ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Fox 9

[with video]

by Tom Lyden

PINE CITY, Minn. (KMSP) –
Prosecutors in Pine County, Minnesota have charged an alleged cult leader, Victor Barnard, with 59 counts of sexual misconduct involving two of his underage followers after a FOX 9 investigation.

LAST SEEN IN SPOKANE

Police say Barnard is currently a fugitive, with a nationwide warrant issued on April 11 that specifically states that his followers treat him “like a rock star.”

Barnard was last known to be in the Spokane, Wash., area and may know police are after him. The borders and airports are being monitored, but detectives believe Barnard’s followers may be shuffling him from home to home, like an elaborate sort of shell game.

The Pine County Sheriff’s Office told Fox 9 News they missed Barnard at one house by just one week, but they are still is working with the state of Washington and Homeland Security to apprehend Barnard. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should call 320-629-8342.

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

MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

Pine County, MN (NNCNOW.com) — The Pine County Sheriff’s Office says 52–year–old Victor Barnard, originally of Pine County, has been formally charged with 59 felony counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct involving two young females.

The sheriff’s office says the investigation took place while Barnard was ministering to a religious group in Northern Pine County. On Friday the Pine County Attorney’s Office issued a criminal complaint for Barnard explaining all the charges which were a result of a multi–year investigation.

A nationwide warrant for the arrest of Barnard was put into effect on Friday. Barnard’s last known location is believed to be in the Spokane, WA, area.

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

MINNESOTA
KAAL

By: Megan Stewart

Authorities are conducting a nationwide manhunt for a Pine County minister who has been charged with 59 felony counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two young girls.

Authorities say they have been investigating 52-year-old Victor Arden Barnard while he was ministering to a religious group in northern Pine County.

Authorities issued a warrant on April 11 for Barnard, who was last known to be near Spokane in Washington state.

Anyone with information on Barnard is asked to call the Pine County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 320-629-8342 or Chief Deputy Blackwell at 320-629-8380.

According to the criminal complaint, Barnard was the leader and minister of the River Road Fellowship, an offshoot of The Way International. In 2000, Barnard set up a group of young girls in a camp.

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

MINNESOTA
Journal

April 15, 2014
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A self-professed minister accused of sexually abusing girls who lived in his Minnesota group’s camp as part of a “Maidens Group” is facing 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Pine County authorities said Tuesday that an arrest warrant has been issued but they’re still looking for 52-year-old Victor Arden Barnard. The sheriff’s office says he was last known to be in the Spokane, Wash., area.

The criminal complaint says the two victims were among several girls and young women who lived apart from their families in a camp that Barnard set up near the town of Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

Jay Olstad, KARE

PINE CITY, Minn. – Authorities have issued a nationwide warrant for the arrest of a preacher charged with sexually assaulting at least two girls in Pine County.

Victor Barnard, 52, is accused of leading a cult in Finlayson several years ago and sexually assaulted young girls as late as 2009, according to the charges.

“He’s able to keep them isolated and become the authority figure,” said Pine County Chief Deputy Steve Blackwell.

Chief Deputy Blackwell said it is that isolation Barnard used to manipulate and threaten girls as young as 12 and 13 to have sex with him.

According to the complaint, he assaulted at least two girls who were raised to believe they had to do what he wanted, telling them he was the “Christ in the flesh.”

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

MINNESOTA
Spokesman-Review

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS – Authorities were searching Tuesday for a self-professed minister accused of sexually abusing at least two girls in a “Maidens Group” at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.

Victor Arden Barnard, 52, was last known to be in Spokane, where his River Road Fellowship resettled soon after an investigation began in Minnesota, according to Pine County, Minn., Chief Deputy Steven Blackwell said Tuesday.

Barnard faces 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct related to two young women who said they were abused for nearly a decade in seclusion.

Washington state’s fugitive task force and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also are searching for him. People associated with the group in Washington have been uncooperative, Blackwell said.

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

WASHINGTON
KXLY

SPOKANE, Wash. –
A minister has been charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two members of a “Maidens Group” within a Minnesota-based church he led called the River Road Fellowship.

Pine County authorities announced Tuesday an arrest warrant has been issued for 52-year-old Victor Arden Barnard. The sheriff’s office says he was last known to be in the Spokane, Wash., area.

According to the criminal complaint, the two victims were among several girls and young women who lived apart from their families in a camp Barnard set up near the town of Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis in east-central Minnesota. One victim alleges Barnard sexually abused her from the ages of 13 to 22. The other alleges he abused her for several years starting when she was 12.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

PAM LOUWAGIE, JENNA ROSS and PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune Updated: April 15, 2014

FINLAYSON, Minn. – Lindsay Tornambe was just 13 years old when she was chosen to be “sacrificed to God,” she remembers.

That announcement in July 2000 came from a minister who led an insular faith community that included her family in central Minnesota. As Tornambe sat in the congregation with her parents, she remembers the minister calling out a list of 10 girls for a position of honor. He would later call them “maidens.”

Soon, her parents dutifully dropped her off at his isolated camp, where what she now calls a nightmare of sexual abuse went on for about nine years.

Pine County authorities announced Tuesday that the minister, 52-year-old Victor A. Barnard, is now facing 59 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving his chosen maidens.

Barnard ruled “like a rock star” over the camp and sexually exploited girls and young women at his whim while they lived apart from their families, according to court papers, which spell out the alleged abuses against two unnamed teens.

Barnard had not been apprehended Tuesday evening but was believed to be in Washington state, where authorities have begun a manhunt for him. He is the subject of a nationwide warrant.

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

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Posted on April 16, 2014 by lewisblayse

The author has recently become aware of a call by Justice Peter McClellan for an extension of time for the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

At present, the Commission is to due be wrapped up by the end of 2015, with an interim report due in the middle of this year.

Justice McClellan has called on Australian Attorney-General, George Brandis, to give the Commission another two years to complete its work.

Justice McClellan, noting some of the ‘victories’ already achieved by the Royal Commission, has warned that as many as 2,000 people may miss out on providing their stories to the Royal Commission. That number is almost certainly an underestimate, but even if we take this as the number of people who are yet to speak to the Commission, it certainly underscores the need for the Commission to be provided with the extension it requests.

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

CANADA
Times Colonist

Bloggers and others exercising their freedom of expression should not forget that freedom involves responsibilities, and that the wide-open reaches of the Internet are not beyond the reach of the law.

A Victoria man was found guilty this week of breaching a publication ban on evidence presented at a preliminary hearing of a priest who was later convicted of sexually touching a young person.

He had twice posted information containing specific allegations to a website that covers sex-abuse scandals and betrayals of trust in the Roman Catholic Church.

The final disposition of the blogger’s case depends on the outcome of a challenge to the constitutionality of the section of the Criminal Code dealing with publication bans.

Regardless, the judge has found that the blogger was aware of the ban and published the evidence intentionally.

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

VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

Religion News Service | by Josephine McKenna
Posted: 04/16/2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican next month will face yet another crucial United Nations hearing that will scrutinize the Catholic Church’s response to clerical sex abuse.

The U.N. committee responsible for monitoring implementation of the Convention Against Torture treaty will hear from Vatican officials on May 5-6 during three weeks of hearings to be held in Geneva, starting on April 28.

At issue is whether the church’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal violates international norms against subjecting minors to torture, something that the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, skirted on Tuesday (April 15).

“The Holy See continues to carry out its obligations undertaken on behalf of the Vatican city state and present periodic reports, according to procedures under the convention,” he said.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

By Alyssa Allen

Barry Wilson waited fifty years to tell his horrific story of child sexual abuse. It was years of abuse while in the care of the Christian Brothers at St Augustine’s Orphanage in Highton, Geelong that saw Barry’s life spiral out of control. Barry found out six weeks ago that he had liver cancer and only had a few days to live. Amazingly, he found the courage to tell his story of child sexual abuse to the Royal Commission last Tuesday.

Barry died on Sunday but his brother Peter Wilson could not be more proud of him.

Peter says members of the SANO Task Force (Victoria Police sex-crimes squad) took a recorded statement from Barry’s bedside in Kerang hospital in Northern Victoria.

“The detectives were very gentle with Barry, allowing him time to have breaks, so he could get his breath, that took probably an hour or a half or so, they were passionate.”

Peter, also a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers, was asked by his brother stay in the room for his statement.

But Peter says he didn’t stay due to his own ongoing investigation with the Royal Commission.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Angela Lavoipierre

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is facing criticism for failing to include survivors of abuse in a roundtable on out-of-home care.

The roundtable follows the recent inquiry into the Salvation Army’s response to the abuse of children in its care.

Stakeholders including government representatives, academics and care providers gathered in Sydney to discuss preventing sexual abuse where children are being cared for outside their family home or with foster families.

Leonie Sheedy from the advocacy group Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) says she is very concerned that no survivors of abuse were invited to take part.

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

UNITED STATES
Roanoke Times

Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Roanoke Times Editorial Board

To his great credit, Pope Francis went beyond his predecessor’s apology and accepted personal responsibility last week for the Roman Catholic Church’s complicity in the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Francis also spoke of “the sanctions that must be imposed,” giving rise to speculation about what he might be prepared to do about it.

The pope’s unscripted remarks to a French Catholic children’s rights organization raise the question and hope that the church, at last, might have a leader who will not flinch from the extirpation of its institutional sin.

To do so requires calling to account those bishops and “princes of the church,” its cardinals, who protected pedophile priests – and, not incidentally, the church’s wealth – by keeping their crimes against children secret, sometimes justifying their silence as an effort to protect victims’ privacy.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

By CINDY WOODEN on Wednesday, 16 April 2014

The Vatican’s scheduled May appearance before a United Nations committee monitoring adherence to an anti-torture treaty is being done willingly and not because Church officials were ordered to appear for questioning, a Vatican spokesman has said.

Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi told reporters yesterday that as a signatory of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Vatican promised to file periodic reports about its laws and efforts to fight torture.

