ABUSE TRACKER

INDIA
Gulf News

New Delhi: The trial of an Indian spiritual leader accused of rape has triggered a security lockdown, with police closing schools and converting a cricket stadium into a jail in case his followers erupt into violence if he is found guilty.

Thousands of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s supporters have begun assembling close to the court in the state of Punjab, where he is on trial for raping two women in cases that date back to 2002.

A verdict is expected on Friday.

“The verdict could lead to potential large-scale unrest and violence,” Ajay Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, in Panchkula city, told journalists.

Singh, a burly, bearded man who has scripted and starred in his own films, commands a near-devotional following — he claims in the millions — in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, where his Dera Sacha Sauda group is based.

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MARYLAND
WJLA

by Richard Reeve/ABC7

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (ABC7) —
For Phillip Butler and his wife Barbara, it began with a neighbor’s phone call.

“Told me there was a cross,” he recalls. “I don’t know if it was smoking or burning, I don’t know which one it was, in our front yard.”

The Butlers say since that summer night in 1977, they’ve never forgotten the sight of the 6-to-7 foot cross, wrapped in rags, reeking of flammable fluid.

“I’d never seen a cross,” Barbara Butler told reporters. “You see something like on television or something like that, but to really have one in your yard… is there that much hatred in your heart?”

Her husband says as he took down the cross, before calling the police, his mind was ticking.

“Someone is against us,” he remembers thinking. “What did we do to put the cross in our yard?”

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MARYLAND
NBC Washington

The African-American couple who had a cross burned on their front lawn by a Ku Klux Klan leader who is now a Catholic priest in Virginia said the priest’s actions were “almost unforgivable” and refused to meet with him until he named other members of the hate group.

Father William Aitcheson, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, burned a cross in 1977 on the couple’s lawn in College Park, Maryland, News4 reported.

Philip and Barbara Butler spoke out Tuesday and said that even though the priest was criminally convicted, he never apologized or paid them $23,000 in court-ordered restitution. The priest also never identified other KKK members, which Philip Butler urged him to do.

“He needed help to put that cross up,” Philip Butler said.

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JAMAICA
The Star

Andre Williams
August 24, 2017

The pastor charged with sexual assault involving a teenage girl has been granted $1.5 million bail, and was told that he is not to be left alone with anyone under the age of 18.

Pastor Kenneth Blake of the Harvest Temple Apostolic Church, who is accused of sexually assaulting and impregnating a 14-year-old, was offered bail yesterday when he appeared before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Blake, 56, was charged by the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse recently, following allegations that he had been molesting the child since 2015, when she was just 12.

He is charged with rape, sexual touching, having sexual intercourse with a minor, grievous sexual assault of a minor under the age of 16, and forcible abduction.

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CHILE
Variety

Anna Marie de la Fuente

‘Perdona Nuestros Pecados’ (‘Forgive Us Our Sins’) and other telenovelas rule Chile’s airwaves

SANTIAGO DE CHILE – Thanks to six hours a day of telenovelas, stripped Mondays to Fridays, Chilean broadcaster Mega TV has dominated the country’s television landscape over the past three years. But one particular telenovela has gripped this country of some 17 million inhabitants, driving Mega TV’s ratings to historical levels.

“Perdona Nuestros Pecados” (“Forgive Us Our Sins”) has generated average ratings of 27.4 in its 10 p.m. time slot, nearly triple that of competing programs on its next biggest rival, Canal 13. Credit also goes to a newish executive team, led by CEO Patricio Hernandez, who joined the company in 2013; head of content Patricia Bazan; production and operations chief Andrea Dell’Orto; and Juan Ignacio Vicente, head of content and international Business. Before the new team took over, Mega TV’s average rating was 4.3 in 2013, compared to its current average of 11.2, said Vicente.

In June 2016, Discovery Communications acquired a 27.5% stake in the channel, which now airs four hours a week of Discovery programs and is partnering with Discovery on the Chilean version of the global TV giant’s reality show “Say Yes to the Dress,” (“Vestido de Novia”). …

Stripped Monday to Thursday, the 1950s-set “Perdona Nuestros Pecados” centers on a priest who seeks to avenge his sister’s suicide after she’s abandoned by the man who impregnates her. However, the priest falls in love with the culprit’s daughter, complicating matters even more. In a staunchly catholic country, the idea of a priest seeking vengeance and engaging in a forbidden romance makes for compelling viewing. Mega TV had to build a village and a church as it knew no church would allow the program to film within their hallowed walls.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By GREG MASON / gmason@uticaod.com

A defrocked Utica-area priest has joined the Syracuse Catholic Diocese in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from claims that he sexually abused a child several decades ago.

Felix Colosimo filed a motion earlier this month to dismiss a lawsuit making its way through federal district court in Connecticut. The suit, submitted by California resident Matthew Strzepek, alleges Colosimo abused the plaintiff between 1987 to 1990.

Strzepek, who lived in Marcy, was then 12 to 15 years old. He is seeking $25 million in damages, each, from Colosimo and the Syracuse Catholic Diocese, the latter of which Strzepek accuses of being liable and failing to respond appropriately to Colosimo’s abusive actions.

The diocese, finding Strzepek’s allegations credible, removed Colosimo from priestly ministry in 2014.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Janela Carrera – August 24, 2017

Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s canonical trial is still pending in Rome.

Guam – Dethroned Archbishop Anthony Apuron, through his legal counsel Atty. Jacque Terlaje, is continuing his fight against four lawsuits filed against him in federal court for civil damages related to sex abuse allegations.

Terlaje responded to the alleged victims’ attempts to keep the cases alive, arguing that the passage of the law in 2016 does not apply retroactively. In 2016, the statute of limitations for civil claims of sex abuse was lifted, giving way for victims of sexual abuse to seek damages against their perpetrators and the institutions they either worked or volunteered for.

But Terlaje once again argues that the law is ambiguous in its detail surrounding the timeframe for filing these civil claims. She believes the law does not apply retroactively.

Terlaje points to a line in the statute that states “at any time,” which she says is not a sufficient expression of legislative intent for the statute to be applied retroactively.

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UNITED STATES
SOME PEOPLE LIVE MORE IN 20 YEARS…

AUGUST 23, 2017
ASHER LOVY

There’s this nutty idea people have that being involved in anti abuse activism somehow means that I haven’t moved on from what happened to me, that somehow the efforts I undertake to organize actions against organizations and people who enable abuse are indicative of some underlying unhealthiness, and an unwillingness to heal. I hear it all the time from people. They couch it in sympathy, as if they’re only concerned with my wellbeing when they wonder aloud why I ‘obsess’ over this topic so much.

I have moved on. Quite literally. I moved on from my abusive home. Then I moved on again to a community I now feel a part of. I moved on to a well-paying job that I actually enjoy (most days, anyway). I’ve got a good, reasonably comfortable life here. I’ve got nothing to do with my abusive family anymore, and haven’t for years. I’ve found people who accept me the way I am, and care about me unconditionally. I’ve got everything one needs for a good, peaceful life.

But what about the thousand of kids who don’t have that? What about the ones who are still being abused, still living in communities that enable their abuse, blame them for it, throw them out for talking about it? What about them? I understand that for a lot of people speaking up publicly is dangerous, precisely because of the oppressive nature of these communities and their power structures, but why do people think that concern for the people left behind somehow indicates an inability to move on?

It’s precisely because I was able to so thoroughly move on that I’m even able to engage in this kind of activism. I don’t have a family to lose because I’ve already lost it. I have a job outside the community, so I don’t have to worry about getting fired for my activism. I’ve rejected the shidduch system already, so I don’t have to worry about being disqualified by shadchanim. I’ve built a life for myself outside of the community that abused me, which gives me the luxury of being able to criticize it without fear of reprisal.

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TEXAS
WTVR

BY VERNON FREEMAN JR.

FORT WORTH, Tx. — The appeal of child molestation convictions by former Richmond pastor Geronimo Aguilar was denied Wednesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Aguilar, also known as Pastor G, is severing a 40 year sentence after being convicted in 2015 of seven charges related to sexually abusing multiple minors.

The former pastor and founder of the Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) church, was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under fourteen years of age, three counts of sexual assault of a child under seventeen years of age, and two counts of indecency with a child by contact.

A Texas jury found Aguilar guilty of sex crimes against two sisters who he started to abuse when they were 11 and 13 years old. The girls, now women, said they were abused in the 1990s while Aguilar was a pastor at their church in Texas.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Phillip and Barbara Butler hadn’t given much thought to the man who burned a cross on their front lawn 40 years ago.

Then they heard the startling news Tuesday that the perpetrator had become a priest and was ministering to Catholics not far from their home.

“I didn’t know what to say. It was unbelievable,” Phillip Butler said Wednesday at a news conference.

The priest, the Rev. William Aitcheson, went public with his old Klan affiliation Monday, writing a column in the diocesan newspaper.

He said his past was not a secret, but he felt compelled to make it more public after seeing images of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

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NEW MEXICO
KVIA

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A judge has ordered that a leader of a New Mexico paramilitary Christian sect who is facing child sex abuse charges be held on $5 million secured bond.

Cibola County Magistrate Court Judge Larry Diaz set bond Tuesday for Peter Green following a raid of the armed compound of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps.

Peter Green, also known as Mike Brandon, faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child on suspicion of raping a girl from the time she was 7.

Sect co-leader Deborah Green, who also is facing child sex abuse charges, was ordered held on a $500,000 secured bond. Deborah Green was arrested on charges ranging from failure to report a birth to child abuse and sexual penetration of a minor.

The group, founded in California, says the allegations are “totally false.” James Green is strongly denying his wife and other members hurt children, telling KOAT-TV of Albuquerque the allegations were a surprise.

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NEW MEXICO
KOB

Caleb James
August 23, 2017

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. — There are 11 children possibly in danger inside a secretive religious militia compound hidden deep in rural western New Mexico, and law enforcement tells KOB they aren’t being allowed inside.

It is the latest development in a troubling saga that began to unfold Sunday with the arrest of one of the commune’s members on 100 counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

From the air, the rural Fence Lake compound appears fortified. The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps — the organization behind the mountain commune — is referred to as a religious militia by law enforcement. Classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the sect on the fringe of society is now the focus of a child abuse investigation into two crimes.

After a raid on the compound Sunday, member Peter Green is accused of 100 counts of sexual abuse of a minor — a girl investigators say was raped at least four times a week since she was 7. Group member Stacey Miller was also arrested in Truth or Consequences in connection with the 2014 death of her son on the property. Sect leader Deborah Green was also arrested in that case.

