ABUSE TRACKER

ROME
Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola and Stefano Pitrelli January 16

The Vatican has continued to receive a high number of reports of sexual abuse by clerics during Pope Francis’s papacy, according to a new book that also reexamines allegations against several of the pontiff’s top advisers involving coverups or worse.

The book by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi — an advance copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, and which is to be published Thursday — argues that little has changed in the way the church handles sexual abuse cases despite Francis’s creation of a special commission for the protection of minors and a declaration of “zero tolerance” of abuse.

The church “is still afraid of the taboo,” Fittipaldi said in an interview.

Francis has been credited by some with taking more decisive action on abuse cases than his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, did. Francis has set down a process for removing bishops for negligence in the handling of abuse cases and ordered the trial before a church tribunal of a Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic after accusations of sexual abuse surfaced. But Francis also has promoted officials who have been tainted by accusations of abuse or coverups, and the Vatican has been accused of still not doing enough.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Mon 16 Jan 2017
By Premier Journalist

An Italian author has lashed out at Pope Francis, claiming the Catholic leader has not followed through on his promise to have a zero tolerance approach on clerical sex abuse.

Emiliano Fittipaldi makes the accusations against the Pope in his new book Lussuria (‘Lust’) which will be released in Italy on Thursday.

Fittipaldi claims that 1,200 complaints of child sex abuse were taken to the Pope in his first three years of papacy. He writes that in Italy, a number of priests have been convicted of abuse but the church did not take any canonical action against them.

The author also suggests that Australian cardinal George Pell, who has been accused of protecting abusers in his archdiocese, has remained in a senior position despite the complaints against him.

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NORTH CAROLINA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Damion J. Lynch was ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte in 1991. He was assigned to St. Elizabeth’s in Boone and was a chaplain at nearby Appalachian State University. In 1995 Lynch disclosed to Bishop Curlin an “indiscretion” on his part involving a St. Elizabeth’s altar boy in his early teens. Lynch was placed on leave in November 1995 and sent for psychological testing. The family received settlement money, agreeing to keep quiet and to release the diocese from further damages. Curlin assigned Lynch to another Charlotte parish 1997. In 1998 the same family sued after they said they discovered that their son’s twin brother had also been molested by Lynch, and that the abuse of their boys occurred repeatedly and not just once, as they had thought. Lynch then asked for a leave of absence. He was not returned to ministry.

Ordained: 1991

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UNITED STATES
BET

Written by Ernest Owens

The death of Bishop Eddie Long struck a nerve with me that I would have never imaged. Perhaps it was the hypocrisy found in Kim Burrell’s anti-LGBT remarks earlier this month or the fact that I now see more Black clergyman popping up to support President-Elect Donald Trump — who also has a VP that believes in LGBTQ conversion therapy. Maybe it’s the deep distrust with faith communities that have given me a bittersweet reaction to Long’s passing.

When I saw the news break on social media, I automatically took to Twitter to see the reactions. Many were celebrating Long as a “spiritual warrior,” a “mentor,” and a “church leader.” No one, in the first few moments his death became public, would dare speak on the allegations surrounding him reportedly coercing young adult men for sex. No one would speak on the congregation members who would denounced and publically attacked these men for speaking to the media. And nobody would talk about the hypocrisy of his church and how they defended a man who has held anti-LGBTQ positions while seemingly living a double life.

This morning, I had enough with allowing church folks on my Facebook timeline and Twitter feed fail to recognize their double standards at the expense of my emotional tillage. I called it out, all of it. I went off about the Black church and how it likes to erase LGBTQ folks and our trauma out of the narrative. I explained how “love, grace, and mercy” is only given to those who preach hetrosexism, but not for the same-gender loving and those afflicted by sexual abuse. It was a Sunday, so I gave a social media sermon that went viral. Enough was enough and I wasn’t having it.

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GEORGIA
Advocate

BY TRUDY RING
JANUARY 15 2017

Eddie Long, the antigay Georgia megachurch pastor once accused of sexually abusing young men in his congregation, has died at age 63.

Long died Sunday of “an aggressive form of cancer,” said a statement released by his church to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Long, who held the title of bishop, was senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, a suburb of Atlanta. In 2010 four men who had been members of the church filed a lawsuit alleging that Long had coerced them into sexual relationships, enticing them with money, trips, and expensive gifts. A court dismissed the suit and the men reached a settlement with Long in 2011.

The bishop did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, and he always denied the allegations, but even after the settlement, his accusers maintained they were telling the truth. Long’s public stance was also consistently antigay; he preached against homosexuality, offered counseling to “cure” people of being gay, and opposed marriage equality.

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ISRAEL
Israel Hayom

Following recent scandals involving well-known religious figures, a new ruling determines it is not only permissible, but a duty to report sexual harassment to the police • “There is more common language with police today,” prominent rabbi says.

Yehuda Shlezinger and Israel Hayom Staff

In the wake of several recent scandals involving well-known figures from the religious public — among them former Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris; former head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Davidi Pearl; Rabbi Ezra Scheinberg and others — a new religious ruling states unequivocally: Sexual harassment or abuse must be reported to the police.

A comprehensive halachic document compiled by the Puah Institute for fertility, medicine, and Jewish law cites five halachic sources and determines that it is not only permissible, but an obligation, to complain about sexual harassment.

The document was drafted ahead of the 17th Puah Institute Conference, which will be held Wednesday.

In attendance will be doctors and rabbis, with the goal of teaching municipal, neighborhood and community rabbis about the latest innovations in the fields of gynecology, fertility, genetics and more. This year, a panel at the conference will specifically examine the religious duty of reporting sexual harassment to the authorities.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Robert Yurgel was ordained for the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis in 1996. He was assigned in 1997 to the Diocese of Charlotte NC, where he worked in several area parishes. In October 1999 he was transferred out of the diocese, returning briefly to his order in New York, then assigned to the Diocese of Paterson NJ. He resided at a Passaic parish while working as a hospital chaplain. He occasionally said mass in Hackensack.

In 2008 a 23-year-old man reported to the Charlotte-Meckenburg police that Yurgel sexually abused him beginning in 1999 when he was a 14-year-old altar boy at St. Matthew’s in Charlotte, and Yurgel was an assistant priest. The young man said the abuse occurred at St. Matthew’s, at Our Lady of Consolation where Yurgel was next assigned, in a car in the parking lot of St. Michael’s in Gastonia where Yurgel sometimes presided over a Spanish mass, and at the boy’s home when his parents were out. Yurgel was arrested in NJ and extradited to NC; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February 2009 to at least seven years and eight months in prison, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.

Yurgel’s victim sued the Charlotte diocese and Capuchin Franciscans in 2008, claiming they covered up his case, and that the diocese knew of sexual misconduct by Yurgel in 1999. The diocese and order settled with the man in 2010.

Ordained: 1996

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ROMA
AGI

Roma – Sul nuovo numero dell’Espresso, in edicola da domenica 15 gennaio, l’inchiesta di copertina è firmata da Emiliano Fittipaldi ed è dedicata ai ‘vizi cardinali’, ovvero a come parte della Curia continua a proteggere prelati accusati di pedofilia..

Il giornalista ha scritto un libro, in uscita il 19, sull’argomento e nel video racconta la difficile battaglia di Francesco contro la pedofilia. Fittipaldi spiega come gli alti prelati, alcuni vicini al Papa, hanno continuato a insabbiare le denunce sulle violenze sessuali ai bambini. Nel numero in edicola domenica con Repubblica, anche un’intervista al figlio del criminale nazista Hans Frank, processato a Norimberga.

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ROME
The Guardian (UK)

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

Sunday 15 January 2017

The last time Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi wrote an exposé about corruption at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, it landed him in a Vatican court facing a possible jail sentence on charges that he had illegally obtained confidential church papers in the course of his reporting.

Now, six months after the 42-year-old reporter was cleared of all charges, Fittipaldi is taking on the church again. This time in a new book that accuses Pope Francis of doing “close to nothing” to stop clerical sexual abuse in Italy and around the world, despite the Argentinean pope’s frequent assertions that he has zero tolerance for the abuse of children or those who protect abusers.

In Lussuria (Lust), which will be released in Italian by publisher Feltrinelli on Thursday, Fittipaldi methodically pores over court documents and cites interviews with priests and judicial officials to paint a damning picture of the first three years of Francis’s papacy. Fittipaldi claims that 1,200 plausible complaints of molestation against boys and girls from around the world have been brought to the Vatican’s attention in that period. In some of the twenty cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests in Italy in 2016, Fittipaldi writes, priests have been convicted of abuse without the church taking any canonical action against them.

Fittipaldi also devotes attention to the case of Australian cardinal George Pell, who was appointed by Francis to reform church finances and has remained in that senior position despite questions over whether Pell protected serial abusers in his archdiocese in Australia decades ago. Pell has denied the allegations against him but a counsel assisting a royal commission looking at child abuse in Australia has argued that there was evidence that Pell should have taken stronger action against one paedophile priest whose case has been examined. …

“The principle message of the book – the problem – is that the phenomenon of paedophilia is not being fought with sufficient force. Across the world, the church continues to protect the privacy of the paedophiles and also the cardinals [who protect them],” Fittipaldi said in an interview with the Guardian.

“Francis is not directly defending the paedophiles, but he did close to nothing to contrast the phenomenon of paedophilia,” he added.

It is not a new charge against the pope. While Francis is popular, especially for his strong views in support of poor and marginalised people, groups that advocate for survivors of sexual abuse have regularly criticised Francis for failing to take concrete steps to prevent and expose abuse, even though he has used strong words to condemn sexual violence by priests. A papal commission created by Francis early in his papacy has only met three or four times in its history, Fittipaldi said. Separately, a Vatican proposal to create a tribunal to investigate bishops who cover up for abusers, which was celebrated by advocacy groups when it was announced in 2015, has inexplicably been stalled.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — Pope Francis has appointed Boston’s Archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith–a move church officials say will expand his global involvement in the prevention of clergy sex abuse.

John Allen, the editor of Catholic news website Crux, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Kim Tunnicliffe that O’Malley’s appointment reflects the influential role he’s played in addressing the church sex abuse crisis.

“This appointment is another confirmation that he is essentialy this pope’s, and essentially the entire church’s go-to man in the fight against child sexual abuse,” said Allen. “If you want a signal that you’re serious about something, and you want a signal that you’re serious about reform, you want Cardinal O’Malley to be involved with it.”

Pope Francis created a commission to recommend abuse policy changes in the church, and put O’Malley in charge–but Allen says this appointment gives him more reach.

“It really is the Congregation for the Faith that applies those recommendations in the area of imposing discipline–not merely on priests who abuse, but also on bishops who cover up abuse,” he said.

