ABUSE TRACKER

MALTA
Malta Independent

MUT survey shows teachers living in fear of false abuse allegations, fear affecting their work

More than two thirds of teachers who took part in an MUT survey said they feel that their work is being affected b reports of alleged cases of abuse by educators and the debate that follows.

A quarter said this was keeping them from participating in or organising extracurricular activities with students and 84% of educators believe that the identity of people charged with child abuse should not be exposed until the court finds them guilty.

The results of the survey, which was carried out over the past two months, were presented by MUT Senior Vice President Mario Bonnici at a national conference this morning. Mr Bonnici said there were 450 respondents and the survey findings will be presented to the Education Ministry.

Mr Bonnici said four main cases occurred before the survey was carried out: an LSA who was charged with abusing a child in Gozo, a man cleared of abusing a girl after seven years, the ongoing case of a Gozitan priest accused of abusing three girls and the case of a MUSEUM catechist charged with defiling a 10-year-old while swimming.

The MUT official said nearly all respondents said they were avoiding being alone with one pupil after these cases emerged. More than half said they had avoided online communication. Two in five suggested CCTV cameras in school to reduce the risk of allegations.

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MICHIGAN
WOOD

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In a court document discussing the sentencing of a former Christian radio host who admitted to sexually assaulting children, federal prosecutors call John Balyo a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and describe a series of disturbing photographs found in his storage unit.

In July, Balyo pleaded guilty to federal charges of child pornography possession and sexual exploitation of a child after raping and taking explicit photographs of a 12-year-old boy in Kalamazoo County in April. He is expected to be sentenced next month.

In a memorandum filed with the U.S. District Court on Wednesday, federal prosecutors laid out their reasoning for their sentencing recommendations.The document starts by describing Balyo’s positive reputation as a Christian radio host with WCSG whose “voice filled the cars of families commuting to work and school with their children,” a recently married man, a wedding photographer, a volunteer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, a former camp counselor, and a missionary who worked with children.

“No on ever reported any misgivings or indiscretions about Balyo,” the memo reads. “But he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

The document then takes a sharp turn to describe the items federal investigators found in Balyo’s Plainfield Township storage unit.

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MICHIGAN
WWMT

[with video]

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Prosecutors offered harsh words in a sentencing memorandum regarding a former Christian radio host.

In a newly filed sentencing memorandum, prosecutors call John Balyo a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Right now, Balyo is awaiting sentencing on federal charges related to child porn and sexual exploitation of a child.

In the memorandum, photos show a bondage kit recovered from a storage unit Balyo kept–the same bondage kit prosecutors say that Balyo brought to hotels in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek to sexually assault a little boy.

They say Balyo’s storage unit also had children’s obituaries, news clippings detailing sexual abuse involving kids, and child pornography.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Agar | jagar@mlive.com
on November 28, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The government says John Balyo, the former Christian radio host who was fired when he was arrested for sexually assaulting a young boy, had an anatomically correct child-sized male mannequin seized by federal investigators, records show.

He kept the mannequin, tied up and in a dog crate and a federal prosecutor said he would point a pistol at it before masturbating.

Balyo, 35, a former host at WCSG, will be sentenced Dec. 11 on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possessing child pornography. He’s already serving 25 to 50 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions from state courts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller filed a sentencing memorandum this week that outlined the allegations against Balyo as well as disturbing items seized by investigators.

Here are some items of evidence police seized:

• A bondage kit, which included four pairs of handcuffs, rolls of duct tape, a parachute cord, nylon rope, 107 zip ties, rubber gloves, two 18-inch chains and a padlock. He brought the kit with him when he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy at hotels in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

• Photos that Balyo took in 2008 of a then-16-year-old boy who was bound but not nude.

• A thumb drive that included encrypted files titled: “hostage1” and “hostage2.”

• Newspaper clippings related to the kidnapping, death and sexual abuse of children.

•A collection of children’s obituaries.

• A notebook with many boys’ names and phrases such as “swimming,” “photo shoot,” “sleeping/napping,” “strapped down,” “boy/cub scout,” “headlock,” “abuse” and “swim lessons.”

• Articles about BTK (bind, torture, kill) serial killer Dennis Rader, who killed 10 in Kansas between 1974 and 1991.

• Photographs of naked children.

• DVDs, a camera, a camcorder

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By John Agar | jagar@mlive.com
on November 28, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Photos discovered in the child sex assault investigation of former Christian radio host John Balyo show him pointing a handgun at a boy-sized mannequin tied to a post before he used the mannequin’s feet to masturbate, the government said in court records.

He kept the anatomically correct mannequin, with a blond wig, tied up in a dog crate, authorities said.

“The series of photographs ended with Balyo wrapping the mannequin in a carpet or tarpaulin, as if to bury it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller wrote in court documents.

Hessmiller filed a memorandum in advance of Balyo’s Dec. 11 sentencing in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

Balyo, 35, of Caledonia, is serving 25 to 50 years in state prison for molesting a boy in May at a Battle Creek hotel. He pleaded guilty in Calhoun County Circuit Court to first-degree criminal-sexual conduct.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Morning Star

Saturday 29TH

As the former head of a children’s home at the centre of the MPs’ child abuse scandal is jailed, evidence emerges that children may have been murdered by paedophile politicians. Steven Walker reports.

The recent reports that children may have been murdered by paedophiles — including MPs known to have visited the notorious Elm Guest House — has followed a relentless pattern of allegations that the Establishment has been sitting on one of the biggest scandals in modern times.

On Wednesday the first conviction under the Operation Pallial investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Bryn Alyn Community in Wrexham saw John Allen, the former head of the children’s homes, jailed for 26 offences committed over several decades against children placed in his care.

Wrexham is the area where local MP and paedophile Peter Morrison, a former top aide to Margaret Thatcher, preyed on vulnerable children. It seems that the testimony of historic victims of child sexual abuse, the various campaigns to obtain evidence and other efforts to force the government to act, have begun to take effect.

Week after week it seems that more news emerges to confirm the suspicion that the Establishment is working hard to disguise the actions of MI5, Special Branch, Scotland Yard and Parliament in covering up some of the most heinous crimes against vulnerable children. …

Two years ago it was revealed that at the inquest into the death of Carole Kasir, who ran the Elm Guest House and died in 1990, evidence was submitted at the coroner’s court that MPs including members of the right-wing Monday Club, judges, a bishop, a local authority children’s services director and a prominent businessman all used the Elm Guest House to rape children who had been procured from Grafton Close children’s home in Richmond.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

THE UN wants the Abbott government to take on the Vatican over documents relating to child abuse by Catholic clergy.

In a report handed down in Geneva on Friday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture welcomed the work of the national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

However, the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Cardinal George Pell has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state — the Vatican.

Earlier in November, a delegation from Canberra told the UN the royal commission was independent and it was up to it to pursue the Vatican.

However, the committee said Australia “has the responsibility to ensure that all reports of breaches of the convention are promptly and impartially investigated”, and it should seek help from the Vatican when it was necessary to do this.

It also “remains concerned as to whether the outcome of its (the royal commission’s) work will result in criminal investigations, prosecutions and redress and compensation for victims”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

On Tuesday (11/25), Pope Francis rebuked legislators in an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg as follows: “As the European Union has expanded, there has been growing mistrust on the part of citizens towards institutions considered to be aloof, engaged in laying down rules perceived as insensitive to individual peoples, if not downright harmful …” Ironically, his remarks reminded some of criticisms of the Vatican.

On the papal return flight from France, Francis responded as follows to a reporter’s question about a newly reported ongoing priest abuse scandal in Grenada, Spain:

“I received this news with great pain, very great pain, but the truth is the truth and we should not hide it.”

But, of course, unless Pope Francis is committed to an independent and transparent abuse investigation process, which he does not appear to be yet, he and his Vatican staff are, in effect, “hiding it”, at least in some respects, no?

Three days after the pope’s nice sounding “no hiding” remark, in a report issued in Geneva on Friday (11/28), the United Nations Committee Against Torture reportedly directed that the Australian national government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott should take on the Vatican over documents, requested by the Australian Royal Commission into institutional child abuse, that the Vatican has refused to produce.

The documents relate to, among other matters, the cases of several priests who allegedly abused over 100 Australian children. The UN Committee, acting under the so-called Torture Treaty that both the Vatican and Australia have agreed to follow, indicated that the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, now Pope Francis’ economic czar, had told the Royal Commission that such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state – the Vatican. The Vatican’s local ambassador, UK Archbishop Paul Gallagher, had refused to produce these documents when requested to do so by the Royal Commission. Gallagher was just promoted to be the Vatican’s new foreign minister. Coincidences? Perhaps.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 28 November 2014)

In Sydney District Court on 25 November 2014, Marist Brother John Dennis Maguire was convicted on child-sex charges. Maguire had been charged with multiple incidents of committing an act of indecency. The victim was a student at a Catholic boys’ boarding school in Sydney (St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill) in the early 1980s.

A jury spent several days hearing evidence. The jury then found Maguire guilty on six of the incidents and not guilty on two other alleged incidents.

The case was heard by Judge P. Witford.

Pre-sentence proceedings are scheduled to be held on 27 February 2015. At this hearing, the prosecutor and the defence lawyer can tell the judge what kind of sentence should be imposed. Later, the judge would announce the sentence.

The court’s case number is 201300295587.

Brother John Dennis Maguire (born on 13 December 1943) has spent his career in the Catholic order of Marist Brothers in Australia.

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PORTUGAL
SAPO

[A priest at Santa Eulalia, Fafe, has been suspended after being accused to sexual abuse.]

O padre de Santa Eulália, em Fafe, suspeito de abusos sexuais foi suspenso. A Arquidiocese de Braga confirma estar a colaborar com a justiça para esclarecer o caso, que foi denunciado às autoridades pelo Bispo do Porto.

“Por razões de prudência pastoral, de serenidade na investigação e até que todas as dúvidas se dissipem, a arquidiocese ordenou [ao padre em questão] a suspensão da actividade pastoral que vinha exercendo em favor da comunidade de Sta. Eulália de Fafe e não deixará de colaborar com as instâncias judiciais”, lê-se num comunicado divulgado esta quinta-feira.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Diario

[Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, has travelled officially to Poland and Rome to assistant in the prosecution of ex nuncio Jozef Wesolowski and priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil who allegedly abusing children while serving in the Dominican Republic.]

Por: Panky Corcino / Corresponsal
PUBLICADO: NOV, 27, 2014

Santo Domingo.-El procurador general, Francisco Domínguez Brito, partió en un viaje oficial Polonia y a Roma para fijar la posición del Estado en los procesos por violación sexual de menores dominicanos que se siguen al exnuncio Józef Wesolowski y el sacerdote Wojciech Waldemar Gil (padre Alberto Gil).

La Procuraduría informó que Domínguez Brito visitará primero a Polonia, en donde sostendrá reuniones por separado con su homólogo polaco, Andrzy Seremet, así como con la fiscal que lleva el caso contra el padre Alberto Gil.

También se reunirá con la juez Malgorzata Adamjtys y los procuradores Radoslaw Domalerowski y Marta Chmielewska, quienes tienen la responsabilidad de representar judicialmente a dos de los menores de edad dominicanos, víctimas de violación sexual en la comunidad de Juncalito, Santiago (Noroeste).

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Dominguez on Thursday flew to Warsaw and then to the Vatican to gather evidence in the pedophilia cases against the Pope’s former envoy Józef Wesolowski and Catholic priest Wojciech Waldemar Gil (Padre Alberto) in the Dominican Republic.

In a statement the official said he plans to reaffirm the charges against the Polish prelates in his country.

Dominguez is slated to meet separately with Polish Attorney General Andrzy Seremet, as well as the prosecutor fpr the case against Gil, Malgorzata Adamjtys.

He will also meet with prosecutors Radolsaw Domalerowski and Marta Chmielewska, who represent two Dominican minors allegedly victims abused by Gil.

The priest, who also faces charges in Poland , is accuse of sexually abusing at least seven boys in the highland village of Juncalito near Janico, Santiago province (north).

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WATYKAN
Natemat

URSZULA SCHWARZENBERG-CZERNY

Były nuncjusz apostolski na Dominikanie czeka na proces przed watykańskim trybunałem – w areszcie domowym jest od września. O tym, że może opuszczać swoje miejsce pobytu, poinformowała włoska agencja Ansa. W sobotę widziany był na spacerze.

Wesołowski został aresztowany 23 września. Ze względu na zły stan zdrowia nie został osadzony w areszcie, ale powinien przebywać w watykańskim Kolegium Penitencjarzy. Watykan na razie nie złożył wyjaśnień w tej sprawie. Arcybiskupowi grozi 7 lat więzienia.

Na terytorium Watykanu spotkało go kilka osób, nie kryjąc zaskoczenia – donosi agencja Ansa. Nie jest jasne, czy to oznacza, że duchowny odzyskał wolność, czy też może zapadła jakaś nowa decyzja w jego sprawie. Nie było oficjalnego komunikatu na ten temat, a przez ostatnie kilka tygodni trudno było dotrzeć do informacji na temat losu arcybiskupa. Nieoficjalne doniesienia mówią tylko, że jest zdeterminowany, by odbierać wszelkie zarzuty.

