ABUSE TRACKER

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston.com

By HOLLY RAMER AP, July 17, 2017

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Male prep school students who recorded relationships with girls on a cardboard crown this spring violated campus rules but not the law, the head of the school said Monday.

The crown incident at St. Paul’s School was among those cited by the state attorney general’s office last week when it began an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct there. The investigation also was prompted by information about a student sexual conquest ritual called the Senior Salute, revealed during a recent graduate’s 2015 trial and the school’s recent release of a report about teachers sexually assaulting students years ago.

In a letter to parents, students and school personnel on Monday, Rector Michael Hirschfeld said the school hired an investigator in May after a student reported a possible sexual competition.

The investigation, which was completed last week, found that five boys violated a school rule by using the crown to document their relationships with girls. The boys listed their own names and were neither competing with each other nor soliciting sexual relationships to be listed, Hirschfeld said, and the investigator found no violations of state law.

Current students have been disciplined, he said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social affairs correspondent
18 JULY 2017

Child victims of sexual abuse are being denied compensation because a Government agency rules that they “consented” to their abuse, a group of charities has warned.

Charities including Barnardo’s, Victim Support and Rape Crisis say that children as young as 12 are being denied compensation because of evidence that they went along with their abuse.

Children aged under 16 cannot consent to sexual activity under the law, unless they are aged over 13 and the defendant reasonably believed they were over 16.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, which gives out compensation of up to £44,000 to victims of sexual abuse and other crimes, uses a different set of criteria to decide whether victims are eligible for compensation.

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MASSACHUSETTS
NBC Boston

By Philip Marcelo

A New York man is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for sexual abuse he says he suffered decades ago at a church-affiliated home for orphaned and foster children.

Andre Jones, who’s 51, said on Monday that he was abused in the 1970s by the late Brother Edward Anthony Holmes, a supervisor and counselor at the now-shuttered Nazareth Child Care Center.

Holmes pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of children and other charges in 2006. He was sentenced to five years in prison and died in 2011, said one of Jones’ lawyers, Patrick Noaker.

The Archdiocese of Boston, the fourth-largest archdiocese in the country, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
Published: Monday, July 17th, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A former priest who served nine years in a Michigan prison for sexually abusing two boys is named in a new lawsuit filed on behalf of a Santa Fe man who alleges that Jason Sigler repeatedly attacked him at a church in Las Vegas.

The lawsuit, filed July 5 in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, alleges that Sigler sexually abused the former altar boy at Immaculate Conception Church over a period of about two years. The man, identified as John Doe 68, was 9 when the abuse began in 1976, the suit said. It is the 68th clerical abuse lawsuit filed by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall.

Sigler served nine years in a Michigan prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to molesting two boys. He returned to Albuquerque in 2014. A voice mail message left Friday on a phone number listed in Sigler’s name was not returned.

Sigler, who left the priesthood in 1982, pleaded guilty in Albuquerque to a charge of criminal sexual penetration of a minor in 1983 and received a deferred sentence, according to Journal reports at the time.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order that operated a now-closed treatment facility for priests in Jemez Springs. The Diocese of Lansing, Mich., sent Sigler to the facility in 1970, according to Journal reports.

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INDIA
India Today

Written by Bijin Jose

A priest from Kalpetta of Kerala’s Wayanad district was arrested for sexually abusing minor boys at a children’s home.

The accused identified as Father Saji Joseph, a resident of Kottiyoor, was absconding for the last three days, reports Malayala Manorama.

Joseph was arrested from Mangalore after the Kerala police launched a manhunt. The priest abused children aged between 14 and 15 years when they were housed at the St Vincent’s Balbhavan in Meenangadi.

Reportedly the sexual abuse took place during their summer vacations in 2016.

Father Joseph was exposed after one of the children shared the ordeal with his parents. Following the revelation, the parents contacted the child helpline. Further investigations revealed that another child too was sexually abused by the priest at the children’s home.

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INDIA
The Indian Express

The official said Joseph has been charged under section 377 (unanatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

A Christian priest in Kerala has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor boys of an orphanage for two years, police said. The victims were staying at ‘Balbhavan’ in Meenangadi where the priest was working, a police official said. Fr Saji Joseph, who was allegedly sexually assaulting the boy’s since March 2015, was arrested following complaints from children’s relatives, the official said.

He was absconding for the past three days and was arrested from Thamarassery on Monday. He was hiding in various places, including Mangaluru, they said. The official said Joseph has been charged under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two former executives of the Vatican’s pediatric hospital are going on trial on charges they diverted 422,000 euros ($485,000) in hospital donations to renovate the retirement home of the Catholic Church’s retired second-in-command.

Former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina face between three to five years in prison and fines starting at 5,000 euros if found guilty of embezzlement. The penalty can be reduced if the amount diverted is repaid before the trial starts.

Profiti has said the funds he used from the Bambino Gesu (Baby Jesus) foundation to renovate the 300-square meter (3,230-square-foot) apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was an investment, since he intended to use it for future fundraising events for the hospital.

Bertone agreed to host such parties, saying he would take care to ensure that “third parties” – not the foundation – would pay for any renovations needed. Whatever happened to those “third parties” is unclear, but Bertone spent 300,000 euros of his own money for the work on top of the 422,000 that came from the foundation.

The scandal is the latest to strike the Holy See as Francis works to clean up centuries of shady business dealings in the walled-in, 44-hectare (109-acre) offshore city state, the world’s smallest. And it comes as Francis copes with the fallout from the embarrassing exit of his top financial adviser, Cardinal George Pell, who returned to his native Australia last week to face trial on sex abuse charges.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

[547 Regensburg Cathedral Sparrows: “Prison, Hell and Concentration Camp”: A final report shows the extent of the mistreatment at the Regensburg Cathedral. There, significantly more children were abused than hitherto known.]

“Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager”: Ein Abschlussbericht zeigt das Ausmaß der Misshandlungen bei den Regensburger Domspatzen. Dort wurden deutlich mehr Kinder missbraucht, als bislang bekannt.

Es handelt sich um einen der größten Missbrauchsskandale der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland: Bei den weltberühmten Regensburger Domspatzen sind über Jahrzehnte insgesamt 547 Kinder Opfer von körperlicher und sexueller Gewalt geworden. Das geht aus dem Abschlussbericht zum Missbrauchsskandal bei dem katholischen Chor hervor, der sieben Jahre nach Bekanntwerden der ersten Fälle nun vorgestellt worden ist. Demnach wurden 500 Kinder Opfer körperlicher Gewalt, 67 Kinder zusätzlich auch Opfer sexueller Gewalt.

Da einige Kinder körperliche und sexuelle Gewalt erlitten, liege die Gesamtzahl der Fälle höher als die Zahl der Opfer, sagte der von Bistum und Chor mit der Klärung des Skandals beauftragte Rechtsanwalt Ulrich Weber. Die Kinder hatten die Zeit bei den Regensburger Domspatzen demnach später unter anderem als “Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager” oder als schlimmste Zeit ihres Lebens bezeichnet.

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GERMANY
Deutsche Welle

As a child in the famous Regensburg Domspatzen Catholic boys choir, Alexander Probst was one of hundreds of victims of physical and sexual abuse. Now, with the release of a final report on the abuse, he speaks with DW.

Starting in 1968, Alexander Probst joined the famous Domspatzen Catholic choir in Regensburg, Bavaria. He was in the third grade. He and his fellow students were insulted, beaten and abused on a regular basis. After two years, Probst moved to the choir’s high school. There, a teacher forced him into a secret group. The teacher would meet with the boys, drink beer, smoke, and watch pornos. The man began coming into the boys’ dormitory at night, where he would reach under Probst’s blanket and sexually abuse him. Probst says it must have happened more than a hundred times. When he told his father about the abuse toward the end of the school year, he was immediately taken out of the school.

Decades later, in 2010, Probst became one of the first victims to go public with details of the abuse he suffered during his time with the Domspatzen. For him and others like him, it was the start of a struggle for their suffering to be recognized. At the start of this year, he published a book about what he went through as a child.

Deutsche Welle: You went public with your story seven years ago; how are you doing today?
Alexander Probst: I have found my peace, and that also means that I hope those on the other side [who committed these crimes] find peace. I will continue to help when I can. But this is no longer the driving force in my life, and that feels good.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutschlandfunk

[When in 2010 former singers of the world-famous boy chorus at Regensburg cathedral reported of beatings and sexual violence, the then Regensburg bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller reckoned the allegations as slander. In the meantime hundreds of sufferers have reported their abuse. Today the final report of the investigation is published.]

Als 2010 ehemalige Sänger des weltberühmten Knabenchores von Prügel und sexueller Gewalt berichteten, wertete der damalige Regensburger Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller die Vorwürfe als üble Nachrede. Mittlerweile haben sich Hunderte Betroffene gemeldet. Heute wird der Abschlussbericht der Untersuchung veröffentlicht.

Von Tobias Krone

Im vergangenen Jahr sprach Regensburgs Bischof Rudolf Voderholzer aus, was Jahrzehnte lang offiziell verschwiegen worden war:

“Zu den bedrückendsten Erfahrungen meines Bischofsamts und zu den schwersten Lasten gehört die Konfrontation mit den Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Priester und kirchliche Mitarbeiter, durch die Fälle von körperlicher Gewalt vor allem – aber nicht nur – in der Vorschule der Regensburger Domspatzen in Etterzhausen und Pielenhofen.”

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DEUTSCHLAND
BR

[Sonderermittler Weber said he classified a total of 547 abuse cases as highly plausible at the Regensburg Cathedral choir of which 500 were children victims of physical violence, 67 were victims of sexual violence. In addition, one would have to assume that there were other victims.]

Von: Kilian Neuwert, Christina Fuchs, Katharina Häringer, Uli Scherr
Stand: 18.07.2017

Sonderermittler Weber sagte, er habe insgesamt 547 Missbrauchsfälle als hochplausibel eingestuft, davon waren 500 Kinder Opfer körperlicher Gewalt, 67 waren Opfer sexueller Gewalt. Einige wurden Kinder wurden sowohl sexuell als auch körperlich misshandelt. Darüber hinaus müsse man davon ausgehen, dass es noch weitere Fälle gegeben habe. Weber geht von einer Dunkelziffer aus, insgesamt könnte es bis zu 700 Fälle geben.

“Gefängnis, Hölle, Konzentrationslager”

Bei den Beschuldigten hat der Sonderermittler 49 Personen mit hoher Plausibilität bewertet. Neun dieser mutmaßlichen Täter von ihnen wurden sexuell übergriffig. Vor allem in der Vorschule habe eine Atmosphäre alltäglicher Gewalt geherrscht. Ihre Zeit in dieser Einrichtung beschrieben die Opfer laut Anwalt Weber als Gefängnis, Hölle und Konzentrationslager, als die schlimmste Zeit ihres Lebens, geprägt von Angst, Gewalt und Hilflosigkeit. Grund für die Gewalt seien meist Verstöße gegen ein willkürlich ausgelegtes Regelwerk gewesen.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Catie Edmondson GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 17, 2017

A survivor of child sex abuse filed a lawsuit Monday against the Archdiocese of Boston for the repeated abuse he says he suffered while living at a Jamaica Plain center for children that was run by the church.

