ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Crookston Times

Hoeppner is first bishop to be sued for coercion, case dates back to 1971

By Times Report

The former Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston, Father Roger Grundhaus, is being accused of child sexual abuse and Minnesota Bishop Michael Hoeppner is the first bishop to be sued for coercion for suppressing a report of abuse, according to a media advisory by Jeff Anderson and Associates attorney’s office.

At a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest announced the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor, Ronald Vasek, naming Bishop Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston as defendants.

This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

According to the release, in 2010, Vasek, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus in approximately 1971 to Bishop Hoeppner. Hoeppner advised the survivor to tell no one of the sexual abuse. In 2015, the Diocese of Crookston was court ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse. However, Fr. Grundhaus was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

By Dr. Michael J. Salamon

A few weeks ago, in an early morning action, Israeli police arrested 22 haredi men for the alleged sexual abuse of minors and adult women. These men came from four cities in Israel and, until their arrest, had allegedly been investigated, tried, and treated within their own communities – not by proper governmental authorities.

This internal communal method, where a local rabbi or bet din determines how to best handle specific abusers and control sexual offenders, has been an open secret for years. And while community members may have thought the process worked, I can assure you it never really did.

I learned several years ago that in at least one haredi community, sexual predators who were caught by local “modesty squads” had to submit to an ongoing course of chemical castration if they wanted to remain in their neighborhoods.

While I might privately agree that castration, chemical or otherwise, may seem deserved (albeit barbaric), this approach, in which vigilante-style justice is meted out, creates a series of problems for the larger society.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – A man who claims he was sexually abused by a Minnesota priest in 1971 is filing a lawsuit against Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document stating the abuse never happened. St. Paul, Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson says this the first time a bishop has been sued for coercion in the United States.

According to the civil complaint filed in Polk County, Minnesota, Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the alleged abuse to Bishop Hoeppner.

According to court documents, Vasek told Bishop Hoeppner that Fr. Roger Grundhaus had sexually abused him in Columbus, Ohio when he was 16 years old. Hoeppner allegedly asked Vasek “how he was going to proceed with the accusation” and whether he intended to formally report the abuse or press charges, adding that “it would be detrimental to Msgr. Grundhaus and his reputation in the Diocese if the accusations were made public.”

Vasek claims the bishop recommended he keep quiet, and that his future as a deacon and his son’s future as a priest in the Diocese of Crookston would be in jeopardy if he went public with his allegations.

Bishop Hoeppner allegedly gave Vasek a letter authored by Msgr. Michael Foltz, Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston, which “essentially retracted” his statements regarding the sexual abuse involving Grundhaus and “indicated that the abuse in Ohio never happened.”

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The plaintiff is only identified by the initials C.C. and is represented by Attorney David Lujan.
Guam – A 60th lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta is named as the perpetrator.

This is not the first time that Father Mannetta has been named, he was previously named in two other lawsuits that were filed in April. Like the first two victims to accuse Father Mannetta, the 60th plaintiff to file suit is only identified by initials C.C.

According to the complaint, the sexual abuse happened in the early 1980s when C.C. was between the ages of 8 to 10 years old. The now 40-year-old man says Father Mannetta sexually assaulted him during sleepovers at the Santa Teresita church rectory even as Mannetta cried through it.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post May 10, 2017

A third victim has come forward alleging he was sexually abused by former Guam priest, Andrew Mannetta, for two years while he served as an altar boy at the Mangilao parish in 1983.

An individual, using the initials “C.C.” to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against Mannetta and the Archdiocese of Agana.

C.C., who is now 43, alleges that the abuse began when he was 8 years old.

Mannetta was the priest at the Mangilao church at the time and allegedly required C.C. and other altar boys to sleep at the rectory to help prepare for early morning masses.

The lawsuits states Mannetta sexually molested and abused C.C. on one sleepover. Mannetta told him, “Big boys don’t cry.” The victim alleges he awoke later that same night to find Mannetta touching him, again causing him to cry.

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UNITED STATES
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

A Conversation with Brian McLaren

To draw attention to the ever-present and devastating reality of clergy sexual abuse and to provide resources for churches, lay members, and ministers, the Clergy Sexual Misconduct Task Force formed jointly by Baptist Women in Ministry and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will sponsor an ongoing blog series featuring informational articles, helpful sermons, and relevant materials.

Several years ago, I made a presentation on ministerial boundary issues and sexual misconduct. Following the presentation, Sally Johnson* (not her real name) asked to speak with me privately. We went to a quiet spot, and she disclosed to me an alleged incident of inappropriate ministerial boundary crossing. Sally has given permission for me to relate the following information from that conversation and subsequent ones relative to her alleged abuse.

Sally told me that our conversation was the first time she recalled having spoken of the incident since its occurrence back in 1974. As she told me her story, the memories pained Sally deeply. She spoke very softly, with obvious anxiety, and with tears. Because I had known Sally for fifteen years and because of her demeanor in this conversation, I found her story very believable. She did not identify the pastor who had abused her, and I did not ask. I told her that if she wished to disclose his identity either to me or especially to her current pastor, it might be helpful in case others came forward and named the same perpetrator. Sally told me that she would give it some thought. But feeling better already for having shared the story with me, Sally said she felt no particular need to have anything else done about it for her own sake.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Lanai Scarr, Senior Writer, News Corp Australia Network
May 9, 2017

COMMONWEALTH child sex abuse survivors will get access to payments of up to $150,000 under a new redress scheme to be live by mid next year.

The Turnbull government tonight announced a $33.4 million commitment to establish the scheme that would provide abuse survivors with counselling, apologies from the organisation responsible and financial compensation.

The funding will be used to establish IT services, an online presence and a direct hotline for victims to inquire about how they can apply for payments.

“The Turnbull government has listened to survivors and accepts the recommendation of (the Royal Commission) that each jurisdiction and all individual institutions must make amends and take responsibility for wrongdoing,” a statement from Social Services Minister Christian Porter said.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Joe Lipovich (Patch Staff) – May 9, 2017

DANBURY, CT — A former priest of the St. Anthony Maronite Church in Danbury has been removed from his post amid a “substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor while working in Danbury, reports Maine’s The Morning Sentinel. Rev. Larry Jensen “can not represent himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, NY, told the newspaper Monday morning after an allegation of sexual abuse was “substantiated.”

Thomas also told the paper the alleged abuse victim was a male, close to the age of 18 but not yet 18. Thomas also told the newspaper that when he confronted Jensen, “he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it.”

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MINNESOTA
Post Bulletin

Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com May 9, 2017

ST. PAUL — A former vicar general for the Diocese of Winona is expected to be named today as a defendant in a lawsuit that alleges he suppressed a report of child sexual abuse.

Michael Joseph Hoeppner, 67, now the Bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, is the first bishop in the United States to be individually sued for coercion, said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who’s represented hundreds of survivors of clergy abuse.

Hoeppner was vicar general at Winona from about 1998 until being named bishop at Crookston in 2007, church records show.

The survivor, who was participating in a program to become a deacon in the Catholic Church, allegedly told Hoeppner in 2010 that he’d been sexually assaulted in about 1971 by Roger Grundhaus, who was vicar general at the diocese at the time.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Melissa Colorado, KARE May 09, 2017

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – A Saint Paul attorney who specializes in defending victims of clergy sex abuse is set to file a lawsuit against a current bishop for threatening a clergy sex abuse victim to remain silent about his abuse.

According to Attorney Jeff Anderson, this is the first time that a U.S. bishop has sued for coercion.

Anderson is expected to a hold press conference in Saint Paul on Tuesday morning, during which the abuse survivor will go before cameras and identify the bishop.

According to a press release released by Anderson’s law firm, the plaintiff wanted to become a church Deacon and reported his account of abuse to the bishop.

The bishop then allegedly advised the survivor to tell no one of the abuse or face retaliation for breaking his silence.

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CONNECTICUT
Associated Press

By DAVE COLLINS

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A rabbi accused of repeatedly raping and molesting a teenage boy has been ordered to testify at a civil trial after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition.

Jury selection for Rabbi Daniel Greer’s trial in federal court in Hartford is scheduled to start Wednesday. Jurors could begin hearing evidence later in the day or Thursday.

Greer, 76, remains the principal at the Yeshiva of New Haven school. A former student at the Jewish boarding school, Eliyahu “Eli” Mirlis, now 29, is suing Greer and the school on allegations of sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress and other claims.

Mirlis, who attended the school from 2001 to 2005, also alleges in the lawsuit that Greer sexually abused at least one other male student. The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege sexual assault, but Mirlis wanted to come forward, his lawyer said.

Greer has denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged. New Haven police say they’re looking into a sexual assault complaint filed by Mirlis’ lawyer, Antonio Ponvert III.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

A man who says he was abused by a priest 46 years ago is suing Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document saying the abuse never happened.

The lawsuit says Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the abuse to Hoeppner. He says the bishop advised him not to tell anyone. It also alleges Hoeppner suppressed his report by threatening to make it hard for him to become a deacon, and threatening Vasek’s son’s career as a priest.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says it’s the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued individually for coercion.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

Fr Liam Kelleher

WHO can protect our Christian ethos?

I write this at the end of April, exactly a year to the day since my brother, Denis, passed to his eternal reward at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

I had visited him there on a number of occasions for the previous six weeks.

In the light of the controversy surrounding the hospital on the recent announcement that it would be the site of the new National Maternity Hospital, I would like to make a few observations.

First of all, regarding my visits to the hospital a year ago, I must say I was not impressed by it, and my sister, who is a nurse, was of the same opinion.

