ABUSE TRACKER

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Times

February 18, 2018

By David Quinn

The UN and Oxfam have learnt nothing from the church’s disgrace

When an organisation is hit by complaints of sex abuse, and when it is discovered that the abuse was covered up by those in charge, the effect on that organisation is devastating. The Catholic church is the best example. In this country, abuse by priests and religious was a dominant news story from roughly the mid-1990s until 2011, when the report about abuse in the Cloyne diocese was published.

The blanket coverage of that story is what makes it so mystifying to see other organisations also engage in the cover-up of sex abuse, including sporting bodies, schools, scouting organisations, other churches, the UN and, most recently, Oxfam.

If these abuses had been covered up years ago, before the scandals that embroiled the Catholic church had come to light, that might be one thing. While it would not, of course, excuse the abuses or the cover-ups, it would mean those other organisations had no opportunity to learn from the catastrophic mistakes made by the Catholic church. But many incidences of abuse and cover-ups occurred after those lessons should have been learnt. They were not.

A report last year into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 96 people were killed at a football match in Sheffield, described what seems to be almost an immutable law of human nature, namely “an instinctive prioritisation of the reputation of an organisation over the citizen’s right to expect people to be held to account for their actions”.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
El Mercurio – emol.com

February 17, 2018

El enviado papal llegará a Chile el próximo miércoles 21 de febrero. Su visita se enmarca en la investigación de las acusaciones de encubrimiento en contra del obispo Juan Barros.

El periodista Juan Carlos Cruz se mostró conforme tras la reunión que sostuvo esta tarde con el arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, quien fue designado por el Papa Francisco para investigar las acusaciones de encubrimiento en contra del obispo Juan Barros.

Cruz, quien fue una de las víctimas de Fernando Karadima, expresó que tanto para él como para el representante de la Santa Sede el encuentro había sido emotivo y agregó que “por primera vez siento que nos están oyendo”. La reunión entre el denunciante del ex párroco de El Bosque y el enviado papal forma parte de la investigación que está llevando a cabo el Vaticano, a la que también se sumarán una serie de conversaciones que Scicluna sostendrá durante la próxima semana en Chile.

La reunión entre el denunciante del ex párroco de El Bosque y el enviado papal forma parte de la investigación que está llevando a cabo el Vaticano, a la que también se sumarán una serie de conversaciones que Scicluna sostendrá durante la próxima semana en Chile. El arzobispo de Malta llegará al país el próximo miércoles 21 de febrero, día en el que se juntará con el vocero de laicos de Osorno, Juan Carlos Claret, y otros dos laicos en la sede de Obras Misionales Pontificias.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: The next steps of Archbishop Scicluna after his meeting with Juan Carlos Cruz: The papal envoy will arrive in Chile next Wednesday, February 21. His visit is part of the investigation of the cover-up accusations against Bishop Juan Barros.

The journalist Juan Carlos Cruz was pleased after the meeting he had this afternoon with the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna , who was appointed by Pope Francisco to investigate the accusations of cover-up against Bishop Juan Barros.

Cruz, who was one of the victims of Fernando Karadima , said that for him and for the representative of the Holy See the meeting had been emotional and added that “for the first time I feel that they are listening to us.”

The meeting between the denouncer of the former parish priest of El Bosque and the papal envoy is part of the investigation being carried out by the Vatican, to which will also be added a series of conversations that Scicluna will hold during the next week in Chile . The archbishop of Malta will arrive in the country next Wednesday, February 21 , day in which he will meet with the spokesman of lay people of Osorno, Juan Carlos Claret , and two other lay people at the Pontifical Missionary Works site.]

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NEW YORK (NY)
La Tercera

February 17, 2018

By Francisca Labarca

Este sábado Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas del ex párroco Fernando Karadima se reunió en Estados Unidos con la comisión enviada por el Papa Francisco que investigan las acusaciones de encubrimiento contra del obispo de Osorno Juan Barros.

En la oportunidad, Cruz sostuvo una reunión con el arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna en Estados Unidos, la que se prolongó por cerca de tres horas y media en una parroquia de Nueva York.

“Fue una reunión larga, emocionalmente difícil, pero estoy muy contento de haber podido hablar con monseñor Scicluna, ellos se portaron increíblemente bien y por primera vez siento que nos están oyendo”, aseguró el Juan Carlos.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Juan Carlos Cruz after meeting with Monsignor Scicluna: “For the first time I feel that they are listening to us”

This Saturday Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the victims of former pastor Fernando Karadima met in the United States with the commission sent by Pope Francisco to investigate the accusations of cover-up against the Bishop of Osorno Juan Barros.

On the occasion, Cruz held a meeting with the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna in the United States, which lasted for about three and a half hours in a parish in New York.

“It was a long, emotionally difficult meeting, but I am very happy to have been able to speak with Monsignor Scicluna, they behaved incredibly well and for the first time I feel like they are hearing us ,” said Juan Carlos.]

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Catholic Reporter

February 17, 2018

By Peter Feuerherd

Juan Carlos Cruz, who has accused a Chilean bishop of witnessing and covering up for sex abuse he endured as a minor, met here Feb. 17 with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a representative of Pope Francis. “For the first time, I felt someone was listening,” Cruz said after emerging from the three-hour meeting.

On January 30, the Vatican announced that Scicluna, a Maltese archbishop, would collect testimony about Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid of Osorno, Chile. Barros has been accused by Cruz, who now resides in the Philadelphia area, and two other men, of witnessing Fr. Fernando Karadima sexually abuse them when they were minors.

Scicluna will travel to Chile to continue the investigation. Karadima, now 87, was a charismatic church leader in Chile. A Chilean court declined to rule on the case because of a statute of limitations, with a judge emphasizing that the case did not lack for evidence.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

February 17, 2018

By Claudia Torrens

A key victim in the Chilean sex abuse scandal said he felt his story was finally heard after an hours-long meeting with a Vatican sex-crimes investigator on Saturday, the same day Pope Francis revived his lapsed sex abuse advisory commission amid criticism of how he is handling the scandal.

The meeting at a Manhattan church between Archbishop Charles Scicluna and whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz was “intense, detailed and eye-opening,” Cruz said to the reporters outside the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. Scicluna didn’t speak to reporters after the meeting that lasted more than three hours.

“For the first time I felt that someone is listening,” Cruz said. “I think (Scicluna) was sincerely moved by what I was saying. He cried.”

Cruz said they mainly spoke about Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, whom Pope Francis has vigorously defended. Barros is accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring the abuse of young parishioners by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was removed from ministry and sentenced to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” in 2010.

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VATICAN CITY
Agence France-Presse

February 18, 2018

The Vatican said yesterday it has renewed its anti-paedophile panel as Pope Francis acts to quell the global scandal over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

The panel had come under fire from two high-profile members, former sex abuse victims who quit at what they saw as a lack of reform and obstruction at the highest level of the Catholic Church.

Victims have come forward from across the world over the past two decades accusing priests of sex crimes, unleashing one of the biggest crises faced by the Catholic Church. US Cardinal Sean O’Malley was confirmed as the head of the child protection panel along with seven other incumbent members, while nine new members were added, the Vatican said.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
The Catholic Sun

February 17, 2018

By Lisa Dahm

“I didn’t think I needed it,” said Alecia Turner of the invitation to attend a five-day Grief to Grace Retreat in Phoenix through Restore Dignity. “I didn’t think my current-day struggles had anything to do with my past.”

As she explored the timeline of her life, Turner realized that with her abuse history she would benefit from the faith-based, holistic program designed to help participants address abuse-related trauma through a Catholic lens.

“It did take a lot of humility and it was a leap (attending the Grief to Grace retreat), but I had hope because I was talking to the Restore Dignity people,” Turner said. “I realized that healing is possible.”

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UNITED STATES
Vox

February 16, 2018

By Tara Isabella Burton

Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby called out the church for not taking domestic abuse seriously enough.

Last week, White House aide Rob Porter resigned from his position after it emerged that both of his ex-wives had accused him of domestic abuse. But his ex-wives’ accounts, shared in the media, don’t just tell the story of two abusive marriages. They also reveal the structural and institutional failure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or, the Mormon Church) to protect women from toxic and abusive relationships.

Both Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby told CNN this week about how they’d shared their experiences with Mormon bishops, who only downplayed the severity of their accusations or encouraged them to be mindful of the consequences to Porter’s career if they came forward.

Willoughby said one bishop discouraged her from filing a protective order in order to preserve Porter’s reputation. Likewise, Holderness recalled being consistently turned away by the Mormon bishops she sought guidance from. “For years I would go to Mormon bishops and I would try to find the words to explain what was going on, but I was at a loss. … It wasn’t until I went to a secular counselor … [that somebody] told me that what was happening was not okay,” Holderness told CNN.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press via US News & World Report

February 17, 2018

The Latest on a Vatican sex-crimes investigator meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal (all times local):

3 p.m.

A key victim in the Chilean sex abuse scandal says he feels his story finally has been heard after meeting with a Vatican sex-crimes investigator for more than three hours.

Whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz met with Archbishop Charles Scicluna at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan on Saturday.

Scicluna is investigating accusations against Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

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KOTTAYAM (INDIA)
The Times of India

February 17, 2018

The priest against whom a complaint of rape was filed by a Bangladeshi woman with a British citizenship surrendered before the judicial first class magistrate court in Vaikom on Friday. After a medical examination, Fr Thomas Thanninilkumthadathil (44), was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. He was moved to Kottayam sub-jail. Meanwhile, Kaduthurthy police have requested the court for the custody of the accused.

He was charged under sections 376, 380, 323 and 506 (1) of IPC based on the complaint by the 42-year-old woman. The priest had befriended the woman through Facebook. On January 7 the woman arrived here to meet the priest accompanied by a Zimbabwean youth. They had stayed with the priest at his official residence in the church and also in a resort in Kumarakom. The two were here from January 7-12 during which the alleged offences including the rape had happened. The woman had also complained that while the priest had dropped her at the resort in Kumarakom where she had booked a room, he took away her gold and money after locking her in the toilet.

The Pala diocese had removed him from the post immediately after the allegation came up.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

February 17, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis revived his lapsed sex abuse advisory commission by naming new members Saturday, after coming under fire for his overall handling of the scandal and his support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

The announcement of the new members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors came on the same day that a Vatican investigator will take the testimony in New York of one of the main whistleblowers in the Chilean cover-up scandal.

Francis tasked Archbishop Charles Scicluna with the fact-finding mission into Bishop Juan Barros after he came under blistering criticism in Chile for defending Barros and calling the victims’ cover-up accusations against him slander.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press via US News & World Report

February 16, 2018

By Claudia Torren

A Vatican sex-crimes investigator is meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal.

A Vatican sex-crimes investigator is meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal that involves a bishop Pope Francis has vigorously defended.

The meeting on Saturday between Archbishop Charles Scicluna and whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz will take place at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan.

Scicluna is investigating accusations against Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Cruz and two others have said Barros witnessed the abuse Karadima inflicted on them and ignored it.

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PATERSON (NJ)
NorthJersey.com (The Record)

February 17, 2018

By Richard Cowen

A former administrator with Catholic Family & Community Services has sued the agency, claiming she was sickened by toxic mold in the workplace and later fired after investigating allegations of child abuse and sexual assault at the Mount Saint Joseph’s Children Center in Totowa.

In a lawsuit, Loretta Urban-Critchett says she went to Mount Saint Joseph’s in June of 2015 to investigate a report that an employee had thrown hot coffee on a student. There were also reports of a boy who had twice been sexually assaulted — once in a van with employees present. And she alleges there was a “fight club” organized by night shift workers at the home for troubled youths.

