ABUSE TRACKER

KENTUCKY
Daily Progress

By DYLAN LOVAN

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Louisville priest is set to go on trial on sexual abuse charges nearly 15 years after allegations first surfaced from a man who said he was molested by the priest at a Catholic summer camp in the 1970s.

The Rev. Joseph Hemmerle will face sexual abuse and sodomy charges at the trial beginning Monday in Meade County, where he ran the boys summer camp for decades.

Hemmerle is facing another trial in April over similar abuse allegations from a second alleged victim who attended Camp Tall Trees as a child.

The first allegations against Hemmerle were brought by Michael Norris in a 2001 letter Norris wrote to Hemmerle and Louisville archdiocese officials. His letter was sent just months before a slew of plaintiffs sued the archdiocese, alleging sexual abuse by dozens of priests. The archdiocese settled a class action lawsuit with 243 plaintiffs in 2003 for more than $25 million, but Norris never joined the suit.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s financial compensation program for victims of sexual abuse by New York Archdiocesan clergy does not include victims of sexual abuse by nuns, religious brothers, lay employees and volunteers who serve or have served in the Archdiocese of New York

Nuns, religious brothers, lay employees and volunteers who sexually abused children in the Archdiocese of New York must be held accountable through the New York Archdiocesan sexual abuse compensation program so that all childhood sexual abuse victims in the Archdiocese of New York have the opportunity to heal

Two childhood victims of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of New York, one by a religious sister (nun), and another by a Catholic high school lay teacher, will demand that their sexual abuse claims be included in the financial compensation program of the Archdiocese of New York

What
A demonstration and press conference demanding that Cardinal Timothy Dolan revise his financial compensation program for childhood victims of sexual abuse by Archdiocese of New York clergy to include childhood sexual abuse victims of nuns, religious brothers, lay employees and volunteers who serve or have served in the Archdiocese of New York

When
Sunday, November 27, 2016 from 10:30 am until Noon (Cardinal Dolan is the usual presider at the 10:15 am Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral) – Press conference at 11:15 am

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue between East 50th and East 51st Streets, New York, New York 10022

Who and Why
Cecilia Springer, an 85 year-old childhood sexual abuse victim of her high school Principal, Sr. Mary Andrew, S.U., at Notre Dame School, Manhattan, in 1945. She reported the sexual abuse by Sr. Mary Andrew, S.U., to officials of Notre Dame School and the Sisters of St. Ursula, who impolitely told her to take a hike. They have refused to help her.

Michael Meenan, who attended Fordham Prep School, the Bronx, in the 1980s and was sexually abused by a lay teacher of Fordham Prep, Fernand Beck, at a graduation party in Westchester County, New York. Michael Meenan reported the sexual abuse by the teacher to an official of the school, but that official did nothing about it. Recently, Michael Meenan met with lawyers and officials of Fordham Prep School, and they have yet to offer Michael any assistance.

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, and a victim of sexual abuse by three Irish Christian Brothers in the Archdiocese of New York

Cecilia Springer and Michael Meenan will demand of Cardinal Timothy Dolan that he:

1) Include childhood sexual abuse victims of religious order men (priests, deacons, and brothers), religious order women (nuns), and all lay employees and volunteers who serve or have served in the Archdiocese of New York in the financial compensation program for sexual abuse victims sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York

2) Allow all childhood sexual abuse victims in the Archdiocese of New York to try to heal by being included in the Archdiocese of New York compensation program.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Melbourne Catholic priest has resigned after allegations he sexually abused a trainee priest 30 years ago.

The ABC revealed that in 2012, the Catholic Church paid $75,000 in compensation to an 18-year-old former student priest, who alleged he was abused by Father John Walshe in 1982.

Father Walshe strenuously denied the abuse and said the relationship was consensual.

Parents from two schools in his parish in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, St John Vianney Primary School at Parkdale and St Patrick’s Primary School, Mentone have been lobbying for his resignation all year saying they no longer trusted him.

In this week’s parish bulletin, Father Walshe said it had been an immense honour serving the parish and his resignation would take effect on January 18.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

While the newly appointed Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes is set to arrive on Guam next Monday, Nov. 28, he has already taken steps to address some concerns of the island’s Catholic faithful.

Last week Wednesday, Nov. 16, Byrnes formally annulled the deed restriction placed on the Redemptoris Mater Seminary property in Yona, removing any doubt under whose patrimony the former Hotel Accion resides.

Additionally, Byrnes dissolved the RMS board of guarantors and restructured the board of directors to include only the archbishop of Agana.

Since then, Byrnes has additionally amended the articles of incorporation filed with the Department of Revenue and Taxation to no longer include verbiage specifying that RMS was a house of formation meant to “prepare men for the priesthood for the new evangelization following the life and itinerary of the Neocatechumenal Way,” according to court documents.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

Connor Swiney
Nov 26, 2016

Following lawsuits levied by those sexually abused by members of the Church, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Despite their financial situation, Archbishop Jerome Listecki says the Church’s mission goes on.

“Whatever we had, whether its ten cents or one hundred million dollars. This is our mission given by Christ,” says Listecki.

Listecki says he’s the first Archbishop of the Archdiocese to be in debt.

“You go into bankruptcy to be solvent. In order to make sure our obligations were fulfilled, we had to go into debt. We’re more than glad to do that so that we can bring some type of closure to those who are victims” says Listecki.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

A Melbourne Catholic priest has resigned after allegations he sexually abused a trainee priest 30 years ago.

The ABC revealed that in 2012, the Catholic Church paid $75,000 in compensation to an 18-year-old former student priest, who alleged he was abused by Father John Walshe in 1982.

Father Walshe strenuously denied the abuse and said the relationship was consensual.

Parents from two schools in his parish in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, St John Vianney Primary School at Parkdale and St Patrick’s Primary School, Mentone have been lobbying for his resignation all year saying they no longer trusted him.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 26, 2016

Guam’s Catholic Church marks a leadership milestone after 30 years when Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes arrives on island Monday.

As coadjutor archbishop, Byrnes succeeds Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, who has been the highest leader of the church since 1986 but was placed on leave by the Vatican on June 6. Apuron is facing a canonical trial over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys when he was a parish priest in the 1970s.

Apuron, 71, still holds the title of archbishop but he has not been back on Guam since May.

Byrnes, 58, will reside in the episcopal residence, which Apuron has “vacated,” according to a sign at the entrance to the archdiocese’s chancery office in Hagåtña.

Pope Francis sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai as temporary administrator of the church on Guam in June, but made a more permanent leadership solution on Oct. 31 with Byrnes’ appointment.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A reader writes an open letter to Br Hugh O’Neill, superior general of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, in Rome

Dear Superior General, – Only last year, in my late 50s, I woke up to the exact nature and general effects of abuse I suffered at the hands of two of your Christian Brothers here in Ireland before I was 12. One is dead, the other alive in Ireland and living a secular life outside your congregation.

Human memory is very complex, and such a lapse of time is not uncommon in cases of childhood abuse. Although I can assure you that my testimony is correct, perhaps it’s best that we immediately set aside any thoughts of court cases or lawyers.

I think we both understand too well how such thoughts exercise our worst fear reflexes, and how ineffective and expensive these processes can become. (I note with sadness that in May 2013 your congregation’s Australian province, at Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child abuse, admitted to hiring a private investigator to follow one of the victims. It spent nearly a million Australian dollars defending the perpetrator, plus hundreds of thousands to defend other members also accused of rape.)

There are other strategies to deal with these matters, ones that could bring about some desperately needed healing for all concerned.

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GUYANA
Daily Herald

GEORGETOWN, Guyana–Guyana’s self-proclaimed Pope, Philbert London, and his Beacon Ministries Church are anxious to get past his embarrassing sex scandal, but the Government hints that the religious leader is not off the hook just yet.

At least three Government Ministers say they are scrutinising the incident.

Earlier this month, several pornographic photographs of London and various women made the rounds on social media.

One photograph showed a smiling London cuddled next to an unidentified woman, while another photograph had a man, believed to be him, naked and sprawled between two naked women.

London has since asked his congregation for forgiveness. Members readily agreed, embracing their leader.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

ANDREW DUFFY, OTTAWA CITIZEN

A retired Ottawa priest, who has admitted he suffered from a powerful attraction to adolescents as a young cleric, appeared in court Friday on historical sexual assault charges.

Rev. Barry McGrory, 82, faces two counts of gross indecency and two counts of indecent assault in connection with offences alleged to have occurred in the late 1960s. The charges are based on the Criminal Code as it existed at that time.

McGrory, who now lives in Toronto, was released on a $10,000 bond and ordered not to communicate with the victim, or take work that would put him in a position of trust with anyone under the age of 16.

His case was remanded to December.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun
November 26, 2016

No journalist has tried harder than David Marr to smear Cardinal George Pell as a liar who covered up for pedophile priests and even enabled their crimes. The evidence against Pell is actually melting away.

Now Gerard Henderson exposes 13 of Marr’s worst false claims, omissions and baseless smears. Please read it all.

