ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
WLS

April 27, 2013 (ANTIOCH, Ill.) (WLS) — A monk from Wisconsin has been charged with attempted child abduction and disorderly conduct.

Thomas Chmura is being held in Lake County jail in Illinois after police arrested him Friday after he allegedly tried to lure a 14-year-old Antioch girl into his car Thursday night.

The girl ran home.

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WISCONSIN/ILLINOIS
SNAP Wisconsin

Benedictine monk from Archdiocese of Milwaukee charged with attempted child abduction of 14 year old girl

Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575

Thomas Chmura, a Benedictine monk assigned in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was arrested on Thursday for attempting to abduct a 14 year old girl in Antioch, Illinois. Chmura informed police that he approached the child because he wanted sexual gratification. He further admitted to law enforcement officials that he had attempted similar child abductions up to ten times in the past six weeks.

Chmura, a member of the Benedictine religious order, resides at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, Wisconsin. The abbey, located within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, runs a retreat center that also offers its services to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago due to its proximity to the state of Illinois. The order states that the retreat house has “been the site for many individuals and groups to find a path closer to God”.

The arrest of Chmura for the attempted abduction of a child raises many deeply disturbing questions. How many children and vulnerable adults did Chmura have access to at the retreat center in Benet Lake? Did the Benedictine order have previous reports concerning Chmura’s interactions with children and youth that may have been criminal and reportable to law enforcement? Are there reports concerning other Benedictine monks at Benet Lake who may have sexually assaulted children?

Chmura’s arrest follows the suspension from ministry of Fr. Robert Marsicek, a member of the Society of the Divine Savior religious order. Marsicek, pastor of two Milwaukee area parishes and grade schools, Pius X and Mother of Good Counsel, was suspended in March after it was learned he was under a current child sex abuse investigation in Wauwatosa. Marsicek was already under investigation for child sexual assault in California since last May for sexual assaults that took place in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.

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WORCESTER (MA)
The Crusader

By Elizabeth O’Brien
Co-News Editor

Updated: Saturday, April 27, 2013

On April 3, Kate, a woman who was allegedly sexually abused while on a study abroad trip as a Holy Cross student, began a Hunger Strike. In the past she has done a Vigil for Justice outside the College campus in February of this year, and other forms of protest in the past. She claims she is doing the hunger strike until the administration addresses her concerns, in the way the she wants, regarding her sexual abuse case.

She has been receiving hate speech in the form of derogatory comments, and on March 29 talked to Public Safety about it. Kate has received hate speech in the past, but she felt it has severely escalated in the past few weeks.

“I encountered some last year, but much more kindness,” said Kate. “The same was true for most of the past eight weeks at the Vigil, but the hate speech really spiked recently, so I reported it.”

While Kate believes that students are sending her hate speech, the administration cautions the Holy Cross community about assuming where the derogatory comments are coming from. Dean Jacqueline Peterson, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, states that the college is following standard procedures for a filed complaint.

“She can give any information to Public Safety and the administration will investigate the situation with integrity and a standard response,” said Dean Peterson.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

[Documents from The Star-Ledger
• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s confession to police

• Read Archbishop John J. Myers’ February letter to priests about the Rev. Michael Fugee]

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on April 28, 2013

After all the Catholic Church has been through, it is beyond infuriating that Newark Archbishop John J. Myers can be so neglectful of his duty to protect children from sexual predators.

He should resign immediately and apologize to the families whose children he left exposed, barring some stunning new disclosure that could exonerate him in the face of the damning facts presented by The Star-Ledger’s Mark Mueller in today’s edition.

The case concerns Michael Fugee, a priest who was convicted in a sexual abuse case in 2003 after he confessed to fondling a 14-year-old boy, and being a compulsive masturbator obsessed with penis size.

The conviction was overturned when a higher court found the judge had given improper instructions to jurors. Instead of trying Fugee again, as they should have, prosecutors allowed him to avoid jail by joining a program for first-offenders.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

Bail was set at $50,000 today for a Benedictine monk accused of trying to abduct a 14-year old girl in north suburban Antioch on Thursday.

57-year old Thomas Chmura of Benet Lake, Wisconsin appeared in Lake County court.

A judge ordered him not to have contact with anyone under age 17.

Antioch Police say the 14 year old told them he pulled-up in a van and approached the victim while she was walking on Skidmore Drive.

The girl ran away.

A police report was made and an off-duty officer spotted the van he was in, registered to Saint Benedicts Abbey in Benet Lake.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

BY JORDAN OWEN Staff Reporter/jowen@suntimes.com

Updated: April 27, 2013

A Benedictine monk from Wisconsin has been charged with trying to abduct a 14-year-old girl in Antioch last week.

Police in the far north suburb said Saturday that Thomas M. Chmura, 57, a monk who has been living at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, Wis., for 32 years, was arrested Friday night and admitted he’d been offering rides to teenage girls the past six weeks.

Chmura was ordered held Saturday in lieu of $50,000 bail, charged with attempted child abduction and disorderly conduct.

Police said the 14-year-old girl was walking along Skidmore Drive in the Lake County suburb Thursday when a man pulled up in a Ford station wagon and asked if she needed a ride, telling her, “Come on, you’re so beautiful, let me drive you home.” When she refused, they said he told her, “Get in the car,” but she ran, and he drove off.

The girl told her mother and someone at Antioch High School and provided the police with a detailed description of the man and his car.

Friday afternoon, an off-duty officer saw a station wagon matching the girl’s description stop abruptly on North Avenue alongside three girls walking on the sidewalk, saw that the driver matched the description given by the 14-year-old and tried to follow the car. The officer lost the car, but got the license plate number.

Friday night, officers spotted the vehicle driving on Route 83 and arrested Chmuras.

“I shudder to think what we would be looking at had she got in that car,” Antioch police Chief Craig Somerville said.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Rosemary Sobol, Chicago Tribune reporter
April 28, 2013

A judge set bail Saturday at $50,000 for a longtime Benedictine monk accused of trying to abduct a 14-year-old girl in far north suburban Antioch, authorities said.

Thomas M. Chmura, 57, of the 12600 block of 224th Avenue in Benet Lake, Wis., allegedly tried to lure the girl into his station wagon last week — first by asking her if she needed a ride, then demanding that she get in, according to a statement from Antioch police.

The girl ran and later gave authorities a description of Chmura, who was stopped in his vehicle and arrested Friday.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Rosemary Regina Sobol
Tribune reporter
3:00 p.m. CDT, April 27, 2013

A judge set bail today at $50,000 for a long-time Benedictine monk accused of trying to abduct a 14-year-old girl in far north suburban Antioch this week.

Thomas M. Chmura, 57, of the 12600 block of 224th Avenue in Benet Lake, Wis., appeared in Lake County court today in Waukegan where a judge set the $50,000 bail and ordered him to have no contact with anyone under the age of 17, according to a statement from Antioch police.

Chmura was charged with one count of felony attempted child abduction and one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, according to the statement.

Chmura said he is a monk and has been living at the Benedictine Monks, St. Benedict’s Abbey, in Benet Lake for the past 32 years, the statement said.

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NEBRASKA
1011 Now

Apr 29, 2013
St. Mary’s Cathedral, 112 S Cedar, Grand Island, NE
Bishop William Dendinger will be celbrating a Mass for the Prevention of Child Abuse April 29 at 5:00 pm at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island. Following the Mass, the diocesan Office of Child Protection will be hosting family-focused activities at the Cathedral Square. Activities will include refreshments, children’s games, and resource for parents on topics such as bullying, internet safety, right relationships, and the prevention of abuse. Exhibits will feature abuse prevention efforts of Catholic schools and parishes from across the diocese.

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NEW JERSEY
Digital Journal

By Brett Wilkins
Apr 27, 2013

Mendham – A New Jersey memorial dedicated to child victims of clergy sex abuse that was destroyed twice in as many years will be re-dedicated on Sunday.

NJ.com reports that the memorial, located outside St. Joseph Church in Mendham, Morris County, was smashed with a sledgehammer in 2011 and vandalized again last month.

The memorial, which is composed of a statue of a young girl and another of a young boy alongside a millstone, was placed outside St. Joseph, where former Rev. James Hanley once sexually abused at least 15 boys. In 2003, the Diocese of Paterson defrocked Hanley and agreed to pay nearly $5 million to 21 of his victims the following year. Hanley, one of dozens of clergy from the Diocese of Paterson to be accused of sexually abusing children, never served any prison time for his crimes.

One of the boys sexually abused by Hanley, James Kelley, killed himself at the age of 37. Kelley’s suicide inspired Bill Crane, another of Hanley’s victims, to lead efforts to place the monument outside St. Joseph.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

[Newark Archbishop John Myers must go: Editorial]

[Documents from The Star-Ledger
• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

• Read the Rev. Michael Fugee’s confession to police

• Read Archbishop John J. Myers’ February letter to priests about the Rev. Michael Fugee]

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger

on April 28, 2013

Six years ago, to avoid retrial on charges that he groped a teenage boy, the Rev. Michael Fugee entered a rehabilitation program, underwent counseling for sex offenders and signed a binding agreement that would dictate the remainder of his life as a Roman Catholic priest.

Fugee would not work in any position involving children, the agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office states. He would have no affiliation with youth groups. He would not attend youth retreats. He would not hear the confessions of minors.

