ABUSE TRACKER

SCOTLAND
BBC News

17 April 2018

One of Scotland’s top bishops claims the Catholic Church may be its own worst enemy in spreading its beliefs.

The Bishop of Galloway has released a letter suggesting: “It could be argued that the greatest obstacle to preaching the gospel today in Scotland is the Catholic Church itself.”

The clergyman’s letter came just days after a priest from his diocese was jailed for child sex abuse.

He said negative publicity was “embarrassing” to Catholics.

The pastoral letter from Bishop William Nolan said recent sexual abuse scandals involving clergy called into question the trust parishioners have in their priests.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL

18 April 2018

A Catholic bishop has said the case of a paedophile priest has “poisoned relationships” within the clergy and helped undermine the work of the Church.

The Bishop of Galloway used a pastoral letter to express his concerns at the crimes of Father Paul Moore.

Fr Moore, 82, was last week jailed for nine years for sexually abusing three children and a student priest over a 20-year period.

Bishop William Nolan said the trial had been “embarrassing” for Catholics and called into question “the trust they have in their priests”.

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

NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

Written by MARIA ENEA, Gazette staff writer on April 16, 2018

Despite a robo call that suggests otherwise, the Republican candidate in the 37th Senate District, Julie Killian, is adamant she will vote in favor of the Child Victims Act with a one-year “look-back” window allowing victims to file lawsuits for sexual assault crimes committed decades ago.

Killian is running for senator against Democrat Shelley Mayer in a special election on April 24 to fill the seat of George Latimer who is now the Westchester County Executive. The district covers the communities of White Plains, New Rochelle, Harrison, Rye, Mamaroneck, North Castle and Bedford.

The robo call, which was activated last week, was recorded by Asher Lovy of ZA’A’KAH, an organization that visits Orthodox Jewish communities to help raise awareness about child sexual abuse.

The message states: “Because of Republican obstruction, thousands of hidden predators walk free and unidentified every year in New York leaving our children in danger. Now, these same Republicans are spending millions of dollars to elect Julie Killian to the state Senate.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

CATHERINA GIOINO
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, April 12, 2018

An 87-year-old woman abused by a nun when she was a teenager rallied Thursday with other sex abuse survivors for legislation that would let them seek justice as adults.

Cecilia Springer said she was abused by her high school principal at St. Ursula, which runs the Notre Dame School of Manhattan — a private, Catholic secondary school for girls in the city.

Springer said her abuser was transferred to a different school at the end of that school year.

“I never told anyone so she was never reported,” Springer said. “I know of other people that she attempted to abuse.”

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MICHIGAN
Midland Daily News

ORI QUALLS

April 16, 2018

Five former priests, including three with local connections, were removed from ministry because of credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors, it was announced by the Diocese of Saginaw.

They are:

• John E. Hammer (former priest, associate pastor, Blessed Sacrament, 1991-1995)

• Jack E. Leipert (former priest, temporary administrator St. Philip Neri, Coleman, and St. Anne, Edenville, 1978, and Sacred Heart, Bad Axe, 1990-2001 )

• Leonard F. Wilkuski (former priest, assistant pastor, St. Brigid of Kildare, Midland, 1963-1965 and pastor, 1990-1999)

• Stanislaus A. Bur (former priest – deceased)

• Richard L Howard (former deacon)

Full assignment histories of the priests can be found here.

In addition, two priests are currently on administrative leave related to allegations under investigation. They are: Robert J. DeLand and Ronald J. Dombrowski

DeLand of Freeland was charged Feb. 26 with criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting two males, ages 21 and 17. The 71-year-old DeLand has pleaded not guilty.

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CANADA
The Standard

April 18, 2018[

by Grant LaFleche

William O’Sullivan arrived at Penetanguishene, Ont, Friday expecting the worst but hoping he was wrong.

He wasn’t.

Donald Grecco, the former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing O’Sullivan as a boy, will soon be a free man.

After deliberating for more than four hours Friday, Ontario parole board members at the Central North Correctional Centre voted to grant Grecco’s request for early release after serving six months of an 18-month sentence.

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

NEW YORK
WIVB

By: Marissa Perlman

Apr 17, 2018

WIVB, N.Y. (WIVB) – – The Buffalo Catholic Diocese has come up with a way to help pay settlements to victims who were sexually abused by priests.

The Buffalo Diocese says it’s going to put the Bishop’s mansion on Oakland place on the market.

This comes on the same day a law firm that represents sexual abuse victims released new details about 42 accused former Buffalo Priests.

This has been the Bishop of Buffalo’s home since 1952.

And Bishop Malone is the sixth out of 14 to have lived there. But faced with this sex abuse scandal,
The Bishop says the Diocese needs all of the resources it can get.

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

NEW YORK
Union=-Sun and Journal

April 19, 2918

By Philip Gambini and Rick Pfeiffer philip.gambini@lockportjournal.com

Attorney Mike Reck returned to Buffalo on Tuesday to again demand the Catholic Diocese release a comprehensive list of clerics within its jurisdiction who have been credibly accused of sexual assaults against children or other abuses.

It is the second call Reck and his firm, Jeff Anderson and Associates, P.A., have made in as many months. The first occurred in March, when Reck’s firm released a list of 13 priests accused of committing sexual crimes against minors while serving in Western New York.

A subsequent disclosure by the diocese added 30 priests that the religious institution said had “credible” allegations of abuse brought against them.

The second batch of information released by the law firm on Tuesday included details about where the 42 named clergymen were assigned, while laying out a hierarchy of church leaders who oversaw the diocese between 1945 and 2017. They are individuals Reck said are “responsible for the current crisis.”

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NEW YORK
Spectrum News

By Jaclyn Cangro | April 16, 2018

ALBANY, N.Y. — On a rainy day in Albany, sexual assault survivor Kat Sullivan unveiled her latest message.

A new billboard on the side of I-787 reads, “90% of NY supports the Child Victims Act. Senator Amedore, why don’t you?” She got the idea from Oscar-winning movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

If the act is passed, minors will have no statute of limitations in bringing felony cases against someone who sexually abused them.

“We’re starting here, and there’s going to be more billboards going up,” says Sullivan.

Senator George Amedore has seen the billboard and calls it unfortunate. He disagrees with it, saying he supports child victims. To him, the problem is finding a bill the assembly, senate and governor all agree on.

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

NEW YORK
Times Union

By Rachel Silberstein

April 16, 2018

ALBANY — Standing in the pouring rain in front of a billboard bearing the face of state Sen. George Amedore, activist Kat Sullivan called out the Republican and his legislative colleagues Monday for impeding the passage of a bill that would lift the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse.

The sign, which reads “90% of New Yorkers support the Child Victims Act. Why don’t you, Senator Amedore?” is one of three paid for by Sullivan, who says she was sexually abused and raped by a teacher during her time at Troy’s Emma Willard School 20 years ago.

The press conference at a junction off I-787 was followed by a sit-in at the state Capitol organized by Sullivan and fellow survivors from the Capitol Region, including Bridie Farrell, a champion speed skater from Saratoga who says she was abused by a teammate, and Mary Ellen O’Loughlin, of Perth.

Advocates have been targeting Republican senators in their districts, including Amedore, warning constituents of the lack of recourse for victims of childhood abuse, which they say allows predators to continue preying on children.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social affairs correspondent
18 APRIL 2018

Almost one in three reported child abuse images are now taken by the children themselves, new figures from the Internet Watch Foundation show.

Children are increasingly filming or photographing themselves in explicit situations and sharing the footage, which then ends up on adult pornography sites or shared by paedophiles, the foundation’s annual report found.

The report shows that there were 78,589 confirmed child sexual abuse URLs found in 2017, up from 57,335 in 2016.

A growing number of images discovered by the foundation’s staff were those which children had taken themselves as photos or via livestreaming apps.

The number of cases which involved “self-generated” content rose from 349 in January 2017 to 1,717 a year later, rising from six per cent of the total in January 2017 to 26 per cent in January 2018.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

April 18, 2018

The Internet Watch Foundation says it is finding more images of child sexual abuse online than ever before, according to its annual report.

It found over 78,000 website addresses containing child sexual abuse in 2017, up from more than 57,000 in 2016.

The charity actively seeks and removes these images from the net as well as responding to reports it receives from the public.

It said it had also processed over 80,000 reports of confirmed abuse.

Additionally, there was a rise in “disguised” websites, which are on the open web, where illegal content is shown only to people who access them via a particular pathway.

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NEW YORK
Times Record-Herald

April 17, 2018

So what will it be, Sens. John Bonacic and Bill Larkin?

Protect the victims of abuse or instead protect the insurance companies and the institutions, most notably the Catholic Church, that are more worried about what they might have to pay?

That’s what it comes down to in these final weeks of the legislative session as a series of bills long held hostage in the state Senate awaits yet another chance for passage.

The legislation is known as the Child Victims Act and it would have become law years ago had it not been for the opposition of the Senate Republican majority which has refused to even bring it up for a vote.

The facts have not changed. As yet another report said yet again last week, New York has some of the worst laws in the nation when it comes to the rights of victims of child molestation. Other states used to have similar laws. In fact, 39 have changed them since the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church received national publicity from the 2002 investigation by the Boston Globe, a story made even more prominent by the movie “Spotlight.”

Still, New York Republican senators resist.

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CONNECTICUT
Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian

FIRST TIME PUBLIC ALLEGATIONS OF CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE OF A MINOR ADDRESSED AGAINST FR. GREGORY M. ALTERMATT, ARCHDIOCESE OF HARTFORD

Civil Complaint Filed in New Haven Superior Court against Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt and The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation (The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford).
A press conference discussing a Civil Complaint Filed in Superior Court alleging sexual abuse of a minor by Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt: Matthew Cornell v. The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation and Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt.

The suit alleges that in approximately 1976 Altermatt became a close friend of the plaintiff’s family who were parishioners at St. Matthew Church in Bristol, Connecticut. The suit alleges counts of negligence and reckless and wanton conduct against the Hartford Archdiocese and a number of counts of intentional acts against Altermatt. The alleged abuse occurred between approximately 1976 and 1985. The acts intensified after the death of the plaintiff’s mother in 1979 after Altermatt offered to help the plaintiff’s father as a part time caretaker and babysitter, who now had to raise the plaintiff by himself as well as a disabled daughter. The suit claims compensation for psychological damages.

