ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

February 22, 2017

Catholics for Renewal president Peter Johnstone says Vatican diplomatic recognition is in question because of abuse crisis

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
23 Feb 2017

A FORMER senior federal and state government executive and leading Australian Catholic reform group president has backed calls for Australia to break diplomatic ties with the Vatican over the tragedy of child sexual abuse.

Catholics for Renewal president Peter Johnstone said the response was “right on the money”, in comments after telling the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that Australia needed to send a “hard” message to Pope Francis and the Vatican.

“I have no hesitation in arguing the royal commission should say to the government that if the Catholic Church will not cooperate in making major changes – and the Australian church can’t change without the global church changing – then the government should say to the Catholic Church it will reconsider its diplomatic recognition of the Holy See,” Mr Johnstone said on Tuesday.

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.

Pope’s adviser: license and train priests to prevent child abuse

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 23, 2017

SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES
JournalistSydney

Licenses and regular training for priests and bishops should be considered as a measure to protect children from abuse, a group advising the Pope on the issue says.

Baroness Sheila Hollins, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told a Royal Commission this morning registration licenses like those used by medical professionals could be an option for priests, who would then go through an “appraisal system” of regular education.

“I don’t see why there couldn’t be an appraisal system, and why that appraisal system shouldn’t require feedback from parishioners and others with whom a priest is in regular contact,” Baroness Hollins told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. baroness

“The answer is often that the sacramental part of the priest’s role is not something which could be subject to external, lay scrutiny. But my view is that there is a part of a priest’s role which is very similar to the kind of professional role that, for example, doctors and teachers might have. That part of their role could be subject to licensing.”

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.

Quebec City man accuses Cardinal Lacroix of turning blind eye to sexual abuse

CANADA
CBC News

A Quebec City man is suing a Catholic community, the Pius X Secular Institute, for nearly $370,000, alleging it failed to protect him from an alleged pedophile.

The suit also contends that Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, a leading figure in the institute — now the archbishop of Quebec and Catholic Primate of Canada — was aware of the alleged abuse but did nothing.

André Lachance, 48, alleges he was sexually assaulted about 80 times on the institute’s grounds by his uncle, Jean-Paul Lachance, who was a lay member of the religious community.

The elder Lachance killed himself in 2014.

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.

Royal commission: Who’s who of Catholic archbishops giving evidence in Sydney this week

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Philippa McDonald

Five of Australia’s Catholic archbishops will front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the final days of the public hearing in Sydney.

This is who they are, what their public statements about child abuse documented by the royal commission have been, and what their relationships are to Cardinal George Pell.

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

New suits claim altar boy service front for abuse

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

Four new civil lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana in the District Court of Guam alleging the practice of altar boy service ultimately became a “tool by which sexually predatory priests would gain access to young boys.”

The four cases filed yesterday raised the total number of cases filed against the Archdiocese of Agana to 22 with the total amount of damages sought now totaling $110 million.

The lawsuits filed by Albino Bascon, Johnny Bascon, Benny Manglona and Roque Flores allege sexual abuse by former Guam priest Louis Brouillard, who now resides in Minnesota. Each plaintiff is seeking a minimum of $5 million in damages and accuses the Catholic Church of using the “ritual” of altar boy service as a disguise to have sexual access to young boys.

Each of the plaintiffs served as altar boys at various parishes where Brouillard served as priest during his time on Guam in the early 1970s.

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.

Eugene priest heading to trial on prostitution charges

OREGON
The Register-Guard

By Jack Moran
The Register-Guard
FEB. 22, 2017

With a trial in the case set to begin Wednesday, Lane County prosecutors have dismissed the lone felony charge against a Eugene priest charged with paying for sex with an underage girl.

The move, announced Tuesday in a court filing by Assistant Lane County District Attorney JoAnn Miller, means that Daniel James MacKay will go to trial on nine misdemeanor charges. A six-person jury will be seated in the case.

The felony had charged MacKay with attempting to use a minor in the commission of a controlled substance offense. It alleged MacKay had used an underage girl to help him make or distribute cocaine.

MacKay, 42, is now charged with four counts of prostitution, four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and one count of sexual misconduct.

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.

Judge to priest who stole $100K from church: You abused position of trust

ILLINOIS/WISCONSIN
Chicago Tribune

Tony Briscoe and Kate Thayer
Chicago Tribune

A Greek Orthodox priest from Chicago who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 from his church had his felony theft conviction reduced to a misdemeanor Wednesday.

A judge in Milwaukee agreed to instate the lesser conviction after the Rev. James Dokos satisfied the terms of his year-long probation, including 40 hours of community service, which he fulfilled by volunteering in a Chicago church. Dokos, 64, will continue to avoid jail time if he pays a $5,000 fine within the next year, officials said.

While leading Annunciation Church in Milwaukee, Dokos tapped into a trust fund intended to benefit the church and used the money for personal expenses, according to authorities. The priest controlled the $1 million fund — money that was left to the church by former parishioners — and used it to pay personal credit card bills, buy jewelry for a relative and provide gifts of more than $6,000 to a high-ranking church official in Chicago, among other unauthorized purchases, according to a 2013 Tribune analysis of trust fund records.

Parishioners at Annunciation began looking into the trust fund spending after Dokos was transferred by church leaders in Chicago to Sts. Peter and Paul congregation in Glenview, and later authorities in Milwaukee were contacted.

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.

Guam church’s situation is unusual, says canon lawyer

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Feb 21, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Last week, Vatican officials came and left without hearing from Roland Sondia, one of the four men to accuse Archbishop Anthony Apuron of child molestation. The same group of clergy are likely to leave Hawaii today, also emptyhanded. And one canon lawyer shares his experience with canonical trials against clergy accused of sex abuse.

What’s happened on Guam, he says, is unusual.

Thomas Doyle is a canon lawyer and an expert in clergy sex abuse having been around since accusations of pedophile priests first surfaced over three decades ago. What he observed in last week’s visit from Vatican officials, led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, wasn’t typical. “I’ve represented victims in canonical trials and I’ve gone with them when they’ve given their testimony,” he qualified. “There’s sometimes when they don’t want me in, but they certainly have a right to have someone with them. especially if they’ve been sexually violated.”

As we reported, Sondia was called to the chancery to meet with Cardinal Burke and the visiting clergy on Thursday morning. His attorney, David Lujan, however, was uninvited – and Sondia walked away without providing his deposition.

Doyle tells KUAM News that was the right thing to do and shares what happens behind closed doors during the very secretive canonical process. On one occasion, Doyle says he and his client walked out during a deposition. “I got fed up with the way they were talking to him and I just finally stopped the whole thing and said ‘We’re leaving. Until you guys learn how to treat a victim of sexual abuse with respect and sensitivity, we’re not coming back.'” he explained.

To date, eighteen plaintiffs have filed suit against the Archdiocese of Agana, four of whom have accused Archbishop Apuron of sexual molestation decades ago while he was a priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat. All victims are represented by Attorney Lujan.

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.

La costumbre de trasladar al culpable

CóRDOBA (ARGENTINA)
Página/12 [Buenos Aires, Argentina]

February 22, 2017

By Mariana Carbajal

Read original article

En 2014, el Vaticano halló al sacerdote Luis Alberto Bergliaffa culpable de haber abusado sexualmente de una niña en su parroquia, en Córdoba, y le prohibió ejercer el sacerdocio diez años. Ahora vive en Río Negro, al amparo del obispo Marcelo Cuenca.

Un cura a quien, hace tres años, el Vaticano prohibió ejercer el ministerio sacerdotal durante una década porque había abusado sexualmente de una niña, vive bajo la protección del obispo del Alto Valle, Marcelo Cuenca. El religioso Luis Alberto Bergliaffa, que en 2014, tras una investigación realizada por un tribunal eclesiástico, fue hallado responsable de abusar de una niña en Córdoba, donde era responsable de una parroquia, reside en General Roca, al amparo del obispo Cuenca. PáginaI12 confirmó en el Obispado del Alto Valle que Bergliaffa se desempeña allí, aunque –aseguraron los voceros– no oficia misa. Por estos días, anda de vacaciones en Córdoba, informaron. 

El obispo Cuenca, protector de Bergliaffa, es el mismo que defendió públicamente al padre Julio César Grassi y sostuvo que “es inocente” un día después de que un fallo de la Suprema Corte bonaerense ratificara su condena por abuso sexual agravado y corrupción de menores. Es también el mismo que se negó a dar la bendición a la familia de Lucas Muñoz, el oficial de 29 años asesinado en Bariloche a mediados de 2016, cuya muerte derivó en el descabezamiento de la cúpula policial local ante la fuerte sospecha de su participación en el hecho. 

“Es una barbaridad que conociendo que ha cometido el delito de abuso sexual infantil, la Iglesia Católica le haya dado una palmadita en la espalda, y lo haya trasladado a otra diócesis dándole protección. Es lo que suele hacer con curas pederastas. ¿Quién controla que efectivamente no de misa o que no esté en contacto con otras posibles víctimas? Ni siquiera les avisan a los feligreses que les envían un pedófilo”, cuestionó en diálogo con PáginaI12 el abogado de la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abuso Eclesiástico en Argentina, Carlos Lombardi. “Les aplican sanciones livianas. La Iglesia Católica debería acompañar a la familia de la víctima para que denuncie penalmente al cura abusador, poniéndoles abogados a su disposición, pero eso jamás ocurre”, agregó. 

Bergliaffa era el sacerdote a cargo de la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Fátima, en el barrio Matienzo de la ciudad de Córdoba. A comienzos de 2014 el Arzobispado provincial, a cargo de Carlos Ñañez anunció la sanción por la cual el Vaticano le prohibió el ejercicio sacerdotal durante 10 años. Esa sanción significa, por ejemplo, que Bergliaffa no puede celebrar misa ni impartir sacramentos como bautismos o matrimonios. “Todo sacerdote vive del ministerio que ejerce, va a tener que buscar trabajo para proveerse sustento”, indicaron en aquel momento fuentes del Arzobispado de Córdoba.

Pero el cura castigado por pedófilo no tuvo necesidad de buscar conchabo, porque pronto encontró cobijo en los pagos de otro cordobés. Antes de ser designado como obispo del Alto Valle en 2010 por el papa Benedicto XVI, Cuenca hizo su carrera eclesiástica en el clero de esa provincia. 

El caso es paradójico: el cura Bergliaffa, según indicó el Arzobispado de Córdoba, no fue denunciado ante el fuero penal por la familia de la víctima, lo que le permitió esquivar una investigación judicial –podría estar en contacto con otras niñas–, a pesar de que se lo encontró culpable de abuso sexual de una nena en el proceso canónico que llevó adelante el Vaticano.

El Arzobispado de Córdoba detalló que una vez que recibió la denuncia del abuso sexual contra Bergliaffa, el obispo Carlos Ñañez ordenó una investigación canónica administrativa y la remitió a la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, único tribunal competente en el ámbito de la Iglesia Católica para esos delitos. La jerarquía católica alegó que al tratarse de un delito de instancia privada, la denuncia penal debía realizarla la víctima o sus padres, y por eso no llevó el caso a la justicia ordinaria. Luego de recibir numerosos testimonios, el sacerdote fue retirado de su cargo como medida cautelar.

