ABUSE TRACKER

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

By Mindy Aguon

October 13, 2017

An encounter with a priest in Talofofo in 1985 resulted in a teen boy quitting church and living with humiliation and embarrassment, according to the latest lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and defrocked priest Andrew Mannetta.

A.J.B.W., 46, who used initials to protect his privacy, alleges he was sexually abused by Mannetta while helping the priest clean outside the rectory of San Miguel Catholic Church.

Boys in the village often played at the old basketball court near the parish and Mannetta would seek their help to clean around the church.

One day A.J.B.W. was summoned to help the priest clean outside the rectory. The lawsuit states Mannetta asked how the boy was doing in school. A.J.B.W. told him he was doing well but that he didn’t go to school that day because of a stomachache.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

October 14, 2017
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By Warwick Middleton, Martin Dorahy, Michael Salter

Recent reporting by Richard Guilliatt has raised questions about the credibility of adults reporting child sexual abuse (“Those Events Never Happened”, The Weekend Australian Magazine, October 4-5). Underlying this and other ­articles in The Australian has been a sense of unease or outrage about the accuracy of memories of ­severe abuse being retrieved after a period of being forgotten by some traumatised individuals.

Reading these articles, there is the feeling that we have stepped back into the past century, ­before science had a solid understanding of the effects of trauma on memory. The early to mid-1990s saw the rise of terms such as recovered memory therapy to characterise mental healthcare for sexually abused people as stirring up false memories of traumatic events.

Activists promoting this view lobbied the Victorian health minister at the time, Bronwyn Pike, into launching an inquiry examining the extent recovered memory therapy was practised in Victoria. The inquiry reported in 2005, finding that the term was not used by health professionals but was being used by lobby groups for political purposes.

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HAMBURG (GERMANY)
Norddeutscher Rundfunk

October 13, 2017

By Florian Breitmeier

[Summary: A report has been released on allegations of sexual abuse by Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen of the Hildesheim diocese and a Jesuit, Peter R. The report was prepared for the diocese by the Institute for Practice Research and Project Consulting in Munich. See also the Institute’s project description.]

Das katholische Bistum Hildesheim stellt am Montag um 11 Uhr das Gutachten zu den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen den verstorbenen Bischof Heinrich Maria Janssen und den pensionierten Priester Peter R. vor. Das rund 250 Seiten umfassende Dokument wurde vom unabhängigen Institut für Praxisforschung und Projektberatung in München verfasst.

Vorwurf sexueller Gewalt

Der Vorwurf sexualisierter Gewalt gegen den 1988 verstorbenen Bischof Janssen wurde im Herbst 2015 bekannt. Ein ehemaliger Messdiener hatte sich an die Kirche gewandt: Janssen habe ihn von Ende der 1950er- bis Anfang der 1960er-Jahre regelmäßig sexuell missbraucht. Das Bistum hielt die Schilderungen des heute rund 70 Jahre alten Mannes für plausibel und leistete 2015 nach Prüfung entsprechender Aussagen eine Anerkennungszahlung für das erlittene Leid. Als ein juristisches Schuldeingeständnis wollte das Bistum dies aber ausdrücklich nicht verstanden wissen. Später wurde das Bistum unter anderem dafür kritisiert, es habe mit der Zahlung das Ansehen des beliebten Bischofs beschädigt, ohne die Entscheidung aufgrund konkreter Beweise rechtfertigen zu können.

Auch Priester Peter R. beschuldigt

Im zweiten Fall wurden verschiedene Vorwürfe des sexuellen Missbrauchs gegen den pensionierten Priester Peter R. erhoben. Zuletzt von einer jungen Frau und deren Mutter, die beide angaben, als Kinder bzw. Jugendliche von Peter R. sexuell missbraucht worden zu sein.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Christian Post

October 5, 2017

By Leonardo Blair

Pastor Jimmy Hinton of Somerset Church of Christ in Pennsylvania announced Wednesday that he has officially resigned from Church Protect, an organization he founded with veteran clinical therapist Jon Uhler to help churches prevent and report sexual abuse.

“It is with sadness that I announce my resignation with Church Protect. There were some recent events that occurred which I personally felt were not at the heart of the mission of Church Protect and my conscience would not allow me to remain,” Hinton said in a statement on his Facebook page.

According to Church Protect, the organization was launched after Hinton found out that his father, a former minister, is a pedophile.

“God allowed Jimmy’s path to intersect with Jon Uhler and a partnership was born. Jon has over 20 years of counseling experience working as a clinical therapist, has worked extensively with survivors of child sex abuse, and has over 10 years of experience working with sex offenders who are in prison,” the organization said.

* * *

According to Church Protect, more than 90 percent of pedophile say they are religious, which make churches attractive to sexual offenders.

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LEXINGTON (KY)
Herald Leader

October 12, 2017

By Mike Stunson and Greg Kocher

A former associate pastor of a large Lexington church has been charged with sexual abuse of two teens, according to court records.

Reid Buchanan, who worked at St. Luke United Methodist Church from July 2016 until August of this year, was arrested Wednesday by Lexington police. Two minors accused Buchanan, 63, of touching them inappropriately multiple times, starting when they were younger, according to a complaint warrant filed in Fayette District Court.

The abuse of the youngest victim allegedly began two years ago. She didn’t come forward until a recent incident.

Abuse of the other victim began many years prior with the latest incident in April, according to the complaint warrant.

Buchanan denied any wrongdoing, according to court records.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

HAMBURG (GERMANY)
Zeit Online

October 11, 2017

By Doreen Reinhard

[Summary: Renate Viehrig-Seger participated in an open hearing on 10/11/17 in Leipzig devoted to the taboo subject of sexual abuse experienced by children housed in institutions in the former East Germany. The hearing was part of the Independent Commission on the Elimination of Sexual Child Abuse.]

Sexuellen Missbrauch durfte es offiziell nicht geben in der DDR. Dabei gab es Tausende schwere Fälle – in Familien, in Kinderheimen und Jugendwerkhöfen des Systems.

“Bis zu meinem elften Geburtstag war meine Kindheit ganz okay”, sagt Renate Viehrig-Seger. “Mal abgesehen von der Prügel, die ich immer wieder von meinem Vater bekam.” Gewalt und Missbrauch zogen sich durch ihre Kindheit und Jugend, so heftig, dass sie ganz eigene Kategorien für das Ausmaß entwickelt hat.

Renate Viehrig-Seger war ein Kind der DDR und in der gab es so gut wie keine Chance, dass Tragödien wie ihre an die Öffentlichkeit gelangten. Dass ihr irgendwer zu Hilfe kam. Geboren ist sie 1959, aufgewachsen mit zehn Geschwistern, einem aggressiven Vater und einer Mutter, die vor allem weggeschaut hat. Als sie pubertierte, waren ihrem Vater Schläge nicht mehr genug. “Er holte mich nachts ins Wohnzimmer, um mich anzufassen. Im Raum daneben lag meine Mutter. Als sie ins Wohnzimmer kam, schnauzte mein Vater sie an, dass sie abhauen soll.”

Renate Viehrig-Seger suchte Hilfe bei Ämtern, aber niemand glaubte ihr. Sie begann, zu verzweifeln. “Ich wurde rabiat, habe geklaut und über die Stränge geschlagen.” Immer wieder versuchte sie, von zu Hause abzuhauen, aber jedes Mal wurde sie von der Polizei wieder zu den Eltern zurückgebracht. Irgendwann sagte ihre Mutter: “Es reicht, du gehst ins Heim.”

Zunächst war dieser Weg für das Mädchen eine Erleichterung. “In dem Kinderheim, in das ich zuerst kam, gab es Ordnung, Sauberkeit, Struktur, so etwas kannte ich von zu Hause nicht.” Bald darauf wurde sie jedoch in den Geschlossenen Jugendwerkhof Torgau verlegt, der zu den schlimmsten Institutionen des Staates gehörte, gedacht zur “Umerziehung” nach sozialistischen Maßstäben.

Insgesamt 474 staatliche Kinderheime gab es in der DDR. Davon waren 38 sogenannte Spezialkinderheime und 32 Jugendwerkhöfe, in denen jene Heranwachsenden verwahrt wurden, die als schwer erziehbar und verhaltensauffällig galten. Viele Kinder und Jugendliche haben dort die Hölle erlebt. Im Jugendwerkhof Torgau wurde auch für Renate Viehrig-Seger alles nur noch schlimmer. “Ich habe dort nächtlichen Besuch vom Direktor bekommen, der mich vergewaltigt hat.” Als sie einem Erzieher davon erzählte, bekam sie auch dort keine Hilfe, stattdessen zwei Tage Arrest, weil sie Lügen erzählt habe.

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SANTA FE (NM)
Santa Fe New Mexican

October 12, 2017

By Andrew Oxford

[Note: This article provides a link to a 3/31/15 lawsuit John Doe N v Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and Franciscan Friars alleging abuse by Br. Dennis Huff OFM. See also the BishopAccountability.org database entry on Huff.]

A top administrator at a health care organization in Arizona has resigned amid allegations that he sexually abused students at the St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe while serving as a Franciscan brother there 40 years ago.

Dennis Huff stepped down as behavioral health services administrator at Native Health, a nonprofit that primarily serves Native Americans, late last month after the Archdiocese of Santa Fe listed his name among 74 clergy and members of religious orders accused of sexually abusing children over the last half-century.

Huff’s resignation decades later and hundreds of miles away marks just the latest twist in the long unraveling of a scandal that has gone to the heart of the Catholic Church in New Mexico, where priests from around the country who were known to prey on children were sent for “treatment” and where officials are accused of covering up abuse for years.

The Phoenix New Times reported earlier this month it had received an anonymous letter sent to Native Health’s CEO in mid-August, disclosing that Huff was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing students at the now-shuttered school.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

October 11, 2017

By Joanne Suder

At first glance, the newly enacted Maryland law that extends the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse from age 25 to age 38 appears to offer hope to individuals who, for any number of reasons, are psychologically unable or unwilling to seek a remedy for the horrors they experienced as children until they are well into adulthood.

That’s not how it worked out, however, and at the very least this law delivers false hope. House Bill 642 instead dealt a stealthy and significant win to the Archdiocese of Baltimore — and any other employer that has allowed perpetrators under their purview to persist in terrorizing children.

Here’s why. Although the law extends the statute of limitations from age 25 to 38, it adds an onerous requirement: Victims older than 25 who sue a rapist’s employer must now meet the notoriously difficult-to-prove gross negligence standard. Before this law, a sexual-abuse victim had to demonstrate ordinary negligence by the employer. What the new law means is that older victims suing potentially culpable employers, such as the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the priest-rape cases, must prove that the employer was acting with thoughtless disregard for the consequences without the exertion of any effort to avoid them.

Therefore, schools or camps or other organizations that purport to care for children, but allow abuse under their noses, can get off the hook and avoid compensating victims because proving gross negligence is just too hard. Maryland’s courts describe this standard as “an amorphous concept, resistant to precise definition.” Unfortunately, Maryland court history is riddled with cases stating that even the most egregious conduct that meets the negligence standard would not pass the gross negligence test.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal

October 12, 2017

By Olivier Uyttebrouck

[Note: See BishopAccountability.org database entries on Griego, Sigler, and Perrault.

A wide variety of church documents and other records filed in clerical abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe will become public Wednesday under a ruling handed down by an Albuquerque judge.

District Judge Alan Malott approved a request from a television station to unseal court records related to three former priests who have been named in dozens of lawsuits dating to the 1990s. The former priests are Sabine Griego, Jason Sigler and Arthur Perrault. Perrault has fled the country.

Malott said he delayed public disclosure of the records until Wednesday to allow parties in the case to consider whether to appeal the ruling. An attorney for the archdiocese did not reply to a phone message Thursday.

