ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Manila Times

June 4, 2016

VATICAN CITY: Bishops guilty of “negligence” in dealing with sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church can be dismissed, Pope Francis decreed on Saturday.

The decree quoted the pontiff as saying that such cases would fall under an existing proviso in canon law allowing for prelates to be sacked for “serious reasons.”

“I intend to specify that among these so-called ‘serious reasons’ is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults,” Francis wrote.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope also set up a body of lawyers to assist him in decisions that could require the dismissal of a bishop.

In the decree—an apostolic letter with a status in Latin called “motu proprio” (“on his own impulse”)—the Pope emphasized that the Church “loves all its sons, but cares for and protects with special attention those who are weakest and defenseless.”

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VATICAN CITY
GMA News

Bishops found to be “negligent” in dealing with predator priests in “cases of sexual abuse of minors” can be recalled, a papal decree said on Saturday.

Pope Francis came to power promising a crackdown on cover-ups and a zero-tolerance approach to abuse itself, which he famously described as being akin to taking part in a Satanic mass. —Agence France-Presse

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VATICAN CITY
BBC News

Pope Francis has approved measures to sack bishops who mishandle child sexual abuse cases, a papal decree says.

Bishops who are “negligent” in dealing with priests committing abuse will be removed under the new legal procedures.

The decree comes in response to long-running demands by abuse victims and their supporters to hold bishops accountable if they fail to protect their flocks from paedophiles.

Existing laws relating to abuse cases would be tightened, the Pope said.

He acknowledged that canon law already allows for a bishop to be removed for negligence but says he wants a more precise definition of the “grave reasons” that could lead to dismissal.

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VATICAN CITY
KFGO

Saturday, June 04, 2016

MILAN (Reuters) – Bishops found to be “negligent” when dealing with priests accused of sexual abuse of minors will be investigated and could be removed from office, a papal decree said on Saturday.

Pope Francis in 2014 established a Vatican commission intended to establish best practices to root out abuse in parishes.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked for the past 15 years by scandals over priests who sexually abused children and were transferred from parish to parish instead of being turned over to authorities and being defrocked.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has established legal procedures to remove bishops who botch handling sex abuse cases, saying they can be kicked out of office if the Vatican finds they were negligent in doing their jobs.

In a law published Saturday, Francis answered a long-running demand by victims of abuse and their advocates to hold bishops accountable for failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles. Victims have long accused bishops of covering up for abuse, moving rapists from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

In the law, Francis acknowledged that the church’s canonical code already allows for a bishop to be removed for “grave reasons.” But he said he wanted to precisely state that negligence, especially negligence in handling abuse cases, can cost a bishop his job.

Bishops “must undertake a particular diligence in protecting those who are the weakest among their flock,” Francis wrote in the law, called a motu proprio.

The statute alters the original proposal approved by Francis last year to establish a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to hear negligence cases. Francis’ sex abuse advisory board had recommended that the Congregation prosecute negligent bishops because it is already responsible for overseeing actual sex abuse cases against clergy.

But amid a host of legal and bureaucratic questions posed by that original proposal, Francis decided to streamline the procedure and task the Vatican offices that are already in charge of handling bishop issues to investigate and punish negligence cases.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, June 4, 2016

ALBANY — Making the fight for justice for child sex abuse victims even murkier, a Staten Island lawmaker wants to make it easier to bring criminal cases against predators — even though he admits his idea is likely unconstitutional.

Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), who has carried an alternate version of the Child Victims Act supported by the Church but opposed by advocates, said he would support a provision that would create a time frame for prosecutors to charge predators criminally even though the statute of limitations has run out on their cases.

“The criminal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt, which would afford defendants the strongest due process rights in the world,” Lanza said.

But he admits it’s legally dicey.

“It would need to be challenged in court in order for it to be struck down,” he said. “I’m not sure there isn’t some wiggle room there.”

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF JUNE 04, 2016

The experience of watching “Spotlight” was complicated for Martin Moran.

In 2004, the veteran Broadway actor wrote a one-person play, “The Tricky Part,” about being seduced by a much older counselor at a Catholic boys camp in Colorado, and the consequences that relationship would have on the rest of his life. (A year later, Boston’s Beacon Press published Moran’s memoir of the same name.)

So the themes of “Spotlight,” director Tom McCarthy’s Oscar-winning film about the sexual abuse of young parishioners by Catholic priests, were fraught and familiar.

“I don’t believe there’s any such thing as total closure,” Moran (inset) says. “Watching ‘Spotlight’ affected me quite a lot.”

Thursday, the actor, whose Broadway credits include roles in “Titanic,” “Cabaret,” and “Spamalot,” will be at the Calderwood Pavilion reading from his new memoir, “All the Rage: A Quest,” a sometimes funny book about trying to find the balance between anger and compassion. (It’s based on Moran’s one-person play, also called “All the Rage,” that opened off Broadway in 2013.) The event is sponsored by the Huntington Theatre, where Moran has acted periodically, most recently as Vanya in the comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.”

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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Jun. 3, 2016

Jesuit Fr. Klaus Mertes, the German whistleblower who published letters he had received from pupils at a Jesuit school in Berlin who had been abused by teachers for years, has called on all Catholics, “both homosexuals and heterosexuals” to make greater efforts to get the church to change its “deficient” mind-set on homosexuality.

“All of us [Catholics] — homosexuals and heterosexuals — must join together to get the church to give up its deficient mindset on homosexuality,” Mertes said in an interview in the German daily Taz May 25. “The reason why the Catholic church rejects homosexuality above all is because it [the church] combines sex with fertility, which means that the whole issue of sexual morality is connected with fertility.”

A change of attitude was called for, he underlined. Sexual morality must be seen more from the standpoint of unselfish neighborly love “and not purely from a concept of nature which views the sexual act in isolation.”

Mertes said that unfortunately, some of the worst homophobes in the church are Catholic priests who are themselves homosexual but deny their own homosexuality. That is one of the reasons why the church has such difficulties in dealing with the issue, Mertes said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, June 3, 2016

Sister Claire Smith believes Catholic leaders have abandoned survivors of childhood sexual abuse — and the teachings of Jesus Christ — by opposing legislation that would make it easier for victims to seek justice.

Smith says a priest sexually abused her for years — beginning when she was just 11. Still, the 78-year-old social justice activist says she is reluctant to bash the Catholic Church.

“The church is not the buildings or the hierarchy,” Smith said during an interview near her City Island apartment. “The church is us — it is the people of God.”

Smith still sees a therapist to talk about the trauma she suffered more than 60 years ago. The wheelchair-bound Ursuline nun, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1970s, once even collected bottles and cans from dumpsters to pay for counseling before she began seeing a church-affiliated psychiatrist a few years ago.

“The memories never leave you,” said Smith, an educator and counselor. “You carry it around like a burden for the rest of your life.”

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UNITED KINGDOM/MALAYSIA
Shanghai Daily

Source: AFP | June 4, 2016, Saturday

CONFESSED British child molester Richard Huckle took Malaysian children with him to church and regularly roamed an impoverished Kuala Lumpur neighborhood to snap pictures of kids, those who met him said yesterday.

But several people said they had seen no reason to suspect Huckle of the sickening pattern of child sex abuse that could see him locked up for life.

Huckle, 30, will be sentenced on Monday, a judge said yesterday.

The sentencing for the prolific pedophile had been expected yesterday but the judge said he wanted to consider mitigating factors put before him by Huckle’s lawyers, notably a letter of remorse.

Judge Peter Rook said his sentencing would begin at England’s Old Bailey central criminal court in London at 10am on Monday.

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UNITED KINGDOM/MALAYSIA
Straits Times

LONDON/KUALA LUMPUR • Confessed British child sex-abuser Richard Huckle, who preyed on poor children in an impoverished Kuala Lumpur neighbourhood, will be sentenced on Monday, British judge Peter Rook told the court yesterday.

The sentencing for the serial paedophile had been expected yesterday, but the judge said he wanted to consider mitigating factors put before him by Huckle’s lawyers, notably a letter of remorse.

The paedophile took Malaysian children with him to church and regularly roamed a Kuala Lumpur neighbourhood to snap pictures of kids, those who met him said yesterday.

But several people interviewed by Agence France-Presse said they had seen no reason to suspect Huckle, 30, of the sickening pattern of child sex abuse that could see him locked up for life.

Huckle was facing in a London court 91 charges, including the rape or sexual assault of children as young as six months old, committed during his several years living in Malaysia.

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INDIA/MALAYSIA
The Star

BY ASHLEY TANG

PETALING JAYA: A pastor in India revealed how serial paedophile Richard Huckle targeted his orphanage in Bangalore when he received an email volunteering his services.

George Fernandes, 37, told The Daily Mail that Huckle enquired whether he could volunteer at the New Hope for Children Orphanage as he would be travelling to India.

Fernandes said he had accepted Huckle’s offer but at that time was unaware of the crimes that he was capable of.

He said he later realised that Huckle just wanted access to the children and was shocked to read what he had done.

In the email dated in June 2013, Huckle said he “is originally from UK but am studying an IT degree in Malaysia.”

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INDIA
International Business Times

June 4, 2016

By Asmita Sarkar

British national Richard Huckle, who had confessed to 71 incidents of sexual crime against children in impoverished communities in Malaysia and Cambodia, had also visited an orphanage in India’s Bangalore city in 2013. Among Huckle’s crimes are 14 incidents of rape, five of digital penetration and 31 sexual assaults.

He had reportedly offered his photography and video editing skills to the orphanage. Fernandes had hosted Huckle at his home after Huckle sought leads about cheap hotels or a local family he could stay with during his visit to Bangalore.

“I am shocked to read about what he has done. In hindsight, I can see he just wanted to gain access our kids. He seemed nice on email and we were excited to host him as we thought he is keen to serve the orphan children,” Fernandes was quoted as saying by MailOnline.

Pastor George Fernandes, who runs New Hope for Children Orphanage, shared e-mails with MailOnline that Huckle had sent to him in 2013. Huckle, who confessed to committing sexual crimes against children aged between six months and 12 years during the period of 2006 to 2014, had visited India in 2013.

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UNITED KINGDOM/INDIA
Mo4ch

By
Sanjay Jha In Bangalore, India
and
Richard Shears In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, For Mailonline

Britain’s most prolific paedophile sent a series of chilling emails to gain the trust of a priest who runs a orphanages in India to get access to children living there.

In the disturbing emails, depraved Richard Huckle posed as a volunteer who wanted to visit the children’s home and bring his camera to take photos and videos of them.

Huckle, 30, a grammar schoolboy, raised by middle class parents in Ashford in Kent, faces life in jail for a sickening catalogue of sex crimes against children as young as two.

Posing as a freelance photographer and English teacher, he used his charisma to talk his way into communities of vulnerable children, primarily in Malaysia and Cambodia.

Huckle gained access to care homes, orphanages and other impoverished communities that were unprepared to cope with the infiltration of a monster.

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MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald

By Becky Jacobs on Jun 3, 2016

Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks is joining a growing list of Minnesota Catholic entities sued for clergy accused of sexual abusing children.

A letter was sent to parishioners May 26 stating that Sacred Heart’s “parish and school, along with a number of parishes and schools in our diocese and other Minnesota dioceses have recently been sued under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.”

The act, put in place in 2013, changed the statute of limitations applied in civil legal claims for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to give them a window to file claims, even from abuses that took place decades earlier. The deadline to file these claims just passed on May 25.

The lawsuit against Sacred Heart alleges that the Rev. Stanley Bourassa, who died in 2004, committed abuse while assigned to the parish from 1965 to 1968.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790,314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

Minnesota Catholic officials are writing parishioners saying their parish is being sued because of child sex crimes by Fr. Stanley Bourassa in the 1960s.

