ABUSE TRACKER

ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Abuse at Provolo: The number of suspects rises to nine.]

Legati e violentati al Provolo». A Mendoza la procura iscrive altri tre nomi sul registro degli indagati:si aggiungono ai 5 arrestati (tra cui il veronese don Nicola Corradi) e alla suora latitante.

«Incatenati e violentati all’Istituto Provolo». A Mendoza la procura argentina iscrive altre tre persone sul registro degli indagati: devono rispondere di abusi sessuali ai danni di bambini e ragazzi sordomuti e i loro nomi vanno ad aggiungersi a quelli dei 5 già arrestati a ottobre 2015 (tra cui spicca il prete veronese don Nicola Corradi) e della suora latitante.

Al momento don Nicola ( foto) è agli arresti domiciliari per ragioni di età (ha 82 anni) e salute, mentre in carcere risultano tuttora detenuti

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[The heavy criticism of Pope Francis by Argentinians. Here 27 reasons why Francis has consolidated the abuser” clergy culture. The list was made by the lawyer Carlos Lombardi, advisor to a network of survivors of clergy abuse (AR). He has designated cardinals in the Vatican Curia who participated in the conclave that elected him as pope, members of the so-called ” dirty dozen ” because they were accused of covering pedophile priests. They are: Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), member of the Vatican communications office, George Pell (Australia), Prefect of the Secretariat of the Holy See for Economics; Marc Ouellet (Canada), Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; Seán O’Malley (USA), the C8 Councilor and President of the Pontifical Commssion for the Protection of Minors; Peter Turkson (Ghana), Prefect of the Congregation for the Integral Development of Human Services; Oscar Rodríguez Madariaga (Honduras), Director of C9.]

L’elenco fatto dall’avvocato Carlos Lombardi consigliere della rete dei sopravvissuti agli abusi del clero (AR)

Scarica PDF in lingua originale.

AZIONI DEL PAPA FRANCESCO CHE CONSOLIDANO IL SISTEMA DELLA COPERTURA VATICANA DEL CLERO ABUSATORE SESSUALE

– Ha designato nella Curia vaticana cardinali che hanno partecipato al conclave che lo ha eletto come papa, membri della cosiddetta “sudicia dozzina” perché sono stati accusati di coprire sacerdoti pedofili. Loro sono: Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), membro della segretaria per la Comunicazione del Vaticano; George Pell (Australia), Prefetto della Segreteria di Economia della Santa Sede; Marc Ouellet (Canada), Prefetto della Congregazione per i Vescovi e Presidente della Pontificia Commissione per l’ America Latina; Seán O’Malley (USA), Consigliere nel C8 e Presidente della Pontificia Commssione per la Protezione dei Minori; Peter Turkson (Ghana), Prefetto del Dicastero per il Servizio dello Sviluppo Umano Integrale; Oscar Rodríguez Madariaga (Honduras), Consigliere del C9.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Nicholas Kearns

The proposed new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at the St Vincent’s hospital campus at Elm Park in Dublin will not be run by nuns. It will be run by an independent board under a new company. It will operate in accordance with the law of the land, not canon law – just as it does now. It will have no religious ethos.

The deal brokered by Kieran Mulvey after lengthy mediation says the company called the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC will exercise all key powers “in an undiluted manner” in order to preserve its autonomy “in specific clinical and operational matters”. It could not be clearer.

And lest there be any doubt this is spelled out fully in the agreement between the two hospitals. This autonomy covers “clinical and operational independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology, obstetrics and neonatal services (without religious ethnic or other distinction), in the hospital at Elm Park, Dublin and the provision of medical, surgical, nursing midwifery and other health services”. The agreement says we control our budget, and that we make our own agreements with the Health Service Executive on our service-level agreements. The first chairperson when the hospital opens will be nominated by the NMH directors.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith and Catherine Shanahan

The Department of Health’s secretary general failed to tell Health Minister Simon Harris of serious concerns over the independence of the new national maternity hospital when they were raised in May 2016.

The fresh controversy emerged last night as St Vincent’s Hospital Group published the 25-page legal independence document for the hospital and Holles Street’s clinical director said it will perform any legal procedure when it opens, potentially including abortions, despite ongoing fears it will fall under religious control.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Holles Street board member Peter Boylan — who will refuse to resign over his criticism of the hospital site at a board meeting this evening — claimed the department was warned of the religious interference concerns a year ago.

Citing a letter from 2016, Dr Boylan said Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin was told of the concerns by the HSE’s Ireland East Hospital Group chairman, Tom Lynch.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

A representative for Irish midwives said they want relocation but they do not want any religious order to have a say in modern hospitals.

Ally Murphy, of the Irish Midwives Association told Breakfast Newstalk that they want what is best for Irish women.

She was speaking as the controversy over the decision to give ownership of the new €300m National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity rumbled on.

She told hosts Shane Coleman and Paul Williams that midwives want relocation.

“However the decisions made today will shape the future of our maternity care. We do want hospitals for the 21st century. We do feel that there is no place for any religious organisation in this 21st century care.”

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE MASTER OF the National Maternity Hospital has defended the decision to relocate the new hospital on grounds owned by a religious order, saying that they will have complete control over medical procedures and governance.

On Morning Ireland today, Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of National Maternity Hospital Holles Street, said that the Sisters of Charity “will be an independent company”, and that they will retain their medical practices without religious interference.

It’s the board’s duty to do their best for women and babies. We will not mention any religious, ethnic or other distinction [in hospital governance].

When asked about the clear dispute over governance, Dr Mahoney said they are the first of the co-locations, but that the integrity of their services and autonomy over them will be protected.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Update 8.30am: Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of Holles St, has come out strongly in defence of the agreement to build the new National Maternity Hospital on land that will remain in church ownership.

Controversy has raged in recent days over the fact that the new facility, to be built by the state at a cost of more than €300m, will be built on land belonging to the St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Dr Mahony insisted the chosen location was the right place for the hospital, saying: “We want people to have access to the wide range of facilities and expertise available at St Vincent’s”.

She dismissed concerns over ownership as a ‘storm in a tea cup’.

Her comments follow a statement from the Bishop of Elphin who angered campaigners by claiming Catholic rule will have to be obeyed there.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 26, 2017

Former Guam priest and now Saipan Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho on Wednesday was accused for the second time of sexually abusing a former altar boy, this time by a man identified in a federal court complaint only as B.C.

B.C., represented by attorney David Lujan, said in the complaint he was about 10 years old around 1962 when Camacho sexually abused him numerous times when Camacho was priest at the Nuestra Señora de las Aguas Catholic Church in Mongmong.

B.C.’s complaint brings to 57 the total number of clergy sex abuses cased filed so far in local and federal court.

“One particular occasion, while B.C. was in the rectory eating bread after cleaning around the church, he found porn magazines in the rectory and started to look at them. A few minutes later, Camacho walked in and caught B.C. looking at the porn magazines and threatened to tell B.C.’s mother. B.C. was scared and begged Camacho, ‘Please don’t do that,'” the complaint says. Camacho again sexually abused B.C., the lawsuit states.

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CHILE
Katholisches

(Rom/Santiago de Chile) Am 20. April veröffentlichte die chilenische Mercedarierprovinz die kaum beachtete Nachricht, daß gegen den ehemaligen Generaloberen des Ordens, Mariano Labarca Araja, von Papst Franziskus strengste Kirchenstrafen verhängt wurden. Der Vatikan gab dazu bisher keine Stellungnahme ab.

Die Mitteilung des Ordens, das Schweigen des Vatikans

Der Chilene Mariano Labarca war von 2004-2010 86. Generalmagister des 1218 gegründeten Ordens Unserer Lieben Frau von der Barmherzigkeit vom Loskauf der Gefangenen (Ordo Beatae Mariae de Mercede redemptionis captivorum), besser bekannt als Mercedarierorden. Seit 1574 wird der Generalmagister jeweils auf sechs Jahre gewählt.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[The Catholic Church by means of a decree of Pope Francis expelled priest Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, who belonged to the Order of La Merced, from the priesthood. He has been accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians. He was provincial and world leader of the order and served as rector of the San Pedro Nolasco School in Conceptcion in 2011.]

Publicado por
Cecilia Bastías

La Iglesia Católica, por medio de un decreto del papa Francisco, expulsó del estado de sacerdote a Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, que pertenecía a la Orden de La Merced, y fue acusado de abusos sexuales contra exseminaristas y menores de edad.

Labarca fue líder provincial y mundial de la Orden, y ejerció el cargo de rector del Colegio San Pedro Nolasco de Concepción, entre febrero y septiembre de 2011.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By TANYA TALAGA Staff Reporter
JESSE WINTER Staff Reporter
Tues., April 25, 2017

An Ontario Court has dismissed two claims by St. Anne’s Indian Residential School survivors, saying no judicial probe is needed into the actions of the Canadian government because it did not hide 12,000 documents detailing abuse suffered while at the notorious school.

Survivors of the James Bay residential school have spent years trying to convince authorities that an investigation was needed regarding the access to 12,000 documents that were part of a lengthy criminal probe concerning abuse at the school. Five former church employees were convicted.

Ontario Superior Justice Paul Perell dismissed the claim concerning the 12,000 documents, known as the Cochrane documents, which are transcripts of confidential and privileged examinations for discovery of the testimony of nearly 1,000 St. Anne’s survivors who suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse while at the school. Perell said Canada has provided a “transparent explanation for why the balance of the Cochrane documents have not been produced. The documents are confidential and privileged,” he wrote in his April 24, 2017 ruling.

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NEW YORK
Patch

BREAKING: The priest was also a registered sex offender, arrested at JFK after being found by Interpol, the DA said.

By Lisa Finn (Patch Staff) – April 24, 2017

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — A man extradited back to the United States after sexually abusing a girl, 6, in Hamptons Bays, was a defrocked priest, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

Augusto Cortez pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment before Judge Barbara Kahn in Riverhead, Spota said.

Cortez, 53, pleaded not guilty to the three charges in the indictment: first degree criminal sexual act, first degree sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child, Spota said.

