ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell is about to begin the fight to clear his name over sex offence allegations as he faces court for the first time.

When he was charged with historical sex offences last month the Cardinal said he was looking forward to having his day in court in a bid to prove his innocence.

The Cardinal will appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in a historic hearing for the Catholic Church which has been rocked by the criminal proceedings against the Vatican official.

When he does he will become the most senior Catholic to ever face court charged with sex offences.

The nature of the charges being faced by Cardinal Pell have not yet been revealed.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Megan Neil

Top Vatican official Cardinal George Pell’s first court appearance will be over within minutes but will create history.

Australia’s most senior Catholic plans to appear in person at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday for the first stage of what will be a lengthy legal process.

The 76-year-old has returned from Rome vowing to clear his name over multiple historical sexual offence charges involving multiple complainants.

Cardinal Pell is the highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with sexual abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Christian Times

The Church of England has drawn criticism for withdrawing pastoral care and emotional support for sex abuse victims after it reached a financial settlement with them.

An independent review by child safeguarding specialist Ian Elliot alleged that the church withdrew emotional support from the victims after paying compensation on the advice of its insurer Ecclesiastical.

The review found that the advice had “directly conflicted” with the pastoral responsibilities of the church and that “financial interests were allowed to impact practice” at least in one victim’s case.

One victim, identified only as Gilo, told the BBC that he had attempted to contact senior members of the Church more than 20 times after he decided to report that he had been raped, but he received no reply.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

BY MARK SCOLFORO
ASSOCIATED PRESS

A now-retired Roman Catholic priest was charged Monday with forcing a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy to perform oral sex on him while counseling the fourth-grader about misbehaving on a school bus.

The state attorney general’s office accused the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney of committing felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse at St. Margaret Mary Elementary School in Lower Burrell during the 1991-92 school year.

The boy, now 35 and serving in the Coast Guard, told investigators that after the attack Sweeney’s secretary gave him milk and cookies, prosecutors said.

“He is a hero for his service,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “Today we know him as a hero for coming forward to share his story with us.”

Defense attorney Francis R. Murrman said Sweeney, 74, “vehemently” denies the charges, noting they date back some 26 years and the details were only disclosed as Sweeney was being arraigned.

“There’s abbreviations in there, there’s dates, there’s all kinds of allegations,” Murrman said. “We don’t know if 75 percent of them are accurate, 60 percent of them are accurate or 30 percent of them are accurate.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Independent (UK)

Mark Scolforo

A now-retired Roman Catholic priest has been charged with forcing a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy to perform oral sex on him while counselling the fourth-grader about misbehaving on a school bus.

The state attorney general’s office accused the Reverend John Thomas Sweeney of committing felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse at St. Margaret Mary Elementary School in Lower Burrell during the 1991-92 school year.

The boy, now 35 and serving in the Coast Guard, told investigators that after the attack Sweeney’s secretary gave him milk and cookies, prosecutors said.

“He is a hero for his service,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “Today we know him as a hero for coming forward to share his story with us.”

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UNITED STATES
Neshamas

Fellow Jews, I believe it’s essential we come to realize that the rabbis are right. Lack of Tznius is certainly one of the biggest problems in Yiddishkite today and indeed causing the Jewish people so much hardship.

I, as a former rabbi, have suffered for years watching helplessly as our community has endured the tremendous hardships of our neglect on addressing these critical issues properly. Therefore I am making my own Kol Koreh – public proclamation – to address this horrific breach in our moral standards. Tayreh Yidden! What has our nation come to!

1. Rabbis, cheder rebbes, maggidei shiurim, seminary teachers etc must not rape, molest, take advantage of students whether they are minors or young adults.

2. When we rabbis catch a known rapist or molester we must deliver then to the authorities immediately and not let them continue to rape and even worse Chas veshalom go onto run a seminary for young women. This also applies to cheder rebbeim. Don’t just fire them and send them to spiritual counseling, too many cheder rebbeim return to violating children. Once we catch a predator Report them immediately and protect our children and save countless lives from the horror of becoming victims to our antipathy.

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FLORIDA
First Coast News

Julia Jenae and First Coast News , WTLV July 24, 2017

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former youth pastor accused of the dismemberment and murder of a Nassau County teen in the 1990s has been accused of sexually abusing more victims according to newly obtained court documents.

The documents, which were filed on July 18, state that Ronnie Hyde, 60, was sexually abusing two boys around the same time he was sexually abusing Fred Laster.

Laster, 16, went missing in 1994. A passerby came across a decapitated torso that was missing its hands and lower body at a BP Gas Station in Lake City. Authorities didn’t know who the torso belonged to until 2015 when a DNA test was conducted with Laster’s twin sister, confirming the torso was his and solving a 23-year-old cold case.

On March 7, the FBI executed a search warrant at Hyde’s Jacksonville Beach home. Agents arrested him that same day on second-degree murder charges over Laster’s death.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Suzanne Breen
July 24 2017

A son of IRA murder victim Jean McConville, who was abused in a care home after he was orphaned, has died of cancer.

Billy McConville passed away in the NI Hospice days after appealing to politicians to secure justice for institutional child abuse survivors.

His funeral will take place on Wednesday at St Paul’s Church on the Falls Road. He leaves behind four children and is survived by eight brothers and sisters.

Fellow abuse survivor, Margaret McGuckin, said it was damning that he had died before a scheme to secure compensation for victims had been set up. Political deadlock at Stormont had halted progress.

She described him as a “courageous and unselfish man” who had inspired those who met him.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Live

BY MAURICE FITZMAURICE
24 JUL 2017

A son of IRA murder victim Jean McConville has passed away after suffering from cancer.

Billy McConville died before seeing any form of justice for abuse he suffered during years in care following the infamous abduction and killing of his mother in 1972.

The 50-year-old had given evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry about his suffering in care homes. HIA recommendations made in the wake of the inquiry, which included compensation for victims, are being delayed due to political deadlock at Stormont.

Just weeks ago Billy spoke to the Irish News, despite being in the final weeks of his life, saying he hoped his plight “can help others who were abused”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A “courageous” victims’ campaigner orphaned and allegedly abused in Northern Ireland following the murder of his mother Jean McConville has died.

Billy McConville, 50, died at a hospice where he had been living after being diagnosed with cancer.

The Belfast father-of-four described suffering sexual and physical harm in residential care as a child at Rubane House in Co Down, run by brothers from the De La Salle religious order.

Mrs McConville, a mother-of-ten, was abducted, shot and secretly buried by the IRA at the height of the conflict when her son was aged six and he was put into care shortly afterwards.

It was one of the most notorious killings of the Troubles and claims that she was an informer for the British were later dismissed.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

BILL GRAVELAND
CRANBROOK, B.C. — The Canadian Press
Published Monday, Jul. 24, 2017

Two former bishops of an isolated religious commune in British Columbia have been found guilty of practising polygamy after a decades-long legal fight launched by the provincial government.

Winston Blackmore, 60, was married to Jane Blackmore and then married 24 additional women as part of so-called “celestial” marriages involving residents in the tiny community of Bountiful.

The court heard his co-defendant James Oler, 53, had five wives.

Justice Sheri Ann Donegan said Monday the evidence proves Blackmore has been a practising member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that believes in plural marriage.

“His adherence to the practices and beliefs of the FLDS is not in dispute,” she said, reading her written ruling in a Cranbrook, B.C., courtroom.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

STEPHEN HUBA | Monday, July 24, 2017

Area Catholics and ex-Catholics who testified before a state grand jury that met in 2014 to investigate Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse reacted Monday to the news of another abuse allegation with a mixture of relief and anger.

“Being one of those people who came forward, this is a very proud day for me,” said Shaun Dougherty, 47, formerly of Johnstown. “If this arrest came as a result of anything I testified to … that’s why I came forward.”

Dougherty, who owns a restaurant in New York City and no longer is a Catholic, said he was abused by the Rev. George Koharchik at St. Clement Church in the early 1980s.

“I don’t know that I ever had faith. I was 10 years old when this happened,” he said.

Dougherty was one of six alleged victims of Koharchik’s whose names were redacted from a 2016 Pennsylvania attorney general’s report on clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Australian Associated Press

Cardinal George Pell plans to be at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday for the first court hearing on historical sexual assault charges.

Cardinal Pell, 76, was charged on summons on June 29 with multiple historical sexual offence charges involving multiple complainants.

It is understood Cardinal Pell could have asked to have his lawyer appear on his behalf at the filing hearing, but he will appear in person.

It will be a short administrative hearing to set the next dates in the court process.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Cardinal George Pell will face a Melbourne court in person this week after being charged with historical sexual assault offences.

Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against a number of complainants.

Pell was not required to appear in person and could have opted to have a lawyer represent him for the file hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

Speaking in Rome last month after Victoria Police announced he had been charged on summons, Pell strenuously denied all of the allegations.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus idejesus@pennlive.com

A Catholic priest from Westmoreland County has been criminally charged for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy.

The arrest on Monday of the Rev. John T. Sweeney, of Greensburg, marks the latest crackdown on clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania and is part of a broader ongoing investigation by the state Attorney General’s office into additional allegations of abuse by priest.

Sweeney was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony.

“Children are targeted by predators because they are vulnerable,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who announced the charges at the news conference in Lower Burrell Township, Westmoreland County, near the St. Margaret Mary’s Catholic School where, authorities say, the victim was a fourth grade student when the sexual assault took place during the 1991-92 school year. The school is in the Greensburg Diocese.

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CANADA
CBC News

A former religious leader in B.C. has been found guilty of polygamy after marrying more than two dozen women over the course of 25 years.

Winston Blackmore was charged with practising plural or “celestial” marriage in the fundamentalist community of Bountiful, B.C.

In B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Sheri Ann Donegan said he “subscribed to beliefs and practices of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” a Mormon sect that believes in plural marriages.

The verdict was delivered in Cranbrook, northeast of Creston.

Another former leader from the same community, James Oler, who is accused of having five wives, is also facing a single polygamy charge. Both Blackmore and Older were charged with one count each in 2009.

The judge has yet to rule on Oler’s case.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. — Attorney General Josh Shapiro Monday announced criminal charges against a Catholic priest in Westmoreland County for a sexual assault committed against a 10-year-old boy.

The Rev. John T. Sweeney, of Greensburg, was arrested this afternoon and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony.

The charge against Sweeney was recommended by a Pennsylvania statewide investigating grand jury conducting a broader investigation of sexual abuse by priests, under the supervision of the Office of Attorney General.

Attorney General Shapiro announced Sweeney’s arrest at a news conference in Lower Burrell Township, Westmoreland County, near the St. Margaret Mary’s Catholic School where the victim was a fourth grade student when the sexual assault took place during the 1991-92 school year.
“Children are targeted by predators because they are vulnerable,” Attorney General Shapiro said at the news conference. “It often takes victims of child sexual abuse years or decades to come forward, because they struggle with shame, confusion or fear.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

A 74-year-old priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. John T. Sweeney was arraigned in Leechburg Monday afternoon on a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor, with $50,000 unsecured bond under the condition that he stay away from minors and witnesses in the case.

The abuse was alleged to have happened around 1991-92, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The victim came forward after watching the movie “Spotlight,” which was about the sexual abuse scandal in Boston. Father Sweeney was a pastor at St. Margaret Mary in Lower Burrell at the time of the alleged abuse, which reportedly happened at the school there.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a press conference the charges were recommended by a statewide grand jury. Mr. Shapiro lauded the alleged victim as a “hero” seeking to protect other children. He asked anyone with information about abuse cases to come forward: “We care about you.”