Andre Jones, 50, who now lives in New York, said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted between the ages of 8 and 11 by Brother Edward Anthony “Tony” Holmes at the Nazareth Child Care and Boarding School, a residential program for children who had been removed from their homes by the state.

In 2005, Holmes pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting two boys at the center. He was sentenced to five years in prison and died six year ago, records show.

According to the complaint filed in Suffolk County Court, the abuse began when Holmes took Jones and two other boys into a photography darkroom and groped the boys and forced them to perform oral sex on him. Jones alleges that he was assaulted for years.

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MICHIGAN
U.S. News

CORUNNA, Mich. (AP) — A 70-year-old priest accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Michigan church is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement in the case.

The Rev. David Ernest Fisher pleaded guilty last week to embezzlement. He was initially charged with seven counts, but prosecutors agreed to drop other charges after Fisher pleaded to embezzling between $50,000 and $100,000.

Fisher is jailed ahead of sentencing, which is Sept. 22 in Shiawassee County Circuit Court.

Fisher was pastor for 23 years at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owosso, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Fisher retired in 2015 and moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Catholic Diocese of Lansing has said $450,000 was missing.

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MASSACHUSETTS
U.S. News

BOSTON (AP) — A New York man is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for sexual abuse he says he suffered at an orphanage as a child.

Fifty-one-year-old Andre Jones said Monday he was abused by the late Brother Edward Anthony Holmes, a supervisor at Nazareth Child Care Center.

Holmes pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse and other charges in 2006. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He died in 2011.

Jones says he lived at Nazareth from 1975 to 1978, starting when he was 8. The center was a residential program for children awaiting foster care that operated on archdiocese land.

Jones and his lawyers announced the lawsuit in front of Suffolk County Superior Courthouse in Boston. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
NHPR

By PETER BIELLO

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced Thursday it’s launching a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School.

The elite boarding school has a history of sexual abuse by faculty, which it documented in a report published in May. More recently, sexual misconduct allegations have been made toward students on the campus, including high school seniors taking part in ritualistic games of sexual conquest.

To understand how the state’s involvement alters the legal landscape, NHPR’s Peter Biello spoke to Buzz Scherr, professor of law at the University of New Hampshire.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com July 17, 2017 |

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes appointed Monsignor James L.G. Benavente as a member of two advisory teams, effective July 16 at 6 p.m., according to the Archdiocese of Agana.

Byrnes’ latest official dispatch named Benavente as a member of the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Agaña while at the same time continuing to “serve in his capacity as the delegate of the coadjutor archbishop for church patrimony.”

Benavente last month sent a letter to Byrnes, resigning from his position as delegate to the archbishop for church patrimony, with oversight over archdiocese properties, working with the reconstituted Archdiocesan Finance Council.

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NEW YORK
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

JULY 17, 2017

ASHER LOVY

Author’s Note: Here’s the link to the Facebook event for this Sunday’s protest of the Novominsker Rebbe’s, and by extension Agudah’s, rape-enabling policies: https://www.facebook.com/events/261681534310970/

I started off in activism, much in the same way every other activist starts, with a young, optimistic, incredibly naïve idea of what I could accomplish if I tried hard enough. The problem: children were being abused, suffering horribly at the hands of people who violated them in ways that would viscerally incense anyone possessed of a conscience. Surely the problem was one of ignorance. It seemed to me, as it seems to many young, upstart activists, that when apprised of the horrifying reality and pervasiveness of child sexual abuse, people of conscience, people who are otherwise God-fearing fellow Orthodox Jews, could possibly stand idly by and allow such injustices to continue. No, it must be ignorance, I figured, and ignorance can be educated.

At the time I was confused about my place in the Jewish faith. I’d been raised solidly Charedi in Boro Park, taught from a young age to keep shabbos and kashrus, to daven three times a day, to value torah, and to respect gedolim. Gedolim were the closest thing we had to prophets. They didn’t talk to God, but after a lifetime of devotion to God, the study of Torah, and living piously, living as an example for the rest of us to follow, surely they were the most qualified to tell us what God wanted of us.

But that sort of devotion surely must come at a price, a certain detachment from the mundane, from the day-to-day of our lay-lives. It’s no wonder they didn’t for anything about the rampant sexual abuse in their communities, no wonder that when they were handed a case to adjudicate they made the incorrect choice. It wasn’t their fault, they simply didn’t understand the exactly nature of the problem they were adjudication. They simply didn’t understand what it means for a victim to feel so abandoned, betrayed, and violated by their friends, family, and community that the only apparent way out is suicide. They’d surely they’d never experienced being in such a mental space.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Gaynor D. Daleno | The Guam Daily Post Jul 17, 2017

Monsignor James Benavente, previously stripped of his role as head of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica, has moved back to the sphere of influence in Guam’s Catholic Church leadership.

Benavente has been named member of the Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors, of the Archdiocese of Agana.

Each diocese has a presbyteral council, comprising a group of priests, which functions as the senate of the bishop and helps the bishop in the governance of the diocese, based on church laws, according to the Vatican website.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes made the announcement Sunday, and Benavente’s appointment went into effect the same day.

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UTAH
BuzzFeed News

Posted on July 17, 2017

Zoe Tillman
BuzzFeed News Reporter

A Utah woman’s lawsuit against a former federal judge accusing him of raping her more than three decades ago is now at the center of a legal fight over how child sexual abuse claims are handled in the state, and whether victims can seek justice for old alleged crimes.

Last year, Terry Mitchell sued Richard Roberts — then the chief judge of the federal trial court in Washington, DC — accusing him of taking advantage of her age and repeatedly forcing her to have sex with him in 1981, when he was a 27-year-old prosecutor and she was a 16-year-old witness in one of his cases.

Roberts, who has since left the bench, denied the allegations, although he admitted having an “intimate” relationship with Mitchell. His lawyers argued that regardless of what happened, Mitchell had long missed the legal window to sue.

The case has turned into a broader dispute over a Utah law cited by Mitchell’s lawyers that revived expired child sexual abuse claims in the state. Roberts’ lawyers argue that Utah lawmakers lacked authority to resurrect civil claims where the clock to file had already run out.

The Utah Supreme Court will now decide if the revival law is valid. If the justices conclude that the state legislature ran afoul of its authority and they strike down the law, “it’s going to do an injustice to adult survivors everywhere,” said Lani Wallace, an attorney in Utah who works with child sexual abuse survivors.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Lawsuit alleges bishops covered up teen’s 2005 Utah conviction for sex offenses and recommended teen as babysitter for young families

Sexually violent offender, Michael Jensen, is serving 35 to 75-year sentence for child sexual abuse

Evidence points to widespread cover-up

In a stunning victory for nine victims of child sexual abuse in the Mormon Church, the West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday formally overturned a lower court, ruling there was evidence that high-ranking Mormon officials covered up for a sexually violent predator for years, allowing him to molest children in Utah and West Virginia.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Berkeley County, West Virginia, Mormon officials knew that a now-convicted sexually violent predator, Michael Jensen, had been convicted of sex offenses in Utah in 2005, allegedly molested his sister, and posed a risk to children—yet they still promoted him and recommended him as a babysitter to families and as a boarder in their homes.

[Herald-Mail]

The Supreme Court determined that this evidence was admissible and could be used to support the plaintiffs’ case.

The court also allowed evidence that actions taken by the Mormon Church, including a sexual abuse helpline, were made with the intention of protecting the Church from lawsuits, instead of preventing more abuse

“This is a cover-up of ‘Spotlight’ magnitude,” said Joelle Casteix of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused in religious groups and institutions. “Fortunately, the victims will now get their day in court.”

The West Virginia Supreme Court’s 78-page opinion outlines Jensen’s trail of abuse from 2004 to 2012, including a juvenile conviction for sexual abuse in 2005 in Utah, and allegations of abuse against his sisters and others after arriving in West Virginia.

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MEXICO
AM

[In the case of the former priest accused of sexual abuse of minors in a private school, the bishop of the Diocese of Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz, announced that he has met with the accused’s relatives, but not with the victims.]

En el caso del ex sacerdote acusado de abuso sexual a menores de un colegio particular, el obispo de la Diócesis de Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz dio a conocer que se ha reunido con familiares del acusado, pero no con las víctimas.

A su llegada como Obispo, indicó que desconocía el tema pero que se pondría en contacto con los afectados, por lo que al paso de su gestión ha buscado a los involucrados para dar seguimiento al caso.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Neil Camilleri
Monday, 17 July 2017

The victims of sexual abuse carried out by priests at St Joseph Home in Santa Venera decades ago will seek legal help to stop an annual fundraising marathon from being held at the premises.

Speaking to The Malta Independent yesterday, one of the victims, Lawrence Grech, said that seeing the marathon on TV brought back horrible memories from the days when he and other young boys were abused. “We are not against raising funds for good causes but you have to understand that while this is a positive and happy event for many people, it brings so many bad memories for us.”

He added that the internal courtyard where the event is held is, for the victims, a “place of punishment.”

“It is where one of the fathers used to make us sweep the floor for hours under the sun.”

Grech added: “This place was a brothel where we were abused. Seeing this marathon on TV is like a stab to the heart, because this is the same place where those horrible things happened.”

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Sam McPhee For Daily Mail Australia

The lawyer representing some of the alleged victims against Cardinal George Pell fears backroom deals could be done which see charges ‘watered down’ without their knowledge.

Ingrid Irwin, a Victorian lawyer representing some people accusing the Cardinal of abuse, believes complainants may face becoming ‘lambs to the slaughter’ if the crown and police cut deals during the trial.

‘They are coming in as naive players into a sophisticated legal game…The complainants don’t ever really know what is happening, they’re just coming in there with their truth,’ Ms Irwin told Nine News.

Ms Irwin said sexual abuse complainants often are completely removed from the legal process, making them ‘naive players into a sophisticated legal game.’

She predicts the case will be a drawn-out trial and each individual accuser may fight for separate trials.

However, some senior lawyers are concerned the Cardinal could be adversely affected by juror perceptions of him and the Catholic Church, and have said a judge-alone trial may be appropriate.

QCs Peter Chadwick and Remy van de Weil, who are not connected to the case, have questioned whether a jury can remain impartial during Pell’s trial, the Courier Mail reported.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Other than St. Peter’s Basilica, there is hardly better real estate in Vatican City than the sprawling penthouse apartment in the Vatican gardens, where the rooftop terrace has in-your-face views of the dome itself and overlooks the hotel that Pope Francis calls home.

The 300-square-meter (3,230-square-foot) bachelor pad, belonging to the previous pope’s second-in-command, looked even better after undergoing a 422,000-euro ($481,000) face-lift.

Who footed the bill? The Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital foundation, which raises money for sick children at the “pope’s hospital” in Rome.

A recent Associated Press investigation uncovered a secret 2014 Vatican probe that found that the hospital’s mission under its past administration had become “more aimed at profit” than patient care. Now the renovations at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s flat have sparked a criminal trial that shines a light on how some of that money was spent.