In his order, Malott rejected the archdiocese’s objection that public disclosure of court records would endanger the church’s right to a fair trial. The church no longer denies that priests sexually abused young boys and girls in their parishes, he wrote.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

October 13, 2017

By Rick Anderson

[Note: See also BishopAccountability.org’s database entry on Irish Christian Brother Edward C. (Chris) Courtney.]

Seattle – Time and again, the record shows, Brother Edward “Chris” Courtney was accused of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic schools where he taught, and the church responded by moving him to another jurisdiction.

That makes his case similar to those of hundreds of other priests and brothers who committed sexual abuse before the problem exploded into national consciousness more than 15 years ago.

What sets Courtney apart is this: According to a lawsuit settled last week in Seattle’s King County Superior Court, he was ultimately shuffled off to a public school, where he continued to commit sexual assault.

Courtney, now 82 and retired in Hawaii, was a member of the Christian Brothers religious order who has been accused of assaulting at least 55 boys during his three decades as a Catholic school educator in a variety of jurisdictions from New York to Seattle.

It was in Seattle, where he served as principal of a parochial school, St. Alphonsus, that his Catholic school career came to an end after allegations of groping. Catholic and Christian Brothers officials then wrote letters of recommendation to the state school system and, ignoring a legal requirement, never reported his history of sexual assaults. That omission allowed Courtney to obtain his license to teach in public schools, where the assaults continued, according to the lawsuit and criminal court records.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 13, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio

Former priest Andrew Mannetta allegedly fondled a boy around 1985 or 1986, in Talofofo, after telling the boy he would help his stomach pain go away, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday afternoon.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as A.J.B.W., was about 14 or 15 when Mannetta allegedly sexually molested and abused him during a break from cleaning the outside of the San Miguel Catholic Church rectory, the lawsuit states.

A.J.B.W., now 46, is represented by attorney David Lujan. He demands a jury trial and $5 million in minimum damages.

One day, while hanging out around the Talofofo parish, A.J.B.W. told Mannetta that he didn’t go to school that day because he had a stomach ache, the lawsuit states. The priest invited the boy inside the rectory for a drink and asked about the area of his stomach that was hurting, the complaint states.

Mannetta asked the boy to sit on his lap so he could massage his stomach to help the pain go away, the lawsuit states. Mannetta then molested him, the complaint states.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

LEIPZIG (GERMANY)
Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk

[Summary: The Independent Commission on the Elimination of Sexual Child Abuse held a public hearing on October 11, 2017 in Leipzig on child sexual abuse in the former East Germany. Survivors spoke about their experience of this taboo subject. With video report and comments.]

Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen – das gab es in der DDR offiziell nicht. Doch viele Jahre nach der Wende zeigt sich ein anderes Bild. Auf einem öffentlichen Hearing in Leipzig erzählen Betroffene am Mittwoch aus ihrer Jugend, die geprägt war von Gewalt.

“Ich bin als Säugling bis zum 18. Lebensjahr in Einrichtungen aufgewachsen, die der Umerziehung galten. Im Prinzip konnten die mit einem tun und lassen, was sie wollten.” Wenn René Münch diesen Teil seiner Lebensgeschichte erzählt, bekommt man als Zuhörer zwangsläufig einen Kloß im Hals. Bis zu seinem 18. Geburtstag musste er einiges über sich ergehen lassen: Berührungen von Erziehern im Intimbereich und auch sexuelle Übergriffe von älteren Heimkindern, Erziehern und dem Mann seiner Mutter.

Über seine Erlebnisse spricht Münch erst seit 2012. Als er mit der Aufarbeitung seiner Geschichte beginnt, ist er 51 Jahre alt. “Über die Heimerziehung spricht man, aber dass dort auch sexueller Missbrauch stattgefunden hat, darüber spricht man nicht. Das liegt aber auch an uns Betroffenen. Man muss die Hemmschwelle überschritten haben. Ich habe gesagt, damit muss man an die Öffentlichkeit gehen. Denn das sind Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Und man leidet auch das ganze Leben drunter.”

“Der Staat durfte nicht beschmutzt werden”

Die Geschichte von René Münch ist längst kein Einzelfall – obwohl es Missbrauch in der DDR offiziell nie gegeben hat. Erst seit 2010 bekommt diese Fassade erste Risse. Mittlerweile hat eine Aufklärungskommission die Arbeit aufgenommen, um Betroffenen von sexuellem Missbrauch in der DDR Recht und Gehör zu verschaffen. Mitglied der Kommission ist auch die ehemalige Familienministerin Christine Bergmann. Nach einem Jahr Arbeit stellt sie fest: “Das Thema sexueller Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen war in der DDR weit mehr und länger tabuisiert als in den alten Bundesländern. Egal ob in der Familie oder in Heimen. Es passte nicht in die heile sozialistische Gesellschaft. Der Staat durfte nicht beschmutzt werden.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

October 11, 2017

By Jim McDermott [S.J.]

Living in Los Angeles and watching the cascade of horror that is the unraveling story of Hollywood uber-exec Harvey Weinstein and his abuses of women, I have had a strange sense of déjà vu. I was a seminarian studying for the priesthood in Boston in January 2002 when The Boston Globe began publishing its astonishing series of articles on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Those reports began a lot like the Weinstein story, with allegations surrounding one man, John Geoghan, who had been committing horrific acts of abuse for decades throughout the Archdiocese of Boston.

I suspect the Weinstein story is just the beginning of a much larger set of revelations about abuse and power in the entertainment industry.

I suspect the Weinstein story, too, is just the beginning of a much larger set of revelations about abuse and power in the entertainment industry. And 15 years into the Catholic crisis, having witnessed the choices the institutional church has made (some of them disastrous), I suspect there are things that Hollywood could learn from that experience right now. Here are five that come immediately to mind.

1. It’s all going to come out …

2. There is an even bigger issue you have to face, and it is everyone else …

3. When cultural expectations change, they change overnight and with no tolerance for the allowances of the past …

4. Changing the rules is not the same as changing the culture …

5. Reap the whirlwind …

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
ABC News Online

By Louise Milligan

A man who was raped and beaten by priests and brothers as a 12-year-old says he felt like a beggar when he asked the Catholic Church for money to pay for medical bills for treatment of the mental and physical illness he suffered as a result of his abuse.

Russell Clark is just one of many survivors of abuse who signed deeds of release, which prevent them from taking further legal action or requesting more compensation.

He was repeatedly raped and knocked unconscious as a schoolboy by priests and brothers at Salesian College in Adelaide in the 1960s.

“You’d go to bed at night crying and scared, you lived in terror,” Mr Clark told 7.30.

“Because you knew that if you said anything, they’d just beat you up.”

Catholic Church bodies are under fire for sticking to this and other historic settlements, signed with survivors of clergy child abuse for “pathetic” compensation sums despite the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Abuse and the church’s own bodies recommending they be scrapped in light of changes to the law.

“People in the past, hundreds of thousands of them, have had to sign these deeds for pathetic amounts of money — $20,000, $30,000, $40,000,” lawyer Judy Courtin, who represents dozens of clergy abuse survivors including Mr Clark, told 7.30.

By contrast, in 2015 the Victorian Supreme Court awarded its largest ever damages payout to a survivor of institutional abuse — in this case, in an Orthodox Jewish school — for $1.2 million.

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COLOGNE (GERMANY)
Kölnischen Zeitung

[Summary: Just a month after the presentation of the final report on sexual abuse and ill-treatment at the Collegium Josephinum in Bad Münstereifel , the Cologne archdiocese took the last accused priest out of active duty. This article also describes the abuse experience of survivor representative Werner Becker, and his disagreement with the archdiocese at the time the report was released. See Claudia Bundschuh’s report, Sexueller Missbrauch, physische und psychische Gewalt am Collegium Josephinum, Bad Münstereifel.]

October 11, 2017

By Martin Wein, Christoph Meurer, and Jörg Manhold

Bad Münstereifel/Rheinbach – Knapp einen Monat nach der Vorstellung des Abschlussberichtes über sexuellen Missbrauch und Misshandlungen am Collegium Josephinum in Bad Münstereifel hat das Erzbistum Köln auch den letzten beschuldigten Priester aus dem aktiven Dienst genommen.

Dabei dürfte es sich um einen Geistlichen handeln, der 1982 nach sexuellen Übergriffen in Bad Münstereifel versetzt worden war und anschließend noch einmal die Stelle wechseln musste. Er hatte zwar zuletzt keine eigene Pfarrei mehr, zelebrierte aber noch bis vor fünf Wochen Messen, Hochzeiten und Beerdigungen im Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, wo er auch wohnte. Gegenüber der Gemeinde wurden gesundheitliche Gründe für den Rückzug genannt.

Opfervertreter Werner Becker war selbst Opfer

Aus „personal- und persönlichkeitsrechtlichen Gründen“ könne das Erzbistum keine Anfragen zu bestimmten Personen beantworten, sagte Pressesprecher Christoph Heckeley. Dass unter Verdacht auf sexuellen Missbrauch stehende Priester mitunter noch viele Jahre seelsorgerisch tätig seien, liege allgemein daran, dass man zunächst den Hinweisen nachgehe. Falls diese konkret genug seien, seien personalrechtliche Konsequenzen möglich. Es müssten aber bestimmte Voraussetzungen erfüllt sein, teilte Heckeley mit.

* * *

Opfervertreter Werner Becker hatte von 1959 bis 1961 selbst das Schulinternat des Bistums in Bad Münstereifel besucht. Als Schüler der Obersekunda (Jahrgang 11) und Unterprima (Jahrgang 12) habe er damals als 18- beziehungsweise 19-Jähriger im dortigen Großen Haus gewohnt. Während dieser Zeit habe er sich vom damaligen Direktor, einem katholischen Priester, ständig beobachtet gefühlt. „Es gab keine Privatsphäre. Ständig stand jemand in deiner Zelle.“ Mindestens einmal in der Woche habe ihn einer der Betreuer gegen seinen Willen zu sich herangezogen, ihn gekniffen und auch an den Geschlechtsteilen berührt.

Dazu kam die Gewalt, die nach Beckers Einschätzung bei einigen der Täter eindeutig „sadistische Züge“ gehabt habe. Ein Großteil der Betreuer habe sich daran beteiligt. Tritte in den Hintern und Schläge ins Gesicht, die zu Wochen langen Ohrenschmerzen führten, seien wiederholt vorgekommen. Der Aufsicht führende Priester habe regelmäßig mit einem schweren Schlüsselbund nach den Schülern geworfen.

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BONN (GERMANY)
General-Anzeiger

October 11, 2017

By Martin Wein and Jörg Manhold

[Summary: Professor Werner Becker, representative of survivors in the abuse cases at Collegium Josephinum in Bad Münstereifel, says he also knows of three victims of abuse at two Rheinbach boarding schools, Sankt Albert and Hermann-Josef-Kolleg (later known as Vinzenz-Pallotti Kolleg). Becker has a sworn declaration of one of the victims, stating that the Pallottine Order paid him 50,000 euros in return for a promise of secrecy.]

Rheinbach – Am Rheinbacher Konvikt des Pallottiner-Ordens gab es Anfang der 1960er Jahre mindestens drei Fälle des sexuellen Missbrauch. Ein Täter soll sein Opfer mit 50.000 Euro abgefunden haben.

Die Debatte um Missbrauchsfälle im Collegium Josephinum in Bad Münstereifel hat auch neue Erkenntnisse im Hinblick auf die Pallottiner in Rheinbach gebracht. Der Bad Münstereifeler Opfervertreter Professor Werner Becker ist allerdings an mehreren Stellen ungehalten über die Informationspolitik der katholischen Kirche. Er selbst war in den in Bad Münstereifel Opfer von sexuellen Übergriffen geworden.

