ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
National Review

February 6, 2018

By Michael Brendan Dougherty

What are we to make of news that Pope Francis was confronted with — and did not address — evidence of sex abuse in the Chilean Church?

Well, it’s now happened. The great scandal of the modern Catholic Church — its tolerance for clergy who abuse children, and its laxity when dealing with bishops who themselves tolerated or enabled priest-abusers — now touches directly on the pope himself.

It’s worth laying out the timeline clearly. In 2015, Pope Francis appointed Juan Barros Madrid to the bishopric of Osorno, Chile. The appointment was met with local protests, among Catholics and non-Catholics who believed that Barros was implicated in the crimes of child sexual abuse committed by his friend Father Fernando Karadima, a prominent Chilean churchman who habitually kissed and fondled boys. In the days after the installation of Barros at Osono, Pope Francis told an archbishop that there was “no objective reason at all” to oppose the appointment. The Vatican’s own department governing these matters, the Congregation for Bishops, released a statement saying they had “carefully examined the prelate’s candidature and did not find objective reasons to preclude the appointment.”

In the months following the appointment, Pope Francis became extremely dismissive of complaints. “Osorno suffers, yes, for silliness,” the pope said of the outrage in the media. “Think with your head, and do not be carried away by the noses of the leftists, who are the ones who put this thing together,” he added.

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STAUNTON (VA)
News Leader

February 6, 2018

By Laura Peters

STAUNTON — William L. Kerr is facing years in prison after he pleaded guilty to seven charges involving possession of child pornography and aggravated sexual battery.

Kerr, 75, appeared in Staunton Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon.

The Staunton man pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and six counts of aggravated sexual battery. He faces up to 125 years in prison.

Nearly 45 other charges, including forcible sodomy, possession of child pornography and aggravated sexual battery, were not prosecuted.

According to evidence presented by Anne Reed, the chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney for Staunton, between 1990 and 2004, Kerr invited several young girls ranging in ages 7 to 11 back to his Staunton home.

“Kerr would frequently invite children over to his house,” Reed said. “The defendant would get the girls alone.”

But, to these children, he served as an authority figure and their Sunday school teacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish in Staunton. During Reed’s stipulation, she said many of the girls were fearful to come forward and tell someone about the abuse.

Reed said the abused children, now adults, attended St. Francis with their families.

“The defendant was trusted by her parents, who worked in the church,” Reed said of one of the victims. “At the age of 9 years old, the defendant started to sexually abuse her while she was at his residence.

“She was afraid to say anything that was happening to her out of fear of hurting the defendant’s wife, whom she cared for very much as well as concern of upsetting her parents,” Reed continued. “It was not until several years later that she was able to disclose what had happened and seek counseling.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
BBC

February 6, 2018

By Owen Amos

John Wojnowski was abused by a priest during a Latin lesson 60 years ago. He has spent the past two decades protesting outside the Vatican Embassy in Washington DC. What keeps him going?

The most surprising thing about this protester is – he doesn’t want to protest.

He doesn’t want to spend eight hours a day on public transport, waiting for buses and trains, getting to and from Embassy Row in Washington DC.

He doesn’t want to hold his sign in the cold, and the dark, and the snow, and the rain.

He doesn’t want his face to freeze, his knees to ache, his fingers to turn numb.

He was 54 when the protest started; he turns 75 in April. He has spent almost a third of his life here, on his own, holding a sign outside the Vatican Embassy.

“Of course I want to stop,” he says. “But they made it personal.”

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MALAWI (SOUTH AFRICA)
Ama Bhungane

February 7, 2018

By Michael O’Farrell and Collins Mtika

The Catholic Church’s St John of God order moved an Irish school principal accused of child abuse to Malawi, where he continued working with vulnerable children for almost 20 years, an investigation by the Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi (CIJM) and Irish newspaper the Mail on Sunday has revealed.

The investigation also suggests that amid mounting allegations in Ireland, the order covered up Brother Aidan Clohessy’s continued involvement with children in Malawi, where he worked between 1993 and 2012.

The first serious allegation of child abuse was levelled against Clohessy in 1985, while he was the principal of St Augustine’s, a school for special needs boys in Dublin.

By the time the order withdrew him from public ministry in Malawi in 2012 and returned to Ireland, 14 allegations of abuse had been made against him relating to his tenure at St Augustine’s.

The Mail on Sunday reported that while he was in Malawi, a number of his alleged Irish victims received compensation under the “no-fault” compensation scheme run by the Redress Board set up by the Irish government.

More than a week ago, the newspaper reported that two new allegations of child abuse against Clohessy had been referred for investigation to gardaí (Irish police) and child and family agency Tusla.

Despite this, the 10-month media investigation heard that the brother, who was in charge of all the order’s operations in Malawi, continued to be involved with children during his years there.

The CIJM heard no allegations of direct physical abuse against him in Malawi. However, he is alleged to have converted a garage at his home where boys collected from the streets were housed.

It is also alleged that he required the boys to shower while he supervised them.

In an interview, Clohessy denied all the allegations and said he had not taken street children to his home or supervised them while they were showering.

Harrison Chilale, the order’s clinical director in Malawi, said “there was not even a single rumour (of abuse)”.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

February 6, 2018

By Ruth Brown

Catholic officials in Boise said Tuesday that they had never received complaints of sexual misconduct by the Rev. W. Thomas Faucher prior to his arrest Friday on child pornography and drug charges.

In a midafternoon news release from the Diocese of Boise, Bishop Peter F. Christensen said the allegations against Faucher, if true, “are a betrayal of the trust we place in all ministers.”

Prosecutors say hundreds of images of child pornography and drugs such as marijuana, ecstasy and LSD were found in the retired priest’s home. Some of the images allegedly involved infants and toddlers. And Faucher, 72, allegedly wrote in an online chatroom that he “desires to rape and kill children,” Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Cathy Guzman said during a probable cause hearing Monday.

Faucher, (pronounced foh-SHAY), is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two counts of distributing sexually exploitative material involving children and two counts of drug possession. All of the charges, except one of the drug counts, are felonies. If convicted, he faces a lifetime in prison.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
La Croix International

February 7, 2018

While some of the victims were outraged at having to wait over a decade for some sort of closure others applauded the grand jury’s indictment

A Catholic former priest who faces allegations of sexual abuse dating back to Papua New Guinea in the 1980s is now being prosecuted in the small mid-Atlantic US state of Delaware for molesting a teenage girl over 14 years ago.

The case is being heralded as a landmark because it represents the first lawsuit against a priest in the diocese since church authorities revealed in 2006 that allegations of abuse and molestation against minors had surfaced against a handful of clergy.

While some of the victims were outraged at having to wait over a decade for some sort of closure others applauded the grand jury’s indictment of John A. Sarro on Jan. 29.

He was charged with first-degree sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact for fondling and engaging a young teenage girl in oral sex on several occasions from 1992-1994, The Associated Press reported.

The statute of limitations does not apply in this case as Delaware’s criminal code of conduct makes exceptions for particular sexual crimes, The Western Journal said.

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington in Delaware reported a list of complaints against living and deceased priests in 2006 but none have been prosecuted until now.

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MARTINSBURG (WV)
The Journal

February 7, 2018

By Kelsie LeRose

MARTINSBURG — On Tuesday, Chris Jensen, a defendant in the lawsuit alleging The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints covered up allegations that Michael Jensen sexually abused several children over a period of more than five years, continued to dispute the timeline of when he learned of the abuse.

The church contests allegations that leaders in the Martinsburg Stake were aware of Jensen’s crimes for as long as five years and did not report the suspected abuse to police.

Entering week four of the trial, the jury continued to hear the testimony of Chris Jensen, the father of Michael Jensen. Michael Jensen is currently serving 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two minors at the ages of 4 and 3.

Chris Jensen maintained that no one told him about the allegations that convicted Michael until the August 2012 hearing when his son was charged with child abuse.

For a majority of the time that the abuse occurred, Chris Jensen was often deployed with the military, having served for 30 years in the Army.

One large focus of Tuesday morning’s testimony involved a 2010 incident when Michael Jensen allegedly assaulted a family member, after which his father kicked him out of the house. He was 18 at the time.

Sandra Lee Jensen, Michael Jensen’s mother, testified earlier in the case that the incident was not the only reason they had kicked him out. She said it was the “accumulation” of his behavior and a “line was crossed.”

Chris Jensen said Tuesday that they kicked their son out due to years of “all kinds of stuff” and this incident was “the last straw, so to speak.”

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COLUMBIA (SC)
The Daily Caller

February 6, 2018

By Joshua Gill

A Baptist church in South Carolina settled a child sexual abuse lawsuit, agreeing to issue an apology, admit liability, and to pay $300,000 to the plaintiff.

Bryan Barnes, spokesman for First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C., said that church leadership issued the apology and explained the terms of the settlement before the congregation on Sunday, according to the Baptist Press. The case involved a boy identified only as “Joel Doe” who alleged that Andrew McCraw, a volunteer in the church’s youth ministry, engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior with him when he was between the ages of 11 and 16.

“Today, we want to offer an apology for the inappropriate and unacceptable conduct this young man endured and express regret for what we failed to do to prevent it,” church leaders said, according to the outlet.

“No student should have to experience what this young man endured,” the church’s statement added.

Doe filed the lawsuit in October 2017 through his parents against First Baptist Church Senior Pastor Wendell Estep, and McCraw. The lawsuit alleged that McCraw initiated a relationship with Doe as a young adult mentor in a church youth program, but the relationship progressed in intimacy to inappropriate touching and sleepovers at McCraw’s house with no other adults or youths present.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

February 6, 2018

By Danae King

A property dispute has brought to light sexual-assault allegations against a Columbus bishop who founded a group of Pentecostal churches around the world.

The allegations against Bishop Joseph White, 81, founder and presiding bishop emeritus of the Church of the Living God International (CLGI), which is headquartered in Columbus and has 102 locations worldwide, were formally made to church leaders in June 2017. The allegations were then investigated by the church’s board of directors — two of whom are White’s sisters — in August, but the results have not been disclosed.

In a lawsuit filed in a Virginia court in December, five of White’s followers — one from Reynoldsburg — accuse him of sexual abuse and harassment over more than 20 years.

That same month, White retired from the church.

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VATICAN CITY
Church Militant

February 6, 2018

By Rodney Pelletier

Chilean sex abuse victim asserts the Pope heard from him

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – Critics are claiming Pope Francis has lost credibility after reports revealed he received a letter from a Chilean sex abuse victim asking for help in 2015. The recent revelation comes only weeks after the Holy Father claimed no victims had come forward to him.

Doctor Kurt Martens, a professor of canon law at Catholic University of America (CUA), commented, “‘Houston, we have a problem.’ If the Pope indeed received a report detailing the abuse suffered by [Dr. Fernando] Karadima victims and the cover-up, then there is a huge problem, and it can be summarized with one word: credibility. Or lack thereof.”

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, is claiming Pope Francis most likely “lied” when he said he had never heard from any of Karadima’s victims.

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SANDPOINT (ID)
Priest River Times

February 7, 2018

By Keith Kinnaird

A Priest River man awaiting trial on ritualized and sexual abuse charges is petitioning to have his named changed.

Dana Andrew Furtney seeks to change his name to Benaiah Joy Moses, according to a petition filed in Bonner County Magistrate Court.

Furtney said in the petition that he is pursuing the name change for “prophetic and spiritual reasons.” He cites two biblical passages — Revelations 2:17 and John 3:5-8. The latter passage refers to Jesus’ stating that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless “they are born of water and spirit.”

Furtney explains in the petition that he was “born again of water and in the spirit” at 7:37 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2017, in Pod 500 of the Bonner County Jail. It appears to have occurred in the hours leading up to his arraignment in 1st District Court on 14 felony charges ranging from ritualized abuse, sexual abuse of a child, felony injury to a child and domestic battery. Furtney entered pleas of not guilty during the hearing.

Furtney, 49, was arrested after the alleged victims reported the ongoing abuse to authorities in Toledo, Ohio.

Furtney was originally arrested on a fraction of the offenses in October of last year. The case expanded significantly as a result of grand jury proceedings that were conducted in December.

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NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
The Newcastle Herald

February 7 2018

By Sam Rigney

A FORMER Hunter Catholic priest accused of sexually and indecently assaulting three young boys while he was the parish priest at St Joseph’s at The Junction and Cessnock between 1973 and 1991 will face a trial in Newcastle District Court.

Vincent Gerard Ryan, 79, of Ryde, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday via audio visual link from a suite in the Sydney Downing Centre court complex where he was committed to face a trial on six charges, including three counts of indecent assault, two counts of sexual assault and attempted sexual intercourse of a child.

Three other charges, which related to alleged offences against a young boy at Cessnock between 1987 and 1991, were withdrawn by Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) solicitor Fiona Irwin.

Mr Ryan is alleged to have given one boy, aged 10 or 11 in 1973 or 1974, a full glass of wine in the sacristy at St Joseph’s, The Junction, while explaining the role of church altar boy, according to a brief of evidence tendered in court on Wednesday.

Mr Ryan allegedly told the boy that the wine was “the blood of Christ” before introducing the boy to his “tickling games”.

Mr Ryan is then accused of indecently assaulting the boy and masturbating himself before telling the boy “you can see how much fun it can be being an altar boy”, court documents state.

A week after the alleged assault, the boy was allegedly summoned to the sacristy for altar boy training, according to court documents.

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VATICAN CITY
AFP

February 7, 2018

A former member of the Vatican’s child protection panel said Tuesday that she sent Pope Francis a letter warning him about a Chilean bishop accused of covering up for a paedophile priest, contradicting the pontiff’s previous remarks.

During a trip to Chile in January marred by controversy after Francis hugged Bishop Juan Barros, the pope indicated that he had not heard from victims in the case.

But Irish survivor of abuse Marie Collins, who quit the pope’s commission on the protection of minors last year, said she travelled to Rome in 2015 with a letter written by Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of disgraced paedophile priest Fernando Karadima.

