ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
KAAL

EDINA, Minn. (AP) – The Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis is asking Catholics for forgiveness, saying he’s sorry that he’s overlooked the issue of clergy sex abuse.

Archbishop John Nienstedt delivered his apology during two Masses at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Edina, saying parishioners justifiably feel indignation and deserve better.

After the early Mass, Nienstedt told reporters he thought the problem was taken care of when he became head of the Twin Cities archdiocese seven years ago, and that he didn’t think he needed to worry about it. He says he should have investigated it more than he did.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPXI

By MARK SCOLFORO
The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Five parish priests have been permanently removed from ministry and two others were cleared to return to duties by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, the archdiocese announced on Sunday.

The decision by Archbishop Charles Chaput followed a formal investigation into allegations of misconduct or sexual abuse.

The church has not disclosed details of the allegations against the five priests, who were placed on administrative leave after a scathing grand jury report in February 2011.

Diocesan spokesman Ken Gavin said Sunday the announcements were made after Chaput met with the men over the past week. All seven remain priests.

Among the five is Rev. Michael A. Chapman, 58, a Philadelphia priest who was investigated and cleared by an archdiocesan review board last year before a new accuser came forward with child sexual abuse allegations that The Philadelphia Inquirer reported (http://bit.ly/IXJk7p) date back 30 years. The second investigation was deemed substantiated, and information has been turned over to police.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADEPHIA – December 15, 2013 (WPVI) — The Philadelphia Archdiocese announced on Sunday that Archbishop Charles Chaput has made decisions in seven more cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 grand jury report.

Of those, five priests have been declared unsuitable for ministry.

One of those priests, Reverend Michael A. Chapman, was found to be unsuitable for ministry due to a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The other four priests were found to be unsuitable for ministry due to substantiated violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries, the Archdiocese said.
The following information about those priest was released by the Archdiocese:

Reverend Michael A. Chapman

Father Chapman is 58 years old and was ordained in 1982. He served at the following parishes and schools: Saint Bonaventure, Philadelphia (1982-1986); Chaplain, Little Flower High School (1983-1985); Saint Agnes, West Chester (1986-1990); Saint Henry, Philadelphia (1990-1991); Saint Augustine, Bridgeport (1991-1992); Saint Veronica, Philadelphia (1992-1999); Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia (1999-2001); Ascension of Our Lord, Philadelphia (2001-2011); placed on administrative leave (2011).

Reverend Mark E. Fernandes

Father Fernandes is 40 years old. He was ordained in 2004. He served at the following parishes and schools: Assumption, B.V.M., West Grove (2004-2005); Holy Cross, Springfield (2005- 2006); administrative leave with private residence (2006-2007; health leave with private residence (2007-2009); Chaplain, Grand View Hospital, Sellersville (2009-2010); Saint Agnes, Sellersville (2009-2011); placed on administrative leave (2011).

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AUSTRALIA
Daily News

Jessica Grewal 16th Dec 2013

The royal commission, which is currently examining the Church’s response to victims through its Towards Healing counselling program, began hearing evidence last week about the later Father Paul Rex Brown, a former Lismore priest who was convicted for child pornography offences in the mid 90s.

Jennifer Ingham, 51, told the commission that during the late 70s and 80s, she was repeatedly sexually abused as a teenager by Brown and that senior members of the clergy knew what was going on.

At 17, in her final year of school, Ms Ingham had attempted suicide on several occasions and was eventually hospitalised and treated for bulimia.

She said that following her release, Father Brown arranged for her to attend regular psychiatric appointments in Sydney, where he would meet with her and continue to abuse her at a motel.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

Associated Press

EDINA — Archbishop John Nienstedt acknowledges that Catholic bishops have failed in their response to the clergy-abuse crisis, according to prepared remarks he’s scheduled to give during a homily Sunday in Edina.

The comments come a few weeks after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a list of abusive priests in response to a court order. The list named 34 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Nienstedt said news reports of the abuse “have rightly been met with shame, embarrassment and outrage,” in part because of the heinous acts of those who had taken priestly vows, but also because bishops failed to remove them from ministry.

The homily was sent in advance to clergy throughout the archdiocese,. The remarks don’t say which bishops failed to remove abusive priests.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Archbishop Chaput makes final decisions in seven more cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. has made final decisions in seven more cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report. Priests on administrative leave are not permitted to exercise their public ministry, administer any of the Sacraments, wear clerical attire, or present themselves publicly as priests.

Archbishop Chaput has decided that two of the priests are suitable for ministry. He has also decided that one of the priests is unsuitable for ministry due to a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor and that four of the priests are unsuitable for ministry due to substantiated violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries. Additional information regarding these decisions is available in the attached background documents and at http://archphila.org/HHHIC/hhhic.php.

Those priests found unsuitable for ministry will have no public ministry in the Archdiocese. They do have the right to appeal the decision to the Holy See. For any priest found to have a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, if they do not appeal, or if their appeal is unsuccessful, they could be laicized (removed from the clerical state) or live a life of prayer and penance.

Announcements were made at the parishes where these priests last served when they were placed on administrative leave in March of 2011. Follow up announcements were made at those parishes this weekend regarding the final decisions in their cases. Counselors were made available for parishioners.

All cases were first reported to the appropriate local district attorney’s office so that law enforcement could investigate the matter and review it for possible criminal charges. Upon declination of criminal charges by the district attorney, the Archdiocesan Office of Investigations began a canonical investigation in each case. The results of this process were submitted to the Archdiocesan Professional Responsibility Review Board (APRRB). The APRRB is comprised of twelve men and women, both Catholic and non-Catholic, with extensive professional backgrounds in the investigation and treatment of child sexual abuse. It functions as a confidential advisory committee to the Archbishop, which assesses allegations of sexual abuse as well as allegations of violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. This body provided a recommendation as to suitability for ministry to the Archbishop, who made the final decisions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By David Chang | Sunday, Dec 15, 2013

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has removed five parish priests from the ministry due to sexual abuse and misconduct allegations, according to a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Inquirer reports that Rev. Michael A. Chapman, Rev. Stephen B. Perzan, Rev. Peter J. Talocci, Rev. Mark E. Fernandes and Rev. Joseph M. Glatts were all removed from the archdiocese.

Chapman was first placed on leave in March 2011 for allegedly violating standards of ministerial behavior and boundaries. A subsequent investigation found him suitable for ministry.

But new allegations were reported in May of 2012 as he prepared to return to a Philadelphia parish. The archdiocese said it immediately reported the claims to law enforcement; church officials later suspended the priest a second time.

The Inquirer reports that Perzan, of St. Helena Parish in Philadelphia and Talocci, of St. Patrick’s in Malvern, also face sexual-abuse allegations. However, the review board could not substantiate the sex-abuse allegations against them and they were removed for allegedly violating the “standards of ministerial behavior,” according to the Inquirer.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

EDINA, Minn. (WCCO) — Archbishop John Nienstedt addressed the sex abuse scandal involving priests in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese at a mass service Sunday in Edina.

The Archdiocese released a transcript of what the Archbishop said Sunday morning during his homily at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina at 9:30 a.m., which he’s expected to repeat at the 11:30 a.m. service.

The Archbishop is expected to address the media for the first time, as well.

According to an advance copy of his remarks, Nienstedt is expected to talk about this issue that has gotten so much attention in recent weeks, saying in part, “I am here to apologize for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better.”

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ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva

Former rabbi of Kiryat Bialik cleared of charges after representative for alleged harassment victims

By Maayana Miskin
First Publish: 12/15/2013

Rabbi Aminadav Krispin, 80, the former rabbi of the city of Kiryat Bialik, has been cleared of charges in a sexual harassment case.

Judge Ziyad Falah of the Haifa Magistrate’s Court moved to dismiss the charges following the revelation that the harassment case had been turned into a campaign of extortion aimed at Rabbi Krispin and his family.

The three women who complained against Rabbi Krispin were represented by Meir Otmazgin. Otmazgin made contact with the accused rabbi’s family and made various demands in a series of conversations, some of which were caught on tape.

Otmazgin was heard demanding hundreds of thousands of shekels from the rabbi’s family, and promising that if they gave him the money, the sexual harassment charges would be dropped. He warned that for every day that they did not give him the money, he would demand an additional 10%.

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ISRAEL
The Jewish Press

By: Yori Yanover Published: December 15th, 2013

On Sunday morning, Rabbi Aminadav Krispin, 80, chief rabbi of the town of Kiryat Bialyk was acquitted in magistrate court in Haifa of all charges against him of sexual harassment and sex crimes.

Judge Zaid Falach acquitted Rabbi Krispin completely on one charge and for reasonable doubt on three other charges.

The question now is how soon will the two major Jewish shmootz sites, “Failed Messiah” and Jewish survivors of Sexual Violence” take full measures to clear Rabbi Krispin’s name. “Failed” and “Survivors” have been vending sexual titillation to their readers, both Jewish and gentile (including many White Power sites that find there confirmation of their worst prejudices against Jews and their rabbis).

The “Survivors” blog maintain extensive lists of Jewish clergy who have been charged—by someone, not necessarily the law, just an accuser, often anonymous—of sexual abuse. It’s a well known fact that it’s a lot easier to get on those lists than off them.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: PAT PHEIFER , Star Tribune Updated: December 15, 2013

In a rare public appearance regarding the priest sexual misconduct scandal, Archbishop John Nienstedt was expected to give the homily at Our Lady of Grace.

Many parishioners arriving for mass Sunday morning at Our Lady of Grace church in Edina were unaware that they would be hearing from Archbishop John Nienstedt.

In a rare public appearance regarding the priest sexual misconduct scandal, the leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was expected to give the homily at the parish and apologize to the community. According to an advance copy of his remarks, he was expected to tell parishioners: “I am here to apologize for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better.”