Along with representatives of seven other states, Vatican representatives are scheduled to review the periodic report with committee members from May 5-6 in Geneva.

“This is part of the ordinary procedures to which all state parties to the convention adhere,” Fr Lombardi said. “It is not that the Holy See was convoked in a way outside the normal procedures.”

In addition, he said, the treaty was signed in 2002 “in the name of Vatican City State – not for the universal Church – because the convention has juridical characteristics” that apply to a geographical nation-state.

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

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer

The mother of a Tulsa teenager who court filings say was impregnated by a minister has sued the minister, his church, the Department of Human Services and several DHS employees for damages exceeding $1 million, records show.

Gregory Ivan Hawkins, 55, a former pastor of Zion Fellowship Ministries, was arrested June 24 on allegations that he had recurring sexual contact with a female relative since March or April 2012, when the girl was 14.

The girl became pregnant and gave birth to a child that blood tests showed was fathered by Hawkins, according to the lawsuit.

Tulsa County prosecutors charged Hawkins with seven counts of child sexual abuse.

He faces five counts of lewd molestation and four counts of second-degree rape in Osage County, where he lives.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Register

Written by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Tuesday, 15 April 2014 15:33

VATICAN CITY – The often silent plight of sexually abused children, victims of domestic violence, prisoners, the abandoned elderly, the unemployed and immigrants facing hostility will be given a powerful voice during the Stations of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum.

Thousands of pilgrims and millions of television viewers will be asked to reflect April 18 on the wounds afflicting the world today: political stalemate, economic insecurity, substance abuse, torture, selfishness, fear and the despair of failure.

God is on the side of the hurting and the abused, allowing himself be exposed on the cross “to redeem every abuse wrongly concealed,” said one of the Way of the Cross meditations. Several days before the pope’s Good Friday commemoration, the Vatican released the text, along with the commentary and prayers for the 14 Stations of the Cross.

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

NEW JERSEY
Express-Times

By Express-Times opinion staff
on April 16, 2014

Simple living. Sacrifice. Service to the poor.

Pope Francis’ emphasis on everyday people and his rejection of the material trappings of the papacy have registered with Catholics and non-Catholics alike. His leadership by example is speaking loudly to both clergy and parishioners.

But it’s not registering as forcefully as many church members in the Diocese of Newark would like. More than 22,000 have signed a petition asking why Archbishop John J. Myers needs $500,000 in diocese money for an addition to his $700,000 home in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County, which he uses on weekends and which will become his retirement in a few years.

At a time when church members are struggling to pay mortgages, dealing with the closing of Catholic schools, reacting to sex-abuse scandals — and in many parts of the world, confronting issues of daily survival — they’re objecting to the bishop’s quest for such a large, luxurious home. The expansion at the Hunterdon property includes an elevator, hot tub, an indoor exercise pool and a library, bringing the residence to 7,500 square feet.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Macclesfield Express

Apr 16, 2014 10:31 By Paul Britton

A vicar has been arrested on suspicion of raping a teenage girl.

Anglican priest the Rev Simon Marsh, 54, was arrested and interviewed by detectives investigating allegations of sexual abuse between 2011 and last year.

It is understood that the alleged victim gave a statement to specially trained police officers last week.

The Rev Marsh served as Vicar of St Paul’s in Macclesfield from 1990 until 1996, and then as Vicar of St John the Baptist in Bollington from September 2001 until 2006.

He left his post in Bollington for his current role as vicar in Bramhall in Stockport, based at St Michael and All Angels CofE Church.

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

NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, NM, April 14, 2014

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

ALBUQUERQUE — Individuals who were sexually abused by Catholic clergy or others associated with the Diocese of Gallup have 120 days to file abuse claims against the diocese.

In an order signed Friday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David T. Thuma set the claims bar date as Aug. 11. All claim forms must be either mailed or hand delivered by 5 p.m. Aug. 11 to the Clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque. The claims will be kept by court personnel in a confidential and sealed file.

Claims filed after the bar date deadline will be disallowed.

The Diocese of Gallup filed for Chapter 11 reorganization Nov. 12 because of mounting clergy sex abuse lawsuits and out-of-court claims. When Bishop James S. Wall announced his decision to file for bankruptcy, the Gallup Diocese was facing the deposition of current and former diocesan officials in connection with 13 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in Arizona’s Coconino County Superior Court. The first of those lawsuits was scheduled to go to trial in February. With the filing of the Chapter 11 petition, court proceedings for those depositions and lawsuits were stayed.

The Diocese of Gallup includes parishes in six counties in western New Mexico and three counties in northern Arizona. Prior to the formation of the Diocese of Phoenix in December 1969, the Gallup Diocese included many more Arizona communities such as Sedona, Flagstaff, Kingman, Prescott and Lake Havasu City.

To date, 24 clergymen associated with the Diocese of Gallup have been publicly accused of the sexual abuse of minors in police reports, court documents, news stories or through the admission of church authorities.

Public notice campaign

According to statements submitted to bankruptcy court by diocesan officials, 121 individuals have come forward in the past with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy or others associated with the Diocese of Gallup. Susan G. Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, has said that more abuse claims are expected to be filed before the bar date.

On Wednesday, during a final hearing about the bar date, Boswell told Thuma that the diocese was planning to spend approximately $35,000-$40,000 on a “comprehensive campaign,” which would cast “a wide net” to notify the public about the sex abuse claims deadline.

“We want to be able to reach out as much as possible to anybody who might have a claim against these debtors and seek to inform them of manner in which they can file a claim,” Boswell said.

The diocese’s public notice campaign, which was approved by Thuma, will include media news releases, paid advertisements with newspapers and radio stations, announcements submitted to Catholic dioceses and parishes across the Southwest, and notices posted at Native American cultural centers, Navajo chapter houses, post offices and other government facilities.

Attorney James I. Stang, legal counsel for the Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the interests of clergy abuse survivors with claims against the diocese, said his committee approved the diocese’s public notice campaign.

“The debtor really is ultimately motivated to give adequate notice of the bar date because it wants an effective discharge,” Stang told Thuma.

Court approval of the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 plan of reorganization could be jeopardized if the diocese cannot document it provided the public with adequate notice of the clergy sex abuse claim process and bar date.

Claims assistance

Survivors of clergy sex abuse can download the Confidential Proof of Claim form, as well as the notice and instructions for filing the form, from the Diocese of Gallup’s website. The original form, plus one copy, must be mailed or hand delivered to the Clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque. The court will not accept claims that are faxed or emailed.

One potentially confusing feature of the claim form is a section that asks claimants to check if they are submitting a claim against the “Roman Catholic Church Of The Diocese Of Gallup, a New Mexico corporation sole” or against the “Bishop Of The Roman Catholic Church Of the Diocese Of Gallup, an Arizona corporation sole.” Claimants are advised that failure to check one of the two boxes, or checking both boxes “will not alone be grounds for objection to or disallowance” of their claim, but further clarification is not provided on the claim form.

Abuse survivors can also obtain information about the claims process by calling a toll free number that will be maintained by Stang’s law firm. That toll free number will include assistance for Spanish and Navajo speakers. Assistance for other Native languages, such as Apache, Hopi, Keresan and Zuni is not available, according to court documents submitted by the diocese.

An abuse survivor who has already filed a claim against the Gallup Diocese and has been paid in full should not file a claim, according to court documents.

In addition, under federal law, anyone submitting a fraudulent claim could be subject to a fine of $500,000 and/or imprisonment for up to five years.

Online Claim Forms: www.dioceseofgallup.org
Toll free Information Line: 1-888-570-6269

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

CONNECTICUT
WFSB

By Rob Polansky

ENFIELD, CT (WFSB) –
A priest in East Windsor who police connected to a teenager’s school threat faced a judge Monday for sexual assault charges and pleaded not guilty.

Father Paul Gotta, 55, was charged with several counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Court documents said the assaults started in January 2012 and took place in South Windsor with a minor.

The documents said it happened over the course of a year.

Gotta was placed on leave after the allegations surfaced. Officials previously said Gotta would be on leave “until the matter is resolved through the legal system.”

Investigators said Gotta was connected to 18-year-old Kyle Bass, who allegedly made threats against the Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield.

Court documents released last summer said Bass referenced the Boston Marathon bombing and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in threats to the Bloomfield school.

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

CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By KELLY GLISTA, Kglista@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
7:08 p.m. EDT, April 15, 2014

ENFIELD — An East Windsor priest who came to the attention of law enforcement when he reported feeling threatened by a local teenager had exploited his relationship with the teen in order to gain sexual contact, according to an arrest warrant unsealed on Tuesday.

The Rev. Paul Gotta, 55, is facing several sexual assault charges after he was arrested in March in connection with the alleged abuse. Gotta was indicted last year on federal firearms charges for allegedly helping the teen acquire weapons. Gotta reported the guns to authorities after their relationship soured, the warrant says.

According to the warrant, Gotta spent years developing a relationship with the teen, whose family attended one of the parishes in East Windsor where Gotta served as priest. Gotta employed the 16-year-old to do odd jobs for the church in 2012, then allegedly used the employment as an excuse to be alone with him. The teen often would take the bus to the church rectory immediately after school, the warrant says.

The teen told police that, at first, Gotta would grope him or ask him to reach into Gotta’s front pocket to retrieve keys when Gotta had his hands full, the warrant says. Gotta had the teen do personal chores in addition to work for the church, including doing Gotta’s laundry, and the teen told police Gotta watched him as he folded the priest’s underwear, the warrant says.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

[with video]

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in the North Side Lake View neighborhood has been reinstated after an investigation found an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago unfounded.
The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

“I knew the truth and I knew the Lord … stood with me,” O’Connell said at a Tuesday news conference.

But the decision to reinstate O’Connell drew heated criticism from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

“We are disappointed and surprised that Cardinal Francis George is putting Fr. Michael W. O’Connell back on the job despite an accusation that he sexually assaulted a boy in 1990,” a statement from SNAP read.

