ABUSE TRACKER

CANADA
Metro

By Rosemary Westwood
Metro

I don’t lack reasons to be embarrassed: shiny forehead, very loud voice, a sometimes uptight nature.

Some days, I even have the bonus of being Catholic. It’s a bit like being an American — you’re an easy butt of jokes.

The Vatican can’t go long without sparking controversy, and the pope (any pope) can’t go long without inflaming the global public.

Such was the case this week. After Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in a historic referendum, a senior Vatican official said: “I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles but of a defeat for humanity.”

How ridiculous, and (perhaps inevitably) aggrandizing. A defeat for humanity is worsening climate change. A defeat for humanity is nuclear war. Even if you don’t support same-sex marriage (I do), allowing it doesn’t come with such dire consequences.

That’s far from my first, or likely last, embarrassment.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wandsworth Guardian

by Laura Proto

A retired vicar who indecently assaulted a child while he was a curate at a church in Southfields has been jailed for three years.

Graham Gregory, 79, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 13 last year, and was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, May 26.

A woman contacted police in 2012, saying she had been abused between 1969 and 1971 when she lived in Wandsworth and attended the church where Gregory was a curate.

She said Gregory, now of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York, kissed her on several occasions before he assaulted her.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

29 May 2015 by Joanna Moorhead, Liz Dodd

A group of men has called on the Comboni Fathers to acknowledge and apologise for decades of abuse they allege took place at the order’s junior seminary in Yorkshire.

Brian Hennessy, one of 12 ex-students who have come forward to say they were abused by priests at Mirfield Junior Seminary in Yorkshire between the late 1950s and the early 1980s, this week sent a 157-page report detailing more than 1,000 instances of abuse to the archbishops of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

The report was also sent to the abbots and religious superiors of all the religious communities in Britain and the heads of the religious conferences.

In an accompanying letter Mr Hennessy said that priests and Religious had failed in their task, abandoned their mission and the spirituality of the Gospels by refusing properly to acknowledge and validate their pain and suffering.

Last year a group of victims were given payments by the order of between £7,000 and £30,000 each which Kathy Perrin, a lawyer with the Catholic Church Insurance Association, which represented the order, said was not an admission of guilt.

She explained: “Everything happened an incredibly long time ago and two of the priests who were accused are now deceased. My clients simply don’t know what happened at Mirfield and don’t feel that it can be established now.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: The bishop of Ballarat has told the royal commission the diocese may struggle to make compensation payments to all its victims of child sexual abuse.

But Paul Bird acknowledged that it could borrow money from a diocese fund which is worth $100 million.

The commission heard there had been at least 130 claims made against 14 local priests between 1980 and now.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Catholic Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird acknowledges that when it comes to clerical sexual abuse his community is divided.

PAUL BIRD: Yes, there are quite a few divisions I would say and people have sometimes quite different reactions. Those of course who would be directly hurt, those who, certainly those who’ve been offended against and their families would really feel the crimes that have been done. Others who may be more distant from that might not see the real, the full impact, or not appreciate it.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Paul Bird has been the bishop of Ballarat since 2012.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Thursday 28 May 2015

As many as 14 priests have been found to have sexually abused children in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese, the child sexual abuse royal commission has heard.

Data before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shows there have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse against the Ballarat diocese since 1980.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness said that number included seven claims jointly held against the Christian Brothers.

She said at least 14 priests of the Ballarat diocese have been the subject of one or more claim or substantiated complaint of child sex abuse. Ballarat bishop Paul Bird said he was not certain that all 14 had been substantiated and he thought it was a lower number, maybe 10 or 12.

Furness said data from the diocese’s records show Gerald Francis Ridsdale had been the subject of at least 76 claims and substantiated complaints from the late 1950s to the late 1980s.

Earlier, Bird told the commission that he thought the Vatican should remove a priest from his position if he has been convicted of abusing children, but that it has not always done so.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

ONE of Victoria’s most senior priests says the Catholic Church should consider ordaining women.

Ballarat bishop Paul Bird said today a lack of women in the church may have contributed to the widespread abuse of children.

He told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the issue should be revisited.

“If we looked at the possible negative effects of not including women, then that would add to the reason for the discussion,” he said.

“If we see that as a difficulty in having the church really balanced as a community, and with a recognition that perhaps in some cases that very imbalance…was a contributing factor to some crimes…then that would be all the more reason.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 29, 2015

Chris Johnston

What are the connections between three senior Catholic Church leaders and notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale? Both inside and outside of the child sexual abuse royal commission these connections are being tested and incrementally revealed, despite Ridsdale’s evidence this week full of noticeable omissions and memory lapses.

Take Thursday, for example, down at Fairhaven outside a nice house on the Great Ocean Road, occupied by former bishop Ronald Mulkearns, 83. He was named this week as the “pivotal person” responsible for failing to prevent rampant child sexual abuse at Catholic institutions in Ballarat in the 1970s, moving Ridsdale around the state and overseas as the allegations against him piled up.

Fairfax Media reported last year the Ballarat Catholic diocese paid for a $60,000 renovation on the coastal house. Another media outlet reported in 2013, after a stroke, that he leads an “active lifestyle” down the coast. The former bishop is not before the commission, citing ill health. Despite that he took an interesting visitor yesterday, who has admitted the royal commission was discussed.

The visitor was retired Catholic priest John McKinnon, who spent his working years at parishes in western Victoria, including Ballarat. He now lives in Hamilton.

The ABC went to Fairhaven to knock on former bishop Mulkearns’ door and while he declined to comment, they found Father McKinnon outside. He was most talkative. Asked what the pair discussed inside, he said: “Obviously the royal commission was part of it, but we don’t want to talk about that all the time.”

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AUSTRALIA
Gazette Herald

BY ANDREW HIGGINS / MAY 28, 2015
Gordon Hill hopes the many individuals like him who have been abused as youngsters by clergy in Ballarat will ultimately find yourself discovering a bit of little bit of peace and recognition.

The 72-year-old is glad he made the 3000km journey from Western Australia to the Victorian regional metropolis to inform the royal fee of the bodily and sexual abuse he suffered as a toddler at St Joseph’s Home.

But many survivors of the widespread abuse by clergy over many years within the Ballarat diocese really feel that even after an intense two-week public listening to, there’s nonetheless an extended solution to go.

In specific they level to the Catholic Church’s response and dealing with of abuse complaints.

“There does not appear to be something put into place and no eagerness to do something,” survivor Andrew Collins stated.

“You would assume that in any case these years that they might have had this down pat now, that procedures would have been put into place they usually’d be doing issues that have been victim-centred not church-centred.”

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AUSTRALIA
Radio Australia

Child abuse sex inquiry: Bishop Paul Bird denies as many as 14 Ballarat priests involved in abuse as hearings wrap up

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

A bishop disputes figures at a royal commission hearing in Victoria that the diocese of Ballarat had at least 14 priests involved in child sexual abuse.

At least 14 priests in the diocese of Ballarat are the subject of complaints of child sexual abuse, a royal commission hearing in Victoria has been told.

However, that figure was disputed by Bishop Paul Bird who testified on the final day of hearings in Ballarat of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Bird said while he does not know the actual figure, he does not think all of the complaints were substantiated.

“It’s less than 14 … maybe 12, maybe 10,” he said.

Bishop Bird agreed there were clear divisions in the Ballarat community in relation to survivors of child abuse being encouraged to come forward.

“Some people don’t think it’s a good thing,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 29, 2015

Jane Lee

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird doubts the diocese will be able to afford all the compensation claims it expects to receive from survivors of clergy abuse.

The diocese had worked with Catholic Church Insurance to try to estimate how much they may have to pay in compensation claims for historic and current child abuse, Bishop Bird told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday.

The Bishop – the final witness for the commission’s Ballarat hearing –was “not confident” about the sum, but said he had “doubts that we could meet those claims” as the diocese’s finances were “not very strong.”

Claims not covered by Catholic Church Insurance were paid out of a fund set up by a bequest in the 1930s. There was $1 million still in the fund, the commission heard.

The diocese also owned “very few” small parcels of land held by a trust and had a more than $100 million development fund, contributed to by the diocese and other investors.

Since January 1980, at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints had been made against the Diocese of Ballarat for child sexual abuse, including seven jointly held with the Christian Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Friday 29 May 2015

Potential misuse of the Catholic confessional has been exposed after at least one priest has admitted using the private disclosure to seek absolution for abusing children.

The revelation meant the system lacked honesty and substance if a priest could be absolved in such a way, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse was told on Friday.

“It’s not yet public, but we have heard from at least one priest who confessed to his confessor, and in that way reconciled his offending behaviour, which continued with his belief in God,” justice Peter McClellan told the commission in Ballarat on Friday.

“That throws up a rather startling illustration of how the confessional might be misused, doesn’t it?”

Ballarat bishop Paul Bird agreed that would be a terrible misuse of confession.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Megan Neil
May 29, 2015

At least one priest admitted he was abusing children during confession, the royal commission has heard.

Commission Chair Justice Peter McClellan has revealed that at least one priest confessed his offending behaviour in confession.

“It’s not yet public, but we have heard from at least one priest who confessed to his confessor, and in that way reconciled his offending behaviour, which continued with his belief in God,” Justice McClellan said on Friday.

“That throws up a rather startling illustration of how the confessional might be misused, doesn’t it?”

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird said that would be a terrible misuse of confession, which was supposed to mean conversion from doing wrong.

“If it’s such a serious matter as a crime, to treat it as though it was something that one could confess, I think to me that is simply a shelf of a ritual, it has no substance.”

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 27

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

We are grateful that Nordonia Hills school board president James Virost resigned today and we hope that Fr. Ralph Wiatrowsky of St. Barnabas will soon be disciplined. Both men wrote a judge essentially urging a lighter sentence for a convicted child sex offender (former Nordonia Hills school board President Steve Bittel). They should be ashamed of themselves.

[WKYC]

School and church officials should always put the safety of their kids above the wishes of their friends. Helping sex offenders get shorter sentences is reckless and hurtful. When officials write letters urging lighter punishments for sex offenders, they are being selfish and short-sighted and they rub even more salt into the already deep and usually still fresh wounds of victims and their loved ones.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Bittel’s crimes will call law enforcement. And we hope that those who care about kids will keep pressuring Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon to publicly and harshly discipline Fr. Wiatrowsky for his irresponsible actions in this case.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

At a time when Catholic families placed priests on a pedestal, Gerald Francis Ridsdale held an “almost supernatural” level of power even in his own family.

He was charismatic and many were in awe of him, his nephew David Ridsdale recalls.

Ridsdale’s mother would be frantic when he came home to visit, ordering his six siblings to get their cars off the driveway hours before his arrival.

He appeared to be a hardworking priest who helped his parishioners, particularly the needy and youth.