On one occasion during my visit, my brother’s wife, a member of the medical profession herself, picked up his chart to have a look at it and received what I consider was an unwarranted tirade of abuse by a member of the staff.

To her credit, she stood her ground and demanded that she had a right to know what was going on, simply saying “he is my husband”.

My sister, Maureen, who succumbed to the dreaded disease of cancer 12 years ago, was a member of the order of the Daughters of Charity and a member of the National nursing board. She did her general nursing there before going on to do a tutor’s degree in Scotland and becoming head tutor at Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 10, 2017

VICTORIA LAURIE
ReporterPerth

Decades of alleged abuse at Aboriginal missions and children’s homes in Western Australia could now find their way into the courts, after charges were laid against a former teacher and a Catholic priest who worked at Wandering Mission, in remote forest east of Perth, more than 50 years ago.

The charges are some of the first against Aboriginal mission workers to arise directly from the Royal Commission into Instit­utional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which received hundreds of submissions from Aboriginal adults alleging abuse as children in WA institutions.

Yesterday a former teacher, who is now 82, was charged by WA Child Abuse Squad detectives with four counts of indecent dealings with a child under 13 years and three counts of unlawful and indece­nt assault on a female.

A Catholic priest who is now 78 was arrested in Melbourne and charged with sexually abusing four girls aged between eight and 15 years at the time.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

A former priest is to be sentenced next week for raping and sexual assaulting a young boy whom he paid to do his gardening.

The 64-year-old man, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of the victim, had denied two counts of rape and four of sexually assaulting the boy in Co Wicklow between January 2005 and September 2006.

The accused, who has since been defrocked, was found guilty by a jury and faces sentencing next Monday at the Central Criminal Court .

The court heard that the victim was aged around 13 at the time of the offences and had, from an early age, shown an interest in horticulture and animal husbandry.

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CONNECTICUT
News Times

By Jim Shay
Tuesday, May 9, 2017

DANBURY – A Roman Catholic priest in Maine – who served at Danbury’s St. Anthony Maronite Church for eight years – has been removed following allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.

The allegations say the sex abuse of the minor happened 15 years ago while the Rev. Larry Jensen served at St. Anthony Maronite Church in Danbury.

The Morning Sentinel of Maine reported that Jensen, 62, was removed amid a “substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

“He has been permanently relieved of priestly ministry and he can not present himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, New York, told the The Morning Sentinel on Monday.

Thomas said the alleged abuse victim, a male, “was close to 18, but not 18” when the alleged abuse occurred at the time Jensen was a priest at St. Anthony Maronite.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Detective Joe Walsh wasn’t buying the BS that Danny Gallagher was peddling.

Back in March 2012, Walsh was prepping Danny Gallagher, AKA “Billy Doe,” for his role as the D.A.’s star witness in the child endangerment case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, scheduled to go to trial in just a few weeks. Walsh was quizzing the former altar boy about his claim that he was high on drugs when he told two social workers “graphic details” about violent rapes and beatings he supposedly suffered at the hands of two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

But Walsh had interviewed Gallagher’s father, a Philadelphia police sergeant, who said his son wasn’t high on drugs the morning he talked to the two social workers. Because just a few minutes earlier, the father had driven his sober son home from the drug clinic. Danny Gallagher had also told many of those same graphic details the day before to his drug counselor, who told Walsh that Gallagher wasn’t high when he made those same accusations.

“I asked” Gallagher about “all those graphic details,” Walsh wrote in a blockbuster, 12-page affidavit filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Those graphic details included allegations of brutal anal rapes, death threats, getting tied up naked with altar sashes, strangled with a seatbelt and being beaten by his assailants.

In his affidavit, Walsh said he asked the D.A.’s star witness: “Did he just make all that up?” According to the detective, that’s when Gallagher admitted, “He just made up stuff and told them anything.”

The startled detective asked a follow-up question.

“So I asked him did he lie about what happened when he told [the drug counselor] and the two women about what he said occurred,” Walsh wrote. “He said yeah I guess so,” Walsh quoted Gallagher as saying.

“I asked him if he was lying about anything else and he would not answer me,” Walsh wrote. “He just sat there and did not answer me.”

But Walsh came to his own conclusions about the truth of Danny Gallagher’s allegations of abuse. In his affidavit, Walsh states three different times that he concluded that Gallagher wasn’t telling the truth when he claimed he was raped in separate attacks by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune MAY 9, 2017

Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner threatened to retaliate against a man who told him that a former top official in a Catholic diocese had sexually molested him as a child, according to a lawsuit filed in a Minnesota district court.

It marks the first time in the nation that an individual U.S. bishop has been directly accused in a clergy abuse lawsuit, said attorney Jeff Anderson, who is holding a news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The lawsuit also claims that the bishop failed to release the sex abuse allegation against the Rev. Roger Grundhaus as required by a 2015 court order.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues, ” said Anderson. “This is another Catholic bishop who made a conscious choice to conceal a crime and then commit coercion to keep a secret.”

More than 500 claims of sex abuse by Minnesota clergy have been made in the past four years, most through a three-year law that allowed older civil cases to be filed. Catholic leaders across the state have stated that the abuse scandal is in the past, and that reforms have been made.

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MINNESOTA
Associated Press

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man who says he was abused by a priest 46 years ago is suing Bishop Michael Hoeppner (HEP’-ner) and the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document saying the abuse never happened.

The lawsuit says Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the abuse to Hoeppner. He says the bishop advised him not to tell anyone. It also alleges Hoeppner suppressed his report by threatening to make it hard for him to become a deacon, and threatening Vasek’s son’s career as a priest.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says it’s the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued individually for coercion.

The diocese’s vicar general, Monsignor Michael Foltz, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Vasek Summons and Complaint
Doe 19- Order to Compel Discovery Diocese of Crookston Filed 08-13-2015
Oath of Fidelity
Vasek Timeline

First Bishop in the United States Sued for Coercion

In 2015, Minnesota Bishop Michael Hoeppner Suppressed Report of Child Sexual Abuse

Survivor to speak publicly for the first time today about abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus,
former Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston

Bishop Hoeppner threatened harm to survivor’s vocation and his son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report

(St. Paul, MN) – At a news conference on today in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child sexual abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest will announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor naming Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston as defendants. This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues unabated,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. “This is another Catholic bishop who made a conscious choice to conceal a crime and then commit coercion to keep a secret.”

In 2010, the survivor, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus in approximately 1971 to Bishop Hoeppner. Hoeppner advised the survivor to tell no one of the sexual abuse. In 2015, the Diocese of Crookston was court ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse. However, Fr. Grundhaus was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure. After the court order was issued, the bishop actively suppressed the survivor’s abuse report by threatening harm to his vocation as a deacon and his son’s career as a priest in the Diocese of Crookston, and coercing the survivor into signing a document stating the sexual abuse never happened.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St., Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

* The press event will be live-streamed from our website at www.andersonadvocates.com and will be streamed via Facebook Live from our Facebook account Jeff Anderson & Associates.

*The Complaint and other information will be posted to our website this morning under “News & Events.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665, Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531, Office: 651.227.9990

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By TU Editorial Board on May 8, 2017

Our opinion: The state Senate’s Republican majority is effectively enabling child sexual predators when it refuses to extend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil action.

It wouldn’t be a legislative session without at least one news release boasting of what New York’s Republican Senate majority is doing to crack down on sex crimes. What should concern New Yorkers, though, is what the majority is trying to tamp down.

The Senate’s latest crusade is a bill that would bar low-level sex offenders from driving for ride-hailing companies, like Uber and Lyft. Yet behind the scenes, the GOP majority is doing its best to block even a vote on a different type of sex crime legislation — a bill to extend the statute of limitations on prosecution and lawsuits involving child sexual assault.

The ride-hailing bill would modify the just-approved law that allows outfits like Uber to operate in the state. The original bill prohibited Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders from driving for those companies. The new measure would add to the list Level 1 offenders — those considered to have a low likelihood of committing sex crimes again.

As potential crime goes, this is pretty minimal. The Senate is focusing on relatively low-risk individuals who would be constantly monitored on the job by technology that would record the driver, the fare, and the pickup and drop-off locations and times, making it unlikely anybody could get away with a crime.

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ARGENTINIEN
Katholisch

[In Argentina, an indictment moves the nation: A nun is accused of aiding abuse of children in a school for the deaf.]

In Argentinien ist eine Ordensschwester festgenommen worden, die jahrelang an sexuellem Missbrauch in einem Behindertenheim beteiligt gewesen sein soll. Die 42-jährige Nonne hatte sich der Polizei in Buenos Aires am vergangenen Dienstag gestellt, berichtete die argentinische Tageszeitung “Clarín”. Die Argentinierin mit japanischen Wurzeln war zuvor seit mehr als einem Monat mit internationalem Haftbefehl gesucht worden.

Mehrere Bewohner eines kirchlichen Heims für taubstumme Kinder in der Kleinstadt Luján de Cuyo im Westen Argentiniens werfen der Ordensfrau vor, in den Jahren zwischen 2007 und 2013 Kinder für den Missbrauch durch eine Gruppe von Priestern und Mitarbeitern der Einrichtung ausgesucht zu haben. Bei einer ersten Befragung vor Gericht wies die Angeklagte die Anschuldigungen zurück: “Ich bin unschuldig und wusste nichts von den Missbrauchsfällen. Ich bin eine gute Person, die ihr Leben Gott geweiht hat.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Ararat Advertiser

Breanna Chillingworth
@breannachill

9 May 2017

AN EX-priest accused of molesting young boys in the New England has been granted bail amid reports detectives have received another complaint.

