ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Church Militant

by Peter O’Dwyer • ChurchMilitant.com • January 17, 2016

Is the clerical code of silence still alive and well?

Oscar nominee Josh Singer, screenwriter for the critically acclaimed film “Spotlight,” speaks with Michael Voris in the latest episode of “Mic’d Up,” and says a code of silence among the clergy sustained the homosexual abuse crisis, and this code of silence exists today — this according to several experts, and even the United Nations itself.

Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist instrumental in the Boston Globe’s exposé of the scandal, claimed the code of silence is so powerful that priests will lie even on anonymous surveys.

The United Nations has recently addressed the problem of the code of silence; a scathing 2014 report authored by the Committee of the Rights of the Child revealed that the code of silence and a culture that punishes whistleblowers exists in the Church. The report referred to these problems as “systemic.” The Vatican, however, challenged the report’s findings.

The report went further, raising concerns that the climate that allowed the sexual abuse to flourish still exists, and that the Vatican as an institution is in denial over how vast the problem is.

Father Dariusz Oko, Ph.D, a Polish priest who has spent years studying the homosexual lobby in the Church, published an essay in 2012 where he described how homosexuals build and maintain a secret society in the Church:

They know well, however, that they may be exposed and embarrassed, so they shield one another by offering mutual support. They build informal relationships reminding of a clique or even mafia, aiming at holding particularly those positions which offer power and money.

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VIRGINIA
Mennonite World Review

Eastern Mennonite University vice president of enrollment Luke A. Hartman resigned Jan. 11 after a Jan. 8 arrest for solicitation of prostitution.

The misdemeanor charge was the result of an undercover operation in Harrisonburg, Va., by the Harrisonburg Police Department and Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

On Jan. 9, EMU announced it had suspended Hartman, effective immediately.

“We invite prayers for all those affected during this difficult time,” said President Loren Swartz­en­druber in a press release.

Hartman was vice president of enrollment since 2011, contributing to record growth and increasing diversity in the student body. He was also a professor in the teacher education program and an instructor in the master of education program for the past 12 years.

Before EMU, Hartman was assistant principal at Skyline Middle School and an educational consultant in Harrisonburg.

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

WASHINGTON
Edmonds Beacon

[with full list]

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released the name of 77 Catholic clergy in Western Washington accused of sexually abusing children between 1923 and 2008.

The list includes members who served or lived in Arlington, Bothell, Edmonds, Everett, Lynnwood, Monroe, Mountlake Terrace and Snohomish.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” said Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a news release.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

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VIRGINIA
WHSV

[with video]

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — Harrisonburg Police Dept. investigators told WHSV that last week’s undercover prostitution operation was part of a larger, ongoing effort. Ten people, ranging in age from 19 to 75, were charged with solicitation –one of the largest numbers in such a sting so far. Among those charged was EMU Vice President for Enrollment Luke Hartman, who has since resigned.

The Harrisonburg Police Dept. (HPD) has been investigating prostitution in the region for a while. Over the course of the last year and a half, 43 charges have been filed related to prostitution, including 26 johns and 12 prostitutes facing charges, as well as five pandering or pimping investigations.

Investigators wouldn’t speak specifically about last week’s operation, but they said the individuals were not enticed. “The investigation is set up so that people have to make a conscious effort to reach out to our undercover –versus us out soliciting them for these acts,” said Lt. Christopher Rush, who works with the Special Operations Unit for HPD.

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WASHINGTON
Christian Science Monitor

By Lucy Schouten, Staff
JANUARY 16, 2016

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle published the names of 77 clergyman and others in church leadership who sexually abused children over the last century.

Such lists have been published in other dioceses, but usually under legal or social duress. The Seattle archdiocese took this step of its own accord “in the interest of further transparency and accountability,” according to a fact sheet.

The Seattle archdiocese “was ahead of the curve in recognizing the abuse problem, but behind where it should have been,” wrote Joel Connelly for the Seattle PI.

Recommended: How much do you know about the Catholic Church? Take our quiz!
The area representative for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said releasing the names was a good step, although she was suspicious of the timing because no outside pressure had prompted it.

“Any time a predator’s name is publicized, kids are safer,” Mary Dispenza, Northwest director for SNAP, told the Seattle Times. “So that’s a positive. However, this is very late in coming.”

Mike McKay, a former US attorney in Washington, told the Seattle Times he had recommended releasing these names in 2004, but Archbishop J. Peter Sartain began working on it when he was appointed in 2010, archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni told the Seattle Times. Finding a process that the Archdiocesan Review Board would approve took from early 2011 to 2013.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016

Statement by Karen Polesir of Ambler, SNAP Philly director (267-992-9463, karenpolesir@yahoo.com)

Philly Catholic officials have just lost their bid to keep secret facts about a clergy sex abuse and cover up case. Shame on them for trying to hide the truth and violate, again, their often-repeated but often-broken pledges to be “open” about pedophile priests.

[The Legal Intelligencer]

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein has denied Archbishop Charles Chaput’s motion for confidentiality in a case called McIlmail v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We are grateful for Bernstein’s wise ruling and the McIlmail family’s courage. And we’re dismayed, though not surprised, by Chaput’s continuing hypocrisy. In public, he professes “transparency.” In court, however, he pushes “secrecy.”

“According to court documents, Sean McIlmail was allegedly sexually assaulted by Fr. Robert Brennan while he was a priest at the Resurrection of Our Lord in Northeast Philadelphia. . .between 1998 and 2001 when McIlmail was between the ages of 12 and 14,” according to the Legal Intelligencer.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Brennan or cover ups by Chaput will find the strength to call police, expose wrongdoers and protect kids.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo via Battle Creek Enquirer

January 15, 2016

Dear St. Joseph School Parents,

In the event that you didn’t receive this information earlier, and In light of recent concerns expressed regarding Archbishop John C. Nienstedt’s temporary stay in the Diocese, we wish to share with you the following information:

* Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt is a retired priest temporarily visiting the Diocese who voluntarily offered his assistance to Fr. John Fleckenstein, who is addressing serious health concerns. He has not been appointed, assigned or “hired” by the Diocese.

* As arranged by himself and Fr. John, he has simply agreed to celebrate Mass at St. Philip Parish and assist in hospital ministry as needed. The Archbishop will not be scheduled for any interaction or involvement with our schools.

* Bishop Bradley gave approval to this arrangement, following the standard procedures for any visiting priest who wishes to exercise priestly ministry within the Diocese in order to make sure that he was a priest in good standing.

* We take very seriously our commitment that safe environments are maintained for our precious children and for all people. It is because of this that Bishop Bradley sought additional assurances regarding Archbishop Nienstedt, in addition to making sure he meets the stringent requirements it takes to be a “priest in good standing.”

We remain confident that the environment at St. Joseph Elementary and Middle School is safe. Please find for your information and background Fr. John Fleckenstein’s letter published in the St. Philip Parish bulletin along with the Diocesan statement on this matter. We regret that this important information was not more widely distributed, as was originally intended. Together let us pray that reason and charity prevail.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Msgr. Michael Osborn
Vicar General

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MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

SAMANTHA PEARL, GUEST COMMENTARY January 16, 2016

Editor’s note: Samantha Pearl, a Battle Creek resident, parishioner at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church with children attending Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools, wrote this in reponse to a letter from Monsignor Michael Osborn, vicar general at the Diocese of Kalamazoo. It is posted here with her permission.

—

With all due respect, this letter is an outrageous response to an already inflammatory situation.

Let us look at the information available to us: the Kalamazoo Gazette article, the Battle Creek Enquirer article, the investigative article published by the Minnesota Public Radio. This man has been accused of improprieties by almost a dozen seminarians and two fellow priests.

He has been accused of protecting and relocating Curtis Wehmeyer, the priest who confessed and was convicted of raping two young boys. He has been accused of failing to report sex crimes, giving extra payments to priests who admitted abusing children, keeping some abusers in the ministry, and choosing not to warn the public or the parishioners most directly affected.

Investigators have provided sworn statements that he withheld information and impeded the investigation into the Diocesan handling of sex abuse cases in his Diocese. His Diocese settled three cases with victims of child sex abuse at the hands of priests under his watch. His Diocese is the first in the United States to be indicted for its role in covering up sex abuse scandals.

Two auxiliary Bishops in his own Diocese traveled to Washington to bring the situation to the attention of the Pope’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, and to ask for an intervention.

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VATICAN CITY
Church Militant

By Bradley Eli, M.Div., MA.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • January 15, 2016

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – A Vatican official called the “Vatileaks II” financial scandal “misleading,” defending Vatican spending and rebuking those who leaked financial records to the press.

Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Substitute for General Affairs — essentially the No. 2 official in the Vatican Secretariat of State — referred to the impression given by the leaked documents as “absolute falsehood.”

Becciu’s comments to Italian news magazine Panorama were released Wednesday, denying the depiction that the Vatican was a “den of thieves.”e

As reported by ChurchMilitant.com, the leaked financial records resulted in two books being written purporting to reveal financial waste and mismanagement of funds by the Roman Curia.

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WASHINGTON
ABC 13

AP

SEATTLE, WA — The Archdiocese of Seattle has published a list of 77 child-sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for the actions by the nearly all-male list of priests, brothers and deacons, and at least one sister, who abused minors. He said in a letter released Friday that he is disclosing the names “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society,” Sartain said. …

Seattle attorney Michael T. Pfau and his law partner, Jason P. Amala, have settled more than 150 claims against the Seattle Archdiocese and others that operated its schools and parishes in and around Seattle. Many of the claims involved people on the list.

Pfau said the list will help abuse survivors address their abuse.

“Many of our clients believe they were the only one, or they think they will not be believed if they come forward,” he said in a news release. “This list will help people realize they are not alone, which is often the first step toward healing and closure.”

Pfau also called on the Archdiocese, for “true transparency,” to release the files and secret archives kept on the people named, saying other Archdioceses have done so.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[Abuse victims can wait as long as 10 years for the church to act on their complaints.]

Eine Initiative gegen sexuellen Missbrauch wirft der katholischen Kirche vor, kircheninterne Ermittlungsverfahren zu verschleppen. Zudem fehle es an Transparenz, sagt der Vereinsvorsitzende dem SPIEGEL.

Missbrauchsopfer warten teils seit mehr als zehn Jahren auf das Ergebnis innerkirchlicher Ermittlungen gegen ihre Peiniger.

“Nicht nur die Dauer der Verfahren muss scharf kritisiert werden, sondern auch die fehlende Transparenz”, sagt Johannes Heibel von der “Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen” über die Praxis der katholischen Kirche. “Selbst Opfern und Anwälten wird der Einblick verwehrt.” (Diese Meldung stammt aus dem SPIEGEL. Den neuen SPIEGEL finden Sie hier.)

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DEUTSCHLAND
General-Anzeiger

Von Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu

BAD GODESBERG. Die Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle am jesuitischen Aloisiuskolleg (Ako) und dem ihm vormals angeschlossenen Ako-pro-Seminar ist gestern mit einer öffentlichen Erklärung der Kollegsgemeinschaft einen Schritt vorangekommen.

Und das genau eine Woche vor der Uraufführung des Thomas Melle-Stücks “Bilder von uns” am Bonner Theater, das die realen Ako-Fälle zum Ausgangspunkt wählen wird.

“Dieses Papier ist aus dem Dialog mit der Betroffenengruppe Eckiger Tisch heraus von uns so formuliert worden und nun von großer Bedeutung genau für diesen Dialog”, sagt Rektor Pater Johannes Siebner dem GA. Auch der Eckige Tisch Bonn lobt das Papier. Das Ako habe im gemeinsamen Ringen mit den Betroffenen um die Inhalte erkannt, dass nicht wie bislang Katholische Kirche, Orden oder Kolleg den Betroffenen Aufklärung “von oben” vorsetzen sollten, sondern dass erst im Dialog Aufarbeitung gelinge, kommentiert Gruppensprecher Heiko Schnitzler. “Wir wünschen uns, dass diese Inhalte nun keine Lippenbekenntnisse für katholische Internate in schwierigen Zeiten bleiben.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[The church remains silent on the subject of ill-treatment and abuse at the Regensburg cathedral choir. Cardinal Marx has said nothing and Bishop Ackermann only refers to current prevention work.]

Beim Thema Misshandlung und Missbrauch bei den Regensburger Domspatzen herrscht in der katholischen Kirchenleitung Schweigen. Kardinal Marx sagt gar nichts, der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Kirche, Bischof Ackermann, verweist auf die laufende Präventionsarbeit.