In 2015, Francis appointed Barros the head of the diocese of Osorno in southern Chile despite accusations the prelate covered up for Karadima.

“The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak. There is not a single piece of proof against him. Everything is slander,” the pope had said in Chile.

“You tell me that there are victims, but I did not see them,” he said.

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LAS CRUCES (NM)
KRQE News 13

February 6, 2018

A Hobbs priest facing sex assault charges has now been hit with a civil suit.

The plaintiff, only identified as “John Doe,” says Father Ricardo Bauza touched him in a sexual way.

Bauza is already facing charges for allegedly touching a man in the shower at his rectory.

The suit also names the St. Helena Parish where Bauza worked and the Las Cruces Diocese, claiming they knowingly allow clerics with a history of sexual abuse to stay in their positions.

The suit not only calls for monetary damages, but also for Bauza to admit to wrongdoing and apologize.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
The Age

February 5, 2018

By Amrit Dhillon

New Delhi: One Indian woman who was abused as a child, and her inability to forget what happened 47 years ago, has forced the Indian government rethink the law on sexual abuse.

Under the law as it stands, an adult survivor of sex abuse cannot report a crime. But after meeting Purnima Govindarajulu, a 53 year old conservation biologist who grew up in India but lives in Victoria, Canada, the minister of Women and Child Welfare, Maneka Gandhi, said last week that the law needs to be changed.

Govindarajalu met Gandhi on a recent visit to India because the purpose of her visit – to report the male relative who had abused her – had been thwarted. Mrs Gandhi was prompted to order the review after meeting.

When Govindarajalu had told Chennai police that she wanted to report the crime, they said there was no specific provision under the law which allowed them to file a report on a crime committed so long ago.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Press-Tribune

February 2, 2018

A retired Boise priest from St. Mary’s Catholic Church was arrested Friday on a charge of sexual exploitation of a child.

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced in a press release that 72-year-old W. Thomas Faucher was transported to the Ada County Jail Friday, following an investigation and arrest by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children unit.

Rev. John Worster, pastor at St. Mary’s, confirmed to the Idaho Press-Tribune that Faucher was on staff at St. Mary’s and retired in 2015. Worster said Faucher was still preaching intermittently, by invitation.

Worster confirmed that law enforcement searched Faucher’s residence, which is owned by St. Mary’s. Worster said it’s not uncommon for church staff to rent apartments owned by the church.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Faucher’s Boise residence and executed the warrant Friday afternoon, according to the press release from the Attorney General’s Office. The investigation began with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the release.

“I was aware this afternoon that the search warrant was being investigated,” Worster told the Idaho Press-Tribune in a phone call. “I found professional staff there (at the residence). Police officers were doing their jobs.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Maurice Souza was ordained for the Diocese of Fall River in 1939. He was a parish priest, assisting in New Bedford, East Falmouth and Taunton before being named administrator in 1956 of Our Lady of Health in Fall River. From there he pastored St. Anthony’s in Taunton (1962-1977) followed by St. Anthony’s in East Falmouth (1977-1986). Souza held several leadership positions in the diocese and was elevated to Monsignor status in 1969. He retired in 1986 and died August 17, 1996.

In 2012 the Fall River diocese was notified of allegations that Souza had sexually abused two altar boys from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, when Souza was pastor of St. Anthony’s in East Falmouth and the boys were ages 9 and 10 to age 17. The abuse was said to have occurred in Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere during trips for athletic events and other activities. Souza allegedly would have the boys sleep over with him in hotel rooms, a church rectory and in Souza’s Taunton residence, and he would both reward and threaten them.

Investigators for the diocese determined that there wasn’t enough support for “some of the more serious allegations.” Attempts at mediation failed, and the men filed suit in January 2014.

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DALLAS (TX)
CBS News

February 6, 2018

DALLAS – A former Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing as many as 100 boys in the late 70s and 80s, spent his last seven years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where he used an alias on social media to meet young men. CBS DFW reports that James Brzyski, considered one of the worst abusers in the history of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was found dead in September in a Fort Worth motel room.

An autopsy revealed Brzyski suffered from heart disease and was full of vodka and anti-depressants at the time of his death.

Records, obtained through the Texas Public Information Act, show that police recovered a laptop, thumb drives and a cell phone from Brzyski’s room. Fort Worth Police detectives, however, said they found nothing further to investigate.

But while Brzyski’s death may have been an accident, the CBS DFW found the life he led, to his very last days, is worth investigating.

“This man was a monster,” said John Delaney, who was raped by Brzyski in the early 1980s at Saint Cecilia Parish in Philadelphia.

“As bad as you could possibly imagine it could be, that’s what happened,” said Delaney, who was 11-years-old when the assaults began. “It broke me as a kid.”

Decades later, when the Catholic Church sex scandal began to unfold, a grand jury investigation revealed Brzyski sexually abused at least 17 victims and noted that he may have abused as many as 100 boys. The 2005 report released by the grand jury called Brzyski one of the “most brutal abusers” in the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Brzyski was kicked out of the church, but eluded prosecution due to the statute of limitations.

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Age

February 6, 2018

By Farrah Tomazin and Tammy Mills

Shockwaves are reverberating across Melbourne’s charity sector after Sacred Heart Mission founder Ernie Smith was stood down from all priesthood duties over sexual abuse allegations.

Volunteers were notified last week that the Archdiocese of Melbourne had investigated what is understood to be historical sexual abuse accusations relating to three women, one who was 17 years old at the time of the alleged offence, when Father Smith was a priest.

Two of the complaints were made to the church in 2005 and 2006, but the priest, who retired in 2007, was not barred from public duties until another allegation emerged in November last year.

The archdiocese says that while Father Smith is still technically a priest entitled to be called Father, they have adopted legal advice that he “no longer be considered a priest in good standing and his faculties to exercise public ministry be withdrawn”.

Father Smith founded Sacred Heart Mission, which provides assistance to Melbourne’s homeless and vulnerable, more than three decades ago when he was the parish priest at St Kilda West.

The Age has been told the alleged abuse occurred before he started the not-for-profit group and the complainants were not clients, employees or volunteers at Sacred Heart Mission.

The accusations were investigated under the Melbourne Response, which is the Catholic Church’s internal complaints system that handles accusations of sexual abuse by priests.

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CHILE
Newsweek

February 5, 2018

By Cristina Maza

Pope Francis knew that a Chilean bishop had allegedly helped cover up heinous incidents of sexual abuse when he promoted him to a prestigious role in the Catholic Church, according to one report.

The Pope came under fire during a recent trip to Chile, when victims of sexual abuse protested his decision to promote Bishop Juan Barros, a man widely accused of helping his mentor conceal the sexual abuse of children. Pope Francis has regularly defended Barros and called the allegations against him slanderous. But a letter viewed by the Associated Press reveals that the Pope was contacted by a victim of sexual abuse in 2015. Members of the Pope’s sex-abuse commission said the Pope had received the eight-page document outlining how a Chilean reverend had kissed and fondled the victim while Barros watched.

The scandal centers on Father Fernando Karadima, a man long considered the preacher for Chile’s Catholic elites. Karadima was accused of having abused minors for years, and in 2011 a Vatican commission found him guilty of sexual abuse. He was defrocked and ordered to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penitence.

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BOISE (ID)
KIVITV

February 5, 2018

By Karen Lehr

BOISE – Former Boise priest W. Thomas Faucher appeared in Ada County Court via video conference Monday evening, facing a long list of felony charges for child sex-related crimes.

Faucher is charged with 10 felony counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, and two additional felonies for knowingly distributing by any means materials involving sexually exploitive material of a child. Faucher is also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

In court Monday, the state argued investigators found hundreds of images of child pornography on Faucher’s computer, some of which he sent to another individual.

While investigators searched his home they reportedly found an open electronic chat with another individual that “appeared to have been going on for quite some time”. In that conversation, prosecuting attorneys say Faucher expressed his desire for sexual relations with children and the desire to physically harm children.

The hundreds of alleged pornographic images contain children as young as infants and toddlers “being subjected to different acts of abuse and torture”.

Investigators also reportedly found marijuana, LSD and ecstasy/MDMA in Faucher’s home.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
Baptist Press

February 5, 2018

By Diana Chandler

COLUMBIA, S.C. (BP) — An apology, admission of liability and a $300,000 payout are among the terms First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C., reached to settle a case involving a child who was reportedly sexually abused by a former church volunteer.
Confessing “a broken and contrite heart,” the church apologized and read an explanatory statement including the full terms of the settlement to its congregation in its Sunday morning service Feb. 4, church spokesman Bryan Barnes told Baptist Press.

“Today, we want to offer an apology for the inappropriate and unacceptable conduct this young man endured and express regret for what we failed to do to prevent it,” the church said, according to a near 1,400-word document Barnes gave BP. “We are sorry that this young man was wronged and that our policies and procedures as well as our enforcement of those policies and procedures were insufficient to protect him.

“No student should have to experience what this young man endured,” the statement reads. A teenager identified in the October, 2017 lawsuit as “Joel Doe” reportedly suffered abuse, which included inappropriate text messages, at some point between the ages of 11 and 16 from former youth volunteer Andrew McCraw.

“[Joel Doe] and his family deserved our best efforts, as does every family who entrusts their child to the programs and activities of our church,” the statement reads. “We are grateful this student alerted his parents to the wrong actions of this trusted volunteer. … The young man (student) did the right thing. The legal matter with this young man has been resolved and First Baptist Church is taking steps to better protect the youth of this church.”

In a statement to Baptist Press and other news services, Barnes said the church regrets that it did not have a policy specifically regarding texting in place to prevent such abuse.

“First Baptist has accepted responsibility for this even though we had strong policies in place and performed a background check on the volunteer which revealed no issues,” Barnes said in the press statement. “What we did not have at the time was a policy specifically forbidding texting between an adult and a student without copying another adult. Such a policy, if followed, could have prevented these messages.”

The settlement did not require First Baptist of Columbia to admit to what the lawsuit claimed was a long-held practice of concealing sexual abuse, a claim the church continues to deny. In alleging a conspiracy, the lawsuit pointed to a 2002 criminal case involving former First Baptist deacon John Hubner, currently serving a 36-year prison term for sexually abusing a teenager girl who attended the church.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC3

February 5, 2018

By Stephanie Metzger, Chris Cantergiani, and Thomas Meyer

He should be praying for his followers. Instead, he’s preyed on them.

Bishop Joseph White has led the Church of the Living God International for more than 20 years. His followers venerate him as a holy man free of sin. His sermons claim he’s above the law, but a group of men claims he has abused his power and influence to abuse them.

White is aware of the allegations against him. He was ousted from his former church amid accusations he did not deny. Victims have emerged to tell their stories, many of which depict similar events.

But instead of facing the law, White has maintained his influence over thousands of people across the world and with it, access to the young men he’s accused of abusing.

WKYC is airing this story in two parts beginning Monday at 11 p.m. Part two will air Tuesday at 11 p.m.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 5, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis’ appointment of Bishop Juan Barros to head the small diocese of Osorno, Chile encountered opposition when it was announced three years ago and has contributed to a credibility crisis for the Chilean Catholic Church in the time since.

Barros was a protege of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a charismatic priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors. Some of the victims allege that Barros witnessed the abuse, placing him at the scene when Karadima kissed and fondled minors. Barros has denied knowing of the abuse or covering up for Karadima.

Francis created an uproar while visiting Chile in January, when he called the accusations against Barros “slander.” The pope further insisted he never knew that any of Karadima’s victims had come forward. The Associated Press reported Monday that Francis received an eight-page letter in April 2015 that laid out in detail why abuse victim Juan Carlos Cruz thought Barros was unfit to lead a diocese.

Some key dates in the Barros affair:

———

Jan. 10, 2015

Pope names Barros, then Chile’s military chaplain, as bishop of Osorno, over the objections of some members of the Chilean bishops’ conference. They were concerned about the fallout from the Karadima affair.

———

Jan. 31, 2015

Francis acknowledged the bishops’ concerns in a letter, which the AP obtained last month. The letter revealed a plan to have Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops resign and take yearlong sabbaticals, but Francis wrote that it fell apart because the nuncio revealed it. The pope later acknowledged that he had blocked the plan himself because there was no “evidence” Barros was guilty of any cover-up.

———
February 2015

Fifty Chilean lawmakers and priests, deacons and more than 1,000 laity in the Osorno diocese sign petitions protesting Barros’ appointment and urging Francis revoke it.

———

Feb. 3, 2015

Juan Carlos Cruz writes an eight-page letter to the Vatican’s ambassador in Santiago, Monsignor Ivo Scapolo, accusing Barros of watching the sex abuse he experienced and doing nothing to stop it. The letter, which Cruz said should be considered a formal complaint, would form the basis of a subsequent letter to the pope.

———

March 21, 2015

The Mass installing Barros as bishop of Osorno is marred by violent protests. Black-clad demonstrators storm the church with signs that read, “No to Karadima’s accomplice.” Ten days later, the Vatican publicly defends Barros, saying it “carefully examined the prelate’s candidature and did not find objective reasons to preclude the appointment.”

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Herald

February 6, 2018

By Kurt Bayer

A New Zealand priest has been defrocked after allegations of “non-consensual sexual conduct” with a female parishioner more than a decade ago.

Michael Van Wijk, former reverend of the Nativity Anglican Church in Blenheim, has had his ordination revoked following the 2005 sexual misconduct allegations.

The local church announced the move to its parishioners last month.

It came after the Anglican Church’s appeal tribunal decision was released in October last year which found that Van Wijk “knowingly engaged in sexual conduct with the complainant when she did not truly consent”.

“In doing so he engaged in misconduct by acting in a manner inappropriate or unbecoming to the office and work of a minister including, an act of corruption or immorality; and an act of sexual harassment or disregard for responsible personal relations,” the tribunal concluded.

The allegations were initially investigated by police in 2005 but no charges were laid.

The woman again complained to the church in 2016 and a tribunal was convened.

A decision to depose Van Wijk was made in December 2016 but it was appealed and eventually upheld.

