ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

Child sexual abuse survivor and victims advocate Dassi Erlich posted publicly regarding her recent meeting with the Adass Israel School (Melbourne) board:

​On the 28th of July, Ted Baillieu accompanied me to a meeting with the Adass School board. With the board’s permission I recorded the meeting. I have attached some excerpts below. Overall, I felt the meeting was a positive step forward. I look forward to seeing their sincere apology followed up with sincere actions – public statements of support.

Transcription of Recording:

Abe Weiszberger: Now going to Rabbi Kluwgant, since your letter came along he is not working, only as a consultant in the school.

Dassi Erlich: Have you told the board, the parents that this is what his position is?

Abe Weiszberger: The parents have never been told that he is going to be that he is principal. The letter came out to the staff and I have been to the staff and explained to the staff exactly what is his position is.

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AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks

On behalf of several victims of child sexual abuse and other members of the community, I welcome the news that the Addas Israel School Board and (Rabbi) Meir Shlomo Kluwgant are parting ways.

Both Adass and Kluwgant have horrific histories when it comes to mishandling matters relating to child sexual abuse. Kluwgant’s appointment was a slap in the face to the Yeshivah victims who worked so hard to expose his true character and to the Adass victims who continue to suffer terribly as a result of the lack of education and poor decision-making of the Adass School Board. The appointment also needlessly brought the entire Adass community into disrepute and the community is entitled to question whether this Board can be trusted with ensuring the safety of their children and whether it is appropriate for them to continue in their current roles.

There were many parties who worked behind the scenes to ensure the right outcome was achieved and it was particularly heartening for many to see Rabbi Beck (long-standing head Rabbi of Adass), members of the Adass staff, members of the Adass community and the broader community standing up for victims on this occasion, something for which we have been crying out for too long.

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ISRAEL/UNITED STATES
YNet News

Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth investigate allegations against Haim Aharon Yosefi, a well-known figure in the Haredi world, for taking young, pregnant Haredi woman from Israel to the US to give birth before giving the child away in an ‘adoption’ arrangement for a fee; ‘If I tell you who I’m connected to, it’ll blow your mind,’ he tells undercover journalist.

Ariella Sternbach and Yehuda Shohat|Published: 13.08.17

Haim Aharon Yosefi—a well-known businessman and figure in the ultra-Orthodox world—trades in babies. He is a central figure in a network that allegedly takes young, pregnant Haredi women from Israel to the United States to give birth before giving the child away in an “adoption” arrangement for a fee.

In a series of meetings with undercover reporters from Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, Yosefi unwittingly provided a rare glimpse behind the curtain, openly divulging how he and his accomplices operate. He also revealed a string of other related activities including the distribution of pills to suppress sexual desire, forging identification documents and more.

Over the last few weeks, Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth sent “Devorah Leah,” a young Haredi woman with a cover story, to Yosefi. “I got pregnant by a married man, and I’m in trouble,” Devorah told Yosefi.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 14, 2017

Until the Guam Department of Education’s legal counsel is done researching personnel policies and rules, a science teacher who is named in the latest clergy sexual abuse lawsuit will continue his job at Simon Sanchez High School, an education official said.

Vernon T. Kamiaz has been accused of sexually abusing a minor, identified in local court documents only as E.M., who was taking confirmation classes between 1989 and 1990.

Kamiaz is a science teacher Sanchez High. Thursday is the opening of classes for public schools.

Kamiaz could not be reached for comment and did not respond to a message last week to his Facebook account, asking for comment.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Rachel Browne

Priests would no longer be able to use the secrecy of the confessional to avoid reporting allegations of child sexual abuse, a royal commission recommends in its latest report.

In the wide-ranging report into the criminal justice system, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has made 85 recommendations aimed at better protecting children.

One key recommendation is that failing to report information about child sexual abuse disclosed in confession should be made a criminal offence.

“The report recommends there be no exemption, excuse, protection or privilege from the offence granted to clergy for failing to report information disclosed in connection with a religious confession,” it read.

Australia’s Catholic archbishops were divided on the issue of the Seal of the Confessional when quizzed about it at a public hearing this year which was told that it had been used as an excuse not to report crimes.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun
August 14, 2017

The royal commission into child sexual abuse today said priests should be punished if someone taking confession admits to child abuse and the priest doesn’t tell police. Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart says no priest can break confidentiality – and doing so will hurt children by making abusers less likely to admit anything even to their priest.

From The Bolt Report – Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart says confession is a fundamental part of the freedom of religion, and must remain so in Australia:

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Danny Tran

Fairness and reform – that’s what the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says are its goals in releasing dozens of recommendations on the criminal justice system.

The royal commission has made a total of 85 recommendations, including major legal and policy changes which it hopes will be adopted across the nation to stamp out child abuse and prosecute more offenders.

But what are the most important changes being proposed, and how will they change the way Australia responds to child sex abuse?

1. You could be charged for failing to report child abuse

Most child abuse laws in Australia are aimed at perpetrators but this particular law will be aimed at other people, including the owners and managers of places that have children in their care.

The royal commission is recommending that state and territory governments make it a crime not to go to the police about child abuse.

But it goes further, arguing that reasonable people who “suspect, or should have suspected” that a child is being molested would be committing a crime if they did not go to the police.

The commission said the law was necessary, “particularly in light of the evidence we have heard from a number of senior representatives of institutions effectively denying that they had any knowledge or had formed any belief or suspicion of abuse being committed in circumstances”.

“Their denials are very difficult to accept,” it said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

ANALYSIS
By Noel Debien

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has just made recommendations that could electrically charge the relationship between church and state.

It has advised that legislators in Australian states and territories should enact laws to specifically overrule the confessional seal. The recommendation would require mandatory reporting to police from priests who hear confessions concerning child abuse.

The recommendations, if enacted, would place the church and the state in direct legal conflict and would require fundamental change within the international Catholic Church.

While priests in other Christians denominations do hear confessions, for many of Australia’s five and a half million Catholics the “seal of confession” is a sacred and secret matter, even when it comes to the heinous crime of child abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Drive

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recommended 85 changes to the law in a new report.

One of the most controversial recommendations is that clergy who fail to report information about child sexual abuse heard during confession, would face criminal charges.

The proposed change has already been met with opposition from some members of the Catholic Church because of the ‘seal of confession’.

Talkback caller Martin from Heidelberg, a Melbourne priest for 34 years, told Ali Moore on Drive, “We can’t reveal what someone says to us in confession…There’s a higher law and that is – I can’t reveal.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

August 14, 2017

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

Secrets of the confessional would no longer be an excuse for failing to report child sexual abuse under royal commission recommendations.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse today released 85 new recommendations to reform the nation’s criminal justice systems.

The report recommends making the failure to report child sex abuse in institutions a criminal offence, extending to religious confessions.

It specifically states that clergy should not be able to refuse to report a sex abuse crime detailed in the confessional.

The recommendation will spark an uproar, particularly in the Catholic Church, which treats as strictly confidential matters discussed in the confessional.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Melissa Davey and agencies
Sunday 13 August 2017

Clergy who refuse to report child sexual abuse because the information was received during a religious confession could face charges if recommendations for new institutional criminal offences are accepted.

The child abuse royal commission wants failure to report child sex abuse in institutions to be a criminal offence, extending to information given in religious confessions.

People in institutions who know, suspect or should have suspected a child is being sexually abused and fail to act should face criminal charges, it says in its criminal justice report released on Monday.

Stephen Woods – who was abused by the notorious pedophile priest Gerald Francis Ridsdale and the convicted pedophile brother Robert Charles Best while a student at St Alipius primary school in Ballarat– praised the commission for the recommendation but said it was overdue.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

Clergy who refuse to break the seal of confession to report child sex abusers to police may end up facing criminal charges.

The child abuse royal commission wants a new crime of failing to report child sexual abuse in institutions, including for those people who should have suspected the abuse.

The commission says the importance of protecting children from sexual abuse means there should be no exemption for clergy over information received during a religious confession, despite the Catholic Church believing the confessional seal must not be violated.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, says confession is a fundamental part of the freedom of religion that must continue to be recognised by Australian law.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

A Connecticut rabbi accused of repeatedly raping and molesting a teenage boy is set to make his first court appearance since being arrested last month.

Rabbi Daniel Greer is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in New Haven Superior Court on felony charges of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. His lawyer says he will plead not guilty, but it’s not clear if he will enter pleas Monday.

The 77-year-old Greer is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy who attended the Yeshiva of New Haven school from 2001 to 2005. Greer was a founder and principal of the school, which was established in 1977.

A federal jury in May awarded $15 million in damages to the now-former student in his lawsuit against Greer and the school.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Maeve Sheehan
August 13 2017

An international authority on excavating human remains has advised the expert group investigating the infant remains buried beneath the former mother and baby home in Tuam.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has worked to recover and identify bodies from mass graves in conflicts across the globe, has been consulted by the expert group, as it nears the end of its technical examination of the site.

The charity is a leading expert on searching for, recovering, analysing, identifying, and managing large numbers of unidentified remains in varying states of preservation. Extraction and analysis of DNA are among the key issues the group is considering.

An update, published on the Department of Children’s website last week, said that the group had also liaised with An Garda Siochana and the coroner for North Galway, who has a role in investigating sudden, suspicious or unnatural deaths. It has also liaised with the National Monuments Services and Forensic Science Ireland.

