ABUSE TRACKER

FORT WAY (IN)
WISH

[assignment record – BishopAccountability.org]

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Bishop Kevin Rhoades was in Fort Wayne Saturday night. He led a 5:00 p.m. mass at Saint Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel to discuss the sexual abuse allegations of Father Cornelius Ryan.

Father Ryan was removed from the ministry on June 10 after an allegation of abusing a young man 20 years ago in Africa, our sister station WANE reports.

Ryan was appointed administer of the church by Rhoades in 2011 after its previous priest, Thomas Lombardi, was also removed for sexual abuse allegations.

“This is a time for the congregation to gather as a family, to listen to Bishop Rhoades and to get some facts revolving around this incident. So, that’s why we’re asking for discretion and to make this a parish family meeting, surrounded by the mass,” said Sean McBride, the communications director of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

The shortage of Catholic priests is an economic drama playing out across major countries to a yawn by the news media.

In the United States, 20 percent of parishes have no priests. Since 1995, bishops have sold more than 1,700 churches – on average, that’s a church shuttered once a week for 18 years — down-sizing a religious infrastructure that had grown steadily between the end of the Civil War and the 1969 voyage that put Americans on the moon.

The pastor is the fundraiser at every parish. Healthy parishes offer a range of services, from food pantries to therapeutic counseling, in addition to Mass, baptisms, weddings and funerals. Most of the non-sacramental work is done by lay people because of a growing personnel crisis.

The budget that lay staff uses to run offices and social outreach depends on the pastor’s appeal to the flock. Without a pastor, parishes struggle to pay for themselves.

For every 100 priests who retire, only 30 men are ordained, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate.

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INDIA
Times of India

AHMEDABAD: A 50-year-old man has been accused of molesting a five-year-old girl living in the same colony in Vejalpur. The colony members have handed him over to police for further investigation after a complaint by her father.

According to police, Asha (name changed), resident of a society in Jivraj Park, had started behaving strangely for some time that had alerted her mother. She took her into confidence and asked her to narrate what had happened when she told her that she was taken to a room by Anil, priest of a temple in the society, where she was molested.

“Aghast, she told her husband about the incident after which he along with others beat Anil up and took him to the police station. Anil lives with his brother and mother in the same society for the past 15 years. He had separated from wife for that many years and taken up the job of a priest at a local temple for the past five years,” said a Vejalpur police official.

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INDIANA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Holy Cross priest of the Indiana Province ordained in 1966, Ryan lived and worked in Africa until 1999, when he returned to Indiana. In June 2013 Ryan was serving as administrator of a Fort Wayne parish when he was removed due to what his superior deemed a “credible” allegation of the sexual abuse of a boy twenty years earlier in Africa. Ryan had been sent to the Ft. Wayne parish in December 2011, after the parish’s previous pastor was removed due to allegations of child sexual abuse.

Ordained: 1966

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NEDERLAND
KW

[Click here for the story]

woensdag 19 juni 2013

Brugge – De voormalige Brugse bisschop Roger Vangheluwe is erin geslaagd om de procedure in de Operatie Kelk te rekken.

Een anders samengestelde kamer van inbeschuldigingstelling moet zich buigen over de vraag of de kopieën van zoekgeraakte pv’s in de zaak-Kelk al of niet geldig zijn. De KI moet nu wel de mening van de voormalige bisschop vragen omdat hij door de burgerlijke partijen in die zaak als dader betrokken is.

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NEDERLAND
Bert Smeets

RKK Nederland wil voor het einde van het jaar alle klachten vereffend hebben, het tempo wordt opgevoerd daar de nieuwe paus orde op zaken wil stellen. Paus Francisco jezuïet, wil absolute gehoorzaamheid en dit navrante conflict van seksueel geweld, de wereld uit. De doofpot is nooit echt open gegaan, archieven zijn vernietigd, de kerk heeft met haar eigen onderzoek de regels bepaald en het geweld wordt niet meegenomen zoals in nieuwe voorstellen van Deetman zou worden uitgewerkt.

We krijgen meer en meer berichten dat de RKK zich niet aan zijn woord houdt, ze plegen hiermee obstructie, parkeren van geweldklachten is niet aan de orde zoals laatst bleek tijdens hoorzitting. De uitspraak van kardinaal Eijk ‘we zijn verder dan jullie denken’, en de toevoeging van dhr. Bakker ‘we staan voor een kruispunt’ moge duidelijk zijn dat ze daar nog steeds staan…voor het kruispunt.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankenpost

Regionalbischöfin Dorothea Greiner kündigt an, weiter konsequent gegen Missbrauch zu kämpfen. Für die Kirche könne es eine Verjährung in diesen Fällen nicht geben.

Interview: mit Dr. Dorothea Greiner Regionalbischöfin der evangelischen Landeskirche in Bayreuth

“Wie gehe ich mit Macht, mit Bedürfnissen, mit unerfüllten Sehnsüchten um?” Diese Fragen sind grundlegend für Pfarrer, findet die Regionalbischöfin.
zurückvergrößernweiter

Frau Dr. Greiner, innerhalb kürzester Zeit verhandeln die Kirchengerichte wegen Missbrauchs gegen zwei bekannte und einstmals angesehene Pfarrer aus Hof. Wie kommt es zu dieser Häufung?

Es entsteht ein völlig falsches Bild, wenn im Blick auf unsere evangelische Kirche von einer “Häufung” gesprochen wird. Nur der eine Fall, bei dem der Vorwurf distanzlosen Verhaltens im Raum steht, bezieht sich auf einen Pfarrer im aktiven Dienstverhältnis; der andere, ungleich schwerer gelagerte Fall, betrifft Vorkommnisse, die größtenteils fast 50 Jahre zurück liegen. Damit befasst sich kein staatliches Gericht mehr. Doch unsere Landeskirche geht dem trotzdem nach, weil sexueller Missbrauch in unserem kirchlichen Disziplinarrecht nicht verjährt. Missbräuchliche Handlungen an Menschen sind in keiner Weise mit dem Amt eines Pfarrers vereinbar, egal ob sie 50 Jahre zurückliegen oder fünf. Dass die Vorkommnisse verfolgt werden, sind wir der Glaubwürdigkeit des kirchlichen Auftrags und nicht zuletzt den Opfern schuldig.

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ISRAEL
MWC News

By Gilad Atzmon

Rabbi Metzger is probed for bribery and money laundering.

Israeli National Fraud Squad raided the home and offices of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yonah Metzger yesterday and questioned him under caution for ten hours, as part of a bribery, fraud, money-laundering and breach-of-trust case.

Metzger was later released. The chief Rabbi is now under house arrest.

Chief Rabbi Metzger is forbidden to enter his offices, leave the country or make contact with any of the other suspects in the case.

Metzger and three other Jewish orthodox men are suspected of being involved in the pilfering of hundreds of thousands of shekels from a number of charities.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

June 23, 2013

Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie

A senior Australian rabbi who failed to stop an alleged paedophile from sexually abusing boys at a Sydney Jewish school said some of the victims may have consented to sexual relations and has warned that involving police now would ”open a can of worms”.

Former senior Sydney Rabbi Boruch Dov Lesches made the extraordinary remarks in a recent conversation with a person familiar with a series of alleged child rapes and molestation by a man associated with Sydney’s Yeshiva community in the 1980s.

We are speaking about very young boys.

Rabbi Lesches’ comments are likely to increase public scrutiny of Australia’s senior rabbinical leaders’ handling of child sexual abuse cases, amid allegations of cover-ups, victim intimidation and the hiding of perpetrators overseas.

In a legally recorded telephone conversation heard by Fairfax Media and provided to NSW detectives investigating the Sydney Yeshiva cases, Rabbi Lesches admitted to counselling the alleged abuser upon learning he had sexually abused a boy a decade his junior.

Rabbi Lesches is now one of New York’s leading ultra-Orthodox figures.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

Peter O’Callaghan, the “independent” advisor to the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response program on clerical child sexual abuse (he is employed by them) has made statements lately. These have come after the Victorian Parliamentary enquiry has finished public hearings.

This tactic of “but wait, there’s more” follows on from a similar revelation by Victorian Catholic Church bishops revising upwards the number of abuses cases, and admissions of the number of priests and others who have been convicted of child sexual abuse (see previous posting).

It was an effective way to minimize scrutiny in the popular press. O’Callaghan’s version was to avoid the problem of lying to the enquiry. As a spokesperson for the enquiry noted, after the O’Callaghan statements, “serious penalties awaited anyone who gave false or misleading evidence.” His statements, however, were not given to the enquiry when he gave evidence. As a leading lawyer, he knows the difference.

So, now, the Catholic Church’s “independent” legal advisor says that Victorian police lied to the enquiry, without the need to provide any evidence. Specifically, he accuses the police of purveying “blatant untruths”. With regard to the evidence of police, including the most senior police, he says that a great deal was “misconceived, misleading and damagingly wrong”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
lewisblayse.net

Lewis Blayse

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in Northern Ireland is the latest of five child abuse enquiries there. It is particularly relevant to Australia in that it will include Irish children sent here as “child migrants” (see previous posting). It has been estimated that over 100 of them could still be living in West Australia alone.

Many of these Irish children were sent to the notorious Bindoon facility operated by the Christian Brothers (see previous posting). The HIA inquiry will cover the travel expenses of those who need to give evidence in person, although if enough witnesses are found in Australia the inquiry may travel here to hear their testimony. Witnesses can also give evidence privately. The inquiry is scheduled to be completed by 2015 and to submit its report to the Northern Ireland Executive by January 2016.

The HIA inquiry head said: “We have to consider whether they might have been physically abused, whether they might have been sexually abused, but in addition we take a broad view of what is abuse, we include emotional abuse, such as humiliation of children. It may also include simple neglect, not feeding people properly, not clothing them properly,”

There have been concerns expressed from several sources, including the United Nations Committee Against Torture and Amnesty International, that the HIA inquiry will not cover clerical child abuse outside institutions, and would not cover institutions such as the terrible “Magdalene Laundry” (see previous posting). Where it goes further that the Australian Royal Commission, however, is that it covers all forms of child abuse. The Queensland Government’s 1998 Forde Inquiry has been taken as a model for the Irish HIA inquiry.

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OHIO
Toledo Blade

BY JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

With the last of his state appeals exhausted, Toledo priest Gerald Robinson intends to turn to U.S. District Court to try to get his murder conviction overturned.

The Ohio Supreme Court this week declined to review the case of Robinson, who was convicted in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in 2006 of the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl at the former Mercy Hospital.

The high court, with Justices Paul Pfeifer and William O’Neill dissenting, said it would not hear the case.

Rick Kerger, attorney for Robinson, said he now will file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court.