Now, police have confirmed to The Marlborough Express newspaper that the investigation is now being independently reviewed.

Senior Sergeant Ciaran Sloan was unavailable to comment today.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal

February 6, 2018

By Xerxes Wilson

Sex abuse victims’ advocates think the unprecedented indictment of a former Delaware Catholic priest in a decades-old child rape case could embolden more victims to seek justice.

John A. Sarro, 76, a former priest with the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, was indicted last week by a New Castle County grand jury on charges of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact, according to court records.

It’s a rare instance where prosecution of a sex crime comes decades after the alleged abuse, but the Delaware Supreme Court has upheld similar convictions as recently as 2010.

Sarro is accused of fondling and raping a girl who was less than 16 years old between 1991 and 1994 when the abuse allegedly occurred during his time at St. Helena Parish in Bellefonte.

He is set to be arraigned later this week and characterized the incident that led to the charges as “an accident” in a brief interview with The News Journal last week.

His indictment is the first time the state has brought criminal charges against any of dozens of local priests who were accused of molesting children.

Judy Miller heads the Delaware chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, and said the victim’s courage to seek prosecution may push others to reach for justice.

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CHILE
The Irish Times

February 6, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

February 16th ‘ Worldwide Day of Prayer for Survivors and Victims of sexual abuse’

Pope Francis has been accused of “inexcusable dysfunction at best and wilful deception at worst” following reports on Monday that he received a victim’s letter in 2015 which detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how this was ignored by Chilean clergy.

It contradicted the Pope’s insistence on a recent visit to Chile that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover up in relation to the accused priest Fr Fernando Karadima. He said he had never heard of any victims’ complaints against Bishop Juan Barros, accused of witnessing the abuse by Fr Karadima.

“The most charitable interpretation is that Pope Francis is guilty of either forgetfulness or dysfunction,” said Anne Barrett Doyle of the US -based BishopAccountability.org

She found either “implausible, given the Pope’s demonstrated interest in directly managing the scandal around Barros.” The more likely explanation was that the Pope “was being deliberately deceptive in Chile …when he said he had seen no evidence of Barros’ complicity.”

This latest news was “evidence that the cover-up by the Catholic church continues and that it still begins at the top,” she said.

The Associated Press disclosed on Monday that Francis received the eight-page letter from abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz through Cardinal Seán O’Malley in April 2015.

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PRETORIA (SOUTH AFRICA)
Pretoria East Rekord

February 6, 2018

By Thato Mahlangu

“We note that churches are increasingly besieged with sexual harassment allegations.”

The commission for gender equality has expressed shock at sexual abuse claims made against the Central Methodist Church in Pretoria.

They called for openness and transparency in the matter.

This follows a “silent protest” at a church service last month, followed by an EFF picket at the Voortrekker monument yesterday. Yesterday’s protest action was also attended by a number of members from the church’s youth group.

The protesters were dismayed by what they see as the church dragging its feet in taking action against the alleged abuser, a steward at the church.

“We condemn how the church handled these complaints,” the commission said.

The commission said the church was supposed to be a sacred place of worship and should serve as a sanctuary to communities.

“However, of late we note that churches are increasingly besieged with sexual harassment allegations,” it said.

The commission called on the church to report the steward to the police and for the law to take its course, while they conducted their own internal processes.

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ILLAWARRA (NSW, AUSTRALIA)
Illawarra Mercury

February 6, 2018

By Kate McIlwain

In his final weeks as the Bishop of Wollongong, the region’s Catholic leader Peter Ingham has offered an apology to all who suffered abuse from within the diocese.

His comments this week come after a former Catholic school principal was jailed late last year for indecent assault against children in one of the diocese’s schools.

Former Marist Brother and principal at an Eagle Vale Catholic primary school, Philip Slattery, was convicted in the NSW District Court on December 18 after pleading guilty to four counts of indecent assault against persons under the age of 16 years.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
The Rockville Centre Patch

February 5, 2018

By Alex Costello

The report examines all allegations of abuse made against priests who served in LI churches and whether the complaints are credible.

A report released on Monday by a group of attorneys seeks to compile all of the allegations of sexual abuse made against priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre into one place so residents can more easily find out if priests in their parishes have had abuse allegations made against them, and if those allegations were credible.

The report, titled “Hidden Disgrace II,” was compiled by the attorney group Lawyers Helping Survivors of Child Sex Abuse. It is a group of attorneys made up of lawyers from the firms of Weitz & Luxenberg P.C; James, Vernon & Weeks, P.A.; and Noaker Law Firm LLC, to help victims of child sexual assault.

The organization said that, while all of the info in its report had been publicly available, it was spread across several sources and not in any format that was easy for people to find and search, and it was not available from the diocese.

“The public needs more information about these alleged predators and the churches, schools and communities where they worked,” said attorney Jerry Kristal, of Weitz & Luxenberg. “The Rockville Centre Diocese’s silence on the issue has only served the accused abusers and left survivors and local communities in the dark. Hidden Disgrace II seeks to bring more attention to the important issue of clergy sex abuse on Long Island to help survivors heal and hold the Church accountable.”

The report includes information on 51 priests and others who worked in churches across Long Island who were accused of sexual abuse. The priests worked at more than 100 churches over the decades. However, the report notes that most of the allegations it includes were never tried in court because they were reported after the statute of limitations expired, and therefor should not be considered substantiated unless indicated otherwise.

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Herald Sun

February 6, 2018

SACRED Heart Mission founder Father Ernie Smith will “no longer be considered a priest in good standing” after historical sexual abuse allegations against him were revealed.

According to a statement posted to the charity’s website today, the complaints relate to inappropriate sexual behaviour with two adults and one person under 18.

“Fr Smith has accepted responsibility for the complaints,” the statement reads.

“No client, employee or volunteer at Sacred Heart Mission was involved.”

Two complaints were made to the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 2005 and 2006, but the priest was not stood down until another allegation was proved in November last year.

Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart said he revoked Fr Smith’s right to exercise public ministry because of the seriousness of the complaint, its effect on the victim and the pattern of behaviour.

“In each of the matters Father Smith acknowledged that he was responsible for the action as reported,” Archbishop Hart said.

“He accepted the findings that he had acted in a manner inconsistent with the promise of celibacy and the expectations imposed by the Church on clergy.

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BOISE (ID)
7KTVB

February 5, 2018

By Katie Terhune

Father W. Thomas Faucher, 72, faces 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, as well as additional charges for possession of marijuana and ecstasy.

Police who raided the home of a retired priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boise discovered “very graphic” child pornography, some depicting children as young as infants being sexually abused, prosecutors said.

Father W. Thomas Faucher, 72, faces 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, as well as additional charges for possession of marijuana and ecstasy. Two of the sexual exploitation charges are related to the distribution of child pornography, although Faucher is not accused of creating any of the disturbing images he allegedly shared.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 5, 2018

Pope Francis has insisted that no victims stepped forward, but the letter from Juan Carlos Cruz was hand-delivered in 2015.

The letter was graphic not just in describing how the priest kissed and fondled the boy, but also in how other priests who saw the abuse tried to hush it up. Pope Francis said recently that none of the victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, so the news that the letter was hand-delivered to Francis in 2015 is adding fuel to one of the biggest scandals of his five-year papacy.

The Associated Press obtained the eight-page letter, written in Francis’ native Spanish, and was told by both the victim who wrote it and by members of the pope’s sex-abuse commission that Francis’ top adviser assured them he gave it to the pope.

The pope’s trip to Chile last month was marred by protests over his vigorous defense of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring the abuse of young parishioners by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.

On the plane home, confronted by an AP reporter, the pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Crux

February 6, 2018

An Australian bishop has called on victims of sexual abuse to come forward to the authorities after a former religious brother plead guilty to four counts of indecent assault against a minor in December.

Philip Slattery, who had been a Marist brother, was principal of Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish Primary School in the Sydney suburb, Eagle Vale.

“I wish to assure all that the diocese, including Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong and our Catholic schools, are totally committed to the protection of children and young people above all else, and is remaining transparent and open in our communications to ensure that the safety of children and young people remains paramount,’’ said Bishop Peter Ingham of the Diocese of Wollongong.

He apologized to the former pupils of the school “unreservedly” in a statement released Feb. 5, and said the victims had “shown great courage and resilience in speaking the truth and seeking justice.”

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CHILE
Associated Press

February 6, 2018

A lay Catholic group in southern Chile that has opposed a bishop accused of sex abuse cover-up says revelations by The Associated Press that Pope Francis heard directly from a victim about the problem “brings an end to his ‘zero tolerance’ rhetoric.”

Juan Carlos Claret, a spokesman for Laicos de Osorno, said Monday that the pope and his subordinates must now answer the question of “who decided to constantly discredit the testimony of the victims.”

“It’s not possible to maintain, as some do, that the pope didn’t know and that he had slanted information,” Claret told the AP.

“Instead, we’re in the presence of a pope who had full knowledge of it all, and still decides to submit a community to unspeakable suffering.”

The AP reported on Monday that Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed his sexual abuse and a cover-up by Chilean church authorities – contradicting the pope’s insistence that no victims had come forward.

AP obtained the letter from Chilean survivor Juan Carlos Cruz. Members of the pope’s sex-abuse advisory commission say they flew to Rome in 2015 specifically to hand-deliver the letter to a top papal adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Cruz and commission members say O’Malley assured them he had delivered it to the pope.

Francis recently sparked an outcry by vigorously defending Bishop Juan Barros, who was a protege of Father Fernando Karadima, a charismatic priest who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors.

Some of the victims allege that Barros witnessed the abuse, placing him at the scene when Karadima kissed and fondled minors.

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CHILE
BBC

February 5, 2018

A victim of a paedophile priest in Chile has revealed he wrote to the Pope in 2015 about an alleged cover-up after Francis denied getting evidence.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of cleric Fernando Karadima in the 1980s, accused fellow priest Juan Barros of witnessing the abuse and doing nothing.

The Pope caused outrage after a visit to Chile last month by defending Bishop Barros, who was made a bishop in 2015.

The Vatican refused to comment on the letter when approached by BBC News.

Pope Francis has said in the past that dealing with abuse is vital for the Church’s credibility and perpetrators must face “sanctions”.

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DENVER (CO)
Fox 31

February 5, 2018

By Joe St. George

DENVER — The Prairie Middle School case involving school administrators being accused of not reporting child abuse to police took center stage at the state Capitol on Monday.

The issue is the belief the case against the administrators soon might be dropped because of the statute of limitations.

It’s currently 18 months and the incident involving reporting at Prairie Middle School happened in 2014.

State Sen. Rhonda Fields is bringing a bill that would extend the statute of limitations from 18 months to five years.

Originally, Fields introduced a bill to extend it until discovery by police, but her amended bill capped it at five years.

“Right now in some scenarios they are not reporting it, they are sweeping it under the rug and allowing someone who molests kids or someone who rapes kids to go on,” Fields said.

After a lengthy debate featuring victims of abuse, the attorney of the victims at Prairie Middle School and other advocates, GOP members decided to wait on a vote until more information could be gathered.

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CHILE
La Tercera

February 5, 2018

[See March 3, 2015 letter from Juan Carlos Cruz to Pope Francis discussed in La carta al Papa Francisco en que Juan Carlos Cruz denunciaba al obispo Barros en 2015, by Carlos Reyes and Sebastián Rivas, La Tercera, February 5, 2018. The letter was first reported in AP Exclusive: Despite denial, Pope got abuse victim’s letter, by Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara, Associated Press, February 5, 2018.]

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EAST LANSING (MI)
CNN

February 5, 2018

Before he was sentenced to 40 to 125 years in prison on Monday, Larry Nassar apologized to the court.

“The visions of your testimonies will forever be present in my thoughts,” the 54-year-old disgraced former doctor said about the victim impact statements. The statements ended a remarkable three weeks of court hearings that dramatically personalized the pain and suffering the he caused for years.

The sentence in Eaton County court is the third sentence in three months for Nassar, the once-renowned doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University who sexually abused young girls for more than two decades.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Tercera

>>The letter to Pope Francisco in which Juan Carlos Cruz denounced Bishop Barros in 2015

February 5, 2018

By Carlos Reyes and Sebastián Rivas

“Santo Padre, me animé a escribirle esta carta porque estoy cansado de pelear, llorar y sufrir”. Así comienza una carta fechada el 3 de marzo de 2015 y cuyo remitente es Juan Carlos Cruz, uno de los denunciantes de los abusos cometidos por el sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

El destinatario era el Papa Francisco, que por esos días recibía críticas tras designar a Juan Barros, uno de los sacerdotes cercanos a Karadima, como obispo de Osorno.

El motivo de la carta -y de su envío directo al Pontífice-, según explica Cruz en el mismo texto, era que exactamente un mes antes había enviado una misiva al nuncio apostólico en Chile, Ivo Scapolo, en que hacía denuncias contra Barros de sus años junto a Karadima.

“En enero se conoció la designación de Juan Barros Madrid como obispo de Osorno. Santo Padre, para mí y muchísima gente fue un verdadero shock que se hiciese ese nombramiento. Sabiendo todo lo que se sabe. Inmediatamente escribí una denuncia formal al nuncio Ivo Scapolo, a quien hemos tratado de ver y jamás ha tenido la cortesía de recibirnos”, asegura Cruz.

[Google Translation: “Holy Father, I decided to write this letter because I am tired of fighting, crying and suffering.” Thus begins a letter dated March 3, 2015 and whose sender is Juan Carlos Cruz, one of the complainants of the abuses committed by the priest Fernando Karadima.

The recipient was Pope Francis, who in those days received criticism after designating Juan Barros, one of the priests close to Karadima, as bishop of Osorno.

The reason for the letter -and its direct delivery to the Pontiff-, as Cruz explains in the same text, was that exactly one month before he had sent a letter to the apostolic nuncio in Chile, Ivo Scapolo, in which he made denunciations against Barros de los years together with Karadima.

