ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Esquire

And on the island of Guam, they did.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE

MAY 7, 2018

At what was perceived to be the height of the clerical child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, I had some good priests and involved laypeople tell me that the next shoe to drop was going to drop overseas, in the Catholic missions to remote areas in places like Africa and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Surely, they told me, if predatory priests were enabled to commit their crimes in the crowded urban areas of the United States, the same thing, or worse, must have been going on in distant places beyond the reach of the spotlight, or of Spotlight.

The sound you just heard was that other shoe, dropping. From The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Brouillard’s peaceful life stands in stark contrast to the torment of 122 men and two women–all middle-age or retired now—who accuse him of sexually molesting them as children on the island of Guam. They have broken long-held silences and filed lawsuits. Some have protested and begged for justice. Some have left the church. A long time ago, some of them complained. Brouillard confessed, and was told to pray and try harder. Eventually, the island’s Catholic church simply sent Brouillard away.

It gets worse because it always gets worse. This guy also was a Boy Scout leader.

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VATICAN CITY
KUAM

May 07, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Guam’s suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron has been sighted again in Rome, this time for a celebration for the Neocatechumenal Way. A video was posted on the Vatican News YouTube channel on Sunday.

Joining Apuron is Guam’s Father Edivaldo Oliveira who is listed on the Archdiocese of Agana’s website as a priest on mission.

Both sit among a crowd of bishops on the same stage as Pope Francis.

As reported, Archbishop Michael Byrnes put a halt to any formation of new communities by the Neocatechumenal Way here on Guam. That year-long period, KUAM files show, ended in March.

Earlier this year, the Vatican released its verdict against Apuron finding him guilty of certain charges.

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VATICAN CITY
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

May 7, 2018

Nearly two months after the Vatican announced he had been convicted in a canonical trial, former Guam Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron was seated near Pope Francis on a stage in Rome during Saturday’s 50th anniversary of the founding of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Apuron is part of the Neocatechumenal Way, which he welcomed to Guam in the mid-1990s, and whose practices are sometimes at odds with Catholic teachings, beliefs and practices.

Pope Francis, in his May 5 message, urged the Neocatechumenal Way to respect different cultures and not try to impose its own pre-established models.

“Love the cultures and traditions of peoples, without imposing pre-established models. Do not start from theories and fixed mindsets, but from concrete situations: it will thus be the Spirit Who shapes the proclamation according to His times and His ways. And the Church will grow in His image: united in the diversity of peoples, gifts and charisms,” the pope said at the event.

Apuron found guilty

Apuron was found guilty of certain accusations in a canonical trial that included allegations he sexually abused or raped children on Guam before or while he was archbishop, based on a March 16 announcement from the Vatican.

Apuron, who said he will appeal the conviction, was stripped of his position as archbishop and banned from the island’s archdiocese.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guam Daily Post

May 7, 2018

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

The Vatican may have stripped former Guam Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of his title following a canonical trial, but Apuron continues to wear his bishop robe as he attended the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Neocatechumenal Way in Tor Vergata, Rome, on Saturday.

Apuron appears seated among cardinals and bishops on the stage holding a cane, in a video posted by Vatican News. Father Edivaldo Da Silva-Oliviera, who is listed as a priest “on mission” from the Archdiocese of Agana, was seated next to Apuron as they listened to Pope Francis deliver an address to the crowd.

The event celebrated the Neocatechumenal Way, one of the Catholic Church’s biggest and most contentious missionary movements.

Pope Francis, in his May 5 message, urged the Neocatechumenal Way not to impose pre-established models or have fixed mindsets or theories.

During his address, the pope urged the movement to respect different cultures and not try to conquer souls as it spreads the faith around the world, according to the Vatican News

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GUAM
KUAM

May 07, 2018

By Krystal Paco

A second man comes forward accusing Father Adrian Cristobal of molestation and rape.

Only identified by his initials to protect his privacy, 33-year-old J.C.C. reports the abuse started in 1995 and ended in 2013, occurring almost daily.

The alleged abuse occurred at San Vicente Catholic School, both the Barrigada and Maina Parishes, at Father Adrian’s residence, his car, and his private beach in Ipan.

It started when the priest groped the boy after teaching him how to properly tuck in his shirt.

