ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White
Of The Morning Call

Child sex abuse victims, advocates hope grand jury report will spur legislative action
It’s been several months since I’ve written about efforts to extend legislative justice to more victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania.

That’s mostly because those efforts are stalled. I’ll get back to that.

My last column and blog post, both from February, focused respectively on:

• The insistence of some supporters of statute of limitations legislation that it include a provision for older victims to have the opportunity for their day in court, an area of disagreement so far between the House and Senate.

• The horrifying grand jury report about child sex abuse at the private Solebury School in New Hope, a reminder that these victims and predators are not confined to the Catholic Church, which has received so much focus.

Since I know fewer readers see my blog posts, I’ll summarize by explaining that the Solebury grand jury report described how teachers routinely were grooming female and male students for sexual relationships, some of which it said continued for years and had a profound effect on the young people’s lives. The report said the private school’s leaders were unresponsive to rumors of these predatory relationships and even direct reports from the victims.

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

UNITED STATES
Verdict

8 JUN 2017

MARCI A. HAMILTON

In this era of a White House that seems impervious to the concept of accountability, you might well think this column will be about President Donald Trump. That is a tempting topic to be sure given the constitutional Framers’ baseline belief in the fallibility of humans and the tendency to abuse power in light of Trump’s uncontrollable urge to turn every moment into a moment of self-adulation. But this column is about a more absolute power exercised in a corrupt way.

Have you seen The Keepers on Netflix yet? If not, sit down and binge-watch all seven episodes, though if you are pressed for time episodes 2 and 7 paint the picture sufficiently. The plot is about the death of a Catholic nun; the story is about the sexual abuse of child after child after child and two Catholic women tracking down every clue they can. It’s a true story.

I won’t give away anymore of the plot, but rather I want to put this docuseries in historical perspective. The Keepers marks an important development in the war against child sex abuse. It has been widely praised here and here and there is every reason to expect many will view it.

The Keepers arrives against the backdrop of the major motion picture, Spotlight, which won the 2016 Academy Award for best picture. It was the story of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative team’s uncovering of the sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese. Spotlight was a tasteful and palatable presentation of that scandal. While victims were depicted, there was no explicit discussion of priests’ sex acts on children let alone portrayals of them, and the story revolved around the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative reporting team as they brought to light dangerous and ugly secrets.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Nicole Sotelo | Jun. 8, 2017

The parents of boys who accused a priest of sexual abuse wrote to the Chicago Archdiocese more than two decades ago: “Your repeatedly asking ‘what do we want’? is one more insult. ‘What we want’ should be totally obvious. We want something done about these priest’s.” [sic]

Next week, June 15, marks the 25th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s announcement of the intent to create a review board to remove priests, such as the one mentioned by the parents. While publicly available files clearly document that church officials knew about the priest’s behavior since at least the late 1980s, they did not report him to the authorities or remove him from ministry.

It was not until 2005 that the priest resigned from being a pastor and moved to a “monitored” setting. Two years afterwards, the priest had a young relative stay in his bedroom overnight while the priest’s monitor was out of the country. After this incident occurred, the archdiocese began the process of laicization, or removing him from the priesthood.

Many abusive priests, like the one above, have voluntarily left or been removed from the priesthood, which begs the question, who is monitoring them now? The answer: nobody.

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

NEW YORK
Newsday

Updated June 7, 2017
By Michael Gormley michael.gormley@newsday.com

ALBANY — The Assembly overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday that would allow sexually abused children many more years to try to prosecute or sue their abuser.

The bill passed 129-7 after a sometimes emotional debate. The bill now goes to the Senate where advocates believe the Child Victims Act faces its best chance of approval in the 10 years it has been proposed. The Senate’s Republican majority has for years blocked the bill, which has been strongly opposed by the Catholic Church and other religious groups. The groups have warned the measure could bankrupt faith-based organizations and the social service programs they operate.

“Without the law, the weak are defenseless,” said Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) in supporting the bill. “And without the law, the vulnerable are even more vulnerable.”

The bill would extend the statute of limitations for criminal cases by five years, provide a one-year period to bring old cases, and allow civil cases to be lodged until the victim is 50 years of age, rather than 23 years old under current law.