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

IOWA
World-Herald

By Andrew J. Nelson / World-Herald staff writer

A southwest Iowa pastor charged with sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl has pleaded not guilty.

Roger C. Kissel, 66, of Sidney, Iowa, is charged with second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts and indecent exposure, according to court records.

Kissel was pastor of the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church when police arrested him in February. Sidney Police Chief Austin Richardson said the alleged acts, which are believed to have occurred over several months in 2013, are not connected to the church.

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

IOWA
The Republic

SIDNEY, Iowa — A southwest Iowa pastor has pleaded not guilty to charges he sexually abused a 5-year-old girl.

The Omaha World-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1m9GThj ) that 66-year-old Roger C. Kissel of Sidney pleaded not guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts and indecent exposure.

When he was arrested in February, Kissel was a pastor at the nondenominational Sidney Cowboy Church. Sidney Police Chief Austin Richardson says the allegations aren’t connected with the church.

The crimes are alleged to have occurred over several months in 2013.

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

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

By Brian Amaral/NJ.com
on April 14, 2014

Mark Crawford, a resident of Avenel, was honored last week by the state attorney general for his work advocating for victims of sexual abuse.

Crawford, the state director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, was selected for the first-ever Ronald W. Reagan award by acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman.

“Because of Mark’s efforts, many individuals, after living in years of silence and shame, learned of the predators’ crimes and came forward themselves, finally getting help and holding their offender accountable,” state Sen. Joseph Vitale, who represents Woodbridge and nominated Crawford for the award, said in a news release today.

When he was a child, Crawford was abused by his parish priest. Since 1987, he’s been advocating for victims of sex abuse, helping reform the state’s charitable immunity laws and visiting the White House in 2010 to discuss sexual violence, according to Vitale.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

No evidence to support Salvation Army officer’s claim he confessed act of child sex abuse to police, royal commission told

April 15, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

A senior Salvation Army officer who says he went to police to confess the sexual abuse he inflicted on a young girl but was told nothing could be done, has had serious doubt cast on his claims.

An investigator hired by the Salvos told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday that Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Haggar allegedly assaulted the girl three times, not once as the officer had claimed, and that there was no direct documentary evidence that the police confession ever took place.

The revelations came from a former detective, John Greville, who joined the Salvation Army’s professional standards office in January, and was charged with investigating Colonel Haggar, who had admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl on one occasion in the state’s central west in 1989.

Mr Greville told the commission on Monday that, upon taking up the job, he discovered that files in relation to Colonel Haggar were in chaos, and that it appeared the matter had never been investigated.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 16, 2014

THE Salvation Army officer leading its response to the child abuse royal commission personally recommended another officer be reinstated by the church despite him having confessed to sexually abusing a young girl.

Major Peter Farthing told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday that he counselled the officer, Colin Haggar, for 18 months after he had admitted assaulting the eight-year-old.

In 1992, two years after Haggar was stood down by the Salvation Army, Mr Farthing wrote to the then-commissioner, saying “he has worked very hard to rectify his problems and has made excellent progress”. “Therefore I personally believe it would be appropriate for him to be re-accepted for ­officership,” the letter said.

Mr Farthing, the Salvation Army’s former secretary for personnel, who has handled dozens of other cases of child abuse, told the commission yesterday “at that stage there was still, I think, often an assumption that forgiveness was almost like an obligation”.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

A Chicago priest accused of sexual misconduct will be reinstated this week after an investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Father Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as Pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago on Thursday, Archdiocese of Chicago said in a statement.

Fr. O’Connell step aside in December after an allegation he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park 20 years ago.

The Archdiocese, working with the Cook County Sheriff, conducted an investigation “and concluded that the allegation was unfounded,” the statement said.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Vivelo Hoy

Por Leticia Espinosa, 4/15/2014

A meses de que la Arquidiócesis Católica de Chicago revelará archivos secretos en los que consta cómo durante años desprotegió a niños del abuso sexual de sacerdotes; en un comunicado la institución destacó que reinstalará a uno de sus sacerdotes, tras una acusación de mala conducta sexual “infundada”.

La tercera arquidiócesis más grande del país, que durante años transfirió silenciosamente de parroquia en parroquia a los sacerdotes acusados, sin notificar las denuncias de abuso a niños a las autoridades; anunció el martes que el reverendo Michael W. O’Connell fue reintegrado a su parroquia, una vez que concluyó una investigación por alegatos de mala conducta sexual con un menor de edad, que supuestamente ocurrió a finales de 1990.

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

KENTUCKY
Courier-Journal

DYLAN LOVAN, Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As testimony began in a long-delayed trial against former Catholic priest James Schook, a witness said Tuesday that he had numerous sexual encounters with Schook, beginning at age 13, at a Louisville church in the 1970s.

Schook was indicted on seven sodomy charges in 2011, but he sought several delays of the court proceedings as he battled terminal skin cancer.

The witness, Richard Whitfield, said Tuesday that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with Schook that began when he was 13 and lasted through high school.

Whitfield, 56, told the jury that he began having sexual encounters with Schook in the summer of 1971.

“I had this feeling we were probably doing something wrong,” Whitfield testified to the Jefferson Circuit Court jury, which was selected on Monday. He said most of the alleged abused occurred in Schook’s room in the rectory at St. Rita Catholic Church in Louisville.

“The doors were closed and we were just very quiet,” Whitfield said.

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

UNITED STATES
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

Updated April 16, 2014

In the Book of Revelation 13:16-18, the Mark of the Beast is 666, but for the Vatican Mammon Beast a.k.a. the Mark of the Opus Dei Beast is “holiness, saints, supernatural” especially the eerie paranormal words of Pope Francis. All Vatican Pied Pipers’ articles contain this OD mark. This was evident in the articles about Pope Francis’s apology last April 11. (See compilation below). Did anyone notice that The Republican in Massachusetts entitled its article: “Editorial: Pope’s admission and personal responsibility will go far toward creating holiness in the Catholic Church”.

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

FRANKREICH
20 Minuten

[Summary: A priest in France has been charged with raping a woman during exorcism.]

Ein katholischer Priester der Bruderschaft St. Pius X, die den Glauben des Traditionalisten Marcel Lefebvre folgen, wurde in Paris verhaftet. Der 40-jährige Mann soll im Zuge von Teufelsaustreibungen in einer Schule am Stadtrand der französischen Hauptstadt drei Frauen gefoltert und vergewaltigt haben.

Wie die Zeitung «Le Parisien» schreibt, leitet der Geistliche die private Schule Notre Dame de la Sablonnière in Goussonville. Im Herbst 2010 soll der nicht namentlich genannte Priester drei Lehrerinnen der Schule missbraucht haben. Die Frauen seien durch die Ereignisse so traumatisiert gewesen, dass sie erst jetzt den Fall der Justiz meldeten.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Publik-Forum

Die katholischen Bischöfe in Deutschland haben eine umfangreiche Studie in Auftrag gegeben: Sie soll das Ausmaß sexueller Gewalt gegen Kinder und Jugendliche in der Kirche klären. Geplant ist, Fallzahlen aus allen Bistümern zu erheben, den Einfluss der Kirche auf Täter und Opfer zu analysieren. Kann das gelingen? Ein Pro- und Contra – und Thema unserer aktuellen Umfrage. Machen Sie mit!

Wunibald Müller: »Ja! Viele Menschen wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen« »Die Kirche muss sich einer kritischen Durchleuchtung ihres Verhaltens stellen. Meint sie es ernst mit ihrer Ankündigung, aus den Missbrauchsfällen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte zu lernen? Viele Verantwortliche in der Kirche wollen das inzwischen, weil sie wissen: Nur so können verloren gegangenes Vertrauen und die so sehr in Mitleidenschaft gezogene Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche zurückgewonnen werden. Sie wollen Licht ins Dunkel bringen, um besser verstehen zu können, wie es dazu kommen konnte, dass in einem so erschreckend hohen Ausmaß sexueller Missbrauch im kirchlichen Kontext möglich war.

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

FRANCE
The Guardian (UK)

Chris McGreal in Gisors, Normandy

It’s hard to find anyone in Gisors with a bad word to say about Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka.

Other priests at the small French town’s imposing medieval Catholic church, an hour’s drive north-west of Paris into the rich Normandy countryside, speak with admiration of his popularity with congregants. It’s his ability to engage with people, they say. Worshippers love his sermons, feel his sincerity. He brings something from Africa.

Even those rarely found in Gisors’ church know of Father Wenceslas and insist he is a good man. A bartender at a café next to the church says he’s seen the priest about and that he is well respected.
No one believes what’s said, he adds. It’s just too unbelievable that a priest would do such a thing. …

In 2005, the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), then in the process of convicting many of the political and military leaders who oversaw the genocide, issued charges against Father Wenceslas. The indictment was a catalogue of horror. The priest, it said, conspired with leaders of the extremist Hutu militia spearheading the killing of Tutsis. It alleges that he helped draw up lists of men to die, stood by as Tutsis were taken away and killed, allowed the militia to roam his church hunting for victims, and that he raped young women.

The same year as the ICTR indictment, a military court in Rwanda convicted the priest in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison for genocide.

The protestors – some of them genocide survivors, others French people married to Rwandans – called on the Roman Catholic church to distance itself from Father Wenceslas by stripping him of his position.

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

A Texas pastor has been accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a young woman. We are grateful to this young woman for having the courage to speak up and press charges.

[WND]

Doug Phillips is a popular pastor and leading activist for “biblical patriarchy”. His attorneys refer to the abuse as a “consensual relationship”, but that is a dangerous and manipulative discourse that obscures the true nature of what happened. There can be no true consent when the authority between the individuals is so great.