But Fugee has openly done all of those things for the past several years through an unofficial association with a Monmouth County church, St. Mary’s Parish in Colts Neck, The Star-Ledger found.

He has attended weekend youth retreats in Marlboro and on the shores of Lake Hopatcong in Mount Arlington, parishioners say. Fugee also has traveled with members of the St. Mary’s youth group on an annual pilgrimage to Canada. At all three locations, he has heard confessions from minors behind closed doors.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By JIM FITZPATRICK Mahtomedi, Minn.

Throughout scripture God asks each of us to protect our children as they are to inherit God’s kingdom. In Psalm 127:3 we pray, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.” As a priest, I was responsible not only for sharing God’s word, but living it.

I was a priest at the Cathedral in Winona when parents from Caledonia, near my home town, came to tell me that Father Tom Adamson had abused their sons and as many as 17 boys within the two Caledonia parishes. I reported Father Adamson to the Bishop of Winona. Father Adamson was eventually moved from Caledonia, but I was shocked to learn he was assigned to a Catholic high school in Rochester. Eventually he was moved to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis where he served in several parishes and, in every instance, he continued his molestation.

This is just one example of many that illustrates the lengths some church, school and other youth serving organizations will go to hide or cover up abuse. Some institutions have shuffled child predators to other sites, even to other states to shield known abusers from legal action in order to protect the institutions’ reputations. Worse yet, some church leaders have used a pretense of providing for a victim while time passes and the statute of limitations for legal action will expire. This ensures they can never be held accountable for their employee’s actions. The latter is a tactic known to have been used within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and made public by the recent $10 million settlement with two survivors of clergy sex abuse.

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KENTUCKY
The Virginia Gazette

Mary WisniewskiReuters
9:00 p.m. EDT, April 27, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) – In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church – the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

“It has no sting for me,” said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. “It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives.”

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COSTA RICA
La Nacion

Carlos Arguedas C.carguedasc@nacion.com 12:00 a.m.27/04/2013

El Tribunal de Juicio de Pavas absolvió ayer a un sacerdote de los delitos de violación y abuso sexual cometidos en perjuicio de un monaguillo de 13 años, porque, cuando se dieron los hechos (1999), la ley no castigaba la conducta acusada.

El caso ocurrió en Barbacoas de Puriscal, en el cual figuró como imputado el cura Jaime Cerdas Alvarado, de 54 años.

Cerdas, poco antes de terminar el juicio, dijo: “ Siempre había esperado este momento para desahogarme (…) porque me señalaron de algo tan vergonzoso y penoso”.

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COSTA RICA
Coastrican Times

Posted by Dan Stevens on Saturday, April 27, 2013

Costa Rica News – We all know that these things happen all around the world, where a person will get off on a legal technicality, but this one seems ridiculous. The Pavas Trial Court acquitted a priest of the crimes of rape and sexual abuse committed against an altar boy that was 13 years old, because when the events occurred (1999), the law did not see the 13 year old as a minor.

During the hearing, the district attorney had asked to impose 22 years in prison on two counts of rape and four of sexual abuse of a minor.

The case occurred in Puriscal and was held against the priest Jaime Cerdas Alvarado, 54.

Cerdas, just before the end of the trial, said: “I had always waited for this moment to speak about this because it was something so embarrassing and painful.”

However, after hearing the acquittal and explanation of the judges, said: “I better refrain right now.” So he was going to talk about the crime and confess to everyone about it but then he was set free and decided not to say anything. The hypocrisy of the church is absolutely amazing.

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CANADA
CBC News

Montreal’s Catholic Archbishop Christian Lépine says he is still struggling to come to terms with how Canada’s residential school system and its abuses were allowed to happen.

Lépine sat in the audience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission dury its four-day stop in Montreal.

Saturday was the commission’s last day in Quebec.

In an interview with CBC’s Homerun, Lépine said he was struck by the humility and the courage of the witnesses, and their stories of abuse.

“What saddens me more is that … as Christians we allowed that to happen. As Catholics, we allowed that to happen,” Lépine said.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By STEPHEN McGINTY
Published on 28/04/2013

THE Vatican is expected to take no further action against Cardinal Keith O’Brien after he admitted having sexual relations with four priests and a seminarian.

The Archbishop of St Andr­ews and Edinburgh was forced by Pope Benedict XVI to step down in February after admitting that “my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, an archbishop and a cardinal”.

However, Scotland on Sunday has learned that there is no active investigation into his behaviour and that the Vatican is only keeping a loose “watching brief” on his case. O’Brien is also unlikely to be asked to give up his rank as a cardinal unless the new Pope decides to confer the traditional red hat on another senior Scottish catholic.

It is understood that senior figures in the church do not believe a formal investigation is now warranted as he has already admitted and apologised for his behaviour. He has not been seen in public since stepping down as archbishop on February 25.

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MINNESOTA
The Awareness Center

Since 1992, Bob Schwiderski has been an relentless and outspoken powerhouse when it comes advocating for the civil rights of adult survivors of sexual abuse.

Besides being a Veteran of the Vietnam war, Bob is also a survivor of clergy sexual abuse by a priest.

Back in 1994, Bob was one of three former altar boys, who came forward and filed a civil suit against St. John’s Catholic Church in Hector, MN along with the Dioceses of New Ulm, after accusing Rev. Wm. J. Marks of sexually abusing them.

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ILLINOIS
The Awareness Center

Back in 1992, at the age of 55, Rick Springer joined forces with LinkUp, (which was originally called VOCAL – an acronym for Victims of Clergy Abuse Linkup) started speaking out as a Catholic survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

According to the Chicago Tribune article “Silence is Broken”, Rick Springer was quoted as stating: “I knew that what he (his offender) was doing was wrong”. . . “But I couldn’t tell my family, which was alcoholic dysfunctional. I told leaders of my church, who said the archbishop of Chicago would be informed. At the time Springer was studying to become a priest. “But nothing happened. I was told to leave the seminary because I was not a good candidate for priesthood. That’s the way it stayed for 31 years.”

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Pádraig McCarthy presents an 82-year-old document which contains suggestions for curial reform which are still being made. Read the full document here

“Most of the bishops, instead of being the strong characters presently needed, dynamic and active personalities, even if indeed pious and religious men, are in effect at the same time mediocre, or even below mediocrity. Some are apathetic, timid, indolent or vain; others are conformists, bureaucrats or introverts; many are ignorant and clumsy administrators. […]. Sometimes the whole episcopate of a country looks like a bunch of cripples”.
How does that sound today? But this was written in 1931!

Nothing is held back in a comment in Latin:
“Aliquando autem totus episcopatus alicuius nationis ita est compositus, veluti si coecorum, claudorum et infirmorum omne genus esset refugium.”

“The problem is aggravated by the Holy See’s tendency to appoint only obedient and complacent prelates.”

“As for the cardinals, the senate of the Church and the electors of the pope, here the situation is even worse, particularly in the case of those attached to the Roman curia. The sacred college contains too many non-entities who have reached their rank by never asking awkward questions. The merit of many eminences is not their excellent pastoral experience or learning, but that of having staffed a Vatican desk for a very long time. Without any real knowledge of the world or the life of the universal Church, they are nevertheless automatically promoted and placed in executive jobs far above their modest talents.”

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 26, 2013

Shame on Joliet’s Catholic bishop for letting a suspended predator priest live and work freely among unsuspecting families in Kentucky.

Today’s Chicago Tribune, using church records disclosed thanks to civil child sex abuse lawsuits, reports on the awful situation of Fr. Carroll Howlin in Kentucky. In theory, Catholic officials have ordered Fr. Howlin to stay away from kids. In reality, they’re doing nothing to make sure this happens. And he has clearly molested in both the Chicago area and in Kentucky.

Bishop Conlon is basically – and callously – washing his hands of a dangerous man and pretending to be powerless to stop a predator.

Bishop Conlon should order Fr. Howlin to get into a sex offender facility. He should go to every parish where Fr. Howlin worked, begging victims to come forward. He should give every shred of paper he has about Fr. Howlin to law enforcement, in Illinois and Kentucky.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Cardinal O’Brien should be excommunicated like King Henry VIII was excommunicated by the Pope. For more than 50 years as an “evil gay” adulterer, Cardinal O’Brien had multiple gay sexes with many priests and gay men, therefore, he is worse than King Henry who slept with 8 wives. At least, King Henry had the decency to marry his wife in public but Cardinal O’Brien hid all his “evil gay” adultery trysts inside his holy Cardinal Palace paid for by the holy Vatican Billions, read here the wealth of the Vatican in England

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Rick Rojas
April 26, 2013

An Orange County man was sentenced Friday to 61 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a female relative over a nine-year period, including impregnating her when she was 11, prosecutors said.

Mariano Antonio Castro, 58, was found guilty in February of two felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, three felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 and one felony count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, according to a statement for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Castro, a Santa Ana resident , sexually assaulted the girl on a regular basis from 2000 to 2008, starting when the girl was 8….