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ARGENTINA
US News

AP

By PAUL BYRNE, LUIS ANDRES HENAO and ALMUDENA CALATRAVA, Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Rufino Varela was a distraught, confused 12-year-old when he went looking for help from the school chaplain to tell him he’d been sexually abused by a mason at his family’s home.

Instead of aiding, Varela says, the Rev. Finnlugh Mac Conastair took off the boy’s pants, flogged him and fondled him in a room below the chapel at one of Argentina’s most prestigious schools. Then, the Irish priest known by many as “Father Alfredo,” offered him candy and told him that they should keep it as a secret with God.

“I had come looking for help, but I felt that it was a punishment from God,” Varela said. “I came back to the classroom, holding back tears, went home and never spoke about it.”

The secret was kept for nearly four decades. But in recent months, Varela’s decision to break his silence has led several other former students to denounce clerical abuse at a school that has educated President Mauricio Macri and many other members of Argentina’s elite.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Sean O’Neill, Chief Reporter
August 14 2017
The Times

A man who was thanked personally by Theresa May for his “invaluable assistance” in setting up the child abuse public inquiry has been excluded from its investigations.

Andi Lavery campaigned for the inquiry and met Mrs May when she was home secretary to describe the abuse he had suffered as a schoolboy from Benedictine monks. Mr Lavery said last night that he was “extremely distressed” and had been treated for self-harm since Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), ruled that she would not investigate Fort Augustus Abbey, the school where he was assaulted.

Mrs May wrote to Mr Lavery in 2015 thanking him for his “openness and honesty” and expressing the hope that he would “continue to work with the independent inquiry as your experiences and your knowledge will be invaluable”.

Professor Jay has ruled that because Fort Augustus is in Scotland it falls outside the remit of her inquiry, which is considering abuse at institutions in England and Wales.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

14 August, 2017

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released 85 recommendations aimed at reforming the Australian criminal justice system in order to provide a fairer response to victims of institutional child sexual abuse.

The report Criminal Justice, which was released today, recommends a sweep of legislative and policy changes. It includes reform to police and prosecution responses, evidence of complainants, sentences and appeals, and grooming offences. It also recommends new offences, including ‘failure to report’ and ‘failure to protect’.

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the criminal justice system is often seen as not being effective in responding to child sexual abuse cases and conviction rates are lower compared to other crimes.

“Child sexual abuse cases are often ‘word against word’ cases with no eyewitnesses or medical or scientific evidence. Complainants often take years or decades to disclose their abuse,” Mr Reed said.

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AUSTRALIA
BBC News

Catholic clerics should face criminal charges if they do not report sexual abuse disclosed to them during confession, an Australian inquiry has recommended.

It is among 85 proposals to emerge from a landmark inquiry into institutional abuse in the nation.

The inquiry had heard harrowing tales of abuse, which were never passed on to the relevant authorities.

The Church has indicated it will oppose altering the rules around confession.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which began in 2013, was contacted by thousands of victims from both religious and non-religious organisations.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

By Mark Bowling

PROTECTING the sacred dialogue between God and sinner in the confessional needs to be paramount if Australian lawmakers are to follow new recommendations proposed by the Royal Commission, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has said.

Archbishop Coleridge was responding to the recommendations made by Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that would require members of clergy to report information even if it is revealed in the confessional.

The recommendation was one of 85 contained in a report released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today.

The report, titled Criminal Justice, includes reform to police and prosecution responses, evidence of complainants, sentences and appeals, and grooming offences.

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AUSTRALIA
Hindustan Times

AP

Australia’s most powerful investigative authority has recommended that priests who fail to tell police about suspected child sexual abuse should face criminal charges, even when they learn of abuse through confession.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended in a report on Monday that all states and territories in Australia introduce legislation that would make it a criminal offense for people to fail to report child sexual abuse in an institutional setting. Clergy who find out about sexual abuse during a confidential religious confession would not be exempt from the law.

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AUSTRALIA
Crux

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says the right to practice one’s religious beliefs “must accommodate civil society’s obligation to provide for the safety of all and, in particular, children’s safety from sexual abuse.” Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement the inviolability of the seal of confession is a “fundamental part of the freedom of religion.”

A government commission in Australia on Monday said Catholic priests must violate the seal of confession if they hear about the sexual abuse of children.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established in 2013 to investigate how institutions like schools, churches, sports clubs and government organizations have responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

On Monday, it issued its report on criminal justice, including 85 recommendations for new legal standards.

Recommendation number 35 said laws on reporting sexual abuse of children “should exclude any existing excuse, protection or privilege in relation to religious confessions.”

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FRANCE
Sud Ouest

[Cardinal Barbarin and six other personalities of the church will appear before the courts in the case of priest Bernard Preynat. The case of Father Bernard Preynat, charged with “sexual assault on minors, will have a new episode in September at the Lyon Criminal Court before which Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and six others were summoned to appear by the victims. But this will be only a first step. As the Le Monde newspaper says, “the trial on the merits could open in early 2018”.]

Le cardinal Barbarin et six autres personnalités de l’église comparaîtront devant la justice dans le cadre de l’affaire Bernard Preynat

L’affaire du père Bernard Preynat, mis en examen pour “agressions sexuelles sur mineurs”, connaîtra un nouvel épisode en septembre au tribunal correctionnel de Lyon devant lequel le cardinal Philippe Barbarin et six autres personnalités de l’église ont été cités à comparaître par les victimes du prélat pour non dénonciation de faits.

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ILLINOIS
KWQC

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation that will remove the statutes of limitation for sexual abuse crimes.

Rauner signed the measure Friday. Sponsor state Sen. Michael Hastings of Frankfort says the legislation puts in place “best practices for dealing with sexual assault cases statewide and puts a system in place that will encourage survivors to come forward and receive justice when they are ready.”

Statutes of limitation restrict the time when authorities can charge someone after a crime occurs. The legislation Rauner signed removes those limitations for felony criminal sexual abuse and sex crimes against children. That will allow for the prosecution of those crimes at any time.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Catherine Pepinster
Saturday 12 August 2017

He has been an abbot, an author, a TV star and a radio breakfast show regular and has been described as the country’s most influential Benedictine monk since Cardinal Basil Hume. Now Christopher Jamison is to attempt his most important role: saviour of the reputation of his monastic order.

At the start of August the monks of the English Benedictine Congregation – an association of 13 Roman Catholic communities of monks and nuns – elected Jamison as their leader. His installation as abbot president came just days after Professor Alexis Jay confirmed that the public inquiry she is chairing into child sexual abuse in England and Wales would focus its hearings during October and November on scandals at Benedictine schools and monasteries. The choice of Jamison was almost certainly no coincidence.

The Benedictines have been mired in controversy for 20 years following a series of revelations about sex abuse scandals at their prestigious private schools, Ampleforth, Downside, Worth and St Benedict’s, Ealing, west London. And with both the independent inquiry into child sex abuse, led by Jay, and a separate crown court trial of a Benedictine abbot on child sex abuse charges taking place this autumn, the order and its educational establishments will be under severe scrutiny.

Listeners to Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast show, used to Jamison’s spiritual musings in its Pause for Thought slot, may be surprised to learn that he is taking on the difficult task of leading the order. Jamison is most at ease in front of a microphone and a camera. He has a knack of making Catholicism clear to a secular audience.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Breaking Newe

12/08/2017

Victims of institutional abuse in the North have urged the Secretary of State to intervene immediately to enable them to access stalled compensation payments.

Campaign group Survivors & Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia) urged James Brokenshire to act after holding a meeting with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling.

Mr Sterling met with the Panel of Experts on Redress – a body made up of individual survivors, survivor groups, human rights organisations, academics and lawyers – on Friday afternoon.

In January, a Stormont-commissioned inquiry into abuse committed in church and state run homes in the North recommended compensation payments for victims of up to £100,000 each.

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FRANCE
Le Monde

[In an interview with Le Monde, the prelate of Lyon denies having covered-up abuse by a priest.]

Le 24 juillet, il était à Karakoch pour célébrer une messe dans la grande ville chrétienne du nord de l’Irak, après l’éviction de l’Etat islamique de Mossoul. En septembre, il répondra à une citation à comparaître de victimes du père Bernard Preynat, un prêtre de son diocèse accusé d’avoir sexuellement agressé des enfants dont il avait la charge jusqu’en 1991.

Le cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 66 ans, qui fêtera en septembre le quinzième anniversaire de sa nomination à la tête de l’archevêché de Lyon, demeure l’une des principales voix de l’Eglise catholique en France. Prélat atypique, cet électron libre allie un conservatisme doctrinal et sociétal à une ouverture aux problèmes sociaux, un catholicisme d’affirmation et une proximité avec le pape François. Le primat des Gaules revient sur les leçons de l’affaire Preynat, les premiers pas du gouvernement et le pape François.

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FRANCE
Le Monde

[Cardinal Barbarin should be tried in early 2018 for non-denunciation of sexual assaults.The date is not yet fixed, but Cardinal Barbarin and six personalities of the church, including two bishops and one of the most senior Vatican officials, will have to answer in a few months for non-denunciation of sexual assaults on minors who have accused them of covering-up abuse by Father Bernard Preynat.]

Par Emeline Cazi

La date n’est pas encore fixée mais le cardinal Barbarin et six personnalités de l’Eglise, dont deux évêques et l’un des plus hauts responsables du Vatican, devront dans quelques mois répondre des faits de non-dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs dont les accusent depuis deux ans des victimes du père Bernard Preynat, réunies au sein de l’association La Parole libérée.