Auf Anfrage des Bayerischen Rundfunks, wie es denn sein könne, dass ein vom Bistum Regensburg beauftragter externer Gutachter in wenigen Monaten dreimal so viele Opfer ermittelt hat, wie das Bistum selbst in fünf Jahren, will sich weder der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Reinhard Kardinal Marx, noch der Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann äußern.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger

Mit dem Wunsch einer „außergerichtlichen Lösung“ durch den Vatikan haftet dem Erzbistum Köln nichts Verschwiemeltes an. Die Kirche steht hier auf der Seite der Opfer. Ein Kommentar Von Joachim Frank

Die Domglocken wurden nicht geläutet. Doch die Erleichterung im Erzbistum Köln muss groß sein, dass – und wie – der „Fall Jansen“ um sexuelle Übergriffigkeit des früheren Erftstädter Pfarrers nun beendet worden ist. Der „außergerichtlichen Lösung“ durch den Vatikan haftet nichts Verschwiemeltes an. Ein Geistlicher, der sein Amt nur noch unter strengen Auflagen öffentlich ausüben darf, ist nach priesterlichem Selbstverständnis hart gestraft.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Intelligencer

Max Mitchell, The Legal Intelligencer
January 19, 2016

A Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge has denied the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s attempts to impose a confidentiality order on an ongoing civil suit involving alleged sex abuse.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein denied the church’s motion for confidentiality and phased discovery last week, holding instead that the parties can only redact Social Security numbers, dollar amounts of any financial information, and the names of alleged victims of child sexual abuse. The order was made in the case McIlmail v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“We are pleased that the court has rejected the argument, and now we would hope that the archdiocese, instead of throwing up further roadblocks, will now provide discovery, which is needed,” said Thomas R. Kline of Kline & Specter, who represents the plaintiff in the case. “It is disappointing to the McIlmail family that the archdiocese would not follow the lead of Pope Francis when he said that ‘the crimes and sins of the sex abuse of minors may no longer be kept secret.'”

Conrad O’Brien attorney Nicholas M. Centrella, who represents the archdiocese, did not return a call for comment last week.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

A disgraced evangelical family expert accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing or harassing 10 women was an early proponent of ideas now part and parcel of the Baptist Faith and Message.

A second amended complaint filed Jan. 6 in DuPage County, Ill., charged Bill Gothard and his ministry, Institute in Basic Life Principles, of sexual abuse, harassment and cover-up, with one woman claiming she was raped by Gothard and one of the ministry’s “biblical counselors.”

Today largely forgotten except for a recent brief mention that reality TV star Josh Duggar got counseling from a facility owned and operated by the Institute in Basic Life Principles after he sexually abused five minor girls as a teenager, Gothard once packed out 10,000-seat venues for his Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar, a conservative Christian counter to the hippie movement. It was characterized by a red notebook containing teachings that disciples were instructed not to share with anyone who had not attended a seminar.

One of his cornerstone beliefs, that God appoints husbands in an “umbrella of authority” over their wives, who are mandated by God to obey their husbands completely, is similar to later teachings in documents like the Danvers Statement, a collection of core values of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and a 1998 amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message, the official SBC confession of faith, stating: “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

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OREGON
The Register-Guard

By Jack Moran
The Register-Guard
JAN. 16, 2016

A Eugene couple who recently divorced after the husband was arrested on charges that he sexually abused his adopted daughter are being sued by the alleged ­victim, who is seeking to void a key piece of the divorce agreement as part of her $9 million complaint.

Raeonna Grace Jackson, 22, filed her lawsuit Thursday in Lane County Circuit Court. It accuses her father, longtime Eugene insurance agent and church pastor Richard Hayes Jackson, of sexual abuse and abuse of a vulnerable person, and her mother, Evelyn Suzanne Jackson, of abuse of a vulnerable person and negligence.

It also accuses both parents of fraudulent conveyance in connection with a part of the couple’s divorce agreement that transferred Rick Jackson’s interest in six real estate properties valued at a total of about $1.5 ­million to his now ex-wife.

Raeonna Jackson alleges the transfer made her father insolvent and was done to “hinder, delay or defraud her.”

The Register-Guard had not previously identified Raeonna Jackson by name as the alleged victim in her father’s criminal case. However, she lists her name in the lawsuit and indicated in a statement issued Friday by her ­attorney that she does not need her identity to be kept secret.

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NEW JERSEY
New York Daily News

BY LAURIE HANNA NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, January 16, 2016

An assistant pastor at a New Jersey church has been accused of sexually assaulting two minors in the early 1980s.

The Rev. Michael Walters, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in South Orange, has now been removed from ministry while the allegations are investigated.

Walters is accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy at St. Cassian Church in Montclair in 1982 and a 13-year-old girl in 1982 and 1983.

The accused priest vehemently denies the allegations, said Archdiocese of Newark spokesman Jim Goodness.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

A MONUMENT to a disgraced bishop has regained pride of place in Chichester Cathedral after a notice about his involvement in a sexual abuse case was removed this week.

Meanwhile an Eastbourne school named after the churchman has notified parents that it will rebrand, and sever any association with George Bell, who served as Bishop of Chichester from 1929 until just before his death in 1958.

The Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne joins a growing list of Sussex institutions which have moved towards breaking ties with the twentieth century prelate.

They include a lodging house, a Chichester school and a university institute.

The bishop’s formerly unimpeachable reputation as a man of peace and patron of the arts was shattered last October when the Church disclosed it had apologised and paid a settlement in a child abuse case concerning Bell.

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WASHINGTON
The Columbian

By Patty Hastings, Columbian Social Services, Demographics, Faith
Published: January 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle released a list of Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children who served or lived in Western Washington, including 11 priests who had been assigned to Clark County parishes at one point.

The Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for the actions of those who abused children. The list’s publication was intended to “further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.”

The list consists of 77 clergy and religious brothers and sisters who served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.

“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society,” Sartain said.

The Seattle Archdiocese reviewed cases where sexual abuse was “admitted, established or determined to be credible.” Most of the cases with local ties were documented by media in Western Washington.

• Michael C. OBrien was accused in 2008 of sexually abusing a minor while serving at Our Lady of Lourdes in Vancouver between 1965 and 1970, according to The Seattle Times. In 2004, he was placed on administrative leave while an archdiocesan board reviewed a 1993 allegation accusing the priest of abusing a teenage boy during a canoe trip. The alleged abuse occurred during his 20-year tenure at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Brush Prairie, where he served from 1979 to 1999. OBrien has been laicized from the church, meaning he’s lost his clergy status. Laicized priests can’t wear clerical dress, perform ceremonies or administer the sacraments.

• James Gandrau was barred from ministry in 2005 following allegations of child sexual abuse, according to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 1991, he was assigned to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Vancouver. He died in 2012.

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WASHINGTON
The Chronicle

By The Chronicle

The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle published a list this week of 77 priests who lived or served in Western Washington confirmed to have sexually abused children.

The move is part of an ongoing effort to be transparent, according to the archdiocese.

Two of the priests mentioned served in Lewis County. Former priest Leo Racine served at St. Joseph Church in Chehalis from 1984 to 1985 and has since been laicized, according to the archdiocese. Laicized means having been removed from the status of being a member of the clergy.

James Toner served through St. Joseph in Pe Ell from 1926 to 1938 and is deceased, according to the archdiocese.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” wrote Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a letter dated Jan. 15. “Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

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WASHINGTON
Sky Valley Chronicle

[letter of apology from the archbishop]

[list of the accused]

(SEATTLE, WA.) — There it is in plain but rather stunning language nonetheless on the home page of the Seattle Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church: “Archdiocese disclose names of child sex abusers.”

A pubic statement that just 10 years ago would not have seemed possible from a church seemingly under siege all over the country and in foreign lands over the issue of sex abuse by Catholic priests against male and female children, teens and women.

For years, according to numerous court documents filed in a landmark Boston case that has since been made into a movie, the church seemed to do its best to keep such things hidden from public view, to keep them under wraps.

Cases of alleged abuse were routinely settled out of court for money and a promise from the plaintiff not to say anything. The priests involved or suspected to have engaged in sexual abuse were shuttled from parish to parish with no warning to members of the next parish what kind of person was coming in to their lives and communities.

But that was then. Before the Boston case blew wide open and shocked an entire nation. That was before a new Pope took the helm of the church and is committed to rooting out abusers and being above board in attempting to deal with cases of suspected sex abuse by priests.

A statement posted on the Seattle Archdiocese website reads:

“Anyone who has knowledge of sexual abuse or misconduct by a member of the clergy, an employee or volunteer of the Archdiocese of Seattle is urged to call the archdiocesan hotline at 1-800-446-7762. The Archdiocese of Seattle has a longstanding commitment to transparency, accountability and assistance to persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church.”

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WASHINGTON
Bellingham Herald

BY CALEB HUTTON
chutton@bhamherald.com

The Archdiocese of Seattle released the names of 77 sex abusers who served as priests and religious leaders of the Catholic Church in Western Washington over the past century.

The church disclosed the names as part of the Archdiocese’s “longstanding efforts at transparency, accountability and urging victims to come forward,” according to a media release Friday, Jan. 15.

All of the listed priests and religious brothers and sisters have been linked to credible reports of child sex abuse between 1923 and 2008, according to the church. Five of the priests have ties to Whatcom County:

▪ Michael Cody, now deceased, worked at Sacred Heart Church in La Conner from 1970 to 1972, St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington from 1972 to 1975, and the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1972 to 1975. His sexual abuse of a Sedro-Woolley teenager was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Whatcom County Superior Court that was settled for $1.2 million in May 2015. Former Seattle Archbishop Thomas Connelly had been advised in 1962 that Father Cody was a diagnosed pedophile and had molested at least eight girls, according to internal records uncovered by the plaintiff’s attorneys. After a brief hiatus, Cody returned to work in leadership roles within the church. He abused the Sedro-Woolley girl in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

▪ Jerome Dooley, now deceased, was assigned to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Sedro-Woolley from 1970 to 1976 and Sacred Heart Church in Bellingham from 1976 to 1981.

▪ Dermot Foyle, whose status is listed as unknown, worked at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham from 1952 to 1953.

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WASHINGTON
Central Kitsap Reporter

by ROBERT SMITH, Port Orchard Independent Editor

A list of 77 priests, brothers, deacons and sisters accused of sexually assaulting children since the early part of the last century was released today by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

The list includes clergy who served at churches and parishes in some Kitsap Peninsula and San Juan Island areas.

One of the priests accused was James Pommier, who had been assigned to the periodic ministry for the Olympic Peninsula area and served from 1979-1985 with St. Gabriel in Port Orchard.

Pommier, who is deceased, was affiliated with the Diocese of Bismarck.

According to the news release distributed by the archdiocese, the list was published as part of its “ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward.”

Those named in the list have either served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle. While locations of known assignments or residences were included, the archdiocese said it does not mean to infer that allegations of abuse exist at each place.

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WASHINGTON
Nisqually Valley News

Associated Press

A former priest who has taught at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm was included in a list of 77 alleged child-sex abusers published by the Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday.

Miceal Ledwith, also known as Michael Ledwith, was named in the list.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Again, Newark Catholic officials, including Archbishop John Myers, are knowingly putting kids in harm’s way by keeping credible accusations of child sex crimes from parishioners and the public.

[NJ.com]

In October, Fr. Michael “Mitch” Walters “left ministry” because of child sex abuse allegations. But violating common sense, common decency and the US Catholic bishops’ abuse policy, Myers kept silent about this. Shame on him, on his PR man Jim Goodness, and on every single Newark Catholic official unless they publicly denounce this irresponsible, hurtful and selfish silence by Myers.

In the three months since Fr. Walters’ removal, we can’t help but wonder how many victims he may have intimidated, how much evidence he may have destroyed, how many witnesses he may have threatened, how many whistleblowers he may have discredited, how many alibis he may have fabricated and how many other kids he may have abused.

Thanks to Archbishop Myers, Fr. Walters has had ample opportunity to do all this, especially since Myers hasn’t insisted that Fr. Walters go to a remote, secure, independent treatment center far away from New Jersey families whose trust he has won over decades of contact.

We hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in New Jersey to summon the strength to speak up. It’s crucial that police and prosecutors be told, no matter how small, old or seemingly insignificant the information or suspicions might be.

Myers and his staff – including Goodness – continue to endanger kids. So all the rest of us must double down on our efforts to protect them, even if it may mean jeopardizing church careers.