But, in 2011, when she began attending a new church, prosecutors said she told her pastor about the abuse. The pastor encouraged her to report the allegations to the police, which she did.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

POSTED: Saturday, April 27, 2013, 2:19 PM

If the court filings are any indication, Msgr. William J. Lynn’s appeal of conviction on a child endangerment count will be as hard-fought as last year’s 11-week-long trial where a Philadelphia jury found him guilty for his supervisory role in the child sex-abuse scandal involving the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

On Friday, just days after Philadelphia media reported on Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina’s 235-page opinion affirming Lynn’s conviction and her handling of the landmark trial, lawyers for Lynn filed their response in Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, faulting the judge for virtually every key ruling she made.

The 21-page response by Thomas A. Bergstrom and Allison Khaskelis, Lynn’s appellate lawyers, asks the Superior Court to overturn the conviction of the 62-year-old cleric and argues that Sarmina wrongly allowed city prosecutors to charge Lynn under the broader 2007 amended child endangerment statute.

Lynn was the Archdiocesan Secretary for Clergy from 1992 to 2004, the job in which he investigated allegations against priests and recommended action to the archbishop. Lynn’s attorneys argued that he should not have been charged under the 2007 law and could not have been charged under the pre-2007 statute because it required direct contact of children, not merely supervisory power over priests accused of molesting them.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on 27/04/2013

A former choirboy from Eastbourne who was abused as child by an Anglican priest has received a letter of apology from the Bishop of Chichester who also admitted there was a cover up.

Gary Johnson and his older brother were abused by disgraced priest Roy Cotton, who worked for the Diocese of Chichester, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cotton was ordained in 1966, despite having a conviction for sexually abusing a choirboy in the 1950s, and went on to abuse at least 10 boys from Eastbourne. He died in 2006 as investigations were under way.

This week Gary, who now lives in America, received a private letter from Dr Martin Warner who wrote, “There has been deception and cover-up here.”

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SCOTLAND
Chronicle Live

A Newcastle nun physically abused teenage girls at a Scottish school, a court has heard.

Agnes Reville, 77, is accused of five counts of assault at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, where she taught in the 1960s and 1970s and was known as Mother Martin.

Fellow nun Anne Kenny, 79, known as Mother Rosari, faces four charges of assault alongside her at Paisley Sheriff Court this week. The offences are said to involve eight girls.

The trial has heard from Catherine Logan, a teenager at the school who is now 57, who told the court she was tortured and tied to a pipe for two days.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Randy Griffith rgriffith@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — Attorneys for alleged victims of the late Brother Stephen Baker want the Franciscan Friar’s supervisors held accountable for what they believe was years of sexual abuse of children.

In addition to dozens of former Bishop McCort High School students, attorneys say they have been contacted by others who say Baker made contact with them through his volunteer activities.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said he is working with more than 30 men who say Baker molested them while they were students at Bishop McCort in Johnstown.

“I am currently investigating the liability of the school and Brother Stephen Baker’s supervisors,” Garabedian said.

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CANADA
CBC News

Residential schools engaged in “cultural genocide,” former prime minister Paul Martin said Friday at the hearings of the federal Truth And Reconciliation Commission, adding that aboriginal Canadians must now be offered the best educational system.

“Let us understand that what happened at the residential schools was the use of education for cultural genocide, and that the fact of the matter is — yes it was. Call a spade a spade,” Martin said to cheers from the audience at the Montreal hearings.

“And what that really means is that we’ve got to offer aboriginal Canadians, without any shadow of a doubt, the best education system that is possible to have.”

The residential school system existed from the 1870s until the 1990s and saw about 150,000 native youth taken from their families and sent to church-run schools under a deliberate policy of “civilizing” First Nations.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

By
Published on 27/04/2013 09:55

The Catholic Church of Scotland is facing fresh scrutiny after the Vatican ordered a halt to the appointment of new Scottish bishops until an investigation into Cardinal Keith O’Brien is complete.

• No new Scottish bishops are to be appointed until an investigation into Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been completed

• The Vatican order comes as Catholic Church comes to terms with Cardinal O’Brien’s resignation earlier this year amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour

Cardinal O’Brien resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh after admitting that his sexual conduct had “fallen below the standards expected”.

Three priests and a former priest had accused Cardinal O’Brien of inappropriate behaviour stretching back 30 years.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

April 27, 2013

Thirty-two men are suing the group that operates three area Catholic schools for allegedly covering up years of sexual abuse by the priests and brothers who staffed the schools in the ’60s and ’70s, and as recently as 1996.

The three separate suits, all filed Friday in Circuit Court, allege that throughout the 1960s and 1970s the Congregation of Christian Brothers worked to conceal sexual abuse at Brother Rice High School, St. Laurence High School and Leo High School.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Louis C. Hochman/NJ.com
on April 26, 2013

MENDHAM — A ceremony to rededicate the memorial to child victims of clergy sex abuse that was destroyed twice in two years will be held Sunday at 2 p.m.

The ceremony comes near the end of April, recognized as Child Sex Abuse Awareness month. It will be held outside at St. Joseph Church in Mendham, where former Rev. James Hanley once abused several children.

Authorities are still working to determine who vandalized the memorial to child sex abuse victims in early March, when a statue of a girl alongside a millstone was destroyed, and a statue of a boy was damaged. Morris County Crimestoppers is offering $2,000 to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest or indictment of the responsible person or people; anyone with any information can call CrimeStoppers at 973-Cop-Call or 1-800-Sheriff.

Organizer Bill Crane, one of Hanley’s victims, led the drive to create the monument in honor of James Kelly, another victim of Hanley’s who committed suicide at age 37. Crane then led the effort to replace it, after borough resident Gordon Ellis allegedly took a sledgehammer to the monument in 2011. Ellis is pursuing a mental health defense in relation to the 2011 vandalism.

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WYOMING
Billings Gazette

By JOSHUA WOLFSON Casper Star-Tribune

CASPER, Wyo. — A former janitor at a Casper church pleaded not guilty Friday to molesting three girls while apparently posing as a youth leader there.

James David Jaure is charged with five counts of sexual abuse of a minor. The girls — ages 11, 12 and 15 — have accused him of abusing them during separate incidents last year. At the time, he was employed by Highland Park Community Church.

Jaure spoke only to answer procedural questions during a brief appearance in Natrona County District Court. He was dressed in a red jail uniform and flanked by his defense attorney.

Combined, his charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 to 115 years.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Denunciante de Karadima en cumbre por abusos de sacerdotes: “Acá todos saben el encubrimiento de Errázuriz”

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 26/04/2013

A las 10.00 horas de mañana, el denunciante de Fernando Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, expondrá por cerca de una hora sobre el caso de abuso sexual del ex párroco de El Bosque y el actuar de la iglesia chilena ante las denuncias de las víctimas, en la primera Conferencia Mundial sobre abusos sexuales y violencia cometidos por religiosos.

“Me tiene emocionado”, dice Cruz, al relatar el itinerario que tendrá como único exponente latinoamericano.

“Me recibió gente del consejo de Dublín y la conferencia empezó hoy día y mañana hablo entre 45 minutos y una hora. El domingo estoy en un panel internacional y el lunes me junto con miembros del Parlamento europeo, organismos de derechos humanos y con la Corte Internacional de Justicia de La Haya”, indicó Cruz a La Tercera.

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MISSOURI
St. Joe Channel

By: William Seay

Updated: April 26, 2013

(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) It’s a special breakfast, a special gathering of support for crime victims and their families and those law enforcement officers who aid in solving these crimes.

It begins with a prayer:

“Help us to replace the darkness of evil with your light. Give us the fortitude to stand up for justice,” said Jimalee O’Connor.

The Crime Victims’ Rights Week Annual Breakfast is a big “thank you” to all the volunteers who help with crime victims.

There’s also a guest speaker: Tom Lewis.

Lewis alleges Kansas City priest Father Michael Tierney of sexual assault when Lewis was still a teenager.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHO
Three St. Louisans who have never spoken publicly before and are all connected to the same predator priest. One is Christopher Bertke, whose friend was molested by the priest. Another is John Doe, a victim who sued that priest. The third is a relative of a victim of that same priest. (The latter two will talk in silhouette without revealing their names.) With them will be two leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

WHY

Police report available HERE

In 2009, Fr. Kevin F. Hederman – a St. Louis priest – was suspended from his ministry in Belize when he was sued for allegedly abusing a St. Louis teenager who he met at Christian Brothers high school (CBC) in Clayton.

But local Catholic officials have not disclosed that in the mid-1990s, another man filed a similar abuse suit against Fr. Hederman. (Both suits settled.) Nor did they admit that Fr. Hederman made some damning admissions when he was questioned by police about the abuse allegations.

Now, it looks like Fr. Hederman may soon be returned to ministry.

Last week, in an email to SNAP, Fr. Hederman’s sister-in-law said that he was recently “cleared” by a letter from the Vatican. She is Terry M. Hederman, an art specialist at Moline Elementary in the Riverview Gardens school district (869-7436 ex. 4977, thederman@rgsd.k12.mo.us). SNAP believes she’s telling the truth, given how similar cases have been handled by Catholic officials in recent years.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 25, 2013

Dear Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga

Happy anniversary. It was a decade ago next month when you essentially accused Jews of being behind media reports of clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

You said “We all know that Ted Turner is openly anti-Catholic, and he is the owner not just of CNN but also Time-Warner,” Rodriguez said. “This is to say nothing of dailies such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, protagonists of what I do not hesitate to call a persecution against the church. . .that reminds me of the times of Stalin and Hitler.”