According to Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace, the commune’s cooperation with investigators ended Wednesday. James Green, the group’s founder, had agreed to allow FBI investigators to interview children still living on the compound.

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NEW MEXICO
Palm Beach Post

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
A paramilitary Christian sect with members facing child sex abuse charges evaded law enforcement authorities for years by hiding births, physically punishing followers and quietly operating in isolated areas of New Mexico, former members say.

In interviews with The Associated Press and in court documents, the ex-members also alleged that leaders of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps exercised control over followers by forcing them into hard labor and refusing to give their children medical care.

When members complained, sect co-leader Deborah Green would hold “trials” against them for questioning her authority, which Green said came directly from God, former members Maura Alana Schmierer and Julie Gudino said.

The trials led to banishment to isolated sheds without toilets and from the sect’s compound without being allowed to take their children, the women said.

“It was a form of brain-washing,” Schmierer, who left the group in the late 1980s and sued, winning a $1 million award when it was based in Sacramento, California, told the AP.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Donita Naylor
Journal Staff Writer

Posted Aug 23, 2017

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — Leaders of the Portsmouth Abbey School and Monastery have released a report that contains “shameful news” of “credible allegations of sexual abuse” between 1959 and the early 1980s, and of corporal punishment in the ’60s and ’70s.

A letter emailed Wednesday to members of the Portsmouth Abbey community contained an apology to the victims of Father Bede Gorman, who died in 1985, and Father Geoffrey Chase, who is in his late 80s and is ill. He left the school in 2002, the letter said.

“We stand by those who were wronged, and are committed to helping past victims, providing therapy for them as needed.”

The letter — from Regents chairman W. Christopher Behnke ’81, Abbot Matthew Stark for the monks and Headmaster Daniel McDonough — also promised that Gorman’s name would be removed from the athletic fields, squash center and two annual prizes that had been named in his honor, and that the review of policies, safety protocols and training programs at the school would continue.

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RHODE ISLAND
US News

[Letter to the Portsmouth Abbey Community]

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (AP) — A Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island says an investigation has found credible new allegations of sexual abuse committed decades ago by two monks.

The Portsmouth Abbey School sent a letter Wednesday summarizing the allegations and apologizing to any victims. The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1959 and the early 1980s. The school says one of the accused monks has since died, and the other is critically ill.

The school hired a law firm to investigate after the sudden resignation of its chancellor last year. Last August, the firm reported no findings that he did anything illegal, but responses to that report surfaced new allegations against the two monks, who had been previously accused of abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Michael Inman

A former Canberra school teacher was sacked from St. Edmund’s College after allegations of improper conduct with a student, a court has heard.

The alleged victim did not go into detail with the school headmaster at the time and then kept his silence after Garry Leslie Marsh’s termination.

The ACT Supreme Court has heard that coverage of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse stirred memories and prompted the alleged victim to report the matter to police 35 years on.

But the defence says this passage of time disadvantaged the accused as it made it harder to challenge the allegations.

Marsh, 72, of Sydney, is on trial before Justice John Burns accused of indecent assault and buggery.

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UNITED STATES
Boston Globe

By Brian MacQuarrie and Travis Andersen GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 23, 2017

Spurred by growing allegations of sexual misconduct at private schools, two groups that represent more than 1,000 of the institutions released recommendations Wednesday for preventing the abuse of students by teachers and other staff members.

The draft report is believed to be the first comprehensive review of procedures to curb sexual misconduct at the schools, many of them boarding facilities whose missions often encourage close interaction among students, faculty, and staff.

Many proposals focus on boundaries between students and adults, such as refraining from the exchange of personal information, and the scope and duration of off-campus trips. The recommendations would bar teachers and students from shared sleeping accommodations during outings and set clear guidelines on physical contact.

The draft also urges strict background checks on all hires at the private schools, regardless of position, in an effort to keep sexual offenders from finding new jobs that could put them in close proximity with students.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY JAMES MONCUR
24 AUG 2017

An abuse victim has won a 40-year fight to secure compensation from the ­notorious Christian Brothers monks.

Dave Sharp was awarded a “significant five-figure sum” decades after he was repeatedly raped and beaten at St Ninian’s residential school in Fife.

He is the first person in Scotland to win a payout from the Catholic order, who ran residential schools for children across the world.

The payment is likely to allow hundreds of other Scottish victims to win compensation for historical abuse at various organisations.

Dave, 59, said: “I hope my payment is the first of many the Christian Brothers are forced to make to those men whose lives have been wrecked because of the treatment they received as children in ­Scotland’s residential homes and schools.

“There are dozens of victims out there who have far stronger cases than mine.

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UTAH
Daily Herald

Kurt Hanson Daily Herald

An LDS bishop charged with sexually abusing two underage males in his ward pleaded guilty to his crimes Wednesday in Fourth District Court.

The defendant, Erik Hughes of Mapleton, entered guilty pleas to two second-degree felonies of forcible sexual abuse and one third-degree felony of tampering with a witness. Hughes, 51, pleaded to what he was originally charged with. No charges were reduced as a part of his plea arrangement.

Hughes’ attorney, John Allan, told Judge Thomas Low that as a part of the agreement, no other charges in relation to the allegations of abuse can be leveled against Hughes.

Allan said the alleged victims approve of the agreement.

Police reports state a now 18-year-old man told police in April that Hughes had drugged him and sexually assaulted him several times about three years ago.

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FLORIDA
Bay News 9

By Saundra Weathers, Reporter
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 23, 2017

TAMPA —
A Tampa man had sex with a 12-year-old girl inside a church Aug. 20, police investigators say.

Le’Angelo Wilkerson, 27, is accused of having sex with the girl in a bathroom and then a classroom at Rehoboth Faith Cathedral Church on N. 40th St., Tampa Police said.

Tushara Jones said the girl was her 14-year-old daughter’s friend and that girl was visiting the church for the first time. She said her daughter walked in on the act.

“My daughter walked in the bathroom with the girl that was missing. She said she was going to the bathroom,” Jones said. “My daughter walked in the bathroom and caught them having sexual intercourse, and he groped my daughter’s butt and told my daughter to come and show her how it was supposed to be done.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Elizabeth Byrne

A former Marist College teacher accused of indecently assaulting a student in the early 1980s has said he struggled to even remember the boy.

David Kisun, 71, is facing three charges of indecent assault.

Kisun was charged after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Canberra.

The alleged victim, who was aged nine at the time, told the ACT Supreme Court he was given a seat in the back row of the class.

He said Kisun would stand behind him and put his hands inside his clothing while the rest of the class was working.

He said at other times Kisun kept him inside at lunch and recess and assaulted him.

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ROME
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 23, 2017
by Joshua J. McElwee

ROME — Pope Francis’ commission on clergy sexual abuse is considering whether to restructure itself so that it no longer includes the direct participation of abuse survivors. It is evaluating the possibility of creating instead a separate advisory panel of individuals who have been abused by clergy.

A member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors revealed the group’s consideration of the idea in an NCR interview Aug. 14, saying that one of the commission’s work groups has been tasked with weighing the pros and cons of such a change.

The commission appears likely to discuss the possible restructuring at its next plenary meeting in Rome in mid-September, when the original three-year terms of its members are set to expire.

“I think that may be a more productive [way] of ensuring the voice of survivors in the work of the commission,” Krysten Winter-Green, the commission member, said of the potential change. “I do not know that it’s critical that a survivor needs to be actually on the commission.”

“No decision has been made about this,” she stressed, adding: “I think the voice of survivors needs to be heard by this commission. They need to have input into every facet of the operation. How that is accomplished remains to be seen, but it will be accomplished.”

Consideration of a change in structure for the papal commission comes as the group has in recent months faced public questioning of its effectiveness in stopping future abuse of children and vulnerable people in the Catholic Church. The group now appears to be in the midst of a significant phase of transition.

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NEW MEXICO
International Business Times

BY JULIANA ROSE PIGNATARO

Four members of a religious group based in New Mexico were arrested this weekend and charged with more than 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse. Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller, all part of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps were arrested Sunday morning, the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

The group, based out of Cibola County, purports to be “aggressive and revolutionary for Jesus.” Photos on the website show members dressed in military garb and contain references to “spiritual ammo” and “holy war.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, however, lists the sect as a hate group.

The sheriff’s office began its investigation last year after two members who allegedly escaped the commune told authorities that Deborah Green and Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu. Miller later told investigators “she wanted to trust God.” She was charged with child abuse after authorities arrested her. Deborah was charged with neglect resulting in the death of a child, as well as sexual assault of a minor and child abuse. Authorities alleged that Deborah had sexually assaulted her daughter’s 5-year-old daughter in 2001 after the child was smuggled in from Uganda.

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CALIFORNIA
KCRA

Tom Miller
Reporter

A Sacramento woman is speaking out after four members of a military-style Christian group were arrested.

Maura Schmierer left the sect in 1989 but still remembers the horrors she endured. The group started in Sacramento before ending up in New Mexico.

Now, nearly 35 years later, the leader of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps has been arrested, along with three others.

Schmierer said she is happy to see that the sect could finally shut down.

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NEW MEXICO
Vice

JOSIAH HESSE
Aug 23 2017

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps is known for its eccentric, militaristic brand of religion. This week, cops accused key leaders of horrific acts, including some that resulted in a child’s death.

On Sunday, police arrested current and former members of a Christian group in New Mexico for a litany of alleged crimes. According to a report on Monday by ABC affiliate KOAT-7 Action News, one member was charged with 100 counts of sexual penetration of a girl who was allegedly smuggled into this country from Uganda. The warrant used to make the arrest, which was viewed by VICE, further claims the group concealed the births of multiple children and the death of at least one boy, whose remains were buried on the group’s private property.

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (ACMTC) of Fence Lake is an isolated, militaristic religious organization. In 1981, Deborah and James Green formed the group in Sacramento, California. Previously, they have been accused of familiar cult-like tactics of controlling member’s finances, limiting contact with the outside world, and isolating members without proper food, water, or hygiene. Since their inception, they’ve been listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

The investigation leading to Sunday’s arrest began last year, when two female members of the group claimed to have escaped—and told the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office of almost unspeakable horrors.