Here are some highlights, so to speak, from Henderson’s fact-checking of Marr’s most comprehensive smear sheet on Pell – his extended essay The Prince – Faith, Abuse & George Pell (Black Inc, 2014):

The fact is that much of David Marr’s case against Cardinal Pell collapses when reference is made to evidence heard by the Royal Commission and to Counsel-Assisting’s submissions to the Royal Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Judy Courtin

When I think things cannot get worse for my institutional child sexual abuse clients – wham! – another round of trickery is thrust at already vulnerable victims by the highly legalistic and parsimonious hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Whilst feigning compassion, this hierarchy is nervously propelling unknown millions of dollars at lawyers to help them defend the indefensible and to conceal the truth.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne, hiding in the shadows until the federal government led the way with a national redress scheme, announced recently it would offer ex gratia payments to victims, including those who had previously engaged in their internal complaints process, the Melbourne Response. The cap would be doubled to $150,000.

Friday’s announcement, frocked up to lure and exploit the misinformed and vulnerable, actually gazumped the repeatedly-promised and overdue release of a critically important independent review of George Pell’s Melbourne Response by retired judge Donnell Ryan.

Although provided to the royal commission, this review will never be publicly viewed, including by those valiant people without whom this review would not exist. Archbishop Hart uses victims, who want this review, as a decoy as he falsely claims that publishing the Ryan Review will only re-traumatise them. The immoral art of ecclesiastical concealment endures.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 26, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

Following two new allegations of sexual abuse by clergy this week, the “Archdiocese of Agana pledges to do all it can, under new leadership, to ensure that all people in our care, most especially our young and most vulnerable, thrive in a safe and loving environment fully protected from any harm,” a press release stated.

On Wednesday, KUAM News first reported two new complaints were filed in the Superior Court of Guam. 63-year-old Paul Joseph Borja alleged that while he was an altar boy at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago, Fr. Antonio Cruz sexually molested him. Borja was 12-years-old.

59-year-old Vicente T. San Nicolas also came forward. He alleged that when he was a teenager and an altar boy at San Isidro Church in Malojloj he was repeatedly molested by Fr. Louis Brouillard who was serving as the church’s priest. He alleged that the abuse occurred over a five year period. He described how Fr. Brouillard would walk around naked at the Carmelite Monastery where he lived. Court documents further stated that the priest would show him collections of various nude photos that he took of boys.

The two additional complaints bring the total to nine that have been filed against the church. One of those accused is Archbishop Anthony Apuron. Although Apuron has vehemently denied all the allegations made against him, Fr. Louis Brouillard confessed on video to molesting several boys while serving on Guam as a priest and a Scout Master for the Boy Scouts between the 1940s through the 1970s.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Anthony Locicero (Patch Staff) – November 25, 2016

A former Hackettstown church secretary is suing Gethsemane Lutheran Church and a retired pastor, whom she said made sexual comments towards her and took pictures of her chest and up her skirt, according to a report.

The woman, a Flanders resident who is married with children, sued both the church and Pastor Terrance Herzberg, 67, who retired early after his administrative assistant claimed he violated her privacy on June 27, the Daily Record reported.

That day, she wore a skirt to work and the pastor allegedly took pictures up her skirt, the Daily Record reported.

According to the Daily Record, the lawsuit alleges that the church violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination.

The lawsuit further claims that the pastor’s conduct interfered with the woman’s job performance, the Daily Record reported.

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CANADA
CBC News

A former Ottawa priest has been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in the late ’60s, and police believe there could be more victims.

Ottawa police began an investigation after receiving a complaint in September, the force said in a media release issued Friday.

William Barry McGrory, 82, has been charged with two counts of indecent assault on a male and two counts of gross indecency, which were Criminal Code offences in place at the time. He was expected to appear in court Friday.

McGrory currently lives in Toronto but used to be a priest with the Archdiocese of Ottawa.

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CANADA
Ottawa Start

BY OTTAWASTART STAFF · NOVEMBER 25, 2016

SHARE THIS

(press release)

(Ottawa) — Today, the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section charged a former Ottawa area priest following an investigation into allegations of a historical sexual assault.

In September 2016, investigators received a complaint and commenced an investigation into allegations of sexual assault, in Ottawa in the late 1960s, involving a priest with the Archdiocese of Ottawa. The offences involved a boy who was 15 years old at the time.

William Barry McGRORY, 82 years old, of Toronto is charged with two counts of Indecent Assault on a male and two counts of Gross Indecency, as per Criminal Code charges existing at the time of the offences.

He is scheduled to appear in court today.
SACA investigators are concerned that there could be other victims.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ottawa Police Service Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5944. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or by downloading the Ottawa Police app.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Friday, November 25, 2016

OTTAWA — A former priest is facing charges in Ottawa after an investigation into allegations of historical sexual assault.

Ottawa Police say they received a complaint in September and began investigating the allegations of incidents that occurred in the late 1960s.

Police say the allegations involved a priest with the Archdiocese of Ottawa and a boy who was 15 years old at the time.

They say William Barry McGrory, now 82 and living in Toronto, has been charged with two counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

[Diocese of Wurzburg pays 7000 euros to an abuse victim.]

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Diözese Würzburg spricht von einem „Serientäter“. Dieser wurde vor 16 Jahren strafrechtlich wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt. Im Juni 2015 reagierte auch die Kirche endgültig. Der damals bereits suspendierte Pfarrer W. wurde laisiert beziehungsweise aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen. Der Mann ist also kein Geistlicher mehr – auf höchste Anordnung von Papst Franziskus hin.

Anhänger des Ex-Pfarrers bezichtigen Opfer der Unglaubwürdigkeit

Es ist die Höchststrafe für einen Geistlichen. Anhänger von W. beurteilen den Fall anders: Sie bezichtigen Opfer der Unglaubwürdigkeit und betonen, dass sie W., der nach wie vor seine Unschuld beteuern würde, glauben.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 25, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

After decades of leadership under Archbishop Anthony Apuron, Monday will mark a new chapter for the Archdiocese of Agana. Vatican-appointed coadjutor Bishop Michael Byrnes is scheduled to arrive that day where he’ll hit the ground running meeting with local clergy that same morning.

Celebrations kick-off on Wednesday where the public is invited to a prayer for the beginning of the Episcopal Ministry of Coadjutor Archbishop set for 10:30am at the Dulce Nombre De Maria Cathedral Basilica followed by his first islandwide mass at 6pm. Celebrations will draw to a close on December 8 with the islandwide commemoration of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Concepcion, which includes the celebration of Santa Marian Kamalen and the close of the Golden Jubilee of the archdiocese.

Bishop Byrnes was appointed to the local archdiocese on October 31 amid several allegations of molestation made against Archbishop Apuron, who is anticipated to face a canonical trial in the Vatican.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Allegations of bullying and sexual assault at the headquarters of the national child abuse inquiry have not been taken seriously enough and the inquiry’s response to these claims has been “inadequate”, a Commons report has claimed.

A catalogue of problems has “seriously diminished” confidence in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and its ability to deliver on objectives in a “timely and effective way”, MPs warned.

The Home Affairs Committee pointed out that experienced counsel have been departing from the probe at an “alarming rate”.

Ben Emmerson QC, the most senior lawyer appointed to the inquiry resigned in September, following an allegation he had sexually assaulted a female “inquiry worker” in the lift at its offices. Mr Emmerson strenuously denied the claim.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

JOHN EDENS

A scathing report by a powerful parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom has described Kiwi judge Lowell Goddard’s refusal to answer questions in person as “shameful” and “disgraceful”.

Dame Goddard quit in August as head of the UK inquiry (IICSA) into cases of historical child sex abuse and, in early November, she effectively ruled out appearing in person before British MPs.

She was the subject of intense scrutiny during her tenure, hit out at “malicious defamatory attacks” by some media and said she was disappointed there was “no government defence of me in England” when she resigned.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Timna Jacks

Controversial Melbourne figure Father John Walshe has resigned from his position as parish priest in Melbourne’s south east, following a parent-led campaign calling for him to step down.

In a bulletin leaked to Fairfax Media on Friday, Father Walsh announced he would be stepping down after nearly 25 years in the job.

The news was to be circulated at the Mentone-Parkdale parish mass on Saturday evening.

“I have this week, with the agreement of the archbishop, submitted my resignation from the office of parish priest of the Parish of Mentone-Parkdale,” he said in the statement.

“This will take effect from 18 January 2017.

“I wanted to communicate this to you as soon as possible. When I leave early next year I will be four days short of having completed 25 years in the parish. It has been my immense honour to have been with you for this time.” …

The resignation comes after revelations Father Walshe was banned from ministering in Ireland for committing an act of sexual abuse, but was allowed to oversee two Catholic primary schools by the archbishop, who described the act as simply a “breach of his vow of celibacy”.

Father Walshe came under fire last year after he testified on behalf of Cardinal George Pell at the sexual abuse royal commission, which was investigating claims then Bishop Pell tried to buy the silence of a victim of notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale in 1993.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Child sexual abuse victims will receive compensation of up to $150,000 under an interim redress scheme set up by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.

The Melbourne diocese has decided to establish its own interim redress scheme, ahead of the federal government’s proposed national system that begins in 2018 and any Victorian government model.

Chancellor Michael Shand QC said the scheme will operate as part of a new independent body investigating sexual abuse complaints.

The Melbourne diocese has followed the federal government in setting the maximum compensation payments for child abuse victims at $150,000 under the interim scheme, as well as providing counselling.

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UNITED KINGDOM
TVNZ

[with video]

The New Zealand former head of the United Kingdom’s inquiry into child sexual abuse has again been slammed by UK MPs and warned she’ll be hauled in front of them if she ever steps foot in the country again.

