ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
El Mostrador

[Victims of priest Fernando Karadima call Pope Francis’s visit to Chile a mockery if he does not address cases of sexual abuse.]

por CAMILA BUSTAMANTE 28 junio, 2017

Ante la gravedad de los casos en Chile y Perú, de parte de Fernando Karadima y el fundador del Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, Luis Fernando Figari, respectivamente, surge la necesidad de que la cabeza de la Iglesia católica tenga un espacio en su agenda para referirse al tema y reunirse con los afectados. Pedro Salinas, periodista peruano, autor del libro “Mitad monjes, mitad soldados” y ex miembro del Sodalicio –donde sufrió distintos tipos de abuso–, dice que “presumo que así como en México evitó acercarse a las víctimas de (Marcial) Maciel, en Chile y Perú ocurrirá exactamente lo mismo. Aunque la caridad exija un encuentro con esas personas traicionadas por la Iglesia católica”.

Expectación ha causado el anuncio conjunto, entre el Vaticano y las Conferencias Episcopales chilena y peruana, sobre la visita que hará el Papa Francisco a ambos países en enero próximo.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JOURNALIST 28 June 2017

Sex abuse survivors are calling for former Archbishop George Carey to face a police investigation for his role in the Church’s collusion with convicted abuser and ex-bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball.

Victims and their lawyers say Lord Carey should relinquish his right to sit in the House of Lords if he his found to have deliberately concealed evidence.

‘It is unacceptable that someone involved in concealing evidence of criminality should have a role in making laws for others,’ a letter from two of Ball’s survivors and their lawyers to the Times reads.

The calls for a police investigation into Lord Carey, backed by the National Secular Society, come after he quit his honorary role as assistant bishop in the Oxford diocese following a damning report by Dame Moira Gibb.

Abuse in Faith, published last week, is highly critical of the Church’s response to the 84-year-old former Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, who was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after admitting a string of historical sex offences against 18 teenagers and young men.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY ANDREA O’NEILL

An East Kilbride justice campaigner who survived abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church as a child has welcomed new legislation that enables victims to pursue justice later in life.

The Limitation Childhood Abuse Scotland Bill removes the three-year time limit in which victims of childhood abuse can bring a civil action against their abuser.

The move comes two months on from the death of Murray grandad Frank Docherty, founder and honorary president of child abuse charity In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) who, after his own abuse hell, fought for two decades to seek justice for child abuse victims.

Frank’s widow Janet told the News historic survivors will now get the closure and recognition they deserve.

“Frank would have been over the moon,” she said.

“Like him, abuse survivors have been shunted from pillar to post for years but it’s all coming to the fore now.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Jewish News

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer
June 27, 2017

As the daughter of Ilene Strauss of Jerusalem and Rabbi Steven Bayar of Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, Rahel Bayar, 36, had “a childhood of growing up, seeing, and experiencing the good things others do.”

And yet, or perhaps because of that upbringing, she has devoted her career to handling some of the greatest evils human beings can do to one another. Her field is dealing with victims of sex crimes and other forms of sexual abuse.

Labeling her “a warrior for those most vulnerable,” The New York Jewish Week, the parent company of NJJN, honored Bayar as one of “36 under 36” — young Jewish community leaders “who have demonstrated unique initiative, creativity, and leadership.”

Bayar said her parents taught her to be attuned to people’s needs. For instance, when one of her sister’s tutors couldn’t afford air conditioning during a sweltering summer, her dad told the tutor he knew of someone giving one away. Then he drove his daughters to an electronics store, bought a new unit, and gave it to the family.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Katie Burgess

Schools, child care centres and health providers will be forced to report all child abuse allegations to the ACT Ombudsman from this Saturday.

However the ACT’s new reportable conduct scheme does not cover church organisations, Scout groups, sporting clubs or dance schools, despite government officials telling the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse the scheme would need to be refined to meet community expectations as far back as March.

In launching the scheme on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry denied there were gaps in the law and said the most important aspect was its consistency with other states and territories.

Ms Berry said a review into the scheme would begin immediately to examine its effectiveness but any decision to extend it would take place after the Royal Commission handed down its final report in December.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Daniel Patrick Sheehan

Like a Bronx kid growing up to play for the Yankees, Monsignor Alfred Schlert is pinching himself, astonished that the grade-school stirring of his soul toward the priesthood has culminated with Pope Francis naming him a shepherd of shepherds.

Schlert, a Palmer Township native who has been governing the Allentown Catholic Diocese since Bishop John O. Barres left for Long Island this year, will be elevated to the episcopate and installed as the fifth bishop of Allentown on Aug. 31.

Schlert was as surprised as anyone when he learned last week that Francis had appointed him to oversee the 252,000 faithful of the five-county diocese and the hundreds of priests, deacons and religious sisters and brothers who minister to them. …

In taking command, Schlert faces the same challenges as his predecessors and counterparts nationwide: the need to increase vocations, attract young people to the faith, bring lapsed Catholics back to the fold and help those wounded by clerical sexual abuse.

On the latter issue, Schlert said the diocese and the church as a whole have established policies and procedures to prevent abuse and help victims.

“For some it will be a difficult path to healing, and we have to stay close to them and accompany them,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of steps and will continue to be faithful to that.”

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NEW YORK
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

JUNE 27, 2017
ASHER LOVY

This past Sunday, ZA’AKAH took the issue of child sexual abuse and Agudah’s horrendous record on it to the heart of the Jewish community in Midwood, Brooklyn. We started outside the home of Chaim David Zweibel, and after an hour moved to Landau’s Shul, a block down. A lot happened during that protest, and I want to try and break it down, answer some of the more common questions we got, and talk about my experiences as the organizer.

First I want to talk about why we did this in the first place.

For over 20 years of my life, I was abused. It varied between emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and it happened unchecked. My family did nothing to help me, in part because my abuser was my mother and they were more concerned with what would happen to her if they threw her out of the house, and in part because they were worried what would happen to our family reputation. I can’t even remember how many times I had ACS, CPS, or the NYPD in my house asking me if I wanted to make a statement, and every time my family pressured me to keep quiet. They said it would ruin my chances at a shidduch. They said I’d be taken away to a foster home to be raised by goyim and mistreated. They said I’d ruin my cousins’ chances at shidduchim. They told me that the neighbors would talk about me.

Never once did they consider me. Never once did they look beyond their reputations, their concerns over their shidduchim, their concerns over what the neighbors would say, and really see how much I was suffering. It was always about them and what they thought was best for them, best for my abusive mother. They didn’t understand what was happening to me. They didn’t understand that I was dropping out of school because I just couldn’t bring myself to care about math and science when I had to worry every night whether I could go to sleep safely, or whether my door would be broken down in the middle of the night. They didn’t understand that those bottles of booze they found in my drawer were my only way of hanging on to life in a world that with each passing day became crueler, less worth staying alive in. They didn’t understand why I stopped going to shul even though to me it seemed that God clearly didn’t seem to care.

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NEW YORK
The New York Jewish Week

BY HANNAH DREYFUS June 27, 2017

In his first summer as director of Camp Ramah Berkshires, a large Conservative sleepaway camp in the rolling hills of upstate New York, Rabbi Ethan Linden is intent on ensuring that all the camp’s policies and procedures are up to code.

That includes, among medical policies, security policies and fire safety procedures, measures to prevent child sexual abuse.

“The core mission of the camp is to care for children,” said Linden, who will have 750 campers under his supervision over the course of the summer. “Coming in new, it was a good opportunity to work with someone who has expertise in preventing the sorts of nightmare scenarios that keep camp directors up at night.”

“People are not thinking through these issues in advance,” said Berkovits.

Shira Berkovits, founder and executive director of Sacred Spaces, a nonprofit launched a year ago that aims to help Jewish communal institutions develop policies and training to prevent and respond to abuse, is that someone.

“People are not thinking through these issues in advance,” said Berkovits, a lawyer, psychologist, consultant and Jewish educator. “When an issue comes up, people are scrambling to come up with fixes. If we had a code — just like a fire safety code — our community could start to think about the issue of abuse in a different way.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Philly

By Father Kenneth Doyle • Catholic News Service • Posted June 27, 2017

Q. My husband was brought up a Catholic and has always been very committed to the church. I am a convert, and we are raising all of our kids in the Catholic faith. Two of my sons (who are now young adults) and my husband have watched the Netflix series “The Keepers,” and I am deeply worried about the effect this may have on their faith.

My sons have started making negative comments about the church, and even my husband has said that the series’ portrayal of how the church systematically covered up abuse has made him not want to go to Mass. (Luckily, he further commented that the most important things are God and the sacraments, and so he will continue to attend.)

I hear a lot of other people talking about the series, too. How do I convince my children that they should still be proud to be Catholics? (Newport News, Virginia)

A. Since 2002, the Catholic Church in the United States has had a universal zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse of minors — meaning that any priest credibly accused of such an act can never again be permitted to serve in public ministry.

“The Keepers,” to which the question refers, is a seven-part 2017 Netflix series based on the still-unsolved 1969 murder of a Catholic nun in Baltimore. The series examines the theory that Sister Catherine Cesnik was killed because she knew that the chaplain at her school, Father Joseph Maskell, had sexually abused students — and that civil and church authorities interfered with the criminal investigation in order to cover up that connection.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has issued a response entitled “Frequently Asked Questions Based on ‘The Keepers’”; that document is available online at www.archbalt.org, and I recommend it to interested readers. It indicates that the archdiocese had no knowledge of any accusation against Father Maskell until 1992 when an alleged victim came forward.

That person was encouraged to file a report with civil authorities, offered counseling assistance, and Father Maskell was removed from ministry and referred for evaluation and treatment. When the archdiocese was unable to corroborate the allegation, Father Maskell was returned to ministry the following year, but when additional accusers stepped forward in 1994, the priest was permanently prohibited from public ministry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A woman who was sexually abused by a lay vicar in Sussex says she was “completely failed” by the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.

Alesha Racine wrote to Lord Carey in 1992 after discovering her abuser had returned to the church where she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted.

On Monday Lord Carey announced his resignation as an honorary bishop.

A review by Dame Moira Gibb found he had failed to pass on information about abuse carried out by Bishop Peter Ball.

Ms Racine’s abuser, Michael Walsh, was convicted of five indecent assault charges and confessed to sexual relationships with a further eight children.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Rachael Brown and the Trace podcast team

A priest who sexually abused the son of cold case murder victim Maria James was seen covered in blood on the day of her murder, metres from the crime scene.

The priest — identified as Father Anthony Bongiorno — had blood on his face and arm as he ran into St Mary’s Parish Thornbury, roughly 50 metres from the bookshop and home where Maria was stabbed 68 times in 1980.

The ABC’s Trace podcast, which has been reinvestigating the case for the past year, tracked down an electrician who was conducting maintenance work in the grounds of St Mary’s Parish on June 17, 1980 — the day of Maria’s murder.

Allan Hircoe was working on an electricity box on the porch at St Mary’s presbytery when he saw the priest approaching.

“A chap that I recognised as the person in the paper, Bongiorno, came on the left hand side and I looked at him from about eight metres away,” Mr Hircoe said.

