ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Monsignor Leo Cushley has been appointed Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh by the Catholic Church, replacing Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who left the post earlier this year after admitting inappropriate sexual conduct.

More soon…

Mgr Cushley, 52, is currently head of the English-language section of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and has been a close collaborator of both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

In that capacity, Mgr Cushley has been regularly involved in the visits of heads of state and other important guests to the Holy See, inmcluding Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

As head of the English section of the Secretariat of State it was his task to accompany the Holy Father to English-speaking countries.

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SCOTLAND
STV

The Catholic Church have named Monsignor Leo Cushley as the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien stood down at the end of February amid allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.

In Edinburgh on Wednesday, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia introduced Mgr Cushley as the new archbishop-elect.

Mgr Cushley works in the Vatican’s secretariat of state as a papal translator. As head of the English Language desk, he is responsible for relations with the English-speaking world.

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SCOTLAND
Catholic Herald

Pope Francis has named Mgr Leo Cushley as the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

The appointment was announced at noon today in Rome. The archbishop-elect succeeds Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who led the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh from 1985 until his resignation in February.

Mgr Cushley is currently head of the English-language section of the Vatican Secretariat of State and has been a close collaborator of both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. In his capacity as Prelate of the Anticamera, Mgr Cushley has been involved in the visits of heads of state and other important guests to the Holy See. Recently he has assisted the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, and many other high-profile visitors to the Vatican.

As head of the English section of the Secretariat of State it was his task to accompany the Holy Father to English-speaking countries. In 2010 he accompanied Benedict XVI to Malta, Cyprus and Britain.

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BRAZIL
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 23, 2013 NCR Today

RIO DE JANEIRO Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia is renowned for speaking plainly, which in part means he’s often willing to say things out loud that others in his position may sense but are hesitant to acknowledge.

During an interview in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, for instance, Chaput bluntly tackled three questions about Pope Francis, his early record, and his current trip to Brazil:

* The 68-year-old Capuchin conceded that last night’s mob scene with the papal motorcade was a “frightening moment,” hinting that perhaps Francis could listen a bit more to handlers charged with his safety and saying, “There has to be some distance between the crowds and the Holy Father.”

* Chaput acknowledged that members of the right wing of the Catholic church “generally have not been really happy” with some aspects of Francis’ early months and said the pope will have to find a way “to care for them, too.”

* Chaput defended Francis on concerns in some circles that he’s been silent on abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, saying, “I can’t imagine he won’t be as pro-life and pro-traditional marriage as any of the other popes.” He insisted the bishop of Rome “has to talk about those things.”

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TENNESSEE
WATE

By LAURA HALM
6 News Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Attorneys for a former Knoxville priest convicted of child rape returned to a courtroom Tuesday to appeal his conviction.

William Casey was convicted in 2011 in Sullivan County of criminal sexual conduct and aggravated rape in a case that dated back to the 1970s.

He was sentenced to a 35-year prison term.

The victim, Warren Tucker, is now in his forties. He says the abuse lasted for years.

The defense team is asking the Tennessee Court of Appeals judges to dismiss Casey’s conviction.

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TENNESSE
KnoxNews

By Jamie Satterfield
Posted July 23, 2013

The fate of a former Kingsport priest convicted in a decades-old molestation of an altar boy could rest on the shoulders of another Tennessee child rapist.

Attorneys for William “Bill” Casey, 79, on Tuesday asked a three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals to toss out convictions the former priest received in the molestation of a then-teenager more than three decades ago. The victim, Warren Tucker, now in his late 40s, did not disclose the molestation to law enforcement until 2010.

Father and son defense team Rick Spivey and Matthew Spivey are relying in large part on a Wilson County child rape case in which the victim kept the rape quiet for 42 years in arguing Casey’s constitutional rights were violated, and the case should be thrown out.

It was 1950 when Harold Winter Gray allegedly raped his niece. It would be 1992 — when she said she became concerned about possible molestation of Gray’s granddaughter — before she went to authorities.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Government has confirmed that it does not think there is a basis to include the Bethany Home residents for compensation within the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.

It’s also decided that it’s not going to introduce a specific scheme for the Bethany Home resident.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The Government has decided it will not be introducing a redress scheme for survivors of the Protestant Bethany Home.

However, it has said it is willing to look at the questions of a memorial and the availability of records with regard to the institution.

The Government said it had confirmed the view expressed by Minister Ruairi Quinn two years ago that there was no basis for revisiting the previous government’s decision not to include the Bethany Home within the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.

The Bethany Survivors Group has strongly criticised the Government’s decision.

Chairperson of the group Derek Leinster said: “The offer to look at records production and “modest” funding for a memorial is an insult.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Steven Carroll, Arthur Beesley

The Government has ruled out creating a redress scheme for former residents of the Bethany Mother and Child Home and stated that they will not be able to access existing compensation funds.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, who briefed Cabinet colleagues on the matter today, said he understood the decision would be “disappointing” for the former residents.

Mr Shatter said the Government was willing to look at developing a memorial and making records relating to the Protestant-run home available.

“I understand this is disappointing for the group involved but the Government has taken its time and arrived carefully at this decision,” he said.

The Bethany Home Survivors Group said an offer of “modest funding” towards a memorial and making records available was “an insult” and that it would continue its campaign for justice.

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TEXAS
Amarillo Globe-News

By Jim McBride
jim.mcbride@amarillo.com

An attorney representing a former Tulia priest facing child indecency charges has asked a judge to change the location of the trial, citing extensive local and national publicity.

Lubbock Attorney Rod Hobson said in court documents that John Anthony Salazar, 57, charged with indecency with a child for allegedly touching a 12-year-old boy’s genitals, cannot obtain a fair trial in Tulia. The alleged abuse began in 1997.

“It is feared that many, many people that would be potential jurors in this case have already made up their mind on Salazar’s guilt. There exists in the community such a great prejudice that the defendant cannot receive a fair and impartial trial in this county,” according to a motion for a change of venue.

The motion also includes statements from three Swisher County residents who agree that Salazar can’t receive a fair trial in Tulia.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 24, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

He has moved on with his life but even nine years after the court case, the man who endured years of “dreadful” abuse as a boy by a Catholic priest in the Hunter Valley could not keep the incredulity from his voice.

On that day in 2004 when Father James Fletcher was found guilty of all charges of sexually abusing him, Fletcher’s bishop, Michael Malone – “his” bishop, his father’s boss – rang his home and asked his father to put him on the phone.

“I still remember, he told me that Fletcher would never work in the diocese again and he asked me to keep my faith. To this day I wonder what faith he was talking about,” the man known as AH told the silent courtroom at the NSW government inquiry into alleged church and police cover-ups of child sexual abuse by priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

AH told of how he was “an innocent little kid with a big hope for the future” when Fletcher stole the promise from his life. He remembered other things in gut-wrenching detail. The priest’s number plate – JPF004 – ”will always be in my head”. He remembered how during the trial, clergy visited and supported Fletcher but none went near him and his family, they “didn’t want to look at us”. It was a feeling of two sides, he said, “completely opposite”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A victim of a Hunter Valley paedophile priest has praised the policeman who blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

The inquiry is investigating allegations the Catholic church covered-up abuse by priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Fletcher died in jail just two years into his 10-year sentence for abusing a victim, known as AH.

AH told the inquiry he wonders how different his life would be if senior clergy had taken action against Fletcher years before his abuse, instead of moving the priest from parish to parish.

“There are many, many more victims so I want the commission to uncover that,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Adelle M. Banks| Religion News Service, Tuesday, July 23

More than 1,200 people have signed an online petition decrying the “silence” and “inattention” of evangelical leaders to sexual abuse in their churches.

The statement was prompted by recent child abuse allegations against Sovereign Grace Ministries, an umbrella group of 80 Reformed evangelical churches based in Louisville, Ky.

“Recent allegations of sexual abuse and cover-up within a well known international ministry and subsequent public statements by several evangelical leaders have angered and distressed many, both inside and outside of the Church,” reads the three-page statement spearheaded by GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment).

“These events expose the troubling reality that, far too often, the Church’s instincts are no different than from those of many other institutions, responding to such allegations by moving to protect her structures rather than her children.”

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Karen Soto Galindo – 23/07/2013

El ministro de fuero, Juan Manuel Muñoz, fijó para el próximo 8 de agosto la toma de declaración del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, en el marco de la indagatoria solicitada por los denunciantes, para luego interponer una demanda civil en contra del Arzobispado de Santiago.

La diligencia se realizará en un convento ubicado en Parque Bustamante de Santiago, donde el sacerdote cumple penitencia tras ser condenado por el Vaticano por el delito de abuso sexual.

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CHILE
Terra

Caso Karadima: juez fija para el 8 de agosto el interrogatorio a sacerdote en acción civil

El ministro de fuero, Juan Muñoz Pardo, reagendó todos los interrogatorios al sacerdote Fernando Karadima y otros dos sacerdotes por la demanda contra el Arzobispado de Santiago que presentaron tres de sus víctimas.

El magistrado fijó las diligencias para este jueves 8 de agosto, a las 16 horas, en el lugar de enclaustamiento eclesiástico contra el ex párroco de El Bosque.

En noviembre del año pasado, el médico James Hamilton, el filósofo Juan Andrés Murillo y el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz interpusieron una “pre demanda” civil por daños y perjuicios, en la que exigirán al Arzobispado de Santiago una indemnización económica.

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TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: July 23, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

We hope a judge will affirm the conviction of Father William Casey who sexually assaulted a boy and was found guilty in 2011. For the safety of kids, he should remain in prison.

We hope that other victims and witnesses will look to this case for the inspiration to come forward. Although putting a predator in prison doesn’t undo the crime, it does prevent the same from happening to other children.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

by STEPHEN MCGINTY
Published on the
23 July

THE new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh is to be named tomorrow as the Vatican announces who will succeed Cardinal Keith O’Brien who resigned in disgrace after admitting inappropriate behaviour with a number of priests.

• Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s successor to be named tomorrow morning
• New Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to be introduced by Archbishop Philip Tartaglia

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, until now Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese, will introduce the new Archbishop-elect to the archdiocese at 11am.

The new Archbishop will answer questions and deliver his first message to the Archdiocese which has been shocked by the scandal surrounding Cardinal O’Brien who was revealed to have had a number of inappropriate relationships with priests and seminarians.

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TENNESSEE
WBIR

(WBIR-Knoxville) A Knoxville court will hear the appeal of a former East Tennessee priest convicted of sexually molesting an altar boy Tuesday afternoon.

