ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Irish Times

Kevin O’Sullivan

Hundreds of babies buried in a mass grave in a former religious-run mother and babies’ home in Tuam, Co Galway can be identified because of major advances in DNA testing, a team of scientists have declared.

The University College Dublin-Trinity College team have challenged the findings of an expert group set up by Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, which cast doubts on hopes that DNA testing could identify remains.

The expert technical group (ETG) highlighted difficulties with the exhumation and identification of the remains held in an underground chamber and an adjoining, disused septic tank, because remains are “commingled”.

However, the UCD-TCD team, who are all experts in genomics, argued that the analysis “is viewed through the prism of a technology that is at least 20 years old”, traditionally used to build DNA banks for use in criminal cases.

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SWEDEN
The Guardian

Staff and agencies in Stockholm

The head of the Swedish Academy that selects the winner of the Nobel prize for literature has resigned amid a growing crisis over the body’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made against a man with close links to the institution.

Sara Danius announced her decision on Thursday after a three-hour emergency meeting of academy members in central Stockholm.

Danius said she had lost the confidence of the academy, but would not comment on whether a vote was held to remove her.

“It is the academy’s wish that I leave my post as permanent secretary,” said Danius, a 56-year-old Swedish literature historian, and the first woman to hold the position. “I would have liked to have continued, but there are other things to do in life.”

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SWEDEN
NPR

SCOTT NEUMAN

The head of the Swedish Academy, the august body that awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, has stepped down after criticism of the institution’s handling of a sexual abuse scandal.

“It was the wish of the Academy that I should leave my role as Permanent Secretary,” Permanent Secretary Sara Danius, the first woman to head the Academy, told reporters. “I have made this decision with immediate effect.”

The controversy stems from allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of one of the Academy’s members, Katarina Frostenson.

As NPR’s Colin Dwyer reported earlier this week, “Those allegations first surfaced when the #MeToo movement hit Sweden last November, and the Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter reported that the man — whom the newspaper has identified only as ‘Cultural Profile’ — had allegedly sexually assaulted or harassed at least 18 women over the past two decades.”

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SOUTH AFRICA
News 24

Carla Coetzee

Pastor Neil Rischbieter, former from Johannesburg in Gauteng, has been found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls in New Zealand.

Rischbieter had committed the offences while one of the girls’ mother was dying of cancer.

Stuff.co.nz reports a court in Waitakere City, Auckland, found Rischbieter guilty on Wednesday and sentenced him to 26 months in jail.

Detective Jason Hamblyn of the New Zealand police says the pastor’s victims were between 12 and 19 years old and the abuse was perpetrated between 2009 and 2017.

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AUSTRALIA
InDaily

A NSW magistrate has been told he should doubt the honesty of Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson as his trial for allegedly covering up child sex abuse by a fellow priest winds up

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told the Newcastle Local Court today that Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing abuse, wanted to cover it up to protect the church’s reputation.

“Your honour should have doubts about his (Wilson’s) honesty,” Harrison told magistrate Robert Stone during his closing address.

Wilson is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease but claims medication has helped his memory.

The 67-year-old has told the court he can’t remember two altar boys telling him in 1976 they were abused by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region.

The defence argues Wilson is not guilty because the case is circumstantial and there’s no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the archbishop was told about the abuse, believed it was true or remembered being told about it.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Mark Russell
Australian Associated Press
APRIL 13, 2018

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has been accused of acting like a “cat on a hot tin roof” when trying to absolve himself of guilt over claims he covered up child sex abuse by a pedophile priest.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told Newcastle Local Court that Wilson was a “consummate Catholic politician” who had ducked and weaved when trying not to incriminate himself.

“The accused (Wilson) was part of an entrenched, toxic culture of covering things up,” Mr Harrison said during his closing address on Friday.

“Victims come second.”

The prosecutor said Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing abuse, had maintained a “cover-up attitude” since 1976 when he was an assistant priest in the NSW Hunter region.

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CHILE
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service
Thursday, April 12, 2018

SANTIAGO, Chile — Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’ letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated the pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

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CHILE
U.S. News

SANTIAGO (REUTERS) – Chile’s Roman Catholic Church called on Thursday for a “drastic solution” that could include resignations, a day after Pope Francis acknowledged “grave mistakes” in handling a sexual abuse crisis and summoned its leaders to Rome.

At a meeting of Church leadership on Chile’s central coast, Santiago Silva, the president of the Episcopal Conference, said change was inevitable.

“It’s possible that the pope will ask some (bishops) to leave their diocese … there must be a drastic solution, strong and decisive, that is for certain,” Silva told local radio station Cooperativa.

In an extraordinary step, Pope Francis said in a letter on Wednesday that he had made mistakes in his assessment of the crisis. In January, he had dismissed as “slander” accusations that Chilean bishop Juan Barros had covered up sexual abuse of minors by his mentor Father Fernando Karadima.

Barros told Chilean media at the meeting of Church leadership that “the pope always seeks the best for everyone.” Barros was appointed bishop of Osorno, in southern Chile, by Pope Francis in 2015.

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CHILE
National Catholic Reporter

by Maria Benevento

Victims of clerical sexual abuse and others who had called for the removal of Bishop Juan Barros, accused of covering up abuse, expressed appreciation for Pope Francis’ letter apologizing for his response to allegations in Chile. But they said concrete steps are necessary to improve the situation.

In the letter, sent to the bishops in Chile and released April 11, Francis apologized to those he offended; said he has made “grave mistakes” in the handling of the case, “especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information”; and called all of Chile’s bishops to come to a meeting in Rome.

“The harm committed by the Chilean hierarchy, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz and José Andrés Murillo, Barros’ three public accusers, said in a joint statement released in Spanish April 11.

“The direction of all of our actions has always pointed to acknowledgement, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered,” they continued, “and that’s what it will continue to be, until zero tolerance toward abuse and cover-up in the church becomes reality.”

The three men also confirmed that the Vatican had contacted them to invite them to a meeting with Francis in the coming weeks, and said they were exploring the possibility of attending.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

Father Louis Brouillard, around 1968, entered a Boy Scout’s tent multiple times to sexually abuse him and grabbed the boy’s private part during swimming, according to a lawsuit filed in local court by a man who now lives in Washington State.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as John Doe in order to protect his privacy, said in his lawsuit that on one occasion, he and another child saw Brouillard sexually abusing a child.

The abuse included Brouillard subjecting John Doe and other boys to his presence, walking around naked in his room at San Isidro Parish in Malojloj, the lawsuit states.

John Doe, represented by attorney Kevin Fowler, is now 59 years old. He and his family were parishioners at the Malojloj Parish when he was a child. He met Brouillard, who also was a scoutmaster, when he joined the Boy Scouts’ Troop 24.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Sam Charles @samjcharles

A lawsuit was filed Thursday detailing alleged sexual abuse of a student at a southwest suburban Catholic high school by the school’s former principal and president, Father Richard McGrath.

The civil litigation comes as the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office weighs whether or not to bring criminal charges against McGrath for the alleged abuses.

The suit and possible criminal charges both stem from McGrath’s alleged abuse of Robert Krankvich, who attended Providence High School in New Lenox for two years in the mid 1990s.

“I’ve decided to come forward because I’ve been living in shame and in guilt for my entire adult life,” Krankvich said at a press conference Thursday. “I’ve battled addiction. I’ve battled suicide. [I’ve] tried hurting myself many times because I can’t deal with the pain and all of the shame and the guilt that comes forward every day when I think about this.”

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ILLINOIS
WLS

[with video]

Sarah J. Schulte
Thursday, April 12, 2018

NEW LENOX, Ill. (WLS) — A former student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox is suing the school, claiming he was sexually abused by the school’s former principal president.

“I realize I have to do this, I have to do this to give other people a voice, not just myself other victims,” said Bob Krankvich.

It took Krankvich over 20 years to gather the courage to publicly tell his story. The 36 year old says he was repeatedly sexually abused during his freshman and sophomore years at Providence Catholic High School by Father Richard McGrath. At the time, the Augustinian Catholic priest was the principal of the New Lenox school. McGrath eventually became president until he abruptly resigned a few months ago.

“He told me to remain silent and never come back to school and if I was to ever talk about it, he would get my family and myself arrested for doing the things I had done,” said Krankvich.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

BY PATRICK ELWOOD

NEW LENOX, Ill. — A former president of a Catholic high school in the south suburbs is being sued for sexually abusing a former student.

Father Richard McGrath priest abruptly retired from Providence Catholic High School in December after he refused to be interviewed by investigators after a student came forward to say she saw him on his cell phone looking at a naked teen boy.

McGrath refused to turn over the cell phone so the investigation was stymied and charges were never filed.

There is now an allegation from a former student who attended Providence in the mid 90s who said the priest sexually assaulted him several times during his time here.

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KANSAS
KSNT

[with video]

By: James Ryan

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – A lawsuit claiming sexual abuse by a former Topeka priest is moving forward.

Earlier this week, a judge in Wyandotte county refused to throw out the case.

The lawsuit claims a former priest at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Topeka sexually abused a young boy in the 1980s.

The 20-page lawsuit claims that a former priest here at St. Matthews, referred to only as Father MJ, sexually abused a young boy from the age of 9-12 in the early 80s.

Kansas City Attorney Rebecca Randles represents the boy, now a man, who filed the lawsuit.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Zak Koeske

The former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, whom police investigated earlier this year for “potentially inappropriate material” on his cell phone, is now under investigation for allegations he sexually abused a male student in the mid-1990s, police said.

New Lenox Police Chief Bob Sterba said Thursday that the department began a criminal investigation into the sexual abuse claims against the Rev. Richard McGrath after the alleged victim came to them in early January.

He said McGrath, through his attorney, had declined to cooperate with authorities for their investigation. When reached for comment Thursday, McGrath’s attorney Patrick Reardon declined comment.