Lower Burrell police started the investigation after reports were made to Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau. According to the criminal complaint, the priest forced the victim, then a fourth grader, to perform oral sex on him, warning him he would be in trouble if he didn’t comply. The victim said that Father Sweeney’s secretary brought him milk and cookies after the sexual assault.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Attorney General Josh Shapiro

[criminal complaint]

Clergy Abuse Hotline:- 1-888-538-8541

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced criminal charges against a Catholic priest in Westmoreland County for a sexual assault committed against a 10-year-old boy.

Reverend John T. Sweeney, of Greensburg, was arrested this afternoon and charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony. The charge against Sweeney was recommended by a Pennsylvania statewide investigating grand jury conducting a broader investigation of sexual abuse by priests, under the supervision of the Office of Attorney General.

Attorney General Shapiro announced Sweeney’s arrest at a news conference in Lower Burrell Township, Westmoreland County, near the St. Margaret Mary’s Catholic School where the victim was a 4th grade student when the sexual assault took place during the 1991-92 school year.

“Children are targeted by predators because they are vulnerable,” Attorney General Shapiro said at the news conference. “It often takes victims of child sexual abuse years or decades to come forward, because they struggle with shame, confusion, or fear.

“But once a victim finds the courage to come forward, law enforcement should take action,” the attorney general said. “For his crime, Sweeney now faces a serious felony charge for the sexual abuse of a child.”

According to the grand jury’s presentment, while in 4th grade, the victim was sent to Sweeney for discipline because he had been disruptive on a school bus. The grand jury found that Sweeney used his authority and position as a priest, under the guise of a disciplinarian, to gain access to the victim and to force the victim to perform oral sex on Sweeney in a conference room next to Sweeney’s office inside the St. Margaret Mary Parish.

After Sweeney finished sexually assaulting the 10-year-old boy, Sweeney’s parish secretary brought the boy milk and cookies.

Last September, Special Agents of the Office of Attorney General learned the victim had come forward to Lower Burrell police with his allegation of abuse by Sweeney. Police referred the victim to the Office of Attorney General on the advice of the Westmoreland County District Attorney. Prosecutors brought this information to the grand jury, where the victim later testified.

According to the grand jury presentment, the victim was concerned that Sweeney could still be harming other children. The victim testified he kept his abuse secret his entire life to protect his parents, who he feared would blame themselves. During the intervening years, the victim grew up and entered the service, where he currently serves in the United States Coast Guard.

“He is a hero for his service,” Attorney General Shapiro said, “but today we know him as a hero for coming forward. He was motivated to come forward and tell the difficult truth about Sweeney because of his concern that other children could be harmed if Sweeney were not held accountable.”

Sweeney continued in ministry as a priest for approximately 16 years after abusing the victim and was in contact with children on a regular basis. Sweeney was assigned to various parishes during his tenure as a priest in the Diocese of Greenburg. Sweeney’s assignments:

Associate Pastor
Holy Family Church, Latrobe
June 24, 1970

Associate Pastor
Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Greensburg
August 8, 1975

Pastor
St. Hedwig Church, Smock
May 22, 1980

Pastor
St. Mary, Freeport
February 16, 1982

Pastor
St. Margaret Mary, Lower Burrell
August 6, 1985

Pastor
St. James Parish, Apollo
July 7, 1998

Pastor
Holy Family Parish, West Newton
October 30, 2008

Attorney General Shapiro asked any member of the public with information about sexual abuse by Sweeney or any priest to contact the Office of Attorney General’s Clergy Abuse Hotline at 1-888-538-8541. The investigation into sexual abuse by priests is ongoing.

“If anyone is aware of other incidents involving this man, or if you yourself were a victim, we urge you to come forward,” Attorney General Shapiro said. “We are committed to protecting and supporting all victims of sexual abuse. No one is above the law. Our prosecutors and investigators want to hear from you. We will pursue the facts without fear and without favor.”

Attorney General Shapiro said his office would have charged Sweeney with additional crimes, but the statute of limitation had expired on those charges. Shapiro noted that following the investigation of child sexual abuse within the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, a statewide investigating grand jury called for the abolishment of the criminal statute of limitations for crimes against children.

“It is time to reform these arbitrary timeframes and to seek justice for our children,” Attorney General Shapiro concluded. “This victim, all victims, are entitled to justice.”

###

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PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. —
A retired priest who has served at various parishes throughout the Greensburg Catholic Diocese in Westmoreland County was arrested on child sex abuse charges Monday.

The Rev. John Sweeney is accused of forcing a 10-year-old boy to perform sex acts on him while the child was a student at Saint Margaret Mary in Lower Burrell in the early 1990s, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

In addition to Lower Burrell, Shapiro said Sweeney’s assignments in the Greensburg diocese have included Holy Family Church in Latrobe, Blessed Sacramant Cathedral in Greensburg, Saint Hedwig in Smock, Saint Mary in Freeport, Saint James in Apollo and Holy Family Parish in West Newton.

Sweeney’s arrest is part of “a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests,” Shapiro said. He is asking for more help from the public to identify alleged abusers and their victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

CHUCK BIEDKA AND BRIAN C. RITTMEYER | Monday, July 24, 2017

A former pastor at St. Margaret Mary Church in Lower Burrell is charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1991 and 1992.

The Rev. John Thomas Sweeney, 74, of Greensburg was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by the state Attorney General’s office. Sweeney was being arraigned on the charges at District Just Cheryl Peck-Yakopec’s courtroom Monday afternoon.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is expected to announce the charges at a 4 p.m. press conference to be held in front of the church.

The charges stem from a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests.

Joe Grace, an attorney general spokesman, said more details will be released at the press conference.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI

A former Westmoreland County priest is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child from an incident more than 25 years ago.

John Thomas Sweeney, 75, was arraigned Monday afternoon at the magistrate’s office in Allegheny Township.

This is what we know from a criminal affidavit:

1. Sweeney was formerly a priest in the Diocese of Greensburg, from 1970-2016.

2. He served at seven stations in the diocese, including St. Margaret Mary in Lower Burrell, where he is accused of abusing the child. He also served parishes in Latrobe, Greensburg, Smock, Freeport, Apollo and West Newton
.
3. He was indicted by a state grand jury, which heard testimony from him, his alleged victim and a friend in whom the victim confided as an adult.

4. Sweeney allegedly forced the victim, who was in fourth grade at the time, to perform oral sex on him sometime between September 1991 and June 1992.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI

[with live stream}

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. – A former Westmoreland County priest is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child from an incident more than 25 years ago.

John Thomas Sweeney, 75, was arraigned Monday afternoon at the magistrate’s office in Allegheny Township.

The allegations stem from the St. Margaret Mary School in Lower Burrell.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is expected to announce more about the investigation at a news conference at 4 p.m. in Lower Burrell.

Shapiro said the arrest and subsequent charges are the result of a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters

Byron Kaye

BALLARAT, Australia (Reuters) – One of the pope’s top advisers, Cardinal George Pell, makes his first court appearance in Australia this week on charges of historic sex crimes, a bitter reminder for his home town reeling from more than a dozen abuse cases.

Pell, the Vatican’s economy minister, last month became the most senior Catholic to be charged with sex crimes. He has vowed to fight the still-unspecified charges, calling them false and the result of a “relentlelss character assassination”. He declined to respond to interview requests for this story.

He is expected to appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

Police have not released details of the charges, but the start of Pell’s court battle in Melbourne revisits a troubled past for Ballarat, the former gold town of 100,000 people 75 miles (120 km) to the west where Pell grew up and cut his teeth as a priest in the 1970s and 1980s.

Before a 2013 state government inquiry into institutional abuse, Ballarat was best known to Australians as the site of the Eureka Stockade, a bloody 1854 uprising by goldminers against colonial authorities.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Barney Zwartz | Jul. 24, 2017

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Cardinal George Pell, who this week will become the highest ranked church official ever to face sex abuse charges in court, may be the most polarizing religious leader in Australia’s brief history.

The former Archbishop of Sydney will appear in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on July 26 to answer yet-unspecified charges of historical sexual abuse involving multiple complainants, which he resolutely denies.

The complaints apparently long predate his present Vatican role as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, often but misleadingly referred to as number three in the Vatican hierarchy behind the pope and secretary of state.

It is a staggering fall from grace for the combative cardinal. Even if he is utterly exonerated, mutterings from Rome suggest the 76-year-old will not return to his secretariat post. His credibility seems destroyed — largely self-inflicted in a series of appearances before official inquiries into how the church handled child sexual abuse. Increasingly he revealed himself — and confessed to being — a man who put the institutional church first, second and third. He also revealed a man deeply deficient in compassion and empathy. Of this, more below.

No Australian prelate has been so admired and so excoriated: He is adored by his followers for his fearlessly strident support for a highly conservative orthodoxy and old-fashioned authoritarianism and loathed by his critics for his relentless determination, often perceived as brutal.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPXI

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. – A priest has been arrested for sexual abuse in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Monday.

The identity of the priest has not been released. A news conference will be held at 4 p.m. Monday in Lower Burrell.

Shapiro said the arrest and subsequent charges are the result of a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Barbara Miller bmiller@pennlive.com

The Pennsylvania attorney general will be announcing details later this afternoon on the arrest of a priest accused of sexual abuse in Westmoreland County.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro will announce the arrest of a priest at 4 p.m. in Lower Burrell, Westmoreland County.

The charges are the result of a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests, with investigators seeking the public’s help in completing the probe.

Last year, Shapiro announced the result of a grand jury investigation that accused priests and church leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese of sexually abusing hundreds of children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
U.S. News

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro plans to announce criminal sexual abuse charges against a western Pennsylvania priest.

Shapiro’s office says he’ll be in Lower Burrell to announce the charges this afternoon.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the priest serves at a parish in that area, and the priest has yet to be identified. Lower Burrell is about 25 miles (40.2 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh and is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg.

Shapiro says the arrest being announced Monday is part “of a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests.” Sharpiro says he’ll ask the public for more help in identifying alleged abusers and their victims.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

BRIAN C. RITTMEYER | Monday, July 24, 2017

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro will announce sexual abuse charges Monday against a priest in Westmoreland County.

The announcement will be made at 4 p.m. at Leechburg Road and Park Drive in Lower Burrell near St. Margaret Mary Church.

The attorney general’s office has yet to release the priest’s name, and St. Margaret Mary was not identified in a media advisory issued Monday morning.

The charges stem from a broader investigation into sexual abuse by priests, the advisory states.

Joe Grace, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, would not answer questions, including about the identity of the priest or the location of the announcement and if St. Margaret Mary was involved.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig criticized an ideological instrumentalization of his departure from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was wrong “to divide the church, so to speak, into two ideological wings and invest its own energy in the fact that the one overcomes the other,” he told the Würzburger newspaper “Die Tagespost” on Friday. “We are Catholic and there are not conservative and progressive truths.” The reports on the end of his term were thus “instrumentally assured by various sides”.]

Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig hat eine ideologische Instrumentalisierung seines Ausscheidens aus der Glaubenskongregation kritisiert. Es sei “falsch, die Kirche sozusagen in zwei ideologische Flügel aufzuteilen und die eigene Energie darin zu investieren, dass der eine den anderen überwindet”, sagte er der Würzburger Zeitung “Die Tagespost” am Freitag. “Wir sind katholisch, und es gibt nicht konservative und progressive Wahrheiten”. Die Berichte über das Ende seiner Amtszeit seien demnach “von verschiedenen Seiten sicher” instrumentalisiert worden. So verfalle nun ein Teil der Beobachter in Jubel, “weil er die Rolle des Präfekten völlig falsch einschätzt”, sagte Müller.

