ABUSE TRACKER

STATE COLLEGE (PA)
State College

February 7, 2018

By Geoff Rushton

A panel of Superior Court judges heard oral arguments on Wednesday as former Penn State President Graham Spanier seeks to have his conviction on a charge of endangering the welfare of children overturned.

Spanier was found guilty in March on the misdemeanor charge related to his handling of a 2001 report about Jerry Sandusky, but the jury found him not guilty on a felony child endangerment charge and a felony count of conspiracy.

The two-year statute of limitations had long run out when he was charged in 2012, he argues. Spanier’s attorney, Bruce Merenstein, said trial judge John Boccabella made a post-trial ruling granting an exception for an extension that applies to a child endangerment charge when a minor under the age of 18 was the victim of a sexual offense, until the victim is 50, according to the Associated Press.

That issue was never raised before Boccabella made the post-trial ruling and Spanier’s attorneys had no opportunity to address it, Merenstein argued.

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UNITED STATES
PodcastOne

February 11, 2018

By Andrew Brandt

ESPN Investigative reporter John Barr is this week’s guest on the Business Of Sports. He talks with Andrew about covering the Larry Nassar case.

Length: 0:43:28

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

February 13, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood granted seven clergy sex-abuse accusers up to early April to serve legal documents to three defendants in their lawsuits.

This includes the Capuchin Franciscans and the Congregation of Holy Cross, which are both in Italy, and former Saint Anthony Catholic School teacher Ray Caluag in the Philippines.

“The court finds good cause for and finds defendants will not be prejudiced by the requested extensions,” the judge wrote, granting a two-month extension that takes effect from the date of her Feb. 12 order.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Religion News Service via the Salt Lake Tribune

February 13, 2018

By Jana Riess

I’m angry, but I’m trying to understand.

White House aide Rob Porter resigned last week from his job as staff secretary because a story broke that his two ex-wives had accused him of abuse. Despite that, this administration had kept him in power.

Apparently, after the FBI’s investigation early in 2017, it did not grant Porter a full security clearance, and he’s been operating all this time on an interim clearance.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
LifeSiteNews

February 12, 2018

By Lisa Bourne

Those familiar with Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina before he became Pope Francis say it is a “classic” move of his to provide “mercy” to clergy who are sexual predators while asking everybody else to simply “move on,” said attorney and child advocate Elizabeth Yore on an EWTN show last week.

“I think this is a misplaced mercy. It is mercy for the predator priests,” she told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo on the February 8 episode of World Over.

“There are many people who know the Pope from Argentina who have said this is classic Bergoglio to provide mercy to the predators and ask everybody else to move on,” she added.

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AUSTRALIA
Vatican News

February 13, 2018

By Richard Marsden

Catholics in Australia will observe a four day period of fasting and reparation in sorrow for child sex abuse and for the healing of victims.

The Catholic Bishops of Australia are calling on the Catholic community to make the first four days of Lent a period of fasting and reparation in sorrow for the “tragedy” of child sex abuse within the Church.

In a letter published by the Australian Bishops Conference, Catholics are encouraged to pray at home and in their parishes – that is, both privately and publicly – for the healing of victims and survivors ahead of the Church giving its response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

The bishops conference has also published texts of special liturgies and prayers for the period of reparation (February 14-17) on its website – including a Holy Hour and Benediction, a Penitential Celebration, and Evening Prayer of the Church.

In the Lenten statement, the bishops write: “Through fasting, we stand in solidarity with the victims and survivors of abuse whose much deeper hunger is for healing and peace in their lives. Through reparation, we make amends for the sin of those in the Church who abused children or failed to listen and act when they should have.” The message adds that these spiritual exercises “express our desire for God’s reconciling and healing grace.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC3

February 12, 2018

By Tom Meyer

Joseph White has been suspended.

Dr. Joseph White, presiding Bishop of the Church of the Living God International (CLGI), has been suspended following allegations of sexual misconduct.

The church’s board of directors placed White on leave from any official duties or capacity with the church until the matter is resolved.

In a letter to CLGI members, the board said, “…these are serious allegations…we must allow the legal process to work…so that justice may be served.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CNN

February 13, 2018

By Eli Watkins

WH staff secretary Rob Porter reresigned last week

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Colbie Holderness, one of the women who have gone public with allegations of spousal abuse by a former top White House aide, wrote in a piece published Monday evening that abuse affects many different types of people.

“Being strong — with excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts — does not inoculate a person against abuse. It doesn’t prevent her from entering into a relationship with an abuser. Abuse often doesn’t manifest itself early on — only later, when you’re in deep and behind closed doors. The really ugly side of Rob’s abuse only came out after we married, following three years of dating,” Holderness wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Politico

February 13, 2018

By Louis Nelson

Colbie Holderness, an ex-wife of a former Trump administration official Rob Porter, took umbrage in a Washington Post op-ed at the seeming suggestion from counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway that victims of domestic violence lack strength.

Conway, in an appearance last weekend on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was asked about Porter, the former White House staff secretary who resigned last week amid allegations of abuse from Holderness and another ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby. The counselor to the president told CNN she had no reason not to believe the allegations from Willoughby and Holderness, but when asked if she feared for White House communications director Hope Hicks, reported to be dating Porter, Conway said, “I’ve rarely met somebody so strong with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts.”

“Her statement implies that those who have been in abusive relationships are not strong,” Holderness wrote in her op-ed, published online Monday night. “I beg to differ.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Newsweek

February 13, 2018

By Harriet Sinclair

The Trump White House has taken an unusual position on Hope Hicks’s romantic relationship with alleged domestic abuser Rob Porter, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell has claimed.

On Monday, O’Donnell slammed counselor Kellyanne Conway for her assertion that the White House Communications Director Hicks is a “strong woman.”

On his show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, the host singled out White House counselor Kellyanne Conway for claiming she is not worried about communications director Hicks’s relationship with Porter because Hicks is a “strong woman.”

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GREAT FALLS (MT)
Great Falls Tribune

February 12, 2018

By Seaborn Larson

A federal judge on Monday granted a motion allowing two claims of sexual abuse by an Absarokee priest in the 1970s and ’80s to proceed to conclusion through the state courts.

The order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jim Papas allows two claims to move forward in district court, which was not previously an option after the Great Falls-Billings Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year to move toward a settlement for the 86 people who have filed claims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Most claim the abuse took place in their youths at the hands of eastern Montana clergy from 1940s to the 1990s.

“The parties have negotiated, and are not making any progress in the Chapter 11 case,” Papas said during the hearing. “Time to do something else.”

Attorneys for the victims argued in January that while settlement negotiations are not moving forward, processing two claims at the state court level would provide more insight when working toward a settlement for the remaining 84 victims.

The district court case will likely decide whether or not the diocese was negligent in these instances of abuse, as alleged by attorneys for the victims.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

February 13, 2018

By Joanne Lipman

Military leaders believe the brothers in arms they know, not the female victims they don’t. It’s not surprising that Kelly would defend Porter.

For days, pundits have been puzzling over how John Kelly, the straight-arrow retired general brought in to restore order to the Trump White House as chief of staff, could have tolerated an accused wife-beater as staff secretary.

After all, Kelly was told about Rob Porter’s alleged abuse weeks ago by the FBI, which also informed him that Porter was unlikely to receive security clearance because of it, according to Politico. On Friday, a second White House staffer stepped down after he too was accused of abusing his wife.

The question is, why would Kelly have put up with it?

Here’s one answer that few have dared raise: the ingrained, extensive culture of sexual harassment in the military. Not just tolerating abuse, but allowing it to fester, particularly at the highest levels. The military culture that turned a blind eye to domestic abuse and sex scandals by top brass over a period of many years is the same one that bred John Kelly.

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ST. GEORGE (UT)
Deseret News Hive via The Spectrum

February 12, 2018

By Lois M. Collins

Domestic violence has stepped to the forefront of national discussion with the resignations last week of two well-placed White House staffers amid allegations they abused their former spouses.

Both Rob Porter, who was serving as staff secretary, and speechwriter David Sorenson have denied the accusations.

The national conversation on domestic violence overlaps increased awareness of sexual harassment and assault, courtesy of the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns. Those rose from myriad allegations of sexual wrongdoing against prominent men in media, entertainment, politics and elsewhere. The #MeToo social media campaign has focused on how women are treated and some experts believe the openness engendered there is spilling over to benefit victims of domestic violence, most of whom are women.

“I can’t believe that it wouldn’t to some degree,” although no one’s studied if #MeToo has impacted victims of domestic abuse, said David Derezotes, University of Utah social work professor and director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.

To Kathleen Lopez, the shattered silence sounds beautiful.

“Calling it ‘time’s up’ is perfect. It’s time to have these conversations and make things better,” said Lopez, owner and CEO of Sentinel Sales & Management in American Fork. Three decades ago, she packed only a diaper bag and took her 8-month-old son to a battered-women’s shelter to escape domestic abuse.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
FOX13

February 12, 2018

By Matt McDonald

The resignation of White House staffer Rob Porter is shining a light on domestic abuse and the role LDS bishops have in aiding victims.

“I hold no ill will towards that bishop. I think he was making a decision the best that he could,” said Jennie Willoughby, one of Porter’s ex-wives. She says she told her LDS bishop about the abuse and was counseled to consider the impact a protective order would have on Porter’s career.

Her story has sparked many to post their own experiences in online forums.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
9News

February 13, 2018

A Russian Orthodox priest accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy threw out a rubbish bag containing tablets after he was questioned by police, a Sydney jury has been told.

Stanislav Vakhabov, known as Father Christopher, has pleaded not guilty to detaining the boy for his own sexual gratification, giving him intoxicating substances to make it easier to have unlawful sexual activity and four counts of indecent assault in 2014

The Crown has alleged the now 35-year-old invited the overseas boy to stay with him at his single-bedroom flat on the Croydon church grounds, not informing church authorities.

Giving evidence in the District Court on Tuesday, Deacon Ivan Bots said Vakhabov phoned him about midnight around the middle of 2014 saying he had just got back from the police station after being interrogated.

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PIERRE (SD)
The Associated Press

February 12, 2018

By James Nord

South Dakota lawmakers may establish a new window for victims of childhood sexual abuse at Native American boarding schools to file lawsuits against organizations like schools and churches.

South Dakota lawmakers are considering establishing a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse at Native American boarding schools to file lawsuits against organizations like schools and churches, a move that supporters say would allow survivors to have their stories heard.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to debate a measure Tuesday that would create the new time frame for victims to file civil claims and repeal a provision in state law banning victims 40 and older from recovering damages from people or entities other than the actual abuser.

Louise Charbonneau Aamot is one of nine sisters who unsuccessfully sued over alleged sexual abuse committed before 1975 at St. Paul’s Indian Mission, a boarding school in Marty, South Dakota. The 67-year-old member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa said officials need to ensure it never happens again at any school or church.

“We know that God’s with us on this journey. We’ve been through so much, and there’s so much pain,” she said. “But we’re hoping, you know, they listen to us this time.”

The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly.

Attorney Michelle Dauphinais Echols, the bill’s author, said it’s for “healing and justice.” Victims haven’t had an opportunity to have their cases heard on the merits of their claims, she said.

“I think this would be a great first step to just try to help them along their journey to healing and closure,” Dauphinais Echols said.

The South Dakota Supreme Court in 2012 dismissed the sister’s and others’ claims against religious groups including the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls. The court found that the lawsuits were filed years after the applicable statute of limitations had expired and that the diocese wasn’t liable because it wasn’t responsible for the children.

The new legislation would clarify that any person or organization engaged in the Native American boarding school system may be held liable for childhood sexual abuse. The bill’s original language would eliminate the statute of limitations, but an amendment aims to create a three-year window for filing claims, Dauphinais Echols said. It also would revive claims barred because the applicable statute of limitations has expired.

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LEICESTER (UK)
Crux

February 13, 2018

By Charles Collins

A scandal involving a British anti-poverty charity in Haiti has impacted CAFOD, the Catholic international aid agency for England and Wales.

An investigative series by The Times, an English newspaper, revealed Oxfam staff used prostitutes in “Caligula”-like sex parties while providing aid in Haiti in 2011. The newspaper alleges some of those prostitutes may have been underaged.

Oxfam is a global international aid agency founded in Oxford in 1942. It now consists of 19 separate international committees, and is one of the largest aid federations in the world.

It was revealed that one of the persons accused of sexual misconduct later began working for CAFOD in the Philippines, after leaving Oxfam.

“CAFOD has a zero-tolerance approach to misconduct breaching our Code of Behavior, including fraud, abuse, intimidation and other acts,” said Chris Bain, the director of the Catholic agency.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

February 13, 2018

By Rochelle Kirkham and Siobhan Calafiore

Clergy abuse survivors are pushing for a more comprehensive redress model as the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat reveals it is confident in being in a financial position to meet all compensation claims.

The Ballarat Diocese has paid more than $4.9 million in compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse and more than $1 million in pastoral support to abuse survivors so far.

But Ballarat clergy abuse survivor Tony Wardley has said while the figure may seem big, broken down it was simply not enough when it came to redress for survivors.

He estimated using the money as compensation for the victims of disgraced paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale alone would equate to about $30-40,000 each.

“If you divide that up by the amount of survivors you’ll see how pathetic the actual compensation has been for (the Catholic Church’s) Towards Healing,” he said.

“We want just compensation, not more money because more money doesn’t fix anything. It’s ongoing care like medical, that’s where the redress scheme has let everyone down. We need specialist help from the medical side and just can’t afford it.”

Diocesan business manager Andrew Jirik has said the diocese would continue to meet compensation claims from its assets and insurance.

“The Diocese of Ballarat has drawn these funds from its own resources, including its insurer where its policies apply, without recourse to the assets of its 51 parishes which belong to local parish communities across the diocese,” Mr Jirik said.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
CNA/EWTN News

February 13, 2018

The bishops of Australia have called on the faithful of the country to begin the season of Lent with four days of fasting and reparation for victims of sexual abuse within the Church.

One suggested prayer for the penitential period asks God: “May all those who have been abused physically, emotionally and sexually by your ministers be respected and accompanied by tangible gestures of justice and reparation so that they may feel healed with the balm of your compassion.”

It adds: “We pray that your Church may be a secure home where all children and vulnerable adults are brought closer to your Beloved Son.”

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in a Feb. 5 message asked Catholics to dedicate Feb. 14-17 as days of fasting and reparation for cases of sexual abuse within the Church.

They said that they and other Church leaders have often expressed sorrow and apologies for “the harm suffered by victims and survivors, the instances of cover-up, the failure to believe survivors’ stories and to respond with compassion and justice, and the distress that many still experience.”