McGrath’s alleged victim, 36-year-old Robert Krankvich, of Crest Hill, spoke at a news conference Thursday to announce the filing of a lawsuit that accuses McGrath of abuse and names as defendants Providence Catholic and the Augustinian order that oversees the high school.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the Bill Cosby sexual-assault retrial (all times local):

6 p.m.

The chief accuser at Bill Cosby’s sex assault retrial is set to testify.

Andrea Constand says the 80-year-old comedian drugged and molested her during an encounter at his home in 2004. He says their encounter was consensual.

The trial judge says Constand is due to take the stand Friday.

On Thursday, a woman who alleges Cosby had her drink two shots that knocked her out told the jury she didn’t realize until years later what he might have done to her.

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ROME
Crux

Nicole Winfield ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME – Eight victims of the Catholic Church’s most notorious pedophile priest are pressing the Legion of Christ religious order to compensate them for the sexual abuse they suffered and the psychological harm they say resulted from the order’s prolonged campaign to discredit them.

The men sent a letter to the Legion’s leadership seeking public recognition of their status as victims of Father Marcial Maciel and the Mexico-based order, which was once one of the fastest-growing congregations in the Church but suffered a credibility crisis over Maciel’s crimes and cover-up.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest indication that clergy abuse victims are increasingly demanding recognition and apologies for the retaliation often inflicted on them by Church leaders after they report allegations of abuse.

Pope Francis just this week acknowledged making “grave errors” in discrediting abuse victims in Chile and begged their forgiveness.

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ARIZONA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by Tim Lennon, Volunteer President of SNAP’s Board of Directors (415-312-5820, tlennon@SNAPnetwork.org)

A priest from the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam currently working in Phoenix has been recalled to the island after a lawsuit accused him of sexual abuse. This is the first public allegation against Father Adrian Cristobal.

Pacific News Center

While we have no firsthand knowledge about the accusations against Father Cristobal, we do know that research has shown that false allegations of abuse are extremely rare.

Father Cristobal was the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Agana under Archbishop Anthony Apuron. When the archbishop was placed on leave in 2016 as a result of abuse allegations against him, the Vatican also replaced Father Cristobal as chancellor. The priest was then assigned to the San Dionisio in Umatac.

We urge anyone who has been victimized in the Phoenix Diocese or elsewhere to protect children by calling police, to get help by calling therapists, and to receive comfort by calling support groups like ours.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Statement by Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Regional Leader, 636-433-2511, SNAPjudy@gmail.com

Deacon Rosendo F. Dacal of city, Pennsylvania has been accused of possessing child pornography.

CBS Pittsburgh

While we have no first hand information on the charges against Deacon Rosendo F. Dacal, viewing, possessing, distributing, and/or creating child pornography is a serious crime for good reason. Real children are being sexually abused in the images, and these innocent victims are likely to experience lifelong pain and suffering as a result. Moreover, it is not uncommon for those who possess child pornography to also sexually abuse children.

We beg anyone who has any information about this case or any similar case to share that information with law enforcement. We further urge Bishop David A. Zubik to make sure that all of his parishioners know that, if they have any pertinent knowledge, it is appropriate to report it immediately to the civil authorities.

We mourn for all the children who were exploited to create these images. We hope that they are receiving treatment from mental health professionals, and support from family, from friends and from groups like ours.

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NEW YORK
PIX 11

APRIL 12, 2018, BY ALLISON KADEN

Bridie Farrell, once an aspiring Olympic speed skate, is now an advocate for childhood sexual abuse victims. Farrell said she was abused when she was 15 by a much older, prominent Olympic skater. Farrell, now 36, is one of many survivors who cannot seek legal justice in New York because the alleged abuse happened too long ago.

Farrell joined other childhood sexual abuse victims, advocates and lawmakers outside the Lower Manhattan office of Zurich Insurance Thursday. The group was angry that Zurich and other insurance companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby New York State Senate lawmakers to vote no on the Child Victims Act.

The legislation would allow New Yorkers like Bridie Farrell a longer window to come forward.

“No one has ever said I’m lying. I mean, he was known for these things,” Farrell said. “He would pick me up from school, and you know skip school, and go skate and then he would bring me to his house.”

A February 2018 poll from Quinnipiac University showed 90 percent of New Yorkers support changing the law so victims have more time to seek justice.

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OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has stopped investigating allegations of inappropriate communication with a teenager against a local priest who killed himself in December.

The Rev. James Csaszar, 44, who was serving at the Church of the Resurrection in New Albany, was placed on leave in November by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

The priest killed himself Dec. 20 by jumping from a Chicago hotel balcony. In a nine-page, hand-written suicide note, Csaszar apologized to his loved ones and denied sexual contact with any child or adult.

The BCI investigation began after the Columbus Diocese reported to police that it had received allegations in October made by a teenage boy’s mother of an inappropriate relationship between Csaszar and her son. The mother provided the diocese with 227 pages of texts between her son and Csaszar, according to the investigative report.

The diocese also reported finding two unauthorized bank accounts in New Lexington, where Csaszar served as a priest from 2005 to 2016. Money appeared to have been moving in and out the accounts, with some going to a juvenile. A total of $50,000 was misappropriated, the diocese said. Authorities and the diocese did not say if the juvenile involved was the woman’s son.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Los Angeles Times

Model Janice Dickinson told a jury Thursday that Bill Cosby raped her in 1982 after giving her a pill he claimed would ease her menstrual cramps but instead left her immobilized and unable to stop an assault she called “gross.”

Dickinson, the fourth accuser to take the witness stand at Cosby’s sex assault retrial, told jurors she was “rendered motionless” by the pill as Cosby got on top of her in his Lake Tahoe hotel room. She said he smelled of cigars and espresso.

“I didn’t consent to this. Here was ‘America’s Dad,’ on top of me. A married man, father of five kids, on top of me,” Dickinson said. “I was thinking how wrong it was. How very wrong it was.”

Dickinson, 27 at the time, testified she felt vaginal pain and, after waking up the next morning, noticed semen between her legs. She said Cosby looked at her “like I was crazy” when she confronted him about what had happened.

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PENNSYLVANIA
USA Today

Jayme Deerwester,Maria Puente and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY

The prosecution presented a string of Bill Cosby accusers on the witness stand Thursday in the fourth day of the comedian’s sexual-assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia. Among them was former model Janice Dickinson, who recounted her alleged rape by Cosby, and another former model, Lise-Lotte Lublin, who took the stand late Thursday.

The jury has already heard from Heidi Thomas, Chelan Lasha and Janice Baker-Kinney. They each shared their run-ins with Cosby from the 1980s, all involving the comedian giving them drugs that rendered them either unconscious or unable to move while the comedian molested or raped them.

Here are the latest developments from the courtroom:

Fifth Cosby accuser takes the stand

The fifth and final “other” accuser to testify at Cosby’s retrial said she trusted him because he was “America’s Dad.”

Lise-Lotte Lublin was a 23-year-old model and aspiring actress invited to Cosby’s Las Vegas hotel suite to practice acting improvisation. When he prodded her to drink two shots to relax, she complied.

She told the jury that Cosby had her sit between his knees and he started stroking her hair. She said she lost consciousness and doesn’t remember anything else about that night in 1989 until she woke up two days later. She believes she was sexually assaulted, she testified.

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MARYLAND
Southern Maryland News Net

On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office were investigating a report of indecent exposure involving a white male driving a black Honda Civic.

The twelve victims, ages 15 to 17 were students of St. Charles High School and were on a school bus traveling in St. Mary’s County for a sports team event. One adult victim was also listed in court documents.

The girls said the white male, later identified as Glen Travis Strickler, 42, of Charlotte Hall, was driving alongside the bus with his penis in his hand, smiling and looking at the girls while masturbating.

A video recording was taken by one of the students with her cellphone, showed Strickler while he was masturbating.

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MARYLAND
Raw Story

BRAD REED

Maryland pastor this week was arrested and charged with indecent exposure after he was caught on camera masturbating in front of a dozen teenage girls.

Southern Maryland News Net reports that 42-year-old Glen Travis Strickler was arrested after he was caught on video masturbating while driving his car alongside a high school bus and leering at the bus’s female passengers.

The students on the bus were shocked when they saw Strickler pleasuring himself while watching them, and one of them took out her phone to make a video that could be used as evidence against him.

The student not only succeeded in capturing Strickler’s face in the video, but she also made sure to get shots of his car’s license plate as well.

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CANADA
CBC News

As a survivor of child pornography, a publication ban has kept her name a secret.

The woman, who The Current is calling Sarah, has been fighting for over a year to reveal her real name to the public, but according to the Criminal Code, her identity is not hers to share.

“I have a right to tell my story. I have a right to be named. This is my story,” she told The Current’s Anna Maria Tremonti.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

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ILLINOIS
Herald-News

CHICAGO — An individual accusing former Providence Catholic High School President Richard J. McGrath of sexual abuse has filed suit in Cook County.

A reported sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman, will speak publicly for the first time about the alleged abuse at 1 p.m. Thursday in a press conference downtown Chicago, according to a news release from Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates.

The plaintiff was a student at Providence, located at 1800 W. Lincoln Hwy. in New Lenox, at the time of the reported abuse. The lawsuit also accuses McGrath of possession and destruction of child pornography and the Augustinian Order and the high school of maintaining a hazardous public nuisance.

“Defendants placed McGrath where he had access to and worked with children as an integral part of his work,” the suit stated. “Plaintiff developed great admiration, trust, reverence and respect for defendants and their agents, including McGrath.”