Urban-Critchett says she spoke to the executive director, Diane Silbernagel, who promised to hire a private investigator. She also spoke to the Human Resources director, Dennis Butler, “and Mr. Butler failed to act on the rape incident,” the lawsuit says.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

February 17, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis renewed the mandate of his clergy sexual abuse commission Feb. 17, two months after the group’s lapse into an inactive state led some survivor advocates to question whether protecting children was being given the highest priority in the Catholic Church.

The pontiff reappointed eight of the previous members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and added nine new people to its ranks. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley returns as the president of the group, and Boston priest Msgr. Robert Oliver returns as its secretary.

While none of the members of the commission are publicly known as abuse survivors, the group said in a statement that some of them are survivors who have yet to publicly identify themselves. The commission said it “believes that their privacy in this matter is to be respected.”

Six former members of the commission were not reappointed by Francis, including some of the best known figures in the group, such as: French psychotherapist Catherine Bonnet, British Baroness Sheila Hollins, New Zealand church official Bill Kilgallon, and religious congregation advisor Krysten Winter-Green.

Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from the commission in frustration last March, told NCR some of those not reappointed were among the group’s most active members.

“I’m shocked at the discarding of some of the most active and independent members of the commission,” said Collins. “Four of the laywomen have gone and they were really the most active and had the most experience of working in child protection and working directly with survivors.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a vocal #MeToo leader, faces fresh allegations of misconduct in her office, including frequent discussions about sex and alcohol consumption at the Capitol.

San Diego lawyer Dan Gilleon filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Legislature detailing the allegations on behalf of four anonymous former employees in Garcia’s office.

The complainants allege that Garcia regularly talked about her sexual activity, including with other members, in front of staff. They also allege Garcia drank alcohol while doing official Assembly business and pressured staff to join her in drinking at the office or at bars.

Garcia, in a Facebook post, said she will address each of the issues individually once an investigation has been completed. But she said the claims don’t square with the atmosphere she worked to create.

“I am confident I have consistently treated my staff fairly and respectfully,” she wrote.

Garcia took a leave of absence last week following news she is being investigated for allegedly groping a colleague’s former staff member, Daniel Fierro, in 2014. The allegations against her marked a stunning twist to the California Legislature’s widening sexual harassment scandal that first broke open last fall and prompted two assemblymen to resign.

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SCOTLAND
Basingstoke Gazette

February 16, 2018

Scotland’s charity regulator has dealt with 15 cases of alleged sexual misconduct within the sector in the past two years.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) said the cases – known as “notifiable events” – were “mostly historical”, and none have resulted in a formal inquiry.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) is the only Scottish charity working internationally to have reported allegations, the watchdog said.

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SCOTLAND
The National

February 15, 2018

By Greg Russell

THE head of a major Scottish charity has said there should be a register for aid organisations to share information about staff or volunteers who have been investigated over allegations of sexually abusing children.

Alistair Dutton, director of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf), was speaking to The National after the charity confirmed it had dealt with two cases involving alleged sexual misconduct with children.

The first, in 2012, involved a 45-year-old volunteer for a partner agency in Burundi, who allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl; the second, in 2016, involved a junior staff member for a joint organisation with two other charities in Ethiopia, who was accused of sexual misconduct with a boy under 16.

His comments came amid scrutiny of the UK aid sector after Oxfam was accused of concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims its staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

He said there was “a real issue” with how charities passed information among themselves.

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SCOTLAND
Catholic Herald

February 15, 2018

Sciaf said it had dealt ‘decisively’ with the cases

A Scottish Catholic aid charity has said it has dealt with two cases of alleged sexual abuse of children.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) said it dealt with the issues “decisively” and reassured supporters it had strong safeguarding procedures.

One case involved the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a Burundian man who had volunteered for a local partner organisation. The other involved an Ethiopian man who was a junior staff member at the time. He is accused of sexually assaulting a boy aged under 16.

Sciaf said that neither of the alleged victims were being helped by the charity at the time.

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SANDPOINT (ID)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A northern Idaho man accused of using his religious beliefs to justify the physical and sexual abuse of his wife and children was found guilty of more than a dozen felony charges.

A northern Idaho man accused of using his religious beliefs to justify the physical and sexual abuse of his wife and children was found guilty of more than a dozen felony charges.

The Bonner County Daily Bee reports a jury on Thursday convicted 49-year-old Dana Andrew Furtney on charges that included lewd conduct, sexual abuse of a child, ritualized abuse and domestic violence.

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PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
The West Australian

February 16, 2018

By Kim Macdonald

The Catholic Archbishop of Perth has called for Lent to be dedicated to victims of child abuse, slamming the church for its “dark and sordid past” and the “devastating failure” of some clergy over the matter.

In a pastoral letter this week, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe called on Catholics to set aside the first four days of Lentas a time of fasting and reparation for child sex abuse and for the healing of its victims. He called for Sunday, March 11, to be a special remembrance day.

Archbishop Costelloe said the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had shone a “blinding light into the dark places of the Church”.

“It has enabled us to realise the terrible burden so many have had to bear — and still bear — because of the devastating failures of some clergy, religious and other Church personnel and the often grossly inadequate response of some of our leaders to this shocking betrayal of trust,” he said.

“Notwithstanding the good work the Church has done and continues to do for so many people, we now know that the Church in Australia has had a dark and sordid side.

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ST.CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 15, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

A St. Cloud priest was arrested this week on suspicion of sexual misconduct. Just how unusual is that? Pretty unusual, but becoming more common, a local expert says.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich was arrested Tuesday and faces charges of sexual misconduct for having a sexual relationship with a woman he was counseling spiritually.

Has it happened here before?

Oelrich’s case is the first time a specific statute regarding clergy abuse in a counseling relationship has been used in Stearns County since 2005, said Janelle Kendall, county attorney. That’s as far back as her database goes.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
The Indianapolis Star

February 15, 2018

By Ryan Martin

A former youth pastor used an Indianapolis church office to secretly meet and sexually abuse a 14-year-old girl, according to a federal indictment announced Thursday.

Federal authorities say the minister, 51-year-old Maurice Frazier, also threatened to retaliate against the girl if she reported him to police, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler’s office.

Now he is facing federal charges of coercion and enticement, sexual exploitation of a child, six counts of receipt of child pornography, possession of child pornography and an offense by a registered sex offender, according to the release.

“When individuals abuse their position of trust to prey on children, they will feel the full force of the federal hammer,” Minkler said in a written statement.

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MARTINSBURG (WV)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A trial in West Virginia accusing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and several officials of hiding years of sexual abuse by one man entered its fifth week on Wednesday.

A trial in West Virginia accusing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and several officials of hiding years of sexual abuse entered its fifth week on Wednesday.

The Journal of Martinsburg reports that the civil trial involves accusations that 26-year-old Michael Jensen abused several children over five years. Defendants include the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, local church officials, Jensen, and his parents Chris and Sandra Lee Jensen.

The lawsuit, filed in 2013 by plaintiffs who say they were between the ages of 3 and 12 when abused, seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

The church says it took action when it learned of the allegations. Jensen was excommunicated from the church by the Martinsburg Stake High Council in 2013.

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ENGLAND
Church Times

February 16, 2018

If it is to be tackled in the Church, a clear definition is needed, says Lisa Oakley

THERE is growing concern among Christians about spiritual abuse: what it is, and what can be done about it.

Research published last month by CCPAS, of which I was a co-author, found that two-thirds of respondents to a survey said that they had been spiritually abused. Around the same time, a vicar in Oxfordshire, the Revd Timothy Davis, was convicted by a church tribunal of spiritual abuse against a teenage boy (News, 12 January).

Writing on the ViaMedia blog last month, the Revd Anna Norman-Walker said: “What the Church needs to be clear about is that the issue of spiritual abuse, and the stories of its victims, are not going away. Pandora’s box is already open, and we would be very unwise to try and shut it.”

The term “spiritual abuse” is contentious, however. In a thoughtful article for Christianity Today last month, Krish Kandiah grappled with the terminology of spiritual abuse, and asked questions about its usefulness and definition. In other writing and reports, the term has been criticised for its ambiguity (News, 9 February).

It is, indeed, a difficult issue, and there is anxiety about discussing this at a time when the Church is already under pressure over its response to sexual abuse. But this is exactly why it is important to discuss it. Rather than ignore harmful behaviour, we should take this opportunity for transparency and openness.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

February 16, 2018

By Andrew Brown

The Archbishop of Canterbury has shaped the CofE to his will with a skill of a politician – and made it all the better

Last Saturday in central London, two archbishops joined a small group of people protesting about sexual abuse. Though you might expect – or at least hope – to find archbishops on the side of the angels, what was remarkable was that they were protesting against their own church. The building in question was Church House, in Westminster, where the Church of England’s General Synod was meeting, due later that day to discuss the problem of sexual abuse, with the church facing more than 3,000 historical claims. By standing with the protesters, the Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu were making a loud statement about where their sympathies lay. You had to listen very carefully under the noise to notice that the synod debate was in fact a presentation of a report and there were no survivors speaking in it.

The day before, there had been two other announcements on the subject: the church passed over its papers on the diocese of Chichester, where most of the scandals have come from, to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – 75,000 documents in all. What needles might be concealed in this haystack will be for the commission to discover. More sensationally, it announced that a second allegation against the late, and almost sainted, Bishop George Bell of Chichester had been passed to the police.

This came in the wake of unprecedented public criticism of Welby by heavyweight legal figures for his apparent assumption of Bell’s guilt on the word of one pseudonymous accuser. He has refused to back down despite Lord Carlile QC’s scathing verdict of the church’s inquiry. Welby has refused to say either that Bell was guilty or that his name can be cleared. So you might say that this is a typical Anglican fudge, but it is very much more hard-edged than most of those.

The whole show was typical of Welby’s style as Archbishop of Canterbury: he combines energy, ruthlessness and a determination to get the church moving, through a mixture of public theatricality and arm-twisting behind the scenes. He has been archbishop for five years and next month will publish a fat state-of-the-nation book that covers almost all the current areas of political and cultural dispute in the church. The early coverage of him concentrated first on the unashamed poshness of his background – an Etonian whose mother had been one of Churchill’s secretaries and who had worked for 10 years in the oil industry – and then on his attacks on payday lending. The church, he promised, would outcompete Wonga in helping the poor. This was a successful piece of outrageous bluff. The church did no such thing, but in pledging to do so Welby captured the public imagination.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
CNN

February 14, 2018

By Eric Levenson

Weeks after the remarkable sentencing of longtime sexual abuser Larry Nassar, Michigan State University has made several changes in personnel, policy and procedure as it faces investigations into its role, if any, in the scandal.

Nassar, the doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, was sentenced to lengthy prison sentences and admitted to using his trusted position to sexually abuse young girls for more than two decades. Scores of them came forward and told heart-wrenching stories of his abuse, and several blamed Michigan State for dismissing their complaints and failing to stop him.

A lot has happened since the case ended and Nassar was incarcerated. Here’s a look at some of the steps Michigan State has taken, including installing an interim president, furnishing more resources for Title IX complaints, and responding to a “daunting” number of requests for information from investigators.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
NBC Sports

February 16, 2018

By Travis Hines

A Michigan State men’s basketball player has been under investigation from criminal sexual assault since early in the academic year, according to a report from ESPN.

The player is the lone suspect in an incident that campus police “have classified as fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct,” according to the report, which cites anonymous sources close to the case. A female student has accused the player of forcibly groping her without permission in August, and police forwarded the investigatory findings to the county prosecutor in December, according to ESPN.