Dame Lowell Goddard has been criticised for refusing to appear before a committee of MPs looking into the work of the troubled inquiry despite receiving almost $NZ840,500 a year in pay and allowances while she was its chair.

She resigned abruptly in August after just 18 months.

The Commons Home Affairs Committee report said Dame Lowell’s failure to appear in front of it was “disgraceful”.

“We regard this refusal as falling well below the standards we would expect of any public servant,” it said in the report.

“Should Dame Lowell travel to the UK in the future, we would invoke parliamentary procedures to seek to summon her to give oral evidence.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

Dame Lowell Goddard’s refusal to give evidence to MPs following her resignation as chairwoman of the inquiry into child sexual abuse was “disgraceful”, a report has concluded.

The Home Affairs Committee has been reviewing the inquiry, which has been beset by problems since it was set up in 2014.

In its report, the committee said it would invoke its power to summon the New Zealand judge – who became the third inquiry chief to resign, if she returns to the UK.

Confidence in the inquiry’s work had been “seriously diminished”, the report found.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Peggy Wright , @PeggyWrightDR November 24, 2016

A former secretary for Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Hackettstown has sued the church and now-retired pastor, alleging he frequently made sexually-charged comments to her and used a camera in June to take pictures of her chest and under her skirt.

The woman, a Flanders resident whose identity the Daily Record has elected to withhold, sued the church and former Pastor Terrance Herzberg, 67, who accelerated his planned retirement by departing shortly after his administrative assistant claimed that he violated her privacy on June 27.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney John F. McDonnell, was made public Wednesday in Superior Court, Morristown. It charges that the church violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination and that Herzberg’s conduct interfered with her job performance and “created an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.” The complaint said that Herzberg’s behavior constituted a “constructive discharge” of the woman’s employment with the church because she could not work in that environment.

Interim church Pastor Rev. Richard Izzard said that Wednesday that he, the church and congregants are aware of the allegations and that Herzberg retired over the summer, sooner than he had planned.

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NEW JERSEY
Catholic Star Herald

The Office of Child and Youth Protection is announcing CAP (Child Assault Prevention) sessions. CAP is the safe environment training program for adults who have regular contact with minors.

Attendance is required in order to comply with the USCCB’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The policy of the Diocese of Camden is that adults will attend CAP once every five years.

CAP 1 teaches attendees to recognize child abuse and neglect and how to report to the proper authorities. CAP 1 is for new volunteers and employees.

CAP 2 is called CAP’s Bullying Prevention Program and is a workshop addressing bullying awareness and bullying prevention. Cyber-bullying is also presented.

CAP 3 is called Cyber-Empowerment and is a workshop which promotes adults understanding of cyber activity of youth while teaching them realistic ways to help children keep their own rights and guard the rights of others in the cyber-sphere. Please note if you are holding a (CAP 3) session you will need to provide the following: LCD Projector, Laptop, Screen and Speakers.

Each presentation is 90 minutes.

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MEXICO
Catholic Register

BY DAVID AGREN, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
November 24, 2016

MEXICO CITY – When Father Daniel Portillo set about designing programs to protect children and address allegations of sexual abuse, he quickly encountered a core challenge in Mexico: an unwillingness to acknowledge the very existence of a problem with predatory priests.

“The first aspect to overcome is saying that this does not exist in Mexico. It exists. Pedophilia among priests exists,” said Father Portillo, a professor at the Pontifical University of Mexico and the director of the newly formed Center for Investigation and Interdisciplinary Training for the Protection of Minors at the school.

“We were in denial, thinking and supposing that it didn’t exist or it wasn’t here or it was an American or Anglo-Saxon problem,” Father Portillo said. “It’s a problem hitting us at a global level.”

Sex crimes committed by priests against children have caused scandals in Mexico and undercut the church’s credibility.

That credibility was especially hurt by revelations that the Legionaries of Christ founder, Father Marciel Maciel, who was considered close with some in the Catholic hierarchy and the country’s political and economic elites, sexually abused seminarians. The allegations of abuse made against Father Maciel stayed out of the press, while an advertising boycott was brought against a lone news outlet to report the scandal in the late 1990s.

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OSTERREICH
Gegen Sexuelle Gewalt

[Cardinal Schönborn’s lies …]

Frau Nationalratspräsidentin Bures plante den Staatsakt „Geste der Verantwortung“ für ehemalige Heimkinder ursprünglich ohne Beisein der Kirche. Ein halbes Jahr ging es aber hinter den Kulissen hoch her, weil sich Kardinal Schönborn unbedingt als Staatsaktredner mit hineindrängen wollte.

Dort sagte er: „Ich bitte um Vergebung. „Wir haben vertuscht, wenn Missbrauch bekannt geworden ist, Leute versetzt und nicht abgesetzt. Ich bitte um Vergebung“. Er betonte, dass die Kirche wissentlich Täter versetzt hat.

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MALLORCA
Mallorca Zeitung

[Ex-Prior denies new allegations of child abuse.]

24.11.2016

Ein ehemaliger Vorsteher des Klosters Lluc hat vor Gericht die gegen ihn erhobenen Vorwürfe des sexuellen Missbrauchs an mehreren Internatsschülern kategorisch zurückgewiesen. Nachdem ein erstes Verfahren wegen Verjährung der mutmaßlichen Straftaten eingestellt worden war, musste sich der Priester am 10. November wegen eines weiteren Falls erstmals den Fragen der Richterin in Inca stellen, wie die MZ-Tageszeitung “Diario de Mallorca” am Donnerstag (24.11.) berichtet.

Die neuen Vorwürfe erheben die Eltern eines ehemaligen Internatsschülers im Kloster Lluc. In den Jahren 2012 und 2013 soll der damalige Prior des Klosters einen zu der Zeit siebenjährigen sowie zwei weitere Jungen in das Büro zitiert und an den Genitalien berührt haben. Die anderen beiden mutmaßlichen Opfer bestreiten die Vorfälle.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

RABBI Yaakov Glasman of St Kilda Hebrew Congregation has become Australia’s new “top rabbi”.

He was elected as president of the Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ) at its first annual general meeting in Sydney last week.

The body, representing more than 100 congregational rabbis, was established in the wake of last year’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which saw the integrity of a number of senior spiritual leaders being questioned and led to calls for an overhaul of existing rabbinic structures, including the existing Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia.

According to Rabbi Glasman, the RCANZ aims to start afresh with new leaders and a determination to make sure rabbis are professional and accountable.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

With the filing of two more complaints Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Agana now faces a total of nine civil suits filed with the Superior Court of Guam that allege, among other things, child sexual abuse by priests of local parishes.

The first complaint, from 63-year-old Chalan Pago resident Paul Joseph Borja, stated that Borja was molested by a local parish priest when he was serving as an altar boy at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in 1965.

In court documents filed Wednesday, Borja alleges that the now-deceased Rev. Antonio C. Cruz, who served as a priest for the Chalan Pago Parish at the time, molested and abused him.

The allegations presented in the suit state that Rev. Cruz had obtained permission from Borja’s mother for Borja to meet Cruz at his residence on the second floor of the Chalan Pago Parish. According to court documents, the events that transpired that night constituted sexual abuse that included Cruz performing oral copulation on the then-12-year-old Borja.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

by: Ian Fairclough

Weird. That’s how defence lawyer Clayton Ruby described the trial of Rev. Brent Hawkes during closing arguments in Kentville provincial court Wednesday.

“This is a weird case, and the evidence is weird,” he said, adding the weirdness will make it a proceeding that will be remembered years from now.

“There’s a theme through my submissions, to watch for the weird case,” he said. “Because the weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don’t tell you.”

Ruby conceded that he didn’t have the evidence to show the three Crown witnesses were lying, but “we do have an abundance of evidence that their testimony is unreliable.”

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CANADA
Global News

Canadian Press

KENTVILLE, N.S. – Closing arguments were made today in the trial of a prominent Toronto pastor accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago in Nova Scotia.

Brent Hawkes, a high-profile rights activist, has pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.

The charges stem from events in the mid-1970s, when he was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.

The trial in Kentville, N.S., has heard emotional testimony from a middle-age man who said Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

ALY THOMSON
KENTVILLE, N.S. — The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016

Brent Hawkes’ lawyer told his gross indecency trial Wednesday that the evidence against the Toronto pastor is “weird,” but the prosecutor contended that doesn’t make it any less plausible.

Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said in his closing argument that the entire case will be remembered as weird, amid “an abundance of evidence” that the testimony of the witnesses is unreliable.

“The weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don’t tell you,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts in Kentville, N.S.

A middle-age man testified last week that Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., in the mid-1970s, and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old. Two other men have also testified they attended the get-together as teenagers, and one said he witnessed Hawkes performing oral sex on the complainant.

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CANADA
Daily Xtra

Matthew DiMera

“This is a weird case, and the evidence is weird,” defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said today in his closing arguments in the Brent Hawkes sexual assault trial.

Hawkes, a longtime leader of Toronto’s gay community and recipient of the Order of Canada, is facing one charge of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency for allegedly having oral sex with a 16-year-old more than 40 years ago in Kings County, NS, when he was a high school teacher.

“I have not got the evidence to show that the three witnesses are lying,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts. “But we do have an abundance of evidence that their testimony is unreliable.”