While we don’t know the specifics of this case, here’s what we DO know: Catholic officials should be more honest about these horrific cases. They should use parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to beg every single individual with information or suspicions about abuse in Catholic entities to step forward and get help from independent sources, and report what they know or fear to the independent professionals in law enforcement, not the biased amateurs in church offices.

Instead of telling the flock “we know nothing,” staff at Sacred Heart should be aggressively seeking others who may have been hurt by this predator.

No matter what courts or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

Child sex allegations against this priest first publicly in 2014 when, under pressure, the Crookston diocese released a list of accused pedophiles.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

A vicar who was the official chaplain for the British Olympic team sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl before the case was covered up by the Church for 20 years, a court heard.

Kevin McGarahan, who has also attended Remembrance Day services alongside the Prime Minister, was convicted of abusing the teenager at his home between 1992 and 1996.

A court heard the 64-year-old invited the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, into his home and quizzed her about her experience with boys before offering to teach her how to slow dance.

McGarahan, who was known as ‘Rev Kev’, then held her hips and forced his tongue into her mouth at the property in Telford, Shropshire.

She claimed the clergyman also told her he could rape her if he wanted to before saying that “nobody would ever know”.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

June 3 2016

Christopher Knaus

Anti-child-abuse campaigners have urged the ACT government to capitalise on the royal commission’s momentum and scrap time limits obstructing survivors from suing.

Legal time limits that obstruct significantly delayed civil claims can pose a major barrier for victims of child sexual abuse.

The vast majority of survivors are highly traumatised and can take many years to feel able to confront their past.

The royal commission last year urged states and territories to end their statute of limitation periods for such claims, a recommendation that prompted Victoria and NSW to act.

The commission described the statutes as “clearly inappropriate for survivors”, and recounted one victim’s evidence, heard in a private session:

“The statute is designed for someone who has tripped over in Kmart, it is not designed for victims of child sexual abuse,” the survivor said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Allegations that a man in a police uniform sexually abused a boy from Kincora have been heard by a public inquiry.

Graphic accounts of the litany of abuse carried out by three male staff members were also given to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry which is examining claims of a high ranking paedophile ring at the east Belfast boys home during the 1970s.

One victim, known only as KIN238, who was at Kincora for three weeks in 1977, claimed to have bee n taken to another property and abused by warden Joseph Mains, house master William McGrath and an unknown man in a police uniform.

After one incident he vomited, the inquiry was told.

The boy ran away and did not speak out until he told his girlfriend in 1999. He went to police after 2000, it emerged.

The HIA also heard about alleged violent gang rapes and of boys being pulled from their beds and returning drunk.

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | JUNE 3, 2016

As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares to gather for its annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis, leaders of a support group for survivors of institutional sex abuse called on denominational leaders to take action to prevent the next “Spotlight”-style exposé from targeting the nation’s second-largest Christian group.

Executive Director David Clohessy and Outreach Director Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released an open letter asking two top SBC officials to create a central “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators.

The SNAP leaders said “it is flat-out cruel” to tell clergy abuse survivors they must go to the church of the accused pastor if they want to report that pastor within the faith community.

“This is like telling abuse survivors that they must go to the den of the wolf who savaged them,” they said. “It is a response that inflicts additional harm on greatly wounded people and that turns a cold shoulder to those who seek only to protect others.”

Ten years ago SNAP asked SBC officials to establish an independent review board to receive and evaluate reports and keep a database of clergy credibly accused, confessed or convicted of sexual abuse. After study denominational leaders ruled the idea unfeasible, saying the convention lacked authority to investigate local congregations, which are free to call their own ministers.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

[with video]

Years before he even got there, Eric Ripert pictured the restaurant he’d own. A psychic told him he’d work in a restaurant in a city surrounded by water. That became a reality, along with much more, all documented in his new memoir, “32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line.”

Watching his mother and grandmother in the kitchen when he was growing up in France instilled an early passion for cooking in young Ripert. But it was in the kitchen of legendary French chef Jacques Pepin that nine-year-old Ripert felt “something different.” …

“He accepted the fact that I would come and observe in the kitchen and he would sit me next to the counter and I was fascinated by the moves, by what he was doing and by the smell and by the food that he was giving me, too,” Ripert recalled.

Ripert’s memoir is the latest addition to his growing book collection. He’s written five cookbooks and expects to write another, but wanted to write something to “inspire young people” to encourage them that “it will be tough but they will get to where they want if they have the will.” He gets personal about some of the painful ordeals he’s faced in his childhood, including his parents’ divorce, physical abuse from his stepfather and a predator priest.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

For more information:
David Clohessy (314) 566-9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris (314) 503-0003,bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Victims beg Baptists for action on clergy sex cases
Denomination holds annual meeting soon in St. Louis
“It should make “safe place” for submitting abuse reports, SNAP says
SBC should start by logging allegations & asking victims to step forward
Group predicts: Next “Spotlight”-style exposé will be in largest Protestant denomination

In anticipation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis on June 14-15, leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to two of the SBC’s top officials, seeking the creation of a central “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators.

“Now, Baptist officials tell clergy abuse survivors that they must go to the church when the accused predatory pastor works or worked if they want to report his crimes within the faith community. That’s flat-out cruel,” states the letter. “This is like telling abuse survivors that they must go to the den of the wolf who savaged them.”

“At a bare minimum, the Southern Baptist Convention needs to provide a ‘safe place’ where abuse survivors may report their perpetrators to people who have the training and experience to receive those reports with compassion and care,” asserts SNAP’s Executive Director, David Clohessy. “Of course, we hope that SBC officials will eventually understand that the denomination needs to do a great deal more, but for now, what we are proposing is something small — receive reports and log allegations.”

“In our experience, even when a minister has not been criminally convicted, most people will agree that a pastor has repeated abuse allegations, then people should be warned,” stated Clohessy. “We in SNAP wonder what that number would be for SBC officials. For example, if a minister had 3 abuse allegations in 3 churches in 3 different states, would that be enough for SBC officials to conclude that a denominational assessment should be made and churches informed? What if the minister had 10 allegations? Whatever the number, the place to start is with at least receiving reports and systematically logging allegations. How else can the SBC have any hope of having any idea of how many allegations may have been made about any particular minister?”

SNAP points to data gathered by the Associated Press indicating that Protestants also have a huge problem with clergy sex abuse, and in its letter, predicts that the next “Spotlight”-style exposé will focus on the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

Statement by David Clohessy of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790,davidgclohessy@gmail.com)

We urge Sioux City Catholic officials to quickly adopt the abuse prevention moves that a brave abuse victim is advocating.

[KTIV]

Tim Lennon was raped as a child by Fr. Peter B. Murphy in Iowa.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Lennon recently traveled from his California home to Sioux City, where he held a support group meeting for other victims and met with Bishop Walter Nickless, pushing for specific, proven measures that would better safeguard the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

We are grateful that Nickless has pledged to spread the word about Fr. Murphy. But much more needs to happen.

Lennon proposes that church officials

–post names of child molesting clerics – proven, admitted and credibly accused – on church web sites, for the safety of kids and the healing of victims, and

–turn every abuse report over to police, not just those deemed “credible” by biased, untrained diocesan staffers.

He’s absolutely right. These steps are “no-brainers.” They should have been taken long ago. We applaud Lennon for not only voicing his own pain but for seeking reforms that will help make other victims feel better and make other kids be safer.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The archdiocese is also responding to the allegations of sexual abuse, calling them nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations and rumors.

Guam – The Archdiocese of Agana is finally responding to Deacon Steve Martinez’s criticism of Archbishop Anthony Apuron, highlighting instead what they call Deacon Martinez’s incompetence.

They are also answering back at critics who say the archbishop intentionally kept the sex abuse policy weak to protect himself.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron has been publicly accused by two people so far of sexual abuse, the first was Roy Quintanilla, who says Apuron molested him at Mt. Carmel Catholic Church 40 years earlier and the second is Doris Concepcion who says her son revealed on his deathbed that Apuron molested him at the same church decades earlier.

The archdiocese calls these allegations unproven. “We are facing one allegation—contradicted by other testimonies—and some unsubstantiated rumors of sexual abuse. We are dealing with unproven allegations, not with proven crimes,” the release states.

However, while the archdiocese calls the allegations against the archbishop unsubstantiated and just rumors, they then go on point out that Archbishop Apuron “has always taken very seriously any allegations, and even rumors, of sexual abuse and acted on them.”

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IRELAND
Connacht Tribune

Galway Diocese has confirmed that a safeguarding issue is being investigated.

Bishop Martin Drennan has granted leave of absence of parochial duties to a priest while the investigation is ongoing.

In a statement, Galway Diocese says that the decision of the priest to step aside pending the outcome of the investigation ‘accords with diocesan policy in such matters.’

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NEW YORK
Times Ledger

State Assemblywoman Marge Markey refuses to give up. For a decade she has pushed the state Legislature in Albany to pass the Child Victims Act, which would remove the statute of limitations on underage sexual abuse cases.

Her bill made it through the Assembly this session for the fourth time, but it never has been brought up for a vote in the state Senate.

This time looked like it might be different. The Maspeth Democrat took her fight to the Legislature as “Spotlight” won the Oscar for Best Picture for its accurate portrayal of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s coverup of priests molesting children. The film aired the scandals that have plagued the church to an appalled national audience.

In May, the Democratic minority failed in its bid to force the state Senate to vote on the measure, which may mean that it’s moribund with only two weeks left in the current session. GOP senators blocked the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, on the grounds it would unleash a flood of unverified claims of sex abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

HOLLIDAYSBURG – Three Franciscan priests charged in connection to the Brother Stephen Baker child sexual abuse scandal waived their formal arraignments Friday.

The Revs. Giles A. Schinelli, 73; Robert J. D’Aversa, 69; and Anthony M. Criscitelli, 62, are charged with conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Australian

Cameron Stewart
Associate Editor
Melbourne

Australia must step up pressure on Israel over the extradition of former school principal and ­accused sex offender Malka Leifer, one of the women’s alleged victims said yesterday.

She was speaking after a Jerusalem judge ruled Leifer was not mentally fit to face extradition proceedings to Australia and she would be set free from house ­detention.

The decision dashes the hopes of Leifer’s alleged victims that the former principal will face trial in Melbourne in the next few years and raises the possibility she may never be extradited.

“I am so angry, this is very ­unfair,” one of Leifer’s alleged victims told The Weekend Australian. “She has basically been set free to live her life.”

The alleged victim said the issue needed to be taken up more vigorously. “I would love the Australian government to put more pressure on Israel over this,” she said. “She needs to be bought back to face trial.”

Australia’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, Dave Sharma, said the ­embassy was liaising with the ­Israeli State Attorney’s office about the next step to take.

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UNITED STATES
The Mennonite

J. Ron Byler is the executive director of Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Photo by Lowell Brown.

As stories of harm within our faith communities increase, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is committed to speaking out against sexualized violence.

Sexualized violence is physical or psychological violence carried out through sexual means or by targeting a person’s sexuality. Examples include rape, sexual assault, psychological violence such as manipulation and coercion, and sexual harassment.

We acknowledge that MCC and the churches with which we work have been complicit in perpetuating violence through our silence and our inability to hold accountable those who have caused harm.

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VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

For more information: Barbra Graber 540-214-8874, mennonite@snapnetwork.org, David Clohessy 314 566 9790,davidgclohessy@gmail.com

Group wants investigation into church/college abuse case
“But it must be independent, not internal,” survivors insist
They challenge Mennonite officials to publicly pledge full cooperation
“And they should publicly oppose even discussion of an in-house probe,” group says

A support group for abuse victims is urging Mennonite Church officials to hire independent investigators to look into an abuse case at a Virginia church and university. The group also wants church leaders to pledge, in advance, their full cooperation with such an effort and their “vigorous opposition” to any proposed internal investigation.