“He had blood on one side of his face, and one of his sleeves was rolled up, and he had blood on that arm.”

The electrician approached the priest, who appeared distressed, to see if he was OK.

“I said, ‘What have you done?’ And he said, ‘I cut my face on the wire fence near the roses,’ or, ‘I cut my face on the roses near the wire fence’. Long time ago — I’m not sure which way he had that,” Mr Hircoe said.

Mr Hircoe had a first aid kit in his car, and told Bongiorno to wait while he got it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

27 June

Inquiry publishes financial report for 2016/17

We have today published our financial report for 2016/17 which details the Inquiry’s spending for salaries, legal costs, and safeguarding.

Details about the remuneration package including salary for Inquiry Chair Alexis Jay and the other Panel members are included in the report.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Care Appointments

Written by Jack Hardy

The public inquiry into child sexual abuse cost more than £20 million in the last year, new figures show.

Data from the last financial year shows the former head of the probe racked up expenses in excess of £41,000 in addition to her six-figure salary.

Dame Lowell Goddard rocked the national inquiry with her resignation last August, after which she called for the process to be overhauled.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said in its report that she received costs for rent and utilities, including flights for her and her family to and from New Zealand, as set out in her terms.

Spending for the wide-reaching probe, which began its public evidence hearings earlier this year, dipped considerably below its budget, racking up £20.8 million out of £30.9 million allocated.

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NEW JERSEY
Forward

June 27, 2017

Mike Moskowitz
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTOR

Since I became observant in high school, I’ve been asked, “How can religious people act that way?” by non-Orthodox friends and family more than I would like to remember… and they are asking a good question.

I have had the privilege of spending the decade after high school in full-time learning in two of the largest yeshivas in the world, one in Lakewood, N.J., and one in Jerusalem. Sitting in a room with 800 other young men learning, speaking and breathing the texts that have been part of our tradition for 3,500 years, the Torah looks alive and very well.

Yesterday I saw several of those young men being arrested by the FBI for fraud. We were taught to be Talmidei Chachamim – practitioners of the Torah’s wisdom. The goal was to minimize, and ideally eliminate, the space between the ideal Torah-centric life and the actual way we live our lives.

Unfortunately, the void between the two is vast, painfully disappointing and continues to widen. The world and our communities are changing, perhaps faster than ever, but spiritual practice is often frozen in time. There is complex tension between innovation and tradition that requires collective rabbinic skill to address. But instead of being present for the holy labor of asking what God expects from us now, the pause button was pressed and the need for updated answers avoided.

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ROME
Associated Press

BY FRANCES D’EMILIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME (AP) — An ailing Mali archbishop facing allegations of financial impropriety assured the Vatican on Tuesday he plans to show up at St. Peter’s Basilica to be made a cardinal by Pope Francis.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Bamako Archbishop Jean Zerbo “has confirmed his presence” at the Wednesday ceremony where Zerbo and four other churchmen will be elevated to cardinal’s rank.

European media have speculated that Francis might not make Zerbo cardinal following reports that he and two other Mali bishops had opened Swiss bank accounts totaling 12 million euros ($13.5 million.)

Citing poor health, Zerbo canceled an interview with The Associated Press in Rome Tuesday. Zerbo, 73, arrived in Rome on Saturday from Paris, where he had undergone medical checks following intestinal surgery some time ago in Mali, according to aides.

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ITALIA
Il Mattino

[He is accused of having taken about 500 thousand euro directly from bank accounts and the cash of the diocese. Hence, Peter Vittorelli, former abbot of Monte Cassino in the province of Frosinone – one of the most important abbeys of Italy – has been indicted by the investigating magistrate in Rome. He is accused of embezzlement.]

È accusato di avere prelevato circa 500 mila euro direttamente dai conti correnti e dalla cassa della diocesi. Per questo Pietro Vittorelli, ex abate di Montecassino, in provincia di Frosinone – una delle abbazie più importanti d’Italia -, è stato rinviato a giudizio dal gip di Roma. Nei suoi confronti l’accusa è di appropriazione indebita. Insieme al religioso il giudice ha disposto processo anche per il fratello di Vittorelli, Massimo, accusato di riciclaggio. Lo scandalo era esploso nel novembre 2015, quando Vittorelli era già un ex ‘Dom’ del monastero fondato da San Benedetto, alla guida del quale era stato dal 2007 al giugno 2013.

Poi era stato costretto a rinunciare all’incarico dopo una grave crisi cardiaca seguita da una lunga degenza e da un intenso periodo di riabilitazione, anche in una clinica in Svizzera. Per i magistrati romani, l’ex abate di Montecassino si sarebbe indebitamente appropriato di risorse destinate a finalità di culto e a opere caritatevoli. Secondo l’accusa, le somme sottratte sarebbero state riciclate in varie tranche, dopo essere transitate su conti correnti gestiti dal fratello Massimo, intermediario finanziario, prima di tornare, sempre stando alle indagini, nella disponibilità di Dom Vittorelli, che aveva accesso illimitato ai conti dell’Abbazia di Montecassino. La Guardia di Finanza gli sequestrò beni per oltre 500 mila euro.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of Allentown, United States of America, Msgr. Alfred A. Schlert, currently diocesan administrator of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Msgr. Alfred A. Schlert

Msgr. Alfred A. Schlert was born on 24 July 1961 in Easton, Pennsylvania, in the diocese of Allentown. After attending the “Saint Jane Frances de Chantal” primary school and the “Notre Dame High School”, he entered the “Saint Charles Borromeo” Seminary in Overbrook. He carried out his theological studies in the Roman Seminary and the Pontifical Lateran University, obtaining a licentiate in canon law in 1992.

He was ordained a priest on 19 September 1987 for the diocese of Allentown.

Since priestly ordination he has held the following offices: vicar of the “Saint Francis of Assisi” parish in Allentown (1987-1988); teacher at the “Notre Dame High School” in Easton (1988-1991 and 1992-1997); chaplain for university pastoral care at “Lehigh University”, Bethlehem (1994-1997); vice chancellor and special secretary to the bishop (1997-1998); vicar general (1998-2017); pastor of the “Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish” in Hellertown (2008-2010); delegate for the bishop at the Executive Committee and the Administrative Committee of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (since 1999); vice-president of the same Conference (since 2012); and diocesan administrator (since 2017).

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2017 / 07:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday the Vatican announced Pope Francis’ pick of Mons. Alfred A. Schlert to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania, himself born and raised in the diocese.

Bishop-elect Schlert, 55, fills the vacancy left when his predecessor, Bishop John Oliver Barres was appointed to the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York at the end of January.

In a statement on the appointment June 27, Bishop Barres said that Mons. Schlert “has a blend of holiness, intelligence and pastoral experience that will serve the mission of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Allentown in an extraordinary way.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Brendan WrigleyBrendan Wrigley
@brendan_wrigley

27 Jun 2017

About 100 people gathered at St Patrick’s College on Tuesday afternoon as the school took the momentous step of officially apologising to victims of sexual abuse who suffered during their time at the college.

Sexual abuse survivor Phil Nagle joined headmaster John Crowley and student leaders in speaking at the event in what was an historic first for the school.

The gathering also served as the official opening of the school’s reflective garden and monument, with high profile survivors Peter Blenkiron and Andrew Collins accompanying college captain Mitchell Tuddenham to unveil the space.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Charlotte King

A survivor of clergy child sexual abuse has called on Catholic institutions in Melbourne to take the lead of a Ballarat school, after it offered the first public apology to its abuse victims.

St Patricks College is one of Ballarat’s most enduring Catholic institutions. Some students have graduated to become priests, archbishops and even a cardinal.

Cardinal George Pell was made school captain here in 1959.

But the school has also been the scene of trauma, violence and sexual abuse.

On Tuesday, at the foot of a red brick building which once housed the perpetrators, the school’s headmaster acknowledged the harm.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

BY FELIX N. CODILLA III , CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
Jun 26, 2017

“The Keepers,” one of Netflix’s highly successful shows, chronicles the ongoing investigation into the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a nun teaching at a high school in Baltimore, Maryland. The 26-year-old English went missing on Nov. 7, 1969, and her body was found two months later in a garbage dump outside the city.

But the original true crime documentary isn’t about Sister Cathy’s mysterious death but the cover-up of her story. The nun was apparently threatening to expose a widespread child sex abuse case going on at the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School where she taught.

“There’s the on-the-record public story of what happened to Sister Cathy and then there’s the world beneath,” a community member said on the series’ trailer. The nun was bludgeoned to death with a hammer while her neck bore strangulation marks. Making things more sinister was the disappearance or murder of four other girls that time.

Everything disturbing and criminal about the series led to one figure: Father A. Joseph Maskell, the school chaplain. The priest was highly influential in the Baltimore area, having served as chaplain for the Baltimore County Police, the Maryland State Police and the Maryland National Guard.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com June 26, 2017

A Sartell man who volunteered at a local church was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for sexually abusing a teenager who was an altar boy at a St. Cloud church.

Douglas Gerard Kleinsmith, 56, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of felony criminal sexual conduct on the day his trial was supposed to begin.

Kleinsmith volunteered to train altar boys and trained the teenage boy he would abuse, according to a criminal complaint charging him. The complaint says the boy met Kleinsmith at church when he was 15 years old, and that year also began working for Kleinsmith outside church hours.

Kleinsmith was part of a Latin Mass group that met at St. John Cantius Church, according to the Diocese of St. Cloud. The Latin Mass group for which Kleinsmith volunteered rented the church from the parish; its activities were not a function of the parish.

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NEW YORK
Brooklyn Paper

BY COLIN MIXSON
Brooklyn Paper

The Diocese of Brooklyn established a fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy, its bishop said Thursday.

The settlement program — which offers money in exchange for immunity from prosecution, and was announced by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio days after the state Senate killed a bill that would open the Catholic Church to a flood of lawsuits — offers immediate recourse to victims as lawmakers in Albany continue to twiddle their thumbs, according to a lawyer portrayed in the Oscar-award-winning film, “Spotlight.”

“It’s certainly beneficial for some victims, who enter the fund with the hope of gaining validation, healing, and moving on with their lives,” said Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 13 victims of sexual abuse in Brooklyn. “Others will wait for the legislature to change the statute of limitation laws.”

The Brooklyn fund is modeled after one established last year by the Archdiocese of New York, both of which are administered by a pair of attorneys that oversaw the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

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NEW YORK
Verdict

26 JUN 2017

MARCI A. HAMILTON

New York lawmakers last week closed their 2017 session in “legislative hell,” as one Senator called it, without resolving a number of important issues, including the Child Victims Act, which would reform New York’s antiquated child sex abuse statutes of limitations (SOLs). It would extend the civil and criminal SOLs, revive expired civil SOLs for one year, and eliminate the “notice of claim” requirement that has hobbled public school victims’ access to justice. Governor Mario Cuomo had endorsed the concept earlier in the year, making him the first state governor to step forward before being asked to sign such a bill. While the assembly had passed a version and the senate appeared to have a majority to vote for it, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, on the next to the last day of the session, blocked its progress from committee to the floor. The New York situation is brilliantly summarized and parodied by Samantha Bee here.