[National Catholic Reporter]

[Huffington Post]

You’ve had more than 3,600 days now to correct or apologize or explain your irresponsible remarks. As best we can tell, you haven’t.

In most other institutions, you would likely be criticized or demoted or disciplined for such hurtful behavior. Sadly, in the Catholic church, you are rewarded. Last month, you were one of only eight men tapped by the new pope to advise him on church governance.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Elbe Wochenblatt

Missbrauchsfall in der Thomaskirche Hausbruch wird nach 20 Jahren bekannt
Schock in der Thomaskirche: Vor zwanzig Jahren soll der ehrenamtliche Posaunenchorleiter R. D. einen damals etwa zwölfjährigen Jungen sexuell missbraucht haben. Bekannt wurde der Fall, weil sich der Vater des Betroffenen per E-Mail beim Kirchenkreis Ost meldete. Daraufhin setzte sich der Präventionsbeauftrage der Nordelbischen Landeskirche mit ihm in Verbindung.

Diese Stelle wurde eingerichtet, nachdem 2010 Missbrauchsfälle in der evangelischen Kirche bekannt wurden – damals in einer Gemeinde in Ahrensburg. Es habe zwischenzeitlich auch Gespräche mit dem Betroffnen gegeben, so Remmer Koch, Sprecher des Kirchenkreises Hamburg-Ost.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Ein Sozialpädagoge war enttäuscht über die vielen Missbrauchsfälle und trat aus der katholischen Kirche aus. Daraufhin verlor er seinen Arbeitsplatz in einer Einrichtung der Caritas. Eine Klage gegen die Kündigung hat das Bundesarbeitsgericht nun abgewiesen.

Erfurt – Mitarbeiter in katholischen Einrichtungen müssen auch künftig bei einem Kirchenaustritt mit Kündigung rechnen. Der Austritt sei ein schwerwiegender Loyalitätsverstoß, der die Entlassung aus dem kirchlichen Dienst rechtfertigen könne, entschied das Bundesarbeitsgericht in Erfurt (2 AZR 579/12).

Damit blieb ein Sozialpädagoge aus Mannheim auch in der letzten Instanz mit der Klage gegen seinen Rauswurf erfolglos. Der 60-Jährige war 2011 wegen der zahlreichen Missbrauchsfälle in katholischen Einrichtungen aus der Kirche ausgetreten. Er könne aus Glaubens- und Gewissensgründen nicht mehr der katholischen Kirche angehören, begründete er den Schritt vor seinem Vorgesetzten. Daraufhin verlor er seinen Job in einem von der Caritas getragenen Kinderbetreuungszentrum. Ihm wurde fristlos gekündigt.

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Leserkommentar | Markus Wachter, 26. April 2013, 15:51

Welche Faktoren in Klöstern Vergewaltigungen und Unterdrückung geradezu fördern

Zwei Schadensersatzprozesse gegen das Kloster Mehrerau in Bregenz haben Strukturen zutage gefördert, die geradezu ideal sind für einen Menschen, der Kindern prügeln, missbrauchen und vergewaltigen will.

Ein geschlossenes System bindet die Opfer von allen Seiten und weist ihnen selbst Schuld zu. Die beiden Männer wurden in den 1970er- und 1980er-Jahren vom selben Mönch, Pater J. B., schwer vergewaltigt. Es handelt sich um den ersten Zivilprozess dieser Art, der in Österreich gegen einen Orden geführt wird.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rye & Battle Observer

Published on 26/04/2013

THE Bishop of Chichester has said the church was wrong in not taking action over paedophile priest Father Roy Cotton.

Cotton was a vicar at St St George’s Church Brede and and St Mary’s at Udimore in the 1990’s and had access to local primary schools.

Gary Johnson and his older brother, from Eastbourne, were abused by Cotton when they were choirboys.

In a private letter of apology to Mr Johnson, Dr Martin Warner wrote: “There has been deception and cover-up here.”

Reacting to the letter, Mr Johnson said: Mr Johnson said: “I’ve been taken seriously at last.”

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 26, 2013

In a huge victory for innocent kids and a huge defeat for child molesters, the Illinois Senate today passed a bill permanently lifting the civil statute of limitations on child sex crimes. (SB 1399, sponsored by Sen. Link and others)

This measure will stop more sex offenders. It enables child sex abuse victims to expose dangerous predators in court. It enables employers and neighbors and even relatives to learn about and protect themselves from child molesters who otherwise would have stayed “under the radar.”

Illinois kids are safer now because more child molesters will face justice.

Kids are safest when predators are jailed. But that can’t always happen. So the next best option is to expose predators. Our civil justice system should do a better job of this. When this bill becomes law, that will happen.

We hope the Illinois House will promptly pass this bill. We urge Illinois citizens to call their representatives and urge them to put the safety of kids first.

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AUSTRALIA
Times of Malta

The Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, has reacted to the resignation of Maltese priest Victor Buhagiar, who claimed the archdiocese was covering up child abuse.

Mgr Hart said he accepted Fr Buhagiar’s resignation with regret and he expressed genuine concern for his welfare.

“I thanked him for his service and said ‘my door is always open to you’.

“Having submitted his resignation, Fr Buhagiar left the parish without informing his parishioners of his resignation,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono

The Legal Advisory Service is a free service for members of the public engaging or considering engaging with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Location: Sydney (Sydney based, travel required)
Organisation: National Association of Community Legal Centres
Work Type: Full-time

Legal Advisory Service for people considering engaging with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

• Greenfields role – design & implement operational procedures
• National phone and face to face Legal Advisory Service
• Sydney based, travel required

The Legal Advisory Service is a free service for members of the public engaging or considering engaging with the Royal Commission into Institutional

Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It is being established by the National Association of Community Legal Centres with funding from the Australian

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A TEENAGER was tortured and tied to a pipe for two days at a nun-run school, a court has heard.

Catherine Logan, now 57, claimed that nuns from Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, abused her during her time there between 1969 and 1971.

Mrs Logan told Paisley Sheriff Court that she was hit about 12 or 13 times – including with a riding crop – and alleged she was drugged.

She was giving evidence at the trial of Anne Kenny, 79, and Agnes Reville, 77.

Kenny faces four charges of assault, while Reville is accused of five charges of assault. The accusations involve a total of eight girls.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

AAP

The former head of the Salesian Catholic order in Australia has faced court on charges of sexually abusing Victorian children more than 30 years ago.

Priest Julian Benedict Fox, 67, returned from Rome to face three charges of buggery, five charges of indecent assault and two charges of assault in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.

Police allege Fox abused four boys between 1976 and 1985 in Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne’s outer east, and in Sunbury, about 40km northwest of the city.

Police on Monday described the priest’s return to Victoria as a breakthrough in co-operation between Victoria Police and the Catholic Church.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

The Russo Family Lecture CATHOLIC IRELAND: PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE Speaking Notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin

Archbishop of Dublin

Fordham Centre of Religion and Culture, New York, 24th April 2013

“Ireland has changed and Ireland is changing. The other evening I was at a lecture in the Italian Embassy in Dublin about Ireland in renaissance times. I was struck by two quotes chosen by the lecturer. The first was from Pope Pius II, Piccolomini, written in 1458 looking at the situation of Europe at the time. He concluded his three sentences on Ireland writing: “since nothing worth remembering took place there during the period we write about, we hurry on to matters Spanish”. I can tell you, much worth remembering and much that we would prefer not to remember has taken place in the Ireland of recent times.

The second quote was from Petrarch who, in the latter part of the 12th century, noted about Ireland: “in one year you will hardly hear it thunder once. No thunderbolts cause terror here, no lightening ever strikes”. That quote should make anyone who still had lingering doubts recognise that climate change is a reality!

I entered the seminary in Dublin in October 1962 just one week before the opening of Vatican II. The winter of 1962/63 was one of the bleakest winters for decades and our seminary was a very cold place in more ways than one. My memory of the seminary is of a building and a routine, a discipline and a way of life which seemed to have been like that for decades. Even to someone who was not a revolutionary, it all seemed so out of touch with the world from which I had just come, and in which my friends were thriving. But you were not supposed to think that way. Things were to be done as they had always been done. The Catholic Church was unchanging, but that was about to change.

For years now people looked to Ireland as a vibrant and sustainable model for strong economic growth. Countries were told to follow the Irish example. Today the economic situation of Ireland is full of uncertainties, precisely at a moment when confidence and trust are urgently needed. On the other hand, for decades Ireland was looked on as one of the world’s most deeply and stably Catholic countries and today Ireland finds itself along with other parts of Europe being classified as “post-Catholic”.

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NEW YORK
Georgia Bulletin

Published: April 25, 2013

NEW YORK (CNS) — Renewal of the Catholic Church in a “post-Catholic” Ireland depends on a homegrown effort by the laity to overcome clericalism and witness the Christian message in a secular society, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told a New York audience. Once considered “one of the world’s most deeply and stably Catholic countries,” Ireland, like other parts of Europe, can now be classified as post-Catholic because of sociological changes and lingering fallout from the child sexual abuse scandals that swept the country in recent years, Archbishop Martin said April 24 in a speech at Fordham University. “You can only define post-Catholic in terms of the Catholicism that has been displaced,” he said. The prelate described the Catholic Church in Ireland as being trapped in an illusory self-image when he became the archbishop of Dublin in 2004, but that the demographic majority the church enjoyed hid “many structural weaknesses” and that the church had become insensitive to them

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IRELAND
Galway City Tribune

April 26, 2013

Lessons must be learned from past if trust of people is to be regained

BY DARA BRADLEY

The credibility and very future of the Catholic Church hinges on its handling of the series of child sex abuse scandals, the Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, has said.

