Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
ABUSE TRACKER
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
His Eminence, Cardinal George Pell, the Australian Catholic leader who holds the third most powerful position in the Catholic Church, was finally interrogated last week by the Australian Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse. One thing is clear from the appalling revelations made over the two year old investigation: the Catholic Church’s tenure as a moral standard bearer in Australia is over. The systematic cover up that is enshrined in their guidelines, practices and culture is best epitomised by Pell’s role in the now infamous ‘Melbourne Response’.
When Frank Little was Archbishop of Melbourne, in the early 1990’s, there was a “growing awareness” of the child sex abuse that was taking place. Testimony from Bishops to the Royal Commission show that Little addressed the scandal by manoeuvring the priests, covering their tracks and remaining “blind” to the issue. In 1996, Little resigned for health reasons and George Pell was promoted from auxiliary Bishop to Archbishop of Melbourne by Pope John Paul. Three months into his tenure he engineered the ‘Melbourne Response’ for child sexual abuse victims. Pell publically called for victims to come forward and have their cases assessed by Independent Commissioners. If the abuse was deemed to have occurred, the Catholic Church would then call for an independent investigation into the allegations and provide the victims with ex gratia payments as compensation along with free counselling. The program was widely lauded as independent, fair and humane. It certainly seems like a win for all, doesn’t it?
The truth, unfortunately, is that the program was entirely self-serving. Firstly, it is estimated that the Melbourne Response saved the Church at least $62 million as the ex gratia payments were capped at $50,000[i] – with an average payment of $46,000[ii]– despite Pell saying payments were made “based on justice”. When comparing these payments to those who reached settlements in court, averaging at $270,000[iii], it is astonishing that only 14 of 335 victims in Melbourne chose the legal route[iv].
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
BY DEAN PRITCHARD, WINNIPEG SUN
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016
A Winnipeg woman sexually assaulted by a former Mennonite pastor has filed a $2 million lawsuit, alleging his church fostered a climate that aided in the abuse of children.
Brian Douglas Porisky, a former pastor with the Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced last October to six months custody.
Porisky, 53, admitted to kissing and fondling the then 14-year-old girl and taking her out for “romantic” dinners in 1996 while a youth pastor at The Meeting Place church.
The woman alleges much more serious transgressions in the lawsuit, including repeated incidents of intercourse and oral sex at church functions and at Porisky’s home. Those allegations have not been proven in court and Porisky is considered innocent.
Porisky was sentenced to an additional 2 1/2 years in prison last October after admitting to sexually molesting an 11-year-old girl in 2005, six years after he had been fired from the church. Court heard Porisky had been sexually molested for years as a child.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
This article appeared in Intermountain Catholic, and was written by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion.
The movie “Spotlight” (which I saw last week, and thought remarkably fair – not at all expressive of the familiar media attacks on the Catholic Church) has again opened up discussion about the issue of child abuse in the Catholic Church. The movie portrays the disastrous handling of sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston over a number of decades.
“Boz” Tchivividjian (don’t ask me how to pronounce the name) offered an insightful commentary, titled “Spotlight: It’s Not Just a Catholic Problem,” in a Religion News Service blog last week. Tchivividjian, a former child abuse prosecutor, the founder and executive director of ABUSE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), and a professor of law at Liberty University (and I would guess a Baptist) argued that child sex abuse is just as prevalent in the Protestant churches as it is in the Catholic Church.
Regarding the movie “Spotlight,” Tchivividjian writes: “Some may be tempted to watch this film with disgust at the Catholic Church and a sigh of relief for Protestants.”
But, he says, “such relief would be unfounded and misplaced” for the reason that over a number of years the three companies that insure most Protestant churches reported receiving approximately 260 reports per year of minors being sexually abused by church leaders and members. This compares to the 228 ‘credible accusations’ a year of child sexual abuse reported by the Catholic Church.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The legacy of the sexual abuse scandals and revelations of coverups that shook this nation’s Catholic church to its foundations is a mixed one.
There’s definitely been progress in redressing the wrongs done to young victims and in ensuring that they don’t recur, even if the progress has been painful and slow.
Such crimes, committed by some priests and hidden by some bishops, are far less likely to happen again, or to be tolerated if they do occur. Victims (though not all; many continue to suffer silently) have been helped. Thanks to procedures implemented in the wake of the sex abuse scandals, children are now much more likely to be safe in Catholic parishes and educational institutions.
“There are very few current cases (of alleged child abuse) in process,” said Charles Zech, who directs Villanova University’s Center for Church Management and Business Ethics.
“The current crop of priests has gotten the word of how wrong this is — and that they will be prosecuted. If they are caught now, the bishops won’t protect them.”
But in ways both obvious and subtle, the American Catholic Church is still paying for the sins of fathers long gone — and the denomination’s determined effort, in many cases, to silence victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
NEWS ANALYSIS: Exposure of clerical abuse has been beneficial, but the Church has received far more attention than other institutions afflicted with the same problem.
by FATHER RAYMOND J. DE SOUZA 03/10/2016
After Spotlight won “Best Picture” last month at the annual Academy Awards, Catholic voices rained down hosannas upon the film, which celebrated The Boston Globe’s coverage of the sexual-abuse scandal in Boston in 2001 and 2002.
L’Osservatore Romano rushed into print to clarify that the film was not anti-Catholic, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston saluted the work of the Globe, and the estimable Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review was grateful: “Thank God for The Boston Globe!”
That view is so widely shared today that it could be considered the party line. And I agree with it — the Catholic Church is better for having the scandalous behavior exposed. Children are safer, victims have experienced a greater measure of healing, the Church is less corrupt, and it has led to what St. John Paul II hoped for back in the spring of 2002 — a “holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier Church.”
But the Oscar for Spotlight, the decision by the Royal Commission on sexual abuse in Australia to make Cardinal George Pell — one of the earliest reformers on sexual abuse — into a scapegoat and the grand-jury report in Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., do pose again the question: Why does the Catholic Church seem to get disproportionate attention — even if that attention can be salutary?
The first response might be a theological one. The Church as the body of Christ does what Christ did for the world, namely to offer an expiatory suffering. The scourge of sexual abuse touches every part of society, but mostly remains hidden. The very public exposure of the Church might well serve the broader need for justice and repentance, for the Church herself and for society as a whole.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The words “statute of limitations” are mentioned five times in the 427-page final report issued by the Pennsylvania Task Force in Child Protection.
But in any of those mentions, did the task force call for changing these expiration dates for bringing civil litigation or criminal prosecution in child sexual abuse cases or leaving them alone?
Based on statements issued in the aftermath of the recent accusations about the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown concealing the sexual abuse of hundreds of children, it seems the task force recommended both.
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the General Assembly to “muster the courage” to pass legislation to reform the state’s laws to remove the criminal and civil statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and urged the governor to promptly sign it into law.
“It is absolutely criminal that this legislation has not yet been passed, given that it was proposed – in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal – by the General Assembly’s own Pennsylvania Task Force on Child Protection,” DePasquale’s statement said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror
District attorneys from Blair, Cambria and Centre counties sent letters to Bishop Joseph Adamec of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in May 2002 informing him of the laws involved with the sexual abuse of minors and outlining the procedures he should follow in reporting allegations so they could be investigated and prosecuted.
Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio said Thursday he came across the letters when he was asked by a statewide grand jury to provide whatever information his office had about sexual abuse by priests or employees of the diocese.
The Blair DA said his office cooperated with the grand jury.
He also gave testimony before the grand jury concerning what his office knew about sexual abuse of minors by clergy or other members of the church.
On Thursday, he searched his records at the request of the Mirror after his predecessor, Dave Gorman remembered a meeting concerning representatives from the Blair, Cambria and Centre county district attorney offices in which they discussed the handling of child sexual abuse cases involving church personnel.
A letter written by Gorman on May 30, 2002, instructed the bishop to relay to the prosecutor’s office the name of the victim involved in any allegations, the nature of the incident and a contact person.
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By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, March 10th, 2016
SANTA FE, N.M. — An 83-year-old former priest extradited to Texas this week to stand trial in the 1960 murder of a teacher and former beauty queen was an administrator in the 1960s at the Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs, where he oversaw priests sent there for counseling.
Several of the priests John Feit supervised at the Jemez Springs compound in northern New Mexico were later accused of sexually abusing New Mexico children while serving in parishes here, according to court records.
Among the priests Feit oversaw was James Porter, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children during his time as a priest in the 1960s and early 1970s in the Fall River (Mass.) Diocese.
Porter was sent to the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs in 1967 and, from there, was transferred to St. Alice Church in Mountainair, N.M., where he allegedly abused more children. Porter died in prison in 2005.
Texas authorities allege that Feit, when he was a 27-year-old priest, killed 25-year-old teacher Irene Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas.
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Se trata del padre italiano Alessandro De Rossi quien fue liberado el pasado octubre y negada su extradición por falta de pruebas “serias”.
La película “Spotlight”, recientemente ganadora por un premio Oscar a mejor filme, pone el foco en los casos de pedofilia dentro de la Iglesia Católica y antes de los créditos hace un listado de denuncias alrededor del mundo. Entre ellas, hay una de Salta y otras seis de la Argentina que hacen referencia al caso de PADRE GRASSI, hoy detenido, entre otras. . En el caso de la provincia de Salta, el hecho al que hace alusión es al del cura Alessandro De Rossi, detenido en Roma por pedido de la justicia salteña a comienzos del año pasado pero liberado en octubre y no extraditado por falta de “pruebas serias”. De Rossi fue acusado de abusos sexuales a menores de edad entre 2008 y 2013, cuando se desempeñaba como párroco en un templo del barrio Islas Malvinas, en Salta capital. Para esa barriada trajo donaciones desde Italia, colaboró para que se ponga en marcha un comedor para niños carenciados, un centro educativo y un playón deportivo. Una parte importante de su tarea pastoral era contener a niños y jóvenes, y recuperar a los que estuvieran en situación de calle, con problemas de adicción o de violencia callejera. El joven denunciante era parte del grupo con el que trabajaba el cura.Fue acusado por el delito de abuso sexual agravado por un menor de edad que relató cómo el cura habría abusado de él en reiteradas oportunidades. No se determinó con exactitud cuántas fueron sus víctimas. El sacerdote fue denunciado en enero de 2014, por un menor de edad que relató cómo el cura habría abusado de él en reiteradas oportunidades. Los otros casos mencionados en la película y que sucedieron en la Argentina fueron listados hoy por el sitio de Clarín:
Julio César Grassi. En 2013 fue condenado a 15 años de prisión por ABUSO DE MENORES. Había sido denunciado por varios chicos que iban a la Fundación Felices los Niños de Morón, que dirigía. Sigue siendo sacerdote.
Justo José Ilarraz. El año pasado, el sacerdote fue procesado por ‘promoción a la corrupción agravada de menores’ de más de 50 abusos a estudiantes de un seminario en Paraná ocurridos entre 1985 y 1993. Está libre.
Rubén Pardo. Fue denunciado por haber violado a un nene de 14 años de 2002 en la Casa de Formación de la Iglesia Católica. Como Pardo murió, el Obispado de Quilmes tuvo que indemnizar a la víctima por daño moral.
Mario Napoleón Sasso. El cura fue condenado en 2007 a 17 años de prisión por abusar de cinco nenas de 7 a 14 años cuando era párroco de la capilla de La Lonja, Pilar. Desde 2012 goza del beneficio de salidas transitorias.
Héctor Pared. En marzo de 2003 fue condenado a 24 años de prisión por abusos sexuales a chicos del Hogar Hermano Francisco de Quilmes. El 1º de septiembre de ese año murió, víctima de sida. Entonces, los abusados tuvieron que ser sometidos a análisis para saber si habían sido contagiados por el cura, ya que la enfermedad del cura fue silenciada por el Servicio Penitenciario y por los jefes religiosos del sacerdote.