Archdiocesan officials Sunday banned reporters from speaking to anyone inside the building or on church property, although members of the media would be allowed to listen to the archbishop speak. A church official said that the 9:30 a.m. mass is typically large and that there’s a children’s ministry that was expected to attend and make the crowd even larger.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

Australia’s only Catholic Cardinal, George Pell has become something of a recluse, especially when it comes to Royal Commissions on his priests’ child sexual abuse, and his bishops’ covering-up of them. He has spent much of the year out of the country, staying at his ritzy $30 million Rome hideaway, “Domus Australia” (see previous posting”. Then he was in Peru helping poor villagers pour concrete (see previous posting), and then on a luxury trip through Greece and Turkey (also see previous posting), fantasizing about being St. Paul.

God knows where he is now, but that’s easy for someone who is omnipresent. For the rest of us, it’s all a mystery. Is he on another holiday? Is he off praying somewhere in the Outback? Surely, he is not hiding from the media while the “Towards Healing” process is being examined by the Royal Commission?

Pell may have set up the alternative “Melbourne Response” for dealing with abuse claims while he was Melbourne Archbishop. Also, Melbourne is the only place which does not use “Towards Healing.” However, now Pell is Archbishop of Sydney, which does use “Towards Healing”. Further, while he is not literally the CEO of the Catholic Church in Australia, he is its most senior spokesperson.

In the past he has used his position to comment on gays, abortion and all of those sorts of things, but he has not used his position to comment on what has been happening at the present hearings into “Towards Healing”. One must wonder why the good Cardinal has left it all to the mere bishops and Archbishops.

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VATICAN CITY
Aljazeera America

By Michael Tracey @mtracey December 13, 2013

Since ascending to the throne of St. Peter last spring, Pope Francis has been showered with praise by an unlikely cohort, the American secular media.

“Even atheists love the pope,” one recent CNN article announced. “The awesomeness that is Pope Francis,” a Daily Beast headline affirmed. His selection this week as Time magazine’s vaunted person of the year completed the canonization. “I may not be religious, but I damn sure love this pope,” avowed one Twitter user, echoing the remarks of countless others. Undoubtedly, small talk about Catholicism in waiting rooms and grocery-store checkout lines will see an exponential increase this week.

The popular read on Francis is that he represents a welcome break from grim-faced pontiffs of yore — a raw, refreshingly modern reflection of Catholic virtue. In proclaiming that his overriding spiritual concern is care for the poor, Francis has infused the Vatican with long-awaited humility and grace after years of scandal. …

Francis has managed to fashion himself as something fresh and appealing, but he did not become Time’s person of the year by radically reimagining anything. He did it by mastering the art of gesture and symbolism. Herein lies the crucial component to understanding Francis’ image: his keen eye toward public relations as matter of theology.

Francis’ rapid transformation into universally celebrated celebrity figure — despite promulgating familiar church doctrines under a more easygoing guise — is ultimately a testament to the current Vatican PR operation, headed by former Fox News reporter Greg Burke. A member of the ascetic Opus Dei order, Burke is wedded to lifelong celibacy and professional communications services. Prior to Fox, Burke did a stint as the Rome correspondent for — you guessed it — Time magazine.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

[with video]

James Nichols
james.nichols@huffingtonpost.com

“Kidnapped for Christ” is a compelling new documentary that follows the experiences of several American teenagers after they were kidnapped from their homes and shipped to Evangelical Reform schools located in the Dominican Republic. Many of these teenagers’ parents discover their children are either gay or experience same-sex attraction, and are sent to “therapeutic Christian boarding school[s]” in order to “transform into healthy Christian adults” in an environment outside of U.S. law.

Directed Kate S. Logan with Lance Bass cited as an executive producer, the film is currently engaged in a Kickstarter campaign in order to be fully funded. The Huffington Post sat down with Logan this week in order to better understand the function of these reform camps, the experiences of kidnapped youth go through while there, and why this film is important.

The Huffington Post: Why did you feel this documentary was necessary?

Actually, when I originally got the idea to make the film, I had no idea that there was anything controversial about this school. I was under the impression that it was just an alternative therapy program with a cultural exchange element. It wasn’t until I got permission to film and started investigating that I realized what I had gotten myself into. Once I saw what was really going on at Escuela Caribe, I felt I needed to help expose the truth of what this school was doing in the name of “therapy.”

Why do you think the majority of the public knows so little about these reform institutions?

I think it’s because the victims of these programs are teens and children and they are often so traumatized by their experiences that they don’t speak about it for years — if at all. Also, a lot of times former students of reform schools get labeled “bad” simply because they were sent to a place for “bad” kids, so no one believes their stories. Some of the things that go on in these places are, quite frankly, so bizarre and horrible that it’s hard to believe if you aren’t there to see it yourself. With the Internet it’s easier for teens who have been sent to these places to speak out and connect with others who’ve gone through the same thing, but it’s still a relatively small group who are talking about it.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

…Last month, Judge Robert Dierker re-affirmed his order that Archbishop Robert Carlson give years of records of child sex allegations against priests and lay employees to attorney Ken Chackes, who represents most such victims here. Carlson has ousted Greensfelder lawyers from the case and replaced them with Colorado attorney Martin Nussbaum. The case centers on alleged child sex crimes committed by Fr. Joseph Ross at St. Cronan’s parish as recently as 2000. Nussbaum helped Catholic officials in Cardinal Bernard Law’s scandal-ridden Boston Archdiocese. He also represented Republican Pastor Ted Haggard’s church after the preacher resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicals when an escort claimed he has been having a a sexual relationship with the pastor for three years. . .

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 16, 2013

HE called himself ”Fed Brown” while he was leading a cult-like group of teenagers, the royal commission into child sex abuse has been told.

But his real name is Father Frank Derriman and, in his white cap and dark glasses, he was outside his suburban home in Melbourne last week as the commission listened to his history of abuse.

Derriman, 77, is still officially an ordained Catholic priest despite serving four months behind bars for indecent assault in 1998. The church did nothing about having him defrocked when he was convicted.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge conceded at the commission that this was an ”oversight” and revealed it was extremely difficult to remove a priest who had abandoned the ministry without his consent – even if the priest had criminal convictions and had married, as had Derriman.

The Archbishop said that in late 2011 moves finally began with the Vatican to have Derriman struck off.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Police who interviewed Jimmy Savile over child sex abuse claims four years ago told prosecutors to drop the case against the paedophile, newly released files reveal.

The swaggering pervert was interviewed under caution at Stoke Mandeville hospital, one of several locations where he is believed to have targeted victims in decades of abuse – yet was allowed to walk free.

He was asked about claims he assaulted one girl at the hospital and two others who were residents at Duncroft Approved School for Girls in Staines, Surrey, in the 1970s.

The interview was one of the best chances of catching Britain’s most prolific paedophile, who died two years later in 2011.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

This ‘desexing’ may lay at the heart of an inability to make reparation for the past, writes Emer O’Kelly

EMER O’KELLY – 15 DECEMBER 2013

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) published eight audits last Tuesday. The board is the organisation within the Catholic Church charged with ensuring that the sexual abuse horrors of the past are never repeated. The audits covered six dioceses (including Armagh), the order of St Patrick’s Missionary Society (the Kiltegan fathers, based in Wicklow) and the Christian Brothers’ day school sector.

And it could be said that the overall impression is a good one. Lessons, as Cardinal Sean Brady said in reaction to the audit findings, are being learned. That statement, from a man who witnessed two children sworn to secrecy concerning their abuse by the late Brendan Smyth, in itself is progress. The defensive tone has gone.

The acting head of the NBSCCC, Teresa Devlin, said the progress being made was “heartening”. And after the years of self-justification and cover-up, nobody could deny this in the cases of all six dioceses under review, although there are alarming gaps.

In Down and Connor, under the administration of Bishop Noel Treanor since 2008, 46 of 48 criteria for child protection were found to have been fully met, and the 14 concerns or allegations made against priests of the diocese during that period have been “properly managed”. That is impressive, but not all dioceses emerge with such comparative honour.

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TEXAS
News-Journal

From Staff reports

A Gilmer woman was sentenced to 28 years in prison this past week after she pleaded guilty to child sex charges.

Upshur County’s Judge Lauren Parish of the 115th Judicial District Court sentenced Rosie Evans Fluellen, 44, to prison for criminal responsibility for the conduct of another and aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to information provided by Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd.

Fluellen’s husband and former Gilmer pastor Hugo Fluellen, 54, is serving six consecutive life sentences after a jury convicted him in October of several counts of indecency with a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual assault of a child.

Evidence presented during his trial showed he began inappropriately touching his victim when she was in the second grade and while he was a pastor, and that he would often molest the child on the way home from church, eventually fathering a child with her.

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NEBRASKA
1011 Now

Kearney, NE A former Kearney church volunteer was arrested Friday for a third sexual assault of a child.

Thomas Jones, 37, has already been arrested for sexually assaulting 2 young men in 2001. Now a 3rd victim has come forward claiming Jones assaulted him.

Kearney investigators made the arrest Friday. Kearney police are not releasing the name or age of the 3rd victim. They also could not release the dates of the alleged incident or incidents.

Police did confirm Jones is currently being held in Buffalo County Jail.

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NEBRASKA
Kearney Hub

By KIM SCHMIDT Hub Staff Writer

KEARNEY — A third victim has come forward alleging a former church youth leader sexually assaulted him as a teenager.

Thomas Anthony Jones, 37, of Kearney was arrested Friday on a Buffalo County warrant charging him with two counts of felony third-degree sexual assault of a child. State law defines third-degree sexual assault of a child as a crime against someone 14 years of age or younger who is subjected to sexual contact and the perpetrator is at least 19 years old.