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

February 12, 2018

By Ruth Brown

Until his recent arrest, Catholic Church officials say they didn’t investigate any complaints about the Rev. W. Thomas Faucher because they had none.

If the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise had been aware of allegations of sexual misconduct against 72-year-old Faucher before his arrest, it would have followed existing policy, officials said.

Faucher, a longtime Catholic priest in Boise, was arrested last week on accusations of possessing and sharing child pornography, and possessing drugs such as marijuana and ecstasy. Prosecutors have no reason to believe any of the images were of local children, though they had not verified all of the victims’ identities last week.

The diocese’s 63-page policy is readily available and easily accessible. But it’s unclear how often the diocese investigates complaints of sexual misconduct, because investigations are not public record.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

February 13, 2018

By Kristen Jordan Shamus

A group of Michigan lawmakers came together Monday to call for a three-pronged approach to combating sexual assault and harassment, especially on college campuses, aiming to pass new laws that will bolster prevention and education, better protect assault survivors and offer more accountability.

The Michigan Progressive Women’s Caucus hopes to lift the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases involving those under the age of 16, create a new position of Title IX ombudsman within the state Department of Civil Rights, and increase funding for sexual assault prevention and education programs, among other measures.

The action comes in the midst of the #MeToo movement, and after the sentencing hearings of former Michigan State University sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar, who will serve the rest of his life in prison after assaulting hundreds of women and girls in the guise of medical care.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

February 12, 2018

By Jeremy Sharon

– Israel to extradite suspected haredi sex abuser to Australia
– Washing away the trauma of abuse

Malka Leifer is accused of having sexually abused several former pupils of hers while she served as the principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, Australia.

Suspected sex offender Malka Leifer was arrested on Monday morning by police after an undercover investigation indicated that she has been feigning mental illness to avoid extradition to Australia.

Leifer is accused of 74 charges of sexual abuse against former pupils, who were minors at the time, at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne Australia where she served as a teacher and principal from 2003 to 2008.

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She fled to Israel in 2008 to avoid criminal proceedings, but extradition proceedings only began in 2014.

Leifer has managed to avoid extradition, however, by claiming mental illness ever since – claims that until now have been upheld by a medical review panel dealing with her case.

The Australian authorities have been anxious for Leifer’s extradition to be expedited given the gravity of the charges against her, and officials from the Australian government have met with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked regarding the case on several occasions.

The police said in a statement on Monday that they had been requested to investigate the truth of Leifer’s mental status by Interpol and subsequently initiated their investigation.

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ISRAEL
The Australian

February 13, 2018

By Cameron Stewart

Accused sex offender and former school principal Malka Leifer has been re-arrested in Israel, a move welcomed by her victims who have fought a high-profile campaign to extradite her to Australia.

Police in Israel confirmed overnight that they had arrested Ms Leifer after a covert investigation into her claims that she was too mentally ill to face extradition to Australia. Israeli authorities said they would now renew extradition proceedings to bring her back to Melbourne where she is wanted for 74 counts of child sex abuse.

Dassi Erlich, one of Ms Leifer’s victims along with her two sisters Elly and Nicole, has welcomed the news.

“It is with a mixture of elation and relief coupled with anticipation towards the future, that we welcome the news of Malka Leifer’s arrest,” the sisters said in a statement. “We see this as a very important breakthrough in our long journey to achieve justice. It is shocking that charges of fraud and the feigning of mental illness have been used to evade justice for such a long time, but we are relieved that Malka Leifer’s arrest removes her from posing a potential threat to other vulnerable children.”

“It has been a very long ten years since Malka Leifer fled Australia. We are hopeful that this is a turning point in the extradition process.”

The covert police investigation into Ms Leifer came after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull raised the issue with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Mr Turnbull’s visit to Israel in October.

Both sides of Australian politics as well as influential members of Australia’s Jewish community have lobbied Israel over the Liefer case.

Ms Leifer, who allegedly sexually abused girls in her care while principal of the ultra-orthodox Jewish Adass Israel school, fled Australia in 2008 before charges could be laid.

Ms Leifer was initially arrested in August 2014 but extradition proceedings against her all but collapsed in May last year when Ms Leifer’s lawyers successfully argued that she was psychologically unwell and too ill to attend extradition hearings. She was allowed to walk free but was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment — a development that could have dragged on for years.

Concerns that Ms Leifer was faking her illness to avoid justice were raised when she was spotted at a festival in northern Israel last year.
Israeli police initiated a covert investigation into Ms Leifer to see whether her claims to be too ill to attend court were valid.

Child sex abuse activist and former abuse victim Manny Waks also welcomed the news. “I’m delighted to hear of Malka Leifer’s arrest and hope that it is the re-commencement of a process that leads to her extradition to Australia to face her accusers,” he said. “Her arrest is a credit to the many people who have worked tirelessly to ensure that she will be held to account and can no longer be a potential threat to children in Israel. I’m especially happy for her courageous alleged victims.”

Ms Leifer was helped by senior members of Melbourne’s ultra-orthodox Adass community in 2008 after they became aware of allegations of sexual abuse involving Ms Leifer, who was principal of the Adass Israel School. Victoria Police would eventually charge her with 74 counts of sexual assault and rape.

In 2015, former Victorian Supreme Court judge Jack Rush ordered the school to pay $1,024,428 in damages after Ms Erlich sued the school.

Ms Leifer’s alleged abuse of Ms Erlich began when Ms Erlich was 15 and allegedly continued for years. The leaders of the Adass community were widely criticised for helping Ms Leifer to fly to Israel on the night when allegations against her were first raised with them.
In his judgment Justice Rush stated: “The failure of the board to report the allegations to police prior to arranging Leifer’s urgent departure is deplorable.”

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery, Inc. – P.O. Box 279, Livingston, New Jersey 07039 – 862-368-2800

A childhood victim of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, Thomas McGarvey, received $500,000 through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program of the Diocese of Rockville Centre

Thomas McGarvey was sexually abused by Rev. Robert Brown (deceased) over the course of many years at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish, Franklin Square, Long Island, at other “Church” locations in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, and in secular locations on Long Island

What

A press conference announcing that childhood clergy sexual abuse victim, Thomas McGarvey of Queens, New York, has received a settlement of $500,000 from the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, through its Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program

When

Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 11:45 am

Where

On the public sidewalk across from St. Agnes Cathedral, 29 Quealy Place, Rockville Centre, New York 11570

Who

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President of Road to Recovery, Inc., the non-profit charity based in New Jersey that has worked with Thomas McGarvey for years to help him recover and heal from childhood clergy sexual abuse. Thomas McGarvey and his attorney, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, will be available by telephone

Why

Thomas McGarvey was a child when he was sexually abused many times over the course of many years by Fr. Robert Brown at St. Catherine of Sienna Parish in Franklin Square, Long Island and at other parishes and locations throughout Long Island. Thomas McGarvey courageously came forward to report that he had been sexually abused by Fr. Robert Brown and submitted his case to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Long Island. The IRCP found Thomas McGarvey’s allegations credible and settled with him for $500,000.

Contacts

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

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – mgarabedian@garabedianlaw.com
(portrayed in the 2016 Academy Award-winning Best Picture, “Spotlight”)

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

February 10, 2018

By Olivia Rudgard

Clergy believe some abuse complainants are “simply out for the money”, an expert has told General Synod.

Roger Singleton, a former chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, said that while attitudes among church members had improved, some priests still treated abuse allegations with “ambivalence, even hostility,” and were “unable or unwilling to accept the need for sensible, proportionate measures” to prevent abuse.

As part of an update by church leaders on the Church of England’s preparation for a series of abuse inquiries later this year, the former chief adviser to the government on the safety of children said some clergy “minimise the impacts which physical, sexual, emotional or spiritual abuse can have on people’s lives”. In some cases, he said, they “believe that complainants are simply out for the money”.

He added that the Church needed to “grasp the nettle of dealing with clergy, readers, priests with PTO [permission to officiate] and lay leaders who persistently fail to attend training opportunities or speak disparagingly about reasonable safeguarding measures”.

The bishop of Leeds also said that relations with the police needed to be improved, and said bishops were “frustrated by having to take the rap for things which are not our responsibility”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Morning Herald

February 12, 2018

By Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders, and Chris Vedelago

The Catholic Church in Australia is worth tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the country’s biggest non-government property owners, and massively wealthier than it has claimed in evidence to major inquiries into child sexual abuse.

A six-month investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald has found that the church misled the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by grossly undervaluing its property treasures in both NSW and Victoria while claiming that increased payments to abuse victims would require cuts to its social programs.

The investigation was based on intricate data from local councils that allowed more than 1860 valuations of church-owned property in Victoria. That showed that across 36 municipalities – including nearly all of metropolitan Melbourne – the church had land and buildings worth almost $7 billion in 2016.

Extrapolated nationally, using conservative assumptions, the church owns property worth more than $30 billion Australia-wide.

This put the Catholic church among the largest non-government property owners, by value, in NSW and Australia, rivalling Westfield’s network of shopping centres and other assets. It dwarfs all other large property owners.

“These figures confirm what we have known; there is huge inequity between the Catholic Church’s wealth and their responses to survivors,” said Helen Last, chief executive of the In Good Faith Foundation.

“The 600 survivors registered for our Foundation’s services continue to experience minimal compensation and lack of comprehensive care in relation to their Church abuses. They say their needs are the lowest of church priorities.’’

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PYEONGCHANG (SOUTH KOREA)
The Associated Press

February 12, 2018

By Claire Galofaro

A Catholic nun waits eight hours each day at a folding table, ready for a call but praying nothing has happened to cause the phone to ring.

Her office, the “Gender Equality Support Centre,” a tiny trailer tucked between a bathroom and a police post under the ski lift at the Phoenix Snow Park, is a nondescript acknowledgment of the revolution in women’s rights that, outside the Olympic gates, is thundering through the world.

Sungsook Kim — who goes by her religious name, Sister Droste — speaks little English. But to describe her mission, she says the name of the American movement: “me too.”

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang arrives amid the reckoning that has brought down celebrities, politicians and the entire board of U.S.A Gymnastics. NBC star Matt Lauer was fired for sexual misconduct, and his accuser said the harassment began at the last Winter Olympics, in Sochi.

During the Summer Games in Rio, two athletes were accused of assaulting housekeepers. A horrified world recently watched dozens of women and girls, some of them Olympians, describe in detail how Larry Nassar, the gymnastics doctor, had sexually abused them for decades as layers of elite athletic organizations failed to stop it.

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WOLLONGONG (AUSTRALIA)
Illawarra Mercury

February 12, 2018

By Ben Schneiders, Royce Millar, and Chris Vedelago

After a lifetime contributing to the Catholic Church, Neil Ormerod could give no more.

Following a Sunday mass in 2014, the Australian Catholic University theology professor told his parish priest he no longer trusted the church to use its resources in a way Jesus Christ would approve.

The trigger for his rebellion was the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2014 – in particular, Cardinal George Pell’s testimony about the church’s brutal legal assault on John Ellis, a former altar boy abused by a priest in the 1970s.

When Ellis finally confronted the Sydney archdiocese in 2002, then led by Pell, it offered him $25,000 in compensation, which he rejected.

The church then dismissed Ellis’s proposal for a $100,000 settlement, instead spending $800,000 fighting him in court, successfully arguing it could not be sued because it did not exist as an entity.

The church threatened to pursue Ellis for its legal costs.

“That money was the accumulated wealth of generations of good faithful Catholics who gave with the best will in the world,” says Ormerod. “It was used in an immoral attack on an abuse survivor and church member.”

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ENGLAND
Christian Today

February 10, 2018

By Harry Farley

The Church of England has upped its spending on safeguarding five-fold since 2014 as it attempts to address hundreds of abuse allegations against clergy and officials.

Despite this rapid increase in spending, Peter Hancock, the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the CofE’s lead on safeguarding, warned the Church faces a painful couple of years as it goes before the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (ICCSA)’s public hearings.

‘This will not be an easy couple of years – we will hear deeply painful accounts of abuse, of poor response, of “cover up”,’ he told the ruling general synod on Saturday. The Church, he added, will ‘feel a deep sense of shame’.

In a presentation on safeguarding to the synod, he said: ‘For too long, the Church has not responded well to those who allege abuse within our church communities. This is now changing and further change is needed.’

He added that while progress was made on safeguarding as a result of the spike in spending, the pace of that change must accelerate even more.

Figures revealed to synod revealed the Church dealt with 3,300 safeguarding cases in 2016 alone, around 594 of which were claims against clergy and officials. These include a mixture of new and historic accusations.

‘I want to pay tribute to victims and survivors of abuse, regardless of their age or the circumstance in which the abuse took place or how long ago it took place. I have been humbled by their courage,’ he said.

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NEW YORK (NY)
School Library Journal

January 3, 2018

By Drew Himmelstein

A writer was making small talk during the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) annual conference when she says the man she was chatting with, a successful children’s book illustrator, reached over and touched her hair.

“He fondled a lock of my hair and leaned in to my ear and said, ‘You’re kinky, aren’t you?’” says the writer, who asked not to be identified. (See updated story: “Ishta Mercurio Goes Public as David Díaz Accuser.”)

The exchange, which happened in 2012 at SCBWI’s winter conference in New York and was witnessed by one of the writer’s friends, left the woman feeling “horrified” and “disgusted.” The illustrator, David Díaz, was a member of SCBWI’s board and a faculty member at the conference. Still, the writer, who at that point in her career was an unpublished aspiring children’s book author, did not complain about the incident at the time. However, in December 2017, Díaz resigned from his position on the SCBWI’s board, after sexual harassment complaints emerged about his past.

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ENGLAND
Catholic Herald

February 10, 2018

By Dan Hitchens

Cardinal Cupich called for a ‘paradigm shift’ in pastoral practice and said that the Pope recognised the need to ‘listen’ to abuse survivors

Cardinal Blase Cupich has defended Pope Francis’s record and called for a “paradigm shift” in Catholic practice.

Addressing the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, under the title “Pope Francis’ Revolution of Mercy: Amoris Laetitia as a New Paradigm of Catholicity”, Cardinal Cupich called for “a major shift in our ministerial approach that is nothing short of revolutionary”.

The hoped-for “paradigm shift”, the cardinal said, would be from an approach focused on “the automatic application of universal principles” to one which is “continually immersed” in “concrete situations”.

Vigorous debate has followed the publication of Amoris Laetitia in April 2016, with different cardinals, bishops and theologians advancing varying interpretations.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

February 12, 2018

By Emily Bourke

There are calls for the Catholic Church’s tax-free status to be reviewed after a Fairfax investigation revealing the extent of property, assets and investments owned by the church in Australia.