Después se le aplicó la sanción. Bergliaffa apeló la sanción, pero la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe confirmó el decreto condenatorio. En un comunicado de prensa difundido el 14 de marzo de 2014, el Arzobispado de Córdoba informó: “El pasado 10 de enero del corriente año 2014, la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe ha confirmado con certeza moral suficiente, en segunda instancia, la sentencia que ha encontrado culpable al Pbro. Luis Alberto Bergliaffa del delito de abuso sexual de una menor”. Y agregó: “Por tal motivo, (…) se le prohíbe todo ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal por 10 años”. Sobre el traslado al Obispado del Alto Valle, de Bergliaffa no hubo comunicado de prensa. Ni aviso en la comunidad.Este artículo fue publicado originalmente el día 25 de enero de 2017

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.

Mother to confront bishop over abuse claim

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

An elderly mother whose daughter killed herself after allegedly being raped by a priest says she hopes to confront a Catholic archbishop due to give evidence at a royal commission hearing.

Eileen Piper, 92, says she is pursuing justice and compensation from the church for her daughter Stephanie, 32, who took her life in January 1994 after she had allegedly been sexually abused by then-parish priest Gerard Mulvale while in her teens.

She told AAP she hopes to confront Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart outside Thursday’s hearing in Sydney and demand an apology from church authorities.

“I want them to alter the lies they’ve made and the … story they’ve told about Stephanie and to accept the truth before them, and in accepting the truth, pay me the compensation that Stephanie was deserving of,” Ms Piper said on Wednesday.

“She’s not here but I’m deserving of that too.”

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.

Leaders of religious Alabama boot camp get 20 years in prison for child abuse

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Prescotte Stokes III | pstokes@al.com

All three leaders of the religious Alabama boot camp Saving Youth Foundation for troubled teens were given 20 year prison sentences for their role in the child abuse incurred on children under their care.

Mobile Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick issued the sentences in front of a filled to capacity courtroom on Wednesday morning.

The leader of the church, Pastor John David Young, 55, received a 20 year sentence to be served concurrently for each of the five counts of aggravated child abuse he faced.

The other school leaders, boys’ instructor William Knott, 48, and girls’ instructor Aleshia Moffett, 42, both received 20 year sentences to be served concurrently for each of the three counts of aggravated child abuse imposed by state prosecutors.

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.

Chester Co. pastor, teaching assistant charged with raping woman after tying her up

TENNESSEE
WBBJ

[with video]

CHESTER COUNTY, Tenn. — A Henderson pastor and teaching assistant is charged with raping a woman after tying her up at his home, according to court documents.

Mike Ulmer is charged with two counts of rape and one count of sexual battery, according to an affidavit. He appeared Tuesday in court and entered a not guilty plea.

Ulmer is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Henderson, according to his attorney, Mark Donahoe.

Director of Schools Troy Kilzer previously confirmed Ulmer was suspended without pay Feb. 17 and arrested a short time later off campus for charges involving a student.

According to Kilzer, Ulmer is a teaching assistant who most recently worked with the in-school suspension program.

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.

Four more men accuse Father Louis Brouillard of sexual molestation

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Feb 22, 2017

By Krystal Paco

As of today, 22 plaintiffs have filed suit against the Archdiocese of Agana. According to four more filings made in the District Court of Guam late Wednesday afternoon, Albino Bascon, Johnny T. Bascon, Benny Manglona, and Roque Flores were all altar boys and Boy Scouts and all victims of Father Louis Brouillard in the 1970s.

Each of the men are suing for $5 million in damages.

Much like earlier accusations, Father Brouillard is accused of undressing and masturbating the boys, exposing them to pornography, and taking them on camping trips where they were also sexually molested.

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.

Bishop’s testimony reads like an NCR editorial

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Feb. 22, 2017

Yesterday in my Morning Briefing, I pointed readers to a story out of Australia that highlighted testimony by Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Parramatta, Australia, before the Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission is sitting for its 50th session and has been focused most of February on the Catholic church.

I wanted to make sure that NCR readers saw what Long said, so I thought I should point you back to that story today.

Long, 55, arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1981 and was ordained an auxiliary bishop in 2011 and made bishop of Parramatta last year. He made headlines Feb. 21 when he revealed that he was sexually abused by a clergyman shortly after being offered sanctuary in Australia.

Long notes that he was not a minor then, being about 18, but as a refugee, he most certainly was a vulnerable adult. Long testified that the experience “had a powerful impact on me and I want to walk in the shoes of other victims and endeavor to attain justice and dignity for them.”

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.

Catholic orders accused of child sex abuse ‘are dying’

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 23, 2017

Dan Box
Crime reporter
Sydney
@DanBox10

The leaders of several major Catholic orders found to contain disproportionately high numbers of child abusers say the ­organisations are dying as their members grow old and few, if any, seek to replace them.

These orders have run dozens of schools, orphanages and other institutions across Australia, and been subject to thousands of allegations of child abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.

The Christian Brothers, a fifth of whose members were alleged child abusers between 1950 and 2010, now have an average age of 75 and no one has attempted to join the order since the mid-2000s, the commission heard yesterday.

The Marist Brothers, which runs 13 schools across Australia and had a similar proportion of its members alleged to be abusers over that time, now has an ­average age of 73 and “a trickle” of candidates for new positions.

The St John of God Brothers, 40 per cent of whom were ­alleged abusers, now have 19 members, most in their 70s and 80s, and are “effectively winding down in Australia”, their provincial leader, Timothy Graham, told the commission yesterday.

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.

Trial Underway for Former Canaan Pastor Accused of Child Sexual Abuse

MAINE
WABI

Feb 21, 2017

Taylor Kinzler

A trial got underway Tuesday for a former youth pastor from Canaan accused of sexually abusing a young girl.

28-year-old Lucas Savage is charged with unlawful sexual contact.

He was co-director of Youth Haven Ministries when arrested last March.

Savage says nothing sexual happened between him and the girl.

His wife at the time, they are now divorced, said she never witnessed any sexual abuse, and often was asleep when Savage and the girl were together.

Court documents say the abuse took place at Savage’s home, sometimes with his wife in the house.

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.

Archbishop Prowse faces Royal Commission

AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

David Cole
David Cole@davecole66

21 Feb 2017

“IT is now time to listen,” Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn Christopher Prowse told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Tuesday.

“When I go back into the Archdiocese, I have it in my heart to hold listening sessions in the regional areas. I want to gather the victims and their families – it has been like a bush fire going through the Catholic Church in terms of faith and people’s trust in us.”

He referred to the victims of sexual abuse as “wounded healers” and said the Catholic Church had to move forward with them.

“We need to go ahead with them walking beside us, directing us, working with us. When I read those statistics that the average age was only 11…” Archbishop Prowse said, at a loss for words.

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.

Time is running out for Christian Brothers

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

February 22, 2017

Dan Box
Crime reporter
Sydney
@DanBox10

The leaders of some of Australia’s biggest Catholic orders, which have been found to contain disproportionately high numbers of child abusers, say their movements are dying as people grow old and few seek to replace them.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the leader of the Christian Brothers, Peter Clinch, said most of its 280 members were over 75 and no one had attempted to join since the mid-2000s.

“It’s my opinion that if you look at the statistics and you look at the evidence that is around us, we need to be gracious in our final years,” said Brother Clinch.

Asked whether “in 30 or 40 years the Christian Brothers will essentially be just a brand on schools” run by other people, he replied “I don’t think even the brand will be there.

“I think the Christian Brothers will be no more,” he said.

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

Child abuse royal commission to see report suppressed by Catholic Church

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Hamish Fitzsimmons

A report suppressed by the Catholic Church for more than a year will be tabled at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse this week.

The 2015 report by former Federal Court judge Donnell Ryan QC is into the Church’s compensation scheme for victims known as the Melbourne Response.

The scheme was set up in 1996 by then archbishop of Melbourne George Pell to assist people “who have been abused sexually, physically or emotionally by members of the Catholic Church”.

The ABC has been told the report examines complaints by victims about the way their cases were handled as well as caps on payments to victims.

The Church said it would not release the report because it did not want to cause further distress to abuse victims, instead opting to give it to the royal commission.

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.

Compensation hope for Scots victims of child abuse in care

SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
February 22 2017
The Times

A scheme to compensate victims of in-care child abuse is being considered by Scottish ministers for the first time.

After decades of campaigning by victims’ organisations, John Swinney has acknowledged that financial redress “could play a part in Scotland in the future”.

In a letter to a Holyrood committee, the deputy first minister said that it would be inappropriate to wait until the Scottish child abuse inquiry had been completed before progressing with a compensation scheme. He suggested that a further three-month consultation would be required before ministers could reach a final decision on redress.

There was cautious approval for Mr Swinney’s letter but one leading campaign group said it was considering withdrawing from the inquiry because of the resignation yesterday of a third member of its panel.

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.

Christian Bros defend funding pedophile

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Megan Neil, Australian Associated Press
February 21, 2017

The Christian Brothers say they only paid a convicted pedophile’s latest legal fees after previously spending more than $1.5 million defending him because he decided to plead guilty.

A Victorian County Court judge says he is “blown away” that the Catholic Church still funds the legal defence for Brother Robert Best, who has been convicted of sex offences against 11 boys and this week admitted abusing a further 20.

Christian Brothers Oceania Province leader Brother Peter Clinch says the order agreed it would fund the latest case only if Best pleaded guilty.

“We agreed that if the person pleaded guilty we would support the plea. Full stop,” Brother Clinch told the child sex abuse royal commission on Wednesday.

“We would not contest and we would not pay for any trial and we would not pay for any appeal.”

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.

Child abusers were allowed to remain in Catholic orders, royal commission told

AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Marist and Christian brothers allow known child sex abusers to remain in their order, a royal commission has heard.

Marist Brothers in Australia provincial Peter Carroll says, following a “vigorous and rigorous debate”, the order decided offending brothers would be allowed to stay with ministry restrictions.

The restricted brothers cannot have access to children, must live separate from a school and adhere to supervision.

“Are they allowed to call themselves brother if they wish to?” Counsel assisting Stephen Free asked Brother Carroll at the Royal Commission into Institutional a responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Wednesday.

“We haven’t formally taken that from them,” he replied.

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.

Christian Brothers ‘will disappear from Australia’ because of ageing membership

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press

Wednesday 22 February 2017

A Christian Brothers’ leader has said the Catholic order will disappear from Australia in the coming decades.

Oceania provincial leader Peter Clinch said on Wednesday that the country’s youngest Christian brother was in his 50s and the order no longer sought applicants for its novitiate.

He was asked whether he thought the Christian Brothers would become nothing more than a “brand” on schools run by lay people in 30 to 40 years.

“I don’t think even the brand will be there,” he told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney.

“I think the brand Christian Brothers will be no more.”

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.

