ABUSE TRACKER

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 10, 2013

The pressure is on Minnesota dioceses to release lists of priests accused of abusing children.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, under fire for its handling of two cases involving sexual misconduct by priests, is also fighting a battle on a second front, facing heightened demands that it release a list held in secret since 2004 of alleged sex offenders among its clergy.

A court hearing on that issue in Ramsey County was where allegations of a child pornography coverup first surfaced last week.

A total of six court hearings seeking the release of secret lists, ­involving every diocese in ­Minnesota, are slated for this fall, with additional actions targeting about a dozen Catholic religious orders in Minnesota, said St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who is leading the effort.

A hearing in Crookston on Wednesday marked the first of those hearings, with attorneys for an abuse victim asking a judge to compel the local diocese to release its list. Hearings in New Ulm, Duluth and Winona are next.

Release of the full tally, which might run to dozens of priests facing credible allegations of abuse, could ignite an entirely new round of accusations and lawsuits at a time when many Catholics thought the worst of the clergy sex abuse tragedy was behind the church.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Journal

A RETIRED IRISH priest has been removed from his public position in Minnesota in the US after being “credibly accused of the sexual abuse of a minor female.”

The allegations relate to Father Cornelius Kelleher’s time as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm from 1975 to 1986. The Diocese of Duluth said in a statement that ”when the accusation was made, Father Kelleher was immediately removed from any public ministry and is no longer able to function as a priest in his retirement.”

The Diocese adds that, at present, no formal criminal charges or litigation in connection with this accusation.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

They praise a woman and a man who helped police
And they honor “Twin Cities victims who have spoken up”
“Not just kids, but vulnerable adults are victims too,” SNAP says
Group also blasts Archbishop for his lawyer’s recent “mean” comments
Church attorney impugned the motives of former top aide to Nienstedt
SNAP: “Church should be encouraging – not discouraging – disclosures”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a short vigil, clergy sex abuse victims will
–blast the archbishop’s lawyer who recently attacked a whistleblower in court and
–urge anyone who may have been hurt by Fr. Mark Huberty, who’s accused of sexually assaulting an adult, to “come forward, get help, call police and start healing.”

They will also praise
–local individuals who were hurt by priests and have spoken up over the years and
–two recent church whistleblowers who helped expose Fr. Jonathan Shelley & Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer &
–adults who are sexually exploited by clergy and who often find it even tougher to step forward

WHEN
TONIGHT, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 at 7 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1725 Kennard Street (north of Larpenteur Ave E and south of Maryknoll Avenue) in Maplewood (where a priest faces recent allegations of sexually exploiting an adult parishioner, and where another priest has just been sent who helped conceal child sex crimes)

WHO
Several local concerned Catholics and two-three victims who belong to a self-help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man who is the organization’s long time executive director. (He and his brothers were molested by a priest; one of them went on to become a priest and molest kids himself.)

WHY
According to Minnesota Public Radio, since May 1, “Maplewood police say they have been investigating allegations of criminal sexual misconduct by Fr. Mark Huberty, pastor of the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Fr. Huberty has taken a voluntary leave of absence over an allegation he inappropriately touched a woman, which he denies.”

SNAP is urging anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Huberty’s crimes to “find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers and protect others.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/09/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT
UPDATED: 10/09/2013 01:36:05 PM CDT

A University of St. Thomas law professor will announce at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday the names of members appointed to a new task force on clergy sexual misconduct.

Archbishop John Nienstedt named the Rev. Reginald Whitt to select the members of the Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force.

Whitt will meet with reporters at the Leamington company offices in Minneapolis, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Task force member Brian Short, CEO of Leamington, will speak about the scope and mission of the task force, the archdiocese said.

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

MINNESOTA
Inforum

The Associated Press – MINNEAPOLIS

The head of a task force that will review issues related to clergy sexual misconduct in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is expected to announce more details about the group.

The Rev. Reginald Whitt is meeting with the media Wednesday afternoon. He’s expected to speak about the independent task force and its mission. He’ll also announce the members of the group.

One member, Brian Short, will speak about the role of the task force and its scope.

On Sunday, Archbishop John Nienstedt announced the task force would review how officials have handled accusations of priest misconduct, after one pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct last year and another was recently accused of having child pornography.

Nienstedt says addressing these serious allegations are a “top priority.”

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.

POLAND
Montana Standard

Poland’s Catholic bishops have apologized to victims of child sex abuse by priests and announced steps aimed at preventing such abuse from happening again.

The bishops were reacting to recently revealed cases of child abuse by priests, including allegations against two Poles who served in the Dominican Republic, one of whom was a Vatican envoy.

After a two-day meeting of Poland’s bishops, Archbishop Wojciech Polak told reporters Wednesday that they “apologize for the priests who have harmed children” and said that the church has “no tolerance for pedophilia.”

He said documents adopted by the bishops call for psychological assistance to the victims and better screening and training of would-be priests to make the church a safe place for children.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Guardian Express

Father Robert L. Brennan, a Philadelphia priest who was arraigned on charges of rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and aggravated sexual assault has just had his bail reduced. Is the court making it easier for him to get out of jail so he can hurt more children?

This Philly priest was arraigned last month for sexually assaulting an altar boy over a 3-year period. This comes on the heels of previous accusations of sexually abusing more than a dozen other boys. Brennan was arrested in Perryville, MD on September 25 and was returned to Philadelphia the next day after waiving extradition.

Initially, a judge set his bail at 10 percent of $1million and ordered him against having any contact with his accuser. On Tuesday, his bail was reduced to 10 percent of $50,000 as if the judicial system wants him out sooner than later.

Spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Barbara Dorris, says they are worried and disappointed by the reduction. She said kids are safer when predators like Father Brennan are jailed. Their concern is he may flee overseas because he knows that he will face a long sentence if he’s convicted.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

Brother Bernard Hartman, who admitting molesting a child and reportedly has lived here for the last two years, will appear next month in an Australian court on charges that he abused four kids, the Aussey Broadcasting reports. He belongs to the St. Louis-based US Marianists, the group that runs Chaminade and Vianney high schools. Two years ago, Marianist spokeswoman Diane Guerra told reporters that Hartman was “very well supervised.”

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UNITED STATES
Hopefully Known

Tamara Rice

Can I be honest with you? I’m angry today. I’m sick to death of people equating exposing sin in the Church with slandering Christ’s bride. I’m sick to death of people equating exposing sin in the Church with hindering the gospel. I’m sick to death of people equating exposing sin in the Church with tarnishing our “witness” in the world.

I hate to go all cliche on you, but the people who say these things, frankly, don’t get it. They don’t get it. They are so awash in their ignorance of how the world really works, what the Church is called to be, and what unbelievers really think about and talk about that they actually think that silencing victims of abuse, protecting abusers, and refusing to publicly acknowledge harm done by institutional decisions is exalting Christ’s proverbial bride.

Right? Because if calling out criminal abuse and criminal church activities (i.e., not reporting abuse, which is a crime in many states, especially for clergy) is slandering Christ’s bride, then—at least for those who rail against us would-be temple cleansers—the opposite must be true.

Hiding/covering up pedophilia and abuse = building up the Church
Hiding/covering up pedophilia and abuse = advancing the gospel
Hiding/covering up pedophilia and abuse = increasing the effectiveness of our witness in the world

Now, no sane person of faith is going to look at the above statements and argue with me that they are true. And yet … every time they defend people who have covered up abuse, every time they accuse victim advocates of “slandering the bride,” every time they silence another voice or insist that their public sin is a private matter, they are proclaiming with their lives and their deeds that they DO believe the utterly asinine statements above. And if living out those toxic beliefs doesn’t actually in fact lead to slandering the bride, hindering the gospel and tarnishing the church’s witness, then I don’t know what does. And that’s the irony. These people simply do not get it. They do not get that they are the ones in sin. They do not get that they are the problem. They do not get that they shame us all. They do not see it. They do not want to see it. They are burying their heads and plugging their ears and still proclaiming in the face of all evidence to the contrary that the world is flat. They might be able to recite the Romans Road and the Four Spiritual Laws, but I doubt they’d know the transforming power of the gospel if it were staring them in the face.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013

Statement by Bob Schwiderski (952 471 3422, skibrs@q.com), Minnesota SNAP director

Twin Cities Catholic officials are giving extra pay to a predator priest and refusing to supervise him even though he was found guilty of child sex crimes at a trial.

[St. Cloud Times]

In 1996, a jury declared Fr. Robert Kapoun guilty of molesting Dale Scheffler.

Across the US, many priests like Fr. Kapoun are either defrocked or forced to live in a monitored, supervised setting so they’ll be kept away from kids. Twin Cities Catholic Archbishop John Nienstadt refuses, however, to do either.

Nienstadt is being terribly reckless. He has no idea if Fr. Kapoun is molesting kids today.

And Nienstadt is being terribly callous, by essentially paying a monthly “bonus” to a proven predator.

We can’t help but wonder: how many other child molesting Twin Cities clerics are living on their own, among unsuspecting families, getting paid extra to do no work, and perhaps grooming or assaulting kids right now.

Our hearts ache for brave Dale Scheffler, one of Fr. Kapoun’s victims, who endured a public trial. The jury verdict against Fr. Kapoun and the archdiocese was overturned, and archdiocesan officials had the temerity and viciousness to send Scheffler a bill for $6,019.10 for their legal costs.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

VICTIMS of alleged physical and sexual abuse by monks at a former Catholic boarding school are to launch a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of pounds compensation.

The six who attended Fort Augustus Abbey school, in the Highlands, have instructed an English law firm to sue the Benedictine Order, which ran the institution. David Greenwood, a solicitor for Switalskis, said the firm would be seeking between £30,000 to £100,000 per person depending on the abuse and how it had affected their life and ability to secure employment.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- The officials from Poland who came to the country to discuss the case of Wojciech Gil, charged with sexually abusing several boys, asked Dominican authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the catholic priest.

After meeting with Justice minister Francisco Domínguez Wednesday morning, they said Poland seeks documents and collaboration in the probe, because there’s no extradition treaty between Dominican Republic and Poland.

They noted however that Polish law provides for prosecution in that nation, for any crime committed by a citizen in any country.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

We are disappointed and worried by the bail reduction for Fr. Robert L. Brennan.

[WPVI]

Kids are safest when predators are jailed. And despite Fr. Brennan’s long ties to Philadelphia, we fear he may flee overseas if given a chance, knowing that he likely faces a long sentence if convicted.

Remember, Fr. Brennan is accused of molesting roughly 20 children. We believe he is still dangerous. And history, common sense and painful experience tells us that even when allegedly supervised, child predators – who are often shrewd and charismatic – find ways of getting access to and molesting other kids.

Moves like this bail reduction often discourage more victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from speaking up and reporting molesters.

Nevertheless, we hope every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups – by Fr. Brennan or any church employee – will speak up, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

On September 18 last I travelled the long journey to Wexford. I was representing the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) at a meeting with the Bishop of Ferns and his Priests’ Council. It was part of an effort, on the part of the ACP, to make contact with bishops and priests around the country.