NBC Sports is not naming the player because he has not been charged with a crime.

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VATICAN CITY
CRUX

February 15, 2018

By Austen Ivereigh

Pope Francis has revealed that “regularly” on Fridays, he meets quietly with a group of survivors of sexual abuse, saying it’s important for him to hear their stories because “what they have been through is so hard, they are destroyed.”

The pontiff also said that clerical sex abuse is “the greatest desolation that the Church is undergoing,” one that expresses both the Church’s fragility as well as its “hypocrisy.”

The revelations come in a record released today of the pope’s meetings with Jesuits on his trip last month to Chile and Peru. The transcript was approved by the pope and released by Francis’s longtime Jesuit collaborator, Father Antonio Spadaro.

The director of the Vatican Press Office, Greg Burke, released a statement on Thursday confirming the meetings.

“I can confirm that, several times each month, the Holy Father meets victims of sexual abuse either individually or in groups,” Burke said. “Pope Francis listens to the victims and seeks to help them to heal the grave wounds caused by the abuse they’ve suffered.”

“The meetings take place with the greatest discretion,” Burke said, “out of respect for the victims and their suffering.”

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ST. JAMES (NY)
News 12 Long Island

February 15, 2018

Eight people have filed claims against a former Long Island priest they accuse of sexually molesting them decades ago.

The accused is Father Peter Charland – a priest and a pastor at St. Phillips and James Church in St. James in the early 1970s.

One of his accusers, Steven Werner, was a young boy back then and a member of the parish’s popular “PJ Folk Singers” group. Werner says he is one of eight members of that group who now say they were sexually abused by Charland.

“I certainly thought I was unique. I certainly thought it was wrong, but I didn’t, for whatever reason, think it was appropriate to stand up. That’s something I regret,” says Werner.

Starting at age 11, Werner says Charland molested him in the church rectory, in his car and on a choir trip to Romania.

“2013 was the first time I ever told anybody, but I will hide no more from that secret,” says Werner.

Werner’s attorney Michale Reck announced Thursday that the group of eight filed claims with the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan. The plan provides victims with financial compensation if they agree not to take legal action against the diocese in the future.

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FARGO (ND)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded not guilty.

Fernando Sayasaya was recently returned to the United States from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998. He entered his pleas Thursday to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors alleged that Sayasaya abused two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo area.

A Philippines court ordered his extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November. He remains jailed on $5 million bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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INDIA
Gulf News

February 16, 2018

By Akhel Mathew

He had been on the run ever since the victim complained

Thiruvananthapuram: A Roman Catholic priest in Kerala, who is accused of sexually abusing a foreign national and robbing some of her ornaments and cash, surrendered at the Vaikom court on Friday.
He had been on the run ever since the victim who is a 42-year-old Bangladeshi native and residing in Britain complained about the priest to the police in Kaduthuruthy, about 40km from Kochi.

The accused, 44-year-old Thomas Thaanninilkum Thadathil, was quickly removed from priestly services by the Pala diocese of the Catholic Church on Thursday even as police launched a search for him.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
CNA/EWTN News

February 15, 2018

By Elise Harris

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Wednesday that a charge related to a key witness in the case against Cardinal George Pell, accused of historical sexual abuse, is likely to be withdrawn.

In the Feb. 14 hearing, the director of prosecutions for the Melbourne Magistrates Court said that while they had not decided on the matter, the charge of a key complainant who died in January would likely be withdrawn.

Defense attorney Ruth Shann argued against the man’s credibility, saying Pell’s legal team would be examining the credibility of the “unreliable” witness when the formal four-week committal hearing begins March 5.

The witness, Damian Dignan, who died of leukemia in early January, and a fellow classmate at St. Alipius school in Ballarat accused Pell in 2016 of inappropriate sexual behavior when they were minors. The cardinal had previously been accused of acts of child sexual abuse dating as far back as 1961.

Shann said Dignan’s complaints – which he made to Australia’s Royal Commission in 2015, nearly 40 years after the alleged abuse, after reading about other cases in the commission in newspapers – had a “domino effect” in terms of other people contacting the police.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

February 16, 2018

By Jenny Turner

As a child, Bernard was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest. Now an Oxford literary scholar, he has written a remarkable account of the damage done

Starting in 1987, when he was 11 years old, Stephen Bernard was sexually abused by Canon Thomas “Dermod” Fogarty, the priest who was, supposedly, helping him with his French and Latin. This was in Midhurst, Sussex, in the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, then headed by Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the future leader in England of the Roman Catholic church. A few years ago, reading about Murphy-O’Connor’s reaction to other cases of abuse in the 80s, Bernard “wanted to die” – he’d already been in hospital more than once after previous suicide attempts – but decided, this time, to go to the police.

The deaths of Fogarty in 2012 and Murphy-O’Connor in 2017 presumably have a lot to do with the timing of this book.

Bernard, who is now in his early 40s, is a scholar of 18th-century English literature, a former research fellow at University College, Oxford, and the editor of authoritative works about the Tonsons, the foremost publishers of the late 17th and early 18th century, and the plays of Nicholas Rowe. He continues to live and work in Oxford, and his memoir unfolds over a single day in January 2016 at the Bodleian library, where he’s trying to finish an article for the Times Literary Supplement.

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LAKEVILLE (CT)
Hartford Courant

February 15, 2018

By Josh Kovner

The Hotchkiss School, one of the exclusive New England preparatory schools grappling with sexual abuse allegations from former students, has dismissed its independent investigator following an outcry from alumni who learned he had represented institutions, including the Norwich diocese, that had been accused in sexual assault cases.

“We’ve switched investigators,” Hellen Hom-Diamond, the Lakeville school’s communication director, said Thursday when asked whether Simsbury lawyer James Sconzo had been relieved of duties he had conducted since June 2016. Sconzo did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday afternoon.

“In June 2016, we retained a third party to conduct an investigation into reports of sexual misconduct by members of the faculty or staff that occurred at any time in the School’s history,” begins a post on the Hotchkiss website.

In new language added to the post on Thursday, the school said, “Based on feedback from the alumni community, we have retained the law firm of Locke Lord to take over the investigation and build upon the considerable work that has been done to date.”

The school said the investigation “will be wholly independent and will conclude with the release of a public report …”

In January, attorney Roderick MacLeish wrote to Craig Bradley, the Hotchkiss head of school, on behalf of a group called Hotchkiss Alumni for Reconciliation and Healing.

MacLeish cited what he said were the factors that should disqualify Sconzo from investigating sexual abuse at the school. MacLeish asked Bradley to remove Sconzo and work with the alumni group “to procure an investigator who will rightly be perceived as independent.”

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
LI Herald

February 15, 2018

By Ben Strack

Former St. Agnes priests named as abusers in newly compiled report

An alleged sex abuse victim who filed a claim in the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program last year was recently granted a settlement of $500,000, according to the man’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.

The recipient of the settlement, Thomas McGarvey, was 16 when he alleges that Father Robert L. Brown began sexually abusing him at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square. The abuse, which allegedly took place in the church’s rectory, spanned from 1981 to 1989, McGarvey said at a news conference last October. Brown has since died.

Garabedian — who was portrayed by actor Stanley Tucci in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s series of stories detailing the abuse allegations against priests in Boston — is representing dozens of others who claim that clergy members within the diocese sexually abused them.

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CHILE and PERU
La Civilta Cattolica

February 15, 2018

Pope Francis

Conversations with Jesuits in Chile and Peru

On Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at 7 p.m., on his first full day of an apostolic journey to Chile and Peru, Pope Francis met with 90 Chilean Jesuits in the Centro Hurtado of Santiago. On arrival he was shown a reproduction of the green Ford van that St. Alberto Hurtado would use to bring aid to the city’s marginalized: it is a true symbol of apostolic passion. The pope was accompanied by the provincial, Fr. Cristián del Campo, into the chapel where the remains of the Jesuit saint are kept. Inaugurated in 1995, the sanctuary houses the tomb of the saint, a stone sarcophagus containing clumps of earth from each region of Chile which together symbolize the embrace of the country’s faithful. The provincial greeted the pope in the name of all the Jesuits – including notably many young ones – and asked him: “How are things going in Chile and have you felt welcomed to our country?” The meeting quickly became warm and familial. Fr. Del Campo presented two of those present, Frs. Carlos and José Aldunate, blood brothers, ages 101 and 100 years.

The following transcript of the conversations has been approved for publication in this form by the pope himself.

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

Francis began with these words:

I am so pleased to see Fr. Carlos! He was my spiritual director in 1960 for my juniorate. José was the master of novices, and then they made him provincial. Carlos was the caretaker and was…the king of common sense! He could give spiritual advice with really good sense. I recall one time I went to him because I was very angry with someone. I wanted to face up to that person and tell him off. Carlos advised me: “Calm down! Do you really want to break off with him immediately? Try other ways…” I have never forgotten that counsel, and I thank him for it now. Yes, in Chile I immediately felt very welcome. I came yesterday. Today I have been very well received. I have seen many gestures of dear affection. Now ask me whatever you want.

A Jesuit steps forward: “I would like to ask what have been the great joys and disappointments that you have experienced during your pontificate.”

This time of the pontificate is a quite peaceful time. As soon as I realized during the conclave what was about to happen – a complete surprise for me – I felt great peace. And up to today that peace has never left me. It is a gift of the Lord and I am grateful for it. And I really hope he won’t take it away from me. It is a peace that I feel as a pure gift, a pure gift. There is something that does not take peace away from me, but which does hurt me, and that is gossip. I don’t like gossip, it makes me sad. It often spreads in closed-off worlds. When it happens in a world of priests and religious I want to ask: how is this possible? You left everything, you decided not to have a wife next to you, you didn’t marry, you had no children… Do you want to finish as a gossiping old bachelor? Oh, my God, what a sad life!

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis meets frequently with victims of sexual abuse, seeking to defuse a mounting scandal over his unbridled support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Spokesman Greg Burke said Francis meets in private with victims individually or in groups several times a month to “listen to them and try to help them to heal their serious wounds.”

Yet at least one Chilean abuse victim, Juan Carlos Cruz, wondered if Francis had really heard what they said, given Francis’ dismissal of Cruz’s complaints that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros covered up his abuse. During a recent trip to Chile, Francis repeatedly called accusations against Barros by Cruz and other victims slander and said he was certain of Barros’ innocence.

Cruz said Thursday the problem of clerical abuse is global and has not stopped.

“It should be a priority, and not a false ‘zero tolerance,‘” he told The Associated Press, echoing Francis’ frequent insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for abuse.

After his abuse comments sparked outrage, Francis was forced to do an about-face and send in a Vatican investigator to look into accusations against Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s respected former sex crimes investigator, begins his fact-finding mission on Saturday by meeting with Cruz, the main accuser against Barros.

Cruz and two other key whistleblowers have said Barros witnessed their abuse, ignored it and even participated in the psychological abuse that Karadima would then inflict on them when he sensed disobedience or disloyalty.

Barros has denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up.

Francis sparked outrage in 2015 when he appointed Barros, then Chile’s military chaplain, to head the diocese of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of some members of the Chilean bishops’ conference who were concerned about fallout from Karadima’s actions.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
The Detroit News

February 13, 2018

By Jonathan Oosting

Michigan State University is bringing in outside help to speed up investigations into growing complaints of sexual assault and harassment on campus, which officials say now take an average of 80 days to complete.

The university announced Tuesday that the Office of Institutional Equity has hired the Kroll corporate investigation firm of New York to assist with Title IX relationship violence and sexual misconduct cases.