So what does a survivor do who has been put through the wringer by the New York legislative process for over a decade and who just had Sen. Flanagan unilaterally shut down their hopes again? Naturally, they picket the ninth hole of the Trump National Golf Course where Flanagan is holding a political fundraiser at $1,500/head. Survivors are where they need to be: speaking their truth to power. And the truth makes Flanagan complicit in the cover up of information about pedophiles the public desperately needs.

Now, it is no surprise at this point that an Irish Catholic Republican Senator would carry the Catholic bishops’ water on child sex abuse, but everyone knows that the bill is going to pass sooner or later. New York has some of the worst SOLs in the country and even Irish Catholic Republican politicians can agree that child sex abuse is really bad and hiding predators terrible. This is not all about the past. SOL reform helps children in the present tense, because it identifies child predators who are still operating in the silence afforded them when the system gags victims with expired SOLs.

When I first started thinking and writing about this issue over 15 years ago, the term “statute of limitations” was routinely met with a blank stare. As in, what are you talking about, and more importantly, why? It was legalese. By 2011, however, when the Penn State-Jerry Sandusky scandal hit, audiences were savvy that it is just a deadline for filing a lawsuit or pressing charges—and that it frequently re-victimizes victims by sending a message that their injuries are not worthy of the legal system’s time.

So what accounts for the New York Senate’s obstinate refusal to take up the issue? The answer, of course, lies in the lobbyists. Some have said that the opponents to the CVA lurked in the shadows this year, but no one needs a college degree to know that the most ardent and active opposition comes from the Catholic bishops. And it is equally clear why they were lurking rather than lobbing salvos into the public square.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101l.5

By Adam Hochron June 26, 2017

LAKEWOOD — The arrest of four millionaire couples on Monday by state and federal authorities may just be the start as officials crack down on welfare fraud in this Ocean County community.

Rabbi Zalmen Srotzkin, 39, of Congregation Lutzk, and his wife, Tzipporah, 35; and Mordechai Breskin, 37, and his wife, Jocheved, 35, were arrested on charges filed by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

The FBI, meanwhile, arrested Rachel Sorotzkin, 32, Mordechai Sorotzkin, 35, Yocheved Nussbaum, 40, and Shimon Nussbaum, 42, on federal charges of conspiring to steal federal funds.

Authorities said the families, who owned businesses and lived in large homes, collected Medicaid and subsidized housing benefits and food stamps.

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BRAZIL
The Tablet (UK)

26 June 2017 | by Daniele Palmer

On 2 June Herald’s leader, Mgr. Clá Dias, unexpectedly resigned and reports emerged of a Vatican investigation into the group

The leader of a Brazilian traditionalist movement that was praised in the past two pontificates has resigned, and a video has subsequently emerged of the leader relaying bizarre claims by one of his priests regarding Pope Francis. Mgr João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, the founder and now ex-leader of the Heralds of the Gospel, can be seen in the video saying that the devil had told the Heralds priest that Francis was “my man”. Satan said Francis is “stupid” and does “everything I want”, Clá Dias says.

But speaking to The Tablet, Fr Angel Veiga, a Rome-based leader of the order, said the video has been “taken out of context”, and what was said in it does not equate to the position of the Heralds. They were simply relaying Satan’s message.

“It’s the Devil, no? The Devil is the father of lies,” Fr Veiga explained, adding that the video showed “a private, intimate conversation between our founder [Clá Dias] and various priests.”

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NEW YORK
The Grio

A 44-year-old Catholic priest has been accused of using his position to pressure a woman in her 20’s into sexual abuse.

Father Andre Bain became the head of the St. Vincent Ferrer Church in East Flatbush in July 2014, and shortly after that, a young woman came to him for counseling. During that time, he allegedly pressured her into performing sexual acts, keeping her quiet by promising that they were not committing sin because the sex was not vaginal.

Now, the accuser is suing the Brooklyn Diocese and its bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio, alleging that they did not act fast enough to the complaints, which allowed Bain to continue his behavior to prey on other women.

“Plaintiff believes that Fr. Bain has been carrying out these behaviors for decades in other parishes since his days in seminary,” the lawsuit says.

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NEW JESEY
United States Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey

Arrests Part of Joint State and Federal Effort to Prosecute Public Assistance Fraud

TRENTON, N.J. – Two couples from Lakewood, New Jersey, were arrested this morning on charges that they failed to report their sizable incomes in order to fraudulently collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in public assistance benefits, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced.

Rachel Sorotzkin, 32, and Mordechai Sorotzkin, 35, are charged by complaint with one count of conspiring to steal government funds. Yocheved Nussbaum, 40, and Shimon Nussbaum, 42, also of Lakewood, are charged in a separate complaint with one count of conspiring to steal government funds. The Sorotzkins and the Nussbaums, all of Lakewood, are expected to make their appearances this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert in Trenton federal court.

According to the complaints:

From 2011 through 2014, Rachel and Mordechai Sorotzkin applied for and received Medicaid health insurance benefits for themselves and their children. After being approved for Medicaid benefits in August of 2011, the Sorotzkins received significant windfalls – including a lump sum payment of $1 million from Rachel Sorotzkin’s business in April of 2013 – which they failed to report to Medicaid officials. Despite earning in excess of $1 million in each of the 2012 and 2013 calendar years, the Sorotzkins continued to use their Medicaid cards, ultimately defrauding the government of approximately $96,000 in taxpayer-funded medical care.

In a separate scheme, Yocheved and Shimon Nussbaum applied for and received public benefits for themselves and their children from 2011 through 2014, despite their significant income. In the years prior to and during the conspiracy, the Nussbaums created a variety of companies that were nominally run by relatives but were actually controlled by the Nussbaums. They opened various bank accounts in the names of these companies and used funds from these accounts to cover personal expenses.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
June 26 2017
The Times

The former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, resigned as an honorary bishop in the Church of England today following criticism of his handling of the case of a senior cleric who was a dangerous sex offender.

Lord Carey, 81, was heavily criticised last week in an independent review of the Church’s conduct during investigations into allegations against Peter Ball, who had been bishop of Lewes and then of Gloucester.

Ball, 85, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2015 but had escaped justice in 1993 when he was given a police caution as part of a deal under which he resigned his ministry.

A report by Dame Moira Gibb found that Lord Carey had restored Ball’s permission to take church services and allowed him to preach and conduct confirmation at a number of public schools.

A trawl of Church archives found that Lord Carey, archbishop from 1991-2002, had described Ball in a letter as “basically innocent”, despite knowing of the caution for gross indecency and the suspicion that there were many other offences.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Gloucestershire Live

BY VICTORIA TEMPLE
26 JUN 2017

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey has stepped down from his role as an honorary assistant bishop following following a report which criticised the church’s ‘collusion’ with abuser Peter Ball.

The independent report criticised the Church of England’s handling of the high-profile sex abuse case, involving Peter Ball, former Bishop of Gloucester.

Lord Carey, 81, has stepped down from his position as honorary assistant bishop in Oxford, after Justin Welby, the current archbishop of Canterbury, asked him to “carefully consider his position”.

A statement has been issued by the Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford.

He said: “I have met with Lord Carey following the Archbishop’s letter to him. In light of Dame Moira Gibb’s review into the Peter Ball case, Lord Carey has resigned from his role as honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford. Lord Carey has accepted the criticisms made of him in the Gibb review and has apologised to the victims of Peter Ball.”

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

BY SPENCER KENT AND THOMAS MORIARTY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

LAKEWOOD — A rabbi, his wife and multiple other couples were arrested Monday morning in a series of raids by federal and state authorities in a massive welfare fraud investigation, authorities said.

Those arrested included Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin, who runs the Congregation Lutzk synagogue, his wife, Tzipporah, and Mordechai Sorotzkin and his wife, Rachel, and Shimon and Yocheved Nussbaum, authorities said.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrests early Monday. A half-dozen couples were arrested in total during the coordinated raids, authorities said.

They are accused in a $1.3 million fraud scheme involving under-reported income to illegally obtain Medicaid, Section 8 housing assistance, food stamps, Social Security disability and Supplemental Security Income, authorities said.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Payton Guion and Alex N. Gecan , Asbury Park Press June 26, 2017

LAKEWOOD — A prominent rabbi and several others were arrested in simultaneous federal and state raids Monday morning on charges related to alleged public assistance fraud on a scale rarely seen before in New Jersey, according to law enforcement sources.

Rabbi Zalmen Sorotzkin, who runs the synagogue Congregation Lutzk and businesses linked to the synagogue, was taken into custody Monday and is en route to face a judge in Superior Court in Toms River.

Also arrested in the sting headed by the FBI, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and other agencies were Zalmen’s wife, Tzipporah Sorotzkin, and married couple Mordechai and Jocheved Breskin. The three also face state criminal charges, according to a source close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Their first appearance before a Superior Court judge is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Anglican Diocese of Oxford

“I have met with Lord Carey following the Archbishop’s letter to him. In light of Dame Moira Gibb’s review into the Peter Ball case, Lord Carey has resigned from his role as honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford. Lord Carey has accepted the criticisms made of him in the Gibb review and has apologised to the victims of Peter Ball.

He said in his statement on Thursday: “I accept the criticisms made of me. I apologise to the victims of Peter Ball. I believed Peter Ball’s protestations and gave too little credence to the vulnerable young men and boys behind those allegations. I regret that after Peter Ball was cautioned I did not place his name on the Lambeth list.”

Along with many others, I have been deeply distressed to read Dame Moira Gibb’s report with its narrative of the abuse perpetrated by Peter Ball which remained hidden for so long. I hope that the focus of attention will continue to be on the survivors of abuse and offering to them the care and support they need.

As the Diocese of Oxford we are committed to improving continually the quality of safeguarding and care and will seek to learn the lessons of Dame Moira Gibb’s review and put its recommendations into practice”.

For further enquiries please call Jillian Moody: 07824 906839 or Jo Duckles: 07880 716761

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, religious affairs correspondent
26 JUNE 2017

George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has resigned from his post in the Church of England over a report that said he was among senior figures who “colluded” with paedophile bishop Peter Ball.

Lord Carey stepped down from his role as honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, urged him to “consider his position”.

Last Thursday, an independent report by Dame Moira Gibb found that church leaders had mishandled Ball’s case by failing to offer his victims adequate support and concealing evidence of his wrongdoing.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, the Rt. Rev Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, said: “

“I have met with Lord Carey following the Archbishop’s letter to him. In light of Dame Moira Gibb’s review into the Peter Ball case, Lord Carey has resigned from his role as honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford.

“Lord Carey has accepted the criticisms made of him in the Gibb review and has apologised to the victims of Peter Ball.

“Along with many others, I have been deeply distressed to read Dame Moira Gibb’s report with its narrative of the abuse perpetrated by Peter Ball which remained hidden for so long. I hope that the focus of attention will continue to be on the survivors of abuse and offering to them the care and support they need.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
Monday 26 June 2017

George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has resigned as honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford following a damning independent report criticising the Church of England’s handling of a high-profile sex abuse case.

Carey, 81, quit after Justin Welby, the current archbishop of Canterbury, made the unprecedented decision to ask him to “carefully consider his position”. The report concluded the church had “colluded [with the abuser] rather than seeking to help those he had harmed”.

Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, met with Carey this week following Welby’s letter. In a statement, Croft said Carey had resigned in the light of the independent review. “Lord Carey has accepted the criticisms made of him … and has apologised to the victims of Peter Ball.”

Ball, the former bishop of Gloucester and Lewes, was jailed in October 2015 for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men aged 17-25 who had sought spiritual guidance from him between 1977 and 1992. He was released from prison in February after serving 16 months.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The former Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned from his last formal role in the church after a review into historical child sex abuse.

Lord Carey was criticised in an independent review of the church’s handling of abuse carried out by Bishop Peter Ball, 85, who was jailed in 2015.

Dame Moira Gibb’s review revealed he had failed to pass information on Ball to the police back in 1992.

Justin Welby, current Archbishop of Canterbury, asked for his resignation.

Lord Carey had been given a role as an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford, a position given to many retired bishops.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, June 26, 2017

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Previously unseen details of a medical trial by Glaxo in 1974 at a Cork mother and baby home have generated a whole new series of questions for the nuns and the companies involved, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

For almost two decades, the public has been drip-fed revelations about medical testing by British pharmaceutical companies on children in care in Ireland.

These tests involved the trialling of various vaccine combinations by predecessor companies of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) — Glaxo Laboratories and Burroughs Wellcome. These revelations generated more questions than answers — answers it is hoped the Mother and Baby Homes Commission can provide.

However, it has now emerged thashoot Glaxo Laboratories was also trialling other products on children here — namely lactose and baby formulas.

This occurred in 1974 in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork and had never been made public. Once again, the revelation has generated lots of questions but few answers.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — For two years, Matthew Fenner said he pleaded with authorities to investigate his allegations that a group of fellow congregants at the Word of Faith Fellowship church had punched, slapped and choked him to expel his “homosexual demons.”

An Associated Press investigation found that Rutherford County investigators and then-District Attorney Brad Greenway delayed investigating and told Fenner his only option was to pursue misdemeanor charges against the church members he said assaulted him for nearly two hours in the evangelical church’s sanctuary.

The AP’s conclusions are based on more than a dozen interviews and court documents, along with a series of secretly made recordings that were provided of Fenner’s meetings with law enforcement authorities, including Rutherford County Sheriff Chris Francis.

In February, the AP detailed how many Word of Faith Fellowship congregants were regularly attacked both physically and verbally in an attempt to “purify” sinners by beating out devils.

The church has come under scrutiny by law enforcement and social services authorities on numerous occasions with little effect, mostly because followers refused to cooperate. But Fenner’s relentless pursuit eventually led to the indictment of five congregants, who were charged with kidnapping and assault.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

[Research project on sexual abuse in the area of ​​the Catholic church is extended. The interdisciplinary research project about sexual abuse by priests, deacons and male members of religious orders has been extended nine months until September 2018 on advice and recommendation of the research consortium. This is necessary because of the complexity of the project.]

Das interdisziplinäre Forschungsprojekt „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ („MHG-Studie“) wird auf Anraten und Empfehlung des Forschungskonsortiums um neun Monate bis September 2018 verlängert. Aufgrund des Umfangs und auch der Komplexität ist dieser Schritt notwendig. Nachdem sich auch der Beirat des Projektes dafür ausgesprochen hatte, hat der Ständige Rat auf seiner jüngsten Sitzung dieser Verlängerung zugestimmt.

Das Forschungskonsortium, das die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz seit März 2014 mit der Studie beauftragt hat, wird von Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing vom Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim als Verbundkoordinator geleitet. Neben dem Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit Mannheim (Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Salize) sind das Kriminologische Institut der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dieter Dölling, Prof. Dr. Dieter Hermann), das Institut für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Kruse, Prof. Dr. Eric Schmitt) und der Lehrstuhl für Kriminologie der Universität Gießen (Prof. Dr. Britta Bannenberg) Mitglieder des Forschungskonsortiums.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Westen

[The investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests is stalled. It is not the first problem of the project. Actually, the researchers wanted to present the results by the end of 2017. The deadline for dealing with sexual abuse within the Catholic church was now extended until September 2018. “This step is necessary because of its scope and complexity,” a statement from the German Bishops’ Conference of Monday.]

Die Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs durch katholische Priester gerät ins Stocken. Es ist nicht das erste Problem des Projekts.

Berlin. Eigentlich wollten die Forscher Ende 2017 die Ergebnisse vorlegen – nun wurde die Frist für die Aufarbeitung des sexuellen Missbrauchs innerhalb der katholischen Kirche bis September 2018 verlängert. „Aufgrund des Umfangs und auch der Komplexität ist dieser Schritt notwendig.“, heißt es in einer Mitteilung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz vom Montag.

Die katholische Kirche hatte sich mit dem Zugang zu den internen Akten, die über den sexuellen Missbrauch „durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige“ Aufschluss geben sollen, lange schwer getan. Ein erstes Forschungsprojekt mit dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer war gescheitert, weil dieser der Kirche vorwarf, seine Forschung zensieren und kontrollieren zu wollen. Das Angebot der Kirche, Opfer finanziell zu entschädigen, wurde zudem lange als Strategie verstanden, sich der Aufklärung zu entziehen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph & Argus

Jenny Loweth

A FORMER church bus driver had his prison sentence for sexually abusing young girls increased to 13 years at Bradford Crown Court after admitting five further similar offences.

Tony Mitchell was jailed for 11 years in October 2015 for raping a child of 11 and molesting five more girls, aged between seven and 13.

Mitchell, 47, formerly of Idlethorp Way, Thorpe Edge, Bradford, was brought back to court from prison to have his jail term increased by two years.

He pleaded guilty to inciting two little girls to touch one another indecently, inciting a child to touch him indecently and two offences of sexually assaulting a girl under 13.

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AUSTRALIA
Starts at 60

Victoria Police has been warned against charging Cardinal George Pell over allegations of child sexual abuse in the face of intense public pressure on the issue.

President of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia, Robyn Speed, told The Australian that bringing charges against Pell before obtaining solid evidence would only lead to a show trial that would appease “the mob” but do nothing to help alleged victims.

Intense public interest in the case has lead to fears a jury could be prejudiced against Pell if the case ever goes to trial.

As Australia’s most senior Catholic figure, Pell drew intense public scrutiny over his handling of the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse last year.

He refused to return to Australia from Rome to give evidence at the hearing, claiming he was too sick to fly.

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AUSTRALIA
Goulburn Post

26 Jun 2017

A special church service on Friday night will acknowledge previous “wrongdoing” within the Catholic Church but also remember past schools.

Mary Queen of Apostles Parish Priest, Father Dermid McDermott said the ‘Liturgy of Lament’ was not sparked solely by sexual abuse cases at the former Saint Patrick’s College. However, these and the Royal Commission into Sexual Abuse of Children in Institutional Care had impacted on the Parish.

“I personally don’t know anyone (past students) affected by sexual abuse but they are there; it is underlying,” he said.

“There seems to be a gap between the apology and what’s happened since and sometimes the only response is to get on your knees and pray.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY JAMES FANELLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 26, 2017

A Catholic priest preyed on a vulnerable Brooklyn parishioner by twisting church theology in order to pressure her into performing sex acts on him, a lawsuit charges.

Father Andre Bain is accused of sexually abusing the young woman, who came to him for counseling shortly after he became the head of St. Vincent Ferrer Church in East Flatbush in July 2014.

Instead of providing spiritual guidance, Bain, 44, pushed the woman — who was in her 20s — into sexual acts over the course of several months, according to the lawsuit. The priest kept her quiet about the abuse by telling her they weren’t committing a sin because it was not vaginal intercourse, the lawsuit says.

The accuser — who filed the lawsuit anonymously — is suing the Brooklyn Diocese and its bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio, for negligence, saying that they were slow to respond to the woman’s complaint, allowing Bain to prey on her and other women.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Editorial

Sunday 25 June 2017

The report of Dame Moira Gibb into the Church of England’s handling of the abusive bishop Peter Ball makes shocking reading. It reveals a concern for appearance over reality, for the institution over the individual and, most of all, for the strong and powerful over the weak and vulnerable. From the moment the first victims came forward, the response of the church up to the highest level was one of institutional self-protection.

The complaint was not reported to the police, but only to the archbishop of Canterbury, then George Carey, who persisted long past the point of reason in hoping that his colleague was innocent. The police were not told until after the first victim to come forward, Neil Todd, had attempted suicide twice – and even then it was his parents and not the church who made the complaint. The diocese of Gloucester hired a former policeman to investigate, and if possible discredit, the witnesses.

After news of Bishop Ball’s arrest broke, Lambeth Palace received seven independent accusations about his earlier behaviour. Two were seen by Archbishop Carey, who replied to them personally. Only one of the seven, though, was passed to the police, and that the least damning. Lord Carey’s message to the diocese after Bishop Ball was arrested urged prayers for the bishop and said nothing about victims. After Bishop Ball had retired on spurious grounds of ill health and accepted a caution – though remaining in denial about his crimes – Lord Carey worked to have him rehabilitated. True, he did so with less ingenuity than Peter Ball’s identical twin Michael, himself a bishop, who has admitted allowing his twin to deputise for him at “one or two events”, even after his disgrace.

Lord Carey nevertheless gave Peter Ball £12,000 from church funds, leading to loud complaints from the brothers, who had wanted £20,000. He deliberately kept Peter Ball’s name off the Lambeth blacklist of unemployable clergy; he had the disgraced bishop to stay at Lambeth Palace twice; he attempted to find him work in South Africa (writing to Desmond Tutu for this scheme) and in prisons; he wrote to an American parish that “Peter was possibly the victim of a plot but that, of course, cannot be proved”. Lord Carey’s only objection to a full rehabilitation of Bishop Ball as a retired bishop was that it might provoke unfavourable publicity.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Breaking News

A man who was forcibly removed from his mother as a baby by the Catholic Church has begged for justice for the victims of abuse at former mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland.

Eunan Duffy was taken from his mother against her will minutes after his birth in 1968 in the former Marian Vale mother and baby home in Newry, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, and put up for adoption.

Mr Duffy only discovered he was adopted in February 2016.

He immediately launched a search for his birth mother, believing she had willingly given him up.

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UNITED STATES
New Republic

Are Protestants concealing a Catholic-size sexual abuse scandal?

BY KATHRYN JOYCE
June 20, 2017

It was a hot day in July, a Saturday afternoon, and Kim James was bored. Her older sisters had taken her to a church event in their small hometown in Indiana, where the girls were spending their summer. Her parents were back in Bangladesh, working at the remote Baptist missionary compound where the family had lived, on and off, for five years. For an adventurous and high-spirited 13-year-old like Kim, Indiana seemed dull compared to Bangladesh. She missed her friends, the dozen or so missionary kids everybody called “MKs.” She missed the menagerie her parents let her keep: goats, cows, a parrot, a monkey. She missed the jackals that called in the distance at night, and the elephants that sometimes crashed through the compound fence.

