ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

By MARK SCOLFORO

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two Franciscan friars who supervised another friar who fatally stabbed himself in the heart while facing child molestation claims pleaded no contest to child endangerment charges Friday and were sentenced to five years of probation.

Prosecutors say Robert J. D’Aversa, 71, of Hollidaysburg, failed to tell officials at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown that he reassigned the friar, Brother Stephen Baker, in 2000 because of new credible allegations about Baker’s past.

They also say Anthony J. Criscitelli, 64, of Hollidaysburg, knew a safety plan was in place for Baker, but still allowed him to potentially be around children.

Messages left for their lawyers were not immediately returned.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children — but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims.”

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

By Jon White

6 May 2018

The recent article (‘Ineffective’ system sees sexually abused children re-traumatised) has shone a light on a persistent issue in the criminal justice system: how children give evidence.

It is now well accepted in our legal system that the evidence of children is not inherently less reliable than the evidence of adults. Indeed a case I recently took to the High Court, The Queen v GW, was an important development in that area.

The High Court held that unsworn evidence (which generally means evidence given by children) is not any less reliable than sworn evidence.

There have been some significant advances for children giving evidence in the ACT, which is in fact ahead of most Australian jurisdictions. Child witnesses in serious offences (including of course child complainants in sexual offence cases) are interviewed by trained police officers and this interview becomes their “evidence in chief” in court proceedings.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

May 5, 2018

By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday urged one of the Catholic Church’s biggest but most contentious missionary movements to respect different cultures and not try to conquer souls as it spreads the faith around the world.

Francis headlined a big rally marking the 50th anniversary of the Neocatechumenal Way’s arrival in Rome. The community founded in Spain in the 1960s seeks to train Catholic adults in their faith and each year sends out families on mission around the globe.

The Vatican under the past two popes in many ways kept the Way at arm’s length because of its unusual liturgical practices, which include celebrating Mass on Saturday nights, and its occasionally divisive presence in dioceses. The Way’s statutes were only approved in 2008. …

Most recently, the Way has been in the spotlight in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam after its main supporter on the island, Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron, was removed to stand trial at the Vatican on sex abuse charges.

Apuron’s replacement, heeding criticism by ordinary faithful on Guam, placed restrictions on the Way, mandating a yearlong “pause” in the creation of new prayer communities, ordering that its members obey Vatican rules in celebrating Mass and launching a review into the quality of their training as Catholic teachers.

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OHIO
Cincinnati Enquirer

Kevin Grasha, kgrasha@enquirer.com

May 4, 2018

A Covington man used another person’s identity to try to collect $1 million from a settlement fund for victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, court documents say.

According to a federal indictment unsealed this week, the 32-year-old Covington man had already been awarded $750,000 for a claim he filed in 2006. The charges he faces do not involve that claim.

Prosecutors say he obtained the birth certificate of another person, created an email address in that person’s name, and in 2014 submitted a fraudulent claim for compensation as part of the settlement involving the Diocese of Covington.

Prosecutors say he used the person’s name, date of birth and social security number in the compensation request, which was for approximately $1 million.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PA Homepage

Jayne Ann Bugda

May 04, 2018

HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU-TV) PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro has accepted pleas from two Franciscan friars for their criminal conduct in allowing a member of their religious order to sexually abuse more than 100 children over a period of many years at a Johnstown high school.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the two Franciscan supervisors are among the first clergy members in the United States to be held criminally liable for covering up sexual abuse of children by other clergy.

These are the first members of a religious order in Pennsylvania to be sentenced for protecting clergy who abused children.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children – but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” said Attorney General Shapiro in a internet videotape statement. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims. I won’t stand for that in any institution – and any person who fails to protect and safeguard children in their care will answer to me.”

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY GARTH STAPLEY
gstapley@modbee.com

May 04, 2018

The same firm is conducting separate clergy sex scandal investigations of two former youth pastors at Modesto’s First Baptist Church, both of whom went on to long ministry careers elsewhere after church leaders here covered up their alleged abuse.

Virginia-based GRACE, or Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, has been hired by Scottsdale Bible Church to sort things out in the wake of Les Hughey’s recent resignation from Highlands, a church Hughey founded 20 years ago, also in Scottsdale. Hughey, 64, stepped down after The Modesto Bee revealed accusations of him having sex with girls in the Modesto congregation four decades ago.

GRACE also is investigating Brad Tebbutt, who was a youth pastor at First Baptist in Modesto when he sexually abused another girl 30 years ago. Another Modesto pastor said Tebbutt confessed to him, and Tebbutt’s current employer, the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, hired GRACE, run by a grandson of the late Billy Graham.

Highlands launched an investigation with another firm, MinistrySafe; another of Hughey’s former employers, Fellowship Bible Church in Arkansas, said they will sponsor a probe by an independent company as well.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

May 5, 2018

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

Two Franciscan friars accepted guilty pleas on charges of endangering the welfare of children, a first-degree misdemeanor, in a case stemming from sexual abuse committed by Brother Stephen Baker, who was under their supervision at the Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception.

The Revs. Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, gave Baker assignments that provided him access to children even after evidence was known he presented a danger as a sexual predator. The cases against D’Aversa and Criscitelli came about as part of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General into what was described as a decades-long coverup by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown to protect religious leaders accused of sexually abusing children.

Settlements have been reached with more than 90 of Baker’s victims from his time at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown where he officially served from 1992-2000 and had unofficial access afterward.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children – but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a press release. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims. I won’t stand for that in any institution – and any person who fails to protect and safeguard children in their care will answer to me.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

MAY 5, 2018

KAY STEPHENS
Staff Writer
kstephens@altoonamirror.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Two Franciscan friars accused of failing to protect children from sexual abuse by a suspected child predator rendered no contest pleas Friday in Blair County Court of Common Pleas to endangering the welfare of a child.

Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, were supposed to go on trial starting May 29 on felony charges of criminal conspiracy and child endangerment based on a 2016 grand jury investigation, which accused them of failing to properly supervise fellow friar Stephen Baker.

D’Aversa and Criscitelli presented their pleas to Senior Judge Jolene G. Kopriva, who sentenced each to five years’ probation and imposed a $1,000 fine each.

They are the first members of their religious order to be convicted and sentenced for endangering the welfare of a child, Senior Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye said after court on Friday.

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AUSTRALIA
The National

Lucie Morris-Marr

May 5, 2018

From the United States to Hall’s Gap, a tiny hamlet in Victoria, Australia, discreet adverts have been placed in newsletters, parish notices and Catholic publications across the globe.

They start with identical wording: “A number of people are wanting to know where they can contribute to assist Cardinal George Pell with his defence costs.”

The numerous adverts, uncovered by The National, also include bank account details of a special trust fund overseen by a law firm and an email contact address.

The costs in question are in regards to a legal bill likely to run into millions of Australian dollars, as the treasurer for the Vatican faces historic sexual abuse charges in his native country.

The National can confirm officially for the first time that the Vatican is not contributing to his legal bill, leaving one of the most senior figures in the Holy See to seek these funds from his supporters.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

May 4, 2018

Two Franciscan friars pleaded no contest Friday in Blair County to allowing a member of their order to sexually abuse more than 100 children at a Johnstown Catholic high school in the 1990s, according to Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office.

Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, are the first in their religious order in Pennsylvania to be sentenced for protecting a predator, Shapiro said in a news release. They were charged in 2016 with endangering the welfare of children for failing to properly supervise Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar and child predator who was an athletic trainer at Bishop McCort Catholic High School. Baker committed suicide after allegations surfaced in 2013.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” Shapiro said. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims. I won’t stand for that in any institution — and any person who fails to protect and safeguard children in their care will answer to me.”

D’Aversa and Criscitelli are the last two defendants in a case that began with a grand jury investigation into the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and originally charged three clergymen with child endangerment and conspiracy. The third, Anthony Schinelli, was dismissed from the case last year on statute of limitations grounds.

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PENNSYLVANIA
LehighValleyLive

May 4, 2018

By Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com

Most of the thousands of Megan’s Law offenders in Pennsylvania keep their information and photographs up to date, as is required by authorities.

But more than 30 “noncompliant” offenders are currently under investigation in the state, according to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Adam Reed. They need to check in with police, but have yet to be charged with a crime for not doing so, Reed added.

And there are 22 other offenders, including one from the Lehigh Valley, who now have felony warrants out for their arrest and they are considered “absconded” — one step further than noncompliant, Reed said. Wherever they go in the country, if they are stopped by police, a routine check of National Crime Information Center information will flag them as fugitives, Reed said.

“All those guys have active arrest warrants,” Reed said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Attorney General Josh Shapiro

May 4, 2018

Two clergymen among first religious leaders in the U.S. to be held criminally liable for covering up sexual abuse of children

HARRISBURG – Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced his office has accepted pleas from two Franciscan friars for their criminal conduct in allowing a member of their religious order to sexually abuse more than 100 children over a period of many years at a Johnstown high school.

The two Franciscan supervisors are among the first clergy members in the United States to be held criminally liable for covering up sexual abuse of children by other clergy. These are the first members of a religious order in Pennsylvania to be sentenced for protecting clergy who abused children.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children – but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” Attorney General Shapiro said. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims. I won’t stand for that in any institution – and any person who fails to protect and safeguard children in their care will answer to me.”

The two defendants, Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered no contest pleas to endangering the welfare of children, a first-degree misdemeanor. They are the last two defendants in a case that began with a grand jury investigation and originally charged three clergymen with child endangerment and conspiracy. The third defendant, Anthony Schinelli, was dismissed from the case last year by a judge on statute of limitations grounds.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

May 4, 2018

By Matt Miller mmiller@pennlive.com

Two former Franciscan friars from Altoona each have been sentenced to 5 years of probation after pleading no contest to charges that they shielded a member of their order who sexually abused more than 100 children.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Friday that Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered their pleas to charges of endangering the welfare of children before being sentenced by Blair County Judge Judge Jolene G. Kopriva. The two also were fined $1,000 each.

The AG’s office arrested D’Aversa and Criscitelli two years ago. Charges against a third defendant, former Friar Giles Schinelli, were dismissed on statute of limitations grounds.

All three men were charged with failing to properly supervise Brother Stephen Baker, who was accused of molesting children while working at a Johnstown Catholic high school in the 1990s. Baker later committed suicide.

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PENNSYLVANIA
TribLive

STEPHEN HUBA

May 4, 2018

Two Altoona Franciscan friars will serve five years’ probation for their part in covering up the child sexual abuse committed by Brother Stephen Baker in the 1990s, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

The friars, Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered no-contest pleas Friday to endangering the welfare of children, a first-degree misdemeanor, Shapiro said.