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

NEW YORK
Times Union

By Matthew Hamilton on June 7, 2017

An emotionally charged state Assembly on Wednesday approved the Child Victims Act legislation to extend the statute of limitation for criminal and civil child sex abuse cases.

It was the first time either chamber of the Legislature has approved that bill since 2008. The legislation’s chances of passage in the state Senate remain uncertain.

Under current law, the statute of limitations for felony sexual abuse crimes runs five years and begins at age 18. Under the legislation, the five-year statute of limitations clock wouldn’t begin until the victim is 23.

The statute of limitations for civil cases would be extended to age 50.

It also would create a one-year window of time for past victims of sexual abuse whose time period to bring a lawsuit has passed to file a civil lawsuit against their abuser.

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

NEW YORK
PRNewswire

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Estey and Bomberger, LLP

NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — A sexual abuse lawsuit (Federal District of Connecticut, Case 3:17-cv-00906) against the Diocese of Syracuse was filed in a Connecticut Federal Court due to acts of pedophilia committed by a priest who allegedly took the plaintiff, then a minor altar boy, from New York to Connecticut in order to molest him.

The federal lawsuit states that Father Felix Colosimo, then with the Diocese of Syracuse, drove a then 12-year-old Matthew Strzepek to a conference of priests in New York City in late 1987. It is at that New York City meeting, the lawsuit claims, where Father Colosimo sexually abused Strzepek at the hotel and then drove him to nearby Connecticut where Strzepek was again molested by Father Colosimo.

For 13 years, from 1977 to 1990, Strzepek alleges that Father Colosimo molested him hundreds of times and in numerous Northeastern states. On one occasion according to the lawsuit, Colosimo forced Strzepek and another altar boy to have sex with him and with each other, videotaping and photographing the two. The other altar boy could not overcome the trauma associated with the abuse and committed suicide a few years ago.

As is common with many childhood sexual abuse victims, Strzepek repressed the memories for more than two decades. Strzepek’s earliest memories, according to the claim, are of Colosimo taking him into his bedroom at Saint Peters Rectory in Utica, New York when he was four or five years old and sexually abusing him.

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.

MARYLAND
WBAL

[with audio]

Baltimore Sun crime and courts reporter Alison Knezevich wrote a piece on Tuesday regarding public health officials in Ireland reviewing the work history of Catholic Priest A. Joseph Maskell.

Knezevich writes that the Health Service Executive, the agency that runs public health services, recently began looking into complaints and concerns while Maskell was in the country due to the publicity of The Keepers, a Netflix documentary examining sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School and the 1969 unsolved murder of 26-year-old Sister Catherine Cesnik.

Maskell, who left the United States in the 1990s after allegations of sexual abuse mounted, worked as a temporary clinical psychologist for an Irish Public health board for about seven months in 1995 and then in private practice between 1995 and 1998.

The Sun reporter also notes that Maskell celebrated Mass in Ireland numerous times. He was prohibited from public ministry in the United States.

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

UNITED STATES
Irish Post

June 7, 2017, By Gerard Donaghy

NETFLIX’S latest documentary series, The Keepers, examines the case of Sister Catherine ‘Cathy’ Cesnik, a nun who was murdered after disappearing in Baltimore on November 7, 1969.

Her body was found on January 3, 1970 having suffered a skull fracture from a blow to the head.

The show examines whether there is a link between her murder and allegations of abuse at a school she taught, Archbishop Keough High School.

Here, we look at Fr Joseph Maskell, the chaplain of Keough who was the subject of an unsuccessful 1994 lawsuit accusing him of rape, during which one of the plaintiffs alleged he showed her Sr Cathy’s body as a warning not to speak to anyone else about the abuse.

He came from an Irish family

Maskell’s father Joseph was born in Limerick and emigrated with his parents, Daniel and Hanna, to New York in 1898, before settling in Baltimore, an area popular with Irish immigrants.

In The Keepers, investigative journalist Tom Nugent says: “Maskell was an Irish priest right out of the traditional working-class Irish-American community.”

While other kids were playing football or baseball, the young Maskell was saying Mass for his friends.

“From 15 years old he was a priest in training,” says Nugent.

The reporter adds that Maskell’s mother would dress him in Mass vestments and would separate the white wafers out of pack of coloured candy for him to use as Communion wafers.