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ILLINOIS
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Chicago News Conference Today

Sexual Abuse Survivor Sues Augustinian Order
For Maintaining Hazardous Public Nuisance

Lawsuit Implicates Prominent Augustinian Fr. Richard J. McGrath,
High-Ranking Official and Principal at Providence Catholic High School, for Sexual Abuse and Possession & Destruction of Child Pornography

Sexual Abuse Survivor to Appear Publicly to Call on the Augustinians to Come Clean and Release its List of Accused Offenders

Robert Krankvich v. The Augustinians
The Augustinians’ Hazardous History
Accused Augustinian Priests and Brothers
Father Richard J. McGrath Assignment History
Father Richard J. McGrath Assignment History Summary
Father Richard J. McGrath Photo
Providence Catholic High School Photo Board

What: At a news conference today in Chicago, a sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:
• Speak publicly for the first time about sexual abuse by prominent Augustinian priest Fr. Richard J. McGrath, O.S.A. while Plaintiff was a student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, Illinois;
• Announce the filing of a lawsuit alleging a serious ongoing hazard created by the Augustinians by keeping secret from the public the names and histories of all accused offenders;
• Disclose the identities of Augustinian priests and brothers accused publicly accused of child sexual abuse and demand a full disclosure of the identities and histories kept secret.

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FLORIDA
News-Press

Michael Braun, MBRAUN@NEWS-PRESS.COM

A teacher at Evangelical Christian School is facing charges for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with one of her students.

A Lee County Sheriff’s Office release said detectives on Wednesday began investigating the alleged sexual relationship between Suzanne Lea Owen, 35, a high school teacher, and one of her male students.

Deputies responded to ECS at 8237 Beacon Blvd. in Fort Myers and met with Owen, of North Fort Myers.

Investigators found that she had had one sexual encounter with the male student one week prior, where the two decided to meet off-campus.

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FLORIDA
Raw Story

BRAD REED

A teacher at an evangelical Christian high school in Florida has been arrested — and subsequently fired from her job — for allegedly having sex with a male teen student.

The News-Press reports that 35-year-old Suzanne Lea Owen, a teacher at the Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers, Florida, allegedly had a single sexual encounter with one of her male students with whom she had been communicating via personal text messages for weeks.

After Lee County Sheriff’s deputies determined that Owen and the student had met off campus with the student to have sex, they arrested her and charged her with one felony count of custodial sexual battery.

Evangelical Christian School Headmaster John Hunte told sent out a letter to parents on Wednesday informing them that Owen had been fired from her position.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

By Wilma Riley

A disgraced priest was yesterday jailed for nine years for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys and a trainee priest.

Eighty-two-year-old Father Francis Moore was told by judge Rita Rae that he had abused his position as a parish priest.

And one of his victims 49-year-old Paul Smyth urged other victims of historic abuse to come forward.

Moore, who was also known as Father Paul, was found guilty after trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

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ILLINOIS
Christian Post

By Leonardo Blair

As word continues to spread Wednesday about the resignation of Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, some members of the church maintain that he was a victim of the #MeToo bandwagon.

“It’s very destructive,” Jim Tofilon, a member of Willow Creek since 1991, told The Chicago Tribune of the #MeToo movement after Hybels announced his resignation Tuesday.

“It worked. It destroyed an old man’s life. Nothing good came out of it. I hope people making the accusations feel satisfied,” he added.

In announcing his resignation Tuesday, Hybels staunchly maintained his innocence, calling some of the allegations “misleading” and others “entirely false.” Allegations included a consensual affair with a married woman, who retracted her claims, as well as a pattern of behavior against Hybels that includes suggestive comments and extended hugs.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeff Coen
Chicago Tribune

They sought his repentance, not his resignation.

So when the Rev. Bill Hybels, founder of northwest suburban Willow Creek Community Church, announced Tuesday he would step down to avoid hindering the megachurch’s ministries, women who recently alleged inappropriate conduct expressed disappointment that he did not more fully acknowledge his wrongdoing.

“The goal for me was never connected to Bill resigning,” wrote Nancy Beach, the first female teaching pastor at the South Barrington church. She recounted more than one conversation or interaction she felt was inappropriate during moments alone with Hybels over the years.

“The goal is to usher in the truth, to reveal an abuse of power that spans over 30 years, with women who are scarred and in some cases, terrified to come forward,” she said in a blog entry published Wednesday.

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MISSOURI
The Hill

BY REID WILSON

A woman with whom Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) admitted to having an affair has told state legislators the former Navy SEAL forced her into multiple sexual encounters in the year before he ran for public office, according to a report issued by legislative leaders.

The 24-page report, based on hundreds of pages of interview transcript also made public on Wednesday, details allegations the woman made against Greitens — allegations the legislators who heard testimony from multiple witnesses found credible.

Greitens is a Republican. The committee that compiled the report was made up of seven members, five of whom are Republicans.

Greitens, in response, on Wednesday seized on one element of the woman’s testimony — in which she said she had not seen a photograph she alleges Greitens took of her — to attempt to discredit the entire report.

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NEW JERSEY
CentralJersey.com

Two individuals who allegedly forced a child into commercial sex acts at multiple hotels throughout Middlesex, Bergen and Essex counties appeared in court on April 10 with one of their alleged customers to face federal sex trafficking charges.

Richard Ortiz, 22, and Gabriella Colon, 18, both of the Bronx, New York, are charged by complaint with two counts of sex trafficking of a child and one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution, according to information provided by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

Aryeh Goodman, 35, of East Brunswick, is charged in a separate complaint with one count of sex trafficking of a child.

According to the complaints, Colon allegedly used her friendship with a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to convince her to visit Colon in New York in January. Colon allegedly was prostituting herself to support herself and her boyfriend, Ortiz.

Shortly thereafter, Colon and Ortiz allegedly transported the victim to a hotel in New Jersey, where they allegedly took sexually explicit photographs her. Colon and Ortiz then allegedly posted those images and advertised the sexual services of the child on Backpage.com, according to officials.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — An East Brunswick rabbi accused of patronizing a 17-year-old girl for sex appeared in court Tuesday, April 10, on a federal sex trafficking charge.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, of East Brunswick, is one of 30 men accused of patronizing the 17-year-old Lancaster, Pennsylvania girl, federal prosecutors charge. Goodman is already a registered sex offender for a prior conviction. In 2013, Goodman was accused of several incidents of a sexual nature with a 12-year-old boy, who Goodman met when he worked as a counselor at Camp Menachem, a Chabad summer camp in Lackawaxen Township, Pa. The incidents allegedly occurred almost 12 years prior to his arrest.

Goodman tried to make a name for himself among Central New Jersey’s Hasidic Jewish community: He operates a Jewish religious center out of his East Brunswick home, and is affiliated with another center on Lexington Avenue in the Township. He was the director of the East Brunswick Chabad. According to New Jersey Jewish News, Goodman grew up in Highland Park, the son of Rabbi Boruch and Sarah Goodman. The elder Goodman is the campus director at Chabad House at Rutgers University.

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NEW JERSEY
MyCentralJersey

Suzanne Russell, @SRussellMyCJ

NEW BRUNSWICK – An East Brunswick rabbi accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is now being held in federal custody on charges of sex trafficking of a child and was scheduled to be arraigned in Newark before a federal judge, according to the Office of the U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey.

The status of Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, was announced Tuesday by a Middlesex County assistant prosecutor during a brief hearing before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Michael Toto.

Goodman and co-defendants Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, both of the Bronx, were taken into federal custody.

Colon and Ortiz are accused of allegedly forcing a child into commercial sex acts in multiple hotels throughout Middlesex, Bergen and Essex counties, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

They have been charged with two counts of sex trafficking of a child and one count of transporting a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. Colon and Ortiz also were scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal court.

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VATICAN CITY/CHILE
America

Gerard O’Connell
April 11, 2018

In what has the appearance of the beginning of an earthquake in the Chilean church, Pope Francis has sent a strong letter to the Chilean bishops in which he speaks of his “pain and shame” on receiving the report on the abuse scandal in Chile from Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta. He had sent Archbishop Scicluna to listen to the victims of abuse last February.

In the three-page letter, he admits his own “serious mistakes” in dealing with this scandal and asks for forgiveness and goes on to take two dramatic steps: He summons the entire Chilean hierarchy to meet him in the Vatican and invites the three main accusers of Bishop Barros to meet him there too at a different time.

The pope admitted that he had badly misjudged the situation, or as he put it: “I fell into serious errors in the evaluation and perception of the situation, due especially to the lack of true and balanced information.”

He said, “From here on, I ask pardon of all those that I have offended, and I hope to do so personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings that I will have with representatives of the persons interviewed” by his envoys—Archbishop Scicluna and Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos.

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CALIFORNIA
TMZ

2:37 PM PT — The L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. released a statement, saying, “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau began an investigation into allegations of a sexual assault involving Mr. Kevin Spacey on December 11, 2017. The events were reported to have taken place in October of 1992 in West Hollywood involving a male adult.”

“The investigation was completed and presented to the District Attorney’s Office Entertainment Industry Sex Crimes Task Force on April 5, 2018, for review and filing consideration.”

Kevin Spacey is in the crosshairs of the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, but TMZ has learned that won’t be the case for long, because the case is going to be a reject.

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CALIFORNIA/MASSACHUSETTS

BY RACHEL DESANTIS
NANCY DILLON

Los Angeles County prosecutors are reviewing a sex crimes case against fired “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey, a source said Wednesday.

The case was brought to prosecutors Thursday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the alleged encounter is currently under review by the District Attorney’s Office Sex Crimes Task Force.

The events in question allegedly took place in October 1992 in West Hollywood, and involved an adult male, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department — thus placing it outside the statute of limitations, reports TMZ….

Former Boston news anchor Heather Unruh also told the Daily News that a criminal investigation had begun against Spacey after he allegedly grabbed her teenage son’s genitals at a Nantucket club in 2016.

“I want to see Kevin Spacey go to jail. I want to see Kevin Spacey have the hand of justice come down on him, not just for my son, but for the many others who have yet to speak their truth,” she said.