They are among the first religious leaders in the United States, and the first members of a Pennsylvania religious order, to be held criminally liable for covering up sexual abuse of children by other clergy.

“These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children, but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order,” Shapiro said. “They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution’s reputation over the safety of victims.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

By: Myles Snyder

May 04, 2018

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two Franciscan friars have pleaded no contest to accusations they improperly supervised a suspected sexual predator accused of molesting more than 100 children, most at a Johnstown high school.

Robert D’Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered the pleas to endangering the welfare of children, a first-degree misdemeanor. Both were sentenced to five years of probation and fined $1,000 and costs of prosecution.

State prosecutors said the men conspired to cover up allegations against Franciscan friar Stephen Baker before and during Baker’s tenure at Johnstown’s Bishop McCort Catholic High School in the 1990s. Baker later took his own life.

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INDIA
Crux

Nirmala Carvalho
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

May 4, 2018

MUMBAI, India – A bishop in India has asked his diocese to fast and pray for a priest jailed after being accused of sending indecent messages to a school student.

Father Georgish Britto, of St. Anselm School in Alwar, was arrested on April 20 for allegedly sending obscene messages over WhatsApp to a 15-year-old female student who attends the school.

Afterwards, the student also accused the priest of touching her “inappropriately” in the school.

He was charged under India’s 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act.

Bishop Oswald Joseph Lewis of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, told Crux he visited Britto in jail, and the priest denied the allegations, and told the bishop he was “trapped.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Mountaineer

Kyle Perrotti

A former Episcopal priest facing sexual abuse allegations has returned to Haywood County, where he now faces accusations from two more individuals.

White appeared in court Friday May 4, for his first hearing, where he met his attorney, Sean Devereux from Asheville and attempted to get his bond lowered. However, after hearing from both Devereux and Assistant District Attorney Jeff Jones, Superior Court Judge Bradley Letts ended up raising the bond from the $660,000 set by the magistrate the prior evening, to $1.6 million.

White, who acted as rector for Grace Church in the Mountains from 1984-2006 came to Haywood facing one count of first-degree forcible rape, one count of second-degree forcible rape, one count of first-degree forcible sex offense, four counts of second degree forcible sex offense, and two counts of indecent liberties with a child – charges which stem from allegations of the 1985 sexual abuse of two minor victims, one boy and one girl.

The charges came against White after he was indicted by a Haywood County Grand Jury in early April. Authorities thought it could be difficult to get White down to North Carolina as early as they did because he was serving an 18-month sentence in South Bay Correctional Facility in Boston after pleading guilty to five counts of assault and battery relating to the 1973 sexual abuse of a boy. However, after serving about a year, as soon as White was released, State Bureau of Investigation agents were there to apprehend White.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

The following is the Letter the Holy Father Francis has sent to H.E. Msgr. Giovanni Angelo Becciu, special delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (S.M.O.M.)

Letter of the Holy Father

To the Venerable Brother
Msgr. Giovanni Angelo Becciu
Titular Archbishop of Roselle
Special Delegate to the Special Delegate at the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta

Fifteen months have now passed since 2 February 2017, when I decided to entrust to Your Excellency the office of my Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, with the task of accompanying that meritorious Order in the process of updating its Constitutional Charter and the Melitensis Code.

I wish first to thank you for your efforts in this delicate task, which you have performed willingly, especially in encountering and carefully listening to the Members of the Order. Considering the fact that the path of spiritual and juridical renewal of the S.M.O.M. has not yet been concluded, I ask you to continue to hold the office of my Delegate up to the conclusion of the reform process and in any case until I consider it useful for the Order itself. Until then you will continue to benefit from all powers and of being my exclusive spokesperson for all that relates to the relations between this Apostolic See and the Order.

I hereby designate Your Excellency to receive the oath of the New Grand Master of the Order, His Most Eminent Highness Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, to take place on 3 May.

In renewing the assurance of my prayer, I heartily impart my Apostolic Blessing to you, to the Grand Master and to all the members of the Melitense Order.

From the Vatican, 2 May 2018

Francis

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has extended the mandate of his envoy to the Knights of Malta lay religious order to oversee reforms, further sidelining Francis’ conservative critic, Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The Vatican on Friday released Francis’ letter to Monsignor Angelo Becciu asking him to remain his delegate and “exclusive” spokesman for Knights issues. Francis penned it May 2 after the lay religious order elected Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre as its 80th grand master, a life term.

Francis had named Becciu to oversee the Knights after a governance crisis sparked by a condom distribution scandal erupted in late 2016. The previous grand master, Fra Matthew Festing, was forced to resign.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Ari Feldman

May 2, 2018

The principal of an elite ultra-Orthodox girls’ school is defending himself against accusations from a politician and community members that he’s ignored years of complaints about sexual misconduct.

The controversy’s catalyst was the release late last week, through a popular messaging app, of a recording that relates one student’s tale of an unwanted kiss from a kitchen employee at Bais Sura in Boro Park, Brooklyn.

On May 3, the principal, Nuchem Klein, sent a letter to parents stating that the worker has been fired even though a school investigation found that the allegations were “unjustified.”

Yet a local politician, Dov Hikind, said Klein’s response was “pathetic,” and that parents have long complained to Klein about sexual misconduct to no avail. Now the school and its surrounding community are in an uproar over the mounting accusations of sexual misconduct. The controversy is particularly noisy because it involves female purity — a cherished value in the Hasidic world.

“Clearly the administration knew that something was wrong, and they got caught,” said Asher Lovy, the director of community organizing at Za’akah, a group that promotes awareness of sexual abuse in the Hasidic community. “But what’s stopping them from keeping more employees who need to go?”

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UNITED STATES
Sojourners

COMMENTARY

By Angela Denker

5-04-2018

One unintended consequence of recent male sexual misconduct in America, particularly among well-known pastors and Christian leaders, has been a resurgence of what is known as the “Billy Graham Rule” — a code, championed by Billy Graham and followed by some evangelical men, that says married men should not be alone with women other than their wives, under any circumstance.

It’s bogus. Particularly when it’s purported to be a part of “faithful Christian” culture.

Highlands Church pastor Les Hughey is only the most recent pastor to be publicly accused of sexual misconduct. This news broke just one week after prominent evangelical pastor Bill Hybels — of Willow Creek, whose wife Lynne has been a public supporter of the #MeToo movement — stepped down amid growing accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment.

It’s a troubling trend among male pastors and church leaders, as well as among Christians in general.

In response, some pastors and faith leaders, like Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president Danny Akin, are encouraging men yet again to embrace the Billy Graham Rule.

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on May 2, 2018

The number of reports of sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses now stands at 267, Reclaimed Voices, a foundation that manages the hotline for this type of abuse, said to newspaper Trouw.

Reclaimed Voices was established last year after Trouw published the stories of a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were abused during their youth. One victim called the religious group a “paradise for pedophiles”, because the Jehovah’s Witnesses elders tend to keep sexual abuse quiet. In the first week of its existence, the hotline received nearly 50 sexual abuse reports.

According to the newspaper, the victims of sexual abuse asked the Jehovah’s Witnesses elders for a meeting to discuss this abuse six months ago, but still haven’t heard anything. This has a big affect on the victims, Frank Huiting of Reclaimed Voices said to Trouw. “They are angry, they haven’t known where they stand for some time and feel disappointed about the entire process. They still aren’t being heard, is what it comes down to.”

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MONTANA
National Catholic Reporter

May 4, 2018

by Dan Morris-Young

Terms of a negotiated $20-million payment to settle 86 sex abuse claims against the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana, are scheduled to be presented in U.S. Bankruptcy Court May 8.

If approved by Judge Jim D. Pappas, the scheduled video hearing will mark the end of nearly seven years of litigation and mediation for the diocese.

Payouts to victims could begin as soon as late August, according to Ford Elsaesser, an attorney handling negotiations for the diocese with creditors.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection March 31 last year following unsuccessful efforts to address sex abuse filings from 72 plaintiffs dating to 2011.

Fourteen more claimants came forward after the bankruptcy filing. Nearly all the abuse allegations date from the 1950s through the 1990s.

While the earliest sex abuse lawsuits date to 2011, two comprehensive lawsuits each with multiple plaintiffs were filed against the diocese in 2014.

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GEORGIA
Telegraph

May 4, 2018

BY BECKY PURSER

A Centerville pastor faces new child molestation charges days before finishing a 35-day jail sentence for a misdemeanor sexual battery conviction against a 9-year-old girl.

Wiley Green Leverett, 58, preacher at Solid Rock Community Church, is charged with two counts of child molestation and one count each of sexual battery and enticing a child for indecent purposes. All the charges are felonies.

Leverett is accused of enticing a young girl into the church sanctuary to pray and then fondling her, according to arrest warrants. He’s also accused of inappropriately touching the girl’s private parts while he sat on a toilet in a church restroom.

“This is not a child that was involved in the previous case,” Houston County Assistant District Attorney Eric Edwards said.

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GEORGIA
Associated Press

May 4, 2018

CENTERVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A pastor days shy of ending his 35-day jail sentence for sexual battery against a 9-year-old has been charged in a separate child molestation crime.

The Macon Telegraph reports 58-year-old Wiley Green Leverett is accused of enticing a child into a church and then fondling her. Citing an arrest warrant, The Telegraph says he’s also accused of touching the girl inappropriately.

Leverett is a preacher at the Solid Rock Community Church in Centerville and was convicted of sexual battery in March for touching a 9-year-old’s thigh in 2012. Houston County Assistant District Attorney Eric Edwards says the girl in the new charges was around 6 years old at the time of the abuse in 2011. Leverett’s attorney, Russell Walker, says the allegations seem “fishy” but declined to elaborate.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY ROSS LEE

May 04, 2018

In the early 1970s, I was a pre-teen attending First Baptist Church. In 2002, I was received into the Catholic Church. Sadly, both have experienced the shame of being places of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church was exposed first, both nationally and locally, as we learned of priests abusing boys and girls. It happened in Modesto and Riverbank and throughout the Stockton diocese and the world.

Recently, our local First Baptist Church (now CrossPoint Community Church) is rocked by the revelations of sexual abuse by ministers decades ago.

Why would anyone want to be a Christian and associated with this hypocrisy?

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Religious Australia

May 3, 2018

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia have established a new advisory group that will play a crucial role in influencing and monitoring the Catholic Church’s ongoingresponse to the child sexual abuse scandal.Archbishop Denis Hart, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, explained that the newImplementation Advisory Group will monitor the response to the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse and the recommendations of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which led the Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission.

