ABUSE TRACKER

A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.

July 29, 2018

Hundreds participate in cash and carry sale

YONA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News

July 28, 2018

By Kevin Tano

More than hundreds of interested buyers packed the parking lot and crowded the halls of the former Accion Hotel hoping to find bargain deals at its cash and carry sale Saturday.

The hotel was also the site subject to protest and lawsuit, and used as a Redemptoris Mater Seminary for the Neocatechumenal Way.

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 archdiocese guts a former seminary to raise money for clergy sex abuse settlements

YONA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News

July 28, 2018

By Kevin Tano

A former seminary building was packed with hundreds of shoppers Saturday after the Archdiocese of Agana, which owns the property, announced they were selling everything inside and using part of the proceeds to fund potential settlements for Guam clergy sex abuse victims.

Approximately 350 people were camped outside the former Accion Hotel at 5 a.m. Saturday. That was three hours before the sale even began, Leonard Stohr, deacon for Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Yigo, told the Pacific Daily News.

“This is pandemonium, everywhere I look (there’s) people,” Stohr 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.

The Latest: McCarrick accuser hopes victims can now heal

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

July 28, 2018

The Latest on the sex abuse allegations surrounding U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

A Virginia man who says he was sexually abused for decades by Theodore McCarrick said Saturday that he’s pleased by news that Pope Francis accepted the cardinal’s resignation.

The man, who agreed to be identified only by his first name, James, said the abuse began when he was just 11 years old and continued into adulthood. He tells The Associated Press that he hopes McCarrick’s resignation would help other victims “become free.”

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.

Catholic nuns break their silence on abuse by priests: ‘I pretended it didn’t happen’

VATICAN CITY
The Week

July 28, 2018

[Related article: Vatican meets #MeToo: Nuns denounce their abuse by priests, by Nicole Winfield and Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press, July 28, 2018]

The Catholic Church has a “global and pervasive” problem with the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and other male clergy, The Associated Press alleged in a lengthy investigative report published Saturday. The true prevalence of the abuse is unknown, as abuse reports are often kept quiet:

“Some nuns are now finding their voices, buoyed by the #MeToo movement and the growing recognition that adults can be victims of sexual abuse when there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. The sisters are going public in part because of years of inaction by church leaders, even after major studies on the problem in Africa were reported to the Vatican in the 1990s. […]

“The extent of the abuse of nuns is unclear, at least outside the Vatican. Victims are reluctant to report the abuse because of well-founded fears they won’t be believed, experts told the AP. Church leaders are reluctant to acknowledge that some priests and bishops simply ignore their vows of celibacy, knowing that their secrets will be kept. [AP]”

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.

Cardinal McCarrick, prominent US Catholic, resigns over abuse claims

UNITED STATES
BBC News

June 28, 2018

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a prominent US cardinal accused of sexually assaulting a teenager nearly 50 years ago.

Theodore McCarrick, 88, a former Archbishop of Washington, must also carry out “penance and prayer” pending a canonical trial, the Vatican said.

Last month US Church officials said the allegations were credible.

Mr McCarrick has said he has “no recollection” of the alleged abuse. Further allegations have since emerged.

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.

VIDEO: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick resigns amid sexual abuse allegations

UNITED STATES
NBC-TV Nightly News

July 28, 2018

[VIDEO]

McCarrick’s resignation comes after sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s came to light. He is the first American Cardinal ever to resign.

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.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Resigns Amid Sexual Abuse Scandal

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

July 28, 2018

By Elisabetta Povoledo and Sharon Otterman

[See this story on the front page.]

Rome – Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, from the College of Cardinals, ordering him to a “life of prayer and penance” after allegations that the cardinal sexually abused minors and adult seminarians over the course of decades, the Vatican announced on Saturday.

Acting swiftly to contain a widening sex abuse scandal at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope officially suspended the cardinal from the exercise of any public ministry after receiving his resignation letter Friday evening. Pope Francis also demanded in a statement that the prelate remain in seclusion “until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.”

Cardinal McCarrick appears to be the first cardinal in history to step down from the College of Cardinals because of sexual abuse allegations. While he remains a priest pending the outcome of a Vatican trial, he has been stripped of his highest honor and will no longer be called upon to advise the pope and travel on his behalf.

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.

Pope accepts resignation of McCarrick after sex abuse claims

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

July 28, 2018

By Frances D’Emilio

In a move seen as unprecedented, Pope Francis has effectively stripped U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick of his cardinal’s title following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy. The Vatican announced Saturday that Francis ordered McCarrick to conduct a “life of prayer and penance” before a church trial is held.

Breaking with past practice, Francis decided to act swiftly on the resignation offered by the emeritus archbishop of Washington, D.C., even before the accusations are investigated by church officials. McCarrick was previously one of the highest, most visible Catholic church officials in the United States and was heavily involved in the church’s yearslong response to allegations of priestly abuse there.

Francis received McCarrick’s letter offering to resign from the College of Cardinals on Friday evening, after a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate had for years sexually abused boys and had sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.

The pope then ordered McCarrick’s “suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial,” the Vatican 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.

U.S. cardinal steps down amid widening sex abuse scandal

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

July 28, 2018

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis on Saturday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, one of the U.S. Catholic Church’s most prominent figures, who has been at the center of a widening sexual abuse scandal.

McCarrick, 88, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., is the first cardinal in living memory to lose his red hat and title. Other cardinals who have been disciplined in sexual abuse scandals kept their membership in the College of Cardinals and their honorific “your eminence”.

The allegations against McCarrick, which first surfaced publicly last month, came with Francis facing an image crisis on a second front, in Chile, where a growing abuse scandal has enveloped the Church.

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.

July 28, 2018

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, facing sexual abuse reports, resigns from the College of Cardinals

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

July 28, 2018

By Julie Zauzmer and Chico Harlan

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/28/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-facing-sexual-abuse-reports-resigns-from-the-college-of-cardinals/?utm_term=.87d93b9a5ba7

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and longtime globe-trotting diplomat of the Catholic Church, resigned his position as a cardinal, the Vatican announced Saturday.

McCarrick, 88, was found by the church in June to be credibly accused of sexually abusing a teenager nearly 50 years ago. Since then, additional reports of sexual abuse and harassment by the cardinal, over a span of decades, have been reported. The victims include one then-minor and three adults, who were young priests or seminarians when McCarrick allegedly abused them.

Pope Francis ordered McCarrick to remain in seclusion, and in prayer, until a church trial considers further sanctions.

McCarrick is the highest ranked U.S. Catholic clergy member to ever be removed from ministry due to sexual abuse allegations, and the first cardinal to fully resign his position since 1927.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, from Scotland, renounced the rights and privileges of his position after a string of accusations in 2013 about sexual misconduct. But he did not officially depart the College of Cardinals, and Pope Francis only accepted O’Brien’s resignation two years after the allegations came out.

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.

Priest ‘thought’ abuse victim was older

ROME (ITALY)
ANSA

July 27, 2018

Under house arrest, blames girl for initiating

Prato, Italy – A priest arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl attempted to justify himself by saying that he thought “she was 14 or 15”.

The priest, Paolo Glaentzer, 70, made this claim during a July 24 interrogation.

He admitted that he had engaged in similar behavior with the girl “at least three other times” but blamed the girl for initiating it. He was caught in the act by two neighbors and then arrested by the Carabinieri police and has been placed under house arrest in Bagni di Lucca.

The preliminary investigative judge said that the man had shown obstinacy in continuing such “deviant and illicit modes of behavior”.

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.

Lawyers Criticize Prosecutor’s Appeal to Pope in Abuse Probe

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

July 26, 2018

By Claudia Lauer

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/pennsylvania/articles/2018-07-26/pennsylvania-attorney-general-appeals-to-pope-in-abuse-probe

Attorneys representing some of the petitioners arguing against releasing a Pennsylvania grand jury report on alleged child sexual abuse in the Catholic church say the state attorney general’s plea to Pope Francis is “stunning and highly unusual.”

Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor claimed in a letter to Pope Francis that at least two leaders of the Catholic Church are trying to block the release of a grand jury report alleging child sexual abuse in six of the state’s dioceses before asking him to intervene.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro sent a letter to Pope Francis on Wednesday saying anonymous petitioners had filed court actions to stop the release of the report that details the abuse and cover-ups by church officials. He urged the Roman Catholic Church’s top official to reach out to Pennsylvania’s Catholic leaders and urge them to withdraw their objections.

Shapiro wrote that he appreciated the pope meeting with survivors of sexual abuse when he visited the Philadelphia area in September 2015, and the remorse he expressed.

“Sadly, some of the clergy leading the church in Pennsylvania have failed to heed your words,” he wrote. “Credible reports indicate that at least two leaders of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania — while not directly challenging the release of this report in court — are behind these efforts to silence the victims and avoid accountability.”

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.

Pa. Supreme Court: Release redacted report that names more than 300 ‘predator priests’

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Inquirer

July 27, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis & Liz Navratil

Harrisburg – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of a redacted copy of a highly anticipated grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse, one the court said identifies more than 300 “predator priests” but would conceal the names of a handful of clergy members who contend it is inaccurate or unfairly maligns their reputations.

The order by the seven-member high court provided a temporary victory for about two dozen current and former clergy members who have waged a furious legal fight to prevent their names from being publicly disclosed. The high court’s decision will allow them to remain unidentified for weeks, if not months, while the justices weigh their arguments.

Some critics said that even a slight delay in publicly identifying any of the accused priests could enable them to escape criticism because public interest will wane.

In their 31-page order, the justices agreed that the case — and complaints by clergy implicated in the investigation — raises due-process issues. In doing so, they signaled frustration with both the Attorney General’s Office, which led the two-year inquiry, as well as Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III, who supervised the grand jury’s work and has said the full, unredacted report should be made public.

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.

McCarrick renounces place in College of Cardinals after revelations of sexual abuse

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

July 28, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee and Heidi Schlumpf

Retired Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick has renounced his position in the College of Cardinals, leaving the global Catholic Church’s most symbolic and powerful group in the wake of revelations that he sexually harassed or abused several young men during his meteoric rise to become one of the U.S. church’s most senior prelates.

The move, announced in a press release from the U.S. bishops July 28, is without precedence since the founding of the American church with the creation of the diocese of Baltimore in 1789. While several U.S. cardinals have come under scrutiny in recent decades for their handling of abuse cases, none prior had set aside their red cardinalatial robes.

Global precedents are also difficult to find, with the last cardinal to fully renounce his position being French theologian Fr. Louis Billot over a political disagreement with Pope Pius XI in 1927.

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.

After decades of silence, nuns talk about abuse by priests

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

July 27, 2018

By Nicole Winfield and Rodney Muhumuza

The nun no longer goes to confession regularly, after an Italian priest forced himself on her while she was at her most vulnerable: recounting her sins to him in a university classroom nearly 20 years ago.

At the time, the sister only told her provincial superior and her spiritual director, silenced by the Catholic Church’s culture of secrecy, her vows of obedience and her own fear, repulsion and shame.

“It opened a great wound inside of me,” she told the Associated Press. “I pretended it didn’t happen.”

After decades of silence, the nun is one of a handful worldwide to come forward recently on an issue that the Catholic Church has yet to come to terms with: The sexual abuse of religious sisters by priests and bishops. An AP examination has found that cases have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, demonstrating that the problem is global and pervasive, thanks to the universal tradition of sisters’ second-class status in the Catholic Church and their ingrained subservience to the men who run it.