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.

CONNECTICUT
New Haven Independent

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK | Jun 7, 2017

Three weeks after losing a $20 million sexual abuse lawsuit, Rabbi Daniel Greer and the yeshiva he started in the Edgewood neighborhood may have new troubles at their doorstep.

The yeshiva — where Greer allegedly abused minors for years, according to testimony in the recent trial in U.S. District Court in Hartford — remains open, allegedly under new management. Greer remains in the building, where prayer services take place on the second floor.

Two state regulatory agencies have now accused the yeshiva of operating a boarding school without proper certifications. Meanwhile, the state’s attorney’s office and local police have a file open on a possible criminal investigation of Greer, though it is not clear how active that investigation is. Experts said the state’s statute of limitations has not yet expired.

The scrutiny of the Orthodox Jewish high school ramped up in recent weeks after a federal jury sided last month with Eliyahu Mirlis, a student at the yeshiva from 2001 to 2005. The jurors concluded it was more likely than not — the standard used in civil cases — that Greer had sexually assaulted the teenaged Mirlis repeatedly over a three-year period, and that the yeshiva had demonstrated negligence and recklessness in allowing the sexual abuse to continue. To compensate for emotional and punitive damages, the jury awarded Mirlis a $20 million verdict — a sum that continues to balloon with interest, by nearly $4,400 a day. A second former student and school administrator also in a deposition revealed allegedly being sexually abused.

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

NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

By Michael Randall
Times Herald-Record

The Archdiocese of New York recently settled sexual abuse claims with seven men who said they were victimized as children by former Hudson Valley priests.

The priests included Francis Stinner, who taught at John S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen from 1973 to 1980. He was laicized – removed from the priesthood – in 2005.

The archdiocese paid claims ranging from $150,000 to $350,000 each, totaling more than $1.5 million, to the seven men under the Independent Compensation and Reconciliation Program announced by Cardinal Timothy Dolan last October.

J. Michael Reck, the lawyer who represented the seven, said they agreed to disclose details including the identities of those they accused, “so other survivors still suffering in silence” might be encouraged to come forward.

The archdiocese agreed not to disclose any details of the settlements, but victims are free to speak, according to archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

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.

CONNECTICUT
WNPR

By DIANE ORSON

A key group organized in response to clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Bridgeport has disbanded.

Bridgeport’s local affiliate of Voice of the Faithful brought together lay Catholics 15 years ago in response to an abuse scandal that first rocked the city’s Catholic community in the early 1990s.

The worldwide Voice of the Faithful organization supports survivors of clergy sexual misconduct, most of whom were children at the time of the abuse. It also advocates for more involvement by the laity in shaping change within the Catholic Church.

Former Bridgeport chairperson Jamie Dance said that Voice of the Faithful was first founded after the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston, “…where offending priests were moved from church to church, parish to parish, in order to protect the Diocese from any issues that would surround an offending priest having to come forward.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

The board tasked with reviewing clergy sex abuse claims held its first meeting yesterday and spoke about the process by which the board will review the “dozens and dozens” of claims filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and former Guam priests and bishops.

During a press conference held yesterday at the Hope and Healing office at the Hilton Guam Resort, board chairwoman and Guam’s former U.S. Attorney Alicia Limtiaco introduced four of the board’s six members.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Hope and Healing board consists of: Limtiaco, Rev. Tom Van Engen, Nieves Flores, Lydia Diaz Tenorio and Dr. Ellen Bez, who was not present yesterday. A sixth member has already been identified and is at this point awaiting confirmation, Limtiaco said.

Program Director Mike Caspino reported there have been more than 50, but less than 100 claims made through the Hope and Healing hotline.

He did confirm that all the claims made to the Hope and Healing hotline have been directed at priests and clergy already named in lawsuits filed in both federal and local courts, and that the claims have been of abuse from decades ago. Caspino said if a new claim is filed and involves recent or active abuse by a priest still active in the archdiocese, police will be contacted immediately

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

UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
Wednesday 7 June 2017

A retired Church of England vicar accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy more than three decades ago has been found dead after failing to appear in court on Tuesday.

Police discovered the body of Trevor Devamanikkam, 70, when they went to his home in Witney, Oxfordshire, to arrest him.