Le père Preynat, ancien aumônier scout de l’ouest lyonnais, mis en examen pour « agressions sexuelles sur mineurs », est suspecté d’avoir fait des dizaines de victimes au sein de la troupe Saint-Luc dont il a eu la charge pendant vingt ans. Les sept personnes citées à comparaître en auraient eu connaissance mais n’ont jamais alerté la justice. Une première audience évoquera l’affaire le 19 septembre. Le procès sur le fond pourrait s’ouvrir début 2018.

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FRANCE
Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon acknowledged shortcomings in his response to a pedophilia scandal in his archdiocese and said more rigorous checks were in place to prevent past errors in the appointment of priests being repeated.

In an interview with Le Monde, published ahead of the Aug. 15 Feast of the Assumption celebration, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin reiterated that he had never concealed acts of sexual abuse by Father Bernard Preynat, a priest under his authority.

Preynat is accused of sexually abusing Catholic boy scouts during the 1980s and early 1990s. He is due to appear before a court next month. Preynat’s lawyer has said the priest admits the abuse but that the cases have passed the legal statute of limitations when they were reported.

Prosecutors in 2016 extensively questioned Barbarin, one of France’s top Catholic clerics, over why Preynat’s activities had not been reported to civil authorities earlier before dropping their investigation into allegations of a cover-up.

Barbarin told Le Monde he became aware of Preynat’s activities in 2007. When he “knocked on doors” for advice nobody gave him a satisfactory answer, he said.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Saturday, August 12, 2017by Matthew Xuereb

The police and the Attorney General’s Office are likely to appeal the sentence handed down to Fr Charles Fenech, who was found guilty of the violent indecent assault of a vulnerable woman.

Sources have said the police were not happy with the punishment meted out to the former director of the Kerygma Movement, who was given a three-month jail term, suspended for a year.

Times of Malta is informed that the victim, who at the time had mental health problems, is also disappointed with the punishment.

According to the law, the police have eight working days – until Wednesday – to file a note in the acts of the case, through which they can express their intention to appeal.

The Attorney General will then be notified and, in turn, will have another eight days to file his appeal.

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RUSSIA
Latin American Herald Tribune

MOSCOW – A priest of the Russian Orthodox Church has been formally charged with recruiting women in Belarus and trafficking them to work as prostitutes in Russia, the Belarusian Investigative Committee announced on Friday.

The clergyman, identified as Nikolay Kireev, 39, was arrested on Aug. 3 in the northern Belarusian city of Vitebsk when he was about to board a bus to St. Petersburg accompanied by two women, aged 20 and 30.

According to a statement by the IC, police found that Kireev had allegedly persuaded the women, both of whom were Vitebsk residents, to move to St. Petersburg and work in the sex trade there.

The cleric, who served at the Peter and Pavel Cathedral in Imeni Morozova – a settlement on the banks of Lake Ladoga, near the Finnish border –, was put in pre-trial detention.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Evolve Politics

In an extraordinary interview recorded yesterday, a child abuse survivor who served on the Government’s independent inquiry into historic child sexual abuse has claimed she was silenced by Theresa May’s advisors to ensure that Ms May became Prime Minister.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of Ms Evans’ startling claims about her time serving on the inquiry.

Speaking to talkRADIO, Sharon Evans, a former journalist and the founder of Dot Com Children’s Foundation, said that the panel were “promised the child abuse inquiry would be open”, but after a short while she saw that it was ‘so obvious that everything was about the control and suppression of information” and that the supposedly independent inquiry had absolutely “no independence’.

Ms Evans claimed that the contracts panel members were made to sign by the Home Office were used to stop them from speaking openly about “very serious allegations about very public figures” – allegations which she says were taken back to the inquiry leaders, but ‘nothing was being done about” them.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

Claire Giangravè
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Through the years the Vatican has developed strong rules and regulations to fight sex abuse in the clergy, but two recent sex abuse scandals in Catholic lay associations show that in these cases the Church is still very slow to respond and that often local bishops fail to exercise the necessary monitoring.

ROME – In an effort to respond to cases and allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church over the years, Pope Francis has affirmed a “zero tolerance” policy and stressed that the Vatican must be committed to enforcing accountability.

Yet two recent scandals suggest that while the Church may have developed strong controls over clergy, in cases that involve lay organizations, it sometimes struggles to impose effective oversight.
“Let’s put it this way: The process in the Church for dealing with lay people has got no teeth,” Father Francis Morrissey, a Canadian expert on canon law, told Crux.

One case is rooted in Peru, where the leader of a lay Catholic movement called the Sodalitium of Christian Life was accused of sexually and physically abusing members.

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IRELAND
The Times (UK)

Ellen Coyne Senior Ireland Reporter
August 12 2017
The Times

Members of the Catholic Church must be prosecuted and punished for their role in the Magdalene laundries, the United Nations has said.

The UN committee against torture has unequivocally dismissed the state’s investigation into the institutions and claims damning documents showing church and state collusion against women have been ignored.

The international human rights body has said that the government must ensure that religious orders responsible for perpetrating abuse against women and children for decades must be forced to hand over evidence.

In 2011 the committee called for an independent investigation into the laundries, which helped lead to the McAleese commission and Enda Kenny’s apology in 2013 to the women who had been affected. Despite the apology, the state has maintained that it was not liable for how women and girls were treated in the institutions.

Finishing its second examination of Ireland’s compliance with torture laws yesterday, the committee criticised the McAleese commission, saying there had been no independent, thorough and effective investigation into the treatment of women.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Cormac O’Keeffe
Irish Examiner Reporter

The UN has criticised Ireland for failures in investigating allegations of ill-treatment of women at Magdalene laundries and for not prosecuting perpetrators.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) asked the Government to undertake a “thorough, impartial investigation” in this area and ensure that all victims obtain redress.

UNCAT said it was “seriously concerned” at the failure of the State’s delegation to it to provide further information regarding their claim that there have been a sizeable number of investigations into abuse at reformatory and industrial schools, as documented in the Ryan Report.

The committee, which monitors adherence to the UN Convention Against Torture, issued its concluding observations, after taking submissions from Irish NGOs and holding hearings with the Government.

In its observations, UNCAT called on the Government to:

* Bring in a specific offence of domestic violence, and ensure all such allegations are recorded by gardaí and investigated;
* Hold immigration detainees separate from people charged or convicted of criminal offences;
* Ensure solitary confinement is “never applied to juveniles” and to “urgently” undertake an independent review of the prison health-care system;
* Establish a national mechanism, which would have access to all places of deprivation of liberty.

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CANADA
Calgary Herald

Meghan Potkins, Calgary Herald

When Brian was a teenager, he attended the funeral of a man he says sexually abused him for months.

He sat in St. Mary’s Cathedral in January of 1983, for the special funeral mass presided over by the bishop: a solemn occasion befitting the untimely death of a much-loved priest.

“It was huge. Everyone in full regalia, and I was just one little person in this whole church,” recalls Brian.

“They saw him as a saint.”

On Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed in Calgary court against a religious order of the Catholic church, alleging decades-old sexual abuse at the hands of a Calgary priest and teacher at Bishop Grandin High School that left a former Calgary resident permanently scarred.

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SCOTLAND
Evening Times

Hannah Rodger @hannahwritesHT
Senior Reporter

AN INQUIRY into historic child sex abuse will examine practices at two west of Scotland orphanages during its next stage.

Phase two of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will hear evidence about two care homes in Lanark and Rutherglen run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

The inquiry has called for applications to give evidence about practices at Smyllum Park in Lanark and Rutherglen’s Bellevue House.

It has previously been reported that children who lived at the Smyllum Park orphanage endured years of harrowing treatment and abuse.

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IRELAND
Galway Bay FM

Galway Bay fm newsroom – There’s a call for further redress to survivors of Magdalene laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, such as those in Galway

The UN Committee Against Torture says its previous recommendations on historical abuse have either been only partially implemented, or not at all.

Following a review of Ireland’s compliance with the UN Convention on Torture and Other Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Ireland is complimented for its progress on ending the incarceration of children in adult prisons, and the Citizens Assembly, but it’s sharply critical of other issues.

The UN Committee against Torture or UNCAT says Ireland should undertake a thorough impartial investigation into Magdalene Laundries that has the power to compel witnesses and ensure punishment of those responsible.

The UNCAT also wants redress for survivors of Mother and baby homes, and is concerned that some survivors of institutional abuse have been left outside the now-closed redress scheme.

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IRELAND
Newstalk

[The Ryan Report – BishopAccountability.org]

The UN Committee against Torture has voiced “serious concern” over the lack of information provided by Irish State regarding investigations into historical abuse outlined in the Ryan Report.

The committee has published its final report on the Irish Government’s performance on issues including historic institutional abuse, detention and healthcare.

It has warned that its call for the State to investigate all allegations of ill-treatment of women at the Magdalene Laundries have not been implemented.

It said the state has also failed to prosecute those responsible and ensure that victims get redress for their suffering.

It has urged the Government to collect data on all criminal investigations undertaken by the gardaí into allegations of abuse at religious run institutions.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A United Nations committee has criticised the Government for failing to implement its recommendations to investigate allegations of ill treatment of women in Magdalene Laundries.

It has also called for urgent measures to improve the staffing of the Republic’s prisons and to convene an independent review of the entire prison health care system.