Some nuns are now finding their voices, buoyed by the #MeToo movement and the growing recognition that adults can be victims of sexual abuse when there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. The sisters are going public in part because of years of inaction by church leaders, even after major studies on the problem in Africa were reported to the Vatican in the 1990s.

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.

Pope Francis Accepts Resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from College of Cardinals

WASHINGTON (DC)
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

July 28, 2018

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, from the College of Cardinals.

Pope Francis has also imposed on Cardinal McCarrick suspension ad divinis and directs him to observe a life of prayer and penance in seclusion until the completion of the canonical process.

The statement of this resignation and these stipulations was publicized in Rome on July 28, 2018.

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.

Comunicato della Sala Stampa della Santa Sede

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Press Office

[Press release: McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals accepted; Pope Francis orders him to live a life of prayer and penance]

July 28, 2018

Nella serata di ieri è pervenuta al Santo Padre la lettera con la quale il Cardinale Theodore McCarrick, Arcivescovo emerito di Washington (U.S.A.), ha presentato la rinuncia da membro del Collegio Cardinalizio.

Papa Francesco ne ha accettato le dimissioni da Cardinale ed ha disposto la sua sospensione dall’esercizio di qualsiasi ministero pubblico, insieme all’obbligo di rimanere in una casa che gli verrà indicata, per una vita di preghiera e di penitenza, fino a quando le accuse che gli vengono rivolte siano chiarite dal regolare processo canonico.

* * *

Yesterday evening the Holy Father received the letter in which Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington (U.S.A.), presented his resignation as a member of the College of Cardinals.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.

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.

July 27, 2018

Pa. Supreme Court sanctions release of ‘interim’ report on Catholic priest sex abuse

MECHANICSVILLE (PA)
PennLive

July 27, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

[See the Supreme Court opinion.]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that large portions of a grand jury report into clergy sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania will be released to the public.

In an order issued Friday afternoon, the court states that an interim report on the findings of the 40th Statewide Grand Jury investigation will be released in August. The interim report, with redactions, will be released by Aug. 14, according to the order written by Chief Justice Thomas Saylor.

The court found that report could be released to the public without compromising the rights of petitioners who have challenged the report. Dozens of priests have challenged the release of the report and said it would violate their rights to due process. The court conceded sufficient measures should be taken to protect their identities and called for a redacted version of the report.

The order also indicates the scope of the grand jury’s investigation of clergy sex abuse. More than 300 people identified by name are alleged to have committed criminal or morally reprehensible conduct in the grand jury report, the court’s opinion states.

The grand jury report describes more than 300 clergymen as “predator priests,” according to the court opinion released Friday.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the court’s order authorizing the release of the report a “victory” for victims. Shapiro has been fighting to have the report released since the state’s highest court sealed it amidst legal challenges.

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.

University stops Nassar victims’ payments amid fraud worries

EAST LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

July 27, 2018

Michigan State University has halted payments from a $10 million fund it set up for counseling services for victims of now-imprisoned former sports doctor Larry Nassar amid concerns about possible fraudulent claims.

The Lansing State Journal reports the school stopped making payments Wednesday after the Healing Assistance Fund administrator’s flagged the issue. MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant says stopping payments will allow an investigation into the issue.

Guerrant says the fund had distributed more than $1.1 million as of June 30.

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.

Chloe Dykstra Asks to Move On Following Chris Hardwick’s Reinstatement

UNITED STATES
Vulture

July 26, 2018

By Anne Victoria Clark

Chloe Dykstra has spoken out for the first time since her ex-boyfriend Chris Hardwick was reinstated by AMC as the host of Talking Dead. The network had launched an investigation of him after Dykstra penned an essay, which did not mention Hardwick by name, detailing her claims of alleged emotional and sexual abuse in their relationship. In a statement posted to Twitter, Dykstra says that she did not participate in AMC’s investigation of Hardwick and states she simply wishes to move on with her life. Read her full statement below:

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.

Catholic Bishops Beg for a Clear Policy against Evil

NEW YORK (NY)
National Review

July 26, 2018

By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Leading churchmen are denying the undeniable.

A few cardinals have roused themselves to respond to the month-old press disclosures that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a pederast, whereas before he was merely well known as a serial sexual harasser. Their response is depressing in the extreme and should make any Catholic or person of good will wish for their immediate, tearful confessions of fault, and their resignations of high ecclesial office.

Before mainstream media outlets finally reported on his lewd and criminal behavior, McCarrick was the face of the American episcopacy’s response to the sex-abuse crisis in 2002. His lewd behavior with seminarians was an open secret among priests and informed laity. Expert witnesses in priest-abuse cases, such as Richard Sipe, had long ago publicized what they knew of the behavior of “Uncle Ted.” A concerned group of laity and clerics pleaded their case against him in Rome before his elevation to the College of Cardinals. Churchmen across the country who didn’t call him “Uncle Ted” with affection or disgust had another nickname related to his proclivities: “Blanche.”

American bishops now facing questions about what they knew and when have had to choose between looking clueless or complicit. So far, they are choosing the former. They are not, however, very persuasive in presenting themselves as ignorant of the rumors.

So let’s review what these churchmen have said and ask some questions about their responses to these “revelations.”

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.

Attorney general writes to Pope Francis, seeks intervention on release of grand jury child sex abuse report

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune-Democrat

July 27, 2018

By Dave Sutor

http://www.tribdem.com/news/read-the-letter-attorney-general-writes-to-pope-francis-seeks/article_33a12d24-9118-11e8-9381-537ef72c8396.html

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has appealed to the highest level of the Catholic Church in his attempt to get the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to allow the release of an almost 900-page grand jury report that is believed to contain details about years of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up within six of the commonwealth’s dioceses.

Shapiro’s office prepared a letter to the Vatican after conducting interviews and research into the Allentown, Scranton, Erie, Pittsburgh, Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses in a proceeding overseen by Cambria County President Judge Norman Krumenacker III.

Officials in the dioceses have publicly supported its release.

However, in June, the high court stopped the report’s release after “many individuals” mentioned in the document raised concerns about possible damage to their reputations if the findings become public.

On Wednesday, Shapiro sent a letter to Pope Francis in which he wrote: “Credible reports indicate that at least two leaders of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania – while not directly challenging the release of this report in court – are behind these efforts to silence the victims and avoid accountability.”

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

Dublin archbishop: Francis can’t come to Ireland and not address abuse scandal

DENVER (CO)
Crux

July 27, 2018

By Charles Collins

Dublin, Ireland – A month before Pope Francis touches down on his first visit to Ireland, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin says the entire nation – religious or not – is interested in what the pontiff has to say.

“The tickets were booked out within days. The big problem – both in Dublin and in Knock – there is no room to take in more people, and more people want to come,” Martin told Crux.

The pope will travel to the country Aug. 25-26 for the final two days of the week-long World Meeting of Families.

Francis will be coming to a very different Ireland than the one that last welcomed a pope in 1979, when millions came to see John Paul II.

The clerical abuse scandal has greatly damaged the reputation of the Church: Not only have same-sex marriage and abortion been legalized, but recent surveys show about half of Irish people under the age of 30 don’t even identify as Catholic.

Martin said young people were “horrified” by the scandal, and one of the challenges for the Church in the future is to learn to re-engage them.

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 complaints of abuse among Good Samaritan Sisters in Chile

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency via Crux

July 27, 2018

Talca, Chile – Former nuns of the Congregation of the Good Samaritan in Chile reported a series of sexual abuses committed by priests visiting the community, which belongs to the Diocese of Talca and is dedicated to caring for the sick.

The new accusations come amid a growing sexual abuse scandal rocking the Church in Chile that led Pope Francis to summon the bishops to the Vatican in May to address the crisis, their resignation en masse, and the pope accepting some of the resignations.

Currently this diocese in Southern Chile has as apostolic administrator Bishop Galo Fernandez Villaseca, after Francis accepted the resignation of the local bishop, Horacio Valenzuela.

In a report broadcast July 24 by Televisión Nacional de Chile, five former nuns said that there was sexual abuse and the abuse of authority inside the congregation. They added that they were mistreated when they reported the incidents to the superior.

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.

Abuse survivor says McCarrick failed to act on complaint about priest

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

July 27, 2018

By Peter Feuerherd

Avenel, N.J. – News that charges of sexual abuse of minors and seminarians have been lodged against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick shocked some this summer.

But Mark Crawford was not among them.

Crawford, because of his contacts among priests and church workers, had heard the buzz about the cardinal’s alleged sexual interest in seminarians for years, although he had no direct knowledge. But he did know one thing: Crawford himself had suffered long-term abuse from a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, had gone to McCarrick when the cardinal led the archdiocese, and was promised that something would be done.

And his abuser was soon returned to ministry.

Crawford described McCarrick’s demeanor at their 1997 meeting as cold and aloof. The then-archbishop said it was his first meeting ever with a victim of sex abuse by clergy. During the meeting, McCarrick told Crawford that his abuser, Fr. Kenneth Martin, would never have access to children again.

“I knew he was compromised when nothing changed,” Crawford told NCR during an interview from his house here. Instead, Crawford watched from afar as his abuser was sent away. But about two years later Crawford picked up a copy of the Advocate, the archdiocesan newspaper, to discover a photo of Martin and McCarrick together at a Christmas party for children at St. James Hospital in Newark where Martin had been assigned as chaplain.

“They never told me anything,” he said about the archdiocese’s subsequent placement of Martin.

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.

Conservatives distort McCarrick scandal to attack Francis

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

July 27, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

Catholic conservatives have finally decided to take the clergy sex abuse crisis seriously. Why? Because their longtime nemesis Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of unspeakable crimes and because they think they can use this crisis to attack Pope Francis. It is deplorable.

At Catholic News Agency, their new editor J.D. Flynn penned an essay that gives the right-wing game away. Flynn made some fine points. I agree that it was wrong for the bishops in 2002 not to include themselves within the strictures of the Dallas Charter for Child Protection. And he is correct to note that we have not yet learned, and we deserve to know, to whom Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen and Archbishop John Myers of Newark shared the information that they were making settlements with seminarians, who were not minors, but who had alleged sexual misconduct by McCarrick.

But, then Flynn tries to spread the blame around. “Cardinal Joseph Tobin succeeded Myers in Newark in 2017, and Bishop James Checchio succeeded Bootkoski in Metuchen the year before,” Flynn notes. “Cardinal Donald Wuerl succeeded McCarrick directly in Washington in 2006. Did those men have awareness of McCarrick’s alleged penchant for young seminarians?”

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.

Priest: Laity must help put out fire of sexual abuse crisis that is destroying Church

TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
LifeSiteNews / Campaign Life Coalition

July 25, 2018

By Lisa Bourne

Brazil, Indiana – The Catholic Church is a building on fire in need of faithful laity and priests who will help save her, Father John Hollowell preached in his Mass homily this past Sunday.

Hollowell, a priest for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, was among those recognizing the correlation between the first reading in the July 22 Ordinary Form’s Mass scripture and the church’s still unfolding sex abuse scandal.

“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture,” Father Hollowell recited from the first line of Jeremiah 23:1-6 to open his message. He returned to that quote a number of times throughout his homily.

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.

