ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
EW

JEFF JENSEN @EWDOCJENSEN

POSTED ON MAY 10, 2017

In The Keepers, the pain of the past morphs from curiosity to responsibility. For journalist Tom Nugent, the past is a paying puzzle that became an obligation to solve. For retirees Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, the past is a hobby that grew into a crusade. And for a woman known for decades only as “Jane Doe,” the past is a forgotten trauma that rocks her anew and reframes her life. In a culture of comic book escapism and stranger things, The Keepers gives us ordinary people as superheroes. They’re the real justice league of Baltimore.

A seven-part Netflix docuseries dropping May 19 (four of which were made available for review), The Keepers is addictive serial made for the post-Serial market, synthesized with the compounds that have rejuvenated this very old, often dubious genre and made it a buzzy, conscionable kick. Director Ryan White gives you socially aware pulp nonfiction, driven by cliffhanger storytelling and advocacy. But he tweaks the recipe somewhat by redirecting our gaze, profiling the victims of evil and those who would champion them — not the evildoers. The cold case he’s chosen to re-investigate also frustrates the pleasures of true crime in some provocative ways. Here, what is true may ultimately be unknowable, and the crime might be impossible to rectify. The nettling ambiguities provoke valuable questions for reality pulp junkies at a time when the genre is transitioning from pop phenomenon to pop fixture, complete with prestige expressions and celebrity roadshow fandom. Why am I entertained by suffering? How do I know what’s true? Do I really care?

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SCOTLAND/AUSTRALIA
BBC News

By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

A former Catholic monk accused of abusing boys at a Highlands boarding school is eligible for extradition, according to a magistrate in Australia.

The decision on whether to send Father Denis Chrysostom Alexander back to Scotland for trial now rests with Australia’s attorney general.

Fr Alexander denies the claims relating to the Fort Augustus Abbey school.

He was returned to Australia by the Catholic Church in 1979 after abuse allegations first surfaced.
He continued working as a priest for at least 20 more years.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Los Angeles

[with video]

By Colleen Williams and Mary Harris

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has begun formal proceedings with the Vatican to defrock a priest who served at six different churches within LA, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Father Ramon Palomera’s accuser is a devout Catholic and a single mother.

“Rosa” had volunteered and worked for the Archdiocese of LA for nearly 30 years. The church was the center of her life.

“I don’t need the church right now,” said Rosa. At her request, NBC4 is shielding her identity.

Father Ramon Palomera was assigned as an associate pastor to Saint Francis Xaviar Church in Pico Rivera in 2014.

“I consider him to be a sexual predator,” said Ben Meiselas, an attorney who represents Rosa in a civil lawsuit against the LA Archdiocese and Palomera.

Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Archdioces-Moves-to-Remove-Priest-421943853.html#ixzz4glaQDELC
Follow us: @NBCLA on Twitter | NBCLA on Facebook

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AUSTRALIA
Advocate

10 May 2017

CHILD Abuse Squad detectives have charged three men as a result of ongoing investigations stemming from the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Offences.

All three men worked at the Wandering Mission during the 1960s, one as a Catholic priest and two as teachers.

It is alleged between 1965 and 1969 the priest sexually abused four girls who were aged between eight and 15 years at the time of the first offence.

The man who is now 78 years old has been charged with:

• Six counts of Indecent Dealing of a Girl under 13 years of age;

• Six counts of Unlawful and Indecent Assault on a Female and

• One count of rape.

He was arrested in Melbourne and he is due to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court via video link on June 22.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

ALANNA SMITH

A groundbreaking partnership is uniting schools and social services to curb child abuse.

The Calgary Catholic School District and the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre are signing a memorandum of understanding Wednesday evening to formalize their collaboration.

The centre is a non-profit organization focused on ending child abuse and helping those affected.

“In the majority of cases we see, children are being hurt by their parents or caregivers, so the safest place for them, a lot of times, is in schools,” said centre founder Sheldon Kennedy.

“I think for a long time there has been a disconnect between schools and social services, so what we have tried to do is include schools in the conversation and give them a seat at the table so we can work together to better integrate the kids back into school.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Born and raised in New Jersey, Bruce Ritter was ordained for the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (Conventual Franciscans) in 1956, in Rome, Italy. After doctoral studies in theology, he returned to the United States in 1959 where he was assigned to his Order’s seminaries in Rensselaer, NY, Granby, MA and then Pittsburgh, PA. From 1963 to 1968 he was a Manhattan College faculty member.

With permission from his superiors, in 1968 Ritter began to take in homeless youth in New York’s East Village, beginning with six teenage boys and girls, whom he allowed to sleep on the floor of his tenement apartment. Ritter’s Covenant House for homeless youth was officially incorporated in 1972. With Ritter’s drive, gift for fundraising and charismatic personality, the shelter grew by 1990 to sixteen cities in North and South America and had 3,700 staff members, both paid and volunteer. Ritter became a widely known and admired public figure, earning praise from Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr.

In December 1989 a 26-year-old male prostitute claimed publicly that he and Ritter had recently had an eight-month affair, which the priest funded with money from Covenant House. Soon thereafter, three more young man came forward, each alleging sexual contact over the years with Ritter, beginning when they were young teens and had gone to him for help at Covenant House. Ritter denied the allegations. In February 1990 he resigned under pressure. The Manhattan District Attorney investigated the alleged financial misconduct, but did not press charges. An internal Covenant House investigation yielded “extensive evidence” that Ritter had engaged in sexual misconduct with residents. One of Ritter’s accusers filed suit, but it was thrown out in 1991 due to the statute of limitations.

Ritter left his order and went on to live a quiet life in a farmhouse in rural Ostego County, going by his given name, John. He died in October 1999.

Born: February 25, 1927
Ordained:1956
Died: October 7, 1999

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NEW MEXICO
Cibola Beacon

Posted: Wednesday, May 10, 2017
By Donald Jaramillo

CIBOLA COUNTY – “When I became the Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, I committed to ensuring that the children in this Diocese and in the Parishes, Missions or Schools that operate within the Diocese were protected,” said Bishop James S. Wall in a letter to the affected parishes and survivors. “In the past the Diocese published names of those working within the Diocese against whom there were credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

On Wednesday evening, Bishop Wall and the Diocese of Gallup added three more names to the list of 31, including Fr. Diego Mazon, OFM who was assigned to the St. Joseph Church in San Fidel between 1980 and 1981. The other two names are Brother Mark Schornack, OFM, who is now deceased according to a press release from the Diocese, and Fr. Ephraim Beltramea, OFM. Schornack was primarily responsible for a church in Arizona while Beltramea was at St. Francis in Gallup.

The list now at 34 is available on the Diocese website at www.dioceseofgallup.org.

“The publication of additional names does not mean that our vigilance and continued investigation ends here as it remains ongoing,” Wall added in the release. “The survivors who have come forward should be commended for their bravery and courage, and I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who violated the trust of the survivors and the parishioners within the Diocese by committing these terrible acts.”

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MINNESOTA
Catholic News Agency

Crookston, Minn., May 10, 2017 / 03:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minn. has rejected a lawsuit’s assertion that he coerced a deacon candidate into renouncing his claim that a priest sexually abused him as a teen.

Ronald Vasek has filed a lawsuit against the bishop and the Diocese of Crookston seeking both unspecified damages exceeding $50,000 and the release of records of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese, Reuters reports. Vasek has claimed that the bishop threatened the man’s efforts to become a deacon and his son’s career in the priesthood.

“Bishop Hoeppner categorically denies that he in any way forced, coerced or encouraged Mr. Vasek not to pursue his allegations,” the diocese said, adding that the bishop and other leaders are “deeply saddened and troubled” by the allegations.

Vasek charged that in 1971, at the age of 16, he was molested during a trip to Cincinnati by Msgr. Roger Grundhaus, a priest of the diocese who went on to become vicar general. The trip was for a meeting of canon lawyers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Monthly

By Leslie Garisto Pfaff | May 10, 2017 | Appears in the May 2017 issue

Fred Marigliano remembers afternoons in the Times Square movie theater when his conscious mind would separate from his body, float to the ceiling, and look down on the shadowy row of seats where Father Contardo Omarini, his parish priest, was sexually assaulting two preteen boys. One of those boys was Marigliano himself. Later, long after the years of abuse had ended, he learned that this state of dissociation was a normal response to stress that otherwise might be unendurable. As a kid in Plainfield, though, he wondered if he might be going crazy.

Today, at 69, Marigliano, now a resident of Green Brook, tells the story of his three years of repeated abuse with remarkable equilibrium. But for decades he didn’t talk about it at all, his silence imposed by fear, guilt and shame. It wasn’t until his own kids were in their preteen years and Omarini phoned to say he’d like to meet them that Marigliano admitted the abuse to his parents and his wife. (Omarini, who died in 1995, was never charged in any abuse case.)

Marigliano is not an outlier in hiding his abuse. In fact, the harm inflicted by childhood sexual abuse persists well beyond the crime itself. Without treatment, victims can experience a lifetime of depression, anxiety, or both. They can find it hard to establish or sustain long-term relationships, and they’re particularly vulnerable to addiction, alcoholism and suicide.

It’s not unusual for those abused as children to keep the crimes committed against them secret for years. While men and women suffer these repercussions more or less equally, abuse also leads many men to question their masculinity, a state of affairs that makes speaking out particularly difficult.

“The sexual abuse and exploitation of men is really our last taboo in this country,” says Keith Rennar Brennan of Bayonne, who claims he was repeatedly abused as a child. The crime is also startlingly widespread, affecting one in six men, according to the nonprofit National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Currently, New Jersey victims of sexual abuse have only two years in which to file a civil suit after they first recognize a connection between their abuse and profound personal problems like depression, anxiety, PTSD, divorce and addiction. But the law doesn’t take into account how difficult it is for victims of this particular crime to come forward. In addition to suffering fear and shame, says Keith Smith, author of the sexual-abuse memoir Men in My Town, many male victims “feel complicit in their own abuse.”

Since 2010, survivors of abuse and their supporters have been fighting for passage of a bill that would remove the state’s two-year statute of limitations. Given the reticence of men to come out about their abuse (which is not to say that women find it easy) and the near-universal horror with which child sexual abuse is regarded in our culture, you’d think such legislation would be a cinch to pass. It’s been anything but.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By Barbara Hoberock Tulsa World

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Mary Fallin on Wednesday signed a measure giving victims of sexual abuse until age 45 to bring a civil suit against the perpetrator.

The current age is 20, said Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, the House author of House Bill 1470.

Bush said it often takes a long time for survivors of child abuse to heal enough to talk about what happened to them.

“It gives some sort of closure on a bad chapter of their lives so they can move on,” Bush said.

Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, is the Senate author. He said research shows that child sexual abuse victims normally do not want to talk about the crime until they are in their 40s.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • A former Catholic youth minister at the Immacolata School in Richmond Heights sexually abused a teenage girl there more than 13 years ago, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

“Jane Doe” accuses Kris D. Wilks, a former St. Louis County man who now lives in Pueblo, Colo., of sexually abusing her at the school at 8900 Clayton Road between September 2003 and March 2004 when she was 16 years old.

She is now 30; Wilks is 36.

The suit claims that at the time of the abuse, Wilks was an Immacolata School youth minister and an “employee or agent” of Life Teen Inc., a Eucharistic-centered nonprofit founded in 1985 that serves students in hundreds of Catholic parishes around the country.

In addition to naming Wilks and Life Teen as defendants, the suit also accuses the St. Louis Archdiocese and the Immacolata School of negligence and concealment of the alleged abuse. None could be reached for comment Wednesday.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

Edward Pentin

The Vatican body responsible for managing the Vatican’s real estate has been accused of far exceeding its authority by unilaterally telling Vatican departments to supply their financial information to an outside auditor.

The surprise move by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) which came in the form of two letters on May 3 and 5, was firmly rebutted by Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy (SPE), and the Holy See’s auditor general, Libero Milone, who wrote a reply saying “with deep regret” they had to intervene to refute the APSA letter.

In both of his letters, APSA’s Secretary, Msgr. Mauro Rivella, had asked dicasteries of the Holy See, as well as institutions associated with them, to “pass information to their banks (including the Institute for Works of Religion), legal and fiscal consultants, so that the data could be transmitted directly to the external auditor, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC).”

Despite the Secretariat of State suddenly suspending the PwC audit last April and then ending it two months later, leaving it just with a consultancy role, Msgr. Rivella stated that PwC was carrying out the auditing activities of the Holy See.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Jonathan M. Pitts
The Baltimore Sun

The Maryland Parole Commission on Tuesday denied the parole request of Heather Cook, the former Episcopal bishop who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for the drunken-driving crash that killed a bicyclist in 2014.

Commission chairman David Blumberg said the two commissioners who ruled on the case told him they denied Cook parole in part because she “took no responsibility” for her actions and displayed a “lack of remorse” during the 90-minute hearing at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup.

Cook’s attorney for the hearing, Hunter L. Pruette, left without addressing reporters and could not be reached for comment.

Cook, 60, pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges of vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving, driving while texting and leaving the scene of an accident in the crash that killed 41-year-old Thomas Palermo on Dec. 27, 2014.

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MARYLAND
Christian Post

BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
May 10, 2017

Heather Cook, the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2015 for the death of a 41-year-old father in a drunken hit-and-run incident, was denied a request for early parole Tuesday by the Maryland Parole Commission.

Commission Chairman David Blumberg told the Baltimore Sun that Cook was denied parole in part because the two commissioners who ruled on the case felt she “took no responsibility” for her actions and displayed a “lack of remorse” during the 90-minute parole hearing at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup.

Cook made history in 2014 when she became the first female bishop and second-highest ranking official of the Episcopal Dioecese of Maryland. She was stripped of that position less than a year after she was promoted due to the drunk-driving incident which resulted in the death of Thomas Palermo, a 41-year-old married father of two, on Dec. 27, 2014.

Cook reportedly fled the scene twice and was later found to have been drunk and texting as her struggle with alcoholism made national and international headlines.

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MICHIGAN
WNEM

OKEMOS, Mich. (AP) –
Another Roman Catholic church in Michigan is dealing with an embezzlement investigation.

Officials say the pastor of St. Martha Church in Okemos, near Lansing, has been placed on leave. The Rev. Jonathan Wehrle already planned to retire at the end of June.

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing said Wednesday that auditors uncovered a “possible significant embezzlement” at St. Martha. Meanwhile, in St. Joseph County in southwestern Michigan, the Rev. Richard Fritz is charged with stealing more than $100,000. He liked to buy lottery tickets.

The Rev. David Fisher is charged with embezzlement from St. Joseph Church in Owosso in Shiawassee County. Diocese officials say $450,000 is missing.

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ILLINOIS
Fox 32

SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE – An alleged victim of sexual abuse by a deceased Jesuit priest has reached a $925,000 settlement agreement with the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus.

The alleged victim, now in his late 50s, claimed he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Father Donald O’Shaughnessy while he attended Loyola Academy in north suburban Wilmette, according to a statement from his attorney, Eugene Hollander.

The man claimed to have suppressed the memories until he saw the movie “Spotlight,” then began remembering the abuse, according to the attorney.

The $925,000 settlement was reached during a voluntary mediation conference before a lawsuit was filed.

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UNITED STATES
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

MAY 10, 2017
ASHER LOVY

In an article published in The Forward on May 2nd, Barbara Finkelstein painted a very optimistic picture of the shifting landscape in the Charedi world concerning child sexual abuse policies. In that article, she claimed that “Virtually no mainstream religious Jewish organization or sect publicly insists anymore that victims speak to their rabbi before going to the police.” As proof she cited the grassroots efforts of rabbis from Chabad, Yeshiva Chovevei Torah, Yeshiva University, and the Rabbinical Council of America.

While it is true that progress has been made over the past 5 years in regards to sexual abuse awareness and prevention, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Of course, Finklestein might argue that it depends on how you define ‘mainstream religious Jewish organizations.

Arguably, Agudath Israel of America is a mainstream religious Jewish organization. It’s constituent organizations and demographic include large swaths of the Charedi, Litvish, and Yeshivish populations in North America. The official policy of Agudah, as of writing this, is still that a rabbi must be consulted before any abuse allegation can be brought to the authorities.

Presumably, the hundreds of different sects of Chassidim living in New York qualify as mainstream Jewish organizations, and yet there has been no public change in policy from any of them toward advocating reporting abuse directly to the authorities.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 10, 2017

A deacon candidate for a rural Minnesota diocese sued his bishop this week on grounds of blackmail and coercion after the prelate allegedly threatened his ordination if he didn’t renounce a prior revelation of sexual abuse by the diocese’s former vicar general.

In the civil lawsuit filed May 8, Ronald Vasek alleges that Crookston, Minnesota, Bishop Michael Hoeppner in October 2015 coerced him into signing a letter that retracted his disclosure to the bishop approximately five years earlier that Msgr. Roger Grundhaus had sexually abused him on a trip to Ohio while a teenager in the 1970s.

The suit, which names Hoeppner and the Crookston diocese as defendants, requests a jury trial and seeks $50,000 plus court and other related fees. It charges Hoeppner with coercion — the first such count brought against a U.S. bishop, according to attorney Jeff Anderson — and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and brings against the small northwestern Minnesota diocese three counts of negligence and two counts of public nuisance.

At a press conference Tuesday at Anderson’s St. Paul offices, Vasek, 62, said the request from Hoeppner to renege his abuse accusation in a prepared letter came during a meeting on the back patio of the bishop’s residence. He arrived expecting to discuss his progress in the diaconate program but instead the conversation turned to Grundhaus.

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MINNESOTA
Crookston Times

By Times Report

In response to the coercion lawsuit filed by Ronald Vasek saying Crookston Diocese Bishop Michael Hoeppner coerced him into signing a document denying sexual abuse by Father Roger Grundhaus, the Diocese says Hoeppner denies that he in any way “forced, coerced or encouraged” Vasek not to pursue allegations against Grundhaus.

Vasek said in a Tuesday press conference in St. Paul with Jeff Anderson and Associates that he was sexually abused when he was 16 years old in 1971 while on a trip to Ohio with Father Grundhaus. Vasek says that Bishop Hoeppner was informed in 2010 and that Hoeppner allegedly told him to not tell anyone about the abuse, and, later, in 2015, had him sign a document stating that the abuse never happened.

Tuesday afternoon, after the press conference, the Diocese of Crookston issued this statement:

“Bishop Hoeppner and other diocesan leaders are deeply saddened and troubled about the allegations made today by Ron Vasek.

The Diocese of Crookston takes all allegations of sexual abuse very seriously. Mr. Vasek’s allegation of sexual abuse dates to 1971 and involves Msgr. Roger Grundhaus. Msgr. Grundhaus has been retired since July 1, 2010 and is currently suspended from active ministry.

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MINNESOTA
Post Bulletin

Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com May 10, 2017

ST. PAUL — A former vicar general for the Diocese of Winona accused of coercion “categorically denies” the claim that he covered up an allegation of clergy sexual assault, according to a statement released by the Diocese of Crookston, where he now is bishop.

Michael Joseph Hoeppner, 67, is the first bishop in the United States to be individually sued for coercion, said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who’s represented hundreds of survivors of clergy abuse. The personal injury lawsuit was filed Tuesday.

Hoeppner was vicar general at Winona from about 1998 until being named bishop at Crookston in 2007, church records show.

In 2010, Ron Vasek was exploring the possibility of becoming a deacon in the Catholic Church when he allegedly told Hoeppner he’d been sexually assaulted in about 1971 by Roger Grundhaus.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Grundhaus was a priest at the diocese; he was vicar general of the Crookston diocese from 1991 to 2008.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest bombshell in the Msgr. William Lynn case:

The star witness in the Philadelphia D.A.’s ongoing witch-hunt against the Catholic Church has now been totally discredited.

The D.A.’s office had relied heavily on the incredulous claims of Danny Gallagher, a.k.a. “Billy Doe,” to send three priests and a Catholic school teacher to prison.

But now retired Detective Joseph Walsh—the prosecution’s own lead investigator into Gallagher’s lurid tales of being violently sexually abused—has filed a 12 page affidavit exposing Gallagher’s claims as a pack of lies. Walsh recounts—as he has done before—how prosecutors repeatedly blew off his warnings about Gallagher’s credibility, such was their zeal to nail these men.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com May 4, 2017

A violation of the Sunshine Reform Act, which requires the government to release information to the public, will cost the Department of Land Management $9,170.40 in legal fees and its director, Michael J.B. Borja, $1,000 from his own pocket, according to a court judgment.

The case is related to attorney Robert Klitzkie’s complaint against the Land Management director for not making available public records related to a Yona seminary property.

Superior Court of Guam Judge Maria T. Cenzon, in an April 26 judgment, said Land Management must pay $464 in court costs, and $8,706.40 in attorney’s fees incurred by Klitzkie in the case, for a total of $9,170.40.

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MINNESOTA
WDAZ

[with video]

CROOKSTON, MN (WDAZ-TV) – Parishioners say Father Roger Grundhaus wasn’t at services Tuesday morning. Some thought he was out of town. Turns out he is home, but not saying a word to the media.

Roger Grundhaus’ garage door was open, so WDAZ knocked on his front door.

As WDAZ was packing up to leave the neighborhood, Grundhaus shut his garage door and went back inside.