The Vatican on Tuesday will put its past hospital president, Giuseppe Profiti, and former hospital treasurer, Massimo Spina, on trial on charges they diverted hospital donations to renovate Bertone’s retirement fixer-upper. The Vatican tribunal, located just steps away from the palazzo in question, has warned the two defendants would be tried in absentia if they don’t show up.

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MEXICO
Aristegui Noticias

]The archdiocese responds to Athie’s complaint against Cardinal Norberto Rivera; Accuses Athie of “personal hatred”.]

“En Roma están bien informados sobre la manera en que se han venido manejando este tipo de casos, por lo que se puede decir que es una estrategia fallida”, sentencia.

Como “odio personal” y una “estrategia fallida” calificó la Arquidiócesis de México la denuncia que interpusieron los ex sacerdotes Alberto Athié y José Barba contra el cardenal Norberto Rivera, por presunto encubrimiento de delitos cometidos por sacerdotes pederastas.

El ex sacerdote Alberto Athié explicó a inicios de este mes en Aristegui en vivo que denunciaron a Rivera por haber reportado 15 casos de pederastia al Vaticano pero no los denunció ante las autoridades mexicanas.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Mark Saunokonoko
Jul 17, 2017

People who have accused Cardinal George Pell of molesting them could be “lambs to the slaughter” when legal proceedings begin, a Victorian lawyer representing sex abuse survivors fears.

Australia’s most senior cleric will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next week on multiple historical sex charges, which one of Pell’s close friends has likened to a Salem witch hunt.

International media will join Australian survivors of sexual abuse and a large national press pack to observe the latest chapter in the Catholic church’s long-running sexual abuse saga.

Pell, who has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, is the highest-ranking official from the Vatican to face his accusers in a court of law.

Media interest has been intense since Victorian Police announced in late June that Pell had been charged, forcing the return to Australia of the 76-year-old who was the Pope’s finance chief.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Rebecca Parish, Canterbury-Bankstown Express
July 17, 2017

DE LA Salle College at Revesby Heights has been labelled a “hot spot of paedophilia” by a Sydney lawyer who is working through thousands of historical child sex abuse cases.

The revelation about the Catholic boys school comes after countless men came forward with allegations of being sexually abused by numerous staff at the school in the 1970s and ’80s.

Among the worst offenders was Brother Anselm Hallam, also known as Tom Hallam, who was allegedly moved to the Sydney school from one in Melbourne after sexual abuse complaints were made against him.

Mr Hallam died in the early 1990s aged 92 before his charges could be heard in court.

John Comerford told NewsLocal that at age 18 he went to the Revesby school with a loaded shotgun to confront Mr Hallam, who allegedly raped him seven years earlier, but was told the teacher was dead.

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MAINE
Press Herald

BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
STAFF WRITER

TOPSHAM — Henry A. Eichman surrounded himself with hundreds of children.

Eichman, 57, helped found the Midcoast Youth Theater about 15 years ago, directing hundreds of children as they staged shows such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin,” and in 2008, was hired as a part-time employee at St. John’s Catholic School in Brunswick, where he worked with the drama program. Last September, he also started working with the after-school program at St. John’s.

Those many years of working with children, however, have come under greater scrutiny since Eichman was arrested last fall and charged with 16 counts of sexual abuse of children in Sagadahoc County, including unlawful sexual contact, unlawful sexual touching and “visual aggression against a child,” for allegedly videotaping or photographing children who were partially nude. He is due to appear in court next week on those charges.

Neighbors and those who worked with him in the youth theater group say they are shocked by the allegations and that they did not see him engaging in behavior that hinted at abuse, even as more allegations of child sexual abuse have come to light and criminal charges have continued to pile up.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
17 Jul 2017

CONVICTED child sex offender Catholic priest John Denham has been charged with fresh offences after a man alleged he was sexually abused at Taree in the late 1970s by Denham, senior Maitland-Newcastle priest Barry Tunks and two other men.

Manning/Great Lakes Local Area Command detectives charged Denham, 76, with three sexual assault offences more than two months after charging former Vicar General Barry Tunks, 76, in March with three indecent assault offences against the same boy in Catholic Church facilities at Taree.

Police also charged former nurse David John O’Grady with three indecent assault offences against the boy in church facilities at Taree in the 1970s.

The matters will return to court at Taree in August and September. No pleas have been entered.

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NEW YORK
National Catholic Reporter – Global Sisters Report

by Dan Stockman Jul. 17, 2017

Brooklyn, New York

It’s a gorgeous spring day, and the sunshine is pouring into the bedroom of Dominican Sr. Sally Butler’s apartment in the Fort Greene neighborhood, brightening the already cheery lavender-painted walls.

Butler’s eyes are bright, especially when she talks about how Jesus was a poor working man who lived among the outcasts, a model she has tried to live since moving to the neighborhood in 1968.

“That’s what keeps me going,” Butler says. “You can meet Christ in many ways. And if that’s what a sacrament is — meeting with Christ — then I’m OK. I’ve never felt deprived. Whatever my faith is, it’s very simple.”

Butler, 86, can’t get out of bed because of spinal stenosis and arthritis. And even if she could, for the past 24 years, she says, she has had to find her connection to Christ outside the church.

Though she has been in religious life for nearly 70 years, Butler is unable to believe in the institutional church anymore. But her faith in God, she says, has never been stronger.

‘We were betrayed’

Butler’s faith in the church began to crack in 1993.

She was walking through one of the many public-housing projects in Fort Greene when she realized she hadn’t seen a woman she knew in church lately, so she stopped in. The woman told Butler she had recently learned that one of the priests at St. Michael-St. Edward parish nearby had molested her son 20 years before.

Butler and two other sisters lived in the parish rectory, where they worked with three priests. The priests had lived there before moving to the rectory at nearby St. Boniface parish, six blocks away, and were still frequent visitors, often staying the night when they were working in that neighborhood.

“I rejected it. It was incomprehensible in 1993,” Butler says. “I thought I knew these men so well. I thought only monsters did that sort of thing.”

The revelation came with another, even more frightening one: The woman’s son, Jerry, had been best friends with Carlos Cruz, who Butler had raised as a son after his mother died in 1973. If the priests had sexually abused Jerry, what might have happened to Cruz, who had lived with Butler in the rectory?

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jul. 17, 2017

On the NCR website this week, we will run a series of stories that will challenge our readers to look at the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by clergy from several different viewpoints: from the perspective of a victim/survivor, from the perspective of a convicted offender, from the perspective of a family member of a victim, and from the perspective of professional advocates and watchdogs. …

Wednesday and Thursday, we will run extensive interviews with Gilbert Gustafson and Susan Pavlak. Pavlak, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, was sexually abused by her high school religion teacher, a former nun, in the 1970s. She recounts her struggle to come into, as she describes it, “right relationship,” overcoming alcoholism and trauma from the abuse. Gustafson is a priest of the St. Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese who was convicted of molesting a teenage boy in 1983. He served a jail sentence and years of probation. He also continued to serve as a priest on restricted ministry, holding various administrative jobs until 2002 when he was removed from public ministry. Over the last 30 years, he has done extensive personal work on recovery and, he says, has not offended since his conviction.

Gustafson and Pavlak met each other about 10 years ago. After several years learning to trust each other, they agreed to work together on programs that they hoped would bring healing to victims, abusers and the wider church community. Their main contention, in Pavlak’s words, is that “a person, however broken, doesn’t fall outside of the love of God and the love and care of the community. … We have to find a way to be safe together — that is my responsibility, not only to the kids and vulnerable people but also to the perpetrator.”

The interviews with Pavlak and Gustafson were conducted 2015 by Jesuit Fr. Luke Hansen. He had some trouble finding an outlet to publish the interviews and offered them to NCR last year. We agreed to run the interviews, but didn’t feel we could do that without providing readers with some context and background to the issues their stories raise.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Eliza Borrello

The Catholic Church has acknowledged the number of priests identified by the child abuse royal commission is indefensible, and says it is working hard to make sure the abuse is never repeated.

But what does that mean for local parishes making changes to protect children into the future?

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, first announced by the Gillard government in 2012, is due to deliver its final report at the end of this year.

Already it has identified nearly 2,000 figures in the Catholic Church, including priests and brothers, as alleged perpetrators, something it has acknowledged as tragic and indefensible.

Like parishes across the country, St Anthony’s in the northern Perth suburb of Wanneroo was rocked by revelations from the royal commission.

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MEXICO
Politico

July 15, 2017

[Pope Francisco accepted the resignation of Cardinal Norberto Rivera as the archbishop of Mexico, according to journalist Carlos Mota. This has happened in the last hours.The spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, Hugo Valdemar, confirmed that on 6 June Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera presented his resignation to the pope on reaching age 75. Rivera is under investigation by the Attorney General’s office for covering-up abuse of minors by 15 priests.]

El vocero de la Arquidiócesis de México, Hugo Valdemar, confirmó que el pasado 6 de junio, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera presentó al papa Francisco, su renuncia en tiempo y forma, tal y como lo marca el Derecho canónico, al cumplir 75 años de edad.

La semana anterior se informó que la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) investiga al cardenal, después de que un grupo de religiosos presentara una denuncia en su contra por el supuesto encubrimiento de 15 sacerdotes pederastas.

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MEXICO
Proceso

MEXICO CITY (Process) .- In 1997, when the media began to air the sexual abuse committed by Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera automatically led “the strategy of protection and cover-up of Maciel. The allegations were “totally false”; invented and unjust, Rivera said of his friend Maciel. The allegations of sexual abuse of minors were also a great plot to attack the church and Pope John Paul II, he said.]

POR RODRIGO VERA , 13 JULIO, 2017

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (Proceso).- En 1997, cuando los medios de comunicación empezaron a ventilar los abusos sexuales cometidos por Marcial Maciel, fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera encabezó de manera automática “la estrategia de protección y encubrimiento público” del implicado.

Las denuncias eran “totalmente falsas”; “inventos creados y pagados” para “golpear injustamente” a su amigo Maciel y se daban, dijo el cardenal, en el marco de un “gran complot para atacar a la misma Iglesia y al Papa Juan Pablo II”.

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IRELAND
Limerick Post

Simon Bourke | July 16, 2017

One of Pope Francis’ Cardinals has told a conference in Limerick that the Church must confront its own misbehaviours and stand on the side of the victims of abuse.

Speaking ahead of his address at today’s ‘Let’s Talk Family: Let’s Be Family’ conference at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said that rehabilitation of family is a priority today but so is rehabilitation of Church, adding that overcoming current crises will not happen unless the Church stands with victims.

“We need words of consolation. Many are discouraged because of the society becoming often hostile to the Church but also because of our own misbehaviour, mainly priests but also religious and others. This is a great burden. It’s a great burden that we cannot overcome unless we accept truth, even if it’s painful truth, and if we clearly stand on the side of the victims,” he said.

‘Amoris Laetitia’ has been celebrated as a more compassionate approach by Church to the complexities of family as they are today and not least how it approaches ‘irregular unions’.

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FLORIDA
IrishCentral

Father John Gallagher, a Tyrone native, claimed the Florida diocese tried to cover-up a pedophile priest in the diocese. Gallagher exposed him and was shunned and defamed as a result.

In January 2015, Gallagher (49), who has served in Florida since 2000, helped to report criminal misconduct by Fr. Jose Palimattom, a priest of the Franciscan Province of St. Thomas the Apostle in India, who was serving a two-year residency at Holy Name of Jesus Parish, in West Palm Beach.