Child sex abuse royal commission hears of Catholic brothers’ secrecy culture

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Jackson Vernon

A secrecy culture of “don’t ask, don’t tell” could explain historical allegations of child sex abuse within a religious order, the royal commission has been told.

The commission’s investigation into the response of the Catholic Church into alleged abuse heard from the De La Salle Brothers, an order which had one of the highest number of alleged perpetrators ministering between 1950 and 2010.

The order was subject 328 claims of sexual abuse, including 219 claims at its BoysTown facility in Beaudesert in Queensland.

Brother Ambrose Payne told the hearing that throughout the 20th century: “A sense of secrecy was part and parcel with the culture.”

“I believe that was demonstrated in such advice given to me as a young brother: never ask a brother where he’s going, where he’s been, or where did he get that from,” Brother Ambrose said.

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

The Conversation We Need to Have About Milo: Child Sexual Abuse and the Myth of Consent

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

It seems that former Breitbart editor and alt-right propagandist Milo Yiannopoulos loves to be hated. He has penned incendiary anti-feminist articles opining that women experiencing online harassment should simply stop using the internet, that birth control makes women “unattractive and crazy,” and that women are underrepresented in tech because they “suck at interviews.” He was kicked off of Twitter—no mean feat on the abuse-plagued platform—for coordinating a harassment campaign against actress Leslie Jones. On a college speaking tour, he has singled out a transgender student in the audience for harassment. Elsewhere, he has made remarks many have construed as anti-Semitic or racist.

To his fans, he’s a hero of free speech. (It is certainly true that in the United States, one is and should be free to say despicable things without fear of government reprisal.) To his detractors, he never should have been given the broad platforms for the nasty things he has said. And yet, as his notoriety grew, his star rose. Audiences that find “P.C. culture” to be a graver threat to society than racism, misogyny, or transphobia loved him, and other audiences became aware of him whether they wanted to be or not.

He’s made a career on seeing how far over the line he can go. Yesterday, it appears he may have found out.

After a video surfaced in which Yiannopoulos, in his own words, advocated for the idea of sex between “13 year olds” and “older men,” flippantly describing his own experience as gaining beneficial sexual experience when he was molested by a priest as a teenager, the consequences are coming down. In the last 48 hours, Milo lost his book deal with Simon & Schuster, had his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) cancelled, and resigned from his technology editor role at the alt-right website Breitbart, losing perhaps his greatest platform.

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Just one week left for locals to arrange private meeting with Mother and Baby Commission

IRELAND
KCLR

By MaryAnn Vaughan
Posted on Feb 22, 2017

There’s just a week left for anyone who wants to meet with the confidential committee investigating Ireland’s mother and baby homes to get in touch.

St Columba’s Home in Thomastown is one of the 14 institutions included in the investigation.

Next Wednesday the 1st of March is the deadline for anyone who was a resident in or who has information on mother and baby homes to request a confidential meeting with the commission.

Thomastown’s St Columba’s Home was selected as part of the representative sample of county homes.

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Catholic church underpaid sex abuse victims: Royal Commission

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

The Christian Brothers underpaid almost 170 sexual abuse claimants millions of dollars because they believed they were “going to be taken to the cleaners”, a royal commission has heard.

An inquiry into Catholic church authorities heard the order was asked to re-examine 201 compensation settlements to victims of child sexual abuse in 2014 and found 165 were too low.

An additional $14 million was paid to the claimants, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

Province leader of the Christian Brothers Peter Clinch told the inquiry the inadequate initial settlements were due to defensiveness.

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Last remaining original member of Scottish child abuse inquiry resigns

SCOTLAND
Holyrood

Survivor groups have reacted angrily after the Scottish child abuse inquiry lost the last remaining original panel member.

Glenn Houston said he had resigned as a member of the panel because he had accepted two other public appointments which he is unable to hold in conjunction with his panel membership.

Houston said the inquiry had made “considerable progress” and wished it well in the future.

His departure follows the resignation last year of chairwoman Susan O’Brien QC and fellow panel member Professor Michael Lamb amid accusations of government interference.

Senior judge Lady Smith, who replaced O’Brien as the third chair of the inquiry, is now the only remaining member of the panel.

Lady Smith said: “Mr Houston has made a valuable contribution to the work of the Inquiry during his time as a panel member and I am very grateful to him for his support. I fully understand his decision and wish him well in his new ventures.

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Child abuse inquiry: Survivors have ‘no trust left’

SCOTLAND
BBC

Child abuse survivors’ groups have said they have “no trust left” in Scotland’s Child Abuse Inquiry.

White Flowers Alba and In Care Abuse Survivors Group both called for urgent answers from the Scottish government on the future of the inquiry.

The probe has been plagued by problems and all three original panel members have now resigned.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he understood the concerns but told the BBC the inquiry was gathering momentum.

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Failed again Child abuse survivors left feeling ‘groomed’ by Scottish Government after inquiry sees third resignation

SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

by Mary McCool
22nd February 2017

SURVIVORS of child abuse say that continued failures by the Scottish Government have left them feeling “groomed” all over again.

In an interview with Good Morning Scotland, survivors groups say they “continue to be failed” by the government after a third member of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry panel resigned.

They also said survivors feel there’s “no point” in engaging with the inquiry further because they feel the process has become too “legalistic” and they have been “denied” an opportunity for redress.

The inquiry is now being led solely by Supreme Court judge Lady Anne Smith.

Glenn Houston, who was the last original member of the board, stepped down from his role yesterday with immediate effect, due to a potential “conflict of interest”.

Alan Draper of Care Abuse Survivors Group says he is “concerned” over Mr Houston’s “commitment to the whole process” and that survivors have had “no announcement” from education secretary John Swinney as to why he feels Lady Smith should act alone.

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Head of Marist Brothers’ Australia grilled over Canberra abuse ‘cluster’

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Katie Burgess

The head of Marist Brothers’ Australia has acknowledged a failure in governance led to a “cluster” of abuse at their Canberra College.

Brother Peter Carroll was called to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday.

When cross-examined over how these “clusters” could have occurred at several Marist schools including Canberra’s during royal commission proceedings , Brother Carroll said many cases were the work of one perpetrator.

But when was asked if poor governance led to the abuse clusters, he said that “can’t be refuted”.
Related Content

“I think there were, you know, governance shortcomings. What they were … was the centralisation of authority and the whole hierarchical model that was in use,” he said.

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Warrnambool’s St Joseph’s Primary School reviews call for plaque to be removed

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

ANDREW THOMSON

22 Feb 2017

WARRNAMBOOL’S St Joseph’s Primary School is reviewing whether it is appropriate to retain a plaque with the name of a disgraced former Bishop of Ballarat.

The review of the plaque, which marks the school’s opening on its Botanic Road site, comes after a victim of clergy abuse called for such plaques to be removed. One has been removed at another Warrnambool school.

The victim said the former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns failed in his duty to protect children from abuse, was aware of clergy abuse and had failed to act.

The victim said he refused to enter churches or schools with such plaques because of Bishop Mulkearns’ reign over a systemic abuse.

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Day school teacher suspected of sexual abuse in Pittsburgh

PENNSYLVANIA
The Jewish Chronicle

by Toby Tabachnick, Senior Staff Writer

After a lengthy investigation, a former teacher at Yeshiva Boys School of Pittsburgh, an important institution in the Chabad-Lubavitch educational system, is a suspect in several alleged incidents of child sexual abuse.

According to police, Rabbi Nisson Friedman, 26, who is well connected in the local Jewish community and is the son of an influential Minnesota-based rabbi, is suspected of sexually assaulting at least three boys while employed by the school. Det. Bryan Sellers of the city’s Bureau of Police Sex Assault Team, who is investigating the case, said he is “absolutely certain” there are additional victims.

The suspected assaults occurred both privately and publicly, including at least once in the Yeshiva building on Wightman Street. According to Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, dean of Yeshiva Schools, that incident was discovered last year on Saturday, Sept. 24 during Shabbat services in the building. Rosenfeld said that a member of the community observed Friedman “touching a child inappropriately” in the facility’s library and alerted the school’s administration.

The administration promptly reported the disclosure of the suspected assault to the police and to the state’s mandated ChildLine and Abuse Registry as well as to other authorities, said Rosenfeld, and immediately suspended Friedman from his teaching duties. Friedman has left his position with Yeshiva Schools permanently.

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Desmond Connell was ill-suited to deal with avalanche of child abuse

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Dan Buckley

When Pope John Paul II elevated Desmond Connell to the archdiocese of Dublin in January 1988, he was far from being the first choice.

In fact, it took nine months between the death in April 1987 of his predecessor, Archbishop Kevin McNamara, and his appointment.

During that time, at least four others were considered before Dr Connell got the nod. His appointment would not have been possible without the all-important approval of the then papal nuncio, Dr Gaetano Alibrandi, the most powerful figure in the Catholic Church in Ireland since the dreaded Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, who had ordained Dr Connell in 1951.

Dr Alibrandi didn’t want an archbishop who was too liberal, too well liked by diocesan priests, or overly friendly with parishioners.

Dr Connell ticked all those boxes. Relatively unknown, he had served as professor of general metaphysics at UCD and in 1983 became the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at the university.

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Catholic Church funded abuser’s court battle

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A Catholic order’s leader dropped to his knees and begged a brother to face child sex abuse charges in New Zealand yet still paid to take the extradition battle as far as Australia’s highest court.

Brother Timothy Graham believes his predecessor as provincial of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God should not have funded the three-year extradition fight.

The issue caused great controversy, Brother Graham told the child sex abuse royal commission on Wednesday.

‘The provincial at the time virtually got on his knees and begged the individual to go to New Zealand to speak to the police but his independent legal advice was not to do that,’ he said.
– See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/nsw/2017/02/22/catholic-church-funded-abuser-s-court-battle.html#sthash.Xx2luatL.dpuf

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Statement on Royal Commission Case Study 50

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

Yesterday, the Bishop of Parramatta, Most Rev Vincent Long OFM Conv gave evidence at the final hearing involving the Catholic Church at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Case Study 50.

Bishop Vincent’s evidence was deeply moving and a powerful testimony to the genuine determination he will show as leader of the Diocese of Parramatta in strengthening its child protection policies and procedures.

The Diocese of Parramatta has a deep empathy for survivors of abuse and will, as Bishop Vincent said, seek to “attain justice and dignity for them.”

Mindful of the hurt and pain caused by abuse, the Diocese of Parramatta, on behalf of the Catholic Church, again offers its sincerest apology to all survivors of abuse. The Diocese of Parramatta is sorry for the damage that has been done to the lives of victims of sexual abuse and their loved ones.

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Clarity beyond clericalism: Bishop Long at the Royal Commission

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Andrew Hamilton | 21 February 2017

The final sessions of the Catholic ‘wrap up’ at the Royal Commission have been dedicated to summarising and testing what has been said in previous sessions. The numbers of complaints, abusers and cases presented have been horrifying.

Nothing should be allowed to minimise the evil represented in them. The panels of people interviewed offer some evidence, nonetheless, that children will now be safer when under Catholic care.

