ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Evening Echo

Rob McNamara

A woman who was interned at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in the late 1960s and was separated from her son for over 50 years has said that more needs to be done to help surviving mothers and a Garda investigation should be established if criminal activity is determined by excavations.

Joan McDermott of Irish First Mothers, originally from Mitchelstown, said the Government needs to provide redress for mothers, set up a specific department to help children and mothers with reunification and consider a criminal investigation into what she calls a “mass genocide” of children at Mother and Baby Homes.

While Ms McDermott welcomed the decision by Childen’s Minister Katherine Zappone this week to appoint a team of international experts in DNA testing – who will use who remote sensing to to determine whether a full excavation and potential identification of more than 800 remains is possible – to advise on the Mother and Baby home burial site in Tuam, Galway, she believes it is not far reaching enough.

“There was no mention of the mothers…Why didn’t Minister Zappone make any reference to support, counselling and putting something in situ for the mothers,” she said.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WYFF

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. (WYFF and AP) —
A North Carolina superior court judge on Tuesday declared mistrial in case of North Carolina minister charged in beating of gay church member.

Citing misbehavior by a juror, an angry Gary Gavenus ordered juror Perry Shade be arrested in the courtroom.

The judge said Shade conducted his own independent research on the case, then handed it out to other jurors.

Gavenus then ordered Shade to 30 days in jail and pay a $500 fine.

Gavenus also issued a gag order in the case, which extends to jurors, law enforcement and witnesses.

Brooke Covington, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, had faced up to two years in prison if convicted on charges of kidnapping and assaulting former member Matthew Fenner in January 2013.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

[with video]

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the trial of a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a gay congregant (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

A judge cited a juror’s misbehavior and declared a mistrial in the case of a North Carolina church minister accused in the beating of a congregant who says he was attacked to expel his “homosexual demons.”

The judge immediately held the juror in contempt on Tuesday and sentenced him to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for bringing in unspecified outside materials.

Brooke Covington, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, had faced up to two years in prison if convicted on charges of kidnapping and assaulting former member Matthew Fenner in January 2013.

The 58-year-old Covington was the first of five church members to face trial in the case. Each defendant will be tried separately.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

[with video]

BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. (AP) — Two people were sent to jail during the trial of North Carolina church minister charged in the beating of a gay congregant, but neither was on trial in the case.

The jury was in its second day of deliberations Tuesday in the trial of Brooke Covington, 58, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, when juror Perry Shade Jr. reported being harassed by someone in the hallway.

Chad Metcalf, 35, who had a court hearing Tuesday for an unrelated traffic violation, was charged with harassing a juror. The judge said Metcalf told the jurors they needed to reach a verdict.

Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus jailed Metcalf on a $100,000 bond. He faces more than three years in prison, if convicted.

Rhonda Johnson, who said she is Metcalf’s mother, told The Associated Press in a message that her son was probably joking and meant no harm. She also said he is not affiliated in any way with Word of Faith Fellowship.

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IRELAND
The Journal

FOR SHEILA O’BYRNE, the memories of being in St Patrick’s Magdalene Laundry on the Navan Road will always be with her.

Though it has been almost 39 years, she said she still wants the truth.

Survivors of the Magdalene Laundries gathered outside the Dáil yesterday calling for a truth commission to be established into all homes that were operating around the country.

O’Byrne said women are still searching for their lost children, while others just want to know where their children, or their mothers who were in the homes are buried.

It’s understood that at least 1,663 former Magdalene women are buried in Irish cemeteries – many in unmarked graves.

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UNITED STATES
chrisicisms

June 4, 2017 by Chris Williams

Few shows have provoked as much rage in me as Netflix’s “The Keepers.”

I started watching Netflix’s seven-part docuseries on Labor Day and finished it this past weekend. As a fan of true-crime podcasts and television shows, I found myself riveted by each part of this murder mystery, but also chilled and enraged at its depiction of Christianity perverted by lust and power. It’s essential viewing, but it’s not for the weak at heart.
Righting the wrongs of “Making a Murderer”

“The Keepers” is an attempt to solve the 1969 murder of a Baltimore nun. Sister Cathy Cesnik was a 26-year-old teacher who disappeared one night while out getting an engagement gift for her sister. Her body was found in the woods two months later. More than 40 years on, no one has been arrested or charged, and Sister Cathy’s story is one of the city’s most notorious cold cases.

In the 1990s, the case was reopened when a woman came forward with allegations of horrendous sexual abuse at the hands of the priest who oversaw the school. Even more shocking, the woman — who had repressed the memories for much of her life — claimed that the priest had taken her to the woods to view the nun’s body as a warning. Baltimore police re-opened the case and the woman sued the Baltimore archdiocese, but still, no arrests were made. “The Keepers” follows two women who have organized their own amateur investigation, aided by freelance journalists and a Facebook crowd that’s eager to provide whatever assistance they can. Over the course of seven episodes, “The Keepers” takes us through every nook and cranny of this case. And if it doesn’t give us enough information to have closure or certainty, it unfolds with enough theories and evidence to help us formulate our own idea of what might have happened that night.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Shelby Grad and Matt Hamilton

Orange County-based Trinity Broadcasting Network has for decades been one of America’s largest religious broadcasters, beaming messages of faith and Christianity to a global audience.

But the televangelism empire, which has listed in tax records assets of more than $750 million, has long faced questions about its operations and spending.

The latest scandal involved the granddaughter of TBN’s founders, who claimed that TBN co-founder Jan Crouch turned her back when she reported she was sexually abused by a network employee.

On Monday, an Orange County jury awarded Carra Crouch $2 million for her years of emotional trauma and future suffering, finding that Jan Crouch’s response caused outrageous harm.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola Catholic News Service | Jun. 6, 2017

PHOENIX

The nationwide province of the Crosier Fathers and Brothers based in Phoenix filed June 1 to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

“Given the number of claimants who came forward when the state of Minnesota opened the statute of limitations for asserting claims of sexual abuse, we believe a Chapter 11 reorganization is the only way that all claimants can be offered a fair and just resolution within the Crosiers’ limited financial resources,” said a June 1 statement from Crosier Fr. Thomas Enneking, prior provincial.

The Crosiers community is the third men’s religious order to have sought bankruptcy protection. The Oregon province of the Jesuits filed in 2009 to reorganize its assets in the wake of abuse claims, and the Christian Brothers of Ireland filed in 2011. Fifteen Roman Catholic dioceses have filed from bankruptcy since 2004.

“All of the acts of abuse occurred more than 30 years ago. The Crosiers have attempted to find pastoral and healing solutions for those who were harmed, and we believe that a Chapter 11 reorganization allows us to resolve known pending claims simultaneously, manage our financial resources and continue to serve those in need through Crosier ministries,” Enneking said.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Guam – While the church sex abuse lawsuits continue to move along in District Court, Hope and Healing Guam says they will also be reviewing those cases for possible settlement.

It’s been several weeks since Hope and Healing Guam gave an update on the organizations efforts but today during a press conference, Executive Director Michael Caspino says they have been busy.

“We have had dozens and dozens and dozens of people calling for counseling. We have had people calling in from as far away as the East Coast asking for counseling–former islanders. We have had people calling from the West Coast and we have been able to provide them with counseling sessions,” noted Caspino.

But it isn’t just the non-profit organization’s hotline that’s been busy; Caspino revealed that he’s been in contact with the attorneys representing over 75 victims of clergy sexual abuse. And although all those cases are moving along in both federal and local court, Caspino says there is a consensus that settling out of court is preferred.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Kathleen McPhillips first met Anthony and Chrissie Foster at one of the first child sex abuse royal commission hearings in 2014. She was attending in her capacity as a social scientist undertaking field work for her research project The Catholic Church at the Royal Commission. Over the years she had many conversations with the Fosters, sharing publications with them and listening to their analysis of the various public hearings and the response by the Catholic Church.

Today in Melbourne a state funeral is being held for Anthony Foster, who died unexpectedly 12 days ago. His death sent shockwaves around the country and indeed the world. Many people who had known and relied on Anthony’s wise counsel and hard work felt devastated and saddened.

Anthony and his wife Chrissie have been in the spotlight in relation to child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church for more than 20 years.

Their story is a tragic one. The parents sent their three girls to the local Catholic primary school in Oakleigh, a suburb in Melbourne. They had no idea that the parish priest, Kevin O’Donnell, was a serial sexual abuser of children for 50 years between 1942 and 1992.

When Emma and Katie Foster were only five and six years old they were sexually assaulted by O’Donnell over several years, with catastrophic impacts. After years of struggling with the impact of the sexual abuse, Emma died following a drug overdose at 26, and her sister Katie suffered serious injuries in a car accident. She is now disabled and requires round-the-clock care.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 6 June 2017

Anthony Foster left a legacy “pushing justice” for child sex abuse survivors in the Catholic church, mourners at his state funeral in Melbourne have heard.

Brian Foster, with his sister Carol Burckhardt, spoke of how their brother loved his family but paid a high price for his years of campaigning against the church.

“His greatest campaign is on child sex abuse for people in the Catholic church. This is his legacy, pushing justice,” his brother said at the funeral on Wednesday.

“The personal cost to Anthony and [his wife] Chrissie has been enormous.”

Anthony Foster, who was 64, was a tireless advocate for their daughters Emma and Kate, who were raped by an infamous paedophile at their primary school during 1988 and 1993. He died last month after a suspected stroke.

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AUSTRALIA
The Catholic Leader

June 7, 2017

A FORMER Capuchin friar who sexually abused a young girl attending a Brisbane Catholic school on four separate occasions in 1974 has been jailed for four months.

Anthony Colbourne, a former parish priest at the Guardian Angels Church, Wynnum, pleaded guilty on May 23 to indecently assaulting his eight-year-old victim in the presbytery and his office, on four separate occasions.

Police charged Colbourne in May 2016 after the victim reported to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The 75-year-old was removed from public functions in 1997 and lived “under a monitoring regime” in a house next to a Capuchin friary, and with no parish school nearby.

He was dispensed from the priesthood more than a year ago.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Kathy Lord

Anthony Foster fundamentally changed Australia through his tireless campaigning to bring to account the perpetrators of child sexual abuse, a state funeral in Melbourne has been told.

Mr Foster and his wife Chrissie dedicated the past two decades to seeking justice for abuse victims within the Catholic Church.

The 64-year-old hit his head in a fall last month and did not regain consciousness. His family switched off his life support on May 26.

The repeated rape of two of Mr Foster’s daughters, Emma and Katie, in the 1980s by a Melbourne paedophile priest set the family on its course to find justice for all victims of sexual assault.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

KATHRYN POWLEY, Herald Sun
June 7, 2017

ANTHONY Foster, a man who tirelessly spoke up for those with no voice and who comforted countless families in pain, has been farewelled at an emotional state funeral.

Mr Foster, 64, was remembered as a passionate and committed advocate for victims of child sexual abuse.

All who paid tribute to Mr Foster at his funeral at the Melbourne Recital Centre spoke of the powerful voice he and wife Christie developed as they fought for justice for survivors, including for their own daughters, Emma and Katie, who were childhood victims of prolific paedophile priest Father Kevin O’Donnell.

Sadly daughter Emma died of suicide aged 26 and Katie was disabled after being hit by a drunk driver in 1999.