Unruh family lawyer Mitchell Garabedian told the Daily News on Wednesday that his client’s case is under review now by prosecutors in Massachusetts.

“My understanding is that the district attorney of Nantucket is currently investigating the matter,” Garabedian said. “My client is cooperating.”

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CHILE
Pagina 12

[The accusations against the Bishop of Osorno are not for abuse but for cover-up. On March 3, 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz sent a letter to the Pope telling him that Barros (who at the time of the abuses against him was a young pupil of Karadima) not only covered up the abuses as Barros ascended in his ecclesiastical career in the 1990s, but he witnessed them in the parish of an affluent neighborhood of Santiago where both grew up under the priest’s tutorship.]

Las acusaciones contra el obispo de Osorno no son por abuso sino por encubrimiento. El 3 de marzo de 2015, Juan Carlos Cruz le envió una carta al Papa en la que le cuenta que Barros (que en la época en que se producen los abusos contra él era un joven pupilo de Karadima) no sólo encubrió los abusos a medida que ascendió en su carrera eclesiástica en los años 90, sino que fue testigo de ellos en la parroquia de un barrio acomodado de Santiago, donde ambos crecieron bajo la tutoría del sacerdote.

“Más difícil y fuerte era cuando estábamos en la habitación de Karadima y Juan Barros, si no se estaba besando con Karadima, veía cuando algunos de nosotros, los menores, éramos tocados por él y nos hacía darle besos diciéndome: ‘Pon tu boca cerca de la mía y saca tu lengua’. Él sacaba la suya y nos besaba con su lengua”, escribió Cruz. “Juan Barros era testigo de todo esto y lo fue incontables veces, no solo conmigo sino con otros también”, aseguró en otro pasaje. Y denunció: “Juan Barros ha encubierto todo lo que le cuento”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Christopher Altieri

Those who misled the Pope ‘no doubt felt they were protecting the institution’, says Marie Collins

Pope Francis has made a general apology to the victims of sexual abuse and clerical cover-up in Chile and called on the bishops of the country to come and meet him in Rome to discuss the crisis in the Chilean Church.

While the Holy Father did not apologise specifically to the victims he accused of calumny while visiting their country — accusations he repeated to journalists several days later on the return trip to Rome — he did say: “I recognise, and so I ask that you faithfully convey, that I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, owing especially to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

The Archbishop-Emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz, who was involved in several mishandled abuse cases, including that of the disgraced former celebrity priest, Fernando Karadima, is a member of the Pope’s “C9” Council of Cardinal Advisers. Correspondence between Cardinal Errázuriz and the current Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati, stongly suggests the two men were determined to block the nomination of abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cruz is one of the survivors Pope Francis accused of calumny in connection with the case of Bishop Juan Barros, whom Cruz accuses of having witnessed, enabled and covered up Karadima’s abuse of him and many other young people.

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SWEDEN
New York Times

By CHRISTINA ANDERSON

STOCKHOLM — A sexual abuse and harassment scandal roiling the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature deepened on Wednesday, as the king of Sweden and the foundation that finances the prize warned that the scandal risked tarnishing one of the world’s most important cultural accolades.

A schism in the Swedish Academy, which has awarded the prize since 1901, erupted into the open last week, the culmination of a scandal that stretches back to November, when the newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that 18 women had accused Jean-Claude Arnault, a major cultural figure with close ties to the academy, of sexual assault and harassment.

Mr. Arnault is married to the poet Katarina Frostenson, a member of the academy, and together they run a private cultural club, called the Forum, that has received money from the academy.

The newspaper reported that Mr. Arnault had mistreated women at the club and at academy-owned properties in Stockholm and Paris over a 20-year period. It also reported that Mr. Arnault had leaked information about the prize committee’s confidential deliberations seven times since 1996.

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LOUISIANA
American Press

Lisa Addison

A man on trial for manslaughter took the stand Tuesday in state district court and told a jury about shooting a pastor nearly five years ago during a church service, saying the pastor raped his wife and was “treacherous.”

Woodrow Karey Jr., 58, told jurors he walked into Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center during a revival service on Sept. 27, 2013, and shot Ronald J. Harris, 51, twice with a shotgun.

The prosecution has said Harris was having an affair with Karey’s wife; the defense has said Karey’s wife was raped by Harris for years.

Before testimony began, there was a discussion between the judge, defense, and prosecution regarding information the defense wanted included at trial. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal said some things could be included while others could not. Judge Clayton Davis had earlier ruled against the evidence being included.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

CATRIN OWEN

Pastor Neil Rischbieter has been jailed for historical sexual abuse charges.

A pastor sexually abused a young girl while her mother was dying of cancer.

Auckland man Neil Rischbieter​ also abused another young girl. Both victims cannot be identified for legal reasons.

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PENNSYLVANIA
ABC News

[with video]

By CHRIS FRANCESCANI BILL HUTCHINSON

A woman who accuses Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her lashed out at the comedian in a Pennsylvania court on Wednesday in an apparent attempt get him to acknowledge what she claims he allegedly did to her in a Las Vegas hotel room more than 30 years ago.

Chelan Lasha, one of six women scheduled to testify for the prosecution that Cosby drugged and assaulted them, told the court that Cosby allegedly molested her in 1986 when she was just a teenager.

In a dramatic moment that veered from the prosecution’s script, Lasha attempted to address the 80-year-old Cosby directly. Staring at him from the witness stand, she said, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

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PENNSYLVANIA
NPR

Editor’s note: This post contains graphic descriptions that some may find disturbing.

Heidi Thomas — the first of several women expected to take the stand against Bill Cosby in his criminal retrial – described to the court on Tuesday how the comedian lured her to his Nevada ranch in 1984, drugged her and then forced her to perform oral sex.

Thomas’ testimony against the 80-year-old Cosby on charges that he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004 was meant to bolster the prosecution’s case that the defendant has a long history of such assaults. Besides Constand, at least four other women are expected to provide similar testimony.

On the trial’s opening day on Monday, prosecutors revealed that Cosby paid a $3.4 million civil settlement to Constand in 2006.

Thomas, a 24-year-old aspiring actor at the time, said Cosby enticed her to fly to Reno on the pretext of giving her career advice.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Women who say comedian Bill Cosby knocked them out with intoxicants and sexually assaulted them decades ago are finally getting a chance to confront him — and they aren’t holding back.

Janice Baker-Kinney will return to the witness stand on Thursday after punctuating her first two hours of testimony at Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia with a firm declaration: “I was raped.”

One woman testifying on Wednesday pointedly called Cosby a “serial rapist,” while another choked back tears as she asked him, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

The charged rhetoric irritated Cosby’s lawyers, who lost two bids for a mistrial, as prosecutors built a case that the man once revered as “America’s Dad” was one of Hollywood’s biggest predators long before he met Andrea Constand, the chief accuser in his retrial.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Washington Post

By Michael R. Sisak 

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Decades after they say Bill Cosby knocked them out with intoxicants and sexually assaulted them, three of his accusers confronted the 80-year-old comedian in court Wednesday, with one woman pointedly calling him a “serial rapist” and another asking him through her tears, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

The women’s charged rhetoric prompted several mistrial requests from Cosby’s lawyers — which were denied — as prosecutors built their case that Cosby was one of Hollywood’s biggest predators long before he met Andrea Constand, the chief accuser in his sexual assault retrial.

Now well into middle age, the accusers spoke of entering Cosby’s orbit as starstruck young women seeking career help or, in the case of a casino bartender from Reno, Nevada, simply looking for a fun time. All of them testified they wound up unconscious from the pills or alcohol he gave them, unable to say no or resist as he had his way with them.

“I was raped,” declared the former bartender, Janice Baker-Kinney, who was 24 when she says Cosby gave her pills she suspected to be quaaludes and had sex with her in 1982.

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Chelan Lasha was 17 in 1986 when she went to Bill Cosby’s suite at the Las Vegas Hilton, after, she said, he told her he could help with her modeling career.

She wet her hair to pose for modeling shots at Mr. Cosby’s request. Then he offered her what he said was an antihistamine to help her cold, and some almond liqueur. She took both, Ms. Lasha told a courtroom on Wednesday, because “I trusted him.”

Then, she said: “He laid me on the bed; I could not move any more after that. He kept pinching my breast and humping my leg. Waking up, I was naked.”

She said she heard him grunting, and with that, she imitated from the stand the sounds she said Mr. Cosby had made.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press

Wed 11 Apr 2018

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has declared under oath that two former altar boys never told him they had been sexually abused by a fellow priest.

Wilson, who has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, gave evidence in his defence in Newcastle local court after magistrate Robert Stone rejected the clergyman’s bid to have the case thrown out.

The 67-year-old is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

Wilson told the court on Wednesday he had known one of the former altar boys, Peter Creigh, and his family when he was an assistant priest in the NSW Hunter region in the mid-1970s.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

SAM RIGNEY

ADELAIDE Archbishop Philip Wilson says he doesn’t remember a conversation at the heart of his landmark hearing into allegations he concealed sexual assault allegations against another priest and doubts it ever took place because he wouldn’t have forgotten such “graphic” claims.

After his legal team on Wednesday failed for the fourth time to have the case against him thrown out, the Archbishop took the stand in Newcastle Local Court to give evidence for the first time since he became the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

Under questioning from his barrister, Stephen Odgers, SC, Archbishop Wilson unequivocally denied having any memory of a conversation in 1976 with Peter Creigh about Father James Fletcher subjecting Mr Creigh to acts of punishment and sexual abuse five years earlier.

When asked if he was able to say whether such a conversation took place, Archbishop Wilson said he thought it was doubtful.

“I think it is unlikely because the nature of the evidence was so graphic,” he told Magistrate Robert Stone.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic News Agency

Newcastle, Australia, Apr 11, 2018 / 02:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During court proceedings in Australia this week, Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide maintained his innocence, denying allegations that he concealed a serious sexual abuse offense allegedly disclosed to him in the 1970s.