We hope that Vision Forum Ministries and Boerne Christian Assembly officials will aggressively reach out to anyone else who may have been hurt by Phillips. We also urge them to review their sexual abuse policies and implement more effective measure to ensure no one, child or adult, becomes a victim of sexual assault.

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

UNITED STATES
Off My Knees: A Blog by Michael Baumann

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”
Socrates

An article on the Vatican Radio’s Website reported on a request from Pope Francis for forgiveness for the priests who committed sexual crimes against children. During his prepared remarks to members of BICE [International Catholic Child Bureau] whom he received on 11 April 2014 in an in audience at the Vatican, he deviated from the prepared text. That deviation for his text was captured in the English translation of the Pontiff’s prepared statement provided by Vatican Radio:

…. I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil which some priests, quite a few in number, obviously not compared to the number of all the priests, to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children. The Church is aware of this damage, it is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the Church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed. On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children…

Before I start this conversation I am being mindful of my fellow survivors and their families, some are no longer here because of the damage caused by predator priests. We have been subjected to endless promises of reform and lies about accountability. This is important to me as survivor of rape by a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. At the risk of appearing to be hopeful enough that these questions will somehow come to the attention of Pope Francis, I will address my questions to him directly.

Your Holiness, I have some questions I must ask so that I can understand the meaning and intent in your words. Holy Father, from who are you asking forgiveness? An honest question, I promise you. I am convinced of your sincerity when you say you “feel the compelled to personally take on all the evil”. If you do so, why do you qualify your statement by saying that the number of predator priests are “quite a few” in number but not when compared to the total number of priests? YourHoliness, you start off by marginalizing the depth of the crisis. Why should I trust what you go on to say next?

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

UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

In response to our formal filing at the United Nations, charging that the Vatican is violating the UN treaty against torture, top Catholic officials are claiming that the treaty only has jurisdiction over the tiny Vatican city state. We hope UN committee officials will see through this desperate attempt to hide from responsibility. And we hope that before the May 5 hearing, Pope Francis will step in and stop his staff from making this cynical claim.

[TBO]

For decades, when confronted with abuse and cover up reports, top Catholic officials often responded with self-serving hair-splitting – claiming that priests are “independent contractors,” and similar absurd legalistic arguments designed to deny responsibility for the crimes of church employees, high and low.

These kind of irresponsible dodges show just hard the Catholic hierarchy works to shuck responsibility.

How can the Pope be the head of a worldwide organization, but also only be responsible for a tiny city-state of 1000 people? Does the Pope not pick and promote bishops and other church officials across the planet? Catholic church officials cannot have it every way – some days being a global monarchy, other days being a tiny city state, and other days being a religious, not political entity.

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

CANADA
Vancouver Sun

BY LOUISE DICKSON, TIMES COLONIST APRIL 15, 2014

VICTORIA — A Victoria man learned Monday that people writing on blog websites can’t get away with posting information that breaks a court-ordered publication ban.

Blogger Gregory Hartnell was found guilty of breaching a publication ban on evidence at the preliminary inquiry of a Roman Catholic priest, later convicted of sexually touching a young person.

Victoria provincial court Judge Wayne Smith found Hartnell failed to comply with a judge’s order prohibiting publication of evidence at Father Phil Jacobs’ preliminary hearing in November 2011.

At the start of the inquiry, Judge Evan Blake made an order under section 539. (1) of the Criminal Code directing that the evidence heard not be published, or broadcast or transmitted in any way until the accused is either discharged or, if ordered to stand trial, the trial has ended.

Smith found Hartnell, who attended the first day of Jacobs’ hearing, transmitted two postings containing explicit allegations to Sylvia’s Site on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, 2011.

The public website, run by Sylvia McEachern, covers sex-abuse scandals and betrayals of trust in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Post

BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
March 27, 2014

Former Vision Forum Ministries president Doug Phillips, who resigned from his position after admitting an inappropriate relationship, has accused three of his close friends of trying to tear down his reputation and organization.

On March 13, Phillips’ attorney sent a letter to two of his client’s personal assistants, Bob Renaud and Peter Bradrick, and a former Vision Forum employee, Jordan Muela, alleging that “the three of you have conspired together, and with others, in an attempt to destroy Doug Phillips, his family and Vision Forum Inc,” reported WORLD magazine and Jen’s Gems, a watchdog blog for the organization.

Phillips’ threat of litigation follows four months after the nonprofit organization that he helped found, Vision Forum Ministries, was shut down by its board of directors after its married leader revealed that he had had an inappropriate relationship. While Phillips retained control of the for-profit Vision Forum, the company cleared out its inventory in November and was shutdown in December.

The former leader is not the only party thinking of filing a lawsuit. The attorney of the woman with whom Phillips was allegedly “inappropriately romantic and affectionate” also suggested that she might sue.

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

UNITED STATES
Right Wing Watch

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 4/15/2014

Warning: this post includes sexually graphic language.

In a bombshell lawsuit that exposes the shocking ways women are treated in the Quiverfull movement — the patriarchal program popularized by the Duggar family and its TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting — attorneys representing Lourdes Torres have revealed details of the abuse she received from Doug Phillips of Vision Forum.

The lawsuit [PDF], which includes counts of sexual battery and assault, details the “inappropriate, unwanted, and immoral sexual acts committed by Douglas Phillips against Ms. Torres,” noting that Phillips “methodically groomed Ms. Torres” since she was 15 years old “so that she would eventually participate in illicit sexual rendezvous with him promising that she could one day marry him” and “repeatedly told Torres that this was possible because his wife, Beall Phillips, was going to die soon.”

Phillips, one of the most prominent leaders of the Quiverfull movement, last year admitted to having “a lengthy, inappropriate relationship with a woman.” Phillips is extremely close to the Duggar family. In 2010, Torres was featured at the end of a video message at Phillips’ “Baby Conference” thanking Michelle Duggar, to whom Phillips had presented a “Mother of the Year” award.

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

WASHINGTON
KGW

VANCOUVER — Court documents obtained by KGW tell the story of a courageous teenaged girl who kept her head and did the right thing when police said she was pursued by a man in a car.

The Vancouver teen did not panic as a stranger stalked and beckoned her last week, according to court documents. She ran into a day care to call her mother,

The suspect in the case, Father Michael Patrick of St. Wenceslaus Church in Scappoose, remained in a Los Angeles jail Tuesday awaiting extradition to Washington.

The girl was walking down Northeast 28th Street on March 10, near a strip mall, when a man drove up beside her. Several times, the man asked her to get in and each time, she refused, according to an arrest affidavit by Vancouver police Det. Jason Hafer.

She walked faster, turning onto Northeast 132nd Avenue. The man continued to stalk her, at one point telling her, “Come on, cutie.” That’s when she walked into a day care to call her mom.

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

KENTUCKY
WLKY

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —The first witness took the stand Tuesday morning in the trial of a former priest charged with sexually abusing two boys in the 1970s.

James Schook is charged with sodomy.

The abuse allegedly took place while he worked for the Archdiocese of Louisville.

The witness testified that while Schook was a trusted mentor, he often had sex with him both in and outside the church, even at the boy’s home.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

April 15, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Rev. Michael O’Connell was reinstated to his role as pastor at St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago after the Chicago Archdiocese determined allegations of abuse were unfounded.

Father O’Connell agreed to step down in December 2013 when a formal allegation of misconduct was made. The allegation of misconduct was from 20 years earlier when he was assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park.

According to the Chicago Archdiocese, the allegation was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Cook County State’s Attorney, as well as the Cook County Sheriff’s department. They concluded it was unfounded.

The Archdiocesan Independent Review Board recommended Fr. O’Connell return to active ministry. He will return to Alphonsus on April 17, 2014.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, Founder and President of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

We are disappointed and surprised that Cardinal Francis George is putting Fr. Michael W. O’Connell back on the job despite an accusation that he sexually assaulted a boy in 1990.

[Chicago Sun-Times]

We have met this victim and find him very credible. And we’ve seen dozens of cases across the country in which Catholic officials have reinstated an accused child molesting cleric only to later oust him permanently.

It takes a great deal of courage and strength for child sex abuse victims to speak up. They often suffer in silence and self blame for decades. Accusations are rarely made lightly. We hope that others will not be discouraged by O’Connell’s reinstatement and that Catholic officials and parishioners will remain vigilant in reporting known or suspected crimes to secular authorities, not church figures.

Fr. O’Connell has worked in Lakeview, Orland Park and Lake Forest.

We beg anyone who saw, suspected, or suffered crimes by O’Connell or any church employee to come forward and report to police. It is never too late to speak up.

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

KENTUCKY
WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The details of a Louisville priest’s alleged sexual relationship with two teenage boys in the 1970s were heard by a jury Tuesday morning.

It’s the first day of testimony in the trial of Rev. James Schook, which began after being delayed or postponed several times for multiple reasons including Schook’s poor health.

The first witness took the stand Tuesday morning, detailing his sexual alleged relationship with Schook, which he says got very intimate and intense starting when he was of the age of 13, when Schook was 23 and a seminary student.

“We kind of grew into a relationship, but he would always tell me, ‘There’s no future in this — I’m just using you,” the witness said.

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

ILLINOIS
Southtown Star

The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Chicago has been reinstated after an investigation refuted an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago when he was assigned in Orland Park.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

O’Connell agreed to step aside in early December at Cardinal Francis George’s request after a formal allegation was presented to archdiocesan officials that he engaged in sexual contact with a minor while working at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park in the late 1990s, according to the statement.

O’Connell worked at the Orland Park parish between 1997 and 2012, and has held various posts within the archdiocese since his ordination in 1983, Burritt said.

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

VATICAN CITY
TBO

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has responded to the latest round of U.N. sex abuse inquiries by suggesting it is only responsible for implementing a U.N. treaty against torture within the confines of the tiny Vatican City State.

The Vatican issued a statement Tuesday ahead of a May 5-6 hearing that will likely delve into the Vatican’s failures to stop clergy sex abuse around the globe. Another U.N. committee interrogated the Holy See about abuse in January.

