ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church has dismissed reports it is planning to continue relying on a legal defence that blocks victims of child sexual abuse from taking action.

In 2007 the New South Wales Court of Appeal found the Catholic Church could not be sued for compensation because it was not a legal entity.

The decision ended a lengthy battle for Sydney lawyer John Ellis, who was sexually abused by a priest in the 1970s.

His experience was examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in March last year.

At the public hearing, former Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell was asked whether the “Ellis defence”, as it has become known, should still be used.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

KOCHI: The Kerala Police have issued a lookout notice against fugitive catholic priest Edwin Figarez, who is accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl several times at a church at Puthenvelikkara.

The circular came 11 days after the HC dismissed Fr Figarez’s anticipatory bail on May 5, following which he is alleged to have gone into hiding. “He is likely to have left the state. We will extend the search to the other states soon,” said Puthenvelikkara sub-inspector M S Shibu, while dismissing the possibility of the priest leaving the country. “He had surrendered his passport to us on April 29.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 18, 2015

Chris Vedelago, Cameron Houston

The Catholic Church will continue to use a controversial legal defence to block victims of clerical abuse from seeking compensation, despite a promise to abandon the practice having been backed by Cardinal George Pell.

The church’s backflip comes as the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse sits today for a three-week hearing into decades of horrific abuse in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Fairfax Media can reveal a major rift between the country’s most influential bishops, religious orders and their insurers over the continued use of the so-called Ellis defence, which was supposedly disavowed in April 2014.

The internal ructions have prompted the church’s senior adviser on its response to the royal commission, Francis Sullivan, to call for church lawyers to “get with the program” and renounce the controversial legal precedent.

“Church leadership is about leading, not being led about by the nose by lawyers. That’s really what the royal commission is demonstrating to us,” Mr Sullivan said.

The Ellis defence is based on a 2007 NSW Court of Appeal decision that found the church cannot be sued for compensation because it does not technically exist as a legal entity.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Jerusalem Post

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN \ 05/17/2015

In October of last year a well-known and very well-connected rabbi was taken from his synagogue-owned house in handcuffs.

In a story whose salacious details emerged over time, he was found to have put hidden cameras in a mikveh, or traditional religious bath, and to have taped women nude, many of them undergoing conversions that he was overseeing. He had meticulously cataloged the tapes, according to reports. Investigators identified 152 separate female victims, of which 88 fell within the statue of limitations for voyeurism. In February of 2015 Rabbi Barry Freundel plead guilty to 52 counts of taping these women without their consent.

On May 15 he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Open and shut case, right? And perhaps not a surprising one; other religious communities, such as the Catholic Church, have had sex scandals.

But throughout the Freundel story there was always a sense that something fishy was going on beneath the surface. Dr. Elana Sztokman, an author and feminist activist, connected the abuses to the “multiple layers of power, authority and gender hierarchy involved…a system of intricate rules about [women’s] bodies that have been determined by men.” She correctly noted that the way in which the rabbi encouraged women to use the mikveh (often in the form of “practice dunks”) was “nothing more than a smokescreen to allow him to watch them undress.”

She wondered why there “always seem to be some rabbis who inexplicably rush to the side of the perpetrator.”

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IRELAND
Questions from a Ewe

I arrived at Dublin airport only a few hours ago but in time to attend Sunday Mass at a nearby neighborhood church. Mass began with the deacon reading Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin’s pastoral reflections about Ireland’s upcoming constitutional referendum on marriage equality. Spoiler alert: he’s against it.

For those unfamiliar with this Friday’s referendum in Ireland, the proposed constitutional amendment would insert the following text in a new subsection to Article 41 of the Irish Constitution. “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

Anyway, I was the first person to arrive for Mass – the very first – though I arrived about 10 minutes prior to Mass. The parking lot had but one vehicle as well so I began to question the accuracy of the Mass time posted on the internet. No worries, a priest greeted me at the door and reassured me that a Mass actually would start in a few minutes; I was just early, said he. Despite his reassurances, as I opened the door to the empty sanctuary the lyrics from Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” popped into my head…“Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?”

I thought, “O.K., the stampeding herds here must slide into their pews just before Mass…kind of like Ty Cobb sliding into home base on a steal.” I sat awaiting the rush.

Well, if the teeming masses came to this Mass, they were invisible because what I saw was barely more people in the pews than on the altar. We had two priests, a deacon, a lector, an altar server and an old guy whose role never became clear to me – all to attend to just a few dozen mass goers. The PPP (priest per person) ratio was pretty high today, enough so to cause me to doubt lamentations about priest shortages.

As the deacon read the Archbishop’s statement, I found myself musing about what must be going through his mind as he reads this pastoral reflection practically to himself. I again heard Pink Floyd playing in my head, ”just nod if you can hear me…is there anyone at home?”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Londonderry Today

Northern Ireland’s public inquiry into child abuse is to investigate three more state-run institutions – two of which were in Londonderry, the chairman has said.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry has extended its work to cover Hydebank Young Offenders Centre in south Belfast and former homes at Fort James and Harberton House, Londonderry.

Another section will focus on issues arising from the actions of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, a serial child molester who frequented some Catholic residential homes, according to HIA chairman Sir Anthony Hart.

He is heading what was the UK’s largest probe into child abuse and has been investigating homes run by religious orders of nuns and brothers.

The treatment of children in church-run residential homes is a key concern of the investigation, which is considering cases between 1922 – when Northern Ireland was founded – and 1995.

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MINNESOTA
InForum

A Hibbing priest accused of inappropriately touching three girls has been released from jail on bond.

Court records indicate that the Rev. Brian Michael Lederer was released from the St. Louis County Jail on Thursday after posting bond. He had been held on $250,000 bail since his arrest last week.

Lederer is facing five felony criminal sexual conduct charges, the most serious of which carries up to 25 years in prison. He is accused of inappropriately touching three girls — all under the age of 16 — in incidents starting last year and continuing through last week.

A judge previously denied Lederer’s request for pretrial supervised release. He is due back in court on June 4.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Erin O’Neill | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on May 17, 2015

SOUTH ORANGE — An online petition launched by students at Seton Hall University calls for reinstating a priest who said he was fired as director of campus ministry over his support for a LGBT rights campaign.

More than 2,200 people had signed the petition posted on Change.org as of Sunday afternoon. A Twitter hashtag was also created to support Rev. Warren Hall: #WeWantFatherHall.

Hall posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon that he was “fired from SHU for posting a pic on FB supporting LGBT ‘NO H8.’ I’m sorry it was met with this response. I’ll miss my work here.” The “No H8” campaign started in 2008 after California voters approved a measure to ban same-sex marriage.

Seton Hall University repeatedly responded to angry comments on Twitter, saying that the Hall’s position is managed by the Archdiocese of Newark.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Elizabeth Doran | edoran@syracuse.com
on May 17, 2015

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, told Le Moyne graduates at Sunday’s graduation how important it is to “run the other way.”

On 9/11 in New York City, rescue workers and emergency personnel all were ” running the other way” toward the death and destruction rather than running away from it, Dolan said. They were running toward service and sacrifice, he said, and that’s the example to follow, he said.

“Wisdom inspires us to run the other way.” Dolan the told the 642 undergraduate students and their family and friends at the college’s 65th commencement this morning.

The selection of Dolan as commencement speaker was protested by some students because of his role in approving settlements of sexual abuse cases against priests. Le Moyne also awarded Dolan an honorary degree at the ceremony.

But there were no signs of protest during the graduation, and his talk was met applause and even cheers from some of the students.

“We’re glad you’re here,” one student yelled to Dolan as he finished walking in the processional behind the students. “‘Glad to be here,” Dolan yelled back.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[The group that opposes Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno continues demonstrating against the prelate. This happened on Friday night when he held a ceremony of confirmation of young people in the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rahue.]

El grupo de opositores al Obispo Juan Barros, en Osorno, continúa manifestándose contra el prelado. Así sucedió la noche del viernes, cuando éste celebraba una ceremonia de confirmación de jóvenes en la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, en Rahue, donde llegaron sorpresivamente, realizando una funa en las afueras del recinto.

Según Mario Vargas, líder de la agrupación de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno, es contradictorio que una autoridad eclesiástica vinculada a Fernando Karadima esté entregando un sacramento a jóvenes.

Según dijo, continuarán con este tipo de movilizaciones, proyectando además otras acciones en la ciudad, además de eucaristías oficiadas por sacerdotes que han apoyado su movimiento pese a las órdenes de las altas jerarquías eclesiásticas.

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NEW YORK
WRVO

By GRANT REEHER

[with audio]

LeMoyne College has recently been through a couple of controversies lately, first about incidents related to its annual “Dolphy Day” student celebration, and then over its choice of Cardinal Timothy Dolan as its graduation speaker. This week on the Campbell Conversations, host Grant Reeher speaks with LeMoyne’s president, Linda LeMura, about those issues, and also about the value of a liberal arts education, a Jesuit-oriented liberal arts education, and the challenges that liberal arts education is currently facing. …

On the protests of some students over the choice of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of the Diocese of New York, to speak at commencement.

Our former president selected him roughly 3 years ago. Actually we expected to have him as a speaker in the last couple of years, but his schedule precluded him from joining us sooner. He was selected because he’s one of the most important voices in Catholic education in America. He recently had a pretty big say in who would be elected the next pope, he had a vote. I think he’s going to be an incredibly compelling speaker. He’s gregarious, he has a wonderful sense of humor. There are some controversies, certainly, surrounding the Cardinal. But that’s okay, that’s what a Jesuit education is all about. We want our students to ask the hard questions. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to learn from him.

Was the level of protest coming from some students a surprise?

To be completely forthcoming, yes it was. I never imagined the depth of concern. And, frankly, I underestimated our students. I underestimated their concern for social justice, their concern for those who have been abused and marginalized, their concerns for reparation for those who have been abused. My hat is off to these 20- and 21-year-olds, who are already beginning to see the big picture, which is a function of having a liberal arts education in our tradition.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

MAY 18, 2015

John Ferguson
Victoria Editor
Melbourne

The principal of one of the schools deeply impacted by Catholic Church sexual abuse has appealed to his community to pray for the abused and prepare for weeks of distress as the royal commission seeks to make sense of the diocese’s dark history.

St Patrick’s College in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat is one of a series of schools hit hard by historical child-sex abuse perpetrated by members of the Christian Brothers fraternity.

The school is one of the best-known provincial Catholic schools in Australia, its students including former archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell and a series of prominent sportsmen.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will tomorrow begin hearing three weeks of evidence into how the diocese of Ballarat severely bungled the handling of abuse, including shifting abusers from one parish to the next. It will focus on Ballarat during these hearings.

St Patrick’s headmaster John Crowley has warned students and parents at the school, about 110km west of Melbourne, about the looming publicity and is urging people to accept the role played by the school in abuse. However, he said that the abuse in question was historical.

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NEW JERSEY
Washington Post

Catholic priest says he was fired from university job for Facebook post supporting gay rights

A priest who ministered to Seton Hall University sports teams says he was removed from his post for publicly supporting the “NOH8″ campaign supporting LGBT rights. The decision comes as the Catholic university’s men’s basketball team is recruiting Derrick Gordon, who is the first openly gay Division I men’s basketball player.

“I’ve been fired from SHU for posting a pic on FB supporting LGBT “NO H8,”‘ the Rev. Warren Hall tweeted Friday. He has since removed the tweet. “I’m sorry it was met with this response. I’ll miss my work here.” …

The majority of Catholic colleges were founded and continue to be administered by members of a religious order like Jesuits, Dominicans or Franciscans. But Seton Hall was founded and continues to be directly run by the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.

“Seton Hall University does not comment on personnel matters,” Laurie A. Pine, a spokeswoman for Seton Hall, said in a statement. “The Archbishop of Newark appoints the Director of Campus Ministry, who serves at his discretion.”

