ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

October 2, 2017

By Gerard O’Connell

“Technology is transforming childhood beyond our recognition. It’s a challenge that transcends boundaries, and the only way we can respond is together,” Baroness Joanna Shields told a press briefing in advance of the first ever world congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” which opens tomorrow, Oct.3, at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“Technology has no boundaries. Evil has the same access as good has,” the baroness, who is the founder of WePROTECT, added. Up to now, she said, we have tended to praise the great contribution the internet has made to humanity, and the horizons it has opened; but, she said, we may have been too uncritical, given the risks and dangers that we now see it presents to children. She believes this pioneering congress can help to strike a better balance. “It’s not about scaremongering,” she said; “it’s about alerting the public, so that parents understand the world their children are growing up in. It’s about protecting children from abuse on the internet.”

“It’s not about scaremongering. It’s about protecting children from abuse on the internet.”

Dr. Ernie Allen, another speaker at the congress, pushed this point home by emphasizing the fact that “the internet has changed the very nature of this problem—the abuse of children.” He told America that this is particularly true of “the dark web” which “was set up by the U.S. government for good purposes” and which he agreed with. One of the aims “was to protect the privacy of political dissidents during the Arab Spring, to protect them from retaliation by repressive regimes, or Turkey or other big ones,” he said. But, he commented, “the problem is the unintended consequences of this. When you develop something like that, you cannot limit who can use it, and so today it is being used by traffickers [of drugs and humans], arms dealers, terrorists, pedophiles and others.” In other words, the dark web has become what some authors (though not Allen) have called “the badlands of the internet.”

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

ROME
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

October 4, 2017

By Carol Glatz

Child abuse is not only a crime, it is sacrilege, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said at a world congress promoting the protection of children online.

“The church has become increasingly aware of the harm experienced by victims, of their suffering and of the need to listen to them,” he told an international assembly of more than 100 top experts and leaders in government, law enforcement, nonprofit organizations and technology, who are working in child protection.

Action must be taken to “heal wounds, restore justice, prevent crimes” and establish a culture of “real safeguarding” so children can grow up healthy and safe, Parolin said Oct. 3 in a keynote address opening the four-day gathering.

“Fortunately, with regard to the church, this is already happening, in various institutions and regions, even when society in general has not yet developed the necessary awareness,” he said. “These efforts, however, must continue, must be expanded and deepened with clarity and firmness.”

“To disparage infancy and to abuse children,” he said, “is for the Christian, therefore, not only a crime, but also — as Pope Francis has stated — sacrilege, a profanation of that which is sacred, of the presence of God in every human being.”

The congress, “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” was being held as the Vatican was investigating accusations that one of its foreign diplomats had violated laws relating to child pornography images.

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

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

October 5, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

A former Guam resident alleges he was subjected to daily sexual abuse while required to live with a priest at the San Miguel Church in Talofofo in 1985.

A lawsuit, filed by G.E.J. who used his initials to protect his identity, named Andrew Mannetta.

The Bremerton, Washington, resident alleges that when he was 14, he rebelled against his parents and ran away from home for a brief period.His parents made arrangements for G.E.J. to live with former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta at the church for two weeks.

Mannetta was the parish priest at the Talofofo church. The civil complaint, filed in the Superior Court today, alleges the priest subjected the boy to daily sexual abuse by forcing him to lie on his stomach as the priest rubbed the boy’s thighs and private parts.

When the boy tried to move away from contact, Mannetta allegedly grabbed him and threw him back on his stomach, court documents state.

Archdiocese of Agana blamed

The lawsuit alleges Mannetta was grooming G.E.J. for an increased level of sexual abuse including penetration.

G.E.J.’s attorney, Anthony C. Perez, alleges the Archdiocese of Agana knew or should have known of Mannetta’s “heinous and despicable conduct” and failed to take any steps to warn its parishioners of the risk of harm to children.

Perez said the archdiocese had a practice and pattern of harboring child abusers and protecting their identities.

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 5, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio

After former altar boys tearfully went public with allegations, a law was passed to open doors for lawsuits against the church, clergy and others.

A 14-year-old boy whose parents thought it would be best for him to live with a Catholic priest after he ran away from home was sexually abused daily by the priest for about two weeks, according to a lawsuit filed in local court on Thursday.

Former island priest Andrew Mannetta allegedly sexually abused the plaintiff, identified in court documents only as G.E.J. to protect his privacy, at the rectory adjacent to San Miguel Church in Talofofo in 1985.

G.E.J. is now living in Bremerton, Washington. He is represented by attorney Anthony C. Perez.

In the lawsuit, G.E.J. said he was born and raised in a family that was devout Catholic. The lawsuit says in 1985, when G.E.J. was about 14 years old, he rebelled from his parents and ran away from home for a brief period of time. That’s when his parents thought the boy would benefit from staying with a priest.

“While living with Father Andy, plaintiff was subjected to daily sexual abuse,” the lawsuit says. “Father Andy would order plaintiff to lie on his stomach on Father Andy’s bed next to Father Andy while watching television.”

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

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

October 5, 2017

By Jason Horowitz

Vatican City — For a church hierarchy excoriated for decades over the sexual abuse of children in its trust, hosting a conference this week about the spreading scourge of online child pornography was an opportunity to strike a positive note about the Vatican’s role in protecting minors.

“Yes, yes, yes,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, when asked Tuesday night at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome if the Catholic Church could lead a global response to the problem.

But in an awkward confluence of events, the four-day congress, Child Dignity in the Digital World, is taking place mere weeks after the Holy See recalled Msgr. Carlo Capella, a church diplomat in the Vatican’s Washington Embassy, amid accusations that he had possessed child pornography.

It was just the latest of the abuse accusations against priests that have dogged the church around the globe for decades even as it has promised to punish predators and protect the preyed upon. Advocates for the victims have questioned the church’s commitment.

Last week, as organizers prepared for the congress — with its keynote address by Cardinal Parolin, the second-highest-ranking official after Pope Francis; blanket coverage by the church’s news media; and a papal audience with Francis on Friday — the Canadian police issued an arrest warrant for Monsignor Capella. He was accused of distributing child pornography during a Christmas visit in 2016 to Ontario.

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

October 5, 2017

John L. Allen Jr. and Ines San Martin

American Monsignor Stephen Rossetti is one of the key participants in the Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University on “Child Dignity in the Digital World.” He’s been involved in anti-abuse efforts in the Church for years, and he has some concrete advise to offer.

Rome – Very few people in the Catholic Church, at any level or in any place, have a deeper experience of the clerical sexual abuse scandals and the broader effort to promote child safety than American Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a former president of the St. Luke’s Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a key adviser to virtually every anti-abuse initiative in the Catholic Church.

Thus when Rossetti speaks, people tend to listen. He’s part of the scientific committee organizing an Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University on “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” and he’s got a clear message about what would constitute a serious commitment from the Vatican coming out of this high-profile event: Boots on the ground.

“You need people doing this 24/7. People who are actually collaborating with UNICEF, with the United Nations, with Interpol,” Rossetti said.

He said one logical place for such a dedicated team within the Vatican to be located would be the Secretariat of State, typically the Vatican’s main policy-setting organism, because, among other things, “it’s international,” meaning that it deals with global diplomacy.

Rossetti spoke to Crux on Oct. 4, during the Gregorian conference.

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

October 4, 2017

By John L. Allen Jr.

Look around at the lineup at an Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University on “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” and it’s a host of experts from the biggest outfits in their various fields — Harvard, Interpol, Facebook, UNICEF, Microsoft, and so on. It’s the cream of the crop, and it’s another illustration of the Vatican’s unique power to convene, since basically nobody can say no to an invite from the pope.

Rome – Ever since the collapse of the Papal States in 1870, the Vatican has had to make its way in the world as a “soft power,” relying on moral authority and the pope’s massive bully pulpit to move the ball on matters it perceives as priorities.

That soft power takes many forms, but one is on especially clear display this week at Rome’s Jesuit-sponsored Gregorian University: The power to convene.

One of the near-universal truths about the Vatican’s role in the world today is that virtually nobody can say no to an invitation from the pope. You can put together almost any sort of event you want, from a study of artificial intelligence to a symposium on punk rock in the 1980s, and if it comes with the promise of face time with the pope at some point, the world’s leading authorities on the subject inevitably will show up.

That’s not the only reason they come, of course – they come because they’re passionate about the subject, because Rome is not the worst place to spend a few days, and because they’ll see valued friends and colleagues who plow the same furrows. Still, however, it’s fair to say that the magnetic attraction of the pope doesn’t hurt.

Oct. 3-6, the Gregorian is hosting a major international summit titled “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” devoted to the effort to combat child abuse and exploitation online, especially the so-called “Dark Web.” It’s a vast region of the internet, perhaps the overwhelming majority, which is anonymous and designed to be impossible to detect, where 80 percent of the traffic is believed to be driven by child pornography.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

October 4, 2017

By Gerard O’Connell

“We must work to take control of the development of the digital world, so that it might be at the service of the dignity of minors,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, said in his keynote address at the opening of “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” the first world congress focused on addressing the dangers children and adolescents face on the internet.

Addressing the 140 participants from all continents at the Oct. 3 – 6 congress, at the Gregorian University in Rome, Cardinal Parolin said everyone present knows that “the sexual abuse of minors constitutes a very vast and widespread phenomenon.” Over the past few decades, he acknowledged, “this tragic reality has come powerfully to the fore in the Catholic Church and very grave facts have emerged.”

The church has become “progressively aware of the harm suffered by the victims” and of the need to listen to them so as to find ways “to heal the wounds, re-establish justice, prevent crimes” and to develop and consolidate “a new culture of child protection,” he said.

The congress was being held as the Vatican was investigating accusations that one of its foreign diplomats had violated laws relating to child pornography images.

Italian Monsignor Carlo Capella was recalled to the Vatican from his post at the Vatican nunciature in Washington, D.C., after the U.S. State Department notified the Holy See of his possible crimes. Police in Canada also issued a nationwide warrant for the monsignor’s arrest on charges of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography while he was visiting Canada.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

October 4, 2017

By Cardinal Pietro Parolin

[Note: The available URL for this speech is defective. We link to the Google cache of the Vatican Radio webpage.]

(Vatican Radio) Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Tuesday addressed the Child Dignity in the Digital World world congress being held at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University this week. In his speech to the conference the Cardinal spoke about “The Holy See and Its Commitment to Combatting Sex Abuse Online”.

Please find the English translation of Cardinal Parolin’s speech:

Dear President of the Senate, Your Eminences, Excellencies, Dear Father General, Ambassadors, Father Rector, Academic Authorities and Professors, Dear Friends, I thank you for inviting me to speak at the opening of this important Congress, thus allowing me to convey the greetings and appreciation of His Holiness Pope Francis and of the Holy See for this initiative. It is an event that is hosted and organized, along with other laudable events, by a prestigious Pontifical University.

I greet the distinguished persons and institutions who are participating in this initiative, and I express my gratitude to all those who have contributed concretely to the organization and planning of this Congress. Above all, I wish to express my appreciation for having chosen the topic that will be discussed: the dignity of the child in the digital world. The majority of you, who have worked for a long time in this field, are well aware that the sexual abuse of minors constitutes a vast and widespread phenomenon. Over the past few decades, this tragic reality has come powerfully to the fore in the Catholic Church and extremely grave facts have emerged. The Church has become increasingly aware of the harm experienced by the victims, of their suffering and of the need to listen to them, in order to work on various fronts; these include: a wide range of interventions which must be carried out in order to heal wounds, restore justice, prevent crimes and form educators and persons who deal with minors, with a view to spreading and consolidating a new culture of child protection – a real safeguarding – that effectively guarantees they can grow up in a healthy and safe environment. This is a task requiring deep human care, competence and tenacity; experience tells us that where this commitment is consistent and continuous, the fruits that will come of it are positive and encouraging. The Church’s effort in this sense, even when society in general has not yet developed the necessary awareness, must continue, must be expanded and deepened, with clarity and firmness, so that the dignity and rights of minors may be protected and defended with much greater attentiveness and effectiveness than was done in the past. In this venue, we want to share the experience we have acquired, so that it may prove useful for an ever greater good, thanks to collaboration with all of you. The world into which human persons are today born and raised is characterized, ever more deeply and pervasively, by the development and ubiquity of new communications technologies and new instruments for their use. Handheld phones and tablets and other devices have come to be part of the daily life of an ever greater number of people; these users are ever younger, so much so that we can speak of the young generations as “digital natives.” This has spread to every part of the world, reaching even areas where economic and social development are as yet inadequate and uneven.

The phenomenon is now global and so we speak of a “digital world.” We now realize that, supported by ever greater evidence, the scourge of offenses against the dignity of minors, as with so many other dramatic problems in today’s world, spreads through and aligns itself within the new parameters of the digital world. This plague meanders and infiltrates along a labyrinth of paths and through deep, hidden layers of reality. The digital world is not, in fact, a separate part of the world: it is an integral part of the unique reality of the world. Minors who grow up in it are exposed to new risks, or rather, to old risks manifested in new ways; and the culture of the protection of minors that we want to spread must be sufficiently able to address today’s problems. Looking at our contemporary world, Pope Francis continually reminds us that the forms of abuse and violence against minors proliferate in an interwoven manner: the traffic of minors and of human persons generally, the phenomenon of child soldiers, the absence of even the most elementary education, the fact that small children are the first victims of hunger and extreme poverty. On the day dedicated by the Church to the memory of the Holy Innocents, Pope Francis wrote: “We need the courage to respond to this reality, to arise and take it firmly in hand (cf. Mt 2:20)… [We need] the courage to guard this joyfrom the new Herods of our time, who devour the innocence of our children. An innocence stolen from them by the oppression of illegal slave labour, prostitution and exploitation. An innocence shattered by wars and forced migration, with the great loss that this entails. Thousands of our children have fallen into the hands of gangs, criminal organizations and merchants of death, who only devour and exploit their neediness” (Letter to Bishops, 28 December 2016). In all these situations, the horrendous reality of sexual abuse is nearly always present, as a common aspect and consequence of multifaceted and widespread violence that ignores all respect, not only for the body, but more so for the soul, for the profound vulnerability and dignity of every child, of every young boy and girl of whatever nation. And so we recognize the challenges, but realize too that even though we have learned a great deal with respect to this phenomenon, it remains important to understand it ever better, and, more than anything, to continue to make our understanding of the phenomenon accessible to all those who promote the protection of the rights of minors. Only in this way can we effectively fight the battle to protect minors in our digitalized world. The phenomena we observe reach levels of shocking gravity; their dimensions and the speed with which they spread surpass our imagination. Here then is the second reason for my appreciation of the method employed by this Congress: calling together representatives from the various fields of scientific research as well as those who are actively committed to the protection of minors; representatives of leading companies in technological development and communications characteristic of the digital world; those responsible for the common good of human society; legislators, politicians, and law enforcement agencies called upon to combat crimes and abuses; religious leaders and leaders of civil society organizations committed to working for minors. Like some of the other speakers, I too want to insist on a distinguishing characteristic of this assembly, one that makes it new and even unique, namely: establishing a dialogue between the many competent and meritorious people who have made their own the cause of defending the dignity of minors in the digital world. They are doing this by channelling their energies towards a shared commitment in order to overcome the sense of disorientation and powerlessness when faced with such a markedly difficult challenge, and to help us to intervene creatively. Once this basic strategic territory has been identified, we must work to regain control of the development of the digital world, so that it may be at the service of the dignity of minors, and thus of the whole human race of tomorrow. For the minors of today are the entirety of tomorrow’s human race.