The court remanded the defendant without bail and set a return date of May 15; a temporary order of protection was issued for the victim, Spota said.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

BY MARY SANCHEZ
msanchez@kcstar.com

On a Sunday afternoon last summer, the new bishop lay prostrate at the altar in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. was taking a step that his predecessors never fathomed as he lay face down, his body in a state of submissive penance and apology.

That day, the Service of Lament, was the most public statement yet by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which for decades did more to cover up than stop sexual abuse committed by diocesan priests. Johnston continued to lay prone as statements were read from the balcony, detailing the anguished thoughts of victims.

It was a deeply moving ceremony, filled with hope.

But it’s the less visible, far more behind-the-scenes shifts that have occurred in the last year that will ultimately heal the diocese. At the service, Johnston also announced a series of commitments.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 26, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Former Saipan bishop Tomas A. Camacho stands accused a second time of clergy sex abuse. Filed in the District Court of Guam late Wednesday, 65-year-old B.C. alleges he was sexually molested by Father Camacho in the early 1960s at Nuestra Senora de las Aguas Parish in Mongmong.

B.C. was an altar boy when he found porn magazines in the rectory. According to the complaint, Camacho caught him looking at the magazines and threatened to tell B.C.’s mother. The priest then performed sex acts on the boy and he never told anyone out of fear Camacho would tell his parents he was looking at porn magazines. B.C. is suing for $5 million. He is represented by attorney David Lujan.

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UNITED STATES
Benzinga

April 26, 2017

Spring Valley, NY, April 26, 2017 –(PR.com)– Author and quantitative analyst G.R. Pafumi announces the launch of his newest website, VictimsSpeakDB.org. It is derived from the proprietary Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence (SACCADAS) database. The site provides comprehensive analyses of the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults in 49 countries on six continents. VictimsSpeakDB.org includes statistical data detailing the alleged abuse of over 9,000 victims molested by nearly 3,000 Catholic clergy, dating as far back as the 1920s, and as recently as 2017. The launch of the new website was timed to coincide with pending state legislation to expand the SOL (statute of limitations) for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Pafumi’s key findings of the Survivor Accounts of Catholic Clergy Abuse, Denial, Accountability and Silence (SACCADAS) database regarding alleged abuse include:

· Abuse patterns in Australia/New Zealand and Canada mirror patterns observed in the United States, including the gender of the abused and the decades in which the greatest abuse occurred (1960-1989).

· The average age at the time the abuse was first reported was 43 years for victims who came forward in the 21st century. Their average delay in reporting that abuse was 29 years after the abuse ended. This is strong evidence as to why the statute of limitations to report sex crimes against children must be expanded.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

By Dailymail.com Reporter

A defrocked priest on the run for allegedly sexually abusing a young girl in 2014 was tracked down in Guatemala and extradited back to the US, where he will finally face abuse charges in Long Island, NY.

Interpol, working with US Marshals, found ex-priest Augusto Cortez, 53, in Guatamala and put him on a flight to New York over the weekend, according to authorities.

Upon landing at JFK Airport on Saturday, Cortez — a former Catholic priest of the Vincentian Congregation — was arrested and sent to jail without bail.

Cortez pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child on Monday, according to WABC.

The charges all stemmed from a June 2014 incident in which he is accused of molesting a six-year-old girl at a family party in Southampton, Long Island.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler
Apr 25, 2017
There’s irony in the news that a laicized priest, who once ran a counseling center, has agreed to counseling as a condition of his parole.

In case you missed the story, Edward Arsenault resigned from his post as head of the St. Luke Institute in Maryland in 2013, after he was charged with financial as well as sexual improprieties. He was eventually sentenced to a 4-year prison term after pleading guilty to misappropriating over $300,000 from the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, where he once served as chancellor. The sexual improprieties, involving an adult male recording artist, were not criminal offenses.

One more disgraced priest; one more instance of clerical corruption. But the fact that this particular priest was once the president of the St. Luke Institute—the most prominent of the centers that treated pedophile priests—begins to look like something more than ironic happenstance.

The St. Luke Center has an unhappy leadership history. Its founder, Father Michael Peterson, died of AIDS in 1987. In 1989, the institute brought aboard a Jesuit, Father Curtis Bryant, as head of therapy. Writing in Catholic World Report in February 1997, investigative journalist Lesley Payne quoted one therapist’s report on Bryant’s odd behavior:

Sometimes a visiting bishop would meet Curtis, seeing him prance around like a peacock, and say, “Who the hell was that?” We’d say, “Oh, he’s our director.”

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CAMBODIA
The Cambodia Daily

BY HANNAH HAWKINS | APRIL 26, 2017

Up to seven foreign clergymen are serving time in Cambodian prisons for child sex crimes, according to the executive director of a child protection NGO, a situation highlighted by the arrest of a Dutch priest who was charged last week with producing child pornography.

Evrard-Nicolas Sarot, 53, who was a parish priest in the Netherlands, is accused of paying 19 boys, all under the age of 15, a few dollars each to pose nude for photographs in Siem Reap City.

Another four victims have been identified since the 19 were interviewed by police last week, and other unidentified victims could have been photographed in the Philippines, where Mr. Sarot may also have worked as a priest, Samleang Seila, head of Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), said on Tuesday.

Police said Mr. Sarot was found to have nearly 1,300 images on his camera and 3,715 more on a laptop.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $4.45 million to settle three lawsuits brought by three men who allege they were sexually abused more than a decade ago by former Roman Catholic priest, basketball coach and convicted sex offender Daniel McCormack, the plaintiffs’ attorney said Tuesday.

According to Mark Brown, the attorney for the three plaintiffs, two brothers reached settlements in late January. They accused McCormack of sexually abusing them more than once during their participation in an after-school program called S.A.F.E. at Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School in the mid-2000s. The other man, who played basketball for the team McCormack coached at Our Lady of the Westside, reached his settlement April 20.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said she could not discuss the case “out of respect for the privacy of those involved,” but did confirm the settlement had been reached.

Now 24 years old, the former basketball player, identified in court papers as John Doe, said in an interview with the Tribune that he told his parents and the archdocise about the abuse once he was out of Our Lady of the Westside and attending high school. The archdiocese offered to cover the cost of therapy, he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen, Pat Leahy

The €300 million move of the National Maternity Hospital to a religious-owned site at St Vincent’s University Hospital is back on track after both institutions gave assurances about its autonomy.

St Vincent’s Healthcare Group last night dropped its threat of last week to review the project and gave its most explicit promise yet of the operational independence of the Dublin maternity hospital after it moves from Holles Street to the Elm Park campus.

“In line with current policy and procedures at SVHG, any medical procedure which is in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland will be carried out at the new hospital,” its chairman, James Menton, said in a statement.

Sources say the more conciliatory approach by St Vincent’s followed the call by the National Maternity Hospital’s deputy chairman, Nicholas Kearns, for its former master Dr Peter Boylan to resign.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan and Catherine Devine
April 25 2017

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, has released the full agreement between St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the National Maternity Hospital.

The full statement can be found here .

Details of the agreement were first revealed in the Sunday Independent.

The agreement between the two hospitals spells out how the independence of the maternity hospital will be protected through a new Designated Activity Company providing maternity services.

The company will be a 100pc subsidary of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. However the group’s ownership is conditional on allowing the State a ‘golden share’ in the company to protect its independence, and a ‘lien’, so that it cannot be used as collateral against loans or sold.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The 25-page agreement between Holles Street Hospital and the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group on the new National Maternity Hospital has been published this evening by the two hospitals.

It says there will be “clinical independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology, obstetrics and neonatal services (without religious, ethnic or other distinction) in the hospital”.

There will be “legal autonomy of hospital operations” and “protection of State investment and interests”.

The agreement does not specifically state that any medical procedure which is in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Ireland will be carried out at the new hospital however St Vincent’s says this is the case.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE ST VINCENT’S Hospital Group will have ‘corporate oversight’ of the new National Maternity Hospital when it moves to its new campus, according to the agreement reached between the two hospitals.

The agreement reached in November between the SVHG and the current National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street has been released to the public.

The agreement between the two hospitals over the provision of the new NMH is in the form of a 25-page report by mediator Kieran Mulvey.

The hospital is to be located at Elm Park alongside St Vincent’s University Hospital on the campus owned by the SVHG.

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CHILE
El Dinamo

[Pope Francisco expels Chilean priest from church for sexual abuse of minors.]

El Vaticano informó que, por decreto del Papa Francisco, expulsó de la Iglesia Católica al sacerdote chileno Pedro Mariano Labarca Araya, por su participación en casos de abuso sexual contra menores y ex seminaristas.

Según un comunicado dado a conocer por la Provincia Mercedaria de Chile, se deja en claro que Labarca “ya no es más sacerdote ni religioso de la Orden de la Merced”.

Mariano Labarca fue rector del Colegio San Pedro Nolasco de Concepción, entre febrero y septiembre de 2011, consignó radio Biobío.

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OREGON
Oregonian

By Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive

UPDATE Monday, April 24 at noon: The Senate did not vote Monday morning on Senate Bill 737. A new date for a vote hasn’t been set yet.

Amaia Rennie told a state senator that she was 35 years old, healthy and less than five months into her pregnancy when her water broke and she headed to the hospital.

But things went from bad to worse when medical staff made a series of errors, she said.

She ended up with a life-threatening infection that put her in a coma and sent her into surgery to repair her heart, she said. She lost both of her legs below the knee and nine fingertips. She could no longer have children, she said.

Rennie won a confidential settlement three years ago that allowed her to cover the $120,000 cost of a surrogate birth so she could become a parent and pay for the state-of-the-art prosthetic legs that help her keep up with her now 3-year-old. …

Backing Senate Bill 737 as part of the coalition is the the ACLU of Oregon, Crime Victims United, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the Brain Injury Alliance of Oregon, Disability Rights Oregon and the plaintiff’s attorneys group known as the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Tuesday, April 25, 2017
GoLocalProv News Team

The RI Ethics Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday that Supreme Court Justice Francis Flaherty violated state ethics code.