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CITTA’ SEL VATICANO
Blitz Quotidiano

24 novembre 2014

[Former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was seen recently walking quietly inside Vatican City. As of Sept. 23 he is under house arrest at the Vatican for allegations of abusing children when he was apostolic nuncio to the Domincan Republic. Vatican sources are unwilling to specify whether Wesolowski has returned to freedom or is at least supervised. The former archbishop, who has been defrocked, will continue to live at the College of Penitentiaries, the structure on the top floor of the where where the Vatican court is located.]

CITTA’ DEL VATICANO – Accusato di aver violentato bambini quando era nunzio apostolico a Santo Domingo, Jozef Wesolowski è stato visto girare tranquillamente all’interno della Città del Vaticano. Wesolowski dal 23 settembre scorso è agli arresti domiciliari in Vaticano nell’ambito di un procedimento per abusi sessuali sui minori ma da sabato è stato visto nuovamente circolare, in apparente libertà, nella Città Leonina.

Più persone lo hanno incontrato con una certa sorpresa, non essendo stato comunicato alcun provvedimento sulla cessazione o la conversione della misura restrittiva a suo carico. Interpellate sull’argomento, le fonti ufficiali vaticane non hanno voluto finora precisare se Wesolowski sia tornato in libertà, quanto meno vigilata, per la scadenza dei termini di custodia o per un nuovo provvedimento emesso dal magistrato.

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ESPANA
Diario de Soria

[A priest – who answered to initials JST, who taught religion classes in Medinaceli denied yesterday that he touched students. He is on trial in the provincial court. He was removed temporarily from teaching in March 2013.]

El sacerdote que impartía clases de Religión en Medinaceli, y al que la Fiscalía acusa de tres delitos de abusos sexuales a menores, negó ayer en la segunda sesión del juicio que se celebra en la Audiencia Provincial que realizara tocamientos a alumnas durante los cursos 2011/12 y 2012/13.

El acusado, que responde a las iniciales J.S.T. y que fue apartado temporalmente de la docencia en marzo de 2013, prestó declaración por espacio de unos 15 minutos, como continuación de una primera sesión celebrada el martes, en la que declararon, entre otras personas, las menores que supuestamente sufrieron los abusos sexuales.

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ESPANA
El Pais

[A priest convicted of pedophilia is working in the Cordoba diocese. Jose Domingo Rey Godoy was sentenced in May 2003 to 11 years is prison for sexually abusing eight children ages 8 and 9. He was paroled in 2010. During October 2000 to June 2001 he used the confessional to molest several girls who were preparing to receive First Communion in the Church of El Salvardor Penarroya-Turblonuevo (Cordoba).]

MANUEL ALBERT Córdoba 27 NOV 2014

La Iglesia de Córdoba mantiene a un cura condenado por pederastia trabajando en la diócesis. Se trata de José Domingo Rey Godoy, religioso sentenciado en mayo de 2003 a 11 años de cárcel por abusar sexualmente de ocho menores de entre ocho y nueve años. El hombre obtuvo la libertad condicional en 2010. Durante los meses de octubre de 2000 a junio de 2001 abusó en el confesionario de varias niñas que se estaban preparando para recibir la primera comunión en la iglesia de El Salvador de Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo (Córdoba). Las agresiones —fundamentalmente tocamientos— se produjeron siendo obispo Francisco Javier Martínez, actual arzobispo de Granada. Allí se ha vuelto a vivir otro presunto caso de violencia sexual a menores por parte de tres curas y un profesor de religión que ha obligado a Martínez a pedir perdón públicamente.

Como ha ocurrido en Granada, donde los religiosos han seguido en activo con permiso de la diócesis, el obispo Martínez tampoco relevó nunca de su puesto de párroco a Rey Godoy. Y eso, a pesar de las gravísimas acusaciones que se le hacían por parte de las familias de las menores. “Queríamos que el obispo supiera lo que estaba pasando con él y que le sacara lejos de nuestro pueblo. Queríamos evitar el calvario que suponíamos que iba a suponer para nuestra hija si el caso se judicializaba”, explicaba en 2010 una de las madres de las menores. Pero Martínez se mantuvo inamovible y dejó al cura al frente de una parroquia completamente polarizada entre quienes creían al religioso y quienes defendían a las niñas. No fue su único apoyo. Antonio Jurado Torrero, entonces vicario de la zona, representante del Obispado de Córdoba, respaldó plenamente “la buena conducta” y la moral de Rey Godoy.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 29, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

When Sanatan Saraswati first arrived at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram more than three decades ago he thought he had found paradise.

Set at the foot of Mangrove Mountain in the lush NSW Central Coast hinterland, the retreat was a place of serenity and spirituality.

Then in his early 30s and disillusioned with mainstream society, he was looking for something more and thought he had finally discovered it among the small community of yoga devotees led by a charismatic director, Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

“It was something almost magical,” he recalled from his home on Queensland’s Gold Coast. “It was so far removed from the rest of society and a lot of really good things happened there. It’s just that on the inside, at the core, something really rotten happened.”

The exact nature of what happened in those rolling green hills is the subject of a public hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, starting on Tuesday.

The hearing will examine the Satyananda Yoga Ashram, which changed its name to Mangrove Yoga Ashram in 2012, and its founding director Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, who established the centre in 1974 and was later charged with more than 35 sex offences against four teenage girls.

Found guilty on lesser charges of indecency, he was jailed in 1989 but his conviction was overturned six years before his death in 1997.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Annette Blackwell
November 29, 2014

The UN wants the Abbott government to take on the Vatican over documents relating to child abuse by Catholic clergy.

In a report handed down in Geneva on Friday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture welcomed the work of the national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

However, the Australian government should take “all appropriate measures” to get “all evidence” from the Vatican to ensure meaningful investigations can be carried out.

Cardinal George Pell has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse such a request is unreasonable because some documents are private and internal to a sovereign state – the Vatican.

Earlier in November, a delegation from Canberra told the UN the royal commission was independent and it was up to it to pursue the Vatican.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Conversation

Donna Peach
Lecturer in Social Work at University of Salford

The Home Office’s planned inquiry into child sexual abuse across all areas of British public life has had a troubled start to say the least. While its panel has at last begun to meet and hear evidence, its terms of reference and geographical scope are still under review, and the hunt for a suitable chair has been a major embarrassment.

Yet still, the inquiry is a vital attempt to challenge the vast scale of child abuse across the UK. The need for it has only been driven home since the inquiry was mooted; just recently, 13 men were jailed for a running a grooming operation in Bristol that sexually exploited teenage girls for financial gain.

As other huge cases in Rotherham and Northern Ireland have shown, one of the most challenging aspects of confronting the sexual abuse of children is that it is concertedly hidden. Those who purposefully use children for sexual gratification deploy power, fear and silence to protect their behaviour.

It is precisely our reluctance to think about the reality of child abuse and how it is able to persist that allows it to continue. If we want to eradicate it from our society, we all need to contribute to changing that.

Of course, based on what we do already know, the challenge is immense.

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ESPANA
El Economista

[Sergio, 45, a former seminarian has now reported he was sexually abused at age 11 at the Seminario Mercedario Reus.]

Un antiguo seminarista catalán -Sergio, de 45 años- ha denunciado ahora abusos sexuales cuando tenía 11 años y estaba interno en el Seminario Mercedario de Reus.

Según publica Diari de Tarragona, el antiguo seminarista se ha decidido a desvelar su historia, pasados 34 años, “para quitarme un peso que he llevado encima durante demasiado tiempo”, animado por la investigación policial y las detenciones de los presuntos autores de abusos en Granada.

El Seminario de Reus estuvo activo entre los años 1941 y 1995, hasta que fue derruido en el año 2007 y Sergio ingresó como interno en 1982 por circunstancias familiares. Su estancia era plácida hasta que cogió la gripe y le llevaron a la enfermería para pasar la noche y, allí, un padre llamado Javier le sometió, presuntamente, a abusos hasta que el niño rompió a llorar cuando el religioso le intentó quitar la ropa interior.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net

When I was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and had a story to pitch, I used to go editor shopping.

Back in the 1990s when the newspaper had 600 journalists, there were so many departments to shop in — news, features, sports, the projects desk where they did long, investigative stories, and the Sunday magazine. And so many different editors to pitch a story to. If one editor said no it was on to the next one until I made a sale.

Sadly, one rule applied to too many editors I dealt with. If you told them something they already knew, something that squared with the prevailing wisdom, you were in good shape. But if you told those same editors something new, especially something that might challenge the prevailing wisdom, that’s when the trouble started.

On this blog for the past two years, we’ve been dealing with the ultimate contrarian story. A junkie criminal scheming to get out of prison poses as a victim of clerical sex abuse. A politically ambitious district attorney drafts that junkie criminal as his star witness to put men in collars behind bars while the media and public cheer him on. Even though people in the D.A.’s own office privately agreed with defense lawyer Michael J. McGovern’s characterization of star witness Billy Doe as a “lying sack of shit.”

It’s the story nobody wants to hear because it runs counter to the cult of victimology and current, pervasive prejudices against Catholic clerics. But in Philadelphia, with three courts prying into the local district attorney’s self-described “historic” prosecution of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the truth is lurking out there. Especially in the civil case beginning next month when certain current and former members of the district attorney’s office are placed under oath and have to answer some tough questions about a bogus investigation rigged from day one.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

New research into the sexual lives of Irish Catholic priests shows many are sexually active or have been in the past, and that there is a gay scene within the church.

‘Thirty-Three Good Men: Celibacy, Obedience and Identity’ publishes new analysis of priests’ views from a series of interviews conducted by Dr John Weafer, a former seminarian who is now married with children.

The book also reveals that the bishops are often aware of the situation.

Dr Weafer says one priest he spoke to told about his struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality:

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Dr Weafer says “if a priest was to say in the morning ‘I am gay’, he would be fired. Priests have learned to keep their heads down”.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Thomas Reese | Nov. 28, 2014 Faith and Justice

When people do not like their bishop, they often call for the pope to fire him and appoint another. Such requests have come from the right and the left in the church. The right has asked for the removal of bishops it considers unorthodox while the left has wanted to remove bishops who lack pastoral qualities. In recent years, many have demanded the removal of bishops who have not responded adequately to the sexual abuse crisis.

In Catholic theology, a bishop is considered the vicar of Christ in his diocese. He is not the vicar of the pope or simply a branch manager in the multinational corporation called the Catholic church. As a result, theologians and canon lawyers get nervous when Catholics talk about the pope firing bishops.

In ancient times, bishops were sometimes judged by provincial or regional councils of bishops who could depose them. As time went on, these judgments were appealed to Rome, which acted as an appeals court rather than a corporate central office.

Civil authorities (emperors, kings and nobles) might also intervene against a bishop, although the church usually fought such interference.

On the other hand, people sometimes complain when bishops are removed. Most recently, conservative Catholics have objected to the removal of Cardinal Raymond Burke as head of the Apostolic Signatura and the removal of Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano from his diocese in Paraguay. Earlier, liberals complained about the removal of Bishop William Morris from his Australian diocese.

It is important, however, to distinguish between the firing of a bishop from an office in the Roman Curia and removing a bishop from his diocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

David Brown
November 28 2014

A priest and a retired children’s home manager yesterday denied sexually abusing and taking indecent photographs of boys as young as ten in the first prosecution into an alleged establishment paedophile network.

John Stingemore is accused of abusing six boys. Father Tony McSweeney allegedly indecently assaulted two of the youngsters and a third alleged victim, and made child abuse images judged to be in the worst category

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
28/11/2014

Ground-breaking new research into the sexual lives of Irish Catholic priests has revealed many of them are or have been sexually active, that the bishops are aware of the situation, and that there is a gay scene within the church.

‘Thirty-Three Good Men: Celibacy, Obedience and Identity’ publishes new analysis of priests’ views from a series of interviews conducted by Dr John Weafer, a former seminarian who is now married with children.

The book, which has just been published by Columba Books, reveals that one parish priest interviewed confidentially by Weafer is in a long term gay relationship.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the author said ‘Fr C’ was “very happy with his life as a priest and a person”.

Another priest interviewed, ‘Fr L’ was ordained in the 1990s. It was only when he was ordained that he finally ended up ‘sleeping’ with another priest.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Jolene Toves

Guam – The archbishop of the Archdiocese of Agana is, by nature of the position, the highest-ranking Catholic locally – and as such, the person who takes the cloth in that role is usually the biggest target for scrutiny. But while it’s taught to turn the other cheek and solve disputes through reason and prayer, it seems the leader of the Guam’s Catholic faithful is intending to file a defamation lawsuit amid recent controversies involving the church.

t’s been long and rough road for the island’s Catholic church. This year, for example, the removal of Father John Wadeson stemming from allegation of child molestation prior to coming to Guam. Then there was the sudden removal of Monsignor James Benavente as rector of the Archdiocese of Agana, which was received with outrage and disappointment. Then just recently media reports about a man accusing the archbishop of sexual molestation, and then talks about why Archbishop Anthony Apuron really met with Pope Francis in the Vatican last week.