Attending:
Thomas M. McNamara, Esq. and Mitchell Garabedian, Esq.

When:
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.

Where:
New Haven Hotel, Executive Boardroom, 229 George Street, New Haven, CT

Contacts:
Thomas M. McNamara, Esq., 203.782.9241 (tmacesq@gmail.com) Attorney for Plaintiff
Mitchell Garabedian, Esq. 617.388.5252 (mgarabedian@garabedianlaw.com) Counsel to Matthew Cornell

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NEW YORK
The Tablet

April 16, 2018

By Frieda Vizel

Earlier this month, the New York State budget passed with new language that would somewhat relax the government education requirements for Yeshivas. Following this change, activists who left Hasidism and are fighting to enforce more secular education were quick to denounce the law. Shulem Deen wrote in the The New York Times “Why does New York Condone illiteracy?” and Hasidim took to Twitter to fight back. My Facebook feed is filled with outcries against corruption and uneducated children.

When Hasidic education is in the news, I bite my tongue. While I too was educated in the Hasidic community, I am a woman, and women are said to get more education, which is to say I learned more English. I left the Hasidic community when my son was five and still in Kindergarten in the Satmar community. But most of all, I find it hard to say anything because this conversation is so often reduced to moral absolutism. This is a fight in which both sides have set themselves up as the saviors of the children, the heroes to the victims, and anything besides heroism will get shouted down by indignant advocates whose work is here to save the day.

I understand their positions. On the one hand, Hasidic men like my father, still traumatized by the memory of the Holocaust, see their way of life as perpetually threatened, always on the verge of extinction. It’s why the language they use to discuss this issue includes words like meshimed, or a Jew who seeks to hurt his own people, or gezeyrah, an evil decree by the government, both loaded and theological. Comparisons to the persecutors of old abound, and the same old solutions are offered: Hunker down, do not give an inch, and quietly use political emissaries to overturn decrees. A modern day Rabbinic miracle is when political power saves the day from governmental villains.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The State

BY EMILY BOHATCH
ebohatch@thestate.com

April 16, 2018

A former associate pastor at a Lexington church was arrested Thursday and charged with criminal sexual conduct, according to a statement from Lexington police.

Eduardo Elias Cornejo, 34 and a former pastor at Columbia First Seventh-Day Adventist Church, turned himself into police after a victim came forward earlier this year to report a sexual assault, according to the statement.

The female, who spoke with police Feb. 22, said Cornejo assaulted her in January 2017. She said Cornejo met with her and “used persuasion and physical force” to have sex with her, according to the statement.

The woman said she was very clear she didn’t want to have sex with Cornejo and repeatedly said no.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS SF Bay Area

April 16, 2018

REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) — A former pastor was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting three victims between September 2011 and May 2015, San Mateo County prosecutors said Monday.

Victor Tax-Gomez, 50, also known as Ever Oliveros-Cano, was a pastor for Senor Justicia Nuestra Church in Menlo Park, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

When the victims were 13, 15 and 17, Tax-Gomez committed the crimes while claiming to be praying with or cleansing the victims at the church, prosecutors said. Two of the victims were sisters and a third was a friend.

Two years later, one of the victims told a therapist that the crime had happened and the therapist reported it to Menlo Park police.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Journal

April 16, 2018

A former pastor was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting three victims between September 2011 and May 2015, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

Victor Taxgomez, 50, also known as Ever Oliveros-Cano, was a pastor for Senor Justicia Nuestra Church in Menlo Park, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

When the victims were 13, 15 and 17, Taxgomez committed the crimes while claiming to be praying with or cleansing the victims at the church, prosecutors said. Two of the victims were sisters and a third was a friend.

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

MISSOURI
KSDK

Author: Sam Clancy
April 16, 2018

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A youth pastor at a Clayton, Missouri, church is facing statutory sodomy charges after police said he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.

Andrew Dickson, 30, was charged with two counts of statutory sodomy for an alleged sexual relationship with 15-year-old in March of 2018. He worked at Central Presbyterian Church but was fired when the church found out about the incident, a statement from the church said.

Charging documents said the relationship involved oral sex and fondling the male victim which took place at Dickson’s University City home. After his arrest by the University City police, he admitted to the crimes, charging documents said.

He was charged with two counts of statutory sodomy and one count of child molestation. His bond was set at $150,000 and he was ordered not to contact the victim or the victim’s family.

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MISSOURI
KMOV

Apr 16, 2018

A local youth pastor who had worked at a church in Clayton is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.

Andrew Dickson, 30, of University City, is charged with child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy.

Police say he admitted to engaging in a sexual relationship with the teen, which included oral sex and fondling.

The Central Presbyterian Church later released the following statement:

When Central Presbyterian Church learned of this deeply disturbing situation, we immediately reported it to the appropriate authorities and proceeded to terminate this individual from his position. We are fully cooperating with authorities investigating this matter. We are focused on caring for the victim and supporting our church community as we grieve and heal together. We are praying for all parties involved.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 16, 2018

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

UPDATED at 3:45 p.m. with statement from church and detail that the suspect was fired from his church job.

CLAYTON • A former youth pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton has been charged with child molestation and statutory sodomy.

Andrew Dickson, 30, of the 800 block of McKnight Road in University City, was charged April 9 in St. Louis County Circuit Court with one count of child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy.

Charging documents say that the crimes occurred between March 1 and April 1, and Dickson admitted to fondling and engaging in oral sex with a minor.

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NEW YORK
CNN

By Eric Levenson, CNN

April 17, 2018

(CNN)McKayla Maroney questioned whether or not her star gymnastics career “was really even worth it” because of the fallout from her sexual abuse at the hands of team doctor Larry Nassar, she said Tuesday.

“I wasn’t listened to, cared about or believed, and all of those things need to be weeded out of society, because that’s where things went wrong,” she said.

The statements marked Maroney’s first public remarks since she revealed on her Twitter account in October that Nassar had sexually abused her. Her comments Tuesday came during a luncheon for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at The Pierre hotel in New York.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz

April 17, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone mentioned in March that no Catholic Diocese of Buffalo properties would be off-limits from the possibility of being sold to help compensate childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The sell-off started on Tuesday, with Malone’s sudden announcement that he will put on the market his own residence, a palatial mansion on one of Buffalo’s most exclusive streets that’s been home to Buffalo bishops since 1952.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” Malone said in a statement emailed to The News Tuesday afternoon.

The bishop’s residence at 77 Oakland Place, assessed at $1.3 million, has nine bedrooms and six bathrooms in 11,050 square feet of space.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo

Tue, Apr 17th 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone announced that the Bishop’s Residence at 77 Oakland Place, Buffalo, will be placed on the market this summer and all proceeds from the sale of the property will be dedicated to the Diocese of Buffalo’s Independent Reconciliation & Compensation Program to assist victims of past sexual abuse by priests.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” said Bishop Malone, noting that he consulted with the diocesan Finance Council, College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council in making this decision.

The former convent at St. Stanislaus Parish on Townsend Street in Buffalo, will now serve as the Bishop’s Residence and as a venue for small events. “I am proud to move to the heart of Buffalo’s Polonia, especially as a way to be a small part of the renewal that is happening in so many ways in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.”

The Diocese of Buffalo will also be selling the Sheehan Residence for retired priests on Linwood Avenue, Buffalo. Proceeds from the sale of that property will be devoted to the Retired Diocesan Priests’ Medical Benefits Fund. The three-story brick building at Linwood & Utica was originally built in 1928 as the rectory for what was then St. Joseph Cathedral on Delaware Avenue. The “New Cathedral” as it was known was demolished in the 1970’s and the former rectory has been used ever since as a residence for retired priests. The building features 12 suite-style units. There are three other diocesan residences for retired priests which can accommodate those now living at the Sheehan residence.

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NEW YORK
WBFO

April 17, 2918

By MICHAEL MROZIAK

Two valuable properties, including an E.B. Green-designed mansion, will be put up for sale by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo to help fund two programs, including the one it recently launched to assist past sexual abuse victims, church officials announced Tuesday.

(This story is developing.)

The Bishop’s Residence, located at 77 Oakland Place in Buffalo, will be put on the market this summer. So, too, will the Sheehan Residence for retired priests on at Linwood and Utica Avenues in Buffalo.

Proceeds from the sale of the Bishop’s Residence will go toward the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which was announced in March to aid victims who have previously come forward with accusations of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” said Bishop Richard Malone in a prepared written statement. He noted that the decision comes after consultation with the Diocesan Finance Council, College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council.

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IDAHO
KTVB

Author: Katie Terhune
April 16, 2018

NOTE: This article contains graphic content that may be upsetting to some readers.

BOISE — The retired Boise priest facing more than 20 child pornography charges mused online about the “journey that he has taken down the path to Satan” and his desire to hurt others before the end of his life, according to prosecutors.

“‘Yes, I want to do something truly evil before I die,'” Prosecutor Kassandra Slaven recited in court Friday. “‘The thought of killing someone does begin to excite me.'”

Slaven was quoting from online chat logs obtained by police after they raided Father W. Thomas Faucher’s home in February. Investigators found more than 2,000 child pornography images and videos on Faucher’s computer and cell phone, including files depicting the “extremely brutal rape and torture” of children as young as infants and toddlers, according to the prosecutor.

Friday’s court hearing came after Faucher’s lawyer, Mark Manweiler, filed a motion to reduce the priest’s $1 million bond, decrying the amount as “excessive,” “unnecessary,” and ultimately unconstitutional.

“This case is what it is, it’s a serious case,” Manweiler argued. “A significant bond is certainly warranted, but not a million dollars – that’s ridiculous.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

JOE MARUSAK
jmarusak@charlotteobserver.com

April 16, 2018

An ex-Episcopal priest imprisoned in Massachusetts for decades-old child sex crimes is now accused of sexually assaulting two children in the North Carolina mountains.

