ABUSE TRACKER

NIGERIA
getreligion.org

August 24, 2017

Julia Duin

There’s been some amazing articles out there about the modern-day slave trade involving Nigerians who think they’re fleeing to Europe for jobs, but end up getting forced into prostitution or crime.

The British press has been particularly astute in tracking this horrific trend, which involves west Africans, the majority who come from Nigeria, Gambia and Ghana and who head north via Libya only to end up in a tangle of slave markets patronized by Arab buyers. The Guardian, BBC, the Washington Post and many other media are describing how Libya is outdoing India in being the world capital of sex trafficking.

But not enough has been done when you consider there’s a bizarre mix of voodoo and Pentecostalism undergirding it all. After all, CNBC calls Libya the “torture archipelago” for poor African migrants. The Guardian asks the world why it’s ignoring this African holocaust in its midst.

Possibly the best story of them all was the New Yorker’s “Desperate Journey of a Trafficked Girl” that ran in April. Now The Times of London did a piece on what happens to the few lucky Nigerian teenagers who get through this hell to reach 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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

September 4, 2017

David Sparkes

Victoria Police has launched a new podcast about sexual violence, aiming to convince more victims to report their assault.

The six-part series, called Unspeakable: Understanding Sexual Crime, is part of National Child Protection Week and tells true stories, featuring interviews with investigators, victims and their families.

Inspector Everett Moutsidis from Family Violence Command told ABC Radio Melbourne each episode would provide a glimpse into the work done by Victoria Police’s Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Teams (SOCIT).

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.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The Irish Sun

September 4, 2017

Adam Higgins

FOUR religious orders forming part of a group that owes the State more than €100million in abuse compo got almost €300m in HSE grants last year.

Some 18 orders that ran facilities where children were abused have paid only €95.9m of their promised €226m as a result of the long-running Ryan Inquiry.

Despite this, the Brothers of Charity, Daughters of Charity, Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Mercy have got almost €300m for running medical facilities.

The Irish Sun now breaks down the amount each organisation has paid from the 2015 bill, with the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy footing more than half of the costs paid so far.

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.

URUGUAY
Montevideo Portal

August 29, 2017

[La institución emitió un comunicado donde recuerda la postura que el arzobispo Sturla tomara ya en marzo, cuando se conoció el caso.]

El 31 de marzo de este año la Arquidiócesis de Montevideo publicó un comunicado acerca de la denuncia recibida sobre un presunto abuso contra un menor, hoy mayor, que habría cometido un sacerdote.

En las últimas horas trascendió públicamente el pedido de prisión del fiscal. “Aún no se conoce la resolución del juez”, dice el comunicado, que posteriormente reproduce el emitido por la Iglesia el pasado 31 de marzo, y que dice lo siguiente.

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URUGUAY
Montevideo Portal

August 28, 2017

[El religioso fue denunciado por un joven, que afirmó haber sido abusado dentro de una parroquia entre sus 14 y 18 años.]

El fiscal Gilberto Rodríguez pidió el procesamiento con prisión de un sacerdote que abusaba de un adolescente en una parroquia de Montevideo.

De acuerdo al dictamen divulgado este lunes por Fiscalía de la Nación, Rodríguez acusó al sacerdote, de 55 años, de “un delito continuado de atentado violento al pudor”.

En su pedido de procesamiento, el fiscal señala que surge del expediente que la víctima, un joven que actualmente tiene 23 años, comenzó a ser abusado sexualmente desde sus 14 años “en la habitación del párroco”.

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ARGENTINA
Analisis Digital

August 30, 2017

María Pía Taborda, integrante de la Multisectorial de Mujeres de Gualeguay, pasó por los tribunales de esa ciudad para manifestar apoyo a familiares y víctimas de los abusos del cura Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria. El último día de audiencia, cuando se realizaron los alegatos de partes, desde la organización que lucha por la igualdad de los géneros reclamaron a la Iglesia Católica “que tome el lugar que le corresponde y se haga cargo de Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, porque esta persona forma parte de la institución”. Por su parte, la abuela de Alexis Endrizzi contó a ANÁLISIS DIGITAL que “en Lucas González hay gente que se está acercando a mi nieto y a mi hija a pedirles disculpas”.

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ARGENTINA
El Dia de Gualeguaychú (Entre Rios Province)

August 28, 2017

La parte acusatoria cree que están acreditados los abusos y pidió 25 años de prisión. La defensa pidió la absolución. El cura habló por primera vez y se victimizó. La sentencia, el 6 de septiembre.

Fiscalía y Querella coincidieron en pedir 25 años de prisión para el cura Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria. La petición se realizó este lunes en los Tribunales de Gualeguay, donde se llevó adelante la audiencia de alegatos, que finalizó hace instantes.

El sacerdote de Lucas González, Nogoyá, está siendo enjuiciado por haber cometido abusos contra cuatro menores de edad, mientras era párroco de San Lucas Evangelista. Cabe recordar que durante el debate se sumó una quinta denuncia.

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ARGENTINA
El Patagónico

El fiscal Federico Uriburu y el querellante Mariano Navarro pidieron ayer, luego de casi cinco horas de alegatos, 25 años de prisión para el cura Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria en el juicio que se realiza en su contra en Entre Ríos por promoción a la corrupción agravada de menores -tres casos- y por abuso sexual agravado -un caso-.

El juicio se sustanció en los tribunales orales federales de Gualeguay, donde ayer se escucharon los alegatos, y a donde el religioso llegó poco antes de las 9 sin hacer declaraciones, ante la presencia de víctimas y familiares que se apostaron en la zona, y que se identificaron con pancartas y carteles.

Los presuntos abusos se conocieron a partir de una investigación de la revista Análisis, en la que se relató que las primeras en hacer una denuncia fueron dos religiosas del Colegio Castro Barros San José, quienes el año pasado se presentaron ante el defensor oficial de Nogoyá, Oscar Rossi, y acusaron al sacerdote de abusar a una menor de once años. Tras esa presentación, el cura fue suspendido y apartado de sus funciones.

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.

ARGENTINA
El Tribuno (Salta province)

August 31, 2017

[Dos exmonjas dialogaron con El Tribuno en aquella oportunidad y aportaron más pruebas contra el cura.]

La noticia sobre las acusaciones contra Rosa Torino por abuso sexual y otros delitos supuestamente cometidos en su congregación del Instituto Religioso Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista cobraron gran repercusión a nivel nacional. El Tribuno siguió de cerca el caso y pudo hablar con testigos que en aquel momento aportabaron pruebas contra Rosa Torino.

Durante la mañana, Valeria Zarsa y María Gracia Ramia Damario, dos exmonjas de la congregación, formalizaron en la Unidad de Delitos contra la Integridad Sexual N§ 3, a cargo de Sodero, las graves denuncias contra Rosa y el sacerdote Nicolás Parma, otro de los imputados en la causa.

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ARGENTINA
La Izquierda Diario

September 2, 2017

[Ante la noticia del beneficio otorgado por la justicia al sacerdote abusador de niños, la red de sobrevivientes de abuso eclesiástico emitió un duro comunicado.]

La Justicia concedió ayer la libertad a Rubén Agustín Rosa Torino, sacerdote salteño del instituto Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista, acusado de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante. El sacerdote fundador del Instituto, se encontraba detenido desde 2016 con acusaciones por amenazas y delitos económicos por el manejo de fondos de su empresa religiosa, además de los abusos.

El conocido cura “sanador” cuenta con un alto reconocimiento entre la élite política y empresarial salteñas. Sin embargo, su “buena imagen” demostró ser pura hipocresía a partir de la denuncia penal de dos exmiembros de su congregación, quienes lo señalaron por abusos sexuales sufridos. La denuncia también recayó sobre su mano derecha, el cura Nicolás Parma a quien Rosa Torino encubría y apañaba.

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ARGENTINA
El Tribuno (Salta province)

September 1, 2017

La red “Sobrevivientes de abusos eclesiásticos” emitió un durísimo comunicado tras conocer la decisión de la Justicia salteña de otorgar la libertad al cura Agustín Rosa Torino. “Hoy la Iglesia Católica medieval, cuna de pederastas, está de fiesta”, expresa el grupo que creó una página web en internet para denunciar y dar testimonio de los abusos sexuales cometidos por parte de sacerdotes y al mismo tiempo alertar a futuras víctimas sobre este accionar delictivo.

“Una vez más salen libres, con total impunidad, quienes han hecho de nuestras vidas un suplicio, en el que se incluyen a muchos otros que aún no se animan a denunciar”, señala el comunicado. Y agrega: “Quienes lo hicimos entendemos por qué y sabemos por qué”.

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ARGENTINA
TN (Todo Noticias)

September 1, 2017

[Graves acusaciones de la Red de Sobrevivientes. Un exintegrante de la congregación difundió una carta conmovedora. Radicaron una contradenuncia que afecta a una de las principales testigos.]