A judge sentenced former priest William Casey to more than 30 years in prison in Nov. 2011. A Sullivan County jury convicted Casey of sexually molesting Warren Tucker between 1978 and 1980, while Tucker served as an alter boy.

Casey’s hearing to appeal the conviction is set for 1:30 p.m. in the court of criminal appeals.

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OHIO
NBC4i

By: Denise Yost, Multimedia Content Manager

COLUMBUS, Ohio –
The man accused of attempting to trade nude photos and sex acts for positions in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir was released on bond Monday afternoon.

Zachary Ruppel, 26, is facing two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and one count of compelling prostitution. He appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Monday afternoon, and two types of bond were set at $25,000.

Columbus police say Ruppel was soliciting nude pictures and sex acts in exchange for positions in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir from his St. Francis DeSales High School students, as well as other juveniles involved with the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir in 2011.

Ruppel is no longer employed by the school.

Detectives searched Ruppel’s home after complaints were made to Ohio State Fair Choir staff about the allegations against Ruppel.

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OHIO
Columbus Dispatch

By Kathy Lynn Gray and Allison Manning
Tuesday July 23, 2013

Investigators are combing through a cache of nude photos that police suspect were solicited by a former youth choir director who is facing child-sex charges.

Already, Zachary R. Ruppel, 26, a former St. Francis DeSales High School choir director and former Ohio State Fair choir staff member, is charged with soliciting nude pictures and sex acts from two boys in exchange for membership in the state fair choir.

But Sgt. Terry McConnell, of the Columbus police sexual-assault unit, said there are many more victims.

Investigators are trying to identify the boys in photos found on Ruppel’s cellphone and iPad, using school yearbooks and, when possible, school staff members to review cropped photos. Some victims, officials say, were DeSales students; some were choir members.

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SCOTLAND
Edinburgh News

A NEW Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh is to be announced tomorrow to replace shamed Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former head of the church in Scotland.

The Catholic Church in Scotland said it would make the announcement at 11am in Edinburgh.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, until now Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese, will introduce the new Archbishop-elect who will then speak to clergy, staff and media and deliver his first message to the Archdiocese.

Since being ordered to leave Scotland by the Vatican around two months ago, it is understood Cardinal O’Brien has been staying at an enclosed abbey in the English midlands.

The Papal nuncio to the UK said on a recent visit that he hopes a new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh will be appointed soon.

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CANADA
APTN

By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News

The commission created to delve into the dark history of residential schools has been in possession of documents related to nutritional experiments conducted on First Nations people for at least three years, according to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s office.

Valcourt’s office said most of the 900 documents were turned over to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2010 and the rest in 2011. The documents are all related to nutritional experiments conducted on First Nations people and children in residential schools between 1942 and 1952.

“These are abhorrent examples of the dark pagers of the residential schools’ legacy,” said Andrea Richer, in an email to APTN National News.

A spokesperson for the TRC confirmed the commission is in possession of the documents. The spokesperson said TRC Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair believes the commission’s researchers need to take a thorough look at the documents before issuing any comment.

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ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 23

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

In what an expert calls a “highly unusual move,” a predator priest – who has quietly been living in Phoenix and is licensed to teach in Arizona – is seeking $450,000 in “back pay,” from his Catholic supervisors.

[Merced Sun-Star]

Fr. Marvin T. Knighton was tried on two child sexual abuse charges in Milwaukee in 2003. The statute of limitation had expired on one of the charges. Knighton was acquitted on the other charge.

But Milwaukee Catholic officials dismissed him because they found at least two of his four victims credible.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Cardinal Newman Society

July 23, 2013, at 9:08 AM | By Matthew Archbold

“Where has obedience got us?”

That was the question posed by Fr. Helmut Schüller in a speech at Chestnut Hill College, according to The National Catholic Reporter which covered the event.

OrdinationThe Cardinal Newman Society exclusively reported earlier this month that Fr. Schüller was barred from speaking at any parish or diocesan-related facility in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia because of his views that, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, “diverge very seriously from Catholic belief and practice” including female ordination.

The Archdiocese released a statement earlier this month, saying that Schüller’s presence on the campus of a Catholic college “inevitably damages the unity of the local Church.” Archbishop Chaput’s concerns were communicated to the college and the Sisters of St. Joseph who run the college to no avail.

Father Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priest Initiative, was a leader in a movement that issued a “Call to Disobedience,” which advocated for the ability of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive sacraments as well as the ordination of women and married men.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

THE Archbishop of York has stressed the Church of England will learn from any failings after announcing the team who will lead an independent inquiry into allegations of child abuse against a former cathedral dean.

Dr John Sentamu revealed yesterday that members of the independent inquiry will report back to him with recommendations by the end of October after conducting the investigation into the allegations against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral.

Dr Sentamu’s predecessor, Lord Hope of Thornes, has denied suggestions he covered up allegations against Mr Waddington, who died from cancer five years ago.

The Times has claimed that Lord Hope, who was Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, was twice informed about allegations against Mr Waddington, who is said to have abused a chorister in Manchester in the 1980s and a schoolboy in Australia.

The paper said the former Archbishop spoke to Mr Waddington and banned him from taking services but did not report him to the police.

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CANADA
Times Colonist

The abuses in Canada’s Indian residential schools have been a stain on the country’s history, but the experiments carried out on unwitting children in the schools and on adults outside are staggering in their callousness.

It is not enough to say, as is often said in other cases, that times were different and we cannot judge previous generations by current standards. Even in the 1940s and 1950s, experimenting on people without their knowledge or consent was wrong. To do it to children was monstrous.

Ian Mosby, a food historian from the University of Guelph, has uncovered documents showing that between 1942 and 1952, malnourished people were subjected to nutrition experiments at the Alberni Indian Residential School, five other residential schools across Canada and reserves in northern Manitoba.

The projects began in March 1942, when researchers descended on several northern Manitoba reserves. They were headed by Dr. Percy Moore, Indian Affairs Branch superintendent of medical services, and RCAF Wing Commander Dr. Frederick Tisdall, the co-inventor of Pablum, who was described as Canada’s leading nutrition expert

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

TUESDAY JULY 23, 2013
THE RECORD

A PASTOR in Oradell allowed a priest to stay in his rectory who had been accused of sexually molesting a teenage boy. The Rev. Thomas Iwanowski and a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark said allowing Monsignor Robert Chabak to stay at St. Joseph’s rectory was “an act of compassion.” We ask: “To whom?”

Certainly not to the boy who was allegedly molested in the 1970s. The archdiocese removed Chabak from ministry in 2004 after it determined there was credible evidence to support the allegations. The statute of limitations had passed, and no criminal charges were filed. In May, the archdiocese was made aware of a second allegation regarding Chabak.

Iwanowski has known Chabak for more than 40 years; they met in seminary. When Chabak’s home in Toms River was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, the archdiocese gave him permission to stay at the rectory in Oradell. St. Joseph School is a block away.

The church’s pastor has resigned effective July 31, saying it was a mutual decision between him and the archdiocese and had nothing to do with the Chabak incident. Some disagree that the resignation had nothing to do with Chabak. It is a small point either way.

What is not so small is that the archdiocese thought it was appropriate to allow someone it had removed from active ministry because of a credible sexual-abuse allegation to live in a parish rectory near a school and not tell parishioners or be concerned that the priest could venture out. Chabak was not under house arrest; he was free to go wherever he chose, and the archdiocese continues to minimize the potential risks this raised for children and, of lesser consequence, the damage these kinds of decisions have on the Catholic Church’s reputation.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

A priest was terminated from his position at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church because he failed to follow a direct order that related to the safety of children, according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

Father Paul Gofigan was asked to terminate the employment of an employee publically known to have a sex offense on his record, the Archdiocese stated.

Gofigan, in a letter he disseminated on Saturday to the Dededo parishioners said he did terminate the employee. He noted that the crime had been committed more than 32 years ago.

The Archdiocese said an investigation showed the person continued to have an active presence at the parish as a volunteer.

“The person had keys to the facilities and had an active role on church grounds in different ways,” the Archdiocese stated.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 23, 2013

A VICTIM of paedophile priest Jim Fletcher known as AH has given an emotional statement to the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle about the impact Fletcher’s abuse has had on his life.

The case of AH, who cannot be named, has been a centrepiece of this inquiry and his appearance in the witness box had been long anticipated.

The commission room, including Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, broke into applause at the end of his statement.

Commissioner Cunneen reminded AH that no shame remained with him under the shame was properly wear it now lay.

AH began by telling the commission of the difficulty he had in telling people about the abuse.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

VIDEO: Father Paul Believes His Canonical Rights as a Priest Were Violated

Guam – Father Paul Gofigan, the overthrown priest of Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Dededo, has spoken out about the controversy over his defiance from the Archdiocese, saying he believes his canonical rights as a priest were violated.

The Archdiocese of Agana, however, says the decision to replace father Paul was out made of concern for the safety of the children.

“I just would like to say that I didn’t really mean for this to escalate as far as it did but there is a point to be made here that my office as pastor of Santa Barbara is a canonical one and therefore being canonical, removing a pastor from a parish has its own canonical process,” says Father Paul Gofigan.

Father Paul believes his rights were violated when Archbishop Anthony Apuron forced him to resign without fair warning. The controversy stems from a decision Father Paul made about two years ago to hire a convicted sex offender at the Santa Barbara Church. The crime was rape and it was committed over 32 years ago when the man was about 21 years old. His victim at the time was an 18 year old female. About two years ago, in 2011, Archbishop Apuron warned Father Paul about that decision.

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OHIO
Coshocton Tribune

Choir volunteer charged with soliciting nude photos, sexual favors passed four background checks, fair spokeswoman says

Written by
Valerie Boateng and Elizabeth Dickson
Staff Writers

COLUMBUS — A man accused of soliciting nude photos and sexual favors in regard to the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir had volunteered with the organization for only one year.

Zachary Ruppel, 26, of Columbus, was arrested and charged with disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and compelling prostitution involving a minor in regard to the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir.

Ruppel was an unpaid volunteer in 2011 and has not been a volunteer or had official contact with the fair since, said Alicia Shoults, state fair spokeswoman. Shoults said Ruppel passed four rounds of background checks before he was allowed to become a volunteer.

Those reviews included a check with the sex offender registry and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction as well as a drug test and background check.