Neighbors say the reverend is a nice man and pillar of the community. They want the Bishop to respond to the allegations but he refused to go on camera.

But the diocese did release a statement, denying Bishop Michael Hoeppner “forced, coerced or encouraged Mr. Vasek to not pursue his allegations.”

It also states that Grundhaus retired in 2010, and is suspended from active ministry.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY ANDREA O’NEILL
10 MAY 2017

Elderly survivors of state care child abuse may not live to see the day justice is served.

This is the view of Jim Buckley, vice-president of In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas) as he prepared to pay his final respects to the charity’s late president Frank Docherty yesterday.

Tragically, the death of a leading campaigner for child abuse survivors means the 74-year-old Murray grandad never got the closure he fought more than 20 years for after his own abuse hell.

Frank suffered years of mental and physical abuse from the age of nine at the hands of nuns in Lanark’s brutal Catholic-run orphanage Smyllum Park during the 1950s.

But, thanks to his tireless campaigning, his lasting legacy is a public inquiry into the traumatic childhood experiences of survivors in care.

Along with Frank, Jim was the first in Scotland to give testimony for The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry on the cruel regimes they were forced to endure throughout their childhoods.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 9, 2017

ALBANY — With just over five weeks left in the legislative session, child abuse victims Tuesday pleaded with state Senate Republicans to side with them over predators.

A group of adults who were abused as kids, including a former priest, were back at the Capitol to push for passage of a bill to make it easier for survivors to seek justice that has been blocked by the Senate GOP for years.

One version of the Child Victims Act supported by advocates would do away with the civil and criminal time for adults who were abused as kids to bring cases, open a one-year window for victims who can no longer sue under the current law to do so, and treat public and private institutions the same when it comes to sex abuse cases.

“There’s no statute of limitations on the murder of the body; why is there a statute of limitation on the murder of the soul?” said Robert Hoatson, a former priest who was abused as a kid and now heads Road to Recovery.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Rich Scinto (Patch Staff) – May 9, 2017

NEW HAVEN, CT — A prominent city rabbi and landlord has been ordered to testify after being accused of sexually abusing teenage boys in a civil case. Rabbi Daniel Greer was accused of abusing a boy more than a decade ago and it is alleged in the lawsuit that the victim wasn’t the only one.

Jury selection is scheduled for Wednesday and the trial could start later this week, according to the New Haven Register.

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CONNECTICUT
WNPR

By LORI MACK

A prominent New Haven rabbi who’s been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy has been ordered to testify at a civil trial. Jury selection for Rabbi Daniel Greer is set to begin Wednesday in federal court in Hartford.

A lawsuit filed last year accuses Greer, 76, of repeatedly raping and molesting a student who attended the Yeshiva of New Haven school. During that time, Greer was the rabbi, dean, and director.

The former student, now 29, is suing Greer and the school on allegations of sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress, and other claims.

The lawsuit also alleges that Greer sexually abused at least one other student.

Greer has denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged.

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CONNECTICUT
WSHU

By DAVIS DUNAVIN

Jury selection is scheduled to start tomorrow in a civil trial for a Connecticut rabbi accused of sexual abuse. Rabbi Daniel Greer, the principal of the Yeshiva of New Haven, is accused of molesting a teenage student hundreds of times between 2001 and 2005.

The student, now 29, says Greer sexually abused him at more than a dozen locations in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, including at school, in motels and at Greer’s home. His lawsuit alleges Greer abused at least one other male student at the all boys school.

Greer is still principal of the New Haven school. He faces civil charges only and hasn’t been criminally charged. He’s denied the allegations, and his attorney questioned the student’s decision to wait 14 years before coming forward.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Heather McNeill

A WA priest and two teachers who worked at the Wandering Mission during the 1960s have been charged with historical child sex offences.

Charges against the three men, now aged 78, 82 and 83, came after an investigation was launched stemming from the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Offences.

Police will allege the priest – who now lives in Melbourne – sexually abused four girls aged between eight and 15 between 1965 and 1969.

He has been charged with rape, six counts of indecent dealing of a girl under 13, and sex counts of unlawful or indecent assault of a female.

One of the teachers, 82, who lives in Shelley, is alleged to have sexually abused a 10-year-old girl between 1960 and 1963.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 10, 2017

VICTORIA LAURIE
Reporter Perth

Another former teacher at the isolated Wandering Aboriginal Mission was last night charged with a string of offences spanning more than forty years.

The man, who is now 83 years old, is accused of sexually abusing five girls who were aged between nine and 13 years at the time of the offences.

He is the third man who worked at the Pallottine-run mission, which has since closed, to be charged this month by Child Abuse Squad detectives in Perth. A former teacher, now aged 82, and a former priest, aged 78, have already been charged with sex offences against girls aged between 8 and 15.

The charges have emerged from ongoing investigations stemming from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which identified historic and persistent child sex offences occurring at the Wandering Mission and other locations within Western Australia.

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NEW YORK
Spectrum News

By Geoff Redick
Updated Tuesday, May 9, 2017

ALBANY, N.Y. — If you can call it luck, then Kat Sullivan is one of the “lucky” ones.

Sullivan is a rape survivor, which means in New York State she can seek criminal prosecution against her attacker whenever she pleases — even 20 years after the rape, which happened in 1998 on the campus of the Emma Willard School in Troy, where Sullivan attended as a student athlete.

But potentially, hundreds of teenage girls who attended Emma Willard School, like Sullivan did, were the victims of sexual abuse. Such abuse is considered different from forcible rape under the state’s legal definition. Because of a statute of limitations preventing legal action after five years have passed, those hundreds of girls cannot report the crimes against them with any hope of confronting their attackers.

Children who are victimized younger than the age of 13 can report sex abuse at any time for the rest of their lives, leaving only minors between the ages of 13 and 18 as those who must tell authorities within five years.

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UNITED STATES
EIN News

SPRING VALLEY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, May 10, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ — We are pleased to announce a new feature of the VictimsSpeakDB website, the SACCADAS DB Profiler. It provides summary statistics about Catholic clergy abuse for individual states/provinces, countries or regions included in the SACCADAS database. VictimsSpeakDB viewers can request profiles of individual states/ provinces, countries or regions by sending a Profile Request. Profiles of individual clerics, such as priests, brothers or nuns, are also available upon request.

The SACCADAS DB Profiler was created to provide summary data about specific locations and/or individuals. Not every user requires the detail provided on the dozens of charts on this website. In some cases, the user would like to obtain an overview of clergy abuse in his particular state/ province or by a specific abuser. Viewers can request a profile of a specific state/province or abuser by sending a Profile Request. We have included on this website a profile of the entire SACCADAS database as well a sample of an individual state/province. The state/province we chose was the U.S. territory of the Guam. We chose Guam because the pattern exhibited in the data is a primary reason this website was created.

There are 67 records of victims abused in Guam. Of those 67 records, only one victim was abused in this century (in 2015). Of the remaining 66 records, 57 records represent victims abused prior to the 1980s. On the other hand, 57 records of the 67 records represented victims who made the first public accusation of abuse in the 2015-2017 time slot. Why? In September 2016, Guam enacted a law removing the statute of limitations on sex crimes against children. Fifty five of the 67 records are from victims who made their first accusation of abuse after September 2016. Clearly, eliminating the statute of limitations had a major effect. Moreover, when victims come forward it encourages other victims to come forward who might otherwise have continued to remain silent.

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DEUTSCHLAND
General Anzeiger

[ECKIGER TISCH BONN]

[The victims association “Eckiger Tisch Bonn” has broken off the dialogue with the school because of the new alleged abuse at the Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg. They now call for consequences. Police said on Monday that they had received a criminal complaint.]

“We are talking about the processing of the previous cases up to a detailed presentation of the Kolleg about the facts and a public opinion,” explained the association’s board on Tuesday.It is necessary to fill the vacant position of the managing Ako Rector for a period of three years with a church-external person with competences in the preventive field “capable of detecting maladmin ties and breaking structures”.On Monday, the police confirmed that a criminal complaint had been received.

BAD GODESBERG. Der Betroffenenverein Eckiger Tisch Bonn hat wegen des neuen mutmaßlichen Missbrauchsfalls am Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) in Bad Godesberg den Dialog mit der Schule abgebrochen. Er fordert nun Konsequenzen.

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu, 09.05.2017
„Wir setzen die Gespräche über die Aufarbeitung der früheren Fälle bis zu einer ausführlichen Darstellung des Kollegs über den Sachverhalt und einer öffentlichen Stellungnahme aus“, erklärte der Vereinsvorstand am Dienstag.

Man fordere, die derzeit bis September vakante Stelle des geschäftsführenden Ako-Rektors für drei Jahre mit einer kirchenfremden Person mit Kompetenzen im Präventionsbereich zu besetzen, „die in der Lage ist, Missstände zu erkennen und Strukturen zu durchbrechen“.

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MINNESOTA
Yahoo! News

By Timothy Mclaughlin

(Reuters) – A Catholic bishop in Minnesota threatened to thwart a man’s attempt to become a deacon and derail his son’s career as a priest for reporting sexual abuse by a senior church member 46 years ago, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

The personal injury lawsuit, filed in Polk County Court in Crookston, Minnesota, against Bishop Michael Joseph Hoeppner by Ronald Vasek, marks the first time a U.S. bishop has been individually sued for coercion, according to the plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Anderson.

Hoeppner, who has been bishop of Crookston since 2007, refuted the charges.

“Bishop Hoeppner categorically denies that he in any way forced, coerced or encouraged Mr. Vasek not to pursue his allegations,” the Diocese of Crookston responded in a statement.

The diocese is also a defendant in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages in excess of $50,000 and the release of records of abuses carried out by priests in the diocese.

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MINNESOTA
Washington Post

By Associated Press May 9

MINNEAPOLIS — The Latest on a lawsuit accusing a Minnesota bishop of suppressing a report of sexual abuse (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

A Catholic diocese in Minnesota says its bishop denies coercing a deacon candidate into remaining silent about a priest he alleges abused him decades earlier.

The Diocese of Crookston says in a statement that Bishop Michael Hoeppner (HEP’-ner) “categorically denies that he in any way forced, coerced or encouraged” Ronald Vasek not to report his allegations against Monsignor Roger Grundhaus.

The statement also says Vasek’s allegations against Grundhaus were reported to law enforcement in 2011.

The diocese said it plans to conduct a thorough investigation and that it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment further until it’s completed.

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MINNESOTA
Crookston Times

Minnesota Bishop Michael Hoeppner responds to allegations made in a coercion lawsuit from Ronald Vasek in regards to alleged abuse that happened in 1971.