In an indication that it will seek to limit its responsibility, the Vatican said it signed the torture treaty in 2002 “exclusively in the name of and on behalf of” the 44-hectare (110-acre) Vatican City State, where fewer than 1,000 people live. The Vatican said it will “undertake its obligations on behalf of that state.”

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Religion Reporter April 15, 2014

A Chicago Catholic priest, who had been accused of sexually abusing a minor nearly 20 years ago, is being reinstated to active ministry after a Cook County Sheriff’s office investigation found the allegation was unfounded, the Archdiocese of Chicago said Tuesday.

Father Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role on Thursday as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago, the archdiocese said.

O’Connell agreed to step aside from his parish on Dec. 4, 2013, when the formal allegation was presented to officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park almost 20 years ago.

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

LAKEVIEW (IL)
DNA info

By Serena Dai on April 15, 2014
@ssdai

LAKEVIEW — A Roman Catholic pastor will be returning to church in time for Easter this week after investigations found that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him was unfounded, the Archdiocese of Chicago said Tuesday morning.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell voluntarily stepped away from St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, 1429 W. Wellington Ave., in December after a victim alleged that O’Connell abused him in the late ’90s at a parish in suburban Orland Park.

The archdiocese released a statement Tuesday saying that the Archdiocesan Office of Child Abuse Investigations and the Cook County sheriff’s office found that the allegation was unfounded.

O’Connell will be returning to his position as a pastor at the Lakeview church on Thursday, the statement said.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

April 15, 2014

Father Michael W. O’Connell is being reinstated to active ministry and will resume his role as Pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chicago. Fr. O’Connell, a priest in good standing, agreed to step aside from his parish on December 4, 2013, when a formal allegation was presented to officials of the Archdiocese of Chicago that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park almost 20 years ago.

The allegation was received by the Archdiocesan Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review and reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Cook County State’s Attorney. In compliance with the requirements of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Archdiocese conducted an investigation of the allegation. The Archdiocese also cooperated with the Cook County Sheriff, who conducted an independent investigation and concluded that the allegation was unfounded.

The Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, after a careful process always motivated by the need to protect children, did not find reason to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred and recommended that Fr. O’Connell be returned to active ministry. Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago, has accepted the Review Board’s determination and recommendation. Father O’Connell will return to St. Alphonsus and resume his duties as Pastor on Holy Thursday, April 17. The Cardinal joins the bishops and priests and laity of the Archdiocese in welcoming Fr. O’Connell, who has patiently accepted the restrictions on his ministry, to full participation in the life of the Archdiocese as one of our priests in good standing.

The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious, lay employee or volunteer, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website under Protecting Children at www.archchicago.org or by calling the Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review, 312-534-5205 or 1-800-994-6200, or the Office of Assistance Ministry, 312-534-8267 or toll-free at 866-517-4528.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (STMW) – The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side has been reinstated after an investigation found an allegation of sexual contact with a child nearly 20 years ago was unfounded.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell will resume his role as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on Thursday, according to a statement from Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

O’Connell agreed to step aside in early December at Cardinal George’s request after a formal allegation was presented to archdiocesan officials that he engaged in sexual contact with a minor while working at Our Lady of the Woods Parish in Orland Park in the late 1990s, according to the statement.

O’Connell worked at the southwest suburban parish between 1997 and 2012, and has held various posts within the archdiocese since his ordination in 1983, Burritt said.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

A priest has been reinstated to a parish in the Lakeview neighborhood after an investigation concluded that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him “was unfounded,” according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

The Rev. Michael W. O’Connell stepped down as pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish, 1429 W. Wellington Ave., in December after it was alleged that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor in the late 1990s while a pastor of an Orland Park church.

The archdiocese released a statement today saying the allegation was investigated by the Cook County sheriff’s office, which “conducted an independent investigation and concluded that the allegation was unfounded.”

In addition, the “Archdiocesan Independent Review Board. . .did not find reason to suspect that sexual abuse of a minor had occurred and recommended that Father O’Connell be returned to active ministry,” the archdiocese said.

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

KENTUCKY
WHAS

[with video]

WHAS11.com
Posted on April 15, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Testimony got underway on Tuesday, April 15, in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest charged with molesting two boys in the 1970s.

This morning, one of the alleged victims was on the stand testifying against James Schook.

The prosecution called its first witness Tuesday morning, April 15. One of the alleged victims, 56-year-old Richard Whitfield took the stand describing how he met James Schook when he was a 7th grader back in the ‘70s.

Whitfield describes how he was interested in becoming a priest and Schook became a mentor figure while Schook himself was finishing seminary school and while living at Saint Rita’s Catholic Church.

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

IRELAND
Irish Central

Sean Dunne @SeanDunneNYC April 15,2014

A papal visit to Ireland is looking increasingly more likely following comments by representatives of Archbishop Charles Brown in Dublin. Brown, an Irish American Notre Dame graduate is Papal Nuncio in Ireland.

The Archbishop has already held high-level discussions with senior government officials to explore a potential visit.

Archbishop Brown met senior politicians in Leinster House, Ireland’s parliament building, last week including Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore. It follows a decision by the Seanad (Senate) to invite the pontiff to Ireland.

The Irish Catholic newspaper reported that the visit is being given “serious consideration” and is described as a realistic prospect.

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

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 15 April 2014 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., responding to questions from journalists, today declared that next May, the Holy See – along with Cyprus, Lithuania, Guinea, Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Thailand and Uruguay – will present its Initial Report on the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to the relevant Committee.

“It is a standard procedure adhered to by all States party to the Convention”, said Fr. Lombardi. “Considering the types of obligations included in the Convention, the Holy See signed the Convention in 2002 exclusively in the name of and on the part of Vatican City State. For this reason, the Holy See continues to fulfil its obligations on the part of Vatican City State and to present periodical reports, in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Convention”.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham Mail

Apr 15, 2014 By Fionnuala Bourke

An altar boy who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest is suing the heirs of two long-dead Birmingham Archbishops.

The victim, aged in his 50s, has launched a damages claim against the estates of George Dwyer and Maurice Couve de Murville.

He asserts that the former clerics failed to “control” or “remove from post” paedophile priest Samuel Penney.

Seventy-five year-old Penney was jailed for seven-and-a-half years in 1993 after he admitted indecently assaulting seven children.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Leader

April 15. 2014

By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com

SCRANTON — The priest charged with plying a 13-year-old with alcohol and fondling her feet and legs admitted to struggling “with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chloroform fetish,” according to police documents.

In an affidavit written as part of a search warrant application, Scranton Police detective Jennifer Gerrity also wrote that Rev. Philip Altavilla “indicated that he took photographs of the victim’s feet,” apparently referring to the 13 year old allegedly assaulted Christmas morning 1998, “in addition to photos of other teenage girls feet. He kept the photos in a bag at his residence.”

Altavilla, 48 and raised in Plains Township, “also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicted woman being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

The paperwork says Altavilla gave written permission for Gerrity and detective Vince Uher to search his residence,where they seized a computer and cellular phone. “A message appeared on the screen “in plain view of Uher … and indicated that the author has been haunted for years, I still remember waking up with you.

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

TENNESSEE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

A 14 year old Tennessee girl spoke up and reported her abuse by a former religious leader. We are grateful to this brave girl for having the courage to speak up and help protect other children.

[WSMV]

Randy Guilliani was once the worship leader at Gallatin Church. He was also the step grandfather to the victim. It is deeply disappointing when a person in a position of trust violates that so greatly.

We urge Gallatin church officials to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered crimes by Guilliani. They should urge anyone with information to report to police.

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

KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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

A child sex abuse case against a Louisville priest has finally started. We are glad that there have been no more delays and justice can begin.

[WDRB]

Fr. James R. Schook was indicted in 2011, but his crimes began in the 1970s. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz and Vicar General Brian Reynolds both were aware of allegations against Schook. They even temporarily removed him from his position at St. Ignatius Martyr Church in 2009. Despite these warnings a dangerous predator was allowed to roam free and potentially hurt more children.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article posted 15 April 2014)

Two West Australian women have prompted a Catholic priest to admit in court that he committed sexual offences against each of them when they were young girls living in different parishes many years ago. This demonstrates why it is always worthwhile for a church-victim to have a chat with specialist police in the Child Abuse Squad.

This priest, Father Patrick Holmes, is a member of a Catholic religious order called the Camillian Fathers (or Ministers to the Sick). This order specialises in providing chaplains for hospitals as well as working in parishes.

On 15 April 2014, Father Holmes (aged 79) appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, Western Australia, where he pleaded guilty to six charges relating to indecently dealing with two young girls.

In two different parishes, the offences occurred (in different years) in the presbytery (the house where priests live).

Father Holmes admitted that:

1. In 1969, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was six to seven years old, at the Holy Name parish in Carlisle, a Perth suburb.

2. In 1980, he dealt indecently towards a girl, who was 10 to 12 years old, at St Aloyius parish in Shenton Park, a Perth suburb.

A magistrate ordered Holmes to appear next in Perth District Court in June 2014. when a judge will hold pre-sentence proceedings, followed by a sentencing.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

SHANNON DEERY HERALD SUN APRIL 15, 2014

A NOTORIOUS paedophile priest who was allowed to continue working despite accusations of serious assaults against children has died while waiting to face justice on new charges.

Alleged victims of Wilfred Baker have been left devastated that he will not be held to account for a string of crimes against kids between 1966 and 1974.

He was set to stand trial in the County Court on a string of new offences including indecent assault and gross indecency.

The Herald Sun understands brothers allegedly abused by Baker were poised to give evidence against the disgraced priest.

But prosecutors today filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter following his death in February.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

A Victorian pedophile priest who once confessed to molesting his parishioners’ children has died before facing fresh sex abuse allegations in court.

77-year-old Wilfred James Baker was due to stand trial in the Victorian County Court on charges including indecent assault and buggery after new complainants came forward last year.