The head of the island’s Catholic Church, is back on island and issued a statement exclusively to KUAM – Apuron requested to meeting with the pope and he was granted an audience on November 21.

“I wanted to speak with the Holy Father about the situation of the church in Guam and the critical role we play in the evangelization of the Pacific, we spoke of the challenges and the joys of our church. Pope Francis showed interest to know about Guam and the Pacific,” stated his Excellency.

Apuron says that he also invited the pope to visit our island on his way to the Philippines. As for recent allegations of sexual molestation Apuron says nothing could be further from the truth. “It is a horribly calumny and I am obliged to defend not my person but the church. On the advice of legal counsel I will not answer any questions. However defending the church compels me to a suit – a defamation suit – any damages that I receive I will not keep for myself but will be given to the charitable causes of our church.”

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KerkNet

[The trial of a German e-learning project on preventing child abuse in the Catholic Church has been competed, according to Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Father Hans Zollner, president of the Center for Child Protection. Results were positive, they said.]

BRUSSEL (KerkNet/RadVat) – De proefperiode van het e-learningproject ‘Preventie van seksueel misbruik’ van het Centrum voor Kinderbescherming is voltooid. Vanaf 1 januari verhuist het centrum naar Rome. Dat hebben de Duitse kardinaal Reinhard Marx, de aartsbisschop van München en Freising, en pater Hans Zollner, de voorzitter van het centrum en het Instituut voor Psychologie van de Gregoriaanse Universiteit, bekendgemaakt.

De jezuïet Hans Zollner is bijzonder tevreden met het geleverde werk: “De eindbalans is zeer positief. Wij hebben een e-learningprogramma, een via internet ondersteund leerplatform, gestart in samenwerking met het universitair ziekenhuis van Ulm en met de steun van het aartsbisdom München en Freising. Het werd uitgeprobeerd met deelnemers uit tien landen en elf projectpartners. De respons was zeer positief. Daarom wordt dit project voortgezet. Vanaf 1 januari verhuizen wij naar de Gregoriaanse Universiteit in Rome, waar het project wordt verdiept.” De leiding van het centrum in Rome is in handen van de Vlaamse theologe Karlijn Demasure.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT

Colin Adwent Crime Correspondent
Friday, November 28, 2014

Two more children have made allegations against paedophile Suffolk cancer specialist Dr Myles Bradbury, bringing the total number of complainants to 20.

Cambridgeshire Police confirmed they have received the additional complaints alleging abuse following the paediatric oncologist’s guilty pleas in September to a raft of sex offences against young cancer sufferers in his care, and child pornography charges.

Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where Bradbury, of Herringswell, near Bury St Edmunds, worked has also said it has now received more than 200 calls to its helpline for patients set up following the case being made public.

In addition it has emerged that in November 2012 Bradbury flew out to an African orphanage in Swaziland on a church mission to help children with Aids. This was months after the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in Britain was warned he was a possible suspect in a worldwide child pornography inquiry.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Friday, November 28, 2014

An attorney representing alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Diocese of Gallup bankruptcy case is seeking insurance and financial records from the Franciscan Friars, which for years posted members at parishes in New Mexico and Arizona.

Twelve sexual abuse claims filed as part of the bankruptcy identify seven Franciscan priests as the alleged abusers, according to court records.

In addition, many of the sexual abuse claims allegedly took place during the tenure of Bishop Bernard Espelage, a Franciscan priest who served as the first bishop of the Gallup diocese from 1939 until 1970, records said.

The Diocese of Gallup filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in November 2013, making it the ninth U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy in response to sexual abuse lawsuits.

James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney representing 56 alleged abuse victims who filed claims in the case, filed motions asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma to order two Franciscan provinces to provide records in the case.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

As millions of US Catholics celebrate their second Thanksgiving holiday of Pope Francis’ papacy, the almost blind hope that permeated the first holiday a year ago in now tempered with watchful caution. After 20 months with this cryptic pope, many Catholics are becoming less optimistic he will make a real difference in updating the Catholic Church and cleaning up the “holy mess”, especially the child abuse scandal.

Many Catholics realize Pope Francis’ papacy faces a unique situation — both an unprecedented crisis and an unexpected opportunity. This crisis (A) erodes Catholic trust in light of the longstanding gap between the Vatican’s words and deeds, (B) invites outside governmental intervention at a time when the Vatican lacks powerful international protectors like it had for centuries, and (C) underscores the urgent need for key changes in the Church’s unworkable top down structure and misinformed moral teachings. The crisis has also contributed, as indicated below, to one pope’s unanticipated resignation and to the replacement pope’s unpredictable revolution.

Significantly, the Catholic majority appears intuitively to understand that these risks generated by the present crisis, especially from building governmental pressures on the Vatican, have paradoxically also generated an unprecedented opportunity to restore the Church to an earlier condition — to a Church that Jesus’ first disciples would have recognized as completely consistent with Jesus’ Gospel message of love of God and of neighbors, even of enemies. This is an opportunity for a welcoming Church again that satisfies the needs of both conservative and progressive Catholics.

Before his 80th birthday in barely two years, Pope Francis can successfully seize the opportunity, follow his conscience and apply his unique status, forceful temperament and popular appeal. Most importantly, he can declare “infallibly” key changes. By then, he will have received new input from his two advisory Synods of Bishops. He has already been enlightened by his valuable almost two years of experience as pope. He now also is unhampered by his prior pastoral positions and unfettered by his earlier ideological constraints as an obedient cardinal, bishop and Jesuit.

If Pope Francis fails to act effectively soon, the consequences will likely be quite negative for the leadership of the Catholic Church. Some senior Church officials are increasingly facing risks of governmental, even criminal, investigations that the Vatican currently lacks the political power to prevent.

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SPAIN
El Pais

JOSÉ ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ / VALME CORTÉS Granada 27 NOV 2014

Three clergymen and a religion teacher suspected of sexually abusing at least one minor in Granada were spared preventive prison following their court arraignment on Wednesday.

Román Martínez, considered the leader of a ring that may have abused a number of youngsters over several years, was granted bail of €10,000, which the accused has already deposited.

The other three suspects were released after the charges were read out to them, and forbidden to go near the two former altar boys who have filed complaints against them.

The first alleged victim sent a letter to Pope Francis before the summer, detailing his ordeal. To his surprise, the pontiff personally phoned him to apologize in the name of the Catholic Church and assure him that he had ordered an internal investigation into the case.

A second individual, who was named in that letter as another possible victim, has since stepped forward to confirm the abuse and file a police complaint against Los Romanones, as the ring was widely referred to locally.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

A De La Salle Brother who held senior positions at a residential home in Co Down has been giving evidence to Northern Ireland’s Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

The Brother, who is in his 70s, was interviewed by police seven times over a 20-year period but never charged or prosecuted.

He told the inquiry that dealing with charges he denies has controlled his life for the past 20 years.

The inquiry allows all witnesses giving evidence to retain or waive their anonymity.

The chairman, retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart, has warned a number of times about reporting that might allow the identification of witnesses who opt to remain anonymous.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Police deemed rape allegations against a number of religious brothers at Rubane boys’ home County Down were “fabricated”, an inquiry has heard.

A former member of the De La Salle Order has been giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.

A boy had accused him of being taking part in a “gang rape” in the 1990s.

But counsel to the inquiry said that police regarded the claim as “not believable enough” to question him about.

He said a superintendent had concluded that the complaints made against the former brother were fabricated.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed there should be no prosecution.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

POLSKI KOŚCIÓŁ CHCE OTWORZYĆ PUNKTY KONTAKTOWE DLA OFIAR NADUŻYĆ SEKSUALNYCH. KOMENTARZ OCALONYCH / POLISH CHURCH WANTS TO OPEN CONTACT POINTS FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE. A COMMENTARY FROM POLISH SURVIVORS

Ojciec Adam Żak, od 2013 roku koordynator episkopatu ds. ochrony dzieci i młodzieży, przedstawił plan finansowania przez Kościół w Polsce 4-5 punktów kontaktowych dla ofiar nadużyć seksualnych ze strony osób duchownych. Pierwsze z nich miałyby się pojawić „do końca wakacji 2015 roku”, jak podaje KAI. Sama decyzja o utworzeniu punktów kontaktowych pojawiła się już w Kościele w sierpniu 2014 roku.

/Father Adam Żak, since 2013 a coordinator of episcopate for children and youth protection, introduced the Church’s plan of financing of 4-5 contact points for the victims of clergy abuse . First points should be opened “until the end of summer 2015”, according to KAI (Catholic Information Agency). The decision about establishing contact points was made in August 2014.

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POLSKA/POLAND
Ocaleni

Precedensowa sprawa z powództwa ofiary księdza pedofila – Marcina K. z Kołobrzegu – to nie tylko pierwsza w Polsce rozprawa o odszkodowanie od Kościoła, ale także pierwszy raz, kiedy sąd w Polsce wzywa hierarchów do tłumaczenia się ws. zaniedbań dotyczących ich podwładnego – księdza.

KOLEJNA ROZPRAWA: 28 listopada 2014 roku, godz. 11.00 SO w Koszalinie.

/The precedent case brought by Marcin K. – the victim of a pedophile priest, is not only the first compensation case against the Chuch, but also the first time when hierarchs will be asked to explain their negligence regarding their subordinate’s acts.

NEXT HEARING: November 28th, 2014 11 am, Regional Court in Koszalin

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DEUTSCHLAND
Merkur

[Catholic priests have sexually abused children and adolescents and this scandal has shaken the entire church. A new prevention project aims to raise awareness in the worldwide church to the problem of child sexual abuse.]

München – Die katholische Kirche kämpft mit der Aufarbeitung der Missbrauchsfälle. Ein Präventionsprojekt soll verhindern, dass es künftig wieder solche Probleme gibt.

Der Skandal hatte die gesamte katholische Kirche erschüttert: Priester sollen Kinder und Jugendliche sexuell missbraucht haben. Jetzt gibt es ein Präventionsprojekt, das kirchliche Mitarbeiter weltweit für die Probleme des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs sensibilisieren soll.

Das Konzept wurde in einer dreijährigen Pilotphase bereits in München getestet und soll jetzt in Rom an der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana mehr Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. „Kinder und Jugendliche sollen in der Kirche einen geschützten Raum haben, um ihre Persönlichkeit zu entwickeln“, sagte Münchens Erzbischof Reinhard Marx am Mittwoch.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

[The German Bishops’ Conference has come up with guidelines for handling sexual abuse allegations.]

t 61 Jahren ist einem schon so Einiges untergekommen. Doch über 2010, als die deutsche Kirche über Monate von immer neuen Missbrauchsfällen erschüttert wurde, sagt der Münchner Kardinal Reinhard Marx noch heute: “Das war das schlimmste Jahr, das ich erlebt habe. Es war aber auch eine Wende.”

In der Folge wurden Runde Tische eingerichtet, die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz einigte sich auf neue gemeinsame Richtlinien und das Erzbistum München-Freising hob 2012 in der bayerischen Landeshauptstadt das Zentrum für Kinderschutz aus der Taufe.

Dafür entwickelten das Institut für Psychologie der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom und die Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie/Psychotherapie Ulm ein weltweit einsetzbares E-Learning-Projekt “Prävention von sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch”.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

THURSDAY, 27 NOV 2014

JOHN Toves, who recently accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting his cousin in the 1980s, has called on the archbishop to step down.

In a letter to Apuron, Toves wrote: “Dear Archbishop, I now most respectfully, graciously, humbly and lovingly must beseech you to step down.”

Toves wrote about Apuron’s legacy and said Apuron has divided the church for too long. “You must stop and step down. If you continue, would you really want this to be your legacy? Archbishop (Felixberto Flores) would never have done this to his children,” Toves wrote. “I can no longer remain silent.”

Toves said his letter was signed and stamped received at the Chancery Office.

In another letter dated Nov. 21, Toves wrote to Deacon Larry Claros alleging that Apuron molested Toves’ cousin. Claros was appointed the sexual abuse response coordinator for the archdiocese effective Oct. 24, according to the archdiocesan website.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY CLAIRE WILLIAMSON – 27 NOVEMBER 2014

A former teacher described as “full of demonic evil” at a children’s care home has denied sexually assaulting a pupil in the shower.

He was giving evidence at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) in Banbridge, which is currently examining alleged ill-treatment and sex abuse at Rubane House, Co Down.

He was questioned about the discipline procedures in the school.

“There was a reward and debit system. If they behaved well they got points. That was the essence of it,” he said.

The inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse at 13 residential institutions over a 73-year period up until 1995.

When asked had he ever heard the boys discussing any sexual abuse allegations, he said he only heard them “slagging each other off about having different orientations”.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Jamelle Wells

A Christian Brother has been jailed for at least two years for indecently assaulting boys in New South Wales schools.

Desmond Richards, also known as brother Neil, was arrested after returning to Australia from the Vatican in 2013.

The 76-year-old previously taught at schools run by the Christian Brothers Catholic order across NSW.

District Court judge Peter Zahra sentenced him to at least two years’ jail for indecently assaulting four boys aged between 11 and 13 in the 1970s and 1980s.

The court heard the offences were committed at schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Sydney and at a school camp near Sydney.

