ABUSE TRACKER

TEXAS
The Monitor

EDINBURG — A former priest could not receive a fair trial in Hidalgo County because of the biased media coverage of his case.

The attorney for a former priest accused of killing a McAllen schoolteacher doesn’t believe his client can get a fair trial in Hidalgo County, citing among some of his reasons, the overflow of coverage into the case that spans nearly 60 years.

O. Rene Flores, a criminal defense attorney based in Edinburg, and the man who has been by John Bernard Feit’s side since before he opted to waive his extradition from Arizona to Hidalgo County, formally filed a motion to have the trial’s venue changed, arguing that his client will not receive a fair trial in the county.

Flores on Tuesday filed a memorandum to the court containing more than 700 pages of documented evidence in support of his argument that the former priest has been over covered by local, state, national and international media.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE NEWS THAT a significant number of human remains were discovered at the site of a former mother and baby home in Co Galway shocked people in Ireland and beyond when it emerged last month.

On 3 March, the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes said the remains were discovered in a structure that appeared to be “related to the treatment/containment of sewerage and/or wastewater” at the former site of a Bon Secours property in Tuam.

At the time, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said the “sad and disturbing news” confirmed rumours about the possibility of a mass grave at the site.

“Today is about remembering and respecting the dignity of the children who lived their short lives in this Home. We will honour their memory and make sure that we take the right actions now to treat their remains appropriately,” she added.

TheJournal.ie has, under the Freedom of Information Act, obtained the correspondence between the commission and Zappone in the days before the news was made public.

‘The decisions need to be made urgently’

On 1 March, two days before the official announcement, commission chair Judge Yvonne Murphy wrote to the minister about the shocking discovery.

“The Commission members are shocked by what has been discovered and recognise that there are many family members and local residents who will also be very shocked.

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BELGIUM
The Brussels Times

Sunday, 09 April 2017

At the initiative of victims, the Mensrechten in de Kerk work group and Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, there was an installation ceremony for the piece “Esse est Percipi” (To exist is to be recognised).
It is dedicated to the memory of all victims of sexual abuse by Church members. The ceremony was held in the Koekelberg basilica at 11am on Saturday.

More than 150 people attended the ceremony, including many Church representatives. It was paid for by victims and victim’s families. The statue, which is a little infant’s dress, was unveiled during the ceremony. It is similar to other statues in Antwerp and Bruges, and symbolises destroyed childhood and fragility.

Linda Opdebeeck, the President of the Human Rights within the Church workgroup (Mensrechten in de Kerk), and someone from the association gave speeches in the name of the victims. They said although the beginning of their involvement with the Church was traumatising, they were able to appreciate the Church’s progressive acceptance of the severity of the incidents. This acceptance had started to forge a path to reconciliation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Olivia ShyingOlivia Shying
@oliviashying

8 Apr 2017

Some Ballarat clergy abuse survivors have called on the Ballarat Catholic Diocese to alter all plaques bearing disgraced Bishop Ronald Mulkearns’ name.

Bishop Mulkearns blessed nearly every Catholic building opened in the Ballarat diocese between 1974 and 1996. Paedophile priests Robert Best and Gerald Ridsdale abused children in the diocese while Bishop Mulkearns oversaw the region.

Survivor Peter Blenkiron, who was abused at the age of 11, believes the plaques should be altered but not removed. He said one of the aim of any changes should be to protect children from future abuse.

“Don’t remove the plaques. Put a line through and add something down the bottom as a reminder of what happened,” Mr Blenkiron said.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

10 April, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a new research report that finds Australian oversight bodies have inconsistent scope and powers in protecting children from sexual abuse in institutions.

Professor Ben Mathews from the Queensland University of Technology was contracted by the Royal Commission to examine the strengths and weaknesses of existing regulatory and oversight bodies in protecting children from sexual abuse.

The research report, Oversight and regulatory mechanisms aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse: Understanding current evidence of efficacy, finds there are differences across jurisdictions in presence, nature, scope and powers.

The oversight bodies examined included ombudsman’s offices, reportable conduct schemes, children’s commissions, community visitors schemes, child advocates and children’s guardians and crime and misconduct commissions. The report also examines regulatory systems across a range of sectors including non-government schools, early childhood and care, the medical sector and sport and recreation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Road to Recovery

SON OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GREAT JIMMY PEARSALL, CHRIS PEARSALL, AND OTHER MEN WILL ANNOUNCE A SETTLEMENT OF $880,000.00 FOR CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE CLAIMS AGAINST FATHER JAMES NICKEL, SS.CC. ATTORNEY MITCHELL GARABEDIAN REPRESENTS THE EIGHT (8) CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS

THE CONGREGATION OF THE SACRED HEARTS RELIGIOUS ORDER, BASED IN FAIRHAVEN, MA, AND THE DIOCESE OF FALL RIVER, MA, RECENTLY SETTLED EIGHT (8) CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE CASES OF MINOR CHILDREN AGAINST FR. JAMES NICKEL, SS.CC., WHO SERVED AT HOLY TRINITY PARISH, WEST HARWICH, MA, ON CAPE COD, AND AT ST. FRANCIS DE SALES PARISH, MARSH HARBOUR, ABACO ISLAND, THE BAHAMAS, FOR SEVERAL YEARS

What
A press conference announcing a settlement of $880,000.00 for eight (8) clergy sexual abuse victims of Fr. James Nickel, SS.CC., a deceased member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order, who abused several minor children when he was assigned to Holy Trinity Parish, West Harwich, MA, on Cape Cod, and St. Francis de Sales Parish in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, the Bahamas. Fr. James Nickel sexually abused in West Harwich, MA; Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, the Bahamas; Illinois; New York; Washington, DC; Rhode Island; and, New Hampshire.

When
Monday, April 10, 2017 at 11:30 AM

Where
In a third floor conference room of the Hilton Hotel, 89 Broad Street, Boston, MA, 02110

Who
Chris Pearsall, son of former Major League baseball star, Jimmy Pearsall, and other men who were sexually abused by Fr. James Nickel, SS.CC., when they were minor children and members of Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich, MA, on Cape Cod; their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, MA; and, Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, President of Road to Recovery, Inc., which has provided assistance to the victim/survivors and their families

Why
Fr. James Nickel, SS.CC., a deceased member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts religious order which was or is based in Fairhaven, MA, was assigned to Holy Trinity Parish in West Harwich, MA, on Cape Cod for several years in the 1970s. Chris Pearsall, as a child, attended Holy Trinity Parish, as did a number of other victims who were sexually abused by Fr. James Nickel, SS.CC at the parish and on trips to St. Francis de Sales Parish, Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, the Bahamas, and several other States and cities. Fr. Nickel’s religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, and the Diocese of Fall River, MA, recently found all of the men’s accounts of having been sexually abused as children credible, and settled eight (8) cases for $880,000.00

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

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AUSTRLIA
JWire

April 6, 2017 by Vivien Resofsky

Part One of a three-part series: A comparison between NSW and Victoria’s institutional child protection reforms.

Part 1 – NSW

The child sexual abuse incidents that were revealed in 2015 at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Case 22) hearing involving Sydney’s Yeshiva and Melbourne’s Yeshivah sent shock waves throughout the Australian Jewish and non-Jewish communities.

Case 22 highlighted the fact that communal organisations did not support victims of abuse and that this compounded the already unimaginable pain for victims/survivors and their families.

It took the Royal Commission, with all its powers, to get answers as to how the Chabad Lubavitch dealt with child sexual abuse. By now, we all know about the non-reporting of abuse by certain Rabbis due to messirah and the punishment for repercussions for those who reported the crimes.

Now, two years later, as the Royal Commission winds down, Jewish communal leaders were re-called by the Royal Commission for another public hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

April 10, 2017

DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10

The father of the man who leads the Salvation Army’s powerful Eastern Territory will appear in court next month charged with 14 sexual offences, including a series of alleged indecent assaults on girls under the age of 16.

Ray Pethybridge, whose son Lieutenant Colonel Kelvin Pethy­bridge is the chief ­secretary-in-charge of the church across NSW, Queensland and the ACT, has not yet entered a plea to the alleged offences.

The revelation demonstrates how exposed the organisation has become to the global scandal surrounding church child abuse and follows evidence, uncovered recently by a royal commission, of horrific assaults committed by its officers and staff.

Mr Pethybridge, a former court chaplain who also worked in the church’s Sydney hostels providing accommodation for the homeless and poor, is among three of its former officers currently before the courts on child sex offences.

Another officer and a Salvation Army soldier were convicted of multiple sexual assaults late last year, while evidence before the royal commission identified at least 19 people in the organisation who allegedly abused children over decades.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Inquiry is looking to expand the Victim and Survivors Consultative Panel (VSCP) and appoint someone who can provide a Welsh perspective on the work that the Inquiry undertakes.

The VSCP is a key part of the Inquiry. Its role is to provide consultative advice on all areas of the Inquiry’s work, including: communications, engagement, research, and future recommendations. The VSCP work to ensure that the needs and perspectives of victims and survivors are reflected in the Inquiry’s on-going work.

As a member of the VSCP, you may be required to undertake any or all of the following:

* Advise the Inquiry on the way in which it engages with victims and survivors, including how we reach out to victim and survivor groups and networks, how to engage people in the Victims and Survivors Forum, and how to spread the Inquiry’s messages to wider victim and survivor communities.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

On Wednesday 12 April an Inquiry Seminar will be held on preventing and responding to Child Sexual Abuse and learning about best practice from overseas.

On the same day, the Inquiry will publish a report prepared by the University of Central Lancashire on what can be learnt from jurisdictions outside England and Wales about protecting children from sexual abuse. The Seminar will hear from experts about what England and Wales can learn from best practice overseas.

The Seminar will be held in the International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC), London and will be live streamed, subject to a five minute delay, on our website.
.

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IRELAND
The Sunday Times (UK)

Justine McCarthy
April 9 2017
The Sunday Times

A group of mothers formerly resident in mother and baby homes has written to Máire Whelan, the attorney-general, asking her to prosecute the state for genocide on the basis that their children were adopted without valid consent.

They have also asked the International Criminal Court to informally assist Whelan with such a prosecution.

Irish First Mothers, which says it represents 70 women, wants Whelan to rely on the UN convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. It defines genocide as the intended destruction of “a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” by means including the forcible transfer of their children.

In a letter to Whelan, Kathy McMahon, the founder of Irish First Mothers, accused religious congregations who supervised Ireland’s mother and baby homes of wanting to destroy unmarried mothers as an identifiable cohort.

