ABUSE TRACKER

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
Marianas Variety

17 Feb 2017 By Zaldy Dandan – editor@mvariety.com

“Faith is not, contrary to the usual ideas, something that turns out to be right or wrong, like a gambler’s bet….” — Joanna Russ

IF some believers professing a major religion (you know which one) commit one appalling atrocity after another, we will be called “ignorant and biased” if we question some of the basic tenets of their faith. However, whenever a Catholic priest is accused of wrongdoing, it’s OK to make sweeping generalizations about Catholicism. The Church is evil, its critics say, and its devotees are either too deluded or too dumb to be outraged — they should leave the Church.

And that’s why we should also give up on constitutional democracy and the rule of law. Why? Why not after reading the American Declaration of Independence (“[A]ll men are created equal, [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….), and then learning about how the same government founded on such lofty if not sacred ideals dealt with U.S. citizens who happened to be of the “wrong” color. Never mind the non-U.S. colored people. (U.S. Army Gen. “Howling” Jake Smith’s instruction to his troops during the American invasion of the P.I. in 1901: “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me…. Kill everyone over the age of 10…and make the island a howling wilderness.”)

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | Post News Staff

On the same day an 18th child sex abuse claim was filed in Guam’s federal court, the legal counsel for the alleged victims said yesterday that he expected the number of accusers to double.

Attorney David Lujan and one of his clients spoke briefly with the media yesterday at the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery before meeting with a representative of a Vatican-led tribunal sent to Guam to receive testimony from those who have accused former Guam clergy of abuse as part of an ongoing investigation into Archbishop Anthony Apuron. The Vatican investigation is penal, or criminal, in nature, according to documents.

While all of the accusers that Lujan currently represents are former altar boys, attorney Gloria Rudolph noted that some of the victims whose cases have not yet been filed never served as altar boys.

“Some of them weren’t altar boys,” she said. “They were students at Catholic schools.”

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

di Serena Sartini

Le parole, seppure forti, non bastano. «Purtroppo mancano i fatti, manca la concretezza.

Chiediamo al Papa di ordinare ai suoi vescovi di denunciare i crimini di pedofilia commessi dai sacerdoti, cosicché intervenga la giustizia». È duro il commento di Francesco Zanardi, abusato da un sacerdote quando era ragazzino e ora presidente della Rete l’Abuso, associazione che assiste le vittime dei preti pedofili. Un appello che arriva all’indomani del discorso del Papa pubblicato nel libro-testimonianza di Daniel Pittet, vittima di abusi da parte di sacerdoti, in cui Francesco ha chiesto «perdono per i preti pedofili» e ha assicurato: «Saremo severissimi».

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ARGENTINA
Rete L’Abuso

[MENDOZA.- Amid the scandal to allegations of sexual abuse against deaf children at Provolo Institute Antonio of Mendoza, the local school government has finally decided to suspend any subsidies to the school and the school will not be allowed to operate.]

Pablo Mannino

PER LA NACION

MENDOZA.- In mezzo allo scandalo per le denunce di abusi sessuali contro i bambini sordi dell’Istituto Antonio Provolo di Mendoza, il governo scolastico locale ha deciso alla fine di sospendere l’entità educativa in maniera preventiva fintanto che la Giustizia si esprima sulla situazione degli imputati.

Durante una conferenza stampa che si è svolta nel pomeriggio di ieri, il titolare degli Assunti Giuridici della Direzione Generale delle Scuole (DGE), Francisco Fernández, e la direttrice dell’Educazione Privata, Beatriz Della Savia, hanno dato a conoscere la risoluzione. In questa maniera, con il rapporto Nº 93/2017 è stata data l’informazione che l’istituzione non darà più lezioni e smetterà di ricevere il sussidio statale.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[Priests and nuns can not be silent or say false when they are questioned by the magistrates by invoking the ‘professional’ secret if they are aware of the facts of criminal law as part of their social activities of assistance to vulnerable people.]

Le motivazioni delle condanne afflitte al parroco e alla suora che negarono di aver saputo delle violenze sessuali subite da Annamaria Scarfò (all’epoca 13enne), che si era affidata alla loro “protezione”, ad opera di un branco di ragazzi.

Preti e suore non possono tacere o dire il falso quando sono interrogati dai magistrati, invocando il segreto ‘professionale’, se sono venuti a conoscenza di fatti penalmente rilevanti nell’ambito della loro attività sociale di assistenza ai soggetti deboli che, sebbene rientri nella generica “missione” degli ecclesiastici, “non rientra certamente nell’esercizio diretto della fede religiosa”, unico ambito per il quale e’ concesso, per le norme concordatarie del 1985, di evitare di rispondere.

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CANADA
CBC News

Former Gatineau priest Jacques Faucher has been sentenced to 12 months house arrest and 18 months probation for sexually assaulting three choir boys in the 1970s.

Justice Pierre Roger delivered the sentence in an Ottawa courtroom Thursday.

During the sentencing the judge cited a psychiatric report showing Faucher no longer had a sex drive.

Faucher had retired as a Roman Catholic priest in 2013 when Ottawa police laid 14 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against him. The offences were alleged to have involved five victims and occurred between 1969 and 1974 in Ottawa.

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ROME
The Daily Beast

An American cardinal who opposes Pope Francis has just been sent to the remote Pacific island of Guam.

Barbie Latza Nadeau
02.16.17

ROME — Catholic conspiracy theorists unite! After weeks of speculation that American Cardinal Raymond Burke had been secretly slapping up anti-Pope posters and stirring up a schism among conservatives who oppose Pope Francis, the American has suddenly been shipped out to sea.

Specifically, Burke has been sent to the island of Guam, an American outpost of about 162,000 people in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His departure was seemingly spontaneous, with the Catholic News Service only announcing his arrival when he landed on the island late Wednesday.

The Vatican press office offered a quick explanation for Burke’s departure. While it hadn’t been publicized at the time, Burke had been named by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the presiding judge in a case against Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron last October. Apuron has refused to resign despite a handful of allegations of sexual misconduct from altar boys who served him in the 1970s.

This is the first such case that Burke has been sent to oversee. He was the head of the Vatican’s tribunal until 2014 when Francis sidelined him shortly after he started his papacy in 2013. …

Despite being well versed in Canon law, Burke’s reputation on clerical sex abuse cases is dismal. He stands accused of not reporting predator priests while he worked in the United States, and he once blamed gay priests as the authors of the assaults, accusing the perpetrators of being “feminized and confused about their own sexual identity.”

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ROME
Crux

Austen Ivereigh February 15, 2017
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

In an interview with an Austrian newspaper, the acting head of the Order of Malta has described being present at the meeting where the Grand Chancellor was asked to resign — and that it was American Cardinal Raymond Burke, not the Grand Master, who made the request.

The Knights of Malta’s chaplain, the pope’s arch-critic American Cardinal Raymond Burke, not its Grand Master, was the one who asked the order’s Grand Chancellor to resign, according to the Knights’ acting head.

Ludwing Hoffmann von Rumerstein, who is Austrian, was present at a meeting on December 6 in which the Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Von Boeselager, was asked to stand down. His refusal and eventual sacking on grounds of disobedience led to a weeks’ long row with the Vatican, who demanded he be reinstated.

The Order’s Grand Master, Fra’ Matthew Festing, eventually resigned on January 24. The Sovereign Council reinstated Boeselager and named Hoffmann von Rumerstein the Knights’ Lieutenant ad interim.

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CANADA
Ottawa Citizen

JOE LOFARO, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

A former Ottawa priest convicted of molesting three altar boys in the 1960s and 1970s has been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest.

A judge found 80-year-old Jacques Faucher guilty last March of six counts of indecent assault and gross indecency on boys aged nine to 13 from the former Notre-Dame-des-Anges parish near Tunney’s Pasture.

The victims all told a similar story: Faucher would invite the boys to sit on his knee in private to pray or to watch hockey and he would start touching them. Court heard that he admitted to police that he had been sexually excited during these encounters, and that he sometimes ejaculated in his pants.

One of the victims told the court in a victim impact statement about the hatred and shame that “ate at me inside like a vile cancer” years after the abuse. Faucher apologized to his victims in court last October for his sex crimes. He said, “I regret them sincerely,” and, in the same speech, also criticized the media for its coverage of sex-abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil – AAP on February 17, 2017

Only 63 of the hundreds of priests alleged to have sexually abused children in Australia have been referred to the Holy See, although half of those have been removed from the priesthood.

More than 570 priests have been identified as alleged child abusers in claims made to the Catholic Church in Australia, along with almost 700 non-ordained religious brothers and sisters.

The child sex abuse royal commission’s analysis of Australian church records shows 63 priests have been the subject of a canonical referral to the Holy See, representing nine per cent of priests who were alleged perpetrators.

The priests have been laicised – released from the clerical state and returned to lay status after a request by the priest himself – in 42 per cent of cases.

Thirteen per cent have been dismissed, with dismissal described as the most severe disciplinary measure in canon law that can be sought by a Catholic Church authority.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

ORANGE, CA — In response to a recent lawsuit filed in Orange County alleging that a priest, who was the founder of the All American Boys Chorus, was allowed to sexually prey on children for years, Diocese of Orange officials Wednesday said he never worked in the county.

The lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 3 does not specify a defendant, but it refers to a priest, chorus and Diocese.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff, who is unnamed, was molested by a priest, who also is not named. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, identified the accused as Fr. Richard T. Coughlin, the founder and former director of the chorus in 1970.

Dogged by sexual abuse allegations in Boston, Coughlin was sent to California, SNAP alleged.

The alleged victims believed that the chorus was “run by a gregarious, charismatic and affectionate Catholic priest with an Irish brogue (who) would serve to uplift and inspire,” according to the lawsuit.

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GUAM
International Business Times

BY JOHN WALSH @JRWALSH7 ON 02/16/17

Lawyers representing former altar boys who were allegedly sexually abused by a Catholic archbishop in Guam became disheartened about their case when one of the accusers refused to testify in the Vatican’s investigation into the claims Thursday.