Following the research and understanding of these problems there must come a commitment and a far-seeing, courageous endeavour on the part of all of us here present; there must also be an appeal for the cooperation of every person in a position of responsibility, in the various countries and sectors of society. Perhaps I may be permitted to offer some further reflections, which I propose for your consideration. The demographic development of humanity is particularly rapid in many countries where economic and social progress is still lacking or uneven. Hundreds of millions of children and young people are growing up in a digital world within a context that is still largely undeveloped. Their parents and teachers may not, perhaps, be culturally equipped to accompany them and help them to grow up in this world, whereas their political leaders will often not know where to begin in order to protect them. We have a responsibility to these children too, as do the companies that promote and drive the development of the digital world. With its international, global and interdisciplinary perspective, this Congress must take responsibility for those minors at the world’s “peripheries”, of which Pope Francis continually speaks: peripheries that are in geographic areas of greater economic poverty, but that are also found within wealthy societies where there is considerable human and spiritual poverty, loneliness and a loss of the meaning of life. It is not by chance that it is minors in all these peripheries who are the preferred target of networks of exploitation and of organized online violence on a global scale.

Both in society and in the Church, there has always been insistence on the primary responsibility of the family and of the school in guaranteeing minors a sound education so essential to the protection and promotion of their dignity. This still very much applies today and every effort must be made so that parents and educators may be increasingly able to undertake their duties, even in the face of risks and challenges from the digital world. There is, however, no doubt that in the modern context their ability to influence the formation of young generations is proportionately far less than in the past, and is often frustrated and overtaken by the continual wave of messages and images that come to even the smallest children through countless open avenues provided by the new media. For this reason too, responsibility towards young generations must be shared fully by all the sectors of society that you represent. Finally, we find ourselves hosted here by an institution which depends on the Catholic Church and which is thus particularly attentive to the moral and religious dimensions of the life and development of the human person. I hope that your work may be able also to integrate these perspectives into the shared work of reflection and commitment, and that from them you may draw vigour, inspiration and motivation. For the rest, all of us surely agree on what is affirmed in the second principle of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, namely, that every child should have the means “to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity”. Moreover, as John Paul II affirmed in 1990, on the occasion of the World Summit for Children, we stress “the need to do much more to safeguard the well-being of the world’s children, to enunciate the rights of the child and to protect those rights through cultural and legislative actions imbued with respect for human life as a value in itself, independently of sex, ethnic origin, social or cultural status, or political or religious conviction” (Letter to J. Pérez de Cuellar, 22 September 1990. The Holy See adhered to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990). The minors of whom we speak and whose dignity we wish to defend and promote are human persons, and the value of each of them is unique and unrepeatable. Each of them must be taken seriously and protected in this ever more digitalized world, so that they may be able to fulfil the purpose of their life, their destiny, their coming into the world. The destiny and the life of each of them is supremely important, precious in the sight of human beings and in the sight of God. According to Scripture, every human being is created “in the image and likeness” of God. According to the New Testament, the Son of God came among us as a vulnerable child, and in needy circumstances, assuming both the fragility and the hope for a future that are intrinsic to an infant.

To disparage infancy and to abuse children is for the Christian, therefore, not only a crime, but also – as Pope Francis has stated – sacrilege, a profanation of that which is sacred, of the presence of God in every human being. The forces that drive the technical and economic development of the world seem unstoppable and, as we know, are perhaps often determined and driven by economic and even very powerful political interests, which we must not allow ourselves to be dominated by. The power of sexual desire that dwells in the depth of the human mind and heart is great and wonderful when it advances the path of humanity; but it can also be corrupted and perverted, to become a source of suffering and unspeakable abuse: and so it must be elevated and directed. The sense of moral responsibility in the sight of humanity and in the sight of God, the reflection on the correct use of freedom in the building and orientation of a new world and in learning how to live in it, are thus absolutely necessary and fundamental for our common future. You have come together here to address one of today’s most important and urgent issues for the journey of humanity. I hope that the living sense of the beauty and the mystery of human persons, of the greatness of their vocation to life, and thus of the duty to protect them in their dignity and their growth, may inspire your work and bear concrete and effective fruit.

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

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via New York Times

October 4, 2017

Pope Francis wants to hear firsthand from young people about their “doubts and criticisms” in the run-up to a big meeting of bishops on how the Catholic Church can better minister to young people today.

The Vatican said Wednesday it would host a summit of young people from around the world March 19-24 as a preparatory meeting to the synod of bishops later in the year. As well as young Catholics, other Christians and young atheists have been invited to the event.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

October 3, 2017

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican secretary of state urged law enforcement agencies, governments and social media sites on Tuesday to take responsibility to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation — a statement that came even as one of his diplomats is caught up in an international child porn investigation.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the case of Monsignor Carlo Capella was “very painful” for all involved.

Parolin said the Vatican was treating the Capella case with “utmost concern, utmost commitment” but also confidentiality to protect the integrity of the investigation. He spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a Catholic Church-sponsored conference on protecting children from online threats.

Canadian police have issued an arrest warrant for Capella, accusing him of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography during a visit to an Ontario church over Christmas. He is now in the Vatican after being recalled from the Vatican’s embassy in the U.S.

Vatican prosecutors have also opened an investigation into Capella’s actions.

Parolin — Capella’s boss — headlined the opening of the four-day conference on protecting children online that has drawn leading researchers in public health, Interpol, the U.N., government representatives as well as executives from Facebook and Microsoft.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

October 3, 2017

By Elise Harris

In the keynote speech at a conference on protecting children in the digital world, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said child safety is one of the most urgent issues of modern times, and stressed that children on the global “peripheries” shouldn’t be forgotten.

In his Oct. 3 speech, Parolin noted that technological and cultural change “is particularly fast in many countries in which social and economic progress are still very limited and unbalanced.”

Thousands of children are now growing up in the digital world in vastly underdeveloped nations, he said, which means their parents and educators “will no longer be culturally equipped to accompany them and help them grow in this world, while their governments often don’t know where to begin in protecting them.”

“We are also responsible for these children, and the businesses that promote and push the development of the digital world are also responsible for them,” he said.

Given the international and interdisciplinary approach of the conference, Parolin stressed that the participants themselves “must take responsibility for those peripheries of the world of which Pope Francis continually speaks.”

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

October 4, 2017

By Inés San Martín

At the opening session of a major conference at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University on the protection of children in a digital world, the Vatican’s number two official, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Catholic Church’s “tragic experience” with clerical sexual abuse allows it to be a leader in the fight against child abuse in other arenas.

Rome – Addressing a group of experts gathered in Rome, including representatives of Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, Pope Francis’s right-hand man said on Tuesday that the Church’s tragic experience with the sexual abuse of children, “this reality [that] has come powerfully to the fore in the Catholic Church,” allows it to help lead the fight in other arenas.

“In this venue, [the Catholic Church] want[s] to share the experience we have acquired, so that it may prove useful for an ever greater good, thanks to collaboration with all of you,” Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.

Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, was one of two keynote speakers at a conference titled “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” being held at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University Oct. 3-6. It’s organized by the university’s Centre for Child Protection (CCP), a UK-based global alliance called WePROTECT, and “Telefono Azzurro,” the first Italian helpline for children at risk.

“We recognize the challenges, but also realize that even though we have learned a great deal with respect to this phenomenon, it remains important to understand it ever better, and, more than anything, to continue to make our understanding of the phenomenon accessible to all those who promote the protection of the rights of minors,” he said.

“Only in this way can we effectively fight the battle to protect minors in our digitalized world,” Parolin told the gathering. “The phenomena we observe reach levels of shocking gravity; their dimensions and the speed with which they spread surpass our imagination.”

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

WINNIPEG (MANITOBA, CANADA)
CBC News

Parishioner suing former Manitoba Anglican priest for alleged sexual exploitation
Brandon bishop ‘horrified’ by allegations, says he demanded priest’s resignation

October 4, 2017

By Vera-Lynn Kubinec and Katie Nicholson

A woman who was a parishioner of an Anglican church in western Manitoba is alleging she was exploited and sexually assaulted by her priest for years, after he manipulated her into a sexual relationship.

The woman is suing former priest Nigel Packwood and the Anglican synod of the Diocese of Brandon.

Packwood “initiated and maintained” an illicit and long-standing sexual relationship with the parishioner, says the statement of claim filed Sept. 19 in Winnipeg.

“Rev. Packwood exploited and misused the power, authority and discretion conferred upon him by the Diocese to gain access to confidential information about [the plaintiff] and her circumstances and to initiate and maintain illicit intimate sexual contact with, and to manipulate, control and sexually exploit [the plaintiff] for his own personal sexual gratification,” the claim says.

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DENMARK
The Local

October 4, 2017

A 47-year-old priest used promises of trips abroad to persuade a 16-year-old boy to have sex with him, Holbæk City Court heard during the former clergyman’s trial on Tuesday.

The priest met the 16-year-old on gay dating site boyfriend.dk, writes news agency Ritzau.

Pretending to work for the army, the priest began speaking to the teenager, who is from Jutland, the court heard according to Ritzau’s report.

The former priest at the Tømmerup Church is currently on trial at Holbæk City Court, accused of sexual misconduct with 12 children between the ages of 12 and 17 years.

He was initially arrested in June 2016.

He recorded sex with the 16-year-old boy several times, the court heard during proceedings Tuesday.

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

KANSAS CITY (KS)
National Catholic Reporter

October 4, 2017

By Anita Hofschneider

Chalan Pago-Ordot, Guam — B.J. pushes aside the ferns as he approaches the edge of the muddy river in central Guam. Hunched over and carrying a cane, he is looking for the spot where he was tied to a tree decades ago. Mosquitoes descend ferociously with every step he takes. Apart from the gushing water, the jungle is quiet.

“Look, if you yell, nobody can hear you,” he says. “Or if anything happens to you, nobody will know.”

The river looks completely different from that day 46 years ago when B.J. says he was raped repeatedly by Fr. Louis Brouillard, a priest and then-Boy Scout leader. B.J. was only 11 years old, and remembers the water was calm. The trees weren’t pressed so hard against the water’s edge.

“He had me strapped to one of these trees like this,” he says, pointing to the trees next to him. “He went down there, right, and then he started to slowly swim back here, right, and he got up here to me, right? That’s when everything changed.”

B.J. is one of more than 100 men and women who have filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana on Guam alleging abuses that occurred between the 1950s and 1980s.

Sex abuse scandals have roiled archdioceses throughout North America for the last two decades. But only in recent years has the church in this small, intensely Catholic U.S. territory begun confronting its own legacy of abuse.

The magnitude of the claims is staggering. According to a recent USA Today analysis, Guam, with a population of only about 160,000, has a per-capita rate of abuse claims more than five times higher than in Boston. So far, 16 priests have been accused of sexual abuse. About a third of them are deceased and some have left the priesthood. One was defrocked.

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

ROME
Crux

September 28, 2017

By John Allen and Claire Giangrave

German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, who leads a child protection center at a Roman university and serves on a papal commission advising Francis on reform, says the Vatican should have been more transparent about recent reports that an envoy at the papal embassy in Washington, D.C., is part of an investigation for possible involvement in child pornography, seeing it as part of an going struggle to be more “up-front.”

ROME – Arguably the Catholic Church’s leading expert in the fight against child sexual abuse believes the Vatican dropped the ball on a recent case in which a diplomat at the papal embassy in Washington, D.C., was flagged as a possible suspect in a child pornography investigation, saying, “This should have been handled differently.”

“I really don’t understand this type of reaction [from the Vatican], and I’m pretty sure the American bishops were quite upset about how it was handled,” said German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner.

Zollner heads the Centre for Child Protection at Rome’s Gregorian University and is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, a body created by Pope Francis to advise him on the reform effort and led by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.

Zollner called the way the recent case has been handled “tragic” and “unprofessional.”

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

LYON (France)
Marianne

September 28, 2017

By Philippe Clanché

Jugé en avril prochain pour “non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs” commises par un de ses prêtres, l’archevêque de Lyon, trop sûr de lui, incarne l’impuissance de l’institution religieuse à faire face publiquement à un mal qui la ronge.

Philippe Barbarin prêchait (la bonne parole bien sûr) aux futurs prêtres en soutane de la très classique communauté Saint-Martin, dans la Mayenne, lorsqu’il a appris en ce 19 septembre une contrariante nouvelle. Le cardinal-archevêque de Lyon doit comparaître devant la 6e chambre correctionnelle du tribunal de Lyon, du 4 au 6 avril 2018, pour « non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs », des faits commis par un prêtre de son diocèse, Bernard Preynat. Comment une affaire aussi ancienne peut-elle aujourd’hui faire vaciller la star de l’épiscopat français ? Et faire trembler, par ricochet, tous les évêques, qui paniquent à la perspective de découvrir une brebis galeuse parmi leur troupeau…

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TORONTO (Ontario, Canada)
Law Firm of McPhadden Samac Tuovi Haté

October 2, 2017

For Immediate Release

Jehovah’s Witness Sexual Abuse Class Action Toronto law firm McPhadden Samac Tuovi Hate announced today that it had commenced a class action in Ontario against 3 Jehovah’s Witness organizations, one in Canada and two in the United States.

The amount claimed on behalf of the former students is the sum of $66,000,000.

The case has been brought on behalf of current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim they were sexually assaulted by Elders of the organization. There is also a class of claimants composed of those who allege that when they were children they were sexually assaulted by adult Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The action has been commenced on behalf of all those affected, regardless of where in Canada they reside.

While the name of the proposed representative plaintiff has been disclosed in the Statement of Claim, a discreet and confidential claims process whereby the identities of other claimants are not disclosed will be sought.