Richards unlikely to reoffend: court told

Judge Zahra said Richards took advantage of the power he could assert as a teacher, but is now a frail 76-year-old who is unlikely to reoffend.

The court heard the victims were vulnerable or problem students.

The judge said the parents of one victim did not believe him when he reported the abuse and another victim banged on a dormitory wall during a school camp in Sydney to warn other students Richards was approaching.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 27, 2014

Paul Bibby

A former Christian Brothers headmaster who abused his position to indecently assault students in the 1970s and ’80s, but says he now has no memory of doing so, has been sentenced to at least two years’ jail.

Desmond Eric Richards, 73, assaulted four boys aged between 11 and 13 while working at Christian Brothers schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield between 1971 and 1989.

The Downing Centre District Court heard on Thursday that Richards would use his authority as a headmaster or teacher to order the boys into his office or an empty classroom, and then molest them.

In 1976, one victim, “GB”, was called into a classroom by Richards and told: “Mate, you have been in
He then kissed and molested the boy while holding him so he could not get away.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
27 NOV 2014

Angry scenes erupted in a Sydney court after an ex-Christian Brother was sentenced to at least two years in jail for indecently assaulting boys at NSW schools more than 30 years ago.

Desmond Eric Richards, 76, pleaded guilty earlier this month to abusing four boys between 1972 and 1982 in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west.

District Court Judge Peter Zahra on Thursday sentenced him to a non-parole period of two years after imposing a maximum sentence of three years and three months for the offences.

Shortly after the sentence was handed down and as Richards was escorted from the court, one of his victims shouted “you piece of f***g s**t, I’m going to drag you back in here and see you do 30 years.”

Others vocalised their disappointment with the sentence while some could be heard to say “hear hear”.

During each of the attacks in 1972, 1976 and 1982 Richards would isolate one of the boys and molest him, before subjecting his victim to weeks of physical punishment for minor transgressions.

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INDIANA
The Journal Gazette

Rosa Salter Rodriguez | The Journal Gazette

A Roman Catholic priest sued in Allen County in 2007 by a man who claimed he’d been sexually abused as a child is at the center of two new lawsuits in Minnesota, where attorneys allege he has left a trail of abuse around the nation.

Gerald Funcheon, 76, was ordained in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese in 1965 and belonged to the Crosier Fathers & Brothers, a religious order headquartered in Phoenix. He left that order in 1987 and has not served as a priest since 1992, when he was determined “unassignable” and was removed from ministry by the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana.

The Allen County suit, which was dismissed, involved alleged abuse at a Catholic Youth Organization camp at Lake Wawasee in 1965.

Funcheon has faced sexual abuse lawsuits in Minnesota, Hawaii and California beginning in 2003. He was named in 2009 in a $1.7 million settlement involving four Crosier priests with a total of nine victims, three of whom had accused Funcheon. In an $18 million settlement in 2013 against the Irish Christian Brothers, seven of that case’s 400 plaintiffs had accused Funcheon. The order is affiliated with schools where he taught.

Now, Funcheon stands accused of sexually abusing four boys, ages 11 to 14, from 1970 to 1974 while they attended St. Odilia Catholic Church and School in Shoreview, Minnesota; and of abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1984 on a camping trip while Funcheon served at Palma High School in Salinas, California, one site of abuse alleged in the Irish Christian Brothers suit.

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MISSISSIPPI
Fox Memphis

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – – The state Court of Appeals has upheld the 2013 conviction of a Mississippi pastor for sexual battery of a child.

Larry Gene Singleton, now 72, was convicted in Tate County on two counts of fondling and one count of sexual battery. He is serving a 30-year sentence.

Singleton, the former pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, was arrested in December of 2013 after sheriff’s investigators received a complaint from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex.

Authorities say the sexual abuse allegedly began when the victim was 11 years old and continued for several years.

The Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected Singleton’s argument that he was coerced into confessing to the crimes. The court said Singleton waived his rights and agreed to the interrogation.

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AUSTRALIA
Echo Netdaily

Rumours of sexual abuse at Hobart boys’ school Hutchins were so rife in the 1960s there was a commonly recounted verse around the city.

‘Get a woman, get a woman, get a woman if you can. If you can’t get a woman get a Hutchins man.’

It was a ditty that stuck in the mind of one former student, now aged 60, who has recounted to a royal commission his abuse at the hands of three Hutchins teachers.

Giving evidence under the pseudonym AOE, the man told how music teacher Ron Thomas touched and rubbed against him while the pair sat at a piano.

‘I would try to get up and run away but Thomas would catch me and hold me on the floor face down,’ AOE said.

It was just one of many stories told to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which heard five days of evidence in Hobart, closing on Tuesday.

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CANADA
CBC News

Former Saint John city councillor and former youth pastor Donnie Snook has lost the appeal of his 18-year sentence on child sex abuse charges.

​A cross-appeal by the Crown on Snook’s credit for time served while awaiting trial and parole eligibility was also dismissed Wednesday by a three-judge New Brunswick Court of Appeal panel.

Snook, 42, had filed a notice of appeal with the Court of Appeal last November, calling his sentence “unreasonable and in excess of the appropriate range in all the circumstances.”

Snook is in prison in Mission, B.C., and did not attend Wednesday’s hearing, but his lawyer, James Matheson, argued on his behalf.

He said the trial judge had stated the range of sentence for similar crimes in Canada had been from nine to 18 years.

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NEW YORK
Rochester Homepage

Amy Young

We’re learning new disturbing details about a Livingston County pastor who admitted to inappropriately touching his five year old foster child. Alan Fox, 60, was originially charged with sexual abuse. Wednesday he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge to avoid a trial. Fox and his wife, Cathy, have been raising foster children for more than 30 years. Now Fox is forbidden to be near children and will have to register with New York State as a sex offender.

Fox is a Methodist pastor at a church in Dansville. He also plays and sings with a Christian music group known as “Band of Brothers.” Livingston County prosecutors say Fox admitted he inappropriately touched the five year old girl in his backyard in Sparta more than a year ago.

“The wife left for a weekend. The defendant was out looking at the stars one night. Invited the child out there. And at that time he had the child touch his private parts. And then after he did that, he touched the victim’s private parts,” said Justin Hill, Livingston County Assistant District Attorney.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Newsburyport Daily News

BY JULIE MANGANIS STAFF WRITER

IPSWICH — A retired Roman Catholic priest who once headed the Salesian Society religious order in North America will spend the next eight to 10 years in state prison for repeatedly raping a boy attending an Ipswich summer camp more than 30 years ago, a judge ruled yesterday.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, who at one time was the “provincial” of the order, a position equivalent to that of a bishop, was found guilty earlier this month of five counts of child rape, incidents that took place at a summer camp operated by the order on the grounds of the former Sacred Heart Retreat during the early 1980s.

McCormick “preyed on and exploited the vulnerability of a young boy who was in his care,” leaving him with lifelong scars, said Lawrence Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Rup,

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ESPANA
El Observador

[Judge Antonio Moreno on Wednesday ordered the release of three men – two priests and a religion teacher – and release on bail of Father Roman, considered to be the leader of the clan called “The Romanones.” The judge imposed measures to restrain and prohibit communication with the two people who have reported being sexually abused by these men.]

El juez del Tribunal de Instrucción de Granada, Antonio Moreno, dispuso este miércoles la puesta en libertad con cargos de tres de los acusados por abuso sexual en España, dos sacerdotes y un profesor de religión, y la liberación bajo fianza del padre Román.Considerado cabecilla del denominado clan de “Los Romanones”, acusado de abusos sexuales de al menos a un menor, el padre Román, obtuvo hoy la libertad tras el pago de una fianza de 10.000 euros, según informó EFE.A los tres sacerdotes y al laico, el juez les ha impuesto medidas de alejamiento y prohibición de comunicación respecto a las dos personas que han denunciado haber sufrido abusos sexuales.

La liberación sucedió en el mismo día en que un juzgado español recibió una segunda denuncia por los presuntos abusos sexuales a menores por parte de sacerdotes, informaron fuentes judiciales, en un caso en el que el Papa Francisco ha ordenado personalmente una investigación.

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NEW YORK
Genesee Sun

LIVINGSTON COUNTY — It’s the end of the line for Pastor Alan Fox, 60, who has delayed and ducked charges that he molested his foster child, now that he has finally admitted to his guilt in court.

Fox pled guilty in a special-term court appearance on Wednesday to touching his five-year-old foster daughter’s private parts in Sparta more than a year ago. The pastor, who also moonlights as a member of the Christian Music Group, Band of Brothers, is now looking at one and a half years in state prison after pleading guilty to Attempted Sex Abuse in the 1st degree, an E Felony. The sly Fox even continued his deception as he unsuccessfully tried to dodge reporters by slipping out the back door of the courthouse.

The case has been very quiet until now, with a lot of odd proceedings and hush-hush adjournments surrounding his court appearances. However, the prosecutor in this case, Justin Hill, brought many of the disturbing details of this case to light.

“Mr. Fox was a foster parent to the victim and her brother,” said Hill. “They (Fox and the child) were out for a weekend looking at the stars, and he asked if she would touch his private area, which she did. He also touched her private area. She was five years old at the time.”

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NEW YORK
WHAM

Geneseo, N.Y. – 13 WHAM reporting that a Livingston County pastor has admitted to touching the private parts of his five year old foster daughter, then forcing her to do the same to him.

60 year old Alan Fox pleaded guilty to a charge of Attempted Sexual Abuse in the First Degree. Prosecutors say the incident occurred in the back yard of his Sparta home.

Fox was allowed to plea to a lesser charge to avoid a trial for the victim – who is now six. Fox will spend 1 1/2 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 29, 2015. .

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MICHIGAN
The Macomb Daily

By Frank DeFrank, The Macomb Daily

POSTED: 11/26/14

A Macomb Township man with ties to a local Catholic high school and a church faces multiple felony charges for inappropriate communication with a child that police characterize as child sexual-abuse activity.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, was arraigned Wednesday on four counts, including child sexual abuse activity, a 20-year felony. He also is charged with two counts of communicating with another person to commit a crime and accosting children for immoral purposes.

During an arraignment via video link between the Macomb County Jail and Romeo’s 42-2 District Court, bond for Sturza was set at $50,000. He was ordered to return to court at 9 a.m. Dec. 9.

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UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

November 27, 2014 Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers and friends

Last April, when Pope John Paul II was speedily canonized by Pope Francis (which was part of his Opus Dei Beast’s puppet contract), photos of nuns –who waved their flags and danced while holding banners of huge photos of the new pope saints – and who braved the rainy weather and even camped outside at St. Peter’s Square were shown all over the media. Believe it or not – Our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Michael the Archangel inspired us to write about these as “STUPID NUNS because they empower the Vatican only-male misogynists gays oligarchy that control the Vatican Mammon Beast”. But we refused to obey that small voice because those nuns are “holy” and “sacred” set apart “consecrated” women.

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SPAIN
CNN

By Al Goodman, CNN

Madrid (CNN) — In a case that Pope Francis says he’s taken an interest in after speaking to one of the alleged victims, a Spanish judge on Wednesday filed preliminary charges of sexual abuse against three Catholic priests and a religious teacher.

Investigating magistrate Antonio Moreno, in the southern city of Granada, ordered the suspected ringleader, a priest, to post a $12,500 bond in order to leave jail, according to a court statement and spokeswoman. The suspect posted the bond, and Moreno released the others from custody without bond, the statement said.

The four must report regularly to authorities and can’t have any contact or communication with two alleged male victims, the court statement said.

The judge’s decision came two days after the four were arrested, and just a day after Pope Francis told reporters that he called an alleged victim in August and urged him to come forward to authorities in Spain.

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INDIANA
NWI Times

Sarah Reese sarah.reese@nwi.com, (219) 933-3351

A priest who allegedly sexually abused a boy from the Salesian Preparatory School in Cedar Lake in the 1970s was sentenced Wednesday to eight to 10 years in prison for raping a different boy in Massachusetts, officials said.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, was convicted by a jury Nov. 12 of five counts alleging he sexually assaulted a boy attending a summer camp in 1981 and 1982 at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich, Mass., according to the Essex district attorney’s office.

McCormick, who was once head of the Catholic order of priests and brothers, worked at the Massachusetts retreat at the time of the abuse. The victim, who is now 44, was between 10 and 12 years old at the time, prosecutors said.

In 1975, McCormick took a then 14-year-old boy from Cedar Lake on a trip to Rome, where McCormick sexually abused the victim, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents both victims.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Essex County District Attorney’s Office

A New York priest will serve 8 to 10 years in state prison for raping a boy at an Ipswich summer camp over 30 years ago. Judge Mary-Lou Rup imposed the sentence on Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, today in Lawrence Superior Court and also ordered him to serve 10 years of probation upon release. A jury convicted McCormick of 5 counts of child rape on November 12th.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall recommended 12 to 15 years due to the traumatic effect the crime had on the victim. “The defendant didn’t just violate his body, he stole his faith and betrayed this young man, his family and all who believe,” ADA MacDougall said.