As she thought about the mission, though, Kim felt troubled. Something was weighing on her mind. So she decided to skip out of the church event—it was for little kids, anyway—and go see the pastor. She found him in his office, trying to compose the next day’s sermon. Kim ambled around his desk, picking things up, putting them back down. Eventually, with feigned casualness, she pointed between her legs and said, “Is it wrong when someone does this—touches you here?”

The pastor dropped his pen and looked up. “Kim,” he asked, “has this happened to you?”

At first, Kim said no. But as the pastor gently persisted, she began to sob. Yes, she had been touched, there and there, lots of times.

The pastor asked Kim who had touched her.

Uncle Donn, she said.

Donn, the pastor would soon learn, was not really Kim’s uncle. He was Donn Ketcham, the 58-year-old chief doctor at the mission hospital in Bangladesh. His father had co-founded the Baptist denomination that sponsored the missionary group, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism; its goal was to create a “militant, missionary-minded, Biblically separate haven of Fundamentalism.” Little known outside the world of Christian fundamentalists, ABWE is among the largest missionary groups in the United States, deploying more than 900 Baptists to 70 countries. His father’s legacy made Ketcham a sort of prince within the world of ABWE: the doctor with the “magical name,” as one missionary later put it, much beloved by the family of churches that supported the group. He’d been the undisputed patriarch of the Bangladesh mission for almost three decades.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE
The Australian
June 25, 2017

Victoria Police has been warned not to charge Cardinal George Pell over alleged child sexual abuse to clear the air, or to stage a show trial in response to intense public interest and anger over clerical sex abuse in general.

Lawyer Robin Speed, president of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia said prosecutors should act against Cardinal Pell only if they were fully satisfied about the quality of the evidence. “They should not act in response to the baying of a section of the mob,’’ he said.

Retired High Court judge Ian Callinan QC said he was “always concerned about the impact of pre-trial publicity to contaminate a trial’’ in high-profile cases and about the capacity of judges to dispel the prejudices it caused in the minds of potential jurors.

Mr Callinan said widespread media emphasis on investigative agencies “getting scalps’’ did not help the legal process. “Pre-trial by media is a serious problem,’’ he said.

Mr Speed said that if the cardinal was charged and found innocent the drawn out conduct of the investigation over two years could warrant a judicial inquiry.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By GREG MASON / gmason@uticaod.com

Three years ago, when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse found credibility to allegations that a Utica priest committed acts of child sexual abuse, it was not Bishop Robert Cunningham’s policy to make public those matters, said Danielle Cummings, the diocese’s chancellor and director of communications.

The diocese quietly removed the Rev. Felix Colosimo from priestly ministry in 2014 in response to claims from California man Matthew Strzepak that the priest molested him as a child. Colosimo served at several Utica-area churches, including St. Leo’s Church in Holland Patent, St. Peter’s Church in North Utica and — most recently — Our Lady of the Rosary in New Hartford.

Strzepak filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Colosimo and the diocese in federal court in Connecticut. Declining to speak in further detail, Cummings said Strzepak going public is why the diocese chose to address the allegations publicly, though she reiterated that the past claims were markedly different than those in the June 2 lawsuit.

In past years, Cunningham has rejected requests to release the names of 11 diocese priests connected to credible sexual abuse allegations. That stance has not changed, said Cummings, who noted a challenge in balancing disclosure and respecting the wishes of victims.

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OHIO
Cincinnati.com

By Dan Horn, dhorn@enquirer.com

The letter is in a folder on the mantel, near a crucifix that once belonged to a Catholic bishop.

Michael Vanderburgh sits a few feet away, sipping coffee and reading email on his phone. The sun isn’t up yet on this early January morning, but he’s trying to get a head start on work while the kids are still sleeping.

Michael can’t remember the last time he looked at the letter. Years, probably. He found it in a cabinet in the basement over the weekend, stashed with some old bills and receipts. He isn’t sure how he feels about seeing it again.

It is not the kind of letter someone gets every day.

He reaches for the folder and opens it. “We recognize this was a difficult process for you,” the letter says. “We are certain that no amount of money can sufficiently compensate a victim of abuse.”

The letter arrived in March 2005 and is from a tribunal created by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to resolve clergy abuse cases. Michael, who was abused by a priest as a child, was one of those cases. The tribunal sent him a check for $21,600.67.

More than 100 abuse survivors got similar letters back then, along with similar checks for oddly precise amounts. Some survivors were angry, others forgiving. Some left the church, others stayed. None responded the way Michael did.

Two years after receiving the letter, he took a job with the archdiocese. And not just any job. As director of stewardship, Michael is responsible for the largest fundraising campaign the archdiocese has ever undertaken.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on June 25, 2017

by Betty Clermont

Both of the following appeared in today’s New York Times business section:

“Lessons From the Collapse of Banco Popular: When Spain’s fifth-largest bank failed this month, Banco Santander swooped in to the rescue, and regulators breathed easy. They should have been scared.”

“Does God Want You to Spend $300,000 for College? The retail price of joining Father John I. Jenkins at the University of Notre Dame is climbing ever higher.”

(Since NYT articles are not free over a certain number, I won’t link to them but they’re easy enough to find.)

Banco Popular and Banco Santander are both connected to Opus Dei, at the top, an international secret society of plutocrats (Robert Hutchison, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei).

Both banks have been charged with ripping off customers: “The scandalous economic practices of Opus Dei,” “Santander Bank fined $10m for deceptive marketing techniques,” and subpoenaed for predatory subprime loans.

Two Santander officials sit on the six-member Board of Superintendence of the Vatican Bank.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

Chris Churchill

Albany

Much of what’s wrong with New York government can be summed up by two moments from the waning hours of the legislative session.

The first came at a little before 5 p.m. Tuesday, when Sen. Majority Leader John Flanagan revealed that there would not be a vote on the Child Victims Act.

The second arrived 28 hours later, when Flanagan introduced an 11th-hour bill to name the Tappan Zee Bridge after the governor’s father. It passed the Senate unanimously.

What a juxtaposition. Really, you couldn’t ask for a better illustration of how Albany power brokers put the wants of the political class over the needs of ordinary people — especially the weak and the powerless. It was out-flipping-rageous.

The Child Victims Act is about protecting children from sexual abuse. It would do away with a disgraceful statute of limitations — one of the most restrictive in the nation — that bars child sexual-abuse victims from proceeding with cases once they turn 23.

It would allow survivors to bring civil cases until they turn 50 and felony criminal cases until they’re 28. It also includes a one-year window to revive old cases.
More Information

Victims have been lobbying for the bill for more than a decade. They’ve made endless trips to Albany to cajole lawmakers. They have worked tirelessly for their cause.

Even if you oppose the Child Victims Act, which easily passed the Assembly, there’s no justification for denying it a Senate vote. Advocates deserved that much for their hard work. They deserved to see which lawmakers were on their side.

Flanagan denied them that. The Republican from Long Island couldn’t even be bothered to offer an explanation. The arrogance is staggering.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 24, 2017

ALBANY — When it came to again killing the Child Victims Act this year, few stepped forward to take credit.

Many opponents of the measure to make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to bring cases as adults preferred operating in the shadows, leaving the heavy lifting of fighting the bill publicly to the Catholic Church.

“My gut tells me there’s safety in silence,” said survivor and advocate Kathryn Robb. “These are youth serving organizations and very much like the Senate (that killed the bill), this will be something that defines them.”

In all, just two formal memos opposing the bill were filed with the sponsors during the legislative session.

The state Catholic Conference headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a statewide evangelical Christian advocacy organization, were the only groups to outline in writing their opposition to the legislation.

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ROME
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. June 25, 2017
EDITOR

Almost a week later, it remains mysterious why Libero Milone, an Italian businessman and auditing expert hired in 2015 for a five-year term as the Vatican’s first-ever Auditor General, abruptly resigned. Whatever the case, the optics don’t seem encouraging in terms of the current state of Pope Francis’s reform effort.

This past Monday, phone lines across Rome began to heat up with rumors that something had happened with Libero Milone, a veteran Italian businessman and expert in auditing and tax services who had been hired in June 2015 as the Vatican’s first-ever Auditor General, billed as the final piece of the puzzle in terms of building a culture of accountability and transparency.

On Tuesday, the other shoe dropped: The Vatican released a terse, four-line statement saying that Milone had submitted his resignation, Pope Francis had accepted it, and, by “common agreement,” his relationship with the Vatican was over.

The statement wished Milone well, and said that a search will soon be launched to find his successor.

What the statement didn’t offer was any explanation of why Milone was walking away, two years into what was supposed to be a five-year term, and well before anything like an actual audit of Vatican finances had been brought to completion.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

HELEN KING
June 25 2017

Two people who claim they were abused in Anglican-run state care are demanding an apology for what they say are systemic failures.

Rachel Smith* and Ernie Parore were placed in foster homes run by the Anglican Trust for Women and Children during the 1970s and 1980s. The Trust is part of the Anglican Church’s social services network.

Both say they suffered physical abuse that caused psychological scars they still wear today.

The Anglican Trust says it needs to meet with the pair and check their claims before it can apologise to them – but Smith and Parore say the Trust has rebuffed their efforts to talk.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com June 25, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes calls for sacrifices as the Archdiocese of Agana deals with financial problems, the details of which will be released to the public in the weeks to come.

“Using an analogy, in simple terms, we have maxed out our credit cards and payment is due,” Byrnes said in a June 18 pastoral letter.

David Sablan, president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, said the group is aware of an option to have the Catholic schools help the archdiocese with its finances, but he said this could end with increased student tuition and dwindling enrollment at those schools.

‘Trust issue’

Byrnes said it is unfortunate that some entities under the archdiocese got in over their financial heads, but urged everyone to come together and help those units experiencing financial difficulty.

In the weeks ahead, he said, the archdiocese will share its financial realities and challenges as well as strategies to resolve them.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

Another legislative session has passed, marred by another total failure to fix New York’s unconscionably short statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse.

But there’s a bright spot in this sordid story: a second private institution has stepped up to make things right for those victimized.

The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn (which includes Queens) will follow in the footsteps of the New York Archdiocese in developing a compensation program to settle claims with those violated by clergy as children.

To execute the Brooklyn version of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is even using the same mediator — Ken Feinberg, best known for his oversight of the 9/11 victims fund.

Under Feinberg and his colleague Camille Biros, the New York Archdiocese’s fund has proven remarkably successful. Of 140 offers made in the first phase of settlements — reserved for victims who had already lodged complaints against the church — 125 have so far been accepted.

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GUAM
Business News

By Kari Megeed – June 24, 2017

A Guam priest is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a boy continuously in the eighties, starting on the boy’s seventh birthday, in a lawsuit issued Thursday.

The “Priest”

Father Ray Techaira reportedly raped and sexually assaulted a boy from 1984 through 1987, the lawsuit issued in the District Court of Guam says. Techaira, on the other hand, is now dead, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff, who was identified in court documents only as J.A. to keep his identity and image, is now 40 years old and resides in Oregon.

J.A reportedly filed a plea to conduct a jury trial and $5 million in minimum damages.

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)

By Caroline Graham for The Mail on Sunday

One cold November afternoon in 1969, a 17-year-old schoolgirl called Jean Wehner was driven to a remote rubbish dump on the outskirts of the American city of Baltimore. There, she was led to the rotting corpse of her murdered teacher, Sister Cathy Cesnik.