The most thought provoking testimony given was that by Vincent Long, Bishop of Parramatta. It was notable for its directness, honesty and the awareness it displayed of the importance of church culture. Bishop Long grew up in the Vietnamese Catholic Church and was afterwards chosen to lead the Australian Church. In his responses he focused particularly on clericalism and its role in giving license and cover to clerical abuse.

He worked out of a fairly simple distinction between two images of the church. One sees the church as a kingdom in which the subordination of the people to the king and to the hierarchical grades of officials is fixed and sacralised. The other is of the church as community with an ordered network of relationships that enable the nourishing of people by the spreading of the Gospel.

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Bishop Vincent’s evidence to the Royal Commission

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

Bishop of Parramatta, Most Rev Vincent Long OFM Conv shared his own personal story and gave evidence at the Royal Commission on Tuesday 21 February, 2017.

A summary of that evidence can be found below. For a full transcript, click here.

Case Study 50 – Day 11

The panel discussion on day 11 of the Catholic Church’s final hearing was attended by bishops with responsibility for various dioceses and regional archdioceses.

Attending were Archbishop Christopher Prowse, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn; Archbishop Julian Porteous, Archbishop of Hobart; Bishop Eugene Hurley, Bishop of Darwin; Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta; Bishop Christopher Saunders, Bishop of Broome; and Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, Bishop of the Maronite Diocese of Australia.

All panelists strongly supported a national redress scheme, noting the importance of separating reparation from the pastoral context.

It was noted that all the panelists supported the establishment of Catholic Professional Standards Ltd and told the Commission that it was important that the company was financially backed and its recommendations embraced.

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Lawsuits: Church operated ‘harem of young boys’

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Published Feb. 22, 2017

Four more former altar boys filed separate federal lawsuits Wednesday, alleging that former island priest Louis Brouillard sexually molested them repeatedly when they were children in the 1970s, bringing to 22 the total number of clergy sexual abuse cases filed on Guam.

The Archdiocese of Agana now faces a minimum $110 million in damages in connection with the lawsuits.

The four former altar boys, represented by Attorney David Lujan, said Brouillard also sexually abused them during Boy Scouts of America activities. Brouillard was scoutmaster in the Guam chapter.

Albino T. Bascon, now 54 and living in California, alleged that Brouillard sexually molested and abused him from 1973 through 1976. That’s when he was an altar boy at San Isidro Catholic Church of Malojloj and a Boy Scout member.

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New suits claim altar boy service front for sex abuse

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post Feb 22, 2017

Four new civil lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana in the District Court of Guam alleging the practice of altar boy service ultimately became a “tool by which sexually predatory priests would gain access to young boys.”

The four cases filed earlier today raised the total number of cases filed against the Archdiocese of Agana to 22 with the total amount of damages sought now totaling $110 million.

The lawsuits filed by Albino Bascon, Johnny Bascon, Benny Manglona, and Roque Flores allege sexual abuse by former Guam priest, Louis Brouillard, who now resides in Minnesota. Each plaintiff is seeking a minimum of $5 million in damages and accuses the Catholic Church of using the “ritual” of altar boy service as a disguise to have sexual access to young boys.

Each of the plaintiffs served as altar boys at various parishes where Brouillard served as priest during his time on Guam in the early 1970’s.

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February 21, 2017

Statement Regarding Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka

MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Gaylord

02/21/2017

This morning Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka, former Pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Rogers City, Michigan, was arraigned on charges of criminal sexual conduct. This matter does not involve a minor, but is an issue between two individual adults and not against the Diocese of Gaylord. Local civil authorities are conducting the investigation and the diocese has pledged its full cooperation.

Following Rev. Obwaka’s arrest on Saturday, Bishop Steven J. Raica placed him on an administrative leave pending resolution of the case. During this time, Rev. Obwaka is also prohibited from exercising any public ministry.

Rev. Obwaka, 44, is a native of Kenya and is a permanent legal resident of the United States. He was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Gaylord in 2004 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2010. Following his ordination he was assigned as Parochial Vicar to the Catholic Community of Manistee (now known as Divine Mercy parish), and in 2013 was appointed Pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Rogers City.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by this situation,” stated Candace Neff, diocesan Director of Communications. “There is a great deal of hurt and confusion right now. We are focused on providing pastoral support to all those affected and are working closely with St. Ignatius parishioners as they continue their ministries both within their parish and in the wider community,” she said.

To that end, Bishop Raica and a team from the Diocese of Gaylord met with parish leadership and parishioners on Sunday to pray with them, share information and to listen to concerns in order to begin to chart a path forward. At that time the bishop announced he had appointed Rev. Joseph Muszkiewicz, who also serves as Pastor to All Saints Parish in Alpena and Vicar for the region, as temporary administrator for St. Ignatius parish. Rev. Muszkiewicz, in collaboration with parish staff and leadership, will oversee the day-to-day operations of the parish for the immediate future.

“I am heartbroken over the events that have unfolded in recent days,” Bishop Raica said. “Our faith calls us to ensure the dignity of each human person is upheld in every circumstance. We must respond with compassion when anyone is harmed. We must also remember that in our system of justice, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he noted. “It is very early in this process and while the matter is in the civil courts we will need to wait patiently for the outcome.”

“These are difficult days,” Bishop Raica concluded. “In these moments, we must turn to Christ who always walks with us and accompanies us in our pain. I ask for your prayers for all those affected by this situation.”

In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and to protect the rights of everyone involved, neither the Diocese of Gaylord nor leadership of St. Ignatius Parish will be making any further comments regarding this case at this time.

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Presque Isle County Priest Arrested for Alleged Criminal Sexual Conduct

MICHIGAN
MI News

POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2017 BY JACOB OWENS

A Presque Isle County Priest has been charged with first degree criminal sexual conduct following an incident that allegedly occurred earlier this month.

Troopers at the Alpena State Police Post received a complaint on February 17th of criminal sexual conduct that had allegedly happened in Rogers City.

A 28-year-old man told police that on February 1st he was staying the night at the 44-year-old suspect’s home when he sexually assaulted while sleeping.

Troopers interviewed the victim and documented the allegations.

A search warrant was granted for the suspect’s home, and on the 18th troopers collected possible evidence from the scene.

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Diocese of Gaylord Issues Statement on Priest Charged with Sex Crimes

MICHIGAN
9 and 10 News

[with video]

By David Lyden, Reporter

Reverend Sylvestre Obwaka was the priest at Saint Ignatius church in Rogers City.

He was arraigned on 1st and 3rd degree sex crimes Tuesday.

The Diocese of Gaylord suspended him while the case works its way through court.

Bishop Steven Raica says this is an incredibly sad situation for everyone involved and they’re now focusing on helping the parish community heal and move forward.

“Whenever anyone is harmed, or accused of harming another, the entire faith community is shaken,” said Raica.

Bishop Raica says the last few days have been difficult for parishioners in Rogers City and the Diocese of Gaylord. After Fr. Obwaka’s arrest, Bishop Raica placed him on administrative leave. He’s also prohibited from performing public ministry.

“I am heartbroken over the events that have unfolded over the recent days. Our faith calls us to ensure the dignity of each human person is upheld in each circumstance,” said Raica.

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9 Investigates: Charlotte family speaks out about son’s abuse by a priest

NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

[with video]

by: Allison Latos Updated: Feb 21, 2017

The disturbing crime of sexual abuse by priests has rocked the Catholic Church worldwide and in Charlotte.

Robert Yurgel was a priest at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Ballantyne.

He admitted to sexually abusing an altar boy, spent nearly eight years in prison and was released in the summer of 2016.

The parents of Yurgel’s victim’s family spoke publicly to Eyewitness News anchor Allison Latos about the crime that stole their son’s innocence and their plea to all parents.

Robert and Anne Price raised their five children in the Catholic faith.

The family spent every Sunday at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Ballantyne, but they say it is now a place of so much pain.

“God said, ‘Bring me your children.’ He didn’t say, ‘Bring me your children so I can abuse them,'” Anne Price told Latos.

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Ex-Haverhill priest held on $50,000 bail in Maine on sexual abuse charges

MASSACHUSETTS/MAINE
The Eagle-Tribune

By Mike LaBella mlabella@eagletribune.com

HAVERHILL — Former Haverhill priest Ronald Paquin is being held on $50,000 cash bail after being charged in Maine with multiple counts of gross sexual misconduct involving young boys.

A judge in Biddeford District Court in Maine set that bail amount and ordered that no one other than Paquin be allowed to raise the bail.

Police in Kennebunkport, Maine, said the criminal acts took place at seasonal locations in Kennebunkport in the mid-to-late 1980s. The male victims’ ages were 11 and 14 when Paquin began his inappropriate criminal conduct, police said.

On Feb. 6, a York County grand jury indicted Paquin, 74, on 13 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class A, and 16 counts of gross sexual misconduct, class B.

Paquin was arrested Feb. 8 in Boston on a warrant from Maine and on Feb. 10 he was held without bail in Roxbury District Court, where he waived extradition proceedings. He was subsequently taken to Maine to face charges there.

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Vatican court continues investigating possible cases of money laundering

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Philly

By Cindy Wooden • Catholic News Service • Posted February 21, 2017

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While the trial of five people accused of leaking confidential Vatican financial documents captured headlines in 2016, the Vatican City court also continued investigating possible financial crimes, freezing more than $2.1 million in assets deposited at the Vatican bank.

Gian Piero Milano, promoter of justice at the Vatican City court, summarized the city-state’s judicial activity Feb. 18.

The funds were frozen in 2016 as part of Vatican investigations of possible money laundering, Milano said. From 2012 through 2016, he said, the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority reported 23 cases of suspicious transactions to the court; 17 of those cases still are under investigation, he said.

The total funds frozen over the past four years, Milano said, included almost 11.3 million in euros, just over 1 million in dollars and more than 320,000 British pounds — a total equivalent to about $13.3 million.

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Italy Freezes Assets of Banker Accused of Using Vatican for Market Rigging

ROME
U.S. News

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – Investigating magistrates in Italy on Tuesday froze millions of euros worth of assets belonging to a prominent Italian banker they believe used the Vatican bank and another Holy See financial department for market manipulation.

The financial crimes police said in a statement that they had executed the magistrates’ orders, sequestering 2.5 million euros ($2.64 million) in buildings, stocks and land belonging to Giampietro Nattino, head of Banca Finnat Euramerica SpA. [BFE.MI]

Magistrates accuse him of market manipulation and providing false information to Consob, Italy’s stock regulator.

Nattino said in a statement that the frozen assets belonged to him personally and not to his bank, and that he would cooperate with investigators.

Shares in his private bank fell 3.6 percent before recovering some of that loss.

Tuesday’s developments followed an exclusive report by Reuters in November, 2015 about a Vatican investigation into Nattino’s accounts at the Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, and at APSA, an office that oversees Vatican real estate and investments. http://reut.rs/2m7SvYh

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Resignation of Panel Member

SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

Mr Glenn Houston has resigned as a member of the panel because he has accepted two other public appointments which he is unable to hold in conjunction with his panel membership.