Roland Sondia, who publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of molesting him in the 1970’s when he was 15, reportedly said he wouldn’t share his testimony with the head investigator, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, because his attorney wasn’t allowed to be present while doing so.

Sondia’s lawyer, David Lujan, said the chances of winning the case became “worse” than he expected when he was told that he wouldn’t be allowed to advise his client during his testimony.

Lujan said he feared Sondia, who was once devoutly Catholic, might be distracted from the facts of the case while he was to be “questioned by the prosecutor, who is a priest, and Archbishop Apuron’s lawyer, who is a priest, and a presider who is Cardinal Burke, and a notary who is also a priest.”

Sondia might send a written account of his testimony instead, Lujan said.

Another witness, the mother of a deceased altar boy who similarly accused Apuron of sexually abusing him, has also refused to testify in the investigation.

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FRANCE
La Croix

As part of the French Church’s transparency campaign, the Diocese of Angers has revealed the allegations of two victims of Fr Hyacinthe-Marie Houard, a charismatic, well-known local priest, who died in 2012.

Céline Hoyeau and Gauthier Vaillant

Catholics from Angers in western France are devastated this week following the publication on Tuesday evening of a letter from Bishop Emmanuel Delmas to local priests.

The bishop states that he had received testimonies from two young adult women revealing “that they had been subject during their childhood to inappropriate behavior by a former chaplain, Fr Houard”.

.Hyacinthe-Marie Houard, who died in December 2012 at the age of 85, was an eminent personality in the diocese.

Chaplain and founder of a local Scouts of Europe team, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an educator and became secretary-general of the Catholic University of Angers. In 1983, he helped found the university’s Institute of Public Relations and Communication (IRCOM).

The two young women who complained to the bishop say that they were sexually abused at the beginning of the years 2000. Each woman made direct contact with the bishop, one during spring 2016 and the other at the end of the year.

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NEW ZEALAND
Otago Daily Times

David Tombs compares the Catholic Church’s recent responses to allegations of sexual abuse in Australia and in Peru.

Two documents released last week on sexual abuses in the Catholic Church in Australia and in Peru seem to show very different responses to the problem of historical sexual abuses. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was formally established in 2013, and it has been examining abuse by Catholic clergy and the responses of various Catholic authorities. Its report, titled “Proportion of priests and non-ordained religious subject to a claim of child sexual abuse 1950-2010” (February 2017), gives a clear sense of the scale.

The report concludes that between 1980 and 2015, there were 4444 alleged incidents of child sexual abuse in more than 1000 institutions. A total of 1880 alleged perpetrators (diocesan and religious priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, lay employees or volunteers) were identified in claims of child sexual abuse.

The figures suggest about 30% of alleged perpetrators were priests, 32% were religious brothers, 29% were lay people, 5% were religious sisters, and for 4% the religious status was not known. The total proportion of priests ministering in Australia who have been alleged as perpetrators of sexual abuse since 1950 is 7%.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers

Focus: The Catholic Church

Catholic Whistle Blowers, an organization of Catholic lay men and women, religious sisters, and current and former religious brothers and priests, in the United States of America, whose mission is to support victim/survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, extends its heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to the Australian government, the people of Australia, and victim/survivors of sexual abuse, for their courageous and unprecedented multi-year-long commitment of resources and personnel to the investigation of child sexual abuse. In particular, Catholic Whistle Blowers is grateful to:

* courageous victim/survivors who have come forward to report sexual abuse, boldly and bravely testify before the Royal Commission, and create a safer Australia for children;

*the government of Australia which has made child safety and the investigation of crimes against children a high priority;

*the citizens of Australia for allowing allocation of funds and resources that has enabled the Royal Commission to do its work in a comprehensive manner;

*the whistle blowers and reporters of sexual abuse allegations in Australia, especially in Catholic institutions and organizations throughout Australia, who helped to uncover widespread sexual abuse of children in Catholic parishes, schools, and institutions;

*the members of the Royal Commission for their professionalism, hard work, and pursuit of the truth

*the country of Australia for modeling for other countries, especially the United States, that investigations by governments of sexual abuse of children are necessary and very successful in helping to keep children safe; and, that the appeal of the Catholic Whistle Blowers of the United States to its government to convene a national commission to investigate child sexual abuse will finally be heard.

Very Rev. John P. Bambrick, V.F., Jackson, New Jersey
Sr. Sally Butler, OP – Brooklyn, New York
Rev. Patrick W. Collins, Ph.D., Douglas, Michigan
Rev. James E. Connell, J.C.D. – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, OP, J.C.D. – Vienna, Virginia
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. – West Orange, New Jersey
Rev. Kenneth E. Lasch, J.C.D. – Pompton Plains, New Jersey
Rev. Ronald D. Lemmert – Peekskill, New York
Sr. Claire Smith, OSU – Bronx, New York
Rev. Bruce N. Teague, Sheffield, Massachusetts
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SND deN – New Castle, Delaware
Patrick J. Wall, LLM. – Dana Point, California

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[The shocking abuse details made by 57-year-old Daniel Pittet are frightening the Catholic Church. The church is looking for more victims of Father Joël and for churchmen who helped to conceal the deeds.]

Die schockierenden Missbrauchs-Details, die der heute 57-jährige Daniel Pittet publik gemacht hat, schrecken die katholische Kirche auf. Jetzt sucht sie nach weiteren Opfern des Pädo-Priesters Pater Joël – und nach Kirchenleuten, die mitgeholfen haben, die Taten zu verschleiern.

Der Freiburger Bibliothekar Daniel Pittet (57) hat seinem Peiniger zwar vergeben. Und auch dem katholischen Glauben ist er treu geblieben, wie er im BLICK vom Montag und in seinem eben erschienenen Buch «Mon Père, je vous pardonne» schildert. Das ändert jedoch nichts am Leid, das ihm in seiner Kindheit angetan wurde. Über vier Jahre lang, von 1968 bis 1972, hat ihn der Kapuziner-Priester Pater Joël (76) vergewaltigt und für Pornofotos missbraucht.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[The Swiss pedophile Father Jöel has abused dozens of children for decades (yesterday’s review). The 76-year-old lives unmolested in a monastery where he found shelter. We visited him there.]

Laurent Grabet (Interview) und Jean-Guy Python (Fotos)

Der pädophile Pater Jöel hat während Jahrzehnten Dutzende von Kindern missbraucht (BLICK von gestern). Der 76-Jährige lebt unbehelligt in einem Kloster, wo er Unterschlupf gefunden hat. Wir haben ihn dort besucht.

Eine Begegnung mit dem Teufel höchstpersönlich war an diesem kalten, verschneiten Freitagmorgen zu erwarten gewesen. Doch umständlich kommt uns ein beleibter 76-Jähriger entgegen, gestützt auf einen Rollator. «Ich schleppe meine Vergangenheit hinter mir her», eröffnet der aus der Romandie stammende Gottesmann das Gespräch. Er hat sich seit acht Jahren in ein Deutschschweizer Kloster zurückgezogen. Man spricht ihn hier in vorwurfslosem Ton mit Pater Joël an. Im Buch, das sein Treiben enthüllt (BLICK von gestern), wird er mit vollem Namen genannt.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[Ephrem Bucher (73), ex-head of the Capuchin Order, has for years covered for Swiss pedophile Brother Father Joël. Now, he is sitting in the Church’s specialist committee to uncover and prevent sexual assaults.]

Laurent Grabet und Andreas Dietrich

Die katholische Kirche hat schnell auf die Enthüllungen von Missbrauchs-Opfer Daniel Pittet (57) reagiert, über die BLICK in den letzten Tagen ausführlich berichtet hat. Am Montag teilten Bischofskonferenz, die Diözese Genf, Lausanne und Freiburg sowie der Kapuzinerorden mit, dass man «die Fehler zutiefst bedauert, welche damals begangen wurden». Zudem wurden Untersuchungen in Aussicht gestellt zur möglichen Beteiligung weiterer Personen ausser des pädophilen Priesters Pater Joël (76). Selbst Papst Franziskus zeigte sich erschüttert und bat im Namen der Kirche um Vergebung.

Mehr Zeit hingegen liess sich die Kirche mit der Einsetzung einer Kommission, die sich des heiklen Themas annehmen soll. Anfang 2014 wurde sie in Aussicht gestellt – erst drei Jahre später hat sich das von den Schweizer Bischöfen eingesetzte «Fachgremium Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld» konstituiert. Es besteht aus rund zehn Mitgliedern, Kirchenvertretern wie weltlichen Experten.

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SCHWEIZ
Blick

[Ephrem Bucher (73) resigns from the Swissbody which looks after sexual assaults in the Catholic Church. BLICK yesterday revealed his questionable role in the pedophile scandal surrounding Father Joël.]

Laurent Grabet und Andreas Dietrich

Das ging schnell! Gestern deckte BLICK auf, wie Ephrem Bucher (73), ehemaliger Chef der Schweizer Kapuziner, jahrelang das Treiben seines Ordensbruders Pater Joël (76) gedeckt hat. Dieser gibt selber zu, mindestens 40 Kinder missbraucht zu haben.

Eines seiner Opfer, der Freiburger Daniel Pittet, hat soeben ein Buch über sein Martyrium veröffentlicht. Strafrechtlich kam Pater Joël stets ungeschoren davon. Entweder waren seine Delikte verjährt, oder es setzte nur eine bedingte Gefängnisstrafe ab. Jedes Mal, wenn an einem Wirkungsort des Pädo-Priesters sein Treiben ruchbar wurde, versetzte ihn der Kapuzinerorden an einen andern Ort.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

Scandalo sordomuti: pugno di ferro del governo dopo l’arresto del prete veronese. «Gli alunni? Cambieranno scuola»

VERONA A quasi tre mesi dagi arresti choc tra cui quello del prete veronese don Nicola Corradi, non risparmia colpi di scena in Argentina lo scandalo abusi sessuali sui sordomuti. E l’ultima novità che proprio in queste ore arriva dall’altro capo dal mondo ha del clamoroso, visto che a intervenire è stato lo stesso governo che, d’autorità, ha deciso di chiudere la sede dell’istituto per sordomuti Provolo di Mendoza. Si tratta della scuola travolta dalle polemiche e dalle proteste di piazza dopo che, a fine novembre 2016, il sacerdote veronese di 82 anni finì in carcere per pedofilia insieme ad altri 4 operatori scolastici (tra cui un secondo prete e un chierichetto) tuttora detenuti nel carcere di Boulogne Sur Mer.