The jury found that Rev. McCormick raped a boy on multiple occasions between 1981 and 1982. The rapes occurred while the boy attended a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich where Rev. McCormick worked. The victim, who is 44, was between age 10 and 12 years old the rapes took place.

McCormick is charged with another count of child rape in connection with allegations made by another male victim who attended the same summer camp during the same period. The trial date for this case has not been scheduled.

McCormick was represented by Attorney Steve Neyman.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Gerry Moriarty

Wed, Nov 26, 2014

A former lay teacher has described as a “fabrication” and “totally untrue” allegations that he physically assaulted a number of former residents of Rubane House in Kircubbin in Co Down.

He also denied an allegation that he sexually abused one of the boys who attended the care home. The teacher told the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry in Banbridge, Co Down, that he was involved in one “wrestling match” physical altercation with one of the boys in the residential home, but vehemently rejected other allegations including a claim that he broke the jaw and nose of a boy.

The witness, who has anonymity, was giving evidence at the inquiry which is investigating alleged child abuse at a total of 13 Northern Ireland institutions from 1922 to 1995.

This current module is investigating alleged abuse at Rubane House where just over 1,000 boys were placed in the care of the De La Salle brothers for varying periods of time between 1951 and 1985.

The teacher, who taught at the school for five years more than 30 years ago, denied the overall allegations, describing the claim that he sexually abused one boy as untrue and disgusting.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
RTE News

Northern Ireland’s Institutional Abuse Inquiry has heard more claims of physical and sexual abuse at a residential home run by the De La Salle Brothers in Co Down.

Around 1,000 boys were placed in care at Rubane House in the Ards Peninsula between 1951 and 1985.

Some of the brothers and lay staff who worked at the home have been giving evidence to the inquiry, which is sitting in Banbridge courthouse.

One lay worker had convictions for sexual assault and a brother was convicted on three counts of assault for incidents at the home.

One resident claimed he had been raped by a lay staff member at the home, who threatened he would throw him off the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge if he spoke about the incident.

That allegation was denied this morning.

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UNITED STATES
The Salt Lake Tribune

By DAVID GIBSON Religion News Service

When Benedict XVI stunned Catholics by announcing that he would become the first pope in six centuries to resign, it immediately raised concerns — which were dismissed just as quickly — that an ex-pope around could undermine the legitimacy of the new pontiff.

Now, nearly two years later, those fears are emerging again, fueled by the growing discontent of conservative Catholics with Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, and by Benedict’s presence, if not quite as a player, in church debates Francis has sparked.

“Benedict is hanging back for now, but there’s no doubt that he could easily become a figurehead for traditionalists hearkening back to the good old days,” Notre Dame New Testament professor Candida Moss and Joel Baden, Old Testament professor at Yale Divinity School, warned in a Daily Beast column earlier this month.

Hubert Wolf, a church historian at the University of Münster, echoed those thoughts in comments reported by a leading German newspaper last week, when he said there were worries that “around Francis and Benedict XVI, two competing power centers could come into being in the [Roman] Curia, with pope and anti-pope at the top of each.”

What’s fueling these fears? They seem outlandish, almost medieval. But there are at least four factors at work:

1. “There is another pope still living.”

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a Catholic who has become something of a spokesman for conservatives, made that point in a widely circulated column warning that Francis could provoke a schism on the right.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Ipswich

IPSWICH

A New York priest will serve eight to 10 years in state prison for raping a boy at an Ipswich summer camp over 30 years ago.

Judge Mary-Lou Rup imposed the sentence on Rev. Richard McCormick, 73, today, Wednesday, Nov. 26, in Lawrence Superior Court and also ordered him to serve 10 years of probation upon release.

A jury convicted McCormick on five counts of child rape on Nov. 12.

The victim, who is 44, was between 10 and 12 when the rapes took place.

“A clear message has been sent to pedophiles, supervisors and institutions that sexual abuse victims, such as my client, are fighting back and criminal and civil laws will be used to create much needed social change with regard to sexual abuse,” said Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for the victim in this case.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall recommended 12 to 15 years due to the traumatic effect the crime had on the victim.

“The defendant didn’t just violate his body, he stole his faith and betrayed this young man, his family and all who believe,” MacDougall said.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Parents should consider carefully the following horrible scenario. Your find out that your child has been raped by a government employee in the course of his work activities. You call the employee’s boss, say, UK Prime Minister Cameron or USA President Obama and tell him this. He tells you he is unhappy to hear that and for you to report it to his senior staff. He does NOT tell you to report this alleged crime to, or to cooperate with, appropriate law enforcement who are trained to deal with such allegations, independently and transparently.

In modern constitutional democracies worldwide, for over a century now, even top leaders generally are subject to the rule of law. So this scenario is very unlikely to occur. Indeed, right now the UK’s Cameron faces a crisis over finding an independent and transparent investigator of government employees’ alleged sex abuse of children. And even President Obama is facing threats of public impeachment proceedings over some of his executive actions. The principal accountability exceptions among world leaders today include popes, who appear to purport to be above any constitutional legal oversight even though their powerful European imperial protectors have been gone for a century now.

A similar scenario, to the above hypothetical one, recently happened according to Pope Francis. He indicated with his Jesuit press agent, Fr. Lombardi, to a group of reporters on the papal plane on Tuesday (11/25) that Francis told an abuse survivor he had called in Grenada, Spain to tell his bishop about the alleged crimes against the survivor. Three alleged Grenada priest perpetrators had been arrested the day before by Spanish police, so a Spanish reporter asked him about this in the plane press conference. Apparently, Francis omitted telling the abuse victim to contact, and to cooperate with, Spanish police. Interestingly, Lombardi had less than 48 hours earlier tried to spin past other reporters’ troubling related questions about the Vatican’s new “top cop”, Jesuit Fr. Robert Geisinger.

Of course, the local Spanish bishop under the Vatican’s current procedures is, in effect, subject to two Francis’ staffers, Fr. Geisinger, and Fr. Robert Oliver, who had earlier been infamous Cardinal Law’s canon lawyer. These two Americans reportedly have questionable records on diligently assisting past, and protecting potential, priest abuse survivors, especially when the interests of protecting accused priest predators is also involved.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Wednesday, November 26

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org )

A Ray Township teacher at Austin Catholic Academy faces allegations that he sent sexually graphic emails to a child. We call on Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to personally visit the school where the alleged predator worked, begging victims, witnesses, employees, former employees, alumni, students, staff and whistleblowers to call law enforcement if they have any information or suspicions about the alleged crimes.

All too often, child molesters get expensive lawyers, exploit loopholes, and escape responsibility for their crimes. Even when they’re found guilty or plead guilty, they often rally their friends, pressure public officials and end up with little or no jail time. That’s irresponsible. That endangers kids.

The way to prevent this is simple: every person who has even a scintilla of information about Joseph Sturza’s crimes or misdeeds must call 911. This is no time to be complacent. Each one of us has a moral and civic duty to protect children by helping law enforcement catch and convict predators.

And all too often, Catholic officials passively sit back in criminal cases and do nothing. Vigneron has a moral and civic duty too: to use his vast resources (church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements) to reach out to others who may have been hurt by Sturza and prod them to get help.

We commend the parents who had the wisdom to work with law enforcement and not church officials. That is a brave and responsible course of action. And we beg anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Sturza or cover ups by church officials to step forward too.

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MICHIGAN
ClickonDetroit

A 47-year-old Macomb Township man has been arrested and charged in connection to the sexual abuse of a child.

Joseph Sturza was the director of admissions at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township. He has been removed from that position while he faces accusations that he was sending sexually graphic emails to a child. The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office says the emails were “indicative of child sexual-abuse activity.”

The Sheriff’s Computer-Crimes Team received copies of the emails which were intercepted by the child’s parents. The parents had contacted the Austin Catholic Academy.

Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said the Archdiocese of Detroit immediately removed Sturza from his position upon learning of the allegations.

“They immediately took steps to remove the man from his position and they secured evidence,” said Wickersham in a statement.

The Archdiocese released this statement, saying Sturza also worked as a youth minister at St. Isidore Church in Macomb Township:

“The Archdiocese of Detroit has been informed of the arrest of Mr. Joe Sturza, who was employed as director of admissions at Austin Catholic High School and as youth minister at St. Isidore Parish in Macomb Township. The Archdiocese was recently made aware of alleged inappropriate communications between Mr. Sturza and a minor. The information was immediately shared with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Sturza is no longer employed by the school or parish. The Archdiocese of Detroit is fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Due to the ongoing law enforcement and legal processes, we are unable to give further details about the matter at this time.

Families at Austin Catholic High School and St. Isidore are being informed of this situation. Mr. Sturza had been employed at the high school since October 2012 and part-time at the parish since this past summer. Also being informed are the communities of St. Francis of Assisi-St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in New Haven, where Mr. Sturza volunteered between 2006 and 2008, and worked as a youth minister from the fall of 2008 until the summer of 2014; and St. Mary Mystical Rose Parish in Armada, where Mr. Sturza worked as a youth minister from July 2011 until June 2014.”

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MICHIGAN
The Oakland Press

The director of admissions for Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township was charged Wednesday with child sexual-abuse activity involving the use of a computer, authorities said.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, a resident of Macomb Township, is charged with:

• Child sexual-abuse activity, a 20-year felony;

• Two counts of using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime, one a 15-year felony and the other a four-year felony;

• Accosting children for immoral purposes, a four-year felony.

Sturza was arraigned Wednesday via video link between the Macomb County Jail and 42-2 District Court in Romeo. Bond was set at $50,000. He is scheduled to return to court for a hearing Dec. 9.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said the Archdiocese of Detroit, which operates the Austin Academy, prompted the investigation when officials notified police as soon as they became aware of the allegations.

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News November 26, 2014

Ray Township — Authorities have charged a Catholic school official with child sex abuse, officials said Wednesday.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, of Macomb Township was arrested on several charges Wednesday, Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said in a statement.

Sturza has been charged with child sexual abuse activity, using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime and accosting a child for immoral purposes. The sexual abuse activity charge is a 20-year felony. The computer charge carries a 15-year prison sentence.

He was formally arraigned in the 42nd District Court in Romeo. A judge set his bond at $50,000 and he is being held at the Macomb County Jail. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 9.

Wickersham said police started an investigation into Sturza on Nov. 19 after receiving copies of email intercepted by the parents of the child. The victim’s parents alerted the school, the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township, where Sturza is employed as admissions director.

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MICHIGAN
Detroit Free Press

By Katrease Stafford, Detroit Free Press November 26, 2014

The admissions director at a Catholic preparatory high school in Macomb County was arrested today on charges of child sexual abuse, authorities said.

Joseph Peter Sturza, 47, of Macomb Township, was arraigned this morning on several felony charges that were authorized after parents of a student at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township intercepted emails sent by Sturza to their child, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The sheriff’s office said the emails were sexually graphic and indicative of child sexual-abuse.

After finding the emails, the student’s parents alerted the school and the Archdiocese of Detroit, which called in the sheriff’s department. The investigation was launched Nov. 19 and an arrest warrant was authorized Tuesday by the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

At 7 a.m. this morning, detectives served the arrest warrant and searched Sturza’s home.

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TENNESSE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priets

For immediate release Wednesday, November 26

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org )

We are grateful that Freed-Hardmann University has canceled Bill Cosby’s appearance. Honoring credibly accused sex offenders hurts victims and deters reporting of sex crimes, thus endangering the public. We hope other venues where Cosby may appear also find the courage to do what is right and disinvite him.

We commend Memphis SNAP leader, David Brown, for speaking out and for his compassionate advocacy for crime victims.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: November 26, 2014

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts — A former high-ranking member of a Roman Catholic religious order has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for raping a boy at a Massachusetts summer camp in the 1980s.

The Rev. Richard McCormick, of New York, was also sentenced Wednesday in Lawrence Superior Court to 10 years of probation.

The 73-year-old former member Salesian Society of North America was convicted Nov. 12 of five counts of child rape that prosecutors said occurred between 1981 and 1982 at a youth camp in Ipswich run by the order.

The now 44-year-old victim testified that McCormick took him out of activities or woke him late at night to force him into sexual acts.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Luton on Sunday

LUTON vicar James Ogley, who was convicted of child sex offences in October, has been sacked by the Church of England.

Today, The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, finalised steps to remove James Ogley from office and prohibit him from exercising any ministry as a priest in the Church of England for the rest of his life

The Diocese of St Albans said it was the ‘maximum penalty’ that could be imposed.

Ogley is currently serving a two year prison sentence as a result of the conviction.

On his arrest in January 2013, Ogley was suspended from exercising any of the functions of a priest.

The penalty follows James Ogley’s conviction on 30 September for nine offences under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. James Ogley was jailed for 2 years for these offences. The Church’s disciplinary process begins automatically on conviction of a criminal offence involving a custodial sentence.

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WISCONSIN
LaCrosse Tribune

Matt Johnson matt.johnson@lee.net

A Madison Catholic bishop left a speaking engagement at public venue on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s campus, Wednesday, Nov. 19, because a reporter in the audience refused to leave.

Bishop Robert Morlino had been invited by students to speak at the university’s Doudna Hall.

Morlino may have been distracted before the speech because he was confronted by a group of protesters who are unhappy with changes the Madison diocese has made with a Platteville parish.