“We assert that the perpetrators were malignly motivated by their own Catholic ideological characterisation of us as a religiously defined group: a caste of so-called ‘fallen women’,” McMahon said. “Irish society has a historic, deep Catholic veneration of the ‘virgin mother’ as a deity figure. Thus unmarried mothers were automatically deemed offensively faithless; viewed culturally by perpetrators as bereft of rights.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph & Argus

Jenny Loweth

A DISGRACED former church treasurer will spend at least four years behind bars for sexually abusing a six-year-old boy.

David Barras, 63, cunningly contrived to be alone with the child, instructing him to strip naked and repeatedly trying to persuade him to commit a disgusting sex act.

Barras, of Broadstone Way, Holme Wood, Bradford, was on prison licence after plundering more than £30,000 from a deprived parish in the city, when he incited the little boy to engage in sexual activity after luring his grandmother away.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood told Bradford Crown Court that Barras, a former chartered accountant, had displayed an astonishing lack of insight and contrition about what he had done to his young victim.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

They are the next generation of Catholic priests who want to ensure the horrors of the past – highlighted by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – are not repeated.

By Greg Dyett
Source: SBS News 9 APR 2017

Two years ago, SBS World News spoke to a handful of young men as they started their journey to the priesthood as first year students at a seminary in Melbourne.

The rest of the training they receive – it’s a seven-year process – is likely to be influenced by the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, that is due to deliver its findings in December.

The priest in charge of Corpus Christi College in Melbourne, Father Denis Stanley, told SBS World News he has encouraged the trainee priests to take note of what has emerged at the commission.

“The work of the Royal Commission is now part of the context in which we live, it’s part of our time and place,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Standard Speaker

OPINION / PUBLISHED: APRIL 9, 2017

Enabling victims of child sexual abuse to seek damages after they become adults is a no-brainer in concept. But the tortured path of a bill in the state Legislature to expand that opportunity demonstrates that the matter is far more complex in practice.

State law gives child sexual abuse victims until they are 30, or 12 years after they become adults at 18, to sue alleged perpetrators for damages. Victims’ advocates argue that the window is too narrow because of the psychological damage that many victims suffer. They contend that it takes longer than the allowed time period for many victims to fully realize the implications of the abuse they suffered as children.

Legislators generally are sympathetic. Last year the House passed a bill, 180-15, to vastly expand that window to age 50, and to make it retroactive. It exempted public institutions such as school districts and maintained liability caps under sovereign immunity law, meaning that the change mostly would affect private institutions, especially the Catholic Church. The bill passed the House amid revelations of sex abuse charges in the Johnstown-Altoona Diocese.

The legislation died amid powerful push-back from the church and the insurance industry.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com April 9, 2017

The world’s largest network of priest abuse survivors says Guam’s clergy sex abuse cases could reach into the hundreds over the next couple of years, from 46 at present.

Guam children were allegedly abused by Catholic clergy between 1956 and 1988, based on lawsuits filed in local and federal courts between Nov. 1 and April 6.

“I would not be surprised if you saw 150 to 200 cases over the next couple of years,” said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Casteix said her estimate may seem high but Guam children faced a very influential Catholic leadership.

Based on lawsuits, former altar boys said their parents and other adults they knew, were devout Catholics who did not believe them when they tried to tell them about a priest abuse. Others did not attempt to tell adults at all, out of fear they won’t be believed, lawsuits say.

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UNITED STATES
Let’s Think This Out

Bruce R. Nelson
Posted on April 8, 2017

I am told there is a special perch in hell for anyone who speaks ill of the country’s largest Christian denomination on the eve of Holy Week. It’s a risk I am willing to take, because I’ve really had it with corporate Catholicism and its relentless and unforgiving campaign against the victims of pedophile priests. This is a tragedy of gigantic proportions that keeps finding new ways of inflicting pain on those whose suffering is beyond comprehension.

In the beginning, there was the cover up. The Catholic hierarchy was well aware that many of its priests were molesting and raping children. For years, the Church did everything possible to keep the sexual attacks quiet, moving its collared pedophiles from parish to parish when things got hot, letting them start from scratch with a new crop of unsuspecting altar boys.

That routine began to slowly fail in the 1980s when, one by one, victims of the Church’s atrocity stepped out of the shadows with stories the bishops could no longer silence. According to informed estimates, 17,651 American children were sodomized by their parish priest, a number that keeps growing as people now in their 50s and 60s finally come to grips with the pain they’ve silently carried for decades.

Until a few days ago, I figured this story had ended, except for the healing. I hadn’t thought much about it since I saw “Spotlight”, the 2015 film based on the Boston Globe’s stellar coverage of this nightmarish scandal. Then I came across a local news item about the Maryland Legislature finally passing a bill to extend the statute of limitations on filing child molestation suits. It was an intriguing piece. A legislator had tried unsuccessfully for years to change the law so that adults had more time to sue over childhood sexual assaults. The old law banned such litigation after the victim’s 25th birthday. The rationale for the change seemed solid: abused children bury the pain and trauma for decades. By the time they are ready to deal with it, the filing deadline has passed. The bill’s sponsor should know. C.T. Wilson, a Democrat from Charles, MD, was repeatedly raped by his adoptive father between the ages of 8 and 16.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Item

Pennsylvania lawmakers have a chance to swing a hammer regarding penalties for child abusers. Instead, they have so far chosen not to.

Legislation to alter the statute of limitations for child sex crimes is heading to the House floor following votes this week. But the bill lacks a controversial provision that would allow victims to sue institutions — such as the Catholic church — that allegedly covered up the crimes for years or decades.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that made a number of changes, but without even a discussion regarding a long-sought proposal to allow victims of child abuse to sue after the statute of limitations in their cases has expired.

The new bill would allow that moving forward, but would not make that ability retroactive.

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BELGIEN
Flandern Info

[The Belgian Catholic Church in 2016 church paid 218,000 euros to abuse victims.]

Im vergangenen Jahr hat die katholische Kirche in Belgien den Opfern von sexuellem Missbrauch, trotz Verjährung, insgesamt 218.000 Euro gezahlt. Seit 2012 belaufen sich die gezahlten Entschädigungen auf rund 4,13 Millionen Euro. Das hat Monseigneur Herman Cosijn, der Vorsitzende der belgischen Bischofskonferenz der Presseagentur Belga mitgeteilt.

Über die Anlaufstellen in den Bistümern und bei den Ordensgemeinschaften sind 2016 16 Akten abgeschlossen worden und wurden insgesamt 113.000 Euro Schadenersatz verteilt. Über die Schiedsstelle für sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche wurden weitere 7 Akten mit Schadenersatzzahlungen von rund 105.000 Euro abgeschlossen. Die Schiedsstelle war von der parlamentarischen Kommission eingerichtet worden, die den sexuellen Missbrauch durch Vertreter der belgischen Kirche untersucht hat. Ihre Arbeit wurde nach 4 Jahren im Juni 2016 eingestellt. In dieser Zeit behandelte die Stelle 628 Akten von Missbrauchsopfern.

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MEXIKO
Radio Vatikan

[For the first time, the Catholic Church in Mexico has publicly admitted repeated misconduct by bishops regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests. According to Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, secretary-general of the Mexican Bishops’ Conferences, the children were “martyrs of our time.”]

Erstmals hat die katholische Kirche in Mexiko öffentlich wiederholtes Fehlverhalten von Bischöfen im Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen durch Priester eingestanden. Betroffene Kinder seien „Märtyrer unserer Zeit“, die Verfolgung innerhalb der Kirche erlitten hätten, sagte Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, der Generalsekretär der Mexikanischen Bischofskonferenz, bei einer nationalen Gebetsaktion für Missbrauchsopfer am Mittwoch. Die Kirche bitte um Vergebung für die Verbrechen, nehme die volle Verantwortung dafür auf sich und fordere eine Bestrafung der Täter.

Miranda sprach von einer „klerikalen Struktur mit Anzeichen von Machtmissbrauch“. Die Kirche habe sich schuldig gemacht, tatenlos zugesehen und verheimlicht zu haben und oftmals Komplizin gewesen zu sein. Noch viel zu wenig sei bewusst, dass das gesamte kirchliche Wirken weniger wiege als die Zerstörung eines Menschenlebens. „Durch eine schlechte Tat, durch ein einziges Verbrechen und ein einzigen Missbrauch wird alles zerstört und umgeworfen“, so der Generalsekretär. Den Opfern schulde die Kirche Gerechtigkeit: Priester müssten bei diesen Verbrechen auch die Konsequenzen tragen, es dürfe keine Straflosigkeit geben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
B.Z.

NICOLE DOLIF
7. April 2017

[Peter R. is said to have abused children and adolescents at the Canisius College in Tiergarten. Now the Archbishopric of Berlin has initiated a trial against the 76-year-old.]

NICOLE DOLIF

Peter R. soll am Canisius-Kolleg in Tiergarten Kinder und Jugendliche missbraucht haben. Jetzt hat das Erzbistum Berlin ein Verfahren gegen den 76-Jährigen eingeleitet.

Die letzten sieben Jahre konnte Priester Peter R. (76) ungestört seinen Ruhestand in Berlin genießen. Dabei wird dem früheren Jesuitenpater, der von 1970 bis 1982 am Canisius-Kolleg gearbeitet hat, vorgeworfen, Kinder und Jugendliche sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Juristisch sind die Taten verjährt. Aber jetzt hat das Erzbistum Berlin ein Verfahren gegen Peter R. eingeleitet.

„Zur Erstellung einer Klageschrift benötigt der kirchliche Anwalt, dem weltlichen Recht vergleichbar, belastbare und zuordenbare Aussagen von Zeugen und Betroffenen“, sagt Stefan Förner, Sprecher des Erzbistums Berlin. Bisher lägen die Beschuldigungen nur in anonymer Form vor.

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BELGIUM
7 News

Brussels (AFP) – The Catholic Church in Belgium on Saturday took part in a day of recognition for victims of sexual abuse by priests, seven years after a paedophile scandal rocked the institution.

Church leaders and victims of sex abuse spoke to an audience of around a hundred people in a ceremony in the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart also known as the Koekelberg Basilica in the Belgian capital.

The event demonstrates the Church’s will to “resist a culture of silence”, said Cardinal Jozef De Kesel.

In April 2010 the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after acknowledging he had abused two nephews.

Thousands of people later came forward to complain they had been victims of sexual abuse as children by members of the Belgian clergy.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

By JESSE WINTER
Staff Reporter
Fri., April 7, 2017

Under threat of a lawsuit, the federal government has started releasing thousands of long-sought internal documents that could explain why it withheld police records of horrific abuse from survivors of the notorious St. Anne’s residential school.