The Crown’s case against Hawkes is based almost entirely on eyewitness testimonies from three witnesses whose identities are protected under a publication ban.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

24 November, 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published more than 70 submissions received from a range of individuals and organisations in response to its consultation paper on criminal justice issues.

The consultation paper was released on 5 September this year. It elicited responses from survivors, advocacy and support groups, legal practitioner representative bodies, Directors of Public Prosecutions, academics and governments.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the large number of submissions reflected the importance the community placed on improving the criminal justice system.

“The Royal Commission has long been aware of the need to better understand the contemporary response of the criminal justice system to institutional child sexual abuse and identify ways it can be made more effective,” Mr Reed said.

“These submissions will be instrumental in informing our final recommendations on criminal justice.”

The Royal Commission has invited a range of groups and individuals to speak to their submissions as part of a further Royal Commission public hearing on criminal justice issues, commencing on Monday 28 November.

The consultation paper covered issues such as joint trials, admissibility of an accused’s ‘bad character’ and matters such as police communication and their response to reporting of child sexual abuse, prosecution responses, delays and sentencing.

The consultation paper and its submissions form an important part of the Royal Commission’s wider work in criminal justice, which include an issues paper, public roundtables, research and a previous public hearing.

Read the submissions.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

Prosecutors are being trained to be more understanding of abuse and its victims ahead of a predicted flood of court cases related to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The harrowing story of Andy Kershaw, who was subjected to brutality and abuse after being taken into care in England at the age of eight has been made into a film by the training consultancy Safe To Say.

The film, commissioned by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), will now form part of its staff training.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Joel Adams , Reporter / Argus_JoelA

AN INQUIRY has been launched into the Church’s handling of a settlement paid to a woman who was abused as a child by the wartime Bishop of Chichester.

Liberal Democrat peer and QC Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer into the case, and his report is expected next summer.

However, there is no promise that the final review will be made available to the public.

The formal terms of reference insist: “ The Church of England will determine whether the full report can be sufficiently redacted or otherwise anonymised to enable its publication without risking disclosure of the complainant’s identity.”

In February The Argus exclusively told the victim’s story. She was sat on the bishop’s knee at the age of five and molested while being told it was a secret because God loved her.

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AUSTRALIA
Sunbury Leader

SUNBURY’S Salesian College will host a public apology to victims and loved ones affected by decades of historical sexual abuse there.

Australia-Pacific Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco provincial Father Greg Chambers will present the apology on December 8 to victims and their families in gardens in front of the Rupertswood Mansion, where a plaque will be placed on a “sorry stone”.

Years of abuse at the then boarding school at Rupertswood Mansion from the 1970s to ’90s has led to past priests being imprisoned, while other staff associated with the college at the time have been ordered to pay substantial compensation.

The dark history of Salesian College has again come to light with the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Salesian College principal Mark Brockhus said the apology and monument was a starting point in confronting the college’s past which had impacted on dozens of victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Christopher Knaus

Anti-child abuse campaigners have urged federal and state governments to avoid playing political games with the national redress scheme, after Victoria said the federal government for “dragging its heels” and keeping survivors in the dark.

The council of Australian governments meeting early next month could be critical to the future of the national redress scheme, which was a core recommendation of the royal commission in September last year.

Social services minister Christian Porter announced the proposed $4.3 billion model of redress earlier this month, which allowed states, territories, and institutions to opt in or out. But most states and territories remain cautious and are yet to fully commit.

This week, NSW, Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT told Guardian Australia they were still waiting on further detail from the federal government on how the scheme would work.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Nicola Anderson
PUBLISHED
24/11/2016

Former Irish President Mary McAleese has described her doctorate study in canon law as “sleeping in the same bed as a python”.

“You never finish it, you just get to the point where you have to abandon it,” Mrs McAleese said.

She spent the last three years living the quiet life in convents and seminaries in the Vatican with a quip that her social life was “very active” given the 11pm curfew.

Her studies have “filled her head up with crap”, the former President said. …

Instead, she wants to look at the hierarchical structure of the Church, which she says is “not serving its purpose”.

She slated the Vatican’s recent threat to withdraw from the UN Convention on Children’s Rights over its discomfort in being cross-examined on issues like child sexual abuse.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

[with video]

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — A pastor at a Grand Rapids church was arrested after police say he tried to meet an 11-year-old girl for sex.

David Robert Diehl, 39, of Kentwood, was arraigned Wednesday on child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime charges.

Diehl was arrested on Nov. 22 after he responded to an undercover officer’s post on Grand Rapids Craigslist, which warned about a poster offering “sex with daughters.”

Michigan State Police say Diehl is a pastor at Church on Fire in Grand Rapids.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Anne Connolly

Bishop Greg Thompson says members of the Newcastle Anglican diocese acted like a Sopranos-style protection racket when it dealt with sex abuse complaints.

“What’s particularly distinctive about the story of abuse in this diocese is the habituated protection of perpetrators and the undermining of survivors as they came forward. It was like a religious protection racket,” Bishop Thompson told 7.30.

“You could call it like a religious Sopranos, people who pretended to be religious behaved appallingly. An organised crime against survivors.”

The bishop also told how he was abused by two senior priests — including former bishop Ian Shevill — at an R-rated movie in the 1970s.

“The abuse was groping and touching and grooming me to see sexual assault as a normal thing, as an acceptable thing and as part of becoming a person in the church. That’s how corrosive it was in that moment,” he told 7.30.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

A defamation lawsuit filed against a national Catholic organization by a former altar boy whose sexual abuse case was part of a $10 million settlement with the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese is now awaiting a federal appellate court ruling.

The lawsuit, originally filed by Jon David Couzens in Jackson County Circuit Court in 2013, named as defendants the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; its president and CEO, Bill Donohue; the KC Catholic League; and two Kansas City men who were officers of the now-dissolved local organization.

Couzens alleged that Donohue published false statements about him in news releases, on the Catholic League’s website and in documents distributed to churches. The lawsuit also accused the defendants of inflicting emotional distress.

The Catholic League, which is based in New York City and describes itself as the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, argued that the case belonged in federal court and was successful in its motion to move the lawsuit to U.S. District Court. That court dismissed the lawsuit last year, ruling that the material was first published in New York, where the one-year statute of limitations for defamation claims had expired. Missouri has a two-year statute of limitations.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The mother of a mentally disabled St. Francois County man sued the United States in federal court here Tuesday, alleging that a priest had abused the man when he was 8 and living in Hawaii.

The lawsuit says that the Rev. Mark Matson worked for the U.S. military under a contract at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii as a priest and religious teacher.

Matson was a Catholic priest who was a member of the Theatines religious order, based in Colorado. He was ordained in 1976.

The family of the alleged victim was stationed at Tripler at the time.

The suit says that Matson sexually assaulted the boy at least six times after Sunday services in 1997-98, raping and spanking him. The first time, he asked the boy if he wanted to see a magic trick, the suit says. Matson threatened the boy with hell if he told anyone what happened, and also told the boy that his parents knew and approved, the suit says.

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AUSTRALIA
Mercury

Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
November 24, 2016

An Anglican bishop says he’s received warnings from parishioners that he is not safe in his own diocese after he revealed claims of his abuse as a young man by senior church clerics.

Newcastle bishop Greg Thompson said cathedral parishioners had turned their backs on him, and screws had been placed in his staff members’ tyres.

He said the message was that he would face public harassment and public shame if he did not “follow what they want me to do,” he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday.

As bishop of a community plagued by systemic child sexual abuse over decades, he says a national church response is needed as he says the Anglican “house is burning”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

The Anglican bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, has told a royal commission a priest said in the 1970s he would “get ahead” in the church if he offered sexual favours.

Bishop Thompson was the final witness of the child abuse royal commission’s hearing into Newcastle’s Anglican diocese that is investigating widespread abuse carried out over decades.

The current bishop began his evidence by outlining his childhood, breaking down at times when he recalled being sexually abused by two male boarders staying at his home in his early teens.

Bishop Thompson explained how he got to know a priest, Eric Barker, in Newcastle in the 1970s who began to assault him when he was 19.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WBTW

By Kendall McGee
Published: November 22, 2016

HARTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – Hartsville police say they have arrested a Bishopville pastor for indecent exposure after several reports of a “flasher” in areas near Coker College.

According to Lt. Mark Blair with Hartsville police, officers responded to Second Street near Coker College Saturday at 8 p.m. after receiving a call about a man exposing himself to a woman.

Police found the vehicle the victim described and spoke to the suspect, who later confessed to the crime and several other incidents in the area.

Incident reports from Hartsville police list multiple reports of a man in a white car exposing himself to women near Coker College.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father appointed:

Rev. Gerard W. Battersby and Rev. Robert J. Fisher as auxiliaries of the archdiocese of Detroit (area 10,104, population 4,266,416, Catholics 1,220,724, priests 605, permanent deacons 221, religious 1,068), United States of America.

Bishop-elect Battersby was born in 1960 in Detroit and was ordained a priest in 1998. He holds a licentiate in pastoral theology from the “Sacred Heart” seminary of Detroit, and is completing his doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the St. Thomas University, Rome. He has served as parish vicar and pastor of various parishes in Detroit, director of formation at the “Sacred Heart” major seminary, vicar forane and member of the presbyteral council. He is currently parish priest of St. Mary of Redford and vice-rector of the “Sacred Heart” major seminary of Detroit.