Although faced by protestors, the bishop was speaking in a public place. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy. In fact, Morlino’s request that no photos or recordings be taken during his speech was improper.

Reporters should have access to public spaces during public events. They should be allowed to cover these events for the public.

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MINNESOTA
Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal

Mark Reilly
Managing Editor-
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is suing eight insurance companies that it says are improperly rejecting claims to cover the cost of the church’s settlement with victims of clergy sex abuse.

Church leaders were counting on insurance to help pay victims of sex abuse, the Star Tribune reports, but the companies have told the Archdiocese that the incidents are not “accidents” and aren’t covered.

The insurers named in the suit, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court, are Continental, Firemen’s Fund, National Fire of Hartford, TIG, Continental Casualty, Hartford Accident and Indemnity, American Home Assurance and Aetna Casualty and Surety. They haven’t responded to the lawsuit yet.

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MICHIGAN
WXYZ

MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) – An employee at the Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township has been arrested and charged in a child-sex abuse case.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham says 47-year-old Joseph Peter Sturza, a director of admissions at the school, was involved in child sex abuse activity.

According to the Sheriff, the computer-crimes unit started investigating on Nov. 19, after being contacted by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Deputies received copies of e-mail that were found by a parents of a child. The e-mails were sexually graphic and indicated there was child sexual-abuse activity.

Wickersham says Sturza was arrested this morning and charged with four different counts counts.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

IPSWICH — The Rev. Richard McCormick, a priest found guilty of five counts of child rape earlier this month, has been sentenced to serve eight to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation.

Richard McCormick, 73, of New Rochelle, N.Y., a retired priest who ran a summer camp for disadvantaged Catholic youths in the early 1980s, was found guilty by a Lawrence Superior Court jury earlier this month.

“When he prays, he should not pray to his god, he should pray to a beautiful, innocent, charming little five-year-old boy,” said the now-44-year-old victim, who was 11 and 12 when he was abused. That boy, the victim’s own son, is “the only reason Richard McCormick still wakes up every morning.”

Prosecutor Kate MacDougall asked for a 12- to 15-year prison sentence, saying McCormick stole the victim’s faith and altered the entire course of his life.

McCormick’s attorney, Stephen Neyman, called the retired priest a “broken man” and urged the judge to sentence him to no more than two years, potentially to be spent at the Missouri facility where McCormick lived before trial.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Laura Crimaldi
GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 26, 2014

LAWRENCE — A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Wednesday to eight to 10 years in prison for raping a boy multiple times between 1981 and 1982 in Ipswich.

The Rev. Richard J. McCormick, 73, learned his punishment after hearing from the 44-year-old victim, who was between 10 and 12 years old when he was raped at a summer camp at the Salesian Brothers’ Sacred Heart retreat center in Ipswich.

Speaking in Essex County Superior Court, the man said he lost his faith because of McCormick and that being in a church or seeing a priest provokes feelings of anxiety and rage.

“Does he even remember me?” the man asked. “I don’t have to ask that today because I know the answer as he sits there in his chair denying even being at the camp. … But I do remember him. I remember him every day of my life. Not a day goes by when there isn’t some sort of trigger that brings back all those memories.”

As he spoke, the man referenced a trophy displayed in front of him. He said McCormick gave him the trophy and that it is the only one he saved from childhood. At times, he said, he thought he wanted to use the trophy “to jam it in Mr. Richard McCormick’s chest.”

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SPAIN
Zee News

A second man has filed a complaint accusing a group of Catholic priests in Spain of sexual abuse in a case Pope Francis has said has caused him “great pain”, a judicial source said Wednesday.

Police on Monday arrested three Catholic priests and a religion teacher in the southern city of Granada after a 24-year-old man accused them of molesting him and other children.

Pope Francis said Tuesday he had personally ordered an investigation into a case after the unidentified man sent a letter to the pope telling him of how he had been molested when he was an altar boy.

“I read it. I called the person and I told him, `Go to the bishop tomorrow,` and then I wrote to the bishop and told him to start an investigation,” Francis said in response to a question by a Spanish reporter on his plane from Strasbourg, France, where he had addressed the European Parliament.

“How have I received this news? With great pain, very great pain, but the truth is the truth and we should not hide it.”

A second man presented a formal complaint against the priests and religion teacher at a duty court in Granada on Monday, a judicial source told AFP.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, November 26

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

A group of Missouri nuns is praising a convicted bishop. Unwittingly, they’re making the church less safe and healthy, by contributing to a climate in which victims are reluctant to report child sex crimes.

All adults, but especially those in the Catholic Church, have two choices: They can make it harder or easier to expose predators. But when clearly complicit church officials are praised, more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers give up and stay silent, fearing that those who conceal abuse will often be believed and supported while those who disclose abuse will be disbelieved and vilified.

We urge these nuns to act more compassionately and responsibly in the future.

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UNITED STATES
GetReligion

Boston Globe story on Vatican prosecutor’s alleged failure to report abuse leaves unanswered questions

Dawn Eden

The Boston Globe ran a story over the weekend alleging that the Vatican’s top prosecutor on sex-abuse cases failed to report an abusive priest to civil authorities when he was a high-ranking official in the Jesuits’ Chicago Province.

Given the legwork that reporter Michael Rezendes put into culling the sources for the story, the piece is well worth your time, but it leaves some unanswered questions. There’s a lot of smoke here, to be sure, but it leaves me with the feeling that the Globe could have gone to greater length to locate the source and extent of the fire.

Here’s the lede, the wording of which suggests some delicate legal vetting:

A prominent American Jesuit recently named by Pope Francis to prosecute priests accused of sexually abusing minors under church law was himself one of several Catholic officials who allowed a notorious abusive priest to remain in ministry for years after learning of his long history of sexual abuses, legal documents show.

The Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, named in September as the Vatican’s “promoter of justice,’’ was the second-highest-ranking official among the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when leaders were facing multiple abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, a globe-trotting priest with many influential supporters, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

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SPAIN
El Pais

A second former altar boy has filed a formal complaint against an alleged pedophile priest ring from Granada.

The man, who helped officiate Mass when he was aged between seven and 14, is the person mentioned in the letter sent to Pope Francis by another alleged abuse victim.

In the letter the first victim wrote: “Dear Holy Father: they also abused a friend of mine.” Now, the friend has apparently stepped forward to support the claim.

“They really insisted on telling me and teaching me that if I didn’t live with them and went where they told me to go, I would have to leave the group as I would no longer be following the doctrine of God,” says the second alleged victim of the Romanones group, whose name derives from its alleged ringleader, Román Martínez. “They would start telling me about sin.”

“All of this has been dramatic, it has marked my life,” he adds. “I would feel their erections touching me, and they would tell me not to be afraid. Sometimes I saw them kissing each other on the lips when they met, and I thought that this was not natural.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

CHILD MOLESTER BACK IN TOWN
Former teacher David Kramer, who pled guilty to two counts of child molestation in St. Louis county in 2008 and was sentenced to a seven-year prison term, has been released and is now living on South Grand. He had taught in U. City and in Australia.

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MINNESOTA
KDUZ

(MNN/Pine City, MN) — A self-proclaimed pastor on the run following allegations of sexual abuse is now on the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted Fugitive List.

The agency says Victor Arden Barnard is wanted by the Pine County Sheriff’s Office on 59 felony counts of sexual assault.

He is accused of abusing young girls while he was acting as their pastor.

A reward of 25-thousand dollars is being offered for information that leads to his arrest. Barnard has been missing since he was charged in April.

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MISSISSIPPI
Sun Herald

The Associated Press
November 26, 2014

JACKSON, MISS. — The state Court of Appeals has upheld the 2013 conviction of a Mississippi pastor for sexual battery of a child.

Larry Gene Singleton, now 72, was convicted in Tate County on two counts of fondling and one count of sexual battery. He is serving a 30-year sentence.

Singleton, the former pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, was arrested in December of 2013 after sheriff’s investigators received a complaint from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex.

Authorities say the sexual abuse allegedly began when the victim was 11 years old and continued for several years.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
J-Wire

November 26, 2014 by J-Wire Staff

An American teacher who sexually abused children at a Melbourne Jewish school has been deported to the United States following his release from prison.

54-yr-old David Kramer was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually abusing four boys at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College. He pleaded guilty to the charges.

Manny Waks, the founder of Tzedek, an advocacy group for sexually abused children, said: “Now that Kramer has concluded his sentence and released into the broader community, it’s critical that we’re informed of his whereabouts so that we can ensure the safety of our children. Kramer has a shocking track-record of sexually abusing many children in more than one country. While he has sat in jail in both the US and Australia for crimes committed there, I’m aware of allegations that he has also abused children in Israel. It’s also widely known within the Yeshivah community that there are additional alleged victims. For various reasons victims do not come forward, and this is their choice which must be respected.

I have already notified some of my networks in both of these countries and will continue to work with them and others until we can ascertain that he does not pose a risk to children to the extent that this is possible.

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GUAM
Marianas Variety

WEDNESDAY, 26 NOV 2014

BY JASMINE STOLE | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

REV. Adrian Cristobal, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Agana, has denied that Archbishop Anthony Apuron met with Pope Francis last Friday at the Vatican about an accused pedophile.

The International Catholic Press Agency, based in Switzerland, reported that Apuron met with the pope and is “blamed for covering an accused pedophile.”

Cristobal said Apuron made the appointment to speak with the pope and was granted an audience with him. “The archbishop was very pleased with the meeting,” Adrian said, adding that Pope Francis was supportive and encouraging, and that the meeting was positive. “The archbishop was not summoned to the Vatican,” he stressed.

The content of the meeting has not yet been relayed to Cristobal, but it is expected that when Apuron returns to Guam, the archbishop will brief him about the meeting.

“The meeting of the pope and archbishop was not regarding the accused pedophile. That is totally inaccurate,” Cristobal said.

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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation

Jennifer Haselberger

Earlier today, the National Catholic Reporter posted a series of amusing tweets about Archbishop Nienstedt’s use of the word ‘trouble’ in his column introducing last week’s disastrous financial report for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Specifically, NCR picked up on the Archbishop’s unfortunate decision to place the word in quotation marks, a grammatical device generally used to indicate irony. This choice leaves the reader wondering if the Archbishop truly understands how serious the situation is, or if he instead views the present state of the Archdiocese as really no problem at all.

It would appear that at least one person on the staff of the NCR (reporter Brian Roewe) is both an astute reader and a fan of The Music Man, and he playfully suggested a tweet riffing on the song ‘Ya Got Trouble’ to introduce his article on the financial report: ‘Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for…bankruptcy?’. You can read his article here: http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/finance-report-shows-trouble-twin-cities.

I am not sure how far the NCR intended to take the comparison between the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the plot of The Music Man, or perhaps between the Archbishop and Harold Hill. Unlike the con artist Harold, who is the ‘Music Man’ of the book, play, and movie, Nienstedt does have a legitimate talent for music. However, some would argue, especially as we wait for the release of the investigation into his conduct by Green Espel, that Nienstedt is a man who entered town under false pretenses, as did Harold Hill. And, like Harold, Nienstedt also did his share of fear-mongering, attempting to sell a solution which the people of this Archdiocese, like the victims of Hill’s scams, will never see materialize. Take it one step further and you can see the similarity between Nienstedt’s refusal to resign and Harold’s decision not to skip town.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent Nov. 17, 2014

Part two of a three-part series

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

ZUNI — Not much is clear about the circumstances surrounding the sudden departure of the Rev. Ravi Kiran from St. Anthony’s Mission in the Pueblo of Zuni.

One thing, however, is very clear. Kiran left a mostly Native American congregation very deeply divided, with parishioners on both sides feeling hurt and upset.

For those parishioners who continue to attend Mass at St. Anthony’s, most are either supporters of Kiran or they are simply Catholics trying to stay neutral while they wait for answers from their church leaders.

For those who do not support Kiran, they have expressed their displeasure with their feet — about a dozen left the Zuni parish and now attend St. Patrick’s Catholic Mission in Vanderwagen, another church under the leadership of a priest from India. Most of those who left were not merely warming the pews each Sunday. They were active church volunteers who helped with religious education programs and served as Eucharistic ministers, lectors, and ushers.

And while many individuals on both sides have talked to the media about their concerns, few have been willing to be quoted publicly.

Close friendship

However, two members of one prominent Zuni family were willing to speak out in support of their former parish priest. Siblings Claire and Ken Seowtewa, children of the late Zuni mural­ist Alex Seowtewa, became friends with Kiran and believe he was a good parish priest.

During Mass at St. Anthony’s Nov. 2, Claire Seowtewa spoke up during the service and offered a prayer for Kiran’s return to St. Anthony’s.

In a telephone interview later that evening, Seowtewa said that during Kiran’s time in Zuni, he became a frequent visitor to her parents’ home, and he often ate dinner with her family. Kiran and her father became very good friends, she said.

“They got really close,” she said. “It was just a good relationship that had blossomed.”

Seowtewa said her family was happy with the renovations Kiran had made around St. Anthony’s Mission.

