ABUSE TRACKER

ADELAIDE (SOUTH AUSTRALIA)
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

By Rebecca Opie

A former Catholic priest who snuck through a window to sexually abuse one of his young victims has apologised for his crimes, ahead of his sentencing in Adelaide’s District Court.

Charles Alfred Barnett, 72, was jailed in 2010 for sexually abusing four teenage boys between 1977 and 1994 while he was the priest at a Catholic church in Port Pirie, in South Australia’s mid-north.

He was arrested in Indonesia in 2008 and extradited to South Australia.

On his release from the six-year sentence, he faced further charges relating to the indecent assault of two children and the persistent sexual exploitation of another child.

He pleaded guilty to the charges and will be sentenced for those crimes within weeks.

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

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

February 19, 2018

By Meagan Dillon

A judge urged a former South Australian priest who used his power, influence and authority to sexually abuse teenage boys more than three decades ago to address his apology to his victims.

Charles Alfred Barnett, 72, appeared in the District Court on Monday ahead of sentencing next month after admitting the persistent sexual exploitation of one boy, and indecent assault of two others.

His three victims all read emotional victim impact statements to the court, expressing how the historic crimes had affected their lives.

Barnett apologised, saying: “Your Honour, I’m deeply aware of the seriousness of my offending”, before Judge Jack Costello interrupted him.

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SCRANTON (PA)
LifeSiteNews.com

February 19, 2018

By Claire Chretien

[See also the Vatican’s notice on January 13, 2018 announcing the appointment of Cardinal Mahony as papal envoy to the celebration of Scranton diocese’s 150th anniversary.]

Pope Francis appointed disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony to be his special envoy to the Catholic Diocese of Scranton’s 150th anniversary Mass. But after uproar, the diocese removed the announcement of Mahony’s visit from their website and told LifeSiteNews the cardinal informed them “late last week” that he’ll be unable to attend.

On January 13, the Diocese of Scranton issued a press release saying, “Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, as his special envoy at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the erection of the Diocese of Scranton, to be observed with a Pontifical Mass on March 4 in the Cathedral of Saint Peter, Scranton.”

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

February 20, 2018

By Caroline O’Doherty

Victims of paedophile basketball coach Bill Kenneally say they have evidence that gardaí suspected him of abusing children at least eight years earlier than has been acknowledged to date.

They say officers who detained a child in Waterford over a juvenile matter in 1979 used the opportunity to ask him what he knew about Kenneally, who lived locally.

They also say they have learned that Kenneally was interviewed about an attack on a child in 1987 (for which he was not responsible) five months before the first formal complaint about him. Gardaí say they knew nothing before this complaint.

They have called for the commission of inquiry agreed by the Government in the wake of Kenneally’s conviction to begin without delay. Kenneally is appealing a 14-year term given in 2016 after he admitted 10 sample counts of indecently assaulting boys in Waterford between 1984 and 1987.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said an inquiry can not take place until criminal proceedings end.

A number of victims, who waived their anonymity, claimed this was a “cop out” and said the “substantial and systematic” cover-up of Kenneally’s activities by State agencies, the Catholic Church and local people of influence should not be delayed any further.

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LONDON (ONTARIO, CANADA)
The Toronto Star

February 18, 2018

By Mary Ormsby and Sandro Contenta

The diocese of London, Ont., is suing AXA Insurance for breach of contract. The insurer is pushing back, saying priests’ sex abuse of minors was covered up decades ago.

One of Canada’s largest liability insurance companies wants the Roman Catholic diocese of London, Ont., to return $10 million paid to the diocese for settlements to victims sexually abused by priests.

AXA Insurance, now owned by Intact Financial Corp., accuses the diocese of hiding pedophile priests by moving them to different parishes or duties for decades, thereby misleading the insurance company and exposing it to greater financial risk.

In documents filed with Superior Court in London, the company cites the cases of five notorious offenders, including serial predators Charles Sylvestre and John Harper, for sexual assaults against children and teens from the 1960s to the 1970s.

“The Diocese of London, consistent with the policies and practices of the Roman Catholic church more broadly, engaged in a practice of concealing reports of child sexual abuse by members of the diocese’s clergy, and then assigning the priests in question to different parishes in the Diocese, thereby providing the priests with further opportunity to commit sexual assaults upon children within the new parish,” AXA court documents allege.

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UNITED STATES
TheWorthyAdversary.com

February 19, 2018

By Joelle Casteix

When Pope Francis appoints Cardinal Roger Mahony as a Papal Envoy in a state where almost every diocese is under investigation for the cover up of child sexual abuse, you know the Vatican has gone full tone-deaf on sex abuse.

And now is not the time to go full tone-deaf.

The PR Shine Fades

Since his election as pope, die-hard Pope Francis fans have been singing his praises, calling the South American prelate a “new kind of Pope.” Insiders call it the “Francis effect.”

Victims and advocates know differently. It was good PR, spun by his hired flack.

That glow lasted for years. But in the past few weeks, even Francis couldn’t keep remembering his speaking points. First, he pulled the infamous “I need proof” statement, defending a controversial bishop and saying that victims need to provide him evidence of abuse before he believed that they had been sexually abused.

Little did most of the public know that one of them—Juan Carlos Cruz—already had. And he had the photo to prove it.

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ROME (ITALY)
ChurchMilitant.com

February 19, 2018

By Stephen Wynne

In the wake of criticism over Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sex abuse, the Vatican is reviving the council responsible for advising the pontiff on the crisis.

On February 17, the Holy See announced the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) will return to work in April.

Boston Cdl. Seán O’Malley will continue as president of the 16-member papal advisory body which went dormant after its mandate expired in December. The reconstituted PCPM is a diverse panel composed of eight men and eight women from 15 countries and six continents, designed to reflect “the global reach of the Church and the challenge of creating safeguarding structures in different cultural contexts.”

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 18, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

Clergy sexual abuse is when a member of clergy uses his or her position and power to exploit, harm, and sexually abuse a member of their congregation.

The recent arrest of the Rev. Anthony Oelrich, a Catholic priest who has worked in the Diocese of St. Cloud since 1992, has the community asking a lot of questions.

What happened? How did it happen? Who’s at risk?

Oelrich is facing a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after he was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with an adult to whom he was a spiritual counselor.

Bishop Donald Kettler removed Oelrich as pastor of the Newman Center and suspended his priestly faculties, which means he cannot function or present himself as a priest.

Oelrich has not been convicted of a crime.

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

NEW ZEALAND
NZCity

February 20, 2018

A New Zealander says a St John of God Catholic brother, who sexually abused him when he was six, says a 33-year Australian jail term is not long enough.

A New Zealand man who had his childhood “stolen” from him by a St John of God Catholic brother says a 33-year jail term for his sexual abuser is not enough.

The jail term was handed to convicted sex offender Bernard McGrath, 70, in a Sydney court last week after he subjected boys at Kendall Grange boys’ home in New South Wales to years of sexual assaults in the 1980s.

Victims and their families cheered the sentence in relief, Australian media reports.

But for Darryl Smith, 54, the jail term is not enough.

McGrath sexually abused him at New Zealand’s Marylands school for boys in Christchurch when he was six-years-old.

“I got my life totally stolen from me. I had no childhood because of this monster, I lost everything,” he told RNZ.

Despite allegations of McGrath’s abuse against Christchurch boys being known to St John, the order transferred him to Kendall Grange in New South Wales and made him the home’s headmaster

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ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Reporter

February 19, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis has removed a Nigerian bishop whose 2012 appointment sparked years of protest from the diocese’s priests, backing down from a confrontation eight months after threatening to suspend the priests should they continue to agitate.

In a short note Feb. 19, the Vatican said the pontiff had accepted the resignation of Bishop Peter Okpaleke, head of the southern Nigerian diocese of Ahiara, and put neighboring Umuahia Bishop Lucius Ugorji in charge as apostolic administrator.

Okpaleke was appointed to his post by Pope Benedict XVI but was never able to take possession of the diocese because of the widespread nature of the protests. Francis wrote to the priests of the diocese last June, giving them 30 days to accept their bishop or be suspended from ministry.

The priests had complained that Okpaleke was not from Mbaise, the region surrounding their diocese. They said it is unfair that there is no Catholic bishop in Nigeria originally from their region, long known as one of the country’s most Catholic areas.

Francis’ removal of Okpaleke represents the second notable about-face the pontiff has made regarding a local bishop in three weeks, following his Jan. 30 decision to send Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna to investigate accusations against Chilean Bishop Juan Barros Madrid.

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BRUNSWICK (NJ)
MyCentralJersey.com

February 19, 2018

By Suzanne Russell

An East Brunswick rabbi and two people from the Bronx, New York are facing charges related to human trafficking and prostitution of a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, is charged with one count of engaging in prostitution with a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey and East Brunswick Police Chief James Conroy said in a release late Sunday.

Goodman runs a Chabad, a religious learning center, out of his East Brunswick home. Officials said Goodman may have affiliation with another location on Lexington Avenue in East Brunswick. Accompanied by his attorney, Goodman turned himself in to authorities at the East Brunswick Police Department on Feb. 6, the release said.

An investigation indicated that the rabbi allegedly engaged in sexual relations with the 17-year-old girl at an East Brunswick hotel Feb. 1.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican website

February 19, 2018

[See also: Pope backs down, OKs resignation of divisive Nigerian bishop, by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, February 19, 2018.]

Resignation of bishop of Ahiara, Nigeria, and appointment of Apostolic Administrator sede vacante ed at nutum Sanctae Sedis:

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Ahiara, Nigeria, presented by H.E. Msgr. Peter Ebere Okpaleke, and at the same time has appointed as apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the same diocese H.E. Msgr. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, bishop of Umuahia.

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GUAM
KUAM News

February 19, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Another clergy sexual abuse lawsuit has been filed in the Superior Court of Guam. Only identified by his initials to protect his privacy, 60-year-old A.B.L. alleges he was raped up to nine times by former Guam priest, Father Louis Brouillard.

The rapes occurred during sleepovers at the Barrigada church when he was about 14-years-old.
According to court documents, A.B.L. slept over at the request of the priest. Upon arrival, he was greeted by hugs and kisses all over his body before the priest allegedly raped him.

Though he reported being in pain and wanting the abuse to stop, the priest told him it was normal and that because he was a priest, he should believe his word. Court documents state “Only as A.B.L. got older did he realize Brouillard’s conducts was very wrong and was in fact criminal.”

Along with being raped on Church grounds, A.B.L. states he and other Boy Scouts were forced to swim naked with the priest who groped and touched them in the water. The swimming trips were always followed by trips to McDonalds and other restaurants.

A.B.L. is suing for $10 million. He is represented by attorney Michael Herman.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

February 19, 2018

By Mindy Aguon

A former altar boy alleges he was raped multiple times by a priest who told him that it was “natural and normal,” according to the latest clergy sex abuse case filed in the Superior Court of Guam.