We had asked the Papal Nuncio for a meeting but he felt it was more appropriate if we met the Irish bishops. We had then asked the bishops for a meeting but they thought it was more appropriate that we should meet the Councils of Priests. It was, you could argue, an ecclesiastical version of Pass the Parcel but nonetheless we took the invitation at face value and travelled up and down the country for almost a year. Ferns, the Wexford diocese, was one of our final meetings.

I was very graciously received in Wexford and the discussion ranged over a wide area:

the dearth of vocations;
dealing with allegations of child abuse against priest;
the new English translation of the Mass;
the method of appointing bishops;
the ‘silencing’ of priests;
the decline in religious practice;and so forth.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

The request for compensation by 10 victims of clerical abuse at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera is time-barred, according to the lawyer of the religious order – the Missionary Society of Saint Paul – that runs the home.

The first hearing in the case filed by the 10 men against the two former priests convicted of abuse – Charles Pulis and Godwin Scerri – the MSSP, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta and the government was held this morning in front of Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco.

The MSSP’s lawyer, Ray Zammit, filed a request for the entire proceedings to be held behind closed doors, a request which was backed by lawyers representing the Malta Archdiocese and the government. The two former priests, who are currently serving prison terms, had no lawyer representing them, prompting Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco to warn that this was a serious case and that legal assistance was very much required.

But the lawyers representing the 10 abuse victims, Franco Vassallo and Patrick Valentino, objected to the request, with the former stating that it was not in the interest of justice. He added that if anything, it should be the victims who should make such a request, and not the perpetrators.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, amid growing concerns of internal handling of clergy sexual abuse cases, responded to allegations of child pornography involving Father Jonathan Shelley by debating what constitutes the definition of child pornography.

Below you will find a list of documents that contain conversations and correspondence between top church officials including Archbishop John Nienstedt, former Vicar General Peter Laird and canon lawyer and former chancellor for canonical affairs, Jennifer Haselberger.

Also included is the police investigation of Fr. Jonathan Shelley and the court transcript from a hearing in Ramsey County on October 3, 2013 where arguments were heard about the release of a secret list containing 33 names of priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct in the Archdiocese and where Shelley’s police report and the internal investigative process came to light.

Jonathan Shelley Police Report

Court Transcript/10/3/13

Nienstedt to Cardinal Levada 5-29-2012

Haselberger to Nienstedt 2-8-2013

Haselberger to Nienstedt 2-4-2012

Haselberger to Nienstedt 2-15-2012

Shelley to Neil Diamond 2-23-2012

McDonough and Lady of the Lake 2004 docs

McDonough to Nienstedt Piche Laird Haselberger

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Hearing Tomorrow at 1PM in Crookston Regarding Release of Secret List of Priests with Credible Allegations of Sexual Abuse

October 8, 2013

(Crookston, MN) – Tomorrow at 1:00PM in a Polk County courtroom, a sexual abuse survivor, along with her attorneys, will request the public release of a secret list possessed and maintained by the Diocese of Crookston that contains the names of several priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse.

Judge Tamara Yon will hear arguments from the survivor’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, along with defense counsel for the Diocese of Crookston. The lawsuit was filed June 20th, 2013 in Polk County and also names the Diocese of Fall River, MA and the Servants of the Paraclete claiming they were negligent in allowing the now-deceased Father James R. Porter continued access to children. Father James R. Porter is suspected of abusing over 100 children in multiple states including Minnesota, Massachusetts, Texas, and New Mexico.

“We are asking for full and complete disclosure of offenders known to only the Diocese of Crookston, the Diocese of Fall River and the Servants of the Paraclete” said attorney Jeff Anderson. “The continued secrecy by all defendants gravely imperils the wellness of the community and the children.” The survivor and Anderson are also seeking the public release of the lists maintained by the Diocese of Fall River and the Servants of the Paraclete.

Similar hearings have been held in Ramsey County pertaining to the release of the names of priests contained in secret lists known only to, and maintained, by both the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The judge has yet to issue a ruling in these cases.

Not unlike the Ramsey county cases, arguments will be made in this case, and in others in the future about how the Diocese of Crookston maintained and kept secret this list. It is expected the Diocese will argue that the privacy of priests outweighs the need for public disclosure.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

NCR Editorial Staff | Oct. 9, 2013

In June 2012, Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer was removed as a pastor, after the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese received a complaint of child sexual abuse against him. The archdiocese informed the police, and by November Wehmeyer had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys, ages 12 and 14, and possessing child pornography. He is serving a five-year prison sentence.

Ostensibly, the archdiocese had complied promptly and fully with the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the standards for dealing with priests accused of abusing a minor. The archdiocese certainly spun the story that way. That may have been the final perception, if Minnesota Public Radio had not followed the story to its origins.

MPR learned that Wehmeyer had a long history of inappropriate sexual behavior and brushes with the law and the archdiocese knew it. Despite this, church officials kept Wehmeyer in ministry, and chose not to warn the parishes where Wehmeyer worked. The MPR report is at tinyurl.com/ndouawk.

Wehmeyer was ordained in 2001 at age 36. The first complaint against him came in 2004 when the archdiocese was informed that Wehmeyer approached two young men ages 19 and 20 for sex at a bookstore. He was sent for treatment and ordered to attend Sexaholics Anonymous meetings. In 2006, a police officer spoke to then vicar general Fr. Kevin McDonough after finding Wehmeyer cruising a park known as a hangout for men looking for anonymous sex.

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CONNECTICUT
The Day

By Karen Florin
Publication: The Day
Published 10/09/2013

A man in his 40s who says he was molested by a parish priest at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Niantic as a teenager has filed a civil lawsuit against the Norwich Diocese, the church and retired Bishop Daniel Reilly.

The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, claims that the Rev. Vincent Marino plied him with money and alcohol in 1983 and 1984 and sexually assaulted him on church grounds and elsewhere. He is represented by New London attorney Robert I. Reardon Jr., who has won millions of dollars for plaintiffs in clergy sex abuse cases.

Reardon said his client reported the abuse to church officials when he reached his 20s, but nothing was done. Marino was transferred from St. Agnes to St. Mary’s Church in Stonington and is now a parish priest in Siracusa, Sicily, according to Reardon. Marino is in his mid-50s.

“We have located him, and at some point we will be seeking his deposition,” Reardon said. “We have to petition the Italian courts for permission.”

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MALTA
Times of Malta

A religious order is insisting the compensation request by 10 clerical abuse victims is time-barred and that it cannot assume responsibility for the actions of two ex-priests jailed for sexually abusing boys

The case started being heard today.

Following a request by the Missionary Society of St Paul, of which Godwin Scerri, 77, and Charles Pulis, 68, were members, the court decided that witnesses will be heard behind closed doors, but legal arguments will be in open court.

The order is arguing that it cannot accept liability for the personal actions of its members who were adults, adding it was not aware of what had been going on.

In August 2011, Mr Scerri and Mr Pulis were respectively sentenced to five and six years’ imprisonment for sexually abusing 11 boys in their care at St Joseph Home, in Santa Venera.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Newburyport Daily News

By Mac Cerullo
Staff Writer

AMESBURY — Since coming forward publicly in 2002 to discuss his abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest, Gary Bergeron has seen a marked improvement in people’s attitudes toward victims of childhood sexual abuse.

But while people have become more aware of the problem, one aspect that he said is still often overlooked is life after abuse, and how difficult it can be for victims to come to terms with their experience and live the rest of their lives as survivors.

“One of the things I’ve learned over the past decade is that there is no easy life, there’s only life,” Bergeron said. “And I think it’s important for all survivors of childhood sexual abuse to understand that what happened to you is a part of who you are, but it doesn’t necessarily define who you’re going to be.”

Bergeron, who runs the Mill 77 consignment store on Route 110 with his wife, has become one of the nation’s most outspoken proponents of childhood sexual abuse awareness since the clergy abuse scandal first exploded in Boston 12 years ago.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

Abogado de denunciantes de Karadima señaló que es “normal” que Arzobispado niegue las acusaciones

El abogado defensor de los denunciantes de Fernando Karadima, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, señaló a Bío Bío La Radio que la respuesta efectuada el pasado 3 de octubre por el Arzobispado de Santiago en rechazo a la demanda interpuesta por James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo, era una acción totalmente esperable.

En el documento de 39 páginas, la Iglesia de Santiago manifiesta que el rechazo se debe a que “la comprensible pretensión de los demandantes no encuentra fundamento conforme a derecho”.

Sobre esto, el abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla manifestó que, en situaciones como éstas, sea normal que el Arzobispado niegue los hechos por los cuales se le acusa al sacerdote Fernando Karadima.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

One of the victims of former priest David Edwin Rapson once tried to flee his Victorian school fearing further abuse, and says he hasn’t stopped running in the two decades since.

Rapson, 60, was found guilty of five charges of rape and eight counts of indecent assault against eight boys at Salesian College’s Lysterfield and Rupertswood campuses between the 1970s and 1990.

One of his victims, abused as a teenager at Rupertswood, said his life had been riddled by drug abuse, mental health issues and family breakdowns.

In a victim impact statement read to the Victorian County Court on Wednesday, the man said he has been haunted by the abuse every single day since it happened.

“It’s like I’m always running from him,” he said.

“My life would have been so, so different if not for the abuse.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

October 9, 2013

Adam Cooper
Reporter for The Age

A victim of paedophile priest David Rapson has told a court how he had been “hell-bent on destruction” in trying to get away from the torment of abuse he suffered 23 years ago.

The man, who was a teenager when he was raped by Rapson on four separate occasions at Salesian College in 1990, said he had lived a life of drug addiction, self-harm, crime and the breakdown of family relationships in the years since.

“There hasn’t been one day in 23 years since that I haven’t thought about what my abuse and what David Rapson did to me,” he said in a victim impact statement read to the County Court on Wednesday.

“My life would have been so, so different if not for the abuse.”

Rapson, 60, was in August found guilty of five charges of rape and eight counts of indecent assault in sexually assaulting eight boys at Salesian College between the mid 1970s and 1990. His victims are now men aged in their late 30s to 50s.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY BEN CHAPMAN AND RACHEL MONAHAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Already facing a sex-abuse lawsuit filed by former students, Yeshiva University hired a Hebrew teacher who has a record for lewd behavior, it was reported Tuesday.

Akiva Roth, then a teacher at a Jewish day school in West Orange, N.J., was convicted for exposing himself to bar mitzvah boys in 1997, the Forward reported. He pleaded guilty to four counts of lewdness and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation, the Forward found.

Last fall, the university became engulfed in a sex scandal after former students at the university’s High School for Boys came forward to describe the abuse they’d suffered at the hands of their former rabbis during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Jeane Macintosh
October 9, 2013

So much for cleaning up its reputation as a haven for sexual predators.

Yeshiva University, dogged by allegations it covered up decades of sex abuse at its boys’ high school, has put a convicted child molester on its payroll.

Kiddie predator Akiva Roth, 42, is teaching at the school’s Yeshiva College unit in Washington Heights, despite pleading guilty in 1997 to four counts of lewdness against several male students.

