ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
The Irish Mirror

BY BLANAID MURPHY

Economist David McWilliams today attacked the religious order at the centre of the controversy over the new National Maternity Hospital as landlords with rosary beads.

On the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 he questioned what the Sisters Of Charity were doing running a property company and why they wouldn’t gift the land to the State. He said: “This is like landlordism with rosary beads. It’s like Nama for religious people. It’s nonsense.

“I can’t understand what do nuns do for money? They extract rent, they’re property developers in this case.

“We have a ridiculous situation where religious orders have developed a property portfolio by levying taxes on the ordinary Joe at church collections,” he said.

The main controversy surrounding the plans to build the new National Maternity Hospital on the grounds currently owned by the religious order centres around ownership. Under the deal – which has not been made public by the Minister for Health Simon Harris – the state would spend in the region of €300m to build the hospital but the SoC would retain ownership of the land.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Guam’s previous top federal prosecutor has been named chairwoman of the board of Hope and Healing, the organization created by the archdiocese to address multiple accusations of sexual abuse by former Guam priests, decades ago.

Chairwoman Alicia Limtiaco’s role was announced during a press conference yesterday at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa.

Limtiaco is the previous U.S. Attorney for Guam and the Northern Marianas. She resigned recently after the Trump administration asked holdover U.S. attorneys from the Obama administration to resign. She was a Bush-era appointee and a former elected attorney general of Guam.

Limtiaco said she’s committed to a board that will be victim-sensitive. The board will understand the dynamics of abuse and exploitation; and will be compassionate, fair and understand the effects and the impacts of trauma on the victims and in their lives.

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IRELAND
Today FM

BY: TOM SWIFT

The Labour leader Brendan Howlin says he is not surprised at comments by a Catholic bishop insisting the Sisters of Charity would have to obey the rules of the church if they become owners of the new National Maternity Hospital.

The Bishop of Elphin has told the Sunday Times that public funding does not change the responsibility of a Catholic organisation to adhere to church teaching.

Speaking at the end of his party’s national conference in Wexford, Brendan Howlin said the Government needs to ensure State ownership of the new hospital on the proposed St. Vincent’s site, or move it to another location:

The controversy centres on the decision to allow the Sisters of Charity to retain ownership of the hospital, because the land is being donated by the order.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE BISHOP OF Elphin has said the Sisters of Charity will have to obey the rules of the Catholic Church if they become the owners of the new national maternity hospital.

There has been growing controversy about the issue in recent days, with many people expressing concern about what impact the religious order owning the hospital could have on how it is run.

In a statement to the Sunday Times, Bishop Kevin Doran said: “Any 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 the dignity and the ultimate destiny of the human person.”

Health Minister Simon Harris has insisted the hospital will be independently run despite being under the ownership of the order, which owns the land at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin 4 where the new hospital is set to be built.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin said the new National Maternity Hospital would have to have clinical independence and should not be compromised.

He was responding to reported comments in The Sunday Times by the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran, that the Sisters of Charity will have to obey Catholic Church rules if they become owners of the new National Maternity Hospital.

He said the new hospital had to be free of any religious ethos.

Mr Martin called on the Minister for Health Simon Harris to be fully transparent about the process and the deal that has been made.

Earlier this week, it emerged that the Religious Sisters of Charity was to be given ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded hospital because it owns the land on which it is to be built.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Update: 11.35am: The Minister for Social Protection has called for calm heads to prevail amidst controversy over the new national maternity Hospital.

Leo Varadkar insists the facility – which is to be built on land owned by the Sisters of Charity – will have clinical independence.

He has given his backing to Simon Harris saying the Ministry is the only position in cabinet that has a lot of responsibility but lacks in authority.

Minister Varadkar who formerly worked at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street says the new facility urgently needs to go ahead.

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IRELAND
The Sunday Times (UK)

Justine McCarthy
April 23 2017
The Sunday Times

The Religious Sisters of Charity will have to obey the rules of the Roman Catholic church if they become owners of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) in south Dublin, according to the bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran.

“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 the dignity and the ultimate destiny of the human person,” said Doran, who chairs the hierarchy’s committee on bio-ethics.

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

His statement to The Sunday Times appears to confirm warnings by Peter Boylan, the chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, that the €300m maternity hospital may not provide services such as sterilisation, infertility treatment, gender reassignment surgery and abortion.

Doran’s statement also echoes a warning by Tom Lynch, chairman of the Ireland East Hospital Group, which includes St Vincent’s, that locating the maternity hospital on its campus would raise issues of medical ethics. Lynch told Jim Breslin, secretary-general of the Department of Health, that canon law obliged a hospital on Catholic land to operate by Catholic rules.

Doran referred to three tenets of canon law which decree that land held by religious institutions is “ecclesiastical property” over which the Pope has “primacy of governance”. He said he was speaking “in general terms” as the NMH is not in his diocese and he was unfamiliar with the legal relationship between the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By David Kearns
23rd April 2017

The National Maternity Hospital must obey Church doctrine if plans to hand over the site to the Sisters of Charity go ahead, claims Bishop Kevin Doran.

The bishop of Elphin believes any healthcare organisation “bearing the name Catholic… has a special responsibility to Catholic teachings… [including] the value of human life and the dignity and the ultimate destiny of the human person.”

“Public funding, while it brings with it other legal and moral obligations, does not change that responsibility,” he told the Sunday Times.
Mr Doran believes that canon law “obliges a hospital on Catholic land to operate by Catholic rules”.

In his statement to the Sunday Times, he refers to canon law which decrees that land held by religious institutions is “ecclesiastical property” over which the Pope has “primacy of governance”.

His comments this weekend seem to confirm warnings by many groups opposed to the Sisters of Charity’s ownership of the new national maternity hospital.

Already over 87,000 people have signed a petition calling on Minister for Health Simon Harris to prevent the religious order from taking ownership of the facility.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Hayley Halpin
April 23 2017

Dr. Ciara Kelly has lashed out against move to make the Sisters of Charity the sole owners of the new National Maternity Hospital

Dr. Kelly criticised the religious order in showing a “significant failure of atonement” in failing to pay off their outstanding debt to the redress scheme, adding that there was a “huge anger” among the public.

“The big thing is about the ethos. There is a long history of conflict between the church and providing women’s health in this country. The church does not approve of contraception, sterilisation, IVF, egg freezing,” Dr. Kelly said.

“It’s not acceptable that women have to fight for healthcare in this country.”

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BELGIE
NRC

Mark Vangheluwe’s testimony about abuse caused an avalanche in Catholic Church. He was abused by Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, his uncle and later the bishop of Bruges. He wrote a book, Letter to the Pope.].

Mark Eeckhaut
21 april 2017

‘We dragen het verslag in het bijzonder op aan de moed van het slachtoffer waarmee alles begon, op 23 april. Een man van veertig die durfde te getuigen over seksueel misbruik, tegen alle hiërarchie in. Het dwong respect af, het gaf een onbekende massa plots een stem.”

Het citaat van kinderpsychiater Peter Adriaenssens staat in het voorwoord van het eindrapport van september 2010 van de commissie-Adriaenssens, de kerkelijke commissie tegen seksueel misbruik in een pastorale relatie.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 23, 2017
By Krystal Paco

Former US Attorney for Guam and the CNMI Alicia Limtiaco has been named as the chairwoman of the board of evaluators for Hope for Healing Guam. The non-profit organization is separate from the Archdiocese of Agana and was established earlier this month to address clergy sexual abuse claims.

Several rescusals have previously been declared from other officials due to conflicts with their faith. Limtiaco said that she is Catholic, but it will not impede her ability to lead the board.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

Former U.S. Attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands Alicia Limtiaco has been tapped as volunteer chairwoman of an independent board helping out dozens of Guam clergy sex abuse victims.

Limtiaco is now chairwoman of the board of Hope and Healing Guam, a program offering professional counseling, treatment, spiritual healing, compensation and justice to clergy sex abuse victims.

Although initiated and funded by the Archdiocese of Agana using a seed money of $1 million, Hope and Healing acts as an independent body. Other board members will be announced later. Counseling has started for those who have called the program’s hotline, 1-888-649-5288.

The board will review each victim’s claim, but Limtiaco said the program is not a substitute for any litigation.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

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

Minnesota-based canon lawyer and former priest Patrick J. Wall said there appears to be more than sufficient evidence for a Vatican tribunal to come to a decision on Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical penal trial, after two accusers provided testimony in March.

“In short, the Roman Pontiff can step in and make a decision since he is the supervisor of Apuron,” said Wall, who since 2002 has advocated for hundreds of clergy abuse survivors.

Pope Francis suspended Apuron in June 2016, weeks after former altar boys came forward and publicly accused the archbishop of raping and sexually abusing them as children in Agat in the 1970s.

“If Rome is going to act, they generally do so prior to July 31, when most Romans go on summer vacanza, until mid-September,” said Wall, co-author of “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes,” a leading book on the 2,000-year history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Gaynor D. Daleno | The Guam Daily Post

“We’ve learned that when you slug it out in court and go back and forth and eventually settle the cases, it doesn’t do anybody much good.” – 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 said he’s aiming for an out-of-court resolution of all the Guam cases.

And not only is Mike Caspino aiming to resolve all cases, which have topped 50 accusers in recent weeks, he’s optimistic he can get all the parties to agree to a resolution by this summer.

Caspino was recently named by the Archdiocese of Agana as the director of the Hope and Healing program as part of archdiocesan efforts to reach out to victims of clergy sexual abuse by establishing a victims settlement fund.

He said the goal for a resolution by this summer is possible “through a lot of hard work and prayers.”

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Alicia Limtiaco is the former US Attorney for Guam and was also a former Guam Attorney General.

Guam – Hope and Healing Guam has announced that former US Attorney Alicia Limtiaco will be the program’s new chairperson of their Board of Evaluators.