By Times Report

In response to the coercion lawsuit filed by Ronald Vasek saying Crookston Diocese Bishop Michael Hoeppner coerced him into signing a document denying sexual abuse by Father Roger Grundhaus, the Diocese says Hoeppner denies that he in any way “forced, coerced or encouraged” Vasek not to pursue allegations against Grundhaus.

Vasek said in a Tuesday press conference in St. Paul with Jeff Anderson and Associates that he was sexually abused when he was 16 years old in 1971 while on a trip to Ohio with Father Grundhaus. Vasek says that Bishop Hoeppner was informed in 2010 and that Hoeppner allegedly told him to not tell anyone about the abuse, and, later, in 2015, had him sign a document stating that the abuse never happened.

Statement made by the Diocese of Crookston:

“Bishop Hoeppner and other diocesan leaders are deeply saddened and troubled about the allegations made today by Ron Vasek.

The Diocese of Crookston takes all allegations of sexual abuse very seriously. Mr. Vasek’s allegation of sexual abuse dates to 1971 and involves Msgr. Roger Grundhaus. Msgr. Grundhaus has been retired since July 1, 2010 and is currently suspended from active ministry.

Mr. Vasek has also alleged that Bishop Hoeppner coerced him into signing a document against his will and to not pursue the reporting of the allegations against Msgr. Grundhaus. Bishop Hoeppner categorically denies that he in any way forced, coerced or encouraged Mr. Vasek to not pursue his allegations regarding Msgr. Grundhaus. Mr. Vasek’s allegations of abuse regarding Msgr. Grundhaus were reported to law enforcement in 2011.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Kyle Farris
Daily News

Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner, who spent 42 years as a priest in the Diocese of Winona, has been accused of covering up a decades-old case of child sexual abuse, and of blackmailing the accuser into keeping the claims to himself.

Hoeppner was named in a civil complaint filed Monday in Polk County district court.

Ronald Vasek, a longtime parishioner in the Crookston diocese and the father of one of the priests there, said he was abused by a diocesan priest in 1971, when he was 16, and that Hoeppner learned of this around 2010.

Vasek said Hoeppner discouraged him from sharing the allegations with anyone, and then used his family’s aspirations within the church — Vasek himself hoped to become a deacon — to force Vasek into silence.

“I felt like I had been abused all over again,” Vasek said at a news conference in Saint Paul on Tuesday. “To this day, I never have doubted one thing the Catholic church teaches …. But I saw nothing but immorality within our diocese — how things had been covered up for years and years. There could be other victims like me who have been silenced by the bishop or by anybody.”

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MINNESOTA
WDAY

[with video]

CROOKSTON, MN—For the first time in the United States, a Bishop of the Catholic Church is being sued for coercion.

Bishop Michael Hoeppner is in charge of the Crookston Diocese, and sees over most of Western Minnesota.

He’s accused of forcing a Deacon candidate to stay quiet about alleged sexual abuse.

That candidate is now saying he was abused 46-years ago and again in 2015.

“What the bishop told him is “Ron you must keep this quiet,” said Jeff Anderson, Attorney.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

A priest and two teachers who worked at a West Australian Catholic school for indigenous children in the 1960s have been arrested on multiple child abuse charges.

A 78-year-man, who was a priest at the Wandering Mission and was arrested in Melbourne, has been charged with rape and 12 other offences.

A Perth man, now aged 83, who worked as a teacher at the mission has been charged with 14 offences involving abuse, including rape of five girls who were aged between nine and 13 between 1959 and 2003.

An 82-year-old Perth man is facing seven charges.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Australian Associated Press and Ashleigh Davis For Daily Mail Australia

A 78-year-old priest and two other male teachers who worked at WA’s Wandering Mission school are facing historic child sex abuse charges.

The trio, who worked at the West Australian Catholic school for indigenous children in the 1960s, were arrested on multiple child abuse charges.

The day school with a dormitory for Aboriginal girls was established in 1944 and was one-and-a-half hours south east of Perth, before being closed in 1979.

The 78-year-old priest was arrested in Melbourne and has been charged with rape and 12 other offences.

It is alleged between 1965 and 1969 the priest sexually abused four girls who were aged between eight and 15 years at the time of the first offence.

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GUAM
KUAM

May 10, 2017

By Krystal Paco

More allegations of clergy sexual abuse surface, this time against Father Andy Mannetta.

Filed in the Superior Court of Guam today, N.Q. alleges he was sexually molested by the Talofofo priest over 50 times when he was a teen attending the parish. The priest allegedly groomed him for the abuse, inviting him to the rectory to eat and drink sacramental wine as well as watch X-rated videos. On such occasions, the priest would tell him to go into the room for a nap, but would instead perform sex acts on the teen boy, including full body massages with emphasis on the private parts as well as penetration.

N.Q. states to avoid the abuse, he quit attending mass and ceased to be a Catholic. In addition, he turned to drugs to self-medicate. N.Q. is represented by attorney Anthony Perez and asks that the Church come clean and list all known sexual abusers within the Archdiocese of Agana.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon |For The Guam Daily Post May 10, 2017

A Talofofo resident alleges he was subjected to repeated sex abuse by former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta while he attended San Miguel Church in Talofofo in the 80s.

The man, identified through initials N.Q., to protect his privacy due to the graphic nature of the child sex abuse allegations, filed a civil complaint with the Superior Court of Guam through his attorney Anthony C. Perez.

The lawsuit alleges that N.Q. began helping out at the Talofofo church in 1985 when he was 15 years old.

Mannetta was the parish priest at the time and gradually increased contact with N.Q. inviting him to eat, drink and watch television in the parish rectory. The lawsuit alleges Mannetta began offering the teen sacramental wine and providing x-rated videos for him to watch.

The priest then suggested N.Q. take naps at the rectory and frequently began giving long and “powerful” hugs while sniffing and kissing the boy’s face and body, the lawsuit states. On several occasions Mannetta allegedly threw N.Q. on the bed and other times ordered him to lay down on his stomach.

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MARYLAND
Fox 43

The exhumation of a Catholic priest’s body by Baltimore County Police could hold the key to solving the 47-year-old cold case of a murdered nun.

On February 28, police opened the grave of Rev. A. Joseph Maskell after securing an order from the state’s attorney, according to Elise Armacost, director of public affairs for Baltimore County Police.

Police took DNA samples from the corpse to check against a DNA profile developed from evidence taken in 1970 from the scene in Maryland where the badly decomposed body of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik had been found by a father and son out hunting. The 26-year-old nun had been missing for nearly two months.

In the decades since the nun’s killing and as DNA testing has become a vital investigative tool, Baltimore County police have compared the DNA of several other people as part of their investigation into the never-closed case, according to Armacost, but those tests did not match the DNA profile from 1970.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter

Peter Feuerherd | May. 9, 2017

NEW YORK

Before embarking on a May 9 lobbying day in Albany in support of proposed New York state legislation that would extend the statute of limitations on child abuse claims, the watchdog group Catholic Whistleblowers offered both support and criticism of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

The group praised the New York Archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to compensate victims with claims against clergy sex abusers. The program offers compensation even to those who come forth beyond New York’s window for presenting claims, five years after a person reaches the age of 18.

The bishops of New York state have fought efforts to extend the statute of limitations in the past, stating that it would stretch the ability of witnesses to remember events that happened decades ago; would unfairly target private institutions like the church while leaving other entities untouched, such as public schools; and threaten dioceses with bankruptcy.

The effort to extend the statute of limitations has become an annual Albany legislative struggle, successfully fought off by the state’s Catholic bishops. A similar struggle is expected in this year’s session before the legislature adjourns this summer.

The Catholic Whistleblowers group comprises some 30 priests, religious and laypeople, including supporters of those sexually abused as well as victims who have worked for the church. In a statement, the group praised Dolan for instituting the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY AMY CALDER
STAFF WRITER

WATERVILLE — Experts who deal with sexual abuse issues say it is understandable that parishioners of St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church are in shock and disbelief that their former priest, the Rev. Larry Jensen, was removed swiftly from the church amid allegations that he sexually abused a teenage boy 15 years ago in Connecticut.

After all, a spiritual leader is someone they look up to, trust, admire, invite to family gatherings and holiday celebrations, and regard as part of their family. But it is for that precise reason that often people can not imagine any abuse could have taken place, experts say.

Cara Courchesne, communications director for Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, cited as an example the case of former Penn State University defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who sexually abused young boys over a period of at least 15 years.

“I think that with a lot of cases, and we saw it with Jerry Sandusky, that when somebody who is part of a community, who is well-known and well-liked and something like this comes out, it makes us question our own beliefs and what we know to be true and it can be very, very hard,” Courchesne said.

Jensen, 62, was the priest at St. Joseph for 10 years until Sunday, when Bishop Gregory Mansour, of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Saint Maron, of Brooklyn, New York, read aloud a letter in the church saying Jensen had been removed from his priestly ministry and that the Rev. James Doran would be replacing him.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Sexual Abuse Survivor Ron Vasek Breaks Silence About Abuse by Former Diocese of Crookston
Vicar General Msgr. Roger Grundhaus

Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner Sued for Coercion

(St. Paul, MN) – A Minnesota man sued the Diocese of Crookston and Bishop Michael Hoeppner on Tuesday, claiming that Hoeppner coerced him into keeping silent about his alleged abuse by a Diocese of Crookston priest 46 years ago and signing a document stating the abuse never occurred.

Ron Vasek and his attorney, Jeff Anderson, announced the filing of the lawsuit in St. Paul. Vasek alleges that he was abused as a minor by Msgr. Roger Grundhaus, a Diocese of Crookston priest, and that Hoeppner coerced Vasek into signing a document stating the abuse did not occur. This is the first time in the United States that a bishop has been sued individually for coercion, Anderson said.

Grundhaus allegedly sexually abused Vasek in 1971 while on a trip to Ohio. Vasek was approximately 16. Grundhaus was working as a priest at Holy Trinity Church in Tabor, Minn., where Vasek and his family were parishioners.

Vasek kept the secret to himself for many years to protect his parents and their relationship with the Church. But he remained devoted to the Catholic Church and trained to be a deacon in the Diocese of Crookston. In 2009 or 2010, while considering becoming a member of the dioceses’ diaconate program, Vasek disclosed the Grundhaus abuse to a priest in another diocese. That priest reported the abuse to the vicar general of his diocese, who reported it to Hoeppner.

Hoeppner scheduled a meeting with Vasek at the Diocese of Crookston Chancery, where Vasek told Hoeppner about the abuse. Hoeppner told Vasek not to tell anyone about the abuse as it would harm Grundhaus and his reputation. Hoeppner told Vasek his diaconate program would not be affected by his disclosure as long as he didn’t tell anyone else about the abuse. Vasek felt intimidated and threatened by Hoeppner, and told no one else.