A.B.L., who used initials to protect his identity, filed a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts of America and retired priest Louis Brouillard.

A.B.L. became an altar boy at the Barrigada parish in 1971, when he was 14. Brouillard was the parish priest at the time.

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KOTTAYAM (KERALA, INDIA)
India Today

February 16, 2018

A Catholic priest, accused of raping a Bangladeshi woman, today surrendered before a court in Vaikom in the district.

Thomas Thanninilkkumthadathil (36) had gone into hiding after the woman filed a police complaint on Wednesday. As police intensified the search, the priest surfaced in the magistrate court in Vaikom with his lawyer and surrendered. The court remanded him in 14-day judicial custody. In her complaint, the 42-year-old UK-based Bangladeshi woman alleged that the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church priest raped her after befriending her on Facebook, police said. Thomas allegedly committed the offence after promising that he would marry her. The incident occurred last month when Thomas was serving as vicar of the church at Perumthururth near Kaduthuruthy. Pala diocese of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church dismissed Thomas from pastoral service and “all stages of priesthood” following the incident. An explanation was sought from him after summoning him to the diocese on February 13 when the church authorities came to know about his “misconduct”.

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

KERALA (INDIA)
bdnews24.com

February 17, 2019

A Catholic priest in Kerala, who is accused of sexually assaulting a Bangladeshi woman based in the UK, has surrendered to the police.

He has also been booked for extorting money from the woman in a complaint file by her, according to media reports.

The priest was produced in a court in Vaikkom and remanded to a 14-day judicial custody, police told local media.

Father Thomas Thanninilkkumthadathil, in his 40s, is accused of raping the 42-year-old woman after befriending her through Facebook, the Bangalore Mirror and Indian Express reported.

The victim, a dual citizen of Bangladesh and Britain, had come to Kottayam from the UK and stayed as the priest’s guest at the parsonage for about a week in January this year.

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HERMITAGE (PA)
The Herald (Sharon PA)

February 18, 2018

By Melissa Klaric

A Pittsburgh law firm representing the Catholic Diocese of Erie uncovered more information in the case of a Kennedy Catholic priest accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a student, a diocese spokesman said on Friday.

Ann-Marie Welsh, director of communications for the diocese, confirmed on Friday that the law firm of K&L Gates LLC in Pittsburgh concluded that the information warranted further investigation by the state Attorney General’s office. She did not reveal further details.

”This is not just an internal investigation,” Welsh said of the law firm’s findings. “These are professionals who conduct independent investigations.”

Bishop Lawrence T. Persico of the Erie Diocese said the Rev. Sean Kerins has been removed from his assignments at Kennedy and at Church of the Good Shepherd Parish in West Middlesex pending completion of the investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via ABC News

February 19, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis backed down Monday and accepted the resignation of Nigerian bishop who had been rejected for years by the priests of his diocese, setting a precedent that could have repercussions in Chile and elsewhere when papal authority is challenged.

The announcement came after Francis in June issued a harsh ultimatum to the priests of Nigeria’s southern Ahiara diocese, warning they would lose their jobs if they didn’t obey him and accept Monsignor Peter Okpaleke as their bishop. Francis gave each priest 30 days to pledge their obedience.

The Vatican said Monday that 200 priests obeyed, but some still expressed problems in working with Okpaleke.

Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Okpaleke to Ahiara in 2012, but the local clergy rejected him. Ahiara is in the Mbaise region, and its faithful objected to the appointment of an outsider from the Anambra region to lead them. In protest, the Mbaise blocked access to the cathedral when Okpaleke was to be formally installed, and he was installed outside the diocese.

The Vatican’s mission office said Monday the pope took the priests’ “repentance” into account in deciding not to sanction them for “the grave damage” they had inflicted on the church by rejecting Okpaleke. But the Vatican said it hoped “in the future they will never again repeat such unreasonable actions opposing a bishop legitimately appointed by the Supreme Pontiff.”

The case could affect another divisive bishop appointment, Chilean Bishop Juan Barros.

Ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, Chile, in 2015, Barros has been rejected by many faithful and priests. His opponents cite accusations by sexual abuse victims who say Barros witnessed and ignored their abuse by Chile’s most notorious predator priest.

After Francis sparked an outcry during his recent trip to Chile by defending Barros, the pope did an about-face and sent in a Vatican investigator to take testimony about Barros’ behavior. The investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, met with Barros’ main accuser on Saturday.

Many Vatican watchers had cited the Nigerian conflict in explaining Francis’ refusal to remove Barros. Barros had been named a bishop by St. John Paul II and confirmed by Benedict, making it difficult for Francis to sack him without compelling reason.

But Francis’ decision to accept the resignation of the Benedict-appointed Okpaleke due to popular opposition suggests he could do the same for Barros, who has already offered his resignation twice and had it rejected by Francis.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 18, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich will be responsible for paying his own legal fees related to a charge of criminal sexual conduct, a church spokesperson confirmed this week.

Oelrich faces charges of criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. He is accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with an adult whom he was giving spiritual counsel.

Joe Towalski, director of the office of communications for the Diocese of St. Cloud, confirmed that the church would not be funding Oelrich’s legal defense.

Oelrich is staying at a residence in St. Cloud owned by the diocese while the judicial process proceeds, Towalski added. The diocese continues to provide for Oelrich’s basic needs.

Bishop Donald Kettler removed Oelrich as pastor of the Newman Center and suspended his priestly faculties, which means he cannot function or present himself as a priest.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 19, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

In the #MeToo moment, it’s important to know how to respond when a loved one says “Me too.”

Nearly a week after the arrest of a local Catholic priest for sexual misconduct, the community is looking for ways to process the news.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich faces charges of criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. He is accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with an adult whom he was giving spiritual counsel.

The church has organized events for this week:

– 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, listening session and gathering for permanent members of Christ Church Newman Center in the Terrace room at the center.
– 6 p.m., Wednesday, healing prayer service in the lower church at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
– 6:30 p.m., Thursday, listening session and gathering for student members of Christ Church Newman Center in the Terrace room at the center.

In a Facebook post, the Rev. Scott Pogatchnik, rector of the cathedral, wrote:

“So many are overwhelmed with emotion. For me too, the pain and confusion are so raw that I don’t know where to begin or even that I want to begin. Wherever you are, Jesus invites us: Come to me…I will give you rest.’ Through prayer and scripture, rituals of healing and reflection, you are invited to join us as we begin this long journey of healing together.”

Another group is focusing on the victims of clergy sexual abuse, sexual assault and bullying. The grassroots group of parishioners and friends will gather at the cathedral before the prayer service Wednesday.

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UNITED STATES
Open Tabernacle

February 18, 2018

By Betty Clermont

Pope Francis has a history of dishonesty and hypocrisy on the subject of clerical sex abuse. Survivors of sex abuse, and those who “normally” meet with them, know there are a number of actions the pope can take immediately to protect children, but he refuses to do so.

“On Fridays – sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known – I normally meet some of them [sex abuse victims],” the pope said. He had “approved for publication” this and other statements he made last month.

“The percentage of pedophiles who are Catholic priests does not reach 2 percent, it’s 1.6 percent. It is not that much,” the pope also told his listeners.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recently released their findings that “7 percent of Catholic priests had been accused of abusing children from 1950 to 2010. In some Catholic religious orders the figures were much higher: 40 per cent for the St John of God Brothers and 22 per cent for the Christian Brothers …. Even the Church acknowledges these figures are an understatement because many victims have never come forward and never will.”

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WINNIPEG (MANITOBA, CANADA)
CBC News

February 16, 2018

Residential school survivor Mary Jane McCallum pens open letter to controversial Ontario colleague

[Includes a PDF of McCallum’s letter.]

The senator from Barren Lands First Nation, Man., is taking Ontario colleague Lynn Beyak to task over her controversial defence of Canada’s residential school system, and her refusal to strip letters supporting that stance from her Senate website.

“No amount of good times can ever override the bad times in the institution, especially if it involves sexual abuse,” Sen. Mary Jane McCallum wrote in an open letter to Beyak shared online on Thursday.

“No amount of good memories can override the negative experiences I have gone through in the past sixty years due to the ‘teachings’ of residential school.”

___________

‘Telling our stories is one way of taking back our power and spirit. Through voicing our stories we are telling Canada our hearts had been broken.’

– Sen. Mary Jane McCallum

___________

In the letter McCallum equates her 11-year experience in residential schools with “spiritual genocide” and being imprisoned, and suggests the Ontario senator’s apologetic stance on the system has “inflamed attitudes against Indigenous citizens.”

She also writes of the importance of letting Indigenous survivors lead the discussion on residential schools.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

February 17, 2018

By Fred Barbash

Kamehameha School in Honolulu is one of a kind. Situated on a sprawling 600-acre campus on choice Oahu land, its massive multibillion-dollar endowment supports a first-rate K-12 education for some 3,000 children of Hawaiian ancestry. It offers otherwise deprived families a wealth of facilities, exceeding those of the fanciest private schools in the country, with more than 70 buildings, including an Olympic-size swimming pool and an athletic complex seating 3,000 spectators.

Kamehameha School is “a towering symbol of Hawaiian pride” with a proud legacy, as Hawaii News Now expressed it. Named for the great monarch who united the Hawaiian Islands — King Kamehameha I — and established in the will of his last direct descendant, it has educated some of the Islands’ leading lights since 1887.

But it also harbored a sordid secret for years: The school was covering up what a lawsuit brought by 32 of those former students described as “decades of monstrous sexual abuse” perpetrated largely against male boarders who were entirely in the care of Kamehameha.

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MÉRIDA (YUCATÁN, MEXICO)
Yucatan Times

February 17, 2018

A 58-year-old priest was arrested and placed at the disposal of the Central Prosecutor’s Office for the Investigation of Sexual Offenses accused of sexual abuse against a 12 year-old child.

The Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City reported that, according to the first investigations, on February 14 at 7:00 p.m., the mother of the victim left the child in a temple to study the cathecism. The church was located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood in the Cuauhtémoc delegation, downtown Mexico City.

Through deception, the priest took the 12 year-old girl to the offices of the enclosure where he sexually abused her.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Age

February 18, 2018

By Stephanie Peatling

Church and religious organisations have told the federal government it should extend its compensation scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse to include those who have been convicted of serious crimes.

A joint submission by the Anglican Church, the Uniting Church and the Salvation Army to a federal government committee examining the scheme said extending it would mean “all survivors are eligible for redress”.

“It is well known and recognised by the royal commission that some survivors – as a result of their abuse – have engaged in abusive conduct themselves, including criminal conduct. It would be unfair that such persons are ineligible for redress,” the submission said.

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CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Bishops Conference

February 14-17, 2018

[Includes a link to the liturgical texts.]

Dear brothers and sisters,

Last December, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its final report. Like the Australian Government and many other institutions, the Catholic bishops of Australia and leaders of religious institutes are currently studying the final report and its recommendations.