“In January the appointment of Juan Barros Madrid as bishop of Osorno was known. Holy Father, for me and a lot of people it was a real shock to make that appointment. Knowing everything that is known. Immediately I wrote a formal complaint to the nuncio Ivo Scapolo, whom we have tried to see and has never had the courtesy to receive us, “says Cruz.]

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

January 31, 2018

By Nicole Winfield 

Just how well informed is Pope Francis about the goings-on in his 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church?

That question is making the rounds after the pope seemed completely unaware of the details of a Chilean sex abuse scandal, a failing that soured his recent trip there and forced him to do an about-face. It also came up after his abrupt, no-explanation dismissal of a respected Vatican bank manager.

And it rose to the fore when he was accused by a cardinal of not realizing that his own diplomats were “selling out” the underground Catholic Church in China for the sake of political expediency.

Some Vatican observers now wonder if Francis is getting enough of the high-quality briefings one needs to be a world leader, or whether Francis is relying more on his own instincts and informants who slip him unofficial information on the side.

In his five years as pope, Francis has created an informal, parallel information structure that often rubs up against official Vatican channels. That includes a papal kitchen cabinet of nine cardinal advisers who meet every three months at the Vatican and have the pope’s ear, plus the regular briefings he receives from top Vatican brass.

The Vatican this week issued a remarkable defense of Francis’ information flow and his grasp of the delicate China dossier. The Holy See press office insisted that Francis followed the China negotiations closely, was being “faithfully” briefed by his advisers and was in complete agreement with his secretary of state on the topic.

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VATICAN CITY
Papal flight

January 15-22, 2018 (Sunday, January 21, 2018)

PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE RETURN FLIGHT FROM LIMA TO ROME

[Multimedia]

Greg Burke:

Holy Father, thank you. Thank you for the time you are giving us this evening, after a long and intense trip, which at times has been a little hot and humid. It has been a fruitful trip, during which you have touched people’s hearts, the holy and faithful People of God, with a message of peace and hope. You also confronted the challenges facing the Church in Chile and the Church in Peru, as well as those of the two societies, with particular attention to human dignity and the indigenous people of Amazonia. Thank you for the opportunity to accompany you so closely. Now we would like to examine a little more the themes of your visit.

Pope Francis:

Good evening. Thank you for your work. It has been a trip… I do not know how you say this is Italian, but in Spanish it is “pasteurizado”, like the process used for milk: it goes from cold to hot, and then hot to cold. We have gone from the South of Chile, cold, that beautiful landscape, to the desert, then to the forest of Maldonado, then to Trujillo, the sea, and then to Lima. We have experienced every temperature and climate. It has been demanding. Thank you very much. And now, your questions.

Greg Burke:

To begin, we have questions from Peru and from Chile. First we have Armando Cancianga.

Pope Francis:

I ask all of you to begin with questions regarding the trip. When we finish your questions, if there is anything else to be said about the trip I will bring it up. Then I will take other questions, if there are any.

Armando Canchanya Alaya [Rpp of Peru]:

Holy Father… I want to thank you for allowing us to join you on this trip… On the outbound flight you said that you did not know Peru well, and during these days you have had the opportunity to visit three cities… I wanted to ask you about this visit where the people came to see you and even said affectionately: “Panchito, do not go”… What does the Holy Father take away from this trip, from Peru?

Pope Francis:

I take away the impression of a people of believers, a people that is experiencing many difficulties and has experienced them throughout their history. But it was the faith that impressed me… Not only the faith in Trujillo where popular piety is abundant and strong, but the faith in the streets… You saw what the streets were like… And not only in Lima where you saw it clearly, but also in Trujillo. The same in Puerto Maldonado. I thought the ceremony would take place in a place like this, a square filled with people, but wherever I went, the streets were also filled with people… a people who came out to express their joy and their faith. It is true, as I said today at midday, that you are a land of saints; you are the Latin American people who have the most saints. And important saints too: Turibius, Rose, Martin, Juan. I think there is deep faith in this land.

I am leaving Peru with an impression of joy, faith, hope, renewed energy, and, above all, many young people. Once again I saw what I witnessed in the Philippines and Colombia. As I passed by, mothers and fathers held up their children, and this speaks of the future and of hope because no one brings children into the world unless they have hope. I only ask that you care for all this richness, not only that found in Churches and museums, though works of art are wonderful, and not only that born of your history of holiness and the sufferings which have greatly enriched you, but also the richness that I experienced in these days.

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ATLANTA (GA)
How Stuff Works

February 2, 2018

By Diana Brown

In October 1992, Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” sparking a huge public outcry and backlash against the artist. O’Connor said she did it to protest the widespread child abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church. Since then, these claims against the church have been proven accurate, with numerous scandals coming to light — as well as chilling proof of coverups and payoffs.

So how could this happen? And what could possibly have led to such extensive behavior among so many high-ranking bishops, cardinals and leaders within the Catholic Church? That’s what Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know investigate in Catholics, Children and Conspiracy: The Epidemic of Abuse. Hosts Matt Frederick, Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown take a look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the many allegations laid at its doorstep and what might have been the cause of such horrific behavior in this episode of the podcast.

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UNITED STATES
The Huffington Post

February 3, 2018

By Sara Boboltz

The now-convicted doctor Larry Nassar continued to practice for over a year after serious accusations arose.

At least 27 girls and women said disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar sexually assaulted them while he was under FBI investigation for similar behavior, according to a new Saturday report from The New York Times.

Nassar first came under FBI suspicion in July 2015 after the agency received complaints from three top-tier female athletes, including two Olympic gymnasts. He was permitted to continue practicing medicine until September 2016, when the Indianapolis Star published damning accusations against him.

The sluggish pace of the FBI investigation ― split between agents in three cities ― allowed Nassar’s abuse to continue unnecessarily, the Times suggested. In a statement, the FBI responded, saying its investigation “transcended jurisdictions,” pointing to bureaucratic inefficiency as a possible explanation for the slow pace. (Bureaus in Indiana, Michigan and Texas were involved in the case.)

The list of young women accusing the now-convicted doctor of sexual abuse currently stands at 265. Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison on seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in January, and he is currently awaiting sentencing on another three counts.

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CHARLOTTE (MI)
The Huffington Post

February 5, 2018

By Alanna Vagianos

He’s already been sentenced to 40 to 175 years on other abuse charges.

Former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University team doctor Larry Nassar on Monday was sentenced to 40 to 125 years in prison for sexually abusing young athletes under the guise of medical treatment.

Nassar, 54, was sentenced in a Charlotte, Michigan, courtroom on three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, adding to long prison terms he already faces for additional sex crimes.

“I am not convinced that you truly understand that what you did was wrong and the devastating impact that you have had on the victims, their families and friends,” Judge Janice Cunningham told Nassar in court before handing down the punishment. “Clearly you are in denial. You don’t get it. And I do not believe that there is a likelihood that you could be reformed.”

Nassar read a statement in court before he was sentenced.

“The words expressed by everyone that has spoken, including the parents, have impacted me to my inner-most core,” he said. “With that being said, I understand and acknowledge that it pales in comparison to the pain and trauma and emotions that you all feel. It’s impossible to convey the depth and breadth of how sorry I am to each and everyone involved.”

Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis, in her closing argument, reminded the judge how far-reaching Nassar’s abuse was.

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BOISE (ID)
KIVI TV

February 3, 2018

By Michael Sevren

BOISE, Idaho – A wave of shock is hitting the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise after the former priest of Saint Mary’s Church and school, 72-year-old Thomas Faucher, faces several charges for child sex crimes.

“What’s on the hearts of minds of the people at Saint Mary’s first and foremost are the victims of these types of crimes,” said Deacon Gene Fadness, a spokesmen for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise.

Fadness says they were not aware of the allegations until Friday and will cooperate fully with law enforcement in their investigation.

According to the Idaho Attorney General’s office, the investigation into Father Faucher began with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On Friday police searched his Boise home and took him into custody. The retired priest now faces one count of Possession of a Controlled Substance and ten counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Child.

Details of the alleged sex crimes are unclear; the charges could apply to everything from possession of sexually exploitative material to making them. The diocese is now worried there may potentially be victims in the Treasure Valley.

“We have, to date, no knowledge of that,” said Fadness. “If there are people who are victims or who know victims we would want them to come forward.”

The diocese says Father Faucher retired three years ago citing health issues and hasn’t held any pastoral assignments since. Because of the seriousness of the allegations, Faucher will be unable to minister in the Diocese of Boise in any way.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
WACH FOX 57

February 2, 2018

By Michelle Zhu

A well-known Columbia church is at the center of a sex abuse lawsuit. The 7,000-member First Baptist Church reaching a settlement and apologizing to the victim in that case. The apology comes nearly four months after the victim’s parents filed suit against the church. They claim the child, who was 11 at the time, suffered injury and severe emotional distress.

The victim, who is referred to as Joel Doe in the lawsuit, is now 17 years old. The Suit says Andrew McCraw, who was a youth group leader at the church, inappropriately touched the victim and sent him sexually-charged text messages. According to the victim’s attorney, the family will be paid $300,000 and the church will accept responsibility for the incident. They’ve promised reforms to church policies.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Christian Today

February 5, 2018

By David Robertson

Rachael Denhollander is my new heroine. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite as brave, compelling, articulate and gospel centered as her testimony in the Larry Nassar trial. But it’s what I read later in an interview the former gymnast gave to Christianity Today in the US that really got to me. She said: ‘Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because the way it is counselled is, more often than not, damaging to the victim. There is an abhorrent lack of knowledge for the damage and devastation that sexual assault brings.’

Denhollander talks about how she lost her church for speaking out against sexual abuse. This is absolutely horrific. Why would churches find it so difficult to deal with cases of sexual abuse? Is it because of the ignorance of what real sexual abuse is? A lack of expertise in being able to determine what has actually happened? Or inadequate child protection policies in churches?

Ignorance is one thing. But cover-up is another. Often this is done from what may be considered good motives – a desire to protect the reputation of the church and organisation and also a desire to protect the reputation of the gospel of Christ. This attempt to ‘protect’ the gospel is bound to fail, not least because the gospel does not need our protection – and certainly not when it involves cover-up and lies.

This is where poor theology really lets us down. If we believe what the Bible actually says about human nature being depraved, why should we be surprised when we find evidence of that?

As Denhollander (who is herself an excellent theologian) points out: ‘Jesus Christ does not need your protection, he needs your obedience.’ It’s an obedience that requires us to seek justice, speak the truth and offer the ‘tough love’ of the gospel, even if this means upsetting some within the church or the organisation.

Christian organisations, often based around the personality, gifts and charisma of one leader, are particularly prone to being defensive about that leader. After all if his reputation is destroyed, so is the organisation. It’s not so with the church, unless we happen to have fallen into the trap of thinking that the church belongs to our particular leader.

But it’s here that too many churches have abandoned something that would really help them in dealing with this issue, a key foundational principle of the New Testament church – church discipline. This is not about the powerful lording it over the weak. It is about the weak being offered the protection of the church. If we are a biblical church we recognise that even the great leaders (like David, Moses and Peter) can fall. We are not concerned about preserving the reputation of our own local leaders because we recognise only one absolute Shepherd, Jesus Christ – and we accept what he says about all under shepherds being fallible. Rachael Denhollander should have found safety, security and justice within the local church. Instead she experienced what can only be described as further abuse.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The Associated Press

February 1, 2018

Delaware has for the first time brought criminal child molestation charges against a Catholic priest.

A grand jury on Monday indicted 76-year-old John A. Sarro in the rape of a child more than 25 years ago. He’s charged with first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact. He’s accused of having oral sex with a girl younger than 16 in the 1990s.

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BROOKLYN HEIGHTS (NY)
Christian Post

February 2, 2018

By Leonardo Blair

At the Historic Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, New York, the legacy of Henry Ward Beecher, the church’s first pastor who died more than 120 years ago, is prominently displayed in monuments celebrating his life.

On a cold Saturday morning this winter, a guide could be heard telling tourists at the church about his great work as an abolitionist.

Buried in lot 18495, section 123 at the nearby Greenwood Cemetery about a mile away from where Beecher is interred with his wife, Eunice, is a less prominently displayed part of his legacy.

There are no signs announcing her presence, but cemetery records show that along with three other family members surnamed Tilton, one surnamed Pelton and another surnamed Morse, Elizabeth Tilton, a former parishioner of Beecher’s, is also buried here.

Cemetery staff could not confirm if Elizabeth’s remains were below a white gravestone marked “GRANDMOTHER” in section 123 but confirmed she was “definitely there,” according to their records. She died blind and alone on April 14, 1897.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

February 3, 2018

By Maureen Dowd

The actress is finally ready to talk about Harvey Weinstein.

Yes, Uma Thurman is mad.

She has been raped. She has been sexually assaulted. She has been mangled in hot steel. She has been betrayed and gaslighted by those she trusted.

And we’re not talking about her role as the blood-spattered bride in “Kill Bill.” We’re talking about a world that is just as cutthroat, amoral, vindictive and misogynistic as any Quentin Tarantino hellscape.

We’re talking about Hollywood, where even an avenging angel has a hard time getting respect, much less bloody satisfaction.

Playing foxy Mia Wallace in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and ferocious Beatrix Kiddo in “Kill Bill,” Volumes 1 (2003) and 2 (2004), Thurman was the lissome goddess in the creation myth of Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino. The Miramax troika was the ultimate in indie cool. A spellbound Tarantino often described his auteur-muse relationship with Thurman — who helped him conceive the idea of the bloody bride — as an Alfred Hitchcock-Ingrid Bergman legend. (With a foot fetish thrown in.) But beneath the glistening Oscar gold, there was a dark undercurrent that twisted the triangle.

“Pulp Fiction” made Weinstein rich and respected, and Thurman says he introduced her to President Barack Obama at a fund-raiser as the reason he had his house.

“The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was,” she told me one recent night, looking anguished in her elegant apartment in River House on Manhattan’s East Side, as she vaped tobacco, sipped white wine and fed empty pizza boxes into the fireplace.