Mr and Mrs Foster were instrumental in bringing about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and their work to expose abuse in the church led to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Margaret Scheikowski, AAP
June 7, 2017

CATHOLIC Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson has again failed to stop criminal proceedings against him over claims he concealed a colleague’s sexual abuse of a young boy.

Wilson is accused of concealing information about the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old boy in 1971 by the now-dead paedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region town of Maitland.

The NSW Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed his third attempt to have the proceedings quashed or permanently stayed.

Under the Crimes Act, it’s an offence to fail to give police information when a person knows or believes that someone else has committed “a serious indictable offence”.

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AUSTRALIA
News Weekly

by Anne Lastman

News Weekly, June 3, 2017

A professional counsellor for more than 20 years, Anne Lastman specialises in dealing with post-abortion grief and helping victims of child sexual abuse.

Louise Milligan’s tome, Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, is no more than an exercise in reputation deconstruction and assassination. Even the title of this book gets the reader interested because it mentions “the rise and fall of George Pell”. This is an assured seller. Ms Milligan has enticed the reader with a title that asserts that His Eminence is indeed guilty.

According to the author, history has been analysed, George Pell has been declared guilty, and hence his “fall”.

I slowly read the book to see how the author came to the conclusion of the “fall” of the very highest member of the Australian Catholic clergy, a genuinely nice man, a holy man, and, yes, even an orthodox man. The author starts by admitting she used “anonymous sources” (p2) for her information. A pity these sources don’t have the courage to step forward from behind their assured anonymity.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Melissa Cunningham

It was the formidable force of a father’s love that spurred Anthony Foster to become a high-profile advocate for child sex abuse victims.

Mr Foster and his wife Chrissie dedicated two decades to seeking justice for sexual abuse victims within the Catholic Church.

Hundreds of people packed into the Melbourne Recital Centre to farewell Mr Foster at a state funeral on Wednesday.

The 64-year-old hit his head in a fall last month. His family switched off his life support on May 26.

The Fosters became advocates and role models for other families grappling with the turmoil of child sexual abuse and trauma from an inadequate response by the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Townsville Bulletin

EMMA CHADWICK, Townsville Bulletin
June 6, 2017

IN his first official act since becoming Townsville’s new Catholic Bishop, Timothy Harris has moved to step up transparency in the church and protect children from predators.

Bishop Harris has investigated an audit of allegations of abuse by priests dating back to the 1970s and will appoint an officer to safeguard against future cases.

Bishop Harris said the Townsville diocese had not been immune to historic cases of child abuse as outlined in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He described former Mount Isa Catholic priest Father Neville Joseph Creen as a “bad egg” and said there was no place in the church for such priests.

“He has done his time and he has walked free but the church still has to go through the process of trying to heal the communities,” Bishop Harris said.

“I am reading a file every day about historical cases of abuse. It is no secret the church in Townsville has had its share of historical stuff.

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UNITED STATES
Inverse

By Sarah Sloat

Netflix’s newest true crime documentary series The Keepers investigates the mysterious 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik. The seven-episode series breaks down the little we know of the crime, following a group of people who are still trying to crack the case today — relying heavily on memories.

One of these individuals is Jean Hargadon Wehner, a former student of Cesnik’s at the Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Wehner was shown the nun’s lifeless body next to a dumpster by Father Joseph Maskell. Wehner remembers Father Joseph Maskell telling a panicked Wehner a particularly odd line: “You see what happens when you say bad things about people.”

The thing is, Wehner didn’t always have this memory. She explains in episode three entitled “The Revelation,” that this particular memory — along with a slew of other horrific memories — was buried for two decades until she eventually began “vomiting up” her recollections of abuse. While the Baltimore Archdiocese brought in a “false memory” expert to undervalue Wehner’s memories when she reported her abuse in 1992, she remains confident that what happened occurred.

How could someone seemingly forget such an awful, arguably indelible event? According to the American Psychological Association, dissociation such as what Wehner may have experienced occurs when a memory is not lost forever, but is unavailable for retrieval for some time.

Scientists believe that stressful experiences, like abuse, are traumatic enough that the brain protects the individual from the pain of the memory. If these memories stay repressed later, these memories can cause issues like anxiety, PTSD, and — in Wehner’s case — dissociative disorders.

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MARYLAND
WBAL

[with video]

Lisa Robinson

BALTIMORE —
The story of young women who say they were abused at Archbishop Keough High School in the late ’60s through the early ’70s is highlighted in a Netflix docudrama called “The Keepers.”

One of the victims featured in the show spoke to WBAL-TV 11 News about coming forward after all these years. It’s taken almost 50 years for Teresa Lancaster to come out of the shadows and talk about the abuse that she said has plagued her life. She said she’s not hiding anymore.

“It was very exciting to go to Keough. It was a new school. It was really an honor to be accepted there,” Lancaster said.

Lancaster started the school in 1968. She said her excitement would eventually turn into pure hell.

“I sought out the help of Father Maskell to help patch things up between myself and my parents, and that’s when the abuse started in the fall of 1970,” Lancaster said.

Maskell was the school’s chaplain.

“He took myself and my friend, Linda, to a wooded area, where there was a lot of police cars and flashlights and stuff, and I was raped by two policemen there,” Lancaster said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
JEFFREY KLEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, June 6, 2017

A sex offender is like a predator in the wild, blending into the background hunting for his prey. Sadly, when it comes to a depraved individual who strikes our children, a predator’s hunting ground is likely the home, a school, a religious institution or an after-school activity — the very places where a child is supposed to feel the most safe, and will likely remain quiet about abuse.

Sexual predators cause irreparable emotional damage that could last a lifetime, and because their victims were scared to speak out at the time abuse occurred, some of these dangerous criminals remain unpunished for their reprehensible deeds.

We’ve found it’s only years later that people typically step forward to tell their stories, and for many victims it’s too late, because New York’s statute of limitations leaves a child sex abuse victim without a venue for justice.

In the state Senate, I plan to change that by introducing a new version of the Child Victims Act to give every person victimized by a sexual predator their day in both civil and criminal court.

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

This event, which I heartily endorse, was announced on the Hareini blog of frum anti-abuse activist, Asher Lovy. It is sponsored by Zaakah, the group that organized the protest against the pidyon shvuyim fund raiser for now-convicted child rapist, Rabbi Nechemya Weberman.

Agudath Israel of America (aka Agudah) continues to deter reporting orthodox sex abusers by misrepresenting the halacha and claiming one must always consult with a rabbi before reporting child sex abuse to the police. In an unholy alliance with the Catholic Church they lobby state governments to make it hard to prosecute and sue abusers. In his post, Protest Agudah’s Abuse Enabling and Opposition to SOL Reform,” Asher lays out the case against Agudah.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The second preliminary hearing in the Roman Catholic Church Investigation will be held on Tuesday 6 June at 10.30am at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, 70 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1EU.

The Inquiry Chair and panel will hear submissions from Counsel to the Investigation, Miss Riel Karmy-Jones QC and others on the following topics ​in relation to the Inquiry’s investigation into the extent of any institutional failures to protect children from sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales:

* Update on the investigation into the Roman Catholic Church, including submissions on behalf of F1 to F12, represented by Howe and Co that there should be a case study concerning the Comboni Missionary Order
* Submissions on the proposed institutions and topics for consideration as part of the English Benedictine Congregation case study hearing
* Core participant applications
* Disclosure
* Timetable
* Directions (if necessary)

A limited number of seats are available for press and public that will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Preliminary hearings are open to the press and public, but are not broadcast.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent
Tuesday 6 June 2017

Three prominent Benedictine boarding schools – Ampleforth, Downside and Worth – should be examined as a combined case study for the UK child sex abuse investigation into the Catholic church, a preliminary hearing has been told.

The work of the archdiocese of Birmingham and its schools should also feature as a complementary case study, according to the lawyer in charge of the Catholic church strand of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA).

Setting out her recommendations for hearings planned in November, Riel Karmy-Jones QC proposed that an examination of a fourth school should be delayed because of an imminent criminal trial involving a former teacher.

Inquiries into allegations at Fort Augustus Abbey school in the Scottish Highlands should also be restricted to the movement of English monks transferred to the institution, Karmy-Jones suggested, because a separate Scottish inquiry into child sex abuse would deal with any offences committed there.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

Bishop Michael Campbell said there was a ‘growing sense of unease’ about the movement’s liturgical practices

The Bishop of Lancaster has provoked dismay among members of the Neocatechumenal Way by issuing new rules for their liturgies.

Bishop Michael Campbell said that, although the Way had been a “blessing” for many people, there was a “growing sense of unease” about the movement’s liturgical practices.

His new norms include Masses always being celebrated at the main altar or approved chapel in a church and for there to be “no delay” in communicants receiving Holy Communion once it has been placed in their hands. Among some Neocatechumenal groups Communion is only consumed once everyone has been given the Host.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., June 3, 2017

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

GALLUP — A Phoenix-based religious order that sent two of its credibly accused priests to serve in Diocese of Gallup parishes has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Crosier Fathers and Brothers Province filed a Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Minnesota Thursday. The religious order, which has communities in Phoenix and Onamia, Minnesota, became the 18th Roman Catholic diocese or religious order to file for bankruptcy in the United States.

The Crosiers are being represented by Tucson attorney Susan G. Boswell and her law firm Quarles & Brady LLP, which served as the lead bankruptcy attorneys for the Gallup Diocese.

“The decision to file for reorganization was difficult, but given the number of claimants who came forward when the state of Minnesota opened the statue of limitations for asserting claims of sexual abuse, we believe a Chapter 11 reorganization is the only way that all claimants can be offered a fair and just resolution within the Crosiers’ limited financial resources,” Prior Provincial Thomas Enneking, OSC, said in a statement released Thursday.

With the filing, the Crosiers have approached their bankruptcy in a different manner than when officials with the Diocese of Gallup filed their petition in November 2013. Crosier officials have already worked out a $25.5 million dollar settlement plan with abuse survivors, they have reportedly agreed to publicly release the files of all credibly accused abusers, and they voluntarily released the names of abusive clergy several years ago.

“Sexual abuse survivors and the Crosiers have worked together to reach a framework for a $25.5 million dollar agreement to fairly compensate survivors of child sexual abuse by members and an employee of the Crosier order,” attorneys with Jeff Anderson & Associates said in a news release Thursday.

The St. Paul, Minnesota law firm, which represents clergy sex abuse survivors, said there are 43 sex abuse lawsuits pending in Minnesota against the Crosiers.

“We applaud the strength and courage of all of the sexual abuse survivors who have come forward and shared their truths,” attorney Mike Finnegan, of the Anderson law firm, said. “The Crosiers are doing the right thing by working with survivors in order to facilitate a transparent and fair resolution for everyone involved.”

Connection to Gallup

Crosier officials have twice released lists of credibly accused clergy sex abusers that included the names of two priests assigned to work in the Diocese of Gallup. In 2002, the Crosiers released a list of eight names, which included Justin Weger. In 2014, the Crosiers updated the list to include Timothy Conlon. The list currently includes the names of 20 credibly accused abusers.

According to the Crosiers, Weger provided weekend assistance substituting in Diocese of Gallup parishes from 1974-1975. Weger then worked at St. Mary Church in Sells, Arizona, the capital of the Tohono O’odham Nation, from 1975-1976, before being removed from ministry in 1976. After leaving the Crosiers, he served as director of Tribal Lodge, Inc., a Native American organization in Phoenix, from 1977- 2002. Weger died in 2005.