The alleged incidents involve one victim on two occasions between Sept. 1, 1999, and Nov. 25, 1999.
Jones faces a total of six felony counts of allegedly sexually assaulting boys between 1999 and 2006. The four earlier counts are pending in Buffalo County District Court. Jones has denied the allegations.

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NEBRASKA
Fremont Tribune

A third victim has accused a former Kearney church youth pastor of sexually assaulting him as a teenager.

The Kearney Hub reports (http://bit.ly/JrFogt) that 37-year-old Thomas Jones was arrested Friday on a Buffalo County warrant charging him with two counts of felony third-degree sexual assault of a child.

The latest charges accuse Jones of having sexual contact with a boy under 14 on two occasions between Sept. 1, 1999, and Nov. 25, 1999.

Jones now faces a total of six felony counts accusing him of sexually assaulting boys between 1999 and 2006.

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SCOTLAND
The Observer

Catherine Deveney
The Observer, Saturday 14 December 2013

A Scottish priest who says that his vocation was “destroyed” after he spoke out against sexual abuse is to claim unfair dismissal against the Catholic church at an employment tribunal.

Father Patrick Lawson, who was removed from St Sophia’s parish church, in Galston, Ayrshire, in September by the Bishop of Galloway, John Cunningham, has been granted legal aid to pursue the case that could establish employment rights for priests across Britain.

“An application has been lodged on Patrick’s behalf with the tribunal,” said his solicitor, Cameron Fyfe. “He is breaking new ground as there has never been a decision by a UK court on this. If he is successful, it would open the door to other priests in a similar position.”

The Catholic church’s director of communications, Peter Kearney, says the application is inappropriate: “For such a claim to be made, there would need to be an employer/employee relationship. Since the relationship between a priest and his diocese is not one of employment, reference to an employment tribunal would not be possible.”

The application is the latest move in a long-running dispute. In July, Lawson revealed to the Observer that he had been fighting for 17 years for appropriate action to be taken against a fellow priest who he claims sexually assaulted him and abused altar boys. He was issued with a disciplinary warning for giving the interview.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

JEREMY ROEBUCK, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Sunday, December 15, 2013

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has permanently removed five parish priests from ministry over allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct, including one priest who had previously been investigated and returned to duty last year.

An archdiocesan review board had cleared the Rev. Michael A. Chapman in May 2012 of an abuse allegation involving a minor. But within months, a new accuser came forward with allegations dating back 30 years.

In a statement expected to be released in parishes across the region Sunday, the archdiocese said the board substantiated new abuse accusations against Chapman and deemed him “unsuitable for ministry.”

“This information was provided to law enforcement and Father Chapman was placed back on administrative leave,” the statement read. “At no time was he ever returned to active ministry.”

As has been its practice, the archdiocese offered no details of the allegations against Chapman or the four other priests whose removals were announced to congregants who braved Saturday’s snowstorm for evening Mass.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Associated Press

EDINA, Minn. — Archbishop John Nienstedt acknowledges that Catholic bishops have failed in their response to the clergy abuse crisis, according to prepared remarks he’s scheduled to give during a homily Sunday in Edina.

The comments come a few weeks after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a list of abusive priests in response to a court order. The list named 34 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Nienstedt said news reports of the abuse “have rightly been met with shame, embarrassment and outrage,” in part because of the heinous acts of those who had taken priestly vows, but also because bishops failed to remove them from ministry.

The homily was sent in advance to clergy throughout the archdiocese, Minneapolis Public Radio reported. The remarks don’t say which bishops failed to remove abusive priests.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Twin Cities Catholics are anxious to hear from Archbishop John Nienstedt.

“I am curious to hear what he has to say, absolutely,” said parishioner Maria Medina DeSmith.

Nienstedt is expected to make a public apology Sunday surrounding the priest abuse scandal that is rocking the local Catholic Church.

It will be part of the homily given at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina.

“I think that’s good. I think that’s healthy,” parishioner Mark Photoidaes said. “I think it’s important to acknowledge the situation, and I think that he’s doing the right thing.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Raya Zimmerman and Dave Orrick
rzimmerman@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/14/2013

Archbishop John Nienstedt, who has faced public criticism following the revelation of sexual abuse cases in his archdiocese, is expected to apologize Sunday at an Edina church.

Nienstedt’s plan to deliver the homily at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Parish comes roughly two weeks after a Ramsey County judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release a list of 34 priests “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children in decades prior.

“I am here to apologize for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better,” Nienstedt wrote in the homily, which was posted on Our Lady of Grace’s website (olgparish.org/homilies/3rd-sunday-advent).

Nienstedt, the church’s top official, and the archdiocese have been under scrutiny since the fall. Spurred by a whistleblower, Minnesota Public Radio and other media began reporting failures by the institution in dealing with clergy who sexually abused children, including allegations of cover-ups.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

WINSLOW, Ariz. – The Rev. Clement Hageman was among at least a dozen priests in the Diocese of Gallup who have been identified in lawsuits or news reports as having had “credible allegations” of sexual abuse made against them.

Seven of those priests had been posted in Winslow.

Three men who say they were sexually abused by Hageman in the 1960s and 1970s agreed to speak with the Journal last week in Winslow at Madre de Dios Church, which all three attended as boys and the site of most of the abuse.

Joseph Baca, who was among the first to sign a settlement agreement with the diocese in 2004, says he paid a steep price for the sexual abuse he experienced as a boy there.

Baca, 55, said he lost much of his life to alcoholism and drug addiction, and became alienated from his parents, who refused to believe his reports of sex abuse by Hageman in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

The Diocese of Gallup identifies itself in court records as “the poorest diocese in the United States,” where 43 percent of residents live below the poverty level.

A key job of attorneys in the diocese’s ongoing bankruptcy case will be to sort out the diocese’s assets from those of its 53 parishes and three nonprofits that operate within the 55,000-square-mile diocese, court records and attorneys say.

The diocese listed $646,000 in assets and $667,000 in liabilities, according to records it filed Nov. 12 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of New Mexico.

The Diocese of Gallup is the ninth U.S. diocese to file for chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in response to claims and lawsuits filed by alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

Gallup Bishop Donald Pelotte drew a standing-room-only crowd in 2005 when he traveled to Winslow, Ariz., to apologize to the victims of sexual abuse by priests who pastored the town’s two Catholic parishes.

Clerical sex abuse, Pelotte told a packed St. Joseph’s Church, had caused human devastation comparable to Hurricane Katrina. Pelotte singled out two former Winslow priests, Clement Hageman and James Burns, whom he called among the “most abusive priests in the diocese,” according to news reports.

Even as Pelotte, who has since died, made his apology in Winslow, the diocese was quietly signing legal settlements with people who alleged that, as children, they were sexually abused by priests.

At the time of Pelotte’s apology, Burns was serving an 18-month prison sentence stemming from a 2004 Arizona conviction for sexually abusing a Winslow boy younger than 15 in the 1980s. Burns died in 2010.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis has recently had a rough time on key issues related to children, women and wealth. At a Roman street celibration of the Immaculate Conception, he observed: “…[T]he fragility of children may always move us …” Nice words, to be sure. Of course, the fragility of children may NOT always move us! It hasn’t moved Pope Francis very much in almost nine months. He can hardly avoid this by just making a carefully staged visit to a Rome childrens’ hospital as he just did.

Pope Francis even had a subordinate, Cardinal O’Malley, a few days after the Vatican’s recent stonewalling of the UN child protection commission, announce suddenly and vaguely a future advisory “pastoral papal abuse commission” that may not, according to O’Malley, even address bishop accountability for covering-up for predatory priests. Are they serious?

On the UN stonewalling, please see:

[eNews Park Forest]

Moreover, has Pope Francis ever criticized any bishop over child abuse, in Rome or when he was in Argentina? Indeed, as recently reported, the first compensation payments to Argentine priest abuse survivors were just made to victims of a priest convicted almost a decade ago, while Francis was the senior local Church leader, see:

[GlobalPost]

Some of Francis’ bishops are not faring much better. The Minneapolis Archdiocese, with some high visibility scandals that involve a former head of the US bishops’ child protection committee, as well as a whistle blowing female ex-Chancellor and a former vicar general who is the brother of President Obama’s key advisor, keeps getting more negative news.

Archbishop Nienstedt has even been criticized by one of his own priests about a reported new “apology” even before Nienstedt got to deliver it at Sunday Mass. Innocent priests are beginning to speak out more loudly and frequently. Please see:

[Star Tribune]

When is Francis going to fix the abuse mess in his own organization that he actually can do something about instead of just preaching so much about problems beyond his control to fix?

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran · Dec 13, 2013

Archbishop John Nienstedt, in a homily he plans to deliver this weekend, says Catholic bishops have failed in their response to the clergy abuse crisis.

“The negative news reports about past incidents of clerical sexual abuse in this local Church have rightly been met with shame, embarrassment and outrage that such heinous acts could be perpetrated by men who had taken priestly vows as well as bishops who failed to remove them from ministry,” Nienstedt wrote in the homily, which was sent in advance to clergy throughout the archdiocese.

The archbishop plans to deliver the homily during Mass at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Parish in Edina this Sunday.

Nienstedt did not say which bishops failed to remove abusive priests. An MPR News investigation in September found that Nienstedt assigned the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer to a parish despite his sexual misbehavior and interest in younger men. Wehmeyer is now in prison for sexually abusing two boys.

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MINNESOTA
Seattle PI

EDINA, Minn. (AP) — Archbishop John Nienstedt says Catholic bishops have failed in their response to the clergy-abuse crisis.

A Minneapolis Public Radio report (http://bit.ly/19Kbav9 ) says the comments are part of prepared remarks Nienstedt is scheduled to give during a Sunday homily in Edina.