Jetzt erhebt er Vorwürfe, dass der Pallottiner-Orden, bei dem es Anfang der 1960er Jahre mindestens drei Missbrauchsfälle in den beiden Rheinbacher Internaten „Sankt Albert“ und „Hermann-Josef-Kolleg“ (das spätere Vinzenz-Pallotti-Kolleg) gegeben hatte, einem Opfer Schweigegeld gezahlt habe. Becker berichtet, ihm liege eine eidesstattliche Erklärung des besagten Opfers vor, der zufolge der Provinzial des Ordens ihm 50 000 Euro im Gegenzug zu einem Schweigeversprechen gezahlt habe.

Konkret habe es im Jahr 2009, noch vor dem öffentlichen Bekanntwerden der Fälle, eine notarielle Vereinbarung zwischen dem mit dem Vorgang beauftragten Pallottiner-Pater Norbert Possmann und dem Opfer gegeben, die einerseits die Zahlung von 50 000 Euro vorsieht und andererseits im Gegenzug „Stillschweigen über die Sachverhalte des Vergleichs“ verlangt.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 12, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio

[Note: See BishopAccountability.org’s database entry on Fr. Louis Brouillard.]

Father Louis Brouillard allegedly took nude photos of boys, and groped and touched their private parts during swimming at the Lonfit River and Ypao Beach around 1975 or 1976, a lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon in local court states.

The latest plaintiff, identified in court documents only as G.E. to protect his privacy, said Brouillard, on numerous occasions, would fondle him in the water and then instruct him to sit on the priest’s lap after swimming to be fondled again.

At the time of the alleged sexual abuse and molestation, G.E. said he was a Boy Scout and attended the Barrigada parish. He was about 11 or 12, the lawsuit states.

After church, he would visit the parish for regular Boy Scouts meetings with Brouillard at the priest’s office and in the church basement.

G.E., now 54 is represented by attorney Michael Berman. His lawsuit states Brouillard would swim naked with the boys, whom he instructed to also swim naked.

The lawsuit states Brouillard would grope and touch their private parts, as well as take their photos while naked, without their permission. The complaint states Brouillard would reward the boys afterward, with trips to McDonald’s or King’s Restaurant.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

October 11, 2017

[Note: The Vatican no longer cites the canon (can. 401.1 and 2) that governs the resignation/removal of a bishop. Until September 2016, a canonical citation was a standard part of the Holy See’s announcement. See, for example, the 4/21/15 announcement re Bishop Robert W. Finn. For more examples of canonical announcements, see BishopAccountability.org’s Bishops Accused of Sexual Abuse and Misconduct: A Global Accounting.]

Resignation of bishop of Ruteng, Indonesia, and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante ed ad nutum Sanctae Sedis

The Holy Father Francis has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Ruteng, Indonesia, presented by H.E. Hubertus Leteng, and has appointed H.E. Msgr. Sylvester San, bishop of Denpasar, as apostolic administrator sede vacante ed ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the same diocese.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

RUTENG (INDONESIA)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

October 11, 2017

An Indonesian prelate resigned Wednesday as Bishop of Ruteng amid mounting concerns surrounding an alleged mistress and reportedly stolen funds.

Bishop Hubertus Leteng, 58, was accused of borrowing $94,000 from the Indonesian bishops’ conference, as well as $30,000 from the Diocese of Ruteng.

Leteng said the money was being used to fund a poor youth’s education, although he failed to give any further details or information, according to Ucanews. He was additionally criticized for reportedly taking a mistress – an allegation which Leteng called “slanderous.”

In June, more than 60 priests of the diocese resigned from their assignments in protest of Leteng’s administration of the diocese.

A year earlier, 112 of the diocese’s 167 priests had signed a letter of no confidence in Leteng, citing their suspicions of financial mismanagement and incontinence.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Washington Post

October 11, 2017

[Note: See the earlier UCAnews reports Vatican investigates bishop’s money, alleged mistress and Vatican investigator wraps up cash, mistresss probe. See also Catholic Hierarchy’s entry on Bishop Hubertus Leteng.]

A Roman Catholic bishop in Indonesia has resigned following reports that he had a mistress and siphoned off more than $100,000 in church funds.

Pope Francis on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Bishop Hubertus Leteng of Indonesia’s Ruteng diocese. The Denpasar bishop, Monsignor Sylvester San, will run the diocese until a permanent replacement is found, the Vatican said.

Local Indonesian media and the Ucanews agency, which covers the Catholic Church in Asia, reported that dozens of priests resigned en masse in June to protest Leteng’s administration.

The Vatican sent an investigator to look into their allegations that Leteng had a mistress and secretly borrowed $94,000 from the Indonesian bishops’ conference and another $30,000 from the diocese without accounting for it.

According to Ucanews, Leteng said the money was used to finance the education of a poor youth, though he declined to provide details. He called allegations he had a relationship with a woman “slanderous.”

The Vatican didn’t address the scandal or explain why Leteng was retiring early. The Ruteng diocese made no mention of the allegations in its announcement of Leteng’s departure Wednesday. Bishops normally submit their resignations when they reach age 75. Leteng is 58.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

October 11, 2017

By Sharon Otterman

A former teacher at a Catholic school in Queens who said she had reported the sexual abuse of seven female students by a priest in 1991 now claims that the Diocese of Brooklyn covered it up for more than a decade, allowing more girls to be abused.

The teacher, Linda Porcaro, said on Wednesday that she is coming forward now because the victims, on whose behalf she was speaking, are ready to seek justice. Over the last two months, 23 women who said they were abused by the former priest, Adam Prochaski, have become clients of the lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” about clergy sex abuse. Most of the women’s claims have been referred to the police.

Mr. Prochaski was based at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Maspeth for nearly 25 years. He is accused of abusing the girls between 1972 and 1994, when they were between the ages 5 and 16.

In New York State, no criminal or civil litigation can take place for most child sex abuse crimes after a victim turns 23. But an exception can be made for rape. The New York Police Department was investigating whether any of the recent allegations qualify for prosecution, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney’s office said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Daily Pennsylvanian

October 10, 2017

By Lucy Curtis

Marci Hamilton, a 1988 Penn Law School graduate and a leading advocate for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, has just been hired as Penn’s third “professor of practice” in the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program in the College, according to an announcement by the University.

Practice professors are subject matter experts from outside of the world of academia, brought in to teach real-world applications of theory. The position is non-tenured and involves a term of three years for an associate practice professorship and five years for a full professorship.

Hamilton, who is also a scholar on church-state relations, will be teaching a seminar on law, religion and politics.

“I loved going to Penn’s law school — it was a formative part of my career and it’s nice to be back,” Hamilton said. She formerly served as the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.

Hamilton is the founder, CEO and academic director of CHILD USA, the first research-based nonprofit think tank dedicated to preventing child neglect and abuse. Hamilton has dedicated her professional life to supporting victims of abuse. She is also the author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children.”

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press via U.S. News & World Report

October 10, 2017

Federal authorities say a youth pastor from Las Cruces is facing child sexual exploitation and pornography charges.

They say 30-year-old Stephen Mendoza Arellano made his initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Albuquerque.

He’s being held on a criminal complaint charging him with attempted production of child pornography, enticement of a child to engage in sexual activity, and travel to meet a minor to engage in sexual conduct.

Prosecutors say the alleged crimes occurred between May and August of this year and involved a 15-year-old girl in El Paso, Texas.

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NEW MEXICO
KSFR (Santa Fe Public Radio)

October 11, 2017

By Ellen Berkovitch, Rita Daniels & Hannah Colton

[See also earlier features in KSFR’s Dark Canyon investigation: Sexual Abuse and Secrecy in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Part 1; and A Follow-Up Interview with Bishop Accountability President.]

For the second feature-length installment of our series, our reporters go to Northern New Mexico where Catholicism has been a central part of life for centuries, since the Spanish conquest of New Mexico. The list of 74 credibly accused priests, brothers and deacons released by the Archbishop last month names more than a dozen priests who served the parishes in the Taos area.

St. Francis de Asis church in Ranchos de Taos is Rita Daniels begins the story. Ellen Berkovitch picks up from there with an exposition of all that is known about the 22-year of Father Michael P. O’Brien in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Listen [Link to Audio]

Next time when our series continues… One of the priests whom the Brad Hall law firm calls one of the most prolific abusers, Fr. Sabine Griego—is still alive. He’s been laicized but he’s still living in Las Vegas NM among many of the people who reported him for abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

October 10, 2017

By Carol Glatz

The top leaders of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and chair of the church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council met with Vatican officials to discuss issues emerging from national investigations into the abuse of minors.

“Topics covered included the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the relationship between the church and society at large, the restoration of trust, and greater participation of the laity in decision-making roles in the church,” the Vatican press office said in a written communique Oct. 7.

The bishops’ delegation met Oct. 5 with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister; Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; and Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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UNITED STATES
Conservative Review

October 11, 2017

By Steve Deace

In the immortal words of the great prophet Dave Chappelle, “You played yourself.”

From this time forward, when any insipidly sanctimonious Hollywood star comes forward to lecture us on Marxist agitprop masquerading as do-gooderism, the rest of America that does most of the living and dying around here can simply dismiss such virtue signaling with the following two words: “Harvey Weinstein.”

How ironic is it that in 2016, Hollywood deservedly awarded its coveted Best Picture award to the fantastic movie “Spotlight,” about the journalistic quest to break the long-hidden child abuse scandal within the Catholic Church — when many, too many, of those in attendance at the Oscars that evening were knowingly concealing a sexual predator of their own, masquerading as a movie mogul.

In fact, the “Los Angeles Times” wrote a feature about those 2016 Oscars and how rare it was for the “Diet Coke swigging, chain-smoking master” (as they described Weinstein) to be shut out from Hollywood’s biggest night. Absent from that piece was any mention of how Weinstein turned the already infamous casting couch into his personal hunting ground.

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ENGLAND
BBC

October 11, 2017

An alleged victim of a senior Roman Catholic priest has told a court he was haunted by “nightmares” of the sex abuse he suffered as a boy.

Laurence Soper, 74, the abbot of Ealing Abbey from 1991-2000, was headmaster and senior priest at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London.

He is on trial at the Old Bailey where he denies 19 charges of child sex abuse against 10 boys between 1970 and 1980.

The boys allege they were subjected to sexual touching and beaten with a cane.

The witness told the court he would get “flashbacks” and “nightmares” about Mr Soper.

“It’s a nightmare that is waking me up at the moment. I wake up absolutely soaking in sweat and the bed is wet,” he said.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

October 11, 2017

By Janela Carrera

Archbishop Byrnes has indicated that the property could be worth between $2 million to $7 million.

While the closing of the disputed Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona may be a done deal, the sale of the property isn’t yet a guarantee.

Last week, Archbishop Michael Byrnes announced that, in consultation with various church organizations, such as the College of Consultors, the Archdiocesan Finance Council and the Presbyteral Council, the RMS will be closing down by the end of December.

Archbishop Byrnes also acknowledged that the closure of the seminary is being done, in part, in anticipation of the sale of the property next March or April. The funds will then be used to settle dozens of sex abuse claims filed against the church in court.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
The New Indian Express

October 11, 2017

Refusing to rely on the statement of a woman that she was raped and assaulted by a temple priest, a Delhi court has acquitted him observing that things do not appear to have happened the way they were projected.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain said though in rape cases conviction can be made on the sole testimony of the victim, in this case the woman’s statement was “exaggerated” and led to doubts on the veracity of her evidence. Therefore, it is not safe to rely on her “uncorroborated version”.

The court relied on the priest’s version that he was assaulted by the woman on an assumption that he had a role in breaking the engagement of her son.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

October 11, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

[See also the entry for Brouillard in the database of accused U.S. priests on BishopAccountability.org.]

Four new clergy sex abuse lawsuits, seeking a total of $25 million in damages, were filed in the Superior and District Courts in the last week against Louis Brouillard, the Archdiocese of Agana and Boy Scouts of America. Brouillard took advantage of the altar boys’ “childhood and innocence,” court documents state.

Three cases filed by attorney Michael Berman on behalf of his clients, F.M., P.P. and R.G., in the Superior Court of Guam seek $5 million in damages each.