Weiter erklärte der Kardinal, er habe mit seinem Nachfolger als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation, Kurienerzbischof Luis Ladaria, “in vollkommener Harmonie” zusammengearbeitet. Auch bei der Auslegung des Päpstlichen Schreibens “Amoris laetitia” habe es keinen Dissens zwischen ihnen gegeben, sagte Müller. Der ehemalige Regensburger Bischof war Anfang Juli überraschend bereits nach einer ersten fünfjährigen Amtszeit als Präfekt aus der wichtigsten Kurienbehörde ausgeschieden. Zum Nachfolger hatte Franziskus den bisherigen Sekretär, den aus Spanien stammenden Ladaria, ernannt. In der Folge kam es zu Spekulationen, wonach Müllers Lesart von “Amoris laetitia” Grund für sein Ausscheiden gewesen sein soll.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[“There was nobody to turn to.” Hundreds of children were victims of physical violence in the Regensburg catspasks; there were also sexual assaults. The abuse commissioner of the federal government explains why enlightenment in the church is so difficult.]

Von Annette Langer

“Liebe, liebe Eltern. Ich habe euch so, so gerne. Bitte, bitte, ich möchte so, so, so gerne nach Hause. Holt mich gleich ab, wenn ihr den Brief gelesen habt und meldet mich beim Herrn Direktor ab, das wäre mein Geburtstagswunsch, aber vergesst den Koffer nicht.”

Diese Zeilen stammen aus den Sechzigerjahren, geschrieben von einem Kind aus der Vorschule der Regensburger Domspatzen. Sie werden im Abschlussbericht des Rechtsanwalts Ulrich Weber zitiert, der die jahrzehntelange körperliche und sexuelle Gewalt bei den Domspatzen im Auftrag des Bistums Regensburg untersucht hat.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[The abuse commissioner of the Federal Government, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, insists that victims of abuse be heard. In addition, they would have to be involved in “transparent” rework processes – “whether it is a matter of dealing with acts in the church context, in sport, in a school or in a childhood or youth leisure,” Rörig emphasized in an interview with Spiegel On-line.]

Betroffene in Missbrauchsfällen dürfen keine Bittstreller sein, fordert der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig. Der Fall der Regensburger Domspatzen

Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bundesregierung, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, dringt darauf, dass Opfern von Missbrauch zugehört wird. Außerdem müssten sie in Aufarbeitungsprozesse “transparent” einbezogen werden – “ganz gleich, ob es um eine Aufarbeitung von Taten im kirchlichen Kontext, beim Sport, in einer Schule oder bei einer Kinder- und Jugendfreizeit geht”, betonte Rörig am Sonntag im Interview mit Spiegel Online.

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CANADA
Ottawa Sun

BY ANDREW DUFFY, POSTMEDIA NETWORK
FIRST POSTED: MONDAY, JULY 24, 2017

An Ottawa man has become the latest victim to sue the Archdiocese of Ottawa for sexual abuse that he allegedly suffered at the hands of the city’s most notorious Catholic priest, Rev. Dale Crampton.

Robert Sullivan has filed a $2-million damages claim for abuse that he says began when he was just 10 years old.

“No matter how much work I do, and try to forgive, it’s still something inside me: It killed part of me,” Sullivan, 51, said in an interview with the Sun.

He is the tenth person to come forward through the legal system in the year since the Sun published a series about the dark history of clergy sex abuse in Ottawa.

Three have lodged criminal complaints against Rev. Barry McGrory, 82, a retired priest who is scheduled to stand trial next year on eight charges.

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ROM
Idea

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller – until the beginning of July Prefect of the Congregation of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith – has drawn a dramatic image of Christianity and the Catholic Church in Europe. “All the elements of the faith lived, the popular piety, have collapsed”, he said in an interview with the Italian daily “Il Foglio” (issue 21 July). All of Europe is in a “process of forced de-Christianization, which goes far beyond simple secularization.”

Rom (idea) – Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller – bis Anfang Juli Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan – hat ein dramatisches Bild des Christentums und der katholischen Kirche in Europa gezeichnet. „Alle Elemente des gelebten Glaubens, der Volksfrömmigkeit, sind zusammengebrochen“, sagte er in einem Interview mit der italienischen Tageszeitung „Il Foglio“ (Ausgabe 21. Juli).

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

BY MITCH WEISS, HOLBROOK MOHR AND PETER PRENGAMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — When Andre Oliveira answered the call to leave his Word of Faith Fellowship congregation in Brazil to move to the mother church in North Carolina at the age of 18, his passport and money were confiscated by church leaders – for safekeeping, he said he was told.

Trapped in a foreign land, he said he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay, first cleaning warehouses for the secretive evangelical church and later toiling at businesses owned by senior ministers. Any deviation from the rules risked the wrath of church leaders, he said, ranging from beatings to shaming from the pulpit.

“They trafficked us up here. They knew what they were doing. They needed labor and we were cheap labor – hell, free labor,” Oliveira said.

An Associated Press investigation has found that Word of Faith Fellowship used its two church branches in Latin America’s largest nation to siphon a steady flow of young laborers who came on tourist and student visas to its 35-acre compound in rural Spindale.

Under U.S. law, visitors on tourist visas are prohibited from performing work for which people normally would be compensated. Those on student visas are allowed some work, under circumstances that were not met at Word of Faith Fellowship, the AP found

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MICHIGAN
Associated Press

ROGERS CITY, Mich. (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting another priest after a night of drinking in northern Michigan has been found not guilty.

The Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka was acquitted Thursday, the third day of trial in Presque Isle County. Obwaka admits that sexual contact occurred, but he said it was consensual.

The other priest told jurors that he was assaulted in February while visiting Obwaka and spending a night at the rectory at St. Ignatius Church in Rogers City.

The trial witnesses included Gaylord Bishop Steven Raica, who spoke to Obwaka after the other priest said he was assaulted. Raica says Obwaka didn’t indicate that any sex was consensual.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Monday, July 24, 2017

By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter

The HSE has refused to say why concerns about infant deaths and possible trafficking from Bessborough in Cork and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home were not reported to the then health minister.

The Irish Examiner revealed, in 2015, senior management within the HSE had raised concerns about “shocking” infant mortality rates and possible trafficking of children at both the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home as well as the Tuam home in 2012 — two years before the Tuam babies scandal emerged.

A note of a teleconference call on October 12, 2012, involving then head of the medical intelligence unit, Davida De La Harpe, and then assistant director of Children and Family Service, Phil Garland, revealed management felt what had been discovered in Tuam warranted a state inquiry.

The note concludes by stating, due to the gravity of what was being found, an “early warning letter” be written to the national director of the HSE’s quality and patient safety division, Philip Crowley, suggesting “that this goes all the way up to the minister”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

JULIET SAMUEL

How far back does accountability stretch? The Bible tells us the sins of the fathers can be visited upon the children even to the third and fourth generation. What if the father isn’t a man, though, but an institution? What if the institutional staff involved in a crime are now dead? The biblical answer being rather frowned upon nowadays, we have developed a new catch-all answer: set up an inquiry.

In the last two weeks, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has been holding the first of many hearings to demand answers from institutions suspected of facilitating abuse. Victims involved in the current investigation gave their testimony in February and now, it is the institutions’ turn.

The current investigation – the only one to hold any hearings so far – looks at the child migration programme, a government-sponsored, charitably-run scheme that sent 130,000 British children to far-off Commonwealth countries to live at boarding schools or with adoptive families. In its day, it was supported by royalty and feted for spreading British influence and helping wayward or orphaned youth.

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MEXICO
Animal Politico

[In criticizing the media, Cardinal Norberto Rivera said Sunday that “in our world, not everything is good wheat, the tares make their appearance without ceasing.” Media that should help remove barriers, he said, “often become creators of abysses.” In another moment of his homily, in the Metropolitan Cathedral, Rivera said that the media instead of helping human progress have often become weapons against society. His statements come after a report from the newspaper Reforma, dated July 5, which indicated that ex-priests Alberto Athié and José Barba accused Rivera for alleged cover-up of 15 pedophilia priests .The PGR initiated an investigation into the case, with the folder FED / SDHPDSC / UNAI-CDMX / 0000425/2017.]

Al criticar a los medios de comunicación, el cardenal Norberto Rivera dijo este domingo que “en nuestro mundo no todo es trigo bueno, la cizaña hace su aparición sin cesar”.

Medios de comunicación que deberían ayudar a quitar barreras, apuntó, “se convierten con frecuencia en creadores de abismos”.

En otro momento de su homilía, en la Catedral Metropolitana, Rivera dijo que los medios de comunicación, en lugar de ayudar al progreso humano, se han convertido muchas veces en armas contra la sociedad.

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MEXICO
Periodico Correo

[The primate archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrerea , attacked the media during the mass he offered yesterday in the Metropolitan Cathedral. On June 2, ex-priests Alberto Athié and José Barba filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor of the Republic (PGR) against the cardinal for allegedly protecting 15 priests who sexually abused minors.]

CDMX.- El arzobispo primado de México, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrerea, arremetió contra los medios de comunicación durante la misa que ofreció ayer en la Catedral Metropolitana.

En la homilía, el arzobispo comparó a los medios de comunicación con la cizaña que crece en los campos de trigo.

“Medios de comunicación que deberían ayudar a quitar barreras se convierten con frecuencia en creadores de abismos”, afirmó, y que en lugar de ayudar al progreso humano, los medios de comunicación se han convertido muchas veces en armas contra la sociedad.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Secretary of State under Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, has denied rumors of involvement in a scheme to overpay for remodeling on his Vatican apartment in order to benefit an Italian businessman and longtime friend. Meanwhile, questions remain about how the businessman was able to bill two different Vatican departments almost $1 million for the same work, which was never even finished.

A Vatican trial focusing on a financial scandal involving a papally-sponsored hospital, and featuring a powerful cardinal at the heart of the affair, may be on hiatus until early September, but that doesn’t mean questions surrounding the case are taking a vacation.
Instead, they seem to be multiplying almost by the day.

Just in the past week, there have been conflicting reports about whether that cardinal, Italian Tarcisio Bertone, the former Secretary of State under Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, did or didn’t provide a previously unknown memo to investigators last November, offering a chronology of his actions in the affair and rejecting any suggestion of involvement in fraud.

Some are also asking question why Bertone was never even a subject of the Vatican investigation, despite long-standing ties to the Italian businessman who benefited from it.

Finally, there are also question marks about how the situation reflects on the broader project of Vatican reform under Pope Francis, at a time when his hand-picked auditor general, Italian Libero Milone, has departed under mysterious circumstances, and his pick to head the new Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell, is home in Australia facing sexual abuse charges.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Mark Quinn, CBC News Posted: Jul 24, 2017

A federal government apology to Newfoundland and Labrador residential school survivors is long overdue, according to a lawyer who represented almost a thousand of them in a class-action lawsuit settled last year.

“The judge and all of the lawyers in this case recognize the general urgency to get this thing done. We learn of people within the class dying almost on a daily basis,” said Steven Cooper, a lawyer with the law firm Cooper Regel.

One class member who died recently is Inuk Nicky Obed. When he spoke to CBC news in 2015, the nine-year court battle to reach a settlement hadn’t ended yet.

At the time, Obed said Newfoundland and Labrador residential survivors like him, who had suffered sexual abuse and lost their indigenous languages and cultures, wanted an apology more than compensation for their suffering.