Survivors of the school in Fort Albany, Ont., say they were the victims of appalling treatment including sexual abuse, being shocked by an electrified chair and being forced to eat their own vomit.

The Ontario Provincial Police investigated the abuses in the 1990s, conducting interviews with more than 700 survivors and creating thousands of records about the abuse. Five former employees at the church-run school were convicted.

But when survivors of the school — like one woman referred to in court documents as K-10106 — applied for compensation under the residential school’s settlement process, those critical police records were withheld even though the government was duty-bound to provide them.

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FRANCE
Sudouest

[The prosecutor in Dax has decided to open an investigation in order to clarify the suspicions and accusations brought by young people and families against Bishop Herve Gaschignard, who has resigned after allegations of misconduct were made.]

Le procureur de la République de Dax a décidé d’ouvrir une enquête, afin de tirer au clair les soupçons et accusations portées par des jeunes et des familles à l’encontre de Mgr Gaschignard, dont le pape a accepté jeudi la démission

Le procureur de la République de Dax Jean-Luc Puyo a confirmé ce vendredi qu’il avait décidé d’ouvrir une enquête préliminaire, dans le but de tirer au clair les soupçons et accusations portées par des jeunes landais et leurs familles, à l’encontre de Monseigneur Hervé Gaschignard, évêque des Lande jusqu’à l’acceptation de sa démission par le Saint Siège ce jeudi. Le but de ce retrait est de “faciliter la recherche de la vérité” et sortir d’une situation devenue intenable entre le prélat et ses ouailles.

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FRANCE
Liberation

[It puzzled the little French Catholic community. There were rumors in the past few days. But where was the Bishop of Aire and Dax, Hervé Gaschignard? Why had he suddenly left his diocese just after the plenary assembly of the bishops in Lourdes? In fact, the prelate was forced to abandon his post, a departure officially announced on Thursday by the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF).]

Par Bernadette Sauvaget — 6 avril 2017

Déjà soupçonné en 2011 de faits similaires, l’ecclésiastique aurait eu des «comportements inappropriés» avec des jeunes.

Cela intriguait beaucoup le petit monde catholique français qui, ces derniers jours, bruissait de rumeurs. Mais où était donc passé l’évêque d’Aire et Dax, Hervé Gaschignard ? Pourquoi avait-il brutalement quitté son diocèse juste après l’assemblée plénière des évêques à Lourdes ? Empêtré dans de troubles affaires avec des jeunes, le prélat a, en fait, été contraint d’abandonner son poste : un départ annoncé officiellement, jeudi, par la Conférence des évêques de France (CEF). «Sur la suggestion du nonce apostolique [l’ambassadeur du Vatican, ndlr], il avait proposé sa démission», souligne un communiqué du président de la CEF, Georges Pontier. Un départ accepté, selon les procédures de l’Eglise, par le pape lui-même. En tant que telle, cette «sanction» est très rare et ébranle l’épiscopat, déjà sous pression à cause des scandales récurrents de pédophilie.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The last public Mass by a Norbertine priest in Ireland was celebrated on Sunday September 25th, 2016. As of that date all public ministry by the Norbertines on the island ceased.

This is referred to, almost in passing, in the review of child protection practices at the Norbertines published last Wednesday by the church’s child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI).

It marks an innocuous end to the notorious “Ireland chapter” of a religious congregation which brought down a government, severely damaged the reputation of two cardinal primates of All-Ireland, two other Catholic bishops, two Irish abbots, three other religious congregations but, above all, the lives of more children than will ever be known.

It was the conclusion to a shameful history on this island of a respected European congregation founded in France by St Norbert in 1120.

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FRANCE
La Croix

[The decision of the pope to accept the resignation of Bishop Hervé Gaschignard as necessary is brutal for all. And it durably undermines the bond of trust so necessary in the church.]

Il faut penser d’abord aux familles et enfants, déstabilisés par certains comportements de leur évêque « inappropriés à l’égard de jeunes ». Il faut aussi penser aux catholiques de Dax, malheureux et désorientés après la démission de leur pasteur. Et à ce dernier, et à sa souffrance. Et enfin à tous les catholiques de France, qui, après une année de scandales, abordent cette semaine sainte avec un sentiment mêlé de malaise et de colère.

Décision du pape nécessaire mais brutale

La décision du pape d’accepter la démission de Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, pour nécessaire qu’elle soit, est brutale pour tous. Et elle met durablement à mal le lien de confiance si nécessaire dans l’Église, alors même que, à travers cet évêque, c’est aussi tout l’accent mis depuis les années Jean-Paul II sur la jeunesse qui se trouve en cause. Le geste romain révèle de sérieux problèmes de gouvernance dans l’Église de France : au niveau du choix des évêques, évidemment : l’évêque est en théorie chargé de la « vigilance » dans son diocèse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND/CANADA
BBC News

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) says it will not reveal whether it is looking into the case of a retired pastor and self-confessed child sex abuser living in Canada.

Henry Clarke, 75, admitted to authorities in Northern Ireland that he abused three boys there in the 1960s and 70s.

Mr Clarke moved to Canada in the late 1970s.

Canadian officials were informed of his admissions last year.

BBC News Northern Ireland made a 4,000 mile journey to find Henry Clarke in a small northern Canadian town hundreds of miles from the nearest city. He confirmed his previous abuse, and says he has never been contacted by Canadian authorities.

In response to a series of questions sent to the RCMP by the BBC, spokeswoman Annie Delisle would not confirm or deny any Canadian investigation of Clarke.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Mark Hilliard

Survivors of the mother-and-baby home in Tuam raised various concerns, including about the future of the burial site, at a meeting with Minister for Children Katherine Zappone and Minister for Housing Simon Coveney on Friday.

About 30 survivors are understood to have attended the private meeting, which was arranged by the historian Catherine Corless, whose research uncovered the mass grave.
Publication of mother and baby homes report delayed

During the two-hour meeting, the women raised various issues, particularly relating to access to their personal files and what would be done with the site in the future.

The meeting was also attended by Galway County Council chief executive Kevin Kelly, as the local authority owns the land.

“It was a very open and frank meeting, and the Minister came to listen; that was the role of the meeting,” a spokesman for Ms Zappone said afterwards. “Clearly they have identified a number of actions they want taken, and the Minister will examine what can be done to address their concerns.”

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NEBRASKA
Omaha World-Herald

Nebraska lawmakers approached a difficult issue the right way this week. They had to think through how to provide justice in child sexual abuse cases while not running afoul of the Constitution’s protections for those accused.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha sponsored Legislative Bill 300, which would remove the statute of limitations on the ability to file civil lawsuits against individuals involving alleged sexual assault of a child. Eight states so far have taken that action.

Nebraska has no statute of limitations for filing criminal charges against someone accused of sexual assault of a child.

“I brought this bill on behalf of people who were damaged as children at the hands of an adult,” Krist told his colleagues during floor debate Wednesday. Krist said he drew up the legislation “so that those people who suffered from those injuries could find their own peace in their life.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Union Leader

By PAT GROSSMITH
New Hampshire Union Leader

Edward J. Arsenault III, a former monsignor and the face of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in the early 2000s when it was rocked by a sexual abuse scandal involving priests and children, has been formally dismissed from the priesthood.

On Friday, the diocese announced that Pope Francis has stripped Arsenault of his clerical duties.

“By virtue of this decree, Edward J. Arsenault has no faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest,” the diocese stated. The action also dispenses him “from all obligations subsequent to sacred ordination, including that of celibacy.”

The Rev. Georges de Laire, judicial vicar for the diocese and a canon lawyer, informed Arsenault in person on Thursday of Pope Francis’ decision, which was decreed on Feb. 28. The paperwork first made its way to the Pope’s ambassador in Washington, D.C., and then to the diocese which received it on March 28.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler Apr 07, 2017

For someone who covers the news every day, it’s frustrating to read a story and know that important information has been left out. In such cases, when I have no good way to dig out the missing details for myself, I’m left with the uneasy feeling that I don’t know the real truth; I only know that I haven’t seen it yet.

Let me give a few examples from this week’s news stories, and the questions they have left in my mind:

* Why doesn’t Uppdrag Granskning want to see a rapprochement between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X? Uppdrag Granskning is a Swedish television program, which has popped up on my radar screen only twice. In 2009, it broadcast an interview with Bishop Richard Williamson, then of the SSPX, in which the bishop denied the severity of the Holocaust. This past week it broadcast a documentary program charging that the SSPX had covered up sexual abuse. The timing of these two broadcasts is interesting, to say the least. The 2009 program aired immediately after Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications of SSPX bishops; this week’s broadcast followed immediately after Pope Francis announced that SSPX priests could be authorized to preside at Catholic weddings. Clearly Uppdrag Granskning timed the broadcasts to do the maximum damage to the cause of regularization for the SSPX. Why? What does a Swedish television program have against a traditionalist Catholic group? Who is feeding information to Uppdrag Granskning to discredit the SSPX? If Pope Francis goes through with the reported plan to establish the SSPX as a personal prelature, will Uppdrag Granskning broadcast another bombshell?

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UNITED STATES
Lexology

Gordon & Rees LLP

Katharine Thompson
USA April 6 2017

In Diocese of Duluth v. Liberty Mutual Group, et al., case no. 16-05012 (Mar. 30, 2017), the Bankruptcy Court for the District Court for Minnesota was faced with determining trigger and the number of “occurrences” related to negligence claims asserted against the Diocese of Duluth by victims of priest sexual abuse. These negligence claims drove the Diocese to file for bankruptcy, and as part of that Bankruptcy proceeding, the Diocese filed an adversary proceeding seeking coverage from five of its insurers. These insurers had issued policies covering several decades. The Court ruled in favor of the Diocese, finding that multiple years of coverage could be triggered and that multiple “occurrences” could be found in each policy year as each victim was a separate “occurrence.”

The Diocese successfully argued that each alleged act of abuse constituted a separate “occurrence” under all insurer’s policies, while conceding that the “occurrence” language in the policies (“arising out of continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general conditions shall be considered as arising out of one occurrence”) consolidated multiple instances of abuse of the same victim by the same priest in the same year into one “occurrence” for that year.

Most of the insurers argued for the interpretation that there was only one “occurrence” – the ongoing act of negligent supervision by the Diocese in allowing the continuous and repeated exposure of the victims to the abusive priests – regardless of the number of victims or perpetrators involved. The Continental Insurance Company also argued for one occurrence, or at most, one occurrence per priest or per bishop abuser because all the injuries arose from the Diocese’s decision to allow the abusers access to the children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD / PUBLISHED: APRIL 8, 2017

Enabling victims of child sexual abuse to seek damages after they become adults is a no-brainer in concept. But the tortured path of a bill in the state Legislature to expand that opportunity demonstrates that the matter is far more complex in practice.