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WASHINGTON
Kent Reporter

by STEVE HUNTER, Kent Reporter Courts, Government Reporter

One priest and 12 other religious brothers or sisters who taught at the former Briscoe Memorial School in Kent between 1939 and 1969 are part of a published list of 77 child sex abusers released on Friday by The Archdiocese of Seattle.

“I am publishing a list of clergy and religious brothers and sisters for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established, or determined to be credible,” said Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in a letter posted on The Archdiocese of Seattle website. “These are individuals known to have served or resided in the Archdiocese. This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.”

Independent consultants helped compile the list of 77 abusers who served or lived between 1923 and 2008 in Western Washington.

Since the late 1980s, the archdiocese has paid out approximately $74 million in settlements for 392 claims of sexual abuse of minors. These payments have come from insurance carriers, the archdiocese’s self-insurance plan, and the sale of archdiocesan held property.

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WASHINGTON
The Stranger

by Sydney Brownstone • Jan 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released a list of 77 religious officials accused of sexually assaulting children in Western Washington.

From Jennifer Sullivan at the Seattle Times:

Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said the list has been in the works for the past two years.

“In early 2014 we brought in a private consultant, a former FBI agent who does this kind of work, she came in with an associate and was given full access to our files. It took about 1,000 staff hours to put it together,” Magnoni said.
The archdiocese is now—finally—taking tips from anyone who has information about sexual abuse in the clergy. The tip line is 1-800-446-7762.

Here’s the list:

ARCHDIOCESE OF SEATTLE PRIESTS
Barry Ashwell
Edmund Boyle*
Edward Boyle*
Dennis Champagne
Michael Cody*
Paul Conn
John Cornelius
Jerome Dooley*
James Gandrau*
Michael Hays
David Jaeger*
Dennis Kemp
James Knelleken*
David Linehan
Lawrence Low*
Theodore Marmo
John Marsh*
James McGreal*
Desmond McMahon
Gerald Moffat
Dennis Muehe*
Michael C. O’Brien
William O’Brien*
Thomas Pitsch*
William Quick*
Harold Quigg*
Leo Racine
Richard Stohr*
James Toner*
Stephen Trippy*

DEACONS
Dennis Albrechtson
Gregory Hewitt

PRIESTS FROM OTHER DIOCESES
Reinart Beaver
Mario Blanco*
Gary Boulden
Dale Calhoun
Dermot Foyle
Phan Huu Hau
Jayawardene Pantaleone
Michael Ledwith
James Mitchell
Manuel C. Ocana
Patrick O’Donnell
James Pommier*
Richard Scully
George Silva

RELIGIOUS PRIESTS
Engelbert Axer*
John Coughlin*
Leonard Feeney*
David Fleckenstein
John Forrester*
Bernard Harris*
David Johnson
Louis Ladenberger
Timothy Lamm
John McManus*
James McSorley*
Gerald Morin*
James Poole
Robert Renggli
Anthony Slane*
Michael Toulouse*

RELIGIOUS BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Robert Brouilette
Albert Casale
Edward Courtney
Patrick Croke*
Dolores Crosby*
Frank Delamere
William Donahue*
Patrick Duffy*
George Dwyer
Gerard Al Kealy*
John Lackie*
Vincent O’Sullivan*
C.P. Ryan*
D.P. Ryan*
James Warren*

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

By Kari Bray
Herald Writer
Published: Friday, January 15, 2016

List of sex-abusers

EVERETT — A list of Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children and teens includes 16 that served in Snohomish County.

The Archdiocese of Seattle released the list Friday afternoon. It includes priests who have died, been defrocked or who are living a life of “permanent prayer and penance” after they either admitted to sexually abusing children or the church found that allegations against them were credible. Permanent prayer and penance means the priests are not allowed to do public ministry anymore.

Church leaders hope sharing the list will make other victims consider reporting abuse, said Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward,” Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle PI

By Joel Connelly on January 15, 2016

The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, on its website, has published the names of 77 clergy for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been “admitted, established or determined to be credible,” in the words of Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.

The list covers conduct from the late 1930s to the 21st century, involving priests who have served the length and breadth of the Western Washington diocese, from Assumption parish in Bellingham to St. Joseph Church in Vancouver to Our Lady of Good Help in Hoquiam. One priest served in nine different parishes. Forty-one of the priests, brothers, and religious order members listed are deceased.

The list includes such former diocesan luminaries as now-deceased Rev. James Gandrau, a longtime editor of the Catholic Northwest Progress and pastor at St. Monica’s Church on Mercer Island. The Rev. David Jaeger, who once headed the diocesan AIDS ministry, was buried at a 2014 mass with 20 celebrants at St. Joseph parish on Capitol Hill. The Rev. John Cornelius, a former Seattle police chaplain popular in the African-American community, has been defrocked.

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WASHINGTON
Seattle Times

By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday published a list of clergy and others accused of sexually assaulting children while serving or living in Western Washington.

The 77 individuals whose names have been published to the archdiocese website “have allegations that are either admitted, established or determined to be credible,” the archdiocese wrote in a news release.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for abuse in a news release.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” Archbishop Sartain said.

Included in the list of names are clergy and religious officials who served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008. Among those listed are 30 archdiocese and 16 religious priests, 14 religious brothers, one religious sister, two deacons and 14 priests from other dioceses, the archdiocese wrote in a news release.

Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said the list has been in the works for the past two years.

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MISSOURI
KMBZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Former Kansas City bishop Robert Finn is now working with nuns in Nebraksa.

Finn was named chaplain at the School Sisters of Christ the King in Lincoln Dec. 5.

Under pressure from the Vatican, Finn late last year resigned as bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Roman Catholic Diocese. The diocese waited six months before notifying police about Father Shawn Ratigan.

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NEBRASKA
New York Post

Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Roman Catholic bishop who was convicted in Missouri of not reporting suspected child abuse has become chaplain at a convent in Nebraska.

Bishop Emeritus Robert Finn is spiritual adviser to the nuns at the School Sisters of Christ the King convent in Lincoln.

Finn was found guilty in 2012 of one misdemeanor count of failure to report suspected abuse and was given two years’ probation, making him the highest-ranking church official in the US to be convicted of taking no action over abuse allegations.

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BOSTON (MA)
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Cardinal Law giving a gift of a very thick book of the Catholic Catechism to Liev Schreiber is the funniest scene in the movie Spotlight. Cardinal Law covered-up 70 pedophile priests as mentioned in Spotlight. Bill Cosby had a comedy sitcom TV series for decades. However, 40 women today allege that Bill Cosby assaulted them but none has been proven in court and many have expired statute of limitation. In the wake of the allegations, numerous organizations have severed ties with the comedian, and previously awarded honors and titles have been revoked. Reruns of The Cosby Show and other shows featuring Cosby have also been pulled from syndication by many organizations. Twenty-three colleges and universities have rescinded his honorary degrees. Now Bill Cosby is counter-suing some of his alleged victims for defamation. Bill Cosby is wealthy but not as wealthy as the Vatican Billions that easily paid $4 billion to victims across the USA and also paid $100 million to the hundreds of victims of the 70 pedophile priests – whom Cardinal Bernard Law aided and abetted and protected for 18 years mentioned in the 6 Oscar nominations movie Spotlight.

Spotlight’s portrayal of Cardinal Bernard Law is the funniest and mildest ‘drama’ depiction of a criminal ever made by Hollywood movie. Murder crimes, rape crimes, Mafia crimes are all seriously portrayed by Hollywood with many precision actions and meticulous scenery and reproduction of actual background. But Spotlight cunningly depicted Cardinal Bernard Law without any serious scene or real drama actions of how pedophile priests committed their crimes and how he covered-up them up. Spotlight revealed Cardinal Law in an all plain (no drama) talking strategy, a ‘he says – she says’ spoken by the reporters and by the lawyer, portrayed by bald head Stanley Tucci wearing a big curly wig (like a clown, really). Spotlight was like a talk-show by victims and by the Spotlight journalists team – and it could have easily and should have used flashback actual scenes to depict victims’ stories — instead of mere talk. (Talk is cheap).

Cardinal Law is an indubitable basic criminal (who admitted) that he aided and abetted 70 pedophile priests with potentially 14,000 victims (one of them admitted to having more than 200 victims) in Boston alone. Cardinal Bernard Law paid $100 million to his victims. But nowhere in Spotlight is there one negative depiction of Cardinal Law, the poster boy of all Catholic bishops and cardinals especially in the USA who covered-up more than 6,500 pedophile priests according to Vatican statistics. And his cronies of similar criminal bishops paid almost $4 billion dollars in compensation to thousands of victims in USA.

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UNITED STATES
New York Review of Books

Garry Wills

Investigative reporting got a boost in 1976, after the movie All the President’s Men showed what a small team (two men) could do if an editor and owner like Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham at The Washington Post let them keep digging for a long time. Another such coup was brought off by The Boston Globe in 2002, when its own investigative team of four people, called “Spotlight,” broke the story of Cardinal Law’s protection of priests who sexually preyed on children. In this case, Spotlight, which normally chose its own subjects, had not followed up on leads fed to the paper. It took an outsider, Martin Baron (played by Liev Schreiber), who had become editor of the paper in 2001, to jog the team into action. Baron was sent by the Globe’s new owner, The New York Times, to trim costs, yet he spent heavily on the priestly abuses scandal. An instinctive deference to the Church had inhibited the press in this Roman Catholic city from recognizing a scandal in its own backyard. Baron was not subject to that thrall. He was initially thought of as outside the Boston culture—an unmarried man, a Jew, not interested in the sacred Boston Red Sox.

In Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight—which has received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Film and Best Director—The Boston Globe story has been given a movie treatment like that of The Washington Post story. Both films retain some of the clichés of such tales—the resistance of society to what the enterprising reporters are trying to do, the difficulty of prying evidence from fearful witnesses, the final victory of the good guys over powerful resistance. But there are many differences. Woodward and Bernstein were outside the normal political reporting of Washington. The “Spotlight Four,” though not churchgoers, were all Catholic-raised or influenced. The crimes being investigated were more personal and religious, combining sexual and theological inhibitions.

As the team begins, lethargically, to go into the one case that had been superficially handled in the Globe, the serial abuses and regular moves of Father John J. Geoghan, they saw that other priests had been treated the same way—four, they turned up; then eleven. In diocesan records they began tracing the patterns of such frequent shiftings-about for priests. They were stunned as they found that large numbers of priests fit the pattern. They called on Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and psychotherapist who has studied priestly sexual activity for decades. (He is a respected scholar whom I have consulted for my writing and speaking on priests.) He tells the Spotlight team over the phone (his voice supplied by the actor Richard Jenkins) that he had found a high quotient of predatory priests in America, almost uniformly protected by bishops, and by that quotient the number of offending priests in Cardinal Law’s domain would be ninety—which was eerily close to the number they had turned up in diocesan records—seventy-six.

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WASHINGTON
MyNorthwest

BY RICHARD D. OXLEY, MyNorthwest.com Writer | January 15, 2016

The Archdiocese of Seattle has released the names of dozens of its clergy members accused of sexual abuse.

Not only has it offered an exhaustive list of clergy members, it has offered an apology in a letter to “all who have been impacted by the sinful actions of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or religious brothers or sister.”

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care,” said. Rev. J. Peter Sartain, Archbishop of Seattle. “Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.”

The list contains priests, deacons and others who allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established or determined to be credible.

The list was released in an effort to establish “transparency and encourage persons of sexually abused clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the church to come forward,” according to a statement from the church.

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WASHINGTON
HeraldNet

Associated Press
Published: Friday, January 15, 2016

List of sex-abusers

SEATTLE — The Archdiocese of Seattle has published a list of 77 child-sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain on Friday apologized for the actions by Catholic clergy and religious brothers and sisters who abused minors. He said in a letter that he is disclosing the names “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

The list includes cases where allegations of child sex abuse have been admitted, established or determined to be credible. The list, which includes past Snohomish County clergy, took nearly two years to develop with the help of independent consultants and a review board of professionals who advise the archbishop on child sex abuse.

The 77 named in the list lived or served in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

1. Why are you publishing this list?

This disclosure is being made in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victim survivors of sexual abuse by those working on behalf of the Church to come forward.

2. Who made the decision to publish the list?

The decision was made by Archbishop Sartain after consultation with and recommendation by the Archdiocesan Review Board.