“I never expected to win” at the state level, he said Friday. “I’ve always felt that if we’re going to win I knew it was going to be in federal court in a habeas proceeding.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP

CHURCH groups should be ready to cop heavy criticism in the wake of the royal commission into child sex abuse, Brisbane’s Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall says.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse featured strongly in the archbishop’s address at the Brisbane diocese’s synod on Saturday.

He told hundreds of Anglicans the challenge for them is not that the “truth will come out”.

“It will. And we want it to even though there will be times when we will feel ashamed and sickened at that truth,” he said.

He says the Anglican Church called for a royal inquiry into child sex abuse in 2002.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

June 21, 2013|By Brittany Shammas, Sun Sentinel

Over a six-month period, a teacher’s aide at a Palm Beach County charter school repeatedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl he met at church, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

He threatened to tell her parents and church leaders about her behavior — and send them nude pictures of her — if she refused him, the report states. …

The victim, now 16, called police on Monday after telling her mother that Murray had grabbed and harassed her, according to the report. She met the man, who according to the arrest report is a Jehovah’s Witness, at a church event when he was 27.

After taking the report, deputies told Murray not to contact the girl. He continued trying, the arrest report states. Monday night, he sent her an email telling her to “call ASAP or it will be released to your parents. Everything will come out.”

As investigators listened on the line, he repeated that threat to her during a phone call and said he’d post the nude pictures of her online. Murray told the girl police involvement didn’t concern him.

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MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

[the lawsuit]

BEMIDJI — Two press conferences will be held Monday to address the lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Crookston.

Jeff Anderson, who filed suit against the diocese in 1992 on behalf of 15 victims who were abused by James Porter, a priest at St. Philip’s for one year, will detail the lawsuit at 11 a.m. at the Polk County Courthouse in Crookston, and the second at 1 p.m. outside St. Philip’s School in Bemidji.

The lawsuit alleges that Porter sexually abused a Bemidji woman now in her 50s, according to a press release from Anderson’s office.

In all, 21 Bemidji men sued Porter for abuse carried out here. In addition to those cases, Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 boys in Massachusetts, and admitted to abusing more than 100 children during his 13-year career.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson and Associates

[the lawsuit]

[timeline]

June 20, 2013

(St. Paul, MN) – A Minnesota man will get a chance at justice due to the Child Victims Act, recently passed by the legislature allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to hold their abuser and any institution that allowed the abuse to happen, accountable in court. “The Child Victims Act passed into law now gives this survivor a chance for hope, healing, and an opportunity to help protect others” said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents Plaintiff John Doe 150. Since filing the first civil lawsuit involving Fr. Stitts in the early 1990s, Anderson has represented numerous survivors of sexual abuse by Stitts.

A former St. Leo’s student and altar boy, the Plaintiff was sexually abused by Father Thomas Stitts at the St. Paul school and parish when he was 14 years-old. The Archdiocese fought the original lawsuit on the statute of limitations, using it to prevent John Doe 150 from getting his day in court. The new lawsuit brought under the Child Victims Act, names the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis as the defendant and claims the Archdiocese was negligent in placing Stitts at St. Leo’s, knowing Stitts had a history of child sexual abuse. “Stitts was a serial offender who could not control himself,” said Anderson, “and the only one who could control him were his superiors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, and they chose not to and protected themselves instead of the children.”

Both the school’s principal and parish priest were notified of the sexual abuse by Stitts yet failed to act and remove Stitts from ministry. The sexual abuse was not reported to civil authorities and Stitts was allowed to continue to work with children and prey on the vulnerable. Stitts worked in several Minnesota communities including St. Paul, Edina, Hastings, Long Lake and New Brighton. Stitts is believed to have abused at least a dozen children during his various assignments. Ordained in 1962, Fr. Thomas Stitts died October 13, 1985 at the age of 50 while assigned to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in New Brighton.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[the lawsuit]

What: At a news conference on Monday in front of the Polk County courthouse in Crookston, followed by a press conference outside St. Philip’s School in Bemidji, clergy abuse attorneys Steve Anderson of Roseau and Jeff Anderson of St. Paul will:

• Announce the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit on behalf of a Bemidji woman now in her 50s, naming the Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts and the Servants of the Paraclete, as defendants.
• Release internal church documents on credibly accused perpetrator Father James R. Porter who is suspected of abusing over 100 children in multiple states including Minnesota, Massachusetts, Texas, and New Mexico.
• Request the release of credibly accused and admitted child molesters from both the Diocese of Crookston and the Diocese of Fall River, along with the list of names of priests who have admitted child sexual abuse to the Servants of the Paraclete.

WHEN: Monday June 24 at 11:00 AM (CDT) in Crookston and 1:00 P.M. in Bemidji

WHERE: Outside the Polk County Courthouse (11:00 A.M.)
612 N. Broadway
Crookston, MN 56716

Outside St. Philips School (1:00 P.M.)
702 Beltrami Ave. NW Bemidji, MN 56601

WHO:
Attorney Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based, internationally known trial lawyer widely recognized as a pioneer in sexual abuse litigation. Anderson has represented thousands of survivors of sexual abuse by authority figures and clergy.

Attorney Steve Anderson a Board Certified Civil Trial Specialist and has been committed to helping clients in personal injury cases for over 25 years. Steve has prior experience in sexual abuse cases and has teamed up with Jeff Anderson to help survivors of sexual abuse in Minnesota.

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MASSACHUSETTS/MINNESOTA
Fall River Herald News

[the lawsuit]

By Brian Fraga
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jun 21, 2013

A high-profile attorney who has represented hundreds of sexual abuse victims in litigation involving the Catholic Church will file a lawsuit on Monday that names the Diocese of Fall River as a defendant for the actions of the late Rev. James Porter, a notorious predator-priest.

The lawsuit will be filed in a courthouse in Crookston, Minn., on behalf of a Minnesota woman, now in her 50s, who was abused by Porter, said Jeff Anderson, a civil attorney.

“This is designed to both help the survivor that was so deeply wounded by (Porter) but also to encourage disclosure and full exposure of the history that in some ways is not fully known,” Anderson said.

At the press conference Monday, Anderson will call for the release of internal church documents on all credible abuse accusations against Porter, who authorities have said abused more than 100 children in multiple states, including Minnesota, Massachusetts, Texas and New Mexico.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Rabbi Boruch Lesches, a former senior leader at Sydney’s Yeshiva centre, talking about sexual abuse in the Jewish community.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: Mary Agnes Welch

CANADA’S Truth and Reconciliation Commission has three million documents dealing with the disastrous legacy of Indian residential schools, and five million more are on the way.

What the commission doesn’t have is money to build a promised national residential schools research archive.

In a long ceremony packed with politicians and aboriginal dignitaries Friday, the commission and the University of Manitoba signed an agreement to set up the national research centre, which will see the university take on the massive job of reviewing, organizing and digitizing millions of residential school records. That includes government and church documents, 6,000 oral histories taken from residential school survivors and their families, artifacts and photos.

Most of the records are still held by Library and Archives Canada. Only now, after a court battle, are they being prepared to be given to the commission and the university.

So far, there is no secure source of funding for a startup research centre, expected to be housed in existing space on campus. The U of M has committed space and funding for three positions, but additional funding is needed. Organizers hope it can come from the parties to the residential schools court settlement, including the federal government and Canada’s largest churches. They hope funding can be secured by the time the commission winds up in a year.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Herald

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

MERCER — A former local pastor was convicted by a jury of molesting a boy over four years.

Lee A. Moore, 47, of Erie, was found guilty Wednesday of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, statutory sexual assault, corruption of a minor and indecent assault, said Assistant Mercer County District Attorney Dan Davis, who prosecuted the case.

“Obviously, the family, especially the victim, are very happy with the verdict, and so are we,” Davis said. “I believe justice was done in this case.”

When Moore is sentenced Sept. 4 by Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson, he will face a mandatory minimum prison term of 5 years on the charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony, Davis said.

The trial ran Tuesday and Wednesday morning with the verdict coming at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Prison for ex-pastor whose sex abuse of three girls covered up for 30 years by Baptists

BY PAUL HIGGINS AND CHRIS KILPATRICK – 22 JUNE 2013

A former Baptist pastor and gospel singer has been jailed three decades after his abuse against three young girls was covered up by the Church.

Paul Gardiner was sentenced to 11 months and banned from working with children.

Jailing the 52-year-old at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Gordon Kerr QC told him his “historical sexual abuse” offences were aggravated by the fact there were three victims and that he had breached the trust placed in him when he had been a guest in their respective homes.

Judge Kerr also ordered the pervert to spend 10 years on the police sex offenders’ register.

Prosecuting lawyer Rosemary Walsh had told an earlier court how the abuse happened on each occasion when Gardiner, who was in his late teens at the time, was staying overnight at the victims’ houses, whom he knew through associations with Monkstown Baptist Church in Newtownabbey.

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CALIFORNIA
Modesto Bee

By Andy Furillo — afurillo@sacbee.com

Attorneys have scheduled a crucial pretrial hearing for next week on whether statements the Rev. Uriel Ojeda made to church officials before his arrest on child molestation charges can be used against him at trial.

Ojeda has claimed a “penitent’s privilege” for the statements he made to two employees of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento after they drove up to the Redding parish where he worked to question him about the sexual abuse allegations made by the family of a 14-year-old girl.

Sources said Friday that Sacramento prosecutors have offered Ojeda an eight-year deal if he enters a plea in the case, and Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon’s ruling on the issue of the privilege could go a long way toward affecting the priest’s decision whether to accept an agreement.

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CHICAGO (IL)
The Bulletin

By Manya A. Brachear / Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Published: June 22. 2013

CHICAGO — They followed their parents to remote regions of the world to preach the Gospel. But in recent years, dozens of adults, known in evangelical Christian circles as “MKs,” or missionary kids, have come forward to report decades-old abuse at the hands of other missionary families or boarding school staff.

These children suffered, advocates say, either in silence out of respect for their parents’ work or because their cries for help were ignored. But years later, as adults, they have coalesced into a national movement that is calling on the more than 200 evangelical mission agencies to address past physical and sexual abuse and help keep the next generation of missionary kids out of harm’s way.

“I don’t know of one case where the person bringing a case was welcomed and listened to and dealt with appropriately,” said the Rev. Rich Darr, a Methodist pastor in Park Ridge, Ill., and founder of the victim-advocacy group MK Safety Net. “All we want is for the church to be church. I see progress, but it is maddeningly slow.”

Evangelical mission agencies have only recently taken action, prompted by victims who started speaking up in greater numbers after Roman Catholic Church leaders began addressing their scandal more than a decade ago.

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SERBIA
in Serbia

SABAC – Branislav Peranovic (55), was found guilty for the First Degree murder of Nebojsa Zarubac (39). Peranovic was sentenced to 20 years in prison, reported Kurir.

