ABUSE TRACKER

PHILIPPINES
GMA News

By LUIS B. GORGONIO, GMA NewsSeptember 6, 2013

For members of the Catholic flock who may want to know how some bishops and priests sired children, squandered money offerings, and jockeyed for power to get plum positions in the hierarchical institution, the long-awaited “Altar of Secrets: Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church” by veteran journalist Aries Rufo is a worthy addition on the bookshelf.

While some of the sources were anonymous, rendering as anecdotal some of the narratives, the wealth of inside information gathered by Rufo through decades of experience in covering the church beat has lent credence to his claim that some “princes” of the Catholic Church lived immoral lives.

In the introduction, Rufo takes pains to note that the book is not “divinely inspired” and that he believes the men of the cloth are also “made of clay.”

It is not about faith, or religion, or the Catholic Church as a whole. It is about the sexual misconduct as well as injustice, corruption, financial mismanagement, and abuse of power by people who happen to be bishops and priests.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 6

Two more NJ predator priests “outed”
They worked in Newark and Trenton
And a settlement involving a third was just revealed
Victims’ group blast two bishops for “ongoing secrecy”

Two credibly accused New Jersey predator priests have been publicly exposed for the first time this week. Settlements involving the two, plus a third accused local priest, were also disclosed. In each case, the news came from alleged victims and attorneys, not Catholic officials.

Accusations against Fr. John P. Nickas first surfaced publicly in May. But until this week, no one knew of the allegations against Fr. Victor Phelan and Fr. Vincent Inghilterra.

At a news conference in Boston, attorney Mitchell Garabedian revealed that he represents child sex abuse victims of each cleric and that church officials paid them settlements.

Fr. Inghilterra and Fr. Nickas are diocesan priests, in Trenton and Newark, respectively. Fr. Phelan is with a Catholic religious order called the Society of Missionaries of Africa but he worked at least one year (1977) in Plainfield in the Newark archdiocese, according to the Official Catholic Directory.

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CANADA/OHIO
The Columbus Dispatch

By JoAnne Viviano
The Columbus Dispatch Friday September 6, 2013

A priest who once worked in central Ohio has been sentenced in Canada to two months under house arrest and three additional months under curfew for sexually assaulting a teenager in British Columbia.

The Rev. Phil Jacobs, 63, will be on two years of probation after serving the sentence and must meet criteria that include 50 hours of community service, counseling, limited contact with young people and registering as a sex offender, said his attorney, Chris Considine.

Jacobs was found guilty in February of sexually touching a person between the ages of 14 and 18. On Wednesday, Justice J. Miriam Gropper said he could avoid jail because he is a low to moderate risk to re-offend, the Saanich News reported.

Court testimony showed that Jacobs touched the genitals of a boy he was tutoring at St. Joseph the Worker School in Saanich, British Columbia, where he served in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jacobs said he unintentionally brushed the boy’s groin.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

September 7, 2013

Tom McIlroy
Reporter at The Canberra Times

The fallout from the royal commission on institutional child sexual abuse will shake Australian churches ”to their foundations”, the leader of Canberra’s Anglican community said on Friday.

Delivering his annual synod charge address to members of the church, Bishop Stuart Robinson said the diocese was not immune from the commission’s consideration of decades of clerical sexual abuse, and staff were examining records which dated back to the 1920s.

”I am currently expending around one-third of my energy on professional standards matters,” Bishop Robinson said.

”My expectation is that the findings will shake the churches to their foundations.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Die Religionsgemeinschaft “Zwölf Stämme” macht wieder von sich reden. Auch diesmal geht es um Schulverweigerung und einen Polizeieinsatz, bei dem mehrere Kinder von Beamten weggebracht wurden.

Die Polizei hat 40 Kinder aus der umstrittenen Glaubensgemeinschaft “Zwölf Stämme” im schwäbischen Klosterzimmern geholt. Das Amtsgericht Nördlingen hatte einen vorläufigen Sorgerechtsentzug angeordnet. In der Vergangenheit hatte es immer wieder Hinweise darauf gegeben, dass die Kinder geprügelt und gezüchtigt werden.

Wie ein Sprecher des Polizeipräsidiums in Augsburg sagte, handelt es sich um 28 Mädchen und Jungen, die in der umstrittenen Gemeinschaft bei Deiningen leben. Dazu kamen zwölf weitere Kinder aus Wörnitz (Kreis Ansbach).

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

In zwei Zentren der Glaubensgemeinschaft „Zwölf Stämme“ hat die Polizei insgesamt 40 Kinder aus ihren Familien geholt. Er besteht Verdacht auf „erheblichen Kindesmissbrauch“: Säuglinge sollen zu eng gewickelt worden sein, Kinder mit Stöcken gezüchtigt.

Bei dem Polizeieinsatz im bayerischen Klosterzimmern im Landkreis Donau-Ries wurden am Donnerstagmorgen 28 Kinder aus dem Sitz der Glaubensgemeinschaft „Zwölf Stämme“ geholt.

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GERMANY
Telegraph (United Kingdom)

German police have raided a Christian sect, taking away 40 children, alleging that they had been beaten and abused, according to reports.

More than 100 police targeted two locations of “The Twelve Tribes” in the southern German state of Bavaria, the local Augsburger Allgemeine and Spiegel Online said.

The dawn raids followed “new evidence pointing to significant and ongoing child abuse by the members”, local officials were quoted as saying.

In all, police withdrew from the community’s custody 28 children from one monastery near the town of Deiningen and 12 from a second location, Woernitz.

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POLEN
SZ (Deutschland)

Warschau. Nachdem der päpstlichen Nuntius in der Dominikanischen Republik wegen des Verdachts auf sexuellen Missbrauch abberufen wurden, suchen die Behörden nach Medienberichten einen zweiten polnischen Priester. Nach Informationen des polnischen Nachrichtensenders TVN 24 soll der Geistliche Ausflüge und Ferienfreizeiten für Kinder organisiert haben, bei denen es zu Missbrauch gekommen sein soll.

Der ebenfalls aus Polen stammende Nuntius in der Karibikrepublik, Erzbischof Józef Wesolowski, soll sexuelle Kontakte zu minderjährigen Prostituierten gehabt haben. Ein Vatikansprecher hatte vor wenigen Tagen die Abberufung des Nuntius bestätigt.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 6, 2013

A RETIRED Catholic priest who has a family resource centre named in his honour has appeared in Wyong Local Court on child pornography charges.

Father Edward Sedevic, 72, of Lake Haven, successfully requested an order suppressing his personal details when he appeared in the court on Wednesday on three charges of possessing child abuse material and using a service to access child pornography.

He did not enter pleas and the matter returns to court in October.

Wyong Local Court magistrate Susan McIntyre revoked the order yesterday after a media application argued other men on similar charges, including a former police officer, a prominent Sydney dance teacher and a radio personality, had been named in media reports.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

One in five children will be sexually assaulted before their 18th birthday. That’s a schocking statistic.

This week is National Child’s Protection Week and today is a day to “lift the cone of silence” that surrounds child sexual assault and increase the understanding of the difficult issue.

It’s the 17th annual Bravehearts White Balloon Day. Jill had a chat with Carol Ronkin who is a Criminologist with Bravehearts.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

A royal commission set to expose how institutions have failed child sex abuse victims is receiving an average of 23 phone calls a day.

More than 4300 people have called since the inquiry began to report abuse perpetrated against children.

The response to the commission has been so overwhelming that commissioners say it will be impossible to make findings in relation to every institute where child sex abuse allegedly occurred.

Speaking at a Bravehearts White Balloon Day in Brisbane on Friday, Justice Peter McClellan AM said the commission would have to be selective when investigating and holding public hearings into allegations of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Right Wing Watch

[with video]

SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Thursday, 9/5/2013

The Roman Catholic bishop who suggested that voting for Democratic candidates will doom a person to Hell recently sat down with the Washington Times, which is controlled by the Unification Church, to discuss how Catholics should respond to issues like same-sex marriage. Ignoring the advice of former Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams that Christians shouldn’t mistake unpopularity for persecution, Springfield, Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki said that the United States is now a “pagan” culture no different from the era of the Roman Empire when Christians were oppressed and martyred.

He was especially offended by a David Letterman joke about the Catholic Church child abuse scandal, which he reflected “anti-Catholic bigotry” and “profound ignorance.”

According to Paprocki, no institution in the world has handled sex abuse cases better than the Catholic Church: “Certainly, we have had our unfortunate share of scandals and sin and the church is dealing with that. I would venture to say that of any institution in the country – perhaps in the world – I don’t think anyone is dealing with it as responsibly as the Catholic Church has.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), ordained in 1950, Doyle worked in high schools in Missoula MT and Spokane WA. He also did parish ministry in the dioceses of Boise City ID, Great Falls MT, and Spokane WA. He was involved for many years as a missionary with native Americans on reservations in Washington State and Idaho. In a 2002 lawsuit Doyle was accused of sexually abusing a girl for years, beginning when she was 15 years-old and he was nearly 60. His accuser said she met him when she attended horse camp on the Kalipsel Reservation in Washington. The allegations were deemed credible by the Spokane diocese. Doyle died in 2005.

Ordained: 1950
Died: 2005

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CANADA
Lez Get Real

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on September 5, 2013.

FlagFather Philip Jacobs will be getting only a five month conditional sentence and two years of probation for sexually touching a teenage boy when he was serving in hic capacity as a Catholic priest at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Saanich, British Columbia.