“There were claims and lawsuits alleging sexual abuse against Justin Weger while he was a Crosier,” Crosier officials said in a statement in May 2016.

In spite of the Crosiers repeatedly naming Weger as a credibly accused abuser, officials with the Gallup Diocese have yet to include Weger’s name on their list of abusers.

In December 2014, Suzanne Hammons, a spokeswoman for the Gallup Diocese, was asked why Weger and three other priests had not yet been added to Gallup’s list. All four men had been identified as credibly accused abusers by other Catholic dioceses or religious orders.

“The investigation into names and the process of adding to the list has not ended,” Hammons said in an email.

She did not explain what further investigation needed to be done. The Diocese of Gallup recently added the name of one of those men, Diego Mazon, eight years after an official with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe confirmed Mazon had been removed from ministry in Gallup as part of a sex abuse lawsuit settlement.

In contrast, officials with the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis added Weger’s name to their list in May 2014. Weger had been assigned to the Prince of Glory Catholic Indian Church in Minneapolis from 1971-1972.

The Diocese of Gallup does include Conlon’s name as a credibly accused abuser. Conlon was pulled from his Gallup Diocese assignment at St. John the Baptist Parish in St. Johns, Arizona, in January 2014.

After his removal, Conlon told some of his parishioners a fabricated story that he was being unfairly removed because of actions he committed as a minor. However, during the diocese’s bankruptcy case, Conlon’s name surfaced in a court document dated Oct. 3, 2014. Bankruptcy attorney Boswell stated Conlon was removed because of a credible allegation of abuse committed when Conlon was in the seminary.

Conlon lives in Arizona, according to the Crosier Fathers and Brothers.

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IRELAND
Buzz

BY Seán Fahey
June 06, 2017

If like us, you’ve spent a large portion of the last week binge-watching Netflix’s latest docu-series The Keepers, you probably have a big question on your mind – What did Joseph Maskell do during his time in Ireland?

The Keepers focuses on the death of a nun, Sister Catherine Cesnik, and the connection between her murder and a string of alleged abuses in the Catholic Church.

In particular, the series focuses on the alleged abuses by Fr Joseph Maskell, who was a counsellor at Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls High School in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1967 to 1975.

From here on out, there will be several spoilers for The Keepers, so if you’re still planning on watching the series, here is your warning.

Despite Catherine Cesnik going missing in Novemeber 1969, and her body being found in January of 1970, accusations against Fr Joseph only truly began to form in 1994, when ‘Jane Doe’, later revealed to be Jean Wehner, came forward saying she had recovered some repressed memories of her time at Keough.

Out of these memories, Wehner remembered being raped and abused by Fr Joseph Maskell and other men he had brought in to their counselling sessions, as well as being brought to see the body of Catherine Cesnik.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 5, 2017

ALBANY — Despite a recent flurry of new legislation designed to help adults who were sexually abused as kids, the chances of a law being enacted this year remain a long-shot.

The fate of the Child Victims Act continues to rest with the state Senate Republicans, who for years have blocked the issue and so far have shown little interest in getting it done this year.

“We’re reviewing the issue,” said Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif. “There are a lot of Child Victims Act bills out there.”

But Kathryn Robb, a child sex abuse survivor and advocate said that “it’s time for the Senate GOP to step up and get in line with the leadership of Assembly and Dems in the Senate.”

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ORGON
The Oregonian

BY EVERTON BAILEY JR. ebailey@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

The parents of a twin girl who died hours after her March home birth with dozens of people from the faith-healing Followers of Christ Church gathered at the house now face murder charges.

Sarah Elaine Mitchell, 24, and Travis Lee Mitchell, 21, turned themselves in and were booked Monday into the Clackamas County Jail on accusations of murder by neglect and first-degree criminal mistreatment in the March 5 death of Ginnifer Mitchell. A Clackamas County grand jury heard testimony for about a week before returning a secret indictment Friday.

Other church members, including Sarah Mitchell’s sister, have faced criminal charges in the deaths of their children with medical conditions, but none faced a murder charge before now.

Sarah and Travis Mitchell are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. They declined requests for interviews from the jail. Several members of the Oregon City-based church also declined comment as did prosecutors.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

CARDINAL JOSEPH TOBIN OF NEWARK HOLDING A TOWN HALL MEETING IN SCOTCH PLAINS, NEW JERSEY ON TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2017, AFTER THE 7:30 PM MASS AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW PARISH

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, since he became Archbishop of Newark several months ago, has dragged his feet in settling several credible cases of childhood sexual abuse against Rev. Michael “Mitch” Walters

The six childhood sexual abuse victims of Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters have been waiting too long to have their cases settled, and they are being re-victimized by the stalling and delaying of the new Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin

What
A press conference and leafleting announcing the foot-dragging and stalling by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin in settling several credible cases of childhood sexual abuse against Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters who abused innocent children in parishes in Upper Montclair, NJ (St. Cassian), and Gutenberg, NJ (St. John Nepomucene), and have waited long enough for justice and fairness.

When
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 from 5:30 PM until 7:30 PM

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Bartholomew the Apostle Parish, 2032 Westfield Avenue, Scotch Plains, New Jersey 07076

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
Six courageous adults, including one woman, have come forward to report that Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters, recently the head of the Archdiocese of Newark Society for the Propagation of the Faith Office, sexually abused them as children at two parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark and in other locations. Unfortunately, the new Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, has chosen to stall, delay and foot-drag the settlement of these cases, causing the victims to feel re-victimized. Demonstrators will call upon Cardinal Tobin to stop stalling and settle the six cases against Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc.– 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com

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IRELAND
KCLR

By MaryAnn Vaughan

The HSE says it has no record of an American priest, suspected of child abuse, ever having worked in Kilkenny.

Fr Joseph Maskell, who’s the subject of a new Netflix documentary series, was living in Wexford between 1994 and ’98, and worked for a time for the South Eastern Health Board.

‘The Keepers’ tells the tale of a murdered nun at a school in Baltimore, USA, where the late Fr Maskell worked in 1969 and also of the sexual abuse of students that is alleged to have been carried out by him.

In 1994/1995, while being sued by two of his former students, Maskell fled to Wexford.

The Diocese of Ferns has confirmed to KCLR News that they were told by the Archdiocese in Baltimore of the allegations against him and that they became very concerned when they learned he was working as a psychologist for the South Eastern Health Board.

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JAMAICA
The Star

Tamara Bailey
June 05, 2017

Judge Lorna Shelly Williams today denied the application to transfer the case involving Moravian ministers Paul Gardner and Jermaine Gibson to Kingston from Mandeville.

The ministers were both implicated in sexual incidents involving a minor.

An application for transfer was initially made on the basis that the case would be tried, bias free, among other concerns, if it was held in Kingston.

However, Gardner and Gibson will be tried in the parish court on January 23, 2018.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner

Judge Lorna Shelly Williams has ruled that Moravian ministers Reverend Paul Gardner and Reverend Jermaine Gibson, who have been implicated in a series of sex scandals involving a minor, are to be tried in Manchester.

The Prosecution had requested that the case be moved to Kingston.

The two pastors appeared with their lawyers in the Manchester Parish Court last week where arguments were presented to Williams.

Williams requested a few days to conduct her deliberations and arrive at a decision.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Matt Rocheleau GLOBE STAFF JUNE 01, 2017

The number of victims who brought new claims of sexual abuse by clergy rose sharply last year, fueled in large part by a surge of allegations from Minnesota, according to a report released Thursday by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

That state temporarily lifted its statute of limitations in 2013 to allow alleged victims older than 24 to sue for past abuse, and the deadline to file such claims was in late May 2016, according to the report. The deadline is believed to have prompted a rush of last-minute filings.

The annual report from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which covers July 2015 to June 2016, said 911 victims came forward with allegations the church deemed credible, the vast majority of which were from adults who said they were abused when they were children.

That was up from 384 in the previous 12-month span, and it marked the highest total since 1,083 victims came forward in 2004, the first year the bishops conference published an annual report on the topic amid the fallout of the abuse crisis that was exposed in the early 2000s.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

The Boston Globe will do anything to keep an old story alive, even if it means repeatedly misleading its readers.

Once again, this year’s newly released annual audit report by United States bishops about abuse in the Catholic Church amplifies the rampancy of false accusations, unprovable allegations against dead priests, dubious decades-old claims, and the determination of Church-suing tort lawyers and their allies to drain the Church’s coffers.

Yet in an article by staffer Matt Rocheleau, the Boston Globe continues to try to convince the public that abuse is somehow still a current problem in the Catholic Church.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the trial of a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a gay congregant (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

The jury in the case of a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a gay congregant has gone home for the day after deliberating for about an hour.

Deliberations will resume Tuesday morning.

Brooke Covington, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is accused of leading the 2013 beating of former member Matthew Fenner to expel his “homosexual demons.”

During closing arguments Monday, defense lawyer David Teddy said Fenner requested the form of prayer delivered by church congregants and knew what was coming.

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. (AP) — More than four years after Matthew Fenner said he was beaten by members of his North Carolina church for being gay, the fate of one of his ministers is in the hands of a jury.

Brooke Covington, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is accused of leading the 2013 beating to expel Fenner’s “homosexual demons.”

Fenner said he was punched, choked and screamed at for two hours in the sanctuary in January 2013.

The jury deliberated for about an hour Monday and will resume deliberating Tuesday.

Prosecutor Garland Byers said Fenner was held against his will and attacked. Defense lawyer David Teddy said Fenner requested the form of prayer.

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NORTH CAROLINA
NBC News

RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. — The lawyer for a North Carolina minister accused of orchestrating the beating of a gay congregant said Monday that he might not call any defense witnesses.

Brooke Covington, 58, a longtime minister at Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, is accused of leading the 2013 beating of former member Matthew Fenner to expel his “homosexual demons.”

After the state called its last witness, defense attorney David Teddy told the judge that he did not plan to call any witnesses. But under questioning from the judge, Covington said she needed to discuss with Teddy during a lunch break whether she wanted to testify on her own behalf.

Covington, who pleaded not guilty, is the first of five church members to face trial in the case. Each defendant will be tried separately.

Fenner, 23, said he was leaving a prayer service Jan. 27, 2013, when nearly two dozen people surrounded him in the sanctuary. He said they slapped, punched, choked and blasted him — a church practice that involves intense screaming — for two hours as they tried to expel his “homosexual demons.”

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CALIFORNIA
Christian News Network

An Orange County jury Monday awarded $2 million for past and future damages to the granddaughter of a founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, finding that her grandmother acted “outrageously” to allegations that the plaintiff was molested when she was 13 by a TBN employee.
Jan Crouch died in May of 2016.

Carra Crouch will only collect $900,000 of the verdict because jurors, who deliberated for about 7 1/2 hours over three days, found that Trinity Christian Center, the Santa Ana-based nonprofit that runs the evangelical Christian broadcasting giant, is responsible for 45 percent of the damages.

Crouch’s father was not held liable and 35 percent was assigned to her mother, Tawny.

Though Carra Crouch had sought $6 million in damages, her attorney, David Keesling, said they are “completely satisfied with their (jurors’) judgment.”

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By KELLY PUENTE | kpuente@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2017

SANTA ANA — An Orange County jury on Monday, June 5 awarded $2 million in damages to the granddaughter of late televangelist Jan Crouch, finding that the minister acted outrageously when she blamed and berated her 13-year-old granddaughter after the girl told her she had been sexually assaulted by a church employee.

