aggressive outreach to find and help others who

–might be able to help prosecutors convict Wright and

–might have been hurt by Wright and are suffering in shame, silence and self blame.

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OHIO
NBC4i

WORTHINGTON, OH (WCMH)– Leaders at the Pontifical College Josephinum say they hope to have new admissions screening procedures in place in time for the 2016-2017 school year. The proposed changes come two months after a former Josephenium seminarian was arrested on federal charges that he was attempting to travel to Mexico to rape young girls.

At a morning news conference, Father John Allen, Vice President for Advancement at the Josephinum said the admissions policy changes, “will enable the Josephinum to add an important level of professional expertise and competence to the selection process and to the admission of future seminarians and ultimately with future priests.”

The proposals include:

-an additional independent background check to review references, records and social media activities of applicants

-the creation of a national database of applications to dioceses and seminaries

-adding a personal interview of all applicants by a member of the Josephinum admissions office and the seminary’s director of psychological services.

Allen said, “We’re taking the Josephinum admissions process to a higher level.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

It’s supposed to be a sober exchange of appeal briefs. But the battle now before the state Supreme Court over the fate of Msgr. William J. Lynn has turned into a brawl.

Lynn is the former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, who was convicted in 2012 on one count of endangering the welfare of a child, namely Danny Gallagher, the “lying, scheming” former altar boy also known as “Billy Doe.”

In December, the state Superior Court, for the second time in three years, overturned Lynn’s conviction, and ordered a new trial. Lynn, serving a three to six year prison term, has remained in jail, pending an appeal by District Attorney Seth Williams to the state Supreme Court.

The first time the state Superior Court reversed Lynn’s sentence, in December 2013, the D.A. appealed to the state Supreme Court for a review. Meanwhile, Lynn got out jail on house arrest. In April 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled in the D.A.’s favor, and Lynn was sent back to jail, where he remains. So the D.A. hopes that lighting strikes twice.

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GEORGIA
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | MARCH 22, 2016

A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor in Georgia has voiced regret and sadness about his church’s handling decades ago of allegations of sexual abuse within a Boy Scout troop it sponsored.

A lawsuit filed March 17 in Fulton County State Court accuses First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Ga., of neglect leading to the rape in 1985 of a now 46-year-old man.

Robb Lawson, who says in his lawsuit he didn’t come to terms with his mental and emotional harm until last year, claims that church leaders knew about allegations of abuse by the congregation’s scoutmaster, a church member, in the early 1980s but did not report it to police or the Boy Scouts of America.

Church leaders removed the man as scoutmaster, but he continued to participate in troop activities, including the camping trip where Lawson says his abuse occurred. The former scoutmaster remained active in the church, serving as a deacon until the allegations about him became public just recently.

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NEW YORK
Daily Freeman

[with copy of a letter from the archdiocese]

By Ariél Zangla, azangla@freemanonline.com ArielAtFreeman on Twitter

RHINEBECK >> A Dutchess County parish priest has been removed from ministry permanently after decades-old sexual abuse allegations against him were found to have merit.

Law enforcement and the New York Archdiocesan Review Board examined the allegations against Rev. Peter Kihm and found them to be credible, Bishop Dominick Lagonegro wrote in a March 14 letter to parishioners of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rhinebeck. As a result of that review, he said, Kihm cannot return to ministry.

Kihm also requested, and has received, a “return to the lay state” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Lagonegro wrote.

“This means that he will never again be able to serve as a priest here in this archdiocese or anywhere else in the world,” the bishop wrote.

Kihm was suspended on Jan. 25, 2015, as the parish priest at the Good Shepherd and St. Joseph churches in Northern Dutchess based on allegations that, approximately 30 years ago, he sexually abused an underage male. He was suspended by church officials pending an investigation by law-enforcement officials.

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OSTERRICH
Nachricten

[After the abuse cases in Kremsmünster, former students of the Austrian school have published results of a study on the situation in book form so it is available for research purposes.]

KREMSMÜNSTER. Nach den Missbrauchsfällen im Stift Kremsmünster und deren Aufarbeitung in einer Studie des Münchner Instituts IPP pochen ehemalige Schüler auf die Veröffentlichung der Ergebnisse in Buchform, damit diese zu Forschungszwecken verfügbar ist

Das IPP, das eine vergleichbare Studie auch für die deutsche Abtei Ettal erstellt hat, strebt dies an, das Stift ist aber dagegen.

Nach dem Auffliegen der Affäre 2010 hatte das Stift das Münchner Institut mit einer Studie zur Aufarbeitung beauftragt. Das für das Kloster wenig schmeichelhafte Ergebnis wurde in einer Pressekonferenz präsentiert und auf der Homepage des Stiftes veröffentlicht. Mittlerweile ist das Dokument dort zwar noch abrufbar, man muss aber bewusst danach suchen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Missbrauchsopher Josephinium Redemptoristen

[Abuse victims of Aloisiuskolleg Bonn ask the media to be more courageous and do more research.]

Auf vielfachen Wunsch sammeln wir hier wichtige ältere Nachrichten, die wir unter “Aktuelles” bisher veröffentlicht haben.

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WALES
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuser

22 March

Following the successful meeting with Welsh stakeholders in Cardiff last month, the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard was in Colwyn Bay today to meet with Welsh victim and survivor groups and begin the process of ensuring the Inquiry meets the needs of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in Wales. Hosted by the Amethyst North Wales Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), the meeting was also attended by Inquiry Panel member, Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, and Michael May from the Inquiry’s Victims and Survivors’ Consultative Panel (VSCP) as well as organisations supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse from across Wales.

During the course of the meeting, the Inquiry Chair updated stakeholders on the plans for the Inquiry’s office in Wales, including arrangements to support Welsh victims and survivors as they engage with the Inquiry. The meeting also discussed how the Inquiry can most effectively raise public awareness of its work in Wales.

Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard said,

“I would like to thank the Amethyst SARC North Wales for hosting our meeting today and also to pay thanks to all the other key stakeholders from across Wales for taking the time to contribute to this important dialogue with the Inquiry. The importance of these organisations, who work tirelessly to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse throughout Wales, cannot be underestimated.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

MARTIN BENTHAM

The judge heading the Government’s inquiry into historical child sex abuse today issued a new appeal to victims to come forward before a “milestone” first hearing into paedophile targeting of children’s homes in Lambeth.

Justice Lowell Goddard said that those who had suffered exploitation had been left with “permanent scars” but could now help uncover why “so many crimes went unreported and undetected” for years.

She added that the inquiry also wanted to give victims the chance to “share their experience with us” and to establish the scale of the abuse.

Justice Goddard’s comments came as she prepared to begin her inquiry into historical abuse in Lambeth with a preliminary hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
StateCollege.com

Centre County Report’s Jaclyn Gross talks with a local man who claims a priest abused him as a teenager in Altoona. Bob Conway says the Rev. Raymond Waldruff was respected and admired, but began using overnight trips to abuse him.

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OHIO
WFMJ

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio –
The Diocese of Youngstown has announced that its parishes, schools and institutions will observe National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April.

According to a news release from the diocese, communities are being encouraged to share child abuse and neglect prevention awareness strategies and activities and promote prevention.

The announcement comes just days after three Franciscan friars were charged in Pennsylvania with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children.

Friars Robert D’Aversa, Anthony Criscitelli and Giles Schinelli are accused of assigning or allowing Brother Stephen Baker to remain at Bishop McCort High School, where he molested scores of students from 1992 to 2000.

Baker killed himself in 2013 when Ohio church officials announced settlements involving students molested there in the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By KIERAN TAPSELL
March 22, 2016

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has issued a statement about Spotlight, the film about the cover up of child sexual abuse in Boston.

The bishops agreed with Father Richard Leonard that Spotlight is “an occasion for holy, righteous anger and every adult Catholic should see it”.

I saw the film, and I was angry, not so much about the past but by what is happening right now. A cover up ordered by canon law in 1922 continues to this day.

In 1996, when Irish bishops wanted mandatory reporting to the police of all allegations of child sexual abuse, they were told they could not because it conflicted with canon law. In 1998 Cardinal Castrillón, the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, told the bishops they should not put anything in the way of victims going to police, but bishops were not to do the reporting.

In 2002, he and Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, now in charge of reforming the Roman Curia, publicly stated bishops should be prepared to go to jail rather than report a paedophile priest to police.

In 2002 American bishops wanted mandatory reporting under canon law for all allegations, but the Vatican refused. It only agreed to a dispensation from the pontifical secret where civil laws required reporting. It was more concerned about bishops going to jail than the welfare of children.

That dispensation was extended to the whole church in 2010. But where there are no civil laws requiring reporting (as is the case in six Australian States and territories for most cases), the pontifical secret over these allegations still applies.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims “out” another predator priest
He was cited in new PA grand jury report
And he is the 14th accused child molesting SC cleric
Group urges Catholic bishop to “come clean & end slow torture”
Church officials refuse to do “real outreach,” support group says
SNAP warns: “Recently suspended cleric could be put back to work”

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that
–a predator priest recently suspended because of abuse allegations in Pennsylvania also worked in SC,
–he’s the 14 alleged predator priest to have worked in the state, and
–at least seven civil lawsuits are pending against predator priests in SC, including one filed last October.

The group will prod
–Charleston Catholic bishop to permanently post on parish websites the names of all predator priests who have worked or lived – or now work or live – in the diocese.
–“anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual misdeeds, crimes or cover ups” in the state to “call police, expose wrongdoing and protect others.”
When:

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 11:00 a.m.

Where:
In Charleston, outside the Charleston Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery”), 901 Orange Grove Road (corner of St Charles Ct.)

Who:
Two adults who were sexually abused as children and are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri woman who is the organization’s long time outreach director

Why:

Two weeks ago, Pennsylvania’s attorney general released a 150 page grand jury report detailing clergy sex crimes by 50+ clerics against hundreds of kids that were covered up for decades by Altoona area Catholic officials.

[PennLive]

On Friday, three of those officials were arraigned on charges of concealing child sex crimes in the Altoona area.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI

[with video]

PITTSBURGH — Bishop David Zubik told a crowd of about 80 Monday night that the church messed up, choosing to publicly to apologize to those who were “harmed by the church in any way.”

The “Service of Apology” was held at 7 p.m. inside St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland. According to diocesan officials, the timing of the service had nothing to do with recent allegations against the Roman Catholic Church in nearby Johnstown and Altoona.