In 2010, Vasek’s son was ordained as a priest in the Diocese of Crookston. Vasek entered the diocese’s diaconate program in 2011. In August 2015, a Mahnomen County (Minn.) District Court ordered the Diocese of Crookston to produce information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit. In response, the diocese did not produce Grundhaus’ name or information in its court-ordered disclosures. In October 2015, Hoeppner had Vasek come to his private residence, where he told Vasek to sign a letter retracting Vasek’s statements regarding the sexual abuse by Grundhaus and indicating that the abuse in Ohio never happened. Vasek initially refused to sign the letter.

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NEW YORK
The Legislative Gazette

Written by KALEB H. SMITH, assistant editor on May 9, 2017

As lawmakers prepare for the closing weeks of session, victims of childhood sexual abuse are pushing once again for a controversial bill that would give them a chance to seek justice for decades-old cases.

The Child Victims Act (S.809) would allow victims to file legal action against their abusers, regardless of when the crime took place.

But opponents of The Child Victims Act — mainly churches and other organizations that may be held responsible for decades-old cases of abuse — say passage of the bill could bankrupt them if it is adopted as written.

The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of New York state in matters of public policy, supports another bill (S.5660/A.7302) that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations for the prosecution of certain sex offenses and extend the time for civil claims to be brought by survivors of child sexual abuse until they are 28 years old.

It also expands mandated reporter requirements by adding clergy to the list of those who must report suspected cases of sexual abuse of a child, and requires all mandated reporters to not only report suspected familial abuse, but also suspected abuse at the hands of other mandated reporters.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Robert Gavin Tuesday, May 9, 2017

ALBANY — A former Emma Willard student who revealed allegations of sexual abuse and a cover-up at the school last year on Tuesday questioned Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to passing a law to end a five-year statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.

Kat Sullivan, who said she was raped by a teacher at Emma Willard in 1998 and shipped away to New Orleans, called child sexual abuse a “pandemic” that needs to be addressed this year with the passing of the Child Victims Act.

The bill would end the statute of limitations civilly as well as criminally, create a one-year retroactive window for survivors over 23 to sue and end a 90-day notice of claim for public institutions that the sponsors say now shields the facilities from lawsuits.

The bill has been pushed in Albany for 10 years. Cuomo backed its passage in his State of the State in January, saying survivors of the abuse deserve justice.

“I have been following Gov. Cuomo and his statements in the newspapers very carefully and I read promises in the newspapers to prioritize the Child Victims Act, which gave me hope he would be a champion,” Sullivan told reporters in a packed news conference in the Legislative Office Building, where she was joined by lawmakers, advocates and other victims.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on the latest con-job against the Church:

An American man says that a half-century ago he was sexually abused by another adult man; the abused was an adult at the time. The incident took place in a foreign country, and now the man who says he was abused is suing the American company the abuser once worked for, even though the abuser was subsequently fired by the organization.

This sounds like a fairy tale, except it is true. It is true because those gunning for the Catholic Church will stop at nothing to discredit it.

The alleged offender is a former Catholic priest who supposedly abused an 18-year-old man in Canada in 1969. Now the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where the priest was stationed, is being sued for $3 million in Ontario courts.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Andrew Hazzard

ST. PAUL—A northwest Minnesota man has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Crookston and Bishop Michael Hoeppner, alleging a cover-up of abuse and coercion.

Ron Vasek, alongside his wife and attorney Jeff Anderson, announced his lawsuit at a press conference Tuesday where he made an emotional plea for victims to come forward and the truth to be revealed.

“He brought this suit because the truth of what has been done in the past and in the present needed to be revealed,” Anderson said.

The lawsuit, filed in Polk County Monday, accuses Bishop Hoeppner of coercion and inflicting emotional distress. It levies one count of negligence, a count of negligent supervision, a count of negligent retention and two nuisance counts against the Diocese of Crookston.

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MINNESOTA
Crookston Times

Hoeppner is first bishop to be sued for coercion, case dates back to 1971

By Times Report

The former Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston, Father Roger Grundhaus, is being accused of child sexual abuse and Minnesota Bishop Michael Hoeppner is the first bishop to be sued for coercion for suppressing a report of abuse, according to a media advisory by Jeff Anderson and Associates attorney’s office.

At a news conference Tuesday in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest announced the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor, Ronald Vasek, naming Bishop Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston as defendants.

This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

According to the release, in 2010, Vasek, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus in approximately 1971 to Bishop Hoeppner. Hoeppner advised the survivor to tell no one of the sexual abuse. In 2015, the Diocese of Crookston was court ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse. However, Fr. Grundhaus was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure.

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ISRAEL
Times of Israel

By Dr. Michael J. Salamon

A few weeks ago, in an early morning action, Israeli police arrested 22 haredi men for the alleged sexual abuse of minors and adult women. These men came from four cities in Israel and, until their arrest, had allegedly been investigated, tried, and treated within their own communities – not by proper governmental authorities.

This internal communal method, where a local rabbi or bet din determines how to best handle specific abusers and control sexual offenders, has been an open secret for years. And while community members may have thought the process worked, I can assure you it never really did.

I learned several years ago that in at least one haredi community, sexual predators who were caught by local “modesty squads” had to submit to an ongoing course of chemical castration if they wanted to remain in their neighborhoods.

While I might privately agree that castration, chemical or otherwise, may seem deserved (albeit barbaric), this approach, in which vigilante-style justice is meted out, creates a series of problems for the larger society.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) – A man who claims he was sexually abused by a Minnesota priest in 1971 is filing a lawsuit against Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document stating the abuse never happened. St. Paul, Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson says this the first time a bishop has been sued for coercion in the United States.

According to the civil complaint filed in Polk County, Minnesota, Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the alleged abuse to Bishop Hoeppner.

According to court documents, Vasek told Bishop Hoeppner that Fr. Roger Grundhaus had sexually abused him in Columbus, Ohio when he was 16 years old. Hoeppner allegedly asked Vasek “how he was going to proceed with the accusation” and whether he intended to formally report the abuse or press charges, adding that “it would be detrimental to Msgr. Grundhaus and his reputation in the Diocese if the accusations were made public.”

Vasek claims the bishop recommended he keep quiet, and that his future as a deacon and his son’s future as a priest in the Diocese of Crookston would be in jeopardy if he went public with his allegations.

Bishop Hoeppner allegedly gave Vasek a letter authored by Msgr. Michael Foltz, Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston, which “essentially retracted” his statements regarding the sexual abuse involving Grundhaus and “indicated that the abuse in Ohio never happened.”

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The plaintiff is only identified by the initials C.C. and is represented by Attorney David Lujan.
Guam – A 60th lawsuit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and former Guam priest Andrew Mannetta is named as the perpetrator.

This is not the first time that Father Mannetta has been named, he was previously named in two other lawsuits that were filed in April. Like the first two victims to accuse Father Mannetta, the 60th plaintiff to file suit is only identified by initials C.C.

According to the complaint, the sexual abuse happened in the early 1980s when C.C. was between the ages of 8 to 10 years old. The now 40-year-old man says Father Mannetta sexually assaulted him during sleepovers at the Santa Teresita church rectory even as Mannetta cried through it.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post May 10, 2017

A third victim has come forward alleging he was sexually abused by former Guam priest, Andrew Mannetta, for two years while he served as an altar boy at the Mangilao parish in 1983.

An individual, using the initials “C.C.” to protect his identity, filed a civil complaint in the District Court of Guam yesterday against Mannetta and the Archdiocese of Agana.

C.C., who is now 43, alleges that the abuse began when he was 8 years old.

Mannetta was the priest at the Mangilao church at the time and allegedly required C.C. and other altar boys to sleep at the rectory to help prepare for early morning masses.

The lawsuits states Mannetta sexually molested and abused C.C. on one sleepover. Mannetta told him, “Big boys don’t cry.” The victim alleges he awoke later that same night to find Mannetta touching him, again causing him to cry.

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UNITED STATES
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

A Conversation with Brian McLaren

To draw attention to the ever-present and devastating reality of clergy sexual abuse and to provide resources for churches, lay members, and ministers, the Clergy Sexual Misconduct Task Force formed jointly by Baptist Women in Ministry and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will sponsor an ongoing blog series featuring informational articles, helpful sermons, and relevant materials.

Several years ago, I made a presentation on ministerial boundary issues and sexual misconduct. Following the presentation, Sally Johnson* (not her real name) asked to speak with me privately. We went to a quiet spot, and she disclosed to me an alleged incident of inappropriate ministerial boundary crossing. Sally has given permission for me to relate the following information from that conversation and subsequent ones relative to her alleged abuse.

Sally told me that our conversation was the first time she recalled having spoken of the incident since its occurrence back in 1974. As she told me her story, the memories pained Sally deeply. She spoke very softly, with obvious anxiety, and with tears. Because I had known Sally for fifteen years and because of her demeanor in this conversation, I found her story very believable. She did not identify the pastor who had abused her, and I did not ask. I told her that if she wished to disclose his identity either to me or especially to her current pastor, it might be helpful in case others came forward and named the same perpetrator. Sally told me that she would give it some thought. But feeling better already for having shared the story with me, Sally said she felt no particular need to have anything else done about it for her own sake.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Lanai Scarr, Senior Writer, News Corp Australia Network
May 9, 2017

COMMONWEALTH child sex abuse survivors will get access to payments of up to $150,000 under a new redress scheme to be live by mid next year.

The Turnbull government tonight announced a $33.4 million commitment to establish the scheme that would provide abuse survivors with counselling, apologies from the organisation responsible and financial compensation.

The funding will be used to establish IT services, an online presence and a direct hotline for victims to inquire about how they can apply for payments.

“The Turnbull government has listened to survivors and accepts the recommendation of (the Royal Commission) that each jurisdiction and all individual institutions must make amends and take responsibility for wrongdoing,” a statement from Social Services Minister Christian Porter said.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Joe Lipovich (Patch Staff) – May 9, 2017

DANBURY, CT — A former priest of the St. Anthony Maronite Church in Danbury has been removed from his post amid a “substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor while working in Danbury, reports Maine’s The Morning Sentinel. Rev. Larry Jensen “can not represent himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, NY, told the newspaper Monday morning after an allegation of sexual abuse was “substantiated.”

Thomas also told the paper the alleged abuse victim was a male, close to the age of 18 but not yet 18. Thomas also told the newspaper that when he confronted Jensen, “he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it.”

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MINNESOTA
Post Bulletin

Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com May 9, 2017

ST. PAUL — A former vicar general for the Diocese of Winona is expected to be named today as a defendant in a lawsuit that alleges he suppressed a report of child sexual abuse.

Michael Joseph Hoeppner, 67, now the Bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, is the first bishop in the United States to be individually sued for coercion, said Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who’s represented hundreds of survivors of clergy abuse.

