ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

The Independent Review Group (IRG) established as a result of the McLellan Commission Report into safeguarding within the Catholic Church in Scotland recently held a successful inaugural meeting.

May 27 saw the group meet for the first time, and saw working groups founded, which will develop and assess the future activities of the group.

An autonomous body that works separately from the Church, the IRG will look at the standards of safeguarding and do independent audits at the reccomendation of the McLellan Commission.

“This group has been set up six months ahead of schedule and the experience members bring to this vital role is considerable indeed,” said Helen Liddell (pictured above with Archbishop Tartaglia), who was appointed chair of the IRG by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in December last year. “I am very grateful to them for their willingness to serve.

“The IRG is committed to ensuring the safeguarding procedures in the Catholic Church in Scotland meet the highest standards and it will conduct its business with transparency, vigour and compassion,” added the former MP and Secretary of State for Scotland.

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FRANCE
Le Figaro

[Paris: Teacher suspected of sexual abuse of several children.]

Par Alicia.Paulet Mis à jour le 16/06/2017

Une enquête judiciaire a été ouverte mercredi en raison de soupçons d’agressions sexuelles à l’école primaire catholique Sainte-Jeanne-Elisabeth (VIIe arrondissement). Pas moins d’une demi-douzaine de fillettes auraient été victimes d’attouchements.

Une semaine seulement après la fermeture de l’école L’Angélus située à Presly (Cher), une autre école se retrouve au coeur d’un nouveau scandale. Un instituteur du groupe scolaire catholique sous contrat Sainte-Jeanne Elisabeth, situé dans VIIe arrondissement de Paris, aurait abusé sexuellement plusieurs de ses élèves. Une information judiciaire pour «agression sexuelle sur mineur de moins de 15 ans par personne ayant abusé de ses fonctions», confiée à un juge d’instruction, a été ouverte ce mercredi par le parquet de Paris.

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FRANCE
RTL

[Several schoolgirls from a private Catholic school in Paris denounced the behavior of a former teacher. An investigation was opened by the Paris public prosecutor’s office for suspicions of sexual assault.]

Ce sont en tout sept jeunes filles de 6e qui se sont résolues à dénoncer, ensemble, les agissements de leur ancien enseignant. Elles auraient décrit “des câlins, des embrassades sur la joue, de façon régulière, notamment pendant des classes vertes” de l’année précédente, alors qu’elles étaient toujours en classe de CM2.

L’école concernée est Sainte Jeanne-Elisabeth, un établissement privé catholique sous contrat avec l’État situé dans le VIIe arrondissement de Paris. Le chef de l’établissement, qui avait recueilli le témoignage des collégiennes, a fait “un signalement aux autorités” le 31 mars dernier. Une enquête préliminaire a été ouverte pour “agressions sexuelles sur mineurs de 15 ans par personne ayant abusé de ses fonctions”, a indiqué à l’AFP une source judiciaire, confirmant une information du Parisien.

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SCHWEIZ
SRF

[In the 1990s, a teacher at the Gymnasium in Immensee had a love affair with a student and also sexually abused her.The case became known when the victim made the accusation a month ago in an article of the “Tages-Anzeiger” and made it public.The teacher did not deny the relationship. Any sexual actions are punishable by law.]

Das Gymnasium Immensee ist mit einem Missbrauchsfall konfrontiert. Eine Anlaufstelle hilft bei der Aufarbeitung.

In den 1990er-Jahren soll am Gymnasium Immensee ein Lehrer eine Liebschaft mit einer Schülerin unterhalten und sie auch sexuell missbraucht haben.

Der Fall wurde bekannt, als das Opfer vor einem Monat in einem Artikel des «Tages-Anzeigers» Vorwürfe erhoben hatte und diese öffentlich machte.

Der Lehrer stritt die Beziehung nicht ab. Allfällige sexuelle Handlungen sind strafrechtlich verjährt.
Die Schule hat die Stiftung Linda in Aarau als Anlaufstelle beauftragt. Bei ihr können sich allfällige weitere Opfer oder Täter melden.

Die Stiftung Linda ist auf Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch spezialisiert. Sie setzt sich zum Ziel, Opfern aber auch Tätern zu helfen.

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SCHWEIZ
Aargauer Zeitung

[A reformed pastor has been arrested in the Canton of Aargau for suspected sexual abuse of children. The 68-year-old accused has been in detention since the end of March. He made a partial confession.]

Ein reformierter Pfarrer ist im Kanton Aargau wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern verhaftet worden. Der 68-jährige Beschuldigte sitzt seit Ende März in Untersuchungshaft. Er legte ein Teilgeständnis ab.

Der Verhaftete war in diversen reformierten Kirchgemeinden in den Kantonen Aargau, Solothurn und Schwyz tätig. Das sagte Elisabeth Strebel, Mediensprecherin der Aargauer Staatsanwaltschaft, am Freitag auf Anfrage. Sie bestätigte einen entsprechenden Bericht der Sendung “Schweiz aktuell” von SRF.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

AAP

A Catholic boys boarding school in NSW’s central west has formally apologised for historic sexual abuse at the school.

St Stanislaus College in Bathurst held an apology service on Friday night for students abused between the 1970s and 1990s.

“We wish to speak directly to the victims first – this is their apology,” the school’s head Dr Anne Wenham said in a statement on the school’s website ahead of the service.

“We cannot come close to ever living the pain and suffering that the victims of sexual abuse at Stannies and their families have experienced and continue to experience.”

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WEST VIRGINIA
The Journal

JUN 17, 2017

DANYEL VANREENEN
Staff Writer
dvanreenen@journal-news.net

MARTINSBURG — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a 2015 Berkeley County Circuit Court on Wednesday, making it possible for the case against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to proceed to trial, according to counsel for the plaintiffs.

The case against the church was initially investigated after a church leader and member was found guilty and sentenced in July 2013 to 35 to 75 years in prison for sexually abusing two minors — 4 and 3 years of age at the time of the abuse.

Christopher Michael Jensen, 25, of Hedgesville, was initially accused of sexually abusing young children in 2004 when he was 13-years-old. Living in Provo, Utah at the time, Jensen was arrested at his middle school and charged with two felony counts of sexual abuse for pinning two 12 and 13 year old females against a wall and fondling them inappropriately and without consent.

Court documents said Jensen’s Sexual Behavior Risk Assessment indicated that he was highly likely to reoffend, but his charges were reduced to two misdemeanor counts of lewdness involving a child. Jensen’s grandfather, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader in Utah, was present for Jensen’s court proceedings, and the church allegedly knew of Jensen’s criminal history.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY ANDREW BARDSLEY
16 JUN 2017

A judge branded a former trainee church minister who injected teenagers in the genitals for his own ‘twisted’ gratification a ‘sexual monster’.

John Beaumont, 58, was today sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison for the sexual abuse, which happened after he convinced his three victims that they may have suffered radiation poisoning following the Chernobyl disaster.

In a victim impact statement, one of the victims said Beaumont can ‘rot in hell’.

After being arrested, Beaumont continued to deny the abuse and branded the victims ‘liars’, saying they lived in ‘fantasy land’.

Beaumont, a former minister in Scotland, told his victims that he was medically trained and had been instructed by the military to carry out medical examinations on them to test for radiation poisoning.

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IOWA
Press-Citizen

Stephen Gruber-Miller, sgrubermil@press-citizen.com June 16, 2017

A former church youth leader is pleading not guilty to multiple accusations of child sexual abuse and related charges.

Benjamin C. Tweedt, 32, of North Liberty on Thursday entered a written plea of not guilty to all charges against him, online court records show.

Police say Tweedt, a former youth leader and mentor at Parkview Church in Iowa City, fondled or had inappropriate sexual interactions with at least four children between the ages of 11 and 13 from 2006 to 2013. He was arrested in April, but was released after posting bond.

The church, which reported the allegations to police in February, says Tweedt was a volunteer but was never an employee.

Police said most of the abuse occurred during one-on-one visits with children in Tweedt’s capacity as a volunteer with the church. North Liberty Police Chief Diane Venenga said the abuse happened in homes and church retreat locations in North Liberty and Coralville.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

By rod malcolm | Posted: June 16, 2017

A 57-year-old retired teacher has been jailed for life arranging the sexual abuse of children in Philippines over internet.

Paul O’Neill, of Wroxham Drive, Wollaton Vale, pleaded guilty to 30 charges of procuring children as young as four for sex acts, including rape, and will serve 12 years before he can apply for parole.

He was a teacher at The Becket School in West Bridgford. He retired last August after 25 years working at the school. The offences do not relate to The Becket School.

He appeared at Nottingham Crown Court today (Friday, June 16) and followed the proceedings using a hearing aid.

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IOWA
KCRG

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) – The North Liberty Police Department were made aware of an incident regarding a youth church leader and mentor at Parkview Church in Iowa City having inappropriate contact with victims.

Upon investigation Benjamin Craig Tweedt, 32, of North Liberty, has been charged with one count of Sexual Abuse Third Degree, two counts of Lascivious Acts with a Child, three counts of Indecent Contact with a Child and two counts of Lascivious Conduct with a Minor.

It is alleged that Tweedt had multiple one-on-one sessions as a mentor/youth church leader with four victims over the past 10 years. The investigation revealed that inappropriate sexual contact was made with the victims during the meetings.

As soon as Parkview Church was made aware of the incident, they immediately removed Tweedt from any further participation with the student ministry.

If anyone has additional information about Tweedt and crimes against children, please contact the North Liberty Police Department Investigations at (319)626-5724.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

16 JUNE 2017

A Sunday school teacher was jailed for life today for a string of sickening child sex offences against girls as young as four in the Philippines – despite being 7,000 miles away.

Married father-of-two Paul O’Neill, 57, who taught maths at a Catholic secondary school, arranged for youngsters to be raped and abused by adults, watching live on a webcam and directing the offences from his home in Wollaton Vale in Nottingham.

At Nottingham Crown Court O’Neill admitted 30 charges, involving 12 girls aged from four to 15, including three child rapes, arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offences, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, conspiring to rape a child, and arranging child prostitution.

In a case thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, O’Neill, who was a minister with special responsibilities for children with the New Apostolic Church, was charged despite not being present or physically taking part in the abuse.

Prosecutors described O’Neill as a “virtual sex tourist” with a “very dark secret”, and said he “relished” the financial imbalance between himself and his poverty-stricken victims.

The offences took place between 2008 and 2016, and involved girls between four and 15.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A former teacher who paid men to abuse children as young as four in the Philippines while he watched online has been jailed for life.

Paul O’Neill, 57, from Nottinghamshire, ordered the abuse in advance, giving specific instructions on what he wanted to see, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

He admitted three counts of rape and a further 27 sexual offences. He was told he would serve a minimum of 12 years.