Reports of sexual assault and harassment at MSU increased by 35 percent between the academic year 2015-16 and 2016-17, according to the university. Officials expect that number to continue to climb as more victims feel comfortable reporting incidents.

“We are taking active steps to make MSU a shining example of Title IX compliance; 80 days is not only far too long for a response to a complaint, it’s totally unacceptable,” Interim President John Engler said in a statement. “We owe it to all those who have been assaulted and had the bravery to step forward to have a safer MSU be their legacy.”

MSU policies and practices for investigating sexual assault allegations have been under scrutiny with the recent conviction for former university and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who is accused of assaulting more than 200 young girls and women over the course of more than two decades.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

February 13, 2018

By Claire Hannah Collins and Jessica Q. Chen

Over the past year, a growing conversation about sexual harassment has erupted.

To explore how this conversation has changed, generation to generation, we asked mothers and daughters about how they were raised to talk, react and take action when it comes to sexual harassment and assault.

Liz and Terrie

Liz Cotone’s daughter is only 6, but she is already learning about consent. Liz, 42, and her mother, Terrie Rosengren, 70, talk about how to teach children to ask permission, laying the groundwork for understanding autonomy over one’s body.

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FRANCE
The Associated Press

February 13, 2018

Case rekindles debate about age of consent in France as family argue suspect should be charged with rape

A 29-year-old French man went on trial on Tuesday in a Paris suburb accused of sexually abusing 11-year-old girl in a case that has rekindled debate about France’s age of consent.

France does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship – although the country’s top court has ruled that children aged five and under cannot consent. Lawyers for the suspect argued that the girl was consenting and aware of what she was doing, while lawyers for the girl have said she was simply too young and confused to resist.

In a decision that shocked many, the prosecutor’s office in the town of Pontoise decided to put the man on trial not for rape but on charges of “sexual abuse of a minor under 15”.

Defence lawyers say the man and the girl had met in a park and the girl had voluntarily followed him to an apartment and consented to intercourse. They have also said their client, then 28, thought she was at least 16.

The girl’s family filed a complaint of rape in the town of Montmagny but prosecutors apparently felt the suspect did not use violence or coercion. French law defines rape as sexual penetration committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.

“She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” the defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian said Tuesday. “It changes the story. So she is not a child.”

His colleague Sandrine Parise-Heideiger went further, saying: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”

She said as soon as children have “sexual expressiveness and you have an attitude of putting yourself in danger” then “it doesn’t necessarily mean the person on the other side is a sexual predator”.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today Sports

February 15, 2018

by Brent Schrotenboer

Olympic gold medalist Shaun White made a strategic choice in 2016 after being accused of sexual harassment by the former drummer in his band.

He hired a law firm, but not just any law firm. He turned to the law firm of Glaser Weil in Los Angeles, led by attorney Patricia Glaser.

Her clients in recent months have included Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, former Fox Sports executive Jamie Horowitz, California lawmaker Matt Dababneh and music executive Charlie Walk — all of whom have faced accusations of sexual misconduct.

The firm is known for its celebrity clientele and has attracted high-profile business recently from those who stand accused in the #MeToo movement ignited by the Weinstein scandal of last October.

“Clients come to us because they are looking for positive resolutions,” Glaser’s bio says on her firm’s website. “It’s about resolving the client’s issues aggressively, effectively and efficiently.”

Timing was a big reason the lawsuit against White barely got any other media attention when USA TODAY Sports reported how it was resolved in May 2017. The accuser, Lena Zawaideh, had reached an undisclosed settlement with White to end the case, months before the rise of #MeToo — which dramatically raised awareness about sexual harassment.

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UNITED STATES
Variety

February 14, 2018

By Elizabeth Wagmeister

Alexander Polinsky is claiming years of “sexual-themed hazing” by Scott Baio on the set of their ’80s sitcom “Charles in Charge.” According to the former child star, Baio allegedly exposed himself, threw hot tea in Polinsky’s face, and pulled down Polinsky’s pants when he was a minor.

Polinsky, who was 11 years old at the time the alleged child abuse began, says his harassment was homophobic in nature.

Polinksy shared his story on Wednesday during a press conference in Los Angeles with his attorney Lisa Bloom and his “Charles in Charge” co-star Nicole Eggert, who has also accused Baio of sexual harassment and child abuse.

“I was sexually harassed by Scott Baio and ultimately assaulted by him between the ages of 12 and 15 years old,” a somber and shaken Polinsky said during the news conference.

Polinsky says the harassment began one day on set when he “innocently hopped on his lap” when he was 11 years old. “I was so naive,” Polinsky said, explaining he expected Baio to tell him innocent stories, but instead, “Scott immediately threw me off him and angrily called me f—t.”

“It was not innocent. It was sexual in nature,” Polinsky said, adding he felt “confusion, shame and fear” after realizing that he judged the situation incorrectly. “It made me question my place on the show, my safety on set” and began a period of depression.

Polinsky said Baio’s harassment and abuse was a daily occurrence that endured through the sitcom’s five-season run, and although it was painful going to work every day, he did not want to leave the show because he was a working actor who had auditioned against hundreds of kids for the role on the sitcom. Polinsky added, “I was a professional who did not want to give up what I had worked so hard for.”

Polinsky claims Baio repeatedly talked about “gay sex acts that he told me I would grow up to perform.” The actor says he would protest and tell him to stop saying those types of things, but that he was “branded with the most homophobic words about homosexuals that exist.” Polinsky recalled, “Scott Baio told me I was never going to be loved by a woman in my life because I was so effeminate.”

Polinksy also said Baio would frequently discuss his “sexual conquests” with his co-stars and other women

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 13, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell and Clairissa Baker

A St. Cloud priest faces criminal charges on suspicion of engaging in a sexual relationship with a parishioner.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich, 51, was charged with criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. The state statue makes it a crime for a member of clergy to engage in a sexual relationship with someone they are counseling spiritually or religiously.

St. Cloud police arrested Oelrich Tuesday morning and he appeared in court Wednesday.

Oelrich has worked as a priest in the Diocese of St. Cloud since 1992 and until Wednesday was the priest assigned to Christ Church Newman Center.

According to the criminal complaint, an adult woman went to Oelrich for spiritual guidance and told him during confession in December 2013 about a past relationship that included sexual abuse.

Oelrich later reached out and asked the woman further questions about the abuse. She told Oelrich she had become suicidal and Oelrich consoled her.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WRVO

February 15, 2018

By Ellen Abbott

Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham hopes a new program offering reconciliation and compensation to victims of clergy abuse can move the church past a scandal that has dogged it for years.

The new Voluntary Independent Reconciliation Program will look at claims filed by survivors of clergy abuse in the Syracuse Diocese and offer reparations and promote healing to those harmed by members of the clergy. It will be administered by two outside individuals who have run similar compensation programs downstate.

In announcing the program, Cunningham admitted the church will never fully make amends for the harm caused by the church.

“I hope that this will be seen by all of our Catholic people as a step forward, and step to reach out to people who have been harmed by the church,” Cunningham said.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

February 15, 2018

By Editorial Board

The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse took a big step Wednesday to make amends for the sexual abuse perpetrated against children by its priests. Bishop Robert Cunningham announced that the diocese would create a program to compensate survivors, “to seek forgiveness for the irreparable acts of the past and perhaps, bring a sense of healing to some.”

It is a stunning turnaround. In the not too distant past, the diocese was so reluctant to admit any fault that at least one survivor of clergy sexual abuse was forced to sue the church for counseling money.

It was during the deposition phase of that lawsuit that Cunningham said the children were “culpable” in their own abuse – a statement that sent shockwaves through the community and angered many survivors, who demanded his removal. At the time, the bishop apologized for his poor choice of words. On Wednesday, Cunningham stated flatly that “no child is responsible for his or her abuse ever.” Amen to that.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

February 14, 2018

By Patrick Lohmann

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy in the Syracuse diocese are greeting the news of a new compensation program with caution.

One victim, Charlie Bailey, said it is a good first step to help people like himself to finally get affirmation of the trauma they endured, but he added the details of the program are crucial.

Another victim, Kevin Braney, said he’s still not sure if he’ll participate at all in the compensation program.

“Maybe there’s hope here that something has changed. Maybe,” Braney told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “But I really don’t have enough information now.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Huffington Post

February 14, 2018

By Neil J. Young

In defending Rob Porter, the disgraced Trump White House staffer who resigned last week amid published reports he had physically abused his two ex-wives, his backers have bizarrely cited his professional resume as a sort of bulwark against the allegations: two degrees from Harvard, a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, and work experience for two U.S. senators. Some have also noted his “exemplary character” and religious faith as a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former Mormon missionary.

But this last point, his affiliation with the LDS Church, may not so much provide the character alibi his defenders intend as much as it helps us understand the deeper patterns of abuse in his two marriages.

Both Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, Porter’s two ex-wives, have stated that Mormon bishops had long ignored or minimized their reports of domestic abuse. As Holderness explained to The Daily Mail, after months of speaking to her religious authorities about the abuse, it was a “secular” counselor at her workplace “who told me what was happening was not okay.” In a separate interview with The Intercept, Holderness drew a starker contrast between her secular counselor’s response and how her church leaders had reacted. “When I explained to him what was happening,” Holderness said, “he had a very different reaction from the Mormon bishops … He was very concerned to hear Rob was choking me.”

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
KVIA

February 15, 2018

By Katherine Faller

The Las Cruces priest accused of sexually assaulting a Hobbs man surrendered to law enforcement earlier this week, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News citing court records.

Father Ricardo Bauza, 51, turned himself in to Hobbs police on Monday morning, according to his attorney, Jason Bowles of Albuquerque.

Bauza had been wanted by authorities in Hobbs since October after he was accused of sexually assaulting an adult male in 2016 in Hobbs while he was the pastor at St. Helena Catholic Church.

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DENVER (CO)
The Denver Post

February 14, 2018

By Jesse Paul

The bill was inspired by a case out of the Cherry Creek School District

An effort to extend Colorado’s statute of limitations for the crime of failing to report child abuse died in a Senate panel Wednesday following opposition from a teacher’s organization and the Catholic Church.

The vote for Senate Bill 58 was 3-2 along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

The legislation would have changed the start of the statute of limitations for failing to report child abuse — a Class 3 misdemeanor — from 18 months to five years. It would have specifically applied to so-called mandatory reporters, people who are legally bound, such as a doctor or school officials, to report abuse to authorities when they are told about or discover it.

The legislation was sparked by charges that were filed against three Cherry Creek School District leaders accused of failing to properly report claims of sexual assault by a teacher against a teen student.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

February 15, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis revealed in a meeting with confreres of his Jesuit order last month that he meets with survivors of sexual abuse on a nearly weekly basis, according to a newly released transcript of the encounter.

In a Jan. 19 question and answer session during his visit to Peru, the text of which was published for the first time Feb. 15 by Italian Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, the pope said the Catholic Church must hear from those who have been abused by clergy.

“We need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels,” Francis told the Jesuits, according to the transcript, and continued: “On Fridays — sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known — I normally meet some of them.”

“The process they go through is very tough,” said the pope. “They are left annihilated. Annihilated!”

Francis had previously been known to have met with abuse victims only a handful of times over the span of his nearly five-year papacy. He met with survivors once in Philadelphia during his 2015 visit to the U.S. and again last month in Chile, where he visited before Peru.

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BOISE (ID)
The Idaho Statesman

February 14, 2018

By Katy Moeller

A retired Boise priest facing child pornography and drug possession charges has now been accused of sexually abusing a minor, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise said in a news release Wednesday.