Hope and Healing Guam is a non-profit agency created to offer counseling services and compensation to victims of clergy sexual abuse. The executive director, Attorney Michael Caspino, was hired by the Archdiocese of Agana which is also funding the program. Caspino says initial seed money for the project is $1 million.

Caspino said that in their search for a chairperson, Limtiaco’s name continued to pop up. Although Limtiaco has an extensive legal background, having served as Guam Attorney General and US Attorney, Caspino notes that Limtiaco was chosen not necessarily for her legal background but for her character and integrity.

In addition, Caspino said he spoke with Attorneys David Lujan and Kevin Fowler whose clients are suing the Archdiocese of Agana for civil claims of sexual abuse, and he says both seemed receptive of Limtiaco’s designation. Caspino also intends to speak with Attorney Anthony Perez who has also filed lawsuits against the church on behalf of his clients.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

With Balford Henry

Sunday, April 23, 2017

The Joint Select Committee (JSC), which has been completing the review of the Sexual Offences Acts, will resume meeting on Tuesday morning at Gordon House.

The new JSC was established in December 2016 by the Government, with current chairman being Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck, replacing his predecessor Senator Mark Golding.

It has met twice, including in February when Police Superintendent Enid Ross-Stewart, head of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), landed a shocker when she informed the committee that clergymen and policemen were the most consistent “high-profile” people being arrested for having sex with girls under the age of 16.

Superintendent Ross-Stewart’s declaration, coming on the heels of the media exposure of two leaders of the Moravian Church community, former President Dr Paul Gardner and his former deputy, Jermaine Gibson, being arrested on charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault in January, was a major news issue then.

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NIGERIA
The Guardian

By Francis Akin-John
23 April 2017

“Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God…” II Corinthians 6:3, 4. It is no gainsaying, but a true fact that respect for pastors by church members and the society is at very low ebb today. Pastors have become the butt of jokes everywhere. Wealthy people don’t respect pastors because they believe that every pastor has a price and can be bought with money. The society at large sees most pastors as ‘money monger’ and that church is a commercial venture. At every turn, aspersions are cast at the church and the name of our Lord is dragged in the mud, due to the misdemeanors of big time, popular and famous pastors. People plot, plan and work against pastors through wrong accusations and the press and social media is daily awash with fake, cooked up stories of pastoral sins and evil deeds. It was not like this 35 years ago, when I got saved. Then, there was high respect and honour for pastors.

We looked at pastors as junior Jesus, because of their Christlike lifestyles and honoured them for the great and sacrificial work they were doing. What happened and why this evil trend today? Well, our research has uncovered the following reasons:

• Becoming a pastor is no longer by God’s calling, but promotion and appointment by the church. It started in the middle 80s, when churches that wanted to expand by all means began to appoint, ordain every Ade, Ada and Adamu into pastoral positions. There were no more considerations for God’s calling into the ministry. By so doing, many who had no business or grace to shepherd GOD’S people found themselves in this stressful work and they messed up big time, and are still messing up. If God did not call you into this work, His power will never back you up. You are simply on your own, and you will cut corners to meet up with people’s expectation of you.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

By RYAN DUNN and ALLISON REAMER | BLADE STAFF WRITERS Published on April 23, 2017

On Easter Sunday, 2014, the Rev. Cordell Jenkins preached from his church’s stage with a passion that emboldened the congregation.

Voice rising into the microphone, the pastor at Toledo’s Abundant Life Ministries praised God’s grace. This sermon detailed how minor setbacks precede major comebacks.

“And sometimes God allows setbacks in your life, to help you re-evaluate what’s still most important. Because if things always went your way, you would not need God as much as you say you need God,” Mr. Jenkins said.

Mr. Jenkins spent this past Easter incarcerated at the Lucas County jail.

Federal authorities said he and a second Toledo pastor sex-trafficked a teenage girl.

Prosecutors this month filed charges against Mr. Jenkins, 46, of 2423 Barrington Dr. and his co-defendant, the Rev. Anthony Haynes, Sr., 38, of 4926 Ventura Dr. in South Toledo. Both men are accused of repeatedly paying the juvenile for sexual acts.

Officials said in court documents Mr. Haynes’ relationship with the girl stretched from about January, 2014, to last month. Mr. Haynes eventually introduced her to other men, including Pastor Jenkins in September, records stated.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Dumisane Lubisi

Friday. The scene: Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court.

Inside, televangelist Timothy Omotoso is appearing on charges of human trafficking after a number of women made allegations that the pastor had sexually abused them.

But the real scene to watch is outside, where two groups are gathered.

One is demanding that Omotoso should not get bail because of the alleged crimes he committed.

The other, made up mainly of women and members of his church, has come to defend the pastor.

The posters they hoist say it all: “Let them talk daddy, they know nothing”; “Tim Omotoso my father”; “Omotoso Nation Aisijiki”.

This jarring show of support for the oppressor by the oppressed has played itself out before.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

JENNINE KHALIK, AMANDA GEARINGThe Australian
April 22, 2017

The controversial opening of the $23 million library at Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School last night has been described­ as an attempt to “rewrite­ history” after a former headmaster’s name was dumped.

The school, known as Churchie, last year reversed its decision to name the new building after the late headmaster Harry Roberts, following heavy criticism of how he handled students’ sexual abuse allegations against staff while principal from 1947 to 1969.

Queensland Governor Paul de Jersey opened the building, the Centenary Library, last night. Mr De Jersey — a former student and the state’s long-serving chief justice — officiated at a ceremony in November 2015 when construction began and announced then that the library would be named the Roberts Centre for Learning and Innovation.

Victims of abuse at the school demanded a name change following the removal of the name of the Brisbane Grammar School’s former­ headmaster Max Howell from a building on its campus.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

T Ryle Dwyer
April 23 2017

During the eight years that I spent at university in the United States, I only heard of my home town of Tralee mentioned on the American news on one single occasion. And that was on this day 50 years ago – when Dr Denis Moynihan, the Bishop of Kerry, asked the people of Kerry to boycott the public appearance that night of movie star Jayne Mansfield at the Mount Brandon Hotel, Tralee.

Seamus McConville, the editor of The Kerryman, had informed the bishop of the appearance of the busty starlet, who boasted of her vital statistics – 40-21-35. He actually played down the controversy in the subsequent issue of The Kerryman.

Possibly the newspaperman just called the bishop for a comment. The Bishop may have actually been spurred into action by a letter from Archbishop John Charles McQuaid

This story played out against the backdrop of a complaint of the sexual and physical abuse of children in the Industrial school in Tralee. In his book, Holy Terrors, about the sexual and physical abuse that he experienced at St Joseph’s Industrial School, Michael Clemenger related that shortly after his release from the school in March 1967, he went to Monsignor John Lane, the Dean of Kerry.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Guam’s previous top federal prosecutor has been named chairwoman of the board of Hope and Healing, the organization created by the archdiocese to address multiple accusations of sexual abuse by former Guam priests, decades ago.

Chairwoman Alicia Limtiaco’s role was announced today during a press conference at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa.

Limtiaco is the previous U.S. Attorney for Guam and the Northern Marianas. She resigned recently after the Trump administration asked holdover U.S. attorneys from the Obama administration to resign. She was a Bush-era appointee and a former elected attorney general of Guam.

Limtiaco said she’s committed to a board that will be victim-sensitive. The board will understand the dynamics of abuse and exploitation; and will be compassionate, fair and understand the effects and the impacts of trauma on the victims and in their lives.

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ILLINOIS
The Southern

MOLLY PARKER The Southern

OZARK — Paul Wesselmann remembers well the day he made the decision to reach out for help for the sexual abuse he endured as a young teen. It was 1994 — the year “Forrest Gump” was buzzing as the must-see movie of the summer. Wesselmann, then a young man in his 20s, went to see it alone. On the way to the grocery store after leaving the theater, he had to pull over because he was sobbing so hard.

It was that famous scene where Forrest came looking for Jenny because she didn’t get on the bus for school that morning that rattled him to the core. As Jenny’s father stumbles drunk outside with a flask in his hand and yelling for his daughter, Jenny tells Forrest to run. They head out into the cornfield behind her Alabama shack as her father chases after her, and she hits her knees and says, “Pray with me, Forrest,” and then begins to chant, “Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far, far, far away from here.”

The implication made in the movie — expressed through Forrest Gump’s naiveté; he described Jenny’s father as “a very loving man” — was that young Jenny wanted to get away because her father was sexually molesting her and her sisters. Wesselmann was struck by how much he related to the character’s desire to be transported from that horrid abuse — as it happened in real time, and the many times after that it played like a broken record in his head.

Shortly afterward, Wesselmann said he picked up the phone and scheduled an appointment to see a counselor. He realized that he could no longer shove into the dark reaches of his soul the tragedy he endured as a young teenager at Camp Ondessonk in the early- to mid-1980s.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Concerns raised about a Catholic priest later jailed for sexual assault were not acted upon or taken seriously by the Church, a review has found.

Anthony McSweeney, 70, was jailed for three years in 2015 for abusing a boy at a west London care home.

In the wake of the case an independent review was commissioned by the Dioceses of Brentwood and East Anglia.

The review said McSweeney was found with videos of adolescent boys in 1998 but this was not reported to police.

The review revealed how McSweeney was moved in 1999 from the Diocese of Brentwood, where he served at Saint Luke’s in Harlow and at Saint Peter’s in Eastwood, to St George’s Parish, Norwich, which is part of the Diocese of East Anglia, after the tapes were discovered.

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IRELAND
Connacht Tribune

Galway Bay fm newsroom – There was a large turnout at UHG this afternoon for a protest against plans to hand ownership of the new national maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

The demonstration was hosted by the ‘Parents for Choice’ group and coincided with protests taking place at hospitals across the country.

The group is calling on the Government to reverse it’s decision to vest ownership of the 300 million euro facility to the religious order.

