ABUSE TRACKER

EAST LANSING (MI)
The Associated Press

June 13, 2018

Michigan State University’s interim president criticized lawyers who represent Larry Nassar’s assault victims and suggested that the first woman to go public with her accusations was probably getting a “kickback” from her attorney, according to emails.

John Engler’s remarks were made to another university official in April, a month before Michigan State agreed to a $500 million settlement with hundreds of women and girls who said they were sexually assaulted by Nassar, a campus sports doctor now serving decades in prison. The Chronicle of Higher Education and Detroit Free Press reported on the emails Wednesday.

Engler, a former Michigan governor, had an email exchange with Carol Viventi, a Michigan State vice president and special counsel. The emails followed allegations at a stormy public meeting that Engler was trying to pay off a woman without her lawyer’s input.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Detroit Free Press

June 13, 2018

By David Jesse

Michigan State interim President John Engler, in a private email to a top adviser, accused a prominent survivor of former MSU doctor Larry Nassar — Rachael Denhollander — of likely getting kickbacks from the trial attorneys involved in lawsuits against the school.

In the same string of emails, Engler’s top aide — Carol Viventi — accused MSU board member Brian Mossallam of not doing a good enough job of protecting Engler. The Free Press obtained the emails from a source within the Engler administration. The Chronicle of Higher Education first obtained the emails under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The emails drew swift response, including two calls questioning why Engler was still at the school.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Associated Press

June 13, 2018

By Brady McCombs

A woman who says a former Mormon missionary leader raped her in the 1980s accused church officials in a new court filing this week of knowing about the man’s prior sexual misconduct before he was appointed to the powerful position.

McKenna Denson’s attorneys allege in a court document filed Tuesday that Joseph L. Bishop disclosed to church leaders his “acts of sexual predation” while he was a mission president in Argentina in the late 1970s.

“Instead of informing McKenna of the truth about this self-proclaimed, lifelong sexual predator, defendants represented to McKenna, the public, and members of the church that defendant Bishop was a safe, honorable, and trustworthy leader,” Denson’s attorneys wrote.

Bishop, now 85, has denied raping Denson but acknowledged to police that he asked her to expose herself when he was president of the faith’s Missionary Training Center in Provo, according to police documents. The role he held from 1983 to 1986 gave him authority over hundreds of young Mormons preparing to go on church missions.

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UNITED STATES
GMA

June 13, 2018

By Luchina Fisher

Gayle King has not turned her back on her friend and former colleague Charlie Rose.

The “CBS This Morning” co-anchor, who worked alongside Rose for years before he was fired amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, spoke to The New York Times about her friendship with veteran journalist and why she sees a potential backlash to the #MeToo movement.

King said, for her, it’s not a question of whether she has to reconcile her friendship with Rose and the things of which he is accused.

“I don’t feel as if I’ve had to reconcile my feelings,” she told The New York Times. “I don’t believe in turning your back on a friend, even when a friend has done something you adamantly disagree with and you’re disappointed in. But I also know that you listen to women, and I don’t discount their stories, either.”

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BANGLADESH
UCA News

June 13, 2018

By Stephan Uttom and Rock Ronald Rozario, Natore

Despite police finding that Father Walter Rozario had sex with women and an underage girl, the church has taken no action Bangladeshi priest accused of sexual relations with women and girl

The mysterious disappearance of a Bangladeshi priest just days before Pope Francis visited the country has taken a sinister new turn.

Police suspected Father Walter William Rozario had been kidnapped by radical Muslims when they found his abandoned motorbike and discovered that his mobile phone was switched off.

But their investigation revealed that the 41-year-old priest had allegedly been involved in a string of relationships with women and at least one girl under 18, the age of consent in Bangladesh.

“From our interrogation and findings, I can confirm that five women and an underage girl had illicit and physical relationships with the priest. One of those who admitted having an illicit affair with the priest was a girl aged 17 who was studying in college,” Inspector Saikat Hasan of Boraigram police told ucanews.com.

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CHILE
Cooperativa.cl

June 13, 2018

[Prosecutor’s Office carried out proceedings in Rancagua and Santiago in investigation for abuses in the Church]

* Personal de Carabineros y Fiscalía llegaron hasta el obispado de Rancagua y dependencias del Arzobispado de Santiago.

* Se investigan conductas impropias de al menos 14 sacerdotes.

* Personal de Carabineros y la Fiscalía realizaron diversas diligencias simultáneas en la mañana de este miércoles en dependencias de la Diócesis de Rancagua y el Arzobispado de Santiago.

Las diligencias se iniciaron en el obispado de Rancagua, hasta donde llegaron efectivos del OS-9 de Carabineros y el fiscal Sergio Pérez con una orden de entrada y registro emitida por el Tribunal de Garantía de Pichilemu.

En paralelo, el fiscal Emiliano Arias llegó hasta el Tribunal Eclesiástico de Santiago para llevar a cabo otra serie de diligencias, oportunidad en la que comentó que “nadie está al margen de la ley”.

Posteriormente, Arias se dirigió hacia el Arzobispado con el fin de avanzar en las indagatorias.

Arias apuntó que “hubo toda la colaboración en la entrega de los antecedentes que contaban en la orden judicial, se trata de mucha documentación incautada, tanto aquí como en Rancagua, en la que pretendo ahora abocarme de inmediato a poder analizar para poder decretar diligencias”.

El persecutor remarcó que “lo que sí me gustaría aclarar desde ya es que yo no estoy investigando a la iglesia católica, yo estoy investigando a ciertas y determinadas personas naturales que han cometido delitos y que son parte de la iglesia católica”.

**

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Prosecutor’s Office carried out proceedings in Rancagua and Santiago in investigation for abuses in the Church

* Carabineros and Prosecutor personnel arrived at the bishopric of Rancagua and offices of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

* Inappropriate behaviors of at least 14 priests are investigated.

* Prosecutor’s Office carried out proceedings in Rancagua and Santiago in investigation for abuses in the Church

Carabineros staff and the Prosecutor’s Office carried out several simultaneous proceedings on the morning of this Wednesday in dependencies of the Diocese of Rancagua and the Archbishopric of Santiago .

The proceedings were initiated in the bishopric of Rancagua , to where troops arrived from the OS-9 of Carabineros and the public prosecutor Sergio Pérez with an order of entry and registration issued by the Guarantee Court of Pichilemu .

In parallel, the prosecutor Emiliano Arias came to the Ecclesiastical Court of Santiago to carry out another series of proceedings, an opportunity in which he commented that ” no one is outside the law.”

Later, Arias went to the Archdiocese in order to advance in the investigations.

Arias noted that ” there was all the collaboration in the delivery of the background that counted in the court order, it is a lot of documentation seized , both here and in Rancagua , which I now intend to immediately address to analyze to be able to decree proceedings” .

The persecutor remarked that “what I would like to clarify right now is that I am not investigating the Catholic Church , I am investigating certain and certain natural persons who have committed crimes and who are part of the Catholic Church.”]

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Associated Press

June 13, 2018

By Patricia Luna

Prosecutors seized documents in raids on Roman Catholic Church offices in two cities as part of an investigation into growing clergy sex abuse scandals, while Vatican investigators met with Chile’s attorney general to discuss cooperation in the civil and canonical probes.

The surprise raids Wednesday targeted the headquarters of Santiago’s Ecclesiastical Court and the diocese in Rancagua in the O’Higgins region, where 14 priests are accused of having had sexual relations with minors.

They came hours before two envoys sent by Pope Francis met with Chilean prosecutors, including Attorney General Jorge Abbott, to coordinate their response to scandals that have discredited Chile’s church and last month led all of its 30-plus active bishops to offer to resign over their collective guilt in failing to protect children from abusive priests.

“The commitment is to a greater collaboration between the institutions,” Abbott said, adding that church and civilian authorities are going to set up a system that will provide victims with the protections needed to come forward and freely lodge complaints.

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BANGLADESH
Global Pulse

The case of Father Walter Rozario bears all the hallmarks of denial, cover-up and silencing victims seen in the West

June 13, 2018

By Michael Kelly SJ, Bangkok

The investigation by ucanews.com into the disappearance of a priest from Bangladesh that uncovered evidence of sexual abuse follows a well-trodden path.

It’s one that has been travelled in country after country for 30 years — in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Australia and now on full display in Chile.

It runs like this: there is a pattern of “grooming” where the sexual predator flatters and indulges his proposed victim into submission; advances are made by the predator on his target; fear and paralysis is the response of the target and often their families, and so often silence.

If church authorities are informed or learn of the events, there is puzzlement followed by inertia often with a failure to listen or take seriously the complaints about a cleric or religious; a pattern of cover-up where the predator is defended or worse still, they are moved to other parts of the diocese or the country or even out of the country; the circling forces of the police are at the extremes: they are either complicit with the powerful church or out to score a conviction at almost any cost.

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CHILE
La Tercera

June 13, 2018

[Historical: O’Higgins Prosecutor’s Office initiates confiscation of ecclesiastical archives in the Church of Santiago and Rancagua for sexual abuse of minors]

By Ivonne Toro

La medida incluye todas las acusaciones que llegaron desde 2007 a la fecha a congregación para la doctrina de la Fe y que recibieron sanciones canónicas como aquellas que constan en los archivos de la curia de la diócesis de Rancagua. En Santiago se requiere información específica sobre el ex canciller del Arzobispado de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz Toledo.

A esta hora el fiscal regional de Rancagua, Emiliano Arias, encabeza la incautación de documentos en dependencias del Tribunal Eclesiástico de calle Catedral en Santiago, el Arzobispado de Santiago y en paralelo, según pudo confirmar La Tercera PM otros persecutores del Ministerio Público se encuentra realizando la misma acción en el edificio de la Diócesis de Rancagua. Se trata de un proceso inédito que se vincula a las indagatorias que sigue Arias por presuntos abusos sexuales a menores por parte de miembros de la curia.