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ESPANA
El Mundo

[The Bishop of San Sebastián, José Ignacio Munilla, announced today that the diocese will now require a criminal record certificate for persons working with children in the diocese. Munilla dedicated his homily at Sunday Mass celebrated at the cathedral to the accusations made against the former vicar-general, Juan Kruz Mendizabal, who was convicted in a church canonical procedure of sexual abuse of a minor.]

15/01/2017

El obispo de San Sebastián, José Ignacio Munilla, ha anunciado hoy que exigirá certificado de penales a las personas que trabajen con menores en la diócesis y ha señalado que su “agenda queda disponible para atender de forma prioritaria los casos” de abusos sexuales “que puedan presentarse”.

Munilla ha dedicado íntegramente su homilía de la misa dominical que ha celebrado en la catedral del Buen Pastor de la capital guipuzcoana al caso del ex vicario general de Gipúzkoa, el sacerdote Juan Kruz Mendizabal, condenado en un procedimiento canónico por dos casos de abusos sexuales a menores sucedidos en los años 2001 y 2005 y denunciado por una tercera víctima por hechos similares acaecidos en 1994.

Munilla ha trasladado también un mensaje de apoyo a los sacerdotes, de los que ha dicho que “son como los aviones”, que “solo son noticia cuando caen”.

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ROME
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

Migration, economic austerity, secularism, clerical sex abuse, falling attendance at Mass, the decline in priesthood vocations and the Catholic Church’s mission of mercy to those on the periphery will be just some of the many hot-button issues touched on by Irish bishops during their traditional “ad limina” visit to Pope Francis and the Holy See, beginning on Monday morning.

The “ad limina apostolorum” (to the threshold of the apostles) visit, which usually takes place every five years, in some senses represents an occasion when the local, often far-off branch gets a chance to report in person to head office.

Over the next 10 days, there will be an exchange of views between the visiting bishops and the heads of nearly all the major departments of the Roman curia.

The high point of the visit will come next Friday when the pope receives the almost 30-strong Irish delegation in audience.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Seattle Times

By The Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s archbishop has been appointed to a top Vatican office that handles cases of clergy sex abuse.

The Vatican’s press office announced Saturday that Pope Francis named Cardinal Sean O’Malley the newest member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which enforces church teachings and also judges sex abuse cases. O’Malley will remain the archbishop of Boston.

The move strengthens O’Malley’s role as a key figure in the church’s work to prevent abuse. In 2014 he was named president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, an advisory body for the pope.

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NEW YORK
New York Pos

By Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

January 15, 2017

A Long Island priest has been suspended for allegedly sending sinful selfies.

Father Luke Melackrinos, a married father of three and the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Paul, was called into a Nassau County police station on Jan. 8 to address a complaint involving “inappropriate email exchanges he had with a woman,” according to a letter sent to parishioners by his bishop.

No charges were filed against Melackrinos but he was “immediately placed on a leave of absence” because “there is a certain code of behavior expected of our clergy,” read the letter written by Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox church in the United States.

Melackrinos “consented to immediately begin seeing a professional for evaluation so we can determine the proper course of action,” the bishop wrote.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Anonymous

I am the unnamed sex-abuse victim of Kevin Gugliotta, the poker-playing priest arrested on Oct. 29 on child pornography charges. mentioned in Mark Meuller’s story in The Star-Ledger on Dec. 6.

The article made it clear that the Newark Archdiocese’s statement was misleading if not an outright lie: “There are no allegations that he engaged in similar activities in New Jersey,”

In fact, before Gugliotta was ordained, he sexually assaulted and sexually harassed me when I was a teenager. In 2003 – nearly 15 years after I was abused – I came forward to the Archdiocesan Review Board. Archbishop John J. Myers relied on a technicality of canon law to excuse Gugliotta, since my allegations stemmed to years before he was ordained. Worse, the archbishop then assigned him to posts where he had supervision over children.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin is our own Pope Francis. He replaces Myers, whose neglect has left children exposed to sexual abuse.

The church, under Myers, sat on these very serious allegations, right up until they knew the newspaper would shed light on it.

Today, I want to add insight how perpetrators of child sexual abuse take time to build a network of trust and confidence by cultivating love and respect in families and communities, such that their acts, when they come to light, seem unbelievable.

I also want to speak to the culture within the Catholic church that denies and hides the behavior of perpetrators – a culture that fails to protect children and young adults, condemning them to a lifetime of shame and secrecy from which it is very difficult, if not impossible in some cases, to recover.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY NIKKI DUBOSE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, January 15, 2017

After failing to change the law last year, New York State is set once again to consider doing away with the statute of limitations on prosecuting sex crimes against children — this time with Gov. Cuomo hopefully leading the reform charge against a likely intransigent state Senate.

Under current statutes, a victim must seek justice in criminal or civil court by her 23rd birthday, or she loses the opportunity to do so forever.

To understand why this is so perverse, you have to try to grasp the psychological impact that child sex abuse has on those subjected to it.

I was sexually abused at age 8 by a male figure, and then again by my mother from the ages of 9 to 13 until the police removed me from my home. There was a lot of domestic violence and physical abuse, but the sexual abuse impacted me the most. I developed eating disorders, depression, psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation. I dropped out of high school and failed out of college twice.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

The acting president of the Moravian Church in Jamaica, the Reverend Phyllis Smith-Seymour, has issued a statement saying the institution has been left battered and wounded arising from the arrest sex scandal now gripping it.

The statement issued this morning comes two days after the Moravian president Dr Paul Gardner and his deputy Jermaine Gibson resigned following damning allegations against them contained in a seven-page email.

The bishops of the church have told the complainant that an independent committee mutually agreed by her will be set up to investigate.

This morning’s statement also follows the December 28 arrest of Rupert Clarke, the 64-year-old pastor of the Nazareth Moravian Church in Manchester.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

Gordon Houser is the editor of The Mennonite magazine. Hannah Heinzekehr is the Executive Director of The Mennonite, Inc. This editorial appeared in the October issue of The Mennonite.

From Gordon

It seems that issues arise in the Mennonite church at times that feel like “kairos” moments, moments of opportunity for change and for focus by the broader church.

I felt that happened in the early 1990s, when we were confronted by a growing number of cases of sexual abuse by Mennonite leaders. At the time, I was editor of The Mennonite when it was the magazine of the General Conference Mennonite Church. I was part of a group of Mennonite leaders who attended a conference in February 1992 called “Men Working to End Violence Against Women.”

For most of us who participated, this was a life-changing experience, a time of repentance from ignoring the violence against women that was endemic to our society— even our church.

Around this time, stories emerged of sexual abuse by several prominent Mennonite church leaders, including Urie Bender, Jan Gleysteen, John Howard Yoder and others. At that time, Meetinghouse, a group of Mennonite editors, worked on developing guidelines for reporting these abuses. And we reported those we learned about.

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NEW YORK/HAWAII
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests SNAPNetwork.org, (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

New York Governor Cuomo is making a bold and victim-friendly move by adding the Child Victim’s Act to his agenda. We applaud him for making child safety a priority—by helping victims in both private and public institutions.

In 2014, the State of Hawaii extended their 2-year civil window for victims of child sexual abuse.
Their original window, enacted in 2012, only applied to victims who had been sexually abused in private institutions. The two-year extension broadened the law and allowed survivors who had been abused in public and private schools and institutions to use the civil justice system to expose their abuser.

The law was very successful, allowing hundreds of victims to come forward, exposing dozens of predators, and keeping Hawaii’s children safer in public and private institutions. Governor Cuomo can do the same for New York.

If Hawaii can write a law that helps survivors and protects children, New York can certainly do the same.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Felicia Gans GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JANUARY 15, 2017

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley was appointed Saturday to a powerful Vatican office that reviews sex abuse cases, expanding his global involvement in the prevention of clergy sex abuse, according to church officials.

O’Malley’s appointment to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican press office.

The duties of the Doctrine of Faith office, which is responsible for Catholic teaching, were expanded to include the review and handling of clerical abuse cases in the early 2000s, said Thomas Groome, a professor of theology and religious education at Boston College.

O’Malley’s appointment to the office is a reflection of the influential role he’s played to address the global clergy sex abuse crisis, Groome said. …

Phil Saviano, a sex abuse survivor, said the appointment is “certainly a step in the right direction” by the Vatican to address the needs of victims. But Saviano said Francis needs to be more transparent regarding both the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“Whether anything significant will come from it, and whether he will be willing to reveal the details of what he does with this committee, so that we can judge if it’s a good thing or another way of stalling for time … we’ll have to tell,” he said.

Saviano added that he’s been impressed with O’Malley’s outlook regarding the clerical obligation to report sexual abuse cases to civil authorities.

Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of www.bishop-accountability.org, said O’Malley has a reputation of being “the pope’s go-to man for clergy sex abuse,” but she has not been impressed with his work thus far.

“The [Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors] is taking very modest steps and hasn’t achieved anything like real change,” Doyle said. “So I don’t know how he can cause the CDF to change.”

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

Sunday, January 15, 2017

The Moravian Church in Jamaica has admitted that it was hurting from the allegations of sexual misconduct that have resulted in one of its pastors being arrested and charged, but reiterated its commitment to proclaiming the gospel of Christ for the benefit of mankind.

At the same time, the church said it was re-examining its policies and processes, as it sought to deal with all the allegations made, with the purpose of maintaining the high moral standards that it has always espoused and expected of all its servants and workers.

“As has been done since 1754, we will continue to act with sound governance in a responsible and responsive way. Within this context, the Moravian Church deeply regrets the circumstances that have led to the arrest of a member of its clergy — a matter that is now before the Courts of Jamaica,” acting president of the church, Rev Phyllis Smit-Seymour, said in a statement.

The Moravian Church was plunged into controversy on January 3 when news emerged that 64-year-old pastor Rupert Clarke was arrested in December by the police ,who said they caught him in “a compromising position” with a 15-year-old girl in his car in St Elizabeth.

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JAMAICA
Loop

The police in St Elizabeth are in possession of a warrant for the arrest of a man who has been accused of sexual touching and ‘grooming’ of an 11-year-old girl in the parish last October.

Head of the St Elizabeth Police Division, Superintendent Lansford Salmon, has indicated that the man is Zachariah Wright, popularly known as ‘Brother Zacky’, a member of the Top Hill Church of God of Prophesy in the parish.

Superintendent Salmon is seeking the public’s assistance to get Wright into police custody. He also called for persons to begin to expose more sexual offences

It comes against the background of heavy ongoing national spotlight on the sexual abuse of minors by adult males locally, following the arrest and charge of 64-year-old Moravian Church pastor Rupert Clarke for having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 15, 2017

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — Inevitably, following the recent arrest of a Moravian pastor for alleged rape and sexual intercourse with a minor in Austin, south-eastern St Elizabeth, child abuse took centre stage at last Thursday’s meeting of the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation (Parish Council).