In the long years since the tragedy of child sexual abuse within the Catholic community became known, the Church has committed to policies, procedures and structures to respond better to survivors of abuse and their families, to establish professional standards for all ministers and Church workers, and to safeguard children and vulnerable people. For the Church, as for other institutions, this has involved gradual learning and development, and so it will continue to be.

Through these years, Australia’s bishops and other Church leaders have often expressed their sorrow and have offered their apology for what has occurred in the past – the harm suffered by victims and survivors, the instances of cover-up, the failure to believe survivors’ stories and to respond with compassion and justice, and the distress that many still experience.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

February 15, 2018

By Gerard O’Connell

Pope Francis “normally” meets with victims of abuse on Fridays, and “sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known,” he revealed in a Jan. 19 conversation with Peruvian Jesuits in Lima, Peru.

He said it is “terrible” if even one priest abuses a minor, “for God anointed him to sanctify children and adults, and instead of making them holy he has destroyed them. It is horrible!”

He insisted that “we need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels,” and he revealed that he had done so in Chile. “As their process is very hard, they remain annihilated. Annihilated!” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service via The Pilot

February 17, 2018

By Cindy Wooden

Pope Francis has named nine new members to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, including abuse survivors or the parents of survivors, the Vatican said.

However, respecting “the right of each person to disclose their experiences of abuse publicly or not to do so,” the commission said Feb. 17, “the members appointed today have chosen not do so publicly, but solely within the commission.”

Pope Francis re-appointed Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston to be president of the commission, which the pope originally established in 2014. The terms of the original members had expired in December.

The first group of members had included two survivors who were very public about their experience of abuse as children. Peter Saunders, a British survivor and advocate, was asked by the commission to take a leave of absence in 2016; Marie Collins, an Irish survivor and advocate, announced in March 2017 that she had resigned. Both were outspoken about what they saw as resistance to implementing change and ensuring accountability for bishops guilty of covering up abuse.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

February 18, 2018

By Laurel J. Sweet

Pope keeps ‘go-to guy’ despite recent criticism

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has agreed to remain president of a Vatican child-abuse brain trust despite his recent unorthodox criticism of Pope Francis for siding with a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual molestation by a priest.

The Vatican announced yesterday that the archbishop of Boston will continue to lead the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — a post O’Malley was first appointed to by Francis in 2014, when the advisory board was created.

O’Malley joins seven fellow returning members and nine new members. The global panel’s only other U.S. representative is Teresa Kettelkamp, a former colonel with the Illinois State Police, who previously served as executive director of the U.S. Bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Jeremy C. Fox

Cardinal Sean O’Malley has been reappointed as the head of a Vatican commission on child sex abuse, as Pope Francis on Saturday revived the panel in the wake of widespread condemnation last month of the pontiff’s defense of a Chilean bishop accused of witnessing and ignoring abuse.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors lapsed in December, when its members’ terms expired, prompting concerns that the advisory body could be disbanded.

In addition to O’Malley’s return as the panel’s president, Pope Francis named seven returning members and nine new members representing countries around the world, including Brazil, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, and India, according to a statement from the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

February 17, 2018

Pope Francis has confirmed Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap. as President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors [PCPM] and named sixteen (16) members to this advisory body, including nine new members.

The new members are: Prof. Benyam Dawit Mezmur (Ethiopia); Sr. Arina Gonsalves, RJM (India); Hon. Neville Owen (Australia); Ms. Sinalelea Fe’ao (Tonga); Prof. Myriam Wijlens (Netherlands); Prof. Ernesto Caffo (Italy); Sr. Jane Bertelsen, FMDM (UK); Ms. Teresa Kettelkamp (USA) and Mr. Nelson Giovanelli Rosendo Dos Santos (Brazil).

The seven returning members are: Dr. Gabriel Dy-Liacco (Philippines); Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera (Colombia); Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ (Germany); Prof. Hannah Suchocka (Poland); Sr. Kayula Lesa, RSC (Zambia) Sr. Hermenegild Makoro, CPS (South Africa), and Mons. Robert Oliver (USA).

Cardinal O’Malley stated: “Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has given much prayerful consideration in nominating these members. The newly appointed members will add to the Commission’s global perspective in the protection of minors and vulnerable adults. The Holy Father has ensured continuity in the work of our Commission, which is to assist local churches throughout the world in their efforts to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm.”

The Holy Father has chosen these eight women and eight men from a multi-disciplinary field of international experts in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults from the crime of sexual abuse. Representatives from several new countries will now offer their insights and experience to the Commission, reflecting the global reach of the Church and the challenge of creating safeguarding structures in diverse cultural contexts.

Victims/survivors of clerical sexual abuse are included among the members announced today. Since the Commission’s foundation, people who have suffered abuse and parents of victims/survivors have been members. As has always been the Commission’s practice, the PCPM upholds the right of each person to disclose their experiences of abuse publicly or not to do so. The members appointed today have chosen not do so publicly, but solely within the Commission. The PCPM firmly believes that their privacy in this matter is to be respected.

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VATICAN CITY
UPI

February 17, 2018

By Allen Cone

Pope Francis has reactivated a sexual abuse advisory panel, retaining Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston as president of the panel but replacing nine members, the Vatican announced Saturday.

The 16-member Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors concluded its three-year tenure last December.

“Representatives from several new countries will now offer their insights and experience to the Commission, reflecting the global reach of the church and the challenge of creating safeguarding structures in diverse cultural contexts,” according to a Vatican news release.

The commission of eight women and eight men includes victims of clerical sexual abuse and parents of victims, the Catholic News Agency reported.

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MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC, CANADA)
CTV News and The Canadian Press

February 18, 2018

A Senegalese man is suing a Quebec-based Catholic congregation for $1.4 million, alleging one of its brothers sexually abused him when he was a boy in the 1980s at a school the religious order ran in Africa.

Legal experts consulted by The Canadian Press said they weren’t aware of another case where a Canadian religious organization was taken to court for the alleged actions of its members in another country.

Max Silverman, the Senegalese plaintiff’s Montreal-based lawyer, said the congregation indicated it will contest the Quebec court’s jurisdiction, setting up a legal battle over whether the province is the best place to hear the evidence.

“The other side has made it clear they intend to contest the jurisdiction of the court and that debate will happen in the fall,” said Silverman, who filed the suit on behalf of the man who has chosen to remain anonymous.

Known in court documents as NBS, the plaintiff alleges a now-deceased Quebec member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart congregation sexually abused him between 1984 and ’87, at a school the order ran in Kaolack, Senegal.

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MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC, CANADA)
Kugler Kandestin

February 7, 2018

By Robert Kugler, Pierre Boivin, and Olivera Pajani

Kugler Kandestin files a class action seeking compensatory damages, as well as punitive and exemplary damages of $15 million.

The class action seeks to enable access to justice to numerous people who were victims of sexual abuse during their childhood, by religious members of the Brothers of Sacred Heart associated with Collège Mont-Sacré-Coeur in Granby. The class action alleges that the reprehensible and unacceptable sexual abuse was perpetrated systematically for several decades by at least 18 religious Brothers.

– Motion to Institute Proceedings dated February 5, 2018

– Judgment dated November 23, 2017

– Application for Authorization to Institute a Class Action

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: According to the documents linked above, the class action pertains to allegations of abuse by religious members of the Brothers of Sacred Heart Congregation, including:
– Brother Claude Lebeau SC (also known as Brother Gatien)
– Brother Jean-Guy Roy SC
– Brother Paul-Émile Blain SC
– Brother Louis Raymond SC (Raymond Decelles)
– Brother Majoric Duchesne SC
– Brother Roch Messier SC
– Brother Hervé Aubin SC (also known as “Frère Économe”)
– Brother Georges-Arthur SC
– Brother Gerry SC
– Brother Eudes SC
– Brother Gilles SC
– Brother Lucien Martel SC (Brother Gédéon)
– Brother Jean Royer SC
– Brother Jean-Claude Leduc SC
– Brother Arcène SC
– Brother Éphrem Chaput SC (Brother Aldéi)
– Brother Patrice SC (Cyrille Picard)
– Brother Antonio SC]

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Diocese of Syracuse

February 14, 2018

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: Includes links to the Protocol and Bishop Cunningham’s letter to parishioners.]

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has announced another step in its going efforts to respond to the past sexual abuse of minors by clergy with the establishment of a voluntary Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The purpose of the program is to promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy.

The program will be administered by Mr. Kenneth Feinberg and Ms. Camille Biros. Mr. Feinberg is world renowned for his experience in mediation, administering compensation programs for the survivors of the 9/11 tragedy, BP Oil spill and most recently the IRCP programs offered in the three downstate dioceses.

Serving as independent administrators, Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros will work with those who have previously notified the diocese that they had been harmed by a member of the clergy. These individuals will be contacted by letter to invite them to participate in this voluntary program. Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros retain complete and sole discretion over all eligibility agreements and settlement compensation amounts for the eligible individuals. The diocese will accept their determinations without question.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

Leer en español: El Vaticano reactiva la comisión sobre abusos sexuales ante críticas

February 17, 2018

By Jason Horowitz

After his spirited defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse prompted the greatest crisis of his pontificate, Pope Francis reactivated an abuse commission on Saturday that had lapsed into dormancy.

It was the latest in a series of measures by the Vatican to counter criticism that fighting abuse was not a priority for Francis’ papacy.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston was reappointed as the leader of the group, called the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. A Vatican statement said the panel would include some victims of clerical sexual abuse.

“The Holy Father has ensured continuity in the work of our commission, which is to assist local churches throughout the world in their efforts to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm,” Cardinal O’Malley said in a statement.

The Vatican statement said the abuse victims on the commission preferred to keep their histories private.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Diocese of Syracuse

February 14, 2018

[Video of the full press conference announcing the Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program of the Syracuse diocese.]

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has announced another step in its going efforts to respond to the past sexual abuse of minors by clergy with the establishment of a voluntary Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The purpose of the program is to promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

February 16, 2018

By Renee K. Gadoua

Syracuse NY – Citing the Lenten virtues of penance and reconciliation, Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham, announced Feb. 14, Ash Wednesday, that the diocese has established an Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Victims have until May 16 to submit claims, which the bishop stressed would be paid for through the diocese’s general liability insurance program, not donations. Only people who submitted claims to the diocese before Feb. 14 are eligible. Participants will not sign confidentiality agreements, but they agree not to sue the diocese or diocesan staff.

About 76 victims from cases dating to 1941 are eligible for compensation for “pain and suffering” at the hands of priests, Cunningham said at a press conference. The day’s ashes “outwardly express our guilt before God and we are prompted by the hope that the Lord is kind and compassionate, patient and understanding,” he said.

The diocese previously settled 20 clergy sex abuse cases. Forty priests in the seven-county diocese have been accused since 1941. Of those, 18 are alive; they are considered credibly accused and have been removed from ministry.