The report underlines many achievements in the six years since the UN Committee Against Torture’s previous review.

These include the creation of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the provision of community service as an alternative to imprisonment.

It also notes the 2013 McAleese Report on the State’s involvement with the Magdalene Laundries and the ex gratia scheme to help women who worked in the Laundries.

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IRELAND
The Journal

A UNITED NATIONS committee has criticised the government for its failure to undertake an independent investigation into allegations of ill-treatment at Magdalene Laundries.

It said that it “deeply regrets” that the Irish State has failed to prosecute and punish perpetrators, which was a recommendation it had made previously.

Last month, Minister David Stanton told the UN Committee Against Torture that Ireland had a “strong human rights record” and hailed positive developments that have been made since the last report on the matter submitted to the UN in November 2015.

On the issue of investigations, accountability and redress in the context of Magdalene Laundries, the UN committee said that it had noted the creation of an “ex-gratia scheme that has provided over €25.5 million to 677 former Magdalene women to date”.

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IRELAND
K FM

A UN Committee says its seriously concerned at the lack of information provided by the Irish State into investigations into historical abuse outlined in the Ryan Report.

The UN Committee against Torture has published its final report on the Irish Government’s performance on issues including historic institutional abuse, detention and healthcare.

It’s urged the Government to collect data on all criminal investigations undertaken by the Gardai into allegations of abuse at religious run institutions.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Marie O’Halloran

The UN Committee against Torture has called on the Government to carry out an independent investigation into allegations of ill-treatment at all mother and baby homes, not just some of them.

The committee said the inquiry should include claims of forced adoption and prosecution of perpetrators.

It criticised the Government’s failure to fully investigate allegations of ill-treatment in Magdalene laundries as the committee recommended six years ago.

The UN committee calls for a fundamental review of the prison system’s health care system, highlights the urgent need for increased staffing in prisons and warns the State that it must end solitary confinement in prisons as a punishment.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Catherine Devine

August 11 2017

The United Nations has criticised the Irish Government for failing to implement its recommendations to investigate allegations of ill treatment of women in Magdalene Laundries.

The UN Committee against Torture also criticises the Government for failing to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that victims have an enforceable right to compensation.

The Committee is the most important international human rights treaty that deals with torture. It obligates countries who are parties to the treaty to prohibit and prevent torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in all circumstances.　

In the report the Committee also highlighted the need to improve staffing at prisons and to review the prison healthcare system.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

August 11 2017

Victims of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland have urged the Secretary of State to intervene immediately to enable them to access stalled compensation payments.

Campaign group Survivors & Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia) urged James Brokenshire to act after holding a meeting with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling.

Mr Sterling met with the Panel of Experts on Redress – a body made up of individual survivors, survivor groups, human rights organisations, academics and lawyers – on Friday afternoon.

In January, a Stormont-commissioned inquiry into abuse committed in church and state run homes in Northern Ireland recommended compensation payments for victims of up to £100,000 each.

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CALIFORNIA
KTVU

SAN MATEO, Calif. (KTVU) – There are disturbing new details involving a San Mateo preschool teacher who was arrested back in April for taking lewd photos of his young students. For the first time, a parent of one of the victims is speaking out about the alleged crimes that happened at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School where the teacher was employed.

The mother said it’s been a traumatic experience. Her daughter has stomach aches every time she hears the teacher’s name. She wanted to come forward saying the school failed to protect her child.

The mother asked KTVU to conceal her identity. She found it odd when her eight-year-old asked her to buy her tights not realizing she said it was because her teacher Anthony Satriano wanted her wear them.

“She was very upset about something. One night, she had told me what had happened and that it made her feel weird and she didn’t know what to do,” said the mother.

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INDONESIA
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Catholic News Service
posted Thursday, 10 Aug 2017

Bishop Leteng of Ruteng, Indonesia, is accused of diverting funds to a mistress but denies the charge

The Vatican has appointed an apostolic visitor to investigate claims by Indonesian priests that their bishop had a mistress and misappropriated church funds.

Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunyamin of Bandung, Indonesia, told ucanews.com that the Vatican had asked him to look into the accusations against Bishop Hubertus Leteng of Ruteng, Indonesia.

Bishop Bunyamin, also general secretary of the Indonesian bishops’ conference, was scheduled to visit the diocese on Catholic-majority Flores Island next week, ucanews.com reported.

The appointment followed social media postings that Catholics in the Ruteng diocese living in Jakarta would gather at the apostolic nunciature for a vigil calling for a speedy resolution to the situation.

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INDONESIEN
Katholisch

[Serious accusations are raised by Indonesian priests against their bishop Hubertus Leteng: He is supposed to have embezzled church money and have an affair. Now the Vatican sends an investigator.]

Der Vatikan hat einen apostolischen Visitator für das indonesische Bistum Ruteng eingesetzt. Dem dortigen Bischof Hubertus Leteng werfen Priester der Diözese Veruntreuung von Kirchengeldern in Höhe von rund 100.000 US-Dollar und eine Beziehung zu einer Geliebten vor. Der Generalsekretär der indonesischen Bischofskonferenz, Bischof Antonius Subianto Bunyamin, soll nun im Auftrag des Vatikan die Vorwürfe untersuchen. Das sagte er dem Nachrichtenportal “UCAnews.com” am Dienstag (Ortszeit). Er wird nächste Woche in die Diözese auf die Insel Flores reisen.

Priester protestierten mit Kündigungen

Die Ernennung eines Ermittlers durch den Vatikan ist eine Reaktion auf die Protestaktion von Priestern des Bistums Ruteng: Im Juni 2017 hatten 69 Geistliche ihre Kündigungen als Pfarrpriester und Bischofsvikare eingereicht. Sie verlangten, dass Bischof Bunyamin die Vorgänge im Bistum Ruteng überprüfe. Sie reagierten damit auf Vorwürfe, Leteng habe sich heimlich 94.000 Dollar von der indonesischen Bischofskonferenz und 30.000 Dollar von der Diözese geliehen, ohne für dessen Verwendung Rechenschaft zu geben. Kurz vor dieser Protestaktion hatte Leteng die Vorwürfe nicht kommentieren wollen, berichtet das Nachrichtenportal.

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SCOTLAND
SBS

Dan Vevers

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry will resume hearing evidence as part of the first phase of its investigations in October.

The inquiry is examining historical allegations about the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

Fresh hearings to wrap up the inquiry’s first phase will begin in Rosebery House in Edinburgh on October 31 and will include expert testimony.

Investigators also announced they will launch the second phase of the inquiry on November 28, which will start by focusing on two children’s homes in South Lanarkshire run by the Catholic Church.

They are Smyllum Park in Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen, both run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

By Chris Morris

The Catholic Church is defending its decision not to defrock a paedophile priest who abused boys in Dunedin.

It was confirmed this week Magnus (Max) Murray, now aged 90, is in the care of a Catholic-owned rest-home in Auckland. Despite admitting 10 charges of sexual offending against boys in Dunedin, dating back to the 1950s, Fr Murray has retained his status as a priest following his conviction in 2003, the church has confirmed.

It was a discovery that outraged Murray Heasley, the head of a group of former pupils campaigning for Kavanagh College to adequately acknowledge its links to Fr Murray’s dark past.

He was a teacher at St Paul’s High School, which later became Kavanagh College, at the time of his offending.

A picture of him was on the college’s honours wall until earlier this year, when a complaint from Dr Heasley and 12 other former pupils prompted its removal.

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MICHIGAN
WXYZ

[with video]

Kim Russell
Aug 9, 2017

KIMBALL, Mich. (WXYZ) – A young woman went to investigators at the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office and said she went to her pastor asking for help getting forgiveness for her sins.

He offered an anointing ritual but what happened during that ritual has her believing she is a victim of sexual assault.

Justine Morden says she worshipped at Grace Ministries in Kimball for years.

Last year she decided she wanted to repent for her sins, strengthen her relationship with god, and get more involved – so she met with Pastor Mitch Olson for counsel.

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CANADA
CBC News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize to former students of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Prime Minister’s Office confirms that Trudeau will apologize in Labrador.

An exact date and location have not been confirmed, but an update is expected later this summer.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper excluded the province’s former residential schools from a national apology and compensation package in 2008.

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MEXICO
Proceso

[MEXICO CITY (AP) – Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera testified before the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) on 26 July that he had heard of one accusation of pederasty against one of its priests, who is already “being prosecuted criminally,” with information that the “own archdiocese provided to the ministerial authority.”]

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (apro).- En su comparecencia ante la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), realizada el pasado 26 de julio, el cardenal Norberto Rivera Carrera, arzobispo primado de México, declaró que tuvo conocimiento de una sola acusación de pederastia contra uno de sus sacerdotes, el cual ya está “siendo enjuiciado penalmente”, con información que la “propia arquidiócesis proporcionó a la autoridad ministerial”.

De esta manera, el cardenal respondió personalmente a la demanda penal que, el pasado 2 de junio, interpusieron en su contra Alberto Athié y José Barba, quienes lo acusaron de haber encubierto a 15 sacerdotes de su arquidiócesis acusados de pederastia.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
National Post (Canada)

[Revelan escena de crimen de adolescente se extendió por toda la casa cural – Diario Libre]

AP

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — A Dominican judge on Thursday found enough evidence to hold a Catholic priest in jail for one year after police detained him in the killing of a 16-year-old who once served as an altar boy in his church.