The comments come a few weeks the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a list of abusive priests in response to a court order. The list named 34 priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Nienstedt is expected to apologize to parishioners “for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Eugene F. Orteneau was ordained a Jesuit of the New England Province in 1982, going on to minister in New York City and Storrs, CT. He left active ministry in 1994 after his Jesuit superiors asked him to leave his Storrs parish. The Jesuits at the time did not state a reason for Orteneau’s removal. An attorney for the order revealed in 2007 that a Boston Jesuit inteviewed children in 1994 at the parish, concerned about possible improper sexual contact. Orteneau was at the time providing a place for troubled teens to sleep in his office. In a 2005 lawsuit Orteneau was accused of sexually abusing a boy during his time in Storrs, beginning when the boy was16-years-old. The boy’s sister had reported to the diocese in 2003 that Orteneau had sexually abused two other Storrs boys. Orteneau is said to have followed and moved in with the accuser who sued in 2005 to South Florida, when the boy was an 18-year-old college student. Orteneau was arrested on a Florida street after attempting suicide and sent to the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT for psychiatric treatment. At some point he moved to North Carolina. The Jesuits dismissed him from the order in 2003. Orteneau died in April 2009.

Ordained: 1982
Died: April 8, 2009

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Jesuit of the Maryland Province ordained in 1957, Duggan lived and worked in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and in Nigeria. In 2002 a man reported to the Baltimore archdiocese that his son was sexually abused by Duggan in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Duggan worked at Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland during those years. The Official Catholic Directory shows Duggan to have been at the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania at the time of the report and until 2005. He is not indexed in the Directories beyond 2005.

Ordained: 1957

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MINNSOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune Updated: December 14, 2013

Archbishop John Nienstedt will be at an Edina church Sunday and is expected to address the ongoing priest misconduct scandal.

The top leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis plans to be at an Edina church on Sunday and will apologize to the community in the wake of the priest sexual misconduct scandal.

Archbishop John Nienstedt will give the homily Sunday at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina and according to an advance copy of his remarks, he is expected to tell parishioners: “I am here to apologize for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better.”

The apology comes as Twin Cities Catholics confront a growing wave of allegations in recent months of priest sexual abuse and accusations that some Catholic leaders ignored warnings of sexual misconduct.

“The negative news reports about past incidents of clerical sexual abuse in this local church have rightly been met with shame, embarrassment and outrage that such heinous acts could be perpetrated by men who had taken priestly vows as well as bishops who failed to remove them from ministry,” Nienstedt wrote in the homily, which some churches have posted in advance of Sunday’s masses.

The statements follow the release last week of the names of 34 priests accused of child sex abuse — an unprecedented move in Minnesota that was prompted by a court order. On Monday, the Diocese of Winona will unveil at least 13 names of accused priests, under the same Ramsey County Court order that required the Twin Cities archdiocese to release its list.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The web-site of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse states that “If you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and have been sexually abused as a child in an Australian institution, the Royal Commission would like to hear from you.”

The Commission is undoubtedly taking its responsibilities to Australia’s indigenous peoples seriously, but is hamstrung by its terms of reference which limit it to abuse within an institutional setting. Sometimes, however, the distinction becomes a little blurred.

This blog has covered several Children’s Homes where members of the “Stolen Generations” were placed. This was a scheme whereby the government took indigenous children from their parents and gave them a “white” education, then sent them to work as domestics or farm labourers.

Similar things happened with indigenous peoples in the other Anglophone countries. For example, it has been reported that, in the native language spoken on Tachie Reserve in northern British Columbia, Canada, the word for “police” translates literally to “those who take us away.” The same attitude prevails in Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 14, 2013

SYDNEY Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday about the mishandling of child sexual abuse could be the strongest a serving Australian bishop has made.

Describing the sexual abuse scandal as a “tsunami that blew up out of nowhere,” he said bishops and heads of religious orders had been caught like “rabbits in headlights” when confronted by sexual abuse cases in the 1990s.

Coleridge was appointed archbishop of Brisbane in May 2012 after spending five years as archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn. He is also a member of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, set up to coordinate the Catholic church’s response to the Royal Commission.

Referring to the case of Joan Isaacs, who was abused as a schoolgirl in the 1960s by Brisbane priest Frank Derriman, Coleridge accused his own predecessor, Archbishop John Bathersby, of “spectacular bungling.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

The former dean of Lancaster Cathedral, who abused his power and authority to indecently assault a trainee priest, has been jailed for 12 months.

Canon Stephen Shield, 53, took advantage of his victim, who was learning the priesthood at the time in the early 1990s.

Two assaults took place in Shield’s presbytery in Preston, Lancashire, with one taking place under the table at a dinner party where other priests were among guests.

Giving evidence, the victim said he was convinced that others present knew that Shield had put his hands down his trousers but kept quiet.

Shield committed an indecent assault in a bedroom at the presbytery on another occasion.

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ARGENTINA
GlobalPost

AFP

An Argentine diocese apologized for abuse committed by a pedophile priest on Friday and, in a first for the country’s Catholic church, announced compensation for his victims.

Father Jose Mercau, who is serving a 14-year sentence, was pastor of the St. John the Baptist church in San Isidro diocese on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and ran a home for destitute children.

“The diocese of San Isidro, and in particular the bishop and his priests, publicly apologize to the young people who were affected by Father Jose Mercau’s actions,” the Catholic news agency AICA said.

The agency also reported that the office of San Isidro’s bishop, Monsignor Jorge Ojea, was willing to compensate the four males who filed a complaint against the priest.

Father Maximo Jurcinovic, a spokesman for the bishop, told news channel C5N that a financial settlement had been reached and that the diocese would sell some of its properties to fund it.

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ROME
Headlines from the Catholic World

Rome, Italy, Dec 13, 2013 / 05:24 pm (CNA).- The consecrated women of Regnum Christi, the lay association of the Legion of Christ, have elected Spaniard Gloria Rodriguez as their next general director.

The lay association’s general assembly, which has been meeting in Rome since Dec. 2, marks the first time the consecrated women have elected their leadership through a participatory process.

One delegate to the association’s general assembly, Marilú Rodriguez, said the election process will choose a government that will help Regnum Christi “to continue going deeper into our identity” and guide the women “on the path that we have begun.”

“It is a collegial act, an expression of maturity and responsibility,” she said.

Gloria Rodriguez, 38, expressed her gratitude to the team of councilors she has worked with since 2012. She said all the consecrated women of the lay association are in her heart, Regnum Christi reported Dec. 11.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis is to set up a special commission on the sexual abuse of children, which will advise him on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston (above left), a member of the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals, announced the decision at a Vatican briefing for reporters last Thursday, during a break in the council’s meetings with the Pope.

The cardinal said that the new commission would continue the work of Pope Benedict XVI against clerical sex abuse, and that among its tasks would be to ‘study the present programmes in place for the protection of children, and to come up with suggestions for new initiatives; by the Vatican, in collaboration with national bishops’ conferences and religious orders around the world.

The news was greeted with great interest in Australia, where there is an ongoing Royal Commission into incidents of the abuse of children within the Catholic Church.

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CIUDAD VATICANO
El Nuevo Herald

BY POR NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO — Primero, una de las más altas autoridades de la Legión de Cristo renunció abruptamente a la orden debido a la lentitud con que se procesan los cambios. Después, los sacerdotes facultaron a los protegidos y socios del fundador caído en desgracia, Marcial Maciel, para que eligieran el nuevo líder.

Durante el mes pasado hubo varios retrocesos en el proceso de la legión para reformarse mediante la elección de un nuevo dirigente, con lo que terminará la supervisión del Vaticano que duró tres años. Pero aunque la Legión quiere mostrar una nueva cara, sus más altos directivos siguen hablando con nostalgia y veneración de Maciel, quien violó a varios seminaristas, tenía tres hijos y fue definido como alguien “carente de escrúpulos y auténtica vocación religiosa” por los investigadores designados por el Vaticano para indagar los abusos de los que se le acusaba.

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ARGENTINA
Minuto Uno

El obispo de San isidro leerá en misa un comunicado en que se disulpará por los absusos de José Mercau, perpetrados contra cinco menores en el Hogar San Juan Diego de El Talar.

El obispo de San Isidro, monseñor Oscar Ojea, leerá en misa un comunicado donde se pedirá perdón en nombre de la Iglesia por los abusos del cura José Mercau, que trabajaba en el Hogar San Juan Diego de El Talar, denunciado por cinco menores, de 11 y 14 años. Fue condenado a 14 de prisión.

El texto, que llevará el título “Asumir, pedir perdón y deseo de reparar”, contará con la fima de Ojea, y planteará, tal como adelantó Tiempo Argentino este viernes, que “las secuelas que deja el abuso sexual en el futuro de los niños y de los jóvenes no se pueden medir” y que “su vida vincular y afectiva queda lastimada en lo más hondo por la violación de su intimidad.”

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ARGENTINA
Diario Popular

[Summary: Archbishop Oscar Ojea and his priests on Sunday will offer a public apology to those abused by priest Jose Mercau. Mercau abused the young people while he was pastor of San Juan Bautista, Ricardo Rojas, Tigre. The apology will be read at all Sunday masses in the diocese.]

Un pedido de perdón público a víctimas de una situación de abuso sexual, a raíz de los hechos cometidos por el sacerdote José Mercau, preso desde hace 7 años por este delito, será formulado el domingo próximo por el obispo de San Isidro, monseñor Oscar Ojea, junto con su presbiterio.

Mercau cometió el abuso cuando era párroco de San Juan Bautista, en Ricardo Rojas, partido de Tigre y el texto del comunicado del Obispado será leído el próximo domingo en todas las misas de la diócesis.