The local court in Newcastle heard Wilson’s defense April 11. The archbishop confirmed under oath that he had no memory of being told of sexual abuses involving two altar boys and a fellow priest in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

“From the time this was first brought to my attention last year, I have completely denied the allegation,” said Wilson in March 2015. He took a leave of absence during the initial charges.

“I would again like to express my deep sorrow for the devastating impact of clerical sex abuse victims and their families, and I give assurance that despite the charge, I will continue to do what I can to protect the children in our care in the Archdiocese of Adelaide,” he continued.

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AUSTRALIA
InDaily

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has revealed he had an “awkward” conversation with a pedophile priest about to face trial in NSW for repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy.

Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sexual abuse, told the Newcastle Local Court today he met James Fletcher in late 2004 in the Hunter region a day after a family told him their son had been abused by the priest.

Wilson, who’d worked in the same parish as Fletcher and lived with him briefly in the 1980s, said he visited the priest’s mother to offer her support given the anguish she was suffering after Fletcher was charged.

The archbishop, now 67, said he been there for about 20 minutes when Fletcher appeared unexpectedly. They then talked for a few minutes.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Giselle Wakatama

The Archbishop of Adelaide has told a court he may have empathised with a victim’s father, who said he “wanted to kill” a paedophile priest.

Archbishop Philip Wilson is accused of covering up the child sexual abuse of Father Jim Fletcher in the New South Wales Hunter Valley in this 1970s.

At Newcastle Local Court today, prosecutors alleged Archbishop Wilson spoke with the father of one of Fletcher’s victims, who said: “If I had a gun, I would kill him.”

The court was told the Archbishop replied: “I wouldn’t blame you.”

That exchange is alleged to have taken place in 2004, a year before Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years in prison for child sexual offences. He died in jail.

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MICHIGAN
NBC 25

by Amanda Chodnicki/Madeline Ciak

BAY CITY, Mich. –The local Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests chapter, or SNAP, will hold its first meeting since the sexual abuse investigation into the Saginaw Diocese next Wednesday, April 18 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Bay City.

The investigation follows the arrest of former priest Bob DeLand, who is facing sex crime charges in relation to three young men.

Survivors, advocates and loved ones of survivors are all welcome to attend.Madeline Ciak\\

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MICHIGAN
Michigan Radio

Father Robert DeLand was the priest entrusted with recruiting and guiding young men thinking of becoming Catholic priests. He was also the pastor of a parish in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw. Now, he stands accused of sexual assault and gross indecency based on the accusations of a 17-year-old high school student and a 21-year-old man.

Local law enforcement says his bishop, Joseph Cistone, and the diocese are not cooperating with the investigation. That led to police raiding the bishop’s home last month, as well as the offices and the cathedral rectory of the Diocese of Saginaw.

This is not the first time a priest sex abuse scandal has been connected with Bishop Joseph Cistone.

He was an auxiliary bishop in Philadelphia when that archdiocese, and its late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, came under immense scrutiny for an apparent effort to cover up sexual abuse committed by its priests. A grand jury report strongly condemned the archdiocese for its handling of sexual predator priests.

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SCOTLAND
Irvine Times

DISGRACED priest was today jailed for nine years for the historic sexual abuse of three young boys and a trainee priest.

Eighty-two-year-old Father Francis Moore was told by judge Rita Rae that he had abused his position as a parish priest.

And one of his victims 49-year-old Paul Smyth urged other victims of historic abuse to come forward.

Moore, who was also known as Father Paul, was found guilty after trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

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KANSAS
Topeka Capital-Journal

By Katie Moore
katie_reports

A man who as a child served as an altar boy at St. Matthew’s Parish in Topeka alleges a priest began sexually abusing him when he was 9 years old.

“Father M.J.,” whose full name wasn’t disclosed in a lawsuit filed in August 2017, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City are listed as defendants in a civil case.

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied Tuesday in Wyandotte County District Court.

The alleged incidents occurred in the mid-1980s.

According to the court petition, the priest invited the boy to spend the night at the Topeka church’s rectory and watch a movie. The priest allegedly fondled the boy, performed oral sex and forcibly performed anal sex on the boy. Similar events occurred on multiple occasions in the rectory and at other locations, the lawsuit claims, with the abuse continuing for about three years.

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VATICAN CITY
First Post

Vatican City: Pope Francis has admitted he made “grave errors” in judgment in Chile’s sex abuse scandal and invited the victims he had discredited to Rome to beg their forgiveness.

In an extraordinary public letter, Francis also summoned all of Chile’s bishops to the Vatican for an emergency meeting in the coming weeks to discuss repairing the damage from the scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation and that of the Chilean church. The Vatican orders up such emergency visits only on rare occasions, such as when American bishops were summoned in 2002 after the clerical sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States (US) and in 2010 when Irish bishops received a comprehensive Vatican dressing down for their botched handling of abuse cases.

Francis blamed a lack of “truthful and balanced information” for his missteps in judging the case of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Reverend Fernando Karadima. He strongly defended the bishop during his January visit to Chile despite accusations by victims that Barros had witnessed and ignored their abuse.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

BY BRETT SAMUELS – 04/11/18

President Trump on Wednesday signed a sex trafficking bill that reduces legal protections for websites that enable sex trafficking.

Joined by lawmakers and victims of sex trafficking, the president praised the legislation and told victims he was signing the bill “in your honor.”

“You have endured what no person on earth should have to endure,” he added.

The legislation, called the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), but also referred to as SESTA after the original Senate bill, cuts into the broad protections websites have from legal liability for content posted by their users.

The bill passed easily in both the House and Senate, but faced some opposition from lawmakers who worried that smaller internet companies would face frivolous lawsuits or lack the resources to police content they shouldn’t be held liable for.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

BY LYNDON HAVILAND, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 04/11/18

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Congress and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), in particular, want to make it easier to go after human traffickers who engage in illegal activities online using the “ruthless efficiency of the internet.” Sen. Portman is rightfully addressing the current crisis of online sex trafficking, and that’s an important move in the right direction. But until we address the root cause, the legislation signed into law Wednesday is simply a small step in protecting women and children.

Sen. Portman’s Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) aims to revoke immunity currently granted to online websites such as Backpage.com where human trafficking allegedly takes place. Backpage.com was seized last week by federal authorizes, but immunity for these sites is protected under the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Congress was urged to amend the CDA when a California court dismissed pimping charges against Backpage.com in a case just last year. Sen. Portman’s bill, now law, seeks to do just that to, in his words, “fix this injustice.”

It’s lunacy that our legal system allows the predators who operate these sites to hide behind this law as a shield from prosecution. We owe it to children to do everything we can to hold these criminals accountable and bring them to justice. And lawmakers were right to support this legislation, so that we can remove these prosecutorial impediments and take human traffickers off the streets.

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

The Pope has said he made “serious mistakes” over a case of alleged child abuse by Catholic clergy in Chile.

In a letter to the South American country’s bishops, Francis said he felt “sadness and shame” over comments earlier this year in which he accused the victims of committing slander.

The letter, released by the Church in Chile, said the Pope would invite some of the victims to Rome.

A Chilean bishop, Juan Barros, is accused of hiding abuses by a priest.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City, Apr 11, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness. The pope summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him as well.

Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”

Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

Please find below CNA’s translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ April 8 letter:

Dear brothers in the episcopate: The reception last week of the final documents which complete the report delivered to me by my two special envoys to Chile on March 20, 2018, with a total of more than 2,300 pages, moves me to write this letter. I assure you of my prayers and I want to share with you the conviction that the present difficulties are also an occasion to re-establish trust in the Church, a trust broken by our errors and sins and in order to heal the wounds that do not cease to bleed in the whole of Chilean society.

Without faith and without prayer, fraternity is impossible. Thus, on this second Sunday of Easter, on the day of mercy, I offer you this reflection with the desire that each one of you accompany me on the inner journey that I have been traveling in recent weeks, so that it would be the Spirit who would guide us with his gift, and not our interests, or even worse, our wounded pride.

Sometimes when so many evils frighten the soul and throw us listlessly into the world buttoned up in our comfortable “winter palaces,” the love of God comes out to meet us and purifies our intentions in order to love as free, mature, and judicious men. When the media shames us, presenting a Church almost always in the darkness of the new moon, deprived of the Sun of justice, we have the temptation of doubting the Paschal victory of the Risen One. I believe that like Saint Thomas the Apostle we must not fear doubt but rather fear the pretension of wanting to see without trusting the testimony of those who heard from the lips of the Lord the most beautiful promise.

Today I want to speak to you not of assurances, but rather of the one thing that the Lord offers us to experience every day: the joy, the peace of forgiveness of our sins and the action of his grace.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

The Diocese of Pittsburgh continues to work for the protection of children and young people and will not tolerate any behavior that puts them at risk. May we all dedicate ourselves to rooting out the evil of sexual abuse from our society.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A deacon with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been arrested and is facing child pornography charges, accused of trying to contact a minor over the internet.

Investigators say the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested 73-year-old Rosendo “Ross” Dacal at his home on Tuesday.

Dacal is facing charges of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.

Bishop David Zubik, of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese, says Dacal has been put on administrative leave and suspended from active ministry following his arrest. He was assigned to All Saints Parish in Etna and was also a chaplin at the Allegheny County Jail since 2011.

“You know, it’s a tragedy, because you have a man who was married, children, grandchildren, an attorney since he’s been a deacon was assigned at the Allegheny County Jail, and has served there in the chalpin’s office,”, Bishop Zubik said. “So, when you take a look at all of that, you say, this is just amazing. It’s such a tragedy because I think it shows what a terrible addiction pornography really is.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

MEGAN GUZA | Wednesday, April 11, 2018

A deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is accused of having inappropriate contact with a police officer posing online as a minor, the diocese said Wednesday.