A judge at the time blasted Roth for being unrepentant and for blaming his schoolboy victims for “enticing him” into the abusive behavior.

Roth, the son of New York Rabbi Joel Roth, started at the college at the beginning of the academic year as a full-time instructor, teaching four classes a week, according to the Jewish Daily Forward, which first reported the twisted staffing decision. Some high school students also attend the all-male college.

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ALASKA
KTUU

By Austin Baird
Channel 2 News
3:25 p.m. AKDT, October 8, 2013

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
A Buddhist monk sentenced was last month in Chicago for raping and impregnating a 14-year-old girl, and an advocacy group wants to know if there may have been similar crimes in Anchorage.

Camnong Boa-Ubol pleaded guilty to “sexually assaulting a teenage girl for two years at a southwest suburban temple” and received a 15-year sentence.

He lived in Anchorage in May 2012 when he was arrested, and a group that advoacates for clergy sex abuse victims — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — is asking for residents to come forward if they know of other abuse by Boa-Ubol.

“Predators rarely stop assaulting others, so we strongly suspect that Boa-Ubol has also hurt innocent kids or vulnerable adults in Alaska,” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP, in a release. “He can still face more charges but only if people find the courage and strength to step forward.”

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.

ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News

By BENJAMIN S. BRASCH — bbrasch@adn.com

A sexual abuse victims’ advocacy group is searching for information that may lead authorities to additional victims of a Buddhist monk who spent time in Anchorage before being convicted in Illinois of sexual assault.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is looking for anything that would connect Camnong Boa-Ubol to othervictims, the group said Tuesday in a release..

Boa-Ubol lived in Anchorage in 2012 and worked as a dishwasher at LSG Sky Chef, according to the FBI.

An FBI agent, an air marshal and an Airport Police Department officer jailed Boa-Ubul in Anchorage on May 11 at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on an Illinois warrant, according to news accounts.

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

AUSTRALIA
Zenit

Sydney, Australia, October 08, 2013 (Zenit.org)

The Church in Australia is looking to overhaul its system for handling clerical sexual abuse cases. Catholic leaders have endorsed the development of a reform agenda.

According to the blog of the Australian bishops, Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said the reforms are now being fully developed and will be presented to Church leaders in the first half of 2014.

“These proposals recognize that we must do better when we are dealing with victims of sexual abuse and as we work to make sure our institutions are as safe as possibly for children,” Sullivan said.

Proposals include:

— appointing independent compensation commissioners to determine payments to victims who go through the victim response process known as Towards Healing. This would separate the pastoral responses in Towards Healing from the determination of financial payments
— the appointment of lay and independent experts to strengthen the Church’s National Committee of Professional Standards
— the introduction of an independent national board to develop and administer national child protection standards. The board would monitor adherence to these standards and publicly report on compliance
— the board would also provide more rigorous assessment, monitoring, auditing and enforcement of Towards Healing practices
— the introduction of greater transparency through public reporting by both the new national board and the Towards Healing process.

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

CALIFORNIA
10 News

SAN DIEGO – An attorney told Team 10 there are internal documents that can prove administrators at a school run by the Rock Church knew about allegations of sexual abuse.

The Rock Church Academy says it fired a teacher as soon as school officials discovered the alleged abuse. However, in two internal emails obtained by Team 10, the school’s principal and some teachers saw red flags long before police were ever notified.

Latisha and Mel Zamora claim their daughter was molested by a former teacher at the Rock Church Academy.

“She goes, ‘He did molest me, mommy.’ I tried to keep it together; I wanted to run, scream and die,” said Latisha Zamora.

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.

CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

VAN NUYS (CBSLA.com) — A former usher at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sun Valley was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in state prison for sexually abusing three boys.

Marcelo Lozano, 34, was also ordered to register as a sex offender, according to the district attorney’s office.

Lozano, who was arrested July 29, pleaded no contest in September to two counts of continuous sexual abuse and one count of oral copulation of a person under 14.

Lozano met the victims, who were 8 to 11 years old at the time of the crimes, through the Jehovah’s Witnesses Sun Valley Spanish congregation, according to Deputy District Attorney Rena Durrant.

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
News 4

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An usher from a Los Angeles Jehovah’s Witness congregation has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing three boys he met there.

Prosecutors say 34-year-old Marcelo Lozano was sentenced Tuesday and ordered to register as a sex offender. He pleaded no contest last month to two counts of sexual abuse and one count of oral copulation of a person under the age of 14.

Lozano met the boys, who ranged in age from 8 to 11 years old,, through the Jehovahs Witnesses Sun Valley Spanish congregation, where he was an usher.

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

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

SHANNON DEERY
Herald Sun
October 09, 2013

THE former principal of a Catholic boys school stood and watched as his deputy sexually abused a young student, a court has heard.

The principal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of a circle of alleged Salesian priests in charge of the order’s Sunbury college, Rupertswood.

He later went on to become one of the Salesian’s highest ranked officials. At a pre-sentence hearing for former vice-principal David Edwin Rapson today new details of a shocking culture of pedophilia at the school emerged.

The court heard the disturbing culture helped transform Rapson, 60, from a “low level pedophile” into a “sadistic” abuser.

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

MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

[with video]

October 8, 2013

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) – The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is calling for the Duluth Diocese to be more transparent in its dealings with alleged sexual assault cases.

The latest request from SNAP comes just after the Duluth diocese announced a former Chisholm priest sexually abused a minor female between 1975 and 1986.

Standing outside the diocese offices, SNAP National Director David Clohessy and Northeast Director Verne Wagner called for anyone who saw or suffered abuse to speak out, and seek help.
They also called for local prosecutors to investigate those who both commit and conceal sex crimes within the diocese.

In a comment directed toward Bishop Paul Sirba, they also said that it’s inexcusable and irresponsible to say nothing when an abuse allegation in made, and determined to be credible.

“We would urge the bishop to come clean and post on his website, as 30 other U.S. bishops have done, the names of every credibly accused child molesting cleric in that diocese, and to keep that list up there permanently,” said Clohessy.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[with video]

By Dan Stamm and David Chang | Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013

Bail was reduced for a Philadelphia priest who was arraigned last month on charges that he sexually assaulted an altar boy over a three-year period and was previously accused of sexually abusing 20 boys.

A judge set Rev. Robert L. Brennan’s bail on rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and aggravated sexual assault charges at 10 percent of $1 million back on September 27. Brennan also was ordered to not have contact with his accuser.

On October 8, his bail was reduced to 10 percent of $50,000.

“We are disappointed and worried by the bail reduction for Fr. Robert L. Brennan,” wrote Barbara Dorris, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests(SNAP). “Kids are safest when predators are jailed. And despite Fr. Brennan’s long ties to Philadelphia, we fear he may flee overseas if given a chance, knowing that he likely faces a long sentence if convicted.”

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

MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

A pair of victims’ rights advocates took Bishop Paul Sirba to task Tuesday for his handling of allegations that Father Cornelius Kelleher had sexual relations with an underage girl during his tenure at St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm.

By: Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune

A pair of victims’ rights advocates took Bishop Paul Sirba to task Tuesday for his handling of allegations that Father Cornelius Kelleher had sexual relations with an underage girl during his tenure at St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm.

David Clohessy, the national executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and Verne Wagner, SNAP’s Northern Minnesota director, maintain that the Duluth diocese failed to follow the U.S. Catholic Church’s own policies when it didn’t notify law enforcement authorities of a report that Kelleher had sexual contact with a minor.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People says: “The Charter acknowledges the role of the public authorities in matters of sexual abuse of minors by clergy in Article 4, which requires dioceses and eparchies to report any and all allegations involving minors to the authorities in accordance with civil law, and to cooperate with those authorities during investigations of these matters. All dioceses and eparchies examined during 2012 included mandated reporter language in their policies and procedures, as applicable.”

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
October 9, 2013

Editor’s note: This story originally aired on Minnesota Public Radio February 8, 1996. It is being republished as part of a report on the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ handling of child sexual abuse.

Dale Scheffler sat quietly in the atrium of the Hennepin County Government Center, his back to reporters, head down. His wife Ellen stood by him and her parents comforted Scheffler before he stepped before reporters and directed his remarks at Archbishop Harry Flynn.

“Archbishop, I come here today to ask you to please remove him. How can you go on living and knowing that they are doing this — please — I’m asking you to remove these people,” the 28-year-old said, “to remove all these priests that are doing this to these kids that are getting hurt.”

A Hennepin County jury is expected to decide soon if the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis should pay punitive damages to Scheffler, who says he was molested by Rev. Robert Kapoun at the age of 13, back in the 1980s.

The jury has already awarded $550,000 in compensatory damages in Scheffler’s civil suit against the priest.

The archdiocese released a letter in midafternoon writen by Archbishop Flynn saying, effective this spring, 57-year-old Kapoun is resigning as priest of a Prior Lake parish. There is no acknowledgelement in Flynn’s letter the resignation is a response to Dale Scheffler’s plea. In fact, the archdiocese supports Kapoun’s claim he did not molest Scheffler.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

By Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
October 9, 2013

They called him the Polka Padre. Later, they called him the Polka Predator.

For decades, the Rev. Robert Kapoun charmed parishioners with his accordion at “polka masses” across Minnesota. Privately, he took young boys to saunas, rectories and a secluded cabin in Cold Spring and sexually assaulted them, according to court testimony. Parents complained but leaders at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did little to stop him.

• Read the court documents

Kapoun remained in ministry until 1996, the year a lawsuit brought by Dale Scheffler, one of his victims, went to trial. It was the biggest clergy sex abuse case in Minnesota history. Over 10 days in a packed Hennepin County courtroom, jurors watched in shock as a parade of top church leaders defended and minimized their inaction. Former Archbishop John Roach claimed memory loss, while Kapoun, then 57, claimed that God had cured him of his sexual interest in young boys.

The jury awarded a $1 million verdict. Scheffler broke down sobbing.

It was a short-lived victory. An appellate court overturned the verdict the following year due to the statute of limitations. All Scheffler got was a bill from the archdiocese for its legal expenses.

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

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

[FRANCIS CONVENES EXTRAORDINARY SYNOD ON THE FAMILY FOR OCTOBER 2014 – Vatican Information Service]

Jerry Slevin

Pope Francis today announced his biggest “change order” to date. A year from now, he will convene a Synod of Bishops to start on October 5, 2014, a month before the key US Senate elections.

The agenda will be “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family”. The moderator will be Italian Archbishop Baldiserri. He was most recently Secretary of the committees of bishops and of cardinals. For decades before, he was a Vatican diplomat with no significant pastoral experience. No lay Catholics and certainly no women will apparently participate actively, although they may be able to send e-mails, etc.

So after an over-hyped and under-performing Council of 8 Cardinals meeting that failed even to address meaningfully any accountability of bishops for protecting child predator priests, over 300 childless senior celibate males will meet to review the rules on making love, getting married and having children. Is this a bad dream?