Columbus Police Department Sgt. Terry McConnell said complaints were made to the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir staff that Ruppel was soliciting nude photos and sex acts in exchange for positions in the choir from his St. Francis DeSales High School students as well as other juveniles involved with the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir dating back to 2011.

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ILLINOIS
Lake County News-Sun

By Jim Newton jnewton@stmedianetwork.com July 22, 2013

Several defense motions, including a request to dismiss the case against a Benedictine monk accused of child abduction attempts in the Antioch area, will be the focus of a hearing Aug. 21 in Lake County Circuit Court.

Thomas Chmura is charged with four counts of child abduction, a felony punishable with up to three years in prison, related to his alleged offering of rides to a number of girls whose ages ranged from 11 to 14 on April 25 and April 26.

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FLORIDA
WPTV

[with video]

By: Marissa Bagg
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Members of the Boca Raton Synagogue remain on edge as a longtime member of their congregation was named in a sex abuse lawsuit.

19 former students of the Yeshiva University school in New York City claim they were repeatedly abused by two rabbis and a youth volunteer in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

“He’s a good person, he does good things in the community, but you never know,” said Boca Raton Synagogue member Eyal Cohen.

The lawsuit alleges Richard Andron molested high school students while working as a volunteer at the school in Manhattan.

Andron briefly spoke with NewsChannel 5 off-camera at his Boca Raton home Monday about the allegations. He said he was cooperating with the investigation but had no other comment.

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Trinidad Express

By Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Jul 22, 2013

An official of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican, who was once stationed in Trinidad and Tobago, has been named in a “gay lobby” scandal currently affecting the church.

On June 15, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Battista Ricca the Prelate of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank.

The Italian news magazine L’Espresso on Friday published an article which linked Ricca to the “gay lobby” and revealed he has been involved in several relationships with men.

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BRAZIL
ABC News (US)

By SANTIAGO WILLS
July 22, 2013

A group of Brazilian women will wear suggestive nun outfits and other erotic attire when they march in Rio this week during Pope Francis’ first visit to Brazil. The protest — called “SlutWalk” — is part of an international rally that began in Toronto in 2011 against sexual profiling and sexual abuse.

“We’ve decided to organize SlutWalk during the Pope’s visit to establish a political counterpoint,” Rogeria Peixinho, an activist from the Association of Brazilian Women, told EFE. “We want to show that there’s another youth and another way of thinking that is against oppression and the control of female sexuality.”

The pope is set to land in Brazil today to celebrate World Youth Day, a five-day gathering between the pope and Catholic youth from all around the globe that takes place every two or three years.

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NEW JERSEY
Herald News

TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013
HERALD NEWS

A PASTOR in Oradell allowed a priest to stay in his rectory who had been accused of sexually molesting a teenage boy. The Rev. Thomas Iwanowski and a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark said allowing Monsignor Robert Chabak to stay at St. Joseph’s rectory was “an act of compassion.” We ask: “To whom?”

Certainly not to the boy who was allegedly molested in the 1970s. The archdiocese removed Chabak from ministry in 2004 after it determined there was credible evidence to support the allegations. The statute of limitations had passed and no criminal charges were filed. This May, the archdiocese was made aware of a second allegation regarding Chabak.

Iwanowski has known Chabak for more than 40 years; they met in seminary. When Chabak’s home in Toms River was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, the archdiocese gave him permission to stay at the rectory in Oradell. St. Joseph School is a block away.

The church’s pastor has resigned effective July 31, saying it was a mutual decision between him and the archdiocese and had nothing to do with the Chabak incident. Some disagree that the resignation had nothing to do with Chabak. It is a small point either way.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By IAN KIRKWOOD July 23, 2013

A VICTIM of paedophile priest Jim Fletcher has given an emotional statement to the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle about the impact that the abuse has had on his life.

The abuse of the victim, known in proceedings as AH, has been a centrepiece of this inquiry and his appearance in the witness box had been long anticipated.

The commission room broke into applause at the end of his statement.

Commissioner Cunneen reminded AH that that ‘‘no shame’’ was attached to him and that his courage had ‘‘placed the same where it belongs’’.

AH began by telling the commission of the difficulty he had in telling people about the abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP JULY 23, 2013

A WITNESS has drawn tears from the public gallery and applause from the commissioner of a special inquiry as he told his story of abuse at the hands of a NSW Catholic priest.

The man, now 37, flew to Newcastle from interstate to tell how abuse at the hands of Father James Fletcher had contributed to his alcohol use, relationship breakdowns, depression, business failure and a suicide attempt.

He questioned how different his life would have turned out if the church “had done something about Fletcher years ago instead of moving him around. Would he have got to me?'”

He said Fr Fletcher did “a terrible job on me.”

“I had tried to block it out but there were many times I was tormented by memories and the shame, anger and embarrassment which had a really bad effect on me,” he told the inquiry into the police handling of child sexual abuse allegations involving Hunter Valley priests, Fr Denis McAlinden and Fr Fletcher.

“The breach of trust I have experienced at the hands of the Catholic church will affect me forever as I was an innocent little kid with a big hope for the future…I expected that when I finally got the courage to tell someone about it the church would not let me down…

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WASHINGTON
Thomson Reuters Foundation

By Elaine Porterfield

SEATTLE, July 22 (Reuters) – A registered sex offender has been jailed on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman as she was in the midst of prayer during Sunday church services in Seattle, police said on Monday.

The suspect was subdued inside the sanctuary by several of the victim’s relatives, who restrained the man until police arrived on the scene of what officers called one of the most outrageous sexual assault cases they had ever encountered, Seattle Police spokeswoman detective Renee Witt said.

“We’ve all seen and heard some pretty bizarre and egregious things, but this … it just kind of blows your mind,” Witt said.

The 25-year-old victim was accosted while attending services with her family and boyfriend on Sunday morning at Saint Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, a church just north of downtown Seattle familiar for its blue, onion-shaped domes.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By MICK McGLONE July 23, 2013

IT’S not easy being a Catholic, even for those of us who don’t involve themselves in the strict rituals of the church, such as attending Mass on Saturday or Sunday or on holy days of obligation.

It has become fashionable in recent times for the Catholic Church to be the target of all sorts of vicious and often ignorant comments, many of them of a sneering, vitriolic nature.

Quite often weaknesses or flaws of the whole Christian movement are sheeted home solely to the Catholic Church because it suits the motivations of many of its critics.

But Catholics must share the shame of the evil of child sexual abuse that has been perpetrated by some of its clergy over many years.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Norwich Evening News

Peter Walsh
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Norfolk Roman Catholic priest has been charged in relation to alleged historic sexual abuse at a children’s home.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 66, of St George’s Church in Norwich, was charged with three counts of indecent assault, three of making indecent images of a child, one count of taking indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child following an investigation into abuse alleged to have taken place at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, west London, the Metropolitan Police said.

A second man, John Stingemore, 71, was charged with eight counts of indecent assault, two of taking indecent images of a child and one count of conspiracy with persons unknown to commit buggery.

The charges relate to seven victims, all of whom were aged between nine and 15 when the offences are alleged to have taken place during the 1970s and 80s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Dan Cox

A victim of a Hunter Valley paedophile priest says a Catholic bishop told him to “keep the faith” the day his abuser was found guilty.

The man known as AH was abused by Maitland-Newcastle priest James Fletcher and is the first victim to have given evidence at the New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry’s public hearings in Newcastle.

The inquiry is investigating claims the Catholic church covered up the crimes of Fletcher and another priest, Denis McAlinden.

AH said those responsible for the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by clergy must be held accountable.

He told the inquiry the day Fletcher was found guilty of abusing him, the bishop at the time Michael Malone rang and asked him to “keep the faith”.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 23, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

The black-haired man with sparkling eyes sat nervously in the witness stand, his voice faltering as he tried to count the cost to his life and his family of years of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest when he was a boy.

By the time he was finished the courtroom was weeping with him – at the bar table, in the public gallery, in the media seats. The room erupted in applause.

The victim, whose name is suppressed, told the state government inquiry into church and police cover-ups of sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley that he had been “an innocent little kid with a big hope for the future” when Father James Fletcher began sexually abusing him. Fletcher was convicted of the abuse in 2004 and died in jail in 2006.

The abuse left his victim feeling as an adult that he was “just stuffing up my life”. AH, as he is known at the inquiry, eyeballed his younger brothers, there in the court to support him with his mother and father, and confessed he was sometimes jealous of them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Littlehampton Gazette

A Roman Catholic priest from West Sussex has been charged in relation to alleged historic sexual abuse at a children’s home, police said.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 66, was charged with three counts of indecent assault, three of making indecent images of a child, one count of taking indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child following an investigation into abuse alleged to have taken place at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, west London, the Metropolitan Police said.

A second man, John Stingemore, 71, was charged with eight counts of indecent assault, two of taking indecent images of a child and one count of conspiracy with persons unknown to commit buggery.

The charges relate to seven victims, all of whom were aged between nine and 15 when the offences are alleged to have taken place during the 1970s and 80s.

McSweeney, of Old Brighton Road North, Pease Pottage, West Sussex, and Stingemore, of Stonehouse Drive, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 4.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Archdiocese Says Sex Offender Continued to Work at Santa Barbabra Church as Volunteer, After His Dismissal

Guam – The Archdiocese of Agana maintains that an investigation by Church officials showed that a convicted sex offender continued to work as a volunteer at Dededo’s Santa Barbara Church, even after the Archbishop ordered Father Paul Gofigan to fire him.

A news release from the Archdiocese Monday night, defends the decision to replace Father Paul as Pastor of the Church and insists that the safety of children is foremost.

Archdiocese Archbishop Anthony is off-island and the release was issued by Vicar General Monsignor David Quitugua on behalf of the Archdiocese following the public disclosure of a July 16th letter from the Archbishop to Father Gofigan demanding his resignation, and Father Gofigan’s July 20th letter to parishioners refusing to resign.

In his letter to parishioners issued last Saturday, Father Paul said that instead of complying with the Archbishop’s demand for his resignation he has decided instead to seek a canonical hearing so he can “defend himself and save my vocation as a priest.” Father Paul insisted in his letter to parishioners that he had complied with the Archbishop’s 2011 order that he fire a registered sex offender.

But in his release Monday night, the Archbishop However, our investigation has revealed that the person continued to have an active presence at the parish as a volunteer. The person had keys to the facilities and had an active role on church grounds in different ways.