Palimattom, who had been at the parish for just one month, approached a 14-year-old boy one day after Mass and showed him as many as 40 images of naked boys. Police later classified this as an attempt to “groom” the boy for future encounters.

Gallagher claims that he went against a church official’s instructions to put Fr. Palimattom on a plane to Bangalore and “not keep written notes” of the incident. Rather than following the Church’s instruction to “make him go away,” Gallagher interviewed Fr. Palimattom along with one of his parishioners, a retired police officer, who took notes at the meeting.

Palimattom admitted to showing nude pictures of boys to the teen. He also admitted that he had sexually assaulted boys in India before arriving in the United States. A few hours later he repeated this confession to detectives from the specialist unit of the West Palm Beach Police.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Betty Clermont

That was the assessment of “observers” according to Vatican reporter, Andrea Gagliarducci, in his July 3 column. Milone, appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 as the Vatican’s financial auditor general, had resigned by “mutual agreement” on June 20. No reason was given. Milone made no statement.

In May 2016, two lay members of the Board of Superintendence of the Vatican Bank resigned “in light of legitimate reflections and opinions concerning [the bank’s] management” the Vatican said. Carlo Salvatori, President of Lazard Italia and Allianz Italia, and Clemens Borsig, former Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Bank, remain silent.

René Brülhart, an official of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority since 2012, seems to have one foot out the door. In a March interview, Brülhart spoke about his “new role at a Swiss mortgage lender,” his “return to Swiss banking,” and that, regardless of his years in the Vatican, “I still see myself as an adviser to the financial services industry.”

Do Milone, Salvatori, Borsig and Brülhart know something we don’t?

Although consistently reported by the U.S. media as “reforming” or “cleaning up” the Vatican, Pope Francis never hired any forensic accountants or former law enforcement agents with expertise in financial malfeasance to assist him. Meanwhile, even a cursory examination of Pope Francis’ appointments would lead to questioning his intentions.

On July 1, 2013, the Vatican announced that Promontory Financial Group employees were appointed as the Vatican Bank’s (officially the Institute of Religious Works or IOR) director, chief risk officer and senior advisers. (See: “Promontory’s activities focus heavily on the adept circumvention of regulations,” according to an article on how Promontory “attempted to suppress evidence that [U.S.] borrowers had been harmed by the false and deceptive practices of the mortgages lenders.”)

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AUSTRALIEN
Katholisch

[In a week and a half, the abuse procedure against Cardinal George Pell begins in Melbourne, Australia. As a priest in the Diocese of Ballarat, he was supposed to have participated in the cover-up of abuse cases.]

In eineinhalb Wochen beginnt im australischen Melbourne das Missbrauchsverfahren gegen Kardinal George Pell. Er soll als Priester im Bistum Ballarat an der Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen beteiligt gewesen sein.

Vatikan | Sydney – 15.07.2017

Am 26. Juli beginnt in Melbourne das Missbrauchverfahren gegen den australischen Kurienkardinal George Pell. Die genauen Details der Anklage sind noch nicht bekannt. Für die Dauer des Verfahrens wurde Pell von Papst Franziskus von seinem Posten als Finanzminister des Vatikan freigestellt. Im australischen Missbrauchsskandal spielt der 76-Jährige eine zentrale Rolle: sowohl als Kämpfer gegen Missbrauch wie auch als jemand, der als Priester im Bistum Ballarat an der Vertuschung entsprechender Fälle beteiligt gewesen sein soll.

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SCHWEIZ
Solothurner Zeitung

[In the Roman-Catholic church community of Erschwil, a priest was active in the late 1990s who was later sentenced to sexual abuse in Germany. But already in the Swiss Schwarzbubenland he showed a strange behavior.]

von Dimitri Hofer

In der römisch-katholischen Kirchgemeinde Erschwil war Ende der 90er-Jahre ein Priester tätig, der später in Deutschland wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt wurde. Doch bereits im Schwarzbubenland legte er ein merkwürdiges Verhalten an den Tag.

Kaplan V.* nahm Ministranten mit in sein Zimmer. Vom Bett im Keller des Pfarrhauses in Erschwil aus schaute er mit ihnen Fernsehen. Der Raum, in dem das passierte, sah ein wenig aus wie ein Kinderzimmer. Viele Plüschtiere wohnten dem Geschehen bei. Darunter befand sich auch ein Teddybär in einem Papstkostüm.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU
07.16.17

ROME—Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state under Pope Benedict XVI, is an old-school kind of cleric whose lavish lifestyle has no place in the modest Catholic Church of Pope Francis. He was an early target of the incoming pope’s housecleaning, among the first to be kicked out and replaced by more frugal fathers. Since then, he remains a sort of poster-priest for the decadence and splendor the Vatican’s princes used to get away with.

Now the lavish 2,400-square-foot penthouse apartment he lovingly refurbished with such amenities as luxury white Carrara marble and a $6,000 security door, is the object of a criminal trial that will open at the Vatican’s tribunal next Tuesday. In the dock are two former executives of the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu children’s hospital who will face charges for using “money belonging to the Bambino Gesu Foundation in an illicit way” to help pay for Bertone’s palace, according to a statement by the Holy See press office.

The hospital’s former president, Giuseppe Profiti, and its treasurer, Massimo Spina, have been under investigation for more than a year over the matter, which exploded when aerial photos showed the extent of the restoration, which essentially merged two top floor apartments for the cardinal to share with three nuns and a secretary. Profiti admits that hospital funds were used, but he insists that it was because they intended to hold “fundraisers and meetings” at the penthouse, though none have been reported to have taken place.

The Vatican’s “promoter of justice,” who will lead the trial, disagrees, insisting that Bambino Gesu hospital, which offered to treat Charlie Gard, the British baby whose life support may be pulled, had no reason to spend nearly half a million dollars (€422,000) on the cardinal’s home improvement project.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Ross Douthat JULY 15, 2017

By the standards of the Francis papacy, things were rather quiet in Rome for much of 2017. The great controversy of the previous two years, the debate over communion for the divorced and remarried, had entered a kind of stalemate, with bishops the world over disagreeing and the pope himself keeping a deliberate silence. One long act of the pontificate seemed finished; the question was how much drama there was still to come.

The last month has supplied some. In rapid succession, four important cardinals have been removed from the stage. The first, George Pell, was both in charge of the pope’s financial reforms and a leading opponent of communion for the remarried. He has returned to his native Australia to face charges of sexual abuse — charges that either represent a culminating revelation in the church’s grim accounting on the issue, or else (as Pell’s defenders insist) a sign that the abuse scandal has become a license for prosecutorial witch hunts.

The second cardinal, Gerhard Mueller, was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office charged with safeguarding Catholic doctrine. Often sidelined by Francis, he had performed a careful tightrope walk on the pope’s marriage document, Amoris Laetitia, insisting that it did not change church teaching on remarriage and the sacraments while downplaying the signals that the pope himself thought otherwise. His five-year term was expiring; these are often renewed but his was not, and in a manner so brusque that the usually circumspect German publicly complained.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

EXCLUSIVE, Rebecca Parish
The Sunday Telegraph

MORE than 30 years ago, John Comerford returned to the steps of De La Salle College with a loaded shotgun.

A tormented 18-year-old, he was going to kill the man who stole his life when he was just 11.

But Mr Comerford never got the opportunity to come face-to-face with Brother Anselm Hallam as an adult because as he sat on the steps of the southwestern Sydney school, he was told the teacher was dead.

He would spend the next two decades of his life harbouring the secret of his childhood rape, not telling a soul about the day Anselm caught him alone in the school’s old church.

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MEXICO
Sin Embargo

[Norberto Rivera’s prosecution is not revenge, it’s the least justice for victims of pederasts: Athié]

Por Sandra Rodríguez Nieto
SinEmbargo
julio 14, 2017

Alberto Athié lleva 20 años en lucha contra el silencio de la Iglesia Católica mexicana ante los crímenes de pederastia clerical. En 2003 renunció al sacerdocio por lo que consideró protección del Cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera y de diferentes papas hacia el sacerdote mexicano Marcial Maciel Degollado, fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, uno de los casos más conocidos de abuso sexual contra menores a nivel incluso internacional.

Hoy es uno de los autores de la demanda en contra del Cardenal Rivera por encubrimiento a al menos 15 sacerdotes pederastas, por la que la PGR ya abrió una carpeta de investigación.

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MEXICO
Infobae

[The worst end for the head of the Mexican Catholic Church. On June 3 news shook Mexico: The primate archbishop, Norberto Rivera Carrera, had resigned before the Vatican . A day earlier, two former priests had filed a complaint before the federal prosecutor’s office for the cover-up of at least 15 priests responsible for sexually abusing minors.]

Por Juliana Fregoso 15 de julio de 2017
Desde Ciudad de México

El 3 de junio una noticia sacudió a México: el arzobispo primado, Norberto Rivera Carrera, había renunciado ante El Vaticano. Un día antes, dos ex sacerdotes habían presentado una denuncia en su contra ante la Fiscalía federal por el encubrimiento de al menos 15 curas responsables de abusar sexualmente de menores.

Meses antes, el 18 de diciembre de 2016, Rivera Carrera aseguró ante medios de comunicación que no había tolerancia hacia la pederastia clerical. “En la Arquidiócesis, al menos unos 15 sacerdotes han recibido no solamente juicio, sino sentencias”, dijo sin precisar ante quién se realizaron estos juicios y cuáles fueron las sentencias.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Sam Duncan For Daily Mail Australia

The Vatican’s third most powerful figure will receive no special treatment when he appears in court to face multiple historical sex charges.

There have been fears for the safety of Australia’s most powerful Catholic at his court appearance on July 26, as sexual abuse survivors are expected to attend.

Melbourne Magistrates Court appears unconcerned, and stated that Cardinal George Pell’s trial will be ‘business as usual.’

Court spokeswoman Clare Hogarth-Angus said: ‘This may change nearer the time, however currently there are no special plans in place, the Herald Sun reported.

The lack of special treatment also means that the former Archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne will be rubbing shoulders with hardened criminals as he lines up in court.

The potential exposure to bikies and murderers, along with the expected presence of sexual abuse survivors at the trial, has worried the Catholic Church and they hold grave concerns for the top cleric’s safety.

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VATICAN CITY
Premium Times

Pope Francis, a regular denouncer of gossip and intrigue inside the Vatican, has hung a sign outside his private study warning whiners to stay away.

“No complaining. Offenders are subjected to a syndrome of victimhood that lowers the mood and the ability to solve problems,’’ the sign said.

A picture of it was published by the La Stampa newspaper on Friday.

“Fines are doubled if the offence is committed in the presence of children.

“To get the best out of yourself, you must focus on your own potential and not on your own limits, so stop complaining and act to change your life for the better,’’ it also said.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jul 14, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Though the numbers of lawsuits continue to climb, Guam’s coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes remains optimistic stating “We all look forward to full and complete resolution of all these cases.” Earlier this month, the Church announced a Year of Reparation in hopes of making amends with victims spiritually. During this time, the Faithful are encouraged to observe prayer, fasting, and alms giving. Archbishop Byrnes also says the Church continues to provide support for all victims through Hope and Healing Guam. The number to call is 1-888-649-5288.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
July 15 2017
The Times

The Home Office has been handed a substantial fine by the Treasury after Amber Rudd’s department broke Whitehall rules over the salary given to the head of the child sex abuse inquiry.