However, that incident is not the only one that he has admitted to. Jacobs molested children and teens in both British Columbia, Canada and in Ohio, USA.

BC Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper chose not to send Jacobs, who is 63, to jail for the six months requested by the Crown prosecutor. Gropper did find that the priest did act deliberately when rubbing the young man’s leg up to the groin and that Jacobs’ attempts to claim it was accidental or absent-minded in nature was not credible.

Gropper, however, acquitted Jacobs back in March of three other charges including sexual touching and sexual assault.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel
Sept. 5, 2013

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan called on Milwaukee-area Catholics Thursday to embrace the church as their spiritual family — despite its flaws — and to fight those forces in the secular culture that would seek to destroy it.

“Are you prepared to defend your faith from those who would take it from us?” Dolan asked an enthusiastic and near-sold-out audience at the Milwaukee Theatre.

“These liberators might be the late night talk show hosts, classmates of our kids … or editorial page journalists who misunderstand the beauty of our Catholic faith,” he said. “Are we prepared to engage them … to live and die for the church? That, my friends, is apologetics. And that, my friends, we need more than ever.”

The former archbishop of Milwaukee and one of the nation’s most influential American prelates was the featured speaker for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s 10th annual Pallium Lecture series, which he founded during his tenure here. Thursday’s talk, which stressed the beauty and mystery of the church, as well as its sins, gave local Catholics insight into Dolan’s role as the Vatican’s point man for what it calls the new evangelization to spread the faith.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Charlotte Observer

By M.L. JOHNSON
Associated Press
Posted: Thursday, Sep. 05, 2013

MILWAUKEE New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Thursday that one of the biggest problems facing the Roman Catholic Church is the number of people who identify as former Catholics, including many who left because of the ‘sinful’ behavior of clergy and other Church members.

Dolan, the former Milwaukee archbishop, made the comments during his first appearance in the city since the archdiocese released the personnel files of 42 priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse against them in July.

Dolan didn’t explicitly mention abuse, but he acknowledged that some Catholics who left the church because “they have been shocked, saddened and nauseated by the sinful behavior” of some of its members. He said Catholics should not hide from that.

“It’s not a bad idea to fess up to the sinful side of the Church,” Dolan said.

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CIUDAD DEL VATICANA
El Nuevo Herald

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO — Una asociación de víctimas de pederastia lamentó el jueves la destitución “secreta y tardía” por parte del Vaticano del nuncio del Vaticano en República Dominicana, decidida en agosto debido a acusaciones de abuso sexual a menores pero que no se difundió hasta el miércoles.

El 21 de agosto, el nuncio (embajador) del Vaticano en República Dominicana, el polaco Jozef Wesolowski, de 65 años, fue destituido de sus funciones, una información que el Vaticano no anunció pero que fue confirmada el miércoles por Federico Lombardi, portavoz del Papa, quien confirmó la existencia de una investigación en curso del Vaticano sobre esas acusaciones.

“Los responsables católicos sólo actúan cuando están obligados a hacerlo bajo presión mediática. Y cuando lo hacen es siempre en secreto, en este caso sin revelar las acusaciones, la suspensión o la razón de la suspensión”, lamentó en un comunicado Barbara Dorris, directora de la Red estadounidense de Supervivientes de Víctimas de Abusos Cometidos por Sacerdotes (Snap).

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
EFE

Santo Domingo, 5 sep (EFE).- El cardenal de la República Dominicana, Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, pidió hoy a la Justicia actuar con “firmeza” y “claridad” ante denuncias de presunto abuso sexual a menores por parte de sacerdotes y el destituido nuncio apostólico en el país, Jósef Wesolowski.

Las declaraciones del arzobispo de Santo Domingo, leídas en una rueda de prensa en la que no estuvo presente, se producen un día después de que la Fiscalía de Santo Domingo informara de que abrió una investigación sobre Jósef Wesolowski, ante las investigaciones periodísticas que le acusan de pederastia.

La Justicia también indaga denuncias de presunto abuso sexual cometido contra varias mujeres por el cura de Constanza (norte), Juan Manuel de Jesús Mota (conocido en la comunidad eclesiásticas como el Padre Johnny) y quien ha sido apartado del cargo.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Noticias SIN

[con video]

CONSTANZA, República Dominicana.- Tres de las jóvenes que denuncian abuso sexual contra Juan Manuel Mota de Jesús, “padre Johnny”, presentaron querella formalmente este miércoles.

Hoy dos de ellas se mostraron ante las cámaras y hablaron para Noticias SIN, solicitando justicia por los supuestos abusos a los que fueron sometidas.

Las supuestas víctimas identificadas como Yudelkis Trinidad y Alexandra Soriano ambas de 21 años, estuvieron acompañadas por su representante legal el abogado Félix Portes, quien depositó la querella.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Panorama Diario

Santo Domingo.- El cardenal de República Dominicana, Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, pidió este jueves a la justicia actuar en base a “investigaciones muy serias” en relación a los últimos escándalos de pederastias que involucra a sacerdotes. En un documento de prensa leído en la Conferencia del Episcopado Dominicano, López Rodríguez solicitó al entramado judicial proceder con firmeza y claridad y aplicar las sanciones establecidas en el Código Penal.

De su lado, el sacerdote Manuel Ruiz quien habló en representación del cardenal, afirmó que hasta el momento no hay una acusación formal en contra del destituido nuncio apostólico, Józef Wesolowski, acusado de pederastia.

Tras leer el documento, el secretario general de la Conferencia del Episcopado, Carmelo Santana Jerez, restó competencia y calidad a Monseñor Agripino Núñez Collado para hablar de pederastia con relación al nuncio, porque sostiene que las comunicaciones han sido directas entre el cardenal López Rodríguez y el papa Francisco.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Hoy

Escrito por: ANBARELI ESPINOZA (a.espinoza@hoy.com.do)

El cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez pidió perdón a la sociedad por los casos de abuso sexual que se les imputa a varios sacerdotes, solicitó a la justicia que actúe con firmeza y claridad ante esos hechos y criticó que “profesionales de la intriga” se ceban en denostar a la Iglesia Católica “como si fuera la única institución en que estas realidades humanas suceden”.

En n un documento leído ayer en el Episcopado Dominicano, el arzobispo metropolitano de Santo Domingo plantea que urge purificar a la Iglesia, “sacando del ministerio a quienes lo ejercen indignamente y no merecen llamarse sacerdotes”. “Esta súplica de perdón la extiendo a la comunidad de la Iglesia Católica que se siente humillada por estos abusos incalificables, pero también a todo el pueblo dominicano que está contemplando este lamentable espectáculo con incredulidad e indignación. Lo que todos hemos visto no tiene justificación”.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Listin Diario

Editorial

De manera clara, responsable e indubitable, la Iglesia Católica dominicana ha condenado los actos incorrectos e indecorosos en que han incurrido algunos miembros del clero en nuestro país, y ha pedido perdón por esas humillaciones.

Una sentida reflexión sobre el particular ha emitido el cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, patentizando el rechazo de la Iglesia a estas prácticas que “nos preocupa y avergüenza”, pidiendo perdón a las víctimas de los sacerdotes que han abusado de ellas y a sus familiares, y encareciendo a la justicia a “actuar con firmeza y claridad, en base a investigaciones muy serias estableciendo las sanciones que están previstas en el Código Penal”.

Aprovechando esta cruda y escandalosa circunstancia, el cardenal López Rodríguez plantea que se purifique a la Iglesia “sacando del ministerio a quienes lo ejercen indignamente y no merecen llamarse sacerdotes”.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Hoy

A raíz de las distintas denuncias hechas públicas en el país acerca de los casos de sacerdotes católicos acusados de abuso sexual a menores de edad, el Episcopado Dominicano dio a conocer esta mañana un comunicado con la posición que tiene en este sentido el cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez.

Ver comunicado aquí: http://goo.gl/3fdY7l

A través del documento presentado en rueda de prensa, el arzobispo de Santo Domingo expresó su pesar ante los últimos escándalos ventilados en medios de comunicación sobre acusaciones emitidas a sacerdotes y al nuncio saliente.

“Me consta que muchas personas, sobre todo los de fe sencilla, pero también otros que se sienten parte activa de la gran familia católica, están observando con preocupación y profunda tristeza el presente cuadro”, dijo.

¿Qué hacer ante lo que estamos viviendo?, se preguntó. Agregó: “Reconocer con humildad que estamos ante una situación que a los hijos e hijas de la Iglesia Católica nos preocupa y avergüenza; pedir perdón a las víctimas de los desalmados que han abusados de ellos y a sus familiares”.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Press TV (Iran)

The pope of the Roman Catholic Church has been denounced for secretly firing Vatican’s envoy to the Dominican Republic over allegations of child sexual abuse.

On Wednesday, Pope Francis recalled Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski and launched a probe following the news in local media outlets that the archbishop was involved in pedophilia.

And Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announced that Wesolowski had been “relieved of his duties”.

A day later, human rights activists censured the pope for making surreptitious and reckless decisions.

“Like all of his predecessors, Pope Francis is acting belatedly, secretively and recklessly,” Barbara Dorris, the director for the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said in a statement published on Thursday.

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INDIA
The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Asaram is being pilloried by everybody, from parliamentarians to journalists, for alleged sexual assault on a teenager and is in jail now. Some of the horrified public responses at his alleged act can also be attributed to the general notion that dissociates sex from spirituality. This notion considers everybody on the spiritual path as ‘wedded’ to celibacy. But is this perception correct?