But it was all a ruse that was allowed to continue for decades and, as one judge put it, plummeted to the depths of evil hypocrisy.

Ridsdale used his exalted position in the eyes of Catholic families and communities to find his prey.

Father Adrian McInerney admired Ridsdale’s ability, and even what he did for youth, saying Ridsdale sought out families in need when he went to a parish.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Megan Neil
May 29, 2015

The Vatican should remove a priest from his position if he’s been convicted of abusing children, but has not always done so, a Victorian priest says.

Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird has also told the child sex abuse royal commission that the position of a priest provided cover for clergy who abused children.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

live stream

Bishop Paul Bird is giving testimony to the commission.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By JARROD WOOLLEY May 29, 2015

WITH his wispy white hair, large glasses, and liver spots on his balding head, he could be any ordinary man on the street.

But there is nothing ordinary about Gerald Ridsdale.

It is hard to reconcile the image on the screen — that of a feeble old man who needed the assistance of a walking frame — with the one that has been painted in the media of an evil, perverted sex fiend who preyed on young children with zero thought for the hurt and harm he was causing.

But make no mistake — the man who appeared at the royal commission into child sex abuse via video link from his Ararat prison is a monster.

He’s serving time for abusing 54 individual victims. It’s thought there are countless others who fell victim to Ridsdale, including many who have taken their own lives, unable to live with the irreversible psychological damage done to them by the defrocked priest they initially trusted.

The commission, in part, is trying to find out how Ridsdale and other priests and Christian Brothers could continue interfering with children for so long and what the church did to stop it.

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By KATE McILWAIN May 29, 2015

Notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale wormed his way into a Sydney family’s life and ‘‘latched on’’ to a young boy before abusing him at Bulli Parish, where he worked for three weekends as a relieving priest in the 1980s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat has heard the 81-year-old former priest went on to abuse children in Maroubra and the Diocese of Wollongong after he had been sent away from Ballarat because of multiple complaints that he was sexually abusing children.

Despite conditions imposed by Ballarat’s Bishop Ronald Mulkearns that Ridsdale be tranfered to work in a desk job at Sydney’s Catholic Inquiry Centre and have no contact with children, the paedophile tracked down a prayer group which included families with children.

“In this particular prayer group, you latched on to a 10 or 11 year-old boy straight away, didn’t you?,” counsel assisting the commissioner, Gail Furness, said during Thursday’s hearing.

“And you became friendly with the family, you had a computer and a keyboard that you used because the boy was interested in keyboards, and you lent him the keyboard, didn’t you?

“In your words, you wormed your way into his family?”

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FLORIDA
CBS Miami

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — A rabbi is in trouble with the law, accused of molesting a child and now police are searching for more possible victims.

Miami Beach Police arrested Steve Karro, 55, on Thursday.

Karro was a substitute Rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation.

According to his arrest report, on April 16th, Karro “intentionally touched/grabbed the buttocks” of an 11-year old girl. The report also states he kissed her along her neck after having her sit on his lap.

Police said the alleged victim has known Karro for five years.

Karro allegedly gave the girl candy and “told her not to tell her mother about what had happened.”

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FLORIDA
New Times

BY KYLE MUNZENRIEDER

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015

Steve Karro, a 55-year-old rabbi on Miami Beach, is behind bars today on charges of molesting an 11-year-old girl. The alleged incident happened last month, but Karro told police that he was merely trying to cleanse the girl of her “negative energy.”

Karro is a substitute rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation. He also pursues a career as a fine artist, and indeed has his own art gallery on Arthur Godfrey Road. That’s where the incident happened back on April 16.

Karro allegedly grabbed the girl’s buttocks over her clothes at the gallery. He then sat the girl down on his lap and kissed her along the neck. The victim then ran out of the gallery, but not before Karro alleged gave her a bag of candy and told her not to tell her mother.

According to police, Karro has known the victim for five years.

When questioned by police, Karro denied most of the charges but did admit to touching the girl’s buttocks. However, he said the girl was “exhibiting negative energy” and touched her to “cleanse” her.

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FLORIDA
Local 10

[with video]

Author: Amanda Batchelor, Senior Digital Editor, abatchelor@wplg.com

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. –
A substitute rabbi at a Miami Beach synagogue is facing charges after allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl last month.

Steve Karro, 55, was arrested Thursday on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child.

According to an arrest report, Karro, who is a substitute rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation, intentionally grabbed the buttocks of the victim on April 16 while they were at the Karro Art Gallery.

Police said Karro also kissed the girl’s neck after sitting her on his lap. Police said the rabbi and victim have known one other for five years.

According to detectives, Karro denied some of the allegations, but said he touched the victim’s buttocks for a “cleansing as she was exhibiting negative energy.”

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FLORIDA
WSVN

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — According to Miami Beach Police, a rabbi has been arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl, though he claims he did so to “cleanse” her of negative energy.

Fifty-five-year-old Rabbi Steve Karro is accused of touching and kissing the girl, who he has known for five years, at Karro Art Studio, located at 738 West 41st St., on Miami Beach. “A few officers just came here and started taking pictures and were asking questions, and they took pictures all over the place, and they left,” said Ezekiel Eneus.

According to the arrest report, Karro intentionally touched and grabbed the buttocks of the victim over her clothing. He also kissed her neck and sat her on his lap. As nerves began to build, she got up and began to leave the studio, he then handed her a small bag of candy and asked that she not tell her mother of what took place.

“I feel very sorry for her, also for the family. I pray for everybody. This is a very bad situation for the family and also for him,” said Michelle, who works nearby the art studio.

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FLORIDA
NBC Miami

[with video]

A substitute Rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation on Miami Beach was arrested Thursday morning on molestation charges.

Steve Karro, 55, who is also an artist, is charged with molestation of a child under the age of 12 and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16.

According to the police report, Karro touched and grabbed the buttocks of an 11-year-old girl over her clothing, while she was visiting his art gallery at 738 41st Street.

The police report said Karro also kissed the girl along her neck after sitting her on her lap. The girl got visibly nervous and rushed out of the gallery.

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@MiamiHerald.com

A substitute rabbi arrested for domestic violence almost two decades ago was charged Thursday with fondling an 11-year-old girl through her clothes and caressing her buttocks at his Miami Beach art gallery.

Police said Steve Karro, 55, placed the child on his lap last month and kissed her on the neck, then touched her bottom. During questioning by police, Karro said he touched the child’s buttocks for “cleansing” reasons because she was exhibiting “negative energy.”

Police said Karro gave her a bag of candy and asked her not to tell her parents about what had happened as she left the studio, 738 Arthur Godfrey Rd., on April 16. Police said the child and Karro knew each other for five years, but officers couldn’t explain why she was at the studio alone.

Karro, a substitute rabbi at the nearby Shaare Ezra Sephardic Synagogue Congregation, was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct of a child, and molesting a child. Calls to the synagogue and to Karro were not immediately returned Thursday.

Police said there was no indication that Karro did anything wrong while serving there.

Karro’s only previous brush with the law, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, was for beating up his wife in 1999. His wife was also arrested during that encounter, in what was described then as a “knock-down, drag-out fight.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

By JARROD WOOLLEY May 29, 2015

PAEDOPHILE priest Gerald Ridsdale said if former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns had gone to the police rather than try and rehabilitate him with counselling, his offending would have stopped because he would have been in prison.

Giving evidence for a second day at the child sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat, Australia’s worst paedophile priest said he was now sorry he wasn’t reported to police and believes he should never have been ordained.

Ridsdale also appeared to back track on evidence given on Wednesday, conceding he may have approached Cardinal George Pell to give character evidence at his 1993 court appearance.

Comment: Ridsdale the old, cold face of evil

He had previously said he believed that was arranged through his legal team.

It was also revealed yesterday Cardinal Pell was on a committee of parish consulters that met in 1982 where Bishop Mulkearns said it had become “necessary to remove” Ridsdale from his post as parish priest at Mortlake’s St Colman’s Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By DANNIELLE MAGUIRE May 29, 2015

A DEFROCKED priest charged with numerous historic child sex offences will finally stand trial in Sydney early next year.

The former Armidale priest, whose identity has been gagged, was sent to trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday.

He will stand trial in Sydney on January 18.

The trial is expected to take four weeks.

The ex-priest first appeared before the Armidale Local Court on October 18, 2012.

He had been charged with more than 120 offences, including 25 charges relating to the abuse of three girls across regional NSW between 1979 and 1988; 36 charges relating to the abuse of six boys between 1981 and 1984 in Moree and 64 charges relating to the abuse of two girls and one altar boy between 1982 and 1985.

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MICHIGAN
CBS Detroit

JACKSON, Mich. (WWJ/AP) – Bond was set at $1 million for a former Michigan Catholic school priest, teacher and wrestling coach charged in connection in the alleged sexual assaults of several boys more than three decades ago.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette said75-year-old James Rapp was arraigned Thursday in Jackson District Court on 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

A not guilty plea was entered on Rapp’s behalf. He’ll remain jailed pending a June 26 preliminary examination conference.

Schuette said the investigation into Rapp’s conduct began in 2013 when two victims — now grown men — came forward to report the abuse that allegedly occurred when Rapp was assigned to Jackson Lumen Christi High School in the 1980s.

Jackson County Sheriff Steve Rand said his department launched an extensive investigation revealing several more victims.

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NEVADA
Las Vegas Sun

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, May 28, 2015

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court today overturned a $500,000 judgment against the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin in a case in which a priest in Las Vegas was accused of inappropriately touching a teen.

The court ruled that the District Court in Nevada does not have jurisdiction over the diocese.

The priest involved was originally from the diocese in Wisconsin and moved to Los Angeles and then to Las Vegas.

The incident allegedly occurred in 1985 when the priest was accused of running his hand up the teen’s leg and touching his genitals, according to court documents. The teen was a student at a Catholic school in Las Vegas.

The boy, who was in his early teens, said the incident led to psychological injuries in his later life.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

“The Milwaukee situation is the most insidious and openly destructive one I have seen in 31 years…”, said Dominican Fr. Thomas P. Doyle recently. Tom Doyle gives the reasons for his concern and outrage in his recent full remarks below. There he addresses the horrendous and ongoing mistreatment, indeed “re-abuse”, by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee of local survivors of priest sexual abuse, including some of the more than 200 deaf boys who were abused a single priest. See the related HBO Emmy and Peabody Awards’ winning documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God , and here .

This abusive Milwaukee priest was protected for decades by unaccountable cardinals and bishops, including ex-Pope Benedict and his Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. For years, these defenseless deaf boys tried to tell of their priest abuse in Milwaukee, to little avail.

This Catholic hierarchical cover up of a “one-priest” sexual abuse tsunami and of the related “re-abuse” of survivors are outrageously not unique, as is evident from the recent grilling by the Australian Royal Commission of Fr. Gerald Ridsdale, who was protected by his close ties to Cardinal George Pell, whom Pope Francis nevertheless promoted to a top Vatican position.

