ABUSE TRACKER

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

September 27, 2020

East Timor: Vatican began looking into ex-priest for child molesting, in 2016

EAST TIMOR
Macau Business

September 26, 2020

The Vatican began an investigation into a former U.S. priest accused of child abuse and child pornography in East Timor began in September 2016 but he was only removed from where he allegedly committed the crimes three years later.

Documents seen by Lusa show that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was investigating the case involving former Father Richard Daschbach between September 2016 and October 2018, when it decreed his “punishment for life” and expulsion from the priesthood.

The documents indicate that the investigation began even earlier since September 2016 is the date that marks the entry into the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith of a first report on the case.

The dates are mentioned in a confidential document dated 6 November 2018, which confirms the beginning of the investigation and the decision to expel the priest who, however, remained with access to the Topu Honis orphanage where he worked, until last year.

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.

Former Western Massachusetts priest sentenced to 6 years in child pornography case

MASSACHUSETTS
Episcopal News Service

September 25, 2020

By Egan Millard

A federal judge sentenced Gregory Lisby, a former priest in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, to six years in prison on Sept. 18 for possession of child pornography.

Lisby, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in February. He was arrested in September 2019 after the FBI found nearly 200 images and videos of child pornography stored in a Microsoft account he used, according to court records. Lisby was then working as a kindergarten teacher in a public school in Holyoke, Massachusetts, having been suspended in 2018 from his position as rector of All Saints Church in Worcester “for an inappropriate relationship with an adult that did not involve sexual contact,” Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas Fisher wrote in a letter to the diocese shortly after Lisby’s arrest.

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.

Church of England’s £200million compensation scheme will pay out victims of historic sex abuse by bishops and clergy

ENGLAND
Daily Mail

September 25, 2020

By Steve Doughty

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8774635/Church-Englands-200million-compensation-scheme-pay-victims-historic-sex-abuse.html

The Church of England is setting up compensation for victims of sexual abuse

The fund was approved by the Church’s Cabinet, the Archbishops’ Council

Among sex abuse cases to recently trouble the Church was bishop Peter Ball

The Church of England yesterday set up a multi-million-pound compensation fund designed to funnel money to victims of historic sex abuse by bishops, clergy and lay church workers.

Its ‘interim pilot support scheme’ will make the first payouts from a compensation process expected to cost the Church £200million.

The fund was approved by the Church’s Cabinet, the Archbishops’ Council, which also said that in the future it would invite outside authorities to run independent

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.

September 26, 2020

Former Irish president pledges to spend retirement challenging Catholic Church

UNITED KINGDOM
Crux

September 25, 2020

By Charles Collins

Former Irish President Mary McAleese says she is pledging “to use whatever time is left to me” to challenge Church teachings on homosexuality and women.

Speaking to The View on BBC Northern Ireland on Thursday night, McAleese said, “What else I am going to do in retirement except make myself useful in that regard?”

McAleese, 69, served as president of Ireland – a largely ceremonial position – from 1997-2011.

She has clashed with Church leaders in the past and was barred from attending a conference taking place at the Vatican in 2018.

A longtime critic of the Church’s position on human sexuality, the former president, who has long described herself as pro-life, admitted she voted to change Ireland’s constitutional prohibition on abortion in a 2018 referendum

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.

Dr. Jeffery Chalmers Guest Posts: As Liberty University Moves Forward, Where Were, and Are, the Conflict of Interest Guidelines?

UNITED STATES
The Wartburg Watch (blog)

September 18, 2020

http://thewartburgwatch.com/2020/09/18/dr-jeffery-chalmers-guest-posts-as-liberty-university-moves-forward-where-were-and-are-the-conflict-of-interest-guidelines/

Today, three posts regarding the Falwells and Liberty U. came to light and they are lighting up social media.

1. 911 call from Falwell house reveals ex-Liberty president was drinking, fell down, lost ‘a lot of blood’ after resigning

Read this carefully. Becki Falwell claimed she was at a church meeting until 11 PM and needed to break down a door to get into this house and help her drunk and bleeding husband. There is no question that we are dealing with a very sick family and this didn’t happen yesterday. I’m suspicious that university leaders were aware of these problems. If they weren’t, they should never have been in their positions.

2. The Falwells, the pool attendant and the double life that brought them all down

The Washington Post printed a damning article on the sexual proclivities and questionable business dealings of the Falwells.

3 .After Jerry Falwell Jr.’s departure, Liberty University faces questions about faith, power, accountability

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

Allegations mount in 2017 Ravi Zacharias illicit online relationship scandal

UNITED STATES
Christian Post

September 25, 2020

By Brandon Showalter

New information has been publicly released regarding the late apologist Ravi Zacharias and an alleged online sexual relationship that was first reported in 2017.

In a three-part installment last week from The Roys Report, the website of independent investigative journalist Julie Roys, new testimonies and emails were released suggesting an alternative version of events than those that were represented nearly three years ago when allegations emerged that Zacharias had been involved in an illicit online sexual relationship with a Canadian woman. Around this same time, the famed apologist’s academic credentials and resume were also scrutinized amid questions he had inflated and misrepresented them.

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

Handling of abuse allegations divides AG candidates

PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

September 25, 2020

By John Finnerty

HARRISBURG – Heather Heidelbaugh, Republican candidate for attorney general, said current Attorney General Josh Shapiro should not have publicized the names of priests who weren’t charged but were accused of molesting children in a grand jury report detailing the abuse of at least 1,000 children across the state over decades.

Hardly any of the priests named in the report were charged because the crimes occurred so long ago that the state’s statute of limitations had expired. Efforts to open a window to allow survivors of child sex crimes to sue despite the statute of limitations have stalled, though the General Assembly could vote next year to put a Constitutional amendment question about opening a window for lawsuits on the ballot.

With those statutes of limitations in place, the attorney general shouldn’t have named the priests accused of crimes because they didn’t have the opportunity to clear their names in any meaningful way, Heidelbaugh said.

Heidelbaugh is facing Shapiro, the Democratic incumbent, in the November election.

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

Catholic priest sexual abuse class action will move forward, Nova Scotia court decides

NOVA SCOTIA (CANADA)
Canadian Lawyers Magazine

September 25, 2020

By Bernise Carolino

Archdiocese has policy of secrecy when dealing with alleged sexual abusers, class plaintiff says

Catholic priest sexual abuse class action will move forward, Nova Scotia court decides

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has certified a class action filed on behalf of individuals alleging sexual assault or battery by priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth from 1960 until the present.

The statement of claim alleged that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Halifax-Yarmouth, which is the formal name of the Archdiocese, knew of numerous acts of sexual abuse committed by its priests, with at least four priests being criminally convicted of sexual assault.

The Archdiocese would send priests accused of sexual misconduct to a treatment facility, then would allow these priests to return to their parishes, without bothering to notify or to warn parishioners, said the statement of claim.

Douglas Champagne, class plaintiff, alleged that he was sexually assaulted by Father George Epoch, which resulted in lasting and permanent impacts on his life. The class action claimed that the Archdiocese has a policy of secrecy, spanning decades, regarding priests accused of sexual 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.

Catholic Church Appeals to The Supreme Court Over Sex Abuse Lawsuits

CANADA
Top Class Actions (plaintiff attorney website)

September 25, 2020

By Kristen Zanoni

The Archdiocese of St. John’s is turning to the Supreme Court of Canada to seek an appeal in a watershed ruling that holds the Catholic Church accountable for millions of sexual and physical abuse lawsuits.

The Court ruled that the Catholic Church was responsible for creating an environment where boys endured extensive physical and sexual abuse from the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s. While the Brothers were not employees of the archdiocese, the Court of Appeal ruled the Catholic Church allowed them to abuse children for decades and not face repercussions.

The Catholic Church Appeals Liability for Mount Cashel Abuse

On Sept. 23, 2020, the archdiocese’s lawyer wanted to have the appeal case heard by the Court.

According to CBC News, Archbishop Peter Hundt wrote the following in a news release, “This decision to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was not made lightly.”

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.

Vatican cardinal pushes back after pope fires him in scandal

ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

September 25, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

A powerful Vatican cardinal who was sacked by Pope Francis in an astonishing twist to the Vatican’s latest financial scandal pushed back Friday against allegations he embezzled Holy See money and denied he did anything wrong.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu presided over an extraordinary news conference a day after Francis fired him and yanked his rights and privileges as a cardinal. The 72-year-old Becciu, a onetime papal contender, said his downfall was “surreal,” but that he had a clear conscience, remained loyal to Francis and was ready to die for him.

Becciu said Francis had asked him to step down as prefect of the Vatican’s saint-making office during a “troubled” 20-minute meeting Thursday evening in which the pope said he “no longer had confidence in me.”

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.

September 25, 2020

Calls for Bishop Scharfenberger to step down following claims he kept information about priest named in CVA lawsuit secret

BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV

September 24, 2020

Calls for Bishop Scharfenberger to step down following claims he kept information about priest named in CVA lawsuit secret

Less than a year after he became apostolic administrator to the Buffalo Diocese, there are calls for Bishop Edward Scharfenberger to step down.

“The Road to Recovery”, a non-profit that assists sex abuse victims, says Bishop Scharfenberger has only followed in Bishop Malone’s footsteps.

The organization claims he has continued to keep information secret and that he has withheld information about a priest who was accused- but kept him in ministry.

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.

Renewed calls for leader of Diocese of Buffalo to resign

BUFFALO (NY)
WBEN Radio

September 25, 2020

Hoatson called for Scharfenberger to be removed after latest statistics from Child Victim’s Act

There is a renewed call for the leader of the Diocese of Buffalo to be removed.

Robert Hoatson, an advocate for sex abuse victims of Road to Recovery, called on Buffalo Apostolic Administrator Edward Scharfenberger to resign or be removed following a recent story from The Buffalo News about 173 priests who were accused under the Child Victim’s Act.

“Why hasn’t Bishop Scharfenberger come to the sidewalk or in his office and hold a press conference and say ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’re up to 173 credibly accused priests and 33 of them have never been named publicly,’?” Hoatson said. “Why hasn’t he done that? Why has he not kept his promise of transparency and informed Catholics and the general public of the Buffalo area in Western New York that this is the current story of clergy sexual abuse in this diocese?”

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.

Clergy sex abuse victim advocates call for Scharfenberger’s removal

BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO Radio

September 24, 2020

By Michael Mroziak

Saying he has failed to live up to promises of more transparency and outreach those affected, advocates for clergy sex abuse victims called Thursday for the removal of Bishop Edward Scharfenberger from his leadership post at the Diocese of Buffalo.

Robert Hoatson or Road to Recovery noted a recent Buffalo News story, which reports the number of clergy accused of some form of wrongdoing has risen to 173, including more than 30 priests accused for the first time.

Reverend Donald Lutz is identified in the article as being newly accused in a lawsuit filed in July. Lutz told the Buffalo News he was unaware of the accusation.

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.

Preparing for the Next Conclave

UNITED STATES
Open Tabernacle (blog)

September 25, 2020

By Betty Clermont

Two books were released this summer: The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates, by Edward Pentin and The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission by George Weigel.

“The Holy Father is considered to be getting on in years and he himself has occasionally hinted he would like to follow Benedict XVI into retirement at some stage …. Some of the Pope’s close associates have said privately … it will happen this year.” Pentin explained. Pentin, the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Register owned by the right-wing EWTN media giant, is one of the best-connected and experienced Vatican reporters in the world.

His book “consists of highly-detailed profiles of 19 leading papabili with the aim of better equipping the cardinal electors to know who to vote for, or not vote for, as the case may be,” Pentin wrote. “Revealed in each cardinal’s profile is where they stand” on internal ecclesial issues like liturgy and interpreting the Second Vatican Council, but also “key contemporary issues such as priestly celibacy, the role of women in the Church, contraception [and] abortion.… Enormous spiritual battles are taking place in today’s societies, not least in the United States, as well as inside the Church. These will require strong papal leadership as they increase,” he warned.