The alleged abuse occurred while Brouillard was a priest at the San Isidro Catholic Church in Malojloj, San Vicente Church in Barrigada and the Tumon parish in the 1970s.

F.M., who is now 49, alleges he was subjected to sexual abuse by Brouillard when he served as an altar boy at the Barrigada and Tumon parishes when he was 10 to 17 years old.

The lawsuit alleges Brouillard forced F.M. to shower with him and sexually abused the boy on church grounds, during Boy Scout swimming outings and in Beroun, Minnesota, where the priest relocated after leaving Guam.

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VATICAN CITY
ChurchMilitant.com

October 10, 2017

By Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th.

Clerical sex abuse will continue until Church confronts problem of homosexual bishops and priests

Critics are noting Rome’s apparent double standard in addressing child abuse in the wake of last week’s Vatican-sponsored, three-day conference on child pornography, while seemingly protecting a priest who’s wanted for allegedly trafficking in child porn.

At issue is the Vatican’s use of diplomatic immunity to shield from civil prosecution a priest, Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, who’s wanted by Canadian officials for his alleged involvement in child porn. Capella, a Vatican diplomat formerly stationed in D.C., was abruptly removed from his post when charges surfaced alleging he downloaded child pornography.

Canadian officials accused Capella of downloading child porn from a parish computer over Christmas last December. After U.S. authorities brought up similar charges in August, Capella was immediately recalled to Rome. The Vatican refuses to come forward with any information on the case and refuses to extradite Capella for civil prosecution. The Vatican is investigating the case and may try Capella in ecclesiastical court.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

October 10, 2017

By Robert Patrick

A Roman Catholic priest has settled part of a federal lawsuit he filed against the mother of a boy who accused him of abuse, the group that supported the accuser and police, court filings Tuesday say.

In a filing in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, a lawyer for the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang wrote that the case had been settled with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, and SNAP officials, and that Jiang and the mother of his former accuser had “reached an agreement in principle.”

The formal dismissal of that part of the case should be filed before Oct. 23, Jiang’s attorney Neil Bruntrager wrote.

Bruntrager declined to comment Tuesday. Lawyers for SNAP did not return messages seeking comment.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
wave3.com

October 10 2017

By Connie Leonard

[See also the entry for Hemmerle in the database of accused U.S. priests on BishopAccountability.org.]

Louisville area priests convicted of molesting children in a court of law are still getting money and benefits from the Catholic Church.

What message is it sending?

Victims of priest abuse maintain that’s a question parishioners should be asking their Catholic church leaders, to make sure their children and others are protected.

Priests, like Father Joseph Hemmerle, may deny heinous acts against children. “I’m innocent of all these charges,” Hemmerle told a judge after being convicted by a Meade County jury.

Victims say that’s what makes them so dangerous.

“As far as I’m concerned, the guy is a huge threat to other children,” said Hemmerle molestation victim Michael Norris. Norris recently found out that because the crime occurred when he was 11, before 1980, the old rules apply and Hemmerle will be eligible for parole in 2018.

“I think it’s absurd,” Norris said. But he contends what’s more absurd is that even though Hemmerle is a twice convicted pedophile, the Archdiocese of Louisville hasn’t begun the process to remove him.

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MADISON (WI)
The Daily Cardinal

October 10, 2017

By Will Husted

Former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Matt Flynn announced Tuesday he will run against Gov. Scott Walker in 2018.

A former lawyer for the Quarles and Brady firm, Flynn looks to reverse the fortune of past campaigns for public office. Flynn encountered unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate in 1986 and 1988 and for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and 2004.

Flynn announced his candidacy in a video in which he states he “cannot stand by and watch our democracy be destroyed,” adding that “Scott Walker is destroying the Wisconsin way.” He additionally asserted that Walker is controlled by “big, strong corporate donors” and that Walker has been “taken to the cleaners” in the $3 billion Foxconn deal.

Flynn joins a long list of Democratic hopefuls in gubernatorial campaigns that include State Superintendent Tony Evers, businessman Andy Gronik, government reform advocate Mike McCabe, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, and state Rep. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire.

Spokesperson for the Republican Party of Wisconsin Alec Zimmerman has called Flynn a “dirty defense lawyer” who supports interests that “prey on Wisconsin families.”

“Flynn’s record [of] strong-arming victims of sexual abuse proves Wisconsin families cannot trust him,” Zimmerman said in a statement, referencing a sexual abuse case Flynn worked on for the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 11, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on Wednesday granted Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s request for more time to file his objection to a recommendation that sex abuse lawsuits filed against Apuron by former altar boys should not be dismissed.

Four lawsuits alleged that Apuron sexually abused or raped altar boys in the 1970s while Apuron was the parish priest in Agat. They are among 131 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed so far in local and federal court, and Apuron is the only one that’s not pursuing mediation and out-of-court settlement.

Apuron’s original deadline to file an objection was Oct. 11, but the chief judge extended the filing deadline up to Oct. 25 as Apuron requested.

Attorney Jacqueline Terlaje, counsel for Apuron, asked for additional time, citing complex constitutional law issues that District Court Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan addressed in his Sept. 27 report and recommendation.

Manibusan recommended that the chief judge not to dismiss the lawsuits against Apuron because the claims are not time-barred and do not infringe upon the archbishop’s due process rights.

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GUAM
PNC News First

October 10, 2017

By Janela Carrera

As the Archdiocese of Agana continues to wait on word regarding the fate of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, more lawsuits are being filed against them.

The latest lawsuit was filed in District Court by a 49-year-old man with the initials H.A.W. who claims he was molested by former Guam priest and Boy Scout Scoutmaster Louis Brouillard.

H.A.W. says it happened in the late 1970s when he was between the ages of 8 and 10 years old. While H.A.W. and other altar boys waited for CCD classes to start, the lawsuit states Brouillard would invite them over to the convent and sexually assault them.

H.A.W. is being represented by Attorney David Lujan and is seeking $10 million in damages.

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PARAGUAY
Paraguay.com

[Priest denounced for sexual harassment will face oral trial: The case of the parish priest accused of sexual harassment of a young woman in the youth ministry, will go to oral and public trial, by resolution of the Court of the city of Limpio.]

El caso del cura párroco acusado de acoso sexual a una joven de la pastoral juvenil, irá a juicio oral y público, por resolución del Juzgado de la ciudad de Limpio.

October 5, 2017

La jueza Elsa Ydoyaga, encargada del proceso, con base a todos los antecedentes recabados de ambas partes, tomó la decisión de elevar el caso a juicio oral y público, que fue tomada con conformidad por parte de la víctima, así como del acusado.

El Padre Silvestre Olmedo estuvo acompañado de una gran masa de feligreses que afirman que el hecho no ocurrió y que en esta instancia se podrá demostrar su inocencia. Así también, un grupo de mujeres realizó una manifestación fuera del Juzgado mientras se resolvía la dirección que tomaría el proceso, según reporta Última Hora.

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PARAGUAY
ABC

October 5, 2017

[Google Translate: The case of the priest Silvestre Olmedo, who is accused of allegedly harassing a young woman, was brought to trial by the judge Elsa Idoyaga. The judge determined that there are elements to bring the case to trial.]

El caso del sacerdote Silvestre Olmedo, quien es acusado de supuestamente acosar a una joven, fue elevado a juicio oral y público por la jueza Elsa Idoyaga. La magistrada determinó que existen elementos para llevar la causa a juicio.

Luego de la audiencia preliminar, la jueza Elsa Idoyaga informó esta mañana sobre la decisión de elevar a juicio oral y público el caso del sacerdote Silvestre Olmedo, expárroco de Limpio. La imputación de coacción sexual contra el religioso tiene una expectativa de pena de 10 años de cárcel.

Idoyaga manifestó que el Ministerio Público rechazó la pericia psicológica que solicitó la defensa técnica debido a que la joven no puede ser doblemente victimizada. La defensa planteó sobreseimiento definitivo, pero la magistrada analizó y determinó que sí existen elementos para elevar la causa a juicio oral por el hecho punible de acoso sexual, informó la corresponsal Rocío Portillo.

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PROVO (UT)
Deseret News

October 10, 2017

By McKenzie Romero

Mapleton man sentenced to up to 20 years in prison

PROVO — When they turned to their LDS bishop as vulnerable teenagers, two young men told a judge Tuesday that they instead became victims of a sly sexual predator who isolated them from their families and left them buried beneath guilt.

Erik Hughes, 51, was sentenced to at least one and up to 20 years in prison Tuesday, ordered to serve concurrent terms of one to 15 years for two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, followed by a consecutive term of up to five years for witnesses tampering, a third-degree felony.

A recommendation for the sentence was agreed upon when Hughes pleaded guilty as charged in August, just two months after his arrest. A spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said Hughes was immediately removed from his position when the allegations became known.

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ENGLAND
The Daily Mail

October 10, 2017

By Abe Hawken

Father Laurence Soper, 74, was a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London

It is claimed the Catholic priest caned pupils to give himself a thrill at the school

A Roman Catholic priest withdrew £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and went on the run in Albania after he was accused of sexually abusing schoolchildren in the 1970s and 1980s, a court heard.

Father Laurence Soper, 74, a former abbot of Ealing Abbey in west London, skipped bail and flew to Kosovo when he was accused of sex offences including buggery and indecent assault on boys under 16, it is said.

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NEW YORK
WCBS-880 (CBS Radio)

October 10, 2017

The number of sexual abuse allegations against a Catholic priest in Queens is growing.

Twenty-three women now say the former Rev. Adam Prochaski abused them as children when he served at the Holy Cross parish in Maspeth from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s.

The alleged victims are being represented by Mitch Garabedian who was portrayed by actor Stanley Tucci in the Oscar-winning 2015 film “Spotlight.”

He believes the Brooklyn Diocese covered it up.

“There’s no doubt in my mind he was open and notorious,” he told WCBS 880. “He would sexually abuse children in the hallways.”

The parish has a large Polish congregation and Garabedian said many of these victims were first generation immigrants.

“I’ve heard that Father Prochaski used to help children get into the country and once they got into the country he sexually abused them,” Garabedian said. “He had a scheme going on and the supervisors were turning their backs and it was all about secrecy.”

Prochaski was suspended in 1994 and left the priesthood in 1995, but the official Catholic directory shows he was absent or on sick leave through 2002.

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REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The Irish Times

October 10, 2017

By Patsy McGarry

Bullies among clergy contributed most to fall of Catholic Church in Ireland, says priest

A general failure exists to respect individual in Rome and within religious congregations

The bullying of the people by some clergy played a greater role in Catholic church decline in Ireland than clerical child sexual abuse, a leading Dominican priest has said.

“They had little or no respect for individual people – and not just for minors,” said Fr Tom Jordan, editor of Spirituality magazine.

Referring in the current issue to a remark by an unnamed “acute observer of the church in Ireland,” he said “the failure of the church in recent times was due not so much to the abysmal behaviour by some clergy in sexually abusing minors but that some clergy were bullies.”

One of the glaring deficiencies of church practice in recent times was the failure of leadership to respect the individual.

“Consider the number of priests silenced or removed from office because of their expressed views, and without being afforded an opportunity of defending themselves.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

October 10, 2017

By Daniel Bice

As he made his formal announcement to run for governor, former Democratic Party Chairman Matthew Flynn defended himself against charges that he was overly aggressive in representing the Archdiocese of Milwaukee against victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Specifically, Flynn came under attack for moving to collect $4,000 in legal fees from an alleged victim who lost his case. Also, Flynn is accused of telling a lawyer for several abuse victims that the archdiocese would “throw a crumb to your clients if you drop these cases.”

“Baloney!” Flynn said in response to the “crumbs” statement in an interview after his announcement in Glendale on Tuesday. “I never said that.”

Flynn is one of eight Democrats seeking to challenge GOP Gov. Scott Walker next year.

This week, Peter Isley, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called into question whether Flynn should be running for the state’s highest political post.