He had been due to appear before Bradford and Keighley magistrates charged with three counts of buggery and three counts of indecent assault in the 1980s. The charges were brought under the Sexual Offences Act 1956 and related to a time when the homosexual age of consent was 21.

The survivor of the alleged abuse, known as “Michael”, lodged complaints of misconduct last year against the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and four serving bishops, claiming they had failed to act on his disclosures of rape.

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.

TEXAS
Valley Central

The former priest accused of killing a McAllen beauty queen will head to trial in Hidalgo County.
Attorneys for Priest John Feit — who’s charged with the murder of McAllen beauty queen Irene Garza in April 1960 — wanted the murder trial moved, arguing wall-to-wall media coverage would make finding an impartial jury difficult.

Prosecutors, though, fought for the trial to take place where the murder occurred: in Hidalgo County.

The District Attorney’s Office submitted a 45-page response to the motion for a change of venue that began:

Thou shall not kill (1)

Whoever shall voluntarily kill any person within this State shall be guilty of murder. (2)
God wrote the first law and the citizens of Hidalgo County, by and through a representative government, wrote the second. And both have a fundamental interest in justice.

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TEXAS
KRGV

[with court document]

EDINBURG – A judge has denied a request for a change of venue in a 1960 murder case.

John Feit is accused in the murder of Irene Garza. He was in court last week asking Judge Luis Singleterry for a change of venue.

Feit’s attorney said there’s been so much publicity about the case there is no way Feit can be tried in Hidalgo County and get a fair, unbiased trial.

The trial date is set for Sept. 11.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITER

EDINBURG — A jury of Hidalgo County residents will decide John Feit’s fate.

Luis Singleterry of the 92nd state District Court denied Feit’s motion for a change of venue early Wednesday, court staff confirmed.

“The Court after reviewing the record, pleadings, hearing testimony and argument of counsel, is of the opinion that Defendant has failed to demonstrate the existence of such prejudice in the community that the likelihood of obtaining a fair and impartial jury trial is doubtful; therefore the Defendant’s Motion for Change of Venue should be DENIED,” according to court record signed June 7.

The decision comes two weeks after a change of venue hearing was held, where Feit’s attorney, O. Rene Flores, argued that the intense media coverage of his client’s case for the better part of decades would strip him of a fair trial.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph & Argus

Kathie Griffiths
T&A Reporter

A MAN who claimed he was repeatedly raped as a teenager by a Bradford vicar, has spoken out after his alleged abuser was found dead.

The man, known as Michael, spoke after Trevor Devamanikkam who served as vicar of St Aidan’s in Buttershaw more than three decades ago, was found at his Oxfordshire home on the day he was due in court to face historic sex charges.

Michael said: “Trevor Devamanikkam was due to appear in court yesterday to answer the charges brought against him. He failed to appear and has subsequently been found deceased.

“This is a very difficult time.

“For him to have faced charges of such seriousness after 3 years is thanks to the hard work and dedication of DC Hanson and West Yorkshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

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ITALIA
La Stampa

[He said he was keeper of the Corso Regina Margherita parish but in fact he was pastor. He needed to lie a little to avoide embarrasment when his house behind the church received young women willing to give him paid sex.]

SIMONA LORENZETTI
TORINO

Si faceva chiamare Carlo e diceva di essere il custode della parrocchia di corso Regina Margherita. In realtà ne era il parroco. E quella piccola bugia gli serviva per evitare imbarazzi quando nella sua casa alle spalle della chiesa riceveva giovani donne disposte a fare con lui sesso a pagamento. Una debolezza che alla lunga lo ha messo nei guai con la giustizia e anche con la Diocesi, che lo ha trasferito ad altro incarico e lontano dalle tentazioni. Il parroco non è più giovanissimo e ieri mattina, appoggiandosi al bastone della vecchiaia, si è presentato in un’aula di tribunale per testimoniare contro una escort e un amico della donna, accusati di aver tentato di estorcergli dei soldi in cambio del loro silenzio.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

[assignment record – BishopAccountability.org]

by Kathy Kane

Father John Cannon, an Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest, passed away recently. A traditional obituary was published and, as is custom, a bishop will preside at his funeral Mass. In this case, Bishop Michael Fitzgerald along with other con-celebrants.