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

TORONTO (Ontario, Canada)
680 News

October 2, 2017

A group of alleged sexual abuse survivors from across the country have filed a $66-million class action lawsuit against the Jehovah’s Witness, CityNews has learned.

The suit accuses the religious organization of having rules and policies that protect child sex abusers and put children at risk.

“The organization’s policy and protocol for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse is seriously flawed, and results in further harm to victims of sexual abuse and results in legitimate allegations of sexual abuse going unreported,” it alleges.

“This is an issue that the wider community should be concerned with, and not just Jehovah’s Witnesses,” says Tricia Franginha. She says her first 14 years of life as a Jehovah’s Witness were filed with sexual abuse.

“As a result of their procedures, when abuse allegations come forward, these sexual offenders are left at large,” Franginha says. “As most people know about Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are the ones who come to your door on Saturday mornings, when your kids are home, and for all you know, that person has offended more than once.”

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

OREGON
The Oregonian/OregonLive

October 2, 2017

The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a pastor sentenced to prison for sexually abusing a girl who grew up in his Happy Valley church.

The court affirmed the conviction of Mike Sperou without opinion on Wednesday, records show. A Multnomah County jury convicted Sperou in 2015 on three counts of first-degree sexual penetration of a person under the age of 12, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He’s being held in the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, and records list his earliest release date as December 27, 2032.

In 1997, seven girls complained that Sperou, co-founder of the North Clackamas Bible Community, had molested them. No charges were brought because the girls’ stories were inconsistent or vague. The allegations came on the heels of a split in the church, leading to the exit of several families.

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

ROME
Vatican Radio

October 2, 2017

Child Dignity in the Digital World is the title of a world congress being held at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University this week. Among the key note speakers is the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the meeting ends with a papal audience on Friday.

Ahead of the opening session, organisers held a press conference to highlight the urgency of this global challenge of protecting children from on-line abuse.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:

[AUDIO LINK]

The secret, scary world of children being groomed, abused and radicalized on-line was the subject of a short video shown at the press conference on Monday. It featured seven boys and girls, from toddlers to teens, talking about how easy it is to fall prey to internet paedophiles, traffickers, bullies or recruiters for extremist organisations.

It was a sobering start to this World Congress, which brings together top researchers, government representatives, law enforcement officials, software specialists, NGOs andreligious leaders.

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

SALINA KS
KAKE News (Salina KS)

October 3, 2017

SALINA, Kan. – Some Kansans might dream in winter of moving to Arizona. Now a Kansas Catholic leader is doing it – but not to retire.

The Vatican announced Tuesday that Salina diocese Bishop Edward Weisenburger is being transferred, to become Bishop of Tucson. He will be installed November 29, to replace Bishop Gerald Kicanas. Kicanas was required to resign upon turning 75.

Weisenburger, 56, has served in Salina since May 2012. A statement from the Salina diocese praised him for working in the acquisition of Manhattan’s hospital by Via Christi-Ascension, as well as “efforts to shine a spotlight on the cruel abuse of the poor at the hands of the predatory (‘payday’) loan industry.”

Tucson’s diocese is much larger than Salina’s. The Tucson area has about 450,000 Catholics as opposed to 44,000 in northern Kansas.

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SALINA KS
Salina Post

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Pope Francis has transferred Bishop Edward Joseph Weisenburger from the Diocese of Salina to the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, according to a media release.

The Holy See made the announcement Tuesday in Rome. Weisenburger was notified last week by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pierre Christophe, that Pope Francis was entrusting to him the pastoral care of the good people of the Diocese of Tucson.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, sixth Bishop of Tucson, submitted his resignation in accord with Church law upon reaching his 75th birthday. He will serve as the administrator of the Diocese until Weisenburger’s installation. Weisenburger’s appointment comes more than a year after Kicanas’ offered his retirement. In light of Kicanas good health and exceptional service, it is not surprising that the Holy See extended his tenure for an extra year. Weisenburger stated “I am humbled to follow in the footsteps of a shepherd who has served graciously and generously for many years. Bishop Kicanas has served in many national capacities for the Catholic Church and is highly esteemed. Knowing that he will continue to reside in our Diocese is a great comfort for me and a blessing for our people.”

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NEW YORK NY
Catholic League

October 3, 2017

By Bill Donohue and Rick Hinshaw

[The report to which this blog post refers is Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports, by Desmond Cahill and Peter Wilkinson, RMIT University, Australia.]

The following analysis is the work of Catholic League president Bill Donohue and Catholic League director of communications Rick Hinshaw; Donohue has a Ph.D. in sociology and Hinshaw has an M.A. in political science:

On October 6, Cardinal George Pell will appear in a Melbourne court on trumped up sexual abuse charges. The media will no doubt turn its attention to a report issued in August by the Centre for Global Research at RMIT University, Melbourne, “Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.” It offers what it calls an “interpretive review of the literature and public inquiry reports” on the subject. Its reach is wide: it offers biblical and historical analysis, and covers many nations.

By any measure, the report is deeply flawed and highly politicized. It is also poorly edited—the exact wording on various subjects is repeated several times. Quite frankly, it is one of the most sophomoric attempts to deal with the issue of clergy sexual abuse ever published.

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HAGÅTÑA (GUAM)
USA TODAY Network

October 2, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

[See the summary of the case against Apuron in our Bishops Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct: A Global Accounting.]

HAGÅTÑA, Guam — A decision has been reached in Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s Vatican trial, Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes said Monday, but it is still awaiting the judges’ signatures.

Tony Diaz, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Agana, said the decision — known as a sentence — has three elements. The first is the specific charge, the second is the specific verdict — guilty, not guilty or not proven, and the third is the penalty.

Diaz said Byrnes has only been notified that there is a decision, but he does not know the specific charges, the verdict or the penalty, if any.

Diaz said the Archdiocese will share whatever information they get from the Vatican as soon as they get it.

Former altar boys have accused Apuron of sexually abusing them in the 1970s. They have filed lawsuits against Apuron and the Archdiocese.

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ROME (Italy)
Crux

October 3, 2017

By John L. Allen Jr.

As the Vatican deals with criticism of its handling of the case of a papal diplomat recalled to Rome from Washington facing allegations of child pornography use both in the U.S. and Canada, it’s backing a major summit at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University this week designed to tackle the growing problem of child vulnerability in an internet age.

ROME – On the heels of its own child pornography scandal involving the computer of a papal diplomat, the Vatican is lining up behind a major summit this week at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University devoted to the broader theme of keeping children safe in an internet-saturated age.

Titled “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” the Oct. 3-6 conference brings together leading experts on child protection, law enforcement officials, executives of Internet and social media companies, NGOs, and others, to discuss how to promote child welfare online.

The idea is for those various players to hammer out a plan of action, which will be presented to Pope Francis on Friday when conference participants meet him in an audience.

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GREAT FALLS MT
Great Falls Tribune

October 2, 2017

By Seaborn Larson, slarson@greatfallstribune.com

A U.S. bankruptcy judge last week ordered a hearing intended to map out the remaining settlement proceedings between the Great Falls-Billings Diocese and the 86 victims claiming they were abused by eastern Montana priests through the 1900s.

Last month, settlement negotiations ended after a two-day session without resolution. The impasse reportedly came as the parties disagreed about whether or not certain church assets are available to the settlement fund.

In the order setting the Nov. 2 hearing, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Jim Pappas asked the diocese to provide a summary of the church’s income and expenses since it filed for bankruptcy in March. Primarily, the judge hopes to discuss “the factors leading to the filing of this Chapter 11 case; (the diocese’s) objectives in the case, and the means by which (the diocese) hopes to achieve those objectives.” The hearing also gives the diocese a chance to discuss any other topic of significance that affects the bankruptcy case.

The diocese has argued that certain assets are being held in trust for the parishes, and are therefore exempt from a settlement fund the diocese promised to create for victims when it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 31.

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ROME
Catholic News Service via thecatholicspirit.com

October 2, 2017

By Cindy Wooden

Pope Francis has named U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke a member of the Apostolic Signature, the Church’s supreme court, which the cardinal headed as prefect from 2008 to 2014.

Members of the Apostolic Signature serve as judges in the cases, which mainly involve appeals of lower-court decisions or of administrative decisions by other offices of the Holy See.

The appeals involve everything from challenges to the decisions of marriage tribunals to recourse against the dismissal of a religious, the transfer of a parish priest, the restriction of a priest’s ministry, removal of ministerial faculties, renovation of a parish church and dismissal from a teaching position.

Cardinal Burke’s nomination was met with surprise in some quarters because he continues to speak publicly about issuing a formal “fraternal correction” of Pope Francis over the pope’s teaching in “Amoris Laetitia,” his exhortation on the family. But the public criticism of the pope did not prevent Pope Francis in late 2016 from naming Cardinal Burke the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana, Guam. The results of the investigation and trial have not been announced.

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DALLAS TX
D Magazine

October 2017

By Tim Rogers

How this happened is still unclear. What should happen next is not.

[See also BishopAccountability.org’s resource page about Grahmann’s handling of the Kos case. Grahmann was bishop of Dallas from 1989 to 2007.]

A newcomer to town wouldn’t give it a second thought. Off West Jefferson Boulevard, in southwest Dallas, between Dallas National Golf Club and Cockrell Hill, there’s a small working-class subdivision called Santa Clara. The entry road is called Via Bishop Grahmann. What could possibly be remarkable about that?

Charles Grahmann served as the sixth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, from 1990 to 2007. It was on his watch that a jury in 1997 found the Diocese guilty of gross negligence, conspiracy, malice, and fraud in trying to hide the heinous acts of a child-molesting priest named Rudy Kos. One of Kos’ victims committed suicide. The jury returned the largest clergy-abuse verdict in history, nearly $120 million (later reduced). On the witness stand, Grahmann claimed to have no knowledge of the abuse. Here’s how the jury forewoman described Grahmann’s attitude to the Dallas Morning News: “It looked like he was bored to death and thought he was above it all. I don’t know how you can be in that much denial and have that much evidence.” As the full extent of Grahmann’s culpability was laid bare, the News and D Magazine, both owned by Catholics, called for his resignation.

That is the man whose name the street bears. How that happened remains a bit of a mystery. The land that Santa Clara now occupies once belonged to the Cockrells, one of the founding families of Dallas. It changed hands over the years and eventually came into the possession of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge, who still have a convent a little ways to the north. From them it passed to a number of owners, until a developer called Lennar Corporation, through a subsidiary named NuHome Designs, bought it. The land was platted in 2000, just three years after the Kos trial.

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

ROME
Catholic News Service

October 2, 2017

By Carol Glatz

ROME (CNS) — The recall of a Vatican diplomat suspected by U.S. authorities of having a connection with child pornography reflects normal international protocol, but the suspect must be put on trial and receive punishment if found guilty, said a key organizer of a world congress on child protection.

“Due process has to be followed. If there is a case and if the person is found guilty, then he or she needs to be punished, whoever that is,” said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, head of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection, which is hosting a world congress on protecting minors from online abuse, violence and exploitation.

The Oct. 3-6 congress in Rome came on the heels of the recall of Italian Msgr. Carlo Capella from the Vatican nunciature in Washington, D.C., after the U.S. State Department notified the Holy See of his possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images.

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

NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

October 2, 2017

By Justin Zaremba, jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com

GUTTENBERG — A hearing has found probable cause for the filing of charges against a Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a young parishioner two decades ago.

Probable cause was found for charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault against the Rev. Michael “Mitch” Walters on Wednesday, according to an official with the Guttenberg court. The case was then transferred from the municipal court up to the Hudson County Superior Court.

A criminal probe into Walters was first announced in 2016 by Road to Recovery, a Livingston-based group that advocates for victims of clergy abuse. Walters, the group alleged, molested a boy at the St. John Nepomucene Parish in Guttenberg in the 1990s.

Months earlier, Walters was removed from ministry at the Our Lady of Sorrows church in South Orange following allegations he molested children at St. Cassian’s Parish in Montclair in the early 1980s.

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PHOENIX AZ
Phoenix New Times

October 2, 2017

By Antonia Noori Farzan

Dennis Huff, the longtime head of behavioral health services at Native Health of Phoenix — which primarily serves the urban Native American community — has left the organization amid allegations of sexual abuse of students at St. Catherine’s Indian School in Santa Fe during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Last month, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe included a person named Dennis Huff on a list of 74 clergy members who had been “credibly accused of sexual misconduct over the last several decades,” according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

On Tuesday, September 26, when Phoenix New Times first contacted Native Health to ask about the accusations, Huff was identified on the nonprofit community health center’s website as a member of the leadership team, with the title of behavioral health services administrator.

Two days later, Huff was no longer listed on the website. Communications coordinator Susan Levy wrote in an email, “Regarding your inquiry, Dennis Huff is no longer employed at Native Health. Our policy is not to release any information regarding current and former employees, except dates of employment.”

On Friday afternoon, Walter Murillo, Native Health’s CEO, shared the following statement:

“Dennis Huff was hired by NATIVE HEALTH in 1992, and served as an exemplary member of our administrative staff. Recently, NATIVE HEALTH received an anonymous letter with allegations against Mr. Huff involving events said to have allegedly occurred prior to his employment with our organization. NATIVE HEALTH requires all employees to pass a rigorous background check and we are not aware of any complaints during Mr. Huff’s employment, nor are there any disciplinary actions reported by the State of Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners. Mr. Huff was required to maintain a criminal background check card, which was monitored and maintained by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, for the length of his employment with us. Upon learning of the allegations against him, NATIVE HEALTH initiated an internal process to determine the best course of action, culminating in Mr. Huff’s decision to resign. During that time, Mr. Huff continued to serve in an administrative role only, with no direct client contact. NATIVE HEALTH regularly reviews our policies, procedures, and practices to ensure that we remain true to our mission providing holistic, patient-centered, culturally sensitive health and wellness services to all people.”

In 2014, a lawsuit filed in New Mexico district court alleged that Huff, then a Franciscan monk at the now-defunct St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, had sexually abused a 15-year-old boy living in the school’s dorms back in 1976. After a settlement conference, the case was dismissed in February at the plaintiff’s request.

In January 2016, a little over a year after the lawsuit was filed, Louie Toya identified himself as the “John Doe” in the case. Toya, a member of Jemez Pueblo, told the Albuquerque Journal that he had run away from the school after the alleged rape occurred and gone on to struggle with alcoholism for most of his life.

According to the complaint, Toya also suffers from “delayed PTSD symptoms, embarrassment, humiliation, destruction and loss of faith, loss of sexual capacity and intimacy, loss of self-esteem, depression, anger issues, nightmares, and other damages” as a result of the abuse.