Cunningham reiterated his policy of not naming accused priests who have not been identified publicly, saying he is respecting requests from some survivors not to do so.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WSYR-TV

February 14, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has announced a new program created to compensate victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The purpose of the Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program is to promote “reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy,” the Diocese stated in a release.

“Over the past year, we have monitored the IRCP in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The response from survivors and their families has been extremely positive. We know and acknowledge that we cannot reverse the damage that was done but our hope is that this new effort will provide an opportunity to seek forgiveness for the irreparable acts of the past and perhaps, bring a sense of healing to some,” Bishop Robert Cunningham said.

The program will be independently administered.

Those who had previously notified the Diocese of abuses will be contacted by the program and a settlement will be reached at the discretion of the administrators.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

February 17, 2018

By Dave Pasinski

“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” This poignant phrase from T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” sets a high bar for the motivation for any worthy action. Yet, since the time of Sigmund Freud, most psychologists would recognize that nearly all actions have roots that are ambiguously intertwined.

Therefore, as The Post-Standard editorial stated well, the fact that the Diocese of Syracuse is now attempting to make a good-faith “reparation” for the exploitation of the many known victims of clerical sexual abuse is an important step, even as serious questions of motivation and justice persist.

It is certainly understandable that victims, their advocates and many others of good will may also question the motivation that accompanies this program. If it is an attempt to simply close a window that would allow past claims to be brought to light, it indeed is insidious – even though it is ministered by two people completely apart from the diocese whose integrity is unquestionable.

Yet motivations may abound in all directions. Seeking to punish those perpetrators who are long dead or defrocked — and the irresponsible, naive or duplicitous hierarchy of those past years who sheltered them — through settlements at this point can be of questionable value also. No financial settlement can ever ameliorate innocence and trust lost, but it is nevertheless necessary to both assist victims and deter future negligence.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

By Bishop Robert J. Cunningham

A video of Bishop Cunningham’s announcement.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Diocese of Syracuse

Regarding Claims Reported to the Diocese Prior to February 14, 2018

An Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to pay victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse of minors (the “IRCP”) was announced today by Bishop Robert J. Cunningham of the Diocese of Syracuse, New York (the “Diocese”).

• The Diocese has engaged Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille Biros (the “Administrators”) to design, implement and administer a program for the submission, evaluation, and settlement of individual claims of sexual abuse of a minor reported to the Diocese prior to February 14, 2018.

• The Diocese of Syracuse (the “Diocese”) IRCP is modeled after the successful programs of the Archdiocese of NY, the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY. All three of these programs are administered by Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros.

• The IRCP is purely voluntary; no individual is required to participate in the program. An individual only waives rights to litigate against the Diocese if the individual is satisfied with the compensation provided and signs a release of liability.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WSYR-TV

February 15, 2018

By Andrew Donovan

Oswego NY – Now that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has announced its compensation program for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the 76 people who’ve previously filed claims will be getting letters with instructions.

That includes 41-year-old George O’Neil, who is still considering whether or not he’ll take part in the program.

O’Neil says:

“Father Casey would take me in various places over 100 times. He would take advantage of me, and take advantage of our situation alone together. Sometimes, in front of people. He violated me in ways that no child should every be violated. It’s hard to talk about. It really is.”

O’Neil, as a fifth and sixth grader, claims he was sexually abused at St. Paul’s Church in Oswego by Father Daniel Casey.

On Thursday, O’Neil got the closest to the front door of the church as he’s been in 30 years.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

February 17, 2018

By Catherine Pepinster

He entered office on a wave of energy but, as discontent grows over his attitude to abuse scandals, Francis faces opposition on all sides

Chatham House is one of the most important foreign affairs thinktanks in the UK. But on Wednesday its focus will not be a president, or an organisation like the World Bank, or the future of the EU after Brexit, but a religious leader: Pope Francis. And it will be the third time in recent weeks that Britain has turned its attention to the pope.

Two weeks ago, the Foreign Office-sponsored thinktank Wilton Park took delegates to the Vatican to meet the pope and discuss violent religious extremism, while last week the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, was in Rome to talk with Francis about modern slavery.

This engagement confirms the pope as one of the leading figures of the age. It will be five years on 13 March since the then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was elected leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, following the shock resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Since then, Bergoglio, who on election took the name Francis after St Francis of Assisi, has become hugely popular. Even atheists declare: “I love this guy!” on social media. Fellow church leaders, such as the Orthodox leader, ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, politicians and other public figures flock to meet him. The Chatham House event will explore the Roman Catholic church’s role in diplomacy, its relationship with the US, and the significance of the first post-western pope, who has diluted the Eurocentrism of the Vatican.

Yet in the Vatican itself, all is not well. Ever since his election in 2013, Francis’s efforts at reform have made him deeply unpopular with conservative Catholics, some in positions of influence within the Vatican itself. They have balked at his efforts to change the way the Vatican is run, including its bank, and to rethink the manner in which the church deals with failed marriages, including welcoming remarried divorcees to receive holy communion. Now the rumblings of discontent have spread to liberals who support Francis but are deeply upset by recent remarks he has made on child abuse.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Reuters via U.S. News & World Report

February 17, 2018

By Alice Popavici

The key witness in the case of a Chilean bishop accused of covering sexual abuse said on Saturday he gave “eye opening” testimony to a papally mandated investigator and hoped it would lead to the truth.

Juan Carlos Cruz met in a church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for about four hours with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, one of the most experienced and respected Vatican investigators of clergy sexual abuse.

“It’s been a good experience and I leave here very hopeful today,” he told reporters afterwards. “I feel that I was heard … it was very intense and very detailed and very, sometimes, eye-opening for them.”

“Hopefully it will lead to good things,” he said.

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SCOTLAND
The National

February 17, 2018

By Martin Hannan

SCOTLAND’s charities have been asked to consider at a senior level how they protect the people their staff and volunteers are supposed to be looking after.

The missive came from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) after it revealed it had dealt with 15 cases of alleged sexual misconduct within the sector in the past two years.

OSCR told The National: “All organisations need to develop policies and procedures that are fit for purpose. We wrote to all charities this week asking the trustees to discuss safeguarding at their next board meeting.”

The regulator said the cases it had handled – known as “notifiable events” – were “mostly historical”, and none had resulted in a formal inquiry.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) was the only Scottish charity working internationally to have reported allegations, said OSCR.

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CANADA
CBC.CA

February 17, 2018

By Jaela Bernstien

Montrealer is filing motion to launch class action

Now 62 years old, Marc Boudreau has come to accept that he will likely never find peace, or be able to live a normal life, after a childhood spent in institutions.

Many days are a struggle for Boudreau, who still finds it difficult to talk about his past.

“It was a stolen childhood, because we were children and we were innocent,” he said. “We were defenceless.”

In a motion to be authorized to launch a class action lawsuit, Boudreau alleges that his mother handed him over to a Catholic-run organization as an infant. After some time in foster care, Boudreau spent most of his early years in orphanages and psychiatric hospitals in Quebec.

In the motion, he claims that physical and sexual abuse in those institutions left him with long-term scars — both physical and emotional — and that prevented him from forming stable relationships or finding steady work.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Times

February 18, 2018

By David Quinn

The UN and Oxfam have learnt nothing from the church’s disgrace

When an organisation is hit by complaints of sex abuse, and when it is discovered that the abuse was covered up by those in charge, the effect on that organisation is devastating. The Catholic church is the best example. In this country, abuse by priests and religious was a dominant news story from roughly the mid-1990s until 2011, when the report about abuse in the Cloyne diocese was published.

The blanket coverage of that story is what makes it so mystifying to see other organisations also engage in the cover-up of sex abuse, including sporting bodies, schools, scouting organisations, other churches, the UN and, most recently, Oxfam.

If these abuses had been covered up years ago, before the scandals that embroiled the Catholic church had come to light, that might be one thing. While it would not, of course, excuse the abuses or the cover-ups, it would mean those other organisations had no opportunity to learn from the catastrophic mistakes made by the Catholic church. But many incidences of abuse and cover-ups occurred after those lessons should have been learnt. They were not.

A report last year into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 96 people were killed at a football match in Sheffield, described what seems to be almost an immutable law of human nature, namely “an instinctive prioritisation of the reputation of an organisation over the citizen’s right to expect people to be held to account for their actions”.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
El Mercurio – emol.com

February 17, 2018

El enviado papal llegará a Chile el próximo miércoles 21 de febrero. Su visita se enmarca en la investigación de las acusaciones de encubrimiento en contra del obispo Juan Barros.

El periodista Juan Carlos Cruz se mostró conforme tras la reunión que sostuvo esta tarde con el arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, quien fue designado por el Papa Francisco para investigar las acusaciones de encubrimiento en contra del obispo Juan Barros.

Cruz, quien fue una de las víctimas de Fernando Karadima, expresó que tanto para él como para el representante de la Santa Sede el encuentro había sido emotivo y agregó que “por primera vez siento que nos están oyendo”. La reunión entre el denunciante del ex párroco de El Bosque y el enviado papal forma parte de la investigación que está llevando a cabo el Vaticano, a la que también se sumarán una serie de conversaciones que Scicluna sostendrá durante la próxima semana en Chile.

La reunión entre el denunciante del ex párroco de El Bosque y el enviado papal forma parte de la investigación que está llevando a cabo el Vaticano, a la que también se sumarán una serie de conversaciones que Scicluna sostendrá durante la próxima semana en Chile. El arzobispo de Malta llegará al país el próximo miércoles 21 de febrero, día en el que se juntará con el vocero de laicos de Osorno, Juan Carlos Claret, y otros dos laicos en la sede de Obras Misionales Pontificias.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: The next steps of Archbishop Scicluna after his meeting with Juan Carlos Cruz: The papal envoy will arrive in Chile next Wednesday, February 21. His visit is part of the investigation of the cover-up accusations against Bishop Juan Barros.

The journalist Juan Carlos Cruz was pleased after the meeting he had this afternoon with the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna , who was appointed by Pope Francisco to investigate the accusations of cover-up against Bishop Juan Barros.

Cruz, who was one of the victims of Fernando Karadima , said that for him and for the representative of the Holy See the meeting had been emotional and added that “for the first time I feel that they are listening to us.”

The meeting between the denouncer of the former parish priest of El Bosque and the papal envoy is part of the investigation being carried out by the Vatican, to which will also be added a series of conversations that Scicluna will hold during the next week in Chile . The archbishop of Malta will arrive in the country next Wednesday, February 21 , day in which he will meet with the spokesman of lay people of Osorno, Juan Carlos Claret , and two other lay people at the Pontifical Missionary Works site.]

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NEW YORK (NY)
La Tercera

February 17, 2018

By Francisca Labarca

Este sábado Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas del ex párroco Fernando Karadima se reunió en Estados Unidos con la comisión enviada por el Papa Francisco que investigan las acusaciones de encubrimiento contra del obispo de Osorno Juan Barros.