Most of the Risdale allegations had been well established and publicized before Pell’s promotion. Almost 75,000 people in just a few days have signed a Change.org petition calling for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former Archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions under oath in Australia, despite Pell’s initial efforts to duck giving testimony there on new matters. Pell, in effect, under oath earlier also admitted to “re-abusing” abuse survivors with cruel and punitive legal tactics, for example, in the so-called Ellis case, like the Milwaukee Archbishop and Cardinal Timothy Dolan also apparently have similarly done.

A Vatican confidante reportedly spoken to by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia confirmed Pope Francis was personally aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell, but was treating them as just that — unconfirmed allegations. Unconfirmed beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, perhaps. But in my experience over three decades as an adviser to top leaders of multinational organizations and corporations, not one of them would ever have promoted Pell like the pope did in light of the well known, widespread, multiple and plausible allegations against Pell. Indeed, Pell admitted before moving to the Vatican under oath to, in effect, using ruthless legal tactics to punitively “re-abuse” abuse survivor, John Ellis.

Of course, Rupert Murdoch appears to be very close to the Vatican and Pell, and also apparently to a top Pell supporter, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and to the indicted Adelaide Archbishop, the first Catholic archbishop ever criminally charged in a priest child sexual abuse cover up case . And the pope and Murdoch also appear to be partnering to elect a “low tax” Republican as US president next year, possibly Jeb Bush with Big Oil backing.

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IRELAND
The Journal

SOME 184 ALLEGATIONS of historical clerical abuse have been brought to the attention of a national watchdog organisation in the last year.

The allegations relate to physical, emotional and sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy between 1950 and 2006, according to an annual report published today by the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

In the year under review, 58 new abuse allegations were made against Diocesan clergy while 126 concerned religious priests, brothers and sisters.

The allegations, which were all raised during the 2014-15 year ending 31 March, have now been passed on to the Gardaí or PSNI and, if necessary, to Tusla or the Northern Irish Health and Social Care Trusts, the Board said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wall Street Journal

By JENNY GROSS
Updated May 28, 2015

LONDON—Britain’s Methodist Church has made a public apology after a report detailed nearly 2,000 cases of alleged sexual and emotional abuse within the institution over more than 60 years.

The church, which apologized for failing to protect the victims, is the latest religious establishment in
The independent report, commissioned by the church and based on written records and interviews with ministers and members of the church over three years, identified 1,885 cases of sexual, physical, emotional and domestic abuse, as well as cases of neglect between 1950 and 2014.

Martin Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Church, said on Thursday that the abuse inflicted by some Methodists on children and adults is “a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Toronto Star

By: Associated Press, Published on Thu May 28 2015

LONDON — Britain’s Methodist Church said Thursday it had found almost 2,000 reports of physical and sexual abuse within the institution over more than half a century, and has apologized for failing to protect the victims.

Martyn Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Conference, made an “unreserved apology” for the past abuse.

He said the abuse “inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

Atkins said the church would “do all in its power to improve its systems to protect children, young people and adults from abuse within the life of the church and on church premises.”

The report, published after three years of research, found 1,885 cases of sexual, physical, emotional and domestic abuse or neglect going back to 1950. In 26 per cent of the cases, church ministers or lay employees were identified as the alleged perpetrators.

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MINNESOTA
St. John’s Abbey

William Anthony Eckroth was born in Mandan, North Dakota, on June 21, 1926. William was the tenth child of fourteen born to Louis and Hattie (Gruenenfelder) Eckroth. His father was a German-Russian immigrant and worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad. William entered St. Joseph’s School in Mandan in 1932, and by the time he received the sacrament of confirmation from Bishop Vincent Wehrle, OSB, he felt the call to become a priest. William frequently served Mass with his younger brother Eddie in their nearby parish church.

On a train trip to see his Benedictine sister Caroline, he visited Fr. Angelo Zankl, OSB (1901-2007) in St. Paul, who was once an assistant at Mandan. This visit increased William’s desire to become a Benedictine monk.

When William finished grade school, Father Hildebrand Eickhoff, OSB (1885-1971) made arrangements for William to come to Saint John’s Preparatory School. William graduated in 1944 as valedictorian and immediately enrolled in Saint John’s University.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 28

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

We are glad that a predator priest has passed away and can no longer hurt kids. We’re glad too that his victims can hopefully sleep better at night knowing that he can’t assault any more children.

[St. Cloud Times]

[St. John’s Abbey]

He is Fr. William Eckroth of the Benedictine Catholic order. He mostly lived in Minnesota (St. Cloud, Albany, and St. Joseph) though he was sent to work in the Bahamas and to Maryland for treatment.

Fr. Eckroth was in his 80s and reportedly experienced dementia. But there’s no magic age at which a pedophile is cured so it’s possible that he molested other kids even in his later years.

We hope that all of Fr. Eckroth’s victims – whether hurt long ago or more recently – find the strength and courage to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and start healing. And we hope they find consolation.

Now that he’s passed on, we hope St. John’s officials will be more forthcoming about Fr. Eckroth’s crimes and about those who ignored, concealed and enabled them.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A priest who visited convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale in prison says no-one within the Catholic Church at the time fully understood the effect Ridsdale’s abuse had on his victims, and many believed he could change.

Ridsdale, an 81-year-old former priest, this week gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat.

He is currently at Ararat Prison, where he is serving an eight-year sentence for the rape and abuse of children.

The commission heard his offending first came to the attention of a bishop in 1961, but he was left to assault possibly hundreds of victims over the next three decades.

Ridsdale admitted the church should have notified authorities about his offending, saying “What I’ve done and the damage that I’ve done … I’d say, definitely”.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Emily Yahr May 28

There’s only one thing more troubling than TLC pulling “19 Kids and Counting” off the air after allegations of child molestation against star Josh Duggar. And that’s the fact that it’s not the first time something like this has happened.

Last year, the network canceled “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” after it was reported that Mama June — mother to 9-year-old Alana Thompson, star of the show — was dating a convicted child molester. Two months earlier, Discovery Channel (owned by TLC’s parent company, Discovery Communications) scrapped “Sons of Guns” when star Will Hayden was charged with the rape of a child.

Given that network talent typically goes through rigorous background checks, how could this occur more than once? Reality TV has grappled with this since its inception: When you showcase real people, you get very real problems – especially on channels that feature unusual families or personalities. It’s not just Discovery shows: There’s a wide range of disturbing issues in reality TV history. VH1’s dating show “Megan Wants a Millionaire” was yanked off the air when a contestant was suspected in the murder of his ex-wife. CBS’s “Big Brother” kicked off a contestant for holding a knife to another person’s throat on camera.

Certain industry insiders caution against blaming the network or production companies for allowing these cast members on air in the first place, pointing out there’s only so much they can prevent. Others say that some vetting processes are too lenient, and that potential reality stars will hide damaging pasts in order to get their shot on TV. Then there’s the fact when it comes to background checks, laws can limit what investigators are even allowed to uncover and report to the networks in the first place.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

Late last year, Douglas Phillips, then president of the extreme Christian-right group Vision Forum Ministries, admitted to, in his words, having “a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.” This was a bombshell in Christian-right circles, where Phillips is a major figure, maintaining a close friendship with the Duggar family of TLC fame (Vision Forum gave Michelle Duggar the “mother of the year” award in 2010 at an event called Baby Conference that had 1,500 attendees), former child actor Kirk Cameron, and creationist Ken Ham. Phillips preaches a strong patriarchal view of Christianity, one that teaches that women should give birth until they can’t anymore and that both wives and daughters are to live in perfect submission at home, going so far as to deny daughters the right to choose who to marry.

Phillips resigned in October, but now it seems that his public pronouncement regarding that “inappropriate relationship” may have seriously downplayed what actually happened. Lourdes Torres-Manteufel, who says she was the woman Phillips confessed about, is now suing Phillips and Vision Forum for what she alleges was an abusive and manipulative relationship that caused her serious mental harm and distress.

Her complaint, filed Tuesday morning in Texas’ Bexar County district court, paints a picture of a man whose religious faith in “patriarchy” has not led him to put women on a pedestal but rather to treat them like objects to be used up and discarded when you’re done with them.

The complaint alleges that Phillips met Torres-Manteufel, then just Torres, in 1999 when she was merely 15 years old and then “methodically groomed” her, by acting as her spiritual mentor, to accept his abusive treatment, eventually moving her into his home to live with his family in 2007. There, she alleges, he quickly asserted himself as an authority figure over her in every way, “the pastor of her church, her boss, her landlord, and the controller of all aspects of her life.” Then, according to the lawsuit, he started pushing her into sexual encounters, even though his church teaches that any sexual contact—not just intercourse, but even kissing—outside of marriage is wrong. This left Torres believing, according to the complaint, that she was in a “no-win” situation, where she had “to submit to Douglas Phillips” because of his authority over her, but that doing so left her as “damaged goods.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 28, 2015

St. John’s Abbey monk the Rev. Richard Eckroth, who was repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children, died Sunday at the abbey. He was 88.

Eckroth was named by St. John’s Abbey and by the Diocese of St. Cloud on a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. He was the target of at least four lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, although the abbey said he denied abusing children.

He sustained serious injuries in 2001, when a dead tree fell on him while he was cutting firewood, and the abbey said that he lived with progressing dementia for years after that. That made difficult it to determine Eckroth’s side of the story when allegations of abuse surfaced.

Eckroth died in the abbey’s retirement center. He graduated in 1944 from St. John’s Preparatory School and entered the abbey in 1945.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By J. Freedom du Lac and Abby Ohlheiser May 28

More than a dozen advertisers have backed away from TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” after Josh Duggar apologized amid child molestation allegations.

The popular program was yanked from TLC’s schedule Friday, a day after Josh Duggar — the oldest of the 19 Duggar kids — said he had “acted inexcusably” and was “deeply sorry” for what he called “my wrongdoing” when he was “a young teenager.” Duggar, 27, also resigned from his high-profile position with the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying organization.

The latest season of “19 Kids and Counting” concluded May 19. But TLC had reruns on its schedule until Friday’s announcement.

[TLC pulls ’19 Kids and Counting’ citing ‘heartbreaking situation’]

General Mills started the advertiser exodus last week, when the company said it was taking “19 Kids and Counting” off of its advertising schedule. Others soon followed suit.

Right now, the list of companies that have released statements saying they’re not interested in advertising with “19 Kids and Counting” in the future include:

* Payless ShoeSource
* Choice Hotels
* Walgreens

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UNITED STATES
ABC News

Hulu has pulled the reality series “19 Kids and Counting” from its lineup, following reports of sexual misconduct allegations against one of the stars, Josh Duggar, stemming from when he was a juvenile.