The former parish priest of Eltham had already been jailed for four years, with a minimum of two, in 1999 after he confessed to sexually abusing eight boys over a 20-year period.

He was awaiting trial for offences allegedly committed in the 1960s and 1970s when he died.

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

SCOTLAND
Independent Catholic News

The new Bishop of Paisley, Bishop John Keenan, has decided not to move into the detached sandstone villa used by his predecessors, and move instead to a church property in Greenock’s east end, Herald Scotland reports.

In his first wide-ranging interview since being installed last month, Bishop Keenan has told of his concern that those in destitution have been “abandoned by society and the church”, adding he would reflect “a church out on the street not one that’s comfortable in the chapel”.

Echoing Pope Francis, the 49-year-old said there were still structures within the church restricting its ability to reach out to those on the margins of society. Bishop Keenan said: “Exclusion is a scandal for a country that calls itself Christian.”

He has also spoken of the need to strip some power and responsibility in the church away from the clergy and hand it to lay members, adding he supported the Pontiff’s call for a “new reformation” within Catholicism.

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

AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn

15 April 2014

Archbishop Christopher Prowse has urged his clergy to exercise courage, pastoral prudence and mercy in their “most complex vocation”.

The Archbishop was speaking to a gathering of his priests at St Christopher’s Cathedral for the annual Chrism Mass, during which the sacramental oils to be used during the year are blessed.

He took the chance to offer some words of encouragement to priests whose vocations have been challenged by the royal commission into child sex abuse by Church officials and a “confusing secularist society”.

“We live out the priesthood in the shadow of the Calvary Cross as always but in a particular manner today.”

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

AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Salvation Army’s Major Peter Farthing tells royal commission child abusers not same as paedophiles

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army supported a self-confessed child molester to get a working with children check, it admitted today in the child sex abuse royal commission.

It’s former personnel chief, Major Peter Farthing, said that it was not what it seemed and accused the lawyer who asked the question of providing the latest media headlines.

He said that although one of its officers Colin Haggar got a working with children check, he did not actually ever work with children after he had admitted sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in 1989.

He was being questioned by Karen McGlinchley who was appearing for a number of witnesses including Major Michelle White, who finally blew the whistle on Mr Haggar last year and reported him to the NSW Ombudsman.

“You may have just provided today’s headlines against the Salvation Army,” he said.

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

AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Echo

Jessica Grewal 15th Apr 2014

THE “sadistic” Salvation Army officers who once ruled the Riverview Boy’s home may never be held accountable for their sins but the end of yesterday’s royal commission hearing brought much-needed closure to the surviving victims who shed light on one of the most disturbing chapters in the region’s history.

Over the past two months, the royal commission has been investigating the Salvation Army’s response to victims who claimed they had been abused at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them at several of the organisation’s boy’s homes across Queensland and New South Wales.

At least five of the offending officers, two of whom are still living, were said to have been transferred between the homes rather than being reprimanded.

The commission heard that a culture of abuse going unreported had existed from the turbulent post-Second World War period, right up until Riverview – later known as the Endeavour Training Farm – was shut down by the State Government in the late 1970s.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Apr 15, 2014

Poor oversight and flawed policies are among the serious shortcomings inside the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis that opened the door “for some priests to harm children,” a panel ordered by the archbishop concluded Monday.

“Behavioral warning signs were minimized or inappropriately rationalized,” the panel said, adding the archdiocese also has a “confusing and inadequate” system to report complaints of sexual abuse of children.

The report by the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force calls for criminal background checks of priests at least every six years and an anonymous hotline for complaints. The hotline would forward allegations of child sexual abuse to the head of the archdiocese’s child safety programs.

The task force did not criticize anyone by name or hold any church official responsible for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. It did not recommend any punishment for bishops or other senior officials who covered up abuse allegations. And, although it called for transparency, it urged that some information on abusive priests be kept private.

The report provides a list of 32 people interviewed by the task force, including Archbishop John Nienstedt and former archbishop Harry Flynn. The task force tried to interview Nienstedt’s former deputy, but the archdiocese wrongly claimed it didn’t know how to locate him, the report said. No victims of clergy sexual abuse or their family members are included on the list.

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

MINNESOTA
Washington Times

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – There have been serious shortcomings in how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests because too much decision-making power was given to one or two people who weren’t subject to adequate oversight, a task force commissioned by the archdiocese reported Monday.

The task force recommended forming a single clergy-review board with a majority of laypeople to review all allegations of clergy misconduct. It said a lay person should be hired to take charge of all issues related to clergy sexual abuse and to report allegations to police. And it called for a comprehensive auditing and monitoring program to ensure that efforts to provide a safe environment are effective.

Archbishop John Nienstedt has pledged to accept the recommendations, the archdiocese said in a statement. The Rev. Reginald Whitt, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas who named the seven-member task force last October, will oversee the implementation of the 53-page report, the statement said.

The report drew an immediate rebuke from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which said the task force wasn’t really independent. The group predicted nothing would change.

“It’s laughable that this panel blames ‘outdated systems’ for deliberate decisions by dozens of Catholic officials. As long as we act like these are ‘mistakes’ and not intentional, self-serving choices by smart but selfish men, kids will continue being hurt and crimes will continue being concealed,” SNAP’s outreach director, Barbara Dorris, said in a statement.

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

IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

A Catholic priest has said he would do anything to protect a child, but that he would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearoid O’Donnchu, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of yesterday’s publication of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals, including clergy, to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

Father O’Donnchu said he was not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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

IRELAND
Irish Central

Patrick Counihan @irishcentral April 15,2014

An Irish priest has warned that he will not break the seal of confession despite his support for all efforts to end clerical child sex abuse.

Retired Catholic parish priest Fr Gearoid O Donnchu told the Irish Examiner that he would do anything to protect a child, but will not reveal anything heard in confession.

He spoke to the paper in light of the publication of the Children First Bill.

The new legislation makes it mandatory for the clergy and professionals to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

The priest admitted he is not sure whether his stance would break the law, but that if it did, he would still be prepared to observe the confessional seal.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Griffin

The publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill was broadly welcomed today but some campaign groups and opposition members voiced concern over the legislation’s lack of sanctions.

The Bill places a statutory obligation on certain professionals and other people working with children to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tulsa). Medical practitioners, teachers, social workers, gardaí, members of the clergy and child protection officers, among others, will be required to report such concerns.

The legislation also obliges those intending to provide services to children to carry out a risk assessment and prepare a child safeguarding statement within three months of commencing the service.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the new law aims to make best safeguarding practice the “cultural norm” for anyone working with children. “Our focus on who is mandated [to report safety concerns] in the Bill is in accordance with international practice. I believe it strikes the correct balance in achieving high quality reporting, with high substantiation rates while avoiding overwhelming the child protection system with inappropriate reports, which is a key criticism of the operation of mandatory reporting in other countries,” she said.

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

IRELAND
Journal

THE CHILDREN FIRST bill has been published, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald announced today.

The legislation will put Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children [2011] on a statutory footing.

This is a Programme for Government commitment and was recommended in the 2009 Ryan Report implementation plan.

In March, Fitzgerald noted that the bill “has been talked about by Fianna Fáil since 1999″. …

The Bill provides for a number of key child protection measures, including:

* A requirement on mandated persons to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) including: medical practitioners; registered nurses; teachers; social workers; gardai; psychologists; members of the clergy

* A requirement on mandated persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in the assessment of a child protection risk, if requested to do so by the Agency;

* Organisations providing services to children required to to comply with best practice in child protection as set out in the Children First Guidelines and to produce a Child Safeguarding Statement;

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

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Noel Baker
Senior Reporter

The Government yesterday hailed the publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill which, if made into law, will make it mandatory for professionals to report possible incidents of abuse.

However, anti-abuse campaigners and opposition deputies asked why there were no sanctions for those named professionals who failed to report abuse and neglect, with Fianna Fáil claiming it was a “U-turn”.

Among those who will be required to report alleged abuse under the terms of the bill are medical practitioners, registered nurses, teachers, social workers, gardaí, psychologists, members of the clergy, and pre- school child care staff.

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

IRELAND
Newstalk

Marie Collins says it is ‘morally wrong’ for child abusers to be protected through the seal of confession. A survivor herself, she was recently appointed to a Vatican commission on protecting children from abuse.

She has been speaking after a priest this morning told how he would do anything to protect a child – but would not break the seal of confession.

Father Gearóid Ó Donnchú, a retired parish priest, was speaking in light of the publication yesterday of the Children First Bill.

The new law makes it mandatory for professionals – including clergy – to report situations where they believe children are at risk.

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

NETHERLANDS
The Tablet

15 April 2014

Roermond diocese in southern Holland has apologised for the sexual abuse of two boys by its former Bishop Johannes Gijsen, who served there from 1972 to 1993 and died last year.

The two cases were deemed well-founded by the commission investigating abuse claims in the Dutch Church and date back to the period 1958-1961, when Gijsen was a chaplain and teacher at a minor seminary.

The weekly Katholiek Nieuwsblad, which first reported the story, said the commission found Gijsen had improperly touched two boys and forced one to perform oral sex. He was confronted with the latter accusation in 2011 but denied knowing the accuser and sued him for defamation.

The case was closed at the time, but reopened a week after Gijsen died because the second victim had come forward. On review, the commission found his excuse was not credible because the victim’s family had said he used to visit them.

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

UNITED STATES
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

Why exaggerate when the simple truth is so much more effective?

Like we could not find a legitimate argument, so we stretched out someone else’s?

Child molestation by priests is not torture.

I see this latest UN filing by SNAP as playing right into the Vatican’s hands, with a weak legal argument that hurts our cause. I hope I am wrong, but as always, I write here what I see and that is what I see. A confounding, almost preposterous, stretch when there are hundreds of legitimate criminal charges that could be made against Catholic bishops.