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NEW MEXICO
Washington Post

By Associated Press August 22

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Latest on a New Mexico military-style Christian sect facing child abuse charges (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

A sheriff says authorities carefully planned a raid of a New Mexico paramilitary Christian sect amid a child sexual abuse investigation to avoid potential violence.

Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace told The Associated Press on Tuesday deputies surprised the sect’s Fence Lake, New Mexico, compound during church services to make sure everyone was located in one place.

Mace says authorities were concerned armed sect members might try to stop deputies’ attempt to arrest leaders on child abuse and child sexual abuse charges.

During the Sunday raid, authorities arrested three members in connection with a child abuse and child sex abuse investigation. A former member was arrested in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

BY RUSSELL CONTRERAS AND MORGAN LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities investigating a paramilitary Christian sect for child sexual abuse say they looking into whether the New Mexico group brought children into the country illegally. Former group members say leaders kept them and the children living at sect’s compound in “slavery.”

Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace told The Associated Press Tuesday that investigators found numerous children during a Sunday raid of the armed Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in remote Fence Lake.

Exactly where the children came from is unknown because the sect apparently kept members from reporting births to state officials, Mace said. A former sect member says the group illegally brought at least one child to the United States from one of its foreign missions, which according to its website were operated in Africa, India and the Philippines.

“The children were trained not to talk to law enforcement or to hide from law enforcement,” Mace said.

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NEW MEXICO
New York Post

By Tamar Lapin

Members of a military-style Christian group in New Mexico have been arrested for what authorities are calling horrific crimes against children.

Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in Fence Lake was arrested Sunday morning and faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, local station KOAT reported.

Deborah Green and her husband James Green are the “Generals” of the sect, according to their website and are responsible for commanding their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the organization as a hate group.

Deborah Green and members Stacey Miller and Joshua Green also face charges including child abuse, bribery of a witness and not reporting a birth.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Outlook

The Catholic Church in Australia observes Child Protection Sunday on 10 September 2017.

The Australian Catholic Church’s Child Protection Sunday runs in conjunction with National Child Protection Week. This year we are focusing on a Royal Commission’s key element that when children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously an institution is better prepared to be child safe. Our theme is: “See Me, Hear Me”.

In the first reading for Child Protection Sunday the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of “being a sentry to the House of Israel’. That image captures well one element of the role each of us has in regard to Children.

As Pope Francis outlined before leading the crowds in the Angelus prayer in March last year it is important to “Listen: this is the key word. Do not forget, listen to the sick and marginalised, or among families.” As a sentry, each of us plays a part in listening to what the children have to say, making sure that every child is safe and protected from abuse and harm.

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ILLINOIS
Herald-Tribune

By Pete Spitler
Editor@heraldtrib.com
updated: 8/22/2017

Perhaps lost in the noise of the school funding fight was news that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation on Aug. 11 that removes the statutes of limitation for sexual abuse crimes.

The bill, Senate Bill 189, now allows for the prosecution of those crimes at any time. Previously, victims had to report crimes within 20 years after they turned 18.

SB 189 took effect as soon as it was signed and applies to future felony child sex crime cases, as well as current criminal cases in which the previous statute of limitations has not expired.

According to sponsor State Sen. Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park), the legislation puts in place “best practices for dealing with sexual assault cases statewide and puts in place a system that will encourage survivors to come forward and receive justice when they are ready.”

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UNITED STATES
USA Today

In May 2003, Thomas O’Brien, then bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, admitted to sheltering at least 50 priests accused of sexual abuse, often shuffling them around to parishes across the state.

O’Brien’s admission, released under an agreement with the county attorney, acknowledged he “allowed Roman Catholic priests under my supervision to work with minors after becoming aware of allegations of sexual misconduct.” He also waived his own immunity should sexual misconduct allegations against him surface.

Thirteen years later, in a lawsuit filed last September, O’Brien — now bishop emeritus — was accused of sexually abusing a grade-school boy.

In recent months, USA TODAY Network reporters at the Pacific Daily News have uncovered scores of allegations involving 14 Catholic priests on Guam, where a former altar boy’s accusation last summer that Archbishop Anthony Apuron sexually abused him in the 1970s has prompted other revelations.

Abuse cases also have roiled Catholic parishes elsewhere the nation, sometimes decades after evidence of the crimes first emerged.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Aug 22, 2017

Suspended Archbishop Anthony Apuron believes every citizen should be afforded due process and the right to defend against a cause of action that has long expired, according to court documents filed in four civil suits filed against the leader of Guam’s Catholic Church.

In a motion filed by his attorney, Jacqueline Taitano Terlaje, Apuron contends the District Court of Guam must dismiss the lawsuits filed against him and the Archdiocese of Agana because the victims’ claims are time-barred and Public Law 33-187 is “inorganic and unconstitutional.”

Apuron and his attorney maintain that the law that amended Guam’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse did not “retrospectively revive” the plaintiffs’ time-barred and lapsed claims to file suit against him.

Terlaje wrote, “Every person who cannot defend him or herself due to the passage of time and loss of evidence suffers extreme hardship and oppression.”

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IRELAND
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Bishops in Ireland have created detailed guidelines to address an issue the Roman Catholic Church has tried to keep under wraps for centuries: the plight of children born to Catholic priests and the women who bear them.

The policy, approved in May and made public recently, states that the wellbeing of the child is paramount. It says the mother must be respected and involved in decision-making, and that the priest “should face up to his responsibilities – personal, legal, moral and financial.”

The guidelines are believed to represent the first comprehensive public policy by a national bishops’ conference on the issue, which has long been shrouded in secrecy given the perceived scandal of priests having sex. While eastern rite Catholic priests can be married before ordination, Roman Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy.

The policy is, in many ways, the fruit of a campaign by an Irish psychotherapist, Vincent Doyle, who discovered late in life that his father was a priest.

With the strong backing of the archbishop of Dublin, Doyle launched Coping International, an online self-help resource for the children of priests and their mothers. The aim, he said, was to help eliminate the stigma he and others like him have faced, and educate them and the church about the emotional and psychological problems that can be associated with the secrecy often imposed on them.

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NEW MEXICO
KOAT

Megan Cruz
General Assignment Reporter

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. —
The leader and three members of a religious group based in Cibola County were arrested over the weekend for what investigators called horrific crimes against children.

Charges include over 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse.

The Cibola County Sheriff’s Office says deputies arrested Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green, and Stacey Miller of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps Sunday morning. According to the group’s website, Deborah and her husband James are the “Generals” and command their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. They’re based out of Fence Lake in western Cibola County.

Sheriff Tony Mace says his office first started investigating the group last year when two members claimed they just escaped the commune. They told deputies Deborah and another member Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014.

“It was a horrible situation,” said Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace.

According to arrest warrants, no one took the boy to the hospital. Puss started leaking from his forehead and he lost his ability to speak and move his right side. He was buried on the property and no one reported his death.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — The Latest on a New Mexico military-style Christian sect facing child abuse charges (all times local):

1:30 p.m.

A New Mexico military-style Christian sect says claims of child abuse and child sexual abuse by leaders are false.

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in Fence Lake, New Mexico, said in a statement that allegations “are totally false” and similar to others the group has faced over the years.

A criminal complaint says sect leader Peter Green is facing 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child.

Court records show three other members of the group also were charged with child abuse crimes.

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NEW MEXICO
Associated Press

BY RUSSELL CONTRERAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former member of a military-style Christian sect says that for years she’s been trying to draw attention to the New Mexico group whose leader has been charged with dozens of counts of child sexual abuse.

Maura Alana Schmierer told The Associated Press on Monday that she had been interviewed by investigators recently about the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps.

Schmierer left the sect in the late 1980s. She said she’s “been trying to expose them for years” and appeared in a National Geographic Television show documenting her experience.

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NEW MEXICO
Daily Mail

AP

A leader of a New Mexico military-style Christian sect is facing dozens of child sexual abuse charges in a case that authorities say is connected to widespread abuse by the religious commune.

Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in the remote community of Fence Lake was charged with 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child.

Sect members Deborah Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller also face various charges ranging from child abuse, bribery and not reporting a birth.

All four were arrested on Sunday.

A former member, Maura Alana Schmierer, said on Monday that she’s been trying to draw attention to the New Mexico group for years. Schmierer added that she had been interviewed by investigators recently about the group.

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VIRGINIA
Washington Post

By Dana Hedgpeth and Michelle Boorstein August 22

A Catholic priest in Arlington, Va., is temporarily stepping down after revealing he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and burned crosses more than 40 years ago before joining the clergy.

In an editorial published Monday in the Arlington Catholic Herald, the Rev. William Aitcheson described himself as “an impressionable young man” when he became a member of the hate group. He wrote that images from the deadly white-supremacist and white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville “brought back memories of a bleak period in my life that I would have preferred to forget.”

“My actions were despicable,” wrote Aitcheson, 62. “When I think back on burning crosses, a threatening letter, and so on, I feel as though I am speaking of somebody else. It’s hard to believe that was me.”

In a statement, Catholic Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge called Aitcheson’s past with the Ku Klux Klan “sad and deeply troubling.”

Aitcheson served with the Catholic church in Nevada before being transferred to Arlington, where he is originally from, church officials said in a statement. He was ordained in 1988 and has served in a variety of positions at parishes in Nevada; Arlington; Fredericksburg, Va.; and Woodstock, Md. His latest assignment was as parochial vicar, or assistant to the pastor, at St. Leo the Great in Fairfax City.

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TEXAS
KFOX14

by Adriana Candelaria | Jessica Gonzalez

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) —
A priest who once served at El Paso churches has admitted to sexual misconduct with a teenage girl during the 1980s.

Miguel Luna, 67, who served at eight El Paso parishes, was ordained for the Diocese of El Paso on July 1, 1982.

In 2013, Bishop Mark Seitz removed Luna from the ministry upon the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board.

A spokesperson for the diocese said the recommendation was made because allegations of sexual harassment had been made but not involving a minor.

It wasn’t until last year that a woman who asked to remain anonymous, came forward, saying that Luna had sexually abused her years ago when she was a teenager.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 22, 2017

The Boy Scouts of America, which faces 54 lawsuits accusing former Scouts leaders of sexually abusing children on Guam, recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in one of the abuse cases filed against Archbishop Anthony Apuron and the Catholic Church on Guam.

District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan on Tuesday rejected the brief, stating the Boy Scouts are not a party to the Apuron case, and their brief does not provide unique or relevant information.

The Boy Scouts, which wants the cases dismissed, had asked the court to separately address some of the arguments related to the abuse cases. That’s because the Boy Scouts have presented a different set of arguments as to why the cases should be dismissed.