Other occasions occurred under the table during meal times – the priest reportedly using his feet to touch the boy’s private parts.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

May 7, 2018

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

A 33-year-old man has come forward alleging he endured nearly 15 years of sexual molestation and abuse at the hands of Father Adrian Cristobal, the former Archdiocese of Agana chancellor, leading him to drugs for self-medication.

A lawsuit filed in the District Court of Guam by J.C.C., who used initials to protect his identity, alleges the abuse began when he was 11 years old and an altar boy at San Vicente Ferrer/San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada, where Cristobal served as parish priest and continued until 2013.

J.C.C. was raised in a religious family whose members were devout Catholics and active in the church.

Beginning in 1995, J.C.C. was repeatedly sexually molested and abused by Cristobal and the boy was forced to perform sexual acts on the priest at San Vicente School where he attended classes, the Barrigada parish, the Maina parish where Cristobal was later assigned, Cristobal’s private residence, Cristobal’s vehicle, and Cristobal’s private beach in Ipan, the civil complaint states.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz

May 7, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone is reopening an investigation into allegations that the Rev. Fabian J. Maryanski had sexual contact with a teenage girl in the mid-1980s.

Diocese of Buffalo officials confirmed that Maryanski, 77, was investigated in 1995 following an accusation of sexual abuse.

“Since the investigation was conducted at a time before I became bishop of Buffalo, I have decided to reopen the investigation,” Malone said in a statement.

The statement came after The Buffalo News published a story Sunday stating that Maryanski was assigned to work in parishes for more than a decade after he was accused of having sexual contact with a teenage girl in a church rectory.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

May 6, 2018

Lucie Morris-Marr

A series of mysterious adverts are encouraging supporters to donate to a “trust fund” to help Cardinal George Pell pay for a top legal team to fight the abuse allegations against him.

Bank details of the fund, run by a Melbourne-based solicitor, are included in the adverts which have appeared in Catholic newsletters, magazines and websites around the world.

Mystery still surrounds who sent the adverts – which all share similar wording – and whether they were part of a co-ordinated campaign.

One of the adverts posted on the website of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat says the bank account details were “provided by Cardinal Pell’s staff at the Sydney Archdiocese”.

All of the adverts go on to say that funds can be deposited into a Bendigo Bank account run by Ferdinand Zito and Associates, a law firm with a small office next to a post office in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe East.

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UNITED STATES
KPCC

Thursday, May 24, 2018

The #MeToo movement has rocked the entertainment, political, media and tech worlds. More recently, it has reignited old conversations and started new ones within faith communities in the United States and around the world.

Accusations of sexual impropriety by male religious leaders have surfaced across faiths — from evangelical Christianity to Islam — fanned by the #MeToo movement, and social media has amplified the voices of accusers. But the conversation about women’s rights and treatment in religious circles is arguably less pronounced than in the secular world. Will it stay that way? Or is the conversation a slow burn ready to catch on?

Join KPCC’s Josie Huang on Thursday, May 24, at the Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena for a talk about the #MeToo movement and its place in faith and spirituality.

Guests:

Edina Lekovic – director of policy and programming, Muslim Public Affairs Council
Brie Loskota – executive director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

MAY 5, 2018

by Mark Scolforo, Associated Press

HARRISBURG — Two Franciscan friars who supervised a third friar who fatally stabbed himself in the heart while facing child-molestation allegations pleaded no contest to child endangerment charges Friday and were sentenced to five years of probation.

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

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

Former Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane brought charges against the two, along with a priest, following a March 2016 Pennsylvania grand jury report accusing bishops of ignoring or hiding decades of sexual abuse by priests and religious leaders against hundreds of children in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Danny McDonald GLOBE STAFF

MAY 06, 2018

A former teacher fired from an elite Cambridge school over sexual abuse allegations in the 1980s committed suicide last month, according to his death certificate.

Edward “Ted” Washburn, who pleaded guilty to raping his 13-year-old nephew in 1987 and received a suspended sentence, killed himself on April 6, according to the certificate.

Washburn, 75, of Lexington, had taught at Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a day school that serves prekindergarten through 12th grade in Cambridge.

The 1987 rape case was the biggest scandal in the history of that institution, which was established in 1974 with the merger of two schools that were founded in the 19th century.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Matthew Spina

May 7, 2018

The state’s Catholic Conference has spent $1.8 million over six years lobbying Albany to, among other things, derail a bill to make it easier for sex abuse victims to sue.

The Democratic-led state Assembly approved the Child Victims Act last week, but its prospects for passage in the Republican-led Senate are less likely.