Fernando Enrique Picciochi, ex miembro de la Congregación de Hermanos Marianistas. Fue condenado a 12 años de prisión por abuso de alumnos del colegio Marianista. Acaban de dejarlo en libertad por el beneficio del 2 x 1.
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WORCESTER – A priest who pleaded guilty in court last year to stealing nearly $240,000 from St. Bernadette Parish and School in Northboro is returning to limited ministry.
According to the Diocese of Worcester, Bishop Robert J. McManus has granted the Rev. Stephen M. Gemme permission for limited pastoral ministry effective immediately. He will celebrate Mass and other sacraments at Crozier House and other non-parish settings. Crozier House is a residential facility operated by Catholic Charities for men recovering from addictions, according to the diocese.
The bishop removed Rev. Gemme from ministry in July 2013 after being advised by a member of a school advisory board of financial irregularities in one of the school accounts.
The bishop said he met with Rev. Gemme the next day, and the priest admitted to a gambling problem. He pleaded guilty last year in Worcester Superior Court to two counts of larceny of more than $250 by a single scheme, and was placed on probation for 5 years.
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HUBER HEIGHTS — UPDATE @ 8:15 p.m.: Father Simone, the former St. Peter’s pastor, did plead guilty to one count of aggravated theft in an agreement with the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office that was accepted by the court.
According to the agreement, Simone agreed to a five-year prison sentence, waive all appeal rights, repay $1.9 million he admitted stealing and assist in the prosecution of anyone else involved.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 22. He is free on bond until then.
While the criminal charge reads “theft of over $1.5 million,” the investigation by Huber Heights police and county Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.’s office found that Simone stole approximately $1.92 million.
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Newsweek Senior Editor Elijah Wolfson investigated new allegations of physical and sexual abuse within the Chabad school system in his cover story, “The Chosen.” Wolfson spoke 80 people for the story, primarily in Brooklyn, to understand how abuse has become a systemic issue within the school system and what’s being done to address it.
Event: Chaim Levin organized an event at Ohlei Torah (667 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn) on March 20th at 6 p.m. to protest the alleged abuse of students.
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One of the victims abused by a priest named in a grand jury report is now speaking out publicly for the first time.
WTAJ News traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Kevin Hoover for this exclusive interview.
Hoover was just nine-years-old when he first became victim to Monsignor Francis McCaa’s repeated sexual abuse.
He sought accountability from Bishop Joseph Adamec years later and is now speaking for other victims.
“Even now, thirty some years later, it’s still very difficult to verbalize that I was sexually abused by Monsignor McCaa.”, said Hoover.
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If media reports are correct, Pope Francis is expected to appoint a close ally, the apostolic nuncio to Mexico, as his new ambassador to the United States.
Veteran Vaticanist Sandro Magister reported today on his blog Settimo Cielo that French papal diplomat, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, is to be “imminently” promoted to the nunciature in Washington D.C., replacing the current apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who has reached the usual retiring age of 75.
The appointment of “Bergoglian” Archbishop Pierre, 70, is a crucial one given the influential role of the apostolic nuncio in helping to select bishops of the country he serves.
Although the Vatican has yet to make any official announcement, Magister has had a number of accurate and well-sourced stories lately, including correctly predicting the historic meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill last month, and obtaining a draft text of a letter signed by 13 cardinals and sent to the Pope during last year’s Synod on the Family.
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THE significance of the movie ‘Spotlight’ winning the Oscar for best picture should not be lost on anyone.
Least of all on those in the Roman Curia who are impeding the best efforts of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to ensure that the Catholic Church worldwide learns every possible lesson from the clerical sex abuse scandals that have shamed the Church in recent decades.
There is arguably no more powerful a medium for shaping public opinion than a blockbuster movie that has won the ultimate accolade for its brilliant production values and praise for speaking truth to power.
Spotlight, which tells the riveting story of how the Boston Globe newspaper finally uncovered the scale of clerical sex abuse in the region and its systematic cover-up, has put the spotlight back on the Church’s handling of the scandals.
This at a time when Dublin woman, Marie Collins, a survivor of clerical sex abuse from the age of 13 and a member of the pontifical commission has revealed that the Curia is blocking the implementation of some of the commission’s key recommendations that have been approved by Pope Francis.
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A week after a grand jury report publicized decades of child sex abuse by priests in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, 150 calls were made to a hotline for victims to call to report that abuse.
Still, the lead investigator in the Altoona-Johnstown case says more can be done.
“With more information, we can do more,” said Daniel J. Dye, deputy attorney general.
Choosing to report abuse is an intimate decision that victims must decide for themselves, Dye said. But for those victims who want to report now, there is someone willing to listen.
The hotline established by the attorney general’s office is being manned by investigators who worked directly on the Altoona-Johnstown investigation. Although that line was opened as a result of the Altoona-Johnstown investigation, Dye said no callers will be turned away.
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Lawmakers in Pennsylvania are trying to join other states in rewriting laws to facilitate prosecutions for sexual abuse, spurred by a grand jury report last week that found a Catholic diocese there hid child sex abuse by priests for four decades.
Statutes of limitations in Pennsylvania often bar victims of abuse and prosecutors from pursuing legal action against perpetrators. One bill in the state would remove criminal statutes of limitations for new incidents. Another bill would create a two-year window waiving statutes of limitations for civil cases, so victims could file lawsuits against abusers who committed crimes many years earlier. A number of states have already put such temporary waivers in place.
Similar bills in Pennsylvania stalled in recent years, but they are now gaining traction in light of the grand jury report, which said the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown hid abuse by more than 50 priests dating back to the 1950s. Many of the priests named in the report have since died, and the alleged incidents are too old for prosecutors or victims to pursue against living priests or the diocese.
“The current statutes are still not enough. Victims take a long time to come forward,” said state Rep. Mark Rozzi, one backer of the bills. Rep. Rozzi, a 44-year-old Democrat, said he was abused by a priest when he was 13. Two friends he said were abused by the same priest have since committed suicide, he said.
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EBENSBURG, CAMBRIA CO. — It has been a week since the Grand Jury report shed light on decades of abuse at the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
Now, 6 News Investigates is looking into a claim that former prosecutors knew of allegations against priests more than a decade ago.
Letter from 2002 sent to former prosecutors.
In September 2002, Altoona attorney Richard Serbin sent this letter to three prosecutors. He claimed rampant sexual molestation of children by priests in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
He named 10 priests in total in the letter, including a civil lawsuit he took against Father Francis Luddy. Nine of the clergymen are named in last week’s Grand Jury report of sexual abuse by at least 50 priests and religious leaders at the Diocese.
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The Riverdale Jewish Center board and its embattled Rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, have reached an agreement about his departure from the synagogue he has served more than 30 years.
Pending approval by a vote of the membership scheduled for March 17, Rabbi Rosenblatt will step down from his pulpit and become a private citizen, with no title, according to Meyer Koplow, the rabbi’s attorney.
“The desire is for him to remain in the community and remain accessible to those in the congregation who wish to use his services,” Koplow told The Jewish Week.
As a life member of RJC, the rabbi may be called on by individuals to officiate at lifecycle events or deliver a shiur (lecture).
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Earlier this month, “Spotlight”—the film based on the real-life team of Boston Globe investigative reporters who exposed patterns of sexual abuse by priests within the Catholic Church—won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Reporter Michael Rezendes and lawyer Mitchell Garabedian are two of the real-life ‘characters’ depicted in the film (by actors Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci, respectively.) Both stopped by WGBH’s studios to check in with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about how their lives have changed since the film’s release and how their work to bring sexual abuse to light continues.
To hear from Rezendes and Garabedian, tune in to Boston Public Radio above. See the trailer for ‘Spotlight’ below.
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After simmering for more than a decade, could the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church be ready to boil over once again? There are signs that it could.
No, I am not referring to the release of a scalding grand-jury report about the Diocese of Altoona, Pennsyvlania earlier this month. That report was disturbing, but the facts were not fresh; the criticism focused on two retired bishops, one of them deceased. There was no evidence in the report about current problems, or any alleged criminal acts were not covered by the statute of limitations.
Nor do I mean the grueling interrogation of Cardinal George Pell by an Australian royal commission. The questioning was undoubtedly hostile, and the media in Australia vilified the cardinal mercilessly. But when the ordeal ended, there was no clear evidence of wrongdoing by Cardinal Pell: only very clear evidence that his accusers has abandoned the presumption of innocent-until-proven-guilty and that members of the royal commission saw themselves as inquisitors rather than investigators.
Finally, I do not mean the rave reviews for Spotlight, and the Oscar-night calls for changes in the Church. The movie is also looking back as past clerical misconduct; it is not an indictment of current practices.
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Pope Francis launched a stern crackdown on the murky, secretive process of canonisations on Thursday, months after a scandal engulfed a Vatican department nicknamed “the Saints’ Factory”.
The Pope imposed strict new regulations demanding much greater transparency and accountability in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which handles the complex, opaque world of promoting worthy Catholics to sainthoods.
The 23 new rules included a warning that disciplinary measures will be taken against anyone suspected of abusing the system.
The new regime was introduced after leaked Vatican documents published last year revealed that the process was rife with waste, nepotism, favouritism and corruption, with wealthy patrons spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to have their favoured candidate made a saint.
A process designed to elevate worthy candidates to the highest pedestal in the Catholic firmament was found to be anything but saintly in the way that it carried out its business.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, March 10
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)
Representative Mark Rozzi is right. Every PA diocese should be investigated. Virtually every grand jury has uncovered the same awful continuing pattern of deception and recklessness. If prosecutors use their bully pulpits, and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward we are confident that some recent cases will emerge.
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[Statement of the Bishops of Peru about alleged sexual abuse in the north.]
Los Obispos del Perú emitieron un comunicado señalando el rechazo ante los abusos sexuales en la Iglesia del Perú y agregaron que se lleve a profunda investigación. Esto se debió a que seminaristas y jóvenes señalaron que un sacerdote abusó de su confianza.
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Le parquet de Lyon a ouvert une enquête préliminaire pour « non-dénonciation de crime » et « mise en danger de la vie d’autrui » à l’encontre du cardinal Philippe Barbarin, de plusieurs responsables du diocèse de Lyon, et du cardinal Müller, préfet de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi. Cette enquête fait suite au dépôt de plusieurs plaintes par l’association « La Parole libérée », regroupant des victimes du Père Bernard Preynat, soupçonné d’agressions sexuelles sur des scouts entre 1986 et 1991. Elles reprochent à l’Église de ne pas avoir dénoncé à la justice les agissements de ce prêtre.
Prenant acte « avec gravité » de cette enquête, le cardinal Barbarin a rappelé dans un communiqué « qu’il n’était pas archevêque de Lyon à l’époque des faits et qu’il n’a jamais couvert aucun fait de pédophilie ». Le 19 février, le porte-parole du Vatican avait estimé que le cardinal Barbarin avait agi avec « extrême responsabilité ». Preuve de sa fermeté, le cardinal Barbarin avait ordonné en mai 2014 la suspension immédiate d’un prêtre mis en examen pour « corruption et atteinte sexuelle sur mineur »
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[The pastor of the Evangelical Church of Quarto Oggiaro was preparing girls who were to be baptized but raped them.]
Anna Rossi – Mar, 08/03/2016
A Milano è stato arrestato un sacerdote che abusava sessualmente delle bambine durante il corso della preparazione al battesimo.
È il padre di una chiesa evangelica, rispettato e stimato da tutti. Il 50enne, di origini sudamericane, violentava le minorenni che si apprestavano a ricevere il battesimo. I corsi erano singoli e si tenevano in appartamento privato a Quarto Oggiaro. Il pastore spiegava alle bimbe che con la sua benedizione sarebbero state liberate dal diavolo. Secondo quanto ricostruito dagli inquirenti, l’uomo faceva camminare le vittime dicendogli di poggiare i loro piedi sui suoi e le portava verso il letto per poi abusarne. Le indagini sono iniziate dopo la confessione di due bambine di nove e undici anni.