Fairfax’s six-month investigation found the Catholic Church was worth more than $9 billion in Victoria alone.

The investigation extrapolated that figure to estimate the church’s national wealth at $30 billion.

The Age’s journalists obtained property valuations from dozens of Victorian councils.

They found 1,800 church-owned properties, including churches, presbyteries, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, offices, tennis courts and even mobile phone towers.

But beyond real estate, there was superannuation, telecommunications, Catholic Church Insurance and Catholic Development Funds, which serve as an internal treasury.

Catholics for Renewal’s Peter Johnstone, a corporate governance consultant, said most Catholics would have no idea about the extent of the church’s assets.

“Certainly there’s been no public record available to Catholics,” he said.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

February 11, 2018

Now that Sen. Orrin Hatch has announced his retirement, it appears that his handlers have taken the muzzle off.

Hatch made headlines this past week after he cavalierly dismissed reports of spousal abuse by his former chief of staff, Rob Porter.

Porter resigned as staff secretary to President Trump after information about his alleged physical and mental abuse of two ex-wives became public.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

February 12, 2018

By Rochelle Kirkham

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat has revealed it is confident it will be in a financial position to meet all compensation claims for survivors of abuse.

The Ballarat Diocese has paid over $4.9 million in compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse and over $1 million in pastoral support to abuse survivors so far.

Diocecan business manager Andrew Jirik said the diocese would continue to meet compensation claims from its assets and insurance.

“The Diocese of Ballarat has drawn these funds from its own resources, including its insurer where its policies apply, without recourse to the assets of its 51 parishes which belong to local parish communities across the diocese,” Mr Jirik said.

“The diocese has been able to meet all claims to date and is confident that it will be in a position to continue to do so.”

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AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio NZ

February 12, 2018

By Phil Pennington

Kathleen* holds the rosary that was her mother’s.

On the living room wall behind her is the wooden cross that was her father’s.

Her father was a Catholic priest.

He took Holy Orders. He had a high profile in the Auckland diocese, said Kathleen. He was meant to be celibate.

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CAIRO
Reuters

February 12, 2018

CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday urged department employees to intervene if they witness sexual harassment, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for those accused of harassment and not given due process.

“There is no form of disrespect for the individual that I can identify, anything more demeaning than for someone to suffer this kind of treatment,” he said.

“It’s not OK if you’re seeing it happening and just look away. You must do something. You must notify someone. You must step in and intervene,” Tillerson added, speaking in Cairo to about 150 U.S. embassy staff outside the ambassador’s residence.

Tillerson’s comments came amid a chorus of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men in media, business and politics in the United States that in recent days has reached top aides in the White House.

His remarks also stand in stark contrast to those expressed by Trump, who last week defended a top aide who resigned after domestic violence allegations against him came to light and over the weekend also took to Twitter to raise doubts about such allegations.

A second White House aide left late last week after domestic violence allegations against him also surfaced. Both men have denied the accusations. Reuters has not independently verified either case.

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CHILE
TeleSurTV

February 9, 2018

Juan Carlos Cruz said Pope Francis had “set the clock back years and years” with his recent comments casting doubt on the credibility of victims of abuse.

A Chilean victim of clerical sexual abuse who is the key witness in the case of a bishop accused of covering it up says a Vatican investigation must be rigorous and fair if the church is to salvage its reputation on the issue.

In a telephone interview with Reuters from his home in the United States on Thursday, Juan Carlos Cruz said Pope Francis had “set the clock back years and years” with his recent comments casting doubt on the credibility of victims of abuse.

On Jan. 30, the Vatican said the pope had appointed the church’s most experienced sexual abuse investigator to look into accusations that Bishop Juan Barros of the diocese of Osorno in Chile had covered up crimes against minors.

It was a dramatic U-turn for the pope, who eight days earlier told reporters aboard his plane returning from Latin America he was sure Barros was innocent and that the Vatican had received no concrete evidence against him.

Cruz said he had been “very touched and grateful” when the investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, telephoned him to arrange a meeting in New York next week on his way to Chile.

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AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio New Zealand

February 12, 2018

An Auckland woman is breaking a half century of secrecy around her father. It’s believed to be the first time in New Zealand that the child of a supposedly celibate Catholic priest has gone public. This comes after an international support website told RNZ a week ago, that half a dozen New Zealanders have contacted it saying they are the children of priests. The priest, who has since died, had a high profile in the Auckland Diocese. RNZ has seen the evidence he is the father – as has Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn.

An Auckland woman is asking the Catholic church to acknowledge her father was a priest.

The unnamed woman says her father was forced to keep the secret for decades as Catholic priests are meant to be celibate, RNZ reported.

The woman had received scientific evidence the priest was her father, and had taken that to Auckland Bishop Pat Dunn.

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AURORA (IL)
NBC Chicago

February 11, 2018

His attorney says he expects Pedraza-Arias to leave the country soon

A former Catholic priest in suburban Chicago who was charged with sexually abusing two girls is likely returning to his native Colombia soon after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s office says it agreed to the plea deal Friday after prosecutors analyzed evidence, communicated with the victims’ families and received assurances that Alfredo Pedraza-Arias will be “removed from the United States.”

A jail official says Pedraza-Arias was released Saturday “to the custody of another agency” but wouldn’t elaborate. His attorney says he expects Pedraza-Arias to leave the country soon.

Pedraza-Arias was charged in 2016 with aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two girls younger than 13 after he allegedly abused one of them at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora and the other at her Aurora home.

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NEW YORK (NY)
JGirls Magazine

February 2018

By Ayelet Kalfus

The night started with song. The words of Shehecheyanu, the Jewish blessing for gratitude at experiencing something new, washed over the crowd as Naomi Less sang: “Blessed are You who has enabled us to reach this moment.” We weren’t singing in gratitude for what had brought us here; rather, we were grateful to be, for the first time, confronting an issue that had been wrongfully denied and neglected for years within our community.

We, nearly 300 communal professionals, lay leaders, and members of the public, were at the “Revealing #MeToo as #WeToo in Jewish Communal Life” event at the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York (JWFNY). Using two events in the theater industry as a model, JWFNY organized the night to reveal the prevalence of gender-based harassment in Jewish organizations and strategize for the future.

The first half of the night was storytelling. When I was first invited to the event as a teen reporter, I imagined that these stories would be long, court-like testimonies. I was wrong. Performers from the Jewish community, varying in race and gender stood from their seats, slowly walking to carefully-placed microphones spread throughout the audience. JWFNY had collected the stories of anonymous Jewish-community professionals. The performers read parts of these stories—moments taken from long accounts of gender-based harassment.

For 40 minutes, the crowd was silent, except for sharp intakes of breath, sounds of surprise and disgust. The air was crackling with anger, sadness, pain. I had chills the entire time. The fact that the performers were standing within the audience amplified the night’s message: these stories were our own. This pain was the pain of our fellow community members.

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AUSTRALIA
AAP

February 12, 2018

The Catholic Church has vastly understated the value of its multi-billion-dollar property portfolio, amid claims it cannot afford to pay compensation to abuse victims, according to an investigation of its assets.

An investigation by Fairfax Media published on Monday found that the church owns more than $30 billion in property and other assets across Australia.

Fairfax estimated the church’s total wealth in Victoria alone to be about $9 billion, almost 82 times larger than the the $109 million it revealed to the royal commission in 2014 as the estimated value of its Victorian property portfolio.

The investigation makes the church Victoria’s largest non-government property owner, casting serious doubt over its claims that it would be forced to cut back on social work if forced to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The reported wealth of the church also contrasts with findings by the royal commission, which found the average payout by the church’s compensation scheme established by former archbishop George Pell 20 years ago was $35,000 or less for those who had been abused by clergy.

“These figures confirm what we have known; there is huge inequity between the Catholic Church’s wealth and their responses to survivors,” Helen Last, chief executive of the In Good Faith Foundation, which supports abuse survivors told Fairfax.

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ENGLAND
The Week

February 12, 2018

The Church of England is facing two years of revelations about sexual abuse and attempts to cover it up, its ruling general synod has been told.

Responding to reports the Church is dealing with more than 3,000 reports of sexual abuse within its parishes, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Rev Peter Hancock, said: “We will hear deeply painful accounts of abuse, of poor response, and over cover-up.”

Hancock, the lead bishop for safeguarding, told the synod that “this will not be an easy couple of years”.

The most recent figures for 2016 showed that dioceses are dealing with 3,300 “concerns or allegations”, the vast majority related to “children, young people and vulnerable adults within Church communities”.

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HOBBS (NM)
Associated Press

February 11, 2018

A man who alleges a former New Mexico priest sexually abused him is suing the Diocese of Las Cruces.

The lawsuit, filed last week against the diocese and St. Helena Parish in Hobbs, says the diocese facilitated sexual battery and assisted Father Ricardo Bauza in evading authorities, the Hobbs News-Sun reports.

It comes three months after Hobbs police issued a warrant for Bauza’s arrest following a complaint he sexually assaulted an adult male.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the fall, Bauza got into a shower with an adult male and washed the victim’s body with a loofah in the church rectory in April 2016.

The complaint says two male church members also told police Bauza showed them cellphone photos of his genitals.

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ROME
Crux

February 9, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

ROME – In many ways, it’s surprising that Pope Francis’s spontaneous, shoot from the hip style of public speech hasn’t gotten him into serious trouble long before now.

There have been mini-fracases along the way – for instance, what exactly did he mean that Catholics “don’t have to breed like rabbits,” as he put it in a memorable press conference in January 2015 on the way back from the Philippines? – but never enough to put much of a dent in the broad media love affair with Francis.

If anything, the pontiff’s maverick style and penchant for plain speech has been part of that romance, contrasting favorably with the bland corporate boilerplate one often gets from officialdom.

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IRELAND
The Irish Mirror

February 11, 2018

By Gavin O’Callaghan and Edel Hughes

The visit is expected to cost €20m

The Catholic Church in Ireland is trying to persuade wealthy followers to donate millions of euro to pay for the Pope’s visit here.

The World Meeting of Families, which will take place from August 21 to 26, is estimated to cost around €20million.

And the collection bowl is being passed to rich followers and businesses who will be asked to dig deep and contribute thousands of euro.

A spokesman for the organisers said the Church is following methods used by charities and a “limited number of tickets” were put aside for donations.

He added: “ WMOF2018 is in the process of approaching a number of individuals and corporates, both in Ireland and internationally, to assist in defraying the cost of hosting the event.

“In our conversations with potential donors, we are discussing the nature of the event and asking them if they would like to contribute.

“From our conversations with potential donors, we understand this practice of seeking donations from individuals and corporates is very common in the charity sector.

“The level of an individual’s or corporate donation is their own decision.”

The source told the Sunday Business Post the event will include a concluding mass in Dublin’s Croke Park with a “limited supply” being set aside for contributors.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NPR

February 11, 2018

By Colin Dwyer

Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood megaproducer accused of sexual harassment and assault dating back decades, has been slapped with a civil rights lawsuit by New York’s attorney general. Eric Schneiderman announced the suit Sunday, saying his office has sued not only Weinstein, but also his brother, Robert, and The Weinstein Company.

“As alleged in our complaint, The Weinstein Company repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

“Any sale of The Weinstein Company must ensure that victims will be compensated, employees will be protected going forward, and that neither perpetrators nor enablers will be unjustly enriched. Every New Yorker has a right to a workplace free of sexual harassment, intimidation, and fear.”

The lawsuit also threatens to disrupt a reported $500 million sale of the company the Weinstein brothers co-founded in 2005. As The Los Angeles Times reports, former Obama administration official Maria Contreras-Sweet had been in weeks-long negotiations to buy the troubled organization and set up a proposed fund for Weinstein’s alleged victims.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Wrap

February 11, 2018

By Rosemary Rossi

“Harvey Weinstein promoted more women to key executive positions than any other industry leader,” attorney Ben Brafman says

Harvey Weinstein’s attorney says that his client deserves credit for promoting “more women to key executive positions than any other industry leader.”

That statement from Ben Brafman was a response to a civil rights lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.

“If the purpose of the inquiry is to encourage reform throughout the film industry, Mr. Weinstein will embrace the investigation,” Brafman writes. “If the purpose, however, is to scapegoat Mr. Weinstein, he will vigorously defend himself.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
Slate

February 12, 2018

By Molly Olmstead

New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company accusing the studio of creating a “toxic environment” that allowed movie producer Harvey Weinstein to sexually abuse and harass women at his company.

The suit, filed Sunday in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, halted the company’s sale, which was expected to be finalized that day, according to the New York Times. If the sale doesn’t go through, the company, which has struggled since accusations against Weinstein began piling up in October, will be headed toward bankruptcy, according to the Times.

The lawsuit alleges that the Weinstein Company and the two Weinstein brothers who founded it violated state and city laws related to discrimination, harassment, abuse, and coercion, according to the Times.

The investor group that planned to buy the company said it would set aside $20 million to $30 million for a settlement fund for Weinstein’s victims, according to Variety. Weinstein’s brother, Bob Weinstein, would leave the studio, and the group had said it planned to put more women in leadership positions. But the new owners would make David Glasser, Harvey Weinstein’s right-hand man, the new CEO.

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TUCSON (AZ)
CBS/AP

February 11, 2018

Prison records show that disgraced former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been transferred to a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. The Federal Bureau of Prisons online inmate registry on Saturday showed that the 54-year-old was housed at the high security prison that also has an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.

Nassar faces two long prison sentences in Michigan for molestation. But first he must serve 60 years in federal prison for child pornography crimes.

The Nassar scandal upended the gymnastics world and raised alarms about the sport’s ask-no-questions culture. His serial sexual abuse of girls and young women has shaken Michigan State University and elite sports associations.

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TUCSON (AZ)
Reuters

February 10, 2018

By Suzannah Gonzales

Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been transferred to a high security federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, after being convicted of molesting scores of young women who went to him for treatment, authorities said on Saturday.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said the 54-year-old Nassar was at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson, which holds about 1,390 male inmates. The bureau’s website listed his release date as March 23, 2069.

After weeks of horrifying testimony from nearly 200 victims about his decades of abuse, Nassar was sentenced on Monday in Michigan to 40 to 125 years in prison.

He had already received a 40-to-175-year sentence in a neighboring Michigan county, and was sentenced to a 60-year federal term for child pornography convictions.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Financial Times

February 11, 2018

By Shannon Bond

Potential sale of troubled film studio thrown into doubt

New York’s attorney-general has sued Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company, throwing into doubt the potential sale of the troubled film studio following allegations of serial sexual misconduct by the once powerful producer.