Ms Rudd, the home secretary, hired Alexis Jay after Dame Lowell Goddard, a judge from New Zealand, quit in controversial circumstances.

Ms Rudd had been in position for only a few weeks when she appointed Professor Jay. It was a speedy appointment to ensure the inquiry continued to operate with minimum disruption. However, in what could be considered a political case of more haste less speed, her department has been landed with a fine of £366,000 for breaching spending processes over the salary she offered her choice to head the investigation.

It emerged in the Home Office’s 2016-17 annual report that Ms Rudd failed to follow government rules when she appointed Professor Jay, a social worker. Under restrictions imposed because of the government’s austerity drive, salaries at a level above the prime minister’s must be signed off by the chief secretary to the Treasury.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor For Mailonline

Theresa May and Amber Rudd both broke government rules by handing big pay packages to senior figures on the child sex abuse inquiry.

The Home Office has been fined more than £366,000 by the Treasury after the chair and panel for the probe were handed six-figure packages without authorisation.

Theresa May set up the inquiry in 2014 in response to allegations of child sex abuse at institutions ranging from the BBC to children’s homes, but it has been beset by trouble from the start.

Mrs May was responsible for breaking the rules when as Home Secretary she set the daily rates for panel members at a generous £565 a day.

And Mrs Rudd breached them again in August last year when she appointed Professor Alexis Jay as chair on a £220,000 package.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The Home Office has been fined £366,900 for breaching the government’s senior salary pay cap when it appointed the head of a child sex abuse inquiry.

It was penalised by the Treasury for failing to get clearance in advance before agreeing to pay Professor Alexis Jay £185,000 a year.

Since 2010, all jobs with salaries of more than £142,500 agreed by ministers have had to be signed off in advance.

The Home Office said it had reviewed procedures to avoid future breaches.

Prof Jay became the fourth chair of the troubled inquiry after replacing Lowell Goddard in August 2016.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Jul 14, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Nearly 100 sex abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Church.

Late Thursday afternoon, five more cases were filed in the District Court of Guam. 53-year-old R.W.J., 50-year-old P.P.R., and 58-year-old W.E.T. all allege they were molested by Father Louis Brouillard. P.P.R. goes into detail saying that aside from being exposed to the priest naked as well as naked swims it the river, the priest would molest him in a room behind the Church altar. The priest would tell the young boy that it was what God wanted him to do and that it was a sin if he didn’t do as Brouillard asked.

50-year-old N.P.J.D. and 48-year-old B.B.J. allege they fell victim to former priest Father Raymond Cepeda, who was ultimately defrocked. N.P.J.D. alleges the priest would get him alone in a room, lock the doors, and hug, kiss, grind, and grope him. On another occasion, the priest unzipped his pants and performed oral sex. B.B.J. alleges Cepeda molested him at his grandmother’s funeral. On their way to the grave site, Cepeda allegedly touched the boy’s thigh. Initially, B.B.J. thought this was to provide him comfort at his time of loss, but then the priest reached for his privates. All five plaintiffs are represented by Attorney David Lujan.

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INDIA
The New Indian Express

KALPETTA: A sexual abuse case involving a priest at Meenangadi here has put the Church in a tight spot.

The incident came to light on Friday when parents of two boys – aged 14 and 15 – approached the Meenangadi police station after their wards allegedly complained of being sexually assaulted by Fr Saji alias Joseph, 40, of Kunduthodu, Thamarassery. The priest is absconding.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[This week, the prelate of Osorno had his first meeting with lay people who question him. He said that “we do not agree on the diagnosis but it is positive to hear personally.” “I hope that if we allow ourselves to be enlightened by the word of God, our spirit can walk more fraternally and collaborate for the good of all.” ]

Autor: Sergio Rodríguez

Esta semana, el prelado de Osorno tuvo su primer encuentro con laicos que lo cuestionan. Dijo que “no coincidimos en el diagnóstico, pero es positivo escucharse personalmente”.

“Tengo la esperanza de que si nos dejamos iluminar por la palabra de Dios, nuestro espíritu puede caminar más fraternalmente y colaborar para el bien de todos”. Esta es una de las reflexiones del obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros Madrid, respecto de la situación que se vive en esta diócesis; pero, más en específico, en relación al encuentro que esta semana sostuvo con dos representantes de un grupo de laicos, quienes han sido los principales críticos de su gestión.

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CAMEROUN
Cameroun Web

[Pedophilia, homosexuality, anarchy, tragic death: religion in turmoil.]

Outre la crise de la foi, l’église est au cœur de plusieurs scandales. Les églises sont empêtrées dans une série d’affaires d’abus au Cameroun. Quel en sera l’impact pour ces institutions?

1-L’église catholique dans la tourmente

Point de doute. L’Eglise catholique au Cameroun est, depuis quelque 30 ans frappée par une série d’assassinats de prêtres et religieuses. La dernière tragédie en date est la disparition de Mgr Balla, évêque de Bafia, dans des circonstances troubles.

Le 2 juin dernier, le corps sans vie de l’évêque a été extrait des eaux de la Sanaga. Pour de nombreux chrétiens catholiques, il s’agit d’une mort suspecte qui en rajoute à une longue série.

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FRANKREICH
Radio Vatikan

[No more suspicion against Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon: The prosecutor’s office has discontinued their investigations. This is what the French Bishops’ Conference is saying.]

Kein Verdacht mehr gegen Kardinal Philippe Barbarin von Lyon: Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat ihre Ermittlungen eingestellt. Das teilt die Französische Bischofskonferenz mit. Dem Erzbischof von Lyon war vorgeworfen worden, Missbrauchsskandale im Erzbistum verschleiert und die Behörden nicht informiert zu haben. Jetzt wurde bekannt, dass die Ermittlungen schon im vergangenen Dezember eingestellt worden sind: Die Behörden „haben keinen Fall von strafbarem Handeln festgestellt“.

Die Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs durch zwei Priester, um die es ging, waren in den siebziger und neunziger Jahren geschehen, noch bevor Barbarin Erzbischof von Lyon wurde. Im Februar des letzten Jahres hatte die Staatsanwaltschaft der Stadt ihre Ermittlungen aufgenommen. Kardinal Barbarin reagiert erleichtert auf den jetzigen Bescheid: Die Staatsanwaltschaft habe „nach den leidenschaftlichen Polemiken für ein bisschen Wahrheit und Frieden gesorgt“.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg Digital

[The details of the replacement of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller as prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith are still unclear.]

Von Robert Werner in Nachrichten, Überregional

Die näheren Umstände der Ablösung von Kardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller als Präfekt der römischen Glaubenskongregation sind weiter ungeklärt. Nun wurde bekannt, dass gegen Müller Ende 2015 in Rom eine Anzeige wegen Vertuschung von sexuellem Missbrauch erstattet wurde. Nicht nur in Regensburg gehen zudem die Fragen um, was aus ihm wird bzw. ob und mit welcher Begründung Kardinal Müller weiterhin Bezüge von Diözese Regensburg erhalten wird. Die Pressestelle des bischöflichen Ordinariats gibt dazu nichts preis.

Die Ablösung von Kardinal Müller als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation gilt als beispiellos. Von einem „Erdbeben im Vatikan“ war die Rede. In diesem Zusammenhang dürfte eine Anzeige gegen Müller wegen Vertuschung eines sexuellen Missbrauchs nicht unbedeutend gewesen sein. Diese wurde Ende 2015 beim Kirchenanwalt (Promotor Iustitiae) des vatikanischen Strafgerichts eingereicht. In der viereinhalb DIN-A4-Seiten langen, penibel ausgearbeiteten Anzeige, die unserer Redaktion vorliegt, wird Müller beschuldigt, im Zusammenhang der Wiedereinsetzung des Geistlichen Peter K. seine Aufsichtspflicht verletzt zu haben.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
NHPR

By CASEY MCDERMOTT

The attorney general’s office made waves Thursday night in announcing its plans to launch a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School over its handling of sexual assaults on school grounds.

While the investigation is still just in its beginning stages, some are already starting to draw parallels to a time when the state took on another powerful institution over its handling of sexual abuse: the Catholic Church.

Prominent New Hampshire Attorney Chuck Douglas is representing former St. Paul’s student Chessy Prout in a lawsuit against the school, alleging it fell short in its responsibilities to protect Prout — who was sexually assaulted by fellow student Owen Labrie as part of a so-called “senior salute” ritual.

Almost two decades ago, Douglas also helped dozens of victims of sexual abuse reach settlements with the Catholic church over abuse they experienced at the hands of local priests. At that time, the attorney general’s office was pursuing its own investigation against the diocese.

“It was time, just as it was with the diocese of Manchester to get some outside investigation – not people hired and working for the institution,” Douglas said Friday. “And it mirrors exactly what happened in the proceedings in the church here in New Hampshire.”

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff
Friday, July 14, 2017

The attorney general’s decision Thursday to launch a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School’s handling of past sexual abuse and misconduct has drawn wide support from political leaders and alumni.

The morning after the announcement, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu commended the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for prioritizing the “safety, security, and well-being” of children in the state.

“I am encouraged by the attorney general’s actions to investigate the alleged abuse at Saint Paul’s School. Sexual assault will not be tolerated in NH, and I commend the AG’s office for taking aggressive action to fully investigate the matter,” Sununu wrote on social media Friday.

State prosecutors announced they’re working with the Merrimack County attorney, New Hampshire State Police and the Concord Police Department to investigate the elite boarding school. The investigation will initially focus on whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of children. The task force will also investigate whether St. Paul’s broke a law that prohibits the obstruction of criminal investigations.

The state’s Department of Justice issued its announcement as several state lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle were calling for an investigation. Lawmakers told the Monitor they hoped the attorney general’s office would examine the circumstances surrounding sexual misconduct allegations, including sexual conquest rituals, and the actions of school administrators in the aftermath of those reports.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
WMUR

Jean Mackin
News Anchor/Reporter

CONCORD, N.H. —
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is investigating the conduct of St. Paul’s School in Concord in connection with sexual assaults at the school and a student practice known as the “senior salute.”

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said the investigation was initiated as the result of a report concerning sexual assaults by teachers on their students and reports of ongoing student sexual conquest rituals.

Prosecutors at the time said that he was taking part in a practice known as the “senior salute,” in which seniors try to have sex with younger students before graduation.

Officials said there are reports that the senior salute happened again this year.

“Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,” Gordon said. “I am confident that an institution such as St. Paul’s School will be fully cooperative with this investigation.”

In a statement sent to WMUR, Michael Hirschfeld, Rector at St. Paul’s School, said the school has been in contact with local law enforcement, and would continue to fully cooperate with any inquiries received.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
New York Times

By JESS BIDGOOD
JULY 14, 2017

BOSTON — The attorney general of New Hampshire on Thursday announced a criminal investigation into St. Paul’s School, an exclusive boarding school that has been embroiled in a series of damaging reports over sexual misconduct and abuse on campus.