Police chief in St Elizabeth Supt Lanford Salmon set the tone during his report on crime when he urged councillors and their constituents to report to the police and the Child Development Agency (CDA) any suspicions they may have of child abuse.

“When offences are suspected people should move away from the ‘hush hush’ mentality … you should tell your constituents to say what they know. Some of these things stay for years and fester and no one says anything,” said Salmon.

He cautioned, however, that even as the police needed the support of the public, everyone should understand that there “are many, many sides to stories”.

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CALIFORNIA
The Fresno Bee

BY CARMEN GEORGE
cgeorge@fresnobee.com

In a residential treatment facility last month, 44 years of anxiety, guilt and shame began to lift off the shoulders of Fresno State Athletic Director Jim Bartko.

Bartko checked himself into Sierra Tucson, which provides rehabilitation services in Tucson, Ariz., on Dec. 20 with the intent of addressing issues with insomnia and anxiety that began as a child. After some inconclusive tests, a therapist asked Bartko a poignant and terrifying question: “Why did you not sleep when you were 11?”

In that moment, Bartko decided it was time to finally tell someone that he was molested around 35 times in the early 1970s by his childhood Catholic priest and basketball coach, Stephen Kiesle, in the rectory of Saint Joseph Church in Pinole, about 18 miles north of Oakland.

After leaving Sierra Tucson on Jan. 7, Bartko told his story of abuse for the first time to his mother, wife and children. Wednesday, he opened up to his colleagues in an email to the Fresno State athletics department staff.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

The Pennsylvania Legislature is expected to again consider extending the state’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, a proposal passed in 2016 by the House but watered down in the Senate.

A central issue is whether the lifting of the statute should be retroactive for civil cases – meaning should victims be permitted to sue for damages in cases that might be decades old.

Last year, the House approved retroactivity while the Senate pulled that stipulation from its legislation.

We urge both chambers to pass raising the statute of limitations and making the change retroactive – providing some measure of justice for sexual assault victims.

The Catholic Church and the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania oppose the measure. That’s understandable, as they would risk losing millions of dollars either settling old cases or, if required by the courts, paying damages.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Elise Harris

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2017 / 10:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday it was announced that Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has yet another reason to come to Rome, with his appointment as the newest member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Already a member of the Pope’s Council of Cardinals and President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, O’Malley’s appointment to the CDF, announced in a Jan. 14 communique from the Vatican, adds yet another major role to the list of duties he is accumulating.

Headed by Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the CDF is also home to a new judicial section established by the Pope last June to handle cases of “abuse of office” on the part of a bishop or religious superior accused of being negligent in handling instances of child sexual abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San MartínJanuary 14, 2017
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

ROME- In a move likely to be read as an attempt by Pope Francis to show resolve in the fight against clerical sexual abuse, the pontiff has named Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, widely seen as the leading reformer in the Catholic hierarchy, as a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful Vatican department that handles abuse cases.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, traditionally known as the “Holy Office,” is headed by German Cardinal Gerhard Muller. Its main responsibility is defending Catholic teaching, but since 2001, it’s also played lead in prosecuting cases under Church law for priests charged with sexual abuse.

Last June, Pope Francis also announced that the congregation would house a new legal section designed to impose accountability not only on abuser priests, but also on bishops and other Catholic superiors who covered up that abuse.

Since then, however, the launch of the new tribunal has been delayed amid legal and administrative wrangling, and O’Malley’s appointment may well reflect a desire by Francis to kick-start the process.

Making O’Malley a member of the doctrinal congregation does not imply a move to Rome, and he will remain the Archbishop of Boston.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has: …

– appointed Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, United States of America, and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, as member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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VATICAN CITY
America

Gerard O’Connell | Jan 14 2017

Move will strengthen link with commission on sexual abuse

The Vatican made the announcement at noon on Saturday, Jan. 14, and highlighted the fact that the cardinal-archbishop of Boston also serves as president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors that Francis instituted in 2014.

The cardinal’s appointment as a member of the C.D.F. means there is now a direct link between the commission and C.D.F., which has the central role is dealing with all cases of the abuse of minors by clergy, as well as bishops who are negligent in their duty to protect children. It ensures that the C.D.F. and the commission will be able to work more closely together, while fully respecting their distinct and very different roles.

Francis set up the commission in March 2014 as an advisory body to him, and asked it to propose “the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church.” He also entrusted it with another important task: “to promote local responsibility in the particular Churches, uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.”

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UNITED STATES
Ashley Easter

Today, I would like to announce a guest post by Dianne Darr Couts, President of MK (Missionary Kid) Safety Net. I met Dianne at the 2016 SNAP conference in Chicago where I was first introduced to the great need for MK advocacy. MKSN does amazing work to protect and support children (adolescent and adult) who were victimized while their parents were on the mission field. The story you are about to read is true and may be triggering to some survivors.
Missionary Kid Safety Net: Hope, Healing, Support and Advocacy

In the predawn hours of a fateful August morning, five-year old Richie was torn screaming from his mother’s arms and put in a pickup truck with another child and a man he barely knew. The truck carried him 400 miles away across the dry savannah of Mali, West Africa and into the rain forest of Guinea. After dark on the second day, it pulled up outside a dormitory on the top of a hill. Richie’s sister Dianne, barely twelve, heard the truck and flew outside to swoop him up in her arms – only to be reprimanded harshly by the dorm mother and told to go back to bed. The next morning, after a brief, joyful reunion with his brothers David and John, there was a grim warning: “Richie, it’s bad here. It’s really bad.”

By Richie’s sixth birthday two weeks later, he knew what his brothers meant. The first grade teacher was vicious and cruel, denying children access to the bathroom until they urinated in their seats, yanking children from their desks by their ears, and going into fits of rage over minor things like a child’s inaccurate drawing of a pig. The classrooms opened onto a veranda and her outbursts and the children crying could be heard by everyone – the principal, the other teachers and the older students. But the sounds died in the forest, never reaching the ears of Richie’s parents much less the mission board in America that was responsible for the school and the children under its care.

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IRELAND
The Journal

FOR MARY COLLINS and her daughter Laura Stewart, a trip from the UK to Cork this month will be full of difficult memories. Together, they will travel to St Finbarr’s cemetery in Glasheen on the 27th to light candles and remember Angelina Collins, Mary’s mother who died at a Magdalene laundry.

They will remember not just Angelina, who they say died after years of abuse, but the other women and children of Magdalene laundries across Ireland. Mary grew up in an industrial school after being removed from her mother’s care, and said she suffers post-traumatic stress disorder from the abuse she suffered there.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the pair underlined how much they believe the Irish State needs to apologise to the children of Magdalene women – a State apology was given to the women themselves in 2013 – and how they feel they have been forgotten by Ireland.
image (1) The Collins family.

It’s understood that at least 1,663 former Magdalene women are buried in Irish cemeteries – many in unmarked graves. In 2013, Taoiseach Enda Kenny apologised to Magdalene women in an emotional speech, saying the laundries “have cast a long shadow over Irish life”.

Collins told TheJournal.ie that her mother, an unmarried Traveller woman, was put into a Magdalene laundry, while Collins was put into an industrial school.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

[Catholic lay men and women went to the Osorno cathedral on Friday to state once again their rejection of Bishop Juan Barros as their bishop due to his relationship with abusive priest Fernando Karadima.]

.La organización Comunidad de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno se tomó este viernes la Catedral de la comuna, reiterando su rechazo al obispo Juan Barros y su relación con el sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

Los manifestantes llegaron hasta el recinto cerca de las 11:00 horas y lo tomaron por “la grave e insostenible crisis de división provocada por la llegada del obispo Juan Barros Madrid y su dudosa formación en la disuelta Pía Unión Sacerdotal, que funcionaba en la parroquia del Bosque de Santiago de Chile”.

Junto a esto, solicitaron la presencia de Barros en el lugar para realizar una reunión.

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ESPANA
Naiz

[The Catholic Church has condemned the former vicar general of Gipuzkoa, Juan Kruz Mendizabal for two cases of sexual abuse of minors in 2001 and 2002, confirmed the Spanish bishopric of Donostia in a statement.]

En un comunicado, la Diócesis donostiarra ha informado de que el pasado mes de marzo las autoridades diocesanas tuvieron conocimiento de las acusaciones que pesaban contra Mendizabal, en concreto, de «tocamientos deshonestos realizados a dos menores en el año 2001 y en el año 2005».

El Obispado ha decidido relatar los hechos tras constatar que los afectados por los abusos habían decidido hacer público el caso en un escrito al que ha tenido acceso Efe.

En este documento, los afectados explican que los abusos sucedieron cuando Mendizabal ejercía como sacerdote de la parroquia donostiarra de San Vicente de la Parte Vieja de Donostia y era responsable del grupo juvenil de tiempo libre Xirimiri Gazte Taldea.

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NEW YORK
The National Herald

By Theodoros Kalmoukos – January 13, 2017

BOSTON– Rev. Luke Melackrinos was placed on suspension from all his liturgical and administrative duties as presiding priest at the prestigious St. Paul’s Cathedral in Hempstead, NY for his alleged inappropriate contact electronically with an adult female parishioner.

According to sources from within the parish and also the Archdiocese Fr. Melackrinos was sending electronically inappropriate photographs of himself to his female parishioner.

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SCOTLAND
The Press and Journal

A former priest who taught at a Highland school will go on trial in May accused of a string of brutal assaults against his pupils with weapons including a spiked golf shoe and a hockey stick.

Father Benedict Seed, 83, was due to go before a jury later this month at Inverness Sheriff Court.

But yesterday, his lawyer Clare Russell told Sheriff Margaret Neilson that she was not yet prepared for trial.

She explained: “I have just today received an 81 page statement by a prosecution witness which I will need to peruse and that will take some time.

“I also wish to look at this witness’s mental health record. In addition, there is a potential defence witness in Italy who will require to be interviewed.” Ms Russell said.

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CANADA
Ici Radio

Au Manitoba, quatre nouvelles accusations d’agression et d’exploitation sexuelle ont été déposées contre le prêtre fransaskois Omer Desjardins.

Ces accusations criminelles découlent d’incidents qui se seraient produits en 1988 et 1989, quand la victime était pensionnaire à Credo Home, un centre d’hébergement jeunesse de Winnipeg géré par les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée. Omer Desjardins doit comparaître à Winnipeg le 16 janvier.

Par ailleurs, la présumée victime a décidé de briser le silence après avoir appris que l’homme d’Église a été condamné pour agression sexuelle sur une mineure.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Caroline Barghout, CBC News Posted: Jan 12, 2017

It is a secret he’s kept for 28 years. Now Joe is ready to talk about the sexual abuse he said he endured at the hand of a Winnipeg priest.

