ABUSE TRACKER

NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
9News (nine.com.au)

June 19, 2018

By Kim Robertson

Adelaide Archbishop pleads to avoid prison

Lawyers for Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop have pleaded for him not to be sent to prison, for concealing child sex abuse.

They say he’s at risk of falling gravely-ill behind bars, or being attacked by other inmates.

But prosecutors and victims insist Philip Wilson has shown no remorse, and deserves little mercy.

Archbishop Philip Wilson stayed silent as he arrived to face justice at the Newcastle Local Court.

But inside his Defence lawyers pleaded with a Magistrate to spare the Catholic Archbishop jail, arguing he was so ill, he might not survive prison time.

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KERALA (INDIA)
La Croix International

June 19, 2018

By T.K. Devasia, Kochi

He was charged with rape after a schoolgirl gave birth at a church-run hospital

A Catholic priest in India who was arrested more than a year ago on charges of raping and impregnating a 17-year-old schoolgirl, is to stand trial.

Father Robin Vadakkancherry of Mananthavady Diocese was parish priest of St. Sebastian’s Church in Kottiyoor at the time of the alleged offense.

The 49-year-old priest was arrested and placed in custody in February 2017 after the girl gave birth to a boy.

His diocese, part of the Syro-Malabar Church, suspended him following his arrest.

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ROME
Crux

June 20, 2018

By Inés San Martín, John L. Allen Jr, and Christopher White

Arguably, few people in Australia can say they are more on the front lines in picking up the pieces after the recently concluded Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse that was highly critical of the Catholic Church than Archbishop Mark Coleridge, elected as president of the country’s bishops’ conference last month.

Despite the challenges, which also include trials of two of Australia’s most renowned clerics, Archbishop Philip Wilson in Adelaide and Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s finance czar, Coleridge is convinced that when it comes to fighting clerical sexual abuse, a “change in culture” is needed and is already in motion.

“There’s absolutely no room for complacency, but there is room for encouragement,” Coleridge told Crux on Monday in Rome.

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TASMANIA
SBS NEWS

June 20, 2018

Australia’s Catholic bishops have written to the prime minister opposing laws requiring priests to break the seal of confession to reveal child sexual abuse.

Catholic priests in Tasmania will report child sexual abuse to police but not if it has been revealed during confession.

Australia’s Catholic bishops are rejecting moves to force priests to break the seal of confession to reveal child abuse, with the South Australian church declaring its priests will defy new mandatory reporting laws in that state.

The Tasmanian government also plans to extend mandatory reporting to include information disclosed in a religious confession.

The Catholic Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous backs mandatory reporting but not when it means breaking church law that requires priests to uphold the seal of confession.

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LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 19, 2018

By Alice Yin

A letter signed by at least 120 sexual abuse victims of former sports doctor Larry Nassar on Tuesday urged Michigan State University’s governing board to oust interim president John Engler, saying he has reinforced a “culture of abuse” at the school.

The women and girls issued their joint statement three days before the board of trustees’ next meeting and after a week in which demands for Engler’s resignation reached a fever pitch.

Engler, who served as the state’s Republican governor from 1991 through 2002, has resisted pressure to step down. He took over on an interim basis in February after the previous president resigned amid fallout from the Nassar scandal. Media outlets last week reported that he sent emails to another university official in April criticizing lawyers for Nassar’s sexual assault victims and suggesting the first woman to go public with her accusations was probably getting a “kickback” from her attorney.

Among the 123 survivors who signed the letter are Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Aly Raisman, and Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast who has been one of the most vocal critics of Engler.

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ST. JOHNS (MI)
The Associated Press

June 18, 2018

A state child abuse and neglect investigator has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenager.

The Lansing State Journal reports 34-year-old Daniel William Hulings of Bath Township is free on bond after being arraigned June 7 on seven counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Clinton County District Court.

Jennifer Kuiper-Weise, an attorney for Hulings, tells the Lansing State Journal her client has pleaded not guilty “and we believe he will be exonerated.”

Court records show the victim said she had sexual contact with Hulings on numerous occasions over a period of more than a year beginning when she was 16.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

June 19, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Dave Sherwood

The Vatican envoy who was sent to Chile to gather evidence of sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church said it would be up to Pope Francis to decide on whether to release the report of their findings to the country’s civil authorities.

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DALLAS (TX)
Baptist Press

June 19, 2018

By Karen L. Willoughby

The pastor of an Austin, Texas, Southern Baptist church “finds I’m spending more time in preparation than ever before” for his Sunday morning sermons.
Matt Carter, pastor of preaching and vision at Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, said in a CP Stage panel discussion prior to the SBC annual meeting in Dallas that he weighs his words to make sure they do not send the wrong message to the potential 25 percent of the women in the church who have suffered abuse in their lifetime.

“I’m consistently filtering what I’m saying through the eyes of a woman who has been abused,” said Carter, who took the church’s entire staff through a week-long training earlier this year to be able to say to all women, “You are safe here.”

The 20-minute panel discussion on Sexual Abuse in the Church in the SBC exhibit hall covered a victim’s trauma; the churches’ response; and how to prepare children for potential situations without scaring them.

The SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, teacher and author Beth Moore and moderators Jonathan Howe and Amy Whitfield filled out the panel.

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ERIE (PA)
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: David Dobrowolski was a priest of the Diocese of Erie, ordained in 1969. He was an assistant in an Erie parish until 1972, when he joined the staff of Kennedy Christian High School in Sharon. While there he may have resided briefly at a West Middlesex parish, moving in 1973 to St. Adalbert’s in Farrell. In 1978 Dobrowolski was assigned as chaplain to the Harborcreek School for Boys, which was a treatment facility for ‘troubled juveniles,’ ages 10-18. He remained there until his death in December 1985.

Dobrowolski’s name was included on the diocese’s list released April 6, 2018 of priests, lay employees and volunteers accused of sexually abusing minors. The allegations against Dobrowolski were noted to have been reported after his death.

Ordained: 1969
Died: December 28, 1985

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Rhode Island Public Radio

June 19, 2018

By Lynn Arditi

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence and hospital operator Prospect Chartercare, LLC are among the defendants accused of conspiracy and fraud in two class-action lawsuits filed late Monday.

The suits filed in state and federal courts accuse Bishop Thomas Tobin and hospital operators of deliberately underfunding St. Joseph Health Services’s pension plan and then lying about the plan’s financial condition to beneficiaries.

The plan — which covers at least 2,700 current and former employees of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital — was left with no source of revenue when the Fatima hospital was sold in 2014 to Prospect Charter, the local arm of the California-based for profit Prospect Medical Holdings. The pension plan is currently in receivership, a form of bankrupty.

The pension was set up as a “church plan,” which meant it was not federally insured and did not have the same funding requirements as plans covered under the federal Employee Retirement Security Act, or ERISA. The federal lawsuit, however, says the plan did not qualify as a much plan at least since 2009, meaning the plan’s operators would have been required to meet specific funding thresholds.

The suit, which asks for unspecified damages, names more than a dozen defendants, including the for-profit Californian-based parent of CharterCare, prospect Medical Holdings, Inc; Roger Williams Medical Center, LLC, The Rhode Island Community Foundation and the Angell Pension Group, Inc.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum Local News

June 18, 2018

By Katie Gibas

Judith Burns-Quinn has been working with victims of priest sex abuse in Western New York for 22 years.

“It’s easily Boston West,” she said.

Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for victims of the Boston Diocese, backed up that statement.

“Given the amount of secrecy within the Diocese of Buffalo and the amount of names of pedophile priests being released, I think is fairly accurate. The amount of abuse has been devastating,” he said.

The latest name to come out is Father Dennis Fronczak, who was at St. Stephen’s Church on Grand Island in the ‘90s, St. Joseph’s Church in Holland in the ‘00s and most recently at Lancaster’s Our Lady of Pompeii.

A spokesperson for the Diocese says Fronczak was removed from ministry in 2015, and “information regarding complaints, including some from his time at the parishes of St. Stephen and St. Joseph, was sent to the Vatican. The matter is now the subject of pending canon law proceedings.”

Victims’ advocates are rekindling their cry for the Diocese to release all documents related to credible abuse allegations and for the bishop to step down.

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EL PASO (TX)
KFOX14/CBS4

June 18, 2018

By Jamel Valencia

A victim who alleges abuse by a priest is suing the El Paso Diocese.

The lawsuit alleges the Rev. Joaquin Resma sexually abused an altar boy in 1978 at Our Lady of Health Parish in Las Cruces.

Documents state that at the time of the alleged incident, El Paso Diocese was in charge of the parishes in southern New Mexico, including Our Lady of Health Parish.

Attorneys for the victim claims the El Paso Diocese failed to protect their client.

Resma is accused of sexually abusing the victim on multiple occasions.

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NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press

June 19, 2018

A prosecutor told an Australian court on Tuesday that the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse must be jailed to send a message that such institutional cover-ups will no longer be tolerated.

Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone said he would sentence Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson on July 3.

Stone last month found Wilson guilty in the Newcastle Local Court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s. Wilson faces a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.