Toya’s attorney, Levi Monagle, whose firm has filed more than 70 lawsuits against priests from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, couldn’t confirm that the Dennis Huff named in the lawsuit was the same individual formerly employed by Native Health.

“The Dennis Huff in our case did spend time in Arizona in various capacities,” he acknowledged. “If it is the same person, I find it very troubling.”

Eric Morrow, who represented Huff in the lawsuit, declined to comment on whether his client had relocated to the Phoenix area. Directory phone numbers listed for Huff were either out of date or not in service.

However, a 1997 article in the Albuquerque Journal, archived on a website documenting sexual abuse in the Catholic church, noted that Huff had left the order and was believed to be living in Mesa. At the time, Huff had just been accused of sexually abusing another former student, who had been at the school between 1980 and 1983. (The former student submitted a complaint to local police, but Phoenix New Times was unable to locate any records suggesting that charges were ever filed in court.)

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

October 1, 2017

By Michael Salter

New science of trauma and memory has shown that the assertions of ‘false memory’ advocates are exaggerated

For a quarter of a century, the concept of “false memories” has provided a scientific fig leaf for sceptics of child sexual abuse allegations.

The “false memory” argument is deceptively simple: children and adults are prone to invent false memories of child sexual abuse that never occurred, particularly if encouraged by a therapist or some other authority figure.

So-called “recovered memories”, in which adults recall sexual abuse in childhood after a period of amnesia, have been a particular focus of disbelief.

In fact, scientific studies find that children are far less suggestible than we have been led to believe. Brain imaging studies have identified the neurological mechanisms involved in the process of forgetting and then recalling sexual abuse as an adult.

Delayed disclosure and amnesia are now understood as normal coping mechanisms in response to abuse.

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UGANDA
New Vision

October 2, 2017

By Luke Kagiri

Bagonza said there are some pastors who tend to hold on to cases of child abuse as spiritual cases in churches.

Born-Again pastors in Uganda have been advised not to spritualise child abuse cases, but to always report them to Police and concerned authorities.

This was revealed by Bishop Charles Bagonza, the overseer of the Pentecostal Churches of Uganda. Bagonza said there are some pastors who sometimes tend to hold on to cases of child abuse as spiritual cases in churches.

“Any issue or case of child abuse or any form of violation should not be handled in church, but should be reported to the relevant authorities,” he said.

Bagonza was on Saturday addressing the faithful at Mityana Pentecostal Church in Busimbi, Mityana municipality, at an event to mark the closure of the four-month prayer campaign dubbed ‘The DOVE 120’ (Days of Victory Ever).

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ST. PAUL MN
National Catholic Reporter

October 2, 2017

By Brian Roewe

[See the 9/14/2017 news release by Jeff Anderson & Associates about the launch of the Zero Abuse Project.]

A $2 million gift from a leading firm in sexual abuse litigation seeks to turn a Minnesota law school into a national training and resource center for child abuse prevention and response.

The donation, from the firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, will create at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, what is called the Zero Abuse Project. The effort will educate and train lawyers and other professionals in the skills necessary to recognize signs of child abuse, how to better work with people who have experienced such trauma, and ultimately how to advocate for an end to child abuse through courtroom litigation and legal reform.

“Our law firm is making this commitment in the hopes that people don’t need to contact us in the future,” Jeff Anderson, whose office is also based in St. Paul, said in a Sept. 14 press release announcing the project.

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INDIANA
WISH-TV.com

September 29, 2017

By Vi Nguyen

RUSHVILLE, Ind. — Neighbors are responding after learning about allegations of child sexual abuse at a church in Rushville.

Police executed a search warrant last week at Rushville Baptist Temple Church at 1335 North Spencer Street as part of their investigation.

Police said they are looking into allegations of child molestation and began looking into the church several weeks ago after a woman told them her young daughter was a victim.

During the course of their investigation, police said another woman came forward and said the same thing happened to her as a young girl nearly 30 years ago.

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ROME
The Associated Press via WRAL.com

October 2, 2017

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican’s secretary of state is headlining an international conference on protecting children from online sexual abuse and exploitation, weeks after he recalled one of his diplomats who was caught up in a U.S.-Canadian investigation into child porn.

Organizers said the arrest warrant issued for Monsignor Carlo Capella showed the need for the conference, which opens Tuesday and ends Friday when participants bring a set of proposals to Pope Francis.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin will deliver the keynote address on “The Holy See and its commitment to combatting sex abuse online.” Panelists include leading researchers in public health, law enforcement, government as well as executives form Facebook and Microsoft — evidence of the across-the-board realization that the digital age is bringing exponential new threats to children.

“The risks are everywhere. It is not a western problem,” said the Rev. Hans Zollner, conference organizer and head of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Catholic Church’s leading research and education center on sexual abuse prevention and child protection.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

September 30, 2017

By Harriet Sherwood

Comments follow Justin Welby’s criticism of the BBC over its handling of the Jimmy Savile abuse cases

Survivors of sexual abuse by Church of England figures have accused Justin Welby of “breathtaking hypocrisy” after the Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the BBC for the way it handled abuse by Jimmy Savile.

Welby said the BBC had not shown the same integrity over accusations of child abuse that the Catholic and Anglican churches had.

In a statement, six survivors of abuse by powerful church figures rejected Welby’s comments and said the record of the church and Welby himself was one of “silence, denial and evasion”.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

September 30, 2017

By Jamie Doward and Harriet Sherwood

Archbishop of Canterbury faces backlash after claiming broadcaster showed less integrity than church in tackling scandal

The Church of England and the BBC engaged in an extraordinary war of words on Saturday over their responses to sex abuse scandals within their ranks.

The dispute was prompted by criticism of the BBC levelled by Justin Welby for its response to the Jimmy Savile crisis. The archbishop of Canterbury said the BBC had not shown the same integrity over accusations of child abuse that the Catholic and Anglican churches had.

The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Martin Bashir, responded by listing cases of alleged sex abuse within the Anglican church, adding that Welby’s comments reminded him of the passage in the gospel of St John in which Christ says “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”.

Survivors of sexual abuse by CoE clerics accused Welby of “breathtaking hypocrisy” after his criticism of the way the BBC dealt with the many cases of abuse carried out by Savile.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

September 29, 2017

By Christopher Knaus

‘It’s extremely hard,’ says abuse survivor, who was forced to take church back to court to obtain payment

The Anglican church failed to pay a child sexual abuse survivor an agreed $1.5m settlement, prompting allegations it has treated him with disdain.

The church, however, says the failure to meet Thursday’s payment deadline was inadvertent, and urgently moved to transfer the money after being alerted to the error on Friday.

The survivor, who asked for anonymity, sued the Anglican church’s Brisbane diocese in late 2015 for horrific abuse he suffered at St Paul’s school in the 1980s, at the hands of convicted paedophile Gregory Robert Knight.

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

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

October 1, 2017

By Michael W. Higgins

Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. He is the co-author of Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal.

Evidently, the last time anything like this happened was during the reign of Pope John XXII in the year 1333.

It doesn’t happen that often, so when it does, it is a matter of note.

The fuss in Catholic conservative circles, and the unwelcome stress it has created in the Vatican of Pope Francis, is the letter Correctio filialis de Haeresibus Propagatis or Filial Correction of Pope Francis for the Propagation of Heresies. Traditionalist groups have a sacred bond with the Latin language – the onetime lingua franca of the Roman Catholic Church – so everything, admonition, indictment, or apocalyptic screed appears in the mother tongue.

The Correctio is more than an historical oddity, a fervent initiative launched by scandalized Catholics keen on getting the Barque of Peter steered in the right direction again. It is a shot across the bow and should be read as such and not dismissed as the rantings of a disaffected crowd of ultra-conservative Catholics horrified by the “untoward” actions and musings of a Latin American pontiff who does not play by the rules of orthodoxy.

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

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

October 2, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

A new mediator has been agreed upon by the parties in more than 100 church sex abuse cases.

Attorney David Lujan, who represents the bulk of the plaintiffs who have alleged sexual abuse by members of the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America, confirms retired federal Judge Michael Hogan will not be the arbitrator for the church settlement discussions.

“One of the groups didn’t want Hogan and refused to deal with him because of a bad experience in the past,” Lujan said.

Antonio Piazza, of Mediated Negotiations based in San Francisco, California, has been recognized as one of the leading mediators in the world.

According to his company website, he pioneered the development of mediated negotiations as the preferred alternative to protracted conflict in complex civil disputes, having successfully mediated the resolution of more than 4,000 cases since 1980 with some individual settlements exceeding $1 billion.

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

ENGLAND
The Telegraph

October 2, 2017

By Sarah Knapton

The BBC and the Archbishop of Canterbury should both stop pointing the finger at one another over child abuse, a representative of victims has said after a row over how the corporation and the Church of England handled complaints.

The Most Rev Justin Welby had claimed the church handled sex scandals with more integrity than the broadcaster.

Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who has represented victims of Savile and former Bishop Peter Ball said the BBC and the Church of England should both be “looking very hard at themselves and be focused entirely on how they can both look to improve safeguarding in the future.”

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

GUAM
Pacific News Center

October 2, 2017

By Janela Carrera

The decision, however, has yet to be made public.

[See the summary of the case against Apuron in our Bishops Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct: A Global Accounting.]

The highly anticipated decision into Archbishop Apuron’s canonical trial has been made but what the decision is has not yet been revealed.

It’s been about a year since a canonical trial was launched on dethroned Archbishop Anthony Apuron in Rome and we are now at the precipice of what will definitely be a historical moment for the Catholic faith on Guam.

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes gave an update on Archbishop Apuron’s trial today during a press conference at the Chancery Office.

“I was in contact with Father Justin Wachs just last week, he says that the sentence has been determined but they have to send it out to the other judges for their signatures,” said Byrnes.

Archbishop Apuron stands accused of sexually assaulting at least four altar servers in the 1970s at the Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Agat. All four alleged victims have pending lawsuits in District Court—one of whom, the late Joseph Sonny Quinata, was done through his estate.

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

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

September 30, 2017

By Michael Rezendes

[See a PDF of the Boston Globe front page with this story.]

Mary “Mimi” Bull was happily married and the mother of three children when she found out that her biological father was a Catholic priest she had known growing up in Norwood in the 1940s. She had always believed that she was adopted and that the priest who often visited was just a family friend.

But it wasn’t until last month, at age 80, that Bull finally spoke to someone with a life story like her own. He is an Irish activist who learned as an adult that his godfather, a local priest, was really his biological dad. Bull talked on the phone for an hour with Vincent Doyle, the first time she had ever spoken with another priest’s child.

“It was huge,” Bull told the Globe.

Many children of priests grow up thinking they are alone in their situation, in their confusion, anger, or sorrow. But they are now discovering how much company they have, and some are coming forward in the aftermath of a Globe Spotlight series in August on a painful, little-discussed issue in the Catholic church: the fate of children born to priests who break their promise to live without marriage or sex.

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

VATICAN CITY
Associates Press via Washington Post

September 30, 2017

One of Pope Francis’ leading conservative critics, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, is getting a second life at the Vatican high court he headed until Francis removed him in 2014.

Francis appointed Burke as a member of the Apostolic Signatura on Saturday. Members serve as advisers to the court, which currently is headed by a longtime Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.

Francis removed Burke as the court’s prefect in 2014 and named him envoy to the Knights of Malta lay religious order. The pope then effectively sidelined Burke from that job this year after he intervened in a condom scandal that led to a governance crisis in the order.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

September 30, 2017

By Hannah Brockhaus

A global congress to be held in Rome next week will focus on how to protect children in the digital age, bringing together various experts from around the world to develop concrete ways to combat the issue of online child sex abuse.

Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ told journalists Sept. 29 that this is an issue that is dangerous for “many, many young people in the world today.”

Head of the Center for Child Protection and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Zollner said he has spoken to many parents who do not know what to do about their children’s access to the internet: “Everyone is talking and they do not know what to do.”

With this congress, “we can propose something we believe could be useful.”

But this is just the beginning, he told CNA. “We will start now, but this is again, one step in a very long journey that needs persistence and perseverance and we try to give our contribution to that.”

The world congress, on the topic of “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” is being held in Rome Oct. 3-6. It has been organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection (CCP).

The week-long congress will include scientists, academic experts, leaders of civil society, high-level politicians, and religious representatives from around the world. It will conclude with a papal audience, where participants will present a final document – a declaration on future action – to Pope Francis.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

September 28, 2017

Catholic columnist and parish priest Alexander Lucie-Smith has raised concerns over the widespread availability of pornography on the internet and said many in the Church will not accept pornography use is “near universal” among boys and young men, writes Bernadette Kehoe.

Addressing the annual Ordinariate festival, in a talk entitled “Preaching the Gospel in the Internet Age”, Fr Lucie-Smith argued that the “pernicious” effect of pornography meant a generation was growing up unable to embark on a proper human relationship. He called for “an urgent, proper proclamation of the sixth commandment and a radical new approach to sex education, marriage preparation and education for chastity”. Organisers of the festival, which took place at a school near Westminster Cathedral, said that the question-and-answer session after the talk showed that he had struck a chord with many of the priests present – and their experience in the confessional.

Fr Lucie-Smith defended the importance of traditional preaching in the computer age, but highlighted the proliferation of opinion in a way that was unknown a generation ago when the “commentariat” comprised a few hundred people. Now, he said, everyone has an opinion and can share it instantly. In his view, a trawl of the Catholic internet reveals “voices overwhelmingly for tradition; it’s the out-of-touch elite that wants change”.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
Daily Beast

A Vatican diplomat-priest, wanted in the U.S. and Canada on child pornography charges, is now safe in the Holy See. Can he be brought to justice? Will he?

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

Rome – Monsignor Carlo Capella, a 50-year-old priest and diplomat in the Vatican’s foreign service, allegedly uploaded child pornography from a church in Windsor, Canada, last Christmas, according to a new arrest warrant issued by Canadian authorities. The cleric currently is wanted for accessing child pornography, possessing child pornography and distributing child pornography––but he won’t face the secular charges any time soon because he is safely inside the fortified walls of Vatican City in Rome.

Capella is reported to be the same priest who was secretly swooped back to Rome last August when American authorities wanted his immunity lifted on similar charges. The Vatican will not confirm or deny his identity and would not comment on the Canadian arrest warrant, which does name the suspect. But in September, the Holy See did say it was disciplining the errant unnamed priest in house.

“The Holy See, following the practice of sovereign states, recalled the priest in question, who is currently in Vatican City,” a statement released September 15 says.

According to the Canadian arrest warrant, “Investigators believe that the offenses occurred while the suspect was visiting a place of worship in Windsor. Investigators have determined that the suspect has returned to his residence in Italy.”