The Rhode Island Ethics Commission on Tuesday found probable cause that Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty violated state ethics code by failing to disclose that he was the President of a Catholic non-profit in Rhode Island for five years.

Flaherty had served as President of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island, whose mission is to encourage Catholic lawyers to apply Christian principles to modern problems.

Ethics Complaint

A complaint had been brought against Flaherty in September by Helen Hyde, a former Rhode Island resident currently living in Connecticut, who had a sexual abuse case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court – under Flaherty – involving Roman Catholic priest Brendan Smyth.

Smyth had been convicted of hundreds of indecent assaults against children in native Ireland. Smyth died in prison in Ireland in 1997.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

Apr 25, 2017

By Katie Mulvaney
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The state Ethics Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday that there was probable cause to find that Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty violated the state ethics code by failing to disclose his leadership position in a Catholic nonprofit organization.

Helen L. Hyde, of Brookfield, Connecticut, in September filed a complaint faulting Flaherty for not indicating on his financial disclosure statements from 2010 to 2015 that he served as president of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island. The nonprofit society’s stated mission is to “promote the study by Catholic lawyers of the application of Christian principles to modern problems, especially in so far as they are connected with civil or ecclesiastical law,” according to the complaint.

“The omission is not a neglectful oversight, but rather occurred five successive years in a row,” Hyde wrote, referring to the nondisclosure as “knowing and willful.”

Hyde, a former Rhode Island resident, alleges that Flaherty held that role while presiding over her appeal before the state Supreme Court. She and a man who alleged that a Roman Catholic priest sexually abused them more than four decades ago sought to recover damages from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence. Flaherty wrote the decision denying Hyde and Jeffrey Thomas damages.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

At his sentencing hearing a year ago, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert apologized for sexually abusing boys he’d mentored decades before as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School. “For 11 months, I have been struggling to come to terms with events that occurred almost four decades ago,” he said at the emotional Chicago hearing in which a federal judge called him a “serial child molester.”

Hastert wasn’t convicted on any sexual abuse charges, however. The statute of limitations had long ago expired. Instead, he was convicted on charges relating to bank fraud. A federal investigation into suspicious bank transactions by the former Illinois legislator and congressman had eventually revealed the sexual abuse. …

Illinois is already a leader in providing victims of sexual abuse a pathway to justice. Several years ago, in reaction to the priest abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Church, the state removed the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes against children. But there were crucial exceptions. Victims needed to produce corroborating physical evidence, for instance.

Few cases meet that criteria, leaving most abuse cases subject to a statute of limitations that gives a victim only until he or she is 38 (20 years after he or she turns 18) to file a complaint. The new law would remove those extra requirements and effectively eliminate the statute of limitations for cases in which the current legal time limit hasn’t yet expired.

Here’s why this is important: Ending the statute of limitations would acknowledge that many victims are simply unable to deal with, let alone talk about, the abuse they suffered as children until much later in life.

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AUSTRALIA
MUP

George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican’s indispensable ‘Treasurer’. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, ‘Big George’s’ ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up. George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted.

The nation’s most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children. Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants.

She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal’s knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time.

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GEORGIA
Golden Isles News

By WES WOLFE wwolfe@goldenisles.news

The Rev. Kenneth Adkins stood unrepentant after Glynn County Judge Stephen Scarlett read his sentence, declaring that he did nothing for which he was convicted, nor even knew the victims in his child molestation trial at the time accused.

“I’m not going to let this moment define me,” Adkins said.

But that does not change what he faces — the real possibility of the end of his natural life occurring in state prison.

Adkins, 57, for three counts of aggravated child molestation, received three concurrent sentences of 35 years confinement, with the balance of his life sentence served on probation. That would make Adkins 92 years old by the time he walked free.

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GEORGIA
Florida Times-Union

BRUNSWICK, Ga. | The fate of controversial pastor Kenneth Adkins has been decided. Glynn County Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett sentenced him to 35 years in prison for eight counts of child molestation.

Prior to becoming a pastor in Brunswick, the 57-year-old spent many years in Jacksonville as a public relations and political consultant, raising the ire of many when he called gays sinners and attacked his critics on social media with crude anti-gay rhetoric and cartoons.

At 9:35 a.m. Tuesday, Adkins walked into a courtroom a very different-looking man. Gone were his tailored suits he wore during his trial. Gone was his confident and pleasant-looking face. Instead, a handcuffed Adkins emerged in a forest green jail-issued jumpsuit. His hands clasped a Styrofoam cup of coffee. His face sullen.

Moments later he learned the state wanted the judge to follow strict interpretations of Georgia law that would mandate that Adkins receive the maximum sentence with no chance of parole because of his past convictions in Florida. At a minimum, that maximum would be life plus 30 years. Scarlett called for a recess at 9:50 a.m. and headed into chambers with a stack of paperwork detailing Adkins’ various prison and jail sentences.

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GEORGIA
First Coast News

[with video]

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A judge has sentenced Brunswick Pastor Kenneth Adkins to life for aggravated child molestation Tuesday morning.

Adkins’ sentencing states he must serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, with the rest served on probation. He also faces up to 20 years for every additional charge, all to run concurrently.

Adkins turned himself in on one count of aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation back in August of 2016. Authorities said that their investigation into the pastor focuses on suspected molestation in multiple locations.

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ILLINOIS
The Southern

MOLLY PARKER The Southern

This is the full Q&A, with minor edits, of the interview The Southern Illinoisan conducted last week with Paul Wesselmann, who grew up in Carbondale, for the story that published Sunday titled “Light shines out of darkness.” Wesselmann said he wanted to speak out about being victimized at a Catholic church camp in Southern Illinois in the mid-1980s so that his story of healing might encourage other victims of abuse to reach out for help, and know they are not alone.

1. Let’s start off with the basics. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Born June 2, 1967 (currently 49 years old; will turn 50 in a few weeks!) I grew up in Carbondale. I attended Thomas, Parish and Lewis schools as well as Lincoln Junior High & CCHS Class of 1985.

I attended McKendree University in Lebanon (BA psychology, 1989), and then left Southern Illinois to attend grad school at Bowling Green State University, Ohio (MA, higher education, 1991). After that I lived in Wisconsin 1991-2012, and currently reside in Cincinnati, Ohio (2012-present).

2. Describe what it has been like to live with the abuse you endured.

I didn’t really experience it as a burden or trauma at first … it just seemed a normal part of life because that was the life I knew. I think the most damaging outcome of the actual abuse was assuming that my feelings of attraction to other guys was somehow related to what happened to me, and the fear that I myself could/would become a predator terrified me for years — well into adulthood in fact. The church’s concealment of the abuse contributed to the shame I felt, and made it tough to trust and respect others.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

Former Archbishop Nienstedt’s never-revealed secret – broadcast May 4, 2016

UPDATED:APR 25 2017

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) – A FOX 9 investigation into former Archbishop John Nienstedt’s past has been honored with a regional Murrow Award for investigative reporting.

The story uncovered how 40 years ago, as a young priest, Nienstedt failed to protect a child in his own family who was allegedly abused by his best friend, a fellow priest. That priest, Fr. Sam Ritchey, would go on to abuse at least three other boys.

The victim, the son of Nienstedt’s cousin, told the FOX 9 Investigators how Nienstedt introduced Fr. Ritchey to the family, and how Nienstedt, an ambitious priest on a career fast track, failed to acknowledge the sexual abuse or report it to law enforcement or church authorities.

Nienstedt’s failure to address the sexual abuse allegations in his own family, and his cold and calculated response to the family decades later, would foreshadow his failure to adequately address the sexual abuse crisis in the church. Nienstedt resigned from the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in June 2015 while it was under criminal investigation and in bankruptcy.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

The Vatican tribunal investigating allegations of sexual abuse against Archbishop Anthony Apuron will meet two of the former Guam Catholic leader’s accusers in Hawaii next week.

Attorney David Lujan confirmed with The Guam Daily Post that his clients, Roland Sondia and Roy Quintanilla, have agreed to meet with Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke at a church in Hawaii on May 6. Burke is presiding over the church tribunal tasked with hearing the case against Apuron.

“We have reached a compromise,” Lujan said on Tuesday.

The attorney will not be allowed to be in the room, but can be outside while his clients testify.

“I’m satisfied that Roy and Roland will testify and stick to what Apuron did to each of them, respectively,” he said.

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ISRAEL
YNet News

An Israeli family court judge rules that Lev Tahor, currently located in the Guatemalan jungle, is a cult with children who are at-risk, including for being married as young as 15 to partners 20 years their elder.

Gilad Morag|Published: 25.04.17

An Israel court ruled Tuesday that the extremist ultra-Orthodox community Lev Tahor (“A Pure Heart”), which lives in a jungle in Guatemala and has many Israeli members, is a cult.

“It is sufficient for my ruling to consider the conduct of the community towards its children, in order to determine that this is an abusive cult that severely harms the bodies and souls of the children of the community,” wrote Judge Rivka Makayes, vice president of the Family Court contained within the Central District Magistrate’s Court. Makayes ruled in the petition filed by the attorney general and relatives of minors who are in the cult.

The judge further wrote, “The evidence presented to me, both in direct testimony and in indirect testimony, led me to the conclusion that the Lev Tahor community treats the children of the community, inter alia, with severe physical punishment, with underage marriage (from the age of 14 for boys and 15 for girls), with spouses who sometimes have age differences of up to 20 years.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

An Israeli judge rules the Lev Tahor community of ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in the Guatemalan jungle are a “dangerous cult.”

“Based on the conduct of the sect toward minors, it’s sufficient to call this group a dangerous cult that severely damages the physical and emotional well-being of the children of this community,” Judge Rivka Makayes of the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court says in her ruling.

The ruling comes in response to a petition filed to the court by the attorney general and several family members of sect members.

Makayes agreed with the petition that requested the categorization of ultra-Orthodox children who were illegally taken to Guatemala with their parents to join the group as “at-risk” minors.

While the ruling will have little effect on those already in South America, Makayes hopes the ruling will dissuade other ultra-Orthodox families from joining the group.