Sr Ruth Durick OSU, president of Catholic Religious Australia, said: “There is a huge body of work completed by survivors, the Royal Commissioners and the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

“The task of the Implementation Advisory Group is to be propositional as to the necessary reforms that Catholic institutions and communities will have to implement to be places of safety and transparency and places where we authentically live out our commitment to the values and vision of the Gospels.”

Sr Ruth and Archbishop Hart said three key groups will take forward the work arising from the Royal Commission and the work led “prophetically and generously” by Francis Sullivan and the Truth Justice and Healing Council:

* Catholic Professional Standards Ltd (CPSL), which was established in 2016 as an independent not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, with a board of directors comprised of lay men and women. Its role includes establishing national safeguarding standards that provide a
framework for all Catholic entities to build child-safe cultures;

* A National Redress Reference Group, working with the Commonwealth Government to bring
about the establishment of the National Redress Scheme; and

* The Implementation Advisory Group.

“It is necessary that the groups work together to identify gaps in response and monitor progress to date in all areas of reform for the Church in Australia as it responds to the crisis, the recommendations of the Royal Commission and the work of the Truth Justice and Healing Council,” Archbishop Hart said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 3, 2018

The advisory body, set up by the bishops and religious congregations will monitor responses to the clerical sex abuse scandal

Australia’s Catholic bishops and religious congregations have established a new advisory group to help with monitoring the Catholic Church’s ongoing response to the child sexual abuse scandal.

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, who heads the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the new Implementation Advisory Group will monitor the response to the findings of the Royal Commission, as well as the recommendations of the church’s own Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

In a statement published on Thursday, Archbishop Hart and Sr Ruth Durick, president of Catholic Religious Australia, said three key groups will now be working together to take forward the work arising from the Royal Commission and the work of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

These are an independent not-for-profit company called Catholic Professional Standards Ltd, a National Redress Reference Group and the Implementation Advisory Group.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

Tzvi Lev

04/05/18

With several abuse scandals plaguing the Jewish community over recent years, it is heartwarming to see how Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu took a public stand this week against convicted sexual predator ‘Rabbi’ Eliezer Berland.

Berland, who was sentenced to 18-months in prison for sexual assault, is still considered a hero by some Breslov hassidim. A recent article in Haaretz even claimed that some followers literally consider him God-like and excuse his many sexual indiscretions.

On Wednesday evening, Lag Ba’Omer, upon hearing that Berland was scheduled to make a grand entrance at the festivities held at Rashbi’s Tomb in Meron while flanked by his followers, Rabbi Eliyahu tried everything possible to stop it from happening. Invoking an obscure bureaucratic rule that nominally put him in charge of the tomb due to his position of Tzfat Chief Rabbi, he banned Berland from the premises and said that his presence is an”abomination to the holy Rashbi.”

“Mount Meron is a holy place and thousands of people from across Israel who come do not want to seek impurity on this day,” Rabbi Eliyahu told Arutz Sheva. “Such a person who impersonates a hassidic rabbi is an abomination and he should be removed from Meron.”

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Infobae

May 2, 2018

Three victims of the sexual abuse of Chilean priests met with Pope Francis: “He asked for forgiveness in his own name and that of the Church”

[Includes the entire text of the Cruz-Hamilton-Murillo statement.]

Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton y José Andrés Murillo indicaron que es necesario que además de los gestos del pontífice se produzcan “acciones”, ya que de no ser así “todo esto será letra muerta”

Las tres víctimas de abusos sexuales del cura chileno Fernando Karadima pidieron hoy que el papa Francisco “transforme en acciones ejemplares y ejemplificadoras sus cariñosas palabras de perdón”.

Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton y José Andrés Murillo dijeron que el Papa se mostró “muy receptivo, atento, empático” en sus reuniones a solas con cada uno de ellos en la residencia Casa Santa Marta.

* * *

El comunicado completo:

Después de haber pasado casi una semana en la Residencia Sabta Marta, compartiendo con el Papa Francisco, quisiéramos decir lo siguiente:

Durante casi 10 años hemos sido tratados como enemigos porque luchamos contra el abuso sexual y el encubrimiento en la Iglesia. Estos días conocimos un rostro amigable de la Iglesia, totalmente al que conocimos antes.

El Papa nos pidió formalmente perdón a nombre propio y a nombre de la Iglesia universal. Reconocemos y agradecemos este gesto y la enorme hospitalidad y generosidad de estos días. También agradecemos a monseñor Jordi Bertomeu quien, por encargo del Papa, nos ha acompañado y ha sabido transformar esta estadía en algo constructivo.

Pudimos conversar de manera respetuosa y franca con el Papa. Abordamos temas difíciles, como el abuso sexual, el abuso de poder y sobre todo el encubrimiento de los obispos chilenos. Realidades a las que no nos referimos como pecados, sino crímenes y corrupción y que no se agotan en Chile, sino que son una epidemia. Una epidemia que ha destruido miles de vidas de niños, niñas y jóvenes. Personas que confiaron y que fueron traicionados en su fe y en su confianza. Hablamos desde la experiencia. Una a la que otros no han logrado sobrevivir.

En nuestra vida nos hemos encontrado con sacerdote, religiosos y religiosas comprometidas con la dignidad de las víctimas y la justicia. Personas valientes que han logrado avances en esta lucha. Son muchos y son imprescindibles.

El Papa se mostró muy receptivo, atento y empático durante las intensas y largas horas de conversación. Esto fue muy significativo y de ahí nació la idea de generar sugerencias, que nos comprometimos a enviarle durante los próximos días y seguir trabajando en el tema.

No depende de nosotros que se llevan a cabo las necesarias transformaciones en la Iglesia para detener la epidemia del abuso sexual y el encubrimiento. Esperamos que el Papa transforme en acciones ejemplares y ejemplificadoras sus cariñosas palabras de perdón. De no ser así, todo esto será letra muerta.

Finalmente, quisiéramos repetir que decidimos aceptar esta invitación en nombre de miles de personas que han sido víctimas de abuso sexual y encubrimiento de la Iglesia Católica. Ellos les han dado el sentido a nuestra visita.

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CALIFORNIA
Variety

By Kristopher Tapley and Gene Maddaus

MAY 3, 2018

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership ranks.

The decision to remove Cosby and Polanski from the membership was made Tuesday, May 1 at a scheduled board meeting.

The move comes a week after Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault brought against him by Andrea Constand. Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by as many as 60 women, a few of which testified at the emotional hearing.

Polanski has been on the lam for 40 years, ever since fleeing the country while awaiting sentencing for statutory rape in 1978. The case has undergone a number of bizarre twists over the decades, as the L.A. County District Attorney’s office has tried unsuccessfully to extradite him, and Polanski has tried unsuccessfully to resolve the case from afar.

Polanski’s attorney, Harland Braun, told Variety that the director was not afforded an opportunity to defend himself to the Academy, which he says is at odds with the process outlined Academy’s new code of conduct. However, there is a provision allowing the board to act whether that process is followed or not.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald

May 4 2018

The Catholic Church has called gardaí to investigate images apparently showing a man in priest’s vestments performing a sex act on the altar of an Irish church.

It is understood that several senior clerics, including bishops, have been made aware of the shocking images over recent days.

The Catholic Church confirmed to the Irish Independent the matter had been reported to gardaí and a full investigation is expected to follow into the apparent sacrilege.

A spokesperson for the diocese declined to comment further for legal reasons in view of “the criminal nature of the alleged incident”.

A source who obtained the images, and who wants to remain anonymous, described what is depicted as happening in the church as “an abomination”.

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MICHIGAN
Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Michigan State University’s heightened financial risk in the wake of a sex abuse scandal involving former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar led Moody’s Investors Service to cut the school’s credit rating to Aa2 from Aa1 on Thursday.

The credit rating agency said the downgrade, which affects about $975 million of debt, was prompted by a growing number of lawsuits, federal and state probes, and Michigan legislation that could all hurt the university’s finances.

Plaintiffs and investigators question why the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, where Nassar also worked, failed to probe complaints about him going back years.

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SWEDEN
NPR

May 4, 2018

The Swedish Academy, responsible for handing out the annual Nobel Prize in literature, says it will not present the award this year as it struggles to contain the damage from a major sex-abuse scandal.

Anders Olsson, the acting permanent secretary of the Stockholm-based body, announced that the 2018 prize would instead be given in 2019, a decision that “was arrived at in view of the currently diminished Academy and the reduced public confidence in the Academy,” according to a statement.

“Work on the selection of a laureate is at an advanced stage and will continue as usual in the months ahead but the Academy needs time to regain its full complement, engage a larger number of active members and regain confidence in its work, before the next Literature Prize winner is declared,” the Academy said.

It would be the first time since 1943 – in the midst of World War II – that the prestigious prize has not been awarded.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By David Lombardo

May 3, 2018

Gary Greenberg hasn’t given up hope on the Child Victims Act for 2018

In the wake of the Assembly’s action on the bill this week, he was optimistic about its chances in the Republican controlled Senate, which is seen as the last stumbling block to the Child Victims Act becoming law.

Greenberg, who formed a political action committee to advance the CVA, believes the bill could still reach the floor in the state Senate before the end of session in June. Pointing to meetings with Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and central Republican staff, he said there is a recognition among Senate Republicans that they need to act on the bill sooner than later.

Greenberg argued that the 40,000 robocalls by his political action committee on behalf of the successful Senate special election campaign of Democrat Shelley Mayer didn’t go unnoticed. “The CVA is a hot potato for the Republican Senate,” he said.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

03/05/18

On Wednesday evening, Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu announced that he was banning Rabbi Eliezer Berland from making his annual pilgrimage to the Lag Baomer festivities at Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s Tomb in Meron. As Rabbi Eliyahu is Tzfat’s Chief Rabbi, the going-ons at the nearby tomb in Meron fall under his purview.

According to Rabbi Eliyahu, the fact that Rabbi Berland had been convicted under a plea bargain agreement to two counts of sexual assault would have made his attendance at the Lag Baomer event into “an abomination.”

“Mount Meron is a holy place and thousands of people from across Israel who come do not want to seek impurity on this day,” Rabbi Eliyahu told Arutz Sheva. “Such a person who impersonates a hassidic rabbi is an abomination and he should be removed from Meron.”

Berland, 81, is the founder of the Shuvu Banim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem and was a prominent figure in the Breslov community. After the allegations of sexual misconduct came to light in 2012, Rabbi Berland fled the country, traveling Europe and Africa while evading arrest and extradition.

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CHILE
Prensa Latina

Santiago, Chile, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Although Pope Francis has not announced possible sanctions on the bishops of the Chilean Catholic Church, all signs aim to an unprecedented lesson.