3. How was the list developed?

To identify those archdiocesan clergy and religious men and women who served or were known to have resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle for whom allegations of sexual abuse of minors were admitted, established or determined to be credible, the archdiocese hired Dr. Kathleen McChesney and her firm, Kinsale Management Consulting, to conduct an independent review of Archdiocesan files. The names of those identified in this review were then provided to the Archdiocesan Review Board (member information may be found at the following link: www.seattlearchdiocese.org/SEP/About.aspx ) and to Archbishop Sartain who approved the publication of the names set forth in this disclosure.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

January 15, 2016

To the clergy, religious, and laity of the Archdiocese of Seattle, and to all who have been impacted by the sinful actions of sexual abuse of minors by clergy or religious brothers or sisters:

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable in their care. Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing, and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.

When I became Archbishop of Seattle in December, 2010, one of my first priorities was to
familiarize myself with the issue of sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by clergy in the Archdiocese, and to learn what the historic response of the Archdiocese had been. I was pleased to learn that the Archdiocese of Seattle was one of the first in the country to publicly acknowledge the devastating impact of this abuse, and to discover that the Archdiocese had undertaken significant efforts in training, prevention, and response to victim survivors since the mid 1980’s.

It has been my firm commitment to build on the good efforts of the past and continue to improve upon them. To that end, and after consultation with the members of the Archdiocesan Review Board, I am publishing a list of clergy and religious brothers and sisters for whom allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been admitted, established, or determined to be credible. These are individuals known to have served or resided in the Archdiocese. This action is being taken in the interest of further transparency and accountability, and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.

Our vigilance, training and prevention efforts are ongoing and continually seeking improvement. We have responded to hundreds of survivors of abuse who have come forward, and I thank them for their courage. I personally encourage any survivors who have not previously come forward to do so by contacting our Pastoral Outreach Coordinator who may be reached at
800-446-7762.

I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed.

I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable
individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed.

Sincerely in Christ,
Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain
Archbishop of Seattle

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WASHINGTON
KIRO

SEATTLE — The names of child sex abusers among Seattle clergy and religious service members was released Friday by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

All named individuals have served or resided in western Washington – and have allegations that were either admitted, established or determined credible, according to the archdiocese.
Those on the list served between 1923 and 2008.

>> Find, read the entire list of named child sex abusers.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized on behalf of those who abused minors.

“I will continue to pray for all survivors of sexual abuse, and deeply regret that vulnerable individuals in the Church’s care have been harmed,” wrote Sartain in an attached letter.

>> Read the letter from Archbishop of Seattle, J. Peter Sartain.

Sartain, who became Archbishop of Seattle in Dec. of 2010, said it was a priority to familiarize himself with the issue of sexual abuse of minors and to learn of the area’s historic responses.

According to Sartain’s letter, the Archdiocese of Seattle was one of the first in the country to publicly acknowledge the devastating impact of this type of abuse and undertake significant preventative measures.

The named members on the list have served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Among those listed are 30 archdiocesan and 16 religious priests, 14 religious brothers, one religious sister, two deacons and 14 priests from other dioceses.

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WASHINGTON
KUOW

By GIL AEGERTER

The Archdiocese of Seattle on Friday named 77 Catholic clergy or religious order members accused of sexual abusing minors.

Those on the list served or lived in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008, the archdiocese said in a statement.

(Click here to see the list.)

The statement said those on the list “have allegations that are either admitted, established or determined to be credible.”

At least 40 of them were listed as deceased, although 14 were listed with unknown status. Most of the rest were “laicized,” according to the archdiocese list.

“I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of trust and who violated that sacred trust by abusing the vulnerable,” Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain wrote in a letter.

He said the list was part of the archdiocese’s effort at accountability, and he thanked victims for coming forward. The archdiocese statement said anyone who knew of abuse or misconduct by clergy or employees should call 1-800-446-7762.

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WASHINGTON
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

[with complete list of accused priests, including status and assignments]

This list is being published as part of the Archdiocese of Seattle’s ongoing commitment to transparency and to encourage persons sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church to come forward.

The individuals named in this list have either served or resided in the Archdiocese of Seattle, as noted. Locations of known assignments or residences are listed, however this does not mean that there are allegations of abuse at each place.

Despite our best efforts to assure that this information is accurate and complete, we know that this list may include errors or be incomplete. It was compiled through a process involving an independent outside consultant and the members of the Archdiocesan Review Board. It will be updated as new information is received or identified.

Anyone sexually abused by clergy or by anyone working on behalf of the Church is encouraged to contact the Pastoral Outreach Coordinator at 800-446-7762.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Bill Tammeus | Religion News Service January 15

A few months before Robert W. Finn became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, I interviewed him for The Kansas City Star about the challenges he might face when he replaced the much-loved Bishop Raymond Boland.

Of course, neither Finn nor I had any way of knowing that a decade-plus later he would resign in disgrace, having been convicted of the misdemeanor crime of failing to notify law enforcement authorities about a suspected child-abusing priest in the diocese — a priest who now spends his time in prison.

I looked back on that 2004 interview recently and was shocked by the difference between Finn’s words and his later actions (or, more to the point, inactions) especially in light of the recent movie “Spotlight,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards Thursday (Jan. 14) including best picture and best original screenplay.

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MINNESOTA/MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

DAVID CLOHESSY, GUEST COMMENTARY January 15, 2016

He is accused of making “unwanted sexual advances” toward seminarians, retaliating against one who rebuffed him, interfering with a church sexual misconduct investigation and concealing the crimes of predator priests.

But he’s good enough for western Michigan Catholics, at least in the view of Kalamazoo’s Catholic bishop.

He’s Archbishop John Nienstedt, a Michigan native who is one of only three U.S. prelates to resign from his post because of the church’s abuse and cover-up crisis.

The archdiocese he headed for seven years, St. Paul-Minneapolis, is the first in the nation to be charged with failure to protect children.

Exactly why did Nienstedt step down? Because he won’t talk, nor will his church colleagues in the United States or in Rome, no one really knows.

Was it because his archdiocese faces pending criminal charges for shielding the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is behind bars now for raping boys?

Or was it because some 10 sworn statements accuse Nienstedt of “sexual impropriety” in his last three assignments,” according to Commonweal, a respected Catholic news source. Most of the accusers are former Michigan seminarians, though there are also allegations of sexual advances toward at least two priests.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Beast

KATE BRIQUELET

Tiffanie Irwin is accused in new court documents of sparking the savage beating that left one teen dead and his brother injured inside a New York church described as a ‘cult.’

The pastor of a reclusive upstate New York church incited her flock to brutally beat two teenage brothers—one to death—by claiming they practiced witchcraft, new court filings allege.

Tiffanie Irwin told members of the Word of Life Christian Church that Lucas and Christopher Leonard used voodoo dolls, sexually fantasized about her, and plotted to kill their own parents, according to documents first published by the Utica Observer-Dispatch.

Those accusations turned deadly the night of Oct. 11, 2015, when members of the Chadwicks church savagely pummeled Lucas Leonard, 19, and Christopher Leonard, 17—kicking, punching, and whipping them with extension cords over a stretch of 14 hours, after they refused to repent for their “sins,” authorities say.

Lucas Leonard died of his injuries Oct. 12 after relatives rushed him to a hospital. An autopsy revealed he suffered multiple contusions to the torso and extremities. His brother survived and is now under the care of the state.

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NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP outreach director (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Nebraska Catholic officials are deceiving their flock about Bishop Robert Finn, the only prelate in the US to be criminally convicted for refusing to report child sex crimes to police. (Finn now works in Nebraska.)

[Lincoln Journal Star]

It’s dreadfully disingenuous to claim, as Bishop James Conley and one of his spokesmen JD Flynn are doing, that “Finn’s offense was an administrative mistake.” It was not. It was a crime. There was a trial. Finn was found guilty. He was penalized.

It’s also disingenuous to claim, as Conley and Flynn are doing, that (Finn) failed to notify police immediately of (a now-convicted priest’s) behavior.” Finn never notified the police. (Months later, one of Finn’s underlings called the police.)

And, in fact, Finn kept information and suspicions about these heinous crimes from police for months.

Finn, in fact, did not “fail.” Time and time again, Finn made deliberate, self-serving decisions to protect himself, his reputation and his priest, instead of protecting his flock.

Failure suggests a good faith effort that went awry. Had Finn tried to call the police but misdialed, that would have been a failure. Had he mailed evidence to police but forgot to put a stamp on the envelope, that would have been a failure.

But Finn did not “fail” to call the police. He knowingly refused to do so, for months, and during those months, more child sex crimes were committed, more kids were hurt, more families were deceived and devastated.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | Jan 15, 2016

Happy New Year to all!

At the beginning of each new year, I like to take time to think about what we can be doing to bring about more justice to those who have suffered from the ravages of sexual abuse. However, thinking alone is not enough. If our our thoughts don’t move us to action, we really haven’t helped and justice remains elusive for so many. Attorney and victim advocate, Neil Jaffee, is someone who has spent his life moving thoughts into actions. Actions that have made a real difference in the life of so many abuse survivors. In this fantastic guest post, Neil describes and advocates for a a set of specialized practices that will revolutionize our approach to the handling of child sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice system. As a former child sexual abuse prosecutor, I can tell you that these proposed practices have a real possibility of delivering genuine justice and real hope to those who deserve it most. My prayer is this post will challenge each of us to help Neil in move these thoughts into action across the country. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________

Cases involving adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse are unique at their core because they involve survivors who were victimized as children but enter the legal system as adults. This fundamental aspect of adult survivor cases drives the need for specialized protocols and policies to address the particular dynamics of these cases.

The legal system must apply a specialized, trauma-informed approach to the investigation, prosecution, and disposition of adult survivor cases.

1. Trauma-informed systemic practices are essential

Childhood sexual abuse is recognized as a form of complex psychological trauma in that it typically involves repetitive, ongoing abuse, a fundamental betrayal of trust in a primary relationship, perpetrated by someone known by or related to the victim. The timing of the abuse events during a critical period of development during childhood has adverse long-term psychological and behavioral effects on the victims. Due to developmental impairments in cognitive functioning and language production related to the occurrence of the abuse events during childhood, some adult survivors may not be able initially to remember clearly and recount to investigators the details of the abuse events and recovered memories are often fragmented, incomplete, and nonspecific. The legal process itself can be re-traumatizing for survivors. Accordingly, the development of a trauma-informed approach is essential to support survivors in filing their legal claims, preparing them for the challenges posed by the justice system, and presenting their cases effectively in court.

* Specialized Practice: Forensic interviewers of adult survivors need to be trained in the neurobiology of traumatic memory. First responders and all subsequent interviewers of adult survivors should understand that suffering sexual abuse at an early developmental stage affects a survivor’s memory and ability to translate childhood memories into adult language that is coherent, complete, and chronological. Prosecutors should develop the skills to place recovered abuse memories in their proper context so as to explain delays, omissions, and/or inconsistencies in a survivor’s statements. Experts are often necessary to educate jurors (and judges) as to the correlation between childhood sexual abuse and traumatic amnesia. There must be a victim-centered approach at all stages that proceeds from the presumption that the survivor is credible unless the evidence proves otherwise.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Carol Glatz
posted Friday, 15 Jan 2016

The Vatican is ‘not a den of thieves’, says Archbishop Angelo Becciu

The Vatican is not “a den of thieves”, and such insinuations are an injustice to employees who are proud to serve the Pope and the Church, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, has said.

Necessary economic and administrative reforms and countermeasures have been taken to address any problems, he told the Italian weekly Panorama in an interview published in the issue dated January 20.

“I must reiterate firmly that we are not a bunch of corrupt and incompetent people,” he said in a lengthy interview conducted at the Vatican.

“The Vatican is not a den of thieves. To represent it as such constitutes an absolute falsehood. I find it extremely unjust that our employees, proudly carrying out a service for the pope and the church, have gotten to the point, for some time now, of being ashamed to tell people they work here,” he told the weekly.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JUNIOR STAFF WRITER 15 January 2016

There was no “deal” to cover up allegations of abuse against Peter Ball, the disgraced Bishop of Gloucester, a senior detective has claimed.

Wayne Murdock, was a Gloucestershire Police Detective Inspector in 1993 when Bishop Peter Ball was accused of molesting young men. He denied claims made by the Sunday Times of a deal between police and the Church of England meaning Ball was cautioned but not charged at the end of an investigation in 1993.

“I don’t do deals and no deal was struck,” he said this week. “This was a very misleading headline. It really upset me.”

“Who are the Sunday Times suggesting did a cover up to help the Bishop? If they are suggesting it was me then I am happy to ensure you I do not do deals.”