A Haywood County grand jury has indicted 76-year-old Howard “Howdy” Willard White Jr. on sex assault charges involving a girl and a boy, The Mountaineer newspaper in Waynesville reported. White is accused of the assaults when he served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville in the 1980s, according to the newspaper.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

April 17, 2018

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the Bill Cosby’s sexual-assault retrial (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

Jurors are hearing from a police interview in which Bill Cosby acknowledged fondling his chief accuser’s breasts and genitals after giving her pills at his suburban Philadelphia home.

Authorities are reading a transcript of the January 26, 2005, interview to the jury Tuesday. The interview was conducted about two weeks after Andrea Constand went to police.

The 80-year-old “Cosby Show” star says he gave Constand 1½ tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to help her relax. He says she showed no ill effects from the pills and did not object when he touched her.

Cosby told investigators he had a social and romantic relationship with Constand.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Variety

April 17, 2018

By Emilie Lounsberry

NORRISTOWN, Pa. – Bill Cosby admitted to sexual contact with the woman who says that he molested her, but he told investigators back in 2005 that their “petting” was consensual and that she was not in any way incapacitated, the jury in his sexual assault retrial learned Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Richard Schaffer of the Cheltenham Township Police Department just outside of Philadelphia told the jury about Cosby’s January 2005 interview with him and several other investigators. It took place at a law office in Manhattan, he said, and Cosby described his relationship with Andrea Constand as a friendship that had become romantic.

“We were fully clothed. We were petting,” Schaffer quoted Cosby as having said, reading directly from the police report of that interview. “I enjoyed it.”

Cosby’s words underscore the he said, she said nature of the case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William Henry Cosby Jr. – as the case against the entertainer is formally captioned.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Worthy Adversary

Joelle Casteix

UPDATED 4/17

Three Men to Watch: Wuerl, Persico, and Trautman
(and one to discount)

More rumors are circulating about who was called to testify and what the grand jury investigation will uncover. But one thing is clear:

There are three men to watch.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl

Wuerl, now the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C., was Bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. According to his Wikipedia page, one would think that he’s a champion for victims. Critics have called him the “Teflon Cardinal,” due to the fact that scandal seldom sticks to him. Outside of two known abusive priests that Wuerl did not warn parishioners about, what else will the grand jury investigation tell us?

I can only assume he was asked to testify. He was the bossman for 20 years.

Erie Bishops Lawrence Persico and Donald Trautman

The Diocese of Erie is in full protection mode. Earlier this month, officials there released a list of 34 priests and 17 lay people who have been credibly accused of abuse.

Yesterday, the boshop announced the expansion of the diocese’s child protection office.

If they were so concerned about such things (you know, exposing abuse and protecting kids), why didn’t they release these names before? Why not expand the Diocese of Erie child protection office in 2015 or in 2013?

They are getting ready for a bomb to drop.

Trautman was Erie’s bishop from 1990 to 2012. He retired at the mandatory age of 75. Persico took over in 2012.

And a man to discount: Nicholas Cafardi

Peter Smith at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a great piece today about the upcoming grand jury report. He quotes Robert Hoatson, a wonderful advocate for victims, as well as some of the players mentioned below.

He also quotes Nick Cafardi, a former chairman of the US Bishops National Review Board for the protection of minors.

[Cafardi] said he doesn’t expect major surprises from Pittsburgh in the grand jury report.

This is the same Nicholas Cafardi who was general counsel for the Diocese of Pittsburgh itself.

*Ahem*

He was their LAWYER. So let’s just scratch him off the “credible” list.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Aaron Rabinowitz

Apr 17, 2018

The invitation to the event explicitly states it will start at 9 P.M. But the hundreds of people gathered in the hall in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, during one of the intermediate days of the Passover holiday, were to endure a long wait. Only when the clock struck midnight did the music heralding the arrival of the star go off.

The “Holy Man” (Tzadik), the term used by Bratslav Hasidim for their rebbe, none other than Rabbi Eliezer Berland, had arrived. The excitement hit its peak. One of the followers ran to him and managed to touch the rabbi’s tallit (prayer shawl). The rest of the men pushed and shoved, climbed on chairs and even trampled those standing in the way between them and Berland. The few who succeeded returned to their seats beaming with excitement and with glazed eyes. A similar excitement could be seen looking up to the women’s section.

A full year has passed since Berland, the leader of the Shuvu Banim Hasidic sect, was released from prison. He had served a year of his 18-month sentence for sexual assault and indecent acts against two women before being released on parole – and returned to his eagerly awaiting flock of followers.

If anyone had thought that once released from prison, Berland would remain alone, unforgiven for the acts he had confessed to and bereft of followers – they were very wrong.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Attorney to host conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo

Cunningham Letter
Diocese of Buffalo Locations of Perpetrators Map
Fr. James H. Cotter Priest File
Officials of the Buffalo Diocese 1945-2018
Report Clerical Sexual Abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo Vol. 2

(Buffalo, New York) – Today, Attorney Mike Reck and others will:

• Release a second report containing the identities, histories and information on 42 priests accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Invite the press to participate in an open conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Release additional files and materials regarding the Diocese of Buffalo and participate in a Q & A session;
• Encourage full disclosure by the diocese regarding the still secret identities of additional Diocese of Buffalo priests accused of sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 11:00AM ET

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AUSTRALIA
Associated Press

April 17, 2018

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A lawyer for the most senior Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis told an Australian court on Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell could have been targeted with false accusations to punish him for the crimes of other clerics.

Defense and prosecution lawyers were making their final submissions in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in a hearing to determine whether the case against Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic was strong enough to warrant a trial by jury.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington will make her ruling on May 1 on whether Pell will stand trial.

Pell, Pope Francis’ former finance minister, was charged last June with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as “historical” sexual assault offenses — meaning the crimes allegedly occurred decades ago.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

April 17, 2018

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers want the case against him thrown out, arguing the historical sexual offence allegations are impossible.

Defence barrister Robert Richter QC has also suggested the allegations may be motivated by a desire to punish Australia’s most senior Catholic over the church’s mishandling of sexual abuse by other priests.

Mr Richter said Pell should not have to stand trial on any of the charges, especially the more serious and “appalling” allegations.

“Their complaints ought to be regarded as impossible and ought to be discharged without batting an eyelid,” he told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

April 17, 2918

By Samantha Donovan

On the final day of the committal hearing for Cardinal George Pell in Melbourne, the court has been told that many of the allegations against Cardinal George Pell are simply impossible.

Australia’s most senior Catholic is facing multiple charges of historical sexual offences against multiple complainants, but he continues to vehemently deny all of them.

Cardinal Pell’s QC also said that many of the complainants are not sufficiently credible witnesses to bring the cases to trial.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

By Adam Cooper

17 April 2018

Allegations of sexual abuse against George Pell were the stuff of fantasy, impossible and made by witnesses with no credibility, the cardinal’s lawyer has told a court as he sought to have charges against Australia’s most senior Catholic thrown out.

Defence counsel Robert Richter, QC, on Tuesday urged magistrate Belinda Wallington to discharge Cardinal Pell of multiple historic sexual abuse charges rather than commit him to stand trial, because, he said, there was no way a jury could find the charges proven.

Cardinal Pell must now wait a fortnight before learning whether he will front a jury in a higher court, as Ms Wallington takes time to consider written and oral submissions from the 76-year-old’s defence team and prosecutors. Ms Wallington will announce her decision on May 1.

Rocking gently from side to side over almost two hours at the lectern in Melbourne Magistrates Court, Mr Richter expanded on a series of points as to why his client should not be sent to trial, focusing mainly on what he said were major flaws in the evidence of two accusers.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Jacqueline Le and Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

APRIL 17, 2018

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers want the “impossible” sex offence case against him thrown out, arguing the allegations are potentially motivated by a desire to punish the Catholic Church.

Defence barrister Robert Richter QC said Pell had been targeted as Australia’s most senior Catholic amid hatred and public furore over the church’s response to clergy abuse.

“We say that Cardinal Pell, representing the face of the Catholic Church, a prominent person, had been the obvious target of allegations that are not true but are designed to punish him, almost, for not having prevented sexual abuse for many years.”

Mr Richter suggested some of the allegations were the product of fantasy, mental problems or pure invention.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Calla Wahlquist @callapilla
Mon 16 Apr 2018

Cardinal George Pell has been targeted with historic sexual abuse allegations in an attempt to punish the Catholic church for its failure to prevent other instances of child sexual abuse, his lawyer has argued.

Pell, 76, has been charged with multiple historic sexual offences. He has vehemently denied the charges. Further description of the charges against Pell cannot be given for legal reasons.

On the final day of a four-week committal hearing at the Melbourne magistrates’ court on Tuesday, the head of Pell’s defence team, Robert Richter QC, suggested the most serious complaints against him had been invented by “thwarted” people to punish the church.

Both the defence and the prosecution have made extensive written submissions but also oral closing statements. Pell was not required to attend and was not in court.

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters

APRIL 17, 2018

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Vatican Treasurer George Pell’s lawyer told a court on Tuesday the Australian archbishop should not be sent to trial on any of the multiple charges of historical sexual offences against him.

In a final submission to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court following a month of pre-trial hearings, Pell’s lawyer Robert Richter said “public time and money ought not to be wasted” on a trial. Evidence showed the worst of the alleged offences could not have occurred, he said.

“To the extent that it’s possible to demonstrate anything, their complaints ought to be regarded as impossible and ought to be discharged without batting an eyelid,” Richter told the court.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington will hand down her decision on whether to send Pell to trial on May 1.

Pell, 76, was not present in court on Tuesday. He is the highest ranking Catholic worldwide to face such charges, the details of which have not been made public.

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AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Lucie Morris-Marr, CNN

Tue April 17, 2018

Melbourne (CNN)The lead barrister defending senior Vatican official Cardinal George Pell against historical abuse charges has argued for the case to be dropped because a trial would be a “waste of public money, time and effort.”

Robert Richter QC made the arguments at a court in Melbourne Tuesday, on the final day of submissions before Magistrate Belinda Wallington.

Wallington will announce on May 1 whether the case will proceed to trial, after weeks of testimony from accusers and witnesses to the alleged abuse.

Pell, 76, was charged last June and given leave by Pope Francis from the Vatican to contest the charges in his native country. Pell vigorously denies all allegations.