Isley said the primary duty of any governor is the protection and safety of all state residents, especially children. But Isley said Flynn’s record doesn’t suggest he would be the best person to do this.

“For some fifteen years, Matt Flynn was the chief corporate lawyer for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee during the height of the widespread and systematic cover up of thousands of sex crimes against children by dozens of sex offender priests,” Isley said.

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GENERAL ROCA (ARGENTINA)
El Diario

October 6, 2017

[Google Translate: The trial of a priest accused of sexual abuse began in Rio Negro, in the city of General Roca. The parish priest was accused of sexually abusing a minor … in 2010, when the victim was 14 years old and the parish priest, Juan José Urrutia, was at the head of the Santa Catalina Parish of Allen.]

El cura párroco acusado de abusar sexualmente de un menor de edad comenzó a ser enjuiciado a en los tribunales de la ciudad rionegrina de General Roca. El proceso se llevó a cabo a puertas cerradas.

Si bien sobre el caso existe un fuerte hermetismo judicial, se supo que el hecho juzgado habría ocurrido en el 2010, cuando la víctima tenía 14 años de edad y el cura párroco, Juan José Urrutia, estaba al frente de la Parroquia Santa Catalina de Allen. Al religioso se le imputa el delito de abuso sexual con acceso carnal por aprovechamiento de la inmadurez sexual de la víctima.

Trascendió además que durante el proceso no habrá querella. La acusación está a cargo del fiscal, Andrés Nelli. La defensa del sacerdote acusado tendrá el patrocinio de los abogados Jorge Crespo y Guillermo Leskovar Garrigós. Según dio a conocer el Diario Río Negro, en la lista de testigos citados a declarar en el juicio figuran varios vecinos de Allen. También trascendió que la víctima y su familia se fueron de Allen hace ya un tiempo.

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SANTO DOMINGO (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)
El Nuevo Diario

October 6, 2017

[The Holy See has suspended Juan Manuel Mota de Jesus (“Jhonny”), a priest accused of sexual abuse against 15 girls and women in Constanza.]

La Santa Sede despojó de sus atribuciones como sacerdote al padre Juan Manuel Mota de Jesús “Jhonny”, acusado de abuso sexual contra 15 mujeres en el municipio de Constanza, en La Vega.

La información fue ofrecida por el canciller del obispado local de La Vega, reverendo Fausto García, a un programa de televisión de Santiago, quien manifestó que la Santa Sede tomó la decisión tras ponderar las denuncias de 15 mujeres la cuales sostienen que fueron abusadas sexualmente por el sacerdote.

Las violaciones las habría llevado a cabo el suspendido cura mientras se desempeñaba como párroco de la iglesia principal del municipio de Constanza.

En el marco de una entrevista, el reverendo Fausto García manifestó que desde hace varios días, desde la Sede del Vaticano al país llegó una comunicación suspendiendo al cura.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Vatican Radio

October 9, 2017

Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Longueuil was elected President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) at the end of September.

Bishop Gendron, who will serve a two-year term, has been vice president of the CCCB since 2015.

He spoke to Linda Bordoni about the main points discussed during the plenary during which he was elected and about his vision for the Church in Canada in the years to come. [Link to audio] …

… Another important theme at the plenary, Bishop Gendron explained, are the issues pertaining to the request for an apology by Canada’s ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ (TRC) regarding the First Nations and the question of the residential schools, most of which were run by the Catholic, Anglican and United Churches.

Gendron explained that the TRC is asking different things from different Churches and the Catholic Church has been responding.

“One of the requests of the TRC is the visit of the Pope to Canada (within the year) to ask forgiveness for what has been done in the residential schools” Gendron explained, pointing out that this is not easy because in Canada one is liable to be sued for something like this.

So, he said “right now – the spirit is always working in the Church – there is a new shift, a new vision: instead of being there to respond to the TRC, and instead of answering the government that is insisting on that point, our mission is not to answer the TRC or the government, but to answer according to the Gospel”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

October 9, 2017

By Edward Pentin

[See also the full text of the Pope’s remarks.]

Four-day ‘Child Dignity in the Digital World’ conference brought religious and secular experts together to tackle a host of digital threats.

In the face of extensive online threats to minors, especially internet pornography easily accessible to millions of children worldwide, Pope Francis has cautioned against a sense of paralysis, urging leaders from various sectors to “join forces” to find the “right means and approaches needed for effective responses.”

Speaking Oct. 6 to a group of religious and secular experts from around the world in Rome to attend a four-day conference on the theme “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” the Pope said, “We have to keep our eyes open and not hide from an unpleasant truth that we would rather not see.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 10, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com

[See also the entry for Brouillard in the accused priest database on BishopAccountability.org.]

Four new clergy sex abuse lawsuits were filed in local and federal court, including one by a second former altar boy who said priest Louis Brouillard paid for his summer trip to Minnesota and sexually abused and molested him.

The lawsuit states that Brouillard forced the boy to engage in sexual activity with another boy during the trip.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as F.M. to protect his privacy, said in the complaint that Brouillard sent for him and his friend.

Brouillard, now 96 and is living in Minnesota, was a Catholic priest on Guam from 1948 to 1981.

F.M.’s friend, with the initials F.S.L. based on court documents, filed a lawsuit Sept. 26.

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
October 7, 2017

By Santiago del Carril

Pope Francis admits the Church has not done enough to tackle the abhorent acts commited by some members of the clergy. The Vatican and the Argentine Synod say they are taking steps to tackle the problem. But survivors, victims and experts warn that some inside the Church are resistant to change and that many cases still go unreported.

In the Roman Catholic Church, they can no longer ignore the elephant in the room.

Growing public awareness of sex abuse offences committed by members of the clergy – in part aided by bombshell cases that have revealed scandalous attempts to cover-up the crimes and critically acclaimed movies addressing the topic, such as Spotlight – is piling pressure on the Church’s leaders, forcing them to act.

Yet experts consulted by the Times warn that some inside the Church remain resistant to change and that many abuse cases still go unreported.

Both the Vatican and locally, the Argentine Synod (Argentine Catholic Episcopal conference), have said they are taking steps to combat the rape and molestation of victims by members of the clergy, forming commissions to create policies on how to investigate these cases, protect minors and future potential victims.

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ROME (ITALY)
The Tablet

October 9, 2017

By Christopher Lamb

The archbishop said the Church had been ‘shaken to the core’ by the abuse scandal and today was being called to a ‘greater authenticity’

A leading Australian bishop says the Church in his country is facing the biggest crisis in its history after taking part in talks with the Vatican over how to address the problem.

The Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, who is Vice President of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, told The Tablet that he and fellow bishops were in Rome to discuss the fallout of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, and how the Church will adopt a new approach. This, he says, will look at how to include women in positions of “governance”.

High on the agenda at the Vatican summit was Australia’s Royal Commission inquiry into how institutions handled child sexual abuse. This has seen the Catholic Church facing unrelenting criticism for its response to the scandal. The problem has been magnified after the Australian police’s decision to charge Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican treasurer and former Archbishop of Sydney, with historic sexual offences.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ENGLAND
The Times

October 9, 2017

By Kaya Burgess

The Church of England should be stripped of its exemptions under the Equality Act to help it to stamp out a culture of abuse, homophobia and sexism, a serving bishop has said.

Under the 2010 act, the church as a religious institution has special permission to insist that those it appoints are Christians, but can also discriminate over sex, sexuality, marital history and gender identity if they conflict with “strongly held religious convictions”.

These exceptions should be scrapped, the Bishop of Buckingham has told The Times, for the established church to adhere to the law of the land. This includes allowing priests to conduct same-sex weddings, he said.

The Right Rev Dr Alan Wilson, 62, also set out seven failings in the church’s safeguarding policies, warning that despite “good intentions” they did not provide survivors with enough protection from abuse.

The Archbishop of Canterbury faced a protest from sexual abuse victims outside Canterbury Cathedral last week.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME (ITALY)
The Australian

October 10, 2017

By Tom Kington

[Note: See also the Legionaries’ announcement and Turrión’s letter.]

A powerful order of Catholic priests hit by revelations that its founder had a secret family and abused children has now ­admitted that the head of its Rome seminary is the father of two children.

The Legionaries of Christ said Father Oscar Turrion, a 49-year-old Spaniard, would leave the priesthood.

It released a letter in which the priest asks “forgiveness for the scandal … forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given”.

The order said Father Turrion, who supervised men studying for the priesthood in Rome, was replaced after he admitted in March that he had a daughter.

Last week he confessed that he had also had a son with the same woman but had kept quiet due to “weakness and shame”.

He had not used church funds to support his family, he added, relying on donations from friends.

The priest said he had “lost his grounding” and started a family at the time when the first scandal emerged involving the order’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel, having fathered children.

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ROME
Catholic News Agency

October 9, 2017

By Elise Harris

(CNA/EWTN News).- At the close of a Rome conference on child protection online, a leading expert in the field said that while the statistics are well-known, he was surprised by the lack of awareness about the problem.

He added that all sectors of society need to take a more pro-active approach to the difficulty.

“If you study this field and if you work in it, you know about the numbers. I am more amazed about the lack of realization in many people about the scale of the problem about which we speak,” Fr. Hans Zollner SJ told CNA Oct. 7.

President of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center of Child Protection (CCP) and a member of Pope Francis’ commission for the protection of minors, spoke to CNA at the close of a four-day conference on “Child Dignity in the Digital World.”

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QUEENS (NY)
New York Daily News

October 9, 2017

By Graham Rayman

The number of women alleging they were abused as children by a Catholic priest in Queens has swelled to 23, the Daily News has learned.

The accusers of former Rev. Adam Prochaski, ranging in age from 39 to 57, say the priest abused them in the Holy Cross parish in Maspeth between 1972 and 1994. The women were between 11 to 16 years old when the abuse allegedly took place.

Mitchell Garabedian, their lawyer, said he’s been contacted by women now living in six states, as well as Canada and London. When he first came forward with the allegations, there were 15 accusers.

“Many of them claim he abused them for years in the school, the church, the rectory, and some were abused in his car,” Garabedian said.

“The police are investigating this matter. I have forwarded many of my clients’ names to them and I am informed they are interviewing my clients.”

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CORONA DEL MAR (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

October 8, 2017

By Joelle Casteix

The Catholic Diocese of Rockville Center, NY has announced an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Plan. These plans, administered by Ken Feinberg and funded by the individual dioceses, aim to compensate victims for abuse. You can read more about them in my four-part series here.

Victims of sexual abuse in the Long Island Catholic diocese of Rockville Center began receiving letters last week. I predicted this back in July.

Like the other plans in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, victims receiving letters are in “phase one.” These are men and women who have previously come forward to the diocese to say that they were sexually abused.

Rockville Center, however, is a very unique place.

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GREVEN (GERMANY)
Katholisches: Magazin für Kirche und Kultur

October 3, 2017

By Ferdinand Boischot

[Summary: Review of the case of “Anneke” a survivor of abuse perpetrated in 1995 at St. Idesbald, a special school in Roeselare, Belgium, run by the Broeders van Liefde (Brothers of Love). Brother Emiel Ceustermans, who was accused of the abuse, was sentenced in 1999 and died soon thereafter. The case unfolded against the background of the Dutroux affair. The article also summarizes subsequent events, including the cases of Cardinal Danneels, Abbot André Vanderlyn, and Abbot Robert Borremans (misidentified as Roger).]

Anneke war ein leicht geistig behindertes Mädchen aus Westflandern (Belgien), 8 Jahre alt, das in die Sonderschule St. Idesbald der karitativen Kongregation Broeders van Liefde (Brüder der Liebe) in Roeselare zur Schule ging.

Der Fall „Anneke“

In November 1995 merkte ihre Mutter (Frau Ria C.) plötzlich schwere Verhaltensauffälligkeiten. Anneke wurde sehr traurig, grundlos aggressiv gegenüber ihren Geschwistern, hatte Unterleibsschmerzen, bekam eine Vaginitis, litt plötzlich unter Bettnässen und hatte ausgeprägte Angst vor der Schule.