En la oportunidad, Cruz sostuvo una reunión con el arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna en Estados Unidos, la que se prolongó por cerca de tres horas y media en una parroquia de Nueva York.

“Fue una reunión larga, emocionalmente difícil, pero estoy muy contento de haber podido hablar con monseñor Scicluna, ellos se portaron increíblemente bien y por primera vez siento que nos están oyendo”, aseguró el Juan Carlos.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Juan Carlos Cruz after meeting with Monsignor Scicluna: “For the first time I feel that they are listening to us”

This Saturday Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the victims of former pastor Fernando Karadima met in the United States with the commission sent by Pope Francisco to investigate the accusations of cover-up against the Bishop of Osorno Juan Barros.

On the occasion, Cruz held a meeting with the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna in the United States, which lasted for about three and a half hours in a parish in New York.

“It was a long, emotionally difficult meeting, but I am very happy to have been able to speak with Monsignor Scicluna, they behaved incredibly well and for the first time I feel like they are hearing us ,” said Juan Carlos.]

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Catholic Reporter

February 17, 2018

By Peter Feuerherd

Juan Carlos Cruz, who has accused a Chilean bishop of witnessing and covering up for sex abuse he endured as a minor, met here Feb. 17 with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a representative of Pope Francis. “For the first time, I felt someone was listening,” Cruz said after emerging from the three-hour meeting.

On January 30, the Vatican announced that Scicluna, a Maltese archbishop, would collect testimony about Bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid of Osorno, Chile. Barros has been accused by Cruz, who now resides in the Philadelphia area, and two other men, of witnessing Fr. Fernando Karadima sexually abuse them when they were minors.

Scicluna will travel to Chile to continue the investigation. Karadima, now 87, was a charismatic church leader in Chile. A Chilean court declined to rule on the case because of a statute of limitations, with a judge emphasizing that the case did not lack for evidence.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

February 17, 2018

By Claudia Torrens

A key victim in the Chilean sex abuse scandal said he felt his story was finally heard after an hours-long meeting with a Vatican sex-crimes investigator on Saturday, the same day Pope Francis revived his lapsed sex abuse advisory commission amid criticism of how he is handling the scandal.

The meeting at a Manhattan church between Archbishop Charles Scicluna and whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz was “intense, detailed and eye-opening,” Cruz said to the reporters outside the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. Scicluna didn’t speak to reporters after the meeting that lasted more than three hours.

“For the first time I felt that someone is listening,” Cruz said. “I think (Scicluna) was sincerely moved by what I was saying. He cried.”

Cruz said they mainly spoke about Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, whom Pope Francis has vigorously defended. Barros is accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring the abuse of young parishioners by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was removed from ministry and sentenced to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” in 2010.

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VATICAN CITY
Agence France-Presse

February 18, 2018

The Vatican said yesterday it has renewed its anti-paedophile panel as Pope Francis acts to quell the global scandal over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

The panel had come under fire from two high-profile members, former sex abuse victims who quit at what they saw as a lack of reform and obstruction at the highest level of the Catholic Church.

Victims have come forward from across the world over the past two decades accusing priests of sex crimes, unleashing one of the biggest crises faced by the Catholic Church. US Cardinal Sean O’Malley was confirmed as the head of the child protection panel along with seven other incumbent members, while nine new members were added, the Vatican said.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
The Catholic Sun

February 17, 2018

By Lisa Dahm

“I didn’t think I needed it,” said Alecia Turner of the invitation to attend a five-day Grief to Grace Retreat in Phoenix through Restore Dignity. “I didn’t think my current-day struggles had anything to do with my past.”

As she explored the timeline of her life, Turner realized that with her abuse history she would benefit from the faith-based, holistic program designed to help participants address abuse-related trauma through a Catholic lens.

“It did take a lot of humility and it was a leap (attending the Grief to Grace retreat), but I had hope because I was talking to the Restore Dignity people,” Turner said. “I realized that healing is possible.”

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UNITED STATES
Vox

February 16, 2018

By Tara Isabella Burton

Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby called out the church for not taking domestic abuse seriously enough.

Last week, White House aide Rob Porter resigned from his position after it emerged that both of his ex-wives had accused him of domestic abuse. But his ex-wives’ accounts, shared in the media, don’t just tell the story of two abusive marriages. They also reveal the structural and institutional failure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or, the Mormon Church) to protect women from toxic and abusive relationships.

Both Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby told CNN this week about how they’d shared their experiences with Mormon bishops, who only downplayed the severity of their accusations or encouraged them to be mindful of the consequences to Porter’s career if they came forward.

Willoughby said one bishop discouraged her from filing a protective order in order to preserve Porter’s reputation. Likewise, Holderness recalled being consistently turned away by the Mormon bishops she sought guidance from. “For years I would go to Mormon bishops and I would try to find the words to explain what was going on, but I was at a loss. … It wasn’t until I went to a secular counselor … [that somebody] told me that what was happening was not okay,” Holderness told CNN.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press via US News & World Report

February 17, 2018

The Latest on a Vatican sex-crimes investigator meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal (all times local):

3 p.m.

A key victim in the Chilean sex abuse scandal says he feels his story finally has been heard after meeting with a Vatican sex-crimes investigator for more than three hours.

Whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz met with Archbishop Charles Scicluna at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan on Saturday.

Scicluna is investigating accusations against Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

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KOTTAYAM (INDIA)
The Times of India

February 17, 2018

The priest against whom a complaint of rape was filed by a Bangladeshi woman with a British citizenship surrendered before the judicial first class magistrate court in Vaikom on Friday. After a medical examination, Fr Thomas Thanninilkumthadathil (44), was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. He was moved to Kottayam sub-jail. Meanwhile, Kaduthurthy police have requested the court for the custody of the accused.

He was charged under sections 376, 380, 323 and 506 (1) of IPC based on the complaint by the 42-year-old woman. The priest had befriended the woman through Facebook. On January 7 the woman arrived here to meet the priest accompanied by a Zimbabwean youth. They had stayed with the priest at his official residence in the church and also in a resort in Kumarakom. The two were here from January 7-12 during which the alleged offences including the rape had happened. The woman had also complained that while the priest had dropped her at the resort in Kumarakom where she had booked a room, he took away her gold and money after locking her in the toilet.

The Pala diocese had removed him from the post immediately after the allegation came up.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

February 17, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis revived his lapsed sex abuse advisory commission by naming new members Saturday, after coming under fire for his overall handling of the scandal and his support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

The announcement of the new members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors came on the same day that a Vatican investigator will take the testimony in New York of one of the main whistleblowers in the Chilean cover-up scandal.

Francis tasked Archbishop Charles Scicluna with the fact-finding mission into Bishop Juan Barros after he came under blistering criticism in Chile for defending Barros and calling the victims’ cover-up accusations against him slander.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press via US News & World Report

February 16, 2018

By Claudia Torren

A Vatican sex-crimes investigator is meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal.

A Vatican sex-crimes investigator is meeting in New York with one of the key victims in the Chilean abuse scandal that involves a bishop Pope Francis has vigorously defended.

The meeting on Saturday between Archbishop Charles Scicluna and whistleblower Juan Carlos Cruz will take place at a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan.

Scicluna is investigating accusations against Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Cruz and two others have said Barros witnessed the abuse Karadima inflicted on them and ignored it.

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PATERSON (NJ)
NorthJersey.com (The Record)

February 17, 2018

By Richard Cowen

A former administrator with Catholic Family & Community Services has sued the agency, claiming she was sickened by toxic mold in the workplace and later fired after investigating allegations of child abuse and sexual assault at the Mount Saint Joseph’s Children Center in Totowa.

In a lawsuit, Loretta Urban-Critchett says she went to Mount Saint Joseph’s in June of 2015 to investigate a report that an employee had thrown hot coffee on a student. There were also reports of a boy who had twice been sexually assaulted — once in a van with employees present. And she alleges there was a “fight club” organized by night shift workers at the home for troubled youths.

Urban-Critchett says she spoke to the executive director, Diane Silbernagel, who promised to hire a private investigator. She also spoke to the Human Resources director, Dennis Butler, “and Mr. Butler failed to act on the rape incident,” the lawsuit says.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

February 17, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis renewed the mandate of his clergy sexual abuse commission Feb. 17, two months after the group’s lapse into an inactive state led some survivor advocates to question whether protecting children was being given the highest priority in the Catholic Church.

The pontiff reappointed eight of the previous members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and added nine new people to its ranks. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley returns as the president of the group, and Boston priest Msgr. Robert Oliver returns as its secretary.

While none of the members of the commission are publicly known as abuse survivors, the group said in a statement that some of them are survivors who have yet to publicly identify themselves. The commission said it “believes that their privacy in this matter is to be respected.”

Six former members of the commission were not reappointed by Francis, including some of the best known figures in the group, such as: French psychotherapist Catherine Bonnet, British Baroness Sheila Hollins, New Zealand church official Bill Kilgallon, and religious congregation advisor Krysten Winter-Green.

Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from the commission in frustration last March, told NCR some of those not reappointed were among the group’s most active members.

“I’m shocked at the discarding of some of the most active and independent members of the commission,” said Collins. “Four of the laywomen have gone and they were really the most active and had the most experience of working in child protection and working directly with survivors.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a vocal #MeToo leader, faces fresh allegations of misconduct in her office, including frequent discussions about sex and alcohol consumption at the Capitol.

San Diego lawyer Dan Gilleon filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Legislature detailing the allegations on behalf of four anonymous former employees in Garcia’s office.

The complainants allege that Garcia regularly talked about her sexual activity, including with other members, in front of staff. They also allege Garcia drank alcohol while doing official Assembly business and pressured staff to join her in drinking at the office or at bars.

Garcia, in a Facebook post, said she will address each of the issues individually once an investigation has been completed. But she said the claims don’t square with the atmosphere she worked to create.

“I am confident I have consistently treated my staff fairly and respectfully,” she wrote.

Garcia took a leave of absence last week following news she is being investigated for allegedly groping a colleague’s former staff member, Daniel Fierro, in 2014. The allegations against her marked a stunning twist to the California Legislature’s widening sexual harassment scandal that first broke open last fall and prompted two assemblymen to resign.

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SCOTLAND
Basingstoke Gazette

February 16, 2018

Scotland’s charity regulator has dealt with 15 cases of alleged sexual misconduct within the sector in the past two years.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) said the cases – known as “notifiable events” – were “mostly historical”, and none have resulted in a formal inquiry.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) is the only Scottish charity working internationally to have reported allegations, the watchdog said.

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SCOTLAND
The National

February 15, 2018

By Greg Russell

THE head of a major Scottish charity has said there should be a register for aid organisations to share information about staff or volunteers who have been investigated over allegations of sexually abusing children.