State law gives child sexual abuse victims until they are 30, or 12 years after they become adults at 18, to sue alleged perpetrators for damages. Victims’ advocates argue that the window is too narrow because of the psychological damage to many victims. They contend that it takes longer than the allowed period for many victims to fully realize the implications of the abuse they suffered as children.

Legislators generally are sympathetic. Last year the House passed a bill, 180-15, to vastly expand that window to age 50, and to make it retroactive. It exempted public institutions such as school districts and maintained liability caps under sovereign immunity law, meaning that the change mostly would affect private institutions, especially the Catholic Church. The bill passed the House amid revelations of sex abuse charges in the Johnstown-Altoona Diocese.

The legislation died amid powerful push-back from the church and the insurance industry.

Earlier this year the Senate passed a bill eliminating any time limit to sue and reducing the threshold from “gross negligence” to negligence. Tuesday, a House committee amended it to include what victims’ advocates called a “poison pill,” a provision to ensure its failure.

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UNITED STATES
National Review

A priest offers an invitation to anyone who has been hurt. Are you hurting?

Do you know someone who is? Has institutional religion — or people representing it — only made matters worse? If any of these sound familiar, a new book by Father Thomas Berg might be for you.

I first met Father Berg back when he was a member of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded by Father Marcial Maciel, who was uncovered to have been a serial abuser; today Father Berg is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. His new book, Hurting in the Church, tells some of that story. But it is even more an invitation for healing to anyone who has had a close encounter with abuse, sin, and shortcomings in the institution of the Church or people in it.

Every time he is standing at a pulpit, he looks out and sees “hurting individuals,” he writes. “We hurt first and foremost because life hurts: hurting is part of the human condition.” He adds, “When pain experienced in and through the Church is layered on what life itself already deals us the suffering can be all the more acute.”

He writes as someone with experience on both ends of the pain. We talk about the book and the way forward for a hurting people and a Church that has not always been an exemplar of loving one another as made in the image of Christ.

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: There were allegations against the founder of the Legionaries as early as 1997, and we were among those who were wrong to believe the denials. What’s the best way to think about those days? What is the best approach to such memories? Should we think “maybe I could have done something”? Now that we know there was abuse and we know we were wrong to believe there wasn’t, are we unintentionally complicit? But there’s nothing we can do now.

FATHER THOMAS BERG: We need to invite our Lord to show us how to approach those memories and how to understand that time of our lives. In his light, we might, on the one hand come to serenely understand that, sure — objectively — there were things we might have done differently. In my case, there were questions I might have asked. I might have been more insistent. As I explore in my book, regarding my own case, in hindsight, my initial period of discernment with the Legionaries was far too precipitated, too forced.

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TEXAS
WTVR

APRIL 7, 2017, BY ALIX BRYAN

FORT WORTH, Tx. — A Texas court denied the appeal from former Richmond pastor Geronimo Aguilar, who was convicted in 2015 of sexually abusing multiple juveniles.

Aguilar, known locally as Pastor G, was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under fourteen years of age, three counts of sexual assault of a child under seventeen years of age, and two counts of indecency with a child by contact.

A judge sentenced Aguilar to 40 years on the first two charges, and to 20 years for each of the others. The seven sentences are allowed to run concurrently.

Aguilar’s basis of appeal was that the court abused its discretion and admitted evidence of extraneous bad acts and testimony which allegedly constituted backdoor hearsay.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Gabrielle Fahmy, CBC News Posted: Apr 07, 2017

After paying out millions of dollars in damages to more than 100 victims of sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton may owe even more money.

Three new lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks by victims of sexual abuse against the priests accused of molesting them.

The lawsuits involve former priest Yvon Arsenault, who is serving a four-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to sex crimes against nine young boys, and Paul Breau, former chaplain at the University of Moncton and Dorchester Penitentiary, whose trial date has yet to be set.

The most recent civil suit was filed Wednesday against both Arsenault and Breau.

One individual says they sexually abused him at St. Joseph’s Parish in Shediac in the early 1980s, when he was between 13 and 16 years old.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A child sex-abuse victim has challenged his abuser to return to Northern Ireland to face him.

Retired church pastor Henry Clarke, 75, admitted he had abused three boys at Northern Ireland care homes, including Billy Brown in 1968.

Mr Clarke, who now lives in Canada, confessed his crimes to police in 1985, but has never been prosecuted.

Mr Brown said he had gone “through hell” since the abuse, and called for Clarke to prove his remorse is genuine.

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IRELAND
IrishCentral

Dara Kelly @IrishCentral April 07, 2017

When you can’t win an argument you attack the person making it. It’s a bait and switch ploy as old as politics. It’s what you’re reduced to when the jig is really up.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has finally made that calculation about Catherine Corless, the woman whose painstaking research uncovered the truth about the 796 babies buried without a marker in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in County Galway.

The Tuam mother and baby home was described as “a chamber of horrors” by the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny. Last month a state-appointed inquiry found “significant human remains” in several underground chambers at the Tuam site and tests confirmed the bodies ranged from premature babies to three-year-olds.

But instead of thanking Corless for her persistence in bringing the horrifying tale to light, Donohue this week blasted her as a credential-lacking charlatan who isn’t qualified to conduct the meticulous research that led to the discoveries.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
NH1

MANCHESTER — A former Manchester priest who was convicted of stealing nearly $300,000 from the local Diocese, a hospital and a deceased priest’s estate was defrocked by the Pope.

In a decree dated Feb. 28, Pope Francis dismissed Edward Arsenault from the clerical state. Arsenault plead guilty to three theft charges in 2014.

“By virtue of this decree, Edward J. Arsenault has no faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest,” the decree read.

Arsenault was sentenced to serve concurrent four- to 10-year sentences in the State Prison for two of the theft charges; two years were suspended from the minimum of each sentence.

Last April, he was granted parole on those two charges and began serving his third sentence. He’s eligible for parole on that charge in 2018.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

[with audio]

By JACK RODOLICO

Pope Francis has dismissed a New Hampshire priest from the clergy.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault was the public face of the Diocese of Manchester during the Catholic sex abuse scandal in the mid-2000s.

Arsenault later pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from a hospital, a bishop and the estate of a deceased priest.

Father George DeLaire, vicar for canonical affairs for the diocese, says Arsenault has been unable to repay the money he embezzled.

“One of the reasons for which the Diocese of Manchester brought a case against Ed Arsenault was due to the amount of damage that was caused to the community,” DeLaire says.

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SCOTLAND
Glasgow Live

BY KATHLEEN SPEIRS
7 APR 2017

A care establishment in Glasgow will be investigated by the Scottish child abuse inquiry this year.

St Vincent’s School for Deaf/Blind will be under investigation as part of an inquiry that aims to look at care establishments run by Catholic organisations as part of the second phase of its hearings.

The Glasgow school is one of five institutions run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul which will be assessed in autumn.

A further four children’s homes run by Sisters of Nazareth will be looked at in 2018, including Nazareth House in Cardonald.

Anyone with experience of the homes have been asked to get in touch with the Scottish child abuse inquiry.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Telegraph

A former orphanage run by the Catholic Church in Dundee is among those which will be at the centre of the second phase of the Scottish child abuse inquiry.

The inquiry is examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

Officials said the first part of the second phase starting in autumn will focus on homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, such as Roseangle Orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Dundee, Smyllum Park in Lanark, Bellevue House in Rutherglen, St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell and St Vincent’s School for the Deaf/Blind in Glasgow.

In early 2018, the inquiry will examine homes run by Sisters of Nazareth, investigating Nazareth House sites in Aberdeen, Cardonald, Kilmarnock and Lasswade.

A statement released on behalf of the inquiry said: “Evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance and documents which have been recovered by the inquiry team during the course of investigations.

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SCOTLAND
The Press and Journal

JON HEBDITCH
April 7, 2017

A national abuse probe will investigate a former Aberdeen children’s home run by Catholic nuns next year.

Nazareth House, on the city’s Claremont Street, was founded by six women from the Sisters of Nazareth in London in 1862 and was once home to more than 300 children.

But the home has been dogged by allegations of historical abuse by the nuns for more than twenty years.

Now the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will investigate practices at institutions ran by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and the Sisters of Nazareth throughout Scotland.

Hearings into Nazareth House will begin in 2018.

Police probed the house in 1997 and investigated more than 40 complaints by former residents.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Express

A public inquiry investigating historic child abuse allegations at an Aberdeen children’s home will start next year.

The Scottish Government inquiry is examining the alleged abuse of children in care and has been taking statements since last spring.

Officials said the second stage of the inquiry will focus on five homes run by the Catholic Church.

They will examine homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and the Sisters of Nazareth.

In early 2018, the inquiry will look at four Nazareth House sites, which includes Aberdeen.

People with experience of the homes are being asked to contact officials.

A statement issued on behalf of the inquiry said: “Evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance and documents which have been recovered by the inquiry team during the course of investigations.

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LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune

By Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A New Orleans jury has begun deliberations in the trial of Kenneth “Kenny” Klein, the nationally known Wiccan priest and folk music performer from the Garden District facing 20 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography. Jurors retired to decide the case at 5:38 p.m.

Klein, 62, is charged with one count of pornography involving a juvenile under the age 13, and 19 counts of possession with intent to distribute pornography involving juveniles under the age 17. He faces 10 to 40 years in prison if convicted of the first count, and 5 to 20 years on each of the other 19 counts.

The three-day trial has been remarkable for its gut-wrenching nature. It marked the first time in the eight-plus years of District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s tenure that illicit images of children engaging in sexual activity have been shown to a trier of fact in Orleans Parish, be it a judge or a jury. Security was tight. Discs containing the contraband videos were hand-carried to and from the courthouse by a DA’s office investigator in a locked case, and after conclusion of the trial were placed into court custody under seal.

The panel of nine women and three men deciding the case appeared agonized Wednesday, as excerpts from each of the 20 videos Louisiana State Police investigators said were recovered from Klein’s computer were played over the course of about 35 minutes inside the darkened, silent courtroom of Criminal District Judge Byron C. Williams. Tears welled in the eyes of several jurors, while others clutched their chests tightly. Some ultimately closed or averted their eyes after viewing just a few seconds of each new exhibit.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

Two men were arrested today by the FBI on accusations they were involved in the sex trafficking of children.