In Weigel’s book, the author “proposes the qualities needed in the man who will lead the Church … in the wake of grave institutional failures, mission confusion, counter-witness, and the secularist challenge.”

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.

Japan Catholic Church sued for damages in alleged sex abuse

TOKYO (JAPAN)
Associated Press

September 25, 2020

By Yuri Kageyama

A woman has filed a suit against the Roman Catholic Church in Japan alleging that a priest raped her four decades ago, as the church’s unfolding worldwide sexual abuse crisis gradually reaches Japan.

The civil lawsuit, filed this week in Sendai District Court, seeks 56.1 million yen ($534,000) in damages. It accuses a priest, who has not been charged or penalized, as well as a bishop who counseled the woman in recent years about the alleged abuse.

The suit, which also accuses the Diocese of Sendai in northeastern Japan, says the church refused to take the complaints seriously, causing psychological pain.

“I have filed this lawsuit to claim back the dignity I have lost, and to try to end this serious crime that is a violation of humanity,” said Harumi Suzuki, who has gone public with her name.

She said she lived through “more than 40 years of hell,” but wants to raise her voice for other abuse survivors.

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.

Clergy abuse activist calls for Bishop Scharfenberger to resign over Buffalo lawsuits

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 24, 2020

By Mike McAndrew

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/clergy-abuse-activist-calls-for-bishop-scharfenberger-to-resign-over-buffalo-lawsuits/article_357ea602-fe77-11ea-924a-233b2460123a.html

Clergy abuse activist and former priest Robert Hoatson on Thursday called on Bishop Edward Scharfenberger to resign as the Buffalo Diocese administrator because of revelations in a recent Buffalo News story about the number of priests sued.

Hoatson accused Scharfenberger of keeping secret information about clergy sexual abuse of children and allowing a priest accused of abuse in a lawsuit of remaining in ministry at a Buffalo church.

The News reported Tuesday that 173 Catholic priests in the diocese have been named as molesters in Child Victims Act lawsuits over the past year.

The diocese has allowed one of them, the Rev. Donald J. Lutz, to continue to run a South Buffalo parish despite being linked to abuse by a lawsuit filed on July 30, The News reported. Lutz denied abusing any children when The Buffalo News contacted him at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

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 lawsuit claims Diocese of Savannah covered up allegations of child molestation

SAVANNAH (GA)
WTOC-TV

September 24, 2020

By Jessica Savage

A new lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Savannah claims the Diocese covered up allegations of child molestation more than 30 years ago.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday is the third one involving convicted child molester Wayland Brown who was a priest in Savannah from 1987 to 1988. This lawsuit accuses the Diocese of Savannah of conspiracy and fraud.

Like the civil cases filed in the past, it outlines the sexual abuse of Priest Wayland Brown against boys enrolled at St James Catholic School. But more than that, this lawsuit includes a transcript and a memo from the Diocese.

The attorney in this case says that shows the extent of what the Diocese knew. Outlined in the 11-page lawsuit filed Wednesday are accusations of child molestation and a cover-up by the Diocese of Savannah.

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.

Powerful Vatican Cardinal Becciu resigns amid scandal

ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

September 24, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

The powerful head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, resigned suddenly Thursday from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly.

The Vatican provided no details on why Pope Francis accepted Becciu’s resignation in a statement late Thursday. In the one-sentence announcement, the Holy See said only that Francis had accepted Becciu’s resignation as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints “and his rights connected to the cardinalate.”

Becciu, the former No. 2 in the Vatican’s secretariat of state, has been reportedly implicated in a financial scandal involving the Vatican’s investment in a London real estate deal that has lost the Holy See millions of euros in fees paid to middlemen.

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.

Powerful Cardinal, a Fixture of Vatican Intrigue, Resigns Suddenly

ROME (ITALY)
New York Times

September 24, 2020

By Jason Horowitz

In a cryptic statement, the Vatican did not explain the reason for Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu’s departure. News reports had connected him to a financial scandal.

In a cryptic late-night announcement, the Vatican on Thursday said Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of one of the church’s most powerful officials, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a fixture of church intrigues and internal power plays who also lost his rights as a cardinal.

The Vatican, in its one-sentence statement, did not explain the reason for the cardinal’s resignation as head of the department in charge of making saints but it comes amid his reported connection to a financial scandal involving a London real estate deal that hemorrhaged church money but enriched middlemen.

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.

Key Vatican cardinal caught up in real estate scandal resigns suddenly

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

September 24, 2020

By Philip Pullella

A powerful Vatican cardinal caught up in a real estate scandal resigned suddenly on Thursday and gave up his right to take part in an eventual conclave to elect a pope, in one of the most mysterious episodes to hit the Holy See in years.

A brief statement, issued unusually in the evening, said that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, head of the department that decides who will be the saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

But perhaps more significantly, the statement said the Becciu, 72, had “given up the rights associated with being a cardinal”.

The one-line statement gave no details but the most important right of Roman Catholic cardinals under 80, as is Becciu, is to take part in a conclave to elect a new pope after the current pope dies or resigns.

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.

Germany’s Catholic bishops agree on uniform compensation system for abuse victims

GERMANY
Catholic News Agency

September 25, 2020

Germany’s Catholic bishops agreed this week to a uniform system for compensation payments to abuse survivors.

Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, announced the agreement Sept. 24 at the end of the bishops’ plenary meeting in Fulda, central Germany.

Under the new system, survivors of abuse by Church workers will be entitled to a one-off payment of up to 50,000 euros ($58,000) — a sum based on current court rulings.

Previously German dioceses had determined payments individually.

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.

German Catholic Church decides on new compensation model for abuse victims

GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

September 24, 2020

The Conference of German Catholic bishops has announced plans to compensate abuse victims up to €50,000 each. Much more than the previous average payout, but much less than survivors had hoped for.

Fall meeting of the German Bishops’ Conference (Arne Dedert/dpa/picture-alliance)
A statement by the Conference of German Catholic Bishops revealed new plans on Thursday to pay survivors of abuse at the hands of Catholic priests compensation of up to €50,000 ($58,000).

The compensation consists of a one-off payment for each affected individual as determined by an independent decision-making body, the chair of the Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, announced in the central German city of Fulda.

Victims will also be able to request that costs for individual or couples therapy be paid for by the Church.

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

German bishops announce higher payments to Catholic abuse victims

GERMANY
UPI

September 24, 2020

ByClyde Hughes

A conference of German Catholic bishops introduced a new model on Thursday to pay survivors of abuse within the church, which could pay each more than $50,000.

The German Bishops Conference announced the creation of an independent committee to investigate complaints of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy. The panel would also determine compensation.

Conference Chair Georg Batzing detailed the new model Thursday at a meeting in Fulda.

Under the change, survivors are eligible for a onetime payment of up to $58,000. Victims will also be able to request that the church pay for therapy.

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.

Archdiocese of New Orleans Bankruptcy Trials: What Are They Hiding?

UNITED STATES
The Tower (newspaper of Catholic University)

September 24, 2020

By Margaret Adams

The Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, May 1, 2020. This allows the Archdiocese to continue employing workers while the court oversees “the restructuring and implementation of a plan to repay the creditors,” according to 4WWL New Orleans.

In an effort to hold the Archdiocese of New Orleans accountable for filing the bankruptcy in bad faith and hiding information regarding their sexual assault lawsuits, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors was formed. The Committee was formed on May 20 under the U.S. Trustee Program in an attempt to “dismiss the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy case completely, a move that would help pending abuse claims move forward,” said 4WWL. The Committee elected James Adams as the Chair of the Committee by a unanimous vote. The creditors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ bankruptcy case consist mostly of survivors of sexual assault by priests or other employees of the archdiocese.

“I believe that this path will allow victims of clergy abuse to resolve their claims in a fair and timely manner,” said Archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond, in a newsletter to the archdiocese. “My daily prayer is that this independent process brings about healing for those who have been harmed as a result of abuse by members of the clergy. The healing of victims and survivors is most important to me and to the church.”

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

Victims attack ‘tokenistic’ inquiry into organised child exploitation

UNITED KINGDOM
Sky News

September 24, 2020

By Jason Farrell

Victims groups believe they are being silenced and say the inquiry is hearing too much from institutions.

A top lawyer speaking on behalf of victims has led an extraordinary intervention into an inquiry on historical child sexual abuse, saying “we speak with one voice”.

Four days into the latest hearing of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the review team has been told “it is simply not good enough”.

Victims groups believe they are being silenced and the evidence is being skewed towards the institutions that failed to protect them.

The latest strand of the IICSA is looking at child sexual exploitation by organised networks in England and Wales.

But this morning the hearing gave time for a joint statement from victims groups who accused the inquiry of “a profound imbalance in the evidence”, saying a large number of institutions had been heard but very few victims to challenge their narrative.

“You are not hearing from a single one of those who at a national level represent and work with victims and survivors,” said Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, speaking on behalf of victims. “Why are we hearing from one side and not the other?”

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.

Church leading the way in the protection of minors

VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

September 25, 2020

Teresa Kettelkamp, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, says, “The Catholic Church is being a leader in the world in protecting children and providing assistance to victims.”

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) held its 14th Ordinary Plenary Assembly from 16-18 September.

During the meeting, which took place partly in person and partly online, members assessed the projects the Commission has been working on over the course of the past year.

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.

Former Newark Archbishop of 15 years, John Myers, dies at 79

NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

September 24, 2020

By Abbott Koloff and Deena Yellin

Archbishop John J. Myers, who was known for taking strong and sometimes controversial stands during the 15 years that he led the Newark Archdiocese, died on Thursday at the age of 79, months after moving to an Illinois senior facility because of poor health.

Myers said when he retired four years ago that he was proud to leave behind two “thriving institutions,” Seton Hall University and Catholic Charities, and for having ordained almost 200 priests during his time in Newark.

He also built a legacy of speaking his mind about issues that were important to him, like his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

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.

Former Peoria Catholic Bishop John Myers dies at 79

PEORIA (IL)
Peoria Journal Star

September24, 2020

By Nick Vlahos

A former spiritual leader of Peoria-area Catholics died Thursday morning.

Archbishop John J. Myers was surrounded by family when he died in a care facility in Ottawa, according to a statement from Catholic Diocese of Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky. Myers was 79.

Myers served as Peoria bishop from 1990 until 2001, when he became archbishop in Newark, N.J.

In 2016, Myers retired from his Newark post.

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.

September 24, 2020

[From 2017] Barbara Blaine, Who Championed Victims of Priests’ Abuse, Dies at 61

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: Today is the third anniversary of the death of Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP and of the global movement for accountability in the Catholic Church. She is still deeply missed. Re-posted below is her New York Times‘ obituary in its entirety. See also obituaries for Barbara in the Toledo Blade and National Catholic Reporter, a remembrance by BA’s Anne Barrett Doyle, Celia Viggo Wexler’s call to make her a saint, and this stunning tribute by Peter Isely.]

THE NEW YORK TIMES
September 25, 2017

By Laurie Goodstein

Barbara Blaine, who was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest as a teenager and went on to found the nation’s most potent advocacy group for abuse survivors, died on Sunday in St. George, Utah. She was 61.

The cause was a sudden tear in a blood vessel in her heart, which she sustained on Sept. 18 after going hiking on a vacation, her husband, Howard Rubin, said. She lived in Chicago.

Ms. Blaine, a lawyer with a degree in theology, served for nearly 30 years as president of the group she founded, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. She stepped down this year and had recently started a new international organization to hold the Vatican and church officials overseas accountable for covering up abuse cases.

Ms. Blaine was an ardent Catholic who spent her years after college serving and living with homeless people in a Catholic Worker house in Chicago, part of a social justice movement for the poor founded by the activist Dorothy Day. Ms. Blaine applied that same activist sensibility to creating a new movement to fight for abuse survivors.