La información recabada por este medio apunta a que la Fiscalía ha solicitado a las reparticiones todas las investigaciones realizadas desde el año 2007 hasta hoy por parte de la Iglesia en que hubieran sido víctimas menores de edad de abusos sexuales u otros ilícitos por parte de los sacerdotes de las diócesis de Rancagua. También se incluye a religiosos que no son parte de esta repartición, pero que habrían cometido ilícitos en la zona.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION:

Historical: O’Higgins Prosecutor’s Office initiates confiscation of ecclesiastical archives in the Church of Santiago and Rancagua for sexual abuse of minors

The measure includes all the accusations that came from 2007 to the congregation date for the doctrine of the Faith and that received canonical sanctions like those that appear in the archives of the Curia of the Diocese of Rancagua. In Santiago, specific information is required about the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago, Óscar Muñoz Toledo.

At this time the regional prosecutor of Rancagua, Emiliano Arias, heads the seizure of documents in the Ecclesiastical Tribunal offices of Cathedral Street in Santiago, the Archbishopric of Santiago and in parallel, as he could confirm to La Tercera other prosecutors of the Public Ministry is making the same action in the building of the Diocese of Rancagua. It is an unpublished process that is linked to the investigations Arias follows for alleged sexual abuse of minors by members of the curia.

The information gathered through this means that the Office of the Prosecutor has requested all the investigations carried out from 2007 until today by the Church in which they have been victims of sexual abuse or other illicit acts by priests. of the Dioceses of Rancagua. It also includes religious who are not part of this division, but who would have committed crimes in the area.]

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

June 13, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Dave Sherwood

Chilean police and prosecutors on Wednesday launched separate and unexpected raids on Roman Catholic Church offices to seize documents relating to mounting claims of sexual abuse and cover-up.

The raids came just hours before Vatican abuse investigators sent by Pope Francis met the country’s top prosecutor to discuss collaborating on civil and canonical probes.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, a special envoy from the Vatican, told reporters that it was “very important” that Church and state work together to protect children alleged to have been abused by priests and clergymen.

“The canonical process should in no way impede the right of people to exercise their right to civil justice,” he said at a news conference in the capital Santiago.

Hours earlier, police and prosecutors raided the Church’s judicial office in Santiago, surprising Church leaders.

Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, the Archbishop of Santiago’s legal advisor, said he was in a meeting with Scicluna when he was asked to go to a court hearing about the impending seizure of documents relating to an abuse case the Church had investigated in January.

“I was very surprised when they told me ‘Father, go to the court because there’s going to be a raid,’” he told reporters.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WFMZ-TV

June 12, 2018

By Katiera Winfrey

Renewed push to follow report on church sex abuse

A Pennsylvania lawmaker from Berks County plans to renew his push to abolish the state’s statute of limitations in sex abuse cases after the publication of a grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse within six Roman Catholic dioceses around the state.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, himself a victim of childhood sex abuse in the Allentown diocese, said Tuesday he’s prepared to seek a vote in the state House of Representatives on legislation that carries provisions sought by victims.

Rozzi’s efforts come ahead of the release of a grand jury report into sex abuse in the Catholic dioceses.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

June 12, 2018

A renewed push for legislation to abolish Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations in sex abuse cases will follow the publication of a sweeping grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups within six Roman Catholic dioceses around the state, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, said he will be prepared to seek a vote in the state House of Representatives on legislation that carries provisions sought by victims.

The House two years ago overwhelmingly approved Rozzi’s legislation to lift time limits for authorities to pursue charges of child sexual abuse and for those onetime child victims to sue their attackers and institutions that covered it up. Rozzi’s bill also would have established a two-year window for victims to sue for damages if they are now older than the current legal age limit.

Currently, state law bars onetime child victims from suing for damages if they have turned 30 and bars authorities from filing criminal charges if the person making the claim of child sexual abuse has turned 50.

The Senate, however, rejected key provisions, including the two-year window. Rozzi, who has told of his rape as a 13-year-old boy by a Roman Catholic priest, said he is hoping the grand jury’s report changes enough minds for his bill to pass the Senate this time.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

June 13, 2018

By John Finnerty

Advocates rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday to call on state lawmakers to allow victims to seek justice for long-ago abuse ahead of an expected grand jury report examining the Catholic church’s handling of child sex abuse by priests across Pennsylvania.

Efforts to reform the statute of limitations law in the wake of child sex abuse scandals have been mired in controversy over whether possible reforms should to be made moving forward or include provisions to allow victims to seek justice for crimes that have already passed the statute of limitations.

The Senate last year approved Senate Bill 261, a measure that would have eliminated the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of child sex crimes. But that measure only looked forward and offered no relief for victims of crimes that have already passed the statute of limitations.

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PETALUMA (CA)
Chicago Tribune

June 12, 2018

By Heidi Stevens

Lulabel Seitz, the valedictorian at Petaluma High School in Northern California, was plugging along nicely on her commencement address about overcoming obstacles and achieving dreams when suddenly her mic went dead.

“The class of 2018 has demonstrated time and time again that we may be a new generation, but we are not too young to speak up, to dream and to create change,” she told the crowd of graduates and their loved ones. “Which is why even when some people on this campus, those same people — ”

Cut!

She veered off-script around the four-minute mark, and administrators were having none of it. Students submitted their speeches for approval, principal David Stirrat told The Washington Post, and they were warned that if they deviated from the approved remarks, the microphone could be cut off.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Lansing State Journal

June 13, 2018

By Matt Mencarini

Michigan State University has refused to release records that would show whether any of its deans or top administrators have been the subject of misconduct investigations. MSU also failed to meet a statutory deadline in an appeal of that decision.

On May 4, the university denied the release of records relating to any open or closed university investigations of 38 of its top officials, including deans, some vice presidents and high-ranking athletic department staffers. The request covered Title IX investigations, which look into sexual misconduct and relationship violence, or any other internal inquiries.

The Lansing State Journal made the request under the state’s Freedom of Information Act following the arrest of former dean William Strampel in March and the revelation that he had been subject of a Title IX investigation since December.

The university said that any closed investigations were denied as an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Any open investigations were denied as potentially interfering with ongoing law enforcement investigations and as an unwarranted invasion of privacy. MSU did not specify whether no such records exist for some of the 38 individuals.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

June 12, 2018

By Spencer Buell

“I made mistakes, and I’m truly sorry.”

Eric Schultz, the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, announced his resignation Tuesday, effective immediately, after behavior that was described as inappropriate.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I inform you that today will be my last day as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Chair of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation,” Schultz said in a resignation letter shared Tuesday. “Regrettably, I recently exhibited behavior that was inconsistent with my personal core values and the company’s core values and code of conduct. During the past eight years as your leader, I was committed to fostering a workplace culture that was inclusive, welcoming and rooted in integrity and respect. I made mistakes, and I’m truly sorry.”

The board of directors at the Boston-based health services company said in a statement it has accepted his resignation.

Neither Schultz nor Harvard Pilgrim has offered any more specifics.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

June 11, 2018

By Spencer Buell

The Globe had filed an injunction to force Sargent, a former boston.com staffer, to turn over information.

The Boston Globe has decided to end its legal battle with Hilary Sargent, a former employee who shared saved text messages conversations on Twitter that appeared to show someone—whom she claimed to be the Globe‘s top editor—sending suggestive messages.

The outlet has dropped efforts to seek an injunction that would have forced Sargent, who was once an editor at the Globe-owned boston.com, to sit down for an official interview and hand over documents related to her allegations against editor Brian McGrory. In its announcement, the Globe cited statements from Sargent and her lawyer that an inappropriate text allegedly sent to her by McGrory was “more likely” sent after she was no longer an employee at the paper.

“After learning facts disclosed for the first time by Hilary Sargent … the Boston Globe believes that legal action is no longer necessary,” reads a statement released by the Globe. “Ms. Sargent has finally provided the information the Globe has requested from the start.”

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UNITED STATES
The Cut

June 13, 2018

By Sarah Spellings

Months after Guess models including Kate Upton accused co-founder Paul Marciano of “sexually and emotionally harassing women,” Marciano has stepped down from the company.

A four-month-long probe found that Marciano has “exercised poor judgment in his communications with models and photographers and in placing himself in situations in which plausible allegations of improper conduct could, and did, arise.” The company also said in a statement that Marciano had made “inappropriate comments and texts and unwanted advances including kissing and groping.”

Marciano’s brother was appointed chairman, and Marciano will remain on the board until January 30, 2019. He has not performed his daily duties since the beginning of the probe.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS NEWS

June 13, 2018

Another woman is detailing explosive allegations against a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California. She’s joined 23 other women in an amended lawsuit, accusing Dr. George Tyndall of sexual misconduct including assaulting patients under the guise of medical treatment.

Tyndall is also feds probing whether USC concealed abuse allegations against school gynecologist. They’re looking into more than 50 cases. Some former patients claim USC ignored complaints about the doctor for decades and covered up his alleged crimes, reports CBS News correspondent Jamie Yuccas.

Daniella Mohazab and Anika Narayanan both visited USC gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall in 2016.

“When we went into the examining room, he had me undress from the waist down and he watched me as I did that,” Mohazab told Yuccas.

“He started asking me what race I was, relating to me how I looked like his wife,” Mohazab added.

Narayanan said she had never been to a gynecologist before.

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DALLAS (TX)
The Tennessean

June 12, 2018

By Holly Meyer

The Southern Baptist Convention condemned all forms of abuse and stood in support of victims on Tuesday evening.

The voting representatives from Southern Baptist churches across the nation passed a resolution addressing abusive behavior and how church leaders should respond to allegations. They are in Dallas this week for their annual denominational meeting.

“We call on all persons perpetrating and enabling abuse to repent and to confess their sin to Jesus Christ and to church authorities and to confess their crimes to civil authorities,” the resolution reads.

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LA JOLLA (CA)
News Medical

June 13, 2018

By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

Eminent biologist and cancer researcher Inder Verma has resigned from the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California according to an announcement made by the institute on the 11th of June 2018. This has followed the temporary suspension of Verma since 21st of April this year after several allegations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment from female scientists against him.