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ITALIA
Rete L’Abuso

[“Pedophilia is not a vice, pedophilia is not an act of lust, pedophilia is not a sin, much less a crime against morality or an offense against chastity as the Catechism says, and as if the child had prepubescent sexuality. Pedophilia is a violent crime against helpless people “]

Il libro-inchiesta sulla pedofilia clericale firmato da Emiliano Fittipaldi, sin dal titolo induce a confondere peccato e reato in un pericoloso equivoco.
Cecilia M. Calamani

«La pedofilia non è un vizio, la pedofilia non è un atto di lussuria, la pedofilia non è un peccato tanto meno un delitto contro la morale o un’offesa alla castità come dice il Catechismo e come se il bambino prepubere avesse la sessualità. La pedofilia è un crimine violentissimo contro persone inermi» (Federico Tulli, giornalista autore di “Chiesa e pedofilia, il caso italiano”, L’Asino d’oro 2014).

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

Child sex abuse victims are bypassing the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing process and even those whose job it is to administer it “wouldn’t have a bar of it” if seeking compensation.

The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s child protection agency says victims are not going to Towards Healing, instead choosing to work directly with the diocese to obtain compensation.
“I think the public standing of Towards Healing has been significantly, if not permanently, damaged,” Zimmerman Services manager Sean Tynan told the child abuse royal commission on Thursday.

“The case study conducted by this royal commission exposed a circumstance that if I were coming forward to seek compensation I wouldn’t have a bar of.”

The director of professional standards for the Catholic Church in Queensland, Mark Eustance, said he was not a great defender of the national protocol either.

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PHILIPPINES
Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — It’s no secret that Al Jazeera does a pretty darn good job with their exposes and this time around, they unveil the deep dark secrets of priests in Asia’s largest Catholic nation.

In this new documentary aptly titled “Sins of the Father”, Al Jazeera will reveal how priests in the Philippines are fathering children, violating the sacred vow of celibacy as well as a rising number of child sex abuse cases by priests.

Priests are treated like Gods in the Philippines and this has lead to some of them exploiting their power. In this exclusive investigation, 101 East reporter Drew Ambrose will reveal how church authorities are receiving more reports of child sex abuse by priests. It will also reveal how some church leaders are speaking out against the institution’s failure to properly investigate abuse allegations.

Church investigators also reveal to 101 East that in some dioceses, one in five priests have had children. But with a shortage of priests in this deeply devout nation, the church rarely takes action against errant priests.

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/showbiz/article/sins-of-the-father-al-jazeera-exposes-philippines-philandering-priests#sthash.pUWTHSO8.dpuf

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Daniel Peters For Daily Mail Australia and AAP

A paedophile priest who sexually abused vulnerable and homesick boys for over two decades could spend the rest of his life in jail.

Father Brian Spillane was a charismatic priest and college chaplain, and generally well regarded by the school and others.

But his ‘respected position’ masked a manipulative predator who sexually abused boys who sought his help over two decades at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

Now the 74-year-old former clergyman faces the prospect of dying in jail after he was sentenced in the NSW District Court on Thursday for the assaults on boys aged under 16 in the 1970s and 1980s.

The most serious charge was buggery (anal intercourse).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4230368/Paedophile-priest-Brian-Spillane-die-jail.html#ixzz4YqjmM25Q
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

[with video]

Rashida Yosufzai – AAP on February 16, 2017

Damien Sheridan was a homesick, young boarding student who was just looking for counselling from a trusted school chaplain.

But what he endured at the hands of notorious pedophile priest Brian Spillane was to ruin his life.

Now in his 40s, Mr Sheridan describes the shattering consequences of the assault he faced at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

He has post traumatic stress disorder, suffers anxiety, and has watched as family and friends have also suffered as a result of his hurt.

When he can’t get out of bed for weeks on end, his 20-year-old son Zak steps in, taking care of the chores and doing the shopping.

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FLORIDA
NBC 2

[with video]

By Levi Ismail, Reporter

SANIBEL –
Parishioners at St. Isabel’s Church on Sanibel said they’re being denied permission to hold services for their former priest.

In just the past week, parishioners held services to pray for Father Christopher Senk, who is still on paid administrative leave. Senk was investigated for more than two years for allegedly financially exploiting parishioner, Marion McIntyre.

The State Attorney’s office concluded that there was not enough evidence of wrongdoing to press charges against Senk.

According to the Diocese of Venice in Florida, a timeline for a resolution of this matter will be determined by the Apostolic See in Rome.

Parishioners said only after they began prayers for Senk at church, were they told they couldn’t use church property.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican’s highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.

The Vatican press office confirmed a “tribunal of the first instance” was constituted by the Vatican Oct. 5 and its presiding judge is Cardinal Burke. Four other judges, all of whom are bishops, also were appointed, the press office said.

“When an action is in a ‘first instance’ court, that indicates that it is in the initial trial phase,” according to the website of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles accusations of clerical sexual abuse.

Three men have publicly accused Archbishop Apuron of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys in the 1970s. The mother of a fourth man, now deceased, also accused the archbishop of abusing her son.

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OKLAHOMA
Tulsa World

By Randy Krehbiel Tulsa World

OKLAHOMA CITY — Child sex-abuse victims could have more than 40 years to report the crime under legislation approved Wednesday by an Oklahoma House of Representatives committee.

House Bill 1468, by Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, would eliminate the current 12-year statute of limitations and allow charges to be filed against an alleged perpetrator until the victim reaches his or her 45th birthday.

The bill advanced on a vote of 10-0.

“By passing this law, you will be helping not only those who have been abused in the past but children who are being abused right now,” said Ginger Lewis, a Tulsa advocate for child-abuse victims and a survivor herself.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio and Masako Watanabe , Pacific Daily News Feb. 16, 2017

A Vatican tribunal sent to Guam as part of Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron’s canonical trial heard from some witnesses Thursday, but didn’t directly hear from one of Apuron’s alleged sexual abuse victims.

Deacon Steve Martinez, a former sexual abuse response coordinator — whom Apuron reportedly fired for raising concerns about the archdiocese’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations for several years — was among those deposed by the tribunal. Apuron has denied all sex abuse allegations against him and hasn’t been charged criminally, although he’s facing multiple civil lawsuits.

Former altar boy Roland Sondia didn’t agree to be deposed by the Vatican team without his counsel, David Lujan, of the law firm of Lujan and Wolff.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a prominent leader of the Catholic Church’s conservative wing and a seasoned canon lawyer, heads the mission to interview Guam witnesses as part of Apuron’s canonical trial. Burke, who has clashed with Pope Francis on some issues, is the presiding judge in the Apuron trial.

Sondia and Lujan left the Archdiocese of Agana Chancery, where the deposition was being held, after the Rev. Justin M. Wachs told David Lujan the process doesn’t allow a witness to bring a lawyer. Wachs serves as the Vatican court reporter for the Apuron trial.

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GUAM
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD and GRACE GARCES BORDALLO

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — A former altar boy who has accused Guam’s longtime archbishop of sexually abusing him has refused to testify before a Vatican court headed by American Cardinal Raymond Burke on the grounds that he couldn’t have his lawyer present.

Attorney David Lujan said his client, Roland Sondia, met Thursday with Vatican officials who travelled to the Pacific island U.S. territory to take testimony in the trial of Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

Lujan said it wasn’t in Sondia’s best interest to be questioned by several priests without him present.

Sondia may submit a written declaration instead.

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VATICAN CITY
News 24

2017-02-16

Vatican City – Pope Francis has sent a Rome-based cardinal who has clashed repeatedly with him to the Pacific island of Guam to investigate a case of sexual abuse.

The Pacific Daily News reports that Cardinal Raymond Burke is scheduled to interview a former altar boy who says he was sexually abused by Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

The 71-year-old Apuron is facing a Vatican trial over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s. He has denied the charges and has not been criminally charged.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick Wiggins and Matt Eaton

A prestigious Brisbane private school harboured a culture in which children making allegations of abuse were treated as liars, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has found.

The commission has handed down its report into what it calls Case Study 34, examining allegations of abuse at Brisbane Grammar School in Spring Hill and St Paul’s School in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills.

It heard evidence that school counsellor Kevin Lynch sexually abused “a large number of students” while he was working at Brisbane Grammar between 1973 and 1988, and continued abusing student as a counsellor at St Paul’s between 1989 and 1997.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found then Brisbane Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell (who died in 2011) was aware of one specific complaint, but did not investigate allegations and did not refer the matter to police.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

16 February 2017

A lawyer representing former altar boys on Guam is casting doubt on the trial being held by the Vatican to investigate allegations the island’s Archbishop abused them.

Vatican representatives are today meeting with Roland Sondia, one of those who has accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse in the 1970s.

Lawyer David Lujan said he, and his client, were attending the depositions hearing which is part of a canonical trial.

But he’s already questioning its effectiveness.

“I’m dubious about anything regarding the Catholic Church and how it deals with priests and sex abuse complainants. The history has been nothing but to cover up.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

Megan Neil – AAP on February 16, 2017

The Catholic Church admits its system that has paid $276 million in compensation to thousands of people sexually abused as children is still not fair to victims and an independent scheme is needed.

Victims who have sought redress from the church in Australia have received an average of $91,000 in compensation.

But there are huge differences in the average amount paid by different Catholic Church authorities – from as little as $22,000 to as much as $901,000.

The church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive Francis Sullivan says the data reinforces the need for an independent national redress scheme that takes the issue of compensation away from the church.