The conviction is another step toward holding the church to account for a global abuse crisis that has also engulfed Pope Francis’ financial minister, Australian Cardinal George Pell. Some lawyers said they expect many more clerics to be charged in Australia as a result of Wilson’s test case.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told a hearing Tuesday to determine an appropriate sentence that there was a “breach of trust” between the vulnerable teen, who — along with another altar boy — came forward in 1976 with allegations against a priest who later died in prison.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Herald

June 18, 2018

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

If the Australian state wants to make martyrs over the seal, it will find plenty of candidates

The saga about mandatory reporting of child abuse in Australia, where it seems that the law will now compel priests to break the seal of confession, carries on.

It must give the virtue-signalers amongst Australia’s legislators great pleasure to say that the Catholic Church is not above the law, but this legislation will hardly help the protection of children. It will simply mean that no one who has abused anyone, or been tempted to do so, will ever dare to discuss the matter with a priest, still less confess to the sin in the sacrament of reconciliation.

Moreover, one Australian priest has a very good point: “The only way they [the states] would be able to see whether the law was being observed or not is to try and entrap priests.”

Quite so. Will the agents of law enforcement in Australia now pose as penitents and enter confessionals with tape recorders in the hope that of finding a priest who does not report child abuse? Such things have been done before, though in a different context. It is by no means impossible that this might happen, as it is hard to see otherwise how any arrests could ever be made.

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CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic News Agency

June 18, 2018

As Australian states and territories pass and consider laws requiring priests to break the seal of confession to report cases of child sex abuse, Catholic priests are saying they would go to jail rather than violate the seal.

“The state will be requiring us as Catholic priests to commit as what we regard as the most serious crime and I’m not willing to do that,” said Father Michael Whelan, a parish priest at St. Patrick’s Church in Sydney, according to local news.

Whelan added that he, along with other priests, would be “willing to go to jail” rather than break the seal of confession. When asked if the Church was above the law, Whelan said “absolutely not” and remarked he would only be protecting religious freedom.

“…when the state tries to intervene on our religious freedom, undermine the essence of what it means to be a Catholic, we will resist,” he said.

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QUEENSLAND (AUSTRALIA)
The Catholic Leader

June 19, 2018

By Mark Bowling

THE Queensland Government is to set up a Truth, Healing and Reconciliation task force after accepting more than half of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

The government has accepted or “accepted in principle” 244 of the 409 Royal Commission recommendations, and says a task force will be set up within months to carry them out.

The move builds on the state’s opt-in to the national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.

The taskforce will support government efforts to make “attitudinal and cultural change” recommended by the Royal Commission, and will administer a grants program for events and memorials to acknowledge past harms and to remind the community of the need to protect children.

“Queensland is fully committed to ensuring Queensland Government institutions are child safe, and to supporting and encouraging community and non-government institutions to actively become child safe,” a 121-page state government response to the Royal Commission said.

On 26 key recommendations to the Catholic Church the Queensland government describes as “noted” Royal Commission recommendations, but does not specifically endorse them.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS News

June 18, 2018

Legislation establishing the national redress scheme for child sexual abuse survivors has passed parliament.

The $3.8 billion national redress scheme for child sexual abuse survivors has passed federal parliament, despite concerns it doesn’t go far enough.

The scheme is set to be operational on July 1 after Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers agreed not to delay the passage of legislation through the Senate.

The bill passed the upper house on Tuesday afternoon, after senators debated the scheme late into Monday night.

Victorian independent Senator Derryn Hinch angrily accused the government of “double-crossing” the parliamentary committee into the scheme he chaired.

He expressed surprise the maximum payout was in line with the Catholic Church’s push for $150,000 rather than the $200,000 recommended by the child abuse royal commission.

“I’ve been unable to find out not only who suggested the 150K, but also who lobbied for it and who signed off on it,” Senator Hinch told parliament.

He demanded to know how the figure was arrived at.

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DALLAS (TX)
Religion News Service

June 15, 2018

By Adelle M. Banks

The sermons, the hymn singing and the floor debates of the Southern Baptists’ annual meeting have concluded, but a key question remains: How will the denomination address the issues of sexual and physical abuse that loomed over the proceedings?

At this week’s (June 12-13) meeting, there was a sense that the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has only started down a long road toward an answer after months of scandals. Days before the Southern Baptists arrived here, Paige Patterson, an architect of the faith group’s conservative turn in the 1980s, was ousted from the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after reports arose of his mishandling rape allegations by students. Other former luminaries have been accused of abuse or left positions unexpectedly due to immoral behavior.

The alleged untoward behavior by Southern Baptist leaders forced many of the messengers, as delegates to this meeting are called, to grapple with how to rein in abuse while respecting the autonomy of the convention’s local churches. One step that the messengers took was to pass a nonbinding statement that suggested that “church and ministry leaders have an obligation to implement policies and practices that protect against and confront any form of abuse.”

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CARY (NC)
Baptist Press

June 18 2018

By Tom Strode

Russell Moore announced new initiatives on women and abuse during the report of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) Wednesday (June 13) at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Moore, the ERLC’s president, said the entity will convene a women’s summit as a major part of its work in the year ahead. He also told messengers the ERLC is partnering with LifeWay Research in commissioning a full-scale study on the extent of abuse in churches.

The announcement of the initiatives followed months of what Moore described as “horrible, horrible revelations” of sexual abuse and assault. Those disclosures of abuse and misconduct by male leaders in churches and the secular world have rocked Southern Baptists, other evangelicals and the wider culture.

The ERLC will gather women from across the SBC and the evangelical world “to think through ways to enhance our ministries and invest in our churches,” Moore told messengers. “There should not be one inch of toleration for the abuse or mistreatment of women or others within our churches, and if we care about human dignity, we must be clear about that.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio NZ

June 19, 2018

By Phil Pennington

New Zealand Catholic Bishops say there is no evidence that breaking the seal of confession would keep children safer.

Australian states are moving to prosecute priests who don’t report confessions of child sex abuse, despite opposition from the church.

“Confession is often not understood,” the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference said in a statement to RNZ today.

“In many cases the one making a confession remains unidentified. In any case, as has been said by members of the Church in Australia, we note that there is no evidence to suggest that abolition of the seal of confession would genuinely make environments safer for children.”

Catholics are regulated by canon law, which states that the “sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason”.

A priest who breaks the seal of confession is subject to the Church’s toughest penalty, automatic excommunication, and only the Pope can reverse that.

The bishops conference said it was considering how its Australian counterpart was responding to the Royal Commission’s recommendations and noted it had set up an implementation advisory group.

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AUSTRALIA
AAP via 9news

June 19, 2018

ARCHBISHOP PHILIP WILSON’S TRIAL:

WHO

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson, 67, is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with covering up child sex abuse.

WHAT

Wilson was accused of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region in the 1970s.

Fletcher was found guilty in December 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse.

One of the victims, Peter Creigh, expected Wilson – an assistant priest at the time – to take action after he told him Fletcher repeatedly abused him when he was 10 in 1971.

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ARIZONA
Arizona Republic

June 18, 2018

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

Correction & Clarifications: An earlier version of this article misstated the location of the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Stephen. Both are in New York.

Kristen Lovullo, wife of Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, has accused a priest of fondling her when she was a child in New York in the 1990s, according to the Buffalo News.

The news outlet recently had written about Rev. Dennis Fronczak and why he was abruptly removed from his parish in Lancaster, New York, in 2015. The article said he was removed for inappropriate behavior. The Buffalo Diocese would not comment on the allegations, but told The Arizona Republic that the case remains under investigation, according to spokesman George Richert.

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UNITED STATES
Salon.com

June 18, 2018

By Ashlie D. Stevens

A proposal for a church-wide registry of sexual abusers and harassers gets new life after a decade of dormancy

In 2008, The Nashville Scene published an article titled “What Would Jesus Say?” In it, journalist Elizabeth Ulrich wrote that churchgoers were asking for protection against clergy sex abuse, but the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention said “there was little it could do to fend for the flock.”

At the time, the Southern Baptist Convention — the world’s largest Baptist denomination with roughly 15 million members — was under fire for several instances of sexual abuse within their member churches.

There was the 2007 case of Steven Haney, the Cordova, Tennessee-based pastor who was indicted on charges of rape and sexual battery by an authority figure after a 21-year-old man told police Haney had molested him over the course of five years; the man said Haney subjected him to “obedience tests” during which he was forced to perform various sex acts.

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AUSTRALIA
9News (nine.com.au)

June 19, 2018

The most senior Catholic official in the world to be convicted of concealing child sex crimes should be jailed by a NSW magistrate and sacked by the Pope, abuse victims say.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson stood aside but refused to resign after he was found guilty in May of failing to report to police the historical indecent assault of two altar boys.

The 67-year-old must wait two weeks to learn his fate but abuse survivor Peter Creigh says Wilson should be locked up to send a message to religious leaders that institutional cover-ups will no longer be tolerated.

Pedophile priest James Fletcher repeatedly abused Mr Creigh in the Hunter region during the 1970s but when the teen went to Wilson for help the clergyman did nothing.

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UTTAR PRADESH (INDIA)
CNN

June 18, 2018

By Masuma Ahuja

Rajni Devi liked school and had big dreams. She was not going to end up like so many other girls in India: married off as a child bride.

Rajni was 14 years old when her mother told her she must get married, but she refused. She was determined to stay in school, and she wasn’t ready to be a mother yet.

However, for a girl in rural India, it wasn’t as simple as just saying no.

According to UNICEF, India has the highest number of child brides in the world, with about 17 million children between the ages of 10 and 19 in the country who are married.