The CPS said the virtual rape case was thought to be the first of its kind.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By JOE SHEPPARD FOR MAILONLINE

A retired maths teacher who used webcams to direct and record the ‘horrifying and chilling’ rape and sexual abuse of girls as young as four in the Philippines has been jailed for life.

Sunday school teacher Paul O’Neill, 57, from Nottinghamshire was told he must serve a minimum of 12 years but may never be released for the unprecedented crimes committed against at least 12 victims over the internet.

The paedophile – who has now quit his post as ‘minister with special responsibilities for children’ with the New Apostolic Church – pleaded guilty to 30 child sex offences in what is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that the father-of-two preyed on poverty-stricken families from his home, becoming a ‘virtual’ child rapist during years of sickening abuse.

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NEW YORK
Democrat and Chronicle

Gary Craig and Will Cleveland, Democrat and Chronicle June 16, 2017

A regional appellate court has admonished the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, saying that the appeals court has had to recently reverse several verdicts “based upon prosecutorial misconduct.”

The court did not, however, reverse the conviction in the case at issue: The sexual abuse conviction of former pastor Joe Flowers Jr., who authorities maintained repeatedly sexually abused a boy younger than 13 years old.

In its ruling, the appellate court said the recent cases of concern were mostly cases that “involved charges of sexual abuse against a child” and the same prosecutor.

The prosecutor is not named, but former Assistant District Attorney Kristina “Kitty” Karle, who is now in private practice, confirmed it is her. She is now running for District Attorney in Ontario County.

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MARYLAND
Commonweal

By Peter Jeffery
June 16, 2017

In November 1969, Sister Catherine Cesnik, a popular, twenty-six-year-old teacher at an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore, disappeared. Two months later her frozen body was found in a nearby landfill, her skull fractured and her clothes partly removed. No one was ever charged in her murder, which is now the subject of The Keepers, Netflix’s latest foray into true-crime original programming. The Keepers follows a pair of Cesnik’s former students who have devoted their retirement years to pursuing the case. The two women have amassed vast quantities of evidence, apparently more than the police know, but the drama of the documentary lies in the tantalizing possibility that Cesnik was killed just as she was about to expose the most outrageous and bizarre case of clergy sexual abuse I have ever heard of.

If the allegations are true, a gun-toting priest-psychologist, working as a guidance counselor at the school, not only took advantage of the many troubled students who came to see him, but—abetted by a local gynecologist—also pimped them out to a large circle of men, including local politicians, uniformed police officers, other priests, and teaching brothers. The teenage victims, who barely understood what was happening, were bullied into silence: terrified by threats that they might end up like Cesnik, mortified with shame when they were diagnosed with “whore personality,” they were told they had to submit to these acts before God could forgive them. The abuse was accompanied by Latin prayers and signs of the cross to make them seem like rituals. Only decades later, long after the statute of limitations ran out, did the victims begin to come to terms with what had been done to them, recalling horrifying memories they had suppressed and speaking out.

The early episodes of The Keepers seem to build a strong case that Cesnik was killed by the pedophile priest to keep her from telling what she had been hearing from some of the victims. That priest, Fr. A. Joseph Maskell, was also the chaplain of the Baltimore police, where he had a highly placed brother, and where he is alleged to have found clients for his covert procurement operation. Were the police protecting him? Was the Church? The non-Catholic state’s attorney who won’t pursue the case seems unaccountably blasé about the many boxes of evidence that have disappeared.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Gavin Coote

Victims of sexual abuse at Australia’s oldest Catholic boys’ boarding school have welcomed a formal apology, but say there is a long way to go in the healing process.

A formal service was held last night at St Stanislaus College at Bathurst in central west New South Wales to apologise for historic acts of abuse.

At least 160 students were abused by former staff and priests at the school between the 1970s and 1990s.

Dozens of people gathered at the school’s performing arts centre to hear an apology on behalf of the school and the Catholic Church.

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MISSOURI
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Leonard R. Chambers was ordained in 1965 for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. He was assigned to more than twenty parishes during his career, assisting and serving as administrator early on, then assigned as pastor for the first time in 1974. Chambers held a number of diocesan positions, serving as president or chair of several.

In August 1982 Bishop Bernard Law placed Chambers on leave after the parents of a teenage boy complained that the priest had molested their son. Chambers admitted to the abuse. He spent ten months at the Servants of the Paraclete’s treatment facility in Jemez Springs, NM, after which he was returned to ministry. In the mid-1990s Springfield-Cape Girardeau bishop Leibrecht placed restrictions on Chambers, prohibiting him from being alone with minors. When Chambers was found alone with a minor in 1998, Leibrecht forced him to retire. Chambers is not indexed in the Official Catholic Directory after 2002. He is last known to have been living in Joplin, MO.

Ordained: 1965

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

BY EMMA WHITFORD IN NEWS ON JUN 16, 2017

Governor Andrew Cuomo alleviated some advocate concerns on Thursday by introducing a Senate bill that would give victims of child abuse a larger window of time to seek justice. The program bill could still face an uphill battle in the Senate, which has been historically hostile towards efforts to expand the statute of limitations for sex abuse victims. But advocates hope the governor’s end-of-session move could push its hand.

Research shows that a majority of childhood victims wait at least five years before speaking. Under current law, most New York victims have only five years after they turn 18 to bring civil or criminal charges against their abusers—thanks to statute of limitations laws that are more prohibitive than most U.S. states, according to the victim abuse network Safe Horizon.

Cuomo’s bill, which mirrors a law passed 139-7 this session in the State Assembly, would extend the statute of limitations to age 28 for victims of felony criminal cases, and age 50 for civil cases. The bill would also create a one-time, one-year “look back” window, in which victims of any age would be permitted to bring civil suits against individuals or institutions.

Cuomo indicated months ago that he would prioritize heightened protections, but advocates noted his silence on the issue in recent weeks, as time ran out in this legislative session.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Rick Karlin, Capitol bureau on June 16, 2017

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on a conference call primarily about Penn-Farley train station plans in New York City, said he wasn’t optimistic about the chances for an extension of mayoral control in the NYC schools, passage of a Child Victims Act or extension of sales tax increases happening by the end of the session.

Cuomo also noted that he’s offered his own Child Victims bill in addition. His bill mirrors that sought by the Assembly but it hasn’t moved in the Senate.

Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein has offered a compromise that would include the use of a special commission to review abuse allegations before they went to court.

Despite that, Cuomo expressed doubt that a bill would be passed this session, which is set to end on June 21.

“I’ve put in a bill. There’s been talk about a compromise bill,’’ said Cuomo.
“I’d be open to a compromise. I’m not highly optimistic about passage of the child victims act.’’

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FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post

Ryan DiPentima Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 15, 2017

A Florida minister who was found guilty of traveling to meet an underage boy for sex received his sentence on Tuesday.

David Donald Hoppenjan, 53, will serve 21 months in state prison and will be designated a sexual offender upon release, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Hoppenjan, who was a pastor at First United Methodist Church of Pace, was arrested in a sting operation conducted by local and state law enforcement officials in September.

He was one of 22 men arrested as a part of Operation Undertow, in which undercover agents posed as teenagers online and set up meetings with them. Hoppenjan went to two locations to meet with who he thought would be a 14-year-old boy, according to the Santa Rosa Press Gazette.

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CONNECTICUT
CT Post

By Daniel Tepfer Wednesday, June 14, 2017

BRIDGEPORT — The pastor of the Fountain of Youth Cathedral won the hearts of his congregation — then stole their church, police said.

Bishop Franklin L. Fountain may eventually have to answer to a higher authority but in the meantime he will face a Superior Court judge.

Fountain is charged with first-degree larceny and second-degree forgery after police said he forged deed documents and sold the Madison Avenue church to himself for $1.

City property records show Fountain is now the owner of the church and property valued at $1.5 million.

“Isn’t this all ridiculous,” Fountain, 55, said Wednesday after being released on a promise to appear in court. “I am the pastor and I deserve respect and I expect that this will all be worked out.”

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GERMANY
DW

A man has admitted in court to sexually abusing seven boys while heading a Buddhist community in southern Germany. The abuse, which took place over a period of 10 years, involved boys aged 4 to 13.

At the start of his trial in the southern German city of Augsburg on Friday, a Zen Buddhist priest fully admitted to sexually abusing a total of seven boys over the course of a decade.

The 62-year-old man is accused of 22 cases of sexual abuse, several of which have been deemed as “severe abuse” by prosecutors. He could face up to 15 years in prison.

The defendant’s lawyer, Hermann Christoph Kühn, read off an explanation of the crimes at the beginning of the trial, which the man later confirmed to be true.

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

June 16, 2017

Joelle Casteix

In 2013, Minnesota passed a landmark bill that allowed victims of child sexual abuse to use the civil courts to expose their abuser, no matter when the abuse took place. We are hoping to get one passed in New York right now.

Ensuing lawsuits showed that the Archdiocese under Archbishop John Nienstedt (pictured above) and his predecessors actively covered up the sexual abuse of minors for decades. It was bad. Really bad.

Then, allegations began to swirl about Nienstedt himself—allegations that he lived an openly gay lifestyle, propositioned seminarians, and caused all kinds of problems while he was a priest in Detroit and Rome. His favorite gay bar? The Happy Tap in Windsor, Canada. And he loved to have a good time.

In 2014, an independent law firm was hired by the Archdiocese to investigate numerous allegations against Neinstedt. Ten seminarians came forward providing affidavits saying that if they refused Nienstedt’s sexual advances, he would interfere with their careers. Sound familiar?

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Judy Courtin

Never has the fight for justice been so acknowledged and celebrated than at the state funeral on June 7 of Anthony Foster. This remarkable man, who died from a brain haemorrhage on May 28, two days after he collapsed, was only 64. His sudden death is shattering for his beautiful family and it leaves the entire community grieving.

Chrissie and Anthony Foster after a hearing of the parliamentary inquiry. Photo: Justin McManus
For 21 years, Anthony and his beloved wife Chrissie fought for justice, not only for their daughters Emma and Katie but for all victims of institutional child sexual abuse. They could not have predicted in 1996 that they would still be fighting the Catholic Church in 2017.

Throughout those years, Anthony and Chrissie were valiant in their lionhearted fight with what continues to be a legalistic and cold-hearted hierarchy. Denials, obfuscations and the protection of assets and reputations have remained paramount.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

[At the trial in Augsburg, a accused Zen priest has confessed to having abused several children. The victims are boys. He also said he made child pornography.]