“Even though the church has paid $270 million and it took a long time to get its act together to do that, there’s no doubt the system of paying people and compensating them is best done independently of the church through a national redress scheme,” Mr Sullivan told AAP.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Feb 16, 2017

By Krystal Paco

An 18th victim has filed suit against the Church. Barrigada resident Anthony Lujan alleges he was molested by Father Louis Brouillard regularly as an altar boy, a Boy Scout, and also as a student at San Vicente Catholic School. Lujan, who is now 50, states the abuse started when he was around 12.

Although he tried to avoid Father Brouillard, Lujan would be forced to be alone with the priest during monthly confessions. Similar to other complaints, Lujan would go on camping trips with Brouillard and other altar boys where sexual abuse was a regular occurrence.

During a meeting with the press earlier today, Attorney David Lujan stated the number of victims to sue the church is likely to double. His firm further disclosed that not all victims were altar boys or Boy Scouts, but students at Catholic schools around the island.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

By Mindy Aguon | For the Post Feb 16, 2017

Allegations of sexual abuse that occurred at San Vicente Catholic School in Barrigada have surfaced as the 18th civil complaint filed against former priest Louis Brouillard and the Archdiocese of Agana was filed in the District Court of Guam this afternoon.

Anthony Lujan, 50, claims he was sexually abused by Brouillard when he was an altar boy and Brouillard was a priest at the San Vicente/San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada and while he attended school at San Vicente Catholic School.

Lujan alleges he met Brouillard around 1979 during weekly outings that were conducted by Brouillard to recruit young boys to become altar boys or join the Boy Scouts. At that time Brouillard served as scout master of the Guam Chapter of the Boy Scouts.

At the age of 12, the Barrigada man became an altar boy at the village parish and joined the Boy Scouts. During that period, Lujan was sexually abused by Brouillard, the lawsuit states. The abuse occurred after Lujan served as an altar boy during Mass.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery, Herald Sun
February 16, 2017

THE Catholic Church has spent more than $275 million compensating victims of child sexual abuse since 1980, new figures have revealed.

For the first time data published by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today has exposed the financial cost of the church’s sexual abuse crisis.

Between 1980 and 2015 it paid $276.1 million to victims of abuse, or nearly $8 million a year.

That sum includes amounts for compensation, treatment, legal and other costs.

Of the total amount, $258.8 million was monetary compensation, at an average of about $91,000 per claim.

The highest number of payments, $48.5 million, was paid to 763 victims of the Christian Brothers.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Catholic Church has released numbers on how many child sexual abuse claims have been made against staff from their religious schools and orphanages, showing one home for boys faced 219 accusations.

The church identified 28 institutions that had 20 or more claims of child sexual abuse. You can search the data below.

The highest number of claims came from BoysTown at Beaudesert in Queensland, with 219 claims levelled at Catholic Church members working at the children’s home.

This information is part of a large release of data revealing the extent of child sex abuse within the Australian Catholic Church that was done with cooperation from them as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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PERU
Crux

Catholic News Agency
February 15, 2017

LIMA, Peru – A two-part report made public on Tuesday details sexual, physical and psychological abuses committed by members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, both those who have left the community and those who remain in it.

In addition to the movement’s founder, Luis Fernando Figari, four other Sodalits were reported to have sexually abused minors. The report named the other offenders, none of whom are still part of the community.

Seven of the Sodalits “who were identified as having physically or psychologically abused” another member or a person in formation are still in the community and performing external ministry. They have had administrative actions taken against them and are receiving training. The report did not give their names.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. CNA’s executive director, Alejandro Bermúdez, and its global director of operations, Ryan Thomas, are both members of the community.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Charlotte King

St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, infamous for its history of child sexual abuse, is determined to become a leader in child protection.

Among the “old boys” of St Patricks College are some of the most notorious convicted paedophiles in Australia.

An honours board on display is an indication of the changes the school is trying to enact.

The board lists all of the past students, with names and dates listed in gold, who have gone on to be ordained as Catholic priests.

Headmaster John Crowley said some of those names were now blacked out.

“After the first sitting of the royal commission there were details of certain individuals who were old collegians of the school, that to me were just horrifying,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Deutsche Welle

The country’s Catholic Church has paid more than quarter of a billion Australian dollars to child sexual abuse victims. An inquiry concluded that, while thousands of claims were made, many victims had not come forward.

An average of 91,000 dollars each was paid to thousands of victims who came forward with claims to the church, an inquiry was told on Thursday.

Prosecuting barrister Gail Furness said Australia’s Catholic Church had paid out 276 million Australian dollars ($213 million, 200 million euros) between 1980 and 2015.

Earlier this month, Australia was shocked by revelation that 4,445 people had made claims of child sexual abuse to the church over the 35-year-period. Of those 30,066 received payments for redress, with hundreds of claims still ongoing.

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AUSTRALIA/IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

Former Jesuit provincial Fr Gerry O’Hanlon has insisted that the Church’s centralised model of governance contributed to the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations against priests.

Speaking to the royal commission on abuse in Australia via a videolink from Dublin, Fr O’Hanlon also said that the Church suffered from the same defensive attitude as other institutions.

“I think it’s a defensiveness that you will find in many other organisations.

“We are finding it, for example, in England at the moment with regard to as different a field as professional football, soccer. We find it in different organisations. But of course it was all the more egregious coming from an organisation which, if you like, in a good sense, prided itself on doing what was good and what was right and favouring the weakest.

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AUSTRALIA
Morung Express

SYDNEY, February 16 (Reuters) – Australia’s Catholic Church has paid A$276 million ($213 million) in compensation to thousands of child abuse victims since 1980, a government inquiry heard on Thursday — the first time the total compensation paid by the church’s schools, orphanages and residences has been revealed.

A report at a royal commission into institutional abuse said 3,066 victims had received some form of compensation from a Catholic body in the 35 years to 2015.

Cash payments of A$258.8 million amounted to an average A$91,000 per person. Some compensation was in non-cash payments.

The institution which paid the most was global order the Christian Brothers, which paid A$45.5 million to 763 people, averaging A$61,000 per person. The Jesuits paid the most per complainant, at A$257,000 each, on average.

The average time between a person experiencing abuse and filing a complaint was 33 years, state prosecutor Gail Furness said in the report, adding that “many survivors face barriers which deter them from reporting abuse to authorities and to the institution in which the abuse occurred”.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
16 Feb 2017

THE Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has made some of Australia’s highest average compensation payments to one of the country’s largest groups of child sexual abuse survivors, new data about the distribution of $276 million in total Australian Catholic Church payments to survivors has shown.

A comparison of church authorities across the country, released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Thursday, shows 128 Hunter survivors of clergy abuse received significantly higher average payments of $208,000 than thousands of other Australian Catholic abuse survivors, with a total Maitland-Newcastle payout figure of $26.6 million.

The data release includes confirmation of a shocking 763 payments to abuse survivors from Christian Brothers institutions, including children’s homes, with an average payment of just $64,000.

It also includes payments of an average $109,000 to 286 men sexually abused as children at schools run by the Marist Brothers, including Hamilton and Maitland Marist Brothers, with a total payout of $31.3 million.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Echo

Alex Winter

ABUSE claims are taken seriously, church representatives have said after a choir conductor was jailed.

David Everett, of Hankinson Road in Bournemouth, was a member and conductor of the Priory Church Choir in Christchurch when he sexually abused a teenage boy in the early 2000s.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Everett was approaching middle age at the time of the offences.

At a sentencing hearing held at Bournemouth Crown Court, Judge Peter Crabtree OBE said the defendant was “trusted” by the victim’s parents.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seacoast Online

Posted Feb 15, 2017

Seabrook, New Hampshire resident Keith Townsend shows great bravery in sharing his story about allegations of sexual abuse against a former Catholic priest.

Townsend said he thought Paquin was going to be in jail for life for past convictions and was stunned when he was released from jail after raping an altar boy and said “no one is safe” if Paquin, now 74, is free. Paquin, formerly of the Boston archdiocese, served prison time for abusing an altar boy from 1989 to 1992 while serving as associate pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He pleaded guilty to charges in relation to those crimes in 2002 and was released in 2015.

So, Townsend, now 42, is one accuser who went to police and a subsequent investigation has led to Paquin facing 29 new indictments for sexual abuse of young boys. A York County Grand Jury handed down the indictments last week.

Townsend, who said he was molested by Paquin approximately between the ages of 8 and 13 during trips to a camp in Kennebunkport, didn’t stop there. He told his story to the Boston Globe and Seacoast Media Group this week. Townsend said he was one of about 10 other young boys abused together and explained in great detail how Paquin gave them alcohol and let them drive his vehicle and gradually started touching them before eventually raping them while the boys were drunk and alone and he remained sober.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Emily McPherson

A 92-year-old widow taking on the Catholic church over her daughter’s alleged rape and sexual abuse now has an army of almost 50,000 supporters behind her.

Eileen Piper’s daughter Stephanie tragically took her own life 23 years ago, one year after police charged disgraced priest Gerard Mulvale over her alleged rape.

Mulvale and the Catholic Church have denied knowing about Stephanie’s sexual abuse, but Mulvale was later convicted of sex crimes against two boys in her friendship circle and sentenced to three years’ jail.

“They’ve been brutal and heartless,” Ms Piper said of the church. “They’re hoping I’ll die so that they don’t have to deal with me anymore or pay me proper compensation for the heinous sexual abuse to Stephanie.”

Determined to get justice for her only daughter, Ms Piper started a Change.org petition, becoming Australia’s oldest online petition starter.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Wayne Independent

By Kevin Kearney
kkearney@wayneindependent.com

HONESDALE – An imprisoned former Roman Catholic priest who is up for parole this year should remain in jail until he serves the maximum sentence of 18 years, victims advocates believe.

Steven J. Wolpert, 63, was sentenced in 2008 to nine to 18 years in state prison after pleading guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child younger than 13.

The defendant, who served as a priest in Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged after he abused the 8-year-old boy in Hawley between 2006 and 2007.