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CHILE
Catholic Courier

Jane Chambers / Catholic News Service | 04.16.2018

SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) — Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’ letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated the pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

Pope Francis’ letter, released by the Vatican April 11, asked “forgiveness of all those I have offended” and said he hoped to “be able to do it personally in the coming weeks.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

APR 16, 2018

Since July 2016, a grand jury seated in Pittsburgh has been quietly hearing testimony on alleged rape and sexual abuse of children by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The scope of the investigation spans seven decades and from one end of Pennsylvania to the other.

What is expected in the coming weeks is a report that could be the most comprehensive and geographically expansive official report ever produced in the United States on the enormity of the scandal.

The 40th Statewide Grand Jury had an 18-month term, extended by four months to the end of April, according to those familiar with its work.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

Julianne Langshaw

17 Apr 2018

THE Catholic Church in Gippsland is set to become embroiled in a landmark class action to be brought by alleged victims of child abuse, which could run into millions of dollars.

The proposed action relates to alleged historical child sex and physical abuse offences at St Patrick’s College, Sale, many of which are said to have occurred in the 1970s when the school housed boarders.

Two St Patrick’s cases have already been prosecuted in the criminal system, with another case against a Marist Brother, alleging multiple victims, set to go to trial later this year.

Another criminal case was unable to proceed after the accused lay teacher died.

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

Apr 16, 2018

by Peter Feuerherd

Jack Ruhl, an expert on diocesan finances, frequently wanders through the thicket of church financial disclosures, but has never seen anything like the dissolution of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, lay pension plan.

La Crosse lay diocesan retirees and employees received word about their pensions in a letter dated Feb. 27 from Bishop William Patrick Callahan, who has led the diocese since 2010. In the letter, retirees were told they could expect more than 90 percent of the value of their pensions in a lump-sum payment that will be distributed this summer.

Ruhl, a professor of accountancy at Western Michigan University, has studied finance statements of U.S. dioceses since 2004, looking for the impact of sex abuse settlements and their effect on priest pension plans. That issue arose in the aftermath of the scandals that enveloped the Boston Archdiocese.

Meanwhile, he has also studied the impact of the crisis on lay pension plans. He has seen a number of examples, including massive transfer of funds to special independent projects, such as the building of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, that protected diocesan funds from sex abuse settlements.  

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters

April 16, 2018

David DeKok

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) – Bill Cosby’s defence team on Monday sought to undercut the credibility of a woman accusing the comedian of sexual assault by pressing her about accusations she schemed to plant a false story of abuse to reap hush money.

Cosby, 80, is undergoing his second trial on charges that he drugged and raped Andrea Constand, 45, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2014. At the time, she was director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, the entertainer’s alma mater.

The former TV star’s first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Constand has accused Cosby of attacking her when she visited him to discuss leaving her job. After she consumed three blue pills that he said would relax her, she said she became immobilized and awoke to find Cosby touching her breasts and vagina and using her hand to stroke his penis.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NPR

[with audio]

April 16, 2018

Heard on Morning Edition

BOBBY ALLYN

The jury heard last week from six accusers, including Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 2004. Her accusations prompted the only criminal charges filed against Cosby.

NOEL KING, HOST:

The woman whose story prompted the only criminal charges ever filed against Bill Cosby is back on the witness stand today in Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in Pennsylvania. Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY has the story.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Andrea Constand has been here before. Last year, she testified over two days about what she says happened to her at Cosby’s home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004. But a jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial, so she’s doing it again. Before addressing the court, she sat with her eyes closed, silently meditating. She told jurors in the midst of a career crisis, Cosby invited her over. Quote, “these are your friends,” she said Cosby said to her, handing her three pills. Quote, “they will take the edge off.” Lawyer Gloria Allred represents several Cosby accusers and was in the courtroom.

GLORIA ALLRED: She trusted him. She had ingested the three blue pills that he gave her that he had gone upstairs to get.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Page Six

By Emily Saul

April 16, 2018

Fallen funnyman Bill Cosby appeared amused Monday as prosecutors forced his accuser to again relive that night in 2004 when she claims she was drugged and molested by ​him.

Cosby, 80, kept his eyes closed as Andrea Constand recounted, step-by-step, how her mentor allegedly “touched my breasts, placed his fingers inside my vagina, and placed his hand on my hand, and my hand on his penis.”

Leaning back in his chair, Cosby’s typically expressionless face perked up, and he smiled as Constand, 45, repeated her claims. The incident ostensibly occurred at the TV pioneer’s Cheltenham, Pa., estate in January 2004.

His face remained animated throughout the afternoon — growing wide-eyed at the mention of his own penis, shaking his head as lawyers quibbled and openly chuckling when judge Steven O’Neill allowed a question through, saying “it’s not that leading.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

APRIL 16, 2018

Defense lawyers for Bill Cosby hammered away at his main accuser’s account Monday, focusing on her cellphone records that they suggested contradicted her version of events.

The accuser, Andrea Constand, said she had called him as she drove up to his home on the night in January 2004 when she says he sexually assaulted her.

“Can you find one single call for the whole month of January to his Elkins Park number?” Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Cosby asked Ms. Constand, as she reviewed the records.

“I might have been mistaken,” Ms. Constand replied.

Ms. Constand remained outwardly calm during two hours of cross-examination in the sexual assault retrial, fending off queries on a variety of topics that the defense brought forward to indicate she had converted a consensual sexual encounter with Mr. Cosby into a criminal assault in order to score a big payday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

APR 16, 2018

He came from Cuba to the United States as a young refugee, sang leading roles at European opera houses, studied linguistics, taught mathematics at Catholic schools, gave vocal lessons and worked as a lawyer before becoming a Roman Catholic deacon and jail chaplain.

But on Monday, a man described by his lawyer as a “Renaissance man” sat at the defense table in a tiny Washington County courtroom — charged with five felonies related to alleged child pornography and unlawful contact with a minor.

Rosendo “Ross” F. Dacal, 73, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and faces a court date next month in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.

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PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

By Ed Palattella

Posted Apr 16, 2018

Along with the release of list of accused priests and laypeople, revamping of diocesan office is a key element of bishop’s policy update.

The Catholic Diocese of Erie set precedent on April 6, when Bishop Lawrence Persico released a list of 51 priests and laypeople credibly accused of child sexual abuse or other misconduct with minors in the diocese since 1944.

Most Catholic dioceses in the United States have never named accused priests, and no diocese is known to have ever before released a list with the names of accused laypeople as well as clergy.

“I think it is a first,” said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a nonprofit online resource that tracks abuse in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. “To my knowledge, that hasn’t happened before.”

On a much more local scale, another first for the Catholic Diocese of Erie accompanied Persico’s release of the list on April 6.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson and Associates

4/16/2018

Law Firm to Release Full Histories and New Documents of 42 Buffalo Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse

Attorney to host conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo

(Buffalo, New York) – On Tuesday, April 17, 2018, Attorney Mike Reck and others will:

• Release a second report containing the identities, histories and information of 42 priests accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Invite the press to participate in an open conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Release additional files and materials regarding the Diocese of Buffalo and participate in a Q & A session;
• Encourage full disclosure by the diocese regarding the still secret identities of additional Diocese of Buffalo priests accused of sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 11:00AM ET

WHERE: Hyatt Regency – Ellicott Room
Two Fountain Plaza
Buffalo, New York 14202

• The press conference will be live-streamed at www.andersonadvocates.com and via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndersonAdvocates/

Contact: Mike Reck: (714)742-6593; Office: (646)759-2551
Jeff Anderson: Cell: (612)817-8665; Office: (651)237-5143

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Heather Jordan | heather_jordan@mlive.com | Posted April 16, 2018

It was a busy week for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw that culminated with an announcement of five additional priests who have been accused of sexual abuse and the naming of an independent delegate to oversee the ongoing investigation for the church.

On Friday, April 13, the Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, announced that Michael Talbot, the chief judge at the Michigan Court of Appeals, would essentially serve as spokesman and point-person for the church with regards to the investigation.

Cistone hopes bringing Talbot on signals a “fresh start” for the diocese.

“It’s my sincere hope that this will bring renewed courage to victims and their families to come forward with a fuller expectation of fairness, justice and healing,” Cistone said during Friday’s press conference.

Talbot is retiring April 25 after 40 years on the bench. He said he’ll act independently in his new role, for which he will not take a salary.

“I don’t need a salary and I will not take one,” he said. “This is an opportunity to serve.”

Watch a video of the full press conference here.

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TURKEY
Hurriyet Daily News

April 16 2018

İpek Özbey – ISTANBUL

A new draft law over cases of sexual abuse against children is problematic, as minors under the age of 15 could also receive a sentence of eight to 15 years for engaging in sexual acts with each other, according to Istanbul University Prof. Dr. Adem Sözüer.

The draft law was submitted to the Turkish Parliament last week.

“For example, there are two 14-year-olds and no force or threat is involved. Let’s say they have not had sexual intercourse. But, out of curiosity, they have engaged in some sexual behaviors with each other, such as kissing. [With the new draft law] the punishment for this could be a jail sentence of eight to 15 years,” Sözüer, who specializes in criminal law at the Istanbul University’s Faculty of Law, told daily Hürriyet.

The professor’s comments came after the government submitted a law on April 9 to hand down harsher penalties to those convicted of sexual offences against minors, proposing to increase the maximum limit of jail time from 20 years to 40 years and to introduce chemical castration as punishment for offenders.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

AAP
April 16, 2018

A PRIEST has been accused of indecently assaulting seven children almost 40 years ago while he served at a Catholic Church in Perth.

It’s alleged the now 83-year-old abused boys and girls, aged between six and 12 at the time of the first offence, between 1979 and 1992 while he was a priest at a church in Shenton Park.

His charges include six counts of indecently dealing with a child, one count of indecently assaulting a male and two counts of assault.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

April 16, 2018

An 83-year-old man has been charged with historic child sex abuse offences, allegedly committed while he was a priest at a Shenton Park Catholic church between 1979 and 1992.

Police allege the man physically and sexually assaulted seven children – boys and girls – who were aged between six and 12 years old at the time of the first offence.

The man has been charged with six counts of indecent dealing with a child under 14 years old, one count of unlawfully and indecently assaulting a male and two counts of unlawful assault. He is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court today.