“I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,’ a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.”

Thurman stresses that Creative Artists Agency, her former agency, was connected to Weinstein’s predatory behavior. It has since issued a public apology. “I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover, so that’s a super weird split to have,” she says.

She talks mordantly about “the power from ‘Pulp,’” and reminds me that it’s in the Library of Congress, part of the American narrative.

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WBTV

February 5, 2018

By Bria Bell

Domestic violence continues to be a hot button issue in the Charlotte area and nearly half of the homicides for in 2018 are domestic related in some way.

With that disturbing trend in mind, two local churches have come together to raise awareness and try to put an end to violent relationships.

Pastors for both The Park Church and Meyers Park United Methodist wanted parishioners to know and understand the signs of abuse.

They say too often we talk about the end result of domestic violence, but not too much about the signs leading up to it.

Love was the topic that started Sunday’s important conversation on domestic abuse. By the end, pastors Claude Alexander and James Howell asked every worshiper to join them on a quest to end domestic abuse.

The churches believe these types of conversations are good to have as refreshers and offered resources to those who may need help. Both pastors say it’s time to pay attention and understand what real love is and not to confuse abuse as such.

“We want to rise above [abuse], we want to be holier than that,” Pastor Howell said. “We want to treat each other always like royalty, like we’re so good to each other – always encouraging each other, always seeing the light in the other person.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

February 3, 2018

By Nicholas Kristof

Four years ago, when Woody Allen was given a lifetime achievement award by the Golden Globes, Dylan Farrow curled up in a ball on her bed, crying hysterically. Then she wrote an open letter for my blog (nobody else seemed to want to publish it) describing how, when she was 7 years old, Allen allegedly sexually assaulted her.

“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” she wrote. “I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood.”

We now know that Hollywood was hiding many such secrets, and was quite uninterested in accountability for powerful bullies. After she bared her soul, Dylan was met with much “vitriol and disbelief,” as she put it.

“There were days when I thought, ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake, I should never have opened my mouth,’” Dylan told me the other day.

But in the last few months, the #MeToo movement has changed that. “I am so sorry, Dylan,” Mira Sorvino wrote. Ellen Page declared, “I did a Woody Allen movie and it is the biggest regret of my career.” Actors are donating earnings from Woody Allen movies to sexual assault organizations, and Amazon is said to be considering canceling its distribution of his movies.

All this has been “incredibly healing,” Dylan said.

Frank Maco, the Connecticut prosecutor who oversaw the case in the 1990s, told me that he watched Dylan recently on “CBS This Morning” and was impressed by how the little girl had grown up to be “strong and determined.” He reiterated what he had said at the time: that he had probable cause to bring a criminal case against Allen (who was Dylan’s adoptive father) but couldn’t justify putting a fragile child through a brutal trial.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

February 4, 2018

By Catharine A. MacKinnon

The #MeToo movement is accomplishing what sexual harassment law to date has not.

This mass mobilization against sexual abuse, through an unprecedented wave of speaking out in conventional and social media, is eroding the two biggest barriers to ending sexual harassment in law and in life: the disbelief and trivializing dehumanization of its victims.

Sexual harassment law — the first law to conceive sexual violation in inequality terms — created the preconditions for this moment. Yet denial by abusers and devaluing of accusers could still be reasonably counted on by perpetrators to shield their actions.

Many survivors realistically judged reporting pointless. Complaints were routinely passed off with some version of “she wasn’t credible” or “she wanted it.” I kept track of this in cases of campus sexual abuse over decades; it typically took three to four women testifying that they had been violated by the same man in the same way to even begin to make a dent in his denial. That made a woman, for credibility purposes, one-fourth of a person.

Even when she was believed, nothing he did to her mattered as much as what would be done to him if his actions against her were taken seriously. His value outweighed her sexualized worthlessness. His career, reputation, mental and emotional serenity and assets counted. Hers didn’t. In some ways, it was even worse to be believed and not have what he did matter. It meant she didn’t matter.

These dynamics of inequality have preserved the system in which the more power a man has, the more sexual access he can get away with compelling.

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Catholic Reporter

February 5, 2018

By Kristen Whitney Daniels

NEW YORK — In recent years, the movie industry hasn’t shied away from Catholicism — mostly seen through the lens of the sex abuse scandal. However, a new film seeks to expand the discussion on injustices both within the Catholic Church and society in general.

“Created Equal” — directed by Bill Duke and based on the novel by Roger A. Brown — begins with attorney Thomas “Tommy” Reilly (Aaron Tveit) being unwillingly assigned a pro-bono case for Sr. Alejandra “Allie” Batista (Edy Ganem).

When they meet for the first-time, Reilly apologizes to Batista for the abuse he presumes she’s endured, since the case seeks to sue the Catholic Church. After a few awkward seconds Batista explains that she isn’t suing the Archdiocese of New Orleans because of abuse, she’s suing the church so she can enter a Catholic seminary and fulfill her call of becoming a priest.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
WIS TV

February 2, 2018

By Emily Smith

Columbia’s First Baptist Church has settled a child sex-abuse lawsuit that allegedly involved a church volunteer and a young church member.

The church and its minister, Wendell Estep, issued an apology to the victim, who is now 17 years old, and have agreed to pay the family $300,000 to settle the lawsuit.

In the civil suit filed in October 2017, a minor referred to as Joel Doe and his parents, Jane and John Doe, sued the church, Estep, youth assistant mentor and small group leader Andrew McCraw, and church student minister Phillip Turner.

The suit states youth leader McCraw had inappropriate communications with the minor including sexual text messages, dinners, and sleepovers where nobody else was present. The abuse reportedly started when the minor was 11 years old and part of a youth group led by McCraw.

The suit also alleges that the church officials knew about the abuse and failed to report it.

“First Baptist has accepted responsibility for this even though we had strong policies in place and performed a background check on the volunteer which revealed no issues. What we did not have at the time was a policy specifically forbidding texting between an adult and a student without copying another adult. Such a policy, if followed, could have prevented these messages.” First Baptist Church spokesman Bryan Barnes said in a written statement.

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TSHWANE (SOUTH AFRICA)
Pretoria News

February 5, 2018

By Goitsemang Tlhabye

‘WE ARE hurt that the need to keep up pretences and look holy became more important than acting in a Christ-like manner. The church did not stop, it did not listen, it did not care.” This was part of the memorandum handed in by protesting Methodist young people during a convention at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria yesterday.
The group, joined by members of the EFF, was angry about the alleged sex scandal that rocked the Methodist City Mission in Pretoria last week. The youths came from as far as Limpopo, Bloemfontein and Free State. They wore black outfits.

The shocking revelations of sexual abuse at the church came to light on January 28 after a video of young women protesting during a service went viral. The alleged sexual abuse took place last year.

The memorandum also stated that the youths were concerned and deeply hurt by the mothers who called the alleged victims “loose” and were the first to accuse them of throwing themselves at “fathers”.

“They are the first ones to say ‘these young kids like things’. Our mothers stand on the side of the creepy uncle and insist we deal with this as a family matter,” read the memorandum.

In it, the youths also requested church leaders to treat cases of that nature with sensitivity and for those implicated to be recalled from any position of leadership.

It also called for the perpetrator, protectors and the church to search within their hearts and apologise unreservedly for their actions and delays of justice.

“Ultimately, we want our churches to be safe spaces, for us to be able to come to church without the fear that we will be victims of inappropriate advances. Let our churches be spaces where children, women and the marginalised find a voice,” the youths added.

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VATICAN CITY
The Tablet

February 5, 2018

By Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sexual abuse is once again coming under scrutiny following news that he was handed a letter from a Chilean abuse victim which detailed the survivor’s ordeal and that a future bishop witnessed it.

The news of a letter, reported by the Associated Press, contradicts the Pope’s insistence that victims of Fr Fernando Karadima had not come forward to complain about a cover-up by Bishop Juan Barros, who Francis appointed to lead the Diocese of Osorno in 2015.

“You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward,” Francis told journalists on the plane returning to Rome at the end of his six-day Latin America trip at the end of last month. He also said on the plane: “No one has come forward. They haven’t provided any evidence for a judgment. This is all a bit vague. It’s something that can’t be accepted.”

But members of the papal child protection commission say they presented an eight-page letter written by Juan Carlos Cruz to Cardinal Sean O’Malley in April 2015. The cardinal is Francis’ top adviser on abuse. In the letter, Cruz makes detailed claims of the kissing and fondling that Karadima subjected him to, which he stressed Barros was a witness to. The intention was for the cardinal to then hand the letter to Francis.

“Cardinal O’Malley called me after the Pope’s visit here in Philadelphia and he told me, among other things, that he had given the letter to the Pope — in his hands,” he told Associated Press on Sunday.

Francis has been heavily criticised for both his appointment – and continued defence – of Bishop Barros, who himself has offered to resign from his position on two occasions. During his visit to Chile, the Pope upset victims by telling reporters in Santiago that until he was presented with “proof” that Barros covered up the claims agains the bishop were “calumny.” And while he later apologised for these remarks on the plane back to Rome, Francis reiterated that evidence had not been presented to him.

In his letter – written in the Pope’s native Spanish – Cruz reveals that Barros himself would be kissed and fondled by his mentor, Karadima, who was found guilty by a Vatican court in 2011 and ordered to live a life of prayer and penance. The abusive priest was a highly influential figure in church circles in Chile.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

February 5, 2018

By Nicole Winfield and Eva Vergara

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, the letter’s author and members of Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.

The fact that Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.

The scandal exploded last month when Francis’ trip to South America was marred by protests over his vigorous defense of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of covering up the abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.

On the plane home, confronted by an AP reporter, the pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”

But members of the pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors say that in April 2015, they sent a delegation to Rome specifically to hand-deliver a letter to the pope about Barros. The letter from Juan Carlos Cruz detailed the abuse, kissing and fondling he says he suffered at Karadima’s hands, which he said Barros and others witnessed and ignored.

Four members of the commission met with Francis’ top abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, explained their objections to Francis’ recent appointment of Barros as a bishop in southern Chile, and gave him the letter to deliver to Francis.

“When we gave him (O’Malley) the letter for the pope, he assured us he would give it to the pope and speak of the concerns,” then-commission member Marie Collins told the AP. “And at a later date, he assured us that that had been done.”

Cruz, who now lives and works in Philadelphia, heard the same later that year.

“Cardinal O’Malley called me after the pope’s visit here in Philadelphia and he told me, among other things, that he had given the letter to the pope — in his hands,” he said in an interview at his home Sunday.

Neither the Vatican nor O’Malley responded to multiple requests for comment.

While the 2015 summit of Francis’ commission was known and publicized at the time, the contents of Cruz’s letter — and a photograph of Collins handing it to O’Malley — were not disclosed by members. Cruz provided the letter, and Collins provided the photo, after reading an AP story that reported Francis had claimed to have never heard from any Karadima victims about Barros’ behavior.

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NEW ZEALAND
TVNZ

February 5, 2018

The head of an Irish support group for the children of Catholic priests says there are several in New Zealand – and the church has acknowledged it.

Vincent Doyle of Coping International has appealed to New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops to address the issue of supposedly-celibate priests fathering children, and then leaving those children to be cared for by their mothers.

Mr Doyle claims that six New Zealanders have joined his support group.

A spokesperson for NZ Catholic Bishops has confirmed to 1 NEWS that “there is a small number of people here, whose father is a priest”.

The spokesperson also said that their organisation is “aware that New Zealand civic society has good guidelines around a child’s right to know his or her natural parents”.

“For our Bishops, what is important is that the rights and sensitivities of the child and the mother are respected.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate

February 3, 2018

By Gordon Russell

The Diocese of Baton Rouge has determined that an abuse allegation it received against a Gonzales parish priest could not be substantiated.

Father Eric Gyan, pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish, “continues to serve as a priest in good standing and of good reputation,” the diocese said in a news release issued Saturday evening.

The abuse was alleged to have occurred in 1996, when Gyan was pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly. The victim, now 31, reported the matter to the diocese in November. The woman had told The Advocate that Gyan forced her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions when she was 10 and attended the church in Brusly. She said the abuse occurred in the confessional.

The woman made a separate complaint around the same time with the Diocese of Biloxi involving a priest at a church on the Gulf Coast that she attended during the 1990s. The status of that complaint — which church officials confirmed in December was under investigation — could not be determined Saturday.

Diocese of Baton Rouge officials acknowledged they were investigating the complaint in December after The Advocate, which had been contacted by the victim, inquired about the case. Parishioners were also informed about the abuse allegation at that time by Gyan himself, who read a statement during Mass.

Church officials said the allegation was the first and only complaint of abuse they had ever received about Gyan, who was ordained as a priest more than three decades ago. Gyan strongly denied the allegations and “consistently cooperated” in the investigation, they said.

The investigation included “extensive interviews, a public appeal for information, and consultations with experts,” the diocese said.

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TEGUCIGALPA (HONDURAS)
El Nuevo Diario

>> Honduran Public Prosecutor investigates priest accused of child abuse. The Honduran press has published audios in which the priest admits having committed lustful acts against minors.

January 11, 2018

La prensa de Honduras ha publicado audios en los cuales el sacerdote admite haber cometido actos lujuriosos contra menores.

El Ministerio Público de Honduras investiga al sacerdote Germán Flores por presuntos abusos de al menos cuatro jóvenes hondureñas cuando eran niñas, una de ellas recién fallecida a causa de un cáncer, informó hoy una fuente oficial.

Hasta ahora dos personas que habrían sido ultrajadas por el religioso cuando eran niñas han declarado ante fiscales del Ministerio Público contra Flores, quien estaría siendo citado “en las próximas horas”, dijo a periodistas el portavoz del organismo defensor de los hondureños, Yuri Mora.

Lea: Ratifican prisión preventiva a sacerdote dominicano que mató adolescente
Añadió que se espera la comparecencia de otras dos personas que estarían declarando contra Flores.