“I’m sorry for the church. I’m not expecting that’s going to make it easier for people, but I hope at least it’s going to help,” Zubik said. “When people say to me, ‘Do you feel you’ve done enough?’ Never. I think we need to work together from all sides.”

The Pittsburgh Diocese in 2007 settled with 32 people who claimed they were abused by as many as 17 priests. The total amount was $1.25 million.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will deliver a ruling on an application by a party for non-publication orders in relation to the Royal Commission’s Case Study 23: Knox Grammar School public hearing.

The non-publication orders have been sought by Mr Christopher Fotis, who gave evidence in Case Study 23 on 28 April 2015.

The public hearing commenced on 23 February 2015 and inquired into the response of Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga, New South Wales to concerns raised about inappropriate conduct by a number of teachers towards students at Knox Grammar School between 1970 and 2012.

For more information on Case Study 23 into Knox Grammar School please visit the Case Study 23 webpage.

What: Case Study 23: Knox Grammar School application ruling
Date: Wednesday 23 March 2016
Time: 4.30pm AEDT start
Location: Royal Commission Hearing Room 1, Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney

The hearing will be streamed live via webcast on the Royal Commission’s website at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

State Rep. Mark Rozzi has been pushing for years to change state laws in an effort to broaden the rights of victims of child sex abuse, to little effect.

Part of the problem may have been that the issue had been fading in the public consciousness.

The subject was making major headlines around 15 years ago, when a scandal erupted over sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church and the mishandling of such cases by religious leaders, and then more recently with the Jerry Sandusky case involving Penn State. Since then the church has insisted it learned from its mistakes and that the days of protecting predator priests are long over, and changes were made to child abuse laws in response to the Sandusky situation.

But the issue is back at the forefront thanks to an investigation by the state attorney general’s office that alleged terrible corruption in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. Rozzi, himself a teenage victim of sexual abuse by a priest, is looking to use the news as impetus to win support for his effort.

A grand jury found that two bishops who led the diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 priests and other religious leaders over a 40-year period starting in the mid-1960s. The report went on to portray the church as holding such sway over law enforcement that it helped select a police chief. One diocesan official told the grand jury that the police and civil authorities would often defer to the church when priests were accused of abuse, the report said. Following the grand jury report, three ex-leaders of a Franciscan order were charged with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lexology

Bolt Burdon Kemp

A new initiative launched by the Department for Education aims to tackle child abuse and neglect.

The initiative, called “Together We Can Tackle Child Abuse”, is being championed by local authorities and NHS trusts throughout the country.

One of the issues raised by the initiative is the failure of people to report suspected child abuse or neglect. It has been noted that, of those who suspect child abuse, one third does not act on their suspicions because they are worried about being wrong.

Together, we can tackle child abuse aims to encourage members of the public to report suspected abuse or neglect even when they are not certain it has taken place.

ABC – spotting signs of abuse and neglect

The initiative has highlighted that, in 2014/15, approximately 400,000 children in England were supported by local authorities after someone noticed they needed help.

Abuse of children can involve sexual acts, physical assaults or emotional harm. Neglect involves the maltreatment of a child by failing to care for them appropriately.

By using a simple acronym – ABC – the new DfE initiative provides the following guidance on how to spot the signs of abuse or neglect by reference to the effects on a child’s appearance, behaviour and communication:

* Appearance – such as frequent unexplained injuries, consistently poor hygiene, matted hair, unexplained gifts, or a parent regularly collecting children from school when drunk

* Behaviour – such as demanding or aggressive behaviour, frequent lateness or absence from school, avoiding their own family, misusing drugs or alcohol, or being constantly tired

* Communication – such as sexual or aggressive language, self-harming, becoming secretive and reluctant to share information or being overly obedient

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic World Report

March 22, 2016

Attitudes about how the Church is handling cases of clerical sex abuse are frequently rooted in a misunderstanding of rule of law and evidentiary standards.

Enza Ferreri

Last month Peter Saunders, the British man who founded and leads the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), was removed from the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, “apparently following a 15-0 vote of no confidence.”

The chorus of some mainstream media has been quick to describe this as a sign that the Vatican doesn’t intend to do enough against child sex abuse, or that Pope Francis is failing to do so. However, this attitude of utter condemnation of the Church is misplaced and based, in part, on a misunderstanding of rule of law and evidentiary standards.

I will start with some background on the role that Peter Saunders, NAPAC, and other activists like them have had in events in the UK.

Since 2012, Britain has been shaken by a flood of allegations of child sex abuse, the majority of which go back decades, against important figures in the public eye, both dead and alive. The police have investigated practically all claims, however improbable, and often in the total absence of evidence, launching one operation after another.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

March 21, 2016

DANIELLE LE MESSURIER
PerthNow

ANOTHER Swan Homes resident has received $80,000 from the Anglican Diocese of Perth in recognition of harm suffered during his 13 years at the orphanage.

The man was awarded the maximum compensation payment on March 2.

The 86-year-old, who asked not to be named, claimed he was subjected to regular “sexual, physical and emotional abuse” during his time at the Anglican Church-run orphanage in Middle Swan by former housemaster Leonard Gordon Darcey and another man who worked at the home.

The Sunday Times reported last year that another Swan Homes resident had received $80,000 in financial redress from the Anglican Church.

The Anglican Diocese of Perth this week declined to answer questions or provide any further comment regarding Swan Homes. One of the questions the church won’t answer is how many former Swan Homes residents have come forward alleging they were victims of abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By STEPHANIE LINNING FOR MAILONLINE

A paedophile bishop is feared to have duped congregations across the country by conducting services while impersonating his identical twin brother.

Peter Ball, 83, the former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, was jailed for 32 months last year after he admitted sexually abusing 18 teenagers and young men between 1977 and 1992.

The Old Bailey heard how Ball, of Langport, Somerset, hand-picked vulnerable victims to commit acts of ‘debasement’ in the name of religion, including praying naked at the altar and submitting to beatings.

An investigation has now been launched into claims he might have deceived church-goers by impersonating his identical twin Michael, who was a bishop in Cornwall during the 1990s.

The Diocese of Truro is looking into evidence that Ball conducted services in his brother’s place.An independent review is under way into the way the Church of England responded to the case.

The Right Reverend Tim Thornton said that there was no evidence that the Diocese gave Peter Ball permission to lead any services in Cornwall in the 1990s.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

SYRACUSE — One of the people arrested last week in a federal child pornography sting was a worker at Syracuse’s All Saints Elementary School.

Emily Oberst, 23, of Syracuse, was arrested last Friday by the FBI. Jason Kopp, 40, of Liverpool was also arrested. Federal agents accused the pair of sexually abusing a toddler and posting images and videos of the crime online. Oberst and Kopp are both being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

The school says Oberst was terminated. The letter to parents goes on to say the school is cooperating with authorities but got stark news from the FBI Monday. “We learned that there may be additional victims of Miss Oberst’s criminal activity, including students at All Saints. At this time, we can neither confirm the identities nor the numbers of students who may be involved.” The letter also informs parents that they may be contacted by federal agents as the investigation continues.

The letter, signed by the All Saints Board, promises to keep parents informed as it gets new relevant information.

An undercover federal investigator out of the Metropolitan Police Department – Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Task Force began communicating on the Kik app with a user later identified as Jason Kopp. A federal criminal complaint states, In an exchange of texts Kopp shared numerous images of an infant child “which depict the lewd and lascivious exhibition of her genitals.” Other images show Kopp “engaged in acts of sexual abuse of the child.” …

All Saints is an independent school with no affiliation with the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. The school’s website says it does “teach Catholic values and a Catholic curriculum.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Joel Adams, Reporter Argus_JoelA

A SOLICITOR specialising in child sexual abuse cases has criticised a group of Establishment figures for not treating her client with the respect she deserves.

Tracey Emmott represents a woman who was abused by wartime Bishop of Chichester George Bell in the 1940s and 50s, and who received compensation and an apology from the Church of England last year.

This weekend the self-titled George Bell Group criticised the Church’s handling of the case, and called upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to apologise for blackening Bishop Bell’s name over the case.

Ms Emmott said: “It is disappointing that my client’s account continues to be so relentlessly challenged in what appears to be nothing short of a campaign to discredit and invalidate her evidence which has already been considered by independent experts as part of her legal claim.

“My client is not being afforded the dignity and respect she deserves and the closure she has been seeking.”

The George Bell Group includes the bishop’s biographer, a London judge, the Dean of an Oxford college, Frank Field MP and several peers and churchmen.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, March 21st, 2016

Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed a reorganization plan Monday that contains cash contributions of $21 million from nine sources to settle claims filed by 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

An attorney who represents abuse victims estimated Monday that payments would average about $350,000 per claimant, though amounts likely would vary depending on circumstances.

The settlement is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma of Albuquerque, and a voting process will allow claimants to approve or reject the plan.

Under the plan, insurers are on the hook for at least $13.4 million, or about 64 percent of the total settlement. The Diocese of Gallup would contribute $3 million and may have to sell its chancery offices in Gallup, subject to the terms of a loan agreement with a bank.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

By David Highfield

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A “Service of Apology” was held Monday evening by Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese Bishop David Zubik.

It was for people hurt by the church in any way, including those sexually abused by clergy.

Cameras were not allowed inside the service at Saint Paul Cathedral in Oakland, but nearly 100 people gathered to hear what Bishop Zubik had to say.

“Some of the people said they’re coming because they’re angry that I closed a church building,” said Bishop Zubik. “Other people are angry because a priest didn’t treat them kindly in the sacrament of confession. Some people are coming because they’ve been abused by someone in the church.”

In fact, it was three weeks ago that a grand jury report alleged two bishops from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese helped cover up the sexual abuse of children by more than 50 priests over decades.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BY JASON CATO | Monday, March 21, 2016

Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik stood Monday night at the pulpit inside St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland and begged for forgiveness of the sins of the Roman Catholic Church.

Lee Cabot sat in the front row to absorb the words he had waited to hear for most of his life. In the 1970s, a Bellevue priest wrongly interpreted church rules and punished his late mother after her husband abandoned the family, he said.

“Because of what he did, our whole family fell apart,” said Cabot, 47, of Oakland.

Cabot clutched a framed photograph of his mother, Marianne Liptak, who died in 2002.