Tras a la liberación por parte de la justicia salteña del sacerdote Agustín Rosa y de la exmonja, María Alicia Pacheco, acusados de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante, la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abuso Sexual Eclesiástico cuestionó a la “justicia patriarcal”, a la “la Iglesia Católica medieval”, y pidió terminar con la complicidad de las autoridades eclesiásticas.

“Hoy la Iglesia Católica medieval, cuna de pederastas, está de fiesta. Una vez más salen libres, con total impunidad, quienes han hecho de nuestras vidas un suplicio, en el que se incluye a muchos otros que aún no se animan a denunciar. Quienes lo hicimos entendemos por qué y para qué”, afirmó la organización en un comunicado.

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ARGENTINA
TN (Todo Noticias)

August 28, 2017

Nicolas Tillard

La justicia salteña liberó a la exmonja Alicia Pacheco, que había sido detenida en diciembre acusada por abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante por la duración en el tiempo y por las circunstancias de su realización, agravado por ser religiosa. La “hermana Micaela” formaba parte del instituto creado en 1996 por el sacerdote Agustín Rosa, detenido con prisión preventiva. El caso se conoció tras el informe de TN.com.ar, donde los estudiantes de la congregación contaron el calvario que les tocó vivir.

Gracia Ramia había denunciado a Pacheco en la Oficina de Delitos de Integridad Sexual Nº2 de Salta. Tras un recurso de apelación, el Tribunal de Impugnación N°2 le otorgó la libertad hasta que la causa sea elevada a juicio.

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ARGENTINA
TN (Todo Noticias)

August 31, 2017

[Está procesado por abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante. Esperará el juicio en una finca en las afueras de la capital. La exmonja Alicia Pacheco había sido excarcelada hacía horas en la misma causa.]

Primero, la Justicia salteña liberó a la exmonja Alicia Pacheco, conocida como “Hermana Micalea”, acusada de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante sobre una chica de 13 años. El fallo de la Cámara ponía la lupa sobre la víctima, hablaba de la conducta sexual “temprana e impropia” de la denunciante y aseguraba que la “Hermana Micaela”, como se la conocía, “no tenía el perfil de la agresora sexual”.

Hoy, recobró la libertad Agustín Rosa, fundador del Instituto Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista, que fue señalado por novicios de someterlos y proteger a otros curas que también abusaban sexualmente de ellos. La decisión fue tomada por el juez Félix Costas, del Tribunal de Impugnación Número 2.

Nicolás Parma, el sacerdote cuya conducta sexual pervertida en contra de menores fue descripta por varios novicios, se encontraba hace meses, cuando fue denunciado, en una parroquia cerca de Barcelona y frecuentaba el Camp Nou y establecimientos gastronómicos de moda, pero se desconoce su paradero actual.

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ALTOONA-JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown

August 2017

Review Board – Bishop Mark Bartchak has announced the appointment of an entirely new membership for the Diocesan Review Board, which assists in the assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and a cleric’s suitability for ministry.

The new members are:

Rev. Leo Arnone
Joyce Cunningham
Joseph Grappone
Todd Mahalko
Robert Skelly
Brent Stoltzfus
Rev. Miles Zdinak

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, every diocese is to have such a Review Board in which the majority of its members are Catholic lay persons not employed by the diocese. The Review Board is a confidential consultative body. In the interest of providing for objectivity and transparency, two of the Review Board members are from other Christian Churches.

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HONDURAS
Atresmedia

[El religioso español se encuentra detenido en una instalación de la Policía Nacional, mientras las autoridades hondureñas adelantan el procedimiento para su extradición a España, de acuerdo a la información.]

Autoridades hondureñas han informado de la detención de un sacerdote español solicitado en su país donde es acusado de haber abusado sexualmente y prostituir a menores. El religioso, identificado como Joan Alonzo Bonal, ha sido detenido en el departamento de ‘Gracias a Dios’, fronterizo con Nicaragua, en el este de Honduras, según un informe de la Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (FUSINA).

Con ello se ha dado cumplimiento a una “orden de captura con fines de extradición emitida por España” contra él, ha señalado la institución hondureña. En España, el sacerdote está solicitado por la Justicia por “suponerlo responsable de haber cometido los delitos de abuso sexual y prostitución de menores”, ha indicado la Fusina.

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NEW MEXICO
The Associated Press (appearing in The Washington Post)

August 30, 2017

GRANTS, N.M. — Officials say a leader of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect facing child sexual abuse charges is refusing to eat.

Court documents filed this week say Deborah Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps has not eaten any food or drank water for at least three days.

A motion filed in the 13th Judicial District Court in Cibola County sought to send Green to a hospital for emergency services. The motion was granted, but Green’s medical condition is not known.

Green recently was indicted on various charges including kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration of a child.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press (appearing in Santa Fe New Mexican)

September 1, 2017 (Updated September 2, 2017)

Russell Contreras

ALBUQUERQUE — Another leader of a New Mexico paramilitary religious sect rocked by child sexual abuse allegations was arrested Wednesday, making him the ninth member facing charges in connection with a widespread investigation.

James Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps was taken into custody Wednesday on charges of kidnapping, child abuse and tampering with evidence according to court records. He was ordered held on a $250,000 secured bond.

His arrest comes after authorities raided his secluded Western New Mexico compound last month. Other members and leaders are facing child abuse and child sexual abuse charges, including Green’s wife and co-leader, Deborah, who faces charges of kidnapping and child sexual abuse.

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CAMBODIA
The Cambodia Daily

September 1, 2017

Hannah Hawkins and Chhorn Phearun | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

A South Korean pastor accused of sexually abusing several girls who lived with him at his Siem Reap City church was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years, an unprecedentedly long jail term for such crimes, according to one NGO worker.

Judge Sam Bunpov convicted 63-year-old Park Youl with purchase of child prostitution and sexual intercourse with a minor under 15 years of age, according to Siem Reap provincial court spokesman Ream Chanmony.

Mr. Park was arrested by anti-trafficking police in October on allegations that he molested nine girls on multiple occasions over several years and bribed them and their families with rice, cash and motorbikes in exchange for silence.

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FRANCE
aleteia.org

September 1, 2017

Excerpts from ‘Politics and Society,’ a new book-length interview with the Holy Father.

Here is another selection of excerpts from Politics and Society, a new book-length interview with Pope Francis, in which the pope deals with some of the hot-button issues of our day.

[Read more: Excerpts on migration and refugees, and European and Argentinean identity, including his explanation for why “we are all migrants.”]

Pope Francis sat down for 20 conversations with French journalist Dominique Wolton for a book-length interview that will be released in French on Wednesday. The 432-page volume is titled Politique et société : un dialogue inédit, or Politics and Society: Conversations with Dominique Walton.

Walton conducted the interview sessions over the span of two years, the first time that the pope has given such a lengthy amount of time to a project like this.

**

If a priest is an abuser, he is sick

—Pope Francis: […] Before, the priest was moved, but the problem just relocated with him. The current policy is what Benedict XVI and I have applied through the Commission for the Protection of Minors, created two years ago here in the Vatican: defending all youth. It’s about confronting the problem. Mother Church teaches how to prevent abuse, and how to enable a child to speak about it, to tell the truth to his parents, and to be forthcoming about what has happened.

It is an edifying journey. The Church should not take up a defensive position. If a priest is an abuser, he is someone who is sick. Of every four abusers, two of them have been abused as children. These are the statistics from the psychiatrists.

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CONNECTICUT
Forward

August 30, 2017

A Connecticut judge entered pleas of not guilty on behalf of a prominent Connecticut rabbi charged in the alleged sexual assault of a minor.

Rabbi Daniel Greer, 77, the founding rabbi of the Yeshiva of New Haven, appeared Tuesday in Superior Court in that city. He is charged with second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, and remains free on $100,000 bail.

Eliyahu Mirlis, 29, of New Jersey, claims the rabbi raped and sexually molested him hundreds of times when he was a minor and a student at the religious boarding school from 2001 to 2005. Mirlis has urged media outlets that normally would not identify an abuse victim to use his name.

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UNITED STATES
theworthyadversary.com

September 1, 2017

Joelle Casteix

Even I was guilty of assuming that Archdiocese of Agaña (Guam) Archbishop Anthony Apuron was charged with child sexual abuse in his current and highly publicized Vatican Tribunal.

But then I learned:

Charges in a Vatican Tribunal are secret.

Apuron’s replacement confirmed it.

From The Tablet (UK):

“Asked if [Guam] archbishop [Anthony Apuron] was also being charged for financial mismanagement, not just alleged child abuse, Archbishop Byrnes told reporters he did not know what the charges ended up being, but that they would be published eventually after the Vatican judges deliberated. (emphasis mine)”

Guam’s Catholics and the public are under the assumption that Apuron’s Vatican trial is for child sexual abuse. The Vatican and Apuron’s lawyers, I believe, are taking that assumption and running with it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lincolnshire Live

August 30, 2017

Nicholas Fletcher

A former clergyman has pleaded guilty to 25 charges of indecently assaulting young girls after being exposed by an ongoing investigation into historic abuse at the Lincoln Diocese.