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ARGENTINA
Elancasti

[A priest in the northern part of the capital city is alleged to have sexually abused two children, whom he had tried to kiss. Two mothers filed the complaint in the Judicial Unit 8.]

n sacerdote fue denunciado por supuesto caso de abuso sexual a dos menores, a las que habría intentado besar, en la zona norte de la ciudad Capital.

Dos mamás radicaron la denuncia en la Unidad Judicial 8 y aseguraron que el sacerdote fue el autor del intento de ultraje.

El caso se conoció en las últimas horas y la investigación de los hechos fue girada a la Fiscalía que corresponde en relación con las fechas del hecho.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

July 24, 2017

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Cardinal George Pell will appear in person in a Melbourne court this week for a filing hearing on historical sexual abuse charges.

Cardinal Pell, who does not have to appear, has decided to travel to Melbourne to appear on Wednesday before a magistrate in a case that will attract world interest.

The appearance will come after months of speculation about whether or not he would appear or, indeed, whether he would leave Rome.

The appearance has created a logistical nightmare for court officials with what is expected to be unprecedented interest.

Cardinal Pell stressed last month that he is innocent of charges of historical sex abuse and that he had taken leave from his Vatican post to fight what were multiple charges allegedly committed against multiple people.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Adam Cooper

He is one of the highest ranking officials in the Catholic Church, but Cardinal George Pell could find himself rubbing shoulders with drink-drivers, drug users and other accused criminals when he attends court for the first time to answer to historical sex charges.

Melbourne Magistrates Court maintains it will take a business as usual approach to the high-profile case, which means Cardinal Pell could join the queue of accused criminals, solicitors and police waiting to get into the court on Wednesday morning.

Fairfax Media understands the Cardinal will be there on Wednesday morning.

A court spokeswoman confirmed the Cardinal would be required to enter the building through the front door, be scanned by security staff, sit in general seating and have his name read on the daily list.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com July 24, 2017

A 2016 Guam law does not allow the Boy Scouts of America to be retroactively sued for alleged child sexual abuse, its attorney stated in documents filed in the Superior Court of Guam.

“The court should dismiss with prejudice all claims against BSA and Aloha Council,” Boy Scouts attorney Patrick Civille said in a July 14 motion to dismiss.

Civille stated the 2016 law retroactively lifted the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse cases, but only for cases against the alleged abusers. He said the laws does not allow cases to be filed against third parties or institutions, such as the Boy Scouts, that are associated with the alleged abusers.

Former Guam priest Louis Brouillard, who also was a scoutmaster, allegedly sexually abused minor boy scouts during scouting activities and on parish grounds, dozens of lawsuits filed in local and federal court state. Most of the cases accusing Brouillard list the Boy Scouts, its Aloha Council Chamorro District and the Archdiocese of Agana as defendants. Four of those cases name only the church, and not the Boy Scouts as defendants.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen

An Ottawa man has become the latest victim to sue the Archdiocese of Ottawa for sexual abuse that he allegedly suffered at the hands of the city’s most notorious Catholic priest, Rev. Dale Crampton.

Robert Sullivan has filed a $2-million damages claim for abuse that he says began when he was just 10 years old.

“No matter how much work I do, and try to forgive, it’s still something inside me: It killed part of me,” Sullivan, 51, said in an interview with the Citizen.

He is the tenth person to come forward through the legal system in the year since the Citizen published a series about the dark history of clergy sex abuse in Ottawa.

Three have lodged criminal complaints against Rev. Barry McGrory, 82, a retired priest who is scheduled to stand trial next year on eight charges.

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ITALIA
La Notizia

[The state is silent. The Vatican hides. And in the end the demon remains in the house and in the church. The abuse of minors perpetrated by the priests are a problem of little talk, except when the media breaks a major case. There is the scary case of the 547 children abused in Regensburg but the dioceses are full of pedophile priests and “burial” bishops. In Italy a check back 15 years showed only 132 convictions and more than 100 priests have been investigated, according to Francesco Zanardi, president of Rete L’Abuso. He said these figures obviously are only a partial counting of abuse cases.]

.eicase breaks down, all faithful and non-ecclesiastical and laity, in front of a cross that state and church should take charge of. Yeah, because there is not only the scary case of the 547 abused children in Regensburg: the dioceses are full of pedophile priests and “burial” bishops. Suffice it: “We went back to 15 years and we rebuilt, only in Italy, 132 convictions definitively and over a hundred priests investigated at present”, says Francesco Zanardi , president of the association L’Abuso , which for years has Occupies the phenomenon. “However, the figure is obviously partial”,

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MICHIGAN
The Alpena News

Following Thursday’s not guilty verdict in the charges against Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka, the Diocese of Gaylord issued a statement saying Obwaka will remain on will remain on administrative leave from his priestly assignments while the diocese addresses any ecclesial issues that may exist.

“These past months have been extremely painful and difficult for everyone involved,” Candace Neff, director of communications for the Diocese of Gaylord, stated in a press release. “While (Thursday’s) verdict begins the path toward closure, healing will take time, patience and grace. The diocese will be doing all we can to help facilitate that.”

Rev. Joseph Muszkiewicz will continue as temporary administrator for St. Ignatius parish and, in collaboration with parish staff and leadership, will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the parish. Rev. James Fitzpatrick will continue serving as sacramental minister.

“This has indeed been a very sad time in our history,” Bishop Steven J. Raica said. “Yet, even in times of tribulation, we know we do not walk alone. Christ walks with us. I am so thankful for the expressions of support and for the many prayers that have been offered for our priests, parishes and the diocese during this time. I ask for continued prayers for everyone involved as we move forward and, together, let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.”

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AUSTRALIA
Crime Online

by Lawrence Bonk
July 23, 2017

An Australian court has convicted a pastor of repeatedly raping his wife and he is serving five years in prison, as reported by Daily Mail.

Larry Harris is involved in a denomination of the Baptist church that preaches women must submit to anything their husband demands. As such, Joy Harris said she was raped multiple times a day for decades.

“He thought the more times a day he had it the more of a man he was. It got up to six or seven times a day,” she told 60 Minutes.

Larry, an American who moved to Australia in 1994, preached on behalf of Valley Forge Baptist Church, a church that some former members have likened to a cult, according to Daily Mail.

Joy Harris is finally free from her daily abuse, but her own son, who was raised with the same doctrine, has turned his back on her. According to Joy Harris, he will not speak to her until she repents.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Liz Little
Jul 23, 2017

The wife of a radical Australian preacher has broken her silence for the first time on the horrific abuse she suffered for years at the hands of her cruel husband.

But Joy Harris, 63, revealed the most devastating aspect of her ordeal was being shunned by her own son – an Independent Baptist pastor like his Dad – because he blamed her for his father’s evil actions.

“I’m totally heartbroken. He hasn’t even let me see his children, because I have to repent first.”

Speaking in a 60 Minutes exclusive, the Cairns grandmother said she had been raped up to seven time a day by her husband, Pastor Larry Harris.

“He thought the more times a day he could have it, the more of a man he was. He would get up to 6, 7 times a day and he didn’t care if it caused me pain,” she told reporter Liam Bartlett.

Pastor Harris pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in Queensland in January, however Joy will seek to have him charged in New South Wales, where the majority of abuse allegedly occurred, when he is released.

Joy told Bartlett any sense of justice will be forever overshadowed because her son Kevin, who leads the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Dapto, has turned his back on her for speaking out against the church.

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MALTA
Sunday Times of Malta

Sunday, July 23, 2017 by Ivan Martin

Sexual offenders could be slipping through the net in the absence of a centralised register accessible by different entities, the head of the Church’s Safeguarding Commission has warned.

Andrew Azzopardi told The Sunday Times of Malta that the only way for an offender to end up on the official register, which bars them from working with children, was for victims to brave court proceedings – something most were reluctant to do.

Even once this was done, it was at the magistrate’s discretion to decide whether or not to add offenders to the list.

“The problem is that we have victims who don’t want to go to the police and don’t want the matter to end up in court. In fact, most of those who come forward to us don’t want to go to court,” Mr Azzopardi said.

Victims, he added, were reluctant to go through legal proceedings as they often wound up in the news.

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IRELAND
The Times

Justine McCarthy
July 23 2017
The Sunday Times

Katherine Zappone, the children’s minister, has contacted the Mother and Baby Homes Commission about the sale of Bessborough House in Cork, over concerns about the consequences for human remains buried there.

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are selling the house, which was once Ireland’s biggest mother and baby home. A 2012 report prepared for the McAleese inquiry into Magdalene laundries said a “shocking” number of children died in the institution in the mid-20th century. Bessborough’s records show, on average, 25 children a year died there in 1934-1953. Campaigners want the sale to be stopped.

“I share the concerns about recent reports of the redevelopment of the Bessborough site and its effect on possible burials on the grounds, or access to the burial garden,” said Zappone.

“The commission has been tasked with examining the burial arrangements in respect of Bessborough. It will consider available records and witness testimony. It has all the necessary legal powers to facilitate its investigations,” she added.

“It is for the commission to decide on the necessity for any further investigation it may deem necessary to enable it to establish the facts on these questions.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

To help Guam’s Catholic Church correct past financial mismanagement, pay debts and properly fund chancery operations, village parishes will see an average of 186-percent increases in assessment fees.

This means up to a 1,146-percent hike for the Maina parish, for example, which used to pay only $107.82, church data shows.

The Dededo parish, the biggest, will be assessed $10,763.45 instead of the $5,481.26 imposed six years ago, or an increase of 96 percent.

The parish was only making $4,603.95 in actual payments, archdiocese data shows.

The proposed assessment for each of the Catholic Church’s 25 parishes, excluding the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagåtña, was published in the July 16 issue of the archdiocese’s weekly newspaper, Umatuna Si Yu’os.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

July 21, 2017

By Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

A former Northeast Portland church altar boy and choir member is suing the parish for $3.1 million, claiming he was repeatedly sexually abused by a choir director in the early 1960s on church grounds and nothing was done to stop the abuse.

The Portland man, now in his late 60s and identified in the suit as M.W.R., is alleging battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. The lawsuit accuses former choir director Jay Shisler of befriending and grooming M.W.R. when he was 11 and 12 years old and later kissing, sexually touching and sexually abusing him.

The lawsuit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Thursday, and M.W.R. is being represented by attorneys Barbara Long and Randall Vogt.

The church rector, the Rev. Christopher Craun, declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday because she wasn’t aware of the allegations and hadn’t seen the lawsuit.

Shisler died in 2001 at age 60.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Pro

[The harm which priests, teachers, and educators have given to the image of the church and of trust may be irreparable to many. And who says, “The time back then was so,” does not make the behavior better. “My happy childhood ended when my parents left me at the boarding school in Etterzhausen on the first day of class 3,” one of the victims is quoted in the report, which was published on Tuesday.]

Wieder kommt heraus, dass Kirchenangehörige Menschen das Leben zur Hölle gemacht haben. In dem Abschlussbericht zu den Missbrauchsfällen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen ist von mindestens 500 Schülern die Rede, die zwischen 1945 und den 90er Jahren geschlagen wurden. 67 wurden Opfer sexueller Gewalt. Ein Kommentar von Jörn Schumacher

Der Schaden, den Priester, Lehrer und Erzieher dem kindlichen Bild von Kirche und von Vertrauen zugefügt haben, dürfte bei vielen irreparabel sein. Und wer sagt: „Die Zeit damals war nun mal so“, macht das Verhalten nicht besser. „Meine fröhliche Kindheit endete, als meine Eltern mich am ersten Schultag der 3. Klasse in dem Internat in Etterzhausen zurückließen“, wird eines der Opfer in dem Bericht, der am Dienstag veröffentlicht wurde, zitiert. Von da an hätten die Erzieher „uneingeschränkt Gott“ gespielt. „Angst ist bis heute mein ständiger Begleiter“, heißt es weiter. Mit dem Siegelring haben Kirchenangehörige Kinder blutig geschlagen. Etwa wenn ein Junge beim Gottesdienst stolperte. So ein Siegel-Ring gilt in der Katholischen Kirche übrigens – ähnlich einem Ehering – als Zeichen der Treue zur Kirche.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Bishop Voderholzer of Regensburg said he is horrified by what is contained in the report on abuse at the Domspatzen choir.]