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

NETHERLANDS
NL Times

Bishop Frans Wiertz has made a statement from the Church in Maastricht about a recent scandal involving Jo Gijsen, Wiertz’s predecessor, who abused two children.

“Our church has also had it difficult to face up to the faults that are the result of the actions of her members. We have in The Netherlands and our bishopric been confronted in a painful way this week that a bishop, priests and monks abused their power and committed acts that cannot withstand the light of day: abuse of children and young people. It could not be worse” Wiertz said.

The bishop has been under pressure the last few days to say something about the scandal. He is thought to have known for some time what Jo Gijsen did, but only broke his silence about it on Monday.

Wiertz spoke at a special service, with the theme of propitiation. The service was organized by the bishop himself and with input from Mea Culpa, among others, which is an organization of abuse victims.

Wiertz asked himself if the protection of the institute was more important than the protection of the victims? “It hurts to be confronted with these sinister black sides of the church. We want to recognize that the ecclesiastical leaders and church members have awoken great irritation and that they have made themselves guilty of serious cases.”

Wiertz continued to tell the churchgoers, among whom several abuse victims were present, that forgiveness does not come easy. “Forgiveness is only possible there, where recognition of fault has preceded”, Wiertz said. Jo Gijsen has always denied everything, and even accused one of the indicters of defamation.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Father Tom Doyle and Jerry Slevin on Abuse Crisis and Pope Francis: When Will Words Yield Actions?

I highly recommend Father Tom Doyle’s recent presentation (pdf) to the group Voice of the Faithful regarding where we find ourselves with the abuse crisis in the Catholic church today. It’s entitled “Clergy Sexual Abuse and the Church Today: Turning Talk into Action.” Doyle’s assessment of where we find ourselves is sobering (and, for my money, right on target):

There are no clear signs of hope that the institutional Church is beginning to comprehend the horrendous nature of sexual abuse by clerics. There has been a great deal of rhetoric and public relations bluster but there is little if anything to show sincerity. To date no bishop has been subjected to any penal process or penal sanctions for sexually abusing minors or adults himself or for their failure to remove known perpetrators.

There’s lots of talk. There’s not any action to speak of. Convicted criminal Bishop Robert Finn continues to sit undisturbed on his episcopal throne in Kansas City, and, as Tom Doyle notes, bishops keep right on playing cruel hardball games with abuse survivors, forfeiting pastoral imperatives to do instead what lawyers tell dictate to them, withholding information about abusive priests, putting known predators into ministry, and letting the odious Bill Donohue function freely as their vicious media attack dog.

Tom Doyle does not find a great deal of hope in the appointment of the new eight-member papal advisory commission on abuse, because, well, our popes have long since been advised. They know the score. They know what to do.

The problem is and has been doing, not talking. …

As Jerry Slevin notes,

Instead of really facing the abuse problem, Pope Francis instead usually just tries to change the subject, for example, by more mystical propaganda ploys like the upcoming canonizations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII. Of course, neither of their abysmal records on holding bishops, or even priests, accountable for abusing children has even been addressed in the “rush to sainthood”. How long does Francis think he can go on trying to change the subject? Although many Catholics sometimes appear to be overly docile and wishful thinkers, most of them are not that naïve, as the 30 plus million US Catholics who have left the Church appear to indicate.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 15, 2014

THE Salvation Army helped one of its officers apply to be allowed to work with children a decade after he first confessed to his superiors that he had sexually assaulted a young girl.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that Colin Haggar was readmitted into the church’s ranks, and subsequently promoted, two years after first admitting he abused the girl in 1990.

In 2002, the commission heard this morning, the Army applied for Mr Haggar to be granted a Working With Children Check, without disclosing his previous abuse. Another successful application for a renewal of this assessment was made last year.

Giving evidence this morning, the Army’s former Secretary for Personnel, Major Peter Farthing, said a recent operational restructure meant the organisation had been unaware Mr Haggar had some responsibility for children living in crisis accommodation in Sydney.

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

CANADA
Didsbury Review

Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014 | BY Kevin Vink

A 69-year-old Carstairs man and former Baptist church leader turned himself in to Calgary police to face charges related to alleged sexual assaults against two females dating as far back as the 1970s, say police.

Det. Jeff Klinger spoke to press in Calgary on Thursday, April 10, stating that Thomas Larry Jones was charged the previous day with a total of 12 counts related to the case.

The case came to light following another case where a man turned himself in and admitted to assaulting three male victims while in a leadership role in a Calgary-based Baptist church, he said.

A female came forward with claims against Jones in 1993, but Klinger said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case.

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

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

People who sexually abuse children are not all paedophiles and the Salvation Army would dispute having one in their ranks, a senior official at the church says.

Its former secretary for personnel, Major Peter Farthing, on Tuesday also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he did not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of two women because such inquiries were not ‘second nature’ to him.

The commission has heard that former Salvation Army officer Colin Haggar admitted abusing an eight-year-old girl in a central western NSW town in 1989.

But this did not necessarily make him a pedophile, Mr Farthing said.

‘My understanding is that a pedophile is somebody whose primary sexual orientation is towards children or adolescents, and not all offenders are paedophiles,’ Mr Farthing told the commission.

‘Some people offend in a kind of crime of opportunity – a situational crime.

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

CANADA
Bayshore Broadcasting

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 4:37 AM by Kevin Bernard

Fred King will be back in Court on Wednesday to answer charges in Church assault.

(Owen Sound) –
The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored, is back behind bars at Penetanguishene.

55 year old Fred King had a brief court appearance in Owen Sound on Monday, where his case was put over until Wednesday for a bail hearing.

King was known as “The Prophet”, and leader of the cult-like group just outside of Chatsworth, south of Owen Sound.

He was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant prior to his arrest in Hamilton last Friday.

King had disappeared after former members of the Church of Jesus Christ Restored in Chatsworth went to police in 2012 with allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

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

CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 14, 2014

The Catholic church has done nothing to warrant being forgiven, says a sex abuse victim.

“What Pope Francis said doesn’t mean a thing,” said the Mount Cashel survivor, who does not want his name used.

“He can bow his head, shuffle, look at the ground as he is walking, but this is nonsense.”

Last week in Vatican City, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from people who were sexually abused by priests, and vowed that there will be no going back in the church’s fight to protect children.

Francis made the off-the-cuff remarks after coming under criticism from victims’ advocacy groups for a perceived lack of attention to the problem and ongoing demands that he sanction bishops who covered up for pedophiles.

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

TENNESSEE
WSMV

[with video]

Reported by Hayley Mason

GALLATIN, TN (WSMV) –
For nearly 10 years, the 14-year-old step-granddaughter of Randy Guilliani has sat in silence toiling with heart-wrenching memories of the abuse she endured as a child.

“Because I was so young, I wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong,” she said. “I knew that it felt weird. It felt different,” she added. She says it started when she was just five years old. Guilliani sexually assaulted her and did not stop until she was six.

“It took a long time for me to finally come out and say it. It was bothering me a lot. I started going to counseling. I was getting depressed,” she said.

She said she would go to Guilliani’s home in Hendersonville almost daily after school when her mother had to work. Guilliani, who told police he was once a worship leader, most recently at a Gallatin church, was always nice, she said, and spoke in a “sweet voice.”

“He told me not to say anything, so I wouldn’t,” the teen said. “I didn’t think that it was anything bad.” As she got older, she realized it was not only bad, it was a crime. “I would remember what happened and I started thinking to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, he did such horrible things to me when I was a little girl.'”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
WNEP

[with video]

April 14, 2014, by Stacy Lange

SCRANTON — While Roman Catholic priests in our area are committed to Holy Week these days. A priest in the Diocese of Scranton may be facing more trouble.

Court papers filed by Lackawanna County detectives focus on the questionable behavior of the former pastor of Saint Peter’s Cathedral already facing charges.

Newswatch 16 obtained a copy of a search warrant Scranton Police filed after they went to the rectory at St. Peter’s Cathedral earlier this month to arrest Father Phil Altavilla. Investigators need the warrant to search the priest’s computer and phone.

A search warrant approved by a magistrate in Lackawanna County says more about what Fr. Phil Altavilla told his alleged victim. The warrant describes a recorded conversation with her just before the priest’s arrest on child sex abuse charges. …

The search warrant says, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform, and then sexually assaulted.”

The priest willingly gave up his computer, Ipad, and cell phone for investigators to search.

Investigators will wait to see if what they find on those devices leads them to more charges against Altavilla or more victims.

Scranton Police detectives said it may take weeks for investigators to search Altavilla’s computer and phone.

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

AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

KAITLYN OFFER COURT REPORTER PERTHNOW APRIL 15, 2014

AN elderly Perth Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young girls, dating back to 1969 and 1980.

Father Patrick Holmes, 79, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court this morning, where he admitted six charges relating to two young girls under the age of 13.

Police charged Holmes over an offence in 1980, at the St Aloyius Church in Shenton Park, when he indecently assaulted a girl who was aged 10 to 12 years old when she visited the presbytery after school.

He also indecently assaulted a girl aged six to seven years old in 1969 while working at the Holy Name Church in Carlisle, also allegedly in the presbytery.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Joanna Menagh

A Catholic priest in Perth has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two young girls in offences dating back decades.

Patrick Holmes, 79, indecently assaulted a girl aged about 12 in the Perth suburb of Shenton Park in 1980.

The offences occurred when the girl visited the presbytery at St Aloysius Church after school.

Holmes also assaulted a girl aged seven while working at the Catholic Holy Name Church in Carlisle in 1969.

Holmes pleaded guilty to six indecent dealing charges.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

MARK COLVIN: It sounds unbelievable, but in New South Wales a convicted child abuser is pursuing his victim for almost $20,000, and the victim says he feels as powerless as when he was being assaulted.

The child abuser is a former school teacher who was employed at the Blue Mountains Grammar School in the early 1970s. Even though he was convicted of molesting his former student, he now wants the victim to pay his legal bill.