Although the murals Alex Seowtewa painted on the walls of the Old Zuni Mission brought him fame and brought countless visitors to the pueblo, Claire Seowtewa said her father did not have a good relationship with recent Franciscan Friars.

It was through her father’s friendship with Kiran, she said, that her father attended — for the first time in years — Midnight Mass last Christmas at St. Anthony’s.

Kiran went on to officiate at Alex Seowtewa’s funeral Mass at the Old Zuni Mission.

“I was so heartbroken to hear he had left,” Seowtewa said of Kiran’s sudden departure, adding she viewed Kiran as a part of her family.

Displeasure and frustration

A week after his sister’s interview, Ken Seowtewa and his wife attended Mass at St. Anthony’s.

At the end of the service, while the Rev. Kevin Finnegan, the diocesan chancellor, was still offering his promises to provide future answers to parishioners, the couple left the church.

Clearly frustrated, Seowtewa blamed Kiran’s problems at St. Anthony’s on the “small group” in the parish who had disagreements with Kiran. Seowtewa also expressed displeasure with the wording of the Diocese of Gallup’s announcement about Kiran’s departure and frustration that the announcement didn’t answer his questions.

“He’s not here to defend himself,” Seowtewa said of Kiran.

Naming off important family milestones of church baptisms and marriages, Seowtewa said his family has had a close association with the Catholic Church in the Pueblo of Zuni for five generations.

Seowtewa, also an artist, said he spent years working alongside his father on the murals in the Old Zuni Mission.

“Dad wouldn’t have agreed with this,” he said.

Seowtewa, quoting something that his father used to say frequently, said, “I don’t have anything against God, it’s just the messengers he sends.”

“I love the fact that Father Ravi appreciated our culture, our heritage,” Seowtewa said as he walked away. “I love Fr. Ravi.”

Tomorrow: More unanswered questions

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 18, 2014

Part three of a three-part series

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

ZUNI — In addition to allegations about the Rev. Ravi Kiran’s possible misuse of funds at St. Anthony’s Indian Mission, Kiran’s abrupt departure last month has raised a number of other unanswered questions.

They are questions that the Diocese of Gallup, the Pueblo of Zuni and Kiran have declined to answer.

Kiran, aka Ravi Kiran Dasari or Ravikiran Dasari, came from India to the Diocese of Gallup in the spring of 2009. In August 2012, Bishop James S. Wall assigned Kiran, his former superintendent of Catholic schools, to St. Anthony’s, a mission parish and school on the Pueblo of Zuni. Franciscan Friars had managed St. Anthony’s for nearly 90 years, before withdrawing from the mission in 2011.

Kiran’s renovation of the mission’s historical buildings has stirred controversy on the pueblo. During his two years at St. Anthony’s, Kiran oversaw numerous renovation projects to the buildings and mission grounds. Parishioners, almost all who have declined to speak publicly, are divided on Kiran’s actions.

Kiran’s supporters, who are pleased with the renovations, have said the upgrades were necessary because the mission was in disrepair. Kiran’s critics believe the renovations happened too quickly and were carried out with too little input from Zuni parishioners.

They also question how much the renovations cost.

One particularly divisive renovation project was the one on Kiran’s home. Kiran’s critics believe the rectory’s renovation was overdone to the point of excessive luxury, particularly since the mission is located on a Native American reservation with a high poverty rate.

Neither diocesan officials nor Kiran answered questions about the renovations.

Unauthorized renovations?

And then there is the question of diocesan and tribal authorization. The diocese’s “Finance Directives and Finance Council Norms for Parishes and Organizations in the Diocese of Gallup” is a 2009 document that is posted on the Internet. According to that finance policy, “Any single expenditure, other than recurring monthly bills, that is greater than 10 percent of the annual Sunday collections must have written diocesan approval before the funds are committed.”

According to a financial report compiled after the end of fiscal year 2012, the annual Sunday collection amounts at St. Anthony’s were $16,346.55 for the fiscal year 2010, $15,239.47 for 2011, and $15,403.20 for 2012. Based on a small sampling of 14 church bulletins from 2007 to 2014, the weekly collection amounts under Kiran seemed to have declined in 2013 and 2014.

Therefore, using the highest figure of $16,346, Kiran would have needed approval from Gallup diocesan officials to spend more than $1,635 on any one parish project.

In addition, the diocese’s finance policy states the parish must have written approval from the bishop before any major repairs or new construction is begun, monthly reports must be sent to the diocese during the planning, fundraising, and implementation phases of the project, and all construction projects over $10,000 must include the “Catholic Mutual Addendum to Construction Contract” and must be forwarded to the diocese for review before signing.

It is unknown if Kiran followed these financial requirements and received the proper approval from the bishop because neither diocesan officials nor Kiran would answer any questions about the subject.

It is also unknown if Kiran received authorization from Pueblo of Zuni officials for the renovation projects – or if such tribal authorization was needed — because Zuni Gov. Arlen P. Quetawki Sr. also did not respond to media questions.

2013 allegation

Finally, there are lingering questions about an allegation that was made against Kiran last year.

In the spring of 2013, an adolescent girl in Zuni reportedly made an allegation that Kiran touched her inappropriately. The Diocese of Gallup did not make that allegation public, but it did temporarily suspend Kiran for several months while a law enforcement investigation was conducted. However, during that time, Kiran was allowed to travel on fundraising mission appeals trips to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

A 2013 media inquiry to the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Pueblo of Zuni was answered by the Zuni governor. In letter dated Nov. 7, 2013, Quetawki stated: “The Zuni Police Department received a complaint, conducted a thorough investigation, determined that there is no substance to the allegations, and closed the investigation. We were assisted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI in conducting the investigation.”

Officials with the Diocese of Gallup and the Pueblo of Zuni were asked earlier this month if that allegation against Kiran was still considered to have no substance. Neither set of officials responded.

In a related issue, diocesan officials and Kiran also did not answer questions about reports that Kiran did not advertise information pertaining to the diocese’s bankruptcy case as he was required.

According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court order of April 11, all Gallup parishes were required to advertise information about the diocese’s bar date deadline for confidential claims regarding allegations of clergy sex abuse. Kiran reportedly did not post or publish that court ordered information at St. Anthony Indian Mission.

In addition, the diocese also did not respond to questions about whether Kiran had ever submitted to a criminal background check in India or the United States before being allowed to work in the Gallup Diocese. A question about whether foreign priests are required to submit to criminal background checks before working in the Gallup Diocese also was not answered.

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent Nov. 15, 2014

Part one of a two-part series*

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

ZUNI — When the Rev. Ravi Kiran, a visiting Catholic priest from India, abruptly left his mission assignment in the Pueblo of Zuni on Oct. 9, he left behind a number of allegations and unanswered questions.

But thus far, officials with the Diocese of Gallup, the Zuni tribe and federal law enforcement officials have declined to answer any questions about their possible investigations into the sudden departure of Kiran, aka Ravi Kiran Dasari or Ravikiran Dasari. Some of the allegations against Kiran involve the possible misuse of money donated to St. Anthony’s Indian Mission for the benefit of tribal parishioners and mission students.

The Rev. Kevin Finnegan, the chancellor and vicar general for the Diocese of Gallup, told parishioners during a recent Mass at St. Anthony’s that the Gallup Diocese was conducting an investigation, and he promised answers in the future.

Gov. Arlen P. Quetawki Sr. of the Pueblo of Zuni has not responded to media questions, so it is unknown if the tribe is doing its own investigation.

And federal officials aren’t much more forthcoming.

“Under DOJ policy we (the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI) can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation into the matters you raise,” Elizabeth M. Martinez, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said in an email Monday.

Kirin, who the diocese claims is back in India, was contacted through email and asked to explain his departure.

“I appreciate your reaching out to hear my side of the story,” Kiran said in an email Monday. “I am thankful to note that there are lot of people spoke in support of me. It personally pains me to see the division of the community where I served. Please forward the questions and I will see if I am able to respond.”

Kiran was sent an extensive list of questions, similar to the questions submitted to the diocese, but he did not respond with answers.

Financial issues

Allegations against Kiran, based on interviews with Kiran’s supporters and detractors, include the following financial issues. Both diocesan officials and Kiran were asked to address these issues, but neither did so.

■ St. Anthony’s Indian Mission reportedly has two primary sources of revenue, both of which were set up by the Franciscan Friars who oversaw the mission for nearly 90 years. The first is a financial investment portfolio, and the second is income generated from charitable donations through the mission’s development office. An old portfolio review, published for the St. Anthony Indian School for the third quarter of 2003 by UBS Financial Services, Inc., showed the portfolio had $1,018,785 in its stock account ($34,558 in cash and equivalents and $984,229 in equity) and $856,250 in its bond account. Assets of St. Anthony’s parish were not included in the report.

Questions about the current amount of money in mission accounts and amounts during recent years were not answered. Questions about whether a recent audit by the diocese revealed if Kiran had or had not used any mission funds for personal items, services or travel also were not answered.

■ Kiran’s supporters say he kept them informed about the mission’s finances. His detractors claim Kiran only released one financial report — when he first arrived at St. Anthony’s in 2012 — and that report was actually compiled by Sister Jean Glach, O.P. and the mission’s development office upon the departure of the Franciscan Friars in 2011. Throughout the summer of 2014, church bulletins state Kiran would be releasing a “Financial report for 2013-2014,” which he reportedly never released.

■ Weekly collections under Kiran may have dropped since the departure of the Franciscans.
Collection figures from 14 church bulletins, randomly obtained from 2007 to 2014, indicate a drop. Two bulletins from 2007 show $451 and $379 collected weekly, $488 in a 2010 bulletin, $508 in 2011, $199 and $410 in 2013, and eight bulletins in 2014 show a low of $146 to a high of $259 in weekly collections.

■ Kiran reportedly drove a Mercedes-Benz, a vehicle that he apparently took with him. It is unknown if a friend gave Kiran the vehicle as his supporters believe, if Kiran purchased the vehicle with his own money, or if the vehicle was purchased with mission funds.

Again, neither Kiran nor officials with the Diocese of Gallup responded to any of these issues.

Editor’s Note: In Monday’s Independent, members of one Zuni family express support of their former priest, and remaining questions surrounding Kiran are discussed.
*Correction: Part one of a three-part series

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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent Nov. 10, 2014

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

ZUNI — The Diocese of Gallup has now provided parishioners at St. Anthony’s Mission with a copy of a letter about their former priest who diocesan officials say “abandoned his assignment” on the Pueblo of Zuni last month.

In addition, the diocesan chancellor is promising answers.

According to parishioners, the Rev. Ravi Kiran, aka Ravi Kiran Dasari or Ravikiran Dasari, a native of India, abruptly left the mission on Oct. 9. Since his departure, diocesan officials have audited the mission’s financial accounts amidst allegations that Kiran may have misused mission funds.

Bishop James S. Wall has refused to answer media questions about Kiran or the allegations. Instead, on Friday, Susan G. Boswell, his lead bankruptcy attorney, released a short announcement the bishop had sent to be read to parishioners in late October. That announcement was published Saturday.

The Rev. Kevin Finnegan, the chancellor for the diocese, initially read the letter to parishioners on Oct. 26. On Sunday, Finnegan returned to St. Anthony’s and distributed copies of the announcement, which stated Kiran returned to India without notifying the diocese or requesting permission for a leave of absence.

“His actions were found to be unprovoked and a surprise to everyone,” the statement said.

Finnegan told parishioners the Gallup Diocese was investigating Kiran’s departure and promised them eventual answers.

“But when I find out, you’ll find out,” Finnegan said.

Questions about Kiran’s tenure at St. Anthony’s Mission have been submitted to Zuni Gov. Arlen Quetawki Sr. Questions about the allegations have been submitted to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Questions emailed to Kiran’s religious superior of the Missionary Society of Heralds of Good News in India have not been answered.

In addition, Kiran’s email address was obtained on Sunday, and he was invited to explain his abrupt departure.

Kiran does have many loyal supporters in his former parish at St. Anthony’s. However, during interviews after Mass on Sunday, only two supporters agreed to provide their names and speak on the record on his behalf. Their comments will be featured in an article later in the week.

— Individuals who would like to give their name and offer their comments on the record are invited to contact reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at 505-870-0745 or religion@gallupindependent.com.

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ESPANA
La Nacion

[A second former altar boy has filed a complaint against the alleged religious pedophile clan in Granada.]

GRANADA.- Un segundo ex monaguillo ha presentado una denuncia contra el clan de supuestos religiosos pederastas de Granada. El hombre, que asistió a misa desde los 7 a los 14 años, era al que se refería el primer denunciante cuando decía que temía por otras posibles víctimas del grupo de Los Romanones. “Hacían mucho hincapié en decirme y darme lecciones de que si no hacía vida con ellos y no iba a los sitios que me decían tenía que dejar el grupo ya que no estaba con la doctrina de Dios”, relata esta supuesta segunda víctima. Entonces “comenzaban a hablarme del pecado”. “Todo esto ha sido dramático, me ha marcado la vida”, añade. Sobre los abusos en sí, describe: “Sentía sus erecciones rozarme y me decían que no tuviera miedo. En contadas ocasiones les veía darse besos en la boca cuando se veían, y pensé que no era natural”.