“My mother never returned to the altar until the day she died,” Cabot said. “She died thinking she was a disgraced Catholic.”

Zubik hosted a special “Prayer Service for Apology” as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy called upon by Pope Francis.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

March 22, 2016

Beau Donelly

The Catholic Church is bracing for possible arson attacks on Melbourne parishes linked to paedophile priests, 12 months after vandals torched three suburban churches.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has told its parishes to be vigilant following an attempted arson attack on St Bede’s Church in Balwyn North earlier this month. An intruder broke into the church and poured accelerant onto the altar, but is believed to have fled before lighting the fire because an alarm went off.

In an email to the 214 churches in the Melbourne Archdiocese, vicar-general Monsignor Greg Bennet warned of the risk of arson, saying the Balwyn church’s alarm system was all that foiled “what would have been another catastrophic fire”. It coincides with the one-year anniversary of three as-yet-unsolved fires at churches where paedophile priests worked.

The internal email said the arson squad was investigating the latest attack and that police had advised all churches be vigilant, “especially those where there has been a history of sexual abuse cases”.

Notorious paedophile priest Terrence Pidoto served as an assistant priest at the Balwyn parish in the early 1970s. He was jailed in 2007 after being found guilty of eleven child sex abuse charges including rape and indecent assault.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

MARCH 22, 2016

by Maria Panaritis, Staff Writer

The three veteran investigators were speechless.

For just a few months, they had waded into a probe of clergy sex abuse in central Pennsylvania. They didn’t yet know much. But they had heard about a man near Altoona named George Foster.

Foster, they were told, had long been “making noise” about eliminating abusive priests in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown – writing letters in the local papers, meeting with church leaders. Daniel Dye, the deputy attorney general leading the investigation, knew he was someone worth meeting.

But Dye and the two agents with him were not prepared for what they saw as Foster arrived at a Pittsburgh hotel to meet them for a cup of coffee in late 2014.

Foster came carting an armload of manila folders. Each was labeled. “Victim 1.” “Victim 2.” And so on. Others bore the names of priests. Inside were detailed accounts from victims and others.

Years’ worth.

“You kept files?” Dye asked incredulously.

“Oh, yeah,” he told them. “People have been coming to me for years.”

“Why didn’t you ever take these files to the police?” Dye asked him.

“Well,” Foster said, “some of what’s in here, I’m getting from the police.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

March 22, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

IT’s no laughing matter, but a former altar boy has turned the “tragedy’’ of child sexual abuse into a comedy.

Born and bred in Ballarat, Frank Hampster was abused by a Catholic priest in the 1980s.

Until being summonsed to give evidence to the child abuse Royal Commission last year, he had never spoken publicly of his experiences.

Now he is drawing on them for his fourth Melbourne International Comedy Festival show called “Cardinal Sins”.

Hampster said he had witnessed first hand how abuse was covered up by senior priests.

“Some of the royal commission testimony was laughable, so I had to keep rewriting the show,” he said.

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FRANCE
The Week

Robert Zaretsky

A miracle did not occur in Lourdes last week.

Instead, on March 15, the French media descended on the pilgrimage site in southwestern France, which is hosting a conference of the country’s bishops. The journalists came to grill Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who, as bearer of the ancient title “primat des Gaules,” is France’s most prominent Catholic cleric. As the cardinal of Lyon, France’s second largest city, he runs a diocese rocked by a series of sexual abuse scandals. (The diocese of Lyons is also the oldest Catholic institution in France, stretching back to the Gallo-Roman period.) With the cicada-like clatter of clicking cameras, Barbarin declared he had “never, never, never” hid any act of pedophilia committed by his priests. Staring hard through his severe wire-rimmed glasses, Barbarin observed that none of these acts had happened under his watch. Besides, he noted, these crimes had passed the statute of limitations, so they could not be prosecuted.

“Dieu merci,” he added with a sigh.

Rarely have so few words cut so deeply into the hearts of so many. With what seemed greater concern over legal liabilities for the church than the emotional scars of the victims, Barbarin compounded his clergy’s sins of commission with a stunning sin of omission. The whole episode, since baptized the French “Spotlight,” may well have consequences as seismic for the French church as the Boston case had for its American counterpart.

The events in question stretch back 40 years. In 1971, a young and charismatic priest, Bernard Preynet, became leader of a troop of Catholic Boy Scouts near Lyons. During the 20 years he remained at this post, hundreds of adolescents passed through. La Parole Libérée (The Liberated Voice), an association formed by victims, charges that Preynet sexually abused as many as 60 youths. (The Tribune de Lyon offered a more conservative estimate, quoting an anonymous source, himself a victim, stating that Preynet “had abused 20 kids.”)

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By JoAnne Viviano
The Columbus Dispatch • Monday March 21, 2016

In the wake of the arrest of a former student, the leader a Roman Catholic seminary on the Far North Side has recommended a trio of admissions policy changes, including the creation of an applications database that would be available to seminaries nationwide.

The Pontifical College Josephinum announced the proposals publicly on Monday, about seven weeks after former Josephinum seminarian Joel A. Wright, 23, was arrested in San Diego on federal allegations that he planned to travel to Mexico to rape 1- to 3-year-old girls.

The proposal includes: 1) the creation of a national database of formal applications to seminaries, dioceses and religious orders; 2) reference, social media and records reviews of applicants by private investigators led by someone with high-level FBI experience; and, 3) in-person interviews of applicants by representatives of the Josephinum’s admissions committee and its director of psychological evaluation and counseling.

“We’re trying to be a leader in this area, even nationally,” said Monsignor Christopher Schreck, rector and president. “We’re also trying to do our utmost to close any loopholes in our admissions process. It’s already a rigorous process, but this makes it even more rigorous.”

The database would allow seminaries to review whether potential students had been rejected at other schools and why. Schreck said seminaries have been discussing such a project for several years, trying to work out details and legalities.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, March 21, 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)

It’s all well and good to promise “we’ll do better in the future.” Catholic officials, when facing abuse scandals, excel at pledging improvement. They’re usually very poor, however, at follow through.

It’s hard to believe that church officials in Columbus, Steubenville and Vermont were unaware that dozens of seminaries had rejected Joel Wright. And Catholic officials have been talking about better seminary screening for decades. So it’s hard to be enthusiastic about this latest promise.

Behavior in the present is more important that pledges in the future. And right now, officials at the Josephenum and in the Columbus diocese must use their websites, mailing lists and bully pulpits to find others with information or suspicions about Wright’s crimes and get them to call police and prosecutors. That will make the biggest difference in the short term.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sexueller Missbrauch durch Angehörige der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Trier

[A deacon of the Munster diocese was sentenced to 3.5 years is prisons for sexual abuse but neither the bishops nor the diocese were told about it.]

Pfarrer Gregor Wolters informierte seine Gemeinde in den Gottesdiensten in Nordkirchen, Südkirchen und Capelle, dass es sich bei dem wegen Missbrauch Verurteilten 75-Jährigen Nordkirchener um Diakon Manfred Z. handelt. „Ich habe telefonischen Kontakt mit Z. gehabt“, so der Pfarrer in den Gottesdiensten. Z. habe ihm bestätigt, dass es die Gerichtsverhandlung gegeben habe und er zu dreieinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt worden sei.

„Er hat mir gesagt, er habe mich und die Diözese informieren wollen. Er hat es aber nicht getan.“ Die Diözese habe auch keinen Hinweis von der Staatsanwaltschaft erhalten. Gregor Wolters teilte der Gemeinde mit, er habe Z. mit sofortiger Wirkung von allen kirchlichen Funktionen suspendiert.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Jasmine Stole | Post News Staff

The Archdiocese of Agana issued a statement on March 18 following the issuance of new certificates of title from the Department of Land Management and church officials said the new certificates “once again” confirm the archbishop owns the Yona land under the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

The statement from the archdiocese contradicts what former Sen. Robert Klitzkie said about the new certificates of title. Klitzkie told the Post that the new titles, now with memorials that state the Declaration of Deed Restriction is in favor of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary as a nonprofit corporation, means that the property belongs to the seminary, not the archbishop. Klitzkie’s letter to Department of Land Management about the erroneous certificates of titles prompted the department to issue new certificates.

The Declaration of Deed Restriction states that the property shall be dedicated, to and for the use, of the seminary, a nonprofit corporation.

The archdiocese’s statement from March 18 said the four former certificates of title for the Yona property were canceled and the canceled certificates of title “did not include the Declaration of Deed Restriction.” However, the canceled titles did include the Declaration of Deed Restriction in the memorials section. The change in certificates is under the “in favor of” column. Department of Land Management changed the certificates in that respect and removed Archbishop Antony Apuron and replaced it with Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

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OHIO
NBC4i

[with copy of the proposals]

[with video]

By Olivia Fecteau
Published: March 21, 2016

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Pontifical College Josephinum announced proposals to change its admission process Monday, in response to the arrest of a former seminarian on charges he planned to rape children.

The changes were outlined Monday in a letter from Monsignor Christopher Schreck to the Board of Trustees, archbishops and bishops, members of the admissions committee and school officials. Schreck noted the discussion and proposed changes stemmed from the arrest of Joel Wright in late January.

Wright was a former seminary student who was arrested in San Diego after investigators said he planned to travel to Mexico to adopt a child for sex.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A Met Police inquiry into claims a VIP Westminster paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s has closed without charges being brought, Scotland Yard has announced.

The controversial Operation Midland ended as ex-MP Harvey Proctor was told he faces no further action over claims against him of child abuse and murder.

He called on four Met chiefs to resign, but the force said it had been right to look into the single source claims.

The inquiry has cost over £1.8 million.

Mr Proctor, 69, who was MP from 1979 to 1987 for the Essex constituencies of Basildon and then Billericay, was interviewed under caution last August as part of the Operation Midland. He had always vehemently denied the allegations.

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TENNESSEE
WKRN

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – A 36-year-old old radio host and homeless advocate in Murfreesboro just recently filed a police report regarding alleged sexual child abuse that occurred decades ago when he was a young child.

Since so much time has passed, his alleged accuser will not face any charges.

However, there’s a bill that is making its way through the state legislature that would give underage victims more time to report allegations.

WGNS radio host Scott Walker often has to read the news about child sex crimes.