The jury deliberated for nearly eight hours before determining that Jan Crouch, who co-founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network empire with her late husband, Paul, caused her granddaughter Carra Crouch, now 24, years of emotional pain and suffering.

The judgment was $1 million for past emotional damage, and $1 million for future pain and suffering.

Did TBN ministers Paul, Jan Crouch cover up 13-year-old granddaughter’s rape allegation?
On the hook for $900,000 is the Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, the nonprofit that runs TBN, because jurors found the late Jan Crouch 45 percent responsible for causing Carra Crouch’s emotional distress.

Carra Crouch’s mother was assigned 35 percent, but she wasn’t even a defendant so she doesn’t have to pay. The remaining 20 percent was attached to the alleged rapist, who also was not a defendant and was never arrested.

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CALIFORNIA
MyNewsLA

POSTED BY LIZ SPEAR ON JUNE 5, 2017

An Orange County jury Monday awarded $2 million for past and future damages to the granddaughter of a founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, finding that her grandmother acted “outrageously” to allegations that the plaintiff was molested when she was 13 by a TBN employee.

Carra Crouch will only collect $900,000 of the verdict because jurors, who deliberated for about 7 1/2 hours over three days, found that Trinity Christian Center, the Santa Ana-based nonprofit that runs the evangelical Christian broadcasting giant, is responsible for 45 percent of the damages.

Crouch’s father was not held liable and 35 percent was assigned to her mother, Tawny.

Though Carra Crouch had sought $6 million in damages, her attorney, David Keesling, said they are “completely satisfied with their (jurors’) judgment.”

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IRELAND
Irish Post

By Erica Doyle Higgins

A SPECIALIST team will be brought in to perform DNA analysis on the remains found in the mass grave at the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.

The bodies of 796 young children and babies were found in 2012 on the old grounds of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.

The home was run by the Bon Secours Sisters on behalf of Galway County Council from 1925 to 1961. To date, three excavations have taken place on the site but no exhumations have been performed.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone made the announcement of the appointment in Dáil Éireann.

“While the Commission has concluded its excavations in Tuam, it has not yet reached any formal conclusions about the burials,” she said.

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

BY KERNAN ANDREWS

Issues arising from an investigation at the former mother and baby home in Tuam, which found “significant” quantities of human remains in structures designed to contain sewage, will be the subject of a public meeting in Galway this week.

Sinn Féin vice president Mary Lou McDonald will speak at the meeting, entitled In Searching For Truth, in the Clayton Hotel, Ballybrit, this Thursday [June 8] at 8pm. Survivors and their supporters, elected representatives, local authority, and State agency officials have been invited to attend.

The meeting will outline what the current state of play is in regards to issues around the interim Report of the Commission for Investigation; the Government response; and difficulties being experienced accessing information and records from local authorities and state agencies.

“This scandal has affected so many families in the west of Ireland and the State apparatus is frustrating the efforts of those people to find the truth about what happened to them, their loved ones, and why,” said SF senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, who will chair the meeting. “We need to help them find the truth. It is extremely important the public educate themselves in relation to the huge injustices that happened, and are still happening, to those who suffered in the mother and baby homes and this meeting will be an opportunity for the general public and others to show their support in a practical way.”

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

Catholic Professional Standards Limited Announces Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

The Board of Catholic Professional Standards Limited (CPS) today announced the appointment of Ms Sheree Limbrick as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Ms Limbrick has a wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement and management, strategic planning and policy development, as well as more than 10 years experience in executive leadership in social services.

Ms Limbrick has most recently worked with CatholicCare Melbourne as Deputy Chief Executive Officer and prior to that as Director of Operations. Previously managing Statewide Programs for Berry Street, a service provider for vulnerable children and families across Victoria, Ms Limbrick established support services for Forgotten Australians.

In welcoming Ms Limbrick’s appointment, the Chair of CPS, Geoff Giudice AO, said: ‘CPS has a unique role in the history of the Church in Australia and carrying out that role will not be without challenges. The Board is confident that we have a CEO who will provide outstanding leadership in meeting those challenges and achieving the company’s objectives’.

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AUSTRIA
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. June 6, 2017
EDITOR

Twenty years ago, Catholicism in Austria was in crisis, with bitter internal divisions exacerbating the toll of centuries of intense secularization. Today things seem far calmer, and, despite it all, the Church in Austria still retains a unique capacity to bring diverse people together and put them into serious conversation about things that matter.

VIENNA/LEIBNITZ, Austria – Two decades ago, no spot on the Catholic map was more battle-scarred, more apparently up for grabs, than Austria, where the Church seemed on the brink of either falling apart or being reborn as something fundamentally different.

In 1995, frustration with a sexual abuse scandal around Cardinal Hans Hermann Gröer of Vienna exploded into the formation of a KirchenVolksBewegung – a “People’s Movement of the Church.” Within weeks, organizers had gathered three-quarters of a million signatures on a petition demanding five reforms, including the ordination of married men, women deacons, local selection of bishops, expanded roles for laity, and more compassionate treatment of divorcees and homosexuals.

It inspired a similar uprising in Germany known as Wir Sind Kirche, “We Are Church,” that became a global liberal Catholic reform brand.

The movement climaxed with a “Dialogue for Austria” in 1998, held in Salzburg. It amounted to a national parliament of Austrian Catholics, and bishops pledged to carry whatever recommendations came out of it to Rome. It was three days of high drama, with intense floor debates among abbots and pastors, lay theologians and bishops, social justice activists and Catholic politicians. When the time came to vote, it was a resounding win for the reform positions.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

ANDRÉ PICARD
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jun. 06, 2017

At St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, just across the street from the Supreme Court of Canada, there is a small display paying tribute to Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce, an underappreciated legend of Canadian public health.

In 1907, when he was chief medical officer for the federal government, Dr. Bryce penned the Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, a scathing critique of residential schools.

He found, for example, that one in four students died within a year of enrolment, and the death rate was a staggering 48 per cent after three years.

Almost all the deaths were because of tuberculosis, a disease that spreads readily in schools’ crowded classrooms and dormitories, especially because the children were malnourished and sickly.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

A Roman Catholic Diocese in Connecticut has settled lawsuits by five men who alleged they were sexually abused by four priests when they were boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Terms of the settlements were not disclosed. Court documents show the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport and the five men reached agreements in mediation. Two lawsuits were withdrawn Monday, and the others were dropped in March and April.

Lawyers in the case and diocese officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.

The Connecticut Post reports the five lawsuits were the last remaining of more than three dozen brought against the diocese by a Bridgeport law firm since the early 1990s. The cases involved sexual abuse allegations against 29 priests and resulted in more than $20 million in settlements.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Ryan White, Contributor
Director and Producer. Creator of ‘The Keepers’ on Netflix

Since the film’s release, I’ve heard from abuse survivors around the world who just want the chance to be heard.

06/05/2017

Note: This post contains details regarding sexual abuse.

I flew to Baltimore in the late summer of 2014. The intent was to meet a mystery woman – up until then, known for decades only as “Jane Doe” – whom my mom had recently discovered was a family friend. They had grown up in the same working class, Catholic neighborhood of Baltimore. As I understood it from my mom, Jane Doe had a seemingly unbelievable story from her past.

Jane Doe was habitually abused by the head priest, Father Maskell, at her Catholic high school in the late 1960’s. She confided in a young nun at the school named Sister Cathy who was trying to do something to stop the abuse. Then, in a scene seemingly ripped out of a horror film, Jane Doe was taken by Father Maskell to see Sister Cathy’s body in a field and told, “See what happens when you say bad things about people?”

For all the silencing she’d suffered throughout her life, if she wanted to finally tell her story in-depth, I wanted to be her partner in unburying these secrets.

Jane Doe, it turns out, is Jean Wehner. I had never met Jean before our first five-hour conversation at her dining room table, and I was admittedly skeptical when I arrived. But I left that conversation nauseated, exhausted, and enthralled ― in the hallway before we even got to the elevator, my producer and I said to each other, “We have to do this.” Jean was a credible person with a completely incredible experience. She was raw and brutally honest and uncensored; I was captivated by her. For all the silencing she’d suffered throughout her life, if she wanted to finally tell her story in-depth, I wanted to be her partner in unburying these secrets.

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

[with video]

Kate Mills

The Netflix series “The Keepers” suggests that Bishop Malooly might have participated in a cover-up related to Father A. Joseph Maskell’s alleged abuse of his students in the 1960s. Bishop Malooly worked various roes with the Baltimore Archdiocese beginning in 1984, until his appointment as the Ninth Bishop of Wilmington in 2008.

Bishop Malooly released a statement Monday, claiming he wanted to clarify the insinuations made in “The Keepers.”

He said he was not aware of the accusations of sexual abuse until 1992 while he was serving as Chancellor and Vicar General. When additional allegations came forth in 1994, Maskell was permanently removed.

Bishop Malooly confirmed that he did meet with Dr. Charles Franz at his Catonsville dental office, as depicted in “The Keepers.” However, the bishop says “at no time did I offer Dr. Franz a boat.” He continues his statement, “Charles Franz states that his mother made some kind of a report about Maskell to unidentified Archdiocesan authorities in 1967. I am not aware of any such report. I was a college student in 1967. As far as I know, there is no record of any report by Mrs. Franz in Archdiocesan files.”

Here is the full statement released by Bishop Malooly:

“In the spirit of truth, I would like to make some clarifications regarding some of the claims and insinuations that were made in ‘The Keepers.’ My intention is to set the record straight, and in no way do I wish to minimize the pain and suffering caused by the abuse perpetrated by Joseph Maskell, or any other priest.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

Public health officials in Ireland say they are reviewing the work history of the Catholic priest profiled in the Netflix series “The Keepers,” who was employed as a psychologist in that country after leaving Baltimore amid sexual abuse allegations.

The priest, A. Joseph Maskell, worked in Wexford for about seven months in 1995 as a temporary clinical psychologist for an Irish public health board, according to the national health agency there. He later worked in private practice in Ireland between 1995 and 1998, church officials in Ireland say.

He died in 2001 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson.

The Health Service Executive, the agency that runs public health services in Ireland, said in a statement that it has begun a process to “review services delivered and regarding any concerns” about Maskell’s employment with the public South Eastern Health Board.

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CANADA
America

Dean Dettloff
June 05, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he urged Pope Francis to formally apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in mistreatment of Canada’s indigenous communities, making the request during his meeting with the pope on May 29. Though a formal papal apology has not yet been issued, Mr. Trudeau’s request comes after a variety of attempts on the part of Catholics in Canada and the Vatican to address the legacy of residential schools, where indigenous children who had been removed from their communities were subjected to heavy-handed assimilation efforts and, in many cases, sexual, physical and emotional abuse. While the schools were financed by the government, most were administered by churches; they were founded in the late 19th century and began to shut down in the 1970s.

Several religious communities and Catholic organizations, including the Jesuits, have issued their own apologies and statements of reconciliation. While the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed solidarity with indigenous people in Canada, it has not issued a direct apology.

On its website, the conference highlights apologies made by particular Catholic communities but says each “diocese and religious community is legally responsible for its own actions. The Catholic Church as a whole was not associated with the Residential Schools, nor was the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

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NEW YORK
Village Voice

New York State Republicans, Boy Scouts, and the Catholic Church

by LAUREN EVANS

JUNE 5, 2017

When Ana Wagner was nine years old, she was sexually abused by her father’s best friend, starting a pattern that would repeat for the next three years. It’s been two decades, but she still has trouble talking about it.