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Mail (UK)

Fury after Catholic priest at Seton Hall University is fired from his alma mater for publicly supporting gay marriage online

A Catholic priest was allegedly fired from Seton Hall University for posting a photo supporting same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights online, a decision that has sparked widespread outrage.

Rev. Warren Hall was appointed Director of Campus Ministry at his private alma mater in South Orange, New Jersey – which is directly run by the Archdiocese of Newark – around a year ago.

But on Friday, he told his Twitter followers: ‘I’ve been fired from SHU for posting a pic on FB supporting LGBT “NO H8”. I’m sorry it was met with this response. I’ll miss my work here.’ …

In response, the university emphasized that the Archbishop of Newark ‘appoints the Director of Campus Ministry’, not campus officials. It also told students: ‘We understand how you feel’.

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QUINCY (MA)
The Patriot LedgerWUIC

Posted May. 17, 2015

QUINCY – A judge has set bail at $400,000 for a Quincy man accused of blackmailing a well-known Sharon rabbi for hundreds of thousands of dollars by threatening to expose what he claimed was a sexual relationship between the rabbi and a teenage boy.

Nicholas Zemeitus, of Willard Street, had been held without bail since his arraignment Tuesday in Norfolk Superior Court on charges stemming from the alleged extortion scheme. A judge set bail at a hearing Thursday.

In court documents unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors said that Zemeitus was living in Milton in 2011 when he first threatened to expose Rabbi Barry Starr if the rabbi didn’t pay him to keep quiet. Starr resigned last year from his position at Temple Israel of Sharon and faces charges of embezzlement and larceny from the synagogue and will be arraigned at a later date.

Police have said their investigation turned up no evidence of a sexual encounter between Starr and a child.

Prosecutors also named Alexa Anderson, 24, who was living with Zemeitus in Milton, as a co-defendant in the extortion scheme. Anderson was arraigned Thursday on larceny charges and released on her promise to return to court June 23.

Zemeitus faces seven charges of larceny over $250, two charges of receiving stolen property valued over $250, one charge of larceny under $250 and one charge of extortion. Ronald W. Rice, a defense attorney appointed to represent Zemeitus, said Tuesday that he would argue against the $400,000 bail that prosecutors were seeking.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Former Catholic priest and District Court judge Chris Geraghty says the charging of an Australian Archbishop over allegations he concealed child sex abuse in the 1970s is likely to lead to other charges against Catholic clergy embroiled in similar cases.

Archbishop Philip Wilson, who is on indefinite leave, has denied the allegations and said he will be defending them.

Mr Geraghty told Radio National’s Religion and Ethics Report that the charging of Wilson was a big blow to the Catholic Church.

“If Philip Wilson is getting charged, there will be others I would think going to be charged too and they’d be running for cover worrying what’s going to happen,” he said.

“He’s a very senior member of the clergy in Australia, he’s now going to be standing up in court, he’ll be addressed as the accused.”

The charge relates to Wilson’s time in the Hunter Valley in the 1970s when he was a junior priest.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

John Ferguson
Victoria Editor
Melbourne

Even when Gerald Ridsdale was a young man he had the habits of a sinful old bastard.

Almost from the moment he was ordained in 1961, the Catholic Church in Australia’s most vicious offender was up to no good.

With his ear to the local gossip — perhaps even in the confessional when parishioners across western Victoria’s vast plains purged their fears and regrets — Father Gerry would be poised, waiting anxiously for the information he needed.

Word of a broken home, a death in the family, financial troubles; any weakness would do.

With this knowledge, Ridsdale — 81 on Wednesday — would swoop on grieving families, pretending to be offering wise counsel and pastoral relief. Doing the Lord’s work.

All the while, he was quietly preying on the parish’s children.

The more fragile the child the better for Father Gerry.

He has been convicted of abusing 54 children, but it is quietly speculated that Ridsdale’s victims can be counted in their hundreds.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

May 18, 2015

Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago

When former priest David Rapson was ordained in 1982, he received a white cord known as a cincture, which fastens clerical vestments but also signifies chastity and purity in the Roman Catholic Church.

Not one for symbolism, Rapson used his cincture to restrain 16-year-old Ben Monagle, before he viciously raped the vulnerable student in 1990.

Last week, the 61-year-old was jailed for at least nine years over the rape and sexual assault of six students, but did not express any remorse to his victims.

Despite a string of sexual assaults dating back to 1976, Rapson became vice-principal of a Catholic boarding school in Melbourne, where boys were routinely and ruthlessly abused by a group of priests and brothers from 1960 to 1990.

For legal reasons, neither the school nor the Catholic order can be named.

But Mr Monagle, 41, is determined to tell his tragic story of clerical abuse, which triggered more than 20 years of mental illness, drug abuse and crime. He is also considering legal action to sue the Catholic order, which until now has only paid for 14 counselling sessions.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

PETER MICKELBUROUGH HERALD SUN MAY 17, 2015

THE Catholic Bishop of Ballarat has publicly apologised and warned this week’s public hearings into child sexual abuse in Ballarat would be painful and distressing.

“The hearings will be very stressful for survivors and their families and for people across our region,” Bishop Paul Bird said in a letter to local parishes.

“People will be deeply upset by the accounts of crimes against children and by the failings of church leaders in responding to these crimes.

“I encourage you to support one another through these difficult days.”

Ballarat has been home to some of the Catholic Church’s most notorious paedophiles, including priest Gerald Ridsdale, who has been in jail since 1994 over 195 child rapes and sex attacks against 54 victims as young as four, and Robert Charles Best, a Christian Brother, jailed in 2011 and guilty to more than 40 offences against dozens of students, some as young as eight.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will begin its Ballarat hearings on Tuesday. They are expected to continue for up to three weeks.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Ballarat from Tuesday 19 May 2015. The first public hearing commences on Tuesday 19 May 2015 and the second will commence on a date to be announced.

Please note that the audio on the webcast may be frequently cut to protect the identity of people who have been granted a pseudonym in this hearing.

Live streaming times
The public hearing will be streamed live via this website between 10am and 4pm (AEST).

Join us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates.

Please be aware that the content of the public hearings can be distressing for viewers. Visit support services to find services near you, or for immediate support call the Royal Commission on 1800 099 340 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Location
Ballarat Magistrates Court, 100 Grenville St South Ballarat VIC 3350, Ballarat

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:
The scope and purpose of the first public hearing is to hear:

1. From residents, students and others of their experiences of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and religious associated with the following institutions run by Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat:

a. St Joseph’s Home, Ballarat
b. St Alipius Primary School, Ballarat East
c. St Alipius Parish, Ballarat East
d. St Patrick’s College, Ballarat
e. St Patrick’s Christian Brothers Boys Primary School, Ballarat

2. From residents, students and others about the impact of their experiences of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and religious associated with institutions run by Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat.

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INDIANA
Chicago Tribune

A Southeastern Indiana minister faces child sexual abuse charges in Kentucky for allegedly molesting a child several times, including inside the church where he previously preached.

A grand jury in Lewis County, Kentucky, recently indicted 63-year-old Duncan D. Aker Jr. on sexual abuse and sodomy charges involving a victim under 12 years of age. He was arrested May 3 by Greensburg, Indiana, police on a Kentucky warrant.

Kentucky State Police spokesman Joe Veeneman says Akers was minister at the Vanceburg Christian Church at the time of the alleged abuse.

Akers was most recently a Greensburg Christian Church minister.

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CALIFORNIA
SF Gate

By Victoria Colliver Saturday, May 16, 2015

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone smiled for photos, blessed the faithful and accepted thanks from many among the hundreds of Bay Area Catholics who showed up for a picnic Saturday in San Francisco in support of the religious leader.

For months, the archbishop has been the target of demonstrations by teachers, students, parents and others who disagreed with changes he has proposed for the staff handbook and high school employee contracts at Riordan and Sacred Heart Cathedral high schools in San Francisco, Marin Catholic in Kentfield and Junipero Serra in San Mateo that defined adultery, masturbation, homosexual relations and the viewing of pornography as “gravely evil.”

“He’s like a rock star,” said Eva Muntean of San Francisco, who organized Saturday’s “family picnic day” at Sue Bierman Park near the Ferry Building in support of the archbishop, as she watched Cordileone try to inch his way through the throng of well-wishers.

Muntean, who started the website sfcatholics.org, said she organized the event because she believes many Bay Area Catholics feel their support of the archbishop isn’t being heard.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Sunday Times

Tom Harper, Home Affairs Correspondent

THE invitation to meet Whitehall officials last month to discuss the Goddard inquiry prompted nervousness among the group of child abuse survivors.

One of them, Andrew Lavery, was so mistrustful about the motive for the briefing, held in a red-brick Westminster house near the Houses of Parliament — which are alleged to have hosted several paedophiles protected by the police and security services — that he decided to record it secretly.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Jeremy Gorner and Gregory Pratt
Chicago Tribune

Four teenagers have been charged in connection with a sexual assault investigation involving the baseball team at St. Francis de Sales High School in Chicago, the Tribune has learned.

St. Francis de Sales officials announced in April that they were suspending 12 students over a March incident in a school locker room, which they characterized as “bullying.” Five students were suspended five days for allegedly participating and seven others for two days for witnessing it and not reporting it, according to the school at the time.

Police said at the time that they were investigating the incident as a sexual assault.

Four juveniles were held at the Calumet District police station earlier Saturday and have since been released to their parents. Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, confirmed that four boys had been charged as juveniles by police but couldn’t confirm what the charges were.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

May 17, 2015

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

Australia’s peak advocate for children raised in orphanages and foster homes has urged the Federal Government to rethink its rejection of a national support scheme for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, asking the Commonwealth to help fund a redress scheme so victims are not forced to turn to the institutions where they were abused.

Executive officer of CLAN, Leonie Sheedy, argues adults who were abused as children in publicly funded institutions should receive Government-supported redress.

The Federal Government opposes the idea of a national redress scheme saying it would be too expensive and time consuming to implement.

“You are choosing to say the Federal Government will not manage or contribute to a national redress scheme so desperately needed by so many people,” Ms Sheedy wrote.

“You are choosing to say the responsibility for any redress scheme lies solely with the institutions in which we suffered.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By MATT CHORLEY, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

The inquiry into Establishment child abuse could last up to eight years, twice as long as first thought, it was claimed today.

The controversial probe into allegations of decades of abuse and cover-up has been dogged by delays, with two chairmen force to resign, and might not even start for another six months.

But abuse survivors condemned the suggestion it might not finish until 2023, warning: ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’

The inquiry, which has been a shambles since it was announced last July, will investigate whether public bodies, including governments, charities, the Church and BBC, failed to protect children.

Home Secretary Theresa May was forced to scour the globe to find a chairman for the inquiry, after fears leading figures in the UK would be seen as too close to the Establishment.

Lowell Goddard, a High Court judge in New Zealand, was appointed in February when she said leading the inquiry was the ‘biggest challenge’ she has ever faced.

She told the Home Affairs Select Committee she was reluctant to set a timescale for the inquiry as this stage.

But she said it had been indicated when she took the job that it could take ‘three years, possibly into a fourth’.

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INDIANA
The Raw Story

JIN ZHAO
16 MAY 2015

A pastor in southern Indiana is charged with child sexual abuse in Kentucky for molesting a child several times over a 3-year period in his car, home and inside the church where he preached, AP reports.

A grand jury in Lewis County, Kentucky, recently indicted 63-year-old Duncan D. Aker Jr., a Greensburg Christian Church minister, on sexual abuse and sodomy charges involving a victim under 12 years of age.

Akers was the pastor at the Vanceburg Christian Church in Kentucky at the time of the alleged abuse, according to Kentucky State Police spokesman Joe Veeneman. Greensburg, Indiana police arrested him on May 3 on a warrant from Vanceburg and later extradited him to Kentucky.