Ghosts from the past: Chile’s Catholic church faces new charges of sexual abuse

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Economist

July 28, 2018

Allegations of a cover-up have further tarnished its image

Santiago – In most of the world, Pope Francis is revered as a liberal reformer. Just across the Andes from his native Argentina, however, his image has taken a blow in the wake of a sexual-abuse scandal that could rival the gravity of those revealed in the United States and Ireland in the 2000s. On July 12th Óscar Muñoz, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile’s capital, was arrested on charges of abusing seven children since 2002. Father Muñoz, who had confessed his guilt to church officials in one case in January, was in charge of maintaining archives of clerical-abuse investigations and took testimony from victims in other cases. He was not an isolated bad apple: Chile’s national prosecutor’s office announced this week that it is investigating 36 accusations of sexual abuse by clergy and church employees. It also summoned the country’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to testify as a defendant in the alleged cover-up of sex crimes. In five cases, church leaders are suspected of having concealed crimes or obstructed justice.

Francis’s initial response to the allegations that had arisen in Chile bore unwelcome similarity to the handling of such cases under his predecessors. In 2015 he gave a bishopric to Juan Barros, a priest who had been accused of concealing the crimes of Fernando Karadima—a well-connected priest whom the church found guilty of paedophilia in 2011, seven years after receiving its first complaint against him. Bishop Barros has denied any wrongdoing. On a visit to Chile in January, Francis caused outrage by dismissing the claims against Bishop Barros as “calumnies”.

The pope soon recognised his error. After commissioning a 2,300-page report into Bishop Barros, he summoned all 34 of Chile’s acting and retired bishops to Rome to address charges of “grave negligence” in handling investigations and even destroying evidence. All of them tendered their resignations, and Francis has accepted five, including Bishop Barros’s. In a public mea culpa, Francis called on Chileans to create spaces in which “a critical and questioning attitude is not confused with betrayal.”

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All-Boys Catholic School Run by Monks Acknowledges Decades of Sexual Abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
HuffPost

July 26, 2018

By Carol Kuruvilla

The Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey is facing sexual abuse allegations from 30 people.

Thirteen Benedictine monks and one lay teacher associated with a New Jersey religious order have been accused of sexually abusing people in cases that go back decades, leaders of the group admitted in a letter.

The heads of Morristown’s St. Mary’s Abbey and the Delbarton School, which is run by the abbey’s monks, said that 30 people have come forward with accusations of assaults from 1968 to 1999.

It was an attempt at transparency by the abbey’s Abbot Richard Cronin and the school’s headmaster, Michael Tidd, who is also a member of the order. The letter, posted to the school’s website, is the first acknowledgment of the broad scope of the problem by the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey at its all-boys Catholic prep school, according to NJ Advance Media.

The accusations have sparked at least 15 lawsuits since 2012 ― eight of which have been settled, with the remainder pending.

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Albany priest describes culture of harassment under McCarrick

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

July 25, 2018

By Michael J. O’Loughlin

Father Desmond Rossi says he first met Cardinal Theodore McCarrick when he was a seminarian in Newark in 1986. He says that he had heard rumors that then-Archbishop McCarrick cultivated inappropriate relationships with young men, murmurings that appeared to be confirmed following a visit by the archbishop to the Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University.

Father Rossi says that unwanted touching and harassment from the archbishop, along with an alleged sexual assault by two seminarians, left him shaken and prompted him to transfer to a different diocese before he was ordained. Years later, he says, those experiences contributed to a deep depression that required a years-long leave from active ministry.

A priest in active ministry in the Diocese of Albany today, Father Rossi says he recently shared his story with his bishop, who supports his decision to speak out, and with his parish.

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Delbarton: Is the elite school’s admission of sex abuse claims enough to stop questions?

MORRISTOWN (NJ)
NorthJersey.com

July 27, 2018

By Mike Kelly

[Includes 13 photos.]

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2018/07/27/delbarton-admission-sex-abuse-claims-enough-stop-questions/838256002/

As you drive along the road that winds through the 400 acres of the elite Delbarton School, an all-boys Roman Catholic academy on the outskirts of Morristown, it’s hard to imagine anything bad happening in such a serene place.

You first pass a quiet pond. Then a series of poles adorned with banners bearing the words “Brotherhood,” “Faith,” “Tradition,” “Spirit” and “Service.” Then, beyond lush fields, thick groves of oaks and maples and a smattering of statues of saints, you reach an elegant granite building that exudes stability, protection, safety.

That stately image suffered a major blow this week.

In a stunning letter, running nearly 1,800 words and addressed to the school’s high-powered alumni, deep-pocketed donors and the parents of nearly 600 current students, Delbarton officials admitted that there are allegations that its seemingly peaceful campus and monastery had been home to 13 monks who sexually abused 30 boys over three decades, ending in 1999.

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July 26, 2018

Olympic Athletes Fear Retaliation If They Speak Out

UNITED STATES
National Public Radio

July 25, 2018

By Alexandra Starr

Starting next month, Sarah Hirshland will officially take over as CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee. One of the big issues she will have to deal with is ongoing sexual abuse scandals.

In recent months, athletes have come forward in sports like swimming, gymnastics, diving and taekwondo with allegations of sexual abuse or assault. Many athletes don’t go public until years after the alleged assaults take place. They stay silent in part because of the taboo around sexual abuse. In some cases, young people can’t identify what has happened to them as a crime.

But a major reason athletes stay silent is fear that publicly criticizing sport governing organizations could derail their athletic career.

Keith Sanderson, a three-time Olympian in shooting, made that point in an interview with KOAA television in Colorado Springs last February. The interview came just a few weeks after more than 100 girls and women testified in a Michigan courtroom about how the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar, had abused them.

In the KOAA interview, Sanderson pointed out that there is one route to the Olympics, and that is through the U.S. Olympic Committee. “There’s no competition there,” he said. “They have a total monopoly on who the Olympians are.” To voice public criticism could potentially jeopardize their standing in their sport.

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Senators take USOC, USA Gymnastics, Michigan State to task over sex-abuse scandal

UNITED STATES
The Associated Press

July 24, 2018

Senators questioned the sincerity of reforms at the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University in the wake of sex-abuse scandals — using legal papers, emails and accounts of conversations to portray organizations that still don’t fully grasp the pain they inflicted.

At a hearing Tuesday in Washington, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut criticized leaders of the USOC and USA Gymnastics for court filings this month that seek to absolve the federations of legal responsibility for Larry Nassar’s sex-abuse crimes.

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and others blistered Michigan State’s interim president, John Engler, for insensitive emails and comments he made during negotiations that produced a $500 million settlement with sex-abuse victims who attended the school.

“I think you have some repair work to do here today, to put it mildly,” Hassan said, prompting applause from the 80 or so victims who attended the hearing.

Nassar, a longtime sports doctor at Michigan State who also volunteered as the team physician for USA Gymnastics, is serving decades in prison for child pornography and other crimes after hundreds of women said he sexually abused them under the guise of medical care.

Last Friday, the USOC filed a motion to be removed as a defendant in lawsuits filed by gold-medal gymnasts Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney, arguing that it had no legal responsibility for Nassar’s actions.

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Kathy Griffin had a dramatic reaction to Chris Hardwick being cleared of abuse allegations

UNITED STATES
Yahoo Entertainment

July 25, 2018

By Raechal Leone Shewfelt

Chris Hardwick’s return to AMC’s Talking Dead was not happy news for Kathy Griffin.

The comedian was blunt in her response to the announcement that Hardwick will once again host the Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead aftershow, beginning Aug. 12.

FUCK THIS!!! https://t.co/updOxg7YLS

— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) July 25, 2018

Hardwick was suspended a month ago, after his former girlfriend, actress Chloe Dykstra, accused him of emotional and physical abuse in a detailed essay. The season premiere of his show, Talking With Chris Hardwick, was yanked from the AMC schedule, his name was pulled off the Nerdist website that he founded, and he withdrew from panel discussions at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con.

However, the network has now cleared him after an investigation: “Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick. We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step.”

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Woman describes alleged sexual grooming by Ohio State coach

COLUMBUS (OH)
The Associated Press

July 24, 2018

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins

A former Ohio State University diving club coach began pressuring a female diver for sex within weeks after meeting her when she was 16, the former diver said Tuesday in an interview.

Former diver Estee Pryor said she had no experience with men when the 27-year-old coach approached her and began complimenting her.

The coach was “telling me I was the most honest, and mature, and kind girl he’s ever met,” Pryor said in an interview with NBC’s Megyn Kelly. The relationship with former coach Will Bohonyi became sexual within a week, Pryor said.

Pryor said she was raised to respect men and never challenge them.

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Former Delaware priest charged with child rape dies months before trial

WILMINGTON (DE)
Delaware News Journal

July 25, 2018

By Xerxes Wilson

John A. Sarro, a former priest with the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington indicted earlier this year on charges that he raped a pre-teen girl decades ago, has died.

Sarro died Monday, six months before a scheduled trial in New Castle County Superior Court. A spokesman for the Wilmington Diocese confirmed his death Wednesday.

He was accused of fondling and raping a girl who court documents indicated was younger than 16 years old between 1991 and 1994 when the abuse is said to have occurred. He was a pastor at St. Helena Parish in Bellefonte at the time.

Sarro was 76 when he was indicted on charges of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact in January. The crimes listed in his indictment were the law when the abuse is said to have occurred and were the precursors to Delaware’s current rape statute.

He pleaded not guilty in February. With his death, those charges will be dropped, said Carl Kanefsky, Department of Justice spokesman.

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The Catholic Church has ‘a major gap’ when the accused sex abuser is a high-ranking cleric, says top U.S. cardinal

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

July 24, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/24/the-catholic-church-has-a-major-gap-when-accused-sex-abusers-are-high-ranking-cleric-says-top-u-s-cardinal/

The Catholic archbishop of Boston, one of the country’s most prominent Catholic clerics and Pope Francis’s chief adviser on child sex abuse, said Tuesday that while the church now has a strong policy and procedures regarding abuse by priests, “a major gap” exists when the accused is a bishop or cardinal — the highest positions in the church — and that it must be corrected.

“Failure to take these actions will threaten and endanger the already weakened moral authority of the Church and can destroy the trust required for the Church to minister to Catholics and have a meaningful role in the wider civil society. In this moment there is no greater imperative for the Church than to hold itself accountable to address these matters,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley wrote.

O’Malley released the statement as the church reels from the suspension a month ago of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a popular former D.C. archbishop who served as a global diplomat for the Vatican. The Vatican says McCarrick has been credibly accused of groping an altar boy decades ago in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and allegations have surfaced that McCarrick sexually harassed and groped several seminarians and a young priest, and abused a family friend starting when the boy was 11.

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Policy Needed to Address Bishops’ Violations of the Vows of Celibacy

BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot

July 24, 2018

By Cardinal Sean O’Malley

For the past several days, articles in the national media have reported accusations of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual improprieties with several adults and his criminal violations of the sexual abuse of minors. These alleged actions, when committed by any person, are morally unacceptable and incompatible with the role of a priest, bishop or cardinal.

I am deeply troubled by these reports that have traumatized many Catholics and members of the wider community. In one case involving a minor the Archdiocese of New York, after investigation, has found the accusation to be credible and substantiated. While another accusation concerning a minor is yet to be investigated, the reports are devastating for the victims, their families and for the Church itself. Each new report of clerical abuse at any level creates doubt in the minds of many that we are effectively addressing this catastrophe in the Church.