Una de las menores que habría sido abusada por Flores fue Maryory Melisa Almendárez, quien falleció a finales de 2017 a causa de un cáncer de mama, denunció su hermana, Isis Almendárez.

Según Isis Almendárez, su hermana, quien sabía que estaba próxima a morir, le confesó a pocos días de su deceso que Flores abusó de ella cuando tenía ocho años, en la comunidad de El Maguelar, departamento oriental de El Paraíso.

Añadió que Flores era persona de confianza en su familia y que con frecuencia les visitaba, pero que luego su hermana, cuando estaba próxima a celebrar la primera comunión, comenzó a rechazar al sacerdote, sin explicar razones.

[Google Translation: The Public Prosecutor of Honduras is investigating the priest Germán Flores for alleged abuses of at least four young Hondurans when they were girls, one of them recently deceased due to cancer, an official source reported today.

So far two people who would have been insulted by the religious when they were girls have testified before Prosecutors of the Public Ministry against Flores, who would be cited “in the next few hours,” spokesman of the Honduran defense agency, Yuri Mora, told reporters.

He added that the appearance of two other people who would be testifying against Flores is expected.

One of the minors who would have been abused by Flores was Maryory Melisa Almendárez, who died at the end of 2017 because of breast cancer, denounced her sister, Isis Almendárez.

According to Isis Almendárez, her sister, who knew she was about to die, confessed a few days after her death that Flores abused her when she was eight years old, in the community of El Maguelar, eastern department of El Paraíso.

He added that Flores was a person of trust in his family and that he frequently visited them, but later his sister, when she was about to celebrate the first communion, began to reject the priest , without explaining reasons.]

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>> Peru: Priest Accused of Rape in Preventive Prison

February 3, 2018

El titular del Tercer Juzgado de Investigación Preparatoria de Tarapoto, Ángel Gonzales Yovera, ordenó cinco meses de prisión preventiva para el sacerdote Cristian Alejandría Ágreda (58) capellán de la Tercera Brigada de Fuerzas Especiales base Morales (San Martín) del Ejército del Perú.

El magistrado dispuso la medida a solicitud del Ministerio Público que investiga a Alejandría Ágreda por el presunto delito de violación sexual en agravio de una menor, cuya identidad se guarda en reserva.

El sacerdote capellán fue internado para 5 meses de manera preventiva en el primer penal de Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Tarapoto, sindicado de ultrajar sexualmente a una menor de edad.

Fue el mismo sacerdote al conocer que tenía orden de captura, se puso a disposición de los agentes de la Policía Nacional del Perú, de la división de investigación criminal pidiendo seria investigación para aclarar el cas.

[Google Translation: The head of the Third Preparatory Investigation Court of Tarapoto , Ángel Gonzales Yovera, ordered five months of preventive detention for the priest Cristian Alejandría Ágreda (58) chaplain of the Third Brigade of Special Forces based Morales ( San Martín ) of the Army of Peru.

The magistrate ordered the measure at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office investigating Alejandría Ágreda for the alleged crime of rape against a minor, whose identity is kept in reserve.

The chaplain priest was interned for 5 months in a preventive manner in the first prison of Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Tarapoto, accused of sexually abusing a minor.

It was the priest himself, upon learning that he had an arrest warrant, he placed himself at the disposal of the agents of the National Police of Peru , of the criminal investigation division, asking for serious investigation to clarify the case.]

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PERU
Panamericana Televisión S.A

>> San Martín: Preventive Prison Ordered for Priest Accused of Rape

February 2, 2018

Un juez de Tarapoto ordenó cinco meses de prisión preventiva para el cura Cristian Alejandría Ágreda (58) capellán de la Tercera Brigada de Fuerzas Especiales base Morales (San Martín) del Ejército del Perú.

El magistrado dispuso la medida a solicitud de la Fiscalía que investiga al sacerdote Alejandría Ágreda por el presunto delito de violación sexual en agravio de una menor, cuya identidad se guarda en reserva.

Fue el mismo sacerdote al conocer que tenía orden de captura, quien se puso a disposición de las autoridades, informa la agencia Andina. Fue internado en el penal de Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Tarapoto, San Martín.

El Ministerio Público con el apoyo de la Policía Nacional se encargará de las investigaciones para determinar el grado de responsabilidad del religioso. La prisión preventiva culmina en junio 2018.

[Google Translation: A judge from Tarapoto ordered five months of preventive detention for the priest Cristian Alejandría Ágreda (58) chaplain of the Third Brigade of Special Forces based Morales (San Martín) of the Army of Peru.

The magistrate ordered the measure at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office that investigates the priest Alejandría Ágreda for the alleged crime of rape against a minor whose identity is kept in reserve.

It was the same priest to know that he had an arrest warrant, who was put at the disposal of the authorities, reports the agency Andina. He was admitted to the Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo prison in Tarapoto , San Martín.

The Public Ministry with the support of the National Police will be responsible for the investigations to determine the degree of responsibility of the religious. The preventive prison ends in June 2018.]

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

February 3, 2018

By Michael Katz and David Staats

It is still not clear what the precise charges are against a retired St. Mary’s Catholic Church priest who was arrested Friday by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.

A news release from the Idaho Attorney General’s Office said W. Thomas Faucher, 72, of Boise, was arrested for alleged sexual exploitation of a child, but it’s not known whether that means one count or several. And the law he’s charged under includes a range of crimes, from possessing or sharing “sexually exploitative material” to actually being involved in creating such materials.

Scott Graf, spokesman for the AG’s office, said Friday night and again Saturday that he could not comment further.

Faucher was taken to the Ada County Jail on Friday after authorities obtained a warrant to search his residence. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sparked the investigation, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office said in an after-hours news release.

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NEW YORK
The Albany (NY) Times Union via the Laredo (TX) Morning News

By Chris Churchill

February 4, 2018

When Jason Gough was eight, he was sexually abused by an aunt. Last winter, the TV meteorologist went public with his story.

Gough didn’t know it, but the decision would change the trajectory of his life. Most notably, it would lead him to leave his longtime job at WNYT.

“I’ve decided I can be of more help outside the walls of Channel 13,” said Gough, who is 47 and lives in Delmar.

By “be of more help,” Gough partly means do more to combat sexual abuse of children. Most immediately, he is joining the effort to get the Child Victims Act passed by the Legislature.

Ah, the Child Victims Act. The legislation debated for more than a decade.

The bill would extend the criminal and civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, presumably encouraging more victims to come forward. New York now requires most child sex-abuse victims to sue by the age of 23.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate

February 3, 2018

By Gordon Russell

The Diocese of Baton Rouge has determined that an abuse allegation it received against a Gonzales parish priest could not be substantiated.

Father Eric Gyan, pastor of St. Theresa of Avila Parish, “continues to serve as a priest in good standing and of good reputation,” the diocese said in a news release issued Saturday evening.

The abuse was alleged to have occurred in 1996, when Gyan was pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Brusly. The victim, now 31, reported the matter to the diocese in November. The woman had told The Advocate that Gyan forced her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions when she was 10 and attended the church in Brusly. She said the abuse occurred in the confessional.

The woman made a separate complaint around the same time with the Diocese of Biloxi involving a priest at a church on the Gulf Coast that she attended during the 1990s. The status of that complaint — which church officials confirmed in December was under investigation — could not be determined Saturday

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The New York Jewish Week

February 2, 2018

Hannah Dreyfus

Asks for $75 million, claiming defamation; open letters criticize, support school’s handling of allegations.

In the wake of The Jewish Week’s report on allegations that a former teacher at a Baltimore Jewish day school abused three young boys when he was a counselor at a Maryland summer camp in 2015, the rabbi has filed a lawsuit against his accusers.

On Tuesday, Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky filed the suit in Maryland federal court against the parents of his accusers and Chaim Levin, a sexual abuse activist and blogger, for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Rabbi Krawatsky and his wife are asking for $75 million in compensatory and punitive damages — $15 million per defendant. They say the rabbi’s accusers engaged in an effort to “damage Rabbi K and destroy his reputation and ability to earn a living” by publicly alleging that he sexually abused their sons, charges that he denies.

Attorney Jonathan Little, who represents the families, said the lawsuit is a “thinly veiled attempt to intimidate our clients.”

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UNITED STATES
Christianity Today

February 2, 2018

By Jen Zamzow

The Andy Savage case should lead us to question the way many churches are handling the issue.

Many observers were troubled when Andy Savage, a pastor at Highpoint Church in Memphis, received a standing ovation from his congregation for his admission of a “sexual incident” with a 17-year-old high-school student when he was a youth leader at Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church in Texas. They have reason to be troubled.

Though the congregation was probably unaware that the woman involved described the “incident” as an assault, at least one pastor at Woodlands and the leaders of Highpoint were aware. The alleged victim claimed that Larry Cotton, an associate pastor of Woodlands at the time, urged her to stay quiet about what happened. And only after the alleged victim made the case public did Highpoint’s pastor Chris Conlee admit that the information was not new to him or to the church leadership. Conlee went on to support Savage and his continued ministry at Highpoint Church.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for churches and religious organizations to try to handle sexual assault allegations internally. Bob Jones University, Sovereign Grace Ministries, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, and the Institute in Basic Life Principles have all come under fire in recent years for not adequately addressing sexual abuse within their communities. Some of these organizations have been accused of blaming the victims—even those who were children at the time of abuse—and pressuring them to forgive their abusers rather than report them.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos.com (blog)

February 3, 2018

By Sarahbeth Caplin

Christianity Today is not exactly known for its progressive stance on, well, anything. However, I was pleasantly surprised to read Jen Zamzow insist that churches shouldn’t handle cases of sexual abuse “internally”; that is, have the offending staff member sent on sabbatical without ever notifying the police, as was the case with pastor Andy Savage who assaulted a teenage girl decades ago (but whose story went public only recently). Savage’s church, as we know, is far from the only one to do this, and the practice not only further traumatizes victims but puts other congregants in danger

Zamzow rightly points out that while it’s easy to assume the worst of strangers, many of us are hesitant to do so of people in our inner circles. And this is something more Christians need to come to terms with.

“We’re all familiar with our tendency to evaluate our own moral failings more leniently than the moral failings of others. When someone else does something wrong, we condemn; when we do something wrong, we rationalize.

“The problem is, this bias doesn’t stop at ourselves.

…

“There might be an even greater danger of rationalization when it comes to judging church leaders than non-religious leaders. Church leaders are not only working for us; they are working for God. Precisely because working for God’s kingdom is a noble goal, it can lead us to justify any sins committed by those who have made it their career. Indeed, this is one of the ways people often try to rationalize keeping leaders accused of sexual abuse in power.

“This is a precarious road, however. Many terrible injustices have been rationalized in the name of “God’s kingdom.” Power without accountability is dangerous.”

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NEWCASTLE (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

February 3, 2018

By Mark Duell

– James Leigh had already sent intimate picture to ‘boy’ before arranging meeting

– Said he liked ‘sweaty teen lads’ to Grindr profile he believed was of a 14-year-old

– But 30-year-old learner clergyman was confronted by Guardians of the North

– Leigh has pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming

This is the moment a trainee priest was snared by paedophile hunters as he tried to meet an underage schoolboy for sex – before being jailed for a year.

James Leigh had already sent an intimate picture and boasted that he liked ‘sweaty teen lads’ to a Grindr profile he believed belonged to a 14-year-old virgin.

But when he turned up to meet ‘the boy’ at a quiet leisure centre car park after dark, the 30-year-old learner clergyman was confronted by Guardians of the North.

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NEWCASTLE (ENGLAND)
Newcastle Chronicle

February 3, 2018

By Rob Kennedy

James Leigh was living with a priest in Newcastle when he told a decoy profile on Grindr he liked ‘sweaty teen lads’ and arranged a meeting for sex

A trainee priest is behind bars after sending a picture of his genitals to what he thought was a 14-year-old boy, telling him he liked “sweaty teen lads” and turning up hoping to meet him for sex.

James Leigh was living with a Catholic priest in Newcastle as he trained to become a man of the cloth himself when he fell into illegal temptation online.

A court heard he made contact with a profile on Grindr which purported to be that of a 14-year-old boy but had in fact been set up by paedophile hunters.

Despite being told of the age of the fake boy, Leigh sent a message saying “Looking for young teen meet now”.

He then engaged in explicit chat, suggested sexual activity and arranged a meeting at Gateshead Leisure Centre.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday

February 3, 2018

By Bart Jones

The Diocese of Rockville Centre’s spiritual leader, back to his New York roots, is racking up visits to parishes and intent on getting more people in the pews.

Bishop John Barres, who took over the Diocese of Rockville Centre a year ago with a reputation as an energetic one-man whirlwind, has by one measure more than lived up to the billing: He has visited 81 out of 134 parishes and dozens of Catholic schools from Elmont to the East End.

Marking his one-year anniversary as leader of Long Island’s 1.5 million Catholics, Barres said in an interview that he is launching a major effort to boost church attendance and vocations in the eighth-largest diocese or archdiocese in the nation.

The bishop, who touched on a variety of issues, also said he will not declare Rockville Centre a “sanctuary diocese” for immigrants who are in the United States illegally and may seek safe haven from deportation in churches.

Over the months, he has made ministering to Latino Catholics a primary focus, and last spring he attended the funeral of an Ecuadorean teenager who federal prosecutors said was slain by MS-13 gang members. He said he believes Catholic schools and parishes will play a key role in helping stem more gang violence.

The bishop also said he does not believe the diocese needs to open its books on past clergy sexual-abuse cases, as some who say they were victimized have demanded.

Barres, 57, who grew up in Larchmont, said he has realized that after some 35 years away from the state, he is at heart a native New Yorker. Those roots helped him slip easily into his role here soon after arriving from the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania.

“I realized, deep down, I’m a New Yorker,” he said, laughing. “This is where I grew up. I am really comfortable here . . . I can get to the point quicker, can be a little more aggressive. We can move a little faster.”