“She was relentless in the cause of justice, and in that sense she’s a true disciple of Dorothy Day,” said Jason Berry, who was among the first journalists to break news of the abuse scandal. “I think the damage she did to the hierarchy and its credibility was enormous, because she kept demanding that they be truthful.”

Ms. Blaine’s life changed after she read Mr. Berry’s articles in 1985 in the newspaper The National Catholic Reporter about a serial pedophile priest in Louisiana. She, too, had been molested for years as a teenager in Toledo, Ohio, by a priest who she said had convinced her that she was an “evil temptress.”

Mr. Berry’s articles helped her realize, she later told him, that the priest’s actions had been a crime and that she was not at fault. After Ms. Blaine confronted the priest, the Rev. Chet Warren, and his superiors, the church agreed to pay for therapy for her, but the priest was allowed to remain in ministry for years.

She started SNAP in 1988 as a support group, finding fellow victims through an ad placed in The National Catholic Reporter. Some of the early meetings were at the Catholic Worker house in Chicago, but there were also gatherings in San Francisco, St. Louis and other cities.

“We had the idea this would be necessary only for a couple of years,” said David Clohessy, an abuse survivor who soon joined Ms. Blaine as a leader of the organization. “Honestly, we thought there were maybe only 200 people like us across the country.”

Before long, the mission broadened to include advocacy. Members would stick fliers on the windshields of cars parked at a church during Mass warning that an abusive priest was inside. Victims stood outside cathedrals and even on St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican holding photographs of themselves as children when they were first molested.

Ms. Blaine told her story to the local news media in Toledo, and her abuser was removed from ministry after more of his victims came forward. She received a settlement from the church.

“She wasn’t trying to change the world; she was trying to heal herself,” said Barbara Dorris, the managing director of the Survivors Network and an early participant in the group. “She was trying to work within the church, but Barbara couldn’t because the systems failed her and her perpetrator was still out there. She felt, like every victim feels, that there’s this responsibility to speak up before what happened to you happens to someone else.”

In 2002, after a vast cover-up of abusive priests in Boston was revealed by The Boston Globe, and after similar accounts emerged across the country, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops asked Ms. Blaine and Mr. Clohessy to address them at a pivotal meeting in Dallas. American bishops eventually adopted a zero-tolerance policy and pledged to remove priests credibly accused of abuse.

But since then SNAP has often accused bishops of failing to keep these promises, and the group continues to be seen by the church as an adversarial force.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, who was president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the height of the scandal in 2002, recalled on Monday that he had first met Ms. Blaine when he was an auxiliary bishop in Chicago. He had helped her obtain a closed church to use as a Catholic Worker house.

“She was a woman of faith; may God be merciful to her,” Archbishop Gregory said.

Besides her husband, Ms. Blaine is survived by her stepsons, Brett and Joshua Rubin; two step-grandsons; three brothers; and four sisters, one of them her twin.

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NYC Church Accused Of Retaliating Against Reverend For Coming Forward With Sexual Misconduct Allegations

NEW YORK (NY)
The Gothamist

September 23, 2020

By Sydney Pereira

A former reverend at a Manhattan Presbyterian church is accused of sending inappropriate photos and asking for oral sex from a female pastor who he helped get a job, according to a new lawsuit filed this week. When the pastor, Reverend Grace Nzameyo Maa, filed a complaint to church officials with the Presbytery of New York City, a group of dozens of churches in the five boroughs, the church and reverend iced her out of working as a pastor in the city, according to the court papers filed Tuesday.

Nzameyo, a New Jersey resident and former Manhattan pastor, is accusing the Presbytery of New York City of retaliating against her for coming forward about being sexually harassed by her boss, Reverend Charles Atkins, Jr., according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan supreme court this week. Shortly after Nzameyo accepted a formal part-time position as a pastor at the Presbytery’s French Evangelical Church in Chelsea, Atkins allegedly began expecting sexual favors in return for helping her get the job, the lawsuit says.

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Church seeks to take Mount Cashel abuse ruling to Supreme Court of Canada

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR (CANADA)
The Canadian Press via the Toronto Star

September 23, 2020

The archdiocese of St. John’s will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a decision that declared the city’s Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation liable for sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1950s.

The archdiocese says in a release that its lawyers today petitioned for leave to appeal the July decision from the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal.

Geoff Budden, the victims’ lawyer, had said the Appeal Court ruling meant the archdiocese would have to pay about $2 million to four lead plaintiffs in the case.

Budden said today’s decision to appeal was expected, although his clients would rather be getting their settlements.

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Novice’s death in India puts spotlight on tragedies over three decades

INDIA
Global Sisters Report via NCR

September 24, 2020

By Saji Thomas

THIRUVALLA, INDIA — On the morning of May 7, Divya P. John, a 21-year-old novice with the Basilian Sisters near here, attended class as usual, a church spokesman says. But an hour later, around noon, her body was found in a well at the convent. Rescuers retrieved the body and bypassed a nearby public hospital to transport it to a diocesan hospital farther away.

A subsequent autopsy found the cause of death to be drowning, but no time of death was given. Church officials did not seek a police crime scene investigation into the mystery of how she died, labeling the tragedy a probable suicide.

John’s untimely death is the latest in close to 20 others since 1987 involving novices and sisters serving in Catholic communities in Kerala state in southern India.

The most notable was the murder of Sister Abhaya, whose body was found in 1992 at the bottom of her convent’s well in Kottayam. Originally dismissed as a suicide, that case took a turn in 2008 after a criminal investigation deemed her death was a murder. Now, almost three decades after Abhaya’s death, a priest and nun charged with her murder are undergoing a trial that only began in August 2019.

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Vatican envoy’s removal from India brings relief for some Catholics

(NEW DELHI) INDIA
National Catholic Reporter

September 18, 2020

By Jose Kavi

Several Catholic groups in India have expressed relief after the Vatican removed its controversial envoy from the country.

Pope Francis Aug. 29 suddenly transferred Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, to Brazil amid accusations of inaction against allegedly corrupt bishops.

“I saw the nuncio’s transfer as a small moral victory, not something to gloat about, but more a sense of relief,” chhotebhai, coordinator of the Indian Catholic Forum and former president of the All India Catholic Union, the largest lay association in the country, told NCR.

Chhotebhai welcomed the transfer as a “good riddance,” a sentiment shared by Virginia Saldanha, a laywoman theologian, and Melwyn Fernandes of the Association of the Concerned Catholics, who had tried to contact the nuncio. Their experience has made them question the relevance of an envoy of a religious state to a secular country like India.

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Church must tackle underlying causes of abuse, expert says

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 24, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

Peruvian theologian Rocio Figueroa says little is being done to target the spiritual abuse that allowed the clerical sex scandals to happen and is urging the Catholic Church to rethink its power structure and concept of leadership.

“Whenever there has been sexual abuse in the Church, you could see that there was first a spiritual abuse,” said Figueroa, who is among the speakers addressing a Sept. 21-Oct. 2 online course on abuse prevention in formation settings.

The course, organized by the Pontifical University of Mexico’s Center for the Protection of Minors, will feature a slew of professionals and experts in the field of child protection among its speakers and professors.

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Chilean abuse survivors fear COVID crisis will stop investigations into accused clergy

Crux

September 24, 2020

By Inés San Martín

SANTA FE, Argentina – Chilean abuse survivors allege that the government is using the COVID-19 pandemic to delay having to deal with South American country’s clerical abuse scandal.

“The emails of the [Chilean ecclesiastical] Survivors Network are on fire seeing the situation of the allegations in the prosecutor’s office,” said Eneas Espinoza, a survivor from the Marist Brothers who is still waiting for justice. “The expectation grows and there’s much concern over the possibility of the pandemic being the truck of dirt that the Catholic Church needs to cover up its crimes.”

“If the Chilean State doesn’t do its job, we’ll move forward towards international courts. We need a State that guarantees human rights, not one that is a passive accomplice of crimes,” he told El Mostrador.

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Lawsuit filed against Brophy Prep and Phoenix Diocese claims sex abuse by priest

PHOENIX (AZ)
3TV/CBS 5

September 23, 2020

By Spencer Blake

A priest who used to teach at Brophy is named in a lawsuit regarding possible sex abuse allegations in the 1980s.

There is yet another allegation of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest in Phoenix. On Monday, a lawsuit filed in Maricopa County is going after both Brophy College Preparatory and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix for allowing a priest to abuse a student in the 1980s sexually.

From 1980 to 1987, Father James Sinnerud worked as a teacher and a coach at Brophy. The lawsuit claims he left the plaintiff “John RK Doe” with “emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, anger, rage, frustration, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium, loss of love and affection, sexual dysfunction, past and future medical expenses for psychological treatment, therapy, and counseling.”

“For [those who haven’t suffered abuse], that’s many years ago. But for the adult survivor, this is still an everyday part of their life,” said Robert Pastor, the plaintiff’s attorney.

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South Jordan man accused of filming himself sexually abusing child at church

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
KUTV

September 23, 2020

By Jeremy Harris

Federal authorities arrested a South Jordan man who is accused of producing child pornography and sexually abusing a 4-year-old child at a church.

Thomas Michael Wallin, 21, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on three charges of felony sexual exploitation of a minor, and one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony.

According to an arrest affidavit, investigators from the Department of Homeland Security received information that Wallin was producing and distributing child pornography from his home in South Jordan.

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Man accused of sexually abusing young boy during funerals at Utah church, police say

UNITED STATES
McClatchy News Service via Fort Worth Star & Telegram

September 23, 2020

By Summer Lin

A Utah man is accused of filming himself sexually abusing a young child at a Mormon church, police said.

It all started when the Department of Homeland Security received information that Thomas Michael Wallin, 21, of South Jordan was allegedly making and distributing child pornography, 2KUTV reported.

Police say Wallin admitted that he sexually abused a 4-year-old boy in December 2019 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the station. Wallin is accused of filming himself abusing the child, 2KUTV reported.

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Protecting Abuse Survivors is ‘Personal,’ Says New Southern Baptist Leader

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service via Word and Way (blog)

By Adele M. Banks

September 23, 2020

In his first meeting as leader of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Rolland Slade called on other committee members on Tuesday (Sept. 22) to be responsible “to shepherd and to protect” survivors of church sex abuse. Slade, senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California, announced that the issue is “personal” for him because his wife is a survivor.

“For the last 40 years of my life, I have been in touch with a survivor of sexual abuse in the church,” he said to the 70 people attending the virtual meeting. “In fact, we’ve been married 39 years. So when I say it’s personal, it’s personal. And I encourage you to listen. You don’t have to solve it but you need to listen and share with them how much you care and what has happened to them is not what God would have happen in the church.”

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‘Taking Responsibility:’ Gonzaga Scholars Awarded Grant to Host Conference on Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church

SPOKANE (WA)
Gonzaga (University) News Service

September 22, 2020

https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2020/9/22/gonzaga-scholars-awarded-grant-to-host-conference-on-sexual-abuse-crisis-in-the-catholic-church

Gonzaga University has been awarded a $40,000 grant to host a four-day research conference in spring 2022 as part of a new interdisciplinary initiative entitled “Taking Responsibility.” The initiative, made possible by a new nearly $1 million grant to Fordham University in New York City, aims to address the crisis in the Catholic Church related to sexual abuse by priests.

It has been more than 19 months since the Society of Jesus in the United States publicly disclosed the names of its members who were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

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Resolution possible in church bus sex abuse case

KENTUCKY
WHOP, 98.7 FM

September 23, 2020

A resolution could be coming soon in the case of a man accused of sexually abusing a juvenile female on a church bus on Easter Sunday last year.

Attorney Sands Chewning represents Tyler Frances and told Judge John Atkins Wednesday morning that he’s working on speaking to some witnesses after discussions with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and he’s hopeful to resolve the case by a court date next month.

Judge Atkins scheduled another pre-trial conference for October 14.

Investigation by Hopkinsville police led to the first-degree sexual abuse charge after the alleged victim said Frances ripped off her underwear and inappropriately touched her while both were riding the church bus. Frances was not an employee or affiliated with the church and has pled not guilty in the case.