Beim Prozessauftakt in Augsburg hat der angeklagte Zen-Priester gestanden, mehrere Kinder missbraucht zu haben. Bei den Opfern handelt es sich um Jungen. Von Jörg Heinzle

Er hat alles verloren: Seinen guten Ruf als Zen-Priester, seine Ehefrau, seine Freiheit. Seine leiblichen Kinder haben sich von ihm abgewandt. Außerhalb des Gefängnisses hat er nicht einmal mehr eine Meldeadresse. Seit diesem Freitag steht Genpo D., 62, vor der Jugendkammer des Landgerichts. Der Vorwurf: Er soll mehrere Kinder – in allen Fällen Jungen – sexuell missbraucht haben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbruecker Zeitung

Freisen. Gläubige in Freisen sind enttäuscht von der vagen Antwort Dr. Stephan Ackermanns auf ihren Brandbrief. Melanie Mai

Der Bischof hat geantwortet. Oder besser gesagt: Domvikar Marco Weber. “Lapidar”, wertet diese Antwort Liane Bonenberger, die stellvertretende Vorsitzende des Pfarreienrates der Pfarrgemeinschaft Freisen-Oberkirchen. Sie hatte im Mai im Namen des Pfarreienrates nicht nur einen offenen Brief vor der Freisener Kirche ausgehängt, sondern auch an Stephan Ackermann persönlich geschrieben. Darin fordert sie mehr Rückendeckung für Pfarrer Hanno Schmitt, der seit den Missbrauchsvorwürfen gegen den ehemaligen Freisener Pfarrer öffentlich angefeindet wird und gar Drohbriefe erhält (wir berichteten).

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun

ABC reporter Louise Milligan has peddled an implausiby lurid claim: that Cardinal George Pell caught two choir boys drinking altar wine after Mass at St patrick’s Cathedral and made them give him oral sex.

Melbourne University Press has even published Milligan’s book claiming detailing this allegation, which police have spent more than a year investigating.

And now a priest who was always with him at Mass at this cathedral says it simply could not have happened.

But first: from the very start this allegation seemed almost literally unbelievable.

Pell, an ambitious man then in his late 50s, would suddenly do something so reckless and criminal – something he’d never been accused of before?

Pell would force two boys to do this, knowing how much higher the risk was of being reported and found guillty?

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Tom McCarthy JUNE 15, 2017

Editor’s note: When we heard that “Spotlight’’ director Tom McCarthy would be picking up a screenwriting award at the Nantucket Film Festival just days after the Globe had decamped from its longtime Dorchester digs for new quarters in downtown Boston, something clicked. Who better to write about this venerable building, immortalized by his cinematic vision? What had he expected when he first walked into our newsroom a few years ago? What surprised/delighted/vexed him about what he found? And how on Earth had he managed to capture this place and its people so accurately? This is his answer.

I spent the better part of a year wandering the endless maze of hallways and stairways that make up the Boston Globe’s soon–to-be-abandoned headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard. The purpose of my frequent visits was research for my 2015 film, “Spotlight,” which chronicled the investigation by the Globe’s Spotlight team into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of the priest abuse scandal.

My co-writer Josh Singer and I had more luck managing the endless hours of interviews and source material than we did navigating the 800,000-plus square feet of the massive structure we came to refer to as the “SS Globe.” Time and again we found ourselves walking in circles or emerging through the wrong exit or making our way down the up escalator. (In truth, the escalator was often non-operational, so that worked in our favor.)

In our defense, even the Globe’s former editor, Marty Baron, quipped that he communicated with the Spotlight team by e-mail in part because he had a hard time locating the Spotlight offices, which were tucked away on the mezzanine level of the building.

Our saving grace was the generosity of spirit of the good people who worked there. We were constantly being directed, redirected, and even escorted by the industrious crew of that mighty ship. Their contribution was all the more notable because we had been clearly identified not only as snoopy Hollywood screenwriters but also as unrepentant fans of both the Yankees and Phillies.

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NEW YORK
Spectrum News

By Terry Stackhouse
Thursday, June 15, 2017

Advocates for victims of child sexual assault are urging lawmakers to pass the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for survivors to file lawsuits, before the end of the legislative session next week.

“I know what it is to go through that and every day I still have to tell myself to be strong,” said Gary Greenberg, a survivor of child sexual assault.

The Greene County businessman founded Protect NY Kids, a PAC backing candidates who support legislation ending statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse cases. He supports a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases and create a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

At the Capitol Thursday, Senate Democrats held an event to rally support for the Child Victims Act.

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SCOTLAND
Independent Catholic News

June 15th, 2017

Source: SCMO

In December 2016, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Scotland announced that Helen Liddell would Chair the Independent Review Group (IRG) set up as a result of the McLellan Commission Report into the current safeguarding policies, procedures and practices within the Church in Scotland.

The IRG is an autonomous body which will function separately from the Church and will review safeguarding standards and carry out independent audits as recommended by the McLellan Commission.

The Group met for the first time on 27 May and established working groups to develop and scope the future activities of the IRG. The current membership of the Group is listed below. Further members may be recruited if requirements for additional expertise are identified by the working groups.

Commenting on the IRG Helen Liddell said: “This Group has been set up six months ahead of schedule and the experience members bring to this vital role is considerable indeed. I am very grateful to them for their willingness to serve.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Brian Donnelly @BrianDonnellyHT
Senior News Reporter

A SENIOR Catholic monk has admitted there was an “alarming failure” by brothers to protect children in care, a public inquiry into child abuse heard.

Brother Laurence Hughes, provincial of the De La Salle Brothers, also accepted there was a “disturbing lack of awareness” of abuse in schools run by the order in Scotland.

He also apologised at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in Edinburgh for abuse inflicted by both those who were convicted of offences and other brothers who were not convicted.

As well as Michael Murphy, known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children in his care at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent, East Lothian, being convicted of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981, Brother Hughes accepted it was possible further abuse was carried out against children.

In the order’s report to the inquiry Brother Hughes said wrote: “The congregation acknowledges that abuse may not be confined to those with convictions.”

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NEW YORK
Adirondack Daily Enterprise

ALBANY (AP) — Survivors of child molestation are urging lawmakers in New York to loosen the statute of limitations on lawsuits for past abuse.

A statement released Wednesday and signed by several survivors called on top lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hold negotiations on the bill before the legislative session ends next week.

The proposal would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for several child sexual abuse crimes and create a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

Victims now have until they turn 23 to sue, but supporters say it can take years before victims feel comfortable stepping forward to report their abuse.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Rey
Published Wed, Jun 14, 2017

The young boy who was sexually molested by an older student while on a Buffalo school bus in 2015 was sitting immediately behind the bus driver when it happened, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy’s mother.

The molestation happened not once, but at least five times on the bus over the course of eight days, according to the lawsuit.

And on one of those occasions there also was an aide on the school bus.

Those are some of the new accusations that emerged from a lawsuit filed by the boy’s mother. The suit was filed against First Student Inc., the transportation provider; the Buffalo Public Schools, which contracts with First Student to provide busing to both public and private schools; and the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and Our Lady of Black Rock School, where both boys attended.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE
The Australian
June 16, 2017

A priest who says he accompanied George Pell every time he was at St Patrick’s Cathedral has challenged one of the most salacious allegations against the former archbishop of Melbourne — that he abused two teenage choir boys in a backroom of the Cathedral — in an interview with Victoria Police.

The priest, who was on the then-Archbishop’s staff from September 1996 to January 2001 told police late last year it was “physically impossible for Archbishop Pell to have been alone with anyone in the Cathedral, before, during, or after the celebration of Sunday Mass or on any other occasion’’.

The cathedral abuse allegation, raised on ABC’s 7.30 a year ago, forms one of the most provocative chapters of journalist Louise Milligan’s book Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, published by Melbourne University Press. In it, Milligan compares Cardinal Pell with an “Easter Island statue of a man, gliding through the cathedral, papering over emotion, lest he snap’’.

The priest, who has refused to become embroiled in a defence-by-media, answered police questions related to an alleged incident after a Sunday Mass at the Cathedral between July and December one year. Cathedral publications and photographs show the building was closed for restoration for most of that year until a Saturday night in November, when a Vigil Mass was held to celebrate Christ the King.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

A senior priest has told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council ­contributed to rare but ‘horrible ­mistakes’ that the Church made in dealing with clergy accused of ­abusing children.

IAN DUNN

A senior priest has told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council ­contributed to rare but ‘horrible ­mistakes’ that the Church made in dealing with clergy accused of ­abusing children.

Mgr Peter Smith, a priest of Glasgow Archdiocese and former Vatican attache at the United Nations, told the inquiry last week that during the 1970s the Church accepted the standards of the day that ‘it was better to repair the person, to fix them or to redeem them, and that was a huge mistake.’

“The circumstances of the Second ­Vatican Council made a significant ­difference to the whole way that the Church proceeded,” he said. “Prior to that we proceeded fairly legalistically and fairly authoritarian, whereas the Second Vatican Council asked us to proceed ­pastorally and caring for people. And that pastoral care was exercised very strongly towards the priests who had been accused and I think perhaps less strongly towards those who had been on the receiving end of such a vicious thing to do.”

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

By James Wright

There are two Roman Catholic Churches when it comes to taking responsibility for child sex abuse cases in Hawaii: the repentant and the defiant.

The repentant is occasionally seen in public statements. A typical example appeared in a Jan. 9, 2004, letter to the Honolulu Advertiser by Patrick Downes as editor of the Diocesan newspaper:

“The Diocese of Honolulu acknowledges the devastating and long-lasting damage caused by the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. It pledges to deal with the problem strongly, openly and consistently in the future.”

Downes is a familiar name locally in connection with clergy sex abuse having more than 30 years of stridently defending the Church and the perpetrators — often by disparaging the victims.

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NEW YORK
Faith Forward

By Rabbi Ari Hart

When victims of child sex abuse come forward to seek justice and stop abusers from harming others, unbelievably they are blocked by New York State law. New York ranks among the worst in the nation — alongside Alabama, Mississippi and Michigan — for how its courts and criminal justice system treat survivors of child sex abuse.

If you think a law doesn’t make much difference, take a moment to consider Sara:

“When I was 13 and 14 years old, I suffered repeated violent sexual assault by a man who was part of my religious community, a family friend who stayed over at our house. He told me that if I told anyone what he was doing, I would bring my family shame and they would blame me. I believed him. When he came to my bedroom at night, I would try to push him away, but he was stronger than me: I was trapped. I did not have words to describe the horror that I was enduring. By the time I healed enough to understand that it was not my fault, that I was a victim and could speak up about the abuse, it was too late. The New York State statue of limitations for sexual abuse was up. Our legal system no longer considered my story valid.

The predator who abused me is still at large, and because of the statute of limitations, I can do nothing to protect his present and future victims.”

As faith leaders, this issue is particularly painful and urgent. Rather than being a source of healing for victims of child sexual abuse, our religious institutions have too often discouraged victims from getting the legal and social help they need; faith leaders have been enablers; and horrifically, they have been perpetrators. Faith communities are beginning to acknowledge and undertake the hard, painful and sometimes disruptive work of confronting the specter of child sex abuse in our communities, develop policies for prevention, and support its victims.