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CAMBODIA
APLE

A Dutchman arrested this week in Siem Reap province in possession of nearly 1,300 photographs of naked boys was charged with child pornography on Thursday—and identified as a former member of the Catholic clergy in his country, a court official and sources in the Netherlands said.

Evrard-Nicolas Sarot, 53, is alleged to have paid about 20 boys, all of whom were under the age of 15, a few dollars each to pose for nude photos, police said.

On Thursday, he was charged by the Siem Reap Provincial Court under the anti-human trafficking law after his arrest on Tuesday outside a Siem Reap City hotel, said Ream Chanmony, a spokesman for the provincial court.

Mr. Sarot is being provisionally detained at the provincial prison, Mr. Chanmony said.

Police found a laptop computer inside Mr. Sarot’s hotel room on Wednesday that held more photos of naked Cambodian boys, different from the images found on Tuesday on his Nikon camera, said Chhay Haklong, deputy chief of the provincial police’s anti-human trafficking unit.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

There is no “plan B” if the proposed move of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) to St Vincent’s Hospital does not go ahead, Minister for Health Simon Harris has admitted.

Mr Harris said there was no other hospital in the geographical area that could be used to accommodate the NMH and deliver co-location with adult services.

Speaking to reporters in Galway, the Minister said he did not believe changes were needed to the agreement reached between the two hospitals last November about relocating the maternity hospital.

While he had not changed his mind about the agreement reached between two voluntary hospitals, this did not take away from his legal and contractual responsibility to protect the rights of the State and the taxpayer.

“Just because they have a robust agreement doesn’t negate my responsibility to ensure the clinical independence of the hospital is underpinned in contracts and our financial investment is protected.”

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY AENGUS O’HANLON
22 APR 2017

Health Minister Simon Harris needs to “do the right thing” in the ongoing row over the new national maternity hospital, a campaign group said.

Uplift believes the public is “deeply confused, hurt and angry” by the plan to transfer ownership of the proposed €300million site to the Sisters of Charity, which was linked to the abuse of women in the Magdalene Laundries.

A petition on the group’s website had more than 85,000 signatures today – making it the largest of its kind since the body started in December 2014.

Spokeswoman Siobhan O’Donoghue said: “People are deeply, deeply confused, hurt and angry by the plan to transfer ownership of this badly needed maternity hospital to a religious order linked to the abuse and mistreatment of women taken into the Magdalene Laundries.

“This just goes to show there is real outrage about the planned ownership of National Maternity Hospital by the Sisters of Charity amongst the Irish public. People are willing to take action and show leadership. Uplift members have done much more than just sign the petition.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily

“The true goal of Hope and Healing is to get victims to sign away their hard-won legal rights and trade ‘spiritual counseling’ for transparency and accountability from church officials. That’s disgusting.” – Joelle Casteix, western region director, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

An organization that helps thousands of child sex abuse victims nationwide says a new program designed to help victims on Guam heal from past abuse is “disgusting.”

Joelle Casteix, western region director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told The Guam Daily Post she was “horrified” at the initial press conference that announced the Hope and Healing program and the selection of Mike Caspino as the director.

Caspino, a California-based attorney, was hired by the Archdiocese of Agana to lead the program and urged sex abuse victims to come forward to heal.

“The true goal of Hope and Healing is to get victims to sign away their hard-won legal rights and trade ‘spiritual counseling’ for transparency and accountability from church officials. That’s disgusting,” said Castei

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CONNECTICUT
Record-Journal

April 22, 2017

By Matthew Zabierek, Record-Journal staff

WALLINGFORD — Following the release of a report that revealed several incidents of alleged sexual abuse at Choate Rosemary Hall since the 1960s, state officials and legal experts say state laws regarding the reporting of child abuse need to be clarified to allow claims to be investigated after the victim turns 18 years old.

State law currently allows the state Department of Children and Families to investigate reports of child abuse until the victim turns 18 and is considered an adult. Once an individual reaches adulthood, DCF historically hasn’t “accepted reports relating to potential victims if that person is no longer a minor,” said Julie Fay, a lawyer who specializes in school law at Hartford-based law firm Shipman & Goodwin.

Fay said existing state laws do not provide guidance for how DCF should investigate claims from an adult who alleges abuse as a child, “creating question as to how to handle information relating to suspicions that involve children who are now adults.”

“We need to make sure that we’re crystal clear about how we respond to child abuse in Connecticut,” said Mickey Kramer, an associate child advocate with the state Office of the Child Advocate. “If the law isn’t clear, then how can we expect DCF to respond consistently and reliably?”

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IRELAND
The Journal

MINISTER FOR HEALTH Simon Harris has come out again to strongly defend the government’s decision to allow the new National Maternity Hospital to be built on land owned by religious group the Sisters of Charity.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation, Harris said that, in this country, “doctors and healthcare professionals make clinical decisions – nobody else”.

However, at the Labour Party national conference today, Joan Burton accused Harris of being “hapless, helpless and hopeless” on the issue.

The question of a religious order owning a maternity hospital providing a range of services for women and children has been subject to severe scrutiny this week.

To date, over 80,000 people have signed a petition calling on a block to be placed on the Sisters of Charity owning the new National Maternity Hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen, Pat Leahy 
 
The proposed move of the National Maternity Hospital to a religious-owned site at St Vincent’s Hospital is in jeopardy after the board of St Vincent’s announced it plans to review the status of the project.

The board said the decision was prompted by “controversy and misinformation that has arisen in recent times” and the views expressed by Minister for Health Simon Harris and other TDs.

The Irish Times understands St Vincent’s was extremely reluctant to agree to the relocation of the National Maternity Hospital to its campus in the first place, and was subjected to considerable pressure from Government and the HSE to accept the plan.

When St Vincent’s agreed to accept the move from Holles Street, it sought to integrate the new hospital into its structures, but compromised to accept a separate legal entity and to preserve the mastership system of the National Maternity Hospital, which sees the hospital led by a doctor.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
April 22 2017

Health Minister Simon Harris today called for “cool heads” as he waded into the row which threatens the future of a new national maternity hospital.

The minister was attempting to quell the controversy which has led to St Vincent’s Healthcare Group to review its offer of a site at its Dublin campus for the new hospital.

Asked if he intends to meet the group, he said will allow its board to meet to discuss the issue next week.

The row erupted over the decision to give ownership of the new maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity, the religious order who own the campus where the St Vincent’s public and private hospitals are located.

The plan is to re-locate the maternity hospital to a new €300m building to be constructed at St Vincent’s campus in Elm Park, two miles away.

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IRELAND
The Irish World

The Irish agency in charge of a €110 million fund for victims of abuse must be reformed as it is “completely out of its depth”, according to a member of Dail Eireann’s Public Accounts Committee, Independent TD Catherine Connolly. Caranua, which runs a redress fund for victims of institutional abuse, admitted it was overwhelmed by applications, managed its finances poorly and provided a poor service.

Last week TDs were told the agency is nevertheless about to spend €240,000 of the fund’s money in annual rent for a new office in Dublin city centre.

Survivors

Caranua was set up to distribute funds provided by religious orders to survivors of abuse at industrial schools, who can apply for help based on their health, housing or educational needs. The agency started in 2013 but didn’t have a financial manager until last summer. Its administrative costs are paid out of the fund itself and there is now €48 million of the initial €110 million left. Two per cent of applicants have been awarded one fifth of the total fund so far.

Two people received €100,000 or more, three people were given €90,000 or more and another three were granted between €80,000 and €85,000, The Times reported in an investigation published in its Irish edition last week. Last June Caranua put a €15,000 cap on pay outs, the year before it increased its chief executive Mary Higgins’ annual pay by €10,000 bringing it to more than €87,000. Ms Higgins has been criticised for saying that whatever the agency did or paid out some of the victims would never be happy.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Catherine O’Mahony
April 22 2017

Feelings are running high – that’s for sure. Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition to block the state from granting sole ownership of the proposed National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity, the order that owns the St Vincent’s Hospital site in Dublin’s Ballsbridge where the new hospital is set to land.

So vehement is the opposition that the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group yesterday said it was reviewing the status of the whole project.

Calls are being made for a clear divide between church and state on matters regarding health. Questions are being asked as to why any religious order should take ownership of the state-funded hospital, much less a maternity hospital where procedures sometimes need to take place that run counter to Catholic teachings.

Survivors of abuse at Magdalene Laundries are justifiably outraged because the Sisters of Charity have so far paid out only €2m of the €5m they are due to pay in redress.
There can be no excuse for this order not to pay its due. If the state can exert influence in this regard, it must.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Health Service Executive is seeking a new service provider to run a centre for people with intellectual disabilities in Cork following two highly critical Hiqa reports into the facility when it was operated by the Sisters of Charity.

A spokeswoman told The Irish Times “the process is well under way”.

This is the second Sisters of Charity health service against which the HSE has moved following recent severely critical Hiqa reports.

The religious order is at the centre of controversy over plans for it to become the sole owner of the new National Maternity Hospital at St Vincent’s hospital campus in Dublin.

The HSE confirmed that in June 2015 the District Court in Kilkenny granted an order to Hiqa to cancel the registration of Our Lady’s Unit at the St Patrick’s Centre there, run by the Sisters of Charity, due to concerns over fire safety. The court appointed the HSE as registered provider.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
April 22 2017

The future of the new national maternity hospital has been thrown into doubt as the row over its ownership deepened last night.

The board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group – controlled by the Sisters of Charity – announced it is to review its decision to allow the hospital to be built on its campus.

It follows days of controversy over the decision to allow the religious order to own the new €300m national maternity hospital which will be built on its land surrounding St Vincent’s Hospital. In a statement yesterday, the chairman of St Vincent’s Group, James Menton, said: “In view of the controversy and misinformation that has arisen in recent times regarding the project, and the views expressed by the Health Minister and other members of the Oireachtas, the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will review the status of the project in light of the current situation.”