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September 23, 2020

Catholic Church appeals to Supreme Court of Canada on bombshell Mount Cashel ruling

NEWFOUNDLAND (CANADA)
CBC News

September 23, 2020

By Ryan Cooke

Precedent could put church on the hook for millions, threatening future operations

The Archdiocese of St. John’s is looking to the Supreme Court of Canada to examine a landmark ruling that puts the Catholic Church on the hook for millions in sexual abuse lawsuits.

The ruling involves Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, where over the course of decades boys suffered immense sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers of Ireland.

The Brothers were not employees of the archdiocese, but in July Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal ruled the church created space for them to abuse children and get away with it, and therefore was liable to pay out damages owed by the now-defunct Christian Brothers organization.

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Child Victims Act lawsuits accuse ex-Seton coach of sexually abusing students during 1960s

NEW YORK
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

September 23, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2020/09/23/ny-child-victims-act-seton-coach-vincent-dutkowski-abuse-lawsuits-poughkeepsie-sex-offender/5802269002/

A now-deceased basketball coach accused of sexually abusing a student when he worked at the former Seton Catholic High School in Endicott during the 1970s faces similar allegations from his past employment at a Catholic school in Poughkeepsie.

Four lawsuits filed since December in the state Supreme Court of New York County accuse Vincent Dutkowski of sexually abusing students at Our Lady of Lourdes High School during the early to mid-1960s.

Dutkowski, who was a registered sex offender living in Florida before he died in 2012 at 83, did not face criminal charges related to accusations in the New York lawsuits — they were filed under provisions of the state’s Child Victims Act. He became a sex offender after being convicted in South Carolina in 2005 of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, according to records.

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Indian nun testifies in closed session of bishop’s rape trial

INDIA
Global Sisters Report via NCR

September 17, 2020

By Saji Thomas

KOTTAYAM, INDIA — A Catholic nun, who two years ago accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar of rape, started giving her testimony Wednesday in a district court in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala.

Her testimony will continue Thursday before the nun faces cross-examination by the defense lawyer.

Amid heavy rains, the closed door session in the District and Sessions Court in Kottayam lasted from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Before the trial started, court officials closed all doors and windows and put up pink window curtains to keep the proceedings away from public view.

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What if women comprised 50% of sex abuse victims in the Catholic Church?

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary (blog)

September 23, 2020

By Joelle Casteix

What if the cornerstone of our conventional wisdom about the victims of the Catholic Church and clergy sex abuse crisis was wrong?

What if, in a statistically viable sample of survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church, 50% of respondents were female? What if you also knew that this result is almost statically impossible to achieve with the conventional wisdom, which says that boys outnumber girls four to one?

Would that change how you, the church, advocacy groups, and the general public respond to the crisis?

The results of my Survivors Insight Survey are in. You can read the white paper here.

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WV Court considers whether the First Amendment protects diocese from consumer protection laws

WEST VIRGINIA
The Charleston Gazette-Mail

September 22, 2020

By Lacie Pierson

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legal_affairs/wv-court-considers-whether-the-first-amendment-protects-diocese-from-consumer-protection-laws/article_f46fc5d6-d3c1-571b-905e-e9e9cb1abf40.html

The West Virginia Supreme Court is considering whether it’s a violation of the First Amendment for Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to pursue a case against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston under the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act.

During about an hour’s worth of arguments in Charleston on Tuesday, the justices asked attorneys whether it was possible for the attorney general to hold the diocese accountable for potential violations of the consumer law in a way that didn’t impede its faith doctrine or church governance.

The arguments stem from a case filed in Ohio County Circuit Court in March 2019.

Morrisey filed the suit claiming that the diocese knowingly employed priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse, at Catholic schools and a camp owned and managed by the diocese. The diocese, Morrisey alleges, did not perform adequate background checks for the priests before hiring them, according to the lawsuit.

The diocese failed to disclose such issues in its advertising, according to the lawsuit

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Another Former Brophy Priest Has Been Accused of Sexual Abuse

PHOENIX (AZ)
Phoenix New Times

September 22,2020

By Erasmus Baxter

A Jesuit priest who taught at Brophy College Preparatory for seven years in the 1980s and coached the boy’s football team is the latest Phoenix-area Catholic priest to be accused of sexual abuse.

In a lawsuit filed today, an anonymous alum now living in California alleges that Reverend James A. Sinnerud, S.J. engaged in sexual contact with him without his consent and when he was a minor incapable of giving consent. The lawsuit does not specify the nature or time frame of the alleged misconduct, but Sinnerud would have been been in his late 40s when he taught at Brophy.

The lawsuit alleges that Brophy, the western U.S. Jesuits chapter, and the Phoenix Roman Catholic diocese were negligent in protecting the plaintiff from Sinnerud and either knew or should have known about his abuse. It cites longstanding evidence of the Church’s efforts to conceal an epidemic of child sex abuse by clergy, including a 2003 confession by the Phoenix bishop that he had moved priests around to conceal their misdeeds.

Sinnerud was one of 38 clergy members named by the Omaha, Nebraska, archdiocese as credibly accused of sexual abuse in 2018 following a probe from that state’s attorney general. It is unclear when the incident from that allegation occurred, but the Catholic school he was working for in 2018 said it occurred before he began work at the school in 1987 after leaving Brophy. Before arriving at Brophy, Sinnerud taught at Jesuit high schools in Seattle and Portland, according to research by the law firms filing the suit.

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Child sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Brophy Prep and Diocese of Phoenix

ARIZONA
KVOA-TV

September 22, 2020

A child abuse lawsuit has been filed against Brophy College Preparatory School and the Diocese of Phoenix.

The suit, filed by a man named John R. K. Doe, alleges Father James Sinnerud abused him while he was a student at the all-male prep school in Phoenix.

The Jesuit teacher and coach taught at the school in the 1980s.

In 2018 Sinnerud was removed from another Jesuit prep school in Omaha, Nebraska after being accused of sexual abuse.

The lawsuit was filed under the Arizona Child Victims Act. The law, which went into effect last year, extends the time for sexual abuse victims to sue predators and the institutions which protected them.

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Amid pandemic, support group for clergy abuse survivors holds meetings online

UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service via Crux

September 23, 2020

By Barb Umberger

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted lives in many ways — from schools to workplaces, sports to socializing.

It also has impacted the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s efforts to assist victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Since starting in June 2019 as the archdiocese’s outreach coordinator for restorative justice and abuse prevention, Paula Kaempffer has developed a list of healing events, presentations on restorative justice, listening sessions and other opportunities available through the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment.

And last September, she started an in-person support group to help victim-survivors of sexual abuse. It met monthly for about 90 minutes in a Twin Cities-area local library. In-person attendance had been sparse, Kaempffer said, but those who participated valued the experience.

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September 22, 2020

Lawsuit alleges sexual misconduct on part of pastor

CALIFORNIA
Christian Leader

September 10, 2020

By Connie Faber

Former Bakersfield pastor, local church named as defendants

A female member of a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Bakersfield, California, has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct on the part of a former pastor and counselor.

The woman, who is not named, filed a complaint July 22, 2020, in Kern County Superior Court requesting a jury trial and financial damages. The defendants are listed as The Bridge Bible Church (BBC), former pastor Eric Simpson and 50 unnamed individual and entities.

The complaint alleges that the misconduct began when the plaintiff and her husband sought counseling for family and marital issues through BBC and met with Simpson every other week from August 2016 to May 2017. It is alleged that Simpson insisted on talking about sex and began making sexually inappropriate comments in texts and conversations after services. The complaint states that due to personal losses the plaintiff began one-on-one therapy sessions with Simpson in the summer of 2018, which is when the alleged sexual abuse began

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Student charged in case that led to sex-abuse lawsuit against Catholic school, diocese

FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

September 22, 2020

By Jane Musgrave

The parents of an 11-year-old girl have sued All Saints Catholic School in Jupiter, its principal and the Diocese of Palm Beach over allegations that a boy inappropriately touched her.

A sixth-grade student at All Saints Catholic School was charged with battery and lewd and lascivious molestation after an 11-year-old classmate accused him of groping her, according to a Jupiter police report.

The allegations last week spawned a civil lawsuit against the school, its principal and the Diocese of Palm Beach.

In the lawsuit that was filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, an attorney representing the girl and her parents accused school officials and the diocese of protecting the boy because he is the son of wealthy donors.

The heavily redacted report that police provided to The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday confirmed many of the claims made by attorney Michael Dolce, who is representing the girl and her parents.

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Number of WNY priests accused in Child Victims Act suits grows to 173

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 22, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

Child Victims Act lawsuits filed over the past year have accused 173 Catholic priests in Western New York of sexually abusing children.

More than 30 of those priests were accused publicly for the first time only in recent weeks, including one cleric who has continued to run a South Buffalo parish despite being linked to abuse in a July lawsuit.

The Rev. Donald J. Lutz said he wasn’t aware of the lawsuit when The Buffalo News contacted him last week. Lutz is pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a small parish on O’Connell Avenue in the Old First Ward neighborhood of the city.

Attorneys Steve Boyd and Jeffrey Anderson filed a lawsuit July 30 in State Supreme Court on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff accusing Lutz of engaging in “unpermitted sexual contact” with the plaintiff from 1975 to 1976. The plaintiff was 13 to 14 at the time and attended St. Leo the Great Church, according to court papers.

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Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston issues release on lawsuit

WHEELING (WV)
WTOV-TV

September 21, 2020

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston issued a statement responding to a civil lawsuit by a former Parkersburg Catholic High School Principal. John Gobolewski alleges retaliation for reporting abuse.

The diocese said the former principal’s contract was not renewed and no issues were raised in discussions. The diocese said it won in court a motion to compel arbitration of the non-renewal of the contract.

Further, the diocese said its sexual abuse review board did not find credible abuse claims.

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Diocese responds to former principal’s lawsuit

PARKERSBURG (WV)
Parkersburg News and Sentinel

September 22, 2020

By Tyler Bennett

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston released a statement Monday regarding the civil suit filed by former Parkersburg Catholic High School Principal John Golebiewski, stating the claims against the pastor were not credible.

In the statement released by the Diocese’s spokesperson Tim Bishop, it states the Superintendent of Catholic Schools Mary Ann Deschaine and Father John Rice, designated pastor of Parkersburg Catholic, determined it was in the best interest of the school to have new leadership.

It also states that there were no issues between Rice and Golebiewski in discussions.

The allegations involving Rice were promptly investigated, reviewed by the Diocesan Sexual Abuse Review Board and were determined not to be credible abuse claims, the statement said.

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Diocese responds to court filing by former PCHS principal

PARKERSBURG (WV)
WTAP-TV

September 21, 2020

By Todd Baucher

Says claims against chaplain “not credible”

The Wheeling-Charleston Catholic Diocese has responded to a complaint filed by the former principal at Parkersburg Catholic High School.

The legal filing claims his contract was not renewed last spring, after he raised allegations of misconduct by the school’s chaplain and its football coach. The latter’s contract was not renewed after last season.

The full text of the diocese’s statement reads:

“This civil suit arises from an employment dispute with a former principal whose contract was not renewed. The Superintendent of Schools, Mary Ann Deschaine, and the designated pastor of the school, Fr. John Rice, determined it was in the best interest of the school to have new leadership. No issues with Fr. Rice were raised in the discussions with the former principal. The recent news story was prompted by the Court’s granting the Diocese’s motion to compel arbitration of the non-renewal of the contract pursuant to the terms of the contract. The allegations alleged involving Fr. Rice were promptly investigated, reviewed by the Diocesan Sexual Abuse Review Board and determined not to be credible abuse claims.”

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Alleged priest abuse victim is to sue the pope

NORTHERN IRELAND
Portadown Times

September 21, 2020

A man allegedly targeted by a paedophile priest is to sue the Pope, it emerged today.