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AUSTRALIA
The Austrlaian

April 26, 2017

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

Three of the Salvation Army’s most senior commanders are closely related to men who have been accused of, charged with or convicted of sexual offences, ­including against children.

The revelation demonstrates how deeply the church child-sex scandal has affected the tight-knit Salvation Army community and comes after a royal commission uncovered evidence of horrific ­assaults allegedly committed by its officers and staff.

The commission identified at least 19 alleged child abusers within the Salvation Army over recent decades, while an ongoing police investigation into boys’ homes run by the church has led to two arrests so far.

The Salvation Army’s national chief secretary, Colonel Mark Campbell, is the son-in-law of a former major, Errol Woodbury, who was the subject of “historical allegations” that led to his being stripped of his position in 2015.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ciarán D’Arcy
 
The Catholic Bishop of Elphin has clarified comments attributed to him in a weekend newspaper article about the patronage of the new National Maternity Hospital.

Last week’s announcement by the Department of Health that the Catholic Sisters of Charity order would be given ownership of the €300 million facility once it is up and running caused a backlash from the public and politicians. …

Speaking to local radio station Shannonside FM on Tuesday, Dr Doran said he did not specifically mention the National Maternity Hospital in his comments to the newspaper.

He said the comments attributed to him were in response to a question about canonical obligations regarding the disposal of existing church property, and were intended to be general in nature.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

25/04/2017

Update 1.40pm: The Department of Health has denied claims from Dr Peter Boylan that it was warned last year about a possible religious influence on the new National Maternity Hospital.

The former master of Holles Street says the Department was given the warning “some time ago” by the head of the Dublin-based hospital group.

However, the Department of Health says it has no record of any such letter being received.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

St Vincent’s hospital requires “corporate unitary oversight” of all services after the National Maternity Hospital moves to its campus, according to the agreement reached between the two hospitals.

St Vincent’s wants “integration” of the activities of the NMH with existing activities on its campus to ensure their effective and efficient operation, the agreement states.

The 25-page document, seen by The Irish Times, says the new hospital will be required to treat patients “without religious or ethnic or other distinction”.

It takes the form of a report by mediator Kieran Mulvey to Minister for Health Simon Harris on the terms of agreement between the NMH and St Vincent’s Hospital Group last November.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fintan O’Toole

In 1990, my second son was born in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Of the women in the ward with my wife, one was 42 and had just had her seventh child. She was desperate to be sterilised. Another woman was younger – somewhere in her mid-30s – and obviously poor. She had just given birth to her fifth child. She, too, did not want any more children. She wanted, as she put it, “to have my tubes burnt”. The curtains were drawn around her bed but everyone in the ward could hear the conversation with the doctor to whom she put this request.

The doctor, a woman, was professional and sympathetic. But she was also emphatic: “This is not a decision for you and it is not a decision for me. It is a decision for the ethics committee of the hospital. If you wish to make a request, your file will be sent to the ethics committee. They will read your file and on the basis of the file they will decide whether or not you can have a tubal ligation. But I must warn you that even if they rule in your favour, the procedure will not be covered by your medical card. It will be separately means-tested.”

We were ashamed to be listening in on this poor woman’s humiliation, but even more ashamed of her absolute powerlessness. There was nothing about it that we did not know already, but that knowledge of how Irish society worked for women – and especially for women without money – took on a brutal reality and a stark clarity: This is not a decision for you. The “this” was her body, her future, her self, her supposed status as a citizen of a free republic. It was what women were told all the time. …

Corrosive myth

Nothing corrodes civic democracy in Ireland quite so badly as the myth of charity. It has a long reach because it has deep roots. It comes in part from the history of colonisation. But its most insidious form is the belief that the Irish would have had nothing were it not for the Catholic Church. The truth is that the church fought ferociously to prevent the development of any form of public education or healthcare that it did not control. It destroyed and then took over the non-denominational national school system in the 19th century. It blocked the extension to Ireland of the sickness and maternity benefits introduced in the UK by Lloyd George’s pioneering National Insurance Act of 1911. It stopped the mother-and-child healthcare scheme in 1951.

These key victories shaped and kept alive the idea that Ireland could never fully create a culture in which we as citizens and taxpayers owned our own public services. We evolved a half-baked welfare state, a chaotic and enormously inefficient mix of public, private and charitable provision. And many parts of the political and bureaucratic systems are not unhappy with this. The difference between having rights and receiving charity is accountability. Charity is unaccountable – it speaks to the goodness of the heart not the good of the citizens. And having this unaccountability at the core of so much of our system of public provision doesn’t just suit the church – it suits all those whose lives are made easier by not having to answer to the people they supposedly serve.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post Apr 25, 2017

“We received dozens and dozens of phone calls.” – Mike Caspino, director, Hope and Healing program

The director of a recently created program to promote hope and healing for multiple victims of child sex abuse at the hands of Guam priests decades ago reported the program’s hotline has received numerous calls since its inception two weeks ago.

“We received dozens and dozens of phone calls,” Mike Caspino told The Guam Daily Post.

While the newly appointed director of the Hope and Healing program said he is bound by confidentiality restrictions, Caspino reported the hotline aimed at providing victims easy access to healing resources has received “well over 50” calls.

Victims’ attorney expresses doubt

Though the Archdiocese of Agana’s effort at providing help and a listening ear to victims of child sex abuse is still in its early stages, counsel for more than 40 of the victims so far has expressed doubt as to the sincerity of the church’s efforts.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 25, 2017

By Krystal Paco

More familiar faces fill the open seats in the newly-formed non-profit Hope and Healing Guam. Andrew Camacho is the Vice President of the Concerned Catholics of Guam. Julie Perez-Bollinger is a retired nurse and no stranger to the weekly Sunday pickets in front of the Hagatna Cathedral.

Retired teacher Joe Santos is the man behind Silent No More – the effort which ultimately resulted in the change of Guam law to lift the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases.

They’re no strangers to the controversies facing the local Catholic community. In fact, they’ve all been active in trying to clean up the Church, which is why they were chosen and announced on Tuesday as the Board of Incorporators for Hope and Healing Guam. The non-profit was established with the sole purpose of addressing clergy sex abuse claims. Although funded by the Archdiocese of Agana, they operate independently.

Hope and Healing Guam Executive Director Michael Caspino said, “One of the big facets of having these three folks involved is the independence element of it. They’re here to make sure we’re independent from the archdiocese which we are. So there’s certain boundaries we don’t cross,” he said.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com April 25, 2017

Roy Quintanilla, the first former altar boy in 2016 to come forward and publicly accuse Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of sexually abusing him, said Tuesday he will testify before a Vatican tribunal.

The tribunal, led by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, is handling Apuron’s canonical penal trial. Quintanilla said it will receive his testimony in Honolulu on May 6.

“I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do,” Quintanilla, 52, said.

Quintanilla said he is grateful he’ll be able to talk directly to the Vatican about what Apuron did to him some 40 years ago.

“I’m looking forward to testifying before the Vatican tribunal. I’ve been waiting for a long time to tell them my story,” he said. “I’m truly grateful for all the support that people have shown not only for myself but all the other victims. I hope what I’m doing also helps the cause of other victims.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Has anyone considered locating the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at RTÉ? Space is now available there. It was not last November when the current controversial agreement between the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the NMH was concluded.

The location is close to the desired adult tertiary hospital at St Vincent’s, in case of a necessity for specialised emergency treatment; while, were it built at RTÉ, the State would remain sole owner of the new NMH and all legal treatments for women would be available without restriction.

Last month it was announced that 8.64 acres of RTÉ’s Donnybrook grounds are to be sold off for housing.

It also emerged then that the broadcaster was expected to offload up to 15 acres of the 32.12 acre campus it has occupied there since 1961. But it found itself able to sell a smaller land bank because of greatly improved prices for sites due to the economic recovery and an acute shortage of housing in Dublin.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Shane Phelan
April 25 2017

Adverse public opinion about the decision to allow the Sisters of Charity to own the proposed new National Maternity Hospital is threatening to derail the deal put in place for the publicly-funded construction of the €300m facility. But are people getting worked up about nothing when there is a deal in place guaranteeing the independence of the hospital?

An agreement document states the hospital’s clinical services will be free of any religious considerations, while other safeguards include a ‘golden share’ being held by the State to ensure the hospital’s independence.

A lien, or legal charge on the hospital, would also mean it cannot be sold. But not everyone is convinced these measures will guarantee that clinical decisions are not in some way subject to religious interference.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Update 11.45m: A member of the National Maternity Hospital Board has said that they were not consulted about a request for Dr Peter Boylan to resign.

Dr Boylan, a former Master at Holles Street in Dublin, was asked to step down from his role on the board of the current National Maternity Hospital by deputy chairman Nicholas Kearns via text message on Sunday.

Dr Boylan had objected to plans to give ultimate ownership of a new taxpayer-funded €300m National Maternity Hospital build to the Sisters of Charity religious order.

Sinn Féin Councillor and Board member Micheál MacDonncha said that Dr Boylan should not be asked to resign for expressing an opinion, describing the decision as “regrettable”.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE FORMER MASTER of the National Maternity Hospital has said that he will refuse to resign from its board despite being asked to do so.

Last week, Dr. Peter Boylan went public with his criticism of the decision to locate the new National Maternity Hospital on the site of St. Vincent’s Hospital and place it under the ownership of religious order the Sisters of Charity.

The order’s ownership of the future hospital has led to concerns that Catholic doctrine may influence medical practices.

The decision to approve the move was overwhelmingly backed by the board of the National Maternity Hospital. Boylan is a member of that board and abstained in the vote.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

The former master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Peter Boylan said he is not going to resign from the hospital’s board despite a request to stand down.

Dr Boylan last week expressed strong reservations about the agreement reached last November between St Vincent’s and the NMH under which the maternity hospital is due to move to the St Vincent’s site as part of a €300 million project under the sole ownership of the Sisters of Charity.

The hospital’s deputy chairman, former High Court president Nicholas Kearns, asked Dr Boylan to resign from the board, a NMH spokesman confirmed last night. Mr Kearns had called for Dr Boylan’s resignation following an exchange of text messages on Sunday.