“The Weinstein Company repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination,” said Eric Schneiderman, the state’s top prosecutor, on Sunday.

Following a four-month investigation into TWC, the complaint alleges “a years-long gender-based hostile work environment, a pattern of quid pro quo sexual harassment, and routine misuse of corporate resources for unlawful ends” dating back to 2005, the year Mr Weinstein founded the company with his brother Bob, who is also named in the suit.

The complaint alleges that Mr Weinstein engaged in a long-running pattern of harassment and abuse and that the company failed to investigate or stop it. It accuses the brothers and TWC of “repeated, persistent, and egregious violations of law”.

Since the first allegations against him emerged publicly in October, Mr Weinstein has been accused by more than 80 women of harassment or assault. He denies all allegations of non-consensual sex. He was fired from TWC in October and is under criminal investigation by police in New York, Los Angeles and London.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Washington Post

February 12, 2018

By Samantha Schmidt

New York’s attorney general on Sunday filed a civil rights lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his film company, accusing the disgraced Hollywood mogul of repeatedly sexually harassing, intimidating and demeaning female employees and perpetrating a hostile work environment.

Weinstein’s “vicious and exploitative” treatment of employees, coupled with the company’s failure to protect them, presented “egregious violations of New York’s civil rights, human rights, and business laws,” according to the lawsuit, which also names Weinstein’s brother and the studio’s co-founder, Bob.

The lawsuit, announced by state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, appeared to throw a wrench into a deal to sell the Weinstein Co. to Maria Contreras-Sweet, who led the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama. Negotiations for the $500 million deal halted Sunday, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, making it likely that the debt-ridden studio will be forced to file bankruptcy.

Sunday’s lawsuit, filed in New York County Supreme Court, relied on interviews with numerous Weinstein employees, executives and accusers, as well as a trove of company records and emails. The investigation into the Weinstein Co. detailed “a years-long gender-based hostile work environment, a pattern of quid pro quo sexual harassment, and routine misuse of corporate resources for unlawful ends” that extended from about 2005 through October 2017.

Weinstein’s “assistants were exposed to and required to facilitate” his “sex life as a condition of employment,” it alleged.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

February 12, 2018

By Stephen Rex Brown and Leonard Greene

Accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein hired “wing women” to facilitate his abusive conquests and bragged about having Secret Service contacts who could run interference, according to a lawsuit by the state’s attorney general.

Weinstein, his brother Robert, and their film company were all complicit in the “vicious and exploitative mistreatment of company employees,” said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who filed a civil rights lawsuit Sunday against the Weinstein Co. that derailed a $500 million deal to sell the agency, according to a report. Schneiderman had been concerned that the sale would go through without Weinstein’s victims having a chance to be properly compensated.

The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, included an array of new allegations regarding Weinstein’s depraved behavior.

The disgraced movie mogul has been accused by nearly 100 women of sexual harassment, bullying or rape.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Irish Times

February 11, 2018

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, his brother Bob Weinstein and their film production company alleging serious violations of civil rights, human rights and state business laws.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday with the New York County supreme court, alleges that the Weinsteins created “a years-long gender-based hostile work environment, a pattern of quid pro quo sexual harassment and routine misuse of corporate resources for unlawful ends that extended from in or about 2005 through at least in or about October 2017.”

The complaint comes after four months of investigation and as the company seemed to be nearing a $500m sale to a group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, who led the Small Business Administration for Barack Obama.

Harvey Weinstein faces sexual misconduct investigations in four separate jurisdictions in the wake of the avalanche of sexual misconduct accusations against him in the last few months, which he denies.

The 39-page suit alleges that unlawful conduct took two primary forms.

First, that as co-chief executive of the Weinstein Company, Harvey Weinstein “repeatedly and persistently sexually harassed female employees at TWC by personally creating a hostile work environment that pervaded the workplace and by demanding that women engage in sexual or demeaning conduct as a quid pro quo for continued employment or career advancement”.

Second, Harvey Weinstein repeatedly and persistently used his position, female employees and the resources at his disposal as a co-chief executive, to serve his interests in seeking sexual contact with women seeking employment at the company.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Al Jazeera

February 12, 2018

New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against scandal-hit Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, his brother and his former company, alleging that their film studio failed to protect its employees against its cofounder.

Weinstein, 65, was fired from The Weinstein Company last October, after more than 70 women accused him of sexual misconduct, including rape. He has denied all allegations of “non-consensual sex”.

The case was brought forward by Eric Schneiderman on Sunday, following an investigation into accusations against the prominent film producer of sexual harassment by dozens of women in the film industry.

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COLCHESTER (CT)
Burlington Free Press

January 18, 2018

By Adam Silverman

A Colchester-based religious order is among several Roman Catholic institutions that recently settled a priest sex abuse lawsuit in Connecticut for nearly $1 million.

The court case centered on misconduct claims involving defrocked priest Charles Many, a Vermont native and St. Michael’s College graduate who helped lead parishes in Essex Junction and in Groton, Connecticut, and was a member of the Society of St. Edmund.

The society and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich in Connecticut agreed to split the $900,000 settlement paid to Andrew Aspinwall, 50, of New London, said his lawyer, Kelly Reardon. The agreement, which Aspinwall and the defendants reached on the eve of a trial that was set to begin early this month, contained no admission of wrongdoing.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 12, 2018

By Eva Vergara and Nicole Winfield

The Vatican’s sex abuse investigator has agreed to meet with a delegation of lay Catholics and priests from the Chilean diocese of Osorno who have opposed the appointment of a bishop strongly backed by Pope Francis, according to an email seen Monday by The Associated Press.

The Vatican’s embassy in Santiago set the meeting for Feb. 21 in Santiago and asked the Osorno group to select no more than five people to meet with the investigator, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna.

In the email, the Vatican’s ambassador also asked delegation members to send a “detailed” document to him by Friday, five days before the meeting, outlining what they intend to tell Scicluna. The ambassador, or nuncio, said the document would help Scicluna in his fact-finding mission about Bishop Juan Barros.

But Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for the Osorno laity, expressed concern and said he would only provide general points to the embassy ahead of time. He accused the embassy of long refusing to acknowledge or respond to their complaints about Barros, who is accused by Osorno laity of being unfit and by victims of a prominent Chilean predator priest of having witnessed their abuse and done nothing.

“During these last three years, it has been the nuncio who has blocked all attempts at dialogue, not just with the clergy but with the laity,” Claret told AP.

He said he would, however, provide detailed information directly to Scicluna, who was tasked with taking testimony about Barros after Francis sparked outrage in Chile by strongly defending him and saying accusations against him were slander.

Barros was a protege of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually and psychologically abusing minors in his Santiago parish community. Victims testified to both Vatican and Chilean prosecutors about how Karadima would kiss and fondle them, and masturbate them behind closed doors.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic News Service

February 12, 2018

By Megan Cornwell

Jesuit Father Zollner said some priests are even unsure of the civil laws surrounding the reporting of abuse

The Head of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Centre for Child Protection has said the Church’s legal process for handling accusations of abuse must be more transparent and that it will take a long time for the culture of the Church to change.

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner was speaking to reporters on Friday at a ceremony awarding 18 people – religious and lay – diplomas for completing a specialisation course in safeguarding minors.

Even though the Catholic Church has all the necessary norms and laws in place to safeguard minors from abuse by clergy, the problem continues to be a lack of understanding or care about those rules and guidelines and applying them effectively, he said.

The legal process must be “more transparent for everyone”, including the victims, the accused and his or her superiors, Father Zollner said at the ceremony.

Victims receive no information during the process and the accused are left “in limbo” for what may be five years or more not knowing if they will be sentenced or even found guilty, he said. Not even the bishop or religious superior of the accused receives information about what’s happening, he added.

So while the Church’s definitions of what constitutes a crime and suggested sentences are clear, he said, what needs addressing is how to beef up the Church’s legal system so that it can “actually bring justice to everyone” and truly protect minors.

Reporters also asked Father Zollner about his thoughts concerning Pope Francis’ decision to believe Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile, and not victims who claimed the bishop may have been aware of and even present during their abuse by the bishop’s former mentor, Father Fernando Karadima. The priest was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance by the Vatican after he was found guilty of sexually abusing boys.

But when pressed about doubts over whether the Pope listened to a Chilean survivor who had written a letter to the Pope that was to be hand delivered by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the papal commission, Father Zollner said he would have no way of knowing whether the Pope read the letter.

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ENGLAND
The Times

February 12, 2018

By Kaya Burgess

The Church of England faces a painful two years of revelations about sexual abuse and cover-ups as independent inquiries get under way, a bishop has said.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells warned members of the church’s General Synod that they would feel a “deep sense of shame” as accounts emerge of sexual abusers within the church and a lack of support and credence given to their victims.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will start three weeks of hearings next month to examine the church’s failure to protect vulnerable people from sexual abusers, focusing on the diocese of Chichester, where there have been several allegations.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CNN

February 11, 2018

By Daniel Burke and MJ Lee

Colbie Holderness says she met Rob Porter at a Mormon student congregation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lifelong Mormons, they married in the church in 2003. When Porter turned abusive and their marriage went bad, Holderness said, they turned to the church for guidance.

Porter, who had been a rising star in President Donald Trump’s White House before abruptly resigning on Wednesday, has forcefully denied the abuse accusations from two ex-wives, calling them part of a “smear campaign.” He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Both of the women Porter has been married to — Holderness and Jennie Willoughby — shared with CNN this week the unique role the Mormon church played in their troubled relationships.

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BRENTWOOD (TN)
Brentwood Homepage

February 10, 2018

Posted by Mark Cook

STUDIO TENN

Studio Tenn’s production of Doubt: A Parable, opens Feb. 15 at the Jamison Theater in the Factory at Franklin.

The challenging play by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Patrick Shanley asks the question, “What do you do when you’re unsure?”

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best play, Doubt is set in the Bronx in 1964 where an unthinkable allegation is leveled against Father Flynn. The watchful, reserved, unsentimental Sister Aloysius, who accuses the beloved priest of misconduct with the school’s first and only African American student, realizes that the only way to get justice is to create it herself.

First performed off Broadway in 2004, Doubt: A Parable featured Tennessee native Cherry Jones in the Tony Award-winning performance as Sister Aloysius. Shanley directed a 2008 film adaptation that starred Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, all of which were nominated for Academy Awards for their performance.

Studio Tenn’s rendition of the powerful parable stars Marguerite Lowell as Sister Aloysius, Brent Maddox as Father Flynn, Emily Landham as Sister James and Aleta Myles as Mrs. Muller. Nathaniel McIntyre directs, with set and costume designs from Studio Tenn’s Artistic Director, Matt Logan.

“I have always been so stricken by this play, not for what it tells us, but for what it asks us to examine,” Logan said. “The answer of the play is tied up in the audience’s interpretation, and oftentimes, tied to their own personal experience. It’s a wonderful production to ask our audiences to play along and consider.”

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ENGLAND
The Christian Times

February 10, 2018

By Jardine Malado

The Church of England is dealing with more than 3,000 cases of sexual abuse in the forms of concerns and allegations, prompting concerns that it would have to pay millions in compensation even if only a fraction of the complaints were upheld.

Peter Hancock, bishop of Bath and Wells, has shared the latest figures showing that the total of concerns or allegations of sexual abuse had reached 3,300 by 2016.

The report, which was unveiled during a three-day meeting of the General Synod in London, has sorted out new complaints from longstanding ones, but nearly all cases involve children, young people or vulnerable adults.

The figures have shown that 18 percent of the cases involve church officers, most likely members of the clergy, while others facing sexual abuse allegations in the church setting include lay individuals and other churchgoers.

Hancock stated in documents prepared for the Synod that dioceses made 338 “risk assessments” in 2016 after complaints against individuals, with 19 of the assessed being members of the clergy. The Church has reportedly created 867 “safeguarding agreement” with individuals in order to ensure that someone who has been assessed as a risk is supervised and kept away from possible victims.

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BELFAST (Northern Ireland)
Belfast Telegraph

February 10, 2018

Reverend Peter Hancock, Bishop of Bath and Wells, lead bishop for safeguarding, told the Synod “this will not be an easy couple of years”.

There is a need for a culture change within the Church of England, with some clergy believing that abuse complainants are “simply out for the money”, the General Synod has heard.

Sir Roger Singleton, member of the national safeguarding team, said the church has done “some useful work” in recent years, but added that “an enormous amount” still needs to be done.

He told the Synod there is a “common theme” running through recent reviews and inquiries, and said: “That is a continuing need for culture change within the church.”

Sir Roger was speaking at a session about safeguarding, where there was a presentation on national developments and on the Church’s preparation for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

He said: “I am heartened by the positive affirmation which our archbishops, diocesan bishops and deans continue to give to the importance of creating and sustaining a safe church.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

February 11, 2018

His defence of an accused bishop appears to put him on the side of the hierarchy against the people in the pews

It is five years since Pope Benedict XVI stunned the Roman Catholic world by announcing he would resign. His time in office had been blighted by the emergence of terrible stories of sex abuse and institutional cover-up. Even though most of these dated from the time of his predecessors, Benedict’s efforts to make things right were clumsy and inadequate to the scale of the problem. His successor, Pope Francis, seemed as if he were going to change all that as part of the openness, energy and realism that has characterised his approach. But developments in recent weeks have cast Francis’s sincerity and seriousness into question and threaten to overshadow many of the other accomplishments of his papacy.

Earlier in his pontificate, Francis had to deal with the enforced departure of one of his closer collaborators, Cardinal George Pell, who left the Vatican to face charges of historic child abuse, which he vigorously denies, in his native Australia. Several members of the church’s commission for the protection of minors, which the pope had set up, resigned in protest at the obstructionism of some parts of the Vatican bureaucracy; but these are the parts that are thought hostile to Francis, too, so he was not widely blamed for what happened.

All that changed with the pope’s visit to Chile. The church there had been convulsed by the discovery that children had been abused by an influential priest for years. It is claimed that many other priests knew or even witnessed what was going on. Among them was Juan Barros, whom Francis made a bishop in 2015 and installed in a southern diocese in the teeth of furious protests from both clergy and congregation. Bishop Barros, who denies the claims, was prominent among the bishops who received Francis on his visit: the two men were photographed embracing; and when Francis was asked on the flight back what he thought of the allegations against the bishop, he replied that they were merely slander, and that he had not seen any proof to back them up.