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UNTIED KINGDOM
Mirror

16 MAY 2015

BY KEIR MUDIE

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss was forced to step down as head of the high-profile investigation and admits that many victims ‘will not be heard’

The inquiry into historic child abuse by VIPs is flawed and victims will be denied justice, according to a former head of the probe.

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss quit the investigation in July 2014 after it emerged her brother Sir Michael Havers was Attorney General at the time of some of the worst alleged abuse in the 1980s.

But giving a public talk in the run-up to the election, the 81-year-old was recorded saying she believed the inquiry was doomed to failure.

Outspoken Lady Butler-Sloss – best-known for leading the inquest into Princess Diana’s death – also branded SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon a “fishwife” and Alex Salmond “arrogant”.

A recording of her remarks at the Chatpolitics event in London, handed to the Sunday People, confirmed that the Baroness does not believe the victims of the abuse will find closure in the investigation.

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NEW YORK
The Setonian

Posted By Emily Balan on May 16, 2015

Students took to social media to express their concerns in light of news Friday that the director for the Office of Campus Ministry, the Rev. Warren Hall, had allegedly been fired from the University.

Hall announced in a tweet around 2 p.m. that he had been let go from the University “for posting a pic on (Facebook) supporting LGBT ‘NO H8.’ I’m sorry it was met with this response. I’ll miss my work here.”
Since then, a spokesman for the Archdiocese confirmed Hall’s termination.

The initial post, which has since been deleted, was met with a large reaction from the social media community, racking up over 230 retweets and 150 favorites.

There are some who believe this will reflect poorly on the University, that a priest was allegedly fired for publicly supporting anti-discrimination for LGBT people by posting a ‘NOH8’ poster on Facebook.

Student Danielle Andreani, @dcandreani, tweeted at Seton Hall, “Would you like to comment? This seems unfair. College is where students & professors can engage in meaningful topics.” SHU’s official twitter replied, “We are thankful for all the tweets. The Archdiocese of Newark appoints the director of Campus ministry at Seton Hall,” to which Andreanu replied, “And you don’t even feel bad about the shameful situation that is occurring? This looks bad for #SHU, not the Archdiocese.”

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

A priest says he was fired as director of Seton Hall University’s campus ministry because of a pro-LGBT Facebook post.

Rev. Warren Hall took to Twitter Friday saying “I’ve been fired from SHU for posting a pic on FB supporting LGBT ‘NO H8.’ I’m sorry it was met with this response. I’ll miss my work here.”

A petition started by students demanding Hall’s reinstatement has since received over 600 signatures.

“Father Hall is a well-loved member of the Seton Hall community, and much of the student body is shocked and saddened by this decision,” said student Ethan Kraft.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Two childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse from the 1980s, Juan Rodriguez and Luis Ramos, will discuss horrific sexual abuse by Fr. Kenneth Wicks at St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church in East New York, Brooklyn, and at Fr. Wicks’ vacation home in upstate New York where Fr. Kenneth Wicks allegedly killed himself.

Juan Rodriguez and Luis Ramos reported the sexual abuse by Fr. Kenneth Wicks to the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York in approximately 1993-1995 but the Diocese of Brooklyn did nothing to help the childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse and kept the sexual abuse quiet.

It is believed that dozens of children were sexually abused by Fr. Kenneth Wicks at St. Gabriel’s Parish in East New York, Brooklyn, and in Fr. Wicks’ upstate New York vacation home and the abuse allegedly included tying up and blindfolding children during the acts of sexual abuse.

What
A demonstration, leafleting, and press conference alerting the media and general public of horrific and extensive sexual abuse of minor children at St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church in East New York, Brooklyn, and other places by Fr. Kenneth Wicks.

When
Sunday, May 17, 2015 from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm (Press conference at Noon)

Where
On the public sidewalk outside St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church, 749 Linwood Street, Brooklyn, New York 11208 – 718-257-0612

Who
Juan Rodriguez, a community activist and leader of the 75th Police Precinct Community Board, and childhood sexual abuse victim of Fr. Kenneth Wicks; Luis Ramos, a social worker in New York City, former priest seminarian and Franciscan friar, indigenous activist, and childhood victim of Fr. Kenneth Wicks; Robert M. Hoatson, Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, and members of Road to Recovery, Inc.; and, family members and supporters of Juan Rodriguez and Luis Ramos

Why
In the 1980s, Juan Rodriguez and Luis Ramos as minor children were sexually abused by Fr. Kenneth Wicks at St. Gabriel’s Parish in East New York, Brooklyn, and other places. The two clergy sexual abuse victims reported the sexual abuse to a leader of the Diocese of Brooklyn in the 1990s but nothing was done to help the victims heal and compensate the victims for their injuries. In fact, Juan Rodriguez was told that Fr. Kenneth Wicks suffered a fatal heart attack or stroke after being confronted with his allegations when, in fact, Fr. Kenneth Wicks reportedly killed himself in his vacation home in upstate New York. Demonstrators will urge other victims of Fr. Kenneth Wicks to come forward to begin their healing and demand of the Diocese of Brooklyn that it compensate sexual abuse victims.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

Posted: Sunday, May 10, 2015

by Dr. Chad Scott
Columnist

The sexual misconduct by a member of the clergy may cause the children associated with this community to go through a period of readjustment. What we do as adults can significantly help the children during this difficult time.

Without support, children often experience varying levels of avoidance and denial, which can prevent the utilization of healthy coping strategies. In some cases this can lead to mental and physical difficulties that can impact a variety of areas in a child’s life.

Providing meaningful information to children in language that they can easily understand is crucial. Let them know that the vast majority of clergy, teachers and others in positions of authority are trustworthy, and that schools and churches are overwhelmingly safe places. They also need to understand that a small number of people in positions of authority do inappropriate things to children, and that it is important to let a parent or guardian know if he or she ever experiences such an incident.

There are a multitude of reactions that a child may have in the aftermath of a traumatic event. Some of the more common reactions include sleep problems, feeling sad or worried, guilt feelings, anger and aggression, feeling sick, being preoccupied with the event, social withdrawal and concentration problems to name just a few. Another frequently seen reaction that is more common in younger children is developmental regression, such as increased clinging, crying or soiling their clothes.
Telling a child that the way they are reacting is normal allows them to feel normal in an otherwise abnormal situation with a few exceptions.

Not all children will be able to cope effectively and that their reactions to the event may need to be evaluated by a professional. These include any behavior or emotional state that significantly interferes with daily functioning. Professional interventions need to be sought out immediately if thoughts of suicide or self-injurious behaviors, such as cutting oneself, are found to be present.

The local crisis hotline can be contacted 24-hours per day by calling 1-800-450-2273. Contact 911 immediately if a child ever appears to be in imminent danger of suicide. Never leave a suicidal person alone without first consulting a mental health professional.

In talking with their child or observing their behavior, a parent may become suspicious that their child may be a victim of sexual abuse. No one symptom or behavior universally signals sexual abuse. A consultation with a mental health professional is recommended if there are any extreme changes in a child’s behavior, such as significant regression in development, hypersexuality or significantly withdrawing from others.

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MINNESOTA
Hibbing Daily Tribune

Posted: Friday, May 15, 2015

Editor’s Note: This is in response to Dr. Chad Scott’s column “Helping the children of the Hibbing Catholic community” published on this page on May 10.

First, I agree with nearly everything Dr. Chad Scott said, and I won’t question his expertise.

However, in his second paragraph, he recommends that parents tell children that the vast majority of clergy and churches are safe places. Clearly, they are not, and given the global scope of the criminal sexual deviancy of priests, parents need to instill a fear of these people.

I cannot envision a scenario where it is necessary for any clergy to be alone with any child at any time. If they seek time alone with a child, we should deny such opportunity and report it to authorities.
The website “bishopaccountability.org” will demonstrate that nearly every Catholic diocese in the United States has had credible allegations of criminal sexual misconduct by priests or nuns.

After the Catholic church’s own involvement in this travesty became common knowledge, the Vatican attempted to blame the problem on homosexuality among priests. That was a flat out lie because they knew the problem was pedophilia and ephebophilia among priests.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Sean Kirst | skirst@syracuse.com
on May 16, 2015

Almost a year ago, Charlie Bailey’s dentist said to him: You look a little gray. The worried dentist said Bailey should see a cardiologist. Bailey had already gone through all the standard tests, including a stress test and an echocardiogram. Everything about his heart seemed to be fine.

Yet he took the dentist’s advice, and Bailey’s cardiologist had the same worried gut reaction. The doctor ordered an angiogram, which showed Bailey had been walking around with several blockages. “A widow-maker,” Bailey said of the condition of his heart, and he had surgery last year that he’s sure saved his life.

He describes himself as a spiritual guy, although he no longer feels the need for any established church, and he feels as if he’s still here for a mission:

Bailey, 64, will continue speaking out on the trauma he endured as a child, and that means expressing his disbelief at the choice of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, one of the nation’s most influential Catholics, as Sunday’s commencement speaker at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit school.

“I don’t understand it,” Bailey said. “I’m so mad, just infuriated, that he was even considered.”

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Recommending Laura Bassett’s Haunting Article “Buried in Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder of a Nun Who Knew Too Much”

If you have not read Laura Bassett’s Huffington Post article “Buried in Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder of a Nun Who Knew Too Much,” I highly encourage you to do so. It’s not easy reading, and you may not be able to shake the essay, having read it.

But necessary reading for those trying to wrap their minds around the abuse situation in the Catholic church, to come to terms with the depths of corruption from which the abuse and its cover-up emanate, and to understand why it was that, for such a very long time, Catholic institutions implicated in abuse were able to evade the law and media coverage.

Bassett tells the story of the never-solved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik of Baltimore in 1969, and the intersecting story of Father Joseph Maskell, chaplain of the all-girls school, Archbishop Keough, at which Cesnik taught. An excerpt:

Former Keough students said Maskell used his charm, psychology training and moral authority to first disarm the young girls, then to manipulate them into sexual relationships. He targeted struggling or badly behaved students — [Gemma] Hoskins and [Abbie] Schaub, who got straight As, said he never bothered them — asking the girls if they were having problems at home, or if they had been sexually active with their boyfriends or used drugs. Sometimes the priest used repetitive phrases — “I only want what’s best for you, just what’s best for you,” one woman recalled him saying — to coax them into talking.

And:

The women [who have alleged as adults that Maskell raped them at Archbishop Keough] recall that Maskell had a gynecologist friend, Dr. Richter, who would examine them to make sure they weren’t pregnant. [Teresa] Lancaster claims Maskell took her to see Richter for a pregnancy test and then raped her on the table while Richter performed a breast exam.

And then Sister Cathy began to ask questions of some of the girls in the school about whether Maskell and his colleague Father Neil Magnus (the two masturbated in front of student Jean Wehner in “spiritual healing” sessions they conducted together, she alleges) were harming them. And not long after she began to ask those questions, her body was found at a dump site outside Baltimore with choke marks around her neck and a hole in the back of her skull where she had been hit with a blunt object.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

05/15/2015

Jennifer Haselberger

Over the past few weeks, I have been interacting with the cast and crew of the Illusion Theater’s production of Lee Blessing’s ‘For the Loyal’. The script is loosely based on the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, with the chief protagonist being Mia, the wife of an assistant football coach who thinks he has seen his boss engage in sexual abuse of a minor. The story attempts to present the different options and moral choices that Mia faces as she grapples with an appropriate response to what her husband has seen. The title of the play comes from a line in the college’s fight song, the implication being that ‘loyalty’ to the football program is the value that will be most richly rewarded.

While the theater contacted me because of obvious similarities between the script and recent events in my life, I should say at the outset that Mia’s choices are not my choices. I don’t find Mia particularly sympathetic. But, the concept of loyalty that is offered within the script did resonate with me, perhaps because the concept of loyalty, especially in the context of institutional loyalty and whistleblowing, is one that is so often debated.