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[Abuse of boys at the Regensburg Domspatzen has been in the headlines for years. Victims have been waiting a long time for recognition of the pain they suffered. So what makes the work-up at the world-famous boys choir so hard?]
Als einer der größten Missbrauchs- und Misshandlungsfälle in einer katholischen Einrichtung sind die Regensburger Domspatzen schon seit Jahren in den Schlagzeilen. Doch lange Jahre warteten Opfer vergebens auf Anerkennung des ihnen zugefügten Leids. Was macht die Aufarbeitung bei dem weltberühmten Knabenchor so schwer?
Von: Eckhart Querner, Christian Wölfel
“Er setzt sich ans Bett, flüstert, um dir zu sagen, wie toll du seist. Und dann fasst er unter die Bettdecke, berührt dich, zieht dir die Schlafanzughose runter.” Alexander Probst kann sich noch genau an den Präfekten W. im Internat der Domspatzen in Regensburg erinnern. Im Schuljahr 1970/71 kam der damals zehnjährige Probst nach Regensburg. Zuvor hatte er schon zwei Jahre die Vorschule des Knabenchors in Etterzhausen vor den Toren der Stadt besucht.
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[The Austrian Catholic Church in the last six years has acknowledged 1,550 cases of sexual abuse and violence.]
LINZ, WIEN. 1550 Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch und Gewalt hat die katholische Kirche Österreichs in den vergangenen sechs Jahren anerkannt.
Dafür zahlte sie finanzielle Entschädigungen in Höhe von 20 Millionen Euro, entweder direkt oder in Form von Psychotherapien.
Mit diesen Zahlen zog Opferschutzanwältin Waltraud Klasnic nun bei der Bischofskonferenz in Linz über ihre Arbeit Bilanz. Seit sechs Jahren leitet die ehemalige VP-Landeshauptfrau der Steiermark jene Kommission, die entscheidet, ob Opfer anerkannt werden und wie viel Geld sie erhalten. Lediglich 95 Fälle wurden abgelehnt, die laut Klasnic nicht glaubwürdig waren. Je nach Dauer und Schwere des Deliktes erhielten Opfer 5000, 15.000 oder 25.000 Euro. “In wenigen Fällen zahlten wir darüber hinaus.”
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Cardinal George Pell must now be regretting not having come back to Australia to give his evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the relatively small town of Ballarat in the State of Victoria. By claiming that his medical condition did not allow him to travel, and offering to give video evidence in Rome, he has turned his performance in the witness box into a media feast that otherwise might have gone unnoticed in the international press.
First there was the Tim Minchin song that went viral, “Come Home Cardinal Pell”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHOmforqxk . Then the extraordinary donations by Australians of some $A 200,000 to pay for abuse survivors to attend at the Quirinale Hotel in Rome to watch Pell give evidence.
Pell’s performance in the witness box ensured an even greater media coverage. It was repeatedly put to him by counsel assisting the Commission that his claim of lack of knowledge of child sexual abuse in Ballarat was “implausible”, which gives you some idea of the findings that are likely to be made against him in the Commission’s Report. Ever since the Erebus Royal Commission in New Zealand, the Commission is obliged to put to parties being investigated a likely finding to allow them to respond. Pell’s responses only made such a finding more likely.
After the completion of his evidence, Pell met with the survivors in Rome. Survivor David Nagle said that they talked about “the future”, and what Pell could do in his position in the Catholic Church.
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Lui si è spostato davanti a me e mi ha sfilato una gamba dei calzoni. Non riuscivo a muovermi. Ero sotto shock. Lui si era messo a pregare e io lo seguivo. Tremavo. Non ero in grado di reagire.» Chinandosi sul corpo del ragazzo, padre Geoghan gli praticò sesso orale. « D’improvviso Geoghan balzò in piedi. Un prete spalancò la porta e cominciò a urlare: “Jack, non ti avevamo detto di non farlo più, qui?”»
Partendo da testimonianze come questa, tra il 2001 ed il 2002, lo Spotlight Team, la squadra di giornalisti investigativi del Boston Globe, ricostruì una rete, impressionantemente vasta, di storie di bambini ed adolescenti, appartenenti a diverse parrocchie, che avevano subito molestie o stupri da parte degli stessi preti, nell’area metropolitana di Boston.
L’inchiesta, ricostruita nel film da Oscar Il caso Spotlight e vincitrice del Premio Pulitzer nel 2002, ha rivelato l’esistenza di un consolidato sistema di connivenza, omertà, insabbiamento da parte dei vescovi e totale mancanza di protezione e moralità nei confronti delle vittime: gli abusi sessuali in America erano una prassi frequente e addirittura documentata, di cui i vertici di ciascuna diocesi erano a conoscenza
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[Christmas week was opened in 2010 and the pontiff then was faced with the scandal involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The unimaginable extent of the scandal had shaken the pope and the church. Benedict spoke in Rome at the traditional Christmas reception for the Curia. Minors were deeply hurt and damaged for life. The church must use these events as a call for truth and for renewal, the Pope made clear. The pope had not spoken on the abuse and was overtaken by his own past. At archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1980 he approved relocation of a pedophile priest from Essen to Upper Bavaria where he again abused children. This case ignited a fierce debate on how much Joseph Ratzinger knew and how great was his personal responsibility.]
“Sprich nur ein Wort, so wird meine Seele gesund.” Diese Formel aus Gottesdiensten bekommt durch den Missbrauchsskandal neue Bedeutung: Die Katholiken warteten bei dem Thema lange auf ein Wort des Stellvertreters Christi auf Erden.
Erst am 11. Juni 2010 – vier Monate nach dem Bekanntwerden der ersten Missbrauchs- und Misshandlungsfälle in der katholischen Kirche – gab es eine Art “Mea Culpa” von Benedikt XVI. Der Papst bat die Opfer bei einer Messe auf dem Petersplatz in Rom um Vergebung.
“Wir bitten Gott und die betroffenen Menschen inständig um Vergebung und versprechen zugleich, dass wir alles tun wollen, um solchen Missbrauch nicht wieder vorkommen zu lassen.”
Die Weihnachtswoche 2010 eröffnete der Pontifex dann mit einem Rückblick auf den Skandal um den sexuellen Missbrauch durch katholische Priester. Das unvorstellbare Ausmaß des Skandals habe Papst und Kirche erschüttert, sagte Benedikt in Rom auf dem traditionellen Weihnachtsempfang für die Kurie. Minderjährige seien tief verletzt und für ihr ganzes Leben geschädigt worden. Die Kirche müsse diese Vorkommnisse als einen Aufruf zur Wahrheit und zur Erneuerung nutzen, machte der Papst deutlich.
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Bill Donohue comments on a proposal by Pennsylvania Rep. Mark Rozzi:
Pennsylvania lawmaker Mark Rozzi’s colleagues ought to call him out immediately for his demagoguery: he wants to use the taxpayer’s money to investigate every diocese in the state for possible sexual abuse crimes. He does not want to target any other institution—just the Catholic Church. If he were seriously concerned about the issue of sexual abuse, he would call for an investigation of all public and private institutions. His real interest, however, is sticking it to the Catholic Church, not protecting minors.
Rep. Rozzi’s grandstanding is inspired by a grand jury’s revelation that the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown improperly dealt with past cases of priestly sexual abuse. Not surprisingly, this expedition started because of alleged abuse at a Catholic high school in that diocese. This alone merited a sweeping look at abuse dating back to World War II.
Anyone who knows anything about the subject of the sexual abuse of minors knows that there is not a single demographic group, or institution, that has not had a lousy record of dealing with this problem. Swimming coaches, camp counselors, Boy Scouts, psychologists, public school teachers, rabbis, ministers, Hollywood producers—all have a sordid past. So why is it that only the Catholic Church is fingered?
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Child sexual abuse survivors from Ballarat who flew to Rome to watch Cardinal George Pell give evidence at the child abuse royal commission want the Prime Minister to commit to a redress scheme.
The Victorian group arrived home on Sunday after a crowdfunded trip to Rome.
“A lot of people might think this is the end of our journey. It’s not,” abuse survivor Andrew Collins told reporters at Melbourne Airport.
He said clerical abuse in Ballarat – including that by Australia’s worst paedophile priest, Gerard Ridsdale – and its long-term effects on victims highlighted the importance of supporting survivors.
“We call on the Turnbull Government to put into place the redress scheme that the royal commission has put forward,” Mr Collins said.
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A Berks County Democrat is calling for every district attorney in Pennsylvania to expand efforts to track child sexual abuse by priests.
In the wake of a grand jury investigation into abuse within the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, state Rep. Mark Rozzi said Wednesday he’d like to see a stronger effort to address the abuse in every part of the state.
“I honestly believe that every diocese should be investigated and opened up with a grand jury,” Rozzi said during a news conference Wednesday, according to WITF. “That’s my own personal opinion. We should look at every single one. As a Catholic, as a victim, I want to know the answer.”
Rozzi, who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a teenager, said his office has received dozens of calls from victims of abuse over the years.
“I get so many emails and calls from victims out there looking for justice,” said Rozzi, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Rozzi asked district attorneys to open hotlines in their counties to take calls from victims. He also reiterated his push to extend the civil statute of limitations for child abuse victims.
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The recent cover story on child sex abuse and the statute of limitations struck a raw nerve. Obviously, Gerald Grimaud must never have been a victim himself if he can state that “testimony becomes less trustworthy over time.”
I wonder if he remembers where he was and what he was doing when he heard the towers in New York went down? Don’t you? If older, don’t you remember what you were doing when you heard Kennedy was assassinated?
My violation was my own personal 9/11.
I remember the smallest details, the smell of cigarettes on his clothes, the unique clerical collar and receding hairline, how he stood first to my left, the pressure of the wall against my back as he leaned on me and fondled me during the first attack. The details of the other incidents play like videotape of a horrible accident. The tapes have played in my head for 48 years and have fed my nightmares. I only wish I could get them to stop!
Why did I wait to speak up, knowing for 45 years I had been abused? Because of embarrassment (a child thinks it must be their fault). Because I thought I was the only one. Because I didn’t equate heavy fondling with molestation. (I thought you had to be raped to be violated and only told several people that “once someone tried to attack me.”)
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A CONVICTED JESUIT PRIEST who is mentioned in several scenes in the film, “Spotlight,” new lives in a Catholic facility called the Vianney Center in Dittmer, MO. He is Fr. James Talbot. He reportedly admitted abusing 89 victims.
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In the last few weeks, two men currently and formerly living in Toronto’s Jewish community have been arrested and charged with crimes of a sexual nature.
Stephen Joseph Schacter, who taught at Eitz Chaim Schools between 1986 and 2004 as well as at United Synagogue Day School (now Robbins Hebrew Academy) from 2004 to 2006, was charged with one count of gross indecency, one count of sexual interference, one count of sexual exploitation and two counts of sexual assault. This follows upon his arrest in December 2015, when he was charged with possession of child pornography.
Meanwhile, David Prashker, the former director of Leo Baeck School, was arrested in California in February and charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. In 2008, Prashker resigned from Leo Baeck after it was discovered that he had authored violent and sexually explicit poetry and posted it online.
These two individuals have worked with minors in the Jewish community. And yet, there has not been a community-wide response to these charges and allegations thus far.
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Matthew Ebert
Writer, agrarian, rural proponent, artist, and activist.
I tried to boycott the Oscars, but boycotting the Oscars is like boycotting the rise of Donald J. Trump — it can’t be done. Guilt is not a stand-in for entertainment. So, in 2016, I boycott the Oscars, but they refused to boycott back.