This despite the fact that child marriage in India was officially outlawed in 2006. And earlier this year, in an attempt to protect child brides, India’s Supreme Court ruled that sex with minors was considered rape.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

June 18, 2018

A former catering manager has been ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Down and Connor.

Fr Tony McAleese was ordained by Bishop Noel Treanor at a Mass in the Church of St Vincent de Paul on Sunday.

He is the first priest originally from Belfast’s St Vincent de Paul parish to be ordained there in 50 years.

The 34-year-old is a native of the Ligoneil area in north Belfast and said it was a wonderful occasion.

He felt that his late mother would have been with him in spirit for his ordination, he said.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
The Associated Press

June 16, 2018

A professor who was named one of Time magazine’s 2017 Persons of the Year for outing a colleague accused of sexual misconduct has resigned from the University of Rochester over the university’s handling of complaints against him.

Celeste Kidd said Friday that the university had not meaningfully responded to problems that she and several other faculty members raised in a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last fall about T. Florian Jaeger, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences.

Jaeger was accused of flaunting sexual relationships with students, using uncomfortable sexual innuendo and holding off-site lab retreats that featured hot tubs and illegal drugs.

A special committee in January supported the university’s finding that Jaeger had not violated policy or law but called his behavior over several years since his arrival in 2007 unprofessional and offensive.

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CANADA
CBC News

June 18, 2018

More than 130 schools were in operation across Canada

For more than 100 years, First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families to attend residential schools, which were run by churches and funded by the federal government.

Students lost their language, culture and family bonds. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final report said the residential school system amounted to “cultural genocide” against Indigenous people in Canada.

In 2008, the federal government formally apologized for the residential school system and other policies of assimilation.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

June 14, 2018

By Martin Shaw

Peter Murray launches claim at the High Court in London over historical abuse

An author who says his whole adult life has been overshadowed by sexual abuse he suffered at a Mirfield religious school is now battling for compensation.

Peter Murray, 60, had ambitions to become a priest when he went to St Peter Claver College in the 1970s, London’s High Court heard.

But he now says he was subjected to a campaign of abuse at the hands of a teacher – the now-deceased Michael Riddle – when he was aged between 14 and 16.

And he is suing the religious order that ran the school – the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – for the destruction wrought on his childhood and adult life.

The order “neither admits nor denies” that he suffered abuse at Mr Riddle’s hands and is strongly disputing the value of Mr Murray’s claim.

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LIHUE (KAUAI, HAWAII)
Hawaii News Now

June 15, 2018

A Lihue man will spend 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty to numerous sexual offenses involving young children.

According to the Department of Justice, 38-year-old Michael Terui was sentenced Thursday on four counts of manufacturing child pornography.

The DOJ says Terui was an outreach resource for his father’s church. Through that position in the ministry, officials say he lured dozens of kids during sleep overs and gatherings, and molested them.

He would entice the children with video games and movies. Once he earned their trust, the DOJ said he used hidden and handheld cameras to record sexual acts.

The DOJ says his victims ranged in age from 7 to 13 years old, and the abuse took place for more than a decade.

“Terui engaged in sex acts with the children, often while they were sleeping (or pretending to sleep),” the DOJ said in a news release.

Chief Judge Seabright called Terui’s actions “shocking, abhorrent, callous, and devastating” at his sentencing. Seabright added that Terui’s actions “left a trail of pain” and was the “worst type of breach of trust possible.”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

June 15, 2018

By Katherine Gregory

Catholic priests have said they are not willing to break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse, and would rather go to jail than abide by the law.

South Australia has joined the ACT in moving ahead with laws to force Catholic priests to break the seal of confession, to report paedophiles to police.

Other states are still deliberating over whether or not they will adopt that recommendation from the royal commission.

But Catholic Church leaders have rejected the idea.

Father Michael Whelan, the parish priest in St Patrick’s Church Hill in Sydney, said priests would not break the seal of confession.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

June 14, 2018

By Lucie Morris-Marr

A paedophile priest who admitted to child abuse on more than 1500 occasions but was just told to “pray more” should be a “prime example” for the Catholic Church to allow breaking the seal of confession, advocates have told The New Daily.

Father Michael McArdle made an affidavit in 2004 stating he had confessed 1500 times to molesting children to 30 different priests over a 25-year period.

After being forgiven 1500 times in face-to-face confessions with his fellow priests, the Queenslander was told merely to “go home and pray”.

A senior catholic figure, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, this week immediately rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to make it law across all states to break the seal of the confession to report abuse. His remarks have prompted campaigners to urge the church to “examine history” and abide to the change.

They say the example of McArdle shows the “vital need” for priests to be told by senior leaders they should report crimes to authorities.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WSKG

June 18, 2018

By Gabe Altieri

Monday is the deadline for some people abused as children by clergy in the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese to decide whether to participate in the diocese’s compensation program, or wait to see if state lawmakers pass a bill that would extend the statute of limitations, so they could sue later.

That bill is the Child Victims Act. Besides extending the statute of limitations for people abused as children to sue, it would also open a one-year window, so that those previously barred through the statute of limitations to bring their case to court could do so.

“But that’s not the law and so we’re stuck with what we have,” said Attorney Mike Reck, who represents victims in the Syracuse Diocese.

Under current law, people abused as children must sue by the time they’re 23. That means one of the only options many victims in Syracuse have is the compensation program, “which is a process that, while it’s not perfect, it does offer some accountability, some measure of justice, and it’s available now,” Reck said.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
The Innovation Trail

June 18, 2018

By Gabe Altieri

Some people abused as children by clergy in the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese must decide by June 18 whether to participate in the diocese’s compensation program, or wait to see if state lawmakers pass a bill that would extend the statute of limitations, so they could sue later.

The Diocese of Syracuse includes the Binghamton and Cortland areas.
That bill is the Child Victims Act. Besides extending the statute of limitations for people abused as children to sue, it would also open a one-year window, so that those previously barred through the statute of limitations to bring their case to court could do so.

“But that’s not the law and so we’re stuck with what we have,” said Attorney Mike Reck, who represents victims in the Syracuse Diocese.

Under current law, people abused as children must sue by the time they’re 23. That means one of the only options many victims in Syracuse have is the compensation program, “which is a process that, while it’s not perfect, it does offer some accountability, some measure of justice, and it’s available now,” Reck said.

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TALLAHASSEE (FL)
News 4 JAX

June 18, 2018

By Jim Saunders

Pointing to a state religious-freedom law, an appeals court has shielded a priest from testifying about his discussion with a teenage girl during the Catholic sacrament of confession about the girl being sexual abused.

The ruling Friday by a panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal in an Orange County case sided with priest Vincenzo Ronchi, who argued that the Catholic Church bars priests from disclosing any aspects of communications during confession — more formally known as the sacrament of reconciliation — and that disclosure could even lead to excommunication from the church.

Prosecutors subpoenaed Ronchi to testify in the case of Loren Tim Burton, who was charged last year with committing sexual offenses against a minor when she was 7 years old and 13 years old. The alleged victim, prosecutors said, told Ronzi during confession when she was 15 years old that she had been sexually abused.

The criminal investigation began after the alleged victim, at age 17, told her mother about the abuse, the appeals-court ruling said.

Orange County Circuit Judge John Marshall Kest ruled that Ronchi could be questioned about the limited issues of “the existence of the confession, the identity of the penitent (the alleged victim), and that the subject matter involved sexual abuse,” the appeals court ruling said. Kest’s ruling focused, at least in part, on a conversation that Ronchi had with the teen’s mother and a friend of the mother and whether that waived “privilege” that otherwise could keep the priest from being required to testify.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

June 18, 2018

By Junno Arocho Esteves

The brother of Chilean Father Fernando Karadima called on his brother to ask forgiveness for the hurt inflicted on those he sexually abused.

“I would ask him to be humble. Fernando, ask for forgiveness. Not in silence to God or in your prayers. Do it publicly, that people hear that you ask forgiveness for the harm you have done to victims and to everyone,” Oscar Karadima said in an interview with Chilean newspaper La Tercera, published June 17.

“Fernando,” he continued, “you are a man who is going to die. How can you die in this way, as a proud person who doesn’t ask forgiveness? I ask you in the name of God and the most holy virgin who you always said you loved so much. I ask you in the name of my father, my mother, my two dead sisters.”

Oscar Karadima also revealed that he was among the group of priests and laypeople who met with Pope Francis June 2 and spoke to him about the suffering his family endured following the revelation that his brother was found guilty of sexual abuse.

“I spoke to him about Fernando; I told him what Fernando was like with his family, with us: He was an arrogant man, authoritarian, a man we were afraid of and that even my mother was afraid of him,” Oscar Karadima said.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Office of State Rep. Mark Rozzi

June 18, 2018

Survivors, advocates rallied at state Capitol for statute of limitations reforms

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, led a rally at the state Capitol last Tuesday to highlight the long overdue need for reform of Pennsylvania’s laws affecting victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report based upon allegations of sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania is expected to be released by the end of the month. The dioceses include Harrisburg, Greensburg, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Scranton. Preceding its release, Rozzi called upon all Roman Catholic bishops to support reforms through Tuesday’s rally.

“Childhood sex abuse is a plague that has scourged this state and beyond,” Rozzi said. “The Bishops have the unique opportunity to demonstrate the church’s commitment to ending the culture of abuse and its systematic cover-up”.