The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, 72, was arrested Feb. 2 on 14 charges involving possessing and sharing child pornography, as well as drug possession. All of the charges are felonies except the drug charges. After his arrest, the diocese told the Statesman that it had no record of sexual abuse complaints about Faucher.

The alleged child sexual abuse happened more than 40 years ago, according to the diocese, and this appears to be the first public allegation that Faucher molested a child. Church officials say they have notified the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, as well as an internal Diocesan Review Board that focuses on child abuse claims.

Scott Graf, a spokesman for the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, said it will not comment on investigations.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
The Christian Post

February 15, 2018

By Michael Gryboski

The Diocese of Syracuse, New York, announced Wednesday that its launching an Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Bishop Robert Cunningham of Syracuse admitted in his announcement that there “is no question we have made missteps in handling this crisis.”

He added that “over the past 15 years, the Diocese of Syracuse has addressed this problem aggressively by reporting all allegations to the appropriate district attorney, ensuring that no clergy with a credible allegation of abuse remains in ministry.”

“Survivors have been provided counseling, spiritual direction and other support to help them find ways to move forward. As we begin this Lenten season, we must continue to seek forgiveness as a Church and seek reconciliation for those who have been hurt.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis meets frequently with victims of sexual abuse, seeking to defuse a mounting scandal over his unbridled support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Spokesman Greg Burke said in a statement that Francis meets in private with victims individually or in groups several times a month to “listen to them and try to help them to heal their serious wounds.”

In comments also released Thursday, Francis called clerical sex abuse a “humiliation” that exposes the church’s “hypocrisy.”

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Las Cruces Sun-News

February 14, 2018

By Carlos Andres López

A former Las Cruces priest accused of a sexually assaulting a Hobbs man surrendered to authorities earlier this week, more than three months after a warrant for his arrest had been issued, court records show.

Father Ricardo Bauza, 51, voluntarily surrendered to Hobbs police on Monday morning, according to his attorney, Jason Bowles of Albuquerque. A booking sheet indicates that Bauza was placed under arrest at 6:05 a.m.

Bauza had been wanted by authorities in Hobbs since last October, when police obtained an arrest warrant for the former Las Cruces priest, who served as the pastor of St. Genevieve Catholic Church for almost a decade.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
KMSP

February 14, 2018

By Allie Johnson

A priest in St. Cloud, Minnesota was arrested Tuesday following allegations of sexual assault.

Anthony Oelrich, 51, of St. Cloud is being held in the Stearns County Jail on pending charges of third degree criminal sexual conduct. He is a priest serving in the Diocese of St. Cloud.

The St. Cloud Police Department began investigating the allegations in late 2017.

According to police. The victim, a woman from St. Cloud, began seeing Oelrich for spiritual advice in 2013.

She reported engaging in a sexual relationship with him between 2013 and 2014 in St. Cloud. Under Minnesota law, a member of the clergy is prohibited from engaging in a sexual relationship under those circumstances.

As a result of the investigation, Oelrich was arrested. The Diocese of St. Cloud says Oelrich has been placed on administrative leave from his current assignment as pastor of Christ Church Newman Center in St. Cloud. He has also been suspended from his priestly duties, meaning he cannot function or present himself as a priest. An administrator has been appointed to the parish.

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FARGO (ND)
The Jamestown Sun

February 14, 2018

By Helmut Schmidt

A former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing children while he worked at churches in Fargo and West Fargo has pleaded not guilty to two Class B felony counts of gross sexual imposition.

Fernando Laude Sayasaya, 53, appearing in orange Cass County Jail garb, said little during the hearing Wednesday, Feb. 14, in Cass County District Court before Judge Steven McCullough.

Each count against Sayasaya has a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, prosecutor Ryan Younggren said after the hearing. Younggren said he could not comment on whether there have been any negotiations for a plea agreement in the case.

In a December hearing, Sayasaya’s bail was set at $5 million cash — a stratospheric amount nearly unheard of in area courtrooms.

Prosecutors had sought a high bail for Sayasaya, saying he posed a flight risk. Sayasaya fled to the Philippines about two decades ago and never returned of his own volition, even though he told investigators at the time that he would return, prosecutors said.

In 2002, Sayasaya was charged in Cass County District Court with the two felony counts of gross sexual imposition.

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FARGO, (ND)
KVRR

February 14, 2018

By Joe Radske

IN DECEMBER, SAYASAYA’S BAIL WAS SET AT $5 MILLION DOLLARS BECAUSE PROSECUTORS CONSIDER HIM A FLIGHT RISK.

Fernando Sayasaya, the former Fargo Catholic priest accused of molesting two underage boys, plead not guilty in a Cass County Court this morning.

Sayasaya, 53, waived his preliminary hearing.

His next court date will be in April.

In December, Sayasaya’s bail was set at $5 million dollars because prosecutors consider him a flight risk.

Over the course of 19 years, it took the Fargo and West Fargo Police Departments, the FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Philippines national police to capture and bring former Catholic priest Fernando Sayasaya back to North Dakota.

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FARGO (ND)
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded not guilty.

Fernando Sayasaya was recently returned to the United States from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998. He entered his pleas Thursday to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors allege that Sayasaya abused two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo area.

A Philippines court ordered his extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November. He remains jailed on $5 million bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

February 14, 2018

A Catholic charity has sacked a worker after it emerged he had been accused of sexually exploiting vulnerable people in Haiti while working for Oxfam.

Cafod said it was “unaware” of the claims until contacted this week by the Times, which broke the Oxfam story.

Meanwhile, Sengalese singer Baaba Maal has told BBC Newsnight he is standing down from his role as a global ambassador to Oxfam after six years.

The star said he found the sex abuse claims “disgusting and heartbreaking”.

Describing the allegations as “very sad”, Maal said he was “disassociating” himself from Oxfam “immediately”.

Maal was one of 14 global ambassadors for Oxfam International.

Others include singer Annie Lennox, the band Coldplay, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the model Helena Christensen.

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ENGLAND
The Westmorland Gazette

February 13, 2018

ONE of five men on trial over alleged historical physical abuse of pupils at a South Cumbria boarding school has been found not guilty of the only charge he was facing.

John Studley was acquitted of one assault allegation on the direction of a judge at Carlisle Crown Court.

Mr Studley, aged 66, had denied a charge which alleged that he was involved in the assault of one boy at Underley Hall School, near Kirkby Lonsdale. This was alleged to have occurred during the mid to late 1980s.

Mr Studley, of Silverdale, Lancashire, was found not guilty today after the alleged victim gave evidence during week three of the hearing.

After legal discussions, Judge James Adkin told the jury: “Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard evidence from that particular witness concerning his recollection of events at the school.

“In fact, he had been called to deal with count nine on your indictment (the alleged assault by Mr Studley). I am going to withdraw that count from your consideration and there is no evidence to prove the allegation against Mr Studley.

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ENGLAND
St. Albans & Harpenden Review

February 13, 2018

By Rachel Russell

Around 63 people have come forward following an investigation into historic sex abuse against adolescents at a mental health unit.

Hertfordshire Constabulary launched Operation Meadow last year after receiving reports from various sources about physical and sexual abuse at the Hill End Hospital Adolescent Unit, in St Albans.

A team of specially trained officers have been investigating into the claims which allegedly occurred between 1969 and 1995.

A police spokesperson said: “We are continuing to gather information and evidence in relation to the adolescent unit and the experiences of those who stayed or visited there.”

The unit was open from 1899 until 1995 in the Highfield Park area of St Albans to help people with mental health issues.

However, it is now the site of a housing development.

Operation Meadow was announced in November with assistant chief constable Bill Jephson at the time saying he wanted to “lift the lid” on what could have happened at the hospital.

No arrests have been made.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald

February 15, 2018

By John Warhurst

The Catholic Church is a wealthy institution, but Archbishop Anthony Fisher is right that to compare its type of wealth to that of Westfield or Wesfarmers is crude and simplistic. Nevertheless, that wealth, however calculated, stands in stark contrast to the resistance and mean-spiritedness that, it has now been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, has characterised its leaders’ treatment of those who were sexually abused while in the church’s care.

This injustice has compounded the crimes that happened on its watch and its criminal cover-ups. Most of the victims were Catholics themselves at the time.

There is another disjunction that troubles many Catholics. The rhythm of church life experienced by most ordinary Catholics is not one of great wealth, but of local fund-raising and donations to church causes. This month, there are two major church-related campaigns: the Vinnies annual doorknock appeal and the Project Compassion annual Lenten appeal to support the church’s international aid and development arm, Caritas Australia. Last year, Project Compassion raised $359,000 in Canberra-Goulburn alone.

This disjunction between the hurt that has been done under the church’s name and the demands made on ordinary Catholics is one reason for the growing bewilderment and lack of trust that is now sweeping the church. The National Church Life Survey, conducted across 20 denominations, has reported that 48 per cent of Catholic respondents agreed (only 34 per cent disagreed) that sexual abuse by clergy had damaged their confidence in church authorities.

In the past, Catholics were mainly loyal and hard-working subjects rather than informed and vocal citizens within their own church. Bewilderment and lack of trust is now turning belatedly to activism and demands for renewal of church governance and structures, as well as for the transparency and accountability rightly demanded by the community at large. It remains to be seen whether the church’s authorities are really listening.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
KUTV

February 13, 2018

By Hannah Knowles

After the spousal abuse allegations against White House Staff Secretary, Rob Porter went public, many Mormon women are now saying their Church leaders encouraged them to stay with their abusers for the sake of the marriage.

According to an article from cnn.com, both women Porter had previously been married to shared how “the unique role the Mormon church played in their troubled relationships.”

For many Mormons, the first line of help for any issue or advice outside the family is often the local bishop or the home teachers. In a recent article by BuzzFeed News, 20 female members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said they “had been victims of marital abuse and confided in their Church leaders for help.”

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Spectrum News

February 14, 2018

Syracuse Catholic Diocese Bishop Robert Cunningham unveiled the establishment of a compensation fund for victims of abuse at the hands of clergy in the diocese.

The voluntary Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program has a goal to “promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy.”

Cunningham on Wednesday, commented that on a holy day for Catholics, Ash Wednesday is a day of pennance, and a fitting time to make the announcement.

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ERIE (PA)
Erie News Now

February 13, 2018

Two Diocese of Erie priests have been removed from ministry – one for alleged sexual abuse and the other for inappropriate contact with minors.

Father David Poulson, 64, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Cambridge Springs, and Father Sean Kerins, 27, chaplain at Kennedy Catholic High School, Hermitage, have been prohibited from any public ministry, as well as from any contact with minors.

The diocese said it received what it believes are credible allegations against Father Poulson regarding the sexual abuse of minors. The matter has been turned over to law enforcement. A preliminary, independent investigation is ongoing.

Kennedy Catholic High School in Hermitage informed the Diocese’s Catholic Schools Office late last month about possible inappropriate communication from Father Kerins, who is a faculty member, to a student at Kennedy. ChildLine and law enforcement were informed, per school and diocesan policy. He was placed on temporary leave, but the diocese determined the text messages in question were inappropriate. He has been removed from his assignments at the school as well as Good Shepherd Parish.

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ERIE (PA)
The Meadville Tribune

February 14. 2018

Roman Catholic priests from parishes in Cambridge Springs and West Middlesex have been removed from any public ministry as well as from any contacts with children by the Diocese of Erie.

Father David Poulson, 64, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Cambridge Springs, and Father Sean Kerins, 27, chaplain at Kennedy Catholic High School, Hermitage, also assigned to Church of the Good Shepherd Parish, West Middlesex, have been removed.