A 2016 law retroactively removed the statute of limitations on civil cases related to child sex abuse, prompting nearly 100 lawsuits to be filed against the Catholic Church and clergy members. More than half of those lawsuits also accuse the Boy Scouts — primarily because of abuse allegations against former Guam priest Louis Brouillard, who also was a Scoutmaster here. He is accused of sexually abusing boys on church grounds and during outings with the Boy Scouts.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Metro

Georgia Diebelius for Metro.co.uk
Tuesday 22 Aug 2017

A pastor who blindfolded children and whipped them with belts, has been spared jail.

Rose Amadasun was reported to the police by South Norwood Leisure Centre after she was seen hitting youngsters with wires and not feeding them for days on end.

According to witnesses, the pastor of the Shine Forth Evangelistic Ministry in central London, shouted ‘Jesus’ as she beat the children.

If they screamed she would ‘force them to fast’ for several days as punishment.

Amadasun, 49, of South Norwood, South London was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily hard on June 30 2016.

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AUSTRALIA
Shepparton News

by TARA WHITSED AUGUST 22, 2017

Coinciding with Child Protection Week (September 4 to 10), the Tatura Sacred Heart Parish will show its support by taking part in the Loud Fences initiative next month.

The parish will hand out coloured ribbons at Mass on September 3 and 10 when parishioners will be invited to tie them to the fence afterwards.

Parishioner Judith Steele said ribbons would also be available in the foyer of the Church.

‘‘So we invite everyone in the community to join with Sacred Heart parishioners in tying a coloured ribbon on our fence throughout the month of September to express support and solidarity for the victims of abuse of any kind,’’ she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Jorge Branco

A Queensland boarding school failed to properly care for a student after she was allegedly gang-raped by older boys while boarding there in 2006, a royal commission has been urged to find.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, David Lloyd, made submissions harshly criticising Townsville’s Uniting Church-run Shalom Christian College’s response to the trauma.

He said, 10 years on, the school still did not have enough money to provide a safe environment for its students.

During hearings in Sydney in November last year, the young woman’s tearful parents said they were pressured not to press charges against the four men involved because they came from “well known and influential families” and that former principal Christopher Shirley was “trying to paint a bad picture of my daughter”.

Mr Shirley gave evidence that he did not try to blame the student, referred to as CLF, and that he did not tell her parents not to report the matter to police.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Isobel Roe and David Chen

A north Queensland Indigenous boarding school did not have the money to properly care for a student after she was indecently assaulted by older boys, according to the findings of a lawyer assisting a child sex abuse inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard in November last year that the 14-year-old girl was assaulted by four boys behind a classroom at Shalom Christian College near Townsville in 2006, when the students were supposed to be in the boarding house.

The victim’s parents told the royal commission that after the incident, the boys were put into lockdown at the school, and their daughter sent to another school campus and offered no counselling or care.

The findings, by counsel assisting the royal commission David Lloyd, were released on Monday

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By David Hurst
dhurst@tribdem.com

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is overhauling the Diocesan Review Board initially established 15 years ago to help internally investigate abuse allegations.

In line with a multistep reform plan outlined in March by the diocese and the United States Attorney’s Office, Bishop Mark Bartchak announced the appointment of an all-new, seven-member review board that will now be comprised of area professionals, one Catholic priest and at least two people representing other Christian faiths – a first for the board.

“In the interest of providing objectivity and transparency, two of the review board members are from other Christian churches,” diocese spokesman Tony DeGol wrote in a release to media.

“All of the newly-appointed members were recommended to the bishop because of their personal integrity, expertise and experience,” he added.

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TEXAS
KXAN

Daniel Marin/KTSM
Published: August 21, 2017

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – A former El Paso priest accused of committing sexual abuse decades ago served at eight local parishes, the Catholic Diocese of El Paso said Monday.

At a news conference, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz said the ex-priest, Miguel Luna, 67, admitted to sexual misconduct with a “young female adolescent” in the 1980s. Luna has since been removed from the ministry.

The allegation came to light last November, according to Seitz who declined to say which parish was involved to protect the identity of the accuser.

The diocese said it has contacted El Paso police but the victim, now an adult, wishes to remain anonymous and no criminal charges have been filed.

The state of Texas has no statute of limitations for felony criminal cases involving sexual assault of a minor or indecency with a child. There is a limitation of 15 years from the victim’s 18th birthday for civil cases.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post

BY HANNAH MITCHELL
21 AUG 2017

A Nottinghamshire MP has been named as a “core participant” in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Nottinghamshire.

The inquiry will look into claims of abuse over a 60 year period in Notitinghamshire after it was announced in 2015 that Nottinghamshire’s councils would be among the first to be investigated by the independent inquiry.

John Mann, Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw, first applied to be a core participant in March but was declined by the chairman Professor Alexis Jay on the grounds that he had not played a significant role in relation to the matters.

However, Prof Jay announced in May that she had reconsidered her view and the MP would play an important role in the inquiry.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

Aug 22, 2017

Ryan Brown
Staff Writer
rbrown@altoonamirror.com

Bishop Mark Bartchak named a new slate of members for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown’s Dio­cesan Review Board, fulfilling a plan he first publicly detailed in March.

The new membership sweeps out past members of the board, which the state attorney general once described as a tool for concealing sexual abuse allegations. The revamped board is part of a series of changes Bartchak promised at a March press conference alongside federal prosecutors.

The Review Board’s seven new members are the Rev. Leo F. Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and the Rev. Miles Zdinak. They are set to review sexual abuse allegations and determine clergymen’s suitability for the ministry.

Diocese Secretary for Communications Tony DeGol said he was unable to immediately provide further biographical information on the new members Monday. Searches online, however, suggest the new board includes a licensed social worker, a former state police trooper and a Carpatho-Russian Orthodox priest, among others.

“(Bartchak) feels that each of them brings a great deal of expertise in their respective fields,” DeGol said. “You have some who have backgrounds in law enforcement, in pastoral care, some in psychological treatment.”

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 21, 2017
by Patricia Lefevere

No one knows the number of sons and daughters of Catholic priests in the United States or in the world, but what is known is that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of these offspring have lived in secret, hiding their fathers’ past from the world, frequently even from family members.

Still other children of clergy dads have grown up not knowing who their real father was, often mistaking him for an uncle, godfather or some other male friend or relative whom they have known from their youth. In many instances, the children of Catholic priests have failed to have their emotional, legal and financial needs met.

When they have discovered who their real father is — often later in life — some of these daughters and sons have undergone spiritual disillusionment, unable to separate themselves from the faith they love and have been raised in, and the man who did not, or could not, come forward and be a genuine dad to them. Some have experienced psychological trauma from having to carry a secret — a lie — for life.

These are among disclosures presented in a two-part series on the progeny of priests published by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team Aug. 19 and 20 and written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Michael Rezendes. In interviews over many months, the investigative news team found that children of Catholic priests “form an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect.”

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LOUISIANA
The Advocate

BY JOE GYAN JR. | JGYAN@THEADVOCATE.COM AUG 21, 2017

A state judge refused Monday to dismiss the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge and a priest from a 2009 lawsuit by a woman who says that when she was a teenager she told the priest she was being sexually abused by a church parishioner, but he did not stop the alleged abuse or report it.

A legal battle over whether a Louisiana priest should have reported a teenager’s claims of s…
District Judge Mike Caldwell said it will be up to an East Baton Rouge Parish jury to decide whether what Rebecca Mayeux allegedly told the Rev. Jeff Bayhi in the confessional was in fact a confession as defined by the Catholic Church, and therefore confidential, or whether she was merely seeking support and guidance instead of confessing sins.

Caldwell and a state appeals court both ruled last year that Mayeux can tell a jury what she allegedly told Bayhi in the confessional.

The Louisiana Supreme Court also ruled last fall in the long-running case that a priest has no duty to report confidential information heard during the sacrament of confession.

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TEXAS
KVIA

EL PASO, Texas – The Diocese of El Paso announced on Monday Miguel Luna, a former priest, allegedly admitted to sexual misconduct with a young girl in the 1980s.

The victim reached out to the diocese in November of 2016, and the Diocese conducted an investigation.

“It is directly contradictory to the sacrificial love to which a priest has committed himself before God,” Bishop Mark Seitz said. “I am deeply sorry for the pain caused by these actions of Miguel Luna, and ask those who know of other situations of misconduct or abuse to please inform law enforcement and the Diocese.”

Luna was removed from ministry back in 2013.

“There had been some accusations against him that would probably be labeled sexual harassment,” Seitz said. “We determined after an investigation from the review board that he needed simply to be removed from ministry.”

The Diocese said Luna was ordained July 1, 1982. Here is where Luna has served:

Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi
Our Lady of Assumption
Our Lady of Peace — Alpine
San Antonio De Padua
San Lorenzo
St. Joseph Mission — Fort Davis
St. Mary Mission — Marathon
St. Matthew
St. Pius X
St. Thomas Aquina
St. Thomas/St. Joseph — Kermit

The Diocese of El Paso said it is reaching out to all of its parishes to learn if there any more potential victims. The victim who came forward in 2016 wishes to stay anonymous and is not pressing charges.

“We have informed the El Paso Police about this case, about Luna. They’re ready with their Crimes Against Children, that respond and would help any victims who come forward to them after this notification.” Seitz said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA

Hollidaysburgh, Blair County, Pa – Bishop Mark Bartchak has announced the appointment of an entirely new membership for the Diocesan Review Board. The group assists in the assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and if a cleric is suitable for ministry.

The members of the review board are as follows: Rev. Leo F. Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and Rev. Miles Zdinak.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth, every diocese is to have a review board. The majority of the members must be Catholic lay persons not employed by the diocese. The board is a confidential consultative body.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

by Matthew Stevens

HOLLIDAYSBURG – The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has named the members of its new review board.

The objective of the board is to assess allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

The board consists of Catholic members not employed by the diocese and two members of other Christian members.

The new members are Rev. Leo Arnone, Joyce Cunningham, Joseph Grappone, Todd Mahalko, Robert Skelly, Brent Stoltzfus and Rev. Miles Zdinak.

The newly-appointed members were recommended to Bishop Mark Bartchak and have experience in pastoral care, education of children, safe environment for children, psychological care and treatment of sexual abuse of minors and law enforcement.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
TheMediaReport

Philadelphia Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, who was falsely convicted in 2013 along with the late Rev. Charles Engelhardt in a high-profile trial for child sex abuse that never occurred, is finally going to be a free man.