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OHIO
NBC4i

By: Alex Carbello

COLUMBUS, Ohio –
A man who volunteered with the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir is facing two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and one count of compelling prostitution.

Columbus police say Zachary R. Ruppel, 26, was soliciting nude pictures and sex acts in exchange for positions in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir from his St. Francis DeSales High School students, as well as other juveniles involved with the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir in 2011.

Detectives searched Ruppel’s home after complaints were made to Ohio State Fair Choir staff about the allegations against Ruppel.

The two victims in the most recent incident are a 15-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy, according to a Columbus police report.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch
Monday July 22, 2013

The former St. Francis DeSales High School in Columbus choir director and former Ohio State Fair choir staff member has been arrested on child sex charges.

Zachary R. Ruppel, 26, was charged yesterday by Columbus police for soliciting nude pictures and sex acts from DeSales students and other juveniles in exchange for membership in the State Fair choir dating back to 2011. Choir directors across the state recommend students for membership in the state fair choir.

Ruppel, of 4906 Lunar Dr., was a member of the state fair choir staff that year. He was the DeSales choir director until he resigned at the end of the school year, according to a DeSales student who answered the phone at the school on Friday.

The director of the choir, Charles R. Snyder, was put on leave on July 11 by fair manager Virgil Strickler because of the investigation. Sgt. Terry McConnell of the Police Division’s sexual-assault unit said Friday that Snyder has not been cleared in the investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of Australia’s most senior Catholic church officials is scheduled to front an inquiry into an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by clergy in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

Catholic Church documents tendered to the inquiry show the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference, father Brian Lucas, knew about abuse by Denis McAlinden, one of the two priests at the centre of the investigation.

Father Lucas is scheduled to give evidence later today or tomorrow.

The documents show there was “a possible confession” by McAlinden to Father Lucas in 1993, and that McAlinden was asked by the bishop to retire because of his “ill health”.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

Kevin Eckstrom | Jul 22, 2013

WASHINGTON (RNS) An Austrian priest who’s been banned from speaking at Roman Catholic churches during his three-week U.S. tour said Pope Francis could be an ally in reforming the Catholic Church, but said it will take more than the pope to open the priesthood to married men and women.

The Rev. Helmut Schuller, founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, has been drawing crowds of several hundred people with his call for greater participation from the church’s lay “citizens” and a married priesthood.

“We are trying to open the church to a real approach to modern society,” Schuller said Monday (July 22) in a speech at the National Press Club. “There are a lot of questions to our church in these times, and the answers are really old-fashioned.”

Schuller is the key organizer behind a group of about 430 Austrian priests who are openly challenging the hierarchy on allowing women priests, married priests, same-sex marriages and lay Catholics’ voice in the election of bishops.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter

Caitlin Hendel | Jul. 22, 2013

WASHINGTON Women who have chosen to become ordained Catholic priests are “very prophetic,” Fr. Helmut Schüller told a group of journalists Monday, but he said the focus still should be on opening up the entire priesthood to women.

“It’s a system we have to change,” he said during a press conference at the National Press Club here. “It’s a question of strategy.”

Even so, “we see in these women who are ordained already very prophetic women,” Schüller said.

He also is wary of any moves to allow women to become deacons, saying he has heard the Vatican is trying to degrade the structure of the deaconate, possibly as a preparatory strategy before making such a change. “I’m warning sometimes: Pay attention, as it could be a threat,” he said.

Washington is the fifth stop on Schüller’s 15-city, coast-to-coast tour of the United States that began July 16. He speaks Monday night at the Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington. His appearances in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore have attracted crowds of 300 to 700 people, with several hundred spilling out of a small church in the sweltering heat of Boston last week.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By SARA SMYTH

A 66-year-old priest and 71-year-old man have been charged in relation to alleged historic sexual abuse at a children’s home in Hounslow, police said tonight.

Father Anthony McSweeney was today charged with three counts of indecent assault, three of making indecent images of a child, one count of taking indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child.

The arrests follow an investigation into the abuse alleged to have taken place at Grafton Close Children’s Home in west London.

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BRAZIL
Huffington Post

A bomb has been found at a shrine that Pope Francis was due to visit on Wednesday and hold a mass.

The homemade explosive device was discovered in the bathroom of the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the parking lot, reports ABC.es.

The Sao Paulo military police detonated the bomb, which had a fuse and a dynamite-like covering, after members of the Brazilian Air Force found it while conducting a security inspection.

A statement released by the police said, “”It was a home-made device with little potential to cause fatalities,” with “a plastic body and wrapped with adhesive tape.”

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BRAZIL
France 24

AFP – A homemade explosive device was discovered in the bathroom of the parking garage of the Brazilian shrine that Pope Francis will visit this week, the military said Monday.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . . According to today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, more than a decade ago,then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan acknowledged in a letter that most accused predator priests “painfully and admirably admit” their own guilt. The letter, recently disclosed because victims pushed to get church records released, goes on to urge forgiveness for the offenders. . .

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew

Mon, Jul 22, 2013

On the eve of the departure of Pope Francis this morning for the week-long World Youth Day celebrations in Brazil, Italian weekly news magazine L’Espresso suggested he has just made the first serious error of his pontificate.

The report claims he recently and unknowingly appointed an actively gay Vatican monsignor to a senior post in the Vatican bank, IOR.

L’Espresso claims Msgr Battista Ricca (57), who last month was nominated as secretary to the commission of cardinals who oversee the affairs of IOR, has a colourful and well-documented gay past.

Although the concerns raised in the article about Msgr Ricca seem legitimate, Vatican observers last night suggested the report might be intended as a Curia shot across the bows of the reform-minded pope.

L’Espresso claims that in 1999 to 2000, when Msgr Ricca served as pro-nuncio in Uruguay, he had a “ménage à deux” in the Vatican nunciature with his then lover, Swiss army captain Patrick Haari. It also claims he was involved in a brawl at a gay bar in 2001.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Belfast Telegraph

22 JULY 2013

A Roman Catholic priest has been charged in relation to alleged historic sexual abuse at a children’s home, police said.

Father Anthony McSweeney, 66, was charged with three counts of indecent assault, three of making indecent images of a child, one count of taking indecent images of a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child following an investigation into abuse alleged to have taken place at Grafton Close Children’s Home in Hounslow, west London, the Metropolitan Police said.

A second man, John Stingemore, 71, was charged with eight counts of indecent assault, two of taking indecent images of a child and one count of conspiracy with persons unknown to commit buggery.

The charges relate to seven victims, all of whom were aged between nine and 15 when the offences are alleged to have taken place during the 1970s and 80s.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The NSW government enquiry into child sexual abuse by priests in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese had a non-hearing day today. The rest of the week is largely taken up by clergy, Hart, Searle, Lucas and Harrigan. Friday should see priest, Burston (he of the poor memory), finally front the enquiry after having been excused, last Friday, by Commissioner Cunneen, because he was stressed by victim protests.

During the week, evidence will be heard from Elizabeth Doyle and Patricia Feenan. Ms. Feenan, whose son Daniel was abused, has written a book, “Holy Hell” (available at http://www.holyhell.com.au/).

Hart has already given some evidence. He was asked by the Commissioner about a letter stating an abusive priest was “ill”. She said, “And this reference to health in the first sentence of the letter, could it be a coy way to refer to his propensity to the sexual abuse of children?” Hart simply answered “Yes”. Earlier in the day, he had said that he was unaware of any confidential files held by the diocese leaders involving allegations of sexual abuse by the region’s priests. He only learned of their existence when he went to Sydney this year to discuss his evidence to the commission with a legal representative.

Harrigan was an old friend of serial abuser, Fr.Fletcher. He conducted the funeral service for Fletcher, who had died in prison. Father Harrigan, who was reported as being visibly upset at the end of proceedings, asked the congregation to pray for Fletcher and his family. He prayed for Fletcher to be forgiven his sins.

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CALIFORNIA
10 News

Posted: 07/22/2013

Mitch Blacher

SAN DIEGO – Team 10 has obtained a video that some people say helps to prove Jehovah’s Witnesses covered up child abuse for years.

In a video deposition taken in 2011 during a civil lawsuit, admitted serial pedophile Gonzalo Campos said he abused several children in his San Diego congregation from the early 1980’s through the mid 90’s.

“I did abuse him,” said Campos in the video. “I touched his private parts.”

((See the video deposition today on 10News At 5:00.))

His on-camera admissions and a confidential settlement worth millions, may have to be enough for his victims. The Jehovah’s Witnesses never told police about Campos, who was a church elder. He’s never been charged with a crime and he may never see the inside of a prison cell. He has fled the country and now is in Mexico. He also still is a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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UNITED KINGDOM
This is Local London

The former deputy head of Richmond Council’s Grafton Close children’s home has been charged with offences on boys aged nine to 15.

John Stingemore, 71, was today charged along with Father Anthony McSweeney, 66, with indecent assault and making indecent images of children.

Both were arrested under the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Fernbridge, which is investigating historic allegations of sexual abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes.

They were charged today and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on bail on September 4.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

A priest was terminated from his position at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church because he failed to follow a direct order that related to the safety of children, according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

Father Paul Gofigan was asked to terminate the employment of an employee publically known to have a sex offense on his record, the Archdiocese stated.

Gofigan, in a letter he disseminated on Saturday to the Dededo parishioners said he did terminate the employee. He noted that the crime had been committed more than 32 years ago.

The Archdiocese said an investigation showed the person continued to have an active presence at the parish as a volunteer.

“The person had keys to the facilities and had an active role on church grounds in different ways,” the Archdiocese stated.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Chackes, Carlson and Halquist

CCH FILES LAWSUIT ALLEGING DIRECT INVOLVEMENT BY ARCHBISHOP OF ST LOUIS IN FAILING TO SUPERVISE ABUSIVE PRIEST

CCH attorneys Ken Chackes and Nicole Gorovsky filed a new lawsuit on behalf of a young teenage girl and her parents, seeking to hold the Archdiocese of St Louis and Archbishop Robert Carlson responsible for the injuries they caused due to sexual abuse of the young girl by a priest. The accused priest, Fr. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, was personally supervised by Archbishop Carlson since the priest was moved from China to the United States, while Carlson was a Bishop in Michigan. Fr. Jiang moved with Carlson to St Louis when he became Archbishop, and lived in the Archbishop’s residence.

The young girl first met Jiang when she was fifteen years old and she attended church with her family at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. Jiang became very close to the family and he regularly visited their home in Lincoln County, Missouri.