Perhaps the measures will not be as radical as some expect, but the intention of His Holiness clearly is to send a worldwide message to end the scandals of sexual abuses by ministers of the Church.

The three most known Chilean victims of sexual abuses by the priest Fernando Karadima have met separately with the Bishop of Rome over the past few days.

Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo noted after the meetings that ‘the Pope apologized to us on his behalf and that of the Church,’ and noted that ‘he will undoubtedly take measures’.

We do not know what kind of sanction or punishment the Holy Pontiff will adopt, but we harbor hopes that he will reflect with his conscience certainly knowing all the abuses committed, Cruz noted.

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NEW YORK
Hudson Valley 360

May 3, 2018

For Gary Greenberg and other backers of the Child Victims Act, passage in the state Assembly on Tuesday must have felt frustratingly like deja vu.

Here were the legislation’s supporters for the second straight year, watching the proposed bill survive the Assembly and then hoping the state Senate would finally get the message and seal the deal.

If the state Senate takes up the legislation before the end of session and it is signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Child Victims Act would eliminate the statute of limitations in criminal and civil cases of sexual crimes against children, allowing the adult survivors to sue for compensation from their attackers and the institutions that covered up the abuses.

Greenberg, an attorney who lives in New Baltimore, is the survivor of brutal sexual assaults he suffered at the age of 7. He has led the fight for passage of the bill for several years. He is also a survivor of the state Legislature’s failures of nerve. Each year, Greenberg watched as the Child Victims Act came tantalizingly close to full passage, only to see it fall short in the state Senate.

He hopes the outcome will be different this year.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Gazette

By Louis Weisberg, staff writer

May 3, 2018

Upon the news that Matt Flynn was running for the Democratic nomination for governor, a state GOP spokesperson said, “Matt Flynn has sought to cover-up the crimes committed against those who are most vulnerable.”

Even as some progressive donors line up behind the 71-year-old former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair, the GOP accusation is, if anything, an understatement.

If Flynn were to win the nomination, GOP attacks on this front would be a daily occurrence.

While an attorney for Quarles and Brady — the tony law firm that counts the Archdiocese of Milwaukee among its most important clients — Flynn became lead defender in the sex-abuse case with the nation’s fourth-largest number of alleged victims.

For years, people with direct knowledge of the case have claimed Flynn threatened and tormented victims of known pedophile priests in order to silence them. He’s also been accused of protecting priests who abused hundreds of children.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Express

03/05/2018,

A former volunteer at an Aberdeen children’s home has told how she tried to cover up a child’s bed wetting to save him from being “ridiculed” by a nun.

Margaret White was studying at Aberdeen University between 1974 and 1977 when she helped out at Nazareth House in the city.

The 63-year-old told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry how she had never seen children being hit, but she felt the way one boy was treated for bed wetting was “wrong”.

She said: “There was a young lad who did wet the bed and he was, probably, very harshly done by by the sister. He was never physically hurt.

“From what I know now, it was very wrong – a nine-year-old boy wetting the bed and being punished verbally.

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MICHIGAN
WNEM

May 02, 2018

Meg McLeod, Anchor/Reporter

SAGINAW COUNTY, MI (WNEM) –

Could there be more people within the Saginaw Catholic Diocese to be charged with sexual misconduct?

The man chosen to verify accounts of abuse, retired Judge Michael Talbot, sat down with prosecutors to tell them what he’s learned.

Talbot revealed what was discussed during what he called “a very productive” meeting.

“If there’s somebody actively out there now. I want to know about it,” Talbot said.

That’s what he said he told Saginaw County’s prosecutor and assistant prosecutor Wednesday morning.

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MICHIGAN
Fox 66

by Sarah Jaeger

May 2nd 2018

SAGIANW, Mich. –The Diocese of Saginaw’s independent delegate meeting for the first time with the Saginaw county prosecutor and the assistant prosecutor Wednesday morning.

Michael Talbot, a former appeals court judge, was appointed to the role in mid-April after the arrest of Fr. Robert DeLand for allegedly sexually assaulting minors.

Talbot told NBC25/FOX66 the meeting this morning started off bit tense but gradually relaxed when both realized they have a common interest, namely protecting minors.

Talbot tasked with leading the church’s internal investigation into the alleged abuse and says he spoke with everyone in the diocese to see if there’s anything he should know about. He claims nobody spoke up with any new information and shared that with prosecutor office which he hopes will do the same.

“I’m concerned if there’s anybody else and I asked if there is please let me know,” say Talbot. “We want to take them out of ministry but conversely if there isn’t anything I think the people of this county have a right to also know that that there is nothing else beyond the case that’s out there already.”

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CHILE
New Straits Times (Singapore)

SANTIAGO (AFP) – With the country in an uproar over the brutal rape and death of a 20-month-old toddler, Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera on Thursday backed plans to lift the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors.

The move came just days after 20-month-old Ambar was taken to a hospital in the central Los Andes region by her aunt and legal guardian, who claimed she had fallen off a bed.

But medics who examined her quickly realised the toddler had been raped, with the paediatrician telling Chile’s La Tercera daily he had “never” seen such levels of abuse in his 18 years of experience.

Despite undergoing immediate surgery, she did not survive, in a case of brutality which has badly shaken conservative Chile, sparking calls for a return of the death penalty.

The alleged perpetrator is believed to be the aunt’s partner, who has been arrested on suspicion of “rape and murder.”

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

By: Steph Machado

May 04, 2018

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Describing abuse that took place decades ago, victims of sexual abuse implored lawmakers Thursday night to eliminate the statute of limitations that prevents victims from suing their abusers after years have passed.

The legislation, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Donna Nesselbush of Pawtucket and Democratic Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee of South Kingstown, would allow victims an unlimited amount of time to bring civil claims against their alleged abusers.

Jim Scanlan, who identified himself in 2015 as one of the anonymous victims featured in the “Spotlight” movie, testified to the committee that it took decades for him to tell anyone that he was raped by Jesuit priest James Talbot when he was a student at Boston College High School in 1977.

“This is a testimony about someone who used threats and intimidation and his power to prevent me or intimidate me from coming forward,” Scanlan said.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit News

Jonathan Oosting, Detroit News Lansing Bureau

May 3, 2018

Birmingham — Victim No. 368, as he was called in a national settlement case, keeps his hair long to hide any sign of the faint scar. He got it roughly 40 years ago, when he says Brother Rice High School’s principal bit him on the ear and told him it would leave a mark for the rest of his life.

He keeps the belt buckles his alleged abuser gave him during a prolonged “grooming” period that continued long after he claims leaders of the Roman Catholic school in Birmingham transferred Brother Frank Luke Dalton to California following an admission he’d had a “wet dream” about the teen. He keeps the pocket knife, turntable, records and other gifts.

“I really just want to get rid of this stuff,” he said decades after Dalton allegedly spit in his mouth one night during a private “wrestling” session in the school cafeteria. Decades after he said Dalton, also the wrestling coach at the all-boys school, grabbed his testicles during another session in the adult’s car.

Now 55, Victim 368 — who does not want to disclose his name for fear it could further damage his life — is asking Michigan legislators to think about cases like his as they consider changing laws that place time limits on how long a sexual assault victim can sue or pursue criminal charges against their abuser.

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CHILE
Latin American Herald Tribune

May 4,2018

SANTIAGO – Chilean President Sebastian Piñera on Thursday presented a bill aimed at eliminating the statute of limitations on prosecution of sexual offenses against minors.

Speaking at the presidential palace, he pointed out that under current law, the statute of limitations for such crimes is 10 years.

Piñera invoked the recent high-profile cases of Ambar, a 2-year-old girl who died of injuries received while being raped by a family member; and Sophie, a child of 23 months who passed away due to abuse by her father.

“There is no crime more deplorable, more cowardly – against the life, the innocence of our children – than sex abuse,” the president said. “It not only harms their body, it also leaves deep wounds in their soul, as well as painful marks.”

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ROME
Eurasia Review

May 4, 2018

By JD Flynn

On Wednesday, three Chilean survivors of clerical sexual abuse held a press conference to discuss recent conversations with Pope Francis about the circumstances of their abuse.

Juan Carlos Cruz, along with James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, were sexually abused by Fr. Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing minors during the 1980s and 1990s. Karadima was sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Karadima’s abuse has drawn recent attention because of long-rumored reports that his one-time friend, now-Bishop Juan Barros, helped to cover up the abuse or was a participant in it. Barros was appointed to lead the Diocese of Osorno in January 2015, despite considerable protest in Chile, and despite objections from some of Chile’s bishops. Barros’ appointment has been a matter of serious controversy ever since.

In January of this year, Pope Francis visited Chile and publicly defended Barros, saying that accusations against him were “calumny,” and that he had seen no proof of the bishop’s involvement in Karadima’s abuse. Those remarks drew serious rebukes, including one from Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, chair of the pope’s commission on sexual abuse, and the pope apologized for the tone of his remarks, while insisting on the innocence of Barros.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

[with video]

May 03, 2018

SAGINAW (WJRT) (5/3/2018) – It’s an investigation that has rocked the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

After the arrest of Robert DeLand, the diocese released the names of five priests who were removed from the ministry years ago because of suspected sex abuse.

There was actually a police investigation on one of the priests.

A letter sent in 2004 by the lead investigator into claims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has some church officials questioning his motives.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

May 03, 2018

SAGINAW (WJRT) – (5/3/2018) – Sex abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

It was story that broke in February with the arrest of well-known priest Robert Deland. He awaits trial on a variety of charges.

A letter written by then-Huron County prosecutor Mark Gaertner has the diocese questioning the motive of the current probe into abuse.

ABC12’s Terry Camp investigates.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Katherine Gregg
Journal Political Writer
kathyprojo

May 3, 2018

“Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus Christ did he ever say that it’s okay for men in collars to rape kids,″ said Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, 60, the internal medical doctor who once chaired the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission who, on Thursday night, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a victim-survivor.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Victims of sexual abuse by priests and other trusted elders returned to the State House — for the second time this year — to plead with lawmakers to repeal Rhode Island’s seven-year statute of limitations on the pursuit of legal claims against perpetrators of sex crimes against minors.

“Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus Christ did he ever say that it’s okay for men in collars to rape kids,″ said Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, 60, the internal medical doctor who once chaired the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission who, on Thursday night, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a victim-survivor.

“The only way to stop these people is to have them have the fear that sooner or later they are going to get named,″ echoed another victim-survivor, Dr. Ann Hagan Webb, the sister of the lead legislative sponsor of the bill, Rep. Carol McEntee, D-South Kingstown.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC 6

May 04, 2018

By John Krinjak
Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com
Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — At the State House Thursday night, local victims of sexual violence shared deeply personal stories.