Speculation has grown as to why Ball was only cautioned and not prosecuted after it emerged many senior figures in the Church and House of Commons supported the Bishop at the time.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 15, 2016

Since the Vatican is a global institution, understanding it often requires at least a passing familiarity with a few foreign languages. Italian is a no-brainer, Latin still helps, and in the Pope Francis era, Spanish gives you a leg up, too — especially Porteño, the brand of Spanish spoken in Francis’ native Buenos Aires.

Perhaps the most challenging language, however, is what one might call “Vaticanese,” referring to a frequently bewildering cluster of terms and phrases that have taken shape in and around the place, and often mean something only to insiders.

One recent entry in that lexicon is “gay lobby,” which emerged during the first Vatican leaks scandal under Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and still pops up in Italian tabloid headlines and water-cooler chatter.

Shortly after his election, Francis reportedly said he had to “see what we can do” about this “gay lobby” in an informal session with leaders of men’s religious orders. More recently, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, coordinator of the pope’s council of cardinal advisors, told a newspaper that there is, indeed, such a “gay lobby,” and that Francis is trying to chip away at it.

Here’s the confusing thing: When Italians say “gay lobby,” they don’t mean “lobby” in the conventional political sense, and they often don’t really mean “gay” in the sense that sex has much to do with it.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 15, 2016

An assistant pastor at a South Orange church has been removed from ministry amid allegations he sexually assaulted two minors in the early 1980s, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark confirmed.

The Rev. Michael “Mitch” Walters, parochial vicar at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, also has given up two archdiocese-wide positions.

Walters served as director of the Center for Ministerial Development, overseeing educational and spiritual enrichment programs for parishioners, and director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which raises money for missionary and evangelical work.

The accused priest denies the allegations, said the spokesman, Jim Goodness.

“He said nothing had happened, that he did not do this,” Goodness said.

Walters, 60, left ministry by mutual agreement with the archdiocese in October. NJ Advance Media learned of his removal recently. The allegations date to Walters’ tenure at St. Cassian Church in Montclair.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent January 14, 2016

ROME — As Pope Francis continues his efforts to clean up the Vatican, two of his closest advisers this week struck slightly different notes about where things stand, with one insisting the Vatican is not a “den of thieves,” but the other claiming it contains a “gay lobby” the pope is trying to dismantle.

The comments came from Italian Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Substitute for General Affairs, effectively the No. 2 official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, and Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, coordinator of the pope’s all-important council of nine cardinal advisors.

Becciu was addressing the scandal that broke out in November, when two Italian journalists published books based on leaked documents revealing various forms of financial corruption, mismanagement, and waste.

In comments to an Italian news magazine, Becciu insisted that the depiction by some of the Vatican as a den of thieves is an “absolute falsehood.”

It’s unfair that Vatican employees, who are “proud of serving the pope and the Church,” Becciu said, “some time ago arrived at the point at which they’re embarrassed to say that they work here.”

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., January 14, 2016

Attorneys in the Diocese of Gallup’s bankruptcy case are currently working out the details of the diocese’s settlement agreement with clergy sex abuse claimants. Part of that agreement will involve providing the claimants a monetary settlement for the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual injuries they suffered after being sexually abused as children. Another part of the agreement will involve non-monetary terms for the diocese to begin implementing.

In many ways, if the non-monetary terms of the settlement are grounded in the principles of truth and transparency, they are potentially more important than the monetary terms. Whether abuse claimants are awarded small or large monetary settlements, the money will eventually be spent. The truth, however, will last forever. Therefore, we hope the attorneys representing the clergy abuse claimants will advocate for all abuse victims and survivors by insisting on the following non-monetary terms.

Updated list of credibly accused abusers: When Bishop James S. Wall released his list of credibly accused abusers in December 2014, the list was not accurate or complete. The list did not include four former Gallup priests who have been identified as abusers by other Catholic dioceses and religious orders, and it did not include individuals who have been named in U.S. Bankruptcy Court claims. This updated list should be posted prominently on the diocesan website and published several times in all parish bulletins — including parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix that were once part of the Gallup Diocese. The Franciscan provinces that have sent clergy to the Diocese of Gallup should also be required to post such lists on their websites.

Publicly release personnel files: The personnel files of all credibly accused abusers who worked or volunteered in the Gallup Diocese should be publicly released and posted on the Internet. Redactions to protect the identity of abuse victims should be the only redactions allowed. The file of former Gallup priest James M. Burns, which was publicly released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, needs to be re-released because church officials were allowed to redact an unreasonable amount of information — more than one-third of the file. Again, the Franciscans and other religious orders should be required to also comply.

Terminate all confidentiality agreements: The Diocese of Gallup has signed countless confidentiality agreements with victims of clergy sex abuse, forcing those survivors to remain silent about their abuse. Those past confidentiality settlement terms must be terminated so all abuse survivors can be free to speak out if they choose.

Support victims of abuse: The diocese needs to establish an adequate fund to support the counseling needs of abuse survivors and their immediate family members. In addition, the name and contact information of the victims assistance coordinator should be published prominently on the diocesan website and in every church bulletin.

Notify law enforcement: There are currently 11 accused abusers from the diocese who are reportedly still alive. Only Brett Candelaria, a former lay religion education teacher, is in prison. Where is John Boland, who was allowed by Bishop Wall to leave the country? Where is Raul Sanchez, who was allowed to become an Air Force chaplain to escape allegations here? Where is Charles Cichanowicz, who abused boys on the Navajo Nation? Where are the rest of the abusers? Diocesan officials should encourage abuse victims to file police reports in the counties where the abuse occurred, and church officials should notify law enforcement officials of known incidents of abuse. Law enforcement officials can properly determine statute of limitation issues. Diocesan officials should also be required to notify law enforcement officials where credibly accused abusers are currently residing.

Revise and enforce diocesan policies: The Gallup Diocese needs a revised diocesan policy concerning sexual assault, misconduct, harassment and the use of pornography, and that policy needs to be posted on the diocesan website. Violations of that policy need to be enforced and truthfully reported to the public. The days of telling parishioners that a priest has stepped down for “health reasons” should be over.

Publicly announce allegations: The Diocese of Gallup has a long history of quietly shuffling abusers — to new parishes, treatment centers or into retirement — when allegations surface. Being in bankruptcy court apparently hasn’t changed this. According to court documents, a new abuse allegation was made in July 2014. Who is the accused abuser? Was the allegation credible? Is the accused abuser still in ministry? Or has he been sent to another parish, put in a treatment center or pushed into retirement? Bishop Wall owes local Catholics and the public the truth about this and all allegations.

In this space only does the opinion of the Gallup Independent Editorial Board appear.

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KENTUCKY
WDRB

By David Scott

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — In August, Louisville priest Stephen Pohl was arrested and charged with accessing child pornography on a computer belonging to the Archdiocese of Louisville.

But detectives say they found more than 150 other pictures, taken by Pohl, of students at St. Margaret Mary School — where he served as pastor. Court records said the kids were clothed, though in some, their underwear was visible.

Investigators said in court they don’t consider those photos child porn, but do say children were in “sexually arousing positions.”

Since then, parents at the school have started a petition with more than 100 signatures demanding St. Ma

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Posted: Friday, January 15, 2016

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — An investigation into the alleged activities of a Bluefield man charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse continued Thursday as one church issued a statement saying it was cooperating with police.

James Lilly, 24, was arrested Tuesday. He faces one charge of incest, one charge of second-degree sexual assault and 31 charges of first-degree sexual abuse, Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department said.

Adams stated after Lilly’s arrest that the victim was a juvenile female. He said the abuse began in 2009 when the victim was 9 to 10 years old, and continued until she was 16. The alleged abuse occurred in a home, and not at a church.

Lilly described himself as transgender, and said he is in the process of becoming a woman, according to Adams. Lilly has a degree in religion from a Virginia college and has worked at numerous churches including Episcopal churches in Bluefield and Bluefield, Va.

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NEW YORK
TWC News

By Cara Thomas
Updated Thursday, January 14, 2016

New details surrounding the Word of Life Church beatings have come to light through newly obtained court documents from the Oneida County District Attorney’s office.

In total, nine church members are said to have been involved in a horrific beating during one of the church’s counseling sessions. Seven of those people have been charged with depraved indifference murder. Prosecutors say the defendants repeatedly whipped, punched and kicked 19-year-old Lucas Leonard and his younger brother Christopher. They were held against their will for more than 12 hours. Lucas died from his injuries.

Prosecutors believe the counseling session was held because Lucas had expressed interest in leaving the church. In the court documents, District Attorney Scott McNamara says the church pastor, Tiffanie Irwin, then initiated a counseling session, where she accused Lucas and Christopher of several other things with the intent to infuriate the boys’ parents and half sister.

When the victims’ mother, Deborah Leonard, pleaded guilty last month, she shared with the court that the church believed Tiffanie Irwin was a prophet and could hear directly from God.

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NEBRASKA
Lincoln Journal Star

By ERIN ANDERSEN | LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR

A Catholic bishop who was the first American priest convicted of not notifying police of suspected child abuse in a timely manner is now the chaplain at a Lincoln convent.

But Lincoln’s bishop said Robert Finn paid for his mistake by completing two years of probation and deserves mercy.

Finn became chaplain of Lincoln’s School Sisters of Christ the King convent in December after serving as bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for 10 years.

He cited personal reasons when he resigned as a bishop in April in the aftermath of a child pornography scandal involving one of his priests, Father Shawn Ratigan, and a subsequent Vatican investigation into Finn’s effectiveness as a leader.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Martin Finucane GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 14, 2016

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has seen “Spotlight,” the movie about the Boston Globe’s investigation into clergy sex abuse that has been nominated for six Academy Awards, and considers it an important movie, a spokesman said.

“The Cardinal found it a very powerful and important film,” archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon said. He said the cardinal saw the film before Christmas.

The Oscar nominations were announced Thursday morning. “Spotlight” was nominated for best picture, director (Tom McCarthy), original screenplay, editing, and supporting performances by Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams.

In October, when the film was first released, O’Malley issued a statement saying that the film “depicts a very painful time in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States and particularly here in the Archdiocese of Boston.”

“We have asked for and continue to ask for forgiveness from all those harmed by the crimes of the abuse of minors. … The Archdiocese of Boston is fully and completely committed to zero tolerance concerning the abuse of minors,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA
Forward

Josh Nathan-Kazis
January 14, 2016

Marc Gafni, the onetime Jewish spiritual leader against whom allegations of sexual improprieties have resurfaced in recent weeks, has pulled out of teaching a long-planned workshop in February at Esalen Institute, the influential New Age retreat center in California.

“The teachers have chosen to withdraw,” said Gordon Wheeler, Esalen’s president, of the February 5 workshop on “Evolutionary Relationships.”

Gafni was scheduled to co-teach the workshop with Sally Kempton, a spiritual teacher with whom he has collaborated on other projects. Wheeler said that Gafni and Kempton had not been asked by Esalen to cancel the workshop.

On January 12, the Forward published an essay by a woman, Sara Kabakov, who alleged that Gafni molested her repeatedly, beginning when she was 13.

While allegations against Gafni have been the subject of multiple press reports since 2004, new attention was brought to the claims in a December New York Times column. The New York Jewish Week reported on January 5 that Esalen was considering cancelling Gafni’s February workshop.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyVoice

BY MICHAEL TANENBAUM
PhillyVoice Staff

A Chester County pastor accused of raping and impregnating a teenage girl will return to the United States from Ecuador to face pending charges, according to a Pennsylvania detective who confirmed contact with the suspect’s lawyer.

West Whiteland, Pa. Detective Scott Pezick told People Thursday afternoon that 33-year-old Jacob Malone, of Exton, has been in Ecuador for approximately two weeks and will be brought into custody upon his entry into the United States. He is expected to face charges of rape, institutional sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minor, and furnishing liquor to a child, according to the detective.

The allegations against Malone evolved over a period of several years. He reportedly met the victim when she was 12 years old while pastoring at a church she attended in Mesa, Arizona. In 2014, he reached out to the then-17-year-old girl and invited her to stay with him and his family at his new home in Minnesota, where he allegedly attempted to have inappropriate contact with her.

When Malone moved to Chester County in July 2014, police say he again extended an invitation to the victim to stay with him, registering her at a local high school. That fall, according to police, the victim said Malone began sexually assaulting her at his home on the unit block of Atherton Drive in Exton.

When she turned 18, the victim told police Malone allegedly served her alcohol on several occasions, molesting her on one occasion when she became “highly intoxicated.”

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ROME
Church Militant

by Christine Niles • ChurchMilitant.com • January 14, 2016

“The Holy Father is gradually trying to purify it”

ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) – Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, nicknamed the “Vice-Pope” for his position of influence with the Holy Father, is acknowledging the existence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican — a group Pope Francis is aware of and is trying to eliminate.