Having considered the time commitment they will require and the potential risk of a conflict of interest arising as between them and his Inquiry role in the future, he concluded that he could not carry on with all three roles and, with regret, that he required to resign from the Inquiry.

Lady Smith said: “Mr Houston has made a valuable contribution to the work of the Inquiry during his time as a panel member and I am very grateful to him for his support. I fully understand his decision and wish him well in his new ventures.

“The important work of the Inquiry continues as normal and we would encourage anyone who has relevant information, whether they have been abused themselves or know others who have, to get in touch.”

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Third member resigns from Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

SCOTLAND
The Courier

by Gareth McPherson

February 21 2017

A third senior figure on the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has resigned after the chairman ruled his new jobs risked a conflict of interest.

Glenn Houston resigned from the panel when he was asked by Lady Smith to consider stepping down from the new roles.

One of the posts is at the Disclosure and Barring service, the body which rules who can have contact with children in certain settings, and the other at Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

It is the latest in a series of resignations at the child abuse inquiry, which was set up in 2015 to examine the extent of abuse of children in care.

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Scottish child abuse inquiry: Senior panel member resigns

SCOTLAND
BBC News

A third senior figure on the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has resigned.

Glenn Houston, who was the only original panel member, cited personal reasons for his departure.

He remained on the inquiry team last year after the resignation of the chairwoman, Susan O’Brien QC, and panel member Prof Michael Lamb.

One survivors’ group said it was “indicative of a crisis” in the inquiry which is examining allegations of child abuse in residential accommodation.

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Headteacher who became a Church of England vicar, 63, ‘was a “father figure” to a boy he sexually abused for seven years’

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Alex Matthews For Mailonline

Vicar David Fletcher is alleged to have abused a boy while he was a teacher in Bradford during the 1980s and 1990s

A former headteacher who went on to become a Church of England vicar has been accused of sexually abusing a boy for seven years.

David Fletcher, 63, is alleged to have indecently touched the youngster, who was between nine and 15, from the late 1980s and into the 1990s before targeting him again when he was an adult.

During this period Fletcher, who is currently a vicar in East Yorkshire, was deputy headteacher at a primary school and later a headteacher of a secondary school in Bradford.

A man said Fletcher touched him indecently before thrusting his body at him and ‘snogging’ him.

The complainant has also accused the vicar of sexually assaulting him in a kitchen on a date between 2009 and 2011.

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La vieja amistad del cardenal Errázuriz con Figari, el “Karadima peruano” acusado de pederastia

PERU/CHILE
El Mostrador

[The old friendship of Cardinal Errázuriz with Figari, the “Peruvian Karadima” accused of pederasty.]

por CAMILA BUSTAMANTE 17 febrero, 2017

Una casa en Eduardo Castillo Velasco con Pedro de Valdivia, en Ñuñoa, fue el punto de partida de los trabajos apostólicos de la comunidad peruana Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana (también conocida por su nombre en latín Sodalitium Christianae Vítae, SCV) en Chile. Invitados en 1999 por el entonces arzobispo de Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, los religiosos comenzaron un camino que hoy los tiene como dueños de la Universidad Gabriela Mistral, un colegio en Huechuraba, una comunidad en el exclusivo sector de Los Trapenses y a cargo de una Parroquia en Maipú. Sin embargo, el rostro de estos consagrados se ha ensuciado por las múltiples acusaciones de abusos sexuales, de poder, físicos y psicológicos que pesan sobre su fundador, Luis Fernando Figari, así como varios otros miembros de la institución.

Fue en 2015 cuando el escándalo del Sodalicio estalló en Perú, a raíz de la publicación del libro Mitad monjes, mitad soldados, de los periodistas Pedro Salinas y Paola Ugaz. En él, se relatan 30 testimonios de personas que pertenecieron a la institución y que sufrieron algún tipo de abuso, incluyendo los de índole sexual. Con este trabajo periodístico, no solo se logró visibilizar hechos que se rumoreaban entre quienes tenían familiares o amigos en la institución, sino también que el Sodalicio abriera una comisión investigadora y declarara como persona non grata a su propio fundador.

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Los escabrosos testimonios de pedofilia y abusos sexuales del grupo católico Sodalicio en Perú

PERU
Infobae

[The scabrous testimonies of pedophilia and sexual abuse of the Catholic group Sodalicio in Peru.]

La sociedad apostólica publicó un informe sobre los abusos sexuales cometidos en la organización a 36 jóvenes -19 de ellos menores-, pero evitó revelar la identidad de cuatro agresores. Las autoridades practicaba sodomía, tocamientos de genitales y los obligaban a acostarse juntos
15 de febrero de 2017

Luis Figari, fundador del Sodalicio en 1971, durante más de 30 años abusó sexualmente de jóvenes que reclutaba de colegios privados de clase alta y los llevaba a vivir en comunidad como “soldados de Cristo”. Sus delitos también fueron replicados por otros líderes, según detalla el informe interno encargado por la organización tras las denuncias ante la justicia, con crudos testimonios sobre cómo obligaban a sus víctimas a desnudarse, tocarse y besar los genitales.

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Abuso sexual e impunidad en Iglesia Católica salvadoreña

EL SALVADOR
Processo

[Sexual abuse and impunity in Salvadoran Catholic church.]

SAN SALVADOR (apro).- William tenía 13 años de edad la primera vez que el sacerdote lo violó.

Fue un lunes en la noche. William Hernández entró mareado al cuarto. José Luis detrás. Se acostaron. A William le surgió la terrible certeza que después la vida no volverá a ser igual.

Transcurría el año 1985. José Luis Recinos López llegó a Apopa, al norte de San Salvador, con talento para hacer dinero. La cúpula de la Iglesia Católica salvadoreña le asignó una parroquia en crisis de la que habían desertado centenares de feligreses que perdieron la fe.

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Message de Mgr Delmas aux diocésains

FRANCE
Diocese d’Angier

[Mgr. Emmanuel Delmas, Bishop of Angers, sent a letter to the priests of the diocese on 1 February 2017 about facts reported to him concerning a deceased priest of the diocese who is accused of misconduct with minors. He wishes to make this message known to all the Catholic faithful in the diocese.]

Mgr Emmanuel Delmas, évêque d’Angers, a transmis le 1er février 2017 aux prêtres du diocèse un courrier au sujet de faits qui lui ont été rapportés concernant un prêtre du diocèse décédé . Il souhaite faire connaître ce message à l’ensemble des fidèles catholiques du diocèse.

Aux prêtres du diocèse d’Angers,

Angers, le 1er février 2017
“Comme vous le savez peut-être, j’ai reçu des témoignages de jeunes adultes qui m’ont confié avoir subis dans leur enfance des comportements inappropriés de la part d’un ancien aumônier, l’abbé Houard, aujourd’hui décédé.

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Poursuite de la procédure canonique contre le prêtre-psy Tony Anatrella

FRANCE
Le Monde

L’Eglise a pris cette décision après avoir recueilli les témoignages de plaignants, qui accusent l’ecclésiastique de s’être livré à des agressions sexuelles lors de ses thérapies.

Une procédure canonique, régie par le droit de l’Eglise, a été ouverte à l’encontre du prêtre-psychanalyste Tony Anatrella, prélat célèbre jusqu’au Vatican, a dévoilé, lundi 20 février dans la soirée, l’archevêché de Paris.

Au printemps 2016, près de dix ans après le dépôt des premières plaintes, cet ecclésiastique du diocèse de Paris avait été soupçonné d’avoir commis des agressions sexuelles lors de ses thérapies sur de jeunes hommes dans son cabinet de psychanalyste.

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AMERSFOORT CHURCH: NO COVER UP IN 1986 SEXUAL ABUSE CASE

NETHERLANDS
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on February 21, 2017

Although two pastors at the Reformed Church in Amersfoort Oost kept sexual abuse by a church member in 1986 quiet, there was definitely not a cover up, the church concluded in an investigation. The investigation revealed that the then pastor and his successor were only aware of two cases of sexual abuse of young boys by church member Piet Hein W. from Hoevelaken, AD reports.

The now deceased W.’s abuse was revealed in October last year, when the church was praying for the terminally ill man. A church member wrote a letter about W.’s “dark side”, revealing that he sexually abused young boys. The Reformed Church quickly determined that the allegations may be true and launched an investigation. The investigation committee consisted of investigators, psychologists, a lawyer and a theologian.

The investigation revealed 16 people who may have been sexually abused by W. when they were young boys. Six of them could not be reached. Two did not want to talk about it. Five said that they do not feel that they were victimized. And the final three confirmed that they were. Victim assistance was offered to them.

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Trial to Begin Today for Former Canaan Youth Pastor Accused of Sexual Abuse of Girl

MAINE
WABI

FEB 21, 2017

ALEXANDER DOWNING

A former youth pastor in Canaan accused of sexually abusing a young girl is scheduled to go on trial starting Tuesday.

27-year-old Lucas Savage pleaded not guilty to unlawful sexual contact….

He was co-director of Youth Haven Ministries when he was arrested last March….

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Canonical inquiry into French bishops’ adviser Msgr Tony Anatrella

FRANCE
La Croix

Following the report from a commission set up to consider allegations of sexual assault against well-known priest psychologist, Fr Tony Anatrella, Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris has opened a canonical inquiry into the events.

Céline Hoyeau
February 21, 2017

For the last fifteen years, there have been accusations of sexual assault against well-known Paris priest and psychoanalyst, Msgr Tony Anatrella, 75. In a long-awaited decision, a canonical inquiry will be opened concerning the allegations, La Croix has learned.Following a series of revelations last year concerning a Lyons priest, Fr Bernard Preynat, several former patients made allegations in the media against Msgr Anatrella. In May, Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris said he “encouraged these people to give up their anonymity… and to make their complaints to the relevant legal authorities”.

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Cardinal Desmond Connell: Child abuse crisis was low point of life

IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

You could say Desmond Connell, who has died aged 90, became Archbishop of Dublin almost by default. His name was among the last to surface publicly during the extraordinary nine months which elapsed between the death in April 1997 of his predecessor, Archbishop Kevin McNamara, and the announcement of his appointment in January 1988.

It was extraordinary because of the tactics employed over that period, which saw almost everyone’s favourite for the job, Bishop Donal Murray, successfully done down. He was the man most favoured for the post by the bishops and Dublin’s priests. …

But, without doubt, 2002 was his annus horribilis, par excellence. It was the year when his handling of clerical child sex abuse cases was exposed most mercilessly. In April it emerged that he had not told gardaí­ that Father Paul McGennis, who abused Marie Collins in 1960, had admitted the crime. In October 2002 Prime Time’s Cardinal Errors programme gave a damning account of his handling of cases involving eight priests of the diocese who had been involved in child sex abuse.

Post-October 2002, he seemed to finally admit his own personal responsibility for much that had gone wrong in the archdiocese where the handling of clerical child sex abuse during his term was concerned. His meeting with abuse victims Ms Collins and Ken Reilly on December 30th of that year was a genuine coming together of minds with a common purpose.