Bishop-elect Fisher was born in 1959 in Detroit and was ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management services from the University of Detroit and studied philosophy and completed his studies in theology at the “Sacred Heart” seminary of Detroit. He has served as parish vicar, director of priestly vocations for the archdiocese of Detroit, pastor of a number of parishes and member of the presbyteral council. He is currently pastor of the national Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak.

Rev. Timothy Edward Freyer as auxiliary of the diocese of Orange in California (area 2,025, population 3,114,363, Catholics 1,536,438, priests 276, permanent deacons 219, religious 420), United States of America. The bishop-elect was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 1989. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies in the “Saint John” Seminary, Camarillo. He has served as parish vicar in Los Alamitos, San Clemente and Laguna Beach, and parish priest in Fullerton and Anaheim. He is currently vicar for the clergy.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

Niraj Warikoo , Detroit Free Press November 23, 2016

Pope Francis has named two priests in metro Detroit to be auxiliary bishops, replacing a retiring bishop and an outgoing one.

The Archdiocese of Detroit, which has about 1.3 million Catholics in a six-country region in southeast Michigan, announced today that Rev. Gerard Battersby, 56, and Rev. Robert Fisher, 57, will be ordained in January as the archdiocese’s 29th and 30th assistant bishops. Last year, Auxilary Bishop Francis Reiss retired and last month, Bishop Michael J. Byrnes was named to lead the archdiocese in Guam.

“All of us in the Archdiocese of Detroit are deeply grateful that Pope Francis has named Father Battersby and Father Fisher, two well-loved and respected priests in our archdiocese, to be auxiliary bishops in our local church,” Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron, said in a statement released today by the Archdiocese. “Both of these new bishops bring a rich set of gifts and talents to the roles they will play in leading our community in our mission to share the Good News of Jesus.”

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TENNESSEE
Raw Story

DAVID EDWARDS
23 NOV 2016

Two Tennessee churches — both with current or former leaders connected to sexual abuse — have decided to restructure a merger in light of recent allegations.

Earlier this week, the Memphis Police Department confirmed that it was investigating a city of Memphis library employee, Christopher Carwile, after he was accused of sexually assaulting at least three children while working as a youth minister at the Church at Schilling Farms (formerly known as Immanuel Baptist Church) 18 years ago.

After learning that Carwile was working at the Memphis library, Michael Hansen, his brother Brooks and childhood friend Kenny Stubblefield came forward with sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1998. Carwile was placed on administrative by the library pending the outcome of the investigation.

Michael Hansen told the Commercial Appeal that the victims informed Schilling Farms Pastor Scott Payne about the assault. And although Payne fired Carwile at the time, Hansen said that the church refused to file a police report.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Newcastle’s Anglican bishop, who has gone public with his own alleged abuse at the hands of clergy, is expected to give evidence at the last day of a royal commission hearing into the diocese on Thursday.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has previously heard Bishop Greg Thompson faces opposition from some prominent parishioners, who question timing of his abuse claims.

His expected evidence on Thursday will come the day after accused child sex abuser and former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence testified allegations against him were not true.

The royal commission heard he and his male partner sent cards to a teen, known as CKH, who alleges he first had three-way “sex” with the pair at 17 in the early 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
Mercury

CATRYNA BILYK, Mercury
November 23, 2016

LIKE many Tasmanians, I was shocked and appalled by evidence given at the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

All abuse of children is horrendous, but it is particularly abhorrent for abuse to be committed by people entrusted with the care of those children.

I welcome the Turnbull Government’s decision to fund trauma counselling and other support, and to appoint an advisory committee of survivors and their supporters.

However, I have concerns about the Government’s proposed opt-in redress scheme. Under the proposed scheme, states, territories and institutions responsible for allowing child sexual abuse to take place can opt-in. This means if the institutions that perpetrated the abuse do not want to pay, they won’t have to. This is not good enough.

Leonie Sheedy from Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) described allowing the states to opt-in as a cop-out. We must do better.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Toby Mann
Australian Associated Press

A former Marist Brother accused of sexually abusing young boys at Catholic boarding schools was a strict disciplinarian who used violence on his alleged victims, a court has heard.

Brett O’Connor was a dormitory master at a school on Sydney’s North Shore when he allegedly began indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy under his charge and left his alleged victim frozen in fear in his bed, Sydney’s District Court heard on Wednesday.

He has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges relating to the alleged abuse of three victims at two schools in the late 1980s, crown prosecutor David Patch said.

“The accused was a very strict disciplinarian and sometimes used violence on the boys,” Mr Patch said.

One alleged victim was hit with a cricket bat, the court heard.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Ruaidhrí Giblin
PUBLISHED
23/11/2016

A former priest who sexually abused his niece more than 30 years ago has avoided jail for a second time, despite an appeal by prosecutors in a case described as “rare and exceptional”.

The 60-year-old, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually assaulting his niece on dates in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

She was aged between six and 13 and he was in his 20s. He was given wholly suspended 18-month sentences by Judge Pat McCartan on March 1.

The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review of the man’s sentence on grounds that it was unduly lenient. However, the Court of Appeal found yesterday that the sentencing judge acted within his discretion.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

The Crown had wanted to bring forward witnesses who would say that Hawkes made alcohol available to students who visited his home, but says the defence seems to be suggesting that it was available.

While he lost an application Tuesday to bring forward rebuttal evidence, the Crown attorney in the Brent Hawkes trial says he thinks he was able to get his point across because of admissions the defence made during the application.

Bob Morrison had been attempting to have two former West Kings District High School students testify that Hawkes, who is accused of indecent assault and gross indecency against a student at the school when he was a teacher there in the mid-1970s, made alcohol available to them when they were at his home for gatherings.

Hawkes had testified during his Kentville provincial court trial that he didn’t want students driving home drunk and didn’t give students alcohol, but added that didn’t mean they didn’t sneak some booze at events at his home that were attended by students and teachers. He said he only gave alcohol to teachers.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Tues., Nov. 22, 2016

KENTVILLE, N.S.—Brent Hawkes’ lawyers conceded Tuesday that teenagers drank alcohol at the Toronto pastor’s Nova Scotia trailer during the mid 1970s, much to the prosecutor’s surprise.

Crown lawyer Bob Morrison had intended to call rebuttal witnesses to testify that other students, and not only the three witnesses who testified last week at Hawkes’ gross indecency trial, drank alcohol at his Greenwood, N.S., home.

But the defence said they didn’t disagree with the Crown on that point, so there was no need to hear from the witnesses.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” Morrison said outside the Kentville, N.S., courtroom on Tuesday, the fifth day of the trial. “That’s not what I had recollected (Hawkes’) evidence was . . . but the defence did concede that yes, in fact, he was aware that was taking place.”

Morrison and defence lawyer Clayton Ruby will make closing arguments Wednesday in a case that has challenged the memory of witnesses as they recounted events that happened more than 40 years ago.

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CANADA
CNW

Claims process begins in residential schools settlement affecting people who attended schools in Cartwright, North West River, Makkovik, Nain and St. Anthony that were run by the International Grenfell Association or the Moravian Church, announces Koskie Minsky, LLP.

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador authorized this notice.

This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.

ST. JOHN’S, NL, Nov. 22, 2016 /CNW/ – The $50 million settlement (“Settlement”) between the Federal Government of Canada (“Canada”) and former students of the Schools in Cartwright, North West River, Makkovik, Nain or St. Anthony run by the International Grenfell Association (“IGA”) or the Moravian Church (the “Schools”) has now been approved by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador and the claims process has now started. The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador authorized this press release, and other forms of notice, as part of a notification program to inform former students about their legal rights in this class action settlement.

Former students sued Canada about the management and operation of the Schools and the harms and abuses committed against the children who attended them. The lawsuits claimed that Canada exposed former students to child abuse, neglect, and physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. The Plaintiffs claimed that Canada did not protect students’ physical and mental well-being even though it was its duty to do so.

The application to have these Schools added to the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (“IRSSA”) was denied. These Schools are not considered eligible Indian Residential Schools in IRSSA, and former students were not able to get compensation for attendance or pursue abuse claims as part of the Individual Assessment Process in that settlement.

Instead, the claims for these Schools were litigated for almost nine years and the lawyers for the Plaintiffs began presenting their claims at the trial which started in September 2015 and was adjourned in February 2016 to allow for settlement discussions.

The representative former students and Canada then reached the $50 million Settlement that provides compensation for former students who attended. The Settlement has now been approved by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Unless they have previously removed themselves from the lawsuit, the Settlement is available for anyone who was alive as of November 23, 2006 and who attended the IGA or Moravian Schools in the following locations between the dates listed (“Class Members”):

i Cartwright – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1964

ii Northwest River – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1980

iii Nain – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1973

iv Makkovik – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1960

v St. Anthony – April 1, 1949 to June 30, 1979

The class action no longer includes claims for the “Family Class” (family members of the former students who attended the schools). These claims were discontinued at trial by a decision of the Court. There is no compensation available for the Family Class in this Settlement and any further claims are now barred.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By David Marchese

A defrocked Anglican dean has vehemently denied at a royal commission hearing that he was the leader of a group of child abusers, but admitted he failed to act when he “suspected” a priest in his charge was having sex with a teenage boy.

The ex-dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, has returned to the witness box in Sydney after beginning his evidence last week when he was questioned intensely about the events leading up to his defrocking in 2012.