“Con claridad que estos actos están abiertamente en contradicción con la Palabra de Dios y con la tarea evangelizadora que día a día comunidades y pastores llevan adelante”, señala el texto que será leído el domingo.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVVA

[with video]

By Gil McClanahan

PRINCETON (WVVA) – –
A former youth volunteer at a Bluefield, West Virginia church charged with child sex abuse is free on bond.

The attorney for 55-year old Timothy Probert of Bluefield says they plan to try and get evidence of the alleged abuse suppressed under the “Priest Penitent Privilege” law in West Virginia.

That law states whatever you tell your pastor is in confidence and cannot be used against you, and attorney William Flanigan tells us that will be a major part of their defense.

According to the criminal complaint, Probert told Pastor Jonathan Rockness and two elders at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield, West Virginia that he had abused several teenage boys at his house and on mission trips.

Probert is facing more than three dozen charges for sex crimes against children.

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MISSOURI
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

The trial of a Missouri Baptist pastor charged with sexual child abuse scheduled earlier this month has been postponed.

Moniteau County Circuit Judge Kenneth Hayden granted a continuance Dec. 2 in the case against Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, Mo., charged with second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy, Call C felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The new trial date is June 2, with a pre-trial conference scheduled May 16.

Smith, 43, was arrested Oct. 1, 2012, by members of Missouri State Highway Patrol following what police termed a lengthy investigation by the agency’s Division of Drug and Crime Control.

The case received widespread media attention when Smith’s church decided to keep him as pastor, despite the arrest, instead of firing him or putting him on administrative leave.

A deacon at the church told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the pastor “was rough around the edges” when he was younger, but “has a good heart” and is good for the church.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Stephen Crittenden | Dec. 13, 2013

SYDNEY Making its first appearance before the national Royal Commission into sexual abuse this week, Australia’s Catholic church led with another of its characteristic “foot in mouth” moments.
Survivors of abuse stormed out of the Sydney courtroom in tears when the church’s senior barrister, Peter Gray, commenced his opening address with a quotation from St. Mark’s Gospel: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them: for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

Chaired by New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Peter McClellan, the six-member Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established in November 2012 by former prime minister Julia Gillard after years of mounting public pressure. At least 5,000 people are expected to come forward to tell their stories of abuse.

The Royal Commission examines “how institutions with a responsibility for children have managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse,” according to its website. The commission will also “investigate where systems have failed to protect children and make recommendations on how to improve laws, policies and practices to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse in institutions.”

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

by BERNIE DAVIDOW

A report from the Associated Press on Friday casts considerable doubt on the ability of the troubled Legionaries of Christ, a worldwide Roman Catholic religious order with a seminary in Cheshire, to reform itself.

The story says, in part:

” … hopes are dwindling that the Vatican’s effort to radically reform the Legion has succeeded, raising the question of what Pope Francis will do with the once-powerful and wealthy order after the mandate of the papal envoy running it expires.”

The story comes only a week after The Courant’s Kelly Glista reported that an independent investigation had revealed “significant evidence” of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest who served at the order’s Cheshire seminary years ago.

David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is surprised by none of it. He released the following statement Friday in response to the AP report. The statement references the order’s disgraced founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, who, after being accused of abusing boys in seminaries in Spain and Italy, resigned. Before he died, he was censured by Pope Bendict XVI.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN

[with video]

by Marcella Raymond
Reporter/Anchor

A teacher fired from Hales Franciscan high school on the south side is suing the school to get her job back.

Rochelle Daniels claims she was let go because she was a whistleblower involving an alleged sexual assault at the school.

Daniels was an English teacher and says she was fired 16 days after contacting the Dept of Children and Family Services about the alleged assault by two male students at the school which went co-ed this year.

Daniels said the administrators told her they were handling the allegations internally and that she should have talked to them before making the call.

State law says school must report abuse allegations to DCFS immediately.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY ASHLEE REZIN Staff Reporter December 12, 2013

A former teacher at a prestigious Catholic high school on the South Side is suing the institution, claiming she was fired because she blew the whistle on an alleged sexual assault involving students.

Rochelle Daniels alleges she was wrongfully terminated from Hales Franciscan High School, at 4930 S. Cottage Grove Ave., less than one month after a female student approached her and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by two male students, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.

After the student confided to her English teacher on Oct. 31, Daniels, of Kane County, subsequently called the state’s Department of Child and Family Services, something the school’s administration did not do, the lawsuit claims.

Daniels says she was called into a meeting with Hales Franciscan principal Erica Brownfield and school president Jeffrey Gray four days later, during which time the administrators “wanted to know every detail of her conversation with the female student who was assaulted,” according to the lawsuit.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Huffington Post

A teacher at a South Side Chicago high school claims she was fired after reporting a student’s alleged sexual assault to authorities.

Rochelle Daniels filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Bronzeville’s Hales Franciscan High School Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court. Daniels’ lawsuit claims her November dismissal from the private school was a violation of the Illinois Whistleblower Act, the Tribune reports.

Daniels said in late October a female student told her she was assaulted in a stairwell at school by two male Hales Franciscan students, prompting the English teacher to report the incident to the Department of Child and Family Services, according to the Sun-Times.

In an interview with WGN, Daniels said school administrators later told her they were handling the allegations internally and that she should have come to them first before calling DCFS.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has completed its first week of a hearing into the controversial “Towards Healing” process, used by the Catholic Church to deal with allegations of abuse against it.

The early part of the week covered events surrounding the abuse of Mrs. Joan Isaacs by priest, Frank Derriman. The case occurred in the Brisbane Archdiocese, in Queensland State. The main points which arose from that case concerned the inadequacies of the “Towards Healing” process, and problems associated with the involvement of church lawyers and insurance officials, in what was billed as a primarily pastoral process.

The final half has enquired into events surrounding the abuse of Jennifer Ingham by priest Paul Rex Brown. This case occurred in the Lismore diocese in New South Wales State. Lismore was also the location of the North Coast Children’s Home, operated by the Anglican Church, which was the case study for the preceding hearings of the Commission (see previous postings).

The Commission has heard apologies from the Brisbane Archbishop, Mark Coleridge, and the Lismore Bishop, Geoffrey Jarrett. Unlike the Mrs. Isaacs case, the Ms. Ingham case was marked by some positive comments on the process by the victim, particularly concerning the role of Patrick Mullins and Geoffrey Jarrett.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

December 14, 2013

Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer

‘I wanted to know why, in the diocese of Lismore, then across all of Australia, then the world, why not one good fearless person could have stepped out against the depravities and wrongs that existed, including turning a blind eye to the abusers and moving the clergy from town to town to protect them from being discovered?”

With this anguished plea, Jennifer Ingham gave shaking voice to questions at the heart of hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney this week. Who takes responsibility? Who will lead?

In the strongest statement yet by a senior church leader on its mishandling of the crisis, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge told the commission on Wednesday there had been ”spectacular bungling” and ”drastic failure”. A ”tsunami” of child sexual abuse allegations had caught bishops and other officials ”like rabbits in a headlight”, he said. He cut through on the question other church witnesses dodged all week.

With mounting exasperation commission chair Peter McClellan had been asking whether the church as a whole should bear responsibility for the actions of individuals within it. In other words, should its great wealth not be available as compensation to the victims?

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TEXAS
Beaumont Enterprise

By Tim Monzingo
Published 8:50 am, Friday, December 13, 2013

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont said Thursday it settled a lawsuit filed by six plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse by a priest over three decades because it was in the best interests of all involved, even though the church had “valid defenses to the claims.”

The diocese attorney and the Dallas-based attorney representing the plaintiffs reached a settlement in the case Wednesday, more than a year after the suit was filed. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed at the plaintiffs’ request.

The suit alleged that the Rev. Ronald Bollich abused six men, boys at the time, beginning in the mid-1970s. Bollich, who died in April 1996, worked for the diocese for about 30 years.

“At the time of the settlement, the court was considering motions on behalf of the diocese that could have resulted in the dismissal of the case,” according to a statement by Cashiola and Bean, the Beaumont law firm representing the diocese in the case. “The attorney for the diocese continues to advise that we had valid defenses to all the plaintiff’s claims.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Dec. 13, 2013

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

Two credible and knowledgeable Philadelphia Catholics – including noted blogger Susan Matthews – report that they’ve heard rumors that Archbishop Charles Chaput may disclose this weekend the fates of some alleged predator priests by making announcements at some parishes. WE DO NOT KNOW IF THIS IS ACCURATE OR NOT.

It’s about time. Victims, their families and Philly Catholics have waited far too long for some clarity from church officials about these accused child molesters. Whenever Chaput makes this announcement, we suspect he won’t be completely forthcoming about key details.

[Catholics4Change]

If this is true, it’s another sign of Chaput’s irresponsible secrecy.

When Chaput’s hand-picked panel makes a decision about an accused priest, he should disclose it immediately. To wait is to be unfair to everyone involved. Worse, to wait is often to endanger kids.

There’s only one reason to delay and to lump multiple accused predator priests together for one big announcement. That reason is public relations. Chaput simply wants to try and make sure there’s just one story about child molesting clerics, not several stories.

And he wants to put his “spin” on these cases with his flock first, before they hear unbiased accounts from impartial media outlets.

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VATICAN CITY
Fox News

Published December 13, 2013
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – First, one of the Legion of Christ’s top officials abruptly quit the troubled religious order in frustration over the slow pace of change. Then priests in the cult-like movement empowered proteges and associates of the order’s disgraced founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, to vote for their next leader.

The past month has seen some setbacks the Legion’s efforts to rehabilitate itself as it moves toward electing a new leadership next month, the culmination of a three-year Vatican experiment aiming to overhaul a damaged order. Yet even as the Legion prepares to present a new face, high-ranking members continue to speak nostalgically and even reverently of Maciel — a sexual predator who molested his seminarians, fathered three children and was, in the words of Vatican-appointed investigators, “devoid of scruples and authentic religious meaning.”