Gordon J. MacDonald, the attorney general, said the investigation would focus at first on whether the school endangered child welfare or committed obstruction of governmental operations. In announcing the investigation, Mr. MacDonald cited several reports related to St. Paul’s over a matter of years, including an investigation released earlier this year into sexual abuse committed by teachers decades ago, stories about a sexual ritual among some students that figured into the rape trial of a former student in 2015, and a new report about another such sexual contest this year.

“Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,” Mr. MacDonald said in a written statement.

Reports of sexual abuse at boarding schools have accumulated at revered campuses such as Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, St. George’s School in Rhode Island and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. And in some cases, teachers involved have been prosecuted individually.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Michael Levenson GLOBE STAFF JULY 14, 2017

The criminal investigation launched this week into sexual misconduct allegations at St. Paul’s School is a rare step that might not result in criminal charges but could force the institution to change its culture, legal specialists said Friday.

The inquiry would aim to answer a central question that has been raised by the allegations — whether the elite boarding school in Concord, N.H., tried to protect its own reputation at the expense of vulnerable students.

“The key here is to what extent the school had knowledge that the ongoing environment or culture at the school was producing these kinds of problems,” said Albert E. Scherr, a University of New Hampshire law professor. “On the surface, it’s not completely clear whether there is criminal liability, so it’s to [prosecutors’] credit to take the risk.”

In announcing the investigation Thursday, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said it was prompted by the release in May of a report that found 13 former faculty and staff engaged in sexual misconduct with students over four decades, and that faulted administrators for ignoring and even concealing the widespread abuse.

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FLORIDANORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Joural

A Derry priest has been granted permission to sue an American Catholic Diocese for defamation.

Fr. John Gallagher, who now lives in Palm Beach, Florida, but previously ministered in the Long Tower Parish, claims he was defamed after refusing to cover up sex offences committed by another priest.

Fr. Gallagher, from Strabane, began legal proceedings againt the Diocese of Palm Beach in January.

He claims he was punished for ignoring instructions not to tell the authorities that a visiting priest, Fr. Jose Palimattom, had shown pornographic images to a 14-year-old in January 2015.

After Fr. Gallagher worked with the local Sherriff’s Office to help prosecute Palimattom, he claims he was frozen out of his priestly duties and locked out of his home.

This was disputed by the Diocese of Palm Beach.

The diocese also disputed claims it had tried to cover up the abuse in three comments posted on its website and in a letter sent and ordered to be read at all Masses in the five-county diocese.

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NEW YORK
Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Editorial

Far too often, newspapers have to publish a police or court report involving someone who has sexually violated another person. The hardest stories to read are when the victim is a child.

Even scarier is the unknown but certainly vast number of abusers who are not arrested, who quietly get away with it — at least for the time being.

New York state has tough sentences for those who sexually abuse children, but clearly these penalties are not enough to deter some. We know that sometimes it can take years for young victims to process what happened to them. Under current law, the statute of limitations begins when the victim turns 18.

Under the Child Victims Act, approved in the state Assembly, in cases involving a felony sex crime against a minor that have a statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, the limitations period would have begun when the victim turned 23, years of age while the statute of limitations for civil cases would be extended until the victim turns 50. Both of our local Assemblymen — Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay — voted in favor of the change, but a companion bill didn’t make it out of the state Senate’s Rules Committee.

Those who opposed it mostly did so quietly, without explaining why. Only two groups filed written objections. The New York Catholic Conference, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City, said the bill offered too small a window for victims to file claims. New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical Christian advocacy organization opposed the bill “because it contains ‘lookback’ provisions that could subject churches and nonprofit organizations to liability for decades-old claims based upon the alleged misdeeds of their agents or employees.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Heavy

By Chris Bucher
Published Jul 14, 2017

A 33-year-old former teacher at a private high school in Pennsylvania was sentenced to a maximum of 23 months in prison on July 13 after she molested two female students over a three-year span.

Randi Lynn Zurenko, of Millerstown in Perry County, was arrested in October 2016 on suspicion of sexually abusing the two students “hundreds of times.”

According to Penn Live, Zurenko, who taught social studies, was once considered one of the “most inspiring teachers” at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg. Zurenko is a mother of five, and her children range in age from 3-to-11 years old.

She was accused of entering relationships with the two girls outside of school and “coercing” them into performing sexual acts with her.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Zurenko Was Charged with Over 200 Child Sex Offenses

Zurenko was arrested on October 18, 2016 in Harrisburg on suspicion of committing the sexual assaults. Police found out about the allegations when one of the victims came forward and told them that her actions caused her psychological distress.

Police said that between 2013 and 2016, Zurenko sexually abused two female victims, ages 16 and 17, “hundreds” of times. She faced over 230 counts in the case: institutional sexual assault (13 total counts), sexual abuse of children (152), unlawful contact with minors (33), corruption of minors (13), and disseminating obscene materials to minors (20).

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Post

Fox News

A former teacher at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania was sentenced to prison after she pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with two of her female teenaged students.

Randi Zurenko, 33, of Millerstown, a married woman with five children was a teacher at Bishop McDevitt in Wyncote, Pa. The school once praised her as one of the most “inspiring” teachers at the academy, according to Penn Live.

Zurenko pleaded guilty to institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, possessing child pornography and disseminating obscene materials to minors. She faces 11 ½ to 23 months in prison as well as four years of probation and 500 hours of community service. She also has to register as a sex offender for 25 years in the state of Pennsylvania.

Zurenko’s lawyer asked Dauphin County President Judge Richard A. Lewis to grant her leniency and said she was “truly in love with her victims.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Emily Crane and Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com

A married Catholic school teacher has been jailed for just 23 months after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with two of her female teenage students.

Randi Zurenko, 34, begged a Pennsylvania judge for leniency for the sake of her own young children when being sentenced on Thursday.

The mother-of-five was jailed for up to 23 months with four years probation and must register as a sex offender for 25 years.

She had been charged with more than 200 child sex offences during her time as a teacher at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg.

Police said Zurenko sexually abused her two victims, aged 16 and 17, hundreds of times between 2013 and 2016.

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FLORIDA
Fox 13

By: Josh Cascio, FOX 13 News
POSTED: JUL 13 2017

LECANTO (FOX 13) – Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast says 36-year-old Chad Robison is one thing: “I want to emphasize this is a textbook case of an online sexual predator.”

Robison spent six years as music director of Seven River Presbyterian in Lecanto but in May, a coworker, planning to play on joke on Robison’s computer, allegedly discovered a mountain of child porn.

“On his personal laptop we have more than 3,000 videos and 350,000 photographs that our detectives have combed thru,” said the sheriff.

Investigators say many of those videos were recorded online webcam chats between Robison and underage girls, as young as 14, through the website Omegle.com. It’s a cam-to-cam chat site with users all over the globe.

“We have videos of Robison having virtual sex with an underage female who is not local as well as trying to coerce young girls to show him their breasts,” he said. “The defendant was secretly video and recording females in his restroom at his home over the course of the time he gathered pictures and videos.”

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FLORIDA
Raw Story

TOM BOGGIONI
14 JUL 2017

Florida authorities have arrested a former youth pastor after a co-worker found hundreds of thousands of sexual-oriented pictures and videos of young girls on his laptop — including some he secretly filmed in his bathroom.

According to FOX13, 36-year-old Chad Robison was the music director at Seven River Presbyterian in Lecanto, Florida, when the co-worker stumbled upon the stash of videos and photos before alerting church authorities and law enforcement.

On Thursday, Robison was charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition with a victim less than 16 years of age, one count of knowingly promoting sexual performance by a child, and three counts of ‘video voyeurism’ for his own use.

According to Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast, “On his personal laptop we have more than 3,000 videos and 350,000 photographs that our detectives have combed thru. I want to emphasize this is a textbook case of an online sexual predator.”

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ARGENTINA
Sin Mordaza

[The arrest is sought for priest Carlos Jose who has been accused of sexual abuse of minors.abue asked for the arrest of the accused priest for sexual abuse of minors. In recent days the priest was denounced by two former students of the school San José Obrero de Caseros.]

La Unidad Funcional de Instrucción Nº 14 de Delitos Sexuales de San Martín pidió la detención del cura Carlos Eduardo José, acusado por diversas personas de haber abusado sexualmente de menores.

La decisión de la fiscalía llegó luego de que una nueva prueba acelerara la realización de un allanamiento, que derivó en el pedido de detención del cura que trabajaba en colegio San José Obrero de la localidad bonaerense de Caseros.

En los últimos días, el cura José fue denunciado por dos ex alumnas de esa escuela, que aseguraron que “cuando me llevaba a confesar me hacía sentarme en su pierna y ponía su mano en mi zona” y que “me agarraba con el motivo de enseñarme a nadar y por debajo del agua me manoseaba”.

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ARGENTINA
El Dia

[The priest Carlos José, who was investigated for alleged child abuse at a Caseros school, sent a letter to Pope Francis in which he renounced his religious vows because he wanted to “form a family,” the bishopric of San Martin reported yesterday, although Vatican sources argued that such a presentation does not preclude a canonical judgment.]

El sacerdote Carlos José, investigado por presunto abuso de menores en un colegio de Caseros, envió una carta al papa Francisco en la que renuncia al ejercicio religioso porque quiere “formar una familia”, informó ayer el obispado de San Martín, aunque fuentes del Vaticano sostuvieron que tal presentación no impide un juicio canónico.

“El padre José renunció el 26 de junio porque quería formar una familia, así que es imposible que podamos abrir un proceso canónico porque él ya no es más cura, no tiene una relación formal con la Iglesia: por eso, el procedimiento se llama renuncia y suspensión”, aseguró el vicario de San Martín, Eduardo González.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[Parroquia San José Obrero de Caseros – Facebook]

[The priest Carlos José was arrested and detained after the arrest by prosecutor of San Martín, Mariana Piwarczuk, for having “evident evidence” of pedophilia following the denunciation by two young men who told what they suffered in a School of Caseros. The request for arrest was accepted by Judge Mariano Porto who last night ordered the arrest and detention of the priest.]

El sacerdote Carlos José se entregó a la Justicia y quedó detenido luego del pedido de detención de la fiscal de San Martín, Mariana Piwarczuk, por tener “pruebas evidentes” de pedofilia luego de la denuncia realizada por dos jóvenes que contaron lo que sufrieron en un colegio de Caseros. El pedido de detención fue aceptado por el juez Mariano Porto, que anoche había ordenado la captura y detención del sacerdote.

Mirá también

Aseguran que el cura acusado de abusos renunció para “formar una familia”
El sacerdote había renunciado en las últimas horas al ejercicio religioso porque quería “formar una familia”, así lo informó ayer por la tarde el obispado de San Martín, aunque fuentes de el Vaticano sostuvieron que tal presentación no impide un juicio canónico.

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INDIA
UCA nEWS

Saji Thomas, Bhopal
India July 12, 2017

Christian leaders say that a Catholic priest arrested for abusing a child in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has been framed to malign the Christian community in the state ruled by a pro-Hindu party.

Police July 10 arrested Father Leo D’Souza, 56, following a complaint from the parents of an eighth-grade boy of the church-run Amar Jyoti School in the tribal-dominated district of Dindori.