The Archdiocese and Archbishop had at least two warnings about Jiang. During the time that Jiang was getting close to the young girl, he reported to his superiors that he needed a reassignment because he was having personal problems. But despite the warnings, Jiang was allowed to resume unlimited access to this young girl and her family.

After the parents discovered the abuse, they confronted Fr. Jiang about it, and Jiang admitted it to them. He then tried to give them a $20,000 check. Archbishop Carlson soon called the parents and told them that Fr Jiang also admitted the wrongdoing to him. During that conversation, the mother asked Carlson if Jiang would be removed from the priesthood and Archbishop Carlson responded that he would remove Jiang if he “had sex” with the child, but not for activities other than that. Archbishop Carlson then suggested that the parents return the $20,000 check to him.

Instead, the parents turned the matter over to the police. Jiang is now being prosecuted criminally for two felonies, for engaging in sexual conduct with the child and for victim tampering by trying to pay the family to let the matter drop. The criminal case is being prosecuted by the Prosecuting Attorney of Lincoln County.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Patricia Lefevere | Jul. 22, 2013

PHILADELPHIA
At best, the Catholic church has five to six years before the shortage of clergy members plays itself out in unknown ways in Europe and North America. This is the so-called “Catholic Tipping Point” foreseen by Austrian Fr. Helmut Schüller, one of the most vocal advocates for new models of leadership in the church. The remarks came in an extended interview with NCR before his Friday evening address at Chestnut Hill College here.

Schüller and approximately 400 Austrian priests — about 10 percent of the nation’s total Catholic clergy — launched the Austrian Priests’ Initiative in 2006 following worry and discussions about who would care for their parishes when there were not enough priests to take over after they retire. In 2011, they issued an “Appeal to Disobedience” in which they pledged, among other things, not to celebrate multiple Sunday Masses. The movement seeks to open the priesthood to each person suited for the office, including women and married men.

Schüller, 60, said the word “disobedience” upsets many people, but he showed no sign of finding a less troublesome word. “Where has obedience got us?” he asked, reviewing his own priesthood of 36 years. “I feel the church often misuses obedience to keep people down.”

In an afternoon meeting with 20 priests of the Philadelphia archdiocese at Chestnut Hill College, the Austrian cleric said he found “a lot of sympathy” and “very supportive” comments from local priests. Some, he said, shared experiences similar to his in Vienna and told Schüller how their work had, at times, brought them into conflict with church authorities.

He pointed to growing frustrations among priests who are asked to pastor three or four cluster parishes. “There is the tension of having to do the same thing continually and not having sufficient time to get to know parishioners,” he said, adding that he thought the idea of such a ministry impeded men from joining the priesthood. “My hope is that these potential candidates will not leave the church but will become engaged lay leaders.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
PRWeb

Beyond the Bridge, the prequel to Tom MacDonald’s award winning debut novel, The Charlestown Connection, will be officially released on August 6, 2013.

Fans of MacDonald, his novels, and his Irish/Micmac Indian protagonist, Dermot Sparhawk, are invited to the Charlestown launch on Sunday July 28th, from 1:00 to 4:00 at:

Knights of Columbus
545 Medford St.
Charlestown, MA
Entertainment provided by:
Irish Band: The Old Brigade

The author will be on hand to sign copies of his novels which will be available for purchase.

Oceanview Publishing provided the following synopsis from Beyond the Bridge:

“Dermot Sparhawk, a former all-American football star at Boston College, returns in Beyond the Bridge, the prequel to Tom MacDonald’s award-winning debut novel, The Charlestown Connection.

In Beyond the Bridge, Sparhawk, a struggling alcoholic, agrees to help find the killer of an accused pedophile priest. When two more priests are slain in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood, it becomes evident that it is the work of a sadistic serial killer who crucifies his prey after killing them.

Sparhawk blazes an unconventional trail to the killer that puts him at odds with the very people he is trying to help and initiates a turf war with law enforcement.

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NEW YORK
Failed Messiah

In a major blow to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, New York City’s largest labor union, 1199/SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, today announced its unanimous endorsement Ken Thompson for Brooklyn District Attorney. Representing over 220,000 members in New York City and 100,000 members and retirees in Brooklyn alone, the union cited Ken Thompson’s commitment to justice as the major reason for its endorsement of Thompson and rejection of Hynes, whose sloppy prosecutions and shady tactics have brought condemnation from diverse political leaders, legal scholars and community activists alike.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Sie deckte auf, dass Kinder in einer kirchlichen Behinderteneinrichtung in Tirol schwer misshandelt wurden. Dafür musste Brigitte Wanker allerdings bitter büßen. Das System schlug mit einer Wucht zurück, mit der sie nicht gerechnet hatte. Sie wollte Missstände aufzeigen und wurde als Nestbeschmutzerin bezichtigt und gezwungen, ihr Heimatland Tirol zu verlassen. Jetzt, 33 Jahre später, soll sie geehrt werden.

1980 nahm die gelernte Weberin Wanker, damals 22 Jahre alt, eine Stelle im St. Josephs Institut, geführt vom Orden der Barmherzigen Schwestern in Mils in Tirol an. Ihre Schilderungen über die brutalen Misshandlungen behinderter Kinder durch die Klosterschwestern sind erschütternd (siehe Zusatzbericht unten).

„Verbrennen“
Wanker wusste, so kann man Kinder nicht behandeln. Verzweifelt suchte sie jemanden, dem sie sich anvertrauen konnte. „Ich habe mein Tagebuch genommen und bin damit zum Leiter des Innsbrucker Jugendamtes gegangen“, sagt Wanker. Der Herr Rat wollte von den Missständen freilich nichts wissen. „Er hat mich aufgefordert, das Tagebuch zu verbrennen.“ Sie sei zu sensibel für den Beruf und solle kündigen, waren die Ratschläge, die ihr der Amtsleiter mit auf den Weg gab.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 22, 2013

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A Newark archdiocesan priest secretly let a suspended predator priest live in a parish across the street from an elementary school. He did so with the approval of his church supervisors.

Yet no one is being punished. The priest is just being moved to a new parish. The supervisors aren’t even being identified. And the predator remains on the payroll.

Without consulting with or telling St. Joseph’s parishioners, Fr. Thomas Iwanowski let Fr. Chabak live in the rectory for eight months. Fr. Chabak is a credibly accused child molester. He’s suspended from ministry.

So Newark Catholic officials again quietly put kids in danger.

That’s incredibly reckless and callous.

As he’s done time and time before, Newark’s Archbishop John Myers did nothing until this inexcusable move became public. And when it did, Myers did next to nothing.

He’s moving Iwanowski to a new parish.

No wrongdoer is facing real consequences. And we don’t even know who some of the wrongdoers are. Did Myers himself personally tell Iwanowski it was OK to let a suspended pedophile priest live in a parish? Or was it another archdiocesan supervisor?

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GUAM
KUAM

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam – Father Paul Gofigan has been asked to resign as the Pastor of Santa Barbara Catholic Church. According to a letter Father Gofigan addressed to his parishioners dated July 20th, he explained why he has been replaced by Father Dan Bien as the temporary Parochial Administrator or Santa Barbara Church.

According to the letter he was asked by the Archbishop to resign because he believes that he is still employing an individual he was directed two years ago to terminate. The individual, according to the letter, committed a crime more than 32 years ago. “I knew this individual had paid his debt to society, and had fully repented, and he and his wife and their two daughters were eager to return to the Church and embrace their Catholic faith. Although I disagreed with this decision, out of obedience to the Archbishop, I had to comply,” Fr. Gofigan wrote.

Fr. Gofigan stated the Archbishop and his advisors are under the mistaken belief that the individual was not terminated and as a result on July 16th was asked in a letter from the Archbishop to resign or “experience a more arduous and painful closure to your assignment at Santa Barbara Church.”

Fr. Gofigan says the matter could have been cleared up if they had simply spoken to him and conducted a basic investigation. He added that he could have easly accepted the Archbishop and his advisors demand to resign or follow the more difficult path which will “ultimately lead to the truth”. He said after much prayer and quiet reflection he has decided not to take the easy path and instead request for a hearing so that he can be allowed to defend himself and to save his vocation as a priest, “I cannot in good conscience accede to their demands without defending my vocation as a priest and allowing the truth to be heard,” he wrote.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam – The Archdiocese of Agana has issued a statement in response to a letter Father Fred Gofigan issued to his parishioners to explain why he had been replaced by Father Dan Bien as Parochial Administrator of Santa Barbara Church.

Father Gofigan says he was asked to resign by Archbishop Anthony Apuron because he believes he failed to terminate an individual as instructed two years ago because of his criminal past. Fr. Gofigan in his letter stated that although he disagreed with the termination “out of obedience to the Archbishop, I had to comply,” he wrote.Fr. Gofigan says the matter could have been cleared up if they had simply spoken to him and conducted a basic investigation. Fr. Gofigan said he would not resign and has since requested a hearing so that he can be allowed to defend himself and save his vocation as a priest.

In the press release from the Archdiocese it states that the Archbishop is currently off island. It further states that Father Gofigan is still a priest at this time.

The Archdiocese issued the statement to “set the record straight”. Here are the facts the press release stated:

I. INVESTIGATION & COMMUNICATION — Father Paul stated in his letter he was asked to resign despite following the Archbishop’s directive. He wrote, “… this entire issue could have been cleared up if they had simply spoken with me, and done a basic investigation…”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

Controversial Catholic priest comes to Chestnut Hill College despite Philadelphia Archdiocese ban

July 22, 2013
By Jana Shea for NewsWorks, @jujukus

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia didn’t roll out the welcome mat when Father Helmut Schüller came to town to speak at Chestnut Hill College on Friday night. The Catholic priest is something of an outlaw to the Holy See.

Schüller’s message is simple: the Catholic Church needs to get with the times.
Together with the Austrian Priests’ Initiative (API), he has put forth an “Appeal for Disobedience,” advocating for sweeping reforms.

The appeal calls for “a new image of the priest” where women and married persons may be ordained, among other proposed changes. These actions will enable the church to become deeply involved in a conversation with modern society, Schüller said.

As a result, Schüller was stripped of his monsignorship and demoted to parish priest. Schüller has embarked on a 15-city tour of the U.S. to spread the message of reform, but has been prohibited from speaking on church properties.