“Many times I do report that,” Walker told News 2. “The good thing about that is there’s closure for many of the victims in those cases because someone has been arrested, somebody has been convicted in a lot of the cases.”

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OHIO
10TV

Read The Full Memo: Page 1 | Page 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio – 10TV News @ 6: 10 Investigates exposed problems that lead to changes at the Josephinum. What they are & what it could mean for the future of the Catholic seminary program nationwide.

Story highlights:

* Josephinum College propose sweeping changes today for seminary students
* 10 Investigates exposes loopholes and lack of oversight at Josephinum Catholic seminary
* Seminarian Joel Wright awaits trial for intent to have sex with a minor

It started with the unthinkable. A seminary student at the Vatican’s only school for priests outside Rome was trolling online to find children for sex.

But that wasn’t all. The student, Joel Wright, had left the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus en route to Mexico to buy children so he could act out his fantasies.

Homeland Security officers were in San Diego waiting with handcuffs and Josephinum officials immediately kicked Wright out of the seminary. That was January.

Since then, Wright’s case remains pending in Southern California, but his arrest for aggravated sexual abuse and other charges raised many questions: How can they be sure this won’t happen again? And why is this still a problem in the Catholic Church a decade after clergy sex abuse was uncovered?

After meeting with 10 Investigates twice last week, the Josephinum announced on Monday they are instituting changes to make sure something like this could not happen again.

Monsignor Christopher Schreck, Rector and President of the Josephinum, sent a letter Monday to the school’s board of trustees, school officials, area Catholic Archbishops and Bishops, and the school’s Admissions Committee.

The proposed changes include:

* Pushing for the creation of a national database to “track all formal applications as dioceses, seminaries, and religious orders.”
* The use of private investigators who will better screen applicants including a review of their online history.
* The requirement of an in-person interview by the college’s Admission Committee and meeting with the school’s psychologist.

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RHODE ISLAND
Bruce DeSilva’s Rogue Island

I finally watched the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight tonight, and I had three strong emotional reactions: admiration for The Boston Globe’s investigative team, pride in the profession I labored in for more than four decades, and . . . guilt.

Why guilt?

One day in the 1970’s, I fielded a phone call in the newsroom of The Providence Journal. The caller was a local woman who told me that her ten-year-old son had been repeatedly molested by a Roman Catholic priest in one of the city’s parishes.

Later that week, I sat down with her and her son across from their kitchen table and listened to their story. It was both chilling and hard to accept. Her son said he wasn’t the only one—that two of his friends also had been abused. I asked the woman if she or the other parents had reported this to the Providence Police. She said they’d tried but that the police just scoffed and warned them that it was a crime to file a false police report.

As a journalist, I was skeptical by nature; but by the time I left them that evening, I believed what they’d told me was true. The next day, I consulted with an editor, one of the top guys who ran the paper. He labeled the story rubbish before I could even finish relating it.

I told him I understood why he was incredulous but that I thought it was worth looking into. He forbade it. No way the paper was going to slander a priest, he said. Besides, he added, even if the story were true, no one in Rhode Island (the most heavily Roman Catholic state in the union at the time) would believe it.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Khalil AlHajal | kalhajal@mlive.com

DETROIT, MI — The Michigan Court of Appeals has sent a church embezzlement case back to Wayne County Circuit Court for the possible re-sentencing of a priest originally ordered to serve one year in prison in two-month increments over five years.

Timothy Kane, 59, who served as a pastor at St. Benedict, St. Gregory, and the Church of the Madonna in Detroit between 2008 and 2014, was convicted of embezzling $131,400 from a charitable fund of the Archdiocese of Detroit known as the Angel Fund.

Kane and Dorreca Brewer, 36, of Jackson were accused of conspiring to submit fraudulent applications for grants from the fund, meant for needy families in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park.

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FRANCE
Catholic Culture

March 21, 2016

A French newspaper survey has found that 63% of the public believes that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon should step down, because of complaints that he failed to removed an accused clerical abuser from active ministry.

However, among the practicing Catholics included in the survey, a solid majority believe that Cardinal Barbarin is innocent of wrongdoing and should remain in office.

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NEW MEXICO
Wall Street Journal

By TOM CORRIGAN

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, N.M., on Monday unveiled a $22 million reorganization plan, the bulk of which will be used to compensate 57 clergy sexual-abuse victims.

The plan, filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque, N.M., lays out how the diocese expects to repay its creditors, the vast majority of whom say they were sexually abused by the diocese’s clergy decades ago.

The Diocese of Gallup, which serves about 60,000 parishioners in New Mexico, Arizona and several Native American reservations, filed for chapter 11 protection in late 2013. The filing halted more than a dozen lawsuits related to sexual-abuse allegations.

“It is impossible to overstate the tragedy of the abuse that was inflicted on the children and teenagers of the diocese,” lawyers for the diocese said Monday in court papers.

The bankruptcy plan, which is subject to the approval of Judge David Thuma, was largely drawn up in court-ordered mediation sessions after initial talks with the diocese’s insurance carriers and other participants broke down.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

At a Knesset pre-hearing, groups working to prevent the abuse suggested there may be a ‘significantly higher proportion’ of cases in the ultra-Orthodox community.

Judy Maltz – Mar 21, 2016

Israel has become a safe haven for Jewish pedophiles from around the world, a leading advocate for child sexual abuse victims warned Monday at a Knesset committee pre-hearing on pedophilia in the ultra-Orthodox community.

“Sex offenders tend to move from country to country to avoid jail, but what makes Israel unique is the Law of Return, which essentially grants unhindered access to anyone who is Jewish to come here without any real screening,” said Manny Waks, the chief executive officer of Kol v’Oz, a newly formed nonprofit that aims to prevent child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.

The Law of Return grants automatic citizenship in Israel to those who meet its definition of a Jew.

Waks was raised in Melbourne, Australia where he attended Yeshiva Centre, a school run by the Chabad movement. Years later, he reported that he had been sexually abused by two members of the staff there. Waks and his family, who have since been featured in several Australian documentaries, were ostracized by the local Chabad community for coming out publicly with their story.

Along with representatives of several other groups active in preventing child abuse in the Jewish community, Waks met today with MK Yifat Shasha-Biton, chair of the Knesset Special Committee for the Rights of the Child.

The full committee is expected to convene for a special session on the topic after the Passover break.

Among those accused of sexual abuse who have fled to Israel, Waks cited the prominent case of Malka Leifer, the former principal of a religious girls’ school in Melbourne, who allegedly assaulted eight of her charges. She is now under house arrest, and the Australian authorities are seeking her extradition. Waks noted several other cases of pedophiles and alleged pedophiles from the United States, Britain and the Netherland who had fled to Israel either after being charged or to avoid being charged. Some have already been extradited back to their home countries where they are serving jail sentences.

“It seems to us Israel is increasingly becoming a refuge for pedophiles and alleged pedophiles,” said Waks. “It’s an easy get-out-of-jail card for them.” Waks, who is married with three children, recently moved back to Israel, where he was born and served in the army.

According to research data he cited, one in five children in Israel experiences sexual abuse.

“There’s a range of factors that suggest there may be a significantly higher proportion within the ultra-Orthodox community,” said Waks. “I think any closed community would have increased cases, because these cases are silenced. They’re swept under the carpet. Not only that, but in the Haredi community, they don’t even talk about sex, so how can they talk about sexual abuse?”

His new organization, he said, will be lobbying the Knesset to change the statute of limitations so that victims of sexual crimes can have more time to file complaints.

Also present at the meeting with Shasha-Biton were the heads of a new Israeli group called “Lo Tishtok” (Thou Shall Not Be Silent) that aims to give voice to ultra-Orthodox victims of sexual abuse. Launched as a Facebook page five months ago, the group already has close to 4,200 followers and is planning to become a nonprofit.

Yitzhak Kadman, the executive director of the National Council for the Child, said he had noticed signs of “the beginnings of a revolution” in attitudes toward child sex offenders in the Haredi world. “I was actually astonished by the amount of openness I’ve seen recently,” he said at the meeting.

Israel may be a preferred destination for Jewish sex offenders, said Kadman, but it has also become a place of refuge for their victims. “We are seeing many of them leave their home countries and come to Israel, perhaps because they are looking for a way to get a fresh start,” he said.

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MAINE
Raw Story

TRAVIS GETTYS
21 MAR 2016

The arrest of a Maine youth pastor on child sex abuse charges has shocked some congregants — but at least one neighbor suspected he “seemed a little different.”

Lucas Savage was arrested Friday evening and charged with unlawful sexual contact after investigators said he sexually abused a girl younger than 5 years old at his own home in Clinton, reported WCHS-TV.

The 37-year-old Savage is co-director of Youth Haven Ministry and a member of Canaan Calvary Church, which has in the past financially supported his youth ministry but maintains a separate board of directors.

Savage and his wife were deeply involved in the church, where they helped organize events and coached youth soccer.

“I trusted him with my daughter,” said Kristine Rice, whose 11-year-old daughter participated in Youth Haven programs and played soccer for Savage’s team through the Canaan Community Sports program.

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ITALY
Religion News Service

Josephine McKenna | March 21, 2016

ROME (RNS) The Catholic Church, under scrutiny for its response to clergy sex abuse scandals, is backing the publication of an Italian nun’s shocking account of her rape as a teenager and years of subsequent abuse by her parish priest in Milan.

The 40-year-old nun, who has not been identified, claims the unnamed priest raped her when she was 14 and continued to abuse her for another seven years.

The sensational book is titled, “Giulia and the Wolf: A Story of Sexual Abuse in the Church,” and it is due to be published in Italy on March 31 by Ancora, a Catholic publishing house.

The memoir is also being published with the backing of the Archdiocese of Milan, one of the largest and most influential in Italy, and a priest, the Rev. Hans Zollner, who is a member of Pope Francis’ panel on fighting clergy sexual abuse, has written the preface. …

The idea to publish the book came after Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the Vatican anti-abuse panel, spoke about clerical sexual abuse on a visit to Milan.

According to reports, the abusive priest worked for years in the Milan archdiocese and died recently.

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NEW MEXICO
The Eagle

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorneys for a New Mexico diocese have submitted a proposed settlement for a bankruptcy case that has spanned more than two years.

Attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup on Monday filed a reorganization plan that would use cash contributions of $21 million from nearly a dozen sources to settle claims filed by 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1RdVcBg ) the settlement would also be used to establish a trust to pay for future claims.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma will consider the proposal at a hearing next month. The plan must also be approved by the claimants.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, March 21st, 2016

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed a reorganization plan today that contains cash contributions of $21 million from 11 funding sources to settle claims filed by 57 alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The settlement also will be used to establish a trust to pay for future claims filed against the diocese.

And it will pay legal and professional costs in the 28-month-old case that have totaled more than $3.5 million. The two primary law firms in the case have agreed to a $416,000 reduction in fees, the lead attorney for the diocese, Susan Boswell of Phoenix, told a judge on Monday.

Boswell outlined major features of the reorganization plan for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma of Albuquerque at a hearing this morning.

The reorganization plan and other details of the settlement agreement will be considered by Thuma at a hearing scheduled next month. The plan also must be approved by members of a committee representing claimants in the case.

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MISSOURI
KFVS

Written by Amber Ruch, Digital Content Executive Producer

NEW MADRID COUNTY, MO (KFVS) –
A southeast Missouri pastor is accused of raping a then-4 year old.

Keith Frye, 54, of Lilbourn, Mo., was charged with first degree statutory rape.

According to court documents, on Monday, March 14 the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by an investigator for the Department of Social Services Children’s Division in connection with a possible sexual assault of a child.

The investigator stated a hotline call reported the alleged sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, March 16, the child was examined and interviewed. The child told authorities the incidents happened more than once.

The incidents allegedly happened between March 8, 2015 and March 7, 2016 when the child was 4 years old. The child is now 5 years old.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga, East Bay Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (925-708-6175,melanie.sakoda@gmail.com)

In a lawsuit filed recently in the state of Texas Father Milton Eggerling was accused of child sexual abuse for the first time in public. The priest was accused of molesting an altar boy in Austin in the 1970s, beginning when the boy was 11 and continuing for five years.

[American-Statesman]

The attorney for the victim, Tahira Khan Merritt, said that Eggerling, who was ordained in 1954, was a priest for a long time and likely had more victims. She also said that her client filed the lawsuit hoping that others would come forward.

[American-Statesman]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Eggerling worked for many years under the supervision of the Dioceses of Oakland and of San Jose. All of the parishes in the Oakland Diocese where Eggerling worked also had attached schools.

1970-1971: Saint Felicitas, San Leandro, Diocese of Oakland

1971-1973: Corpus Christi, Piedmont, Diocese of Oakland

1979-1983: Providence Hospital, Oakland, Diocese of Oakland

1983-1984: Saint Augustine, Oakland, Diocese of Oakland

1984-1987: Our Lady of the Rosary, Palo Alto, Diocese of San Jose

1991-1993: Saint Patrick, Rodeo, Diocese of Oakland

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NEW YORK
Poughkeepsie Journal

Nina Schutzman, Poughkeepsie Journal March 21, 2016

A longtime Dutchess County priest who was suspended in 2015 after decades-old sexual abuse allegations came to light has officially been removed from the clergy, according to the Archdiocese of New York.

Allegations of sexual abuse made against Peter Kihm have been found to be “credible” by both law enforcement and the Archdiocesan Review Board, said Bishop Dominick John Lagonegro in a letter to parishioners of the Good Shepherd Church in Rhinebeck, where Kihm last served as a priest.

Kihm, who requested “a return to the lay state…will never again be able to serve as a priest here in this archdiocese or anywhere else in the world,” Lagonegro said in his letter.

A “return to the lay state” means that Kihm is no longer officially a priest.

When Kihm was suspended and removed as priest of the Good Shepherd Church in January 2015, the allegation involved a minor — one person — and “more than one occurrence” that happened about 30 years ago, according to Journal archives.

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DEUTSCHLAND
POW

[Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, contact person for the Wurzburg diocese for victims of sexual abuse, said today that about 4,500 full-time and volunteer church workers have so far had prevention training. He received in the last year four allegations of sexual-related abuses that he said were below the thresthold of criminality.]

Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, Ansprechpartner in der Diözese Würzburg für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, legt Jahresbilanz 2015/2016 vor – Rund 4500 haupt- und ehrenamtliche kirchliche Mitarbeiter bisher bei Präventionsschulungen

Würzburg (POW) Vier Vorwürfe wegen sexualbezogener Missbrauchshandlungen und wegen Grenzüberschreitungen unterhalb der Schwelle der Strafbarkeit wurden im zurückliegenden Jahr an Professor Dr. Klaus Laubenthal, Ansprechpartner in der Diözese Würzburg für Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs, übermittelt. Das teilte Laubenthal am Montag, 21. März, in Würzburg mit. In den beiden vorausgehenden Jahren waren es ebenfalls jeweils vier Vorwürfe, die an Laubenthal herangetragen wurden. Präventionsbeauftragte Schwester Dagmar Fasel berichtete von rund 4500 kirchlichen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern, die seit 2013 an Präventionsschulungen teilnahmen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

A probe has been launched into claims a notorious paedophile bishop impersonated his identical twin brother – by carrying out services in his place.

Former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball, 83, was jailed last year after he admitted sexually abusing teenagers and young men.

But there are now fears he took the place of his twin Michael Ball, who was also a bishop and a friend of Prince Charles, by duping congregations in other parts of the UK.

The Diocese of Truro is now looking into the evidence that Ball conducted services in Cornwall, where Michael, had been a Bishop in the 1990s.

An independent review is currently under way into the way the Church of England responded to the case.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
21 March

A new group of senior church people, lawyers, academics and politicians has been launched to defend the late Bishop George Bell, who has been accused of being a paedophile.

The George Bell Group has been set up after the Church of England disclosed it had apologised and paid damages following a civil sex abuse claim.

The allegations date from the late 1940s and early 1950s and concern sexual offences against an individual who was at the time a young child.

Bishop Bell, born in 1883 and who died in 1958, became Bishop of Chichester in 1929. He was revered as a leading light on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church and at one time was even in the running to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the first to speak out against the Nazi threat before the Second World War.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Melissa Cunningham

No date has been set for former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns to continue his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Mulkearns made his much-anticipated appearance at the child sexual abuse inquiry via videolink from the nursing home in which he now lives in February.

He told the inquiry he was “terribly sorry” he did not take the mounting sexual abuse allegations about offending clergy seriously and admitted he did not know how to handle the situation.

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MISSOURI
Raw Story

Tom Boggioni
21 MAR 2016

A Baptist pastor from Missouri has been sentenced to 50 years in prison last week for hiring his mistress and her husband to burn his house down with his wife inside of it, reports the Riverfront Times.

Donald Lafferty, 71, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison after a jury convicted him on charges of attempted murder, arson, armed criminal action and financial exploitation of the elderly after investigators discovered he had embezzled $87,000 from his 89-year-old mother.

The January 12, 2013 fire at Lafferty’s home had become a cold case despite investigators finding evidence of arson.

The case was reopened in April of 2014, after investigators uncovered evidence that Lafferty had forged power-of-attorney documents and transferred his mother’s life saving into an account controlled by him.

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

BY EMMA WHITFORD

A small group of protesters gathered on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights on Sunday to denounce the longtime employment of allegedly abusive teachers at Oholei Torah, one of the largest and most prestigious boys yeshivas in Brooklyn’s Chabad network. The protesters—including members of the Lubavitch community, survivors, and alumni—held signs that read “What would the Rebbe say?” and “Abuse isn’t chinuch [education].” A row of strategically-parked yellow school buses blocked them from the yeshiva’s front entrance, where parents, teachers and rabbis ducked through the light snow into Oholei Torah’s annual gala dinner.

“The culture of violence is being celebrated tonight,” said Chaim Levin, an alumnus of the school and a survivor of sexual abuse. Earlier this month, Newsweek published a lengthy investigation into physical and sexual abuse across Brooklyn’s Chabad yeshiva network. Victims, Levin among them, accused Oholei Torah’s longtime principal, Rabbi Hershel Lustig, of deftly covering up child abuse and employing two known abusers.

In 2013, Rabbi Velvel Karp allegedly tossed a student so hard into a pane of glass that the child sustained a concussion. Multiple alumni told Newsweek that Karp often hit his students across the face, and even hung boys out of his fourth-floor classroom window by their shirts.

Another current teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Zalmanov, allegedly hit a student so hard that the boy slammed into a closet, smacking his head on hardwood. According to the boy’s mother, Zalmanov showed little remorse. “For chutzpah [impudence], I patsh [smack],” he allegedly said.

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NEDERLAND
BN DeStem

[BREDA – That one in three cases of abuse in the Catholic Church are handled secretly has nothing to do with secrecy, according to lawyer Mirelle van Berckel but is done to help the victims.]

BREDA – Dat de kerk één op de drie zaken ‘in stilte’ met slachtoffers van misbruik heeft afgehandeld, zoals blijkt uit cijfers die NRC publiceerde, heeft volgens de Bredase advocate Mirelle van Berckel niks met geheimzinnigheid te maken.

“Ik ga uit van de goedheid van de mens en geloof oprecht dat mediation niet wordt aangeboden vanuit een voordeel voor de kerk”, stelt ze. “Het gaat er voor slachtoffers om dat de zaak netjes wordt afgehandeld.

Dat er naar hen geluisterd wordt en dat ze serieus worden genomen. Het is echt niet zo dat het doel van mediation is om alles fijn onder de pet te houden. Ik zie dit niet als negatief. Openbaarmaking is voor slachtoffers veelal geen belang op zich.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Ruhr Nachricten

[Abuse: deacon from Nordkirchen sentenced. After a sexual assault on an ex-pupil, a retired teacher (75) and Deacon, residing in the district Nordkirchen, was sentenced on Friday to three-and-a half years in prison.]

NORDKIRCHEN Nach einem sexuellen Übergriff auf einen Ex-Schüler ist ein pensionierter Lehrer (75) und Diakon, wohnhaft im Ortsteil Nordkirchen, am Freitag zu dreieinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Für den Beamten, der nach eigenen Angaben seelsorgerisch arbeitet, sei die Strafe privat und finanziell die Niederlage des Lebens.

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MALLORCA
Inselradio

[NEW ALLEGATIONS AGAINST PRIEST OF THE MONASTERY ST. LUKE IN MALLORCA.]