Critics, including some of the past residents of the Magdalene Laundries, said the religious order should not be allowed to own the hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Pat Leahy

“How do I get to Killarney?” the American tourist asked. “If I were you I wouldn’t start from here at all,” came the reply. An awful lot of policy debates in Irish politics trundle around similar territory. The controversy of the week has been whether the State should give the Sisters of Charity ownership of the National Maternity Hospital when it moves from Holles Street to a new €300 million building on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital.

Minister for Health Simon Harris has been lambasted for agreeing to the arrangement. He promises that the nuns will have no influence on the medical care. The current master pleads for the new hospital to be built, whoever owns it. Conditions at Holles Street are becoming intolerable for patients, she says. A forthcoming inquest into the death of one of those patients is likely to underscore the urgency, I’m told.

The concerns that the nuns were going to be sitting in the corner of the delivery room, directing the obstetricians – “Watch it there, doctor! Have you said the rosary?” – were slightly hyperventilated but not entirely misplaced. As my colleague Una Mullally fairly asked in an online column, why do the nuns want to own a maternity hospital anyway?

The answer, I think, is more about money and the protection of assets than about medical practice. The religious orders are not stupid. They can see as well as the rest of us that pretty soon barely any nuns will be left, just as the massed ranks of priests and brothers who taught generations of boys in Ireland’s schools are now a thing of the past. Many regret the passing of the orders; others remember only the crimes that some of them seemed to specialise in. Either way, they are going, going.

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IRELAND
98 FM

22 Apr 2017
Sharron Lynskey

A protest is taking place in the city this afternoon over the ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital at the St Vincents site.

Campaigners say ownership should not handed over to the Sisters of Charity.

The new facility is now in doubt, after the board of St Vincent’s said it’s now reviewing the project because of the ‘controversy’ surrounding it.

Nobody denies but that Holles Street needs a new premises as a matter of urgency and you know, funding has been allocated for that”, says Social Democrat leader Roisin Shorthall.

“But the important thing is that we get assurances and we find out the full detail in relation to what the agreement entails, in relation to ownership and in relation to governance of the hospital”.

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IRELAND
The Nationalist

Health Minister Simon Harris has been urged to “publish all the deals and all the side deals” with a religious order involved in the mother and baby homes scandal over the building of the new national maternity hospital, writes political correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

Labour TD and former tánaiste Joan Burton called for the immediate move as she lashed out at Mr Harris being “hapless, helpless and hopeless” over his response to what happened and for failing the women of Ireland.

In a hard-hitting speech during an emergency debate on three motions in response to last night’s revelations the Sisters of Charity are considering scrapping the national maternity hospital plan, Ms Burton said “secret deals” with the church have no role to play in modern Ireland.

Warning public trust has been shattered by what has emerged this week, she said no one has been re-assured by the Government’s response and that what happens now will be central to a deal “that will last the next 100 years”.

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IRELAND
The Cork

22 April 2017
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Health Billy Kelleher TD has called on Minister Simon Harris to publish the deal reached between the National Maternity Hospital and the Sisters of Charity regarding the provision of the new maternity hospital.

Deputy Kelleher said, “The ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital has been subject to intense discussion and debate in recent days. There have been many reports and counter-reports regarding the proposed governance structure for the hospital which is due to be constructed on the site of the current St. Vincent’s Hospital.

“While I have requested the Master of Holles Street – Dr Rhona Mahony – to attend the Oireachtas Health Committee, alongside Kieran Mulvey, I am also requesting that all details of the various reports, reviews and deals on the hospital be fully published so that people can ascertain the facts. We need clarity on what is actually contained in the deal reached to provide a new National Maternity Hospital.

“I am also extending the invitation to Minister Harris to attend the Health Committee so that he can outline exactly what he agreed to and at what stages he was consulted.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Irish Medical Organisation has said the project for the new national maternity hospital seems to have been very badly handled.

Earlier this week, it emerged that the Religious Sisters of Charity was to be given ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded hospital because it owns the land on which it is to be built.

The new hospital is to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

Dr Ann Hogan, the IMO’s new president, said it was very distressing and could mean a delay in the new facility that is so badly needed for women and babies.

Speaking at the union’s annual general meeting in Galway, she said both Minister for Health Simon Harris and the Master of Holles Street Hospital Dr Rhona Mahony had given assurances that they had the range of medical services and independence of the facility copper fastened and now there was uncertainty.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Don Felice La Rosa, 42, a former pastor of Zungri, was suspended by Bishop Luigi Renzo after he and two other suspects were charged with child prostitution.]

L’indagine risale allo scorso novembre. Il sacerdote avrebbe pagato una somma di denaro per le prestazioni sessuali di un 15enne

Salta il filtro dell’udienza preliminare e va all’immediato don Felice La Rosa, 42 anni, ex parroco di Zungri, sospeso dal vescovo Luigi Renzo, dopo che questi, insieme ad altri due indagati, è stato accusato di prostituzione minorile. L’indagine della Squadra mobile, coordinata dalla Procura di Catanzaro, che ha consentito di svelare un giro di prostituzione minorile, risale a novembre 2016. Don La Rosa è stato arrestato dalla polizia assieme ad altre due persone, un cittadino bulgaro, M.I., e un pensionato, F.A, di Briatico. Secondo gli inquirenti, il bulgaro avrebbe offerto per denaro al pensionato e al sacerdote le prestazioni sessuali di un 15enne, anch’egli straniero.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Nordwest Zeitung

[The investigations of a priest from Lohne (Kreis Vechta) on suspicion of possession of child pornographic writings has been suspended. The priest had previously been investigated by the Oldenburg Public Prosecutor’s Office for sexual abuse.]

LOHNE/MÜNSTER Die Ermittlungen gegen einen Priester aus Lohne (Kreis Vechta) wegen des Verdachts auf den Besitz jugendpornografischer Schriften sind eingestellt worden. Es habe sich „kein hinreichender Tatverdacht“ ergeben, bestätigte die Erste Staatsanwältin der Staatsanwaltschaft Hannover, Kathrin Söfker, am Freitag.

Die Dateien auf dem beschlagnahmten Computer des zunächst Verdächtigen seien gelöscht gewesen, dann aber wiederhergestellt worden, so die Staatsanwältin. Einige wenige Bilder darin hätten möglicherweise als jugendpornografisch gelten können. Allerdings sei das Alter der abgebildeten Menschen nicht einzuschätzen gewesen. Es könne sich auch um Volljährige handeln, so dass die Bilder „legal“ gewesen seien, hieß es.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

TRACY BEAR AND CHRIS ANDERSEN
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Apr. 21, 2017

Tracy Bear is director of the Indigenous Women’s Resilience Project in the Faculty of Native Studies and Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Alberta. Chris Andersen is interim dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

The year 2017 is especially symbolic for Canada. In addition to marking the 150th year of its confederation, it also is the third anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s completion. Two years ago, the TRC released its final report and 94 calls to action to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.” Amid celebrations, a vigorous debate has erupted over the gap between the Canadian federal government’s promises to Indigenous peoples and what might charitably be termed the muted delivery on those promises.

At possibly no other time in our history has so much discussion taken place, country wide, about issues relating to reconciliation and the calls for a renewed relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples. In the midst of these ostensibly celebratory conversations, however, some examples have emerged that demonstrate just how far we have to go. Nationally, Senator Lynn Beyak recently commented on what she regarded as the TRC’s excessively negative depiction of Canada’s Indian residential schools. Her remarks are as profoundly tone deaf as they are historically inaccurate and they led to her removal from the Senate committee on aboriginal peoples. Here in Alberta, the local council in Strathcona County (directly east of Edmonton) recently voted against beginning its meetings with an acknowledgment of their presence on Treaty 6 territory.

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

ED STETZER

The explosive controversy surrounding Bill O’Reilly has captured the attention of global news networks, and his sudden departure has sparked conversation about harassment, bullying, and organizational response. Wednesday night, I watched Fox News briefly mention O’Reilly at the beginning of his former time slot, and then quickly move to other topics. This was in sharp contrast to almost every other major news network, which ran the story as a main focus of conversation on TV and online outlets.

The attempt to subdue the conversation actually just displayed a palpable disconnect.

There are many lessons Fox News needs to learn from this situation, and certainly O’Reilly has a lot to learn as well.

But I’m wondering something different.

I want to know, what can the Church learn from this debacle?

Here are some thoughts.

First, the way we respond to an accusation teaches people how we value others.

Many leaders have publicly dismissed these accusations against Bill O’Reilly as a smear campaign without knowing the facts. Dismissal like this has almost become a default in some organizations, especially in the case of sexual misconduct.

Yes, I know (and am glad) we live in a society where legally people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But when leaders respond to allegations of sexual harassment and bullying with automatic defensiveness, doubt, and dismissal, that teaches people who have been hurt how much you value them. To put it bluntly, it teaches them they won’t be believed.

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JAMAICA
The Gleaner

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it – Proverbs 22:6

Growing up, it has always been the norm for parents to advocate that children be ‘raised’ in the Church. Be it Sabbath or Sunday School, the principle was that if they even turned away to focus on ‘things of the world’, then the innate training would manifest itself once more.

But with the many reports coming out of Christendom regarding the abuse by leaders of the flock on their young charges, reports on pastors swindling poor souls out of their hard earned monies, doubts have arisen on how much of a sanctuary the Church really is.

Dr Edina Bayne, associate pastor and member of the American Associations of Christian Counsellors, who is currently in Jamaica reached out to Family and Religion on what she termed ‘a burning issue’.

“The Church, which one would love to think would be the final frontier, a place that is built on family, and where families should feel safe – especially safe from sexual abuse, manipulation and control – is everything but safe. Now we find that in all too many instances in the churches, charismatic pastors and leaders are preying on the Church instead of praying for them,” she said.