You may or may not be surprised to learn that it was the concept of loyalty that the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis attempted to invoke to ensure my silence after my resignation in April of 2013. Although Chancery officials, including the Archbishop, like to say that they were completely taken aback when MPR started to run its series in September of 2013, in fact they were aware of the extreme likelihood of such disclosures occurring even prior to my resignation. Consequently, as early as May 3, 2013- a mere three days after I resigned- I was receiving letters from Archdiocesan attorneys reminding me of my ‘canonical duty of loyalty to the Archbishop’.

In English, ‘loyalty’ is often equated with adherence, as in the faithful adherence to a leader or a cause. In Latin, loyalty is synonymous with ‘fidelis’, in the sense of fidelity. You will not find the term ‘loyalty’ in the English version of the Code of Canon Law, nor will you find ‘fidelis’ used to describe the posture of an individual towards a bishop. Clergy are bound to obedience to their bishop, and curial officials, as I was, are to fulfill their office faithfully (emittere de munere fideliter adimplendo), but fidelity as a concept is directed not towards individuals, but towards the ethos of the Church- doctrine, bearing witness to Christ, and the people of God. Even our Profession of Faith does not require a statement of loyalty to a particular bishop, but rather to magisterial teachings of the Roman Pontiff and College of Bishops.

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CANADA
StarPhoenix

BY DOUGLAS QUAN, NATIONAL POST MAY 15, 2015

Growing up, Katherine Nichols went past the Brandon Indian Residential School every day in her school bus, but she had no idea what it was. After the school was torn down in 2000, and her parents took her to see the ruins, all she knew was that it was a school for aboriginal children.

It wasn’t until she took a first-year Native Studies course at university that she learned about the residential school system – Canadian history’s “sad chapter.”

And so when choosing a topic for her master’s thesis at the University of Manitoba, the budding forensic anthropologist was drawn back to the Brandon school, which operated from 1895 to 1972. She wanted to see if she could unravel its darkest secrets – and document all the students who had died or gone missing and where they were buried.

The small cemetery just north of the school has a cairn listing 11 students, but Nichols had heard whispers in the community about unmarked graves, and how they weren’t well-kept. She was certain there were secrets to be revealed.

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KENTUCKY
The Ledger Independent

CHRISTY HOOTS christy.hoots@lee.net

VANCEBURG | A former Vanceburg pastor charged with sexual abuse pleaded not guilty in Lewis County Circuit Court Friday.

Duncan Aker, 63, of Greensburg, Ind., was charged with five counts of sexual abuse and four counts of sodomy earlier this month after a Lewis County jury handed down an indictment against him in April.

According to a representative with the Greensburg, Ind., Police Department, Aker was arrested on May 3, on a warrant from Vanceburg, and was extradited to Kentucky not long after, but no other information was available.

“The investigation into the incidents took about three to four months,” Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Joe Veeneman said. “Then we had to wait on the extradition from Indiana.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

BY MATTHEW GAMBINO

For all the opportunity the World Meeting of Families presents to strengthen families and invigorate the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles Chaput is looking forward to one thing in particular this September.

“I’m looking forward to it being over with,” he said during a wide-ranging recent interview (see the full transcript). “I say that jokingly but I mean it. It’s an extra responsibility that requires a whole lot of my time. I haven’t had a normal year yet as a bishop (of Philadelphia).”

Archbishop Chaput looked back over his past four years leading the Philadelphia Archdiocese during perhaps the most tumultuous period in its 200-year history, and ahead to the historic World Meeting of Families and the visit of Pope Francis to the city this September.

He recalled that his first year beginning in September 2011 was occupied with dealing with the fallout from the second Philadelphia grand jury report on sexual abuse of children by some priests. The following year saw the revelations of tens of millions in annual operating losses for the archdiocese’s central administration and hundreds of millions in underfunded obligations to pensions, insurance and other funds.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Daily Record

16 MAY 2015
BY KENNY SMITH

Parishioners at St Bride’s Parish Church are urging the Bishop of Motherwell to let Father Paul Morton return.

The Reformer has been inundated with messages of support for Fr Morton, after police ended their investigation into an allegation of an historic incident of sexual abuse without charge.

And they are united in their joy, as well as wanting the priest to return to St Bride’s, where he has been based since 2000.

Fr Morton has always been popular with his parishioners. After he previously took a sabbatical from St Bride’s, a petition was sent to the Bishop of Motherwell requesting Fr Morton return to St Bride’s.

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UNITED STATES
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.

Paris Arrow

Le Moyne grads must take immediate drastic in-campus protest and do more than (a mild seemingly invisible online) Change.org petition to demand that Cardinal Dolan be disinvited as speaker to their commencement exercises. Their other plan – to close their eyes when Cardinal Dolan will be speaking at their graduation – is not a protest but a kowtow to the Vatican Mammon Evil Beast and its representative in New York.

Surely Le Moyne grads can do more or better than the undergraduate students of Rome’s La Sapienza University who were successful in ousting Pope Benedict XVI-RATzinger – a much bigger personage than Cardinal Dolan – as speaker to their convocation. In fact the pope is the biggest and highest person in the Catholic Church, therefore, Cardinal Dolan should be a small fish or a small piece of cake to handle.

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UNITED STATES
Failed Messiah

The Terrible Impact Of Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Mikvah Voyeurism In The Words Of One Of His Victims

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Emma Shulevitz, one of the victims of mikvah voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel’s, told the court today in her victim’s impact statement that Freundel had destroyed her life.

She said her father passed away in 2008 and the day after her father’s yartzeit, Freundel – who had become a sort of replacement father figure for her – called her and asked her if she wanted to take a practice dunk in the mikvah (ritual bath).

For Shulevitz, that practice ritual immersion was cathartic – until she found out last year that Freundel was secretly video-recording the women using the mikvah as they were naked and preparing to immerse.

“To me, the practice dunk was a true immersion to cleanse myself of 25 years of not doing mitzvos, of touching a dead body, of my sexual exploits in my early 20s. Now I am 30 and have to reevaluate everything in my life.…I have suffered for speaking out to the media and have lost my community. I need therapy for that. Barry destroyed my life.…What I thought was a cleansing experience was a sick betrayal of trust. I am wrecked emotionally, psychologically, sexually. All of the beliefs I had are out the window because of the hypocrisy I witnessed,” Shulevitz said.

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NEW YORK
News 12

[with video]

THE BRONX – An advocate for women allegedly sexually abused by Bill Cosby is letting her voice be heard right in the Bronx on a slightly different matter.

Helen Gumpel was an actress on “The Cosby Show,” and she claims that Cosby tried to lure her into a dressing room to perform sexual acts.

She appeared in the Bronx Friday to draw attention to the alleged sexual abuse of her husband. Grumpel says a deceased Jesuit priest and professor at Fordham University abused him when he was a minor.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

By C.W. Nevius
May 15, 2015

Supporters of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone are holding a “family picnic” Saturday at Sue Bierman Park. To which much of the city replies: Hey guys, why don’t you give it a rest?

As Cordileone’s most eloquent critic, Brian Cahill, the former head of San Francisco Catholic Charities, says, when Cordileone arrived here 2 1/2 years ago, he had “barely unpacked his bags” before he began launching volleys from the ultraconservative faction of the culture wars.

He ignored protests from prominent local politicians such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and attended the divisive March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., in 2014. More recently, he announced changes to the teacher handbook for archdiocese schools that required teachers to “affirm and believe” that “adultery, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of pornography and homosexual relations are gravely evil.”

And his hand-picked pastor for Star of the Sea parish, the Rev. Joseph Illo, courted controversy by announcing that girls would no longer be allowed to serve as altar servers, and followed that up with some blog posts that said if parishioners left because of his policies, it was “a necessary purging.”

And how has that worked out? Well, when this year’s March for Marriage rolled around, it turned out Cordileone had other pressing matters to attend to and took a pass. The teacher handbook hasn’t been changed, and now the San Francisco Archdiocesan Federation of Teachers (with connections to the AFL-CIO) is involved, so this has turned into a labor relations matter, which — just a piece of advice — may get messy.

As Paul Hance, a teacher at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo and American Federation of Teachers Local 2240 union representative says, “We will not surrender our employment rights that are protected by state and federal law.”

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Saturday 16 May 2015

A PRIEST at the centre of a bitter row with the Catholic Church has been ordered to leave his parish house.

Father Matthew Despard, 50, is involved in a dispute over a book he wrote alleging a gay mafia was operating at the top of the Church.

He was ordered to leave his home at St John Ogilvie in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, but refused, disobeying the wishes of the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

A Hibbing priest accused of inappropriately touching three girls has been released from jail on bond.

Court records indicate that the Rev. Brian Michael Lederer was released from the St. Louis County Jail on Thursday after posting bond. He had been held on $250,000 bail since his arrest last week.

Lederer is facing five felony criminal sexual conduct charges, the most serious of which carries up to 25 years in prison. He is accused of inappropriately touching three girls — all under the age of 16 — in incidents starting last year and continuing through last week.

A judge previously denied Lederer’s request for pretrial supervised release. He is due back in court on June 4.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | May. 15, 2015

KANSAS CITY, MO. Reversing course on an earlier decision to uphold 23 pastoral assignments made by Bishop Robert Finn days before his resignation, Kansas City, Kan., Archbishop Joseph Naumann has revised 14 of those assignments for the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese.

News of his decision came Friday morning in an email from Kansas City-St. Joseph spokesman Jack Smith to the diocese’s priests.

“After prayerful deliberation and consultation with his advisors, Archbishop Naumann has decided to modify some of the assignments previously made,” he wrote.

During an April 23 meeting with Naumann, current administrator of the diocese, two days after Finn resigned as head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, priests asked the archbishop to reconsider the appointments. Naumann replied that he had prayed over the decisions and chose to let them stand.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Courthouse News Service

By DAN MCCUE

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CN) – A once-prominent Georgetown rabbi who admitted to secretly videotaping dozens of women in a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on Friday.

Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel acknowledged as part of a plea agreement in February that he secretly recorded more than 150 women over several years.

Prosecutors were barred by the statute of limitations to charge him in connection with every recording, but he ultimately pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism.

Friday’s three-hour sentencing hearing Friday involved more than a dozen women telling the D.C. Superior Court of how they’ve suffered since learning of the rabbi’s betrayal.

Judge Geoffrey Alprin called Freundel ‘s actions “a classic abuse of power and violation of trust.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Haaretz

The disgraced cleric was sentenced to 45 days for each of 52 counts of voyeurism. The courtroom cheered the decision and Freundel was taken into custody immediately.

By The Forward | May 15, 2015

Rabbi Barry Freundel was sentenced to 6-1/2 years for secretly videotaping dozens of women naked in the mikveh of his high-profile Washington D.C. synagogue.

The disgraced cleric was sentenced to 45 days for each of 52 counts of voyeurism. The courtroom cheered the decision and Freundel was taken into custody immediately

D.C. Judge Geoffrey M. Alprin called Freundel’s sex spree at the Kesher Israel ritual bath a “classic case of abuse of power and violation of trust.”

Dozens of women wore orange to the hearing to back a prison sentence for the rabbi, whom they say violated their trust and trampled on common decency.

Freundel pleaded for his freedom, claiming that he was a changed man and hoped to make amends.

“I am horrified and disgusted by how I acted,” he told the court.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rabbi Barry Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for videotaping dozens of nude women at a ritual bath.

“You repeatedly and secretly violated the trust your victims had in you, and you abused your power,” Senior Judge Geoffrey Alprin of D.C. Superior Court said at the sentencing, the Washington Post reported. Alprin also fined Freundel more than $2,000.

Prosecutors had sought 17 years after Freundel, the former spiritual leader of a prominent Washington Orthodox synagogue, pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. Freundel’s lawyers sought community service. Each count carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison and fines of $1,000 to $2,500.