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SONOMA (CA)
The Press Democrat

June 14, 2018

By Mary Callahan

A Sonoma County jury has awarded $1.1 million to the plaintiff in a whistleblower case against the Hanna Boys Center, finding the former clinical director was wrongly terminated for speaking up about bullying, drug use and other unaddressed concerns at the home for troubled boys.

Tim Norman, who worked as the center’s head of clinical care for 31 years before his November 2016 dismissal, said the verdict came as a huge relief after many years of stress and a three-week civil trial.

But Norman, 73, said he also was struck by the contrast between the speed with which the jury understood his plight and what he called the failure of the institution’s own trustees to respond to concerns with direct implications for client health and safety.

“That’s the thing that is very unclear in my mind,” Norman said. “They didn’t seem to be paying attention to their fiduciary responsibility. Because, they’re really in charge.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Penn Live

Jun 12, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

In all the years that Rep. Mark Rozzi has been fighting to reform state child sex crimes laws, he has excoriated the power brokers for the Roman Catholic Church for pushing back on any reform legislation.

On Tuesday, just weeks away from the release of the findings of a state probe into clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania, Rozzi once again called for measures to expand the law, this time noting that: “Child sex abuse is not just a Catholic problem.”

At a Capitol rally, Rozzi invited victims, survivors and relatives of victims from across the dark specter of child sex abuse to call on lawmakers and influential power brokers to get behind legislation that would expand the statute of limitations, giving past and future victims broader opportunities to seek legal recourse against predators.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

June 14, 2018

By Jasmine Stole Weiss

A man identified only as E.G.W. in federal court documents filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Boy Scouts of America and his former assistant scoutmaster, seeking $5 million in damages.

The man alleges his then-scoutmaster raped and molested him when he was an adolescent in the 1970s, according to the lawsuit.

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DENVER( CO)
The Denver Post

June 15, 2018
Updated June 17, 2018

By Christopher N. Osher

The state’s mandatory reporting law is poorly understood and seldom enforced

The principal caught an incriminating sight when she walked by the classroom: The male math teacher was sitting provocatively close to the 13-year-old student perched on his desk wearing a short skirt. But the principal did nothing other than warn the teacher, after the student exited, to act more professionally.

Throughout the spring of 2011, rumors flew around the hallways at Rocky Heights Middle School in Highlands Ranch about the teacher, Richard “Rick” Johnson, and young girls. After Johnson plastered his office walls with photos of another eighth-grade girl he liked to hug, students talked about how he must be having sex with her. At least three students and two parents told school administrators that Johnson was cultivating an inappropriate relationship with the student, but the officials continued to sit on the information, according to documents in a federal lawsuit. Not until parents went to police was Johnson investigated, charged and convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl he began showering with affection the year before.

A key state law is supposed to defend Colorado’s vulnerable children in such instances. The law classifies school authorities, teachers, clergy and more than 40 other professions as “mandatory reporters,” who are required to alert police or child-protection workers to any suspected physical or sexual abuse of children.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Penn Live

June 14, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

A little over 15 years ago, right after The Boston Globe published a bombshell investigation exposing decades of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of hundreds of priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, Lynne Abraham hit upon the notion that if it was happening there it was surely happening in her hometown.

Then Philadelphia’s district attorney, Abraham launched what would become a legal benchmark in state history: She organized an investigation into child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It would be the longest-running investigation into clergy sex abuse and put Pennsylvania on the map of jurisdictions that most aggressively have gone after child sex predators.

Abraham dogged the investigation for several years, amassing a team of investigators numbering in the hundreds and subpoenaing church documents and officials from every rank – from the lowliest priest to the highest ranking cardinal.

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GUAM
KUAM News

June 18, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Father Adrian Cristobal had until the end of day last Friday to report to the Archdiocese of Agana. The no-show priest now faces sanctions by the Church. But, could also potentially face criminal charges.

Effective Saturday, June 16th, Father Adrian Cristobal is forbidden from acting as a priest in public. No wearing of the clerical garb, no celebrating mass, and no hearing confession. These sanctions were imposed by Archbishop Michael Byrnes who ordered Father Adrian return to Guam in light of three clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed against him.

The former Chancellor had until the end of Friday to report to the Archdiocese of Agana. His last confirmed location was the Diocese of Phoenix, where he was reportedly studying canon law. The Concerned Catholics of Guam speculate the priest could be in hiding in the east coast.

CCOG President Dave Sablan told KUAM News, “I think Adrian is in New York somewhere or Newark, New Jersey, which is basically the headquarters for the Neocatechumenal Way.” Sablan added, “We expected it. He is now a fugitive on the run.”

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FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
Catholic News Service

June 18, 2018

New medical directives governing health care partnerships and revisions to the charter on the protection of young people were approved during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring general assembly.

During their June 13-14 meeting, the bishops also approved what is described a “pastoral response” to Asian and Pacific Island Catholics and, after a long discussion, they decided to supplement their quadrennial document on Catholic participation in public life with a short letter, a video and other supplementary materials.

The meeting opened with a statement decrying Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision that asylum seekers fleeing domestic or gang violence cannot find protection in the United States.

“At its core, asylum is an instrument to preserve the right to life,” the bishops’ statement said. They urged the nation’s policymakers and courts “to respect and enhance, not erode, the potential of our asylum system to preserve and protect the right to life.”

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WEST JORDAN (UT)
KSL.com

June 17, 2018

By Linda Williams

Police arrested a West Jordan man accused of sexual abuse of an 8-year-old girl from his LDS Church congregation and authorities believe there may be more victims.

Sean Sund, 45, was arrested Thursday for investigation of five counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child. Sund had a position of trust over the girl because he was a Primary teacher in her LDS Church branch, police said.

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DALLAS (TX)
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

June 15, 2018

By Carrie McGuffin

Suzii Paynter challenged the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to “break a culture of complicity” in regard to clergy sexual abuse.

#MeToo, #ChurchToo and clergy sexual abuse and misconduct were the focus when Paynter presented her executive coordinator’s report to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Dallas.

‘Not an isolated incident’

She asked people in attendance to stand if they had any connection to incidents, victims or survivors of clergy sexual abuse and misconduct.

“Look around. This is not an isolated incident,” Paynter said, as nearly half of attendees.

“This is worth the honor and work of church leadership,” she said. “If you are a man in ministry, if you are a layperson in leadership in your church—don’t wait for women to demand training. Be proactive.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Associated Press

June 14, 2018

By Brady McCombs

A woman who says a former leader of the Mormon Missionary Training Center raped her in the 1980s accused church officials in a new court filing this week of knowing about the man’s previous sexual misconduct before he was appointed to the powerful position.

McKenna Denson’s attorneys allege in a court document filed Tuesday that Joseph L. Bishop disclosed to church leaders his “acts of sexual predation” while he was a mission president in Argentina in the late 1970s.

“Instead of informing McKenna of the truth about this self-proclaimed, lifelong sexual predator, defendants represented to McKenna, the public, and members of the church that defendant Bishop was a safe, honorable, and trustworthy leader,” Denson’s attorneys wrote.

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DALLAS (TX)
The New Yorker

June 15, 2018

By Eliza Griswold

On Wednesday, as ten thousand members of the Southern Baptist Convention gathered outside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, in downtown Dallas, for the denomination’s annual conference, about two dozen women stood on faded grass nearby. They carried white banners with black-and-blue-lettered slogans, such as, “Calling Women to Preach Since the First Easter Morning,” and “I Can Call It Evil Because I Know What Goodness Is.” They were there to represent a protest movement, which includes such groups as #SilenceIsNotSpiritual and #ChurchToo, and has the potential to transform evangelicalism, by pressing churches to condemn domestic abuse, training pastors in caring for victims, and allowing women to assume positions of leadership. “God values women,” Ashley Easter, a protest organizer, told me.

Among the demonstrators was Autumn Miles, a thirty-seven-year-old evangelical leader and domestic-abuse survivor. Miles, who has a cascade of tousled hair that she describes as “fluorescent blond,” grew up as the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor, in Terre Haute, Indiana. She married her high-school boyfriend when she was eighteen; after six years of physical and psychological abuse, she filed for divorce. Miles said that a panel of seven male elders at her family’s church called her in to explain her decision, instructing her father not to attend. “I know it might sound weird, but I could feel the presence of evil,” Miles said. They asked her to return to her abuser. She refused and left the church. When her father defended her, he was fired. Since then, Miles has told her story to many evangelical congregations, while speaking about the need to reform teachings on sexual and domestic abuse.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Press

June 17, 2018

By Betsy Z. Russell

Eight years after the Idaho Supreme Court dismissed their claim for damages against the Boy Scouts of America, three victims of decades-old childhood sexual abuse are once again seeking justice through Idaho’s legal system. To find it, they’ve launched a novel legal claim involving fraud. Attorneys debated it for hours in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho Friday afternoon. The lawsuit now has six plaintiffs; all say they were sexually abused by Boy Scout leaders in Idaho — many of them sponsored by the Mormon Church — between 1969 and 1983. You can read reporter Tommy Simmons’ full story here from Saturday’s Idaho Press.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

June 18, 2018

A recent letter implied that Catholics who are troubled by the priest sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church should look to another faith to ease their minds and find comfort. I beg to differ.