Although the streaming-video service didn’t confirm removal of the TLC series, episodes weren’t found Thursday on the Hulu site, where they had been available as recently as Wednesday.

The show’s banishment follows TLC yanking the series from its program schedule last week.

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SCOTLAND
STV

A top lawyer who has represented abuse victims has been appointed to chair a public inquiry into historic cases of child abuse in care.

Susan O’Brien QC will lead the probe first announced by education secretary Angela Constance in December.

In a statement to Parliament, Ms Constance set out the remit of the inquiry, which will cover children in formal institutional care including faith-based organisations, children’s homes and secure care.

It will also extend to those in foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

Ms Constance said the Scottish Government plans to lift the current three-year time bar for civil action in cases of historical child abuse since September 1964.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY KATRINE BUSSEY , CATRIONA WEBSTER

The Scottish Government has pledged to “shine a light in the dark corners of the past” as it announced a top QC will lead a public inquiry into historic cases of child abuse.

Susan O’Brien QC, who has experience of representing abuse victims, will head the inquiry first announced by Education Secretary Angela Constance in December.

It will cover allegations of abuse of children in formal institutional care including faith-based organisations, children’s homes and secure care as well as those in foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

The Scottish Government said it also plans to lift the current three-year time bar for civil action in cases of historical child abuse since September 1964.

Ms Constance also announced £13.5 million over the next five years for a support fund for survivors of abuse in care, with a further £1 million for all victims of abuse.

The inquiry will have the power to compel witnesses to attend and give evidence, and the Education Secretary previously pledged that where crimes are uncovered the “full force of the law” would be used to bring those responsible to justice.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

One of Scotland’s leading QCs will chair a statutory public inquiry into historical abuse of children in care.

Susan O’Brien’s remit will include allegations of abuse in institutions, foster care, long-term hospital care and boarding schools.

Education Secretary Angel Constance said the inquiry would have powers to force witnesses to give evidence.

She had previously said abusers would “face the full force of the law”.

The minister also confirmed the Scottish government intends to lift the three-year time bar on civil actions.

This will include compensation claims for damages in cases of historical abuse that took place after 1964.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Theresa Ghiloni | tghiloni@mlive.com
on May 28, 2015

JACKSON, MI – A former Jackson Lumen Christi High School priest in Jackson was arraigned on 13 charges of criminal sexual conduct in district court Thursday morning.

James Rapp, 75, is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and 10 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for alleged sexual assaults against several boys in the 1980s, according to a statement from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office.

Rapp served as a priest, teacher, maintenance supervisor and wrestling coach during his time at Lumen Christi High School from 1980-86, when the alleged crimes occurred, according to the statement.

Jackson County District Judge Joseph Filip set a $1 million bond for Rapp during his arraignment on May 28.

Rapp has been serving a 40-year prison sentence in Oklahoma, after he was convicted in 1999 of sexually abusing two teen-age boys in Duncan, Oklahoma, where he was a church pastor, according to Jackson Citizen Patriot archives.

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MICHIGAN
Seattle PI

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A former priest, teacher and wrestling coach at a Michigan Catholic school has been charged in connection with reported sexual assaults of several boys more than three decades ago.

State Attorney General Bill Schuette says 75-year-old James Rapp was arraigned Thursday in Jackson District Court on 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Schuette says the investigation started in 2013 when two men came forward to report alleged past abuse.

Rapp was assigned to Jackson Lumen Christi High School at the time. He was told to leave in 1987 following allegations a student was molested.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. .Father John Jay Hughes has been granted “retirement status,” according to archdiocesan officials. Hughes’ 15 minutes of fame came in the early 1990s when he appeared on the Phil Donahue Show. Producers couldn’t find a single U.S. Catholic bishop or official to be on a segment discussing pedophile priests. SNAP’s David Clohessy, slated to be on the program, recommended the priest to Donahue’s staffers because Hughes had stridently defended the church hierarchy in several op-eds. More recently, Hughes – then at Christ the King parish in U. City – told reporters he was “unaware of the circumstances” of Fr. Joseph D. Ross’ departure from that parish – and St. Cronin’s – due to abuse charges.”. .

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Australia’s worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale will likely have to again appear before the child sex abuse royal commission.

Ridsdale has finished two days testifying as part of its investigation into widespread abuse by clergy in the Ballarat diocese and the response of the Catholic Church.

Church lawyers have asked for time to consider Ridsdale’s evidence before questioning him.

Ridsdale is now likely to be recalled either at or before the commission’s second Ballarat hearing, expected to be held in November or December.

The commission may sit in Sydney if Ridsdale is questioned before the second hearing.

Ridsdale, giving evidence via videolink from jail, could remember very few details about who in the church knew of his offending and moved him from parish to parish.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, May 28

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

An already convicted and imprisoned serial predator priest is being indicted today in Michigan on more child sex charges. (He pled not guilty.) This should happen more often.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is filing more child sex charges against James Francis Rapp who allegedly molested kids at Jackson Lumen Christi Catholic High School in Jackson in the 1980s.

Once a child molester is convicted, many people who could be helpful get complacent. They assume his sentence will stand, his appeals will fail, and he’ll be kept away from kids for many years. But often, child molesters – especially clerics – get top notch defense lawyers, exploit legal technicalities, and escape with little or no jail time. Then, when other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers find this out, it’s too late for them to really make a difference.

So we’re glad Michigan’s attorney general is being prudent and pro-active here.

There are two important lessons. First, these days, police and prosecutors are often more aggressive and creative about pursing child predators, even in older cases. (The old adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” fits here.) More law enforcement officials should follow Schuette’s example and consider going after even elderly child molesting clerics.

Second, no victim, witness or whistleblower should ever assume ‘it’s too late’ to seek justice. It’s our job to share what we know and suspect about possible child sex crimes. It’s the job of law enforcement to determine whether anything can be done. If we stay silent, we’re helping those who commit and conceal child sex crimes.

So if you saw, suspected or suffered any crimes or cover ups related to Fr. Rapp, it’s time to find the courage to speak up, so that the vulnerable can be protected, the wounded can be healed and the truth can be exposed and so that cover ups are deterred.

We beg Jackson Michigan Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley and Salt Lake Archbishop John Wester to use their vast resources to seek out and help others who were sexually assaulted by Fr. Rapp.

NOTE – Rapp belonged to the Toledo-based Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, Inc.

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ARGENTINA
Vatican Insider

The explosive claim regarding Horacio Verbitsky , was published today, May 18, in Argentina, in the blog www.plazademayo

GERARD O’CONNELL

Horacio Verbitsky, the man who publicly and repeatedly accused Jorge Mario Bergoglio of complicity with Argentina’s military rulers when he was Provincial of the Jesuits in the second half of the 1970s, actually worked for the country’s military dictators from 1978 to 1981 and was on their payroll.

This is the explosive claim published today, May 18, in Argentina, in the blog www.plazademayo, under the headline “Verbitsky: Con Dios y Con el Diabolo” (“Verbitsky: With God and With the Devil”).

The article is written by two investigative reporters – Gabriel Levinas and Sergio Serrichio, who have spent more than fourteen months researching the whole affair. It gives a preview of the book that will soon be published. In it, they draw on important documentary evidence which they discovered and on testimonies given by people who knew what actually happened.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

5/27/2015

(St. Paul, MN) – The acquittal of Fran Hoefgen in the criminal case is sad, scary and a travesty of justice. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty because they were not able to know and hear the full picture of predatory conduct well-established by Fran Hoefgen.

Today we release more information that the jury did not hear that could have and should have changed the outcome. Because they did not learn Fran Hoefgen abused at least two boys, had been sent to treatment for it, had admitted having abused at least one boy in prior parishes and given a free pass by a former prosecutor in Stearns County, the jury saw this as one boy against a priest who testified that he did not even know who the boy was. The acquittal of Fran Hoefgen permits this offender to continue in the community unabated. He poses a risk of peril and harm to many, both in his denial and the freedom that he should not be able to enjoy.

The documents we are releasing with this statement, and available on our website, demonstrate a long pattern of predatory conduct by this former priest. He is a peril. We are scared for the children and we praise and applaud the courageous survivor who did come forward, stand up, speak the truth and while he told his story, the whole story, the full truth was not revealed to this jury and they were left a half truth and a lie by Fran Hoefgen. He is a known serial offender. He is a risk of harm to the community and kids and he belongs behind bars.

The statements made by Hoefgen’s lawyer, Michael Colich, about the deficiencies of the police is also misleading and deceptive. The fact is the police fully interviewed the other victims of abuse by Hoefgen, who were prepared to testify to the offenses committed against them years ago, in the same pattern as Hoefgen employed at the parish of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton in Hastings. They did thorough police work and Hoefgen’s criticism of the police is unwarranted, misleading, and deceptive as it is disturbing. This was a systemic failure and children remain at serious risk in the community while Hoefgen remains at large.

Hoefgen Documents
Hoefgen apology letter
Abbot apology letter
Hoefgen Statement 3-19-84
Konz Statement 2-9-93
Francis Hoefgen Timeline
St. Luke Letter to Konz regarding Hoefgen treatment

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 29, 2015

The Catholic church in NSW failed to stop notorious pedophile Gerald Ridsdale offending in the 1980s despite the then Archbishop of Sydney believing he had “done enough” to prevent further abuse.

Ridsdale was removed from Mortlake, in southwestern Victoria, to the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney in 1982.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday heard Ridsdale give evidence via video link from prison of his offending while he was based in Sydney.

Ridsdale said he could not recall the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, who was aware of his offending and arranged the transfer, or anyone else involved with the church imposing “restrictions or limitations or conditions” on what he could do while working in Sydney.

In evidence from 1993 tendered to the commission, the late cardinal Edward Clancy advised that Ridsdale’s initial transfer to Sydney was arranged between Clancy’s predecessor, cardinal James Freeman, and Bishop Mulkearns. Clancy said Bishop Mulkearns spoke to him at a conference in 1983 and explained ­“Father Ridsdale had certain sexual problems, was under professional treatment”.

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MICHIGAN
UP Matters

LANSING – Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced the arraignment of former Jackson Lumen Christi High School priest, teacher, maintenance supervisor, and wrestling coach James Rapp, 75, on charges of multiple felonies for his alleged sexual assault of several Michigan boys in the 1980s.

Rapp was arraigned on Thursday, May 28 at 8 a.m. before Judge Joseph S. Filip of the 12th District Court in Jackson, where a plea of not guilty was entered on the defendant’s behalf to three counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct and 10 counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct. Rapp was also assigned a $1 million cash bond. He is next due in court for a pre-exam conference on June 26, 2015 at 8 a.m. before Judge Joseph S. Filip of the 12th District Court in Jackson. Jackson-area attorney Alfred Brandt has been appointed to represent Rapp.