Since The Leader revealed David Joseph Perrett’s extradition to NSW on Friday, police have been contacted by other members of the public looking to speak to investigators.

New England Detective Inspector Ann Joy told The Leader investigations were continuing.

“We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police,” she said.

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ARGENTINA
Nigeria Today

A Roman Catholic nun stands accused of helping five priests sexually abuse deaf children.

Kosaka Kumiko, 42, allegedly helped the priests cover up anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex at the institution for deaf students in Argentina.

The abuse allegedly took place in the bathrooms, dorms, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

Authorities began investigating Kumiko when a former student claimed she made her wear a nappy to cover up bleeding after she was raped.

At least 24 children have come forward to report abuse at the school.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Ben Botkin Review-Journal Capital Bureau
May 8, 2017

CARSON CITY — Victims of child sexual abuse may get another decade to decide if they will sue an attacker.

The clock would start after a victim turns 18 or discovers as an adult, through counseling or other means, that they were abused. Assembly Bill 145 would extend the statute of limitations for civil suits from 10 years to 20 years from the later date.

Supporters say the measure is needed because children need more time to understand and grasp the crime committed against them.

“Victims deserve to have justice and closure,” Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner, R-Reno, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

The bill has bipartisan support, with Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Irene Bustamante Adams, D-Las Vegas, co-sponsoring it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newham Recorder

A pastor who admitted making and possessing indecent images of children has been jailed.

Daniel Erickson-Hull, of Prince Regent Lane, Plaistow, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.

The 41-year-old, also known as Pastor D, was a preacher at the Higher Ground United Reformed Church in Chigwell.

He had pleaded guilty to one charge of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph, and one count of possessing an indecent photograph, at an earlier hearing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Tom Wills, Louis Goddard, Times Data Team
May 9 2017
The Times

A child abuse charity has called for police to be given more resources to tackle indecent web images, after The Times exposed an online paedophile network with up to 10,000 British members.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said that the Freedom Hosting II network was likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”.

The network operated on a clandestine part of the internet designed to frustrate attempts by the authorities to identify website users and operators. It hosted at least a dozen forums where users exchanged images of abuse and was free to operate for almost two years before being shut down by hackers.

“Police should be given far more resources to smash these corrupt, evil groups of people and the people who facilitate this disgusting trade,” Mr Saunders said. He added that an obsession with targets within the police was preventing forces from dedicating time to complex child abuse investigations.

Paedophiles accessed the network using Tor, a system that anonymises internet browsing. Paradise Village, the largest of a dozen forums on the server, hosted more than 80,000 users. Details of the network came to light after hackers leaked its databases.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Olivia Kelly

Dublin City Council has recommended that the new National Maternity Hospital be placed under the control of the State, if it secures planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.

The Health Service Executive in March applied to An Bord Pleanála for the €300 million move of the hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s Hospital, following the resolution of an 18-month dispute between the two hospitals over governance of the new facility.

However, the announcement the following month that sole ownership of the hospital would be given to a healthcare group owned by the Sisters of Charity sparked public protest, and resignations from the Holles Street hospital board and the project board planning the move.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the new hospital will have full clinical independence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Herald

By Carl_Eve
May 09, 2017

A landmark inquiry into child sexual abuse is in Plymouth today to listen to organisations supporting victims and survivors.

Groups like the Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services, Intercom Trust and North Devon Against Domestic Abuse will hear from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) about its Truth Project.

The Truth Project has been hearing from victims and survivors around the country for over 18 months, and opened in the south west in February. So far, more than 700 victims and survivors have come forward.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Political Correspondent

Health Minister Simon Harris is due to meet the boards of St Vincent’s Hospital and Holles Street over the national maternity hospital standoff this week amid ongoing public anger over the location of the facility.

He said the voices of those who protested over the issue on Sunday have been heard and ownership of the hospital is “on the table”.

Speaking to reporters at an organ donation launch in Dublin, Mr Harris said he understands the anger of almost 2,000 people who protested in the capital at the weekend calling for the Sisters of Charity to have no role in the new hospital and to gift the site to the State.

Saying he has “heard the people very clearly”, Mr Harris said it is understandable the public wants ownership of the new facility and that the issue will be raised at meetings with the two hospitals’ boards this week.

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MAINE
WABI

MAY 8, 2017
BRIAN SULLIVAN

A Waterville based priest has been removed from his post after accusations of sexual abuse of a minor.

A church official from New York told the Morning Sentinel the Rev. Larry Jensen was permanently removed from the ministry because of the claim he abused a child more than a decade ago in Connecticut.

That official says the church became aware of the allegation last week.

The Jensen, 62, had served for the last decade at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The scene of the crime, they say, was Ontario, Canada.

It was 1968.

A Philadelphia area teen and his parish priest had taken a camping trip. It’s claimed it was anything but innocent.

And 49 years later, Paul Eberz, of Freehold, New Jersey, has come out from the shadows to talk about the sexual abuse he says he endured in Canada.

“The priest, he’s a bad guy,” Eberz said.

The priest he’s referring to is Father John Mulholland. Eberz, at 18, says Mulholland sexually abused him on that trip north across the border. Paul knew “Father John” from his parish, St. Joseph Church in Warrington.

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CALIFORNIA
KALW

By JAKE J. SMITH

When Miguel Prats revs the engine of his Harley Davidson, it might sound angry to some — but not to him.

“When I’m on this bike, I literally feel surrounded by angels,” he says. “You can be frustrated, you can be anything. You get on this and go for a ride, and it just goes away.”

Today, Prats has a wide-eyed, happy-go-lucky demeanor. But he says 15 years ago, he was angry and tortured inside. In 2002, when the Boston Globe uncovered widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the story brought back a memory that Prats says he had repressed: shortly after he turned 18, he himself had been sexually abused by a priest.

When this memory came flooding back, Prats felt furious and alone. He went on the internet looking for someone to talk to. What he found was a group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). SNAP had helped the Globe uncover the abuse scandal. You may remember them from the film Spotlight.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted May 08, 2017

WATERVILLE, Maine — A priest at a Waterville church was removed from the priesthood Sunday after a report of sexual abuse of a minor about 15 years ago in Connecticut was substantiated, according to a church official.

The Rev. Larry Jensen, 62, was removed from the St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church, by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, head of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, New York, the official said.

Jensen may never again conduct Mass in public or present himself as a priest, but will take early retirement and receive a portion of his retirement benefits, Michael Thomas, vicar general of the church, said Monday in a telephone interview. Jensen had been pastor since July 2006, according to information posted on the church’s website.

The bishop announced Jensen’s removal at weekend Masses.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Patrick W. Quigley was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 1981. He was assigned to a Staten Island parish for six years, followed by a brief stint at Staten Island’s St. Joseph by the Sea High School, after which there is an unexplained two-year assignment gap. In 1990 he resurfaced as an assistant at a Manhattan parish and, in 1993, he was transferred to Stony Point.

In September 1994 Quigley was arrested for soliciting teenage boys for sex in Haverstraw, New York. He pled guilty in December 1994 and was sentenced to probation. The archdiocese sent him to Maryland for treatment of “alcoholism.” His status thereafter was ‘Absent on Leave’, and he was laicized in 2005.

Quigley was last known to have been living in Brick, New Jersey. He died in 2010.

Ordained: 1981
Laicized: 2005
Died: April 4, 2010

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com
MAY 8, 2017

Just over a year ago in a Hollidaysburg courtroom, Corey Leech took the stand and, in a poised and confident voice, testified in excruciating detail how a Franciscan friar began sexually abusing him from his early teens.

Mr. Leech gave voice to scores of victims of the late Stephen Baker in his testimony, which took place in the pretrial hearing of three Franciscan supervisors who face criminal charges for allegedly failing to protect children from the abusive friar.

Mr. Leech told of Baker abusing him on the athletic training table at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown. He spoke of the friar abusing him on car trips and at his monastery.

“He wanted to prevent other children from living his nightmare,” Mr. Leech’s family wrote in his obituary. “While he did more than his share to help others, it was too late for Corey. His nightmare was inescapable.”

Mr. Leech, 31, was found dead on Friday in his apartment in Richland Township near Johnstown in Cambria County. He had struggled with substance abuse, according to his obituary.

Mr. Leech’s family and supporters recall him as someone long concerned for child welfare. He was a nurse in a neo-natal intensive care unit in Johnstown, recalled for his gentle manner both with at-risk infants and their families.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Paul Walsh Star Tribune MAY 8, 2017

A Twin Cities law firm intends to file a lawsuit Monday against a current Minnesota bishop and a Roman Catholic diocese in the state alleging that a survivor of clergy sex abuse was threatened with retaliation if he revealed how he was assaulted as a child.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who for many years has pursued many legal cases in connection with clergy sex abuse in Minnesota and elsewhere, said this is the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued for coercion.

At a news conference scheduled for Tuesday at Anderson’s offices, the abuse survivor and a priest from the diocese will speak publicly for the first time about “how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse,” a statement from Anderson’s law firm read.

The bishop “threatened harm to [the] survivor’s vocation” and the “survivor’s son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report,” the statement continued.

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ROME
JTA

[with video]

ROME (JTA) – Pope Francis danced with a delegation of Hasidic Jews and discussed with them issues including the protection of Jewish cemeteries in Europe and combating child sex abuse.

The pontiff held a 45-minute audience at the Vatican on Monday with the group, which was led by Rabbi Edgar Gluck.

A video on the Yeshiva World News website and also posted to YouTube shows the pope swaying to the music as members of the delegation dance and serenade him with the song “Long years shall satiate him.”