Of course, all of the men attending were selected on their pledge to oppose contraception and gay marriage. Is there any doubt how they will likely come out a few weeks before US elections that predictably could determine the composition of the US Supreme Court for many years to come? Francis has now cutely planned to delay for 18 months showing his real hand on change–no change on the issues that really matter to most Catholics. But controlling the US Supreme Court matters to hierarchs worried stiff about bankruptcy and imprisonment

Francis had a choice. He could address now after six months effective changes that would seriously curtail child abuse by making bishops accountable, such as removing criminal Bishop Finn. Or he could try to fight on with the disasterous policies of his two predecessors who never saw a bishop cover-up they didn’t try to hide. He has chosen to fight on, as he did in Argentina in the case of Fr.Grassi, a convicted child abuser.

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

MINNESOTA
KARE

[with video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. – St. Paul police said the department is reopening a closed child pornography investigation involving a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

According to our media partner, Minnesota Public Radio, police closed the case looking into allegations of child pornography found on computer files once belonging to the priest for lack of evidence.

However, circumstances changed after a Hugo man gave police files which came from a computer that once belonged to Shelley, MPR reported.

“I would guard against guessing or assuming or leaping to the fact that reopening an investigation means that charges are imminent. It doesn’t,” said St. Paul Police spokesperson Howie Padilla. “I would guard against saying that charges are not imminent. It doesn’t mean that either. What it means is we have new evidence and we have more questions than answers.”

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

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Richard Chin and Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
POSTED: 10/08/2013

St. Paul police Tuesday reopened their child pornography investigation involving a Hugo priest and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

St. Paul police had been investigating allegations that the Rev. Jonathan Shelley possessed child pornography on a computer owned by the priest. But it closed the investigation Sept. 29 for lack of evidence because computer discs turned over to police by the archdiocese contained only adult pornography, not child pornography.

Less than a week later, the case took a twist.

Nine years ago, a Hugo parishioner who owned the house where Shelley lived had obtained the computer owned by Shelley, saw sexual images on it and reported it to the archdiocese. That man, Joe Ternus, remembered last week that he had copied files from the machine’s hard drive before he turned it over to the archdiocese in 2004.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has invited state lawmakers to meet next week at a Beacon Hill club, an unusual sit down between Catholic hierarchy and the legislative rank-and-file that one two-decade state representative called unprecedented in his tenure.

O’Malley will meet with lawmakers on Oct. 17 for an “informal continental breakfast” at the Union Club, according to an invitation sent to members who represent districts within the Boston Archdiocese. Legislators “will be provided an overview of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Office and the key social service programs provided by Catholic Charities and related organizations.”

A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed that the private meeting with a large group of lawmakers was the first of its kind since O’Malley was named archbishop in 2003.

The meeting comes as Beacon Hill power brokers have signaled a willingness to pursue legislation extending the statute of limitations in civil sexual abuse cases. Catholic officials have previously opposed the legislation, which would allow alleged victims to bring cases until they turn 55 years old, regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse had occurred. A separate bill would open a one-year window for those over 55 to report allegations.

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.

MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

Posted by Andrew Sylvia (Editor) , October 08, 2013

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Boston Archdiocese, has invited Massachusetts elected officials to breakfast.

The church has wooed and held sway in Massachusetts politics for years, but that relationship froze after a series of sexual abuse allegations and cases against priests came out in 2003.

The move comes as officials mull extending the statute of limitations in sex abuse cases, a move the church has opposed, according to boston.com. That won’t be the topic of discussion at the breakfast, however. The invitation focused on discussing common ground and shared interests for the common good, according to boston.com.

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

MINNESOTA
WDIO

By: Laurie Stribling
lstribling@wdio.com

Two men, who said they were sexually abused by priests, spoke out against the Diocese of Duluth Tuesday. They said the Duluth clergy did not properly handle the recently-revealed abuse case.

“It’s inexcusable and irresponsible of the Bishop to say nothing when an abuse allegation is made, say nothing while it’s investigated, say nothing when it’s made credible and say nothing when the priest is suspended,” SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy said.

Clohessy is talking about the case made public Sunday in which a priest, who worked at a dozen churches in the Northland, was accused of abuse a year ago.

“God forbid if Father Kelleher hurt one more child in those 14 months,” Clohessy said.

“You can’t say you’re transparent and credible when you don’t come forward like everyone else and call the police,” Northern MN Snap Director Vern Wagner said.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADELPHIA – September 27, 2013 (WPVI) — The bail for a former Philadelphia priest, accused of child sex abuse, was reduced from $1 million to $50,000 on Tuesday.

Robert Brennan, 75, posted bail after a hearing, Action News has learned.

As a condition of his release he is allowed to leave the state but not the country.

Brennan was charged after a former altar boy came forward, saying Brennan molested him over a period of three years.

Brennan was arrested at his home in Maryland and brought back to Philadelphia in late September.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)–At a motions hearing on Tuesday morning, bail for Rev. Robert Brennan was reduced from $1 million to $50,000.

Brennan posted bail but surrendered his passport, keeping him from leaving the country.

A preliminary hearing has been set for October 17th.

Rev. Robert L. Brennan, 75, is facing charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ABC News

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic October 9, 2013

Associated Press

A fugitive priest who was convicted of sexually abusing a child in the Dominican Republic has been detained during an unrelated probe.

In 2010, the Rev. Domingo Espinal was sentenced to 15 years for raping a 12-year-old boy in 2003. He was allowed to remain free while he appealed, and when the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal last month he went on the run.

The Dominican Republic’s attorney general’s office says Espinal was captured late Monday when he went to pick up a teenager who got in trouble for uploading a defamatory video to the Internet. Police officers recognized Espinal as the fugitive priest and arrested him.

The boy told authorities that Espinal was his father. Officials say it’s not clear if the boy’s assertion is accurate.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
La Raza

SANTO DOMINGO, República Dominicana — Autoridades dominicanas detuvieron al sacerdote católico Domingo Espinal, que estaba prófugo desde septiembre, cuando debió ingresar a prisión por una condena por abuso sexual infantil.

El cura fue arrestado cuando acudió la noche del lunes a la fiscalía de la provincia Santo Domingo, al oriente de la capital, a recoger a su supuesto hijo menor de edad que había sido detenido como sospechoso de haber subido a internet un video difamatorio a nombre de “Anonymus Dominicana”, explicó la Procuraduría General en un comunicado.

Cuando el padre del adolescente llegó a la fiscalía, los agentes se dieron cuenta que se trataba del sacerdote prófugo. El menor les había explicado que grabó y subió a internet el video por solicitud de su padre.

Antecedentes del caso

Espinal fue condenado en 2010 a 15 de cárcel por haber violado sexualmente a un niño de 12 años en 2003. La Suprema Corte de Justicia rechazó a mediados de este año la apelación del sacerdote, por lo que la condena de prisión debió comenzar en septiembre. Por el caso, el religioso estuvo detenido, en carácter de prisión preventiva, entre 2004 y 2005.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 8 2013

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

We are grateful this step has been taken – the re-opening of the investigation into Fr. Jonathan Shelley’s alleged child porn – but we’re confused as to why law enforcement officials weren’t more aggressive about this case to begin with. And are outraged that Catholic officials refused to turn over evidence to police when asked to do so.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Law enforcement needs to investigate those who commit AND conceal child sex crimes. It’s too easy to fixate on the offender and ignore those who help the offender.

Recently released archdiocesan records show that the secrecy and deceit shown in the cases of Fr. Shelley, Fr. Wehmeyer and Fr. Henrich are not aberrations. They are the norm. In clergy child sex cases, hiding as much as you can and doing as little as you can continues to be the archdiocesan modus operandi.

These are not “missteps” or “mistakes” or “oversights.” Catholic officials are well-educated and smart. So are their lawyers and their public relations professionals. They act with great care in clergy sex cases.

But they’re torn. While common sense and parishioner outrage and public relations concerns might tempt Archbishop John Nienstadt to discipline men like Andrew Eizenzimmer, Fr. Kevin McDonough, Fr. Peter Laird and others, the archbishop fears that demoting, defrocking or denouncing these men is problematic, because they could then “turn on” Nienstadt and become whistleblowers themselves.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: October 8, 2013

Question concerns whether priest had illegal child porn on his computer, which was sold at parish rummage sale.

St. Paul police said Tuesday that they have reopened an investigation into whether a Catholic priest downloaded child pornography in 2004 while he served at a church in Mahtomedi.

The priest’s attorney has acknowledged that his client had downloaded adult pornography but said the priest denies downloading child porn.

Jennifer Haselberger, who resigned in April from her job as a canonical attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, reported the priest to Ramsey County officials after, she contends, the church hierarchy failed to do so. She turned over numerous documents indicating that church officials were concerned about possible criminal prosecution. A computer forensics expert hired by the church in 2004 had characterized some of the images as “borderline illegal,” according to documents turned over to police by Haselberger and obtained by Minnesota Public Radio.

St. Paul Police reviewed three discs containing images from the priest’s hard drive and found no child porn. But the investigating officer, Sgt. William Gillet, noted that the priest’s computer had been destroyed long ago, adding that he couldn’t be certain that the discs reviewed by police contained the same content that was originally reviewed by the forensics expert.

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MINNESOTA
Fox 9

Updated: Oct 08, 2013
by Maury Glover
by Mike Durkin

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) –
St. Paul police have reopened their investigation into the possession of child pornography at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Last Thursday, Vicar General Peter Laird resigned after a police report surfaced in court that revealed the Archdiocese may have known for almost a decade that one of its priests, Rev. Jonathan Shelley, may have had child pornography on an old computer. The Archdiocese allegedly kept Shelley on the job as a parish priest without warning parishioners or police.

Joe Ternus was the one who originally discovered the pornography on Shelley’s computer. His father had gotten the computer from St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi, Minn., where Shelley was working at the time.

When Ternus checked over the computer it before giving it to his children, he saw at least a half-dozen images of adult pornography and turned it over to the Archdiocese back in 2004.

Read more: Police reopen child porn case involving MN priest, Archdiocese – KMSP-TV http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/23639025/police-reopen-child-porn-case-involving-minn-priest-archdiocese#ixzz2hAa6nUkX

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OHIO
Fox 28

Updated: Tuesday, October 8 2013

COLUMBUS (Ken Hines) — Catholic Diocese investigators are looking into an accusation of sexual abuse against a retired priest.

Diocese officials announced Tuesday that they are investigating Father Raymond Lavelle after a “credible” allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was reported to the Chancery Office in early September.

The abuse allegedly occurred while Lavelle, 83, worked at St. Agnes Parish in Columbus from 1971 to 1980.

The allegation was determined to be credible by the Diocese Review Board. Diocese analysts are now investigating Lavelle’s activities during his long career in central Ohio, which began in 1957 and included tenures at several schools and churches.

Lavelle retired from active ministry in 2000, according to the Diocese of Columbus

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MINNESOTA
Washington Post

Recent misconduct allegations against Minn. priests raise new questions for Catholic Church

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, October 8

ST. PAUL, Minn. — When Jennifer Haselberger uncovered what looked like recent, troubling sexual behavior by several Minnesota priests — a stash of possible child pornography on one priest’s computer hard drive, another with a well-documented history of sexual compulsion still leading a parish — she tried to ring alarm bells at the top ranks of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese.