This threatened to fall asunder in February 2003 when it emerged the archdiocese had no structure for the support of victims, as per the 1996 guidelines issued by the Irish bishops. It reflected his “only guidelines” remark to Ms Collins about those church directions, at a meeting with Ms Collins in December 1996.

But in March 2003 he issued a strong statement that such a structure was being put in place with direct input from Ms Collins and Mr Reilly. And that was done.

In February 2008 there was general relief, not least within the church, when Cardinal Connell agreed to withdraw his High Court action claiming privilege over 5,586 documents before the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation (Murphy Commission) into the handling of clerical child sexual abuse allegations.

The subsequent Murphy report, published in November 2009, found that he “was slow to recognise the seriousness of the situation” on assuming office. He was “over-reliant” on the advice of other people. While “clearly appalled by the abuse” it took him some time “to realise that it could not be dealt with by keeping it secret and protecting priests from normal civil processes.”

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PHILADELPHIA PROSECUTOR WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION AMID PROBE

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Associated Press

BY MARYCLAIRE DALE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Seth Williams, the city’s first black district attorney, won’t run for a third term amid an FBI investigation into $160,000 in gifts that he failed to report, mistakes that he said Friday caused his office “much embarrassment and shame.”

The Democrat later reported taking a new roof, a $2,700 couch and luxury vacations, including the use of a defense lawyer’s home in the Florida Keys. Williams has agreed to pay $62,000 in related ethics fines.

He did not take questions at a morning appearance in which he apologized for “mistakes in my personal life and in my personal financial life that cast an unnecessary shadow over my office.” …

During his seven-year tenure, his office filed the first charges against several Roman Catholic priests and earned a trial conviction against the first U.S. church official ever charged over the handling of priest sex-abuse complaints. The conviction has since been overturned, although the official served nearly three years in prison.

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Poursuite de la procédure canonique contre le prêtre-psy Tony Anatrella

FRANCE
Le Monde

[The Catholic church is continuing with canonical action against priest Tony Anatrella who is charge with abuse.]

L’Eglise a pris cette décision après avoir recueilli les témoignages de plaignants, qui accusent l’ecclésiastique de s’être livré à des agressions sexuelles lors de ses thérapies.

Une procédure canonique, régie par le droit de l’Eglise, a été ouverte à l’encontre du prêtre-psychanalyste Tony Anatrella, prélat célèbre jusqu’au Vatican, a dévoilé, lundi 20 février dans la soirée, l’archevêché de Paris.

Au printemps 2016, près de dix ans après le dépôt des premières plaintes, cet ecclésiastique du diocèse de Paris avait été soupçonné d’avoir commis des agressions sexuelles lors de ses thérapies sur de jeunes hommes dans son cabinet de psychanalyste.

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Bischof Morerod spricht Klartext zum Fall Pittet

SCHWEIZ
kath.ch

[The Catholic Church has to bring light into its shadowy corners, says the president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference (SBK), said Bishop Charles Morerod, in a guest commentary for kath.ch.]

20.2.17 (kath.ch) Die katholische Kirche muss Licht in ihre Schattenwinkel bringen, sagt der Präsident der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK), Charles Morerod, in einem Gastkommentar für kath.ch. Er nimmt zudem Stellung zum Rücktritt von Ephrem Bucher aus dem bischöflichen Fachgremium «sexuelle Übergriffe».

Ich kenne Daniel Pittet seit mindestens 25 Jahren. In den vergangenen Monaten haben wir über sein Buch gesprochen. Als Vorbereitung auf die Veröffentlichung des Buchs und dank der Mithilfe der Kapuziner habe ich Pater Joël Allaz zwei Mal getroffen. Das tat ich, um zu unterstreichen, dass ich hinter dieser Veröffentlichung stehe und zwar aus zwei Gründen: Daniel sagt, dass ihm diese Worte helfen werden, seinen Schmerz zu überwinden. Zudem bin ich überzeugt, dass die Kirche Licht in ihre fürchterlichen Schattenzonen bringen muss.

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RC priest accused of sexual assault

MICHIGAN
The Alpena News

Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka, 44, a priest at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Rogers City was arrested and jailed over the weekend. He is accused of sexual assault.

He will be arraigned today.

Bishop Steven Raica of the Diocese of Gaylord took questions from parishioners on Sunday. He told parishioners Obwaka has denied the allegations and has been placed on administrative leave.

Candace Neff, director of communications for the diocese, stated in an email on Monday afternoon the diocese would not comment on the situation until after Obwaka was arraigned.

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Vatican visit puts global spotlight on Guam allegations

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Published Feb. 21, 2017 | Updated 5 hours ago

A Vatican tribunal’s visit to Guam, as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s ongoing canonical penal trial, has drawn international attention to the island’s clergy sex abuse lawsuits, even as an Apuron accuser said he didn’t meet with the Vatican mission in Hawaii.

Roy T. Quintanilla, 52 and now living in Honolulu, was the first former altar boy in May 2016 to publicly accuse Apuron of sexually abusing him in Agat in the 1970s.

Quintanilla said Tuesday he didn’t provide testimony to the Vatican tribunal in Honolulu because his attorney, David Lujan, wasn’t allowed to be present. He said he will submit a written declaration to the Vatican, as his attorney advised.

The tribunal, led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, was on Guam Feb. 16-18 to get testimony from witnesses in the Apuron canonical penal trial process.

The visit drew attention from international media and groups dealing with the Catholic abuse crisis worldwide, from Rome to Washington, D.C.

While the Burke mission received testimony from other witnesses on Guam, it didn’t hear from former altar boy Roland Sondia, because the Vatican team wouldn’t allow Sondia to be accompanied by his counsel, Lujan.

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Ex-police officer accuses historical child abuse victims of LYING to win compensation

NORTHERN IRELAND
Birmingham Mail

BYJEANETTE OLDHAM
21 FEB 2017

A former West Midlands Police officer has accused victims of institutional childhood abuse of LYING to a Government inquiry to win compensation.

Labour Party activist Bernard McEldowney is due to stand for the Bromsgrove ward of Woodvale in the county council elections in May.

But the retired police inspector has sparked fury in Northern Ireland after attacking a Government inquiry looking at the institutional abuse of children, dating back decades.

Mr McEldowney claims the inquiry was ‘hijacked’ by people who lied to win compensation, including former residents of St Joseph’s Children’s Home in Londonderry – where he was a resident.

The home was one of 22 institutions investigated by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA), which looked at abuse allegations dating back decades.

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Christian Brothers legal funds ‘difficult’

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

The Christian Brothers say they review legal funding for brothers accused of child sex abuse on a case-by-case basis, despite spending more than $1.5 million on one convicted pedophile’s numerous legal cases.

A Victorian County Court judge has said he is “blown away” that the Catholic Church still funds the legal defence for Brother Robert Best, who has been convicted of sex offences against 11 boys and this week admitted abusing a further 20 schoolboys.

The Christian Brothers had spent $1.53 million defending Best by 2015, and a combined $100,000 for two other brothers who had been convicted of abuse in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese.

Province leader Brother Peter Clinch says the Christian Brothers have had a new protocol since February last year over providing legal assistance to brothers facing criminal charges directly related to their time in the order.

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Scale of sexual abuse at Marist College Canberra revealed by royal commission

AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Katie Burgess

Royal commission documents have exposed Marist College in Canberra as the most notorious Catholic school in Australia for child sexual abuse claims.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed 63 claims of child sexual abuse made against the school.

But Bravehearts ambassador Damian De Marco believed the total number of victims at Marist College Canberra would be much higher.

“The true figure at Marist would be well over 100 given the number of stories I have heard about people who will never present officially and those that have died from suicide and drugs,” Mr De Marco said.

While claims of child sexual abuse were made about 1049 separate Catholic Church institutions, the report singled out 28 institutions that had more than 20 claims of child abuse against them.

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The Catholic Church’s South Wagga parish priest Paddy Sykes has backed calls for cultural change to stop child sexual abuse | Video

AUSTRALIA
Daily Advertiser

Ken Grimson
21 Feb 2017

THE priest in charge of one of the largest parishes in the Catholic Church’s Wagga Diocese has backed calls for lasting cultural change within the faith following the release of alarming figures revealing the extent of child sex abuse within the church.

Reverend Father Paddy Sykes, South Wagga parish priest, published the statistics under the heading “grim data” in his parish newsletter last weekend.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse said between January, 1980, and February, 2015, 4444 people made allegations of child sexual abuse to 93 Catholic Church authorities in Australia.

A total of 1880 alleged perpetrators were identified, of which 32 per cent were religious brothers, 30 per cent were priests, 29 per cent were lay people and 5 per cent were religious sisters.

“As terrible as those figures are, there are probably more (victims),” Fr Sykes said.

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Bishop says he too was abused by clergy

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 21, 2017

Rebekah Ison
Australian Associated Press

The bishop of Parramatta has made an impassioned plea for the Catholic Church to become less “elitist” while revealing he was sexually abused by clergy himself.

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen was applauded during his evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday.

Survivors of sex abuse and their loved ones approached afterwards and some cried as they spoke with him.

“I was also a victim of sexual abuse by clergy when I first came to Australia, even though I was an adult,” the former refugee said towards the end of his testimony in Sydney.

“That had a powerful impact on me and how I want to … walk in the shoes of other victims and really endeavour to attain justice and dignity for them.”

Bishop Long, who is the first Australian bishop of Vietnamese background, said titles, privileges and the church’s institutional dynamics “breed clerical superiority and elitism”.

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Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long Van Nguyen tells royal commission he was abused

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

The Bishop of Parramatta, Vincent Long Van Nguyen, has told a royal commission he suffered sexual abuse by a member of the clergy after arriving in Australia as a refugee from Vietnam in 1981.

Bishop Long told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he had enormous empathy for victims.

“I was also a victim of sexual abuse by clergy when I first came to Australia, even though I was an adult,” he said.

“That had a powerful impact on me and I want to walk in the shoes of other victims and endeavour to attain justice and dignity for them.”

The bishop, 55, told the commission ordained ministers have too much power in the Catholic church and too little accountability.

The lack of women and lay people in leadership positions in the Catholic church has contributed to the high proportion of child sexual abuse allegations, Bishop Long told the inquiry.

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Regional areas ‘breeding ground’ for child sex abuse, inquiry told

AUSTRALIA
Hepburn Advocate

Melissa Cunningham
@MeljCunningham

21 Feb 2017

Regional areas were a “breeding ground” for emotionally immature Catholic clergy who easily entrenched themselves in communities and went onto sexually abuse children undetected, an inquiry heard.

In a frank admissions to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Christopher Prowse said on Tuesday an “extraordinary level of trust” was invested in priests in country communities.

When asked by Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission Gail Furness SC why regional areas were epicentres of clergy sexual abuse, Archbishop Prowse, who was bishop of Sale between 2009 and 2013, said clergy were often held in the highest esteem.

“It was a breeding ground for immature and disconnected priests to be able to move into that area, perhaps, more so numerically than in a bigger city where getting to know the priest is not as easy,” he said.