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NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

Written by THOMAS GIERY PUDNEY, assistant editor on June 15, 2017

Senate Democrats held a press conference today urging Senate Republican Conference to get behind legislation to allow child sex abuse victims more time to take their abuser to court.

Advocates and legislators, including Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, sponsor of the Assembly Child Victims Act (A.5885-a) that passed by a telling bipartisan vote of 139-7 earlier this month, believe that this is the year the CVA makes it to the floor for a vote and, onto the governor’s desk.

“Protecting New York’s children against sexual abuse and rape and giving justice to those that have been harmed in the past is what our duty is as state legislators,” said Rosenthal. “There should be no question, it should not be up for debate.

“Without doing this bill, New York state is protecting predators.”

This most recent push comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday evening a program bill that is the same as the bills passed by Rosenthal in the Assembly and sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman in the Senate.

This could signal to the Senate Republicans that depriving victims of the look-back window they have pushed for, or the independent tribunal that determines validity of victim’s claims on a case by case basis, as offered in Sen. Jeff Klein’s compromise bill, are not what the governor considers the best option for New York’s childhood abuse victim’s.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Matthew Hamilton on June 15, 2017

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has introduced his own version of the Child Victims Act to the state Legislature, mirroring his proposal on bills that already are being pushed in both the Assembly and the state Senate.

The bill was introduced through the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, advocates, bill sponsors and Cuomo are continuing to press the Senate to take up the legislation as lawmakers head toward the scheduled end of the legislative session on June 21.

“This is about justice and I urge this measure to be passed before the end of session and allow these victims the ability to hold their abusers accountable — something they’ve wrongly been denied for far too long,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The bill would change when the the five-year statute of limitations clock for felony sexual abuse crimes starts ticking. Under current law it starts when the abuse victim turns 18. Under Child Victims Act, it wouldn’t begin until the victim is 23.

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NEW YORK
News 10

[with video]

By Nick Perreault
Published: June 15, 2017

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A bill is headed to the Senate that would help child victims report abuse.

The bill passed the Assembly 139 to seven, but the Senate’s failed to pass similar legislation for over a decade.

“I personally was 15 years old when I was molested by a 33 year-old man,” Bridie Farrell, a victim, said.

Farrell didn’t tell anyone.

“I thought it was really my mistake, I thought it was weird and something that wasn’t supposed to be public, but not necessarily a crime.”

It would take her a decade to realize what happened.

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NEW YORK
WNYT

[with video]

June 15, 2017

ALBANY – Survivors of child sexual abuse and their advocates were at the Capitol Thursday pleading with Senate Republicans to “ease their pain.”

Anna Wagner, a Long Island mother of three, who was abused by a family friend when she was 9, says the emotional scars remain and the nightmares are constant.

“I ask that the Senate take a stand and help conserve children’s rights and help conserve the sweet dreams of children tomorrow,” Wagner said. “When is it going to be a priority to stop the nightmares, when we know these monsters are not haunting other children?”

The Child Victims Act would eliminate the statute of limitations and open up a one-year window so that sex abuse victims can file civil suits.

“There’s nothing more repulsive than the sexual exploitation of children by adults, “said Assembly woman Linda Rosenthal (D – New York City), “Without doing this bill, New York State is protecting predators and allowing current predators to continue their ways.”

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NEW YORK
Newsday

Updated June 15, 2017
By Michael Gormley michael.gormley@newsday.com

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday introduced his own bill to give victims of child sexual abuse more time to accuse, prosecute and sue their abusers in a move that advocates of the effort called a “breakthrough moment.”

“This is about justice and I urge this measure to be passed before the end of session and allow these victims the ability to hold their abusers accountable — something they’ve wrongly been denied for far too long,” Cuomo said.

Despite a decade of opposition by the Senate’s Republican majority, advocates of the bill introduced in the final days of session said Cuomo’s action adds to momentum in what would be a major result in a so-far lackluster end of session.

“We have the momentum, we have every piece,” said Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), who has pushed the bill for years. This year, victims of childhood sexual abuse streamed into the Capitol for months telling their stories and carrying school pictures of themselves. “And we have the governor now,” Hoylman said. “This a breakthrough moment.”

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VIRGINIA
WYFF

BECCA MITCHELL

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA —
A former youth pastor charged with sexual penetration has been found guilty by a Virginia Beach judge.

Jeffrey Bondi, 47, is charged with a crime that allegedly happened 15 years ago while he was working as a youth minister at Galilee Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach.

A woman who was 18-years-old at the time told police that Bondi sexually assaulted her while he was working at her church.

All we know about the victim is that she now lives in California and is a comedian/writer.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
16 Jun 2017

RETIRED Newcastle solicitor Lou Pirona lost a son who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest, and whose suicide in 2012 after “too much pain” was the catalyst for a royal commission.

Now Mr Pirona is speaking up for survivors of sexual abuse at his old school, St Stanislaus College, Bathurst, over a controversial apology at the college on Friday and the Vincentian order’s failure to acknowledge the full extent of crimes committed there.

“I just wanted the survivors to know I support them. I wanted them to know I understand a little bit of the impact of these sorts of things, so it really comes from the heart,” Mr Pirona said.

Survivor Damien Sheridan and son Zakarie, survivor Tor Nielsen and mother Carole, St Stanislaus Old Boy Terry Jones and NSW Greens MP and justice spokesman David Shoebridge will hold a vigil outside the college on Friday from noon. They will protest against an apology during a liturgy at the school where the crimes occurred, which a leading survivor group said would be “inherently re-traumatising” for many people.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Post

BY MICHAEL GRYBOSKI , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
Jun 15, 2017

Sexual abuse by clergy continues to be a problem within the Roman Catholic Church, according to a recent annual report.

The Church’s National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People found in May that between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, there were 1,232 abused individuals who brought forth 1,318 allegations of sexual abuse by clergy.

“These allegations represent reports of abuse between a specific alleged victim and a specific alleged accused, whether the abuse was a single incident or a series of incidents over a period of time,” noted the annual report.

“Compared to 2014 and 2015, the number of allegations has continued to increase. This is due to six dioceses experiencing an influx of allegations during the 2016 audit year. Of the increase in these six dioceses, two were due to bankruptcy proceedings and the other four were due to the state opening the statute of limitations.”

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CURACAO
NL Times

By Janene Pieters on June 15, 2017

A 54-year-old pastor from the Rains of Blessing church on Curacao is standing trial for raping 10 girls. His youngest victim was 11 years old. On Wednesday the Public Prosecutor demanded 18 years in prison against him, and that he be banned from leading any church for 20 years, NOS reports.

The allegations of sexual abuse refer to incidents dating back to 2003. Late in 2015 one girl was brave enough to report what happened. After that, reports started streaming in. More than 20 cases came in, with victims from Curacao and the Netherlands – the church also has branches in Tilburg, The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Orlando B. is currently on trial for 10 of those cases.

B. raped girls under the guise of exorcism, according to the broadcaster. He told his victims that they were possessed by demons he put in them, and that he would wake the demons up if they went to the police. He used a lot of violence. Some girls woke up covered in blood.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune JUNE 15, 2017

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was back in bankruptcy court Thursday, as U.S. Judge Robert Kressel heard objections to the competing victim settlement plans.

A key issue was whether the plan put forth by attorneys for the clergy abuse victims complied with Chapter 11 bankruptcy law, which allows an organization to reorganize its debt. The victim’s plan would tap what attorneys say is $1 billion in archdiocese property and assets not accounted for in the archdiocese’s settlement plan.

“Chapter 11 doesn’t expect a body to liquidate its assets,” Kressel told the court. “It doesn’t mean [the archdiocese] is not complying with bankruptcy code.”

Kressel also labeled “inflammatory” some of the language used in court documents filed by victims’ attorneys when describing the archdiocese’s proposed settlement. The archdiocese had filed a motion seeking the removal of the language, which attorneys did.

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DELAWARE
Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington

“The Keepers,” the Netflix documentary series that explores sexual abuse at a Baltimore Catholic school for girls, and the murder of a nun in the 1960s, hints that Bishop Malooly may have participated in a cover-up regarding the abuse by A. Joseph Maskell, a Baltimore priest. The abuse apparently took place at the school from 1967 until 1975. Bishop Malooly served in various administrative roles with the Archdiocese beginning nine years later in 1984 and continuing until his appointment as the Ninth Bishop of Wilmington in 2008.

Here is Bishop Malooly’s response to these insinuations:

“In the spirit of truth, I would like to make some clarifications regarding some of the claims and insinuations that were made in ‘The Keepers.’ My intention is to set the record straight, and in no way do I wish to minimize the pain and suffering caused by the abuse perpetrated by Joseph Maskell, or any other priest.

In 1992, while serving as Chancellor and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, I was first made aware of the accusations of sexual abuse of minors by Joseph Maskell. At that time, the adult survivor and her attorney were urged to report the abuse to civil authorities, and the survivor was offered counseling assistance. Maskell was removed from ministry and referred for evaluation and treatment with full disclosure to the facility as to the reason for the treatment. Maskell denied the allegation, and after months of evaluation and treatment, he was returned to ministry in 1993 after the Archdiocese was unable to corroborate the allegation following its extensive investigation.

When additional allegations were made in 1994, Maskell was permanently removed from ministry on July 31, 1994. The Archdiocese of Baltimore publicly stated that it wanted to speak with individuals who had information regarding Maskell. A detective was hired to search for anyone who may have been abused by him. In 1994, a music director at a Catholic church told the Archdiocese that Dr. Charles Franz may have information regarding Maskell, and so we reached out to him and set up a meeting for October 20, 1994.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Jessica Masulli Reyes, The News Journal June 15, 2017

The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington denies allegations in the Netflix documentary “The Keepers” that he tried to cover up sexual abuse by a Baltimore priest decades ago.

The seven-part series released in late May focuses on a priest, Rev. Joseph Maskell, who was accused of sexually abusing students at Baltimore’s Archbishop Keogh High School in the 1960s and 1970s.

The series explores a theory that Sister Catherine Anne Cesnik, a teacher at the school, was killed in 1969 because she suspected Maskell was abusing students. Cesnik’s murder remains unsolved, and Maskell was never criminally charged for the abuse before his death in 2001.

Bishop W. Francis Malooly, who was assigned to the Archdiocese of Baltimore before he became Wilmington’s bishop in 2008, is mentioned only in the final episode of the series. Malooly posted to the Archdiocese of Wilmington’s website a lengthy statement challenging the accusations.

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INDONESIA
Catholic Register

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
June 15, 2017

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Dozens of Indonesian priests have quit their posts after accusing a bishop on the Catholic majority island of Flores of embezzling more than $100,000 of church funds for personal use.

Ucanews.com reported that at least 69 priests from Ruteng Diocese submitted letters of resignation in mid-June, quitting their posts as episcopal vicars and parish priests, and demanded that Bishop Hubertus Leteng heed their calls for a complete overhaul of how the diocese is run.