Freundel was given 45 days for each of the 52 counts. He will serve the sentences successively, amounting to nearly six and a half years.

The rabbi, now 64, was arrested last October and charged with six counts of voyeurism after investigators found hidden cameras in the National Capital Mikvah’s shower room and in his home. He was fired from Kesher Israel, the congregation he had led for 25 years and which abuts the ritual bath, or mikvah, soon after his arrest.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WJLA

By The Associated Press, Joce Sterman
May 15, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) – A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who secretly videotaped scores of women undressing and using a changing room at a Jewish ritual bath in Washington has been sentenced to approximately six-and-a-half years in prison.

Bernard Freundel was sentenced Friday during a hearing in D.C. Superior Court. Prosecutors had asked that a judge sentence Freundel to approximately 17 years in prison. His attorney argued community service was an appropriate sentence.

Freundel acknowledged as part of a plea agreement in February that he secretly recorded more than 150 women over several years by setting up hidden recording devices in a changing and showering area of The National Capital Mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath he worked to have built. Prosecutors said his recordings captured women undressing, using the toilet and entering and exiting a shower.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
GlobalPost

By John Clarke

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prominent Washington rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping dozens of women naked during ritual baths was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on Friday.

Rabbi Barry Freundel, 63, pleaded guilty in February to 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism. He admitted recording the women between March 2012 and September 2014 using devices installed in changing rooms.

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Alprin handed down the sentence before a packed courtroom.

Prosecutors had sought a 17-year prison term, and Freundel’s attorney Jeffrey Harris had asked for a community service sentence.

Freundel was the head of the Kesher Israel synagogue, one of the U.S. capital region’s most prominent Orthodox congregations, for 25 years. He also held various academic positions, including as a lecturer at Washington’s Georgetown University.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

Lauren Markoe | May 15, 2015

WASHINGTON (RNS) A D.C. Superior Court judge on Friday (May 15) sentenced a prominent Orthodox rabbi to nearly 6 1/2 years in prison for secretly videotaping dozens of naked women in a mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath.

Rabbi Barry Freundel pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of voyeurism, one for each of the 52 women who prosecutors said were the victims of Freundel’s spying with a hidden camera during the three years for which the statute of limitations applies.

“The defendant repeatedly and seriously violated the trust and abused his power,” Judge Geoffrey Alprin said Friday, according to news reports. “The conduct is despicable. There is no justification. The defendant lured victims to the mikvah and secretly recorded them undressed without their knowledge or permission.”

Freundel’s attorney had asked for a sentence of community service, saying that the rabbi’s career and reputation had been destroyed and that he was in intensive therapy to combat his voyeurism. Prosecutors, meanwhile, had asked for 17 years behind bars.

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ALABAMA
Baptist News

By Bob Allen

A former Southern Baptist youth pastor sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse of minors criticized his victims for not forgiving him.

“If they are unwilling to forgive, then God can’t forgive them,” Mack Allen Davis, 74, former youth minister at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., said in court May 15, according to the Birmingham News. “That’s in the Bible.”

Davis, charged with 15 counts of child sexual abuse in three Alabama counties, pleaded guilty in December to six counts in Jefferson County Court in Birmingham. He was arrested after two adults came forward claiming Davis molested them 30 years ago.

The two men claimed the abuse occurred multiple times over a decade from the late 1970s through the late 1980s. They said they were abused in multiple locations, including Davis’ church office, Shocco Springs Baptist Camp in Talladega, Ala., and Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in North Carolina.

Davis was hired in 1977 by Lakeside Baptist Church as minister of youth and recreation and the following summer named director of the church’s summer camp. He retired in 1999 at age 59.

One of the alleged victims claimed the pastor at the time knew about the abuse but kept it quiet to protect the church’s reputation. The pastor, Mike McLemore, who went on to become executive director of the Birmingham Baptist Association, denied wrongdoing, and an investigation by the association’s executive committee found no “information to support the charge that Dr. McLemore knowingly protected a pedophile during his tenure as pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church.”

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ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
on May 15, 2015

Mack Allen Davis, 74, a former youth minister at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham, was sentenced in Jefferson County Court today to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse of minors.

Davis spoke in court and blamed his victims for not forgiving him.

“If they are unwilling to forgive, then God can’t forgive them,” Davis said. “That’s in the Bible.”

Davis pleaded guilty to six charges of sexually abusing minors in Jefferson County on Dec. 1.

The Jefferson County indictment charged Davis with three counts of second degree sex abuse of a minor between the ages of 12 and 16, one count of first degree sodomy, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

* Former longtime NY Times religion reporter, Peter Steinfels, and Italy’s L’Espresso’s Sandro Magister, key journalists with decades of experience on Vatican reporting and analysis, appear to have broken free from the “herd mentality” of so many opportunistic journalist cheerleaders on Pope Francis matters. They are piercing through the Vatican’s smokescreens and raising for me serious questions about the growing gap between Pope Francis’ deeds and his words and spin. This spin is too readily accepted by a media looking for an easy story that gullible audiences looking for scarce heroes seem to love to hear.

* Magister recently observed [my italics], “The Francis of the Media and the Real Francis — Farther and farther apart from each other. The public narrative continues to depict the pope as a revolutionary. But the facts prove the contrary . When it comes to Pope Francis, there are now two of these who are ever more distant from each other: the Francis of the media and the real one.

* Magister adds, “The first [of the media] is exceedingly well-known and has been making the news since his first appearance on the loggia of the basilica of Saint Peter’s… . The Francis of the media is also to some extent a creation of his own, and brilliantly so, in the span of one morning miraculously overturning the image of the Catholic Church from opulent and decadent to “poor and for the poor.”

* Magister continues, ” … But as soon as one grapples with what the pontificate of Francis has brought that is truly new, the music changes. … . But when, at the synod last October, he saw that among the bishops the resistance to this reform was much stronger and more widespread than foreseen, he corrected his aim and from then on has not said a single word in support of the innovators. On the contrary, he has gone back to hammering on the controversial themes of abortion, divorce, homosexuality, contraception, without swerving a millimeter from the strict teaching of his predecessors Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. … . In spite of everything, the media continue to sell the story of the “revolutionary” pope, but the true Francis is farther and farther away from this. …”

* Please see Magister’s compelling examples showing this gap between the pope’s media spin and his deeds, here, The Francis of the Media and the Real Francis – Chiesa, and here, The Closed Door of Pope Francis.

* Peter Steinfels has pointedly focused here, Contraception & Honesty , on the important gap raised by the papal Family Synod’s failure to address seriously the papal ban on contraception. In an accompanying video here, Peter Steinfels explains what prompted him to write “Contraception & Honesty” and talks more about the issues he raises in it.

* Steinfels observes [my italics], “For not a few [of the Synod’s] bishops, self-censorship has become second nature, especially when speaking publicly with other bishops, and infinitely so when in the earshot of the pope. … . But could ingrained inhibition have accounted for the glaring gap in the synod’s work? I refer to the apparent lack of attention to the question of contraception. Why did the synod appear to treat so perfunctorily the issue that was, and is, the starting point for the unraveling of Catholic confidence in the church’s sexual ethics and even its credibility about marriage? To which, of course, one could add further questions about this baffling silence: Does it even matter? And if it does matter, are there grounds for hoping that the bishops who will be gathering in Rome next fall to complete the synod’s work can do better?”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox DC

WASHINGTON –
A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

More than a dozen women taped by Rabbi Bernard Freundel testified before the judge announced his sentence Friday afternoon.

Freundel acknowledged as part of a plea agreement in February that he secretly recorded more than 150 women over several years. A statute of limitations would have barred prosecutors from charging Freundel for every recording, and he pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. Each count is punishable by up to a year in jail.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Patch

By MARY ANN BARTON (Patch Staff)
May 15, 2015

By Elizabeth Janney

Former Georgetown Rabbi Barry Freundel was sentenced Friday to 6.5 years in jail for recording dozens of women in a ritual Georgetown bath as they were undressing, according to a report by The Washington Post.

He was sentenced to 45 days in jail for each of the 52 counts of voyeurism, according to WJLA.

Prosecutors had originally proposed approximately four months for each victim of the videotaping, which occurred between 2009 and 2014, The Washington Post reported.

When the sentence was announced, those attending the hearing applauded, according to WTOP. Freundel was immediately taken into custody.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC Washington

A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who admitted to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room at a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to nearly six and a half years in prison Friday.

Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel was sentenced in D.C. court Friday, after a long line of victims spoke against him, calling him a “pervert” and a “predator” in impact statements given to prosecutors before the sentencing.

Freundel was sentenced to 45 days on each of 52 counts of voyeurism.

“He used his power over us at our most vulnerable,” one said.

“His manipulation was pre-meditated and calculating,” said another.

“The defendant repeatedly and seriously violated the trust and abused his power,” Judge Geoffrey Alprin said. “The conduct is despicable. There is no justification. The defendant lured victims to the mikvah and secretly recorded them undressed without their knowledge or permission.”

The women were recorded while taking ritual baths associated with rites of family purity and conversion at the National Capital Mikvah, a ritual bathhouse affiliated with Freundel’s former synagogue in Georgetown.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WBAL

WASHINGTON —A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced Friday to nearly 6 1/2 years in prison.

More than a dozen women taped by Rabbi Barry Freundel spoke before the judge announced his sentence.

Freundel acknowledged as part of a plea agreement in February that he secretly recorded more than 150 women over several years. A statute of limitations would have barred prosecutors from charging Freundel for every recording, and he pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. Each count is punishable by up to a year in jail.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CBS Baltimore

WASHINGTON (WJZ) — A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to 78 months behind bars on Friday.

Between early 2009 to October 2014, Rabbi Bernard Freundel used hidden cameras including one hidden in a clock radio, to record women in a shower area. Video clips show him setting up the cameras.

Prosecutors say he recorded more than 150 women labeling video clips with their names and initials.
On Friday, the judge ordered 45 days behind bars for each of the 52 counts against him.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
WUSA

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — A rabbi who admitted to secretly videotaping dozens of women in a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to six and a half years Friday.

Rabbi Bernard “Barry” Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 voyeurism charges in February.

Prosecutors want Freundel to be sent to prison for at least 17 years. Freundel’s lawyer has asked that his client only do community service, not go to prison.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESSA AKERMAN THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 16, 2015

An athletics coach to national champions, with extensive links to one of the country’s elite Catholic schools, has been convicted of a child sex offence.

Peter Kehoe, 60, of Eaglemont in Victoria, was convicted last month of grooming a child under the age of 16. Kehoe has been placed on the register for sex ­offenders.

Kehoe volunteered for 38 years as athletics coach at St Kevin’s College in Toorak in Melbourne, coaching the school’s cross-country team and distance aspects of its track and field team.

He claims to be a member of St Kevin’s College Athletics Hall of Fame.

The offending occurred last year and Kehoe’s online profile claims he stopped formally coaching St Kevin’s schoolchildren in March 2013.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com May 15, 2015

An investigator from the Hastings Police Department served a search warrant last week at St. John’s Abbey as part of the prosecution of former abbey monk Fran Hoefgen.

The investigator was seeking personnel records the abbey had on Hoefgen, who is accused of abusing a former altar boy between 1989 and 1992 when Hoefgen was a priest at a Hastings church.

Hoefgen, 64, is scheduled to stand trial Monday on the charges in Dakota County.

The investigator requested the same files from the attorney representing Hoefgen, but received copies that had certain documents removed because they were “personal, private or privileged,” according to the search warrant filed in Stearns County District Court.

Investigator Christopher Nelson then sought the warrant to get from the abbey the “complete, original, un-redacted personnel, personal, historical, incident” and any other files related to Hoefgen for “evidence related to the alleged incidents of sexual assault,” according to the warrant.