These cases and others require more than apologies. They raise up the fact that when charges are brought regarding a bishop or a cardinal, a major gap still exists in the Church’s policies on sexual conduct and sexual abuse. While the Church in the United States has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests we must have clearer procedures for cases involving bishops. Transparent and consistent protocols are needed to provide justice for the victims and to adequately respond to the legitimate indignation of the community. The Church needs a strong and comprehensive policy to address bishops’ violations of the vows of celibacy in cases of the criminal abuse of minors and in cases involving adults.

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Promoting Predators

NEW YORK (NY)
First Things

July 24, 2018

By Philip Lawler

What did the American bishops know, and when did they know it? This is the question everyone is asking in the wake of public revelations that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had, for years, preyed on seminarians who visited his beach house. It is a reasonable question, a necessary question. I hope that someday soon, a few brave bishops will begin asking it, too—and giving the restive Catholic faithful some answers.

But it is not the most important question. For anyone exploring the corruption of the Catholic hierarchy, the question of how Cardinal McCarrick avoided exposure and prosecution, though important, is less critical than the question of how his rise through the ecclesiastical ranks continued, even while rumors about homosexual activities swirled around him. Why was McCarrick named archbishop of Washington, and given a cardinal’s red hat? Why was he allowed to promote his proteges, to serve special diplomatic assignments for the Vatican, to influence the selection of bishops and even of a Roman Pontiff, after his beach-house antics had become a matter of common knowledge?

The more obvious question, the what-did-they-know-and-when question, admits of an easy, albeit unsatisfactory answer. McCarrick’s colleagues can say, more or less honestly, that they had heard reports about his approaches to seminarians, but did not know whether the reports were true. The question allows for an epistemological dodge: Other bishops did not really know, in the sense that they had no definitive proof. So they had an excuse for their failure to take action—or so they thought.

Reporters, likewise, had heard the stories about McCarrick but had no proof. Rod Dreher and Julia Duin have written about their fruitless searches for a witness who would go on the record. Without personal testimony, they had only hearsay evidence. I experienced the same frustration.

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Cardinal McCarrick reportedly lived on IVE seminary property during retirement

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 24, 2018

By Carl Bunderson

Washington D.C. – Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is reported to have lived alongside a Maryland house of formation for members of a religious order whose founder has faced Vatican charges of sexual misconduct.

St. John Baptist de la Salle is located in Chillum, Md., adjacent to Washington, D.C. The parish is staffed by the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), and the property serves as the headquarters of the community’s Province of the Immaculate Conception.

The Institute of the Incarnate Word was founded in 1984 in Argentina by Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela. In 2016, the Vatican affirmed the veracity of allegations that Buela engaged in sexual improprieties with adult seminarians of his community.

Buela, who retired in 2010, was forbidden by the Vatican from contact with members of the IVE, and from appearing in public.

In addition to the church building, the Maryland property includes two additional buildings, one of which is Ven. Fulton Sheen Seminary. The seminary forms men aspiring to be priests of the IVE, and opened in 1998. According to its website, the seminary currently houses 41 men in formation.

The third building, perhaps where the cardinal stayed, was not visible in a Google Street View Image dated July 2009, but had been constructed by May 2012.

Sources told CNA that Cardinal McCarrick lived with the IVE community at St. John Baptist de la Salle during his retirement, after residing for a period at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Archdiocese of Washington.

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The Truth About Cardinal McCarrick

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

July 25, 2018

By Ross Douthat

The Catholic Church needs an inquest into what the pederast cardinal’s colleagues knew, and when.

One of the best things that the bishops of the American Catholic Church did during the great wave of sex abuse revelations 16 years ago — and yes, there’s a low bar for “best” — was to establish a National Review Board, staffed by prominent layman, with the authority to commission an independent report on what exactly had happened in the church.

The result was a careful analysis by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that detailed the patterns of priestly sex abuse in American Catholicism between 1950 and 2002: How many, how often, what kind of abuse, what strategy of predation, how many victims, which sex, what age, how the priest’s superiors responded (or didn’t), how often the courts were involved, what scale of settlements were paid, and so on through a wealth of grim statistical detail.

Then attached to that data was a larger discussion from the Review Board’s members, which managed to be reasonably evenhanded about subjects (priestly celibacy and homosexuality, above all) that lend themselves to culture-war hysteria both inside and outside the church. Thanks to the members’ labors, any journalist or historian interested in assessing the problem of priestly sex abuse dispassionately, and anyone seeking the truth about a lurid and polarizing story, can turn to a sober and detailed accounting — one that that the church itself commissioned.

Now, unfortunately, it needs to happen again. But what needs to be commissioned this time, by Pope Francis himself if the American bishops can’t or won’t, isn’t a synthetic overview of a systemic problem. Rather, the church needs an inquest, a special prosecutor — you can even call it an inquisition if you want — into the very specific question of who knew what and when about the crimes of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and why exactly they were silent.

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AG Josh Shapiro asks Pope Francis for help in Pa. clergy sex abuse case

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 26, 2018

By Liz Navratil and Angela Couloumbis

[The article includes a PDF of Shapiro’s letter to Pope Francis.]

Harrisburg – Amid a still-boiling legal battle over a secret grand jury report into clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro has appealed to Pope Francis to step in and persuade opponents to drop their bid to block the report’s release.

In a letter sent this week, Mr. Shapiro petitioned the pontiff to “direct church leaders to follow the path you charted … and abandon their destructive efforts to silence the survivors.”

Mr. Shapiro’s request to the worldwide leader of the Catholic church — in effect the boss for most everyone expected to be assailed by the grand jury — comes as the state Supreme Court weighs arguments on whether it should block the release of the report or, in some form, let it become public. The delays, put in place while the state Supreme Court considers legal issues surrounding the report, have left some victims fretting that their voices will ultimately be silenced once again.

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Abuse accusations against priests, bishops and cardinals reach levels not seen in years

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 26, 2018

By Peter Smith

[This article appeared on the front page of the Post-Gazette.]

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2018/07/26/Catholic-priest-sexual-abuse-grand-jury-Pennsylvania-McCarrick-Buffalo-Saginaw-Australia-Chile/stories/201807230174

Michael Whalen returned last year to his childhood Catholic parish in Western New York to unload a decades-old burden on his conscience.

He handed the priest $131, he told Buffalo-area media. That had been his share as a kid decades ago, when he and friends had split the proceeds from a stolen parish collection plate.

But as Mr. Whalen spoke to the current priest, he also revealed a far darker burden: that he had been sexually abused by his childhood priest, the Rev. Norbert Orsolits.

After that conversation, and more discussion with the local diocese, Mr. Whalen publicly identified his abuser this February.

A Buffalo News reporter sought comment from Father Orsolits — who candidly admitted to molesting “probably dozens” of boys before quietly retiring in 2003.

That unleashed months of revelations about the history of sexually abusive priests in the Diocese of Buffalo, and criticisms of the bishops who kept them in ministry.

Pennsylvania may be preoccupied with its own Supreme Court drama — drawing in batteries of legal, legislative and clerical players — over whether the public can see a mammoth grand-jury report into sexual abuse in Pittsburgh’s and five other Catholic dioceses. The report remains sealed pending challenges from some of those named in it.

But scandals are flaring up in Catholic dioceses throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions, and in countries ranging from Chile to France to Australia to the upper ranks of the Vatican. Pope Francis himself, after initial defensiveness, is now removing bishops in Chile and lamenting a “culture of abuse and cover-up.”

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Priest who alerted church officials to abuse allegations against Washington, D.C., prelate wants investigation into how they responded

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

July 25, 2018

By Michael Levenson

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/07/25/priest-who-alerted-church-officials-abuse-allegations-against-washington-prelate-wants-investigation-into-how-they-responded/gBlC7m2CWHJZaqsVUu9fMO/story.html

A priest who wrote to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley in 2015 about sexual abuse allegations involving Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said Wednesday there should be an investigation into who in the church hierarchy knew of the Washington prelate’s alleged abuse and why no one in power spoke out about it earlier.

“The vast majority of the bishops knew this — they gossip, too, you know, just like everybody else,” the Rev. Boniface Ramsey, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church Yorkville in New York City, said in an interview. “But there was no mechanism for handling something like this.”

Ramsey wrote to O’Malley after he saw McCarrick at the funeral of Cardinal Edward Egan of New York. Ramsey said he was angry because, decades earlier, he had tried to warn church officials that McCarrick was abusing seminarians when McCarrick was archbishop of Newark, but he felt that his complaints were brushed aside.

In his letter to O’Malley — who leads a Vatican advisory panel on clergy abuse — Ramsey raised the issue again, only to receive a reply from O’Malley’s priest secretary, the Rev. Robert Kickham, advising him that the panel handles policy, not individual cases.

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Walker calls for Democrat Matt Flynn to drop out of race

CHIPPEWA FALLS (WI)
Associated Press via The Chippewa Herald

July 25, 2018

By Scott Bauer

Madison, Wis. – Republican Gov. Scott Walker joined the growing bipartisan call Wednesday for Democratic candidate Matt Flynn to drop out of the race for governor because of his past legal work defending the Milwaukee Archdiocese against priest abuse lawsuits.

Flynn remained defiant.

Walker, in a tweet, said Flynn’s “actions disqualify him from serving.” He called for the other seven Democratic candidates to join with him in agreement. Walker tweeted the message minutes after the Wisconsin Republican Party made the same plea to the Democratic candidates.

All of the other Democratic candidates, except political activist Mike McCabe, have pledged to support whoever wins the Aug. 14 Democratic primary.

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A Letter to the Delbarton Community

MORRISTOWN (NJ)
Delbarton School

July 20, 2018

By Abbot Richard Cronin OSB and Headmaster Fr. Michael Tidd OSB

Dear Members of the St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School Community,

In recent weeks, several news stories have appeared regarding litigation alleging sexual abuse by monks of St. Mary’s Abbey. We write to you today because we believe it is important to address these issues with you directly and forthrightly.

Specifically, we want you to know how St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School have responded to these allegations of abuse, the status of litigation on these matters, and what we are doing today to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all members of our community.

Above all, we want you to understand that protecting the well-being of the students of Delbarton and all those to whom we minister is our highest and most important priority. To that end, we have implemented the best practices summarized below and in the attached appendix to protect our students and all others whom we serve.

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30 accuse monks of sexual abuse, Delbarton says

WOODLAND PARK (BERGEN COUNTY, NJ)
The Record (and NorthJersey.com)

July 25, 2018

By Abbott Koloff

Thirteen monks from St. Mary’s Abbey, which runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township, have been accused of sexually abusing 30 people over the past three decades, according to a letter to alumni and other members of the school community.

Those who have come forward include former Delbarton students, the twin sons of a former Delbarton employee, a parishioner at St. James Church in Basking Ridge and former students of St. Elizabeth of Hungary School in Linden, which was staffed by the abbey, according to the letter.

“We take these accusations very seriously, and we profoundly regret and apologize to anyone who has suffered sexual abuse or harassment because of a St. Mary’s Abbey monk or a Delbarton employee,” the letter, sent on Friday, said.

It was signed by Abbot Richard Cronin, the head of St. Mary’s Abbey of the Benedictine Order, and Father Michael Tidd, headmaster of the Delbarton School.