If you want to leave the Catholic Church over this, or the fact that it doesn’t ordain women, go ahead and take the easy way out and leave. My faith means more to me than that and I would hope yours does, too.

That seems to be society’s way today; when things don’t go the way we want, we just pack up our bags and move on to something else. In this case, another religion. Is your faith that disposable? Mine isn’t.

Rather, those of us who are Catholic should stand by the one true Christian church. The church that started it all. Our founder was Jesus Christ, and as great as some of the other Christian religion founders were, none can claim its founder was greater than the Catholic Church’s.

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SALT LAAKE CITY (UT)
KUTV

June 15, 2018

By RaeAnn Christensen

After a former LDS primary teacher was charged Friday morning with child sex abuse, his attorney claims it is merely a “cultural misunderstanding.”

“He’s fighting it. He looks absolutely forward to clearing his name,” said Clayton Simms, a criminal defense attorney representing 45-year-old Sean David Sund.

Sund was charged with 5 felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

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NEW ZEALAND
RNZ

June 17, 2018

By Phil Pennington

Some Catholic priests across the Tasman will soon be facing a $10,000 fine if someone confesses child sex abuse to them and they don’t report it to the police.

Both South Australia and ACT have law changes coming to crack open the confessional.

It is expected that the confession-breaking laws could spread nationwide, as part of the federal government’s recently released response to the Royal Commission into child sex abuse’s recommendations.

An adviser to the Royal Commission, Professor Des Cahill, said the implications extended to New Zealand.

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ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Weekly

June 18, 2018

By Jim Saunders

Pointing to a state religious-freedom law, an appeals court has shielded a priest from testifying about his discussion with a teenage girl during the Catholic sacrament of confession about the girl being sexual abused.

The ruling Friday by a panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal in an Orange County case sided with priest Vincenzo Ronchi, who argued that the Catholic Church bars priests from disclosing any aspects of communications during confession —- more formally known as the sacrament of reconciliation —- and that disclosure could even lead to excommunication from the church.

Prosecutors subpoenaed Ronchi to testify in the case of Loren Tim Burton, who was charged last year with committing sexual offenses against a minor when she was 7 years old and 13 years old. The alleged victim, prosecutors said, told Ronzi during confession when she was 15 years old that she had been sexually abused.

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WEST JORDAN (UT)
FOX13 News

June 15, 2018

By Ashton Edwards and Danica Lawrence

A former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Primary teacher is facing child sex abuse charges in West Jordan.

Police arrested 45-year-old Sean David Sund Thursday night on five counts of aggravated child sexual abuse.

An 8-year-old victim told police Sund had regular sleepovers at his house for children, mostly from the LDS ward.

That is where she said Sund sexually abused her on multiple occasions.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

June 16, 2018

By Jolene Toves

Father Adrian Cristobal has appearantly gone into hiding admist accusations that he sexually assaulted two individuals when they were minors.

The allegations of sexual abuse were filed against him in April and May of this year.

When the first allegation surfaced Father Adrian was listed as a priest on mission at the Archdiocese of Phoenix.

Following the the first sexual abuse complaint Archbishop Michael Byrnes issued the directive for him to return to island.

While Archbishop Brynes indicated that he had communicated with Father Adrian in April, the accused priest did not confirm that he would comply with the directive.

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ROME
Crux

June 18, 2018

By Inés San Martín

After an undisclosed meeting with Pope Francis on June 1, one of the younger brothers of Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest says he long ago lost any doubt regarding the guilt of Father Fernando Karadima, who’s been found guilty of multiple counts of abuse, and asked his brother to admit his crimes and apologize.

“I would ask for him to be humble,” said Óscar Karadima to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

“Fernando, ask for forgiveness. Not in silence to God, not in your prayers. Make it public, so that people hear you apologize for the hurt that you’ve caused to victims and everyone.”

“Fernando, you are a man who’s going to die. How do you dare to die like this, as a prideful man who doesn’t apologize?” Óscar Karadima said when asked what he’d tell his brother if he had the chance to speak with him again, something he said he hasn’t done since 2012, a year after the Vatican found Fernando guilty on several counts of sexual abuse and abuses of power and conscience.

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PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post

June 13, 2018

By Jane Musgrave

Describing Rev. John Gallagher as a disgruntled priest who falsely accused church leaders of trying to cover up sex abuse by a visiting cleric, the Diocese of Palm Beach on Wednesday urged the Florida Supreme Court not to revive the defamation lawsuit Gallagher filed against the church.
An appeals court was right in May when it threw out the Gallagher’s lawsuit, ruling that the First Amendment prohibits secular courts from meddling in religious affairs, said a team of lawyers from Coral Gables and Washington, D.C., that represent the diocese.

Under what is known as the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, matters of clergy discipline are off-limits to secular courts, the West Palm Beach-based 4th District Court of Appeal ruled.

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OSORNO (CHILE)
The Associated Press

June 18, 2018

A papal emissary asked forgiveness Sunday from Roman Catholics in a region of Chile where people bitterly protested a now-resigned bishop who had once been a lieutenant of the country’s most notorious predator priest.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna said a Mass and told worshippers that “Pope Francis has given me the task of asking pardon from all of the faithful in the diocese of Osorno.”

The pope at one point had dismissed complaints against Bishop Juan Barros as “stupid.” But he switched course after ordering an investigation led by Scicluna and himself meeting with victims of abuse. A week ago, Francis accepted the resignation of Barrios and two other bishops.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

June 16, 2018

By Jeremy Watson

Police are investigating an allegation of historical child sex abuse against a priest linked to a murder trial.

Officers confirmed that they had received a complaint against Father Gerry Nugent, who died in 2010. BBC Scotland reported allegations from a 51-year-old woman who claimed that she was raped by Nugent when she was a teenager.

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “We can confirm we have received a complaint and enquiries are ongoing.” The matter is a live investigation, she confirmed.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

June 17, 2018

By Jay Tokasz and Dan Herbeck

A Buffalo priest removed in 2015 from a Lancaster parish due to an allegation of inappropriate behavior with a child was the target of similar complaints decades ago at two other parishes.

A 37-year-old woman who is married to a Major League Baseball manager and now lives in Phoenix, Ariz., said the Rev. Dennis A. Fronczak repeatedly fondled her when she was 9 to 12 years old in the 1990s at St. Stephen parish school on Grand Island.

Kristen Lovullo, who grew up on Grand Island, said Fronczak would call her over to sit on his lap, amid the hubbub of students lining up for school dismissal. Then he would slip his hands underneath her skirt and run them up her legs, stopping just short of caressing her buttocks, she said.

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OPELOUSAS (LA)
The Daily Advertiser

June 14, 2018

The priest accused of sexually abusing a minor has turned himself in and confessed, authorities said.

The Rev. Michael Guidry, 75, surrendered Thursday morning at the St. Landry Parish jail and was charged with molestation of a juvenile or a person with a physical or mental disability and with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

His bond was set at $21,500.

St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said his office opened the investigation when a male victim reported he had been sexually molested by Guidry.

According to the report, the alleged victim was 16 at the time of the assault, which occurred at the priest’s home.

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KOCHI (INDIA)
UCANews

June 18, 2018

By T.K. Devasia

Father Robin Vadakkancherry was charged with rape after a schoolgirl gave birth at a church-run hospital in Kerala

A court in southern India is to start the trial of a Catholic priest, more than a year after he was arrested on charges of raping and impregnating a 17-year-old schoolgirl.

The court in Kannur district of Kerala will finalize the trial schedule on June 18. Kerala High Court has directed the court to complete the trial within six months, government pleader B.P. Sadanandan told ucanews.com.

Father Robin Vadakkancherry of Mananthavady Diocese was parish priest of St. Sebastian’s Church in Kottiyoor at the time of the alleged offense.

The 49-year-old priest was arrested and placed in custody in February 2017 after the girl gave birth to a boy.

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SCOTLAND
BBC Scotland

June 15, 2018

By Lucy Adams

A disgraced Roman Catholic priest has been accused of raping a schoolgirl up to 40 times over a two-year period.

Father Gerry Nugent was shamed in 2007 when he admitted to a murder trial he had sex with student Angelika Kluk, a victim of serial killer Peter Tobin.

Police Scotland have now confirmed they are investigating historical allegations of child sexual abuse against the priest, who died in 2010.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

June 17, 2018

By Alana Chargualaf

Archbishop Michael Byrnes has imposed sanctions on Father Adrian Cristobal Saturday after the former chancellor’s failure to report to the archdiocese by Friday.

“This action is taken as a result of the diocesan priest’s failure to obey repeated directives to return to Guam, following allegations of sexual abuse filed against him last April and May,” the Archdiocese of Agana announced.

The sanctions further restrict Cristobal’s abilities to act as a priest in public, which includes the wearing of clerical garb, the archdiocese stated.

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JAPAN
La Croix International

June 18, 2018

By Father William Grimm, MM, Tokyo

The window of opportunity to deal with the problem before it becomes a major scandal is closing

Pope Francis accepted the resignations of three Chilean bishops in connection with the cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy in their country.

One bishop was the lightning rod for uproar among Chile’s Catholics because of accusations that as a priest he covered up abuse by a priest who was his mentor. The pope’s appointment of him as a bishop and his initial vehement defense of the man in the face of protests have been the low point of Francis’ papacy.