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 29, 2017

By Christopher White

New poll finds Pope Francis still enjoys widespread popularity in U.S.

Two years after his visit to the United States in September 2015, Pope Francis is still enjoying widespread approval in the country. New polling results from Saint Leo University Polling Institute found the pope’s overall approval ratings held high, despite waning support for his handling of clergy sexual abuse and immigration.

Two years after Pope Francis visited the United States in September 2015 and four months after his first meeting with President Donald Trump, the pope’s overall approval among Americans Catholics is at 87.9 percent-up from 82.6 this past March.

While the new data evidences a five-point bump among the U.S. Catholic population, his popularity dipped slightly among the general U.S. population, now at 67.9 percent approval, down slightly from 70.5 percent last March.

The polling, which was carried out by Saint Leo University Polling Institute, took place from September 10-16 among 1,000 individuals.

Respondents were asked to weigh in on six areas of the pope’s job performance: Advancing the cause of the poor, human rights work, environmental issues, migration and immigration, handling cases of sexual abuse involving Catholic clergy, and marriage and family issues.
The pope received his lowest approval for his handling of sexual abuse issues, with 46.4 percent of national respondents saying they “strongly or somewhat approve” of his work in this area, while 30.8 percent say they “somewhat and strongly disapprove” of the pope’s course of action.

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

ST. LEO (FL)
St. Leo University Polling Institute

September 29, 2017

Pope Francis Remains Popular in National Saint Leo University Poll, Lowest Marks Earned for Clergy Sex Abuse, Immigration, Marriage Issues
Work on human rights issues and in helping the poor received the highest approval ratings

While Pope Francis continues to garner favorable opinion in the most recent Saint Leo University Polling Institute (http://polls.saintleo.edu) survey, his lowest marks come on the issues of handling sexual abuse by clergy, immigration/migration, and marriage and family issues.

The nonpartisan poll was conducted online among 1,000 American adults from September 10 through September 16. As a Catholic university, Saint Leo’s polling institute examines American’s opinions about the pope in each quarterly survey.

Saint Leo’s poll shows the pope’s current favorable opinion rating at 67.9 percent—down from 70.5 percent in the March 2017 poll, and up from the 62.6 percent in the November 2016 poll. Among Catholics nationally, Pope Francis’ popularity increased, with 87.9 percent having a favorable opinion of him, up from 82.6 percent in the March poll.

While the Saint Leo poll routinely asks respondents to rate the job Pope Francis is doing on four issues, the September poll added two issues—one regarding sexual abuse by clerics and one about marriage and family. The poll asked, “How would you rate the job Pope Francis is doing on:”

– Advancing the cause of the poor;
– Human rights;
– Environmental issues;
– Migration/immigration;
– Handling cases of sexual abuse involving Catholic clergy;
– Marriage and family issues.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

September 29, 2017

By Cindy Wooden

An arrest warrant has been issued in Canada for Msgr. Carlo Capella, the Vatican diplomat recalled from service in Washington in late August, who already was the subject of a Vatican criminal investigation involving child pornography.

Police in Windsor, Ontario, issued a statement Sept. 28 saying, “A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued for Carlo Capella, a 50-year-old male, for the charges of: access(ing) child pornography, possess(ing) child pornography and distribut(ing) child pornography.”

“Investigators believe that the offenses occurred while the suspect was visiting a place of worship in Windsor,” the statement said. “Investigators have determined that the suspect has returned to his residence in Italy.”

Msgr. Capella had worked since the summer of 2016 at the Vatican nunciature in Washington. Prior to that, he worked on the Italy desk at the Vatican Secretariat of State. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Milan.

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

UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle

October 1, 2017

By Betty Clermont

The downward trend in the number of Catholics is pretty familiar by now. In 2016, we were 18% of the population according to a recent PRRI report. In 2014, we were 21% and in 2007, 24% according to a Pew Religious Landscape Study.

The decline in non-Hispanic white Catholics is a bit steeper: 11% in 2016, 12% in 2014 and 16% in 2007.

Thirty six percent of Catholics are Hispanic; 9% are black, Asian and other. Hispanics are 52% of Catholics under the age of 30. The proportion of Hispanics is likely to increase because they have younger children and larger families, according to PRRI.

In 1990, native-born Catholics were 23% of the U.S. population and 87% were white, non-Hispanic.

“The largest decline among major religious groups” has occurred in the Catholic Church according to an earlier PRRI survey. “Nearly one-third (31.2%) of Americans report being raised in a Catholic household, but only about one in five (20.9%) Americans identify as Catholic currently.”

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The Week

October 6, 2017

For decades, Barbara Blaine stayed silent about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of a Catholic priest. Then in 1985, the Chicago social worker read a newspaper story about a pedophile priest in Louisiana and decided to confront church officials in her hometown of Toledo. They dismissed her claims and left her feeling, she said, “raked over the coals.” Uncertain how to heal, Blaine sought out other victims and in 1988 formed the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group today has more than 21,000 members and is the nation’s most powerful voice for abuse victims. “I don’t think any of us thought when we started;’ Blaine said in 2014, “that we would still be doing it now:’

Blaine was 13 when she was first abused by a priest who convinced her that she was an “evil temptress;’ said The Boston Globe. After attending college in St. Louis, she moved to Chicago, where she headed a Catholic charity that helped to house the homeless. She initially founded SNAP in Chicago as a support group, but its mission soon expanded to advocacy. Members posted fliers outside churches warning that an abusive priest was inside; victims held vigils holding photos of themselves as children when they were first abused.

That activism, together with revelations of massive church cover-ups in Boston and elsewhere, eventually led U.S. bishops to pledge to remove all alleged abusers, said The New York Times. But SNAP accused the church of failing to keep those promises, so Blaine kept campaigning. Following her death, her husband, Howard Rubin, said he was inundated with messages from survivors. “I’m hearing from people,” he said, “who are saying, ‘She saved my life.'”

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

September 30, 2017

By Richard Guilliatt

[See also our caches of Child institutional abuse probe’s approach under fire and ‘Those events never happened’.]

The $500 million royal commission into institutional child abuse is promoting “ethically dubious” and potentially harmful ideas about the counselling of sexual abuse victims and the reliability of their testimony, senior experts in the field have warned.

Several leading national and international researchers say the long-running inquiry has adopted a misguided victim-advocacy role and published misleading, inaccurate research that could potentially undermine the $4 billion redress scheme for abuse victims.

Richard Bryant, director of the Westmead Trauma Stress Clinic, said the royal commission ­appeared to be advocating counselling practices that were potentially dangerous and contradicted guidelines endorsed by the ­National Health and Medical Research Council.

His concerns were echoed by several experts in psychology, including emeritus professor Don Thomson, chairman of the ethical guidelines committee of the Australian Psychological Society, and Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California Irvine, an internationally renowned memory researcher who described some of the ideas endorsed by the commission as “brain babble”.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Sydney Morning Herald

September 30, 2017

By Michaela Whitbourn

[See the article that Kezelman is responding to: ‘Those events never happened’.]

A leading child abuse activist linked to the $500 million child abuse royal commission has hit back at claims by her family that her psychological treatment triggered “false memories” of abuse at the hands of her father as she comes under fire over her role advising on a compensation scheme for victims.

Cathy Kezelman, a former GP who heads the influential Blue Knot Foundation representing adult victims of childhood trauma, helped co-write national counselling guidelines for sexual abuse victims and was appointed last year to a panel advising the Turnbull government on the rollout of a $4 billion redress scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

But in an article published in the Weekend Australian Magazine on Saturday, Dr Kezelman’s brother and emergency doctor Claude Imhoff said he “utterly refute[d]” his sister’s claims that she suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her father and a group of paedophiles led by her paternal grandmother.

“I can categorically state that those events never happened,” Dr Imhoff said.

He said his sister had “simply ignored the professional guidelines and not mentioned anything about the dangers of false memories” being created in counselling sessions and he was speaking out to prevent a wave of false accusations against alleged perpetrators.

Dr Kezelman told Fairfax Media it was “completely false” to suggest her own memories of childhood trauma were triggered by her psychological treatment.

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

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

September 30, 2017

By Richard Guilliatt

[To download the counselling guidelines discussed in this article, visit the Blue Knot Foundation. The Royal Commission reports mentioned in the article are Empirical Guidance on the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse on Memory and Complainants’ Evidence and Redress and Civil Litigation. This article also references ‘I hated myself for the things I’d done as part of the abuse’, by Tim Elliott, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 19, 2012. See also our cache of this article: ‘Those events never happened’.]

She’s a highly influential activist for childhood trauma survivors. But questions are being asked about Cathy Kezelman’s own shocking story of abuse.

For Dr Cathy Kezelman, the past two decades have been tumultuous indeed. In late 1998, at the age of 44, she abandoned her demanding career as a Sydney GP after suffering a shattering breakdown following the death of her 18-year-old niece in a car accident. In the years that followed, her mental state seesawed wildly between bedridden clinical depression, terrifying panic attacks and flights of mania so severe that she once frenziedly hacked her garden to pieces with a saw and secateurs. At her lowest ebb, Kezelman would drive repeatedly from her home in the city’s affluent eastern suburbs to the nearby sandstone clifftops of The Gap, a notorious suicide spot that looms high above the Tasman Sea, where she would stand for hours at the safety rail “pondering my demise”.

In 2010, Kezelman revealed the source of her anguish: in a memoir entitled Innocence Revisited she wrote that she had been violently sexually abused from early childhood by her father, a former Brisbane schoolteacher, and by a group of sadistic paedophiles led by her paternal grandmother. The abuse was so traumatic, she wrote, that her mind had fragmented into multiple personalities, a condition that had been cured with the help of a gifted and patient psychologist. In numerous interviews to promote Innocence Revisited, and in her role as head of the advocacy organisation Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA), Kezelman emerged as a compelling figurehead for survivors of childhood trauma. The NSW prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC hailed her courage, and the noted child development expert Professor Freda Briggs lauded her book as “a testament to human resilience”.

Today Kezelman is the most influential child abuse activist in the country. Her organisation, now called the Blue Knot Foundation, is regarded as the peak body representing adult abuse victims, and her work there has earned her an Order of Australia. Justice Peter McClellan, head of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, calls her an “old friend”, and the commission has strongly endorsed Blue Knot’s work. In her roles as a director of the Mental Health Co-ordinating Council of NSW and president of Blue Knot, she co-wrote the counselling guidelines that are being used to train thousands of staff in sexual assault clinics, mental health wards and counselling centres around the country. Most recently she was appointed to the panel that will administer the proposed $4 billion redress scheme to compensate victims of institutional abuse.

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

CROOKSTON (MN)
Diocese of Crookston

September 27, 2017

By Bishop Michael Hoeppner

[Note: See also the 9/28/17 statement, previously posted in Tracker, by the Anderson law firm, attaching Vasek’s 2015 letter.]

As you are probably aware, earlier this year, Mr. Ronald Vasek brought a lawsuit against me and the Diocese of Crookston. Mr. Vasek’s lawsuit claimed Monsignor Roger Grundhaus made a sexual advance toward him in 1971 when Mr. Vasek was about 16 years old. He alleges that I tried to keep this claim quiet after he and I visited about the alleged incident in 2011. Mr. Vasek and I have reached a settlement agreement regarding his claims against me. The agreement states that there is no admission of unlawful conduct or wrongdoing on my part. The settlement avoids costly attorney fees and a drawn out legal process. No diocesan funds were used to pay the settlement as the diocesan insurance provider covered the claims. The Diocese of Crookston has sought a dismissal of the remaining claims against it related to this matter and awaits a ruling.

I want to emphasize again that I did not pressure Mr. Vasek to remain quiet when we met in 2011 or when we met again in 2015. Mr. Vasek had indicated to me that he wanted the alleged incident to remain confidential. I attempted to abide by his wishes.

I was willing to ordain Mr. Vasek as a permanent deacon. He attended the final deacon formation weekend in late April, along with the other deacon candidates. Mr. Vasek chose not to be ordained for diaconal ministry. I respect his decision.

Looking back and knowing what I do now, I believe I would have handled my conversations with Mr. Vasek differently. However, please know that I did not pressure Mr. Vasek into making any decision with which he was not comfortable.

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

VIENNA (AUSTRIA)
Profil

September 29, 2017

By Edith Meinhart

[Summary: Detailed summary of the Klosterneuburg case and the allegations of abuse at Klosterneuburg abbey.]

1993* missbrauchte ein Augustiner Chorherr im Stift Klosterneuburg einen minderjährigen Messdiener. Danach wurde er Priester und erneut zum Täter. Ein skandalöses Lehrstück von Vertuschung und falscher Fürsprache.

Eintretende erstarren, Besucher dämpfen ihre Stimmen, wenn der Abglanz von Macht und Glorie auf sie fällt. Im Stift Klosterneuburg herrscht der Prunk von Jahrhunderten. Der Babenberger Leopold, der Heilige, stiftete das geistliche Refugium auf einer Anhöhe vor den Toren Wiens. 1133 holte er die Augustiner Chorherren nach Klosterneuburg. Auch die Habsburger ließen das Kloster nicht darben. 1730 wollte Karl VI. es gar zum Escorial erheben. Neun prachtvolle Kuppeln und vier Höfe sahen seine Pläne für eine kaiserliche Residenz vor. Sie sollte Kloster und Herrschersitz in einem sein. Doch er starb, bevor das imposante Vorhaben umgesetzt war; seine Tochter Maria Theresia baute lieber Schönbrunn aus.

Wer von der Wiege Österreichs spricht, muss Wien und Klosterneuburg in einem Atemzug nennen. Das Stift der Augustiner Chorherren gilt als eines der reichsten auf europäischem Boden. Zinshäuser in Wien gehören dazu, Ländereien in Niederösterreich. Stolz raunen die älteren Chorherren den Jungen zu, dass man alle vier Höfe nach den Vorstellungen Karls VI. ohne einen Euro Kredit vollenden könnte. In der Schatzkammer ist der Österreichische Erzherzogshut zu besichtigen. Vor zwei Jahren bestellte der Orden mit dem bald 75-jährigen Bernhard Backovsky einen Probst auf Lebenszeit, der den Gestus mittelalterlicher Kirchenfürsten in die Jetztzeit mitgenommen hat.