The prospect of the sex offender serving only have his sentence does not sit well with Michele Minor Wolf, executive director of Honesdale-based Victims’ Intervention Program.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop

A “wickedly manipulative” serial paedophile priest has had his jail sentence extended until at least 2026 for the sexual abuse of boys at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst in the state’s central west.

Brian Spillane, 74, was found guilty last year of sexually abusing seven students between 1974 and 1990, in what a Sydney court heard was likely to be the last in a series of child abuse cases against him relating to more than 30 children.

District Court judge Robyn Tupman today sentenced him to at least nine years in jail and a maximum of 13 years for 16 offences including buggery against boys as young as 12.

Judge Tupman said Spillane abused his position of trust as a teacher and chaplain and “used religious rituals to increase his power over his victims”.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Leader

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge described the Church as “a law unto ourselves”, and said Pope Francis and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were catalysts for cultural change.

Archbishop Coleridge was a panellist on the third day of the Royal Commission hearing in Sydney discussing Catholic Church structural and cultural issues, including accountability and transparency.

Archbishop Coleridge said the Church must put a “culture of concealment” behind it.

“The Catholic Church in Australia has at times looked the other way, been a law unto itself, and seen that it does things its own way,” he said.

Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald asked whether it was too harsh to say the Church in Australia still had not embraced the notion of transparency as good practice.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

Updated: Feb 16, 2017

By Krystal Paco

Visiting Vatican officials are receiving testimony relative to the ongoing canonical trial against Archbishop Anthony Apuron in Rome. Among those subpoenaed is Roland Sondia, one of many men to accuse Apuron of molestation that occurred decades ago when Apuron was still a priest.

Thursday’s meeting with officials from the Vatican went exactly as Attorney David Lujan expected.

“The gist of it is that Roland will not be represented in there and they will not allow me in there,” said the lawyer. As a result, he and his client, Sondia, walked away without providing a deposition regarding his allegations against Archbishop Apuron. Rather than receive the deposition in person, Vatican officials will just have to read about it.

“Our position is that Roland will not be deposed live,” Lujan continued. “However, we are willing to submit a declaration, or an affidavit in writing.”

Here on island to investigate Apuron as part of the ongoing canonical trial in Rome are Cardinal Raymond L. Burke who will act as a presiding judge over the secret tribunal; Father James Conn who will serve as the prosecutor; and Father Justin Wachs who will perform duties similar to that of a court reporter. Lujan noted seeing another canon lawyer in the room who reportedly represents Apuron, but did not disclose his name to media.

Immediately following the closed-door meeting, Lujan expressed lack of confidence – particularly in Father Conn, who previously made contact directly to his clients. In addition to Sondia, Conn made attempts to communicate with Roy Quintanilla, who resides in Hawaii and Walter Denton of Arizona. Each of the men were altar boys at Mount Carmel Parish in Agat when they were allegedly sexually molested by Apuron, who was a priest at the time.

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AUSTRALIA
Malaysian Digest

The Australian Catholic Church has paid A$276m (£171m; $213m) to victims of sexual abuse since 1980, an inquiry has heard.

The money was divided between thousands of victims, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse was told.

The data, released on Thursday, showed the average payment was A$91,000.

The landmark royal commission was set up in 2013 and is also investigating abuse at non-religious organisations.

The Catholic Church made the payments in response to 3,066 of 4,445 child sexual abuse claims between 1980 and 2015, the inquiry heard. More than 40% of claims were received by a handful of male orders.

They included compensation, treatment, legal and other costs, said Gail Furness, the lead lawyer assisting the commission in Sydney.

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PHILIPPINES
Aljazeera

Al Jazeera investigation reveals the growing problem of sexual misconduct in the Philippines’ powerful Catholic church.

Sexual misconduct in the Catholic church is a growing problem in the Philippines, an Al Jazeera investigation has revealed, and priests suspected of abuse are seldom prosecuted.

Oscar Cruz, a retired archbishop overseeing the investigation, told Al Jazeera’s 101 East programme that in recent years more cases had come to the church’s attention.

“Yes, yes, yes… [there are] more reports on paedophilia and homosexuality,” Cruz said. “It is a heinous crime, you know. And a priest at that? Violating a minor? Come on!”

For centuries, the Catholic church has wielded considerable influence in the Philippines, with more than 80 percent of a 100 million-strong population following the faith.

“If clerical abuse victims take on the most powerful institution in the Philippines, it is a David and Goliath battle,” 101 East’s Drew Ambrose, reporting from the capital Manila, said.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, “Imelda” said she was sexually assaulted by a priest three years ago, when she was 15.

After she filed a police report, two members from her village church paid her $150 to drop the case, she alleged.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Feb. 16, 2017

An 18th clergy sex abuse lawsuit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Guam.

Anthony Lujan, 50, of Barrigada, alleged former island priest Louis Brouillard sexually abused him when he was an altar boy, a Boy Scouts of America scout, and while attending San Vicente Catholic School in or about 1979. He said he was about 12 years old at the time.

Brouillard, now 95 and living in Minnesota, publicly admitted to sexually abusing more than 20 altar boys when he was on Guam from the late 1940s to 1981.

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AUSTRALIA
Bendigo Advertiser

Jane Lee
16 Feb 2017

A man who abused teenage girls and still believes his Wiccan religion condones his crimes could do “catastrophic” harm to possible future victims, a court has heard.

The secretary of the Department of Justice, Greg Wilson, is challenging a Supreme Court decision to revoke a decade-long supervision order against Robin Fletcher, who previously served eight years in prison for sexually abusing two teenage girls in the 1990s.

The order restricts him to living at a particular address, which he can only leave under strict conditions. He cannot move from that address without the Adult Parole Board’s approval.

Justice Phillip Priest last week ruled that Fletcher, 60, posed no greater risk of sexual reoffending “than the average sex offender released into the community”. He said there was a “low” risk he would reoffend in the same way, based on psychological evidence, the fact he is now legally blind, his age and his physical weakness.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

This is now the 10th accuser to file suit against former Guam priest Father Louis Brouillard.

Guam – Another alleged victim has come forward with allegations of sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Agana, making it the 18th lawsuit filed against the church.

The latest lawsuit was filed by Anthony Lujan, 50, who says he was sexually abused by former Guam priest Father Louis Brouillard.

According to Lujan, he was 12 years old when he was sexually abused by Brouillard while he was serving as an altar boy at the San Vicente Parish in Barrigada.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Attorney David Lujan says all the accusers say the sexual abuse occurred in Inarajan while Bishop Emeritus Tomas Camacho was serving as a priest.

Guam – More lawsuits for civil claims of sexual abuse are expected to be filed against retired Saipan Bishop Tomas Camacho.

Attorney David Lujan, who represents Melvin Duenas, 55, the first individual to accuse Camacho of sexually assaulting him, announced today that he’s been in communication with at least three other individuals who intend to sue the retired bishop.

All of the accusers, Lujan said, claim they were sexually abused at the Inarajan parish where Duenas said he was sexually assaulted when he was just 10 years old.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Melanie Kembrey

Serial paedophile and former priest Brian Joseph Spillane​ has been sentenced to another 13 years in jail for abusing young boys, many of whom were homesick and turned to him for help, at a private Catholic boarding school.

Spillane, 74, kept his back turned to his victims and their families as the sentence was handed down in a packed court room in the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday.

The former teacher, chaplain and head of discipline at St Stanislaus’ College, Bathurst, in central west NSW preyed on young boys who came from strictly Catholic families who revered priests.

Spillane used religious rituals, purporting to perform exorcisms, prayers and to speak in tongues, as a ruse to sexually abuse the boys.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

by Julie Shaw , Staff writer @julieshawphilly | shawj@phillynews.com

A Montgomery County day-care teacher has been charged with sexually abusing a 3-year-old girl who was in his care, authorities said Wednesday.

Michael Barbee, 32, worked as a teacher at the Early Learning Center Program of St. Francis Parish, on Hamilton Street in Norristown.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Norristown police on Feb. 8 received a report that Barbee assaulted the girl with his finger and covered her mouth while they were in his classroom. The girl complained of pain.

Barbee, of Yeadon, went to the Norristown Police Department on Friday and eventually admitted forcibly touching the girl on Feb. 7, the affidavit says. According to his statement, he told police he did so after the girl called him “stupid.” He said he went to her cot during nap time and assaulted her, the affidavit says.

Barbee was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and related offenses.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WPVI

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) — A Catholic school teacher in Norristown is facing multiple sexual abuse charges involving a 3-year-old girl.

32-year-old Michael Barbee, a teacher from the early learning program at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, is being held on $750,000 bail.

Charging documents say Barbee admitted to touching the child during nap time.

According to the police affidavit, a 3-year-old girl who attended the Learning Center complained and said Barbee covered her mouth when he touched her.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

Vatican representatives are due to hear evidence today from one of the former altar boys who accused Guam’s Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse.

Pacific Daily News reports groups of Catholics plan to be there to show support for Roland Sondia and other abuse survivors.

Archbishop Apuron is undergoing a canonical trial sparked by allegations he raped and sexually abused altar boys in the 1970s.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has sent conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke to the Pacific island of Guam to investigate an important case of sexual abuse, dispatching a seasoned jurist who has clashed repeatedly with Pope Francis for a sensitive mission halfway around the world.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith back in October named Burke the presiding judge in its trial of Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who is facing multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s, the Vatican press office said Wednesday. Apuron has denied the charges and has not been criminally charged.

Burke, a Rome-based American, is due to interview a former altar boy in Guam on Thursday who says he was sexually abused by Apuron, the Pacific Daily News reported. Such special missions are not uncommon for cardinals, and interviews with witnesses are a key part of any canonical trial.

Survivors of clerical abuse, though, have long criticized Burke’s record as an archbishop in the U.S. in handling cases of abusive priests. Burke has said every act of abuse by clergy is a “grave evil.” But he has also blamed gay clergy for the church’s sexual abuse crisis, saying priests “who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity” were the ones who molested children.