“Today I can do it. But today is 53 years since the abuse stopped,” said sex abuse survivor Ann Hagan Webb.

Their hope? To eliminate Rhode Island’s civil statute of limitations for sexual assault–which is currently three years for adults, seven for children.

“It can take a long time, longer than 3 or 7 years, to come to terms with what has happened to you,” said Sen. Donna Nesselbush.

Many say the current laws favor the predators.

Jim Scanlan was raped by his teacher at Boston College High School back in the 70s. The former North Kingstown resident was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight.”

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CANADA
CBC News

Jason Warick · CBC News

May 04, 2018

An Ontario man abused by a priest in the 1960s has won a record $2.5-million settlement against the Catholic Church, but some of Rev. Hodgson Marshall’s other victims said he could have been stopped years earlier in Saskatchewan

Fellow priests and teachers at Saskatoon’s St. Paul’s High School were well aware of Marshall’s abuse, the survivors said. He was known to students by the nickname “Happy Hands” and had a two-way mirror from his office into the boy’s change room, they said. One said he told a fellow teacher of the abuse in the confession booth and was told to say 10 Hail Marys and go back to class.

In 1961, Marshall was transferred out of Saskatoon to Ontario where the abuse continued.

‘Just kept moving him’

“He went to a lot of other places after us. They just kept moving him around and I don’t know what they were thinking. They just put him in touch with more kids. They were giving him gifts rather than kicking him out of the church and taking legal action,” former St. Paul’s student Gary Mulligan said in an interview with CBC News Thursday.

Fellow St. Paul’s student Tim Ryan agreed.

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CANADA
The Western Star

May 4, 2018

The refusal by Pope Francis to apologize to victims of abuse a native residential schools in Canada is striking hard at survivors and their families in the Atlantic region.

Abuses at these schools have been well documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Equally well known is the role of the Catholic Church in operating those schools.

A papal apology is one of 94 recommendations made by the TRC. During a visit to the Vatican last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope to consider the gesture. So far, the answer is no. That refusal is hard to understand — and is unacceptable.

Canadian bishops said in a recent letter that Pope Francis has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous peoples, but he can’t personally apologize for residential schools.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

By LAUREN CHOOLJIAN

May 3, 2018

Two alumni are suing St. Paul’s School for not protecting them from sexual abuse by faculty members in the 1960s and 70s, and their lawsuit calls the Concord prep school a “haven for sexual predators” that has failed to protect children for decades.

The complaint comes from alumni Keith Mithoefer, who was a St. Paul’s student from 1966 to 1970, and George Chester Irons, who attended from 1973 to 1976. Irons went on to become president of the school’s alumni association, chairman of its Alumni Fund and a member of the school Board of Trustees.

The lawsuit appears to be only the second case filed against St. Paul’s School by students claiming negligence regarding sexual abuse and assault. In January, St. Paul’s settled a civil lawsuit brought by the family of a former student, Chessy Prout. Prout was a 15-year-old freshman at the elite boarding school when she accused then senior Owen Labrie of sexually assaulting her.

In July, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office launched a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s over allegations of sexual abuse and assault. Officials said the investigation is focused on “whether the school engaged in conduct constituting endangering the welfare of a child.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff

May 03, 2018

Two alumni have filed a civil lawsuit against St. Paul’s School alleging the school was “a haven for sexual predators” and did nothing to prevent their abuse by faculty and staff in the 1970s.

George Chester Irons and Keith “Biff” Mithoefer filed the 22-page lawsuit Tuesday in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. Irons, a former president of the Alumni Association and member of the Board of Trustees who graduated in 1976, and Mithoefer, of the class of 1970, are seeking compensatory damages for the emotional and physical abuse they suffered decades ago at the Concord prep school, which they say has long failed to protect children in its care.

Irons and Mithoefer have brought 10 civil claims against St. Paul’s including negligent hiring, retention and supervision of faculty/staff, negligent infliction of emotional distress and vicarious liability. Additionally, Irons’s wife, Barbara Irons, alleges in the lawsuit that as a result of the harm caused to her husband, she suffered loss of his “aid, assistance, comfort, society, companionship, affection, and conjugal relation.”

St. Paul’s had long known of the sexual abuse of students in the care of their teachers and advisors and yet chose to remain silent for decades, further augmenting the psychological harm that alumni like Irons and Mithoefer suffered, the lawsuit says.

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CANADA
Catholic Spirit

BY ROBERT BREHL

May 3, 2018

Last week’s record financial award to a man abused by a monstrous priest 50 years ago is cringeworthy on many levels.

A Toronto jury of four women and two men in the Ontario Superior Court awarded Rod MacLeod, now 68, $2.6 million in damages, including $500,000 in punitive damages. While in high school in Sudbury, beginning at age 13 and lasting four years, MacLeod was repeatedly sexually molested by William Hodgson (Hod) Marshall, then a priest and teacher.

The award of punitive damages is significant. Punitive damages are a way of punishing the defendant — in this case the Catholic Church and the Congregation of St. Basil — in a civil lawsuit and are based on the theory that the interesontariots of society and the individual harmed can be met by imposing additional damages.

In the decision, the jurors wrote that the Basilians time and again concealed the priest’s behaviour to avoid “scandal” and knowingly “put children in harm’s way.”

That in itself is cringeworthy, but moving Marshall around and covering up for him, the Basilian leaders have also exposed the Church to even more punitive damages in future court proceedings. Marshall had many other victims, some of whom have already received out-of-court settlements and other victims will likely — and deservedly — follow the path of MacLeod.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

May 1, 2018

by Maria Wiering, Catholic News Service

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal appeals court upheld two lower court rulings that the assets of Catholic institutions, including parishes, are separate from those of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and that they cannot be consolidated with archdiocesan assets in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The April 26 ruling came from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thomas Abood, chairman of the archdiocese’s Reorganization Task Force, welcomed the ruling April 30.

“We are pleased that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a meritless legal argument by claimants’ counsel that has been directly responsible for delaying the resolution of the archdiocesan bankruptcy and has given rise to the erroneous claim — now rejected for the third time in this litigation — that the archdiocese has undisclosed assets which it has not made available to its creditors in its bankruptcy,” Abood said in a statement.

“I hope all abuse survivors, reassured by the court’s decision, will soon be able to choose the path of settlement and closure on this aspect of their quest for justice and healing,” he said.

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MALAWI
ENCA

2 May 2018

BLANTYRE, Malawi – A Catholic priest, police officer, and a medical officer are among 11 people facing charges for the murder of a man living with albinism in Malawi, police spokesman James Kadadzera said.

The latest murder of a man with albinism in Malawi – the 22nd in four years – has sparked calls for their killers to be executed to deter a wave of attacks in the poor southern African nation.

Police said the dismembered corpse of 22-year-old McDonald Masambuka was found buried in southern Malawi several weeks after he went missing in March.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Trento, May 2 – An Italian priest was sent away from his northern Italian parish Wednesday for “morally unacceptable” conduct, his archbishop said.

The charges against Father Daniele Morandini concern the sexual sphere but not minors, Trento Archbishop Lauro Tisi said after ejecting the priest from the parish of Borgo Valsugana, Castelnuovo and Olle.

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News

April 30, 2018

Okemos — An investigation of a Catholic priest had focused on a $3 million mansion he built in 2007, but new records show the alleged pilfering began long before then.

The purported embezzlement started shortly after the Rev. Jon Wehrle founded St. Martha Church in 1988 and continued for 26 years, according to an audit by Plante Moran. In all, the priest is accused of taking $5.4 million from the church from 1991 to 2017, the audit shows.

Wehrle was charged with six counts of embezzlement last year and forced to resign as pastor of St. Martha. He is scheduled to be tried June 11 in Ingham County Circuit Court.

Church members, already shocked by earlier accounts of the alleged chicanery, are beginning to wonder whether they knew the priest at all.

“It’s shocking. I had no idea,” said former member Kathy Flynn.

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IOWA
Daily Nonpereil

By Mike Bell
mbell@nonpareilonline.com

May 3, 2018

The Rev. Paul Monahan’s conviction on five counts of invasion of privacy was reversed Wednesday, as the Iowa Court of Appeals said the prosecution failed to show the complaining witnesses had a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public bathroom, among other findings.

Monahan declined to comment Thursday morning.

After the reversal was made public Wednesday, Monahan’s attorney, Dan McGinn, said in a statement they were pleased — but not surprised — by the unanimous decision by the court of appeals.

“The Court found the evidence did not support the conviction. Unfortunately, there is nowhere for Father Monahan to go to have his reputation restored,” McGinn said.

Diocese of Des Moines Bishop Richard Pates said he was pleased with the reversal.

“Along with Father Monahan, we are relieved that this decision has been reached and anticipate that Father will be fully reinstated to priestly ministry once the appeal process has been completed.”

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IOWA
Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Appeals Court has overturned the conviction of a retired Catholic priest who’d been accused of invading the privacy of several students in a high school restroom.

The students had complained that the Rev. Paul Monahan repeatedly entered the public restroom during a high school track meet in 2016 and looked at their genitals. Monahan’s doctor testified that Monahan’s restroom visits were necessitated by a medical condition.

The Daily Nonpareil reports that the court said in its decision released Wednesday that the students had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public bathroom. Prosecutors are mulling an appeal.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

May 3, 2018

ALLEGED victim of child sexual abuse Dassi Erlich said this week she will no longer speak to the Adass Israel School board because she feels they aren’t serious about apologising to victims.

At her first meeting with the board last July, Erlich – who claims she was abused by former Adass principal Malka Leifer – asked for a public statement of support, an apology and a statement that would encourage victims to speak to the police and seek support.

“They said they could do that, they just have to check with their insurers first.”

However, in November, a draft apology was rejected by Erlich as she felt it didn’t address the key issues, and then this March she was asked by the board to write the apology she wanted herself, which she felt was ridiculous. “I walked out of that meeting so angry,” she said.

The AJN can reveal that the board then outsourced the apology to Norman Rosenbaum, who was present at one of the Adass meetings in 2008 before Leifer was spirited out of the country to Israel, where she’s currently facing extradition proceedings.

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Community Watch

May 2, 2018

We are shocked and dismayed to see the conclusions reached by the investigative committee commissioned by the NIK and NIG into Mendel Levine. The investigation examined allegations of historic child molestation allegedly perpetrated by Levine, that have been public since 2011.

The discounting of both victim’s words, as well as other critical information presented, amounts to disappointing, dismal whitewashing and rewriting of history. We question how “independent” this investigation actually was. Most important, we stand with the alleged victims in this case; our founder, director, and friend Meyer Seewald, and the second young man who wishes to remain anonymous.