It was October 1988 when Joe first met Father Omer Desjardins. He was working as the night caregiver at Credo Home, a Winnipeg group home run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic religious community of priests and brothers commonly referred to as the Oblates.

Joe had just turned 15 and didn’t want to live with his mother and her boyfriend. He became a ward of Child and Family Services and was placed in the group home.

“We didn’t really talk to him much cause he didn’t show up for work until 9 or 9:30 p.m., somewhere around there and bedtime for us was 10:30 p.m. on school nights,” said Joe, 43, who does not want his last name used.

But within a few weeks Joe said Desjardins started coming into his room to talk.

“It was pretty normal stuff,” Joe said. “Within a couple weeks, he was coming into the bedroom every night. It started off he’d be rubbing your back. Eventually his hands would slowly start to move.”

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By Seth Voorhees
Friday, January 13, 2017

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A proposal which would waive the statute of limitations on prosecutions of people who’ve abused children, and allow victims to sue abusers up to 50 years after the attack took place, is long overdue, say advocates for victims of child sexual abuse, like Jill Knittle.

Knittle was abused for six years as a child, until she was 13. She didn’t tell friends until she was in her 20s, and didnt talk openly about it until her 40s. That’s often the case, as victims struggle internally every day.

“It’s definitely a grieving process, because you lost your childhood way too early,” Knittle said.

“What we really know about sex abuse is one in 10 children, by the time they turn 18, will suffer from some form of sexual abuse, but less than one in 10 report it as a child,” said Mary Whittier, executive director of Bivona Child Advocacy Center.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
14/01/2017

A middle-aged man has claimed he was sexually assaulted on Catholic church property by a young cleric he met through a gay dating site.

It is understood that Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has been made aware of the allegations.

The gardaí’s sexual assault unit has reportedly also been informed but cannot launch an investigation until the alleged victim comes forward to them.

It is alleged that the young member of the clergy first met the individual in 2015 on the site which is geared towards those interested in mature men.

In his profile, the young cleric expressed a preference for men aged between 50 and 90.

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JAMAICA
The Star

by
Leighton Levy
January 13, 2017

The case of Heather Murray, the beleaguered principal of Hampton High School for Girls, is a perfect example of how we Jamaicans can get so easily distracted from the more important issues.

It is also another example of how religion turns intelligent people into idiots.

The quick back story is that Moravian pastor Rupert Clarke is alleged to have been caught by police in a compromising position with a 15-year-old girl in his car and charged him. He was brought to court and released on $800,000 bail. Murray, who describes herself as a friend of Yvonne Clarke, the pastor’s wife, appeared at the court hearing, and went as far as to shield the accused pastor from the media.

In her defence, she said she was only supporting the pastor’s wife, but has since apologised and described her actions as inappropriate. She has also been sent on leave by the school?s board, even as people are lobbying for her to be fired.

The bigger issue is, however, that it has distracted us from a serious issue in this country.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

The chairman of the National Leadership Prayer Breakfast Committee, Reverend Dr Stevenson Samuels says ‎on Monday, a new guest speaker will be announced for the 37th National Leadership Prayer Breakfast.

‎It follows the decision of Moravian Bishop Stanley Clarke to withdraw from the event scheduled for the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

A statement from the committee said Clarke, a former president of the Moravian Church in Jamaica advised the Breakfast Committee that the current controversy engulfing his denomination could overshadow the message he would wish to deliver to the nation at the breakfast.

There has been intense public attention on the Moravian church since the December 28 arrest and subsequent charging of 64-year-old pastor Rupert Clarke for having sex with a minor.

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ROME
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. January 13, 2017
EDITOR

ROME – Just to be clear from the beginning, I have no insider information regarding the news now making the rounds about the Knights of Malta, either in terms of the factors that led to the ouster of Albrecht von Boeselager, the group’s chancellor, or Pope Francis’s decision to create a committee to look into the situation.

What I can say at a distance, however, is that for anyone familiar with the Vatican over a stretch of time, there are at least a couple of truly juicy ironies at work.

As has been widely reported, Boeselager was suspended Dec. 8 after refusing an order to resign over revelations that the order’s charity branch distributed thousands of condoms in Myanmar on his watch. Boeselager reportedly insisted that he didn’t know about the program, and stopped it when he learned of it.

Boeselager also said that the top Knight, Fra Matthew Festing, in the presence of the order’s patron, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, told him Pope Francis wanted him removed, although the Vatican has denied the pope was involved.

On Dec. 22, the Vatican announced Pope Francis had created a committee to examine the situation. The five members are Italian Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, former permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N. in Geneva; Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a noted canonist and former rector of the Gregorian University; and laypeople Jacques de Liedekerke, Marc Odendall, and Marwan Sehnaoui.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Amid the Moravian Sex Scandal, one group is appealing for victims of abuse to seek refuge in the church despite the immense backlash after a senior Moravian pastor was charged with a sex charge.

The Christian Brethren Assemblies Jamaica says it notes that the incident has caused many citizens to be experiencing deep feelings of hurt, distrust and betrayal toward the church community.

However, chairman of the group’s leadership and education committee, Byron Buckley, says victims of abuse should not be deterred by the actions of a few as they can find refuge in the church.

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KENTUCKY
Ledger Independent

WENDY MITCHELL wendy.mitchell@lee.net

VANCEBURG – Attorneys for Vanceburg Christian Church have filed a motion for dismissal, in a lawsuit filed against the church for alleging not take measures to prevent the abuse by a former pastor of an unnamed victim.

In the motion, filed Friday, attorney Michael E. Nitardy requested four parts of the claim to be dismissed, “… for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”

Nitardy requested the personal injury, intentional infliction of emotional distress or “outrage,” respondeat superior liability, and punitive damages counts of the lawsuit to be dismissed.

He attached past case law to support his request.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Saturday | January 14, 2017

For a culture that prizes secrecy, Jamaica is shaping up to be a different place in 2017 because of the growing nationwide clamour for openness, transparency and accountability.

Rocked by recent allegations of a pastor of the Moravian Church having sex with a 15-year-old girl in his car, the Church and other long-established institutions are being forced to drill deep and confront the difficult issue of sexual abuse and sexual violence.

Based on the mounting pile of charges and countercharges, it is obvious that the drilling has to be deep enough to get beyond the apologists and into the bedrock that enables abusive behaviour by persons who are placed in positions of trust. It is happening now – there are intense feelings of shock, outrage and confusion, with the result that layers of deceit and denial are being peeled away as the nation comes face to face with the scourge of sexual abuse.

It’s a welcome step, and it is hoped that the indignation is not reserved for church leaders. Although it is difficult to get solid statistical evidence, it is believed that dozens of little girls and boys have been abused, tortured, used and left broken and mentally battered. Rarely is anyone held criminally liable for the wrong done to these children. Possible prison term for the abuser and shame of the victim are not the only reasons the voices of the abused go unheard; often adult relatives enable the abusers by pretending that it is not happening in exchange for economic gain. And the abusers understand too well that they can buy their way out of justice.

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GEORGIA
Radar

Paula Deen’s brother-in-law has been served with a lawsuit that alleges he preyed upon a child sex victim while serving as a priest, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Henry Groover III – the brother of Deen’s second husband, Michael Groover and a Dominican priest – was served with the bombshell lawsuit in Savannah Georgia, around noon on January 12. And from the looks of it, he was not happy.

As Radar reported, Groover is at the center of a series of lurid claims in the new civil suit brought by Ancil Harvey Gordon III, and his wife, Heather Amanda Gordon.

The couple has claimed in their complaint that Ancil was victimized by Groover as a young child.

“From the years 1983 to present … [Groover] lured and otherwise enticed the minor Ancil Havery Gordon III into the illegial sexual acts,” the document alleges, claiming that Groover even “used LSD, alcohol, MDMA, cocaine and other illicit substances to lure and otherwise attract” the boy.

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CALIFORNIA
Turlock Journal

By Sabra Stafford
Crime Desk sstafford@turlockjournal.com 209-634-9141, ext. 2002

The Diocese of Stockton announced this week that a judge has approved their bankruptcy plan, including the establishment of a $15 million trust for survivors of sexual abuse committed by church officials.

On Tuesday a judge from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California approved the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton’s consensual Plan of Reorganization. The plan provides $15 million through cash contributions and a promissory note to fund a trust for the exclusive benefit of survivors of clergy sexual abuse; provide non-monetary commitments such as therapy and counseling; payment of at least 50 percent of what is owed to general unsecured creditors; and restructuring of secured loans.

The plan received nearly unanimous approval in voting by the sexual abuse survivors and other creditors, according to the Diocese.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2014 after a series of costly sexual abuse settlements left them financially drained. Once the Diocese made the decision to file for bankruptcy they began a notification process that over the course of three months led to 34 new claims of sexual abuse.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Saturday, January 14th, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man who alleges he is one of 38 people sexually abused by a former Albuquerque priest asked a judge this week to order Arthur Perrault to pay $38 million in punitive damages, or $1 million for each of his alleged victims.

Kenneth Wolter, 35, who filed the civil lawsuit last year in 2nd Judicial District Court, testified Wednesday that he wanted to send a message to Perrault on behalf of the 38 known victims “and the silent people who haven’t come forward.”

Perrault, who vanished from his Albuquerque parish in 1992, turned up last year in Tangier, Morocco, working at an English-lauguage school for children. Perrault, who was absent from a hearing Wednesday, was fired in May when school officials learned of the allegations, the school’s director has said.

District Judge Denise Barela Shepherd did not rule this week on Wolter’s request for damages, but she found that Perrault had failed to properly respond to a civil complaint and summons served to him in Morocco in May. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, which alleges a battery charge against Perrault.

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NEW MEXICO
KRQE

By Kayla Root
Published: January 13, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A state lawmaker doesn’t think there should be a statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits.

Under current state law, an alleged victim of sexual abuse must file a lawsuit within three years of the alleged abuse, or by their 24th’s birthday whichever is later.

State Senator Mary Kay Papen a democrat out of Dona Ana County has introduced a bill that would get rid of that statute of limitations.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

[with video]

January 13, 2017

A sex abuse survivor says child victims deserve more time to speak up or file a lawsuit against their abuser.

To do that, it would take a new state law and that’s what Governor Cuomo is asking for.

During one of his State of the State addresses this week, he publicly supported giving victims a longer time period to accuse their abuser in court or bring a lawsuit against an institution. But some fear this could bankrupt school districts, churches or synagogues.

Right now, a victim of child sex abuse has until their 23rd birthday to accuse their abuser of a crime. After that, the statute of limitations runs out. For years, advocates have tried to change the laws, but it’s always been stopped in the legislature.