Bishop Leteng told reporters June 12 that he did not want priests to leave their posts, but stepping down “was their free choice.”

“If you love the church, you must create calm among people,” he said. The bishop refused to comment about the allegations against him.

Father Marthen Chen, spokesman for the priests, said the overhaul is desperately needed “so the church can be truly in line with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

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NEW YORK
Frum Follies

Important groups stand in the way of strengthening legislation against child sex abusers in New York State: the Roman Catholic Church and its pipsqueak partner, Agudath Israel of America (aka Agudah).

Both groups decry sexual immorality, preach protection of the weak, and rhapsodize about their children. Yet they both have long, ugly histories of helping their molesters escape prosecution and financial reparations.

In 2010, Governor Andrew Cuomo badly wanted to legalize gay marriage in NYS. As always, the obstacle was the lobbying of the RCC and Agudah. So he cut a deal with them. They would denounce the act but not pressure legislators. In return they got his off-the-record promise not to extend the statute of limitations for child sex abuse. Instead, NYS would continue to have one of the shortest SOL’s in the US, requiring survivors to file criminal and civil complaints before their 23rd birthday.

Most survivors need more time before they are ready to confront their own demons and take on their abusers. He also protected them from what they feared, a window allowing survivors to sue for abuse that happened before the SOL’s were changed. Such windows expose abusers and force culpable individuals and institutions to compensate victims. They are embarrassing and costly for institutions that long covered up abuse, such as yeshivas, camps (e.g., Camp Agudah), and the RCC.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL
Thursday 15 June 2017

The leader of a religious order has apologised for a “disturbing lack of awareness” which allowed staff to physically and sexually abuse boys at residential schools.

Brother Laurence Hughes, head of the De La Salle Brothers in Great Britain and Ireland, told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry he would have expected other members of staff to have known what was going on.

Br Hughes said he had already met with survivors abused by the congregation in Northern Ireland and was prepared to do so in Scotland.

The inquiry, before Lady Smith, was told an estimated 9,300 pupils, many with emotional and behavioural difficulties, attended five institutions run by the Brothers between 1914 and 1992.

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CALIFORNIA/OKLAHOMA
The Worthy Adversary

June 15, 2017 Joelle Casteix

Jose Alexis Davila accepted a plea deal for battery against a 20-year-old female parishioner in 2012. The plea agreement came when the victim was too scared to testify. Why? Well, a parishioner ‘lynch mob’ tried to stop her mother from attending prayer group and accosted her brother. They also called her a liar and a slut. Nice.

Then-San Diego Bishop Cirilo Flores did nothing to help the victim or reach out to parishioners and warn them about the harm they were doing.

Prosecutors were able to get a sentence of three years’ probation and community service. Despite this, the Diocese of San Diego tried to reinstate Davila, until local outrage and media attention stopped the move.

Davila disappeared until 2016, when he showed up at a parish in in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. When parishioners became upset, Oklahoma Archbishop Paul Coakley said that he had all of the information necessary about Davila and considered him “fit for ministry” and safe.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC Philadelphia

Three Franciscan friars are asking a judge to dismiss criminal charges that they didn’t properly supervise a suspected sexual predator accused of molesting more than 100 children, most at a Pennsylvania high school.

Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva has set a hearing Wednesday on the defense motions filed by attorneys for Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli.

State prosecutors say the friars assigned or supervised Brother Stephen Baker when he served at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown in the 1990s. Baker killed himself in 2013, shortly after a settlement was announced that he had molested students at a school in Youngstown, Ohio.

That settlement prompted more than 80 former McCort students to come forward with molestation allegations, that have resulted in more than $8 million in settlements.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Katie O’Toole

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Judge Jolene Grubb Kopriva heard arguments for pretrial motions Wednesday in the case of three Franciscan priest accused of covering up for an alleged child sex abuser.

Brother Stephen Baker, who has since killed himself, was accused of molesting more than 100 children. He did so while at schools where the three priests had allowed him to work.

Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli are each charged with endangering the welfare of children, and criminal conspiracy.

The defense asked for a change in venue Wednesday due to the local public opinion and knowledge about the case, but Kopriva suggested that decision would be too premature.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG – Attorneys for three Franciscan friars accused of failing to properly supervise suspected serial child sexual abuser Brother Stephen Baker presented reasons on Wednesday why they believe charges against their clients should be dismissed.

The priests are charged with one count each of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children.

Lawyers argued a conspiracy did not exist between the Revs. Anthony “Giles” A. Schinelli, Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony M. Criscitelli and that the statute of limitations has expired on endangerment. Daniel Dye, a prosecutor from the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, disagreed with their positions, telling the court: “There was no error in holding this matter for trial.”

Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva said she will rule on the issues “as quickly as possible.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

JUN 15, 2017

KAY STEPHENS
Staff Writer
kstephens@altoonamirror.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Attorneys for three Franciscan friars tried Wednesday to convince a Blair County judge that prosecutors have no case to support the criminal charges filed against their clients.

“There’s zero evidence of a conspiracy. There’s zero evidence of a course of conduct,” attorney Charles Porter told Judge Jolene G. Kopriva on behalf of Anthony “Giles” Schinelli.

Schinelli, Robert J. D’Aversa and Anthony M. Criscitelli previously served as ministers provincial for the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Hollidaysburg, starting in 1992. In those roles, they supervised Brother Stephen Baker whose work assignments allegedly put him in a position to sexually abuse male youths.

In criminal charges filed in March 2016, three years after Baker fatally stabbed himself at his monastery residence in Hollidaysburg, the state attorney general accused Baker’s three supervisors of endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pa. – Giles Schinelli, Robert D’Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli appeared in court Wednesday morning for pretrial arguments. The three face conspiracy and child endangerment charges.

Lawyers for the three Friars moved to have the dispute over what their duty entailed as Minister Provisional determined by the judge and not by jury. They say the prosecution’s definition of their duty is too generalized.

The also argued that there is no evidence to suggest that the Friars engaged in a conspiracy. They say there is no documentation of an agreement between them to conspire. The prosecution argued that information about allegations regarding Brother Stephen Baker was available to all three of them and that their course of action indicates a conspiracy.

The defense claims that only Schinelli knew of the allegation against Baker from 1988 that was discovered in 1992. They say that this was never discussed with D’Aversa nor Criscitelli. They say that the evidence suggests that Schinelli took appropriate follow-up action on the allegations and found no further evidence to suggest any wrongdoing by Baker. It’s said that Schinelli then had Baker see a doctor and it was found that there was nothing to suggest that Baker was a pedophile.

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INDIANA
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Wilton D. Gregory
Archbishop of Atlanta

In the very same chapter of his Gospel in which St. Matthew presents his rendition of the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us that He has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Clearly, the Beatitudes are in fact a startling new edition of God’s Law. Jesus is Himself both the new law and the fulfillment of the old law.

He calls us to see with new eyes how to live in a world so continually filled with sorrow, injustice and violence and how important it is to acknowledge our own share in causing or compounding the sorrows, suffering and violence that often seem to surround us.

We bishops have learned a great deal about the sorrow and pain of those we love and serve, even as we have to acknowledge humbly, publicly and pitifully our share in bringing much of that pain to bear. We feel, we see, we live with, as they do in much greater measure, the impact of behaviors, responses and revelations that have no place in Matthew’s Gospel, in the Beatitudes, or in the narrative of Jesus’ promise to fulfill God’s Law.

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UNITED STATES
The Tablet (UK)

15 June 2017

‘The Holy Father has called us respectfully to acknowledge our own share in causing the pain that so many are still enduring,’ said Gregory

Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory said today (14 June) that the US Catholic bishops “can never say that we are sorry enough for the share that we have had in this tragedy of broken fidelity and trust” – the clergy sex abuse crisis.

He made the comments in the homily at an evening Mass said to commemorate a “Day of Prayer and Penance” for victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The liturgy was celebrated at St Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis at the end of the first day of the bishops’ spring assembly.

“At this Mass, we bishops humbly and sincerely ask for the forgiveness of those who have been harmed, scandalised or dispirited by events that, even if they happened many years ago, remain ongoing sources of anguish for them and for those who love them,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC 30

By Nathalie Granda
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

LOS BANOS, Calif. (KFSN) — Robert Gamel’s case will now move to trial after law enforcement took the stand Wednesday.

Gamel was arrested back in April for violating his probation after deputies found illicit images in his Merced residence.

“First thing I noticed was a briefcase in the closet,” said Jose Grandanos, Merced County Deputy Probation Officer.

Granados testified in court he was the one who found the briefcase with three sexually explicit images inside.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Kathryn Torney

A warning about the level of infant mortality among illegitimate children in Northern Ireland was sounded in 1945.

The warning on the Church of Ireland home is included in the files on the North’s mother-and-baby homes that are available to view at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (Proni).

Other files have been retained by religious orders.

In a letter to the North’s ministry of finance in 1945, Major David Anderson, the chairman of the committee of Hopedene Hostel for unmarried mothers and their children, raised concern about “the heavy mortality figures among illegitimate children” and ‘illegitimate children are allowed to die’.

He also asked for “sympathetic attention” to be given to his request for financial assistance for the home.

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INDIANA
Catholic Whistleblowers

Organizations dedicated to the protection and safety of children in the Catholic Church; namely, the National Survivor Advocates Coalition, Catholic Whistleblowers, and Road to Recovery, Inc. will call on Pope Francis and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to fulfill a promise made by Pope Francis in 2015 that he would establish a Vatican commission “with teeth” that would hold accountable those bishops who mishandled and covered up cases of childhood sexual abuse by priests and deacons. Pope Francis’ refusal to set up the commission to hold bishops accountable and instead allow members of the Vatican bureaucracy to determine the culpability of fellow bishops is outrageous and unacceptable.

What – A demonstration by advocates for victim/survivors of childhood, teenage, and vulnerable adult sexual abuse protesting Pope Francis’ suspension of the commission he promised to establish in order to hold bishops accountable for their mishandling of sexual abuse cases in their dioceses.

When – Wednesday, June 15, 2017, from Noon until 1:30 PM

Where – On the public sidewalk outside the JW Marriott Hotel, headquarters of the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 10 South West Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204

Who – Members of the National Survivor Advocates Coalition, Catholic Whistleblowers, and Road to Recovery, Inc.

Why – Demonstrators will call on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Cardinal Sean O’Malley, President of the Vatican commission on child protection, to support the Catholic Whistleblowers requests of 2015 and 2016, contained in extensive credible documentation, that it act in a timely manner on the removal of four American bishops who were particularly egregious in their handling of childhood sexual abuse cases: Cardinal Raymond Burke (formerly of St. Louis, MO, and La Crosse, WI; Archbishop Justin Rigali (formerly of Philadelphia, PA); and, Archbishop John Myers (formerly of Peoria, IL, and Newark, NJ). Added to this list for the first time is Bishop W. Francis Malooly, currently bishop of Wilmington, DE, who was exposed recently for covering up and mishandling cases in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, MD, including the unsolved murder of a Catholic nun as featured recently in the Netflix seven-episode series, “The Keepers.”