Unless the Church deals effectively with the child abuse crisis, and learns from the mistakes of the past, then it won’t regain the trust of people, and won’t have credibility, Bishop Drennan told current affairs broadcaster Keith Finnegan.

The exclusive interview, broadcast on Galway Bay FM’s Galway Talks programme, coincided with the publication of the audit of safeguarding practices in the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora.

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GERMANY
euronews

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) – Germany’s top labour court ruled on Thursday the country’s Catholic charity network had the right to fire an employee who quit the Church in protest against the sexual abuse crisis and disputed decisions by ex-Pope Benedict.

The 60-year-old teacher, challenging his 2011 dismissal, had claimed his constitutional right to freedom of opinion trumped the Church’s right to employ only Catholics who agreed with the religious mission of their jobs.

He said that his work at Caritas Germany tutoring grade-school children did not deal with religion and that pupils of all faiths were welcome there.

The decision was a victory for the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches, which together are Germany’s largest employer after the public sector, against some lay employees and unions challenging the churches’ special status in German labour law.

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TEXAS
Valley Central

[with video]

by Daisy Barrera

Authorities are searching for a San Benito minister who is now considered a fugitive amid an ongoing sexual abuse investigation.

San Benito police are asking for the public’s help in finding sexual abuse suspect Edwin Talavera.

Investigators told Action 4 News that Talavera was a minister at a storefront church that recently closed off East Stenger Street.

Talavera is facing six sexual abuse charges after being accused of sexually abusing two girls under the age 14 years old.

San Benito police already arrested 34-year-old Norma Alicia Rodriguez in connection to the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A Church counsellor has praised an information centre set-up to allow people to come forward in the lead-up to a probe into sexual abuse by Hunter Valley priests.

The Special Commission of Inquiry was triggered by allegations made by Chief Inspector Peter Fox that police were pressured to close investigations into abuse by two Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese priests.

The information centre opens for the last time on May 5, and aims to give people the opportunity to speak confidentially to members of the Inquiry team.

The Church’s co-ordinator of healing and support Maureen O’Hearn says she has helped around a dozen people through that process.

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NORTH CAROLINA
WSOC

[with video]

By Kathryn Burcham

MONROE, N.C. —

A Monroe church volunteer has been arrested on charges he sexually abused a 3-year-old girl during a church function.

Union County deputies arrested Christopher Broach Tuesday at his Monroe home on charges of indecent liberties and sex offense with a child.

Investigators said Broach was volunteering at the day care at a church function at Southbrook Church in Wesley Chapel in February when the alleged sexual abuse occurred.

Detectives said the victim later told her mother about the incident, sparking an investigation.

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BUFFALO (WY)
Sheridan Media

By Aaron Palmer on Thu 04/25/2013

April is Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Prevention Month, and Buffalo’s ASAP, or Ambassadors for Sexual Assault Prevention, have been offering training and workshops on the subject during the month.

Saturday they will present “Safeguarding God’s Children,” a training program geared to preventing and then responding to child sexual abuse. The program is designed for church leaders, clergy, parents, educators, daycare providers or anyone who works with children, although because of content, they recommend those age 16 and older to attend.

The program will be at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 178 S. Main Street and will run from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

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COLORADO
Gazette

LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE

A former teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student at a now-shuttered Baptist school in Colorado Springs will serve 90 days in jail and up to the rest of her life on intensive probation.

Terah Rawlings, 33, clutched a box of tissues and wept as 4th Judicial District Judge Timothy J. Schutz told her that despite the victim’s wishes to the contrary, she deserved to serve time for the sexual abuse.

“It is shameful that we can’t have our children go off to church or school without fearing they’re going to be assaulted by the people to whom they are entrusted,” Schutz told a courtroom packed with members of Hilltop Baptist Church, which operated the Hilltop Baptist School until its closure in 2010.

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ILLINOIS/KENTUCKY
Chicago Tribune

By David Heinzmann, Christy Gutowski and Stacy St. Clair, Chicago Tribune reporters
April 26, 2013

WHITLEY CITY, Ky. — Five years after church officials ordered the Rev. Carroll Howlin to stop functioning as a missionary priest in this isolated mountain community, Joliet diocesan leaders received a letter from a suburban pastor that illuminated just how little the diocese had done to enforce its own protective measures amid a crippling sexual abuse scandal.

Howlin, an avuncular-looking priest who moved here more than 30 years ago, had been suspended in 2002 after he was accused of molesting a teenage boy — the second of four such allegations he would face in his career. The Joliet Diocese later substantiated claims involving two other victims, including one who committed suicide at 17.

Church officials removed Howlin from public ministry, but otherwise left him alone in Kentucky with a $1,100-a-month pension. He was allowed to continue living in this remote community where he once helped run the Good Shepherd Catholic Chapel, providing food, clothing and other social services.

It appears officials even left Howlin alone in 2007 when the Rev. Gregory Rothfuchs of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Joliet wrote to the diocese that he had discovered the monthly collection his parish had taken up for Good Shepherd for three decades was going directly into Howlin’s personal bank account and the nuns running the mission had not seen a penny.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
April 26, 2013

A Catholic priest has appeared in a Melbourne court to face 10 child sexual abuse charges.

Julian Fox, 67, returned to Australia from Rome to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The charges include counts of buggery and indecent assault.

It is alleged the offences took place at Sunbury and Ferntree Gully between 1976 and 1985.

Fox was not required to enter a plea.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

Shannon Deery
From:Herald Sun
April 26, 2013

THE former Australian head of the second largest Catholic order in the world has appeared in court charged with child sex crimes.

Fr Julian Fox appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this morning for a brief administrative hearing where 10 charges were filed with the court.

He was been charged with offences, including buggery, indecent assault and common law assault, after returning from Rome last Friday.

Police allege the 67-year-old former principal assaulted students at Salesian College, Rupertswood, between 1976 and 1985.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PIA AKERMAN
From:The Australian
April 26, 2013

A CATHOLIC priest charged with child sex offences has been accused of assaulting one of his victims with a pool cue.

Salesian priest and former school principal Julian Fox, 67, today faced court for the first time since the Catholic church negotiated with Victoria Police to see him returned from Rome.

He has been charged with 10 offences, including committing three counts of buggery against a boy under the age of 14 in 1980.

It is alleged he indecently assaulted another victim with a shortened pool cue in 1981, and indecently assaulted another three times between 1976 and 1978.

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AUSTRALIA
TVNZ

A Catholic priest charged with sexually abusing four Victorian children more than 30 years ago has appeared briefly in court.

Julian Benedict Fox, 67, returned from Rome to face ten charges in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Police allege Fox abused the four victims between 1976 and 1985 in Ferntree Gully, in Melbourne’s outer east, and in Sunbury, about 40 kilometres northwest of the city.

During a brief filing hearing, he was granted bail on the condition he reports weekly to a Melbourne police station.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

April 26, 2013

Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age

A Greek Orthodox bishop misled the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse when he denied any cases in his church, another member of the community has said in a letter to the inquiry.

Bishop Iakovos told the inquiry that he was not aware of any case or anecdotal evidence of child sexual abuse ”in living memory”, and that he had consulted much older members of the church.

But the letter writer, who asked not to be named, told the inquiry there was a well-known case in 2002 when the parish priest of the Church of St Catherine in East Malvern, Father Andreas Papadimitropoulos, was found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage girl.

”This case is well known among the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, and information about it is even available online,” the letter says.

It also cites harassment and abuse in Sydney, but this does not fall under the inquiry’s terms of reference.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Boudreaux was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1955. His early career was spent in India and Sri Lanka, after which he worked as a teacher in Jesuit high schools in Louisiana and Texas. For two years in the mid-1970s Boudreaux served as regional secretary of the General Curia for the Jesuits in Rome. For the bulk of the following three decades Boudreaux was a teacher at Jesuit High School in New Orleans. In December 2004 an accusation surfaced that Boudreaux had sexually abused a minor thirty years previously. The Jesuits removed Boudreaux from active ministry after determining that the accusation was credible, and sent him for extensive treatment. Boudreaux was then to be assigned to live in a community without access to minors.

Ordained: 1955
Retired: 2005

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler April 25, 2013

“Just as the banishment of lepers was fueled by medieval myths, the hysteria surrounding child sexual abusers is exacerbated by myths about those who suffer from sexual deviancies. Child molesters incarnate our deepest childhood fears… Our myths about child molesters come more from the projections of what lies within our own inner psyches than from the truth about who these men are.”

Does that quotation suggest that the author is motivated primarily by a desire to protect children from sexual abuse? Would it surprise you to learn that the author was–and to this day remains–one of the most influential voices advising Catholic Church leaders on the handling of sex-abuse cases?

The quotation comes from a 1995 article by Msgr. Stephen Rossetti in America magazine, with the revealing title: “The Mark of Cain: Reintegrating Pedophiles.”