Yeshiva World News quoted Gluck’s son Zvi, who was part of the delegation, as saying the pontiff pledged to work toward enacting “stronger rules against destroying Jewish cemeteries to build roads or homes.”

Zvi Gluck, the founder and director of Amudim, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish victims of abuse and addiction, also tweeted that the pontiff had pledged “zero tolerance” for the sexual abuse of children and said “We need to keep kids safe.”

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ROME
Crux

Pope Francis on Monday met with a delegation of Jewish leaders from Poland, discussing serious matters such as the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and even child sexual abuse, but also lighthearted moments, including the pope … sort of … joining in a song and dance performed by the group.

ROME – Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, popes meeting Jewish leaders has become commonplace. Not every day, however, do you see a pope busting a move with those Jewish leaders, but that was the scene Monday in the Vatican.

Pope Francis received a delegation led by Rabbi Chaim Boruch (Edgar) Gluck of Poland in a 45-minute private audience, who was joined by his son, Zvi, the founder and Director of Amudim – an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community, as well as another Rabbi and other people.

Gluck had met Francis when he travelled to Krakow in Poland for World Youth Day in July 2016, when they discussed the destruction of Jewish cemeteries around the world, and the pontiff suggested the two continue their conversation in the Vatican.

There was serious business in the discussion, as reflected in a tweet dispatched by Zvi Gluck after the encounter. Apparently the topic of child sexual abuse came up, and he quoted the pontiff as saying, “Zero tolerance … We need to keep kids safe,” which he said the pope said to him, his father, and members of the delegation.

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MAINE
WGME

WATERVILLE (WGME) – The Diocese of Portland says there has been a claim of sexual abuse against a pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Church in Waterville.

The diocese says a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against Fr. Larry Jensen. Jensen is not a priest of the Diocese of Portland.

The diocese says it was notified by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, the bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn. Bishop Mansour says that Jensen has been removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
WMTW

WATERVILLE, Maine —
A priest at a Waterville church has been removed after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Fr. Larry Jensen had worked at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville since 2006.

The Diocese of Portland said the abuse allegations involved a 17-year-old boy and were related to abuse more than 15 years ago outside Maine.

Church officials in New York said a complaint had been filed against Jensen in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The diocese said that once the claim was substantiated, Jensen was removed from the Waterville church and permanently removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY AMY CALDER
STAFF WRITER

WATERVILLE — The Rev. Larry Jensen of St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church on Appleton Street has been removed from the church amid allegations of sexual abuse of a minor 15 years ago in Connecticut.

“He has been permanently relieved of priestly ministry and he can not present himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y., said of Jensen Monday morning in a telephone interview.

Thomas said the victim, a male, “was close to 18 but not 18,” when the alleged abuse occurred at the time Jensen was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“Father had some sexual contact with this minor, and we were kind of shocked when we got the call last week,” Thomas said. “I confronted Father with it and he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it.”

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ITALIA
Giornalettismo

[Only one in four of Catholic Italians always go to Mass.]

Gli italiani entrano sempre meno in chiesa. Nel nostro Paese va regolarmente a messa ogni settimana solo una persona su quattro. È quanto emerge dai dati Istat aggiornati al 2016 ripresi da un articolo pubblicato oggi sul Giornale a firma di Pier Francesco Borgia. I dati analizzati dal sito Truenumbers segnalano un carlo di 6 punti percentuali in 10 anni.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

5/8/2017

First Bishop in the United States Sued for Coercion

In 2015, a Minnesota Bishop Suppressed Report of Child Sexual Abuse

Survivor to speak publicly for the first time Tuesday about abuse by a former top official in Minnesota diocese

Bishop threatened harm to survivor’s vocation and his son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report

(St. Paul, MN) – At a news conference on Tuesday in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child sexual abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest will announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor naming a current Minnesota bishop and diocese as defendants. This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues unabated,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson.

In 2010, the survivor, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse to the bishop. The bishop advised the survivor to tell no one of his abuse. In 2015, the diocese was ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse, however the perpetrator’s name, a former top official in the diocese, was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure. After the court order was issued, the bishop actively suppressed the survivor’s abuse report.

Tomorrow, the survivor, as well as a priest of the diocese, will speak publicly for the first time about how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St., Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

* The press event will be live-streamed from our website at www.andersonadvocates.com and will be streamed via Facebook Live from our Facebook account Jeff Anderson & Associates.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665, Office: 651.237.5143
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531, Office: 651.237.5143

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IRELAND
Newstalk

8 May 2017
Michael Staines

The Minister for Health is hoping to bring forward proposals to end the ownership dispute that has engulfed Ireland’s new National Maternity Hospital by the end of the month.

Minister Simon Harris said officials from the Department of Health are meeting with both hospitals this week – after which he plans to attend talks himself.

Over the weekend an estimated 2,000 people took to the streets calling for the new facility to be kept in public ownership.

Protestors gathered at the Garden of Remembrance before marching to government buildings.

Marchers carried a petition signed by 103,607 people demanding that the decision to hand ownership of the hospital over to religious group, the Sisters of Charity be overturned.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY SHAUN DOUGHERTY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 8, 2017

With less than two months left in the legislative session, it looks like once again lawmakers will leave survivors of child sex abuse behind and fail to pass meaningful reforms to our statute of limitation laws. All New Yorkers, not just survivors like myself, should be disappointed that Senate Republicans choose to hide behind legislative procedures and avoid a vote on the Child Victims Act, instead of committing to helping victims.

New York’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes are the most restrictive in the country. Survivors have only five years after they reach legal age to file criminal or civil charges against their abusers. I know first-hand how inadequate this amount of time is; it took me a decade to share my story of clergy abuse with my family and more than 30 years to speak publicly about it.

My abuse occurred in 1980 in Johnstown, Pa., by Father George Koharchik, who was my teacher and coach. He was also a trusted friend of the family who had a weekly bowling game with my parents. His betrayal led me down a road of depression, drug addiction and attempted suicide. It made learning difficult and relationships hard.

I’m fortunate that I have been able to build a successful life — I’m married now and own a restaurant in Long Island City — but I know others that haven’t been so lucky. Many battle mental and physical illnesses and struggle to get the help they need.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victims of historical child abuse are being forced to take their fight for justice to the courts after being “abandoned” by Northern Ireland’s warring politicians.

In January a landmark report into state and church abuse recommended compensation, a memorial and a public apology to abuse survivors.

Dozens of victims had given evidence during a four-year public inquiry about the abuse they suffered as children in care.

However, the collapse of the Stormont government has meant a promised redress scheme has not been set up.

A lawyer for abuse survivors, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said they now face the trauma of lengthy court proceedings for justice.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Adam Higgins
7th May 2017

A DEFENCE Forces veteran who suffered terrible abuse in a boys home has told how he fears some survivors will not live long enough to see justice done.

Patrick O’Rourke, now in his seventies, says political upheaval in the North has prevented a vital report being published.

He relived the horrors of his childhood when he told the Historical ­Institutional Abuse Inquiry of the sexual and physical abuse he ­suffered at the Termonbacca Home for Boys in Derry.

But with negotiations to restore a government in Stormont, dragging on, and further delayed by the UK snap General Election, he fears some of the older survivors will pass away without seeing justice.

The Stormont impasse means the Inquiry report has still not been presented to the Northern Ireland assembly and survivors must continue their wait for a formal apology.

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OREGON
Mail Tribune

What’s happening in the case of Donald Courtney Biggs, the former Medford pastor who was arrested a couple years ago?

— No name given, via email

Biggs, 38, formerly a youth pastor with Mountain Church in downtown Medford before his 2015 arrest, has a trial set for June 12 in Medford, U.S. District Court records show.

He is lodged in the Jackson County Jail without bail, where he’s been since January 2015 on federal charges alleging he secretly recorded minors while they were changing their clothes, solicited photographs of them and transported three victims across state lines in incidents between June 2012 and March 2014.

His last court appearance was in November. Case filings show that Biggs is on his third court-appointed defense lawyer, previously requesting different federal public defenders in November 2015 and June 2016. Reasons behind the disagreements with his previous lawyers aren’t listed in court documents.

Nine juvenile victims are identified by their initials in case filings, three of whom Biggs is accused of taking to California. Biggs pleaded not guilty to nine counts of using or attempting to use a minor to produce a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct and three counts of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with a minor.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

[Investigation of abuse in the Old Catholic Church.]

Opnieuw zijn er priesters opgedoken die in de oud-katholieke kerk seksueel over de schreef zijn gegaan. Het kerkgenootschap, dat als liberaal bekendstaat en in Nederland zo’n vijfduizend leden telt, maakte dit zelf bekend nadat een crisisteam vorige week een inventarisatie had gemaakt.

Bij zeven geestelijken blijkt sprake te zijn geweest van een ‘onaanvaardbare seksuele houding in pastorale relaties’, zo schrijft de oud-katholieke kerk in een officiële mededeling. De zaken speelden volgens de kerk ‘lang geleden’ en vijf van de priesters zijn inmiddels overleden. “Ook al zouden sommige van deze zaken reeds lang zijn verjaard, de kerk wil niet doen alsof ze daarmee ook niet zouden zijn gebeurd”, melden de oud-katholieke leiders Joris Vercammen en Jan Schoon in de brief.

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SCOTLAND
The Sun

By Lauren Windle
7th May 2017

A WOMAN who was molested by her father over five years and then by the Jehovah’s Witnesses she asked for help has spoken out about her ordeal.

Terrified Angie Rodgers, from Ayrshire, was abused weekly by her perverted Jehovah’s Witness father Ian Cousins from the age of 11.