The case involves Luke Hartman, well known church leader who was arrested on solicitation of prostitution charges while he was a vice president at Eastern Mennonite University and a member of Lindale Mennonite Church, both in Harrisonburg, VA. He is also accused of sexual abuse, stalking, verbal abuses, threats of violence and was allowed to remain in his position, the group says, long after credible accusations were made.

Leaders of SNAP Mennonite (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) are prodding staff at the national Mennonite headquarters, the Virginia Mennonite Conference, Eastern Mennonite University, and Lindale Mennonite Church to act on the church-appointed Sexual Abuse Prevention Panel’s recent recommendation of an independent investigation.

“Specifically, we call on MC USA Executive Director Ervin Stutzman, MC USA Moderator Patricia Shelly, Mennonite Education Agency Executive Director Carlos Romero, and Virginia Mennonite Conference Executive Conference Minister Clyde Kratz to publicly join with the Sexual Abuse Panel’s push for an outside investigation,” said Stephanie Krehbiel, researcher for the Mennonite Abuse Prevention List. “And these officials should publicly and vigorously fight any move towards an internal probe.”

Stutzman and Shelly recently wrote, “We wholeheartedly support the work of the Panel on Sexual Abuse Prevention. Our staff called for the formation of the panel, and we have asked them to develop policies and procedures for congregations and church organizations to follow when there are complaints of abuse.”

“We urge all church leaders, pastors, and Mennonite congregants to hold these leaders accountable for their statements of trust in their own Sexual Abuse Prevention Panel, to go beyond smooth words and take tangible action,” said Krehbiel.

“Mennonites have a history of attempting to handpick their own investigators in sexual abuse cases, from within their own circles of friends, acquaintances, and trusted institutional allies,” said Jeremy Yoder, Mennonite pastor in La Junta, CO and graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary. “When abusers and enablers are powerful and popular leaders, these internal processes leave survivors marginalized and voiceless.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Vulnerable children were sexually assaulted just weeks after arriving at Kincora Boys’ Home, a public inquiry has heard.

Detailed and graphic accounts of a litany of abuse by staff members during the 1970s were given to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) which is examining allegations of state sponsored child prostitution and cover up.

In statements, boys described how house master Raymond McGrath preyed on them as they watched television, while they were in bed and in the bathroom.

For some it was a frequent occurrence, the inquiry was told.

It was further claimed that after assaulting boys, McGrath would walk away laughing.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Crux

By Jack Valero
Special to Crux June 3, 2016

A new front Pope Francis has opened in his bid to reform the Catholic Church may prove one of his toughest challenges yet. But it is also, unquestionably, one of the most important.

“I remember now the famous expression, ‘It is the hour of the laity’,” he said in a recent letter to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, “but it seems that the clock has stopped.”

A resurgence of clericalism, he warned, is stifling the possibility of lay people taking up their proper role in the Church – one of the key insights of the Second Vatican Council.

This isn’t a side issue for Francis; unless lay people assume responsibility for mission and evangelization, he says in the letter, “the prophetic fire that the Church is called to light in the hearts of her peoples will be extinguished.”

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor June 3, 2016

Elsewhere on the Crux site today, Jack Valero has a piece insisting that clericalism should be consigned to the dustbins of history and the Church should fully embrace the lay role. In effect, the suggestion is that lay people “represent” the Church every bit as much as clergy, if not in terms of its teaching authority then its evangelizing mission.

That’s an argument that doubtless will resonate with many Catholics, including Pope Francis, whose distaste for clericalism is well-documented. An exclusive Crux story yesterday, however, offers an important reminder that laity have to take the bitter with the sweet: If you want to be empowered, you also have to be accountable.

In a nutshell, Austen Ivereigh reported from Peru that the head of a Church court there has written a painstaking letter documenting efforts to inform the Vatican of charges of sexual and other forms of abuse against the founder of a powerful lay movement known as the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and expressing palpably growing outrage at the lack of a response over four years.

It was just in May that the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious finally appointed a delegate to oversee a process of reform, and it still has not imposed any ecclesiastical punishment on the founder, Luis Fernando Figari.

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UNITED STATES
FaithTrust Institute

Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune

Jun 02, 2016

Dear Pope Francis:

I am sure that there must be some nights that you can’t sleep because you are carrying a load heavier than most of us can even imagine. But I can only assume that some nights are especially hard.

A few months ago, Monsignor Tony Anatrella told new Bishops that they did not have a duty to report allegations of the sexual abuse of children to law enforcement. Not only did this instruction contradict your current policy of requiring reporting, but your Commission for the Protection of Minors was not even involved in the training.

As soon as it hit the news, Cardinal O’Malley, who chairs your Pontifical Commission on the Protection of Minors, came out asserting strongly that Bishops have a moral obligation to report disclosures of the sexual abuse of children to law enforcement. It will not be a surprise to you that Cardinal O’Malley’s position is one that I strongly support for all clergy in all faith communities.

And then there’s Cardinal Pell, who is now one of your closest advisors at the Vatican. In March, asserting that he was too ill to leave the Vatican and travel to Australia, Pell gave four days of video-link testimony to the Australian Parliamentary Commission, which is investigating child abuse in institutions serving children. Pell acknowledged that he had dismissed allegations of “plausible” complaints of child sexual abuse when he served there, beginning in the 1970s. Pell’s hometown, Ballarat, has been scarred by a rash of suicides by abuse survivors, where at least five pedophiles clerics were working during Pell’s tenure there. In his testimony, Cardinal Pell finally acknowledging how wrong he got it. It will be interesting to see how he will respond to his people who are asking him to “Come Home” to Australia. They want to have a little chat.

Last week, Monsignor Tony Anatrella was back in the news. The consulter to the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers has been accused by at least four former seminarians of sexual abuse. There have been reports about Anatrella since at least 2001, and about his abuse going back as far as 1987. French seminaries and monasteries sent young men who appeared to have gay proclivities to Fr. Anatrella for “therapy.” His methods included telling them they weren’t gay and then engaging in mutual masturbation with them.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 3, 2016

The Archdiocese of Agana announced Friday it is working with a prominent U.S. law firm and an independent investigator to look into recent allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

In a media release, the church responded to accusations made in recent days by a local deacon.

Deacon Steve Martinez, the former coordinator of a local church group charged with reviewing sexual abuse allegations involving clergy, said at a press conference Wednesday that Apuron purposely kept the archdiocese’s sexual abuse policy weak to protect himself.

On Friday, the church said that this allegation is a “calumny of such magnitude that the only avenue, which we are following, is recourse to the civil and canonical legal processes to address these intentional lies.”

The statement continues: “We are working with one of the most prominent U.S. legal firms to address these issues and with an independent investigator to inquire about this allegation and these rumors. These intentional lies oblige the Archbishop to take appropriate and immediate canonical measures in regard to Stephen Martinez.”

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, June 3, 2016

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)

Winona’s bishop has callously rubbed salt into the already-deep and still-fresh wounds of abuse victims by deliberately and disingenuously minimizing the pain and vulnerability of a teenaged girl who was repeatedly abused by a priest who was counseling her.

[Post-Bulletin]

Bishop John Quinn (jmquinn@dow.org) wrote that “Monsignor Richard Colletti’s resignation stems from recent media reports involving accusations of sexual misconduct with an adult female that dates back to 1986.”

First, Quinn uses the word “misconduct,” a deliberately vague word that minimizes the horror of what Colletti did. A powerful, well-educated priest abused his position, authority and trust by sexually manipulating, abusing and exploiting a devout teenaged girl who sought counseling because she was already suffering. She’d been raised since birth to consider priests holy, trustworthy, celibate men who could forgive her sins and get her into heaven. So Colletti’s actions were abusive and devastating.

Texting during a movie or being loud in a restaurant is “misconduct.” What Colletti did borders on criminal. And when powerful men like Catholic bishops insult victims and deceive parishioners when they put self-serving spin on this kind of horror. Shame on Quinn.

Second, the phrase “dates back to 1986” is essentially another way to minimize the monsignor’s wrongdoing. Quinn implies that since the devastating betrayal happened some years ago, it’s somehow less wrong or hurtful.

Third, Quinn implies that the “gag order” in this case was mutual. In only the most narrow, technical sense could this be true. For decades, Catholic officials insisted on such secrecy before they provided any real help to victims. We strongly suspect that Quinn’s predecessor demanded this gag order and a desperate, wounded and perhaps even suicidal victim felt she had no choice but to sign it.

Quinn should be more forthcoming about his troubling case. (Does he really think this victim will sue him if he ‘comes clean’ and admits which church officials covered up for one of their abusive colleagues?) Quinn should also disclose Colletti’s whereabouts and should aggressively prod others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or manipulations by the ex-chancellor to call law enforcement, using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements. Quinn should also personally visit each parish where Colletti worked, begging those with information or suspicions about clergy wrongdoing to call independent sources of help, not church officials.

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IOWA
KTIV

[with video]

By Tommie Clark, Multimedia Journalist

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) –
It’s been more than 50 years, but one former Siouxlander is still trying to right a wrong he says was done to him when he was just 12-years-old.

We sat down with Tim Lennon, who claims he was raped by a Catholic priest in Sioux City.

KTIV’s Tommie Clark has been investigating the allegation for the past few months.

She has his story.

Tim Lennon met with the Diocese of Sioux City to have his allegations addressed.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

media kit
Previous Auxiliary Bishops of Boston
The Appointment of Bishops

June 3, 2016
www.BostonCatholic.org

Braintree, MA – The Holy See announced this morning that Pope Francis has named Rev. Robert P. Reed and Very Reverend Mark O’Connell, JCD as Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of Boston. Bishop-elect Reed is President and CEO of iCatholic Media and Cabinet Secretary for Catholic Media. Bishop-elect O’Connell currently serves as Judicial Vicar for the Archdiocese.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley will present the Bishops-elect at a 10:00am press conference today (Friday, June 3, 2016) in the Medeiros Auditorium at St. John Seminary, 127 Lake Street, Brighton, MA.

Cardinal Seán said, “In Bishops-elect Reed and O’Connell the Holy Father has selected two gifted priests as Auxiliary Bishops. They exemplify the heart of a pastor and joyfully bring the Gospel to life in their daily ministry. These kind and humble priests bless us with their prayerful commitment to serve the faithful with grace and a deep and abiding love for Christ.”

Bishop-elect Reed said, “My gratitude goes to Pope Francis for this appointment and his example of a joyful life motivated by the Gospel. I am equally thankful to Cardinal Seán for his confidence in me as one of his priests. My life and work as a priest is one of service, not privilege. For me, today is a summons to an even deeper service in the name of Jesus, our only hope.”

Bishop-Elect O’Connell said, “I am very humbled, and overwhelmed by the Holy Father’s confidence in calling me to serve in this new role within the life of the Church. I have been an extremely blessed and happy priest for twenty-six years. I can only trust that God will continue to allow me to be happy serving as a bishop no matter what is His plan for me.”

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PHILIPPINES
Inquirer

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab
@MJcayabyabINQ

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday blasted anew the Catholic Church for being a hypocritical institution and said he could serve his office exposing and attacking abusive priests throughout his six-year term.

During his press conference at the presidential guesthouse on Thursday night, Duterte not only hit corruption within the media but also the hypocrisy in the church led by priests who abuse children while pretending to be the models of morality.

Duterte mentioned the bishops who were given luxury cars as charity by the state lottery and abusive priests who molest seminarians or children even as they lead their confession.

“Luxury cars for charity, mga bishops isa pang mga p***** ina (bishops who are sons of b******). What a hypocrite society,” Duterte, fuming with rage, said in his press briefing.