Case Background

In spring of 2013, more than 30 years after the alleged crimes occurred, two of Rapp’s victims reported the alleged sexual abuse to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, who then launched an extensive investigation revealing several more victims.

JLC was not Rapp’s first church or school assignment. Rapp was ordained in 1959 and held teaching assignments in Philadelphia (1959 – 1961), Salt Lake City (1968 – 1973), and in Lockport, New York (1979 – 1980). Following Rapp’s resignation at JLC, Rapp served as a priest and teacher in Naperville, Illinois (1987 – 1990) and Duncan, Oklahoma (1990 – 1998).

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MICHIGAN
WKHM

A former Lumen Christi HIgh School priest was arraigned on 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first and second degree Thursday morning in the court of Judge Joseph Filip. James Francis Rapp, 74, appeared in a jumpsuit and shackles under the watchful eyes of two officers from the Michigan Department of Corrections.

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CHILE
Daily Journal

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press
First Posted: May 28, 2015

SANTIAGO, Chile — The video shows a woman climbing a stairwell, her belly visibly pregnant, as she offers suggestions: Make sure there are no security cameras. Be careful not to look down or you might regret it.

She tumbles backward as the screen goes black. “When you reach the bottom everything will be OK,” she says.

The video is one of a series of mock abortion tutorials, part of a public campaign urging Chile to allow women to end pregnancies in cases of rape or medical complications. It would be a radical change for Chile, one of only six countries that prohibit all abortion, according to the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

The debate comes as Chile, one of Latin America’s most socially conservative countries, grapples with shifting views on once-taboo issues. The mostly Roman Catholic country began to allow divorce in 2004. Earlier this year, Congress recognized civil unions for gay couples and, recently, a pilot program in Santiago harvested the country’s first legal medical marijuana.

The changing attitudes mark a generational shift, as young people born after the 1973-1990 military dictatorship come of age. The trend has accelerated since a wave of student protests demanding educational reform began in 2011 and in the wake of Catholic priest sex-abuse scandals that have provoked questioning of church doctrine.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Le Moyne a Jesuit University vs. La Sapienza a secular University

The Le Moyne vs. La Sapienza saga has the same moral story as the NCAA/Penn State University vs. the Vatican State.

The main difference between the Le Moyne graduates who failed to oust Cardinal Dolan as their speaker for their graduation – versus the La Sapienza University students who successfully ousted Pope Benedict XVI-RATzinger as speaker for their convocation in 2008 –– is that Le Moyne is a Jesuit University while La Sapienza is a secular university (albeit originally a pontifical university). The morals of secular universities and secular institutions are more good and more radically evident and are in sharp contrast to –– Catholic institutions that have allegiance to the Vatican and therefore will cover-up by all means Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils and seek only to protect its Catholic reputation and the Vatican Billions assets especially in the USA.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

28 May 2015 by Joanna Moorhead

Bishop Richard Moth thanked his predecessor Kieran Conry and called his contribution to the diocese “very significant” during his installation as bishop of Arundel and Brighton on Thursday.

Bishop Emeritus Conry resigned last year after admitting he had broken his vow of celibacy and had a sexual relationship with a woman.

In his homily at the ceremony at Arundel Cathedral Bishop Moth paid tribute to Conry for his “contribution in the field of evangelisation within the diocese and beyond”.

Bishop Moth also alluded to the crisis surrounding Bishop Conry, saying there were times in all our lives when we experience difficulties as individuals and as families, and there were also times of “weakness and pain as a diocese too”. But, he said, his installation Mass was a moment to recommit to Christ and the Church.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

CARDINAL George Pell is anxious to return to Australia to answer allegations he covered up sex abuse by paedophile priests and attempted to bribe a victim, according to those close to him.

A Rome-based confidante of the cardinal said he believed he had already fully dealt with the allegations when they were raised in 2013 at a parliamentary inquiry.

“The Cardinal was anxious to support the Inquiry and provided detailed submissions as well as many hours of sworn evidence and questioning,” the close friend said.

“No adverse findings on these issues emerged.”

Another Vatican confidante spoken to by News Corp Australia confirmed Pope Francis was personally aware of the allegations against Cardinal Pell but was treating them as just that — unconfirmed allegations.

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

Von: Katja Strippel

Rund 200 Frauen und Männer hatten sich für den Job beworben – ausgewählt wurden 15. Sie kümmern sich von Berlin aus um die Belange von Menschen, die Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch geworden sind. Vor zwei Monaten gab es die konstituierende Sitzung beim Missbrauchs-Beauftragten Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig. Aber damals wollten viele Mitglieder des neuen Betroffenenrates noch anonym bleiben. Jetzt haben die meisten von ihnen ihr Schweigen gebrochen. Tamara Luding aus Hof ist eine von ihnen. Sie ist als Kind selbst missbraucht worden.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Badische Zeitung

[Abuse victim gains recognition in the archdiocese of Freiburg.]

Das Erzbistum Freiburg hat in einem viel diskutierten Missbrauchsfall das Leid des mutmaßlichen Opfers anerkannt. Der beschuldigte Priester arbeitet im Bistum Münster.

Eigentlich ist das Bistum Münster für den Fall zuständig, weil der beschuldigte katholische Pfarrer dort lebt und arbeitet (siehe BZ vom 10. April). Seit fast einem Jahr aber schiebt die dortige Missbrauchskommission eine Entscheidung vor sich her. Ständig setzte sie dem mutmaßlichen Opfer – einer 48-jährigen Frau aus der Nähe von Freiburg – in den vergangenen Monaten neue Ansprechpartner für Anhörungen vor. Das Bistum Freiburg hatte indes an der Glaubwürdigkeit des Opfers längst keine Zweifel mehr und entschied den Fall ohne weitere Absprache mit Münster.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westdeutsche Zeitung

[Church to apologize. The case Georg K. is not yet over. Johannes Heibel fights for compensation of affected children in South Africa.]

Von Werner Dohmen

Der Fall Georg K. ist noch nicht zu Ende. Johannes Heibel kämpft für eine Entschädigung der betroffenen Kinder aus Südafrika.

Willich. Im Februar hat das Krefelder Landgericht den ehemaligen Pfarrer Georg K. zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt. Über Jahre hatte er seinen Patensohn und dessen jüngerer Bruder sexuell missbraucht. Für Johannes Heibel von der Initiative gegen Gewalt und sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen ist die „Akte K.“ damit aber längst nicht geschlossen: Er kämpft für die Rechte von Opfern, die völlig aus dem Blickfeld geraten sind. Es geht um die Jungen, denen sich K. in Südafrika in einem Kommunion-Camp genähert haben soll.

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ARKANSAS
Huffington Post

By Hilary Hanson

The Arkansas state trooper who reportedly gave the young Josh Duggar a “very stern talk” once had a Yahoo profile in which he detailed his own sexual interest in children, according to a 2009 court document.

The Pulaski County, Arkansas, “risk assessment” document, which is publicly available online and was posted by Jezebel on Wednesday, detailed the criminal history of the former officer, Joe Hutchens, who is now serving a 56-year sentence on child porn charges.

When Hutchens was still working as a trooper in 2006, Jim Bob Duggar approached him with the information that the teenaged Josh had sexually molested someone, according to a police report obtained by InTouch. Josh had, in fact, “forcibly fondled” five underage girls, some of whom were his sisters. Hutchens did not officially report the teen’s actions but instead gave him a “very stern talk,” the report said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
York Press

A RETIRED vicar from York has been jailed for indecently assaulting a young girl more than forty years ago.

Graham Gregory, 79 of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York was sentenced to three years imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court, having been found guilty in 2014 of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under 13 years.

Gregory was acquitted of two further counts of indecent assault following a retrial at the same court.

Detective Constable Aaron Vardy, of the Met’s Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: “Gregory abused his position as a figure of trust and authority. It takes a lot of courage to report this type of crime and in some cases victims feel that they are only able to come forward years after the offence. This conviction highlights that regardless of how much time has passed, we remain committed to bringing offenders before the courts.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sussex Express

A retired vicar who indecently assaulted a young girl more than 40 years ago has been jailed following a trial at Kingston Crown Court.

Graham Gregory, 79, of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York was sentenced to three years imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday (May 26), having been found guilty in 2014 of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under 13 years.

Gregory was acquitted of two further counts of indecent assault following a retrial at the same court.

Detectives were contacted by a woman in 2012 who claimed that she had been abused as a child between 1969 and 1971 when she lived in Wandsworth and attended the church where Gregory was curate.

She told officers that he kissed her on several occasions before assaulting her.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired vicar who abused a child more than 40 years ago has been jailed for three years.

Graham Gregory, 79, of Brockfield Park Drive, Huntington, York, was a curate in Wandsworth when he indecently assaulted the girl, then aged under 13.

Police were contacted by the victim in 2012 who said she had been abused by him between 1969 and 1971.

Gregory was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault by a jury at Kingston Crown Court.

As well as working as a curate in Southfields, Wandsworth, Gregory also held positions in Hastings, Chichester, York and the Isle of Man as a vicar.

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CANADA
CNW

News Advisory – Truth and Reconciliation – Declaration and Call to Action by Canada’s Philanthropic Organizations

June 1, 2015 – 11:00 am to 12:00 pm ET
Delta Ottawa – 101 Lyon Street Ottawa, ON – Plenary

OTTAWA, May 28, 2015 /CNW/ – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) is holding its closing events from May 31 to June 3 in Ottawa. The TRC has spent six years hearing the truth about Canada’s Indian Residential Schools and establishing a reconciliation process that will lead to better relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

Coinciding with these closing events, Canada’s philanthropic organizations will be signing a Declaration of Reconciliation and Call to Action on June 1, to ensure that the TRC’s work leads to positive steps forward. The Declaration and signing has been organized by the Inspirit Foundation.

Spokespersons will be available for interview, including:

Andrea Nemtin, President & CEO, Inspirit Foundation
Wanda Brascoupé Peters, Executive Director
The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

What
Signing of Declaration and Call to Action

Who
Canada’s Philanthropic Organizations
Photo Op
Ceremony with TRC representatives

Declaration cultural object to be placed in ceremonial bentwood box

Spokespersons including

Wanda Brascoupé Peters, Andrea Nemtin

Where
Delta Hotel, 101 Lyon Street, Ottawa, ON K1R 5T9

When
June 1, 2015 – 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (Philanthropic organizations presentation 11:45 am to 12:00 pm)

About the Inspirit Foundation

The Inspirit Foundation is a national, grant-making organization that supports young people (aged 18 to 30) in building a more inclusive and pluralist Canada. One way we do this is by funding projects that foster engagement and exchange between young people of different spiritual, religious and secular backgrounds.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

(28th May 2015)

The National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) published its annual report today. It details the work done by the Board and its National Office during the year ending 31st March 2015.

The Board has set itself the task of completing the reviews of the religious in Ireland by the end of this year and has indicated that an updated version of the Safeguarding Standards and Guidance will also be completed, though its implementation date is yet to be decided.