Now, because of the governor’s support, they think victims will finally get what they deserve.

Jill Knittel is a financial advisor in Rochester who was in her forties before she admitted in public that she was a victim of child sex abuse from the age of 6 to 13. By then, the statute of limitation to prosecute her abuser had run out.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Philly

By Natalie Hoefer • Catholic News Service • Posted January 13, 2017

Shrinking the Monster“Shrinking the Monster: Healing the Wounds of Our Abuse,”
by Norbert Krapf.
In Extenso Press (Munhall, Pennsylvania, 2016).
236 pp. $14.95.

In the 1950s, Norbert Krapf was sexually abused — along with scores of other boys — by a priest of the Diocese of Evansville, Indiana, who was loved and respected by the community.

After five decades of silence, Krapf — a retired professor, author and award-winning former Indiana Poet Laureate — confronted the monster of his past both by outing the then-deceased priest to the bishop and, in 2012, publishing a book of poems called “Catholic Boy Blues” to help himself and other victims heal.

This year, Krapf published “Shrinking the Monster: Healing the Wounds of Our Abuse.” In Krapf’s own words, the book is a “prose memoir about the experience of writing those poems, with an emphasis on the process of my recovery from the abuse.” That experience, as outlined in the book, was a journey of pain, struggles, victories and healing.

Why write on such a dark, painful topic that many would, as he admits, rather not read about?

The answer is twofold. First, as Krapf reiterates at several points, the book is to help other victims of child abuse heal, and to further his own healing. But that doesn’t mean the book is only for victims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online

by Tom Acrestacres@thekmgroup.co.uk

The Church of England might have to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages and legal fees as a result of historic child abuse at a home for young girls.

Former residents of Kendall House in Pelham Road, Gravesend have been seeking out solicitors since the results of an independent investigation into its “harrowing” regime were published in a review last summer.

The results of a further review were released just before Christmas and “gratitude” payouts of £1,000 have already been made to the more than 20 women who gave evidence, but many of them are still suing the church for what happened to them.

Samantha Robson, of Robsonshaw Solicitors, has been bringing claims against the church over Kendall House since 2011, with six more victims coming forward since the review was published.

“Closure is very important to these women who finally want recognition for their mistreatment when they were vulnerable children,” she said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2017

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

On the witness stand today, retired Detective Joseph Walsh detailed numerous inconsistencies in the many contrary stories told by Danny Gallagher, the former altar boy who claimed he was raped by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

And when Walsh told Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen about those inconsistencies, her reply, according to Walsh was, “You’re killing my case.”

At the end of a nearly three-hour pre-trial hearing today, Thomas A. Bergstrom, a lawyer for Msgr. William J. Lynn, stood before the judge and asserted what Sorensen should have done when faced with all those inconsistencies: confront Gallagher and find out what was the truth.

But Sorensen, who was not called by the District Attorney as a witness today to refute Detective Walsh, never did confront Danny Gallagher, Bergstrom told the judge. Why? Because, Bergstrom said, Sorensen had to know, “That’s the kid’s a liar.”

The hearing in Common Pleas Court today was held before Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright. The judge was trying to decide whether to grant a motion by Bergstrom to dismiss the retrial of Msgr. Lynn, scheduled for May, because of Bergstrom’s allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

JANUARY 13, 2017

by Joseph A. Slobodzian, STAFF WRITER

It was January 2012, a month before the start of the child endangerment trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, and retired Philadelphia Police Detective Joseph Walsh was called back to work by the District Attorney’s Office to prep a key prosecution witness.

Instead, Walsh told a Philadelphia judge Friday, the veteran detective found himself unable to get the 23-year-old witness to explain numerous inconsistencies in his story of being molested by two priests and a parochial schoolteacher in a Northeast parish in 1998 and 1999.

“You’ve got to have an answer,” Walsh said he told the accuser. “He would just stare down at the table.”

Walsh said the accuser said he was sexually molested by two priests at St. Jerome’s parish. One of the alleged assaults lasted five hours after he was an altar server at the 6:15 a.m. Mass.

But Walsh said there was no record of the accuser serving those Masses, including on his mother’s home calendar where she recorded her sons’ various church assignments.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

By John Rawlins

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Monsignor William Lynn was back in court Friday in a legal effort to scuttle his scheduled retrial.

His legal team called retired Detective Joseph Walsh, who testified that during the investigation leading to Lynn’s first trial he uncovered a number of inconsistencies concerning a key prosecution witness.

Walsh said he relayed the contradictory findings to an assistant district attorney who responded, “you are killing my case, you are killing my case.” Walsh said he was just trying to get to the truth.

The monsignor’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, argues that verbal exchange should have been reported to the defense at the first trial.

That it was not, Bergstrom argues, is prosecutorial misconduct and retrial should stopped.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Donna Deeney
PUBLISHED
13/01/2017

A survivor of institutional abuse has expressed her fears that the collapse of Stormont could leave victims without any form of compensation.

Margaret McGuckin, who helped set up the Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse group (SAVIA), was instrumental in securing the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry headed by Sir Anthony Hart.

With the Executive now in turmoil, Ms McGuckin said she and other victims have been left “out in the cold”.

“Sir Anthony’s report was presented to Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness but already it is beginning to gather dust,” she said.

“When I heard that Martin McGuinness had resigned as Deputy First Minister I just sunk.

“The collapse of the Assembly could not have come at a worse time for us. We carried this for nine years and we need the Government to support us.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The trial of a former priest accused of assaulting eight boys while teaching at Fort Augustus Abbey School in the Highlands has been adjourned until May.

Father Benedict Seed, 83, denies the charges, which include striking pupils aged between 11 and 18 with a cane and a spiked golf shoe in the 70s and 80s.

He is also charged with pulling a boy from his bed and hitting him on the body with a hockey stick.

He denies all the charges and will face trial in Inverness in May.

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JAMAICA
The Star

SHANICE WATSON
January 13, 2017

Head of the Moravian Church in Jamaica, Dr Paul Gardner, was reportedly clouted in his head with a tambourine by an enraged protester at last Sunday’s service at the Nazareth Moravian Church in Manchester.

The protester, who has been identified as activist Stella Gibson, was among a group of 14 women who were once victims of sexual abuse.

They staged what they described as a peaceful protest at the church in light of the sex scandal now rocking the church, in which Pastor Rupert Clarke, 64, was charged with having sex with a minor.

Gibson has been very vocal about the tambourine ordeal on social media, and has since started a hashtag, #TambourineArmy.

Further clarification

In one post to her Facebook wall, Gibson wrote “I am happy I gave Paul Gardner one [expletive] lick inna him head with a tambourine.” She then added, “I should have used a block instead of a tambourine.”

When contacted for further clarification on the incident, Gibson explained that she will not be speaking on the tambourine beat down in mainstream media, as she wants her engagement in the media to be survivor-focused.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

By Valerie Chinn

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The sign at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in La Grange says “A place for healing.”

But now, its former pastor is under investigation.

The Madison County, Ala., District Attorney tells WDRB News that officials are looking into sexual offense claims against John Fraiser, and that all the evidence will be presented to the grand jury within a couple of months.

It all centers around allegations of what happened inside a University of Alabama Huntsville dorm room in the summer of 2015.

UAH Spokesman Ray Garner says the alleged victim is a 15-year-old boy from Goshen, Ky. Garner says Oldham County Police contacted UAH in October after the teen came forward claiming he was sexually assaulted.

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.

SCOTLAND
Scottish Legal News

A man who claimed he was sexually abused as child in a Catholic school more than 50 years ago has failed in an appeal against a judge’s decision that the action was time-barred.

The Inner House of the Court of Session upheld the Lord Ordinary’s decision on the application of the long negative prescription, and on the issue of time-bar.

The Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, sitting with Lord Drummond Young and Lord Glennie, heard that the claim by “K” against The Marist Brothers arose out of physical and sexual abuse which the reclaimer alleged was perpetrated against him by one Brother Germanus, while he was a pupil at St Columba’s School, Largs, for a period starting in 1962 or 1963 and ending in 1964 or 1965.

It was said that Brother Germanus had instilled fear in the reclaimer, who was “physically and psychologically terrified” of him; when K’s brother died, Brother Germanus on one occasion told him that if he told their “little secret” he would never see his brother again, meaning, “in heaven”.

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ESPANA
Diario Vasco

[San Sebastián, Jan 13 (EFE) .- The Office of the Prosecutor has asked the Bishopric of San Sebastián in Spain for all the documentation that the diocese has in possession on the cases of sexual abuse of the ex-Vicar General of Gipuzkoa, Juan Kruz Mendizabal. Last Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office of Gipuzkoa officially initiated these proceedings after learning that Mendizabal had been condemned in 2016 in a canonical proceeding developed within the Catholic church for “dishonest touches” made to two minors in 2001 and 2005.]

San Sebastián, 13 ene (EFE).- La Fiscalía ha pedido al Obispado de San Sebastián toda la documentación que obre en su poder sobre los casos de abusos sexuales del exvicario general de Gipuzkoa Juan Kruz Mendizabal, en el marco de las diligencias de investigación que ha abierto sobre este asunto, han informado hoy a EFE fuentes del caso.

El pasado miércoles la Fiscalía de Gipuzkoa incoó de oficio estas diligencias, tras conocer que Mendizabal había sido condenado en 2016 en un procedimiento canónico desarrollado en el seno de la Iglesia, por “tocamientos deshonestos” realizados a dos menores en los años 2001 y 2005.

Los abusos habían sido hechos públicos un día antes, mediante un comunicado, por los propios afectados -en la actualidad mayores de edad-, quienes decidieron darlos a conocer con el objetivo de “animar” a salir “a la luz” a otras “posibles víctimas” que “pudieran permanecer ocultas”, ya que había llegado “a sus oídos” un tercer “posible caso” de abuso sexual por parte del sacerdote, del que por el momento se desconoce ningún otro dato.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Legal News

Attempts to increase public awareness of Scotland’s child abuse inquiry are to be boosted with the launch of a publicity campaign.

Lady Smith, chair of the inquiry, is expected to make a statement on efforts to promote public awareness at a preliminary hearing this month.

She will also reveal details of the money spent on the inquiry so far.

Alan Draper, spokesman for In-care Abuse Survivors (Incas), said that since an event last March at which the previous chair, Susan O’Brien QC, had called on survivors to come forward, things had “gone quiet”.

He said: “It’s something we’ve been pushing every time we’ve had a meeting with them. People that are interested in the inquiry are aware of what’s going on but the average person isn’t necessarily clued in to the same extent.

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ITALIA
Verona Sera

[Priest Nicola Corradi and the scandal of pedophilia Provolo. “Pope Francis knew.” Don The chairperson of the Network Abuse Onlus submitted three complaints to the public prosecutor of Verona Republic to check for any omissions of the church hierarchy.]