Lawyers for Co Armagh man Barry McCourt confirmed he is taking High Court action amid claims the Catholic Church covered up abuse perpetrated by the late Fr Malachy Finegan.

The test case was described as an attempt to gain justice for other victims.

Finegan taught and worked at St Colman’s College in Newry from 1967 to 1987, spending the last decade as the school’s president.

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Opinion: Did Harris cover for the Catholic Church?

UNITED STATES
Catholic League (blog)

September 21, 2020

This is Bill Donohue’s reply to Peter Schweizer

In August, conservative author Peter Schweizer alleged that when Kamala Harris was the San Francisco District Attorney she failed to pursue allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the San Francisco Archdiocese. He says she did so because she was beholden to Catholic donors to her 2003 campaign; she took over that post in 2004. He also claims she destroyed Church documents.

The accusations that Schweizer made are based on his chapter on Harris in his recent book, Profiles in Corruption. I accessed the sources he cited in the book and matched them up with what he said to the media. As it turns out, there are important inconsistencies and omissions. Most important, what he says about the Church’s response to law enforcement lacks context, providing the reader with a skewed account.

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Former De La Salle principal and another religious brother accused of molesting student in the 80s

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA. com (The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate)

September 21, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Both men have previously pleaded no contest to unrelated molestation allegations, but these are first public accusations from work at De La Salle

A former principal of De La Salle High and a subordinate are accused of sexually molesting one of the Uptown school’s students in the 1980s, according to a new lawsuit filed last month.

While the Aug. 7 lawsuit appears to mark the first time ex-principal Richard Langenstein and Robert Gandara face public abuse accusations stemming from their service at the 71-year-old school on St. Charles Avenue, each has previously pleaded no contest to charges of child molestation for unrelated conduct in St. Tammany Parish.

Neither Gandara nor Langenstein, who died in 2003, were clergymen, so they are not on the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ list of more than 60 priests and deacons who are considered credibly accused of child sexual abuse. The archdiocese also does not run De La Salle, which is operated by the Catholic Christian Brothers order’s regional chapter.

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Safeguarding and child protection moves to the next stage

PARRAMATTA (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Outlook

September 22, 2020

As the Diocese of Parramatta prepares for the first meeting of its Safeguarding Council in October, it echoes the sentiments of the presidents of Catholic Religious Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference who have thanked an advisory group that has helped the Church progress matters related to safeguarding and child protection.

In letters sent earlier this month, Implementation Advisory Group (IAG) chair Jack de Groot informed Br Peter Carroll FMS and Archbishop Mark Coleridge that the group had concluded its work, with Mr de Groot noting “the many blessings that will result in taking forward the important and essential work of leading the Church in Australia”.

Br Peter said: “As the Church continues its emphasis on child protection and safeguarding after the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the IAG provided important expert input to assist the Church in responding to the Commission’s many recommendations.

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Clergy abuse survivors face a lifetime of PTSD recurrence

UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service via UCA News

September 22, 2020

By Dennis Sadowski

Stress can last for months or years with triggers that can bring back memories of the trauma

New job in hand, Jim Richter was adjusting well to life in Minneapolis several months after leaving his hometown of Chicago.

He was enjoying his fellowship at the University of Minnesota Medical Center despite the long hours and he was coming to realize his move was a good one.

Sexually abused as a teenager by a South Side Chicago Catholic priest who had similarly assaulted other young men, Richter wasn’t expecting to hear more about the clergy abuse scandal in Minnesota.

Then news broke about Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who eventually resigned in 2015 over accusations he had mishandled allegations of abuse against an archdiocesan priest. Criminal charges were initially filed against the archdiocese over this, but were later dropped. Archbishop Nienstedt also faced allegations he had engaged in sexual misconduct with adults as a priest and as a bishop, claims he denied.

Richter said he felt he had been “assaulted” again when listening to news reports on the radio as he drove to work. The reports, he said, triggered a recurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD.

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Opinion: Why there’s more to the question of the confessional

AUSTRALIA
Wellington Times

September 22, 2020

By Father Brendan Lee

I DON’T always get to see letters written about me to editors or online, and maybe that’s a good thing.

However, one particular letter to the editor earlier this month from a local politician which I did read gave me reason to pause.

He had just finished reading The Altar Boys by ABC journalist Suzanne Smith, a book on the abuse of children in the diocese of Maitland and the cover-up by the church.

In light of my recent article “More than ever we need to ask RUOK?”, this politician accused me of hypocrisy, given that I’m the same person who has said I would rather go to prison than break the seal of the confessional.

It’s true, I am a hypocrite. I ask others to take their lives and faith seriously, then find my myself more interested in sharing gags than the gospel.

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Co Armagh man ‘targeted by paedophile priest’ to sue Pope

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

September 22,2020

By Alan Erwin

A man allegedly targeted by a paedophile priest is to sue the Pope, it has emerged.

Lawyers for Co Armagh man Barry McCourt confirmed he is taking High Court action amid claims the Catholic Church covered up abuse perpetrated by the late Fr Malachy Finnegan.

The test case was described as an attempt to gain justice for other victims.

Finnegan taught and worked at St Colman’s College, Newry, from 1967 to 1987, spending the last decade as the school’s president. He later served as a parish priest in Clonduff, Co Down.

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Papal safeguarding commission meets online and in Rome

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

September 21, 2020

By Carol Glatz

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met online and, for those who could, in Rome for their plenary assembly Sept. 16-18.

“It was business as usual,” Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, a commission member, told Catholic News Service Sept. 18. The meetings, held twice a year, give the 17 members a chance to listen to each working group’s progress report and to lay the groundwork for future action.

Everyone was in attendance, he said, including U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, commission president, who took part online.

With members on each continent, Zollner added, the challenge was finding meeting times to accommodate people in vastly different time zones; that meant signing in after midnight for one member on the Polynesian archipelago of Tonga and being up before 6 a.m. for members in the Americas.

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September 21, 2020

Entre Ríos: un sobrino denunció a su tío sacerdote por abuso sexual

PARANá (ARGENTINA)
ANRed - Agencia de Noticias Redacción  [Buenos Aires, Argentina]

September 21, 2020

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Las denuncias sobre casos de abuso sexual eclesiástico no cesan. Y aún en tiempos de coronavirus, donde la pandemia, desde su dramático arrastre sanitario y económico absorbe de forma indefectible la agenda de atención social, las acusaciones acerca del comportamiento religioso truenan de forma profunda desde la periferia (es decir, desde el lugar de donde se realiza la imputación) hacia el epicentro geográfico mismo del poder católico mundial. Ahora, una denuncia reciente, aunque sucedida hace años, en Entre Ríos, conmocionó a la provincia. Es que el ex paranaense Sergio Decuyper rompió un silencio de años y pudo dar cuenta de lo que tuvo que soportar cuando niño: su propio tío paterno, el cura José Francisco Decuyper, cometió de manera sistemática abusos hacia su persona. La denuncia ya está en la Justicia. Por Máximo Paz, para ANRed.

Y un día lo hizo: Vía Skipe, ante los fiscales Leandro Dato y Fernanda Ruffatti, de la Unidad Fiscal de Violencia de Género y Abuso Sexual del Poder Judicial, el sábado pasado por la mañana en Argentina (pero de tarde en el País Vasco, donde se encuentra la víctima), Sergio Decuyper pudo tomar contacto con el Poder Judicial entrerriano y volcar lo que contenía dentro desde casi toda su vida.

Luego de hora y media de declaración, Sergio pudo formalizar la denuncia ante la Justica por la cual se le imputa por abuso sexual a José Francisco Decuyper, histórico sacerdote de la provincia de Entre Ríos y, nada menos, tío por parte de padre de la víctima denunciante.

El relato atravesó de modo descriptivo la prolongada experiencia que abarca el momento de los abusos en su infancia cometidos en la propia casa de sus abuelos, los dispositivos por los cuales se produjo el silenciamiento del caso y sus recientes intensiones fallidas de contacto con el Papa Francisco para hacer dar cuenta en el Vaticano lo sucedido en una de sus diócesis.

«Siento el cansancio de todos los años», sentenció minutos antes de hacer frente a los fiscales.

«Conté el hecho de mi abuso y toda mi historia», relató luego de la denuncia formalizada en la Justicia. «Les hablé de lo que intenté hacer en la Iglesia con la denuncia a mi tío, y todo el sufrimiento de los últimos meses», agregó.

Nacido en Halle, Bélgica, el 26 de abril de 1935, el religioso acusado cuenta hoy con 85 años. Ordenado sacerdote el 10 de marzo de 1966 en Paraná, fue por años párroco en Santa Ana y en Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa, ambos establecimientos situados en la capital entrerriana. A su vez, trabajó como empleado de la Iglesia católica en las localidades provinciales de General Ramírez y Las Cuevas, estas pertenecientes al departamento de Diamante. Hoy por hoy sobrelleva un profundo Alzheimer y por ello se encuentra alojado en el Hogar Sacerdotal Jesús Buen Pastor, residencia exclusiva para atender a curas de la tercera edad en la ciudad de Paraná. De hallarse culpable del delito que se le inculpa, el religioso casi que ni se enterará.

Una de las acciones propiciadas por el cura Decuyper se trata de la fundación hace más de 50 años de la escuela primaria y de educación católica privada 116 “San Joaquín”. Hoy día el establecimiento se encuentra en plenas funciones y varias generaciones de niños y niñas paranaenses pasaron por sus aulas. Sergio Decuyper, también.

Es por ello que horas antes de oficializar su denuncia publicó un video de confección propia. Allí, más que nada, hizo hincapié sobre una cuestión: “El mensaje éste es para todas las posibles otras víctimas. Mi ilusión es que no haya más víctimas y que yo haya sido el único caso puntual de este abuso. Pero estoy preocupado. Si por ahí hay otra víctima que los anime a denunciar o que denunciemos unidos. Y que demos luz y salud, porque lo tenés que hacer por tu salud si vas a denunciar. Esto no se te va a pasar solo. Hay que pedir ayuda”, clamó en el video a modo de señal sobre si se encuentra algún otro sobreviviente de su tío religioso.

Sergio es un paranaense emigrado a España. Fue abusado a los seis años de edad. El medio web entreriosahora.com pudo entrevistar al protagonista y relumbrar algunos aspectos fundamentales del horror:

“Fui consciente de mi abuso recién el año pasado. El psiquiatra me dijo que el trauma estaba encapsulado y se despertó. Tuve que medicarme. Fue horrible”, comenta en entrevista para el medio web.

“Mi abusador es el sacerdote José Decuyper, tiene más de 80 años, es mi tío, tiene Alzheimer… está en una residencia ahí en Paraná… es mayor, fui a verlo el año pasado. No me reconoció: fue muy duro”, completa el denunciante para el mismo portal.

Dentro de las tensiones que se encuentran en el proceso de la propia víctima, se chocan las reacciones de la propia familia, que es también la propia del abusador religioso. Por ello, una de sus primeras acciones ante la decisión de efectuar la denuncia fue la de explicarle a su modo tal determinación –personal y fundamental- a sus padres mediante una carta:

“Queridos papá y mamá, lo que me hizo el tío José no es culpa de ustedes. Entiendo que les cueste este paso de denuncia que hago porque la sociedad en la que ustedes viven ahí los va a juzgar. Pero esta denuncia nos hace nobles, fuertes y nos llena de salud. Esa sociedad marcadamente religiosa y católica ve en mi denuncia el escándalo, mi denuncia pone en manifiesto la tragedia del Amor mal explicado, de la sexualidad mal orientada, del miedo absurdo en el que nos han enseñado a vivir allí”, sentenció.

Entre Ríos es una de las provincias dónde suelen salir a la luz casos de abuso eclesiástico. Hasta ahora Juan Diego Escobar Gaviria, en 2017; Justo José Ilarraz, en 2018 y Marcelino Ricardo Moya, en 2019, son los tres miembros del clero inculpados y sentenciados por delitos de índole sexual  y corrupción de menores.