The investigating judge Slobodan Velisavljevic stated that Peranovic was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering Nebojsa Zarubac, who was at the center for drug rehabilitation ”Sretenje” at Jadranska Lesnica, which was managed by Peranovic since 2010.

Peranovic was accused of a cruel murder by inflicting serious injuries to Zarubac with a stick, and also by kicking him with legs and fists.

According to Ilija Radulovic, Peranovic’s lawyer, Zarubac was on rehabilitation, but he tried to leave the center. Peranovic also suspected that he was drugged, and tried to ”stop” him by beating him. Lawyer considers this murder as a result of Zarubac’s attempt to escape the camp.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

BEMIDJI, Minn. — The news that James Porter had died wasn’t a surprise and didn’t mean much to Dan Dow and Jim Grimm, even though the man marked their lives.

When they were sixth-grade altar boys in St. Philip’s Catholic parish here in 1969 and 1970, Porter was a priest who sexually assaulted them and 20 other youths dozens of times.

Porter, 70, died of cancer Friday in Massachusetts, still behind bars. He had admitted to sexually abusing 100 or more children in several parishes in several states, including Minnesota, before leaving the priesthood in 1973.

Grimm, 46, prayed Sunday in St. Philip’s.

“I prayed for all the victims. I prayed it wouldn’t happen again any more. I prayed all the victims could handle it.”

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

By Tom Sandborn, Special to the Sun June 21, 2013

Will Joseph Ratzinger, (Pope Benedict XVI) who made history earlier this year by becoming the first Roman Catholic pope to resign in nearly six centuries, go on to become the central figure in yet another historic event, a trial of a former pope on charges of aiding and abetting child sexual abuse?

He will if the activists of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have their way. Together with the Centre for Constitutional Rights, SNAP filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the then pope and other key Vatican figures on Sept. 13, 2011.

Some observers, including Gianluigi Nuzzi, in his book Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict and investigative journalists writing in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper suggest that his unusual decision to resign may have been prompted in part by the ICC complaint and other scandals.

The ICC complaint alleges that the former pope and the other church leaders are responsible for the sexual abuse of as many as hundreds of thousands of children by Catholic priests, responsible both because the child rapes occurred on their watch as church leaders and, more damningly, because the pope emeritus and his clerical accomplices allegedly took active steps to conceal the ongoing crime wave within the priesthood, swearing victims to secrecy and discouraging co-operation with the police.

The ICC complaint is supported by an enormous file of more than 20,000 documents, all available at http://ccrjustice.org/ICCVaticanProsecution. …

The Trial of Pope Benedict will be featured at a launch party on June 25 at Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse, 403 East Hastings St. Doors at 6:30; reading at 7 p.m. Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver, where if pressed, he will identify his current religious identity as High Church Secular Druid/Humanist. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at tos@infinet.net

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MINNESOTA
WDAZ

A Minnesota woman sued the Catholic Diocese of Crookston this week, as well as a Boston-area diocese and a Catholic entity in New Mexico.

The unidentified woman now in her 50s says she was 9 and 10 in the 1960s when Reverend James Porter sexually assaulted her repeatedly in her home and church. Porter was removed from the priesthood in 1974.

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MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

CROOKSTON, Minn. — A Minnesota woman filed suit Thursday in state district court in Crookston alleging negligence by the Catholic Diocese of Crookston by allowing the late James Porter to serve as a priest in Bemidji 44 years ago when she says he sexually assaulted her many times in her home and in the church.

The lawsuit, citing damages to “Doe 4”of more than the statutory minimum of $50,000, also claims a Massachusetts diocese and a former New Mexico Catholic treatment center for priests, were negligent in allowing Porter to move to Minnesota.

Porter was removed from the priesthood in 1974 and died in 2005 of cancer after serving a prison term for sexually abusing 28 young people. He admitted to sexually attacking more than 100 young girls and boys from his ordination 1960 to 1973, in five states, including 21 in Bemidji.

Several of his Bemidji victims earlier sued the Crookston diocese, also represented by Doe 4’s attorney, Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, who has sued Catholic leaders and dioceses and parishes for hundreds of millions of dollars in sex abuse claims the past 20 years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Public Record

Why did the cash-hungry Philadelphia Inquirer turn down $58,000 for an ad that was to contain the message below from the Catholic League for Religious & Civil Rights?

That’s what appears to have happened.

League President Bill Donohue wanted to comment on the sentencing of the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Father Charles Engelhardt and lay teacher Bernard Shero for rape of a then-juvenile victim “Billy Doe”.

PHILA. INQUIRER bannered this sensational story on Jun. 13. But it would not print a $58,000 advertisement that rebutted in detail the DA’s case against two men who may have been innocent, but have been sentenced to hard time.

Donohue said, “When we at the Catholic League first heard a boy was allegedly raped by three different persons, two of whom were priests, we were immediately suspicious. After all, how many times in American history has anyone been raped three times by three different persons? The more we learned, the more we were convinced ‘Billy Doe’ was a congenital liar, school dropout, thief, and drug addict, a punk who sought to cash in on the prevailing animus against priests.

“Father Engelhardt, whom no one has ever proved even met ‘Billy Doe,’ was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison; Shero was hit with eight to 16.

“My statement, which was submitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer as an ad, was turned down. It’s not every day a failing metropolitan newspaper rejects $58,000, even when the contents make the paper look bad for not doing its job.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Peter Walker
guardian.co.uk, Friday 21 June 2013

A teacher convicted of child abduction for escaping to France with a 15-year-old pupil has been jailed for five and a half years after also separately admitting five counts of sexual activity with a child.

Jeremy Forrest, 30, sparked an international police hunt after he and the teenager spent just over a week on the run in France last September when their relationship was discovered. He faced only the single charge of child abduction during his trial at Lewes crown court.

On Friday, the judge, Michael Lawson QC, jailed the married maths teacher for four and a half years for the counts of sexual activity with a child and one year for child abduction, to run consecutively. Forrest has spent nine months on remand.

The judge also imposed a sexual offences prevention order permanently banning Forrest from working or volunteering with children or having unsupervised contact with children.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Dom-Rep

Juncalito.

Offenbar hat die katholische Kirche in der Gemeinde „Juncalito“ verboten über den Missbrauchsfall des polnischen Priesters „Wojciech Gil“ zu sprechen.

Nur unter vorgehaltener Hand und dem Versprechen, dass keine Namen genannt werden, sprachen einige Bewohner des Bergdorfes mit Journalisten, die in dem Fall erneut recherchierten.

Dem Priester (Foto), der aus Polen stammt, wird der sexuelle Missbrauch von mindestens 14 Kindern vorgeworfen (wir berichteten darüber).

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzworkB

Stellungnahme zum „Hilfeportal Sexueller Missbrauch“ (www.hilfeportal-missbrauch.de)

Stand 20.06.2013 (als PDF herunterladen)

Zunächst ist anzumerken, dass der „Unabhängige Beauftragte für Fragen des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch“ und seine Mitarbeiter auf dem Begriff „Sexueller Missbrauch“ beharren, was sich auch in der Wahl der Domain, die ja wahrscheinlich jahrzehntelang im Netz bleiben soll, zeigt. Der Begriff „Sexueller Missbrauch“ wurde unglücklicherweise in den 1990er-Jahren so geprägt und trägt ein falsches Bild der Problematik in die Welt. In Fachkreisen hat sich längst der Begriff „Sexualisierte Gewalt“ oder „Sexuelle Gewalt“ durchgesetzt, der die Verbrechen besser beschreibt und klarmacht, dass es um Gewalt und nicht um einen falschen Gebrauch geht. Es ist unverständlich, warum nicht zumindest die Option einer Begriffsänderung erhalten wurde mit der Wahl eines neutraleren Domainnamens, der sich einem Begriffswandel nicht verschliesst.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung

Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis. (Wd) Die Aufarbeitung der Geschichte des Missbrauches und der Gewalt in der Johannes-Diakonie in Mosbach ist offenbar ohne Einsicht in Akten geschehen. Die Freiburger Professorin Dr. Cornelia Helfferich übt in einem Schreiben scharfe Kritik darüber, dass sie und ihre Mitarbeiter bei der Erstellung des Abschlussberichtes “keinen Zugang zu Akten bekommen” habe. Weiter heißt es: “Hier sind andere Aufarbeitungen einfach besser ausgestattet und besser unterstützt worden und damit in der Aufarbeitung genauer als wir es sein konnten”. So heißt es in der E-Mail an einen Betroffenen sehr drastisch: “Ich kann und will es Ihnen nicht ausreden, dass die Opfer weiter verarscht werden, denn das ist Realität”.

Dargestellt wird von der Professorin, dass etliche Kinder ohne Behinderung in der damaligen “Johannes-Anstalt” Aufnahme fanden. Prof. Helfferich schreibt dazu: “Das ist jenseits von Gewalt und Missbrauch ein viel zu wenig beachteter Skandal, dass sich nie jemand dafür entschuldigt hat, dass diesen Kindern, die dort einfach nicht hingehörten, durch die Aufnahme in die Einrichtung viele Chancen vorenthalten wurden” (siehe auch Kasten).

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 21/06/2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici

Catholic school teacher, Brother Martin Harmata, who worked at Sydney’s Patrician Brothers Blacktown College has pleaded guilty to eight charges of sexually abusing three children in his care in the 1980s.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: A Catholic school teacher who worked at Sydney’s Patrician Brothers Blacktown college has pleaded guilty to eight charges of sexually abusing three children in his care.

Brother Martin Harmata and the school where he taught, fought unsuccessfully to have their names protected

The abuse took place in the mid and late 1980s.

Brother Martin Harmata taught science and maths at Patrician Brothers college Blacktown for 30 years. He left the school in 2012 after one of his victims confronted him in the playground.

Brother Martin befriended many families in the local area convincing parents to let him take their sons away on school camps. He faced the Parramatta district court today to answer eight charges dating back to the late 80s.

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DEUTCHSLAND
kath.net

Eine toxische Mixtur aus Polemik, Verzerrung und Aggression wird vor allem gegen die katholische Kirche versprüht. Warum? –
Ein kath.net-Gastkommentar von Gernot Facius

Bonn (kath.net) Erzbischof Robert Zollitsch (Freiburg), der Vorsitzende des deutschen Episkopats, har Medienmacher zu mehr Sorgfalt aufgerufen. „Der Wettlauf um Quoten und Auflagen führt, ja verführt nicht selten zu Oberflächlichkeit, Falschinformationen und Fehlinterpretationen“, sagte Zollitsch während einer Begegnung mit Freiburger Professoren. Man mag Zollitschs Einlassung als banal abtun. Aber ist sie, man denke an Vorgänge der vergangenen Monate, nicht doch aktuell und somit angebracht? Die Welt braucht nun mal Anker der Verlässlichkeit: Medien, die sauber recherchieren und Fakten seriös gewichten. Die Orientierung geben. Die Bausteine für eine unabhängige Meinungsbildung liefern. Die einen geistigen Mehrwert schaffen. Kommunikationsmittel dieser Güte können zu sozialen „Lebensmitteln“ bei der Bewältigung des Alltags werden.