The priest is manager of the school run by Jabalpur Diocese.

The parents in their complaint said the priest summoned the boy to his room July 9 evening and tried to abuse him.

Local church leaders say police arrested the priest even without a preliminary investigation. They say it was an attempt to tarnish the image of Christians that run the school ranked among the three best in the district.

Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur said the accusation and the arrest has “shocked” the diocese. He said hard-line Hindu groups had earlier tried to create trouble for Christians accusing them of converting tribal people to Christianity.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

David Zurawik
The Baltimore Sun

I cannot tell you happy I am to see “The Keepers” get an Emmy nomination as best documentary or nonfiction series.

This is by far the greatest production of the genre this year. And I cannot remember a film as steeped in moral authority and social conscience as this one.

It is almost enough to restore my faith in the awards.

I have come to loathe the Emmys for the way they confuse many of us about quality TV.

The nominations this year are no exception for the most part. …

But, thanks to the nomination of “The Keepers,” I can let all that go this year and actually celebrate something that’s Emmy connected.

I am even going to watch the awards with some real excitement Sept. 17 on CBS to see “The Keepers” win.

I hope it wins, and everyone in the world goes out and sees it.

As for those people in the Baltimore area who looked the other way after Sister Catherine Cesnik was murdered, I hope this production never lets them forget.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Washington Post

By Kyle Swenson and Fred Barbash July 14

St. Paul’s School, the elite New England boarding school dogged in recent months by allegations of past sexual abuse and misconduct, is now the target of a criminal investigation by local and state authorities.

In a statement released Thursday evening, New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald announced investigators will examine whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child.

“Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,” MacDonald said in the release. “I am confident that an institution such as St. Paul’s School will be fully cooperative with this investigation as it has pledged.”

The attorney general’s office stated the investigation was triggered by a series of issues that have come out at the school.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
July 14, 2017

CARDINAL George Pell will be given no special treatment this month when he appears in court for the first time on ­historical sex charges.

The cardinal is due to ­appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a filing hearing on July 26, after being charged with multiple sex ­offences.

This means he could be forced to line up alongside other accused sex offenders, bikies, fraudsters and low-level criminals on arrival at court.

He will also be subjected to security screening on arrival.

Court spokeswoman Clare Hogarth-Angus said it would be “business as usual” despite church sources fearing for the cardinal’s safety.

Ms Hogarth-Angus said: “This may change nearer the time, however currently there are no special plans in place.”

The case is expected to draw one of the biggest press packs in Victorian court history, with international media organisations already planning their coverage.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland

[The Disciplinary Chamber at the German Evangelical Church (EKD) removed a pastor from the service of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM). This is the result of disciplinary proceedings against the pastor who was accused of sexual abuse.]

Wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs verurteilt

Die Disziplinarkammer bei der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) hat einen Pfarrer im Ruhestand aus dem Dienst der Evangelischen Kirche in Mitteldeutschland (EKM) entfernt. Dies ist das Ergebnis eines Disziplinarverfahrens gegen den Pfarrer, dem sexueller Missbrauch in den Jahren 1973 bis 1978 in der Kirchengemeinde Bad Lauchstädt im Kirchenkreis Merseburg vorgeworfen wurde.

Die EKM hatte das Disziplinarverfahren gegen den Pfarrer im Jahr 2012 eingeleitet, nachdem von Betroffenen Vorwürfe gegen den Pfarrer erhoben worden waren. Der Fall war daraufhin vor der EKD-Disziplinarkammer verhandelt und im Juni 2016 entschieden worden. Gegen das Urteil hatte der Angeschuldigte Berufung eingelegt. In letzter Instanz hat der EKD-Disziplinargerichtshof am 29. Juni dieses Jahres entschieden und die Berufung zurückgewiesen. Damit ist das Urteil der Disziplinarkammer rechtskräftig. Das Kollegium der EKM hat daraufhin in seiner letzten Sitzung (11.7.) beschlossen, das Urteil umzusetzen. Der Pfarrer, der heute in Niedersachsen lebt, darf damit nicht mehr als Pfarrer tätig sein, verliert seine Ordinationsrechte und erhält aus kirchlichen Mitteln kein Ruhestandsgeld mehr.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE SALE OF 7.5 acres of a school’s playing pitches by the Christian Brothers to pay for their sex abuse redress has been condemned.

There has been significant opposition from local reps, parents and the school’s board of management to the sale of the lands at Clonkeen College in Deansgrange, south Dublin.

The land, which is expected to have fetched around €18 million, has been zoned for housing since 1998, making it a desired target for developers.

The news has been condemned by locals and school officials. They said a lot of money has been put into the school’s facilities and that the strategy for the next 10 years revolved around keeping the fields.

Speaking following the publication of a parliamentary question answer by Education Minister Richard Bruton , confirming the sale, Dún Laoghaire councillor Cormac Devlin said he was extremely disappointed by the news and that allowing this to happen will have a detrimental impact on the community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
9 News (Australia)

The head of a Catholic order of nuns in the UK has admitted to an inquiry that proper follow-up on the care of child migrants the order sent to Australia could have protected them from sexual abuse.

Sister Anna Maria Doolan, the UK Superior for the Sisters of Nazareth, on Thursday gave evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse sitting in London.

The inquiry is examining the sexual abuse of children sent to church or charity-run farm schools in Australia up to the 1970s.

It has heard that children were regularly beaten and humiliated, poorly fed and clothed and used as virtual slave labour on farms, with the Christian Brothers in Western Australia among the worst offenders.

That Catholic order actively sought boys from the Sisters of Nazareth in the UK.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Harriet Alexander

On day four of his defamation action against the Australian Jewish News, the rabbi began to pace.

It was complicated to explain why he said he did not know it was a crime to touch a child’s genitals and what he meant when he said rabbis should deal with allegations of child abuse internally.

Yosef Yitzchak Feldman’s frustration had apparently overwhelmed his ability to sit still.

Justice Lucy McCallum addressed his barrister. “Mr Cohen, I’m finding your client’s pacing around and going to the side of the courtroom very distracting,” she said.

The rabbi sat.

Mr Feldman is suing Polaris Media Pty Ltd, publisher of the Australian Jewish News [AJN], for three articles printed during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, which reported him giving evidence that he did not know that it was illegal for a man to touch the genitals of a child.

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ITALIA
Il Giorno

[A Moroccan, 32, blackmailed priest Mario Cardinetti, former pastor of Cava Manara, after they had a year-long affair. Abdellatif Eddari was sentenced to four years in prison.]

di NICOLETTA PISANU

Pavia, 12 luglio 2017 – Un ricatto a luci rosse andato avanti per quasi dieci anni, ai danni di un prete. Abdellatif Eddari, marocchino di 32 anni, è stato condannato a quattro anni di reclusione e duemila euro di multa per estorsione. La vittima è don Mario Cardinetti, ex parroco di Cava Manara, con cui l’imputato ha avuto una relazione durata circa un anno.

Arrivato in Italia nel 1997, l’imputato aveva conosciuto il sacerdote, si era avvicinato a lui per ricevere aiuti. Poi, era nata una relazione, al termine della quale Eddari ha minacciato e ricattato il sacerdote. Gli diceva di essere in possesso di un video che lo immortalava mentre si rivestiva al termine di uno dei loro incontri intimi e che lo avrebbe divulgato se non gli avesse dato il denaro richiesto. Allo stesso modo, lo minacciava di fare irruzione in chiesa durante la messa per rivelare a tutti i parrocchiani la loro relazione.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Boston Globe

By Danny McDonald GLOBE STAFF JULY 13, 2017

Following new reports of sexual misconduct at St. Paul’s School, authorities in New Hampshire Thursday announced a criminal investigation into the elite boarding school.

New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald’s office, Concord police, and New Hampshire State Police will conduct the investigation, authorities said in a statement released Thursday night.

The investigation will initially focus on whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child, the attorney general’s office said in the statement. That office will also investigate whether the school violated a law that prohibits obstructing criminal investigations.

“Protection of children is a paramount priority for law enforcement,” said MacDonald in the statement. “I am confident that an institution such as St. Paul’s School will be fully cooperative with this investigation as it has pledged that ‘[t]he safety and well-being of all students remains [its] highest priority.”

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AUSTRALIA
Asian Correspondent

By Jo Lane | 14th July 2017

FEARS expressed by senior lawyers that Cardinal George Pell would not get a fair hearing on historic sexual offences were echoed within the Australian Catholic community this week when the nation’s highest-serving Catholic returned from Rome on Monday for his July 18 court appearance.

Pell has been serving as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican, the third most senior Catholic at the Vatican, and previously gave evidence in Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He has strenuously denied the allegations that involve multiple complainants.

Asian Correspondent spoke to Catherine Smibert, a journalist who grew up in Pell’s hometown of Ballarat where he served as a priest from 1973 to 1983. Smibert was also employed by the Vatican media in Rome for eight years.

Speaking from her personal and working knowledge of Cardinal Pell she said, “I genuinely question the capacity for a fair trial.” She said he had been “persecuted unfairly” and the charges were “the grosses miscarriage of justice”.

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FLORIDA
NBC Miami

A South Florida youth pastor is facing sexual battery charges after police say he began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

Fernando Misael Ponce, 24, was arrested in Miami Wednesday on 20 counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of possession of sexual performance by a child, according to an arrest report.

The report said Ponce, who lives in Miramar, was the girl’s youth pastor at Sembrador De Fe Church on Northwest 21st Avenue in Miami. When the girl was between 11 and 12, Ponce showed interest in her but the victim’s mother intervened and told him to stay away from her, the report said.

But when the girl was 14, Ponce secretly asked her to be his girlfriend and they began a relationship, the report said. For 8 to 9 months they had a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship and engaged in sexual activity, according to the report.

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NEW ZEALAND
Scoop

Friday, 14 July 2017

Article: Binoy Kampmark

The Catholic Church, much in the manner of a modern corporation, is a sprawling edifice of operations and functions. To hold part of it accountable for abuses – against human, bank account, or country – has presented a formidable legal obstacle.

This nightmare has taken place amidst a broader question: the extent Church officials believe they are accountable to secular justice, or those ordained by the Church itself. St. Augustine’s point was clear enough: of the two sovereignties – that of the City of Man, or that of God – the latter would prevail.

Apologies for the specific issue of clerical child abuse have issued over the last decade. In 2003, Pope John Paul II, hardly a man known for his progressive tidings, suggested there was “no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young.” In July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI, on a visit to Australia, issued a specific apology for the past abusive conduct by the church’s Australian clergy, demanding reparations and punishment as a response. But the wheels of justice have not so much grinded slowly as indiscernibly.

In an unprecedented move, Cardinal George Pell, termed by author Gianluigi Nuzzi “the ambitious bulldog from Sydney,” and one present at the penitent moments of Benedict XVI’s apology, has made his way to Australia to face what are termed “historical sex offences”.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera July 14, 2017

Three of the cases are against Louis Brouillard while two of the cases are against Raymond Cepeda.

Guam – Another five lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese of Agana, making the total count of sex abuse cases 91.