A spiritual person, such orthodoxy goes, must not have a carnal side, a belief that stems from the sanyasi tradition where it is popularly believed that a seeker after God renounces all desires. This possibly explains why many Hindi newspapers and TV channels are aghast at the preacher’s “fall from grace”. In the English language media, the same horror is related: that men of cloth, like the Christian missionaries, must be celibate and breaking the vows of chastity would call for de-frocking of the erring priest.

In fact, the Boston Globe in the United States had run a series of reports on sex abuse in the Catholic church. Several such reports have appeared also in TOI. Since 2002, much of the US media has been critical of the approach of the bishops while dealing with sex abuse by priests. The net has a number of reports like this and this. This is because in Catholic church priests are bound by religion to be celibates. The instances of aggravated sexual transgressions by priests are worse as they involve under-age children, often of the same sex.

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NEW MEXICO
Daily Times

By Hannah Grover The Daily Times
Updated: 09/05/2013

FARMINGTON — On Sunday, Catholic churches throughout the Diocese of Gallup surprised parishioners with a letter from Bishop James S. Wall announcing that the diocese would file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The letter explained that sexual abuse lawsuits brought against the diocese prompted the bankruptcy.

In the past decade, more than a dozen priests in the Diocese of Gallup, which includes parishes in San Juan County, have been accused of sexually assaulting minors, according to BishopAccountability.org, a website based out of Massachusetts that documents abuse in the Catholic Church.

By the time Wall became bishop in 2009, the diocese was already troubled with lawsuits.

“Since becoming the Bishop of Gallup, I have worked to seek ways to bring healing to those who were harmed by sexual abuse,” Wall wrote in his letter. “Unfortunately, since becoming Bishop, the number of claims has continued to increase.”

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Listin Diario

Guillermo Pérez y Ramón Cruz Benzán
Santo Domingo

La fiscal del Distrito Nacional, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, anunció ayer el inicio de una investigación sobre el destituido nuncio apostólico Jósef Wesolowski, basada en la revelación de su presunta participación en abusos a menores en el país.

Mientras tanto, el portavoz del Vaticano, Federico Lombardi, confirmó a la agencia EFE que el exnuncio, Wesolowski, fue destituido del cargo, y existe una investigación en curso sobre las acusaciones que pesan sobre él en relación con varios casos de pederastia.

De otra parte, un enviado de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe está en el país desde hace varios días haciendo las investigaciones de lugar, según supo LISTÍN DIARIO de fuentes eclesiásticas, que agregaron que “la iglesia es respetuosa de las competencias del ministerio público dominicano”.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Roslindale

By Julie M. Cohen/Wicked Local West Roxbury and Roslindale
Wicked Local West Roxbury
Posted Sep 05, 2013

West Roxbury —
Six Roman Catholic clerics and a choir director who taught at a West Roxbury church were named publicly as alleged abusers for the first time by a prominent lawyer for clergy sex abuse victims, according to our news partners at WCVB.

William Emmett O’Brien, who died in 2004 on Cape Cod at the age of 72, was a West Roxbury resident and the children’s choir director at St. John Chrysostom Church in West Roxbury at the time of the incidents, attorney Mitchell Garabedian said.

Garabedian released the names of the five priests, one nun and O’Brien on Wednesday.
Each of the alleged victims is a client of Garabedian’s and all their cases were settled within the last year for amounts ranging from the high five figures to the low six figures, he said.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Nuevo Herald

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTO DOMINGO, República Dominicana — La iglesia católica dominicana aseguró el miércoles que no existe ninguna denuncia formal sobre abuso sexual infantil contra el ex nuncio apostólico Józef Wesolowski, pero se negó a dar detalles de la reciente remoción del sacerdote polaco por parte del Vaticano, y quien en este país es investigado por pederastia.

Las familias de varios menores de edad denunciaron a finales de mayo ante la prensa agresiones sexuales a monaguillos por parte de Wojciech, quien en ese momento se encontraba de vacaciones en Polonia. El sacerdote no ha vuelto a República Dominicana, pero ha hablado con medios de comunicación locales para insistir en su inocencia. Sólo una familia presentó una querella formal, mientras surgieron voces que lo defienden.

“Las autoridades sacerdotales van evaluando año por año a cada sacerdote, no necesariamente puede ser un asunto penal (la destitución de Wesolowski)”, dijo el sacerdote Manuel Ruiz, quien actuó como vocero en una rueda de prensa de la Conferencia del Episcopado Dominicano.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

By Lincoln Tan
5:30 AM Friday Sep 6, 2013

A senior pastor who founded the Korean Presbyterian Church of Auckland will be struck off the ministerial roll after an internal church investigation found him guilty of sexual misconduct and abuse.

Reverend David Ock-Youn Jang has been found guilty by the Auckland Presbytery Complaints Hearing Committee for “gross impropriety on three representative charges which relate to sexual misconduct, and physical, verbal and emotional abuse against a single complainant”.

He denies any wrongdoing and says he has the backing of his congregation to stay.

The complainant is a woman who is linked to the Presbyterian church, the third largest Christian denomination in New Zealand.

Some details of the complaint and judgment cannot be reported for legal reasons.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
VOXXI

By Ana Lopez

The Dominican Conference of Bishops have asked for pardon from the persons affected by alleged abuses committed by representatives of the Catholic Church in a series of new scandals of pederasty.

The scandals affect several priests and in a separate case to Monsignor Josef Wesolowski, a 65-year-old Pole, that was fired in his post of Papal Nuncio in Santo Domingo due to “missteps” related to accusations of pederasty.

According to he Dominican newspapers, Monsignor Wesolowski had sex for money with underage boys in the “Zona colonial,” the historic center of Santo Domingo.

Catholic Church scandals

John Paul II appointed him nuncio to Bolivia in his first posting. Wesolowski was ordained in 1972 by the then archbishop of Krakow, cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who later became pope John Paul II.

He also worked in several countries in Central Asia and was appointed as Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic by Benedict XVI in 2008.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
TribTown

By EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ Associated Press
First Posted: September 05, 2013

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The Vatican’s recently ousted ambassador to the Dominican Republic has not been accused of child sex abuse, Catholic Church officials in the country said Thursday, while refusing to shed any light on the envoy’s sudden ouster.

Amid an outcry in the largely Catholic country, and a newly opened investigation by the attorney general’s office, senior church leaders portrayed the removal of Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski as an administrative matter.

“Church authorities are always evaluating on an annual basis every priest. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a criminal matter,” said the Rev. Manuel Ruiz, who acted as a spokesman for the Dominican church’s leadership at a news conference in the capital.

Pedro Joaquin Dominguez, general secretary of the Dominican bishop’s conference, said that there have been no accusations of child sex abuse against Wesolowski, who was the Vatican’s representative in the country from 2008 until he was removed Aug. 21.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/VATICAN CITY
The Independent (United Kingdom)

Missing Vatican ambassador recalled following child abuse accusations in Dominican Republic

ADAM WITHNALL THURSDAY 05 SEPTEMBER 2013

A Catholic priest has been relieved of his role as ambassador for the Vatican to the Dominican Republic after local news reports accused him of paedophilia.

Archbishop Josef Wesolowski had been the nuncio, an envoy representing the interests of the church leadership, in the capital of Santo Domingo for nearly six years.

That was until Dominican television network NCDN, quoting the director of a community group called Pedro Espinal, ran a story saying Archbishop Wesolowski and a fellow Polish priest took several altar boys back to his beach house and slept in the same room as them.

Both prosecutors in the country and Vatican officials have begun separate investigations into the conduct of Archbishop Wesolowski – but neither knows where he is now.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Call for prosecution

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s Catholic bishops on Thursday pulled the rug out from Agripino Nuñez Collado one of their most prominent colleagues, in the wake of an exploding scandal centered on former nuncio Josef Wesolowski, removed by the Vatican after reports of alleged sexual abuse of minors.

The bishops grouped in the Dominican Episcopal Conference said Nuñez doesn’t speak for Catholic Church on recent cases of priests accused of pedophilia, including Wesolowski.

In a statement read by spokesperson and priest Manuel Ruiz at Episcopal Conference headquarters, the bishops said that only Church representatives responsible for dioceses can state its position, which isn’t Nuñez’s case.

On Tuesday Nuñez became the Dominican Church’s first senior prelate to publicly acknowledge the pedophilia allegations against the Vatican’s representative, even stating that Wesolowski was “traveling in bad steps.”

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Dickerson was a Jesuit of the New Orleans Province who, in addition to parish work, worked in high schools in New Orleans and Dallas. He appears to have left the priesthood in the late 1980s. He has two known accusations against him of child sexual abuse; in 2007 the Jesuits settled with a man who claimed Dickerson abused him when the man was an eighth-grader in 1974, and in 2011 they settled with a man who accused Dickerson of sexually abusing him repeatedly when he was 11-years-old, in 1982. Dickerson’s whereabouts in September 2013 are unknown.

Ordained: 1980

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CALIFORNIA
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated September 4, 2013

42-14, California Assembly voted YES to SB 131. Hoorah! Hoorah!

Thank you, California Representatives, for voting YES to SB 131, may God reward you for doing the RIGHT THING. You shall bring your vote to SB 131 to your grave and eternal life. Every child that you render justice to – with this SB 131 – you shall be greatly rewarded by Divine Justice! California Legislative Assembly, you are showing to the USA and to the whole world that – the Roman Catholic Church is not above the law, specially secular law

– and that the (once-upon-a-time godly) Roman Catholic Church must now (again like Cardinal Mahony paid $660 million to victims) – pay for ALL the crimes it covered-up – and face ALL the consequences of ALL pedophile priests it covered-up through the decades. It’s time for the hypocritical Roman Catholic Church to stop obstructing justice against children and women, read our related article about the (wrong) powerful influence of the Vatican in the United Nations here –

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission’s first issues paper on Working With Children Checks has attracted 55 submissions from around Australia so far.