John Cannon was a child abuser. He violated the bodies of children. The Archdiocese knew about him since the 1960’s when he abused boys at a summer camp. The group of boys who reported the incidents were believed by other priests. John Cannon even provided a half confession.

They could have gotten rid of him and reported him to the police in 1964. Instead, they implemented the tried and true Archdiocesan parish shuffle. He was assigned as a teacher at an Archdiocesan high school and put in residence at local parishes.

John Cannon was a priest for many years at my childhood parish. I believe he heard my first penance. In October of 1985, my father died and my mother asked him to preside at the funeral because he had graduated in the same high school class as my dad. Cannon called her the day before the funeral and told her he was “suddenly and unexpectedly” called into the Archdiocesan offices. He was worried he wouldn’t be back in time for the Mass.

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ROME
First Things

by Marco Tosatti
6 . 7 . 17

Pope Francis raised great expectations when, on April 13, 2013, one month after being elected to Peter’s See, he created a council of cardinals (then eight, now nine) to study and implement a great reform of the Curia and the Church. Reform was his mandate. During the discussions that took place prior to his election, many cardinals had called for a deep reform, especially of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Its power was too great, they said, not least in its influence over the pope. Since the formation of the council of cardinals (now often referred to as “the C9”), eighteen meetings have been held, many lively debates have taken place, and ambitious projects have been drawn up. But four years on, the results remain unimpressive. Not to say disappointing.

Some criticism must have reached the ears of Cardinal Maradiaga, the C9’s leader, who said in a recent interview: “Sometimes they ask us, ‘What is this council of cardinals doing? Why do we not see results?’ The results are there, but you do not see them.” One of the C9’s major tasks has been to reform the pontifical councils, often by merging them. Old hands in the Curia know that it’s not enough to put new labels on old items. To get results, you have to make things work—which is a little harder.

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CONNECTICUT
The Ridgefield Press

By Macklin K. Reid on June 7, 2017

Legal settlements over sexual abuse allegations against four now deceased priests — including Robert Morrissey, former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Ridgefield — have been reached between the Diocese of Bridgeport and five victims.

The settlements were announced by the Bridgeport law firm Tremont Sheldon Robinson Mahoney P.C., which represented all the victims.

Morrissey served as pastor of St. Mary Parish in Ridgefield from 1992 until 2002, when he resigned after sexual abuse allegations were made against him.

The allegations in the lawsuit that was just settled stem from Morrissey’s time as a counselor at St. Mary’s High School in Greenwich.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

7 June 2017

​Yeshivah child sexual abuse victims and survivors join with members of the community in welcoming the belated departure of Mrs Nechama Bendet from Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre.

As General Manager of Yeshivah until 2014 and a member of its Board of Trustees until recently, Bendet was one of the most senior members of the Yeshivah leadership whose response to allegations of child sexual abuse and whose treatment of victims and survivors, our families and supporters, led to its appearance before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Notwithstanding adverse findings of the Royal Commission in relation to the Yeshiva leadership of which she was a part, Bendet has ignored the calls of victims/survivors and many others in the community to acknowledge her role in the child sexual abuse scandal and to step away from Yeshivah, causing many of us ongoing and unnecessary trauma and distress.

Without suggesting that they are in any way connected to her departure from Yeshivah, we note that Bendet remains involved in multiple ongoing legal disputes regarding her alleged conduct towards Yeshivah victims and advocates, some of which are due to be heard in court in coming months. She has also been the subject of other recent complaints in relation to her alleged conduct.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mittelbayerische

[Domspatzen: Final report in July. Specialist investigator Ulrich Weber will present the results of his investigations of alleged abuse of boys in the Regensburg cathedral choir during the second week of July.]

REGENSBURG.Der Abschlussbericht über die Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen wird erst im Juli veröffentlicht. Wie Sonderermittler Ulrich Weber am Dienstag mitteilte, will er seine Untersuchungsergebnisse in der zweiten Juliwoche der Öffentlichkeit vorstellen. Ursprünglich sollte der Bericht bereits früher fertig sein. Noch Anfang dieses Jahres waren aber weiterhin zahlreiche Informationen eingegangen. Das betraf bereits bekannte Opfer, aber auch neue Opfermeldungen.