Prosecutors said the victim, Fernelis Carrion, was hit twice in the back of the head with a hammer, suffocated with a plastic bag and stabbed nearly a week ago. They also said his hands and feet were tied with shoelaces and that he was gagged.

Police arrested 41-year-old Rev. Elvis Taveras after the teen’s body was found near a road north of the capital Monday.

“A person who does something like this is not human, they never were, they’re the devil!” yelled the victim’s father, Freddy Carrion, after the court hearing ended.

Local law allows Dominican authorities to temporarily hold suspects in jail before a trial as authorities continue to investigate a case.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 11, 2017

Three former Guam seminarians, including two from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona, have been sent to St. Patrick’s Seminary in California.

A committee of Catholic priests said last year the Yona seminary — which is run by the Neocatechumenal Way — may need to be closed for the good of the Archdiocese of Agana unless the seminary can clarify its purpose, seek formal accreditation to ensure the quality of its priest formation program, and ensure its financial independence.

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes decided to send the three seminarians to St. Patrick’s Seminary, which for decades has had strong ties with the Archdiocese of Agana, the archdiocese said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Ealing Today

The former Abbot of Ealing Abbey, 73-year-old Laurence Soper has denied charges of sexual abuse against ten underage boys in a short hearing at the Old Bailey.

The 18 counts he is accused of date back to the seventies and eighties when he was teaching at St Benedict’s School.

He had failed to return when arrested and bailed in 2011 and a European Arrest Warrant was issued for him in 2012. He was detained in Kosovo last year after reportedly living in the country for several years. The extradition process was started at this point to bring him back to the country.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 10, 2017

Guam – The Catholic Church has scheduled a conference to finalize the mediation process to be utilized in the sex abuse lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Guam.

According to Court documents, 73 of the Church Abuse cases are participating in the mediation. At this time, all parties are working together to determine how each proposed mediation process differs and ultimately decide on which mediation process they will follow.

Attorney Anthony Perez says, “my understanding from the church’s side is they want to meet September 5th to finalize the process. On my end correspondence has been ongoing. We have already submitted our proposal which is based upon Hawaii mediation order.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

R.B. Eusebio Published Aug. 11, 2017

The recent media headlines reporting allegations of sexual impropriety involving Rev. Justin Wachs in the diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is recycled news from a news report from June. As reported, Wachs served as a notary for the Vatican tribunal investigating sex abuse charges against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

However, he is not one of the five judges tasked with examining evidence, evaluating and determining the validity of the evidence and finally rendering judgment. He has no say or influence in the case’s outcome.

Nevertheless, all the media appear to deem this newsworthy enough to publish as the expected conclusion of the trial draws near. Yet it aligns with the schema of those who stand to gain from Apuron’s permanent ouster from the island.

Why? By discrediting the Vatican tribunal — which has conducted the most thorough investigation into the claims against Apuron to date — those accusing the Church have more leeway to negotiate via mediation a growing number of unproven sex abuse claims. They have steered the public, via the media, to question his innocence and deemed him guilty before, during and now, near the conclusion of his trial, by discrediting the legal process.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Angelus

Catholic News Agency

The National Police of the Dominican Republic have arrested a priest on suspicion of killing a teenager, who was allegedly sexually abused by the cleric while serving as an altar boy.

Fernely Carrión had been missing since Aug. 4, after a taxi driver dropped the 16 year-old boy off with Father Elvin Taveras. The boy’s body was later found along the road of Los Mina, a sector located outside of Santo Domingo Este. Reports indicate the teen was stabbed several times.

The young man had lived in El Torito and Villa Mella, where the priest said Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. Carrión began altar serving for Father Elvin at 10 years-old. Father Elvin has also been accused of molesting Carrión, who was allegedly being paid by the priest to remain silent.

According to a Aug. 8 statement by the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, the priest will be suspended from his duties and the church will fully cooperate with the police. The victim’s family was distraught over the news but relieved that the priest is in custody and that plans for legal action are underway, reported Hoy Digital.

Freddy Carrión, the father of the victim, said “justice has been done, a person who does something like that is not a priest,” according to the news agency. Prosecutor Olga Diná Llaverías said that both he and the victim’s family will be aiming for “the maximum sentence of 30 years” for the priest.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Frances Perraudin
Thursday 10 August 2017

Calls are being made for urgent research into the “boyfriend model” of sex abuse that was used by the Newcastle sex trafficking network and others in high-profile grooming scandals.

It is characterised by a vulnerable person being encouraged to believe they are in a loving relationship with their abuser. The victims are often then coerced into having sex with the abuser’s friends or associates.

In a series of four trials at Newcastle crown court, juries found 17 men and one woman guilty of nearly 100 offences between 2011 and 2014 – including rape, human trafficking, conspiracy to incite prostitution and drug supply.

The female victims, who were between the ages of 13 and 25, were plied with alcohol and drugs before being sexually assaulted. Northumbria police characterised the abuse as following the boyfriend model.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Herald Live

August 11, 2017 Bongani Mthethwa

Supporters of sex-pest accused Nigerian pastor Tim Omotoso will take to the streets of Durban today in solidarity with the controversial televangelist.

He has been charged with human trafficking and sexual violence.

The Jesus Dominion International church and its members are demanding that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) stop delaying Omotoso’s case – and also that he be released on bail.

The church has warned that the charges against their pastor could result in xenophobic violence.

“The allegations against him have never been tested in any court of law,” the church said yesterday.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
11 Aug 2017

THE Marist Brothers order has paid compensation to a former Hunter student who alleged he was sexually abused by a lay teacher in the 1970s, and physically assaulted so severely that he was treated by an ambulance officer on one occasion.

The former Marist Maitland student alleged he was physically and emotionally abused by four male lay teachers and three Marist Brothers, including former principal and convicted child sex offender Brother Nestor, also known as John Aloysius Littler, and sexually abused by a lay teacher outside the school.

The order denied the allegations and did not admit “any wrongdoing for any of the claims”, but agreed to a financial settlement with the man in December that included recognition of his need for on-going counselling and treatment.

The settlement occurred only weeks after a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Newcastle heard shocking evidence of sexual and physical abuse of students at Marist Brothers schools at Maitland and Hamilton.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 10, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Another case of clergy sexual abuse filed today. This time, against Brother Vernon T. Kamiaz of Agana Heights Church who, according to Simon Sanchez High School’s website, is a science teacher at the Yigo campus.

The alleged incidents occurred in 1989 or 1990 when victim E.M. was about 15 or 16 years old and attending confirmation classes instructed by Brother Vernon.

According to the complaint, Brother Vernon insisted on talking about E.M. and his sexual relations with his girlfriend who wanted to wait until marriage to have sex.

E.M. alleges that during a car ride, Brother Vernon reached over and grabbed his private parts announcing “I’m trying to teach you what to do so you can have sex with her.”

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GUAM
USA Today

Haidee V. Eugenio, Pacific (Guam) Daily News Aug. 10, 2017

HAGÅTÑA, Guam — A Capuchin brother is accused of sexually abusing a boy by grabbing his private parts, purportedly to teach the child how to have sex with his girlfriend, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Guam Superior Court.

The suit represents the 97th person alleging clergy sexual abuse. The lawsuits so far have been filed in both local and federal courts and involve the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agaña or a religious order.

“Brother Vernon (T. Kamiaz) told plaintiff that he could teach plaintiff how to ‘break down her defenses’ so that he could have sex with her,” according to the lawsuit. “Plaintiff objected, saying that he respected his girlfriend’s wishes to abstain until marriage.”

The alleged abuse happened between 1989 and 1990 while the boy, identified as E.M., was taking confirmation classes at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Agaña Heights, about a mile south of Hagåtña where Kamiaz was the instructor, the lawsuit states. E.M. was 15 or 16 years old.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post Aug 10, 2017

An incident in a car with a catechism instructor has haunted a man for the last 27 years, causing him to suffer from severe anxiety attacks, according to a sex abuse civil lawsuit that was filed yesterday in the Superior Court of Guam.

E.M., who used his initials to protect his identity, filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana, the Capuchin Franciscans and Brother Vernon Kamiaz.

Kamiaz is identified as a religious clergyman and/or lay brother of the Capuchin Order, who was the instructor for confirmation classes at the Agana Heights parish in 1989 and 1990. The lawsuit seeks to hold him liable for alleged wrongful conduct.

The complaint alleges that when E.M. was 15, and was attending confirmation classes at the Agana Heights parish, Kamiaz began questioning the teen about engaging in sexual relations with his girlfriend.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Peggy Wright, @PeggyWrightDR Aug. 10, 2017

MORRISTOWN – The Diocese of Paterson on Thursday refuted a suggestion that a Polish priest who is charged with groping a 13-year-old girl in Boonton may have skipped some training and put on an ordination fast-track.

Before the accused priest, Rev. Marcin A. Nurek, 37, appeared Wednesday in Superior Court, Morristown, a former priest who co-founded a company to assist people sexually abused by clergymen led a protest in front of the courthouse. Besides saying he was there in support of the allegedly-groped teen, Robert Hoatson said he wondered whether Nurek truly completed all his training since he only arrived in the United States from Poland in 2015.

Nurek was ordained a Catholic priest on July 1. On Aug. 3, he allegedly followed a group of young girls down a Boonton street, grabbed the buttocks of one girl under her skirt but over her underwear and said she was “sexy.” He was apprehended shortly after the encounter and is charged with criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Nurek spent six nights in the Morris County jail before a Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered his release pretrial under special conditions that include having no contact with children and reporting to the court twice a month. Nurek was released from the jail Wednesday night after supplying the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office with his passport.