I knew Spotlight would win. There was no suspense. I should have bet money on it. All my cinephile friends bet on The Revenant or Mad Max. But I said no, it’ll be Spotlight. Spotlight is the kind of film the Academy loves in 2016 — the “Pat-Yourself-on-the-Back” Best Picture of the Year.
I boycott the Oscars because I did not want to hear the producer of Spotlight say what I knew he would say: “This film gave a voice to survivors…” I am here to tell you, Spotlight did not give voice to the survivors, unless the survivors are a group of Pulitzer Prize winning journalists.
I am one of those “survivors”. Watching Spotlight, I got the sinking feeling that we were props — scratching track marks, heads bowed, all your shame personified. We were gay, straight, male, female, white, non-white–we were even priests. Never to rise up, never to be anything other than suicidal, shredded, hysterical, clutching a picture of a priest while screaming: “Justice for the VICTIMS!” — we were stereotypes.
“Go get these guys.” One of the victims begged you. We beg you, we assure you — the embodiment of your guilt and horror at doing nothing for so long. “Go get these guys.” We implore you to do our work. We need you to save us. But the truth lies elsewhere — we don’t need you, or your Spotlight on sexual abuse. We don’t need the myth of Pope Francis as a balm for our suffering. There is nothing the church can do now that the secrets of the Vatican are out. That is the truth. Cue Gaga and the crowd of long term survivors — sing ‘Melancholy Baby’ and launch — close-up on Kate Winslet crying in the aisles. This is what we are to you–human Kleenex dispensers.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, March 10, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home,davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A once high-ranking Altoona priest is publicly blasting jurors and law enforcement personnel. His boss, Altoona’s bishop, should demote or at least discipline him. And the bishop should order all church employees to resist the temptation to blame others for wrongdoing by church staff.
Msgr. Michael Servinsky told a newspaper that “the grand jury did quite a hatchet job on Bishop Joseph (Adamec) – they did him in.”
How bizarre. Msgr. Servinsky pled the fifth before the grand jury. Yet now, he publicly attacks the impartial citizens who did their civic duty by sitting for grand jury duty and the unbiased law enforcement staff who spent two years investigating the reckless, callous and deceitful Altoona Catholic officials.
(Msgr. Servinsky also implied that locking up child molesters doesn’t really help and that police and judges – not church officials – took the initiative to hid clergy child sex crimes: “ I know situations where police and judges would collar him and say: ‘Get that guy out of here and we will not prosecute.’” He also made a sweeping and certainly false generalization “Most of the victims who came to us were not interested in taking it to law enforcement. They didn’t want to testify.”)
Shame on Msgr. Servinsky. And shame on Bishop Mark Bartchak for tolerating this priest’s mean-spirited and wrong-headed and self-serving remarks.
Msgr. Servinsky isn’t just any priest. For years, he worked in the Altoona diocesan headquarters as vicar general, a prominent and powerful position directly under the bishop.
It’s bad enough that Catholic officials in Altoona and elsewhere sometimes attack victims, their supporters and their attorneys. It’s distressing that they sometimes attack journalists, whistleblowers and witnesses. We’ve long grown accustomed to such inappropriate attacks from men who claim to be “shepherds.”
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has imposed new financial accountability regulations on the process for making saints after gross abuses were revealed.
Francis issued norms Thursday that require external vigilance over the Vatican bank accounts created for canonization causes as well as regular budgeting and accounting to make sure donations are being used correctly.
The reforms come after two blockbuster books based on confidential Vatican documents revealed that the Vatican’s saint-making machine brought in hundreds of thousands of euros for each saintly candidate but had virtually no financial oversight.
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By Matt Henson on Mar 9, 2016
Crookston, MN (WDAZ-TV)
Should the Catholic Diocese of Crookston be forced to pay up?
A judge is deciding whether or not the diocese is financially responsible for a pedophile priest in one of its parishes.
The Diocese of Crookston does not deny it.
“The Diocese of Crookston deeply regrets that anyone was harmed at the hands of any clergy member,” commented said Susan Gaertner the lawyer for the diocese
That includes Father Vincent Fitzgerald who died in 2009. Doe 19 claims he was sexually abused by the priest as a ten year old while he was an altar boy at St. Anne’s in Naytahwaush back in the mid-1980s.
“The Diocese of Crookston knew for decades that there were priests abusing kids in this diocese, but continued to keep that from the public and keep those secrets,” said Doe 19’s lawyer Mike Finnegan.
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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
We’re grateful that accused murderer and ex-priest John Feit is back in Texas but worry that many are feeling complacent instead of acting vigilantly in this case. Though prosecutors say they have new evidence, no one should rest easy or stay silent. Every single person who has any knowledge of or suspicions about Feit must come forward now if he is to be successfully kept locked up.
We’re also sad that Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores is trying to distance himself from this horrific crime while apparently doing nothing to help solve it.
We hope that Catholic bishops in five states (TX, IA, NM, AZ, and MO) will show leadership and do outreach to any others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Feit. We especially hope Feit’s former church colleagues and supervisors will call law enforcement and that officials at the Phoenix Catholic charity where he worked will aggressively seek out anyone among their staff and clients who may have been hurt by Feit.
We are still hoping that at least one current or former Catholic official will answer a simple but crucial question. Feit pled no contest to assaulting one young woman. He was suspected to have murdered another one. So how can Catholic officials justify giving him a job at a Phoenix church charity and access to thousands more young women, especially vulnerable, needy ones who went there seeking help?
Remember, Feit wasn’t even given a desk job. He had a training position. He was given a leadership role that mandated his involvement with perhaps thousands of individuals.
Instead of praising those who exposed or investigated or warned others about Feit, Bishop Flores stressed that the case “dates back to 1960.” How’s that help? What purpose does that already-widely-known fact serve other than promote complacency?
This is what bishops do in child sex abuse and cover up cases. They emphasize how long ago the crimes happened, in a blatant attempt to mollify their flocks. Instead, they should be motivating their flocks and staffs to help law enforcement resolve these cases.
We predict that bishops in every place where Feit worked or lived will do nothing to be helpful. So we hope that other current and former church staff in those states will honor their moral and civic duty by doing all they can to find other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who can enable law enforcement to successfully prosecute Feit.
Accused priests often get top notch lawyers who exploit legal loopholes, evade justice, and get little or no jail time even if convicted. So now is not the time to get complacent. It’s the time to work harder to find and help those with information or suspicions about clergy crimes and cover ups in Texas, Missouri, Arizona or New Mexico.
So Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Dubuque Archbishop Michael Jackels, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller (where Feit went to seminary), and church staff in the Springfield MO diocese (where there is no bishop now) and Flores, get busy. Act like the shepherds you purport to be.
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WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, March 9, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A serial Pennsylvania predator priest – who was described by law enforcement officials as a “monster” who may have “molested hundreds” – was quietly sent to work in West Virginia, according to a just-released grand jury report.
We want West Virginia’s Catholic bishop to alert his flock about this pedophile, Fr. Francis McCaa. (Links below)
We strongly suspect he also hurt kids in West Virginia.
For the healing of victims, we call on West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield – and every Catholic church employee and church member in the state – to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. McCaa or cover ups by his colleagues or supervisors.
Church staff should use diocesan websites, church bulletins, and pulpit announcements to warn his flock about living predator priests and educate them about deceased predator priests. That’s the way kids can be protected, victims can be healed and the church can move forward.
In 2004, Altoona Catholic officials paid $3.7 million to settle 21 cases of abuse against 11 priests, including Fr. McCaa. Fr. McCaa, now deceased, was at one time the chancellor of the Altoona diocese.
In 2003, Fr. McCaa reportedly lived in West Virginia. He died in 2007.
According to a Pennsylvania newspaper: The report calls McCaa “a monster” who groped and “fondled the genitals of numerous children” who attended or served at Holy Name Church, Ebensburg; “Numerous former altar boys reported that McCaa would make them take their pants off under their cassocks” and then “reach under their religious vestments to touch and squeeze their genitals”; one boy reported the abuse to his mother, who slapped him and said the priest “was just being friendly”; the grand jury identified as many as 15 victims, and said McCaa was “a formidable figure and the boys felt like there was no escape”; the report accused Bishop Hogan of having full knowledge of McCaa’s action.
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Brent Lang
Senior Film and Media Reporter
@BrentALang
A little Oscar love goes a long way.
Fresh off its best picture victory at this year’s Academy Awards, “Spotlight” has gotten a box office boost both domestically and in foreign markets, where a talky drama about a sex abuse investigation would otherwise be a hard sell. Stateside, ticket sales enjoyed a 140% uptick, taking in $1.8 million last weekend and pushing the North American total to nearly $42 million. That’s particularly impressive considering that “Spotlight” has been available on home entertainment platforms since Feb. 23.
“It’s a movie that a lot of people want to see in theaters,” said Jason Cassidy, chief marketing officer at Open Road, the indie label that had domestic rights. “It’s a profoundly emotional experience that people respond to when they see it on a big screen.”
He added that the film was the best performing picture or second best performing picture in several complexes. “Spotlight,” an account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reports on the Catholic Church’s cover-up of wide spread sexual abuse by its priests, also won a best original screenplay Oscar. Its victory over “The Revenant” in the top category was seen as a major upset.
Overseas, box office has also been robust. The picture closed the weekend with another $5.8 million in the bank, an increase of more than 100% from the previous weekend. “Spotlight’s” foreign total stands at $33.2 million.
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A man charged with raping a seven-year-old girl at a Christian mission in West Australia’s South West in the 1970s has faced Bunbury Magistrates Court.
Philip Howard Street, 74, was charged last month by a specialist police taskforce.
It is alleged Street, who is from Albany, sexually assaulted the young girl multiple times while he was employed at the Roelands Christian Mission in 1974 and 1975.
The man made a brief appearance in court charged with two counts of rape and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 14 years of age.
He was not required to enter a plea and was granted bail to reappear in court on May 23.
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[Pedophile priest scandal: “Maybe I was wrong … Let justice to tell me,” proclaimed Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.]
Le cardinal Barbarin dans la tourmente… L’archevêque de Lyon, accusé d’avoir couvert un prêtre pédophile, se défend sans totalement convaincre. Difficile en effet de persuader quand on affirme, comme il le fait dans Le Parisien : “Il y a 25 ans, on était dans une autre mentalité par rapport à la pédophilie”. Aujourd’hui, deux victimes du père Bernard Preynat portent plainte contre Philippe Barbarin. Ces anciens scouts affirment qu’il avait été alerté dès 2007 sur ces faits des années 80. Pourtant, il a fallu attendre l’année dernière pour que le prêtre soit suspendu et sanctionné. Malgré cela, Mgr Barbarin reste droit dans ses bottes.
“Quand j’ai rencontré le père Preynat, il y avait déjà des bruits qui courraient. Je l’ai appelé pour lui demander : ‘Comment de telles choses sont possibles ?’. Il m’a répondu que je ne comprendrais pas”, rapporte le cardinal. Ce dernier assure ensuite avoir demandé au prêtre s’il s’était passé la moindre chose avec des enfants. Devant la réponse négative et certaine du prêtre, le cardinal a préféré ne pas donner suite à l’affaire tout en ajoutant “mais peu-être ai-je eu tort, que la justice me le dise”.
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[Cardinal Phillippe Barbarin said Father Bernard Prenat assured him he had never abused minors.]
Le cardinal Barbarin, accusé d’avoir couvert en 2007 un prêtre mis en examen en janvier dernier pour des agressions sexuelles sur des enfants, se défend ce jeudi sur RMC. L’archevêque de Lyon explique qu’il a fait confiance au père Preynat, qui lui a assuré que les bruits qui courraient sur ces actes commis dans les années 80 n’étaient que des rumeurs malveillantes.