A la vez que la religiosa Luisa Toledo fue condenada a 3 años de prisión en julio de 2019 por el Tribunal de Juicios y Apelaciones de Gualeguay ante el delito de privación ilegítima de la libertad en perjuicio de dos monjas del convento carmelita de Nogoyá.

La impunidad y los arreglos también rondan por la provincia: el año pasado Carlos Benavidez -párroco de la iglesia de San Ramón Nonato, en Nogoyá- fue removido de la noche a la mañana de sus funciones después de los hechos que le imputaron jóvenes ante una constante petición del cura hacia ellos y que fuera el motor de las denuncias: brindarles ayuda espiritual a cambio de llevárselos a la cama.

Asimismo, hay una causa penal abierta en los Tribunales de Nogoyá al cura Hubeimar Alberto Rúa, compañero del condenado Escobar Gaviria en la parroquia San Lucas Evangelista, de Lucas González.

Ahora, un nuevo caso sacude a la Iglesia. Un sobrino víctima y un cura abusador: Su tío.

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Ex-Horsham pastor gets 200 years in prison for child sex abuse

PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

September 18, 2020

By Christopher Dornblaser

A former pastor of a church in Horsham will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Thursday in federal court for sexually abusing an infant and a young girl under 10, according to federal authorities.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Jerry Zweitzig, 71, who was a pastor at Horsham Bible Church during the time of the abuse, was sentenced to 200 years in prison.

Zweitzig, of Hatboro, pleaded in May in the two cases involving the sexual abuse of children.

The former pastor filmed himself sexually exploiting a young girl over a period of years, according to the release. Additionally, authorities said Zweitzig had a collection of more than 10,000 images of child pornography on hard drives found in his home.

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Dilworth School sexual abuse scandal: How the case was blown wide open

NEW ZEALAND
The Spinoff

September 20, 2020

By Isaac Davison

Charges have been laid over historic offending at Dilworth, but former students say it could be just the beginning, writes the NZ Herald’s Isaac Davison in this Herald Premium article.

Two years ago, a former Dilworth School student approached the school with a warning.

The old boy – a victim of alleged abuse at Dilworth – told the school it should prepare for serious allegations to emerge, several sources told the Weekend Herald.

“They were basically told to get their house in order,” said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Lawyer wants Abuse in Care Royal Commission interim report in six months to accelerate help for victims

NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

September 21, 2020

By Andrew McRae

An interim report from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission would accelerate help for victims, a lawyer representing abuse survivors says.

The commission, which resumes public hearings in Auckland today, is investigating abuse in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.

In November 2019 the Royal Commission held contextual hearings which gave the background of concerns leading up to its establishment and what people hoped could be achieved.

Over the next two weeks it will hear evidence from survivors who have sought redress for abuse suffered in state care and from others who have dealt with government agencies on behalf of claimants.

The state redress public hearings were to have been held in April but were delayed because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

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B.C. or Ontario? Residential school survivors fight move of court battle

CANADA
The Canadian Press

September 20, 2020

By Colin Perkel

Underlying fight relates to request by former St. Anne’s survivors to have cases reopened

A bitterly fought legal battle between survivors of a brutal residential school and the federal government is slated for an appeal hearing this week over whether the case should now be moved to British Columbia from Ontario.

The underlying fight relates to a request by three survivors of St. Anne’s in Fort Albany, Ont., to have their compensation cases reopened. They argue their claims were settled before Ottawa turned over thousands of relevant documents generated by a police investigation into child abuse at the school.

They also maintain the federal government is still in breach of disclosure orders made by a judge in 2014 and 2015.

The government wants the underlying case and appeal thrown out. It argues, among other things, that a 2006 agreement that ended a class action over abuse inflicted on Indigenous students forced to attend Indian residential schools bars claimants from having their compensation hearings reopened.

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The Met Opera Fired James Levine, Citing Sexual Misconduct. He Was Paid $3.5 Million.

NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

By James B. Stewart and Michael Cooper

September 20, 2020

The terms of the settlement between the renowned conductor and the company he shaped have not been previously disclosed.

Last summer, Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, convened the executive committee of the company’s board to announce the end of one of the highest-profile, messiest feuds in the Met’s nearly 140-year history. A bitter court battle had concluded between the company and the conductor James Levine, who had shaped the Met’s artistic identity for more than four decades before his career was engulfed by allegations of sexual improprieties.

Mr. Gelb told the committee that the resolution was advantageous to the Met. But the settlement, whose terms have not been publicly disclosed until now, called for the company and its insurer to pay Mr. Levine $3.5 million, according to two people familiar with its terms.

The Met had fired Mr. Levine in 2018 after an internal investigation uncovered what the company called credible evidence of “sexually abusive and harassing conduct toward vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers.” Rather than going quietly, Mr. Levine sued the company for breach of contract and defamation, seeking at least $5.8 million. The Met countersued, revealing lurid details of its investigation and claiming that Mr. Levine’s misconduct had violated his duties. It sought roughly the same amount.

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Victim of Malachy Finegan to launch legal action against Pope and Catholic authorities in Ireland

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

September 21, 2020

By Connla Young

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/09/21/news/victim-of-malachy-finegan-to-launch-legal-action-against-pope-and-catholic-authorities-in-ireland-2072636/

A victim of Malachy Finegan is to launch legal action against Pope Francis and Catholic Church authorities in Ireland.

The priest has been accused of sexual abuse across Co Down, including at St Colman’s College in Newry where he taught from 1967 and was president for a decade.

At least 12 young boys are thought to have been sexually abused while he was at St Colman’s, while many more were physically abused.

Finegan, who died in 2002, was also a parish priest of Clonduff in Hilltown in Co Down, where it is alleged he carried out further serious sexual abuse.

Concerns have also been raised that he may have been an RUC informer.

It emerged last year that the Public Prosecution Service had decided not to prosecute in eight cases following a police investigation linked to the activities of the former cleric.

The Irish News has now learned that one of his victims is to launch legal action against the Diocese of Dromore, the Archdiocese of Armagh, the Bishop of Rome and the Holy See, arising out of allegations of abuse.

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Gozo priest removed as pastor in Canada over ‘inappropriate conduct’

CANADA
Times of Malta

September 21, 2020

Toronto Archdiocese points out case does not involve ‘illegal behaviour’

A Gozitan priest has been removed from his parish in Canada over “inappropriate behaviour”, the Archdiocese of Toronto has confirmed.

Fr Joseph Grima, of Blessed Frederic Ozanam Parish in Markham, was found to have been involved in “boundary violation and behaviour inconsistent with the vows of a Catholic priest”.

No details have been divulged about his situation but the Toronto Archdiocese said he had not done anything illegal.

The decision was announced on August 22 but was only reported several weeks later.

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Survivor of abuse in state care believes his abuser had offended before

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff.co.nz

September 21, 2020

By Edward Gay

A survivor of child abuse in state care says he believes a housemaster who abused him was allowed to “quietly slip away” and reoffend.

Survivors are giving evidence to the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse in care about their struggles to get redress.

Keith Wiffin was made a ward of the state at the age of 11, following the death of his father.

“My mother signed the document thinking that I’d be cared and nurtured for. The complete opposite happened,” he told the commission in Auckland on Monday.

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Sexual Abuse: Cleric advises parents to pay attention to male children

NIGERIA
Vanguard

September 20, 2020

A Catholic cleric, Rev. Fr. Kale Francis, has advised parents to always pay attention to their male children as most of them are being sexually abused by friends and relatives.

Francis, the Parish Priest at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Nyanya, Abuja, gave the advice during the Holy Mass on Sunday when more than 180 candidates received their first holy communion. According to him, more attention is being focused on only female children without knowing that most male children suffer the same abuse.

“Most of our male children are being sexually assaulted by their neighbours, friends, and relatives which most times go unnoticed,” he said.

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‘Culture of abuse’ alleged at Kurn Hattin over 80 years

VERMONT
VTdigger.com

September 20, 2020

By Anne Galloway

Sep 20 2020, 4:10 PM

Growing up on the family farm in North Walpole, New Hampshire, Carolyn Blake Bradshaw lived on candy, scavenged apples and sandwiches from teachers. She remembers the constant, gnawing hunger.

Her mother put her into foster care, and by the time she reached the age of 10, she had lived in five different homes. At one point, Bradshaw was sent to the Weeks School, a reform school for children in Vergennes, even though she doesn’t recall having done anything wrong, except to have been born into a family with no means.

It wasn’t until she was sent to the New England Kurn Hattin Homes for Children that she ate three square meals a day.

But it was also there at the residential girls school in Saxtons River that for the first time, Bradshaw says, she was routinely abused.

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Church’s ongoing clergy abuse scandals recounted in new podcast

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

September 19, 2020

By Christopher White

As U.S. Catholics await the release of the Vatican’s report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was laicized by Pope Francis for serial sexual abuse, a new podcast chronicles the scourge of clergy abuse that has plagued the Catholic Church for more than seven decades.

“Crisis,” released on Sept. 9, is produced by The Catholic Project, an initiative of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Among the more than three dozen individuals interviewed for the series — which includes firsthand testimonials from abuse survivors, priests, bishops, lawyers and accountability advocates — is Tom Roberts, longtime editor for NCR.

Roberts recounts how NCR was the first news outlet to dare to report on clergy abuse in the Catholic press, dating back to the 1980s. Now, more than 30 years later, the 2018 revelations about McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that chronicled seven decades of abuse of more than 1,000 victims at the hands of 300 priests ushered in a new wave of Catholics repulsed by decades of cover-up, says Roberts.

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Victims Sexually Abused By N.O. Clergy Ordered To Come Forward By March

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WRNO Radio, 99.5

September 18, 2020

A federal bankruptcy judge has set a March 1 deadline for alleged victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy to make claims against the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

On Thursday, Judge Meredith Grabill ruled that anyone alleging they were abused before the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 1 must come forward in the next five months or lose the right to seek money via the judicial system.

Church attorneys initially asked Grabill to set a September 29 bar date but the seven-member creditors’ committee, which includes six purported victims of clergy abuse, turned that date down.

The bar date comes as more than 60 clergymen in the Archdiocese of New Orleans have been faced with credible claims of child sexual molestation.

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September 20, 2020

Letter to Pope Francis

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo Survivors Group

September 17, 2020

By Gary Astridge, Kevin Koscielniak, Chris Szuflita, Michael Whalen, and Angelo Ervolina,

We are the five founding members of the Buffalo Survivors Group, all Survivors of sexual abuse by the hands of clergy and religious in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York.

As you know, the Diocese of Buffalo has filed for bankruptcy because of the numerous lawsuits filed against them. This legal process has now become a battle between lawyers, the ones who will reap massive financial compensation.

As Survivors, we know that no matter what financial restitution we may receive, it will be miniscule in comparison to what is rightfully deserved. Because of our legal system, money is the compensation for lives ruined and we will never be made whole by this process. It appears that the root cause is not being properly addressed and corrected, and many perpetrators are essentially going unpunished.

From the time the apostolic administrator, Edward Scharfenberger, came to Buffalo, he stated on numerous occasions his willingness to meet with any Survivor and offered the opportunity to see the files of our offenders. To this date, even with our reaching out to him, he has never personally followed through to contact any of us, making his words as a representative of the Catholic Church ring hollow. As Survivors, we are forced to relive our past experiences of sexual
abuse and being ignored retraumatizes us.

For many of us, our souls were tom out as children and our worlds went dark. Ever since, we have been going through life as the walking dead. Do you have any idea what that is like, Your Holiness?

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State abuse inquiry makes slow progress

WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio New Zealand

September 20, 2020

By David Cohen

Opinion – Nearly three years have grumbled by since the government first signed off on the Abuse in Care Royal Commission. What on earth have they been up to?

Announcing the inquiry shortly after assuming her premiership, Jacinda Ardern said it would be a historic opportunity for the nation to “confront our history and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again”.