John Bailey from Ash Tree Park in Kippax, Leeds, admitted to offences involving three young girls aged under 14.

The 76-year-old faced 18 charges relating to a single victim between February 1974 and February 1982 when he appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday, August 29.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

August 30, 2017

Adriaan Alsema

The archdiocese of the Colombian city of Manizales damned local judges and the attorney of a sexual abuse victim after the church was forced to take responsibility for the sex crime of one of its clergies.

In a letter sent to the judges of the Manizales court, episcopal vicar Marcos Fernando Barrientos fiercely rejected a court ruling that ordered the church to pay $35,000 in compensation to the victim of sexual abuse by one of the organization’s priests.

“History repeats itself. God is condemned by jurists, ignorant and cowardly as Pilate and his advisers under pressure of the hoi polloi.” – Vicar Marcos Fernando Barrientos

The clergy’s fury was spurred by a court ruling that confirmed the 20-year prison sentence of a local priest for raping a boy and the court order obligating the church to repair the victim.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 30, 2017

John Ferguson, Victorian EditorMelbourne, @fergusonjw

It’s a hard time to be an archbishop.

Denis Hart, who runs the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, knows this dynamic better than anyone in Australia.

The Archbishop succeeded George Pell when the now cardinal went to run Sydney and ever since has erred on the side of well mannered community debate when selling the Catholic story.

But there are a few non-negotiables in the church leadership.

Euthanasia, abortion and same-sex marriage being chief among them.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 1, 2017

Barney Zwartz

The Catholic Church in Australia is fighting on three fronts – same-sex marriage, euthanasia and education funding – that will test its influence both inside and outside the church, with the people in the pews and the politicians and powerbrokers.

Legalised same-sex marriage seems inevitable, euthanasia is back on the legislative agenda in Victoria and NSW, and the federal government has calculated that it can get away with an attack on funding for Catholic schools.

**
According to a senior lay leader who does not want to be named, sexual abuse scandals have so eroded the church’s moral authority that people have stopped listening. But this doesn’t apply on euthanasia, where the church has far more credibility because its wide, no-strings attached healthcare services – including being perhaps the largest palliative care provider in Australia – give it real authority.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet

August 29, 2017

Mark Brolly

Two members of the Truth Justice and Healing Council – the body established by the Australian bishops and religious orders to liaise with the Royal Commission – have spoken out, with Vice Chair Ms Elizabeth Proust telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she was “pessimistic” about the Church’s willingness to reform and Council member Professor Greg Craven criticising the Commission and media coverage.

Ms Proust, a businesswoman and former leading civil servant, said she feared the Church would emerge from the Royal Commission only “partially cleansed and unreconstructed”.

“I fear there’s a view that once the royal commission reports, and the publicity around what will be a fairly dire report once that all dies down, that life will go back to what it was,” she told the ABC’s ‘Religion and Ethics Report’ on 16 August. “I hope I’m wrong. I’d like to think that the possibility for real transformation of the Church exists, but it’s an institution that’s been very slow to change on a whole range of issues.”

Ms Proust – who chairs the Australian Institute of Company Directors and formerly was head of the Victorian Department of P

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

September 3, 2017

Louella Losinio

Members of the Concerned Catholics of Guam conducted a “checkpoint” yesterday at the front gate going into the Redemptoris Mater Seminary to monitor everyone going in and out of the property, insisting that people using the seminary should pay rent to the Church.

The project called “Occupy RMS” involved volunteers of the Concerned Catholics working in shifts at the entrance of the Yona property.

Concerned Catholics stated in an earlier interview that people affiliated with the Neocatechumenal Way movement are living there, rent-free, while the archdiocese is strapped for cash.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News (USA TODAY Network)

August 31, 2017

[BRIEF VIDEO] Peregrine San Nicolas, a Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School P.E. teacher, appeared in court for a magistrate’s hearing Thursday Aug. 31, 2017 in the Guam Judicial Center in Hagåtña. Jasmine Stole/PDN

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

September 3, 2017

Mindy Aguon

The first discussions to determine mediation protocol in nearly 100 child sex abuse lawsuits will be held in Hawaii tomorrow, Guam time.

Attorneys for most of the parties flew to Hawaii to meet with retired federal judge Michael Hogan, who will serve as an alternative dispute resolution mediator, to discuss a possible global settlement for the cases filed against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America, and numerous members of the clergy.

The Archdiocese of Agana has retained Seattle, Washington-based attorney Michael Patterson as defense counsel for all pending litigation filed against the Catholic Church in Guam.

Attorney David Lujan, who represents the bulk of the victims who have filed child sex abuse lawsuits, confirmed that the settlement discussions will also include several cases that have not been filed in court.

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MICHIGAN
Times Herald (Port Huron MI)

August 30, 2017

Nicole Hayden

A pastor accused of sexually assaulting a young woman will not face prosecution because the woman doesn’t fall under any classes of victims as outlined by state law, officials said Wednesday.

Pastor Mitch Olson, of Grace Ministry Center in Smiths Creek, was being investigated after the 20-year-old woman filed a police report in June alleging that Olson sexually assaulted her while performing a religious act. The Times Herald does not publish names of sexual assault victims. At the start of August, the St. Clair County Sheriff Department submitted the case to the prosecutor for review seeking a criminal sexual conduct charge.

The prosecutor concluded no criminal activity occurred.

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MICHIGAN
Times Herald (Port Huron MI)

August 31, 2017

Nicole Hayden

A Senate bill is being drafted in Lansing to address clergy members and sexual assault laws.

The action is being taken after Sen. Rick Jones, Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, read a story in the Times Herald detailing a prosecutor’s decision to deny criminal charges against a pastor who put his hands on the breasts, buttocks and genitals of a female member of his church.

“I am angry this could happen and that this pastor could get away and not be charged,” Jones said. “I think that it very inappropriate and in most cases a pastor has just as much power over a person as a teacher or a doctor. I have requested a bill be written by the Legislative Service Bureau to address this situation.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

September 2, 2017

Mindy Aguon

A former altar boy has come forward alleging a priest repeatedly physically abused him to force him to perform sexual acts when he was a young boy.

R.J.S., who filed the lawsuit using initials to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana naming deceased priest Antonio Cruz as his abuser.

Attorney David Lujan represents R.J.S., who alleges he was physically and sexually abused between the ages of 10 and 16 while serving as an altar boy at Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago.

R.J.S. said the physical abuse began when he was an altar boy and made mistakes during Mass.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News (USA TODAY Network)

September 1, 2017

Steve Limtiaco

[The USA TODAY Network’s Pacific Daily News has uncovered nearly 100 lawsuits with stunning accusations against the some of the most revered men on Guam – the priests.]

[Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this report left out a lawsuit.]

HAGÅTÑA, Guam — Two more lawsuits filed Friday in U.S. District Court here bring the number of active suits accusing clergy members and others affiliated with this island’s Catholic Church of sexually abusing children to more than 100.

The two priests named in the lawsuits — the Rev. Louis Brouillard, 96, and Antonio Cruz, now dead — have been named in other suits: Brouillard is accused in 58 cases, Cruz in seven cases although the plaintiff requested an additional one that was filed Monday in federal court be voluntarily dismissed Thursday.

The claim that A.J.A. filed Monday against Cruz can be brought again according to court rules, but if it is dismissed a second time, it cannot be refiled.

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SAVANNAH (GA)
WSAV

September 1, 2017

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Former Savannah priest Wayland Brown waived extradition and will be brought from Maryland to South Carolina to stand trial.

Brown was indicted on nine charges of criminal sexual conduct with a child last week.
Investigators says Brown took two boys, one from 1979-1981, the other in 1987-88 from St. James School in Savannah to several locations in Hardeeville, where he raped them.

Wayland Brown was defrocked as a Catholic priest by the Diocese in 2003

The Chatham County District Attorney’s office and US attorney’s in Georgia were barred from criminally prosecuting because of statute of limitations.

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SICILY (Italy)
Crux

September 3, 2017

John L. Allen Jr., Editor

[As more details emerge about a Catholic lay movement in Sicily whose leader and three other top officials have been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of underage minor girls, the questions become: Should more have been done by Church authorities to disown the group, or did local bishops do everything one could reasonably ask?]

I hope you caught the Crux piece yesterday by Claire Giangravé about a lay Catholic organization in Sicily, whose lay leader and three other top officials have been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of minor girls. It’s a powerful tale, part of a series based on original reporting, and cements Giangravé’s reputation as a terrific journalist.

Let me say, we take no delight in telling these stories. However, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who heads the pope’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, never tires of reminding us, whenever sexual abuse occurs, inside or outside the Church, it’s a “dark and unremitting truth” that must be confronted.