“All das macht mich zutiefst zerknirscht und erfüllt mich mit Scham,” schreibt der Regensburger Bischof Voderholzer in einem Hirtenwort zu den Übergriffen bei den Domspatzen. Den Opfern verspricht Voderholzer Hilfe.

Voderholzers Hirtenwort wurde am Wochenende in den Gemeinden des Bistums verlesen. Der Bischof schreibt, dass er bei dem, was die Betroffenen schildern, “Entsetzen und Betroffenheit” spüre. Er könne deshalb nur in Demut um Entschuldigung bitten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, the Regensburg bishop, dealed with the Domspatzen final report this Sunday in his pastoral letter and said he was horrified. Voderholzer said “Whoever reads these descriptions can only feel horror and sorrow.” It is deeply distasteful and fills him with shame. He says further. “Dear fellow Christians, in the face of the above descriptions, I can only apologize in humility,” the bishop said.”

Von Dagmar Unrecht, MZ

REGENSBURG.Der Regensburger Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer hat sich in seinem Hirtenwort von diesem Sonntag mit dem Domspatzen-Abschlussbericht beschäftigt und sich entsetzt gezeigt. Zu den geschilderten Berichten der Betroffenen sagte Voderholzer: „Wer diese Schilderungen liest, kann nur Entsetzen und Betroffenheit spüren.“ Es mache ihn zutiefst zerknirscht und erfülle ihn mit Scham, heißt es in dem Hirtenwort weiter. „Liebe Mitchristen, angesichts der obigen Schilderungen kann ich nur in Demut um Entschuldigung bitten“, so der Bischof. Darüber hinaus dankte er Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber und sagte, es sei ein „sehr umfassendes, reich differenziertes und vor allem unabhängiges Werk“ entstanden.

Lesen Sie hier das gesamte Hirtenwort des Bischofs im Wortlaut.

Voderholzer zitiert Müller

Bischof Voderholzer zitiert in seinem Hirtenwort auch eine Aussage seines Vorgängers, des heutigen Kardinals Gerhard Ludwig Müller, aus dem Jahr 2010: „Den Opfern dieser Zeit, aber auch allen, die sich heute erst melden, gilt unser tiefes Mitgefühl. Ihrer Ehre und Würde schulden wir, dass ihnen Gerechtigkeit widerfährt.“ Müller stand fünf Jahre der Glaubenskongregation im Vatikan vor, die auch für die Aufklärung von Missbrauchsfällen zuständig ist. Papst Franziskus hatte Müllers Amt Anfang Juli überraschend nicht verlängert.

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ARGENTINA
Perfil

[The sexual abuse scandal at Mauricio Macri’s school does not stop. After the complaint made by a former student against the priest Alfredo Mac Conastair, PERFIL received the letters written by three of the alleged 22 victims in which they revealed the sufferings of more than forty years ago.]

.Nadia Galán

El escándalo por los abusos sexuales en el colegio de Mauricio Macri no se detiene. Después de la denuncia realizada por un ex alumno del Cardenal Newman contra el cura Alfredo Mac Conastair, PERFIL accedió a las cartas que escribieron tres de las supuestas 22 víctimas, en las que cuentan con lujo de detalles los padecimientos que sufrieron hace más de cuarenta años.

Rufino Varela (52) fue el primer ex alumno que se animó a dar la cara y denunciar los ataques sufridos cuando era niño. A partir de la difusión de su historia, las autoridades del Newman “pidieron perdón sin reservas a todas las víctimas” (ver aparte).

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff
Sunday, July 23, 2017

The attorney general’s launch of a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations over several decades is an uncommon move in New Hampshire that could require the school to make significant cultural changes, legal experts say.

The probe, announced 10 days ago, has put the elite boarding school under a microscope, as investigators work to determine what school officials knew about sexual misconduct by both staff members and students, when they knew about it, and how they responded to it.

While criminal investigations into specific incidents of sexual assault and abuse are commonplace at educational institutions, the attorney general’s probe into St. Paul’s will chart new territory.

Legal experts said the nature and scope of this probe is unusual, noting that they could draw similarities only to the attorney general’s criminal investigation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in the early 2000s. But even then, they cautioned, the global reach and influence of the Catholic church created a far different set of circumstances for investigators than that of a single – although prominent – boarding school.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

On the 20th anniversary of the serial abuser’s admission of his crimes, Liam Collins retraces the scandal that shook Ireland to the top

Liam Collins
July 23 2017

It is high summer in Kilnacrott, Co Cavan. Not even the ominous evergreen trees that surround the one-time Norbertine house and its small graveyard can darken this glorious summer’s day.

On a country road near the village of Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, there is a grotto to the left of the entrance gates, but the statue of the Virgin Mary has been “removed for maintenance” and a sign declares that this is now a ‘Soul Sanctuary.’ Ignoring a garish blue sign tacked to one of the trees declaring ‘Private Grounds’, I cross a stile and walk up the pathway to where the most notorious paedophile in the Irish Catholic church’s sorry history of abuse is buried.

Apart from the distant drone of a tractor saving hay, there is a stillness and silence that belies the harsh reality of one man’s notorious life.

Can you feel evil?

Not on the short walk from the gate to the graveside.

To the left, is the large modern complex bearing a white cross that the priests deserted in 2015, leaving the building now known as Holy Trinity Abbey and, to the right, a rectangular formation of graves.

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INDIA
Mint on Suday

Vidhi Choudhary

Michael Rezendes is a Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter on The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. In over two decades with the Globe, he has worked as a reporter and editor, covering presidential, state and local politics. In 2003, Rezendes did a story that revealed the cover up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, chronicled in the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight.

On his maiden visit to India, Rezendes spoke at The Media Rumble, a news media conference organized by Newslaundry. In an interview to Mint on the sidelines of the event, Rezendes talked about the need to fund investigative media outlets and the financial difficulties news organizations face today. His advice to other journalists: question the truth, find the truth and publish the truth.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What’s the biggest change that you’ve seen in the US journalism landscape over the last 5-10 years?

I’ve seen a very terrible, discouraging financial weakening of most news organizations in the United States. Most traditional news organizations… are cutting their staff, city halls are not being covered, state houses and courts are not being covered. I think because the revenue model has been destroyed by the internet, basic accountability journalism is not happening in cities all across America and I think its very troubling.

What could address this financial weakening?

I think there is going to be a new financial model that will evolve or maybe there’ll be several that evolve. I’m very interested in the non-profit model right now. There are some non-profit organizations in the United States that are doing very well. Pro Publica, the Centre for Investigative Reporting and the Centre for Public Integrity. These are all news organizations that exist with donations and they are doing very well and producing great work. …

The expose of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was the biggest story of your career. Personally, what stays with you?

Always question authority.

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TEXAS
The Texas Law Journal

‘Wake up the Pope’: The North Texas verdict that shook the Catholic Church two decades ago – WFAA

By Bruce Tomaso

(July 20) – After the Rudy Kos case, plaintiffs’ attorney Sylvia Demarest went on to represent another dozen or so victims of sexual abuse in lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

She could have kept that lucrative practice going forever; with thousands of priests accused of having molested children, there was no shortage of potential clients.

But in 2004, Demarest retired from active litigation. She’d had enough.

“After a while, I just couldn’t take another abuse case,” she said. “There’s only so much sadness and suffering you can tolerate.

“Emotionally, it took a toll. I went all in for my clients. It took me a long time to move beyond what had happened to them—what their church allowed to happen to them.”

The Dallas lawyer found a way for her work to live on: She donated a trove of records she’d collected over 11 years—information on 2,600 priests accused of pedophilia, plus her litigation files from the Kos case and others—to BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit project dedicated to documenting the Catholic crisis.

Today, that database, augmented by records from other sources, is online and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

“What Sylvia did was momentous. She was a visionary,” said Terry McKiernan, a co-director of BishopAccountability.org.

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TEXAS
WFAA

Sylvia Demarest’s Gift of Disturbing Data – The Texas Law Book

TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL TOOK PLACE IN A DALLAS COUNTY COURT. IT PITTED 10 YOUNG MEN AND THE FAMILY OF ANOTHER AGAINST THE DALLAS CATHOLIC DIOCESE. THIS SPECIAL REPORT TELLS THE STORY OF THE TRIAL OF RUDY KOS, A REMARKABLE AND HISTORIC TALE OF COURTROOM JUSTICE.

Bruce Tomaso, The Texas Lawbook

Editor’s note: The following article contains sexually explicit references.

A dozen jurors walked into a Dallas courtroom two decades ago to deliver their verdict. For more than two months, they listened to graphic, horrifying testimony about a pedophile priest who preyed on young boys for years.

Witness after witness told their detailed stories of sexual abuse that stretched years by Rudy Kos, a long-time priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Even lawyers for the church and its bishop provided evidence against the priestly pervert in their own ranks.

Twenty years ago this month, the 12 Texas jurors issued a decision that rocked the very foundation of the church. They decreed that the church itself had sinned – that church leaders were grossly negligent because they knew about the sexual abuse but did nothing to stop it.

The jury ruled that the Catholic Diocese engaged in fraud and conspiracy to hide the crimes of Kos from the public, from law enforcement and even from parishioners. The jury awarded a historic and unprecedented $119.6 million to 10 young men who had been repeatedly molested as children by Kos. An 11th plaintiff had killed himself prior to trial.

In an extraordinary move, the jurors wrote a letter to the diocese, which they read in open court after their verdict was rendered. The letter urged church leaders to change their policies on dealing with reports of child abuse.

“Please admit your guilt,” the jurors said, “and allow these young men to get on with their lives.”

“We asked this jury to speak to the world, and they have done that,” Dallas lawyer Windle Turley said after the verdict.

Sylvia Demarest, another lawyer involved in the case, told reporters, “I hope they wake up the pope with this verdict.”

The diocese, claiming the jury’s judgment would plunge it into bankruptcy, settled with the plaintiffs for $30.9 million.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sunday Telegraph

LINDA SILMALIS, chief reporter, The Sunday Telegraph

ORGANISATIONS responsible for children would no longer be able to sidestep child abuse claims by shifting blame on to individuals under major changes being considered by the state government.

The introduction of “non-delegable” duty of care would apply to religious organisations, out-of-home care facilities, juvenile detention centres, day and boarding schools, early childhood education, long daycare, family daycare, outside school hours services and preschool programs.

The institutions would be ­liable for the actions of “everyone” associated with them.

The onus of proof for child abuse claims would also be ­reversed, with liability hinging on an institution proving that it took “reasonable steps” to prevent the crimes.

And churches and other religious bodies with members ­accused of child abuse would no longer be able to avoid being sued as a result of being an “unincorporated association”

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

CHRIS PIPPOS, Sunday Tasmanian

TASMANIA’S Anglican Church hierarchy has aired its frustrations over delays into the internal investigation of a former bishop who allegedly allowed a paedophile to remain in the church.