Hoeppner was vicar general at Winona from about 1998 until being named bishop at Crookston in 2007, church records show.

The survivor, who was participating in a program to become a deacon in the Catholic Church, allegedly told Hoeppner in 2010 that he’d been sexually assaulted in about 1971 by Roger Grundhaus, who was vicar general at the diocese at the time.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Melissa Colorado, KARE May 09, 2017

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – A Saint Paul attorney who specializes in defending victims of clergy sex abuse is set to file a lawsuit against a current bishop for threatening a clergy sex abuse victim to remain silent about his abuse.

According to Attorney Jeff Anderson, this is the first time that a U.S. bishop has sued for coercion.

Anderson is expected to a hold press conference in Saint Paul on Tuesday morning, during which the abuse survivor will go before cameras and identify the bishop.

According to a press release released by Anderson’s law firm, the plaintiff wanted to become a church Deacon and reported his account of abuse to the bishop.

The bishop then allegedly advised the survivor to tell no one of the abuse or face retaliation for breaking his silence.

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CONNECTICUT
Associated Press

By DAVE COLLINS

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A rabbi accused of repeatedly raping and molesting a teenage boy has been ordered to testify at a civil trial after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition.

Jury selection for Rabbi Daniel Greer’s trial in federal court in Hartford is scheduled to start Wednesday. Jurors could begin hearing evidence later in the day or Thursday.

Greer, 76, remains the principal at the Yeshiva of New Haven school. A former student at the Jewish boarding school, Eliyahu “Eli” Mirlis, now 29, is suing Greer and the school on allegations of sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress and other claims.

Mirlis, who attended the school from 2001 to 2005, also alleges in the lawsuit that Greer sexually abused at least one other male student. The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege sexual assault, but Mirlis wanted to come forward, his lawyer said.

Greer has denied the allegations and has not been criminally charged. New Haven police say they’re looking into a sexual assault complaint filed by Mirlis’ lawyer, Antonio Ponvert III.

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MINNESOTA
KAAL

A man who says he was abused by a priest 46 years ago is suing Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document saying the abuse never happened.

The lawsuit says Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the abuse to Hoeppner. He says the bishop advised him not to tell anyone. It also alleges Hoeppner suppressed his report by threatening to make it hard for him to become a deacon, and threatening Vasek’s son’s career as a priest.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says it’s the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued individually for coercion.

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IRELAND
Evening Echo

Fr Liam Kelleher

WHO can protect our Christian ethos?

I write this at the end of April, exactly a year to the day since my brother, Denis, passed to his eternal reward at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

I had visited him there on a number of occasions for the previous six weeks.

In the light of the controversy surrounding the hospital on the recent announcement that it would be the site of the new National Maternity Hospital, I would like to make a few observations.

First of all, regarding my visits to the hospital a year ago, I must say I was not impressed by it, and my sister, who is a nurse, was of the same opinion.

On one occasion during my visit, my brother’s wife, a member of the medical profession herself, picked up his chart to have a look at it and received what I consider was an unwarranted tirade of abuse by a member of the staff.

To her credit, she stood her ground and demanded that she had a right to know what was going on, simply saying “he is my husband”.

My sister, Maureen, who succumbed to the dreaded disease of cancer 12 years ago, was a member of the order of the Daughters of Charity and a member of the National nursing board. She did her general nursing there before going on to do a tutor’s degree in Scotland and becoming head tutor at Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 10, 2017

VICTORIA LAURIE
ReporterPerth

Decades of alleged abuse at Aboriginal missions and children’s homes in Western Australia could now find their way into the courts, after charges were laid against a former teacher and a Catholic priest who worked at Wandering Mission, in remote forest east of Perth, more than 50 years ago.

The charges are some of the first against Aboriginal mission workers to arise directly from the Royal Commission into Instit­utional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which received hundreds of submissions from Aboriginal adults alleging abuse as children in WA institutions.

Yesterday a former teacher, who is now 82, was charged by WA Child Abuse Squad detectives with four counts of indecent dealings with a child under 13 years and three counts of unlawful and indece­nt assault on a female.

A Catholic priest who is now 78 was arrested in Melbourne and charged with sexually abusing four girls aged between eight and 15 years at the time.

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IRELAND
Sunday World

A former priest is to be sentenced next week for raping and sexual assaulting a young boy whom he paid to do his gardening.

The 64-year-old man, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of the victim, had denied two counts of rape and four of sexually assaulting the boy in Co Wicklow between January 2005 and September 2006.

The accused, who has since been defrocked, was found guilty by a jury and faces sentencing next Monday at the Central Criminal Court .

The court heard that the victim was aged around 13 at the time of the offences and had, from an early age, shown an interest in horticulture and animal husbandry.

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CONNECTICUT
News Times

By Jim Shay
Tuesday, May 9, 2017

DANBURY – A Roman Catholic priest in Maine – who served at Danbury’s St. Anthony Maronite Church for eight years – has been removed following allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.

The allegations say the sex abuse of the minor happened 15 years ago while the Rev. Larry Jensen served at St. Anthony Maronite Church in Danbury.

The Morning Sentinel of Maine reported that Jensen, 62, was removed amid a “substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

“He has been permanently relieved of priestly ministry and he can not present himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, New York, told the The Morning Sentinel on Monday.

Thomas said the alleged abuse victim, a male, “was close to 18, but not 18” when the alleged abuse occurred at the time Jensen was a priest at St. Anthony Maronite.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Detective Joe Walsh wasn’t buying the BS that Danny Gallagher was peddling.

Back in March 2012, Walsh was prepping Danny Gallagher, AKA “Billy Doe,” for his role as the D.A.’s star witness in the child endangerment case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, scheduled to go to trial in just a few weeks. Walsh was quizzing the former altar boy about his claim that he was high on drugs when he told two social workers “graphic details” about violent rapes and beatings he supposedly suffered at the hands of two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

But Walsh had interviewed Gallagher’s father, a Philadelphia police sergeant, who said his son wasn’t high on drugs the morning he talked to the two social workers. Because just a few minutes earlier, the father had driven his sober son home from the drug clinic. Danny Gallagher had also told many of those same graphic details the day before to his drug counselor, who told Walsh that Gallagher wasn’t high when he made those same accusations.

“I asked” Gallagher about “all those graphic details,” Walsh wrote in a blockbuster, 12-page affidavit filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. Those graphic details included allegations of brutal anal rapes, death threats, getting tied up naked with altar sashes, strangled with a seatbelt and being beaten by his assailants.

In his affidavit, Walsh said he asked the D.A.’s star witness: “Did he just make all that up?” According to the detective, that’s when Gallagher admitted, “He just made up stuff and told them anything.”

The startled detective asked a follow-up question.

“So I asked him did he lie about what happened when he told [the drug counselor] and the two women about what he said occurred,” Walsh wrote. “He said yeah I guess so,” Walsh quoted Gallagher as saying.

“I asked him if he was lying about anything else and he would not answer me,” Walsh wrote. “He just sat there and did not answer me.”

But Walsh came to his own conclusions about the truth of Danny Gallagher’s allegations of abuse. In his affidavit, Walsh states three different times that he concluded that Gallagher wasn’t telling the truth when he claimed he was raped in separate attacks by two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune MAY 9, 2017

Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner threatened to retaliate against a man who told him that a former top official in a Catholic diocese had sexually molested him as a child, according to a lawsuit filed in a Minnesota district court.

It marks the first time in the nation that an individual U.S. bishop has been directly accused in a clergy abuse lawsuit, said attorney Jeff Anderson, who is holding a news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The lawsuit also claims that the bishop failed to release the sex abuse allegation against the Rev. Roger Grundhaus as required by a 2015 court order.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues, ” said Anderson. “This is another Catholic bishop who made a conscious choice to conceal a crime and then commit coercion to keep a secret.”

More than 500 claims of sex abuse by Minnesota clergy have been made in the past four years, most through a three-year law that allowed older civil cases to be filed. Catholic leaders across the state have stated that the abuse scandal is in the past, and that reforms have been made.

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MINNESOTA
Associated Press

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man who says he was abused by a priest 46 years ago is suing Bishop Michael Hoeppner (HEP’-ner) and the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document saying the abuse never happened.

The lawsuit says Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he reported the abuse to Hoeppner. He says the bishop advised him not to tell anyone. It also alleges Hoeppner suppressed his report by threatening to make it hard for him to become a deacon, and threatening Vasek’s son’s career as a priest.

Attorney Jeff Anderson says it’s the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued individually for coercion.

The diocese’s vicar general, Monsignor Michael Foltz, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Vasek Summons and Complaint
Doe 19- Order to Compel Discovery Diocese of Crookston Filed 08-13-2015
Oath of Fidelity
Vasek Timeline

First Bishop in the United States Sued for Coercion

In 2015, Minnesota Bishop Michael Hoeppner Suppressed Report of Child Sexual Abuse

Survivor to speak publicly for the first time today about abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus,
former Vicar General of the Diocese of Crookston

Bishop Hoeppner threatened harm to survivor’s vocation and his son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report

(St. Paul, MN) – At a news conference on today in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child sexual abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest will announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor naming Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston as defendants. This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues unabated,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. “This is another Catholic bishop who made a conscious choice to conceal a crime and then commit coercion to keep a secret.”

In 2010, the survivor, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse by Fr. Roger Grundhaus in approximately 1971 to Bishop Hoeppner. Hoeppner advised the survivor to tell no one of the sexual abuse. In 2015, the Diocese of Crookston was court ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse. However, Fr. Grundhaus was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure. After the court order was issued, the bishop actively suppressed the survivor’s abuse report by threatening harm to his vocation as a deacon and his son’s career as a priest in the Diocese of Crookston, and coercing the survivor into signing a document stating the sexual abuse never happened.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St., Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

* The press event will be live-streamed from our website at www.andersonadvocates.com and will be streamed via Facebook Live from our Facebook account Jeff Anderson & Associates.

*The Complaint and other information will be posted to our website this morning under “News & Events.”

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665, Office: 651.227.9990
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531, Office: 651.227.9990

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By TU Editorial Board on May 8, 2017

Our opinion: The state Senate’s Republican majority is effectively enabling child sexual predators when it refuses to extend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil action.

It wouldn’t be a legislative session without at least one news release boasting of what New York’s Republican Senate majority is doing to crack down on sex crimes. What should concern New Yorkers, though, is what the majority is trying to tamp down.

The Senate’s latest crusade is a bill that would bar low-level sex offenders from driving for ride-hailing companies, like Uber and Lyft. Yet behind the scenes, the GOP majority is doing its best to block even a vote on a different type of sex crime legislation — a bill to extend the statute of limitations on prosecution and lawsuits involving child sexual assault.