A Working With Children Check is a pre-employment screening process to determine a person’s suitability to work with children.

Chief Executive Officer, Janette Dines, said the Royal Commission was pleased with the response.

“Some common views were expressed,” said Ms Dines:

They include:

the need for national consistency in the operation of the Working With Children Check
the need for more research to determine what elements of existing schemes are most effective; and
the need to consider the Working with Children Check as only one element in a broader framework for protecting children.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is heading to the Northern Territory.

The Royal Commission will be holding private sessions in Darwin from October 15. Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said that the Royal Commission hopes that people in the Northern Territory take the opportunity to come forward.

“This is a chance for any Territorian affected by child sexual abuse in an institution to tell a Royal Commissioner what happened to them,” said Ms Dines.

Ms Dines acknowledged it was difficult for some people to talk about what happened to them. “For that reason, the Commission provides counsellors who can provide immediate support should it be necessary. As well, we encourage people to bring a friend or family member along for support.”

“Private sessions are informal. No-one from an institution will ever be present and what is said is kept in complete confidence. It is not like a court where individuals give evidence and are cross examined.

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AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will finally commence public hearings on 16th September. It is going to cost a hell of a lot of money (even more than George Pell’s Roman holiday villa!). If the money is well spent, then serious changes must occur in the institutional responses.

It is clear that the emphasis will be on procedural matters concerning checks and balances in organisations’ rules. This will inevitably disappoint some people who told their story to the Commissioners in recent months, and who may find that their individual case is not even mentioned. This is a flaw in the original set-up of the Terms of Reference. Submissions for the terms were only open for 5 days, so only the major players had time to put anything in.

We must work with what is available, unfortunately. There was also no discussion as to who the Commissioners were to be. At least one Commissioner, Mr. Fitzgerald, should not have been selected for the job, but it is apparently too late to do much about it.

The emphasis has to be on maximizing outcomes from the existing situation. The best way to do this is for people to be ready to debate things as they arise. The first hearing is to do with why Larkins (see previous posting) got away with things for so long. Officialdom will want to concentrate on the procedures which were in place, and how they can be improved in the future.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

A group of Victorian clergy abuse victims say they have been brushed off by both main parties as they seek financial and moral support for the duration of the federal sex abuse royal commission.

Andrew Collins and Peter Blenkiron were abused while students at Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College in the 1970s and ’80s and informally co-ordinate a group of 100-odd victims and family members. The group has welcomed the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse but says it brings challenges. Up to 40 abuse victims in the Ballarat area alone have taken their own lives and the group fears the royal commission will stoke more suicidal thoughts.

Mr Collins has called for a full-time support worker during the commission. He also says a dedicated pension fund would support victims who struggle to work and connect them to health services.

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AUSTRIA/SLOVENIA
STA

Maribor/Graz, 5 September (STA) – The Diocese of Graz in Austria seems to be planning to help the neighbouring Maribor Archdiocese avoid bankruptcy by buying some of the real estate this Slovenian archdiocese holds in the centre of Maribor, according to Austrian media reports.

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CHILE
CNN

[con video]

La decisión fue adoptada de manera unánime por la Octava Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago.

Con arresto domiciliario total y arraigo nacional quedó el sacerdote de Los Legionarios de Cristo John O’Reilly, acusado de abuso sexual contra dos menores del Colegio Cumbres.

La decisión fue adoptada de manera unánime por la Octava Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago tras la resolución de la jueza Andrea Díaz Muñoz, del Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago, que había negado la prisión preventiva dejándolo en libertad y sin ningún tipo de restricción.

El abogado querellante, Juan Ignacio Escobar, explicó en CNN Chile que esta revocación se debe a que “sí existían antecedentes suficientes de participación y de la existencia de los delitos de abuso por los cuales fue formalizado O’Reilly”.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Hoy

Escrito por: LLENNIS JIMÉNEZ (l.jimenez@hoy.com.do)

La Fiscalía del Distrito Nacional hizo público que abrió una investigación al destituido nuncio apostólico Josef Wesolowski, quien dejó el puesto repentinamente, acusado de abuso sexual contra menores de edad, en un hecho que se ha convertido en un escándalo para la Iglesia Católica.

El Vaticano confirmó ayer su retiro de la función de representante de la Santa Sede. La fiscal titular, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, informó que pese a no tener una denuncia formal de las posibles víctimas, el Ministerio Público inició las indagatorias de las acusaciones que pesan contra quien hasta hace días era el representante en el país de El Vaticano. Reynoso indicó que actuará en base a las denuncias divulgadas en investigaciones de programas de televisión de las periodísticas Nuria Piera y Addy Burgos y de acuerdo a la confirmación del caso por parte de monseñor Agripino Núñez Collado.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Hoy

[video – Nuria Piero via YouTube]

Escrito por: CRISTAL ACEVEDO (c.acevedo@hoy.com.do)

La Conferencia del Episcopado Dominicano restó hoy competencia a monseñor Agripino Núñez Collado para hablar de la posición de la la Iglesia Católica en relación a los casos revelados en los últimos días de sacerdotes acusados de pederastia, que involucran incluso al nuncio del Papa.

Se explicó que sólo los representantes de la Iglesia responsables de diócesis pudieran hacerlo y que no es el caso de Núñez Collado.

Se recuerda que el martes el rector de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), monseñor Agripino, se convirtió en el primer alto jerarca de la Iglesia dominicana en hablar públicamente del caso de pederastia en el que se involucra a Joseph Wesolowski, representante del Papa.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Hoy

Escrito por: CRISTAL ACEVEDO (c.acevedo@hoy.com.do)

El Episcopado Dominicano precisó hoy que “no basta con decir que son culpables, sino que, hasta que se demuestre lo contrario, los sacerdotes acusados por pederastia, son inocentes”.

Así lo afirmó el encargado de prensa del Episcopado, el sacerdote Manuel Ruíz, quien agregó que el cura Juan Manuel de Jesús Mota, conocido como el “padre Johnny” ha dado la cara y se ha presentado ante las autoridades.

Consideró que los casos que se han reportado en el país de curas acusados de abuso sexual contra menores, han tenido tanta notoriedad, porque no es común que los sacerdotes fallen.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA/CIUDAD DEL VATICANO
La Nacion

Ciudad del Vaticano

La asociación de víctimas de pederastia estadounidense Snap lamentó este jueves la sanción “secreta y tardía” del papa Francisco contra el nuncio (embajador) del Vaticano en la República Dominicana, destituido a finales de agosto por acusaciones de abusos sexuales a menores.

Imagen del 12 de agosto del 2011 del ahora destituido nuncio apostólico de República Dominicana, Jósef Wesolowski, durante un acto de condecoración a un diplomático colombiano en Santo Domingo.

“Los responsables católicos sólo actúan cuando están obligados a hacerlo bajo la presión mediática. Y cuando lo hacen es siempre en secreto, en este caso sin revelar las acusaciones, la suspensión o la razón de la suspensión”, lamentó en un comunicado Barbara Dorris, directora de la Red de Supervivientes de Víctimas de Abusos Cometidos por Sacerdotes.

“Igual que sus predecesores, el papa Francisco actúa de manera tardía y secreta”, añadió.

El 21 de agosto el nuncio del Vaticano en la República Dominicana, el polaco Jozef Wesolowski, de 65 años, fue destituido de sus funciones, una información que el Vaticano no anunció pero que fue confirmada el miércoles por Federico Lombardi, el portavoz del Papa, que aseguró que existe de una investigación en curso sobre las acusaciones.

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PUBLICA DOMINICANA
Listin Diario

Ramon Urbáez
Santo Domingo

[Summary: The Dominican Episcopal Conference said today that the situation that has arisen over the alleged sexual abuse of children by priests and former Apostolic Nuncio Jozef Wesolowski, “concerned and embarrassed the bishops and the Catholic Church in general.”

In a public document signed by the President of the Conference and archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, the church said one cannot justify what can not be justified and apologized to potential victims “of the heartless who have abused them and their families.”]

La Conferencia del Episcopado Dominicano confirmó hoy que la situación que se ha presentado sobre los presuntos abusos sexuales contra niños por parte de sacerdotes y el ex nuncio apostólico Jozef Wesolowski, “preocupa y avergüenza a los obispos y a la Iglesia Católica en sentido general”.

En un documento público firmado por el presidente de la Conferencia y arzobispo de Santo Domingo, el cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, la iglesia afirma que no se puede justificar lo que no puede tener justificación y pidió perdón a las posibles víctimas “de los desalmados que han abusado de ellos y a sus familiares”.

El documento fue leído por el secretario general de la Conferencia, el padre Carmelo Santana Jerez y el secretario adjunto, padre Joaquín Domínguez. Mientras que el padre Manuel Ruiz habló en representación del cardenal López Rodríguez.

La Conferencia pidió también perdón al pueblo dominicano, señalando que está contemplando ese lamentable espectáculo con incredulidad e indignación.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Europa Press

SANTO DOMINGO, 5 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

La fiscal de Santo Domingo, en República Dominicana, Jenny Berenice Reynoso, ha anunciado este miércoles que iniciará una serie de investigaciones contra el ex nuncio apostólico Jósef Wesolowski por las acusaciones de pederastia.