Anglican Church Vicar General Chris Jones said he “absolutely” understood the frustration felt by victims about the slow progress of the review into findings involving former Tasmanian Bishop Phillip Newell, adding the matter was “with the lawyers”.

“We want this sorted,” Dr Jones said.

“I think it’s really important for our commitment to survivors that we can conclude this matter.’’

In February, a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report found evidence that now-retired Bishop Newell was made aware in 1987 that now-convicted paedophile Louis Daniels, involved with the Church of England Boy’s Society, had sexually abused three boys, then was later promoted within the church.

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ROMA
El Pais

[Money was diverted from the Bambino Geso children’s hospital to pay for renovations to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment.]

DANIEL VERDÚ

Roma 13 JUL 2017

El ático tenía más de 300 metros cuadrados y una magnífica terraza de otros 100. El todopoderoso cardenal Tarcisio Bertone, secretario de Estado del Vaticano con Benedicto XVI (cargo similar al de un primer ministro) trasladó ahí su residencia y quiso reformarlo, aunque la idea fuese a costar algunos cientos de miles de euros. Más allá de la escandalosa cifra, el problema es que parte de ese dinero, como quedó demostrado, se obtuvo de los fondos del hospital para niños del Vaticano Bambino Gesù. Su antiguo presidente, Giuseppe Profiti, y el extesorero, Massimo Spina, serán juzgados ahora por un tribunal del Vaticano por malversación. Bertone, que sigue viviendo en el famoso ático, a 50 metros de la mucho más modesta residencia del Papa, no se sentará en el banquillo. La gran incógnita es si durante el proceso será llamado a declarar como testigo.

El baile de cifras que rodeó al polémico ático —dos apartamentos unidos para él y las tres monjas que le acompañan— fue el primer síntoma de los desmanes que durante un tiempo se produjeron en el Vaticano. Primero se supo que la aventura inmobiliaria había costado unos 150.000 euros, dinero que el propio Bertone —quizá empujado por el papa Francisco— restituyó al hospital cuando trascendió el escándalo. Posteriormente, Bertone aseguró que también había puesto otros 300.000 euros de su bolsillo y finalmente trascendió que lo que desembolsó el centro médico fueron 442.000 euros. Entre unas cosas y otras —se habló de un equipo de música de 18.000 euros, mármoles de lujo y suelos de roble— la factura que cobró la sociedad radicada en Londres de un constructor italiano en bancarrota, muy cercano al propio Bertone, salió por 792.544 euros.

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CHILE
ACI Prensa

[Priest condemned for sexual abuse in Chile: The 14th Court of Guarantee of Santiago de Chile declared the priest and former vice-rector of the National Sanctuary of Maipú, Fr. Rodrigo Gajardo, to be guilty of sexual abuse.]

SANTIAGO, 19 Jul. 17 / 07:43 pm (ACI).- El 14° Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago de Chile declaró culpable de abuso sexual al sacerdote y ex vicerrector del Santuario Nacional de Maipú, P. Rodrigo Gajardo.

El sacerdote reconoció su responsabilidad en el hecho y fue condenado a la pena de “61 días de presidio menor en su grado mínimo y a la suspensión de cargo u oficio público durante el tiempo de la condena”, según señala el fallo del 27 de junio de la magistrada Claudia Santos.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[A judge investigates a teacher for child abuse at a school of the Legionaries of Christ in Boadilla.]

Era responsabile di una parrocchia a Monselice. L’intervento del vescovo e la «sospensione»

PADOVA Doveva essere un luogo sicuro, uno di quei posti in cui poter mandare tranquillamente i propri figli, convinti che lì non sarebbe potuto succedere loro nulla di male. E invece quella canonica, tra paramenti sacri e incensi, si è trasformata in un luogo da evitare, così come il padrone di casa. Perché il parroco ora si ritrova bollato di un’accusa pesantissima, violenza sessuale su un minore, un suo parrocchiano, e per questo sta affrontando davanti al giudice per le udienze preliminari di Padova, Margherita Brunello, un processo in abbreviato. A finire sotto inchiesta è un giovane prete che, fino a qualche tempo fa, era il titolare di una delle parrocchie di Monselice. Così come pure di Monselice è quella che sarebbe la sua vittima, un ragazzo quindicenne.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[The sinful church: The public pressure on the abuses in the Catholic Church should have to continue, commented Joachim Frank in the Dlf: Otherwise, those who still had not understood anything would get the upper hand – like the former prefect of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith Gerhard Müller.]

Der öffentliche Druck zu den Missbräuchen in der katholischen Kirche müssten, anhalten, kommentierte Joachim Frank im Dlf: Ansonsten würden diejenigen, die immer noch nichts verstanden hätten, wieder Oberwasser bekommen – wie etwa der ehemalige Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation Gerhard Müller.

Von Joachim Frank

Destruktiv, zerstörerisch war die katholische Kirche lange genug. Die Seelen ungezählter Kinder und Jugendlicher hat sie zerstört. Nein, nicht die Kirche als Ganzes. Wohl aber all jene Priester, Ordensleute, Seelsorger, die sich an Schutzbefohlenen vergingen, sie schlugen, misshandelten, sexuell missbrauchten.

Und die Kirchenoberen, die wegschauten, abwiegelten, sich um die Täter sorgten, noch mehr aber um die heilige Kirche. Das alles hatte System: Institutionenschutz vor Opferschutz. Schon deshalb ist es falsch und gefährlich, die Vergehen auf Einzelfälle und individuelles moralisches Versagen zu reduzieren.

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VATICAN/DEUTSCHLAND
Vatikan Radio

[A sharp criticism of the media coverage on the fall of the Regensburger Domspatzen comes from the Vatican medium Osservatore Romano. The recently released final report on the scandal had aroused great interest in the Italian media. In an editorial of this Saturday the author writes Luccetta Scaraffia that it is measured in the distribution of news “with two dimensions”.]

Scharfe Kritik an der Medienberichterstattung zum Fall der Regensburger Domspatzen kommt vom vatikanischen Medium Osservatore Romano. Der kürzlich veröffentlichte Abschlussbericht zu dem Skandal hatte in den italienischen Medien großes Aufsehen erregt. In einem Leitartikel von diesem Samstag schreibt die Autorin Lucetta Scaraffia, es werde bei der Verbreitung von Nachrichten offensichtlich „mit zweierlei Maß“ gemessen. Denn während beispielsweise Praktiken von sexistischen und körperlich wie seelisch verletzenden Initiationsriten in einer römischen Kaserne aus den 1980er Jahren, die vor einigen Tagen bekannt geworden waren, keinerlei öffentliche Empörung oder größeres Medienecho ausgelöst hätten, sei der Missbrauch im Kinderchor der Domspatzen auf reißerische und tendenziöse Weise durch die Medien gegangen. In den Berichten sei teilweise sogar der Eindruck entstanden, es handele sich um 547 Fälle von schwerem sexuellen Missbrauch der Chorknaben. Außerdem wurde verschwiegen, dass der Abschlussbericht zur Aufklärung der Fälle von der Diözese selbst in Auftrag gegeben worden war, um „den Gerüchten und Anzeigen zu diesem Skandal auf den Grund zu gehen“, wie Scaraffia schreibt. Die Autorin ist Historikerin und Mitglied des italienischen Komitees für Bioethik.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Domradio

[From the pyre to the silence. The Congregation of the Inquisition – formerly called the Holy Office and now as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – is the oldest authority of the Holy See. Since its foundation 475 years ago, it has experienced a changing history and continuous development of its tasks.

Die Kongregation der Inquisition ist die älteste Behörde des Heiligen Stuhls. Seit ihrer Gründung vor 475 Jahren hat sie eine wechselvolle Geschichte und ständige Weiterentwicklung ihrer Aufgaben erlebt.

Sie ist die älteste der neun vatikanischen Kongregationen. Am 21. Juli 1542 unter Papst Paul III. (1534-49) als “Kongregation der Römischen und Universalen Inquisition” gegründet, war sie lange Zeit die oberste, aber auch die am meisten gefürchtete Behörde des Heiligen Stuhls.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Hannah Leone
Aurora Beacon-News

A former Aurora priest charged with sexually abusing two young girls at their Catholic church appears to have eluded deportation to his native Colombia — for now.

Alfredo Pedraza Arias entered a courtroom late Friday morning in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and left in the custody of the Kane County judicial center in St. Charles.

A June 14 deportation order signed by a federal immigration judge cast uncertainty on whether Arias, 50, would be in the U.S. when his felony trial on the sexual abuse charges was scheduled to begin July 31. The case has been continued, however, with no new trial date set.

On Friday, Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson remanded Arias to the county judicial center’s custody based on a bond increase ordered earlier this month. That change stipulates that he must post 10 percent toward an additional $100,000 in bail in order to be re-released.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Martin Evans, crime correspondent
22 JULY 2017

The Church of England withdrew support for sex abuse victims on the advice of its insurers, it has been claimed.

Officials allegedly severed ties with victims who had suffered at the hands of clergy, once compensation had been paid.

One sex abuse victim, who was paid £35,000 in compensation after being raped in the 1970s by a member of the clergy, claimed he was cut adrift once the payment had been made and blamed the church’s insurers, Ecclesiastical.

An independent review into the case stated that the insurer’s advice had “directly conflicted” with the pastoral and compassionate responsibilities of the church, adding that “financial interests were allowed to impact practice”.

The findings of the review, conducted by Ian Elliot, a child safeguarding specialist, were accepted in full by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

[Kinderen Jehova’s slecht beschermd tegen misbruik – Trouw]

[Ouderling is rechercheur, rechter én psycholoog – Trouw]

By Janene Pieters on July 21, 2017

Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses are easy targets for pedophiles, newspaper Trouw reports after speaking to victims, members and ex-members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. One victim called the Christian society a “paradise for pedophiles”.

The victims Trouw spoke to were abused in the 80s and 90s. But according to the victims and others involved, abuse is still happening. The Netherlands counts about 30 thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands follow the international guidelines of the organization. Their own legal system is above that of international authorities. In the organization, male elders are the judges. According to Trouw, for a conviction in the society, at least two witnesses are needed. This creates a problem as in many child sexual abuse cases, the only witnesses are the victim and the perpetrator. And perpetrators don’t tend to testify against themselves.

Perpetrators are also not forced to leave the community, unless he or she shows no regret. Other members are not told about the abuse, because talking about such a case without a conviction is seen as slander.

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo July 21, 2017

The trial of a former Louisville pastor accused of sexually abusing three young sisters in the 1990s ended abruptly on the second day of testimony.

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Barry Willett declared a mistrial Thursday shortly after one of the now-adult sisters took to the witness stand to testify.

On Wednesday, the first day of evidence in the trial, prosecutors told jurors that 79-year-old Allen Lehmann sexually abused the girls a number of times during the ’90s when they made short visits to his home.

Lehmann, who now lives in Indiana, was living in Louisville at the time as pastor at Trinity Chapel Assembly of God church.

The three girls were all under age 15 at the time, according to court records.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff
Friday, July 21, 2017

Concord police files requested by the Monitor two months ago are being withheld because of a criminal investigation launched last week by the attorney general into St. Paul’s School.

Concord police Chief Bradley Osgood said in a letter Thursday that the documents are now exempt from disclosure under New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law in light of the attorney general’s probe into how the elite boarding school responded to cases of sexual misconduct over several decades.

Previously, Osgood said the city needed approximately 60 days to fulfill the Monitor’s May 25 request for all calls for service to St. Paul’s School, and all related offense reports referencing assault crimes at the institution, dating back to 2007. The newspaper also requested all police reports on now-closed sexual assault investigations during the same time frame.