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ITALY
ANSA

(ANSAmed) – VATICAN CITY, JUNE 21 – Pope Francis ”doesn’t have much time to set Peter’s boat afloat once more”, for it has been ”somewhat battered by the pedophile priest storm and the Curia divisions which Ratzinger’s pontificate ran aground on”. And if on the one hand it is ”necessary to repair the sails and the rudder” and ”to throw overboard certain foul-smelling excess baggage”, it is also true that ”time presses”: it can play in favor, as in the case of John XXIII whose Council ”opened the Church up to a new era”; or it could on the other hand turn into an insurmountable obstacle. The many challenges of Bergoglio’s pontificate, their roots firmly sunk into the knots left untangled by his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI, are the central theme of ”Our Fathers” (Manni publishers, 206 pages, 14 euros), in which Vatican expert Elisa Pinna offers an attentive and in-depth view of the historic passage the Church has recently experienced: the one that began with Ratzinger’s shocking resignation and ended with the election of the pope ”that came from the end of the world”. A pope whose ”Franciscan simplicity”, ”attention to the poor”, and ”personal frugality”’, are ”extraordinarily in tune with the sentiment shared by a majority of the faithful (and not only the faithful) in a Europe crushed by an economic crisis that has now transformed into a social crisis”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Portadown Times

A Markethill gospel singer who admitted abusing three young girls 35 years ago has been jailed for 11 months.

Paul Gardiner (52) was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday.

The court had heard on Tuesday how the former youth pastor was caught leaving one victim’s bedroom “naked, trying to pull his underpants up”.

Last April, the father of four pleaded guilty to a total of 13 counts of indecent assault against the girls who were then aged seven, nine and 14 years, on dates between January 1978 and March 1980.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A former pastor has been jailed for sexually abusing three young girls when he was a teenager.

Paul Gardiner, 52, of Cusher Road in Markethill, County Armagh, was sentenced to 11 months at Belfast Crown Court.

The offences against the girls, then aged seven, nine and 14, were committed on dates between January 1978 and March 1980.

The father-of-four had pleaded guilty to 13 counts of indecent assault.

He was also banned from working with children and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

By Maayana Miskin
First Publish: 6/21/2013

Supporters of Rabbi Yona Metzger expressed fury at the police on Friday after the anti-fraud unit detained Rabbi Metzger for questioning for ten hours.

According to his supporters, police did their best to smear Rabbi Metzger’s good name.

Police invited camera crews and journalists to their officers before Rabbi Metzger was brought in for a second day of interrogation so that they could get good pictures of the rabbi on his way to questioning, one source told Arutz Sheva.

“The police’s behavior has been disgusting,” he accused. “There are sources in the police who leak every detail connected to the case in order to besmirch the rabbi’s name.”

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ISRAEL
JTA

(JTA) — Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger was questioned on suspicion that he took hundreds of thousands of shekels meant for nongovernmental organizations.

Metzger’s home and office were raided on Thursday, according to Israeli reports, and Israeli Police confiscated documents and property. Metzger was brought to the National Fraud Unit for questioning on accepting bribes, fraud and money laundering, Ynet reported.

Three associates of Metzger — two heads of NGOs and a Chief Rabbinate employee — also were arrested.

An investigation of Metzger reportedly was opened months ago after information implicating him in illicit activity reached police.

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ISRAEL
YNet

The Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court remanded the three suspects that were arrested as part of the fraud investigation launched against Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger. Chaim Eisenshtat, the rabbi’s driver and personal assistant, who is suspected of accepting bribes, was remanded by seven days.

Simcha Krakowsky, director of a charitable organization, suspected of bribery, was remanded by five days. Nissan Ben-Zion Zioni, director of the Atzum organization, who is also suspected of bribery, was remanded by six days. (Eli Senyor)

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ISRAEL
Business Standard

Israeli police said they have questioned the country’s chief rabbi and raided his home and office regarding his alleged involvement in a bribery and money laundering scheme.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says today’s probe of Rabbi Yona Metzger followed a months-long undercover investigation into his financial dealings. Rosenfeld said police confiscated computers and documents from the rabbi’s home and arrested three of his associates.

Metzger is mere weeks away from ending his 10-year term as the country’s chief rabbi for Ashkenazi, or European-descended, Jews.

Along with a separate Chief Rabbi from the Sephardic or Middle Eastern lineage, Metzger has led the country’s supreme body for overseeing Jewish services.

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ISRAEL
euronews

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Police questioned one of Israel’s top religious officials, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, on Thursday on suspicion of bribery, fraud and money laundering, a police spokesman said.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld gave no details about the allegations against Metzger and three other suspects but said the questioning had followed an undercover investigation.

A spokesman for Metzger had no comment on the matter.

Metzger is one of two state-appointed chief rabbis who oversee official religious policy and conduct state ceremonies. He has also been one of the Jewish state’s main interlocutors with the pope.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Four men claim to have been groped by Rabbi Yona Metzger in cases stretching back to the ’80s, according to a report in Israeli newspaper Maariv.

By Haaretz | Jun.21, 2013

Allegations of sexual abuse against Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger were reported in the Israeli media on Friday, just one day after he was questioned in connection with suspicions of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and breach of trust.

Four men of varying ages and from different sectors of society came forward, and told their stories to the newspaper Maariv, alleging that they had been groped by Metzger in incidents dating as far back as the ’80s. According to the report, two of the complainants were examined by polygraph test at the newspaper’s request, and passed the test.

Rabbi Metzger denied the allegations and stated that it was an attempt to sully his reputation.

Maariv received the first account three weeks ago. David, a secular Jew, alleged that in the late 1980s at a wedding where Metzger officiated, the rabbi touched his chest and his arms. David also alleged that Metzger placed his hand under his shirt during a conversation between the two of them. At the beginning of April, a religious Jewish man told the newspaper that in the recent past he met with the rabbi for a halakhic consultation and at the meeting the possibility of his professional advancement was discussed.

The complainant alleged that at the rabbi’s request, he removed his shirt and the rabbi groped his chest and arms. Maariv’s research for the story led to another man who told of a similar event that occurred between him and the rabbi. According to the Maariv report, the incident with the third man was brought to the attention of Israel’s then Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron in 1998, when Rabbi Metzger was a candidate for the position of Tel Aviv chief rabbi. Rabbi Bakshi-Doron was the head of a disciplinary committee that was established to discuss allegations of marital contracts (called ketubot in Hebrew) forged by Rabbi Metzger. However, the committee decided not to publicize the complaint.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By BEN HARTMAN
LAST UPDATED: 06/21/2013

Metzger probed for bribery, money laundering; denies wrongdoing.

Police from the National Fraud Squad raided the home and offices of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yonah Metzger on Thursday, and questioned him under caution for hours, as part of a bribery, fraud, money-laundering and breach-of-trust case. Metzger was released to five days house arrest on Thursday night following some ten hours of questioning.

Metzger is forbidden to enter his offices, leave the country or make contact with any of the other suspects in the case.

Metzger and three other men are suspected of being involved in the pilfering of hundreds of thousands of shekels from a number of charities.

Following an undercover investigation, officers went public on Thursday, arresting the three suspects and seizing documents, computers and other materials from Metzger’s home and office they believe may be linked to the allegations.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Regardless of suspicions surrounding Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, the upcoming election should not revolve around who the next chief rabbis will be, rather what the next Chief Rabbinate will be.

By Yair Ettinger | Jun.21, 2013

Was the timing pure coincidence? Any rabbi worth his salt would surely say that the grave suspicions against Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, coming on the eve of the election for his successor, are God’s way of sending a message − for instance, “Don’t appoint a rabbi out of narrow and extraneous political considerations.” Or “Don’t create a rabbinate whose purpose is to enrich its members.”

Or maybe the message is simpler and sharper than that. Perhaps it’s that the time has come to do one of two things − either dismantle the Chief Rabbinate or revamp it from head to toe.

What’s nice about these messages is that all of them are equally valid even if Metzger comes out of this case as pure as the driven snow. It must be remembered that during the course of his 10 years in office, he has already survived several investigations and inquiries into his conduct, without a single indictment.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Four men claim to have been groped by Rabbi Yona Metzger in cases stretching back to the ’80s, according to a report in Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Allegations of sexual abuse against Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger were reported in the Israeli media on Friday, just one day after he was questioned in connection with suspicions of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and…

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Special Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Hunter region is now examining whether police destroyed crucial evidence relating to abuse by Catholic clergy. A Lateline investigation has found a senior NSW police officer was part of a key Catholic Church body set up to deal with sex abuse cases and attended monthly meetings. And over a five year period the police officer shredded all documents and records of those monthly meetings. There are now questions about how a serving police officer came to be sitting on an internal church committee, that discussed child sexual abuse and under what circumstances that officer shredded the records.

Transcript

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The official inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Hunter region of New South Wales is now examining whether police destroyed crucial evidence.

A Lateline investigation has found a senior serving police officer was part of a key Catholic Church expert panel set up to deal with sex abuse cases.

It’s been revealed that over a five year period that police officer attended monthly meetings and then shredded all documents and records of the meetings.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: For several years, a senior policewoman with the NSW Sex Crimes Squad sat on the internal Professional Standards Resource Group of the Catholic Church.

That group met for several hours each month to discuss specific cases of abuse by clergy and others.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian June 21, 2013

THE NSW Police Minister has written to the force asking for an urgent briefing after it emerged a senior officer had shredded paper records of her meetings with Catholic church officials to discuss child sex abuse.

As reported last night by the ABC’s Lateline, the minister, Michael Gallacher, has asked for an explanation of the actions of Inspector Beth Cullen, who spent five years working as the police representative on the church’s NSW/ACT Professional Standards Resource Group.

In response to a freedom of information request, NSW Police said it could not provide documents relating to her work with the group, which met monthly to discuss allegations of child sex abuse by priests.

“Inspector Beth Cullen . . . shredded hard copies of meeting material after each meeting. Furthermore, Inspector Cullen did not keep any documentation in relation to her work on the PSRG,” the letter reads.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP

POLICE have rejected claims a senior NSW officer destroyed original documents about sex abuse in the Catholic Church, saying she only shredded copies of the confidential papers.

Reports stated a senior officer assigned to the Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) – a key Catholic Church body set up to deal with pedophilia within the institution – shredded all records of her involvement.

Inspector Beth Cullen, who was then a senior sergeant with the Sex Crimes Unit, destroyed all documents pertaining to her role with the PSRG from 1998 to 2003, the ABC’s Lateline program reported.