Im letzten Jahr wurde auf Mallorca ein Pfarrer der Klosterschule Lluc von einem ehemaligen Schüler des bekannten Knabenchors “Los Blauets” wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs angezeigt. Da die Übergriffe aber in den 90er Jahren stattgefunden haben sollen, galt der Fall als verjährt und wurde nach einer kurzen Zeit der Ermittlungen ad acta gelegt.

Jetzt wurde der ehemalige Pfarrer erneut angezeigt, auch diesmal wieder von einem früheren Schüler. Dieser beschuldigt den damals als Erzieher des Knabenchors tätigen Geistlichen, ihn vor etwa fünf Jahren mehrmals sexuell missbraucht zu haben.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

Benzion Sanders

This past Shabbat, Shabbat Zachor, I had one of the most meaningful and memorable Seudat Shlishit that I have had in a long time. After Mincha I went with a group of close friends and stood outside the Heichal Rachamim Shul in Givat Shmuel where dozens of other Gabash residents had already gathered. Men, women and children of all ages had all come to spend their Seudat Shlishit here in protest of the appearance at a communal event of Mordechai Elon, a formerly prominent rabbi in the religious Zionist community. Elon, who was once considered a rising rabbinic star in the community, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault against a minor in 2013. Takana Forum, which is a council of religious Zionist communal and rabbinic leaders, has described Elon as a threat to the public and has demanded that he refrain from taking rabbinical, teaching and communal positions. Nevertheless, Elon continues to be honored at communal events and continues to teach.

Three and a half years before his conviction, Takana Forum had stated publicly that they had received incontrovertible evidence that Elon had sexually exploited a number of his students. The Takana Forum received evidence of Elon’s misconduct years earlier and confronted him about it. Elon agreed to take upon himself a number of restrictions in order to avoid further misconduct. The Forum only publicly released the evidence after receiving reports that Elon had committed even more severe offences and had violated the restrictions he had agreed to follow. The chairman of Takana Forum has since stated that the charges that were ultimately brought against Elon in court are small fry compared to the far more serious abuses that they had been presented evidence of. Although Elon is said to have confessed in front of the Takana Forum he has never publicly admitted or expressed any remorse for his actions.

A few days before Shabbat Zachor notices began to appear around Givat Shmuel inviting the public to participate in a series of events over the course of the Shabbat featuring Mordechai Elon as the honored guest and speaker. Quickly word spread throughout the community and a number of people began organizing a protest to take place outside the shul’s event hall where a seudat shlishit with Elon speaking was to be held. As a member of the Bar Ilan University chapter of Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah student organization I created a Facebook event and invited fellow students to participate in the protest. In the end the turnout was estimated to be over a hundred people. Drinks and food were passed around and the crowd joined together beautifully singing Shabbat songs while holding signs saying “Mordechai Elon, we will not be silent”.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

21 March, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a consultation paper on best practices in responding to complaints of child sexual abuse in institutions.

Royal Commission Chief Executive Officer Philip Reed said the Commission’s terms of reference require it to look at identification, reporting and investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in institutions.

“A theme identified from our 4,874 private sessions and 38 case studies to date is that there have been institutional failings when responding to complaints of child sexual abuse,” Mr Reed said.

“The Royal Commission is keen to ensure that all complaints of child sexual abuse in institutions are dealt with in an appropriate, timely and responsible manner no matter what the scenario or institution,” he said.

Mr Reed said that child sexual abuse should never happen, however, when it does it should be dealt with in a manner that protects the child, provides justice to the victim and holds perpetrators to account.

The consultation paper is seeking submissions on the best-practice principles, matters that should be canvassed in a model complaint handling policy and how these matters might be addressed.

The consultation paper is available here.

All interested parties are encouraged to make written submissions responding to the paper. Written submissions should be made by Tuesday, 26 April 2016 and can be submitted in the following ways:

* Email response@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

* Complete the online form at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/policy-and-research/complaint-handling-and-response/have-your-say

* Mail to GPO Box 5283, Sydney, NSW 2001.

Submissions can be anonymous.

Feedback on the issues outlined in the consultation paper will help inform recommendations the Royal Commission may make in order to better protect children in an institutional context from child sexual abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By STEVE DOUGHTY FOR DAILY MAIL

A high-powered group of lawyers, politicians and police officers yesterday accused the Church of England of smearing one of its own heroes.

They declared that an allegation that former Bishop of Chichester George Bell was a child abuser ‘cannot be upheld’ and called for an inquiry into how the CofE came to make it.

The protest, by well-placed figures including Anglican Labour MP Frank Field, leading lawyer Desmond Browne QC, and former police chief Lord Geoffrey Dear, threw the Church into a fresh difficulty over its handling of sex abuse allegations.

Last week the Church declared that a number of senior Anglican figures had failed to act on allegations of historic sex abuse of a teenager by a paedophile priest. It declined, however, to publish the report.

The scandal over Bishop Bell broke out last autumn, when the cleric, who died in 1958, was labelled a paedophile who had sexually abused a child.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

[with video]

MARCH 20, 2016, BY MAGEE HICKEY

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — The school buses were lined up along the service road on Eastern Parkway to block protesters from being seen by people going to the yeshiva’s fundraiser. But their voices can clearly be heard.

“Call the cops, not your rabbi,” protesters chanted, carrying signs saying “sexual abuse of little boys and girls is soul murder.”

Dozens of survivors of child sexual abuse, former students, advocates and parents rallied in front of Oholei Torah.

They are protesting what they say is the continued coverup of child sexual and physical abuse that they say occurs in the boys’ yeshiva.

We’re demanding accountability,” Chaim Levin, the rally organizer, told PIX11. “Two teachers who have physically abused students are still here. One teacher threw a student out a window. The principal been here for all the cover ups,” Levin claimed.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

Wednesday 23 March 2016, Radisson Blu Hotel, 301 Argyle St, Glasgow G2 8DL

The Chair of the Inquiry, Ms Susan O’Brien QC, is to launch a formal Call for Evidence on Wednesday 23 March in Glasgow.

The event will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, 301 Argyle St, Glasgow G2 8DL.

Since the Inquiry was formally established on 1 October 2015, it has engaged with a range of individuals and organisations with an interest in its work. The Inquiry has already started taking evidence from people who are elderly or seriously ill and this will continue.

Ms O’Brien – supported by the other Panel Members Mr Glenn Houston and Professor Michael Lamb – will set out the ways in which individuals and institutions with information that may be of interest to the work of Inquiry can provide their evidence.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the launch of the Call for Evidence, however seating capacity is limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Those wishing to attend are asked to come to the main reception of the Radisson Blu hotel for 10.30am where they will be directed to the meeting room.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY MARION SCOTT

SUSAN O’Brien, head of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, will hold a summit in Glasgow on Wednesday to give more details on the probe and meet victims.

INVESTIGATORS leading a huge inquiry into child abuse are to urge witnesses and victims to come forward.

Susan O’Brien QC, who is chairing the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry , will encourage individuals and institutions to contact the probe.

At a meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday, she will detail how evidence can be given.

Some sick and elderly victims who have lodged complaints have already been interviewed for the inquiry, which is expected to take several years.

The investigation will cover sexual, physical, psychological and emotional abuse at children’s homes, residential schools, secure care units, schools, borstals and young offenders’ institutions until December 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By Joanne McCarthy
March 21, 2016

A FORMER Hunter Marist Brother who was jailed in 2001 for child sex offences, but was selling comic books and school resources on the Marist Schools Australia website until June last year, has been charged with child pornography offences.

Brother Terry Gilsenan, 60, who taught at the Marist St Francis Xavier College at Hamilton in 1995-96, was refused bail after he was charged with making child abuse material at the order’s Provincial House at Drummoyne.

He was charged nine months after the Marist Brothers removed contact details and references to Brother Gilsenan from its schools website after a complaint from Hunter victims’ group, Clergy Abuse Network, and questions from the Newcastle Herald.

Brother Gilsenan was identified only as “Brother Terry” on the website as contact for sales of “cards, posters and publications” and the “Champagnat Comic Book”, about the order’s founder. The website included his email address, land line and mobile phone numbers.

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IOWA
Iowa State Daily

By Michael Heckle
michael.heckle@iowastatedaily.com

Recent comments by high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church have painted a terrifying picture of the attitudes and policies the church holds toward the most atrocious actions committed by its own clergy: the sexual abuse of children. While allegations of sexual assaults have plagued the church since the 1970s, that Vatican has done little to discipline those responsible.

In a recent report published by the Catholic news site Cruxnow.com, new Catholic bishops are being told they are neither legally nor morally obligated to report sexual abuse by clergy to the proper authorities.

A new church training document for newly ordained bishops created by French Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a consultant for the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, states, “According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds.”

Rather, Anatrella makes it a responsibility of victims and families of victims to report any allegations of sexual abuse.

While sources in the Vatican say that these comments are purely Anatrella’s personal opinion, the church has not released any documentation criticizing or clarifying his statements.

Complicating the situation further are fears that reports of sexual abuse in countries with more hostile attitudes toward the church will make a fair trial nearly impossible, especially in the case of false accusations.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Chris McGillion | Mar. 21, 2016

SYDNEY In some respects, the story of the Australian government inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse is a story that can be told in numbers.

Since its first hearing three years ago, the inquiry — the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — has received 29,223 telephone calls from victims and other interested parties, as well as 16,171 letters and emails. It has conducted 4,874 sessions in private (to provide, where requested, a safe and confidential environment for those testifying) and made 961 referrals to authorities, including police, many of which have resulted in arrests and charges.

The commission has also conducted nearly 40 public hearings around Australia looking into particular case studies of abuse — such as the one in early March that saw the questioning via video link from Rome of the Australian church’s highest-ranking cleric, Cardinal George Pell.

It has produced more than a dozen research reports covering such subjects as the history of child sexual abuse legislation in Australia, and investigations into why institutions may have failed to identify and report child abuse.

Based on modeling undertaken by actuarial consultants, the commission estimates there may be as many as 60,000 surviving victims of child abuse in Australia. It has found that the most common decade in which abuse occurred was the 1960s (28 percent) followed by the 1970s (23 percent).

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Tom Acres
tacres@thekmgroup.co.uk

Former residents of a Gravesend children’s home are pursuing legal action against the Church of England for allegedly covering up years of drug abuse.

A claim is being prepared by lawyers for Teresa Cooper, 48, a campaigner who says she was forcibly tranquilised at Kendall House between 1981 and 1984.