More: Former Delbarton teacher admits he had sex with 50 boys; school settles 5 sex abuse suits

More: READ: Letter from Delbarton leaders on sex abuse allegations

The letter refers to news stories that appeared in “recent weeks” about “litigation involving sexual abuse by monks of St. Mary’s Abbey. We write to you today because we believe it is important to address these issues with you directly and forthrightly.”

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Catholic order says 30 victims have alleged sexual abuse

MORRISTOWN (NJ)
Associated Press via Crux

July 26, 2018

Leaders of a Catholic order in New Jersey said in a letter posted on its website that 30 people have come forward alleging sexual abuse by the monks or lay faculty associated with a private school.

In a joint letter written to the community on July 20, the head of St. Mary’s Abbey and the Delbarton School headmaster said the order had settled eight lawsuits with alleged victims, while seven others were pending.

The abuse allegedly took place while many of the victims were students at Delbarton School in Morristown, which is managed by the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey. Other reports were made by a parishioner of St. James Church in Basking Ridge and former students of St. Elizabeth of Hungary School in Linden as well as by the sons of a former Delbarton School employee.

The letter said the reported assaults happened between 1968 and 1999 and involved 13 monks and one lay teacher.

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Grand jury report into Pennsylvania dioceses details “unacceptable” behavior, bishop says

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 24, 2018

By Ed Condon

Erie, Pa. – Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie has warned Catholics that the results of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into sexual abuse of minors will make for disturbing reading. The release of the 800-page report has been delayed by order of the state’s supreme court.

“It certainly is going to be sobering,” said Bishop Persico to news outlet Penn Live.

“The report is rather graphic, and it will be very detailed on what has occurred,” he added.

The report is the result of a two-year investigation by state authorities into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the five Pennsylvania dioceses – Altoona-Johnstown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. The dioceses were served with wide ranging subpoenas and turned over decades’ worth of files concerning the handling of abuse allegations by Church authorities.

A former diocesan official in Pennsylvania, who was involved in developing responses to the subpoena, told CNA that complying with the court order took considerable time and effort.

“It covered everything we had, it was very broadly drawn. We handed over years’ and years’ worth of files.”

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Call for Bathurst police to be honoured for bringing St Stanislaus College paedophiles to justice

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

July 26, 2018

By Joanna Woodburn

The New South Wales Government is being asked to honour the police investigators who brought to justice the paedophile priests, brothers and dorm masters who abused students at Bathurst’s St Stanislaus College in the state’s Central West region.

At least 160 students at St Stanislaus College — a Catholic boys’ boarding school — were abused by priests and staff between the 1970s and 1990s.

Terry Jones, a former student of the college has written to state MP Paul Toole to ask for the Chifley Police District to be recognised for helping to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“The police worked in Bathurst under the most extreme circumstances and they came up with 161 victims and 400 offences in the one school.”

“We’ve got to put them on a pedestal,” Mr Jones said.

Former priest, Brian Joseph Spillane, is one of the staff who worked at the St Stanislaus College who is serving jail time for abusing students at the school.

Strict non-publication orders, which were placed on his numerous cases in 2013, were lifted in 2016.

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Victoria police chief Graham Ashton backed priests’ rights on sex abuse confessions

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

July 26, 2018

By John Ferguson

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/victoria-police-chief-graham-ashton-backed-priests-rights-on-sex-abuse-confessions/news-story/c067c64954ee7f45666efc52ff8c8b67

Melbourne – Victoria police chief Graham Ashton backed the right of priests to retain the seal of the confessional over mandatory reporting of child sex offending in explosive answers to the inquiry that sparked the national abuse royal commission.

Mr Ashton submitted that police would support priests being able to keep confessional discussions secret, declaring that the force had not identified the rite of the confessional as a barrier to reporting sex abuse allegations. Mr Ashton outlined Victoria Police’s position to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by ­religious and other organisations in 2012.

Police said yesterday the issue over the church’s canon law and mandatory reporting was a matter for the Victorian government.

The Victorian government has not yet outlined its final position on matters relating to the seal of the confessional, but has indicated it favours a consistent national response.

The police force said in 2012 that the seal could remain, providing measures were in place to ­encourage the protection of ­children.

Mr Ashton was then a deputy commissioner of police in charge of specialist operations and his position is detailed in a document obtained by The Australian that backed the so-called Irish model on confession and child ­protection.

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July 25, 2018

Three brothers accuse former priest turned AIDS activist of sex abuse

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

July 25, 2018

By Jay Tokasz

The former head of the Buffalo area’s largest AIDS prevention organization is being accused of molesting three brothers from a South Buffalo family when he was a Catholic priest in the 1970s.

West Seneca resident and author P.A. Kane wrote a first-person essay accusing Ronald Silverio of being the young parish priest who molested him when he was a parishioner of Holy Family Church in South Buffalo.

In separate interviews with The News, Kane’s siblings, Peter and a younger brother who asked not to be identified by name, said that Silverio also molested them.

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Commentary: Fear and Loathing a Catholic Priest

BUFFALO (NY)
The Public

July 17, 2018

By P. A. Kane

The breach

I can’t remember if my younger brother and I found it strange or if we resisted his request that we sleep in separate beds, in separate rooms. What I do remember, what is burned in my psychic apparatus for all eternity, is him coming into the darkened room where I was pretending to be asleep, sidling up next to me on the sofa bed, and breathing on me. Hot, excited breath that filled me with a paralyzing terror as he pulled down my sweatpants and scrutinized my 12-year-old body by the thin light of a flashlight before gently touching and stroking my genitals.

In that bed, in those interminable minutes under the heat of his wheezing breath and that little flashlight, so alone and afraid, part of me died. Murdered by a priest who had infiltrated our family and played out his repressed sexual desires on innocent boys who thought he was their friend, who thought he treated them well because they were special, who thought he visited their house because his family was special. It was all a ruse.

The setup

We were playing in the street—a game called running bases that simulated a baseball rundown—and hardly noticed him as he walked by and up to the steps to our front door. After a moment he was let in, and my brother and I looked quizzically at each other. We called time on running bases to find out who had just entered our house.

Inside, our dad was in his spot at the end of the couch. Sitting in the chair opposite him, dressed in shirt sleeves and slacks and being served a drink by my mom, was Father Silverio, the new, young parish priest who had baptized my baby sister several weeks earlier at Holy Family Church in South Buffalo.

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Editorial: Care for the church’s victims

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

July 24, 2018

Victims of childhood sexual abuse involving Catholic clergyman often say they want, above all else, acknowledgement of the crimes against them. That’s why it must be especially frustrating for two Western New York men featured in Sunday’s Buffalo News when the Diocese of Buffalo refuses to take responsibility for abuse the two suffered as boys at the hands of priests working in the diocese.

The diocese says it is not responsible for the actions of priests who are accused of raping the two men, Gary Astridge and Robert Swierat, because the priests were members of religious orders, and not ordained by the diocese. This surely is a technicality that seems contrary to the spirit of the diocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which was set up in March to give financial compensation to victims of priest sex abuse. The policy cannot be that some victims are less equal than others.

Astridge attended the old Cardinal Dougherty High School in Buffalo. He says he was molested as a boy by a priest who taught at the school but belonged to a religious order based in California.

Swierat says in the early 1970s he was abused for two years in the rectory of St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster. The accused priest, the Rev. Loren Nys, a St. Mary’s teacher at the time, belonged to the Society of the Divine Savior Salvatorians, based in Milwaukee, Wis.

Astridge applied for compensation from the IRCP and was told by the diocese to contact the order in California instead. Swierat has been advised by the diocese not to even apply.

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Victims of priest sexual abuse to Matt Flynn: Get out of the race

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

July 24, 2018

By Patrick Marley and Mary Spicuzza

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse by priests angrily rejected claims Tuesday from Democratic candidate for governor Matt Flynn that people trying to push him out of the race are part of a “victimology elite.”

Peter Isely, the former Midwest director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, scoffed at the idea that elites were the ones trying to get Flynn out of the race because of his work as a lawyer for the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

“That’s quite an elite group of people,” Isely said as he pointed to photographs of children who were sexually abused by priests.

“I can tell you right now, because I’m one of them. Being raped and sexually assaulted as a child — that’s no elite group that anyone, anyone’s ever going to want to belong to.”

Isely made his comments at a Milwaukee news conference a day after Flynn — one of eight Democrats hoping to take on GOP Gov. Scott Walker — held a 45-minute conference call with reporters to defend his work for the archdiocese. At times, Flynn drifted from talking about that work to complain about those who opposed him.

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Obituary: Fr Normand J. Demers

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 25, 2018

[The obituary does not mention that Demers was accused of sexually assaulting children in Providence and Haiti. It does not include his work in Haiti in its summary of his career history.]

85, a retired priest of the Diocese of Providence, died on Saturday, July 21, 2018.

Born in Woonsocket, he was a son of the late Eugene and Beatrice (Jarret) Demers, he attended St. Ann School and Mt. St. Charles Academy, both in Woonsocket.

In preparation for the priesthood, he studied at Our Lady of Providence Seminary in Warwick and at St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. He was ordained a priest on May 31, 1958 in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence by Bishop Russell J. McVinney.

After a summer assignment at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Wakefield, he served as Assistant Pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Slatersville from 1958-1959 and at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Coventry from 1959-1965. He then became Chaplain at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence from 1965-1973 and also served as Chaplain at the Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston from 1971-1976.

In 1976 he was appointed Pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Providence and served there until 1990 when he became Assistant Pastor at St. Martha Parish in East Providence, serving for nearly 12 years. He retired from active ministry in March 2004.

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Kerala HC grants bail to 2 priests in Malankara Orthodox Church abuse case

KERALA (INDIA)
The News Minute

July 25, 2018

Father Job Mathew was granted bail on Wednesday, while Father Johnson V Mathew secured bail on Monday.

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Father Job Mathew, one of the four priests accused in a rape case of a woman parishioner, attached to the Malankara Orthodox Church.

Earlier on Monday, another priest, Johnson V Mathew, an accused in the same case had secured bail.

The court asked Job Mathew on Wednesday to surrender his passport, just as it had asked Johnson V. Mathew.

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Catholic priest ‘abused children for decades’

AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)
NewsTalk ZB

July 25, 2018

By Mick Hall

A prominent Catholic priest and theologian has been exposed as a self-confessed paedophile, who was quietly placed on a sex offenders programme by the church and is suspected of having abused dozens of children for decades.

The Herald can reveal Father Michael Shirres, who had lectured in Māori theology at the University of Auckland and wrote several books on Māori spirituality, confessed to sexually abusing a young girl and is suspected of abusing many other victims.

The Catholic church has confirmed it received five complaints against Shirres and placed him in a programme for sex offenders. Another victim says a therapist told her Shirres admitted to abusing dozens of children.

Shirres was a revered figure within Māori communities in the Far North, where he had visited regularly as a guest speaker since 1973. The priest died of motor neuron disease in October 1997, aged 68.

Among his victims was Annie Hill, 56, a former art teacher at Pompallier College in Whangarei, who received a written apology from the priest for sexually abusing her.

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July 24, 2018

Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua cita a cardenal Ezzati en calidad de “imputado”: declarará el 21 de agosto en tribunales

RANCAGUA (CHILE)
Publimetro.cl

July 24, 2018

[Regional Prosecutor of Rancagua quotes Cardinal Ezzati as “accused”: he will testify on August 21 in courts]

La presunta responsabilidad por el delito de encubrimiento estaría gravitando sobre el alto prelado de la iglesia católica

By Fernando Peñalver

El cardenal Ricardo Ezzati recibió este martes una citación por parte de la Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua, a fin de que declare en “calidad de imputado” el próximo 21 de agosto por el presunto delito de encubrimiento.