The documents came from a freedom of information request filed by NSW Greens spokesman David Shoebridge.
n’t see any circumstances where police would need to shred documents from an internal church body.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Chicago-Detroit Province ordained in 1969, Burke’s career took him from IL to Sacramento and Berkeley CA, Fairbanks and Anchorage AK,as well as Helena and Great Falls MT. Burke was accused in a 2011 lawsuit of perpetrating abuse at St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Indian Reservation in the Helena MT diocese. He is last known to be living at a Jesuit retirement center in Michigan.

Ordained:1969

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PENNSYLVANIA
WITF

Written by Mary Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Jun 20, 2013

A state House proposal to make it easier for some to report suspected child abuse is headed to the Senate, though concerns voiced before a final vote suggest some misgivings about legislating a solution to problems of child abuse – that doing so could interfere with parents who discipline their kids with a smack.

One proposal passed by the House Thursday would, in part, allow people who are required by law to report suspected child abuse (like teachers), to do so by e-mail. It would also require people who must report suspected child abuse to go to the state, not just to their superiors.

“You heard from some folks who were very concerned because they are people who – I’ll say practice – but make use of, in their raising of their children, corporal punishment,” said Rep. Kathy Watson (R-Bucks). “What everybody might say, spanking.”

Rep. Tim Krieger (R-Westmoreland) cast one of the few votes against the proposal. “Not for one minute [do I] think that we need to give child abusers a break here, but there’s a line here that we have to be very careful of,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Fort Mill Times

The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. —
Three bills that address how child abuse investigations are handled are closer to becoming law following favorable votes in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday in favor of the three proposals, part of the legislation being considered in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal.

One would establish procedures to report child abuse online or by email and require those who must report suspected abuse to inform their supervisor and call the ChildLine hotline.

Another would require approval of “indicated” child abuse determinations by county child protective services administrators and the agency’s lawyer. The third broadens how school personnel must handle abuse cases.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed three bills today in a package designed to improve child protection systems in Pennsylvania, all by overwhelming margins.

The bills, all of which flowed from recommendations from a task force appointed to study the state of Pennsylvania’s laws in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, now go to the Senate or further consideration.

The bills approved today include:

* House Bill 430, which requires all persons required to report suspicions of child abuse who are part of an organization to make separate reports both to their supervisors and to the state’s Childline system.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

Bishop Bell School has issued this statement: “As a school community we have been saddened by the events which led up to this trial and the impact they have had on all concerned.

“We remain deeply shocked by the actions of Mr Forrest and his betrayal of the trust that was placed in him.

“It is important that the strongest possible message is sent to all who work with children that they hold a position of responsibility and trust for the lives, and well being, of those in their care.

“We take our responsibility extremely seriously and our safeguarding policies and procedures are robust.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Bishop Bell’s executive head Terry Boatwright has defended safeguarding at the school and explained everything possible was done to investigate Forrest’s relationship with the 15-year-old schoolgirl.

Four teachers from the Priory Road school gave evidence at the trial last week) and told the court they were aware the girl had a ‘crush’ on her 30-year-old teacher.

Rumours about holding hands on a trip to Los Angeles in February 2012, Twitter messages and texts between pair in the lead up to the 2012 summer break were raised as concerns to senior members of staff by pupils on a number of occasions.

The four teachers told the court they had repeatedly warned Forrest to keep his distance from the girl.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The school which repeatedly failed to prevent a maths teacher from absconding to France with a teenager pupil was accused of multiple failings as he was found guilty of child abduction.

By Victoria Ward10:00PM BST 20 Jun 2013

Campaigners said it was “absolutely phenomenal” that teaching staff at Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne did not heed repeated warnings about Jeremy Forrest’s relationship with the schoolgirl.

Forrest, 30, was cautioned about his behaviour by colleagues seven times in seven months and yet they failed to take any definitive action or report their concerns to the police.

Lucy Duckworth, founder of See Changes child protection charity, said it was astonishing that despite the concerns raised between February and July last year, the subject was abandoned at the start of the summer holidays, leaving the pair free to enjoy a full sexual relationship, spending numerous nights at local hotels and at his marital home.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Anti-child abuse campaigners have demanded the headteacher at the centre of the Jeremy Forrest scandal be axed.

They said Terry Boatwright, head of Eastbourne’s Bishop Bell CoE school which employed Forrest, should go for failing to protect his victim.

The trial heard that despite being challenged at least seven times by fellow teachers, Forrest repeatedly continued his illicit affair.

The school banned them from messaging each other on Twitter but they carried on.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Seven chances to stop teacher-pupil affair: School branded a ‘disgrace’ as campaigners call for head to be sacked

Child protection campaigners slammed Jeremy Forrest’s school as a ‘disgrace’ and called for its head to be sacked for failing to stop his affair with a pupil.

Police also came under fire for not reacting more swiftly after being finally tipped off about the relationship. The delay meant the pair were able to flee to France.

The married 30-year-old’s relationship with a girl half his age was an ‘open secret’ at Bishop Bell C of E school in Eastbourne, friends of the girl claim.

Teachers warned him about his behaviour with the girl seven times over seven months after being repeatedly told by her classmates about what was happening – but never reported it as a suspected crime.

One teacher described the rumours as ‘crazy’ and others were more concerned about the stress they were causing Forrest and the damage they could do to his career than any risk to the schoolgirl.

Even the girl mocked the school’s efforts to stop their affair, telling police after Forrest’s arrest that while teachers warned them about their behaviour, ‘they never really did a full investigation into what was going on’.

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UNITED STATES
Esquire

By Charles P. Pierce

When the scandal in the Roman Catholic Church broke, and it was discovered that Holy Mother Church had been d/b/a an international conspiracy to obstruct justice in thousands of cases of criminal sexual abuse of the children in its charge, the defenders of the institutional church, and not a few members of the Clan Of The Red Beanie, decided that the whole thing started when The Sixties happened. The good holy celibates saw all the unauthorized fking going on around them and, swooning over the Strawberry Alarm Clock, they took to abusing children because that’s what the Sexual Revolution was all about. Also, too — birth control!

Except, of course, no.

The auditors’ report, released on Tuesday, found that sexual abuse by friars in the St. Joseph Province of the Capuchin Order was discussed at meetings as far back as 1932, the first year for which minutes of meetings were available. After more than a dozen students at the province’s St. Lawrence Seminary in Wisconsin accused nine friars of abuse in 1992, it cost the province’s insurer nearly a million dollars – but 89 percent of that went to lawyers to defend the Capuchins and only 11 percent to victims for settlements and therapy, the report said.

Jimi Hendrix wasn’t born until 1942. Just sayin’.

The auditors said that the files often contained “coded language” and euphemisms to refer to sexual abusers. Friars were said to suffer from “immorality” or “evil actions and speech,” and some documents record friars sent for treatment for alcoholism when sexual abuse was clearly the issue. Peter J. Isely, who was abused by a Capuchin friar at St. Lawrence Seminary in 1970s, praised the province for commissioning the report, but said he suspected that the order had either destroyed documents or withheld them from the auditors. Mr. Isely, the Midwest director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said that he had provided court documents to the auditors that were not in the province’s files. Asked about this discrepancy, Father Celichowski acknowledged that “file management was historically a significant problem.”

As it was in the Nixon White House, and in several large mortgage brokerages, and in many a bookie joint down through the years.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

NSW Police admit shredding all the documents relating to five years involvement with a key body of the Catholic Church which was set up to deal with sex abuse cases.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: New South Wales police have admitted shredding all documents of the force’s involvement with a key Catholic Church body set up to deal with sex abuse cases.

The sex crimes squad officer on the church body destroyed all her documents after each meeting.

The top level group established by the church’s bishops met monthly with the senior policewoman for at least three hours, over many years.

After being contacted by LateLine, the New South Wales police minister, mike Gallacher has now demanded an urgent briefing from his police commissioner.

And the former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales has described the police actions as “destroying evidence.” Suzie Smith reports.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: The internal church body was known as the professional standards resource group. Set up by Catholic bishops, the expert panel was created to advise the church on specific cases of child sexual abuse involving clergy and others.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

NOT for the first time, the behaviour of a senior officer of Victoria Police is under a cloud, with Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton accused of giving false evidence to the state’s child sex abuse inquiry.

Peter O’Callaghan, QC, the independent commissioner in charge of the Catholic Church’s Melbourne complaints system, has detailed instances where he contacted police and arranged for victims to be interviewed. Some cases resulted in charges being laid. Mr O’Callaghan said that of the 304 complaints made up to June 30 last year, 97 had been reported to police, 115 related to offenders who were dead at the time of the complaint, nine were about offenders who were overseas and he encouraged 76 complainants to go to police.

Such details must seriously worry Mr Ashton, who claimed police had not “had a single referral of a child sexual abuse allegation by the Catholic Church”, an assertion repeated in the police submission to the inquiry. Yet former Victoria Police deputy commissioner Ken Jones said in correspondence in 2011 that the force was “very content” with the church’s sex abuse complaints system and was “very content that victims are being properly dealt with”. The fact that a split has occurred over such a sensitive issue at the highest levels of the force will do nothing to help restore public confidence in police after scandals such as former commissioner Simon Overland leaking secret intelligence from phone taps during Operation Briars, the ineffectiveness of the now defunct Office of Police Integrity, and Mr Overland deliberately bringing forward incomplete and misleading crime statistics on the eve of the 2010 election.

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HAWAII
West Hawaii Today

By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com

A 69-year-old Ocean View man awaiting trial for allegedly molesting two underage girls was a deacon and youth mentor for a church in the remote Ka‘u community for at least a part of the time the abuse was alleged to have occurred.

Nicholas “Nick” Krivanek was “removed” from those positions at Ocean View Evangelical Community Church after “he confessed” to the church’s elders in 2011, according to Larry Fisher, who was secretary of the elders at that time.

“I’m not sure the church (congregation) was informed until after he was arrested,” Fisher said on Tuesday. “The pastor informed every church member after he was arrested a couple of Sundays ago.” Fisher said the meeting took place after Sunday service.

Fisher said Krivanek is “still a member of the church.”

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HAWAII
The Garden Island

NAALEHU, Hawaii (AP) — A Big Island man indicted on molestation charges knew the alleged victims through a church in a remote Kau community, a prosecutor said.

Nicholas “Nick” Krivanek, 69, of Ocean View, is accused of molesting two girls under 14. An indictment alleges one victim was molested between 2007 and 2011 and the second victim was allegedly molested between 2009 and 2011.

“The victims did know him because of the church,” Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Burleson told Hawaii Tribune-Herald (http://ow.ly/mek5X ). “I don’t know if they are members of the church themselves.”

Krivanek was removed as a deacon and youth leader at Ocean View Evangelical Community Church after he confessed to church elders in 2011, said Larry Fisher, who was secretary of the elders at the time.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The official inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Hunter region of New South Wales is now examining whether police destroyed crucial evidence.