Dr Boylan had initiated the exchange with a text message to both Mr Kearns and current master, Dr Rhona Mahony, who is Dr Boylan’s sister-in-law, in which he urged them to “sit down and talk”.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

A former master of the National Maternity Hospital has refused to resign his position on the hospital’s board.

Dr Peter Boylan was asked to step down after he criticised the plan to build the new facility at a site owned by the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

Concerns have been raised about the potential for religious influence over the new hospital and Last week Dr Boylan spoke out about his reservations.

He said the 100 governors of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) in Holles Street had yet to be asked for their agreement on the arrangement and insisted he had expressed his reservations to his fellow board members on a number of occasions.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Beast

PAUL A. OFFIT

On March 29, 2017, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, admitted defeat. “We tried a new policy,” he said. “It didn’t work, which I’m very unhappy about.” During the previous two years, six newborns in New York City had suffered severe infections with herpes simplex virus (HSV)—a situation de Blasio had been hoping to avoid.

Adults infected with HSV typically develop ulcers in their mouth or blisters in their anal and genital areas. For newborns, however, it’s a different story. In babies, HSV can enter the bloodstream and infect the liver (causing hepatitis) or the lungs (causing pneumonia) or the brain (causing encephalitis). Unlike first-time infections in adults or older children, newborn HSV infections can cause permanent brain damage or death. Typically, newborns come in contact with HSV when they pass through the birth canal of a mother who is infected. However, none of the six infants who were infected with HSV in New York City got it from their mothers. So where did they get it?

In the Bible’s Genesis 17:10-11, God made a deal with Abraham, the father of the Jewish people: “Every manchild among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and you.” Of all the mitzvahs (or good deeds) mentioned in the Torah, circumcision—a sacred covenant between God and every Jewish male—is second only to “Be fruitful and multiply.” Unfortunately, this practice, which is at least 4,000 years old, has a darker side.

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FLORIDA
WUWF

[with audio]

By DAVE DUNWOODY

With a spate of arrests and convictions on child abuse and child sexual assault charges in the Pensacola area the past few weeks, there are concerns about how the grownups can step in and offer more protection.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, and this is part one of a three-part series entitled “Suffer the Little Children.”

Perhaps the highest-profile case at this time is that of 54-year-old Charlie Hamrick, who faces 14 counts of child sexual abuse. Thirty other counts were dropped by the State Attorney’s Office. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says the attacks go back at least two decades, and maybe even further.

“Mr. Hamrick was a Sunday school teacher at Pine Forest Methodist Church, part of the youth ministries at New Dimensions, and also at Harvest Christian Center,” said Morgan. “He was also a football coach at one time at Tate High School.”

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The Board of Incorporators will oversee the administrative work of Hope and Healing Inc.

Guam – The new Board of Incorporators for Hope and Healing Guam was introduced today and all three members are known activists within the church community.

The new members of the Board of Incorporators for Hope and Healing Guam are President Andrew Camacho, Secretary Julie Bollinger and Treasurer Joe Santos.

“Can you think of three better people? People from [Concerned Catholics of Guam], Silent No More, protesters there that would ensure that this process is independent and transparent?” noted HHG Executive Director Atty. Michael Caspino.

Caspino says the three of them were chosen because of their background in campaigning for justice for victims of abuse as well as the successful return of the disputed Yona seminary property.

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INDIANA
Kokomo Perspective

Devin Zimmerman

(Editor’s note: despite the claims of Temple Baptist Church, details in last week’s article of the Kokomo Perspective were vetted and corroborated thoroughly with multiple sources. We stand by our reporting. Read more about this story in next week’s paper.)

After declining to speak at length with the Kokomo Perspective prior to last week’s publication, Temple Baptist Church spoke out via social media last week in response to the story published concerning allegations made by former member Dawn Price.

In a statement on the church’s Facebook page, the church addressed the allegations leveled at it by various sources, including Dawn Price and her ex-fiancé, Andy Thornton. The church confirmed that an altercation occurred in 1991 just prior to Thornton and Price’s wedding. However, the church argued that no confession was made by Dawn’s father, Don Croddy, in regards to the accusation of his sexual abuse of her in front of Temple Baptist Church Pastor Mike Holloway.

“I first became aware of a potential family problem in 1990 when Dawn and her father were interviewed by Child Protective Services (CPS), though I was not informed of the topics being discussed at that time,” read the statement said to be authored by Temple Baptist Church Pastor Mike Holloway. “The authorities chose not to pursue any legal actions as a result of that investigation.

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UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Post-Examiner

BY BILL HUGHES · APRIL 24, 2017

“The Keepers” examines the unsolved murder of a popular nun and a related church sex abuse scandal and cover-up.

Beginning on May 19, 2017, Netflix viewers will be able to view all seven episodes of a series entitled, “The Keepers.” The documentary was produced by Ryan White. It deals with, among other subjects, the unsolved brutal murder on November 7, 1969, of a popular nun, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, a/k/a “Sister Cathy,” age 26.

The official trailer is below.

“The Keepers” will also examine claims of serial sexual abuse of dozens of students by Catholic priests and others, and a purported cover-up of the those charges by officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Sister Cathy’s battered body — she had been beaten over the head — was discovered off Monumental Avenue, in a Landsdowne, Baltimore County, MD, garbage dump by hunters, on January 3, 1970. She was a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSNS) and had been a teacher at the Catholic, all-girls Archbishop Keough High School, in Landsdowne.

The prime suspect in Sister Cathy’s murder was a priest, the late Father A. Joseph Maskell. He had been a chaplain and counselor at Archbishop Keough while she taught there. Maskell was well connected to the local community and to the police departments, at both the county and state levels. Father Maskell was also, for a time, an assistant pastor at St. Clement’s Roman Catholic Church in Landsdowne. He was never charged with Sister Cathy’s murder, but he was later defrocked. He died in 2001.

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NEW YORK
Sunnyside Post

April 24, Staff Report

A Woodside pastor was sentenced to seven years in prison today for sexually abusing a six-year-old girl.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced today that 46-year-old James Love of Woodside, a pastor at New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Brooklyn, was sentenced to seven years in prison after a jury found him guilty of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child earlier this month.

A jury listened to all the evidence and convicted the defendant of sexually abusing an innocent, little girl. The victim’s mother dropped off the youngster at a trusted babysitter’s home,” Brown said. “She had every expectation that her daughter would be cared for and protected, but instead the husband of the sitter took advantage of the girl’s proximity and repeatedly violated her for his own sexual gratification. The defendant will be incarcerated to punish him for these acts as well as to protect others from his depraved impulses.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Emily Saul April 24, 2017

A ​former church ​pastor recently convicted of molesting a six-year-old girl was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday, the Queens District Attorney announced.

James Love was found guilty of sexually assaulting the young child, who was a ward at his wife’s Woodlawn day care, earlier this month.

Love, the former pastor of New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Harlem, sexually assaulted t​​he little girl numerous times over the period of a year from June 2015 to June 2016, prosecutors said.

The now-seven-year-old bravely testified against Love during the ten-day trial.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

A paedophile turned pastor tried to kill himself when confronted with his abuse, a judge has heard.

Downpatrick Crown Court Judge Brian Sherard heard that, after the suicide bid in August 2015, 58-year-old Raymond Pulman also confessed to his psychiatrist what he had done.

Pulman, with an address at Marler House, Barnett Close, Erith in Kent, later pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting his teenage victim on dates between January 1, 1999 and July 8, 2001.

Prosecuting lawyer Laura Levers said the offences amounted to Pulman touching the girl’s private parts over her clothing as well as her bare leg on a number of occasions when she was between 12 and 14.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Patch

By Mona Kazour (Patch Staff) – April 24, 2017

From the Diocese of Manchester: The Most Reverend Peter A. Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, and the Diocese of Manchester will mark Child Abuse Prevention Month by offering Mass to pray for victims of abuse and their families, and by providing to the public resources and information about ways to keep children and young people safe.

On Thursday, April 27, 2017, Bishop Libasci will celebrate a Mass for the Healing of Those Affected by Abuse at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, 180 Loudon Road, Concord at 6:30 p.m. A brief reception will follow in the church hall. The public is invited to attend this special liturgy.

“Through the suffering and mercy of Jesus, every Mass is a healing Mass, since God wants us to be healed through the gift of His Son in the Sacrament of the Eucharist,” said Bishop Libasci. “But on this occasion, we come together specifically to ask our Lord for the healing of those affected by child abuse.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

“Usually (a) settlement is a possibility, but in these cases I don’t know. … We’re early in the game right now.” – Patrick Civille, attorney

The Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council has retained Guam attorney Patrick Civille to represent them in the ongoing cases they are facing from alleged child sex abuse victims of their former Scout Master, Louis Brouillard.

After a scheduling conference held yesterday before Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan of the District Court of Guam, Civille said he had only just started to review the dozens of cases that have been filed so far.

“We haven’t officially entered the case yet,” Civille said.

“I know the Boy Scouts are interested in short-cutting some of the procedural problems and today I discussed with plaintiff counsel that we’re not going to make them jump through any particular hoops in terms of serving the Boy Scouts – that I’ll accept service and that streamlines the process. Beyond that … I have to look at the evidence.”

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NEW YORK
ABC 7

Eyewitness News

RIVERHEAD, Long Island (WABC) — A defrocked priest pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of sexually abusing a young girl on Long Island.

Augusto Cortez, 53, pleaded not guilty to criminal sexual act, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

Spota said the crimes occurred in June 2014 and Cortez was indicted by a grand jury in October of that year.

But Cortez fled to South America in 2014 to avoid arrest, officials said. He was arrested by Southampton Town police April 22 when he was returned to the U.S.

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NEW YORK
Newsday

By Zachary R. Dowdy zachary.dowdy@newsday.com

Southampton Town police on Saturday arrested a former priest who they said fled the country in 2014 as detectives centered on him in their investigation into the sexual assault of a young girl in Hampton Bays, officials said.