The head of the Pope’s Gang of Nine, Maradiaga admitted to the existence of the homosexual cabal in a January 12 interview with the Heraldo de Honduras paper. Asked whether there had ever been “an infiltration of the gay community” at the Vatican, he replied, “Not only that, but the Holy Father has said there is a ‘lobby’ in this sense. The Holy Father is gradually trying to purify it.”

Although their situation must be addressed pastorally, he explained, “what is wrong cannot be true,” and Church teaching cannot be revised to accept same-sex “marriage.”

No, we must understand that there are things that can be changed and others not. Natural law cannot be changed. We see how God has designed the human body, the body of the man and the woman’s body to complement each other and transmit life. The opposite is not the plan of creation; there are things that cannot be changed.

He spent the rest of the interview discussing the Vatican Bank, curial reforms and various projects he’s working on in his archdiocese.

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UNITED STATES
Entertainment Weekly

[with video]

BY DEVAN COGGAN • @DEVANCOGGAN

Way back in September, the biggest headlines out of the Toronto International Film Festival were devoted to one movie: Spotlight. Tom McCarthy’s drama, which chronicles the Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse allegations in the Catholic Church, was labeled awards season gold — and it was even hailed as a worthy successor to All The President’s Men.

But that was September, and since then, the film’s Oscar chances, which had once felt like a lock, suddenly seemed… iffy. The film’s talented ensemble — Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy Jones, Stanley Tucci — meant that there was no one star to build on Oscar campaign around, and as stories of Leonardo DiCaprio eating bison liver began to dominate the year-end pre-nomination buzz, some were wondering whether Spotlight peaked too early. Such fears seemed legitimate when Spotlight got shut out of the Golden Globes last weekend, raising the question of whether the subtle but powerful journalism drama still had a prime seat at the Oscar table.

Turns out that the filmmakers needn’t have worried: Spotlight raked in six Oscar nominations, including ones for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

“Literally, before I went to bed last night, I looked at the bloggers and I was like, ‘Okay, if we have a great morning, we’ll get five,’” co-writer Josh Singer says. “And then when we got six, it was just super thrilling.”

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Meredith Goldstein GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 14, 2016

Actress Rachel McAdams wasn’t up for Thursday morning’s announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations — not because she’s too cool to care, but because she thought they were being announced on Friday.

“I had the day wrong. I was in a deep, deep sleep,” she told us. “I was half-asleep wondering why my publicist was calling me at 5:45. Then I saw every person who I had ever loved or knew had texted me. I thought there had been some catastrophic event in the world.”

McAdams is among the nominees for best supporting actress for the Boston film “Spotlight,” which follows The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team investigation of the Catholic Church abuse scandal. In the film she plays reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, who was a frequent visitor to the set. McAdams’s nomination is one of six for “Spotlight”; the drama, directed by Tom McCarthy, also picked up nominations for best picture, best director, best screenplay, best editing, and best supporting actor for Mark Ruffalo, who plays Spotlight reporter Mike Rezendes.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Meredith Goldstein GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 14, 2016

Waking up was easy for Nicole Rocklin, one of the producers behind “Spotlight,” the film that follows The Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. “It’s a fantastic morning,” she said, shortly after hearing that film had picked up six Oscar nominations.

“Spotlight” has been a best picture front-runner since it opened to rave reviews at the Venice and Toronto film festivals last fall, but Rocklin told us by phone that you can never count on Oscar attention. “There’s no expectation. There have been so many surprises along that way that you can’t expect anything.”

Rocklin said that when she heard that Mark Ruffalo had been nominated for best supporting actor for portraying Boston Globe Spotlight reporter Mike Rezendes, “I was screaming. Then Rachel’s,” she added, of Rachel McAdams, who picked up a nomination for best supporting actress for portraying the Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 14, 2016

Mitchell Garabedian can be irascible, at least he’s portrayed that way in “Spotlight.” But the Boston attorney who represented many of the victims in the priest sex abuse scandal was downright overjoyed Thursday that director Tom McCarthy’s movie snagged six Oscar nominations.

“It’s a reflection of the hard work, grit, and determination that the writers, director, and actors put into making ‘Spotlight,’” said Garabedian, who’s played with a degree of prickliness by Stanley Tucci. “The movie sends a very powerful and clear message about pedophilia within the Catholic Church and the coverup. And it’s empowered victims and made the world a safer place.”

Garabedian admits he was initially skeptical when he heard Hollywood was making a movie about The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series about priest sex abuse within the Boston archdiocese. “If the movie sent an inaccurate message, it could have caused a lot of harm to victims and reinforced the church’s position,” he said. “But I spoke to the writers and a number of the actors and I was struck by how deeply they were concerned that the movie and the performances be worthy of the subject.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

JANUARY 14, 2016

by Joseph A. Slobodzian, STAFF WRITER.

A Philadelphia judge has ruled that documents and other evidence from pretrial proceedings in a lawsuit involving sexual abuse of minors by a Catholic priest remain public before trial.

The two-paragraph ruling by Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein was a legal setback for the Archdiocese, which had asked for an order barring public disclosure of the materials. The church has insisted on confidentiality as a condition for engaging in pretrial “discovery” with lawyers in suits seeking damages for being sexually molested by priests.

The ruling, filed Tuesday, was in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the church in November 2013 by Deborah McIlmail, whose son Sean, 26, died of an accidental drug overdose.

Marci A. Hamilton, who filed the McIlmail suit, said she believes this is the first time the archdiocese has been denied confidentiality in a priest sex abuse case.

Hamilton said she thinks one reason is that in filing suit McIlmail and her husband never sought anonymity for their son or themselves.

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

(ANSA) – Vatican City, January 14 – There is a gay lobby in the Vatican, just as Pope Francis has said, one of his closest aides in Curia reform said Thursday.

“Yes, a gay lobby exists,” Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told Honduran daily El Heraldo.

Maradiaga, who coordinates the so-called C9 group of cardinals on helping Francis reform the Curia, was asked if there had been successful attempts by a gay lobby to infiltrate the Vatican.

“Not only that,” he replied. “Even the pope said it, there is an actual lobby.” According to Maradiaga, “the pope is gradually trying to purify this”.

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ROME
Index on Censorship

Mapping Media Freedom correspondent Rossella Ricchiuti explores the Vatican’s case against two journalists standing trial for publishing leaked financial documents

By Rossella Ricchiuti / 14 January 2016

Two Italian journalists are being prosecuted by The Vatican for revealing confidential information and could face up to eight years in prison.

Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi are being tried in the so-called “Vatileaks II” case for publishing leaked documents in their books detailing financial misdeeds involving The Holy See. Fittipaldi is the author of Avarice and Nuzzi’s is entitled Merchants in the Temple.

The criminal trial by the Vatican justice against the reporters is a serious one. The journalists are accused of violating “Crimes against the Fatherland” in the Vatican penal code, specifically a 2013 amendment that added section 116, which says “whoever procures illegally or reveals information or documents whose disclosure is forbidden, shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to two years or with a fine from thousand to five thousand euro”. But “if the conduct has related to information or documents concerning the fundamental interests or diplomatic relations of the Holy See and the State, punishment of imprisonment is implemented from four to eight years”.

Fittipaldi and Nuzzi are not the only people standing trial in the case. The alleged sources of the internal Vatican documents — Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of Cosea, the commission that conducted the survey on the finances of the Vatican, and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a member the commission — are also in the dock. A fifth person, Nicola Maio, a former contributor to Cosea, is also being prosecuted. Balda, Chaouqui and Maio are also accused of criminal association.

So far, there have been three hearings as part of the trial. The first on 24 November ended with a decision by the court to reject requests for deferral submitted by the defendants, who said they didn’t have enough times to organise their defence, having received court documents only the day before. The second hearing on 30 November lasted only 13 minutes, during which the court deferred the trial until 7 December. On that day, the court admitted all the witnesses requested by the defence.

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BOSTON (MA)
CBS Boston

[with video]

BOSTON (CBS) – “Spotlight,” the movie about the Boston Globe’s investigative team uncovering the Boston Archdiocese’s priest sex abuse scandal, was nominated for six Academy Awards Thursday.

In addition to being named a finalist for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Film Editing, Tom McCarthy was nominated for Best Director, Mark Ruffalo was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Rachel McAdams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

“I can’t imagine any actor doing a better job than Mark Ruffalo did,” Michael Rezendes, the reporter played by Ruffalo in the movie, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens. “I think he was sensational. He worked very hard at it. He spent a lot of time with me, he visited my home, he shadowed me at the Globe. Mark Ruffalo put his entire heart and soul into this project and it really paid off.”

“I’m really happy for all the victims and survivors of clergy sex abuse, because these nominations will keep their story in the forefront of public attention, which is where I think it needs to be,” he added.

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UNITED STATES
The University News

Posted by Tim Wilhelm / News Editor

Jesuits attribute resolutions, over 20 years in the making, to ‘mediation’

The new year heralded the settlement of two cases against former SLU president Daniel C. O’Connell, S.J., involving alleged sexual abuse against two women. The Missouri Jesuit Province and the University paid $200,000 to a plaintiff known as Jane Doe 929, and the Province paid $81,000 to a plaintiff known as Jane Doe MB.

Filed in 2010, the latter lawsuit carried a breach of contract charge. The Missouri Province (now titled “Southern and Central”) had paid a settlement of $181,000 to the same plaintiff in 2003 in response to allegations that O’Connell sexually assaulted her while she was studying abroad in Rome during the spring and summer of 1983. O’Connell was then a chaplain at Loyola University in Chicago, where Jane Doe MB was a student.

The settlement’s other terms entailed O’Connell’s restriction from “non-public ministerial contact with women” and “public priestly ministry,” as well as from teaching, campus ministry, counseling and retreats, according to St. Louis Circuit Court documents. In June 2003, Frank Reale, S.J., the Jesuit Provincial at the time, wrote a letter to Jane Doe MB stating that he had requested O’Connell’s resignation from Loyola and his transfer back to the Missouri Province.

An attached Settlement and Release Agreement from the Jesuits of the Missouri Province clarifies: “This agreement shall not be construed as an admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of any party.” However, Reale wrote in his letter that, “Although I find it impossible to determine with certainty the precise details and the exact extent of the abuse, nonetheless I do find credible your allegation of abusive behavior on the part of Fr. O’Connell.”

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

MICHIGAN
Battle Creek Enquirer

Safiya Merchant, Battle Creek Enquirer January 14, 2016

An archbishop emeritus who left the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid reports that its leaders failed to adequately deal with priests accused of sexual misconduct is now temporarily helping out at St. Philip Catholic Church in Battle Creek.

Nienstedt served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 to 2015.

A Minnesota Public Radio investigation alleged leaders of that archdiocese have been “reassigning, excusing and overlooking sexually abusive priests among their ranks” for decades.

During Nienstedt’s tenure at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, he had “authorized secret payments to priests who had sexually abused children, did not report alleged sex crimes to police and failed to warn parishioners” about the “sexual misconduct” of former St. Paul priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography, the Minnesota Public Radio investigation found.

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

UNITED STATES
The New Yorker

BY JOHN CASSIDY

The election of Pope Francis, in 2013, had the effect, among other things, of displacing the painful story of priestly sexual abuse that had dominated public awareness of the Church during much of the eight-year papacy of his predecessor. The sense that the Church, both during the last years of Benedict and under Francis, had begun to deal more forcefully with the issue created a desire in many, inside and outside the Church, to move on. But recent events suggest that we take another careful look at this chapter of Church history before turning the page.

During the past week, a German lawyer charged with investigating the abuse of minors in a famous Catholic boys’ choir in Bavaria revealed that two hundred and thirty-one children had been victimized over a period of decades. The attorney, Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the Diocese of Regensburg to conduct the inquiry, said that there were fifty credible cases of sexual abuse, along with a larger number of cases of other forms of physical abuse, from beatings to food deprivation.

The news received widespread attention not only because of its disturbing content but because the director of the Regensburg boys’ choir from 1964 to 1994 was Georg Ratzinger, the older brother of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict XVI. Joseph Ratzinger was the Archbishop of Munich from 1977 until 1981, when he went to head up the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which establishes theological orthodoxy and was also one of the branches of the Church that dealt with priestly sexual abuse.