Detectives are urging anyone with information on the alleged offences to come forward as the investigation is ongoing.

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OHIO
Associated Press

April 15, 2018

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Investigators in Ohio say a Catholic priest under investigation for inappropriate texts with a teenager and misuse of church funds left at least two suicide notes before killing himself last December.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s report the Rev. James Csaszar denied sexual contact with any child or adult.

The Columbus Dispatch reports a 16-year-old boy denied there was a sexual relationship, but said he felt manipulated and threatened by the priest.

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus says there were inappropriate text messages between the two and referenced a nude photo of the boy.

The state began looking into Csaszar after the diocese learned of the allegations.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz

April 16, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone assures donors that no gifts to Catholic Charities will be used to settle clergy sexual abuse claims.

But area Catholics – one way or another – are paying.

To compensate sex abuse victims, Malone said the diocese will rely on insurance coverage, investment reserves and the possible sale of property, all of which trace back to the wallets and pocketbooks of people in the pews.

The diocese’s self-insurance plan and its premiums for excess liability coverage are funded primarily by contributions from parishioners. Its investments grew out of parishioner gifts. And its buildings were constructed, purchased or donated thanks to the generosity of Catholic donors.

At most churches in the Buffalo Diocese, at least $20 of every $100 donated to an offertory collection goes directly to the diocese, according to a Buffalo News analysis of diocesan and parish annual financial statements. And for every $100 gift to the Catholic Charities appeal, about $35 goes into a fund controlled by the bishop.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Apr 16, 2018

A man accused of sexually abusing seven children starting almost 40 years ago when he was a priest at a Catholic Church has appeared in a Perth court.

Patrick Holmes, now aged 83, allegedly abused boys and girls, aged between six and 12 at the time of the first offence, between 1979 and 1992 when he served at a Shenton Park church.

He appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday charged with nine offences, including indecently dealing with a child, and is due back in court on June 25.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By ADAM MCCLEERY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

16 April 2018

An Anglican priest admitted in court to participating in online chats about his own child sex abuse fantasies.

Melbourne Anglican priest and former Sunshine vicar Phillip John Murphy, 53, pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to transmitting child pornography, 9 News reported.

Murphy would use a carriage service to engage in the online conversation about child sex abuse fantasies he had during chats he had with other men between 2016 and 2017.

It was during one of these conversations that Murphy confided in another man that he had a fantasy to abuse hundreds of children.

Some of them as young as two-years-old.

When the man replied ‘…having some fun with a six-year-old boy with a slight handicap’ Murphy replied said he wished he could join.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Apr 16, 2018

A “pervert” Anglican priest who boasted online about his child sex abuse fantasies could avoid jail if a judge decides the man’s community work outweighs his virtual crime.

Former Sunshine vicar Philip John Murphy, 53, on Monday pleaded guilty to transmitting child pornography using a carriage service over numerous sexually explicit online conversations he had with men in 2016 and 2017.

Under the username “Pervert”, Murphy spent several months chatting to online pedophiles about child sex abuse fantasies involving young boys before police seized his computer in February 2017.

Murphy told one man that he wanted to sexually abuse hundreds of children as young as two years old, prosecutor Jessica Mackay told the Victorian County Court.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Mon 16 Apr 2018

An Anglican priest who boasted online about his child abuse fantasies has pleaded guilty to transmitting child abuse images using a carriage service.

Former Sunshine vicar Philip John Murphy, 53, on Monday pleaded guilty to the offence, which was committed during numerous sexually explicit online conversations he had with men in 2016 and 2017.

Murphy spent several months chatting to paedophiles online about child abuse fantasies involving young boys before police seized his computer in February 2017.

Murphy told one man that he wanted to sexually abuse hundreds of children as young as two years old, prosecutor Jessica Mackay told the Victorian county court.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change

APRIL 16, 2018 ~ SUSAN MATTHEWS

Click here to read, “Downingtown pastor resigns after ‘inappropriate’ expenses, relationships” by David Gambacorta and John V. Smith

Excerpt:

“Some curious parishioners began raising questions about McLoone’s absence more than a month ago on Catholics4Change.com, an independent accountability forum. “There were rampant rumors of financial problems,” said Kathy Kane, one of the website’s editors.

Kane said she contacted the archdiocese and was told that McLoone wasn’t under criminal investigation, but that a financial review was simply being conducted for the benefit of Msgr. Thomas Dunleavy, who replaced McLoone this year on an interim basis. But rumors of deeper problems persisted and she said she urged the archdiocese to address the matter with parishioners.”

Editor’s Note:

So when Kathy contacted the archdiocese for the facts on this, did the Director of Communications misrepresent the truth or is he only given information that the archdiocese is forced to communicate because of media attention, arrests or legal action? Either way, transparency is pure fiction.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Reporter

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@21st-centurymedia.com, @ChescoCourtNews on Twitter
POSTED: 04/15/18

DOWNINGTOWN >> Parishioners at St. Joseph’s Church in Downingtown were told Sunday that their popular pastor, Monsignor Joseph McLoone, had recently resigned his position after being placed on administrative leave by the Philadelphia Archdiocese following the discovery of alleged financial and personal improprieties.

The announcement, which was delivered to the faithful at the end of every Mass this weekend, was made by Monsignor Thomas J. Dunleavy, who had taken over leadership of the church on an interim basis in February when it was first announced that McLoone was taking a leave of absence.

Dunleavy told the crowded church that McLoone had offered his resignation after coming under investigation by archdiocese officials, and that it had been accepted by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.

McLoone’s status now has been changed to being on administrative leave after his resignation.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Fox 29

POSTED: APR 15 2018

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. (WTXF) – The Archdiocese of Philadelphia shared with parishioners at Saint Joseph Parish in Downingtown, Sunday, the news of the pastor, Monsignor Joseph McLoone, who had been on an official leave of absence since February, had submitted his resignation and that the notice of resignation had been accepted by the Archbishop.

Monsignor McLoone admitted to the Archdiocese that a bank account had been opened in the name of the parish in November 2011. This account was not on the parish books. Monsignor McLoone was the only person using the account.

The account was frozen in February 2018.

Monsignor McLoone was questioned by the Archdiocese and acknowledged he understood that the existence of the account was in violation of Archdiocese rules. Monsignor McLoone acknowledged that a portion of the funds in the account were used for personal expenses of an inappropriate nature.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

APRIL 15, 2018

by David Gambacorta & John V. Smith – Staff Writers

Seven years ago, Msgr. Joseph McLoone was dispatched to Downingtown with a tall task: to try to stabilize St. Joseph Parish, a Catholic community left shell-shocked after its pastor was charged with protecting priests who preyed on children across the region.

In time, McLoone, a Philadelphia native, proved to be a popular figure at the church, which, with about 4,700 families, is among the largest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

But this weekend, St. Joseph parishioners learned that his tenure had come to a shocking end. The archdiocese announced that McLoone, 55, had resigned – less than two months after he went on an indefinite leave of absence – amid an investigation into financial improprieties and inappropriate “relationships with adults” that violated archdiocesan standards.

Ken Gavin, the archdiocese’s spokesman, said that in 2011, McLoone allegedly set up an off-the-books bank account in the parish’s name that only he could access. More than $110,000 worth of donations and “other revenue generated by the parish” was funneled into the account, although the archdiocese doesn’t believe the money came from Sunday collections, or school and tuition fees, he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Worthy Adversary

April 15, 2018

Joelle Casteix

Cease and desist letters, bully tactics, salacious rumors, lists of accused, Cardinal Roger Mahony and … Bill Cosby? They are all a part of the big picture surrounding the PA state grand jury investigation of six local Catholic dioceses.

If you live in or around Pennsylvania and are concerned with issues anywhere within the state’s borders (or the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal), you’ve probably heard about the statewide grand jury investigation of six Catholic dioceses across the state.

The result of the two-year investigation, which will be issued in report form, should be released in the beginning of May. The report may or may not include the presentation of criminal charges.

No one can predict exactly what the report is going to say. But we do know this: it is going to be ugly, just like a 2016 report of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and three previous grand jury investigations in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The purpose of this post is to be the best press and public backgrounder around.

Hopefully, this will become the most comprehensive (and always expanding) list of the real players, the deep intel, links to research, the best sources, and data.

This is where you will be able to ask questions/make comments BEFORE the report drops.

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

CHILE
La Tercera

[Marie Collins, former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: “I hope that who deceived the Pope is removed from office.”

The Pope said he did not receive accurate information. Who thinks he is responsible for that?

It is not possible to know with certainty, but reading the exchange of emails that leaked between Cardinals Ezzati and Errázuriz in 2014, you can see their hostile attitude towards Juan Carlos Cruz and his determination to discredit him. So, it is very possible that the information to the Pope came from that side, as well as from his representative in Chile, the nuncio, which I am sure was asked about his vision. ]

Autor: Juan Paulo Iglesias
DOM 15 ABR 2018

La activista contra el abuso sexual de menores confía en que lo sucedido con el obispo Juan Barros ayude a mejorar los mecanismos para evitar que esos hechos vuelvan a repetirse. “El Papa debe tomar ahora acciones correctas”, dice, y apunta al nuncio y a los cardenales Ezzati y Errázuriz por su eventual responsabilidad en informar mal al Papa.

En febrero, tras la polémica desatada por el caso del obispo Juan Barros durante el viaje del Papa a Chile, Marie Collins reveló que en abril de 2015 le había hecho llegar al Pontífice una carta de Juan Carlos Cruz, donde este detallaba las acusaciones contra el prelado. Si bien la exmiembro de la Comisión para la Protección de Menores del Vaticano no tiene claro si el Papa leyó o no la carta, está consciente de que sí se le hizo llegar información veraz sobre el tema. En esta entrevista, Collins analiza lo sucedido tras conocer el mensaje enviado por Francisco a los obispos chilenos.

¿Cuál fue su primera reacción tras conocer la carta del Papa?

Estuve encantada de que los sobrevivientes en Chile hayan sido reivindicados y estén por recibir justicia finalmente.

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TEXAS
The Monitor

MOLLY SMITH | STAFF WRITER
Apr 13, 2018

EDINBURG — An Alton pastor was arrested Wednesday after a woman reported that he sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.