Duterte lashed at the Church for urging the Catholics not to vote for him for being a womanizer even when some from their ranks molest children and have families outside their vow of celibacy.

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MINNESOTA
Daily Bankruptcy Review

Tom Corrigan
June 02, 2016

A federal judge overseeing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s bankruptcy said clergy sexual abuse victims seeking greater access to the archdiocese’s assets may have to clear a number of potentially high legal hurdles, including the First Amendment.

During a hearing Thursday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis, Judge Robert Kressel questioned whether victims’ recent request to force the archdiocese to pool assets from hundreds of related—but legally distinct—affiliates is inconsistent with the protections of religious freedom enshrined in the Constitution….

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By LEITH HUFFADINE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

The former principal of an elite ultra-orthodox Jewish school has been allowed to walk free despite being wanted on 74 child sex charges.

Malka Leifer is wanted by Victorian police for 74 charges of indecent assault and rape allegedly involving girls at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, but a judge in Israel, where she fled in 2008 after being accused, has ruled she’s not mentally fit to be extradited to Australia, the ABC reported.

According to the report, Leifer has avoided 10 extradition proceedings in the past two years, claiming she suffers panic attacks and is too unwell to face court.

After a psychiatrist’s report released on Thursday said she was mentally unwell and after a judge said she couldn’t face extradition, her house arrest in Israel will be lifted.

She doesn’t have to face an extradition hearing until after she’s completed psychiatric treatment – which could last years, according to the ABC.

The decision has stunned Australian authorities and those campaigning to seek justice for the alleged victims, including Australian-Israeli victim advocate Manny Waks.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
Herald Sun

June 3, 2016

Shannon Deery
Herald Sun

MEMBERS of Victoria’s ultra orthodox Jewish community are helping fund fugitive principal Malka Leifer’s life on the run.

The mother of eight is in hiding in Israel while local authorities fight to have her returned to Australia to face allegations of serious child sexual abuse.

The Herald Sun can reveal a bank account linked to Ms Leifer is being topped up by Adass community members here.

Sources within the community say deposits are being made over the counter at a bank in Elsternwick.

They say they are outraged that some members of the community that helped Ms Leifer flee Australia are now supporting her while she evades justice.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer Posted Jun. 2, 2016

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An extensive seven-month investigation into alleged systemic sexual abuse at St. George’s School found “no prosecutable criminal conduct,” and has been closed, State Police Col. Steven G. O’Donnell and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said Thursday.

“Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct, and statute of limitations,” their joint statement said.

The investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct “by seven former faculty members;one current employee; and three former students upon students” at the elite private Episcopal boarding school in Middletown.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

KENNETH LOVETT
GLENN BLAIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, June 2, 2016,

ALBANY — Finally, some good news for child sexual abuse victims in their fight to obtain justice.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said his chamber is working on new legislation that would eliminate or significantly extend New York’s statute of limitations for child abuse cases.

“I think we have been having good, productive, conversations,” Heastie said Thursday. “We may be looking to come up with a draft of a bill that would be acceptable to the conference that I think would accomplish a lot of the things that the victims are looking for.”

Heastie provided few details but said the new bill would likely include some sort of a lookback provision that gives victims a chance to revive old cases — a key component sought by survivors and advocates who want to change the law.

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

[with video]

by Annie Shalvey; Reporting by Perry Russom

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — Members of the Rhode Island State Police announced Thursday their investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct at St. George’s School has concluded.

After dozens of interviews with former students and current and former faculty, state police concluded that the state cannot proceed with criminal charges at this time.

According to troopers, the investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by faculty members at the elite Middletown boarding school. Police said claims against seven former faculty members, one current employee and three former students were investigated.

Police also looked into claims that school administrators did not report alleged abuse to the Rhode Island Department of Youth and Families.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Editorial

With the days dwindling in Albany’s legislative session, two perniciously false arguments stand between victims of child sexual abuse and access to the legal system that could bring those who harmed them to justice.

The victims are seeking legislation that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations on sex crimes, extend the statute of limitations on civil suits that now ends when a victim turns 23 and give victims who have been barred from the courts a fresh one year to file suits.

Although priests are by far a minority of those who commit sex crimes against minors, the Catholic Church has pressed the Legislature to squelch the so-called one-year look-back, while supporting the other measures.

The first perniciously false argument voiced by church representatives and like-thinking legislators was best expressed last month to the Daily News by Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle of Rochester:

“With each passing year, it gets harder and harder to reconstruct the truth.”

Republican Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco of Syracuse conveyed the second argument directly to victims:

Giving adults abused as kids the power to go back and press criminal charges or file lawsuits would invite fabricated claims of abuse against the innocent.

Neither knows what the hell he’s talking about — and Linda Fairstein does.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

An abuse survivors group says Guam has been used as a “way station for problematic priests”, and abuse within the Catholic Church on the island spreads far beyond its Archbishop.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron is denying accusations he molested two altar boys in the 1970s.

But a director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Joelle Casteix told Jo O’Brien rumours of abuse have been circulating for years and she has no reason not to believe the latest allegations

JOELLE CASTEIX: Nobody wants to accuse their Archbishop of sexual abuse. Nobody wants to sue their church. All any survivor wants is healing and to make sure their abuser is never around another kid. And so I have no reason to not believe those people who have come forward, the victim and the other victim’s mother because they have absolutely nothing to gain from this except their personal vindication, that’s it, and they are doing this just out of pure strength and bravery, in the face of an Archbishop who is threatening to sue and saying they are causing harm to the church. They have a lot of lose and they are still standing up for what’s right.

JO O’BRIEN: The Archdiocese is calling these claims a malicious lies, insinuating there’s other issues involved, and that’s why this campaign is being waged against the church. What’s your response to their attitude on this?

JC: It’s awful that there’s been no compassion what so ever for the survivors, and it would be very easy for the Archdiocese to make a statement saying, we are so sorry for any pain that these people may have suffered. When the mother of a survivor comes forward and tells her story of pain, it is very heart wrenching, and there’s been no compassion what so ever. I believe that they are really in a entirely defensive mode, and it’s terribly hurtful and it’s pretty eye opening for Catholics who are really expecting the Archdiocese to do the Christian thing to show compassion first, and then to defend the church second.

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MALAYSIA
Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: British paedophile Richard Huckle had wanted to “marry” one of the children he was abusing and set up a foster care service, so he would have a steady stream of children under his care to abuse, UK’s Daily Mail reported.

This is one of the sordid details that emerged during the 30-year-old’s ongoing trial.

He had posted on a paedophile website, where he also shared graphic images and videos: “My ambition once married would be for our family to be like foster carers for children, temporarily or long term… I would like a cycle of children to come through my house.”

Huckle’s parents had also asked the police to take him away while he was at their house in Ashford, Kent, under strict bail conditions, before he was charged with his horrific crimes.

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MALAYSIA
Malay Mail Online

BY BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― British paedophile Richard Huckle met his victims at the Community of Praise church, but church leaders and parents were unaware of any sexual abuse involving the children, a source said.

The highly-placed source said Huckle, 30, had visited the Protestant church run by Pastor Paul Packianathan ― which has branches in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya, and in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur ― as a photographer, and met impoverished ethnic Indian families who came to the church for food handouts.

“The church leaders and parents were unaware of the abuse; they only became aware this year,” the source told Malay Mail Online.

The source added that Huckle did not volunteer teaching at the church and that the photographer’s victims were from the surrounding community, but were not technically members of the church.

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IRELAND
The Tablet

02 June 2016 | by Sarah Mac Donald

An Irish priest falsely accused of sexual abuse calls for the Church to rethink the way it treats clergy who are placed under investigation

The Church “cut me loose, hung me out to dry, and disowned me,” says Fr Tim Hazelwood, who has been a Catholic priest for 34 years. He has recently won a six-year struggle to clear his name after being falsely accused of sexual abuse. He is deeply concerned at the way in which the Church handled his case, and he warns that the Irish hierarchy must rethink its treatment of accused priests and its policy on anonymous accusations.

Fr Hazelwood says there is a climate in both church and society which presumes priests are guilty unless they prove their innocence. The 57-year-old parish priest of Killeagh in the Cloyne diocese, a qualified psychotherapist, believes it is time for priests in Ireland to establish a national body which will lobby the bishops and the current safeguarding structures on their behalf to ensure that natural justice is not undermined.

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MINNESOTA
Advocate Tribune

Posted Jun. 2, 2016

The Diocese of New Ulm engaged in a day of prayer Wednesday, May 25, the final day to make a civil sexual abuse claim under the Minnesota Child Victims Act. According to a press release from the Diocese of New Ulm, Bishop John LeVoir called on all local Catholics to pray for healing, reconciliation, and hope.

“Today is a day to remember in prayer all those harmed through abuse by priests or others in Church ministry,” said Bishop LeVoir. “It is a time to recommit to efforts to prevent the abuse of the vulnerable and to vow never to forget the lessons of this tragic chapter in church history.”

As of the end of the day on May 24, the Diocese of New Ulm and parishes within the Diocese had received claims from 98 victims and survivors under the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted the civil statute of limitations for historic claims of sexual abuse of a minor. Of the Diocese’s 75 parishes, 28 are named in claims.

A total of four of the 19 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse served in either pastoral or administrative capacities at area churches, including all four at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Granite Falls.

According to the release, The Diocese will continue to work closely with the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates and other representatives of victims and survivors as the aggrieved move forward in their healing journey. The Diocese and Jeff Anderson & Associates have committed to taking the time necessary, working together, to come to a fair resolution of claims that allows the work of the Church to continue while promoting healing.

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UNITED STATES
KTOO

By Rebecca Beitsch, Stateline
June 2, 2016

Fueled by sexual abuse allegations against comedian Bill Cosby and the Catholic Church, and other high-profile cases dating back decades, state legislators across the country are considering lengthening or eliminating statutes of limitations on rape.

Statutes of limitations, which exist for most crimes besides murder, are intended to encourage the timely reporting of crimes. As time passes, evidence deteriorates or gets lost, memories fade and witnesses die.

But it can take years for sexual abuse victims to find the courage to come forward. Advocates for victims say statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assaults are arbitrary and outdated, and note that police departments across the country are still digging through a backlog of rape kits, some of which are three decades old.

Forty-three states have statutes of limitations for sex crimes, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Of the states with statutes, 27 include an exception that allows prosecutors to file charges when there is DNA evidence. State statutes of limitations often range from three years to 12 years, but in some states, accusers have more time to come forward when they say they were abused as children — until they are 21 in some states or as old as 50 in others. Some states don’t start the clock until the victim turns 18.

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GUAM
KUAM

[with video]

By Sabrina Salas Matanane

The Archdiocese of Agana claims years of attacks and recent allegations made against Archbishop Anthony Apuron are part of malicious smear campaign against him and a plot to take him down.

Following a press conference held by the former sex abuse response coordinator for the Archdiocese of Agana, Deacon Stephen Martinez, the archdiocese is firing back. Martinez claimed the sex abuse policy was flawed because the archbishop essentially has the final say in all complaints that are filed and investigated. Two people have come forward alleging allegations of sexual molestation against the archbishop when he was a priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat decades ago.

The archdiocese says Martinez’s allegation that the policy was kept weak purposely by the archbishop to protect himself is slanderous and their only recourse is civil and canonical legal processes to address what they call are intentional lies. According to a media release the archdiocese is working with one of the most prominent US legal firms to address these issues and with an independent investigator to inquire about this allegation and these rumors.

The church meanwhile is also accusing Martinez of being part of a conspiracy or the “Rohr Group” to topple the archbishop. Tim Rohr operates the JungleWatch blog, which has been critical of the archbishop over the last several years.