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SICILY (Italy)
Crux

September 2, 2017

Claire Giangravè

[A lay Catholic association founded by an unlicensed exorcist in the small Sicilian town of Aci Bonaccorsi is under scrutiny after its leader was arrested for sexually abusing at least six underage girls. A Crux investigation led to the further discovery of ‘bizarre happenings’ in the local church of Lavina for more than 40 years, where the lay group was able to act largely without any ecclesiastical or governmental oversight.]

ACI BONACCORSI, Sicily – Aci Bonaccorsi, a small town of about 3,500 on the Italian island of Sicily, is a pious and devout kind of place.

People are said to have been miraculously cured here, citizens swear to have seen demons cast out, and once, it is believed, the Virgin Mary stopped a river of lava from destroying the entire town.

But today the small Sicilian municipality, famous for being a bastion of the kind of traditional Catholicism that characterizes the surrounding diocese of Acireale, is in the eye of a hurricane involving exorcisms, alleged sexual abuse and power struggles.

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SANTA FE (NM)
The New Mexican

Editorial
September 3, 2017

Public confession can be good for the soul, as well as essential for rebuilding trust in institutions tarnished by years of evasion and half-truths. For the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, a full and public confession naming which of its priests have been credibly accused of sexually molesting children is overdue.

Last week, reporter Andrew Oxford wrote at length describing what other Catholic dioceses around the nation have done to help victims overcome trauma caused by sexual abuse. It is clear that the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has more work to do to help ease the pain of the many victims of religious leaders.

New Mexico, long a center of Catholicism in the Southwest, was at the heart of pedophile priest scandals that hit the U.S. church. Over the past several decades, the faithful learned that trusted bishops failed in their duty to protect children.

Instead, church leaders hid child molesters, moving the accused men from church to church, putting more children at risk. When parents came to report the abuse, they were shunted aside. The focus, it seemed, was always the reputation of the Catholic Church rather than the safety of children. No public scandals, in other words, no matter the private evil that was allowed to continue.

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HONDURAS
Debate

September 1, 2017

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.- Autoridades hondureñas informaron hoy de la detención de un sacerdote español solicitado en su país por presuntamente haber abusado sexualmente y prostituir a menores de edad.

De acuerdo con un informe de la Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (Fusina), el religioso, identificado como Joan Alonzo Bonal, fue detenido este jueves en el departamento de Gracia a Dios, fronterizo con Nicaragua.

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[Google Translate: Honduras halts Spanish priest sought in his country for sexual abuse]

HONDURAS
Diario La Tribuna Honduras

September 2, 2017

Autoridades hondureñas informaron hoy de la detención de un sacerdote español solicitado en su país por presuntamente haber abusado sexualmente y prostituir a menores de edad.

El religioso, identificado como Joan Alonzo Bonal, fue detenido este jueves en el departamento de Gracia a Dios, fronterizo con Nicaragua, este de Honduras, según un informe de la Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (FUSINA).

Con ello se dio cumplimiento a una “orden de captura con fines de extradición emitida por España” en su contra, señaló la institución hondureña.

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SCRANTON (PA)
Diocese of Scranton

August 30, 2017

The Diocese of Scranton learned today that the investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police into Father Martin Boylan has been closed because of a refusal on the part of the alleged victim to testify. While civil authorities have made this determination, the ecclesiastical process in Father Boylan’s case continues. Father Boylan’s status as a priest removed from ministry with his faculties to exercise priestly ministry suspended continues to remain unchanged.

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PENNSYLVANIA
16 WNEP (ABC)

August 30, 2017

Dan Ratchford

SCRANTON — An investigation into sexual misconduct by a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Scranton is closed after state police say the alleged victim refused to testify.

The person came forward in April of 2016 accusing Fr. Martin Boylan of abuse when the alleged victim was just a child.

Fr. Boylan was serving as pastor of St. Patrick’s parish in Scranton when those accusations were made.

No charges were filed against Fr. Boylan.

The allegations were being investigated by state police and the Wayne County district attorney’s office.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Tessa Akerman
@TessaAkerman

August 31, 2017

Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale could leave prison in just five years after a Victorian County Court judge added three years to his jail term this morning

However, Judge Irene Lawson said Ridsdale had been in custody since August 1994 and it was increasingly likely the 83-year-old would die in prison.

Sentencing Ridsdale over a further 23 charges, Judge Lawson said; “You are now an elderly man with no hope of a productive life.”

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

August 31, 2017

Australia’s most notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale will spend at least another three years behind bars after admitting to sexually abusing more children.

This is the story of one survivor.

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AUSTRALIA
Nine News

August 31, 2017

Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale will spend almost 33 years in jail in total for his unprecedented offending spanning three decades.

The former Catholic priest was sentenced today after pleading guilty to abusing a further 12 children during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl on a church altar in Ballarat.

Judge Irene Lawson sentenced Ridsdale to 11 years with a non-parole period of eight years.

Ridsdale is already serving a 28-year sentence with a 25-year non-parole period.

Ridsdale told one ten-year-old victim she’d be a “good girl” if she did not tell anyone, and said “we could be forgiven”.

She was taken to him several times by her father between 1962 and 1988.

The 83-year-old’s earliest possible parole is 2022.

** [Article includes timeline of Ridsdale’s life]

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AUSTRALIA
AAP – SBS Wires, SBS World News

August 31, 2017

Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale abused his position of trust offending over three decades, says a judge who added another five years to his overall jail term.

The former Catholic priest has been sentenced to 11 years’ jail for abusing another dozen children, including a 10-year-old girl sexually assaulted on a church altar.

He has already served 23 years of a 28-year sentence for sexual offences against children in his care across western Victoria.

Victorian County Court Judge Irene Lawson said Ridsdale’s appalling pattern of offending was quickly established following his ordination in 1961.

“Each of the complainants were young, vulnerable and were exploited by you for your own sexual gratifications,” Judge Lawson said on Thursday.

“Your actions were violent and abusive.”

Judge Lawson said Ridsdale abused his position of trust over the victims and the trust of their families.

“You were a revered priest and trusted by devout Catholic families who respected you as God’s representative on earth.”

Ridsdale has now pleaded guilty in five court cases to abusing 65 children during his three decades as a parish priest in western Victoria, although his true number of victims is believed to be in the hundreds.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The New Mexican
September 1, 2017

By Andrew Oxford

ALBUQUERQUE — A state district judge said Friday there is good cause to open sealed records on three former Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children across New Mexico.

Judge Alan Malott said he will review three binders filled with years-old documents from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, including parts of depositions and personnel files, to decide which records will be released to the public for the first time.

Though dozens of other priests in the archdiocese also have been accused of sexual misconduct during the last several decades, the release of files about at least a few would offer rare insight into how church administrators for years covered up a scandal that went to the heart of one of New Mexico’s most revered institutions.

The hearing followed a request by KOB-TV to review documents accumulated by an Albuquerque lawyer who has represented some 60 survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Malott has ordered the lawyer for plaintiffs in those cases, Brad Hall, to keep the files confidential.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Associated Press

September 2, 2017

A New Mexico judge is reviewing three binders filled with years-old documents on three former Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children to decide what records should and shouldn’t be released to the public.

Judge Alan Malott said Friday there is good cause to open sealed records, but that he will review them “with an eye toward what is appropriate for public disclosure.”

Malott is reviewing the records in response to a request by KOB-TV, which filed in July as an intervenor in seven clerical abuse cases for the purpose of obtaining court records.

The attorney for the archdiocese, Robert Warburton of Albuquerque, said release of the records would endanger the archdiocese’s right to a fair trial, and endangers the privacy rights of victims and their families.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Tom Jackman August 31

The $26,000 that a federal judge ordered a member of the Ku Klux Klan to pay in 1982 to an African American couple and two Jewish groups for a series of cross-burnings is no longer legally collectible because the statute of limitations has expired, legal experts say.

The former Klansman, William Marx Aitcheson, is now a Catholic priest in Fairfax, Va., and never paid the $26,000. He pleaded guilty to cross-burnings in Prince George’s County, Md., in 1977, records show, and was sued in federal court in Maryland the following year by some of the victims, including Barbara and Phillip Butler of College Park, Md. In 1982, U.S. District Judge Frank Kaufman of Baltimore granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs, awarding the Butlers $23,000, and $1,500 each to Beth Torah Congregation and B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation of College Park.

All three parties said they never received any money from Aitcheson, and never heard from him again. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1988, and has been serving as a pastor in Virginia since 1993.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Steve Limtiaco, Pacific Daily News Sept. 1, 2017

There are now more than 100 lawsuits filed in federal and local court, accusing clergy members and others affiliated with the island’s Catholic Church of sexually abusing children decades ago.

Two lawsuits were filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of Guam, accusing former Guam priest Louis Brouillard and deceased priest Antonio Cruz of abuse.

In his lawsuit accusing Brouillard, “R.E.J.” stated he used to accompany Brouillard, who was a scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America, on outings between 1978 and 1980, although “R.E.J.” was not a member of the scouts.