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Cardenal Ezzati fue citado por la fiscalía a declarar en calidad de imputado

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Radio ADN 91.7

July 24, 2018

[Cardinal Ezzati is summoned by the prosecution to testify as an accused. The priest is accused of the crime of concealment.]

El sacerdote es acusado del delito de encubrimiento.

El Cardenal Ricardo Ezzati fue citado por la Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua para declarar en calidad de imputado el próximo 21 de agosto, por la eventual responsabilidad que podría caber en el delito de encubrimiento, informó el Arzobispado de Santiago mediante un comunicado.

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Fiscalía cita a declarar como imputado a cardenal Ezzati por presuntos encubrimientos de abusos

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Tercera

July 24, 2018

[Prosecutor’s office to declare as imputed to Cardinal Ezzati for alleged cover-ups of abuses …
The Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Rancagua summoned Ricardo Ezzati to be charged with the alleged crime of covering up in cases of abuse.]

La Fiscalía Regional de Rancagua citó a declarar como imputado al cardenal Ricardo Ezzati por el presunto delito de encubrimiento en casos de abusos.

Según se informó en un comunicado alojado en la página de Arzobispado de Santiago, Ezzati fue citado a presentarse el 21 de agosto a las dependencias de la fiscalía.

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Arrest Kerala Catholic Bishop accused of abusing nun: Achutanandan

INDIA
IANS via The Quint

July 24, 2018

Former Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday wrote to state police chief loknath Behra demanding the arrest of Franco Mulakkal, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar (Punjab), who is alleged to have sexually abused a nun.

In his statement issued to the media, Achuthanandan says that a detailed statement and supporting evidences from the father of a nun who has suffered at the hands of this bishop has been handed over to Behra.

“It’s most unfortunate that this nun continues to be under the bishop and is living in fear. Now that the allegations raised by the nun is true, the police should immediately arrest the bishop,” says Achuthanandan in his letter.

His statement comes two days after police have stepped up protection to the convent near Kottayam, which is home to the nun who had alleged that she was sexually abused by the Catholic bishop.

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The Beltway news cycle is burying the horrifying details of the Ohio State sex abuse scandal

COLUMBUS (OH)
Think Progress

July 23, 2018

By Lindsay Gibbs

This is not actually a story about partisan politics, or Jim Jordan.

It’s been 20 days since reports first surfaced about Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) ignoring allegations of sexual abuse when he was an assistant coach for the Ohio State wrestling team. Because of the trumped-up nature of these modern times, most reporters who are tied to the political news cycle have moved on, resigned to the fact that Jordan will remain in his prominent leadership position within the Republican Party.

With each new revelation about Dr. Richard Strauss’s decades of abuse during his time as a team doctor at Ohio State, the story is framed in one of two ways: Either as “bad news for Jordan,” by those inclined to believe survivors, or as the work of the “deep state” by those on the far right.

But this is not a story about politics. And it is absolutely not a story that should be viewed through the distortion of a partisan lens.

Yes, Jordan should be held accountable for any abuse his silence helped enable. But if we don’t look at this story systematically, we’re missing the entire point.

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Judge rules redacted briefs in church sex abuse investigation should be made public

EBENSBURG (PA)
WJACTV

July 20, 2018

By y Matthew Stevens

A Cambria County judge entered a ruling Friday that redacted briefs into child sex abuse allegations made against six state Catholic dioceses should be made public.

In his opinion, Judge Norman Krumenacker said, “The information in the report is no longer protected by grand jury secrecy as the Grand Jury intended it to be released to the public in an expeditious manner.”

The ruling comes after a July 6 state Supreme Court order asking attorneys on both sides to present their argument on their stance on the redacted briefs being made public. “Today, Judge Krumenacker ruled in favor of the Commonwealth and victims that our brief should be made public,” said PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

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Cardinal Farrell expresses shock over Cardinal McCarrick abuse case

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

July 24, 2018

By Cindy Wooden

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, head of the Vatican office for laity and family, said he was “shocked” when he heard allegations of years of sexual abuse and harassment by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the man who ordained him a bishop and whom he served as an auxiliary bishop for six years.

“I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him,” Cardinal Farrell told Catholic News Service July 24.

The Irish-born cardinal was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Washington in 1984, and shortly after Cardinal McCarrick was named archbishop of Washington in 2000, the future Cardinal Farrell was named his vicar general.

The Vatican official said he had never met Cardinal McCarrick until Cardinal McCarrick became archbishop of Washington.

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Diocese of Las Cruces issues statement regarding lawsuit naming Fr. Williams, Fr. Bentley

DEMING (NM)
Deming Headlight

July 20, 2018

Diocese not yet served as of late Wednesday

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces has responded to a civil lawsuit they are named in regarding a man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by Fr. Joseph Anderson and Fr. David Bentley of Holy Family Catholic Church in Deming, NM. The man, listed in his complaint as John Doe 85, served as an altar boy at Holy Family throughout his childhood, and alleges that he was sexually abused by the two priests on hundreds of occasions between 1994 and 2001.

The following is a statement received by the Deming Headlight on Wednesday, July 18, 2018:

“The Diocese of Las Cruces learned on Monday, July 16, 2018, that it has been listed as a defendant – along with Holy Family Parish, the Servants of the Paraclete, and the Benedictine Monks, Inc of Wisconsin – in a recently filed civil lawsuit that alleges sexual abuse of a minor from 1994 to 2001 by Father Joseph Anderson and Father David Bentley.

“Father Bentley departed the Diocese in April, 2002, and Father Anderson died in May, 2002.

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Punjab Priest Arrested In Delhi After Woman Alleges He Raped Her

CHANDIGARH (INDIA)
NDTV

July 19, 2018

Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Pawan Kumar said the priest, Bajinder Singh, was nabbed from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London

Punjab Police arrested a priest and self-styled healer from the Delhi international airport following a complaint from a woman in Zirakpur that he had raped her, said an official on Thursday.
Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Pawan Kumar said the priest, Bajinder Singh, was arrested from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London where he was scheduled to attend a healing event on July 21.

Singh is the pastor of a church in Punjab’s Jalandhar district. He was reported to be popular among people as a healer.

The woman, a resident of Zirakpur town, adjoining Chandigarh, had complained to the police in May this year that Singh had sexually assaulted her and recorded a video of the assault.

She alleged the accused used to threaten her that he would post the video on social media if she complained against him or did not agree to his demands.

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Indian priest accused of abetting gang rape seeks bail

INDIA
UCA News

July 24, 2018

By Saji Thomas

Lawyer’s move follows arrest of alleged mastermind behind abduction of five women from Jesuit-run school

A Catholic priest accused of abetting the gang rape of five women has applied for bail after police arrested a person thought to be the mastermind behind the crime in eastern India.
Police have arrested John Jonas Tudu and claimed to have cracked the June 19 case of five women abducted from a Jesuit-run school and raped in a forest in Jharkhand state.
The women were taken from Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti Diocese. Two nuns who were with the women were spared.
Police arrested school principal Father Alphonse Aind on June 22 and charged him with conspiracy, abetting abduction, gang rape, preparing obscene material and causing hurt. He has been held in jail while police investigated the crime.
“It’s all false charges. The priest was nowhere at the crime scene of abduction or gang rape,” said Jesuit Father Peter Martin, a lawyer who moved a bail application on July 23 for the release of Father Aind.

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LDS Church seeks to dismiss sexual abuse case

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Daily Herald

July 18, 2018

By Genelle Pugmire

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed a motion for dismissal Wednesday in a sex abuse case of a woman who accused a former Provo Missionary Training Center president of sexually abusing her.

McKenna Denson alleges in her federal lawsuit against the church and the former president, Joseph L. Bishop, that he sexually abused and even raped her while she was at the MTC in 1984.

The church says all five causes of action, or accusations, in Denson’s case are subject to either a three-year or a four-year statute of limitations.

The five causes she is implicating the church in includes: sexual assault; negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, common law fraud, and fraudulent concealment.

“Ms. Denson’s first three causes of action are subject to Utah’s ‘catch all’ statute. Although a defense based on statutes of limitation is considered an affirmative defense, they may be asserted in a motion to dismiss under circumstances like the ones here,” church legal document says.

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Judge backs disclosure in church abuse case

ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

July 21, 2018

By Tim Darragh

The judge overseeing the grand jury that investigated sex abuse in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses ruled Friday that legal briefs containing “specific factual findings” of individuals named in an investigative report may be made public.

Lawyers representing unnamed priests and possibly other individuals named in the grand jury’s report, which is expected to catalog decades of sexual abuse of children by clergymen, sought to block release of a brief filed by Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office.

They argued the brief, even though redacted, violates grand jury secrecy and includes findings about the priests named in the report. The report remains sealed.

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Tape casts doubt on cardinal’s denial he was told of rape accusation against bishop

INDIA
Crux

July 20, 2018

An audio recording of a conversation between a Catholic cardinal in India and a nun who has accused a bishop of rape seems to verify the cleric knew of the alleged sexual assault earlier than he later claimed to the authorities.

The 4-minute recording was broadcast by an Indian television station on Thursday, and in it Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the eastern rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, can be heard conversing with the 43-year-old nun.

She has accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Latin rite Diocese of Jalandhar of sexually assaulting her several times, which the bishop has vehemently denied.

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OPINION: Sexual abuse: It is time for the church in India to embrace the #MeToo movement

KERALA (INDIA)
AFP via Scroll.in

July 19, 2018

By Joseph D’Souza

We must worry less about our public image and more about getting justice to women who have been sexually exploited by church leaders in Kerala and elsewhere.

When the #MeToo movement first started gaining steam in the United States in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal last year, everybody was asking the same question: who would be next? It did not take long to get an answer.

American politicians, powerful media executives and famous news anchors came toppling down after brave women told their stories of abuse and, for once, people believed and heard them. Finally, the movement reached the church, and pastors, even seminary presidents, were held accountable, for their actions and for failing to protect those under their care.

India, now living its own #MeToo moment, is seeing a similar pattern unfold. The wave of reckoning that started with Bollywood’s notorious casting couch and swept over legislators has now reached the Indian church.

Authorities in Kerala are investigating three high-profile cases of sexual assault involving the clergy. In perhaps the most prominent of them, a woman has accused four priests of blackmailing her into sexual exploitation. The Kerala High Court has refused anticipatory bail to the accused; they could be arrested any day now.

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Australia’s Council of Priests seek Pope Francis’s intervention in Wilson case

AUSTRALIA
Crux

July 20, 2018

By Christopher White

NEW YORK – Australia’s National Council of Priests has endorsed appeals for Pope Francis to intervene in the case of embattled Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson following his refusal to resign after being convicted of failing to report crimes of sexual abuse.

“While the Archbishop is exercising his constitutional right to appeal his conviction, his tenure as Archbishop of Adelaide has been compromised,” read the statement from the Council.

“For the good of the Church in Australia and for the benefit of the People of God in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, the Executive of the NCP requests that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, removes Archbishop Philip Wilson from his See,” the statement continued.

The Council’s demand comes just days after the country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the pope to “sack” Wilson, who is the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church ever to be convicted of sex abuse cover-up.