The ride-hailing bill would modify the just-approved law that allows outfits like Uber to operate in the state. The original bill prohibited Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders from driving for those companies. The new measure would add to the list Level 1 offenders — those considered to have a low likelihood of committing sex crimes again.

As potential crime goes, this is pretty minimal. The Senate is focusing on relatively low-risk individuals who would be constantly monitored on the job by technology that would record the driver, the fare, and the pickup and drop-off locations and times, making it unlikely anybody could get away with a crime.

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ARGENTINIEN
Katholisch

[In Argentina, an indictment moves the nation: A nun is accused of aiding abuse of children in a school for the deaf.]

In Argentinien ist eine Ordensschwester festgenommen worden, die jahrelang an sexuellem Missbrauch in einem Behindertenheim beteiligt gewesen sein soll. Die 42-jährige Nonne hatte sich der Polizei in Buenos Aires am vergangenen Dienstag gestellt, berichtete die argentinische Tageszeitung “Clarín”. Die Argentinierin mit japanischen Wurzeln war zuvor seit mehr als einem Monat mit internationalem Haftbefehl gesucht worden.

Mehrere Bewohner eines kirchlichen Heims für taubstumme Kinder in der Kleinstadt Luján de Cuyo im Westen Argentiniens werfen der Ordensfrau vor, in den Jahren zwischen 2007 und 2013 Kinder für den Missbrauch durch eine Gruppe von Priestern und Mitarbeitern der Einrichtung ausgesucht zu haben. Bei einer ersten Befragung vor Gericht wies die Angeklagte die Anschuldigungen zurück: “Ich bin unschuldig und wusste nichts von den Missbrauchsfällen. Ich bin eine gute Person, die ihr Leben Gott geweiht hat.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Ararat Advertiser

Breanna Chillingworth
@breannachill

9 May 2017

AN EX-priest accused of molesting young boys in the New England has been granted bail amid reports detectives have received another complaint.

Since The Leader revealed David Joseph Perrett’s extradition to NSW on Friday, police have been contacted by other members of the public looking to speak to investigators.

New England Detective Inspector Ann Joy told The Leader investigations were continuing.

“We would encourage anyone with knowledge of any related incident, whether it is a witness or a complainant, to make contact with police,” she said.

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ARGENTINA
Nigeria Today

A Roman Catholic nun stands accused of helping five priests sexually abuse deaf children.

Kosaka Kumiko, 42, allegedly helped the priests cover up anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex at the institution for deaf students in Argentina.

The abuse allegedly took place in the bathrooms, dorms, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

Authorities began investigating Kumiko when a former student claimed she made her wear a nappy to cover up bleeding after she was raped.

At least 24 children have come forward to report abuse at the school.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Ben Botkin Review-Journal Capital Bureau
May 8, 2017

CARSON CITY — Victims of child sexual abuse may get another decade to decide if they will sue an attacker.

The clock would start after a victim turns 18 or discovers as an adult, through counseling or other means, that they were abused. Assembly Bill 145 would extend the statute of limitations for civil suits from 10 years to 20 years from the later date.

Supporters say the measure is needed because children need more time to understand and grasp the crime committed against them.

“Victims deserve to have justice and closure,” Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner, R-Reno, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

The bill has bipartisan support, with Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Irene Bustamante Adams, D-Las Vegas, co-sponsoring it.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newham Recorder

A pastor who admitted making and possessing indecent images of children has been jailed.

Daniel Erickson-Hull, of Prince Regent Lane, Plaistow, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.

The 41-year-old, also known as Pastor D, was a preacher at the Higher Ground United Reformed Church in Chigwell.

He had pleaded guilty to one charge of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph, and one count of possessing an indecent photograph, at an earlier hearing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Tom Wills, Louis Goddard, Times Data Team
May 9 2017
The Times

A child abuse charity has called for police to be given more resources to tackle indecent web images, after The Times exposed an online paedophile network with up to 10,000 British members.

Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said that the Freedom Hosting II network was likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”.

The network operated on a clandestine part of the internet designed to frustrate attempts by the authorities to identify website users and operators. It hosted at least a dozen forums where users exchanged images of abuse and was free to operate for almost two years before being shut down by hackers.

“Police should be given far more resources to smash these corrupt, evil groups of people and the people who facilitate this disgusting trade,” Mr Saunders said. He added that an obsession with targets within the police was preventing forces from dedicating time to complex child abuse investigations.

Paedophiles accessed the network using Tor, a system that anonymises internet browsing. Paradise Village, the largest of a dozen forums on the server, hosted more than 80,000 users. Details of the network came to light after hackers leaked its databases.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Olivia Kelly

Dublin City Council has recommended that the new National Maternity Hospital be placed under the control of the State, if it secures planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.

The Health Service Executive in March applied to An Bord Pleanála for the €300 million move of the hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s Hospital, following the resolution of an 18-month dispute between the two hospitals over governance of the new facility.

However, the announcement the following month that sole ownership of the hospital would be given to a healthcare group owned by the Sisters of Charity sparked public protest, and resignations from the Holles Street hospital board and the project board planning the move.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the new hospital will have full clinical independence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Herald

By Carl_Eve
May 09, 2017

A landmark inquiry into child sexual abuse is in Plymouth today to listen to organisations supporting victims and survivors.

Groups like the Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services, Intercom Trust and North Devon Against Domestic Abuse will hear from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) about its Truth Project.

The Truth Project has been hearing from victims and survivors around the country for over 18 months, and opened in the south west in February. So far, more than 700 victims and survivors have come forward.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Political Correspondent

Health Minister Simon Harris is due to meet the boards of St Vincent’s Hospital and Holles Street over the national maternity hospital standoff this week amid ongoing public anger over the location of the facility.

He said the voices of those who protested over the issue on Sunday have been heard and ownership of the hospital is “on the table”.

Speaking to reporters at an organ donation launch in Dublin, Mr Harris said he understands the anger of almost 2,000 people who protested in the capital at the weekend calling for the Sisters of Charity to have no role in the new hospital and to gift the site to the State.

Saying he has “heard the people very clearly”, Mr Harris said it is understandable the public wants ownership of the new facility and that the issue will be raised at meetings with the two hospitals’ boards this week.

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MAINE
WABI

MAY 8, 2017
BRIAN SULLIVAN

A Waterville based priest has been removed from his post after accusations of sexual abuse of a minor.

A church official from New York told the Morning Sentinel the Rev. Larry Jensen was permanently removed from the ministry because of the claim he abused a child more than a decade ago in Connecticut.

That official says the church became aware of the allegation last week.

The Jensen, 62, had served for the last decade at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The scene of the crime, they say, was Ontario, Canada.

It was 1968.

A Philadelphia area teen and his parish priest had taken a camping trip. It’s claimed it was anything but innocent.

And 49 years later, Paul Eberz, of Freehold, New Jersey, has come out from the shadows to talk about the sexual abuse he says he endured in Canada.

“The priest, he’s a bad guy,” Eberz said.

The priest he’s referring to is Father John Mulholland. Eberz, at 18, says Mulholland sexually abused him on that trip north across the border. Paul knew “Father John” from his parish, St. Joseph Church in Warrington.

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CALIFORNIA
KALW

By JAKE J. SMITH

When Miguel Prats revs the engine of his Harley Davidson, it might sound angry to some — but not to him.

“When I’m on this bike, I literally feel surrounded by angels,” he says. “You can be frustrated, you can be anything. You get on this and go for a ride, and it just goes away.”

Today, Prats has a wide-eyed, happy-go-lucky demeanor. But he says 15 years ago, he was angry and tortured inside. In 2002, when the Boston Globe uncovered widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the story brought back a memory that Prats says he had repressed: shortly after he turned 18, he himself had been sexually abused by a priest.

When this memory came flooding back, Prats felt furious and alone. He went on the internet looking for someone to talk to. What he found was a group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). SNAP had helped the Globe uncover the abuse scandal. You may remember them from the film Spotlight.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted May 08, 2017

WATERVILLE, Maine — A priest at a Waterville church was removed from the priesthood Sunday after a report of sexual abuse of a minor about 15 years ago in Connecticut was substantiated, according to a church official.

The Rev. Larry Jensen, 62, was removed from the St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church, by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, head of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, New York, the official said.

Jensen may never again conduct Mass in public or present himself as a priest, but will take early retirement and receive a portion of his retirement benefits, Michael Thomas, vicar general of the church, said Monday in a telephone interview. Jensen had been pastor since July 2006, according to information posted on the church’s website.

The bishop announced Jensen’s removal at weekend Masses.

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NEW YORK
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Patrick W. Quigley was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York in 1981. He was assigned to a Staten Island parish for six years, followed by a brief stint at Staten Island’s St. Joseph by the Sea High School, after which there is an unexplained two-year assignment gap. In 1990 he resurfaced as an assistant at a Manhattan parish and, in 1993, he was transferred to Stony Point.

In September 1994 Quigley was arrested for soliciting teenage boys for sex in Haverstraw, New York. He pled guilty in December 1994 and was sentenced to probation. The archdiocese sent him to Maryland for treatment of “alcoholism.” His status thereafter was ‘Absent on Leave’, and he was laicized in 2005.

Quigley was last known to have been living in Brick, New Jersey. He died in 2010.

Ordained: 1981
Laicized: 2005
Died: April 4, 2010

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com
MAY 8, 2017

Just over a year ago in a Hollidaysburg courtroom, Corey Leech took the stand and, in a poised and confident voice, testified in excruciating detail how a Franciscan friar began sexually abusing him from his early teens.

Mr. Leech gave voice to scores of victims of the late Stephen Baker in his testimony, which took place in the pretrial hearing of three Franciscan supervisors who face criminal charges for allegedly failing to protect children from the abusive friar.

Mr. Leech told of Baker abusing him on the athletic training table at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown. He spoke of the friar abusing him on car trips and at his monastery.

“He wanted to prevent other children from living his nightmare,” Mr. Leech’s family wrote in his obituary. “While he did more than his share to help others, it was too late for Corey. His nightmare was inescapable.”

Mr. Leech, 31, was found dead on Friday in his apartment in Richland Township near Johnstown in Cambria County. He had struggled with substance abuse, according to his obituary.

Mr. Leech’s family and supporters recall him as someone long concerned for child welfare. He was a nurse in a neo-natal intensive care unit in Johnstown, recalled for his gentle manner both with at-risk infants and their families.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Paul Walsh Star Tribune MAY 8, 2017

A Twin Cities law firm intends to file a lawsuit Monday against a current Minnesota bishop and a Roman Catholic diocese in the state alleging that a survivor of clergy sex abuse was threatened with retaliation if he revealed how he was assaulted as a child.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who for many years has pursued many legal cases in connection with clergy sex abuse in Minnesota and elsewhere, said this is the first time a U.S. bishop has been sued for coercion.