Like many of those who have accused Brouillard, “R.E.J.” said Brouillard sexually assaulted him during a swimming trip to the Lonfit River. The lawsuit states “R.E.J.” was not a good swimmer, and Brouillard encouraged him to swim in the deep part of the river, where Brouillard then hugged and molested him.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Editorial

It is distressing to learn that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors may be restructured so that survivors of sexual abuse by clergy may have no direct voice in that body. The commission has helped the church make great strides in addressing this global issue, but it is in danger of becoming irrelevant.

Signs of trouble with the commission began to surface in 2016, a year after its inception, when one of two abuse survivors on the commission, Peter Saunders, was suspended. The trouble became acute when the sole remaining survivor on the commission, Marie Collins, resigned earlier this year.

Collins resigned because she felt Vatican bureaucracy was neglecting and stalling the work of the commission. The commission is understaffed, underfunded and not accepted by offices at the Vatican that should be working with it, Collins said. Her statements have been reinforced by fellow commission member Krysten Winter-Green in an interview with NCR.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Sep 01, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Three more clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam.

55-year-old R.J.S. alleges he was not only sexually molested and abused by Father Antonio Cruz, but also physically abused by the priest who would slap him, twist his ear, and hit him with a closed fist in order to pressure him to perform sexual acts.

55-year-old G.M.Q. and 49-year-old R.E.J. allege they were sexually molested by Father Louis Brouillard on swimming trips.

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GEORGIA
WSAVi

By Andrew Davis
Published: September 1, 2017

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Former Savannah priest Wayland Brown waived extradition and will be brought from Maryland to South Carolina to stand trial.

Brown was indicted on nine charges of criminal sexual conduct with a child last week.
Investigators says Brown took two boys, one from 1979-1981, the other in 1987-88 from St. James School in Savannah to several locations in Hardeeville, where he raped them.

The Chatham County District Attorney’s office and US attorney’s in Georgia were barred from criminally prosecuting because of statute of limitations.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Review

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has announced a recently reported allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against a retired priest, Father John Robert “Jack” Campbell, which occurred in the 1960s at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South in Shrewsbury.

Father Campbell, 85, has been retired from ministry since 1989 and currently resides in a private residence. Reports of abuse by Father Campbell were first made in the 1990s, prior to the adoption of the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. Father Campbell is on permanent administrative leave which prohibits him from engaging in priestly ministry. The Review Board of the archdiocese considers the new allegation to be credible.

An announcement about the allegation will be made in the parishes where Father Campbell served in keeping with the U.S. bishops’ charter to ensure transparency in communicating with the public about allegations of sexual abuse of minors and as an outreach to potential victims. Father Campbell was on the faculty of Prep South. He also taught at St. Pius X High School in Festus in the 1980s. Ordained in 1958, his parish assignments included St. Elizabeth in Crestwood, St. Edward in St. Louis, Notre Dame de Lourdes in Wellston and Sacred Heart in Valley Park.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

MORE than two years after Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner resigned from the Yeshivah Centre after admitting his conduct towards victims of child sexual abuse was not acceptable, he was officially given a new contract this week.

Stunned victims of abuse said the appointment is “a huge slap in the face”.

“At a time when other community institutions are avoiding being associated with those implicated in the child sexual abuse scandal in our community, it is Yeshivah alone, the institution responsible for the rape and abuse of dozens of children in its care, that considers it appropriate to reward Telsner with a new contract,” child sexual abuse victim and advocate Manny Waks said.

Waks added that the appointment “sends a message to victims – that Yeshivah still do not ‘get it’ and you will find no support from within that community”.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

Often, in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse, I’m confronted with difficult decisions. For example, when is it appropriate to share something publicly? How many opportunities should one be given to do the right thing? At what point do we start to question whether our confidence in people has been misplaced? And there are plenty more.

Last week, the Australian Jewish News reported that the Principals of 6 of the 7 Jewish Schools that make up the Association of Principals of Jewish Day Schools in Victoria, Australia, had written to Adass insisting that they ‘send a representative other than Rabbi Kluwgant to the meetings of the Principals’ Association’. The only principal that was not part of this was Yeshivah Principal, Rabbi Yehoshua (Shua) Smukler.

Members of the broader community, members of the Yeshivah community and particularly those who were sexually abused at Yeshivah and who were impacted by Kluwgant’s conduct towards them, have a legitimate right to ask how it came to pass that Rabbi Smukler and Yeshivah were the only Jewish school principal and Jewish school that did not join with all of the others, from all streams of Judaism, in making their feelings known to Adass. Is there a difference in Rabbi Smukler’s and Yeshivah’s approach to child sexual abuse matters compared to every other Jewish school and principal? Is there still a propensity to protect their own at Yeshivah when you think nobody will ever find out? Whatever the case, an explanation is due. In fact, overdue.

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MINNESOTA
The Journal

NEW ULM — The parents of a 17-year-old girl in Brown County filed an order for protection Aug. 2 to prevent Fr. Sam Wagner, a priest of the New Ulm Diocese, from contacting her.

The petition reports an “inappropriate relationship with a New Ulm priest” earlier this year and details portions of more than 1,500 social media messages between the two, according to the order.

Wagner was investigated by New Ulm police this year when the alleged relationship were reported to them. The Brown County Attorney’s office has suspended the case without filing charges at this time, citing a lack of evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Wagner remains suspended from ministry pending a review by the Diocesan Clergy Review Board.

Granted Aug. 4 in Brown County District Court, the two-year order against Wagner, who served at The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm between 2014 and 2016, detailed Facebook messages between him and the student between March 17, 2015 and Dec. 27, 2016.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole , jstole@guampdn.com Aug. 31, 2017

The 52-year-old Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School teacher accused of molesting a 10-year-old student was released Thursday on house arrest.

Magistrate Judge Benjamin Sison ordered Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas not to contact, threat or harass his accuser.

The girl’s mother on Wednesday called police, alleging San Nicolas touched her daughter inappropriately, court documents state.

San Nicolas is the girl’s physical education teacher.

San Nicolas would reportedly ask her to stay back, and when they were alone he would touch her breast area over her shirt, according to court documents.

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GEORGIA/SOUTH CAROLINA
WSAV

By Andrew Davis
Published: August 30, 2017

Two victims of an allegedly abusive former Savannah Priest have been identified.

Now one of them is asking anyone who may have a case against Father Wayland Brown to come forward.

“If we can help somebody, if we can reach out to others to quit suffering,” explains an emotional Chris Templeton. “Because unless you;ve been through this you don’t know how it is to suffer with this pain. I need them as much as they need me. thats what im waiting on.”

Chris Templeton says he was sexually abused several times by Brown in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

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CAMBODIA
Seattle Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian court has found a 63-year-old Korean man guilty of child sex offenses and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

A spokesman for the Siem Reap provincial court said Park Youl was found guilty on Thursday of child prostitution and sexual intercourse with girls under 15 years of age.

Cambodian newspapers, citing anti-human trafficking police, said at the time of Park’s arrest last October that he was a pastor of a Christian church in Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia.

The court spokesman, Yim Srang, said Park was also ordered to pay a total of $70,000 in compensation to seven of the nine known victims, and would be deported after serving his prison term. Two other victims did not request compensation.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 31, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Appearing in court via videoconference from the Hagatna lockup was Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School physical education teacher Peregrine “Perry” San Nicolas, who was arrested on Wednesday after a parent reported him to the school.

A Catholic school teacher under fire. Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School P.E. teacher Peregrine “Perry” San Nicolas appearing in court via video teleconference from the Hagatna lockup.

Judge Benjamin Sison said, “Second degree criminal sexual conduct, three counts of that in violation of Guam law for child abuse in violation of 9GCA and for harassment.” San Nicolas was arrested on Wednesday a parent reported him to the school earlier that morning.

The P.E. teacher was arrested on Wednesday after a parent reported him to the school earlier that morning.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera – August 31, 2017

The student broke down in tears during her interview with police.

Guam – The Bishop Baumgartner Memorial School P.E. teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student is now facing charges of second degree criminal sexual conduct.

The alleged victim is only 10 years old. A magistrate complaint filed against Peregrine San Nicolas says the student was in San Nicolas’ 5th grade class last school year which is when the alleged sexual abuse began.

The complaint says that it happened earlier in the year between January and March. The victim told police that San Nicolas would often require her to stay back after class which is when he would allegedly touch her.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pocono News

SCRANTON – Allegations of sexual abuse were levied against Father Martin Boylan in April 2016. State Police say they have closed the investigation because the man who made the claim is refusing to testify.

The Diocese of Scranton, however, is continuing its probe.

A statement released by the diocese on Wednesday says, in part, “While civil authorities have made this determination, the ecclesiastical process in Father Boylan’s case continues. Father Boylan’s status as a priest removed from ministry with his faculties to exercise priestly ministry suspended continues to remain unchanged.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 31, 2017

A clergy sex abuse lawsuit accusing a now-deceased priest, filed earlier this week in federal court, has been voluntarily withdrawn.