Lawyers and a New South Wales politician say the case highlights the need for legal reforms.

Lorna Knowles has the story.

LORNA KNOWLES: Mark Wurth was repeatedly abused at the school by the then-house master and geography teacher, Neville Gilbert Betteridge.

MARK WURTH: He was coming into the dormitory through the infirmary of a night and taking me from my bed.

LORNA KNOWLES: In 2004, Betteridge was convicted of indecently assaulting Mr Wurth and was given a three year suspended jail term. Seven years later, Mr Wurth sued Betteridge and the Anglican Church Diocese, which ran the school at the time, for damages.

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

NEW MEXICO
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 14, 2014

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — A federal judge is ordering the Diocese of Gallup to mount an advertising campaign and post notices to alert the public about the process for filing claims in its bankruptcy case.

The order signed Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma also sets an Aug. 11 deadline for people who allege they were sexually abused by priests in the diocese to file claims in the bankruptcy case.

Diocese attorney Susan Boswell says the diocese plans to spend up to $40,000 for newspaper advertisements and television and radio spots.

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

NEDERLAND
L1

De Stichting Mea Culpa heeft er begrip voor dat het bisdom het nieuws over het seksueel misbruik door oud-bisschop Gijsen niet openbaar heeft gemaakt.

Dat zegt Bert Smeets van de stichting Mea Culpa, die zich inzet voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door priesters van de katholieke kerk.

Volgens Smeets wilden de twee slachtoffers van het seksueel misbruik ook niet dat er ruchtbaarheid aan zou worden gegeven. Dit vanwege hun privacy.

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

NEDERLAND
NOS

[Without mentioned his name, Roermond Bishop Frans Wiertz said former Bishop Jo Gijsen brought shame through his actions of abusing two boys.]

Door verslaggever Joris van de Kerkhof

Zonder zijn naam te noemen heeft de huidige bisschop van Roermond van zijn voorganger gezegd dat hij “schande heeft verwekt door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jongeren, erger kan niet”.

Bisschop Wiertz sprak in de Onze Lieve Vrouwe Basiliek in Maastricht tijdens een zogenoemde boetedienst. In de basiliek werd een kunstwerk onthuld voor de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik in de katholieke kerk. Deze week werd bekend dat de voorganger van Wiertz, bisschop Gijsen, kinderen seksueel heeft misbruikt.

Schuld
Volgens Wiertz heeft de katholieke kerk het er moeilijk mee om schuld onder ogen te zien, schuld die het gevolg is van daden van haar leden. “Wij zijn in Nederland en in ons bisdom nog deze week er op een pijnlijke wijze mee geconfronteerd dat een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan hun kerkelijke zending.”

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

WASHINGTON/OREGON
KOIN

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) – The 14-year-old girl allegedly lured by a Catholic priest from Scappoose became so frightened she ran to a nearby daycare for help when it happened in early March.

That information is found in court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News in the case against Fr. Michael Patrick.

The alleged incident happened March 10 near Burton Elementary School in Vancouver. Documents said the girl told authorities Fr. Patrick stopped next to her and then continued to follow her down the street. He kept trying to coax her into his car and at one point said, “Come on, Cutie,” the documents said.

That night, Vancouver police spoke with the priest. Though the girl identified him at the time, he was not arrested. …

He’s been in the Archdiocese of Portland since 1998:

St. Alexander, Cornelius 1998-99
St. Patrick, Portland 1999-2001
St. Edward, Keizer 2001-03
St. Phillip Benzi, Redland 2004-10
Holy Trinity, Bandon 2010-12
St. Wencelaus, Scappoose, 2012 – present

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

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Newsroom

BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Last month Roman Catholic Archbishop John Myers announced the closing of elementary school Blessed Pope John XXIII Academy in West Orange.

A number of Newark Archdiocesan schools have closed in the past few years because the archdiocese couldn’t afford to keep them open. Yet at this point, renovations on Myers’ retirement home are within the church’s budget.

NorthJersey.com reported that the expansion of Myers’ home in two years includes fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a fifth bedroom, with costs adding up to more than $500,000. Protesters delivered petitions signed by 22,000 at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Sunday.

The latest school closing will take place June 30, because its enrollment has not gone up in the past seven years. “Our school has been deeply rooted in West Orange for years. Although our students come from diverse backgrounds, we are all dedicated to cultivating an environment that promotes equality and respect as well as spiritual and intellectual growth in our students,” said Principal Lynda Wright, according to The Alternative Press. “When I heard this news, I was brokenhearted for all of us.”

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

UNITED STATES
Headlines from the Catholic World

April 14, 2014 By CNA Daily News

New York City, N.Y., Apr 14, 2014 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Maryland-born priest Father John Connor, L.C., has been named the head of the Legion of Christ’s territory of North America.

“I’m humbled by this assignment and ask for the prayers of everyone in the North American Territory,” Fr. Connor said April 14.

Fr. Eduardo Robles Gill, the Legion of Christ’s general director, announced the appointment April 12.

Fr. Connor will replace the territory’s outgoing director Fr. Luis Garza as of May 1.

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

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Vincent A. Orlando was ordained a Jesuit priest of the New Orleans Province in 1974. He worked as an educator in Jesuit high schools in Dallas and Houston, TX and in Tampa, FL. In April 2002 he was removed from ministry after a report was made to the New Orleans Province that in 1985, when Orlando was assigned to Strake Prep. in Houston, he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor. The Jesuits acknowledged in May 2002 that this was not the first complaint against Orlando. In 1984 a Strake student told school officials that Orlando tried to inpappropriately touch him during a school ski trip. The New Orleans Province was informed; civil authorities were not. Orlando was “admonished” and kept his job at Strake until a transfer to Tampa in 2000. He is known to have been living since 2003 in a Jesuit community in New Orleans.

Ordained: 1974

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PA Homepage

New details are emerging into the investigation of a priest in the Diocese of Scranton.

Less than two weeks ago, Father Philip Altavilla was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a 13-year-old girl back in 1998.

Scranton police say Father Altavilla inappropriately touched the girl after giving her alcohol after midnight mass on Christmas in 1998.

A search warrant filed in connection with the case by Scranton police indicates investigators have seized the computer and phone of Father Altavilla.

The sign outside Saint Peter’s Cathedral has been changed within the last two weeks.

With Father Philip Altavilla suspended from his position in the Diocese of Scranton, his name has been removed from the board that once indicated he was Cathedral Priest. …

Eyewitness News has obtained a search warrant application made by Scranton police who were looking to seize the computer and the phone belonging to the long-time priest from his room in the rectory building, which is right next to Saint Peter’s Cathedral.

During an interview with detectives, the search warrant says, “the defendant admitted that he struggled with a pantyhose, feet, strangulation and chlorofoam fetish.”

The paperwork continues, “Altavilla also admitted that he uses the internet to research videos and images depicting women being strangulated, given chloroform and then sexually assaulted.”

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

NEDERLAND
Dagblad De Limburger

[Summary: Without mentioning his name directly, Bishop Frans Wiertz on Monday night distanced himself from predecessor Jo Gijen, who the church has admitted sexually abused two boys. Bishop Wiertz spoke during a special celebration in Masstricht.]

Zonder diens naam concreet te noemen heeft bisschop Frans Wiertz maandagavond tijdens een speciale boeteviering in Maastricht in voor hem opmerkelijk klare bewoordingen afstand genomen van zijn voorganger Jo Gijsen en diens daden van seksueel misbruik.

Door onze verslaggever

In een tien minuten durende preek had Wiertz het over “een bisschop, priesters en kloosterlingen die hun macht hebben misbruikt en afbreuk hebben gedaan aan kerkelijke zending. Ze hebben schande verwekt, door daden te verrichten die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen: misbruik van kinderen en jeugdigen. Erger kan niet”.

De bisschop sprak over zonden en schuldgevoelens, waarmee je alleen in het reine kunt komen door ze onder ogen te zien, in plaats van ze te verdringen. “Tientallen jaren is het ontkend of toegedekt. Nu het in de ware omvang bekend geworden is, is de schaamte groot. Ouders hebben hun kinderen toevertrouwd aan mensen van de kerk in de mening dat er geen veiligere plek was. Kinderen werden misbruikt. Hun verhalen werden vaak niet geloofd. (…) Ook al is het een halve eeuw geleden gebeurd, wij ervaren het als een erfschuld, die haast niet meer goed te maken is.”

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

KENTUCKY
WHAS

Updated today at 4:47 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — Jury selection began on Monday afternoon in the sexual abuse trial of a former Louisville priest.

Father James Schook is charged with several counts of sodomy.

Police said he sexually abused two boys back in the 1970s. He was ruled competent to stand trial last year, even though his attorneys had argued that he was terminally ill and too sick to stand trial.

The start of Schook’s trial has been delayed several times.

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

MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Joe Kimball

A task force set up by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis found serious shortcomings in the handling of clergy abuse cases. Archbishop John Nienstedt said he accepts the recommendations called for to improve the situation.

Church officials chose the task force amid serious allegations made against priests, and the way that church officials dealt with offending priests.

The archdiocese today released the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force’s report (pdf) which list these “serious shortcomings:”

* For many years, the Archdiocese concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions regarding allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors. These individuals were not subject to adequate oversight nor their decisions and actions subject to monitoring and audit. Processes and decisions have appeared secretive and sequestered, even if that was not the intent.

* Communication within the Archdiocese and with the faithful, the public, the media and victims of abusive clergy about clergy secual abuse of minors has been inadequate and, at times, non-existant. Information became compartmentalized which prevented decision-makers and relevant boards from knowing all the pertinent information, including early warning sigs which could have suggested future problems.

* The Archdiocese’s record-keeping regarding the performance and conduct of its clergy is not comprehensive or coordinated and relies on outdated systems. Among other things, facts that relate to clergy misconduct are often unavailable to decision-makers at important points in the process.

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