Contacts – Kristine Ward (Ohio), Chairperson, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, 937-272-0308; Ginny Hoehne (Ohio), Member, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, 937-726-9360; Mary Heins (Indianapolis), Member, National Survivor Advocates Coalition, 317-359-7128; and Robert Hoatson (New Jersey), President, Road to Recovery, Inc., and Member, Catholic Whistleblowers

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

ALBANY – With just a week left in the legislative session, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday introduced for the first time his own Child Victims Act bill.

The bill, obtained by the Daily News, mirrors the one passed by the Assembly last week.

“This is about justice and I urge this measure to be passed before the end of session and allow these victims the ability to hold their abusers accountable — something they’ve wrongly been denied for far too long,” Cuomo said.

The move won praise from many of the victims who have been fighting for the issue for more than a decade.

“I applaud Governor Cuomo’s strong leadership and his commitment to justice and the safety of children,” said Kathryn Robb, who was one of the survivors and advocates who have been working with the governor’s staff in recent months. “He is, to my mind, the justice governor.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
MARCI HAMILTON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, June 15, 2017

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is currently holding its annual General Assembly in Indianapolis, where no doubt church leaders are discussing politics as much as doctrine.

As they continue to run from their clergy sex abuse scandal, furiously trying to push it into the past, they cannot be happy with the release of Netflix’s “The Keepers,” the extraordinary docuseries about the death of a nun who blew the whistle on horrendous sex abuse in a Catholic high school.

Nor can they ignore the ardent momentum for the passage of New York’s Child Victims Act. It would have been law long ago but for the bishops’ lobbying against it with their alternative facts on how such laws operate.

Until now, New York has been among the worst states for justice for child sex abuse victims. Bills have been introduced to reform the statutes of limitations for these most heinous of crimes no less than a dozen consecutive years in the Assembly, only to die a painful death in the Senate each time as the bishops with their insurance-carrier lobbyists exult.

Indeed, they invest millions and concoct arguments to scare lawmakers away from doing what is right for the unjustifiably exiled victims. They tell lawmakers that statute-of-limitation reform will clog the courts with a mountain of cases and reputations will be sullied by false claims. They especially fight a “window,” which provides the only justice available for victims from the past.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Survivors of child molestation are urging lawmakers in New York to loosen the statute of limitations on lawsuits for past abuse.

A statement released Wednesday and signed by several survivors called on top lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hold negotiations on the bill before the legislative session ends next week.

The proposal would eliminate the criminal and civil statute of limitations for several child sexual abuse crimes and create a one-year window for past victims to file civil suits.

Victims now have until they turn 23 to sue, but supporters say it can take years before victims feel comfortable stepping forward to report their abuse.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Independent

Deborah McAleese
June 14 2017

Former residents of mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland have called for a public inquiry into allegations of abuse and forced adoptions.

The institutions, which were run by the Catholic Church, Church of Ireland and the Salvation Army, housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.

Oonagh McAleer, who was forced into Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry when she became pregnant at 17, gave birth to a son in 1980.

However, she claims she was prevented from seeing or holding her baby before he was taken away for adoption against her will.

“My baby was taken from me as soon as he was born. I never even got to hold him, or even to look at his face. He was adopted against my knowledge or agreement.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

June 14, 2017

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Thursday: …

4. Archdiocese to Appear in Court in Bankruptcy Case

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the creditor’s committee in the archdiocese’s bankruptcy case are set to appear in court Thursday. Both parties had the opportunity to file objections to the case’s plans of reorganization by June 7. Thursday’s hearing will determine a schedule to further address objections to plans of reorganization.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
June 15 2017
The Times

An order of nuns has admitted abusing children in its four understaffed homes where youngsters survived on “frugal” rations of food and clothing.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard that 404 civil actions and complaints had been taken out against the Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth, which operated homes known as Nazareth House.

In total, 14,766 children were cared for in Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Glasgow and Edinburgh between 1930 and 1985, but none of the homes was staffed by more than ten sisters, and often only three or four nuns were in residence.

The congregation “didn’t have the finance to pay lay staff”, said Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the regional superior. While the aim was to care for children “as best we could”, she acknowledged “things weren’t right”.

Sister Doolan said most of the nuns had no qualifications in childcare.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

NUNS who abused children at homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth were unsuited to work with young people, while staff took on too many children to care for them all properly, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard yesterday.

The inquiry was told 257 former residents of the Catholic order’s four Scottish homes have started civil actions over alleged abuse, while an additional 147 have complained they suffered while in the sisters’ care.

Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the UK regional superior in charge of the Sisters of Nazareth, told the inquiry there had been complaints against all four Nazareth houses, in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Kilmarnock.

She said the congregation had been guilty of wanting to help too many vulnerable or destitute children. Staffing ratios at the homes were described as meaning one nun was responsible for up to 20 children, although figures presented to the inquiry appeared to show the ratios were sometimes much higher, particularly in Aberdeen.

Sister Doolan said: “With the gift of hindsight, these large numbers were probably too big for the sisters looking after them.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

JIM BUCKLEY has been campaigning for 19 years for an inquiry into the abuse he suffered in care, he said.

But the 72-year-old has waited more than six decades for an apology from the Sisters of Nazareth, to whom he and his three younger brothers were entrusted when he was just seven, after leukaemia left them without a mother and with a father who couldn’t cope.

When the apology came, he was stunned. “I can’t describe how I feel,” he said outside the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry yesterday.

“I was quite surprised by some of the things Sister Doolan admitted. It was an apology, and it’s the first time I’ve actually heard that. It meant a lot.”

As a Glasgow family sent to the Nazareth House in Aberdeen, all four boys were told they were the “lowest of the low”, he said. Bed-wetters were humiliated, he claimed, and nuns were liberal with the use of sticks which they kept up their sleeves.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
15 Jun 2017

A FORMER Newcastle journalist and St Stanislaus College, Bathurst Old Boy, whose endorsement of the college led to a friend’s son being sexually assaulted, will lead a silent vigil on Friday as the college holds a controversial apology service.

Terry Jones said he would never get over the pain of knowing his recommendation led to a boy being sexually assaulted by notorious St Stanislaus chaplain Brian Spillane. It has driven Mr Jones’ campaign to have the Vincentian Catholic order and the college acknowledge the full extent of crimes committed by its representatives.

“People in Bathurst did not believe, and many still won’t believe, these things happened, and so the college sits up there on top of the hill looking over the city, still trying to control things,” Mr Jones said.

“I was a journalist working in Bathurst when a bunch of these priests were charged and when I saw my friend’s name as a victim of Spillane I was shocked. I was horrified. I was devastated. I rang my friend to apologise. His son became suicidal. He became a recluse. He’d only been a little boy when he went to the school.”

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FLORIDA
Tampa Bay Times

Kathryn Varn, Times Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

LARGO — The director of children’s ministry at Anona United Methodist Church and a prominent member of the local theater and dance community has been arrested after police said he inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl.

Domenic Victor Bisesti, 31, faces a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation after the girl told police he touched her buttocks several times and tried to kiss her at the church at 13233 Indian Rocks Road, according to Largo police. Investigators and church officials don’t know of any other victims.

Jack Stephenson, senior pastor at Anona, said Wednesday that the church has removed him from programming and barred him from campus pending the investigation.

“He’s turned in his keys, he will not be on campus, he’s cleaned out his office,” Stephenson said.

Bisesti was also involved in Eight O’Clock Theatre, a community theater group based in the Central Park Performing Arts Center, and Tutterow Dance Academy, a well-known local dance troupe.

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NEW YORK
Chelsea Now

June 14, 2017.

BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Legislators aiming to relax New York’s unusually stringent statute of limitations on sexual abuse of minors remain hopeful that, with the State Assembly already having taken action, the State Senate could yet follow suit before the session ends next week. According to out gay West Side Senator Brad Hoylman, “The Governor’s office is still talking about” a program bill could eliminate time limitations on child abuse survivors filing criminal actions and ease such limitations on civil action.

Currently, childhood sexual abuse survivors must either make a criminal complaint or file a civil lawsuit by age 23. Experts agree it can often take decades for a survivor to be ready to come forward.

Last week, the Democratic Assembly, by a vote of 139-7, adopted Upper West Side Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal’s Child Victims Act, which would allow victims to bring criminal cases up to the age of 28, file civil suits up to age 50, and allow what essentially is an 18-month look-back window for abuse survivors whose cases couldn’t be brought under current law to step forward.

Hoylman’s companion bill in the Senate — which would eliminate any statute of limitations on criminal or civil action — was denied a hearing in the Judiciary Committee earlier this year by the Republican Majority and diverted to the Rules Committee, where Hoylman said “it will never see the light of day.” Hoylman’s hope for overcoming the GOP’s resistance has been for Cuomo to follow through on a January commitment to eliminate all limits on the time a victim can come forward with a criminal complaint, allow civil suits to be filed for up to 50 years after any abuse, and create the look-back the Assembly approved.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Western Daily

Jacinta Carroll
15 Jun 2017

ORANGE victims and their families are being invited to stand in solidarity with victims of historical sexual abuse in a silent vigil to be held in Bathurst on Friday.

Greens MP and the party’s spokesman on justice, David Shoebridge, who also led the fight for a stand-alone inquiry by the Royal Commission into historical sexual assaults at Bathurst’s St Stanislaus’ College, All Saints’ and The Scots School, said everyone is invited to attend the Centennial Park event.

“I’m coming up to support the victims,” he said, adding he will not be attending the official public apology being held at St Stanislaus later in the evening.

“I certainly won’t be going to any religious ceremony. I find that deeply disrespectful to the victims, and I won’t be part of it.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By the National Reporting Team’s Lorna Knowles and Alison Branley

One of Australia’s oldest Catholic boarding schools is under fire for turning an apology to victims of child sexual abuse into a religious service.

At least 160 students of St Stanislaus College in Bathurst were abused by paedophile priests and staff over three decades, between the 1970s and 1990s.

The school plans to host an “Apology Service of Sorrow and Hope” tomorrow night but victims say asking them to attend the school – where the abuse happened – and incorporating the apology into a religious service would trigger painful memories.

The head of the school, Dr Anne Wenham, said the event was intended as a genuine commitment to say sorry to victims.

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INDIANA
National Catholic Reporter

Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service | Jun. 14, 2017

WASHINGTON

The 14th annual report on diocesan compliance with the U.S. Catholic Church’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” shows that church leaders have taken steps to help many find healing as victims of clergy sexual abuse, but there is still work to be done.