Cordell Jenkins, 46, and Anthony Haynes, 37 were taken into custody early today at their Toledo residences without incident, according to a media release by the FBI.

Both are accused of knowingly recruiting, enticing, harboring, and transporting people they knew were younger than eighteen years old to engage in commercial sex acts, the press release shows.

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OHIO
NBC4i

TOLEDO, OH (WCMH) — The FBI has arrested two pastors in Toledo for sex trafficking of children, NBC 24 reports.

Cordell Jenkins, 46, and Anthony Haynes, 37, were arrested Friday. They are “accused of knowingly recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person(s) that the defendants knew was less than eighteen years old to engage in commercial sex acts,” according to the FBI.

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OHIO
13 ABC Action News

TOLEDO (13abc Action News) – Two Toledo Pastors are under arrest and charged with sex crimes against kids. The FBI is investigating this case.

Agents have arrested and charged pastor Cordell Jenkins and pastor Anthony Haynes for alleged sex crimes against children. FBI agents are searching pastor Jenkins’ home on Barrington. They’ve been there since 7:30am Friday.

The FBI’s Crimes Against Children’s task force is executing several search warrants around town at homes and at churches. There are numerous agencies working this case. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been going in and out of homes with evidence bags.

The alleged crimes were brought to the FBI’s attention in the last few weeks and they launched an investigation. Investigators say the activity the pastors are charged with has been going on for some time.

“Both are charged with sex trafficking of children they will have appearances in federal court this afternoon. Right now I can’t reveal a lot of details but you are welcome to look for that this afternoon in the documents. Right now those items are sealed but they have both been taken into custody and we have some other law enforcement activity going on in the community,” said FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson.

Pastor Cordell Jenkins is head of Abundant Life Ministries on Glendale. Pastor Anthony Haynes is over Greater Life Christian center on Detroit.

FULL STATEMENT FROM THE FBI:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cleveland Division, Toledo Resident Agency, and the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, announce the arrest of Cordell Jenkins, age 46, and Anthony Haynes, age 37, pursuant to a federal complaint and arrest warrant for sex trafficking of children.

Agents placed Jenkins and Haynes into custody early this morning at their residences in Toledo without incident. Additional law enforcement activity occurred today in regards to this ongoing investigation.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

Legal counsel representing 13 plaintiffs who have accused Guam clergy of child sexual abuse has filed documents in the District Court of Guam amending the complaints to both double the amount sought in damages and to accuse a third party of culpability in the abuse.

Court documents filed Thursday and Friday by attorney David Lujan on behalf of 13 former Boy Scouts state each plaintiff is now seeking a minimum of $10 million for all general, special, exemplary and punitive damages.

The suits now also name as a defendant the Boy Scouts of America, in addition to the Archdiocese of Agana and former Guam priest Louis Brouillard.

Court documents state Leo Tudela was abused at two different archdiocesan properties by two different clergymen. Tudela also alleged he was abused during outings with the Boy Scouts troop for which Brouillard was a troop leader.

Bruce Diaz’s suit states he was abused by Brouillard about four times a week over a four-year period when he was between the ages of 8 and 12 and an altar boy at the San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada, where Brouillard served at the time. The suit states Diaz was abused both on parish grounds and at Boy Scout outings.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Echo

BY LYNDA ROUGHLEY
7 APR 2017

A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a young boy nearly 40 years ago has strenuously denied the allegations.

Father Michael Higginbottom told a jury that none of the allegations were true.

He also told Liverpool Crown Court that he did not even remember the alleged victim, who is now in his 50s.

The complainant has claimed that while he was a pupil at St Joseph’s College, a seminary for prospective priests, in Upholland, near Ormskirk, Higginbottom repeatedly seriously sexually assaulted him.

Fr Higginbottom, now aged 74, of West Farm Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, denies eight offences – four of buggery and four of indecent assault – alleged to have taken place between September 1978 and March 20, 1979.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Chronicle Live

BY LAURA HILL

A Roman Catholic priest who stole £50,000 from his parish after falling in love with his housekeeper and lavishing gifts on her family has been spared jail.

Judge Christopher Prince said Father John Reid’s fraud was an “aberration” which persisted over 40 months while he was in charge of St Cuthbert’s Church in Chester-le-Street , County Durham.

The portly, white-haired 70-year-old priest was handed an 18-month suspended sentence at Durham Crown Court after he admitted fraud by abuse of position at a previous hearing.

He has agreed to pay back the £50,000 within three months.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Metro

CONCORD, N.H. — Le pape François a renvoyé un prêtre du New Hampshire qui a été reconnu coupable d’avoir volé 300 000 $ US à un hôpital, à un évêque et à la succession d’un collègue décédé.

Le père Edward Arsenault, qui a défendu l’Église de cet État au plus fort du scandale des prêtres pédophiles, avait plaidé coupable en 2014 à trois des cinq accusations de vol qui pesaient contre lui.

Il a été assigné à domicile plus tôt cette semaine et sera admissible à une libération conditionnelle en février 2018.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WRCB

Updated: Apr 07, 2017

By MICHAEL CASEY
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Pope Francis has dismissed a Roman Catholic priest from New Hampshire who was convicted of stealing $300,000 from a hospital, a bishop and a deceased priest’s estate.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, who served as the face of the church in the state during a sex abuse scandal, pleaded guilty to three theft charges in 2014. He was transferred Tuesday to home confinement and is up for parole Feb. 19, 2018.

The Diocese of Manchester said Friday that Arsenault was removed from the priesthood Feb. 28 and no longer has “faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest.”

“Dismissing a priest from the clerical state is very serious and taken very seriously by the Holy See,” said Father Georges de Laire, the Diocese’s vicar for canonical affairs, who conveyed the decision to Arsenault on Thursday.

“It is not a decision that is reached lightly as it implies pain for the former cleric and those who may have been affected by him,” he said.

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MISSOURI
Catholic League

Bill Donohue

A jury in a civil trial in Lincoln County, Missouri has exonerated Father Joseph Jiang of allegations that he had inappropriate contact with a high school girl back in 2012. The jury cleared the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which was also targeted in the lawsuit, of any wrongdoing as well.

Hopefully, this will finally bring an end to the persecution of Father Jiang that has gone on for far too long.

He was first charged criminally, but those charges were dropped back in 2013. He was hounded by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)—until the judge in the case reprimanded SNAP’s then-executive director, David Clohessy, for defaming Father Jiang and for defying the court’s order to turn over information it claimed to have against the priest. SNAP, of course, is now itself imploding, its leadership having resigned in disgrace amid allegations of rampant corruption.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

ARCHBISHOP Robert Carlson’s testimony in the trial of an accused predator priest this week marks the first time a local bishop – sitting or retired, archbishop or auxiliary bishop – has been forced to answer questions in court about alleged child molesting clerics. (The only other civil trial in this archdiocese was back in 1999 against Fr. James Gummersbach, jurors found for the victim.)

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Yaniv Kubovich Apr 06, 2017

Bratslav Hasidic Rabbi Eliezer Berland will be released from jail Thursday in accordance with the ruling of Israel’s parole board on March 6 after serving five months.

His release comes after the State Prosecutor’s Office said they had decided not to file an appeal against the ruling.

The warden of Nitzan prison will sign his release forms Thursday and Prison Service guards will leave the hospital ward where Berland is a patient.

Berland was convicted of sexual assault last November after spending years abroad as a fugitive and finally being arrested in South Africa. He was then extradited to Israel and sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court in a plea bargain.

On Tuesday, Israel’s parole board ordered his release, shortening his sentence from 18 months to one year.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ELLIE TURNER, NT News
April 7, 2017

SOME of the children who lived in the old Retta Dixon home were stolen from their people, some were surrendered.

But once they were in care under the Commonwealth’s assimilation policy, the non-denominational religious organisation that ran the “half caste” home failed to ensure they were protected. Instead, many vulnerable children were indoctrinated, humiliated and exploited.

Some of the survivors of physical and sexual abuse at Retta Dixon made history with a class-action lawsuit against the Commonwealth, Australian Indigenous Ministries and convicted paedophile Donald Henderson.

And a settlement has been reached.

The 71 former child residents of Retta Dixon involved in the civil case will be compensated for the wrongs perpetrated against them by people they should have been able to trust.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WMUR

KC Downey
Digital Media Manager

MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Pope Francis ordered that a former Manchester priest sentenced to prison for stealing from a hospital and parishioners be dismissed from the clerical state.

In the decree dated Feb. 28, Pope Francis released Edward Arsenault from all obligations to sacred ordination, including celibacy.

“By virtue of this decree, Edward J. Arsenault has no faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest,” the decree read.

Arsenault was sentenced to four years in prison in 2014 and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution.

He pleaded guilty to stealing $185,000 from Catholic Medical Center, the estate of a dead priest and the Diocese of Manchester.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Pope Francis has dismissed a Roman Catholic priest from New Hampshire who was convicted of stealing $300,000 from a hospital, a bishop and a deceased priest’s estate.

Monsignor Edward Arsenault, who served as the face of the church in the state during a sex abuse scandal, pleaded guilty to three theft charges in 2014 and is serving a jail sentence.

The Diocese of Manchester said Friday that Arsenault no longer has “faculties to act, function, or present himself as a priest.”

Prosecutors said Arsenault billed the church for lavish meals and travel for himself and often a male partner.

He was convicted of writing checks from the dead priest’s estate to himself and his brother and billing a hospital $250 an hour for consulting work he never did.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

By Kevin Magee
BBC News NI investigations reporter

A serial child sex abuser who admitted his crimes to police has never been brought to justice.

Henry Clarke, 75, confessed to abusing three different boys at care homes in Northern Ireland.

A retired church pastor, he has been living in Canada since he made the admissions in 1985.

At the time, the director of public prosecutions ordered no prosecution, and police failed to act on a further confession.

The Canadian authorities were never informed.

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FRANCE
Le Monde

C’est un fait rare. L’évêque de Dax (Landes), Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, a dû démissionner en raison d’« attitudes pastorales inappropriées ». Une démission acceptée jeudi 6 avril par le pape François, annonce la Conférence des évêques de France dans un communiqué.

Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, âgé de 57 ans et originaire de Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), a présenté sa démission sur suggestion du nonce apostolique, l’archevêque italien Luigi Ventura, représentant du Vatican auprès de l’Eglise catholique française, précise la Conférence des évêques de France dans son communiqué signé par son président, Mgr Georges Pontier, archevêque de Marseille.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Apr 06, 2017

By Krystal Paco

It was earlier this week the first female filed suit against the Church. B.T. was a student at Mt. Carmel School in Saipan when she alleges she was sexually molested by Father Joe R. San Agustin during a trip to Guam. According to Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes, the named defendant is no longer with the Archdiocese as he was laicized at his request in the 1970s.