After receiving the complaints the Salk Institute had started an internal probe into the matter. Verma has since then repeatedly denied the allegations made against him. In a statement to the media he said, “I have never used my position at the Salk Institute to take advantage of others. I have also never engaged in any sort of intimate relationship with anyone affiliated with the Salk Institute. I have never inappropriately touched, nor have I made any sexually charged comments, to anyone affiliated with the Salk Institute. I have never allowed any offensive or sexually charged conversations, jokes, material, etc. to occur at the Salk Institute.”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press

June 13, 2018

By Megan Neil

The Catholic Church maintains the seal of confession cannot be broken even to reveal child sexual abuse, despite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declaring children’s safety must take priority.

Mr Turnbull has promised the federal government will put child safety first as he prepares an October 22 national apology to child sexual abuse survivors for the “shocking” crimes committed against them.

The government will set up a national office of child safety as it adopts the bulk of the recommendations of the five-year child abuse royal commission.

While Canberra has not rejected any recommendations, the controversial issue of extending mandatory reporting laws to include people in religious ministry remains in the hands of the states and territories.

Mr Turnbull had a clear message for the Catholic Church when it came to the seal of the confession: “The safety of children should always be put first.”

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CANTERBURY (ENGLAND)
Kent Online

June 13, 2018

By Joe Wright

Church leaders have come under fire for advising priests to divulge the secrets of confession in special circumstances.

The Diocese of Canterbury, which covers Maidstone, Thanet and Ashford, has been accused of breaching canon law for telling clergy to inform the authorities should they fear for a person’s safety.

The guidelines were drawn up after a local priest felt compromised when someone revealed details about ongoing abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

June 13, 2018

By Matthew Doran

The Catholic Church is holding firm against calls to lift the veil of secrecy on confession amid calls from victims and advocates to force priests to report alleged abusers.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull delivered the Federal Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Canberra on Wednesday.

Last year 122 recommendations were delivered to the government, including calls to throw out the sanctity of the confessional.

In a statement posted to YouTube, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President, Archbishop Mark Coleridge dismissed those demands.

“The church doesn’t want to protect criminals, it wants children to be safe from them,” he said.

“And the church wants measures that really make environments safer for children.

“But there’s nothing to suggest that legal abolition of the seal will help in that regard.”

That has outraged advocates of abuse victims, who believe the church is simply trying to shield alleged abusers.

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DHAKA (BANGLADESH)
UCANews

June 13, 2018

By Rock Ronald Rozario

Abuse is covered up not just by the church, but also by local Christian society, rights activist Rosaline Costa says

Bangladeshi human rights activist Rosaline Costa says reports of clergymen abusing women and children have been around Christendom for years.

“In recent years the media has been very open in this respect and so many victims are coming out and even risking their lives with their claims,” Costa said.

After ucanews.com reported the case of Bangladeshi priest Father William Walter Rozario, the former Maria Bambina nun answered the following questions about the situation in Bangladesh:

Do you find the case of Father Rozario significant?

I feel it is very significant in the context of Bangladesh. Our Catholic people are God-fearing and honor religious men and women in a special way. We have learned that religious people are the people of God and they commit themselves by taking the visible place of Jesus. But when such things happen, it is a shocking message to all Christians. In recent years, we have heard of similar cases in various dioceses and parishes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Inquirer

June 13, 2018

By Maria Panaritis

The warning Tuesday came from Catholic men in the Pennsylvania legislature.

Their names are Tom Murt of Montgomery County, Pat Harkins of Erie, and Mark Rozzi of Reading. They’re guys who go to church or, in Rozzi’s case at least, used to — until he was raped by a priest as a 13-year-old.

A bombshell is coming, they warned during a rally inside the Capitol in Harrisburg. And anyone working alongside them in this, the people’s hall of power, had better be on the right side of things when it does.

An investigative grand jury report into clergy abuse in six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses may be days away from being made public. Rumored to be 884 pages long, it is expected to make stomachs turn, the product of more than two years’ worth of top-secret subpoenas and testimony led by a team in the Attorney General’s Office.

Let’s hope it shakes everyone to their core. Because lawmakers must be prodded toward justice, once and for all.

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OWEGO (NY)
Press Connects

June 13, 2018

By Katie Sullivan

Tioga County priest Rev. Thomas Valenti has asked to take time away from his pastoral duties, days after a Boston attorney named him as one of eight clergy members accused of sexually abusing children in the Diocese of Rochester between 1950 and 1978.

On Wednesday, Doug Mandelaro, director of stewardship and communications for the Diocese of Rochester, confirmed Valenti has asked “to be relieved of his pastoral duties at this time in order to address this matter.”

Valenti currently serves as the parochial administrator at Blessed Trinity — that includes St. James Church in Waverly, St. John in Newark Valley and St. Margaret Mary in Apalachin — as well as St. Patrick’s parish in Owego.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

June 13, 2018

Arriving on his second visit to Chile, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said his mission to the country is a sign of Pope Francis’ closeness to the local church following devastating reports of sexual abuse and cover-ups by members of the clergy.

Speaking to journalists in Santiago June 12, the archbishop said his team’s pastoral mission includes providing “concrete technical and legal assistance to the dioceses in Chile so they may give adequate responses to each case of sexual abuse of minors committed by clergy or religious.”

Archbishop Scicluna, president of a board of review handling abuse cases within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos, an official of the doctrinal congregation, visited Santiago June 12-13 before going to Osorno June 14-17.

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 61-year-old Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile, and two other Chilean bishops June 11. Bishop Barros’ appointment as head of the Diocese of Osorno in January 2015 sparked protest because of the bishop’s connection to Father Fernando Karadima, his former mentor. Father Karadima was sentenced to a life of prayer and penance by the Vatican after he was found guilty of sexually abusing boys.

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CHILE
The Washington Post

June 12, 2018

By Editorial Board

THE WORLD HAS heard it again and again — heartfelt, ringing pledges by Pope Francis and his predecessors that the Vatican, at long last, has gotten the message on the global epidemic of clerical sex abuse. These often have been followed by half-measures, equivocations, inertia and even outright contempt for accusers, who in most cases were victimized as children.

Now, five years into his papacy, there are signs, at last, that Pope Francis is starting to get it.

In an extraordinary move, he summoned all 34 of Chile’s bishops to the Vatican last month for an emergency summit and dressing-down, accusing them of collective responsibility for systematically ignoring and covering up for pedophile priests over decades. The pontiff included himself in the problem — “me first of all,” he wrote to the bishops — having in January summarily dismissed as “slander” credible accusations that a Chilean bishop, Juan Barros, whom he appointed in 2015 despite warnings by other prelates, was complicit in misdeeds by a notorious abusive priest.

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DALLAS (TX)
Associated Press

June 12, 2018

The Latest on the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

About two dozen protesters gathered outside the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention are pushing for three changes to church operations.

They say they want more inclusion of women’s voices in the SBC and a database to record and track those accused of misconduct. They also want seminarians and others trained on how to address domestic violence.

Carol Shelton of Fort Worth says domestic violence and sexual abuse have been given little attention because the victims are normally women.

Michael Maschenik, pastor of Unity Baptist Church near Macon, Georgia, counters that a database would be redundant from the ones kept by authorities. He says no one in the SBC supports or condones abusive behavior.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Associated Press

June 13, 2018

By Trevor Marshallsea

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will deliver a national apology to child sex abuse victims as part of the government’s response to a long-running inquiry that heard allegations against government and private institutions and prominent individuals in five years of hearings.

The apology, to be delivered on Oct. 22 after public consultations, was announced Wednesday as Turnbull outlined his government’s formal reaction to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Its inquiry ended in December after taking evidence from leaders such as Vatican Cardinal George Pell, who is charged with committing historical sex abuses himself and was accused of failing to protect children.

Turnbull’s government will adopt 104 of the 122 recommendations the royal commission made to it, including establishing a national office for child safety and joining a redress payments program. The 18 other recommendations remain under consideration.

“It’s been harrowing work,” Turnbull told a news conference in Canberra. “Now that we’ve uncovered the shocking truth, we must do everything in our power to honor the bravery of the thousands of people who came forward.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox43-TV

June 12, 2018

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse and advocated rallied Tuesday, pushing for reforms of the commonwealth statute of limitation rules.

Currently in Pennsylvania, someone who was sexually abused before their eighteenth birthday has until they’re 30-years old to file a civil suit.

The age limit for a person to bring forward a criminal case is 50-years old.

House Bill 612 proposes to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations while providing a two-year window of opportunity for anyone seeking a civil lawsuit after exceeding the age limit, with the burden of proof going on the accuser.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
PALive.com (WBRE/WYOU-TV)

June 13, 2018

By Matt Heckel and Jayne Ann Bugda

[VIDEO]

The findings of a grand jury investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests at six Catholic Dioceses in Pennsylvania is set to be released to the public later this month. On Tuesday there was a push at the state capitol to give victims more legal rights. Eyewitness News Harrisburg Reporter Matt Heckel has the story.

A bill in the house would lift time limits for when victims of sex abuse can sue their alleged abusers. On Tuesday, Victims and advocates filled the capitol to urge lawmakers to pass the bill.

“You learn to live with it. It’s like a haunting,” said Teresa Lancaster.

Not a day has gone by since Teresa Lancaster graduated from “Archbishop Keough High School” in Baltimore in the 1970’s that she doesn’t think about the sexual abuse she and her classmates went through.

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NEW YORK (NY)
GetReligion

June 12, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

The 2018 Southern Baptist Convention is in session and, so far, the news out of Dallas has been pretty predictable. The big news, if you are into that civil-religion thing, is that Vice President Mike Pence will address the gathering tomorrow.

Baptist Press has a live blog here, with the status of resolutions and other votes, and an actual live-cam up is streaming here (and here on YouTube).There’s lots going on at several hashtags, such as #SBC18, #SBC2018 and #SBCAM18. The official Twitter feed for the meeting is right here.

As I wrote yesterday, in a high-altitude overview post, I think the key to the meeting will be actions – not just resolutions – to change policies in seminaries linked to counseling and reports of domestic abuse. Also, watch for efforts to create some kind of SBC-endorsed clearing house collecting official reports of abuse by clergy and church leaders.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 12, 2018

By Peter Smith

Advocates for sexual-abuse survivors are rebooting their effort on Tuesday in Harrisburg for legislation that would allow victims to sue over abuse that happened years or decades ago.