During the 2014/15 period, 184 new allegations, suspicions or concerns have been shared with the National Office. The allegations relate to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

In addition, 81 allegations of physical and emotional abuse, previously reported to the civil authorities by one religious congregation were reported to the Board.

Abuse allegations against Diocesan clergy relate to 1950 up to 1997, with one case noted outside this timeframe where the abuse is alleged to have taken place in 2006. In the case of Religious Orders and Congregational priests and religious, abuse allegations relate to 1950 up to 1990, with one case where the abuse is alleged to have taken place in 1999.

The Board has received no allegations of abuse taking place after 2006 in the year under review.

All allegations notified to the Board have been passed to the Gardaí/PSNI and where appropriate to the HSCT/TUSLA.

Ms Teresa Devlin, CEO welcomed the continued improvements in prompt reporting of all allegations to the civil authorities and commended the Church Authorities for maintaining their focus on safeguarding children.

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IRELAND
National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church

Annual Report 2014

Allegations Notified to the National Office – 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015

The National Board has a responsibility to monitor safeguarding practice across all dioceses and religious orders/congregations. In addition to reviews of safeguarding practice, the Board monitors compliance with the seven standards in other ways. Most notable is the role of monitoring whether new allegations brought to the attention of a diocese or religious congregation/order have been shared with the civil authority agencies. There is an expectation that the National Office is informed at the same time as the civil authority agencies of allegations. In addition, we ask for information about the date of the abuse (if known), the status of the respondent’s ministry and what safeguarding action has been taken.

During the 2014–15 period, 184 new allegations, suspicions or concerns have been shared with the National Office. In addition, 81 allegations were submitted in one batch against 18 members of a specific congregation. The events surrounding this batch of allegations all relate to physical and/or emotional abuse. Advice received by the Church authority from TUSLA (Child and Family Agency) is that they do not require information relating to allegations against deceased priests and religious; however all allegations irrespective of the status of the accused are mandatorily reported to An Garda Síochána or the PSNI.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Dozens of new allegations or suspicions of historic abuse by Catholic clergy have been raised with a national watchdog in the past year.

The National Board for Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) says the allegations concern physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

It says all 184 claims have been passed on to the Gardaí and PSNI – as well as Tusla.

The Board said that it also received 81 allegations of physical and emotional abuse which had previously been reported to civil authorities by a religious congregation.

Abuse allegations against Diocesan clergy relate to 1950 up to 1997, with one case noted outside this timeframe where the abuse is alleged to have taken place in 2006.

In the case of Religious Orders and Congregational priests and religious, abuse allegations relate to 1950 up to 1990, with one case where the abuse is alleged to have taken place in 1999.

The Board has received no allegations of abuse taking place after 2006 in the year under review.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, May 28, 2015

by Joe Leogue

An Irish priest has said he disagrees with the comments of a high-ranking Vatican official who described last week’s marriage equality referendum result as a “defeat for humanity”.

Fr Seán McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests said that he does not know why Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressed his disappointment at the result in such terms, and said that the result should not have come as a shock to the Vatican’s secretary of state.

“Looking at the polls in the four to five weeks running up to the election they were 70-30 in favour, so the result came as no surprise,” Fr McDonagh said.

He said the church needs to address its approach to homosexuality, and change its attitude of criticising and dismissing gay people and their experiences.

He was critical of the church’s decision to drop a paragraph on the “gifts and qualities” gay people can offer from a report on its extraordinary synod on the family which was held last year. “It raises serious questions for the synod on the family which will be held in October of this year.”

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CHILE
Terra

[Deputy Espinoza has questioned the new guide for handling church exual abuse. Fidel Espinoza, socialist MP, called on the Catholic church to remove Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who has been critiicized for its role in covering up abuse by priest Fernando Karadima. The socialist parliamentarian responded to the guidance announced on Wednesday the Episcopal Conference to address child sexual abuse. The text is called “Care and Strength” and updates the rules enacted in 2003 and 2011 to proceed against complaints and seeks to prevent such situations. According to the Social Democrat, “the updating of the rules against sexual abuse minors, which was presented by the Episcopal Conference, should be taken as a new opportunity to change course with the bishop Barros. ” ]

I diputado socialista Fidel Espinoza emplazó a la iglesia a remover al obispo Juan Barros de Osorno, quien ha sido cuestionado por su eventual papel como encubridor de los abusos cometidos por el ex párroco de la Iglesia de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima.

El parlamentario socialista reaccionó ante la guía que dio a conocer este miércoles la Conferencia Episcopal para tratar los abusos sexuales a menores. El texto se denomina “Cuidado y Fuerza” y actualiza las normas decretadas los años 2003 y 2011 para proceder frente a denuncias y busca prevenir este tipo de situaciones.

A juicio del parlamentario socialista, “la actualización de las normas frente a los abusos sexuales a menores, que ha sido presentado por la Conferencia Episcopal, debiera ser tomada como una nueva oportunidad para enmendar el rumbo con el obispo Barros”.

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SCOTLAND
The National

KATHLEEN NUTT

ANGELA Constance is today expected to name the chairman of the long-awaited statutory public inquiry into historic child sex abuse, and to reveal its remit.

The Education Secretary, who announced there would be an inquiry in December, will outline the inquiry’s details in the Holyrood chamber to MSPs and dozens of members of survivors’ groups this afternoon.

Retired judge Lord McEwan, who made a landmark ruling to lift a legal time-bar to enable an abuse victim to take civil action, is favoured by some victims to chair the inquiry.

Survivors’ groups have also told The National that they would consider Lord Malcolm as a suitable appointment.

The former Edinburgh University academic served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Advocates from 1997-2001 and Dean from 2001-2004. He was a founder member of the Judicial Appointments Board and has also served as a part-time member of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 26, 2015

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com

ALBUQUERQUE – The Diocese of Gallup’s legal fees and expenses for its bankruptcy case now exceed $2.25 million.

Attorneys, accountants, insurance researchers and real estate appraisers submitted quarterly billing statements to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the period of Jan. 1 through March 31, 2015. The total figure of $2,258,084.14 includes approximately $57,000 already paid by the diocese. The remaining professional fees and expenses billed by attorneys and accountants will not be paid until the Gallup Diocese has an approved plan of reorganization.

The listed professionals have submitted the following quarterly and total billing figures, which do not include any payments made to them by the diocese prior to its bankruptcy filing on Nov. 12, 2013.

Quarles & Brady LLP: The Diocese of Gallup’s lead bankruptcy law firm from Tucson submitted a quarterly statement for $215,067.99 for legal fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $1,344,666.05.

Keegan, Linscott & Kenon, P.C: This Tucson accounting firm took over the Gallup Diocese’s finance office in the summer of 2013 after Deacon James Hoy, the diocese’s chief financial officer, resigned. The firm corrected a billing error of $556.25 from its 2014 final quarterly statement, and it submitted a 2015 first quarterly statement for $38.279.28 in fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $314,816.44.

Stelzner, Winter, Warburton, Flores, Sanchez & Dawes, P.A: The diocese’s special counsel law firm from Albuquerque billed $996.71 in fees this quarter. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $10,750.76.

Insurance Archaeology Group: This insurance research company submitted a quarterly statement for $1,495.80 in fees and expenses. To date the company has billed the Gallup Diocese $47,929 and has been paid that amount.

Estate Valuation Consultants, Inc: This real estate appraisal company submitted its first quarterly statement for $12,200 in fees and expenses and has been paid $9,200 thus far.
Michael P. Murphy: Murphy was recently appointed as the “Unknown Claims Representative” to represent any new clergy sex abuse victims who might come forward in the future. Murphy has not submitted any fees or expenses yet, but his flat fee of $50,000 will be due and payable upon the effective date of any plan of reorganization.

Walker & Associates, P.C: The diocese’s Albuquerque bankruptcy law firm did not submit a statement for the first quarter of 2015. To date, the firm has billed $18,062.40 in post-petition fees and expenses.

Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP: This law firm represents the legal interests of clergy sex abuse survivors who have filed claims against the diocese in bankruptcy court. The firm submitted a quarterly statement for $86,284.57 in fees and expenses. The firm’s total post-petition bill is now at $459,659.49.

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GUAM
KUAM

By Jolene Toves

Former Guam resident John Toves is attempting to raise $2,000 in funds to retain a canon lawyer. Toves made allegations of sexual harassment against Archbishop Anthony Apuron late last year, however because no victim ever came forward the complaint was not investigated by the Archdiocese of Agana.

At the time Archbishop Apuron issued an exclusive television statement to KUAM News on the matter denying the allegations and announced plans to file a lawsuit. According to Toves he also plans to file a suit with the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and directly to the Promoter of Justice.

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UNITED STATES
Vox

Updated by Tanya Pai on May 27, 2015

Stories about reality TV star Josh Duggar and the revelations that he molested several minors while he himself was a teenager have saturated the news over the past week.

The details of the allegations are bizarre, involving an alleged cover-up by Duggar’s parents and church, a disturbing police report, and a very badly timed marathon of the reality series Duggar stars in on a network that has experienced more than one reality show scandal in recent years. There’s also an element of religious hypocrisy and a muted attempt to turn this into another front in the culture wars.

For people who don’t watch lots of reality TV — to say nothing of those who don’t watch lots of TLC reality, which is almost a genre unto itself, focused on families from outside the American mainstream — the whole thing can sound like a particularly strange satire of how far the television industry will go to garner big ratings.

But it’s not.

Who are the Duggars?

The Duggars are an Arkansas family and stars of the TLC reality series 19 Kids and Counting. The show, TLC’s most popular, regularly scored in the Nielsen cable top 25 before it was pulled from the air.

The show began on September 29, 2008, as 17 Kids and Counting, and starred Jim Bob Duggar, a former Arkansas state representative turned real estate agent; his wife, Michelle Duggar; and their 17 biological children. Since that time, Jim Bob and Michelle have had two more children.

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FLORIDA
WPBT

[with video]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —A jury has been seated in the sexual molestation trial against former Rosarian Academy teacher Stephen Budd.

Both sides are questioning a pool of potential jurors in the Stephen Budd sexual molestation trial which began Tuesday. Budd, 53, was a fourth grade teacher at Rosarian Academy in 2006-2007 when two former students now say he coerced them into performing sex acts on him and each other, in exchange for “Budd Bucks.”WPBF 25 News at Noon

He’s accused of serially molesting two 9 year olds in his classroom in 2006-07.

His attorney, Jason Weiss, asked potential jurors if they were so appalled by the charges that they could not be fair.

“Is there something so awful or distasteful in your mind, that the mere accusation against Mr. Budd makes you think that he’s probably guilty?” asked Weiss.

Some in the pool answered that they did have problems with the charges and could not be impartial.