Alistair Dutton, director of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf), was speaking to The National after the charity confirmed it had dealt with two cases involving alleged sexual misconduct with children.

The first, in 2012, involved a 45-year-old volunteer for a partner agency in Burundi, who allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl; the second, in 2016, involved a junior staff member for a joint organisation with two other charities in Ethiopia, who was accused of sexual misconduct with a boy under 16.

His comments came amid scrutiny of the UK aid sector after Oxfam was accused of concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims its staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

He said there was “a real issue” with how charities passed information among themselves.

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SCOTLAND
Catholic Herald

February 15, 2018

Sciaf said it had dealt ‘decisively’ with the cases

A Scottish Catholic aid charity has said it has dealt with two cases of alleged sexual abuse of children.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) said it dealt with the issues “decisively” and reassured supporters it had strong safeguarding procedures.

One case involved the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a Burundian man who had volunteered for a local partner organisation. The other involved an Ethiopian man who was a junior staff member at the time. He is accused of sexually assaulting a boy aged under 16.

Sciaf said that neither of the alleged victims were being helped by the charity at the time.

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SANDPOINT (ID)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A northern Idaho man accused of using his religious beliefs to justify the physical and sexual abuse of his wife and children was found guilty of more than a dozen felony charges.

A northern Idaho man accused of using his religious beliefs to justify the physical and sexual abuse of his wife and children was found guilty of more than a dozen felony charges.

The Bonner County Daily Bee reports a jury on Thursday convicted 49-year-old Dana Andrew Furtney on charges that included lewd conduct, sexual abuse of a child, ritualized abuse and domestic violence.

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PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
The West Australian

February 16, 2018

By Kim Macdonald

The Catholic Archbishop of Perth has called for Lent to be dedicated to victims of child abuse, slamming the church for its “dark and sordid past” and the “devastating failure” of some clergy over the matter.

In a pastoral letter this week, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe called on Catholics to set aside the first four days of Lentas a time of fasting and reparation for child sex abuse and for the healing of its victims. He called for Sunday, March 11, to be a special remembrance day.

Archbishop Costelloe said the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had shone a “blinding light into the dark places of the Church”.

“It has enabled us to realise the terrible burden so many have had to bear — and still bear — because of the devastating failures of some clergy, religious and other Church personnel and the often grossly inadequate response of some of our leaders to this shocking betrayal of trust,” he said.

“Notwithstanding the good work the Church has done and continues to do for so many people, we now know that the Church in Australia has had a dark and sordid side.

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ST.CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 15, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell

A St. Cloud priest was arrested this week on suspicion of sexual misconduct. Just how unusual is that? Pretty unusual, but becoming more common, a local expert says.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich was arrested Tuesday and faces charges of sexual misconduct for having a sexual relationship with a woman he was counseling spiritually.

Has it happened here before?

Oelrich’s case is the first time a specific statute regarding clergy abuse in a counseling relationship has been used in Stearns County since 2005, said Janelle Kendall, county attorney. That’s as far back as her database goes.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
The Indianapolis Star

February 15, 2018

By Ryan Martin

A former youth pastor used an Indianapolis church office to secretly meet and sexually abuse a 14-year-old girl, according to a federal indictment announced Thursday.

Federal authorities say the minister, 51-year-old Maurice Frazier, also threatened to retaliate against the girl if she reported him to police, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler’s office.

Now he is facing federal charges of coercion and enticement, sexual exploitation of a child, six counts of receipt of child pornography, possession of child pornography and an offense by a registered sex offender, according to the release.

“When individuals abuse their position of trust to prey on children, they will feel the full force of the federal hammer,” Minkler said in a written statement.

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MARTINSBURG (WV)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A trial in West Virginia accusing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and several officials of hiding years of sexual abuse by one man entered its fifth week on Wednesday.

A trial in West Virginia accusing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and several officials of hiding years of sexual abuse entered its fifth week on Wednesday.

The Journal of Martinsburg reports that the civil trial involves accusations that 26-year-old Michael Jensen abused several children over five years. Defendants include the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, local church officials, Jensen, and his parents Chris and Sandra Lee Jensen.

The lawsuit, filed in 2013 by plaintiffs who say they were between the ages of 3 and 12 when abused, seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

The church says it took action when it learned of the allegations. Jensen was excommunicated from the church by the Martinsburg Stake High Council in 2013.

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ENGLAND
Church Times

February 16, 2018

If it is to be tackled in the Church, a clear definition is needed, says Lisa Oakley

THERE is growing concern among Christians about spiritual abuse: what it is, and what can be done about it.

Research published last month by CCPAS, of which I was a co-author, found that two-thirds of respondents to a survey said that they had been spiritually abused. Around the same time, a vicar in Oxfordshire, the Revd Timothy Davis, was convicted by a church tribunal of spiritual abuse against a teenage boy (News, 12 January).

Writing on the ViaMedia blog last month, the Revd Anna Norman-Walker said: “What the Church needs to be clear about is that the issue of spiritual abuse, and the stories of its victims, are not going away. Pandora’s box is already open, and we would be very unwise to try and shut it.”

The term “spiritual abuse” is contentious, however. In a thoughtful article for Christianity Today last month, Krish Kandiah grappled with the terminology of spiritual abuse, and asked questions about its usefulness and definition. In other writing and reports, the term has been criticised for its ambiguity (News, 9 February).

It is, indeed, a difficult issue, and there is anxiety about discussing this at a time when the Church is already under pressure over its response to sexual abuse. But this is exactly why it is important to discuss it. Rather than ignore harmful behaviour, we should take this opportunity for transparency and openness.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

February 16, 2018

By Andrew Brown

The Archbishop of Canterbury has shaped the CofE to his will with a skill of a politician – and made it all the better

Last Saturday in central London, two archbishops joined a small group of people protesting about sexual abuse. Though you might expect – or at least hope – to find archbishops on the side of the angels, what was remarkable was that they were protesting against their own church. The building in question was Church House, in Westminster, where the Church of England’s General Synod was meeting, due later that day to discuss the problem of sexual abuse, with the church facing more than 3,000 historical claims. By standing with the protesters, the Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu were making a loud statement about where their sympathies lay. You had to listen very carefully under the noise to notice that the synod debate was in fact a presentation of a report and there were no survivors speaking in it.

The day before, there had been two other announcements on the subject: the church passed over its papers on the diocese of Chichester, where most of the scandals have come from, to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – 75,000 documents in all. What needles might be concealed in this haystack will be for the commission to discover. More sensationally, it announced that a second allegation against the late, and almost sainted, Bishop George Bell of Chichester had been passed to the police.

This came in the wake of unprecedented public criticism of Welby by heavyweight legal figures for his apparent assumption of Bell’s guilt on the word of one pseudonymous accuser. He has refused to back down despite Lord Carlile QC’s scathing verdict of the church’s inquiry. Welby has refused to say either that Bell was guilty or that his name can be cleared. So you might say that this is a typical Anglican fudge, but it is very much more hard-edged than most of those.

The whole show was typical of Welby’s style as Archbishop of Canterbury: he combines energy, ruthlessness and a determination to get the church moving, through a mixture of public theatricality and arm-twisting behind the scenes. He has been archbishop for five years and next month will publish a fat state-of-the-nation book that covers almost all the current areas of political and cultural dispute in the church. The early coverage of him concentrated first on the unashamed poshness of his background – an Etonian whose mother had been one of Churchill’s secretaries and who had worked for 10 years in the oil industry – and then on his attacks on payday lending. The church, he promised, would outcompete Wonga in helping the poor. This was a successful piece of outrageous bluff. The church did no such thing, but in pledging to do so Welby captured the public imagination.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
CNN

February 14, 2018

By Eric Levenson

Weeks after the remarkable sentencing of longtime sexual abuser Larry Nassar, Michigan State University has made several changes in personnel, policy and procedure as it faces investigations into its role, if any, in the scandal.

Nassar, the doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, was sentenced to lengthy prison sentences and admitted to using his trusted position to sexually abuse young girls for more than two decades. Scores of them came forward and told heart-wrenching stories of his abuse, and several blamed Michigan State for dismissing their complaints and failing to stop him.

A lot has happened since the case ended and Nassar was incarcerated. Here’s a look at some of the steps Michigan State has taken, including installing an interim president, furnishing more resources for Title IX complaints, and responding to a “daunting” number of requests for information from investigators.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
NBC Sports

February 16, 2018

By Travis Hines

A Michigan State men’s basketball player has been under investigation from criminal sexual assault since early in the academic year, according to a report from ESPN.

The player is the lone suspect in an incident that campus police “have classified as fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct,” according to the report, which cites anonymous sources close to the case. A female student has accused the player of forcibly groping her without permission in August, and police forwarded the investigatory findings to the county prosecutor in December, according to ESPN.

NBC Sports is not naming the player because he has not been charged with a crime.

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VATICAN CITY
CRUX

February 15, 2018

By Austen Ivereigh

Pope Francis has revealed that “regularly” on Fridays, he meets quietly with a group of survivors of sexual abuse, saying it’s important for him to hear their stories because “what they have been through is so hard, they are destroyed.”

The pontiff also said that clerical sex abuse is “the greatest desolation that the Church is undergoing,” one that expresses both the Church’s fragility as well as its “hypocrisy.”

The revelations come in a record released today of the pope’s meetings with Jesuits on his trip last month to Chile and Peru. The transcript was approved by the pope and released by Francis’s longtime Jesuit collaborator, Father Antonio Spadaro.

The director of the Vatican Press Office, Greg Burke, released a statement on Thursday confirming the meetings.

“I can confirm that, several times each month, the Holy Father meets victims of sexual abuse either individually or in groups,” Burke said. “Pope Francis listens to the victims and seeks to help them to heal the grave wounds caused by the abuse they’ve suffered.”

“The meetings take place with the greatest discretion,” Burke said, “out of respect for the victims and their suffering.”

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ST. JAMES (NY)
News 12 Long Island

February 15, 2018

Eight people have filed claims against a former Long Island priest they accuse of sexually molesting them decades ago.

The accused is Father Peter Charland – a priest and a pastor at St. Phillips and James Church in St. James in the early 1970s.

One of his accusers, Steven Werner, was a young boy back then and a member of the parish’s popular “PJ Folk Singers” group. Werner says he is one of eight members of that group who now say they were sexually abused by Charland.

“I certainly thought I was unique. I certainly thought it was wrong, but I didn’t, for whatever reason, think it was appropriate to stand up. That’s something I regret,” says Werner.

Starting at age 11, Werner says Charland molested him in the church rectory, in his car and on a choir trip to Romania.

“2013 was the first time I ever told anybody, but I will hide no more from that secret,” says Werner.

Werner’s attorney Michale Reck announced Thursday that the group of eight filed claims with the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan. The plan provides victims with financial compensation if they agree not to take legal action against the diocese in the future.

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FARGO (ND)
The Associated Press

February 16, 2018

A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded not guilty.