The other bishops whose resignations were accepted have already reached the episcopal retirement age of 75, so the pope’s having them step down is not going to satisfy critics who point out that cover-ups have been a systemic problem involving more than a handful of bishops.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

June 18, 2018

By Airlie Ward

Groups representing survivors of child sexual abuse say the Federal Government’s redress scheme is fundamentally flawed and should be rejected by the Senate.

Beyond Abuse, and Survivors and Friends, have written an open letter to senators, who will begin debating the bill this afternoon, urging them to reject it in its current form.

All the states and territories, along with the Catholic Church, Scouts Australia, the Salvation Army, YMCA Australia and the Anglican Church, have committed to the redress scheme recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to compensate people who were sexually abused in state institutions.

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

SCRANTON (PA)
The Times-Tribune

June 18, 2018

By Jon O’Connell

Bishop Joseph C. Bambera apologized Sunday to victims ahead of a grand jury report expected to detail child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and attempts to conceal it.

In a written message published in church bulletins, the bishop offered his “deepest apologies to the victims of such abuse, to their families, to the faithful of our Church and to everyone impacted by the behaviors described in this report.”

Diocesan officials provided the insert to all of its parishes to keep members informed of the impending release, spokesman Dan Gallagher said in an email.

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

BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

June 18, 2018

By Leanne Younes

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat has paid out more than $7.9 million in compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse and more than $1 million in pastoral support to abuse survivors to date.

Catholic Diocese of Ballarat business manager, Andrew Jirik said: “To date the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat (The Diocese) has paid directly to abuse survivors, compensation in excess of $7.9m and $1.4m in pastoral support.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

June 17, 2018

By Phil Pennington

Some Catholic priests across the Tasman will soon be facing a $10,000 fine if someone confesses child sex abuse to them and they don’t report it to the police.

Both South Australia and ACT have law changes coming to crack open the confessional.

It is expected that the confession-breaking laws could spread nationwide, as part of the federal government’s recently released response to the Royal Commission into child sex abuse’s recommendations.

An adviser to the Royal Commission, Professor Des Cahill, said the implications extended to New Zealand.

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

IRELAND
Irish Central

June 17, 2018

By Freya Drohan

Pope Francis has a top priority during his Irish visit, according to The Archbishop of Dublin, Monsignor Diarmuid Martin.

Pope Francis will apparently meet victims who were sexually abused by members of the clergy when they were minors during his visit to Ireland at the end of August.

“The Pope will meet various groups”, Archbishop Martin reported to local members of press.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

June 17, 2018

Six men who pressed for commission of investigation are pleased at Flanagan proposals

A group of sex abuse survivors have welcomed the terms of reference announced by Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan for a commission of investigation into the handling of complaints against convicted Waterford sex abuser Bill Kenneally.

Jason Clancy, whose complaint in 2013 led to a Garda investigation into Kenneally’s abuse of 10 boys in the 1980s, said he and five other men who had pressed for a commission of investigation were very pleased with what the Minister had proposed.

“We are very happy with the terms of reference announced by Minister Flanagan – when we met him earlier this year, he and his officials presented us with terms of reference so we took them away and discussed them with our solicitor Darragh Mackin,” said Mr Clancy.

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

OSORNO (CHILE)
Catholic News Agency via Crux

June 17, 2018

By Elise Harris

As part of their special mission to help bring healing to the troubled Chilean diocese of Osorno, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu are holding several pastoral meetings this week which they say are aimed at listening.

Speaking to Chilean media at the airport after landing in Osorno, Scicluna said they came “to convey the special closeness of the pope to the beloved people of Osorno. We are going to have a lot of discussion and will listen to our brothers, which is the most important [task] for us.”

Similarly, Bertomeu said they are “happy to be here in Osorno,” and voiced hope that they would be able “to communicate the Holy Father’s request for forgiveness in peace, in concord and in harmony.”

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

SCOTLAND
BBC News

April 11, 2018

[Note from BA: This is an article from April that we mistakenly overlooked.]

A man who was sexually abused by Catholic priest Paul Moore when he was just five years old has said the ordeal “poisoned my life”.

Andi Lavery, who was Moore’s youngest victim, has given BBC Scotland permission to publish a picture of him which was taken in May 1977.

He said: “I was assaulted that day. Moore was present when the picture was taken.”

Mr Lavery said the impact of the attacks was incalculable.

He has waived his right to anonymity and spoke out after Moore was jailed for nine years for sexually abusing him, two other children and a student priest

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

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

June 16, 2018

By Dana M Williams

Archbishop Michael Byrnes has been placed sanctions on Father Adrian Cristobal, who has been accused in three sexual abuse cases and has failed to return to Guam as ordered.

Because of the abuse allegations, Cristobal already has been restricted from celebrating Mass publicly or hearing confession while the case is being reviewed, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Agana.

“The sanctions imposed on Father Adrian further restrict his abilities to act as a priest in public, which includes the wearing of clerical garb,” the statement said. “The sanctions will remain in place until such time that he obeys.”

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

ST. LANDRY PARISH (LOUISIANA)
Acadiana (LA) Advocate

June 14, 2018

By Ben Myers

The Lafayette Diocese priest accused of sexually abusing a teenager turned himself in Wednesday to the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, 10 days after the diocese publicly disclosed the allegation.

Michael Guidry, 75, confessed to assaulting the victim, who was 16 at the time, after serving the boy alcohol, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The abuse occurred at Guidry’s home in Morrow, authorities said.

Guidry was released after posting $21,500 bond, according to Maj. Eddie Thibodeaux. Guidry faces one count of molestation of a juvenile and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

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

PHOENIX (AZ)
Arizona Republic

June 15, 2018

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

Father Adrian Cristobal, who was on sabbatical in Phoenix until recently and is accused of sexually abusing two boys more than 20 years ago in Guam, has not returned to the island as ordered by the church.

Two men filed separate civil suits in federal court in Guam in April and May accusing Cristobal of sexual abuse.

Cristobal had arrived in Phoenix in December 2017 for sabbatical with a letter of good standing, the Phoenix Diocese said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. He did not have an assignment and the Phoenix Diocese said it removed his faculties, or his ability to perform church sacraments, after the first suit was filed in April.

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

ST. PAUL (MN)
Minneapolis Star Tribune

June 16, 2018

By Jean Hopfensperger

New process subjects clergy abuse reports to prompt, tight scrutiny.

Tim O’Malley moved into a tiny, windowless office in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2014 facing a daunting task: To overhaul the often secretive way it addressed child sex abuse by priests.

O’Malley, former head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, assembled a team of law enforcement leaders that scoured hundreds of abuse files from the past 60 years. They chased paper trails, interviewed witnesses, and laid the foundation for what is now seen as one of the nation’s most comprehensive archdiocesan child-protection systems.

That’s one of the most significant outcomes of the sex abuse scandal and the archdiocese’s bankruptcy. It recently reached a $210 million settlement with abuse victims. The constant spotlight on the archdiocese over the past four years injected pressures — and opportunities — to forge change, O’Malley said.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

June 17, 2018

By Eugene Boisvert

Catholic priests say they will not abide new laws that mean clergy must report child abuse revealed to them in the confessional.

Both South Australia and the ACT will make the change to compel priests to give information from confession.

Here’s a look at how confession works now, and whether a law could change the way the Catholic Church runs it.

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

BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

June 16, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat has paid out more than $7.9 million to compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse and more than $1 million in pastoral support to abuse survivors to date.

Catholic Diocese of Ballarat business manager, Andrew Jirik said: “To date the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat (The Diocese) has paid directly to abuse survivors, compensation in excess of $7.9m and $1.4m in pastoral support.”

“Notwithstanding the Commonwealth Redress Scheme is not yet in operation, the Diocese continues to work with claimant solicitors to progress outstanding claims and would continue to pay such amounts from its assets and insurance.”

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

IRELAND
TheJournal.ie

June 17, 2018

Archbishops launching the Papal visit were met with questions about LGBT members – but what’s the official position?

MANY OF THE questions for the two Archbishops launching the Pope’s official itinerary in Ireland this week focused on the Catholic Church’s stance on the LGBTQI community and whether people in same-sex relationships would be welcome at high-profile Church-run events later this summer.

Pope Francis will spend two full days in Ireland on 25 and 26 August this year to coincide with the Church’s week-long World Meeting of the Families. Half a million tickets are being made available for his mass at Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

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

HARRISBURG (PA)
Philly.com

June 17, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis

For more than two years, dozens of victims have filed into a secret grand jury room in Pennsylvania, faced a group of strangers, and recounted how they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, their rapes and molestation buried by church leaders.

One, a former Erie priest who testified that he was molested when he was a teenager, called the experience cathartic. Another victim did not fare well after testifying. She attempted suicide and from her hospital bed implored the grand jurors to complete their investigation and make their findings public, according to a source who had been briefed on her account.

Later this month, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro is expected to release a landmark report by that grand jury that will detail, in stark and stomach-turning terms, decades of abuse and cover-ups in every Catholic diocese in the state except Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown, which have already undergone such scrutiny.

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

FLORIDA
Reason.com [Blog]

June 15, 2018

By Eugene Volokh

The Florida Evidence Code apparently requires clergy to testify about confessions to them, if the penitent allows them to do so — but Catholic doctrine forbids any such testimony, regardless of the penitent’s wishes. Which should prevail?