A North Strabane police officer conducting undercover work for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force charged Deacon Rosendo “Ross” Dacal, 73, with three felony counts, including unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of communications, court records show.

According to a criminal complaint, Officer Gary Scherer was monitoring a chat room in December and posing as a 14-year-old boy. The complaint said a man later identified as Dacal exchanged hundreds of messages with Scherer in the chatroom and via other social media between Dec. 20 and Monday.

“Many of these messages were sexually explicit and graphic in nature,” including ones in which Dacal solicited naked photographs, Scherer wrote in the complaint.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

APR 11, 2018

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has suspended a deacon after he was arrested Tuesday on charges including unlawful contact with a minor after he allegedly sent and solicited obscene images from an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy.

Rosendo F. Dacal, 73, of McCandless, was arraigned late Tuesday, according to Magisterial District Court records in Washington County, where the police investigator is based.

Mr. Dacal was immediately suspended from his positions as a chaplain at the Allegheny County Jail and on staff at All Saints Catholic Parish in Etna, according to Bishop David Zubik. The jail, where he worked as a contractor, has revoked his security clearance, said spokeswoman Amie Downs.

“The charges against Deacon Dacal are disturbing,” Bishop Zubik said in a statement. “I have pledged to civil authorities the full cooperation of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in their investigation. We had no previous knowledge of his alleged activities.”

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison ggarrison@al.com

Acton Bowen horizontal.PNGActon Bowen, founder of Acton Bowen Outreach, spoke at AtlantaFest, an event organized by Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association in 2014.Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

Evangelist Scott Dawson, a Republican candidate for governor, said that he did not know he was listed on the board of advisers for an Etowah County evangelist who was arrested for child sexual abuse.

Dawson said he knows Acton Bowen, and used him as a speaker in 2014 at one of his evangelistic events, AtlantaFest.

“I never noticed anything that caused concern – but I was not on his board,” Dawson said in a text message to AL.com.

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will hold a hearing next week into how the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and other sports organizations handled sexual misconduct allegations.

A Senate Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on April 18, with a number of athletes expected to testify.

Several U.S. sports organizations have been criticized for not acting on complaints of abuse by former sports physician Larry Nassar and others.

“As part of the subcommittee’s ongoing investigation, we have invited athletes representing multiple sports to testify at our first hearing,” said Republican Senator Jerry Moran, who chairs the panel that will hold the hearing. “We appreciate the willingness of these athletes – who share in our determination to root out abuse in youth sport governing bodies – to share their stories.”

In recent months, several congressional committees have asked the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and 48 national governing bodies of various sports and Michigan State University for answers to questions about sexual abuse within organized sports.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

Elise Harris/CNA/EWTN News

VATICAN CITY — In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness.

The Holy Father summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him, as well.

Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”

Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information.”

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CHILE/VATICAN CITY
Reuters

SANTIAGO/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis acknowledged on Wednesday that he had made “serious mistakes in judgment and perception” of the sexual abuse crisis in Chile, and would meet with victims and bishops in an attempt to heal wounds the scandal caused to the Catholic Church.

“I apologize to all those I have offended and I hope to be able to do it personally in the coming weeks, in the meetings I will have” with victims, he said in a letter to Chilean bishops that followed a visit to Chile by the Vatican’s top sexual abuse investigator.

Chile has been shaken by the case of Bishop Juan Barros, appointed by the pope in 2015 despite accusations that Barros had covered up sexual abuse of minors by his mentor Father Fernando Karadima.

Francis, who visited Chile in January, at first strongly defended Barros, saying he was the target of slander. Then the pope dispatched Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s top sexual crimes investigator, to Chile and New York to interview victims.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee

ROME — Pope Francis has admitted making “serious mistakes” in his handling of clergy sexual abuse cases in Chile, telling the country’s bishops in a lengthy letter that he feels “pain and shame” for the “crucified lives” of those who suffered abuse.

Check out our newest column, The Gospel of Sports.

But Francis has not revealed whether he will sack a Chilean prelate accused of covering up abuse, whom he has previously defended to the outrage of abuse survivors. Instead, Francis has asked the country’s bishops to come to Rome en masse for a meeting at some point soon.

In a letter released late April 11, Francis is reporting to the bishops about the mission of Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, whom the pope sent to Chile in February to interview abuse victims and look into the case of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid.

“I have made serious mistakes in the assessment and my perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of truthful and balanced information,” Francis says in the letter.

Revealing that Scicluna’s team took 64 testimonies from sexual abuse victims during its visit, the pope says the testimonies speak together “of many crucified lives, and I confess that it causes me pain and shame.”

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CHILE
RBN

[Pope apologizes but keeps Barros in his post.]

Esta tarde se conoció la carta enviada por el Papa Francisco a la conferencia episcopal de Chile, pero dejó un sabor amargo para quienes piden la salida de los obispos ligados a Fernando Karadima.

64 testimonios recibió Schicluna en sus reuniones tanto en Nueva York como en Santiago.

Schicluna aseguró que fueron varios asistentes quienes llegaron con madurez, respeto y amabilidad.

Francisco siente verguenza y dolor por quienes fueron “crucificados” en los abusos.

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CHILE
Radio UChile

[Pope Francis invites Hamilton, Murillo and Cruz to the Vatican as an act of redress.]

Las tres víctimas de Fernando Karadima habrían recibido la invitación papal luego que Francisco I revisara el informe elaborado por el arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, enviado a Chile examinar las denuncias contra el obispo Juan Barros.

En un acto de desagravio, el Papa Francisco invitó al Vaticano a las tres víctimas de Fernando Karadima, James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo, en el marco de una reunión “fraternal (…) y con el solo objetivo de hacer resplandecer la verdad en nuestras vidas” , según expresa en la carta que dio a conocer hoy en Conferencia de Prensa el Presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, Monseñor Santiago Silva.

El Sumo Pontífice expresó en la misiva su impacto por las revelaciones contenidas en el informe elaborado por monseñor Charles Scicluna. El arzobispo de Malta visitó nuestro país mandatado a redactar un documento dando cuenta de la situación de los abusos sexuales de la iglesia católica en nuestro país, específicamente en el caso del sacerdote de El Bosque y del presunto encubrimiento del hoy obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros.

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CHILE
BioBio

[Lay opponents of Barros about the letter of Pope Francis: “It’s more than we expected”.]

Publicado por: Manuel Stuardo

El vocero de los Laicos de Osorno, Mario Vargas, señaló a Radio Bío Bío que la carta enviada por el papa Francisco a los obispos chilenos tras recibir los informes de la investigación del arzobispo Charles Scicluna, es más de lo que esperaban, por lo que se encuentran contentos y agradecidos.

Esto luego que el sacerdote Fernando Ramos, secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, diera a conocer la misiva en la que el líder de la Iglesia Católica convoca a los obispos a Roma, para analizar los resultados de las indagatorias por casos de abusos cometidos en nuestro país, y los encubrimientos de estos.

En este sentido, Vargas señaló que ha sido importante el escenario que ellos como movimiento han instalado, luego de las denuncias en contra del obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros Madrid, acusado de encubrir los abusos de Fernando Karadima.

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CHILE
Conferencia Episcopal de Chile

[After hearing the report of Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Pontiff summoned the bishops to Rome to discuss their conclusions. He acknowledged that he has “made serious mistakes in the assessment and perception of the situation, especially due to a lack of accurate and balanced information.” He asked forgiveness of the offended and he will do it personally with representatives of the people interviewed by Bishop Scicluna and his collaborator Fr. Bertomeu.]

Tras conocer el informe de Mons. Charles Scicluna, el Pontífice convocó a los obispos a Roma para dialogar sobre sus conclusiones. Reconoció que él ha incurrido “en graves equivocaciones de valoración y percepción de la situación especialmente por falta de información veraz y equilibrada”. Pidió perdón a los ofendidos y lo hará personalmente con representantes de las personas entrevistadas por Mons. Scicluna y su colaborador el P. Bertomeu.
Miercoles 11 de Abril del 2018

A través de una carta dirigida a los Obispos de la Conferencia Episcopal del Chile, el Papa Francisco da cuenta de su honda impresión tras haber recibido el informe realizado por Mons. Charles Scicluna , arzobispo de Malta, Presidente del Colegio para el examen de los recursos (en materia de delitos más graves) en la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, y Mons. Jordi Bertomeu, oficial de dicha Congregación, luego del proceso de escucha realizado en Nueva York y en Santiago durante el mes de febrero.

En este documento el Pontífice señala que, luego de una lectura pausada de las actas de este proceso de escucha, “creo poder afirmar que todos los testimonios recogidos en ellas hablan de un modo descarnado, sin aditivos ni edulcorantes, de muchas vidas crucificadas y les confieso que ello me causa dolor y vergüenza”.

En la misiva, el Santo Padre se dirige al plenario de obispos de la CECh para invitarlos a trabajar juntos, en restablecer la confianza en la Iglesia chilena: “escribo a ustedes, reunidos en la 115ª asamblea plenaria, para solicitar humildemente vuestra colaboración y asistencia en las medidas que a corto, medio y largo plazo deberán ser adoptadas para restablecer la comunión eclesial en Chile, con el objetivo de reparar en lo posible el escándalo y restablecer la justicia”. Para estos fines, el Papa ha convocado a los Obispos chilenos a Roma, para “dialogar sobre las conclusiones de la mencionada visita y mis conclusiones”.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[Chilean church admits that “we have not done enough” in the case of Barros.]

Autor: Claudia Soto

El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal, el obispo Santiago Silva, se refirió a la carta en la que el Papa Francisco pidió perdón a quienes “ofendió” por sus dichos de apoyo a Juan Barros, quien es acusado de encubrimiento de los abusos sexuales cometidos por el ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima.