Melquisedec Chan, 52, was arraigned Thursday on aggravated sexual assault and practicing medicine without a license charges.

Chan and his wife, who live in Mission, founded Vida Abundante church in Alton nearly two decades ago, according to its website, which describes him as a surgeon in Mexico. He is not licensed, however, by the Texas Medical Board, and thus unable to legally practice medicine in the state.

His arrest came after a woman reported to police that Chan, a family doctor, allegedly sedated and then sexually assaulted her, according to a criminal complaint.

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BRAZIL
Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola and Marina Lopes
April 14, 2018

MINDURI, Brazil — Welcome to Paradise Farm.

In the fertile hills of southeast Brazil, scores of Christian workers tend banana and citrus fields, rousing iridescent butterflies in the noonday sun. In the evenings, laborers come home to cement dorms, communal meals and prayer sessions far from the secular distractions of urban life.

“We are all Christians who follow the New Testament,” said Paulo Henrique da Silva, president of the cooperative that manages the farm. “We came together to live as one.”

Yet this picture of faith, Brazilian authorities say, is masking a darker truth. Officials describe the ranch as part of a sprawling slave labor and racketeering ring led by Pastor Cícero Vicente de Araújo, a former salesman. Federal police are calling it another in an unusual string of high-profile criminal cases tied to evangelical churches here in Latin America’s largest nation.

The dramatic surge of evangelical Christianity in Brazil in recent decades is giving the religious right an increasingly powerful political voice. But in a country where corruption and malfeasance have already infiltrated the highest levels of politics and business, opportunists are also muscling in on houses of worship.

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

IDAHO
Associated Press

April 14, 2018

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A judge has refused to reduce the $1 million bail set for a retired Boise priest facing child pornography charges.

The Idaho Statesman reports that the judge on Friday made the decision after hearing arguments that Rev. W. Thomas Faucher was role-playing with a fellow author in an online chatroom conversation.

Police say the chatroom conversation involved the 72-year-old Faucher saying he wanted to rape and kill children.

Faucher’s attorney, Mark Manweiler, says a man from Brazil contacted Faucher to get his help writing a book and they discussed all kinds of scenarios, including child abuse.

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

UNITED STATES
Associated Press

April 15.2018

By JEFF HORWITZ and JULIET LINDERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first time that Dr. Anthony Bianchi came onto a patient, California’s medical board alleged, the gynecologist placed a chair against the exam room door, put his fingers into the woman’s vagina and exposed his erect penis.

The second time, the board claimed, he told a patient that he couldn’t stop staring at her breasts and recounted a dream in which he performed oral sex on her in the office.

The third time, the board charged, he told a pregnant patient suffering from vaginal bleeding that she shouldn’t shave her pubic hair before her next visit, as he was getting too excited.

These episodes led to disciplinary actions by the state’s medical board in 2012 and in 2016. Bianchi agreed not contest the charges, and he held onto his medical license. Under a settlement with California’s medical board, he agreed to seek therapy and refrain from treating women during five years of probation.

Bianchi did not respond to telephone messages from The Associated Press left for him at the workers’ compensation clinic in Fresno, California, where he now evaluates occupational health claims.

In recent months, Hollywood moguls, elite journalists and top politicians have been pushed out of their jobs or resigned their posts in the wake allegations of sexual misconduct. In contrast, the world of medicine is often more forgiving, according to an AP investigation.

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NEBRASKA
Daily Nonpareil

By Jon Leu
jleu@nonpareilonline.com

April 15, 2018

Some 50 residents of Council Bluffs and Omaha gathered in the Tom Hanafan Rivers Edge Park Pavilion on a cold, blustery and damp Saturday morning as the mayors of Council Bluffs, Omaha and Boys Town read proclamations establishing April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Those attending were initially scheduled to meet at the center of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, but the session was moved to the pavilion because of the weather — a change of plans that pleased Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, who commented that the bridge tends to “sway a bit in the wind,” which, she quipped, is sometimes a “nauseating” condition.

In her proclamation, Stothert noted that the statistics tell a “terrible story.”

“Nearly four million cases of child maltreatment are reported each year in the United States; nearly five children die each day from abuse,” she said. “Over 50 percent of these children are under the age of three. Still, these estimates are known to be under-reported.”

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Chris Serres Star Tribune
APRIL 14, 2018

Spurred by recent breakdowns in Minnesota’s child protection system, legislators are pushing a project to train hundreds of workers each year on new methods for detecting and preventing child abuse.

The ambitious proposal would create the state’s first standardized curriculum and certification process for child protection workers and would correct what many child welfare advocates see as a long-standing gap in Minnesota’s decentralized system for protecting vulnerable children from maltreatment.

Proponents hope the enhanced training will help counties and Indian tribes increasingly overwhelmed by a flood of new child abuse and neglect cases in families ravaged by the opioid crisis. They also see it as a powerful tool for strengthening the front-line response to child maltreatment and preventing the sort of appalling violence and neglect that law enforcement officials recently discovered at a family’s house in south Minneapolis, which prosecutors have described as a “house of horrors.”

For a period of years, two girls with developmental disabilities were allegedly raped, beaten with bats and chained for days at a time without food by their father. Court records indicate that as far back as 2013, Hennepin County child protection workers knew of possible abuse of the twin girls, now 21, but did not remove the children from the home. The county’s handling of the case is now under review and has triggered calls for enhanced training for child welfare workers — a key recommendation of a 2015 task force appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

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

SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Laura Murray
14th April 2018,

SEX abuse victims have NOT been contacted by the Catholic Church after a paedophile priest was jailed for nine years.

Father Francis Moore, 82, repeatedly raped a five-year-old boy, abused other youths and a student priest between 1977 and 1996.

The church has apologised to victims Paul Smith and Andi Lavery but they haven’t been in touch with them since the Ayrshire beast was caged.

Father Tom Boyle, speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, said: “I can’t say for certain that we knew who Paul Smyth and Andi Lavery were.

“As far as I am aware there has been no contact, no. I would like to think that the Diocese of Galloway will now be I touch to see what help we can provide.

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

NEW YORK
Forward

April 13, 2018

This holy Passover eve, New York politics produced the most astonishing scene imaginable. As Josh Nathan-Kazis reported in the Forward, Cuomo Called The Rebbe. The Rebbe Prayed To God. The Budget Deal Got Done.. The state senator from South Brooklyn, perhaps the most powerful elected representative of Orthodox Jewry, exercised his well-honed kingmaking authority to ensure that the next generation of Hasidic kids remain as illiterate as their predecessors. The crowd Senator Simcha Felder jockeys for is not the kids or their parents, nor the average voting schmo on the street. As those initiated into New York politics know, the Hasidic vote is largely influenced by fixers, power brokers and sometimes rabbis who determine the representative that the bloc will support, as is evident from the fact that Felder typically runs unopposed — in both the Republican and Democratic lines.

Given all of this, we can understand whose bidding Senator Felder was doing when he insisted on quashing state oversight. But the question remains: why do so many Hasidic parents put up with this nonsense?

As a father and member of the Hasidic community Felder represents, I know our neighborhood is home to many caring parents. I talk to them in synagogue while I grab a coffee, in the mikvah while I rub my toes dry, at family get togethers when we forget which side of the latest Hasidic dynasty fight we stand for — darn it, I know because I am one of them!

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CHILE
Latercera

[They say that the intention of the Bishop of Osorno to leave the diocese is irrevocable and that, even, Pope Francis has his resignation letter on the table for the third time. But Juan Barros is not alone in this scenario. After the visit of the archbishop of Malta to Chile to assess their situation, the Vatican would also have in its sights the other bishops of the innermost circle of Karadima. Although the final decision is of the Pope, they, together with Barros, could be the protagonists of an earthquake unprecedented in the Chilean Church.]

DOM 8 ABR 2018

Autor: Carla Pía Ruiz

Dicen que la intención del obispo de Osorno de dejar la diócesis es irrevocable y que, incluso, el Papa Francisco tiene por tercera vez su carta de renuncia sobre la mesa. Pero Juan Barros no está solo en este escenario. Después de la visita del arzobispo de Malta a Chile para evaluar su situación, el Vaticano también tendría en la mira a los otros obispos del círculo más íntimo de Karadima. Aunque la decisión final es del Papa, ellos, junto a Barros, podrían ser los protagonistas de un terremoto sin precedentes en la Iglesia chilena.

Su sonrisa no permitía adivinar que la crisis era inminente. Cerca de las 10.30 horas del 16 de enero, ante las 400 mil personas que llegaron hasta el Parque O’Higgins, y los otros miles que seguían la transmisión por televisión abierta, con su sotana impecable y su mitra sobre la cabeza, el obispo Juan Barros apareció. Y se mantuvo así, cerca del Papa, durante toda su visita.

Pero el obispo no calculó que su presencia desataría un huracán al interior de la Iglesia Católica chilena. Barros, cercano a Fernando Karadima y fuertemente resistido en su diócesis, Osorno, por ese vínculo, se convirtió en el verdugo de una gira planificada con años de anticipación. No solo opacó al Papa en su primera visita a Chile. Se convirtió, además, en el detonador de la crisis que hoy remece a la institución y en el hombre que volvió a poner el foco en el controvertido caso Karadima.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Post

BY: Aidan Lonergan
April 13, 2018

A 90-year-old former monk jailed for historic sex offences earlier this year has appeared in court in Northern Ireland charged with abusing yet another young boy.

Vincent Lewis, formerly of Brother Ambrose of Our Lady of Bethlehem Monastery in Co. Antrim, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in January after pleading guilty to 57 child abuse offences against three boys over a 10-year period up to 1983.

The depraved pensioner is now accused of indecently assaulting another boy between 1983 and 1985.

He is also charged with committing an act of gross indecency.

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CANADA
Totonto Star

By CHARLIE ANGUS
Sat., April 14, 2018

Apologies matter. I was taught this from my earliest years in Catholic schools and from the pulpit. The power of the apology is so central to the notion of healing and reconciliation in the Catholic tradition that it is given sacramental form in the rites of confession and penance.

It was Jesuit priests who taught me that the acts of apology and forgiveness cannot simply be personal. They must be systemic. This is how we make a broken world whole. The Church has a vital role to play by being rooted in justice through solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed.