Through attorney David Lujan, accuser “A.J.A.” on Aug. 31 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of his lawsuit, which he originally filed Aug. 28.

The plaintiff, now 61 and now living in Las Vegas, is identified in court documents only as A.J.A. to protect his privacy.

A.J.A. had alleged that priest Antonio C. Cruz, who is now deceased, allegedly sexually molested and abused him when he was a 9-year-old boy, around 1964, at a church rectory in Chalan Pago.

Cruz was a priest at the Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church and was Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s mentor when Apuron was still a seminarian.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

August 31, 2017

By Mark Bowling

BRISBANE will host a public seminar by one of the Church’s front-line fighters against child sexual abuse, German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner.

With a reputation as a reformer, Pope Francis named Fr Zollner, together with Irish child abuse survivor Marie Collins as founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014.

Fr Zollner is president of the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Ms Collins’ resignation from the Commission earlier this year sent shock waves through the Church, however, the Vatican-based Jesuit has stuck with the Commission’s work training Church officials and bishops’ conferences worldwide about safeguarding children.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 31, 2017

A former boy scout on Guam and is now living in Washington accused former island priest Louis Brouillard of sexually molesting and abusing him around 1976.

The latest plaintiff, identified in court documents only by his initials G.M.Q., said he was 13 or 14 when the sexual abuse and molestation happened during Boy Scouts of America swimming at the Lonfit River in Ordot Chalan Pago.

“On numerous occasions, while swimming, Brouillard would swim completely naked and routinely instructed G.M.Q. and the other boys to remove their clothes, and Brouillard would grope and touch their private parts,” the lawsuit says. “G.M.Q. was also forced to fondle Brouillard’s penis.”

G.M.Q., represented by attorney David Lujan, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Guam Thursday afternoon.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale is unlikely to ever taste freedom again.

In Victoria’s County Court this morning Australia’s worst sex offender priest had another three years added to his minimum jail term, meaning he cannot seek parole until 2022.

Part of the 11-year sentence he was given today will be served at the same time as a previous sentence, meaning he may serve just an extra three months for each of the 12 new victims who bravely came forward to report abuse.

The horrific ordeal of one young girl whose father left her on a church altar to be raped by Ridsdale moved the County Court to tears when it was revealed earlier this month.

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DEUTCHLAND
Bild

[Michael B. (56) was sexually abused by a Catholic church employee in the 1960s. The Archbishopric of Cologne therefore undertook to pay the costs for 50 psychotherapeutic individual sessions of the abuse victim. Michael B. submitted bills of more than 6927.50 euros and had the amount refunded. But the bills have been falsified.]

Düsseldorf – Michael B. (56) wurde in den 60er Jahren von einem katholischen Kirchen-Mitarbeiter sexuell missbraucht. Das Erzbistum Köln verpflichtete sich deshalb, die Kosten für 50 psychotherapeutische Einzel-Sitzungen des Missbrauchs-Opfers zu übernehmen.

Michael B. reichte Rechnungen über 6927,50 Euro ein und ließ sich den Betrag erstatten. Doch die Rechnungen sollen gefälscht gewesen sein…

Das flog erst auf, nachdem Michael B. weitere Folge-Behandlungen in Rechnung stellte. Weil auf einer Rechnung die Unterschrift des Therapeuten fehlte, setzte sich die Kirche mit ihm in Verbindung. Und erfuhr, dass Michael B. gar keine Therapie-Sitzungen bei ihm hatte.

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DEUTSCHLAND
WAZ

[A 15-year-old Dorstener informs against his evangelical pastor for sexual abuse. Since then he has been the victim of a gossip.The church suspended the pastor.]

Stefan Wette
29.08.2017

DORSTEN. Ein 15-jähriger Dorstener zeigt seinen evangelischen Pfarrer wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs an. Seitdem ist er Opfer einer Gerüchteküche.

Dorsten, das sich „kleine Hansestadt an der Lippe“ nennt, gilt vielen als Idyll. Als Stadt, wo die Welt noch in Ordnung ist. Doch dieses Idyll kann auch die Hölle bedeuten, wenn Konflikte nicht offen angesprochen werden. Die Familie eines 15-Jährigen, der vom Pfarrer seiner evangelischen Gemeinde sexuell missbraucht worden sein soll, erlebt aktuell, wie die Gerüchteküche aus dem vermeintlichen Opfer einen Täter macht.

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CONNECTICUT
New Haven Register

By Randall Beach, rbeach@nhregister.com @rbeachNHR

NEW HAVEN >> Not guilty pleas to charges of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child were entered on behalf of Rabbi Daniel Greer Tuesday in Superior Court.

Greer, attired in a black suit, red tie and yarmulke, stood alongside his attorney, William Dow III, as Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford entered the pleas on Greer’s behalf as well as Greer’s request for a jury trial.

Greer, 77, of West Park Avenue, was making his first appearance in the Part A courthouse, where more serious charges are handled. His case was transferred from the other New Haven courthouse on Aug. 14.

Greer’s accuser is Eliyahu Mirlis, now 29, who alleges abuse occurred between 2002 and 2005. According to the police warrant affidavit, Greer allegedly committed the sexual acts at the Yeshiva of New Haven/the Gan School, where Greer was then dean. Mirlis was a high schooler at that time. The New Haven Register does not usually identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Mirlis has said he wanted to come forward with the allegations and have his name used.

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CONNECTICUT
WTOP

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday entered not guilty pleas on behalf of a rabbi accused of repeatedly raping and molesting a teenage boy who attended a school the rabbi founded and who was awarded $15 million in a civil lawsuit on those allegations.

Rabbi Daniel Greer is accused of sexually assaulting the boy when he attended the Yeshiva of New Haven school from 2001 to 2005. Greer, who’s 77 years old, was a founder and principal of the school.

Greer appeared on Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court, where Judge Patrick Clifford entered the not guilty pleas to felony charges of sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor and continued the case to Oct. 11.

Greer, who remains free on $100,000 bail he posted, declined to comment after the hearing. His lawyer, William Dow III, said they will try the case in court, not in the media.

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OREGON
Catholic Sentinel

Katie Scott
8/29/2017

Revealed to her in the middle of the night, they were singsongy, bewildering and horrifying.

The poems would total more than 50 — composed from memories she at first could not understand.

They were a “nice and tidy way for little Patsy Jane to tell her story,” said Patsy Seeley during an interview in her North Plains home. With them, said the 67-year-old, came “an overwhelming sense of evil and darkness.”

The nightmares articulated in verse unveiled what had long been hidden: sexual abuse — first inflicted by her grandfather and then by a priest in Tillamook — starting when she was 4 and ending at age 11, when the priest was transferred.

A family friend, the priest “used the sacraments and liturgy to inflict the abuse,” recounted Seeley, who said for years she had “spiritual amnesia.”

Though individuals abused by clergy regularly flee the church for good, others, like Seeley, eventually make a painful and circuitous journey back, finding the homecoming a transformative piece of their healing and a source of sustenance, peace and strength.

But the return has countless hurdles, some of them inadvertently placed by the church itself. Survivors often find priests insufficiently trained to minister to them, and there are a limited, if increasing, number of programs that integrate faith with healing. Many survivors say they don’t feel welcome in their parishes.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A Maronite priest jailed for indecently assaulting a teenage boy has had his conviction quashed on appeal.

The Sydney clergyman, 41, was found guilty in 2016 of assaulting the then 15-year-old boy and sentenced to at least 12 months in jail.

His barrister, Phillip Boulton SC, told the Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday the trial judge misdirected the jury and there were problems with the reliability of the complainant and his evidence.

The trial heard that in 2005 the priest was a deacon at the tight-knit church and a close friend of the complainant’s family.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By SARAH HORNER | shorner@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: August 29, 2017

Parties involved in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis bankruptcy proceedings made final arguments in front of a federal judge Tuesday, with each side making accusations of deceptive tactics and baseless claims.

The proceedings are intended to work out a plan for paying survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.

After listening to arguments by multiple attorneys, presiding U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel took the case under advisement. Kressel is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks on which reorganization plan will be used in the settlement.

Two plans are under consideration in the wake of the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January 2015.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan St. Paul · Aug 29, 2017

A federal judge is weighing arguments he heard Tuesday about the legal soundness of two competing reorganization plans for the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Judge Robert Kressel didn’t say when he’ll rule. But he signaled he has concerns about the plan proposed by the creditors committee and overwhelmingly endorsed by abuse victims.

The victims figure the church and insurance companies can come up with much more money than the $155 million the archdiocese has put on the table.

But Kressel said that would amount to “rolling the dice” in an effort that may or may not provide more compensation to more than 400 abuse victims. He also said he wondered if victims had “unrealistic expectations” and realize they could wait for years for some money if the archdiocese plan is not implemented.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

August 29, 2017

Attorneys for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis sparred with attorneys for the victims of sex abuse by priests in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Tuesday.