Richard Sokerka, director of communications for the Diocese of Paterson, said that Nurek completed all educational and programmatic requirements before being ordained. Sokerka said that any suggestion that Nurek was fast-tracked is false.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Thursday, August 10, 2017 by Ramona Depares

I’m fed up of having to write these posts, seriously. Then again, the alternative is to just accept everything without a whisper, allowing the system to ride roughshod on unfortunate individuals as it pleases.

So, despite, knowing that I will not make the slightest iota of difference, I’m still here, typing away to put my disappointment and disgust with our legal system on record, for posterity.

Maybe in a few centuries’ time, if Earth is still around, future lecturers in legal history will point their fingers at Maltese case-law from the 21st century and do the whole LMFAO thing (if that is also, still around) before turning to students to explain exactly why those Malteasers really had no clue.

We’ve had dozens of sexual assault and rape cases where the perpetrators were pretty much let off scot free. This latest one though, starring none other than former Kerygma golden boy Charles Fenech, takes the biscuit, the cake and the whole flipping confectionery. Charles Fenech has not so much gotten off scot free, as much as he is actually being given a conciliatory pat on the back.

The facts: priest in a position of authority and respect takes advantage of a person undergoing several mental problems and sexually assaults her on multiple occasions. His reward? A three-month suspended sentence and an ‘u ijja, she says he filled an emotional void in her life’. Oh yeah, and because “by her own admission, she saw him as a caring paternal figure”.

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MALTA
Malta Independent

Helena Grech
Thursday, 10 August 2017

Fr Charles Fenech, former leader of the philanthropical Kergyma movement, was found guilty of sexually abusing a vulnerable person, landing him a three-month jail term suspended for one year.

Fenech was also charged with detaining a woman against her will and offending a person’s morals in a public sphere. He was acquitted of the last two charges.

The woman involved had testified in court, about how separation from her husband had left her very depressed, and that Fenech had become a patriarchal figure in her life.

The woman filed her first police report in August 2011. She was working at Dar Tal-Providenza and described how the priest had urged her to perform oral sex on him. Battling depression, she was eventually admitted to Mt Carmel psychiatric hospital to receive treatment.

She testified that at a later stage when she was in a better place, celebrations were being hosted at her home and Fenech was among the guests. At one point, the priest asked to speak with her alone and attempted to give her a French kiss, the victim testified.

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MALTA
Malta Today

Matthew Agius 10 August 2017

Former Kerygma director Fr Charles Fenech has been found guilty of attempted violent indecent assault, but cleared of illegal arrest and committing indecent or immoral acts in public.

It was in December 2014 that Fenech, 57, from Rabat, was charged before Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona with sexually abusing a woman in her 40s who was working at the Dar tal-Providenza at the time.

The woman had told police in 2011 that she been going through a period of turmoil, due to her separating from her husband and had been admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital after attempting suicide. She had explained that she had also been part of the Kerygma movement and had found an understanding and caring ear in Fr Fenech.

After her release from hospital, she had held a party at her home and invited her close friends, amongst them the accused. At one stage Fr Fenech had isolated her and attempted to French kiss her, but she had refused.

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MALTA
Associated Press

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A Maltese priest has been handed a suspended three-month sentence after he was found guilty of violent indecent assault on a woman who was undergoing psychiatric care.

The woman testified that Charles Fenech, 57, a priest who was popular in the Mediterranean island nation in the 1990s for organizing activities to raise funds for disabled people, forced her to perform oral sex on him on several occasions in 2011.

The woman was under the care of a psychiatrist after trying to commit suicide while her marriage was breaking up.

The verdict Thursday was the first involving a Maltese priest accused of sexually abusing an adult. In 2011, two Maltese priests were sentenced to a total of 11 years in jail for sexually abusing minors.

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PHILIPPINES
The Manila Times

MARIKINA City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro has ordered the sacking of the city police women and children protection desk’s chief for mishandling the case of Msgr. Arnel Lagarejos, and sought a reinvestigation of the case by the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Teodoro said he ordered the relief of Chief Insp. Melanie Redon after some pieces of evidence went missing in the case against the priest who was recently caught with a 13-year-old girl on the way to a motel.

The mayor cited, among others, that there was no mention in Redon’s report of Lagarejos’ gun during the arrest and his cellphone, which was allegedly returned to the priest.

Teodoro said these are material pieces of evidence vital to the investigation.

He added they are preparing to file a motion for reconsideration on the prosecutors’ resolution accusing Lagarejos only for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, and released him after posting P120,000 bail last week.

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
Diario Libre

[SANTO DOMINGO. Prosecutor for the province of Santo Domingo, Olga Diná Llaverías, said that suspended priest Elvin Taveras Durán, accused of killing the minor Fernelis Carrión Saviñón, fell silent during the first interview held between the Attorney General and his defense lawyers, so the alleged admission of homicide to investigating police officers is not evidence that can be sustained in the merits trial.]

SANTO DOMINGO. La fiscal de la provincia Santo Domingo, Olga Diná Llaverías, declaró que el sacerdote suspendido Elvin Taveras Durán, acusado de matar al menor Fernelis Carrión Saviñón, calló durante la primera entrevista sostenida entre el Ministerio Público y sus abogados defensores, por lo que la supuesta admisión del homicidio ante los agentes policiales investigadores no es una prueba que se pueda sostener en el juicio de fondo.

“Por el momento la confesión no representa un elemento probatorio, por eso el Ministerio Público tiene que agenciarse sus propias pruebas. Ha habido una entrevista, no ha sido un interrogatorio con su representante”, declaró.

“El Ministerio Público continuará la investigación para arrojar elementos que puedan fortalecer la imputación que se ha hecho de manera provisional porque no sabemos con qué podemos encontrarnos en el camino”, dijo la fiscal y a seguidas agregó: “Por el momento el Ministerio Público ha presentado pruebas que lo vinculan al hecho, pero el Ministerio Público tiene el compromiso de presentar todos los elementos de prueba necesario para una acusación fuerte”.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
La Croix

Police in the Dominican Republic have arrested a Catholic priest for the murder of a 16-year-old who previously served as an altar boy in his church.

Father Elvin Taveras was detained after being questioned by police and prosecutors who searched his residence in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

The priest is also accused of sexually abusing the teenager, and paying for his silence.

Fernely Carrion’s body was found in long grass along a road in the outskirts of the capital.

A taxi driver told the Diario Libre newspaper that he had taken the teen to meet the priest and that Taveras paid the fare.It is not clear how the boy was killed.

Taveras has been suspended from his duties as a precaution, Santo Domingo Archdiocese said in a statement on Aug. 8.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

An ex-Roman Catholic priest has denied sexually abusing 10 boys at a west London school in the 1970s and 80s.

Laurence Soper, 73, is charged with 18 counts of sexual assault against boys aged under 16, at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he taught.

The former Abbott of Ealing Abbey appeared before the Old Bailey via video link and spoke only to confirm his name and deny the charges.

He is due to go on trial at the same court on 2 October.

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UNITED STATES
Gold Derby

[with video]

Zach Laws
Aug 9, 2017

During our recent webcam chat (watch the exclusive video above), director Ryan White describes the Emmy nomination for his multi-part documentary “The Keepers” as “a validation of the people who shared their stories in the series, and how brave that was of them.” This Netflix original examines the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, an English teacher at Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School, and the belief held by former students she was murdered to cover-up rampant child sexual abuse by one of the school’s priests, A. Joseph Maskell. “I know it was very rewarding for them to hear we got an Emmy nomination,” reveals White of the films subjects.

The documentarian divulges he first became interested in the story through a personal connection.

“My family is a big Catholic family in Baltimore,” he explains, “and my aunt was Sister Cathy’s student.” From there, he was introduced to Jean Wehner (a.k.a. Jane Doe), a former student who was repeatedly abused by Maskell. White admits he “had no idea how deep and dark the story actually ran.”

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BRAZIL
Folha de Sao Paulo

08/09/2017

ANA ESTELA OF SOUSA PINTO
FROM SÃO PAULO

The Labor Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo heard pastors Juarez and Solange Oliveira, founders of the Rhema Community Evangelical Ministry (Ministerio Evangelico Comunidade Rhema), regarding a forced labor investigation, on Tuesday (8).

In July, Associated Press news agency published statements from former members of the Rhema Community claiming they were forced to work in the American church Word of Faith Fellowship, in Spindale, North Carolina.

The churches deny the allegations.

CORRECTIONS

Evangelical churches encourage members to pitch in, according to researchers who study the subject. However, lack of material or psychological support and the emphasis on supernatural forces may make it easier to explore followers.

According to Mr. Corrêa (pseudonym), who left Rhema a year ago, the influence of Americans changed the Brazilian church. “It was a normal, pleasant Evangelical church. Then, they began to adopt harsh procedures.”

According to him, it was then that the “corrections” began: scolding and public or private humiliation, including physical aggression.

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NEW JERSEY
PIX 11

[with video]

AUGUST 9, 2017, BY MAGEE HICKEY

MORRISTOWN, NJ — A newly ordained Roman Catholic priest accused of groping a 13-year-old girl under her skirt won’t have to remain in jail while the charges are pending in New Jersey.