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VATICAN CITY
La Croix International

February 9, 2018

By Robert Mickens

The biggest error Catholic leaders have made regarding the church’s response to priests abusing children has been the exclusion of women leading the policy-making process

The last couple of weeks have not been what anyone in his or her right mind would call the most brightly shining moment in the current pontificate.

First, the cardinal in charge of the Roman Curia’s office on the laity blocked Ireland’s former president, Mary MacAleese, from speaking at an International Woman’s Day event originally scheduled to take place inside the Vatican. In response, the organizers simply moved the venue to the nearby Jesuit headquarters.

Then, a retired Chinese-born cardinal from Hong Kong blasted the Cardinal Secretary of State — and, by implication, Pope Francis — for being “a man of little faith” and selling out “suffering” Catholics on the Communist-ruled Chinese mainland by adopting a “naïve” strategy of appeasement in dealing with state authorities.

Next, a maverick and irascible bishop who oversees two Vatican think-tanks (the pontifical academies for science and the social sciences) overstepped his institutional boundaries and waded into the controversy over the pope’s China policy. He spouted the unbelievable and embarrassing claim that the Communist nation is the world leader in implementing Catholic social teaching.

The bishop, an Argentine who would have the world believe he’s best friends with Francis (he is not), based his assessment on his first and only visit to China six months ago. If it’s ever proven that Chinese government officials spiked his egg rolls with brainwashing chemicals, perhaps all will be forgive.

However, great damage has already been done.

But that’s not the worst of what has been a very bad period for Pope Francis. The most serious blow to him and his pontificate came from an Associated Press (AP) report that produced some hard and rather convincing evidence that the pope has not been completely forthcoming about what he really knows (and when he first found out) about allegations that Bishop Juan Barros of Chile tried to cover-up abuse of a convicted sex abusing priest.

The AP article included an eight-page letter that one of the Chilean priest’s victims sent to Francis in April 2015, which meticulously outlined Bishop Barros’ alleged actions in unflattering detail. The letter was hand-delivered by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, a member of the pope’s Council of Cardinals (C9) and chairman of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM). If true, this contradicts Francis’ claim that he had never received evidence of such a cover-up from any of the victims.

This is not good news. And dispatching the Vatican’s former chief prosecutor of clergy sex abuse crimes to Chile to collect more evidence on the Barros case — as laudable and important that this 11th hour operation is — does not address, in any way, the real problems the AP report reveals.

Only one of three of things can be true — either Francis never bothered to read the letter, or he read and dismissed it as unconvincing, or he just forgot that he ever read it.

There is a fourth, even if less plausible, possibility. Perhaps O’Malley, in reality, never gave the pope the letter, even though one of the then-members of the PCPM (who gave it to O’Malley — there is a photo to prove it) and the victim (who wrote it) said the cardinal told them he had delivered it.

None of these possible scenarios is encouraging. Because it means someone is not being completely transparent. Up to now, only one side has spoken publicly about the AP report — the former PCPM member (Marie Collins) and the Chilean abuse victim (Juan Carlos Cruz).

Pope Francis and Cardinal O’Malley have so far kept their silence. In order to shed light on what really happened and reveal who is giving an accurate account of this story they need to speak up.

If O’Malley were to all of a sudden declare that, no, he never gave Cruz’s letter to the pope — whether because he forgot to do so and then lied about it, or because he is trying to protect Francis from the current embarrassment and brewing crisis this is turning into — he would have to step down as PCPM chairman. His credibility among the commission’s members (still to be named in the coming weeks) would be greatly compromised.

And what about the pope?

If Francis received the letter and never read it, or simply forgot about reading it, this becomes yet another piece of evidence that dealing with the sex abuse crisis — particularly by holding negligent bishops accountable — is still not a major priority for the pope, despite whatever his apologists say to the contrary.

However, it would be even more damaging for the pope if he were to admit that, yes, he read the letter, but did not believe that Cruz’s accusations against Bishop Barros were credible. This would mean he was not entirely telling the truth during his visit last month to Chile and Peru when he told reporters he’s never received “proof” — than he corrected that to “evidence” — to support the accusations against the bishop.

This is quickly becoming one, big unholy mess. And it would be devastating to many Catholics and other people of good will if it were to severely cripple a pontificate that has launched a deeply-rooted and long-term project to reform and restore credibility to the Catholic Church and its witness to the Gospel.
So what can be done at this point?

First of all, the pope and his communications department (which is in disastrous disarray and is not serving him well) have to address the contents of the AP report and the fallout that has ensued. One would hope that Cardinal O’Malley could be of assistance in this first, necessary step.

Secondly, assuming that the essentials in the report are correct (the letter exists and it was delivered to the pope), it is difficult to see how Francis can respond without confessing that he was negligent (by failing to read the letter for whatever reason) or was not completely transparent (i.e. by concealing from journalists that he read it but did not believe its contents).

As I’ve written many times before, this pope has not been afraid to be vulnerable and show what some might consider weakness in order to engage others for what he perceives to be the greater good of the church and humanity. His meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch of All Russia, his efforts to constructively engage Donald Trump and other world leaders, and his policy on China are just a few examples.

The pope needs to quickly make the sexual abuse crisis in the church — which, by the way, is nowhere near to being resolved — a bigger priority. Quite frankly, he has not done so up to now.

He can start by coming clean with the members of his church and speaking truthfully to them about his own thinking — his doubts, concerns, apprehension, omissions and even missteps — on the way church authorities (he included) have addressed the abuse crisis to this point.

He still enjoys rock solid credibility and trust among millions and millions of people who would see his candid confession and testimony as a truly human and positive step forward, rather than cry of surrender. But that trust and credibility will erode if he does not say something soon. And the upcoming penitential season of Lent offers the perfect opportunity for such a truly Christian and even dramatic gesture.

One final thought:

Pope Francis also needs to totally revamp the mandate and mission of Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and set up other mechanisms to deal with the sex abuse crisis. Most of the new PCPM members and his other advisors on this issue should be women. And he should demand that dioceses and national episcopal conferences give women, and especially mothers, the lead role on this issue, too.

This would be an important way for him to make a prophetic and necessary corrective to the, up-to-now, inadequate response the Catholic Church has offered.

Many men in the hierarchy hide and justify their misogyny, fear of women or desire to keep the church’s decision-making structures in the hands of clerics — all men, of course — by repeating Saint John Paul II’s paternalistic paean to something he called “the feminine genius.”

This phrase, which the late pope first wrote about in 1995 — and which Benedict XVI, Francis and countless churchmen have gone on repeating — embodies a catalogue of traits that are somehow especially peculiar to women by virtue of God’s design of nature.

People can debate whether all these characteristics are really exclusive to women. But one thing for certain is that only women can be mothers. And because of the intricate connection between mother and child through pregnancy, birthing and infancy, it can be argued that women — mothers — have unique protective and nurturing instincts that are developed differently from the same instincts in fathers.
The biggest error Catholic leaders in every part of the world have made regarding the church’s response to the phenomenon of priests abusing children and youngsters has been the exclusion of women from actually leading the policy-making process. Where women have been included, they have been mere consultants or experts, often just flowerpots to salve uneasy male consciences and to satisfy the demands of public opinion.

Pope Francis can put this right and show that the church really does believe women have a special “feminine genius” — at least in the area of the relationship between mother and child — by putting women in charge of the church’s response to sex abuse. So far, the “clerical genius” has not produced good fruits.

A leading Catholic layman who has done a tremendous job in helping his country’s bishops deal with the sex abuse crisis loves to repeat this line: “Until the pope has a lay man being the last one to give advice on these matters the clerical instincts will always be a problem!”

That is exactly right. But the layman should be a woman.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Tercera

>>>The Osorno of Bishop Juan Barros

February 11, 2018

By Pablo Barría

Luego de la visita del Papa Francisco a Chile y la posterior designación del obispo de Malta para indagar el presunto encubrimiento por parte del religioso, La Tercera recorrió la ciudad y constató la visión de religiosos y feligreses ante un caso que divide a la comunidad.

Las últimas semanas han sido intensas para el obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros. La visita del Papa Francisco a Chile, en enero pasado, hizo que su nombre volviera a la palestra pública, de la cual se mantuvo alejado luego de las manifestaciones en su contra tras ser designado como autoridad eclesiástica en la zona.

“No hay una sola prueba contra el obispo Barros, todo es calumnia”, dijo el Papa Francisco cuando estuvo de paso por Iquique. Sus declaraciones levantaron fuertes críticas e, incluso, lo obligaron a pedir disculpas y anunciar la visita del arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, para recoger los testimonios de quienes acusan a Barros de encubrir los abusos cometidos por el ex párroco Fernando Karadima.

[Google Translation:

The Osorno of Bishop Juan Barros

After the visit of Pope Francis to Chile and the subsequent appointment of the Bishop of Malta to investigate the alleged cover up by the religious, La Tercera toured the city and verified the vision of religious and parishioners before a case that divides the community.
The last weeks have been intense for the Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros. The visit of Pope Francis to Chile, last January, brought his name back to the public arena, from which he stayed away after the demonstrations against him after being appointed as ecclesiastical authority in the area.

“There is not a single test against Bishop Barros, everything is slander,” said Pope Francis when he was passing through Iquique. His statements raised strong criticism and even forced him to apologize and announce the visit of the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, to collect the testimonies of those who accuse Barros of covering up the abuses committed by the former parish priest Fernando Karadima.

After the announcement, the decision of the Vatican is taken with moderation in the Catholic Church of the Los Lagos Region. They are close to 7:00 pm on Thursday and a small group of faithful arrive at the Osorno Cathedral, where the parish priest Bernardo Werth will hold a ceremony.

Before beginning, the religious pauses and clarifies his vision about the appointment of Bishop Scicluna: “If the Pope took that step it is to make it clear in the eyes of people all over the world, how is the real situation, for So under my gaze is positive, “he said, then go up to the altar and start the mass.

Outside the Cathedral some young people skate, without paying attention to what happens around them. In the case of Bishop Barros, says Carlos Sandoval, “I have no idea. I know nothing”.

A few meters from them, María Elena Yáñez, a native of the O’Higgins Region, leaves the religious site with a poster of Pope Francisco in her hands. A member of the “Mujeres Iglesia” group, formed by 15 lay women, Yáñez is critical of what is happening with the Bishop of Osorno. Even, he said, his group tried to deliver a letter to the pontiff where they alerted what was happening in the church of Los Lagos.

“In that letter we mentioned to His Holiness our concern for what is happening here in Osorno, but the letter did not reach his hands because it was not easy to reach him,” he said.

Different opinion expressed Nina, an elderly woman who frequently attends the masses of the Cathedral of Osorno. And it was in that same instance where Bishop Juan Barros claimed innocence.

“He told us at Mass a few days ago, when he returned from Santiago, that he was innocent, he said it at Mass and why he is going to be lying to us. Well, if you lie to us, I also forgive you, because I’m not the one to not forgive, “said the woman.

Inside a small kiosk of newspapers, magazines and various products is a lonely man, who prefers not to give his name. According to him, the “tension” that existed in the city when the designation of Barros was known has been appeased with the passage of time. “There were many protests here, all were peaceful, but now nothing is seen, everything is quiet, it seems that everything was fixed,” he said.

Groupings

The group of Laity and Laity of Osorno is the entity that has tried to keep the case of Bishop Juan Barros in force. They have a critical vision on the management of the religious in charge of the bishopric of Osorno and assure that their presence has impacted the level of parishioners who attend the masses.

“For December 8, for example, which is the closing mass of the Month of Mary, before 10,000 people gathered. And now, with luck, 1,000 people gathered last December. Who answers for those who did not attend these Masses? Now you do not see so much fervor, so much enthusiasm, “said Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for the group.

Claret said that there have even been episodes in which young parishioners have shown their rejection of Juan Barros. “Last Saturday there were confirmations at the Reina de los Mártires church. Bishop Barros went to the trials of these confirmations where he informed the young people that he would preside over the ceremony. Three of these young men told him they did not want him to confirm them and they subtracted from the ceremony. In the end, Barros did not arrive at the ceremony, “he explained.

Jose Manuel Rozas, professor of philosophy and personal secretary of the priest Peter Kliegel, who has made public his rejection of Barros through letters, says that those who have made noise in the city correspond to “an isolated group of lay people who meet on Fridays, the rest of the pastoral agents of the diocese are doing their work in their respective parishes. ”

Rozas says that he, as a faithful person, will respect the decisions that are adopted once the visit of the archbishop of Malta is over. “If at the end of this process, the Church says that Bishop Barros has to leave the diocese, blessed be God, but if he says he must continue, blessed be God also,” he concluded.

They are close to 8:00 pm and the mass of the Cathedral of Osorno came to an end. Slowly the parishioners begin to leave the place to their homes. An image that depicts how Osorno de Juan Barros is, who lately has diminished his public appearances and waits in silence for the decision that his Maltese pair Charles Scicluna and the Vatican will take regarding his case. For now the city of Bishop Barros awaits quietly.]

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

SANTIAGO (CHILE)

>>>Episcopal Conference defends Bishop Barros silence after accusations against him

February 10, 2018

By Nicole Briones and Eric Paredes

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: Includes audio clips of statements.]

Desde la nunciatura apostólica se confirmó que la visita del arzobispo de malta Charles Scicluna a Chile, será entre el 20 y 23 de febrero.

Jaime Coiro, portavoz de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, afirmó el arribo del enviado del papa Francisco, el cual tendrá como propósito tomar el testimonio de las personas que han acusado al obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, de encubrir los delitos sexuales de Fernando Karadima.

A partir de esta investigación, Barros se ha referido poco y nada sobre esta situación. Posición que Coiro defiende, explicando que el obispo tiene todo el derecho de no dar declaraciones.

Scicluna se reunirá con Barros en Santiago, y además con James Hamilton y Juan Andrés Murillo, quienes -junto a Juan Carlos Cruz- denuncian al obispo de Osorno haber ocultado los abusos cometidos por Karadima en la parroquia de El Bosque.

[Google Translation:

Episcopal Conference defends Bishop Barros silence after accusations against him

From the apostolic nunciature it was confirmed that the visit of the archbishop of Malta Charles Scicluna to Chile, will be between February 20 and 23 .

Jaime Coiro, spokesman for the Episcopal Conference of Chile, affirmed the arrival of the Pope’s envoy, whose purpose will be to take the testimony of the people who have accused the bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, of covering up the sexual crimes of Fernando Karadima. .

From this investigation, Barros has referred little and nothing about this situation. Position that Coiro defends, explaining that the bishop has every right not to give statements .

Scicluna will meet with Barros in Santiago, and also with James Hamilton and Juan Andrés Murillo, who – together with Juan Carlos Cruz – denounce the bishop of Osorno to have hidden the abuses committed by Karadima in the parish of El Bosque.]