Mr Lawrence has been labelled one of the most influential priests in Newcastle’s history, with a strong sphere of supporters that rallied behind him during his time as dean of the city from 1984 until 2008.

The former priest was questioned at the child abuse royal commission today about his time as a rector in Griffith, where a man known as CKH claims he was sexually abused by Mr Lawrence as a teenager.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

23 Nov 2016 Mar-Vic Cagurangan – For Variety

HAGÅTÑA — Although the Archdiocese of Agana has officially taken over the Redemptoris Mater Serminary building from the Neocatecumental Way, the conflicting accounts of acquisition and ownership of the property have become a contest of who’s telling the truth.

Dr. Ricardo Eusebio, a former member of the recently abolished RMS board, said the ownership of the property has stirred confusion that was caused by a “gigantic mountain of lies.”

“There was no truth to the accusations by various organizations that the property was ‘given away’ to the Neocatecumental Way and alienated from the Archdiocese of Agana,” Eusebio said.

At a press conference on Monday, Eusebio also lambasted Mother Superior Dawn Marie, head of the Carmelite Order, who said last week the dispute over the Yona property and the sex scandals in the church have created a “toxic environment” that forced the Carmelite nuns to end their 50-year mission on Guam.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 23, 2016

By Nestor Licanto

Archbishop Michael Byrnes is taking no chances in asserting his control over the Redemptoris Mater Seminary. He filed a complaint on November 18 in the superior court against any others who might try to claim ownership over the seminary.

The filings state it is meant to be an ancillary measure to protect and preserve the plaintiff – Archbishop Byrnes’ – rights with regard to the Yona properties, and that any future claimants, including members of the Neocatechumenal Way, have no enforceable legal or equity interest. The ten-page complaint also lays-out the background of the seminary’s purchase by the archdiocese, and seeks the court’s recognition that Archbishop Byrnes has sole and exclusive legal title.

The court action follows document filings at land management last week in which Byrnes also asserted control over the seminary and removed the previous board made up of members from the Neocatechumenal Way.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Nov 23, 2016

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

And now there are nine – two more complaints have been filed in the Superior Court of Guam involving allegations of molestation by local clergy.

63-year-old Paul Joseph Borja alleges when he was 12 he was an altar boy for the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago. He says Father Antonio Cruz, who is now deceased, sexually molested and abused him. He added that when he moved to California with his family in 1968 Fr. Cruz just happened to be visiting the state and his parents invited him to their house for dinner. Borja says he went for a walk with him during which Fr. Cruz allegedly gave him an envelope with $50 inside. He says he was under the impression that the priest was trying to buy his silence.

The next victim to come forward is 59-year-old Vicente T. San Nicolas. He alleges that when he was a teenager and an altar boy at San Isidro Catholic Church in Malojloj he was molested repeatedly by Fr. Louis Brouillard who was serving as a priest there. He alleges the sexual abuse occurred over a five year period. San Nicola alleges Fr. Brouillard would ask his parents’ permission to stay the night at the Carmelite Monastery in Malojloj where the priest was living. He alleges Fr. Brouillard would walk around naked and would show him collections of various nude photos of minor boys that were taken by the priest.

Court document state that although he never spoke about it, he believes the priest also molested his now deceased brother who would also spend time at the convent. San Nicolas also alleged Fr. Brouillard also sexually molested him when he was a boy scout and the priest was a scout master.

Additionally San Nicolas alleges that he told a Deacon Jeff Barcinas about how he was victimized, but the deacon told him there was nothing we could do and the archdiocese has never taken any responsibility for Brouillard misconduct.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com November 23, 2016

Two new child sex abuse lawsuits, filed Wednesday afternoon, allege that deceased Catholic priest Antonio C. Cruz and former priest Louis Brouillard separately molested two former altar boys in the 1960s and 1970s.

Brouillard, the Archdiocese of Agana and as many as 50 other defendants are named in the latest batch of lawsuits, filed by attorney David Lujan, of the law firm Lujan & Wolff. Cruz, who died in 1986 at the age of 62, is not named as a defendant.

There are now a total of nine lawsuits filed against the church and clergy since a law was signed Sept. 23, lifting the civil statute of limitations for those accused of abusing children, as well as the institutions that supported them.

Paul Joseph Borja, now 63, alleges that Cruz sexually molested him at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago when he was about 12, around the year 1965.

Borja, a resident of Chalan Pago, alleges that Cruz tried to buy his silence with $50 about three years later, or around 1968, when they met in California.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

Elle Farcic, PerthNow
November 22, 2016

A FORMER Anglican priest accused of molesting five boys warned one of his victims to keep what had happened to himself because “God doesn’t care for liars”, a jury has been told.

Raymond Sydney Cheek is on trial in the District Court accused of assaulting the boys, who are not know to each other, between 1955 and 1985.

Four of the men came forward in recent years after news of Mr Cheek being charged over an incident that allegedly occurred in Williams in 1985 became public.

That victim claims Mr Cheek undressed him and rubbed his body against him when he was 15-years-old.

The next day, Mr Cheek allegedly told the boy he should keep what had happened to himself because God doesn’t like liars.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP on November 23, 2016

A former Anglican priest accused of sexually abusing five boys over a 30-year period told one complainant it was tradition for a priest to undress an altar boy, a Perth court has heard.

Raymond Sydney Cheek, 84, is on trial in the West Australian District Court charged with committing an act of gross indecency and two counts each of indecent assault and indecent dealings with a child between 1955 and 1985.

One complainant, 48, testified on Tuesday that he was an altar boy in 1976 when he was eight or nine, and remembered Cheek as a “large, red-faced man” aged in his 30s.

He said on his first day as an altar boy, Cheek stripped him naked, leaving only his shoes on, and placed a robe on him, touching his genitals with his hands and the tassels of the waist rope.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Emily Piesse

A man has told a Perth court he was repeatedly undressed and touched in the groin by an Anglican priest in the late 1970s, while going to church with his mother.

Retired priest Raymond Sydney Cheek, 84, has pleaded not guilty to five charges spanning 30 years, including indecent dealing with a child under 14 years.

The first charge related to an alleged offence on the Easter weekend of 1955.

One man, who attended church with his mother in a south-west WA town, claims he was undressed and touched by Cheek on multiple occasions beginning in the 1970s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church of England

22 November 2016

Lord Carlile named as independent reviewer in George Bell case

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer of the processes used in the Bishop George Bell case. The lessons learnt review, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, in accordance with the House of Bishops’ guidance on all complex cases, is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

In 2015 the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal civil claim regarding allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until shortly before his death in 1958.

The aim of the review will be to look at the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, with the same allegations brought again, this time to Lambeth Palace, in 2013. It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of independent expert reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case, in order to learn lessons which can applied to the handling of similar safeguarding cases in future. The full Terms of Reference are set out below.

Lord Carlile CBE QC is a Member of the House of Lords, having served as a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament from 1983-1997. He was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation between 2001 and 2011. He has a strong interest in cyber-related issues especially regarding National Security. (see full biography below). An executive summary of the review will be published once Lord Carlile has completed his work.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Peter Hancock, the Church of England’s lead bishop on safeguarding, said: “I am grateful to Lord Carlile for agreeing to undertake the review, which will take a detailed look into how the Church handled the George Bell case; as with all serious cases there are always lessons to be learnt. The Church of England takes all safeguarding issues very seriously and we will continue to listen to everyone affected in this case while we await the findings of the review. The diocese of Chichester continues to be in touch and offer support to the survivor known as Carol, who brought the allegations.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chichester Observer

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer of the processes used in the Bishop George Bell case.

Lord Carlile CBE QC will conduct the ‘lessons learnt review’, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, in accordance with the House of Bishops’ guidance on all complex cases, in June.

In 2015 the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal civil claim regarding allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until 1958.

In a statement the Church of England said: “The aim of the review will be to look at the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, with the same allegations brought again, this time to Lambeth Palace, in 2013.

“It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of independent expert reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case, in order to learn lessons which can applied to the handling of similar safeguarding cases in future.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent

The Church of England has appointed Alex Carlile to conduct an independent review of its handling of a sexual abuse claim against George Bell, one of the church’s leading figures of the 20th century.

In September 2015, the church issued a formal apology when settling a civil claim against Bell, the former bishop of Chichester who died in 1958. The alleged abuse took place in the 1940s and 1950s.

The apology and payment of compensation to a woman, known as Carol, sparked protests by Bell’s supporters, who claimed the church had acted without sufficient evidence.

In setting out the review’s terms of reference on Tuesday, the church said it would examine the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the diocese of Chichester, and to Lambeth Palace in 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An independent review into how the Church of England handled the case of a bishop accused of being a child abuser is to be led by Lord Carlile.

Last year the Church settled a civil claim over allegations of sexual abuse by the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

It apologised and paid compensation to a woman who said she was abused by him.

The review will look at how it handled the claims and the decision to settle.

‘Neither damage nor salvage’

The “lessons learnt review”, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, is expected to be completed by the end of next summer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

John Bingham, religious affairs editor
23 NOVEMBER 2016

One of Britain’s leading legal experts has been called in by the Church of England to assess whether it unfairly labelled a revered former bishop as a paedophile.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has been appointed to oversee a review of the case of Bishop George Bell the wartime Bishop of Chichester.