At a news conference scheduled for Tuesday at Anderson’s offices, the abuse survivor and a priest from the diocese will speak publicly for the first time about “how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse,” a statement from Anderson’s law firm read.

The bishop “threatened harm to [the] survivor’s vocation” and the “survivor’s son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report,” the statement continued.

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ROME
JTA

[with video]

ROME (JTA) – Pope Francis danced with a delegation of Hasidic Jews and discussed with them issues including the protection of Jewish cemeteries in Europe and combating child sex abuse.

The pontiff held a 45-minute audience at the Vatican on Monday with the group, which was led by Rabbi Edgar Gluck.

A video on the Yeshiva World News website and also posted to YouTube shows the pope swaying to the music as members of the delegation dance and serenade him with the song “Long years shall satiate him.”

Yeshiva World News quoted Gluck’s son Zvi, who was part of the delegation, as saying the pontiff pledged to work toward enacting “stronger rules against destroying Jewish cemeteries to build roads or homes.”

Zvi Gluck, the founder and director of Amudim, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish victims of abuse and addiction, also tweeted that the pontiff had pledged “zero tolerance” for the sexual abuse of children and said “We need to keep kids safe.”

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ROME
Crux

Pope Francis on Monday met with a delegation of Jewish leaders from Poland, discussing serious matters such as the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and even child sexual abuse, but also lighthearted moments, including the pope … sort of … joining in a song and dance performed by the group.

ROME – Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, popes meeting Jewish leaders has become commonplace. Not every day, however, do you see a pope busting a move with those Jewish leaders, but that was the scene Monday in the Vatican.

Pope Francis received a delegation led by Rabbi Chaim Boruch (Edgar) Gluck of Poland in a 45-minute private audience, who was joined by his son, Zvi, the founder and Director of Amudim – an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community, as well as another Rabbi and other people.

Gluck had met Francis when he travelled to Krakow in Poland for World Youth Day in July 2016, when they discussed the destruction of Jewish cemeteries around the world, and the pontiff suggested the two continue their conversation in the Vatican.

There was serious business in the discussion, as reflected in a tweet dispatched by Zvi Gluck after the encounter. Apparently the topic of child sexual abuse came up, and he quoted the pontiff as saying, “Zero tolerance … We need to keep kids safe,” which he said the pope said to him, his father, and members of the delegation.

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MAINE
WGME

WATERVILLE (WGME) – The Diocese of Portland says there has been a claim of sexual abuse against a pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Church in Waterville.

The diocese says a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of a minor has been made against Fr. Larry Jensen. Jensen is not a priest of the Diocese of Portland.

The diocese says it was notified by Bishop Gregory John Mansour, the bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn. Bishop Mansour says that Jensen has been removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
WMTW

WATERVILLE, Maine —
A priest at a Waterville church has been removed after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Fr. Larry Jensen had worked at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Waterville since 2006.

The Diocese of Portland said the abuse allegations involved a 17-year-old boy and were related to abuse more than 15 years ago outside Maine.

Church officials in New York said a complaint had been filed against Jensen in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The diocese said that once the claim was substantiated, Jensen was removed from the Waterville church and permanently removed from the ministry.

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MAINE
CentralMaine.com

BY AMY CALDER
STAFF WRITER

WATERVILLE — The Rev. Larry Jensen of St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church on Appleton Street has been removed from the church amid allegations of sexual abuse of a minor 15 years ago in Connecticut.

“He has been permanently relieved of priestly ministry and he can not present himself as a priest anymore,” Michael Thomas, vicar general of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y., said of Jensen Monday morning in a telephone interview.

Thomas said the victim, a male, “was close to 18 but not 18,” when the alleged abuse occurred at the time Jensen was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“Father had some sexual contact with this minor, and we were kind of shocked when we got the call last week,” Thomas said. “I confronted Father with it and he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it.”

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ITALIA
Giornalettismo

[Only one in four of Catholic Italians always go to Mass.]

Gli italiani entrano sempre meno in chiesa. Nel nostro Paese va regolarmente a messa ogni settimana solo una persona su quattro. È quanto emerge dai dati Istat aggiornati al 2016 ripresi da un articolo pubblicato oggi sul Giornale a firma di Pier Francesco Borgia. I dati analizzati dal sito Truenumbers segnalano un carlo di 6 punti percentuali in 10 anni.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

5/8/2017

First Bishop in the United States Sued for Coercion

In 2015, a Minnesota Bishop Suppressed Report of Child Sexual Abuse

Survivor to speak publicly for the first time Tuesday about abuse by a former top official in Minnesota diocese

Bishop threatened harm to survivor’s vocation and his son’s career as a priest if he did not recant his abuse report

(St. Paul, MN) – At a news conference on Tuesday in St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson, a child sexual abuse survivor, and a Minnesota priest will announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the survivor naming a current Minnesota bishop and diocese as defendants. This is the first time in the United States a bishop has been individually sued for coercion.

“The coercion and concealment in real-time demonstrates the crisis continues unabated,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson.

In 2010, the survivor, who was exploring whether to become a church Deacon, reported his abuse to the bishop. The bishop advised the survivor to tell no one of his abuse. In 2015, the diocese was ordered to produce all information on clergy accused of child sexual abuse, however the perpetrator’s name, a former top official in the diocese, was not included in the required, court-ordered disclosure. After the court order was issued, the bishop actively suppressed the survivor’s abuse report.

Tomorrow, the survivor, as well as a priest of the diocese, will speak publicly for the first time about how the bishop threatened retaliation against the survivor and a family member if he disclosed the sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:00AM CT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates, PA
366 Jackson St., Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

* The press event will be live-streamed from our website at www.andersonadvocates.com and will be streamed via Facebook Live from our Facebook account Jeff Anderson & Associates.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665, Office: 651.237.5143
Mike Finnegan: Cell: 612.205.5531, Office: 651.237.5143

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IRELAND
Newstalk

8 May 2017
Michael Staines

The Minister for Health is hoping to bring forward proposals to end the ownership dispute that has engulfed Ireland’s new National Maternity Hospital by the end of the month.

Minister Simon Harris said officials from the Department of Health are meeting with both hospitals this week – after which he plans to attend talks himself.

Over the weekend an estimated 2,000 people took to the streets calling for the new facility to be kept in public ownership.

Protestors gathered at the Garden of Remembrance before marching to government buildings.

Marchers carried a petition signed by 103,607 people demanding that the decision to hand ownership of the hospital over to religious group, the Sisters of Charity be overturned.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY SHAUN DOUGHERTY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 8, 2017

With less than two months left in the legislative session, it looks like once again lawmakers will leave survivors of child sex abuse behind and fail to pass meaningful reforms to our statute of limitation laws. All New Yorkers, not just survivors like myself, should be disappointed that Senate Republicans choose to hide behind legislative procedures and avoid a vote on the Child Victims Act, instead of committing to helping victims.

New York’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes are the most restrictive in the country. Survivors have only five years after they reach legal age to file criminal or civil charges against their abusers. I know first-hand how inadequate this amount of time is; it took me a decade to share my story of clergy abuse with my family and more than 30 years to speak publicly about it.

My abuse occurred in 1980 in Johnstown, Pa., by Father George Koharchik, who was my teacher and coach. He was also a trusted friend of the family who had a weekly bowling game with my parents. His betrayal led me down a road of depression, drug addiction and attempted suicide. It made learning difficult and relationships hard.

I’m fortunate that I have been able to build a successful life — I’m married now and own a restaurant in Long Island City — but I know others that haven’t been so lucky. Many battle mental and physical illnesses and struggle to get the help they need.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Victims of historical child abuse are being forced to take their fight for justice to the courts after being “abandoned” by Northern Ireland’s warring politicians.

In January a landmark report into state and church abuse recommended compensation, a memorial and a public apology to abuse survivors.

Dozens of victims had given evidence during a four-year public inquiry about the abuse they suffered as children in care.

However, the collapse of the Stormont government has meant a promised redress scheme has not been set up.

A lawyer for abuse survivors, Claire McKeegan of KRW Law, said they now face the trauma of lengthy court proceedings for justice.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Sun

By Adam Higgins
7th May 2017

A DEFENCE Forces veteran who suffered terrible abuse in a boys home has told how he fears some survivors will not live long enough to see justice done.

Patrick O’Rourke, now in his seventies, says political upheaval in the North has prevented a vital report being published.

He relived the horrors of his childhood when he told the Historical ­Institutional Abuse Inquiry of the sexual and physical abuse he ­suffered at the Termonbacca Home for Boys in Derry.

But with negotiations to restore a government in Stormont, dragging on, and further delayed by the UK snap General Election, he fears some of the older survivors will pass away without seeing justice.

The Stormont impasse means the Inquiry report has still not been presented to the Northern Ireland assembly and survivors must continue their wait for a formal apology.

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OREGON
Mail Tribune

What’s happening in the case of Donald Courtney Biggs, the former Medford pastor who was arrested a couple years ago?

— No name given, via email

Biggs, 38, formerly a youth pastor with Mountain Church in downtown Medford before his 2015 arrest, has a trial set for June 12 in Medford, U.S. District Court records show.

He is lodged in the Jackson County Jail without bail, where he’s been since January 2015 on federal charges alleging he secretly recorded minors while they were changing their clothes, solicited photographs of them and transported three victims across state lines in incidents between June 2012 and March 2014.

His last court appearance was in November. Case filings show that Biggs is on his third court-appointed defense lawyer, previously requesting different federal public defenders in November 2015 and June 2016. Reasons behind the disagreements with his previous lawyers aren’t listed in court documents.

Nine juvenile victims are identified by their initials in case filings, three of whom Biggs is accused of taking to California. Biggs pleaded not guilty to nine counts of using or attempting to use a minor to produce a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct and three counts of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with a minor.

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NEDERLAND
Trouw

[Investigation of abuse in the Old Catholic Church.]

Opnieuw zijn er priesters opgedoken die in de oud-katholieke kerk seksueel over de schreef zijn gegaan. Het kerkgenootschap, dat als liberaal bekendstaat en in Nederland zo’n vijfduizend leden telt, maakte dit zelf bekend nadat een crisisteam vorige week een inventarisatie had gemaakt.

Bij zeven geestelijken blijkt sprake te zijn geweest van een ‘onaanvaardbare seksuele houding in pastorale relaties’, zo schrijft de oud-katholieke kerk in een officiële mededeling. De zaken speelden volgens de kerk ‘lang geleden’ en vijf van de priesters zijn inmiddels overleden. “Ook al zouden sommige van deze zaken reeds lang zijn verjaard, de kerk wil niet doen alsof ze daarmee ook niet zouden zijn gebeurd”, melden de oud-katholieke leiders Joris Vercammen en Jan Schoon in de brief.

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