A little noticed omission in the fine print appears to have been that rather a lot of this historical confrontation would take place behind closed doors.

At the same time, what relatively little has gone on in the public domain since the commission finally got going late last year hasn’t always enhanced its brief to quantify the abuse that took place in many of the old state-run institutions and their faith-based counterparts.

Defections. Bickering over terms of reference. Allegations of poor management. The surprise resignation of the inaugural chair, Sir Anand Satyanand, who stepped down from the role late last year for the chancellorship of the University of Waikato.

As might be expected for any initiative in which a number of advisors have had longer rap sheets than resumes, there has been the odd controversy over the commission’s choice of advisors.

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Buffalo Clergy Sex Abuse Survivors Ask for Meeting With Pope Francis

BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

September 18, 2020

A group of clergy sexual abuse survivors is ready to take its mission directly to the Vatican.

The “Buffalo Survivors Group” just sent a letter to Pope Francis asking for a meeting to talk about the problem that’s plaguing the catholic church, in the Buffalo area, and around the world.

In the letter, the group says the diocese’s apostolic administrator, Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, has said he is willing to meet with any survivor of clergy sexual abuse and even offered to show survivors the files on offenders. However, the group says Scharfenberger has never followed through on any requests for meetings. It also says this forces survivors to relive their past experiences and re-traumatizes them.

The group says it hopes if the pope agrees to a meeting, it would cast a positive light on the church and give renewed hope to people who’ve suffered.

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Buffalo bishop appoints task force to study church and school consolidation

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 18, 2020

By Dan Herbeck

The Buffalo Catholic Diocese will soon begin making decisions on consolidation plans for its current 161 parishes and 34 schools in Western New York, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger told The Buffalo News on Thursday.

The first of those decisions could come “within months, if not weeks” after diocese officials reach out to Catholics throughout the diocese, the bishop said.

While not disclosing any specifics, Scharfenberger said some of the diocese’s churches and schools are likely to be consolidated to save money.

“I don’t want anyone to fear that specific churches have been earmarked, or that any decisions have been made already,” the bishop said. “But there will be some sacrifices. That is inevitable.

“Do three or four parishes that are right next to each other all have to have a 9 o’clock Mass every Sunday morning? It could be that, because of economic realities, some church buildings will have to be deactivated.”

The bishop added that he favors the “consolidation” of some parishes and schools, as opposed to “elimination.”

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A US Amish community dedicated to serving community was supposed to keep Misty safe. Instead it shielded her abuser

SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
ABC

September 19, 2020

By Emily Olson

Misty Griffin really wants you to know her story.

She has written a book. She’s collaborated with podcasts. She’s pitched to television producers, spoken with filmmakers and sent “more than 100 emails” to US journalists.

She has politely, quietly, diligently reached out to me at least 29 times since our first email, to see if and when I could publish this piece.

But it’s not just about telling her story. What Misty wants most of all is for you to never hear a story like hers again.

*
The trouble is, Misty’s story is not an easy one to tell.

For starters, the story begins in a slice of misunderstood space known as America’s Amish country.

The Amish are one of America’s most insular communities
The Amish, like most religions, associate piety with surrendering to a set of rules.

Unlike most religions, the rules are so at odds with modern ideals that the community is famously insular, even exempt from some US laws.

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No prison time for two Amish men from Seymour who pleaded guilty to molesting relative

SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

September 16, 2020

By Gregory J. Holman

Two men from rural Seymour pleaded guilty last week to charges stemming from accusations that they had sex with a young female relative.

As part of a plea agreement, the two men, who are brothers from an Amish family, will not go to prison, according to online court records and reporting by the Webster County Citizen.

The brothers, 22-year-old Aaron C.M. Schwartz and 18-year-old Petie C.M. Schwartz, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of third-degree child molestation. Each received prison sentences totaling 15 years, which were suspended.

According to the local newspaper report published Wednesday morning, Webster County Prosecutor Ben Berkstresser said the victim — a minor who was in her very early teens when the crimes occurred — had a baby in recent weeks fathered by one of her assailants, who included two other unnamed brothers who are minors.

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Fresno Bishop Restores Embezzling, Gay Porn Priest

FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

September 17, 2020

By Christine Niles

Fr. Lastiri stole $60,000, solicited sex on gay websites

Fresno, Calif. – A California bishop has quietly reinstated a priest with a decades-long track record of active homosexuality, which includes embezzling parish funds. Evidence also shows the priest may have possessed child porn.

Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Fresno diocese issued a letter Wednesday announcing he is reinstating Fr. Michael Lastiri: “After much prayer and reflection, I have restored faculties to Fr. Jean-Michael Lastiri for pastoral and priestly ministry here in the Diocese of Fresno effective today, September 16, 2020.”

The bishop clarified that his ministry will be limited only to assignments approved by the bishop and the local pastor, also hinting that all restrictions could eventually be lifted if Lastiri continues “to exhibit the same future conscientiousness and commitment to his overall wellbeing … .”

Lastiri has been a priest for more than 30 years, and was former director of worship for the diocese. Most of those years were spent as an active homosexual — including a relationship with a convicted pedophile in the 1990s.

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Dozens contact New Zealand police over alleged boarding school sexual abuse

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

September 16, 2020

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

A seventh man has appeared in court over alleged offences going back decades at Dilworth school in Auckland

Wellington, New Zealand – Alleged sexual abuse at a boys’ boarding school in Auckland that reportedly spanned decades, has prompted the court appearance of a seventh man and generated more than 50 calls and emails to the police after officers appealed for more victims to come forward.

The allegations about the abuse of boys at Dilworth – a private school in an affluent area of New Zealand’s largest city – emerged at the same time as a long-running independent inquiry into abuse in state and faith-based care seeks to uncover how prevalent the problem has been in the country.

Police have identified 17 victims so far, and have charged men aged in their 60s and 70s with various sexual offences and the supply of drugs, over abuse that they say happened between the 1970s and the early 2000s.

Police said in a statement a 60-year-old man, who had previously been connected to the school, appeared in court in Auckland on Tuesday charged in relation to sexual violation, attempted sexual violation, indecency and indecent assault. It followed the court appearances of six other men a day earlier.

All have name suppression. The initial complaint about the alleged abuse was made in 2019, said Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff Baber, in a statement.

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Sex abuse survivor urges Catholic diocese to drop Supreme Court appeal at silent vigil

TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CTV News

September 15, 2020

By Omar Sachedina and Ben Cousins

[Includes video interviews with Sylvestre survivors Irene Deschenes and Joanne Morrison.]

A woman who was sexually abused by a priest as a child has taken her decades-long legal fight with the Roman Catholic Church to its front steps as she urges the London, Ont. diocese to drop its Supreme Court appeal against her.

Irene Deschenes was abused by Father Charles Sylvestre for two agonizing years that began when she was just 10 years old, at St. Ursula Catholic School in Chatham, Ont.

Deschenes said Sylvestre was friendly at first, taking her and other children for bowling outings and to the beach, but things turned sinister quickly.

“I remember a nice, caring man that was friendly, funny,” Deschenes told CTV News. “Now in hindsight, I see that was all grooming.”

In 2006 and decades after the abuse, Sylvestre pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 47 children in parishes across southern Ontario. He died in prison a year later.

Deschenes settled with the church for $66,000 after lawyer’s fees, but later found out the church knew about allegations concerning Sylvestre’s conduct for almost a decade prior to Deschenes’ abuse, without divulging this information to her.

Police reports dating back to 1962 had alleged that Sylvestre assaulted three young girls. The documents show the young girls — one of them 11 years old — alleged Sylvestre touched them inappropriately and exposed himself to them.

As a result, Deschenes is trying to reopen her case.

“Their failure to act on the statements back then is what allowed Irene to be abused in the first place,” said Deschenes’ lawyer Loretta Merritt.

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Child sexual abuse cases on the rise in district, Nilgiris

MUMBAI (INDIA)
Times of India

September 20, 2020

Coimbatore – A 60-year-old temple priest was detained on Saturday for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl near Periyanaickenpalayam in the west zone police limits, from where 296 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 have been reported until September 17 this year.

According to a police officer, the girl, a Class XII student of a private school, was alone at her house on Friday evening when the priest visited her residence and sexually assaulted her. “As he was leaving the minor girl’s house, her younger brother, who had gone out to play with friends, noticed him and altered his father. The girl’s parents later inquired with her and she revealed them what happened,” the officer said.

The girl’s father subsequently lodged a complaint against the priest with the Periyanaickenpalayam police on Saturday.

A team of police picked up the priest for interrogation on the day. He was later booked under various sections of Pocso Act. Further investigation is on.

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Former Parkersburg Catholic High School principal sues Diocese

PARKERSBURG (WV)
Parkersburg News and Sentinel

September 18, 2020

By Tyler Bennett

In a lawsuit filed in Wood County, the former principal at Parkersburg Catholic High School is claiming he was wrongfully terminated for reporting complaints against a priest to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and for firing the football coach.

John Golebiewski, represented by The Employment Law Center in Parkersburg, is suing the Diocese for wrongful termination earlier this year. The lawsuit claims he was terminated after reporting complaints of inappropriate contact to the Diocese involving Parkersburg Catholic High School Chaplain Father John Rice and for firing head football coach Lance Binegar.

“(Golebiewski’s) attempts to report wrongdoing by his subordinates to defendant Diocese was the substantial and motivating factor for defendant’s decision to place (Golebiewski) on leave and ultimately defendant’s refusal to renew his contract,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants worked together to place plaintiff on leave and to breach plaintiff’s employment contract in retaliation for his proper reports of wrongdoing toward the children under his care.

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A child of the 1960s defends the decade

WESTMINSTER (MD)
Carroll County Times

September 18, 2020

By Frank Batavick

I am a child of the 1960s. I was a high school freshman when the new decade clicked over. I remember Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” that created a common soundtrack for a rising youth culture and popularized dance crazes and hair fashions.

In high school at Friday night dances I twisted and strolled, Bristol Stomped, and dreamily swayed to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley and “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.

*

I graduated from college in 1967 and in the blink of an eye found myself in olive drab at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, shorn of my Beatles haircut and clutching orders for Vietnam. The Army canceled these when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and the cities erupted in rage and fire. I was put on riot control in Washington, D.C.

*

In a 2011 investigation commissioned by Catholic bishops, they blamed sexual abuse by priests on the 1960s and ’70s because of the era’s “drug use and crime, as well as social changes, such as an increase in premarital sex and divorce.” I’m not buying it.

I am a coreligionist of Barr’s and a proud product of 16 years of Catholic education but blaming the ’60s for all of today’s ills is misguided. I’d wager the clergy’s sexual abuse has been going on since the fourth century monastery movement, if not before. The urges and impulses of human nature have not changed over the millennia, and abuse thrives in closed, protected societies. In January we learned of patterns of abuse in the Amish community, following an exposé in “Cosmopolitan.”

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September 19, 2020

Lawsuit claims All Saints Catholic School failed to protect student from abuse

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
WPTV

September 17, 2020

By Peter Burke

[Includes copy of the lawsuit.]

School administration favored alleged abuser over 11-year-old girl because of family’s donor status, suit says

A lawsuit has been filed against All Saints Catholic School and the Diocese of Palm Beach, alleging that the school failed to protect an 11-year-old girl from repeated sexual abuse by another student in an unsupervised classroom on campus.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Palm Beach County circuit court, also names principal Jill Broz, claiming that she not only failed to protect the student, but engaged in a campaign of victim shaming that caused the child severe emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit, the girl “was subjected to sexual abuse on multiple occasions in a classroom at All Saints Catholic School” that took place “when classes were left unattended by the teacher assigned to the classroom and while no other adults were present to monitor for, intervene in and dissuade such abuse from occurring.”

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Girl sues diocese, Catholic school in Jupiter over abuse allegations

PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post

September 17, 2020

By Jane Musgrave

Attorney sues Diocese of Palm Beach and All Saints Catholic School in Jupiter over alleged abuse against 11-year-old girl.