After being falsely accused of sex abuse by a lying drug addict named Danny Gallagher, Shero will exit prison after serving four-and-a-half years of a maximum 16-year sentence.

The news was first reported by journalist Ralph Cipriano at BigTrial.net.

An insider blows the lid off

Regular readers of this site have long known that Gallagher’s claims of abuse are wildly false (see this and this for background). It is now an incontrovertible fact that the Philadelphia D.A.’s office – spearheaded by D.A. Seth Williams, who now sits in solitary confinement on multiple charges of corruption and bribery – orchestrated a malicious scheme against innocent men and the Catholic Church based on Gallagher’s bogus stories.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Alexandra Patrikios, The Courier-Mail
August 21, 2017

A CATHOLIC brother who inflicted “sheer terror” on vulnerable boys at a Queensland orphanage, sexually abusing nine of them, has been jailed for his historical crimes.

“Your legacy disgusts me and every right-minded member of society,” Brisbane District Court Judge William Everson told Francis Brophy today.

The 87-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury of five offences and sentenced for more than 30 counts in total, sexually abused the orphans at BoysTown, near Beaudesert, between 1978 and 1983.

Judge Everson denounced him as “a cowardly, evil paedophile” who masqueraded as a follower of God while inflicting lifelong damage on the children who were meant to be in his care.

He said Brophy presided over a “Gulag right in our midst” that left some of his victims ravaged by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder as adults.

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TEXAS
El Paso Proud

[with video]

EL PASO, TEXAS – The El Paso Catholic Diocese says a former local priest has been removed for sexual misconduct.

Bishop Mark Seitz is expected to hold a news conference at the Diocese of El Paso Pastoral Center’s Flores Conference room at 10 a.m. on Monday to inform the public.

The Diocese tells us the priest in question is named Miguel Luna and that the case goes back to the 1980s.

The Diocese says Luna recently admitted to sexual misconduct with someone, who they only describe as a ‘young female adolescent.’

According to the Diocese Luna has since been removed from the ministry and all parishes have been given notice of Luna’s removal.

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IRELAND
Crux

The bishops of Ireland say that in the case of a child fathered by a Catholic priest, the priest should not walk away from his responsibilities – legal, moral and financial. The guidelines written by the Irish Bishops’ Conference were written as the Vatican faces a deadline to respond to UN recommendations to “assess the number of children fathered by Catholic priests, find out who they are and take all necessary measures to ensure that the rights of those children to know and to be cared for by their fathers is respected.”

If a priest father’s a child, the needs of the child should be given the first consideration, according to guidelines agreed to in May by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The guidelines have not been published on the conference website, nor on any individual diocesan website, but were obtained by The Irish Times newspaper.

The document – called “Principles of Responsibility Regarding Priests who Father Children While in Ministry” – was written in consultation with Vincent Doyle, an Irish psychotherapist whose own father was a diocesan priest.

Doyle helped found Coping International, which seeks to protect the rights of the children of priests. (Doyle’s story was the subject of a feature last week in The Boston Globe.)

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

21 August, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published written submissions for the public hearing into children with problematic or harmful sexual behaviours in schools (Case Study 45).

The public hearing was held in October-November 2016 and inquired into the response of Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill NSW, The King’s School, Parramatta NSW and Shalom Christian College, Condon QLD to incidents of problematic or harmful sexual behaviours by students which occurred at those schools.

It also inquired into the systems, policies, procedures and practices for responding to allegations of problematic or harmful sexual behaviours of children within educational institutions promoted and implemented by the schools listed above as well as St Ignatius’ College, Riverview NSW, the NSW Department of Education, the Association of Independent Schools NSW and the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

Read the submissions.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Saturday, August 19, 2017
GoLocal News Team

The bankruptcy of St. Joseph Health Services pension fund will hit between 3,600 and 3,800 existing or future pensioners — and the loss of pension payments may be 40 percent, according to the court appointed receiver Steven Del Sesto, a partner at Donoghue Barrett & Singal. But, DelSesto said the plan for winding down the pension fund is only in the preliminary phase.

The loss of benefits and the total number of beneficiaries impacted may both be records for Rhode Island. The now pending plan before the court, the draft documents would treat all existing and future retirees the same and both classes would take a 40 percent cut to their existing and future benefits, according to court documents. That plan is not final said DelSesto in an interview with GoLocal on Friday afternoon.

Del Sesto was appointed by the court late Thursday afternoon and is yet to talk to many of the players in the collapse. He is scheduled to talk to the Attorney General’s office on Monday.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[Pope Francis wrote the foreword to the book. Papst bittet Missbrauchsopfer um Vergebung – Bild]

[For four years Daniel Pittet was raped as a young boy by a Capuchin monk and even forced to view porno films. Pittet has written a book on this martyrdom.]

Vier Jahre lang wurde Daniel Pittet als kleiner Junge von einem Kapuzinermönch vergewaltigt und sogar zu Porno-Aufnahmen gezwungen. Pittet hat ein Buch über dieses Martyrium geschrieben. Das Ende des Buches bildet ein Interview mit Pittets Peiniger. FOCUS Online veröffentlicht das Gespräch in Auszügen.

Daniel Pittet war der Überzeugung, dass eine Aussage seines Schänders einen interessanten Beitrag zur Aufklärung leisten könne, heißt es in seinem Buch. Ihn persönlich zu treffen lehnt er aber ab. Das Gespräch führte die Co-Autorin des Buches, Micheline Repond.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

JOHN FERGUSON
21 AUG 2017

A Catholic priest at the centre of gay mafia accusations is set to return to a Scottish parish.

Father Matthew Despard, 52, was forced to quit after being rapped by the church over explosive claims in his book Priesthood in Crisis.

He wrote that a “powerful gay mafia” was operating at the top of the Catholic hierarchy and was responsible for sexual ­bullying.

Despard was forced to stand down from his post at St John Ogilvie’s Parish in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.

But he could now return after a Vatican court “partly reversed” the decision of a Scottish church tribunal.

Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal said: “Fr Despard has requested he be allowed to return to public priestly ministry by being given a new pastoral assignment.”

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AUSTRALIA
Deniliquin Pastoral Times

A Catholic brother who inflicted “sheer terror” on vulnerable boys at a Queensland orphanage, sexually abusing nine of them, has been jailed for his historical crimes.

“Your legacy disgusts me and every right-minded member of society,” Brisbane District Court Judge William Everson told Francis Brophy on Monday.

The 87-year-old, who was found guilty by a jury of five offences and sentenced for more than 30 counts in total, sexually abused the orphans at BoysTown, near Beaudesert, between 1978 and 1983.

Judge Everson denounced him as “a cowardly, evil pedophile” who masqueraded as a follower of God while inflicting lifelong damage on the children who were meant to be in his care.

He said Brophy presided over a “Gulag right in our midst” that left some of his victims ravaged by nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder as adults.

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AUSTRALIA
Bunbury Mail

Bunbury Detectives have charged a 64-year-old man of Bicton with sexual offences against two children at homes in Bunbury and Willetton.

The charges are a result of ongoing investigations stemming from the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual offences.

It will be alleged that between 1979 and 1983 the man, who was a teacher at the Bunbury Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, sexually abused a student at his home.

The child was aged between five and 10 years of age at the time.

It is further alleged that between 1987 and 1988 the man sexually abused a second student from the school at his home in Willetton.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

The King’s School in Sydney demonstrated a “catastrophic failure” in its handling of a child-sexual assault allegation, a submission to a royal commission states.

The submission by David Lloyd, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, stated that the school was advised to report the allegation to police but failed to do so.

The claim relates to a 2013 incident at a cadet camp in which one student was alleged to have masturbated on another student’s sleeping bag.

In a public hearing into harmful sexual behaviour in schools, the royal commission was told the Parramatta school sought advice from a police officer who wrote an email saying a formal report should be made.

The commission heard The King’s School’s then headmaster Timothy Hawkes did not make a report to police.

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AUSTRALIA
Western Advocate

Nadine Morton
@nadine_morton

21 Aug 2017

HISTORIC cases of sexual abuse, and the subsequent Royal Commission inquiry, has impacted the number of believers, Bathurst’s religious leaders say.

The number of Bathurst people who say they are not religious has tripled compared to 15 years ago, recently-released 2016 Census data shows.

In Bathurst, 22.4 per cent (9532 people) of the population said they have ‘no religion’ on the form, this has spiked dramatically compared to the 9.6 per cent (3435 people) who selected this answer in the 2001 Census.

Catholicism has recorded the biggest fall in Bathurst believers – from 35.4 per cent in 2001 to 31.1 per cent last year.

The percentage of Anglicans in Bathurst has also dropped – from 26.3 per cent to 19.2; while Presbyterian and Reformed has fallen from 5.2 to 4.2 per cent.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

As I watch the growing protest in the Catholic Church against the call for priests to be required to report child abuse confessions, my mind goes to Islam’s Sharia law. Forgive me, I can’t help it.

The church is fighting, as you have read in this paper, the call by the child abuse royal commission for priests to face criminal charges when they fail to report child sexual abuse that has become known to them in the confessional.

Confession is a cornerstone of Catholic religious practice, a regular event, often weekly, for practising Catholics.

The person confessing to a priest who may be seated behind a partition opens with the words “Forgive me, father, for I have sinned”, discusses those sins with the priest, is given a penance that may be a prayer to recite a certain number of times, and is absolved of those sins.

Catholics believe, or are supposed to believe, that the priest in the confessional is channelling God, that they are talking with God through the priest, although I suspect the godliness of priests has been reduced more than a modicum in the past decade.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff

MIKE MATHER

A former Catholic priest jailed for molesting boys in the 1970s and 80s has again been jailed for 26 months, on charges against three new historic victims.

Before Mark Mannix Brown was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on Monday, one of his victims revealed harrowing details of the consequences of his abuse.

Brown, 74, had earlier plead guilty to four charges of indecent assault and attempted sodomy. Some of those charges were representative, meaning they cover a variety of incidents.

He had been jailed for 15 months in 1990 for sexual offending against altar boys.

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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand Herald

Two sex abuse victims of former priest Mark Mannix Brown say his jail sentence brings them closure but say anything less would have belittled his actions.

It is now the second prison term Brown, 74, will have served for molesting young boys while he worked as a priest in the Catholic Church around Hamilton and Auckland in the 1970s and 80s.