El sacerdote católico y rector de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, monseñor Agripino Núñez Collado, informó de la destitución de Wesolowski, por supuesto abuso sexual contra menores, después de las denuncias hechas por las periodistas Nuria Piera y Addy Burgos en sus programas de investigación.

Según informaciones del diario dominicano ‘Nuevo Día’, la representante del ministerio publico afirmó que aunque no exista una denuncia formal hecha por parte de las víctimas, el hecho es de acción pública por lo que corresponde al Ministerio Público iniciar la investigación, la cual abarcará varias jurisdicciones.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
El Universal

[Summary: The Vatican does not oppose investigation of the former papal nuncio by Dominican Republic authorities. The nuncio, who has since been recalled, has been accused of child abuse in that country. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists today that the allegations are deemed to be credible and of a serious and grave nature.]

El Vaticano no se opone a que las autoridades de República Dominicana investiguen al ex embajador papal, Josef Wesolowski, acusado de abusos contra menores, afirmó hoy el vocero de la Santa Sede, Federico Lombardi.

En declaraciones a un grupo de periodistas, el sacerdote jesuita confirmó que las denuncias contra el diplomático son “suficientemente verosímiles, serias y graves” como para que haya sido cesado de su puesto.

“Esta situación se debe profundizar, cuando hablaba de investigación me refería a un proceso de la Santa Sede. Si República Dominicana quiere emprender acciones legales, no existe oposición de nuestra parte, pero eso es competencia de sus autoridades”, dijo.

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ARKANSAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 5
Victims seek bishop’s help
Accused teachers go court next week
One pled guilty to molesting female student
And a fellow teacher didn’t report the crimes
Group wants Catholic officials to help prosecutors
SNAP to Little Rock diocese “Do aggressive outreach now”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Little Rock’s Catholic bishop to “aggressively seek out” others who may have “seen, suspected or suffered crimes” by two former Catholic school teachers who will be in court next week on child sex charges.

One of them, Kelly Ann O’Rourke, admitted molesting a student. The other, Kathy Gene Griffin, allegedly concealed O’Rourke’s crimes.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are begging Bishop Anthony Taylor to use his “vast resources” to urge prod others “who might have knowledge or suspicions about the two teachers’ crimes or school or church cover ups” to call law enforcement officials immediately, “so the two might face or be convicted of more charges and end up behind bars so kids will be safer.” SNAP also wants Taylor to give the accused teachers’ personnel files to the prosecutors if he hasn’t done so already.

The group sent a letter to Taylor about their concerns this morning by fax and email.

On Sept. 16, O’Rourke will appear in Pulaski County Circuit Court (Room 220) on charges of violating her parole by repeatedly calling the girl she molested, then a teenaged Mount St. Mary (MSM) School student. ( The school is at 3224 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, 501-664-8006 ).

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KENYA
allAfrica

The Star

BY MARTIN MWAURA AND CHARLES MGHENYI, 4 SEPTEMBER 2013

A catholic priest sued in a children’s court over allegedly siring and neglecting a 15-year-old child went through a DNA test to prove his paternity.

Father Josephat Mwazia, the parish priest of St Joseph Allamno Mbiriri Social Centre in Nyeri, was taken to the Tononoka Children’s court by Cecilia Mbiki. She had said Mwazia is the biological father of the boy.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

Archdiocese facing another abuse suit over ex-priest Daniel McCormack

A former student at a West Side Catholic school is suing the Archdiocese of Chicago, claiming convicted former priest Daniel McCormack molested him 10 years ago.

McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children while he was a parish priest at St. Agatha Catholic Church. He was laicized in November of that year and sentenced to five years in prison.

The anonymous plaintiff claims McCormack fondled him on two separate occasions between 2003 and 2004, when the boy was between 11 and 12 years old, the suit said.

The plaintiff, who is now 20, was a student at a Catholic school affiliated with St. Agatha, the suit said. McCormack was appointed pastor of the parish in 2000, and also coached basketball and taught math.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet

5 September 2013

A priest in the Archdiocese of Southwark has been convicted of possessing indecent images of children.

Fr Edmund Higgins, 39, was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Isleworth Crown Court, south London, last month, after admitting to having 174 pornographic images of children on his laptop.

Higgins, parish priest at the Church of St Elizabeth in Richmond, south-west London, at the time of his arrest, also received a supervision requirement and a sexual offences prevention order.

It was revealed during sentencing that Fr Higgins – who was a governor at St Elizabeth’s RC Primary School in Richmond and a chaplain at Christ the King Sixth Form College in Lewisham – had visited gay chat rooms, from where he was sent mostly adult pornographic images and some indecent images of children.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, September 5, 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)

As part of the carefully-orchestrated public relations campaign to restore his shattered image, Bishop Robert Finn’s staff has released a report that doesn’t protect a single child from a single child molesting cleric.

[The Kansas City Star]

The document gives numbers of abuse reports. But Catholic officials refuse to disclose any names of any offenders, even those who they deem “credibly accused.”

A parent can’t protect her child from a number. A parent needs – and deserves – to know who child molesting clerics and church staff are. That’s what every US bishop pledged to do more than a decade ago. That’s what this report, and Bishop Finn, still refuse to do, in case after case.

According to the KC Star, “two people tied to the diocese were removed from ministry” last year because of “boundary violations.” But Finn and his staff won’t say who or where they are. So both could now be working in public schools or private day cares.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
NECN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says calls to its child abuse ombudsman have increased 35 percent in the reporting year that ended in June.

The ombudsman said in a report released Thursday that she received 107 calls in the year, compared with 79 the previous reporting year.

Ombudsman Jenifer Valenti attributed the increase to anti-abuse training programs the diocese began in the last year.

The Kansas City Star reports ( ) Bishop Robert Finn implemented the child protection programs after a 2011 controversy over his handling of a Catholic priest’s production of child pornography.

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CANADA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, September 4, 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 )

A predator priest who worked in Canada and Ohio won’t be going to prison.

[Columbus Dispatch]

[Vancouver Sun]

We are grateful that Fr. Jacobs will be forced to register as a sex offender and be on probation for two years but very disappointed that he won’t be jailed. Kids are safest when predators are locked up.

Jacobs admitted molesting kids in Ohio. Nothing suggests he’s been ‘cured.’ Any prudent person would assume he’s still a danger to kids. If he won’t obey criminal laws and his celibacy pledge, he’ll very likely not obey his probation restrictions either.

We hope that anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered his crimes will come forward, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing. We strongly believe he has committed other crimes for which he could also be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. But it’s crucial that those who have information or suspicions about him call police now.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 BY SUSAN MATTHEW

You are invited to a two-hour, self-guided motorcycle ride (11am to 2pm) followed by an after party for your family and friends for lunch at The Office. Lunch includes Mama DiFillipo’s famous meatball sandwiches, more great food, drink specials, raffles and more. The event benefits Justice4PAKids efforts to protect children from sex abuse, to provide resources for victims and their advocacy programs aimed at reforming laws.

When: October 12th
Where: The Office Bar and Grille, 1021 Morehall Road, Malvern, PA
What: Registration for the ride 9:30 to 11 am. After party at 2 p.m.
Donation: $50 per rider, $25 per lunch guest

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ARGENTINA
APF Digital

Milton Urrutia informó que durante la madrugada de este miércoles sufrió un atentado en su vivienda en Paraná. Alrededor de las 1:30, “implosionaron dos artefactos dentro del garaje”, reveló.

“Estaban preparados con tornillos y pólvora. Además había una carta, que decía que me deje de joder con la causa de los curas y que la próxima iba a ir un tiro en la vivienda —detalló el letrado—. La carta estaba hecho con recortes de diarios o revistas”.

El hecho fue denunciado en sede policial. Ante lo ocurrido, Urrutia dijo sentirse “desahuciado, desanimado con todo, cansado, agobiado y harto”. Y advirtió que mientras avanza la investigación en la denominada causa Ilarraz, “ya vamos por el tercer atentado y por esto le llamo la atención al ministro (de Gobierno Adán) Bahl”.

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ARGENTINA
La Gaceta

PARANÁ.- Después de casi 20 años, la Iglesia católica decidió tomar acciones en el caso de abuso sexual a menores contra el sacerdote Justo José Ilarraz, acusado de violaciones contra decenas de niños que estaban a su cargo cuando era profesor del Seminario menor de Paraná, capital de Entre Ríos.

Ahora, por pedido expreso de la Santa Sede, el sacerdote Alejandro Bovero, vicario de justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, con jurisdicción sobre la diócesis de Paraná, está llevando adelante una investigación previa, a modo de instrucción, sobre una víctima que declaró en la Justicia de Entre Ríos por el caso de abuso, y la documentación que se reúna será enviada a Roma.

En 1995 la Iglesia ya había investigado otros tres hechos, pero no prosperó ninguna sanción contra el sacerdote. Es la primera vez que interviene este Tribunal, consignó “El Diario”, de Paraná.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina 12

El vicario de Justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, Alejandro Bovero, confirmó que por orden de Roma se abrió un proceso de instrucción para analizar las acusaciones contra el exprefecto del Seminario Menor de Paraná, Justo José Ilarraz, a quien la Justicia entrerriana había sobreseído en la causa que lo acusó de abusar de al menos 50 seminaristas de entre 10 y 14 años, entre 1984 y 1992.

Según el religioso, la investigación fue abierta hace poco más de un mes y fue paralela a la que había revisado la Sala I de la Cámara del Crimen, que revocó el dictamen del juez de Instrucción de Paraná Alejandro Grippo y consideró prescripta la causa por el paso del tiempo.