“(They) were able to really become part of the family in a way that wouldn’t have been so in a bigger city.”

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Australian bishop says he suffered sexual abuse at hands of Catholic clergy

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 21 February 2017

The Catholic bishop of Parramatta has gone public for the first time about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of clergy.

Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen talked about the abuse at a royal commission hearing in Sydney and called on the church to consider removing priests’ honorifics and giving parishioners more power.

“I was also a victim of sexual abuse by clergy when I first came to Australia, even though I was an adult,” the former refugee told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Tuesday.

“That had a powerful impact on me and how I want to … walk in the shoes of other victims and really endeavour to attain justice and dignity for them.”

Long, the first Australian bishop of Vietnamese background, was applauded throughout his testimony. Child sexual abuse survivors and their loved ones approached him afterwards. Some cried as they spoke to him.

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The imprint of false allegations pervades long after the matter

IRELAND
Irish Independent

Patricia Casey
PUBLISHED
21/02/2017

News items filled with details of sexual abuse allegations are well known to the Irish public. Throughout the 1990s our airwaves were filled with details of priests being charged with sexually abusing children under their charge as far back as the 1970s. We were horrified by these revelations, and several reports headed by judges on various diocese followed.

The possibility that there could be any false allegations was not countenanced and to have had the temerity to suggest this would have evoked public opprobrium and charges of being in denial about the reality of paedophilia.

Then there was the Fr Reynolds case. A priest on the missions was said to have raped a teenager and fathered a child on an RTÉ programme. Ultimately the allegation was false and he sued RTÉ. According to the Association of Catholic Priests, a number of their men have been falsely accused of child abuse by anonymous complainants. The gardaí have then been notified and with only the most cursory of attempts to verify the accuracy of the complaint, the priest is removed from duties and is left in an isolated state.

Removing a person accused of sexual abuse from duties is correct, provided that the possible veracity is established.

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Bishop Vincent Long tells Royal Commission he was abused

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

Posted by: Mark Bowling

PARRAMATTA Bishop Vincent Long has told the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that he was a victim of sexual abuse by clergy.

Bishop Long, who came to Australia as a refugee from Vietnam, told the commission he was abused soon after his arrival.

“I was also a victim of sexual abuse by clergy when I first came to Australia, even though I was adult,” he said.

“So, that had a powerful impact on me and how I want to walk in the shoes of other victims, and endeavour to obtain justice and dignity for them.

“We are all products of our life experiences.”

Commissioners questioned Bishop Long about whether structures had changed sufficiently to prevent further child abuse occurring.

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Bishop says power of priests needs change

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

The Catholic Church should consider getting rid of honorifics such as ‘your lordship’ and give lay people more power over parish priests, a NSW bishop says.

Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that titles, privileges and the Church’s institutional dynamics ‘breed clerical superiority and elitism’.

He said he cringes when parishioners call him ‘your lordship’ and the church needs to review mandatory celibacy, which he thinks separates the clergy from parishioners.

‘When they (faithful Catholics) come to see me, they kiss my ring,’ Bishop Long, who is the first Australian bishop of Vietnamese background, said in Sydney on Tuesday.

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Former Archbishop of Dublin Desmond Connell dies aged 90

IRELAND
The Journal

FORMER ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin Desmond Connell has died after a long illness.
He was 90.

Connell was Archbishop of Dublin from to 1988 until 2004 and Cardinal since 2001.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said that Cardinal Connell, who had been ill for some time, passed away peacefully during the night in his sleep.

His handling of clerical sexual abuse cases was widely criticised, leading to his replacement by Diarmuid Martin in 2004.

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February 20, 2017

Hobart archbishop says scale of abuse by Catholic clergy ‘difficult’ to understand

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Christopher Knaus
Monday 20 February 2017

The archbishop of Hobart said he still struggles to understand why Catholic clergy abused children on such a massive scale, and blamed the church’s response on an ignorance of “the seriousness of child sexual abuse”.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Tuesday heard evidence from a panel of archbishops and bishops, largely from Australia’s smaller Catholic dioceses.

The commissioners are seeking to understand why one in 14 Catholic clergy allegedly abused children in Australia, and are scrutinising the church’s efforts to reform its child protection.

The archbishop, Julian Porteous, was asked to give his thoughts on why the abuse crisis occurred at such a significant scale in the Catholic church. He was unable to give the royal commission a clear answer, saying he found it “very difficult” to understand.

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Ignorance led to abuse failure: Archbishop

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The Catholic Church’s failings on child sexual abuse were grounded in the “ignorance of a few”, the Archbishop of Hobart says.

Archbishop Julian Porteous agreed there had been a “massive failing” by leadership but that it was based in a lack of understanding about the issue and appropriate ways to deal with it.

“Effectively, ignorance of a few?” counsel assisting Gail Furness SC said at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Tuesday.

“Yes,” Archbishop Porteous replied.

The comments about a misunderstanding within the church angered Chrissie Foster, a mother of abuse victims.

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Public hearing into Commonwealth, State and Territory governments

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

21 February, 2017

On 14 November 2016 the Royal Commission announced a series of public hearings to be held in Sydney to inquire into the current policies and procedures relating to child protection and child safety of various institutions.

Case Study 51 inquiring into the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments will commence on 6 March 2017. The scope and purpose of the public hearing is available on the Royal Commission website.

The Royal Commission will call senior representatives of relevant departments within the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments in relation to the topics set out below.

1. The response of the Commonwealth government to the recommendations of the Child Protection Panel in its report dated 11 May 2016, ‘Making Children Safer – the wellbeing and protection of children in immigration detention and regional processing centres’.

2. The steps taken by the Department of Defence in response to commitments made during the public hearing of Case Study 40 in relation to the current systems, policies and procedures of the Australian Defence Force to prevent, raise and respond to concerns and complaints about child sexual abuse

3. The responses of the States and Territories to the Commonwealth Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, announced on 4 November 2016.

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L’ossessione di papa Francesco per lo zolfo

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

Gli abusi? Tutta colpa del diavolo, scrive il pontefice nella sua premessa al libro autobiografico della vittima di un prete pedofilo. E pare che secondo Repubblica ci sia del vero.

Non più tardi di una settimana fa ricordavo nel mio blog che secondo papa Francesco il diavolo esiste ed è persona. Questa convinzione è un punto fermo della “nuova” Chiesa di Bergoglio. Dopo aver citato il demonio ben quattro volte nei primi dieci giorni del suo pontificato, Francesco lo ha nominato con cadenza regolare nelle sue omelie. “Vedendo” il diavolo in tutti gli scandali che hanno colpito la Chiesa dall’interno, il papa gesuita gli ha attribuito la responsabilità degli affari illegali targati Ior, della pedofilia clericale, delle guerre intestine che minacciano la stabilità della Curia, delle fughe di notizie riservate sulla Santa Sede.

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Don Inzoli è stato condannato per atti di pedofilia, ma non tutti sanno cosa era successo prima.

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Don Inzoli was sentenced for acts of pedophilia and proceedings were made against him at the Vatican but then-Pope Benedict XIV stopped the proceedings.]

Inzoli non è un prete qualsiasi. E’ stato per trent’anni uomo di punta di Comunione e liberazione in Lombardia. Tra i fondatori di un’iniziativa importante come il Banco alimentare, rettore al Liceo linguistico Shakespeare di Cremona e parroco della chiesa della Santissima Trinità.

Condannato a quattro anni e nove mesi per cinque episodi di pedofilia accertati (ma sono stati molti di più). I più piccoli tra le vittime avevano tra i 12 e i 13 anni, i più grandi tra i 14 e i 16.

Si comincia col non capire perché il tribunale abbia abbassato la pena richiesta dal procuratore (sei anni) malgrado il procuratore Roberto Di Martino avesse sottolineato: “Ci sono alcuni particolari terribili ! “.

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Fanno sesso con un ragazzino minorenne. Tre arresti a Vibo Valentia, tra cui un prete e un pensionato

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Having sex with an underage boy. Three arrests in Vibo Valentia, including a priest.]

Tre uomini sono stati arrestati a Vibo Valentia per aver fatto sesso mercenario con un ragazzino di 15 anni, straniero. Cinquanta euro la cifra pagata da i tre, tra cui anche un prete e un pensionato

VIBO VALENTIA – Una squallida vicenda è salita alla ribalta della cronaca a Vibo Valentia in Calabria. Qui si è consumato del sesso mercenario ai danni di un ragazzino straniero di 15 anni. In manette sono finiti tre uomini, tra cui un prete e un pensionato.

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Vatican tribunal moves on to Hawaii

GUAM/HAWAII
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

The Vatican tribunal led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, which came to Guam last week to investigate sex abuse allegations against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, is in Hawaii to hear testimony from former Agat Parish altar boy Roy Quintanilla, according to a document The Guam Daily Post has received.

“As this tribunal has been informed of your readiness to be heard in the above-titled case regarding accusations against His Excellency, the Most Reverend Anthony Sablan Apuron, OFM Cap., at the direction of the Presiding Judge, I am forwarding to you his decree of citation by which you are called for said hearing,” Rev. Justin Wachs wrote to Quintanilla.

According to Post files, the tribunal comprises Burke who serves as the presiding judge, Rev. Robert Geisinger who serves as the prosecutor, Rev. James Conn who serves as Apuron’s advocate, and Wachs who serves as the tribunal’s notary and designated recorder.

Series of meetings

Quintanilla’s meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 20 at 10 a.m. at the Diocesan Chancery of the Diocese of Honolulu in Kaneohe, Hawaii, is the second in a series of meetings scheduled with former Guam altar boys who have accused Apuron of abuse dating back to the 1970s.

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Northern Michigan priest arrested in sexual misconduct case

MICHIGAN
Fox 47

ROGERS CITY, Mich. (AP) – A Roman Catholic priest is in jail in northern Michigan in a sexual misconduct investigation.

The Presque Isle County prosecutor says he won’t comment until after an arraignment Tuesday. But radio station WHSB says Bishop Steven Raica discussed the matter Sunday night with members of St. Ignatius Church in Rogers City.

Raica says the Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka denies the allegations. Raica says he’s “searching for the truth.” Obwaka, a native of Kenya, has been pastor at St. Ignatius since July 2013. He’s been a priest since 2010.

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Marist Brothers sorry for shameful abuse

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

One case of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church is one case too many, says the apologetic head of the Marist Brothers whose members allegedly abused hundreds of children.

Brother Peter Carroll, the provincial of the Marist Brothers in Australia, says the child sex abuse scandal has undermined confidence in the Catholic Church and the order’s education mission.

“Children and their families have been grievously betrayed by the criminal actions of some of our own, and we too, as Marists, have also been greatly let down,” Brother Carroll said.

“We are justifiably upset and offended.”

More than 20 per cent of Marist Brothers, Christian Brothers and Salesians of Don Bosco and 40 per cent of St John of God Brothers have been the subject of child sex abuse claims to the Catholic Church in Australia.