But Haselberger, who resigned last April as the archdiocese’s chancellor for canonical affairs, said she felt ignored. She has since gone public with concerns that Minnesota’s archbishop and top deputies failed to truly reform how they handle problem priests, despite repeated promises to do so.

“I do not believe it can be said that the archdiocese is honoring its promise to protect” children and young people, Haselberger said last week in a statement to the media.

Unlike many of the abuse revelations that have rocked the U.S. Catholic Church, the allegations Haselberger brought to light aren’t decades old or involve perpetrators long retired or dead. They all happened after 2002, when U.S. bishops held a high-profile meeting in Dallas and approved broad policy changes meant to quickly remove predatory priests from parishes and restore the church’s tattered credibility with millions of Catholics.

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

MINNESOTA
KTSP

Created: 10/08/2013
By: Scott Theisen

When Jennifer Haselberger uncovered what looked like recent, troubling sexual behavior by several Minnesota priests – a stash of possible child pornography on one priest’s computer hard drive, another with a well-documented history of sexual compulsion still leading a parish – she tried to ring alarm bells at the top ranks of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese.

But Haselberger, who resigned last April as the archdiocese’s chancellor for canonical affairs, said she felt ignored. She has since gone public with concerns that Minnesota’s archbishop and top deputies failed to truly reform how they handle problem priests, despite repeated promises to do so.

“I do not believe it can be said that the archdiocese is honoring its promise to protect” children and young people, Haselberger said last week in a statement to the media.

Unlike many of the abuse revelations that have rocked the U.S. Catholic Church, the allegations Haselberger brought to light aren’t decades old or involve perpetrators long retired or dead. They all happened after 2002, when U.S. bishops held a high-profile meeting in Dallas and approved broad policy changes meant to quickly remove predatory priests from parishes and restore the church’s tattered credibility with millions of Catholics.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Mike Cronin, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
October 8, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police say they are reopening a closed child pornography investigation involving a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Police had closed the case looking into allegations of child pornography found on computer files once belonging to the Rev. Jonathan Shelley for lack of evidence.

Circumstances changed after Joe Ternus, of Hugo, Minn., gave police files which came from a computer that once belonged to Shelley. The files contained thousands of pornographic images, including some that may have included minors, according to a private investigation firm retained by the archdiocese.

Ternus discovered the images 10 years ago after a parish official gave Shelley’s computer to Ternus’ father. Ternus on Saturday said he contacted St. Paul police to tell them that he made a copy of a large part of Shelley’s hard drive before he turned over the computer to the archdiocese.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
October 8, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The church lawyer turned whistleblower at the center of a series of investigative reports involving the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was described glowingly as “studious, thoughtful and extremely well prepared” by the archbishop who hired her in 2008.

As of last week, a lawyer for the archdiocese was referring to her as a disgruntled former employee.

Jennifer Haselberger, who left her position as chancellor for canonical affairs last April, was appointed to the post in August 2008 by Archbishop John Nienstedt. She resigned four and a half years later after a series of unsuccessful attempts to get her superiors to take action on problem priests.

One of those efforts, which she later described as the “nuclear option,” involved copying pornographic images that had been found on a priest’s computer onto a word document and sending them to the archbishop. Some of the images, she said, appeared to show boys engaged in sexual acts.

After Nienstedt failed to call the police, his deputy, the Rev. Peter Laird, ordered Haselberger to hand over the images. She did so, she said — and called Ramsey County authorities. She also contacted MPR News. Information from Haselberger figures prominently in a series of investigative reports that MPR has published in recent weeks on the church’s responses to revelations about troubled priests.

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

MINNESOTA
The Garden Island

Posted: Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Police in St. Paul, Minn., have reopened their investigation of an old case of a priest and pornography that has shaken the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Spokesman Howie Padilla (puh-DEE’-uh) said Tuesday that police got new information that warranted a new look at the case.

The case first surfaced in 2004 when a citizen who bought the priest’s computer at a church rummage sale turned its hard drive over to church leaders.

The priest’s attorney says his client downloaded adult pornography — not child pornography. And church leaders say it wasn’t clear the pornography was illegal.

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MINNESOTA
Galveston Daily news

Posted: Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Associated Press

When Jennifer Haselberger uncovered what looked like recent, troubling sexual behavior by several Minnesota priests _ a stash of possible child pornography on one priest’s computer hard drive, another with a well-documented history of sexual compulsion still leading a parish _ she tried to ring alarm bells at the top ranks of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese.

But Haselberger, who resigned last April as the archdiocese’s chancellor for canonical affairs, said she felt ignored. She has since gone public with concerns that Minnesota’s archbishop and top deputies failed to truly reform how they handle problem priests, despite repeated promises to do so.

“I do not believe it can be said that the archdiocese is honoring its promise to protect” children and young people, Haselberger said last week in a statement to the media.

Unlike many of the abuse revelations that have rocked the U.S. Catholic Church, the allegations Haselberger brought to light aren’t decades old or involve perpetrators long retired or dead. They all happened after 2002, when U.S. bishops held a high-profile meeting in Dallas and approved broad policy changes meant to quickly remove predatory priests from parishes and restore the church’s tattered credibility with millions of Catholics.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Tuesday, October 8, 2013

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

Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt, formerly of Detroit, is coming under fire for ignoring and concealing the alleged child sex crimes of at least two Minnesota priests – Fr. Jonathan Shelley and Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer.

Our group has called for a criminal investigation into Nienstadt and his staff. For years, in both cases, Catholic officials saw evidence or signs of suspected child sex crimes and refused to tell police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public.

Nienstedt was born in Detroit, attended seminary in Detroit, was ordained in Detroit, and became a bishop in Detroit. We strongly suspect that, while in Detroit, he also hid, minimized and enabled clergy sex crimes.

We urge every current and former Detroit Catholic church employee or member to call police with any information or suspicions they may have about clergy sex crimes or cover ups, whether on Nienstedt’s watch or later. It’s never too late to tell law enforcement about known or possible crimes. It’s crucial, if kids are to be safe, that those who commit OR conceal heinous crimes against kids are reported, exposed, investigated and prosecuted.

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.

POLAND
GlobalPost

AFP

Poland’s top Catholic cleric apologised Tuesday for suggesting parents shared the blame for paedophilia cases, including those involving Catholic priests, after a public outcry.

Poland is one of Europe’s most strongly Roman Catholic countries, but public loyalty to the church is weakening, particularly in the wake of a series of allegations of paedophilia involving priests.

Speaking to the Polish PAP news agency Tuesday, Archbishop Jozef Michalik condemned paedophile priests, but said child abuse “manifests itself when a child is looking for love” and could be avoided “given a healthy relationship between parents”.

Michalik later apologised and said he had been misunderstood, after the comments sparked a media storm.

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POLAND
Daily Mail (UK)

Paedophilia is caused by divorce, says Poland’s top Catholic bishop as he blames parents for not bringing up children properly

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

The top Catholic bishop in Poland today blamed divorce for encouraging paedophilia by damaging young people.

Archbishop Jozef Michalik said that sex abuse was the result of people ‘looking for love’, and appeared to suggest that divorce could be just as harmful to children as paedophilia.

The controversial claims come as Poland’s Catholic church faces mounting allegations of priests sexually abusing children.

‘Many of these cases of molestation could be avoided given a healthy relationship between parents,’ Archbishop Michalik told the PAP news agency.

‘We often hear that this inappropriate attitude [i.e. paedophilia], or abuse, manifests itself when a child is looking for love.

‘It clings, it searches. It gets lost itself and then draws another person into this.’

While condemning paedophile priests ‘whom neither the Church nor anyone else can accept,’ the cleric also spoke out against divorce as being harmful to children.

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POLAND
The Star

BY DAGMARA LESZKOWICZ

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s most senior Catholic cleric said children with divorced parents were sometimes more vulnerable to sexual abuse by priests, remarks that prompted a storm of outrage though the church later said it was a slip of the tongue.

The comments from Archbishop Jozef Michalik entrenched the view among some younger Poles that the church is out of touch with modern society and failing to properly confront allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

In comments shown on Tuesday by broadcaster TVN24, Michalik said child sexual abuse by priests was unacceptable, but the debate about it needed to be broadened out beyond the immediate physical or psychological wounds inflicted on the victims.

“And one has to say … how many wounds are inflicted when parents divorce? We often hear that this inappropriate attitude (paedophilia), or abuse, manifests itself when a child is seeking love,” said the clergyman, who is head of the Roman Catholic episcopate in Poland.

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

MINNESOTA
The Freethinker

BY BARRY DUKE – OCTOBER 8, 2013

BACK in 2004, a computer that belonged to a Catholic priest, Fr Jonathan Shelley, wound up in the possession of a Minnesota man called Joe Ternus.

Termus’s father got the computer from a house he that he owned at that time. It was being used as the rectory and Shelley was the last pastor to live in the house, which was scheduled for emolition.Ternus was given the computer by his dad, and was about to pass it onto his kids. But before doing so, he wanted to see what was on it.

A link on the desktop was the first thing I found – it was a dial-up link for adult content. My radar went way off.

He looked further, searching for photo files.

And boom, there was a ton of stuff.

He said he looked at only a half-dozen of the porno images, but he estimated there were thousands of them.

What I saw was enough to want to get the church involved.

The family, who belonged to the St Jude parish, called an attorney, who contacted the archdiocese. Several days later, a private investigator hired by the archdiocese contacted him.

He told me to bring (the hard drive) to my office that day, and that I WAS going to turn it over.

He said the investigator’s attitude was bullying and that raised his hackles. He also he suspected that no action would be taken against the priest.

I was absolutely enraged at that point that a parish priest had this on a computer in the first place.

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CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Morris-Young | Oct. 8, 2013

Sulpician Fr. James McKearney has been forced to resign as rector and president of St. Patrick Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif., a surprise event some call an appropriate change in leadership and others decry as “brutal” and “confusing.”

McKearney’s sudden removal by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone stunned students and faculty and the Sulpician himself.

“It just came out of the blue for reasons that are still not clear to myself or my provincial,” McKearney told NCR.

McKearney said during the school’s annual gala Sept. 14, Cordileone insisted on a 2 p.m. meeting with him two days later — a Monday — at the seminary. During the gala, Cordileone publicly thanked McKearney for his leadership and labors.

Cordileone, San Jose Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daly and San Francisco Vicar for Administration James Tarantino met with McKearney on Sept. 16 and left him no option but to resign, according to McKearney, who had been president-rector since 2009 and at the seminary since 1999. The seminary currently serves 93 students from more than a dozen dioceses, most based in California.