And if a recent settlement in Minnesota is any indication, the implications for such legislation could be huge for Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses, which are facing the imminent release of a landmark grand jury report into 70 years of alleged sexual abuse and cover-up.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on May 31 reached at $210 million settlement with about 450 victims of abuse by clergy and others associated with the church.

That followed the archdiocese’s 2015 bankruptcy filing, which itself followed an avalanche of lawsuits made possible by a 2013 Child Victim’s Act. That Minnesota law provided a three-year window in the statute of limitations that otherwise had barred lawsuits over long-ago abuse.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

June 12, 2018

By Marc Levy

A lawmaker plans to renew his push to abolish Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations in sex abuse cases after the publication of a grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse within six Roman Catholic dioceses around the state.

A renewed push for legislation to abolish Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations in sex abuse cases will follow the publication of a sweeping grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse within six Roman Catholic dioceses around the state, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, said he will be prepared to seek a vote in the state House of Representatives on legislation that carries provisions sought by victims.

The House two years ago overwhelmingly approved Rozzi’s legislation to lift time limits for authorities to pursue charges of child sexual abuse and for those onetime child victims to sue their attackers and institutions that covered it up. Rozzi’s bill also would have created a two-year window for victims to sue for damages if they are now older than the current legal age limit.

Currently, state law bars onetime-child victims from suing for damages if they have turned 30 and it bars authorities from filing criminal charges if the person making the claim of child sexual abuse has turned 50.

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DALLAS (TX)
CNN

June 12, 2018

By Daniel Burke

First it was the pastor in Memphis, whose megachurch applauded when he confessed to having a sexual encounter with a teenager 20 years ago. He was later placed on leave.

Then the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee resigned, citing “a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past.”

And last month, Paige Patterson, 75, a revered figure in many Southern Baptist circles, was removed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary amid accusations he had mishandled two separate cases where students came to him saying they had been raped.

Before those allegations came to light, Patterson had already been the subject of controversy. Audio and video recordings emerged online of Patterson making lewd remarks about a teenage girl, and counseling a woman in an abusive relationship not to divorce her husband, even when she showed up at church with two black eyes.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

June 12, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Survivors group says religious orders are ‘extorting the Government over past crimes’

The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors are planning to protest during the visit to Pope Francis to Ireland next August, founder member Paul Redmond has said.

“The fact of the matter is that the whole adoption machine was run by the church over the years and they cared little or nothing for the law of the land. As far as they were concerned they were doing God’s work, canon law superseded everything and they played hard and fast with the rules across the board,” he told a press conference in Dublin on Tuesday.

On Monday the survivors’ group met Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone who “promised action and legislation by this autumn,” he said.

They would like to see “a Garda unit, properly resourced, proactively going after what evidence is left of the criminal behaviour that was involved, baby trafficking, child abduction, and all the rest of it in this country for generations. These were crimes, serious crimes,” he said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Washington Post

June 11, 2018

By Susan Svrluga

The U.S. Education Department is launching an investigation into the University of Southern California’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former gynecologist at the school’s student health clinic – and why complaints were not disclosed earlier.

Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that the private research university had let gynecologist George Tyndall continue treating students despite complaints about his behavior. In the days after the story ran, hundreds of women came forward to report misconduct by Tyndall, who had been a physician there for more than 30 years. Many lawsuits were quickly filed claiming Tyndall sexually abused patients and that the university did not act on complaints. A spokesman for Manly, Stewart & Finaldi said that the firm has filed 20 lawsuits and that more will be forthcoming. The firm is representing more than 100 women.

Outrage over the allegations against the doctor, along with two previous scandals and the way the university’s leadership handled them, led to the announcement last month that USC President C.L. Max Nikias would step down.

On Monday, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights signaled its concern. It announced it would evaluate the university’s response to reports of sexual harassment that were not fully investigated by the university until years later. The department said the university did not disclose those complaints about medical exams during an earlier investigation.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reuters

June 12, 2018

By Steve Gorman

The U.S. Education Department has opened an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled complaints that a longtime campus health clinic gynecologist sexually harassed or abused his patients during pelvic examinations.

The agency’s Office for Civil Rights will examine USC’s response to reports of such misconduct by Dr. George Tyndall that date back to 1990 but were not fully investigated by the university until the spring of 2016, the department said in a statement.

“No student should ever endure sexual harassment or abuse while trying to pursue their education,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in the statement.

The university has acknowledged failing to properly act on at least eight complaints that were lodged against Tyndall between 2000 and 2014 but were never brought to light until they were uncovered during the course of an inquiry USC finally opened in 2016.

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CHILE
Publimetro

June 11, 2018

Por Aton

Former Bishop Gonzalo Duarte had also been accused of cover-up: allegations of sex, drug and power networks in the Diocese of Valparaíso

El religioso había sido denunciado por un ex seminarista. Su salida fue aceptada por el Papa Francisco.

Además del ahora ex obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, también el renunciado obispo de Valparaíso, Gonzalo Duarte, fue denunciado como encubridor de abusos sexuales por parte de miembros de la iglesia católica chilena.

El obispo evangélico y ex seminarista Mauricio Pulgar denunció redes de sexo, drogas y poder en la Diócesis de Valparaíso, y apuntó en contra del obispo Gonzalo Duarte por no creer en sus acusaciones.

EL 8 de junio pasado, en entrevista con CNN Chile, explicó que su denuncia apunta directamente contra el presbítero Humberto Enríquez, quien –según afirma- lo drogó y lo violó cuando estaba en la Diócesis de San Felipe.

“Él me drogó y yo no pude moverme (…) no me acuerdo de nada, salvo que empecé a sentir un jadeo y era que él estaba ejecutando la violación”, contó el ex seminarista, y sostuvo que tiene un audio en el que “Humberto Enríquez confiesa la violación”.

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CHILE
La Tercera

June 11, 2018

By Carla Pía Ruiz y Sebastián Rivas

Pope Francis accepts the first resignation of a Chilean bishop: Cristián Caro stops being archbishop of Puerto Montt

En un comunicado publicado esta madrugada, el propio prelado confirma en una declaración pública que el Pontífice aceptó su dimisión por motivos de edad y nombró un administrador apostólico en su reemplazo.

“Estando en Santiago para la reunión mensual de la Comisión Nacional de Catequesis, se ha dado a conocer la aceptación, por parte del Papa Francisco, de la renuncia que presenté, por razones de límite de edad, en febrero de 2018”. Así, en un comunicado fechado este lunes 11 de junio y publicado en el sitio web de la arquidiócesis, el arzobispo de Puerto Montt, Cristián Caro, confirmó su salida de la diócesis, la primera de un obispo chileno tras la polémica por el caso de Juan Barros y la convocatoria de la Conferencia Episcopal en pleno a Roma.

“Naturalmente que acepto con fe la decisión del Pastor universal, la cual llega en un momento crítico de la Iglesia en Chile, por la pérdida de la fuerza profética de la evangelización y la “cultura del abuso y el encubrimiento” (palabras del Papa) que ha causado daños a muchas personas y ha debilitado la credibilidad de la Iglesia”, agrega Caro en su declaración.

El del arzobispo de Puerto Montt era uno de los nombres señalados como posibles salidas, de acuerdo a fuentes eclesiásticas.

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CHILE
24Horas.cl TVN

June 11, 2018

Juan Carlos Cruz: “Three corrupt bishops are leaving and they will continue more”

La víctima del sacerdote pedófilo Fernando Karadima reaccionó ante la decisión del Papa de aceptar las renuncias de los obispos de Osorno, Puerto Montt y Valparaíso.

“Se van tres obispos corruptos y seguirán más”, con estas palabras Juan Carlos Cruz, víctima del sacerdote pedófilo Fernando Karadima, reaccionó en las redes sociales tras conocerse la decisión del Papa Francisco de aceptar las renuncias de los obispos Juan Barros, Cristián Caro y Gonzalo Duarte.

“Empieza un nuevo día en la iglesia Católica de Chile! Se van tres obispos corruptos y seguirán más. Emocionante por tantos q han luchado para ver este día. La banda de obispos delincuentes episcopado_cl se empieza a desintegrar hoy!”, escribió Cruz en su cuenta en Twitter.

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ROME
The New York Times

June 11, 2018

By Jason Horowitz

In January, Pope Francis deeply offended survivors of clerical abuse and threatened the reputation of his pontificate when he defended a Chilean bishop from the “calumny” of victims and said that he had refused the bishop’s offers of resignation.

On Monday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of that bishop, Juan Barros of Osorno.

The resignation of Bishop Barros and of two other bishops in Chile is a remarkable reversal for Francis. Only months ago, the Chilean scandal represented an enormous threat to the pope’s credibility. Now, abuse victims and their advocates express hope that a new era is beginning in which bishops and the church hierarchy will be held accountable for covering up and ignoring abuse.

“Today begins a new day for the Catholic Church in Chile and hopefully the world,” Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, one of Chile’s most notorious abusive priests, wrote on Twitter on Monday. The priest was a mentor of Bishop Barros, who Mr. Cruz says witnessed his abuse and did nothing.

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OWEGO (NY)
WBNG

June 10, 2018

By Esperanza Gutierrez

A nonprofit organization, which aims to help victims of sexual abuse, is accusing eight Diocese of Rochester priests of sexually abusing children.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, based in Massachusetts, claims that from 1950 to 1978, 17 minors raging from age five to 18-years-old were sexually abused by eight different priests within the Diocese of Rochester.

Garabedian named Thomas Valenti, who served at St. Patrick’s Church in Owego as one of them.

“It was a shock, sure,” said Marty Murphy, of Owego. “I imagine everybody was shocked to hear this. He’s done a lot with kids or children, through his ministry.”

Father Valenti is the parochial administrator for Blessed Trinity Parish which is made up four churches, including St. Patrick’s.

Lawyers claim the alleged sexual abuse took place years before Valenti came to St. Patrick’s.

Garabedian claims Valenti abused a teen boy, beginning in 1975.

At the time Valenti worked at St. Mary’s of the Lake Church in Ontario, New York.