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MALAWI
Vatican Radio

A Child Protection activist in Malawi, Sister Agnes Jonas of the Teresian Sisters, has challenged Children Animators in the Church to safeguard and protect children from all forms of abuses including physical and emotional ill-treatment; sexual abuse; neglect or negligent treatment of children. She said the Church could also advocate against commercial interests that harm children.

Sr. Jonas spoke about the importance of protecting children during a presentation on Child Protection to 96 Animators under the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM).

“This includes exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust and power,” said Sr. Jonas.

According to Sr. Jonas, the Church is crucial in ensuring that it assists victims of abuse. This support to victims encompasses cooperating with civil authorities and offering Counselling to victims.

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NEW YORK
InformNY

By: Christopher Bucher
Posted: Apr 21, 2017

There will be a special mass held this weekend in St. Lawrence County designed to try and bring peace to victims of sexual abuse.

According to 7 News, Bishop Terry LaValley of the Diocese of Ogdensburg plans to hold a “Healing Mass” at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg.

The hope is to try and alleviate pain suffered by the thousands of people who were sexually abused by the overall Catholic clergy over several decades.

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ARIZONA
The Catholic Sun

The Diocese of Phoenix Office of Child and Youth Protection planted a pinwheel garden outside of the Diocesan Pastoral Center April 18 to mark April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The pinwheel “is an uplifting symbol of childhood. It represents all our efforts to ensure a healthy and safe environment of children in our community,” said Anne Vargas-Leveriza, director of the Child and Youth Protection Office.

The program began with a Rosary led by students from St. Agnes School, followed by a Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares.

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NEW YORK
Watertown Daily Times

By LARRY ROBINSON
LROBINSON@OGD.COM
PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2017

OGDENSBURG — Bishop Terry R. La­Valley, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, will apologize for past sexual abuse and other harmful acts by clergy and church officials during a special service at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg.

The so-called Mass of Healing is being held on what Catholics celebrate as Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday following Easter.

Bishop LaValley said Friday that the liturgy will acknowledge the pain caused by some pastoral leaders and other members of the church, whether it involved the sexual abuse of minors or other inappropriate actions.

“It’s an opportunity to come together and seek the Lord’s forgiveness,” Bishop LaValley said. “To express our sorrow, our regret, our shame, and to come together as the members of one family of faith to pray for each other and support each other.”

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UNITED STATES
Telegraph (UK)

Rebecca Hawkes
20 APRIL 2017

In Baltimore, Maryland, in 1969, a 26-year-old Catholic nun was murdered and her suspected killers, alleged abusers and paedophiles, left free to their continue their crimes.

Years later, a new seven-part Netflix series, the forthcoming The Keepers, has thrust the case into the public eye – and, judging by its gripping trailer, may have uncovered new evidence about a decades-old cover-up.

But the release of The Keepers is just the latest chapter in a long, ongoing story, which encompasses not just a murder, but a probable paedophilia ring, and deep-set corruption on the part of police force and church officials in Baltimore.

In 2015 The Huffington Post published an in-depth piece on the case, focusing on the stories of the former Catholic schoolgirls who came forwards, years later, to share their stories of the sexual abuse they endured at Archbishop Kenough High School, and their memories of the charismatic young teacher, Sister Catherine “Cathy” Cesnik, who promised to help them – and later ended up dead.

The key events from the case

November 1969: Sister Cathy Cesnik disappears

Cesnik, a popular teacher at the all-girls Archbishop Kenough High School, disappeared after leaving the flat she shared with another nun, Sister Helen Russell Phillips, on November 7 1969. When she hadn’t returned by 11pm, Phillips became concerned and called two priests, Father Gerald J. Koob and Father Peter McKeon, who later contacted the police. Cesnik’s car was discovered nearby, parked illegally (and away from her usual spot).

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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)

By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com

Netflix has unveiled the trailer for its next addictive true crime docu-series.

The Keepers examines the 1969 murder of Baltimore nun Cathy Cesnik, a grisly crime that has haunted the city for years.

It promises to expose a web of corruption, sexual abuse and lies within the Baltimore’s entrenched Catholic community.

The film was created by Tripod Media and Film 45. It will be launched on Netflix on May 19.

Cathy Cesnik was murdered in November 1969. She was 26 and taught English teacher at Archbishop Keough High School.

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UNITED STATES
news.com.au

ONE evening in November, 1969, Sister Catherine “Cathy” Cesnik, left the home she shared with a fellow nun to buy some dinner rolls, shop for an engagement gift and cash a cheque.

When the 26-year-old hadn’t returned by 11pm, her concerned flatmate called two friends who were priests. They eventually contacted local Baltimore police and reported their friend missing.

Her car was discovered unlocked, parked illegally, and away from her usual spot. There was no sign of Cathy.

In early 1970 Sister Cathy’s badly decomposed body was discovered at a rubbish dump. A forensic examination revealed that the popular schoolteacher had been choked, then killed by a blow from a blunt object — possibly a hammer or a brick.

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IOWA
Quad-City Times

Thumbs up to Bishop Martin Amos and welcome to his soon-to-be successor at the Catholic Diocese of Davenport, Monsignor Thomas Zinkula.

Amos came to a diocese in crisis in 2006, at the height of allegations of past sexual abuse. He helped steer the diocese through the bankruptcy and financial hardships that followed, while doing the important work of reaching out to survivors of abuse. Through it all, Amos remained steady.

The Diocese of Davenport is in a much better place because of his decade at its helm.

In will walk Zinkula on June 22, a lawyer, religious scholar and rector of St. Pius X Seminary in Dubuque. Zinkula immediately addressed issues such as priest shortages and burnout in his introductory comments. And did so with a certain sense of humor, particularly about how people tend to butcher his name. Zinkula looks to be up to the challenge of representing a religious community amid a changing political landscape.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
22 Apr 2017

NEWCASTLE Anglican Diocese will hold a two day professional standards board hearing into the fitness for ministry of Reverend Drew Hanlon.

In a short statement the diocese did not reveal any details about the reason for the hearing on April 27 and 28, but confirmed it is open to the public. Venue is level 1, 19 Darby Street, Newcastle.

Reverend Hanlon became an Anglican priest in December, 1993 and started work with Newcastle diocese in January, 2011. Reverend Hanlon concluded ministry at Samaritans in April, 2013 and has recently been living in South Australia.

The board hearing will be presided over by former NSW local court magistrate Colin Elliott after he accepted reappointment as president of the professional standards board in October.

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IRELAND
Connacht Tribune

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A campaign group will protest at UHG this weekend over government plans to hand ownership of the new national maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

The demonstration is being hosted by the ‘Parents for Choice’ group.

The group is calling on the government to reverse its decision to vest ownership of the 300 million euro facility to the religious order.

The protest will take place outside UHG at 3pm on Saturday to coincide with similar protests at maternity units across Ireland.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

One of Ireland’s largest hospitals does not provide women with the contraceptive pill – based on its operational ethos as a Catholic institution.

In-patients at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin are not provided with access to the pill, regardless of whether they need it due to illness or are suffering without it.

While doctors are free to prescribe the medication, the hospital does not stock the pill at its on-site pharmacy and expects women to source their own from outside. …

The Department of Health has refused to comment on the revelations – insisting that the Mater is a private institution free to operate under its own ethos and guidelines.

Dr Murphy said that while the hospital is a private institution, it is funded by the government. …

The situation will do little to calm fears however, that the planned delivery of sole ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to another religious order, the Sisters of Charity, will compromise its clinical and operational independence.

A department spokesman said the new facility will be operating “very much under a different situation” with a “triple-lock” system in place to guarantee its autonomy and clinical independence.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE BOARD OF the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group plans to review the status of the new National Maternity Hospital project, in light of recent developments.

In a statement, the group said it would review plans to build the new maternity hospital at the St Vincent’s Hospital site, in light of the controversy surrounding the development.

“In view of the controversy and misinformation that has arisen in recent times regarding the project, and the views expressed by the Minister for Health and other members of the Oireachtas, the board of St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group will review the status of the project in light of the current situation,” said Jimmy Menton, Chairperson of St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group.

“Pending this review, the Board does not intend to make any further comment.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan
April 21 2017

The future of the new national maternity hospital which is due to be built on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin is in doubt.

The board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group announced today it is to review its decision to allow the hospital be built on its campus.

It follows days of controversy over the decision to allow the Sisters of Charity, who own St Vincents and the surrounding land, to own the new €300m maternity hospital.

In a statement today the chairman of St Vincents James Menton said: “In view of the controversy and misinformation that has arisen in recent times regarding the project, and the views expressed by the Minister for Health and other members of the Oireachtas, the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will review the status of the project in light of the current situation.”

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IRELAND
Lifesite

April 21, 2017 (SPUC) — The Irish Health Minister has called on an order of nuns to agree on contracts allowing abortion and contraception in the new National Maternity Hospital being built on their land.

Irish Health Minister Simon Harris has intervened in a row about ownership and control of the proposed new National Maternity Hospital in south Dublin where the new 300 million euro facility is planned next to St Vincent’s Hospital.

The decision by the government to “hand over” control of the new hospital to a religious order has caused a furore in the Irish press, and thousands have signed a petition opposing it. The outrage is centred around historic allegations of child abuse by the order, as well as fears that the nuns would prevent abortion and other practices contrary to Catholic teaching taking place on the premises.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Ronan McGreevy

A former resident of a mother and baby home run by the Sisters of Charity has described proposals to hand over ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital to the order as “disgusting and a disgrace”.

Francis Timmons (46), an independent councillor on South Dublin County Council, spent the first three years of his life in Madonna House in Blackrock run by the Sisters of Charity. He was born in 1971 to a single mother before being fostered out.

Cllr Timmons said the news the Sisters of Charity will own the new hospital left him in despair.