The church further claims Martinez, who was the former archdiocesan financial officer was incompetent in his position and for six years in a row failed to submit required financial reports to the Vatican. The archdiocese alleges this finance council conspired to sell the Yona seminary property in order to cover their financial misdeeds. So where does Rohr fit in?

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Friday, June 03, 2016

Liam Heylin

A 83-year-old priest who was put on trial on charges of indecently assaulting a boy in a school sickbed in the 1970s was found not guilty on both charges yesterday.

The nine men and three women of the jury return to courtroom 2 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after an hour of deliberation to tell Judge Gerard O’Brien they had reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty on both charges.

Two past pupils from the 1970s and 1980s spoke yesterday in favour of the priest, who was on trial on two charges of indecently assaulting a pupil in the sickbay of the school.

One past pupil whose marriage ceremony was later performed by the priest said yesterday: “The school was a goldfish bowl. If there was a sniff of any inappropriate behaviour it would have gotten out.”

A student from the 1970s said: “He was very much part of our set-up. He was involved in collecting stamps for charity, he was always involved in things like that. I got on fine with him. He was passionate about teaching. He would drive you hard. He was a good teacher.”

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MALAYSIA
Malay Mail Online

BY BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― A Petaling Jaya church said that Richard Huckle, the man dubbed in UK media as Britain’s “worst paedophile”, had visited it a few times, but denied any child sexual abuse in its congregation or the surrounding community.

Pastor Paul Packianathan, senior pastor of the Community of Praise Petaling Jaya Church located in Taman Medan, a Petaling Jaya neighbourhood comprising mostly hardcore poor Malays and Indians, also said Huckle never taught English tuition in the Protestant church.

“There was no abuse in our church,” Paul told Malay Mail Online.

“Those children supposedly affected by him are not from our church, or from the community where our church is,” he said. “He just came as a parishioner on and off”.

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AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
Australian Jewish News

Alleged sex offender Malka Leifer will live in Israel as a free woman, a Jerusalem court has ruled, bringing the long-running case for her extradition to stand trial in Australia crashing down.

“It is the worst possible outcome,” Manny Waks, the Australian anti-abuse activist told The AJN shortly after the judge announced his decision. “I have spoken to some of the alleged victims and they are devastated, simple as that.”

Waks voiced alarm that former Melbourne Adass Israel school principal Leifer, who is supposed to stand trial in Victoria on 74 indecent acts committed against pupils before she fled Australia in 2008, will be allowed to be near Israeli children and youth. “There is no justice for the alleged victims and children in israel are endangered,” he said.

For the last two years, alleged victims, activists, and the Australian embassy of Tel Aviv have been pinning their hopes of a trial on extradition proceedings that could get her to the dock in Victoria. But proceedings never really got underway — she repeatedly failed to attend court and her legal team argued that was legitimate because the spectre of the courtroom brought on psychotic episodes.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
J-Wire

June 3, 2016 by Henry Benjamin

A psychiatric report has found wanted fugitive Malka Leifer is not mentally fit to face an Israeli court to face proceedings to extradite her to Australia.

Leifer is facing prosecution in Melbourne for 74 alleged sexual abuse offences committed when she was employed as the principal of the Adass Yisroel School. Leifer had been brought to Melbourne from Israel to fill the position. She fled to Israel in 2008 ahead of allegations.

In Jerusalem’s District Court Judge Amnon Cohen directed that Leifer must attend regular clinical psychiatric treatment without hospitalisation.

Leifer has been banned from leaving Israel and must undergo five treatments over the next six months after which a further psychiatric report will be submitted to the court. She will undergo the first treatment next week.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

A former principal of a Jewish girls’ school in Australia will not face immediate extradition from Israel to Australia on 74 allegations of indecent assault and rape, reportedly involving girls at the Jewish school in Melbourne, because she is currently mentally incompetent to face extradition proceedings, a Jerusalem judge ruled on Thursday.

As reported by Australian Associated Press, Jerusalem District Court Judge Amnon Cohen ruled that any move to extradite Malka Leifer, the former principal at the Adass Israel School will wait until she has concluded psychiatric treatment, which “could go on for years,” the Australian news agency reported.

Based on a psychiatric evaluation, the judge reportedly ordered initial outpatient psychiatric treatment for Leifer for six months, but the Australian Associated Press added that can will be reevaluated periodically in a process that could last up to ten years.

The mother of eight ran the Adass Israel girls’ school from 2001 to 2008, until she was fired amid accusations that she molested students. She fled to Israel some 24 hours after the allegations became public.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, June 2, 2016

For more information: Dan Frondorf 513-706-7403, danielfrondorf@gmail.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790 cell,davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org

In rare move, archbishop sues parishioners
Child sex victims welcome “more aggressive action”
But they blast Catholic officials for ignoring abuse “enablers”
SNAP: Prelate should sue or discipline those who hid child sex crimes
“Why is church money more important than our kids?” support group asks
Organization writes to head of Cincinnati archdiocese urging pursuit of “enablers”

In what’s being called “an unprecedented move,” Cincinnati’s Catholic archbishop is suing local parishioners and parish staff because they allegedly kept silent about their pastor’s theft of $1.5 million. And a victims group is urging the prelate to file similar suits against church employees who ignored or hid child sex crimes.

In March, Fr. Earl Simone pleaded guilty to aggravated theft of $1.5 million from St. Peter Church in Huber Heights. On Sunday, an apology from him was read at the parish.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/former-st-peters-priest-expected-to-plea-in-theft-/nqgwN/

And on Monday, a local television station disclosed that Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr is suing ten “John Does” at the parish who reportedly knew of or were involved in the theft but kept silent.

[WDTN]

[WHIO]

Leaders of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests say they have never seen Catholic officials defrock, demote, discipline – much less sue – a single church official or member for hiding child sex crimes. (In Cincinnati, there are almost 30 publicly accused predator priests, SNAP says, which likely means that dozens or even hundreds of church staff might be guilty of ignoring or concealing abuse and should, if the archbishop’s new approach is consistently applied, be sued.)

“We’ve long said bishops refuse to punish church staff who hurt others. So at one level, we’re glad to see a tougher approach by Archbishop Schnurr,” said Dan Frondorf, SNAP’s volunteer Cincinnati leader. “But this aggressive approach should be applied to those involved in child sexual abuse, not just theft.”

“When our kids are at risk, Cincinnati Catholic officials ignore, tolerate or ‘forgive’ wrongdoers. But when it’s their money at risk, Cincinnati Catholic sue wrongdoers,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s executive director. “If the archbishop wants to get tough, he should do so against those who hid child sex crimes.”

At the very least, SNAP says, Schnurr should hire independent investigators to determine exactly which church employees should be disciplined or sued.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

Monsignor Richard Colletti has resigned his positions with the Diocese of Winona as Vicar General and Chancellor.

The announcement of the resignation was contained in a Wednesday evening email from Bishop John Quinn to diocesan clergy.

“Monsignor Colletti’s resignation stems from recent media reports involving accusations of sexual misconduct with an adult female that dates back to 1986,” Quinn’s email said.

The bishop’s announcement coincided with a Rochester Post-Bulletin story published Thursday morning detailing a personal injury lawsuit filed in 1992 against Colletti, the Diocese, Saint Mary’s University and others.

Colletti admitted in court documents to having a sexual relationship with a female student he was counseling while on staff at Saint Mary’s. The lawsuit was closed in December 1993. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

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RHODE ISLAND
GoLocalProv

Thursday, June 02, 2016
GoLocalProv News Team

The Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General have determined that there is no prosecutable criminal conduct and have closed the St. George’s School Investigation.
The Investigation

Starting in November 2015, the Rhode Island State Police conducted an extensive investigation into all allegations it received, some of which dated back to as early as 1970.

The investigation focused on allegation of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by 7 former faculty members, one current employee and 3 former students at the school. The investigation also looked at allegations that the current and prior school administrations did not properly report instances of alleged assault to the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF).

Rhode Island State Police as well as the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office interviewed approximately 40 witnesses, including alleged victims of sexual assault. The State Police and Attorney General’s Office were also in contact with attorneys representing former students and reported victims of the incidents.

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CALIFORNIA
JDSupra

6/2/2016
by Christopher Kendrick, Valerie Moore | Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

In Doe v. Roman Catholic Archbishop etc. (No. B264947, filed 5/26/16), a California appeals court held that gifts lavished on victims by a molesting priest did not constitute advance or partial payment of damages sufficient to toll the statute of limitations on a civil lawsuit for damages under Insurance Code section 11583.

The plaintiffs in Doe v. Roman Catholic Archbishop were adult victims of childhood sexual abuse by a Catholic priest dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. The priest had died in 1985, but in 2014 the victims sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles alleging claims for childhood sexual abuse and negligence. The trial court sustained the Church’s demurrer without leave to amend on the ground that the lawsuit was barred by the applicable statute of limitations, since it was filed more than 30 years after the last act of abuse had occurred.

Plaintiffs argued that the statute of limitations was tolled by actions of the priest under Insurance Code section 11583. Section 11583 provides that any “advance payment or partial payment of damages made by any person” (1) may not “be construed as an admission of liability” and (2) shall be credited against any final settlement or judgment. However, if the person making that “advance payment or partial payment of damages” does not give the recipient written notice of the applicable statute of limitations, the statute will be tolled until written notice is given or until the person retains an attorney, whichever happens first.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

Dennis Coday | Jun. 2, 2016

The U.S. bishops’ conference issued today an update and correction to its annual report on local churches’ compliance with the Dallas Charter, the set of guidelines and standards that are to govern the dioceses’ response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The 2015 report was released May 20. That report contained an error: it called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter an eparchy, which is the Orthodox church’s equivalent of a diocese. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is not an eparchy; it is the diocese-like structure created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy in the United States seeking to become Catholic.

The report — which covers the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 — also said that the ordinariate was not in compliance with the Dallas Charter. Today’s release clarifies that the ordinariate did not participate with the audit process ” due to its new ecclesiastical structure in the United States.” Its first bishop was not installed until February of this year.

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The release today says that the ordinariate, which has headquarters in Houston, will participate in data collection for the the 2016 audit (which covers the period July 2015 to June 2016) and will have an onsite audit for the 2017 audit period.

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NEW YORK
Linked In

Nancy Levine
Author, The Tao of Pug (Penguin/Skyhorse). Executive Recruiter. Activist Blogger

un 2, 201678 views2 Likes0 CommentsShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Twitter
I am curious about why The New York Times has not reported on developments related to the Child Victims Act in New York State. The proposed legislation, authored and long-championed by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey would eliminate civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse.

The New York Daily News has been reporting news related to the proposed legislation. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he is backing the bill. The Catholic Church paid lobby firms $2 million to block the legislation. Supporters of the legislation are planning to march across the Brooklyn Bridge this Sunday, June 3.

The Times has published items related to the Child Victims Act in the past. Why isn’t the newspaper following up on news related to its previously published 2014 opinion piece authored by the Editorial Board, and a 2009 story about the embattled legislation?

Given the spate of news items about sexual abuse, e.g., Sandusky, Cosby, Hastert, Baylor University, etc., why isn’t news about the Child Victims Act the focus of a “coverage cluster” about sexual abuse, as part of The Times’ new editorial strategy?

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

What happens to all these suspended predator priests? Prepared to be disgusted or at least worried. Look at a dozen of these guys:

Fr. Thomas J. Cronin of Kansas City, accused of assaulting a teenaged girl, is trying to set up a women’s shelter in Nevada.

A Superior Wisconsin priest, Fr. Thomas E. Ericksen, worked with the Special Olympics in Missouri.

Another accused Kansas City priest, Fr. Michael E. Brewer, works with “disadvantaged youth” in Colorado.