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MINNESOTA
The Wild Reed

Michael J. Bayly

Earlier today my friends Lisa (above), Paula, and I gathered on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Paul with members and supporters of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Here we distributed leaflets expressing a number of concerns about Archbishop Nienstedt’s response to recent sex abuse and cover-up scandals in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Lisa’s sign points to the fact that at the same time last year that Archbishop Nienstedt was actively campaigning to deny civil marriage rights to same-sex couples, he and his administration failed to warn parishioners of a priest, Curtis Wehmeyer, with a history of sexual misconduct. Wehmeyer is now serving five years after being convicted of sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography. Throughout his ultimately unsuccessful anti-marriage equality campaign, the archbishop declared that granting civil marriage rights, benefits, and responsibilities to same-sex couples would threaten what he (and others) call “traditional marriage.”

During this same time period, Archbishop Nienstedt failed to alert police to certain pornographic images confiscated from the computer of a second priest, Jonathan Shelley. It’s since been revealed that Archdiocesan leaders debated internally for a year whether some of the images met the legal definition of child pornography. In early 2012 Jennifer Haselberger, Chancellor for Canonical Affairs, examined the images which at that time were being stored in the basement of the chancery. She determined that some of them were “definitely ‘borderline’ child pornography” and showed them to both Archbishop Nienstedt and Vicar General Peter Laird. In response, Laird ordered Haselberger to hand the images over to him.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Michael Sean Winters | Oct. 8, 2013 Distinctly Catholic

The effort of some of our Catholic friends on the right to question or object or contextualize to the point of gutting the obvious import or even to demean Pope Francis’ happy penchant for speaking frankly continues. They rightly perceive that something different is happening in the church under the leadership of our new Holy Father. It brings to mind the words of the prophet Isaiah (43:19): “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

The Rome correspondent for LifeSiteNews, Hilary White, perceives there is something new, and she is not happy at all about it. She writes of the concern that Pope Francis’ words have “reached so deeply into the minds of orthodox believers,” but why is that a concern? Isn’t that a good thing? No. Because these orthodox believers have relied upon Rome to provide “doctrinal precision.” Of course, no one is in favor of doctrinal imprecision. But, really, what is the concern here?

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POLAND
Fox News

Published October 08, 2013
Associated Press

WARSAW, POLAND – A top official in Poland’s Catholic Church has apologized for a comment he made about pedophilia by priests, but said he did not mean to suggest that child victims were partially responsible.

At a hastily called news conference Tuesday, Archbishop Jozef Michalik, the head of the Conference of the Episcopate, said: “I am sorry for this misunderstanding.”

Earlier in the day, Michalik had made an off-the-cuff comment to reporters about recent cases of pedophilia by Polish priests before a conference that Poland’s Episcopate is holding about such issues.

He said a child from a troubled family “seeks closeness with others and may get lost and may get the other person involved, too.”

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MINNESOTA
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Yesterday, I mentioned in passing the story now breaking in the Catholic archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, where officials of the archdiocese have known from 2004 that a parish priest under their authority, Rev. Jonathan Shelley, has pornographic images of boys on his computer, but kept him in his position as a parish priest. For Minnesota Public Radio, Madeleine Baran published a run-down of the story yesterday. The details are absolutely damning.

They show archdiocesan officials debating for years the definition and details of child pornography, while they were in possession of evidence that Father Shelley had contravened laws making the possession of child pornography a criminal act, and while they had the obligation to report him to the authorities for possessing child pornography. And all this after the American bishops had made a solemn oath to the Catholic people of the U.S. that they would clean up the child abuse situation in the Catholic church and would stop exposing Catholic children to danger . . . .

As Jerry Slevin points out in two hard-hitting postings at his Christian Catholicism blog (here and here), credit for blowing the whistle in this case goes to a courageous woman, Jennifer Haselberger, a canon lawyer who was formerly archdiocesan Chancellor for Canonical Matters, but who has been vilified by the officials of the archdiocese after she alerted the police and the media to the Shelley story, and who has now resigned her position. Jerry writes,

The female Chancellor bravely quit in protest. She is holding her ground against her bishop, an arch anti-gay marriage activist. She is proving, single handedly, what a difference a woman makes, in a world of childless celibates, when it comes to protecting children, among other things.

She is also likely giving many in the Catholic hierarchy in the USA and the Vatican some real nightmares, since she likely knows even more “secrets”. This bold woman is not clamming up like Philly’s Cardinal Rigali’s Secretary, Msgr. Lynn, did.

Pope Francis should appoint her immediately to the Council of Cardinals, instead of only the “usual suspects”. He would then at least get the full truth. She probably already even owns a red dress, but may need to buy some cufflinks.

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MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on October 8, 2013

In July, I blogged about how institutions should not be in the child sex abuse investigation business. Little did I know that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis would prove me right so quickly.

Here’s a recap from what we learned yesterday from Minnesota Public Radio (emphasis mine):

Archbishop John Nienstedt was in the middle of a heated political fight over same-sex marriage in February of last year when he learned of a disturbing secret, hidden in the basement of the chancery — pornography from a priest’s computer, some of which appeared to depict children.
Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the computer of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, then pastor of St. Jude of the Lake church in Mahtomedi, Minn.

Haselberger, a firebrand top official who joined the archdiocese in 2008, notified Nienstedt of the evidence, which included a report at the time from a private investigator that found that many of the depictions “could be considered illegal, because of the youthful-looking male image.”

According to church documents, the computer actually held child abuse images of boys under 14. You know, the illegal kind.

So what did Nienstedt do? He wrote letters and memos. Lots of them. He wrote to the Vatican, saying that the images could expose the Archdiocese to criminal charges. He wrote his deputies and they nit-picked over whether the images were “technically” child pornography (which many of them were). They hemmed and hawed over Canon law.

Did they call the cops? Hell, no. In fact, they fired the woman who eventually did.

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

MINNESOTA
The American Conservative

By ROD DREHER • October 8, 2013

The disclosures in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis case keep coming. You may have thought these stories were behind us. They aren’t. Read today’s piece from Minnesota Public Radio:

Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the computer of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, then pastor of St. Jude of the Lake church in Mahtomedi, Minn.

Haselberger, a firebrand top official who joined the archdiocese in 2008, notified Nienstedt of the evidence, which included a report at the time from a private investigator that found that many of the depictions “could be considered borderline illegal, because of the youthful-looking male image.”
What followed was a contentious, yearlong debate among top leaders inside the chancery about whether the images met the legal definition of child pornography, according to internal church documents that Haselberger provided to police earlier this year and were obtained by MPR News. The documents shed new light on the Shelley case and provide a closer look at decisions that Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn made to keep the matter quiet and continue Shelley in ministry.

OK, think about that. The bishop — the bishop! — and his inner circle spent a year arguing over whether photos of hot naked guys found on a priest’s hard drive crossed the line into illegality, thus forcing them to take him out of ministry. Stop right there. This is morally insane. Imagine Archbishop Nienstedt standing before the people of St. Jude parish and saying, “Good news, my brothers and sisters! I’ve investigated the matter, and decided that the gay porn your pastor was looking at does not meet the legal definition of child pornography. Father Shelley can stay with you as your spiritual father. You’re welcome.” That this was even a debate within the chancery as to Shelley’s fitness for pastoral leadership shows you how bad the problem is.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/08/2013

Archbishop John Nienstedt wrote to the Vatican last year about whether the pornographic images found on a Hugo priest’s computer hard drive could “expose the Archdiocese, as well as myself, to criminal prosecution,” according to a copy of the document given to Minnesota Public Radio.

The letter was provided to MPR by Jennifer Haselberger, a former official of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who said that it was never mailed. Haselberger gave it to St. Paul police.

Nienstedt wrote to Cardinal William Levada on May 29, 2012, that the discovery of pornography on the computer of Rev. Jonathan Shelley happened before he became archbishop. He was therefore “unable to comment as to why this matter was not reported to you at that time,” as required by a papal order of 2001.

The letter provides more detail about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of archdiocese officials regarding the discovery of Shelley’s computer.

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VATICAN CITY
inSerbia

A Vatican investigative committee has convicted Lebanese priest Mansour Labaki of sexually abusing at least three children and soliciting sex from a number of others, a French Christian magazine reported on Monday.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a Vatican body that investigates allegations of pedophilia committed by members of the Church, sentenced Labaki to “a life of prayer,” and barred him from attending public mass, speaking to the media, or contacting the children he allegedly molested, La Croix said.

Labaki, a Maronite cleric, author and composer, had built a reputation in Lebanon as a caregiver to orphans and needy children through the various charities and orphanages to his name.

A profile written on Labaki in a US-based Catholic periodical last year quotes him as saying that he treats the orphans under his care as if they were his own children.

The priest added that his newest shelter Kfar Sama, located in an eastern suburb of Beirut, was built “not only for orphans, but [for] those who are looking for tenderness.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward

By Paul Berger
Published October 08, 2013.

Yeshiva University, still reeling from allegations that for decades its leaders dealt improperly with the specter of sexual abuse, has hired a new faculty member convicted of inappropriate sexual behavior with boys, the Forward has learned.

Akiva Roth, who started this new school year as a Hebrew teacher at Yeshiva College, pleaded guilty in 1997 to four counts of lewdness against several boys in his work as a private bar mitzvah tutor.

Roth, 42, has not been accused of misconduct at Y.U. But his employment by Yeshiva College calls into question Y.U.’s hiring practices at a time when the university is battling to repair its public image over the sex abuse allegations.

A spokesman for Y.U. issued the following statement: “Yeshiva University has policies and procedures in place that require background checks for new hires. We are currently in the process of thoroughly exploring the matter you brought to our attention.”

Ever since the Forward first reported allegations of sexual abuse made by dozens of former students of Yeshiva University’s High School for Boys, Y.U. has sought to distance current management practices from those of Rabbi Norman Lamm, who was president of Y.U. from 1976 until 2003.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

OK, kids, I need your help here.

Dr. Eric commented on my latest post (which is about a priest addicted to gay child porn and other priests and bishops who protect him and give him access to children), and my reply follows …

How do these guys make into the seminary? How do they end up getting ordained?

Dr. Eric
October 8, 2013 at 4:24 AM
Blogger Kevin O’Brien said…

Eric, the only answer I can come up with is any actual belief in God has been abandoned [in the Church]; the empty shell of an unmarried all-male culture that exists to serve a God that no one believes in anymore serves only as a cover for this kind of behavior. The false culture these men assert becomes a mask that protects the real culture of homosexual license and sex with children. I really think, in many cases, it’s literally that bad.

This is not to say that no priest or bishop is sincerely Christian, but a pretend culture now protects a true culture of unbelievable depravity.

This also explains liturgical abuse and lay Catholics who don’t know who Jesus Christ is in any except the most superficial of ways. A true Catholic culture would not bear such fruit. Hypocrisy rotten to the core would.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
on October 08, 2013

A grassroots advocacy organization for child sex abuse victims is stepping up the pressure on lawmakers to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes.

Justice4PAKids is running advertisements on PennLive and in editions of The Patriot-News with a haunting message that they hope will motivate legislative leaders to act this fall.

It says, “PA legislative leaders: Many victims of child sexual abuse live with this nightmare: ‘He’s still out there.’ And they can’t even talk about he did because the statute of limitations expired.”