Budd is accused of having the girls perform sex acts on him under his desk while he taught, taking naked pictures of the girls and having them perform sexual acts on each other.

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OREGON
East Oregonian

By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau

SALEM — The Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved a bill doubling Oregon’s statute of limitation on rape to 12 years.

House Bill 2317, which has already cleared the House, moves to the full Senate without change, despite pleas that Oregon’s statute of limitations should be set even longer.

Advocates had urged the committee to extend the deadline for prosecutions to 20 years.

“It took me years not only to disclose everything Pastor Mike did to me, but to even realize just how badly the abuse affected my life,” said Jessica Watson, one of seven victims of Mike Sperou, who was convicted April 30 in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Sperou, 64, was pastor at a Happy Valley church. He was convicted in connection with only the youngest of the seven victims, who all chose to go on the record. The statute of limitations barred his prosecution on crimes involving the others, including Watson.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Religious Culture of Abuse of Females in Right-Wing Christianity: A Current Case Study

William D. Lindsey

In my posting on the Duggar family earlier today, I cited Jenny Kutner to note that what shouldn’t be overlooked in the Duggar story is how Josh Duggar’s abuse, his parents’ cover-up, and the excuses being made by the religious and political right are rooted in a religious culture of abuse of females. As I indicated, the religious ideology defended by the Duggars and their friends calls on women and girls to submit to men and boys. It routinely excuses even outright abuse, sexual or otherwise, perpetrated on females by males as just how boys behave.

And it does all this by invoking God, as if God is one of the old boys chuckling at the way real men knock women around — or take advantage of them sexually.

Lest you think I’m making all this stuff up or exaggerating, a case in point from yesterday’s news: as Mark Woods reports for Christian Today, the Village Church in Dallas, Texas, has forgiven Jordan Root, a former missionary of the church in East Asia, after he was discovered to have been viewing child pornography online. Root has also admitted having abused children for whom he was a babysitter.

After all of this information came out, Root’s wife Karen, who was on the East Asian mission along with him, asked for their marriage to be annulled. The church has disciplined Karen Root.

He with the history of child molestation and use of child pornography: forgiven.
She who asks to be unyoked from him, the child abuser, in marriage: not forgiven.

Can the picture be any clearer than this?

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: A warning this report contains information you may find disturbing.

The convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale has told the royal commission he’s sorry Catholic Church officials didn’t report his behaviour to the police because it would have saved “so many” children.

The royal commission has heard that Ridsdale’s offending first came to the attention of a bishop in 1961 but he was left to assault possibly hundreds of victims over the next three decades.

The inquiry was told today one of Ridsdale’s victims believed that another priest saw him attacking her in the early 1970s but didn’t intervene.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Gerald Ridsdale’s victims live with the knowledge that if someone in the Catholic Church had reported him to police when his offending first became known, they would have been safe, something the convicted paedophile acknowledged at the royal commission today.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

On the second day of Gerald Ridsdale’s appearance at the Royal Commission, senior counsel Gail Furness pushes the paedophile priest to admit his abuse of children in rural areas.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

AAP

Pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale can’t remember which priest may have walked in on him while he was sexually assaulting a girl, the royal commission has heard.

A judge last year said a girl believed another priest was present for a short time while Ridsdale was sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.

On Thursday, senior counsel assisting the child sex abuse royal commission, Gail Furness, asked Ridsdale who that priest was.

“I don’t know because I’ve said I don’t know who the other priests were there at the same time except George Pell,” Ridsdale said.

“I have no idea of the priests who were there with me at Ballarat East.”

Asked if he had a recollection of sexually assaulting the girl, Ridsdale said: “No, a lot of them I don’t have, no.”

The incident took place in Ridsdale’s bedroom at the Ballarat East presbytery, where he lived in 1972-1973, after the girl went to look at his rock collection.

Ms Furness asked Ridsdale if he accepted that when he assaulted the girl there could well have been another priest in the presbytery.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Following another priest’s sworn evidence that contradicted his own, Gerald Ridsdale changes his story about approaching now-Cardinal George Pell.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 28, 2015

Jane Lee
Legal Affairs Reporter for The Age

COMMENT

In his blind loyalty to those who have washed their hands of him, Gerald Ridsdale has betrayed those he has already failed.

Who was the priest in the room when he raped a child in his office?

He would not, or could not, say. For almost two days, he said he could not remember George Pell living with him. Now he said he could only remember McMahon.

Expectations were probably too high. He is an elderly man in jail. He has admitted to more than 100 crimes against children, which have been aired at three court cases, one state inquiry and half a royal commission. What more, one might think, does he have to lose?

Two things: a few years of freedom if he is released on parole in 2019, and any remaining ties he has left with senior church authorities.

The commission already knows that the church authorities decided Ridsdale should move on to other parishes, where he then abused others. All that was left was to find out who he told, what he said, and how they reached these decisions.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict

The Front Against Child Sex Abuse Expands to the Family: Josh Duggar, the Duggars, and What Every Family Should Know About Incest

Marci A. Hamilton

The war against child sex abuse received an infusion of weapons and power when the Boston Globe revealed the pattern of the cover-up by the Catholic hierarchy in 2001. With horror, the world witnessed secondhand the bishops shuffling pedophiles among parishes and fresh child victims. That same pattern has emerged in state after state, like Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia District Attorneys Lynne Abraham and Seth Williams put together thorough documentation in 2005 and 2011 Grand Jury Reports, and Minnesota, where statute of limitations reform has opened the door to the justice system that in turn has revealed the specifics of the cover-up. The unfolding story has also been told in Australia and Ireland.

These revelations painted a paradigm of adults letting children be abused by other adults. I call it “adult preferentialism.” As adults, we are persuaded that our interests (e.g., reputations and jobs and relationships) are much more important than the needs of children. We worry about the long-lasting effects on our reputations, but expect the kids to “get over it.” It is shocking when revealed, but that paradigm has played itself out in one venue after another since 2001, including (1) multiples of religious organizations from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the ultra-Orthodox Jews, and (2) sports programs from Penn State football to Olympic swimming and speedskating.

Then elite private schools like Poly Prep and Horace Mann came into the spotlight, as well as public schools. Horace Mann is in the news this week because a coalition of alumnae and experts like Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, Charol Shakeshaft, and I banded together to find a way to make sure the serial abuse at Horace Mann and the institution’s hardhearted response did not happen at any other private schools. The Horace Mann Action Coalition issued a scathing report this week, replete with important guidelines for private schools.

The Irony Underlying All of these Revelations About Child Sex Abuse: Most Abuse Happens in the Home

While we learned about, discussed, and reacted to the abuse in all of these “safe” venues, the abuse that occurs the most remained unspoken: Incest. There was a time when all sex abuse discussions were taboo; that taboo has persisted with respect to family-on-family abuse. Incest is the last frontier for child sex abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Conversation

Jayne Lucke
Professor & Director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University

Thanks to many generous contributors I now have an arsenal of potential responses to the question “what do you do?”. My options span a wide range of possible replies, including the flippant, cheeky, risqué, straight, cryptic, serious, intense, and downright arrogant. I am now equipped for any situation with an answer I can choose to suit the context, the characteristics of the questioner, and my own willingness to engage.

If only we all had such luxury when it comes to matters relating to sex. Misunderstandings and awkwardness about sex can be more than just an inconvenience or embarrassment. Sometimes there are potentially devastating consequences. The way we engage with ideas relating to sex can have far-reaching effects on our lives as individuals, within our families and on a broader societal level.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse provides us with a painful example of how badly things can go wrong. The public hearings in Ballarat have reminded us of the awful pain of people abused by a person in authority and the long-term impact of this betrayal. The royal commission also raises questions for us all about what went wrong, how to bring those responsible to justice, deal compassionately with the many people affected and most importantly, how to make sure this does not happen again.

This week in an op-ed piece for The Age, Dr Timothy Jones proposes that the view of the Catholic Church towards paedophilia as a sin, rather than a criminal act, was one of the factors that led to the church’s approach towards offenders – a policy that protected the offender and exposed new groups of vulnerable children to horrific abuse. A realisation of the impact on abused children came later as broader understandings of child sexual abuse changed.

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UNITED STATES
The Cap Times

E.J. DIONNE JR. | national columnist

BOSTON — Consider the stunned disbelief, perhaps of a somewhat aggressive sort, that would have greeted anyone who might have told a tavern crowd in Dorchester or Southie three decades ago that Ireland would be the first nation in the world to approve gay marriage by popular vote.

It is a mark of how much has changed in such a short time that Ireland’s vote for gay marriage last week was, in the end, the expected outcome — even if the breadth of marriage equality’s victory was breathtaking.

The referendum carried 62 percent of the vote. Only one of the nation’s 43 parliamentary constituencies, Roscommon-South Leitrim, voted “no,” and even there, supporters won nearly 49 percent of the vote. The rural-urban split many anticipated did not materialize. Socially conservative areas that had opposed liberalizing Ireland’s abortion and divorce laws in the past voted to allow gays and lesbians to marry.

The different outcome this time says something about why social liberalism finds its strongest expression these days around gay rights questions. If politics is often polarized because social changes can leave behind both winners and losers, it is far harder to make a case that there are any losers in the effort to provide for equality around sexual orientation. Ireland, a heartland of Catholicism that did so much to shape the Catholic Church in the United States, seemed to see things exactly this way.

But it’s also true that Ireland has undergone a sweeping cultural transformation in a very short time. Irish faith in the church was badly shaken by the hierarchy’s cover-up of the sex-abuse crisis even as the island was overtaken by a raucous materialism during the economic boom between 1995 and 2008. It was the era of the “Celtic tiger,” a prime example of how good things could be under capitalism.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

By Tom Norton | Posted: May 28, 2015

More reports of abuse within the Methodist church were recorded in our region than anywhere else in the country, a publication has revealed.

The Methodist Church in Britain has published findings showing that more than 220 reports of historic abuse were made locally, out of 1,885 cases across the country.

The organisation’s general secretary, Reverend Dr Martyn Akins, has issued a full apology to survivors of abuse, calling the findings “a deep source of grief and shame to the Church.”

The most common report of abuse related to sexual abuse, of which there were 914 cases in the UK.

Five hundred and sixty-five cases were classified as “other”, followed by 245 cases of physical, 207 of emotional, 135 of neglect, 87 of financial, 85 of domestic violence, 76 of institutional, 69 of racial and four of spiritual/ritual.

There were also 126 reports made where the category is “not-stated”.

In Nottingham and Derby 225 safeguarding concerns were reported. In some cases, multiple concerns could have been submitted about one individual.

The church has said that a high number does not necessarily indicate more abuse, with at least one other district reporting high numbers because of good record keeping.

Seventy active ministers from Nottingham and Derby were contacted, of which 68 replied.

The independent inquiry was led by Jane Stacey, former deputy chief executive of Barnado’s.