“The Archdiocese wanted to avoid any confusion about Catholic teaching — especially a priest speaking about Catholic teaching — so we made it very clear that Father Schüller would not be permitted to speak at any parishes or Archdiocesan facilities in the area,” said Archdiocese of Philadelphia spokesman Kenneth Gavin in a statement to NewsWorks last week.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger
on July 21, 2013

ORADELL — A Catholic priest conceded today that he may have made a mistake by arranging for a former priest once accused of molesting a teenage boy to stay in the rectory of his Bergen County parish.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” the Rev. Thomas Iwanowski of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell said after services on his next-to-last Sunday there.

Iwanowski is being removed from St. Joseph by the Archdiocese of Newark as of July 31 in the wake of a scandal over the arrangement that allowed the accused priest to live at the rectory. The situation was the subject of a report in The Sunday Star-Ledger.

It was with the permission of the archdiocese that Iwanowski, 64, allowed the Rev. Robert Chabak to stay in the rectory after his mother’s home in Toms River, where he had been living, was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. The church’s elementary school is across the street from the rectory, while the middle school building is right next door.

Parishioners were not told that Chabak, 66, a friend of Iwanowski’s since the two attended seminary together four decades ago, would be staying at the rectory and only learned of his past after he was transferred to a retirement home in February. But even after that, parishioners said, Chabak would return to St. Joseph’s to spend the night. Some grew angry and demanded he be kept away.

“Obviously, looking back, Monsignor Chabak and I, if we knew this was going to be such a difficult decision, maybe we would have moved in a different direction,” Iwanowski told reporters after the 12:30 mass. “But we tried to make a compassionate decision.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2013

BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The pastor of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell said Sunday that he’s had second thoughts about letting a priest accused of sexually molesting a teenage boy stay at the parish rectory for months.

The Rev. Thomas Iwanowski, interviewed after he celebrated the 12:30 p.m. Mass, said he has resigned effective July 31 and called it a mutual decision with the Archdiocese of Newark. He said it was based on dissatisfaction some parishioners had with his administration and leadership style.

But parishioner Daniel O’Toole said that while he has disagreed with Iwanowski on several issues, he doesn’t think those were the reasons for his departure.

“The reason he was removed, as best as I can understand it, was because he was harboring a priest with a known history for sexual predation,” O’Toole said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Archbishop of York

Monday 22nd July 2013

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has today announced the appointment of Her Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC to be Chair of an independent Inquiry into the Church’s handling of reports of alleged sexual abuse by the late Robert Waddington, formerly Dean of Manchester.

Her Honour Judge Sally Cahill QC will be assisted in the Inquiry by Joe Cocker, an Independent Social Work Consultant. The Secretary to the Inquiry is to be Mrs Nicola Harding, Solicitor, and Registrar of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.

The Inquiry will seek to establish what information suggesting that Robert Waddington had committed sexual abuse was made known to whom in the Church of England and when;

It will focus upon an examination of the way in which the relevant Child Protection Policies were or were not applied between the years 1999 and 2005 in the handling, (a) by the Diocese of Manchester and (b) by the then Archbishop of York Lord Hope, of the information provided to them suggesting that sexual abuse had been committed by the late Robert Waddington;

It will further consider whether and if so to what extent the handling of that information might have been dealt with differently if the current safeguarding Policies of the Church of England as set out in ‘Protecting all God’s Children’ (2010) and in ‘Responding Well’ (2011) had been in place.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill Crime Editor

Details of an independent inquiry into the alleged cover-up of sex abuse by a senior Church of England cleric have been announced by the Archbishop of York.

Dr John Sentamu said that the inquiry into the Church’s failure to deal with allegations against the Rev Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, would be chaired by Judge Sally Cahill, QC.

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POLAND
The News

A progressive priest who was dismissed from his parish last week caused “great harm” to the Church, according to a statement released by the curia.

“Father Wojciech Lemanski, who became a voluntary hostage of the media, caused great harm to the Church, and created grave confusion and anxiety in society,” the curia of the Warsaw-Praga diocese claimed, as cited by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“He always claimed to know better, without showing necessary restraint or a sense of proportion. Applying the principle ‘pars pro toto’, he portrayed the Church as a community of rapists, paedophiles, hypocrites, extortionists and drunkards.”

Archbishop of the Warsaw-Praga diocese Henryk Hoser issued a decree on 5 July that Father Lemanski would no longer be vicar of his parish at Jasienica, east of Warsaw, as of 9 pm on 14 July.

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VATICAN CITY
DNA (India)

Nick Squires

The first clue that the Institute for Works of Religion is a bank like no other lies just inside its imposing stone entrance. Tucked away on the left is an ATM machine with instructions in Latin: “Inserito scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem” – insert your card to determine the desired operation.

The second clue lies in the Vatican Bank building itself, the magnificent gothic Tower of Pope Nicholas V, set within the walls of the tiny city state. Centuries ago the circular, 15th century tower was used as a papal prison.

Now it is the nerve centre of a campaign to hunt down modern-day miscreants as the Vatican, under the new management of Pope Francis, embarks on a concerted effort to crack down on money-laundering, tax evasion, hidden sources of income and other abuses that have besmirched the reputation of what Forbes last year called the “most secret bank in the world.”

Those efforts have been given greater urgency in the past month with a fresh scandal involving the arrest of a Catholic priest working as an accountant in the Vatican on suspicion of money-laundering. Nunzio Scarano, who is now in a Rome jail, is accused of laundering money through at least two accounts held at the bank and of trying illicitly to bring in 20 million euros in cash on a private jet from Switzerland. In a plot worthy of a Dan Brown thriller, two others were arrested at the same time – a former member of the Italian secret services and a shadowy financier.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent

NICK SQUIRES – 22 JULY 2013

Investigators in Rome are combing through the 19,000 accounts held by the Vatican’s bank in search of money laundering and other crimes, in a long-delayed attempt to clean up the institution’s tarnished reputation.

The campaign to bring more transparency and accountability to the bank, started under Benedict XVI, has dramatically picked up momentum under his successor Pope Francis since his election in March.

The review is being orchestrated by a German banker, along with forensic accounting experts from Promontory Financial Group, who are analysing around 1,500 accounts a month, hunting for any suspicious financial activities.

“Our work is to make the bank transparent,” said Ernst von Freyberg, its new president.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video]

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – Members of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) spent Sunday handing out fliers to parishioners leaving mass at the Cathedral Basilica.

They want to make sure local Catholics know about the serious accusations against a St. Louis priest.

A lawsuit filed against St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson says that he knew Father Joseph Jiang was a danger to children.

The lawsuit claims that Jiang fondled a 16-year-old girl and convinced her to set up a secret email account to send her inappropriate messages.

Father Jiang is currently on administrative leave from his position at the basilica.

“We’re here to beg anyone who has been harmed to come forward and to go to the police in healing,” said Barbara Dorris, SNAP Victims Outreach Director. “We’re here to beg victims and whistleblowers to work with law enforcement until we either prove or disprove these allegations. Its time for the truth to come out.”

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NEW YORK
CBS New York

NEW YORK(1010 WINS) — In a massive shift in policy Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has released the names of 46 convicted child sex-abusers, according to a published report.

On Sunday, The New York Post, reported that Hynes had turned over the names of 45 men and 1 woman in the Orthodox Jewish Community who were convicted in ‘sex-attack cases’.

In the past Hynes had avoided releasing those names amidst concerns that doing so could cause victims to be exposed to intimidation tactics by other members of the community and that it might deter other victims from speaking out, the Post reported.

The Kol Tzedek program, which was created to help Orthodox Jews come forward about abuse within their community has led to the pursuit of 118 cases. Twenty-five offenders have done jail time, with one receiving a sentence of 103-years, the New York Post reported.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office released the following names of those convicted since 2009 in child sex-abuse cases in the Orthodox Jewish community:

Simon Lemmer, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Moshe Spitzer, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Yona Weinberg, 2nd Degree Sexual Abuse; Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Stefan Colmer, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Joel Pinter, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Shlomo Tourjman, 2nd Degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child
Nathan Actman, Sexual Misconduct
Boris Shaulov,, two counts 3rd Degree Rape; 3rd Degree Criminal Sexual Act; Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Constantine Kotzalides, First Degree Sexual Abuse
Fredy Conde, 1st Degree Sexual Absue
Simon Benisty, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse
Yaakov Maimon, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse
Bjorn Daley, 2nd Degree Attempted Kidnapping
Solomon Marmorstein, Attempted Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Sheldon Siller, 2nd Degree Criminal Contempt
Tzvi Boxer, 1st Degree Course of Sexual Conduct
Joseph Passof, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse
David Klausner, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Emanuel Yegutkin, 1st Degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child
Michael Sabo, Predatory Sexual Assault Against a Child
Andrew Goodman, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Meir Dascalowitz, 2nd Degree Criminal Sexual Act
Nechemya Weberman, 1st Degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child
Yosef Donin, 2nd Degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child
Hector Valerdi, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse
Jacob Kaff, 2nd Degree Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child
Menachem Deutsch, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse
Arthur Samet, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Israel Nivazou, Attempted Forcible Touching
Frankie Hatton, Forcible Touching
Chaim Becker, 3rd Degree Sexual Abuse
Moshe Keller, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Jedrych Macie, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Moshe Vaisfiche, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
John Pilieci, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Eli Belili, Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Nuchum Hammerman, Attempted Endangering the Welfare of a Child
Robert Mannis, Endangering the Welfare of a Child

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NEW YORK
New York Post

Brooklyn DA releases names of 46 convicted child sex-abusers who terrorized the Orthodox Jewish community from within

By SUSAN EDELMAN

Last Updated: 7:58 PM, July 21, 2013

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has convicted 45 men — and one woman — in sex-attack cases in the Orthodox Jewish community since it began a crackdown more than four years ago, officials say.

DA Charles Hynes gave The Post their names, except for several juveniles, in a major shift from his prior stance that publicizing the perverts could expose the victims to vicious intimidation or deter others from coming forward.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL LIST

“We feel now it’s good for the community to know those who have been convicted,” said spokesman Jerry Schmetterer.

Hynes, who is running for re-election, has come under fire from critics who charge that his policies pander to ultra-Orthodox voters.

Of 118 cases pursued under a program called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for “voice of justice,” 25 sex offenders have gotten jail time, officials said. The longest sentence — 103 years — went to Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist who had abused a girl starting when she was 12.