The warrant’s inventory receipt, which shows what investigators collected during the search, shows that Nelson left with seven file folders. Five of the folders had Hoefgen’s name on them and were listed as being personnel records and canonical and personal files.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Channel 4

Allegations of sexual abuse at a Catholic seminary school in Yorkshire have surfaced this week, after a British man confronted a priest in Italy.

Mark Murray (pictured above), 59, secretly filmed an encounter with Father Romano Nardo, 73, from the Verona Fathers, who, he says, sexually abused him at Mirfield trainee school for priests in Yorkshire in the 1970s.

The short clip was posted online by Italian newspaper La Repubblica and you can hear Mr Murray tell Father Nardo: “You have had a massive, negative impact on my life and my family and my children. I tried many times to meet with you.

“Romano Nardo, do you know who I am? I think you do. Mark Murray. Do you remember me?”

In the video, you can hear Father Nardo mumble: “If it is my fault that you bear a heavy cross, I believe I should ask the Lord for forgiveness. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry.”

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion

Boz Tchividjian | May 15, 2015

“I’m ready to be put this all behind me and to continue reaching for my dreams of filmmaking and in music.”

Those were the recent words of Brandon Milburn, a former youth minister, as he pleaded with a judge for a lenient sentence after being convicted of seven counts of child sexual abuse involving two eleven year old boys. His pleas were echoed by supporters who came to court to proclaim his innocence. One even remarked, “I do not believe he is a predator. I love Brandon; my children love Brandon. If Brandon was released today, he would be welcome to come and live in my home.”

Fortunately, the prosecutor reminded the judge, “In the sentencing advisory report, the defendant minimizes his activities, his offenses against the boys in this case, and actually denies there are other victims.” Ultimately, the judge decided that Brandon Milburn should spend the next 25 years reaching for his dreams inside the walls of a prison.

Sexual offenders have perfected a grand deception that sadly seems to work all too well inside faith communities. This deception twists truth, minimizes abuse, and exploits guilt in order to create a fictional narrative that paints the offender as the victim and those who accuse and confront as perpetrators of injustice. Unfortunately, too many fail to realize that this deceptive narrative is fiction.

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a couple, who recently learned that their son had been sexually victimized by a popular young man in the church. Upon confronting the offender with this crime, these parents came face to face with this grand deception. Here is how it works:

Step One – “I am a victim.” When confronted about sexually abusing a child, offenders will immediately and tearfully disclose that they too were victimized as a child and never had the opportunity to get help. In an effort to sound credible, the offender may not necessarily be referring to sexual abuse since the objective is simply to be seen as a victim. Do you see the grand deception at work? Offenders simultaneously take the spotlight off of their own wretched acts while subtly eliciting sympathy from their confronters. Sadly, this initial step of the grand deception can be extremely successful, especially with the broader congregation. Being seen as a victim will all too often fuel the needed sympathies and doubts of congregations who struggle with accepting a reality that seems all to dark and unbelievable.

Step Two – “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” The next step of the grand deception is to minimize the wrongfulness of the acts committed. If the victim is younger, offenders may acknowledge the behavior as “inappropriate”, but certainly not criminal. Furthermore, they will argue that these “inappropriate” actions were certainly not a result of an evil or lascivious motive, but out of a misguided love and care for the child that may be rationalized using their own childhood abuse. With older victims, offenders will similarly acknowledge the inappropriateness of their behavior, but will make a subtle attempt to paint the victim as a consenting party to the unlawful acts. Statements like, “I never did anything he didn’t want me to do” or “Though I agree I should have acted more responsibly, I never did anything without his [victim] consent.” Do you see the grand deception at work? Sympathetic childhood abuse is the foundation that facilitates the deception that any alleged harmful behavior with the child was unintentional and perhaps even consensual. Sometimes this step concludes with statements such as, “Though I’ve made some mistakes, I’m certainly no child molester.” The stage has now been set to begin turning the tables on the accusers.

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IRELAND
The Tablet (UK)

15 May 2015 by David Weber

The Irish bishops have pledged to fund all counselling needed by clients of a new support group for the children of Irish Catholic priests, Coping International. Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin added: “I pray that Coping will be able to find ways which will bring the children of priests and their natural parents together for the benefit of both.” David Weber, the son of a priest, says globally thousands of people are affected

While much justified coverage has been devoted to child abuse by members of the Catholic clergy, a different issue, with again children as the main victims, has been largely neglected by the media and governments: the discrimination faced by children whose father is or was a Catholic priest.

Many rights thought to be basic in any modern society – the right to know one’s father and be able to have open contact with him, the right to receive child support not attached to conditions, and the right to inherit from one’s father, are being denied to children of priests, resulting in a discrimination that has consequences long into adulthood.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor May 15, 2015

Right now, the Irish betting firm Paddy Power has Cardinal Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle of the Philippines as the favorite to be the next pope, giving him 11/2 odds. Already dubbed the “Asian Francis,” Tagle got another boost this week with his election to lead a global federation of Catholic charities.

(For the record, Paddy Power has Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston as the American with the best odds, at 10-1.)

Granted, such forecasts don’t have a particularly good track record. Papal elections occur only when the incumbent either dies or resigns, and at the moment Francis seems perfectly healthy with no sign of slowing down. Between today and whenever a conclave might occur, any number of things can happen to change the landscape.

That dose of caution, however, rarely stops “next pope” rumors from being the Church’s favorite parlor game. So if we’re going to go down that route, there’s a great deal to be said for Tagle, who would make a strong runner if the key issue next time is continuity with Francis.

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BOSTON (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Statement by David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, davidgcohessy@gmail.com

This Sunday marks the 700th consecutive vigil held outside the Cathedral in Boston by an amazing group of caring individuals.

That’s no typo. They’ve been out there for 700 Sundays in a row.

In rain.
In heat.
In cold.
In sleet.

Led by members of Speak Truth to Power, these brave, and compassionate souls have endured taunts and insults and tons of cold-shoulders from Catholic clerics, employees and church members. Why? Because their peaceful presence reminds people of the horror inflicted on thousands of children by clerics who committed and concealed heinous crimes.

These folks are heroes.

Who are these incredible activists? Among others, they are Paul Kellen ( 781-385-3628 paulkellen@aol.com), Kathy Dwyer, Ruth Moore, Ken Scott, Bob Sidorowicz, Rosemary Morgan, RIchard Orareo, Eileen Doherty, Stan Doherty, Steve Sheehan, Sheldon Daley, Robert Costello, Lillian Albert, Steve Burke and Ben Murphy.

On behalf of survivors, we in SNAP salute them for their incredible witness for kids, for victims, for deterrence, for prevention and for truth.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Keith L. Alexander May 15

Sentencing for Barry Freundel, the once-influential Orthodox rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping dozens of women as they prepared for a ritual bath, is scheduled for Friday in D.C. Superior Court.

The hearing is expected to be an emotional one as many of the victims are expected to speak to Senior Judge Geoffrey Alprin on the impact of Freundel’s crime on their lives.

Freundel, 64, was arrested in October on charges that he videotaped six women in the nude while he was at Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown. Prosecutors said a review of his computer equipment revealed that many more women had been recorded by Freundel as they prepared for the bath known as a mikvah — used as part of a purification ritual.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Baltimore Sun

By Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

An Orthodox rabbi and former Towson University professor who admitted to secretly videotaping women as they prepared for a ritual bath is scheduled to be sentenced today on voyeurism charges.

Barry Freundel pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of voyeurism, admitting he taped women at the National Capital Mikvah in Washington, D.C.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in D.C. Superior Court at 1 p.m. Prosecutors recommended a 17-year-sentence, saying his case “falls on the extreme end of the voyeurism spectrum.”

His defense lawyer plans to argue for community service, according to court documents.

All the voyeurism counts are misdemeanors. Each carries a penalty of up to a year of incarceration and up to a $2,500 fine.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath will learn his sentence.

More than a dozen women taped by Rabbi Bernard Freundel are expected to speak before the judge announces his sentence Friday.

Freundel acknowledged as part of a plea agreement in February that he secretly recorded more than 150 women over several years. A statute of limitations would have barred prosecutors from charging Freundel for every recording, and he pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. Each count is punishable by up to a year in jail.

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UNITED STATES
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Issued by Sister Sharon Holland, IHM (LCWR President); Sister Marcia Allen, CSJ (LCWR President-Elect); Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ (LCWR Past President); and Sister Joan Marie Steadman, CSC (LCWR Executive Director)

We have been asked by our members and the public for our thoughts and reflections regarding the completion of the mandate of implementation issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) after its doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). We do so here, but emphasize that these are only preliminary personal observations and reflections. We will not have the opportunity to reflect on the experience in its entirety with the members of the conference and hear their insights until the LCWR assembly in August 2015.

From the time of the 2012 public issuance of the findings of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR, we had serious concerns about both the content of the assessment and the process by which it was prepared. We believed that the sanctions called for in the CDF mandate were disproportionate to the concerns raised and we feared the sanctions could compromise the ability of the LCWR officers and members to fulfill the mission of the conference. Furthermore, we were deeply saddened that the report caused scandal and pain throughout the Catholic community. We, along with our members, felt publicly humiliated as the false accusations were re-published repeatedly in the press.

Beginning with our first meeting with LCWR’s board of directors in May 2012 shortly after the issuance of the mandate, we situated all discussions of the assessment and mandate in a context of communal contemplative prayer. This involved acknowledging the depth of our feelings about the actions of CDF; careful listening to all perspectives on the matter; engaging in honest conversations with one another about not only LCWR and its work, but our own faith journeys; communally sitting in silence to ponder all we heard; and bringing our insights to God in prayer. We continued to utilize contemplative processes each time we gathered as the executive officers of the conference, as a board, and as an assembly to discuss the mandate. We believe this approach strengthened our capacity to hear and better understand the concerns of CDF as well as clarify and strengthen our own convictions about the mission and purpose of LCWR. The processes in which we engaged as a conference became a profound source of personal growth for each of us and deepened and strengthened the bonds that exist among us as women religious.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Dawn Cherie Araujo May. 14, 2015

Related stories and resources:

• Statement of the LCWR officers on the CDF doctrinal assessment and conclusion of the mandate
• Q & A with Sr. Sharon Holland, president of LCWR
• LCWR statements about doctrinal assessment, 2009-2015
• Timeline of LCWR / CDF interactions 2008-present by NCR

In a statement released this morning, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious acknowledged the sadness and public humiliation they experienced during the six years they were under Vatican review, but they said they hoped the process would be a valuable learning experience for both the wider church and community.

This is the first time LCWR has spoken publicly since last month’s conclusion of the Vatican oversight of their group. They had maintained public silence on the matter for 30 days, per the Vatican’s request.

“We believed that the sanctions called for in the CDF mandate were disproportionate to the concerns raised and we feared the sanctions could compromise the ability of the LCWR officers and members to fulfill the mission of the conference,” LCWR leaders wrote in their statement, adding that were times of darkness when “a positive outcome seemed remote.” But they did ultimately get that positive ending, encouraged, in part, by the prayers of their supporters around the world.

LCWR, an association for the elected leaders of women religious communities in the United States, has more than 1,500 members and represents almost 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the country.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The JC

The judge in the trial of Todros Grynhaus has told the jury only an unanimous verdict will be accepted.

The panel have begun their deliberations after two weeks of evidence.

Mr Grynhaus, 50, a well-known figure in the Salford strictly Orthodox community, is accused of five counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault against two girls when they were aged around 14 and 15.

He denies the charges.

Mr Justice Holroyde warned the jury at Manchester Crown Court that only a verdict on which they all agreed would be acceptable, unless he directed otherwise.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI

[with video]

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — A Marianist brother who worked at the former North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood has pleaded guilty to sex charges in Australia and will be sentenced there, according to an Australian newspaper.