In the coming days our committee will be reviewing the evidence we have, and publicising whatever is appropriate.
—
Meyer Seewald, the founder and director of JCW, posted the following to his Facebook page:
Running JCW for the better part of the last 7 years, I have seen and heard a lot of terrible things that have kept me up and night and triggered me and made me physically sick. Usually I think I can handle it and can push through it, over it and past it. But tonight I got an email that makes me feel like I’m not even sure what to do next.

The things I share publicly are often very personal, but this is another level, because it’s about my abuse. My first abuser who destroyed my innocence, who left me with traumas I tried to run away from and yet am l dealing with constantly to this day.

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OREGON
Oregonian

May 2, 2018

By Therese Bottomly tbottomly@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

BEND — A former Gresham pastor has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for sexually abusing a former family member.

The Bulletin newspaper reports Jamie Worley was sentenced Monday, several weeks after his conviction in a case that involved a child in Bend between 2002 and 2004.

The victim addressed the court, saying the childhood abuse has made it difficult for her to maintain romantic relationships and interact with customers at her job. She said the smell of Worley’s brand of cologne “makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

Defense attorney Richard Cohen says the defense is appealing the verdict.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Conor Riordan

3rd May 2018

STAFF at an Aberdeen orphanage forced a girl to “kiss a dead nun” during her five-year stay, an abuse inquiry has heard.

The witness, who cannot be named, had her statement read at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

The woman, who stayed at Nazareth House between 1969 and 1974, wrote that she was made to kiss a dead nun and was then beaten for refusing to do so.

Her statement went on to detail how she was force fed her food with a fork by one of the nuns, after complaining about it.

Chair Lady Smith also heard from a former orphanage volunteer who told how she tried to cover up a child’s bed wetting after nuns branded him a “dirty boy”.

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SCOTLAND
STV

Francis Moore, 82, was locked up for nine years after trial earlier this year.

A priest jailed for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys and a trainee priest is appealing against his conviction and sentence.

Francis Moore, 82, who was also known as Father Paul, was found guilty after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow earlier this year and jailed for nine years.

Court officials have now confirmed that Moore’s legal team has lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence.

Moore’s youngest victim was just five when the priest abused him at primary school.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MAY 03, 2018

ALBANY – With the Assembly having again passed a bill to make it easier for victims of child abuse to seek justice as adults, the Senate Democratic sponsor is pushing for Senate Republicans to hold hearings for the first time.

Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter Wednesday to committee Chairman John Bonacic (R-Orange County) calling for the hearings.

The Dems cited Senate rules that require the committee to honor such a petition for a public hearing if one-third of the panel’s members request it — “unless a majority of the members of the committee reject such a petition.”

The idea is to try and pressure the Republicans into taking the matter up for the first time. Hoylman said. “Part of the strategy by the opponents of the Child Victims Act is that it’s all done behind closed doors,” Hoylman said.

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ROMA
Chron

[Chilean victims of the Pope: End abuses, cover-up.]

By NICOLE WINFIELD

May 2, 2018

ROMA (AP) — Los tres denunciantes del abuso sexual por curas chilenos pidieron el miércoles al papa Francisco que convierta sus disculpas a ellos por haberlos desacreditado en medidas concretas para poner fin a lo que llamaron una “epidemia” de abusos sexuales y encubrimiento en la Iglesia católica.

Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton y José Andrés Murillo hablaron con la prensa después de pasar cinco días con el papa en su hotel en el Vaticano. La conferencia de prensa que dieron fue televisada en vivo en Chile, señal de la naturaleza sin precedentes de la reunión que tuvieron el pontífice.

El papa reconoció durante la reunión: “Yo fui parte del problema. Yo causé esto, y les pido perdón”, dijo Cruz.

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ROME
New York Times

Leer en español

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

MAY 2, 2018

ROME — The first thing Pope Francis said, when he met privately on Sunday with Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of sexual abuse, was: “Juan Carlos, I want to say sorry for what happened to you, as the pope and also for the universal church.”

The second thing he said, Mr. Cruz recounted on Wednesday, was, “I was part of the problem, and that’s why I am saying sorry.”

“To me, that was very telling,” Mr. Cruz said. The pope, he said, “had called me a liar, and he apologized for that.”

Mr. Cruz joined James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo, also victims in their youth of a notorious Chilean pedophile priest, at a new conference in Rome on Wednesday to discuss their intense and emotional sojourn this past week as guests of the pope in the Vatican.

But even as the three men expressed gratitude for the meeting — “I have never seen anyone so contrite,” Mr. Cruz said of Francis — they urged the pope to transform “his loving words” of apology into “exemplary actions” to end sexual abuse and its cover-up in the Roman Catholic Church.

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

By Terry Camp

SAGINAW (WJRT) (5/2/2018) – The man appointed to help the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw deal with abuse claims met with prosecutors on Wednesday.

Michael Talbot said his phone calls and emails to the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office have gone unanswered, so he paid a personal visit. Talbot said they vowed to work together.

“It was, I think, productive,” he said.

Bishop Joseph Cistone appointed the now-retired Michigan Court of Appeals judge three weeks ago to help the diocese deal with the alleged sex abuse claims.

Wednesday marked the first time Talbot spoke with Prosecutor John McColgan and Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner, who is leading a task force formed to investigate current and past claims of possible abuse by priests in the diocese.

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MICHIGAN
WSGW

By John Hall

May 3, 2018

Retired Judge Michael Talbot who’s been delegated by the Saginaw Catholic Diocese to investigate whether Diocesan employees have committed acts of abuse or sexual misconduct met Wednesday with the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office.

Talbot says he’s talked to employees and gone over messages at the Victim’s Assistance Office, but turned up no new allegations other than what’s already been made public, including those against former priest Robert DeLand.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

Arutz Sheva Staff,

02/05/18

Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu warned Rabbi Eliezer Berland not to hold a celebratory bonfire at the tomb of the Taanaic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron Wednesday evening.

Thousands of people gathered at Meron, which is near the Galilee city of Tzfat, to celebrate Lag B’Omer Wednesday night.

According to Rabbi Eliyahu, the lighting of the bonfire by the grave of the “Rashbi” would constitute an “abomination” and an “insult” to the revered sage.

Berland, 81, is the founder of the Shuvu Banim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem and was a prominent figure within the Breslov community. After the allegations of sexual misconduct came to light in 2012, Rabbi Berland fled the country, traveling Europe and Africa while evading arrest and extradition.

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MICHIGAN
Huron Daily Tribune

By Brenda Battel Tribune Staff Writer

May 2, 2018

BAD AXE — A police report reveals local authorities investigated a former Huron County priest that the Saginaw Diocese recently announced was laicized following sexual abuse allegations.

Jack E. Leipert, known as “Father Jack,” was a pastor at Sacred Heart in Bad Axe, when he was investigated for allegedly molesting a 21-year-old man in 2000.

No charges were ever filed by the Huron County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Bad Axe Police Department investigated the complaint, wherein it was alleged Leipert molested the victim on Nov. 7, 2000, according to a police report.

Leipert reportedly approached the alleged victim at a gas station in Caseville about paying him to do some maintenance work.

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Mountaineer

May 2, 2018

Kyle Perrotti

Howard White is one step closer to facing child sex abuse allegations in Haywood County.

White, who is charged with several felonies related to the alleged 1985 sexual abuse of two children while he was rector of Waynesville’s Grace Church in the Mountains, is scheduled to be released from Boston’s South Bay Correctional Facility Thursday.

As of now, the 76-year-old has served 12 months of an 18-month sentence for five counts of assault and battery — to which he pleaded guilty — relating to the sexual abuse of a boy while he was employed by St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island in 1973.

Although White will be released from the custody of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney Ashley Welch said that along with a governor’s warrant that has been signed and delivered to Massachusetts, he will be held in that state on a fugitive warrant until he can be transported to North Carolina.

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NEW YORK
Hudson Valley News Network

By Kathy Welsh

May 2, 2018

CHESTER – Assemblyman James Skoufis announced he co-sponsored and helped pass the Child Victims Act, which allows more victims of childhood sexual abuse to face their abusers in civil or criminal court (A.5885-A).

The measure extends the statutes of limitations for civil and criminal cases and provides a year-long window for past victims who previously missed their statute of limitations to bring their predators to court.

“There’s absolutely nothing more despicable than willfully harming a child,” Skoufis said. “To make a tragic situation even worse, our justice system works all-too-often in favor of these sick individuals, rather than their innocent victims. Childhood victims are often too afraid or traumatized to come forward until they’re adults, and by then the statute of limitations has run out. We must change the law so that more survivors can seek justice and move forward with their lives.”

Each year, over 63,000 children are sexually abused – and that’s just the number of cases that are actually reported, said Skoufis. In reality, countless cases go unreported and many survivors live in silence, Skoufis noted. With such wide support among the public, Skoufis was disappointed the Child Victims Act died in the Senate last year and was not included as part of the state budget this year. 2018

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ROME
Los Angeles Times

By TOM KINGTON

MAY 02, 2018

During hours of emotional meetings at the Vatican, Pope Francis begged for forgiveness from Chileans who have alleged priestly sexual abuse — according to those in attendance — who described their meeting with the pope as a “defining moment” in his papacy and demanded he follow through by ousting Chilean bishops they accuse of cover-ups.

“I have never seen someone so contrite. He was truly sorry, and I felt he was hurting,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, one of three people invited to sit down with the pope over the weekend for individual meetings. “He said, ‘I was part of the problem. I caused this,’ ” said Cruz, who called his three-hour meeting with Francis “very raw.”

The three men allege they endured sexual abuse as youths in Chile at the hands of prelate Fernando Karadima, who was sentenced by the Vatican in 2011 to a lifetime of penance, which means he’s been forced to retire from public life and public ministry to a life of prayer for atonement.

The Vatican did not, however, believe the men’s claim that the abuse was witnessed and covered up by Chilean Bishop Juan Barros. Francis appointed Barros bishop of the town of Osorno in 2015, hugged him publicly during his visit to Chile in January and dismissed the men’s accounts as “slander.”

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MONTANA
Montana Public Radio

[with audio]

By CORIN CATES-CARNEY

APR 27, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls and Billings reached a $20 million settlement agreement Friday with more than 80 people who say they were sexually abused by clergy as children, according to attorneys in the case.

The claims of sexual abuse date from the 1950s to the 1990s, according to attorney Dan Fasy who represented some victims.

He says the settlement process has helped some of his clients recover from feeling like victims, but for others, this is just another step in their healing.