Burke, a top canon lawyer, had headed the Vatican’s high court until 2014, when Francis removed him and named him patron of the Knights of Malta religious order. Francis recently sidelined Burke from that position after Burke was involved in the problematic ouster of a senior knight.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For the Post

A canon law expert said confidential documents obtained by the Post, which summon one of Archbishop Anthony Apuron’s accusers to appear before a Vatican-sent tribunal, are the first pieces of evidence that Apuron faces the church’s version of a criminal case, rather than an administrative proceeding.

“These documents are a big affirmation that there’s at least a semblance of truth because they’re moving against Apuron,” said attorney Patrick J. Wall, a former priest and an advocate for victims of clergy abuse. “This is a criminal case. It’s the first piece of evidence that (they) believe he committed a crime of some sort.” Wall is with Jeff Anderson & Associates, a U.S. law firm recognized as one of the nation’s premier law firms to represent survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

A Feb. 3 decree signed by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who will be the presiding judge over the secret tribunal scheduled to take place at the Archdiocesan Chancery today, summoned Sondia to appear for “the purpose of giving said testimony,” according to the documents.

Sondia is one of several former altar boys who accused Apuron of sexual abuse in the 1970’s. At the time, Apuron was a Guam parish priest.

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ROME
Crux

Cindy Wooden
February 15, 2017
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

ROME – Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican’s highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.

The Vatican press office confirmed a “tribunal of the first instance” was constituted by the Vatican Oct. 5 and its presiding judge is Cardinal Burke. Four other judges, all of whom are bishops, also were appointed, the press office said.

“When an action is in a ‘first instance’ court, that indicates that it is in the initial trial phase,” according to the website of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles accusations of clerical sexual abuse.

Three men have publicly accused Apuron of sexually abusing them when they were altar boys in the 1970s. The mother of a fourth man, now deceased, also accused the archbishop of abusing her son.

Apuron has refused to resign, but in late October, Pope Francis named former Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Byrnes as coadjutor archbishop of Agana and gave him full authority to lead the archdiocese.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Times

By Oscar Gamble, ogamble@21st-centurymedia.com, @OGamble_TH on Twitter

NORRISTOWN >> A teacher at St. Francis of Assisi School’s Early Learning Center Program is facing charges of involvement in deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault and related offenses stemming from an incident that occurred Feb. 7, according to court documents.

Michael Barbee, 32, of Yeadon, was arrested Feb. 10 and arraigned in district court Feb. 11. He remains behind bars with bail set at $750,000.

According to a letter the school sent out to parents, Barbee was immediately placed on administrative leave after parish officials were notified he was under criminal investigation.

“These charges are serious and disturbing. The parish will cooperate fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care,” the letter read.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Philly

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) — A Catholic school teacher in Norristown is accused of sexually assaulting a young child.

The Norristown Borough Police Department arrested Michael Barbee, a teacher at the Early Learning Center Program of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish. Barbee has been charged with 16 counts of child sexual abuse, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, indecent assault of a child, and endangering welfare of children.

Barbee is accused of a horrific sexual assault against a 3-year-old girl during naptime.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said in a statement that Barbee was placed on administrative leave on Friday after the parish learned he was under investigation.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NBC 10

A Montgomery County Catholic school early education teacher remained behind bars Wednesday, suspended from his job, after being charged with multiple child sex assault counts stemming from an alleged incident with a 3-year-old girl.

A judge arraigned Michael Barbee, 32, of Yeadon, Pennsylvania on Saturday with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor under 16 years old, aggravated indecent assault of a minor under 13 years old, unlawful contact with a minor and related charges. The charges date to Feb. 7, online court records said.

Barbee teaches at Saint Francis of Assisi School’s Early Learning Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania. The school referred NBC10’s calls to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Saint Francis Parish placed Barbee on administrative leave Friday after learning of the criminal investigation, archdiocesan spokesman Kenneth Gavin told NBC10.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

The principal of a Victorian school where Christian Brothers sexually abused students says the college is now a safe place.

The child sex abuse royal commission’s final hearing into the Catholic Church will on Thursday focus on issues in Catholic education.

The panellists include John Crowley, the principal of Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College.

The royal commission has yet to release its findings on Catholic Church authorities in Ballarat, one of Australia’s worst centres for priests and religious brothers sexually abusing children.

Mr Crowley has said St Patrick’s now has robust child protection policies and mandatory reporting practices to safeguard students.

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GUAM
KUAM

Updated: Feb 15, 2017

By Krystal Paco

While there’s been speculation about the ongoing canonical trial in Rome for accused child molester Archbishop Anthony Apuron, officials confirm investigators from the Vatican are on island to gather evidence.

It was last summer Roland Sondia publicly accused Archbishop Anthony Apuron. At the time, he said, “He put his right arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer and asked, ‘Do you want to try me?’ Before I could do anything he started rubbing my privates. I loudly asked him ‘What are you doing?’ I told him to stop, but he didn’t.” That was a summer night in 1977, when Sondia was an altar boy at Mount Carmel Church in Agat. Come Thursday, he’ll have the audience of representatives from the Vatican.

Of the 17 accusers to file suit in the District Court of Guam, four have accused Apuron of sexually molesting them as altar boys resulting in the ongoing canonical trial in Rome. On Thursday, Sondia is anticipated to provide his deposition. He is represented by Attorney David Lujan, who said, “Whoever is going to be there tomorrow, we have no idea who’s going to be there. But I believe someone from the church, not the Guam church, but Rome is going to be there, as I understand it, the canon lawyer for Apuron and, of course, my client and me.”

Also anticipated to be present are members of the Concerned Catholics of Guam and the Laity Forward Movement who have demanded Apuron be defrocked. “We are going to be up there and we’re going to support Mr. Sondia. Seeking justice and we are also wanting the cardinal and others from the Vatican who may be in town to know our disgust with Archbishop Apuron,” said CCOG president David Sablan. “We are hoping and seeking a speedy trial for him.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

RHIAN DEUTROM
The Australian
February 16, 2017

Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has been found to have misled an inquiry about his knowledge and involvement in the handling of child sexual abuse ­allegations at two exclusive Brisbane private schools.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yesterday released two reports into various responses by the Anglican diocese of Brisbane, and Brisbane Grammar and St Paul’s Anglican School, to alleg­ations of child-sex abuse against staff members.

The reports found Dr Hollingworth, who was the archbishop of Brisbane and later ­governor-general, had been told by his assistant bishop, John Noble, of a case of sexual abuse by convicted pedophile priest John Elliot at the Church of England Grammar School in 1993.

After meeting with Elliot’s allege­d victim, the report found, Dr Hollingworth allowed the convicted pedophile to “remain in the ministry as rector of Dalby until he turned 65, when he would retire”.

“Dr Hollingworth’s decision to permit Elliot to continue in the ministry was a serious error of judgment which focused overly on Elliot’s needs to the exclusion of those of (the victim) and his family and of the need to protect children more generally,” it concluded. In a previous inquiry, commissioned by Brisbane Archbishop Philip Aspinall in 2002 and known as the “Brisbane inquiry”, Dr Hollingworth was asked to account for his version of events.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

Dylan Segelbaum , dsegelbaum@ydr.com

Feb. 15, 2017

A woman has settled a lawsuit against the Spring Grove Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and two of its supporting organizations, which alleged that elders failed to report instances of sexual abuse to law enforcement to protect their own reputation.

In the lawsuit, the woman said she’s suffered physical and emotional injuries after being abused between ages 14 and 16 by Terry Monheim, whom she met through the church.The Jehovah’s Witnesses became aware of it and “did nothing” to protect her, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was settled on Monday in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. The terms of the agreement are confidential.

“A matter with the Jehovah’s Witnesses has been resolved,” said Jeffrey Fritz, an attorney who represented the woman, now 28, of Lancaster County. The York Daily Record/Sunday News is not identifying her because she’s the survivor of a sexual crime.

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MINNESOTA
WJON

By Jim Maurice February 15, 2017

UNDATED – The Diocese of St. Cloud has scheduled a series of listening sessions, as well as a service of healing, to talk about claims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The healing service is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Holy Angels Performing Arts Center in St. Cloud.

The upcoming meetings are in response to 74 claims made against 31 clergy members under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which ended last May.

The gatherings have three primary goals: to assure parishioners of Bishop Kettler’s support and assistance, offer a process where sexual misconduct issues and concerns can be voiced, and allow other victims the opportunity to come forward.

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IRELAND
Galway Independent

Further excavation works are continuing at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.

The excavation of the Memorial Garden off the Dublin Road in Tuam began in late January and is expected to last up to three weeks. The works are being conducted by a specialist team of archaeologists lead by a Forensic Archaeologist, with the co-operation of An Garda Síochána.

The excavation, organised by Mother and Baby Homes Commission, follows on from initial works last November. The excavation aims to resolve a number of queries that the Mother and Baby Homes Commission has “in relation to the interment of human remains” at the site. The excavation works are focusing on timelines and stratigraphy, a branch of geology which studies rock layers. A fraction of the site will be excavated through test trenches, the location of which have been informed by a geophysical survey carried out at the site in October 2015. Meanwhile, the deadline for anyone wishing to meet the Commission’s Confidential Committee, who are investigating the Tuam Home, is Wednesday 1 March. The Commission would like to hear from anyone who was resident in or who worked in the Tuam Home or any of the other 13 Mother and Baby Homes or four County Homes under investigation.

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DEUTCHLAND

[Investigation is ongoing into allegations against a pastor in Kalbach.]

KALBACH
Zehn Monate nachdem der damalige Kalbacher Pfarrer sich selbst angezeigt und die Gemeinde verlassen hat, dauern die Ermittlungen der Staatsanwaltschaft noch an. Das erklärte der Sprecher der Staatsanwalt Fulda, Harry Wilke, auf Nachfrage unserer Zeitung.

Um welchen Vorwurf es sich genau handelt, ist nicht bekannt. Stets war jedoch von einem Sexualdelikt die Rede.

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SCHWEIZ
Rhein Zeitung

[Swiss victims of clerical abuse will receive compensation.]