“He’s been long laicized, I was just looking into that case yesterday trying to figure out where he was, when,” Byrnes confirmed.

KUAM confirmed that San Agustin is a member of the Concerned Catholics of Guam.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

James Macintyre 06 April 2017

A monk who is said to have run a weekly ‘sex club’ for young boys was allowed to remain at the country’s leading Catholic school after multiple misconduct allegations against him, The Times has reported.

Former pupils of the Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, a £30,000-per-year private school, told police that they were summoned in their pyjamas to the study of Father Jeremy Sierla, where they were given alcohol and said to have performed sex acts.

A criminal inquiry began in 2004 resulting in no charges, but police were so concerned by the risk the monk posed that they wrote to the Department for Education the following year, asking that he be denied access to children.

Detectives believed that he should not be allowed ‘anywhere near a school’. But, with the approval of child protection professionals, he lived at Ampleforth and worked at its shop until 2012.

During this time he was in proximity to pupils before being removed when education officials ruled that his presence was ‘incompatible with good safeguarding practice’.

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CANADA
APTN National News

Robert MacBain wants nothing to do with the Senator Lynn Beyak and the controversy surrounding her.

Beyak quoted the Toronto author at length during her controversial remarks on residential schools on March 7 in the Senate.

She referred to his latest book – Their Home and Native Land – when discussing residential schools and some people wanting to rename Langevin block, the Prime Minister’s Office.

During that speech she also said there was “an abundance of good” in residential schools.

“There is absolutely nothing in Their Home and Native Land, in any op-eds I have written, in radio interviews, or in the material that I provided to her office at the beginning of February that would support her position,” said MacBain in a statement released Thursday.

“Whatever good there might have been was the exception that proved the rule.”

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CANADA
Huffington Post

[with video]

By Zi-Ann Lum

A Conservative senator called two CBC reporters “parasites” for asking Sen. Lynn Beyak questions ahead of a committee meeting Thursday.

Sen. Kelvin Ogilvie denied making the remark when confronted by reporters Katie Simpson and John Paul Tasker. His comment, “I see the parasites are still following you,” was recorded on camera and elicited a laugh from Beyak.

“I don’t recall that. Did you hear that?” he said later when confronted about his remark. “Why don’t you folks go away and find somebody else to bother.”

Earlier, Beyak was asked if she thought the Conservative caucus was wrong to remove her from the committee on Aboriginal peoples over comments she made about residential schools last month. She did not respond to the question.

The Ontario senator issued a statement saying her removal from the committee signifies a threat to freedom of speech.

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ITALIA
La Repubblica

[Abuse of seminarians: Don Carlos is hiding in a church in Genoa.]

di GIULIA DESTEFANIS e MARCO PREVE

In una delle sue ultime, numerose, video prediche caricate sul suo sito internet, padre Carlos Buela parla di educazione sessuale. Non ci sarebbe nulla di strano se don Carlos nel 2010 non fosse stato ritenuto “colpevole” di abusi sessuali nei confronti di giovani seminaristi (non si parla di pedofilia) dalla Santa Sede che lo aveva rimosso dai suoi incarichi e trasferito oltre oceano, e se in questo momento non si trovasse a 11 mila chilometri di distanza, ospite di un rifugio blindato a Genova, in via Venezia, in un appartamento del complesso della chiesa di San Teodoro.

Il caso viene sollevato da Francesco Zanardi della “Rete L’abuso” che da anni si batte per denunciare le coperture di cui hanno goduto molti sacerdoti accusati o condannati per pedofilia e altri reati di natura sessuale.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Céline Hoyeau and Nicolas Senèze

This is a bold move by Pope Francis. While the French bishops themselves were still pondering this thorny dossier, on Thursday the pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Hervé Gaschignard of Aire and Dax in France’s southern Landes region.

“The French bishops welcome this decision in faith and confidence in the successor of Peter and are conscious of its gravity,” French Bishops Conference president, Archbishop Georges Pontier said in a statement.

“For several weeks, there have been persistent rumors in the Diocese of Dax concerning inappropriate pastoral attitudes by the bishop.”

A report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithAccording to information received by La Croix, a family in Landes made a report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican.

The CDF, which deals with offenses against the faith as well as “delicta graviora” or “very grave offenses”, particularly sexual abuse, asked the nuncio in France to investigate the issue.

The task of gathering the testimony from the family involved on January 14, 2017, fell to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, metropolitan archbishop of Bordeaux, who is also a member of the CDF.

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FRANCE
ABC News (US)

By PHILIPPE SOTTO
PARIS — Apr 6, 2017

In an unusually swift move, the Vatican on Thursday decided to dismiss a French bishop days after Catholic officials in the country were informed of alleged “inappropriate” gestures and words from the prelate with young people.

The bishop’s superior, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, announced in a statement that the Holy See had asked Monsignor Herve Gaschignard “to submit his resignation.”

The French Conference of Bishops said in a separate statement that Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Gaschignard, bishop of Aire and Dax in southwest France, and that French bishops understand the “gravity” of the pontiff’s decision.

Cardinal Ricard, the archbishop for the region, said he reported the bishop’s alleged doings to the local prosecutor but that no complaints have been filed so far, making the pope’s decision even more notable.

The French bishops’ statement said concerns about Gaschignard made it difficult for him to continue in his duties and that the papal nuncio in France “suggested” that he resign.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

CHRISSIE FOSTER
The Australian
April 7, 2017

It is difficult to stop crying.

A child sexual abuse expert from the US, Bruce Perry, simply picked a random example. He spoke via video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional ­Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; he was one of 36 experts in the field who gave evidence last week at the final public hearing of the royal commission, titled Case Study 57: Nature, Cause and Impact of Child Sexual Abuse. Perry’s example was of “a little five-year-old child and somebody is raping you”, and he talked of what it does to the young mind.

They were painful words to hear because that is what happened to our little five-year-old Emma and, not long after, to our six-year-old Katie. To hear what their infant minds had to deal with was crushing — a dreadful add-on to the vision of rape by the priest, which already haunts us.

It was like a knife to the heart.

That priest was Kevin O’Donnell; he was 66 years older than Emma; he was our parish priest, with access to the primary school and its 300 children where I, as a Catholic, sent our girls. He went to prison in 1995 for 14 months for sexually assaulting children (rape charges were dropped in a plea bargain). I ­believe that from 1958 until he was arrested, he sex­ually assaulted at least 100 children.

Memories haunted our girls. Emma took her life aged 26 after a traumatic teenage and young adult life filled with despair, self-harming and drug addiction. Katie began binge drinking and was hit by a car while drunk. She spent 12 months in hospital and now, 18 years later, still receives 24-hour care, as she always will. Childhood sexual abuse was the cause and self-destructive behaviour was the impact.

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FRANCE
7 News

by Julie Ducourau with Benoit Fauchet in Paris – AFP on April 7, 2017

Dax (France) (AFP) – A French bishop resigned Thursday over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths after a rare initiative by the Vatican just weeks after complaints came to the attention of his diocese.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the southwest diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the French Catholic Church said in a statement. …

Gaschignard’s deputy Denis Cazeaux said at a news conference that three young people had come forward with allegations, but “it is not about paedophile acts.”

A 14-year-old boy said the bishop asked him about his sexual habits, while a girl, also aged 14, said he had stroked her thigh, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered “a lot of inappropriate things” to her.

The Catholic daily La Croix reported that Gaschignard raised concerns in 2011 in nearby Toulouse where he was auxiliary bishop with duties that included instructing young people.

Four chaperones on a youth pilgrimage trip wrote to Toulouse Archbishop Robert Le Gall expressing alarm over Gaschignard’s behaviour.

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MEXICO
Zocalo

[Piedras Negras, Coah.- The Investigative police began searching the priest Juan Manuel Riojas Martínez, once the criminal judge granted an arrest warrant against the priest, ex-rector the diocesan seminary of the Diocese of Piedras Negras. He is accused of sexual abuse of a seminarian, confirmed sources close to the case.]

Piedras Negras, Coah.- La Policía Investigadora de la Delegación Norte 1 de la PGJE inició la búsqueda del sacerdote Juan Manuel Riojas Martínez, una vez que la jueza penal otorgó una orden de aprehensión en contra del sacerdote, exrector del Seminario de la Diócesis de Piedras Negras acusado de abuso sexual en contra de un seminarista, confirmaron fuentes cercanas al caso.

El hecho ocurre a 24 horas de que una solicitud de orden de aprehensión previa había sido negada por diversos motivos, los cuales fueron adecuados y ahora sí se emitió la orden de captura.

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FRANCE
France 24

A bishop in southwestern France resigned Thursday at the behest of the Vatican over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths, the French Catholic Church said.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the church said in a statement.

A separate statement from the Dax diocese said the resignation was over the bishop’s behaviour with young people.

Pope Francis accepted Gaschignard’s resignation, the church statement said, noting the “gravity” of the situation.

A spokesman for the diocese, Paul Perromat, said the resignation followed “possibly inappropriate comments and behaviour” by the bishop but that “it is in no case a question of sexual aggression or acts”.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
7 Apr 2017

FORMER Newcastle Anglican Bishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon,” counsel assisting the royal commission has found in a final submission.

“It was a failure of leadership,” said counsel assisting Naomi Sharp, in a 276-page submission released on Thursday.

Ms Sharp named defrocked former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, business manager Peter Mitchell, diocese solicitor and trustee Keith Allen and diocesan deputy chancellor Paul Rosser, QC, as part of a “network of long term diocesan ‘insiders’” during Bishop Herft’s tenure from 1993 to 2005.

They “worked together to frustrate efforts by other leaders, including the bishop, to deal with the sexual abuse of children by priests and others within the diocese”, Ms Sharp said.

Bishop Herft, who went on to become Archbishop of Perth, “mishandled the allegations of child sexual abuse made against two of the most senior and domineering priests in the diocese”, Mr Lawrence and Archdeacon of Maitland, Peter Rushton.

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MISSOURI
The Catholic Kay – Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph

In an effort to care for others in need

The diocese has received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by Vincentian Father Phillip J. Coury. This allegation was deemed credible by the Ombudsman, following diocesan policy for response to allegations. The allegation stems from the time Fr. Coury served on staff at St. John Minor Seminary. The seminary closed in 1983. Fr. Coury was on staff there from 1975 to 1978. When the diocese learned of the allegation, Fr. Coury had already been restricted from public ministry by his Vincentian superiors. Fr. Coury does not live in this diocese and he has had no other assignments here outside of his time at St. John. Authorities were contacted in this case.