“I was a very nerdy little nine-year-old,” she told the Voice, exhaling shakily. “And puny. I was the shortest in my school for my grade.” Twenty years went by before Wagner summoned the strength to report her abuser to police, marching into a precinct house to file a report. But by then it was too late.

At that point, Wagner was thirty-two. As it stands, New York State law gives victims only until the age of twenty-three — five years after their eighteenth birthday — to either bring criminal charges or file a suit. While most other states gradually pushed back their statutes of limitations, New York never did, making its policies among the most restrictive in the country.

A typical sex offender molests an average of 117 children in his or her lifetime, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The idea that Wagner’s abuser is still out there, hurting other children, haunts her every day. “That guilt, I live with it, because I’m just one,” she said. “So there’s, like, 116 other people. Maybe I could have prevented 100.”

Wagner is a forceful proponent of the Child Victims Act, a bill first proposed in 2006 that she and many others are desperately hoping will pass the state’s legislature before its session ends on June 21.

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

by Justine Marschner

A California man is suing the Syracuse Catholic Diocese and a former priest for $25 million, claiming that he was sexually abused nearly 30 years ago, according to the criminal complaint.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, June 2nd in Connecticut by Matthew Strzepek who alleges former priest, Felix Colosimo, molested him from 1987 through 1990 when he was only 12-15 years old.

The paperwork obtained by CNYCentral claims that the abuse began when Strzepek attended a conference in New York City with Colosimo and other Catholic priests and spent the night in Connecticut.

During the trip in the fall of 1987, Strzepek was only 12-years-old and claims he was anally and orally raped by Colosimo. In addition, the lawsuit alleges that Colosimo also performed oral sex on Strzepek.

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MARYLAND
Huffington Post

Sarah Ensor, Contributor
Essayist at write2sarah.com

Note: This post contains details regarding sexual abuse.

In the late Cathy Cesnik’s English class at Archbishop Keough High School, my mother and her friend giggled uncontrollably at the cackling of the Three Witches, or the Wayward Sisters, in the recording of “MacBeth.” Sister Cathy (who at that time went by Sister Joanita) devised a punishment to fit the crime: each time the recording approached the cackling, she lowered the volume on the record player and required the girls to perform the cackling themselves. She was the kind of teacher who created with her students memories that last a lifetime.

Tragically, Cesnik’s life was cut short when she was murdered in 1969, as previously reported in HuffPost’s original story: “Buried in Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder of a Nun Who Knew Too Much.”

Just before Netflix released Ryan White’s stunning seven-part documentary series, “The Keepers,” which details allegations of abuse by priests (and police officers) and the unsolved murders of Cesnik and Joyce Malecki, the Archdiocese of Baltimore began a public relations campaign aimed to protect diocesan coffers, minimize the experiences of the many victims of abuse and the families of slain women, and deflect responsibility for the crimes.

When the late Father Joseph Maskell, then the guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School, called my mother, who was 15, to his office for counseling, he used guilt, shame, and hypnosis to abuse her. He told her French kissing was a mortal sin. He plied her for details of her dates with her boyfriend. And when he thought he had properly groomed her, he hypnotized her and assaulted her.

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CONNECTICUT
Stamford Advocate

By Daniel Tepfer Updated Monday, June 5, 2017

BRIDGEPORT – The Roman Catholic Diocese has agreed to pay settlements to five men who claimed in lawsuits they were sexually abused as children by four priests in the 1970s and 80s.
The amount of the settlements was not disclosed but the law firm that represented the five men had been seeking several million dollars.

“These pedophile priests used religion to gain access and trust. Our clients came forward to try to prevent this type of abuse from occurring again and to hold the Diocese responsible.” said Jason Tremont, whose law firm, Tremont Sheldon Robinson Mahoney, represents the plaintiffs.

The five lawsuits were the last of more than three dozen that were brought by the law firm against the diocese since the early 1990s claiming sexual abuse by a total of 29 priests resulting in more than $20 million in settlements.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Devon Live

By Paul_Greaves | Posted: June 05, 2017

A former Mormon bishop has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing two girls in Devon.

Stewart Allsford, 66, was a representative of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, at the time of the alleged abuse in the 1990s.

He admits indecently assaulting one of the girls when she 14 but denies five other charges of sex abuse. On the first day of his trial at Exeter Crown Court the jury heard from the alleged victim, now an adult, who said she had tried to hide what had happened from other people as she felt she was somehow to blame.

The offences only came to light when her boyfriend found her childhood diaries and discovered a page describing the defendant’s alleged attempts to kiss and touch her. She thought she had destroyed all the evidence because she did not want anyone to know.

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BELGIQUE
RTBF

[Judgment of a Swiss priest suspected of pedophilia has been discreetly transferred to Belgium.]

Histoire interpellante: un prêtre suisse déjà soupçonné de pédophilie dans son pays a été transféré en Belgique par sa fraternité. L’une de ses missions était pourtant de surveiller un dortoir dans une école. L’homme est désormais devant la justice belge et sa congrégation admet enfin que ce dossier a été mal géré.

L’abbé venait le soir dans le dortoir

Aujourd’hui, l’homme est accusé d’atteinte à la pudeur avec violences et menaces sur trois garçons de moins de 16 ans. En première instance, le prêtre de 39 ans a été acquitté. Le prévenu nie les faits. Mais, le Parquet a fait appel.

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FRANCE
BFM TV

[France: Catholic school in Cher has been closed for suspicions of mistreatment and sexual assault.]

Une école catholique du Cher hors contrat accueillant une centaine d’enfants du CE1 à la terminale a été fermée vendredi soir pour des soupçons de mauvais traitements et d’abus sexuels.

Fin des cours pour les élèves. Une école catholique traditionaliste de Presly, un village du Cher entre Orléans et Bourges, a été fermée vendredi par arrêté préfectoral “sur le fondement de la protection de l’enfance”. Une enquête judiciaire a été ouverte en raison de soupçons de maltraitance d’élèves et d’agressions sexuelles.

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RUSSIA
RAPSI

MOSCOW, June 5 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Priozersk City Court in the Leningrad Region has set June 13 as a date for the preliminary hearing in the case against Russian priest Gleb Grozovsky, who stands charged with sexual abuse of children, the court’s spokesperson Svetlana Krasikova told RAPSI on Monday.

A prosecutor’s motion to extend Grozovsky’s detention will be considered on the same day, according to the court’s representative.

According to investigators, Grozovsky committed several crimes against minors in 2011 and 2013.

In 2013, he fled to Israel and applied for citizenship. However, his application was dismissed.

In April 2014, Grozovsky was put on the international wanted list. Israeli police arrested him in September. In January 2015, a court in Jerusalem ruled that the priest should be extradited to Russia pursuant to the European Convention on Extradition. The ruling was appealed but rejected. In April 2016, the Justice Minister signed an order on Grozovsky’s extradition.

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Post-Examiner

BY BILL HUGHES · JUNE 5, 2017

Notice to the Archdiocese of Baltimore (AOB): Three high ranking Penn State College officials were sentenced to jail, on June 2, 2017, for not reporting the child abuse allegations against scumbag Jerry Sandusky. This is a final warning to those who enable child predators to perpetrate their crimes. No more cover-ups! Now, to that end, let’s re-open a window to the past:

Joyce Malecki, age 20, was working in an office of a liquor distributor. On November 11, 1969. She went shopping in the Glen Burnie area and was abducted. Her body was found two days later in a creek located on the U.S. Army’s Fort Meade military base.

That salient fact makes her murder a Federal case! It gives jurisdiction to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore. The FBI is the investigatory arm of that office.

Unfortunately, little has been done by the Feds in this matter. In the case of Malecki, her hands were tied behind her back, her throat was slashed and she was strangled. Her murder remains unsolved.

Malecki was a resident of Landsdowne, in Baltimore County. She attended St. Clement Roman Catholic Church, the same church where the degenerate Father Joseph Maskell, now deceased, was an assistant pastor (1966-68.) The record shows that Malecki attended a religious retreat during that period with Maskell in charge of the (gasp) “spiritual” program.

The AOB knew Maskell had sexually abused an altar boy at St. Clement. In the late 60s, the boy’s mother had reported it directly to them. Its shameful reaction: Move the predator to Archbishop Keough High School, where he would continue his unholy reign of terror over the innocents.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

BY BOB KALINOWSKI / PUBLISHED: JUNE 5, 2017

KINGSTON — When a fill-in priest opened Mass on Sunday at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, parishioner Denise Tomasura didn’t think anything was wrong.

Then, at the end of Mass, an unexpected bombshell was announced: the parish priest, the Rev. John Chmil, resigned amid an investigation into misused church funds.

“Personally, I am seconds from crying. I loved father,” Tomasura, 53, said Sunday afternoon. “If I said who would be the last person on earth, it would be Father Chmil. If you thought about God on earth, he would be the perfect person. I am shocked. We drove all the way home in silence.”

Tomasura said she’s hoping the issue was the result of a mistake, but a statement from the Diocese of Scranton said Chmil knowingly misused parish funds and admitted it to diocese officials. The diocese said about $130,000 in parish funds were misspent.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Press & Sun Bulletin

AP

Pennsylvania church officials say a parish priest has resigned after an alleged misuse of church funds.

The Diocese of Scranton says Rev. John Chmil at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Kingston has resigned after telling church leaders he misused money. The diocese says about $130,000 was misspent.

Chmil told church officials he misused the funds last month, but he says they were used for charitable purposes.

The Luzerne County District Attorney’s office says they were asked to investigate the case.

Chmil’s resignation was announced at the end of Mass this Sunday. Officials say St. Ignatius’ former pastor, Rev. John Polednak, is serving as the temporary administrator of the church.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Archbishop Michael Byrnes could not disclose which property is being sold.

Guam – Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes has revealed that the Archdiocese of Agana is in the process of selling off one of its assets to be able to fund Hope and Healing Guam.

The archdiocese began this effort earlier this year when they hired a third party to establish Hope and Healing Guam which is a non profit created to provide counseling and compensation to victims of clergy abuse. The organization was launched with $1 million in seed money but the amount is clearly not enough to cover as dozens and dozens of victims and survivors have called into the hotline within the first week of its launch.

Archbishop Byrnes says a list was formulated of church assets that could potentially be sold.

“Nothing’s been added to the list but we are, we’re actually in process of selling one set of the assets right now. It’s in process so I really can’t elaborate further on that … we gotta wait for the process to finish,” noted Byrnes.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

A corporate disclosure statement filed by the Archbishop of Agana indicating it is a sole corporation is “misleading and inconsistent” with public records that show the relationship between the archdiocese and the Vatican, according to attorney David Lujan. He contends there is ample grounds on which to find diversity jurisdiction in dozens of child sex abuse cases filed against the church.

Lujan filed an objection to the church’s corporate disclosure statement that declared the Archbishop of Agana has no parent corporation and no publicly traded corporation currently owns 10 percent or more of its stock.

The disclosure statement was filed as the church seeks the dismissal of dozens of child sex abuse lawsuits on the grounds that the federal court lacks diversity jurisdiction and the law that was passed allowing victims of child sexual abuse to file suit years later is “inorganic.”