“Tre fascicoli e decine di documenti che dimostrano nero su bianco quello che le autorità ecclesiastiche sapevano dei preti accusati di molestie al Provolo di Verona, questo è quanto è stato depositato pochi giorni fa presso la Procura della Repubblica di Verona e che tra pochi giorni sarà anche nella disponibilità dei due Pm argentini che stanno indagando su don Nicola Corradi”. Lo riferisce Francesco Zanardi, presidente della Rete L’Abuso Onlus, che in questo modo vuole collaborare con le nuove indagini che riguardano il sacerdote veronese accusato di pedofilia in Argentina e recentemente scarcerato per motivi di salute. Nuove indagini perché già in Italia don Nicola Corradi era stato al centro di uno scandalo riguardante gli abusi sui minori dell’istituto Provolo di Verona. Don Corradi è stato poi trasferito ad una struttura gemella in Argentina, ma pare che il problema non sia stato risolto.

“Tre denunce nelle quali si chiede all’autorità giudiziaria – prosegue Zanardi – che vengano verificate ed eventualmente ravvisate una serie di ipotesi di reato tra qui le responsabilità omissive delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche che senza dubbio sapevano dal 2009 della pericolosità di quel prete. Il primo precedente in Italia si creò nel 2012 a Savona quando il giudice per le indagini preliminari Fiorenza Giorgi ravvisò le pesanti responsabilità omissive di un vescovo, Dante Lafranconi, il quale pur sapendo delle tendenze pedofile di uno dei suoi sacerdoti nulla fece per impedire che questi continuasse ad abusare di altri minori”.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch • Friday January 13, 2017

Carol Igo was concerned about the prevalence of violence against children and wondered how her church could help, but she didn’t know where to start.

That’s when she heard of the Center for Family Safety and Healing, a Columbus organization focused on addressing family violence. She found out that the church she attends, Maple Grove United Methodist Church, could donate to the center and take advantage of its training program to educate church members.

“It’s a very loving church, an outreach church, a community-oriented church,” Igo said. “This was kind of a natural step for them.”

The Clintonville church formed a committee to gather books and toys that the center then gives to children who have been abused. It also hosted center staff members for training on family violence to educate the congregation on the issue. The center has completed 34 training sessions for faith organizations since 2014, said Sheryl Clinger, director of advocacy, policy and community engagement.

It’s important to train church members and leaders because a religious organization can be a central part of ensuring victims’ safety, as victims of family violence sometimes report abusive situations to trusted faith leaders, said Caitlin Tully, training supervisor at the center.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, Jan 12, 2017 / 10:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After former Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Malta Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager was dismissed in early December, many have pinpointed the decision to a contraception scandal related to a project he was overseeing.

But a senior official of the Order has said that while the incident was a contributing factor in Boeselager’s resignation, the reasons – while confidential – are much broader.

“The reasons for the dismissal are confidential,” but they are “more complex” than reducing it to just the contraception incident, Eugenio Ajroldi di Robbiate, Communications Director for the Knights of Malta, told CNA Jan. 12.

Problems initially arose when it was learned that the Order’s charity branch, under Boeselager’s watch, had inadvertently been involved in distributing condoms in Burma to prevent HIV.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Thursday | January 12, 2017

Damion Mitchell and Erica Virtue, Gleaner Reporters

The bishops of the Moravian Church in Jamaica are to set up an independent committee to investigate allegations brought against president Dr Paul Gardner and vice-president Jermaine Gibson.

Gardner and Gibson stepped aside today, two days after a woman wrote a seven-page email titled “the shame is yours” to Bishops Stanley Clarke and Devon Anglin, the spirituals heads of the Moravian Church in Jamaica.

The email details damning allegations.

According to the complainant, a series of incidents began at the Mizpah Moravian Church in Manchester when she was 14 years old and continued for years.

Bishops Clarke and Anglin in acknowledging receipt of the complaint informed the writer about the decision to establish the independent investigative committee.

They also told her that Gardner and Gibson have stepped aside and that the appropriate actions will be taken by the church on completion of the independent investigation.

The email complaint and the bishops’ response were copied to Gardner and Gibson, as well as a Gleaner columnist, a human rights advocate and a public commentator.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Senior staff reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com

Friday, January 13, 2017

President of the Moravian Church in Jamaica Dr Paul Gardner and his deputy, Jermaine Gibson, have stepped away from their positions on the Provincial Elders Conference to facilitate a probe into more allegations of sexual misconduct within the church.

The conference is an executive supervisory body for the church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

The news broke yesterday amidst the turmoil surrounding the church, stemming from charges of carnal abuse and rape of a 15-year-old girl in St Elizabeth against Moravian minister Rupert Clarke.

The Jamaica Observer was told that the probe stems from a formal letter that was written to the church board. Numerous calls to both Dr Gardner’s and Rev Gibson’s mobile phones went unanswered yesterday.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Friday | January 13, 2017

The Christian Brethren Assemblies Jamaica (CBAJ) issued a statement yesterday expressing “immense sorrow that a senior member of the body of Christ has been implicated in an alleged sexual assault of a minor”.

The group acknowledged that the incident has caused many citizens to experience hurt, distrust, and betrayal by the Church community. However, the CBAJ said, “We gently remind the nation that the supposed actions of a few do not represent the body as a whole but highlight the fact that the Church is broken because humans are broken.” The group said that the Church was, and would remain, a place of healing, hope, refuge, and encouragement.

“Jesus Christ stood against injustice and immorality while on Earth and defended the cause of those susceptible to unfair treatment.

“The Christian Brethren Assemblies Jamaica follows our Lord’s model and stands against child abuse, all types of sexual violence, and injustices everywhere. We pray that the affected families will find hope and healing in Jesus Christ during this time and offer our moral support not only to them, but to other victims of sexual violence who may be finding it difficult to read about this latest incident and may, possibly, be reliving their own horrendous experience,” it said further.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Friday | January 13, 2017

Erica Virtue

The fallout from the sex scandal rocking the Moravian Church in Jamaica worsened yesterday when two of the most powerful members of the church administration stepped aside.

President of the Moravian Church in Jamaica the Reverend Dr Paul Gardner and vice-president, the Reverend Jermaine Gibson, have both moved away from all positions in the church amid the sex-abuse scandal rocking the religious body in Jamaica.

The resignations were tendered yesterday to Bishops Stanley G. Clarke and Devon Anglin, the spiritual leaders of the Provincial Elders Conference of the Moravian Church in Jamaica and Grand Cayman, following a string of problems besetting the church, including the fact that one of its ministers is before the court on an alleged sex charge and a series of emails such as a seven-page email to Bishops Clarke and Anglin, written by a woman two days ago, titled “The Shame is Yours”.

Independent Probe

The email details damning allegations and the bishops disclosed that the church is to set up an independent committee to investigate them.

“We intend in short order to set up an independent committee mutually accepted by us as bishops and you to thoroughly investigate the matter and thereafter take the appropriate actions,” said Clarke and Anglin in response to the email writer.

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ALABAMA
WHNT

JANUARY 12, 2017, BY CLAIRE AIELLO AND MELISSA RIOPKA

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. – A former children’s minister has been arrested again on an additional charge of sex abuse of a child.

James “Javie” McNeal was arrested Thursday on another count of sexual abuse of a child less than 12. He was booked in the Madison County Jail on $30,000 bond.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office said another child came forward to make similar claims against McNeal.

McNeal, 39, was initially arrested in December on two counts of sexual abuse of a child. McNeal had worked as a children’s minister at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Hazel Green for six years.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
STEPHEN REX BROWN
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, January 12, 2017

The attorney who helped break the bombshell story about abuse of children by Catholic priests in Boston hailed Gov. Cuomo’s support of reform of the statute of limitations for New York victims.

Mitchell Garabedian said the announcement had changed the calculus for victims considering enrolling in a settlement program created by Timothy Cardinal Dolan that offers compensation to victims in exchange for their waving the right to sue. Participants in that program currently do not have a right to sue due to the statute of limitations.

Garabedian said he is especially encouraged by Cuomo’s decision to include a look-back component to his version of the Child Victims Act unveiled Thursday that would give child sex abuse victims who can no longer bring civil lawsuits under current law a one-year window to do so.

“The fact that Gov. Cuomo will support retroactive legislation has empowered my clients and given them the hope of having leverage if they’re not satisfied with the result of the Archdiocese settlement program,” Garabedian said.

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GEORGIA
WTOC

Thursday, January 12th 2017

By David Klugh, Anchor

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) –
A Savannah resident and ordained priest was served a lawsuit claiming that in the 1980’s, he lured a minor into illegal sex acts.

Henry Groover has a criminal history. In fact, he was arrested in 2003 for exposing himself to a Savannah-Chatham Metro Police officer.

Since then, the Catholic diocese has moved Groover from parishes in Athens, Georgia to Miami, Florida. He has never served in Savannah.

In the suit, the now adult victim claims he moved his family into a home, not knowing Groover actually lived just right across the street.

Representing the plaintiff is Attorney Mark Tate.

“He’s using his position. He’s cleared the foliage and he’s observing my client and approaching his children, knowing full well that he raped, abused, molested, drugged and otherwise just totally destroyed this young man’s entire childhood and really his entire life,” said Tate.

Tate says he believes Groover’s history has not made many headlines in Savannah because Groover is Paula Deen’s brother-in-law.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo expresses his desire to get rid of the statute of limitations on sex crimes against children – Victims/survivors are cautiously optimistic

Governor Cuomo also favors a one-year look back window in which any child who was sexually abused in New York State will have one year to file a claim against his/her abuser

The Child Victims’ Act must be passed in 2017 by the New York State Legislature

What
A demonstration to support and affirm Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent commitment to make the Child Victims’ Act the law in the State of New York. Demonstrators will call on the members of the New York Senate and Assembly to pass the bill that includes:

1) NO CRIMINAL STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON SEX CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN, and;
2) A ONE-YEAR WINDOW TO ALLOW THOSE WHO WERE SEXUALLY ABUSED AS CHILDREN TO HOLD THEIR ABUSERS ACCOUNTABLE IN CIVIL COURTS

When
Friday, January 13, 2017 from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of the New York City Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo, 633 Third Avenue (between 40th and 41st Streets), Manhattan, 10017

Who
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, and a victim/survivor of sexual abuse in four different
New York State counties, and:
Cecilia Springer, an 85 year-old sexual abuse victim of her high school Principal, Sr. Mary Andrew, SU, at Notre Dame School on West 79th Street, Manhattan, in the 1940s.