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BONN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle

>>>Peter Kliegel: “The situation of the church is heartbreaking”

February 10, 2018

By Victoria Dannemann

Un sacerdote alemán ha levantado la voz en la Iglesia católica chilena exigiendo la salida del obispo Juan Barros, acusado de encubrir abusos sexuales. Peter Kliegel busca reunificar a una institución dividida.

El sacerdote Peter Kliegel no oculta su molestia y dolor por la crisis que vive la iglesia en Chile. El religioso alemán, nacido en Dillenburg, lleva casi 50 años trabajando en la diócesis de Osorno, en el sur de Chile, la misma en que el 2015 asumió el cuestionado obispo Juan Barros.

Anteriormente obispo castrense, Barros se formó al alero de Fernado Karadima, un sacerdote que durante décadas gozó de gran poder en un parroquia de un barrio acomodado de Santiago. Allí se rodeó de jóvenes y formó a futuros sacerdotes y obispos. El escándalo estalló cuando antiguos seguidores denunciaron abusos de poder y sexuales de parte de Karadima. Asimismo, aseguran que varios sacerdotes y obispos fueron testigos o incurrieron en conductas impropias.

Uno de ellos sería Barros, acusado de encubrir a su antiguo mentor. A pesar de la fuerte oposición que se ha levantado en Osorno, Barros no sólo se ha negado a dejar su cargo, sino que figuró junto al papa Francisco en su visita a Chile.

Con franqueza y valentía, Kliegel ha manifestado su opinión al nuncio y a la Iglesia. En entrevista con DW, el sacerdote galardonado en Alemania con la Cruz al Mérito en 2017 habla del duro momento que vive la iglesia en Chile y de la necesidad de buscar la verdad.

Deutsche Welle: Usted fue una de las primeras personas que manifestó la inconveniencia de que Juan Barros asumiera como obispo de Osorno. ¿Por qué asumió este rol activo?

Peter Kiegel: Yo vine a Chile hace 52 años y soy parte de esta iglesia, interesado en que tenga un mensaje muy claro en cuanto al encargo que nos hizo nuestro Señor. La situación se originó cuando supimos que el obispo Barros iba a tomar la diócesis de Osorno y que venía desde el ambiente de Fernando Karadima, lo que para nosotros era inaceptable. Por eso empecé a levantar mi voz.

[Google Translation:

Peter Kliegel: “The situation of the church is heartbreaking”

A German priest has raised his voice in the Chilean Catholic Church demanding the departure of Bishop Juan Barros, accused of covering up sexual abuse. Peter Kliegel seeks to reunite a divided institution.

The priest Peter Kliegel does not hide his annoyance and pain because of the crisis that the church in Chile is going through. The German priest, born in Dillenburg, has been working for almost 50 years in the diocese of Osorno, in the south of Chile, the same one in which the questioned bishop Juan Barros assumed office in 2015.

Formerly military bishop, Barros was formed at the eaves of Fernado Karadima, a priest who for decades enjoyed great power in a parish in a well-off neighborhood of Santiago. There he surrounded himself with young people and trained future priests and bishops. The scandal erupted when former followers denounced sexual and power abuses by Karadima. Also, they assure that several priests and bishops were witnesses or incurred improper conduct.

One of them would be Barros, accused of covering up his former mentor. Despite the strong opposition that has arisen in Osorno, Barros not only refused to leave his post, but also appeared with Pope Francisco on his visit to Chile.

Frankly and courageously, Kliegel has expressed his opinion to the nuncio and to the Church. In an interview with DW, the priest awarded in Germany with the Cross of Merit in 2017 speaks of the hard time the church is living in Chile and the need to seek the truth.

Deutsche Welle: You were one of the first people to express the inconvenience that Juan Barros assumed as bishop of Osorno. Why did you assume this active role?

Peter Kiegel: I came to Chile 52 years ago and I am part of this church, interested in having a very clear message regarding the order that our Lord made us. The situation originated when we learned that Bishop Barros was going to take the diocese of Osorno and that he came from the environment of Fernando Karadima, which for us was unacceptable. That’s why I started raising my voice.

What response has he had?

A few days after it was learned that Juan Barros would be our bishop, I manifested myself before the nunciature, first asking, but since we never received an answer, our voice became a little more insistent.

Has the nuncio never answered the requirements that you have asked him?

Never, which is very discourteous.

Why do you think that you or other priests and lay people have not been taken into account?

I think it has to do with administrative power in the Church, which is not fair, because as baptized and part of the church we have the right to be heard, which is what we demand.

What has the presence of Barros in Osorno meant?

The situation has been heartbreaking. The union of the diocese was destroyed. We do not know more than what the victims say, but we suffer the collateral damage of this Karadima environment. The damage he did to the Chilean church is so great that it is not acceptable for someone not to react. And since Rome did not react and our bishop does not understand us, we keep raising our voices to listen to us. We have never been heard, only once in the Episcopal Conference when they told us they could not do anything. And now, for the first time, after so many cries, Rome reacts by sending us to the archbishop of Malta, Bishop (Charles) Scicluna.

What do you expect from the management that he can do in Chile?

We have a lot of hope. We are going to make contact so that they give us the opportunity to make known what we live. It is not about being an opponent, but about seeking peace, which can only be built from the truth. We need an intervener to listen to the bishop and to us, to clarify situations that we can not understand or accept.

Why do you think that Bishop Barros, despite facing so much opposition, has not left office?

This is what we do not understand. He says he has been named, which is a valid argument, but we can not be satisfied because our parishioners do not accept it either. In many parishes they do not accept that the bishop administers the sacrament of confirmation. When he makes a mass, many people get up and leave. It can not be that a shepherd who must take care of his sheep lives in that situation and puts us in this mess.

Messages of Pope Francis’ visit to Chile

Franciso’s pastoral message in Chile, where he advocated for the dignity of women held in prison, for understanding with the Mapuche people or immigrants, for solidarity and also expressed their pain and forgiveness for the abuses committed by members of the Church, went into the background before the scandal of Bishop Barros. Even more when he appeared with the pope at Masses. “He was present as taking refuge behind the pope, which was quite unworthy for us and it hurt us greatly, but the bishop has not been able to confront the victims of Karadima.” When we invited one of them, the bishop was ripped off. In my last letter I wanted to demonstrate with examples of the same words of the Pope in Chile, that we live in an unacceptable situation, “says Liegel.

Do you think that Francisco’s visit deepened the crisis that the church is experiencing in Chile?

Personally I do not think so. You have to read the messages that the Pope gave in Chile, which are very good. I think he made a mistake in his spontaneity, but the messages were very clear. First of all he spoke to us about dignity and that is why we get up, because we demand human and spiritual dignity.

The Pope said in Chile that there was no evidence against Barros, although he later apologized for the pain caused to the victims. Is it possible that Barros knew nothing about abuses?

Only witnesses know that. But the atmosphere of Karadima is so incredibly damaging, that for prudence Bishop Barros should not continue. That is a spiritual, pastoral and human error

Did you expect Pope Francis to take a stand on this in his visit to Chile?

Hope was there, but I thought it would not be possible, for many reasons. There are other dioceses that also have bishops who were born in the environment of Karadima and who have not spoken, but they know that everyone is sitting in the same boat.

Have you had contact with Bishop Barros?

A lot, and he knows that I am very frank with him. I have never acted behind his back. I meet him and I always tell him what we think in the community. I’m telling you face to face.

How would you catalog Barros’ management as a bishop?

We hardly have a pastoral plan and that is what saddens us. We are like swimming in warm waters, which is not good for our work. Besides, he can not show himself in public, he’s afraid, he hides. It is unpleasant when in a ceremony there are people who stand up with signs that say “resign.” He is our head and this hurts us a lot, the best thing would be for him to step aside.

Despite being German, you live this situation as your own …

Of course, Chile is now my homeland, it is my church. This is my faith and also he is administratively my bishop, that is why I fight for a good cause.

Are you free to express your opinion?

Of course, that we will always have and demand, because we are not a dictatorship. We live in the church, although with obedience, but we have a voice and a vote.

What reception has your intervention in this case?

A good number of bishops wrote me very happy with my words. With pain, but satisfied. I have also received responses from laity and priests from Chile and the world. Of course not everyone was satisfied with my words, but I think they were sober and clear. This is why the echo is important, not to expose me but to demand truth and above all truthfulness. We have to be heard. That is the first step to seek the peace we need. The Catholic Church in Chile is unfortunately very discredited because of all this, which is very sad, if one thinks that at the time of the dictatorship the Church was the most valued institution and today is the least appreciated.]

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Las Cruces Sun-News

February 6, 2017

By Carlos Andres López

A former Hobbs resident allegedly sexually abused by a former Las Cruces priest is suing the priest and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces over allegations that church officials facilitated the priest’s abuses and helped him flee the state.

The man’s allegations were detailed in a lawsuit filed Monday in 3rd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces.

In addition to the Las Cruces diocese, Father Ricardo Bauza, the former pastor of St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Las Cruces, was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, as well as St. Helena Catholic Church, where Bauza mostly recently served as a pastor.

The allegations in the lawsuit are related to an alleged criminal incident involving Bauza that allegedly occurred in April 2016 in Hobbs.

The lawsuit accuses of Bauza of sexual battery, alleging he sexually abused the plaintiff — listed as John Doe 81 — in the rectory of the Hobbs parish.

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EL PASO (TX)
KFOX14

February 7, 2018

By Samantha Lewis & Jamel Valencia

Las Cruces NM – A priest who served at a parish in Las Cruces for nine years and the Las Cruces Diocese are facing a lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses the Rev. Ricardo Bauza of sexual battery, alleging he sexually abused a victim in the rectory at St. Helena Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 2016, according to court records.

Before becoming a priest in Hobbs, Bauza was a priest at St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Las Cruces from 2005 to 2014.

The lawsuit was filed in Las Cruces on Monday, according to court records.

It alleges Bauza abused his power as a priest to sexually harass and sexually abuse the alleged victim and that the Las Cruces Catholic Dioceses and St. Helena facilitated the priest’s abuses and helped him flee New Mexico

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Sunday Times

February 11, 2018

By James Gillespie, Caroline Wheeler, Iram Ramzan and Richard Kerbaj

Minister threatens to withdraw aid funding

More than 120 workers for Britain’s leading charities were accused of sexual abuse in the past year alone, fuelling fears that paedophiles are targeting overseas aid organisations.

As new figures emerged revealing the extent of the crisis, Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, warned “predatory paedophiles” had been allowed to exploit the aid sector.

Last night her successor, Penny Mordaunt, threatened to withdraw funding from Oxfam and “any other organisation that has safeguarding issues”. She condemned the “horrific behaviour” of some Oxfam staff and said it was “utterly despicable” that allegations of abuse persisted in the aid sector.

Mordaunt expected charities to “co-operate fully with . . . authorities, and we will cease to fund any organisation that does not”.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, Mordaunt said Oxfam had demonstrated an “absolute absence in leadership”.

“I think it’s shocking and it doesn’t matter how good the safeguarding practices are in an organisation, if that organisation does not have moral leadership to do the right thing, and where in particular they have evidence of criminal activity to pass that information to the relevant authorities including prosecuting authorities, that’s an absolute absence of leadership,” she said.

When pressed as to whether she felt the charity had failed in its moral leadership, Mordaunt said “yes, I do”.

Mordaunt plans to meet Oxfam tomorrow to discuss the scandal and afford the charity “the opportunity to tell me in person what they did after these events”.

Figures collated by charities cover sexual harassment in Britain and abroad. They raise troubling questions about regulation within the charity sector.

Oxfam recorded 87 incidents last year, Save the Children 31 — 10 of which were referred to the police and civil authorities — and Christian Aid two. The British Red Cross admitted there had been a “small number of cases of harassment reported in the UK”, believed to be up to five. All four receive money from the Department for International Development.

Of the Oxfam cases, 53 were referred to the police or other statutory authorities. A total of 20 staff or volunteers were dismissed. The charity employs 5,000 staff and has a further 23,000 volunteers.

Caroline Thomson, Oxfam’s chairwoman of trustees in the UK, said it was working to “address the underlying cultural issues that allowed this behaviour to happen”.

“We also want to satisfy ourselves that we do now have a culture of openness and transparency and that we fully learn the lessons of events in 2011,” she said.

She said Oxfam staff had come forward with concerns about the recruitment and vetting of workers involved in the scandal.

She added: “We will examine these in more detail to ensure we further strengthen the improved safeguarding, recruitment, vetting and staff management procedures that were put in place after 2011.”

Incidents involving charity workers that have come to light since The Times revealed Oxfam workers in Haiti in 2011 were dismissed after using local prostitutes for sex parties include:

● The Charities Commission criticised the Grail Trust, which raises funds for a disadvantaged children’s charity in India, last March for failing to report an allegation of child abuse in India and for initially publicly rejecting the claim.

● Teacher Simon Harris, who was head of a charity in Kenya, abused children at a school there. He was jailed for more than 17 years at Birmingham crown court in 2015.

Andrew MacLeod, a former aid worker for the Red Cross and the UN, told The Sunday Times there was a lack of response to “institutionalised paedophilia” among aid workers. He said he was shocked by what he saw in the Philippines.

“Walk near the Greenbelt Mall [in Manila] and you would see businessmen, tourists and aid workers meeting local girls for the night. You would say: ‘How old do you think these women are?’ They’d look at you with a twinkle in their eye and say: ‘She says she is 18.’

“Many aid workers will have to ask themselves: ‘What did I do to try and stop it?’”

It is not clear from last year’s figures how many allegations were made by other staff or whether the alleged victims were beneficiaries of the charities’ work.

Save the Children said all 31 cases of alleged abuse had taken place abroad and 16 people had been dismissed as a result.

Christian Aid said: “In the past 12 months, Christian Aid has investigated two incidents of sexual misconduct, both of which occurred overseas. One investigation led to the dismissal of a staff member, while the other case resulted in disciplinary action [not dismissal].”

It emerged last night that Oxfam did not give the Charity Commission full details about the use of prostitutes by some aid workers in Haiti seven years ago.

Haiti’s ambassador in London, Bocchit Edmond, criticised Oxfam for failing to inform the country’s authorities about the scandal and said it should publicly apologise.

The commission said: “We have written to the charity as a matter of urgency to request further information regarding the events in Haiti in 2011. This information will be considered as part of an ongoing case regarding the charity’s approach to safeguarding.”

Mordaunt said the Department for International Development was not told about the events at the time.

She said “They [Oxfam] initially said that they were investigating misconduct and when they concluded that report they did not tell us the nature of these events.