Este testimonio refuerza el caso, sobre todo ante la falta de otras pruebas. Los tres sacerdotes y el seglar (un profesor de Religión) detenidos el lunes en Granada por supuestos abusos sexuales a un menor estaban reunidos en un chalé de la localidad de Pinos Genil, propiedad del supuesto cabecilla del clan, Román Martínez, cuando llegaron los agentes. Estos tenían la orden de arrestarles, registrar la casa y conducirles primero a comisaría y después ante el juez, lo que previsiblemente se producirá hoy. Sabían que su detención era inminente y estaban acompañados de otras cuatro personas ajenas al caso. La policía registró la casa y, entre otros documentos, se llevó dos ordenadores, sábanas y libretas. Al abrir los pecés, los agentes descubrieron que habían sido borrados todos los datos. Los agentes se llevaron también el disco duro de ambas computadoras porque existen medios técnicos que permiten extraer toda su información aunque haya sido eliminada.

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ESPANA
La Vanguardia

[One of the alleged victims of priests in Granada gave an exclusive interview to a Spanish television program.l

[con video]

Barcelona. (Redacción).- “Esto comenzó como un niño normal que acude a la iglesia para prepararse la catequesis”. Así comienza el relato Manuel, el joven víctima de los abusos sexuales cometidos por los sacerdotes de Granada que saltaron a la luz pública hace unos días. El programa de Cuatro, La otra red, ofreció ayer en exclusiva una entrevista con este joven que explicó en televisión la dureza de su experiencia.

El muchacho confesaba estar un poco alterado ante su intervención: “Estoy un poco nervioso e intranquilo por la situación que tenemos y la inseguridad que conlleva esta situación”. Manuel aseguró que tiene miedo a posibles represalias por haberse atrevido a denunciar, pero que espera que se haga justicia y que los agresores “paguen por lo que han hecho”.

El entrevistado fue víctima del cura Román y reconoce que era él quien “dirigía todo y obligaba a los demás a que hiciesen lo que él quería”. Los abusos vinieron tras establecerse una estrecha relación de confianza con los sacerdotes, a quienes Manuel veía como parte de la familia. Aunque asegura que no le prohibían estar con sus amigos, el hombre reconoce que le influenciaron para que cada vez estuviera más cerca de su grupo de la iglesia.

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ESPANA
ABC

A las 8,35 horas de este miércoles llegaban dos coches de la Policía Nacional al Juzgado de Instrucción nº 4 de Granada, con sede en el complejo administrativo de La Caleta. En uno de los vehículos, un furgón policial, iba el primero de los arrestados el lunes por su presunta relación con los abusos sexuales cometidos contra un menor durante una década –tres sacerdotes y un profesor de Religión-.

Se desconoce la identidad de este primer declarante que, como los otros tres detenidos, ha pasado su segunda noche en el calabozo de la Jefatura de Policía de Andalucía Oriental tras declarar en presencia de su respectivo abogado ante los agentes que dirigen la investigación de estos hechos.

Durante todo el día está prevista la declaración de los cuatro arrestados que a través de uno de los abogados que los asiste, Javier Muriel, ya han expuesto algunos argumentos de su defensa ante los hechos de los que se les acusa.

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ESPANA
swissinfo

[MADRID (Reuters) – A Spanish court received a second complaint for alleged sexual abuse of minors by priests, judicial sources said on Wednesday. This is a case in which the Pope Francis has personally ordered an investigation.]

26 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2014

MADRID (Reuters) – Un juzgado español recibió una segunda denuncia por presuntos abusos sexuales a menores por parte de sacerdotes, informaron el miércoles fuentes judiciales, en un caso en el que el Papa Francisco ha ordenado personalmente una investigación.

Esta denuncia se presenta después de que tres sacerdotes católicos y un seglar fueran arrestados el lunes en la ciudad española de Granada, dentro de un caso que se destapó luego que un joven escribiera una carta al Pontífice contándole cómo habían abusado de él cuando era un monaguillo menor de edad.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source: AAP
26 NOV 2014

The UN Committee against Torture is this week expected to address the powers of Australia’s child abuse royal commission, with implications for Australian-Vatican relations.

The committee will discuss its review into Australia’s adherence to the convention against torture in Geneva on Friday.

Abuse survivors campaigner Nicky Davis says she hopes the UN delivers a firm ultimatum.

“I hope the UN CAT very clearly puts the Australian government on notice that anything less than serious, widespread reform to ensure that in future these crimes are properly investigated, offenders are held responsible, re-offending is prevented, and survivors helped to recover, will be totally unacceptable,” she said.

Ms Davis, the head of Survivors Network for People Abused by Priests (SNAP) says the issue being addressed by the UN is “a political and legal system, that values the impunity of powerful predators far above the recovery of survivors or the safety of children”.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Lindsay says that at age 13, she was chosen by alleged cult leader Victor Barnard to be one of his 10 “maidens” and she was expected to perform wifely duties for him, which included cooking, cleaning and having sex with him. For the next 10 years, Lindsay claims she was sexually abused by Barnard, who is now a fugitive currently facing 59 felony charges including criminal sexual conduct — and she blames her father, Carmen, for turning her over to this man. Carmen says he had no idea what his daughter was going through, because Barnard had such a mental hold on him. Lindsay finally confronts her father on Dr. Phil’s stage.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t count the cost of realizing that I take my full accountability and responsibility for what had taken place,” Carmen says. “I did not give a blessing or an OK.”

“You didn’t do your job as a father,” Lindsay says. “You abandoned me. You left me there for years. You saw me humiliated and kicked out of meetings in front of the whole church. I don’t understand why you keep saying you didn’t know what happened.”

Dr. Phil doesn’t think Carmen is taking full responsibility for his actions. “You cannot tell me that you became so blind that you let someone distort the scripture so badly that it made sense to you to turn your 13-year-old child over to this creep,” he says.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

The U.S. Marshals Service has added a self-professed minister accused of sexually abusing young girls in rural Minnesota to its 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Fifty-three-year-old Victor Barnard is charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two members of a “Maidens Group” within a church he led called the River Road Fellowship.

The U.S. Marshals joined the search for Barnard after he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

In 2000, Barnard set up what he called the “Shepherd’s Camp” on land where girls and young women lived as part of his “Maidens Group.”

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MONTANA
Missoula News

By Ted McDermott

It sounds like a lot: $16.4 million. That’s the amount the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena has now proposed to pay those who filed suit over childhood sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of clergy and lay workers in western Montana. For those who have been involved in the long process of trying to redress the diocese’s wrongs and provide compensation for its victims, however, the planned payout isn’t enough to provide justice.

According to Bryan Smith, a lawyer representing 95 of the 362 claimants involved in a class-action lawsuit against the diocese, “The monetary amount certainly is not what we had hoped for, but the reality is that this diocese did not have the assets that a lot of other dioceses throughout the nation have to be able to fund a settlement.”

The diocese is so low on funds, in fact, that only $2 million of the settlement will come directly from its coffers. According to a bankruptcy reorganization plan the diocese filed on Nov. 17, various insurance carriers will provide the balance of the settlement money. The court will appoint a retired judge to decide how payments are broken down, based on the severity of the abuse and the effect of the abuse on victims’ lives, among other factors. The plan guarantees a minimum payment of $2,500.

In addition to the financial settlement, the diocese will make a number of non-monetary commitments designed to offer apology and prevent future abuse. While those commitments haven’t been finalized, Dan Fasy, another lawyer representing abuse survivors, anticipates they will be similar to those outlined in a 2011 settlement with Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits agreed to publish the names of abusers online, send letters of apology to victims and adopt a “whistle blower policy” for reports of abuse, among other measures.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

David Adams
Psychologist, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of Emerge, an abuser education program and national training center on domestic violence

Bill Cosby is an endearing and brilliant American icon, and apparently a caring husband and father. Does that mean he is not capable of being an alleged predatory rapist? Perhaps the most widely held myth about sexual or domestic abusers is that they are easy to spot. Some are easily detectable because they exhibit leering, angry and boorish behavior toward friends, neighbors, co-workers. Those are the ones who get caught. But in my experience having worked with thousands of abusers, only about one quarter of abusive men fit this stereotype. But here lies the problem: 25 percent is a substantial subgroup, meaning there are plenty of those guys walking around. As a result, our preconceptions about what abusers look like and sound like keeps being reinforced.

The problem is that most abusers do not fit this profile. Most do not get in trouble for their angry or controlling behavior because no one besides their victims sees it. In fact, many abusers are more likable than their victims. This is because domestic violence impacts victims more than it does perpetrators. As a result, victims of abuse often seem less friendly, more distrusting of others, and more angry and malcontented than their abusers. In contrast, neighbors and co-workers of undetected abusers often describe them as friendly, helpful and charming. In my research of intimate partner homicides, I found that this disparity even extends to these cases. Often neighbors of the killer comment that “he didn’t seem like that type of guy.” They often cite his helpfulness around the neighborhood: he was the one who was mowing everyone’s yard and coaching the children’s soccer team. Meanwhile, the victim was often see as more distant and less friendly. One result of these misconceptions is that victims of abuse become more isolated over time and are less likely to turn to neighbors for help. As one victim put it, “Everyone thought the world of him. Nobody was going to believe me.” The same misconceptions extend to workplaces where abusers are often popular with their co-workers and are viewed by their bosses as valuable and productive employees. Until his arrest for domestic violence, Ray Rice was certainly seen as a productive employee.

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MAINE
WCSH

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — A former Greek Orthodox priest was indicted on additional charges Tuesday.

Fifty-two-year-old Adam Metropolous was indicted on four counts of sexual abuse of a minor, possession of sexually explicit material, and violation of privacy by a Penobscot County grand jury.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said the sexual abuse charges are based on one young boy. The violation of privacy goes back to the original charge after a young woman staying in the Metropolous home told police the priest was videotaping her in the shower. Police said the young woman took the camera and left Metropolous’s home with her father. Her father went to police to report the incident.

Shortly after his initial arrest in September during an interview with Bangor detectives Metropolous admitted to inappropriately touching two boys and filming two women staying in his home.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Western Mass. Politics & Insight

SPRINGFIELD—Pulling into the parking lot of St Anthony’s Church and its connected Ceders Banquet hall, even in the dark of night, a ghastly void hangs in the background. The 2011 tornado that ripped through affluent East Forest Park neighborhood did not lay waste to any of the immediate vicinity. Yet, the once treed backdrop, something many of the city’s leafier neighborhoods have, is gone, a fitting reminder as allies of the nearby Cathedral High rallied to save and return the school to its home at Surrey Road last Thursday.

However, as some have observed it is not the tornado that truly posed the biggest existential threat to the city’s only Catholic high school. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield’s new bishop, Mitchell Rozanski, has put the brakes on rebuilding the school, prompting fears the Diocese will reverse its earlier promises. A coalition of alumni, parents of students past and present and stakeholders in the East Forest Park area, led in part by several of the city and region’s leading political figures.

Ron Chimelis rightly noted that declining enrollment has been a consistent problem at Cathedral and the tornado simply laid that bare. Both declining enrollment and the diocese’s inability or unwillingness to finance to school were a bigger threat to Cathedral than—ironically—any act of God.

That does not excuse the Diocese’s 180 on the subject. Rozanski may be unfamiliar with the Springfield Diocese’s perhaps less than ideal level of trust it enjoys with its flock, particularly as it pertains to non-religious matters. While Catholics everywhere may have fled or split with the church on issues, in the Springfield Diocese, a decided lack of communication and outreach on the secular and administrative matters have rankled Catholics here even more.

That lack of trust has in the past prompted action from political leaders, many with deep ties to Catholic education. When the Diocese closed Our Lady of Hope, the historical mother church of the city’s Irish population, and announced the same for Indian Orchard’s Immaculate Conception, supporters of the parishes turned to City Hall to erect historic preservation districts around the buildings.

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ESPANA
El Economista

[Two of the four men arrested for alleged sexual abuse of at least one child in Granada today maintained their innocence in statements made to the national police. They are Francisco Javier CM, and Sergi QM, a religion professor. The other detainees are Father Roman (RMVC) which gave his name to the group as “Los Romanones” and priest Manuel MM.]

Granada, 24 nov (EFE).- Dos de los cuatro detenidos por supuestos abusos sexuales cometidos contra al menos un menor en Granada han mantenido hoy su inocencia ante la Policía Nacional, que les ha tomado declaración en el marco de la investigación abierta, según han informado a Efe fuentes del caso.

Se trata de Francisco Javier C.M., uno de los tres curas arrestados, y de Sergio Q.M., el profesor de religión acusado junto a los sacerdotes en esta causa sobre presuntos abusos sexuales.
Los otros dos detenidos son el padre Román (R.M.V.C.), que daría nombre al conocido en ámbitos eclesiásticos como el grupo de “Los Romanones”, y el también sacerdote Manuel M.M.

Leer más: Dos de los acusados de abusos sexuales mantienen su inocencia ante la Policía – elEconomista.es http://www.eleconomista.es/legislacion/noticias/6275362/11/14/Dos-de-los-acusados-de-abusos-sexuales-mantienen-su-inocencia-ante-la-Policia.html#Kku8KvBChw34mg2S

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