Augusto Cortez, 53, was arrested by Southampton police at Kennedy Airport after he was extradited to the United States from Guatemala, police and Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

He was being held without bail after he pleaded not guilty Monday during his arraignment on an indictment for first-degree criminal sexual act, first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child before Acting Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kahn, Spota and police said.

Cortez was being represented by the Legal Aid Society, which does not comment on cases.

He had been indicted in October 2014 in connection with acts that authorities said took place in June 2014.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

A Jesuit priest, Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, stationed at Boston College High School from approximately 1951-1967, repeatedly sexually abused a minor child, Ronald Edward Casey, from approximately 1956 through 1957 when Ronald Edward Casey was approximately 11 to 13 years of age

Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, held himself out as a Boy Scout chaplain and took Ronald Edward Casey on Boy Scout trips to Camp Loon Pond in Lakeville, MA, where Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, repeatedly sexually abused minor child Ronald Edward Casey from approximately 1956 through 1957

The Jesuit priests and brothers of the Northeast Province, which includes Boston College High School., continue to re-victimize childhood sexual abuse victim Ronald Edward Casey by not reasonably and fairly settling the claim of sexual abuse of a minor child against Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ

What
A press conference announcing that the Jesuit priests and brothers of the Northeast Province refuse to reasonably and fairly settle the sexual abuse claim of Ronald Edward Casey who is 72 years of age and continues to suffer from the effects of sexual abuse by Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, from approximately 1956 through 1957

When
Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 11:00 AM

Where
On the public sidewalk in front of Boston College High School, 150 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125

Who
Ronald Edward Casey, sexual abuse victim of Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, assigned to Boston College High School during the period 1956 through 1957; and, Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why
Ronald Edward Casey was born in 1944 and grew up in a large family in South Boston, MA. His older brother, Bill Casey, was being counseled by Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, who was assigned to Boston College High School and endeared himself to the Casey family which he visited frequently. Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, told Ronald Edward Casey when Ronald Edward Casey was approximately 11 years old that he (Fr. Leo Pollard) was a Boy Scout chaplain. Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, took Ronald Edward Casey on a Boy Scout trip to Camp Loon Pond in Lakeville, MA, where he was forced to sleep in the same cabin as Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ. Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, took Ronald Edward Casey on at least six more Boy Scout trips from approximately 1956 through 1957 when Ronald Edward Casey was approximately 11-13 years of age. Fr. Leo Pollard, SJ, sexually abused Ronald Edward Casey on each of the Boy Scout trips. Ronald Edward Casey and his advocate will demand of the Jesuit priests and brothers of the Northeast Province that they do the right thing by reasonably and fairly settling his claim of sexual abuse.

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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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Edmund Netter was a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, ordained in 1951. He assisted in Haverstraw, Yonkers and Manhattan parishes through the 1950s, with the exception of two years as an Army chaplain. In 1960 he was assigned to a Bronx parish, transferring in 1963 to Garnersville. There is an unexplained gap in his career trajectory 1967-1968. Netter was named pastor in of a Nanuet parish in 1968, a role he held for eighteen years. He served during 1986-1987 on the “Parish Mission Team” in Suffern, achieving ‘monsignor’ status the same year. For the following eleven years Netter lead a parish in Nyack. He died in April 1998.

Netter was accused in a 2004 lawsuit of having sexually abused a girl from approximately 1973 to 1979, when the girl was nine to sixteen years-old. The abuse was said to have taken place weekly or bi-weekly in the rectory of St. Anthony’s in Nanuet, and at a house during vacations with the girl’s family when all but the two of them were at the beach.

Born: November 4, 1925
Ordained: 1951
Died: April 11, 1998

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Provolo: New complaints against abusers.]

Un’ex alunna del collegio per sordi della città mendozina di Luján de Cuyo ha aggiunto tre accusati alla lista di preti, suore ed impiegati pedofili. Il “fratello” Giuseppe Spinelli nella mira?

La settimana scorsa ci sono state novità nella causa giudiziaria per la quale sono già detenute cinque persone accusate di avere commesso abusi sessuali ed altri maltrattamenti su una ventina di bambine e bambini tra i 4 ed i 17 anni nell’Istituto Antonio Provolo di Luján de Cuyo.

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NEW YORK
Patch

By Lisa Finn (Patch Staff) – April 24, 2017

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — A man who fled to Guatemala after sexually abusing a female juvenile was extradited and arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport Saturday, police said.

The Southampton Town Police Department’s detective division arrested Augusto Cortez, 53, at JFK and charged him with first degree sexual abuse of a child, a felony, first degree criminal sexual act, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, police said.

Cortez, charged with sexually abusing a girl, 6, in Hampton Bays in 2014, fled the United States to South America after realizing he was a target of the investigation, police said.

He headed to several South American countries and was finally located in Guatemala by Interpol, police said.

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NEW YORK
27 East

Apr 24, 2017

By Erin McKinley

A former priest who fled the country three years ago—after being accused of sexually abusing a 6-year-old Hampton Bays girl and giving her a sexually transmitted disease—was arrested on Saturday after being extradited to the United States from Guatemala, according to police.

Augusto Cortez, 53, was arrested by Southampton Town Police at John F. Kennedy Airport on April 22 after being located by Interpol officials in Guatemala and extradited to America with the assistance of the U.S. Marshal’s and the Suffolk County district attorney’s offices, authorities said. They noted that he fled the country shortly after the incident in June 2014, after he was questioned by Southampton Town Police once the victim’s parents filed a complaint. Authorities said he fled to South America after realizing he was the target of a police investigation, and has lived in several different countries to avoid arrest.

It was not immediately clear how authorities located Mr. Cortez.

Mr. Cortez was charged with one count each of first-degree sexual abuse of a child and first-degree criminal sexual act, both felonies, as well as endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, according to police.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

24 Apr 2017
Stephen McNeice

The head of the Oireachtas Health Committee says he believes there is still a window of opportunity to save the new National Maternity Hospital deal

Currently, the €300 million facility is planned for a site on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus in Dublin.

Under the agreed deal, the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group would be ‘sole owners’ of the new hospital in return for the land to build the new facility.

The project is currently under review, however, amid controversy over the involvement of the religious group Sisters of Charity, who are the major shareholders of the healthcare group.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Stephen Walker
BBC News NI Political Correspondent

A protest march at Stormont has called on politicians to speed up help for victims of historical institutional abuse.

The group handed in a 30-page document and a letter calling for action and a start to negotiations with victims.

They said that there had been no progress since an inquiry delivered its verdict in January.

The inquiry’s chair, Sir Anthony Hart, found that some children’s homes were the scene of widespread abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

Deborah McAleese, Press Association
24 April, 2017 1

Victims of institutional child abuse have hit out at a “derisory” recommended compensation payment of £7,500.

The victims, who were abused in children’s homes run by some churches, charities and state institutions, said the payment should be higher and should reflect the length of time spent in the institutions.

In January the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) recommended that victims should receive financial redress. Chairman of the inquiry Sir Anthony Hart said the payments should range from £7,500 to £100,000.

A 30-page response by victims has criticised the level of basic payment recommended.

“The response of survivors to the HIAI recommendation of a flat £7,500 common experience payment to all was that it fell short of expectations or was derisory,” the response said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Deborah McAleese
April 24 2017

Victims of institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland have hit out at a “derisory” recommended compensation payment of £7,500.

The victims, who were abused in children’s homes run by some churches, charities and state institutions, said the payment should be higher and should reflect the length of time spent in the institutions.

In January the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) recommended that victims should receive financial redress. Chairman of the inquiry Sir Anthony Hart said the payments should range from £7,500 to £100,000.

A 30-page response by victims has criticised the level of basic payment recommended.

“The response of survivors to the HIAI recommendation of a flat £7,500 common experience payment to all was that it fell short of expectations or was derisory,” the response said.

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AUSTRALIA
Gold Coast Bulletin

Paul Weston, Gold Coast Bulletin
April 24, 2017

POLICE have launched an investigation into allegations of child abuse at The Southport School
from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A Gold Coast businessman said he had spoken to the elite private boys school after making public a confession by his father, a retired TSS teacher.

His father allegedly told him: “I’ve done some bad things. I raped and molested (student) while he was a boarder at the school. It wasn’t just me. There were other teachers and other students.”

TSS contacted the Brisbane Anglican diocese late last week and, as part of their protocol, police were immediately made aware of the complaint.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Echo

John Lucas, Reporter / @johnlucasNQE

CHURCH bosses failed to take action when concerns were raised about a paedophile priest who was later jailed for sexually abusing a boy at a care home, an independent review has found.

Perverted Anthony McSweeney was reported to the Diocese of Brentwood while serving as parish priest at St Peter’s Church, in Eastwood Road North, Leigh, in 1998.

A cleaner had stumbled on videotapes showing boys aged about 14 being sexually abused, but she was fobbed off when she tried to alert senior clergy.

Instead, it took until 2015 for the 70-year-old to be jailed for three years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy while working at the Grafton Children’s Home in Hounslow, London, between 1979 and 1981.

In the meantime, the Diocese of Brentwood transferred McSweeney to Norwich, part of the Diocese of East Anglia.

Both Diocese commissioned an independent safeguarding report into the scandal following the court case.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Institutional child abuse victims have marched at Stormont to demand justice from warring politicians who have failed to deliver a promised apology and financial redress.

The group handed in letters to party leaders at Stormont Castle asking for the recommendations of a four-year inquiry into state and church abuse to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

A number of party representatives, including Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, UUP leader Robin Swann and the Alliance Party’s Chris Lyttle took time out from political talks to personally accept the letters from the group.

Negotiations aimed at restoring Northern Ireland’s collapsed government continued on Monday at Stormont.

The Stormont impasse has meant that the findings and recommendations of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry have still not been presented to the Northern Ireland assembly.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Monday, April 24, 2017

ALBANY — Some child sex abuse survivors fear Gov. Cuomo is going back on his promise to prioritize passage this year of a bill meant to help victims seek justice as adults.

The governor in January said he would introduce his own version of the Child Victims Act, but he has yet to do so.

“Gov. Cuomo needs to embrace the Child Victims Act and carry it across the finish line or the bill is not passing,” said sex abuse survivor Gary Greenberg, who created a political action committee to push for the issue. “It’s in the governor’s hands.”