Die enorme erfasste Datenmenge aus einem Zeitraum ab 1945 habe eine umfangreiche Strukturierungs- und Einordnungsarbeit erfordert, um dem hohen Qualitätsanspruch an die Untersuchungsergebnisse im Sinne aller Beteiligten gerecht zu werden, heißt es in Webers Mitteilung. Der Rechtsanwalt hat die Misshandlungs- und Missbrauchsvorfälle bei den Regensburger Domspatzen mehr als zwei Jahre lang untersucht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Leonberger Kreiszeitung

[Violence in institutions of the Protestant brothers’ community at Korntal. Was there abuse beyond local borders?]

Von Franziska Kleiner 06.06.2017

Korntal-Münchingen – War es über die Korntaler Ortsgrenzen hinaus bekannt, dass dort Kinder missbraucht wurden? Berichte von Betroffenen liefern Hinweise darauf, dass sexuelle Übergriffe in den Einrichtungen der evangelischen Brüdergemeinde vermutlich zumindest in der protestantischen Gemeinde im wenige Kilometer entfernten Ditzingen bekannt gewesen sind. Möglicherweise haben sich die Pfarrer darüber ausgetauscht.

Der langjährige Pfarrer der Korntaler Brüdergemeinde hat sich womöglich an Jungs vergangen, dies bestätigt inzwischen ein zweites mutmaßliches Opfer. Sein Amtskollege in Ditzingen wusste vermutlich davon. Ein heute 67-jähriger Ditzinger, der anonym bleiben möchte, beschreibt diesen als robusten, mehr als hundert Kilo schweren Mann: „Er war ein Kumpeltyp.“ Allerdings sei er als Konfirmand im Frühjahr 1964 von dem Seelsorger eindeutig zweideutig angesprochen worden. Sie seien sich gegenüber gesessen, plötzlich habe der Pfarrer die Hand auf seine gelegt und gefragt, ob er sich das, was ihm in Korntal widerfahren sei, auch mit ihm vorstellen könne. Damals sei er 14 gewesen. „Ich war nicht geschockt“, sagt der Mann, der auch heute nicht ausnahmslos schlecht über den Seelsorger spricht. Schließlich sei es auch ein Vertrauensbeweis gewesen. Doch er habe nicht gewollt. Damit sei das Thema beendet gewesen, sowohl für ihn wie für den Pfarrer.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SAM RIGNEY
6 Jun 2017

FORMER Hunter priest Archbishop Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be charged with concealing the child sex crimes of another priest, has failed in his third bid to stop the case against him from proceeding.

The NSW Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed Archbishop Wilson’s latest appeal, rejecting claims from his barrister Bret Walker, SC, that the charge against him was invalid because of changes to the law since 1971, when Hunter priest Jim Fletcher is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy at Maitland.

Archbishop Wilson was charged with failing to tell police between 2004 and 2006 of what he allegedly knew or believed about Fletcher, based on alleged conversations with two alleged victims of Fletcher in 1976.

Police allege the information might have helped in 2004 after Fletcher was charged with offences against a third victim, and convicted of serious child sex offences. Fletcher died in jail in 2006.

The police case is that a Hunter woman and a priest told Archbishop Wilson in 2004 that Fletcher had sexually assaulted a fourth victim.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

June 7, 2017

By Mark Bowling

PRINCIPALS of Catholic schools have apologised to survivors and victims of sexual abuse inflicted on students at their schools.

Edmund Rice Education Australia led a “National Ritual of Apology” for victims of historic abuse at schools run by the Christian Brothers.

Those schools include Brisbane’s St Joseph’s Nudgee College; St Laurence’s College; and St James College.

EREA has responsibility for more than 50 Catholic schools and entities across Australia, some of which were previously governed by the Christian Brothers.

These schools are now governed by Edmund Rice Education Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

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

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

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

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

Prosecutors allege that between 2004 and 2006, Wilson failed to bring material information to police relating to the alleged 1971 indecent assault.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WLOS

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) —

A juror was arrested and a mistrial declared in an assault trial involving a minister of Word of Faith Fellowship church.

Our reporter at the scene tells us the arrested jury foreman is 71-year-old Perry Shade.