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James Gill: Catholic officials ‘instinctively secretive,’ even in defrocked New Orleans deacon’s case

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

July 18, 2018

By James Gill

Pretty much the world’s first inkling that the Catholic hierarchy had been shielding pedophile priests came when Lafayette’s Gilbert Gauthe pleaded guilty in 1985.

New Orleans journalist Jason Berry was in the courtroom for the Gauthe hearing, and thus got to break the biggest, most sordid ecclesiastical story in many years. Now that NOPD is weighing charges against ex-deacon George Brignac, Berry notes how things have changed since the days when church policy was to say nothing and shunt the perverts of the priesthood off to prey on the children of a different parish.

Three years after Gauthe was sent to prison, New Orleans prosecutors dropped charges of child molestation against Brignac after the alleged victim refused to testify. But the evidence was evidently damning, for Brignac was promptly defrocked by then-Archbishop Philip Hannan.

So for sure, the church was now sworn to quit covering up for the sinners in its midst and to extend proper protection to the children in its care. This moral reawakening may have owed much to the revulsion that overcame the public when it became apparent that the church had harbored sexual predators time out of mind. The billions paid out to settle lawsuits have also no doubt encouraged the church to mend its ways.

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Mangueshi temple priest booked in second molestation case

MUMBAI (INDIA)
The Indian Express

July 24, 2018

By Tabassum Barnagarwala

The 20-year-old student, currently undergoing a computer course in Mumbai, approached Ponda police with her father on Sunday. A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police.

A second FIR has been lodged, this time by a 20-year-old Mumbai resident, against priest Dhananjay Bhave of the Mangueshi Devasthan temple in Goa on Sunday evening, days after a 26-year-old medical student from the USA had lodged a similar complaint of molestation against him.

The 20-year-old student, currently undergoing a computer course in Mumbai, approached Ponda police with her father on Sunday. A case under Section 354, for outraging modesty of a woman, was registered by Ponda police. “She is very disturbed. For two-three days after the incident, her father said she was very upset and kept crying,” said the complainant’s Philadelphia-based aunt. From the USA, her aunt was the first to complain, through email, to the Mangueshi temple management committee to look into the matter.

The family claims the complaint was made in June, days after the incident on June 14 when accused Bhave allegedly pulled the student by her shoulder and hugged her while her father was performing pooja and mother was in another part of the temple.

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Priest who taught at Elk Co. Catholic accused of sexual harassment

ERIE (PA)
The Bradford Era

July 20, 2018

A priest who had taught at Elk County Catholic High School was among the seven names released Wednesday by the Diocese of Erie as someone with accusations of sexual harassment against him.

Father William A. Rice, retired, now lives in Fryburg, Clarion County.

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Lord Carey ‘ashamed’ sex abuse warnings ignored

UNITED KINGDOM
SKY News

July 24, 2018

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is hearing from Lord Carey as it investigates abuse by former bishop Peter Ball.

Key points

– Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey giving evidence about former bishop Peter Ball
– Ball was sentenced for abusing young men in 2015
– Lord Carey has told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse he was shocked
– Says “I couldn’t believe that a bishop in the Church of God could do such evil things”

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South Idaho couple arrested in child abuse case part of faith-healing church

POCATELLO (ID)
Idaho State Journal

July 19, 2018

By Nicole Foy and Kyle Pfannenstiel

A Caldwell mother arrested last week told deputies her religious beliefs prompted her to pray for her husband rather than tell police about his alleged sexual abuse of their daughters.

Sarah Kester and her husband, Lester Kester Jr., are affiliated with the Followers of Christ Church. The church, which has a prominent following in Canyon County and in Oregon, faces criticism for refusing medical care for children and adults in favor of faith healing.

After her July 11 arrest, Sarah Kester told deputies from the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office that she didn’t tell police about her husband’s alleged abuse because it was against her belief system to involve agencies such as law enforcement, child protection services, or counseling services into personal or family matters, according to a sheriff’s office press release.

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Everything’s gotta go – contents of former seminary up for sale

GUAM
Kuam News

July 24, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Bargain hunters, thrifters, and the plain out curious, you’re invited. The Archdiocese of Agana is prepping for a major sale this weekend. Though no one’s set to buy the Yona property just yet, the Church wants to go ahead and empty the former Redemptoris Mater Seminary, formerly Hotel Accion, of all its contents.

Everything AND the kitchen sink must go. “Anyone. Anyone who’s interested,” explained Tony Diaz. “Again, we stress it’s a cash and carry basis. That means we’re not using credit cards. If you have the cash and you will be responsible for actually carrying out the items if it’s a large item, especially.” Diaz, the Archdiocese of Agana’s Communications Director, is referring to this weekend’s cash and carry sale at the former Hotel Accion turned Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

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Gary Smith exposed child sex abuse and cover-up in the Catholic church

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

July 24, 2018

By Bruce Vielmetti

A Milwaukee man who played a key role in exposing the child sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church has died.

Gary Smith had been suffering from cancer and died Monday evening at St. Francis Terrace at the age of 68, said Kathy Shallow, a close friend whose sister was Smith’s domestic partner.

As a child, Smith attended St. John’s Boarding School for the Deaf in St. Francis, where he and as many as 200 other hearing-impaired children were molested for years by the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Murphy worked at St. John’s from 1950 to 1974. Bishops had known about the abuse for decades but did not move to defrock him until he was near death. He died in 1998.

His victims, including Smith, distributed fliers outside Milwaukee’s Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in 1974, protesting inaction by the church regarding Murphy.

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Church was ‘cruel and sadistic’ in its response to sexual abuse, victim of disgraced bishop says

UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

July 23, 2018

By Tom Embury-Dennis

Reverend Graham Sawyer says treatment he suffered at hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to reaction from officials

A vicar who was sexually abused as a teenager by a disgraced bishop said he was met with “cruel and sadistic” treatment when he dared to speak out about his experience.

Reverend Graham Sawyer said the abuse he suffered at the hands of Peter Ball paled in comparison to the reaction from officials in the Church of England.

He told an inquiry that the church must stop its “ecclesiastical protection racket”, in which he said people rally round to protect the church’s reputation above the interests of the individual.

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Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey admits church failed abuse victims

UNITED KINGDOM
SKY News

July 24, 2018

Lord Carey told the child sexual abuse inquiry he was “shocked” by the crimes committed by disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has admitted he feels “deeply ashamed” that the Church of England failed to act on sexual abuse claims made against disgraced bishop Peter Ball.

Lord Carey told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that he was “completely shocked” by the crimes committed by Ball, who was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing 18 young men over a period of three decades.

The former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester – who was released in February last year – was said to have “systematically abused the trust of the victims”, many of whom who were aspiring priests.

Giving evidence at the long-running inquiry on Tuesday, Lord Carey – who oversaw the church at the time of Ball’s arrest in December 1992 – acknowledged that his victims had been failed “in a number of different ways”.

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The fallen father: Paedophile Catholic priest Michael Shirres ‘abused children for decades’

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Herald

July 25, 2018

By Mick Hall

A prominent Catholic priest and theologian has been exposed as a self-confessed paedophile, who was quietly placed on a sex offenders programme by the church and is suspected of having abused dozens of children for decades.

The Herald can reveal Father Michael Shirres, who had lectured in Māori theology at the University of Auckland and wrote several books on Māori spirituality, confessed to sexually abusing a young girl and is suspected of abusing many other victims.

The Catholic church has confirmed it received five complaints against Shirres and placed him in a programme for sex offenders. Another victim says a therapist told her Shirres admitted to abusing dozens of children.

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NH settles another child abuse lawsuit

MANCHESTER (NH)
New Hampshire Union Leader

July 21, 2018

By Mark Hayward

A 22-month-old boy suffered traumatic brain injury at the hands of foster parents whose license was rushed through by child protection workers, according to records and reports contained in a lawsuit brought by his mother.

Allegations in the 3-year-old case include claims that a private social service agency based in Northfield, the Spaulding Youth Center, ignored proper procedures for investigating the foster home and missed obvious red flags. In doing so, child-protection workers placed the toddler and his days-old sister in a foster home headed by a foster mom with family problems who had previously experienced the death of a baby under her foster care.

The lawsuit initially implicated the state’s child protection agency, the Division for Children, Youth and Families. After an initial version of this story appeared on unionleader.com Friday, Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers contacted the New Hampshire Union Leader and said the state has paid $475,000 to settle its share of the lawsuit. He called the injury “very tragic.”

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Questions abound about SNAP’s future

CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

July 23, 2018

By Brian Roewe

The program for the 2018 conference for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests offered little subtlety in its front-cover messaging.

“30 years strong. We’ve only just begun.”

Four years earlier at the annual gathering, also here in the same city where SNAP formed in 1988, founding member Peter Isely proposed a comma as the proper punctuation as the now global network hit the quarter-century mark: a pause to recognize its achievements as the leading advocate group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and to determine where it would head next.

A similar exercise at the 2018 conference, held July 6-8, would likely land at a question mark.

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Catholic Church and advocates of sex abuse survivors battle over release of Pa. grand jury report

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

July 24, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

Lawyers for Pennsylvania, the Catholic Church and victims of clergy sex abuse are battling behind closed court doors over an 800-plus-page grand jury report detailing allegations of clerical abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses.

Catholics across Pennsylvania — which is believed to have done more investigations of institutional child sex abuse than any other state — were expecting to see results of the 18-month-long probe in June. But people who are named in the report, but not charged, then petitioned, saying that to name them violates their constitutional rights. For weeks, court and state lawyers have been before the state Supreme Court, arguing about the redacting of names and entire sections and what can be released.

As of Monday, the high court’s June 20 stay remained in place, but some experts and clergy said the high-profile case could hold bishops and other high-ranking clergy accountable for endangering children.

Such a legal shift already occurred in the case of Monsignor William Lynn, secretary of clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, who was convicted in 2012 in a groundbreaking case — the first in the nation to send a cleric to jail for not protecting children. Lynn’s conviction was later overturned on appeal, and he has been granted a new trial.

However, the question of how wide the net of legal responsibility for children goes remains central in that case, said Marci Hamilton, an attorney with Child USA, a think tank aimed at preventing child abuse. The state Supreme Court said Lynn’s new trial should be governed by the theory that superiors can be held responsible for endangering children under their care, even those not under their direct supervision, Hamilton said. The new grand jury represents another major chance to test whether high-ranking Catholic officials will be held accountable for children who were harmed, she said.

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I didn’t know bishop was a paedophile, Prince Charles protests

UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

July 19, 2018

By Sean O’Neill

The Prince of Wales maintained a close friendship with a disgraced bishop because he did not understand that the clergyman’s caution for gross indecency involved an admission of guilt, he has told a public inquiry.

Prince Charles said that he maintained contact with Peter Ball for more than 20 years until his conviction in 2015 for sexually abusing more than a dozen victims. Ball had to resign his ministry in 1993 after a police investigation into his abuse of boys and young men led to him accepting a caution.

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The fallen father: Safe Network calls for end to secrecy over institutional sex abuse

NEW ZEALAND
NZ Herald

July 25, 2018

By Mick Hall

An organisation that offers therapy to child sex abusers says more needs to be done by organisations referring clients to them to dismantle their own cultures of secrecy and silence.

Auckland-based Safe Network spokesman Shane Harris said his organisation did significant work treating offenders by carrying out assessments and then offering appropriate clinical interventions to help curb their predatory sexual behaviour.