A Lateline investigation has found a senior serving police officer was part of a key Catholic Church expert panel set up to deal with sex abuse cases.

It’s been revealed that over a five year period that police officer attended monthly meetings and then shredded all documents and records of the meetings.

Emily Bourke reports.

EMILY BOURKE: For several years, a senior policewoman with the NSW Sex Crimes Squad sat on the internal Professional Standards Resource Group of the Catholic Church.

That group met for several hours each month to discuss specific cases of abuse by clergy and others.

The ABC’s Lateline program has revealed internal police documents which show that the New South Wales policewoman shredded all records of meetings held between 1998 and 2003.

DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: Why would the police be a party to such an arrangement where they are effectively cleansing the record for the Church?

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 21, 201

NSW Police have admitted shredding all records of a senior officer’s involvement with a Catholic church body which deals with sexual abuse.

A Freedom of Information request by Greens MP David Shoebridge revealed briefing papers and documents created over a five year period between 1998 and 2003 had been destroyed.

The documents reveal that Inspector Beth Cullen, who was then with the Sex Crimes Unit, destroyed all documents relating to her role with the Catholic church body.

A letter from the NSW Police, which was released with the FOI documents states: “Inspector Beth Cullen, the NSW Police representative on the [catholic church body], shredded hard copies of meeting material after each meeting.”

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INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

The Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades will offer Mass on Saturday at St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel in an ongoing effort to help parishioners heal after their priest was removed from ministry because of sexual abuse allegations at a previous assignment.

The Mass by Rhoades, bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, will be at 5 p.m. at the church, 11337 Old U.S. 27 South.

The Rev. Cornelius Ryan was removed as the parish administrator June 10 after an allegation of abuse of a young male 20 years ago in Africa was received by his superior, according to a statement released Thursday by the U.S. Province of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in South Bend, Ryan’s order.

Ryan was appointed administrator of St. Joseph by Rhoades in December 2011 after its previous priest, the Rev. Thomas Lombardi, also was removed because of a sexual abuse allegation.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PIA AKERMAN From: The Australian June 21, 2013

A FORMER Catholic priest has been charged with 72 child sex abuse charges relating to alleged historical offences.

Gerald Francis Ridsdale, 79, is due to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning for a filing hearing regarding the charges, which include buggery, carnal knowledge and indecent assault.

A police spokeswoman said detectives from Taskforce Sano, established to investigate offences revealed by the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, had been investigating the man and laid the charges.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A 79-year-old man will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court today charged with 72 child sex offences.

The ABC understands it is notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale.

The former Catholic priest was jailed in 1994 for offences against 21 victims between the 1960s and 1980s.

The new allegations come just weeks before Ridsdale would have been eligible for parole.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

By Lauren DiSanto | Thursday, Jun 20, 2013

Steven Almond is a Deacon for Middletown Presbyterian Church, he teaches Sunday School and coaches basketball, but detectives in Delaware County say he was also keeping dozens of child porn videos on his home computer.

On June 13, police searched Almond’s home on W. Forestview Road in Parkside and pulled out four computers, a hard drive, flash drives, multiple cell phones and nearly two dozen CD/ DVDs.

Detectives say they found more than 50 videos believed to be child pornography, some of which showed children that appeared to be under the age of 5, according to a police affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Almond admitted to police that he had files of teenage pornography on his computer although he said he never had any inappropriate contact with children.

Almond, 54, told detectives that he knew it was illegal to pay for child porn, but he didn’t think it was illegal to download child porn since its free and in the public domain.

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PENNSYLVANIA
My Fox Philly

Posted: Jun 20, 2013

Parkside, Pa. –
A Delaware County Deacon and Sunday school teacher, is charged with possession of child pornography.

Police say Steven Almond admitted to downloading child porn videos, but thought he wasn’t doing anything wrong, since the videos were free and in the public domain.

Investigators raided Almond’s home, taking four computers, a hard drive, 2 USB flash drives, and over 20 DVDs.

Detectives conducted a preliminary examination of these items and located more than 50 videos which depict children under the age of 18 years old engaging in sexual acts and/or poses, and are believed to be child pornography. Some of these videos even depict children that appear to be less than 5 years old.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Jun. 20, 2013 NCR Today

Journalists should “be uncompromising against the hypocrisies which result from the closed, the sick heart,” said Pope Francis to a group of Jesuit journalists. “Be uncompromising against this spiritual illness.”

Telling journalists to attack hypocrisy might sound suicidal to most church leaders, especially after more than two decades of investigative journalism on the sexual abuse crisis, but it shows how much Pope Francis hates the vices he believes undermine the Gospel message: clericalism, careerism and hypocrisy.

Beyond exposing hypocrisy, Francis said the main task of journalists “is not to build walls but bridges” and to establish dialogue with all people. At a time when ratings and readership are built by stirring up antagonism and fights, this will not be an easy teaching.

Although he was speaking to the Jesuit staff of the Italian journal La Civilta Cattolica, Pope Francis laid out a dynamic vision relevant to the vocation of anyone in journalism. “The great spiritual questions are more alive today than ever,” he said, “but there is need of someone to interpret them and to understand them.” But the approach to these questions should be through dialogue not screaming heads.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

June 21, 2013

Carolyn Webb

Members of a support group for people who grew up in care say they will boycott a reunion organised by the Good Shepherd nuns as part of celebrations for the order’s 150th anniversary in Australia.

Care Leavers Australia Network chief executive Leonie Sheedy said the nuns’ event was inappropriate ”when they haven’t acknowledged, or publicly apologised for, the damage that’s been done to children in their care”.

With the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse under way and the state inquiry into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse to report later this year, abused former residents of Good Shepherd institutions said there was nothing to celebrate.

The nuns, on their webpage, say the June 21 and 22 celebrations at the Abbotsford Convent will include tours and an exhibition.

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INDIANA
WANE

Published : Thursday, 20 Jun 2013

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A Catholic priest removed from a Fort Wayne parish after being accused of sexual abuse in Africa about 20 years ago coached soccer in Uganda about that time.

Ugandan native Vee Batu told The Journal Gazette for a story Thursday that the Rev. Cornelius Ryan was a “renowned high school soccer coach” at St. Henry’s College in Masaka, Uganda, from 1991 until 1994 or 1995. Batu expressed disbelief at the sexual abuse allegation.

A directory of Holy Cross priests says the 76-year-old Ryan was ordained in 1966 and based in Fort Portal, Uganda, from 1967 until 1999. He then spent time in Kenya before returning to the order’s provincial house in South Bend.

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CANADA
CBC News

A new research centre on residential schools, to be based in Winnipeg, will preserve a national memory of what happened to aboriginal children who attended the schools, says the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The commission and the University of Manitoba will sign an agreement on Friday, which is National Aboriginal Day, to mark the establishment of the new research centre.

Manitoba Justice Murray Sinclair, who chairs the commission, says the research centre is important because it will give all Canadians an opportunity to learn about the residential schools experience.

“That is important for us, and I think it’s also important for the aboriginal community because it’s a way for us to ensure that we have a national memory around residential schools,” he told CBC News on Thursday.

The signing ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on the University of Manitoba campus.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

MARI A. SCHAEFER, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, June 20, 2013

A Presbyterian church deacon, Sunday school teacher and basketball coach has been charged with downloading child pornography, the Delaware County district attorney’s office announced today.

Steven Daniel Almond, 54, of Parkside, a deacon at the Middletown Presbyterian Church, surrendered to police Thursday morning and was being held at the Delaware County jail in lieu of $350,000 bail, officials said.

He was charged with “disseminating” photos and films “of child sex acts” and related crimes, according to public records, which gave the following account:

Investigators traced 11 pornographic “files of interest” to an account used by Almond. When he was contacted by police at his home, Almond said he did have files of teenage pornography on his computer. He estimated he downloaded 30 videos of child pornography to his computer with the youngest victim being “13 to 14” years old.

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DEUTSCHLAND
dradio

Leiter des Jesuitenkollegs Sankt Blasien begrüßt Stilwechsel von Papst Franziskus

Pater Klaus Mertes rät Papst Franziskus, den neuen Weg aufrechtzuerhalten, den er seit seinem Amtsantritt vor 100 Tagen eingeschlagen hat. Fragen der Sexualmoral bezeichnet Mertes als “nicht die wichtigsten und zentralsten des christlichen Glaubens.”

Christoph Heinemann: “Brüder und Schwestern, guten Abend!” Das waren die ersten Worte, die die Welt von Papst Franziskus zu hören bekamen. Das war am 13. März. Franziskus stand auf der Loggia des Petersdoms und Tausende Menschen unter ihm auf dem Petersplatz. Zweierlei war ungewöhnlich: Der Papst trug nicht den pelzgefütterten Schulterkragen, die Mozetta, er war in Weiß gekleidet. Und der Name! Franziskus ist der erste Papst, der sich Franz von Assisi, den Heiligen der Armen, zum Vorbild gewählt hat. Seit 100 Tagen ist der Argentinier Jorge Mario Bergoglio nun im Amt. Er ist übrigens Mitglied des Jesuitenordens und das verbindet ihn mit unserem Gesprächspartner.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

20.06.2013 · Was sich nach seiner Wahl bereits andeutete, ist mittlerweile zur Gewissheit geworden: Papst Franziskus ist für den vatikanischen Hofstaat ein einziger Albtraum. Sicher ist auch: Er lebt gefährlich.

Von DANIEL DECKERS

Einst soll der Schriftsteller Arthur Schnitzler seinem älteren Dichterfreund Arthur Rimbaud geschrieben haben: „Du fragst mich, was soll ich tun? Und ich sage, lebe wild und gefährlich!“ Gut möglich, dass die Vorliebe des Argentiniers Jorge Bergoglio für deutsche Lyrik ihn auch auf die Spur dieses mittlerweile geflügelten Wortes geführt hat. Jedenfalls lebt der Jesuit, der es als junger Mann mit Militärdiktatoren zu tun hatte und der sich zuletzt immer wieder mit den lupenreinen Demokraten an der Spitze seines Landes anlegte, seit drei Monaten wilder und gefährlicher denn je.

Denn was sich in den ersten Tagen nach seiner Wahl am 13. März andeutete, ist mittlerweile zur Gewissheit geworden: Papst Franziskus ist für den vatikanischen Hofstaat ein einziger Albtraum und spätestens seit der vergangenen Woche für die vatikanische Sex-and-Crime-Szene ein unberechenbares Risiko.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

By Rebecca Ruiz
Updated Wednesday, June 19, 2013

When Tom Tremblay started working for the police department of Burlington, Vt., 30 years ago, he discovered that many of his fellow cops rarely believed a rape victim. This was true time after time, in dozens of cases. Tremblay could see why they were doubtful once he started interviewing the victims himself. The victims, most of them women, often had trouble recalling an attack or couldn’t give a chronological account of it. Some expressed no emotion. Others smiled or laughed as they described being assaulted. “Unlike any other crime I responded to in my career, there was always this thought that a rape report was a false report,” says Tremblay, who was an investigator in Burlington’s sex crimes unit. “I was always bothered by the fact there was this shroud of doubt.”