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ARGENTINA
Diario El Argentino

La Santa Sede pidió que el vicario de justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, con jurisdicción sobre la diócesis de Paraná, el sacerdote Alejandro Bovero, inicie una investigación previa sobre las acusaciones que pesan sobre el sacerdote Justo José Ilarraz.

El cura Ilarraz carga sobre sus hombros con una causa penal en su contra en la Justicia de Entre Ríos. En septiembre de 2012 comenzó a instruirse una investigación, que acumula ya la declaración de siete víctimas, que contaron en Tribunales de qué modo el sacerdote, que entre 1985 y 1993 fue prefecto de disciplina en el Seminario de Paraná, abusó de ellos, siendo adolescentes, cuando cursaban los primeros años de la secundaria como pupilos.

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ARGENTINA
Pagina12

El ex prefecto del Seminario Menor de Paraná Justo José Ilarraz ya había sido investigado internamente en un expediente secreto. El caso llegó a la Justicia, pero la Cámara determinó que los delitos habían prescripto. Ahora Bergoglio mandó abrir una nueva investigación.

El Vaticano ordenó una segunda investigación interna para analizar las acusaciones de pedofilia contra el ex prefecto del Seminario Menor de Paraná Justo José Ilarraz, acusado de abusar sexualmente de al menos medio centenar de seminaristas de hasta 14 años entre 1984 y 1992. La investigación está a cargo del vicario de Justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, Alejandro Bovero, quien analiza el testimonio de una de las víctimas que ya declaró ante la Justicia de Entre Ríos. El mes pasado, la Cámara del Crimen de Paraná dispuso que las acusaciones contra Ilarraz habían prescripto. Los querellantes llegaron a la corte provincial y aguardan que ésta convoque a una audiencia pública para debatir la apelación.

Los casos denunciados contra Ilarraz corresponden a los años 1984 y 1992, pero recién salieron a la luz pública en septiembre de 2012, cuando un seminarista de 33 años declaró ante el fiscal Rafael Cotorruelo, para relatar cómo, entre esos años, medio centenar de niños que por entonces tenían entre 12 y 14 años eran abusados por el cura Justo José Ilarraz. La Justicia intervino de oficio luego de la publicación de los casos en un medio paranaense.

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ARGENTINA
La Capital

El Vaticano inició una investigación propia, paralela a la judicial, para analizar las acusaciones sobre pedofilia contra el ex prefecto del Seminario Menor de Paraná, Justo José Ilarraz, acusado de abusar sexualmente de al menos 50 seminaristas de entre 10 y 14 años entre 1984 y 1992.

Las actuaciones están a cargo del vicario de justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, presbítero Alejandro Bovero, quien analiza el testimonio de una de las víctimas que ya declaró ante la Justicia de Entre Ríos por los supuestos abusos.

Bovero confirmó a la prensa que, a pedido del Vaticano, inició hace más de un mes la investigación, que “no es un juicio sino una instrucción previa” y que “lo instruido lo devuelvo a la Santa Sede”.

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ARGENTINA
Diario

El Vaticano inició una investigación propia, paralela a la judicial, para analizar las acusaciones sobre pedofilia contra el ex prefecto del Seminario Menor de Paraná, Justo José Ilarraz, acusado de abusar sexualmente de al menos 50 seminaristas.

Las actuaciones están a cargo del vicario de justicia del Tribunal Interdiocesano de Santa Fe, presbítero Alejandro Bovero, quien analiza el testimonio de una de las víctimas que ya declaró ante la justicia de Entre Ríos por los supuestos abusos, informaron fuentes judiciales a Télam.

Bovero confirmó a la prensa que, a pedido del Vaticano, inició hace más de un mes la investigación, que “no es un juicio, sino una instrucción previa” y que “lo instruido lo devuelvo a la Santa Sede”.

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DOMINIKANISCHEN REPUBLIK
Spiegal

Santo Domingo – Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft in der Dominikanischen Republik ermitteln wegen Kindesmissbrauchs gegen den päpstlichen Gesandten im Land, Erzbischof Josef Wesolowski. Nachdem gegen ihn Pädophilie-Vorwürfe laut geworden waren, hatte der Vatikan Wesolowski abrupt von seinem Posten abberufen.

Francisco Dominguez Brito, der Chefankläger der Dominikanischen Republik, bestätigte den Vorgang, schränkte allerdings ein, bislang wisse seine Behörde nur von Gerüchten über den päpstlichen Gesandten. Konkrete Anschuldigungen gebe es bisher nicht.
Auch der Vatikan führt inzwischen eine Untersuchung gegen Wesolowski durch, wie Sprecher Federico Lombardi bestätigte. Er nannte keine Einzelheiten über die Vorwürfe, die gegen den polnischstämmigen Nuntius laut geworden waren. Tatsächlich habe man ihn aber von seinem Posten abberufen. Ein solcher Vorgang gilt als höchst ungewöhnlich.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Today

Santiago, Dominican Republic.- The archbishop of Santiago on Wednesday apologized to the victims, their families and society for the reported cases of children abused by members of the Catholic Church.

“We refer to the statements made by the Archbishop of Santiago and La Vega Bishop Monsignor Antonio Camilo Gonzalez, who states, we apologize to those affected, their families, society and the common people for the times of the bad example and the lack of a consistent witness as servants of Jesus Christ, we have offended,” said a statement to the media.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

[with video]

By James Kust
CREATED SEP. 4, 2013

WAUWATOSA – Hundreds of dollars towards the Western Racquet Club, over a thousand dollars to a florist, and $57,000 worth of checks written to a Bank of America account. Those are just some of the expenditures Father James Dokos is suspected of spending from a trust fund that was intended to be used for charity.

“Yes those are checks the church council doesn’t believe were spent for church purposes,” said David Feiss, an attorney with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, “But we need to investigate that further.”

Word that her former pastor of Annunication Greek Orthodox Church is suspected of theft was shocking to Nikoletta Mitchell.

“I was very surprised because he said that someone had donated to him.”

Father Dokos was the sole trustee of a fund left by a wealthy donor.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CLTV

Convicted sex offender and former priest Daniel McCormack, 44, is being accused, again, of sexually abusing one of the boys in his church.

Six years ago, McCormack, the pastor of St. Agatha Church, was removed from the priesthood and sentenced to five years in prison in 2007.

Now, a 21-year-old man is suing Francis Cardinal George, saying McCormack fondled him twice when he was a boy.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY COLIN FRANCIS – 05 SEPTEMBER 2013

Abuse allegations regarding two Londonderry homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth will be the focus of the first public hearings of a new inquiry.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry will look at allegations about St Joseph’s Home in Termonbacca and Nazareth House in Bishop Street.

The inquiry is due to report to the Stormont Executive in 2016.

It is probing the extent of child abuse in both Catholic church and state-run institutions in Northern Ireland.

Statements from people who claim to have been abused in the two Derry homes will be heard when inquiry members travel to meet them in Australia later this month. Another visit next year will be about other institutions.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

The prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith and the founder of liberation theology are trying to conclude twenty years of polemics. But one of the most severe critics of this theological current has been precisely the current pope

by Sandro Magister

ROME, September 5, 2013 – Next Sunday, in the basilica of Saint Barbara in Mantua, the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, and the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez will present together the Italian edition of a book they have co-written dedicated to liberation theology, available starting Monday, September 9 in all bookstores:

G. Gutiérrez, G.L. Müller, “Dalla parte dei poveri. Teologia della liberazione, teologia della Chiesa”, Edizioni Messaggero-EMI, Padova, 2013, pp. 192, euro 15,00.

The book was released in Germany in 2004 without raising any particular stir, but this Italian reprinting has been hailed by some as an historic turning point: almost as if it were the signing of a peace treaty between liberation theology and the magisterium of the Church.

Gutiérrez is considered one of the fathers of liberation theology, and Müller was his pupil and admirer. So much so that when in 2012 Benedict XVI called him to head the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, many demonstrated surprise.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Public hearings of the inquiry into abuse at institutions in Northern Ireland are to start in January.

Two children’s homes run by the Catholic Church in Londonderry are to be investigated first.

However, there has been criticism that historical clerical abuse and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland are not being investigated by the state.

Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International, Patrick Corrigan, said it was a positive step.

“The Martin McAleese review into Magdalene laundry type institutions in the Republic only covered those institutions south of the border,” he said.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Javiera Matus – 05/09/2013

Distintas posiciones manifestaron ayer los abogados consultados por este medio, acerca de los criterios utilizados por la jueza de garantía, Andrea Díaz-Muñoz, y la sala de la Corte de Apelaciones, para aplicar o no medidas cautelares en casos como el del sacerdote John O’Reilly, imputado por abusos.

Para el penalista Jorge Bofill, en el caso de los abusos sexuales -que dejan principalmente huellas sicológicas y no físicas, como en las violaciones- se debe verificar el peso que tienen los antecedentes de prueba que pueden acreditar la comisión de un delito: “Lo determinante son los relatos de las supuestas víctimas, la credibilidad de éstos, y eso es algo que se discute a través de peritos”.

Añadió que, en el caso O’Reilly, “llama la atención que la jueza de garantía haya tenido una opinión tan divergente con respecto a la de la corte. En este caso, la discusión se centró en la necesidad de la medida cautelar, respecto del peligro de fuga o la seguridad para la sociedad, y si concurren o no elementos que justifiquen la existencia y participación del delito”.