“Someone please tell me this is just a nightmare and that I have woken up in 2017 in a modern Republic of Ireland where the grip of the church is a thing of the past,” he said.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY BLANAID MURPHY
APR 2017

A Government minister has claimed that the new National Maternity Hospital needs to be run by the State and not an order of nuns.

Strains within the Cabinet are showing over the decision to hand over full ownership of the new e300million taxpayer-funded facility to the nuns who ran the religious order behind the notorious Magdaline laundries.

But the controversial move has been slammed by Independent TDs and could rock the stability of the coalition.

The Minister of State for Disability Finian McGrath insisted there needs to be a separation of church and Government.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Vivienne Clarke, Paul Cullen

The Government should introduce legislation to allow it to take over lands belonging to religious orders who still owe the State money under the redress scheme, maintains Independent TD and Minister of State John Halligan.

“No religious order should have anything to do with a hospital,” he told RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show.

He was speaking after it emerged that the Department of Health will to give the order sole ownership of the €300 million National Maternity Hospital when it moves from Holles Street to the Elm Park campus, next to St Vincent’s University Hospital.

Mr Halligan said that there had not been any discussion by the Independent Alliance on the issue of the location of the National Maternity Hospital to the St Vincent’s Hospital campus in advance of the agreement.

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IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Ryan McBride
21st April 2017

PLANS for the National Maternity Hospital are in doubt after it was revealed tonight that the Board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will be reviewing the status of the project.

The Sisters of Charity own the area at St Vincent’s Hospital, where the new maternity hospital is set to be built.

They are yet to pay €3million owed to the State as part of the redress scheme following an inquiry into child abuse by the Catholic Church.

The chairperson of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, Jimmy Menton, broke news of the review in a statement, which read: “On November 21, 2016, following six months of intensive discussions chaired by Mr. Kieran Mulvey (former CEO of the Workplace Relations Commission), St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) signed a comprehensive agreement providing for the corporate and clinical governance arrangements for the future operation of a new maternity hospital, called ‘The National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC’.

“That agreement was publicly endorsed and welcomed by both the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, and the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, at a press briefing that evening in Government Buildings.

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IRELAND
RTE News

Uncertainty surrounds plans for the new National Maternity Hospital following controversy over the involvement of the Sisters of Charity.

The Board of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group said this evening it will review the status of the new National Maternity Hospital project in light of the current situation.

The new hospital is to be built on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital in south Dublin.

There has been growing opposition after it emerged that the Religious Sisters of Charity will be given ownership of the €300m taxpayer-funded hospital because it owns the land on which it is to be built.

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IRELAND
Today FM

Board of St Vincent’s Hospital to review the status of the project because of growing controversy

The Minister for Health says he remains ‘fully committed’ to the delivery of the new National Maternity Hospital.

It follows an annoucement that the board of St Vincent’s Healthcare group is to meet to review the status of the project, in light of the controversy surrounding the project and the the views expressed by Minister Simon Harris.

The new maternity hospital is due to be built on a site at St Vincent’s Hospital – on lands owned by the Sisters of Charity.

Minister Harris has issued a statement tonight insisting that the ‘clinical, operational and financial independence’ of the new hospital will be copperfastened in the legal arrangements, which he will formally sanction himself.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Ellen Coyne
April 22 2017
The Times

The Catholic healthcare group that is set to own the new National Maternity Hospital has responded to a growing public backlash by suggesting it would pull out of the project.

The St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is owned by the Sisters of Charity, who also own the proposed site for the hospital. St Vincent’s said last night that it was going to re-examine the project at its next board meeting, blaming “controversy and misinformation” and citing comments by Simon Harris, the health minister, and other TDs.

Opposition politicians condemned the group, saying they were threatening the future of the hospital. The minister did not respond directly to the group’s remarks last night but said in a statement that he was still “fully committed” to the new maternity hospital and defended public-private hospital ownership.

Last month, The Times revealed that the Sisters of Charity, which still owes €3 million in child abuse redress, was to be given the new National Maternity Hospital after it is built with €300 million of taxpayers’ money.

The new hospital is to be built on the Elm Park site at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, a site which is owned by the Sisters of Charity. The Department of Health said that the option of the state buying the land from the religious order “never arose”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times

By J.D. Prose jprose@calkins.com

Victims of sexual abuse would have an additional 10 years to pursue civil legal action under a bill introduced in the state Senate while another one would require schools be tested for lead every year.

Senate Bill 643, sponsored by state Sen. John Rafferty Jr., R-Montgomery County, would increase the statute of limitations for sexual abuse victims who were under 18 when they were assaulted. Currently, these victims have 12 years after they turn 18 to file civil suits, but Rafferty’s bill would increase that window to 22 years.

“This legislation would allow the victim to file for damages regardless of whether the individual files a criminal complaint regarding the childhood sexual abuse,” Rafferty told colleagues in a February memo.

Southwest Pennsylvania co-sponsors on the legislation include state Sens. Guy Reschenthaler, R-37, Jefferson Hills, Allegheny County, and Pat Stefano, R-Fayette County.

Rafferty previously introduced his bill in April 2016, but it did not receive a floor vote. Senate Bill 643 was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Rafferty serves as vice chairman.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

BY PAT FLANAGAN
21 APR 2017

Our Government spending €300million of our money to open a Magdalene maternity hospital says all you need to know about Ireland’s attitude towards woman and children.

After the decades of persecution and abuse inflicted on innocent children you’d imagine the last people you would let near women and kids would be the order of nuns which ran the Magdalene Laundries.

Such is the disbelief at the plan to give Sisters of Charity complete ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital that people must be pinching themselves to check it’s not all a bad dream.

It’s not that it’s bad, it’s not that it’s mad – it is one of the most obscene acts ever committed by an Irish government and a total insult to the Magdalene survivors.

It is not surprising a petition calling for this dirty deed to be undone had been signed by almost 70,000 outraged citizens on Thursday night.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Henry Mills was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York in 1988. He was an assistant priest at Christ the King parish in the Bronx for eight years, followed by one year in the same role at St. Joseph of the Holy Family in Harlem.

Mills was removed from St. Joseph’s in 1997 after he was accused in a lawsuit of raping a 17-year-old male parishioner. The abuse was said to have begun in 1992 at Christ the King, when the youth went to Mills for counseling, and to have continued over several years. Mills’ accuser claimed that the priest plied him with alcohol, threatened to say that the boy tried to seduce him if he told, and said that “nobody would ever believe” him. The lawsuit also accused the archdiocese of a cover-up and of breaking a promise to provide psychological help. The archdiocese denied the allegations and said “if anything occurred, it was consensual sex.” Mills countersued his accuser in 1998.

After his removal Mills was sent to a treatment facility in upstate New York, after which he was sent reside at St. Elizabeth parish rectory in Washington Heights. In 2002, despite his “Absent on Leave” status, Mills was discovered by a news reporter to have been actively ministering at the parish and its school. At the time, neither of the lawsuits had been resolved.

Mills’ whereabouts and status in April 2017 are unclear.

Ordained: 1988

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

“A primary reason why abuse victims are afraid of the church is because of the level of immaturity and ignorance they have experienced in how they are treated or handled by the community and leadership of a church.” – child sexual abuse survivor

Sexual abuse of children within faith communities is an extremely complex topic, and failing to comprehend and address it can have devastating and lifelong consequences. Yet, research shows that only about three percent of seminaries provide any preparation in child abuse prevention and response (according to the National Child Protection Training Center). Church leaders must be educated before-the-job, not on-the-job. Education about child sex abuse must be in tandem with education on studying scripture, preaching, counseling, and administration.

Biblical Theological Seminary (BTS) has teamed up with Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) to offer a first of its kind, 3-credit-hour seminary course that will educate, train, and equip future pastors and church staff members on protecting children from offenders and serving adult survivors of child sexual abuse. GRACE worked with the National Child Protection Training Center and a team of Christian theologians, pastors, counselors, and child protection professionals to craft this historic course.

In describing the need for this course, GRACE’s executive director, Boz Tchividjian, stated, “The on-the-job training of pastors and other faith leaders in preventing and responding to child sexual abuse isn’t working – it is dangerous and all too often has devastating consequences.

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SOUTH AFRICA
East Coast Radio

By Jacaranda FM news

The Christian Association of Nigeria has condemned a pastor who stands accused of sexually exploiting at least 30 girls.

The Nigerian pastor, who lives in Port Elizabeth, was arrested by the Hawks on charges of human trafficking.

The association’s Archbishop Benson Uwha said they are aware that not all of their countrymen necessarily have good intentions, but pointed out that some South African pastors are also accused of exploiting their congregants.

“We do not shy away from the fact that there are a few Nigerians who come into this land in the name of pastors and otherwise and drive undue excesses and despicable acts.

“”We condemn the practices and also appeal to South Africans to let the law take its course.

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Port Elizabeth – The controversial pastor sought in relation to sexual offences in Port Elizabeth will remain in police custody for another 12 days, the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court said on Friday.

The pastor made a brief appearance on Friday and his matter was postponed to May 3.

The 58-year-old was arrested by the Hawks on Thursday and taken to their offices in chains, escorted by police vehicles with howling sirens, Netwerk24 reported at the time.

Wearing sunglasses and a colourful jacket, the pastor was accompanied by police officials from the tactical response team (TRT).

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SOUTH AFRICA
City Press

Nosipiwo Manona
2017-04-21

Hundreds of worshippers from Jesus Domination International church, where Timothy Omotoso is the head pastor and prophet, filled the Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

They came in support of Omotoso, who was nabbed dramatically by the Hawks with a heavy contingent of the Tactical Response Team (TRT unit), shortly after he landed at the local airport with his three escorts on Thursday afternoon.

He has been accused of sexually abusing women who worked at the churches he managed in South Africa.

He was investigated after a woman from Port Elizabeth made accusations of sexual abuse against him.