Blicke hinter die Fassade sind unerwünscht. Das Leben der rund 50 Chorherren, die zwischen Touristen über das Areal huschen, bleibt diskret. Nun droht dem Kloster jedoch unliebsame Publizität. Seit Monaten rollt eine “Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen“ aus dem deutschen Montabaur die verstörende Biografie eines pädophil veranlagten Pfarrers auf. Das Stift und sein heutiger Probst spielen darin eine wesentliche und unrühmliche Rolle. Als M.** 2002 im Bistum Würzburg einem Elfjährigen in die Hose greift, wird in der deutschen Wochenzeitung “Die Zeit“ der Personalreferent für das Seelsorgepersonal mit den Worten zitiert: “So wie es mir scheint, war es das erste Mal.“ Das Bistum schickt den Mann in Therapie und zieht ihn von der Seelsorge ab.

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

VIENNA (AUSTRIA)
Heute

September 19, 2017

[Summary: Prior Bernhard Backovsky of the Klosterneuburg monastery is defending their handling of a 1993 (not 1991) allegation of sexual misconduct.]

Nach dem Bekanntwerden eines Falles von sexuellem Missbrauch aus dem Jahr 1991, wehrt sich das Stift Klosterneuburg gegen Vorwürfe, man habe den Vorfall vertuscht.

Ein minderjähriger Ministrant war im Jahr 1991 von einem Augustiner Chorherren des Stiftes Klosterneuburg sexuell missbraucht worden. Das deckte das Nachrichtenmagazin “profil” nun auf. Dass der Geistliche nach Bekanntwerden des Falles im Stift zwar suspendiert, aber anschließend dennoch über mehrere Jahre in einer Stifts-Wohnung in Wien untergebracht worden war und später auch noch in Rumänien zum Priester geweiht wurde, sorgte in den letzten Tagen für Wirbel. Der Vorwurf: Man habe den Fall vertuschen wollen. Jetzt wehrt sich Propst Bernhard Backovsky.

“Jeglicher Missbrauch nicht zu entschuldigen”

“Jeglicher Missbrauch, und erst recht der von Kindern oder Jugendlichen, ist nicht zu entschuldigen und gehört geahndet”, erklärt der Generalabt in einer Aussendung. Am 2. Oktober 1993 sei dem Stift der Fall zugetragen worden, bereits sechs Tage später – am 8. Oktober 1993 – sei der beschuldigte Chorherr suspendiert worden. “Unmittelbar danach wurde er aufgefordert, aus dem Orden auszutreten”, heißt es in der Aussendung.

Und weiter: “Bis zu seinem Austritt, der per Weisung aus Rom erfolgen muss, war das Stift jedoch kirchenrechtlich für seinen Unterhalt verpflichtet und entfernte ihn aus dem Stift in eine Wiener Wohnung. Diese Verantwortung endete mit seinem Austritt im Jahre 1994”.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

September 29,2017

Canadian police have issued an arrest warrant for the Vatican diplomat who was recalled from the United States in a child pornography investigation, accusing him of accessing porn over Christmas last year from a church.

Police in Windsor, Ontario, said Carlo Capella, a 50-year-old monsignor from Italy, allegedly uploaded the child porn to a social networking site while visiting a place of worship in Windsor between Dec. 24 and Dec. 27.

The Vatican recalled Capella, the No. 4 official in its Washington embassy, after the U.S. State Department notified it Aug. 21 of a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by one of its diplomats in Washington.

It never identified Capella by name and provided no details of the accusations, sparking criticism from U.S. church officials who have been under fire for decades of cover-ups of priestly sex abusers.

Windsor police provided the most information about the case in a statement Thursday announcing the arrest warrant, and the archdiocese of London, Ontario, confirmed it had assisted authorities in the investigation of “Msgr. Capella.”

In the statement, Windsor police accused Capella of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography. It said authorities were alerted in February that someone in Windsor had allegedly uploaded child porn using a social networking site.

They obtained records of the internet service provider and determined the dates in question. It said it had issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Capella, though it noted that he had returned to Italy.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Patrick J. Wall Blog

September 29, 2017

You may have read recently about how the Holy See withdrew Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella from the Nunciature in Washington D.C.

One thing Father Colman J. Barry OSB taught us over and over again: the past is prologue to the future.

So with the Capella case I put the thesis to the test: Is there evidence that fallen priests are assigned to the Holy See’s Diplomatic Corp with prior notice for offending against minor children?

Lo and behold, a simple Google search found Reverend Daniel R. Pater of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Father Pater sexually abused a 14-year-old female in Dayton, Ohio on his first assignment after ordination in 1979.

Fr. Pater admitted to the conduct.

Most civilized countries call this child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk then exercised the geographic solution by sending Fr. Pater out of the jurisdiction to Rome to the Holy See’s Diplomatic Corps.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

September 28, 2017

Barbara Blaine, the founder and former longtime president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, died suddenly a few days ago while on vacation with her husband. Though she had not lived in Toledo for many years, she is one of the great heroes in the history of this city.

Ms. Blaine grew up in Toledo, and it was in a Toledo Catholic school that she was sexually assaulted as a grade school child — by a parish priest she trusted and admired. Years of private pleading with the bishop and other officials of the diocese of Toledo resulted only in broken promises and lies. She got no justice. Barbara Blaine made up her mind that she would devote all her energy, and the rest of her life, to justice. And that is what she did. She had a vocation — a religious one.

SNAP has not been without controversy. And it has sometimes, in its righteousness, painted with brush strokes too careless and too broad.

But, by setting up an international organization on clergy child abuse that has chapters throughout the world, Ms. Blaine and SNAP made it possible for a victim almost anywhere to tell his, or her, story, to get help, and to seek justice.

It has been said that the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston, tenaciously exposed by fine journalists at the Boston Globe, and famously documented and lauded, could never have been uncovered without SNAP. For abuse victims simply would not have felt safe coming out of the shadows. They would not have felt, or been, supported — legally, psychologically, or emotionally — without SNAP.

And SNAP began as one lonely, wounded, angry woman’s voice.

Barbara Blaine’s was that rare life that left footprints. She knew truth was the fountain of justice.

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WINDSOR (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CBC News

Vatican diplomat wanted for child porn offences should be sent back to Canada: Lawyer
‘If Pope Francis has been nothing but a PR exercise this will prove it’

September 29, 2017

By Dan Taekema

A London, Ont. lawyer says it’s time for the Vatican to “put its money where its mouth is” and send Monsignor Carlo Capella back to Canada where he faces child pornography charges.

“If Pope Francis has been nothing but a PR exercise this will prove it,” said Robert Talach with Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers.

Reports in American media state Capella, a high-ranking Catholic priest, was recalled to the Vatican after rumours U.S. authorities were planning to charge him with possession of child pornography began to swirl earlier this month.

On Thursday, Windsor police issued a Canada-wide warrant alleging a 50-year-old man named Carlo Capella committed child pornography offences at an area church during the Christmas holidays.

He is wanted for accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography.

The Diocese of London has confirmed it assisted in an “investigation around suspicions involving Msgr. Capella’s possible violations of child pornography laws by using a computer address at a local Church,” according to spokesperson Nelson Couto.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Minnesota Public Radio

September 29, 2017

By Martin Moylan

A Minnesota man has settled his claim that Bishop Michael Hoeppner coerced him into retracting an allegation of clergy sexual abuse against a priest in the Crookston diocese.

Ron Vasek, of Tabor Township, Minn., said the abuse occurred in 1971. He said that in 2010, while he contemplated becoming a deacon in the diocese, he told the bishop he’d been abused by a priest. In his lawsuit, filed in Polk County District Court, Vasek claimed the bishop coerced him to sign a letter asserting that no abuse ever happened.

Vasek said Hoeppner warned him that refusing to sign would hurt his dream of becoming a church deacon and impair the career of his son, who was a diocese priest.

Attorney Mike Finnegan said Vasek got a copy of the letter and an undisclosed monetary settlement this week.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

September 30, 2017

By Greg Brown

Coalition MPs have warned Malcolm Turnbull against forcing Catholic priests to break the seal of confession in matters of child sex abuse as legal experts say the proposal is unlikely to have an impact on reducing rates of pedophilia.

With the government to consider recommendations from the royal commission into child sex abuse, the Prime Minister has been warned he could face a backbench protest if he adopted the proposal to make it a criminal offence for priests to hear a confession of child sex abuse and not report it to police.

Nationals MP George Christensen said he would cross the floor if the Turnbull government supported the commission’s recommendation to force priests to break canon law. Mr Christensen said it would contravene religious freedom and was unworkable.

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BELFAST (NORTHERN IRELAND)
Irish News

Nine priests have died by suicide after false claims of abuse, says cleric who was also wrongly accused

September 29, 2017

By John Monaghan

Nine priests who were wrongly accused of abuse have died by suicide, a cleric who was the subject of false accusations has claimed.

Fr Tim Hazelwood, a priest in the parish priest of Killeagh in Co Cork, was falsely accused of the sexual abuse of a child in 2008.

An anonymous complaint was made about him to the Diocese of Cloyne and forwarded to the Health and Safety Executive and Gardaí.

Fr Hazelwood, who is in his 50s, took a civil case in the High Court in Dublin.

Last year his accuser admitted making up the complaint and made a donation to charity.

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ROME (ITALY)
RomaToday

Ex parroco condannato per pedofilia evaso a bordo di un taxi
Stava scontando una pena di 14 anni e 2 mesi di reclusione: era accusato di aver commesso abusi sessuali su sette ragazzini

September 29, 2017

[Summary: Original article breaking the story of convicted priest Ruggero Conti, who had been serving a prison term of 14 years under house arrest, but had escaped while at a hospital receiving treatment. This article reviews some of the circumstances of his crimes and conviction. Ruggero has since been apprehended in Milan.]

By Mauro Cifelli

E’ evaso a bordo di un taxi dalla struttura sanitaria dei Castelli Romani dove era ospite a seguito all’aggravarsi di alcuni problemi di salute. A tornare al centro delle cronache cittadine e nazionali Don Ruggero Conti, ex parrocco della chiesa della Natività di Maria Santissima, nella zona di Selva Candida, condannato in appello per pedofilia nel maggio del 2013 a scontare una pena di 14 anni e 2 mesi. L’ex prelato è stato accusato di aver abusato di sette ragazzini che gli erano stati affidati sia nell’oratorio della chiesa che in alcuni campi estivi.

Evaso a bordo di un taxi

La fuga di Don Ruggero è avvenuta lo scorso 26 settembre, quando i responsabili della struttura sanitaria dove era ospite hanno allertato i carabinieri indicando loro la fuga dell’ex prelato, a quanto sembra a bordo di un taxi preso poco distante da dove era ricoverato. Condannato al regime degli arresti domiciliari, l’ex parroco della chiesa di Selva Candida stava espiando la propria pena nella sua abitazione nel viterbese, dalla quale aveva ottenuto il permesso, per motivi di salute, a trasferirsi temporaneamente nella struttura sanitaria dei Castelli Romani.

Don Ruggero Conti in fuga

Ottenuto il permesso dai giudici del capoluogo della Tuscia, il 63enne ha fatto perdere le proprie tracce prima che i carabinieri gli potessero notificare la revoca del provvedimento cautelare dei domiciliari, con il successivo trasferimento in una casa circondariale.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 30, 2017

An ex-Catholic priest serving a 14-year sentence for sexual abuse of seven minors in Rome, and who had been given permission to receive treatment for a health condition in a nearby clinic, surreptitiously left last week and hailed a taxi, escaping detection. On Thursday, police caught up to him in Milan’s San Raffaele hospital and placed him in custody. Now, he’ll have to serve the remaining 11 years behind bars.

Rome – A former priest in Italy sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2013 for sexual abuse of seven minors was captured by police in Milan late Thursday, three days after escaping from a clinic in the hills on the outskirts of Rome where he had been taken for treatment.

According to police reports, Ruggero Conti, 64, had been serving his term under conditions of house arrest, and had been given permission to move to the clinic in the castelli, the hills surrounding Lake Albano outside Rome that also contain the papal summer residence of Castelgandolfo, to be treated for an undisclosed health condition.

While there, police say, Conti surreptitiously left the clinic and hailed a taxi, escaping detection. On Thursday, police caught up to him in Milan’s San Raffaele hospital and placed him in custody. Now, reports suggest, Conti will have to serve the remaining 11 years of his sentence behind bars.

Ruggero originally was arrested in 2008, while still serving as a priest, at a time when he was organizing travel arrangements for local youth planning to take part in the World Youth Day to be held in Sydney, Australia. He was charged with sexually abusing seven minors in his care between 1998 and 2008, with the abuse taking place either at an oratory where he served or summer camps he helped to run.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

September 28, 2017

[See also the letter.]

Ron Vasek settled his coercion claim against Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner this week. As part of the settlement, Vasek received a copy of the letter the Bishop coerced him into signing in 2015 retracting his statement that he had been abused by Msgr. Roger Grundhaus when he was 16 years old.

Vasek’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, said for Ron this case was about exposing the truth. “Ron suffered in silence and shame. He brought this lawsuit against the Bishop to reveal the truth: that the Bishop used his powers to conceal clergy abuse and protect priests instead of survivors,” said Anderson.

The attached letter, dated October 21, 2015, is written on Office of the Bishop letterhead and states:

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Associated Press/Pioneer Press

September 28, 2017

By Steve Karnowski

A Minnesota man who had wanted to become a Catholic deacon has settled his coercion claims against his bishop in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money and the release of a letter he alleged he was forced to sign.

Ronald Vasek, of Tabor, alleged in a lawsuit filed in May that Bishop Michael Hoeppner of the Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota blackmailed him into signing a letter in 2015 that essentially retracted his allegation that a popular priest from the diocese abused him during a trip to Ohio in 1971 when he was 16. Vasek claimed that Hoeppner threatened a few years earlier to block his path to becoming a deacon and to harm his son’s career in the priesthood if word ever got out.

Vasek went public in May, saying the threat to his son had kept him silent until he was called into a meeting with his bishop this past March and was told his pastor had withdrawn his support for his ordination as deacon.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Fox 45 News/WBFF

September 28, 2017

By Shelley Orman

Bel Air, Md. – Neighbors in Harford County are still reeling after shocking and disturbing child pornography charges are filed against a former priest.

Fernando Cristancho is charged with creating and possessing child porn.

Court documents detail how the former priest abused three different young boys.

“There was a whole bunch of Bel Air police over here. They were all around the house,” said neighbor Chris Kirby.

He and several others living on Hayden Way say 61-year-old Cristancho kept entirely to himself.

“I’ve never seen him out, and I’ve been here since April,” said Kirby.

He saw Cristancho’s arrest last week when police searched his house and took him into custody.

“It’s shocking because he is right next door and I didn’t know anything about this,” the neighbor said.

According to charging documents, investigators found pornographic pictures of children on Cristancho’s cell phone, a computer and on an SD card he kept locked up in a safe.