To my knowledge, all American states have an evidentiary rule under which clergy can generally refuse to testify about confessions, if they believe such confessions to be confidential. (The confessions are often called “penitential communications,” to stress that they need to be Catholic-style confessions.) But the Florida Evidence Code apparently treats this as primarily a right of the penitent; thus, if the penitent says she would like the clergy member to testify, the clergy member can be ordered to do so.

The Catholic Church, though, apparently takes a different view: It believes the clergy member cannot reveal things said in the confessional, regardless of whether the penitent wants them revealed. Here’s how this played out in today’s Florida Court of Appeals decision in Ronchi v. State.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

June 16, 2018

By Chrissie Foster

This week we witnessed an historic moment. Our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announced he would implement 104 of the 122 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse which relate to the Commonwealth.

During his announcement there was debate about the seal of confession being broken to report child sexual abuse.

The government is now considering the commission’s recommendation that it be made an offence across all states and territories to fail to report that a child is at substantial risk of sexual abuse. If, pending discussions with the states, the laws are harmonised nationally, that would remove current protections to priests in the confessional and force them to report relevant information revealed in confession.

Almost immediately the Catholic Church took to the media, again reiterating their oppositions to such actions.

Because of their opposition to the government and the royal commission recommendations on this issue, I feel I must contribute by again reiterating what must be the perfect argument for the seal of confession to be broken for children.

The McArdle case is mind numbing. In Queensland in October 2003, Catholic priest Michael McArdle pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting generations of children.

In a sworn affidavit which he made public, McArdle stated he had confessed to sexually assaulting children 1500 times to 30 different priests over a 25-year period in face-to-face confessions.

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

CHILE
PBS Newshour

June 15, 2018

[VIDEO]

Pope Francis announced this week he would accept the resignation of three Chilean bishops, in an ongoing scandal that has grown into a national crisis. Nearly 80 Catholic clergy across the country have been accused of sexually abusing minors over decades, and more have been implicated in the coverup. Jeffrey Brown reports from Santiago, Chile.

Read the Full Transcript

Judy Woodruff:

Now, an extraordinary crisis for the Catholic Church and test for the pope himself.

This week, Pope Francis announced that he would accept the resignation of three bishops in the South American country of Chile. Two days later, Chilean police made surprise raids on church offices.

It is all part of an ongoing child abuse scandal that began in 2010 and continues to reverberate across Latin America and beyond.

Jeffrey Brown reports from Santiago, Chile.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

June 16, 2016

By Katherine Gregory
Updated about 7 hours ago

Catholic priests have said they are not willing to break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse, and would rather go to jail than abide by the law.

South Australia has joined the ACT in moving ahead with laws to force Catholic priests to break the seal of confession, to report paedophiles to police.

Other states are still deliberating over whether or not they will adopt that recommendation from the royal commission.

But Catholic Church leaders have rejected the idea.

Father Michael Whelan, the parish priest in St Patrick’s Church Hill in Sydney, said priests would not break the seal of confession.

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

NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

June 16, 2018

By Lisa Visentin

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has declared the government has a responsibility to end the protection that the religious seal of confession affords to paedophiles.

Mr Barilaro defended the decision by the grassroots of the NSW National Party to support the introduction of new laws requiring priests to break the confessional seal and report to police admissions of child sex abuse heard during confession.

“We are custodians in parliament to make sure we put in place legislation that protects our children for the future,” Mr Barilaro said in response to a question from a grassroots member at the NSW Nationals state conference on Saturday.

“No institution or organisation should be ever exempt from taking responsibility or [permitted to hide] behind their own internal rules.”

“We have an obligation to protect children and we need to do that, and no one is exempt from that,” he said.

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

DHAKA (BANGLADESH)
UCANews

June 15, 2018

By Rock Ronald Rozario and Stephan Uttom

Despite the Vatican judging allegations against William Christensen to be credible in 2010, he is still working with children

An American priest who was dismissed from the clergy by the Vatican after being accused of sexually abusing as many as 30 teenagers in Bangladesh is still in the country.

William Andrew Christensen, a priest in the Society of Mary, or Marianists, was removed from the priesthood in October 2010 after the Vatican judged allegations against him to be credible.

In January 2011, ucanews.com published a story quoting Catholic human rights activist Rosaline Costa, who claimed that Christensen used the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD), which he founded in Bogra district in 1987, as a front to sexually abuse at least 30 Muslim teenagers in rural Bangladesh.

He was accused of buying the silence of the youngsters, their parents and local political and community leaders.

Christensen was accused of abusing a pupil at a school in St. Louis, Missouri, before coming to Bangladesh but a lawsuit filed in 2002 collapsed when the complainant died.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
The Associated Press

June 15, 2018

The Chicago school district will run background checks on thousands of employees after a newspaper found that students had been sexually abused by workers with criminal records.

The Chicago school district will run background checks on thousands of employees after a newspaper found that students had been sexually abused by workers with criminal records.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson says the effort is “unprecedented.” The district checks backgrounds of new teachers, volunteers and some others who work in schools, but someone who is already employed doesn’t face the same scrutiny.

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

DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press

June 15, 2018

Michigan State University board trustee Brian Mosallam is asking interim school president John Engler to resign immediately.

Mosallam released a statement Friday morning, saying the crisis on campus related to Larry Nassar will not settle until Engler steps down.

According to emails, Engler has criticized lawyers who represent Nassar’s assault victims and suggested the first woman to go public with her accusations was probably getting a “kickback” from her attorney.

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

EAST LANSING (MI)
SFGate

June 15, 2018

By Larry Lage and Alice Yin

Two Michigan State University board trustees are calling for interim school President John Engler to resign, joining a chorus of sexual assault victims of disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar and top legislators who say the campus community cannot heal until Engler steps down.

“Unfortunately, and with great regret, John Engler’s tenure as interim president has continued the bleeding rather than stem it,” Brian Mosallam said in a statement Friday. “His misguided actions and comments have failed to re-establish trust and confidence in Michigan State.”

His disapproval was echoed by trustee Dianne Byrum a few hours later.

“The despicable and disparaging comments made about survivors by interim President John Engler are completely unacceptable,” she said.

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

LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 12, 2018

Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley on Tuesday signed two bills inspired by the Larry Nassar scandal, including one giving childhood sexual abuse victims more time to sue.

The current cutoff to file a lawsuit in Michigan is generally a minor victim’s 19th birthday, which critics say is out of step with other states and does not account for how many victims are afraid to report abuse or have suppressed it. Starting in three months, people who were sexually abused as children will be able to sue until their 28th birthdays or three years from when they realize they have been abused. Victims of Nassar, the imprisoned former sports doctor who worked for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, will get a 90-day window to sue retroactively.

As part of a $500 million settlement with Michigan State, his hundreds of accusers agreed to withdraw their support for legislation that would have eliminated the immunity defense in lawsuits for entities that are negligent in the hiring, supervision or training of employees, or if the governmental agencies knew or should have known and failed to report sexual misconduct to law enforcement.

Calley, who enacted the main bill in a private Capitol ceremony because Snyder was out of the state, also signed a measure giving prosecutors 15 years or until a victim’s 28th birthday to file charges in second- and third-degree sexual conduct cases if the victim was younger than 18. The deadline currently is 10 years or a victim’s 21st birthday, whichever is later.

Charges could be filed at any time if there were DNA evidence.

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

CHILE
Agencias ABC.es

June 15, 2018

The papal envoy met in two days with 94 victims of abuse in Chile

El sacerdote español Jordi Bertomeu, uno de los enviados papales que llegó a Chile junto al arzobispo maltés Charles Scicluna, dijo hoy tras llegar a la sureña ciudad de Osorno que en dos días se reunieron con 94 víctimas de abusos sexuales en el interior del clero.

Tras el arribo de la comitiva papal ambos se dirigieron a las afueras de la Catedral San Mateo de Osorno, a 942 kilómetros al sur de Santiago, donde Bertomeu dijo a los periodistas que han llegado a esa zona para ponerse al servicio del pueblo.

El religioso español recalcó a la prensa que desde su llegada a Chile, el pasado martes, se reunieron con 94 víctimas de abusos sexuales al interior de la institución eclesiástica .

Frente a la fuerte división que existe al interior de la diócesis en la zona, especialmente en los fieles, Bertomeu reconoció que esto es normal, como ocurre en distintas instancias de la vida.

“Por eso nuestra misión es poder transmitir a la ciudadanía que el papa los quiere”, y en ese sentido dijo que tienen pensado realizar una misa de reparación para los afectados.

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

CHILE
Arzobispo de Santiago

June 1, 2018

Canonical judgments executed by the Archbishop of Santiago

En la homilía de cierre del X Sínodo, el 21 de mayo pasado, el cardenal Arzobispo de Santiago Ricardo Ezzati señaló que la Santa Sede le había confiado dar sentencias de seis casos durante su ministerio episcopal en Santiago.

Respecto del detalle de la información, estos son los casos respecto de los cuales ha dictado sentencia:

1. ALFREDO SOIZA-PIÑEYRO VEGA (Sacerdote secular). El Arzobispo decretó investigación previa en enero de 2012, la cual determinó que las actas y los antecedentes de la mencionada investigación debían ser enviados a la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe. Se le restringió el ejercicio de su ministerio sacerdotal hasta que la Santa Sede estableció su dimisión del estado clerical.