The judge cited Shade’s misbehavior and immediately held him in contempt on Tuesday. Shade is sentenced to 30 days in jail, and also received a $500 fine for bringing in unspecified outside materials.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Survivors of Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes have accused Minister for Children Katherine Zappone of trying to get them not to push for State compensation for their detention.

In a letter to survivors, Ms Zappone has invited survivors of institutions under investigation by the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes to meetings, beginning with one in Dublin on June 30th.

Saying that she has “reflected carefully” on the commission’s April 11th interim report, the Minister said she wants to get survivors’ views over the next two months.

The commission, chaired by Justice Yvonne Murphy, will publish its final report in February 2018.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

Rob McNamara

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

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
WYFF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

[with video]

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

2:30 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

[with video]

BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
The Journal

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
chrisicisms

June 4, 2017 by Chris Williams

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Shelby Grad and Matt Hamilton

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

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

PHOENIX

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

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

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

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

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 6 June 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Catholic Leader

June 7, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Kathy Lord

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

KATHRYN POWLEY, Herald Sun
June 7, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Margaret Scheikowski, AAP
June 7, 2017

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
News Weekly

by Anne Lastman

News Weekly, June 3, 2017

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Melissa Cunningham

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

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Townsville Bulletin

EMMA CHADWICK, Townsville Bulletin
June 6, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Inverse

By Sarah Sloat

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

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

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

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

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

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MARYLAND
WBAL

[with video]

Lisa Robinson

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

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

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

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

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

Maskell was the school’s chaplain.

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

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

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

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

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

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

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

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent
Tuesday 6 June 2017

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

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

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

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

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

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

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

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

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Connection to Gallup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Buzz

BY Seán Fahey
June 06, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

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

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

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

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

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

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ORGON
The Oregonian

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
KCLR

By MaryAnn Vaughan

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

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

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

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

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

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JAMAICA
The Star

Tamara Bailey
June 05, 2017

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

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

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

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

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Gleaner

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Matt Rocheleau GLOBE STAFF JUNE 01, 2017

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

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

6:10 p.m.

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

Deliberations will resume Tuesday morning.

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
Associated Press

BY MITCH WEISS AND HOLBROOK MOHR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

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

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

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
NBC News

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

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
Christian News Network

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
MyNewsLA

POSTED BY LIZ SPEAR ON JUNE 5, 2017

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Irish Post

By Erica Doyle Higgins

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

BY KERNAN ANDREWS

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

Catholic Professional Standards Limited Announces Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRIA
Crux

John L. Allen Jr. June 6, 2017
EDITOR

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

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

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

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

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

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

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

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

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

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

06/05/2017

Note: This post contains details regarding sexual abuse.

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

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

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

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

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MARYLAND
ABC 2

[with video]

Kate Mills

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

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

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

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

Here is the full statement released by Bishop Malooly:

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

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
America

Dean Dettloff
June 05, 2017

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Village Voice

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

by LAUREN EVANS

JUNE 5, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
CNY Central

by Justine Marschner

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

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

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

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

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MARYLAND
Huffington Post

Sarah Ensor, Contributor
Essayist at write2sarah.com

Note: This post contains details regarding sexual abuse.

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

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

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

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

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CONNECTICUT
Stamford Advocate

By Daniel Tepfer Updated Monday, June 5, 2017

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

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

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

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UNITED KINGDOM
Devon Live

By Paul_Greaves | Posted: June 05, 2017

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

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

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

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

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BELGIQUE
RTBF

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

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

L’abbé venait le soir dans le dortoir

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

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FRANCE
BFM TV

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

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

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

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RUSSIA
RAPSI

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

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

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

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

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

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MARYLAND
Baltimore Post-Examiner

BY BILL HUGHES · JUNE 5, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

BY BOB KALINOWSKI / PUBLISHED: JUNE 5, 2017

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Press & Sun Bulletin

AP

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

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

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

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

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

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

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

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

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

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

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

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

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

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

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

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

‘Under the thumb of the Holy See’

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

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

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

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

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

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

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Donna De Jesus

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CANADA/AUSTRALIA
The Australian

EAN HIGGINS, GEOFFREY LUCK
The Australian
June 5, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Bustle

By CAITLIN FLYNN

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Bustle

By CAITLIN FLYNN

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

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

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