Fernando Sayasaya was recently returned to the United States from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998. He entered his pleas Thursday to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors alleged that Sayasaya abused two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo area.

A Philippines court ordered his extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November. He remains jailed on $5 million bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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INDIA
Gulf News

February 16, 2018

By Akhel Mathew

He had been on the run ever since the victim complained

Thiruvananthapuram: A Roman Catholic priest in Kerala, who is accused of sexually abusing a foreign national and robbing some of her ornaments and cash, surrendered at the Vaikom court on Friday.
He had been on the run ever since the victim who is a 42-year-old Bangladeshi native and residing in Britain complained about the priest to the police in Kaduthuruthy, about 40km from Kochi.

The accused, 44-year-old Thomas Thaanninilkum Thadathil, was quickly removed from priestly services by the Pala diocese of the Catholic Church on Thursday even as police launched a search for him.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
CNA/EWTN News

February 15, 2018

By Elise Harris

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Wednesday that a charge related to a key witness in the case against Cardinal George Pell, accused of historical sexual abuse, is likely to be withdrawn.

In the Feb. 14 hearing, the director of prosecutions for the Melbourne Magistrates Court said that while they had not decided on the matter, the charge of a key complainant who died in January would likely be withdrawn.

Defense attorney Ruth Shann argued against the man’s credibility, saying Pell’s legal team would be examining the credibility of the “unreliable” witness when the formal four-week committal hearing begins March 5.

The witness, Damian Dignan, who died of leukemia in early January, and a fellow classmate at St. Alipius school in Ballarat accused Pell in 2016 of inappropriate sexual behavior when they were minors. The cardinal had previously been accused of acts of child sexual abuse dating as far back as 1961.

Shann said Dignan’s complaints – which he made to Australia’s Royal Commission in 2015, nearly 40 years after the alleged abuse, after reading about other cases in the commission in newspapers – had a “domino effect” in terms of other people contacting the police.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

February 16, 2018

By Jenny Turner

As a child, Bernard was repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest. Now an Oxford literary scholar, he has written a remarkable account of the damage done

Starting in 1987, when he was 11 years old, Stephen Bernard was sexually abused by Canon Thomas “Dermod” Fogarty, the priest who was, supposedly, helping him with his French and Latin. This was in Midhurst, Sussex, in the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, then headed by Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the future leader in England of the Roman Catholic church. A few years ago, reading about Murphy-O’Connor’s reaction to other cases of abuse in the 80s, Bernard “wanted to die” – he’d already been in hospital more than once after previous suicide attempts – but decided, this time, to go to the police.

The deaths of Fogarty in 2012 and Murphy-O’Connor in 2017 presumably have a lot to do with the timing of this book.

Bernard, who is now in his early 40s, is a scholar of 18th-century English literature, a former research fellow at University College, Oxford, and the editor of authoritative works about the Tonsons, the foremost publishers of the late 17th and early 18th century, and the plays of Nicholas Rowe. He continues to live and work in Oxford, and his memoir unfolds over a single day in January 2016 at the Bodleian library, where he’s trying to finish an article for the Times Literary Supplement.

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LAKEVILLE (CT)
Hartford Courant

February 15, 2018

By Josh Kovner

The Hotchkiss School, one of the exclusive New England preparatory schools grappling with sexual abuse allegations from former students, has dismissed its independent investigator following an outcry from alumni who learned he had represented institutions, including the Norwich diocese, that had been accused in sexual assault cases.

“We’ve switched investigators,” Hellen Hom-Diamond, the Lakeville school’s communication director, said Thursday when asked whether Simsbury lawyer James Sconzo had been relieved of duties he had conducted since June 2016. Sconzo did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday afternoon.

“In June 2016, we retained a third party to conduct an investigation into reports of sexual misconduct by members of the faculty or staff that occurred at any time in the School’s history,” begins a post on the Hotchkiss website.

In new language added to the post on Thursday, the school said, “Based on feedback from the alumni community, we have retained the law firm of Locke Lord to take over the investigation and build upon the considerable work that has been done to date.”

The school said the investigation “will be wholly independent and will conclude with the release of a public report …”

In January, attorney Roderick MacLeish wrote to Craig Bradley, the Hotchkiss head of school, on behalf of a group called Hotchkiss Alumni for Reconciliation and Healing.

MacLeish cited what he said were the factors that should disqualify Sconzo from investigating sexual abuse at the school. MacLeish asked Bradley to remove Sconzo and work with the alumni group “to procure an investigator who will rightly be perceived as independent.”

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
LI Herald

February 15, 2018

By Ben Strack

Former St. Agnes priests named as abusers in newly compiled report

An alleged sex abuse victim who filed a claim in the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program last year was recently granted a settlement of $500,000, according to the man’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.

The recipient of the settlement, Thomas McGarvey, was 16 when he alleges that Father Robert L. Brown began sexually abusing him at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square. The abuse, which allegedly took place in the church’s rectory, spanned from 1981 to 1989, McGarvey said at a news conference last October. Brown has since died.

Garabedian — who was portrayed by actor Stanley Tucci in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s series of stories detailing the abuse allegations against priests in Boston — is representing dozens of others who claim that clergy members within the diocese sexually abused them.

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CHILE and PERU
La Civilta Cattolica

February 15, 2018

Pope Francis

Conversations with Jesuits in Chile and Peru

On Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at 7 p.m., on his first full day of an apostolic journey to Chile and Peru, Pope Francis met with 90 Chilean Jesuits in the Centro Hurtado of Santiago. On arrival he was shown a reproduction of the green Ford van that St. Alberto Hurtado would use to bring aid to the city’s marginalized: it is a true symbol of apostolic passion. The pope was accompanied by the provincial, Fr. Cristián del Campo, into the chapel where the remains of the Jesuit saint are kept. Inaugurated in 1995, the sanctuary houses the tomb of the saint, a stone sarcophagus containing clumps of earth from each region of Chile which together symbolize the embrace of the country’s faithful. The provincial greeted the pope in the name of all the Jesuits – including notably many young ones – and asked him: “How are things going in Chile and have you felt welcomed to our country?” The meeting quickly became warm and familial. Fr. Del Campo presented two of those present, Frs. Carlos and José Aldunate, blood brothers, ages 101 and 100 years.

The following transcript of the conversations has been approved for publication in this form by the pope himself.

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

Francis began with these words:

I am so pleased to see Fr. Carlos! He was my spiritual director in 1960 for my juniorate. José was the master of novices, and then they made him provincial. Carlos was the caretaker and was…the king of common sense! He could give spiritual advice with really good sense. I recall one time I went to him because I was very angry with someone. I wanted to face up to that person and tell him off. Carlos advised me: “Calm down! Do you really want to break off with him immediately? Try other ways…” I have never forgotten that counsel, and I thank him for it now. Yes, in Chile I immediately felt very welcome. I came yesterday. Today I have been very well received. I have seen many gestures of dear affection. Now ask me whatever you want.

A Jesuit steps forward: “I would like to ask what have been the great joys and disappointments that you have experienced during your pontificate.”

This time of the pontificate is a quite peaceful time. As soon as I realized during the conclave what was about to happen – a complete surprise for me – I felt great peace. And up to today that peace has never left me. It is a gift of the Lord and I am grateful for it. And I really hope he won’t take it away from me. It is a peace that I feel as a pure gift, a pure gift. There is something that does not take peace away from me, but which does hurt me, and that is gossip. I don’t like gossip, it makes me sad. It often spreads in closed-off worlds. When it happens in a world of priests and religious I want to ask: how is this possible? You left everything, you decided not to have a wife next to you, you didn’t marry, you had no children… Do you want to finish as a gossiping old bachelor? Oh, my God, what a sad life!

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 15, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis meets frequently with victims of sexual abuse, seeking to defuse a mounting scandal over his unbridled support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Spokesman Greg Burke said Francis meets in private with victims individually or in groups several times a month to “listen to them and try to help them to heal their serious wounds.”

Yet at least one Chilean abuse victim, Juan Carlos Cruz, wondered if Francis had really heard what they said, given Francis’ dismissal of Cruz’s complaints that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros covered up his abuse. During a recent trip to Chile, Francis repeatedly called accusations against Barros by Cruz and other victims slander and said he was certain of Barros’ innocence.

Cruz said Thursday the problem of clerical abuse is global and has not stopped.

“It should be a priority, and not a false ‘zero tolerance,‘” he told The Associated Press, echoing Francis’ frequent insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for abuse.

After his abuse comments sparked outrage, Francis was forced to do an about-face and send in a Vatican investigator to look into accusations against Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s respected former sex crimes investigator, begins his fact-finding mission on Saturday by meeting with Cruz, the main accuser against Barros.

Cruz and two other key whistleblowers have said Barros witnessed their abuse, ignored it and even participated in the psychological abuse that Karadima would then inflict on them when he sensed disobedience or disloyalty.

Barros has denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up.

Francis sparked outrage in 2015 when he appointed Barros, then Chile’s military chaplain, to head the diocese of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of some members of the Chilean bishops’ conference who were concerned about fallout from Karadima’s actions.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
The Detroit News

February 13, 2018

By Jonathan Oosting

Michigan State University is bringing in outside help to speed up investigations into growing complaints of sexual assault and harassment on campus, which officials say now take an average of 80 days to complete.

The university announced Tuesday that the Office of Institutional Equity has hired the Kroll corporate investigation firm of New York to assist with Title IX relationship violence and sexual misconduct cases.

Reports of sexual assault and harassment at MSU increased by 35 percent between the academic year 2015-16 and 2016-17, according to the university. Officials expect that number to continue to climb as more victims feel comfortable reporting incidents.

“We are taking active steps to make MSU a shining example of Title IX compliance; 80 days is not only far too long for a response to a complaint, it’s totally unacceptable,” Interim President John Engler said in a statement. “We owe it to all those who have been assaulted and had the bravery to step forward to have a safer MSU be their legacy.”

MSU policies and practices for investigating sexual assault allegations have been under scrutiny with the recent conviction for former university and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who is accused of assaulting more than 200 young girls and women over the course of more than two decades.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

February 13, 2018

By Claire Hannah Collins and Jessica Q. Chen

Over the past year, a growing conversation about sexual harassment has erupted.

To explore how this conversation has changed, generation to generation, we asked mothers and daughters about how they were raised to talk, react and take action when it comes to sexual harassment and assault.

Liz and Terrie

Liz Cotone’s daughter is only 6, but she is already learning about consent. Liz, 42, and her mother, Terrie Rosengren, 70, talk about how to teach children to ask permission, laying the groundwork for understanding autonomy over one’s body.

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FRANCE
The Associated Press

February 13, 2018

Case rekindles debate about age of consent in France as family argue suspect should be charged with rape

A 29-year-old French man went on trial on Tuesday in a Paris suburb accused of sexually abusing 11-year-old girl in a case that has rekindled debate about France’s age of consent.