Eyebrows were raised when Cuomo recently told reporters that with the state budget passed, he has no real major priorities for the rest of the legislative session that runs through June.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
April 24 2017

Health Minister Simon Harris has called for “cool heads” in the row over giving ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

He is right – although he himself must take some of the blame for indirectly adding to the public outcry last week.

While St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is unlikely to withdraw its offer of a site for the hospital at its Dublin 4 campus when it meets on Thursday, the risk remains that the current plan could still collapse.

The reality is that this will set back the building of a new maternity hospital – currently housed in a cramped outdated building in Holles Street – by several years.

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IRELAND
Herald

Eilish O’Regan – 24 April 2017

St Vincent’s Hospital Healthcare Group will meet this week to review its offer of a free site for the new National Maternity Hos- pital at its Dublin 4 campus.

The board of St Vincent’s, which is providing the site to build the much-needed new hospital, is angry at the adverse public reaction to the decision to allow the Sisters of Charity to own the facility.

If it pulls the plug, it will mean another delay in the bid to find a new site for the €300m hospital, which currently occupies an outdated building in Holles Street.

A leaked copy of the 25-page agreement, worked out between the boards of Holles Street and St Vincent’s, appears to confirm reassurances about the autonomy of the new hospital, stating that it will be protected by its own independent company.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

On November 27th, 1970, from the opening of the new St Vincent’s hospital at Elm Park in south Dublin, this newspaper reported that the then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid made it clear “the same sisters own and manage the new hospital” as did the old St Vincent’s hospital on St Stephen’s Green. The archbishop was referring to the Sisters of Charity.

He was unequivocal on other matters too.

“It is the unchanging character of a Catholic hospital that every member of its staff accepts with clear assent and fulfils with scrupulous exactitude the moral law that regulates their therapy, medical and surgical,” he said.

“There is one authority that proposes, explains and defends that objective moral law: the teaching authority in the church. On this solemn day when a new hospital , with the blessing of God, has been dedicated to the service of the sick, it is our duty to declare that in this institute every respect shall be shown, in theory and in practice, to the moral teaching of the church.”

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IRELAND
Dublin Live

BY BLANAID MURPHY
24 APR 2017

Fears that the Catholic Church could take control of the new maternity hospital have been confirmed by a senior cleric.

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran said the Sisters of Charity would have to must obey doctrine if plans go ahead.

The Order was to be been handed full ownership of the €300million taxpayer-funded facility which will be built on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus in South Dublin.

Health Minister Simon Harris has insisted the nuns would not have any say over medical decisions despite owning the land and facility.

But Bishop Doran said: “A healthcare organisation bearing the name Catholic, while offering care to all who need it, has a special responsibility to Catholic teachings about the value of human life.

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IRELAND
Dublin People

CAMPAIGNERS against a controversial decision to hand over the new maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity religious order have vowed to continue their protest until it is reversed.

Under the current plans, the new facility will occupy a site next to the existing St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin 4, which is owned by the St Vincent’s Healthcare group, of which the Sisters of Charity are a major shareholder.

There was widespread shock and indignation last week when it emerged that the religious order would be involved in the new hospital.

A petition to block the Sisters of Charity from becoming the sole owners of the new National Maternity Hospital has grown by tens of thousands while one Southside TD told how her office had been inundated with emails and calls.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Dearbhail McDonald
April 24 2017

The narrative of the Religious Sisters of Charity embarking on a naked power grab to take control of the State’s largest maternity hospital in a bid to control Irish women’s reproductive autonomy is a potent one.

Our collective reaction to the prospect of the nuns, the owners of the St Vincent’s University Hospital Group (SVHG), imposing its Catholic ethos on Irish women while refusing to pay its share of a redress scheme for institutional abuse is real and visceral. And it is entirely understandable in the wake of Church scandals such as the discovery of the remains of babies and small children in septic tanks at a former mother and babies home in Tuam.

However, I wonder if the real reason why the SVHG insisted on the National Maternity Hospital coming under its control was less to do with Catholic ethos and more to do with its toxic relationship with the HSE and its €150m debts.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 24, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Nearly half of the over 40 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam could be booted back to the local courts. And the federal court is raising concerns over jurisdiction.

Plaintiff Leo Tudela lives in Hawaii. Former priest and named defendant Father Louis Brouillard lives in Minnesota. This could be an issue for the District Court of Guam who may not have jurisdiction over many of the cases of clergy sex abuse. In court on Monday, Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan expressed his concern over diversity jurisdiction – whether the court can entertain controversies between citizens of different states.

“The judge wants us to file our position as to why if there is jurisdiction on each of the cases. All right. So of course, we’ve got three weeks to do that. And we will be filing that of course. I believe that some of the cases of course I don’t think we’ll be able to show jurisdiction and that’s all right,” he said.

Attorney David Lujan represents all of the plaintiffs who’ve filed suit in the federal court. He suspects jurisdiction issues could affect nearly half of the over forty cases he’s filed to date. “In those cases, we’ll simply stay and file in Superior Court of Guam. Simple as that,” he said.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Editorial

We now know that Alicia Limtiaco, the recently resigned top federal prosecutor for Guam and the Northern Marianas, has accepted the position as board chairwoman of Hope and Healing, an entity established by the Archdiocese of Agana to help multiple victims of sex abuse by former Guam priests.

This is a new challenge for Limtiaco, who’s still at the prime of her career but happened to be among dozens of holdover top federal prosecutors President Donald Trump wanted to replace, regardless of their performance.

When that legal door closed for Limtiaco, it turned out another opened. This one could give her a chance to have an impact on helping a community heal from the hurt of a trail of alleged abuses of children – numbering more than 50 as of last week – by Guam priests decades ago.

After Limtiaco’s new role was announced yesterday, she made statements that:

* the archdiocese or anyone in the church leadership will not control the Hope and Healing board’s decisions and actions to help the victims of priest abuse; and

* that Hope and Healing will let victims decide whether to pursue legal action or get help from Hope and Healing.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The plaintiffs will have have three weeks to file diversity jurisdiction.

Guam – In related news, some of the church sex abuse cases will be held in abeyance as a federal court judge determines diversity jurisdiction.

The matter came up today during what was supposed to be a scheduling conference for six of the 43 cases filed in District Court so far. Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan raised issues regarding jurisdiction since the plaintiffs in these six particular cases reside off-island and the alleged perpetrator, Father Louis Brouillard also is no longer a resident of Guam.

The six cases in today’s hearing were filed by Leo Tudela, Norman Aguon, James Bascon, Bruce Diaz, Vicente Perez and Anthony Vegafria, all of whom accused Brouillard of sexually abusing them when they were minors. Brouillard, at the time, was serving both as priest of different parishes and as Scout Master for the Boy Scouts.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Attorney David Lujan said he would let Attorney Michael Caspino know this week if he agrees with Alicia Limtiaco’s nomination to the Hope and Healing Guam board.

Guam – Former US Attorney and Attorney General of Guam Alicia Limtiaco has been named the board chairperson for the Hope and Healing program, but Attorney David Lujan’s continued to express some reservation with her nomination since for most of his career, she’s always been on the opposite side.

The media was invited to a Sunday press conference at the Hilton Resort board room for the formal announcement of the chairpersonship of the Hope and Healing Program.

Limtiaco will now head the evaluation board that will be made up of seven members. She addressed any previous concerns that Hope and Healing had any ties to the Archdiocese of Agana and noted that despite being catholic herself, Limtiaco said her faith will have no influence over her role in assisting victims of abuse.

“It has been made clear to me and I have been reassured that this board will be an independent board, that we will not be controlled by the archdiocese, that we are not a board that is here to defend the church or the archdiocese or any perpetrators of clergy abuse,” asserted Limtiaco.

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CAMBODIA
Chiangrai Times

PHNOM PENH – A 53-year-old Dutch Old Catholic church official has been arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of producing child pornography involving young teenage boys.

Evrard Nicolas Sarot, 53, who has been seconded to provide pastoral care at Schiphol airport, is said to have paid the boys, all younger than 15, to pose for him. Police found almost 1,300 nude photographs on his camera and Ipad.

Local police chief Chhay Haklong told the Cambodia Daily: ‘He gave them some money, a couple US dollars for each person to have a naked photo. All boys, no clothes.’

The paper says anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) received a report of the alleged abuse in late December from an informant and helped police investigate and identify victims.

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VERMONT
Burlington Free Press

Adam Silverman , Free Press Staff Writer

Emerging from a priest-sex-abuse scandal but still confronting challenges with finances and decreasing participation, Vermont’s Roman Catholic diocese is embarking on a yearlong re-examination of church structure and rules.

Bishop of Burlington Christopher Coyne plans to convene “an extraordinary council of the church” known as a synod next year — the first for Vermont’s Catholics in more than half a century.

The goal: Find new ways to engage and keep Catholics active in the faith. That’s a recognition the church no longer can keep doing what it always has, Coyne said: maintaining numerous parishes, celebrating regular Masses and hoping people will attend.

The decisions that emerge from the synod will be significant for each of Vermont’s 118,000 residents who identify as Catholic.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — A diagnostic evaluation was completed recently for a former youth pastor and admitted transgender sex offender who is facing a prison term after pleading guilty last year to sexual abuse first degree.

James Lilly, 25, of Bluefield pleaded guilty in August 2016 in Mercer County Circuit Court to three counts of sexual abuse in the first degree. Raleigh County Judge John A. Hutchinson, who was assigned to the case after Mercer County Judge Derek Swope recused himself, delayed Lilly’s sentencing on Dec. 21, 2016 and remanded him to the state Department of Corrections so a diagnostic study could be completed with regard to how he would be classified as an inmate.

Lilly was arrested Jan. 12, 2016 and indicted in February that same year on 28 counts of sexual abuse in the first degree as well as charges of sexual assault third degree and incest.

After the arrest, Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department said that Lilly, by his own admission, was transgender and in the process of becoming a woman.