Brother Bernard Hartman, 75, abused three children in Melbourne in the 1970s and 80s. He taught science at North Catholic until 1997.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh alerted North Catholic alumni to the allegations last year.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

Victim wins six-figure payout from Church of England over abuse by paedophile Leeds priest

The victim of a paedophile priest has criticised the Church of England after finally winning justice over abuse he suffered more than 20 years ago.

Rev Terence Reginald King, who was vicar at St Mary The Virgin Church in Dewsbury Road, Woodkirk, Leeds, for 22 years, hanged himself in 2002 while he was being investigated by West Yorkshire Police over a string of child sex abuse allegations.

Now in his 30s, one of King’s alleged victims, who was abused over several years from the age of 12, has won a six-figure compensation sum from the Anglican Church.

But the man said his ordeal had a lasting impact and he continued to feel let down by the Church.

He said: “They not only let me down by employing a paedophile, but did nothing to rectify this after King committed suicide even though they knew the abuse had taken place.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

Christine D’Antonio

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A Roman Catholic brother, who taught in Pittsburgh for years, has been convicted of sexual abuse in Australia.

Brother Bernard Hartman taught at North Catholic High School for parts of the 60’s and late 1970’s. However, he held a more permanent role in a Troy Hill school from 1986-97

Hartman was accused of sexually abusing a student while at North Catholic and was the subject of a credible allegation of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
MAY 15, 2015

When 25 leaders of the largest organization of American nuns met for the first time with Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle in 2012, after the Vatican appointed him to lead an overhaul of their group, they expected conflict.

The nuns were hurt and confused when the Vatican accused them a few months earlier of straying from Catholic teaching and promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” And for many Catholics, the appointment of Archbishop Sartain and two other bishops amounted to a hostile takeover.

“Things were still quite raw,” said Sister Carol Zinn, the past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 80 percent of American nuns. “Our board members were saying to him, ‘What do we say to them, Archbishop, what do we say to our sisters?’”

But instead of lecturing the nuns — women who had dedicated their lives to teaching, health care, academia and social justice — Archbishop Sartain listened. “That continued for the next two years,” Sister Zinn said, and it helped lead to a breakthrough: Last month, the leaders of the group say, they were stunned to find themselves at a cordial meeting in the Vatican with a smiling Pope Francis, talking with him for nearly an hour about religious life and their calling to care for the poor and suffering.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A retired Catholic priest (now aged 70) is listed for Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court on Thursday 14 May 2915, where he is to be charged with 19 offences relating to the sexual and indecent assault of children while he was ministering (in parish work or, at one stage, as a full-time chaplain for some disadvantaged people) in the Sydney archdiocese during the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s. The case number is 2015/00126145.

According to an announcement by the New South Wales police on 28 April 2015, the investigation began in 2014 when police from the Blue Mountains Local Area Command and the New South Wales Sex Crimes Squad received information relating to the alleged assault of a young girl by this Sydney priest during a visit to the Blue Mountains region in 1986.

Detectives made inquiries into the 1986 matter and identified seven more children who had allegedly been sexually or indecently assaulted by this priest in Sydney, or during visits elsewhere in New South Wales, between 1975 and 1992.

Throughout the time of the offences, the man was practising as a Catholic priest.

On 28 April 2015, following their inquiries, detectives arrested the 70-year-old man at a private house in Granville (in Sydney).

He was taken to Parramatta Police Station, where he was charged with:
*Two counts of sexual assault; and,
*17 counts of indecent assault.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

A former Catholic priest, Father Peter Lewis Comensoli, now aged 76, will stand trial in the New South Wales District Court accused of molesting two boys in separate incidents while this priest was working in the Wollongong diocese, south of Sydney, in the 1960s.

Peter Lewis Comensoli entered pleas of not guilty in Port Kembla Local Court on 6 May 2015 to three charges (called “indecent assault of a male”), allegedly committed against two teenage boys while Comensoli was a priest in the Wollongong diocese:

1. Police allege that Comensoli assaulted one of the alleged victims multiple times in 1966 during visits to the boy’s family at their home at Ingleburn. It is alleged he would play a wrestling game with the boy and, while on top of him, squeeze his genitals. The man reported the alleged assaults to the church in 1999, but the information was not passed on to police until January 2014.

2. Comensoli is accused of assaulting the other boy in 1968, while working at the Shellharbour parish. It is alleged that the boy became close to Comensoli through the priest’s role as leader of a fellowship group for children who attended the parish. This alleged victim disclosed the alleged incident to a psychologist in 2012, who urged him to go to police.

The incidents with both boys allegedly happened on church premises.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 13 May 2015)

Christian Brother William Peter Standen (known as Brother “David” Standen), who has taught at Catholic schools in Sydney and regional New South Wales, appeared in court on 13 May 2015 to answer 32 charges of indecent assault, allegedly committed against 18 schoolboys. Standen pleaded Guilty to 11 charges and Not Guilty to 15 charges, while the remaining six charges were withdrawn.

Standen submitted his pleas to a magistrate in the Goulburn Local Court in south-western New South Wales. The charges had been laid by detectives at Goulburn, where one of Brother Standen’s former schools (St Patrick’s College) was located. Police alleged that the offences were committed against boys at this school between 1978 and 1981.

All of Standen’s pleas, including the Guilty and Not Guilty ones, will be referred now to the Sydney District Court, where the Standen case is scheduled to have a procedural mention on 5 June 2015. Those charges for which Standen has pleaded Not Guilty would necessitate a trial and therefore the case would be put on the District Court’s waiting list for when a time-slot becomes available on the District Court’s schedule.

After the District Court trial is completed, Standen would be sentenced by the District Court for any charges on which he will have been found guilty, including those on which he has already entered a Guilty plea.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted May 14, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — The jury trial of a Freeport man being sued for slander over allegations of sexual abuse of boys at a Haitian orphanage is set to begin July 8 in U.S. District Court.

The trial was delayed after Michael Geilenfeld, a former Catholic brother, was detained in Port au Prince beginning Sept. 5 while a criminal investigation into abuse allegations was conducted, according to court documents. He was released April 29 after being exonerated.

Geilenfeld and Hearts with Haiti, a North Carolina-based nonprofit that raised money for the orphanages he ran, in February 2013 sued Paul Kendrick, 65, of Freeport. The plaintiffs alleged that Kendrick’s false allegations that Geilenfeld has sexually abused children has defamed the organization and caused fundraising events in the U.S. to be cancelled.

They are asking U.S. District Judge John Woodcock to order Kendrick to stop making the statements and to remove all those that have been published on the Internet. The lawsuit also is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

It took 237 days for Geilenfeld to be cleared of the allegations in Haiti.

“After full prosecution in the Haitian criminal justice system, the criminal court in Haiti entered judgment in his favor on all charges,” according to a document filed this month in federal court in Portland. “Most of the charges were dismissed before trial after investigation by the investigative judge, based on insufficient evidence; one charge for alleged ‘public indecency’ under Haitian criminal law was found in Geilenfeld’s favor after trial by the Haitian criminal trial judge.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

By DANIEL LIBON (Patch Staff)
May 14, 2015

A Quincy man accused of extorting over $400,000 from former Temple Israel Rabbi Barry Starr will be held on bail.

Nicholas Zemeitus, 30, of Quincy, was ordered held on $400,000 bail according to the Boston Globe. A lawyer for the defendant sough a bail of $5,000 to $7,000.

On Tuesday, Zemeitus was arraigned on seven counts of larceny over $250, two counts of receiving stolen property over $250, one count of larceny under $250, and one count of extortion.

According to court records, Zemeitus met Sarr after discovering a sex ad on Craig’s List for an older woman. Zemeitus ended up Starr’s home where he found the rabbi in drag.

E-mails show that Zemeitus attempted to blackmail Starr into giving him money, threating to make a sexual relationship with Zemeitus’ non-existent teenage brother public.

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AUSTRALIA
Truth, Justice and Healing

Ballarat Bishop, Paul Bird has written to all local parishes in the central Victorian regional town calling on all Catholics to keep in their thoughts and prayers the survivors of child sexual abuse who will be giving evidence at the Commission hearing over the coming three weeks.

“The hearings will be very stressful for survivors and their families and for people across our region. People will be deeply upset by the accounts of crimes against children and by the failings of church leaders in responding to these crimes. I encourage you to support one another through these difficult days,” Bishop Bird wrote.

Read Pastoral letter here

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The federal government’s rejection of a national redress scheme for people abused in institutions is the ultimate slap in the face and could lead to more deaths, a victim says.

Peter Blenkiron, who was abused in a Victorian Catholic school in 1974, blasted the Abbott government for rejecting the scheme as too costly and too complex to implement.

“It was the ultimate slap in the face,” the Ballarat man told AAP.

He said victims were losing hope and he feared more may commit suicide, with a high number of suicides and premature deaths among people who were abused as children in the Ballarat diocese.

“Not every one of the survivors out there needs it but the ones that do, if they don’t get some practical help they’ll be dead,” he said.

“We need to put a system in place to stop the deaths and if you don’t, the bubble of hope will burst and people will die. People are dying today.”

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ROME
Chiesa

Farther and farther apart from each other. The public narrative continues to depict the pope as a revolutionary. But the facts prove the contrary

by Sandro Magister

ROME, May 15, 2015 – When it comes to Pope Francis, there are now two of these who are ever more distant from each other: the Francis of the media and the real one.

The first is exceedingly well-known and has been making the news since his first appearance on the loggia of the basilica of Saint Peter’s.

It is the narrative of the pope who revolutionizes the Church, who lays down the keys of binding and loosing, who does not condemn but only forgives, or rather who does not even judge any more, who washes the feet of the female Muslim inmate and the transexual, who abandons the palace to plunge into the peripheries, who opens the workshop on everything, on the divorced and remarried as on the Vatican’s finances, who closes the checkpoints of dogma and throws open the doors of mercy. A pope who is a friend of the world, who is already being praised for his upcoming encyclical on “sustainable development” even before seeing what will be written there.

In effect there is a great deal, in the words and actions of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, that lends itself to this narrative.

The Francis of the media is also to some extent a creation of his own, and brilliantly so, in the span of one morning miraculously overturning the image of the Catholic Church from opulent and decadent to “poor and for the poor.”

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Elle Farcic
May 15, 2015

A Catholic bishop will stand trial in August charged with historic child sex offences.

Max Leroy Davis has been charged with four counts of committing indecent practices between males in public and four counts of unlawfully and indecently dealing with a child under 14.

In Perth Magistrate’s Court this morning, defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty entered pleas of not guilty to all of the charges.

It is understood the charges relate to two complainants.

Bishop Davis, 68, allegedly abused the boys in 1969 when he was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

He is believed to be the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian church official to be charged with child sex offences.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Menagh

Australian Defence Force Bishop Max Davis has been committed to stand trial in Western Australia on child sex charges dating back almost 50 years.

Davis is facing four charges of committing indecent practices in public, and four charges of indecently dealing with a child.

The alleged offences date back to 1969 before he was ordained as a priest, when was teaching at Saint Benedict’s College in New Norcia.

Davis’s lawyer, Seamus Rafferty, told the Perth Magistrates Court his client would be pleading not guilty to all charges.

Davis lives in Canberra and was not required to attend today’s hearing.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

PHIL HICKEY PERTHNOW MAY 15, 2015

THE head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese will stand trial in the West Australian District Court over child sex offences dating back more than 40 years.

Bishop Max Leroy Davis, 68, is alleged to have indecently dealt with a boy under the age of 14 and committed indecent practices between males in public in 1969 when he was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

Davis, who was not an ordained priest at the time of the alleged offences, is understood to be the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian church official to be charged with child sex offences.

He will face a trial in August.

Man, 66, charged over 1980s child sex assaults
Police have charged an elderly man with 33 child sex offences relating to six alleged victims dating back to 1980.

Child Abuse Squad detectives arrested and charged the 66-year-old man in South Australia on Thursday and extradited him to Western Australia.