Introductory remarks in the 2017 report urge church leaders not to assume that “sexual abuse of minors by the clergy is a thing of the past and a distant memory. Any allegation involving a current minor should remind the bishops that they must rededicate themselves each day to maintaining a level of vigilance,” wrote Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board, which oversees the audits.

Cesareo, who is president of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, reiterated that message June 14 at the bishops’ spring meeting, held this year in Indianapolis. He reminded them that their commitment to stopping clergy sexual abuse and supporting victims of abuse must remain “at the forefront” of their ministry.

The newly released report — based on audits conducted between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016 — shows that 1,232 survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy came forward with 1,318 clerical abuse allegations in 132 Catholic dioceses and eparchies. The allegations represent reports of abuse that occurred from the 1940s to the present.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com June 15, 2017

Concerned Catholics of Guam said the Archdiocese of Agana should be rid of five priests or ministerial officers who allegedly abused their power. Some of them destroyed chancery records to hide clergy sex abuse cases, the group alleges.

“They, in fact, should be put through a canonical trial for the destruction of chancery records, the lies and deceit that caused tremendous scandal among the Catholic faithful on Guam,” Concerned Catholics President David Sablan said Tuesday.

Sablan was reacting to Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes’ recent expansion of the membership of the Presbyteral Council and retaining Monsignor David C. Quitugua.

As of Thursday, the Archdiocese of Agana hadn’t replied to a request for comment.

The consultative body, which has Byrnes as president, advises the archbishop on pastoral concerns and other matters of importance.

Byrnes also recently appointed members to the College of Consultors, a governing body when the archdiocese becomes impeded or vacant. Quitugua is a member of the college.

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INDIANA
America

Michael J. O’Loughlin
June 14, 2017

We will provide live updates to this page as the bishops gather in Indianapolis for their annual spring meeting. …

Chair of National Review Board: Sexual abuse by clergy “not a thing of the past”

June 14, 4 p.m.

Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board, urged the bishops to continue to keep their commitment to stopping clergy sexual abuse and supporting victims of abuse “at the forefront” of their ministry.

He said sexual abuse of minors by clergy is “not a thing of past” and stressed the bishops have to always be vigilant and be sure to not “let complacency set in” in their efforts to stop it.

The review board is a group working with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to address and prevent sexual abuse of minors in the U.S. by clergy and other church personnel.

Cesareo pointed out there was still work to be done in this area, but he also praised the bishops for what they’ve accomplished and stressed that dioceses in the United States are among the safest places for children and are also models for rest of the world.

In his report to the bishops, he presented some of the key points of the recently issued 14th annual report on diocesan compliance with the U.S. Catholic Church’s “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

The report—based on audits conducted between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016—shows that 1,232 survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy came forward with 1,318 clerical abuse allegations in 132 Catholic dioceses and eparchies. The allegations represent reports of abuse that occurred from the 1940s to the present.

One weak spot he noted in the audit process is the overall lack of parish participation, which he urged bishops to do something about to provide full transparency.

The bishops also announced the appointment of four new members to serve on the review board: Amanda Callanan, director of communications for the Claremont Institute; Suzanne Healy, a former victims assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; Dr. Christopher McManus, a Virginia physician; and Eileen Puglisi, former director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.

— Catholic News Service

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INDIANA
National Catholic Register

Matthew Bunson

The U.S. Bishops began their annual spring meeting on Wednesday, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and while it brought little fireworks such as can occur at their longer annual fall gathering, the day was not without poignancy and a powerful apology from the bishops for clergy sex abuse.

The spring meetings have drawn little media attention over the years, overshadowed by the fall session and slightly hampered by the limited number of public sessions. Nevertheless, in a time of heightened political, social, moral and economic challenges, there is no respite from the issues facing the Church in the United States. …

Clergy Sex Abuse

As they have for the last fifteen years, the bishops also devoted time to the seemingly never-ending tragedy of clergy sex abuse. National Review Board chair Dr. Francesco Cesareo delivered a moving annual progress report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. While he praised the bishops for the immense progress over the last decade in curbing the scourge of clergy abuse and in creating a safe environment in dioceses of the United States, he called on the bishops to remember that sexual abuse of minors by clergy is “not a thing of past” and that the care of the victims must remain paramount.

Based on diocesan audits conducted between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, the latest report revealed that 1,232 survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy came forward with 1,318 clerical abuse allegations in 132 Catholic dioceses and eparchies. The alleged abuse occurred from the 1940s to the present day.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, also announced the appointment of four new members to serve on the review board: Amanda Callanan, director of communications for the Claremont Institute; Suzanne Healy, a former victims assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; Dr. Christopher McManus, a Virginia physician; and Eileen Puglisi, former director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.

The Cardinal wrote in a letter to the newly appointed members, telling them, “The National Review Board plays a vital role as a consultative body assisting me and the bishops in ensuring the complete implementation and accountability of the Charter… The whole Church, especially the laity, at both the diocesan and national levels, needs to be engaged in maintaining safe environments in the Church for children and young people.”

The first day ended with yet another profound moment. The bishops gathered at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis for a Mass of Prayer and Penance for survivors of sexual abuse within the Church. Held in response to a call from Pope Francis for all episcopal conferences across the world to have a Day of Prayer and Penance for victims of clergy sexual abuse within the Church, the somber Mass included an apology to victims and an act of penance and humility during which the bishops knelt and recited a commemorative prayer written for survivors of abuse.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lincolnshire Live

By Paul Whitelam | Posted: June 15, 2017

A second man has been charged as part of an ongoing investigation into historic child sex abuse in the Lincoln Diocese.

The investigation, called Operation Redstone, is a probe into allegations of abuse dating back to 1958 following a review of past safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln.

Lincolnshire Police confirmed in September 2016 that it was looking into historic abuse claims surrounding the Cathedral School in Lincoln, which educated the minster’s choristers and was amalgamated with others in 1996 to become Lincoln Minster School.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Lincolnite

A 76-year-old-man has been charged with 23 sexual offences as part of an investigation into allegations of abuse involving children.

John Bailey, 76, from Ash Tree Park in Kipped, Leeds, faces Indecent Assaults charges on females under the age of 14 between 1957 and 1981.

He has been bailed to appear at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on July 27.

The Operation Redstone investigation follows a review of historic safeguarding cases by the Diocese of Lincoln.

Officers previously charged 81-year-old Roy Griffiths with eight sexual offences, including six counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 14, as part of the ongoing enquiries about Lincoln Cathedral School – also under Operation Redstone.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
STEVE JIMENEZ
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Three weeks ago, my father passed away peacefully after a year-long bout with pancreatic cancer; he lived to be 95. A crucial element of his peace was hearing from me at his bedside that Gov. Cuomo would soon introduce his version of the Child Victims Act to the state legislature.

My father had followed the bill’s progress for a decade and was relieved to know that the Governor was standing with survivors, advocates, and families — leading us in our final push for justice. And Gov. Cuomo is not alone in Albany: other leaders on the front line include Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, and Senators Brad Hoylman and Jeffrey Klein.

My father was a devout Catholic who had fought in two wars before he turned twenty — the Spanish Civil War and World War II; he had a finely-tuned moral compass and sense of justice. (Please listen up, Senate Majority Leader Flanagan!)

Like my mother, he felt terrible regret about failing to protect me from the predator who had sexually assaulted me for four years — my favorite teacher at Holy Name elementary school in Brooklyn. At the time, my father traveled frequently for work; my mother also worked full-time. It never dawned on them that this teacher they trusted — with whom I played hockey in the winter and went to Coney Island all summer long — was forcing me to engage in sexual acts.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is once again flexing his papal muscle by seeking to keep tabs on his cardinals who live in Rome.

Francis asked the head of the College of Cardinals to remind his fellow Rome-based princes that they must inform him when they leave town and where they’re going.

It wasn’t known if there was a particular cardinal whose activities irked the pope, but some of his more conservative critics have delivered speeches and lectures abroad that have questioned Francis’ pastoral line, particularly concerning his divisive opening to letting civilly remarried Catholics receive the Sacraments.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano reminded his confreres in a May 31 letter that there is a “noble tradition” of cardinals informing the pope of their whereabouts. He asked that they revive it, particularly when away from Rome for long periods.

Asked Wednesday about the letter, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said merely that it was a good and “long-standing tradition.”

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ILLINOIS
The Worthy Adversary

June 14, 2017

Joelle Casteix

<– Back to Part Two: Is There a Crook in the Diocese of Crookston?

In 2014, Fr. Bruce Wellems was banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Church officials there found out that he had sexually abused a seven-year-old boy when Wellems was fifteen. Los Angeles booted him back to Chicago where he had ministered for years.

But they only went halfway: they sent Wellems home, but they didn’t tell parishioners that it was for sexual abuse. When I was at the parish in 2014, parishioners told me that the allegations came from a dating relationship.

What did Cardinal Blase Cupich (pictured above) do when Wellems returned to Chicago? He immediately put the priest back into ministry. Why? Because Chicago officials had known about the abuse all along. They didn’t think it was a big deal. Even when Wellems lied about it in the 1990s.

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

Opinion

As the end of the regular legislative session in Albany nears, John Flanagan, leader of the Republican majority in the state Senate, continues to refuse to allow to allow a vote on the Child Victims Act. This is the measure that would, as the sponsors explain, recognize the “unique character of sex crimes against children, which can have a multitude of effects upon victims, including being justifiably delayed in otherwise timely taking action against their abusers and/or those who facilitated in their abuse.”

The bill would acknowledge in New York the universally acknowledged dilemma that child victims often take years to understand what happened to them and even more time to get the courage to speak about it and press charges. By extending the statute of limitations for such crimes in the future, the bill would bring New York into line with other states which have adopted this humane and civilized approach.

Recognizing that this change would not help victims of previous abuse, it also would open a one-year window in which those making allegations could get a chance to have their day in court.

The Assembly approved the bill by an overwhelming margin, 139 to 7, the kind of result that is unprecedented in all but the most noncontroversial issues.

Yet Flanagan stalls and seems to be hoping that he can continue to keep the vote from coming to the Senate floor, effectively condemning the victims of child sexual abuse to another year of waiting.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

ALBANY — Child sex abuse survivors and advocates on Wednesday issued a call to Gov. Cuomo to convene a meeting with legislative leaders to hash out a deal on the Child Victim’s Act.

“With less than a week to go until the end of the 2017 legislative session, time is running out for survivors of childhood sexual abuse in their fight for justice,” the 28 victims and advocacy groups said in a statement obtained by the Daily News.

“If the governor is serious about justice for survivors, he needs to convene a leaders meeting and hammer out the Child Victims Act now.”

The legislation would raise or eliminate the legal timeframes that adult victims of child abuse can bring criminal and civil cases. It would also treat public and private institutions the same when it comes to child sex abuse.