It all means that hopes are dwindling that the Vatican’s effort to radically reform the Legion has succeeded, raising the question of what Pope Francis will do with the once-powerful and wealthy order after the mandate of the papal envoy running it expires.

Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, took over the Legion in 2010 and appointed a Vatican cardinal to govern it after investigators determined that the congregation itself needed to be “purified” of Maciel’s influence. In reality, the Vatican knew well of Maciel’s crimes for decades but turned a blind eye, impressed instead by his ability to bring millions of dollars and thousands of seminarians into to the church.

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ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, December 13, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

We applaud the South Side teacher who reported a case of sexual assault involving Hales Franciscan High School students by contacting the Department of Children and Family Services.

It is disappointing to hear that Rochelle Daniels has been fired for contacting DCFS after a student confided in her when the school’s administration neglected to do so. The school should do everything it can to encourage individuals who have witnessed, suspected, or experienced sexual abuse. But instead, they are choosing to send a terrible message that discourages people from doing the right thing to protect children, expose predators and deter cover ups.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Virtual Lancaster

A former canon at Lancaster’s Catholic Cathedral, Stephen Shield, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after he was convicted of three historic sexual offences.

He has been put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Shield, 53, of Balmoral Road, Lancaster, was found guilty last month of three counts of indecent assault following a trial at Preston Crown Court and was sentenced earlier today.

The three historic allegations related to one male victim aged between 17-24 years. The offences were committed between 1985 and 1992.

The Bishop of Lancaster, the Right Reverend Michael G Campbell, has described the case as a “tragic episode.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The former Dean of Lancaster Cathedral has been jailed for historical sex offences against a man who was training as a priest.

Canon Stephen Shield was sentenced to 12 months in prison for three indecent assaults between 1985 and 1992.

Shield, 54, of Balmoral Road, Lancaster, abused the man from the age of 18, Preston Crown Court heard.

The Bishop of Lancaster, the Right Reverend Michael G Campbell, said it was a “tragic episode”.

Two of the assaults took place in a church presbytery in Preston in 1992 when the victim was in his 20s, while the other happened at a retreat in the Lake District, the court heard.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

The former dean of Lancaster Cathedral, who abused his power and authority to indecently assault a trainee priest, has been jailed for 12 months.

Canon Stephen Shield, 53, took advantage of his victim, who was learning the priesthood at the time in the early 1990s.

Two assaults took place in Shield’s presbytery in Preston, Lancashire, with one taking place under the table at a dinner party where other priests were among guests.

Giving evidence, the victim said he was convinced that others present knew that Shield had put his hands down his trousers but kept quiet.

Shield committed an indecent assault in a bedroom at the presbytery on another occasion.

He was convicted of the charges last month and was also found guilty of another assault on the same man in the mid-1980s at a Catholic retreat in Cumbria when both were religious students.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

By Lauren Zumbach, Chicago Tribune reporter
7:18 a.m. CST, December 13, 2013

A former teacher at Hales Franciscan High School has sued the Bronzeville school and its principal, alleging she was fired for notifying authorities that a female student reported being sexually assaulted by two male students.

Rochelle Daniels, who taught English, claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court that she was fired in violation of the Illinois Whistleblower Act.

“Of course I’d like to have my job back, but I would also like the administration to take responsibility and to hold the administration accountable for inaction in this situation,” Daniels said in an interview Thursday.

Rick Hammond, an attorney for Hales Franciscan, said the school “denies any allegations of wrongful conduct and believes they had valid dealings with Ms. Daniels.” He declined further comment.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

10 December 2013 by Marie Collins

The news that the Vatican is to set up a commission focused on safeguarding children and caring for victims of abuse is welcome. I would have been more impressed if it had been set up ten years ago as it certainly should. It was obvious by then that the clerical child sexual abuse crisis was not just isolated to one or two countries and it was not going to go away. No amount of defensive statements or words of apology were going to tackle the problem, prevent further abuse or help those survivors who needed justice and healing.

Now that the Vatican is setting up this commission my hope is that it will not turn out to be a false dawn.

That we will see real, practical measures put in place to ensure the safety of children and bring the needed peace and justice to those who have been hurt.

If there is to be lasting progress then the right people have to be chosen as members of this commission. We have had too many decisions made within the Church by those whose priority has been the protection of the institution rather than the protection of children. We have had too many speak for the Church using words which have hurt rather than healed survivors. This must be an end to that.

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GHANA
Spy Ghana

Cape Coast Circuit Court on Wednesday struck out the case of rape against a priest of the Anglican Church in Cape Coast, Reverend Father Emmanuel Quartey, following an advice from the office of the Attorney-General’s Department.

The priest has been remanded twice into prison custody by the same court, for allegedly raping a 20-year old lady, until he was released, following the striking out of the case against him.

The AG’s Department contended that the victim actually consented to having an affair with the priest, explaining that the lady did not make any noise to draw people’s attention to the incident.

It further wondered why the victim was not able to shout in the hotel room to draw the attention of the workers there for the necessary action to be taken.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Lancaster Today

A Catholic priest from Lancaster has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for sexually abusing a young man.

Stephen Shield, 55, former priest at Lancaster Cathedral, was convicted of three counts of indecent assault upon the man who had hopes of a future in the priesthood.

More than 240 parishioners signed a petition in support of Shield, which was handed to the court by Shield’s barrister, Paul Humphries.

Shield continues to deny the sex attacks but Judge Anthony Russell QC, sentencing, said he had targeted the young man due to his vulnerability, adding that the man felt his complaints would not be taken seriously because of Shield’s status as a priest.

Preston Crown Court heard how the sex assaults, committed in the 1980s and 90s had affected the man psychologically and spiritually.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Saskatoon
Published Thursday, December 12, 2013

A former residential school supervisor found guilty of abusing young boys was sentenced to just under three years in jail Thursday.

Paul Leroux was found guilty last month on eight counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency against several boys who attended Beauval Indian Residential School in the 1960s.

Leroux was a dormitory supervisor at the school in the 1950s and 1960s.

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CANADA
Vancouver Sun

BY THE CANADIAN PRESS DECEMBER 12, 2013

BATTLEFORD, Sask. – A former supervisor at a northern Saskatchewan residential school is going to jail after being sentenced on convictions for molesting several students in the 1960s.

Paul Leroux, who worked at the Beauval Indian Residential School, was sentenced to three years Thursday after being found guilty on 10 of 17 charges involving boys at the school.

His victims were angry over the sentence handed down in a Battleford courtroom.

“I feel so totally inadequate. I feel like my life is worthless for what the judge has given him — three years,” said one man outside court.

“With good behaviour he will be out in seven months. He will be out by next summer, while we have to live with what he has done to us.”

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CANADA
CBC News

Paul Leroux, a former dormitory supervisor who has been convicted of sexually abusing boys at a residential school decades ago, has been given a three-year sentence by a judge in Battleford, Sask.

Leroux shook his head as the sentence was handed down on Thursday. Some of his victims who were in court said they were upset with the prison term and that it was not enough considering their years of suffering.

“I feel so totally inadequate,” one of the victims said outside of court. The man cannot be identified because of a publication ban. “I feel like my life is worthless for what the judge had given him. Three years. With good behaviour, he’ll be out in seven months. He’ll be out of there by next summer while we have to live with what he has done to us.”

In his remarks on the sentence, the judge said he recognized the victims have suffered and that any sentence he imposed would not relieve that suffering or seem adequate.

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AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DECEMBER 13, 2013

ONE was lured into a sex cult formed by her parish priest and school chaplain. The other was sexually abused for years by her local priest who paid for her to fly to his church residence for sex.

Joan Isaacs and Jennifer Ingham were both women from religious families who grew up in the Catholic Church. They were teenagers, in that vulnerable stage of life. More importantly, they had put their faith and trust in the priests who had taught them passages from the Bible as they were growing up, such as: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such of these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

To their abusers, the combination of trust and innocence made them the perfect victims.

Last week, both women found an inner strength behind their tears to speak publicly for the first time about how that trust was betrayed as they told their stories to the royal commission into institutionalised responses to child sex abuse sitting in Sydney.

Isaacs, 60, was drawn into a cult which her Brisbane parish priest Father Frank Derriman built around himself, giving his young victims the surname Brown after the Peanuts comic hero.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

One of Lancashire’ s most senior Catholic priests has been jailed after being convicted of sexually assaulting a man in Preston.

Canon Stephen Shield, the Dean at Lancaster Cathedral, committed the offences more than two decades ago. against a man who later became a priest.

The Bishop of Lancaster says he is praying for those affected by the case.

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CANADA
CTV

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, December 12, 201

The Crown rested its case Thursday in the chilling trial of a former priest accused of 80 charges of sexual assault on Inuit children.

A total of 42 alleged victims – many choking with sobs – delivered heart-wrenching testimonies throughout the trial.

Most of the alleged victims were from the small Inuit town of Igloolik where Eric Dejaegar was stationed between 1978 and 1982 while he worked for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

One woman told how, at the age of 12, she was tied to a bed and sodomized. Other witnesses said that Dejaeger had forced them to watch acts of bestiality.

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CANADA
Sylvia’s Site

Here’s a few pictures from Iqaluit, Nunavut to give you a feel for (1) the courtroom and (2) the courthouse where the sex abuse trial of Father Eric Dejaeger is ongoing (December 2013), and (3) the detention centre where Father Eric Dejager has been housed for the past three years

(1) The Courtroom

Below – with many thanks thanks to my dear friend with whom I travelled to Iqaluit – a rough diagram of the courtroom in Iqaluit where Father Eric Dejaeger stood trial.

Click on each photo to enlarge.