Rev. Marcin Nurek, newly ordained, wore an orange jumpsuit instead of a priest collar in court Wednesday. His hands looked like they were clasped in prayer, but they were really just holding up handcuffs.

He said little in court, but Judge Paul Armstrong said a lot.

Specifically, the judge detailed the allegations that this 37-year-old priest from Poland, who was set to become parochial vicar of Saint Catherine of Sienna Church in Mountain Lakes next week, instead stands accused of a crime involving a 13-year-old girl on a downtown Boonton street

“Female xx states that he groped her under her skirt and over her underwear,” Judge Paul Armstrong said. “The defendant then self admitted to touching victim on her buttocks.”

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REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
CDN

[con video]

Santo Domingo RD.- Miembros de la zona parroquial donde el ex sacerdote Elvis Taveras Durán ofrecía oficios religiosos expresan sentirse sorprendidos por el asesinato competido por el religioso al joven Fernely Carrión.

Este miércoles fue oficiada una misa en la Capilla Nuestra Señora de Fátima del sector El Tamarindo, donde el ex cura presidía los orificios religiosos los domingos.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Associated Press

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Authorities in the Dominican Republic have detained a Catholic priest as a suspect in the killing of a 16-year-old who previously served as an altar boy in his church.

The Rev. Elvis Taveras was taken into custody after questioning by police and prosecutors who searched his residence in eastern Santo Domingo. He was expected to make his initial appearance before a judge Thursday.

Prosecutor Gilberto Castillo said he would seek to have the priest held while authorities continue the investigation. Taveras did not yet have a lawyer.

Fernelis Carrion’s body was found in brush along a road leading north out of the capital. A taxi driver told newspaper Diario Libre that he had taken the teen to meet the priest and that Taveras paid the fare. Authorities have not disclosed the cause of death.

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PHILIPPINES
Cebu Daily News

By: Sofia Aliño Logarta
@cebudailynews

Recent cases of sexual abuse, especially of minors, move us to reflect on certain characteristics of our society. The report on incest shows how some parents view their children.

Fathers in the case of incest feel they have a right to do as they please because the children belong to them. This sense of ownership has been seen in the cases of cyberpornography that victimized our children.

Mostly this has resulted in a degree of emotional, psychological confusion on the part of the children who had been victims. With the presence of child and women advocates, these children have undergone debriefing. Those who had not benefited from these experienced lifelong trauma from such violation.

Before, I noticed a great deal of victim-blaming. Why was she roaming around late at night?

She deserves such treatment because of that provocative get-up. Aside from those, complainants became further victimized by macho jokes. Recently I have been relieved to hear that there has been assistance and a variety of support.

The action of church officials towards the priest charged with qualified trafficking (accused of using the services of a pimp to have sexual services of a young girl — both minors) has been speedy and business like, with no defensive statements.

This an improvement from our being asked to stop pursuing a case of a priest accused of sexual harassment.

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NEW JERSEY
Associated Press

MOORISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — A newly ordained Roman Catholic priest accused of groping a 13-year-old girl under her skirt won’t have to remain in jail while the charges are pending in New Jersey.

A judge ruled Wednesday, rejecting requests from Morris County prosecutors that the Rev. Marcin Nurek remain jailed until the matter is resolved or be required to wear a monitoring device.

The 37-year-old priest was charged last week with child endangerment and criminal sexual contact. He’s accused of touching the girl’s buttocks over her underwear and telling her she was “sexy.”

The Diocese of Paterson has put Nurek on administrative leave. But his lawyer said Wednesday that the diocese has offered to provide Nurek with housing while the charges are pending.

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NEW JERSEY
WABC

By Toni Yates
Wednesday, August 09, 2017

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (WABC) — Authorities say a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest in New Jersey has been charged with groping a teen girl under her skirt.

38-year-old Father Marcin Nurek came into court in handcuffs, and stood next to his attorney, who has a gazillion doubts about this case.

“My sense is that something doesn’t smell right,” William Ware, Nurek’s attorney.

He says Nurek, of Poland, dreamed all his life of becoming a priest.

“The whole allegation is bizarre. He doesn’t know this person, he has no history of this,” Ware said.

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NEW JERSEY
News 12

[with video]

MORRIS COUNTY –
A newly ordained Roman Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a teenage girl was ordered to surrender his passport and cannot have contact with the victim or other children.

The Rev. Marcin Nurek, a polish immigrant, appeared before a Morris County Judge Wednesday. Nurek is accused of putting his hand under a 13-year-old girl’s skirt and rubbing her buttocks over her underwear. He also allegedly told her that she was “sexy.”

Police say that Nurek admitted to doing all of this, but his defense attorney questions if that is true.

“We heard a lot today about the admissions on part of the defendant. Well did he have an interpreter? Because he doesn’t speak English and what little he does is limited,” says attorney William Ware. “I’m curious about the admissions because it’s apparently a big part of the state’s case.”

Ware ways that Nurek also has no history of this type of behavior.

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UTAH
Daily Herald

Kurt Hanson
Daily Herald

An LDS bishop charged with sexually abusing two underage males in his ward is expected to enter into a plea deal soon.

The defendant, Erik Hughes, appeared Wednesday in Fourth District Court before Judge Thomas Low with his attorney, John Allan.

Allan told Low he and David Sturgill, Utah County deputy attorney, are prepared to enter into a plea agreement.

“We have a resolution but we’re trying to tie up a few ends,” Allan said.

Allan asked for another hearing in two weeks where it is likely that Hughes, 51, will enter pleas. He was arrested just 49 days ago.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Inquiry has commissioned the Secure Societies Institute at the University of Huddersfield to provide us with a review of the most up to date available information that can be used to quantify the scale of online-facilitated child sexual abuse. The findings will help pinpoint areas where further research is needed and help inform the Inquiry’s investigation into the Internet and CSA’. They may also inform recommendations for policy and practice. The Inquiry and the University of Huddersfield are asking organisations to let us know about any unpublished literature or ongoing research in this area. Full details of the request can be found in the library on our website.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

The second phase of hearings in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry is to open with a case study centring on care establishments run by a Catholic order.

The independent inquiry is looking in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care in Scotland.

The inquiry has been separated into a series of phases, the first of which continues on 31 October.

Phase two starts on November 28 with a study of homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

Applications to appear in relation to this case study are now open, with a particular focus on Smyllum Park in Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen. The deadline for applications to appear, for people with a direct or substantial interest in the hearings, close on 4 September.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Times Live

10 August 2017

BY BONGANI MTHETHWA

Supporters of sex pest accused Nigerian pastor Tim Omotoso will take to the streets of Durban on Friday in solidarity with the controversial televangelist‚ who has been charged with human trafficking and sexual violence.

The Jesus Dominion International Church and its members are demanding that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) stop delaying Omotoso’s case and that he be released on bail. The church has also warned that charges against their pastor could result in xenophobic violence.

“The allegations against him have never been tested in any court of law. As South African members of the Jesus Dominion International we feel that these allegations are politically motivated and have a potential to create xenophobic sentiments and violence‚” the church said in a statement.

Omotoso was arrested in a bathroom at the Port Elizabeth International Airport in April. The 59-year-old father of three is alleged to have molested and raped at least 30 young women who attend his church.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

David. J. Sablan Aug. 10, 2017

The sexual abuse of our children by members of our Catholic clergy is the worst violation of trust, when supposedly holy men take advantage of our young for their own pleasure. This is truly sad and our prayers continually go out to the victims and their families.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s administration of our archdiocese was a disaster.

As a result, many in the community have lost trust and confidence in the leadership of our Church, and it is still at a very low point. People still are hesitant to contribute to the support of the chancery and anything it does until they are sure their money is being put to good use for the well-being and future of our Church.

Assessments

So now comes this announcement from chancery officials that effective July 1, 2017, and monthly thereafter (no end date stated), all 14 Catholic schools on Guam are directed to pay $12 per student per month to cover the annual debt service and old accounts payable owed by two Catholic schools.

Additionally, there’s another $25 per student per year to fund an office in the chancery of the Archdiocese of Agana, established to support the schools with a “system of administrative, accounting and human resource support for our schools.”

On the surface, this may seem to be a prudent assessment of students in schools still operating, to cover debts of two other Catholic schools: one which closed and whose debt balance of $2.4 million, plus payables of about $60,000, was assumed by the archdiocese; and the other which fell behind in paying its past-due accounts totaling approximately $180,000.

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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Alan Simpson

THE second phase of the Scottish child abuse inquiry will further investigate controversial children’s homes run by a Catholic Order of nuns.

It is examining historical allegations of the abuse of children in care and has been taking statements from witnesses since last spring.

Officials said the first part of the second phase starting in autumn will focus on homes run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, such as Smyllum Park in Lanark and Bellevue House in Rutherglen.

The head of the religious order which ran the controversial children’s homes has already described allegations of abuse as a “mystery”.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Legal News

A child abuse survivors’ group has spoken of hope that interim payments for historical child abuse victims could be agreed this week with David Sterling, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Margaret McGuckin of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (SAVIA) is on the expert panel meeting Mr Sterling on Friday.

The Panel of Experts on Redress was recently told by Jeffrey Donaldson MP that the DUP would support payments, amid mounting pressure on Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire.

Ms McGuckin, who suffered abuse as a child at Nazareth House children’s home, told The Irish News: “We were over the moon after the meeting with Jeffrey Donaldson.

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CANADA
CBC News

A preliminary inquiry for a former Moncton priest facing another allegation of indecent assault is going to take place in September.