Maureen Martinez, co-founder and president of the Malvern-based group focused solely on dealing with this statute of limitations issue, said her group has worked faithfully for nearly three years on getting the statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes lifted. Yet, any legislation that would alter the statute of limitations has yet to get a vote by the full House or Senate.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

Sun-Times Media Wire
September 30, 2013 (STICKNEY, Ill.) (WLS) — A Buddhist monk has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage girl for two years at a southwest suburban temple.

Camnong Boa-Ubol, 62, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault for assaulting the girl “on numerous occasions” at a Buddhist temple in Stickney Township, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

Boa-Ubol lived and worked at the Wat Dhammaram Temple when he the assaults took place, a statement from the Cook County Sheriff’s office at the time of his arrest said.

The assaults began in 1998 when the girl was 13, prosecutors said in a statement. Boa-Ubol asked the girl to do work outside the temple in exchange for money, then later invited the girl into a trailer on the temple grounds, where he sexually assaulted her, the statement said.

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ALASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Sex abuse victims seek help from Anchorage citizens
“Speak up if you saw, suspected or suffered his misdeeds,” SNAP says

For immediate release: Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013

For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Barbara Dorris ( 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com ), Barbara Blaine ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Anchorage citizens to “speak up” if they “saw, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds” by a Buddhist monk who was sentenced last month in Chicago for raping and impregnating a 14-year-old girl.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are asking anyone with information about “crimes or misdeeds” by Camnong Boa-Ubol to call police and prosecutors.

Boa-Ubol was living in Anchorage May 2012 when he was arrested. In late September, he was pleaded guilty to “sexually assaulting a teenage girl for two years at a southwest suburban temple”and received a 15 years sentence.

[WLS]

“Predators rarely stop assaulting others, so we strongly suspect that Boa-Ubol has also hurt innocent kids or vulnerable adults in Alaska,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP’s director. “So he can still face more charges, but only if people find the courage and strength to step forward.”

“It’s always tempting to stay silent if you’ve been hurt or betrayed,” said Joelle Casteix of Orange County CA, SNAP’s western regional director. “That silence is what predators count on. And that temptation must be overcome if future clergy sex crimes and misdeeds are to be prevented.”

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POLAND
GlobalPost

AFP

The top cleric in Poland’s Roman Catholic church said Tuesday that parents share the blame for certain cases of paedophilia, including those involving Catholic priests.

The comment comes amid mounting allegations of paedophilia involving priests in Poland, one of Europe’s most heavily Catholic countries where loyalty to the church is beginning to wane.

“Many of these cases of (sexual) molestation could be avoided given a healthy relationship between parents,” Archbishop Jozef Michalik, head of Poland’s Episcopate told the Polish PAP news agency Tuesday in Warsaw.

“We often hear that this inappropriate attitude (paedophilia), or abuse, manifests itself when a child is looking for love,” Michalik said.

“It (the child) clings, it searches. It gets lost itself and then draws another person into this”, Michalik said.

While condemning paedophile priests “whom neither the Church nor anyone else can accept,” Michalik also spoke out against divorce as being harmful to children.

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OHIO
NBC4i

Updated: Oct 08, 2013
By: Alex Mazer, Multimedia Content Producer

COLUMBUS, Ohio –
The Catholic Diocese of Columbus has launched an investigation regarding allegations of the possible sexual abuse of a minor by a retired priest.

According to the diocese, it is alleged that Father Raymond E. Lavelle, 83, sexually abused a minor during his tenure at St. Agnes Parish, in Columbus, from 1971 to 1980.

The allegations were reported to the Chancery Office on September 3. The allegations where then forwarded to Franklin County Children Services.

On September 16, the review board met and determined that the allegation was credible and warranted further investigation.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

Created: 10/07/2013

By: Ellen Galles

The Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul is reeling from accusations that one of its high-ranking priests helped cover up a child pornography case. That priest resigned last week, and now the archbishop is calling for a new task force to investigate and respond to sexual misconduct cases.

In a written statement the archbishop said, “There can be no room for misconduct among our clergy, and our standard must be zero tolerance for abuse of minors and vulnerable adults,” Archbishop Nienstedt said.

He also released plans for a new task force being put together by Fr. Reginald Whitt, a Dominican priest from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Fr. Whitt will select at least six members, all of them nonclergy. The purpose will be to create policies for preventing, investigating and responding to sexual misconduct.

Some critics say that’s not enough. Members of SNAP, a support network for victims abused by priests, gathered outside the cathedral in St. Paul Monday afternoon. Executive Director David Clohessy called the task force a publicity stunt.

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ILLINOIS
Pokrov

Author: Theodore Kalmoukos
Date Published: 10/03/2013
Publication: The National Herald

Glenview, IL – In a controversy regarding alleged trust fund misappropriations by a current priest at the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Glenview, IL when he had served at another parish, Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago removed James Gottriech from the presidency of the Saints Peter and Paul Parish Council, as well as from the Council itself. What prompted the metropolitan’s action was a letter Gottriech sent him conveying the Council’s unanimous request to place the priest, Fr. James Dokos, on a temporary on leave of absence until the Milwaukee, WI District Attorney completes a full-scale criminal investigation about the alleged misappropriations. The investigation pertains to a trust overseen by Dokos while at the Annunciation Church in Milwaukee, where he had served for 22 years.

The prominent and well-respected Gottriech wrote in the September 18 letter to Iakovos, with a copy to Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, that “we are advised that the District Attorney of Milwaukee has opened a formal criminal investigation of Fr. Dokos in connection with the Franczak Trust. The investigation has been widely reported in the press in both Milwaukee and Chicago, and on TV news broadcasts. Although Fr. Dokos has not requested a leave of absence from his duties at our parish pending the outcome of the investigation, his continuing to serve while under this cloud is hurting our parish life. Acting as if things are normal is dispiriting and demoralizing for many of our faithful, both those attending the Liturgy, and those who have difficulty pretending. Accordingly, we respectfully ask that you place Fr. Dokos on leave of absence until this investigation is concluded and that you assign, on a temporary basis, a retired or active priest who does not presently have a parish assignment, to serve along with Fr. [Presbyter Panagiotis] Boznos.”

He also wrote that “setting aside for the moment the cloud that this criminal investigation has cast over our parish, we must address the issue of succession so that we are prepared when the time comes. [Dokos has, since he arrived, expressed his expectation that his ministry at the parish would be “short-term”]. When, and under whatever circumstances Fr. Dokos leaves our parish, we assure you that our Parish Council will be prepared to actively participate and be “consulted” in any future assignment of our Proistamenos [Art. 17, Sec.2 of the UPR].”

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MINNESOTA
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

In the St. Paul Archdiocese, not far from Kansas, a brave woman leader has followed Dorothy’s example in the Wizard of Oz. She doggedly (but without Toto!) followed the yellow brick road to the truth that protects children. Her journey has led to a remarkable lifting of the Vatican’s curtain on its current child protection charade, as amply revealed in a new article.

The former Archdiocesan Chancellor for Canonical Matters, Jennifer Haselberger, a well educated and respected canon lawyer, is publicly taking on her bishop and the papal inquisition that masquerades as child protectors. Predictably, the clerical Tin Men in her Chancery Office and at the Vatican are searching in vain for hearts and brains, it appears. Childless celibate men too often fail to understand or value children, as is sadly but increasingly becoming too clear. They appear, though, to understand well and to fear greatly Federal prosecutors.

The amazing and disturbing story, with documentary support, including proposed correspondence with the Vatican’s purported child protection department, is reported extensively and superbly in a new article by a very diligent group of journalists at the respected Minnesota Public Radio organization.

For the essential details, please click on at:

[Minnesota Public Radio]

This pathetic story reveals clearly that the Vatican’s “Zero Tolerance” policy is in practice more like a “Zero Competence” or “Zero Morality” policy. Will Pope Francis please step up and fix this obscenity. He must stop kissing a few babies and begin protecting millions of children transparently.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Not long ago I asked, “What would you do?” regarding a predator priest in the archdiocese of St. Paul, who had a long history of sexual misconduct with teen aged boys and who kept a camper on the parking lot of his parish, where he eventually molested two boys who were not yet teens. Nobody told me what they would do, but Archbishop Nienstadt did nothing. For this he was praised by conservative Catholics.

Well, there’s another scandal in St. Paul, and you can read about it in detail at the Minnesota Public Radio site … but let me summarize it for you.

While a transitional deacon waiting to be ordained to the priesthood, Jon Shelley caught the attention of counselors at a retreat center, who noted that he had trouble keeping proper boundaries with boys, and “wrestled” with some of them in a swimming pool.

After being ordained, Fr. Shelley allowed an 18-year-old boy to live in the rectory with him at one point.

Thousands of gay pornographic images were discovered on Shelley’s computer in 2004, some apparently of boys.

Search terms such as “free naked boy pictures” were found on Shelley’s computer.

When the archdiocese learned of these photos and search terms, they asked Shelley to turn his two other personal computers over to them. He refused, smashing one with a hammer.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Bolton News

Exclusive By Miranda Newey, Crime reporter

RAPES reported to police in Bolton have more than doubled in the last year.

Between June, 2012, and the end of July this year, 93 rape allegations were made to officers, compared to just 37 in the same period a year earlier.

But police stressed the increase was a result of more people reporting rapes, rather than an increase in crimes.

Leading rape case police officer Det Insp Damian Simpson, of Bolton’s serious sexual offences unit, said: “The rape unit was set up last year and I believe people are getting the confidence to come forward, rather than there being more people being raped.

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CANADA
Medicine Hat News

ALEX McCUAIG
amccuaig@medicinehatnews.comTwitter:MHNMcCuaig

For generations, First Nations, Inuit and MŽtis children were subjected to emotional, physical and sexual assaults while attending Canada’s residential schools. Starting Wednesday, local survivors will get the opportunity to share their experiences as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission visits Lethbridge.

“They tried to protect me my sister and another girl three or four years older but they couldn’t protect me 24 hours a day,” said a local woman the News is identifying as “Gina.”

“But they couldn’t protect me at three or four o’clock in the morning. The nuns and the priests had the power to do whatever they wanted and they got away with it for years.”

Originally from the North West Territories, Gina says she was taken from her family when she was four years old and subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic nuns and priests who ran the schools.

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CANADA
CTV

CTV Montreal
Published Monday, October 7, 2013

MONTREAL — A former Roman Catholic deacon from the West Island was back in court Monday to be faced in a third charge in his child pornography case.

William Kokesch was charged with possession of child pornography in addition to earlier charges of distribution and production of child pornography after his arrest in late December 2012.

Responding to a complaint from a citizen, police searched Kokesch’s home and allegedly found a vast quantity of child pornography as well as chat messages on pedophilic websites. Police seized computer equipment and more than 2,000 pictures of children.

The man, in his 60s, was a consultant for the St-Edmund of Canterbury Church at the corner of St-Charles Blvd. and Beaconsfield Blvd. for seven years and is said to have advised the current Pope.

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — A West Island church deacon charged in December with distributing and producing child pornography had a third charge added to his file Monday.