Note the difference in the courtroom layout in Nunavut: the witness faces the judge, and the tables at which both Crown and defence teams sit are angled toward the witness stand vs facing the judge and witness with back to courtroom observers. With the seating as it is in Nunavut observers seated in the right spots can see the defendant’s face throughout the trial, and can also watch the lawyers. The witness can be seen only from the back barring those times when he/she turns sidewise to speak directly to the Crown, defense lawyer or defendant.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The actions of the Lismore diocese of the Catholic Church came under scrutiny at the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today. The case study used was the abuse of Jennifer Ingham by priest, Paul Rex Brown (who died in 2005), and her treatment by the “Towards Healing” process, set up by the church to deal with abuse allegations. Ms Ingham said she suffered bulimia, had ongoing psychiatric problems and attempted suicide.

Previously, the enquiry has heard of a case in the Brisbane Archdiocese, led by Mark Coleridge (see previous posting), who is a member of the “Truth, Justice and Healing Council”, the PR Unit set up by the Catholic Church to handle the fall-out of the Royal Commission. Coleridge, given he was a witness, should have resigned his position with the church’s PR Unit, beforehand.

The bishop of Lismore, Geoffrey Jarrett, apologized earlier this year to Ms. Ingham, for not being available for her “towards Healing” process. Ms Ingham said she wanted Jarrett to answer some questions: “Why in the Diocese of Lismore, then across all of Australia, then the world, why not one good fearless person could have stepped out against the depravities and wrongs that existed…why no one in the church spoke out against turning a blind eye to the abusers and moving clergy from town to town to protect them and the church from being discovered….Why did nothing happen when I finally acknowledged my abuse by Brown to the church?”.

When she finally met bishop Jarrett, Ms. Ingham told him she thought it was “that they were given a direction by the Vatican to bury evidence and lie”. Jarrett’s response seemed to be that “He was shocked by this and tried to answer her “but to me it was just noise. He said he could not understand how a man of faith ‘held her captive’ for four years and could not fathom the corruptness in the church in recent years…I felt in reality Jarrett had no answer … he simply did not know.”

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GHANA
Ghana Web

Cape Coast Circuit Court on Wednesday struck out the case of rape against a priest of the Anglican Church in Cape Coast, Reverend Father Emmanuel Quartey, following an advice from the office of the Attorney-General’s Department.

The priest has been remanded twice into prison custody by the same court, for allegedly raping a 20-year old lady, until he was released, following the striking out of the case against him.

The AG’s Department contended that the victim actually consented to having an affair with the priest, explaining that the lady did not make any noise to draw people’s attention to the incident.

It further wondered why the victim was not able to shout in the hotel room to draw the attention of the workers there for the necessary action to be taken.

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
Lancashire Evening Post

A catholic priest has been jailed for sexually abusing a young man at English Martyrs church in Preston.

Stephen Shield, 55, the former cathedral priest at Lancaster, was convicted of three counts of indecent assault upon the man who had hopes of a future in the priesthood.

More than 240 parishioners signed a petition in support of Shield.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

DECEMBER 13, 2013 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS

Kathy and I have heard through several sources that internal investigations have concluded on most of the priests removed from ministry. These are the priests Archbishop Chaput temporarily removed from ministry in light of the list recovered during Msgr. Lynn’s trial. In some cases, the statute of limitations for child sex abuse had expired while the list was hidden. The Archdiocesan investigators and review board made recommendations to Archbishop Chaput.

The announcements may be made at “affected” parishes this weekend after Masses. However, all Catholics and Philadelphia-area residents are affected by clergy child sex abuse. These priests may go back into the community with no Megan’s Law listing to alert neighbors. Until their appeals to Rome are finalized, they will receive stipends. If they choose a life of prayer and penance, the Archdiocese continues to care for their financial needs. All will receive their full pensions – even if they are laicized.

The Archdiocese does not share specific information on priests who were permanently removed from ministry. We do not know if they’ve chosen a life of prayer and penance, are awaiting appeals to the Vatican or are living in our communities.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Australia’s indigenous rights leader has called for Aboriginal missions to be considered in the royal commission into institutionalised sexual abuse.

The commission is holding public hearings in Sydney and investigating how various institutions, including the Catholic and Anglican churches, have responded to child sexual abuse.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says Aboriginal missions, such as those that existed in his home state of Queensland, should be included.

“We would like to see missions confirmed as institutions because back in the day people couldn’t leave,” Mr Gooda told reporters on Friday.

“They were basically called inmates at the missions and a lot of abuse happened at these places.

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IDAHO
KTVB

by Associated Press
KTVB.COM

NAMPA — A church deacon has been charged with lewd conduct after prosecutors said he abused a young parishioner.

The Idaho Press-Tribune reports Alexander Gonzalez Garcia, a deacon with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nampa, was arrested Tuesday. Prosecutors say a girl younger than 16 told investigators in July that Garcia inappropriately touched her in a church storage room during a potluck a few days earlier.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

DAVID QUINN – 13 DECEMBER 2013

It is a remarkable thing that in the various interviews he has granted to date, Pope Francis hasn’t been asked to reflect in any substantial way at all on the clerical child abuse scandals.

On his flight back from World Youth Day in Brazil a few months ago, he spent 80 minutes answering questions from journalists and the matter did not come up.

When he granted a lengthy and widely reported interview to various Jesuit publications more recently, again, he was not asked about it.

And when the atheist founder of one of Italy’s leading newspapers, ‘La Repubblica’, interviewed him shortly after that, it did not occur to the interviewer to bring it up.

Here in Ireland, the Catholic Church’s child protection office has published its latest audits of the child protection procedures of a selection of the country’s dioceses and religious orders.

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ARGENTINA
Info News

El obispado de San Isidro anunció a través de un comunicado que pedirá perdón por los delitos de abuso sexual cometidos por un sacerdote de un Hogar de El Talar.

Se trata del cura José Mercau, que trabajaba en el Hogar San Juan Diego de El Talar y fue denunciado por cinco menores de once y 14 años que vivían en el lugar y condenado a 14 años de prisión.

Con el título de “Asumir, pedir perdón y deseo de reparar”, y con la firma del monseñor Oscar Ojea, la esquela comienza planteando que “las secuelas que deja el abuso sexual en el futuro de los niños y de los jóvenes no se pueden medir. Su vida vincular y afectiva queda lastimada en lo más hondo por la violación de su intimidad.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 13 December 2013

A little girl who ran and told a nun after she had been touched by a priest “got a belting” for casting aspersions on the man, an inquiry has heard.

Internal Catholic church records show the man, Father Paul Rex Brown, would later be dumped from his priestly duties following a litany of complaints.

They included claims he was a drunk and that he sexually abused two boys in the 1980s.

Evidence before the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shows he has been implicated in the alleged abuse of at least six children.

But his only criminal conviction before his death in 2005 related to possession of child porn.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

The director of a pastoral and redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has conceded she lacked influence when dealing with the case of a woman who was abused by a priest for four years.

When she was 17 and in her final year of school, Jennifer Ingham was suffering from bulimia.

It was 1978. She was admitted to hospital, underwent psychological treatment and missed her exams.

Mrs Ingham also required surgery to her face for the condition, and asked to pause in her testimony at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse because she was in severe pain.

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ICELAND
Iceland Review

Minister of Culture and Education Illugi Gunnarsson said in response to a question from MP for the Left-Greens Ögmundur Jónasson at Alþingi, Iceland’s parliament, yesterday, that the compensation paid by the Catholic Church of Iceland to the victims of sexual and mental abuse which occurred under the church’s veil was “shamefully low,” dv.is reports.

The Catholic Church of Iceland established an investigative commission after accusations of brutal sexual abuse, bullying and neglect were reported in the media in 2011.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By Samantha Perry
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — A former church youth volunteer was arrested Thursday afternoon on 38 counts of child sexual abuse related charges.

Timothy Probert, 55, of Bluefield, was taken into custody by Sgt. M.D. Clemons, with the Crimes Against Children Unit of the West Virginia State Police. The alleged crimes stem from incidents that occurred when Probert was a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield.

Probert is charged with 22 counts of sexual abuse by a custodian; six counts of first-degree sexual abuse; seven counts of third-degree sexual assault; one count of distribution and display of obscene matter to a minor; one count of use of obscene matter with intent to seduce a minor; and one count of use of a minor to produce obscene matter or to assist in doing sexually explicit conduct.

Clemons said the abuse charges stem from incidents that date back to 1986. The last incident occurred between July 2008 and 2010.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WSET

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (AP) – A former volunteer in a Bluefield church’s youth program has been arrested on numerous child sex abuse charges.

Media outlets report 55-year-old Timothy Probert was arraigned Thursday in Mercer County Magistrate Court on 38 counts, including 22 counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian.

State Police Sgt. M.D. Clemons says the alleged incidents involved boys ages 12 to 17 and go as far back as 1986. Clemons says some charges involved mission trips and alleged incidents at Probert’s home and that none occurred on Westminster Presbyterian Church property.

Senior Pastor Jonathan Rockness says the church is deeply saddened by the allegations. He says the church has fully cooperated with police.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WVNS

[with video]

By Douglas Fritz
By Jessie Gavin, Digital Journalist

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. –
Tim Probert was arrested and charged Thursday with 38 counts of Felony Child Abuse.

He formerly served as a youth mentor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Mercer County. 59News was in court on Thursday during Probert’s arraignment.

So far, about a dozen victims have come forward accusing the former church youth volunteer and mentor, Tim Probert, of sexual abuse.

The first documented case dates all the way back to 1986.

On Thursday, Probert was charged with 22 counts of Sex abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, 6 counts of First Degree Sex Abuse, 7 counts of Third Degree Sex Assault, 2 counts of Use of a minor in sexually explicit content and 1 count of Distribution and display of obscene matter to a minor.