Tremblay felt sex assault victims were telling the truth, and data supports his instincts: Only an estimated 2 to 8 percent of rape accusations are false, according to a survey of the literature published by the National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women. Tremblay also knew the victims felt as if they were being treated like suspects, and it affected the choices they made. Surveyed about why they didn’t want to pursue a report, most victims said they worried that no one would believe them.

This is rape culture in action. It puts the burden of proving innocence on the victim, and from Steubenville, Ohio, to Notre Dame and beyond, we’ve seen it poison cases and destroy lives. But science is telling us that our suspicions of victims, the ones that seem like common sense, are flat-out baseless. A number of recent studies on neurobiology and trauma show that the ways in which the brain processes harrowing events accounts for victim behavior that often confounds cops, prosecutors, and juries.

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GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, June 19, 2013

Navajo woman from Gallup 1 of the plaintiffs

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Ten more people, including a Navajo woman from Gallup, have filed clergy sex abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Gallup.

Phoenix attorney Robert E. Pastor filed the civil complaints in Flagstaff’s Coconino County Superior Court on behalf of eight men and two women who allege they were sexually abused as children by clergy working in Catholic parishes on the Navajo Nation or in Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, Camp Verde, Mayer or Humboldt, Ariz. Pastor has three other abuse lawsuits active against the Gallup Diocese. The first case, filed in 2010, is scheduled to go to trial in early 2014.

All of the new plaintiffs’ identities are being protected in the court files.

New allegations

Two of the lawsuits name clergy who have never before been publicly accused of abuse. Monsignor James Lindenmeyer, a prominent priest in the Gallup Diocese who died in 2007, is being accused of abuse by a former student at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Winslow. For a number of years in the 1960s, Lindenmeyer served as the diocese’s vicar general, or second-in-command.

Brother Mark Schornack, O.F.M., aka Mark Schomack, a Franciscan friar who died in 2012, is being accused of abuse by the Gallup plaintiff. As a child, she attended Mass at the Catholic mission at St. Michaels on the Navajo Nation. Also named in the Schornack lawsuit are the Franciscan provinces in Albuquerque and Cincinnati.

The Rev. Raul N. Sanchez, a former chancellor for the Gallup Diocese, is also named as a defendant. This is Pastor’s third lawsuit that has named Sanchez as an alleged abuser. Sanchez left the Gallup Diocese to become an Air Force chaplain, and he is reportedly absent from the diocese and living in Mexico.

Other priests named include Clement A. Hageman, John T. Sullivan and William G. Allison, all of whom are deceased and have been identified as serial — if not notorious — sexual abusers in church documents.

Church responses

Bishop James S. Wall “takes all of these matters very seriously,” the Gallup Diocese said Friday in emailed comments, which were not attributed to one particular diocesan official. “He continues to pray for all victims of abuse, and asks us to keep all who are involved in these cases in our prayers for healing.

“The Diocese of Gallup has not, to our knowledge, ever received any claim of sexual misconduct against Msgr. Lindenmeyer other than the one recently filed by Mr. Pastor,” the diocese said. “With respect to that claim, we have no facts other than what has been alleged in the complaint.”

Toni Cashnelli, communications director for the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist in Cincinnati, said the Franciscan Province had not yet been notified of the Schornack lawsuit or the allegations against him.

“We take all allegations seriously and are committed to responding appropriately,” Cashnelli said. The Franciscan Province posts its sexual abuse policy on its website; however, it does not post its list of credibly accused sexually abusive Franciscan friars.

The Rev. Gino Correa, O.F.M., provincial minister for Albuquerque’s Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, did not respond to requests for comment. The Albuquerque Franciscans do not post either a sexual abuse policy or a list of credibly accused abusers on its website.

Bankruptcy concerns

Both Pastor and the Diocese of Gallup were asked if these latest lawsuits might push the Gallup Diocese into bankruptcy.

“There can be no dispute that the Diocese has extremely limited resources, and may not have the financial wherewithal to continue to investigate and attempt to compensate victims of credible sexual misconduct claims,” the diocese stated. “It is public knowledge that many dioceses with resources far greater than the Diocese of Gallup have been forced to consider and/or file bankruptcy in the face of mounting clergy abuse lawsuits. In light of the foregoing, the Diocese is evaluating all options that are available to it at this time.”

“I am not concerned about the Diocese of Gallup’s finances,” Pastor said in an email Monday. “I am more concerned about the response the Bishop of Gallup has to his victims. … I hope and pray the Bishop of Gallup will reveal once and for all the names of those priests who sexually abused children while serving in the Diocese of Gallup. The victims, their families, and the Catholic church deserve to know the truth.”

The Gallup Diocese declined once again to release updated and accurate information about credibly accused Gallup clergy and the number of abuse victims who have made those allegations.
“The Diocese is not prepared to release that information at this time,” it said.

Lack of reporting

Pastor and the Gallup Diocese also sparred in their responses as to why allegations of sexual abuse by Raul N. Sanchez — or any living Gallup clergy accused of sex abuse — have not been reported to law enforcement officials. The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People supports such reporting “even when the person is no longer a minor.”

“Each of the persons who has made allegations against Fr. Sanchez is an adult who is represented by counsel,” the Gallup Diocese said. “In light of the foregoing, we have asked counsel for those claimants to report their allegations to the relevant civil authorities.”

“Gallup’s request that these victims report the abuse to civil authorities is disingenuous,” Pastor said when asked to respond to the diocese’s claim. “Gallup made the request after you submitted your questions to diocesan officials. The time to report was when the Diocese knew Sanchez had or attempted to have inappropriate sexual contact with children. The diocese should have reported Sanchez in the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, after he was Chancellor for the diocese, the Diocese of Gallup helped him flee to Mexico. We have asked the Diocese of Gallup to disclose his specific whereabouts, to warn and protect potential victims, but the Diocese refuses to provide accurate information.”

Pastor added, “We hope to report to law enforcement in the U.S. soon; however, because the Diocese of Gallup allowed the perpetrator to leave this jurisdiction, that investigation may not produce the answers and the justice these victims deserve.”

With these latest lawsuits, 22 diocesan priests or Franciscan friars associated with the Gallup Diocese have been publicly accused of sexual abuse of minors. Two others have been publicly accused of the sexual assault of adult victims.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the June 18 vote by the California Assembly Committee on the Judiciary that keeps alive a bill that lifts the statute of limitations for one year on cases of the sexual abuse of minors; it applies only to private institutions:

Prior to the Civil War, we had one law for whites, and one law for blacks. In 1868, that was rectified when the equal protection before the law provision was encoded in the 14th Amendment. Now California Sen. Jim Beall wants to turn the clock back: he wants one law for public schools and another for Catholic schools. Differential legislation can be justified in many instances, but not when it comes to crime and children.

“Public schools and teachers have been held to a higher standard of care when it comes to the protection of children and reporting of child sexual abuse, than have the clergy and private youth-serving institutions,” said Beall. Not true. In 2007, AP did a major investigation of the public schools and found widespread sexual abuse of minors, a breakdown in enforcement, resistance from teachers’ unions to do anything about it, and grossly inadequate legislation. California was specifically cited for its negligence.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Fox 6

[audit report]

June 20, 2013, by Trisha Bee

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released a statement Thursday, June 20th regarding the voluntary release of an audit by the Midwest Province of Capuchin Franciscans. The audit names 23 of 46 friars alleged to have raped or sexually assaulted children.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee released the following statement:

We commend the Capuchin’s decision to provide more open and candid communication related to clergy sexual abuse of minors. In 2004, when the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was one of the first dioceses in the country to make public the names of diocesan priest offenders with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, we encouraged religious orders to do the same. Today, we continue to work toward reconciliation with abuse survivors. In two weeks, the archdiocese will post additional documents to our website as part of our own commitment to transparency.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Nicole Sotelo | Jun. 20, 2013

The story goes that it was a June storm that sparked Ben Franklin to try something new: to toss a kite into the air attached to a key below. If lightning really was electricity, the key would hold a spark. Ben reached out his hand and, indeed, the key held energy — energy that now powers cities and lights up entire populations.

This summer is no different.

Another man is testing the electricity of an idea. His name is Fr. Helmut Schüller. He has a spark in his eyes and the attention of Catholics in Europe, including the Vatican. As a priest of Austria, he has seen the stark realities of the priest shortage and the desire by Catholics for more equal participation. He knows the church needs to change and has decided to do something about it.

Fr. Helmut helped initiate the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which is organizing priests to resist exclusionary church policies and create churches where power is shared and Catholics participate equally, no matter one’s gender, marital status or sexual orientation.

These Austrian priests are not alone. Priests are coming together in places like Ireland, India and Australia to look at critical issues facing the church and to work with local Catholics on solutions. In the United States, the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests will convene next week and, later this summer, Fr. Helmut is making his first U.S. tour, traveling to 15 cities from New York to Los Angeles.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Patrick McGreevy
June 19, 2013

Survivors of child molestation would have more time to file lawsuits against institutions that employed their abusers under a proposal making its way through the California Legislature.

Currently, most victims can file lawsuits against religious or civic institutions that employed their abusers until they turn age 26. But a court ruling prevented such suits by people who turned 26 before 2003 and discovered between 2005 and 2011 that the molestation caused injury or trauma.

The legislation by state Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose) would extend the statute of limitations for those victims.

“We are seeing adults who were molested when they were children coming forward but unable to bring their abusers to justice because of the existing statute of limitations,’’ Beall said in a statement.

In some cases, people don’t learn they were child abuse victims until they are older. In other cases, they may know they were abused, but a mental health person may not diagnose psychological injuries linked to the abuse, warranting a lawsuit seeking damages, until they are an adult, officials said.

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RICHMOND (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch

BY LOUIS LLOVIO
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Richmond Outreach Center will hire an interim pastor to handle its Saturday services as it looks for two permanent pastors to replace its founder and former senior pastor Geronimo Aguilar and three others.

The South Richmond mega church’s board of directors said this morning that it will conduct the search for a senior and executive pastor with the assistance of “experienced Christian consultants.”

“This is a lengthy process and will likely take between six months to a year,” the board said.
Aguilar, who is facing life in prison in Texas on charges that he sexually assaulted an 11-year old girl and her sister for more than a year in the late 1990s, left the church he founded earlier this month.