The Monitor filed a second Right-to-Know request June 27 requesting the same type of information and documentation from 2007 to 1987. Police acknowledged receipt of the request, but had not indicated a time frame for completion.

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MICHIGAN
Gaylord Herald Times

Jordan Spence The Alpena News

ROGERS CITY — The Rev. Syvestre Obwaka was found not guilty of two criminal sexual conduct charges on Thursday, following approxmiately two hours of jury deliberation in 53rd Circuit Court. The trial lasted three days.

After the verdicts were read, Obwaka said “Jesus thank you,” as he was embraced by family and friends.

Obwaka was charged on two counts of criminal sexual conduct in February. He was charged with a count of first degree criminal sexual conduct with personal injury and third degree criminal sexual conduct force or coercion.

The alleged victim in the case is a male priest who also is part of the Diocese of Gaylord.

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PENNSYLVANIA/AUSTRALIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com
JUL 21, 2017

Brother Bernard Hartman, a former teacher at North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, is expected to be released from an Australian prison this weekend and return to the United States after completing his two-year prison sentence for sexually abusing three children in that country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hartman, 77, a member of the Marianist religious order, “will be resident in a non-Marianist facility, specializing in supervision of men with significant personal issues and/or court referrals,” said a statement from the Rev. Martin Solma, provincial for the Marianist Province of the United States. The facility will provide “24/7 supervision,” and he said Hartman would have “no external ministry or freedom of movement.”

Father Solma did not specify where Hartman would live, but he said it would not be in Pennsylvania, where Hartman once taught. Nor, he said, would it be in Ohio, where Hartman lived in a Marianist facility in Dayton between his abrupt removal from North Catholic in 1997 and his extradition to Australia in 2013 to face charges there.

Hartman joined the Marianists in 1958 and was a science teacher. He was not an ordained priest.

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UNITED STATES
Albuquerque Journal

By Diane Dimond / Crime and Justice | Diane@DianeDimond.com
Saturday, July 22nd, 2017

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert cut a pitiful figure this week as he left a federal prison in Minnesota and his wheelchair stuck on a bump in the sidewalk. His wife, fumbling at his side trying to manage his aluminum walker and other items, wasn’t immediately able to help him over the hurdle. The just-released prisoner was momentarily stuck. Pathetic for a man who was once second in line to the presidency of the United States.
I didn’t feel sorry for him one bit. Hastert is one of the worst kind of criminals in my book. He robbed children of their innocence and damaged their futures forever.

When Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison last April, the judge called him “a serial child molester” and noted he had sexually abused at least four members of the wrestling team at Yorkville High School in suburban Chicago from 1965 to 1981. I’m betting there were more young boys who fell victim to coach Hastert’s lust. Preferential serial child molesters rarely stop at four.

But Hastert was not convicted of sexually abusing children because the statute of limitations in Illinois had long since run out. In that state, a victim has 20 years from their 18th birthday to report a sex crime and Hastert’s popular position in the community back in the day had been enough to keep all his victims quiet – for decades.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Six out of 24 complaints made in 2016 to the Commission for the Safeguarding of Children and Vulnerable Adults (Safeguarding Commission) were substantiated, and the necessary steps were taken, the commission said today.

During 2016, out of the 12 complaints involving minors received by the Commission, two allegations were substantiated and the necessary steps were taken in all cases. The other concluded cases were either not proven or were referred to the relevant entities as they did not fall under the Commission’s remit. Up to December 2016 assessments were being carried out on 12 complaints, of which 6 had a restriction imposed on the pastoral activity as a precaution.

In the case of vulnerable adults, the assessment on the concluded cases was carried out in less than 6 months. Out of the 12 complaints received by the Commission in 2016, 4 allegations were substantiated and the necessary steps were taken in all cases.

The other concluded cases were either not proven or were referred to the relevant entities as they did not fall under the Commission’s remit. Until the end of the year, the assessments of 10 complaints were underway, and while in each case the necessary action was taken, in one particular case a restriction on the pastoral activity was imposed as a precaution.

Azzopardi would later say that high-risk individuals would be placed under strict restrictions, such as a suspension from pastoral activities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill
July 22 2017
The Times

Sir John Major should have been called before a public inquiry to explain why his government refused to accept any responsibility for the plight of child migrants, a leading campaigner said yesterday.

Margaret Humphreys, director of the Child Migrants Trust, told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that as the scale of the scandal emerged in the 1990s her efforts to engage the Conservative government were in vain. Sir John and other ministers repeatedly said that the issue of ill-treatment of the migrants was a matter for governments in Australia and other countries.

Some 7,500 children were taken from their families in Britain and deported to farm schools and institutions in Australia and other former colonies between 1948 and 1970. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse, neglect and deprivation.

The inquiry allowed Sir John to submit evidence in writing this week in which he said he had no useful recollection of the issues.

Dr Humphreys said the attitude of the government in the 1990s had been very distressing for former migrants who wanted help to be reunited with surviving parents.

She said: “I was very disappointed he did not attend this inquiry.” She also told the inquiry to reject arguments that standards were different in the 1940s and 50s.

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IRELAND
Sligo Champion

Jessica Farry
July 22 2017

“Nobody should have to go through life without knowing who they are, especially when there are people out there who have the answers.”

Those are the words of Councillor Gino O’Boyle is looking to find information on his father Seamie’s family, and where he came from.

Seamie sadly passed away in 2015, but he, and his wife Mairead, had spent decades searching for answers.

Seamie was brought to the Nazareth House in Sligo on the 25th of July 1957 from Cavan by a Maureen McCabe and Cyril McCaul and was organised by Fr Patrck Gallagher from Rockcorry (Monaghan). The McCabe family home in Tullyvin (Cavan) was the last place Seamie was before being brought to Sligo.

That was the only information he had.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Five men who sued over alleged abuse as children in Christian Brothers’ schools have failed in their attempt to have their damages actions against the State restarted.

The men previously discontinued their actions against the Minister for Education and the State after the Supreme Court, in the landmark 2008 case of Louise O’Keeffe, found the State could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of abusers employed in national schools.

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UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Australian Associated Press

Child migrants kept being trafficked from Britain to Australia despite officials knowing that some institutions they were sent to harboured pedophile rings, a U.K. inquiry was told.

Dr Margaret Humphreys of the Child Migrants Trust told the child sexual abuse inquiry in London that recruiters were sent to the U.K. to select children for church and charity-run farm schools in Australia.

‘We would categorise that now as child trafficking,’ she said on Friday.

The inquiry is examining the sexual, physical and emotional abuse suffered by thousands of children in care who were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Rhodesia up to the 1970s.

Among the worst offenders were the Catholic order the Christian Brothers who ran farm schools in Western Australia and the royals-backed Fairbridge Society which ran farm schools in NSW.

The inquiry has heard from former child migrants that say they were routinely sexually abused and flogged by staff, were poorly fed, clothed and educated and used as virtual slave labour on the farms.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

July 21, 2017 Joelle Casteix

This week, a lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries announced that Bruce Wellems was forced to petition the Vatican to give up his collar.

That’s right. He can’t be a priest.

For those of you who have been following this blog, that’s huge news. But for this person, it’s vindication:

That’s Eric Johnson. Bruce Wellems was 15 when he sexually abused seven-year-old Eric. I don’t say “allegedly,” because Wellems has admitted it.

Eric has been fighting for years to expose what happened to him and to get some semblance of justice.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

“I could have chosen to remain anonymous, but I did not, which was not easy for my family nor myself. Yet I continue to push for justice,” [Eric Johnson] said. “[Wellems] is a danger to the kids and the community.”

Wellems contends that his good work since the time he abused Eric should make up for his past. But here’s the rub: Not once has he apologized for what he did to Eric and/or may have done to others. Not once has he understood the lifelong pain that sexual abuse causes victims.

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TEXAS
ABC 13

By Mayra Moreno
Thursday, July 20, 2017

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (KTRK) — A Montgomery County religious leader has been charged with prostitution.

According to charging documents, 52-year-old Eddie Hilburn was taken into custody after he agreed to pay for sex.

Officials at The Woodlands First Baptist Church confirmed that Hilburn is an associate pastor.

According to the church’s website, Hilburn has been with the church since 2012 and had previously served at other churches across Texas and Wisconsin.

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SOUTH AFRICA
SABC

Friday 21 July 2017
Olwetu Matsipane

Nigerian pastor, Timothy Omotoso will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Friday for a new bail application.

He faces charges of human trafficking and sexual abuse after allegedly keeping under-age girls at his house in Durban.

The Jesus Dominion International Church leader was denied bail after his previous application.

While handing down judgement, presiding magistrate Thandeka Mashile said the nature and gravity of the offences permitted no bail.

She cited that Omotoso was in the country illegally, with false documents, and therefore could be a flight risk.

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FLORIDA
WCTV

[with video]

By: Lanetra Bennett | WCTV Eyewitness News
July 20, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — A former Tallahassee youth pastor accused of fondling boys made his first appearance in court Thursday morning.

Roshad Thomas appeared before a judge via video from the Leon County Jail.

Thomas was arrested Monday and charged with six counts of sex offenses against children ages 12 to 16. Investigators have identified five victims.

The first victim said the incident with Thomas happened ten years ago, when he was 13.

Thomas’ younger sister spoke out in court Thursday. She said, “He is loved. I love him dearly. But, I’d also like you to know that we are here, available to do whatever it takes to get healing and restoration for Roshad, and more importantly for the community and any victims that might be involved.”

Other supporters were there, too.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

EDITORIAL
July 20. 2017

Sexual misconduct on the campuses of two of the nation’s most prestigious prep schools has prompted a closer look at how these New Hampshire institutions protect their students.

Phillips Exeter Academy kept quiet about a professor who had sexual relationships with his students for decades, quietly shuffling him into retirement. St. Paul’s School in Concord knew about decades of sexual misconduct by students and faculty.

When an alleged victim of sexual assault comes forward to school officials, making these allegations public must be a difficult decision. The school would want to shield the victim, particularly if he or she is a minor, from a public ordeal. Yet the school also has an inherent conflict of interest.

Too often, schools have chosen to keep parents and the public in the dark about crimes happening on campus.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has promised to revisit Obama administration guidance urging colleges to crack down on sexual assault. But schools are not courts. Rape is a crime, not an honor code violation. Colleges are ill-equipped to provide justice for victims or due process to the accused.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Carol Hunt

“Dear Ellen, I see where you are looking for some information about the Magdalene laundry. I was in the Magdalene laundry for a good many years and I live out in the country now. But I never will forget it to my dying day. The cruelty we got. Slaved like blacks. Some of the girls were dragged by the hair of their heads and more, their hair was cut off simply if they gave the least back answer or were too slow at their work.”

I’m listening to Julian Vignoles RTÉ radio documentary which first aired in 1992.

He explains; “A letter with no name and no address. It was written last summer in response to a newspaper advertisement. For nearly 100 years single women who became pregnant, women who weren’t wanted, were banished, by their families, to the Mary Magdalene Home Laundry in Galway City. It was one of many such institutions in Ireland. Their detention was legally dubious. Some women spent the rest of their lives there. This year, a play and a song brought the memory back in Galway . . .”