An accused Miami priest, Fr. Ronaldo J. Castillo, lived above a day care center.

An accused Chicago priest, Fr. John M. Furdek, lived in a building with a day care center.

An accused Connecticut priest, Fr. Richard McGann, lived at an in-home day care center.

An accused Spokane priest, Fr. Patrick G. O’Donnell, became a counselor.

So did an accused Rockville Centre priest, Fr. Robert Huneke.

And so did an accused Twin Cities priest, Fr. Michael Charland. (He’s still practicing.)

An accused Steubenville, Ohio priest, Fr. Gary Zalenski, became a college professor.

So did an accused Orange County Catholic school teacher, Thomas Hodgman, who admitted his child sex crimes. (He’s now at Adrian College in Michigan).

This is a painfully common pattern: Bishops suspend predator priests, largely because their lawyers, insurers, and public relations officials insist on it. But they refuse to house or monitor these dangerous clerics. They refuse to help police and prosecutors pursue them. They refuse to aggressively reach out to other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers.

And these priests, who abused their authority and positions, get more authority and new positions, becoming coaches, teachers, counselors and other similar positions that enable them be around and over kids.

Why bring this up now?

Because it’s still happening. And because last year, reports of abuse by priests jumped by about 35%.

And because the number of accused US priest is now somewhere between 6,500 and 6,900.

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UNITED STATES
Charlotte Parent

BY SETH LANGSON

Published: May 31, 2016

Hardly a day goes by without there being another news story about a child who was sexually abused by a teacher, coach, clergy or another person in a position of trust. These incidents reinforce the need for parents to be proactive by asking questions before entrusting their child to others.

Background Checks

Thorough background checks are essential for anyone that might work with your child. Most organizations perform criminal background checks. However, if a person was not convicted of sexual misconduct, the person could still have abused children and have not been caught. Frequent changes in employment and/or residence can be indicators of a person who has had prior accusations of behaving inappropriately with children. Since criminal background checks are so limited, they should be just a starting point.

An organization should require potential employees to give written permission so that the hiring organization can freely communicate with the person’s former employer. This is important because without it, the reference will only provide confirmation of employment but will not disclose job performance.

Questions you should ask:

What was the scope of the background checks for employees?

Did the organization talk with anyone other than the references supplied by the employees?

Did the organization speak to the direct supervisor at former places of employment to find out about his/her job performance?

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill and Fouad Abu-Ghosh

The former principal of an ultra-Orthodox girls school in Melbourne has been ruled mentally unfit to face extradition and had her home detention lifted in a move that has shocked and deeply concerned Australian officials.

A Jerusalem judge has ruled that Malka Leifer is not mentally fit to face extradition proceedings to Australia.

Leifer is wanted by Victorian police on 74 charges of indecent assault and rape allegedly involving girls at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

In 2008, after accusations were first raised against her, the former principal fled to Israel with her family in the middle of the night, allegedly with the help of senior members of Melbourne’s secretive Adass community.

For two years, she has managed to evade 10 extradition proceedings, claiming that she faces panic attacks whenever scheduled court dates arise and that she is too unwell to attend court.

On Thursday, a long-awaited report from the district psychiatrist agreed she was mentally unwell and Judge Amnon Cohen ruled she would not face an extradition hearing until she had completed psychiatric treatment that could go on for years.

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RHODE ISLAND
Rhode Island State Police

Colonel Steven G. O’Donnell, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police and Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announce the investigation regarding allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by former faculty and students at St. George’s School has concluded.

The investigation by the Rhode Island State Police was initiated in November 2015. The Rhode Island State Police Detective Bureau conducted an extensive investigation into all allegations it received, some dating back as early as 1970.

The investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by seven (7) former faculty members, one (1) current employee and three (3) former students upon students at the school. In addition, the investigation examined allegations that the current and prior school administrations did not properly report instances of alleged assault to the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF).

Numerous interviews were conducted with former students as well as current and former faculty. Throughout the investigation, anyone with information regarding the reported allegations or any alleged criminal misconduct at the school, was encouraged to contact investigators with the State Police. Through the course of the investigation, detectives also received information of past instances of alleged sexual assault and misconduct involving students as well as faculty at the school as recent as 2005 and thoroughly investigated all received information. In addition, numerous documents and files were reviewed as a result of executing a court-authorized search warrant at the school. Throughout the investigation, members of the Rhode Island State Police worked closely with the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office.

In total, the Rhode Island State Police and Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office interviewed approximately 40 witnesses, including alleged victims of sexual assault. The Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office were also in contact with attorneys representing former students and reported victims of these incidents.

Each allegation brought forward was thoroughly reviewed and investigated. After a careful review of the allegations, evidence and applicable statutes by members of the Rhode Island State Police and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, it has been determined that the State cannot proceed with criminal charges at this time. The determination was based on existing Rhode Island General Laws, as well as the laws which defined the alleged conduct at the time it occurred.

In determining what criminal laws were applicable to the allegations, factors considered were the date of the offense, the age and sex of the victim, the nature of the act, and the willingness of the victim to come forward and prosecute. The statute of limitations applicable to the enforcement of these was carefully examined.

The laws on sexual assault are much different today than existed at the time many of the reported incidents took place. For example, the statutes defining first degree sexual assault were not enacted until 1979, and common law rape required the sexual assault to take place between man and woman.

The investigation also centered upon allegations of failure by the school administration to report the abuse or neglect to DCYF. In 1979, the legislature provided for misdemeanor penalties for those who failed to report abuse or neglect. In 1984, the legislature expanded the definition of abuse and neglect to include sexual assault. These allegations of failure to report could not be charged due to that fact that in some instances the alleged failure to report was not defined as a criminal offense until 1979, and in other instances, the prosecution of any allegations would be time barred by the three year statute of limitations that existed for the specific crime. While some states have a tolling provision for the statute of limitations for failure to report, Rhode Island’s statute does not include such a provision. Therefore, the alleged criminal conduct must have been charged within three years of an individual learning of the alleged sexual abuse.

Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct and statute of limitations.

We encourage any victims who have not reported to date to come forward, and if allegations are made, they will be thoroughly investigated.

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RHODE ISLAND
ABC News

By MICHELLE R. SMITH AND DENISE LAVOIE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Jun 2, 2016

A state police investigation into dozens of sexual abuse allegations at a prestigious boarding school has concluded with no criminal charges, authorities announced on Thursday.

Police looked at allegations of abuse of students at St. George’s School by seven former faculty members, one current employee and three former students and at allegations that current and prior administrators did not report abuse to the proper authorities.

Police and the attorney general’s office determined they cannot proceed with criminal charges for a variety of reasons, including the statute of limitations and changes in the laws since some of the abuse occurred, as far back as the 1970s. The most recent allegation of abuse police investigated was in 2005, they said.

“Unfortunately for those who came forward, they will not be able to seek justice within the criminal justice system due to the applicable statutes defining conduct and statute of limitations,” police said in a statement.

Representatives for the Episcopal school, located in Middletown, near Newport, did not immediately comment. But the school apologized months ago for how it handled abuse cases.

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Matters

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A former substitute teacher at Catholic High School has pleaded guilty to indecent exposure following her arrest earlier this year for incidents involving a student.

Erica Suskie, 44, was then sentenced in Pulaski County Circuit Court Thursday morning to one year of probation. She was also ordered to register as a sex offender and pay a $2,500 fine. The judge also instructed her not to discuss the case with the media.

In pleading guilty to indecent exposure, Suskie admitted to exposing her breast to the victim in the case. She was also ordered to undergo counseling throughout her probation period.

Suskie had turned herself in back in February to face original charges of sexual assault and entered a plea of not guilty in North Little Rock District Court before the case was transferred to Pulaski County Circuit Court.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

Statements given to the RUC in the 1980s by former residents of the Kincora Boys’ Home have been mentioned at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge.

The inquiry is now examining what happened at the home.

Some of the former residents indicated that some level of sexual abuse by members of staff was “almost a daily occurrence.”

There have been claims that a vice ring operated in the home.

‘Surprised’ by abuse claims

In their statements some of the other men said that when they were at the home, they had never seen any evidence of politicians, police officers, Justices of the Peace, civil servants and businessmen coming to abuse residents.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Social workers were told of child sex abuse allegations at the former Kincora Boys’ Home as early as 1967, a public inquiry has heard.

The Historical Institutional (HIA) Abuse Inquiry was shown a handwritten letter sent to the Belfast Welfare Authority in which it was claimed boys were being regularly assaulted by the house warden Joseph Mains.

The letter, dated September 1967 also described how one boy, known only as R5, was sent to bed early, made to scrub floors and work in the garden for rejecting Mains’ advances.

R5 wrote: “I first realised something was wrong as far as Mr Mains was concerned.

“Very often when boys were washing he would come into the washroom and put his arms around our chests and hold us tightly to him.

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CANADA
National Post

Jason Magder, Postmedia News | June 1, 2016

Police raided an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal’s Rosemont—La-Petite-Patrie borough Wednesday.

In the early afternoon, police and youth protection officials were at the school, which might have been operating without a permit, according to reports.

Two police officers escorted a group of 11 women and one man, several of whom are Batshaw Youth Services social workers, from the building around 1 p.m. One of them was holding a cardboard box, another a plastic shopping bag, and another had a red folder. They walked to an adjacent parking lot and left in several cars.

“I can’t tell you much, because the Youth Protection Act has very strict rules regarding confidentiality,” said Claire Roy, a spokesperson for the West Island Centre Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre. “We can’t comment on a precise case, but information may follow when it is available.”

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CANADA
CBC News

An illegal school in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough was the target of a youth protection operation on Wednesday, led by Batshaw Youth and Family Centres with the help of the Montreal police.

The school is operated by the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, apparently operating without an Education Ministry permit.

About 60 students attend the school, a three-storey brick building featuring a storefront with covered windows on Parc Avenue at the corner of Beaubien Street.

There was a heavy police presence at the school on Wednesday.

Dozens of Hasidic boys were seen exiting the school, using their hats to cover their faces.

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NEW YORK
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier

NEW YORK (ChurchMilitant.com) – The New York Catholic Conference is spending millions fighting state reforms to the current statute of limitations requirements.

According to a report by the New York Daily News, the state’s Catholic Conference, under the direction of Cdl. Timothy Dolan, has employed some of New York’s most prominent lobbying firms to assist in blocking the passage of the proposed Child Victims Act, legislation that would seek to eliminate “both criminal and civil statutes of limitation for child sexual abuse, preventing predators and their protectors from escaping responsibility for their crimes by waiting out the clock.”

The proposed legislation would additionally offer a one-year window in which to file a lawsuit to those who can no longer sue per current law.

State records reveal in the church’s fight against both the Child Victims Act and various similar pieces of legislation, it spent over $2.1 million between 2007 and 2015 solely on various lobbyists, separate from the conference’s own personal lobbying team. The four firms contracted by the New York church are Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Mark Behan Communications and Hank Sheinkopf, who purportedly has close relations with multiple Albany politicians including Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By Mark Weiner | mweiner@syracuse.com
Follow on Twitter

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The New York Catholic Conference hired some of the state’s most influential lobbying firms to block a bill that would have made it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue abusers decades later, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

The Catholic Conference headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, spent more than $2.1 million on lobbyists from 2007 through last year, the Daily News reported, citing state lobbying records.

The lobbyists disclosed one of their responsibilities was to work on issues regarding civil actions related to sex offenses.

The New York State Senate last week rejected an effort to force a vote on the Child Victims Act, which would have given people sexually abused as children a new one-year window to sue over incidents that occurred decades ago.