“They did tell the Charity Commission that there was sexual inappropriate behaviour, bullying and harassment of employees but they did not report that to us.”

She added that Oxfam also reassured the department that no harm was done and there was no involvement of any beneficiaries.

Andrew Marr said: “That was a lie, wasn’t it?”

Mordaunt replied: “Well, quite.”

She said she did not know what Oxfam’s motivation was for handling the investigation as it did, and warned that its relationship with the government was at risk.

“If the moral leadership at the top of the organisation is not there then we cannot have you as a partner,” she said.

Mordaunt said the charity had done “absolutely the wrong thing” by failing to tell the Charity Commission and prosecuting authorities the full details of the allegations.

She added: “If they do not hand over all the information that they have from their investigation and subsequently to the relevant authorities including the Charity Commission and prosecuting authorities then I cannot work with them any more as an aid delivery partner.”

Former international development secretary Priti Patel told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics she was aware of abuse involving aid workers in disaster zones and had done her own research on the issue

She told the programme: “People knew in DfID, I raised this directly with my department at the time.

“I had quotes from the United Nations reports on the number of people.

“I think even the secretary-general last year said there were 120 cases involving something like over 300 people, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 8, 2018

By Jacey Fortin

An American swimmer who competed in the 2012 Olympics has accused her former coach of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.

The swimmer, Ariana Kukors, 28, said in a statement on Wednesday that the coach, Sean Hutchison, began sexually abusing her when she was 16 and had been “grooming” her for three years before that.

“I never thought I would share my story because, in so many ways, just surviving was enough,” Ms. Kukors said in the statement. “I was able to leave a horrible monster and build a life I could have never imagined for myself. But in time, I’ve realized that stories like my own are too important to go unwritten.”

In a statement emailed by his lawyer, Mr. Hutchison, 46, said Thursday that the accusations were not true. He said that the two had had a “committed relationship” that began after she was of age and that they had lived together for more than a year after the 2012 Olympic Games.

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UNITED STATES
ArianaJKukors.com

February 9, 2018

By Ariana Kukors

Any swimmer will tell you about the black line on the bottom of every pool . . . the line that we follow day after day. We develop a relationship with that line; it holds our hopes and our dreams, but it also holds our fears. If only that black line could talk, it would tell you of my nightmare.

To those in the swimming community, if you’ve heard the rumors about me, you may have been wondering if and when I’d find the courage to speak my truth.

This is the truth.

I recently came across a quote by Thich Naht Hahn that said, “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” This quote is ironic, because I can still picture Hahn’s books lying on his bedside table.

I grew up in a family of 5 just outside of Seattle. I was the middle sister of 3 girls, the Kukors Sisters, as we were often referred to. When I was little we used to take our family boat out in the Puget Sound and many of my first memories are of water. The water has always felt natural to me. My older sister, Emily, joined a swim team when she was nine. I was five and eager to follow in her footsteps. That was when my swimming career began, and all three of us girls, my Mom’s mermaids, fell in love with the sport. In 2008, the three of us competed at the US Olympic Swim Trials, a moment in time I will never forget. I trained with my sisters, dreamed with them, won and lost with them. Before each race, we would always tell each other the same message: “I’m sending you my strength”.

I poured everything into my training. I had talent at a young age and progressed quickly with the help of extraordinary age group coaches; coaches who supported, developed, and challenged me in all the right ways. When I was 13, just on the cusp of making the USA National Team, I was handed off to a new coach, Sean Hutchison.

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AURORA (IL)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

February 10, 2018

A former Catholic priest in suburban Chicago who was charged with sexually abusing two girls is likely returning to his native Colombia soon after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s office says it agreed to the plea deal Friday after prosecutors analyzed evidence, communicated with the victims’ families and received assurances that Alfredo Pedraza-Arias will be “removed from the United States.”

A jail official says Pedraza-Arias was released Saturday “to the custody of another agency” but wouldn’t elaborate. His attorney says he expects Pedraza-Arias to leave the country soon.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

February 10, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Bishop tells synod ‘it will not be an easy couple of years’ as IICSA prepares to take evidence

Church of England spending on issues relating to sexual abuse has increased fivefold since 2014 and the most recent figures show it is facing more than 3,300 allegations.

The disclosures come as the church prepares to face intense scrutiny by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which starts hearing evidence next month.

“This will not be an easy couple of years – we will hear deeply painful accounts of abuse, of poor response, of ‘cover-up’. We will … feel a deep sense of shame,” Peter Hancock, the bishop of Bath and Wells and the C of E’s lead bishop on safeguarding, told the general synod in London.

Professional safeguarding advisers have been appointed to every diocese to deal with disclosures of abuse, but Hancock said the pace of change needed to accelerate. “For too long the church has not responded well to those who allege abuse within our church communities. This is now changing and further change is needed.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

By Amanda Gearing and Steven Morris

February 9, 2018

Man says he was abused by Cistercian monk during family holidays on Welsh island

A man has come forward to describe how he was groomed and sexually abused as a child by a Benedictine monk on Caldey Island, intensifying calls for an inquiry into what happened at the abbey in south-west Wales.

The victim, who has told police of the abuse he was subject to during summer holiday trips to Caldey Island, is the first man to allege he was sexually assaulted by Father Thaddeus Kotik.

More than a dozen women have come forward to report offences committed by Kotik, a member of the Cistercian order of Benedictine monks who lived at Caldey Abbey on the Pembrokeshire island from 1947 until his death in 1992.

The Guardian has learned that two other men who lived and worked on Caldey Island were subsequently convicted of child sex offences.

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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS (IL)
Daily Herald

February 10, 2018

By Marie Wilson

A former Aurora priest pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and was released from jail Saturday without prosecution on charges of sexual abuse.

Now it’s likely the former priest, 51-year-old Alfredo Pedraza-Arias, will leave the country, his attorney David Camic said Saturday — whether on his own or possibly by deportation to his native Colombia.

Pedraza-Arias was charged in February 2016 with aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two girls younger than 13, whom he was accused of abusing between January 2009 and November 2014, one at Sacred Heart Church in Aurora and another at her Aurora home.

Camic said his client did not commit any sexual offense, which is why he pleaded guilty only to misdemeanor battery in a deal reached Friday with the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Salon

February 11, 2018

By Marci Hamilton

It is difficult not to be stunned into silence by the testimony of 156 female gymnasts against serial pedophile Dr. Larry Nassar. His “practice” was a factory assembly line of abuse — one girl after the other, day after day. He was prolific but not a rarity: child sex abuse in the United States is a mass epidemic that saturates our culture and even impacts the economy. And as the national #MeToo movement has shown, the time is now, to say, “enough is enough.”

Ignorance, discomfort and a legal system geared toward adults rather than children have kept these stories from the public. The numbers are staggering: research by the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. That means that in every classroom, team and congregation it is likely that there are children who have been or are being victimized.

Victims often do not disclose their abuse until they are in their 40s, according to the University of Georgia School of Law’s Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic. While 38 states have eliminated the criminal statute of limitations (SOL) for at least some child sex crimes, most have not done so for all of them, leaving large loopholes that protect many perpetrators whose “lesser” abuse can still yield enormous harm. Many more states have not yet eliminated the civil SOL, which means institutions and their insurers have not been adequately incentivized to change their practices to deter child sex abuse effectively. Indeed, the worst states, like New York, Alabama and Michigan, permit institutions and predators to revel in SOLs that cut off claims once the victim reaches their early 20s.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald

February 11, 2018

By Edward D. Murphy

St. John’s in Brunswick said reinforced policies, plus a new administration and a focus on the future, will help the school going forward.

More than 16 months after Henry Eichman was arrested for the sexual abuse of multiple children, the Brunswick parochial school where he taught is trying to put the episode behind it.

Eichman, who was sentenced Jan. 3 for abusing eight children in Sagadahoc County, was arrested in September 2016 and charged with abusing children at his home in Topsham, where he had started a theater group. He was subsequently charged with abusing one child at St. John’s Catholic School, where he worked as a drama teacher and helped with an after-school day care program.

Eichman was sentenced to 10 years in prison on 10 counts, including nine felonies. But the start last month of his prison term doesn’t signal the end of the impact his actions have had in two midcoast communities. At St. John’s, a new administration has pledged to enforce policies to protect children. And although no charges were ever filed because of contact Eichman had with children at his Midcoast Youth Theater in Topsham, the drama group points to its policy that no adult is ever alone with a child involved in a theater activity as a shield against abuse.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Age

February 12, 2018

By Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders & Chris Vedelago

An Age investigation reveals for the first time the value of the Catholic Church’s wealth in Australia and raises serious questions about compensation payments to victims of child sex abuse.

The Catholic Church in Victoria is worth more than $9 billion, making it the biggest non-government property owner in the state and much wealthier than it has admitted in evidence to major inquiries into child sexual abuse.

A six-month investigation by The Age has found that the church misled the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by grossly undervaluing its property portfolio while claiming that increased payments to abuse survivors would likely require cuts to its social programs.

Figures extrapolated from a huge volume of Victorian council valuation data show the church has more than $30 billion in property and other assets, Australia wide.

Based on these figures, the church is clearly the largest non-government property owner, by value, in the state, and close to the largest in Australia, rivalling giant Westfield, with its vast network of shopping centres and other assets.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
Las Cruces Sun-News

February 10, 2018

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This editorial references a statement by Bishop Oscar Cantú. That statement is available here.]

The allegations against a former priest in the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces that are contained in a recent lawsuit are disturbing. The alleged cover-up by church officials, if true, would be beyond disturbing.

The lawsuit involves Father Ricardo Bauza, who had previously served as pastor of St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Las Cruces. The allegations in the lawsuit involve complaints made by several people after Bauza had been moved to St. Helena Catholic Church in Hobbs.

The adult man who filed the lawsuit claims that on two different occasions when he was using the shower at the parish rectory, Bauza entered the shower naked and began to wash the other man’s body, including his genitals.

The complaint also accused Bauza of showing photos of his penis and other sexually explicit images to church workers.

One worker also alleged that Bauza had engaged in sexual activities with other men in the church rectory. And, a cleaning lady told investigators that when she was cleaning the rectory one day, she saw Bauza standing naked in the hallway with his backside exposed to her.

Court records show that Bauza was charged in October with one misdemeanor count of criminal sexual contact. There is an active court warrant for his arrest.

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NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day

February 10, 2018

By Karen Florin

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: Includes an important video interview with John Waddington, a survivor of abuse by Fr Charles Many SSE, an Edmundite priest. This article appeared on the front page of the Sunday paper.]

John Waddington felt the blood drain from his face when his girlfriend called him last month to say a former altar boy at Sacred Heart Church in Groton who was molested by a priest in the late 1970s and early 1980s received a $900,000 settlement from Catholic church officials.

Waddington’s cubemates at Electric Boat saw his face go pale and thought somebody in his family had died, the 54-year-old electrical designer said during an interview Thursday.

The news of Andrew Aspinwall’s settlement brought Waddington back to the day in 1978 when he, a 14-year-old altar boy at Sacred Heart, was sexually assaulted by former priest Charles Many.

Same church, same priest, same time period.

“It was like it happened to me again,” Waddington said.

The now-disgraced former priest had arrived at Sacred Heart a few years earlier and started a youth group. Waddington said Many kept asking him to watch a movie in his room at the rectory. The priest was “a really soft-spoken, mellow kind of guy,” Waddington said, and he relented.

“He puts on ‘The Exorcist’ and molests me, and I didn’t remember it until I was 28,” Waddington said. The intense feelings associated with a divorce from his first wife and a confrontation at work triggered the memory, he said. He suffers from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. He’s been married and divorced three times, and has had years of counseling.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

February 8, 2018

Nassar has been sentenced to up to more than a century in prison for serially sexually abusing young gymnasts who sought treatment for their sports injuries.

A total of 156 women testified about his abuse at his sentencing hearing last month, as well as another 60 women at another sentencing hearing last week.

Oversight Committee leaders are asking entities involved, including the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, for documentation of how they handled complaints against Nassar.

“To ensure this never happens again, the Committee is seeking to understand what failed within our Olympic and collegiate systems, and why,” a letter from Oversight Committee members to USA Gymnastics President Kerry Perry reads.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Indianapolis Star via USA Today

February 9, 2018

By Kristen Chatman

I am a mom who was in the exam room while Dr. Larry Nassar treated my daughter.

She had extreme back pain — to the point that it was difficult to walk. So of course, we called Larry. There was no other option in our minds. He was world-renowned. THE gymnastics doctor. Simply the best. No question. You see, we had been his patients at that point for nearly three years. So, we trusted him implicitly.

Frankly, I had been a bit skeptical of those in the medical profession — for a lot of reasons. We had seen numerous doctors on numerous occasions with the same outcome. No help. From inaccurate diagnoses to no diagnosis at all, our experiences jaded me. I was untrusting. Even cynical. Until I met Larry.

On our very first visit, he gave us an accurate diagnosis and charted a course of action as well. And it worked. And then, when another issue arose, we called Larry again. True to form, he helped solve the problem and put my daughter on the road to healing. This happened off and on for years. No problems. No questions.

And then the back pain came. Desperate for answers and relief, we called our favorite doc, Larry. Due to our mutually busy schedules, we met him off hours. “How nice of him!” we thought. Little did we know that this was a pattern of his behavior. He proceeded to evaluate my girl and then gave her (the) treatment.

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

LANSING (MI)
Lansing State Journal

February 9, 2018

By Justin A. Hinkley

Michigan State University was expected on Friday to have turned over some 45,000 pages of documents to investigators at the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, with more to come on “a rolling basis,” according to a letter from the university’s attorneys to investigators.

Meanwhile, lawmakers on Friday gave the university until Wednesday to hand over documents in their own investigation into how MSU officials responded to Larry Nassar scandal.

According to a letter penned by attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and posted online by the university, among some 20,000 pages to be turned over Friday to the Attorney General’s Office were:
• University investigatory files related to former MSU physician and convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar and other MSU employees,
• Personnel files for employees involved in the Nassar case,
• Policies for MSU doctors and the university’s sexual misconduct policies,
• Organizational charts, and
• Nassar-related documents that MSU has released through the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
New York

February 8, 2018

By Jeffrey Toobin

Cameras in the courtroom used to be a hot topic. In the nineteen-eighties and early nineties, many states began to allow broad media access to their judicial proceedings, and even the federal courts were experimenting with cameras. Court TV, a network devoted almost exclusively to live coverage of trials, was flourishing. But then the momentum stopped with a thud, and everyone remembers why: the trial of O. J. Simpson.