The act’s most controversial provision would open a one-year window in which victims currently blocked by New York’s statute of limitations could sue for damages linked to decades-old abuses. But the Catholic Conference says the act would force institutions to defend misconduct “about which they have no knowledge, and in which they had no role.”

To head off the bill and to push other items on its agenda, the Catholic Conference has spent hundreds of thousands a year on lobbyists. For example, the conference last year paid Sheinkopf Ltd. $5,000 a month, the Greenberg Traurig firm $6,000 a month and New York City attorney Stanley K. Schlein another $6,000 a month.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conservative Woman

By Andrew Tettenborn

May 7, 2018

Politician in need of a headline or two? Easy: demand an inquiry into something. The wider-ranging and less focused the terms of reference, the better the publicity. Unfortunately the more vaguely the remit of any inquiry is drawn, and the more politically charged its subject, the less likely it is to do much good. If you want proof, the saga of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, whose interim report appeared a couple of weeks ago, provides it in spades.

It was set up by then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2014 amid swirling and often self-serving claims of pederasty against what seemed almost anybody connected with the establishment. Things have not gone well. It is now on its fourth chair, ex-chief social work inspector Alexis Jay, assisted by human rights law professor Sir Malcolm Evans, radical barrister Ivor Frank, and former CPS luminary and HM Inspector of Constabulary Drusilla Sharpling. The first two chairs, a judge and a corporate lawyer, were eased out as being too patrician: the third, a New Zealand judge, resigned in murky circumstances after alleged incautious remarks about race and what seems to have been open warfare between her and the other members.

The inquiry’s terms of reference are a curious combination of matters clearly drawn up to placate particular pressure groups. On one side there is a vague injunction to find out all about child sexual abuse in the past, who was to blame, and what to do about it. To this are subjoined instructions to consider the experience of survivors, providing opportunities for them to ‘bear witness’.

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CANADA
The Sudbury Star

By Jim Moodie, The Sudbury Star

Monday, May 7, 2018

A settlement reached last week closes a chapter in the long saga of a Sudbury sex predator and numerous male victims.

But whether it is the final chapter remains to be seen.

On Monday Denis Beland, 61, accepted just shy of $1 million in a pre-trial agreement concerning the abuse he suffered as a youth at the hands of Father William Marshall, who taught at St. Charles College high school in Sudbury between 1961 and 1979.

Beland is one of at least seven known Sudbury victims of the priest and the last of the St. Charles students seeking compensation through civil suits.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Shropshire Star

By Mat Growcott

May 7, 2019

Investigators into child sexual exploitation in Telford must not focus too much on the past, or risk missing how the crime is carried out today, it has been claimed.

Craig Badley, one of the people behind the Telford Time 4 Change survivor support group, said today’s groomers were using the internet to find their victims.

Telford Time 4 Change was started when its founders decided there was too much focus on politics in the discussion of CSE, and not enough on supporting the victims.

“Survivors said they didn’t feel they were being listened to before,” Craig, 45, said.

“We’ve helped about 10 people so far. We’ve had meetings with the police and other similar groups, and we can put their voice across to those organisations.”

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NEW YORK
Post-Journal

MAY 7, 2018

JOHN WHITTAKER

State Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, has three reasons for voting against the Child Victims Act legislation approved recently in the state Assembly.

As unfair as sexual abuse is to victims, lengthy statutes of limitations could be just as unfair to everyone else.

The Assembly legislation would extend for five years the statute of limitations on felony sex crime allegations against a minor until the abuse victim turns 28; would extend until the age of 50 the opportunity for child sex abuse victims to pursue civil litigation and create a one-year period where there would be no statute of limitations on claims to come forward. Assemblyman Joe Giglio, R-Gowanda, was one of the 139 Assembly members to vote for the legislation.

After the Assembly’s passage, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman used the Assembly’s 130-10 margin of passage on May 1 to pressure the state Senate into passing the legislation. The Senate has no votes scheduled on Child Victims Act legislation for the rest of the 2017-18 session; a fact that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has cited several times in speeches in recent weeks as reason for voters to elect Democrats to the state Senate and to try to convince state Sen. Simcha Felder, D-Brooklyn, to begin caucusing with Democrats in the Senate rather than with Republicans.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

May 7, 2018

Former Australian detective Denis Ryan was driven out of the police force in 1972 when he tried to bring a paedophile priest to justice.