Le cardinal Barbarin a-t-il couvert le père Preynat, qui a reconnu des d’agressions sexuelles sur des scouts de Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon (Rhône) entre 1986 et 1991 ? Non, répond ce jeudi sur RMC l’archevêque de Lyon, qui s’est peu exprimée sur cette affaire depuis sa mise en cause pour “non-dénonciation de crimes”. Il est pointé du doigt par plusieurs victimes qui l’accuse depuis 2007 d’avoir caché ce prêtre pédophile, ses agissements et de l’avoir laissé en poste, toujours auprès d’enfants, dans diverses paroisses de la région sous son autorité, malgré les soupçons de pédophilie.
Le père Bernard Preynat, qui a quitté ses paroisses du Roannais fin août 2015 après avoir été relevé de ses fonctions par le diocèse, a été mis en examen le 27 janvier après avoir reconnu les faits d’agressions sexuelles sur moins de 15 ans. Il a également été placé sous le statut de témoin assisté pour des viols qu’il a avoués en garde à vue.
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This year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Spotlight” focused on a team of reporters who exposed a coverup of pedophile priests by the Catholic church.
In one scene from the film, a Boston Globe reporter discovers a group home for defrocked priests accused of sexual abuse in his own neighborhood.
The troubling revelation causes the journalist to place his own kids on high alert as he warns them to stay away from the home.
Chilean writer-director Pablo Larrain explores similar territory in his chilling new film, “The Club,” as four defrocked priests and a former nun take residence in a seaside home located in La Boca, Chile.
The two-story house serves as a rehab facility where the former clergy do penance for their sins while mostly avoiding the general public. Sister Monica (Antonia Zegers) serves as the caretaker and warden of the disgraced priests, but later in the film, its revealed that she also has a sordid past that involves the abuse of a child, physical not sexual.
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THE principal of a Catholic boys’ school has hit out at child abusers and those that covered up for them.
St Aloysius’ College principal Mark Tannock made his feelings clear in a newsletter to parents in light of the Royal Commission.
“The extent of this abuse … shames the church and all (including me) who love it,” he wrote.
“The criminal deeds of the past deserve to be exposed by the Royal Commission and, if sustained by the burden of proof in a criminal court, the perpetrators should be called to account by the law.”
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A 66-year-old man has been charged with a number of historical sexual offences in children’s care homes and a church.
Philip Temple, of no fixed address, was charged by the Metropolitan Police with 27 counts of historical sexual assault and two counts of perjury.
Mr Temple was remanded in custody until later in April, when he will appear at Croydon Crown Court.
Scotland Yard has said that the sexual assault charges relate to allegations of abuse against 12 victims, who were all aged under 16 at the time of the alleged offences.
The alleged offences are thought to have taken place between 1971 and 1998 in children’s care homes managed by Christ the King Monastery on Bramley Road in Southgate, Wandsworth local authority and Lambeth local authority, according to police.
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The Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese’s new expert body to deal with child sexual abuse is a “huge step” towards transparency, but it cannot address the core problems of the Catholic Church, a child sex abuse campaigner says.
The archdiocese’s Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding is headed by former NSW police detective Matt Casey and former lawyer Jane Cronan.
Mr Casey, the institute’s director, said the body was charged with investigating allegations of child sex abuse from anywhere in the archdiocese.
“There was a tendency, within not just the church in our archdiocese but in other organisations, to minimise things and to not recognise the objective seriousness of the behaviour that was being complained about,” he said.
“With the institute, there will always be a level of expertise that enables us to respond to the objective seriousness of any complaint that comes to us.”
He said the institute would start with a presumption in favour of the complainant.
The institute would not facilitate compensation, which would be organised through the survivor and the church’s legal representatives.
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Rosanna Savone
CEO | Attorney | Best Selling Author | Screenwriter
Felt let down by Spotlight too?
Being reared in the Roman Catholic religion, I was particularly interested in watching the film since it’s release in theaters back in November.
I personally left the church the first moment I could at the age of eighteen largely because of its antiquated, sexist and unequal treatment of women.
My decision was affirmed just a few years later, when the Boston Globe literally shined a “spotlight” on the dysfunction that embodies this religious institution and its hierarchy of ecclesiastical rulers.
After all, who else but dysfunctional men would knowingly put as many as 5,000 children into harm’s way to protect their own reputation? And these are the guys that claim to know something I don’t about God?
But I wasn’t the only one particularly interested in seeing Spotlight.
My monthly film club gathering of four women (including myself) had readily agreed (twice in a row, which is a record) on the same movie.
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Steve EsackContact Reporter
Call Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Breathing deeply to control his anger and shame over his childhood rape, a state lawmaker called on prosecutors and the Legislature to use the power of their offices to safeguard children and punish the Catholic Church and other institutions that protect sex abusers they employ.
For decades, the Catholic Church has shielded predatory priests, said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, a victim of clergy abuse. The most recent evidence of those “systematic cover-ups,” Rozzi said, is outlined in last week’s state grand jury report that accuses two bishops overseeing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown of allowing at least 50 priests and other religious leaders to sexually abuse hundreds of children for decades.
It must end now, Rozzi said at a news conference Wednesday in the state Capitol.
Rozzi, along with Rep. Tim Murt, R-Montgomery, called on the state’s 67 county district attorneys to conduct grand jury investigations into their local Catholic dioceses and set up phone hotlines to allow victims to step forward.
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First, it was Penn State. Then it was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now, just when you think that scandals involving the sexual abuse of children can’t get any worse, we learn about yet another one.
After a prolonged and extensive investigation, authorities have uncovered literally mounds of evidence of child sexual abuse and cover-ups by Roman Catholic Church officials. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown reportedly protected priests who were known child molesters. The diocese, through church connections and pathetic public officials, protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.
Perhaps the worst crime the diocese committed was never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. When a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move the priest to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family and/or send the child-molesting priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.
As ugly and painful as the latest clergy sex-abuse scandal is, this is not the last one about which we will hear. While many victims are finding the strength to come forward, we have yet to hear from the thousands of child sex-abuse victims who are still hiding in shame and humiliation. The true shame and humiliation, however, is not theirs at all. That belongs to Pennsylvania’s legislators who still collectively refuse to take action to reform the statute of limitations as it relates to child sex abuse.
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HARRISBURG – Lawmakers are divided over legislation that would grant adults who were sexually abused as children a two-year window, beginning when the law takes effect, to file civil lawsuits against people who they allege assaulted them decades ago.
“Memories fade, the evidence changes, or there may be no more witnesses,” said Stephen Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, highlighting concerns about the constitutionality of reviving charges that expired under the state’s statute of limitations.
The House in the next few weeks is likely to take on stalled legislation to extend the limitations on such offenses in a move made a week after a statewide grand jury report found at least 50 priests abused hundreds of children for more than 40 years in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
“The Judiciary Committee plans to work expeditiously to move legislation to strengthen our laws already in place and send it to the House floor for a full vote,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin County, wrote in a statement.
“We, in the legislature, will always fight to protect children, and I certainly support doing more to continue to support the victims of these horrendous crimes,” Marsico said. “While there are only a very few states with a longer window for their civil statute of limitations, I support fully abolishing the criminal statute of limitation for future criminal prosecutions.”
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A new lawsuit against the Diocese of New Ulm alleges a priest years ago sexually abused a boy while at St. John’s Church in Darwin, the first time a sex abuse case has been linked to a Meeker County parish.
Parishioners at St. John’s received a letter from the diocese last month stating a priest at the church from 1965 to 1969 has been accused of sexual abuse.
The priest, Charles Stark, retired in 1987 and died in 1991, according to the diocese.
The lawsuit alleges Stark abused an 11-year-old altar boy, who helped Stark with day-to-day church activities, including Mass, funerals and weddings. The boy was a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, or CCD, student, and he was also paid to do “odd jobs” like mowing the lawn and edging sidewalks, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges Stark in 1969 “engaged in unpermitted sexual contact” with the plaintiff, who is not identified in the suit.
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HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WDTN) — A court date has been set for a former priest who served at St. Peter Catholic Church in Huber Heights.
Rev. Earl Simone is scheduled to appear in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Thursday afternoon before Judge Dennis Langer.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati told 2 NEWS they fully cooperated with investigators in this case and will not comment on the matter until after Thursday’s proceedings.
St. Peter came under investigation for financial irregularities after the Archdiocese of Cincinnati received an ethics complaint in February 2015.
“We move forward as the church has always moved forward. We look to the future rather than to the past. It’s unfortunate that this happened but it is in our past. They survived through the whole thing. As I just said, ministry has only increased even with money going out,” said Father Tony Cutcher, current pastor of St. Peter.
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EDINBURG — A former priest accussed of killing a McAllen beauty queen nearly 56 years ago is being extradited to Texas and is expected to be booked into the Hidalgo County jail as early as Wednesday.
John Feit, 83, was arrested in Scottsdale on Feb. 9 and charged with the 1960 murder of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher.
“Why,” asked Noemi Sigler, who was 10 years old at the time of her cousin Garza’s death. “That question just kept going through my head, ‘why, why.’ Now maybe we’ll know why that happened to Irene.”
Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said during a news conference Wednesday that investigators had uncovered new evidence in the decades-old murder, but he declined to comment on what was presented to the grand jury.
Garza disappeared after going to confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen on April 16, 1960. Authorities allege that Feit, who was a 27-year-old priest at the church, murdered Garza after her confession. Her body was discovered days later in a canal. She had been beaten, raped while unconscious, and asphyxiated.
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PHOENIX – Authorities said Wednesday they used new evidence to help revive a more than half-century-old murder case in which an 83-year-old former priest is accused of killing a Texas teacher and ex-beauty queen, but they declined to give details.
John Feit , who had been jailed in Phoenix since his arrest last month, was turned over to Texas authorities earlier Wednesday and was headed back to South Texas, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said. He will be held in the county jail.
“Today we can say that after a long wait of approximately 56 years, is the beginning of bringing justice to … the victim and the community,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez and other officials at a news conference declined to comment on what evidence was presented to grand jurors to indict Feit, only saying “we do have new facts and evidence.” Rene Guerra, the former longtime Hidalgo County district attorney who had previously investigated the murder but never brought charges, has said there was no DNA evidence.
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It’s been one day since a sexual abuse victim’s advocacy group held an open forum in Blair County. Now they are making plans to start a permanent support group in the area. SNAP, the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests has been vocally critical about the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, since the release of a gut-wrenching grand jury report.
Tuesday afternoon, supporters of SNAP held a rally on the lawn of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. This mini-protest was meant to inspire people to attend their open forum that was held Tuesday night.
“It was heartwarming to see that people feel like there was a place they could go,” said Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest associate director.
Jones said nearly a dozen people showed up to the forum. SNAP respectfully requested that no media be present to allow a safe space for any potential victims to come forward. And they did. Later, 6News spoke with one survivor who said he was abused all throughout high school.
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A City of London priest who asked a vulnerable male for a lewd act of fellatio and then tried to prosecute his victim for publicly revealing the embarrassing fact has had his complaint thrown out, after the cleric was said to have “lied and lied and lied and lied”.
Rev. William Campbell-Taylor who is also a councilor in the London City Hall had claimed he had been caused “distress and alarm” because of the embarassment of his victim talking publicly in the British Parliament about his abuse experience at the hands of the priest. But after multiple flaws of Campbell-Taylor’s truthfulness came to light before trial, the public prosecution service (equivalent of the DA’s office) decided to “offer no evidence” – and the charges were dismissed by the Court.
In what has been claimed by groups representing victims of clergy abuse as “a victory for the free speech of survivors”, the Court while partially restraining future contact between the parties at the same time positively upheld the right to free debate in public meetings.