Brown pleaded guilty to four representative charges after a sentence indication in the Hamilton District Court in May this year.

Today, Judge Simon Menzies sentenced Brown to 26 months’ jail.

He was first jailed for 15 months in March 1990 for indecently assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s when he was at St Mary’s Church, Hamilton.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 21, 2017
by Tom Roberts

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — SNAP, the organization that has become synonymous with uncovering the clergy sex abuse scandal, may be outpacing its acronym.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, established in 1988, has been at the forefront of advocating for victims of clergy abuse and at pressing for accountability by church leadership. However, it was evident at a gathering of 300 victims, advocates and supporters Aug. 11-13 in Alexandria, Virginia, that the organization is in the midst of change.

“We’re in transition,” said Barbara Dorris, who took over as president when the group was left leaderless when founder Barbara Blaine and longtime national director David Clohessy, resigned within weeks of each other. Both longtime leaders said their resignations has been in the works for months and were not connected to a lawsuit filed in January in which both were named.

“We’ve gone from founder-led into an organization that is going to work more trying to build partnerships with other organizations, to build a stronger voice to protect children and do more outreach,” said Dorris. She also expressed a willingness to discuss a suggestion advanced by an expert that SNAP do more to connect victims with professional counselors.

The outreach is evidently underway. Dorris said this year’s conference included representatives of a number of other denominations as well as organizations such as the Boy Scouts.

“So, where we were focused on Catholics, we feel we’ll be stronger and have a better chance of accomplishing our goals if we become more inclusive,” she said.

If there is a natural expansion to the project — Joelle Casteix, a western regional leader for SNAP, reports that the vast majority of calls she now receives are not related to church abuse — the Catholic Church remains a central component of the group’s work. Survivors of abuse by priests are still predominant in its membership, the preponderant conversation is about elements of the church scandal and the new areas of the globe where reports of priest abuse are now beginning to surface.

Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle and former Benedictine priest Richard Sipe both took the main stage at different times to recount their personal history in the struggle and to exhort survivors to work together in support of each other and the pursuit of justice.

The back page of the conference program was further evidence that the Catholic piece of the problem is still prominent. Bishopaccountability.org, an extensive digital repository of information and data about the scandal, lists 59 new names of those considered credibly accused that made it into the organization’s database in the past year. The database, which contains voluminous documentation, including legal transcripts and depositions as well as correspondence, currently lists as credibly accused of sexual abuse 27 bishops, 3,774 priests, 59 deacons, 23 seminarians, 290 brothers and 95 women religious. Not included, according to those managing the website, are 2,645 priests counted as credibly accused by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops but not yet identified.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 21, 2017

The alleged victim is represented by Attorney David Lujan.

Guam – Over 90 sexual abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Guam and its agents, last Friday, another suit was filed seeking $10 million in punitive damages against retired Catholic priest Louis Broulliard.

Retired priest Louis Broulliard has been named as the perpetrator in a majority of the sex abuse cases filed against the Archdiocese. Last Friday, another alleged victim identified as V.Q. came forward sharing his recollections of sexual abuse that occurred at the hands of Louis Broulliard when V.Q. was just 14 years old. Broulliard served as a priest on Guam for over four decades, holding many positions within the church as well as serving as a Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America.

According to court documents, V.Q. joined the Mongmong Troop 18 Boy Scouts in 1977, when Broulliard was scoutmaster. As part of the requirements, the boy scouts met several times a week at the Mongmong parish to study the Scout Oaths, Laws and practice marching, drills and map reading. The Boy Scouts of America also encouraged their scouts to be faithful in their religious duties and as a result V.Q.’s participation revolved around the church in order to fulfill the Scout oath and laws.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

A new survey shows a strong decline in trust for religious institutions in Guam. The decline is attributed to the filing of more than 100 sex abuse cases against former and current members of the clergy and the loss of trust in the Catholic Church.

The poll was conducted by a private entity at the request of attorney David Lujan who represents dozens of child sex abuse victims. The results are expected to be released to the Archdiocese of Agana in the coming weeks.

During the last status conference before District Court Judge Joaquin Manibusan Jr., Lujan mentioned that the poll found an unfavorable attitude toward the church from those surveyed.

Three hundred Guam voters were surveyed over the telephone in May. The average age of those polled was 40. Individuals between ages 18 and 90 participated in the poll and surveyors noted a sample error of +/- 3 percent

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MEXICO
Concentrado

[Organizations called for investigation into cases such as the “Ciudad de los Niños” in the state of Guanajuato to continue. They also ask that the ecclesial structure and the code of canon law be modified “in order to eliminate the cover-up of crimes of clerical pederasty”. Among the plaintiffs are Catholics for the Right to Decide.]

Organizaciones pidieron que las investigaciones por casos como la “Ciudad de los Niños” en el estado de Guanajuato, continúen, y se entreguen responsabilidades penales. También que sea modificada la estructura eclesial y el código de derecho canónico “a fin de eliminar el encubrimiento de los crímenes de pederastia clerical”. Entre los demandantes está Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir.

Ciudad de México, 18 de agosto (EFE).- Organizaciones de la sociedad civil exigieron ayer la reapertura de la investigación con el fin de atribuir responsabilidades penales a los supuestos autores de abusos sexuales perpetrados en el refugio juvenil “Ciudad de los Niños” en el estado de Guanajuato, entre otros albergues.

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PERU
El Nacional

[Seven months imprisonment of a Spanish priest for sexual abuse in Peru. The Catholic priest abused the four students of the John Paul II Minor Seminary between 2014 and 2017. The newspaper La Republica says that the clergyman used his spiritual guidance to infiltrate the students’ rooms and assault them sexually.]

Un tribunal peruano de justicia dictó siete meses de prisión preventiva al sacerdote español Santiago Martínez Valentín-Gamazo, acusado de presuntos tocamientos indebidos a cuatro menores de edad alumnos de un seminario religioso en Perú, informó el sábado el diario limeño La República.

El fallo de la Sala Penal de Apelaciones de Moyobamba (nororiente) revocó la decisión de un juez instructor de primera instancia, quien semanas atrás desestimó el pedido de prisión preventiva que presentó la fiscalía alegando falta de pruebas. Ello le permitía al denunciado afrontar el proceso en libertad.

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ARGENTINE
Ambito

[The director of the traditional Marist School Champagnat, located in the microcenter of Buenos Aires, Angel Duples, admitted having abused a student 38 years ago, according to a statement issued by that institution. The accused was removed from office and transferred to a geriatric hospital.]

El director del tradicional Colegio Marista Champagnat, situado en el microcentro porteño, Ángel Duples, admitió haber abusado de un alumno hace 38 años, según se aseguró en un comunicado difundido por esa institución. El acusado fue removido del cargo y trasladado a un geriátrico.

“El Instituto de los Hermanos Maristas tomó conocimiento de un hecho ocurrido hace aproximadamente 38 años en el que un exalumno del colegio marista de Morón padeció un manoseo agraviante, por parte de un Hermano, en el contexto de un campamento”, expresó el colegio en el comunicado.

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NEW MEXICO
Las Cruces Sun-News

LAS CRUCES — A Vado man was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a child, according to the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Jesus Luna-Armenta, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual penetration of child (between 13 and 16 years old) and one count of selling or giving alcoholic beverages to a minor.

According to prosecutors, Luna-Armenta had sought a relationship with the 14-year-old victim through Facebook. His advances escalated, and on at least three occasions, he picked the victim up from her house with the intent to have sex, according to police reports.

On one occasion, Luna-Armenta took the girl to his house while his fiancée was not at home and forced her to engage in sexual activity, despite her objections, prosecutors said. In another instance, he took her to a motel room in Anthony, Texas, intending to force her to perform a sexual act.

At his sentencing, Luna-Armenta told the court that he teaches confirmation classes to teens at his church in Del Cerro, according to prosecutors. He also said he hopes to pursue a career in youth counseling one day.

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NEW MEXICO
El Diario de El Paso

[A teacher who taught confirmation classes at a Catholic church in New Mexico was sentenced to 18 months in jail for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Jesús Luna Armenta, 29, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual penetration of one minor and one for giving or selling liquor to a minor.]

Karla Valdez
El Diario de El Paso

Un maestro que impartía clases de confirmación en una iglesia católica de Nuevo México, fue sentenciado a 18 meses de cárcel por sostener relaciones sexuales con una adolescente de 14 años.

Jesús Luna Armenta, de 29 años, se declaró culpable de tres cargos por penetración sexual criminal de una menor y otro por dar o vender bebidas alcohólicas a un menor de edad.

Luna Armenta dijo haber conocido a la víctima por Facebook y admitió tener relaciones sexuales con ella por lo menos en tres ocasiones.

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PEROU
kath.ch

[Peru: Spanish priest detained for sexual abuse of minors.The Moyobamba Criminal Appeals Chamber in Peru ordered the seven-month pre-trial detention of a Spanish priest accused of sexual abuse of four minors committed between 2014 and 2017 at the John Paul II seminary which is located in the region of San Martín.]

19.08.2017 par Maurice Page

La Chambre d’appel pénale de Moyobamba, au Pérou, a ordonné la mise en détention préventive pour sept mois d’un prêtre espagnol accusé d’abus sexuels sur quatre mineurs commis entre 2014 et 2017 au petit séminaire Jean-Paul II, situé dans cette localité de la région de San Martín.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social and religious affairs correspondent
19 AUGUST 2017

The Catholic Church and local authorities have been criticised after trying to claim child sex abuse victims “consented” in a bid to avoid compensation payouts.

Lawyers who represent some of the victims have told the Sunday Telegraph that the defence is more frequently being used by private schools, religious groups and local authorities when trying to defend compensation claims.

The revelation comes after news that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, a Government agency, was denying some children compensation because it said they had “consented” to abuse – even if they were of an age where they could not do so legally.

Siobhán Crawford, of London-based firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, one of the largest firms in the field, said the defence is normally used where a child turns 16 during the abuse.

She said the firm had dealt with ten such cases, and there had been an increase in the past two years as authorities became aware that it was an option.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Today

Lorraine Caballero 20 August, 2017

Mormon church leaders are now facing several lawsuits over their alleged failure to protect children from sexual abuse under a now-defunct foster program which ran from the 1940s to 2000.

Five lawsuits have been filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2016 on behalf of Navajo tribal members who alleged that the Mormon church failed to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of foster families. Three other similar lawsuits were recently filed in Navajo Nation court and Washington state, The Associated Press detailed.