The mother-of-three hopes the claim can help give a voice to those who are said to have fallen ill as a result of their treatment at the home, as well as their children and grandchildren, many of whom suffered birth defects.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 21 March 2016

In light of the publication of his new book Australian Religious Thought, the polymath Wayne Hudson has asked me to offer a few reflections on post-secular consciousness in my capacity as a religious person regularly involved in the public square of a pluralist democratic polity.

Wayne Hudson’s Australian Religious ThoughtLike many of you, I have had cause to reflect these last few weeks on why Cardinal Pell evokes such a visceral reaction from so many Australians who profess to have no religious commitment whatever, especially some in the media.

Of course Pell is often portrayed as the embodiment of tradition and authority of institutional religion. But whatever his shortcomings in relation to dealing with child sexual abuse, this does not fully explain the deep passion of so many of the anti-religious and non-religious factions.

He is also perceived by many of his critics as lacking the empathy, the compassion, and the insight of one who is supposed to tap into the religious sensibility or the secular moral consciousness of the average Australian who never darkens the door of a church but who often enjoys the benefit of hindsight.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

Posted: Monday, March 21, 2016

By REP. THOMAS P. MURT

First, it was Penn State, then it was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now, just when you think that scandals involving the sexual abuse of children can’t get any worse, we learn about yet another one.

After a prolonged and extensive investigation, law enforcement professionals have uncovered literally mounds of evidence of countless cases of child sexual abuse and a multi-year cover-up by Roman Catholic Church officials.

In Western Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has been found to have knowingly protected priests who were known child molesters. The diocese, through church connections and pathetic public officials, protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.

Perhaps the worst crime they committed is never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. When a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move the priest to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family and/or to send the child-molesting priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Jerome Christenson Daily News

It’s a syllogism that continues to haunt the Roman Catholic Church:

Some people sexually molest children.

Some people are Roman Catholic priests and religious.

Therefore, some Roman Catholic priests and religious sexually molest children.

For centuries, this was a reality spoken of in diocesan chanceries in hushed tones behind closed doors, spoken of in whispers at priestly retreats, and that haunted the dreams and blighted the lives of victims until it burst into public view and public consciousness.

What had been the deepest, darkest of secrets is now the subject of an Academy Award-winning film, the basis of legal actions that have driven diocese after diocese into bankruptcy and cast a dark shadow over all the Church does and says.

“Out of darkness has come a great light” resonates through the Christian tradition, and may well speak to the most lasting impact of the revelations of clerical abuse. With the October 2014 settlement of a suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona committed itself to a specific set of protocols to defend children against abuse in the future and make amends to those who suffered abuse in the past.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Betty Clermont

Fr. Alessandro De Rossi, 46, pastor of a parish in Rome, was arrested on Dec. 31, 2014, charged with aggravated sexual abuse. An Argentine judge had issued the international arrest warrant on December 26 and transmitted it to Interpol.

De Rossi, born in Rome and sent to Argentina by Church authorities, was accused specifically with corrupting and sexually abusing minors, and “causing also the practice of group sex,” while he was a missionary in the Province of Salta from 2008 to 2013 working with young drug addicts.
On Dec. 23 and 24, 2014,

Salta police officers carried out several raids to seize computers, photographs and some other information that could be used as evidence of the alleged ties between De Rossi and the sexual abuse cases that had been reported by minors.

Prosecutor Pablo Paz explained to local media that there was enough evidence to charge the priest. Paz explained that he did not only have the depositions from the victims but also e-mails that De Rossi sent to the young man who filed a complaint. According to the prosecutor, De Rossi has to face charges for aggravated sexual abuse.

The Buenos Aires Herald also reported that “Judge Diego Rodríguez Pipino of Salta did not just request that Interpol arrest De Rossi but he also requested the assistance of the Foreign Ministry, the Border Guard, the Federal Police and the Airport Security Police. The Foreign Ministry is expected to play an important role to seek the extradition of the priest.”

The article noted that Italy had recently rejected Argentina’s request for extradition of two men connected to the atrocities committed during that country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. One “was charged with the kidnapping and torture of more than 60 people.” He had fled to Italy “trying to take advantage of his dual nationality” and “had taken refuge in a chapel in Genoa.” The other “was said to have witnessed torture in a clandestine detention centre.”

In January 2013, De Rossi had been hospitalized after he said he was attacked by a young man who had asked him for money and food. “I will not return to Italy,” he told a provincial newspaper.

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FRANCE
Fdebranche

Lors du traditionnel pélerinage de Saint-Joseph, qui a réuni plus de 3.000 personnes ce samedi à Cotignac, l’évêque du diocèse de Toulon-Fréjus n’a pas fui la « tourmente » qui secoue actuellement l’église catholique.

Au contraire même, Monseigneur Dominique Rey a, dans son allocution, a tenu des propos très clairs, et fermes, sur ces affaires. «On ne peut admettre que les mêmes mains qui donnent le corps du Christ, touchent le corps d’un enfant… La messe sera un office de réparation», a-t-il ainsi déclaré aux fidèles.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

[A majority of French people – 63 percent – pwant the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who is accused of non-reporting of sexual assaults, according to a survey relayed by Le Parisien on Saturday. The Archbishop of Lyon is accused of having reacted too late in case Preynat Bernard, the priest indicted for pedophiles assaults on scouts in Lyon between 1986 and 1991.]

Une majorité de Français souhaitent la démission du cardinal Philippe Barbarin, visé par plusieurs plaintes pour non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles, selon un sondage relayé par Le Parisien ce samedi.

L’archevêque de Lyon est accusé d’avoir réagi trop tard dans l’affaire Bernard Preynat, du nom d’un prêtre mis en examen pour des agressions pédophiles de scouts lyonnais entre 1986 et 1991. Une nouvelle plainte touchant l’archevêque a été déposée en février, concernant des atteintes sexuelles commises par un autre prêtre lyonnais, suspendu mardi.

“Des problèmes passés sous silence” pour 88% des Français

Même si le cardinal s’est défendu d’avoir couvert “le moindre acte de pédophilie” dans son diocèse de Lyon, 63% des Français estiment qu’il devrait renoncer à ses fonctions en attendant que la justice soit rendue. À l’inverse, une majorité de catholiques pratiquants, qui représentent 10 % de l’échantillon interrogé, pensent qu’il devrait rester. 38 % d’entre eux suggèrent tout de même une mise en retrait.

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FRANCE
BFM

[A majority of French people – 56 percent – have a poor opinion of the Catholic Church, according to a survey after the recent controversy over cases of pedophilia.]

Une majorité de Français a une mauvaise image de l’Église catholique, selon un sondage réalisé après les récentes polémiques sur les affaires de pédophilie.

“Trop conservatrice” pour 83% des Français, et “pas transparente” pour 81% d’entre eux: le jugement est sans appel. Selon un sondage Odoxa pour Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France publié ce dimanche, les Français sont une majorité à avoir une opinion négative de l’Eglise catholique, après la révélation de nouvelles affaires de pédophilie par des prêtres.

Quelque 63% des sondés estiment que le cardinal Barbarin, accusé par plusieurs victimes d’avoir tu les agissements pédophiles de prêtres de son diocèse de Lyon, devrait démissionner. Une position partagée au sein même du gouvernement par Juliette Méadel, secrétaire d’Etat de l’aide aux victimes.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Former former choristers of the Regensburg cathedral choir are only now breaking their silence and cannot bear delays in processing complaints of abuse and physical violence.]

Von: Thomas Muggenthaler
Stand: 18.03.2016

Die Aufarbeitung kommt zu spät und sie kommt nur zäh voran, sagt Ludwig Faust. Der ehemalige Redakteur der Mittelbayerischen Zeitung und Inhaber eines Werbebüros hat nie öffentlich über seine Zeit bei den Domspatzen gesprochen. Jetzt tut er es. Der Grund: Er ist schlicht darüber empört, wie Bistum und Domspatzen in den letzten sechs Jahren mit den Opfern sexueller und körperlicher Gewalt umgegangen sind, und wie auch ehemalige Schüler schweigen, die es besser wissen müssten.

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AUSTRALIA
SoCAA

A study to determine the veracity of the statement that the Catholic clergy is filled with the best educated men and women of action and compassion and are capable of providing support, guidance and assistance to survivors of childhood sexual abuse by their fellow clergy men and women.

SoCAA is inviting Catholic clergy to contact us on 0756412311 or ClergyStudy@MolestedCatholics.com with whatever offers of support and assistance they can provide.

Each survivor assisted will be noted publicly to acknowledge the compassion, knowledge and understanding of Catholic clergy of this issue. We will provide opportunities to distribute via Social Media and Internet technologies each and every endeavour.

Your role should you choose to engage with us is to make contact with a Catholic or Catholic clergy and advise them of our offer. You may inform that we have an extensive inventory of survivor contacts who have an even greater range of immediate to urgent needs to be taken care of.

Visit us on Facebook or online

contact@molestecatholics.com
Australia 0756412311
SKYPE: TFYQA1

Prepared, written and distributed by John A Brown

Please distribute to any know survivors of clergy abuse in Australia.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mail on Sunday

By Martin Beckford for The Mail on Sunday

The troubled historic child abuse inquiry is so wide-ranging and costly it risks ‘breaking the system’, one of Britain’s most senior ex-judges has warned.

Lord Woolf said he feared Dame Lowell Goddard faces a ‘huge task’ chairing the five-year investigation into Establishment sex abuse and cover-ups, and predicted that he would not live to see its final report.

The former Lord Chief Justice added that the £18million-a-year probe is ‘sucking huge amounts of resources’ out of the system and questioned the Government’s priorities at a time of austerity.

He told a solicitors’ conference last week: ‘She [Goddard] has more and more on her plate.

‘I don’t believe I will see the results of her work. There is a danger that the task is so great that it might break the system.’

Lord Woolf went on: ‘If we have got the money to conduct these inquiries then I can see that they perform a service.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Churches are being asked to check records for any evidence that a convicted paedophile bishop may have taken services in the 1990s.

Former Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball was jailed last year after he admitted sexually abusing teenagers and young men.

The Diocese of Truro is working to find out what evidence it has that Ball conducted services in the area.