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EL PASO (TX)
KFOX14

June 11, 2018

By Jessica Gonzalez

A former Catholic priest is accused of sexually abusing a minor, according to police.

Miguel Luna, 68, was arrested at his home on Keltner Avenue on Monday afternoon.

An investigation was launched after the alleged victim came forward saying Luna had sexually assaulted her for several years when she was a child.

The alleged abuse happened in the late ’90s and stopped when she moved away.

Last August, we reported the sexual abuse allegations.

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ST. GEORGE’S (GRENADA)
The New Today

June 11, 2018

Grenada’s Roman Catholic Bishop, Trinidad-born Clyde Harvey has expressed grave concerns over the rampant occurrence of Child Sexual Abuse in the country.

Making an appearance on a local radio station, Bishop Harvey said he is hopeful that Catholics are not involved but are exuding better morals than what is being displayed very often in the country with sexual abuse of children.

However, he said that while he holds out hope, he will not be fooled into thinking that members of the Catholic church are not involved in this depraved act.

According to Bishop Harvey, who this month is officially celebrating one year as Bishop of St. George’s in Grenada, the occurrence of Child Sexual Abuse is rather bothersome to him.

“One of the things that disturbed me greatly since I’ve come…people keep telling me the incidence of child sexual abuse is so high – that is totally unacceptable,” he said.

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CHILE
The National

June 11, 2018

POPE Francis has accepted the resignation of the bishop at the centre of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal.

It comes as he launches the purge of a church that has lost its credibility in the country after accusations of abuse and a subsequent cover-up.

A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, as well as Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Daily Record

June 12, 2018

By Airdrie And Coatbridge Advertiser

Perverted Father Michael Maher preyed on his 12-year-old victim at her home in 1968 and it continued for four years.

A vile former Coatbridge priest who was exposed as a pervert when his victim confronted him 50 years after he molested her has been jailed for six months.

Sick Father Michael Maher preyed on the girl at her home in 1968 when she was only 12 and he was 25.

The horrendous abuse continued for four years, including at his parish house in Coatbridge.

Maher, 74, was close friends with the girl’s parents and regularly called at their Lanarkshire home.

The victim, who is now 62, kept her terrifying ordeal secret for decades but told her husband after Maher had conducted mass for her parents’ wedding anniversary.

She contacted the priest by email in 2016 and Maher, who was then at St Isidore’s in Biggar, confessed his guilt.

Maher, now of Stobo in Peeblesshire, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court last week and admitted lewd and indecent behaviour towards the girl between 1968 and 1972.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

June 11, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis accepted the resignations Monday of the bishop at the center of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal and two other priests, beginning a purge of the Catholic Church in a country where it had been damaged by an avalanche of abuse and cover-up accusations.

A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. Francis named a temporary leader for each diocese.

Barros, 61, has been at the center of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile’s other bishops. They questioned Barros’ suitability to lead given he had been a top lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious predator priest and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
KATC ABC3

June 7, 2018

By Lanie Lee Cook

Dozens of Roman Catholic dioceses around the U.S. have released the names of priests who sexually abused minors, but the Diocese of Lafayette has so far opted against the practice — and the bishop has declined to say whether he plans to do so in the future.

The recent announcement of a sexual-abuse investigation into St. Landry Parish priest Michael Guidry has reignited calls to the Diocese of Lafayette — including from survivors of such sexual abuse — to release the names of abusive priests from the area.

Past Bishop Michael Jarrell said in 2004 the diocese paid more than $26 million in settlements to 123 victims of sexual abuse by 15 diocesan priests. Some of those names have been released through now-unsealed records from the diocese’s lawsuit against its insurer — a case over how much the insurance company would pay for the claims. But the diocese has never disclosed the names on its own.

At a press conference last week announcing the Guidry investigation, Bishop Douglas Deshotel was asked whether he would commit to that release, but he wouldn’t say one way or another.

“I don’t know. I’d have to find out who’s dead, who’s on the list, who’s not a priest anymore…If I knew of someone who was, who had been credibly accused, should not be — will not be — serving as a priest in the diocese,” Deshotel said.

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CHILE
Newsweek

June 11, 2018

By Jason Lemon

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops at the center of a child sexual abuse scandal involving the South American country’s clergy.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church accepted the resignation of Bishop Juan Barros as well as those of two others in Chile, Archbishop Cristián Caro Cordero of Puerto Montt and Bishop Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar of Valparaíso, the church announced on Monday.

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GUAM
KUAM News

June 11, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Former Chancellor, Father Adrian Cristobal, has until the end of the week to return to Guam or face sanctions by the Church. As we reported, Father Adrian stands three times accused of clergy sexual abuse.

Though he was reportedly sent to the Diocese of Phoenix to study canon law, the accusations prompted the Archdiocese of Agana to demand his return home and limit his faculties as a priest.

Specifically, he cannot celebrate mass or hear confession.

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DALLAS (TX)
The Tennessean

June 11, 2018

By Holly Meyer

Popular writer and Bible teacher Beth Moore says evangelicals must differentiate between sexual immorality and sexual criminality if they want the church to do better at addressing abuse.

“Both are sin and both demand repentance in order to be restored, but one calls the police,” said Moore, the founder of Living Proof Ministries.

Christians cannot let guilt over their own personal sexual sins and temptations prevent them from reporting allegations, Moore said during a Monday afternoon panel in Dallas about responding to abuse in the church.

“None of us want to throw stones, but it keeps us from even responding to a criminal situation because we think, ‘Listen, I’ve had my own sexual dysfunction,’ ” Moore said. “There is a long, long shot of difference between sexual immorality and sexual criminality that we have got to get straight.”

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ST. PAUL (MN)
The Associated Press

June 12, 2018

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has charted a financial plan to pay its share of the $210 million settlement with 450 clergy abuse victims that’s not covered by insurance.

The $40 million plan involves budget cuts, property sales and donations to help the church move forward from bankruptcy, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2015, two years after the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window that allowed people who had been sexually abused in the past to sue for damages. That resulted in hundreds of claims being filed against the archdiocese.

Most of the funding, roughly $170 million, will come from insurance carriers, said Thomas Abood, chairman of the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Reorganization Task Force. The archdiocese has committed to paying the remaining $40 million.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Catholic News Service

June 12, 2018

By Peter Finney Jr.

Despite groundbreaking steps the U.S. Catholic Church has taken to prevent the sexual abuse of minors in the past 16 years, a potential “complacency” in following safety protocols could pose a challenge to those hard-won advances.

Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board, shared that view with diocesan safe environment and victims’ assistance coordinators attending the Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

The 13-member lay board advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on safe environment protocols for children in Catholic parishes, schools and organizations.

In his talk June 6, Cesareo that because a large percentage of abuse claims deal with incidents that happened many years and even decades ago, the issue may appear now to be less urgent.

“The church has responded very concretely to this question and very proactively, but one of the issues now is that because it is now historical — you have newly ordained priests who were children when this broke out — the urgency of it is not there,” he said. “You have bishops who are new. They weren’t there in 2002. The urgency is not there.”

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GENEVA
The Associated Press

June 12, 2018

Some of the most prominent figures in the fight against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church are joining forces in a new international effort to end abuse and the impunity of bishops and religious superiors who enable it.

The multinational initiative, End Clergy Abuse, was announced Thursday at a press conference in Geneva. One after another, more than a dozen members held up their national flags and denounced an individual bishop who had mishandled a case, from the Americas to Africa and Europe in between.

They demanded Pope Francis revise his ditched plan to create a Vatican tribunal to hold negligent bishops accountable, and vowed to help victims around the world find justice.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Morning Call

June 12, 2018

By Steve Esack

Good morning!

The summit is over between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, with Trump saying he would freeze “war games” with South Korea, writes the Associated Press.

Rally to fight child sex abuse
State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, and other advocates seeking to end child sex abuse will hold a 3 p.m. news conference in the state Capitol.

The gathering comes as the attorney general’s office prepares to release the findings of a statewide grand jury investigation into child sex abuse and cover ups in six Catholic dioceses and supporters within local governments and communities.

Rozzi, who has spoken of his own childhood rape at the hands of a priest, will be joined by other victims who say they were abused by religious leaders in other denominations. Rozzi will be pushing for passage of a bill to lift time limits for when victims can sue their alleged abusers.

Rozzi, with the backing of a majority of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, pushed a similar bill through the House in 2016. It died in the Senate that year amid widespread opposition, especially from Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, who chairs the Senate Judiciary committee, which handles state legal issues.

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EL PASO (TX)
El Paso Times

June 11, 2018

By Daniel Borunda

El Paso police arrested a former Texas priest who, during an El Paso Catholic Diocese investigation last year, allegedly admitted to sexually abusing a child.

Miguel Luna, 68, was arrested Monday afternoon in front of his home in the 3500 block of Keltner Avenue in Northeast El Paso, police said. He was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to jail records.

Luna is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Police said the arrest came after a investigation by the Crimes Against Children Unit into allegations by a woman who said she was repeatedly sexually abused by Luna when she was a child. It is not clear if the woman is the same person who was part of the investigation by the diocese.

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EL PASO (TX)
KVIA-TV

June 11, 2018

El Paso Police arrested a former Catholic priest and charged him with sexual abuse of a minor allegedly committed while he was a priest.

Miguel Luna, 68, is charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.

Detectives with the Department’s Crimes Against Children unit conducted an investigation after the victim came forward and said the forme priest abused her as a child.

Police said the alleged assaults occurred over the span of several years in the early through late 90’s and ended when the victim moved away.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

June 12, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Gay families welcome at World Meeting of Families events in Dublin, says Primate

Pope Francis “will be briefed” before he arrives in Dublin about the abuse of women and children in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.

“It’s a challenge for all of us in the Irish church to recognise the way people have been damaged, the way the church has been damaged,” Dr Martin said in Maynooth on Monday as he announced details of the pope’s visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families (WMoF).

“Certainly he will know when he comes to the Pro Cathedral in Dublin. Many people don’t know that but there’s a candle that has been burning there for years reminding people of the suffering that took place,” he said.

Pope Francis will visit Dublin’s Pro Cathedral at 3.30pm on Saturday, August 25th.