‘This is what happens when you say bad things,’ the terrified teenager was warned.

The chilling scene from the new Netflix series, The Keepers, may seem like the plot of a Scandi-inspired thriller, but the hit show keeping millions of viewers on the edge of their seats is not a voguish noir fiction, but a cold-case documentary.

Already one of Netflix’s most successful series ever, the gripping seven-part show follows the real-life unsolved murder of Sister Cathy, who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer – apparently because she was threatening to expose widespread child sex abuse at the girls’ school in which she worked.

The murder of a nun is only matched by the revulsion viewers feel when the prime suspect is revealed to be Father Joseph Maskell, a paedophile Catholic priest who died in 2001 without ever being brought to justice.

The series reveals stunning new evidence in the case and brings to light disturbing allegations from victims who claim powerful figures in the Church and police – Maskell’s brother was a Baltimore police officer – colluded to shield him from justice. Already it has forced detectives to look again at the case, and has sparked an inquiry 3,000 miles away in Co. Wexford, Ireland, a country where the Church has been forced to apologise for a series of abuse scandals perpetrated by Catholic clerics and nuns.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Radio EINS

[Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke, a bishop of Eichstatt in Germany, consecrated a priesthood candidate who was controversial because of racist utterances. The man had left the Würzburg priest seminary in 2013, because he had made fun of the Nazi concentration camps and imitated Adolf Hitler. In Eichstätt he now gets a new chance to become a Catholic priest.]

Eichstätt (dpa/lby) – Der Eichstätter Bischof Gregor Maria Hanke hat einen wegen rassistischer Äußerungen umstrittenen Priesteramtskandidaten zum Diakon geweiht. Der Mann war 2013 aus dem Würzburger Priesterseminar geflogen, weil er sich über die Konzentrationslager der Nationalsozialisten lustig gemacht und Adolf Hitler imitiert haben soll. In Eichstätt bekommt er nun eine neue Chance, katholischer Priester zu werden: Die Diakonenweihe gilt als Vorstufe zur Priesterweihe. Für den Dienst brauche es den liebenden Blick des Herzens für jede Not, sagte Hanke in seiner Predigt am Samstag.

Der Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland hatte vor der Weihezeremonie heftige Kritik geübt. «Meine tiefen Zweifel an der Eignung des jungen Mannes für das Priesteramt bleiben bestehen», hatte Zentralrats-Präsident Josef Schuster gesagt. Die Gutachter bei der Untersuchung der Vorwürfe im Jahr 2013 hätten dem Seminaristen eine höchst bedenkliche Grundhaltung, nicht einen Ausrutscher aufgrund von jugendlichem Leichtsinn, attestiert.

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SCHWEIZ
Luzerner Zeitung

[Because of the abuse of children, the Vatican Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith released a Capuchin priest living in Switzerland from his orders’ vows and released him from the clerical state.]

LUZERN/FREIBURG ⋅ Wegen Missbrauchs von Kindern hat die vatikanische Glaubenskongregation in Rom einen in der Schweiz lebenden Priester von seinen Ordensgelübden entbunden und aus dem Klerikerstand entlassen.

24. Juni 2017, 15:02

Das bedeute den Ausschluss aus dem Kapuzinerorden und aus dem Priesterstand, heisst es in der Mitteilung der Agentur Kathpress. Der heute 77-jährige Priester sei krank und gebrechlich. Deshalb wolle der Orden ihn “nicht einfach auf die Strasse stellen”, sondern ihm werde weiterhin Unterkunft gewährt.

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By MARIAH NOBLE | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jun 23 2017

A former LDS Church bishop is behind bars for allegedly sexually abused two boys several years ago when they were teenagers in his congregation.

Erik Wayne Hughes, 51, of Mapleton, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, dealing in materials harmful to a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor and tampering with a witness.

According to a probable cause statement from the Mapleton Police Department, an 18-year-old told police in April that when he was 15, he had been sexually abused by Hughes, who at the time was his bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An emailed statement from church spokesman Eric Hawkins on Friday confirmed that Hughes “has been removed from any position within the church.”

The teen told police that Hughes was “always interested in his personal growth and if he was going through puberty,” the document says. On one occasion, Hughes gave the teen a white pill he believed was melatonin, but the pill made him “feel weird” and his perception of his surroundings seemed “disproportionate,” documents say.

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UTAH
KUTV

by Cimaron Neugebauer

(KUTV) A former LDS bishop in Utah County has been arrested after police say he gave two teen boys a pill and sexually abused them.

Erik Wayne Hughes, 51, of Mapleton was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday Apr. 21 for suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, dealing harmful materials to a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, and tampering with a witness.

Hughes is no longer a bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, police say.

A male victim who is now 18, reported to the Division of Child and Family Services that was sexually abused by his bishop when he was 15. He made the report on April 20 and police took over the case since the victim was now an adult.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL

24 June 2017

The head of a religious order has expressed “sorrow” that monks abused boys at Fort Augustus Abbey School but said his congregation cannot be held responsible for what happened.

Dom Richard Yeo, abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation, said he believed the allegations of former residents who say they were abused at the fee-paying Highland boarding school, which closed in 1993.

But the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was shown a submission from the congregation which said it had “no remit or authority” to acknowledge or accept abuse.

The inquiry heard allegations have been made against six monks who taught at either Fort Augustus, on the banks of Loch Ness, or Carlekemp Priory School in East Lothian.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A 71-year-old Guam resident has come forward with allegations that he was sexually abused and raped when he served as an altar boy at Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago.

S.N.J.V., whose initials were used to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint against the Archdiocese of Agana on Friday in the District Court of Guam, naming deceased priest Antonio C. Cruz as his alleged perpetrator.

The lawsuit alleges that S.N.J.V. was repeatedly sexually molested and abused by Cruz during the two years he was an altar boy at the Chalan Pago parish where Cruz served as a priest.

‘Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you’

The complaint states the sexual abuse started in 1960 after Sunday Mass one day, when Cruz instructed the boy to stay back and meet him at the rectory where he resided.

Upon entering the rectory, S.N.J.V. saw the priest naked and playing with himself, the lawsuit states.

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OHIO
The Review

Published: June 24, 2017

Bishop George V. Murry, S.J. has made the following appointments to the Diocesan Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, which was effective June 1: Joseph Irilli, Brigid Kennedy, Alan Kretzer, Ronald Mikilich, Joseph Mosca, Sister Jean Orsuto, Timothy Schaffner, the Rev. John Sheridan, the Rev. Mark Williams, Deacon Gregory Wood and Mary Ann Woods.

The Review Board of the Diocese of Youngstown is established under the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and the essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Polices Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Priests, Deacons and other Church Personnel as published by the United States Conference of Bishops.

The review board assists the bishop by reviewing and assessing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, deacons and other church personnel in order to advise the bishop as to whether the allegations appear to be credible.

The board makes recommendations concerning fitness for ministry in particular cases and reviewing the policy and procedures of the Diocese for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse of minors, recommending to the bishop any appropriate modifications.

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NEW YORK
YouTube

Sam goes full “Spotlight” on a bill trapped in state senate limbo.

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UTAH
Deseret News

By Pat Reavy @DNewsCrimeTeam
Published: June 23, 2017

MAPLETON — A former LDS Church bishop has been arrested and accused of drugging and sexually abusing two teenage boys.

Erik Wayne Hughes, 51, of Mapleton, was arrested Wednesday night and booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of 20 counts of forcible sexual abuse, dealing in harmful materials to a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor and witness tampering.

An 18-year-old man recently came forward to report that when he was 15, there were at least two occasions he believes he was drugged by Hughes, who was his bishop, according to a police affidavit filed in 4th District Court. In one incident, he said Hughes gave him a pill he claimed was melatonin, typically used to help a person’s sleep cycle.

The boy said the pill made him feel “weird and things seems disproportionate,” according to the affidavit, and “he has never felt that way before after taking melatonin.” Hughes allegedly told him “he must have given him the wrong pill and that it would not happen again.”

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 23, 2017

ROME
A member of Pope Francis’ commission on clergy sexual abuse has suggested the composition of the advisory body may change at some point this fall, as the original three-year terms granted to individuals in the group expire.

Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, who was appointed by Francis with seven others in March 2014 as the initial members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said the group is hosting its last planned plenary session in September.

“People know that the mandate of this commission comes to a close,” said Zollner, speaking Thursday at the Pontifical Gregorian University. “The mandate is of three years and at the end of this year the mandate finishes.”

“We look forward to seeing what will be the follow-up,” the Jesuit said.

“There is one more plenary session … which will be the last plenary session,” he continued. “From there, we need to see what will be the follow-up and how [the] commission will look and what will be the membership.”

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Abuse of minors: Priest sentenced 8 years.]

Cagliari, per altri 10 non potrà frequentare luoghi con ragazzi

(ANSA) – CAGLIARI, 22 GIU – Otto anni di reclusione scontati i quali, per i successivi dieci, non potrà avvicinarsi ai luoghi frequentati dai ragazzini per effetto delle misure di prevenzione. E’ la sentenza di condanna pronunciata dal giudice di Cagliari Ermengarda Ferrarese nei confronti del’ex parroco di Mandas e Villamar, don Pascal Manca, accusato di violenza sessuale su minori.

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

By NICOLE PELLETIERE
Jun 23, 2017

Two retired women who took it upon themselves to investigate the unsolved slaying of their former high school teacher, Sister Catherine Cesnik, are hoping a new Netflix documentary about the nearly 50-year-old case brings some kind of resolution.

“The Keepers” tells the story of those who said they survived sexual abuse at the hands of a priest who was the school chaplain, and the belief among many that Cesnik was killed because she was about to expose the alleged abuse.

Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, who were students at the old Baltimore city school when Cesnik died, appear in the Netflix original. In an interview last week with ABC News, the women shared how they came to be involved with the true crime series, which premiered May 19.

“For me, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life, and I feel like this was actually the reason why I was put here [on Earth],” Hoskins told ABC News. “The series is released, everybody knows who I am in the whole world; they want to hear what [we] have to say.”

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SCOTLAND
Holyrood

Written by Jenni Davidson on 23 June 2017

A bill lifting the time limit on damages for child abuse cases has been passed by the Scottish Parliament.

MSPs unanimously voted to approve the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Bill yesterday.

The bill removes the current three-year limitation period for personal injury actions in cases of child abuse where the person was under 18 at the time of the abuse.

It will apply to all cases of child abuse after 26 September 1964.

The aims of the bill have attracted broad support, but some concerns have been raised about the potential costs to organisations such as councils, religious organisations and charities of paying out compensation for a large number of historic cases.

In its submission to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Constitution Committee, local government umbrella body COSLA said: “COSLA supports the intent of the legislation is and is clear that removing any barrier to justice for survivors of historical childhood abuse is a positive move.

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SCOTLAND
Police Professional

The Scottish Parliament has voted to remove the three-year limit on child abuse survivors suing for damages in court.

This will allow victims of abuse dating back to September 26, 1964 to claim compensation for their injuries following the implementation of the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill was unanimously approved by 115 votes from MSPs.