“I think the resounding response I’ve heard from the clients I’ve been working with is,” says Fasy, is “if this can prevent one child in the future from suffering the same fate of child sexual abuse, this will be a major victory.”

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AUSTRALIA
Deniliouin Pastoral Times

by AAP NEWS

MAY 03, 2018

Cate Blanchett has accused disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of behaving inappropriately towards her.

The Australian is the latest Hollywood star to make allegations of sexual misconduct against the producer, following claims by others including Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie.

Blanchett has appeared in a number of films produced by Weinstein, including The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and The Aviator.

In an interview with trade publication Variety, the Australian star was asked if Weinstein sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately towards her.

“With me, yes,” Blanchett replied.

“I think he really primarily preyed, like most predators, on the vulnerable. I mean I got a bad feeling from him. He would often say to me, ‘We’re not friends’.”

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ROME
Catholic News Service

By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service

5.2.2018

ROME (CNS) — Three Chilean abuse survivors who met with Pope Francis said his apology to them must be accompanied by concrete actions, not only against those who commit sexual abuse, but against those who cover it up.

“I have never seen someone be so contrite about what he was telling me,” Juan Carlos Cruz told journalists May 2. “I also felt that he was hurting, which for me was very solemn. I don’t know what word to use because it’s not often the pope really says sorry to you and apologizes to you. He said, ‘I was part of the problem, I caused this and I’m sorry.'”

Jose Andres Murillo, another of the Chilean survivors, said, “All of us had different experiences with the pope, and even if we saw the forgiveness the pope asked, we’re waiting for actions.”

“We always said that we’re not here to do public relations but for actions,” Murillo said. “That’s what I’m waiting for.”

Pope Francis had invited Cruz, Murillo and James Hamilton to stay at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the Vatican residence where he lives, and to meet with him individually April 27-29. They met him again as a group April 30.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

MAY 2, 2018

by Susan Matthews

A lawyer who privately came forward was not able to help a survivor, whose story you read about in the previous post. The survivor now wants his name made public.

David Eyes was a child when he was abused by Father Robert L. Brennan. He spent too much of his adult life embroiled in a grand jury investigation. The grueling emotional process cut fresh wounds into his already scarred psyche. Suicide attempts and subsequent hospitalization made it clear that self preservation meant stepping away from it all. It was the right decision for him and his family. David is working, married and surviving.

But now, his hard-won and tenuous stability is threatened. Lawyers prosecuting a civil case against the Philadelphia archdiocese on behalf of another victim asked him to testify. David explained why he couldn’t – how it might cost him his life. They responded with a subpoena.

Cornered and forced to ensure something horrific as child, David is once again cornered and being forced to do something terrifying as an adult. The subpoena compels him to appear in court on Monday, May 7 or he’ll be held in contempt – which carries the possibility of arrest and fines. Yet, the price he’ll pay for testifying is far worse. So he and his family have decided he won’t comply with the subpoena.

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NEW YORK
WAMC

May 2, 2018

By ELIZABETH HILL

With the legislative session in its final weeks, advocates and New York state lawmakers gathered at the capitol Tuesday to urge the state Assembly to pass the End Child Trafficking Act.

The legislation is sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, of the lower Hudson Valley, who says the bill would eliminate the requirement to prove force, fraud or coercion in prosecutions for sex trafficking. She says the measure creates an affirmative defense for victims 19 and younger. Sanctuary for Families — a New York City-based nonprofit that advocates for victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking — led the event at the Legislative Office Building. Executive Director Judy Harris Kluger, a former judge, said the time for action is now.

“Between 2010 and 2015 there has been an 800 percent increase in online sex trafficking of children. The time has come to be in line with federal law and 48 other states,” says Kluger.

Sanctuary for Families says state prosecutors cannot build successful cases against traffickers of children unless the victim is willing and able to testify. According to Reverend Que English, CEO and founder of Not on My Watch – a nonprofit working against sex trafficking – trauma suffered as a result of being trafficked and the terror of retaliation often prevent victims from testifying.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Elise Harris

Vatican City, May 2, 2018 / 11:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After meeting with Pope Francis over the weekend, Chilean survivors of clerical sexual abuse said the pontiff was open, sympathetic and deeply impacted by the situation, at one point voicing sorrow for having been “part of the problem.”

Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of Chilean abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima who met with Pope Francis privately Saturday, said he spoke to the pontiff for at least three hours, and found him “sincere, attentive and deeply apologetic for the situation.”

“For me, the pope was contrite, he was truly sorry,” Cruz said. “I felt also that he was hurting, which for me was very solemn…because it’s not often that the pope says sorry to you…he said, ‘I was part of the problem, I caused this and I am apologize.’”

Cruz was joined by fellow abuse survivors James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, each of whom suffered abuse at the hands Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, who in 2011 was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of sexually abusing several minors during the 1980s and 1990s, and subsequently sentenced to a life of prayer and solitude.

Chilean civil authorities investigated Karadima but ultimately dropped charges since his crimes were beyond the statute of limitations.

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ROME
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

May 2, 2018

ROME – After facing heated criticism over his actions and words regarding clerical sexual abuse in Chile, this weekend Pope Francis tried to address the scandal head-on, meeting three abuse survivors from the Latin American nation ahead of a summit later this month with Chile’s bishops.

“Pope Francis formally asked us for forgiveness, in his own name and on behalf of the universal Church,” the three said in a statement released on Wednesday in Rome after their meetings with the pope.

This weekend, abuse survivors Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Andres Murillo were hosted by Francis at the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence, the hotel built under St. Pope John Paul II where he’s lived since the beginning of his pontificate.

Overall, the survivors described their meetings positively, with Francis being “attentive, receptive and very empathetic during the intense and long hours of conversations.”

One of the survivors went so far as to say that he believed the pope hadn’t lied, but had been badly informed when it came to the situation in Chile. The survivor said Francis had told him, “I was part of the problem, I caused this, and I apologize to you.”

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The three main whistleblowers in Chile’s long-running sex abuse scandal have wrapped up their meetings with Pope Francis, after the pope discredited them and staunchly defended a bishop they had accused of witnessing and ignoring their abuse. Their visit to the Vatican marked the culmination of an extraordinary papal about-face, after Francis ordered a thorough investigation into their claims and then, after receiving the report, admitted to “serious errors in judgment.”

Some key dates in the Barros affair:
___

Jan. 10, 2015

Pope names Bishop Juan Barros, then Chile’s military chaplain, as bishop of Osorno, over the objections of some members of the Chilean bishops’ conference. They were concerned about the fallout from the scandal over the Rev. Fernando Karadima, Chile’s most notorious predator priest.
___

Jan. 31, 2015

Francis acknowledged the bishops’ concerns in a letter, obtained by The Associated Press, which revealed a plan to have Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops resign and take yearlong sabbaticals. In the letter, Francis said the plan fell apart because the nuncio revealed it. The pope subsequently told reporters that he himself had blocked the plan because there was no “evidence” Barros was guilty of any cover-up.
___

February 2015

Fifty Chilean lawmakers and priests, deacons and more than 1,000 laity in the Osorno diocese sign petitions protesting Barros’ appointment and urging Francis revoke it.
___

Feb. 3, 2015

Juan Carlos Cruz writes a letter to the Vatican’s ambassador in Santiago, Monsignor Ivo Scapolo, accusing Barros of watching the sex abuse he experienced and doing nothing to stop it. The letter would form the basis of a subsequent letter to the pope. It is unknown what Scapolo did with his letter.

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ROME
Reuters

May 2, 2018

Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis told Chilean victims of clerical sexual abuse “I was part of the problem” and apologized for dismissing accusations of a cover-up by Catholic bishops, one of the victims said on Wednesday.

At an emotional news conference after four days of private meetings with the pope, three men who were victims of Chile’s most notorious paedophile urged Francis to take action against several Chilean bishops.

“For almost 10 years we have been treated as enemies because we fight against sexual abuse and cover-up in the Church,” Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, said in a joint statement read out to reporters.

The three men, who were guests of the pope at his residence, said that during their long conversations, Francis had been attentive, receptive and very empathetic.

“I have never, never seen someone be so contrite … I felt that he was hurting, which for me was very solemn. It’s not often that the pope says sorry to you and apologizes to you for something,” Cruz said in response to a question.

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ROME
Associated Press

May 2, 2018

By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — The three whistleblowers in Chile’s sex abuse scandal urged Pope Francis on Wednesday to transform his apology for having discredited them into concrete action to end what they called the “epidemic” of sex abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church.

Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo spoke to reporters Wednesday after spending five days with the pope at his Vatican hotel. Their press conference was broadcast live in Chile, a sign of the unprecedented nature of their hours of meetings with the pope.

Cruz said that during his private encounter with Francis, the pope acknowledged: “I was part of the problem. I caused this, and I apologize to you.”

“I believe that he was sincere,” Cruz said.

Cruz said he believed that Francis was simply misinformed about the case of Bishop Juan Barros, whom the three men have long accused of having witnessed and ignored their abuse.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

BY AVRAHAM GOLD

MAY 2, 2018

Hassidic leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who was convicted for sexual assault, will light a central bonfire for Lag Ba’Omer on Wednesday night outside of Meron. The decision drew the ire of MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin (Zionist Union), who sent a letter to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit requesting he intervene.

Berland, the head of the Shuvu Banim community of the Breslov Hassidic sect, was convicted in a November 2016 plea bargain of two counts of indecent assault for sexual attacks on two women, as well as instructing one of his followers to assault the husband of one of the women he sexually assaulted. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail but was released under house arrest following an urgent operation in February.

Nahmias-Verbin posted the letter on Twitter, adding in a post that haredi (ultra-Orthodox) members of Knesset have told her privately they oppose the decision to allow Berland to light a bonfire. “It is difficult to understand how it is possible that a convicted person, who holds the title of rabbi and holds responsibility towards the public, will take part in a significant and widely-attended event funded by the state,” she wrote in the letter. “I call on you to intervene and act immediately against this, and prevent further severe harm to women who have been harmed, and to protect the public against an authorized offender.”

The Shuvu Banim bonfire will take place at midnight, according to haredi news site B’Hadrei Haredim.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MassLive

May 2, 2018

By Jacqueline Tempera JTempera@masslive.com

When Howard White, a former Episcopal priest behind bars in Massachusetts after he raped a prep school student in the 1970s, is released from jail Thursday he will be extradited to face more charges in North Carolina, prosecutors said.

White, 76, is one of six named offenders in the sex abuse scandal at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I.