Now almost 50 years after he was ordered by superiors to drop the case – and deprived of a police pension – Mr Ryan will receive compensation.

The 86-year-old man was recently awarded an undisclosed sum by the state government of Victoria.

“When I heard the news, I nearly jumped out of my socks,” he said.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

By: Corey Davis

May 06, 2018

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – A church deacon in Hillsborough County is behind bars after deputies say he admitted to sexually assaulting young children.

David Kenneth Buser, 72, of Plant City is believed to have sexually abused at least two victims, according to Hillsborough County arrest records.

The abuse of one of the victims had been going on for a decade, deputies claim. Records show that the most recent sexual assault happened two months ago.

Jessey Bradshaw, pastor of New Hope Freewill Baptist Church in Dover says Buser worked for the church for several years and occasionally taught Sunday school.

According to the report, the abuse did not happen at the church.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

May 7, 2018

By Felicity Ogilvie on PM

The Anglican church in Tasmania is planning to sell 76 of its 133 churches in order to fund the national child sex abuse redress scheme.

Locals are upset to lose the churches, some which are more than 130 years old.

But those who survived abuse say while they feel for locals, it sends an important message of acknowledgement.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

May 7, 2018

Former Archdiocese of Agana Chancellor Adrian Cristobal has been accused of sexually abusing and raping a Catholic school student for about 18 years, from 1995 through 2013 at two parishes, the school, the priest’s residence, his vehicle, and in his private beach in Ipan, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday.

This is the second time Cristobal has been accused in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit. The first lawsuit naming him was filed in April.

Cristobal is currently a priest on a mission to the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona.

The church has said Cristobal was being called back to Guam as a result of the April lawsuit. As of press time, the church was unable to provide an update on whether Cristobal has returned to the island.

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CANADA
CBC News

Jason Warick · CBC News ·

May 06, 2018

Jenny Spyglass wishes she could forget the day she walked in on a priest raping her sister, Agnes.

“I’m a little better now, but I hate thinking about it,” Spyglass, 76, said in an interview with CBC News.

It’s not the only traumatic memory of her time at Delmas Indian Residential School — little brother Reggie dying of tuberculosis, older brother Martin left outside to suffer massive frostbite to his hands, Spyglass herself being locked for long periods in a dark, concrete basement, and the near-starvation rations of oatmeal, beans and biscuits.

“I still hate porridge,” she said.

Like more than 30,000 residential school survivors, Spyglass and her surviving siblings applied for compensation under a national program.

They were awarded between $10,000 and $20,000 each.

“We got abused, then robbed. I guess there’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Spyglass, who now lives in North Battleford, Sask., and took up powwow dancing late in life as one way to heal.

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MINNESOTA
USA Today

Haidee V. Eugenio and Dana Williams, Pacific Daily News and Nora Hertel, St. Cloud (Minn.) Times

May 6, 2018

PINE CITY, Minn. — Statues of the Virgin Mary and portraits of Jesus loom over Louis Brouillard in his small apartment. He lives alone, two blocks from Pine City Elementary School and across the street from St. Mary’s Catholic preschool – close enough to hear children’s laughter when they play at recess.

The retired priest no longer wears a collar, but the people in this small town an hour north of Minnesota’s Twin Cities still call him “Father.” He is 96 years old.

Brouillard’s peaceful life stands in stark contrast to the torment of 122 men and two women – all middle-aged or retired now – who accuse him of sexually molesting them as children on the island of Guam. They have broken long-held silences and filed lawsuits. Some have protested and begged for justice. Somehave left the church.

A long time ago, some of them complained. Brouillard confessed, and was told to pray and try harder. Eventually, the island’s Catholic church simply sent Brouillard away.

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INDIA
Opindia

May 6, 2018

The 2015 movie ‘Spotlight’ had a profound, lasting impact worldwide, not only because it was a finely made motion picture that spoke about the long-standing issue of child sexual abuse by the church, but also for the manner in which it highlighted the fact that the church and the whole organisational system of Christian authorities go to elaborate lengths to deny, hide, hush up the crimes and take great measures to shelter and rehabilitate the guilty priests. In one powerful scene, Mitchell Garabedian tells the journalist Michael Rezendes, “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.” He was, of course, referring to the deeply rooted system of the clergy, lawyers and private patrons including government officials who go to great lengths to cover up the crimes and help the guilty go unpunished.