The Senate voted 30-29 to block Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, in his attempt to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. People who were sexually abused as children in New York must initiate criminal charges or a civil suit by the time they reach age 23.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News June 2, 2016

Deacon Steve Martinez, the former coordinator of a group in the local Catholic Church charged with reviewing sexual abuse allegations involving the clergy, said Thursday he’s aware of “three other victims that have made contact but they are still not ready or willing to move forward with filing a formal complaint.”

The highest leader of the Catholic Church in Guam, Archbishop Anthony Apuron, has twice been accused publicly in recent weeks of sexual abuse.

Apuron and the Archdiocese of Agana have denied the two allegations and announced plans to file lawsuits against those whom it said have been perpetrating “malicious lies” about the archbishop and the Catholic Church.

There still is no investigation by the local church conducted in relation to the sexual abuse complaints, Martinez said.

The first public accusation against Apuron was by a former altar boy in Agat, Roy Quintanilla. He said he was molested by Apuron when the latter was parish priest at Mount Carmel Church in Agat in the 1970s.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service – Bollettino

Vatican City, 2 June 2016 – Following Pope Francis’ encouragement to combat in every way the different forms of modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, the trade in organs and organised crime, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences has invited a large number of judges, prosecutors and magistrates from many different countries – key actors in the struggle against these terrible crimes – to a high level meeting.

The new Summit is the latest in a series of important meetings organised by the same Academy with the same purpose, most notably in 2014, with the leaders of the main religions that exercise influence in the globalised world (http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/events/declaration.html) and in 2015, with mayors of the principal capitals and large metropolises of many countries (http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/events/mayors.html), now convening the principal judges, prosecutors and magistrates of all countries.

Pope Francis has confirmed his presence in the evening of the first day, 3 June.

The many other attendees include an important delegation from the United States, led by the Ambassador responsible for the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Susan Coppedge; the British High Commissioner against modern slavery, Kevin Hyland, along with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders; the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen; the United Nations High Commissioner against Human Trafficking, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro; the Swedish Chancellor of Justice Anna Skarhead and author of the Swedish model of combating prostitution based on the criminalisation of clients).

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on today’s front-page story in the Daily News:

The New York Daily News was bought by Mortimer Zuckerman in 1993 for $36 million; last year he weighed a bid by Cablevision to buy it for $1.00. Yes, one dollar. In January, it lowered its
newsstand price to $1.00. To prove how little influence it has these days, the newspaper vendor on the northwest corner of 34th and 7th—across the street from the Long Island Rail Road and Madison Square Garden—has stopped carrying it. If there are no buyers there, it’s time to close shop.

None of this is an excuse for its deceitful attack on Catholics. On the front page of today’s paper is a picture of Cardinal Timothy Dolan and State Sen. John Flanagan; both oppose bills that would lift the statute of limitations on crimes involving the sexual abuse of minors. With good reason: The bills have one target—the Catholic Church.

As it turns out, there is no news story on this issue. Instead, there is a column by the disgraced former prosecutor for the Manhattan DA’s office. In 1990, she successfully prosecuted five teenagers in the “Central Park Joggers” case; it was overturned in 2002. In 1993, an appellate court judge said she “deliberately engineered the 15-year-old’s confession [Yousef Salaam]…Fairstein wanted to make a name. She didn’t care. She wasn’t a human.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com

For years, the Catholic Church has waged stiff opposition to attempts to reform child sex crime laws.

In the face of widespread clergy sex abuse, entities of the Catholic Church – such as its legislative arm here, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference – have lobbied vigorously to defeat efforts to reform the statute of limitations.

Now, with the state Senate poised to hear arguments on the latest reform proposal, a more secular sector has stepped up the pushback against changes to the law: that of business.

A cadre of six of the biggest business associations in Pennsylvania have for weeks lobbied members of the Senate in opposition to reform of statute of limitations – specifically, any retroactive changes to the civil law. Their main argument is the idea that retroactive changes to the law would be detrimental to businesses.

“If the General Assembly passes a law that clearly takes a claim away that is vested in law, that’s going to present harm,” said Sam Denisco, vice president of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. “It sets a bad precedent.”

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Former Melbourne Jewish girls’ school principal and alleged pedophile Malka Leifer will walk free, her home detention in Israel lifted.

She will not face extradition to Victoria – where she faces prosecution for 74 sexual abuse offences against 10 girls at the Adass Israel School – until she has completed psychiatric treatment that could go on for years.

On Thursday, Jerusalem District Court judge Amnon Cohen ruled that Leifer would receive outpatient treatment in Jerusalem after a report from the district psychiatrist found she was not mentally fit to face an extradition trial.

Leifer’s treatment in a Jerusalem clinic would begin next week and would last initially for six months.

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PERU
Crux

By Crux Staff
June 2, 2016

[Editor’s note: The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (“Sodality of Christian Life”) is a lay movement in the Catholic Church founded in Peru in 1971, which has since spread to several other countries, including the United States. Recently a scandal erupted around the group’s founder, Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, featuring charges of sexual, physical and psychological abuse of members.

As the story developed, some alleged victims charged that Church authorities in Peru may have ignored or tried to conceal the charges. In this May 17, 2016, letter, the lead of the local Church court in Lima, the national capital, argues that all of the complaints against Figari were relayed quickly to the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the department in Rome that oversees religious orders and societies, and that action against Figari was urgently recommended but was slow in coming.

The following is a Crux translation of the letter, which was written in Spanish.]

Lima, May 17, 2016

Dear Archbishops and Bishops

Members of the Coetus of the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Lima

Your Excellencies:

Continued news and comments in some media relating to the complaints filed at this court against Mr. Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, have misled the public with biased and often false stories. They imply that this court has not acted in a fair and transparent way and even claim, slanderously, that we sought to cover up the four complaints we received.

To assist your understanding of the events, I feel bound to address to you, member bishops of the coetus of the Tribunal, some facts relating to the proceeding of these cases that will help you better understand the situation.

I. History and brief description of how and when the four complaints that were received by this court were dealt with.

First complaint: On May 16, 2011, at noon the complainant came to the court (today he is identified as “Santiago”), accompanied by a relative, to present a written allegation against Mr. Luis Fernando Figari. On May 24, 2011, I sent the allegation together with my accompanying letter to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Second complaint: From the Archdiocese of Cologne, we received a complaint against Mr. Luis Fernando Figari dated May 24, 2011. On September 9, 2011, the complaint was sent to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic life.

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VATICAN CITY/PERU
Crux

By Austen Ivereigh
Senior Crux Contributor June 2, 2016

A document obtained by Crux, related to accusations of sexual and other forms of abuse against the founder of a powerful Catholic lay movement in Peru, suggests that the Vatican was informed of the charges as early as May 2011 but essentially took no action for four years.

A May 17, 2016, letter addressed to Peru’s bishops by the head of the country’s main ecclesiastical court lists multiple steps taken to inform Rome of allegations against Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), and expresses mounting frustration at the lack of response.

In April 2015, the Vatican eventually appointed a local visitor to look into the charges, and early last month Rome named American Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis, a former Vatican official, as its delegate to lead a process of reform.

In response to a Crux request for comment, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said the delay was due to “the complexity and diversity of positions and interpretations” regarding the accusations against Figari, as well as legal issues.

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OHIO
WHIO

By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

DAYTON — The Rev. Earl Simone, awaiting sentencing in common pleas court after admitting to stealing $1.92 million from parishioners to buy real estate, also has been sued by the Cincinnati Archdiocese.

The civil lawsuit filed last month in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court was brought by plaintiffs Archbishop Dennis Schnurr and the St. Peter Roman Catholic Church. Simone and John Does 1-10 are listed as the defendants in the suit, which seeks the return of the money.

“In March 2016, the State of Ohio indicted Fr. Simone for theft from the Archdiocese and/or the Parish over several years,” the complaint said of Simone, who served at the Huber Heights church from August 1992 until March 2015. “John Does 1-10, all of whom are believed to be non-clerics, were complicit and conspirators of Fr. Simone in the theft and its cover up.”

A June 27 teleconference is scheduled to determine Simone’s sentencing date.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

MARCI HAMILTON
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS
Updated: Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Walk for a Window next Sunday across the Brooklyn Bridge is in support of survivors of child sex abuse, but just as important, it is a turning point in the emerging global civil rights movement for children.

Not long ago, women and children belonged to their husbands and fathers. They were, in a word, legal property. In the 20th century, first women attained the status of persons with a right to vote and then children started to emerge from behind their skirts as persons.

When a woman or a child was property, what was done to them, even if against their will, was acceptable, or, more accurately, they simply had no voice for anyone to learn the unacceptable had happened. But that has changed.

The Walk for a Window is focused on obtaining justice for the adults who were sexually abused as children; it is a unity march of survivors, friends, families and advocates from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The Walk for a Window is evidence of a civil rights movement for children that would have been hard to imagine a decade or two ago. Yet, here it is: as real as can be.

The urgency of the call for access to justice for victims is not going away. For those lawmakers who have been blocking these bills in committee in all three states, and who think they can duck the issue yet one more time, they need to understand another scandal inevitably lurks.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Thursday, June 02, 2016

Liam Heylin

An 82-year-old priest was accused yesterday of indecently assaulting a boy in a school sickbed in the 1970s. He denied it and said he acted like a father to all the boys.

A jury of three women and nine men was sworn in to hear the case before Judge Gerard O’Brien at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday. The priest pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting the boy.

The complainant testified that the alleged indecent assaults occurred when he was about 13 and 14.

The complainant said the first incident occurred when he was ill with chest and stomach problems.

“I was not able to go to class. I was in the room on my own. (The accused) called to the room. He put his hand on my forehead. He put his left hand on my forehead. He put his other hand on my tummy and moved down. He proceeded to put his hand on my testicles and my penis for 12 to 15 seconds.

“I froze solid, naturally enough, I was a young boy on my own. I had just started second year,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Christopher Knaus

Lawyers say five former St Edmund’s College students have emerged with child abuse complaints in the past two weeks, after revelations that Catholic officials knowingly allowed two suspected paedophiles to continue teaching.

Porters Lawyers principal Jason Parkinson is now urging other Canberra survivors to come forward, and warns against dealing directly with the Catholic order or with the church’s Towards Healing process.

“When it’s only one person coming forward, the weight of the church is upon that individual,” Mr Parkinson said. “But when his former teachers or former schoolmates can help, it eases the load.”

Two weeks ago, Fairfax Media revealed that officials from separate Catholic orders had turned a blind eye to complaints of abuse about two brothers, allowing them to continue teaching, including eventually in Canberra.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith

As Boston Globe reporters shed national attention on child sexual abuse, Phil Saviano was giving fellow abuse survivors a place to talk.

He oversaw online discussion boards for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, where people could tell their stories. As leader of the group’s New England chapter, he was a key source in the Globe series that revealed abuse by Boston-area Catholic priests was systematically concealed.

After the 2002 series, more survivors came forward to talk about their abuse.

“There was proof that people would care about it,” Saviano said.

He said it was almost as if the series from the Globe gave people permission to talk about their abuse.

Now, Saviano’s seeing another wave of focus on abuse and of survivors coming forward. It’s driven by what he refers to as “the power of Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo.” “Spotlight,” Hollywood’s account of the Globe investigation, won the Academy Award for best picture.

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FIJI
Fiji Times

Aqela Susu
Thursday, June 02, 2016

THE head of the Catholic Church of Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, has urged church leaders to adopt strict policies and guidelines on disciplining church pastors involved in sexual offences.

Archbishop Chong made the comment after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions released sexual offence statistics for last month.

The statistics revealed there were 46 sexual offence cases reported during the month of May, 29 of which were rape cases.

Of those 46 separate incidents, 16 people were charged, two of whom were church pastors who had committed serious sexual offences.