2. CRISTIÁN PRECHT BAÑADOS (Sacerdote secular). Condenado a cinco años de suspensión del ministerio sacerdotal. Actualmente sin ningún encargo pastoral y con decreto de una nueva investigación previa debido a las acusaciones de víctima del caso Maristas.

3. ROBERTO A. SALAZAR SOTO (Religioso). Su caso fue confiado al Arzobispo por la Congregación de la Doctrina de la fe. Concluyó con la dimisión de su Congregación y del estado clerical.

4. HÉCTOR VALDÉS VALDÉS (Religioso). Su caso fue confiado al Arzobispo por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe. Concluyó con la dimisión de su Congregación y del estado clerical.

5. LUIS MOREL GUMUCIO (Religioso). Su caso fue asumido por el Arzobispo diocesano. Terminó con la suspensión del ministerio por decreto del Arzobispo. Al poco tiempo, falleció.

6. JOSÉ LUIS DÍAZ ATILANO (Religioso). Su caso fue confiado al Arzobispo por la Congregación de la Doctrina de la Fe. Dimitido de su Congregación y del estado clerical por decreto del Arzobispo de Santiago, interpuso recurso ante la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe.

Fuente: Comunicaciones Santiago

http://www.iglesiadesantiago.cl/

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CHILE
Clarin

June 14, 2018

The Vatican and the Chilean justice join forces against the pedophile priests: they level the seats of the Church in Santiago

Enviados del Papa coincidieron en la necesidad de cooperar con el Estado en las investigaciones. Incautan documentos del Tribunal Eclesiástico de la capital.

Enviados del papa Francisco a Chile coincidieron este miércoles con el fiscal general del país en la “necesidad absoluta” de la cooperación entre la Iglesia y el Estado chileno para la investigación de abusos de menores por parte del clero. Hora antes, la policía allanaba la sede del Tribunal Eclesiástico de Santiago y del obispado de Rancagua e incautaba documentos.

La Justicia chilena se apoderó así de archivos eclesiásticos en busca de antecedentes tras las denuncias de abuso sexual a menores que remecen a la Iglesia católica en el país suramericano. Escándalo por el cual todos los obispos chilenos pusieron a disposición del papa su renuncia días atrás. El pontífice aceptó la dimisión de una de las figuras más polémicas del caso, el obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, acusado de ocultar casos de pedofilia.

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CHILE
La Tercera

June 15, 2018

By S. Vedoya, I. Toro, J. Matus y P. Moreno

Public Ministry makes historic seizure in church headquarters for cases of abuse

Fiscalía junto a Carabineros allanaron los obispados de Santiago y Rancagua, además del Tribunal Eclesiástico. En 1987, el entonces vicario Sergio Valech le negó fichas clínicas al exfiscal militar Torres Silva.

Cerca de las 11.00 de este miércoles un fuerte rumor comenzó a circular entre los asistentes al seminario de capacitación sobre prevención de abusos sexuales, organizado por la Conferencia Episcopal, en la Casa Central de la Universidad Católica. Entre los presentes se encontraban los enviados papales Charles Scicluna y Jordi Bertomeu, quienes iniciaban allí las actividades de su segundo día de misión en Chile. Llamados telefónicos y comentarios de pasillo alertaban que el Ministerio Público ingresaría a diversas dependencias de la Iglesia Católica en busca de información relacionada con investigaciones eclesiales sobre abusos cometidos por sacerdotes.

El mismo asombro se vivía a esa hora en la sede de la Conferencia Episcopal. Allí estaban el arzobispo de Santiago, cardenal Ricardo Ezzati, y el obispo auxiliar, Fernando Ramos, quienes también recibían mensajes y llamados de alerta sobre la situación.

Finalmente, el rumor se materializó. A las 11.19 horas se dio inicio a un operativo histórico para la Iglesia Católica chilena. El fiscal regional de Rancagua, Emiliano Arias, en compañía de efectivos del OS-9 de Carabineros subieron al séptimo piso de Catedral 1063, en Santiago, para allanar las dependencias del Tribunal Eclesiástico.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

June 15, 2018

By David Jesse

As two board members, several lawmakers and a host of Spartan students and alumni called for him to step down as Michigan State University’s Interim President, John Engler said he’s not going anywhere.

“I continue to look ahead,” he said in a statement released in the hours following two of his bosses calling for his resignation. He did not directly address the calls for resignation in his statement.

“Whatever the tensions were before, we have successfully negotiated a settlement agreement — something that is fair and equitable to both sides, and that both sides agreed to. We are now committed to continuing our efforts to strengthen sexual misconduct prevention on and off campus and to respond promptly to and appropriately if prevention fails.

“I am looking forward to the Board of Trustee meeting next week where we will continue our progress and efforts to move forward. I believe actions matter, and that is how the success of our work will be determined.”

Michigan State University interim President John Engler must step aside immediately, board members Brian Mosallam and Dianne Byrum said Friday morning in separate statements.

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ERIE (PA)
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Michael G. Barletta was ordained in 1966 for the Diocese of Erie. He spent the bulk of his career as a high school teacher while residing in local parishes. Early on he was at Kennedy Christian High in Sharon, where he established a service club called the Teenage Action Club (TAC). He was transferred in the mid-1970s to Cathedral Prep, again establishing a TAC. Barletta was reportedly a charismatic, popular teacher, nicknamed “Barts,” who would take some of his students on overnight trips, including to Toronto, Niagara Falls, and his camp at Punxsutawney.

In 1994 a man told Bishop Trautman that Barletta had molested him when he was a Prep student in the late 1970s-early 1980s. Trautman removed Barletta from the school within the year and transferred him from St. Luke’s parish in Erie to St. Patrick/St. Hedwig’s. He was assigned to work in the diocesan office of Catholic Charities and as chaplain to Holy Family Carmelite Monastery. Also at St. Patrick/St. Hedwig’s during Barletta’s time there were, among others, accused priests Thomas E. Smith and Leon T. Muroski, and retired Bishop Michael J. Murphy.

In the Spring of 2002 the man who reported Barletta to the diocese in 1994 and two other men approached Bishop Trautman, all three alleging sexual abuse by Barletta in the late 1970s-early 1980s when they were Cathedral Prep students. Barletta was finally removed from active ministry in 2003. He is not indexed in the Official Catholic Directory after 2002. He is noted in 2012 and 2017 news articles to have been living in Erie and functioning as a priest at his high school reunions.

Ordained: 1966

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

June 15, 2018

By James C. Graham

In 1993, during a meeting in Buffalo, N.Y., I learned that the man who had raised me was not my father and that the Rev. Thomas S. Sullivan, a priest from Lowell, likely was. After looking at the obituary and accompanying photo, there was no question in my mind that he was my father, since his facial features mirrored mine. But I never knew him, the result of a well-orchestrated scheme by the church to save its reputation during the conservative post-World War II era of the late ’40s.

Even though the revelation occurred nearly a half-century after my birth, I found the church was intent on disguising my origin; it stonewalled me for years. In my quest for transparency, I interviewed many of my father’s contemporaries from the Oblate order. They were shocked by my likeness to their old friend. However, in every case, they referred to my father as Tom Sullivan, never as “your father.”

Each meeting offered a bit of information about him; he was an eloquent speaker, an avid reader, a prolific writer, and witty. One priest asked, “Did you get the money for your education? We wanted to do the right thing.” When I said, “What money?” his facial expression twisted in anguish. At the end of a very revealing discussion, he offered this advice: “Forget the injustices of the past, you have good genes, get on with the rest of your life.” A few months later, I revisited the priest, who denied having said what he divulged in our first meeting.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Engadget

June 15, 2018

By Steve Dent

Offenders will face up to two years in prison.

It will soon be a criminal offense in the UK to point a camera up a woman’s skirt and take a photo (an act called “upskirting”), with offenders facing up to two years in jail. It’s hard to believe, but there’s no specific law on the books, so police have had trouble prosecuting the creeps that do it. The new legislation will be largely through the efforts of victim Gina Martin. She was upskirted at a music festival in London, and despite having photographic evidence, police said they were unable to act because the photos weren’t considered graphic.

Afterwards, Martin started a petition that gained 104,000 signatures, including nearly 50,000 in the UK. That eventually caught the attention of Justice Secretary David Lidington, who got the ball rolling on the new legislation. The law will receive a second reading in the House of Commons today, after which it will specifically be illegal to “take a picture under a person’s clothing without them knowing, with the intention of viewing their genitals or buttocks,” according to the government.

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HAGÅTÑA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News

June 14, 2018

By Haidee Eugenio

Guam’s controversial archbishop, removed from office in March and barred from living in the U.S. territory, has appealed a Vatican tribunal’s ruling that found him guilty of “certain accusations” involving the sexual abuse of minors, the Archdiocese of Agaña said Thursday.

During the last week of April, Rome notified new Archbishop Michael Byrnes, tapped to replace Anthony S. Apuron on March 16, about Apuron’s appeal, according to Tony Diaz, director of communications for the archdiocese.

Whether an appeal could result in reversal of the verdict “would be up to Rome,” Diaz said.

Pope Francis placed Apuron on leave in June 2016 after former altar boys and their families accused the archbishop of sexually abusing children in the 1970s when he was a parish priest in the village of Agat.

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