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UNITED STATES
YouTube

Published on Apr 5, 2017

Rabbi Yosef Blau addresses the issues of child sexual abuse in the orthodox community, cover ups, reporting abuse to the police, and supporting survivors.

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CANADA
Yahoo!

VANCOUVER, April 21, 2017 /CNW/ – David McCann will be travelling to Rome the week of May 14 to 21, 2017 to seek a meeting with Pope Francis and his staff to ask him to apologize to Canadians for the abuse suffered by children and others at the hands of Catholic religious orders and clergy.

To date he has received replies from the Archbishops of Ottawa and Vancouver, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto.

He is awaiting confirmation of the meeting from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.

Mr. McCann will discuss further details of his trip, and the reasons for going, at a press conference on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 9:00 am. Location: Studios 2 and 3, Sandman Hotel, 180 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 4P4.

In November of 1989, Mr. McCann was the first student from St. Joseph’s Training School For Boys in Alfred, Ontario to come forward with allegations of physical, psychological and sexual child abuse against the De La Salle Brothers of the Christian Schools and other staff at the school.

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SCHWEIZ
RRO

[The Swiss bishops’ conference launched a call four and a half months ago for victims of clery abuse to come forward. As a result, seven people have been registered in the diocese of Sitten. The cases reported date back to the years 1950 to 1970. Four of the accused priests were active in the Unterwallis, one in the Oberwallis.]

Sieben Opfer haben sich beim Bistum Sitten aufgrund sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Pfarrer gemeldet. Von den fünf Beschuldigten lebt heute jedoch nur noch einer.

21.04.2017, 07:15

Vor viereinhalb Monaten hat die schweizerische Bischofskonferenz einen Aufruf lanciert. Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch Priester sollten sich mitteilen. Daraufhin haben sich im Bistum Sitten bis heute sieben Personen gemeldet. Die angegebenen Fälle gehen auf die Jahre 1950 bis 1970 zurück. Vier der bezichtigten Priester waren im Unterwallis tätig, einer im Oberwallis.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Network Norwich

The Catholic Church has admitted it should have taken “more robust action” against a former Norwich priest jailed for sexually abusing a vulnerable teenage boy at a children’s home almost 40 years ago.

Anthony McSweeney was jailed for three years in 2015, after he was found guilty of indecently assaulting the youngster while working at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, West London, between 1979 and 1981.

Concerns were raised in 1998, when his cleaner discovered pornographic videos at St Peter’s Catholic Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

But instead of being reported to the police, he was quietly moved to a new parish, St George’s, in Norwich, where he led the Sprowston Road church’s congregation.

Now, the safeguarding commissions of the dioceses of East Anglia and Brentwood have accepted the recommendations made in an independent review following McSweeney’s conviction, and that “there were failings in the way in which the Church managed the situation at the time”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wigan Today

CHARLES GRAHAM
Friday 21 April 2017

The victim who came forward to give evidence against a disgraced local priest has been praised for his bravery.

Following the guilty verdict of Father Michael Higginbottom, and his sentencing to 17 years in prison for sexual offences committed against a teenage boy in the 1970s, when the former priest taught at St Joseph’s College, the Crown Prosecution Service has sought to reassure other victims of similar assaults.

Claire Hilton, Senior Crown Prosecutor, Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said: “The victim in this case showed great courage in coming forward to report the offences committed and giving evidence at his trial.

His courage has enabled the CPS to bring him to justice for his crimes. “Higginbottom abused the significant position of trust he held as a teacher and guardian of the pupils in his care as well as a priest and representative of the Catholic Church.

“His actions have had a devastating impact on the victim from his school days and into his adult life.

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INDIA
Crux

Nirmala Carvalho April 21, 2017
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

MUMBAI, India – An Archbishop in India and two of his priests may soon appear in court, accused of attempting to poison to another cleric.

The case dates back to February 2013, when Father Anand Muttungal, a priest of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, filed a complaint alleging that the Archbishop of Bhopal, Leo Cornelio, the vicar general Father Mathew VC, and diocesan spokesperson Father Johny PJ were retaliating after Muttungal questioned an alleged misappropriation of funds from the diocesan society. Muttungal had also approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court about the misappropriation case.

The allegations in the complaint were substantiated by Father Philip KP, another priest of the diocese, who submitted an affidavit in the court alleging the archbishop and vicar general had pressured him to administer some poisonous substances to Muttungal in order to make him go crazy, and they had even approached a psychiatrist for help in executing the plot.

Cornelio, however, claimed that the allegations against him were baseless.

“Whatever happened was done in good faith, to help the person,” the archbishop told Crux.

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OKLAHOMA
NewsOK

by Carla Hinton, & Kyle Schwab Published: April 21, 2017

OKLAHOMA CITY – The former director of immigration and legal services of Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City has been accused of stealing money meant for clients’ immigration fees.

Margarita I. Solis, 46, of Norman, was charged Wednesday with three felony counts of embezzlement.

Oklahoma County prosecutors allege Solis, while employed as an attorney by Catholic Charities, was in charge of assisting clients in obtaining permanent residency status and citizenship in the United States.

After receiving money orders from clients to pay immigration fees, Solis would make the orders payable to her and cash them, according to prosecutors.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Dr Peter Boylan

A new national maternity hospital is badly needed to serve the interests of the women and infants of Ireland. There is no argument about this.

Despite clinical outcomes that compare with the best in the world, there are obvious infrastructural deficiencies in the existing building, on Holles Street in Dublin.

The design of the hospital planned for the Elm Park campus, next to St Vincent’s University Hospital, is superb.

Huge credit is due to those who have invested so much time and effort in the project. It is to be hoped that planning permission will soon be granted. …

Modern maternity and gynaecological care encompasses contraception, sterilisation, IVF, gender reassignment surgery and abortion, as well as the usual day-to-day activities of a busy maternity hospital.

Are we seriously expected to believe that if the hospital goes ahead according to the proposed arrangement it will be the only maternity hospital in the world owned by the Catholic Church, and run by a company owned by the Catholic Church, that will allow these procedures? This stretches credibility to breaking point. Indeed it would seem to be naive.

The board of any hospital oversees, in a corporate sense, the clinical work of the hospital.

The proposed structure means that the four directors nominated by St Vincent’s Healthcare Group will have fundamental religious objections to a significant part of the clinical work of the hospital.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Paul Cullen

Minister for Health Simon Harris has promised key protections against possible “religious interference” will be put in place before the move of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) to St Vincent’s hospital goes ahead.

Mr Harris rejected claims the Sisters of Charity, who will own the new facility through their ownership of St Vincent’s, have been “gifted” the hospital or that they would be running it.

While acknowledging “legitimate questions and opinions” had been voiced since it emerged the order would own the new €300 million hospital, Mr Harris said he was committed to “absolutely protecting” public health policy, taxpayers’ money and the State.

After a day when Opposition politicians mocked the Minister for “hiding behind tweets” on the issue and 200 people protested outside his department’s Hawkins House offices, he issued a statement saying he would seek new safeguards before the project went ahead.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

Update: 10;50am The Chair of the Oireachtas Health Committee says it is not important who owns the new National Maternity Hospital.

Doctor Micheál Harty says what matters is what happens inside.

Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition to block the Sisters of Charity from owning the Dublin hospital when it opens in four years time.

The Health Minister has promised the nuns won’t have any say over medical decisions despite their ability to appoint members of the board.

While Doctor Harty claims the ownership row is unimportant: “For the women who need a termination in the case of a risk to her life, what happens within that hospital, is far more important than who owns it.”

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Philip Ryan
April 21 2017

Health Minister Simon Harris has been accused of “practising hypocrisy” over his stance on the Sisters of Charity’s controversial ownership of the long-awaited National Maternity Hospital.

The charge came as Mr Harris insisted the religious order would not gain financially or have any say over medical procedures or treatment at the new hospital. In an official statement, the minister said it was “not true” to say that the “nuns will be running the hospital”.

However, fresh questions have been raised over the minister’s position on the religious order after it emerged that he previously attacked financial arrangements linked to the charity.

Three years ago, Mr Harris lambasted the St Vincent’s Care Group, which is owned by the under-fire religious order, for using a public hospital as collateral for bank loans to build a private car park and health facility.

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BELGIE
De Redactie

[Mark Vangheluwe, cousin, and for years a victim of former bishop Roger Vangheluwe, has in the book “Letter to the Pope” written down his story about the abuse. The “king of unpunished secret”, he calls his uncle.]

Mark Vangheluwe, neef en jarenlang slachtoffer van gewezen bisschop Roger Vangheluwe, heeft in het boek “Brief aan de paus” voor het eerst zijn verhaal over het misbruik neergeschreven. De “ongestrafte koning van het verborgene”, noemt hij zijn nonkel. “Door te schrijven probeert hij terug meester te worden over zijn lijf”, getuigt jeugdpsychiater Peter Adriaenssens.

22 april 2010. Bijna dag op dag zeven jaar geleden ontploft de Vangheluwebom in de kerk. Op een persconferentie leest de woordvoerder van Vangheluwe een brief voor waarin de bisschop bekent dat hij jarenlang “een jongen uit een bevriende omgeving” seksueel misbruikt heeft. Die jongen, dat is Mark Vangheluwe, zijn neef. Amper vijf was hij toen hij voor de eerste keer misbruikt werd door zijn nonkel en dat misbruik zou bijna 15 jaar aanhouden. Zijn getuigenis in 2010 deed Roger Vangheluwe de das om. Meer nog: wat volgde was een stroom aan getuigenissen over seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

Three Franciscan friars have asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges that they didn’t properly supervise a suspected sexual predator accused of molesting more than 100 children, most at a Pennsylvania high school.

Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva has set an April 27 hearing on the defense motions filed by attorneys for Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli, the Altoona Mirror reported Thursday.

D’Aversa, 70, Cristcitelli, 62, and Schinelli, 73, were ordered to stand trial on child endangerment and conspiracy charges following a preliminary hearing last April.