A statement from the Diocese said the two removal actions are unrelated to each other but come in the wake of investigations by the Diocese.

The diocese received what it believes to be credible allegations against Poulson regarding the sexual abuse of minors. A preliminary independent investigation is still ongoing, and the matter has been turned over to law enforcement, the Diocese said in a statement.

With Kerins, the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Erie was informed in late January by Kennedy Catholic High School of a possible inappropriate communication from Kerins, a faculty member, to a student at Kennedy.

The Diocese had a preliminary independent investigation conducted which found a series of text messages in question were inappropriate according to diocesan and school standards, and in violation of diocesan policy, the Diocese said.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

February 14, 2018

By Patrick Lohmann

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse announced today it will create a program that will allow victims of clergy sexual abuse to seek compensation.

Bishop Robert Cunningham made the announcement at an Ash Wednesday news conference at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Syracuse.

The program, which the diocese called an “independent reconciliation compensation program for survivors,” is aimed at giving a measure of justice to dozens of churchgoers who alleged sexual abuse at the hands of clergy in this area.

The program will be run by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who were involved in mediation and administration of compensation for survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the British Petroleum oil spill and similar programs in Downstate dioceses.

The pair will work with those who have previously notified the diocese that they were harmed by a member of the clergy. There are 40 priests in the seven-county area who have been credibly accused of fraud, though 11 of them have not been named, officials said.

Eighteen of the priests are still alive, officials said.

There are 76 victims who have previously alleged sexual abuse by priests in the Syracuse diocese, officials said. Those victims will get letters inviting them to participate in the voluntary program.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Press Connects

February 14, 2018

By Hannah Schwarz

The Diocese of Syracuse is establishing a settlement program for victims of clergy sexual abuse spanning decades, Syracuse Diocese Bishop Robert Joseph Cunningham announced Wednesday.

More than 70 people will receive letters informing them of the possibility of settling, Cunningham said. Those cases relate to roughly 40 priests, none of whom are still serving in the Diocese, and many of whom are no longer alive.

The settlement program will be administered by lawyers who oversaw compensation programs for 9/11 survivors, the BP oil spill and three compensation programs in downstate dioceses.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Observer-Dispatch

February 14, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse announced Wednesday it is establishing a voluntary program to provide compensation for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) is meant to “promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy,” according to a news release. Only those who reported alleged abuse prior to Wednesday will be eligible to participate.

Bishop Robert Cunningham made the announcement at the cathedral in Syracuse on Wednesday morning. In a letter posted to the diocese website, he said the date of the announcement was significant.

“It is fitting that I am announcing this program on Ash Wednesday — the beginning of our Lenten Journey,” the letter states. “The ashes that we receive are a sign of penance, biblical in origin which express our human condition as affected by sin. In this sign, we outwardly express our guilt before God and thereby prompted by hope that the Lord is kind and compassionate, patient and abounding in mercy.”

In the release, Cunningham similarly stated that while the diocese “cannot reverse the damage that was done,” it hopes that “this new effort will provide an opportunity seek forgiveness for the irreparable acts of the past.”

How the program will work

According to the release, the ICRP program was created, in part, based on the success of similar programs in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. It will be independently administered by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who have previous experience coordinating mediation and compensation for those programs, as well as survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and those affected by the BP oil spill.

Individuals who have previously notified the diocese that they have been harmed by a member of the clergy will be contacted by letter and invited to participate in the program. Beyond that, Feinberg and Biros will “retain complete and sole discretion over all eligibility agreements and settlement compensation amounts” and the diocese “will accept their determinations without question,” the release states.

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BOISE (ID)
Fox News

February 14, 2018

A retired Idaho priest who fought against child sex abuse in the Catholic church was arrested Friday for possession of child pornography and drug charges, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Authorities had received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and obtained a warrant to search Fr. W. Thomas Faucher’s home, the Statesman reported.

Authorities found images of young children subjected to sexual acts on Faucher’s computer, prosecutors said at a probable cause hearing Monday morning. In email and chat conversations viewed by investigators, Faucher expressed of his desire to “rape and kill children,” another proesutor said.

Faucher was held on a $250,000 bond, forbidden from using the internet and prohibited from having any contact with children under 18, the Statesman reported.

Mark Manweiler, Faucher’s lawyer, pressed for his release, arguing that despite being around “tens of thousands” of children, there has never been a claim of abuse or impropriety.

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ERIE (PA)
Your Erie

February 13, 2018

The Diocese has announced that two priests, Father David Poulson, 64, and Father Sean Kerins, 27, have been removed from the Erie Catholic Diocese. According to a memo from the Diocese, the two have been “prohibited from any public ministry, as well as from any contact with minors”.

They tell us the situations are unrelated. In the case of Poulson, who was the pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Cambridge Springs, the Diocese received what they said they believe “to be credible allegations against [him] regarding the sexual abuse of minors”. A preliminary independent investigation is ongoing and the matter has been “turned over to law enforcement”. Monsignor Robert Brugger, former pastor of Saint Anthony Parish, will take over Poulson’s parish, effective immediately”.

In the case involving Father Sean Kerins, Chaplain at Kennedy Catholic High School in Hermitage and Church of the Good Shepherd Parish in West Middlesex, Kerins allegedly inappropriately texted a student at Kennedy. Law enforcement has been informed and a preliminary independent investigation is complete. After the findings of the investigation, the Diocese concluded that the text messages were, in fact, inappropriate according to diocesan and school standards. Kerins has been removed and ordered to have no contact with minors while law enforcement conducts their own investigation.

Professional counselors are available to the children at the school today.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WKTV

February 14, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has established a compensation program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Bishop Robert Cunningham announced Wednesday.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has established a compensation program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Bishop Robert Cunningham announced Wednesday morning at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse.

The Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) is a voluntary program meant to “promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy,” according to Cunningham. Only those who reported their abuse prior to Feb. 14, 2018 will be eligible to receive the compensation.

Kenneth Fienberg and Camille Biros – who previously helped administer compensation programs for survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the BP oil spill and IRCP programs with other Catholic dioceses – will be responsible for administering the program.

Feinberg and Biros will work with people who previously notified the Diocese of Syracuse that they had been abused or harmed by a member of the clergy. Those victims will receive a letter inviting them to participate in the program, and then Feinberg and Biros will “retain complete and sole discretion over all eligibility agreements and settlement compensation amounts for the eligible individuals.”

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
The Associated Press

February 14, 2018

A priest who serves in the Diocese of St. Cloud has been arrested and charged on accusations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich, 51, is jailed in Stearns County Wednesday and appeared in court on allegations of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Oelrich, of St. Cloud, is charged with one felony count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Between Dec. 1, 2013 and April 30, 2014, Oelrich is accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with a woman who sought his spiritual advice after a sexually abusive relationship. The victim said that they engaged in a sexual relationship.

Minnesota statue prohibits a member of the clergy from engaging in a sexual relationship under these circumstances, police said.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
KARE 11

February 14, 2018

The priest was arrested on Feb. 13.

An ordained priest with the St. Cloud Diocese is accused of sexual assaulting a woman who came to him for spiritual guidance due to a prior relationship which included sexual abuse.

Father Anthony Joseph Oelrich, 51, is charged with criminal sexual conduct for an inappropriate relationship with the victim that started in 2013. He was arrested on Feb. 13 and is currently in custody in Stearns County. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday.

According to the criminal charges, the woman sought the help of Father Oelrich after confessing she was the victim of sexual abuse in December of 2013. After her initial disclosure with Oelrich, he began asking further questions about the abuse. The woman told investigators she became suicidal at one point and Oelrich reached out to her and consoled her.

The criminal complaint details a number of incidents where Father Oelrich asked the victim to touch him inappropriately when she sought his help.

The victim also told authorities she was suffering from insomnia so Oelrich would tuck her in at night and often sleep with her in her bed until 1 a.m.

In January 2014, the woman said she was invited to the rectory in St. Cloud to have dinner with Father Oelrich. That night, he suggested she stay the night and the two engaged in sexual intercourse. This occurred repeatedly until April of 2014.

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HERMITAGE (PA)
WKBN

February 13, 2018,

Father Sean Kerins is no longer at the school and has been ordered not to contact the student

A 27-year-old priest at Kennedy Catholic High School in Hermitage has been removed from the Erie Catholic Diocese.

Father Sean Kerins was the chaplain at the school, as well as a priest in residence at Church of the Good Shepherd in West Middlesex.

Through an investigation, the diocese said Kerins sent a series of inappropriate texts to a student at Kennedy Catholic.

Kerins is no longer at the school and has been ordered not to have contact with minors.

Law enforcement has been notified and is doing its own investigation.

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UNITED STATES
NBC News

February 13, 2018

As the smoke clears following my ex-husband Rob Porter’s resignation from the White House, a deeper narrative is developing.

Even people who knew me did not know the details of my marriage. You see, society encourages us to keep some secrets hidden. But in an attempt to conquer the shame that had been plaguing me for the three years since my divorce, I chose to reveal my darkest one online. I drove to my former home and snapped a picture of a Post-It note reading: “I stayed with my abusive husband.” Then I sat in my car in the light drizzle of the evening and composed an Instagram post which, a mere eight months later, would spark a hashtag — #AndSoIStayed — and a national controversy.

As the smoke clears on the initial news of my ex-husband Rob Porter’s White House dismissal, a deeper story is developing. People responded intensely to my words because this is a story that occurs all too often behind closed doors. Locked in closets and bathrooms. Trapped in cars. Isolated at school or at church or at work. Hiding under the bed. Indeed, cowering in kitchens and living rooms all across America are the unspoken stories of abuse. And speaking out about my own story has showed me just how desperate people are for a way to express what they themselves are going through.

For days, pleas have poured into my DMs on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thousands are seeking answers about how to leave, how to overcome shame, or how to start over. Hundreds of comments flooded my blog post from those who are still suffering and scared.

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QUEENSLAND (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

February 13, 2018

By Josh Robertson

Queensland Governor and former chief justice Paul de Jersey and a fellow judge played a key role in thwarting an internal push by Anglican clergy for the church to abandon a contentious legal defence against child sex abuse claims, victims and their supporters say.

Abuse survivors and supporters have criticised the judges’ intervention in the 2009 general meeting of the Anglican Brisbane Diocese, which voted down a motion to stop using legal time limits.

The limits forced victims to sue by the age of 21, effectively limiting any institution’s potential legal exposure.

The motion, which called on the church to “set an ethical lead in the community by … not invoking the statute of limitations defence”, would have set a nationwide precedent.

But the Queensland Governor, who in 2009 was chief justice and chancellor, or legal advisor, to the diocese, warned the church would lose its insurance.

According to notes of the meeting by an abuse survivor, the chief justice also referred to victims suing because of the church’s “deep pockets”.

It comes after legal experts raised doubts about the appropriateness of judges’ roles as legal advisors to the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
La Croix International

February 13, 2018

Calls for a “culture change” are growing as the Church of England now faces 3,300 sexual abuse claims, with one-fifth directed against clergy and other church officials.

Denial is no longer an option as recent inquiries highlight “the continuing need for a culture change within the church,” Roger Singleton, a member of the Anglican Church’s national safeguarding panel, told The Guardian.

He said a minority of parish clergy are either “unwilling to accept the need for sensible, proportionate measures” or seek to downplay the damage caused by physical, sexual, emotional or spiritual abuse.

But while the church has been accused for decades of trying to bury its head in the sand mounting litigation is forcing a head-on collision with an avalanche of sexual abuse cases.