The diocese will attempt to contact students who attended St. John during the relevant years in the desire of reaching out to any other person who may have been harmed by Fr. Coury. If you were harmed by Fr. Coury or any other person who has worked or volunteered in the diocese, no matter how long ago, diocesan Victim Services is eager to provide care and healing resources. Please contact Ombudsman Jenifer Valenti at 816-812-2500 or JeniferValenti@att.net.

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FRANCE
The Sun Daily

DAX, France: A French bishop resigned Thursday over “inappropriate behaviour” towards youths after a rare initiative by the Vatican just weeks after complaints came to the attention of his diocese.

Herve Gaschignard, 57, bishop of the southwest diocese of Dax, tendered his resignation at the suggestion of the Vatican’s envoy to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the French Catholic Church said in a statement.

Gaschignard’s deputy Denis Cazeaux said at a news conference that three young people had come forward with allegations, but “it is not about paedophile acts.”

Instead, it was about the bishop getting too close to young parishioners. “Anyone involved in teaching youths should find the right distance,” he said.

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MEXICO
Mexico News Daily

Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Catholic Church called them martyrs Tuesday but two of them rejected the label, calling themselves “victims of priests” instead.

Joaquín Aguilar and Jesús Romero Colín declared that rather than being martyrs they are the victims of clergymen whose crimes have been covered up by Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera.

The two said their own history of sexual abuse has been repeated in recent cases of sexual assault by priests in the cities of Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí and León, and that bishops have opted to protect the Catholic Church’s image instead of supporting the victims and seeking justice.

Three new cases of priests being accused of sexual abuse have come to light since last September.

Victims were referred to as “present-day martyrs” during a special “day of prayer” organized Tuesday by the church. It was the first time the Mexican Episcopal Conference, the church’s official leadership body, has publicly acknowledged irregularities in the follow-up of cases of pedophilia.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Phoebe Wearne
Thursday, 6 April 2017

Retiring Perth Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft’s response to child sexual abuse allegations in his former diocese was “weak, ineffectual and showed no regard for the need to protect children from the risk that they would be preyed upon”, a counsel assisting the royal commission into child sexual abuse has said.

In a 276-page submission published yesterday, Naomi Sharp said it was remiss of then-Bishop Herft to not make his successor, Brian Farran, aware of claims of abuse against senior priests in the Diocese of Newcastle in NSW.

“Bishop Herft mishandled the allegations of child sexual abuse made against two of the most senior and domineering priests in the diocese — the Dean of the Cathedral, Mr (Graeme) Lawrence, and the one-time Archdeacon of Maitland, (Peter) Rushton,” Ms Sharp said. “It was a failure of leadership.”

Archbishop Herft, who is on leave until he is due to retire on July 7, stood aside from his duties last year after he admitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August he had let victims down during his time as Bishop of Newcastle between 1993 and 2005.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

April 7, 2017

JACK THE INSIDER
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider

It is a talent found only among the finest obituarists, the ability to transcend the shortcomings of an individual recently gone to God where by the judicious use of euphemism and ambiguity, a glimmer of virtue can be found in a life stained by poor intentions and outrageous behaviour.

For example, an obituary to a much unloved journalist at The Australian who died many years ago featured the sublime phrase, “Surprisingly, he was rarely assaulted.”

The ultimate expression of vagueness and incertitude, often used by obituarists reads, “Mercifully he died.” It is an open-ended expression which at one level appears to imply the recently deceased has been delivered from mortal concerns but in the discrete language of obituarists, more often it indicates we have all been mercifully discharged from the ghastliness of his or her existence.

There are other instances when the obituarists are so roused, they drop any pretence of even the faintest praise. …

Which brings me to Ronald Austin Mulkearns, the Bishop of Ballarat between 1971 and 1997.

Mulkearns died in April last year, just weeks after giving evidence to the Royal Commission. His evidence was shambolic. He stammered out replies and expressions of regret in an unconvincing manner.

The truth of it is Mulkearns was a criminal. He conspired with corrupt senior members of the Victoria Police Force, Detective Superintendent John O’Connor and Detective Chief Inspector Harvey Child to ensure a prolific child sex offender, Monsignor John Day, would not be prosecuted. O’Connor and Child met with Mulkearns at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat on January 31, 1972 where the officers convinced the bishop of Day’s offending and instructed him to remove Day from Mildura.

Mulkearns did as he was told, transferring Day to the tiny parish of Timboon, near Warrnambool where Day offended against children again. Day died unrepentant and unpunished in 1978. Day’s victims who had come forward and made their statements alleging horrific sexual abuse, were discarded in the rush to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church.

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SWEDEN
SVT

[Priest confessed sexual abuse – led pilgrims hikers in Scandinavia.]

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Prästen har erkänt och dömts i kyrkliga rättegångar för sexuella övergrepp mot barn. Straffet blev att aldrig mer få jobba med minderåriga. Men under en pilgrimsvandring i Norden syns den ultrakonservative katolske prästen på bild med flera barn. Han höll även mässor i flera svenska kyrkor.

2005 åkte en samling tyskar, fransmän och belgare på en pilgrimsvandring i Norden. Resan kallades ”Pilgrimsfärd i det katolska Sverige” och gick ut på att besöka kyrkor som byggts av katoliker men som i dag är lutherska. Sällskapet leddes av en fransk präst från det katolska brödraskapet St. Pius den 10:e, mer känt som SSPX. Prästen, som vi här valt att kalla fader P, har under åren beskyllts för och erkänt flera fall av sexuella övergrepp mot barn.

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SWEDEN
STV

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Priests accused of sexual assault on children are transferred to other parishes and allowed to keep working with children. Uppdrag granskning met with a man whose story of assaults and cover-up reveal a hidden world, in which church leaders protect priests at the expense of the victims.

Priests in the Society of Saint Pius X, commonly referred to as SSPX, have been transferred to new parishes after accusations of child sexual abuse. ”Andre”, who is an adult today, was abused at 11 years of age. The priest who molested him has continued to work with children for several decades.

“Shocking and irresponsible,” Andre says. “It’s a terrifying thought, really. How long will this travesty go on? This is a scandal that has gone on for 35 years. It’s completely repulsive.”

Andre grew up in a family with strong ties to SSPX. Nearly 30 years ago this extremely conservative congregation broke with the Catholic Church. The Pope responded by excommunicating the group. Not long after that, Andre met “Father P” for the first time.

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SWEDEB
SVT

[Priest Father P was accused of sexual assault but was nevertheless continue its work with children. When UG’s reporters seek out Father P to call him to account, there is uproar. Someone cut the tires on the car and the team parishioners destroyed the photographer’s camera.].

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Prästen fader P anklagades för sexuella övergrepp men fick ändå fortsätta sitt arbete med barn. När UG:s reportrar söker upp fader P för att ställa honom till svars, uppstår det tumult. Någon skär sönder däcken på teamets bil och församlingsmedlemmar förstör fotografens kamera. Polisen tvingar teamet att radera delar av det filmade materialet.

– Försvinn, försvinn ni har inget här att göra. Försvinn från huset. Försvinn dit bort. Det här är privat mark! Stick!, säger fader P då Uppdrag gransknings team söker upp honom på landsbygden utanför Bordeaux.

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SWEDEN
SVT

UPPDRAG GRANSKNING · Uppdrag granskning can now reveal previously unpublished letters that Pope Francis wrote to keep SSPX from being thrown out of Argentina in the wake of the Williamson affair.

In 2009, Uppdrag granskning published an interview in which SSPX’s then bishop Richard Williamson denied the Holocaust and claimed that there were never any gas chambers. Inspite of this, the former Pope Benedictus announced just a few days later, that he was to lift the excommunication of SSPX. An excommunication that had lasted for 20 years.

It created huge shockwaves and has been called the biggest crisis between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community in the modern era.

Williamson’s visa revoked

During the tumult, Bishop Williamson locked himself in the Society’s seminary outside Buenos Aires in Argentina, of which he was rector at the time. But the backlash was strong in Argentina as well, and the government reacted by revoking Bishop Williamson’s visa so that he had to leave the country.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Peter Kihm was ordained in 1981 for the Archdiocese of New York. He assisted in parishes in Brooklyn, Fishkill, Ossining and Nyak then, beginning in 1999, was lead priest in Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck and Rhinecliff. From 1987-1992 he was an Our Lady of Lourdes High School faculty member in Poughkeepsie.

In January 2015 the archdiocese suspended Kihm, saying they had had “concerns” for several months after receiving an allegation that the priest had “committed acts of sexual abuse” against a male minor approximately 30 years previously. The allegation was found to be credible by both the archdiocese and law enforcement. At least one other person subsequently came forward alleging the same. Kihm could not be prosecuted due to New York’s statute of limitations.

The archdiocese announced in March 2016 that Kihm had requested and was granted laicization, and that he had moved away from New York state.

Ordained: 1981
Laicized: 2016

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JOURNALIST 06 April 2017

Clergy accused of sex abuse are finding refuge with a breakaway order run by a traditionalist British priest in Kent.

Richard Williamson was automatically excommunicated after he was illicitly ordained as a bishop by the late Marcel Lefebvre of the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X (SSPX). He was expelled from the society after appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction for holocaust denial in a German court.

In a Swedish TV broadcast, he had denied gas chambers were used in the Holocaust and also claimed the number of Jewish people killed was far fewer than the six million figure usually cited.

According to a new Swedish television documentary broadcast yesterday, Williamson now leads the SSPX Resistance in Kent, a new breakaway group.

Two former SSPX priests accused of sex abuse have found a home in his order, the Swedish broadcast claimed.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry

This announcement provides information about the second phase of Inquiry hearings.

The second phase of hearings will investigate residential child care establishments run by organisations within the Roman Catholic Church.

The first part of this phase will look at residential child care establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. The Inquiry will thereafter look at residential child care stablishments run by the Sisters of Nazareth. Further parts of the second phase of hearings will be announced in due course.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul

In autumn 2017 the Inquiry will start the second phase of hearings.

The Inquiry will start the second phase by looking at residential child care establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, including establishments such as Smyllum Park in Lanark, Bellevue House in Rutherglen, St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell, St Vincent’s School for the Deaf/Blind in Glasgow and Roseangle Orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Dundee.