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ROME
The New York Times

June 11, 2018

By Jason Horowitz

[Leer en español]

In January, Pope Francis deeply offended survivors of clerical abuse and threatened the reputation of his pontificate when he defended a Chilean bishop from the “calumny” of victims and said that he had refused the bishop’s offers of resignation.

On Monday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of that bishop, Juan Barros of Osorno.

The resignation of Bishop Barros and of two other bishops in Chile is a remarkable reversal for Francis. Only months ago, the Chilean scandal represented an enormous threat to the pope’s credibility. Now, abuse victims and their advocates express hope that a new era is beginning in which bishops and the church hierarchy will be held accountable for covering up and ignoring abuse.

“Today begins a new day for the Catholic Church in Chile and hopefully the world,” Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, one of Chile’s most notorious abusive priests, wrote on Twitter on Monday. The priest was a mentor of Bishop Barros, who Mr. Cruz says witnessed his abuse and did nothing.

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IRELAND
Irish Mirror

June 11, 2018

By Cate McCurry

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said victims and survivors of clerical abuse meeting the Pope are high on the list of priorities

Pope Francis will meet victims abused by the Church in hellhole institutions during his summer visit to Ireland, top clergymen have predicted.

Details of the Pontiff’s €20million, two-day trip were unveiled today – but he will not be venturing across the border into Northern Ireland.

Instead, hundreds of thousands of faithful will turn out to greet him at Knock in Co Mayo and in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Archbishop Eamon Martin said he is disappointed the Pope is not visiting Northern Ireland as the Catholic Church leader’s itinerary – along with plans for the World Meeting of Families – were announced.

He said: “We were really hoping this might be an opportunity and I think he really would love to come to Northern Ireland but I suppose the pressures of this particular event and all he wants to do for the World Meeting of the Families has overtaken that.

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The Netherlands
nrc.nl

May 22, 2018

By Joep Dohmen

‘We were no more than slaves’

Slachtoffer dwangarbeid

Jo Keepers (76) is een van de 15.000 vrouwen die onbetaalde dwangarbeid heeft gedaan in katholieke “liefdesgestichten” in Nederland. Van het strijken in de wasserij hield ze artrose over.

Op 17 september 1948 haalde de politie mijn drie broers en mij thuis in Roosendaal op. Elk lustrum vier ik. Dan ga ik met een broer eten in een Grieks restaurant hier in de buurt. Het was thuis onhoudbaar met een vader die dronk en sloeg.”

Jo Keepers (76) en haar broers werden in veiligheid gebracht, en toch ook weer niet. Ze belandden in katholieke gestichten. In 1955 kwam Jo terecht bij de Zusters van de Goede Herder in Tilburg. „Ik was 14 jaar en had eigenlijk nog naar school moeten gaan. Maar daar was geen tijd voor. Ze hadden een industriële wasserij waar de meisjes en vrouwen verplicht moesten werken. Van ’s morgens tot ’s avonds.”

Ze werkte op de afdeling waar het gewassen goed werd gestreken. De ouderwetse strijkboutjes stonden de hele dag op een groot fornuis. „Aan dat strijken heb ik artrose over gehouden. We moesten ook aan de mangel. Daar hebben we heel wat productie gemaakt. Kerkkleding, gesteven overhemden. Zoveel spul.”

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The Netherlands
nrc.nl

May 22, 2018

By Joep Dohmen

‘Around the garden hung barbed wire’

Slachtoffer dwangarbeid Zeker 15.000 vrouwen hebben onbetaalde dwangarbeid gedaan in katholieke “liefdesgestichten” in Nederland. Zo ook Margôt Verhagen (85), die verkracht werd door de rector van het gesticht.

Als kind had Margôt Verhagen (85) uit Den Haag pech. Veel pech. Haar vader overleed in de oorlog. In hun boerderij in Someren stierf in 1950 ook haar moeder. Ze liet zeven kinderen achter. Margôt was 17.

Een tante in Nijmegen ontfermde zich over haar. Maar al snel kwamen er twee politiemannen en een mevrouw van de kinderbescherming. Ze zouden haar ergens naartoe brengen waar ze het beter kreeg. Dat was Huize Larenstein, het gesticht van de Zusters van de Goede Herder in Velp. Zusters in een wit habijt met zwarte kap onthaalden haar. „Daarna was de liefde snel afgelopen.”

Margôt verbleef er van 1950 tot 1954. „Een verschrikkelijk tijd.” Het was elke dag hard werken. ’s Morgens 6 uur opstaan, naar de kerk en de eetzaal. Daarna werden de meisjes en vrouwen naar hun werk geloodst. Na het middageten riep het werk weer. Rond half zeven zaten ze opnieuw in de kerk. Na het avondeten en de recreatie was het om half negen bedtijd.

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THE NETHERLANDS
nrc.nl

May 22, 2018

By Joep Dohmen

‘The laundries were part of the culture of that time’
Forced labour
After France, Belgium and Ireland, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are now also under threat in the Netherlands.

Dwangarbeid

Na Frankrijk, België en Ierland zijn de Zusters van de Goede Herder nu ook in Nederland in opspraak.

Het heropvoeden van ontspoorde meisjes (‘gevallen vrouwen’) was het heilige doel van Mary Euphrasia. In de Franse stad Angers begon ze in 1829 de congregatie van de Zusters van Onze Lieve Vrouw van Liefde van de Goede Herder. Mary Euphrasia werd in 1940 zelf heilig verklaard.

Maar heropvoeden bleek al snel een ander woord voor uitbuiting. Al vanaf 1844 waren er in Frankrijk schandalen rond de nonnen, die duizenden kinderen en vrouwen opsloten. Ze moesten zonder enige betaling op industriële schaal naaiwerk doen en in wasserijen werken. De congregatie werd in 1888 veroordeeld voor het schenden van de arbeidswetten.

In 1903 moesten de nonnen in Frankrijk een schadevergoeding betalen. Zij hadden meisjes in hun gesticht in Nancy jarenlang zonder betaling en onder erbarmelijke omstandigheden te werk gesteld. Zelfs de bisschop van Nancy nam het voor de meisjes op, meldde de Zwolsche Courant: „De bisschop verklaarde voor de rechtbank, dat in het heele land geen werkgever zoo goddeloos is, zijn arbeiders en arbeidsters zoo uitzuigt, als de nonnen de meisjes behandelen, aan wie zij, daar het heet, een werk van liefdadigheid verrichten.”

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CHILE
AFP

June 11, 2018

Pope Francis accepted Monday the resignation of three Chilean bishops including the controversial Juan Barros following a child sex abuse scandal in Chile which has come to haunt his papacy.

The entire Chilean delegation of bishops tendered its resignation to the pope last month after a series of meetings at the Vatican.

Several members of the Chilean church hierarchy are accused by victims of ignoring and covering up child abuse by Chilean paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s.

Argentine-born Francis, whose decision was announced in a Vatican statement Monday, has said it must not happen again on his watch.

But the pontiff himself became mired in the scandal when, during a trip to Chile in January, he defended Barros who was accused of covering up Karadima’s wrongdoing.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
cleveland.com

June 10, 2018

Guest Columnist Melissa Martin, Ph.D, is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She resides in Southern Ohio. www.melissamartinchildrensauthor.com.

The tragic story of the rape of Tamar, a young royal princess who was sexually violated by her half-brother and then betrayed by her powerful father, King David, can be found in the Old Testament.

The Bible neither covers up nor ignores sexual assault.

Around 25 years ago, when I practiced as a licensed and ordained minister, I listened as a speaker and former pastor related a gut-wrenching story that had happened in his church in Florida. Two teenage brothers volunteered to help in Sunday school and children’s church. Allegedly, they sexually molested several children when they took them to the church bathroom. Members of the church were so devastated that they closed the church doors and put it up for sale.

Around this same time, a youth leader in the same denomination where I was a former member went to prison for having sexual relations with a minor, a girl in his youth group.

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ROME
Crux

June 11, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a controversial Chilean bishop accused of covering up clerical sexual abuse, making it the first such accepted resignation since all the country’s bishops offered to step down in May.

The pontiff had appointed Bishop Juan Barros to the southern diocese of Osorno in 2015, causing uproar both among the locals and the victims of the country’s most infamous pedophile priest.

The Vatican announced Francis’s decision on Monday, and said Bishop Jorge Enrique Concha Cayuqueo, an auxiliary bishop from the capital Santiago, would serve as apostolic administrator of the diocese.

Two other bishops also had their resignations accepted: Archbishop Cristián Caro Cordero of Puerto Montt and Bishop Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar of Valparaíso.

Barros was only 61; the other two bishops were 75, the mandatory retirement age for bishops in the Church.

The removals come ahead of a pastoral visit by two papal investigators to Osorno to “advance the process of reparation and healing.”

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CHILE
Malta Independent

June 11, 2018

Pope Francis accepted the resignation Monday of the bishop at the center of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal and two others, launching a purge of a Catholic Church that has lost its credibility under an avalanche of accusations of abuse and cover-up.

A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. Of the three, only the 61-year-old Barros is below the retirement age of 75.

Francis named temporary leaders for each of the dioceses.

Barros has been at the center of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile’s other bishops. They questioned Barros’ suitability to lead given he had been a top lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious predator priest and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

Barros denied the charge, but he joined 30 of Chile’s other active bishops in offering their resignations to Francis at an extraordinary Vatican summit last month. Francis had summoned Chile’s church leaders to Rome after realizing he had made “grave errors in judgment” about Barros, whom he had defended strongly during his troubled visit to Chile in January.

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GENEVA
La Croix International

June 5, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

It is necessary for bishops to undergo regular training on the rights of children, the dynamics of abusers, says co-founder of Ending Clergy Abuse network

Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), the newly formed international network of groups fighting pedophilia in the church, is meeting for the first time in Geneva this week.

In a few days, one of the network’s founders, José Andrès Murillo, who was himself a victim of a former priest in Chile, will hand a letter to Pope Francis outlining a series of proposals for fighting abuse in the Church.

Céline Hoyeau for La Croix interviewed José Andrès Murillo.