Campbell-Taylor, who has an openly bisexual history, denied the abuse with the vulnerable male, and rejected any suggestion that he had any close personal relationship with the victim. But the untruthfulness of the priest was demonstrated when dozens of letters from the cleric to the victim since came to light in which Campbell-Taylor signs off messages with kisses and “love, William” and “W x” or “yr brother Muffin”. The victim writes to Campbell-Taylor challenging him about “your sexuality and past experience that has wreaked havoc in our personal relationship” and asks about the time “you said [to me] ‘How about a b**w job then?’”. In response, the priest evades the question and strangely writes back “you have been on my mind today because I know it is your birthday” and “I would like to be in a position to stand in solidarity in public with you as a friend” and again signs off “love William”. The victim further referred to characteristic phrases used by the priest such as “a stirring in the loins”.
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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 9, 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)
Mississippi Bishop William Houck died today. He headed the Jackson diocese until 2003. We hope his passing brings some comfort and closure to those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups during his years in office.
[Washington Times]
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 9, 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)
Mississippi Bishop William Houck died today. He headed the Jackson diocese until 2003. We hope his passing brings some comfort and closure to those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups during his years in office.
During Houck’s tenure, a number of out-of-state predator priests were quietly welcomed into Mississippi, including Fr. William Wiebler, a notorious Iowa child molesting cleric and Brother William Leimbach of Rhode Island.
Though Houck’s successor claims he’s “reformed” how Catholic officials deal with abuse reports, we are skeptical. We believe those with knowledge of or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover ups should speak up but inform secular authorities, not church officials.
During Houck’s tenure, a number of out-of-state predator priests were quietly welcomed into Mississippi, including Fr. William Wiebler, a notorious Iowa child molesting cleric and Brother William Leimbach of Rhode Island.
Though Houck’s successor claims he’s “reformed” how Catholic officials deal with abuse reports, we are skeptical. We believe those with knowledge of or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover ups should speak up but inform secular authorities, not church officials.
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Fallout from the findings of a grand jury report released last week showing that the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese for decades knew and concealed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children at the hands of priests spilled into the Capitol on Wednesday.
Three state legislators called on all district attorneys across the commonwealth to aggressively pursue abusive Catholic priests.
They also took their gloves off after years of fighting to reform laws designed to empower victims of child sex abuse and vowed to once and for all advance reform legislation.
At a news conference in the state Capitol, state Reps. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and Tom Murt (R- Montgomery/Phila.) urged district attorneys throughout the state to pursue every possible lead that may lead to evidence in the investigation and prosecution of abusive priests.
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A spokesman for Bishop Mark Bartchak had few answers Tuesday for demands pushed by demonstrators outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown offices. Carrying photos of children who reported abuse by priests, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests demonstrators called for the removal of the diocese victim advocate and the entire Allegation Review Board. The Tribune Democrat reports that during a hastily-called press conference Tuesday, diocese spokesman Tony DeGol was asked if any additional clergy would be removed as a result of a grand jury report. “I can’t comment on that because it’s a ongoing investigation,” DeGol said.
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MCALLEN – Hidalgo County officials announced there are new facts and evidence in the 1960 murder of Irene Garza.
During a press conference this afternoon, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said the information will be presented at the appropriate time in court.
Garza’s body was found in a canal in April 1960. She was last seen five days earlier at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. John Feit was a priest at the time. He was long considered a person of interest.
Two people claim Feit confessed to killing Garza. Last month, an Hidalgo County grand jury indicted him in the case.
In today’s press conference, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said, “We have been very clear at the city of McAllen Police Department that we’ve always believed there was probable cause for John Feit to face charges in the death of Irene Garza.”
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Hidalgo District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez and law enforcement officials did not take questions during a news conference Wednesday in Edinburg regarding the extradition of John Feit.
Feit, a former priest with Sacred Heart Catholic Church, was arrested by the Texas Rangers, Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office investigators and McAllen police last month in Arizona to face murder charges in the death of 25-year-old beauty queen Irene Garza in 1960.
Feit did not fight extradition to return to Texas.
Wednesday, law enforcement officials would not say when or where Feit would return to the Rio Grande Valley, but he is expected to land in the Valley on Wednesday.
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HOLLIDAYSBURG – A spokesman for Bishop Mark Bartchak had few answers Tuesday for demands pushed by demonstrators outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown offices.
Carrying photos of children who reported abuse by priests, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests demonstrators called for the removal of the diocese victim advocate and the entire Allegation Review Board.
During a hastily-called press conference Tuesday, diocese spokesman Tony DeGol was asked if any additional clergy would be removed as a result of a grand jury report.
“I can’t comment on that because it’s an ongoing investigation,” DeGol said.
DeGol gave the same response when asked why the diocese did not contact law enforcement about suspected abuse under Bartchak’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Adamec.
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The allegations contained in a grand jury report about child sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese are beyond appalling. They are horrifying.
For decades, the grand jury found, priests in the diocese sexually abused hundreds of children. Two bishops covered up the abuse, transferring priests accused of abusing children to other parishes. The grand jury found a shocking, and documented, pattern of criminal behavior that is simply unimaginable. That an institution that claims moral authority would behave so immorally is more than unsettling. It is terrifying.
And yet, that wasn’t even the worst of the grand jury report. The worst is that, despite the evidence, authorities and victims had no recourse. The statute of limitations has expired for prosecuting any of the cases and for victims to seek recompense in civil court.
In short, the cover-up worked. Yes, the alleged crimes have been exposed, but there is nothing that can be done to dispense any measure of justice in these cases.
For that reason, the grand jury recommended abolishing the criminal and civil statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases and establishing a two-year window for previous victims to seek justice in civil court.
Those recommendations make a lot of sense, especially when you consider the circumstances.
In cases of child sexual abuse, experts say, it often takes years for victims to come to terms with what happened to them and muster the courage to come forward. In cases involving powerful institutions – be it the Catholic Church or Penn State – that process takes even more time because victims are intimidated into silence by the institution’s power.
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY – A longtime local priest faces charges that he stole $1,500,000 from a catholic church in Huber Heights. Montgomery County Prosecutors said today, that Rev. Earl F. Simone stole the money from Saint Peter Catholic Church between January 2008 and March 31, 2008.
According to the church, Simone had been a priest at Saint Peter from 1992 until 2015. We first reported what Huber Heights police called “financial irregularities” in March of 2015. The Cincinnati Archdiocese gave the tip to police about the irregularities after there was an ethics complaint at Saint Peter Catholic Church.
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A retired Roman Catholic bishop in Jackson has died.
Current Bishop Joseph Kopacz says Bishop William Houck died early Wednesday at St. Dominic’s Hospital of complications following heart surgery.
Houck, 89, led the diocese covering 65 counties in central and northern Mississippi from 1984 to 2003. …
His tenure was marred by lawsuits against the diocese over sexual abuse by priests.
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[Cardinal Müller “We should restrain ourselves with self-righteous teachings”.]
Von Joachim Frank
28.02.16
Herr Kardinal, Sie haben in Köln unter dem Titel referiert, „Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen“. In vielen Ländern sitzen Regimegegner in Haft, weil sie die Wahrheit gesagt haben, viele Journalisten, auch ein Whistleblower wie Edward Snowden. Wem gilt eigentlich Ihre Botschaft?
Es geht in diesem Bibelwort aus dem Johannes-Evangelium um die existenzielle Freiheit des Menschen, die aus dem Glauben an Gott kommt: die Freiheit von der Angst um sich selbst, Freiheit von Sünde und der Verfallenheit an das Nichts. In diesem Sinn kann ein ungerecht Gefangener innerlich freier sein als seine Peiniger. Männer wie Pater Maximilian Kolbe oder Dietrich Bonhoeffer bezeugen uns das. Oder heute auch die Christen, die vom IS enthauptet worden sind, weil sie ihrem Glauben treu bleiben wollten.
Wie wollen Sie vermeiden, dass aus dieser Sicht – die Opfer sind freier als die Täter – ein Freifahrtschein für Diktatoren und Terroristen wird?
Ich versuche, es konkret zu machen: Dietrich Bonhoeffer hat sich dem Unrechtsregime der Nationalsozialisten aktiv entgegengestellt. Der Kampf gegen Ungerechtigkeit ist notwendig. Aber es kann die Stunde der Ohnmacht kommen. Dann gilt es, sich nicht vom Bösen überwältigen zu lassen, sondern die innere Freiheit zu bewahren; wie Jesus sagt, sich nicht vor denen zu fürchten, die zwar den Leib, aber nicht die Seele töten können (Matthäus 10,28). Beides kommt im Titel von Bonhoeffers wichtigstem Werk zum Ausdruck: „Widerstand und Ergebung“.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A group of state lawmakers will call on district attorneys across the state to lead tougher child sexual abuse investigations.
State Reps. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), Tom Murt (R-Montgomery/Philadelphia) and Frank Burns (D-Cambria) will make the call at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol.
They want prosecutors to follow every lead possible that may may lead to evidence in child sex abuse cases. This includes conducting grand jury investigations whenever there are multiple allegations.
This is in response to a grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Investigators said 50 priests abused hundreds of children for at least 40 years. Two bishops are accused of covering up their behavior.
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The Diocese of Crookston will ask the Court during Thursday’s scheduled hearing at the Polk County Justice Center to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of a sexual abuse survivor, Doe 19, who was sexually abused as a young boy by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald worked as a priest at St. Anne’s in Naytahwaush, MN, where he allegedly abused Doe 19.
Prior to working at St. Anne’s in the Diocese of Crookston, Fitzgerald also worked at St. Catherine’s parish in Squaw Lake, MN, in the Diocese of Duluth, where he sexually abused another young boy, Bill Weis. In November 2015, a Ramsey County jury reached a verdict in favor of Weis, concluding the Diocese of Duluth was negligent in failing to supervise Fitzgerald.
Doe 19’s trial is set for July 2016.
Doe 19’s lawsuit was filed in November 2013 under the Minnesota Child Victims Act which allows survivors of sexual abuse to sue their offenders and the institutions who protected the offenders. The deadline for sexual abuse survivors to file a lawsuit is May 25, 2016.
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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release – Monday, March 7, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A few weeks ago, Yakima Catholic officials said they MIGHT post names of predator priests on a church website this month. (Last week, a Pennsylvania bishop pledged to do this too.)
This move is long overdue. It’s the quickest, easiest way to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about predator priests. It’s the very least bishops should do, since they recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded these predators for years, often helping them evade prosecution by keeping their crimes secret until the statute of limitations expired.
Over the past dozen years or so, more than 30 US bishops have released such lists. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm
In January, the Seattle Catholic archdiocese released a list of 77 child molesting clerics who worked there.
That same month, the Yakima Republic reported that Yakima church officials may do the same thing in March.
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Nueve párrocos de ese Estado del sur de México acusaron a otro cura de abusar de casi 100 niños, por lo cual dos fueron suspendidos y el resto ha recibido amenazas
Nueve sacerdotes católicos de Oaxaca acusan haber sido amenazados de muerte y al menos dos de ellos han sido suspendidos del sacerdocio por pedir a su obispo y al Vaticano su intervención en el caso de un párroco que ha abusado de unos 100 niños indígenas en Oaxaca, sureste de México. El pederasta incluso ya está preso pero la Iglesia se niega a castigarlo o siquiera reconocerlo como abusador….
El párroco Gerardo Silvestre Hernández está acusado de abusar sexualmente de un centenar de niños. Cuatro de las víctimas se lo contaron a otro cura en confesión y él decidió poner al tanto al arzobispo José Luis Chávez, quien solucionó el problema cambiando al pederasta de parroquia y callando la voz acusadora. Pero los abusos continuaron en la siguiente iglesia y en otras cinco. El acusador, Apolonio Merino, mantuvo el apoyo a los menores y sus familias, hasta que fue suspendido junto con otro sacerdote que se unió a esa causa. El Vaticano absolvió al abusador mientras los sacerdotes suspendidos temen por su integridad y la de sus familias.