India, sadly, has not been immune to the plague either. Christian priests and churches, like most cases worldwide, have been targeting the poor, destitute for their crimes and the cases go unnoticed. At most, a case grabs a little spot in newspapers for a day or two and then is lost in obscurity. It is mostly due to the speed and reachability of digital and social media that nowadays, more and more cases are coming to highlight. Even if there are many, many cases, none of them get the media attention or outrage. The sordid tale was also documented by one Varun Reddy on Twitter.

Recently in Vallampadu, Andhra Pradesh, a 45-year-old pastor was booked for brutally raping an 11-year old girl. In July 2017, Father Saji Joesph, a priest who was the director of a children’s home in Kerala’s Wayanad district, was arrested after allegations of sexually abusing minor boys. In 2013, an illegal shelter home housing dozens of children from extremely poor families in North Eastern India was reported in Jaipur. One girl had accused priest Jacob John of rape and as many as 13 girls were suspected to have been sexually abused by the priest.

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NEW YORK
Post-Star

May 6, 2018

Sometimes it takes a painfully long time to do the right thing.

That gives us hope that the time has come to pass the Child Victims Act.

The New York State Assembly voted 124-9 this week to pass a statute that gives victims of child molestation a longer window to seek justice. The proposal was first considered 10 years ago in New York.

Both local Assembly members — Dan Stec and Carrie Woerner — voted in favor of the measure.

A Siena College poll earlier this year found 79 percent of those polled support the measure.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz

May 6, 2018

Diocese of Buffalo officials assigned the Rev. Fabian J. Maryanski to work in parishes for more than a decade after he was accused of having sexual contact with a teenage girl in a church rectory.

The priest started his sexual advances on the girl when she was a 15-year-old parishioner at St. Patrick Church in Barker, according to a 1995 letter sent by her lawyer to diocese officials.

The letter from Rochester attorney Charles A. West Jr. to then-Bishop Edward D. Head alleged that Maryanski’s sexual advances escalated from hugging and kissing to sex. The abuse is alleged to have started in the mid-1980s, when Maryanski was pastor of St. Patrick Church.

Maryanski, 77, was not among the 42 diocesan priests identified by Bishop Richard J. Malone in March as having a credible allegation of child sexual abuse lodged against them.

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CANADA
Anishinabeck News

May 5, 2018

By Kathleen Imbert

Bishops of Canada advised Pope Francis to not apologize to First Nations. Their letter addressed to “Indigenous Brothers and Sisters” said, “The Catholic Bishops of Canada have been in dialogue with the Pope and the Holy See concerning the legacy of suffering you have experienced. The Holy Father is aware of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he takes seriously. As far as Call to Action #58 is concerned, after carefully considering the request and extensive dialogue with the Bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond”. (Letter from Bishop Legendre, March 28, 2018.)

Popes, on the one hand, and in the past, have apologized for the ‘evils’ of the priests that make up the Catholic Church, the latest being in 2014 by Pope Francis.

“Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you,” the Pope said. “And I humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too for the sins of omissions on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves.”

In 2013, Francis formed a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, made up of clergy and laity, which included two sexual abuse survivors of the clergy. One of them, Peter Saunders from England, was asked to take leave after criticizing the Pope on how he publicly gave support to the highly placed clergy. Marie Collins, an Irish survivor, resigned and in a letter to Cardinal Muller, who presides the Doctrine of Faith (a key Vatican department and keeper of good Catholic practices), gives an account of her experience in the commission and her insights on its inertia on the case of sexual abuse. “It appears that for you, the concern that the local bishop might feel disrespected far outweighs any concern about disrespecting the survivor.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent

May 5, 2018,

Lizzy Buchan Political Correspondent

A former Conservative MP who was falsely accused of child sex abuse is suing Scotland Yard and his accuser for more than £1 million.

Harvey Proctor, 71, has lodged a High Court claim against the Metropolitan Police and the man, identified only as “Nick”, who sparked the Westminster sex abuse scandal by claiming he had been raped and abused by a VIP paedophile ring.

Operation Midland was launched in 2014 into historic allegations of child murder, rape and torture by senior figures in politics, the army and the security forces in the 1970s and 80s – based largely on Nick’s allegations.

However £2.5m investigation collapsed without any arrests and Nick has since appeared in court charged with possession of indecent images of children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

By MARK SCOLFORO

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

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

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

Messages left for their lawyers were not immediately returned.