Why
Victims/survivors of sexual abuse in New York State have been given hope that the Child Victims’ Act will finally become law now that Governor Andrew Cuomo has expressed his support of it. Victims/survivors have fought for justice for decades, and it appears that there might be hope in 2017 for the passage of the bill. Demonstrators will express their support of Governor Cuomo in his quest to get the Child Victims’ Act signed into law.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 –roberthoatson@gmail.com

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Examiner

Friday, January 13, 2017

Four powerful cardinals have already gone public with their doubts about the current pope, while some have virtually accused him of heresy, writes TP O’Mahony

IN A move that is unprecedented in the modern history of the Papacy, four cardinals have publicly challenged Pope Francis. In the words of his biographer, Paul Vallely, the four “have published ‘doubts’, virtually accusing him of heresy”.

The four are Cardinal Raymond Burke (USA), Cardinal Carlo Caffarra (former Archbishop of Bologna), Cardinal Joacim Meisner (former Archbishop of Cologne), and Cardinal Walter Brandmuller (Germany), former president of the Pontifical Commission for Historical Sciences.

Cardinal Burke has been a persistent critic of Pope Francis, and two years ago was removed from his position as head of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (the Church’s Supreme Court) for refusing to implement changes to procedures for annulments which has been sanctioned by the Pope. A former Archbishop of Archdiocese of St Louis, he now serves as patron of the Order of Malta.

The very public expression of opposition by these four senior churchmen to the Pope has no parallel in the history of the modern Papacy, and means, in the words of Clifford Longley, editorial adviser to the English Catholic weekly The Tablet, that “Pope Francis has a mutiny of his hands”.

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NEW YORK
Forward

January 12, 2017 By Josh Nathan-Kazis

New York State governor Andrew Cuomo has a new proposal that would lift the statute of limitations that has prevented victims of sex abuse from seeking justice for crimes committed against them as children.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, Cuomo’s proposed bill would end all time limits on criminal prosecutions of sexual abusers of children, and would allow victims to bring civil suits for up to 50 years after they were attacked.

In addition, the law would create a one-year period in which otherwise ineligible survivors would be entitled to bring lawsuits against their abusers.

Cuomo has been promising action on the issue for years, but has faced stiff opposition from Republicans in the New York State Senate, among others. The Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel of America has lobbied against an extension of the statute, as have other religious groups.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Larry Altman, Daily Breeze
POSTED: 01/10/17

A physics teacher at Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possession of child pornography.

Daniel T. O’Connell, 32, was arrested about 8 a.m., jail records show.

Police investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit took him into custody, but information about the arrest was not immediately disclosed.

An LAPD spokeswoman said more information might be released later today.

Mary Star Principal Rita Dever sent a letter to parents Tuesday afternoon announcing the arrest.

“The Archdiocese was made aware last week that Mr. O’Connell was under investigation and has been cooperating fully with the police since that time,” Dever said. “At this time, the police have indicated that Mr. O’Connell’s alleged activities do not involve any students at Mary Star of the Sea High School nor did they take place on the Mary Star campus.”

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Alexander Nguyen (Patch Staff) – January 10, 2017

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — A physics teacher at Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro was arrested Tuesday for allegedly possessing child pornography, the Daily Breeze reported.

Daniel T. O’Connell, 32, was arrested Tuesday morning, reportedly at his rented home in Rancho Palos Verdes, according to the Daily Breeze.

O’Connell was taken in by investigators at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit at around 8 a.m., according to jail records. Information about his arrest was not immediately released, according to the Daily Breeze.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Alexander Nguyen (Patch Staff) – January 11, 2017

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — More details are immerging from the arrest of a Mary Star physics teacher for allegedly possessing child pornography.

Daniel T. O’Connell, 32, was arrested Tuesday, at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police began investigating O’Connell after receiving information that he was allegedly “having inappropriate contact with minors that he met while on a mathematics tutoring website,” according to an LAPD statement.

O’Connell is employed at Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro as a physics teacher, police said.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Times

By Ryan M. McDermott – The Washington Times – Thursday, January 12, 2017

The D.C. Council is considering ending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse, which would align the District with more than 30 states that do not restrict the time for prosecuting such crimes.

The Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations Eliminations Amendment Act of 2017 would end time restraints on prosecuting charges of rape, child abuse and other sex-related felonies.

“It’s extremely important that the District eliminate the statute of limitations on felony sex crimes — especially as it concerns the rape and sexual abuse of minors,” said council member Mary M. Cheh, the Ward 3 Democrat who introduced the legislation Tuesday. “Child victims are often persuaded or threatened to believe that reporting the crime will have dire consequences.”

The District employs a 15-year statute of limitations for prosecuting charges of first- and second-degree sexual abuse. Its statute of limitations for first- and second-degree child sexual abuse is 15 years after the victim reaches age 21.

A 10-year statute of limitations is applied for all other sex crimes, such as sex trafficking of children, incest, using a child to produce child pornography, and first- or second-degree sexual abuse of a secondary education student by a school authority. Such crimes cannot be prosecuted more than 10 years after the victim reaches age 21.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

January 12, 2017 Joelle Casteix

Schools need to rethink how they handle cases of teachers who are busted with child pornography and/or who molest.

Imagine if you received a letter from your child’s school like this:

Dear Parents:

Today, Mr. John Doe, a long-term substitute teacher and math tutor at our school, was arrested for murder. We learned that he lured his victims from tutoring websites.

We are fairly certain he did not murder or attempt to murder any of our students. We didn’t ask any of the students. We also didn’t take a headcount to see if anyone was missing. We didn’t ask if anyone has been shown photos of corpses or had engaged in inappropriate conversations with Mr. Doe.

But the police told us that none of the murders involve our students. So don’t worry.

Sincerely,

Your Principal

If you replace the word “murder” with “child pornography” and “sexual abuse,” that’s the gist of the letter that parents at San Pedro’s Mary Star of the Sea High School received from principal Rita Dever the other day when substitute teacher Daniel T. O’Connell was arrested for possession of child pornography and making inappropriate contact with children via a tutoring website.

Child pornography is not a victimless crime. It’s disgusting. It’s images of children being raped and tortured. It’s so bad, in fact, that two Microsoft employees recently sued the company, saying that being forced to view it (to see if it needed to be flagged, removed and reported) gave them PTSD.

But don’t worry, Principal Dever says, “At this time, the police have indicated that Mr. O’Connell’s alleged activities do not involve any students at Mary Star of the Sea High School nor did they take place on the Mary Star campus,” her letter stated in part.

What should she be doing?

* Extensive outreach and education about what child pornography is (child abuse images and a terrible crime), how to report it, and how to protect children from being exploited,

* Talking to parents about abuse and how to examine data storage devices in their homes if their child was tutored by O’Connell,

* Bringing in a speaker from the National Center for Victims of Crime or Homeland Security about internet safety and protecting yourself against internet predators,

* Being vigilant in her letter to parents, saying that the exploitation of children and teens has no place at her school.

Just saying, “It didn’t happen here,” doesn’t keep anyone safe. It just breeds a false sense of security and puts everyone at risk.

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.

MISSOURI
Fox 4

JANUARY 12, 2017, BY MICHELLE PEKARSKY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 70-year-old man has been banned from a Kansas City Northland parish because diocese leaders say he has violated an agreement to stay away from children, according to a letter sent to Saint Patrick school families.

The 70-year-old man is a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 1357 N.E. 42nd Terrace in Kansas City, North. The letter to parishioners indicates the man was being monitored by the diocese. FOX 4 is not identifying the man and has redacted his name from the letter linked here.

St. Patrick Catholic Church is a faith community that continues to struggle with anxiety after the pornography conviction of former priest Shawn Ratigan, followed by the conviction of then-Bishop Robert Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse.

For the complete (but redacted) letter to school families sent on December 20, 2016, click here.

It said, in part:

“Today I must share difficult news with you…. a St. Patrick’s parishioner, has been asked and has agreed not to return to the parish, and not to visit any other property owned or operated by the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph, its parishes or schools. This decision was made following careful consideration by our parish, school and diocesan leaders, including the Office of child and Youth Protection.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests SNAPNetwork.org, (949) 322-7434, jcasteix@gmail.com

[The Kansas City Star]

The Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph broke the state’s mandated reporting law last month. And they want the parents, children, and parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church to keep quiet about it.

The painful tenure of convicted child pornographer Shawn Ratigan was a tragic blow to the parish. Now, parents have learned that a long-time volunteer has repeatedly violated boundaries with children. He violated boundaries so often during his 20-years at the school, in fact, that he was put on a “safety plan,” according to a letter sent to parents by the pastor of St. Patrick’s parish in December.

The man banned from the parish even admitted to a reporter yesterday that he acts inappropriately with children.

But that was not enough for church staff to call law enforcement. They decided to handle it internally.

In Missouri, ministers are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. According to the state reporting requirement, any minister who believes a child may have been subjected to abuse is required to report. In addition, “No internal investigation shall be initiated until such a report has been made.” (Link to Missouri Guide for Mandated Reporting: https://dss.mo.gov/cd/pdf/guidelines_can_reports.pdf)

What is even more appalling about the actions of church officials is that pastor Fr. Robert H. Stewart asked parents to keep quiet and refrain from “gossip or speculation.” Reporting suspected sexual abuse is not gossip. Protecting children is not speculation.

We encourage local law enforcement to engage in a robust investigation of this case and all others like it. We fear there may be victims of abuse at this parish.

We ask anyone at St. Patrick’s who wants to stand up to this bullying and child endangerment to contact SNAP. We want to help. If you see or suspect abuse, report to law enforcement. If you are being abused or have been abused, report the crime and get help. It is safe.

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CANADA
CBC News

The Canadian Press

An Alberta pastor has been sentenced for sexually assaulting a woman.

Stanley Richard Schalk, 58, was given a 90-day conditional sentence to be served in the community in Red Deer court on Wednesday.

Provincial Judge Darrel Riemer said Schalk took the woman, who was 42, to an acreage near Delburne on the afternoon of June 15, 2015.

The two were seated next to each other on a blanket on the ground when Schalk grabbed the woman’s breast without her consent.

Riemer said a week before that, Schalk had hugged her and grabbed her buttocks and she told him then she didn’t like it and didn’t want it to happen again

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JAMAICA
Caribbean 360

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Thursday January 12, 2017 – The crisis which erupted in the Moravian Church in Jamaica with the arrest of one pastor at the centre of sexual misconduct allegations, is deepening.

Just days after Pastor Rupert Clarke was formally charged and granted bail for carnal abuse of a 15-year-old girl, he is set to slapped with a second charge.

At yesterday morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of Education and Information Ruel Reid revealed that the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) will charge the disgraced religious leader with carnal abuse resulting from an alleged sexual relationship with one of the minor’s sisters.

He said the child was receiving counseling from the Child Development Agency (CDA) and other family members have also been referred to the CDA.