The Church of England has seen its spending in this area quintuple over the last four years. Next month it will go under the microscope again amid a stepped-up independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

“This will not be an easy couple of years — we will hear deeply painful accounts of abuse, of poor response, of ‘cover-up’,” the daily quoted Bishop Peter Hancock of Bath and Wells, the Church of England’s lead bishop on safeguarding, as saying.

While 80 percent of the sexual abuse claims are reportedly aimed at volunteers and other congregation members, clergy are increasingly being urged to admit any wrongdoing by their peers.

Reflecting the turning tide, each diocese has now appointed a professional adviser to safeguard against abuse.

Moreover, the archbishops of Canterbury and York recently showed their support for survivors of church sexual abuse by holding a two-minute vigil outside Church House in Westminster.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 14, 2018

By Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara

When a Vatican court convicted a Chilean predator priest of sex crimes, it went out of its way to affirm the credibility of his victims. Their testimony had been consistent and corroborated, while their motives in coming forward had been only to “free themselves of a weight that had tormented their consciences,” the tribunal said.

One key witness in the Rev. Fernando Karadima’s 2010 trial is preparing to testify again, this time in a spinoff case with potentially more significant consequences. Juan Carlos Cruz’s allegations of a cover-up raise questions about Pope Francis’ already shaky track record on preventing clergy sex abuse and concealment.

Cruz has accused Chilean Bishop Juan Barros of having been present when Karadima kissed and fondled him as a 17-year-old, and of then ignoring the abuse. One of Francis’ top advisers has privately called Cruz a liar who is out to destroy the Chilean church. Francis, who has called allegations against Barros slander, may have accepted the adviser’s take.

After his defense of Barros sparked an outcry during his recent trip to Chile, Francis did an about-face and asked Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a former Vatican sex crimes investigator, to gather testimony about Barros and then report back. Cruz, who now works in communications in the U.S., is his first witness Saturday.

“We’ve been giving this testimony for years and years, but finally it’s being heard,” Cruz told The Associated Press. “So when the pope says he needs evidence, he’s had it for a long time.”

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SYRACUSE (NY)
CNY Central

February 14, 2018

The Diocese of Syracuse is starting an independent compensation program for victims of past clergy sexual abuse.

Bishop Cunningham announced the establishment of the voluntary Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) during a news conference Wednesday. According to the Diocese, the purpose of the program is to promote reconciliation and further the healing of those harmed by members of the clergy.

“Child sexual abuse is a grave sin and a crime. And no child is responsible for his or her abuse ever,” Cunningham said. “We will not return to the mistakes of the past.”

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GUAM
KUAM News

February 13, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Guam Catholics want answers. The recent sighting of Guam’s suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron in Rome is concerning for the Faithful who continue to wait for a verdict on Apuron’s canonical trial.

Concerned Catholics of Guam President David Sablan tells KUAM “Since he is in Rome, he more than likely was informed.”

Sablan urges the Tribunal to publicly release the verdict.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

February 14, 2018

By Catrin Owen

An Olympic athlete admitted to indecently assaulting a girl in a letter to his ex-wife, a court has heard.

New Zealand gold medallist Arthur Parkin is on trial in the Auckland District Court for allegedly indecently assaulting three young girls.

The fourth witness in the trial is Parkin’s ex-wife. Their marriage ended in 2007.

In court on Wednesday, she said Parkin sent her a letter during their divorce proceedings stating that he had exposed himself and asked one of the complainants to touch his penis.

She later burned the letter, she said.

Parkin had told her sometime in the early 1990s he had indecently assaulted the complainant, she said.

Parkin used a “brutal word” she had never heard before, she told the court.

“I went into turmoil and into a state of shock . . . it was devastating.”

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SYRACUSE (NY)
The Associated Press

February 14, 2018

Syracuse diocese of the Roman Catholic Church setting up reconciliation program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The Syracuse diocese of the Roman Catholic Church is establishing a reconciliation program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Bishop Robert Cunningham announced the voluntary program Wednesday. It’s aimed at promoting reconciliation and healing, and possibly compensation, for those who have been harmed by members of the diocese’s clergy.

The program will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who were involved in programs for survivors of 9/11, the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and programs in three downstate New York dioceses.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
WJON AM 1240

February 14, 2018

By Lee Voss

A St. Cloud Priest is charged with 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct while acting as clergy and providing ongoing spiritual advice. Fifty-one-year-old Father Anthony Oelrich is a pastor at Christ Church Newman Center and has been put on administrative leave and suspended of his priestly duties by the Diocese of St. Cloud.

The St. Cloud Police Department began investigating after an adult woman came forward in December alleging a number of sexual encounters in late 2013 and early 2014.

The woman told investigators she began seeing Father Oelrich for spiritual guidance following a sexually abusive relationship. The abuse came to light during confession in December 2013.

According to the criminal complaint, the woman said she was suicidal and Father Oelrich offered to console her whenever she needed to talk about it.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CNN

February 13, 2018

By Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak

Rob Porter was involved in serious discussions to be promoted when he abruptly resigned from the White House last week amid allegations that he abused his two ex-wives, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

His anticipated elevation further highlights how top White House officials were willing to overlook indications from the FBI that there were potential abuse allegations in his background in exchange for professional competence in a tumultuous West Wing.

Porter had been actively lobbying to take on new policy portfolios outside the traditional scope of the staff secretary, one person familiar with the matter said, which included speechwriting duties and a role in planning policy rollouts. Neither of those tasks is traditionally carried out by the staff secretary.

One of the areas Porter was set to delve further into was trade policy, according to the person. Porter was a regular attendee at a weekly trade meeting among top-level administration officials.

He was also being considered for the deputy chief of staff position, another source familiar with the situation said. CNN reported Friday that Jim Carroll, who served as the deputy chief of staff for less than three months, was stepping down to helm the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press

February 14, 2018

Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to face sex charges, told an Australian court on Wednesday that the allegations stemmed from publicity surrounding a national inquiry into child abuse three years ago.

Pope Francis’s finance minister was charged last year with offenses involving multiple complainants in his native Australia. The exact details and nature of the charges have not been disclosed to the public, though police have described them as “historical” sexual assaults, meaning they are alleged to have occurred decades ago.

Pell’s lawyers failed in his application in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday to gain access to his alleged victims’ medical records.

The court will hold a preliminary hearing next month to determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to warrant a jury trial. The charges and potential penalties have not been made public.

Pell has vowed through his layers to fight the charges. He returned to Sydney to face the allegations but was not required to attend court on Wednesday.

His lawyer, Ruth Shann, told Magistrate Belinda Wallington that the first complainant approached police in 2015, 40 years after the alleged crimes, in response to media reports about Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“We will be saying that that complaint and the basis for it lacks reliability and credibility,” Shann told the court.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 13, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

St. Cloud police arrested a priest who serves in the Diocese of St. Cloud Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich, 51, of St. Cloud was arrested at about 10 a.m.

Stearns County Jail records say he was jailed on suspicion of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. A St. Cloud Police Department spokesman said Tuesday night that no further information would be released until Wednesday.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Bishop Donald Kettler said he was notified by St. Cloud police of Oelrich’s arrest following “an investigation of alleged sexual misconduct involving an adult woman.”

Kettler placed Oelrich on administrative leave from his current assignment. Oelrich is listed as a pastor at Christ Church Newman Center Catholic Student Community on its website.

Kettler also suspended Oelrich from his priestly faculties, which means Oelrich cannot function or present himself as a priest pending the outcome of the judicial process.

“The diocese is cooperating with civil authorities and encourages all victims of abuse to come forward,” the statement from the Diocese of St. Cloud said.

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PYEONGCHANG (SOUTH KOREA)
Yahoo Sports

February 14, 2018

By Jeff Passan

They grabbed, pawed, frothed, hopeful he might deign to make eye contact or maybe even snap a selfie. For nearly two hours following his Olympic gold medal-winning run in snowboard halfpipe, Shaun White, in the midst of television appearances and radio hits, never ignored the cadre of fans who stayed to pay homage for too long. Every few minutes, he acknowledged them, and they roared back. Eventually he veered toward those who braved the frigid air. The reaching arms almost swallowed him. Personal space does not exist in cults of personality.

Halfway across the world, those who don’t deify White struggled to reconcile what he’d done Wednesday morning – throw arguably the greatest run in halfpipe snowboarding history – with what he’d allegedly done in previous years. The 100th Winter Olympics gold medalist in American history – according to a lawsuit by Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer in his band, that White later settled – texted her pictures of penises. He showed her video of a couple having sex on top of a bear that the man had shot dead and another “hardcore porn” video involving a priest, a nun and feces when she was 17 or 18 years old. He allegedly forced her to drink vodka. He insisted she change her look and wardrobe, once threatening to send her home because he didn’t like a fleece sweater she had worn. He stuck his hands down his pants, then shoved them in her face to smell them, the lawsuit alleged.

“After losing at the Olympics [in 2014],” the lawsuit said, “White became increasingly hostile and threatening, especially toward Zawaideh.”

White, who admitted to sending the texts but denied other allegations, has acknowledged being in a dark place following his fourth-place finish in the Sochi Games and cast his gold medal in PyeongChang, the third of his Olympic career, as the denouement of a redemptive arc. White refused to address questions about the lawsuit, calling it “gossip.” “I am who I am,” he said. “And I’m proud of who I am. And my friends love me and vouch for me, and I think that stands on its own.”

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UNITED STATES
Glamour

February 14, 2018

By Stacey Leasca

UPDATE 2/14: After immense coverage—and criticism— online, NBC addressed Shaun White’s sexual harassment lawsuit on the air Wednesday. “I’ve grown as a person over the years,” White said during an interview on the “Today” show, hours after winning his third gold medal in the men’s snowboarding halfpipe. White also apologized for calling the allegations as “gossip” during a post-competition press conference. “I’m truly sorry that I chose the word ‘gossip.’ It was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today,” he said.”I was so overwhelmed with just wanting to talk about how amazing today was and share my experience.” White also told “Today” he feels like he’s “a much more changed person than I was when I was younger. I’m proud of who I am today.”

Original story 2/13: On Tuesday, snowboarder Shaun White competed in the halfpipe finals at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The 31-year-old—arguably the biggest celebrity in Olympic village beloved by fans, the media, and advertisers—took the gold medal. Deserved, as far as the competition goes, but according to a 2016 lawsuit, White has a history that’s being overlooked.

According to USA Today, In May 2017, White settled a lawsuit leveled against him a year earlier by Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer of his band Bad Things. In the suit, Zawaideh alleged that White repeatedly sexually harassed her and forced her to watch “sexually disturbing videos, including videos sexualizing human fecal matter.” Moreover, TMZ reported that Zawaideh said she was also forced to watch a video showing a couple killing a bear and fornicating on top of it.

Zawaideh, according to USA Today, first put forth a suit against White and his company for breach of contract for failing to pay her $3,750 monthly retainer from September 2013 through August 2014. She later amended the complaint to include sexual harassment allegations and pointed to screenshots of vulgar messages allegedly sent by White as evidence.

“Shaun took some kind of joy in seeing how much he could break me down and mess with me,” Zawaideh told Page Six in 2016. “I don’t know why, but every time he saw that I was uncomfortable with something, he would just keep going just to be like, ‘Can I break her?’ That’s not acceptable for an employee, which I was. Contractually.”

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Lifestyle

February 13, 2018

By Raechal Leone Shewfelt

Olympic great Aly Raisman has returned to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, and this time, she brought along a message.