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

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

By Jon White

6 May 2018

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

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

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

May 5, 2018

By NICOLE WINFIELD

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

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

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

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

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

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OHIO
Cincinnati Enquirer

Kevin Grasha, kgrasha@enquirer.com

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
PA Homepage

Jayne Ann Bugda

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY GARTH STAPLEY
gstapley@modbee.com

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

May 5, 2018

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

MAY 5, 2018

KAY STEPHENS
Staff Writer
kstephens@altoonamirror.com

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
The National

Lucie Morris-Marr

May 5, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
LehighValleyLive

May 4, 2018

By Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
Attorney General Josh Shapiro

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

May 4, 2018

By Matt Miller mmiller@pennlive.com

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
TribLive

STEPHEN HUBA

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC 27

By: Myles Snyder

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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INDIA
Crux

Nirmala Carvalho
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Mountaineer

Kyle Perrotti

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

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

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

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

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bolletino

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

Letter of the Holy Father

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

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

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

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

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

From the Vatican, 2 May 2018

Francis

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Forward

Ari Feldman

May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Sojourners

COMMENTARY

By Angela Denker

5-04-2018

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

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

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

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

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

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NETHERLANDS
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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MONTANA
National Catholic Reporter

May 4, 2018

by Dan Morris-Young

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

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

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

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

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

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

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GEORGIA
Telegraph

May 4, 2018

BY BECKY PURSER

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

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

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

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

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GEORGIA
Associated Press

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

BY ROSS LEE

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Religious Australia

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

* The Implementation Advisory Group.

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

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

Tzvi Lev

04/05/18

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

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

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

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

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Infobae

May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

El comunicado completo:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CALIFORNIA
Variety

By Kristopher Tapley and Gene Maddaus

MAY 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald

May 4 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
Reuters

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

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

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

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SWEDEN
NPR

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By David Lombardo

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

03/05/18

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

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

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

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

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CHILE
Prensa Latina

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
Hudson Valley 360

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

He hopes the outcome will be different this year.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Gazette

By Louis Weisberg, staff writer

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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SCOTLAND
Evening Express

03/05/2018,

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

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
WNEM

May 02, 2018

Meg McLeod, Anchor/Reporter

SAGINAW COUNTY, MI (WNEM) –

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

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
Fox 66

by Sarah Jaeger

May 2nd 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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CHILE
New Straits Times (Singapore)

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

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

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

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

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

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

By: Steph Machado

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
Detroit News

Jonathan Oosting, Detroit News Lansing Bureau

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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CHILE
Latin American Herald Tribune

May 4,2018

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

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

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

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

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ROME
Eurasia Review

May 4, 2018

By JD Flynn

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

[with video]

May 03, 2018

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

May 03, 2018

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

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

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

ABC12’s Terry Camp investigates.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Katherine Gregg
Journal Political Writer
kathyprojo

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC 6

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

Many say the current laws favor the predators.

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

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CANADA
CBC News

Jason Warick · CBC News

May 04, 2018

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

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

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

‘Just kept moving him’

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

Fellow St. Paul’s student Tim Ryan agreed.

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CANADA
The Western Star

May 4, 2018

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

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

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

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

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire Public Radio

By LAUREN CHOOLJIAN

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff

May 03, 2018

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

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

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

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

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CANADA
Catholic Spirit

BY ROBERT BREHL

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

May 1, 2018

by Maria Wiering, Catholic News Service

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

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

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

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

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

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MALAWI
ENCA

2 May 2018

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

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

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

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ITALY
ANSA

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

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

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News

April 30, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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IOWA
Daily Nonpereil

By Mike Bell
mbell@nonpareilonline.com

May 3, 2018

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

Monahan declined to comment Thursday morning.

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

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

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

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

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IOWA
Associated Press

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

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

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

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

May 3, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Community Watch

May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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

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OREGON
Oregonian

May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Conor Riordan

3rd May 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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SCOTLAND
STV

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

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

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

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

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

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

MAY 03, 2018

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

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

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

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

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ROMA
Chron

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

By NICOLE WINFIELD

May 2, 2018

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

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

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

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ROME
New York Times

Leer en español

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

MAY 2, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
ABC 12

By Terry Camp

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

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

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

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

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

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MICHIGAN
WSGW

By John Hall

May 3, 2018

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

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

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