Bishop Bell, who served the diocese for 30 years until his death in 1958, is regarded by some as one of the great peacemakers of the 20th Century and had been granted the closest thing Anglicanism has to a saint’s day, an annual commemoration.

But last year the Church stunned Bishop Bell’s devotees by announcing that it had concluded on the “balance of probabilities” that he had sexually assaulted a child in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Lord Carlile of Berriew has been named as the independent reviewer into the handling of the case of the late bishop George Bell, who was accused of being a child abuser.

The review, commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Last year the Bishop of Chichester issued a formal apology following the settlement of a legal claim over allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until shortly before his death in 1958.

The review will examine the processes surrounding the allegations which were first brought in 1995 to the Diocese of Chichester and again in 2013, this time to Lambeth Palace.

It will also consider the processes, including the commissioning of expert independent reports and archival and other investigations, which were used to inform the decision to settle the case.

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AUSTRALIA
PerthNow

By Rebekah Ison, Australian Associated Press
November 23, 2016

A defrocked NSW Anglican priest says a card he sent an alleged sex abuse victim showing a man’s penis and captioned “thank heavens for little boys” was meant to be a “fun thing”.

Former Dean of Newcastle Cathedral Graeme Lawrence has also denied knowing the details of cards and letters sent by his boyfriend Greg Goyette, who talked to the alleged teen victim about lubricants and “educational” videos that he may find “edifying” in the early 1980s.

The sex abuse royal commission has heard the then-teenager, known as CKH, alleges ongoing sexual contact from the age of 17 with both Mr Goyette and Mr Lawrence, who was then rector of St Alban’s at Griffith.

At 19, CKH received a card from Mr Lawrence captioned “thank heavens for little boys for little boys grow bigger every day”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Road to Recovery

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania continue to disrespect a childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, a deceased serial pedophile and member of the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania, who served in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, by not reasonably settling his claim

A childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, from Bishop Mc Cort High School, Johnstown, PA, is being re-victimized and prevented from healing by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania, because they are not acting reasonably in the settling of his claim

What
A press conference announcing that the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania refuse to justly and fairly settle the claim of a childhood sexual abuse victim of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, from Bishop Mc Cort High School, Johnstown, PA, causing the childhood sexual abuse victim to be re-victimized, feel disrespected, and prevented from healing

When
Wednesday, November 23, 2016 at 11:30 am

Where
In front of the headquarters of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, 927 S. Logan Boulevard, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648 – 814-695-5579

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including several childhood sexual abuse victims of Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR, in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania

Why
John Doe was a minor child attending Bishop Mc Cort High School in Johnstown, PA, when he met a serial pedophile, Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR. From approximately 1996-1998, when he was approximately 15-17 years old and a student at Bishop Mc Cort High School, John Doe was repeatedly sexually abused by Br. Stephen P. Baker, TOR. Now, at age 34, John Doe has courageously come forward to report the sexual abuse that caused him great harm. He expected to receive a timely and fair response from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, PA, and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania. Instead, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular Pennsylvania have been unfair and unjust in settling John Doe’s claim, causing him to feel re-victimized, and disrespected, thus preventing him from healing. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Franciscan Friars Third Order Regular of Pennsylvania will be called upon to settle John Doe’s claim in a timely, fair, and just manner, and allow “John Doe” to heal.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court approved the plea bargain agreed by the State Attorney’s Jerusalem branch and Rabbi Eliezer Berland, in which the rabbi pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault.

Berland was sentenced to 18 months incarceration for his sexual attacks on two women, as well as his instructions to assault the husband of one of the women he sexually assaulted.

Following his sentencing, the rabbi apologized in court for his actions.

“For my deeds in the days of the Bible I would have been stoned and burned, but today laws are different – there are leniencies,” said Berland.

“I regret from the depths of my heart any harm of mine against a man or woman, that was caused directly or indirectly.”

Berland was also given a suspended sentence of 14 months and will have to pay two of his victims NIS 25,000 each and NIS 5,000 to the husband of the complainant who he ordered to be beaten by his followers.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A former priest who sexually abused his niece more than 30 years ago has avoided jail for a second time, despite an appeal by prosecutors in a case described as “rare and exceptional”.

The 60-year-old man, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim’s identity, had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually assaulting his niece on dates between 1979 and 1985 when she was aged between six and 13 and he was in his 20s.

He was given wholly suspended 18 month sentences by Judge Pat McCartan on March 1st, 2016.

The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review of the man’s sentence on grounds that it was unduly lenient. However, the Court of Appeal found on Tuesday the sentencing judge acted within his discretion.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016

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

Pope Francis is not re-appointing two controversial, highly visible prelates to a global church panel. We’re glad this is happening even though we likely disagree with the pontiff for the reasons.

[National Catholic Reporter]

Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal George Pell will no longer be on the Rome-basedCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. (Their terms have expired and Francis is not renewing them.) The two are among ex-members who reportedly “are known for preferring a more traditionalist practice of liturgy” than Francis, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

Burke, Pell and many other bishops across the world should be passed over for promotions, not given honors and in fact be temporarily suspended or permanently ousted because they’re ignored or hidden credible reports of abuse (Burke) or been credibly accused of abuse themselves (Pell).

We long to see the day when a high ranking Catholic official is defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even publicly denounced for endangering kids. There seem to be virtually no consequences for bishops who act recklessly, callously or deceitfully in sexual abuse and cover up cases.

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

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 22, 2016

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican office that handles affairs relating to the Catholic church’s liturgical practices has confirmed that Pope Francis has decided not to renew the terms of several of its bishop-members, many of whom are known for preferring a more traditionalist practice of liturgy.

Francis had appointed 27 new bishops to serve as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on Oct. 28. But the announcement of the appointments did not make clear whether the previous members’ terms had been renewed.

The congregation has now posted a full list of its current membership on its website. The list makes clear the pope did not renew the terms of 16 congregation members, including those of U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, Australian Cardinal George Pell, and the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic Standard

By Ann Rodgers, Special to the Standard
Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Victim-survivors who report childhood sexual abuse at the hand of clergy should not be criticized for pointing out times when Church leadership failed, according to Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

“They are the witnesses who call us to uphold our own moral teaching,” he said. “The survivors who came forward when sexual abuse was rarely spoken of in public triggered changes that protect children today.”

The cardinal also said, “Innocent people who gain public attention for coming forward should not be slandered because they did the right thing by seeking action against an abuser.”

He finds it troubling that a few online forums masquerading as victim-advocacy sites – with no apparent ties to any mainstream victim-advocacy organizations – attack some of the victim-survivors who had done the most to improve the Church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse. In an effort to claim that then-Bishop Wuerl didn’t remove abusive priests, the sites try to discredit those who reported abuse in one of Pittsburgh’s best known cases: that of the late Anthony Cipolla.

Among those they malign is Tim Bendig, now 47, a former seminarian who sued the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1988, reporting that then-Father Cipolla sexually abused him when he was 12 years old. Cipolla died earlier this year, maintaining his innocence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By REBECCA CAMBER and IAN DRURY FOR THE DAILY MAIL

The beleaguered child abuse inquiry faced a new secrecy row last night as it was accused of gagging lawyers from talking to MPs about why they have quit.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has requested written evidence from seven lawyers who have resigned from Britain’s biggest public inquiry.

But the Mail has learnt that the barristers have been prevented from speaking out under contractual rules. The inquiry has refused to waive legal privilege, which prevents all communications between a lawyer and their client from being disclosed without the permission of the client, which in this case is the inquiry.

According to a source, three out of four lawyers who have responded to the committee so far, say they cannot talk about their time there in detail due to legal privilege rules.

But one senior barrister Hugh Davies, QC, is said to be so frustrated that he has written a strongly-worded critique of its conduct and his views on how complaints by staff should have been handled.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evening Standard

Senior lawyers who quit the beleaguered public inquiry into historical child abuse have raised concerns about its leadership in letters to a Commons committee.

At least one of the four barristers has directly criticised Professor Alexis Jay’s handling of the suspension of Ben Emmerson QC, the former lead counsel, sources have disclosed.

Correspondence from Hugh Davies QC, ex-deputy counsel to the inquiry, said Professor Jay should have provided more information on why Mr Emmerson was suspended in September.

He resigned the next day, and as yet no reason has been given for his suspension.

However, Labour MP Lisa Nandy used Parliamentary privilege yesterday to say there has been a claim of sexual assault. Mr Emmerson denies the allegations, saying they are “categorically untrue”.

The letters are the latest set-back for the £100 million inquiry which has seen a raft of senior lawyers resign and Britain’s largest abuse victims organisation, the London-based Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA), pull out.

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UNITED KINGDOM
New Statesman

When is is a crisis not a crisis? After the departure of seven senior lawyers, three chairs, several survivors’ groups, £15m of public money, two years and little progress to show for it, Theresa May and her Home secretary are increasingly lone voices in their insistence that all is well on the child abuse inquiry that May, as Home secretary, rightly established in the wake of distressing revelations about Jimmy Savile.

It was always a daunting and complex task to shine a spotlight into institutions characterised by secrecy and cover up, where abusers were able to operate in plain sight without challenge or consequence. The inquiry spans decades, covers hundreds of institutions and relies on the accounts of many survivors who have struggled on for years without support. Now they must face the prospect of detailing abuse at the hands of the powerful, to the powerful. How to find a chair with the legal expertise and commitment to command the confidence of survivors, the public and the inquiry staff, a person with vast experience but without personal connections to the accused?