“La mayoría de los sacerdotes que hemos impulsado esta causa en Oaxaca estamos siendo objeto de amenazas, persecución y hostigamiento de parte del arzobispo y de su equipo. Ratifico lo que me dijeron en confesión pero no lo voy a ventilar por ética profesional, lo que sí puedo decir es que hubo abusos muy graves en esa parroquia. Eran adolescentes de entre 13 y 14 años, sólo de Santiago Camotlán son 45 menores y en las otras calculamos otros 45, alrededor de 100 en total”, dijo Apolonio Merino a El País.
El otro sacerdote suspendido es Ángel Noriega, quien fuera responsable de la parroquia de Santiago Camotlán, de donde fue desalojado en julio de 2015 sin una orden ni aviso previo de la arquidiócesis. Merino afirma que recibe llamadas anónimas en las que le dicen que se cuide, que “se lo va a cargar la chingada, que le van a dar donde más le duele”, es decir, su familia. Ambos firmaron, junto con otros siete curas, una carta dirigida a la Santa Sede en la que le informan de los abusos contra los niños y de la omisión del arzobispo Chávez Botello, pero su acción sólo derivó en suspensiones y amenazas.
Esta es la carta de respuesta que envió el Vaticano.FONI OAXACA
“Sobre el reverendo Silvestre no pesa denuncia verosímil que justifique la intervención de este Dicasterio en su ámbito de competencia, por lo que la causa queda desestimada en su mérito. A su vez, se invita al diálogo sereno que redunde en un mayor bien de cohesión y unidad pastoral”, fue la respuesta enviada por el Vaticano a Oaxaca en 2011.
Otra de las personas que acusó a Silvestre es Narcisa Mendoza, madre de una de las víctimas. La señora presentó una denuncia penal contra el párroco y escribió una carta al Papa Francisco en noviembre de 2015 para pedirle su intervención en el caso, sin respuesta hasta ahora.Únete a EL PAÍS para seguir toda la actualidad y leer sin límites.
“Cuando me entero que el cura los llamaba al cuarto y los emborrachaba y así abusaba de ellos, entonces fui a quejarme ante las autoridades”, relató Mendoza en su carta, escrita de puño y letra y difundida por la red defensora de la infancia oaxaqueña ‘Foni’. “Yo sí le pido justicia por los niños zapotecas y que no se vuelva a repetir porque es un sufrimiento muy grande, muy terrible que a nadie se le desea”.
Esta es la carta que Narcisa Mendoza escribió al papa Francisco.FONI OAXACA
Mendoza acudió con la autoridad local para denunciar a Silvestre, pero la respuesta que obtuvo fue que “ya habían notificado al arzobispo y éste no les había hecho caso”, así que interpuso su denuncia a nivel estatal. Gracias a su denuncia y la de otra decena de madres y padres, Silvestre Hernández fue detenido en 2013 y está en espera de una sentencia por abuso sexual contra menores de edad.
Por su parte, el arzobispo de Antequera, José Luis Chávez Botello, está en espera también de la decisión del pontífice sobre su permanencia en la arquidiócesis, pero no por su presunta complicidad en los abusos contra los niños, sino porque recién cumplió 75 años y el Derecho Canónico obliga a los obispos a renunciar a esa edad, dejando su cargo a consideración del Papa.
En México no existe una cifra exacta de niños abusados por sacerdotes porque todavía es una mayoría la que no denuncia, según el activista contra la pederastia Alberto Athié. El caso más notorio es el del fundador de la Legión de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, acusado no sólo de pederastia sino de tener hijos con varias mujeres e imponer un voto de silencio extraordinario a sus congregados para evitar que lo denunciaran. Maciel murió en 2008 a los 87 años de edad, sin haber enfrentado ningún proceso penal o canónico.
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Sometimes you don’t have to see the movie. Sometimes it’s not a movie at all.
A letter arrived at my house last week that, right away, caught my attention. Now I don’t know about you, but there’s something about an attorney’s return address on an envelope addressed to me that makes finding out what’s inside a lot more important than the latest missive from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. So I stood there, barely in the door, coat still on and read, “We are sending this letter to anyone who may have attended a parish or school in the Diocese of Winona …”
The letter was from Jeff Anderson & Associates, a reminder that “anyone who was sexually abused by a priest, deacon teacher, or anyone else associated with the Diocese of Winona … must bring a claim by the May 25, 2016 deadline.”
I put the letter down and took off my coat. I hadn’t been abused.
But I could have been. When I was a boy the Bishop of Winona moved Thomas Adamson, one of the accused priests, into the rectory three blocks from my house.
I was fortunate. My friend and classmate was not so lucky.
He wasn’t the first. The bishop knew that when he sent Adamson to our town.
He knew.
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Just a week after a Grand Jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-up within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese a group rallies to support victims. A small group held a rally Tuesday outside the Diocese in Hollidaysburg and clutching photos of innocent children asking the Diocese for change. This biggest issue is the cover up and that needs to get stopped in order for kids to get help. These young faces are important, they are the faces of survivors at the age they were abused. Those in the photos allow snap, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests show their faces to tell their story about sexual abuse at the hands of church leaders. And for Pam Erdely this mission is personal. I was sexual abused by a nun in my high school in 1972. Erdely made the two hour drive from Pittsburgh to stand on this lawn to stand up for what she believes in. Abuse is like a knife in your heart and a bullet in your brain. It is very dark and depressing. My main message today is, I just want to tell victims there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
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(ANSA) – Cremona, March 9 – Two of five alleged child sexual abuse victims on Wednesday requested damages in a trial against 66-year-old Father Mauro Inzoli, who stands accused of several counts of sexual assault on minors.
Inzoli headed up the Cremona chapter of conservative lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation (CL) for 30 years. He founded the Food Bank charity and is also known as Father Mercedes thanks to a passion for luxury cars.
The prelate is accused of abusing his authority to sexually assault underage boys, both in his office where he led spiritual exercises and in hotels in summer resorts during CL-organized youth holidays.
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Jerome Christenson wrote an excellent column about the sexual abuse cover up in the Roman Catholic Church (Daily News, March 2). While that column may have been motivated viewing the recent award-winning movie, “Spotlight,” it was much more personal and real. In that column, Jerome says, “We owe it to the children never to forget.”
He is so right.
My wife and I attended the movie “Spotlight” about two weeks ago. We came out of the theater in silence. Everyone who was there was silent. I’ve never left a theater where it felt like everyone was dumbstruck by the events of the movie.
As many of you may know, I have been vocal in a very public way about the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis. I wrote my first public letter in the Daily News on the subject in May 2007, but I was still unaware of the absolute corruption that was the coverup in Boston…until seeing this movie.
Today — 15 years after the Boston story hit the papers, 30, 40, 50, 60 years after the “modern” sexual abuse coverup scandal began — the Roman Catholic hierarchy still does not get it.
Even as I write this, Cardinal George Pell (formerly of Australia) and retired Bishop Joseph Adamec (Pennsylvania) are defending their illegal behaviors. Cardinal Law remains safely in the Vatican and has not been called to account for his illegal activities.
Perhaps even more incredulous is that newer bishops not involved in the previous coverup activities in their dioceses are actively defending the behaviors of their predecessors, in many instances driving their dioceses into bankruptcy in order to do so. Apologies are shallow or two-faced. For instance: Archbishop Jerome Listecki (Milwaukee) appears to have “reached out” to sexual abuse survivors simply as a tactic to ensure that his bankrupt archdiocese would not be obligated in any way to those who came forward.
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Lord Janner faced allegations that he had abused 30 victims from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s, the first preliminary hearing of a public inquiry into child abuse has heard.
The inquiry, overseen by Justice Lowell Goddard, began by looking at abuse claims against the former Labour MP, including claims he took alleged victims to the houses of parliament.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first of Goddard’s public investigations in her independent inquiry into institutional failures to protect children from abuse over many decades in England and Wales.
Janner, a former Leicester MP, was charged with 22 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s, but died in December at the age of 87 before a trial of the facts could take place in a criminal courtroom.
In her inquiry, Goddard will be asked to decide whether or not the allegations are well founded, to discover any institutional failings, and to look at why so many children who complained of abuse were left within his reach for so long.
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In a courtroom that has hosted some of the most significant and dramatic public inquiries of the last 20 years, a New Zealand judge will take her seat to begin a journey into one of the darkest corners of British life.
What emerges over the coming months and years in Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice, will be difficult to face, not only for social workers, local government officials, teachers, religious leaders, senior politicians and the police, but for society as a whole.
The first of Justice Lowell Goddard’s 25 public investigations, in her independent inquiry into institutional failures to protect children over many decades in England and Wales, will focus on the late Greville Janner. The former Labour MP was charged with 22 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s, but died before a trial of the facts could take place in a criminal courtroom. It will be her job to decide, having considered the allegations, whether or not they are well founded, and to probe why so many children who have complained of abuse were left within his reach for so long.
For the few hours that she sits in court on Wednesday, Goddard will hear from lawyers, as most victims plan to stay away from what is a preliminary hearing. But for these survivors – vulnerable children in the care of Leicestershire county council, now grown into middle-aged men – and many others, it will be a hugely symbolic moment.
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Pope Francis’ proposed Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests is going nowhere fast.
Despite fresh focus from the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” on how Catholic bishops protected priests who raped children, Francis’ most significant sex abuse-related initiative to date has stalled. It’s a victim of a premature roll-out, unresolved legal and administrative questions and resistance both inside and outside of the Holy See, church officials and canon lawyers say.
The surprise proposal made headlines when it was announced on June 10 as the first major initiative of Francis’ sex abuse advisory commission. A Vatican communique said Francis and his nine cardinal advisers had unanimously agreed to create a new judicial section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle “abuse of office” cases against bishops accused of failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles.
But the proposal immediately raised red flags to canon lawyers and Vatican officials alike.
For starters, the congregation, which since 2001 has been the clearing house for all church abuse cases around the world, wasn’t consulted or even informed. As is, the congregation is understaffed and overwhelmed processing hundreds of backlogged cases of priests who molested children, advising dioceses on how to proceed.
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THE FACT OF THE DAY. We met Tuesday Archbishop Philippe Barbarin. The Archbishop of Lyons, accused of having protected a pedophile priest responds to victims who file complaints against him. “The resignation, for me, is not relevant. If I am guilty, then we’ll see, “he says.
In front of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière Tuesday afternoon on the heights of Lyon, a few dozen meters from his archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin argues, relaxed, with an old parishioner. True to himself, he collects big hand gestures as if he had Italian blood.
Since it is specifically referred to two complaints from victims of pedophile priest Bernard Preynat for not denouncing these acts, he did not personally expressed. The day before, his entourage has informed us that he could not respond positively to our request for interview. But when we decide to question him directly on the square, the Primate of the Gauls, currently in turmoil, finally agrees to deliver. And to face the accusations of the alleged victims of Father Preynat who reproach him for not having alerted justice since 2007 when it experienced the past pedophile of scouts priest. What do you say to the victims of the father Preynat? M GR BARBARIN . In 2007, these are rumors and these are very old facts. I have not seen anyone at that time. When, in 1991, the priest was moved to another parish, Archbishop I’m not, I’m not responsibilities. And then, there are twenty-five years, we must not forget that we are also in a different mentality compared to pedophilia. Have you thought in 2007 to prevent the judiciary? I do not even think. Again, I hear things about the past of the priest but that’s it. How to improve the warning system? Maybe Consider later we have external advisors in this type business.
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Victims of child sexual and physical abuse will no longer face restrictive limitation periods when seeking compensation in NSW.
State parliament on Wednesday voted to remove the limitation periods that have previously blocked claims made more than three years after abuse occurred.
About 22,000 people are expected to benefit from the change, which was one of 99 recommendations made by the abuse royal commission last year.
Greens MLC David Shoebridge said the bill delivered a measure of real justice for victims of historic abuse.