Meanwhile, the Jamaica Gleaner has reported that young women who once attended the Moravian Church have been sharing their stories of sexual abuse – some doing so on social media, while others have been seeking help from professionals.

Social commentator and gender specialist Nadeen Spence, who grew up in the Moravian Church, has been helping the alleged victims.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JANUARY 12, 2017

About 450 clergy abuse victims, plus other creditors of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, soon will be able to vote on competing compensation plans presented in bankruptcy court.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel approved a timeline Thursday for sending out the ballots — within about 30 days — and a 40-day response time. Creditors can vote for one of two competing plans, or none at all.

Kressel also denied a motion that would have allowed the survivors’ committee to sue more than 100 parishes, schools and other Catholic institutions who received a total of $14 million in transfer payments from the archdiocese in the 90 days before it filed for bankruptcy.

The voting schedule represents a key moment in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case, entering its third year this month. The courtroom was packed with attorneys and several abuse survivors with claims before the court, who have been watching the long bankruptcy process unfold.

“This is something tangible,” said survivor David Lind, of St. Paul, standing outside the courtroom. “But I just want it to be done. “It’s such a hard issue.”

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MINNESOTA
Post Bulletin

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — About 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis will soon get a chance to vote on competing compensation plans.

The Star Tribune reports (http://strib.mn/2jcGLFi ) ballots will be sent out within 30 days and votes are expected to be counted this spring. Archdiocese attorney Charles Rogers says the results won’t determine the final plan, but will help as negotiations continue. Rogers says he’s hoping for a decision by June.

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MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Robert W. Duesdieker was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City MO in 1980. He assisted parishes in Hannibal and Jefferson City before being named pastor in Memphis. He went on to pastor in Kahoka, Belle, Owensville, St. Clement, Bourbon, Steelville, Boonville, Fayette and Marshall. Duesdieker also held the diocesan positions of Master of Ceremonies, Defenders of the Bond and Personnel Board member, and he was a college chaplain.

In December 2016 Duesdieker was placed on administrative leave pending investigations by the diocese and law enforcement of a report that he had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” with minors n the early 1990s, while assigned to Immaculate Conception in Owensville. He denied the allegations.

Ordained: 1980

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Don Corradi and the scandal of pedophilia in Provolo. “Pope Francis knew.”]

Il presidente della Rete L’Abuso Onlus ha presentato tre denunce alla Procura della Repubblica di Verona per verificare eventuali omissioni delle gerarchie ecclesiastiche.

“Tre fascicoli e decine di documenti che dimostrano nero su bianco quello che le autorità ecclesiastiche sapevano dei preti accusati di molestie al Provolo di Verona, questo è quanto è stato depositato pochi giorni fa presso la Procura della Repubblica di Verona e che tra pochi giorni sarà anche nella disponibilità dei due Pm argentini che stanno indagando su don Nicola Corradi“. Lo riferisce Francesco Zanardi, presidente della Rete L’Abuso Onlus, che in questo modo vuole collaborare con le nuove indagini che riguardano il sacerdote veronese accusato di pedofilia in Argentina e recentemente scarcerato per motivi di salute. Nuove indagini perché già in Italia don Nicola Corradi era stato al centro di uno scandalo riguardante gli abusi sui minori dell’istituto Provolo di Verona. Don Corradi è stato poi trasferito ad una struttura gemella in Argentina, ma pare che il problema non sia stato risolto.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

He has been pigeonholed as fearless reformer, but questions are arising about his judgment

Damian Thompson

On 2 January, the Vatican published a letter from Pope Francis to the world’s bishops in which he reminded them that they must show ‘zero tolerance’ towards child abuse. The next day, the American Week magazine published an article that told the story of ‘Don Mercedes’ — Fr Mauro Inzoli, an Italian priest with a passion for expensive cars and underage boys.

In 2012, Pope Benedict stripped Inzoli of his priestly faculties, effectively defrocking him. In 2014, however, they were restored to him — by Pope Francis, who warned him to stay away from minors.

Then, finally, the Italian civil authorities caught up with this serial groper of teenagers in the confessional. Last summer Inzoli was sentenced to four years and nine months in jail for paedophile offences. The Vatican, under ‘zero-tolerance’ Francis, refused to supply evidence that prosecutors wanted.

If Pope Benedict XVI had displayed such a hypocritical attitude towards a clerical child abuser, the roof would have fallen in on him: he’d have been driven out of office instead of resigning.

But most of the world’s media have pigeon-holed Francis as a fearless reformer, doing battle against Vatican mafiosi, kiddie-fiddlers and ‘fundamentalists’. This perception made it easy for the Pope’s allies to keep the name of Mauro Inzoli out of English–speaking news outlets until last week.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
jthomas@kcstar.com

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has banned a longtime parishioner from all church property for violating “safe boundaries” in his interactions with children.

The parishioner acknowledged in an interview that he had violated an agreement to stay away from children, but said he’d done nothing inappropriate.

The 70-year-old man was a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Kansas City, North — the parish of former priest Shawn Ratigan, whose child pornography scandal led to the conviction of then-Bishop Robert Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse.

“Today, I must share difficult news with you,” wrote the Rev. Robert H. Stewart, the pastor of St. Patrick’s, in a Dec. 20 letter to families of students at the school. He said the parishioner “has been asked and has agreed not to return to the parish, and not to visit any other property owned or operated by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, its parishes or schools.”

The decision, Stewart wrote, was made “following careful consideration by our parish, school and diocesan leaders, including the Office of Child and Youth Protection.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
12/01/2017

THE High Court has dismissed an action by a woman who claims she was sexually abused some 67 years ago by a Dublin diocesan priest who died more than 50 years ago.

The woman claimed she was raped on a number of occasions between 1949 and 1954 by the priest who was attached to her local parish. She also claimed she was sexually abused by her father and her brother.

It was not until the 1990s that she made a complaint about her brother’s alleged abuse.

In 2014, she brought a negligence claim in relation to the priest, who died in 1964, against the Archdiocese of Dublin alleging it was vicariously liable for the priest’s alleged abuse.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the named defendant on behalf of the Archdiocese, sought to have the case struck out on grounds that the delay in bringing it, the time lapse between now and the alleged acts, and the death of the priest in 1964, would make it impossible for there to be a fair trial.

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CALIFORNIA
My News LA

A youth pastor has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting two underage boys at church events in Aliso Viejo.

Brandon Ernis Lee McDade of Mission Viejo, 31, pleaded guilty to a count of committing lewd acts on a child younger than 14, two counts of committing lewd acts on a child between 14 and 15, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of child annoyance, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

McDade was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The sentencing was handed down Monday.

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CALIFORNIA
The Freethinker

Youth pastor Brandon Ernis Lee McDade, left, of Orange County, California, was sentenced to six years in prison this week for sexually assaulting two underage boys, while Daniel O’Connell, a teacher at a Catholic school in Los Angeles was arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography.

According to this report, McDade, 31, pleaded guilty to a count of committing lewd acts on a child younger than 14, two counts of committing lewd acts on a child between 14 and 15, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of child annoyance.

McDade was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The sentencing was handed down Monday.

McDade was a youth pastor at Grace Hills Church in Aliso Viejo when he met the victims, prosecutors said.

The molesting happened on church grounds and with one of the victims at a movie theater in Orange County.

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AUSTRALIA
The Austrlaian

January 13, 2017

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

An Anglican priest facing dozens of child-sex abuse charges after an interstate police investigation has died weeks before he was to face court, and 42 years after his victims­ first attempted to get the church to acknowledge his crimes.

George Parker, 79, from the Ballarat diocese in Victoria, died on Tuesday, provoking anger from one of his alleged victims who said he had spent “a lifetime just trying to get this priest to answer for what he did”.

Ballarat bishop Gary Weatherill said yesterday that others in the church did not tell him the priest was a suspected child abuser when he took charge of the diocese in 2011.

“There are no records of anything, but presumably there was a conversation between one of my predecessors and one of the previous­ bishops of Newcastle,” in NSW, where Parker worked as a priest until 1996, he said.

“It’s the way the church operated and it’s caused a lot of grief to a lot of people.”

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ITALIA
Il Mamilio

ROCCA DI PAPA (cronaca) – Pene da 5 ad un anno per tre suore sudamericane: tra le accuse quelle di aver fatto rimangiare il proprio vomito ad alcuni piccoli ospiti e di aver molestato un ragazzo

ilmamilio.it

Erano nell’aria e sono arrivate nelle scorse ore. Sono state condannate in primo grado dal Giudice del Tribunale di Velletri, con pene da 5 ad 1 anno, le tre suore carmelitane sudamericane della Casa famiglia per minori (chiusa da giugno) accusate di aver maltrattato gli ospiti. Fino a far rimangiare loro il proprio vomito e, secondo l’accusa, fino ad arrivare – nel caso della religiosa condannata a 5 anni e sei mesi, Amparo Guardado, ad arrivare alle “attenzioni sessuali”.

Per la sopracitata suora, la pesante condanna in primo grado e il divieto di lavorare in simili strutture per tutto il resto della sua vita. Condannate la sorella gemella di Amparo, Virginia Guardado Pena a due anni e ad un anno Nely Lorena Sorto Hendriquez: queste due non finiranno in carcere godendo della sospensione della pena.

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ITALIA
News Go

[Today. Lazio, Italy, near the Vatican. Three south american Carmelitan nuns have been sentenced by the court of Velletri. One nun got 5 and a half years. They had been accused of terrorising and mistreating children in a home for minors. Children were forced to eat their own vomit. One boy was sexually abused.]

Di Simone Ricci

Tre suore di nazionalità sudamericana sono state condannate dal Tribunale di Velletri con l’accusa di maltrattamenti nell’ambito del processo relativo alla casa famiglia per minori di Rocca di Papa.

Qualche mese fa si è scoperto cosa avveniva nella struttura. Le tre donne avevano dato vita a un vero e proprio regime di terrore, fatto di docce gelate, ospiti costretti a mangiare il vomito e persino abusi sessuali che una delle suore avrebbe intrattenuto con un ragazzino.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) has reportedly indicated it intends to further charge the Moravian pastor charged with having sex with a minor for a similar offence.

The pastor, 64-year-old Rupert Clarke has been charged with carnal abuse of a 15-year-old.

Speaking at this morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of Education and Information Ruel Reid, said CISOCA has disclosed its intention to charge Clarke with carnal abuse resulting from an alleged sexual relationship with one of the minor’s sisters.

Reid told journalists that the 15-year-old, who has been allegedly raped by Clarke has been referred to the Child Development Agency’s (CDA’s) clinical psychologist for assessment and counselling.

He says other members of the family have been referred to the Children and Family Support Unit of the CDA based on reports of sexual abuse.

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