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Une procédure canonique ouverte à l’encontre de Tony Anatrella

FRANCE
La Croix

Céline Hoyeau, le 20/02/2017

Sur la base du rapport que lui a remis la commission mise en place pour étudier les témoignages accusant d’agressions sexuelles ce prêtre psychanalyste très en vue, l’archevêque de Paris a décidé de poursuivre la procédure canonique, délocalisée à Toulouse.

C’était une décision très attendue à l’encontre d’un prêtre en vue, sur lequel des soupçons pèsent depuis une quinzaine d’années. Une procédure canonique va s’ouvrir à l’encontre du P. Tony Anatrella, 75 ans, accusé d’agressions sexuelles dans le cadre de son activité professionnelle de psychanalyste, a appris La Croix.

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Priest who denied a duty to report abuse faces abuse charges

FRANCE
Crux

Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a prominent French priest and psychoanalyst who stirred controversy in 2015 when he advised newly appointed Catholic bishops that they were not obligated to report sex abuse allegations to the police, now faces a Church legal procedure for abuse charges himself.

Anatrella has strongly denied the abuse allegations, suggesting in the past that he’s become a target because of his critical views and writings on homosexuality.

The French newspaper La Croix reported Monday that based on the report of a commission created by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois of Paris to examine the charges against Anatrella, a canonical procedure has been opened by the Diocese of Toulouse.

Although suspicions about Anatrella are said to date back at least 15 years, they did not become a matter of public controversy until 2016, when alleged victims aired their allegations in the French media. At the time, Vingt-Trois encouraged those alleged victims to file complaints with the proper legal authorities.

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Christian Brother paedophile Robert Best’s hypocrisy was ‘gobsmacking’, judge says

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Monday 20 February 2017

The hypocrisy of the notorious paedophile and Christian Brother Robert Best was “breathtaking and gobsmacking”, exacerbated by his religious affiliation, a judge has said while telling the 76-year-old it was likely he would die in jail.

Victorian county court judge Geoffrey Chettle told Best it was hard not get angry about his abuse, and said he was “blown away” by the fact that his legal fees were still being paid by the Catholic church.

Best pleaded guilty to a further 24 counts of indecent assault on boys aged between eight and 11 years. He molested them between 1968 and 1988 while teaching at St Alipius primary school in Ballarat, St Leo’s college in Box Hill and St Joseph’s college, Geelong.

He is already serving 14 years and nine months jail for sex offences against 11 boys over a 20-year period.

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Bathurst St Stanislaus’ College set for apology to student victims of paedophile priest

AUSTRALIA
Busselton Mail

20 Feb 2017

VICTIMS of historic sexual abuse at Bathurst’s St Stanislaus’ College will receive a formal public apology on June 16.

Head of College Dr Anne Wenham announced the date for the apology following the sentencing of disgraced former priest Brian Spillane in the District Court last Thursday.

In a letter to the school community, Dr Wenham said details of Spillane’s crimes had been distressing to read and she was deeply sorry for what his young victims had experienced during their time as students at the college.

Dr Wenham said the college and Oceania Province of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) agreed a formal apology to victims was important.

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Mother and Baby Homes commission spent €21k on carpet

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, February 20, 2017

Conall Ó Fátharta

More than €20,000 was spent on carpet for the office of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA).

The details are contained in the purchase orders for €20,000 or above made by the DCYA in the first three months of 2015.

The department paid out €21,948 to Carpet Express Ltd to provide carpet for the Mother and Baby Homes Commission on Lower Baggot St in Dublin.

It spent a further €45,928 on the “supply, delivery, and installation of office furniture” for the Commission.

Another €26,575 was spent on the “supply, delivery, and installation of drawer safes” at the offices of the inquiry, while €42,657 went on the “purchase, installation, and configuration of unified communications system”.

This spend also included wifi.

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New Catholic standards body to crack down on clergy: Royal Commission

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Rachel Browne

A newly established national oversight body for the Catholic church will have the power to publicly name dioceses or religious orders which fail to meet its robust standards, a royal commission has heard.

The inquiry was told the new body, Catholic Professional Standards (CPS) Ltd, will also give bishops the authority to penalise priests who do not to comply with the new benchmarks.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that the body, formed late last year, would set, enforce and audit new standards on the protection of children and vulnerable people.

Neville Owen, the chairman of the Catholic church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, told the hearing CPS would publicly name the dioceses and orders which failed to comply.

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Company to hold Catholic groups to account

AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Catholic priests could face serious penalties if they don’t meet the mark set by a new professional standards body which will publicly name non-compliant dioceses and orders.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday heard Catholic Professional Standards Limited would audit the church’s authorities, with a view to holding them to account by publishing reports online.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge thinks bishops should consider entering formal arrangements with priests so they could be stood aside or have their faculties removed if they repeatedly flout the new standards.

“These are serious sanctions – to stand a man aside or to remove his faculties – but given the seriousness of what we are discussing, they are measures that I would consider,” he said on Monday.

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Submissions on records and recordkeeping published

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

20 February, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published more than 40 submissions on Records and Recordkeeping Practices in relation to child sexual abuse in institutions.

The submissions received came from a wide range of government and non-government organisations including state governments, not-for-profit organisations, advocacy groups, professional bodies, research groups, religious organisations, academics and individuals.

They are based on a consultation paper released in September last year titled Records and Recordkeeping Practices.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the submissions contribute significantly to the Royal Commission’s knowledge and understanding on institutional recordkeeping practices and how these practices could be improved for children in the future.

“The Royal Commission has heard from countless survivors about their painful experiences with poor records and recordkeeping practices in institutions. Many have told us that they had difficulty accessing records, including those who were unable to find records about themselves,” Mr Reed said.

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Women also sexually abuse children, but their reasons often differ from men’s

AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Xanthe Mallett
Forensic Criminologist, University of New England

Data from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recently revealed that, between 1950 and 2010, 60% of all abuse allegedly took place at faith-based institutions. Evidence showed that, in Catholic institutions, 95% of alleged offenders were men. This means the remaining 5% (or 96 of the 1,880 accused) were women.

This may come as a surprise. There is a common misconception that all child sex offenders are men. But women child sex offenders do exist, although they differ from male counterparts in several ways.

How many women abuse?

A study for the Home Office in the UK in 1998 indicated less than 5% of child sex offences were committed by women. This is supported by data coming out of the Royal Commission – that 5% of the alleged abusers associated with the Catholic Church were religious sisters – as well as research based on correctional services data in Australia.

The author of the UK report acknowledged the number may be lower than the reality. A 2015 study looked at virtually every substantiated child sexual abuse case reported to child protective services in the United States in 2010. It concluded more than 20% of child sexual abuse cases reviewed involved a primary female perpetrator – so estimates vary significantly.

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Catholic Church funding defence of paedophile Robert Best ‘just blows me away’, Victorian judge says

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By James Hancock

The Catholic Church is continuing to cover the legal bills of convicted paedophile and Christian Brother Robert Best, who has admitted to sexually abusing a further 20 boys in his care, a Victorian court has been told.

Best, 76, admitted on Monday to 24 charges of indecent assault against the boys, mostly aged between eight and 11 years old.

The County Court heard the abuse took place between 1968 and 1988 while Brother Best was a principal, teacher and year level co-ordinator at four schools: St Alipius at Ballarat, St Leo’s at Box Hill, St Joseph’s at Geelong and St Bernard’s at Essendon.

Best was sentenced to 14 years and nine months jail in 2011 for sexual crimes against 11 boys during the same period.

His latest guilty pleas take the total number of victims to 31.

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The Catholic Church has a formal diplomatic relationship with Australia, but there are calls for that to end

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

David Shoebridge
20 Feb 2017

Australia allows the Catholic Church to protect sexual predators, and any information the church holds on its own illegal activity, from the law. We let it do this by granting protections afforded to no other religious group. It is time this ended.

In 1973 the Australian government granted the Vatican (called the Holy See in official channels) formal diplomatic recognition. This protected the Vatican, and gave its senior officials and head office in Australia the same protection we afford embassies and staff of foreign nations. Their documents cannot be subpoenaed and their senior officials cannot be forced to attend court or provide information.

By accepting the Vatican has foreign nation status, we also accept that it can refuse any Australian request or demand to hand over alleged criminals to stand trial in Australia. The only way criminals in a foreign country can be forced to stand trial in Australia is if we have an extradition treaty with that country.

Australia has an extradition treaty with Italy, but hasn’t managed in 44 years to get one in place with the tiny pretend nation-state of the Vatican that exists wholly within Rome. This is why George Pell can’t be forced back to face questioning at the Royal Commission and why, if a senior Vatican official in Rome was accused of child abuse, he could not be forced to face a criminal trial in our country.

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Founder steps down while SNAP considers new directions

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Feb. 20, 2017

In a matter of weeks, an extreme makeover changed the face of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Gone is David Clohessy, its national director and the relentless force behind the group’s advocacy efforts.

Gone is Barbara Blaine, its president and the former Catholic Worker who founded the support network in 1988, in part through a phone call to the Phil Donahue Show.

What remains, SNAP says, is its wide network of volunteer leaders who perform “the vast majority” of its work outside public view, as well as its longstanding commitment to survivors of sexual abuse.

“I think our core mission has always been to help those who have been hurt and protect the vulnerable,” said Barbara Dorris, now SNAP managing director after 12 years as its outreach director. “We are still doing both and will continue to do both and maybe in kind of different ways.”

The change in personnel didn’t so much spark an examination of SNAP’s future so much as it fueled already ongoing conversations of what the highest-profile advocacy group against clerical sexual abuse of children, with 20,000-plus members, will look like in the future, who and how it will serve, and even what it might call itself.

“I think any organization has to change and grow to remain viable, to remain healthy,” Dorris said.

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S. Jersey Christian preschool teacher’s aide suspended over allegations of sex abuse

NEW JERSEY
Philly.com

by Julie Shaw , Staff writer @julieshawphilly | shawj@phillynews.com

A teacher’s aide at a South Jersey Christian preschool has been accused in a lawsuit with sexually abusing four children under his care.

The aide was recently suspended from the reJOYce Christian School in Hainesport, Burlington County, and a criminal investigation is underway by the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, according to lawyer Brian Kent, who filed the lawsuit.

The preschool is part of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The newspaper is not naming the teacher’s aide because he has not been criminally charged.

His suspension was first reported by FOX 29 on Thursday.

Joel Bewley, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, said in an email Friday: “Our office does not divulge the possible existence of a criminal investigation into a specific person or entity.” He added that there “are no present charges against” the teacher’s aide.

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Victims call for support review

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

Melissa Cunningham
@MeljCunningham

19 Feb 2017

CLERGY sexual abuse survivors from the Ballarat diocese say a new model of victim support is needed because past systems of compensation have monumentally failed.

Survivor Peter Blenkiron has again implored the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse and the federal government to mimic the support for soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr Blenkiron and survivor Andrew Collins have previously called for victims who have ongoing health issues to receive a health care card, as well as a pension of $252 a week extra, bringing them in line with war veterans.

The Catholic church says its system that has paid $276 million in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children is still not fair to victims. There are discrepancies in the average amount authorities pay – from as little as $22,000 to as much as $901,000.

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