The images were of a 3-year-old boy and two 5-year-old boys.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

September 28, 2017

By Graham Rayman

The abusive Catholic priest accused of terrorizing at least 15 girls at a Queens school decades ago once threatened one of his victims into silence with the power of God.

In 1981, Father Adam Prochaski of the Holy Cross Parish in Maspeth allegedly lectured a group of students, including one of his victims, who was then 13, about a woman who was “saying bad things” about him.

“He thought he was God,” the now-49-year-old nurse living in Toronto told the Daily News.

“He said, ‘She died in a car accident, her body burned beyond recognition. God punished her for telling stories about Father Adam.’ When he told the story, he was looking right at me.”

She said Prochaski, now 75 and living in Queens, sexually abused her at least 60 times between the ages of 11 and 13 between 1979 and 1981 at the church and school. She requested that her name not be used.

He used his involvement in the choir and in the teen club and his general influence in the school to get close to her, she said.

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
La Nacion

[Summary: An editorial usefully summarizing recent clergy abuse cases in Argentina, in the context of global developments. The movie Spotlight is cited. Ultimately questions zero tolerance, but also criticizes the church for failing to screen men entering the seminary, failing to report priests who abuse, and transferring abusers. The church’s mercy should be offered especially to the survivors, but also to the abusers.]

Es necesario revisar los criterios de admisión en los seminarios y casas religiosas, así como todo el proceso de formación de los candidatos

Afortunadamente, los casos de pedofilia silenciados durante tanto tiempo en la Iglesia Católica son cada vez más denunciados a pesar de los años transcurridos en muchos de ellos. Constituyen una de las mayores vergüenzas para la milenaria institución religiosa y minan seriamente su credibilidad ante la opinión pública, pero una mirada renovada, junto a la debida atención jamás podremos hablar de resolución-, permitirá, aunque más no sea, restañar parcialmente dolorosas heridas y reducir las probabilidades de que estas aberraciones se repitan a futuro. El papa Francisco reiteró su determinación de aplicar el principio de tolerancia cero.

Las acusaciones se multiplican en muchos países, y el nuestro no es ajeno a este horror. Recientemente se difundieron casos que afectaron al colegio Cardenal Newman de Boulogne, que fundaron los Christian Brothers en la década de 1940, y al colegio parroquial San Francisco Javier, de Caseros, en la diócesis de San Martín. A ellos se suman los conocidos en 2013 del Colegio San Juan el Precursor, donde el abusador era un profesor laico. Hubo dos más, también en San Isidro, protagonizados por un sacerdote que recibió 14 años de prisión y otro que fue removido dentro del ámbito de la justicia eclesiástica. Y, más acá en el tiempo, la admisión del director general del colegio Champagnat, de Recoleta, Ángel Duples, de haber abusado de un ex alumno de otra escuela hace 38 años, además de otros dos casos ocurridos en ese mismo colegio para la misma época.

* * *

Sirve recordar las escenas del film Spotlight, que narra la investigación del diario The Boston Globe sobre casos de pedofilia en la arquidiócesis de Boston. El cardenal Bernard Francis Law se vio obligado a renunciar por haber ocultado los delitos de numerosos sacerdotes. Sobre el final de la trama se enumeran cinco casos de abuso en la Argentina, en las diócesis de Buenos Aires, Salta, Paraná, Quilmes y Morón. “Queda claro que dentro de la Iglesia hay demasiadas personas que están más preocupadas por la imagen de la institución que por la gravedad del acto”, reconoció la teóloga Lucetta Scaraffia en L’Osservatore Romano, el diario de la Santa Sede, al comentar el premio otorgado por Hollywood a la película. Lamentablemente, muchas veces se reitera la acción de priorizar la preservación de la imagen de la institución antes que denunciar e instar a que sean investigados los hechos para defender a tantas víctimas inocentes desprotegidas.

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SAARBRÜCKEN (GERMANY)
Saarbrücker Zeitung

[Summary: Bishop Ackermann of Trier is sending to the CDF the allegations against a Freisen pastor, after the preliminary investigation confirmed the allegations. The unnamed priest had been removed from ministry on 4/14/15 and then retired. The preliminary investigation began in 5/16.]

By Melanie Mai

Trier – Fast anderthalb Jahre liefen die Voruntersuchungen gegen den ehemaligen Freisener Pfarrer: Am Montagmorgen hat die Bischöfliche Pressestelle das Ergebnis bekannt gegeben: „Das Bistum Trier hat die kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchung gegen den früheren Pfarrer von Freisen wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch Minderjähriger abgeschlossen“, heißt es in der Presseerklärung. Der Verdacht gegen den heute im Ruhestand lebenden 63-jährigen Geistlichen habe sich in mehreren Fällen erhärtet. Der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann hat den Untersuchungsbericht mit einem Votum auf Eröffnung eines kirchlichen Strafverfahrens dem Vatikan zugeleitet. Die dortige Glaubenskongregation soll nun über das weitere Vorgehen entscheiden.

* * *

Das Bistum Trier hatte den langjährigen Freisener Pastor zum 14. April 2015 von seinen Aufgaben entbunden. Anschließend ging der Pastor in den Ruhestand. Die Voruntersuchungen wurde im Mai 2016 eingeleitet. Bereits seit den ersten Vorwürfen ist die Gemeinde gespalten. Der Pfarrer lebt mittlerweile in einem Ort an der Mosel. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat die Verfahren wegen Verjährung eingestellt. Nach Kirchenrecht ist der mutmaßliche sexuelle Missbrauch von Minderjährigen dagegen nicht verjährt.

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TRIER (GERMANY)
Diocese of Trier

September 25, 2017

[Summary: Bishop Stephan Ackermann of the German diocese of Trier, has referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith allegations of sexual abuse by a pastor in Freisen, after a preliminary investigation confirmed the allegations in several cases. The priest has not been publicly identified.]

Kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchung abgeschlossen – Bischof informiert die Glaubenskongregation

Trier – Das Bistum Trier hat die kirchenrechtliche Voruntersuchung gegen den früheren Pfarrer von Freisen wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger abgeschlossen. In der Voruntersuchung hat sich der Verdacht gegen den heute im Ruhestand lebenden Geistlichen in mehreren Fällen erhärtet.

Gemäß den kirchenrechtlichen Bestimmungen und den Leitlinien der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (Nr. 34) hat Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann den Untersuchungsbericht mit einem Votum auf Eröffnung eines kirchlichen Strafverfahrens dem Vatikan zugeleitet. Die dortige Glaubenskongregation wird nun über das weitere Vorgehen entscheiden.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Sun

Parish Predator: Mum abused by her local priest as a child is still haunted by his smell… and it’s ruined her relationships and career

September 27, 2017

Jo Woods, now 45, from Leeds, kept her abuse a secret until 2013 and only came forward after the Jimmy Saville abuse scandal broke – hoping that perhaps she might be believed at last

By Hayley Richardson and Ann Cusack

A mum who was abused as a child by her local parish priest has revealed how the smell of him still haunts her now, ruining her relationships and her career.

Jo Woods, now 45, from Leeds, was preyed on by Father Damien Webb, a Roman Catholic priest, between the ages of six and eight.

* * *

A spokesman for Ampleforth said: “In December 2014, representatives of Ampleforth Abbey were present at all masses in the parish of St Benedict’s, Garforth, in the Diocese of Leeds, where they told parishioners that a woman had come forward regarding allegations of sexual abuse by a monk, Fr Damian Webb OSB, during the time he worked in the parish from 1973-1983.

“He died in 1990. Others were invited to come forward if they had experienced similar issues with independent support offered by a charity at the time.

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
CathNews

September 25th, 2017

Pope Francis has told the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors he has been learning “on the job” better ways to handle priests found guilty of abuse.

He admitted this during his first face-to-face discussion with the Commission on September 21.

The Pope said he has come to regret agreeing to a more lenient sanction against an Italian priest, rather than laicising him as the doctrinal team recommended.

Two years later the priest abused again. The pope said he has since learned “it’s a terrible sickness” that requires a different approach.

* * *

He said he has decided whoever has been proven guilty of abuse has no right to an appeal, and he will never grant a papal pardon.

The experts on the 15-member Commission have made some suggestions to Pope Francis: [list of nine recommendations]

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 28, 2017

By Francois Gloutnay

[Note: See the Canadian bishops’ previous report, From Pain to Hope.

In June 1992, the Canadian bishops published a report entitled “From Pain to Hope,” entirely devoted to sexual assaults by the clergy. The bishops proposed “ways and means both to eliminate in the church the after-effects of past scandals and to prevent new cases of aggression against children.” The adoption by the Vatican of new standards for the protection of children made it necessary to revise the standards and policies of the bishops’ conference.

Cornwall, Canada – Canadian bishops will not publish their new policy for the protection of minors before 2018, said Bishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax-Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, chairman of the ad hoc committee tasked with drafting this resource in 2012.

“No, it will not be possible,” Mancini told his colleagues during a brief speech at the plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops Sept. 25. “I anticipate that the document will be finalized in 2018.”

The bishops first spoke of a publication before the end of 2016. Faced with delays, they then planned to make it public in the first months of 2017. In August, Bishop Douglas Crosby, president of the CCCB, suggested that the document could be published before the end of the year.

Mancini explained that the document has taken on such a scale that it needs to be made more comprehensive. He also said the bishops want to have the text analyzed by professionals before they release it. Fifteen lawyers, psychologists, psychiatrists and insurers were consulted. They “have something to say about the document,” and it would be better to hear the professionals “before rather than after” this report is actually published by the bishops’ conference, he said. “Their remarks are now coming to us.”

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 21, 2017

By Carol Glatz

Pope Francis told the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors he has been learning “on the job” better ways to handle priests found guilty of abuse, and he recounted a decision he has now come to regret: That of agreeing to a more lenient sanction against an Italian priest, rather than laicizing him as the doctrinal team recommended. Two years later the priest abused again, and the pope said he has since learned “it’s a terrible sickness” that requires a different approach.

Rome – Pope Francis has endorsed an approach of “zero tolerance” toward all members of the church guilty of sexually abusing minors or vulnerable adults.

Having listened to abuse survivors and having made what he described as a mistake in approving a more lenient set of sanctions against an Italian priest abuser, the pope said he has decided whoever has been proven guilty of abuse has no right to an appeal, and he will never grant a papal pardon.

“Why? Simply because the person who does this (sexually abuses minors) is sick. It is a sickness,” he told his advisory commission on child protection during an audience at the Vatican Sept. 21. Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, including its president – Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston – were meeting in Rome Sept. 21-23 for their plenary assembly.

Setting aside his prepared text, the pope said he wanted to speak more informally to the members, who include lay and religious experts in the fields of psychology, sociology, theology and law in relation to abuse and protection.

The Catholic Church has been “late” in facing and, therefore, properly addressing the sin of sexual abuse by its members, the pope said, and the commission, which he established in 2014, has had to “swim against the tide” because of a lack of awareness or understanding of the seriousness of the problem.

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BOSTON (MA)
CatholicCulture.org

September 28, 2017

By Phil Lawler

A week has passed since Pope Francis promised to take “the firmest measures” to stop clerical abuse. Then again, you might say that a month has passed, or three years have passed, or maybe a bit longer, since the Pope said essentially the same thing. How many times does the same promise deserve a headline?

Last week the Pope was meeting for the first time with the special commission that he had set up three years ago to take action on sexual abuse. The commission has seen defections by frustrated members, who report that the group was disorganized, underfunded, and widely ignored by other Vatican offices and many national bishops’ conferences. Even now one commission member reports that “many local churches” have established guidelines for handling abuse; some still have not.

It would be an understatement to say that progress has been slow for the papal commission. In his address to the commission, Pope Francis admitted that he regrets having overruled a decision to remove an Italian priest who had been accused of abuse—and who, restored to ministry, promptly collected new complaints. The Holy Father said that he was “learning on the job” himself.

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

MONTREAL (QUEBEC, CANADA)
CTV News/The Canadian Press

September 27, 2017

The Quebec Court of Appeal has authorized a new class action lawsuit against a major Roman Catholic organization for alleged sexual abuse committed by some of its members.

The decision overturns a 2015 Superior Court of Quebec ruling rejecting the class action request.

The Congregation of Holy Cross apologized and paid up to $18 million in 2013 to compensate victims for abuse that occurred at three Quebec institutions over a five-decade span dating back to the 1940s.

That agreement stemmed from an out-of-court mediated settlement, spurred by the threat of a class-action lawsuit.

Sebastien Richard, a spokesman for a victims’ rights group said the landmark settlement prompted about 40 new alleged victims to come forward.

Gilles Gareau, a lawyer representing the class actions said there could be hundreds more victims. He believes there could be up to 500 victims.

Because they are seeking between $50,000 and $150,000 in moral and punitive damages, the case could be worth as much as $50 to $75 million.

Richard said the current class-action names more institutions, including Montreal’s iconic Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

In a phone interview, Richard pointed out that the oratory is Canada’s largest church and reports directly to the Vatican, which could lead to embarrassment on the church’s part if the class-action is successful.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Gothamist

September 28, 2017

By Jake Offenhartz

[Includes photo of Official Catholic Directory sick-leave entry.]

More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Queens-based Catholic priest of sexual abuse, and to allege that both Maspeth’s Holy Cross Church and the Diocese of Brooklyn worked to cover up decades of his predatory behavior.

According to attorney Mitchell Garabedian, fifteen women now say they were sexually abused by Father Adam Prochaski, who was assigned to the Holy Cross parish from 1969 to 1994. The alleged victims, now between the ages of 37 and 50, claim the abuse started when they were as young as 5 years old, and lasted well into their teenage years. Prochaski is believed to still be living in Queens.

For several years, authorities with Holy Cross were aware of the priest’s abusive behavior, but intentionally turned a deaf ear to the children’s complaints, according to Linda Porcaro, who served as a teacher at Holy Cross from 1986 to 1991.

“In 1991, about seven girls came to me, most of them Polish immigrants, to say Father Adam was sexually abusing them,” Porcaro tells Gothamist. “I went to then-principle Sister Benedict Jankowicz…She said, ‘Everybody knows about Father Adam, the whole parish knows about it.’ Then she laughed and didn’t do anything.”

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EDMONTON (ALBERTA, CANADA)
CBC News

Lawsuit alleges Anglican priest Gordon William Dominey sexually abused youth in his care in 1980s

September 26, 2017

[Includes links to earlier stories.]

By Andrea Ross

A B.C. man has filed a lawsuit against the Province of Alberta, the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton and Gordon William Dominey, alleging the priest repeatedly sexually abused him and at least nine other individuals while they were incarcerated at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre in the 1980s.