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CHILE
Terra

La Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago decretó este miércoles el arresto domiciliario total para el sacerdote John Joseph O’Reilly, de 66 años, acusado de presunto abuso sexual en contra de dos niñas del Colegio Cumbres.

La determinación la adoptó la Octava Sala del tribunal de alzada al estimar que “sí existen antecedentes suficientes en esta etapa procesal para estimar la efectividad del ilícito que se investiga, así como la participación que en tales hechos ha tenido el imputado” dice el fallo que leyó la ministra Marisol Rojas.

Además se decretó el arraigo del sacerdote, desestimándose la prisión preventiva solicitada por el Ministerio Público.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Listin Diario

Adolfo Paniagua Contreras
Constanza

El suspendido sacerdote Juan Manuel Mota de Jesús (Johnny) reiteró que es inocente de las denuncias de abuso sexual de menores formuladas a través de los medios de comunicación, cosa que dijo demostrará ante los tribunales, si es sometido a juicio.

Mota de Jesús recordó que hasta la fecha nadie ha presentado acusación en su contra respecto a abusos sexuales contra menores de edad que pertenecían a la Pastoral Juvenil y al coro de la Parroquia Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, de la cual hasta hace poco él era su párroco.

En rueda de prensa realizada ayer en la oficina jurídica de Bienvenido Concepción, quien junto a las abogadas Odilis Del Rosario Holguín y Mercedes Olalla formarán la barra de la defensa del religioso, éste, con ánimo tranquilo y a la vez retador, manifestó que espera que las personas que lo denuncian den la cara, y que el juez, llegado el caso, determine si es o no inocente de lo que califica de campaña mediática en su contra.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner has called for an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse at Fort Augustus Abbey Catholic boarding school.

A third Australian monk has now been implicated in a suspected paedophile ring, revealed by a BBC investigation.

The Scottish government said the allegations were matters for the Catholic Church in Scotland, and were for Police Scotland to investigate.

But Children’s Commissioner Tam Baillie said an inquiry was needed.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland he said: “I am actually appointed by parliament, not by the Scottish government, and the government has to listen to the lobby, if you like, the views, the judgement, and in my judgement this requires an independent inquiry.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 5
BY MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Calls to the child abuse ombudsman for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph jumped 35 percent in the most recent reporting year, according to a report released Thursday.

According to the study by the diocese’s Office of Youth Protection, ombudsman Jenifer Valenti received 107 reports of child abuse or boundary violations for the year ending in June. She received 79 reports the previous year.

But Valenti said she welcomed the increase, saying it was inevitable after the diocese instituted sweeping anti-abuse training programs in the last year.

“I attribute it to greater awareness of personal responsibility,” Valenti said. “I see the greater numbers coming from our training on mandated reporting. That’s a great thing.”

Bishop Robert Finn announced the new child protection measures after the 2011 scandal over his handling of a disgraced Catholic priest’s production of child pornography. The Rev. Shawn Ratigan will be sentenced in federal court in that case next week.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

[Archive: Accused priest was rising star]

By Mitch Smith, Chicago Tribune reporter
September 5, 2013

Another person has come forward saying he was fondled by Daniel McCormack, a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of sexually abusing boys at his West Side parish.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, an unidentified 21-year-old man alleges that, as a child, he was fondled twice by McCormack, who was the pastor at St. Agatha Catholic Church. The alleged victim was a student around 2003 and ’04 at St. Agatha, the lawsuit says. The plaintiff repressed memories of the abuse until this summer, according to the suit.

McCormack was considered a rising star in the Archdiocese of Chicago before boys from his parish came forward with abuse allegations. He was removed from the priesthood and sentenced to five years in prison in 2007. The archdiocese has since agreed to pay millions to settle civil claims regarding the former priest.

When McCormack came up for parole after serving 21/2 years of his sentence, the Cook County state’s attorney and the Illinois attorney general petitioned the court to have him committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, arguing that he remained a threat.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Irish Independent

EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ AND NICOLE WINFIELD SANTO DOMINGO – 05 SEPTEMBER 2013

Authorities in the Dominican Republic will look into allegations of child sex abuse against the papal envoy to the Caribbean country, following his abrupt removal from his post by the Vatican, the attorney general said.

Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito was careful to note that his office is aware only of rumours about the papal nuncio, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, and has not received any accusations.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, confirmed that Polish-born Dr Wesolowski had been removed from his post and that the church was conducting an investigation of him.

Mr Dominguez told reporters that he had designated a senior official to lead the investigation and co-ordinate with the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Hong Kong Standard

Pope Francis came under fire from victim groups following news that he had quietly sacked the Vatican’s envoy to the Dominican Republic over allegations of pedophilia.

“Like all of his predecessors, Pope Francis is acting belatedly, secretively and recklessly,” said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“Catholic officials act only when forced to do so by media pressure,” she said in a statement received by AFP.

“When they do act, they act secretively – in this case, by not disclosing the allegations, the suspension or the reason for the suspension.”

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VATICAN CITY
TVNZ (New Zealand)

The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to the Dominican Republic and relieved him of his duties pending an investigation, after local media accused him of paedophilia, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church said.

The Dominican Attorney General later announced that a special prosecutor had been appointed to investigate Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who has been nuncio, or ambassador, in the capital Santo Domingo for nearly six years.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See had started a probe of Wesolowski and that he had been recalled “in the last few weeks,” specifically over the paedophilia accusations.

“He has been relieved of his duties and the Holy See has begun an investigation,” Lombardi said when asked about allegations against Wesolowski in the local media.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO
euro news

[con il video]

Il Vaticano ha richiamato il nunzio, il proprio ambasciatore, dalla Repubblica dominicana. Il religioso è accusato di pedofilia.

Josef Wesolowski, questo il nome del diplomatico, è stato per quasi sei anni ann rappresentante della santa sede nel paese.

Lo scandalo è stato scatenato da un reportage televisivo che accusava il religioso di aver abusato sessualmente di almeno sette minori. Fra gli accusatori di Wesolowski c‘è Nunez Collado, rettore della università cattolica che ha preteso che l’uomo fosse rimosso dall’incarico e sottoposto a inchiesta a Roma.

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CITTA DEL VATICANO/REPUBLLICA DOMINICANA
Abuse Trackers (Italia)

[Excerpt in English: However that catches your eye while Cardinal of Santo Domingo and the Dominican authorities ignore where the monsignor, the Italian Catholic website Vatican Insider makes no secret that the archbishop is hidden in Rome, far from the Dominican judiciary and also the danger of extradition of Italy, which does not have a treaty with the Republic Caribbean.

And ‘now clear that the escape of the monsignor was organized by the Vatican just to prevent the archbishop contestategli face charges in the Dominican Republic.]

Roma 5 settembre 2013

Cambia il papa la prassi non cambia: sottrarre alla giustizia e proteggere gli ecclesiastici incriminati di abusi sessuali. (Notizia confermata 1 ora fa anche in Europa da Euronews)

Dalla stampa caraibica apprendiamo che l’arcivescovo Josef Wesolowski, ambasciatore del Vaticano in Repubblica Dominicana, Haiti e Porto Rico, è incriminato per pedofilia dopo essere stato sorpreso da una emittente tv dominicana aggirarsi in zona dedita alla prostituzione maschile. Dopo la messa in onda del servizio sono emerse le accuse di abusi sessuali su una decina di minori.

Le abitudini sessuali e l’alcolismo del nunzio vaticano erano in realtà note da tempo, ma le gerarchie vaticane nulla hanno fatto fino a ch il monsignore non è stato colto in flagranza. Finché hanno potuto hanno lasciato che il monsignore continuasse la sua condotta.

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UNITED STATES
Mennonite World Review

By Barbra Graber

I remember the Sunday morning two Mennonite Youth Fellowship friends who were dating were made to get up in front of the congregation to confess their sins. They were pregnant out of wedlock.

Meanwhile, John Howard Yoder, the most acclaimed Mennonite peace theologian, sexually assaulted and harassed untold numbers of women over decades and never publicly confessed.

Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and other Mennonite agencies that hired Yoder, were unable or unwilling to publicly censure him. Years of institutional silence ensued while files of complaint letters accumulated. In 1984, AMBS announced that Yoder had resigned to teach at Notre Dame. No warning of his sexually deviant behavior was issued, and students were left to wonder why their brilliant professor suddenly flew the coop. Since that time, the church at large has not explained or acknowledged the decades of apparent complicity by its agents and institutions. Quite the opposite.

After public exposure of his abuses in 1992, followed by a secretive disciplinary process, Yoder was declared reconciled with the church and encouraged to return to teaching and writing. The promise of a public statement of apology to the victims whose lives he upended, and the wider ecumenical community whose trust he betrayed, never materialized. Today Yoder continues to be lauded, his books roll off the presses, and there’s pressure from all sides to go back to business as usual.

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FLORIDA
The Ledger

By Jason Geary
THE LEDGER
Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2013

BARTOW | The mother of a girl who reported being molested at a school and church has filed a lawsuit against the Polk County School Board and First Assembly of God in Mulberry.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 23 in circuit court and is seeking damages on behalf of the girl.

The Ledger is not identifying the girl, in keeping with its policy of not identifying victims of sexual assaults in most cases.

She is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit’s allegations include that some instances of abuse took place at Mulberry Middle School in a classroom and at First Assembly of God in the parking lot and inside a room..

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Melanie Mason
September 4, 2013

SACRAMENTO — A bill that would give some victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits narrowly passed the Assembly on Wednesday, following emotional appeals from lawmakers and nearly an hour of extended wrangling for votes.