Under the Bill, the individual responsible for carrying out the abuse can be sued directly, and damages can also be sought against employers for their current or former employees.

The Scottish government estimates a potential 2,200 victims will be affected by the changes in the law.

When the Bill was tabled in February, Alistair Gaw from Social Work Scotland warned the payouts could cost around £200 million.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Slater and Gordon

By
Jack Bowman
Media Executive

The Church of England “colluded” with a bishop to hide sex abuse of young men, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The state church “concealed” evidence of child abuse by a former bishop stretching over two decades, according to a new major independent review.

The Church’s report, Abuse of Faith, shed light on how it handled the case of Peter Ball, the former Bishop of Lewes who was jailed for 32 months in 2015, having pleaded guilty to offences, including two counts of indecent assault.

The court was told Ball hand-picked 18 vulnerable victims to commit acts of “debasement” in the name of religion, including praying naked at the altar and encouraging them to submit to beatings.

The review stated: “The Church at its most senior levels and over many years supported [Ball] unwisely and displayed little care for his victims.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

Disgraced former bishop and convicted paedophile Peter Ball tried to used his “status of confidant” with Prince Charles to boost his position, a damming report has revealed.

A major independent review found the Church of England “concealed” evidence of child abuse against Ball for more than 20 years.

He was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after admitting to a string of historical sex offences against teenage boys and young men between the 1970s and the 1990s.

The report, Abuse of Faith, found that Ball, then bishop of Gloucester, suggested “on many occasions” to the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey and others that he “enjoys the status of confidant of the Prince of Wales”.

He “sought to exploit his contact with members of the royal family in order to bolster his position, particularly in the eyes of Lord Carey and others from whom he hoped to receive sympathetic treatment,” the report says.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Peter Feuerherd | Jun. 23, 2017

BROOKLYN, N.Y. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio announced June 22 that the Brooklyn Diocese will compensate victims of sex abuse by clergy and church workers via a program modeled on one in the neighboring New York Archdiocese.

The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program will allow survivors of sexual abuse by priests or deacons of the diocese to seek financial compensation.

“I am well aware that no amount of money will ever heal the scars of abuse,” but the compensation program is “a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends,” DiMarzio said in a video statement.

The Brooklyn Diocese’s program will be administered by compensation experts Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, both of whom worked on a program compensating the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York. Feinberg and Biros are administering the archdiocesan program.

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

June 24, 2017

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Those closest to George Pell are increasingly pessimistic about his chances of avoiding charges over historical child sex abuse ­allegations.

The Weekend Australian has been told by multiple sources that — despite his vehement ­denial of wrongdoing — there is a growing resignation that ­charges will almost certainly be laid, plunging the church into what would be an unprecedented scandal.

Sources familiar with Cardinal Pell’s thinking expect him to return to Australia to fight any charges, with Victoria Police in the final stages of deciding whether to prosecute. If charges are laid, it is expected that Cardinal Pell would resign as the head of the Vatican’s finances.

He has consistently vowed to fight any charges, stating that he has done nothing wrong.

It is likely that if he were to ­return to Australia, in the event of charges, the church would provide him with accommodation and legal support in order for him to defend himself.

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NEW YORK
The Worthy Adversary

June 23, 2017 Joelle Casteix

Part two of this series was originally going to be a little about IRCP plan administrator Ken Feinberg, but since the Diocese of Brooklyn has posted its official IRCP website (full of legalese), I thought I would go over some of the details here. *

The only survivors who qualify are those to whom the diocese has reached out directly. (That’s why we knew this announcement was coming – You can’t call a bunch of survivors and not have the word get around)

Whom did they call? People who had come forward to them in the past with complaints of abuse by priests or deacons of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Does it count if their parents/teachers/neighbors/therapists complained? I don’t know.

This phase does NOT include victims abused by teachers, order priests, nuns, brothers, volunteers, or employees of the Diocese of Brooklyn … beginning to see the problem?

It only gets worse when we look at the Archdiocese of New York.

If you have not been contacted by the Diocese of Brooklyn, there is nothing you can do in Phase One. But if you were sexually abused in the diocese, you can register for Phase Two. That will probably begin sometime in September, when Phase One ends.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by HATTIE WILLIAMS 22 JUNE 2017

BOTH the Archbishop of Canterbury’s predecessors have issued personal apologies, and the Archbishop has asked Lord Carey to consider his position as an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Oxford, after the publication of an independent report on the Peter Ball case and the Church’s part in it.

Lord Carey has been strongly criticised in the report of the review group, chaired by Dame Moira Gibb, which was published on Thursday, almost two years after the review was announced by Archbishop Welby (News, 7 October 2015).

The 81-page report, Abuse of Faith, sets out in detail the events and circumstances leading up to, surrounding, and following the arrest and imprisonment of Ball, who received a three-year sentence in October 2015, having admitted to a series of indecent assaults and the abuse of 18 young men aged 17-25. One of his victims took his own life. Ball, who is 85, was released in February after serving 16 months of his sentence.

The report criticises the conduct of several senior Church of England figures — in particular, Lord Carey, who, it says, failed to respond to repeated expressions of concern and allegations against Bishop Ball — most notably those of the late Neil Todd, who was repeatedly abused by the bishop during the 1980s and ’90s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By Tom Kelly for the Daily Mail

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey colluded with senior clergy to protect a paedophile bishop, a damning report revealed yesterday.

As a result, serial sex offender Peter Ball – who boasted of being a confidant of Prince Charles – escaped prosecution for more than 20 years.

An independent inquiry into the scandal found that the Church of England knew of a string of allegations against Ball, then bishop of Gloucester, but failed to alert the police. Current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby urged Lord Carey to step down from his role as an assistant bishop after the report covering his time as head of the Church of England.

Some of Ball’s victims called for a criminal investigation into senior clergy after the report found that the Church was ‘more interested in protecting itself’ than helping those he had abused, and that at least nine bishops knew allegations had been made against him.

Ball, a former suffragan bishop of Lewes, was let off with caution for molesting a teenage novice monk in 1993. Although the Church knew of other allegations against him, it was not until 2015 that Ball was finally prosecuted and jailed.

He admitted abusing 18 teenagers and young men who had sought spiritual guidance from him between 1977 and 1992.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jun 23, 2017

By Krystal Paco

71-year-old “S.N.J.C.” is the latest victim to file suit against the Church.

When he was a teen attending the Chalan Pago church, S.N.J.C. alleges he was sexually molested and raped by Father Antonio Cruz, who is now deceased. During the sexual acts, the priest reportedly stated “Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you” and called the boy “mannge” which means “good” in Chamorro.

S.N.J.C. is suing for $5 million.

Although his attorney David Lujan previously stated he was in settlement talks with Hope and Healing Guam and would file a motion to stay – or suspend the cases in federal court, he tells KUAM today “I haven’t seen their insurance policies.”

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Betty Clermont

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) held their semi-annual meeting June 14-15 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Child Sex Abuse

They began with a Mass “held in response to a call from Pope Francis for all episcopal conferences across the world to have a Day of Prayer and Penance for victims of sexual abuse within the Church.”

In an excellent work of investigative journalism, Nicole Sotelo researched the location of 33 Chicago Archdiocese former priests accused of child sex abuse who are still alive. She was able to locate the whereabouts of 29. “At least 16 – approximately half – of the abusive former priests currently reside or have recently resided within close proximity of a school or child services facility, ranging from less than 500 feet to under 1,500 feet….Two are currently in state or federal mental health facilities. [O]nly one former priest is part of a sex offender registry.” None are being monitored by the archdiocese.

“Church officials covered up crimes for so long that in many cases the statute of limitations for criminal charges expired. [I]t is a sobering reminder that if Church officials had not shielded these men from the law or fought to keep the statute of limitations, some of these men would be registered sex offenders and, thus, identifiable to concerned parents and teachers,” Sotelo noted.

Shortly before their meeting, the bishops released their 2016 Annual Report on clerical sex abuse in the U.S. For the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 combined, 1333 victims made “new credible allegations” against 799 clerics. Even a conservative extrapolation from Sotelo’s findings would be horrific.

In their report, the bishops do not give us the names of the credibly alleged predators, nor which ones are free men and where are they located, nor which ones – if any – they reported to the police. They do not act because Pope Francis protects sexual predators and so, will never hold them accountable for following his lead.

During the Mass, Archbishop Wilton Gregory said the U.S. bishops “can never say that we are sorry enough for the share that we have had in this tragedy of broken fidelity and trust – the clergy sex abuse crisis.” But he failed to commit to the above measures nor did he pledge that the bishops would stop obstructing statute of limitations reform for all American victims of sex abuse.

As Marci Hamilton, a distinguished scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote on June 15, New York’s Child Victims Act amending the statute of limitations “would have been law long ago but for the bishops’ lobbying against it … Indeed, they invest millions and concoct arguments to scare lawmakers away from doing what is right for the unjustifiably exiled victims … The diocesan bankruptcy filings to date have generally been a way of reorganizing to protect assets, to keep victim compensation low, and to cut off future claims for past victims.”

Republicans are primarily responsible “for blocking simple legislative change that would identify the hidden predators and provide justice to victims” killed the New York legislation on June 21.

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NEW YORK
Washington Times

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s disappointed lawmakers have ended their session without loosening the statute of limitations for molestation to give victims more time to report abuse.

The bill would have given victims more time to file civil lawsuits or seek criminal charges against their abusers. It also would have created a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

Victims now have until they turn 23 to sue, but supporters say it often takes far longer for victims to report their abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Brighton and Hove News

Posted On 23 Jun 2017

Frank le Duc

The Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner has responded to a report about the church’s failings when claims of sexual abuse were made against the former Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball.

Dr Warner said: “We who serve in the diocese of Chichester welcome the report of the independent review by Dame Moira Gibb into the Church of England’s handling of the abuse committed by Peter Ball.”

Ball, 85, was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing teenage boys and young men more than 20 years after his behaviour was brought to the attention of the church authorities.

He started his career as a curate in Rottingdean, having been to school at Lancing College. He went on to found a religious order called the Community of the Glorious Ascension in Lewes before he became Bishop of Lewes.

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NEW YORK
am New York

By Ivan Pereira ivan.pereira@amny.com June 22, 2017

The Diocese of Brooklyn announced on Thursday the creation of a compensation program for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, or IRCP, will first provide monetary compensation to survivors who have previously reported abuse by a priest or deacon. Those who come forward with unreported claims will have a chance to register with the program during phase two in October.

The Brooklyn Diocese, which oversees the churches in Brooklyn and Queens, said the funds will come from loans — not parishioners’ collections — and it will keep the survivors’ identities confidential.

A committee, including retired NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Joseph P. Dunne, retired New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph G. Golia and former president of the Queens Chapter of the American Psychiatric Association Barbara L. Ponieman, will oversee the process. Settlements will be administered by attorneys Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com June 23, 2017

A now-deceased Guam priest, Father Antonio C. Cruz, allegedly raped and sexually abused an altar boy in Chalan Pago from 1960 to 1962, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as S.N.J.C. to protect his privacy, alleged Cruz sexually abused and raped him when he was around 14 to 16 years old and serving as altar boy at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church.