The plaintiff, whose name is protected by a publication ban, is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class action.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages on behalf of the plaintiff and other alleged victims, who were all aged 14 to 16 at the time of the alleged abuse, and were incarcerated at the EYDC between 1985 and 1989.

In February 2016, Dominey was charged with five counts of sexual assault and five counts of gross indecency in relation to the alleged assaults, which were reported to have happened at the facility. Dominey now faces more than 30 sexual assault and gross indecency charges, after more alleged victims came forward.

Dominey was a priest with the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton from 1980 to 1990. He was hired by the Province of Alberta to work with children at the EYDC from 1985 to 1989.

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GRAND FORKS (ND)
WDAZ

September 27, 2017

By Kenneth Chase

[Note: See also the Diocese of Crookston’s statement, Vasek’s lawsuit, and the BishopAccountability.org database entry on Fr. Roger Grundhaus.]

Crookston MN – A local man claiming leadership at the Diocese of Crookston threatened and intimidated him into hiding his sexual abuse by a clergy member back in the 70s has reached a settlement with the Catholic organization.

A statement on the Diocese of Crookston’s website said that the church and Ron Vasek reached a settlement.

Vasek sued Bishop Michael Hoeppner for threatening and intimidating Vasek to keep quiet about sexual abuse that Vasek says happened to him as a teenager, at the hands of Roger Grundhaus, Vasek’s priest at the time.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Spectrum News NY1

September 27, 2017

[With video that includes comment from whistleblower Linda Porcaro, not included on the webpage text.]

More than a dozen women say a former Maspeth priest sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian says at least 15 women have called his office claiming Father Adam Prochaski (aka Prochalski) at Holy Cross Church sexually abused them as teenagers. They say it happened between 1969 and 19 94. Because his clients are older than 23, Garabedian says they will not be able to charge the priest with sexual assault of a child, but they might be able to receive a settlement from the Brooklyn Diocese.

“He had free reign, again, in the church, in the school, in the homes, in the rectory,” said Garabedian.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
WDRB News

September 27, 2017

By Gil Corsey

[Note: Includes video. See also the BishopAccountability.org database entries for Fr. R. Joseph Hemmerle and Fr. James R. Schook.]

They stand convicted of committing terrible sins, but pedophile priests are still being paid by the Catholic church in Louisville.

“I think it’s absurd,” Michael Norris said. “I just don’t understand it.”

Norris is one of Fr. Joseph Hemmerle’s victims, molested at age 11 at camp Tall Trees in Meade County in the 1970’s.

“This man is who I was thought is an extension of God,” Norris said. “That’s what the Catholic church taught me. And here’s God doing this to me. It really messes with your spirituality.”

* * *

Only the Pope can remove the status of a priest, but the process starts with the Archdiocese. Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz declined WDRB News’ request for an on-camera interview on the subject.

Far more often than removing a priest for molestation, the Catholic church orders him to a lifetime of “prayer and penance.” That’s the case for Rev. James Schook, convicted in Louisville in 2014.

“Priests who are directed to lead a life of prayer and penance may not exercise ministry, say mass publicly, or administer the sacraments,” said Archdiocese of Louisville Spokeswoman Cecilia Price. “They may not wear clerical garb or present themselves as a priests.”

But they can sill collect a check from the church.

“Priests on prayer and penance receive medical insurance and a reduced salary if not retired or reduced retirement benefits,” Price said.

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CROOKSTON (MN)
Diocese of Crookston

September 26, 2017

[Note: As of 9/28/17, the Diocese of Crookston had two lists of accused priests posted on its website; one list includes these “new” priests, and one list does not include them. Both lists delete a laicized priest, Fr. Gerald Foley, who had been added to the list on 10/23/14. Moreover, the diocese’s Reporting Abuse page links to the list that does not include Plakut and Strub, and has deleted Foley. See the BishopAccountability.org database entry for Fr. Gerald K. Foley.]

The Diocese of Crookston was notified last week that two religious order priests assigned within the Diocese in the 1940s and 1950s were added by St. John’s Abbey to its list of men “likely to have offended against minors”.

Casimir Plakut was ordained for the Order of St. Benedict in 1938. He died in 1988. Augustine John Strub was ordained for the Order of St. Benedict in 1947. He left the priesthood in the early 1960s and died in 2015.

The Diocese takes any allegation of abuse of a minor very seriously. Plakut and Strub have been added to the list of “priests who have been credibly accused of abuse of a minor” on the Diocese of Crookston’s website.

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COLLEGEVILLE (MN)
St. John’s Abbey

September 18, 2017

Saint John’s Abbey is adding the names of three former monks to its list of those likely to have offended against minors. All three former monks are deceased and all three had severed their relationship with Saint John’s Abbey well before their deaths.

Casimir Plakut became a monk in 1932 and was ordained in 1938. He worked at several parishes, including Duluth, Detroit Lakes, Cold Spring, and Naytahwaush, Minnesota. He began the process of leaving Saint John’s in 1958, and finalized his intentions in 1962. He died in 1988.

Augustine John Strub became a monk in 1939 and was ordained in 1947. He served in parishes in Cloquet, Naytahwaush, Callaway, and at St Mary’s Hospital, Duluth, Minnesota. He left Saint John’s and the priesthood in 1961-62. He died in 2015.

James Kelly became a monk in 1936 and was ordained in 1942. He taught and studied music at Saint John’s University and other colleges. He also served in various parishes in the Twin Cities and also at Ball Club, Minnesota. He left Saint John’s and the priesthood in 1973 and was formally dismissed from the priesthood in 1976. He died in 2011.

Saint John’s Abbey, in keeping with its policies and practices, intends to make public documents related to these individuals at a future date. However, those documents must first be redacted to remove the names and other identifying details to protect innocent parties mentioned in the documents.

This brings the number of current and former monks on Saint John’s list to twenty-one, thirteen of whom are deceased and two of whom have permanently left the order. The list and information about Saint John’s response to sexual abuse can be found at: http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/info/safe-environment/.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

September 27, 2017

By Easha Ray and Graham Rayman

Prosecutors and the NYPD have opened an investigation into allegations that a Catholic priest sexually abused 15 victims decades ago at a parish school, officials said.

The Queens District Attorney’s office and the NYPD’s Special Victims squad are looking into the allegations made public Tuesday by the 15 women against former Rev. Adam Prochaski, who once worked at Holy Cross School in Maspeth, police officials said.

The alleged abuse took place from 1974 to 1993.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brooklyn-Queens said Prochaski abruptly left the priesthood in 1994 after the diocese received allegations against him.

However, the Official Catholic Directory — known as the Kenedy Directory — listed him as absent on sick leave from 1995 to 2000, and then absent on sick leave and absent on leave in 2001 and 2002.

He was no longer listed from 2003 on.

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QUEENS (NY)
Queens Courier/QNS

September 27, 2017

By Anthony Giudice

More than a dozen women have recently come forward alleging that a former priest and pastor of a Maspeth church sexually abused them during a nearly 20-year time period.

As first reported in the Daily News, the 15 women claim that Father Adam Prochaski, who served Holy Cross Church between 1969 and 1994 and taught at the now-defunct parish school, sexually abused them between the years of 1973 and 1994.

They’re being represented by attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented sex abuse victims in Boston and was portrayed in the 2015 film “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s award-winning investigation into sexual abuse committed by clergymen.

Prochaski’s alleged victims were between the ages of 5 and 16 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, Garabedian told QNS in a conference call on Wednesday. It is further alleged that the sexual abuse took place inside the Holy Cross Church, in the rectory, in the school, in Prochaski’s car, and even inside the homes of some of the alleged victims.

“Where were the supervisors? Why weren’t they protecting the children?” Garabedian asked. “It is time for the Diocese of Brooklyn and Bishop [Nicholas] DiMarzio to step up to the plate and answer these questions.”

Linda Porcaro, a former teacher at Holy Cross who taught at the school from 1986 to 1991, was the first one at the school to take these allegations seriously after seven of Prochaski’s alleged victims alerted her to the abuse near the end of school year in 1990.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

September 28, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio

[See BishopAccountability.org database entry on Fr. Louis Brouillard.]

Former priest Louis Brouillard took nude photos of boys, groped them, touched their private parts, and induced them to read adult magazines in exchange for food treats and merit badges, according to four lawsuits filed in local court on Wednesday and Thursday.

Brouillard is accused by plaintiffs identified in court documents only as R.C., L.P., M.M., and F.P., all represented by attorney Michael Berman.

The men, now in their early 50s, demand a combined total of $30 million in minimum damages.

They alleged that Brouillard sexually abused and molested them in the 1970s when they were minors and serving as altar boys and/or members of the Boy Scouts of America. They said Brouillard would walk around them naked.

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CHICAGO
NBC-TV Chicago

September 26, 2017

By Mary Ann Ahern

An abuse victim herself, she spoke out on behalf of the men and women who confided in her

Barbara Blaine, the founder of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, died unexpectedly Sunday at 61 years old.

The organization announced on its Facebook page that Blaine died Sunday following a recent cardiac event. She was surrounded by family and friends, the group wrote.

“Barbara was taken far too early, and we may never find rhyme or reason in the manner of her passing, but we can forever find inspiration and purpose through the manner in which she lived,” Blaine’s family wrote in a statement. “She was a truly remarkable human being, and her spirit will remain with us, shaping our choices for the better, erring us away from petty concerns and encouraging us to lean in towards compassion, that we might honor her memory.”

Blaine formed the SNAP group in 1988 with a meeting at a Chicago hotel. She had been abused as an 8th grader by a priest who taught at the Catholic school she attended, according to SNAP’s website.

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ENGLAND
Gazette (Teesside)

September 26, 2017

Former Roman Catholic priest Roy Lovatt, from Redcar, tried to get sentence cut :: Top judges told him he deserved every day of the sentence

A twisted paedophile from Redcar who preyed on young boys at a residential school deserved every day of his 28-year jail term, top judges today ruled.

Former ordained Roman Catholic priest Roy Lovatt, 72, subjected two boys to a string of sexual attacks while working as a housemaster at Thorp Arch Grange, near Wetherby.

During the same period in the 1970s and 1980s, he abused four other young children, three boys and a girl, leaving them badly traumatised.

Lovatt, of Queen Street, Redcar, was convicted of or admitted dozens of sex offences and was jailed for 28 years at Leeds Crown Court in February.

On Tuesday, he appealed against the sentence, but was told by senior judges that the term was richly deserved for the catalogue of offending.

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NEW YORK NY
New York Daily News

September 26, 2017

By Esha Ray and Graham Rayman

Fifteen women are claiming Tuesday they were sexually abused by a priest at a Catholic school in Queens over a span of two decades.

The women say they were abused by the Rev. Adam Prochaski at the Holy Cross school in Maspeth between 1973 and 1994, according to their lawyer Mitchell Garabedian and Robert Hoatson of the New Jersey-based Road to Recovery group, which helps victims of sexual abuse.

Garabedian was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the movie “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on clergy sexual abuse.

Garabedian said the alleged victims were between the ages of 5 and 16 years old at the time of the abuse.

“The sexual abuse happened here at Holy Cross Church, in the church, in Holy Cross Rectory, in the Holy Cross school, in cars and in homes where Father Prochaski used to visit the children,” Garabedian said. “He would sexually abuse them in unimaginable ways according to the allegations.”

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NEW YORK NY
1010 WINS (CBS RADIO)

September 26, 2017

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Over a dozen women claim they were abused by a Queens priest over a span of two decades.

Linda Porcano said she never forgot the names of the girls who said they were sexually abused by Father Adam Prochaski in 1990, 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria reported.

She said she had reported the abuse to the principal at Holy Cross in Maspeth, but the principal laughed at her.

When she saw a Facebook post with attorney Michael Garabedian, she jumped at the chance to do right by her students.

So far, 15 have come forward.

“There are probably many, many more victims, because Father Adam was at Holy Cross for 25 years,” Garabedian said.

Porcano wants the priest prosecuted, and she wants the church to cooperate.

“They’re hiding it, and they should have reported to the police, and they never reported to the police,” Garabedian said.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

September 27, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

Priests accused of abusing boys in ’70s

Ten lawsuits filed in the Superior Court of Guam this month allege repeated sexual abuse on church grounds and at Boy Scout outings. One victim alleges he spent a summer off-island with a priest who raped and sexually abused him on many occasions.

Attorney Michael Berman, of Berman, O’Connor and Mann, filed the lawsuits on behalf of 10 clients against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America. The individual complaints separately named priests Louis Brouillard, Raymond Cepeda and Andrew Mannetta as the alleged abusers while they were assigned to parishes on Guam.

F.S.L. alleges the sexual abuse began when he was 12 and serving as an altar boy for the Tumon parish and a Boy Scout in the 1970s.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun/ The Aegis

September 27, 2017

By Erika Butler

Former priest faces child porn charges

[See the entry for Cristancho in BishopAccountability.org’s database of accused U.S. clergy. See also the entry for Cristancho in the List of Accused Priests and Religious Brothers in the Baltimore Archdiocese as reformatted by BishopAccountability.org for easier viewing and printing.]

A Bel Air man, who years ago served as a priest at St. Ignatius Church in Hickory, has been charged with making and possessing pornographic photos involving young boys, according to court records.

Fernando Cristancho, 61, of the 800 block of Hayden Way, served as a priest from 1999 to 2002 at St. Ignatius Church in Hickory, according to a statement on the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s website, www.archbalt.org.

Members of the Harford County Child Advocacy Center, which investigates allegations of child abuse, executed a search and seizure warrant Sept. 19 at Cristancho’s home, according to charging documents.

Detectives found photos of young boys on Cristancho’s electronic devices, including his cell phone, a computer in the house and on a Secure Digital (SD) memory card in a safe, according to the charging documents.

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UNITED STATES
New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
SEPT. 25, 2017

Barbara Blaine, who was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest as a teenager and went on to found the nation’s most potent advocacy group for abuse survivors, died on Sunday in St. George, Utah. She was 61.

The cause was a sudden tear in a blood vessel in her heart, which she sustained on Sept. 18 after going hiking on a vacation, her husband, Howard Rubin, said. She lived in Chicago.

Ms. Blaine, a lawyer with a degree in theology, served for nearly 30 years as president of the group she founded, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. She stepped down this year and had recently started a new international organization to hold the Vatican and church officials overseas accountable for covering up abuse cases.

Ms. Blaine was an ardent Catholic who spent her years after college serving and living with homeless people in a Catholic Worker house in Chicago, part of a social justice movement for the poor founded by the activist Dorothy Day. Ms. Blaine applied that same activist sensibility to creating a new movement to fight for abuse survivors.

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