The measure, by Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose), would lift the statute of limitations for one year to enable some abuse victims to sue private or nonprofit employers that failed to protect them from known molesters.

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) spoke of her own childhood abuse in advocating the bill.

“We cannot put a timeline on what triggers our ability to deal with an experience we had as a child,” Skinner said, adding that she did not confront her past until her daughter reached the age when Skinner’s abuse started.

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AUSTRALIA
Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay Weekly

By GOYA DMYTRYSHCHAK Sept. 5, 2013

A Catholic brother accused of sexually abusing an Altona Meadows woman as a child has been charged with 14 counts of indecent assault.

Brother Bernard Hartman, 73, was arrested at Melbourne Airport after arriving from the US yesterday morning.

Taskforce Sano detectives allege the offences happened at schools in the western suburbs of Melbourne during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mairead Ashcroft, 48, went to the church nearly 15 years ago alleging that Hartman had abused her from the ages of eight to 11.

The Marianist Brother was the Ashcroft family’s babysitter and also saw Ms Ashcroft during Saturday classes at St Paul’s College in Altona North.

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VATICAN CITY
euronews

[with video]

The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to the Dominican Republic after he was accused of sexually abusing children.

Two local TV channels broadcast allegations of paedophilia against Archbishop Josef Wesolowski,who had been nuncio, or ambassador, in the capital, Santo Domingo, for nearly six years.

A spokesman for the Catholic church in the Dominican Republic, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, said that “The law is for everyone” and there was no excuse for anyone who violated the law, “not citizenship, not faith, not creed, not politics, not religion”, saying again “The law is for all.”

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CALIFORNIA
Digital Journal

A bill currently pending before the California Legislature would open up one-year window for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring lawsuits.

September 05, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ — Childhood sexual abuse is one of the worst things a human being can be forced to endure. In addition to the immediate physical trauma, child sex abuse often inflicts emotional damage that can last well into adulthood. In too many cases, victims never fully recover from the horrors to which they have been subjected.

In California, victims of child sexual abuse have the right to sue their abusers and, in some cases, the institutions that enabled the abuse. However, many children are so frightened by the prospect of confronting their abusers that they do not tell anyone about the abuse until many years after it occurred. Others may repress memories of the abuse, only to have them reappear later in life. Unfortunately, this delayed reporting can sometimes prevent victims from being able to take legal action.

Under current California law, sexual abuse victims who are adults over the age of 26 are often barred from bringing suit over childhood sexual abuse.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

Posted: Sep 04, 2013

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A former pastor charged with sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy returns to court.

Prosecutors say Isrom Johnson abused the child on three separate occasions.

Johnson was the victim’s pastor at Prince of Peace Church in New Albany, but the alleged crimes happened in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

During the hearing, Charles Hagan, Johnson’s new attorney said he hasn’t seen the evidence. Hagan and Johnson’s former attorney have pointed fingers over whose hands that file is in now.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

By Philip Pullella, Reuters

The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to the Dominican Republic and relieved him of his duties pending an investigation, after local media accused him of pedophilia, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church said on Wednesday.

The Dominican Attorney General later announced that a special prosecutor had been appointed to investigate Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, who has been nuncio, or ambassador, in the capital Santo Domingo for nearly six years.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See had started a probe of Wesolowski and that he had been recalled “in the last few weeks,” specifically over the pedophilia accusations.

“He has been relieved of his duties and the Holy See has begun an investigation,” Lombardi said when asked about allegations against Wesolowski in the local media.

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CHILE
The Sun Daily

Posted on 5 September 2013

SANTIAGO (Sept 5, 2013): An Irish-born priest was ordered under house arrest in Chile on Wednesday, amid a widening paedophilia scandal that has engulfed the religious order he belongs to.

Father John O’Reilly, a senior figure with the Legion of Christ in Chile religious order, was detained while authorities investigate the “credibility of the allegations” against him and others at an exclusive school run by the order in Santiago.

Officials said O’Reilly is barred from leaving his home and has been denied the right to leave the country.

He also has been relieved of all his priestly duties and forbidden from having contact with minors, while authorities probe allegations that he sexually abused such individuals.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY LEEANN SHELTON Staff Reporter September 4, 2013

A former student at a West Side Catholic school is suing the Archdiocese of Chicago, claiming convicted former priest Daniel McCormack molested him 10 years ago.

McCormack pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children while he was a parish priest at St. Agatha Catholic Church. He was removed from the priesthood in November of that year and sentenced to five years in prison.

The anonymous plaintiff claims McCormack fondled him on two separate occasions between 2003 and 2004, when the boy was between 11 and 12 years old, the suit said.

The plaintiff, who is now 20, was a student at a Catholic school affiliated with St. Agatha, the suit said. McCormack was appointed pastor of the parish in 2000, and also coached basketball and taught math.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/CHILE
Hong King Standard

(09-05 14:03)

The Dominican Republic is investigating allegations of child sex abuse against Polish-born papal envoy Archbishop Josef Wesolowski (pictured) following his abrupt removal by the Vatican, the attorney general said.

The news came as Irish-born priest Father John O’Reilly was ordered under house arrest in Chile, amid a widening pedophilia scandal that has engulfed the Legion of Christ in Chile.

O’Reilly, a senior figure in the order, was detained while authorities investigate allegations against him and others at an exclusive school run by the order in Santiago.

Officials said O’Reilly is barred from leaving home and has been denied the right to leave the country. He also has been relieved of all his priestly duties and forbidden from having contact with minors.

In the Dominican Republic, Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said his office is aware only of rumors about the papal nuncio, Archbishop Wesolowski, and has not received any accusations.

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POLAND
The News

Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski has been recalled from his position as Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic after allegations of sexual abuse of minors were made against him.

“Archbishop Wesolowski has been recalled and dismissed from his post. He did not leave his post voluntarily,” Federico Lombardi has said.

National District prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso is quoted on the Dominican Today web site as saying that if found guilty, the Polish priest would have to face punishment on the island.

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CANADA
CBC News

A support group for people abused by priests says it is disappointed with the conditional sentence handed to a former Roman Catholic priest in Victoria who sexually touched a teenage boy.

Phil Jacobs will serve five months of house arrest, followed by two years probation.

A spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the sentence does not reflect the damage Jacobs has done.

Leona Huggins said the crime has shaken the faith of the victim, his family and members of St. Joseph’s the Worker Church in Victoria, where Jacobs was a parish priest from 1997 until 2001.

“I’m baffled that the courts don’t understand the nature of this crime,” she said. “This is a very minimal sentence, but it really shows a lack of understanding.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton is apologising to victims who suffered abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

The Diocese received a number of claims in 2006 about abuse at the Lismore facility between the 1940s and 1980s.

Thirty-nine were settled, but two people did not accept the conditions, and seven others later came forward with similar claims.

In May this year the Right Reverend Keith Slater resigned as bishop.

He admitted to not passing on all complaints to the church’s professional standards director, saying legal liability questions clouded the issue.

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AUSTRALIA
Coffs Coast Advocate

THE Anglican Diocese of Grafton has apologised to children who suffered abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home in Lismore.

In an advertisement in The Northern Star today the diocese has apologised to victims of sexual abuse and to those who experienced hard punishment or did not receive “appropriate nurturing and care” while living at the North Coast Children’s Home.

A victim of physical and sexual abuse at the North Coast Children’s Home between 1948 and 1963, Richard “Tommy” Campion, said he had been trying to get a “truthful apology” for the past eight years.

He said the apology is a “huge step forward” and had “lifted a huge burden” off his shoulders.

“I think this apology is an important step in admitting that the church had responsibility and saying they will provide future care for children (who were abused),” Mr Campion said.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Devlin was a Jesuit of the California Province, ordained in 1955. He taught high school in San Francisco, San Jose and in Ogden, Utah. In 2002 the Salt Lake diocese announced that Devlin had been removed at some point due to an accusation of abuse. According to the Official Catholic Directory, Devlin left Utah in 1989, and returned to California in 1990. He died December 6, 2011.

Ordained: 1955
Died: Dec. 6, 2011

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
DFW Catholic

Vatican City, Sep 4, 2013 / 03:33 pm (CNA).- The Vatican has launched an investigation of the Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Polish Archbishop Joseph Wesolowski, in the wake of accusations of grave sexual conduct.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi announced on Wednesday that the Holy See has also accepted the resignation of the nuncio.

Speaking to Reuters, Father Lombardi said Archbishop Wesolowski “has been relieved of his duties and the Holy See has launched an investigation.”

The Vatican spokesman’s announcement followed statements made during a press conference today by the Attorney General of the Dominican Republic, Francisco Dominguez, who said no formal accusations have yet been made against the nuncio.

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CHILE
La Tercera

por Karen Soto – 04/09/2013

En la octava sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, se discute a esta hora las medidas cautelares del sacerdote Legionario de Cristo John O’Reilly, formalizado por supuestos abusos sexuales a dos menores al interior del colegio Cumbres de Las Condes.

El religioso permanece en libertad y sin medidas cautelares tras ser imputado de los delitos, luego que la jueza del Cuarto Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago, Andrea Díaz-Muñoz desestimara la existencia del delito y la participación del imputado.

Los fiscales de la zona Oriente, Lorena Parra y Matías Moya recurrieron ante la Corte de Apelaciones por considerar que la medida cautelar de prisión preventiva es la única pertinente por la gravedad del delito, y la pena asignada a éste.

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