France does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship – although the country’s top court has ruled that children aged five and under cannot consent. Lawyers for the suspect argued that the girl was consenting and aware of what she was doing, while lawyers for the girl have said she was simply too young and confused to resist.

In a decision that shocked many, the prosecutor’s office in the town of Pontoise decided to put the man on trial not for rape but on charges of “sexual abuse of a minor under 15”.

Defence lawyers say the man and the girl had met in a park and the girl had voluntarily followed him to an apartment and consented to intercourse. They have also said their client, then 28, thought she was at least 16.

The girl’s family filed a complaint of rape in the town of Montmagny but prosecutors apparently felt the suspect did not use violence or coercion. French law defines rape as sexual penetration committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise”.

“She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” the defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian said Tuesday. “It changes the story. So she is not a child.”

His colleague Sandrine Parise-Heideiger went further, saying: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”

She said as soon as children have “sexual expressiveness and you have an attitude of putting yourself in danger” then “it doesn’t necessarily mean the person on the other side is a sexual predator”.

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UNITED STATES
USA Today Sports

February 15, 2018

by Brent Schrotenboer

Olympic gold medalist Shaun White made a strategic choice in 2016 after being accused of sexual harassment by the former drummer in his band.

He hired a law firm, but not just any law firm. He turned to the law firm of Glaser Weil in Los Angeles, led by attorney Patricia Glaser.

Her clients in recent months have included Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, former Fox Sports executive Jamie Horowitz, California lawmaker Matt Dababneh and music executive Charlie Walk — all of whom have faced accusations of sexual misconduct.

The firm is known for its celebrity clientele and has attracted high-profile business recently from those who stand accused in the #MeToo movement ignited by the Weinstein scandal of last October.

“Clients come to us because they are looking for positive resolutions,” Glaser’s bio says on her firm’s website. “It’s about resolving the client’s issues aggressively, effectively and efficiently.”

Timing was a big reason the lawsuit against White barely got any other media attention when USA TODAY Sports reported how it was resolved in May 2017. The accuser, Lena Zawaideh, had reached an undisclosed settlement with White to end the case, months before the rise of #MeToo — which dramatically raised awareness about sexual harassment.

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UNITED STATES
Variety

February 14, 2018

By Elizabeth Wagmeister

Alexander Polinsky is claiming years of “sexual-themed hazing” by Scott Baio on the set of their ’80s sitcom “Charles in Charge.” According to the former child star, Baio allegedly exposed himself, threw hot tea in Polinsky’s face, and pulled down Polinsky’s pants when he was a minor.

Polinsky, who was 11 years old at the time the alleged child abuse began, says his harassment was homophobic in nature.

Polinksy shared his story on Wednesday during a press conference in Los Angeles with his attorney Lisa Bloom and his “Charles in Charge” co-star Nicole Eggert, who has also accused Baio of sexual harassment and child abuse.

“I was sexually harassed by Scott Baio and ultimately assaulted by him between the ages of 12 and 15 years old,” a somber and shaken Polinsky said during the news conference.

Polinsky says the harassment began one day on set when he “innocently hopped on his lap” when he was 11 years old. “I was so naive,” Polinsky said, explaining he expected Baio to tell him innocent stories, but instead, “Scott immediately threw me off him and angrily called me f—t.”

“It was not innocent. It was sexual in nature,” Polinsky said, adding he felt “confusion, shame and fear” after realizing that he judged the situation incorrectly. “It made me question my place on the show, my safety on set” and began a period of depression.

Polinsky said Baio’s harassment and abuse was a daily occurrence that endured through the sitcom’s five-season run, and although it was painful going to work every day, he did not want to leave the show because he was a working actor who had auditioned against hundreds of kids for the role on the sitcom. Polinsky added, “I was a professional who did not want to give up what I had worked so hard for.”

Polinsky claims Baio repeatedly talked about “gay sex acts that he told me I would grow up to perform.” The actor says he would protest and tell him to stop saying those types of things, but that he was “branded with the most homophobic words about homosexuals that exist.” Polinsky recalled, “Scott Baio told me I was never going to be loved by a woman in my life because I was so effeminate.”

Polinksy also said Baio would frequently discuss his “sexual conquests” with his co-stars and other women

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

February 13, 2018

By Stephanie Dickrell and Clairissa Baker

A St. Cloud priest faces criminal charges on suspicion of engaging in a sexual relationship with a parishioner.

The Rev. Anthony Oelrich, 51, was charged with criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. The state statue makes it a crime for a member of clergy to engage in a sexual relationship with someone they are counseling spiritually or religiously.

St. Cloud police arrested Oelrich Tuesday morning and he appeared in court Wednesday.

Oelrich has worked as a priest in the Diocese of St. Cloud since 1992 and until Wednesday was the priest assigned to Christ Church Newman Center.

According to the criminal complaint, an adult woman went to Oelrich for spiritual guidance and told him during confession in December 2013 about a past relationship that included sexual abuse.

Oelrich later reached out and asked the woman further questions about the abuse. She told Oelrich she had become suicidal and Oelrich consoled her.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WRVO

February 15, 2018

By Ellen Abbott

Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham hopes a new program offering reconciliation and compensation to victims of clergy abuse can move the church past a scandal that has dogged it for years.

The new Voluntary Independent Reconciliation Program will look at claims filed by survivors of clergy abuse in the Syracuse Diocese and offer reparations and promote healing to those harmed by members of the clergy. It will be administered by two outside individuals who have run similar compensation programs downstate.

In announcing the program, Cunningham admitted the church will never fully make amends for the harm caused by the church.

“I hope that this will be seen by all of our Catholic people as a step forward, and step to reach out to people who have been harmed by the church,” Cunningham said.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

February 15, 2018

By Editorial Board

The Catholic Diocese of Syracuse took a big step Wednesday to make amends for the sexual abuse perpetrated against children by its priests. Bishop Robert Cunningham announced that the diocese would create a program to compensate survivors, “to seek forgiveness for the irreparable acts of the past and perhaps, bring a sense of healing to some.”

It is a stunning turnaround. In the not too distant past, the diocese was so reluctant to admit any fault that at least one survivor of clergy sexual abuse was forced to sue the church for counseling money.

It was during the deposition phase of that lawsuit that Cunningham said the children were “culpable” in their own abuse – a statement that sent shockwaves through the community and angered many survivors, who demanded his removal. At the time, the bishop apologized for his poor choice of words. On Wednesday, Cunningham stated flatly that “no child is responsible for his or her abuse ever.” Amen to that.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

February 14, 2018

By Patrick Lohmann

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy in the Syracuse diocese are greeting the news of a new compensation program with caution.

One victim, Charlie Bailey, said it is a good first step to help people like himself to finally get affirmation of the trauma they endured, but he added the details of the program are crucial.

Another victim, Kevin Braney, said he’s still not sure if he’ll participate at all in the compensation program.

“Maybe there’s hope here that something has changed. Maybe,” Braney told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “But I really don’t have enough information now.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Huffington Post

February 14, 2018

By Neil J. Young

In defending Rob Porter, the disgraced Trump White House staffer who resigned last week amid published reports he had physically abused his two ex-wives, his backers have bizarrely cited his professional resume as a sort of bulwark against the allegations: two degrees from Harvard, a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, and work experience for two U.S. senators. Some have also noted his “exemplary character” and religious faith as a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former Mormon missionary.

But this last point, his affiliation with the LDS Church, may not so much provide the character alibi his defenders intend as much as it helps us understand the deeper patterns of abuse in his two marriages.

Both Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, Porter’s two ex-wives, have stated that Mormon bishops had long ignored or minimized their reports of domestic abuse. As Holderness explained to The Daily Mail, after months of speaking to her religious authorities about the abuse, it was a “secular” counselor at her workplace “who told me what was happening was not okay.” In a separate interview with The Intercept, Holderness drew a starker contrast between her secular counselor’s response and how her church leaders had reacted. “When I explained to him what was happening,” Holderness said, “he had a very different reaction from the Mormon bishops … He was very concerned to hear Rob was choking me.”

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
KVIA

February 15, 2018

By Katherine Faller

The Las Cruces priest accused of sexually assaulting a Hobbs man surrendered to law enforcement earlier this week, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News citing court records.

Father Ricardo Bauza, 51, turned himself in to Hobbs police on Monday morning, according to his attorney, Jason Bowles of Albuquerque.

Bauza had been wanted by authorities in Hobbs since October after he was accused of sexually assaulting an adult male in 2016 in Hobbs while he was the pastor at St. Helena Catholic Church.

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DENVER (CO)
The Denver Post

February 14, 2018

By Jesse Paul

The bill was inspired by a case out of the Cherry Creek School District

An effort to extend Colorado’s statute of limitations for the crime of failing to report child abuse died in a Senate panel Wednesday following opposition from a teacher’s organization and the Catholic Church.

The vote for Senate Bill 58 was 3-2 along party lines in the Republican-controlled Senate’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

The legislation would have changed the start of the statute of limitations for failing to report child abuse — a Class 3 misdemeanor — from 18 months to five years. It would have specifically applied to so-called mandatory reporters, people who are legally bound, such as a doctor or school officials, to report abuse to authorities when they are told about or discover it.

The legislation was sparked by charges that were filed against three Cherry Creek School District leaders accused of failing to properly report claims of sexual assault by a teacher against a teen student.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

February 15, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis revealed in a meeting with confreres of his Jesuit order last month that he meets with survivors of sexual abuse on a nearly weekly basis, according to a newly released transcript of the encounter.

In a Jan. 19 question and answer session during his visit to Peru, the text of which was published for the first time Feb. 15 by Italian Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, the pope said the Catholic Church must hear from those who have been abused by clergy.

“We need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels,” Francis told the Jesuits, according to the transcript, and continued: “On Fridays — sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known — I normally meet some of them.”

“The process they go through is very tough,” said the pope. “They are left annihilated. Annihilated!”

Francis had previously been known to have met with abuse victims only a handful of times over the span of his nearly five-year papacy. He met with survivors once in Philadelphia during his 2015 visit to the U.S. and again last month in Chile, where he visited before Peru.

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BOISE (ID)
The Idaho Statesman

February 14, 2018

By Katy Moeller

A retired Boise priest facing child pornography and drug possession charges has now been accused of sexually abusing a minor, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise said in a news release Wednesday.

The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, 72, was arrested Feb. 2 on 14 charges involving possessing and sharing child pornography, as well as drug possession. All of the charges are felonies except the drug charges. After his arrest, the diocese told the Statesman that it had no record of sexual abuse complaints about Faucher.

The alleged child sexual abuse happened more than 40 years ago, according to the diocese, and this appears to be the first public allegation that Faucher molested a child. Church officials say they have notified the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, as well as an internal Diocesan Review Board that focuses on child abuse claims.

Scott Graf, a spokesman for the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, said it will not comment on investigations.

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