An attorney who is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and now represents other victims is accusing the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach and a school in Jupiter of protecting the son of wealthy donors from molestation allegations.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, attorney Michael Dolce said the principal of All Saints Catholic School punished an 11-year-old girl — who claimed a classmate fondled her — instead of investigating her allegations.

Principal Jill Broz was “motivated out of a desire to extend undue favor to the Abusive Peer because his parents are long-time and repeated substantial financial donors to the school itself and several charities connected to the Diocese of Palm Beach,” Dolce wrote in the lawsuit.

The girl’s allegations, which prompted a Jupiter police investigation, were never addressed by Broz or others at the small K-8 school on Indian Creek Parkway, Dolce said.

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A cardinal says he’s open to women’s ordination; a priest who did so remains suspended

PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix

September 18, 2020

By Robert Mickens

[See also the CDF document.]

Irish Redemptorist Tony Flannery says he’s been given the change to recant

Vatican City – One of world’s most influential cardinals recently admitted that he is “open” to the idea of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood.

“I am not saying that women have to become priests; I just don’t know. But I’m open to it,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ in an interview published September 13 on the website of KNA, the German Catholic news agency.

Hollerich is a high-profile cardinal with international stature due to his position as president of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union (COMECE). He’s also archbishop of his native Luxembourg.

So his views matter.

But just a few days after he commented on women priests, Tony Flannery – the Irish Redemptorist who was suspended from priestly ministry in 2012, primarily for his support of women’s ordination – revealed that the Vatican had sent him a series of doctrinal proposals in July (via his superior general) to which he would have to “submit” as a first step towards “a gradual readmission” to public ministry.

One wonders if the men at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) are going to press Pope Francis to have Cardinal Hollerich recant and force him to sign a fidelity oath similar to the one placed before Father Flannery.

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Irish priest spurns Vatican plan that would have allowed return to ministry

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service/USCCB via Crux

September 18, 2020

By Michael Kelly

Dublin – A well-known Irish priest who has been in a dispute with the Vatican for several years over his controversial views has rejected a plan from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that would have restored him to public ministry.

Redemptorist Father Tony Flannery has been forbidden to exercise public ministry since 2012 after he was censured for saying that he no longer believed that “the priesthood as we currently have it in the Church originated with Jesus” or that he designated “a special group of his followers as priests.”

Flannery said he believes his priestly ministry has ended.

The priest revealed on his website Sept. 16 that he had been asked by the Vatican in July to affirm church teaching on a number of areas, including the inadmissibility of women for ordination, homosexuality, same-sex relationships and gender theory.

He said he refused.

Flannery’s announcement came after an intervention by Redemptorist Superior General Father Michael Brehl, who wrote to the doctrinal congregation in February asking if he could permit Flannery, 73, to return to public ministry.

According to documents published on Flannery’s website, the Vatican congregation responded that he “should not return to public ministry prior to submitting a signed statement regarding his positions on homosexuality, civil unions between persons of the same sex, and the admission of women to the priesthood.”

The letter from the Vatican said that “the Irish Provincial should ask Father Flannery to give his assent to the statement by providing his signature in each of the places indicated (enclosure).” The letter referred to separate statements asserting church teaching in each relevant area with space for Flannery to sign his name.

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Answering ‘the call’

BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

September 18, 2020

By: Eileen Buckley

“I’m ready to be ordained a priest,” declared Chris Emminger, deacon.

Deacon Emminger of the Town of Tonawanda and Deacon Denning Achidi of Cameroon in Central Africa will be ordained into the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, Saturday.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, Apostolic Administrator the Diocese of Buffalo, will preside over the service, conferring the holy orders of the priesthood upon the two deacons at 9:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo.
.
The number of priests in America is on the decline. In fact, one in six Catholic priests now come from other countries.

In the Buffalo Diocese, eight priests were ordained in 2019. Only two will be ordained in Buffalo Saturday.

*
I asked Emminger, with all the adversity against the catholic church from the sex abuse scandal — why he would still want to be a priest?

“During my seven years of formation I kept having to answer that question — why do I want to be a priest? — Essentially the answer has always stayed the same — because I love the church. I’ve had wonderful priest in my life,” answered Emminger. “Why do I want to be a priest? I think our culture and our society needs to know the love of God in their life and I hope to be that vehicle for them.”

Emminger says he will try to overcome the troubles in the Catholic Church by working to help build relationships and listening to others.

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Cologne cardinal warns German church’s Synodal Path could cause schism

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service/USCCB via Crux

September 18, 2020

Cologne, Germany – Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki warned that the Synodal Path reform project could lead to a “German national church.”

“The worst outcome would be if the Synodal Path leads to a schism … with the universal church,” Woelki told Germany’s Catholic News Agency, KNA. “That would be the worst thing if something like a German national church were to be created here.”

KNA reported that Woelki also praised the most recent discussions within the Synodal Path, held in five regional conferences due to the coronavirus pandemic. Smaller groups of participants permitted a better exchange of arguments than would have been possible in the originally planned Synodal Assembly, Woelki said.

The Catholic Church in Germany launched the Synodal Path in 2019. Scheduled to run for two years, it is debating the issues of power, sexual morality, priestly existence and the role of women in the church. The aim is to restore trust lost in the clergy abuse scandal.

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September 18, 2020

Lawsuit: Catholic school principal fired for reporting abuse

PARKERSBURG (WV)
Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle

September 18, 2020

A former principal at a West Virginia Catholic high school has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against a diocese, alleging he was let go for reporting complaints of inappropriate contact involving a priest and for firing a football coach.

Former Parkersburg Catholic High School administrator John Golebiewski recently filed the lawsuit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in Wood County, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported Friday.

The lawsuit alleged that the diocese placed Golebiewski on leave and breached his employment contract “in retaliation for his proper reports of wrongdoing toward the children under his care,” and to prevent an investigation into allegations of child abuse.

Golebiewski filed three misconduct reports with the diocese alleging Father John Rice inappropriately touched students over a yearlong period, beginning in 2018, according to the lawsuit.

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Duterte’s Phallus, Part 2: His favorite joke

PASIG CITY (MANILA, PHILIPPINES)
The Rappler

September 18, 2020

By Vicente Rafael

‘Duterte’s obscenities feel subversive, but subversion in this context is in the service of an autocratic end, where laughter produces an intimacy between ruler and ruled’

Perhaps the most revealing instance of Duterte’s power of storytelling consists of his tale of being sexually abused at the age of 14 by an American Jesuit priest during confession. He often returns to this story as a way of casting aspersions at the Catholic Church that had been critical of his human rights abuses. Folded into this story, however, is another: his sexual abuse of their household help (which he later confesses was fabricated).

Here what we see is a double confession — Duterte to the priest and to the audience — and a double assault: the priest’s on Duterte and Duterte’s on the maid. The two acts of violation turn out to be intimately related whereby the priest’s assault of Duterte becomes a means for the latter’s domination of his audience. He has frequently told these stories on various occasions, usually in a mix of Taglish, Bisaya, and English. Below is my translation of a composite version:

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Judge in Diocese of Buffalo Bankruptcy Sets Bar Date

PINELLAS PARK (FL)
Legal Examiner – Saunders and Walker Attorney Blog

September 17, 2020

By Joseph H. Saunders

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York ruled Friday that the bar date for abuse victims to submit claims should be the same day that the extended Child Victims Act expires – Aug. 14, 2021.

In making the ruling, Judge Bucki took into consideration the fluid situation involving sexual abuse claims against the beleaguered Diocese. No one knows how many claims will eventually be filed against the Diocese of Buffalo. What is known is that it takes survivors a period of time to make the decision to come forward and file a claim after having suffered in silence for years and sometimes decades.

Bucki also ruled against a request by the diocese to push the bankruptcy proceedings into mediated settlement talks.

Bucki said in his written ruling that such negotiations among the diocese, its insurers and its creditors would be premature because the diocese doesn’t know the full nature and extent of the abuse claims being brought against it and has yet to fully investigate and document historical insurance policies that were in place and might provide coverage on the claims.

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Charge That Maxwell ‘Groomed’ Girls for Epstein Is Central to Case

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

September 17, 2020

By Nicole Hong and Benjamin Weiser

Prosecutors are relying on a theory that Ghislaine Maxwell slowly broke down the resistance of teenage girls to sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.

Annie Farmer was 16 years old when she arrived at Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico in 1996 to attend a program for high school students, only to learn that she was the sole participant.

There she met Mr. Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, who seemed friendly and asked about her classmates and her family. Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein took her shopping and lavished her with gifts, like beauty products and new cowboy boots, according to a lawsuit Ms. Farmer filed last year.

The seemingly innocuous behavior was in fact part of a process to “groom” Ms. Farmer for sexual activity, the authorities now say. Ms. Maxwell began pressuring Ms. Farmer to give Mr. Epstein a foot massage, according to the lawsuit, and the encounters escalated — until Ms. Farmer says she eventually woke up one day to find Mr. Epstein entering her room, climbing into her bed and pressing his body against hers.

Now, with Ms. Maxwell facing allegations that she helped Mr. Epstein recruit and ultimately abuse girls as young as 14, the concept of grooming is at the heart of the criminal case against her. References to grooming appear nine times in the 18-page indictment against Ms. Maxwell.

Grooming has long been part of cases involving underage victims, but the concept has become increasingly important in the #MeToo era, as prosecutors have become more willing to file sex-crime charges in cases where people are coerced into sexual relationships without physical force.

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Where is your fiery love when it comes to abuse?

VANCOUVER (BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)
B.C. Catholic – Archdiocese of Vancouver

September 15, 2020

By James Borkowski

Two years ago, I received a forwarded voicemail from a local priest. The message had been left by a man who was extremely angry about clergy abuse and the apparent cover-up by the Church around the world. Since the man left no contact info, there was not much we could do.

A week later, one of our priests forwarded a similar message, but this one contained helpful information and an opportunity. The caller mentioned that two of his classmates from a local all-boys high school had committed suicide as a result of abuse.

The high school he referred to was my old school, and in this message the caller left a phone number. I called him back.

He immediately told me that either I was a pedophile or was covering for them. I offered a third option, detailing the work we have been doing in the archdiocese to bring about necessary change in the local Church. We worked through a fairly tense exchange and, to his credit, he agreed to meet in person to continue the discussion.

On a late afternoon at a local pub, we tentatively walked up to each other and took in the reality of how strange it was for each of us to meet someone with disparate views. We were each concerned that the other might have ulterior motives. We were also both convinced that the other would have no interest in thoughtful conversation and an openness to ideas. Thankfully, we were both wrong.

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Court sets March 1 deadline for claims of sex abuse by priests

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL 4 CBS

September 17, 2020

By David Hammer

Non-abuse claimants, such as vendors that have business with the archdiocese, have until Nov. 30, 2020, to file their claims.

A federal bankruptcy judge set a deadline of March 1, 2021, for victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy to file compensation claims against the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The deadline, known as a “bar date,” comes 10 months after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 1. A bar date is a standard part of any bankruptcy, but setting this one has been controversial and contentious.

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ended a 5-hour marathon court hearing held via teleconference Thursday by setting the March 1 bar date, saying she decided to “split the baby” between the Jan. 29 and March 31 deadlines requested by the archdiocese and a the creditors, respectively.

Non-abuse claimants, such as vendors that have business with the archdiocese, have until Nov. 30, 2020, to file their claims.

The church and its creditors have argued angrily about setting a bar date for months. The archdiocese says it has every interest in paying all legitimate claims, but creditors claim the church can’t be trusted. They say the Archdiocese of New Orleans has plenty of money and filed for bankruptcy in “bad faith” to keep further evidence of abuse from coming out in court.

The archdiocese had about three dozen sex abuse cases moved from state to federal court so they would be stopped pending the bankruptcy. That meant Archbishop Greg Aymond didn’t have to testify under oath in a deposition that was already scheduled for later in May.

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