One can debate, and I have, whether the cameras in Judge Lance Ito’s courtroom during the case, in which Simpson was charged with the murder, in 1994, of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, affected the conduct of everyone involved and the verdict. (Simpson was acquitted.) Advocates for cameras saw the case as an opportunity for public education about the judicial process; opponents regarded the cameras as accessories to, and a cause of, a demeaning circus. But there is no doubt that the case poisoned the atmosphere for multimedia access to trials. In the two decades since, the trend has been toward fewer cameras, not more. New York is a prime example. The state allowed cameras in its courts for a decade, from 1987 to 1997, but then, post-O. J., forbade them again. (An experiment with expanding access is only now under way.) Court TV died a much mourned death, in 2008. To the extent that the subject of cameras in the courtroom came up at all, the negative example of the Simpson case drowned out much of the debate on the matter.

But recent events in Michigan serve as a reminder that cameras can be better than a necessary evil: they can be a positive good. Over the course of several days last month, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina allowed the victims of Lawrence G. Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University sports-medicine doctor, to recount the stories of the abuse they suffered at his hands. (Michigan gives judges the discretion to allow or prohibit cameras in their courtrooms.)

More than a hundred and fifty victims testified, and their stories were harrowing. Sometimes standing with family members, sometimes alone, the young women told of how Nassar abused the trust they had placed in him and how their lives had been shaped, and often shattered, by what he did to them. Their stories reverberated well beyond the courtroom. As a result of the outrage people around the country expressed, the president of Michigan State University and the entire board of USA Gymnastics were forced to resign. With all respect to the power of the printed (and pixelated) word, this might never have happened if coverage had been limited to the stories produced by the journalists who covered the proceedings. We live in a culture that is saturated with video, from movie theatres to our phones, and we have come to expect to see news events for ourselves. Judge Aquilina did the right thing, and justice was served. (Nassar received multiple sentences, totalling well over a hundred years.)

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

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 9, 2018

By Bret Stephens

Soon after Rolling Stone published a sensational — and, as it turned out, false — account of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity, Richard Bradley, the editor of Worth magazine, suspected that something was amiss.

Basic journalistic rules, such as seeking comment from the alleged perpetrators, had not been observed, he noted on his blog. Details of the assault, one of which seemed ripped from “Silence of the Lambs,” were lurid past the point of plausibility.

But what most stirred Bradley’s doubt was how perfectly the story played “into existing biases,” especially the sorts of biases Rolling Stone readers might harbor about fraternity life at Southern universities.

Since the account of the rape “felt” true, it was easy to assume it was. Since the alleged victim had supposedly suffered grievous harm, it was awkward to challenge her version of events. Since important people took the story on faith and sought to press it into the service of an undeniably noble cause, the story’s moral truth overwhelmed its factual one.

All this, Bradley knew, was the surest way to fall for the biggest lies. It’s a caution that could serve journalists and the wider public well in the case of Woody Allen’s alleged molestation, in 1992, of his then-7-year-old adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 10, 2018

By Mark Landler

President Trump complained on Saturday about allegations that he said were destroying the lives of those accused — appearing to express doubts about the #MeToo movement after the resignations this week of two White House aides facing claims of domestic violence.

In an early morning Twitter post, Mr. Trump did not name the former aides, but said: “Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

Mr. Trump’s claim ran counter to the White House’s portrayal of its actions in response to the abuse allegations. Administration officials maintained that they acted decisively in the cases of Rob Porter, the staff secretary, and David Sorensen, a speechwriter, both of whom stepped down after their former wives accused them of emotional and physical abuse.

But the president’s defense is in keeping with the White House’s initially defensive reaction to the charges against Mr. Porter — as well as his tendency to dismiss allegations made against him and other powerful men by women who say they were sexually harassed.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Bozeman Daily Chronicle

February 9, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The #MeToo movement and the controversy over a Chilean bishop show the need for a broader response to “the abuse of power and conscience,” the head of the Catholic Church’s leading center on preventing priestly sexual abuse said Friday.

The Rev. Hans Zollner spoke at the graduation ceremony for students who have completed a course in safeguarding people from abuse held at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University.

In addition to his role at the Gregorian, Zollner is also one of the founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Pope Francis’ hand-picked group of experts on sexual abuse.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

February 9, 2018

By Emma Younger

Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell are seeking access to the medical records of complainants in the case against him.

Cardinal Pell, 76, is set to face a four-week committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next month as he fights historical sexual offence charges involving multiple complainants.

No other details of the case against him can be reported for legal reasons.

One of Cardinal Pell’s defence barristers, Ruth Shann, made what she described as a “responsible and considered” application to access the medial records of complainants in the case.

Ms Shann told the court the records would have substantial probative value, meaning they would contain important evidence to the case.

She said a complainant may not be in the best position to describe their own mental health.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

February 9, 2018

Pell’s legal team denies their request for access to records of those who have accused the Cardinal of sexual offences is a “fishing expedition”

Cardinal Pell’s legal team argued the particular features of the case warrant access to the information, including that it involved a high-profile person. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers want access to the medical records of people who have accused him of sexual offences, denying it is “a fishing expedition”.

Prosecutors oppose the defence application for access to the complainants’ treatment information.

The crown Prosecutor Mark Gibson SC said there was no substantial probative value in the material being provided.

“It’s tantamount to a fishing expedition rather than having a legitimate forensic purpose,” Gibson told Melbourne magistrates court on Friday.

The defence application came three weeks before a hearing that will determine if Australia’s most senior Catholic stands trial on historical sexual offence charges.

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

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

February 4, 2018

By Elaine Edwards

Charity ‘extremely concerned’ about allegations involving Irish Brother

A charity has suspended its funding to the St John of God Order for a project in Malawi following allegations of child abuse against a former school principal and member of the order.

Misean Cara, which gets funding from the State’s overseas development programme Irish Aid, said it was “extremely concerned” about issues raised involving Brother Aidan Clohessy. It said it had requested “a number of clarifications” from the order.

Br Clohessy was head of St Augustine’s, a school for boys with special needs in Blackrock, Co Dublin, from 1970 until 1993, when he was relocated to Malawi. The first serious child-abuse allegation was made against him in 1985 and two new claims by former St Augustine’s pupils emerged as late as last month.

The St John of God order has confirmed it has told the Garda Síochána about the new allegations.

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

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Mail on Sunday via NewsScoops.org

February 4, 2018.

By: Michael O’Farrell

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: See also a PDF of the newspaper version of this article.]

The provision of Irish taxpayer funds to the St John of God order in Malawi has been suspended in the wake of the coverup of child abuse allegations, exposed by the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The order’s Malawi operations are supported by Misean Cara – a missionary charity that distributes a 16m euro block grant from the taxpayer-funded Irish Aid each year.

Misean Cara’s accounts show the St John of God order got more than €2.3m in public funds since 2009 – an unknown proportion of which went to Malawi.

In order to receive the funds for Malawi the order – currently led by Brother Donatus Forkan – signed contracts that included statements that child safeguarding policies are being implemented. Failure to make a declaration of compliance would have disqualified St John of God (SJOG) from eligibility for funding.

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

MZUZU (MALAWI)
Nyasa Times

January 26, 2018

By Michael O’Farrell and Collins Mtika

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The text below is a brief introduction to Part 2 of this feature. See the full report in PDFs of the original newspapers, with photographs, a timeline, and survivor profiles:
• Brother Accused of Abuse Was Left in Africa, with related articles, by Michael O’Farrell et al. (January 21, 2018)
• Breaking 35-Year Silence on Abuse, with related articles, by Michael O’Farrell et al. (January 28, 2018)
• Taxpayers’ Funding to St John of God Mission in Africa Is Suspended, by Michael O’Farrell (February 4, 2018)]

The St John of God order covered up 20 child abuse allegations against a school principal and allowed him to work and live with vulnerable children in Malawi for decades – even as payouts were made to his Irish accusers.

Brother Aidan Clohessy was principal of St Augustine’s in Blackrock in south Dublin – a school for special needs boys – from 1970 until 1993 when he was relocated to a Mzuzu city in Malawi. The first serious child abuse allegation was made against Brother Aidan in 1985 and claims continue to emerge.

As recently as this week, two new sets of allegations of sex abuse against Brother Aidan – unearthed by the Irish Mail on Sunday – have been referred to Irish police called gardaí and child and family agency Tusla for investigation.

The newspaper has also confirmed that a number of alleged victims in Ireland received compensation through the Redress Board – even as Brother Aidan remained working and living with children in Malawi.

Despite this the order appear to have ignored the danger Brother Aidan may have posed to children in Mzuzu city, Malawi – where many children were housed at the brother’s home – and its own childprotection guidelines. As a result of one allegation in Ireland, the order says it instructed Brother Aidan ‘not to work with children’ in 1997.

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

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

January 21, 2018

By Elaine Edwards

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This article cites as source an unnamed “newspaper report.” That report is Brother Accused of Abuse Was Left in Africa, by Michael O’Farrell, Irish Mail on Sunday, January 21, 2018. The article also alludes to Bringing hope to Africa’s poorest, by Eithne Donnellan, Irish Times, December 14, 2010.]

Br Aidan Clohessy ‘still worked with children in Africa’ after Irish sex abuse claims

The St John of God order has said it has told the Garda Síochána about new allegations of child abuse against a former school principal who subsequently went to work with children in Africa.

Br Aidan Clohessy was head of St Augustine’s, a school for boys with special needs in Blackrock, Co Dublin, from 1970 until 1993, when he was relocated to Malawi. The first serious child-abuse allegation was made against him in 1985; two new claims by former St Augustine’s pupils emerged as late as this week, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

The report claimed that up to 20 allegations were made against Br Clohessy up to 2014, and that when the State established the Residential Institutions Redress Board, in 2002, payouts were made to Irish accusers of Br Clohessy but he continued to work with children in Africa after that time. It also alleged that he had converted a garage at his home to house boys who had been on the streets.

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

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Mail on Sunday via NewsScoops.org

January 21, 2018

By Michael O’Farrell

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The text below is a brief introduction. See the full report in PDFs of the original newspapers, with photographs, a timeline, and survivor profiles:
• Brother Accused of Abuse Was Left in Africa, with related articles, by Michael O’Farrell et al. (January 21, 2018)
• Breaking 35-Year Silence on Abuse, with related articles, by Michael O’Farrell et al. (January 28, 2018)
• Taxpayers’ Funding to St John of God Mission in Africa Is Suspended, by Michael O’Farrell (February 4, 2018)]

The St John of God order covered up 20 child abuse allegations against a school principal and allowed him to work and live with vulnerable children in Africa for decades – even as payouts were made to his Irish accusers.

Brother Aidan Clohessy was principal of St Augustine’s in Blackrock in south Dublin – a school for special needs boys – from 1970 until 1993 when he was relocated to a city in Malawi.

The first serious child abuse allegation was made against Brother Aidan in 1985 and claims continue to emerge. As recently as this week, two new sets of allegations of sex abuse against Brother Aidan – unearthed by the Irish Mail on Sunday – have been referred to gardaí and child and family agency Tusla for investigation.

The MoS has also confirmed that a number of alleged victims in Ireland received compensation through the Redress Board – even as Brother Aidan remained working and living with children in Malawi.

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

February 7, 2018

By Charles Collins

Marie Collins, who was a founding member of Pope Francis’s Commission for the Protection of Minors but resigned in early 2017, says his handling of a letter from a Chilean abuse survivor has “definitely undermined credibility, trust, and hope” in the pontiff.

“He has said all the right things and he has expressed all the right views on abuse, and the harm and the hurt, but in this case at least it would seem his actions have not matched the words, and that is sad,” she said.

In 2015, the Irish abuse survivor personally handed the letter from Juan Carlos Cruz to Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Boston archbishop who heads the commission, in an attempt to stop Francis from transferring Bishop Juan Barros to the Diocese of Osorno.

In the eight-page letter, Cruz detailed the abuse, kissing and fondling he says he suffered at the hands of Father Fernando Karadima, Chile’s most notorious priest-abuser.

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

BOISE (ID)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

February 8, 2018

The arrest of a retired Boise Catholic priest on multiple charges of sexual exploitation of a child, distribution of child pornography and drug possession has shocked Catholics in the statewide Diocese of Boise.

“When I first heard of these allegations, I was absolutely stunned,” Boise Bishop Peter Christensen said in a statement Feb. 6. He said that “there are no excuses” for the behavior described in the charges.

Fr. Thomas Faucher, 72, was arrested Feb. 2 and charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of distributing sexually exploitative material involving children and two counts of drug possession. “All of the charges, except one of the drug counts, are felonies. If convicted, he faces a lifetime in prison,” reported the Idaho Statesman daily newspaper.

“If these allegations are true and proven in court, they are a betrayal of the trust we place in all ministers such as Father Faucher. Anyone who takes advantage of and exploits children for their own gratification is absolutely wrong. There are no excuses for such behavior by any one of our clergy,” Christensen said.

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

VATICAN
National Catholic Register

February 8, 2018

By Christopher Lamb

From his advocacy for migrants to opening up the Sistine Chapel to Rome’s homeless, Pope Francis has been an outspoken voice for people suffering on the margins.

But the 81-year-old pontiff’s appeals on behalf of the downtrodden are being overshadowed by the way he is dealing with victims of clerical sexual abuse.

“This is a situation which the Pope has mishandled, and it’s gone from bad to worse,” Marie Collins, a former member of a pontifical commission on clerical sex abuse, who herself was abused by a priest when she was 13 years old, told Religion News Service.

The Pope — who has repeatedly been accused of having a tin ear on this issue — is coming under pressure after it emerged he was handed a letter detailing abuse committed by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a prominent Chilean priest, and how a future bishop witnessed it but did nothing.

It contradicted Francis’ comments to journalists last month that no victims had come forward with evidence of a cover-up by Bishop Juan Barros, whom the Pope appointed in 2015 to lead the Diocese of Osorno. During a trip to Chile in January, Francis also upset survivors by describing the claims against Barros — many of them made by victims — as “calumny.”

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

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Salt Lake Tribune

February 10, 2018

By Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara
·
The Vatican’s sex-crimes expert is changing plans and will fly to New York to take in-person testimony from a Chilean sex abuse victim after his pleas to be heard by Pope Francis were previously ignored, the victim told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The switch from a planned Skype interview came after the AP reported that Francis received a letter in 2015 from Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest. Cruz wrote the pope that one of the priest’s proteges, Bishop Juan Barros, was present for his abuse and did nothing, and questioned Francis’ decision to make him a diocesan bishop.

Barros has denied seeing or knowing of any abuse committed by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a charismatic priest sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors.

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