The brave teen eventually plucked up the courage to confide in the Jehovah’s Witness elders, who took little action and she was later abused by one of them too, Harry Holt.

Angie, now 36, said: “I turned to the church for help and I was abused a second time.

“I was a child and they should have helped, but they turned on me. They make me feel sick.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get over what happened. I’ve just learned to live with it.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Michael Cogley
May 8 2017
The Times

More than 1,500 people marched in Dublin yesterday against the Sisters of Charity taking ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The Times reported in March that the Sisters of Charity, which owns St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, would own the new hospital on the Elm Park site in Dublin after it is built with €300 million of taxpayers’ money.

The protest march, which began at the Garden of Remembrance and finished at Merrion Square, was organised by Uplift, a campaign organisation. The rally ended up with a presentation of a petition of 103,607 signatures printed on 50 metres of paper close to the current maternity hospital on Holles Street. The petition aims to prevent the Sisters of Charity becoming the sole owners of the hospital.

Siobhán O’ Donoghue, the director of Uplift, said the petition was collected over two weeks and would keep pressure on Simon Harris, the health minister.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Olivia Kelly

The relocation of the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s Hospital is being supported by Dublin City Council, even though the new building breaks height rules for the site.

The Health Service Executive in March applied to An Bord Pleanála for the €300 million move, following the resolution of an 18-month dispute between the two hospitals over governance of the new facility.

However, the announcement the following month that sole ownership of the hospital would be given to a healthcare group owned by the Sisters of Charity sparked public protest, and resignations from the Holles Street hospital board and the project board planning the move.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the new hospital will have full clinical independence.

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IRELAND
Herald

Gavin White – 08 May 2017

More than 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre yesterday against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital remaining in the hands of religious order the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street before marching to government buildings.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council Of Ireland, Uplift and Parents For Choice In Pregnancy And Stillbirth.

Among those attending were Aoife McArdle (43) and her three-year-old daughter Clara, from Phibsborough in Dublin.

Ms McArdle said the issue “disturbed her greatly”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Kirsty Blake Knox
May 8 2017

Around 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre yesterday against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the Order of the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, before marching to Government Buildings and handing in a petition with 103,607 signatures.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

Among the crowd was Gerry Kelly (75), who travelled up from Waterford for the march.
Mr Kelly said he was “fed up with the Church and its influence on the State”.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

08/05/2017

Pressure is continuing to mount on the Health Minister over the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

Up to 1,500 people protested in Dublin yesterday to demand the Sisters of Charity have no role in the running of the €300m taxpayer-funded building.

Simon Harris maintains the current plans will mean the hospital is free from any religious interference, but has asked for an extra month to examine the ownership model.

Social Democrats TD Roísín Shortall says it simply can’t happen.

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IRELAND
Clare FM

The Social Democrats say there can be no defence in handing over the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

Up to 1,500 people protested in Dublin yesterday to demand the nuns have no role in running the 300 million euro taxpayer-funded building.

Simon Harris maintains the current plans will mean the hospital is free from any religious interference – but has asked for an extra month to examine the ownership model.

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AUSTRALIA
The Northern Daily Leader

Breanna Chillingworth
@breannachill

8 May 2017

AN EX-priest accused of molesting young boys in the New England has been granted bail amid reports detectives have received another complaint.

Since The Leader revealed David Joseph Perrett’s extradition to NSW on Friday, police have been contacted by other members of the public looking to speak to investigators.

New England Detective Inspector Ann Joy told The Leader investigations were continuing.

“We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police,” she said.

“We will investigate those matters thoroughly and as a matter of priority.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 8, 2017

As the Vatican continues to receive testimony in the canonical penal trial of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, former altar boys who testified in Hawaii on Saturday said it’s now up to Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and four other judges to decide Apuron’s fate as soon as early summer.

The decision on Apuron will be made public, although there was no mention whether Pope Francis will have a direct role in that decision, former altar boys Roy Quintanilla and Roland Sondia said.

They said this is based on information they got from the Rev. Justin M. Wachs. Wachs serves as the Vatican court reporter for the Apuron trial.

“But from what I understand, every decision is a recommendation to Pope Francis,” Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan said.

Quintanilla, Sondia, along with Sablan, said their hope is for the Vatican to find Apuron guilty of sexual abuse of altar boys, remove him as archbishop and defrock him.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

“Apologize to me and explain to me why you did this. Only Apuron can answer those questions, to me that would be justice.” – Roy Quintanilla, one of four alleged victims of sexual abuse by suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron

A canonical trial for suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who faces penal charges in connection with allegations that he sexually abused altar boys decades ago when he was a priest, is expected to be completed by early summer as two additional depositions by his accusers were taken yesterday in Hawaii.

Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia, Walter Denton and Doris Concepcion, on behalf of her late son, Joseph “Sonny” Quinata, have alleged they were abused by Apuron while serving as altar boys.

A tribunal from the Vatican came to Guam in February and conducted several interviews, but Sondia did not participate at the direction of his attorney, David Lujan, who expressed concerns about the transparency of the proceedings.

Lujan told The Guam Daily Post a compromise had been reached with the tribunal two weeks ago and arrangements were made for Quintanilla and Sondia to meet with the Vatican representatives at St. Stephen’s Diocesan Center in Kaneohe, Hawaii, on Sunday Guam time.

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IRELAND
Hot Press

The prestigious award for human rights defenders has been presented to the Preda Foundation in the Philippines, which was setup by Father Shay Cullen, who was the subject of a ‘Hot Press Interview’ back in 2007.

The Irish missionary priest, who was presented the Meteor Humanitarian Award back in 2009, received the Shalom award during the weekend from Ulrike Schurr, the chairperson of the Justice and Peace group of the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.

She said that the award was richly deserved because of the international impact of the work of Preda and Father Shay Cullen. The conferring ceremony was held on 6 May in the University Grand hall and was attended by the leading civic and church personalities and the representative of the president of the University. …

In his acceptance speech Father Shay Cullen said he accepted it on behalf of those who worked on his team for human rights and protecting and healing the victims of human trafficking, abused children and young women.

He added that accepted the award not for himself “but for the victims of oppression, human rights violations, and every kind of abuse. He called on every one to take a strong stand for the human dignity and rights and never to remain silent when there are abuses in the community.”

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ARGENTINA
Washington Post

By Samantha Schmidt May 8

The students in the school for deaf children would call her the “bad nun,” the woman who was supposed to take care of them, but who would send them into rooms to be sexually abused by priests. Others said she committed abuse herself, and would force them to watch pornography on television.

And in a particularly abhorrent case, after a 5-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a priest, the Roman Catholic nun allegedly forced her to wear a diaper in class, to conceal the bleeding, according to Argentine news reports.

Because the other children at the school were deaf, only the victims’ abusers would have heard their cries.

The nun, a woman named Kosaka Kumiko, of Japanese heritage but Argentine nationality, was arrested and charged Friday on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at the Antonio Provolo Institute, a school for the hearing-impaired in the Mendoza province of Argentina, authorities said. She was also charged with physically abusing the students.

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ARGENTINA
El Pais

[Priest Julio Grassi was the most media savvy priest in Argentina was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The pope has not expelled or replied to the letters of the victims. The priest claims that the church continues to support him and that he has the support of the Pope Francis who was head of the Argentine church in the years of the scandal.]

CARLOS E. CUÉ
Buenos Aires 29 ABR 2017

Era el cura preferido de los ricos. Una auténtica estrella mediática, el religioso más famoso de Argentina. Desfilaba por todas las televisiones en los noventa, su gran momento. Con apoyo del Gobierno de Carlos Menem y de algunas de las personas más acaudaladas de Argentina, como Amalita Fortabat, Julio Grassi se movía cómodo en los platós y recaudaba enormes cantidades de dinero para su fundación, Felices los Niños, que llegó a acoger a 6.300 menores de la calle. Eran tiempos duros de ajuste en los que era frecuente ver a chavales sin hogar en Buenos Aires. En 2002 llegó el escándalo. El país se paralizó para ver un programa de investigación en televisión, Telenoche,en el que tres de esos niños desvalidos, de entre 14 y 16 años, que dependían de Grassi para todo, contaban los abusos sexuales a los que les sometía. Argentina enmudeció.

Desde ese día se inició una enorme batalla de poder, con todos los ingredientes habituales de un país acostumbrado a las operaciones oscuras: espionaje, amenazas, chantaje. Grassi se defendió con dureza: acudió a todos sus contactos para reivindicar su inocencia, contrató los mejores abogados, e incluso cuando entró en la cárcel —en 2013, 11 años después— logró un trato privilegiado gracias a sus contactos y el dinero de la fundación. Pero finalmente la justicia le derrotó: la Corte Suprema argentina confirmó el 23 de marzo su sentencia a 15 años por abuso sexual agravado y corrupción de menores, ya inamovible.

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

By Amanda Spadaro

HAMLET OF WALLKILL – Former priest Kevin Gallagher knows he betrayed his parishioners and violated his vows.

Was it wrong to have sex with a young man? Yes, he says.

Should that have disqualified him from remaining a priest? He doesn’t think so.

In March, Gallagher, 65, was officially laicized, or removed from the clergy. He had been suspended from serving as a priest since January 2015.

In 2009, he was the pastor of Pine Bush’s Church of the Infant Saviour.

He first met Michael Kyles when he led the funeral service for Kyles’ twin brother, Tyler. Kyles claims that in 2012, Gallagher gave him money to buy heroin – a drug habit he developed after his twin’s death – and sexually abused him.

Gallagher said he never saw Kyles again until 2013, when a mutual friend reintroduced the two.