The attorney represents multiple victims in child sex abuse cases against former Guam priests.

‘Under the thumb of the Holy See’

Lujan maintains the corporate disclosure statement fails to properly represent the true nature of the relationship between the Archbishop of Agana and the Vatican. He contends that although the Archbishop of Agana is formally designated as a sole corporation, “it is in fact clearly subordinate to the Holy See and under its ultimate authority.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

This week marks a year since Archbishop Anthony Apuron was removed from the island, and a year since protesters have been demonstrating in front of the cathedral-basilica, demanding that he be defrocked.

When Apuron left the island, he had been accused of molesting Roy Quintanilla, Sonny Quinata and an unnamed cousin of John Toves. Later that day, Walter Denton would come forward, and accuser Roland Sondia spoke out the following week.

A year ago, the church on Guam was in a state of disarray. The group Concerned Catholics of Guam had been declared a “prohibited society.” Ownership of the seminary was in doubt. There was conflict between followers of the Neocatechumenal Way and traditional Catholics.

Although many of Apuron’s actions have been reversed, accusations about sex abuse against children have become much more troubling. If allegations that have been made over the last year are true, dozens of children were molested by people in positions of power over the course of decades. One of those accused, retired priest Louis Brouillard, admitted to molesting boys. In an affidavit signed last year, he said he had confessed his actions to church leaders.

In addition to Apuron and Brouillard, Tomas Camacho, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, is accused, as is Apuron’s predecessor, Archbishop Felixberto Flores and others.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Donna De Jesus

More victims are coming forward and filing child sex abuse lawsuits against the church.

Guam – There are now well over 70 recorded lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Agana: through attorneys Kevin Fowler, Anthony Perez, and David Lujan, who represents 61 victims to this point. Since the beginning of the month, there have been six new filings.

These latest victims are represented by Atty. David Lujan. Plaintiff E.V. tells an all too familiar tale in his complaint, saying that abuse from Louis Brouillard began in the early 1970s when E.V. was a teen. Like other victims before him, E.V. states that Brouillard would use the pretext of serving for an early morning mass to get E.V. to spend nights at the Malojloj parish rectory, and would molest him there. Brouillard reportedly rewarded boys by taking them to restaurants. As a scoutmaster, Brouillard took E.V. and other boys swimming and camping, where he would grope the boys during weekly outings.

S.M.T. accuses more than just Brouillard in his complaint. His story regarding Brouillard is similar to E.V.’s, having taken place at the Mangilao parish instead. But S.M.T. goes on to name others as his abusers. In the early 1970s, S.M.T. was about 10 years old when he says Mangilao priest Juan Camacho abused him. He mentions in his complaint an incident in which Camacho was too drunk to drop altar boys home, so they slept over at the rectory. S.M.T. adds that Camacho would have him and the other altar boys watch Camacho have sex with his girlfriend. Another abuser he names is Edward Pereira, who was a Boy Scout leader in the late 60s and early 70s. S.M.T. alleges that Pereira would have older Boy Scouts bring S.M.T. to his tent, where he would molest him. He’s also accused of lining up S.M.T. and other boy scouts and touching them inappropriately, and would reward them by giving them Boy Scout pins or badges.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 5, 2017

ALBANY — The head of a group of breakaway state Senate Democrats has introduced a compromise bill he hopes can lead to passage this year of a Child Victims Act in New York.

Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) said his version of the bill would “give every person victimized by a sexual predator their day in both civil and criminal court.”

Recognizing the biggest roadblock to the passage of a bill has long been the push to create a one-year window to review old cases that can no longer be brought under current law, Klein’s bill would create a Child Victims Commission to examine, evaluate and make binding recommendations on time-barred civil claims within a one-year window to determine if they could move forward.

If a majority of the commission finds in favor of a survivor, that person can then file a civil lawsuit for damages within a year window.

The panel would consist of five members — at least one of whom must be a former district attorney or assistant DA and at least one other a defense attorney. The five members would be appointed by the state’s chief judge.

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CANADA/AUSTRALIA
The Australian

EAN HIGGINS, GEOFFREY LUCK
The Australian
June 5, 2017

A Catholic order of brothers in Quebec, Canada, has alleged that it was the victim of fraud and an ­attempted $66 million extortion at the hands of a Queensland convicted murderer and insurance scammer who mounted sexual abuse claims against Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane and a private international school in Japan.

Conrad Lord, a Montreal lawyer who acts for the Quebec ­chapter of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, known as the Mennaisians, was recently in ­Australia trying to encourage the Queensland Parole Board and other law enforcement authorities to investigate an extraordinary ­expedition that David Grant ­Mathiesen made to Tokyo three years ago while he was still on ­parole.

Mr Lord is expected to file a formal complaint to Queensland police alleging that Mathiesen ­engaged in “harassment using a computer”.

In 2014, Mathiesen sought and obtained apologies from the brothers, who were teachers and administrators at St Mary’s International School in Tokyo, which were meant to settle his claims.

However, he then demanded $66m in compensation and threat­ened to report them to the Japanese police.

Contacted at the weekend, ­Mathiesen, who lives in Brisbane where he and his wife own several up-market properties, maintained his claims that he had been sexually abused at St Mary’s when he was 11 years old and at the Brisbane school about 18 months later, and denied he had engaged in fraud or extortion.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Sean O’Driscoll, Ireland Reporter
June 5 2017
The Times

An American priest and psychologist at the centre of suspected murder scandal was hired as a child psychologist in Ireland after a series of sexual abuse cases, the former chief executive of the southeastern health board has said.

John Cooney said that Joseph Maskell, the subject of the Netflix documentary The Keepers, almost certainly counselled child sexual abuse victims. Mr Cooney said he believed that Maskell may have been hired without a job interview because he had adequate qualifications and experience and because the health board was chronically short of child psychologists to deal with the huge growth in sexual abuse cases that came to light in the 1990s.

“Children were referred to him for counselling,” Mr Cooney told The Times. “He wouldn’t have much access to adult patients when he was working for us, it was mainly the child welfare service.”

Maskell, he said, dealt with “a range of issues that affect young children”, adding: “It could include interrelationship problems, bullying or any indication of child abuse. Sexual abuse would be obvious cases for referral.”

Mr Cooney said that he read about Maskell in the papers recently and “a lot of memories came back to me”. He said that the funding to hire an extra child psychologist to work for the southeastern health board became available following the Kilkenny incest scandal in 1993, when a man in the health board’s catchment area was convicted of the sexual and physical abuse of his daughter for 16 years.

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UNITED STATES
Bustle

By CAITLIN FLYNN

Nearly five decades after Sister Cathy Cesnik’s tragic murder in Baltimore, the unsolved case is receiving the national attention it deserves. But Netflix’s new docuseries The Keepers simultaneously places an extremely strong focus on the allegations of sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School, where Sister Cathy was a beloved English teacher. The series presents a theory that Sister Cathy’s murder was linked to her attempts to help the teenage girls who confided in her about the alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of Father Joseph Maskell, the school’s chaplain. (The Baltimore Sun reported that Maskell denied the accusations until his death in 2001, and he was never charged with any crime.) Keough has recently received a flurry of attention due to the series — but its doors will close for good very soon. However, the reason for Keough High School’s closing is unrelated to The Keepers and its content.

The school, which was renamed Seton Keough High School when Archbishop Keough and Seton High School (another all-girls Catholic School) merged in 1988, is closing for fairly common reasons. In October 2016, CBS Baltimore reported that, due to low enrollment and aging buildings, Keough will be forced to close its doors when then 2017 school year ends. Two other Baltimore-area Catholic schools, John Paul Regional and St. Thomas Aquinas, are closing for the same reason.

In a letter dated Oct. 26, 2016, the chancellor and superintendent of Baltimore Catholic schools addressed the community:

Among the most difficult decisions we must make is the closure of Seton Keough High School at the conclusion of the current school year. The facility that houses Seton Keough opened in 1965 and can accommodate 1,200 students. This year, 186 girls attend the high school. With 47 seniors scheduled to graduate at the end of the current school year and a steady decline in overall enrollment at the school over the past several years, the school simply cannot continue operating with so few students.

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UNITED STATES
Bustle

By CAITLIN FLYNN

Netflix’s new docuseries The Keepers is arguably both the most important and the most painful TV show of 2017. It addresses myriad issues that haven’t received nearly enough attention — and one of them is the Catholic Church’s response when allegations of abuse arise. When Jean Wehner (then known as Jane Doe) came forward to accuse Father Maskell of abuse in 1992, he was working at Holy Cross parish in Baltimore. Immediately after the allegations came to light, the Archdiocese sent Maskell to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. (The Baltimore Sun reported that Maskell denied the accusations until his death in 2001.)

As explained on The Keepers, the psychiatric hospital had a unit that specialized in treating clergy. Dr. Leslie Lothstein, the psychologist who headed up the unit, claimed on the series that he was frequently given vague reasons for why priests were sent to him for treatment. He cited one example in which he allegedly was told that a priest was suffering from depression — but the priest himself allegedly confided in Lothstein that he’d been sent to the Institute of Living because he’d had sex with a teenager. As Lothstein claimed in The Keepers, he made clear to the Archdiocese that he would only treat priests if their complete history was made available to him. “I never got another referral,” he claimed.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Archbishop Felixberto Flores is accused of exposing his private parts to a catholic school student.

Guam – It’s taken dozens and dozens of sex abuse lawsuits to be filed and, much to the shock of the catholic community, among those to be named as an alleged child molester is Guam’s beloved Archbishop Felixberto Flores, the first Chamorro archbishop of Guam.

With the late Archbishop Flores now named, this marks the third bishop with Guam ties to be accused of sexual abuse. The first was Archbishop Anthony Apuron who’s facing a canonical trial in Rome and then there’s retired Saipan Bishop Emeritus Tomas Camacho who once served on Guam as a priest.

This latest lawsuit against Archbishop Flores was filed by a 62-year-old man with the initials A.J.R. He says it happened at the old Agana Cathedral when he was 11 years old. A.J.R. says he had just come from using the restroom at the old cathedral when Flores instructed him to follow him to the rectory. While inside, A.J.R. claims Flores pulled up his robe and exposed his private parts to him then tried to pull A.J.R. closer to him. However, the 11-year-old kicked Flores in his groin and ran away.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Annah Fromberg

Tasmanian victims of child sexual abuse in institutional settings will die before they receive redress, authorities have been warned.

A national redress scheme, which was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, is expected to be up and running next year, but the Tasmanian Government has not set aside any money.

Tasmanian victim Tony Rayner said it was important for the Government to take action.

Mr Rayner gave evidence to the commission and also urged others to come forward.

“There are so many victims who are in their 70s and 80s; there are so many like me who are in their late 60s,” he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times\i

Jun 2, 2017

Paul Cullen

St John of God has been part of the landscape of Irish health since the 1880s, and today provides a diverse range of services, from adult mental-health services in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown and child mental-health services in south Dublin/Wicklow to special schools and learning disability services in various locations. Many of the services it runs are provided on contract for the HSE, but it also operates a long-established private psychiatric hospital in Dublin.

The order is an international Catholic organisation with its headquarters in Rome and more than 300 hospitals and centres in 53 countries. Ireland was originally part of the order’s West European Province, which also includes Britain and Malawi.

In Ireland, St John of God’s services are grouped into a number of limited companies reporting to group chief executive John Pepper, who has been on sick leave since last year.