”Reintegrating Pedophiles” was, in a sense, Msgr. Rossetti’s job from 1996 through 2006, when he served as director of the St. Luke Institute, the most prominent of the facilities treating American priests accused of abusing children. When the sex-abuse scandal erupted in the US, we learned that dozens of priests were released from such facilities and returned to ministry, only to molest children once again. Today, looking back regretfully on their decisions, many bishops explain that when they returned abusive priests to active ministry, they were following the best advice given by experts—experts like Msgr. Rossetti.

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UNITED STATES
TheMediaReport

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, and sometimes you can judge a book by the author’s radio interviews.

Appearing on a St. Louis radio program hawking a new book about the Catholic abuse scandals, writer Michael D’Antonio, author of Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, claimed that to this day “not a lot of effort to protect kids” has been exerted by the Catholic Church.

In truth, because of the aggressive, groundbreaking measures enacted by United States bishops years ago, the Catholic Church is likely the safest environment for children today. Contemporaneous accusations of abuse against Catholic priests are extremely rare, recently averaging only 8.5 allegations per year for the entire United States.

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SERBIA
In Serbia

BELGRADE – Bishop of Zvornik and Tuzla, Vasilije Kacavenda, who has been retired by Serbian Orthodox Church, will leave his lavish palace in Bijeljina and move into a cell of the male monastery Vasilije Ostroski in the center of Bijeljina or monastery Sisatovac on Fruska Gora, reports news magazine “Kurir”.

Recently, after the affair of sexual abuse of minors in which the bishop was allegedly involved and after news magazine “Kurir” has published part of the video on which, allegedly, bishop is kissing and enjoying a passionate moment with a boy, on Tuesday Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has stepped in and silently punished the bishop by retiring him and sending him to monastery.

How will Kacavenda, after being used to hedonism and luxury feel to live in a modest monastery, without friends, going outs, modern technology and luxury – many wonder.

The bishop has, in his palace in Bijeljina, enjoyed the most modern equipment for home, fireplace, hot tub, gold, antiques, servants and luxuries, of which an ordinary person can only dream of. The furniture in his home is made mostly of ivory, the salon is full of sculptures and artifacts, and his guests were served food in silver plates.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 25, 2013

In 2011, when he was suspended, Archbishop Robert Carlson’s public relations team said Fr. William Vatterott was accused of “inappropriate electronic communications.” Now, Fr. Vatterrott has been charged with child porn.

According to BishopAccountability.org, at least eight other current or former local clerics have been accused of possessing child porn or showing porn to kids (Fr. James Beine, Fr. Bruce Forman, Fr. William Christensen, Fr. James Funke, Fr. James Patrick Grady, Fr. John Hess, Fr. Gerhardt Lehmkuhl and seminarian Nicholas Pinkston).

Yet a quick search of the archdiocesan website shows just three mentions of “child pornography” (and one was just added yesterday when charges against Fr. Vatterott were disclosed).

We hope that someday Catholic officials will stop using euphemisms like “inappropriate conduct” and “boundary violations” and start being more honest.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 25, 2013

It’s outrageous that a Connecticut priest, who is accused possessing child pornography is delaying justice and exploiting technicalities. Is it any wonder that few victims of sexual violence and exploitation feel good about our justice system?

Despite these inexcusable delays we hope that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered abuse will come forward, report to law enforcement and start healing.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on April 25, 2013

Some will do anything – no matter how hurtful – to make money. Shame on this video company. Heinous child sex crimes and cover ups, by Catholic officials or anyone, is no joking matter.

Why rub salt into the already deep and often still fresh wounds of hundreds of thousands of victims of pedophile priests across the world?

We call on these callous corporate decision-makers to withdraw this game, apologize, and donate any money they may have made to organizations that prevent abuse and help victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph
April 26, 2013

CHILDREN will remain at risk unless the royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse includes the Family Court in its investigations, Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston has warned.

Ms Johnston said it would be a missed opportunity if the court was not included.

“Thousands of children and their families are depending on it,” she said yesterday.

In a submission sent by Bravehearts to the royal commission, the organisation said improvements to practices, policies and procedures within the court would have a positive impact on a “large number of Australian abuse survivors”.

Ms Johnston said it was a “no-brainer” that the court came under the commission’s terms of reference.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A former pupil at a school run by nuns claimed she was attacked by them after being sent there for stealing two bras from Woolworths.

Catherine Logan told a jury that she was kept in a cupboard when she was at the school 41 years ago.

The 57-year-old was giving evidence in the trial of Anne Kenny, 79, who faces four charges of assault and Agnes Reville, 77, who is accused of five charges of assault at Dalbeath Approved School in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court that she was taken back to the school three years ago, which was the first time she had gone back since leaving it.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Mail

Two nuns ‘tied woman to a pipe for two days and tortured her when she was at convent school in the seventies’

By Steve Robson

A teenager was tied to a pipe and tortured for two days by nuns who ran the convent school she attended, a court has heard.

Anne Kenny, 79, and Agnes Reville, 77, are accused of assaulting eight girls at Dalbeath Approved School in Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, in the 1970s.

Catherine Logan, 57, claims in one incident Kenny, known as Mother Rosari, hit her so hard with a carpet beater she ruptured her spleen.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court that she was ‘hit’ about twelve or thirteen times – including with a riding crop – and also alleged she was drugged.

Kenny faces four charges of assault while Reville is accused of five charges of assault.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin
Thu., Apr. 25 2013

William Vatterott, a Roman Catholic priest from St. Louis, was indicted yesterday on a federal child pornography charge — and could ultimately face ten years in prison and fines of up to $25,000.

Vatterott, 36, will appear in federal court later this week or early next week to respond to the indictment, the U.S. attorney’s office says in a statement.

He was placed on administrative leave in 2011 after a complaint was filed with the Ballwin police. He had allegedly been involved in an underage drinking incident — and was accused of “inappropriate conduct.”

The indictment says that he possessed “at least two images of an unidentified nude boy on his computer” between June 2010 and June 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

April 26, 2013

Barney Zwartz, Noel Towell

The head of the Catholic Church watchdog on clerical abuse in Ireland is to advise the Australian church about how well its abuse protocol is working.

Ian Elliott will visit Australia later this year to talk about lessons from the Irish experience and to help the church review its Towards Healing system, a spokesman said.

The National Committee for Professional Standards executive officer, Father Tim Brennan, said there was no external monitoring of how Towards Healing dealt with victims, and no way for the church to prove its systems were working.

”How does it get a clean bill of health?” Father Brennan asked. ”At the moment, there’s no mechanism to establish who does things well. The Irish experience is a way to go that step further.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jacquelin Magnay and Ean Higgins
From:The Australian
April 26, 2013

THE Catholic Church in Australia has hired an experienced Irish investigator of clerical abuse — who has called for a complete cleanout of people who ignored child sexual activities — as the church undergoes further scrutiny in the royal commission.

Ian Elliott, the chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, will head to Melbourne in the next few months after spending the past six years scrutinising child sexual abuses within the Irish Catholic Church.

Mr Elliot said Australia had to be prepared to be accountable and transparent — and have evidence that they are being accountable and transparent — before children can be kept safe and protected.

He said his Irish experience, which included a review of the Diocese of Cloyne and formulating a rigorous review and standards process for child protection that has been adopted by the church, showed Australia could only eradicate child abuse within the church if there was full conviction to do so from the bishop down.

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AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
Brisbane Times

April 26, 2013

Noel Towell
Reporter for The Canberra Times

The man chosen to advise the Australian Catholic Church on child sex abuse says he is ”not a fan” of statutory inquiries into paedophilia in the church.

Ian Elliott, who has led the Irish church’s internal response to the child sex scandals that shook that nation, has been hired by the Australian church to advise on its response to widespread abuse allegations.

Announcing his new job this week, Mr Elliott told an Irish newspaper that state-based inquiries into institutional abuse were long, costly and often failed to establish anything new.

During six years leading the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland – a church-run group – Mr Elliott and his staff completed audits of procedures and safeguards in 16 Irish dioceses and four religious orders, with reports due on another 10 dioceses and 100 orders by 2015.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

By Philip Pullella | Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has indicated for the first time that he may make changes to the Vatican’s scandal-ridden bank as part of a broad review of the Holy See’s troubled administration.

Before Francis was elected last month, many of the cardinals who went on to choose him expressed concern about the harm done to the Church’s image by three decades of scandals at the bank, which Italian magistrates are now investigating for money laundering.

A report last year by Moneyval, a European anti-money laundering body, found that the bank, officially the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), had failed to meet some of its standards on fighting financial crimes, and called for increased oversight.

In an impromptu sermon at a Mass for Vatican employees including staff from the bank, the pope said they should concentrate on the true mission of the Church and that Vatican departments were needed “only up to a certain point”.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Pope’s message to Vatican bank employees is that offices are necessary but only to a certain extent

Andrea Tornielli
VATICAN CITY

“Everything is necessary, offices are necessary, but only to a certain extent,” Pope Francis stated yesterday in the homily he pronounced during his customary morning mass in St. Martha’s House. In his message he also made explicit reference to the Vatican bank (IOR), which has had a rocky history, having often been at the centre of controversies, scandals and investigations.

His words indicated that the Vatican bank, along with all Curia’s various bodies, would be undergoing a review and reform in the next few months. The IOR, however, will not be shut down.