The archdiocese proposes putting $156 million into a trust for about 400 victims. About $120 million would come from insurance companies.

“It is this archdiocese that continues now to pour salt in the wounds by engaging in secret settlements with insurance companies,” attorney Jeff Anderson said after representing victims in court. He says the settlements were reached without input from attorneys for victims.

“Our plan provides $156 million with certainty in the very, very near future to a trust to be distributed to victims of sexual abuse as that trust sees fit,” said Charles Rogers, an attorney for Briggs and Morgan, which represents the archdiocese.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

The Archdiocese of Agana confirmed just minutes ago that a Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School teacher has been arrested for criminal sexual conduct after school officials filed a report to the Guam Police Department this morning.

According to police, Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas, 52, was arrested on suspicion of second degree criminal sexual conduct and child abuse.

San Nicolas is listed on the school website as a sports director.

The teacher was not named in the archdiocese statement.

A parent of a student met with Baumgartner school administration this morning reporting that her daughter was allegedly inappropriately touched by the teacher.

School administration immediately took appropriate action and reported the incident to Child Protective Services and the Guam Police, according to the archdiocese.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 30, 2017

A Catholic School teacher at Bishop Baumgartner has been arrested for criminal sexual conduct after school officials received a report from a parent this morning.

Guam – Parents send their children to school and entrust the welfare of their children to the teachers who are meant to educate and ensure their safety, but for one family at Bishop Baumgartner Memorial School that was not the case, as their child was violated by a school teacher.

According to Archdiocese of Agana Spokesperson Tony Diaz, school officials at Bishop Baumgartner received a report this morning from a parent alleging that her child was inappropriately touched by a teacher.

Guam Police Department Spokesman Officer AJ Balajadia has identified the teacher as Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas, 53, who was charged with criminal sexual conduct and child abuse.

“Mr. San Nicolas is accused of placing his hands inappropriately on a female studnet from school year 2016-2017,” Balajadia said.

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NEW YORK
The Journal News

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, jfitzgib@lohud.com Aug. 29, 2017

Francis Stinner, a defrocked priest with ties to Somers, Bronxville, Chappaqua and Goshen, died earlier this month at the age of 76.

But the sexual abuse controversy that has long surrounded him did not die with him.

At least three new claims of sexual abuse have been filed against the former Catholic priest and teacher through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, or IRCP, a special compensation program set up by the Archdiocese of New York.

Stinner, who was defrocked, or “laicized,” in 2005, had already been linked to as many as 10 cases of sexual abuse of children dating to the 1980s.

“We are representing additional survivors of Father Stinner who either have submitted or will be submitting claims in Phase II of the IRCP,” said J. Michael Reck, an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse by clergy. “It’s unfortunate there was never a judicial proceeding to determine justice for the survivors prior to his death.”

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune AUGUST 29, 2017

A federal bankruptcy judge will hear arguments Tuesday for two competing compensation plans for clergy abuse victims who have filed claims against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

About two dozen people are expected to testify about the plans, which aim to put an end to more than two years of legal wrangling.

The archdiocese’s financial reorganization plan includes $156 million for the more than 400 people who have filed claims of priest sex abuse.

The plan of the creditors committee, representing the abuse survivors, calls for the archdiocese to leverage more money from its insurers and to contribute more money to the victims’ fund. About $120 million of the $156 million compensation fund comes from insurance payments.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Telegraph

A FORMER high ranking cleric caught downloading indecent images of children for the third time was jailed for 20 months.

Twice-married Paul Battersby had also been found with a shoebox full of children’s clothing and had even written a fantasy about child abuse.

A court heard that he had carefully documented the internet search terms he had used to find the images and had unusually taken the trouble to categorised his collection of photos and videos.

Battersby worked in various church roles in the North including the priest at St Peter’s Church in Darwen and later part-time vicar at St Marks in Blackburn.

The 68-year-old who was later elevated to the Church of England’s National Youth Officer and representing the church internationally, was told by a judge that he had no option but to send him straight to prison.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 29, 2017

Atty. Jacque Terlaje argued that the law that lifts the statute of limitations is inorganic.

Guam – As sex abuse cases against the Archdiocese of Agana continue to be filed, Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s attorney Jacque Terlaje argues a motion to dismiss the four sexual abuse cases against her client saying that the claims are time-barred.

Terlaje argued her client’s motion to dismiss on two grounds.

“We have asked the court to dismiss the complaint involving the four Archbishop Anthony cases and that is simply because the plain statutory reading of the statue, that it did not apply to old cases such as the one Archbishop Anthony is involved in,” stated Terlaje.

Terlaje is referring to the statute of limitations for filing a criminal sexual conduct complaint and what constitutes due process. According to Terlaje, the claims are time-barred and were not revived by the passage of Public Law 33-187. She further states that even if the claims were revived, any retrospective application is inorganic and unconstitutional.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 29, 2017

A California-based attorney said Tuesday that Archbishop Anthony Apuron benefitted from the 40 years that passed since he allegedly sexually abused altar boys in Agat.

Attorney Gregory Nicolaysen said if Apuron’s accusers had come forward earlier, Apuron likely wouldn’t be archbishop and leader of the Catholic Church on Guam.

A hearing was held Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Guam on motions by Apuron to dismiss the four lawsuits filed against him by former altar boys and the family of a deceased former altar boy.

“It is unfortunate that this motion (to dismiss) is even being heard,” said Nicolaysen, who represents former altar boy Roy Quintanilla in his case against Apuron.

Apuron’s attorney, Jacqueline Terlaje, asked the court to dismiss the four lawsuits against Apuron.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 27, 2017
By Krystal Paco

While a verdict from his canonical trial in Rome has yet to be reached, we could see progress with the four lawsuits lodged against Archbishop Anthony Apuron here at home.

The District Court of Guam will hear Apuron’s motion to dismiss on Tuesday.

Defense’s April filing argues that the claims against him are time-barred, despite recent Guam law that lifted the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases.

Because the alleged incidents occurred forty years ago, defense also argues Apuron is now an advanced age without the benefit of witnesses and without the benefit of records from the 1970s to assist in his defense.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Monday, August 28, 2017
GoLocal News Team

The pension fund of St. Joseph Health Services was underfunded by the Diocese of Providence for many years prior to the sale of the hospital to CharterCARE in 2014, GoLocalProv has learned.

The Diocese of Providence failed to make proper contributions – and retirees were never told of the shortfalls. While records are incomplete, it is clear that between 2008 and time of the sale of the hospital in 2014, the Diocese repeatedly underfunded retirement payments or made no payment, according to Stephen Del Sesto, the court-appointed receiver.

It is unclear how many years before 2008 the failure to make payments and partial payments goes back. Repeated efforts to reach the Diocese for comment have gone unanswered.

The bankruptcy of the pension fund impacts 2,800 and is the largest failure in Rhode Island history. The pension fund has a deficit of more than $160 million.

“The Catholic Church and Diocese of Providence should be ashamed of themselves,” said former Rhode Island Attorney General Arlene Violet in an interview with GoLocal Sunday night.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 28, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Attorney Jacque Terlaje responds to media questions after a hearing on defense’s motion to dismiss.

Terlaje represents Archbishop Anthony Apuron who faces four clergy sexual abuse lawsuits at the District Court of Guam.

Defense’s motion argues that local law that lifts the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases is unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs’ attorney David Lujan had stateside co-counsel argue for Tuesday’s proceedings. Attorney Gregory Nicolaysen via telephone argued that Guam’s situation is unique. The Guam legislature, he argued, was responding to a compelling public interest which is that victims of abuse tend to have delayed reporting and the victims in this case were challenged by the most prominent and highest member of the clergy locally, which is the Archbishop.

The court will provide a report and recommendations.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan St. Paul · Aug 29, 2017

Joe McLean grew up the youngest of six kids in a devout St. Paul Catholic family. He was a product of Catholic schools, weekly religious classes and Mass every Sunday, including a stint as an altar boy.

Religious retreats and confession were a normal part of that life. At a 1981 retreat for teen boys at St. Mary’s church in downtown St. Paul, 17-year-old Joe met the Rev. Mike Charland, who was essentially on loan to the archdiocese from his religious order.

Charland ran the retreat, which ended with the priest hearing confessions in a secluded room. When Joe’s turn came, he owned up to something he had long kept to himself: He and his girlfriend had sex.

Charland absolved him, with no lecture. But then came a strange, unmistakably sexual hug.

“He was brushing his pelvis side to side against mine and suddenly I realize what he’s doing because he’s aroused,” McLean recalled in a recent interview. “He released the hug. And he held my face in his hands and then he kissed both of my eyes and then he kissed me on the mouth.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
SABC News

Tuesday 29 August 2017
Anda Nqonji

Nigerian pastor, Timothy Omotoso will appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s court on Tuesday for a second bail application.

He was denied bail by the magistrate, citing that he was a flight risk and could intimidate witnesses.