Supporters also want a one-year window that would allow old cases currently time-barred under law to be revived — perhaps the biggest obstacle to a bill getting done.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

Nechama Bendet’s decision to leave the Yeshivah Centre has been met with cheers by victims of child sexual abuse, who believe she should have left years ago.

Less than a week after Nechama Bendet announced that she has left the Yeshivah Centre, she told The AJN that she is “deeply sorry for the pain and suffering that victims” of child sexual abuse have endured.

Bendet, whose decision to leave is not directly connected to child sexual abuse allegations, spoke about her 27 years at the school.

“It has been a privilege to work with so many talented and dedicated people and I am grateful for all the assistance that I received throughout my time at Yeshivah,” said Bendet.

“I am overwhelmed by the beautiful outpouring of support that I received since my departure from Yeshivah was announced to staff last week.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

Madeleine McNeil
@madeleinemads

14 Jun 2017

Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan “fully endorses” a national apology to the victims and survivors of sexual abuse in former Christian Brothers’ schools.

In an historic first, Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) made its first official apology on behalf of its schools to victims of sexual abuse at the National Arboretum in Canberra on June 1.

Apology: Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan “fully endorses” a national apology to the victims and survivors of sexual abuse in former Christian Brother’s schools.
Apology: Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan “fully endorses” a national apology to the victims and survivors of sexual abuse in former Christian Brother’s schools.
Representatives of the education body, which now governs schools and educational facilities previously under the control of Christian Brothers, met with victims of sexual abuse.

Mr Morgan said he was aware of the national apology which was made on behalf of more than 50 Catholic schools across the country. He said he would include the EREA apology in an upcoming school newsletter.

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UNITED STATES
MTV

IN HOLLYWOOD, WOMEN OVER 40 ARE RARELY THE HEROINE — EVEN OF THEIR OWN STORIES. BUT WITHIN NETFLIX’S HORRIFYING TRUE-CRIME SHOW ARE BRAVE AND BRILLIANT WOMEN WE CAN ALL LOOK UP TO.

INKOO KANG

[Spoilers for The Keepers ahead.]

The Keepers is probably the most brutal and devastating watch of the year. Streaming now, the Netflix documentary revisits a cold case — the murder of a 26-year-old nun, Sister Cathy Cesnik, nearly half a century ago — and chronicles a sexual-abuse case involving scores of teenage victims at a Baltimore Catholic girls’ high school. The rapes and other sexual assaults of as many as 100 girls (and in an earlier incident, at least one boy) by the school priest, Father Joseph Maskell, and his associates may have never come to light if it weren’t for one of Sister Cathy’s students, Jean Hargadon Wehner, who alleges in the doc that the nun was killed for her knowledge of the priest’s crimes. Wehner had already suffered sexual abuse by an uncle when she met Father Maskell and his collaborator Father Neil Magnus. The latter exacerbated her feelings of guilt about the earlier assault(s) by telling the 14-year-old victim, “I don’t really know if God can forgive this.” Wehner’s accounts of the priests’ cruelties are nauseating and infuriating — as is the decades-long guilt Father Maskell fostered in his spiritual ward by essentially blaming her for Sister Cathy’s murder. The nun disappeared shortly after Wehner reported the priest’s sexual assaults to her teacher. Months later, Wehner desperately brushed maggots off Sister Cathy’s face as Father Maskell threatened to kill anyone else the girl told her secrets to.

That Wehner and Father Maskell’s other survivors have been through hell and back is abundantly clear. But a few days after bingeing on The Keepers, I found myself recalling the doc with a smile thanks to the graceful aging of many of its protagonists. I’ve spent the better part of the past decade worrying about getting older. Pop culture — which I’m steeped in as a critic — just might be the worst lens through which to consider female aging, and the films and TV shows on the subject that stick out in my mind foretell nothing good. From All About Eve to The Clouds of Sils Maria, movies about women on the “wrong” side of 40 mark them for obsolescence and replaceability, like a leaking refrigerator. Since Getting On (HBO) is set in a gerontology ward, the hospital comedy naturally focuses on the mental and physical decline of the gray-haired. Amour, about an elderly man who kills his longtime wife after she suffers a debilitating stroke, is a personal nightmare. “Have you seen The Golden Girls?” you might ask. Yes, I have. I adore it, in fact — and, by the way, three of the four cast members are dead.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL
Wednesday, 14 June 2017

More than 400 allegations of child abuse have been made against an order of nuns which ran four orphanages in Scotland until the 1980s.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard details of 257 civil actions and a further 147 complaints made in connection with children’s homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth, the last of which closed in 1985.

The inquiry, before judge Lady Smith, also heard that 71 child residents of the homes were sent to Australia. Giving evidence on behalf of the congregation, Sister Anna Maria Doolan admitted children had been abused and said the order was “very sorry”.

The inquiry, which is investigating the abuse of children in care dating back decades, heard that 14,766 boys, girls and babies had been accommodated in homes in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Lasswade, near Edinburgh, between 1925 and 1984.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Cavanagh Funeral Home

September 2, 1922 – May 31, 2017
Darby, Pennsylvania | Age 94

The Reverend John Alexander Cannon was born in Oxford, Pa. in 1922. He attended West Catholic High School for Boys and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He was ordained a priest on May 22, 1948, and died on May 31, 2017, in Manor Health Care in Yeadon, Pa.

He was the son of the late Alexander T. and Mary Ellen [nee Keeley] Cannon, his late sisters were Margaret Mary Conway [Daniel] and Frances Cecelia Legg [Richard] and he was the nephew of the late Henrietta T. and Katherine E. Cannon.

Father Cannon is survived by numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews. All are grateful to him for his guidance and support.

In the course of sixty nine years, he resided and served in Philadelphia and suburban counties.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Geoff Bartlett, CBC News Posted: Jun 14, 2017

Just over a year after Ottawa agreed to pay $50 million to people who suffered abuse at residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, work on the healing portion of the agreement has begun.

Last week, the Department of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development announced that retired judge James Igloliorte will be its ministerial special representative.

That means he will lead the healing and commemoration portion of the agreement, going into mostly northern Labrador communities and speaking with students from all three affected Indigenous groups who attended residential schools. His activities will be funded by the federal government outside of the $50 million settlement.

Igloliorte said the task before him may seem daunting, but he plans to start small by opening conversation with the former students and their families and then going from there.

“We will hear the stories, both good and bad,” he told the St. John’s Morning Show.

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SCOTLAND
The Times

Mike Wade
June 14 2017
The Times

The head of a Catholic order that ran an orphanage notorious for its cruelty has claimed that allegations of child abuse there are shrouded in “mystery”.

Sister Ellen Flynn, the leader of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul in Britain, said that the order “can find no evidence” of physical abuse of the children who lived at Smyllum Park House, Lanark.

Sister Flynn told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that she accepted that accusations had been made, saying she was “appalled to think something had happened” and was “very sorry”. The elderly nuns who survived from the 1950s and 1960s were nervous about the inquiry, she added.

Sister Flynn was giving evidence during phase 1 of the inquiry in Edinburgh, a period of six weeks in which providers of childcare are offered an opportunity to lay out their understanding of the extent of historical abuse within their organisations. At a later date, conditions within individual institutions will be examined in detail and accusations of abuse laid bare.

Horrific tales of physical abuse at Smyllum were first published in the News of the World in 1998. There was public revulsion when it emerged that at least 100 children who died in the home were buried in unmarked graves near Lanark racecourse.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

NUNS from a charity accused of abusing children at a Catholic orphanage throughout the 1980s have said the claims were a “mystery” as the institution was described as “a safe haven” for deprived children.

One local councillor had described it as a “showpiece” for childcare, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was told.

However Smyllum Park, in Lanark, has been the focus of claims children were systematically physically abused, and routinely humiliated for offences such as bedwetting.

It is notorious for the graves of up to 158 children who died at the home, left unmarked in nearby St Mary’s churchyard.

At the inquiry, two members of the Catholic order the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul, were quizzed about the management of six children’s homes run by the congregation. However Smyllum Park, which operated from 1864-1981 dominated the questions from inquiry lead senior counsel Colin Macaulay QC.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Stephen Naysmith

One of the clear intentions of Lady Smith, chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, has been to give organisations which potentially might face criticism later, the chance to acknowledge historic failings early on in the process.

In that context, she may have been unimpressed by Sister Flynn’s claims that nuns who worked there at the time abuse is alleged can only recall that a lot of “good things” happened for the children.

The claim, for instance, that birthdays were celebrated with presents, parties and cakes, may be directly contradicted by former residents still to speak, who say presents and cakes delivered by relatives were routinely confiscated.

Sister Flynn also said that she had only spoken briefly to the surviving sisters about the abuse claims, before the order’s lawyers took over.

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NEW YORK
The Leader

Posted Jun 13, 2017

The Finding Voice open forum series will discuss the New York state Child Victims Act at 5:45 p.m. June 20 at the Southeast Steuben County Library, 300 Nasser Civic Center Plaza, Corning.

Speakers will include Leslie Danks Burke, founder and president of Trailblazers PAC; Melanie Blow, Stop Abuse Campaign; Dina O’Herron, Chemung County Child Advocacy Center director of administrative services.

An open mic discussion will be held after the speakers.

The Finding Voice series is co-hosted by the League of Women Voters of Steuben County and the library. For more information, call 607-936-3915.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

ALBANY — Advocates pushing for passage of the Child Victims Act have begun running a digital ad campaign that largely targets those living in the district of state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who has kept the legislation from coming to the floor for a vote.

“Survivors are banding together to protect the next generation and to stand up for their rights,” said victim Ana Wagner, who is featured in the video. “We have over 70,000 signatures on a petition in support of this bill. Sen. Flanagan needs to ask himself how hard he’s going to fight against children?”

The ads will appear on social media across the state but largely target Flanagan’s Suffolk County district, said Stop Abuse Campaign Committee founder Andrew Willis.

In the Stop Abuse Campaign video, Wagner doesn’t mention Flanagan. She recounts being raped as a child and the terror she feels when she looks at her kids.

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TEXAS
KXAN

By Lauren Lanmon
Published: June 13, 2017

BUDA, Texas (KXAN) — An associate pastor at Betania Baptist Church in east Austin is facing charges of sexual assault with a child. Church members say Garcia has played a big role at the small church for many years, including his role as the youth minister.

According to court documents, 59-year-old Ruben Garcia, of Buda, has been wanted by authorities for the past two months. Garcia was arrested by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force on Monday, after investigations in Hays County and Nueces County resulted in charges.

“It took me and my family by surprise. It’s kind of heartbreaking if it’s true especially knowing he was around children at that time,” said one of the church members who asked to remain anonymous.

Garcia is being charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact. According to court documents, Garcia groped and assaulted a female child younger than 17 on three separate occasions in Hays County in 2013 and 2014.

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