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RICHMOND (VA)
NBC 12

By Ray Daudani

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) –
The Richmond Outreach Center is posting openings for two pastor positions, due to the resignations of several staff members following child sex abuse allegations.

The ROC Board of Directors posted a notice Thursday that it was looking to permanently fill the positions of Senior Pastor and Executive Pastor with two new pastors from outside the organization.

The search is expected to take six months to a year and will include help from several experienced, Christian consultants.

The church is also hiring an interim preacher to preach at Six O’Clock ROC, their Saturday night church service, until the position of Senior Pastor is filled.

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INDIANA
The News-Sentinel

By Kevin Kilbane of The News-Sentinel
Thursday, June 20, 2013

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades plans to celebrate Mass at 5 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel as the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend tries to help parishioners heal after allegations of past sexual abuse led to removal of their priest.

It is the second time in less than two years that a priest at the parish has been removed after allegations of sexual abuse at a previous assignment.

“Our bishop’s deepest concern is for them and for their faith, and he knows how painful this is,” said Mary Glowaski, the leader of the diocese’s office of evangelization and special ministries. “He is so sad and concerned for them.”

Rhoades is leading a retreat for diocesan priests Monday-Friday this week at the Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park near Angola, but he relayed a message through diocesan Communications Director Sean McBride that he and the priests there are praying daily for St. Joseph parish.
The congregation of about 1,150 children and adults is at 11337 Old U.S. 27 S., near Interstate 469 on Fort Wayne’s south side.

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AUSTRIA
The Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland)

Pope Francis: 100 Days in Office: Statement by the Austrian Priests’ Initiative on 19 June 2013

Vienna, 19 June 2013
Pope Francis: 100 Days in Office
Statement by the Austrian Priests’ Initiative on 19 June 2013

We state…
…that in his first three months of office, Pope Francis has taken a number of clear stances that instil hope and that have been long awaited by a large majority of the people of the Church. Pope Francis has restituted simplicity, modesty and approachability to the office bestowed upon him, thereby signalling that it is his will to lead the Church in a new fashion. Expectations are high that he will set a personal example and lead the Vatican in serving the Church in new ways.

We gain hope…
…from Pope Francis’ distinct and cooperative manner with his fellow bishops, and we expect him to soon take steps towards a new companionship with them in leading the Church throughout the world: through a revaluation of the Synod of Bishops as an institution of true co-determination and leadership participation, a revaluation of the different worldwide regions of the Church and a reassessment of the Conferences of Bishops, based on subsidiarity as a fundamental principle of Christian social teaching.

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KANSAS
WIBW

(WIBW) – A priest who once served in Marshall County and Topeka is accused of violating his oath of celibacy and prohibited from continuing his duties.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas confirmed Wednesday it received an allegation June 8th against Father William Bruning, who currently serves Prince of Peace Parish in Olathe. The archdiocese says it did not involve minors or any individual from a parish where Bruning had preached.

In a statement, the archdiocese said Bruning admitted the allegation was true and “expressed profound regret and sincere sorrow for the pain his actions have now caused the many people who love and respect him.”

The archdiocese says Bruning has left the area to begin a treatment program.

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KANSAS
Olathe News

The pastor of the Prince of Peace Parish in Olathe has resigned, according to a statement on the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas’ website.

The announcement, dated June 15, says the Rev. William Bruning resigned after the archdiocese received an allegation that he had “engaged in behaviors in violation of his promise of celibate chastity.”

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann accepted Bruning’s resignation.

The allegation did not involve contact with minors, anyone from the Prince of Peace Parish or any parishes where Bruning had previously served, according to the statement.

To protect the confidentiality of the other person involved, the archdiocese is not releasing details about the allegation, according to the statement.

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CANADA
Metro News

The sexual assault trial of an Orthodox archbishop in Winnipeg will not resume until September.

The Crown closed its case today against Seraphim Storheim and the defence has said it expects to call witnesses when the trial resumes Sept 12.

There is no word on whether Storheim himself will testify about accusations he sexually abused two altar boys in the summer of 1985.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Judy Courtin
PhD Student, Faculty of Law at Monash University

As a young girl in the 1960s, I attended a Catholic boarding school. The nuns could be scary. When they walked the wintry and un-illuminated corridors of the convent, their knee-length rosary beads jangled against their ankle-length black habits.

The unfriendly “stomp stomp” of their chunky, black, lace-up shoes contrasted with the angular, white starched coif atop their head. The outer layer of their ensemble, the monastic cloth scapular, also known as the “yoke of Christ”, draped to the floor back and front. Their oft stern faces matched their garb.

These unforgiving medieval garments were in collaboration with, it seems, the Catholic teachings of the time. Among these were a fear of God; an even greater fear of hell; fear of communists; obedience to God and the religious; chaste thoughts (it was obligatory, in bed, to place one’s arms across the chest in the shape of a cross whilst thinking of Our Lady); and unquestioning belief in Catholic doctrine.

Fast forward to 2013 and the ageing and diminishing population of nuns now wears civvies and this once-Catholic girl, along with many thousands of others, no longer believes in God and makes up her own mind about what to think and believe.

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AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

June 20, 2013 by Manny Waks

The Commonwealth Royal Commission Inquiry into child sexual abuse within organisations has now commenced. Tzedek, an Australian-based advocacy group for Jewish victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, is uniquely positioned to provide evidence to the Royal Commission about the nature and extent of past and present child sexual abuse within Jewish organisations.

Tzedek has already gathered significant evidence of sexual abuse against children and young people in organisational settings. Now, as the Royal Commission prepares to hear evidence of the extent of abuse across Australia, an opportunity exists to help piece together our community’s proper understanding of this issue that has historically, and tragically, been enveloped in silence.

How many Jewish children and young people have suffered alone in the agony of sexual abuse? In which organisations has this occurred, and with whose knowledge? Who are the perpetrators, who are the handmaidens, and who are the conspirators? What has happened to the discarded allegations and suspicions that have fallen into labyrinths of obfuscating bureaucracies and worse? Who has shown the courage to raise their hands to investigate allegations, and who has conspired to ensure that a torment burrows ever deeper within our community? What can we do to aid the healing of victims and change the consciousness of some segments of our community? What can now be done to put an end to this scourge?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

June 17, 2013
By Peter Crimmins, @petercrimmins

Not surprisingly, a high percentage of area Catholics have left the church over the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the organization in the past decade. But that’s not all.

A Catholic parish in Philadelphia surveyed lapsed Catholics to find out why they left. The results show a dissatisfaction at both the local level and with the Vatican.

Of the 189 former Catholics who responded to the survey, the highest percentage — 17 percent — said they did so because of the priest abuse scandal. The director of the survey, Charles Zech of Villanova University’s Center for the Study of Church Management, said a secondary reason follows close behind.

“People who are going to leave the church over the scandal and the church’s handling of it have already left. So people leaving the church today are leaving for other reasons,” said Zech. “A growing reason we found out was the church’s attitude toward homosexuals and gay marriage. A lot of younger people object to the church’s teaching on that.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on June 19, 2013.

Catholics in Philadelphia appear to be leaving in droves and it appears that the reason is not just the sexual abuse scandal. In fact, most of those who were going to leave over that left ages ago. No, apparently they are leaving because of a number of reasons, but among those appears to be the Church’s attitudes towards homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

Charles Zech of Villanova University’s Center for the Study of Church Management was part of a study of some 189 former Catholics in one Philadelphia parish. According to Zech “People who are going to leave the church over the scandal and the church’s handling of it have already left. So people leaving the church today are leaving for other reasons. A growing reason we found out was the church’s attitude toward homosexuals and gay marriage. A lot of younger people object to the church’s teaching on that.”

Most are landing in more Progressive Protestant churches.

The results of the survey were not made public when it was completed in 2012, and Zech only spoke to reporters so long as he did not have to name the parish. Studies by the Pew Foundation have found that roughly one third of baptized Catholics leave, and the policies of the Vatican are often the reason why.

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AUSTRALIA
Crikey

MATTHEW KNOTT | JUN 20, 2013

Will the Catholic Church’s controversial protocols for dealing with sexual abuse claims survive a royal commission? The man in charge of the Church’s response says he expects a new, more independent system.

The Catholic Church’s protocols for responding to sexual abuse claims have failed some victims and are likely to be replaced with a more independent system, according to the layman co-ordinating the Church’s response to the royal commission into abuse.

The Catholic Church has two abuse protocols: Towards Healing, a national system, and the Melbourne Response for the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Both have been heavily criticised by victims’ support groups, academics and police.

“I don’t think they’re adequate,” Francis Sullivan, chief executive of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, told Crikey when asked about the protocols. “Clearly there are aspects of criticism that need to be addressed. There are individuals who have gone through those processes who don’t feel satisfied. There will be a need to hold those processes up against what is seen as best practice and see how they fit.”

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY DAVID NORIEGA
DNORIEGA@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A new lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami claims that the head pastor at Coral Springs St. Andrew Catholic School covered up sexual abuse by a music teacher over several years.

The alleged abuser, Miguel Cala, currently is serving a 23-year-term for several cases in which he molested children during music lessons at their homes.

The new suit alleges that Cala repeatedly raped a boy at school between 2006 and 2010, starting when the boy was 6.

According to the lawsuit, Father George Puthusseril saw Cala abusing the boy but did not report the misconduct. Instead, he urged the boy not to tell his parents, allowing Cala to continue the abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Independent

CORMAC MCQUINN – 20 JUNE 2013

A CATHOLIC Church diocese in the United States is being sued by an alleged abuse victim who says an Irish priest sexually assaulted him in the 1980s.

Fr Francis Markey (84), was due to appear in court here over the alleged rape of a 15-year-old boy in 1968, but died in September before the case went to trial.

He had been extradited from the United States.

Fr Markey was suspended from his ministry here on three occasions and put in treatment programmes in the 1960s and ’70s over sex abuse allegations.

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INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

A second priest serving at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel in Fort Wayne has been removed from ministry after what diocesan officials Wednesday called “a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor” 20 years ago in Africa.

The Rev. Cornelius Ryan was removed as parish administrator June 10, said Sean McBride, diocese spokesman, the same day the diocese’s bishop, the Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, learned of the allegation from the head of Ryan’s order, the U.S. Province of the Congregation of the Holy Cross.

The move was announced to parishioners at Masses on Saturday and Sunday, McBride said.

“Bishop Rhoades and really all of us at the diocese are heartbroken at these events,” McBride said, adding the diocese’s “first concern” is for the “the spiritual comfort and safety of parishioners.”

He said no one from St. Joseph’s or elsewhere has come forward with any allegations about Ryan.

Ryan was appointed St. Joseph’s temporary administrator by Rhoades in December 2011, after the parish’s previous priest, the Rev. Thomas Lombardi, was accused of sexual abuse while serving at St. Louis Catholic Church-Besancon, outside New Haven.

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