Three of the five are against former priest Father Louis Brouillard while two of the cases are against defrocked Santa Barbara priest Raymond Cepeda.

The first three cases filed Thursday against the Archdiocese of Agana have similar allegations of sexual abuse.

W.E.T., 58, says back in the early 1970s when he was between the ages of 11 to 13, Malojloj Parish priest Louis Brouillard, who was also a Boy Scout master at the time, routinely molested him and other boy scout members at the convent and during swimming lessons.

Next is 50-year-old P.P.R. who claims that when he was about 9 years old, Brouillard molested him during swimming trips and at a room behind the altar of the Barrigada Parish. P.P.R. says Brouillard coerced him by telling him “it was a sin if P.P.R. didn’t do as Brouillard asked.”

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

2017-07-13

The doors of the civil court of the Vatican City State will soon be reopened. Thus, all eyes will be focused on the ex-president and the ex-treasurer of the Bambino Gesu Hospital foundation, who have been charged with diversion of funds.

Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina are accused of having taken 422,000 euros from the foundation to restructure Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s attic.

The court has stated that the apartment had nothing to do with the foundation, but they made this renovations to benefit a Roman builder.

The main accused said it was an investment for the hospital, because the cardinal’s private apartment was to host high-level meetings seeking donations.

The first hearing will be on July 18, and if they do not appear, they will be judged in contempt, as an act of disregarding the court authority.

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FLORIDA
Citrus County Chronicle

Thursday, July 13, 2017

The former worship director at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church was arrested Thursday morning on various sex-related charges, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office has announced.
.
Chad Robison, 36, of Hernando, was charged with video voyeurism, lewd and lascivious exhibition and knowingly promoting sexual performance by a child, the sheriff’s office said in a press release. His bond was set at $26,000.

Robison, who served in the position from 2011 to 2017, reportedly had more than 3,000 illicit videos and 350,000 illicit pictures on a laptop discovered by a coworker in May. The photos and videos reportedly showed young girls performing “virtual sex acts” with Robison, according to the release. He is also accused of videotaping girls using the restroom at his home without their knowledge.

“We believe there could be multiple victims. Some may be local here in Citrus County, and others across the states and abroad,” said Major Crimes Capt. Brian Spiddle. “It’s going to be a very difficult and long process to find those who have been victimized by this man.”

The sheriff’s office is asking parents, parishoners and anyone victimized by Robison to contact its Major Crimes division by calling 352-726-1121.

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FLORIDA
The Gainesville Sun

Sheriff Mike Prendergast described Chad Robison as “a textbook case of an online sexual predator.”

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to identify girls targeted by online sex crime suspect Chad Robison, 36, the former worship director at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church in Lecanto.

Sheriff’s officials said he victimized girls online using the chat website Omegle.

They have found hundreds of videos featuring “young girls performing virtual sex acts with Robison,” a CCSO press release states.

Sheriff Mike Prendergast described him as “a textbook case of an online sexual predator.”

Robison, who worked at Seven Rivers from 2011 to 2017, is charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition, one count of knowingly promoting sexual performance by a child; and three counts of video voyeurism for own use, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

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FLORIDA
WFLA

CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A church leader in Citrus County is accused of possessing child porn and recording young girls as they used the bathroom.

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office says a coworker found videos and inappropriate images on a laptop belonging to 36-year-old Chad Everett Robison, who worked as the worship director at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church in Lecanto.

Detectives later discovered child pornography on Robison’s personal and work computers.

At a press conference Thursday, detectives said Robison had placed a camouflaged camera on the counter inside a bathroom at his home and recorded young girls using the restroom.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

Flora Thompson

FOUR former teachers at a private school have been charged with non-recent sexual offences.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.

Jayne Cioffi, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Four men, all former teachers at Christ’s Hospital School, were informed that they have been charged with non-recent sexual offences.

“Having carefully considered the evidence in this case, we have concluded that in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute.” …

The Christian school is in the diocese formerly overseen by Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball who served a 32-month sentence for abusing 18 young men.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post Jul 13, 2017

Forty-one properties owned by the Archdiocese of Agana have been deemed “non-essential” and will be the first to be liquidated if and when additional money is needed for settlement negotiations with litigants in the pending clergy sex abuse cases against the church.

Archdiocesan Finance Council President Richard Untalan told media during the third press conference held this week that “thousands of man-hours” went into compiling a list of all church properties.

The finance council provided media with two lists of properties marked “essential” and “non-essential.”

“The Guam Catholic Church essential properties is defined as such: the church buildings and the surrounding grounds, the schools and the surrounding grounds, Kamalin Karidat, Catholic Social Service and surrounding grounds and four leasehold properties that we consider essential to maintaining the operation of the chancery and this archdiocese,” Untalan said. “Everything else falls under non-essential.”

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post Jul 13, 2017

Attorney David Lujan filed five more clergy sex abuse lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Agana, Boy Scouts of America and two former Guam priests in federal court yesterday afternoon.

One of the cases alleges defrocked priest Raymond Cepeda abused a boy after officiating the funeral Mass for the boy’s deceased grandmother, and while in a car ride to the burial site.

The latest cases also added more cases against former Guam priest Louis Brouillard.

With the complaints filed by W.E.T., R.W.J. and P.P.R., the number of individuals who have come forward accusing Brouillard of child sexual abuse now totals 52.

As with the previously filed cases, the three newest plaintiffs accusing Brouillard also name the Boy Scouts of America Chamorro District as a co-defendant. They are seeking $10 million each in damages.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Trib Live

JASON CATO | Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh this week notified parishes and alumni of a high school that a priest who worked there is accused of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Michael Ledoux, 55, a Franciscan friar, served as pastor of St. Pamphilus in Beechview from 1993-95; headmaster of Serra Catholic High School in McKeesport from 1995 to 2000; and worked as an adjunct professor at Duquesne University from 1997 through 2000.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this month that Ledoux resigned in July as a dean at Widener University in Chester because school officials learned of a 2003 allegation that he sexually abused a teenage boy in the 1980s in New Hampshire.

Ledoux could not be reached for comment. …

A lawyer representing the New Hampshire accuser contacted church officials in January 2003, saying that Ledoux sexually abused a teen boy in 1987 or 1988. A Catholic Diocese of Manchester, N.H., report states that Ledoux’s Franciscan order learned of the allegations in 2002.

The diocese forwarded the complaint to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Authorities never filed charges.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com July 13, 2017

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes said the church is looking forward to a full and complete resolution of all clergy sexual abuse cases, as he acknowledged the nine latest accusers on Thursday.

“The abuse of children is one of the most horrible of crimes, precisely because it is perpetrated upon the most vulnerable and innocent among us by people of power and so-called trust. Let no one diminish victims of abuse, for they have already suffered immensely,” Byrnes said in a statement that also offers prayers, hope and healing for the latest victims, A.Q., B.C., T.M., F.A.M., M.M., R.M.S., R.P., J.A. and S.N.J.C.

The Archdiocese of Agana is now facing 91 childhood sexual abuse cases in local and federal court.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Matt Miller mmiller@pennlive.com

A former Bishop McDevitt High School teacher was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in Dauphin County Prison on Thursday morning for molesting two of her female students.

President Judge Richard A. Lewis imposed that penalty after 34-year-old Randi Lynn Zurenko begged for mercy for the sake of her five children.

Zurenko, of Millerstown, Perry County, pleaded guilty to a legion of charges, including institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, possessing child pornography and disseminating obscene material to minors.

She was arrested last fall after one of the victims went to police and described years of sexual and psychological abuse at Zerenko’s hands.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Vatican prosecutors have indicted the former president and ex-treasurer of the Vatican-owned children’s hospital for allegedly diverting money from the hospital’s fundraising foundation to pay for renovating a top cardinal’s apartment.

The indictment released Thursday orders Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina to stand trial in the Vatican tribunal starting next Tuesday.

The indictment accuses the two of using 422,000 euros ($481,000) from the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital’s fundraising foundation to pay for renovating Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment starting in 2013, when he retired as Vatican secretary of state.

Profiti, whose administration was the subject of a recent AP investigation into quality of care problems at the “pope’s hospital,” has admitted to the payment but said it was an investment so that the foundation could use the apartment for fundraising events.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Holy See Press Office has issued a statement concerning indictments for embezzlement of funds from the Bambino Gesù Foundation, which exists to support the work of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital.

The Statement says the former President of the Foundation, Giuseppe Profiti, and the former Treasurer of the same Foundation, Massimo Spina, were summoned to appear before the court to answer charges that they diverted more than four hundred thousand euro (€400,000) belonging to the Foundation.

The charges were brought by the Office of the Promoter for Justice, the Vatican prosecutor, at the end of a preliminary investigation into the misuses of Foundation funds. A preliminary hearing has been set for Tuesday, 18 July.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

By Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, Jul 13, 2017 / 06:22 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced Thursday that an investigation involving the former president and treasurer of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome will proceed to trial before the Vatican court.

The former president, Giuseppe Profiti, and former treasurer, Massimo Spina, have been charged with the illicit use of hospital funds in the amount of 422,005.16 euros ($480,600.58) for the refurbishment of the apartment where Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone lives.

The crime is said to have been carried out during the period of November 2013-May 28, 2014 and to have benefited the construction firm of Italian businessman Gianantonio Bandera, which was carrying out the renovations on the apartment.

Profiti and Spina were summoned to appear before the court by a June 16, 2017 decree from the president of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Dalla Torre. The first hearing will take place July 18.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Jul. 13, 2017

ROME

Vatican prosecutors are pressing charges against two former leaders of the Vatican-run Bambino Gesu hospital for allegedly redirecting funds from the hospital’s foundation to pay for renovations of former Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment.

The Vatican announced indictments July 13 against Giuseppe Profiti, the former president of the hospital, and Massimo Spina, its former treasurer. The two have been ordered to stand trial starting July 18.

The announcement alleges the two ex-officials “used money belonging to the Bambino Gesu Foundation in an illicit way.” It specifies that they allegedly paid more than 422,000 euros “to restore a building … meant as the residence of the emeritus Secretary of State.”

The Vatican had announced the investigation of Profiti and Spina in March 2016. Greg Burke, the director of the Holy See Press Office, said at the time that Bertone himself was not facing inquiry.

While Bertone has not admitted any guilt in the matter, he made a large donation of 150,000 euros to the Bambino Gesu in December 2015 after a book published in Italy detailed the spending on his apartment.

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VATICAN CITY
Metro

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A Holy See tribunal has indicted two former top officials of a children’s hospital on charges of diverting nearly half a million dollars to renovate the apartment of a high-ranking cardinal, the Vatican said on Thursday.

The two, Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, respectively the former president and treasurer of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, were ordered to stand trial, a statement said. The first hearing was set for July 18.

The indictment accuses the two men of spending 422,000 euros ($481,000) in 2013 and 2014 on refurbishing the large Vatican apartment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was not indicted.

Profiti and Spina made no immediate comment.

Bertone, 82, was the Vatican secretary of state for most of the pontificate of former Pope Benedict and was one of the most powerful men in the Holy See.

He was removed from office in 2013, eight months after the election of Pope Francis. The renovation work started a few weeks later on the spacious property, which is next door to the Vatican guest house, where the pope lives in a modest suite.

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