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AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

June 12, 2018

By Michelle James

It is hard to know where to begin with Archbishop Christopher Prowse’s plea on behalf of the Catholic Church for the ACT government to preserve the seal of religious confession, even in instances where a child is being sexually abused (“Reporting scheme shouldn’t ignore Catholic community’s wish to be part of the solution”, The Canberra Times, June 7, 2018).

Thankfully, the ACT Assembly wasn’t swayed as it voted last week to introduce Australia’s toughest new mandatory reporting laws, making it a leader in child safety. But there is no doubt the Catholic Church will never give up trying to stop the other states and territories from following the ACT’s lead and that is why the arguments of Archbishop Prowse, which seek to undermine the efficacy of these reforms, must be called out.

The Catholic Church has a shameful track record when it comes to acting on child sex abuse. Archbishop Prowse acknowledges that past and seeks to purport that the Church wants to be a part of the solution, but as an advocate for abuse survivors, all I see today is more of the same: a failure from the Church to act as the community expects in putting child safety first.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
The Daily News

June 11, 2018

Two of the eight priests from the Diocese of Rochester who were accused last week of sexually abusing children had assignments at churches in Dansville and Geneseo.

The priests were among eight who were ordained or assigned in the Diocese of Rochester during the past eight decades who were named at a Rochester news conference by Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who represents several survivors of abuse in Rochester, and Robert Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery, a non-profit organization that helps victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Eugene Emo and David P. Simon had previously been acknowledged as alleged abusers by the Diocese of Rochester after the allegations of misconduct were reported by area media. Those reports did not note any specific allegations occurring in Dansville.

Emo, who was ordained in 1961, had been transferred repeatedly and was twice placed on administrative leave. He served at St. Mary’s in Dansville from 1968 to 1973. He was assigned to St. Mary’s Church, Geneseo, in June 1982, but by October 1982 had been moved to St. Francis DeSales, Geneva, according to a Feb. 16, 1996, story in the Democrat and Chronicle.

Emo was arrested in 1996 due to behavior with young boys and sent to a different parish, according to WHAM-TV, channel 13 in Rochester.

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OWEGO (NY)
Spectrum Local News

June 10, 2018

By Nicholas Phillips

Members of St. Patrick’s Parish in Owego are reacting to the sexual abuse allegations against a local priest.

Thomas Valenti is one of eight priests accused of sexually abusing children in the Rochester Catholic Diocese. He now serves as a parochial administrator at Blessed Trinity, which includes St. Patrick’s.

Valenti is accused of abusing a 15-year-old from 1975 to 1977. During that time, he was a deacon at St. Mary’s in Ontario, New York.

Some people who spoke with Spectrum News say the lawyer representing the victims in this case, Mitchell Garabedian, is digging up the past.

“I really believe he is just causing this issue. Most of the allegations that they dredged up are priests who have either long left the priesthood or are deceased,” said Susan Peterson, church member.

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NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

June 10, 2018

By Angelique Lu and Rachael Jones

The 11-year battle to close a legal loophole in New South Wales that prevented abuse survivors from suing churches and other institutions is coming to an end.

Barriers preventing victims from seeking justice will be removed based on recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse.

John Ellis, a former altar boy, had waited years before deciding to sue the Catholic Church for abuse he had suffered at the hands of a priest.

By the time he decided to take legal action in 2002, by this stage a lawyer himself, he had no-one to sue.

The priest responsible for the crimes had died, and the Archbishop of Sydney was not considered responsible for the actions of his predecessor.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Think Progress

June 11, 2018

By Lindsay Gibbs

They’re in it for the long haul, but at least they’re in it together.

Last Tuesday afternoon, seven of the more than 330 women who were sexually assaulted by former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics (USAG) doctor Larry Nassar — now known as Inmate Nassar — sat in the front row of a cavernous hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., waiting to hear what former USA Gymnastics President and CEO Steve Penny had to say for himself.

Penny, who was appearing in front of the Senate Commerce Subcomittee under subpoena, led USAG during the largest sex abuse scandal in U.S. sports history. During his tenure, he filed complaints of sexual abuse away in his desk; waited five weeks to report credible allegations of sexual abuse against Nassar to the FBI; and allowed Nassar to publicly portray his departure from USA Gymnastics as a voluntary retirement, rather than a firing due to sexual abuse. Under outside pressure, Penny resigned from his position over a year ago — $1 million severance package in tow — and hadn’t been heard from since.

As you might imagine, the survivors had plenty of questions, as did the senators. But, instead of being forthcoming, Penny plead the fifth. Over and over again, until the senators dismissed him.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

June 11, 2018

By Dan Herbeck and Jay Tokasz

Nearly three years ago, the Buffalo Diocese abruptly removed the Rev. Dennis A. Fronczak as pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii Church in Lancaster.

Nobody at the parish was told why.

A diocese representative announced Fronczak’s departure at Masses at the church in October 2015, recalled Dick Wagner, 80, a long-time parishioner.

“He told us Father Dennis was going on administrative leave for an undetermined time. He didn’t say why,” Wagner said. “There’s been this dark cloud hanging over Father Dennis’s head ever since that day…I don’t think it’s fair. Either tell us that he is guilty of something, or not guilty, but don’t just leave the man hanging.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish Times

June 11, 2018

By Paul Higgins

A former priest has appeared in court in Co Down charged with sexually abusing a boy 30 years ago.

Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Magistrates Court, Daniel John Curran (68) confirmed his name and that he was aware of the charge against him.

Mr Curran, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, is accused of indecently assaulting a male on a date unknown between August 16th, 1989 and August 18th, 1991.

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

June 10, 2018

By Abigail Frymann Rouch and Olivia Rudgard

Growing secularisation is leading to an increase in violence and verbal abuse against Christian clergy, experts fear.

Priests told of experiences including discovering a witchcraft symbol sprayed on a church door and being followed home as academics launched a mass survey of priests to find out the scale of the problem.

There are also concerns that sex abuse scandals and a growing number of female clergy is contributing to a growth in threats and violence against priests.

Academics at Royal Holloway, University of London, are to survey around 7,000 Church of England clergy using £5,000 in funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The survey, which is to be circulated online this month, will ask clergy whether they have experienced verbal abuse, threats or physical violence in the last two years, and how often church property is damaged.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
ITV News

June 11, 2018

By Paul Higgins

A paedophile former priest has appeared in court accused of historical sex abuse.

Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 68-year-old Daniel John Curran confirmed his name and that he was aware of the charge against him.

Curran, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, is accused of indecently assaulting a male on a date unknown between 16 August 1989 and 18 August 1991.

None of the evidence surrounding the 30-year-old charges was opened in court in the short Preliminary Enquiry, the legal step necessary to move a case to the higher Crown Court, but a prosecuting lawyer submitted that the crown papers and witness statements formed the basis of a Prima Facie case against the former Catholic priest.

The court clerk told Curran that although not obliged to, he had the right to comment on the charge, five evidence to the PE or call witnesses on his behalf but that anyone giving evidence was liable to cross examination.

Curran declined the opportunity however, telling the court clerk simply “no” to each of the questions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS

June 11, 2018

The results of a lengthy investigation into priest abuse in the state of Pennsylvania could be released in just a few weeks.

A grand jury looked into six of the eight dioceses across the state.

The report is expected to reveal widespread sexual abuse and efforts to conceal and protect abusive priests.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says he will address the findings by the end of this month.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

June 11, 2018

A former Northern Ireland priest has appeared in court accused of historical sex abuse.

Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Magistrates Court on Monday, June 11, 68-year-old Daniel John Curran confirmed his name and that he was aware of the charge against him.

Curran, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, is accused of indecently assaulting a male on a date unknown between August 16, 1989 and August 18, 1991.

None of the evidence surrounding the 30-year-old charges was opened in court in the short Preliminary Enquiry, the legal step necessary to move a case to the higher Crown Court, but a prosecuting lawyer submitted that the crown papers and witness statements formed the basis of a Prima Facie case against him.

The court clerk told Curran that although not obliged to, he had the right to comment on the charge or call witnesses on his behalf but that anyone giving evidence was liable to cross examination.

Curran declined the opportunity however, telling the court clerk simply “no,” to each of the questions.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

June 11, 2018

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop at the center of Chile’s clergy sexual abuse crisis, in the first of what is expected to be a wave of firings to root out what the pontiff has termed a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in the country’s church.

In a short note June 11, the Vatican said simply that Francis had accepted the resignation of Osorno Bishop Juan Barros Madrid, a controversial prelate who had been accused of covering up abuse by another priest in the 1980s and ’90s.

At the same time, the pope accepted the resignations of two other Chilean prelates who had already reached the traditional retirement age of 75. Francis has named separate apostolic administrators to lead each of the three dioceses on a temporary basis.

Barros’ resignation appears to wrap up one part of what has been an unusually tumultuous period in Francis’ five-year papacy, which touched off during a January visit to Chile when the pontiff enraged abuse survivors and their advocates by calling the accusations against Barros “calumny.”

The pope however made a sharp turnabout after the visit abroad, sending one of the church’s most respected abuse investigators to Chile to look into the accusations against Osorno’s bishop. In a letter to the country’s bishops in April after receiving a 2,300-page report on the situation, Francis admitted making “serious mistakes” in his handling of sexual abuse cases in Chile.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

June 11, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis accepted the resignation Monday of the bishop at the center of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal and two others, launching a purge of a Catholic Church that has lost its credibility under an avalanche of accusations of abuse and cover-up.

A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. Of the three, only the 61-year-old Barros is below the retirement age of 75.

Francis named temporary leaders for each of the dioceses.

Barros has been at the center of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile’s other bishops. They questioned Barros’ suitability to lead given he had been a top lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious predator priest and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The Tennessean

June 10, 2018

By Holly Meyer

The recent downfall of a Southern Baptist legend is pushing many in pulpits and pews to confront the mistreatment of women within the evangelical denomination.

They say members of the Southern Baptist Convention need to address the mistreatment when they gather early this week in Dallas for their big denominational meeting. This year’s two-day event could prove to be a pivotal moment in Southern Baptist life given the recent ousting of Paige Patterson from a Texas seminary over his treatment of women.