And so I was shocked by the comments of Pope Francis — the first Jesuit Pope — that he is unwilling to make a public apology for the Church’s role in the horrors of the residential school system. The call for a formal apology from the Pope is one of the key calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report. And yet, following discussions with the Canadian bishops, Pope Francis has said that the Church is not ready to take this step.

All but one of the Christian denominations involved in the crimes of the residential schools have taken part in the process of reparations and reconciliation. Yet the Catholic Church, which played the largest role in this evil system, has been the most recalcitrant when it comes to repentance.

In 2015, the Catholic bishops used a legal loophole to walk away from their legal obligation to pay $25 million in compensation to support survivors of horrific physical and sexual abuse in Church-run schools. The various Catholic orders involved in this abuse have also proved to be unwilling partners for reconciliation when it comes to turning over documents and evidence relating to the crimes committed in these institutions. Traditionally, it is a country’s bishops — in Canada, assembled in the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops — who must undertake the process of inviting the Pope to apologize on behalf of the Church. They have decided against this.

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

ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Ted Slowik

On its website, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet publishes a document called, “List of Diocesan Priests With a Credible/Substantial Allegation.”

When I checked Friday, the list contained 35 names and was last updated in late 2016.

I’d like you to take note of the word “diocesan” in the document’s title.

In the Roman Catholic Church, there’s a difference between diocesan priests and members of religious orders. You may be familiar with the names of some religious orders. Franciscans, Jesuits, Benedictines, Dominicans and Carmelites rank among the more well-known.

There’s a notable distinction between the two types of clerics. Diocesan priests answer to their bishop, archbishop or cardinal. Members of religious orders answer to superiors who lead their congregation. The pope has authority over both types of Catholics.

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

UNITED STATES
New Yorker

By Junot Díaz

Last week I returned to Amherst. It’s been years since I was there, the time we met. I was hoping that you’d show up again; I even looked for you, but you didn’t appear. I remember you proudly repped N.Y.C. during the few minutes we spoke, so I suspect you’d moved back or maybe you were busy or you didn’t know I was in town. I have a distinct memory of you in the signing line, saying nothing to anyone, intense. I assumed you were going to ask me to read a manuscript or help you find an agent, but instead you asked me about the sexual abuse alluded to in my books. You asked, quietly, if it had happened to me.

You caught me completely by surprise.

I wish I had told you the truth then, but I was too scared in those days to say anything. Too scared, too committed to my mask. I responded with some evasive bullshit. And that was it. I signed your books. You thought I was going to say something, and when I didn’t you looked disappointed. But more than that you looked abandoned. I could have said anything but instead I turned to the next person in line and smiled. Out of the corner of my eye I watched you pick up your backpack, slowly put away your books, and leave. When the signing was over I couldn’t get the fuck away from Amherst, from you and your question, fast enough. I ran the way I’ve always run. Like death itself was chasing me. For a couple of days afterward I fretted; I worried that I’d given myself away. But then the old oblivion reflex took over. I pushed it all down. Buried it all. Like always.

But I never really did forget. Not our exchange or your disappointment. How you walked out of the auditorium with your shoulders hunched.

I know this is years too late, but I’m sorry I didn’t answer you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. I’m sorry for you, and I’m sorry for me. We both could have used that truth, I’m thinking. It could have saved me (and maybe you) from so much. But I was afraid. I’m still afraid—my fear like continents and the ocean between—but I’m going to speak anyway, because, as Audre Lorde has taught us, my silence will not protect me.

X⁠—

Yes, it happened to me.

I was raped when I was eight years old. By a grownup that I truly trusted.

After he raped me, he told me I had to return the next day or I would be “in trouble.”

And because I was terrified, and confused, I went back the next day and was raped again.

I never told anyone what happened, but today I’m telling you.

And anyone else who cares to listen.

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

CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
OTTAWA

Canada’s Parliament will ask the Pope to reconsider his refusal to apologize to the Indigenous people who attended Catholic-run residential schools, and for the Catholic Church to make good on its financial obligations under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

A motion calling on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to invite Pope Francis to make the apology has been drafted by New Democrat MP Charlie Angus and revised slightly by the office of Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. It is expected to be debated in the House of Commons next week and to pass with the support of the majority Liberal government.

The New Democrats and the Liberals are now in discussions with the other parties in the Commons to determine whether they are willing to give the motion unanimous consent – a vote that would reinforce Canada’s interest in hearing the Pontiff acknowledge and regret the harm done by representatives of his church to generations of Indigenous children in this country.

Given the apology to the former students of Indian residential schools that was delivered by Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2008, and also the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Mr. Angus said, “to have this passed without partisan division would send a very strong signal about Canada’s desire to have this issue dealt with so we can move on.”

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

MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw

SAGINAW — At a news conference this morning, the Honorable Michael J. Talbot, the newly appointed special independent delegate for sexual abuse of minors and misconduct in the Diocese of Saginaw, stated names of former clerics removed from ministry related to the sexual abuse of minors would be made available today. Judge Talbot has been appointed by the Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, to assume full authority within the Diocese with regard to all matters involving the alleged sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct by clergy and diocesan representatives.

Since the adoption of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and Essential Norms by the Bishops of the United States in 2002, the following clerics were permanently removed from ministry due to credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors. A listing of previous assignments for each may be found here.

* Stanislaus A. Bur (former priest – deceased)
* John E. Hammer (former priest)
* Richard L Howard (former deacon)
* Jack E. Leipert (former priest)
* Leonard F. Wilkuski (former priest)

In addition, two priests are currently on administrative leave related to allegations under investigation.

* Robert J. DeLand
*Ronald J. Dombrowski

The Diocese of Saginaw places no deadlines or time limits on reporting the sexual abuse of minors by clergy. To bring forward a complaint and/or to speak to the Victim Assistance Coordinator contact (989)797.6682 or jfulgenzi@dioceseofsaginaw.org. Victims are encouraged to contact civil authorities.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Bob Johnson bob_johnson@mlive.com

SAGINAW TWP., MI — Amid a sex abuse probe, the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has released the names of five former priest they claim were removed from ministry because of credible claims of alleged sex abuse of minors.

On Friday, April 13, The Most Rev. Bishop Joseph R. Cistone announced that Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Michael J. Talbot will serve as the diocese’s independent delegate to review sexual misconduct.

The announcement of Talbot as an independent delegate comes nearly a month after Cistone’s home, along with two diocese properties, were raided by police….

According to the diocese, since the the adoption of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and Essential Norms by the Bishops of the United States in 2002, the following clerics were permanently removed from ministry due to credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors:

Stanislaus A. Bur (former priest – deceased)
John E. Hammer (former priest)
Richard L Howard (former deacon)
Jack E. Leipert (former priest)
Leonard F. Wilkuski (former priest)

Each priest mentioned has been defrocked.

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MICHIGAN
Associated Press

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — The Latest on the hiring of a judge to help the Saginaw Roman Catholic Diocese deal with allegations of sexual abuse (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

Police investigating sexual abuse in the Saginaw Roman Catholic Diocese say people who believe they’re victims should contact law enforcement agencies — not church representatives.

The task force released a statement Friday after church officials announced the appointment of a judge to handle sexual abuse complaints. Investigators say the hiring of Michael Talbot appears to be a “positive thing.” But they also say the diocese “cannot and should not be used as a clearinghouse for the reporting of crimes.”

Talbot will help the diocese after he retires from the Michigan appeals court this month. During a news conference, he urged victims to step forward and promised to share information with police.
___

12:53 p.m.

A prominent judge who is retiring soon will help the Saginaw Roman Catholic Diocese deal with allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Michael Talbot was introduced Friday by the Saginaw bishop. Talbot publicly urged victims to step forward and also pledged to share information with police whenever necessary.

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

IRELAND
RTE News

By Joe Little
Religious & Social Affairs Correspondent

The leader of Chile’s Catholic hierarchy has called for a “drastic solution” that could include bishops’ resignations a day after Pope Francis acknowledged “grave mistakes” in his handling of a sexual abuse crisis.

At a landmark meeting of the church leadership in Chile, whose members the pope has summoned to Rome to discuss the scandal, the president of the country’s episcopal conference said change was inevitable.

“It’s possible that the pope will ask some (bishops) to leave their dioceses … there must be a drastic solution, strong and decisive, that is for certain,” Archbishop Santiago Silva told local radio station Cooperativa.

Yesterday, Irish clerical abuse survivor, Marie Collins, called on Pope Francis to call Chilean bishops to account.

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UNITED STATES
HuffPost

By Carol Kuruvilla

Advocates say Pope Francis’ apology to Chilean sex abuse victims is a good “first step” ― but they’re expecting much more action from the pontiff on a scandal that has thoroughly rocked Chile’s Catholic Church.

In a letter published on Wednesday, the pope admitted that he made “serious errors” in handling Chile’s sex abuse scandal due to what he called a “lack of truthful and balanced information.” The pope has summoned all 32 members of Chile’s bishops conference to Rome in May to hear the results of an investigation into the crisis and to discuss short- and long-term changes. Francis is also planning to meet personally with abuse victims and ask for their forgiveness.

The Vatican said on Thursday that Pope Francis’ letter to Chilean bishops effectively declared a “spiritual state of emergency” for the country’s Catholic Church. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told The Associated Press that Francis is taking the situation seriously and assuring the victims that “Yes, we believe you, you have your place in the church.”

Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told HuffPost that he is waiting for the pope to take concrete action, and not just offer expressions of “thoughts and prayers.”

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The three main protagonists in denouncing Chile’s sex abuse scandal will meet with Pope Francis on April 28-29 and will stay as his guests at the Vatican hotel where he lives, one of the men told The Associated Press.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Chile’s most famous predator priest, said he and his colleagues had agreed to Francis’ invitation to come to Rome so the pope could personally apologize for having discredited them during his recent trip to Chile.

In a telephone interview, Cruz said the three men would not allow the meeting to become a public relations coup for the Vatican. He said he would tell Francis of the “horror of abuse and the horror of the cover-up” that church leaders have committed over decades, and how they have discredited and defamed victims who went public.