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NEW YORK
Daily Mail (UK)

Names of 46 convicted child sex offenders who terrorized the Orthodox Jewish community from within are released by Brooklyn DA

22 July 2013

The Brooklyn District Attorney has convicted 45 men and a woman in the four years since it launched its clampdown on sex abuse within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, it was revealed today.

DA Charles Hynes, who is running for re-election in the New York district, released their identities in an apparent U-turn on his previous policy of not naming perverts for fear victims might suffer intimidation or that others may be deterred from coming forward.

The most high-profile case saw religious counsellor Nechemya Weberman, 54, sentenced to 103-years in prison for molesting a girl, beginning when she was 12-years old.

‘We feel now it’s good for the community to know those who have been convicted,’ Hynes’ spokesman told the New York Post.

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EUROPE
C21 Media

European broadcasters Arte, YLE and DR are among the channels to have picked up Alex Gibney’s acclaimed documentary on sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Distributor Content Media has secured a raft of sales for Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, produced by Gibney’s New York-based prodco Jigsaw Productions.

The feature-length doc exposes the culture of sexual abuse and cover-up throughout the church through the story of four deaf men in the US who set out to expose the priest who abused them during the 1960s.

It will air on HBO in the US and has also been picked up by HBO Europe for broadcast on its channels in the Netherlands and Poland. YLE in Finland, Danish pubcaster DR and Franco-German pay net Arte have also taken on the doc.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2

[with video]

July 21, 2013, by Betsey Bruce

WEST ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)-As parishioners left mass Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests, handed out fliers about recent allegations involving a Chinese priest serving the St. Louis region. Father Joseph Jiang is charged with four counts of sexual abuse against a girl in Lincoln County. He’s also charged with witness tampering because Jiang allegedly offered $20,000 in what prosecutors call hush money to the victim’s family.

The fliers encouraged any additional victims to come forward and encouraged Archbishop Robert Carlson to actively participate in the criminal investigation. There have been allegations that the archbishop may have tried to cover up the priest’s alleged crimes.

In response, the Archdiocese of St. Louis released the following statement Sunday:

As was reported in a statement dated June 27, 2012, the Archdiocese of St. Louis encourages anyone who wishes to report sexual abuse of a minor by Father Joseph Jiang or by any other priest, deacon or employee of the Archdiocese of St. Louis to contact Deacon Phil Hengen, Director of Child and Youth Protection, at 314.792.7704 or the civil authorities. Reports may also be made to the Missouri Division of Social Services Child Abuse Hotline at 800.392.3738.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis is fully cooperating with authorities in this investigation and makes no presumption of innocence or guilt with regard to the charges filed against Father Jiang. We only presume that this is a matter that necessitates prayer, certainly for the alleged victim, but also for Father Jiang and for everyone involved.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

Posted by Ann Piccirillo (Editor), July 21, 2013

A priest removed from the ministry in 2004, after evidence supported allegations that he molested a teenaged boy over a three-year period during the 1970’s, was living in the rectory of St. Joseph’s Church in Oradell, according to a report published by the Star Ledger Sunday.

According to the report, Robert Chabak, 66, who had been living in his mother’s Normandy beach house since 2004, was given permission to move into St. Joseph’s rectory by the Newark Archidiocese and Rev. Thomas Iwanowski, Pastor of St. Joseph’s, after the beach house was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

Jim Goodness, a spokesman for Archbishop John. J. Myers, told the Star Ledger, the archdiocese allowed Chabak to move into St. Joseph’s rectory “out of a sense of compassion.”

However, the report states that no one had informed the parishioners of St. Joseph’s about this arrangement, therefore, “knowingly putting the children at risk.”

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Rod Dreher at The American Conservative has written about the Scandal in St. Louis and mentions me and some of the things I’ve posted recently here.

Rod’s concluding sentences speak directly to the spiritual turmoil I now find myself in …

It is very, very hard to walk the tightrope between cynicism and credulity; I struggle with this every day. The problem is when you don’t struggle at all. Hardcore cynicism is a different kind of Big Lie.

Rod says this, speaking as a man whose faith took a direct hit from the horrors he discovered when investigating the Sex Scandal in the Catholic Church – which is something he did as a journalist, in depth and at length. Learning the truth that he learned – a truth that most of us are unwilling to face – separated him from the true-believers who commit themselves to clericalism at all costs (a Big Lie), but also put him in the dangerous position of giving in to something that was cynical and bitter – “a different kind of Big Lie”.

In fact, one of the commenters in Rod’s post makes the very natural Protestant claim that if Catholic Bishops are, in most cases, either cowards or scoundrels, and if the people they shepherd are generally no better, then why would any Catholic believe anything the Church teaches? How can a Christian leader – a successor to the Apostles – teach infallibly on Faith and Morals if he’s buggering the altar boy or covering up for priests who do? Or – even worse – if he’s complicit in such crimes, and then cooperating with lay Catholics who shame and ostracize the victims when the victims come forward, sacrificing children and families for personal status and position. (Which may or may not be happening in the Fr. Jiang case, but which has certainly happened again and again in the Church during the course of this past decade.)

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NEW JERSEY
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 21, 2013

ORADELL, New Jersey — The pastor of a northern New Jersey church is stepping down amid parishioners’ complaints that a priest accused of molesting a teenage boy was allowed to temporarily live in the church rectory.

The Star-Ledger (http://bit.ly/15zjv3v) reports the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Iwanowski, will leave the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell on July 31.

The departure comes amid complaints about the Rev. Robert Chabak, who was removed from ministry in 2004. That came after church officials determined there was evidence to support allegations he molested a teenage boy in the 1970s.

The statute of limitations had expired and Chabak was not criminally charged. Chabak wasn’t removed from the priesthood altogether but was stripped of his priestly faculties, meaning he can’t wear a collar or represent himself as a priest.

The 66-year-old Chabak has lived in Toms River in recent years. But when his home was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, archdiocese officials allowed him to live at St. Joseph “out of a sense of compassion.”

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger
on July 21, 2013

ORADELL — A Roman Catholic priest said today he may have made a mistake by arranging for a former priest — once accused of molesting a teenage boy — to stay in his Bergen County parish.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” the Rev. Thomas Iwanowski of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell said after holding services on his next-to-last Sunday there.

Iwanowski will be removed from St. Joseph on July 31 in the wake of scandal over the arrangement that allowed the accused priest to live at the rectory. The situation was the subject of a report in The Sunday Star-Ledger.

With permission from the Archdiocese of Newark, Iwanowski allowed the Rev. Robert Chabak to stay in the parish rectory after his mother’s home in Toms River, where he had been living, was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. The church’s elementary school is across the street from the rectory.

Parishioners were not told Chabak would be staying there and only learned of his past after he was transferred to a retirement home in February. But even after that, parishioners said, he would return to St. Joseph’s to spend the night. Some grew angry and demanded he be kept away.

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CANADA
Kenora Online

Written by Mike Aiken on Sunday, 21 July 2013

Earlier this week, news reports described experiments in nutrition run through two residential schools in Kenora. They included children at C.J. and St. Mary’s during the 1940’s and 1950’s. On Friday, Steve Allen from the Presbyterian Church in Canada responded to the research by Dr. Ian Mosby.

“Reading his paper is chilling, and it’s really painful. Dealing with the legacy of the residential schools doesn’t have an easy beginning and end. These things emerge,” said Allen, who heads the justice ministries programs on behalf of the church.

Mosby is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Guelph. He recently published an academic article, which described experiments designed to help aboriginal people make the transition from a traditional diet to more mainstream foods.

In his paper, Mosby writes “The experiment therefore seems to have been driven, at least in part, by the nutrition experts’ desire to test their theories on a ready-made ‘laboratory’ populated with already malnourished human ‘experimental subjects.’ ”

Mosby further emphasizes that the research was carried out without the informed consent of the parents or children involved.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

[Papa Francesco e la lobby gay in Vaticano – L’Espresso]

[The Prelate of the Gay Lobby – Chiesa]

John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Sunday 21 July 2013

Vatican post was named in a gay sex scandal. Photograph: Max Rossi/Reuters
Pope Francis will fly out of Rome on Monday, leaving behind the latest controversy to engulf the Holy See – a slew of gay sex claims, denied by the pope’s spokesman, against the man Francis chose to be his representative at the Vatican “bank”.

On 15 June, the pope appointed Monsignor Battista Ricca, an Italian cleric and former Vatican diplomat, to be “prelate” of the bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR). As such, Ricca is entitled to attend meetings of both the bodies that oversee the scandal-ridden IOR’s operations – its board and a five-strong commission of cardinals. The prelate can also demand to see any document he cares to inspect.

According to the latest edition of the weekly news magazine L’Espresso, Ricca has a past punctuated with scandal. Its report, which the pope’s spokesman branded as “not trustworthy”, claimed Ricca lived more or less openly with a Swiss army officer while at the Holy See’s nunciature (embassy) in Uruguay. It said he arrived with his lover and, while running the post between nuncios, provided him with both accommodation and a job.

The weekly magazine said Ricca was once beaten up in a gay bar in Montevideo and that, when the lift at the nunciature broke down in the night, firefighters called to deal with the emergency found him inside with a local rent boy known to police. It said that, after he was transferred to Trinidad and Tobago, that his alleged lover left trunks behind in Uruguay containing his effects. When they were opened later, they were found to contain a pistol, large numbers of prophylactics and sizeable quantities of pornography, the magazine said. Ricca has not made any comment on the allegations.

Catholic teaching regards homosexuality as “objectively disordered” and homosexual acts as “contrary to natural law”. It condemns discrimination against gay men and women on the grounds of their sexual orientation, but says they are “called to chastity”.

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VATICAN CITY
The Local

The Vatican’s “gay lobby” was back in the headlines on Friday after the alleged exposure of a homosexual prelate appointed by Pope Francis to a key position at the Vatican bank.

‘Vatican appointee had affair with Swiss guard’ (19 Jul 13)
Vatican bank ‘gay scandal’ uncovered (19 Jul 13)

The Italian weekly L’Espresso said prelate Battista Ricca had gay relationships during his time at the Vatican embassy of Montevideo in Uruguay as well as an affair with a Swiss army officer which ultimately saw him sent back to Rome in disgrace.

Vatican expert for L’Espresso Sandro Magister said Ricca provided lodgings and a pay check for captain Patrick Haari in 1999 and was once left badly beaten after trawling notorious gay hangouts before his behaviour saw him transferred out of Montevideo in 2000. …

Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi brushed off the story as “not credible” but the magazine insisted the allegations were confirmed by primary sources. It said “numerous bishops, priests, religious and laity” in Uruguay had testified against Ricca.