The play Vignoles talks about is called Eclipsed. Written by a former postulant nun, Patricia Burke Brogan, the first I heard of it was in December 1991 when a friend of mine told me a fledgling theatre company in Galway, Punchbag, was auditioning for a new play set in a Magdalene laundry. I had just finished a two-year acting course and was willing to try out for it. It was my first audition and I landed the part of Mandy, described in the script as one of the “penitent women” signed into a fictional Magdalene laundry for the sin of getting pregnant “outside marriage”. There were eight of us in the cast. Eight women! A record number in what was, and still is, a male-dominated theatre world.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Review of Books

Ingrid D. Rowland

A photograph taken in Argentina in 2007 shows two cardinals, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Tarcisio Bertone, sitting side by side, although their chairs are on two different levels. At the time, Bertone was the Vatican’s Secretary of State, having traveled to a village in northern Patagonia “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI” to preside over the beatification of a turn-of-the-century religious student.

Bertone’s wooden armchair sits on a dais that puts him a good six inches higher than Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who perches uncomfortably on his metal-and-plastic seat, and the man known to many as the “vice-pope” occupies his virtual throne with kingly complacency, clad in yards of fine Italian filetto lace beneath his golden chasuble, with a sporty pair of aviator sunglasses to complement his gold-embroidered miter (and is that a Rolex on his wrist?). Next to him, in Jesuit black under plain white robes, Cardinal Bergoglio, with his iron cross and his horn-rimmed spectacles, looks open-mouthed upon the radiant spectacle, his famously mobile face providing the perfect caption to the picture. Six years later, Bergoglio became Pope Francis, and things have not been the same since.

On May 19, the glossy, gossipy German newspaper Bild Zeitung printed a report that made immediate headlines in Italy: Vatican prosecutors had begun to investigate allegations that Cardinal Bertone, as the Holy See’s Number Two from 2006 to 2013, had embezzled 15 million euros ($20 million) from Vatican accounts, apparently to benefit an Italian television producer, a former director of the state broadcaster RAI named Ettore Bernabei, with deep connections to Italy’s conservative establishment and a longtime membership in the powerful Catholic organization Opus Dei. The transfer of these funds allegedly occurred in December 2012. The Vatican press corps swiftly denied that a “criminal investigation” was underway, and Bertone himself insisted that the deal had followed “all the rules.”

But the timing of the presumptive transaction is, to say the least, interesting. It came at the very end of the remarkable year in which confidential documents from Pope Benedict’s private office began leaking to the press, revealing power struggles within the Curia and suggestions of widespread corruption within the Church. In these “Vatileaks” documents, Cardinal Bertone figured prominently: he had personally reproved the general secretary of the Vatican governorate, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, for reporting detailed evidence of nepotism, cronyism, and crooked property deals within the Vatican, and soon Pope Benedict had transferred the whistle-blowing prelate from the Vatican to Washington.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Tom Roberts | Jul. 21, 2017

The story of Marie Collins, an Irish victim of clergy sex abuse and a witness of unimpeachable integrity, is a dual tale of how far the church has come in acknowledging and handling the scandal and of how wholly and demonstrably incapable the Catholic clerical culture is of dealing with its own sin.

Collins was one of two survivors of clergy sex abuse who were appointed in 2014 to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, an agency created by Pope Francis. She resigned the commission in March, providing NCR with a long explanatory statement.

Her decision to leave was not lightly taken. She had rejected the logic of some critics early on that any cooperation with church efforts was selling out to an institution that had generally ignored or re-victimized the abused for decades. She had later defended the work of the commission when its only other victim member, Peter Saunders, openly criticized the group for the slow pace of reform.

In March, however, three years after her appointment, she wrote: “I have come to the point where I can no longer be sustained by hope. As a survivor, I have watched events unfold with dismay.”

Among the primary reasons for her despair, she listed “lack of resources, inadequate structures around support staff, slowness of forward movement and cultural resistance.”

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. Editor
July 20, 2017

Back in the 19th century, French novelist and journalist Edmond About was considered the Tocqueville of the Papal States, and he had a fairly cynical view of papal justice. As the latest Vatican trial opens, it’s interesting to apply his tests. There’s also some question marks about the timing of the trial, and a juicy irony waiting to be exploited surrounding the name of one of the defense lawyers.

As the latest Vatican trial opened on Tuesday for alleged criminal shenanigans, it occurred to me that you really have to go all the way back to the 1800s to find the last time the “courthouse beat” formed any part of covering the Vatican for most reporters in Rome.

In that era, the pope still ruled over a swath of territory in central Italy known as the “Papal States,” and criminal trials were a regular event. The pope even had his own executioner, the most famous of which was “Mastro Titta,” a nickname that was a corruption of the Italian phrase maestro di giustizia, or “master of justice.”

So famous was he in the mid-19th century that Roman mothers sang their little ones to sleep with a rhyme that goes, “Sega, sega, Mastro Titta.” Segare is the Italian verb “to saw,” so the mental image is ghoulishly accurate.

In the century and a half since, the Vatican has banned capital punishment, and today is a global leader in the abolitionist movement. The pope now only exercises civil power over about 109 acres of territory, representing the physical footprint of the Vatican City State.

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MICHIGAN
WBKB

[with video]

Reverend Sylvester Obwaka walked free today after months of rape allegations brought upon him by a younger priest. The reverend was accused of raping the young man during a one–night stay at his home, and today charges of sexual assault in the first and third degree were dropped.

First to the witness stand was Hope Shores Alliance Advocacy Coordinator Jennifer Baker. The prosecution and defense questioned Baker about victim tendencies in the moment of a sexual assault, focusing on responses such as non–resistance that might seem inconsistent with how a typical juror would expect a victim to respond

“Absolutely. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s inconsistent because it’s a safety issue. So your brain is going to do whatever is going to keep you safest in that moment. So if that’s freezing, it’s freezing. Not responding, not fighting back,” said Baker.

The majority of her statements supported the theory that victims may not resist sexual encounters due to the fight, flight or freeze response, and may not even remember the events correctly because of the way a victim’s brain processes trauma. After her testimony judge Scott Pavlich dismissed the jury to take a short recess, which is when the defense made a motion for the judge to dismiss the charges, believing they had provided enough evidence to prove consent.

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MICHIGAN
9 and 10 News

[with video]

Updated: Jul 20, 2017
By Aaron Parseghian, Reporter

A Presque Isle County jury has decided Father Sylvestre Obwaka is not guilty of the sexual assault of a fellow priest, who was sleeping in his home in February.

The verdict was handed down Thursday evening.

9&10’s Aaron Parseghian was in court Thursday where Obwaka took the stand in his own defense.

“He was another priest trying to give me an understanding,” said Obwaka.

Before the jury acquitted him of first and third degree sex crimes, Father Sylvestre Obwaka told his side of the story on the witness stand.

He says he had consensual sex with the alleged victim.

During cross examination the prosecuting team questioned whether any basis of consent was discussed between Obwaka and the alleged victim.

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MICHIGAN
Presque Isle Advance

Another Alleged Victim Revealed During Rev. Obwaka Hearing Monday – YouTube

More Setbacks With Father Sylvestre Obwaka’s Trial Dates: More Details Needed From Second Victim – YouTube

July 20, 2017

by Angie Asam–Staff Writer

A 12-member jury found the Rev. Sylvestre Obwaka not guilty on two charges of criminal sexual conduct (CSC) Thursday evening.

After listening to testimony Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and most of the day Thursday the jury was sent to the jury room to deliberate shortly before 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. the jurors knocked on the door to let the court officer know they had reached a verdict.

Once in place the Honorable Scott L. Pavlich reviewed the verdict form before handing it back to the floor person to read the verdict. The prosecution was seeking charges of CSC first degree causing personal injury and CSC third degree using force or coercion.

The alleged incident occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 1 and was reported to the Michigan State Police Feb. 17. The charges stemmed from a sexual encounter with a male victim, 28. Both Obwaka and the victim are Catholic priests.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
July 21 2017
The Times

A British high commissioner to Australia said that the government was not interested in the plight of abused child migrants because it was waiting for them to die, a public inquiry was told yesterday.

The claim was made by Norman Johnston, 75, who said it had taken 30 years of campaigning to get the British government to apologise for the suffering of children taken from their families and sent to schools in former colonies. Mr Johnston, president of the International Association of Former Child Migrants, told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: “The British government sent us to places that they knew were not safe for children. I want the British public to know that.”

More than 130,000 children were sent to the colonies by charities and churches under state-approved migration schemes that ran for more than a century. Between 1948 and 1970 some 6,000 children were sent to Australia, of whom about 2,000 are alive.

John Major’s government denied during the 1990s that Britain had any duty towards the migrants. He told parliament in 1993 that he was aware of allegations of physical and sexual abuse but “any such allegations will be a matter for the Australian authorities”.

In 2005 Mr Johnston said he had a meeting in Canberra with Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, a former Labour minister who was the British high commissioner. He said: “We tried to give the message to the high commissioner about the lack of support we were getting from Britain to help to find our families and we were given short shrift.” Mr Johnston said the meeting had been “very frank” and claimed that it ended with Lady Liddell saying: “You will have a very long wait. The British government are waiting for you all to die.”

It was, he said, “an eye-opener and a complete shock” but the remark was “the first truthful thing we’d actually heard from the British government”.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The Domspatzen boys were beaten, abused, degraded: Why didn´t Church representatives move in on the events but instead hushed them up? The reasons lie in the self-image of the church.]

Missbrauch | Bonn – 20.07.2017

Der Untersuchungsbericht zum körperlichen und sexuellen Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen ist eine erschreckende Lektüre: Auf über 400 Seiten wird schonungslos deutlich dokumentiert, wie Schüler über Jahrzehnte hinweg geschlagen, missbraucht, entwürdigt wurden. Versuche, die Missstände zu benennen, wurden über Jahre ignoriert oder diffamiert. Der Schutz des Rufs der Institution stand über dem Schutz der Schutzbefohlenen. Das Verhältnis von Tätern und Opfern wurde geradezu umgekehrt: die heilige Institution als Opfer von Nestbeschmutzern.

Der Umgang mit Missbrauch in den eigenen Reihen ist nicht nur eine rechtliche Frage – er ist auch eine Frage nach den Bedingungen, unter denen Missbrauch in der Kirche geschehen kann und gedeckt wird. Letztlich ist es damit eine Frage der Ekklesiologie, der Lehre von der Gestalt der Kirche.

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DEUTSCHLAND
HPD

[The tormentors do not want to talk about abuse. The press conference held by Ulrich Weber to discuss the final report on abuse cases at the Regensburg Domspatzen was hardly over when the alleged perpetrators started pointing their fingers at others.]

Von: Jan Weber

20. JUL 2017

Die Pressekonferenz ist kaum beendet, bei der Anwalt Ulrich Weber den Abschlussbericht zu den Missbrauchsfällen bei den “Regensburger Domspatzen” vorstellte, als die Täter schon mit dem Finger auf andere zeigen. Das macht sprachlos und wütend.

Der ohrfeigende Ex-Papst-Bruder Ratzinger hält die Aufklärung der Missbrauchsfälle für “Irrsinn”. Dem Bayrischen Rundfunk sagte Ratzinger: “Diese Kampagne ist für mich ein Irrsinn. Es ist einfach Irrsinn, wie man über 40 Jahre hinweg überprüfen will, wie viele Ohrfeigen bei uns verteilt worden sind, so wie in anderen Einrichtungen auch.” Der ehemalige Leiter der “Domspatzen” nennt es “Kampagne”, wenn das hundertfache Leid von missbrauchten, geschlagenen und gequälten Menschen untersucht wird? Er wagt es tatsächlich, die Opfer nachträglich zu verhöhnen?

Ihm kann ja nichts mehr geschehen, seine Ohrfeigen sind längst verjährt. Die Opfer hingegen haben jahrzehntelang gelitten und für die Anerkennung der Schäden gekämpft und werden von Ratzinger noch einmal verbal geprügelt. Scham und Schande über den alten Mann!

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