Last May he pleaded guilty to five counts of assault and battery in Suffolk Superior Court for his abuse of an unnamed former student in the 1970s. He served 12 months of an 18-month sentence and was due to be released on Thursday.

But a new indictment from North Carolina accusing White of raping two more teenagers there will change things, prosecutors said.

The charges are: one count of rape; four counts of second-degree sexual offense; one count of second-degree rape; one count of first-degree forcible sex offense; and two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

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SCOTLAND
Sunday Post

Conor Riordan, 02 May 2018

A FORMER volunteer at an orphanage has told how she tried to cover up a child’s bed wetting to save him from being “ridiculed” by a nun.

Margaret White was studying at the University of Aberdeen between 1974 and 1977 when she helped out at Nazareth House in the city.

The 63-year-old told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry on Wednesday how she had never seen children being hit but she felt the way one boy was treated for bed wetting was “wrong”.

She said: “There was a young lad who did wet the bed and he was, probably, very harshly done by by the sister. He was never physically hurt.

“From what I know now, it was very wrong – a nine-year-old boy wetting the bed and being punished verbally.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

It’s not working.

May 2, 2018

TRANSCRIPT

The Church in America is doing splendidly — never been better, excelling everywhere, burgeoning at the seams, reason for great hope. Or as New York’s Cdl. Timothy Cardinal Dolan so perfectly laid it out at the press conference back in 2010 when he was elected president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, “It’s not like we’re in a crisis.”

Yes, see, no crisis here, His Eminence even has said so, which begs the question, precisely what does Dolan think actually constitutes a crisis? And further, if there’s no crisis, then why is Cdl. Dolan shaking down the flock in New York for $200 million or the archbishop of Detroit, after having soaked the sheep for $130 million in a recently wrapped up finance campaign, now preparing another campaign for an additional $200 million? Sources close to the archdiocese of Detroit tell Church Militant that some of Abp. Allen Vigneron’s closest allies actually wanted to unveil it this year but top brass thought it might appear too greedy after just wrapping up the previous campaign, uh, you think?

Then there is the still-secret plan in Abp. Jose Gomez’s Los Angeles archdiocese to unleash a half a billion dollar campaign on the unknowing faithful in Southern California — that’s right, a $500 million shakedown of the faithful. In truth, there are many of these massive war chest gathering initiatives going on all over the country — money and power grabs before old Catholics die off and leave their bucks to their children who could give a hoot about the Church and will not share their inheritances with what they see as irrelevant bishops. The Los Angeles half-billion shakedown was revealed to us by sources in the archdiocese who are disgusted with the plans, again, not yet made public. But, wait for it … and when these planned money grabs are eventually made public, they will come adorned with scriptural and mystical sounding names, upbeat sounding themes designed to make you think, well … there’s no crisis. For example, Detroit has a zippy sounding plan called “Unleash the Gospel,” as though it has ever been leashed up to begin within, and if it was leashed in Detroit have those who were responsible for tying it up been kicked out, otherwise, why throw good money after bad?

Practically every diocese in the country is doing two things right now — grabbing money and closing parishes. Often the plans are related to each other and get great marketing names, which stands to reason because local bishops are calling in Madison Avenue-style marketing firms and giving them 10 percent of everything collected to assess the decline, draw up a list of parishes to annihilate and squeeze every dime out of you possible. And, yes, you heard that correctly — 10 percent! When you are collectively dealing with billions of dollars, 10 percent is quite the haul.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

By MARISSA NEWMAN and TOI STAFF

A rabbi convicted of sex offenses, including against a minor, is set to be honored at the annual Lag B’Omer festival at a pilgrimage site in northern Israel on Wednesday night, sparking an outcry.

Eliezer Berland, 80, who served five months of an 18-month prison sentence after eluding arrest for three years, will be among the 20 rabbis who will light a bonfire at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai in Meron, where hundreds of thousands of worshipers were expected to gather Wednesday evening and Thursday.

The Religious Affairs Ministry, which contributes some NIS 15 million ($4 million) in funding to the Meron ceremonies, condemned Berland’s participation, but insisted it was powerless to stop him as the annual festival fell under police purview.

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Police, in a statement, disputed the ministry’s account, saying they were responsible only for securing the event. The Israel Police “doesn’t determine the identities of the participants and lighters, since [Berland’s inclusion] does not constitute a violation of the laws of the State of Israel, and therefore the claim regarding the police is out of place and wholly unclear,” it said.

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ROME
Reuters

ROME (Reuters) – Chilean victims of clerical sexual abuse said on Wednesday that they had complained to Pope Francis about a “pathological and unlimited exercise of power” within the Church that had facilitated the cover-up of a sex scandal.

In a joint statement, the three victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo, said that during four days of private meetings with the pope, he had asked them for forgiveness for not having taken their plight seriously before.

“For almost 10 years we have been treated as enemies because we fight against sexual abuse and cover-up in the Church. These days we met the friendly face of the Church, completely different from the one we had met before,” the statement said.

“We spoke with the pope about the pathological and unlimited exercise of power, which is the cornerstone of sexual abuse and cover-up. We expressed to him how the Church has the duty to become an ally and a guide in the global fight against abuse and a refuge for the victims, something that does not happen today.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
HuffPost

By Natasha Hinde

A couple in Telford have gone above and beyond to help survivors of child sexual abuse in the wake of recent allegations that rocked the Shropshire town.

Civil servant Anji Gowans, 45, and security specialist Craig Badley, 45, run Telford Time 4 Change (TT4C) while juggling full-time jobs. They launched the group in mid-March this year with the aim of supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, while raising awareness of exploitation in the community.

Anji and Craig run a Facebook page, which has 8,000 supporters, and say that since its inception TT4C has helped 10 survivors – either by signposting them to police, counselling or other services. Of those they’ve helped, some were recently abused, while for others the ordeal happened 15 or even 30 years ago.

Telford was thrown into the national spotlight in March when The Mirror reported up to 1,000 children were estimated to have fallen victim to child sexual abuse since the 1980s. For some, it came as no surprise – particularly after Operation Chalice, a 2009 police inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford in which seven men were jailed for multiple crimes including sexually abusing teenagers as young as 13.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Guardian

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem

2 May 2018

A former Melbourne head teacher wanted by Australian police on 74 charges of child sex abuse will face extradition proceedings this month, a judge in Israel has ruled.

At the Jerusalem district court on Wednesday, the judge delayed the hearing until 16 May and ordered the prosecution to hand over evidence it claims shows Malka Leifer is mentally fit to be extradited.

Guards escorted Leifer, 54, into court on Wednesday with her hands cuffed.

Manny Waks, an Australian activist who works to combat child sex abuse in the Jewish community and lives in Israel, was present and walked up to Leifer after she was brought into the courtroom. “Can I ask you for a message to send to the girls that you abused?” Waks asked. Leifer gave no response.

Leifer, 54, stood only when the judge entered the room, but spent the majority of the trial hunkered over with her head buried in her arms, even bending down entirely at times behind the court dock. At one point, she appeared in distress and the judge permitted a request from a guard for her to leave the room.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

By Gabrielle Weiniger

2 May 2018

Former Melbourne principal and alleged child sexual abuser Malka Leifer will remain behind bars in Israel after an extradition hearing at a Jerusalem court postponed her next trial date for a further two weeks.

Victorian police want Leifer to return to Australia to face 74 charges of child sex abuse. She is being held in Israel’s sole women’s prison, Neve Tzira, in the central Israeli city of Ramle.

Leifer fled Australia for Israel in 2008 after allegations were first raised over her time as head of the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel girls school in Melbourne. The school was ordered to pay over $1.1m in damages to her alleged victims in 2015.

In 2016, Leifer was declared unfit to stand trial by a Jerusalem district judge because of her mental health, but in February this year she was arrested and accused by local authorities of obstructing justice by feigning illness to avoid trial.

In the latest hearing, Judge Hannah Lomp ordered the prosecution to present the defence with all the evidence collected against Leifer, evidence the prosecution claims shows she is mentally fit to be extradited. The next extradition hearing will be held on May 16th.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
ABC News

May 2, 2018

By Norman Hermant

Malka Leifer’s extradition case in Jerusalem’s District Court has been put over until May 16.

Ms Leifer’s lawyer, Yahuda Fried, argued the defence had not received all of the evidence into her obstruction of justice case, successfully earning the two-week delay.

The prosecution says it will now hand over all of the evidence in relation to the investigation of whether Ms Leifer lied about being too unwell mentally to go through an extradition trial.

Near the end of today’s proceedings, Ms Leifer’s guards said she was unwell, and she was escorted from the courtroom before proceedings finished.

Israeli-Australian victims rights advocate Manny Waks said he was encouraged despite the delay.

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MINNESOTA
Lexology

Bryan Cave LLP

May 1 2018

Garrison Keillor once said, “Sometimes I look reality straight in the eye and deny it.”[1] Being that the case arose in Minnesota, perhaps Circuit Judge Michael Melloy channeled Keillor, one of that state’s great humorists, when he authored the opinion in The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors v. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis et al. (In re: The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis) Case No. 17-1079 2018 WL 1954482 (8th Cir. April 26, 2018) [a link to the opinion is here].[2] Regardless, the quote must sum up the Appellant’s view of the outcome. The unsecured creditors that make up the Committee, most of whom were victims of clergy sexual abuse, will not obtain access to the value of over 200 non-profit entities affiliated with the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to pay their claims.

In a concise opinion, the 8th Circuit held that a bankruptcy court’s authority to issue “necessary or appropriate” orders did not give it the power to substantively consolidate a Chapter 11 estate of a bankrupt nonprofit entity, the Archdiocese, with the estates of non-debtor parishes and parish schools that also qualified as nonprofit entities under Minnesota law. Despite the breadth 11 U.S.C. § 105(a), the Court looked past weighty equitable interests and instead relied on to state law, and on the plain language of the Section 303(a) of the Bankruptcy Code (which prohibits an involuntary filing against “a corporation that is not a moneyed, business, or commercial corporation”).

Background

The case arose from the 2013 passage of Minnesota’s Child Victims Act, which allowed previously time-barred sexual abuse claims to be brought. Hundreds of claims of clergy sexual abuse were filed against the Archdiocese. In 2015 the Archdiocese filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In May 2016, the Committee, representing more than 400 clergy sexual abuse claimants, filed a motion in the bankruptcy case to substantively consolidate Debtor with over 200 affiliated non-profit entities. The bankruptcy court applied Rule 7012 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure to the Committee’s motion, converting the motion to an adversary proceeding and allowing the responding parties to file motions to dismiss, which many did. The Bankruptcy Court dismissed the Committee’s Complaint and the District Court upheld that decision.

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