During a news conference in Phoenix on Aug. 15, a new Navajo plaintiff identified as A.H. said she told her local bishop that her foster father was abusing her. However, the bishop told her not to talk about it and that the matter would be addressed.

According to A.H., the abuse continued and the Church did not report it to authorities. She sought legal advice after she observed that the same thing was happening to other Navajos such as a woman identified only as J.C.

The attorneys of the plaintiffs said the Church leaders failed to report the abuse to authorities or to other church members even though they knew about what was happening. They also allege that the Mormon church did not properly monitor foster families.

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IRELAND
The Times

Lynne Kelleher
August 19 2017
The Times

A Leitrim priest had a local doctor murdered in 1923 because he knew the priest had fathered a child with his teenage housekeeper, the GP’s relatives have claimed.

An RTÉ radio documentary reveals that the priest was never charged with the murder but did go on trial for abandoning a two-week-old girl a month before the shooting.

Father Edward Ryans, 37, and Kate Brown, his 19-year-old housekeeper, were caught leaving the baby, Rose Brown, opposite the Black Church in Dublin in February 1923.

A month later, Paddy Muldoon, 32, was shot dead in the town of Mohill, Co Leitrim, when walking out on to the street after a card game during the final months of the Civil War. He had treated the housekeeper during the early stages of her pregnancy, and, asked by her family to arrange an illegal abortion, had refused.

The story of an IRA-supporting rebel priest allegedly arranging the execution of the local doctor and the efforts by the state, church and rebel forces to keep it under wraps will be aired on RTÉ Radio 1 at 1pm today.

Newly discovered archive material from sources, including the Muldoon family, are used to piece together the events surrounding the murder and the maverick priest who once used his car to ferry escaped IRA convicts.

In archive footage, Thomas William Muldoon, a nephew of the doctor, tells how his father was told who killed the GP by a canon at the funeral.

“On the day of the funeral, a priest, he was a Canon Pitman, told my father, ‘I believe it was Father Ryans who shot him’.”

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Fr Edward Ryans was the prime suspect in the killing of a GP, Paddy Muldoon, in Dublin, but the crime was never solved. A new documentary, however, claims there may have been a conspiracy of silence. Kim Bielenberg looks at the evidence

August 19 2017

In February 1923, as the Irish civil war was drawing to a close, a Catholic priest was arrested with his housekeeper on a charge of abandoning a baby on the doorstep of a house in Dublin’s north inner city.

Three local women had noticed the curate, Fr Edward Ryans, and the teenage girl acting suspiciously before they left the infant and a package wrapped in brown paper near the Black Church in Broadstone.

The vigilant women apprehended the couple from Leitrim as they tried to hurry away, before reporting them to police.

A month later, Paddy Muldoon, a young doctor from the same area in Leitrim, was walking late at night down the street in Mohill with a friend, Edward Geelan, when suddenly three men appeared in trenchcoats.

Muldoon and his friend were just saying goodbye near the bridge, when one of the men opened fire at Dr Muldoon.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The wellbeing of the child should be the primary consideration for any Catholic priest who becomes a father, guidelines approved by Ireland’s Catholic bishops state.

The guidelines say the priest “should face up to his responsibilities – legal, moral and financial. At a minimum, no priest should walk away from his responsibilities.”

In arriving at any decision concerning his child, it is “vital” that the mother, “as the primary caregiver, and as a moral agent in her own right, be fully involved”. It was also “important that a mother and child should not be left isolated or excluded”.

The guidelines, Principles of Responsibility Regarding Priests who Father Children While in Ministry, were approved by the bishops last May, but have yet to be published on their website or any Catholic diocesan website in Ireland.

They were prepared following discussions with Galway-based psychotherapist Vincent Doyle (34), whose father, Co Longford priest Fr JJ Doyle, died of lung cancer in 1995.

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Meagan Dillon, Court Reporter, Sunday Mail (SA)
August 19, 2017

A FORMER South Australian church pastor has been found guilty of sexually exploiting two young sisters more than 40 years ago — crimes that were examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse.

District Court Judge Gordon Barrett this month found ex-Salvation Army officer Christian Siebert guilty of two counts of the persistent sexual exploitation of two girls — then aged four and six — between 1976 and 1978.

Both victims first made statements to Victoria Police in 2004, and went on to give evidence at the royal commission two years ago.

The District Court heard a Salvation Army couple were posted to an SA country town and moved there with their two daughters and son in 1976.

Siebert, who would later become a pastor, was aged 20 at the time and was an active member of the church congregation where he spent a lot of time with the siblings, who lived next to the church.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kath.net

[Diocese of Hildesheim: The abuse report is now available. However, the results will be publicized in October. According to the NDR, the current Hildesheimer Bishop Norbert Trelle will no longer be in office at the time of publicizing the results because he will have to submit the request for retirement to Pope Francis in September since he will be 75 years old.]

Die Ergebnisse werden allerdings erst im Oktober der Öffentlichkeit bekannt gemacht.

Hildesheim (kath.net) Das Gutachten über die Missbrauchsfälle im Bistum Hildesheim liegt jetzt der Bistumsleitung vor. Die Ergebnisse werden aber erst im Oktober der Öffentlichkeit bekanntgemacht, wie der NDR berichtete. „Wir werden das Gutachten jetzt genau lesen und schauen, welche Schlüsse wir aus den Ergebnissen ziehen müssen“, erläuterte dazu Weihbischof Heinz-Günter Bongartz. Das Bistum hatte das Gutachten vor einem Jahr selbst beim Münchner Institut IPP in Auftrag gegeben, es geht nicht zuletzt um Missbrauchsvorwürfe gegen den 1988 verstorbenen früheren Hildesheimer Bischof Heinrich Maria Janssen und gegen den pensionierten Priester Peter R. zu prüfen.

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DETUSCHLAND
WDR

[The Wittgenstein Protestant Church District has dismissed its senior youth counselor. The 54-year-old is said to have sexually abused a teenager.]

Der Evangelische Kirchenkreis Wittgenstein hat seinen leitenden Jugendreferenten entlassen. Der 54-Jährige soll eine Jugendliche sexuell missbraucht haben.

Die Tat soll sich in einem Reisebus auf der Rückfahrt von einer Jugendreise ereignet haben, wie am Freitag (18.08.2017) bekannt wurde. Laut Siegener Staatsanwaltschaft und Kirchenkreis hat sich der Mann selbst angezeigt. Die Ermittlungen wegen des sexuellen Missbrauchs einer Schutzbefohlenen laufen.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Friday, August 18, 2017
GoLocal News Team

United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) general counsel Christopher Callaci released the following statement today after GoLocal Prov unveiled the bankrupcty on Friday:

“We are deeply troubled by the potential impact this receivership may have on our members and their families who, for years, have been told they would be able to rely on this fund when they needed it the most.”

The UNAP intends to be centrally involved in the receivership process and looks forward to working with the court-appointed receiver to preserve the benefits of its members.

This receivership raises a number of serious questions regarding how the fund was managed.

We expect the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to be transparent about how the fund has been bled and left with a $43 million shortfall and what they plan to do to about it. There is a moral obligation to act soon so that people may retire with dignity and the financial stability the plan was supposed to provide.

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TENNESSEE
Tennessean

Anita Wadhwani and Holly Meyer, Knoxville Aug. 18, 2017

At the center of allegations that a 12-year-old boy was raped in 2015 in the locker room of an elite Brentwood Christian school are questions about how school officials respond to student misconduct.

A review of a Brentwood Academy student handbook reveals a biblical-based approach to student conduct.

Sexual abuse prevention advocates said portions of that guidance may be sending a troubling message to students.

And a comparison of Brentwood Academy student conduct and discipline guidelines to other local Christian and public schools shows a different approach to communicating how the academy responds to allegations of sexual misconduct.

‘Treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt taxpayer’

The academy’s “Student Conduct and Discipline” policy begins by quoting this version of Matthew 18:15-17 as its model:

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won the person back.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 18, 2017
by Brian Roewe

A defamation case brought against Bill Donohue by a Kansas City man, whose account of clergy sexual abuse the Catholic League head doubted, closed Aug. 17 after the plaintiff opted not to appeal its dismissal by lower courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In April, the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court’s October 2015 ruling to dismiss charges of defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress brought by Jon David Couzens. The claims against Donohue traced to past press statements he issued about Couzens with regard to a 2011 lawsuit he brought against the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, Diocese.

The 90-day window to appeal the appeals court’s ruling closed on Thursday.

Both the district and appeals courts ruled that because the statements originated in New York, where Donohue and the Catholic League are based, that the case was subject to the state’s one-year statute of limitations, rather than Missouri law and its two-year statute of limitations. Couzens’ attorney argued that the Missouri statute applied because the state was the site where he sustained the alleged injuries.

Rebecca Randles, Couzens’ attorney, told NCR in an email an appeal was not pursued due to a belief that the case presented more of a state, rather than federal, issue, and the “slim chance” the Supreme Court would take it up. While she disagreed with the courts’ ruling on the statute of limitations, she added, “The opinion of the lower court is pretty clear that Donohue defamed my client.”

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Friday, August 18, 2017
GoLocalProv News Team

GoLocalProv has learned that the St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island pension fund has filed for receivership — the filing puts thousands of pensions at risk.

This is one of the largest pension failures in Rhode Island in recent history. It will take months to determine the total financial impact on the pensioners.

Kilmartin Signed Off

According to sources close to the matter, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 pension accounts will be impacted, but the exact number of individuals affected is not known.

The triggering event was a decision by the Diocese of Providence to exit the system. The fund is not connected to CharterCARE or their parent company, Prospect.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

“Brouillard would swim completely naked and routinely instructed V.Q. and the other boys to remove their clothes. Brouillard would grope and touch their private parts.”

– Lawsuit filed by attorney David Lujan on behalf of “V.Q.”

In 1977, “V.Q.” – using initials in recent court documents to protect his identity – joined the Mongmong Troop 18 Boy Scouts in hopes of participating in new activities and learning new things.

V.Q. said he was 14 when he joined the organization. He recalls attending meetings several times a week at the Nuestra Señora De Las Aguas Catholic Church in Mongmong to study the scout oaths and laws, and to practice marching, drills and map reading.

During those troop meetings, the boy met Father Louis Brouilard, who not only served as a priest for the Archdiocese of Agana but also as scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts.