“We know that it can take decades for survivors to be able to talk about their experiences, let alone find the courage to bring a claim for damages, and this reform reflects that reality,” he said.
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METUCHEN — A new bishop will be installed in the Diocese of Metuchen in May, replacing Paul Bootkoski who has served as bishop there for 14 years.
The Rev. Monsignor James Checchio, 49, was introduced Tuesday morning at a press conference in the auditorium of the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway, which was filled with priests, and other members of the diocese he will soon lead.
“I’m looking forward to making this my home for a very long time,” Checchio said.
Bootkoski will remain in charge of the diocese until Checchio’s installation, according to a diocese statement.
Checchio spent the last 12 years as the rector for the Pontifical North American College in Rome, but he is originally from Collingswood in Camden County.
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Vatican City, 8 March 2016 – The Holy Father has appointed Msgr. James F. Checchio as bishop of Metuchen (area 3,688, population 1,383,217, Catholics 636,217, priests 204, permanent deacons 154, religious 304), United States of America. The bishop-elect was born in 1966 in Camden, United States of America and was ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome, and has served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar, defender of the bond in the tribunal of Camden, director of the diocesan Public Relations and Communications Office, parish administrator and moderator of the Curia. He is currently rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He succeeds Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.
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An Anglican priest charged last month with sexually assaulting five youths in Edmonton during the 1980s is facing more charges after police say more victims came forward.
In February, Edmonton police charged Gordon William Dominey, 63, with five counts of sexual assault and five counts of gross indecency in connection with incidents that allegedly occurred at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre from 1985 to 1989.
He now faces 18 sexual assault charges and nine gross indecency charges in relation to the alleged assaults, which are reported to have happened at the incarceration facility.
Dominey was employed at the centre at the time.
The new charges come after four more men came forward in the last month to report allegations of sexual assault at the facility during the same time period, Edmonton police say.
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BY OTIENA ELLWAND
FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MARCH 08, 2016
An Anglican priest accused of sexually assaulting teenage boys at an Edmonton youth jail in the 1980s faces 17 additional charges after four more complainants came forward to police in the past month.
Edmonton police announced Tuesday that Gordon William Dominey, 63, is now facing a total of 18 sexual assault charges and nine gross indecency charges in relation to incidents that allegedly occurred while he was employed as a priest at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre.
Dominey was initially charged with five counts each of sexual assault and gross indecency in February after two complainants came forward to police in September and then three other alleged victims were identified later.
Those complainants were allegedly abused at the youth centre between 1985 and 1989, when they were between the ages 14 to 17.
Dominey was arrested Feb. 4 in Coquitlam, B.C., and is believed to have lived in British Columbia since 1990. While living there, Dominey was employed as a parish priest.
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When she arrived at the Donnybrook laundry, Sara was given a number and told to remember it. The number 100. This was her new identity.
In her survivor testimony for Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM’s) submission to the Inter-Departmental Committee set up to investigate state involvement in the Magdalene laundries, Sara W described the conditions in the Donnybrook laundry between 1954 and 1956, before she was moved to another Magdalene laundry, in Cork.
“At nine o’clock every night you were locked into that cell,” she says. “The windows used to be up very high, like a small little window . . . and I used to climb up the top of the bed to look out.”
“I never seen daylight for two years,” she continues. “The only bit of freedom — we were allowed to walk up and down a place called ‘the bleach’, where they put out the sheets in the summertime, clothes lines and all that. You’d walk up and down there. That was your freedom.”
Sara’s crime? She didn’t commit one.
At 15, she was working at a bed and breakfast. As she recalls it, members of the Legion of Mary promised her a better job and brought her to the Donnybrook Laundry. There, they told her they were putting her in the institution for her own safety.
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TAMPA (FOX 13) – For 40 years, a man named in a new lawsuit as John Doe has been hiding allegations that he was sexually abused as a child at Tampa Catholic school Mary Help of Christians.
The school is now defunct, but the religious order that ran it, the Salesians of Don Bosco, does operate a church on the school’s old property in East Tampa.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hillsborough County names Brother John Casula as the abuser.
Casula was an auto shop teacher and religious leader at the school. He died in 1994.
Casula’s accuser says the abuse began in 1976 when he was 12 and continued for two years. During that time, the accuser says Casula touched and fondled him on nearly 20 separate occasions in a secluded auto shop at the school. The lawsuit alleges the school knew about other abuse allegations against Casula and other brothers or priests, but did not report the abuse and protected the abusers.
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THE Church of England is standing firm over its handling of the George Bell case despite fierce criticism from its former head.
On Monday The Argus reported how the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey had lambasted the church after it publicly settled a claim of historic sex abuse against Bell and apologised to the victim of the former head of the church in Sussex.
In a letter to Bell’s niece, Lord George Carey said he felt the revered wartime bishop had been denied the right to a fair trial and he was looking for “ways of reopening” the matter.
His intervention was met with resolve from the Church of England on Monday, reiterating its reasons for the way it handled the case.
The spokesman told The Argus: “Where allegations are made against a deceased person, as is the case with Bishop Bell, they are treated seriously and dealt with accordingly, however uncomfortable this may prove, or however high profile the individual may be.
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A former Catholic Brother has fronted Wollongong court accused of sexually abusing a young male student at Edmund Rice College in the late 1980s.
John Vincent Roberts was a teacher at the prestigious single-sex school when he allegedly repeatedly molested and raped the 12-year-old boy while on school grounds.
Police charge sheets presented in court claim Roberts’ carried out several acts of indecency upon the child, including fondling his penis and anus, and masturbating him.
Roberts is also accused of rubbing his own erect penis over the boy’s body at least twice in an 18 month period.
Police allege Roberts’ sexual attention towards the boy escalated into rape on several occasions.
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[Cardinal Phillipe Barbarin, who is being investigated by the court for failing to report a suspect abusive priest, said his resignation is not being considered.]
L’archevêque de Lyon Philippe Barbarin, mis en cause par une association de victimes d’un prêtre pédophile, a indiqué que sa démission n’était “pas une question d’actualité” sans toutefois l’écarter s’il était “fautif” aux yeux de la Justice, dans une interview au Parisien.
“La démission, pour moi, n’est pas une question d’actualité.
Si je suis fautif, si je suis +occasion à scandales+, alors là on verra. La justice va faire son travail”, déclare le cardinal.
“Je porte les souffrances terribles provoquées par ce prêtre”, ajoute le Primat des Gaules, assurant penser “aux victimes tous les jours”.
Le parquet de Lyon a ordonné une enquête préliminaire pour des faits de non-dénonciation et de mise en péril de la vie d’autrui au sujet d’agressions sexuelles commises par le père Bernard Preynat, sur de jeunes scouts lyonnais entre 1986 et 1991 pour lesquelles le religieux a été mis en examen.
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[Facing reporters, Cardinal Barbarin defended his not having informed the authorities when he was made aware of the actions of the priest Preynat who is accused to abusing scouts but he said he thinks every day of the victims.]
Dans la tourmente, le cardinal Philippe Barbarin, qui fait face à deux plaintes pour “non-dénonciation” d’un prêtre pédophile, a répondu aux questions du Parisien qui l’a rencontré sur le parvis de la basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, à Lyon.
Face aux journalistes, Mgr Barbarin défend le fait de ne pas avoir prévenu les autorités au moment où il a été mis au courant des agissements du père Preynat, le curé des scouts, tout en affirmant penser “tous les jours” aux victimes.
“Si je suis fautif, on verra”
“En 2007, ce sont des bruits qui courent et ce sont des faits très anciens (entre 1986 et 1991, ndlr). Je n’ai vu personne à ce moment-là”, explique l’archevêque de Lyon. “Encore une fois, j’entends dire des choses sur le passé du prêtre, mais c’est tout. ”
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Ballarat Grammar says it has assisted a number of former students to report allegations of historical sex abuse at the school to the police and the child abuse royal commission.
The Anglican school’s headmaster Adam Heath said the school wrote to former students late last year asking them to come forward if they had experienced abuse in the past.
“The school decided to be as proactive as possible,” he said.
“That was really a measure by the school to do everything possible to offer support to any former students who had been subjected to abuse.”
Mr Heath said a number of students had since approached the school, to report instances of abuse relating to the 1970s and early 80s.
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A film about a landmark sexual abuse case for damages against an Anglican school is shooting in Queensland with an impressive cast headed by Rachel Griffiths, Jack Thompson, Aden Young and Jacqueline McKenzie.
Director Tori Garrett calls Don’t Tell a “riveting” courtroom drama that tells an important story that triggered new regulations and contributed towards the creation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“The material is so strong,” Garrett says. “The stuff that we’re talking about in the courtroom is straight from the court transcripts, so it’s all word for word true.”
Don’t Tell is based on a book by lawyer Stephen Roach (Young), who represented a 22-year-old woman known only as Lyndal (Sara West) when she took action against Toowoomba Preparatory School in 2001.
The school had denied she was sexually abused by a boarding house master, played by Gyton Grantley, a decade earlier. As a result of the case the Anglican Archdiocese of Brisbane paid her compensation of more than $800,000.
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Personalising political campaigns may not guarantee success but usually enhances the case being made.
Personalised advocacy can be extremely effective in politics. Cardinal George Pell was at the centre of the recent hearing conducted in Rome by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, but it was the Ballarat survivors of church abuse whose personal presence and shocking stories have created added momentum and political pressure for apologies and redress. The survivors were living testimony of the damage inflicted by the abuse. Pell, on the other hand, failed the test of personal empathy.
In other commission hearings into institutional child sex abuse where the passing of time means that there are no surviving personal stories, or where privacy demands that the identity of the victims is hidden from view, the issues can appear much more abstract and so lack the same political impact.
The general point is that personalised advocacy is one of the main characteristics of many of the major social campaigns now crowding the political agenda. Making the political personal may not guarantee success but it usually enhances the political arguments that are being made. Such personalised arguments can put the other side very much on the back foot.
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Jonathan Rosenblatt, the modern Orthodox rabbi who found himself at the center of a controversial firestorm at the Riverdale synagogue that he has led for decades, has now announced that he will be stepping down from his post as spiritual leader.
The prominent rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center drew harsh rebuke from congregants for taking boys as young as 12 years of age along with young men to join him in naked sauna visits. Reports indicate that during the 1980s and 90s, Rosenblatt, now 59, would engage his young charges in deep discussions about their lives and faith in G-d. The sauna sessions would generally take place after playing squash in the synagogue gym. Rosenblatt would shower with the boys and then enter the sauna or hot tub. While nothing sexually untoward occurred, a 2015 article in the New York Times renewed an ongoing debate as to whether his conduct was appropriate as several of the boys in question, who are now in their 40s had said that Rosenblatt made them feel uncomfortable by looking at their naked bodies and commenting on them.
In 2011, Rosenblatt reached an agreement with the Rabbinical Council of America, which oversees American Orthodox rabbis, to stop taking congregants to the sauna altogether.
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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn
[with release download]
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Christopher Prowse announces the new Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding in the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
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The Catholic Church has established a new body to handle sexual abuse complaints in the ACT region.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse from the Canberra and Goulburn Archdiocese has launched the Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding.
Archbishop Prowse said the move was in response to the recent focus on the church’s responses to child sexual abuse through the royal commission.
“Too many [survivors], regrettably, have spoken of being confronted by a brutal and defensive church governance structure that refused to take responsibility,” Archbishop Prowse said.
“The aim is to support survivors with the reassurance that all our communities are safe, our children and vulnerable people are truly cared for, and the spiritual dimension of all we do is not compromised by unethical and criminal behaviour.”
Archbishop Prowse said the institute would be headed by a lawyer and former senior police officer.
“The manager [Jane Cronan] is a wonderful woman with a legal background, particularly in this area,” he said.
“The director [Matt Casey] is a former senior detective.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
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