The Sisters of Nazareth

In early 2018, the Inquiry will look at residential child care establishments run by the Sisters of Nazareth and will look at Nazareth House in Aberdeen, Nazareth House in Cardonald, Nazareth House in Kilmarnock and Nazareth House in Lasswade.

Talk to us

It is important for the Inquiry to have as much information as possible before starting these parts of the second phase of hearings.

If you have information or experiences which you would like the inquiry to consider as part of the hearings looking at establishments run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul or the Sisters of Nazareth, please contact our witness support team as soon as possible.

You can phone them on 0800 0929 300, or email them at talktous@childabuseinquiry.scot. You can also write to us by post at SCAI, PO Box 24085, Edinburgh EH7 9EA.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

The second phase of the Scottish child abuse inquiry will investigate children’s homes run by the Catholic Church.

The inquiry is examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

Officials said the first part of the second phase starting in autumn will focus on homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, such as Smyllum Park in Lanark, Bellevue House in Rutherglen, St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell, St Vincent’s School for the Deaf/Blind in Glasgow and Roseangle Orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Dundee.

In early 2018, the inquiry will examine homes run by Sisters of Nazareth, investigating Nazareth House sites in Aberdeen, Cardonald, Kilmarnock and Lasswade.

A statement released on behalf of the inquiry said: “Evidence given at hearings will supplement written statements taken from witnesses in advance and documents which have been recovered by the inquiry team during the course of investigations.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Scottish child abuse inquiry will investigate care establishments run by Catholic organisations as part of the second phase of its hearings.

The inquiry will begin its investigation in the autumn of five homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

In 2018, it will look into a further four children’s homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

It has asked people with experience of the homes to contact them.

The inquiry is continuing to privately take statements from abuse survivors in Scotland, and will hold its first public sessions in May.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

Owosso (WJRT) – (04/06/17) – A priest, accused of stealing from his former congregation, has been formally charged with embezzlement.

Father David Fisher appeared before a judge in Shiawassee County Thursday morning after being extradited from North Dakota.

He’s accused of stealing nearly half a million dollars from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owosso.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

TROY, MO. • A woman says a Roman Catholic priest fondled her five years ago under a blanket on the couch while nearly all of her family were in the room. Her parents say that after they found out, he knelt down before them to confess, and offered to give up his collar and marry their oldest daughter.

The priest, originally from China, insists none of that is true. He says the fervently Catholic family he once called his own and who offered to adopt him after he escaped religious persecution by the Chinese Communist government is trying to steal his dream of being a priest in America. He has been suspended since the accusation was first made in 2012.

A Lincoln County jury sided with the priest Thursday afternoon after a two-week civil trial in which the alleged victim and her family accused the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang of molesting her as a teen in June 2012. The jury also sided with the St. Louis Archdiocese, rejecting claims it should have known he was dangerous to children and failed to protect her.

Lawyers for the accuser, Jiang and the archdiocese delivered closing arguments Thursday morning. The jury was given the case about 12:30 p.m. but broke for lunch before beginning deliberations. They returned a verdict about 3 p.m., with 10 of 12 jurors siding with the defendants.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Matthew Gambino Catholic News Service | Apr. 6, 2017

PHILADELPHIA

A priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responsible for a retirement home for priests faces federal charges of embezzling more than $535,000 from that same home.

Msgr. William Dombrow, 77, was charged by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia April 5 with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme he is alleged to have devised to siphon off funds intended for care of retired archdiocesan priests at Villa St. Joseph, Darby, where he has served as the rector since 2005.

Catholic Human Services of the archdiocese operates the nursing care and residence for retired and ill priests.

The U.S. district attorney alleges that Dombrow set up an account at Sharon Savings Bank in Darby unbeknown to the archdiocese, directed money from the estates of retired or deceased priests as well as bequests of lay donors to Villa St. Joseph, and transferred money electronically for his personal use.

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MISSOURI
U.S. News

TROY, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri jury has sided with a Roman Catholic priest and the Archdiocese of St. Louis in a lawsuit over alleged molestation.

The Lincoln County jury ruled Thursday in favor of the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang and rejected claims that the archdiocese should have known the priest was a danger to children and failed to protect the alleged victim.

The lawsuit alleged that the girl was a teenager when she was fondled five years ago at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri, 40 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Jiang was criminally charged in 2012, but those charges were eventually dismissed.

The archdiocese says in a statement that both it and Jiang have “steadfastly” denied the allegations, and he will enter a process for the return to active ministry.

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COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

Por: CALI 05 de abril 2017

Un documento, dictado por Iglesia católica y que fue asumido por la Arquidiócesis de Cali, en el que los sacerdotes firman y asumen la responsabilidad personal en casos de delitos, abrió una nueva polémica.

Esa circular, inscrita en el decreto arquicioseano para la Protección de Menores de marzo de 2014, incluye una cláusula según la cual los sacerdotes serán los responsables y no las Arquidiócesis.

El documento dice que la responsabilidad “recae exclusivamente en mi personal y no en la Arquidiócesis de Cali o en la entidad eclesiástica en la que presto mis servicios. Asumo por tanto mi responsabilidad ante los hechos que pudieran imputárseme por el incumplimiento de estas directivas así como las funciones civiles y canónicas”.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

written by Jamie Vaughan Johnson April 5, 2017

A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media.

So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.

“The responsibility for complying with the norms established in the decree of the Archdiocese for the protection of minors rests solely on my person and not on the archdiocese of Cali or the ecclesiastical entity in which I render my services. I therefore assume total responsibility,” says an excerpt of the document obtained by Blu Radio.

The document also implies that all compensation for sexually abused minors must be paid by the priest themselves.

The president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia and current Archbishop of the Andean city of Tunja, Monsignor Luis Augusto Castro, said that the document was drafted and presented at the national level but that each diocese decides whether to implement it or not.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bulletin

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Aire et Dax, France, presented by His Excellency Msgr. Hervé Gaschignard.

The Holy Father has appointed His Excellency Msgr. Bernard Charrier, bishop emeritus of Tulle, as apostolic administrator sede vacante of the diocese of Aire et Dax, France, with faculties of diocesan bishop.

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CANADA
APTN National News

Senator Lynn Beyak says her removal from the Senate’s Aboriginal Peoples committee for complimenting the work of nurses and teachers who did an “abundance of good” in residential schools is a serious threat against freedom of speech.

“For me to lose my position on the Aboriginal Peoples Committee for complimenting the work of nurses, teachers, foster families and legions of other decent, caring Canadians – along with highlighting inspiring stories spoken by Aboriginal people themselves – is a serious threat to freedom of speech,” said the Conservative senator in a statement Thursday, a day after she was removed on the committee.

Beyak sparked outrage when she spoke in the Senate on March 7 to defend the good work of residential schools that forced over 100,000 Indigenous children into schools where it’s documented many suffered sexual assaults, physical abuse for speaking their language and death.

This is a portion of what Beyak said in the Senate: “I speak partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part and are overshadowed by negative reports. Obviously, the negative issues must be addressed, but it is unfortunate that they are sometimes magnified and considered more newsworthy than the abundance of good.”

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CANADA
Metro News

OTTAWA — Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak says her party’s decision to sanction her for comments about Canada’s residential school history amounts to a threat to freedom of speech.

In a statement released Thursday, Beyak — who was removed Wednesday from the Senate committee on Aboriginal Peoples — says political correctness is “stifling opinion and thoughtful conversation.”

She also says a silent majority of Canadians agree with what she said — that there were “good deeds” and other positive elements that emerged from the country’s residential school system.

“For me to lose my position on the Aboriginal Peoples Committee for complimenting the work of nurses, teachers, foster families and legions of other decent, caring Canadians — along with highlighting inspiring stories spoken by aboriginal people themselves — is a serious threat to freedom of speech,” Beyak writes.

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FRANCE
Eglise Catholique en France

Le pape François a accepté aujourd’hui la démission de Mgr Hervé Gaschignard, évêque d’Aire et Dax.

Les évêques de France accueillent cette décision dans la foi et la confiance au successeur de Pierre et en mesurent la gravité.

Depuis plusieurs semaines, dans le diocèse de Dax, des rumeurs persistaient sur des attitudes pastorales inappropriées de l’évêque. Elles ont été portées à la connaissance du Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archevêque métropolitain de Bordeaux, et du Nonce apostolique.

Cette ambiance avait rendu difficile le gouvernement du diocèse. C’est pourquoi, depuis le vendredi 31 mars, Monseigneur Hervé Gaschignard, avait pris un temps d’éloignement et de repos. Sur la suggestion du Nonce apostolique, il avait proposé sa démission au Pape quelques jours avant.

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FRANCE
La Croix

Gauthier Vaillant, le 02/04/2017

Dans un communiqué, Mgr Hervé Gaschignard a indiqué, vendredi 31 mars, avoir « besoin de repos pour quelque temps hors du diocèse », invoquant « une fatigue liée à diverses causes ».

Surprise générale dans le diocèse d’Aire et Dax, à deux semaines de Pâques : Mgr Hervé Gaschignard a annoncé vendredi 31 mars qu’il quittait le diocèse pour une durée indéterminée. Dans un communiqué bref, l’évêque des Landes, âgé de 57 ans, indique avoir « besoin de repos pour quelque temps hors du diocèse », invoquant « une fatigue liée à diverses causes ». Il se confie à la prière des fidèles du diocèse, sans indiquer où il se rend.

« C’est une décision de dernière minute », indique Paul Perromat, responsable de la communication du diocèse landais, qui s’avoue lui-même « un peu surpris ». Mgr Gaschignard semble avoir pris sa décision au cours de l’assemblée plénière de printemps de la Conférence des évêques de France, qui s’est achevée vendredi 31 mars à Lourdes. Pour Paul Perromat, la santé physique de l’évêque n’est pas en question. « Je l’ai vu juste avant son départ pour Lourdes, il avait l’air d’aller bien, raconte-t-il. C’est un homme qui se porte bien physiquement, et sportif », souligne-t-il à propos de l’évêque de 57 ans.

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FRANCE
Lapeche

Le pape a accepté la démission de l’évêque d’Aire et de Dax, Monseigneur Hervé Gaschignard, qui s’était mis « en vacances » du diocèse le 21 mars après que le cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard ait reçu deux paroissiens landais.

Des familles ont évoqué des « paroles » et « des attitudes » équivoques de l’évêque des Landes vis-à-vis de jeunes. L’archevêque Georges Pontier a publié hier un communiqué de la Conférence des évêques de France qui s’était réunie à Lourdes, où les hommes de foi avaient notamment évoqué l’attitude de l’Église face à la pédophilie.

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