State prosecutors contend the friars either assigned or supervised Brother Stephen Baker when he served at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown in the 1990s.

Baker fatally stabbed himself in the heart at the Franciscan’s St. Bernardine monastery near Hollidaysburg, which the defendants led from 1986 to 2010. Baker killed himself days after the Youngstown, Ohio, diocese announced in early 2013 that 11 students had settled claims they were molested by Baker while he worked at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, in the late 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

A member of the Jehovah Witness congregation will appear in court next month after he was charged with historic child sex offences.

Child Abuse squad detectives charged the 72-year-old over alleged offences against a girl between 1979 and 1982.

It will be alleged the man sexually assaulted the girl, who was 11 at the time of the first offence, in the towns of Narrogin, Windy Harbour and Katanning.

“During this time, the man was an active member of the Katanning Jehovah Witness congregation,” a police spokesperson said.

The man has been charged with a string of child sex offences including indecent dealing, unlawful carnal knowledge of girls under 16 and deprivation of liberty.

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GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Raisa Habersham
Thursday, April 20, 2017

A man is accused of “abusive sexual contact” after authorities say he inappropriately touched a girl who was visiting Ebenezer Baptist Church with her school.

Herbert Boone Jr. was indicted Tuesday on accusations he “intentionally touched a 13-year-old’s inner thigh and buttocks,” according to a federal indictment.

The teenager was on a field trip with her middle school April 6 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site when Boone approached some of the students at the church entrance, according to an affidavit.

“Within a few seconds of the students sitting down (in the church sanctuary), the educator heard the victim yell,” National Park Service officer Timothy A. Lopez wrote in the affidavit.

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UTAH
KUTV

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A woman says she plans to file an official complaint against a Utah judge who called a man convicted of sexually assaulting her a “an extraordinarily good man” during sentencing.

Julia Kirby said Thursday that she wants the state Judicial Conduct Commission to know the remarks were “emotionally damaging.”

The panel can recommend the Utah Supreme Court reprimand or remove Judge Thomas Low. She expects to file the complaint Friday.

Low said last week that “great men sometimes do bad things” as he sentenced former Mormon bishop Keith Robert Vallejo to five years to life in prison for forcible sexual abuse and object rape.

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UTAH
Associated Press

BY HALLIE GOLDEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge who called a convicted rapist a “good man” during sentencing showed bias for the defendant because he was a former Mormon bishop, according to an official complaint filed Thursday by a gay rights group.

Mark Lawrence of Restore our Humanity said the group sent the complaint to the state Judicial Conduct Commission, which can recommend the Utah Supreme Court reprimand or remove Judge Thomas Low.

Low sentenced Keith Robert Vallejo last week to five years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape.

“The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinarily good man,” Low said at the hearing. “But great men sometimes do bad things.”

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GEORGIA
Gospel Herald

By LEAH MARIEANN KLETT Apr 20, 2017

A married Baptist pastor and father of ten who was found guilty of molesting two teenage members of his church congregation has said he is “angry with God” over the verdict.

“As a pastor, as a bishop, I am mad with life and I am angry with God,” Bishop Kenneth Adkins, pastor of the Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship, told reporters. “I did not molest any children. I did not touch anybody, I didn’t have oral sex with anybody. I didn’t allow anybody to have oral sex with me. I did not do those things,” he said.

In a unanimous decision by a Georgia jury, the 57-year-old Brunswick native was found guilty of eight charges of abuse against a teenage boy and girl, the Mail Online reports. Adkins, who will be sentenced April 25, faces a lifetime behind bars if convicted of the five counts of aggravated child molestation; three counts of simple child molestation; two counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and a single charge of influencing a witness.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 21, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes has asked Catholics to join the rest of Guam in observing child abuse prevention month, to help bring hope and healing to victims, including those who are sexual assault survivors.

“Please do not cast a blind eye or a deaf ear to something that you see or hear,” Byrnes said in an April 16 pastoral letter. “Take advantage of the social and legal remedies available to us. And if you know someone who is suffering silently with the shame of having been abused as a minor by a member of the clergy, please give them the number to the Hope and Healing hotline: 1-888-649-5288.”

Byrnes, in his Easter Sunday message, said he is mindful of the many victims of sexual assault and child abuse on island, particularly the victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic clergy.

The Archdiocese of Agana faces 54 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in local and federal courts as of April 19, including allegations against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron, who is also undergoing a Vatican canonical penal trial.

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MISSOURI
The Catholic Key

In his homily at the Service of Lament last year, Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr. made five commitments to support the healing of child abuse victims and to advance education and prevention efforts in making safer environments for our children. One of those commitments was to establish an Annual Day of Prayer beginning on April 26, 2017, during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The Day of Prayer is an opportunity for all in the Diocese to share in praying for the victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse, particularly those who have been abused by someone in the Catholic Church, and for their families, friends and our entire community. It also is to pray for ongoing efforts in the healing and reconciliation of those who have suffered this abuse, and prevention efforts in making safer environments for our children and educating adults to support awareness.

As part of the Day, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph invites the faithful to pray at these public events:

Eucharistic Adoration: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., in the Chapel of Our Lady of Ephesus at the Catholic Center (20 W. 9th Street, Kansas City, MO)
Day of Prayer Mass with Bishop Johnston: 12:15 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (416 W. 12th Street, Kansas City, MO); parking is limited, so arrive early to find a spot. A map of downtown parking is available at www.visitkc.com.

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NEW YORK
Press Republican

By ROBIN CAUDELL Press-Republican

OGDENSBURG — Anyone hurt by the Catholic Church can get spiritual relief at a special Mass of Healing Sunday afternoon at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg.

The Most Rev. Bishop Terry R. LaValley will preside at this Eucharistic celebration, on Divine Mercy Sunday, which acknowledges the pain and grief of victims and their families and apologizes for the misconduct by pastoral leaders or laity.

This is the first time a Mass of Healing has been offered diocesan-wide.

“Last year, the Holy Father declared it to be a Jubilee Year of Mercy,” LaValley said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

[with video]

HOLLIDAYSBURG, BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. – Three Friars accused of covering up child sexual abuse within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese are asking the Blair County Court to dismiss the charges filed against them.

The Altoona Mirror is reporting that attorneys for the Friars say there is a lack of evidence to support the child endangerment charges brought against the men last year.

Anthony Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli are accused of protecting Brother Stephen Baker who was accused of molesting children. The paper also reports that the men are asking for separate jury trials, and out of town juries because of prior publicity.

The next court hearing for the Friars is set for next Thursday.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MassLive

By Kristin LaFratta | kristin.lafratta@masslive.com

The super maximum security prison where Aaron Hernandez took his life in the quiet of night is a rough place — even for a prison.

The Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center holds the worst of the worst. And it has a history of violence since it opened 19 years ago, named after two corrections officers who were killed by inmates. And while most prisons are far from immune to fighting between inmates, the high-tech facility at the border of Lancaster and Shirley and just north of Route 2 seems particularly troubled by the irrepressible felons it collects.

Perhaps the prison’s name forebode the violence that was to come. In July of 1972, James Souza, 29 and Alfred Baranowski, 54, were shot by an inmate whose wife had smuggled in handguns into what was then the Norfolk Prison Colony. Forty-five years later, the state prison named in their honor has seen attacks on its staff, suicides, fighting between inmates and an anarchic riot that could only be stopped by an emergency back-up unit.

The prison on Harvard Road has housed some notable figures, including Aaron Hernandez, Red Sox commentator Jerry Remy’s son and convicted murderer Jared Remy and a defrocked Catholic priest.

John Geoghan, a sexual abuser and former Catholic priest, was murdered in the prison in 2002. Geoghan was strangled and stomped to death by Joseph Druce, who was reportedly in prison for murdering a man who had made sexual advances toward him.

Geoghan had been sentenced to Souza-Baranowski in 2002 on charges of sexual abuse, after it was uncovered that he had molested many young boys in parishes around Boston. Some questioned why, considering their sentences, Geoghan and Druce were placed in the same protective-custody unit at the high-security facility.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen GLOBE STAFF APRIL 20, 2017

Two years ago, as the release of the movie “Spotlight” approached, Monica Crowley worried about the film’s impact on her brother Joe.

Joe Crowley’s character is a featured role in the film about the Boston Globe’s investigation of the coverup of the sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests.

A criminal in a Roman collar named Paul Shanley raped a 15-year-old Joe Crowley and passed Joe around to others like a cigarette.

As the movie recounting that horrific abuse was about to hit the cinemas, Joe Crowley was recuperating in a nursing home, his health ruined by the tobacco and booze he had used to numb the memories. A priest, Rev. Brian Clary, had been visiting Crowley’s mother in another nursing home for years. Monica Crowley told Father Brian that Joe had been abused by a priest, and asked him to visit Joe.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Lisa Wangsness GLOBE STAFF APRIL 21, 2017

The Archdiocese of Boston has been closing churches in the city for muchof the past 13 years, especially in old ethnic enclaves in South Boston, East Boston, and the South End. On Sunday, it will open a brand new Roman Catholic church in the city for the first time in more than 60 years.

Our Lady of Good Voyage Shrine stands on Seaport Street just over the Evelyn Moakley Bridge from downtown at the gateway of the Seaport District, a neighborhood that best represents the city’s high-tech future.

“We have the best location you can imagine,” said the Rev. James Flavin, episcopal vicar of the archdiocese’s central region. “When you come over the bridge, we’re the first building you see.”

The angular brick structure — which incorporates nautical flourishes as testament to its seaside location — stands as a kind of triumph for the Catholic Church, its profile diminished significantly in recent years because of the priest sexual abuse crisis and an increasingly secular culture. Though dwarfed by the sleek glass and steel buildings nearby, Our Lady of Good Voyage is nevertheless highly visible; the 14-foot thin gold cross on its bell tower seems almost suspended in the air.

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