William Kokesch, 66, who has been free on $10,000 bail since his arrest, was charged with possession of child pornography. He chose to waive a preliminary hearing and go straight to trial. His next court date is Jan. 14.

Police seized more than 2,000 computer files and messages left on Internet chat sites while executing search warrants in December at his home and the Beaconsfield church where he served as a deacon.

During the bail hearing late last year, crown prosecutor Dominique Potvin had said Kokesch would be charged with possession of child pornography.

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MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

It may be time for the archbishop to hold a press conference … The latest from MPR’s Madeleine Baran says: “Archbishop John Nienstedt was in the middle of a heated political fight over same-sex marriage in February of last year when he learned of a disturbing secret, hidden in the basement of the chancery — pornography from a priest’s computer, some of which appeared to depict children. … What followed was a contentious, yearlong debate among top leaders inside the chancery about whether the images met the legal definition of child pornography, according to internal church documents that Haselberger provided to police earlier this year and were obtained by MPR News. The documents shed new light on the Shelley case and provide a closer look at decisions that Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn made to keep the matter quiet and continue Shelley in ministry. … Among the documents is a letter drafted by Nienstedt to the Vatican, dated May 29, 2012, in which he worries that ‘the images in [Shelley’s] personnel file could expose the Archdiocese, as well as myself, to criminal prosecution.’ ”

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DULUTH (MN)
Minnesota SNAP

He’s accused of mishandling abuse in St. Paul
And he’s hid local abuse report for over a year, SNAP says
Group calls for prosecutors to investigate clergy sex cover ups

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will blast Diocese of Duluth bishop for his role in two clergy sex abuse cases that have surfaced this month (one in Duluth and one in the Twin Cities).

They will also

— urge Duluth area prosecutors to investigate the diocese,
— urge the bishop to disclose the names of every child molesting cleric in the diocese and permanently post their names on his website, and
–beg every person who saw, suspected and suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Minnesota (especially current and ex-Catholic employees) to come forward, call police, protect others and start healing.

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday October 8 at 11:15 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, 2801 E 4th St., Duluth, MN 55812

WHO
Two-three clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Missouri man who is the organization’s long time director

WHY
Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba now faces questions about his involvement in two clergy sex abuse cases that have emerged within the last week.

Yesterday a Twin Cities mother accused Sirba of “of participating in a cover up involving (Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer) who abused two of her boys. She told the Star Tribune that “she believes Sirba was more interested in the church’s reputation than in protecting her children” when he called her in 2009 about Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer who is now in prison for child sex crimes.

[Star Tribune]

Also yesterday, Sirba admitted that he hid allegations of child sexual abuse by a priest, Fr. Cornelius Keleher, for more than a year, and the Duluth prosecutor says that no Catholic official told him about the accusations.

[Duluth News Tribune]

Sirba only disclosed the allegations this weekend after he had been publicly linked to a scandal involving Fr. Wehmeyer .

On Sunday, when Sirba announced the allegations against Fr. Kelleher, he said he “rather quickly” ousted the priest from ministry. SNAP disputes this claim.

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MINNESOTA
Patch

Though the priest is deceased now, Frank Meuers of Plymouth claims the sexual abuse happened in 2010.

Posted by Stefanie Briggs (Editor) , October 07, 2013

At the steps of the St. Paul Cathedral Church Oct. 7 Frank Meuers of Plymouth came forward claiming he had been sexually abused by a priest, KARE 11 reports.

Meuers showed KARE 11 the letter he sent to church officials that Father Rudolph Heinrich of St. Margaret Mary parish in Golden Valley had sexually abused him.

Meuers feared there were other victims too and after nine months heard back from church leaders that admitted they had spoken to others who were abused by Heinrich, who is deceased, reported KARE 11.

Archbishop John Nienstedt provided a statement saying such allegations of sexual abuse would be addressed urgently and are a top priority.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: October 7, 2013

Diocese official could have done more to protect her sons from clergy sexual misconduct, she says.

A day after Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba told parishioners that he is “completely committed” to assisting victims of clergy sexual misconduct, a St. Paul mother accused him of participating in a coverup involving a priest who abused two of her boys.

“There’s nothing Catholic about it. There’s nothing Christian about it. There’s nothing decent about it,” the mother said Monday in an interview with the Star Tribune.

She was referring in part to a phone call she received from Sirba in 2009, when he was vicar general of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese. She said Sirba called her after learning that one of her boys had gone camping alone with the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who later was convicted of sexually abusing the child and his brother. The mother said Sirba told her to make sure another adult was present on any future trips — but that he said the gist of his message was that supervision was needed to protect priests from the appearance of scandal.

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MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune

By: Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune

Bishop Paul Sirba revealed more details Monday about the case of Father Cornelius Kelleher, an 81-year-old retired Catholic priest removed from public ministry for alleged sexual transgressions during his 11-year tenure as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm more than two decades ago.

Kelleher retired in July 2012. An allegation that he sexually abused a minor female emerged two months later, Sirba said.

After looking into the accusations and finding them credible, Sirba said Kelleher was stripped of his priestly duties and authority in October 2012.

This weekend, Sirba shared news of the allegations and the discipline with parishes where Kelleher worked from 1956 to 2012. Those included St. James in Duluth, St. Joseph in Crosby, Holy Family in Eveleth, St. Mary in Cook, St. Bridget in Greaney, St. Benedict in Duluth, St. Joseph in Gnesen, St. Joseph in Lakewood, St. Joseph in Chisholm, St. Andrew in Brainerd, St. Patrick in Hinckley and St. Joseph in Beroun.

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MINNESOTA
Irish Central

By PATRICK COUNIHAN, IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, October 8, 2013, 7:06 AMUpdated Tuesday, October 8, 2013, 7:06 AM

A retired Irish priest has been removed from ministry as the Diocese of Duluth in Minnesota investigates claims of child sexual abuse more than a generation ago.

The 81-year-old Rev. Cornelius Kelleher has been ‘credibly accused’ according to a statement from the diocese.

The retired Catholic priest served much of his career in the Northland.

The report says that the diocese announced on Sunday that he ‘has recently been credibly accused in the sexual abuse of a minor female during his time as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm from 1975 to 1986’.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 10/07/2013

A Plymouth man said Monday that he was molested by a now-dead priest who served in the 1930s at St. James parish in St. Paul, among other churches.

Frank Meuers, 74, said he wrote to the longtime head of public relations for the archdiocese in November 2010, disclosing abuse by the Rev. Rudolph Henrich at a church in Golden Valley.

No church official replied to Meuers until more than nine months later.

Kevin McDonough, then vicar general of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, expressed his “embarrassment” to Meuers in his Aug. 29, 2011, letter. He apologized that no one had yet responded to Meuers.

McDonough continued by saying he was the archdiocesan official who “began to respond to the abuse committed by Rudolph Henrich” in 1991, 20 years earlier. Henrich died in July 1992, months after McDonough became involved.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Yorkshire Post

A WEST Yorkshire Police investigation into its dealings with Jimmy Savile “does not have the look and feel of an independent report”, one of the country’s most senior officers has claimed.

Operation Newgreen, published in May after revelations of the disgraced DJ’s links with officers in the county, failed to give the impression of “independent assurance” and may have made it seem the force was being defensive, according to Avon and Somerset chief constable Nick Gargan.

Mr Gargan made his comments after being asked to investigate whether West Yorkshire’s assistant chief constable Ingrid Lee, who commissioned and oversaw the Operation Newgreen report, had failed to declare her business relationship with serving and retired colleagues.

In his response, seen by the Yorkshire Post, he said Mrs Lee was only guilty of a “minor technical breach” of force policy by not declaring her directorship of two firms and that he had found nothing that would undermine her “integrity or reputation”.

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CANADA
Global News

British Columbians are divided on providing more compensation for victims of the residential school system, according to a new poll.

46 per cent of people surveyed in a new online poll conducted by Insights West support more compensation for victims, while 43 per cent oppose the idea. British Columbians in the highest income brackets are more likely to oppose additional compensation for residential school survivors at 49 per cent against.

British Columbians overall are in favour of more education, official apologies and conferences on abuses suffered by Aboriginals in the residential school system.

44 per cent of British Columbians say they are familiar with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a fact-finding group established by the federal government. 42 per cent of British Columbians say society as a whole needs to do more to help Aboriginals who were part of the residential school system.

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CANADA
Edmonton Journal

BY MARK KENNEDY, POSTMEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 7, 2013

OTTAWA — The Harper government is on the verge of potentially imposing an “assimilationist” education system on aboriginal children that repeats the mistakes of residential schools from past decades, says the head of Canada’s largest aboriginal group.

In an interview with Postmedia News Monday, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to turn the page on more than a century of Canada’s mistreatment of its indigenous peoples.

He called on the federal government to take substantive action in critical areas — by recognizing native treaties and land claims, establishing a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, and dropping its “unilateral” and “top-down” approach on how to bolster education for aboriginal children.

The calls came as aboriginals marked the 250th anniversary on Monday of the Royal Proclamation, the document which provided the basis for promises made to First Nations peoples by the British Crown.

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CANADA
The Province

BY ELAINE O’CONNOR, THE PROVINCE OCTOBER 6, 2013

Twenty-five years ago, Barney Williams Jr. was on a car trip with his wife when he came to a fork in the road. His wife told him to pick any direction he wanted to go. Williams froze, then sobbed behind the wheel.

His fear, born from years in abusive residential schools, was any choice he made would be wrong, and he would be punished for it.

“Everything I did, I was beaten for,” he said. “They told us: ‘You are never going to amount to anything. You’re a savage. You’re stupid.”

Williams was five when he was sent from his home in the Tlaoquiaht First Nation reserve near Tofino to Christie residential school. He was one of at least 150,000 children across Canada who were placed in residential schools.

Students were beaten for speaking their language. For four years, Williams was abused by a priest. At his Kamloops Roman Catholic high school, he was abused by a nun.

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UNITED STATES
John Paul II Millstone

Paris Arrow

Updated October 7, 2013, feast of the Rosary

John Paul II the ugliest pope to be canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday, another robotic Catholic prayer

In July 2002, John Paul II went for his last World Youth Day in Toronto only an hour flight from Boston where the epicenter of priest pedophilia has erupted in January. But amidst the chant of “JP2, we love you” of Opus Dei robots Catholics, John Paul II refused to mention or meet with one of the thousands of victims of 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law confessed that he aided and abetted. Later in October 2002, John Paul II issued his Apostolic Letter wherein he added the Fourth Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. In October he also canonized Opus Dei Spanish fascist founder Josemaria Escriva.

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MINNESOTA
Northlands News Center

October 7, 2013

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) — A spokesman for the Duluth Diocese says a woman, who says she was sexually abused by a priest in Chisholm sometime between 1975 and 1986, has chosen not to contact authorities regarding the alleged assault.

The priest was at St. Joseph’s church in Chisholm at the time of the alleged assault of a minor female.

We haven’t named the priest because at KBJR we have a policy against naming an alleged perpetrator until charges have been made.

At the time of the alleged sexual assault the priest was working at St. Joseph’s church in Chisholm.
He was there from 1975 to 1986, and retired in July 2012.

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