Francis’ words were centred around the profound essence of the Church, which must never consider itself a “company” that “makes deals to gain more partners”, neither does it measure its success in terms of organisation. “The path Jesus chose for his Church is a different one: he chose the difficult path, the path of the Cross, the path of persecution.” The Church begins “in the heart of the Father.”

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UNITED STATES/AUSTRALIA
The Dallas Morning News

By Reese Dunklin
rdunklin@dallasnews.com
5:02 pm on April 24, 2013

Another priest from our landmark 2004-2005 series on the Catholic Church’s international transfers of sex abusers has been arrested.

Australian authorities charged the Rev. Julian Fox, pictured, after he returned from his religious order’s headquarters in Rome. He faces 10 counts of sexually and physically abusing boys at a Melbourne-area boarding school, according to press reports.

In our series, I reported that Fox was moved to Fiji after an abuse complaint in the late 1990s was made to his order, the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesians also paid his accuser a settlement, officials acknowledged to me.

When I talked to Fox by phone in 2004, he said a church review had exonerated him. He declined to further discuss the allegations.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An article Wednesday about Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki saying the church had mishandled the case of a priest accused of inappropriate contact with a child incorrectly stated that Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Listecki, has criticized the media for reporting the accusations against Father Robert Marsicek. Topczewski says he’s been critical of the extent of the coverage on Marsicek.

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IRELAND
Impartial Reporter

Sarah Saunderson
Published 25 Apr 2013

There are currently six civil cases involving allegations of clerical child abuse pending in the Clogher diocese, the Bishop of Clogher the Very Rev. Liam MacDaid has said.

While the “vast majority are historical”, it has emerged that a most recent allegation came to light as recently as two years ago.

A report released yesterday (Wednesday) on behalf of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) draws “a line between the practice of this diocese today and some of the practice which existed previously”.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:
Angie Shelton
Community Relations Specialist
Phone: 314-792-7101

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has learned that Fr. William Vatterott, who had been the Pastor at St. Cecilia Parish in St. Louis and previously an Associate Pastor at Holy Infant in Ballwin, has been charged with possession of child pornography.

Fr. Vatterott has been on administrative leave from St. Cecilia Parish since June of 2011, when the archdiocese was made aware of these allegations. Since that time, the archdiocese has fully cooperated with the investigation conducted by law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis encourages all persons with reports of misconduct with a minor involving a member of the clergy or other church personnel to contact Deacon Phil Hengen, Director of Child and Youth Protection, at 314.792.7704 or the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 800.392.3737 or law enforcement officials.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
International Business Times

By Charles Poladian | April 25 2013

A Catholic priest, William Vatterott, 36, was indicted on a possession of child pornography charge in St. Louis, and, if convicted, could face 10 years in jail as well as a $250,000 fine.

Vatterott’s indictment was released by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District Missouri, Richard Callahan, notes Reuters. Vatterott served as a pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in St. Louis from 2008 until he was placed on administrative leave in June 2011 by the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

The archdiocese issued a statement on Wednesday regarding Vetterott’s indictment saying, “Fr. Vatterott has been on administrative leave from St. Cecilia Parish since June of 2011, when the archdiocese was made aware of these allegations. Since that time, the archdiocese has fully cooperated with the investigation conducted by law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Editorial Staff | Apr. 25, 2013

In late February, Maltese Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna told Italian journalists, “From now on, no one” — and when he said “no one” he meant the 117 cardinals coming to Rome for the conclave that would elect Pope Francis — “will be able to say they know nothing about what goes on regarding clerical sex abuse.” Efforts begun by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and continued by Pope Benedict XVI are “now a fundamental part of the church’s response to sex abuse,” Scicluna said. “It will be part of the leadership program of whoever is elected in the Sistine Chapel.”

Scicluna, of course, is more than an auxiliary bishop from Malta. He was the prosecutor handling sex abuse cases for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for 10 years until he was made a bishop last year. He, under the leadership of Ratzinger as the doctrinal congregation’s prefect, deserves credit for breaking the ecclesial logjam and beginning to move effectively against clergy who had abused children.

As we sort through Benedict’s pontificate and his more than three-decades-long legacy at the top of the church hierarchy, it would be wrong to too easily dismiss what Benedict did to protect children from clergy sex abusers. This does not mean his record is blemish-free or that we agree entirely with the processes used by bishops and the Curia to handle cases of abuse brought against clergy. But there can be no doubt that the church and her children would be in a far worse position if Benedict had not taken control of these cases in 2002.

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CONNECTICUT
Berlin Citizen

Monica Szakacs

It has almost been two years since a former assistant pastor of St. Paul Church in Kensington was first arrested and charged with five felony counts of risk of injury to a minor and one misdemeanor obscenity charge.

Father Michael Miller’s case was continued for the 21st time on March 28, 2013. His next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, in GA 15 Courthouse, at 20 Franklin Square, New Britain.

William J. St. John Jr., a Waterbury attorney who represents the former Berlin priest, said he cannot discuss any details regarding the case.

Miller was first arrested on July 12, 2011, at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, on charges that he had inappropriate contact with more than one minor. At the time he’s been hospitalized for an unknown reason.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KELO

By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A federal grand jury indicted a Catholic priest in St. Louis on Wednesday on child pornography charges involving Internet images of a boy under the age of 18, in the latest sex accusation to rock the Church.

William Vatterott, 36, was charged with possession of child pornography, according to the indictment released by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000, if convicted.

The indictment is the latest in a series of abuse accusations to hit the U.S. Catholic Church over the past two decades. The scandals have cost the Church billions of dollars in settlements and driven prominent dioceses into bankruptcy.

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CANADA
Global News

MONTREAL- Alora Condo is a sixth-grader at St. Willibrord’s School in Chateauguay. As she attended the Truth and Reconciliation event at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, she was shocked by what she saw. It reminded her of experiences her Mohawk grandfather had while he was at a residential school.

“They took away their culture, their language and they replaced it with some other kind of language,” she said. “My kinds of people went to these schools, and I wish I could have helped them.”

For a lot of students in the western Montreal area, Aboriginal issues hit close to home. A full third of St. Willibrord’s School, where Condo attends, have roots in the Mohawk nation of Kahnawake nearby.

“We had so many Native students that I felt it was my responsibility to share it with them,” said Annabelle Daignault, a French teacher at the school. “We kind of learned everything together, they were shocked obviously.”

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL – Many non-aboriginal Canadians remain all too ignorant of the shameful history of Canada’s residential schools, whose damaging legacy continues to be felt in aboriginal communities across the country. The Montreal hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which got underway Wednesday and are to continue until Saturday, are part of the process of moving forward, not only for those who choose to testify, but for all Canadians.

At these public hearings, which are being held in seven Canadian cities, survivors of the residential school system are getting an opportunity to recount their experiences. Over the course of more than a century, tens of thousands of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were wrenched from their families and communities, and sent away to boarding schools run by religious groups and funded by the federal government. Though the schools were winding down by the 1970s, the last of them did not close until 1996.

More than merely a well-intentioned effort to educate children, the policy was frankly designed to assimilate aboriginals — “to take the Indian out of the child,” according to one bureaucrat of the day. Students were forbidden to speak their own languages, and their traditional beliefs were denigrated and characterized as sinful. And all too often, the children were also subjected to physical and sexual abuse. No wonder, then, that the schools have left a painful legacy, one with which survivors, their descendants and their communities are still struggling. The commission’s work is part of a healing process that also includes monetary compensation, and has seen a 2008 apology from the federal government.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Steve Bonspiel, Special to The Gazette
April 25, 2013

MONTREAL – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada opened hearings Wednesday in Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel that will run through Saturday — and there are a number of reasons you should be there.

The commission was created after the $1.9-billion residential-schools settlement in 2007 between the government of Canada (along with partner Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches) and the Assembly of First Nations.

Frank disclosure of the atrocities committed at church-run, government-backed residential schools have finally started to come out into the open since the settlement. An apology by all federal political parties, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons in 2008, was seen as a step forward.

But for Native people, many of whom see the apology as shallow, free of any real remorse or substance, there is still so much work and educating to be done.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Christopher Curtis, The Gazette April 24, 2013

MONTREAL — It may be painful and profoundly troubling, but Canadians need to have a serious conversation about residential schools.

Michaëlle Jean’s voice resounded sharply as she described the need for all Canadians to embrace aboriginal issues as their own. The former governor-general was in Montreal Wednesday to take part in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — a $60-million project aimed at documenting the systematic torment suffered by generations of aboriginals who were forced into Canada’s residential school system.

Jean served as governor-general when the TRC was launched during a ceremony at Ottawa’s Rideau Hall in 2009. She became an honorary witness at the roving commission’s first national event in Winnipeg, where elders described the unspeakable acts of abuse they survived during childhoods spent as wards of the federal government.

“It was the start of a dialogue, it was very troubling to hear the testimonies, sometimes disturbing, but there was also hope,” Jean told a group of reporters huddled in a hallway inside the Queen Elizabeth Hotel downtown. “Because it was about sharing, sharing of the facts about this very dark chapter of our history. … I think the role of this commission is breaking the role of indifference. Indifference is not an option, we need to confront history together and see how we want to move forward.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche: Drei Jahre nach dem Skandal kritisieren Betroffene die Diözese Würzburg für die fehlende Aufklärung des Falls Damian Mai.