The convention must take a clear stance against abuse and in support of women, said Randy Davis, the executive director of Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, which represents more than 3,200 Baptist churches in Tennessee and nearby states.

“There is no room for confusion in the matter of respecting and honoring women from all walks of life,” Davis said. “It is biblical that we honor women.”

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Reuters

June 11, 2018

Reporting by Graham Fahy; Editing by Gareth Jones

Pope Francis will not visit British-ruled Northern Ireland this summer when he makes the first papal visit to Ireland in almost 40 years, the Vatican said on Monday.
Francis arrives in Dublin on August 25 for a two-day visit when the Irish capital hosts the 9th World Meeting of Families, a Roman Catholic event held every three years.

The visit comes after voters in Ireland overwhelmingly overturned one of the world’s strictest bans on abortions in a referendum, despite opposition from the Catholic Church.

Senior clerics, including the Archbishop of Armagh and all-Ireland primate Eamon Martin, had been pressing for the inclusion of Northern Ireland on his itinerary as a contribution to the peace process.

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UNITED STATES
The Washington Post

June 10, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Southern Baptists pride themselves on being independent, democratic, Average Joes who pick their own pastors, no pope telling them what to do. Their credo is “the priesthood of the believer,” which means every Christian has access to God – no pecking order.

And then there is The Red Bishop.

Or “TRB,” as the red-haired Paige Patterson was known (and sometimes as he himself signed documents) during his decades-long reign as one of the most powerful leaders in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, a giant force in American evangelicalism.

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PETALUMA (CA)
TIME

June 10, 2018

By Alix Langone

The valedictorian of a California high school said she had her microphone cut off by the school’s administration during her graduation speech as she started to speak about sexual assault.

Lulabel Seitz, 17, was giving her speech at Petaluma High School when she was abruptly cut off around four minutes into it.

At first, she talked about how her fellow classmates should feel proud for overcoming obstacles to graduate and pursue their dreams, and she said she never thought she would be the valedictorian as the daughter of parents who left high school early. She spoke about classmates persevering through the devastating wildfires in Northern California that destroyed some of their homes, and what it was like being in school during teacher strikes.

But when Seitz’ started to address the issue of sexual assault, specifically as she was about to say that some at the high school had silenced victims, her microphone was cut off.

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UNITED STATES
Dallas News

June 10, 2018

By Charles Scudder

Growing up in the 1960s, Ted Elmore considered the turmoil that roiled a generation to be a spiritual cry for help.

Now a prayer strategist for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, he sees growing pains of another sort.

As the national organization prepares to gather in Dallas for its annual meeting this week, the #MeToo movement has made its presence felt firsthand among Baptists.

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ALBANY (NY)
New York Post

June 10, 2018

By Anna Sanders

Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein’s Democratic challenger wants Albany to make public the status of a probe into allegations the lawmaker forcibly kissed a staffer.

Alessandra Biaggi called on Republican and Democratic legislators to amend state law to allow the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) to be transparent about the status of its investigations.

Former policy analyst Erica Vladimir told the Huffington Post five months ago that she stopped working for Klein after he “shoved his tongue” down her throat at an Albany bar on March 31, 2015.

Klein denied the allegations. His lawyer said in mid-January the case was being investigated by JCOPE.

But JCOPE is barred from commenting on anything that may or may not be under investigation, or if it has completed a probe or decided not to investigate at all. Only a substantiated allegation would be made public eventually.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Associated Press

June 10, 2018

By Claudia Lauer,

The results of a lengthy probe into the handling of sexual abuse claims by Roman Catholic dioceses throughout Pennsylvania, which victim advocates say will be the biggest and most exhaustive ever by a U.S. state, could be made public within weeks.

A statewide grand jury spent nearly two years looking into the abuse scandal, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has said he plans to address the panel’s findings by the end of June.

The grand jury investigated six of the state’s eight dioceses, which collectively minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics. The report is expected to reveal details of widespread abuse and efforts to conceal and protect abusive priests.

A judge’s ruling last week gave the first real details of an investigation that started in July 2016. Judge Norman Krumenacker rejected an effort to delay the report’s release or allow people named in the report to challenge parts of it before its release.

Krumenacker, a Cambria County judge who has been overseeing the grand jury, wrote in his opinion that the investigative body had heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed over a half million pages of internal documents from diocesan archives. The investigation involved allegations of child sexual abuse, failure of church structures to report it to law enforcement and obstruction of justice by people “associated with the Roman Catholic Church, local public officials and community leaders,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
The Associated Press

June 9, 2018

By David Crary

The Southern Baptists are facing their own #MeToo crisis as the biggest Protestant denomination in the U.S. heads into its annual meeting next week.

A series of sexual misconduct cases has prompted the Southern Baptist Convention’s socially conservative, all-male leadership to seek forgiveness for the ill treatment of women and vow to combat it. Hoping for more than rhetoric, women and some male allies plan a protest rally in Dallas when the two-day meeting opens on Tuesday.

“The past two months have been tough for our convention,” SBC President Steve Gaines wrote this week. “I believe God has allowed all of this to happen to drive us to our knees.”

Illustrating the SBC’s predicament, the central figure in the most prominent of the #MeToo cases, Paige Patterson, had been scheduled to deliver the featured sermon at the gathering. However, Patterson withdrew from that role Friday, heeding a request from Gaines and other leaders.

Patterson was recently dismissed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas because of his response to two rape allegations made years apart by students.

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AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Associated Press via news.com.au

June 11, 2018

By Karen Sweeney

The ACT says a new law aimed at forcing priests to report child sexual abuse admissions hearing in confession is about putting children first.

Priests in the ACT [Australian Capital Territory] will be legally required to report any admissions of child sexual abuse they hear during the Catholic sacrament of confession.

The ACT Legislative Assembly on Friday passed legislation requiring priests to break the seal of confession and report abusers.

But there will be a nine-month wait before the law is enforced as the government works through “legal complexities” of the bill, which clashes with Canon Law governing the Catholic Church.

Under Canon Law, priests are forbidden from revealing what they hear in confession.

Territory Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay, a former Uniting Church minister, says the government knows there are significant complexities.

“We believe that the primary response must be for the protection of children,” he told ABC radio.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Guardian

June 11, 2018

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

State attorney general to release 884-page report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by the church

Mark Rozzi can remember the feeling of the tall grass brushing against his bare legs on the day he and a close friend desperately ran out of the rectory in Hyde Park, Pennsylvania.

Rozzi, who was 13 at the time, had just been raped by his priest, the Rev Edward Graff, and remembers thinking in that moment, as he ran through a field, that he would take his terrible new secret to his grave.

When he got home and was peppered with questions by his mother – a Sicilian from Messina who sensed something was wrong – he lied and said Graff had dropped his towel in front of the boys. He did not tell her about the things he came to understand as an adult – that Graff had groomed him for months, by secretly talking to him about sex, plying him with alcohol and showing him pornography. It had all culminated in his vicious rape by Graff in a shower, where Rozzi can still recall staring at the tiles and wondering if he should stay or run.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Minnesota Public Radio

June 11, 2018

By Tom Scheck

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is crafting a plan that leans on budget cuts, property sales and the generosity of Catholics to help the church emerge from bankruptcy and move beyond a clergy sex abuse scandal that has plagued it for years.

The archdiocese has committed to pay $40 million of the historic $210 million settlement with clergy abuse survivors that isn’t covered by insurance.

Officials on Friday shared the basics of their proposed payment plan with MPR News. Other details were gleaned from interviews and a review of court documents. The archdiocese hopes to present its final proposal to the bankruptcy judge within the next month.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

June 11, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis accepted the resignation Monday of the bishop at the center of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal and two others, launching a purge of a Catholic Church that has lost its credibility under an avalanche of accusations of abuse and cover-up.

A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. Of the three, only the 61-year-old Barros is below the retirement age of 75.

Francis named temporary leaders for each of the dioceses.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

June 11, 2018

Resignation of archbishop of Puerto Montt, Chile, and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the same archdiocese

Resignation of bishop of Valparaíso, Chile, and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the same diocese

Resignation of bishop of Osorno, Chile, and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the same diocese

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters via The Guardian

June 11, 2018

Pontiff vows that victims of Father Fernando Karadimo would ‘never again’ be ignored

In an unprecedented move, all Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign last month after attending a crisis meeting with Francis over allegations that sexual abuse in the country’s Catholic church had been covered up.

It was not immediately clear if Monday’s development meant the pope would reject the resignations of the other 31 bishops.

Besides Barros, the pope also agreed to the departures of Cristián Caro Cordero, bishop of Puerto Montt, and Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar, bishop of Valparaiso.

Church administrators were appointed to run all three diocese.

Francis has promised Chilean Catholics affected by sexual abuse that “never again” would the church ignore them or the cover-up of abuse in their country.

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AUSTRALIA
Crux

June 10, 2018

By Crux Staff

Survivors of clerical abuse in the Australian state of New South Wales will be able to directly sue churches under proposed legal changes announced on Sunday.

Mark Speakman, the attorney general, said the new legislation was in response to Australia’s royal commission into institutional abuse.

New South Wales is Australia’s most populous state, and the home of the country’s largest city, Sydney.

“These reforms will provide access to new avenues to allow survivors to pursue compensation, so they can focus on recovering and moving forward with their lives,” Speakman said during a press conference, according to the AAP.

Under current law, priests and lay volunteers are not considered employees of churches. Moreover, churches’ assets are held in trust, and Australia’s courts have held that the trustees of a trust cannot be held responsible for the actions of the conduct of those working for the trust.

This makes it difficult for victims to sue for damages.

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GENEVA (NY)
Finger Lakes (NY) Times

June 10, 2018

By David L. Shaw

Eight Catholic priests in the Diocese of Rochester, several of whom served in Finger Lakes parishes, are being accused of sexually abusing children by a group called Road to Recovery.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston made the allegations in Rochester Wednesday.

The Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian did the groundbreaking work in the Boston clergy sexual abuse cases that were the subject of the acclaimed movie “Spotlight.” It involved bringing to justice a number of priests and other sexual abusers, as well as their employers, including the Archdiocese of Boston.

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