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ISRAEL
Ynet

Tali Farkash, Aviel Megnazi
Published: 05.14.15

While extradition proceedings are taking place in Israel to bring the former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne to trial in Australia on suspicion of sexually abusing three of her students, Victoria’s Supreme Court has begun hearing a civil claim filed by one of the girls.

“She liked to hug me like a baby, and rock me. She said I should consider her like a mother who loved me, and that I was special,” the former student, who is now in her 20s, told the court, according to the Herald Sun.

Malka Leifer, a mother of eight children who ran the Adass Israel school for girls in Melbourne, is at the center of the civil suit. She escaped to Israel two days after details were revealed about 74 sexual offenses she allegedly committed against three sisters. The school was also sued for not passing the student’s complaint to the authorities. The principal was updated on the complaint, which allowed her to immediately flee Australia.

She was arrested last August and placed under house arrest until the completion of the extradition proceedings. In Australia, she is expected to face criminal charges in addition to the civil trial. The Australian authorities filed to extradition request with the Israeli authorities in July 2013. The Australian request noted that Leifer is facing trial for 47 indecent act offenses, 13 offenses of indecent assault of a minor, 11 rape charges and three additional charges.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News

Adass Israel teacher Malka Leifer was employed by the Adass congregation, not its school, its barrister said today, in closing arguments in a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The Israeli educator, who has been back in Israel since 2008, is fighting extradition to Australia to face criminal charges over her alleged sexual abuse of several Adass students.

The ultra-Orthodox Adass school in Melbourne is fighting the lawsuit against it by a former student who claimed the sexual abuse she suffered had marred her life.

The court has heard evidence of Leifer’s alleged sex abuse, and how she was rushed back to Israel after the allegations were presented to an emergency meeting of the Adass board in March 2008.

Counsel for Adass, Christopher Blanden SC, argued to the court today that the Adass school provided a general education and Leifer had been hired in 2000 by the congregation to provide a separate Jewish education, so the school was not liable for her alleged offences.

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IOWA
Catholic Globe

By Colleen Sulsberger
Protecting the Innocent

Communicating concerns about someone’s behavior without causing additional angst or creating more problems is difficult and uncomfortable. When we come to this part of the Virtus training class, I often find it difficult to get participants to share their thoughts. Yet, it’s one of the most important parts of the steps we all must take to protect children. Many children have been rescued by courageous caregivers who set their fear and discomfort aside and spoke up when they noticed something that didn’t seem right to them. Let’s go one step further to discuss how someone in a supervisory capacity can have an effective conversation to relay the communicated concern.

Some of you may be thinking of not reading any further. After all, you are not “in charge” of anything at the parish or school; you are just supervising the playground or helping with religious ed. But everyone has the responsibility to keep their eyes and ears open when kids are around, watching the interactions between them, between the adults and the kids, and all of the issues we will address are relevant to situations at work, at community events, in committee activities, or even for someone who is in charge of cleaning the kitchen after a church dinner. At some time or other, most of us have some responsibility for other adults who are working with us, or are in situations where children are working or playing nearby where we can observe. This article is intended to help you be better prepared for those situations.

A common problem arises when concerns about behavior, which may be genuine and sincerely meant to foster safer environments, create stress for the supervisor who needs to communicate them, fearing that delivering this message could cause someone to quit the volunteer program. No one likes to feel they are being accused, so this reaction is understandable, but it underscores the importance of having everybody on your team current on their Virtus training. In that way, supervisors can remind everyone that as adults, we all take the responsibility for keeping an eye on each other and letting our teammates know if we are doing something that causes concern.

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IOWA
Catholic Globe

By Colleen Sulsberger
Protecting the Innocent

Spring is just around the corner, and that means lots of outdoor activities for kids are gearing up. Scouting, team sports, gymnastics, and dance classes are just a few of the programs that are available for children and young people. Regardless of how much or how little extracurricular activity is part of a child’s life, one thing is certain – safety first must be the motto of parents, guardians, and other caring adults when choosing program activities for kids.

Knowing that, what is the best way for caring adults to make sure that those who supervise programs are doing all they can do to make sure that young people have a safe and enjoyable experience?

In Step 3 of Virtus training, we recommend that adults and organizations “Monitor All Programs.” For the most part, the emphasis in this step has been on overseeing programs on the premises of the church or school. However, as we begin to consider a broader range of activities for the children in our lives, there is an opportunity to apply the principles of Virtus in the investigation and evaluation of other programs and activities for our children.

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IOWA
Catholic Globe

Root cause analysis: This is a fairly new term making its way around the world of Safe Environment leadership and the U.S. Bishops Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection.

Root cause analysis is used to create a highly reliable culture, by reporting all violations, all “near misses,” and all incidences where established rules and protocols were not followed. By examining what went wrong, or almost went wrong, we can determine weaknesses in our system and correct them. Highly reliable cultures must operate under trying or complex conditions and maintain few or no accidents or breaches in their systems (think airlines, nuclear power plants, and hospitals).

Everyone within these systems understands and follows all the rules all the time, and everyone reports every event that goes against established protocol, because failure to do so could endanger everyone. Leadership in a highly reliable culture is focused on eliminating failure, and encourages everyone to focus on that as well. There is no room for error when a jet is attempting to land, or when a patient in undergoing major surgery, just as there is no room for error when a child’s well-being is at stake.

Since 2002, the number of credible allegations of child sexual abuse reported to dioceses has continued to decline, and that is good news. However, everyone will agree that even one credible report of a child being abused in our church is one too many. Our goal is to eliminate child sexual abuse completely – from every parish and every school, period.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

By Michael Hasch
Thursday, May 14, 2015

A Marianist brother will be sentenced in Australia for his conviction on charges of sexually abusing three children in Melbourne, an Australian newspaper reported this week.

Brother Bernard Joseph Hartman, 75, who once taught science at the former North Catholic High School in Troy Hill, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and was convicted on an additional count of indecent assault and two counts of common law assault, the Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay Star Weekly reported Tuesday.

Hartman was charged in Melbourne with sexually abusing two boys and two girls in the 1970s and 80s.

He pleaded guilty to molesting two girls between the ages of 8 and 11, the newspaper reported. He was convicted of molesting one of the boys in the 1980s and acquitted of abusing the second.

Hartman is a former biology teacher at North Catholic, now known as Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School in Cranberry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Press

THE Church of England has made a six-figure payout to a man who says he suffered years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of a retired York vicar.

The man, whose identity is protected, received the undisclosed sum 13 years after the Rev Terence King committed suicide on October 31, 2002, while under investigation by West Yorkshire Police over child sex abuse.

Mr King, who was 69 and from Abbey Street, Clifton, was found dead in his garage on October 31, 2002 – the day after he walked out of The Retreat in Heslington Road, York, where he had been receiving treatment.

The man says Mr King made his life hell for eight years when he was a child and Mr King was a vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church at Woodkirk, near Morley, West Yorkshire.

He says the sexual, physical and mental abuse he suffered in the church and vicarage has had a lasting impact on his life.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

Helen Gumpel, retired successful fashion model and actress, who thwarted a sexual attack in Bill Cosby’s dressing room on the set of “The Cosby Show,” and currently an advocate for women who were sexually abused by Bill Cosby, will join her husband, Hollywood screenwriter Neal E. Gumpel, at Fordham University, Bronx, New York, to draw attention to the sexual abuse of her husband when he was a minor child.

Neal E. Gumpel is a clergy sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased Jesuit priest and professor at Fordham University, Bronx, NY, and Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, Maine, where Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, sexually abused Neal E. Gumpel when he was a minor child.

Fordham University and the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), who staff Fordham University and were responsible for Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ for decades until his death, refuse to acknowledge and bear responsibility for the allegation of sexual abuse against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ in Maine and give any assistance to Neal E. Gumpel, settle and validate his claim, and help him heal.

What
A press conference and leafleting alerting the media and general public that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Fordham University refuse to help a clergy sexual abuse victim of one of its priests, Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ heal by validating his claim of sexual abuse as a minor child.

When
Friday, May 15, 2015 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm
Saturday, May 16, 2015 8:00 am until 11:00 am (Graduation at 10:00 am)

Where
On the public sidewalks outside the motor vehicle entrance to Fordham University, Bronx, New York, across from the New York Botanical Gardens in Southern Boulevard.

Who
Hollywood screenwriter Neal E. Gumpel, a resident of Connecticut who has alleged that he was sexually abused as a minor teenager by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ; Helen Gumpel, wife of Neal E. Gumpel, former successful fashion model and actress who appeared in an episode of “The Cosby Show” and thwarted a sexual assault by Bill Cosby in his dressing room; and members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why
Neal E. Gumpel, whose mother (Jane Gumpel) and father (Dr. Roy Gumpel) are both graduates of Fordham University, was an unsuspecting high school minor teenager when his brother invited him to spend a weekend at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine. Rev. Roy Alan Drake, SJ was a Jesuit priest from Fordham University who was working at the time at Maine Maritime Academy and invited Neal E. Gumpel to his residence on or near the campus, served him alcohol, and sexually abused him. Demonstrators will call on Fordham University and the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus to do the right thing and help Neal E. Gumpel heal.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – Fordham University Ph.D. ’88 – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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NEW YORK
News Hounds

NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan is BFFs with Roger Ailes and his “angel” Catholic wife who raises lots of money for Dolan’s charities. In turn,, Fox provides a platform for conservative Catholic teachings. Fox is also a place where Cardinal Dolan is defended from criticism and, on today’s Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy did his sacred duty.

After the “Fight for Faith” visual and tense music, devout Catholic Steve Doocy seemed apoplectic as he reported that “students at a Catholic university, here in NY state have launched a petition urging the administrators to disinvite or uninvite” Dolan because he, according to the petition “just doesn’t represent their values.” He shook his head when he quipped “really?” He grinned as he informed us that LeMoyne College officials aren’t backing down. The banner framed the message as a patented Fox controversy: “Commencement Controversy.”

After introducing his guests Le Moyne College President Linda LeMura and Father. David McCallum, her special assistant, Doocy asked “who is behind” the petition. Doocy twitched as LeMura explained that the petition was launched by students. Despite the fact that Dolan will still be the speaker, the banner read “Removed Without Reason, Petition Fails to Include Any Wrongdoing” – a statement that is a BIG FAT FOX LIE because the petition states that “Cardinal Dolan has been involved with sexual abuse scandals dealing with clergy of the church, homophobic comments.”

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UNITED STATES
Commonweal

Peter Steinfels
May 14, 2015

Perhaps the most important moment of last October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family occurred at its very beginning—when Pope Francis insisted that “speaking honestly” was the bishops’ basic responsibility: No topics or viewpoints should be out of bounds. “It is necessary to say all that, in the Lord, one feels the need to say: without polite deference, without hesitation.”

I doubt that everyone present was able to live up to that plea. For not a few bishops, self-censorship has become second nature, especially when speaking publicly with other bishops, and infinitely so when in the earshot of the pope.

Fortunately, that was not true in many cases, or the synod would not have made headlines with the several highly controversial topics served up and batted back and forth: reception of Communion by the divorced-and-remarried, cohabitation, even same-sex relationships. But could engrained inhibition have accounted for the glaring gap in the synod’s work? I refer to the apparent lack of attention to the question of contraception. Why did the synod appear to treat so perfunctorily the issue that was, and is, the starting point for the unraveling of Catholic confidence in the church’s sexual ethics and even its credibility about marriage? To which, of course, one could add further questions about this baffling silence: Does it even matter? And if it does matter, are there grounds for hoping that the bishops who will be gathering in Rome next fall to complete the synod’s work can do better?

A lot rests on the answers to these questions. A synod that grabs headlines about remarried or cohabiting or same-sex Catholic couples but says nothing fresh about the spectacularly obvious rift between official teaching and actual behavior in Catholic married life is an invitation to cynicism. It could prove to be a crucial test of Pope Francis’s papacy.

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