BERN – Die Enthüllung eines Opfers sexueller Gewalt durch einen Priester hat die Entschädigungsfrage wieder auf die Tagesordnung der Katholischen Kirche gebracht. Die von den Schweizer Bischöfen eingesetzte Kommission hat sich Ende Januar konstituiert.

Das Fachgremium “Sexuelle Übergriffe im kirchlichen Umfeld” besteht aus sechs Mitgliedern. Aufgabe der Kommission wird sein, die Gesuche um finanzielle Genugtuung der Opfer sexueller Gewalt in der katholischen Kirche zu prüfen, wie Joseph Bonnemain, Mitglied des Fachgremiums, am Dienstag der Nachrichtenagentur sda sagte.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A Syracuse woman admitted today that she used a 10-year-old girl to produce child pornography.

Kerry Smith, 41, pleaded guilty in federal court to sexual exploitation of a child. She was arrested last year on charges of producing the images then texting them to another child pornographer, Jason Kopp.

Kopp, 40, of Liverpool, was sentenced to 235 years in prison in September for sexually exploiting two children for the purpose of making child pornography.

Kopp pleaded guilty in May to taking sexually explicit photos of two children with help from an aide at All Saints Elementary School in Syracuse. Neither of those victims was a student at the school.

The aide, Emily Oberst, is accused of exploiting those two victims, plus a third who was a student at the school and photographed naked in a bathroom, sources have told Syracuse.com.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

David F. Pierre, Jr.

Years ago, a number of Catholic World Report articles argued the case that the group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) – whom the media has called upon repeatedly over the years as a reliable voice to bash the Catholic Church over its handling of the sex abuse crisis – was actually nothing more than a front group for contingency lawyers and was driven by a deep ideological animus against the Church.

Now, recent lawsuits against the organization, including one by SNAP’s own former director of development, have, if anything, revealed that those arguments were too modest in their estimation of SNAP’s inner workings.

And in the wake of these lawsuits, SNAP’s most high-profile leaders—its founder and president, Barbara Blaine, and the group’s national director, David Clohessy—have suddenly announced their resignations.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Catholic leaders including priests, brothers and nuns should have to be licensed or regulated to practise, a royal commission has heard.

Franciscan Friar Dr David Leary said there were very few professions that did not have mandated supervision and that the Church had to “bite the bullet” and realise it was effectively an employer.

“I think that’s the way we have to move, and I think it’s inevitable that people who practise will be licensed or regulated in some way,” he said at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Wednesday.

“Services benefit from a wide range and comprehensive sense of being held both accountable (and) supported… and at the end of the day, that’s for the benefit of people who are most vulnerable.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Megan Neil, Australian Associated Press
February 14, 2017

Sydney’s elite Cranbrook School has given headmaster Nicholas Sampson its full support despite his failure to report a teacher accused of abuse during his time at Geelong Grammar.

Geelong Grammar School’s 2001-2004 headmaster organised for Jonathan Harvey to be paid his entire 2005 salary to retire a year early after a staff member complained his brother was abused by the teacher in the 1970s.

Mr Sampson left in July 2004 to head England’s prestigious Marlborough College and Harvey remained at Geelong Grammar for the remainder of the year before retiring.

Mr Sampson did not report the allegation to the police or the Victorian Institute of Teaching, the child sex abuse royal commission said.

The commission accepted Mr Sampson attempted to act in the victim’s best interests in securing Harvey’s resignation without disclosing the former student’s identity but said it was clear he should have notified the institute.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Eryk Bagshaw Rachel Browne

The headmaster of one Sydney’s most expensive private schools, Cranbrook, wrote “misleading” letters about a teacher accused of child sexual abuse at his former school and failed to report the allegations to a higher authority, a royal commission has found.

Nicholas Sampson, then the headmaster of Victoria’s Geelong Grammar, paid teacher Jonathan Harvey to retire early in 2004 to avoid any formal complaints of child sex abuse being made against him.

Former Geelong Grammar headmaster Nicholas Sampson faces questions about how the school dealt with allegations of sexual misconduct by former teacher Jonathon Harvey.
Harvey was later found guilty of sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy known as BLF by repeatedly plying him with alcohol, fondling his genitals and forcing him into a threesome with another man in the 1970s.

Mr Sampson told the commission he was alerted to allegations against Harvey by the victim’s brother, BLW, and conducted a “fairly cursory” investigation before asking Mr Harvey to retire early.

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AUSTRALIA
Bay 93.9

Rebecca McDonald / 15 February 2017

Geelong’s most prestigious school has apologised after being slammed by the child abuse Royal Commission.

The Commission has found long-time headmaster John Lewis, who later went on to run England’s elite Eton College, knew of allegations about a teacher accused of abuse, but did not take steps to protect students.

The school has also been criticised for not investigating an abuse complaint against a teacher in 1989, before expelling the 14-year-old who spoke out. Meantime an elite Sydney school has given its full backing for a former principal who has also been blasted by the Commission.

Nicholas Sampson organised for a teacher to receive a year’s salary so he could retire early, after another staff member raised allegations of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Geelong Grammar accepts some of its former leaders failed students sexually abused by staff at the prestigious school.

The child sex abuse royal commission has criticised the way a number of senior Geelong Grammar staff, including headmasters, handled abuse accusations and their failure to investigate or report the allegations.

Geelong Grammar School principal Stephen Meek has again apologised to victims of the “appalling” abuse.

“We are also very sorry that some of the school’s former senior staff neglected to respond to some of our past students with the respect and protection they so rightfully deserved,” Mr Meek said in a letter to the school community.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of Victoria’s most prestigious private schools, Geelong Grammar, has vowed to learn from its mistakes in handling allegations of child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has handed down its report into allegations of abuse by Geelong Grammar staff between 1956 and 1989.

In its findings, the commission noted times when no action was taken against an offending teacher and a victim was asked to leave the school for talking about abuse.

“The royal commission found that the principal at the time … should have ensured the allegations were investigated and the school council notified,” it said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail

Lauren Martyn-Jones, The Courier-Mail
February 14, 2017

TWO of Brisbane’s most elite private schools have come under fire for failing to protect students and dismissing allegations of child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission investigating Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released a scathing report into Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul’s School at Bald Hills, finding both schools failed in their duty to keep students safe.

The Commission has this morning formally responded to the evidence former students gave about the sexual abuse they suffered from Kevin Lynch — who was a teacher and counsellor at BGS between 1973 and 1988, and a counsellor at St Paul’s between 1989 and 1997 — and Gregory Robert Knight, who was a teacher at St Paul’s between 1981 and 1984.

During Lynch’s 15 years at Brisbane Grammar School, the Commission heard he sexually abused a large number of students, and that abuse had a devastating effect on his victims.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

RHIAN DEUTROM
The Australian February 15, 2017

Two prestigious Queensland schools have been revealed as sites of significant historical child sexual abuse, with “no systems, policies or procedures” in place to deal with allegations made against two staff with a long history of alleged child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission released it’s findings into two Brisbane schools, including Brisbane Grammar School, an affluent boarding school for boys, and St Paul’s School, a coeducational private school operated by the Anglican Church, this morning.

It comes after a number of former students from both schools gave evidence to the Royal Commission, claiming they were sexually abused by Mr Kevin Lynch and Gregory Robert Knight while they were teachers between 1973 and 1997.

Mr Kevin Lynch worked as a teacher and then counsellor at Brisbane Grammar school, in Spring Hill, and St Pauls School, in Bald Hills.

He was found to have “sexually abuse a large number of students” during his time at Brisbane Grammar.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nick Wiggins and Matt Eaton

A prestigious Brisbane private school harboured a culture in which children making allegations of abuse were treated as liars, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has found.

The commission has handed down its report into what it calls Case Study 34, examining allegations of abuse at Brisbane Grammar School in Spring Hill and St Paul’s School in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills.

It heard evidence that school counsellor Kevin Lynch sexually abused “a large number of students” while he was working at Brisbane Grammar between 1973 and 1988, and continued abusing student as a counsellor at St Paul’s between 1989 and 1997.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found then Brisbane Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell (who died in 2011) was aware of one specific complaint, but did not investigate allegations and did not refer the matter to police.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Avani Dias

After enduring years of horrific sexual and physical abuse, 71 former residents of a home for Indigenous Stolen Generation children in Darwin will be compensated in what their lawyer says is the largest class action in the Northern Territory’s history.

They are also the first group across the country to attain compensation from the Federal Government following evidence heard by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has been holding hearings around Australia for almost four years.

The former residents of the Retta Dixon Home took civil action in 2014 against a number of defendants, including convicted paedophile and the home’s former house parent Donald Bruce Henderson, the Commonwealth, and Australian Indigenous Ministries Christian organisation which ran the home.

The plaintiffs allege physical and sexual assaults by staff at the home from 1946 to 1980, and sought compensation for a failure of duty of care by the defendants, saying they suffered damage and loss as a result.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

Two prestigious Queensland schools failed to protect students from sexual abuse, doing nothing about complaints from victims who were not believed, a royal commission has found.

The culture at Brisbane Grammar School for 24 years under former headmaster Dr Maxwell Howell meant boys who alleged abuse were not believed, the commission said on Wednesday.

After counsellor Kevin Lynch moved on to the Anglican St Paul’s School where he again sexually abused students during counselling sessions, two boys who went to headmaster Gilbert Case were labelled liars.

Mr Case’s inaction when told Lynch and teacher Gregory Robert Knight had sexually abused children meant he did not achieve his most fundamental obligation to keep students safe, the commission said.

It said Mr Case, who was headmaster at St Paul’s from 1979-2000, was put in charge of all Anglican schools in Brisbane despite former archbishop and governor-general Peter Hollingworth and diocese general manager Bernard Yorke, knowing about allegations he took no action when told of abuse by Lynch.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 14 February 2017

Two prestigious Queensland schools failed to protect students from child sexual abuse, doing nothing about complaints from victims whose allegations were not believed, a royal commission has found.

Former long-time headmasters of Brisbane Grammar School and the Anglican Church-run St Paul’s School did not investigate allegations and failed to ensure students were safe, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has found.