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CAMBODIA
The Cambodia Daily

BY HANNAH HAWKINS | APRIL 24, 2017 | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

A Dutch priest who was arrested in Siem Reap City last week after allegedly taking more than 1,000 photographs of naked boys had told a bishop in his home country about his “sexual preference for underage boys,” church representatives said on Sunday.

Evrard-Nicolas Sarot, 53, was charged with possessing and producing child pornography by the Siem Reap Provincial Court on Thursday and is accused of paying 19 boys, all under the age of 15, a few dollars each to pose nude for photos.

Chhay Haklong, deputy chief of the provincial police’s anti-human trafficking unit, said last week that 19 victims—who appeared in some of the roughly 1,300 photos on a camera found on Mr. Sarot at the time of his arrest—had been interviewed by police. Unidentified victims also appeared in nearly 4,000 images later found on the suspect’s laptop, he said.

It has now emerged that Mr. Sarot had confessed to his sexual interest in young boys to a senior member of the Catholic church while he was training to be a priest.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

THE ISSUE:
A new report documents decades of abuse at a prominent girls school.

THE STAKES:
It’s yet another reason why the state needs to revisit the statute of limitations.
—
About the last thing parents expect when they send their children off to school is that they’ll be sexually abused by a teacher. Yet as a new report from Emma Willard School shows, that happened all too often, over the course of at least seven decades.

It’s to the Troy private school’s credit that it commissioned an outside review, and made public the 96-page “Report of Historical Allegations of Sexual Abuse & Misconduct.” The account of faculty-student sexual relations from the 1950s to the current decade involves the sort of scandalous activity institutions normally try to cover up.

The issuance of the report, however, should not be the end of the matter for those outside the Emma Willard community. The revelations underscore the need for state lawmakers to revisit long-stalled legislation to extend the statute of limitations for criminal and civil action in cases of sexual abuse.

The Emma Willard report depicts decades of exploitation from the supposedly prim 1950s through the free-wheeling years of the late 60s and 70s and more recent decades, when there has been less tolerance and more awareness of the damaging effects of child sex abuse. Some administrators who looked into the rumors met a wall of silence, others looked the other way.

Emma Willard’s report follows the disclosure earlier this month by Choate Rosemary Hall, a Connecticut boarding school, of instances of sexual abuse of students as far back as the 1960s. It would be naive to think there won’t be more such revelations at more schools, just as scattered reports of sexual abuse by Catholic priests mushroomed into a global scandal.

Which brings us to an issue New York state has struggled with for years: how to afford victims of sex abuse justice years after the incidents occurred.

After at least a decade of failed efforts, this year again brings legislation in the Assembly and Senate that would afford victims of child sexual abuse extra time to come forward. Where the statute now covers two to five years after the offense is reported or the child turns 18, whichever is earlier, there are bills to extend that to between ages 28 and 33. One would set the statute of limitations at 15 years after the act.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

Kathryn Jean Lopez April 24, 2017
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

In his new book ‘Hurting in the Church: A Way Forward for Wounded Catholics,’ Father Thomas Berg says he wants priests to listen to the experiences of hurting Catholics. He says the book is an invitation to a kind of Church-wide self-examination: Where have we failed in charity? Why is our day-to-day, interpersonal living of that Christ-like gift of self, agape-love, so languid at times, so passive, so anemic?

“If the Church has ever succeeded in her mission, it was every time she was able – in the lives of faithful and committed Christians – to embody the self-sacrificing love exemplified by her Divine Spouse,” Father Thomas Berg writes in his new book Hurting in the Church: A Way Forward for Wounded Catholics.

What many know of the Church today, however, “are the times her members have failed in that great task, the times we have failed to correspond to the mandate of our Savior” to love one another “as I have loved you.”

He writes as a former member of the Legionaries of Christ, who, among other things, asks “forgiveness for the ways in which, in my ignorance, I myself contributed to propagating the cult of personality surrounding [Marcial] Maciel [founder of the order], and to perpetuating the web of deceptions in which we were all trapped.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Donna De Jesus

C.P. and S.A.F. have filed child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America.

Guam – Two new victims represented by Atty. David Lujan have filed child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America.

Both victims, using the initials C.P. and S.A.F. have named former priest Fr. Louis Brouillard. Both men claim they were assaulted in the 1970s when they were altar boys and part of the Boy Scouts.

C.P. was between the ages of 7 and 10 when he claims he was first abused by Brouillard. In his complaint, he states that for about four years, Brouillard would require C.P. to spend the night at the Malojloj parish rectory, using the excuse that he did not want him to be late for early morning mass the following day. It was during these sleepovers, court documents say, that Brouillard would sexually molest C.P. Documents add that, in the convent showers, Brouillard would get into the shower with C.P. and other boys so he could grope them, and later instruct them to go into his bedroom where he would molest them. As a member of the Boy Scouts, C.P. says in the complaint that Brouillard would take some of the boys swimming, instructing them to swim naked so he could grope them.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

Former island priest Louis Brouillard was sued again Monday in federal court, including by a man who says he was about seven years old when Brouillard sexually abused him — the youngest age alleged so far in the dozens of lawsuits filed against the priest.

The two latest lawsuits, filed by former altar boys, identify the accusers by the initials C.P. and S.A.F., bringing to 56 the number of clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed so far against the Archdiocese of Agana and 10 different priests. The two men also are suing the Boy Scouts of America.

C.P.’s complaint states he was only about seven when Brouillard started sexually abusing him as an altar boy, around 1970, and he continued to be abused when he joined the Boy Scouts of America, where Brouillard was a scoutmaster.

C.P., now 54, and S.A.F., now 52, both live on Guam and are represented by attorneys David Lujan and Gloria Lujan Rudolph. They demand a minimum $10 million each in damages.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan
April 23 2017

The 25-page unpublished “Terms of Agreement” between the two hospitals spells out how the independence of the maternity hospital will be protected through a new Designated Activity Company providing maternity services.

It says:
• The new company’s memorandum and articles to provide for “reserved powers” and a “golden share” – effectively a ministerial veto – to protect the autonomy of the board.

• The “agreed reserve powers” are “to be exercised in an undiluted manner by all of the directors” and include specific reference to the hospital’s “clinical and operational independence” in providing maternity services “without religious, ethnic or other distinction”.

• The “reserve powers” also refer to budgetary control, the retention of the master role and “the retention and utilisation” of any donations, gifts or bequests to the maternity hospital”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Editorial

The heated debate over the proposed move of the National Maternity Hospital to a site owned by a religious order at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin has led to a situation where the entire project has been placed in doubt pending the outcome of a meeting of the hospital board, which has been announced to review the agreed plan. The threat to the development is to be greatly regretted, but is not entirely surprising. When it comes to such projects, this country seems to be unsurpassed in terms of obfuscation and delay, particularly when various vested and competing interests are at play. Now is a time for calm heads and measured public comment with one outcome in mind, which is that the development of a much-needed new maternity hospital can proceed without undue delay.

The belated doubts thrown over the development of the maternity hospital come at a time when renewed concerns have been expressed about the funding and running costs which are delaying a final government decision to go ahead with the proposed new €1bn National Children’s Hospital in Dublin. This is also a much-needed facility, but it has been repeatedly delayed due to location and planning issues and is now at renewed risk of being set back further because of associated spiralling costs.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Fiach Kelly, Paul Cullen

The National Maternity Hospital’s planned move to the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital will be scuppered by any effort to alter the agreement, the man who negotiated the deal has warned.

Kieran Mulvey, the former chairman of the Workplace Relations Commission, acted as a mediator between the hospitals, whose deal with the Department of Health will lead to the new maternity hospital being owned by the Sisters of Charity.

“Any attempt to change the agreement in any essential form will put us back to the starting blocks, and if we go back to the starting blocks this will never take off,” he said.

Dr Rhona Mahony, the hospital master, has said the existing facility is no longer fit for purpose.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Kitty Holland, Michael O’Regan

An alternative site for a national maternity hospital (NMH) must be found if a deal that would see the State have full control of the facility cannot be brokered with the Sisters of Charity, Labour leader Brendan Howlin has said.

Mr Howlin was speaking at the end of his party’s conference in Wexford on Sunday in response to assertions by the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, who said the congregation which owns the site of the planned hospital in Dublin would have to apply Roman Catholic teaching in the new facility.

Bishop Doran told the Sunday Times: “A healthcare organisation bearing the name Catholic while offering care to all who need it has a special responsibility…to Catholic teachings about the value of human life and dignity, and the ultimate destiny of the human person.”

When asked in August 2013 by The Irish Times if St Vincent’s University Hospital would carry out abortions to save a woman’s life, a spokesman said the hospital would “as always be following the law of the land”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan
April 23 2017

Every time the health watchdog dispatches its inspectors to the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street in Dublin, the conditions get worse. Inspectors have repeatedly warned of the dangers of packing ever increasing numbers of expectant mothers and infants into the dilapidated 19th century structure.

Most recently, they found the intensive care unit filled with 46 babies when it was designed to care for 36 and “poor hygiene” on the delivery ward. The building is no longer fit for purpose and the Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Dr Rhona Mahony, has pleaded with inspectors to “acknowledge the context of our challenges”.

The National Maternity Hospital has been fighting for a new home for two decades. So it was smiles all around at a press conference hosted by Health Minister Simon Harris last November to announce that a new National Maternity Hospital would be built on St Vincent’s Healthcare Group’s Elm Park campus.

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IRELAND
The Irish Mirror

BY BLANAID MURPHY
23 APR 2017

Fears that the Catholic Church could take control of the new maternity hospital have been confirmed by a senior cleric.

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran said the Sisters of Charity would have to obey doctrine if plans go ahead.

The Order was to be been handed full ownership of the €300million taxpayer-funded facility which will be built on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus in South Dublin.

Health Minister Simon Harris has insisted the nuns would not have any say over medical decisions despite owning the land and facility.

But Bishop Doran said: “A healthcare organisation bearing the name Catholic, while offering care to all who need it, has a special responsibility to Catholic teachings about the value of human life.

“Public funding, while it brings with it other legal and moral obligations, does not change that.”

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