The 23-year-old, who led the U.S. gymnastics team to gold medals in 2012 and 2016, posed with inspiring words scrawled on her body, such as “survivor” across her chest, “live 4 you” and “every voice matters” down one arm, and “fierce” on the other. “Women do not have to be modest to be respected” ran down one side of her body. There was no swimsuit, no clothing at all, just those words, which Raisman — not the photographer or stylists — chose, as did all the women featured in the what the magazine called its “In Her Own Words” project.

Raisman has been showing her strength beyond the physical, which audiences saw on display in London and Rio de Janeiro. In November, she revealed on 60 Minutes that she was one of the more than 265 people who had been sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor for the USA gymnastics team who’s been convicted of molesting athletes. Then, Raisman was one of around 100 victims who addressed Nassar in the courtroom as he was sentenced in January.

When it was her turn to speak — she was the 73rd victim to address Nassar — Raisman did not mince words. She was, well, fierce.

“Larry, you do realize that this group of women you heartlessly abused over a long period of time are now a force. And you are nothing,” Raisman said, as she faced her abuser. “The tables have turned Larry. We are here. We have our voices. And we are not going anywhere.”

In the wake of the Nassar scandal, Raisman also has called out the USA Gymnastics culture that enabled Nassar to continue abusing for decades.

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LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

February 13, 2018

By David Eggert

USA Gymnastics told Congress it has not used non-disclosure agreements in investigations except in the case of Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, one of more than 200 women and girls who have said now-imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar sexually abused them under the guise of treatment.

The Indianapolis-based organization’s statement was part of its response to an initial congressional inquiry that was made public Tuesday. The leaders of a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over the health and safety of athletes also released answers provided by Michigan State University — Nassar’s longtime employer until 2016 — and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The Senate probe, one of at least three investigations in Congress, is partly focused on the non-disclosure agreement for Maroney, who in December sued to invalidate the deal that had been reached with USA Gymnastics more than a year before. She said she was forced to sign the confidential settlement and argued it violated California law.

USA Gymnastics President and CEO Kerry Perry in a letter to Sens. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, denied that the organization coerced Maroney and said it had worked with its insurer to resolve the claim “expeditiously without the need for litigation.” USA Gymnastics took “absolutely no action” against Maroney with respect to the confidentiality provision when she disclosed the abuse publicly in October and has publicly praised her for coming forward, Perry said. Maroney also had a victim impact statement read on her behalf when Nassar was recently sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in Michigan.

“At this time, USA Gymnastics deems the parties mutually released from the mutual confidentiality agreement (and certain other settlement provisions challenged in her lawsuit) and has communicated that to Ms. Maroney’s counsel,” Perry wrote.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

February 13, 2018

By Lisa Baertlein

Restaurant workers in seven U.S. cities on Tuesday lobbied state and local lawmakers to combat sexual harassment in the industry by shifting from the $2.13 federal minimum wage for tipped employees to a higher “fair” wage.

Some 70 percent of workers who receive tips in addition to their hourly pay in the United States are women.

The combination of low hourly pay and dependence on customer gratuities makes them particularly vulnerable to harassment from customers and colleagues, said Saru Jayaraman, president of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) which advocates for better working conditions.

Women workers earning their state’s full minimum wage before tips reported half the rate of sexual harassment as women in the states that pay $2.13 per hour, according to a study from ROC, which has called on lawmakers to follow the lead of California, Washington, Nevada and four other states that pay the more generous “fair” wage.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday

February 13, 2018

By Bart Jones

The money comes from a program set up in October by the Diocese of Rockville Centre to give victims compensation if they agree not to sue the diocese.

A Queens man who said he was sexually abused by a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre decades ago said Tuesday he was awarded $500,000 through a compensation fund set up by the diocese.

Thomas McGarvey, 52, said he received notification of the payment last month from the administrators of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. The settlement, announced at a news conference Wednesday, is the first to be publicly disclosed.

The program, established in October, provides victims with financial compensation if they agree not to take legal action against the diocese. It was modeled after programs launched in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn.

McGarvey said the settlement was bittersweet for him. “Whatever settlement they gave me is not going to wipe out the pain that I went through,” he said.

But he added that he hopes it will at least give him some closure to the events that have haunted him for decades, and help him move on with his life.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Cut

February 13, 2018

By Judy Dushku

The most shocking thing about the outing of Rob Porter this week is not that there is another accused wife-batterer in the White House — it’s who did the outing: his Mormon ex-wives. Mormon women pretty reliably show up in comedy and drama as naïve, passive, and sweet mothers; gentle women who do not take the reins in blowing up an abuser and a criminal. In bringing down Porter, Jennie Willoughby and Colbie Holderness defied their church bishops, who had dismissed their allegations about how he punched and choked them, and instead went public. They shared photographs, and details of the alleged abuse, and refused to back down — even in the face of a president who doubts them. To see Mormon women take on a Mormon man of such stature is quite a new image.

I’m a 75-year-old woman, and I’ve been a Mormon my whole life. I am so proud of these breakers of the mold, these bold and honest survivors who have taken a well-protected bull by his horns and refused to give up.

Mormon women often ask ourselves if we are “too nice” and “too timid.” In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are urged to speak up and take a stand on important issues of the day, but we acknowledge that we are culturally socialized to be polite and gentle to the point of being submissive. In talks by our leaders, women held as role models are typically described as modest, humble, and kind, people who accomplish great things through quiet persistence or meekness. We tease each other about how often we begin a sentence with “I’m sorry, but …” Or if we decide to criticize something, we say, “I don’t mean to be mean, but … ” Often, we back down from our firmest declarations of disagreement and anger.

And if a woman acts in ways out of sync with this style, she is usually shunned. Administrative and teaching roles in Church congregations are filled by members who are “called to serve” by a local male leader. Women who are “called” are likely to be charismatic and energetic — but still able to appear docile and dutiful. Women who seem to have mastered the art of leading with an air of the eager harmonizer are the ones who rise to the “top” spots in a congregational or ward hierarchy.

Women habituated to this style of interacting with others are perhaps not the best prepared to fight back if they are mistreated. In our church, the abuse of women by men is not new. And in the last decade it has been widely discussed, and acknowledged as a problem. Yes, there are manuals for ward bishops that are intended to help them deal with the complaints of women who describe abuse — but everyone knows about incidents of spousal abuse in every ward, which still often go minimized or ignored. When Colbie Holderness confided in her bishop about Porter’s alleged abuse, he cautioned that filing a protective order could harm her husband’s career. Jennie Willoughby says her bishop did not respond to her complaints about her husband being “physical” with any great concern.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Huffington Post

February 13, 2018

By S.V. Date

Christopher Wray said the FBI turned in a partial report about the domestic abuse accusations nearly a year ago.

WASHINGTON ― The White House’s attempts to explain why it allowed a top aide accused of domestic violence by both of his ex-wives to keep his job took another hit on Tuesday, this time from FBI Director Christopher Wray.

President Donald Trump’s other top aides have been claiming that they did not know about the domestic violence allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter until recently and that they did not appreciate the full extent of the accusations until photographs of one woman’s injuries were published by news outlets.

But Wray, who was named to that job by Trump, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the FBI had given the White House a preliminary report on Porter nearly a year ago.

“I can’t get into the content of what was briefed,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed background investigation in late July.”

Wray added that the FBI “soon thereafter” received a request for a follow-up from the White House, which it completed and returned in November.

The FBI closed out its investigation in January, but then received “additional information” in early February, which it passed along as well, Wray said.

White House officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Wray’s testimony, which contradicts timelines offered by the White House press office over the past week.

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CLEVELAND (TN)
Lee Clarion

February 13, 2018

By Kiersten Powers

If there’s something to be said about the students featured on the Thoughts of the Roundtable podcast, it’s that they aren’t shying away from the tough subjects.

The students, Juan and Rebeca Molina, Chris Seders and Gabby Oechsle, have a mission of addressing important topics to further educate and discuss solutions with each other.

And recently? Sexual abuse in the church.

In a recent episode of Thoughts of the Roundtable entitled “Chris Hansen, Where Are You?,” the group discussed the multitude of recent sexual harassment scandals, from those in Hollywood to the accused in politics and religion.

Pope Francis is currently receiving backlash for his support of a bishop who has been accused of covering up one of the largest sexual assault cases.

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GREAT FALLS (MT)
The Associated Press

February 13, 2018

A federal judge is allowing lawsuits to proceed in state court by two people who claim they were sexually abused in a small southern Montana town by a Roman Catholic priest in the 1970s and 1980s.

A U.S. judge has granted a request for lawsuits to proceed in Montana state court that were filed by two people who claim they were sexually abused as children by a Roman Catholic priest in the small southern town of Absarokee in the 1970s and 1980s.

Monday’s order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jim Papas said the parties were not making progress in settlement negotiations, the Great Falls Tribune reported .

“Time to do something else,” he wrote.

The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, which covers the eastern half of Montana, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while working to settle 86 claims of abuse from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Attorneys for the two victims whose cases are moving forward argued deciding their claims in state court could help determine damage amounts due to the other 84 plaintiffs.

The claims involve a woman who said the Rev. Joseph Heretick abused her from 1983 to 1986 and a man who said he was abused by Heretick and another priest from 1974 to 1980. Heretick died in 1999.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Wrap

February 2, 2018

By Rosemary Rossi

Actor says “hellish” experience left him with PTSD

Alex Winter best known as Bill to Keanu Reeves’ Ted in the cult classic “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” has come forward as a victim of sexual abuse.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5, the former teen star said he was sexually abused when he was a child actor in the 1970s, and making the “Bill & Ted” films and short-lived series was “therapeutic.”

“It was an opportunity to be child-like… innocent and sweet,” the actor said in an interview Friday. “I absolutely feel like a survivor.”

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UNITED STATES
Vox

February 7, 2018

By Alexia Fernández Campbell

They describe a work environment where groping and sexual requests from co-workers were rampant.

In late 2011, a 16-year-old girl from suburban St. Louis landed her first job as a waitress at a local IHOP restaurant. She needed to work there for at least a year to complete her high school co-op program. At first, it made her uncomfortable when her boss repeatedly complimented her appearance. Within a few months, his behavior made her terrified to go to work.

The Illinois teen’s fear of getting fired — and not graduating on time — led her to put up with escalating sexual harassment from the restaurant’s general manager, according to allegations described in federal court documents filed in September. At one point, the manager allegedly threatened to “get violent” if she didn’t have sex with him.

Ten of the waitress’s female co-workers described similar experiences with two male cooks at the restaurant in a sexual harassment lawsuit they filed together in September 2017 against the IHOP franchise owner. They all accused the general manager and other supervisors of ignoring their complaints — and even condoning the behavior in some cases.

Those complaints were just a few of the nearly 7,000 sexual harassment reports against employers that were reviewed in 2017 by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces federal civil rights laws. Sexual harassment at work is a form of illegal gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The women each filed a separate EEOC complaint, and the EEOC decided to file a class-action lawsuit on their behalf.

Sexual harassment is a particularly serious problem in restaurant and hotel jobs. From 2005 to 2015, hotel and restaurant workers filed at least 5,000 sexual harassment complaints with the EEOC — more than any other industry, according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress. This number represents only a fraction of all complaints filed by restaurant workers, as only about half of the 85,000 sexual harassment complaints filed with the EEOC in that time frame designated a specific industry.

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ENGLAND and WALES
The Guardian

February 8, 2018

By Alan Travis

Official analysis from latest Crime Survey of England and Wales lays bare extent of problem

One in five women in England and Wales have experienced some type of sexual assault since the age of 16, according to official analysis of violent crime figures.

The latest release of findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows more than 510,000 women – an estimated 3.1% of all women aged 16 to 59 – experienced some type of sexual assault in the past year.

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