The charity’s HSE-funded activities are co-ordinated by St John of God community services, which supports 7,000 adults and children daily.

In recent years, St John of God intellectual disability services have come under scrutiny in a series of critical Hiqa reports. Parts of a centre in Co Kildare were closed over welfare concerns after officials found more than 100 incidents had occurred between inspections.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Jun 2, 2017

Martin Wall

On Saturday, June 25th last year a representative of the St John of God organisation contacted the Health Service Executive out of the blue with a bombshell revelation. An internal whistleblower had given details to a Sunday newspaper of a secret €1.6 million payment made to a number of its senior managers three years previously.

The newspaper had approached the St John of God organisation the previous day about the payments and a story was expected to be published imminently.

There was shock and outrage at the top level of the HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure about the payments about which they had never been previously notified.

Three years after a scandal over top-up payments for senior executives had rocked the voluntary State-funded health sector, and after extensive efforts by the HSE, Department of Health and Department of Public Expenditure to clean up this whole area with explicit new pay rules and new arrangements to police compliance, a new controversy over unauthorised payments was brewing.

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Jun 2, 2017
Paul Cullen
 
The St John of God organisation made €1.85 million in undisclosed payments to senior managers after being instructed by the Vatican to deal with outstanding liabilities, according to a confidential HSE audit of the charity.

“The Vatican wanted to be sure that no liability transferred to the new organisation” after St John of God restructured itself in 2012, with direct accountability to the Holy See, the audit says. The charity provides a range of services from mental health to learning disability, many on contract from the HSE.

The audit uncovered secret payments totalling €6.24 million to senior lay executives. This includes a defined benefit pension scheme which transferred €3.586 million to four senior managers and unapproved increases in their salaries amounting to €277,152.

Private salary payments

The investigation uncovered undeclared private salary payments to 14 senior staff totalling €528,755 as well as a further 139 cases where the charity was not in compliance with public pay policy.

The audit says St John of God has not complied with public pay policy for over 30 years, despite relying on over €130 million a year in State funding. Since at least 1986, “other entities” within the charity have been supplementing the salary of senior executives, whose pay costs are funded by the Exchequer.

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IRELAND
The Journal

NETFLIX’S NEW TRUE crime documentary The Keepers is sparking fresh interest in a 48-year-old murder case.

The seven-part series opens with the story of 26-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik, a beloved nun and teacher at the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland.

Sister Cathy went missing on 7 November 1969 and nearly two months later her body was found.

To this day, her murder remains unsolved.

The series looks into suggestions that Sister Cathy was murdered because she threatened to reveal cases of sexual abuse occurring at Keough.

The Keepers doesn’t solve Sister Cathy’s death and it doesn’t definitively link the main suspect, the school’s chaplain and abuser Father Joseph Maskell, to the murder.

However, it delves into the long-term effects that the sexual abuse had on the graduates of Keough, along with revealing an alleged paedophile ring involving the school’s priests and a section of the police force in Baltimore.

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UNITED STATES
World-Herald

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

Her hands trembled as she held the letter.

“Hello,” the note began. “I apologize for sending this to your office — it’s the only address I found.”

Her body shook as she read the next words in a message she’d awaited for decades and wondered if she’d ever receive: “I’m the person you were looking for.”

Kathleen Chafin cried at her desk on that April day two years ago. As co-workers came to her side, she assured them she brimmed with joy, not sadness.

There already had been too much anguish in her life. Kathleen is 67 today, but she was just a teenager back when the heartbreak began.

Kathleen never held her baby boy, never saw him, never had a photo. But that wasn’t the toughest part.

The hardest for Kathleen — the part that pounded her heart — was never knowing what happened to him.

As a college freshman in 1968 she became pregnant, and her parish priest counseled her and her boyfriend against marriage. Later, she says, another priest coerced her to give up her baby for adoption.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes issued a statement yesterday expressing sadness about the latest allegations of sex abuse filed in court, and the addition of Guam’s beloved first Chamorro bishop as one of the accused.

“As the shepherd of our Catholic Church on Guam, I acknowledge the six latest persons to come forward filing allegations of sexual abuse by our clergy and others,” Byrnes said in a written statement. “With deep sadness, I also acknowledge that the newest lawsuits related to child abuse now include an allegation against the late Archbishop Felixberto C. Flores, who I know is deeply loved by many here on Guam.”

Above all else, all of us at the Archdiocese of Agana extend our prayers to these newest individuals, known by the initials of A.J.R., E.T., S.M.T., E.V., S.D.E. and R.Q., Byrnes added.

“I continue to ask our faithful to pray for all victims of abuse,” he stated. “They have suffered tremendous pain that no others can truly know.”

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

SAM RIGNEY
1 Jun 2017

FORMER St Pius X, Adamstown maths teacher, Ted Hall, has been committed to stand trial on 32 sexual and indecent assault offences dating back to the 1970s.

Edward Smith Hall, 66, known as Ted Hall to St Pius students, appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from Wagga Wagga Local Court charged with 40 offences against 11 St Pius students between 1973 and 1986.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions formally withdrew eight counts and Mr Hall, who was represented by solicitor Drew Hamilton, pleaded not guilty to the remaining 32 charges.

The matter was adjourned to Newcastle District Court on June 29 to set a trial date.

Mr Hall, who now lives in the Riverina region, is accused of nine counts of sexual assault (category 4), 20 counts of indecent assault on a male, two counts of sexual assault (category 3) person under the age of 16 years and attempted buggery, court documents state.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
New York Daily News

BY
JESSICA SCHLADEBECK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 3, 2017

One of the five people charged with trying to beat “homosexual demons” out of a fellow church member incriminated herself on the stand and admitted to throwing out the first blow in the attack.

Despite her attorney’s objections, Sarah Anderson, 30, testified that she told other leaders at Word of Faith Fellowship that Matthew Fenner had experienced “some kind of sexual sin or thought.”

She claimed Minister Brooke Covington, who is standing trial for kidnapping and assault, confronted the 23-year-old about his homosexual thoughts and that she started pushing Fenner’s chest, screaming “Open your heart!”

That’s when Anderson said she slapped Fenner in the face, with about 30 other members of the church joining in — beating, screaming at and choking the man for hours. Even after he admitted to having homosexual thoughts in a dream, the assault continued.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com June 4, 2017

The Holy See or the Roman Catholic Church could be named defendant in dozens of Guam clergy sex abuse lawsuits if the Archdiocese of Agana continues its objections to federal court jurisdiction on these matters, attorney David Lujan said.

Lujan said the Holy See’s degree of control and influence over the Archdiocese of Agana exceeds that of a parent corporation.

“Plaintiffs maintain that defendants’ continued objections to federal subject matter jurisdiction will unnecessarily expand and complicate this litigation,” Lujan said in a filing submitted by the June 2 deadline to prove federal court diversity jurisdiction over clergy sex abuse cases.

Lujan represents 44 plaintiffs who are now asking the U.S. District Court of Guam to conduct a hearing with oral argument to address jurisdiction matters.

“In view of the unique relationship between the Holy See and defendant Archdiocese, plaintiffs recommend that the parties stipulate to federal jurisdiction to avoid unnecessary proceedings aimed at establishing the true nature of the relationship between them,” Lujan said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com June 4, 2017

The Vatican has all the evidence to defrock Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, according to Catholics who continued their weekly picket on Sunday, nearly a year since Pope Francis suspended Apuron on June 6, 2016 over multiple allegations of rape and sex abuse of minors.

“Now that all evidence is in Rome, we want to see Apuron defrocked so that we can have healing in the church and healing also for victims of Apuron and other priests,” Laity Forward Movement President Lou Klitzkie said as she held a sign in front of Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna that read, “Apuron Out.”

The Archdiocese of Agana is not only dealing with Apuron’s canonical trial, but is also a defendant in 74 clergy sex abuse lawsuits and three other childhood sexual abuse complaints filed thus far in local and federal courts.

The first picket calling for Apuron’s removal as Guam archbishop and laicization was held on June 12 last year, Klitzkie said. Apuron, who is turning 72 on Nov. 1, has been Guam archbishop since May 1986.

“Everyone’s saying a decision will be out by June, I don’t know for sure but I hope it’s going to be soon. The Vatican has more than enough evidence,” said Doris Concepcion, mother of a now deceased former altar boy who was allegedly raped by Apuron more than once at a church rectory in the 1970s.

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AUSTRALIA
Gatton Star

Adam Lusher | 4th Jun 2017

A PAEDOPHILE brainwashed a former Amish couple into regarding him as a prophet and ‘gifting’ him their six young daughters as child wives, a court heard.

Lee Kaplan, 52, convinced Savilla and Daniel Stoltzfus that his relationships with their six daughters were the will of God, who contacted him in his dreams, the court was told.

The first daughter to be “gifted” to Kaplan, it was claimed, was given as a future wife when she was nine years old.

Her older sister testified that she too was molested by Kaplan, the abuse allegedly starting when she was ten and leading to her becoming pregnant by him aged 14 in 2013.

Ms Stoltzfus, 43, also went to live with the accused, Bucks County Court in Pennsylvania heard, and allegedly ended up complaining to her husband that Kaplan had stopped having sex with her, preferring intercourse with her daughters.

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MEXICO
Mexico News Daily

A senior official of the Catholic Church in Mexico announced his resignation yesterday, the same day that a former priest filed accusations that Cardinal Norberto Rivera had concealed 15 cases of pedophilia by priests.

Rivera presented his resignation as Primate Archbishop of Mexico to church authorities, complying with regulations that require prelates to retire upon reaching the age of 75.

Rivera will turn 75 next Tuesday, said a spokesman of the Archdiocese of Mexico.

The accusation that Rivera covered up multiple cases of child sex abuse committed by priests throughout the country was filed before the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR) by Alberto Athié Gallo, a priest who resigned in 2000 over what he saw as the systematic concealment of pedophilia in the church.

Accompanied by alleged victims of pedophile priests, Athié told a press conference that Rivera reported cases of sexual abuse of minors to Catholic authorities in the Vatican, but bypassed authorities in Mexico.

Athié recalled that last December Rivera declared he had never protected a pedophile and cited at least 15 cases in the Archdiocese of México of priests who had been tried and sentenced.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
4 Jun 2017

THE Blue Knot Foundation has paid tribute to Anthony Foster – who championed the Newcastle Herald’s campaign for a child abuse royal commission – on the eve of his state funeral in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The head of the foundation for child abuse survivors, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said Mr Foster’s sudden death on May 27, aged 64, had devastated all who came to know him and wife Chrissie, as “steadfast and forthright champions for justice, truth and integrity”.

“Not often in life do you meet human beings who truly inspire,” Dr Kezelman said on Sunday.

“Anthony Foster was one such person.”

Mr and Mrs Foster first challenged the Catholic Church in the 1990s after the devastating discovery that two of their three daughters, Emma and Katie, had been sexually assaulted by a notorious Catholic priest when they were aged 5 and 6.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 3, 2017

ALBANY — The organization representing the state’s Catholic bishops says it supports doing away entirely with the legal time-frames to bring criminal charges in sexual abuse cases.

Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the state Catholic Conference headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, told the Daily News on Friday that his organization continues to oppose a one-year window to revive old cases, but supports doing away entirely with the statute of limitations pertaining to criminal sex abuse cases.

Poust went even further on Twitter on Saturday, accusing the Assembly Democrats of protecting predators with its new bill unveiled Friday and expected to pass the chamber later this week.