Religious watchers said the leaks about Ricca’s past may be an internal attempt to block the prelate from carrying out reforms.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • July 21, 2013

I’ve been thinking lately about a serious situation I’ve learned about recently in which some good people I know prefer preserving their peace of mind to facing the painful truth. In talking to a friend about this stuff the other day, I brought up the conversation my niece Hannah and I had in Paris — I tell this story in Little Way — in which I told her there’s nothing wrong with happiness, but we must not seek to maintain or achieve happiness at the expense of the truth. That prompted Hannah to immediately put me to the test by revealing an extremely painful truth about how her sister saw me. I’m still struggling with the fallout from that, but I have never for one moment regretted her telling me this, because it is much, much better to deal with the real world, in all its disorder, than with a comforting lie. In most cases, the happiness believing in the comforting lie brings us is bought at too high a price.

That came to mind this morning in reading posts by Kevin O’Brien that a reader sent to me. Kevin is a St. Louis Catholic who has been blogging about a growing scandal in his archdiocese. The details are here, but the outline is a familiar one: priest molests minor after getting close to her family, family complains to archbishop, archbishop refuses to remove priest from service, until criminal charges were filed. A twist here is that Archbishop Carlson, according to a civil suit, allegedly tried to destroy physical evidence testifying to the accused priest’s guilt. The priest lived with Abp Carlson, and was very close to him, having followed him to St. Louis from his previous post in Michigan.

Kevin O’Brien notes this in one of his postings on the subject:

The family claims that they discovered emails of a sexual nature the priest was secretly sending the daughter. If these emails actually exist, their content will be revealed in both the criminal and the civil trials – if either case comes to trial. Since the DA in Lincoln County is prosecuting this case, it is almost certain that these emails do in fact exist; a case like this would not be prosecuted on the victim’s verbal claims alone, if the claims were not somehow substantiated with hard evidence.

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NEW JERSEY
ABC 27

ORADELL, N.J. (AP) – The pastor of a northern New Jersey church is stepping down amid parishioners’ complaints that a priest accused of molesting a teenage boy was allowed to temporarily live in the church rectory.

The Star-Ledger (http://bit.ly/15zjv3v) reports the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Iwanowski, will leave the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell on July 31.

The departure comes amid complaints about the Rev. Robert Chabak, who was removed from ministry in 2004. That came after church officials determined there was evidence to support allegations he molested a teenage boy in the 1970s.

The statute of limitations had expired and Chabak was not criminally charged.

Chabak wasn’t removed from the priesthood altogether but was stripped of his priestly faculties, meaning he can’t wear a collar or represent himself as a priest.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Merced Sun-Star

[Marvin Knighton – Milwaukee Archdiocese files via Jeff Anderson & Associates]

By M.L. JOHNSON — Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — The list of creditors for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee includes hundreds of child sexual abuse victims, along with a bank, pension funds and others typical in bankruptcy cases. It also includes one less usual: a priest removed from the priesthood amid allegations of abuse.

Marvin Knighton was charged with child sexual abuse in 2002 but acquitted by a jury the next year. The church still removed him from the priesthood, however, saying its investigation found two allegations against him had merit.

Knighton steadfastly fought his dismissal and has put in a claim for $450,000 for back pay from the archdiocese in federal bankruptcy court. A church bankruptcy expert said while the claim is not unique, it is highly unusual. Knighton’s victims called it “disturbing” and “grossly inappropriate.”

“That money should be going to survivors, not child molesters,” said Thomas C. Bersch Jr., who said he was abused by Knighton in the 1970s. “During the bankruptcy proceedings, if he gets even a nickel of this money, it would be the most unbelievable thing that could happen. I wish there is something I could do to prevent that.”

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CANADA
CBC News

The Canadian Press Posted: Jul 21, 2013

Aboriginal leaders are pointing to past abuses as evidence that the federal government should let their communities craft their own education policies.

When news broke that more than 1,300 aboriginal people, mostly children, were used as subjects of nutritional experiments initiated by the Canadian government in the 1940s and ’50s, it struck a chord with aboriginal leaders that was all-too-contemporary.

A statement from the Assembly of First Nations said such horrors would never have happened if aboriginal people were in control of their own lives and communities.

News of the old abuses resurfaced as the national organization was meeting this week in Whitehorse, where members were discussing education reform.

Some lamented that federal policy-makers haven’t learned key lessons of the past, as they prepare to present the First Nation Education Act to Parliament this fall.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS JULY 21, 2013

Education policy has long been a source of tension between the federal government and First Nations, from the painful legacy of residential schools to the current debate over the upcoming First Nation Education Act. Here are some key moments:

1874

The Canadian government’s involvement in residential schools begins. Aboriginal children are removed from their communities across the country and placed in government-funded, church-run institutions. These schools are used to assimilate aboriginal children, by exposing them to new language and cultural traditions while stripping them of their own.

1972

The National Indian Brotherhood (which later becomes the Assembly of First Nations) asks for more control of its peoples’ education. A policy is outlined in a paper called Indian Control of Indian Education.

1996

The last residential school closes in Yellowknife. The negative repercussions of life at these schools trickles down through generations of aboriginal peoples.

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ITALY
Reuters

Sun Jul 21, 2013

* Magistrates’ says prelate used web of contacts illegally
* Scarano lawyer says document has no proof, only suspicions
* Scarano is target of two Italian investigations
* IOR in spotlight over global rules against tax evasion
* Pope has made cleaning up the Vatican a goal of his papacy

By Philip Pullella and Massimiliano Di Giorgio

ROME, July 21 (Reuters) – A senior Catholic prelate arrested last month used his influence at the Vatican to provide private, illegal financial services for rich friends, Italian investigators say in a judicial document.

They say Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who is the target of two Italian investigations and had accounts at the Vatican bank, engaged in “totally private, illegal activity which was also aimed at serving outsiders”.

Scarano was arrested in Rome on June 28 along with a self-styled financier and a member of Italy’s secret services and formally accused of taking part in a plot to smuggle 20 million euros ($26.28 million) into Italy from Switzerland. .

Reuters has obtained the 28-page document in which magistrates in Rome had asked a judge to order his arrest.

Scarano’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, denied the accusations it contains. “They don’t have any evidence to prove all of this,” he said on Sunday. “These are just suspicions”.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

GERARD O’REGAN – 20 JULY 2013

They were an unlikely duo to put it mildly – the alcoholic vagabond poet Patrick Kavanagh, and the austere, uncompromising, religious dictator of his time, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid.

And what brought them together was money.

Kavanagh famously abandoned the “stony grey soil of Monaghan” for what would prove to be a lifetime of relative poverty in the much documented 1950s’ Dublin literary scene.

But as he weaved those wonderful lines of poetry, which strike a chord with so many, he also indulged too many booze-filled evenings in the likes of McDaid’s, the Bailey, and the Palace bar. It meant his already precarious lifestyle, all too often, plummeted into the depths of abject poverty.

Meanwhile, up the road in Drumcondra, in the plush surroundings of what was termed his ‘Bishop’s Palace’, Archbishop McQuaid kept a beady eye on Kavanagh. The archbishop, of course, had his “vigilantes” scouring the capital for any kind of tittle-tattle, which would inform him of “immoral tendencies” by Catholics in positions of power or influence. …

Maybe another very individualistic approach to money matters is reflected in the attitude of the four religious orders, who this week point-blank refused a request from Justice Minister Alan Shatter to offer some money towards the Magdalene Laundries compensation fund.

The initial reaction from many quarters was one of anger and condemnation. How could those religious orders be so tight-fisted, given the blighted lives of so many who were in their care?

Surely they could even make a token gesture? They are not so hard up that this would be beyond them.

But the response to the minister from the nuns has been “no”, and a steely “no” at that. They will help out wherever necessary by way of providing documentation to help process compensation claims – but there will be no financial compensation forthcoming; the State can pick up the tab.

Could it be that these nuns believe they picked up the tab for the State during all those years when parents, politicians, priests and gardai so often connived to ensure they would be the ones to look after the forlorn and the destitute.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will, if it achieves its aims, place considerable pressure on local child molesters. They will be looking to operate in an environment where there is less pressure from the law. Unfortunately, they are increasingly choosing to operate in less-developed countries, particularly in S.E. Asia.

There is a scientific principle which has been around for centuries, called Pascal’s principle. It means that pressure on one end of a tube must come out at the other end. It is the principle behind hydraulic systems. The “tube”, by analogy, is the tourist trade.

Earlier posts have tried to show how Australian paedophiles have moved to S.E. Asian “orphanages” now that the local children’s homes are no longer available. There have also been cases, such as the infamous McAlinden case (see previous postings) where priests have been transferred to places like the Philippines when it became too hot for them in Australia.

As the situation in Australia responds to the pressures from the Royal Commission, more and more “rank and file” child abusers will seek out countries where the pressures are not as great. Most Australians would agree that it would be wrong to export our problems in this regard to other, unsuspecting, countries, for a variety of reasons, including national pride.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

“He has given his life to the Catholic Church”: Commissioner Cunneen., concerning William Burston (pictured above), second-in-charge of the Newcastle-Maitland diocese under former Bishops Clarke and Malone. Ms. Cunneen claimed that Burston had been “subjected to rudeness” by some members of the public. She said she would consider laying charges against them, if they can be identified. She further issued a warning about “people pre-judging events”.

[A search of transcripts does not reveal the good Commissioner referring to whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox as having “given his life to the NSW police department”, or cautioning people who were less than courteous to him.]

Burston said, at least 60 times, that he could not remember events, which prompted Counsel Assisting, Mr. David Kell, to suggest that he was being “highly selective” and that it was “inconceivable” he could not recall details of things involving obviously inappropriate behaviour. The list of things Burston could not recall is too long to detail here (some are given in the references below).

This response to questioning had caused the public gallery to (according to media reports) respond with “audible groans”, and “gasps of shock and disgust”. [Ms. Cunneen’s stern warning came at the end of proceedings.]

Fr. Burston attributed his poor memory to the effects of several operations’ anesthetics over the past ten years, although he had not consulted a doctor regarding it and ,so, had no medical opinion to back his claims. When Counsel Assisting remarked to Fr. Burston that his memory was precise on some aspects and not on others, the priest agreed, but said he was not trying to hinder the enquiry.

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