Now 71 years old, S.N.J.C. filed his lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Guam on Friday. He’s represented by attorney David Lujan.

The lawsuit says the alleged abuses started after a Sunday Mass when Cruz instructed S.N.J.C. to stay behind and meet him at the rectory. The priest allegedly told the boy that it was mannge, which means good in Chamorro, the complaint says.

“The sexual abuse and rape continued for the next two years,” the lawsuit alleges.

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CALIFORNIA
The Tablet

23 June 2017 | by Catholic News Service

Archbishop Quinn was a staunch defender of immigrants and an early voice in combatting clerical sexual abuse

Retired Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco, who led the Northern California archdiocese for 18 years, died on 22 June after a long illness. He was 88.

“Our hearts are breaking at losing such a great priest and friend,” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in an announcement. “Join me in praying for the repose of his soul.”

The archbishop had moved to the Jewish Home of San Francisco from St Mary’s Medical Centre on 16 June, but he “experienced difficulties with his breathing early this morning. He was transported to the nearest hospital but could not be revived.” …

Archbishop Quinn was an early leader in combating clerical sexual abuse. The Archdiocese of San Francisco put into force in 1992 a sexual abuse and harassment policy, and at that time urged all victims of child sexual abuse by a priest or church worker to “come forward and tell us their story.”

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UTAH
Daily Herald

Kurt Hanson Daily Herald

Officers with the Mapleton Police Department arrested a man Wednesday on reports of sexually abusing two underage boys.

Police reports state on April 20, a now 18-year-old man told police he was sexually abused by a man about three years ago.

The young man said Erik Hughes, 51, was at first very friendly and provided him with what the male thought was melatonin to help him sleep. But it made him disoriented and Hughes told him he must’ve given him the wrong pill.

On another occasion, Hughes gave the young man a smoothie. The young man reported that the smoothie was bitter and after he finished drinking it, he felt woozy and disoriented, just like when he took the pills earlier.

Hughes helped the young man to his bed, where he dozed off. The next thing he reportedly remembered was Hughes touching him inappropriately. The young man fell asleep again and when he awoke, the young man’s underwear was removed and Hughes was again touching him inappropriately, reports state.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

I urge all my readers to become part of this demonstration in front of the Midwood home of the Exec VP of Agudath Israel of America (aka Agudah), Dovd Zweibel.

Agudah discourages reporting of child molesters by misrepresenting halacha to claim one must consult with a rabbi. Most Agudah rabbis then either rule against reporting or discourage it for non-halachic reasons

Agudah, together with the Catholic Church, has blocked New York State legislation to strengthen prosecution of molesters as criminals and to force them and their protectors to pay for the damage they cause. For the 9th year in a row, they have blocked attempts to reform the NYS Statute of Limitations. Why? Because they want to avoid embarrassment and avoid paying for the damage caused by tolerating and covering up for molesters.

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CALIFORNIA
SFGate

By Carl Nolte Thursday, June 22, 2017

John R. Quinn, archbishop emeritus of San Francisco and a former president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, died early Thursday after a long illness.

Archbishop Quinn, who was an advocate of interfaith cooperation, died at the Jewish Home of San Francisco after a long hospital stay. He was 88.

He served as archbishop of San Francisco from 1977 to 1995, and had built a reputation as an advocate of social justice and a leader in the liberalization of the Catholic Church. In his retirement, he lectured and wrote two books on reform of the papacy and was working on a third when he died.

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NEW YORK
News 10

[with video]

By Lexi Nahl
Published: June 22, 2017

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The New York State Senate struck down a bill Wednesday that would have loosened the statute of limitations of child molestation for the 11th year in a row.

“New York has the worst laws on the books anywhere in the country pertaining to the statute of limitations for crimes of child sexual abuse,” Senator and Bill Sponsor Brad Hoylman (D) said.

This year, the bill, called the Child Victims Act came closer than ever to passing. It received support across the aisle in both the Senate and Assembly. It passed in the Assembly for the first time since 2008. The bill died before it hit could the Senate floor.

Right now, victims have until the age of 23 to come forward and file claims, but the bill would have given them something invaluable.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is now underway to the point where Lady Smith, the Chair, is hearing witnesses on behalf of different organisations involved in residential child care in Scotland within living memory. Many organisations within Scotland have been asked to report to the Inquiry and to give details about their involvement in such care, the Church is among them.

At the moment, the Inquiry seems to be examining the broad picture and learning about structures and how children came to be under the care of different establishments.

The work of the Inquiry will be complex and lengthy and will inevitably involve difficult press coverage for the Catholic Community. For that reason, I hoped that the Catholic Media would be a great resource in explaining the evidence given to the Inquiry in a way which helped Catholics understand the truth. I found myself fundamentally disagreeing with the angle which last week’s SCO used in covering the story of my testimony to that Inquiry. This article is designed to help clarify the story.

From the beginning, the Bishops of Scotland have been unanimous in their desire to assist and cooperate with the Inquiry and created a group which would prepare materials and respond on the bishops’ behalf. As a member of that group, I found myself standing in the Inquiry’s hearing room recently, raising my hand and swearing to tell the truth. Unfortunately, the SCO headline and story was presented last week, didn’t serve the complexity of the truth I tried to tell.

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NEW YORK
San Francisco Chronicle

KAREN MATTHEWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 22, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced Thursday it is setting up a compensation program for victims of past sexual abuse by priests, modeled after a program the larger New York archdiocese started last year.

“I am well aware that no amount of money will ever heal the scars of abuse, but this program is a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzo said.

DiMarzo said the diocese will take out a loan to pay the claims and will not use money intended to support parishes, schools or charitable works. He did not specify the loan amount.

The program will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who are also running the New York archdiocese program. They will review claims and determine how much money to offer.

Under the first phase of the program, the diocese is contacting about 235 people who previously reported being abused when they were minors and explaining how to file a claim. The deadline for filing a claim under Phase 1 will be Sept. 30. …

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer representing victims of childhood sex abuse by clergy members, said some abuse survivors will welcome the Brooklyn diocese’s compensation program.

“For those victims who want to try to heal and move on, the program will be helpful,” Garabedian said. “For others who want their day in court and want to obtain transparency through a court proceeding, the program will not be helpful.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

June 23, 2017

TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Victoria Police faces demands from survivors to act or explain its slow investigative progress into claims of sexual abuse against Cardinal George Pell.

Catholic Church officials are on edge over the possibility of ­Cardinal Pell being charged but Australia’s most senior Catholic remains insistent that he has done nothing wrong.

Police are believed to be winding up their investigations into the cardinal but senior church figures have yet to be told whether or not charges will be laid.

Peter Blenkiron, who was 11 when he was abused by a Christian Brother at school in Ballarat, said it was unhelpful for police to leave people speculating about reasons for the delay.

The Office of Public Prosecutions returned the second brief of evidence on Cardinal Pell to the police in mid-May, with officers as recently as this month still trawling through unsubstantiated allegations against the former archbishop of Melbourne.

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NEW YORK
Reuters

By Jonathan Allen | NEW YORK

The Roman Catholic Church in the New York City borough of Brooklyn has set up a compensation program for victims of sexual abuse by its clergy, the Diocese of Brooklyn said on Thursday.

The program is modeled on one set up last year by the neighboring Archdiocese of New York, which encompasses the city’s boroughs of Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. Both programs were created in part to give victims who were abused a long time ago, beyond statutes of limitations, a chance for compensation.

“I am well aware that no amount of money will ever heal the scars of abuse, but this program is a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends,” Nicholas DiMarzio, the Bishop of Brooklyn, said in a video statement. He said he had met more than 50 victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The Roman Catholic Church, which has more than 1.2 billion adherents, has grappled in recent years with the damage done to its role as a moral authority as more than a thousand people around the world have said they were abused by clergy, typically when they were children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
NPR

June 22, 2017

COLIN DWYER

When faced with allegations of sex abuse against one of its bishops, the Church of England “colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward,” the church’s leader acknowledged Thursday.

“For the survivors who were brave enough to share their story and bring Peter Ball to justice, I once again offer an unreserved apology,” Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement. “There are no excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systemic abuse of trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.”

Welby was responding to the findings of an independent investigation into how the church handled the allegations against Ball, a former bishop who pleaded guilty in 2015 to indecent assault against young men. That report, also released Thursday, found that Ball “abused many boys and men over a period of twenty years or more.”

“That is shocking in itself but is compounded by the failure of the Church to respond appropriately to his misconduct, again over a period of many years,” Moira Gibb, who led the investigation, said in the report. “Ball’s priority was to protect and promote himself and he maligned the abused. The Church colluded with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring itself of the safety of others.”

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LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

[Msgr. Richard Mouton Funeral Announcement – News15]

Claire Taylor , ctaylor@theadvertiser.com June 21, 2017

Monsignor Richard von Phul Mouton of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette passed away Wednesday. He was 86 years old.

Mouton died at 2:21 p.m. Wednesday at Lafayette General Medical Center, according to his brother, Frank Anthony Mouton.

Funeral arrangements are not complete but will be handled by the diocese, he said.

“The monsignor would be the first to admit he didn’t walk on water,” Ted Power, former Daily Advertiser publisher, wrote in response to Mouton’s passing. “But he was a man with immeasurable passion for his faith and he spent his life driven to instill that passion and faith in others.” …

When Mouton was pastor at St. Mary Magdalene Church two parishioners approached him in 1976 with allegations about the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, according to Jason Berry, an investigative reporter at the time with The Times newspaper. Mouton, he wrote, confronted Gauthe and required him to see a psychiatrist.

Gauthe pled guilty to 34 counts of sexually abusing children and served time in jail.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of Canterbury

Thursday 22nd June 2017

Statement by Archbishop Justin Welby on the publication today of the independent report by Dame Moira Gibb into the Church’s handling of the Bishop Peter Ball case.

“Abuse of Faith makes harrowing reading: the Church colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward. This is inexcusable and shocking behaviour and although Dame Moira notes that most of the events took place many years ago, and does not think that the Church now would conduct itself in the ways described we can never be complacent, we must learn lessons.

“I fully endorse the recommendations in the report and will ensure that the House of Bishops addresses how we can implement these as soon as possible, working with the National Safeguarding Team. For the survivors who were brave enough to share their story and bring Peter Ball to justice, I once again offer an unreserved apology. There are no excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systemic abuse of trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 22 June 2017

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has written to his predecessor George Carey asking him to consider his position as an honorary assistant bishop in Oxford over criticism of his conduct in the case of the former bishop and convicted abuser Peter Ball.

The letter was written ahead of publication today of a damning report into the handling of Ball’s case by the respected former social worker Dame Moira Gibb, who concluded that the Church of England ‘colluded’ in abuse by Ball.

At a press conference with Dame Moira launching the independent report today, Peter Hancock, the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the lead bishop on safeguarding in the Church, confirmed that Archbishop Welby had ‘written directly’ to Lord Carey asking him ‘carefully’ to consider his position.

Bishop Hancock said that ‘this is now a matter for Lord Carey and the Bishop of Oxford’ who have been having conversations on the telephone and are set to meet in the next two days.

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