The former Princeton University basketball player starts his days at 4:30 a.m. and continues well into the night. In addition to hitting nearly two-thirds of the parishes in the diocese, he has spoken at the United Nations, hosted a cardinal from El Salvador, and been presented with an honorary St. John’s University basketball jersey, emblazoned with his name, at center court at Madison Square Garden.

He has impressed many Catholics with his warmth, “people skills” and willingness to spend time speaking with them.

Before Masses, he roams the pews for up to half-an-hour chatting with parishioners, and he tries to arrange his schedule so he can be the last one to leave afterward, allowing for more time to talk to people individually. He has made a point of reaching out to young people, going to all 10 Catholic high schools and 16 of 47 Catholic elementary schools in the diocese.

“He’s a lovely man. He’s very friendly, warm,” said Sharon Swift, who as principal of Our Lady of Providence Regional Catholic School in Central Islip hosted Barres for a visit on Wednesday.

She marveled at how Barres, at a Mass last year at St. John of God parish where the school is located, memorized the names of some of the students within minutes, met their parents in another section of the church, and then came back to the students — remembering their names and connecting them with their parents.

For all of the goodwill that Barres has generated as a fresh and — for a bishop of a major diocese — relatively young presence, he faces challenges and some critiques.

Immigrant advocates want to see him match his supportive rhetoric with what they say could be more far-reaching actions. Survivors of clergy sex abuse want the books opened so that the full truth of the diocese’s role in the scandal can be publicly known.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Catholic Herald

February 2, 2018

By Ed Condon

The Pope has shown he is serious about reforming the Curia, so why has so little actually happened?

Whether it is to do with curial reform in Rome, Vatican diplomacy in China, or allegations of sexual abuse in Chile, Pope Francis seems to be fighting fires on all fronts. How did it come to this?

Five years into his pontificate, it was certainly not meant to be this way – Pope Francis began with a mandate for reform and showed himself to be serious about it by thinking big and bold.

In terms of Vatican reform, he set up the C9 Council to look at how the Holy See operates, both in the Vatican and in relation to the global Church. He established the Council for Economic Affairs, the Prefecture for the Economy and the office of the Auditor General to bring some accountability to the curial finances and the Vatican Bank. Smaller Vatican departments were overhauled or joined together, and a new department for Laity, Family and Life was formed.

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BOISE (ID)
KIFI-TV/KIDK-TV

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has announced investigators with his Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit arrested a Boise man Friday, February 2, for alleged Sexual Exploitation of a Child.

72-year-old W. Thomas Faucher was being transported to the Ada County Jail following his arrest. Investigators had obtained a search warrant for Faucher’s Boise residence and executed the warrant Friday afternoon. The investigation began with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The Ada County Prosecutor’s Office assisted the ICAC Unit.

Anyone with information regarding the exploitation of children is encouraged to contact local police, the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit at 208-334-4527, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

February 3, 2018

By Michael Katz and David Staats

A retired priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boise was arrested Friday by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit for alleged sexual exploitation of a child.

W. Thomas Faucher, 72, was taken to the Ada County Jail after authorities obtained a warrant to search his Boise residence. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sparked the investigation, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office said in an after-hours news release.

Faucher’s exact charges were unclear Friday night. The law he’s charged under includes a range of crimes, from possessing or sharing “sexually exploitative material” to actually being involved in creating such materials. Scott Graf, spokesman for the AG’s office, declined to provide clarification.

Gene Fadness, communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, told the Statesman that Faucher had not been an active priest for the past three years.

“Because of Father Faucher’s retirement three years ago, he has not held any pastoral assignments since that time,” the diocese said in a statement. “Because of the seriousness of the allegations, Faucher will be unable to minister in the Diocese of Boise in any way. The diocese will cooperate fully with law enforcement officials in their investigation.”

Faucher (pronounced foh-SHAY) grew up in Boise and attended St. Mary’s as a child. He was ordained on June 4, 1971, in Boise, and became pastor of the church at the corner of 26th and State streets in 2002.

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DOVER (DE)
Associated Press

February 1, 2018

Delaware prosecutors for the first time have brought criminal child molestation charges against a Catholic priest.

An indictment issued by a grand jury Monday charges 76-year-old John A. Sarro with first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact.

The charges involve a girl who was under the age of 16. Sarro is accused of fondling her sometime between September 1991 and August 1992 by touching her breasts. Prosecutors allege he later had oral sex with the girl between July 1993 and July 1994.

Sarro was one of several priests, both living and dead, about whom the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington disclosed in 2006 that it had received admitted, corroborated or otherwise substantiated allegations of sexual abuse.

In 2011, after seeking bankruptcy protection amid widespread allegations of child sex abuse by priests, the diocese agreed to pay more than $70 million in a settlement with nearly 150 alleged victims of sexual abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

February 2, 2018

In an online editorial Jan. 23, NCR took Pope Francis to task for the pain he caused survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. Twice and very publicly, he dismissed the testimony of abuse victims and charging them with “calumny” against a bishop he had installed in a diocese in southern Chile over the advice of other Chilean prelates and over the loud, ardent protests of Chilean lay Catholics.

Francis dismissed out of hand testimony that Chilean Bishop Juan Barros Madrid of Orsono had for years ignored or covered up evidence that his mentor Fr. Fernando Karadima was abusing young men. Despite at least three survivors’ public accounts to the contrary, Francis insisted — in harsh, judgmental language — that he had seen no evidence against Barros.

We recognized in this an all-too-familiar script: Discredit the survivors’ testimony, support the cleric in question, and bank on public attention moving on to something else. We said in that editorial: Francis’ “remarks are at the least shameful. At the most, they suggest that Francis now could be complicit in the cover-up.” We continued:

History has shown that the great number of survivors were telling the truth. Any reform that has happened in the church is due to their courageous resolve. The hierarchy was caught in its lies and humbled, but not before unknown numbers of believers were driven out of the Catholic Church. The scandal has cost the church moral authority, credibility and billions of dollars.

In recent years, we had thought chastened church leaders had begun to correct mistakes of the past. We were wrong. The supreme pontiff apparently has not learned this lesson.

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NEW ZEALAND
NZ Catholic

February 2, 2018

By Michael Otto

Whatever shape the new Government’s promised independent inquiry into historical claims of abuse of children in state care takes, the past actions of churches, including the Catholic Church, will come under scrutiny.

That was the forecast in December of Bill Kilgallon, who heads the Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards in this country.

A Royal Commission into historical state care abuse has since been been launched by the Government. It was announced that there is to be an independent inquiry into historical claims of abuse of children in state care.

This is with a view to learning lessons to ensure policy is changed to minimise the risk of this happening in the future.

Mr Kilgallon, who is also a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, was one of the people being consulted by Government officials as the scope and limits of the inquiry were being drawn up.

He told NZ Catholic that if it is decided that the inquiry stays with looking at state care, “that will obviously also involve all those children in state care who were placed in establishments run by churches and other organisations, or placed in foster care by Catholic Social Services”.

“So even at its narrowest remit, that will involve a considerable amount of work from the Church in responding to that section — so all the orphanages, children’s homes, specialist establishments, the laundries that were run at one time.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Phoenix New Times

February 1, 2018

By Joseph Flaherty

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ruled that a lawsuit can move forward against the Phoenix Diocese for an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse within the clergy.

The victim’s attorney, Robert E. Pastor of law firm Montoya, Lucero, and Pastor, said on Thursday that the ruling is a welcome step. His client will have the opportunity to seek justice for the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, Pastor said.

The civil suit is against the Diocese of Phoenix, the Salvatorian Order, and St. Mark’s Catholic Parish. Kerstin LeMaire of Maricopa County Superior Court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

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NEW HAVEN (CT)
Fox News

February 1, 2018

Sororities at Yale University are now giving members the ability to “flag” names of people who allegedly make them feel uncomfortable, with the frat “blacklist” emerging amid the fallout from accusations of sexual misconduct by a fraternity whose legacies include both former Bush presidents.

The new measures by sororities Kappa Alpha Theta and Pi Beta Phi include giving out surveys to members before social events to include names of people they feel uncomfortable seeing there, the Yale Daily News reported.

“There is a general sentiment of disappointment regarding sexual safety on college campuses, and Theta is working to improve the safety of its members and all Yale students,” sorority chapter president Miranda Duster told the newspaper.

Duster said the list of people, including those who are “flagged,” is only available to Theta members and only for use at private chapter events. Those who are put on the list are barred from attending events hosted by the sorority.

The action by the sororities comes in the wake of sexual assault allegations against two brothers from the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, which were reported by the Yale Daily News and Business Insider.

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BELLEFONTE (DE)
WTXF

February 1, 2018

A terrible first in the state of Delaware has occurred. A former Catholic priest faces charges of raping a child.

The big stone church known as Saint Helena Parish dominates the neighborhood in the tiny Delaware community of Bellefonte.

Mass is heard daily here and social events are held. However, there is sorrow and anger over 76-year-old John Sarro in the community.

“Anytime you mess with a minor, you get what you deserve. He’s an animal as far as I’m concerned,” said Bob Cannon.

Sarro was priest at Saint Helena in the 1990’s.

According to a New Castle County Grand Jury indictment, he had “sexual intercourse” with a girl under 16 in the early ‘90’s.

Sarro was also charged with “touching the teenager’s breasts.”

Despite a long history of sexual abuse claims made against priests here, Sarro is the first to be criminally charged.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Baptist News

February 1, 2018

By Bob Allen

The first woman to go public with allegations of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar, the former sports medicine doctor at Michigan State University, says the laudatory public reaction to her story would have been different if it had happened at church.

Rachael Denhollander, star witness in the sentencing phase of the former USA Gymnastics director’s trial for criminal sexual misconduct, gained widespread attention in national and Christian media when she invoked her faith in her impact statement.

“I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me — though I extend that to you as well,” she said to her abuser.

But Denhollander, whose husband has a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently enrolled in doctoral studies there, said advocating for other victims of sexual assault within the religious community once caused her to leave her church during a different scandal involving an evangelical megachurch.

Denhollander, the last of more than 150 survivors providing impact statements in the highly publicized case against Nassar, says church “is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse.”

“That’s a hard thing to say, because I am a very conservative evangelical, but that is the truth,” Denhollander said in an interview with Christianity Today. “There are very, very few who have ever found true help in the church.”

Denhollander said she and her husband left a church in Louisville, Ky., that was “directly involved in restoring” C.J. Mahaney, the former president of Sovereign Grace Ministries accused of covering up sex abuse in a class action lawsuit dismissed due to statute of limitations in 2014.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
The State

February 1, 2018

By John Monk

Columbia’s First Baptist Church and its longtime minister, Wendell Estep, are apologizing to a child who was sexually abused by a former church volunteer and have agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the youth and his parents for $300,000.

The apology and $300,000 payout are laid out in an eight-page settlement agreement. In the settlement, the landmark downtown church accepts responsibility for the abuse and pledges to reform its child-safety practices.

“We want to offer an apology for the inappropriate and unacceptable conduct this young man endured and express regret for what we failed to do to prevent it,” says part of a statement, which will be read to the congregation after a Sunday church service.

“We are sorry that this young man was wronged and that our policies and procedures, as well as our enforcement of those policies and procedures, were insufficient to protect him,” the statement says. “No student should have to experience what this young man endured.”

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The Independent

February 2, 2018

By Tom Embury-Dennis

‘I can’t recall all the circumstances, but it was simply a misunderstanding’ says John A Sarro

A Catholic priest charged with child rape has claimed that it was “simply a misunderstanding” and that it “happened by accident”.

John A Sarro was charged by a grand jury earlier this week in Delaware, the first time the US state has brought criminal molestation charges against a Catholic priest.

The 76-year-old is accused of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle

February 1, 2018

By Betty Clermont

The UN Committee Against Torture “found that the widespread sexual violence within the Catholic Church amounted to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” in May 2014. The members “ordered the Vatican to hand over files containing details of clerical sexual abuse allegations to police forces around the world … to use its authority over the Roman Catholic Church worldwide to ensure all allegations of clerical abuse are passed on to the secular authorities and to impose ‘meaningful sanctions’ on any Church officials who fail to do so.”

Pope Francis has refused to put any of these measures in place. Children around the world are now in even more danger because the powerful U.S. media has put the world on notice that the one man who can make real change need not do so. Not only is the pope not accountable, but also his “representative and their aides” around the world.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) found child sexual offenders employed by the Church were still in contact with children, Church officials were not cooperating with law enforcement authorities, the pope’s representatives and their aides were not monitoring the behavior of those under their “effective control” and that there was no accountability for hierarchs.

Pope Francis’ formal response to the CRC was to claim that his government, the Holy See, was only responsible for the 31 children resident in the Vatican City State “despite the fact that the Holy See decides whether thousands of clerics [the Vatican received 3,420 credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors between 2004 and 2014] from all over the world” are guilty of sexually abusing children, noted Kieran Tapsell, a retired civil lawyer and an author on canon law.

The pope is under zero pressure from the U.S. media to warn the public or notify civil authorities when a priest is found guilty.

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UNITED STATES
The Jewish Press

February 1, 2018

By Dr. Michael J. Salamon

Larry Nassar, the former doctor for the female Olympic gymnastics team, received a sentence of 40 to 175 years for sexual abuse. At sentencing, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said she was effectively signing his death warrant.

While it is not exactly clear how many young female athletes he molested, the judge forced him to sit through seven days of statements by 156 of his victims. At one point during the victims’ statements Nassar asked to be exempted from hearing them. The judge denied the request.

At his sentencing, Nassar made a brief statement that suggested he was remorseful. He said, “There are no words to describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred. An acceptable apology to all of you is impossible to convey. I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.”

Judge Aquilina said she did not believe his apology. For good reason – it was not an apology. It was a more like a disavowal of responsibility.

There is so much that can and should be learned from this harrowing case that must be studied and applied within our community.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

January 31, 2018

By Alison Knezevich

A rabbi who was fired from Beth Tfiloh school in Pikesville amid abuse allegations has sued the parents of his accusers, as well as an activist in New York.