Almost immediately, Kyles began borrowing money, Gallagher said.

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ARGENTINA
Rete L’Abuso

Scandalo pedofilia in Argentina: per i pm era la complice di un prete veronese

Con le manette ai polsi e il giubbotto antiproiettile sopra la tonaca, si è professata davanti a decine di telecamere e accecata dai flash «una brava persona che ha dedicato la propria vita a Dio».

Invece secondo i suoi ex alunni all’Istituto per sordomuti Provolo di Mendoza, in Argentina, suor Kosaka Kumiko li avrebbe trattati per 6 anni «peggio di un diavolo con la faccia di donna». La latitanza della religiosa giapponese si è conclusa a Buenos Aires dopo 26 giorni: su di lei pendeva un mandato di cattura internazionale spiccato dai pm sudamericani Gustavo Stroppiana e Flavio D’Amore, che la descrivono come «la principale complice degli abusi che il prete veronese Nicola Corradi ha perpetrato a oltre una sessantina di ragazzi e bambini iscritti all’Istituto».

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 7, 2017

The Vatican tribunal working on Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical penal trial will be hearing testimony in California from John Toves, the first person to publicly accuse Apuron in 2014 of sexual abuse, of his cousin.

Led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the tribunal also received a written testimony from John Michael “Champ” Quinata, alleging that Apuron raped his brother, the now deceased former altar boy Joseph Anthony “Sonny” Quinata, when his brother was 9 years old.

Champ Quinata said he’s willing to testify in person if and when necessary. He and his mother, Doris Y. Concepcion, visiting from Arizona, marked the 12th year death anniversary of Sonny Quinata with a Mass at Saint Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Sinajana Friday night.

“The Vatican should defrock him (Apuron),” Champ Quinata said. “He should also go to jail for what he did. Nothing will bring back my brother but the church should continue its efforts to change for the better, and it goes deeper than just Apuron. I think my brother is happy where he is now, because everyone now knows what Apuron did to him when he’s a child.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By David Kearns
7th May 2017

THOUSANDS of people are marching through Dublin city centre this afternoon protesting against religious ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The main throughway through the capital, O’Connell St, is currently closed to allow the thousand or so demonstrators passage on their way to Merrion Square.

AA Roadwatch and gardai are advising those travelling through Dublin to avoid the city centre as best as they can for the next few hours.

Those protesting today are opposed to the Government’s decision to appoint the Sisters of Charity as sole owners of the new €300m taxpayer-funded hospital.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE took to the streets to protest against the Sisters of Charity owning the new national maternity hospital.

Over 1,500 people marched from the Garden of Remembrance to Merrion Square to hand over a petition against the move.

Campaign organisation Uplift presented a viral petition printed on 50 feet sheets of card to the gathered crowd.

Siobhan O’Donoghue, Director of Uplift said:

“We are sending a huge people powered message today to Simon Harris that he has only one real choice regarding ownership of the National Maternity Hospital – it must be kept in public ownership”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Gavin White
May 7 2017

AROUND 1,500 people marched in Dublin city centre today against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the religious order the Sisters of Charity.

The protesters gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street before marching to Government buildings.

The demonstration was organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

Amongst the crowd was Gerry Kelly (75) who came up from Waterford for what he called “a massive issue.”
Mr Kelly said he was “fed up with the church and its influence on the state.

“Taxpayers money going into the hospital does not equal religious ownership of the new hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Kitty Holland

Several thousand people marched under glorious Dublin sunshine on Sunday calling on the Government to ensure the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) is not controlled by a religious order.

Construction of the new NMH, which is to be located on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital, will be paid for by the State, but – according to terms of the current agreement – will be gifted to the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, owned by the Sisters of Charity because it owns the land.

A petition on the Uplift.ie site, calling for this not to happen, has had more than 100,000 signatures.

Sunday’s march was organised by Uplift.ie in conjunction with the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), Parents for Choice, Terminations for Medical Reasons and the Justice for Magdalenes group.

Among the slogans on numerous placards were, “No nunsense in our hospitals”, “Not just a storm in a tea-cup, storm over a septic tank”, “Time to kick bad habits” and “Savita”.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Update 2.24pm: Large crowds have gathered in Dublin this afternoon protesting against plans to hand over ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

Several women’s rights groups say the €300m taxpayer-funded building should not be handed over to a religious order.

Today’s demonstration is organised by Parents for Choice, Uplift, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and Justice for Magdalenes.

The groups say handing over the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital – to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin – to a religious order – is a mark of disrespect to Irish women.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Up to 1,500 people are taking part in a march in Dublin city centre against religious ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The ‘We Own Our Hospitals’ march is being organised by Parents for Choice, together with Uplift, the National Women’s Council, and Justice for Magdalenes.

Participants will make their way down O’Connell Street before finishing up at Merrion Square.

There has been growing opposition after it emerged the Religious Sisters of Charity will be given ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded hospital because it owns the land on which it is to be built.

The new hospital is to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital in south Dublin.

Parents for Choice spokesperson Sinead Redmond said it is a “mark of disrespect” to the survivors of homes where lone mothers were locked up “by this order of nuns in their laundries” to give the Sisters of Charity ownership of the new hospital.

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ITALIA
RSI News

[con video]

[A first case of abuse said to have occurred in Ticino has been brought to the attention of the diocesan commission that deals with sexual abuse in the ecclesiastical sphere. It dates back to the ’60s and it was not reported at the time. The alleged perpetrator was not a priest in the diocese but was on a “temporary stay.”]

Un primo caso avvenuto in Ticino è stato portato all’attenzione della commissione diocesana che si occupa degli abusi sessuali commessi in ambito ecclesiastico. Risale agli anni ’60 e allora non fu denunciato. Il presunto autore, ci ha confermato un membro della commissione stessa, era un sacerdote non incardinato nella diocesi, il suo era un “soggiorno temporaneo”.

La vittima ne ha parlato solo ora, dopo che il 17 gennaio sono state presentate due figure indipendenti (attualmente lo psichiatra Carlo Calanchini e la psicoterapeuta Rita Pezzati) alle quali ci si può rivolgere per una consulenza e per l’aiuto necessario a maturare la denuncia. Accanto alla creazione della citata commissione, è un passo importante per la Chiesa cattolica ticinese, un passo compiuto in realtà già da un paio di anni ma finora non pubblicizzato, tanto che fino al momento della conferenza stampa nessuno si era fatto avanti.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

A rally will take place in Dublin today calling for the National Maternity Hospital to be kept in public ownership.

The various groups- including ‘Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM) and ‘Parents for Choice’ (PFC) have said the hospital belongs in public not private hands.

The Minister for Health Simon Harris has insisted he is “as determined as ever” to go ahead with the project and has called for a period of calm to discuss the plans with the various hospital boards ahead of a planning permission decision from An Bord Pleanála – due in the autumn.

He has insisted the religious organisation will be unable to profit from the facility and pledged to ensure that there will be no religious interference in the hospitals ethos or clinical independence.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Hayley Halpin
May 7 2017

A protest against the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital being given to the religious order the Sisters of Charity is set to take place in Dublin city centre today.

The demonstration is being organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Uplift and Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth.

The march will gather at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm before demonstrators make their way down to Leinster House.

Uplift created a petition aimed at the Department of Health to block Sisters of Charity as “sole owners” of the National Maternity Hospital. The petition has received over 103,000 of 125,000 signatures.

Denise Kiernan, creator of the petition, is set to be one of the speakers at today’s marc

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

We have now added the timetable for Phase 1 of the Inquiry hearings to this website. It can be found in a new section called Hearings.

The evidence to be heard will include:

* Evidence from expert witnesses about:
* The legislative and regulatory framework governing children in care in Scotland up to 1968;
* The early development of care services in Scotland;
* Societal attitudes towards children; and
* The nature and prevalence of child abuse in Scotland.
* Evidence from the Scottish Government on the nature, extent and development of the State’s areas of responsibility for children in residential and foster care in Scotland.
* Evidence of the history and governance of a number of care providers, including faith based organisations, and whether there is any retrospective acknowledgement of abuse.
* Evidence of the background, development, purpose and work of survivor groups.

This first phase of hearings will begin on 31 May 2017 and run until 12 July 2017.

We have also updated the Costs table to include the Inquiry’s expenditure for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Peter Swindon, Group Investigations Writer / @PeterSwindon

Survivors of systemic sexual and physical abuse have asked Police Scotland to send officers to the first public hearings of an unprecedented inquiry.

They have also urged the independent Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to publish a detailed breakdown of spending after costs soared by more than £2m in the first three months of this year.

And there have been fresh calls to widen the inquiry to include a charity which has worked with more than 1,000 survivors but was denied “core participant” status, meaning it can’t question witnesses or view evidence.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

7 May 2017

NORMA PRENDIVILLEnormap@limerickleader.ie

FIANNA Fail TD for Limerick, Niall Collins, has again intervened in the ongoing controversy over documents from the Glin Industrial School which are now in the possession of abuse survivor, Tom Wall.

In March, Br Edmund Garvey, head of the European Province of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, wrote to Deputy Collins who had raised the issue in the Dail, and told him the Brothers would be satisfied with copies of the documents for their archives.

Now Deputy Collins has, at the request of Tom Wall, again contacted Br Garvey. “I have written to Br Garvey and asked him to confirm what he previously said to me which was that they would be happy with copies of the documents,” Deputy Collins told the Limerick Leader this Wednesday. “But I am still waiting on a reply.”

Tom Wall has, meanwhile, rejected a proposed agreement sent to him by solicitors acting for the Christian Brothers because he felt it did not include a renunciation of any legal claim to the documents by the Brothers.