According to a civil complaint filed yesterday in the District Court of Guam, during weekly outings with Brouillard to earn his swimming merit badge, V.Q. said he was sexually molested and abused on “numerous occasions” by the priest.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | AUGUST 18, 2017

U.S. immigration officials have deported a former British Baptist minister and convicted sexual predator wanted for additional alleged sex crimes in the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Aug. 16 that upon his release from a Virginia prison, 53-year-old Robert John Dando was accompanied by deportation officers on a commercial flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Heathrow Airport in London and turned over to authorities there.

Dando, one-time unpaid traveling assistant to British Baptist leader David Coffey when Coffey served as president of the Baptist World Alliance, appeared at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. He is charged with 15 counts of sexual abuse relating to nine victims over 23 years. Charges include rape and sexual assault of boys in the south of England and Wales between 1986 and 2009.

At the time senior minister at Worcester Park Baptist Church in suburban London, Dando entered the United States in July 2010 under a program that allows citizens of certain countries into the country for tourism, business or while in transit up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.

He was arrested in Oakton, Va., on July 24, 2010, and eventually pleaded guilty to four counts of sexually molesting the young sons of family friends while on visits to their Northern Virginia home over a period of several years. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in Fairfax County Circuit Court in 2011.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

Aug 18, 2017

by Kieran Tapsell

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has just released its Criminal Justice Report in which it deals with many matters relating to the way child sexual abuse within institutions is handled by the Australian criminal justice system. In the course of that report, it recommends mandatory reporting of all suspected child sexual abuse within institutions and the creation of new offences of failing to take proper care to prevent such abuse.

One recommendation that understandably created some media interest is that there should be no exemption to the reporting requirements for information provided in confession.

The commission’s report produces convincing evidence, not only in Australia, but also overseas, that priest sex abusers used confession as a means of assuaging their guilt. It made it easier for them to repeat their crimes because confession was always available.

In a response to the report, Jesuit Fr. Frank Brennan stated that a civil law requirement for priests to break the seal of confession was unlikely to lead to better protection for children because abusers would not confess such matters if they knew they had to be reported. Brennan said that he would disobey any such law and accept the consequences.

Archbishop Denis Hart, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, in his response said that the secret of the confessional is a “fundamental part of the freedom of religion…and it must remain so here in Australia.” In an interview on ABC Radio, Hart said he would go to jail rather than breach the secret.

It is surprising that no church representative has mentioned a way in which the church could significantly reduce the risk of breach of the seal by a fairly simple change to canon law based on a problem that has a long history.

Ever since private confession became the practice in the church in the early Middle Ages, there has been a continual problem of priests soliciting sex in the confessional. The church was so worried about the practice that the Council of Treves in 1227 required such priests to be excommunicated. In 1622, Pope Gregory XV required penitents to denounce such priests to the Inquisition or to the bishop, and that confessors should advise penitents of their obligation to do so. In 1741, Pope Benedict XIV confirmed this decree, and added that absolution should be refused to solicited penitents until they denounced their confessors. He also decreed that only popes could give absolution to penitents who falsely accused priests of soliciting.

The persons solicited were mostly women, less so men, but rarely young children because until 1910, they did not go to confession until they reached the age of 12 to 14 years. In 2010, Pope Pius X reduced the age to 7 years thus broadening the opportunities for paedophiles to find their victims. A number of case studies examined by the Australian Royal Commission confirmed that such soliciting of young children in the confessional had occurred in Australia.

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AUSTRALIA
The Weekend Australian

August 19, 2017

GREG CRAVEN
Columnist
Melbourne

Have things ever seemed worse for the Catholic Church in Australia? If it were a boxer, it would look tangled in the ropes, sliding towards the canvas and spitting blood. The past four years have been horrendous. Endless, horrifying accounts of historical child abuse. A royal commission relentlessly critiquing failures of bishops and processes. The media baying for yet more blood. Cardinal ­George Pell charged with abuse offences. The cardinal has the full presumption of innocence, but the communal trauma is palpable.

And now, a report from the commission eviscerating the Catholic sacrament of confession. How much worse can this get?

The entire spectacle has been relished by journalists, activists and downright bigots praying fervently to a non-existent God for the implosion of the Catholic Church. It would not be fair to say such critics have no interest in child abuse. No one can stomach the victimisation of children, by Catholics or others.

But to inveterate enemies of the church, the appalling reality of the scandal is incidental. They have battled Catholicism bitterly for decades on issues such as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage. To anti-Catholic enthusiasts such as David Marr and Peter Fitzsimons, Catholicism has stood — if not alone, then lonely — against their self-focused creed of secular politics. This is their opportunity to kick the church hard when it is down. In normal circumstances, you could make these points without tarring and feathering. But these are not normal times.

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BOTSWANA
Mmegi blogs

By KGOSIETSILE NGAKAAGAE Fri 18 Aug 2017

It often takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a moment to have it all come crumbing down. Sexual scandals, in particular, make interesting reading but behind each, there is a hurting human being who may very well be totally innocent.

When news surrounding the resignation of the Roman Catholic Bishop broke out in a screaming headline last Friday, and went viral in social media, I paused to think of the hurt that the man was inevitably going through. I focused on him not out of lack of empathy for his accusers but because he was, at that moment, the one at the wrong end of the stick. Overnight, he had moved from being a symbol of all things right to one of all things wrong with the Catholic Church and the Christian clergy. His fate was sealed before his trial commenced. He stood disgraced, his reputation in tatters and social media gnawing at whatever remained of it.

I don’t know the Bishop from Jack. I have heard of him but I have never seen or met him. I do not purport to speak for him but purely for principle. Further, I do not know if he actually did the things he is alleged to have done. My point is that whilst it is impossible not to be concerned at such allegations, it is important to refrain from judgment on matters affecting people’s reputations until all facts are on the table. Any person would ask for that, similarly circumstanced. The need is especially pronounced in his case where, ex facie, the complaint as narrated, elicited more questions than answers. Let us consider the allegations, briefly.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Emily Saul August 17, 2017

These Yeshiva school “suppers” were definitely not kosher.

Two former leaders of a prestigious, Brooklyn-based chain of Yeshivas are facing up to 20 years prison for claiming they were serving kids federally subsidized suppers five nights a week — and instead pocketing the $3 million in subsidies, the feds said Thursday.

Elozer Porges and Joel Lowy, formerly executive director and assistant director of Central United Talmudic Academy, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and fraud at their arraignment in Brooklyn federal court.

The yeshiva bigwigs had submitted phony documents claiming that between 2014 and 2016, low-income and at-risk children stayed late and ate supper every weeknight at three of their schools — at 762 Wythe Ave., 25 Franklin St. and 84-88 Sandford St. — the charges allege.

But while many of the schools’ kids ate federally subsidized breakfasts, lunches and snacks, they wouldn’t stay for supper, the feds said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the Boston Globe’s selective concern about fatherless children:

The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team is out with another attack on the Catholic priesthood: this one a two-part series on “Children of Catholic priests” who “live with secrets and sorrow.”

Using a few highly publicized cases, and several anecdotal stories, reporter Michael Rezendes concludes that by “any reasonable measure, there are thousands” of children around the world “who have strong evidence that they are the sons and daughters of Catholic priests.” Yet as he acknowledges, with over 400,000 priests worldwide, even if the unsubstantiated “thousands” estimate is accepted, that could amount to as little as one percent or less of priests having fathered a child. And as he further acknowledges, some of these priests “took their responsibility seriously.”

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TENNESSEE
Tennessean

Holly Meyer, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee Aug. 18, 2017

A Nashville priest reminded his congregation recently that suspected child abuse within their church community should be immediately reported to civil authorities.

Prompted by news of a lawsuit filed against Brentwood Academy, the Rev. Thomas McKenzie, who leads Church of the Redeemer, sent a letter to members reiterating the church’s reporting policy.

“This is just one of those moments where it’s now in the public consciousness and so I felt like we need to remind people of how this is supposed to be done,” said McKenzie, whose church is not connected to the school.

The lawsuit accuses the prestigious Christian school of not protecting a 12-year-old boy from repeated sexual assaults by teen boys in a locker room at the school.

McKenzie emphasized that he did not know what happened at Brentwood Academy, but the allegations prompted the need to revisit the congregation’s responsibility to children in its care.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
ANDREW KESHNER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, August 17, 2017

Two ex-administrators at a Brooklyn Hasidic school system are accused of taking food out of the mouths of children.

Elozer Porges, 43, and Joel Lowy, 29, formerly of the Central United Talmudic Academy, were indicted Thursday on charges that they bilked a federal school meal program out of $3 million — putting in claims on food that was never served.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors said the unreal meal scheme took place between 2013 and 2015. They said the pair padded reimbursement claims so they could reap larger checks from the U.S. Child and Adult Care Food Program — a program meant to feed at-risk children.

The FBI and the city Department of Investigation launched a joint investigation into the reimbursement process in 2014 — specifically looking at whether dinners were actually served at the Williamsburg schools.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Esquire

A new Spotlight investigation in The Boston Globe shows it’s high time.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
AUG 17, 2017

Now that all that pesky Oscar Buzz has died down, it’s important to note that my old Boston Phoenix running buddy, Mike Rezendes, is Still On The Case. As part of The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, Mike has written a sad and remarkable series about people who are the sons and daughters of purportedly celibate Roman Catholic clergy, and the shameful abandonment of those people by the institution for which their fathers worked.

Jim Graham couldn’t know in that moment that the stunning secret which had seemed his alone was not that unusual. By any reasonable measure, there are thousands of others who have strong evidence that they are the sons and daughters of Catholic priests, though most are unaware that they have so much company in their pain. In Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Paraguay, and other countries, in American cities big and small — indeed, virtually anywhere the church has a presence — the children of priests form an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect, a Spotlight Team review has found. Their exact number can’t be known, but with more than 400,000 priests worldwide, many of them inconstant in their promise of celibacy, the potential for unplanned children is vast.

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MINNESOTA
KEYC

By Kelsey Barchenger, Morning/Midday Anchor

A retired priest with the Diocese of New Ulm faces an allegation of sexual abuse.

A statement from the diocese says police and parishioners have been notified.

The alleged abuse dates back to the 1990s when Fr. James Devorak was assigned to the St. Pius X parish in Glencoe.

A statement from Bishop John LeVoir goes on to say Fr. Devorak’s last assignment in the Diocese of New Ulm ended in July of 2015 and the Diocese is unaware of any other abuse allegations.

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