The developments in Germany raised the question of what the two Ratzinger brothers knew about the abuse in the Regensburg choir. Most of the sexual abuse took place, apparently, at a boarding school for elementary-grade students connected to the choir. The chief culprit, according to Weber, was Johann Meier, the boarding school’s director from 1953 until 1992. The composer Franz Wittenbrink, a graduate of the school, told Der Spiegel magazine, in 2010, when the abuse scandal became public, that there was “a system of sadistic punishments connected to sexual pleasure.”

At that time, Georg Ratzinger, who was on the three-person supervisory board of the elementary school, acknowledged that some choirboys had complained about the punishments they received at the school. “But I did not have the feeling at the time that I should do something about it,” he told the Passauer Neue Presse, in 2010. “Had I known with what exaggerated fierceness he was acting, I would have said something.”

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By the National Reporting Team’s Lorna Knowles
Posted January 15, 2016

A woman who was suing the Catholic Church over sexual abuse she suffered as a young child has been awarded an out-of-court settlement.

Gina Swannell was seeking damages in the NSW Supreme Court for sexual abuse she suffered when she was six years old at the hands the late Father Charles Holdsworth when she was a boarder at the St Francis Xavier school in Urana.

Last August, Ms Swannell spoke out publicly against the Church, telling the ABC the Church was failing to honour its pledge to treat sexual abuse victims with more compassion.

She now says she is happy with the settlement, but believes it would not have happened if she had not gone public.

“The apology is accepted but trust is denied,” Ms Swannell said.

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

UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jan. 14, 2016

Two U.S. bishops who prematurely resigned their posts amid clergy sexual abuse scandals each have found new landing spots outside their previous dioceses.

A southern Michigan parish announced over the weekend that Archbishop John Nienstedt, formerly head of the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, will help out temporarily in the coming months, while Bishop Robert Finn, former head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo. diocese, began last month as chaplain for a Nebraska community of women religious.

Within the span of two months last spring, Finn, 62, and Nienstedt, 68, stepped down as shepherds of their respective dioceses, both of which teemed with anger and anguish for their church’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations. In the case of Finn, it was a 2012 misdemeanor conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse that drew a probationary sentence in civil court but no recourse from the church. For Nienstedt, his abdication, along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché, came just 10 days after the Ramsey County prosecutor brought criminal charges against the archdiocese for its handling of abuse allegations.

Both Finn and Nienstedt now have new homes.

Nienstedt has agreed to assist in pastoral ministries at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church in Battle Creek, Mich., in the Kalamazoo diocese, or about two hours west of his hometown Detroit diocese. He took up residence in Battle Creek on Jan. 6.

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

ALASKA
Anchorage Press

It’s easy and tempting to say nice things about someone after he or she passes away. In the case of just-deceased Alaska Catholic Archbishop Francis Hurley, however, we hope Catholic officials are careful about overdoing it. Praising him, we in the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) fear, rubs even more salt into the already-deep and often still-fresh wounds of hundreds of Alaskans who were sexually abused by priests during Hurley’s tenure, and thousands of parishioners who were betrayed by decisions Hurley made.

While Hurley surely accomplished much good during his career, frankly, his track record on protecting kids from predators was very poor. Evidence clearly shows that he repeatedly put children in harm’s way. In 2002, when US bishops—under extreme public pressure—finally adopted a nationwide abuse policy, Hurley argued against it. And just five years ago, he advocated returning some child-molesting clerics to ministry and relaxing the church’s already poorly-enforced “zero tolerance” policy.

Consider Fr. Timothy Crowley. He’s a priest who was removed from his Michigan parish when his church supervisors deemed him “credibly accused” of molesting a boy for eight years in the 1980s. (The Lansing diocese paid the victim $200,000.) But two years later, with little or no warning to parents, parishioners or the public, Hurley welcomed him to Alaska, housed him at Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Turnagain, and gave him a job as a spokesperson for the Archdiocese.

Or consider Archbishop Robert Sanchez. He’s the former Archbishop of Santa Fe who was accused of having sexual intercourse with at least 11 women, some of them teenagers. According to BishopAccountability.org, an independent archive of the church’s abuse crisis, Sanchez “also had extensive knowledge of the sexual abuse by priests and rarely did anything to punish or remove them.”

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

UNITED STATES
Integral Options Cafe

[NOTE: I have been actively involved in the newest Marc Gafni situation for the last two weeks, posting a lot of material on Twitter and Facebook. This post has been in process since Christmas day. I had originally written 34 pages of text, outlining each and every manipulation, episode of lying, and sexual abuse allegation. That is too much. This is likely only part one of several articles in the coming weeks.]

On December 25, 2015, The New York Times posted an article (in print, Dec. 26) called A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past, by Mark Oppenheimer (with additional reporting from Jerusalem by Irit Pasner Garshowitz).

One of the many things missing in the NYT article, and most of the ones that have followed, is a recognition that Gafni’s pathology is not only emotional and sexual manipulation and other forms of abuse, it is also a sociopathic personality that almost hides the malignant narcissist within.

The NYT article exposed some of the controversies surrounding Gafni (which has led to the current outrage in the Jewish community and in the integral community, but in each instance allowed him to refute the allegations with no further exploration of the facts or statements by the victims. What could have been an important document revealing Gafni’s 35-year pattern of abuses–interpersonal, sexual, and control–became little more than a PR piece for him and his “think tank.”

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

UNITED STATES
Left Foot Forward

Jonathan Russell

As the captain of a cricket club, I occasionally pick young people to play in my team. Rightly, I had to be checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service to do this, and my fellow team-mates who coach our juniors have to complete additional safeguarding training. It seems fair enough to me – if parents are signing over their children to my supervision, they want to know I am accountable.

I was shocked to learn that parents who send their children to madrassahs or yeshivas are not afforded such courtesies, despite the fact that children are often under the duty of care of these institutions for more than six hours each week. Schools, or anyone who works with children for over 18 hours each week, are regulated, but these out-of-school settings are not.

The Department for Education has just closed the consultation period for new proposals to register, inspect, and, if necessary, sanction these institutions. The proposals want to protect young people from inadequate premises, unsuitable staff, poor management, corporal punishment, and the promotion of ideas that undermine British values or promote extremism. All of this is absolutely necessary in my book.

When Quilliam goes in to schools, we try to promote a ‘primary prevention’ approach. That is, not making an assessment of a child’s vulnerability or referring people to the Channel programme, but instead promoting things like human rights and critical thinking that can help everyone. However, there is little point in promoting such positive measures, unless we can guarantee a minimum standard for all young people that ensures they are safe when being educated. I am adamant that this must go for out-of-school settings as much as schools and colleges.

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

UNITED STATES
Boston.com

By Bryanna Cappadona @brycappa
Boston.com Staff | 01.14.16

Oscar nominations came in Thursday morning in Beverly Hills, announced by Newton-bred actor John Krasinski, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, and filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee.

As for main takeaways: Spotlight received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Rachel McAdams, Best Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo, Best Director for Tom McCarthy, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

The Martian received seven nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Matt Damon, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Revenant led with the most nominations, 12, and Max Max: Fury Road got 10.

The 88th Academy Awards air February 28 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Below, see the full list of nominees:

Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 14 January 2016 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed:

– accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Mannar, Sri Lanka presented by Bishop Rayappu Joseph upon reaching the age limit. He appointed Bishop Joseph Kingsley Swampillai, emeritus of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, as apostolic administrator of the same diocese.

– given his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church of Fr. Volodymyr Hrutsa, C.Ss.R., as auxiliary bishop of Lviv (area 3,767, population 1,067,200, Catholics 730,525, priests 468, permanent deacons 4, religious 513), Ukraine. The bishop-elect was born in Dobromyl, Ukraine in 1976, gave his religious vows in 2000 and was ordained a priest in 2001. He holds a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the University of Innsbruck, Austria and has served in a number of roles within his congregation, including director of studies of the Province of Lviv and master of novices of the same province, and lecturer of dogmatic theology at the Catholic University of Ukraine, the major seminary of Lviv and the seminary of Basilian fathers in Bryukhovychi.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Ty Burr GLOBE STAFF JANUARY 14, 2016

The nominations for the 88th annual Academy Awards are in, and Oscar is smiling upon Leonardo DiCaprio and “The Revenant.” The grueling historical epic was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including best picture, actor, and director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu). “Spotlight,” the acclaimed drama about the Boston Globe’s reporting of the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal, was nominated for best picture, director (Tom McCarthy), original screenplay, editing, and for the supporting performances by Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams.

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

MICHIGAN
MLive

By Rosemary Parker | rparker3@mlive.com
on January 14, 2016

KALAMAZOO, MI — A Roman Catholic archbishop who was accused of failing to protect children from sexual abuse and resigned in the wake of the civil and criminal charges against his archdiocese of Minneapolis has taken on new work, assisting at St. Philip parish in Battle Creek.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Kalamazoo confirmed Wednesday that Archbishop Emeritus John C. Nienstedt arrived at the Battle Creek parish Jan.6.

Just a few weeks earlier, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis signed a 28-page settlement agreement that ended a civil lawsuit brought against the Roman Catholic archdiocese by three victims of sexual abuse by a priest. The lawsuit, and related criminal charges, were the first in the country ever launched against an archdiocese for complicity in sex abuse cases.

Criminal charges accusing the archdiocese of repeatedly ignoring complaints of priestly misconduct are still pending. The priest convicted in 2013 of molesting boys is now in prison.

Nienstedt, the imprisoned priest’s former boss, “has volunteered to assist temporarily the pastor of St. Philip Parish in Battle Creek in light of the pastor’s ongoing serious health challenges,” the statement from the Kalamazoo Diocese said.

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

GERMANY
Christian Today

Shianee Mamanglu-Regala 14 January 2016

More than 200 children at a famous choir school in Germany run by the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI fell victim to physical and sexual abuse, an ongoing investigation into the decades-long Catholic Church scandal revealed.

The investigation is centred on the Domspatzen, the official choir at the Regensburg Central dedicated to St. Peter in Bavaria state, and two feeder schools between 1953 and 1992.

Investigators received additional allegations of sexual and physical assault by priests on the members of the boys choir, according to Ulrich Weber, a lawyer hired by the church to look into the scandal.

Weber told a news conference in Berlin last week that at least 50 of the 231 alleged victims made “plausible” claims of sexual abuse.

The alleged sexual abuse encompassed offences such as fondling and rape, while the reported physical abuse included beatings and the withholding of food. He said the victims named 10 perpetrators, Agence France-Presse reported.

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

OKLAHOMA
The Free Thinker

An Oklahoma Bible study leader charged with dozens of sex crimes against a 14-year- old girl had form as a sex offender before joining the Calvary Christian Church in Del City, Oklahoma.

According to this report, Donnie Ray Schultz, 45, above, faces more than 50 charges for rape and “forcible oral sodomy”, along with counts of making and possessing child pornography.

Calvary spokesman Jason Sharp, a spokesman for the church, said the allegations came as:

A complete shock. While (Schultz) led a small group Bible study on church doctrine, he was one of seven members who took turns teaching the class. The class was for adults only, but apparently some participated in the class before they were eighteen.

He added that Schultz was never in any paid, employee relationship with the church. He led the discipleship class as a volunteer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Daily Press

A clergyman who was recently acquitted of four counts of sexual assault has thanked the community for their “incredible” support during the past 18 months.

At a hearing on Wednesday, January 6, at Bournemouth Crown Court, Judge Roberts ordered that a not guilty verdict should be entered after the prosecution offered no evidence in the case of Roy Catchpole, 69, of Milborne Port.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “We had to offer no evidence as we were not going to pursue with a prosecution and in order to end the proceedings.”

Following the not guilty order, Mr Catchpole expressed his relief that the ordeal of the past 18 months was now over.

He said: “Throughout the process I have been aware that the wider public in Sherborne and surrounding area have been incredibly supportive. I have been nobly served by barristers whose energies have been directed to getting at the truth and delivering justice.

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RHODE ISLAND
NBC 10

BY ADAM BAGNI, NBC 10 NEWS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13TH 2016

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Alleged victims are continuing to call for the resignation of the headmaster at St. George’s School, even as the school announced a new independent investigator earlier this week.

The elite Middletown prep school is currently engulfed in a major sex abuse scandal.

Attorneys for the alleged victims say more than 40 people have told them they were sexually assaulted at St. George’s.

Of the three that have spoken publicly, all of them want the resignation of headmaster Eric Peterson.

“Eric Peterson has been covering this up since 2004 – my issue, as well as others,” said alleged victim Harry Groome.

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

FLORIDA
Action News Jax

[with video]

By Samantha Manning

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Evangel Temple said it wants a full police investigation into claims a church member sexually assaulted children decades ago in St. Louis.