El Pontífice reconoce en la misiva, no haber contado con información veraz, y asegura que cometió “graves equivocaciones de valoración” en torno al caso del obispo de Osorno.

Tras esto, Silva manifestó que tal como Francisco, “sentimos dolor por los abusos de menores y la manipulación de conciencias”.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

Inés San Martín
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT

Pope Francis acknowledged that he has made “serious errors of assessment and perception” in the case of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, who has been accused of covering up for a pedophile priest and whom the pontiff has repeatedly defended.

“I recognize and I want you to communicate this accurately, that I have made serious errors of judgement and perception of the situation, especially due to lack of truthful and balanced information,” Francis wrote in a letter to the Chilean bishops.

In the following weeks, Francis will meet with some victims of clerical sexual abuse from Chile, who will travel to Rome and individually ask for forgiveness, according to the spokesman for the Chilean bishops’ conference.

Ahead of those meetings, announced by spokesman Jaime Coiro via Twitter as the letter was being read out in Chile, Francis said that “from this moment, I apologize to all those whom I offended and I hope to be able to do it personally, in the coming weeks, in the meetings that I will have with representatives of the people interviewed.”

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CHILE
La Tercera

[Pope Francis announces that he will meet with victims interviewed by the Scicluna mission in
Chile.]

Autor: Sebastián Rivas

En uno de los párrafos de su carta a los obispos, aseñaló que tendrá encuentros “en las próximas semanas” con representantes de quienes dieron su testimonio. De acuerdo a versiones de prensa, el listado podría incluir a quienes denunciaron abusos de Fernando Karadima.

“Ya desde ahora pido perdón a todos aquellos a los que ofendí y espero poder hacerlo también personalmente, en las próximas semanas, en las reuniones que tendré con representantes de las personas entrevistadas”.

Con esa frase de su carta relacionada con el informe entregado por el arzobispo de Malta, Charles J. Scicluna, sobre el caso del obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, el Papa Francisco hizo un anuncio especial: recibirá a parte de las víctimas chilenas que entregaron su testimonio a la misión encabezada por el sacerdote.

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CHILE
Bishop Accountability.org

[Ver también el banco de datos en español.]

BishopAccountability.org has examined news and court archives and identified nearly 80 clergy in Chile publicly accused of sexually abusing minors.

The database reveals the distinctive aspects of the Catholic abuse crisis in Chile, and the degree to which much remains hidden. Most of the cases detailed below involve abuse that has occurred since 2000 and was reported to law enforcement quickly — within just a few years of occurrence. We know from Catholic abuse data published elsewhere that such cases comprise a small fraction of the total scope of the problem.

It is worth noting that the factors that have caused significant disclosure elsewhere of secret church files and abusive priests’ names – widespread litigation by victims, investigations of church entities by prosecutors, and inquiries by government commissions – have not so far occurred in Chile.

This list, then, is a fraction of the total number of accused clerics who would be known if Chile’s church leaders were required to report to law enforcement, if its legal system allowed victims more time to bring criminal and civil charges, or if dioceses and religious orders were investigated by prosecutors or state commissions. In Australia, which has half as many Catholics as Chile and a comparable number of active priests and brothers (around 5,000), a recently concluded government inquiry counted child sex abuse allegations against more than 1,100 male clergy.

The lack of external pressure allows Catholic church leaders in Chile to act with impunity. They openly reinstate, for instance, priests who have faced multiple allegations of abuse. Chile’s senior churchman, Santiago archbishop Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, announced in December 2016 that Cristián Precht Bañados had fulfilled his canonical sentence of five years’ suspension from ministry. A church investigation had uncovered 20 victims of Precht, ranging from age 15 to 35. Yet Precht is now allowed again to say Mass publicly, Ezzati said; he has regained “his fundamental exercise of the rights he has as a presbyter.”

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Vatican Information Service

A los Señores Obispos de Chile.

Queridos hermanos en el episcopado:

La recepción durante la semana pasada de los últimos documentos que completan el informe que me entregaron mis dos enviados especiales a Chile el 20 de marzo de 2018, con un total de más de 2.300 folios, me mueve a escribirles esta carta. Les aseguro mi oración y quiero compartir con Ustedes la convicción de que las dificultades presentes son también una ocasión para restablecer la confianza en la Iglesia, confianza rota por nuestros errores y pecados y para sanar unas heridas que no dejan de sangrar en el conjunto de la sociedad chilena.

Sin la fe y sin la oración, la fraternidad es imposible. Por ello, en este 2º domingo de Pascua, en el día de la misericordia, les ofrezco esta reflexión con el deseo de que cada uno de Ustedes me acompañe en el itinerario interior que estoy recorriendo en las últimas semanas, a fin de que sea el Espíritu quien nos guíe con su don y no nuestros intereses o, peor aún, nuestro orgullo herido.

A veces cuando tales males nos arrugan el alma y nos arrojan al mundo flojos, asustados y abroquelados en nuestros cómodos “palacios de invierno”, el amor de Dios sale a nuestro encuentro y purifica nuestras intenciones para amar como hombres libres, maduros y críticos. Cuando los medios de comunicación nos avergüenzan presentando una Iglesia casi siempre en novilunio, privada de la luz del Sol de justicia (S. Ambrosio, Hexameron IV, 8, 32) y tenemos la tentación de dudar de la victoria pascual del Resucitado, creo que como Santo Tomás no debemos temer la duda (Jn 20, 25), sino temer la pretensión de querer ver sin fiarnos del testimonio de aquellos que escucharon de los labios del Señor la promesa más hermosa (Mt 28, 20).

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CHILE
Infobae

[Pope Francis apologized for underestimating the sexual abuse scandal in Chile and invited the victims to the Vatican]

El papa Francisco reconoció este miércoles “graves equivocaciones de valoración” sobre el caso de presunto encubrimiento de abusos sexuales del que acusan al obispo chileno, Juan Barros, al que defendió, y convocó al clero de ese país para analizar la situación.

“En lo que me toca, reconozco y así quiero que lo transmitan fielmente, que he incurrido en graves equivocaciones de valoración y percepción de la situación, especialmente por falta de información veraz y equilibrada”, señaló en una carta a los obispos chilenos.

“Ya desde ahora pido perdón a todos aquellos a los que ofendí y espero poder hacerlo personalmente, en las próximas semanas, en las reuniones que tendré con representantes de las personas entrevistadas”, agregó el documento.

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CHILE
Publimetro

[Pope acknowledges errors in Barros case and summons Chilean bishops to Rome: “I have incurred serious errors of assessment and perception”]

Por Felipe Betancour

Esta tarde se dio a conocer una carta que envió el Papa Francisco al episcopado tras recibir los informes de la investigación sobre el caso Barros, indagaciones que llevó a cabo el Monseñor Charles Scicluna tanto en Nueva York como en Santiago.

En la misiva, leída por el Monseñor Fernando Ramos, el Papa asume que “equivoco” las valoraciones sobre las denuncias y la situación del Obispo Barros. Durante su paso por Chile, Francisco desestimó las acusaciones al sacerdote al decir que “no hay ninguna prueba en contra del él (Barros), sólo hay calumnias”.

“En lo que me toca, reconozco y así quiero que lo transmitan fielmente, que he incurrido en graves equivocaciones de valoración y percepción de la situación, especialmente por falta de información veraz y equilibrada”, dice Francisco en el texto enviado a los obispos chilenos, en el que además pide perdón a aquellos que se sintieron afectados. “Desde ya pido perdón a todos aquellos a los que ofendí y espero poder hacerlo personalmente, en las próximas semanas, en las reuniones que tendré con representantes de las personas entrevistadas”.

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CHILE
La Teercera

[Pope Francis asks for forgiveness and acknowledges having committed “serious misjudgments” in the case of Barros. The Pontiff sent a letter to the Chilean bishops in which he summoned them to Rome to discuss the conclusions that Archbishop Charles Scicluna drew during his stay in Chile and after meeting with different parts of the Church and with victims of Karadima.]

Autor: Claudia Soto

El Pontífice envió una carta a los obispos chilenos en la que los convoca a Roma para dialogar sobre las conclusiones que monseñor Charles Scicluna sacó durante su paso por Chile y tras entrevistarse con distintas partes de la Iglesia y con víctimas de Karadima.

Esta tarde la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile dio a conocer la carta que envió el Papa Francisco a los obispos chilenos, luego de que recibiera el informe elaborado por monseñor Charles Scicluna en su paso por Chile, para indagar en las acusaciones contra el obispo Juan Barros.

En la misiva – que fue dada a conocer por los monseñores Santiago Silva y Fernando Ramos- el Pontífice admite haber cometido errores en el marco del obispo de Osorno, que es acusado de haber encubierto los abusos sexuales de Fernando Karadima.

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ILLINOIS
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Chicago News Conference Thursday

Sexual Abuse Survivor Sues Augustinian Order
For Maintaining Hazardous Public Nuisance

Lawsuit Implicates Prominent Augustinian Fr. Richard J. McGrath,
High-Ranking Official and Principal at Providence Catholic High School,
for Sexual Abuse and Possession & Destruction of Child Pornography

Sexual Abuse Survivor to Appear Publicly to Call on the Augustinians to
Come Clean and Release its List of Accused Offenders

What: At a news conference on Thursday in Chicago, a sexual abuse survivor and his attorneys Jeff Anderson and Marc Pearlman will:

• Speak publicly for the first time about sexual abuse by prominent Augustinian priest Fr. Richard J. McGrath, O.S.A. while Plaintiff was a student at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, Illinois;
• Announce the filing of a lawsuit alleging a serious ongoing hazard created by the Augustinians by keeping secret from the public the names and histories of all accused offenders;
• Disclose the identities of Augustinian priests and brothers accused publicly accused of child sexual abuse and demand a full disclosure of the identities and histories kept secret.