Das Mädchen wurde ärztlich und psychologisch untersucht, ohne Anhaltspunkte für eine innere Krankheit oder familiale Störungen.

Anneke wurde in den nächsten Wochen noch verstörter und ängstlicher und fing plötzlich an, ihre Mutter immer wieder über den Phallus zu befragen. Ihre Mutter wurde hellhörig.

Anneke vertraute sich ihrer Mutter an. Bei einem Gang über den Schulhof, an der Hand der Mutter, zeigte sie eindeutig den 78-jährigen Bruder Emiel Ceustermans, als Übeltäter an.

Ceustermans war im Alter von 12 Jahren als „Juvenist“ zur Kongregation gekommen. Er trat der Ordensgemeinschaft bei und war langjähriger Erzieher in den Sonderschulen der Broeders van Liefde. 1993 ging er in den Ruhestand und arbeitete als Gärtner an der Schule des MPI (Medizinisch-Psychologisches Institut) St.-Idesbald in Roeselare.

Die Mutter nahm sofort Kontakt mit dem Schuldirektor, Broeder Herman, auf, der abwimmelte. Der Direktor speiste die Mutter ab mit der Aussage: „Liebe Frau, Kinder fantasieren und die Eltern fantasieren mit“.

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BADEN BEI WIEN (AUSTRIA)
meinBezirk

October 6, 2017

[Translation: Dr. Fabian Vodermayer can no longer call himself “Father”. He was expelled from the Benedictine Order of the Melk Abbey. Once he was a popular priest in Traiskirchen, later he was condemned for sexual abuse by a minor, which he still fights to this day. In September his book Merciless appeared.]

Traiskirchen/Melk – Dr. Fabian Vodermayer darf sich nicht mehr als “Pater” bezeichnen. Er wurde aus dem Benediktiner-Orden des Stiftes Melk ausgeschlossen. Einst war er ein beliebter Priester in Traiskirchen, später wurde er wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs eines damals Minderjährigen verurteilt, was er bis heute bekämpft. Im September erschien sein Buch “Gnadenlos”.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

October 6, 2017

By Adam Cooper and Tom Cowie

Up to 50 witnesses could be called and a “voluminous” amount of evidence discussed when Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic official, faces a committal hearing next year on charges of historical sex abuse.

Cardinal Pell, 76, who has vigorously denied all allegations of sexual abuse, returned to Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday for a 20-minute administrative hearing.

The court was told 50 witnesses could be called at a four-week committal hearing – which will determine whether he stands trial – which is due to start on March 5.

Some witnesses will be former choirboys and are to be cross-examined over what allegedly happened in St Patrick’s Cathedral.

In legal discussion, the cardinal’s high-profile defence barrister Robert Richter, QC, said the prosecution case comprised “an awful lot of witnesses”, and said the amount of evidence was “voluminous”.

Cardinal Pell was charged in June with historical sexual offences involving multiple complainants. Details of the charges are yet to be revealed.

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BLACKPOOL (CORK, EIRE)
Irish Examiner

October 9, 2017

By Ann O’Loughlin

A 28-year old woman who was sexually abused by a school chaplain and teacher in the South East over a period of two years has been awarded €200,000 by the High Court.

Mr Justice Robert Eagar also commended the bravery of the woman in bringing her claim as he awarded a further €10,000 in aggravated damages.

He found the former chaplain had wrongfully physically and sexually assaulted, falsely imprisoned and sexually abused the woman who was only a transition year student at secondary school when the abuse began.

* * *

In the case which lasted 34 days the woman gave evidence of how between 2005 and 2007 she was abused and subjected to sexualised behaviour by the Catholic chaplain and teacher in her secondary school.

She said on a school trip to Gambia when she was 16 years of age, the chaplain invited her and another student to sleep in his bed with him. She said the chaplain first kissed her after she turned 17 and the sexual element between them progressed and they had oral sex about 35 times.

On a youth trip to Cologne, Germany to see the Pope, she said they had oral sex and also in the chaplain’s school office, his bedroom, car and the school oratory.

The woman had also sued the school in the South East where the man was a chaplain at the time.

She also sued the local bishop.

Mr Justice Eagar, finding the school vicariously liable, said the failure of the school to adequately monitor the behaviour of the chaplain allowed for the inappropriate relationship to develop into an abusive relationship.

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CHENNNAI (TAMIL NADU, INDIA)
The Hindu Business Line

October 9, 2017

A Kerala priest was arrested today for allegedly sexually abusing a 10-year-old school girl inside a church, police said.

The crime took place yesterday when the victim had gone to the church for taking Bible lessons, they said.

The accused, Fr Devaraj (65), of Kandanthitta CSI church will be produced before a magistrate later in the evening.

A case under POCSO (Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and section 376 of IPC (rape) has been registered against the priest, police said.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC

Concerns about a former Church of England priest who tortured and sexually abused two boys in Sussex were first raised two decades ago, a BBC investigation has revealed.

Jonathan Graves, of Eastbourne, was jailed last month for sex offences in the 1980s and 1990s. He was arrested in 2013 and charged in 2015.

One mother said she raised concerns in 1997 but the church did nothing.

The church said bishops would meet to examine the issues raised by the BBC.

The woman who reported Graves, said: “They let me, my children, and countless other families down.”

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DUBLIN (EIRE)
Irish Times

October 8, 2017

Irish missionary priest calls for foreign travel ban on paedophiles
Nobel Peace Prize nominee says ‘international and Irish sex tourists… coming here raping our children’

A four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee has called on developed countries to ban paedophiles and suspected sex offenders from foreign travel in the same way as suspected terrorists.

Father Shay Cullen, an Irish missionary who has been rescuing street children in the Philippines since 1974, said hundreds of thousands of sex tourists travel to the country from Europe, including the UK and Ireland, the US and Australia.

The Columban priest missed out on the Nobel prize last week, but praised the decision to award it to a campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

“The whole moral fabric of society and protection of human rights and the dignity of women and children is breaking down,” Fr Cullen said.

“One thing right now I would say to any government is to pass a law that would ban all convicted sex offenders from travelling abroad. That would be a very good thing they could do.”

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BLACKPOOL (CORK, EIRE)
Irish Examiner

October 7, 2017

By Nick Bramhill

Ireland is on course to become the first country in Europe to cancel the passports of convicted paedophiles in a bid to prevent them travelling overseas to offend again.

Earlier this year Australia became the first country in the world to introduce strict legislation to clamp down on sex offenders leaving or attempting to go abroad.

Now Ireland looks set to follow with draft legislation expected to be introduced later this month, which would pave the way for this country becoming the first European nation to make it illegal for convicted paedophiles to travel overseas.

The campaign is being spearheaded by Fr Shay Cullen, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary who runs the PREDA child abuse charity in the Philippines.

The Dublin-born priest said a move to prevent registered sex offenders from travelling abroad would particularly benefit developing nations, such as the Philippines, where sex tourism and child prostitution are rife.

He said: “It is a grievous crime for anyone to travel abroad to commit child abuse. Legislation was passed in Australia, but we want other countries to follow, and Ireland to take the lead in the EU on this.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

October 6, 2017

[Note: See also the Legionaries’ announcement and Turrión’s letter.]

The Legionaries of Christ announced Friday that Fr. Óscar Turrión, who was of the Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae until earlier this year, has fathered two children and intends to leave priestly ministry.

Fr. Turrión had been rector of the seminary since 2014, and a formator there since 2007.

“As those responsible for an institutions that is dedicated to the formation of candidates to the priesthood, we are conscious of the impact that the negative example of a formator and rector has on them and the Christian faithful,” the Legionaries said in an Oct. 6 statement.

“We are deeply saddened that the recent history of our congregation has quenched the fervor of some of our members. We are firmly committed to accompanying our brothers in moments of difficulty. Likewise, we reiterate our commitment to the path of renewal that we continue to follow led by the Church.”

Mater Ecclesiae was founded in 1991, and is operated by the Legionaries of Christ.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

October 6, 2017

Pope Francis has appointed Father Thanh Thai Nguyen, a priest of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, to be an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Orange, California.
The appointment was announced in Washington Oct. 6 by Msgr. Walter Erbi, charge d’affaires at the Vatican’s nunciature in Washington.

Born in Vietnam, Bishop-designate Nguyen, 64, fled the country in 1979 by boat with his family and spent 10 months in a refugee camp in the Philippines before arriving in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1980. After brief studies at Hartford State Technical College, he became a math and science teacher in Hartford public schools.

In 1984, he joined the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, studying at Merrimack College and the Weston School of Theology, both in Massachusetts. He was ordained to the priesthood May 11, 1991.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Diocese of Rockville Centre via Newsday from Attorney Mitchell Garabedian

October 2, 2017

By Mary F. McMahon

[Note: This posting provides an easier download of a PDF of the letter, previously posted by Newsday and included on Tracker.]

As Victim Assistance Coordinator for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, I understand the sensitivities of people who have survived abuse. With that in mind, I am writing to advise you of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program the Diocese of Rockville Centre (“DRVC”) will be initiating in the upcoming weeks (the “DRVC IRCP”). This letter will provide you, in advance, with information you may find helpful when the program is announced.

As you may recall, in October 2016, the New York Archdiocese implemented its IRCP; a two-phase program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. This past June, the Brooklyn Diocese made its IRCP available. The DRVC is now preparing to offer, in October 2017, the DRVC IRCP to survivors of sexual abuse by DRVC clergy. As the DRVC prepares for the initial phase of the DRVC IRCP, I want to advise you of some details of this program in order to provide you with certain important information and in the hope of allaying any concerns you may have.

Later in October, shortly after the DRVC announces the program, you will receive information in the mail, including instructions for submitting a claim, from the administrators of the program: Mr. Kenneth Feinberg and Ms. Camille Biros. This information will be sent to you because at some time in the past a report of inappropriate sexual conduct by a member of the DRVC clergy was made to the DRVC and your name was associated with this report. Please be assured that your participation in this program is completely voluntary and, subject only to the special circumstances that will be clearly outlined in the DRVC IRCP Protocol (such as any required reporting to the appropriate District Attorneys’ offices), will be kept strictly confidential All information any claimant provides on the claim form will be mailed directly by the claimant to Mr. Feinberg’ s office.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

October 7, 2017

By Mindy Aguon

A 23-year-old former altar boy is the latest victim to come forward alleging he was sexually abused by a Capuchin brother assigned to the Agana Heights parish in 2006.

J.C.M.P., who used initials to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Capuchin Friars and Vernon Kamiaz.

The lawsuit alleges that Kamiaz sexually abused J.C.M.P. when he was 12 years old. Kamiaz allegedly was a Capuchin brother who was actively involved with training the altar boys.

One day after Mass, Kamiaz asked J.C.M.P. and his brother to help him clean up around his house, according to the lawsuit. The complaint states J.C.M.P. agreed because they looked up to Kamiaz as a trusted mentor and friend and he was also a friend of the family.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

October 6, 2017

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court seeks more than $50 million in damages from convicted child molester and defrocked priest Daniel McCormack and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, developed a “trust relationship” with McCormack while playing on a basketball team the pastor coached at St. Ailbe School, 9037 S. Harper Ave., according to the suit. After graduating in 1998, the plaintiff continued playing basketball at St. Agatha’s Parish, 3147 W. Douglas Blvd., where McCormack was a pastor.

The suit alleges that McCormack sexually assaulted John Doe on one occasion —sometime between 1998 and 2000. The plaintiff didn’t recall the sexual abuse until the summer of 2017, according to the suit, which claims his memories were repressed and/or suppressed.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

October 6, 2017

A lawsuit seeking more than $50 million in damages has been filed against the Archdiocese of Chicago and a former priest who was convicted of child molestation.