Roy Bay, 56, made the claims publicly Tuesday during a Jacksonville City Council meeting on the human rights ordinance, which he was speaking out against.

The expansion of the HRO would offer protections for the LGBT community in housing, employment and public accommodations.

“At the age of 10 to 12 years old, I was in restrooms, businesses, and I was sexually assaulted by the homosexual community,” Bay said to City Council.

Bay then spoke exclusively with Action News Jax about his claims. – See more at:

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TEXAS
Fox 28

[with statement from Trinity Fellowship Church]

BY BROOKE SELF WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13TH 2016

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — A lawsuit is being filed against Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo — one of the largest churches in West Texas — over accusations that one of the volunteer pastors molested a girl.

The lawsuit is being filed by the law firm of Glasheen, Valles & Inderman, LLP on behalf of the child. The suit alleges the girl was subjected to sexual abuse by a volunteer youth group leader at the church.

In a statement provided by Trinity Fellowship Church the church stated that Randy Castillo served as an occasional volunteer in the Children’s Ministry from October 2012 to July 2014. They said Castillo was not, at any time, employed by the church, given the title of Pastor, or even referred to as such.

TFC said Castillo occasionally served on the volunteer team, where he worked with 4-year-olds in the early childhood ministry. He also served at the summer camp for 1st through 4th graders in 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE MCCARTHY
Jan. 14, 2016

THE Federal Government will announce whether it supports a national compensation and support scheme for survivors of historic child sexual abuse before the end of January.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter’s office has confirmed the government’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommendation for a national redress scheme is due in two weeks.

The commission proposed a $4.3 billion national scheme funded by institutions, including churches, responsible for the sexual abuse of children, and state and federal governments, with the scheme administered and underwritten by the federal government.

The scheme would treat all survivors equally, with compensation between $10,000 and $200,000, along with long term counselling and psychological care.

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CANADA
CBC News

By Terry Roberts, CBC News Posted: Jan 14, 2016

Allegations of abuse involving two members of the Jehovah’s Witness religious movement in Newfoundland have emerged, though details of the charges are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

CBC News has learned that two men, including a former volunteer church elder and his son, are facing charges.

The former elder is charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation relating to allegations dating from 2009 to 2012 in central Newfoundland.

According to court documents, a second man is charged with sexual assault, with the information referencing a period between May 2011 and December 2013 in a community on the Avalon Peninsula.

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

TEXAS
NewsWest9

[with video]

By Julia Deng

WINKLER COUNTY, TX (KWES) –
A lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages for “severe psychological pain and mental anguish” was filed Wednesday in Winkler County against an Amarillo church, claiming members kept quiet about molestation involving a former volunteer pastor.

Kermit resident Randy Steven Castillo, 28, was arrested in January 2015, Amarillo Police said, after an adult discovered inappropriate text messages he sent to a minor.

He reportedly met the unidentified girl while volunteering at Trinity Fellowship Church on Hollywood Road in Amarillo, authorities said.

“We sued Trinity Church because we have learned the church had information about ‘Pastor Randy’ asking junior high-aged girls for nude pictures,” said Kevin Glasheen, the anonymous plaintiff’s Lubbock-based attorney. “You could see that in their internal emails.”

Church members who were made aware of the inappropriate correspondence never alerted law enforcement or parents of the children, according to the lawsuit.

Failing to report child abuse is a crime in Texas. However, Castillo’s colleagues and supervisors at Trinity Fellowship Church were not arrested or charged.

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

FLORIDA
Action News Jax

[with video]

By Jenna Bourne

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Westside pastor faced his congregation for the first time since a member and former employee of his church made a disturbing confession at a Jacksonville City Council meeting Tuesday night.

Roy Bay said he molested boys for years in St. Louis public bathrooms as he was speaking out against an expansion of Jacksonville’s human rights ordinance to include the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

More than 200 churchgoers streamed through Evangel Temple’s doors Wednesday night.
Bay was one of them.

Action News Jax’s cameras were not allowed inside the church, although the church leadership welcomed our crew to attend the service and observe.

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NEW YORK
Utica Observer-Dispatch

By Micaela Parker

Under the gaze of church members, Lucas Leonard and Christopher Leonard were told to repent for their sins.

The teens stood in the small sanctuary of Word of Life Christian Church on the evening of Oct. 11.

Lucas, 19, already had been confronted during a service that day about his desire to leave the Chadwicks church, new court documents allege, but questioning took a different tone during the beatings that ultimately would result in the death of Lucas and severe injury to his 17-year-old brother Christopher.

Nine people are accused of varying degrees of involvement in the 14-hour counseling session that spanned the evening of Oct. 11 into the morning of Oct. 12. Of those nine defendants, one has accepted a plea offer from the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office while five, as of Wednesday, have rejected their offers.

The session, led by Pastor Tiffanie Irwin, focused on a number of allegations she made into the teens’ conduct, according to court documents obtained from the county District Attorney’s Office by the Observer-Dispatch via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Utilizing her authority within the church, something that includes congregants’ belief that she was a prophet, the documents allege that she accused the teens, who were barred from leaving of having sexually abused numerous minors, several of whom have family ties to the teens; having fantasized about engaging in sexual relations with the pastor; having practiced witchcraft; and having planned and/or taken initial steps to kill their parents.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 17

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP/WXMI) — The former archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has a new post, in Michigan.

Former Archbishop John Nienstedt will help a pastor in Battle Creek, Michigan, as the pastor undergoes treatment for epilepsy.

The Star Tribune reports Nienstedt’s arrival was announced in the Sunday bulletin at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church.

The Rev. John Fleckenstein wrote that Nienstedt will help him and other priests until the summer. Fleckenstein says Nienstedt has not been formally assigned to the parish.

Nienstedt resigned from the Twin Cities archdiocese in June after the Ramsey County Attorney’s offices filed civil and criminal charges claiming that the church had failed to protect children from clergy sex abuse.

The Diocese of Kalamazoo wrote in a statement: “The Diocese of Kalamazoo is committed to providing safe environments for all people. As is the case for any priest or bishop ministering in the Diocese, Archbishop Emeritus Nienstedt begins his temporary ministry at St. Philip Parish as a priest in good standing, having met the Church’s stringent standards required to attain that status. As such he is welcome in the Diocese of Kalamazoo for the several months that he will be available to offer supplemental sacramental ministry to the people of St. Philip Parish.”

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UNITED STATES
Forward

No matter what happens at the Oscars, the very best film of 2015 was “Spotlight,” the improbable drama of how a team of newspaper reporters painstakingly revealed an institutional cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The film’s excellence lay not only in its superb acting and storytelling, but in the way it humanized without sensationalizing the lasting pain of child abuse.

Who can forget the scene of a tough Bostonian recounting how a priest molested him when he was a vulnerable youngster? His confusion, embarrassment and shame were laid bare on the screen before us, allowing us to viscerally understand how it can take years for a young victim to comprehend what happened and to muster the courage to challenge a figure of religious authority.

That image needs to remain in our sights, alongside the images of the young men the Forward wrote about in 2012 and 2013 who bravely stepped up to reveal the abuse they suffered at the hands of esteemed rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

And it should remain alongside the stunning essay by Sara Kabakov published in this week’s Forward, where she for the first time detailed how she was repeatedly molested in her home by the former rabbi and spiritual guru Marc Gafni when she was only a teenager and he was a rabbinical student.

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MICHIGAN
WIN

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 by John McNeill

KALAMAZOO/BATTLE CREEK (WKZO) — A controversial former Archbishop who resigned from his position in St. Paul-Minneapolis after allegations involving sexual abuse by priests has been reassigned to work with the pastor of St. Phillip Roman Catholic Church in Battle Creek.

Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned last June after the local prosecutors filed criminal and civil charges that the church had failed to protect children from clergy sex abuse.

The national director of SNAP, Survivors Network of those abused by Priests, David Clohessy tells WKZO news that there are allegations that Nienstadt himself has sexually exploited seminarians. He was cleared of allegations of abusing a young boy, but his diocese was charged with hiding a predator priest.

Clohessy asks if any other employer would retain an employee with such a work history, and reassign him to a post where he is sure to come into contact with children? He calls it an outrage.

Clohessy says it’s part of a pattern, alleging the church still rigorously protects anyone who wears a collar despite promises of reform.

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

MICHIGAN
WWMT

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Catholic official accused of sexual misconduct and covering child sex crimes has been hired by the Kalamazoo diocese.

Newschannel 3 spoke to a group raising awareness on Wednesday, and got reaction from the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo.

There are no formal charges against a new assistant priest in the Battle Creek area, but there was an investigation into cover-up and alleged sexual abuse during his last leadership role.

Some say it’s important for the community in West Michigan to know.

It was Sunday’s newsletter at St. Philip Roman Catholic Church in Battle Creek, that welcomed new assistant priest John Nienstedt.

“Shouldn’t your community have been made aware of his past? Of his history?” asked Barbara Dorris, from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Nienstedt retired from his last role as Archbishop in Minneapolis, but SNAP, an awareness group, says he was forced out in the wake of a criminal investigation.

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AUSTRALIA
Gold Coast Bulletin

[with video]

AUSTRALIA will know in two weeks whether it will have a national compensation scheme for survivors of shocking abuse in orphanages, children’s homes and other institutions.

A spokesman for Social Services Minister Christian Porter has confirmed to AAP that an announcement – the federal response to a royal commission recommendation for a national redress scheme – will be made by the end of January.

He declined to comment on whether the Turnbull government would back the $4.3 billion proposal, rejected as too complex and expensive when Tony Abbott was in power, but expectations are high the go-ahead for a single national scheme will be given.

Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made final redress recommendations six months ago, tens of thousands of abuse survivors – as well as state and faith-based institutions who could have to collectively contribute billions of dollars – are anxiously awaiting federal direction.

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MINNESOTA
Press TV (Iran)

A high ranking catholic priest in the US state of Minnesota, who was forced to resign after clergy in his church were charged with sexual abuse, has been appointed assistant priest at a church in Michigan state.

Saint Philip Roman Catholic church in Kalamazoo announced this week that it had appointed John Nienstedt, the former archbishop of St Paul and Minneapolis, to assist the parish while its head pastor dealt with medical issues.

Nienstedt resigned in June 2015, days after Ramsey County attorney John Choi filed criminal and civil charges against the archdiocese.

Choi had alleged that the archdiocese “time and time again turned a blind eye” to sex abuse by the clergy. It was the first time a US archdiocese had faced sex abuse charges in the past ten years.

The criminal charges are pending at the Ramsey County civil court.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (Snap) called on Pope Francis to reverse the decision and asked Michigan bishops to denounce Nienstedt’s appointment.

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ROME
National Catholic Register

by Edward Pentin 01/13/2016

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has confirmed the presence of a homosexual “lobby” in the Vatican and revealed that Pope Francis is trying “little by little to purify it.”

The Honduran Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, who coordinates the Council of Nine cardinals advising the Pope on reform of the Roman Curia and Church governance, was responding to a question from a Honduran newspaper reporter who asked him whether there had been “an attempt to infiltrate the gay community in the Vatican, or a moment when that had actually happened?”

Cardinal Rodriguez replied: “Not only that, also the Pope has said there is even a ‘lobby’ in this sense. Little by little the Pope is trying to purify it.” He added: “One can understand them [members of the lobby] and there is pastoral legislation to attend to them, but what is wrong cannot be truth.”

The Pope acknowledged the presence of a homosexual network of priests at the Vatican during a private conversation with leaders of a Latin American confederation of religious in June 2013. In the context of saying he found reform of the Roman Curia difficult, the Pope said: “The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there … We need to see what we can do.”

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

[with video]

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A Catholic official accused of covering up sexual misconduct will start working at St. Philip Parish in Battle Creek.

According to the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Archbishop Emeritus John Nienstedt volunteered to help Father John, who has ‘ongoing serious health challenges.’ The Diocese of Kalamazoo said Nienstedt moved to Battle Creek on Jan. 6. He’s expected to stay in Battle Creek for approximately six months.

Nienstedt resigned from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis last year after several accusations and charges of covering up sexual misconduct surfaced. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Nienstedt’s archdiocese became first in the nation to be charged with failure to “protect children.”

“One of the priests in his archdiocese in Minneapolis is in prison now for molesting kids in that diocese and he concealed that. This is the first archdiocese to have criminal charges against them for concealing child sex abuse. As a result of that, he resigned from that archdiocese,” said Bill McAlary, a Michigan leader of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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