And yet it has been done. In Australia, a Royal Commission has begun to uncover the truth since it was set up in 2013. By contrast, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has been dogged by problems since the outset, losing its first two chairs within months because of connections to the accused, before being re-established on a statutory footing. The appointment of its third chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, was so rushed and confused that the Home Affairs Committee took the unusual step of releasing a report criticising May for potentially bringing “the whole process into disrepute”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

[with video]

By Jake Morris
BBC Newsnight

The child sexual abuse inquiry has “crumbled” and may be impossible to fix, a leading barrister has said.

Michael Mansfield QC told the BBC the best way forward was to have separate chairs overseeing different areas.

The inquiry has been battling to keep the confidence of victims after losing its third chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, and a succession of senior lawyers.

Mr Mansfield represented the families of victims in the Bloody Sunday inquiry and the Hillsborough inquest.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Chris O’Neill-Yates, CBC News Posted: Nov 22, 2016

A 76-year-old former Mount Cashel resident is waiting for the outcome of a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s that was filed in 1999.

The man — who can be identified only as John Doe because of a publication ban — is one of 80 to 90 former residents suing the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s for abuse dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.

Twenty-five years after the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage was torn down, John Doe recalls the helplessness he felt as a boy.

“You had no freedom, nowhere to go. They could do what they wanted to you with impunity,” he said.

The man was a resident at Mount Cashel from 1948 to 1955. He said he was sexually and physically abused by four Christian Brothers and one lay person.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

22 NOV 2016

Organisations in Victoria will have to prove they took reasonable steps to protect children under their care from abuse in a move that will make it easier for victims to sue institutions for damages.

Victoria is the first state to introduce laws creating a duty of care for organisations so they can be held accountable for the abuse of children.

The onus of proof will be reversed so organisations have to prove they took reasonable precautions to prevent the abuse from happening, Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula said.

“We’re strengthening our laws to better protect children and ensure that organisations can be held to account in the future, and we are continuing to work on a redress scheme for victims of historical child sexual abuse,” he said in a statement.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

A new independent company to be established by the Catholic Church in Australia to develop, audit and report on compliance with professional standards to protect children and vulnerable people was announced today by Church leaders

Catholic Professional Standards (CPS) Limited represents a new national Church response to the importance of safeguarding vulnerable people. It will be responsible for setting the highest standards to ensure the safety of individuals involved with the Church at all levels and engaging with Catholic service providers.

CPS will:

* Develop new standards for the protection of children and vulnerable adults across Church entities, particularly in areas where there are no current relevant standards;
* Audit and report on the compliance of each Church authority against the new professional standards; and
* Provide education and training regarding the new standards.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia, which represent more than 200 independent Catholic entities across Australia, made the joint announcement of the new company during the bishops’ plenary meeting with religious leaders at Mary MacKillop Place in Sydney on 22 November 2016.

Member representative of CPS and the President of Catholic Religious Australia, Sr Ruth Durick OSU, said the new entity sets a new standard for the Catholic Church in Australia.

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TENNESSEE
WREG

[with video]

NOVEMBER 21, 2016, BY BRIDGET CHAPMAN

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Three men are speaking out after they say a church worker sexually abused them in Collierville when they were teens.

One of them has filed a report and the two others said they’re getting one filed now.

Kenny Stubblefield was only 16 years old when it happened, but he still remembers every detail of the night he said he was sexually assaulted by someone at his church.

“I’m just like eyes wide open,” said Stubblefied. “By the next morning when the sun came up, I had to convince myself that it was my fault. I had to convince I’d done something to deserve it and I needed to stay quiet.”

Less than a year later, he said he found out he wasn’t alone.

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GEORGIA
Golden Isles News

By WES WOLFE wwolfe@goldenisles.news

A Glynn County grand jury issued an 11-count indictment Thursday accusing the Rev. Kenneth Adkins of five counts of aggravated child molestation, three counts of child molestation, two counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of influencing a witness.

Adkins turned himself in to authorities at the Glynn County Detention Center the morning of Aug. 26 after police sought his arrest on child molestation charges.

His accuser, referred to in court by the initials A.J., is now 21 years old and went to an Army sexual assault counselor in April where prosecutors say he told of sexual acts performed on him and with him by Adkins when the alleged victim was 15 years old.

During a combative evidentiary hearing Sept. 9, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent James Feller went into graphic and specific detail of incidents between Adkins, A.J. and a girl referenced as T.V. that were associated with the ministry Adkins ran at the time on G Street.

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TEXAS
News4 SanAntonio

SAN ANTONIO – Deacon Pat Rodgers, longtime communications director of the archdiocese, has passed away on Monday.

He was 67.

Rodgers, who served nearly two decades in the archdiocesan Department of Communications before he retired in June, 2015, had suffered a heart attack on Nov. 18 before passing away at Nix Medical Center. …

He was still in the Development Office in 2002 when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) developed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which required that each diocese have a person designated to work with the media in the area of sexual abuse. This, he explained, “was in the spirit of transparency in order that the community also be educated and protected.” Knowing of his 37 years in broadcasting, Msgr. Lawrence Stuebben, then vicar general, asked Rodgers if he would take on this new role, which expanded into being spokesperson for the archdiocese in other areas as well.

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NEW JERSEY
Politico

Robert Hoatson, a former priest who founded a group that helps victims of sexual abuse, is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. Hoatson announced last week. ““I am running for the Democratic nomination for Governor because New Jersey deserves ethical and moral leadership that has as its foundation, the truth. We need a Governor who will work for the people and not his own political advancement, a Governor who treats the citizenry with respect, and a Governor who is a wise steward of the people’s financial and social capital.” From Hoatson’s bio: “Robert Hoatson, Ph.D., has lobbied for years in the New Jersey state legislature for reform of statute of limitations laws regarding sexual abuse of children. He has acted as a whistleblower of numerous cases of sexual abuse against children throughout the State of New Jersey, and was an integral part of the uncovering of facts surrounding the Newark Archdiocesan cover-up of the Fr. Michael Fugee sexual abuse case. In his work with Road to Recovery, Inc., Dr. Hoatson has traveled the State of New Jersey, helping to heal victims of sexual abuse and their families and advocating for justice and fairness for all. Dr. Hoatson’s perseverance in holding the soon-to-be-replaced Archbishop of Newark, John Myers, accountable for his mishandling of cases of clergy sexual abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Mazoe Ford

The Catholic Church has reached a confidential settlement with two sisters who say they were sexually abused by a priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s and 80s.

The sisters, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said they were abused by Father Dennis McAlinden, who died in a nursing home in 2005 without ever being charged.

They were suing both the estate of the late Bishop Leo Clarke, who was in charge at the time of the alleged crimes, as well as the trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

But yesterday Justice Peter Garling urged the parties to settle the case outside court so the women would not “be unnecessarily put in distress”.

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MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The accusations against Father Joseph Maskell, who served as the guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School, date back to the 1960s and 70s.

At least a dozen victims who claim they were sexually abused by Maskell have received settlements from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Donna Von Den Bosch, who says she suffered unspeakable abuse, got $40,000.

In 1970, when she was just 14 years old, Von Den Bosch was a bright, excited freshman at the school.

Just as her new life was beginning, it descended into hell.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

The former head of the Scottish inquiry into historic child abuse, who resigned in July, is to sue ministers.

Susan O’Brien, QC, resigned amid controversy, with John Swinney, the education secretary, later telling MSPs that he had been considering her removal from the post over claims of inappropriate comments about survivors.

The inquiry has been mired in problems since it was set up. Ms O’Brien’s resignation in the summer came shortly after Michael Lamb, a fellow panel member, stood down, blaming government interference.

Ms O’Brien has refused to comment on the nature of her action, which emerged after papers were lodged at the Court of Session.

The inquiry is dealing with hundreds of witnesses into claims of abuse in children’s homes dating back decades.

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CANADA
Local Xpress

The Crown says it plans to call rebuttal evidence in the trial of Rev. Brent Hawkes, who is accused of indecent assault and gross indecency against a student at the school where he was teacher in the 1970s.

After the defence wrapped up its case Monday afternoon in Kentville provincial court, Crown attorney Bob Morrison told Judge Alan Tufts he wants to call two or three witnesses to testify on the issue of whether alcohol was served to students in Hawkes’ home around the time of the alleged crimes.

The complainant and other Crown witnesses, who were students at West Kings District High School, testified that Hawkes had alcohol in his trailer and that it was offered to them on the night the complainant says Hawkes sexually assaulted him.

Hawkes testified that he never provided alcohol to students if they came to his home, although there was some there for teachers if there was a get-together with both students and teachers present.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Mon., Nov. 21, 2016

KENTVILLE, N.S.— Brent Hawkes’ gross indecency trial heard testimony Monday on the nature and fallibility of memory.

Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University’s Glendon College, told the judge that memories are by nature “constructive and reconstructive.”

Moore says people often recall events differently, and time “can alter or change or misdirect the nature of” memories.

“Memories can undergo a substantial amount of modification over time and the longer the time, the more opportunity for misinformation to occur,” he said in Kentville, N.S., provincial court.

Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when the Toronto pastor was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Hawkes, a prominent rights activist, has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and gross indecency.

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