The lawsuit filed Thursday says the alleged victim developed a “trust relationship” with Daniel McCormack while playing on a basketball team he coached. The lawsuit alleges that McCormack sexually assaulted the person, identified only as “John Doe,” on one occasion, sometime between 1998 and 2000. It says memory of the abuse had been repressed until this summer.

The lawsuit also alleges that the archdiocese was aware of McCormack’s sexual misconduct, but still ordained him.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Washington Post

October 7, 2017

By Nicole Winfield

The Legion of Christ religious order, stained by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered several children, is facing a new credibility scandal: The rector of its diocesan seminary in Rome is leaving the priesthood after admitting he fathered two children of his own.

In a letter released by the Legion on Saturday, the Rev. Oscar Turrion said he fell in love with a woman a few years ago during a time of turmoil in the Legion, fathered a son and, a few months ago, a daughter.

Turrion, a 49-year-old Spaniard, had been rector of the Pontifical Maria Matter Eclesiae International College since 2014. The institution is a residence for diocesan seminarians who study at Rome universities. Currently some 107 seminarians live there, most from India, Latin America and Africa, down from about 200 a few years ago.

The issue is particularly delicate given the international diocesan character of the seminary: Bishops entrusted their seminarians to the Legion to provide them with a wholesome living environment while they completed their studies.

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ROME (ITALY)
Legionaries of Christ

October 6, 2017

[Note: Includes link to an English translation of Fr. Óscar Turrión’s letter.]

1. Given the publication of news regarding the former rector of the Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae, Fr. Óscar Turrión, LC, we offer the following chronology of events. Fr. Óscar has written a personal letter in which he acknowledges the fact that he has
fathered children, apologizes, and requests prayers.

2. On March 27, 2017, Fr. Óscar Turrión informed the superiors that he had just had a
daughter and asked them to maintain confidentiality. Upon learning of this, his superiors
proceeded to ask the Holy See to appoint a new rector of the seminary, who began his term
in August.

3. For his part, Fr. Óscar asked permission to live for a time outside of community to reflect
and pray. His major superior granted this permission, according to the can. 665 of the Code
of Canon Law, with the restriction of not exercising public priestly ministry.

4. On October 5, 2017, Father Óscar Turrión acknowledged that he had had another child
with the same woman a few years ago. He also expressed his intention to leave priestly
ministry and to ask for the dispensation from the obligations contracted with ordination.

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MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
El Sol de México

October 7, 2017

Nuevo escándalo en los Legionarios de Cristo: rector de seminaristas tiene dos hijos
El reverendo español Oscar Turrión confesó ser padre de dos hijos y dejará el sacerdocio

By Jorge Sandoval G.

[Summary: Report on the removal of Fr. Óscar Turrión LC from leadership of the Legionaries’ Rome seminary, College Maria Mater Ecclesiae, because he had fathered his second child. This article provides useful canonical and other detail.]

Rome – Nuevo escándalo en los Legionarios de Cristo. El deplorable ejemplo del padre Marcial Maciel, fundador de esta Congregación creada en México en 1941, al parecer sigue cundiendo entre los miembros de esta orden religiosa, no obstante el periodo de “purificación” impuesto por el Papa Benedicto XVI, de frente al que fue considerado un escándalo sin precedentes en la historia moderna de la Iglesia católica. Maciel abusó sexualmente de seminaristas y tuvo varios hijos.

Ahora el protagonista es el reverendo español Oscar Turrión, de 49 años, rector en Roma del prestigioso Pontificio Colegio internacional “Mater Ecclesiae”, quien confesó ser padre de dos hijos.

Marcial Maciel abusó sexualmente de seminaristas y tuvo varios hijos. Foto: Reuters
He aquí la cronología de los hechos, según un comunicado de los Legionarios de Cristo:

El pasado 27 de marzo, Turrión informó a sus superiores que “acababa de tener una hija”, solicitando permiso “para vivir un tiempo fuera de la comunidad para reflexionar y orar”.

En base al canon 665 del código de Derecho Canónico, sus superiores se lo concedieron, pero “con la restricción de no ejercer el ministerio sacerdotal en público”.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

October 7, 2017

By Philip Pullella

The Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic religious order which fell into disgrace after the discovery that its founder was a sexual abuser with a secret family, has been hit by fresh scandal with revelations that the head of its Rome seminary fathered two children.

The order said in a statement late on Friday that Father Oscar Turrion would leave the priesthood. It also released a letter by Turrion in which he asks “forgiveness for the scandal … forgiveness for my bad example and the negative witness I have given”.

The Legionaries is a conservative order of Roman Catholic priests. Turrion was rector of the Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae, a seminary for men in the order studying for the priesthood in pontifical universities in Rome.

The Legionaries said Turrion, a 49-year-old Spaniard, told his superiors in March that he had just had a daughter. A new rector was appointed and Turrion was ordered not to practice his ministry publicly.

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ENGLAND
The Daily Mail

October 7, 2017

– Official review will criticise Church investigation into Bishop George Bell
– Bishop Bell was praised for speaking out against Hitler in the 1930s
– But Church said he has sexually assaulted a child on the ‘balance of probabilities’

A celebrated bishop whose reputation was destroyed when the Church of England labelled him a paedophile is set to have his good name restored, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

An official review of the handling of abuse allegations against the late Bishop George Bell will criticise the original Church investigation as flawed and unfair, it is understood.

Bishop Bell the wartime Bishop of Chichester who died in 1958, was praised for speaking out against Hitler in the 1930s – and he was granted the Anglican equivalent of a Saint’s Day, an annual commemoration.

But to the fury of devotees, his character was blackened when the Church declared two years ago that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ he had sexually assaulted a child in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UTAH)
Deseret News

October 6, 2017

By Pat Reavy

Utah has quietly withdrawn from the $110 million United Effort Plan trust of the Fundamentalist LDS Church.

Saying that the state’s “objectives have been achieved,” the Utah Attorney General’s Office on Friday confirmed that it had removed itself from the UEP Trust, which holds most of the property and homes in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

The UEP Trust was created by the FLDS Church in 1942 on the concept of a “united order,” allowing followers to share in its assets. But the state of Utah seized control of it in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement by FLDS Church leaders including Warren Jeffs, who was later convicted of child sex abuse and is serving a life prison sentence in Texas.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

October 6, 2017

By Haidee V Eugenio

A lawsuit filed Friday in federal court states that clergy sex abuse on Guam happened as recently as 2006 or 2007, when former Capuchin brother Vernon Kamiaz allegedly molested an Agana Heights Parish altar boy.

Most of the clergy abuse suits filed so far – nearly 130 – allege children were abused decades ago, from the mid-1950s to the early 1990s.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents only as J.C.M.P. to protect his privacy, said in his lawsuit that Kamiaz was actively involved with training altar boys at the Agana Heights Parish and was also his neighbor and family friend.

J.C.M.P. was 12 or 13 when the alleged sex abuse happened, his lawsuit states. He is now 23.

J.C.M.P. is represented by attorney David Lujan and demands $5 million in minimum damages.

Attorney Gloria L. Rudolph, of the law firm of Lujan and Wolff, confirmed that J.C.M.P. is the youngest to file a clergy abuse suit.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
9 WCPO-TV

October 6, 2017

By Christian Schaffer, Scripps National Desk

(WMAR) – A video that could hold vital answers to questions posed in Netflix’s true crime documentary “The Keepers” has been found in the archives of a Baltimore newsroom.

Journalists at WMAR in Baltimore — one of our sister stations— have uncovered video of Catholic Church documents being dug up at a local cemetery in 1994. The video, which shows black plastic bags and papers at the bottom of the a deep hole in a Baltimore cemetery, confirms the existence of documents discussed on “The Keepers,” and gives new insight into what Father Joseph Maskell hid amid accusations of sexual abuse.

“The Keepers” investigates the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik — a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School who was killed in 1970. It also looks into allegations of sexual abuse by Maskell, a former chaplain at the school.

According to “The Keepers,” Maskell ordered dozens of boxes of documents to be buried at a local cemetery in 1990 — documents that activists say contained proof of sexual abuse of minors.

In August of 1994, the boxes were dug up. The WMAR video shows that among the documents that were buried is a version of the “Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory,” or MCMI.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

October 7, 2017

A delegation of top Australian bishops held meetings at the Vatican this week to discuss topics including the “restoration of trust” in the country where its senior Catholic Church figure is facing allegations of historical sexual offences.

The Vatican disclosed the meetings in a statement on Saturday, a day after Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s economy minister, attended a hearing in Melbourne over the allegations.

Pell, who has denied all accusations against him, has taken a leave of absence from his Vatican post to defend himself in his native Australia.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
Agence France-Presse via The Daily Star

October 8, 2017

An estimated 20,000 indigenous children taken from their families starting in the 1960s and placed for adoption or fostering will share in a Can$800 million (US$640 million) payout, the government announced Friday.

The so-called “Sixties Scoop” saw them placed with primarily white middle-class families in Canada, the United States and overseas.

In recent years, as the children grew into adults and became aware of their past, several lawsuits and class actions were filed over their loss of aboriginal identity, claiming in court documents that it resulted in psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, violence and suicides.

“People affected by the ’60s Scoop have told us that the loss of their culture and language are among the worst kinds of harm that they suffered,” Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett told a press conference, flanked by Scoop survivors.

“That is why our government is responding directly to remedy the ill-advised (policies) of the past.”

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AURORA (IL)
Aurora Beacon-News / Chicago Tribune

October 7, 2017

By Hannah Leone

[See the entry for Pedraza-Arias in BishopAccountability.org’s database of accused priests.]

New disclosures are raising questions in the case of an Aurora priest charged with sex abuse whose trial has been repeatedly delayed while he faces deportation.

“I know the state wants to keep this trial on the calendar,” Kane County Circuit Judge Linda Abrahamson said Friday. “But this recent disclosure is like an atomic bomb.”

Alfredo Pedraza-Arias, 51, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, which allege that he sexually abused two girls at Aurora’s Sacred Heart Church between 2012 and 2014, when both girls were younger than six. He appeared in custody in the courtroom Friday, along with his attorney, David Camic; Assistant State’s Attorney Reagan Pittman; a representative from the Rockford Diocese; and a Spanish translator.

Abrahamson said the trial, slated for November, may be affected by whether lawyers have access to a man who investigated the case for the Kane County Child Advocacy Center.

New material disclosed last week includes notes about interviews the investigator conducted that weren’t turned in when they should have been, Camic said.

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VATICAN CITY
America

By Gerard O’Connell
October 6, 2017

Pope Francis today committed the Catholic Church to work “effectively and with genuine passion,” in close association with lawmakers, police authorities, technological giants in the field of social communications and other actors in civil society, for “the effective protection of the dignity of minors in the digital world.”

He offered this commitment in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall when he addressed the 140 participants from the first world congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World” that was held at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University, Oct. 3 to 6.

He did so in response to its “Declaration of Rome,” a 13-point call to action, which was read to him at the audience by Muireann O’Carroll, a 16-year-old Irish girl, representing the “digital natives” generation.

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MASPETH (QUEENS NY)
Queens Times Ledger

October 6, 2017

By Mark Hallum

Up to 15 victims have come forward accusing a former Maspeth parish priest of sexual abuse.

A former Maspeth priest is under investigation for the sexual assault of up to 15 girls between 1973 and 1994 with the help of Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who was depicted in the film “Spotlight. Additional women are coming forward.

During the time Father Adam Prochaski was with Holy Cross parish school at 61-21 56th Rd. , Linda Porcaro, a teacher who was close to the matter and the whistleblower in the case, claims the priest had assaulted numerous girls between the ages of 5 and 16 and was known to use physical intimidation on the boys in the school.

“He was mean and intimidati­ng,” Porcaro said in an interview with TimesLedger. “He was very large, he towered over me … He was about 6-foot-4, he wasn’t slim, He wasn’t overweight, but he was built and to a child that’s already very intimidating. I know he was rough with the boys, I saw him with the boys.”