The presiding magistrate, Thandeka Mashile said that the nature and gravity of the offences permitted no bail.

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

The Jesus Dominion International Church leader faces charges of human trafficking and sexual abuse after allegedly keeping under-age girls at his house in Durban.

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GEORGIA
WSAV

By Andrew Davis
Published: August 28, 2017

Off the pulpit and behind bars.

A Former Savannah Priest, now in jail in Maryland, under indictment for criminal charges in Jasper county.

Wayland Brown was a Priest at St James Catholic Church and school in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

During that time prosecutors say he molested at least two boys, one under 14, the other not even 11 years old.

Now Brown is under arrest, under indictment and facing nine different counts of Criminal Misconduct with a Minor first and second degree.

He had already been convicted in Maryland on molestation charges, in the early 2000’s and spent five years in jail.

The statute of limitations was up in both Chatham County and for the US Attorney’s office. Which means Brown could not be prosecuted in Georgia. But Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap brought the case to the attention of South Carolina officials.

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GEORGIA
Savannah Morning News

By Jan Skutch
DeAnn Komanecky
Savannah Morning News

Former Savannah Roman Catholic priest – and convicted child sex offender — Wayland Yoder Brown has been indicted in Jasper County, S.C., on nine counts of criminal misconduct with a minor – sexual battery — involving two male victims, South Carolina Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone III announced Monday.

Brown, 74, is in custody in Maryland, Stone said. He will be extradited to South Carolina. It’s not known how long that process will take.

The felony indictments, returned Thursday in the Court of General Sessions, charge Brown with sexual battery in several locations, including St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Hardeeville, S.C., the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and the intersection of Stiney and Morgan roads in Hardeeville in the area surrounded by railroad tracks and depot area.

Victims in the cases ranged in age of under 11 to under 14. One victim was in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades at the time of the alleged abuses. The other victim was in the seventh grade at the time. The crimes alleged in the indictments occurred in Jasper County between 1978 and 1988.

The indictment follows a 14-month-long investigation, Stone and Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap said during a news conference in Bluffton.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

AUGUST 29, 2017

Sophie Moore
Australian Associated Press

Australia’s first female Anglican Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy has been elected to head the church in Western Australia.

She will replace Archbishop Roger Herft, who stepped down a year ahead of schedule after admitting he had let down survivors at the royal commission into child sex abuse.

Bishop Goldsworthy said the Perth diocese had put in place a raft of policies and legislation to ensure protection for their most vulnerable members.

She said she hoped to rebuild and regain the trust of the community but her first concern was for survivors of abuse.

“There are people who have been badly affected and hurt, survivors who are incredible in the way they approach life,” she told AAP.

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AUSTRALIA
Bunbury Mail

Andrew Elstermann
@AElstermann

29 Aug 2017

Twenty years after Alan Rowe first approached the Catholic Church seeking an apology for alleged sexual abuse by a priest in Bunbury, he is set to file writs against the Catholic Diocese of Bunbury in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Mr Rowe was an altar boy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He claims that Father Kevin Johnston, one of the parish priests, abused him on about 12 separate occasions.

“Father Johnston would come to me when we were in the sacristy together and changing into our robes for the service,” he said.

“He would fondle me and make me touch his genitals too.

“I recall that Father Johnston used to say once he was finished with me that if I was to say anything about this, I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 28, 2017
By Krystal Paco

Who’s living in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona? That’s what the Concerned Catholics of Guam want to find out.

In a press release from the CCOG, they unveil Occupy RMS, a project to conduct a headcount of those going in and out of the property.

According to CCOG President Dave Sablan, he’s made efforts to speak with RMS leadership but has yet to receive a response.

The count, he says, is necessary as the CCOG believes there are individuals not affiliated with the Archdiocese of Agana who are living rent-free and exposing the Church to liability risks.

The former hotel turned seminary is rightfully owned by the Archdiocese and is currently listed for sale in order to pay the nearly 100 clergy sex abuse lawsuits against the Church.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Aug 28, 2017

A new lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Agana alleges that a now-deceased priest sexually abused a young boy on church grounds in the 1960s.

A former Guam resident who now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam seeking $5 million in damages for alleged sexual abuse when he was 9 years old. The complaint names the perpetrator as Father Antonio Cruz, who is now deceased.

Details of the allegations

A.J.A., who used initials to file the lawsuit to protect his identity, said he and his family were devout Catholics and active members of Our Lady of Peace and Safe Journey Catholic Church in Chalan Pago.

While growing up in Guam, his family frequently volunteered their services and would cook for Cruz and wash his clothes, the complaint states.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WSAV

By Andrew Davis
Published: August 28, 2017

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) — Duffie Stone, Solicitor of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit court, announced that a nine-count indictment has been filed against former Savannah priest Wayland Brown. The charges include criminal sexual misconduct with a minor. You may remember, Father Brown was accused in a civil case involving Chris Templeton as reported by News3 in July 2016.

The announcement was made during a news conference this morning, Aug. 28. Chris Templeton told news 3 he was involved in this case, but Solicitor Duffie Stone would not name either of the two victims included in the indictments against Brown.

Brown allegedly sexually abused Templeton while he was a student at St. James Catholic School in Savannah. A $4.5 million settlement was reached in his lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Savannah on charges of alleged sexual abuse by a priest in July 2016. The suit claimed that multiple warnings were given to the church hierarchy about Brown’s behavior by clergy members as early as 1969. Brown was a priest for the Diocese from 1979 until 1982 then again in 1987.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Island Packet

BY CAITLIN TURNER
cturner@islandpacket.com

AUGUST 28, 2017

A former Catholic priest has been indicted for allegedly sexually assaulting two boys at different locations in Jasper County during the late 70s and early and late 80s.

A Jasper County grand jury handed down nine indictments against Wayland Brown, 73, on Thursday alleging first-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree criminal sexual conduct, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said during a joint press conference Monday with the Chatham County, Ga., District Attorney’s office.

The indictments allege that during the school years of 1979, 1980, 1981, 1987 and 1988, Brown, then a priest at St. James Catholic Church and School in Savannah, took the two children, who were students at the school, to Jasper County on occasions and sexually assaulted them.

One of the victims was allegedly assaulted when he was in the 5th, 6th and 7th grade. The second was allegedly assaulted when he was in the 7th grade, Stone said.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
ABC Columbia

Aug 28, 2017 Grace Joyal

JASPER COUNTY, S.C. (WOLO) – A former Catholic priest in Savannah, GA has been indicted by a South Carolina grand jury for alleged sexual abuse cases from 40 years ago.

Authorities said Wayland Brown, 74, abused two children while he was a parish priest at St. James Catholic School in Savannah in the late 1970s and 80s.

Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone and Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap said at a press conference Monday that the abuse took place at several Jasper County locations.

Brown will be tried in Jasper County because South Carolina does not have a statute of limitations on child sex assault cases.

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FRANCE
Le Monde

[This is news that left them stunned. The victims of Father Bernard Preynat, the former chaplain of a scout troop from the suburbs of Lyon charged with sexual assaults on minors before 1991, learned from the press of the canonical proceedings against the ecclesiastic. The canonical process is the procedure conducted within the Catholic Church according to canon law, the set of laws and internal rules of the institution of Rome. It is a process of discouraging complexity and opacity, according to Father Preynat’s victims.]

Par Cécile Chambraud

C’est une nouvelle qui les a laissés pantois. Les victimes du père Bernard Preynat, l’ancien aumônier d’une troupe scoute de la banlieue lyonnaise mis en examen pour des agressions sexuelles commises sur des mineurs avant 1991, ont appris par la presse la suspension de la procédure canonique ouverte contre l’ecclésiastique. Le procès canonique, c’est la procédure conduite au sein de l’Eglise catholique selon le droit canon, l’ensemble des lois et des règles internes de l’institution de Rome. Une procédure d’une complexité et d’une opacité décourageantes, selon les victimes du père Preynat.

La suspension du procès canonique, cet été, a ajouté à leur désarroi. Le cardinal Philippe Barbarin, qui avait enclenché ce procès, a en effet annoncé son interruption dans un entretien au Monde (daté 13-14 août). Raison invoquée par l’archevêque de Lyon : le lancement d’une nouvelle procédure, notamment à son encontre, devant la justice française. Depuis, dans les rangs de La Parole libérée, l’association qui fédère des victimes, l’indignation le dispute à l’incompréhension.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

The Concerned Catholics of Guam plans to establish a “checkpoint” at the front gate going into former Action Hotel-turned Redemptoris Mater Seminary to count everyone going in and out of that property, the organization announced.

Concerned Catholics has earlier stated that people affiliated with the Neocatechumenal Way movement are living there, rent-free, while the archdiocese is strapped for cash.

The former seaside hotel is one of the Archdiocese of Agana’s high-value real estate assets, once estimated to be worth about $40 million. The hotel project went bust and the property was donated to the church.

The old Accion hotel building and property has been put up for sale by the archdiocese, according to Concerned Catholics.

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