The inaction of Gilbert Case, headmaster of St Paul’s from 1979 to 2000, on allegations counsellor Kevin Lynch and teacher Gregory Robert Knight had sexually abused children meant he did not achieve his most fundamental obligation of keeping students safe, the commission said.

It found former governor general and Brisbane Anglican archbishop Peter Hollingworth and another committee member knew about allegations that Case had failed to act on an abuse claim when they put him in charge of all of Brisbane’s Anglican schools in 2000.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Lucy Hughes Jones
Australian Associated Press

Former child residents who suffered years of abuse at a Northern Territory Aboriginal children’s home have become the first group in Australia to win compensation from the federal government following evidence at the sex abuse royal commission.

The 71 former residents of Darwin’s Retta Dixon home, who alleged physical and sexual assaults by staff between 1946 and 1980, launched a civil lawsuit in 2015 against a convicted paedophile, the Commonwealth and the religious group that ran the home.

“It is hoped that the settlement of this claim will enable those who suffered to reach a form of closure on this period of their lives,” a spokesperson for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said.

The home for stolen generation children was run by Australian Indigenous Ministries and overseen by the federal government.

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OREGON
Statesman Journal

Whitney M. Woodworth , Statesman Journal

A former Silverton youth pastor was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing a teen girl over the span of three years.

Andrew Stutzman, 38, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of second-degree sex abuse and was sentenced Monday in Marion County Circuit Court.

Stutzman started a youth group with his wife and had frequent contact with teens, according to police. He also co-owned a local coffee shop before his arrest.

Police began investigating Stutzman in June when the victim came forward. During the weeks-long investigation, Silverton police Detective Josh Boatner interviewed the victim, who said Stutzman began the abuse when she was 16.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
WYFF

Myra Ruiz
Anchor/Reporter

GREENVILLE, S.C. —
A woman whose sexual assault case inspired the country’s first sex offender registry spoke at a luncheon on Tuesday to benefit the Julie Valentine Center.

Allison Black Cornelius, who was sexually assaulted by her Sunday school teacher at the age of 7, was the keynote speaker at the annual Julie Valentine Luncheon at the T.D. Convention Center.

Cornelius came forward when she was in her 20s, after learning that her offender was working as a youth pastor.

“That ended up with a trip to the Supreme Court,” Cornelius said. “We won that case against him in criminal court. It was the oldest rape ever convicted in the United States.”

Cornelius went on to spearhead the passage of Megan’s Law in 36 states.

“At the end of the day, I believe a family’s right to know that an offender is living near them trumps whatever cost — whatever we have to do,” Cornelius said.

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SAIPAN
Marianas Variety

BISHOP Ryan Jimenez on Tuesday issued the following statement:

“My dear brothers and sisters in Christ in the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa:

“It is with deep sadness and great bearing to learn of the sexual abuse allegations in a civil claim against then-priest and now Bishop Emeritus Tomas A. Camacho by Guam resident Melvin Duenas. I request for your prayers for everyone affected by this news — those who have sought and continue to seek redress from abuses, the accused and their journey to realize due process, the families on each side that are struck with a heavy weight of pain that comes with each sharing, and everyone within our midst who are affected one way or another.

“The Church shall act, consistent with our faith, with justice and mercy. We have communicated with the Archdiocese of Agana where then-Father Camacho served as a priest at the time alleged in the lawsuit. Our prayers go out to Mr. Duenas and his family. We also ask for prayers for Bishop Tomas and his family. Since this is a matter in litigation, the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa can offer no further comment on this matter. We give our full cooperation with civil authorities.

“Our Diocese is committed to the protection of children and young people. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) sets the norms for our diocese. We are working hard to maintain a safe church environment, especially through education and transparency. Three years ago, we started a series of trainings and workshops on child protection for all our church workers and volunteers. We will continue this training and formation for the clergy, Catholic schools personnel, CCD instructors, diocesan staff and others in positions of authority.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

15 February, 2017

The Royal Commission’s report into Case Study 34 – The response of Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul’s School to allegations of child sexual abuse – was released today.

The report follows a public hearing held in Brisbane in November 2015, which heard about the experiences of former students at Brisbane Grammar School at Spring Hill and St Paul’s School at Bald Hills. The public hearing also examined how the schools and others responded to allegations of child sexual abuse of former students.

At the public hearing a number of former students of the schools gave evidence of having been sexually abused by:

* Kevin Lynch (deceased) – a teacher and later counsellor at Brisbane Grammar between 1973 and 1988 and a counsellor at St Paul’s between 1989 and 1997

* Gregory Robert Knight – a teacher at St Paul’s between 1981 and 1984.

The Royal Commission heard evidence that, during the period of Kevin Lynch’s employment at Brisbane Grammar, he sexually abused a large number of students. There was evidence that a number of complaints against Kevin Lynch were made to senior staff at Brisbane Grammar and to the then headmaster, Dr Howell (now deceased).

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

Jorge Branco

A former headmaster of one of Queensland’s most prestigious schools ignored a complaint of sexual abuse by a serial paedophile who went on to abuse many more boys, a royal commission has found.

In not investigating the complaint, former Brisbane Grammar School head Maxwell Howell failed to protect his students, a report released on Wednesday stated.

The child sex abuse royal commission report also made findings against former St Paul’s School headmaster Gilbert Case, who accused students of lying when they complained about being abused, and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth.

The findings came 15 months after hearings in Brisbane heard details of shocking abuse committed by notorious paedophiles Keith Lynch and Gregory Robert Knight at Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul’s School in the 1980s and ’90s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found one student’s father told Mr Howell in mid-1981 that Lynch had sexually abused his son, despite Mr Howell’s denial before his death in 2011.

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SWITZERLAND
The Local

The Catholic church in Switzerland has set up a new commission charged with awarding compensation to victims of historic sex abuse by Swiss priests.

Last December the Swiss Bishops Conference (SBK) announced it had created a 500,000 franc reparations fund to pay compensation to sex abuse victims who no longer have the right to seek redress in court since the statute of limitations has passed.

In 2010 the Catholic church finally acknowledged responsibility for numerous cases of sexual molestation by priests that had earlier come to light.

Between 2010 and 2015, 223 victims informed the church authorities of cases of abuse that took place between 1950 and 1990.

Of those, 49 were children aged under 12 at the time of the abuse.

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MALTA/AUSTRALIA
Malta Today

Matthew Vella 15 February 2017

In 1928, Perth-based Maltese priest Fr Raphael Pace urged the Congregation of the Christian Brothers to include Maltese children in its emerging migration scheme. The Irish order was especially dedicated to the evangelisation and education of youth. Negotiations between the Maltese and Western Australian governments continued through the 1930s but the first Maltese child migrants did not arrive in Australia until after World War II. Between 1950 and 1965, 259 boys and 51 girls were sent to Catholic institutions in Western Australia and South Australia.

Most parents believed their children would receive a better education in Australia. Instead many were put to work on the Christian Brothers’ building projects, some were forced to stop using their Maltese language and never learned to read or write English. They were also brutally sexually abused and physically punished.

Last week, a report by the Australian Royal Commission into child sexual abuse released damning statistics on the scale of the crisis within the Catholic Church, which shows that seven per cent of Australia’s Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in the six decades since 1950.

By far the worst was the order of the St John of God Brothers, where a staggering 40% of religious brothers are believed to have abused children; 22% of Christian Brothers and 20% of Marist Brothers, both orders that run schools, were alleged perpetrators.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio , heugenio@guampdn.com Feb. 15, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago

Vatican representatives on Thursday morning are scheduled to receive testimony from a former altar boy allegedly sexually assaulted by Archbishop Anthony Apuron in the 1970s. Groups of Catholics plan to be there to show their support for Roland Sondia and other clergy sex abuse survivors.

Sondia is currently an employee of the Pacific Daily News.

“We are seeking justice for Mr. Sondia, other clergy abuse victims and the whole of Guam. We would like to show the Vatican our mistrust of Apuron, and we hope the Vatican will speed up the trial and defrock Apuron,” David Sablan, president of Concerned Catholics of Guam, said Wednesday.

Apuron is undergoing a canonical trial, a process which started after former altar boys, including Sondia, came forward last spring to accuse Apuron of raping or sexually abusing them when he was parish priest in Agat.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, in a one-page Feb. 3 decree, requested Sondia’s presence at 10 a.m., Feb. 16, at the Archdiocesan Chancery “for the purpose of giving said testimony.”

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

Raulston Nembhard

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

In recent weeks the Church has come under withering criticisms because of untoward and even criminal behaviour alleged to have been committed by members of the Church. The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, in a recent damning commentary, indicated that pastors and members of the police force are among the leading high-profile cases of criminal sexual abuse of minors in the society. This is a worrying trend, and the society has been understandably incensed at what is happening to our children.

Criticism of the Church in this regard is necessary and should not be easily brushed aside. Such behaviour cannot be excused among those who should be seen as the greatest upholders of integrity in the land. The Church often gets unnerved by such criticisms, but people have a right to expect the best standards of behaviour from those who claim to be different because of their assumed proximity to the creator.

In criticising the Church, however, one must be careful not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. One can understand that people become more outraged at egregious behaviour demonstrated by those from whom you would least expect it, especially from leaders of the Church. But there is a tendency to use a broad brush to paint the Church and to bring everyone under the judgement that should be best reserved for the few.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Confidential documents: Vatican opened case against Apuron in 2008

Mindy Aguon | For the Post

A tribunal from the Vatican, which will be led by a cardinal, is scheduled to hold a secret hearing on Guam this week to speak to at least one of the victims accusing Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a canon lawyer and former head of the Vatican’s supreme court, signed a decree on Feb. 3, 2017, requesting that one of Apuron’s accusers, Roland Sondia, appear personally before Burke later this week on Guam.

The cardinal wrote the decree “in fulfilling the office of judge.”

Sondia was being summoned “for the purpose of giving testimony” in the Apuron case, according to the decree.

A Vatican equivalent of prosecutor and an advocate for the accused will also hear the accuser’s testimony, according to the decree.

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