Rabbi Steven Krawatsky and his wife, Shira, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland. Krawatsky, who also goes by the first name Shmuel, taught for nearly 15 years at Beth Tfiloh, a private Jewish school.

In 2015 and 2016, Krawatsky was accused of sexual abuse at Camp Shoresh in Frederick County, where he worked as a counselor for 15 years, he says in the lawsuit.

Krawatsky, 40, denies the accusations. The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office investigated and prosecutors did not bring charges.

Several weeks ago, the New York Jewish Week published a report detailing the allegations. After the report was published, Beth Tfiloh terminated Krawatsky. He had taught Judaic studies at the school.

In the lawsuit, Krawatsky and his wife allege that those who have accused him engaged in an effort to “damage Rabbi K and destroy his reputation and ability to earn a living.” The lawsuit’s claims include defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Jerusalem Post

January 30, 2018

By Tamara Zieve

American businessman Daniel Sunray completed a six-year sentence for sexual abuse of six children between 1998 and 1999.

A US-based Jewish advocacy group working to combat child sex abuse within the Orthodox community is in a legal battle with a convicted pedophile about whom the group warned the local community.

In June 2016, the Jewish Community Watch, known for its “wall of shame,” shared information about the release of American businessman Daniel Sunray from an Israeli prison, where he had completed a six-year sentence for sexual abuse of six children between 1998 and 1999.

In April 2017, the group alerted the Jewish community in New York City that Sunray had moved there.

“We shared this information to warn the community about a man who poses a potentially serious risk to children,” the group said in a press release sent to The Jerusalem Post this week.

A few months ago, the group received a notice summoning its leaders to appear in front of Rabbi Yisroel Arye Knopfler’s Badatz Beit Din (rabbinical court) of Lakewood, New Jersey. According to the note, Sunray was suing Jewish Community Watch for Lashon Hara (derogatory or harmful speech).

“We are being sued for warning the community that a convicted sex offender, with a history of grooming children in shuls and offering children rides, had anonymously moved into their area,” said Meyer Seewald, founder and director of Jewish Community Watch.

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BRONX (NY)
The Bronx Chronicle

January 27, 2018

By David Greene

Banished priest and accused child molester Father Richard Gorman died Tuesday, January 23, at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. He was 63.

Archdiocese of New York spokesman Joseph Zwilling confirmed Thursday morning, “It is true that he passed away, yes.”

Zwilling continued, “I really don’t have very much in the way of details, other than he passed away two nights ago at Jacobi Hospital.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Post

February 1, 2018

By Gabrielle Fonrouge

The defense attorney for disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar said she doesn’t believe that her client could have sexually assaulted all 256 of his accusers.

“There’s a huge part of me that doesn’t believe every one of those girls was victimized by him,” Shannon Smith said in an interview with WWJ News during a morning broadcast.

She later clarified that she’s not denying he’s guilty of assaulting some women but believes the number that has come forward is “really extreme.”

“There was no way there could have been so much,” she said.

“Larry would have to have been doing this all day, every day with no one catching on. This is a guy who put child pornography in a trash can. He’s not a savvy guy.”

She went on to say she believes many of Nassar’s former patients received legitimate medical treatments from the doctor, who used his hands to manipulate sensitive areas of their bodies.

“I think Larry Nassar comes off as a really great person. There is no doubt he did a lot of good for a lot of his patients,” Smith said.

She believes the attention Nassar’s case received is what’s causing former patients to come forward with feelings they’d been assaulted too.

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TALLAHASSEE (FL)
Miami Herald

February 1, 2018

By Elizabeth Koh

For most of her life, the people around Sherry Johnson pushed her to stay silent.

When she was raped for the first time at age 8 by the bishop of her church, Johnson’s mother accused her of lying, she said. When her mother’s husband and a church deacon also began to rape her, she stayed silent out of fear.

When she became pregnant at age 10 by the deacon, she was taken out of school, forced to marry him and had five more children with him before she was able to obtain a divorce.

For decades, Johnson, 58, remained voiceless about her past, cycling through two more abusive relationships. But in 2012, spurred by a desire to make sure what happened to her would not happen to any other child, she began to push lawmakers in Florida to close the loophole that allowed her marriage to be recognized by the law.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery, Inc. – P.O. Box 279, Livingston, NJ 07039 – 862-368-2800

Newark Archdiocese places children, teenagers, and vulnerable adults at risk by not requiring its parishes and schools to comply with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People regarding child safety training

It is outrageous that 53 parishes and 13 schools have not fulfilled its 2017 obligation to keep children safe by conducting and verifying training for adults who work with children

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, since he arrived in Newark over one year ago, has largely ignored the critical work of child protection and healing by not mandating that parishes and schools make child protection a priority and by now litigating clergy sexual abuse cases

What

A press conference and demonstration protesting the lack of attention paid to child protection and healing by Cardinal Joseph Tobin and the Archdiocese of Newark demonstrated by the 53 parishes and 13 schools that have yet to document their child protection training and by the litigation undertaken by Cardinal Tobin of childhood sexual abuse claims, leaving children at risk of sexual abuse and victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse with the inability to heal in a timely manner.

When

Friday, February 2, 2018 from 10:30 until Noon (Press conference at 11:30 am)

Where

On the public sidewalk across from the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Newark at 171 Clifton Avenue, Newark, New Jersey 07104

Who

Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., including victim/survivors of clergy from the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey and their advocates, led by Road to Recovery, Inc. co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why

A recent Star Ledger report highlighted the lack of seriousness of the Archdiocese of Newark in protecting children in its parishes, schools, and institutions. 53 parishes and 13 schools, in 2017, have not reported that they have conducted training in child protection as required by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This is not surprising since Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who became the Archbishop of Newark approximately one year ago, has not treated victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the Newark Archdiocese with fairness, and he has chosen litigation over settlements, causing sexual abuse victim/survivors of Newark Archdiocesan clergy to feel re-victimized and re-traumatized. Demonstrators will call on Cardinal Joseph Tobin to make clergy sexual abuse training a priority by requiring all Archdiocesan institutions to conduct proper and thorough training, treating sexual abuse victim/survivors with fairness and justice, and settling cases of clergy sexual abuse in a timely, just, and fair manner.

Contacts

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 roberthoatson@gmail.com

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – mgarabedian@garabedianlaw.com

(portrayed in the 2016 Academy Award- winning Best Picture, “Spotlight”)

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NEWARK (NJ)
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

February 1, 2018

By Erin Banco

More than six dozen parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Newark may be out of compliance with a policy meant to protect children from sexual abuse, documents obtained by NJ Advance Media show.

Sixteen years ago, after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops passed the historic Dallas charter meant to address the allegations of sexual misconduct in the church, dioceses across the U.S. were required to implement background checks and training for all staffers and volunteers working with children.

As part of that policy and in order to sustain accountability, parishes and schools were required to submit annual reports to the diocese listing the workers who had completed the screening and training and those who had not.

Documents obtained by NJ Advance Media show that in the Newark archdiocese, 24 percent of the parishes in 2017 did not submit a compliance report. That means 53 parishes could be fielding teachers, volunteers and other workers who may not have passed a background check, said an employee within the archdiocese.

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ROME
CRUX

February 1, 2018

By Inés San Martín

ROME – Catholics from Chile welcomed Pope Francis’s decision to send a representative to the country to look into the case of Bishop Juan Barros, accused by victims of clerical sexual abuse of covering up the crimes of pedophile priest Fernando Karadima, who the Vatican found guilty of abusing minors in 2011.

Barros himself has been quoted saying he welcomes “with faith and joy” whatever the pontiff decides.

Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati also welcomed Francis’s decision to send Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Malta to listen to those who’ve “manifested their will to make known elements they possess.”

Ezzati called the move “opportune,” and believed that it will lead to a “more complete process.”

“We’re very happy with the decision and I think it is very opportune […] he comes, as the pope said, to look for the elements that the people want to offer to him for a more complete process,” said the prelate, Archbishop of Santiago, in a statement made available by Biobiochile.

Barros, who together with three other bishops has been accused by the victims of Karadima of covering up for the abuse committed by him, was not in his diocese when the news was announced by the Vatican’s press office on Tuesday.

However, through a statement released by his diocese, Osorno, the bishop said that he “welcomes with faith and joy everything the pope decides,” and asked “God for the truth to shine, and invoking especially to the Holy Virgin Mary that everyone reaches peace.”

Later that same day, diocesan spokesperson, Jaime Coiro, told reporters that Scicluna’s mission to Chile “demonstrates” that during the pope’s recent visit to Chile he had “an attitude of true listening and closeness to the reality and challenges of Chilean society and of the Church.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

February 1, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse have asked a federal judge to extend the time to serve legal documents to four defendants in their lawsuits, including the Capuchin Franciscans and the Congregation of Holy Cross, both in Italy.

Six of the plaintiffs said they also need time to find someone to translate the documents from English to Italian.

Former Catholic school teacher Ray Caluag, who is in the Philippines, and former priest Joe R. San Agustin, also known as Andrew San Agustin, who is believed to be on Guam, also have not been served copies of the lawsuits, according to the plaintiffs.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Lifestyle

January 30, 2018

By Elena Sheppard

“Do I make you uncomfortable?” Rose McGowan asks in voiceover, as we are met with an extreme close-up on her face while she rubs what looks like powder onto her high cheekbones. “Good.”

This question and answer comes within the first 30 seconds of McGowan’s five-part series, Citizen Rose, which premieres Tuesday night on E!. Making her audience uncomfortable is clearly important to McGowan, who instantly seeks to dispel the version of her you likely know — “the version that was sold to you,” she calls it. She’s here to set the record straight — the record being the story that she has long hinted at, and finally publicly told in 2017, of being raped by Harvey Weinstein. “The monster” as she calls him in the series, never once saying his name.

McGowan is a divisive figure, and always has been. She was sold to the American public as a “bad girl,” a sex symbol, all big eyes and pouty lips. But that version is not who she is. “It’s been really hard having the mind of an artist but being in a town that sells you as just a commodity,” she says. In Citizen Rose, we are again given a constructed version of McGowan, but it’s a construction of her own making; and in that, particularly in this moment and in this narrative, there is extreme power.

Since coming forward with her Weinstein rape allegations, McGowan has been combination powder keg and necessary rocket fuel for the #MeToo movement, garnering supporters as much as she repels them. She has championed women’s empowerment and simultaneously called out resistance efforts like the black dresses worn at the Golden Globes, as well as feuding with Meryl Streep. She is not here to make people feel comfortable or good; she is here to tell the truth — her truth. “Let me tell you how enraged I am,” she says in Citizen Rose, “Not just for me, but for anyone who’s been disbelieved.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Sojourners

January 31, 2018

By Beth Moore

The choirs of outcries from Hollywood over the Harvey Weinstein scandal and those echoing globe-wide over the atrocities of USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar against children drop a question of epic proportions into the lap of the church:

Why are we who preach and teach “the truth will set you free” largely bound by silence regarding sexual assault and abuse?

Rachael Denhollander’s courtroom testimony, masterfully articulating both the grace and justice of Jesus Christ, made her identification as a Christian beautifully clear. We were immensely proud to be her sisters and brothers and to stand with her in the public square.

Then came the irony of discovering that her advocacy for sexual assault victims had cost Rachael her church. What’s more, most of us suspect her congregation wouldn’t have been the only one. What are we to do with this disparity? Why would followers of Jesus be among the least vocal and the slowest to respond when Christ, whom we are called to imitate, was a relentless defender of the powerless, misused, victimized, and abused? In specific regard to children, why do we – activists in numerous other streams of concern – choose reserve about wrongs for which Jesus reserved a titanic threat?

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MARTINSBURG (WV)
The Journal

February 1, 2018

By Kelsie LeRose

MARTINSBURG–Testimony continued Wednesday from Sandra Lee Jensen during the civil case alleging members of the Mormon Church covered up sexual abuse by the son of church leaders.

Sandra Lee Jensen first took the stand Tuesday as a witness for the plaintiffs. She is the mother of Christopher Michael Jensen – who is serving 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two minors at the ages of 4 and 3.

The lawsuit against the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints; Sandra Lee and Chris Jensen; Don Fishel and Steven Grow, who have held lay church clergy positions; and one unnamed defendant was filed in 2013 by six families.

The suit accused the church and its leaders of actively covering up the abuse and assisting Michael Jensen in committing further acts by enabling him to babysit for and live with other church families with young children.

Carl Kravitz, an attorney for the plaintiffs, began questioning Wednesday by referencing a family’s complaint of Michael Jensen’s treatment of their then 4-year-old son.

The victim’s mother had called Sandra Lee Jensen to her house in reference to the allegations, Kravitz said. However, she testified she believed she was going over to help with Relief Society President duties.

Those duties include assisting in the needs of the members within the local congregation and communities.

During the meeting, Kravitz said, the victim’s mother used the word sex offender and Michael Jensen in the same sentence. Kravitz asked Sandra Lee Jensen if she questioned why she said that.

“I did not,” she replied. She continued by saying she wanted to get an explanation from her son.

Sandra Lee testified that Michael Jensen told her the victim had walked in on him while he was using the bathroom, but he went about his business.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio NZ

February 1, 2018

By Aaron Smale

Opinion – I don’t often write this: the government has got it right.

The announcement that there will be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse suffered by wards of the state is a massive step in the right direction. It comes after years – nay – decades of denial, obfuscation, and outright vicious treatment of survivors who have summoned the courage to confront the state.

This approach, sustained by successive governments and generations of bureaucrats, has added further layers of victimisation on people who have already been subjected to abuse that warrants comparison with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

Furthermore, these experiences happened to them when they were children.

Finally, the state that carried out these injustices will be in the dock and subjected to scrutiny and judgement it has dodged by using its own powers.

Although Prime Minister Ardern has always supported an inquiry, even before it was a high profile topic, there was a real risk that she would pull her punches and only called for a lower level inquiry.

She admitted in the announcement that she was inclined to take this path. If she had taken this option it would have compromised its credibility from the start and would have gained little support from survivors.

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