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WEST VIRGINIA
WOAY

BLUEFIELD – A Mercer County church official is charged with several counts of sexual misconduct.
Sergeant Melissa Clemons of the west Virginia state police tells Newswatch Tim Probert, 55, of Bluefield was arrested Thursday on 38 felony counts of sexual abuse against children.

Probert is a longtime member of Westminster Presbyterian church where he served as an elder.

Clemons adds some of his charges also stem from his association with the “We Can” volunteer program in Mercer County dating as far as the 1990’s.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Cassie Hart

A Maplewood man claiming he was a pastor has been charged for sexually abusing two young girls for roughly 8 years.

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged abuse started when the girls were around the age of 6.

The abuse by 61-year-old Jacoby Kindred was reported by the mother to police in July, when the girls, who are now ages 14 and 16, told their mother about it, according to a criminal complaint.

According to the criminal complaint, the girls told police Kindred would touch them inappropriately and would force sexual acts on them.

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MINNESOTA
Mankato Free Press

By Dan Nienaber
dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

MANKATO — A priest who died in Ireland while awaiting trial for raping a 15-year-old boy in 1968 has been named in a new lawsuit against the Diocese of New Ulm claiming he sexually assaulted a Granite Falls boy while in the United States to be treated for pedophilia.

The attorneys announcing the lawsuit — Michael Finnegan of Jeff Anderson and Associates and Michael Bryant of Bradshaw and Bryant — also repeated their request to have the diocese release a list of 12 priests who have been accused of sexually molesting children.

The request was made in a similar lawsuit against the diocese, but the diocese will argue against the list being released in a hearing before District Court Judge Robert Docherty during a Jan. 6 hearing. The priest named in that lawsuit is David Roney. The two victims reported they were molested by Roney while attending a Catholic school in Benson.

Last week Archbishop John Nienstedt released a list of 32 priests accused of sexual abuse while working at churches within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. That list wasn’t released until a court order was issued.

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MINNESOTA
In-Forum

NEW ULM, Minn. – Attorneys from the Jeff Anderson law firm have filed a sexual abuse lawsuit on behalf of a man who says he was abused in 1982 by the Rev. Francis Markey at St. Andrew Parish in Granite Falls.

The attorneys are also requesting release of the names of priests accused of abusing children in the New Ulm Diocese of the Catholic Church.

The suit names the diocese and Servants of the Paraclete as defendants. It alleges that both were negligent in failing to supervise Markey and allowing him to work in communities and parishes with access to children.

The allegations also state that Markey was placed in St. Andrew Parish without families being informed that he had molested children and had gone through alleged sex offender treatment several times.

The suit was filed Wednesday in Brown County District Court in New Ulm.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

BY SOPHIE TARR
December 13, 2013

Towards Healing was supposed to be a means for the Catholic Church to offer pastoral care and financial redress to people who had suffered years of anguish caused by pedophile priests.

Instead the process pitted lawyer against lawyer, an inquiry has heard, “horse-trading” over compensation sums.

Jennifer Ingham was subjected to four years of sexual abuse from the age of 16, at the hands of northern NSW parish priest Father Paul Rex Brown, and this year received a $265,000 settlement, most of which was paid by Catholic Church Insurance (CCI).

But Emma Fenby, a former CCI executive who dealt with child molestation claims, says she was advised to make an initial offer closer to $30,000.

She told the royal commission she ignored that advice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Friday 13 December 2013

The Catholic church had known about child sex abuse allegations against a northern NSW priest since the 1980s, an inquiry has heard.

Jennifer Ingham has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that she was abused from the age of 16 in 1978 until 1982 by a parish priest in the diocese of Lismore, Father Paul Rex Brown, who died in 2005.

She claims she confronted church figures in 1990 but only received an apology this year.

On Friday, the commission heard evidence that the church was aware of sex abuse claims about Brown from as early as 1985.

Emma Fenby, a former claims manager for Catholic Church Insurance (CCI), also gave evidence on Friday.

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MINNESOTA
KEYC

By Tyler Utzka, Reporter

A press conference was held this morning in Mankato announcing the filing of a sexual abuse lawsuit. It was on behalf of a now, adult man who says he was abused when he was 8 years old.

The lawsuit alleges the Diocese of New Ulm and Servants of the Paraclete were negligent and requests the names of 12 accused child molestors.

Attorneys of the adult man who says he was sexually abused by Father Francis Markey back in 1982. They want the Diocese of New Ulm and Servants of the Paraclete to release the names of 12 accused and admitted child molestors in their clergy.

Attorney Michael Finnegan says, “Tragically, this young man never should have been abused repeatedly. That abuse was told to his supervisors and they continued to move him around until one day he ended up in Granite Falls at St. Andrews where he was abused as a young kid.”

The attorneys say the lawsuit is two–fold. Accusing the Diocese of negligence and nuisance.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, Dec. 12 2013

Former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong says the RCMP have completed an investigation into allegations of sexual assault levelled against him by a former student and found no evidence to support criminal charges.

Furlong has faced allegations stemming from his time teaching in northern B.C. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which first surfaced in a newspaper article last year and then escalated into a series of lawsuits.

Furlong has released a letter he received from an RCMP investigator last week, which says the force’s investigation did not support Abraham’s allegations and that the case is now closed.

He has issued a statement that says the RCMP letter exonerates him, and because of that, he is requesting a trial date in Abraham’s lawsuit.

Furlong released an earlier letter in October that also said there would be no charges, but at the time the RCMP insisted the investigation was still open, while the more recent letter makes it clear the file is closed.

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CANADA
CBC News

Former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong says the RCMP have closed an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against him by a former student and found no evidence to support criminal charges, prompting him to declare he’s been “fully cleared” in one of a series of allegations and lawsuits facing him.

The allegations stem from Furlong’s time teaching in northern B.C. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which first surfaced in a newspaper article last year.

The article quoted several people who said they were former students and claimed to have been verbally and physically abused by Furlong. It’s now the subject of a libel lawsuit by Furlong targeting the author, Laura Robinson.

Furlong publicly released a letter Thursday written by an RCMP investigator in Prince George, under the heading: “John Furlong — allegation of sexual assault.”

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CANADA
CTV

James Keller, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, December 12, 2013

VANCOUVER — Former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong says the RCMP have closed an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against him by a former student and found no evidence to support criminal charges, prompting him to declare he’s been “fully cleared” in one of a series of allegations and lawsuits facing him.

The allegations stem from Furlong’s time teaching in northern B.C. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which first surfaced in a newspaper article last year. The article quoted several people who said they were former students and claimed to have been verbally and physically abused by Fulong. It’s now the subject of a libel lawsuit by Furlong targeting the author.

Three people, including Beverly Abraham, have filed lawsuits against Furlong alleging sexual abuse, and the RCMP launched its own investigation into Abraham’s claims.

Furlong publicly released a letter Thursday written by an RCMP investigator in Prince George, under the heading: “John Furlong — allegation of sexual assault.”

“Based on the facts uncovered, the allegations made by Beverly Abraham are not supported,” wrote Cpl. Quinton Mackie in a letter sent to Furlong’s lawyer, dated Dec. 5.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 12/12/2013

A Maplewood pastor has been charged with raping two young girls for years, beginning when they were about 6.

The girls’ mother reported alleged abuse by Jacoby Kindred to police in July, when the girls, now 14 and 16, disclosed it, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court.

Kindred, 61, denied any inappropriate behavior and told police that the girls’ mother must have put them up to it. He made a reference to Minnesota being a “ladies’ state,” and said, “You weren’t there, nobody was there!” the complaint said.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. As of midday Thursday, there was a warrant out for his arrest.

Kindred told police he was a pastor with One Accord Ministries. He refers to himself on his Facebook page as “Jacoby Preacherman.” He declined to describe the church for a reporter but told police it does not have a building.

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MINNESOTA
The Raw Story

By David Edwards
Thursday, December 12, 2013

A 61-year-old Minnesota pastor was charged this week with raping two girls for nearly a decade.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that a complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court on Wednesday said that Jacoby Kindred began sexually abusing the girls when they were only about 6 years old.

After a letter was found referencing sex acts with Kindred, the girls, now ages 14 and 16, disclosed the relationship to their mother. Police were notified in July.

The younger of the two girls told a nurse at Midwest Children’s Resource Center that Kindred began digitally penetrating her at the age of 6. He later forced her to perform oral sex on him and then progressed to intercourse, the girl said.

“He told her the devil was inside her and he could take the demons out of her,” according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

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MINNESOTA
WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A self-proclaimed pastor is charged with raping two girls for many years, from the time when one was 6 years old and continuing into her early teens, court documents show.

Sixty-one-year-old Jacoby Kindred, of Maplewood, faces two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. If convicted of both charges, he could face a sentence of 60 years in prison and/or an $80,000 fine.

A criminal complaint states that Kindred knew the girls – the oldest of which is now 16; the younger, 14 — since they were very young.

Police became aware of the abuse over the summer after the younger girl’s mother found a letter the girl had written describing sex acts with Kindred. When talking with authorities in August, the 14-year-old cried, saying the abuse started about eight years earlier and continued until she was 13.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A 61-year-old Maplewood man is charged with first degree criminal sexual assault for allegedly raping two sisters for nearly a decade.

Prosecutors say the defendant, Jacoby Kindred, was a grandfather of sorts to the victims and allegedly began molesting when they were six and seven years old. Police were alerted to the case when a relative found a note that one of the girls had written describing the abuse at the hands of Kindred.

The victims, now ages 16 and 14, told investigators that the sexual molestation took place during sleepovers at Kindred’s house, and involved fondling, oral stimulation and penetration. They said the defendant told them that the “devil was inside them” and that the sexual activity would remove the demons. The girls told detectives that the abuse occurred repeatedly for approximately nine years.

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