But he said it was unethical for churches and other organisations not to involve the civil authorities when allegations or evidence of abuse first surfaced and that a bigger impact would be made if that wasn’t the case.

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Bail for priest in abuse case

INDIA
The Telegraph India

July 24, 2018

Kochi: Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a Christian priest, arrested on the charge of sexually exploiting a married woman for years with three other priests after blackmailing her with her confession secrets.

Johnson V. Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Orthodox Church, was arrested from Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district on July 13 and charged with “outraging the modesty of a woman”.

Mathew, the second priest to be arrested in the case, had applied to the high court after a magistrate in Thiruvalla rejected his bail plea.

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Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, the epitome of the Vatican II bishop

UNITED STATES
America Magazine

July 23, 2018

By John A. McCoy

Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen may have been the epitome of the Vatican II bishop—pastoral, ecumenical, inclusive and relevant. He loved telling a good story.

One he retold often was about the potluck picnic that the parishioners of a small-town parish hosted for him in the city park across the street from the church. Hunthausen took a paper plate, served himself some fried chicken, baked beans and fruit salad and looked for a place to sit. All the tables were occupied. So he found himself a spot on the lawn next to a youngster who was wolfing down the meal.

The boy, who had no idea who Archbishop Hunthausen was, chatted away about his school, his friends and his new bike. When he paused to eat some more, the archbishop asked him: “Where’d you get that tin plate? Everybody else has a paper one.”

The boy motioned at a house across the street. “At home,” he replied. “I saw there was a picnic going on, so I got my tin plate and came on over.”

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Abuse Survivors Are Angry About the Pope’s Visit to Ireland

IRELAND
VICE

July 24, 2018

By Paulie Doyle

How Irish protesters plan to demonstrate against Pope Francis touching down in their country.

The general consensus about the Pope seems to be: he’s pretty woke. Francis doesn’t care for Trump, he auctioned his famous Harley Davidson to feed the poor and says that preventing environmental catastrophe is a moral imperative. He belongs to the fair-minded Jesuits, and has made some progressive-sounding comments about women and the LGBT community.

Although no changes to Catholic teaching regarding women or sexual minorities have been made, with the assistance of a very well-oiled PR machine, the Pontiff has nonetheless become a kind of media-darling, referenced as a benign moral authority, Dalai Llama-like, by ostensibly secular liberals. “On the issue of climate change, I agree with Pope Francis,” Senator Bernie Sanders would regularly say, during rallies throughout his presidential campaign.

From the moment we met him, the current Pope’s PR campaign has been in full swing: Francis stepped out into the world wearing humble white garments, a simple cross draped around his neck – the antithesis of the ostentatious papal regalia worn by Benedict XVI. The Church was sending a message: over are the days of opulence and intransigence at the Holy See; enter the era of Francis, and a new, more open Catholicism. In the past five years, this down-to-earth ethos has substantially improved Rome’s image.

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Mark Speakman said he was ‘very sorry’ to read what a Hunter abuse survivor had suffered

AUSTRALIA
The Newcastle Herald

July 24, 2018

By Joanne McCarthy

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman has ordered the transcript of a controversial 2001 Newcastle trial against an Anglican priest after a Hunter child sexual abuse survivor described it as an “ambush”.

Steve Smith last week wrote to Mr Speakman seeking an apology from the State of NSW for a Newcastle District Court trial where three key people, including the judge, failed to disclose their associations with Newcastle Anglican Diocese.

The trial collapsed after the diocese belatedly produced a register that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would later note contained “a number of irregularities”.

But it was the late Judge Ralph Coolahan’s criticism of Mr Smith from the bench that shattered the man who the diocese now concedes was repeatedly sexually abused by priest George Parker in the early 1970s, from when he was just 10 years old.

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USOC files to remove itself as defendant in Nassar lawsuits

DENVER
The Associated Press

July 24, 2018

By Eddie Pells

The U.S. Olympic Committee is trying to remove itself as a defendant in lawsuits by gold medalists McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman, three of the gymnasts who sued the federation and others for their roles in the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.

In court papers filed last Friday, the USOC acknowledges it is “appropriately” part of “discussions concerning moral and social responsibility for sexual abuse, including legitimate questions about what could have been done to recognize and stop Nassar’s abuse.”

But, the motions say, there are no legal grounds to sue the USOC because Nassar never worked for the federation, nor were Nassar’s crimes foreseeable by the USOC.

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Rape is all about power

INDIA
Matters India

July 22, 2018

By Virginia Saldanha

The revelation that 110,333 cases of rape were registered in the country from 2014 to 2016, and 338,954 cases of crime against women were registered in 2016, by federal Minister Kiren Rijiju, does not come as a surprise. In fact, we should remember that these statistics are based only on reported cases and not on total incidents of rape and violence to women actually taking place.

The threat of rape and violence is a reality that Indian women live with. The threat becomes acuter in direct proportion to a woman’s social status and/or vulnerability, a poor Dalit girl/woman being the most vulnerable. Age has not been a bar for vulnerability to rape. Babies of a few months to an old woman in her 90s have been victims of rape in India.

Rape is forced sexual intercourse. Indian law amended in 2013 describes rape as penile and non-penile penetration of a woman’s orifices. So, it is clear that rape is not about anyone enjoying sex. Rape is not about sex! It is about power. Unless we address the issue of power, we will not be able to protect women/girls from rape.

Rape takes place when the perpetrator is sure of his power to force his victim to yield to him. Most rapists generally and literally ‘get away’ with their crime, because of their power to silence the victim.

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Former Tenafly resident accuses Cardinal McCarrick of sexual abuse

TENAFLY (NJ)
NorthJersey

July 20, 2018

By Rodrigo Torrejon

Amid tears and decades of buried trauma, a former Tenafly resident recalled 20 years of sexual abuse by a once-trusted priest and close family friend who became a dark, looming figure in his childhood in a recent New York Times report.

The 60-year-old man, who identified himself as James, detailed years of sexual abuse by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 88, one of the most prominent faces in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Times report. McCarrick, a longtime family friend the family called “Uncle Ted,” had baptized James at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

“I was the first guy he baptized,” James told the Associated Press Friday. “I was his little boy. I was his special kid. I was the kid he always sought out.”

It was in James’ Tenafly home where the years of sexual abuse began, Patrick Noaker, James’ attorney told NorthJersey.com. When James was 11, as he was changing out of his bathing suit, McCarrick, then 39, walked into the room and took his own pants off.

“McCarrick came into the boy’s room and he was naked,” Noaker said. “McCarrick told him to turn around and said ‘See? we’re the same.'”

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Two plaques to be erected at Emmanuel College recognising Bishop Mulkearns failed to act to protect victims of clergy abuse

AUSTRALIA
The Standard

July 20, 2018

By ​Andrew Thomson ​

EMMANUEL College ​is taking the groundbreaking step of erecting plaques recognising former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns ​failed to act to protect victims, some who attended the school.

​Principal Peter Morgan​ said there was a long tradition in Australian Catholic schools of inviting the local Bishop to officially open and bless new buildings and extensions.

​He said Bishop Mulkearns performed that duty on several occasions within the Warrnambool Catholic community.

“​Plaques were affixed to buildings leaving a permanent record of these important occasions​,” he said​

​”There are two plaques at Emmanuel College recording the opening of new buildings bearing the name of Bishop Mulkearns​.”

Mr Morgan said that it was now widely recognised that Bishop Mulkearns failed to act on information and complaints against adults who abused young people in the Ballarat Diocese.

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Pope declines PM’s call to sack Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson

AUSTRALIA
Financial Review

July 19, 2018

by Phillip Coorey

The Australian government has been lobbying the Pope and other senior members of the Catholic Church for more than two weeks to sack disgraced Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, but to no avail.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Pope publicly on Thursday to sack Wilson, who has been convicted and sentenced for covering up paedophilia in the church in the 1970s.

He is refusing to step down because he intends to appeal against the conviction.

“As far as Philip Wilson is concerned, he should have resigned. He should have resigned and the time has come for the Pope to sack him,” Mr Turnbull said.

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OPINION: The Catholic Church is a cesspool

NEW YORK (NY)
The Week

July 23, 2018

By Matthew Walther

More than a decade and a half after the septic holding tank was overturned in Boston, the unfathomable noxious waste of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in this country is still seeping out in fetid drips.

As a Catholic, I believe that the Church was founded by the apostle St. Peter at the behest of Christ Himself. I also believe that it was for many years and will for many more still remain a cesspool.

A month ago, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was removed from public ministry after credible allegations were made that he had abused a 16-year-old altar boy in 1971. Almost immediately after the announcement was made, it was revealed that at least two settlements had been made with victims — both of them adults at the time of the assaults — of McCarrick in the last decade. Now The New York Times reports that McCarrick began molesting a boy identified only as “James” when the latter was 11. This was a boy whom the future cardinal had himself baptized only two weeks after his ordination to the sacrificing priesthood. The abuse continued for 20 years. McCarrick allegedly referred to James as his “special boy” and insisted that the child and his siblings call him “Uncle Ted.” When James tried to tell his parents about the things his “uncle” forced him to do, he was told that he must be lying. (Through a spokesperson, McCarrick declined to respond to the Times’ request for comment. He has said elsewhere that he is cooperating with the Church’s investigation of the allegations.)

James was not the only one of Uncle Ted’s nephews. For decades it appears that McCarrick forced seminarians in his diocese to spend weekends with him at a beach house, where they were made to share his bed. There they were asked to rub his shoulders and to sit quietly while he groped their genitals. According to one file shared with the Times, McCarrick requested that a seminarian put on a striped sailor suit and a pair of shorts before joining him in bed. It was made clear to all of his victims that saying nothing was a necessary condition of their flourishing in his diocese and the wider Church.

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Over 50 people come forward to sue USC for mishandling sexual misconduct allegations

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fox News

July 23, 2018

By Lukas Mikelionis

Over 50 former and current University of Southern California students sued the school on Monday for allegedly mishandling complaints that a longtime gynecologist engaged in inappropriate behavior during pelvic exams.

The latest suit brings the number of people suing the university and Dr. George Tyndall to over a hundred of former and current students.

California’s state Department of Education said last month that was probing the university’s response the accusations against Tyndall, including him touching female students during campus office visits and improperly photographing or making comments about the women’s bodies.

Some complaints were made as early as 1990 but weren’t fully investigated up until 2016. There are over 400 students who also reported the former gynecologist through a university hotline.

“The University is conducting a thorough investigation into this matter,” USC said in a statement Monday. “We will be seeking a prompt and fair resolution that is respectful of our former students. We are committed to providing the women of USC with the best, most thorough and respectful health care services of any university.”

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Chilean prosecutors probing 36 claims of Catholic Church sex abuse

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

July 23, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Cassandra Garrison

The Chilean civil authorities are investigating 36 accusations of sexual abuse against bishops, clerics and lay workers in the Roman Catholic Church, the national prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

The investigations are among 144 reports of sexual abuse implicating 158 Church workers made since 2000, it added in a statement.

The figures were released at a news conference in the capital Santiago by Luis Torres, the head of human rights and gender crime divisions for the Chilean national prosecutor’s office.

“We have met (with the Chilean Church) and sought to agree a coordinated approach that will help to advance these (live) cases,” he said.

The national prosecuting authority gathered the figures about complaints from around the country for the first time in a bid to take control of a persistent scandal over sexual abuse within the country’s Catholic.

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