Francis himself “was on that path, unfortunately” when he accused victims of “calumny” for having repeatedly denounced the behavior of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, Cruz said. But he said Francis appeared to have “opened his eyes to a reality … about thousands of lives who have been crucified” by priests who rape and fondle children.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The Catholic Church in Scotland has apologised to two victims of a priest jailed for sexual abuse but is yet to contact them.

Father Paul Moore committed the crimes in Ayrshire between 1977 and 1996.

Two of his victims, Paul Smyth and Andi Lavery, went public with their stories after waiving their right to anonymity.

The church has now apologised to both men, and all abuse victims, after Moore was sentenced to nine years in prison, but has not been in touch with them.

Father Tom Boyle told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme the police investigation process meant church officials had not previously known the identity of anyone involved in the Moore case.

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AUSTRLIA
The Tablet

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide has joined Rome-based Australian Cardinal George Pell in being required to wait for Australian courts of law to determine their fates.

Magistrate Robert Stone in Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, reserved his decision on On 13 April, in Archbishop Wilson’s trial on a charge of concealing child sexual abuse by a fellow priest, Fr James Fletcher, when the Archbishop was an assistant priest in his home Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the 1970s.

The 67-year-old prelate, who has been Archbishop of Adelaide since 2001 and is a former President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, faces up to two years in jail if convicted.

This week, he told the court that medication had helped his memory since he was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease late last year.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Jarrad Brevi • Reporter

The trial of Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson, who’s accused of concealing child sex abuse, came to end on Friday after eight days in a Newcastle court.

Following final submissions, magistrate Robert Stone told the court he won’t be able to deliver a verdict until next month.

It’s a verdict that could have wide-reaching implications.

During final submissions by the prosecution, the Archbishop was accused of being a “consummate Catholic politician” and a man who was part of “an entrenched toxic culture of covering things up”.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Kevin Cullen GLOBE STAFF APRIL 13, 2018

It’s hard to admit mistakes.

I’m lousy at it.

My wife is much better. Whenever we drive by St. Brigid’s in South Boston, where we were married, she just shakes her head and sighs, as if to say, “Big mistake.” …

After I wrote what could charitably be called a pair of uncharitable columns about the pope, denouncing and dismissing him after he smeared survivors of clerical abuse in Chile who had credibly accused his protege Bishop Juan Barros of complicity in the serial abuse committed by another priest, I got some interesting feedback.

Besides the predictable finger-wagging, garment-rending rhetoric from holy rollers who dismissed and denounced me as a self-loathing, lapsed Catholic who had no business criticizing the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church, much less its infallible leader, I got some really interesting, thoughtful responses from priests and nuns.

The nuns and priests said they understood my distress and especially the distress of those who had survived clerical sexual abuse. They said they were appalled by what the pope said. But they asked me to give the pope a chance. They believe that he is a good man who wants to move the church in the right direction.

They pointed out that the pope had dispatched the Vatican’s most dogged and reputable investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to investigate the situation in Chile. Scicluna and his colleague, the Rev. Jordan Bertomeu, interviewed dozens of people and recently handed the pope a 2,300-page dossier on their findings.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

Mark Singelais April 13, 2018

Siena men’s basketball coach Jimmy Patsos is out after five seasons.

Siena announced late Friday afternoon that it had come to an agreement where Patsos resigned and the school bought out the remaining three years of Patsos’ contract after the Saints went 8-24 this year, tying the most losses in program history. That failure on the court was compounded by controversy away from it, as Patsos is under investigation by a law firm hired by the school after a student manager complained that the coach had verbally abused him.

Patsos was signed through the 2020-21 season with a base salary that was $369,943 in 2015-16, according to the most recent Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filed by Siena.

“Siena’s founding Franciscan tradition calls upon us to honor the fundamental dignity of every person. Our core values demand compassion and help shape a community where all should feel welcomed, respected, and cherished. As we look forward to a new chapter in Siena men’s basketball, our shared commitment to upholding these ideals will continue to guide us,” said Br. Ed Coughlin, the college president.

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NEW YORK
CBS Sports

by Matt Norlander
@MattNorlander

Jimmy Patsos resigned on Friday afternoon from his post as coach of the Siena Saints.

The resignation comes after news surfaced last week that Patsos was accused of verbally abusing a Siena team manager who lives with obsessive compulsive disorder. Last Friday, on April 6, Patsos held a press conference and defended himself, stating, “I never taunted, harassed or abused this young man. We did know that he had OCD. He was adamant that he wanted to be treated the same as anyone else.”

A formal complaint was logged against Patsos in February, according to the Times Union of Albany. The alleged harassment of the team manager was not the only issue regarding Patsos.

Via the Times Union:

Extensive reporting by the Times Union revealed that the probe was expanded to look into whether Patsos or his staff improperly withheld per diem payments from players and team aides, and a charge Patsos shoved redshirt junior guard Kadeem Smithen out of his chair during a team film session. …

Former Siena forward Jimmy Paige, who played for Siena from 2014-16, said abusive language from Patsos was among the reasons he transferred to Division II Virginia Union.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

By Rosa Flores, CNN

(CNN)After apologizing for “grave errors” in the handling of a Chilean sex abuse scandal, Pope Francis will be welcoming three survivors to the Vatican in two weeks, according to survivor Juan Carlos Cruz.

Cruz says the Vatican reached out to him last Saturday, inviting the three Chileans to be the Pope’s guests from April 26 to May 1.

The survivors will spend time with Francis as a group on April 28 and 29, Cruz said, plus hold individual meetings with the Pope. He says he wants to make the meetings not just about them but all the survivors of church sex abuse worldwide.

“It’s about the thousands of survivors who have gone through horrible things who have been disrespected, discredited. That culture has to change,” Cruz said. “It has to be about every survivor. I hope that this is a sign that this will not be the norm.”

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VATICAN CITY
CNY Homepage

By: NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
Updated: Apr 13, 2018

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The three main protagonists in denouncing Chile’s sex abuse scandal will meet with Pope Francis on April 28-29 and will stay as his guests at the Vatican hotel where he lives, one of the men told The Associated Press.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of Chile’s most famous predator priest, said he and his colleagues had agreed to Francis’ invitation to come to Rome so the pope could personally apologize for having discredited them during his recent trip to Chile.

In a telephone interview, Cruz said the three men would not allow the meeting to become a public relations coup for the Vatican. He said he would tell Francis of the “horror of abuse and the horror of the cover-up” that church leaders have committed over decades, and how they have discredited and defamed victims who went public.

Francis himself “was on that path, unfortunately” when he accused victims of “calumny” for having repeatedly denounced the behavior of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, Cruz said. But he said Francis appeared to have “opened his eyes to a reality … about thousands of lives who have been crucified” by priests who rape and fondle children.

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NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press

Stacey Barchenger, @sbarchenger

LAKEWOOD – The head of a controversial special education school here, already facing allegations of money laundering, has been charged with an additional, more severe corruption count, state officials said Friday.

The New Jersey attorney general says further investigation discovered Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence, wired $450,000 in public tuition funds from the school to “an entity in New York state owned by an associate.” That money was then used by the “associate” to pay off past-due New Jersey taxes, according to the attorney general.

In a new indictment filed Friday, Eisemann is charged with first-degree corruption of public resources, a crime that could carry a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years prison if he is convicted. The school’s fundraising foundation, Services for Hidden Intelligence, is also charged with the corruption count. Read the full indictment at the bottom of this story.

Eisemann, 61, was first charged in March 2017 for allegedly stealing $630,000 in public tuition money and faced five to 10 years in prison.

But the new indictment increases the sum Eisemann allegedly stole to $979,000. The attorney general says that includes:

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

by Jane Chambers
posted Friday, 13 Apr 2018

They called for zero tolerance of abusers

Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’s letter in which he apologised for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement on April 11 saying they appreciated the Pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the Pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the Pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

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IDAHO
Idaho Statesman

BY KATY MOELLER

The Rev. William Thomas Faucher, accused of child porn and drug crimes, was role playing with a fellow author in some of the chatroom conversations in which he’s alleged to have said he wanted to rape and kill children, his attorney said in court Friday.

“This gentleman Mr. Faucher is talking to lives in Brazil. He initially contacted Father Faucher because he wanted his help writing a book,” said Faucher’s attorney, Mark Manweiler, at a hearing Friday at the Ada County Courthouse. “They discussed all kinds of fantastic scenarios, like two murder novelists talking — only the issue is child abuse.”

Manweiler said there was one conversation in which the other party said he was going to send him some child pornography, and Faucher told him he didn’t want it. He said Faucher deleted many files he received without opening them.

The 72-year-old retired priest has been in the Ada County Jail the past four weeks — after his bond was raised to $1 million by Magistrate Judge James Cawthon — and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting out anytime soon.

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NORTH CAROLINA
The Mountaineer

Kyle Perrotti

A former episcopal priest who served in Waynesville for over two decades has been charged with several felonies stemming from alleged sexual abuse dating back to 1985.

The charges against Howard “Howdy” Willard White, Jr., 76, were filed after he was formally indicted by a Haywood County Grand jury.

The charges, which pertain to two alleged victims — one male and one female — are first-degree forcible sex offense, two counts of indecent liberties with a child, first-degree forcible

In addition, the indictments note that the female victim’s father allegedly aided and abetted White’s sexual abuse of his daughter.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

By Mark Silk

On Wednesday, Pope Francis issued a letter of apology to the bishops of Chile for his handling of the their country’s sex abuse crisis. It is an extraordinary document whose significance can hardly be exaggerated.

When Francis visited Chile in January, he was widely expected to calm the ongoing furor over Juan Barros Madrid. Instead, he intensified it.

Barros was a follower of Francisco Karadima, a charismatic priest whom the Vatican defrocked in 2011 for abusing teenagers during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite accusations by several of Karadima’s victims that Barros had been present for some of the abuse and failed to report it—and over the objections of Chile’s bishops—Francis went ahead and appointed him bishop of the southern Chilean city of Osorno in 2015. As the case festered, Barros twice offered, and Francis twice refused to accept, his resignation.

In January, he rubbed salt into the wound by celebrating Mass with Barros and calling the charges against him “calumny.” Although he retracted the comment after it provoked outrage, he insisted that he believed in Barros’ innocence. His apparent dismissal of credible evidence stunned even his staunchest supporters.

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