The Assembly bill would increase the current statute of limitations in criminal sex abuse cases by five years — meaning a felony case could only be brought up until a victims’ 28th birthday. For misdemeanors, cases would be allowed until a survivor’s 25th birthday.

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FRANCE
RTL

[A Catholic school suspected of assaulting students, a mother testifies.]

Jean-Baptiste Bourgeon
avec Clémence Bauduin et AFP
PUBLIÉ LE 03/06/2017

“Guillaume a fini par dire au bout d’un an et demi que l’abbé le battait à coups de poing et de tabouret”. Une enquête judiciaire a été ouverte vendredi 2 juin à l’encontre de L’Angélus, école catholique hors contrat située dans le Cher, à Presly, en raison de soupçons de maltraitance d’élèves et d’agressions sexuelles. Anne* est la mère de Guillaume*, un ancien pensionnaire de cet établissement qui accueille 109 élèves du primaire au lycée. Elle prend la parole pour évoquer le mal-être de son fils, battu selon ses dires par son directeur, l’abbé Régis Spinoza.

Il “arrivait” à Guillaume “d’avoir des bleus”, selon sa maman, qui mettait alors ces ecchymoses sur le compte du sport. “Il est passionné de rugby et il est hyper sportif donc quand il rentre d’un match il peut avoir des coups de crampon, une arcade sourcilière un peu bleue, une oreille en chou-fleur… Lui disait toujours ‘oui oui c’est à l’entraînement de rugby'”, raconte Anne.

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FRANCE
20 Minutes

20 Minutes avec AFP
Publié le 03.06.2017

Des soupçons de maltraitance d’élèves et d’agressions sexuelles dans une école catholique hors contrat du Cher. C’est le procureur de la République de Bourges qui en a fait l’annonce vendredi lors d’une conférence de presse. Et d’annoncer l’ouverture d’une enquête judiciaire.

L’école « L’Angelus », qui accueille 109 élèves, a été fermée par arrêté préfectoral jusqu’aux vacances d’été, « sur le fondement de la protection de l’enfance, au regard de l’enquête judiciaire en cours », a annoncé la préfecture vendredi soir.

Une vaste opération de gendarmerie a été lancée vendredi matin pour mener la perquisition dans les locaux de l’école, située à Presly (Cher). Une soixantaine d’enfants ont également été auditionnés.

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FRANCE
RFI

French prosecutors temporarily have closed down a traditionalist Catholic school and launched an investigation into allegations of child abuse, some possibly of a sexual nature.

Gendarmes raided the Angelus school in a village in central France on Friday, closing it until the end of the next school holidays.

About 60 of the 109 pupils were interviewed about allegations of physical abuse and corporal punishment and “suspicions of offences of a sexual nature”, according to public prosecutor Joël Garrigue.

There are also suspicions of illegal work and fraud, he said, adding that the school’s director, Abbé Régis Spinoza, was detained to ensure that he would be present during the raid.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By GREG MASON / gmason@uticaod.com

A former Utica-area priest and the Syracuse Catholic Diocese each are facing a $25 million lawsuit from a man who claims the priest sexually abused him as a child.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Connecticut by California man Matthew Strzepak, accuses former priest Felix Colosimo of molesting Strzepak from 1987 to 1990. Strzepak was between 12 to 15 years old when the acts were committed, according to the lawsuit.

Colosimo’s served in the past at St. Peter’s Church in North Utica, St. Leo’s Church in Holland Patent, St. Anthony of Padua Church in East Utica and Our Lady of the Rosary in New Hartford. Now age 78, Colosimo said he retired as a priest at Our Lady of the Rosary three years ago for reasons unrelated to the abuse allegations, according to a Syracuse.com report.

Colosimo could not be immediately reached for comment Saturday.

Strzepak told Syracuse.com that the abuse began in 1978 or 1979 when he was 4 years old, but New York state’s statute of limitations expired for those claims.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

Frances Mulraney @FrancesMulraney June 03, 2017

Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone announced that experts have been employed to assess the possibility of exhuming bodies buried at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home to identify the remains of the hundreds of babies believed to be buried there.

In an op-ed with the Irish Examiner, Zappone wrote that she felt there is a “real possibility” that the identities of these children could be discovered but that the process is “very complicated.”As such, forensic archaeologist Niamh McCullough has been appointed to lead a team of international experts to investigate the best possible next step in dealing with the Tuam babies scandal.

Thanks to the tireless work of local historian Catherine Corless, it was revealed in 2014 that the Tuam Mother and Baby home and the order of nuns in control of it maintained a practice of burying the babies who died in their care in mass graves with the revelation earlier this year that there may be as many as 800 children buried on the Tuam grounds. The children are believed to have died in the home and been buried here by nuns between 1925 and 1961.

These babies were the children of the mothers regarded as “fallen women”, those who had fallen pregnant out of wedlock or as a result of rape or incest, and were committed to the homes run nationwide by religious orders around the country.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The prosecutor asks 10 years in prison for Don Pascal, former pastor of Mandas and Villamar: Under indictment for four sexual assaults on minors.]

Il pm chiede 10 anni di carcere per Don Pascal, ex parroco di Mandas e Villamar: sotto accusa per quattro violenze sessuali su minori.

Dieci anni di carcere per l’ex parroco di Mandas Don Pascal, accusato di abusi sui minori: questa la richiesta avanzata dal pm Liliana Ledda, che sollecita al Gup la condanna del sacerdote. Quattro le violenze sessuali che sarebbero state commesse dal prete, prima a Mandas e poi a Villamar. La difesa rivendica però il fatto che don Pascal sia semi infermo di mente, dunque non condannabile. Ma secondo il pm, gli episodi di violenza sui minori sarebbero avvenuti prima che sorgesse questo problema.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, June 03, 2017

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

Campaigners have called on the Government to start excavations at other mother and baby home sites after Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she is in favour of such a move.

The delay in moving the excavations to other sites has baffled campaigners given that ample evidence of large numbers of infant deaths having occurred in other institutions has been in State hands since 2011.

The Irish Examiner has previously revealed that the McAleese inquiry, the HSE, and two government departments were aware of the “disturbing” issue of infant deaths at Tuam as early as 2012.

The full details of almost 800 children who died in two of the country’s largest mother and baby homes — Bessborough, Cork City, and Castlepollard, Co Westmeath — were also given to the HSE by a religious order in 2011.

In a joint statement, the Adoption Rights Alliance and Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) stressed that “Tuam is not an isolated case” and that it was aware of more than 180 institutions, agencies, and individuals involved with Ireland’s unmarried mothers and their children.

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INDIA
The News Minute

TNM Staff
Saturday, June 03, 2017

Kottiyoor priest Robin Vadakkumchery, accused of raping and impregnating a minor girl, has approached the High Court seeking bail.

The Catholic priest’s justification for seeking bail is that his custody was not required any more as police had completed investigation in the case and has filed the final report, Times of India reports.

Robin Vadakkumchery was arrested on February 28 while he was trying to escape to Canada.

The arrest came three weeks after the girl’s delivery. She gave birth to the child on February 7 in Kannur. The child, a boy, was reportedly sent to an adoption centre run by nuns.

The priest had first tried to implicate the girl’s father as the accused in the case whereas the girl’s parents kept her in the dark about the childbirth. They told her that she was operated on for appendicitis.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 3, 2017

ALBANY — The state Assembly Friday introduced a reworked bill designed to make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to seek justice as adults — and it’s expected to pass as soon as next week.

The bill goes slightly further than a previous version that had been criticized by abuse survivors, who now support it.

Bill sponsor Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said the plan is to move the bill through committee starting Tuesday and then have a full floor vote later in the week.

“It’s the culmination of years of work on this issue — and 2017, it’s high-time we get it done,” Rosenthal said.

The Assembly previously passed versions of the Child Victims Act four times — but none since 2008.

Rosenthal called child sex abuse “an epidemic.”

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has opened the door. Now it’s up to Pope Francis to enter.

During a 42-minute private audience last Monday, Mr. Trudeau invited the Pope to issue a historic papal apology for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in the abuse of children in residential schools.

The prime minister also invited the Pope to visit Canada, which is where, it’s to be hoped, any apology would be delivered.

Following the meeting, the Vatican issued a statement saying the Pope will consider the requests, but did not mention a possible papal apology or when the Pope might visit Canada.

The time for considering is over. It’s time for Pope Francis to deliver a forthright apology to indigenous survivors for the sexual, mental and physical abuse they suffered at church-run schools.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Jaela Bernstien, CBC News Posted: Jun 03, 2017

In a tucked-away office at Montreal’s Concordia University, a video conference connects two groups of survivors separated by an ocean but linked by their so-called “illegitimate” births — Quebec’s Duplessis Orphans and the survivors of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes.

One by one, they introduce themselves, starting with their names and where they were born: Mount Providence orphanage in Montreal, Saint Patrick’s Home in Dublin, Baie-Saint-Paul orphanage in Quebec.

Communication is slow and halting; the Quebecers speak French, the Irish, English. Some never learned to read or write.

But when survivors hear the familiar story — even in a foreign language — they nod along.

On both sides of the ocean, children born to women out of wedlock were abandoned to institutions run by the Catholic Church, in many cases falsely labelled as mentally deficient and abused sexually and physically for years.

“When you [are] a bastard … [it’s like] being born into a garbage can,” says Quebecer Louis-Joseph Hébert, or Nestor, as he prefers to be called.

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MEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

By Phaedra Haywood | The New Mexican

A woman in her 30s is suing Temple Baptist Church of Santa Fe, saying that as a child she was molested by two teachers at a school run by the church in the 1990s.

After years of abuse, the woman’s complaint says, she married and had children with one of her abusers — whom she says was the grandson of church leaders — and didn’t realize until she had a “triggering event” in 2015 that what had been done to her was wrong and illegal.

“The perpetrators were both uncertified male teachers who had been raised in the culture of the Temple Baptist Church and School,” according to her complaint filed last month in District Court.

“The second perpetrator teacher essentially ‘dated’ Plaintiff as a 12-15 year old child, and groomed her to participate in his sexual abuse of her in those years as part of a ‘relationship’ and ‘God’s will.’ ”
As a child, the complaint says, the woman “did not comprehend that the tickling, grabbing, rubbing, massaging and penetrating of her private parts by adult male teachers was ‘sexual abuse,’ nor the harms it would be causing.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
Dispatch Live

By Mbali Tanana – June 3, 2017

A popular Eastern Cape “prophet”, who hosts pop-up services at several public areas, has come under scrutiny by the Hawks following serious allegations from some of the women from his congregation.

The flamboyant “prophet” Mndayi Njengele, believed to be 44 years old, has a following in Cape Town, Keiskammahoek, King William’s Town, East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and his hometown, Dutywa. He stands accused of taking advantage of scores of women in his church, with some going as far as making allegations of sexual abuse against him.

The women – who had organised themselves into a WhatsApp group, of about 20 – became desperate after they were allegedly turned away from a police station where they went to lay a charge against Njengele, who leads the “Wound of Christ: Nxeba lika Yesu” church.

In a moment of desperation, they approached former PSL referee and well-known community activist Ace Ncobo to intervene. In an e-mail to Ncobo – with an attachment of the claims against Mndayi – one of the women wrote: “We are +-50 victims, the police laughed when three of us went to open a case in Dutywa. Please help”.

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