Sie fordern Transparenz statt weitere Vertuschung. Bislang schweigt das Ordinariat.

Für Bischof Friedhelm Hofmann sind die 2010 auch in seiner Diözese ans Licht gekommenen Missbrauchsfälle durch katholische Geistliche erfolgreich bewältigt worden. In dieser Zeitung lobte er jüngst die „transparente Aufarbeitung“ und „rückhaltlose Aufklärung“ der Vorwürfe. „Ich kenne keine Einrichtung in Deutschland, die Opfern sexuellen Missbrauchs in ähnlicher Weise entgegenkäme“, lobte der Bischof die finanzielle Entschädigung, die die katholische Kirche leistet. Auf der Frühjahrskonferenz der deutschen Bischöfe war die durch den Missbrauchsskandal ausgelöste Vertrauenskrise gar kein Thema mehr.

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

By Mary O’connor

Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan should ensure written restrictions are in place ensuring priests who are “out of ministry” due to child abuse allegations do not appear in public dressed in priestly attire, a report into safeguarding practices for children in the Galway diocese recommends.

The 28-page document, which was published yesterday (Wednesday) examines case records dating back to 1975.

It reveals allegations were made against 14 diocesan priests in the period 1975 to 2013. A total of 38 allegations were received, 27 of which were reported to the Gardai and the HSE. Allegations were made against three priests who are in ministry, two who are retired and five who are deceased. Two others have left the priesthood while a further two men are still members of the diocese but are “out of ministry”. One priest in the diocese was convicted of child abuse in the 38-year-period.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Ian Elliott, the Catholic church’s own watchdog on child protection measures in Ireland, has detailed the policies now in place to prevent child abuse in several dioceses.

It is part of a nationwide review of each diocese and Religious Order in the wake of a series of damning state inquiries into the extent of paedophilia in the clergy and subsequent cover-ups.

Audits looked at in his third and latest tranche include the dioceses of Ferns, Killala, Elphin, Waterford and the Society of African Missions.

* In Ferns, where in 2005 investigators uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups, 24 priests have faced allegations since 1975, none are in ministry and three have been convicted.

Mr Elliott noted a sea change compared to how the diocese operated since the report eight years ago, including a complainant-centred approach adopted by clergy and support staff.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Ex-bishop Joseph Duffy holds hands up over failure to tackle his paedophile priests

BY VICTORIA O’HARA– 25 April 2013

A former bishop failed to prevent clerical sex abuse and did not remove suspected paedophile priests from the ministry, a damning new watchdog report has said.

The Irish National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) report published yesterday said there was “an unacceptable delay” in taking action against one priest.

It said Bishop Joseph Duffy’s delay came despite concerns being raised of “a credible allegation” in the Clogher diocese, which includes parts of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Donegal and Louth.

The review said that 13 priests in the diocese faced allegations, one of whom is classified as either “in ministry or retired”, and two have been convicted.

In another case, a priest in the diocese was suspected of multiple incidents of abuse, but he was not removed, was transferred to another parish and eventually was sent overseas for therapeutic help.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, Patrick Corrigan, welcomed the publishing of the Clogher clerical abuse report.

“We got yet another glimpse into the horror of abuse suffered by children in parishes in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and the way in which figures in the church hierarchy permitted the abuse to continue.

“Yet, church-approved reviews are no substitute for a proper, independent investigation into clerical child sex abuse throughout Northern Ireland,” he said.

“It is increasingly clear that clerical child sex abuse happened in Northern Ireland over many years and over many parishes – but only a proper state-instituted inquiry will tell us the extent of the problem and help bring to account those responsible.”

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IRELAND
The Boston Pilot

By Michael Kelly

Posted: 4/24/2013
DUBLIN (CNS) — The head of the Catholic Church’s child safeguarding watchdog said he is encouraged by the latest audits of the handling of abuse allegations by dioceses and a religious congregation.

Ian Elliott, head of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, said the seven audits, published April 24, show “clear evidence of steady progress in developing robust safeguarding structures” in the church.

“The overall picture is a very positive one with the vast majority of the criteria used to assess performance against the review standards as being fully met,” he said.

While commending the overall picture, some of the audits are critical of past failings. In Clogher Diocese, for example, the review found that retired Bishop Joseph Duffy “consistently missed” opportunities to prevent abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Apr 25, 2013

So it’s goodbye to Ian Elliott. Some in the Catholic Church in Ireland clearly have felt it has been less than good to know him. Then maybe it’s just the beginning of a longer farewell involving the chief executive of the church’s child protection “watchdog-with-a-helluva- bite” and the authorities in Maynooth.

He may yet be employed on a consultancy basis as the review process in the church’s 162 institutions goes on.

It is doubtful whether the Catholic Church on this island has ever owed as much to a Presbyterian where restoring its credibility is concerned. Yesterday’s “gratifying” reports on current child protection practices in six dioceses and one religious congregation would hardly have been possible without his doggedness. He has played a hugely significant role in making Catholic parishes in Ireland today among the safest places for children.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

Thu, Apr 25, 2013

Ian Elliott is to stand down as chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children next month. “My contract expires at the end of June and, when leave is taken into account, I’ll be gone by the end of May,” he said yesterday.

By then he will have completed his second three-year contract with the board since 2007.

He has been requested by the Catholic Church in Australia to advise it on setting up child-protection review structures and will visit the country for three weeks in August and September next.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

25 April 2013

IN his Northern peace process memoir ‘Making Peace’, Senator George Mitchell mused that he hoped he could go with his son into the Stormont Assembly 10 years after the Good Friday Agreement and be bored by the proceedings – a sign of normalcy in democratic politics.

Reading the six reviews of Irish Catholic dioceses by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCI) – its third tranche – that same sense of ‘normalcy’ is evident as the clean bills of health, notwithstanding historic problems, are handed out.

Only Clogher diocese came in for some criticism of its management of allegations and this was prior to the current bishop’s appointment in 2010. Under Bishop Duffy, now retired, the diocese “consistently missed” opportunities for “preventative interventions”.

Maeve Lewis of One in Four called the reviews “reassuring” and called on the Children’s Minister to accelerate the Children First legislation.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee

This is Child Abuse Awareness month and this week is Safe Environment Week in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, where we pay special attention to the measures adopted over the past 10 years to ensure children are safe in our parishes and schools.

Last night, as a way of marking these events, I celebrated a Mass of Atonement, joining our prayers to the sacrificial act of Jesus, to pray for those who have suffered from clergy sexual abuse, for the community that carries the pain associated with their brothers and sisters, for the reform in the heart and mind of those clergy who have abused, but most importantly, for a sense of understanding that God’s love can accomplish a reconciliation in our lives and in our community.

In preparing for the Mass, which was hosted by St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield, I began thinking about how our attention to Safe Environment is one of the good things that has come out of the evil that was perpetrated upon innocent children. The Safeguarding All of God’s Family program has provided training to more than 50,000 adults who have contact with our young people and, in addition, more than 100,000 children received safe environment education in their curriculum.

We have heightened our awareness about sexual abuse and tried to reach out to abuse survivors in the best ways possible. We have worked with law enforcement to ensure our policies for handling reports of sexual abuse are the best they can possibly be. We have an annual audit of our practices to make certain we remain in compliance with all the demands of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

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WISCONSIN
Patch

By Jim Price

In a pastoral letter now published in his blog on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website, Archbishop Jerome Listecki says that while the church followed “the letter of the law” in allowing Father Robert Marsicek to retain his priestly duties in Wauwatosa while he was being investigated in California, it might not have followed “the spirit of the law,” in light of the church’s pledge to keep children safe.

The contrite missive, titled “Child Abuse Awareness,” begins by noting that this is Child Abuse Awareness month and this week is Safe Environment Week in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and his celebration of a Mass of Atonement at St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, as well for “the community that carries the pain” associated with it.

Listecki outlines steps the Catholic Church has taken over the past decade in training of its staff, education of its flock, and outreach to the community, restoring trust and credibility to an institution “badly broken” by its response to past allegations of abuse.

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SERBIA
In Serbia

BELGRADE – After various media started reporting about Serbian priest in Bosnia has allegedly abused minors, and even some of them got killed in the attempt to hide it, Serbia was deeply shaken. This was not the first time an Orthodox Church Priest gets accused for such a vicious crime.

Bishop Vasilije Kacavenda, or episkop zvorničko-tuzlanski, which is his original title, has become known as child molester judging by testimonials from his alleged victims and their parents. But there is no concrete evidence, such as photos or videos.

After the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church heard about the unfortunate news, they decided to “punish” Kacavenda by retiring him. The decision came after careful consideration of available information. Kacavenda was retired, but allowed to keep his rank. However, the bishop hopes that this is just temporary decision, that all the charges will be dropped and he would be reinstated.

Another problem comes from the fact that Kacavenda is known as a bishop who has furniture painted in gold, and a home that looks like a palace.

Kačavenda was accused of multiple homosexual activities with minors. Serbian media also accused him of having sex with four young boys, claimed that it can be seen on the video (scroll down), and also that Serbian Orthodox Church is in the possession of this and maybe other videos, but it is not available for the public. Serbian Orthodox Church representatives have neither confirmed nor denied this claim.

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