Bishop Ball’s brother, Michael, was a former Bishop of Truro in the 1990s.
An independent review is under way into the way the Church of England responded to the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emilie Gramenz

Tasmania’s new Anglican Bishop has met with a survivor of child sexual abuse in preparation for new complaints, and there are calls for other institutions nationally to follow his lead.

Bishop Richard Condie was consecrated on Saturday and is now the highest clergy member in Tasmania.

The Anglican Church reached out to abuse survivor and long-time campaigner Steven Fisher to invite him to meet with the Bishop.

It was an invitation Mr Fisher was pleased to receive.

“I believe it’s a huge step for them to reach out and ask a victim to come down and actually talk to them,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve been campaigning for for 15 years.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Mail on Sunday

By Jonathan Petre for The Mail on Sunday

Senior Anglicans are urging the Archbishop of Canterbury to apologise for an ‘astonishingly inadequate’ Church inquiry into a celebrated bishop whose reputation has been ‘carelessly destroyed’ by allegations of sex abuse.

The 12-strong group, whose members include a former police chief and a retired judge, said Church authorities had leaped to judgment without speaking to key witnesses, such as Bishop George Bell’s former chaplain.

Ex-naval officer Canon Adrian Carey, who lived at the Bishop’s Palace at Chichester when the sex abuse is alleged to have taken place, said he found it impossible to imagine how such incidents could have occurred.

Bishop Bell, who served in Chichester for 30 years until his death in 1958, was a renowned opponent of appeasement and Nazism before and during the Second World War.

But last year an unnamed woman said he had sexually abused her while she sat on his lap as he read her stories at the Bishop’s Palace.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Sunday 20 March 2016

A group of academics, lawyers, politicians and church figures has challenged the Church of England over an apology it issued last year for sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by one of its most revered figures, George Bell.

Bell’s supporters say his “condemnation as a paedophile” by the church has irreparably damaged the reputation of the former bishop of Chichester and has resulted in the renaming of schools and institutions dedicated to his memory.

Members of the George Bell Group include Desmond Browne QC, historian and Bell’s biographer Andrew Chandler, Labour MP Frank Field, and Martyn Percy, dean of Christ Church Oxford.

They say the C of E failed to make adequate inquiries before apologising and paying compensation over Bell’s alleged abuse in the 1940s and 50s. The church’s statement, according to the group, “appears to accept the allegation as true”.

In a statement accompanying a report of its own investigations, the group said: “The valuable reputation of a great man, a rare example of self-sacrificing human goodness, has been carelessly destroyed on the basis of slender evidence, sloppily investigated.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The naming of a bishop as an alleged paedophile has been criticised by a group of lawyers, academics, politicians and senior Church figures.

The Church of England settled a civil claim in October made by a woman who says she was abused by the late Rt Rev George Bell in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Church said its “overriding goal” had been to search out the truth.

But defenders of Bishop Bell say its inquiries were “inadequate”.

The bishop’s supporters, known as the George Bell Group, say the inquiry had not provided details of any corroboration to enable the complainant’s story to be judged.

‘Much admired’ bishop

The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt said supporters of the late bishop had been angered by the way the Church dealt with the historical allegation of sexual abuse against a man who was no longer alive to defend his reputation.

In a statement, the George Bell Group says Bishop Bell – Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until his death in 1958 – was “much admired” and noted for being one of the first to speak out in the 1930s against the dangers Adolf Hitler posed.

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ALABAMA
ABC 11

Washington Co., Ala. A court date has been set for a pastor at a Buckatunna church, who was indicted by a Washington County grand jury for sexual abuse of young boys.

The Washington County grand jury indicted Tommy Newberry in February, alleging he sexually abused seven children. Newberry was a pastor at the Red Creek Church of God near the Alabama/Mississippi state line. Authorities believe the abuse started as early as 2003. Newberry’s court date is set for Oct. 18.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY RACHEL OHM MORNING SENTINEL
rohm@centralmaine.com | @rachel_ohm | 207-612-2386

CANAAN — Community members said Saturday that they were shocked and saddened to learn that a local youth ministry director allegedly sexually abused a young girl at his home in Clinton.

Lucas Savage, 37, co-director of Youth Haven Ministry on Easy Street, is charged with unlawful sexual contact and was arrested Friday by state police.

“I trusted him with my daughter,” said Kristine Rice, a Canaan resident who said her 11-year-old daughter used to attend ministry programs at Youth Haven. Savage was also her daughter’s soccer coach through the Canaan Community Sports program, Rice said.

“I talked to him in church and he was my daughter’s soccer coach. He never gave me any indication that there was anything to be concerned about, but if police are arresting him, they must have proof. The whole thing is very sad,” said Rice, 34.

She said she and Savage both attend Canaan Calvary Church. The church has supported Youth Haven Ministry financially in the past, but the two organizations are separate and have different boards of directors, according to a news release Saturday from the church’s elder board.

The Maine Department of Public Safety originally reported Friday that Savage was a youth pastor at the church, but the statement Saturday from the church said he never has been a youth pastor there, though he is a member of the church.

“The church leadership will be doing everything in our ability to support and minister to all families involved. We are making ourselves available to anyone involved or affected by the situation,” the release said. “Our ultimate desire is to see that the truth is brought forth. That being said, we will do everything in our ability to completely cooperate with the ongoing investigation, and we hope and believe that all involved will do the same.”

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

THE REV. BILL KEANE

Thirty-two years in the pulpit have shown me that ministry isn’t based on what you plan, it’s expressed in how you stand up to what can’t be foreseen. That’s why, after wrestling with futile internal protest, and seeing no definitively informative and positive change, I decided to make public the failure of my church hierarchy to expose one of its long-term ministers as a pedophile.

On the contrary, last April, the annual report of the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut included praise and gratitude for Eli Echevarria, convicted four months before and sentenced to prison for possessing child pornography involving young girls down to toddlers. The printed endorsement nearly sucked the life out of my soul.

More than a year earlier, the same man began visiting my congregation in Branford. We welcomed him, and in the following months he mixed with the congregation, including the children.

Then, after he had been with us for several months, when I had returned from a summer holiday, it was brought to my attention that Echevarria had been recently arrested for possessing child pornography. The arrest was for behavior when he was still preaching in New Haven, well before he crossed our threshold. I then discovered he had been convicted before on charges of illegal sexual contact in 2006, put on three years’ probation and registered as a sex offender.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

By Elaine Ayala
March 19, 2016

More than 1,000 people filed into St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on Saturday morning and at least 100 more stood behind those packed pews to say goodbye to one of the Archdiocese of San Antonio’s best-known and most-beloved priests.

Father Virgilio Elizondo, 80, died Monday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The church parking lot was filled an hour before the 11 a.m. memorial service, attended by dozens of brother clergy who wore the customary white vestments of funerals.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller presided over the Mass, and Father David Garcia, a longtime friend of Elizondo, delivered a sorrowful homily in the parish where Elizondo served for 20 years while traveling back and forth to teach at the University of Notre Dame.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By Tom Olsen on Mar 19, 2016

HOYT LAKES — In a small cemetery on the eastern edge of the Iron Range, one gravestone sticks out.

Literally.

A granite headstone honoring the Rev. Thomas Stack, who founded the Catholic church across the street, sits atop a hill near the entrance of the Hoyt Lakes Memorial Cemetery. The stone is the only one permitted to stand above ground in the municipal cemetery.

It would seem to be an unremarkable site in an off-the-beaten-path graveyard, but one Grand Rapids woman is fighting for the stone’s removal.

Pat Helms, who grew up in a devout Catholic family and came to the mining boom town as a teenager in the 1950s, says she believes her brother was sexually abused by the priest.

“It’s always bothered me to see that headstone,” she said. “To go and visit the cemetery, the way this man looms over my family, it makes me absolutely sick.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times

By Tom Davidson tdavidson@timesonline.com

PITTSBURGH — On behalf of the Catholic church, Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik wants to say “I’m sorry.”

They’re simple words, and it will be at a simple Service of Apology that starts at 7 p.m. Monday at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, where Zubik will say them.

“It’s to anybody who’s felt in their lives that they have been hurt by the church,” Zubik said.

It could be for something as simple as harsh words from a priest at confession or being offended by a homily at Mass, or as complex as the lingering hurt rendered by the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, Zubik said.

“I think the element of hurt is determined by the person who feels they have been hurt,” he said. “I think one of the biggest damages we do in terms of our relationships with other people is to be presumptive.

“We do have to say it. As human individuals we need to be convinced that someone is really sorry and asking for forgiveness,” he said. “There’s something in asking for forgiveness that can be very healing on both sides.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

19 Mar 2016

The Church of England’s decision to name the former Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, as a paedophile has been strongly criticised by a group of senior Church leaders, academics, politicians and retired police officers.

The group claims that the internal inquiry which found Bishop Bell guilty of abuse committed a “grave miscarriage of justice” after failing to interview key witnesses or examine documents which could have cleared his name.

Before he was condemned as a child sex abuser, in October last year, Bishop Bell had previously been one of the most revered figures in the Anglican church, praised for his work in speaking out against Hitler during the 1930s, welcoming refugees from Germany and later condemning the Allied destruction of German cities.

But his reputation was destroyed after the church accepted the claims of a woman who came forward to say she was sexually abused by him during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when she was aged between five and nine.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

Child sex statute reform opponents spend millions on lobbying

I was in Harrisburg on Monday, and The Morning Call’s Capitol correspondent, Steve Esack, helped me with some research while I attended a rally for child sex abuse statute-of-limitations reform and waited for a medical marijuana bill to finally hit the state House floor.

Here’s what he came up with: The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the umbrella group for every diocese and archdiocese in the state, spent $3.5 million on lobbying in Harrisburg between 2010 and 2015, according to Department of State records.

That breaks down to an annual average of $58,890. It includes payments to three of the state’s leading lobbying firms, which in turn send individual lobbyists to advocate before lawmakers and state officials the Catholic position on 32 topics, including “children’s issues,” “liability reform” and “prevention of child abuse.”

The expense reports list three types of expenses, direct and indirect communication and “gifts, hospitality, transportation and lodging for state officials or employees or their immediate families.”

The Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, one of several insurance industry lobbying organizations operating here, spent about $10.3 million on lobbying between 2015 and 2010, which comes to an annual average of about $1.7 million. The federation’s lobbying disclosure forms do not break out topics lobbyists discussed with lawmakers and other state officials, but it’s safe to say that this much spending gives the insurance industry a lot of clout.

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