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ROME
Pacific Daily News

Eric J. Lyman, For USA Today
May 7, 2017

ROME — Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron isn’t the first high-ranking church official to be accused of sexual abuse, but his ongoing canonical trial at the Vatican is ground-breaking, according to experts.

A new trial process for these types of allegations is in place under Pope Francis, and Apuron would be the first to be investigated and tried since its implementation.

Former Agat altar boys Walter Denton, Roy Quintanilla, Roland Sondia, and the relatives of former altar boy Joseph “Sonny” Quinata have accused Apuron of child molestation and rape when he was parish priest in the late 1970s. Apuron has denied the allegations.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last October named Cardinal Raymond Burke the presiding judge in Apuron’s trial. Burke’s office did not reply to requests for comment.

According to Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a Vatican expert who has written a book about Pope Francis called “Tango Vaticano,” Francis has completed a reform process started under Pope Benedict XVI that makes it possible for those accused of sexual abuse to face two trials: a canonical trial and a criminal trial. Previously, only the criminal trial was used.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Jordan Otero Sisson and Ken Byron

Cheers erupted through Holy Trinity Church in Hartford Saturday night at the moment worshippers learned that their beloved and historic building would not be closing, something parishioners feared for months would happen under a church reorganization plan.

But in Cheshire, the mood at the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass was much different: Parishioners at the Church of the Epiphany heard that theirs would be among the 59 parishes slated to merge with other parishes under the Archdiocese of Hartford’s reorganization plan, released Saturday. Their church will close.

“I’m going to minister to you as best as I can,” the Rev. John L. Williams Jr. said in his homily to Cheshire parishioners. “The nearest thing I can compare this to would be ministering to people who have suffered a death in their family. There’s going to be pain.”

The emotions inside the churches in Hartford and Cheshire Saturday will likely mirror what parishioners will experience Sunday morning at Masses celebrated across the archdiocese. The areas hardest hit by the changes were parts of New Haven County, including Waterbury where four church buildings are slated to close.

Parishioners at Holy Trinity first believed their small church on Capitol Avenue in Hartford would make the cut under the plan, which will merge dozen of parishes this summer. But as planning entered its final weeks, they worried their church was doomed.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Interactive Map: Archdiocese of Hartford Reconfiguration

Jordan Otero Sisson

Fifty-nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford will be merged under a plan that church leaders say is designed to launch a new era of Catholicism in Connecticut, church leaders said Saturday morning.

The mergers, which will be effective as of June 29, will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes, according to a press release.

New Haven County was hit the hardest, with 16 parishes there slated for closure, according to the plan available on the archdiocese’s website.

The archdiocese, which currently oversees 212 parishes in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties, spent the two years developing a reorganization plan.

Under the new structure, there will be 127 pastorates in the initial phase, from 2017-19. Sixty-eight parishes will remain as-is in the first phase. A pastorate is a single parish with a church and one or more worship sites, campus and ministries, according to the archdiocese’s pastoral planning website.

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ARGENTINA
El Pais

FEDERICO RIVAS MOLINA
Buenos Aires 6 MAY 2017

“Soy una persona buena que he entregado mi vida a Dios”, dijo la monja Kosaka Kumiko. Vestida aún con su hábito, pero esposada y con chaleco antibalas, la religiosa se declaró inocente ante el juez que la acusa de ayudar y encubrir a los sacerdotes que, durante años, abusaron sexualmente de los niños sordos que tenían a su cuidado en el Instituto Provolo de Mendoza, en Argentina. Kumiko llegó al colegio en 2007 desde Japón, y durante seis años fue “el demonio con cara de mujer” detrás de las violaciones, como la llamó uno de los abogados de las víctimas. Esos mismos niños han sido ahora los verdugos judiciales de la monja: en marzo pasado, una adolescente contó que, cuando tenía sólo cinco años, Kumiko le colocó un pañal para disimular el sangrado que le producía la violación sistemática a la que la sometían varios sacerdotes de la orden. La mujer tenía también la misión de seleccionar a los niños más “sumisos” y entregarlos como presas a los curas. Ahora ha quedado detenida, luego de estar prófuga durante más de un mes.

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ARGENTINA
The Sun (UK)

By Hannah Crouch
7th May 2017

A JAPANESE nun has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse deaf children at an Argentinean school.

Kosaka Kumiko was accused of helping priests with anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex, which were allegedly committed in the bathrooms, dormitories, garden and a basement at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children in Lujan de Cuyo.

The 42-year-old was pictured in handcuffs and wearing her habit and a bullet-proof vest as she was escorted by police to a court hearing.

A case against the nun was launched after a former student claimed Kumiko had made her wear a diaper in order to cover up a haemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

Kumiko denies any wrong-doing and told judicial officials: “I am innocent.”

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Betty Clermont

Every pope “possesses supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely” according to the Code of Canon Law.

Members of the Roman Curia are appointed and granted authority by the pope.

Pope Francis has also changed the Curia administration. First he created a Secretariat for the Economy and a Council for the Economy. Next, he created a Secretariat for Communications. He replaced the management of the Vatican Bank and the Vatican’s financial “watchdog,” the Financial Information Authority. In the past year, he created new departments for Integral Human Development and another for the Laity, Family and Life replacing five previous councils. Also, the pope appointed 27 new members to the Congregation for Divine Worship, changing the department through its personnel.

Yet the anglophone media has declared in scores of reports that Pope Francis’ struggles to “clean-up” the Vatican but is thwarted by his subordinates, often characterized as “conservatives.” (e.g. here, here, here, here)

Pope Francis, however, refers to his subordinates as “the leprosy of the papacy.” He has accused them of “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” “existential schizophrenia,” “hypocrisy typical of the mediocre,” “progressive spiritual emptiness,” and having cliques that “enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body.”

SEX ABUSE

Working on the FBI’s specialized team investigating child pornography and sexual abuse crimes is so disturbing that it is the only department staffed entirely by volunteers who are free to leave at any time.

Pope Francis’ leadership in allowing sexual assaults against children to continue is the most sickening and unprecedented in modern ecclesial history.

More than fifteen years after the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” on predator priests, the U.S. bishops published their most recent self-report.

Shockingly, 172 clerics accused of sexual abuse of minors, as counted between 2014 and mid-2015 inclusive, are still in active ministry, retired, resigned or their whereabouts unknown.

Another 121 were permanently or temporarily removed from ministry and 40 were laicized (defrocked). No mention is made how many are free men or if any are incarcerated.

“Research has consistently shown that false allegations of child sexual abuse by children are rare.”

Between 2013-2015 inclusive, 2,315 victim/survivors were reported to the bishops.

Suicides of clerical sex abuse victims “are over 30 times the rate in the general population.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

A PROTEST MARCH against the Sisters of Charity owning the new national maternity hospital will take place in Dublin city today.

Demonstrators will gather at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm before making their way to Leinster House.

Today’s march has been organised by a number of groups including the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Parents for Choice in Pregnancy and Stillbirth, Justice for Magdalenes Research and Uplift.

The latter organised a petition against the religious order owning the hospital. It has been signed by over 103,000 people at the time of publication.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

07/05/2017

Women’s rights groups will march through Dublin today to protest against any possibility of granting of ownership of the National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

The various groups including Justice for Magdalenes say the hospital belongs in public not private hands.

“[There is a] general wrongness in this action and it should be really, really obvious to the Government that this is not something that should happen, that it’s obviously going to outrage people and that people don’t trust the Sisters of Charity to do what’s best with their ownership of the National Maternity Hospital,” she said.

A similar protest is also taking place outside Sligo Courthouse at 2pm today.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY GRACE MACASKILL
6 MAY 2017

Cowering under her duvet at night, 11-year-old Angie prayed that God would keep her safe.

Sadly for the terrified youngster, the church she trusted were on the side of the very man who haunted her nightmares – her abusive father.

And shockingly, when she plucked up the courage to tell elders at the Jehovah’s Witness church what had happened, one of them went on to abuse her as well.

Now a mum of four, 36-year-old Angie Rodgers said: “I turned to the church for help and I was abused a second time. I was a child and they should have helped but instead they turned on me.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Herald Live

May 7, 2017

The evidence presented at the bail application of pastor Tim Omotoso in Port Elizabeth this week has been sordid.

The pastor is accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking and, of course, these allegations must still be tested in court. However, they do also highlight a particularly South African problem: the exchange of sexual services between vulnerable young women and powerful older men.

Evidence was led that most of the teenage girls alleged to have been abused lacked a father figure and turned to the pastor to fill this role. Whether or not he abused this role is over to the law to decide.

However, The Herald on Friday also reported on the good work done by the First Things First movement which is taking a firm stand against lecturers who hand out higher marks to students who sleep with them.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

2017-05-07

Nosipiwo Manona

Timothy Omotoso made his victims massage him with Vaseline before penetrating them without condoms and reciting a psalm afterwards.

An investigating officer in the case of jailed pastor Timothy Omotoso this week gave chilling testimony of how the clergyman allegedly used the modus operandi of a skilled sexual predator to lure young girls and later abuse them.

Omotoso is facing various sexual offence charges, including human trafficking and rape.

His appearances at the Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court have been marked by huge crowds of supporters, who have gathered outside court insisting he is innocent.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Jill Harmacinski jharmacinski@eagletribune.com 

LAWRENCE — Two men who were students at Central Catholic High School in the 1960s both told The Eagle-Tribune they were physically and sexually abused by the late Brother Michael Edward and that a culture of “regimentation and intimidation” was prevalent there. 