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WÜRZBURG (GERMANY)
Main Post

October 6, 2017

Abuse: The long silence of the church — In 2002 a priest in the diocese of Würzburg went astray with a boy. Now it is confirmed that the man had already abused an altar boy in 1993.

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VATICAN CITY
Agence France-Presse via ABS-CBN News

October 7, 2017

Pope Francis on Friday urged the world, including the Catholic Church, to face up to the devastating effects of online sexual violence on young people, including extreme pornography and sexting.

“We have to keep our eyes open and not hide from an unpleasant truth that we would rather not see,” Francis said at a gathering of technology executives and health professionals at the Vatican.

Alluding to the pedophile scandals that have rocked the church, he added: “For that matter, surely we have realized sufficiently in recent years that concealing the reality of sexual abuse is a grave error and the source of many other evils?”

In a speech about protecting the dignity of children in the internet era, Francis warned of the spread of extreme pornography, sexting and online bullying as well as sexual exploitation, trafficking and the live-streaming of rape and violence against children.

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MELBOURNE
AAP (Australian Associated Press)

October 6, 2017

A four-week hearing in March will determine if Cardinal George Pell stands trial over historical sexual offence allegations involving multiple complainants.

As many as 50 witnesses will give evidence during a hearing that will determine if Cardinal George Pell stands trial on historical sexual offence charges.

The highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with sexual abuse has appeared in court for the second time, again for a brief administrative hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The case will return to the same court for a four-week committal hearing beginning on March 5.

A magistrate will then decide if Pell stands trial in the Victorian County Court over the charges involving multiple complainants.

The defence will argue some of the allegations, those involving Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, could never have happened.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Associated Press

October 7, 2017

A Roman Catholic diocese in suburban New York is creating an independent compensation program for people who were sexually abused by priests.

Newsday reports the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island sent letters this week to people who previously have filed complaints.

The diocese is the eighth largest in the United States with an estimated 1.4 million Catholics.

The compensation program will be modeled after ones established in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn during the past year.

Victims deemed eligible for financial compensation must agree not to pursue legal action against the church in the future in order to collect.

Rockville Centre’s program could involve dozens of cases of alleged abuse, some dating back decades.

___

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ENGLAND
GetWestLondon

October 4, 2017

By Emily Pennink and Katherine Clementine

Father Laurence faces 19 historical sex charges, including beating with a cane

A former Catholic priest in Ealing has gone on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a string of pupils at a boy’s school.

Andrew Soper, known as Father Laurence, faces 19 historical sex charges relating to 10 former pupils at St Benedict’s School.

The 74-year-old former abbot has denied the offences of indecent assault, indecency with a child, and buggery allegedly committed in the 1970s and 80s.

The boys, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were subjected to sexual touching and beaten with a cane, according to the charges.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

October 5, 2017

By Janela Carrera

The lawsuit names former priest Father Andrew Mannetta.

Guam – Another sex abuse complaint was filed in Superior Court against the Archdiocese of Agana, naming former Guam priest Father Andrew Mannetta as the alleged perpetrator.

The lawsuit is brought by a a 46-year-old man with the initials G.E.J. who claims Father Mannetta sexually abused him when he was about 14 years old at the San Miguel Church in Talofofo.

According to the complaint, G.E.J.’s parents sent him to live with Father Mannetta because he was rebelling against his parents.

G.E.J. says that on several occasions Father Mannetta ordered him to lie on his stomach and then would rub his buttocks and legs while watching television. Every time this happened, G.E.J. says the priest inched closer and closer to his genitals.

G.E.J. says this happened about 10 to 15 times before he left the rectory and finally returned home.

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VATICAN CITY
Agence France-Presse via The Guardian

October 5, 2017

Pope Francis met Thursday with French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who is awaiting trial over allegations he covered up for a paedophile priest in his diocese.

It was the first time Francis has met with Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon, since the cardinal learned last month that he would have to appear in court in April in connection with priest Bernard Preynat’s abuse of boy scouts in the 1980s.

Public prosecutors ruled last year that Barbarin did not have a case to answer but he and six other co-defendants have been directly indicted by some of Preynat’s victims. A judge ruled last month that the case could proceed.

Barbarin, 66, faces a potential jail sentence if found guilty of failing to act immediately and appropriately when one of the victims reported Preynat to the Church in 2014, demanding he be sacked.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

October 7, 2017

The leadership of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference met this week in Rome with officials from the Secretariat of State and various offices of the Holy See for a wide-ranging discussion concerning the situation of the Catholic Church in Australia at this time.

Topics covered included the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the relationship between the Church and society at large, the restoration of trust, and greater participation of the laity in decision-making roles in the Church.

The Australian delegation was comprised of the President of the Conference, the Most Rev. Denis James Hart, Archbishop of Melbourne; and the Vice-President, the Most Rev. Mark Benedict Coleridge, Archbishop of Brisbane; accompanied by Justice Neville John Owen of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

The main encounter took place on Thursday, October 5, with the Cardinal Secretary of State, His Eminence Pietro Parolin; the Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, His Eminence Marc Ouellet, P.S.S.; and the Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via U.S. News & World Report

October 7, 2017

The Vatican says that leaders of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference have traveled to Rome to discuss “the restoration of trust” amid a sex abuse scandal involving Australian cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to the pope.

The Vatican announced the delegation’s visit this week in a statement Saturday, saying key Australian church leaders met with top officials including the Vatican secretary of state and the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which is the Vatican office that processes all cases of priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

The extraordinary meetings in Rome come months after the Vatican released Pell to return to Australia to face charges in the decades-old case. Pell, who took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial czar, denies the charges.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
News12 Long Island

October 6, 2017

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is launching a fund to compensate victims of sex abuse by clergy.

The Diocese sent a letter to victims notifying them of the settlement program. It’s called the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

Victims who accept settlement money must waive their right to bring their cases to court.

The compensation fund is aimed at bringing closure to dozens of cases of alleged abuse by clergy that, in some cases, date back decades.

Settlements range from $100,000 to $500,000. Attorneys for clergy sex abuse victims say while accepting a settlement under the fund may help victims, it effectively hides the truth.

“In essence, they’re paying people off,” says attorney Mitchell Garabedian. “It’s saying to these people, ‘Here’s some money. We’re not going to list publicly the names of the predator priests. We just want you to go away.'”

It is unclear how many letters were sent out by the Diocese of Rockville Centre. A spokesman for the diocese says a formal announcement about the fund will be made in the near future.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday

[This is a letter to a survivor from the Rockville Centre diocese’s Director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People. It was published on October 6 in Newsday’s Letter: LI Catholic diocese creates sex abuse compensation program.]

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday

October 6, 2017

By Bart Jones, bart.jones@newsday.com

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is creating an independent compensation program for people who were sexually abused by priests — the latest effort in New York to bring closure to a horrific chapter in modern Catholic church history.

The diocese this week sent letters to those who previously have filed such complaints with diocesan officials, according to attorneys representing some of them. Newsday obtained a copy of the letter Friday.

The program will be modeled after similar ones established in the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn during the past year.

Under those programs, victims deemed eligible for financial compensation must agree not to pursue legal action against the church in the future in order to collect. Rockville Centre’s program could encompass dozens of cases of alleged abuse, in some cases dating back decades.

In a statement to Newsday, Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, wrote, “In the interest of providing survivors with advance notice of our impending Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, the Director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People sent a letter advising them of what would be occurring. A formal diocesan announcement will be made in the near future.”

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HAGÅTÑA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News (USA TODAY Network)

October 6, 2017

By Haidee V. Eugenio

Some of the sexual abuse that more than 100 children on Guam are alleged to have suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy happened about 10 years ago, not in the more distant past as most lawsuits have claimed, according to a new suit filed Friday in federal court here.

Most of the nearly 130 lawsuits filed so far have said children were abused from the mid-1950s to the early 1990s.

But a 23-year-old man, identified in court documents as J.C.M.P., alleges that Vernon Kamiaz, a Capuchin brother involved in training altar boys at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Agaña Heights, molested him in 2006 or 2007. Attorney Gloria L. Rudolph, of the law firm of Lujan and Wolff, confirmed that J.C.M.P. is the youngest to file a clergy abuse suit; USA TODAY does not use the names of potential victims of sexual abuse unless they consent to being identified.

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ROME (ITALY)
SNAP, the Survivors Network (SNAPnetwork.org)

October 5, 2017

Recent cases show epidemic of child pornography and cover-up in the church

Church should be target of global response, not leading it, group says

Today, the world’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused in the Catholic Church is criticizing a Vatican summit aimed at exposing child sexual abuse on the Internet.

“If the Vatican is so dedicated to punishing people who use the internet to exploit children, the first thing they need to do is fix the problem within the church. Then they must punish their own bishops who covered up for men who made, uploaded, viewed or distributed child pornography,” said Barb Dorris, the managing director of SNAP, the Survivors Network (SNAPNetwork.org).

“And there is the obvious: they must turn over Msgr. Carlo Capella to civil authorities in the United States and Canada. Anything less than that is smoke and mirrors,” she said.

Msgr. Carlo Capella is a Vatican diplomat who was recalled to the Vatican last month when U.S. authorities accused him of possession of child pornography. Last week, Canadian officials issued a warrant for his arrest on child pornography charges there.

The three-day Child Dignity in the Digital World Conference concludes October 6, 2017 at the Gregorian University in Rome. The event has brought together world leaders in digital media, according to media reports. However, the epidemic and cover-up of child pornography, SNAP says, is a big problem in the Catholic Church:

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MASPETH (BOROUGH OF QUEENS, NY NY)
Queens Chronicle

October 5, 2017

By Christopher Barca

More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Maspeth priest of molesting them as children decades ago.

Prominent attorney Mitchell Garabedian told the Chronicle in a Tuesday interview that 15 women claim that former Holy Cross Church pastor the Rev. Adam Prochaski sexually abused them at some point between 1973 and 1994.

“Father Prochaski was sexually abusing innocent children for more than two decades,” Garabedian said. “My clients are very courageous for coming forward.”

According to the Daily News, which broke the story, Prochaski was first assigned to Holy Cross in 1969. Garabedian said the abuse began four years later and occurred not just at the church, but at the parish’s now-defunct school and other locations.

“Sex abuse happened at school, in Holy Cross Church, in the rectory next door and in some of the children’s homes, as well as the father’s,” the attorney said. “In many cases, his abuse was open, notorious and in plain view.”

The ages of his alleged victims, many of them Polish immigrants, ranged from just 5 years old to 16, he added.

The allegations finally graduated from whispered rumors in 1990, when former Holy Cross teacher Linda Porcaro said seven of the priest’s alleged victims told her what had happened to them.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

October 6, 2017

The Pontiff argues filters and algorithms are not enough.

Pope Francis told executives of leading internet companies on Friday to use “their great profits” to defend children from sexual exploitation and other dangers lurking online.

The pontiff, speaking at a conference in Rome, said the Catholic Church needed to accept responsibility “before God, victims, and public opinion” for its own sex abuse scandals, but wanted to share the lessons it had learned.

Speaking to participants including representatives from Facebook (FB, +1.67%) and Microsoft (MSFT, +1.37%) , he said social media businesses had to do more than set up filters and algorithms to block harmful content.

The 80-year-old pope spoke out against the spread of extreme pornography, the dangers of so-called “sexting” between young people and between adults and children, and cyber bullying, calling it “a true form of moral and physical attack.”

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PACIFIC PAPUA NEW GUINEA
RNZ (Radio New Zealand)

October 6, 2017

Police in Papua New Guinea are investigating the conduct of a Catholic Priest, who is accused of sexual misconduct.

The Milne Bay police chief, George Bayagau, says an investigation has been launched after 16 girls complained about the priest’s inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Bayagau told the Post Courier that officers from the sexual violence unit are investigating, although he refused to go into further detail.

The priest works as a chaplain at a local secondary school.

A Catholic Church investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing.

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