Yvon Arsenault, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for molesting nine boys while he was a priest in the 1970s in the Shediac and Collette areas, appeared in Moncton court Wednesday morning on the latest charge.

The former Catholic priest, who has been behind bars since February, was in handcuffs as he was escorted into the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy and sat down in the prisoner’s box.

Arsenault pleaded guilty last year to the sex crimes that put him in prison.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 10, 2017

Guam – The Catholic Church has scheduled a conference to finalize the mediation process to be utilized in the sex abuse lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Guam.

According to Court documents, 73 of the Church Abuse cases are participating in the mediation. At this time, all parties are working together to determine how each proposed mediation process differs and ultimately decide on which mediation process they will follow.

Attorney Anthony Perez says, “my understanding from the church’s side is they want to meet September 5th to finalize the process. On my end correspondence has been ongoing. We have already submitted our proposal which is based upon Hawaii mediation order.

Meanwhile, it has been made clear that Archbishop Anthony Apuron will not be participating in the mediation process. Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s currently has four motions to dismiss in the defamation cases before the District Court of Guam which are set to be heard on August 29.

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IRELAND
Galway Independent

An expert group considering the future of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home burial site is due to complete its final report next month.

The group was appointed earlier this year by Minister Katherine Zappone at the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Commenting on the group’s work, a spokesperson for the Department said, “There is no precedence for a situation such as this in Ireland, or indeed further afield, and the cooperation of all relevant government agencies is required in moving forward. This is to ensure that the dignity and integrity of the human remains at this location may be acknowledged and respected with their future to be secured as swiftly as possible.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

10 August 2017 | by Mark Brolly

The Diocese is alleged to be denying the circumstances of the victim’s abuse, despite fact it was accepted by the Court three years ago

The Diocese of Ballarat, one of the Catholic bodies most scrutinised by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, has been accused of breaking the Church’s guidelines in resisting a compensation claim by a victim of laicised priest Gerald Ridsdale.

The guidelines state a claimant cannot be required to prove the elements of an abuse case that the Church authority had already accepted to be true.

But lawyer Paula Shelton said the Diocese was challenging parts of her client’s claim that were accepted by a court when Ridsdale was convicted of the abuse. Her client was seven years old when sexually abused by Ridsdale, who is now in jail, in 1980.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 09, 2017

By Krystal Paco

One longtime advocate for transparency in the Church speaks out about what he’s calling “freeloaders”. The property in question is the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Yona.

Pay rent or get out – that’s the sentiment from Concerned Catholics of Guam President David Sablan, who told KUAM News, “We have this property now that is back in the church patrimony. That is the Yona property, where the Redemptoris Mater Seminary is situated. We still have people staying there.”

Sablan has written to RMS leadership to find out who’s staying in the former hotel and has yet to receive a response. He alleges the group consists of members of the Neocatechumenal Way, including missionaries, seminarians, and presbyters.

Though their operations are no longer financially supported by the Archdiocese, he reports they use the space free of charge. “A free hotel for a bunch of freeloaders from around the world,” he strongly stated. Sablan takes issue with this considering 14 Catholic schools and all Catholic parishes are being assessed fees to keep Church operations afloat.

“Here they are, staying at the RMS rent-free, exposing actually the archdiocese and the church to liability risks, on the other hand we’re charging our school kids to cough up some money to pay off old debts that is now been assumed by the archdiocese,” he said. Sablan added, “In my opinion, this is another type of abuse of our children. If we are going to charge them now to pay our old debts. They should be kept out of this – there should be other ways and means.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 9, 2017

Concerned Catholics of Guam President David Sablan said the Neocatechumenal Way should start paying rent for using the Archdiocese of Agana’s Yona property.

Sablan said it is unfair that Guam’s 14 Catholic schools and their students are being assessed to pay for some $2.64 million in church debts, while the Neocatechumenal Way “gets free rent” from the archdiocese.

Catholic schools will be assessed new fees of $25 per student each year to fund the operations of a Catholic education superintendent, and $144 a year per student to help the church weather its financial crisis, church officials said in previous statements.

The new fees are not for costs associated with clergy abuse cases, church officials have said.

“I questioned why this organization is getting a free ride from the Archdiocese, and the kids in our Catholic schools are being assessed to cover part of the cost of operations of the Chancery, including 100 percent of the debt assumed by the Archdiocese from two schools,” Sablan said.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

Judge Michael Bordallo of the Superior Court of Guam issued a temporary stay of 20 childhood sex abuse cases that were filed in Superior Court against the Archdiocese of Agana and the Boy Scouts of America, to see if the parties can agree on the mediation process.

Attorney Anthony Perez, who represents several sex abuse victims, advised the court that his clients agreed to mediation but are still working out concerns they had with the protocol. He anticipates those issues being resolved in the next week or two.

The parties are scheduled to have their first meeting in Hawaii on Sept. 5 to iron out all of the details of the mediation that is expected to begin in Guam on Oct. 30.

A retired federal judge, Michael Hogan, has been selected by the parties to act as mediator and work with the archdiocese, the Boy Scouts of America, other defendants and the victims’ attorneys in an effort to resolve the cases through a settlement.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Aug 09, 2017

By Krystal Paco

No action will be taken on 20 clergy sex abuse lawsuits as well as a defamation lawsuit filed in the Superior Court. At least…for now.

On Wednesday, the local court granted a motion to stay on both matters in light of settlement talks.

“We requested the motion to stay for the same reasons we had in the District Court; hopefully we’ll be able to come to a settlement through the mediation process with the victims,” said And as Archdiocese of Agana’s attorney John Terlaje requested on Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Bordallo granted a motion to stay on 20 clergy sex abuse cases.

The stay is only for 30-days – just enough time to give parties who’ve expressed willingness to participate in settlement talks time to discuss the processes with mediator, Oregon-based retired federal judge Michael Hogan.

That meeting is scheduled for September 5th in Hawaii followed by Hogan’s trip to Guam in late October. “We seem pretty confident, as long as everyone comes in good faith. We think that the settlement will happen,” Terjale continued.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

By Jolene Toves – August 9, 2017

The stay will be in effect for 30 days.

Guam – Following a stay granted in the District Court of Guam in the church sex abuse lawsuits–with the exception of the cases involving Archbishop Anthony Apuron–a temporary stay was also issued by the Superior Court of Guam this morning.

When the sex abuse cases against the Archdiocese of Guam were originally filed at Superior Court, all judges recused themselves, including Judge Michael Bordallo. Out of necessity and at the request of District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewoo, however, 20 sex abuse and 4 defamation cases are back at Superior Court where they are now talking about how to proceed with litigation.

There are over 90 sex abuse cases filed against the Archdiocese of Agana. With multiple plaintiffs and defendants, the issue of how to proceed with mediation, in particular, what mediation process to follow, has arisen as all parties must be in agreement. In court today, Judge Bordallo issued a 30-day stay to allow all parties to sort out the mediation process.

Attorney Patrick Civille says his client, the Boy Scouts of America, supports the motion to stay.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, heugenio@guampdn.com Aug. 9, 2017

Further action on clergy sex abuse cases filed in the Superior Court of Guam, as well as a libel suit filed against Archbishop Anthony Apuron in Superior Court, has been delayed until at least Sept. 12 because of pending settlement talks.

Superior Court Judge Michael J. Bordallo Wednesday morning held a status hearing for 20 clergy sex abuse cases and the $2 million libel and and slander lawsuit filed by former altar boys against Apuron and the Archdiocese of Agana.

Bordallo during the hearing ordered a temporary stay on the libel case and abuse cases until an agreement has been reached on the mediation process for the nearly 100 abuse cases pending in local and federal court. The church had requested the stay.

Apuron’s counsel, Jacqueline Terlaje, told Bordallo that Apuron’s motion to dismiss the defamation case had been filed about a year ago.

Terlaje said Apuron is not participating in the mediation process at this time.

“On the defamation suit, what our grounds are, is that every person has the right to assert their innocence; that they cannot be sued in defamation simply by asserting their innocence,” Apuron’s counsel said after the status conference. “The court has ordered a temporary stay. 30 days is not going to be a huge delay in the matter and I am pleased with that, the court has an interest in moving the case forward.”

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LOUISIANA
The Daily Advertiser

Ken Stickney, kstickney@theadvertiser.com Aug. 9, 2017

Accusations of sex crimes involving Roman Catholic priests and Acadiana children might date back some seven decades, court records reveal. They also include two notorious court cases in the past few years.

The case of the Rev. F. David Broussard, whose scheduled Aug. 14 court appearance has been delayed until Nov. 27 in St. Martin Parish, is the most recent occurrence. Broussard is not accused of sexual contact with children, but the former Breaux Bridge pastor, 51, was charged in July 2016 with 500 counts of possession of child pornography. Some 500 images of children were found on his personal computer.

Broussard wrote a public letter of apology after his arrest but pleaded not guilty to the felony charges in May. He remains free on $25,000 bond. Most Rev. Douglas Deshotel, bishop of Lafayette, placed him on administrative leave and he performs no priestly duties.

But the Breaux Bridge case was not the only recent one to land a local priest in trouble. Former priest Mark A. Broussard, convicted in March 2016 of molesting altar boys in the neighboring diocese of Lake Charles in the late 1980s, was arrested in 2012 after a man wrote to Lake Charles Bishop Glen John Provost to reveal accusations against Broussard, who had served as a priest in several Catholic churches.

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