“The only advice now is for pastors and other churches to have strict guidelines because pastors have certain amount of power over people and people always have trust in them,” Archbishop Chong said in an interview yesterday.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY LINDA FAIRSTEIN
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, June 1, 2016

There is no class of people more vulnerable to sexual predators than children. In the overwhelming number of cases, the perpetrators are people who have betrayed the trust of children in their care — relatives, foster families, educators, coaches, clergy and health care professionals — who are far more likely to commit the traumatizing acts than strangers our children are brought up to fear.

The greatest damage has been done to child victims whose voices have long been silenced — first, by their abusers, and then by the senseless laws that have placed arbitrary limits on the time they have to seek justice. We cannot save many who have come before this, but we can change the outlook, the possibility of justice — both in criminal and civil court — for the thousands more who have suffered at the hands of predators and those whom we know will come next. The time to pass the Child Victims Act is now.

There is no reasonable opposition to this argument. What is it opponents fear? Some have raised the concern of false reporting, but the statistics are abundantly clear that this problem represents a small fractional proportion — less than 2% of all claims. For example, California saw about five false claims out of 850 against the Catholic Church. False reporting occurs in every category of crime and it is certainly an issue in cases which fall within the statute of limitations. It is part of the job of every prosecutor to identify those complaints and get them out of the system. They are rare, and they should never be a barrier to the overwhelming number of valid complaints that deserve to be investigated.

Is it the ease with which some critics say the reporting occurs? That is terrifically unfair and absurd. One must only meet with, listen to, experience the moment when an adult survivor discloses the torment of her or his youth. In most instances, the first telling of the facts is made after an agonizing period — years and years — of self-doubt, of denial, of wondering whether the listener will blame or believe. To look in the eyes of the individual is to understand immediately the depth of the pain and the searing imprint the criminal conduct has imprinted in the heart and on the soul of the victimized child. I can think of few things more difficult in one’s life than deciding when and to whom to reveal the abuse. That alone makes me understand that only a small number of survivors ever choose to tell their stories. We are not opening the floodgates when we change these laws. Do not be misled by that kind of argument. The inherent difficulty in reopening the wounds caused by sexual abuse prevents victims from ever reporting these crimes.

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NEW YORK
The Frisky

Marissa Miller | June 1, 2016

As if it weren’t hard enough for victims of abuse to seek justice, let alone feel supported or even believed, the Catholic Conference has stooped to a new low amid years of reports of child sex abuse. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who leads New York’s Catholic Conference, hired major lobby firms to halt legislation geared toward helping child abuse victims seek justice, The New York Daily News reports. State records show that between 2007 and 2015, the conference doled out more than $2 million in an effort to stop New York’s Child Victims Act from becoming law.

The Child Victims Act would get rid of the statute of limitations for victims to bring civil cases against their abusers and open a one-year window for people who have passed the current limitation to do so. If the conference, which represents all of New York’s bishops in public policy, manages to block the reform, adult victims who were abused as children would not have their GOD-GIVEN right to file civil claims after their 23rd birthday. Time is ticking since the state legislature’s session ends June 16.

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GUAM
Radio New Zealand

The Catholic Church in Guam has been accused of lacking compassion after it dismissed allegations of sexual abuse by its Archbishop as lies.

An Arizona woman was claiming Archbishop Anthony Apuron molested her son when he was an altar boy in the 1970s.

It followed a similar accusation made two weeks ago.

The Archbishop denied the claims and in a statement the Archdiocese of Agana said it was taking legal measures against those perpetrating malicious lies.

A director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, Joelle Casteix said the Church was defending itself first, rather than showing compassion

“It would be very easy for the Archdiocese to make a statement saying we are so sorry for any pain that these people may have suffered because when a mother of a survivor comes forward and tells her story of pain it is very heartwrenching and there has been no compassion whatsoever.”

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UNITED KINGDOM/MAYLAYSIA
Straits Times

LONDON/PETALING JAYA (AFP/THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – A British paedophile on Wednesday (June 1) faced a life sentence after admitting to a string of sex attacks on children as young as six months, some from poor Christian families in Malaysia.

Richard Huckle, 30, took pictures and video footage of himself abusing the children which he uploaded to the dark web – a hard to access part of the Internet often used for illegal activity.

Investigators found over 20,000 indecent images on his computer, while Huckle also kept a ledger of his attacks and wrote a manual called Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide.

Graphic details of dozens of sexual offences by Huckle emerged for the first time on Wednesday as his sentencing hearing started in London.

Huckle faced a total of 91 charges, including against 23 children in Kuala Lumpur, where he set himself up as an English teacher.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

Editorial

As a secular newspaper, it is not our place to tell any church how to conduct itself. But the recent allegations of sexual misconduct by the head of Guam’s Catholic Church are disturbing. If true, they are allegations of criminal behavior of a most despicable nature. In one sense, it is unfortunate that the accusations are being made so long after the abuse is alleged to have taken place, since the statutes of limitations have long since expired, preventing the accused from being held accountable – or shown to be innocent of the allegations – in a court of law.

We find the allegations particularly disturbing because they fit a known pattern of behavior within the church throughout the world. We understand the acts of sexual predation are committed by a small number of clergy, but by all accounts, members of the church hierarchy have been involved in covering up the criminal behavior. It is a travesty that the institution that can, and should, be a source of positive moral authority in the world has been used to facilitate such evil. Unfortunately, more than a denial is needed to assure the community that the recent accusations are false.

Those who have accused the archbishop of molestation have said they would welcome the legal action that has been threatened by the archbishop as an opportunity to have the truth ferreted out in what should be a transparent proceeding conducted by neutral parties. Such a legal proceeding may be the most credible avenue to demonstrate what is and is not the truth.

In the last few years, there has been much turmoil in the church on Guam, most of which is internal to the church and best settled by the church within the church. In our secular role, we are not concerned with the power politics among the clergy, the ownership of the seminary or any other church property, what music is part of the liturgy, or how the sacraments are administered.

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MALAYSIA
Maylay Mail Online

BY BOO SU-LYN

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — A Malaysian Catholic Church theologian suggested today that reporting mechanisms be set up in the church for child sexual abuse cases, amid the trial of a British paedophile who raped children in poor Christian communities here.

Catholic Research Centre director Father Clarence Devadass also said people should be screened before they are allowed to work with children, especially if it is their first time.

“The Catholic Church views sexual abuse of children as a crime,” Devadass told Malay Mail Online.

He said the current procedure to report child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is to lodge a complaint with the Archbishop, adding that guidelines for people who work with children should be drawn up and education programmes be held for children about abuse.

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/catholic-church-leader-moots-child-sexual-abuse-reporting-after-uk-paedophi#sthash.tLzPBRTV.dpuf

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MALAYSIA
The Sun Daily

Ashwin Kumar, Timothy Achariam & Keshia Mahmood
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: Unicef Malaysia yesterday said the Huckle case was only the tip of the iceberg and merely “a small part of the horrific trade in child pornography and the extensive scourge of pedophilia” worldwide.

“Unicef data also reveals that there are high levels of sexual exploitation of children online and an average of five child victims of online sexual abuse is identified by Interpol and police partners every day.

“The number of webpages containing child sexual abuse material grew by 147% from 2012 to 2014, with girls and children 10 years old or younger depicted in 80% of these materials,” it said.

In addition to the Child Cyber Sexual Investigation unit set up by the police last month, Unicef emphasised that there needs to be sufficient monitoring and surveillance mechanisms including a registry of sex offenders, to ensure offenders are stopped before they do further harm to children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com

By John Salveson

The one thing I have in common with Archbishop Charles Chaput is that I live in Philadelphia but wasn’t born here. I grew up in New York and moved here in 1978. He moved here from Denver in 2011.

I point this out because I believe the archbishop’s relative inexperience here has led him to miscalculate the nature of Philadelphia Catholics. Let me explain.

The archdiocese has launched a campaign aimed at convincing Philadelphia-area Catholics that changing the laws pertaining to the sexual abuse of children is a very bad and dangerous idea. He wants them to call their legislators and tell them not to support House Bill 1947.

The bill would remove the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution for child sexual abuse, raise the maximum age at which a child victim may file a civil suit to 50, and make it possible for more child sexual abuse victims to bring lawsuits against any Pennsylvania diocese that enabled and protected their predators.

The archdiocese’s message, promoted through meetings with clergy, articles in the archdiocesan digital publication CatholicPhilly.com, an “Action Alert” from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, and fliers distributed to the faithful, is ominous: The passage of H.B. 1947 could lead to bankruptcy, crippling debt, closures of parishes and schools, and erosion of services to the needy.

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MINNESOTA
Post-Bulletin

Kay Fate, kfate@postbulletin.com

WINONA — The second-highest ranking official at the Catholic Diocese of Winona resigned Wednesday after the Post-Bulletin discovered that he admitted under oath in the early 1990s that he had a sexual relationship with a college freshman whom he was counseling.

The relationship lasted for more than a year, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Bulletin, and included a pregnancy scare.

The Rev. Msgr. Richard Colletti, 63, who since 2011 had been vicar general of the diocese that serves the 20 southern counties of Minnesota, also resigned as chancellor, the chief record keeper for the diocese. The resignations were effective immediately.

Bishop John Quinn said Wednesday night that had Colletti not offered his resignation, “it would have been within my role to (terminate him). I would have needed more time to discuss all of that with him, but before I even began that discussion, Monsignor informed me that he wished to resign.”

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TEXAS
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | JUNE 1, 2016

Days after being demoted as president of Baylor University over the university’s mishandling of sexual assault among its students, former Whitewater special prosecutor Ken Starr told ESPN June 1 he is resigning as chancellor.

Starr, elected president of the world’s largest Baptist educational institution in 2010, told ESPN’s Joe Schad in an interview with “Outside the Lines” that he didn’t know about failures to address reports of sexual assault in the school’s athletics department detailed in an independent investigation but he “willingly accepted responsibility.”

“The captain goes down with the ship,” he said.

Baylor’s board of regents announced May 26 that Starr would no longer serve in the role of president effective May 31. David Garland, former dean and professor at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, was named interim president. Starr continues to teach in Baylor’s law school. …

“Baylor chose to support and protect itself and image over the precious lives of students,” said Amy Smith, a Texas representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “While this is certainly newsworthy, sadly, this skewed priority is an all-too-familiar guiding, operational structure among Baptist churches as well.”

Smith, herself a Baylor graduate, said too often churches try to handle allegations of sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults in-house and not report them to police. The result, she said, is “revictimization.”

“Victims are blamed, perpetrators enabled, and more lives placed at risk. Sexual assault must be rightly viewed as a crime and reported to law enforcement, not just as sin or ‘inappropriate behavior’ to be handled as a spiritual and behavioral matter by the church or managed by a football coach or university administration.”

Dee Miller, an author and activist, says the pattern is nothing new. It’s been nearly 25 years since her 1993 memoir How Little We Knew described how her and her husband’s missionary careers were derailed because of their persistence in trying to get a fellow missionary who was preying on women and children off the mission field.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

[with video]

Deacon Steve Martinez, a former sexual abuse response coordinator with the Archdiocese of Agaña, held a press conference on Wednesday, June 1, at Guam Law Library, to discuss his concerns that Archbishop Anthony Apuron kept in place a sex abuse policy that is no longer in favor among other archdiocese in order to protect himself. Martinez, who currently serves as a deacon with the Archdiocese of Agaña, was relieved of his position as SARC in October 2014 after sending at least two letters to Archbishop Anthony Apuron, alerting him a conflict of interest in church policies as well as the archbishop’s failure to comply with policy. Martinez states that Apuron “purposely kept his sex abuse policies weak in order to protect himself and those around him.” The archbishop has been publicly accused by two people this month of sexual abuse while he served as a parish priest in Agat in the 1970s. Tony Azios/Post

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