She said: “There are many lessons to be learnt, but the most challenging are those that require a significant culture change throughout the church, and particularly for ministers and church leaders. The Church will need further courage to implement the review’s recommendations, which are far-reaching and call for major changes in both practice and culture.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

A report into allegations of historical abuse within the Methodist Church has been published.

It covers physical and sexual abuses cases, dating back to the 1950s.

In the UK and Channel Islands, there was a total of nearly 2,000 reports of abuse. Seven of those cases were reported by people in the Channel Islands.

The report shows a large number of the cases concerned the abuse of children, and many were of a sexual nature:

34% Of victims were under age 18
46% Of victims were female
200 Cases of alleged abuse by Church Ministers
276 Cases of alleged abuse by Church lay employees
914 Cases of reported sexual abuse

The Church has said it wants to be open about the past, and to improve safeguarding procedures in the future.

It has also apologised for failing to protect children and adults.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Express

By TOM BATCHELOR

The Methodist Church in Britain has offered an “unreserved apology” for its systemic failure to protect youngsters dating back to the 1950s.

Leading child safety charity NSPCC described the findings as a “horrifying catalogue of abuse”, adding: “A vast number of victims must have endured appalling experiences while the Church refused to listen to their pleas for help.”

Responding to the shocking 100-page report, the Church said it was now committed to introducing safeguards for children.

The investigation, which has taken three years, has led to six police investigations into abuse, with the NSPCC warning that “abuse was still being inflicted in recent years”.

The Church said it was “deeply regrettable” that ministers had “not always listened properly” to those who had suffered abuse.

Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Conference, said: “On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Press Association
Thursday 28 May 2015

The Methodist Church in Britain has apologised for failing to protect children and adults after an investigation uncovered nearly 2,000 reports of physical and sexual abuse within the institution dating to 1950.

The MCB, which published the findings of the independent inquiry on Thursday, said it wanted to be open about the past and to have stronger safeguarding procedures in the future.

Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, its general secretary and secretary of the Methodist Conference, said: “On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain, I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church. That abuse has been inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

He described it as “deeply regrettable” that the church had “not always listened properly to those abused” nor had it always cared for them. “In respect of these things we have, as a Christian church, clearly failed to live in ways that glorify God and honour Christ,” he said. “I am certain that the Methodist Conference will want to resolve to do all in its power to improve its systems to protect children, young people and adults from abuse within the life of the church and on church premises, and to review them diligently on a regular basis.”

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COLORADO
Montrose Press

By Katharhynn Heidelberg Daily Press Senior Writer

The trial for Jeremias Quintero, who is accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy, has been reset from its June date to October.

Quintero is charged with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and with sexual exploitation of a child.

He denies allegations that he molested the teen and showed him pornography in 2013, at which time Quintero was the pastor of an apostolic church in Delta and Glenwood Springs.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

28 MAY 2015
BY RYAN HOOPER

The British arm of the Methodist Church has sensationally apologised for failing to protect children and adults, after garnering almost 2,000 complaints of physical and sexual abuse since the 1950s.

In a 100-page report, published today, the church said it wanted to be honest and open about the past.

The church was also keen to ensure that mistakes from the past can be learned from in the future.

Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Conference said: “On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church.

“That abuse has been inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Methodist Church in Britain

28 May 2015

Courage, Cost & Hope: The Report on the Past Cases Review, 2013-2015

News: Church issues ‘full and unreserved apology’ to abuse survivors
____

Background to the review

THE PAST CASES REVIEW SUBMISSIONS OFFICIALLY ENDED ON THE 24TH DECEMBER 2014. ANY PAST CONCERNS (AS WITH CURRENT CONCERNS) SHOULD BE REPORTED DIRECTLY TO YOUR DISTRICT SAFEGUARDING OFFICER.

SEE THE MAIN SAFEGUARDING PAGE FOR YOUR DISTRICT SAFEGUARDING OFFICER CONTACT DETAILS

“The Church needs to be sure that it has revisited cases using the benefit of hindsight, to be sure that no one has mistakenly left situations where vulnerable people may remain at risk. This is a great opportunity to see what went well, as well as to learn from mistakes we may have made, alongside reviewing the safety of past cases.”

Elizabeth Hall, Safeguarding Adviser (Child & Adult Protection) for the Church of England & the Methodist Church in Britain.

The Church aims to review all ‘safeguarding cases’ since 1950. For the purposes of the review, a ‘safeguarding concern’ is defined as any concern that a child or adult may be at risk, be suffering or have suffered abuse, or that someone represents a risk of abuse to others.

The review invites anyone from the districts with any knowledge of a previous or current concern, to respond.

The Church has commissioned an independent expert who will review all the responses and advise the Church on any action that needs to be taken.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Methodist Church in Britain

A. BACKGROUND

The Methodist Conference in 2010 adopted replies to Memorials 35 and 36 that accepted the need for a review of past child protection cases, something to which the Methodist Council was already committed, and asked for a strategy for such a review process to be presented to the Methodist Council and for progress to be reported to the Conference in 2011.

The 2011 Conference approved the outline plan for the Past Safeguarding Cases Review (2011 Conference Agenda, pp. 119-129), which included proposals for a pilot to be based in the Wales Synod and Leeds District.

The following remit was agreed:

Remit – what is a case?

It is suggested that ‘case’ is defined as a ‘safeguarding concern’.

The Church of England focused its work, which started in 2007, on child protection cases. Since that date, the work with adults who may be vulnerable has developed in importance. The Methodist Church has just published a new policy ‘Safeguarding Adults’. It is therefore proposed that this review incorporate harm to adults.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Methodist Church in Britain

Full report available here

The Methodist Church in Britain has today published the report of an independent review of past safeguarding cases related to the Church from 1950 to 2014.

Speaking on behalf of the Church, the Secretary of the Methodist Conference and General Secretary the Revd Dr Martyn Atkins has issued a full and unreserved apology to survivors and victims of abuse in response to the report:

“On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church. That abuse has been inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the Church.

“We have not always listened properly to those abused or cared for them, and this is deeply regrettable. In respect of these things we have, as a Christian Church, clearly failed to live in ways that glorify God and honour Christ.

“I am certain that the Methodist Conference will want to resolve to do all in its power to improve its systems to protect children, young people and adults from abuse within the life of the Church and on Church premises, and to review them diligently on a regular basis.”

The independent Past Cases Review considered all safeguarding cases for which there were written records and those recalled from memory by ministers and members of the Church going back to 1950. These included cases that occurred within a church context as well as those which were reported to the church as a matter of pastoral concern but which occurred away from the church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

The Methodist Church in Britain has apologised for failing to protect children and adults following nearly 2,000 reports of physical and sexual abuse within the institution dating back to the 1950s.

Publishing a 100-page report today, the Methodist Church in Britain said it wanted to be open about the past and to have stronger safeguarding procedures in the future.

Rev Dr Martyn Atkins, general secretary of the Methodist Conference said: “On behalf of the Methodist Church in Britain I want to express an unreserved apology for the failure of its current and earlier processes fully to protect children, young people and adults from physical and sexual abuse inflicted by some ministers in Full Connexion and members of the Methodist Church.

“That abuse has been inflicted by some Methodists on children, young people and adults is and will remain a deep source of grief and shame to the church.”

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TEXAS
WOAI

A salacious civil lawsuit, accusing the San Antonio catholic archdiocese and two high profile priests of sexual abuse and the following cover-up, has been filed in Bexar County.

The unnamed male claims that, between 1980 and 1983, he was living in an orphanage steps away from Assumption Seminary. He was befriended by a student, named Brother Jesus Dominguez, who would help him with homework and take him out to restaurants.

“For about two years, Brother Dominguez would end our outing by taking me back to his dormitory quarters, where he would often fondle and masturbate my penis,” the lawsuit, obtained by Newsradio 1200 WOAI, reads.

It goes on to say that Brother Dominguez took the victim and a friend to Disneyland, where they faced about one month of abuse. When he questioned the abuse, the lawsuits claims Brother Dominguez would fake a heart attack or, on another occasion, threaten to kill them both.

The lawsuit reads that the victim confided in father Virgilio Elizondo, but was once again sexually assaulted.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

Following another priest’s sworn evidence that contradicted his own, Gerald Ridsdale changes his story about approaching now-Cardinal George Pell.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Child sexual abuse inquiry: Notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale raped girl at home he shared with George Pell, ‘and another priest heard’

By court reporter Peta Carlyon

Notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale molested an 11-year-old girl in the home he once shared with other priests, including now Cardinal George Pell, an inquiry into child sexual abuse has been told.

Ridsdale, an 81-year-old former priest, was back in the witness box for a second day at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat.

The inquiry heard the defrocked priest abused the girl at the Ballarat East presbytery in the 1970s, where he was living with a number of other priests, including Australia’s now most senior Catholic leader.

The inquiry heard the girl went to look at the rock collection in Ridsdale’s bedroom, but saw a pornographic magazine and ran away.

When Ridsdale caught up to her, he raped her.

Court documents read out at the inquiry revealed the girl believed another priest was there and heard her being assaulted, but did not intervene.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman

Thursday 28 May 2015

Convicted paedophile Gerald Ridsdale has been questioned over the sexual abuse of a young girl in a house he shared with George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric.

At a royal commission hearing in the Victorian city of Ballarat on Thursday, Ridsdale, who has been in jail for child sex offences since 1994, was asked about a further conviction last year for an assault on a 10 or 11-year-old girl in 1972 or 1973.

The judge in the case remarked in sentencing that “this complainant believes another priest was present for a short time while you were sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene”.

Under questioning from Gail Furness, counsel assisting the royal commission, Ridsdale said he did not remember the incident but accepted he committed the offence and that another priest may have been present.

Asked with whom he was living at the time, Ridsdale said: “Well, I said I didn’t remember any of the priests who were there with me but you tell me that George Pell was there at the same time so I have to accept that, that George Pell was there, but I don’t remember any of the others.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

‘Another priest’ present when Gerald Ridsdale abused a child in his bedroom, royal commission hears

May 28, 2015

Jane Lee, Rania Spooner

Another priest was present when Gerald Ridsdale raped a child in his bedroom in a house he shared with other priests, including George Pell, a royal commission has heard.

Ridsdale told the royal commission he could not remember who the priest was.
Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, SC, asked Ridsdale about his abuse of a child in his bedroom at St Alipius’ presbytery, where he lived with George Pell in the early 1970s. Ridsdale has accepted that he lived with Pell at the time, but has told the commission he cannot remember having any dealings with him.

Between 1972 and 1973, he abused a girl after she followed him into his bedroom to see his rock collection.

The girl believed that there was another priest there for a short time while Ridsdale sexually abused her, but did not intervene.

“I accept that’s what she believed,” Ridsdale said.

Counsel assisting the commission said “can you help us with who was the priest?”

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