WHEN: Thursday, April 12, 2018, at 1:00PM CST

WHERE: Marriott Residence Inn Chicago – Downtown/Loop
Madison Room
11 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60603

NOTES: Watch the event live on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AndersonAdvocates/ and our website www.andersonadvocates.com

Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.964.3473 Mobile/612.817.8665
Contact Marc Pearlman: Office/312.261.4550 Mobile/773.368.0142

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD and EVA VERGARA

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Chile’s Catholic Church is bracing for revelations from a letter from Pope Francis to the country’s bishops following a scandal over his strong defense of a bishop accused of witnessing and ignoring sex abuse by Chile’s most notorious predator priest.

Jaime Coiro, spokesman for the Chilean bishops’ conference, said the letter would be released later Wednesday in both Chile and at the Vatican. In a tweet, Coiro said the pope wrote it after receiving a report by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s longtime sex abuse prosecutor.

Francis sent Scicluna to investigate allegations of sex abuse cover-up by Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of the Rev. Fernando Karadima.

Karadima was a charismatic preacher who was removed from ministry by the Vatican for sexually abusing minors and sentenced in 2011 to a lifetime of penance and prayer. Karadima had long been a darling of the Catholic hierarchy, and his victims have accused church leaders of covering up his crimes to protect the church’s reputation.

Scicluna and his colleague, the Rev. Jordi Bertomeu, spent nearly two weeks in Chile and New York earlier this year interviewing Karadima’s victims, who for years have denounced Barros’ silence and were stunned by Francis’ strong defense of him during his January visit to Chile.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
Diario de Yucatan

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (AP) — La Iglesia católica chilena se está preparando para las revelaciones de una carta del papa Francisco a los obispos, tras el escándalo provocado por su enérgica defensa de un obispo acusado de presenciar y pasar por alto los abusos sexuales cometidos por el cura depredador más conocido de Chile.

El vocero de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, Jaime Coiro, dijo el miércoles que se difundirá la carta en las próximas horas en Chile y el Vaticano. En un tuit, Coiro indicó que el papa escribió la misiva después de recibir un informe del arzobispo Charles Scicluna.

Francisco envió a Scicluna a investigar las denuncias de que el obispo Juan Barros había encubierto al reverendo Fernando Karadima. Este predicador carismático fue expulsado del sacerdocio por abuso sexual de menores y sentenciado en 2011 a una vida de penitencia y oración. Karadima había sido un favorito de la jerarquía católica y sus víctimas han acusado a varios jerarcas de encubrirlo para proteger la reputación de la Iglesia.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

[The Bishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna , special envoy of the pope to hear complaints of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Chile, delivered last March a full report to Pope Francis on the Chilean Catholic reality within which he suggested accepting the resignation presented by the questioned Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros.]

El obispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, enviado especial del papa para conocer las denuncias por abusos sexuales dentro de la Iglesia Católica en Chile, entregó en marzo pasado un informe completo al papa Francisco sobre la realidad católica chilena dentro del cual sugirió aceptar la renuncia presentada por el cuestionado obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros.

Según consignó La Tercera, Barros presentó por tercera vez su dimisión al pontífice, ya que las dos anteriores fueron rechazadas, pero en esta oportunidad Scicluna recomienda aceptar esta solicitud.

Para Juan Carlos Claret, vocero de los laicos de Osorno, esta sugerencia vuelve a dejar la decisión en manos del papa Francisco.

“Para nosotros vuelve a poner el centro de la responsabilidad en el papa Francisco quien ahora más que nunca tendría por tanto un deber de responder y mirar a los ojos si va a aceptar esa renuncia o no, recordemos que el mismo papa reconoció públicamente que Juan Barros le había presentado la renuncia en dos ocasiones, pero que él las descartó”, dijo Claret.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

El papa Francisco envió a los obispos chilenos una carta con sus conclusiones tras la conocer el informe del obispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, enviado especial del pontífice para indagar las acusaciones en contra del obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros.

Hoy a las 15:00 hrs. en Punta de Tralca se dará a conocer carta del papa Francisco @Pontifex_es dirigida a los obispos chilenos tras recibir el informe de Mons. Charles Scicluna @BishopScicluna.

Scicluna estuvo en Santiago en febrero pasado reuniendo antecedentes y tomando testimonios respecto de las acusaciones contra el jefe de la Diócesis de Osorno de encubrir los abusos sexuales del ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima.

Previo a su arribo a Chile, se había reunido en Estados Unidos con Juan Carlos Cruz, quien le entregó su testimonio sobre Barros.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

BY JOE LAWLOR
STAFF WRITER

The Maine House voted Tuesday to rescue a $2.2 million child abuse prevention program in an attempt to overturn efforts by the LePage administration to terminate it.

The bill to save the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children has attracted bipartisan support, with Democratic lawmakers joined by Republican Senate Majority Leader Michael Thibodeau and Republican Sen. Amy Volk of Scarborough. The measure was approved on a voice vote and will now go to the Senate.

The state is considering reforms in its child abuse protection system after a public outcry following the recent deaths of 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy of Stockton Springs and 4-year-old Kendall Chick of Wiscasset. The parents or caregivers of both children have been charged with depraved indifference murder in their deaths.

Maine Department of Health and Human Services officials announced in February that the child abuse prevention program would end in September. The bill would extend funding through Jan. 31 to give the incoming administration time to evaluate the program. Gov. Paul LePage is finishing his final term, and a new governor will take over in January. Democratic, Republican and independent candidates will vie in November to succeed LePage.

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MAINE
WABI

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The Maine House has voted to save a child abuse prevention program that the governor planned to eliminate.

The Portland Press Herald reports the bill to save the $2.2 million Community Partnerships for Protecting Children program passed Tuesday with bipartisan support. The bill will continue funding through Jan. 31 after the new governor takes over.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s office had planned to end the program in September, saying the state’s existing child abuse and neglect councils provide similar services. The governor had experienced abuse as a child.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A man who was sexually abused by Catholic priest Paul Moore when he was just five years old has said the ordeal “poisoned my life”.

Andi Lavery, who was Moore’s youngest victim, has given BBC Scotland permission to publish a picture of him which was taken in May 1977.

He said: “I was assaulted that day. Moore was present when the picture was taken.”

Mr Lavery said the impact of the attacks was incalculable.

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ALABAMA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

HOOVER, Ala.
An Alabama evangelist, public speaker and author was arrested Tuesday, accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Paul Edward Acton Bowen, 37, of Southside, was booked on charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and enticing a child for immoral purposes, according to Jefferson County Jail records. He was released early Wednesday morning on $90,300 bail.

AL.com reported that an investigation into Bowen by the Hoover Police Department began about three weeks ago. An arrest warrant was issued on Monday.

The victim in the case is a family acquaintance between the ages of 13 and 15.

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UNITED STATES
New York Daily News

CARRON J. PHILLIPS

Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar were just the beginning.

Because the discussion surrounding the sexual assault and abuse that takes place in sports is nowhere near a conclusion.

On Tuesday, a report by the North Jersey Media Group detailed how Bergen Catholic School officials worked together to cover up a sexual abuse scandal inside the wrestling program at the all-boys school.

And according to reports, the abuse included coaches watching student-athletes as they stripped naked, the sharing of pornographic images, and inappropriate texts from coaches sent to athletes.

According to the 29-page, 12-count lawsuit, the school and Newark Archdioceses worked together to protect the coaches and not the students.

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VIRGINIA
Loudoun Times

By Veronike Collazo, vcollazo@loudountimes.com

Rev. Michael R. Duesterhaus, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington who previously served at churches in Loudoun County, was placed on administrative leave in March pending investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Duesterhaus is on leave from his assignment as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Winchester.

The alleged incidents occurred between 2001 and 2004, and Duesterhaus denies the accusation, according to a statement by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington.

The Diocese is fully cooperating with law enforcement and will continue to do so.

According to the statement, Duesterhaus — like all priests, diocesan employees and volunteers who work with children in the Diocese of Arlington — underwent criminal background checks during his service.

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ILLINOIS
Washington Post

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Prominent pastor Bill Hybels announced Tuesday he is stepping down from his Chicago-area megachurch Willow Creek, just weeks after the Chicago Tribune published allegations of misconduct from several women. Hybels, who with his wife co-founded one of the nation’s largest churches in 1975, was a spiritual adviser to President Bill Clinton around the time of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

He told the church publicly last year that he was planning to step down in October, but he resigned Tuesday, saying he would be a distraction to the church’s ministry. Some members of his congregation shouted “No!” and gave him a standing ovation following his address.

In March, the Chicago Tribune published allegations that he made suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss and invitations to a staff member to hotel rooms. The newspaper also reported allegations of a consensual affair with a married woman, and the woman who said she had an affair later retracted her allegations. Hybels has denied all the allegations and said on Tuesday again that the church’s investigations found no evidence of misconduct. However, he told his congregation he felt attacked and wished he had responded differently.

“I apologize to you, my church, for a response that was defensive instead of one that invited conversation and learning,” he said.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeff Coen
Chicago Tribune

Forty-two years after founding one of the nation’s most influential evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Bill Hybels told his congregation Tuesday night that he would step down from the helm of Willow Creek Community Church six months ahead of schedule.

His departure comes less than a month after a Chicago Tribune investigation disclosed that Hybels had been the subject of inquiries by church leaders into claims that he ran afoul of church teachings by engaging in inappropriate behavior with women in his congregation — including employees — allegedly spanning decades. The inquiries had cleared Hybels.

At times choking back tears, Hybels told the somber crowd at a hastily called meeting at the church’s main campus in South Barrington that, while he continued to enjoy support from within his congregation, the controversy was proving to be a distraction from the church’s mission and work.

Referring to his wife, he said, “It has been extremely painful for Lynne and I to see this controversy continue to be a distraction.”

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