“There was extreme physical abuse and it was just accepted,” said Michael Bresnahan, a 1967 Central Catholic graduate who now works as a teacher at the Guilmette School in Lawrence.

Bresnahan said students at that time wore collared shirts, ties and jackets and Brother Michael Edward would tell them to unbutton their shirts. The brother, he said, reached into his shirt and others, feeling their pectoral muscles and nipples. Bresnahan said he was not personally abused beyond the chest touching but witnessed the physical abuse of others.

He said Brother Michael Edward also repeatedly slapped the face of a fellow student who was forced to stand in front of the class. 

“When you are in a culture of regimentation and intimidation you don’t know what’s normal,” said Bresnahan, age 67.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

BY MARK CUMMINGS
Editor-at-Large
cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, May 07, 2017

BUNKER’S Hill, Trelawny — The Church in Jamaica has been thrown into further disarray, with news that another man of the cloth has been arrested and charged by the police with a sexual offence against a minor.Host pastor of the Bunker’s Hill New Testament Church of God in Trelawny, Presley Smith will face the Falmouth Parish Court later this week, after he was arrested and charged on Friday with acts of sexual offences.

Allegations are that between January 2016 and January of this year, Smith, 27, a native of Kingston but who currently lives in this rural Trelawny community, committed a number of sexual offences against a 15-year-old male student who hails from the district and is now residing in Montego Bay, St James.

Investigators have said that Smith turned himself in at the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) in Kingston on May 3 and was later transferred to Falmouth, where he was subsequently slapped with charges of buggery, gross indecency, and grievous sexual assault.

A senior police officer who is close to the investigations told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the alleged acts were committed at the pastor’s rented house in the Bunker’s Hill community.

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NEDERLAND
NOS

[Research has revealed five new cases of sexual abuse by clergy in the Old Catholic Church (OKKN). The perpetrators are all deceased. According to the church they founda total of seven clergymen guilty of an “unacceptable sexual behavior in pastoral situations”.]

Onderzoek door de Oud-Katholieke Kerk (OKKN) heeft vijf nieuwe gevallen van seksueel misbruik aan het licht gebracht. De daders zijn allen overleden. Volgens de kerk hebben in totaal zeven geestelijken zich schuldig gemaakt aan een “onaanvaardbare seksuele houding in pastorale situaties”.

De andere twee gevallen kwamen onlangs in het nieuws: een priester is in Cambodja opgepakt omdat hij seksueel expliciete foto’s van jonge kinderen maakte, een ander werd geschorst bij zijn parochie in Amsterdam omdat hij in het verleden een kind misbruikte.

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CONNECTICUT
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

HARTFORD, Conn. (May 6, 2017) A headline in one of the local newspapers today stated that 127 parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford are slated to close. This is false.

What is being announced this weekend is that as a result of a two-year pastoral planning process, as of June 29 there will be 127 parishes in the Archdiocese of Hartford, instead of the current 212.

68 parishes will remain as they are; 59 will merge. The mergers will involve unions of two, three, four, five and six parishes.

186 church buildings will remain open. 26 church buildings will close, inasmuch as regularly scheduled Masses will not be held in them.

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ARGENTINA
Televisa

En un nuevo y escabroso episodio relacionado con el presunto abuso sexual de niños sordos en la provincia argentina de Mendoza, una monja católica fue acusada por la justicia de haber facilitado y consentido las violaciones.

La japonesa Kosaka Kumiko, de 42 años, fue imputada la noche del jueves por un fiscal de “comisión por omisión del abuso sexual con acceso carnal”, entre otros cargos, y quedó detenida en la Penitenciaría de Agua de las Avispas en la ciudad de Mendoza, situada a unos a 1.190 kilómetros al oeste de Buenos Aires.

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ARGENTINA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Timothyna Duncan For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

A Roman Catholic nun from Japan has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina.

Kosaka Kumiko, 42, was charged with helping the priests with anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex, which were allegedly committed in the bathrooms, dormitories, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

The case against Kumiko began after a former student accused her of making her wear a diaper to cover up a hemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

‘I am innocent,’ she told judicial officials, who ordered her to be taken into custody at a local women’s prison while detectives investigate the alleged crimes.

The nun, who has Argentine citizenship, has also been charged with physically abusing the students – whose torments could only be heard by those abusing them since the other children were deaf – at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children with hearing impairment in northwestern Mendoza province.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Francis G. Ozog Funeral Home

March 29, 1986 ~ May 5, 2017 (age 31)

Corey Joseph Edward Leech, 31; Johnstown. This is the story of Corey Joseph Edward Leech. It was a promising beginning that ended far too soon at the ripe age of 31. Corey, the third-eldest brother of 10, enjoyed playing and watching sports. His favorite professional teams were the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Atlanta Braves. Corey was also a talented athlete, playing baseball, basketball, and football for Bishop McCort high school. Through his Catholic educators, Corey was introduced to a “man of the cloth,” a predator, who aimed to take advantage of a trusting, handsome, and athletic boy. Despite his years of private suffering, Corey went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from the nursing program at Mt. Aloysius, where he also played baseball and earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2008. Corey pursued a career as a registered nurse in the regional intensive care nursery at Conemaugh and also as a traveling nurse in San Diego, CA.

He had a true passion for children and was delighted that his career afforded him the opportunity to help babies who were “smaller than his hand.”Turns out Corey was one of many children victimized by this man. When his years of private torment became national news, Corey made an uncommonly brave decision. He chose to testify. He wanted to prevent other children from living his nightmare. While he did more than his share to help others, it was too late for Corey. His nightmare was inescapable. Years of abuse by this clergyman destroyed Corey’s faith. The house of God no longer provided any solace for Corey, so he sought peace the only way he could, through substance abuse. Corey will be remembered by his family and friends as the caring, bright and fun-loving young man whose future was stolen from him by those he trusted the most.

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NEW YORK
WHEC

May 06, 2017

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – In New York state government news, victims of childhood sexual crimes petition lawmakers to let them sue abusers even if the statute of limitations has run out and child welfare advocates seek a ban on toys containing toxic materials.

The two proposals are among dozens of bills competing for attention as lawmakers begin the final six weeks of their annual legislative session.

A look at what’s coming up this week in Albany:
___

CHILD VICTIMS ACT

New York state now has one of the nation’s tightest statute of limitations on filing criminal charges and lawsuits for past molestation.

The proposal before lawmakers would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for several child sexual abuse crimes and create a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Kieran Dineen
4th May 2017

THE Catholic Church has assets valued at almost €4billion that campaigners say should be controlled and owned by the State.

The future site of the €300million National Maternity Hospital — which will be built on Church land and owned by the Church — has reignited a debate about the role of the ­Vatican in this country.

And an analysis by the Irish Sun shows that Pope Francis has a far bigger grip on the State than this crisis shows.

We totted up the total value of the schools, hospitals and disability ­services which are owned and controlled by religious orders in Ireland.

A number of politicians say these should be handed over to the State, and that Rome should have no role.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Welt

[A year ago, it was known for the first time that in the 1980s children were sexually abused in a Hamburg children home. Two former inhabitants had reported the abuse. Now the (Protestant) church is looking for more contemporary witnesses.]

Vor einem Jahr war erstmals bekannt geworden, dass in 80er-Jahre in einem Hamburger Heim Kinder sexuell missbraucht worden sein sollen. Zwei ehemalige Bewohnerinnen hatten sich gemeldet. Nun sucht die Kirche weitere Zeitzeugen.

Nach einem Aufruf des Kirchenkreises Hamburg-Ost im Oktober haben sich mehrere ehemalige Bewohner des evangelischen Kinderheimes gemeldet, in dem in den 80er-Jahren mehrere Kinder sexuelle missbraucht worden sein sollen. Die Aussagen seien schlüssig und glaubwürdig, erklärte Pröpstin Ulrike Murrmann am Donnerstag. Die Gespräche mit den Personen stünden erst am Anfang. Es habe sich aber gezeigt, so Pröpstin Murmann, „dass wir auf dem richtigen Weg sind“. Nun werde nach weiteren Zeitzeugen gesucht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
General Anzeiger

[BAD GODESBERG. At the Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg, there was apparently a sexual assault by an employee in mid-April. The college has taken immediate action.]

BAD GODESBERG. Am Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg hat es Mitte April offenbar einen sexuellen Übergriff durch einen Mitarbeiter gegeben. Das Kolleg hat daraus umgehend Konsequenzen gezogen.

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu, 06.05.2017

Wie Dirk Schneemann, Pressesprecher der Bezirksregierung, auf GA-Anfrage bestätigte, habe das Kolleg der Schulaufsicht mitgeteilt, dass sich ein Lehrer einer solchen Tat schuldig gemacht habe. “Nach unserer Kenntnis hat das Kolleg dienstrechtliche Konsequenzen gezogen und Strafanzeige gegen den Mitarbeiter erstattet.”

Für das Ako sagte auf GA-Anfrage der gerade verabschiedete Rektor, Pater Johannes Siebner, als Geschäftsführer der Aloisiuskolleg gGmbH, man habe sich mit dem Mitarbeiter darauf verständigt, dass er das Kolleg “zum Schuljahresende verlassen und bis dahin nicht an das Aloisiuskolleg zurückkehren wird”. Die Frage, ob das Kolleg Strafanzeige gegen den Mann gestellt habe und weshalb, ließ Siebner unbeantwortet. Nach GA-Informationen soll Mitte April ein Lehrer einer Schülerin gegenüber übergriffig geworden sein. In einem Rundschreiben an die Eltern bittet das Ako zum Schutze der Persönlichkeitsrechte aller dringend um Diskretion.

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