ABUSE TRACKER

ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY
Ultima Hora

[The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Eliseo Ariotti, tried to minimize complaints about journalistic investigations that have to do with the Cordovan priest accused of sexual abuse in their country. He said the church was aware of the case but could not do anything without documents and evidence.]

El Nuncio Apostólico, monseñor Eliseo Ariotti, intentó minimizar las denuncias e investigaciones periodísticas que tienen que ver con el cura cordobés acusado de abuso sexual en su país. Aseguró que la Iglesia tenía conocimiento del caso, pero que no pudo hacer nada sin documentos y pruebas.

“La Iglesia está haciendo todo lo posible para aclarar el hecho hace más de un año. La Conferencia Episcopal presentó al papa Francisco un protocolo de acción para luchar contra estos casos, para aclarar la situación tan penosa en la vida social, no solo en la vida de la Iglesia”, manifestó en conferencia de prensa monseñor Eliseo Ariotti.

Dijo que las autoridades eclesiales tenían conocimiento del caso hace recién un año, y criticó que, si Carlos Ibáñez está viviendo en Paraguay hace 24, nadie hizo llegar antes ninguna denuncia a la Iglesia, informó el periodista Miguel Franco a ULTIMAHORA.COM.

“Recogieron elementos para poner a conocimientos de las autoridades que conocían al cura cordobés”, dijo respecto a las autoridades de la Iglesia Católica en Paraguay.

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PARAGUAY
La Prensa

[The archbishop of Asuncion, Monsignor Edmundo Valenzuela, apologized Saturday to the Catholic faithful for allowing an Argentine priest accused of child molestation in 1992 to exercise priesthood in Paraguay with forged titles. “We apologize because we are very innocent.” He said in Paraguay they trust people too much even when they are foreigners. He said they must learn to be more suspicious.]

Asución, Paraguay.

El arzobispo de Asunción, monseñor Edmundo Valenzuela, pidió perdón este sábado a la feligresía católica por haber permitido que un sacerdote argentino acusado de abuso de menores en 1992 en su país siguiera ejerciendo el sacerdocio en Paraguay con títulos fraguados.

“Pedimos disculpas porque somos muy inocentes. En el Paraguay confiamos demasiado en la gente, más todavía cuando es extranjera. Hay que aprender a ser más suspicaces”, dijo el prelado en declaraciones a periodistas al referirse al sacerdote argentino Carlos Ibáñez Morino, denunciado en su país por abuso sexual de al menos 10 jóvenes en 1992.

Ibáñez Morino fue suspendido en sus funciones por el obispo de Córdoba, al noroeste de Buenos Aires, pero continuó ejerciendo en Paraguay con títulos falsos hasta semanas atrás, cuando fue denunciado por la prensa.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
New York Times

Editorial

The reparations movement, which calls for compensating the descendants of generations of enslaved Americans going back 250 years, has failed to gain traction in this country for a variety of reasons.

Most Americans see slavery as an artifact of the distant past that has no bearing on the nation’s present. And even people who are sympathetic to the reparations idea — and who acknowledge the continued imprint of slavery on society — have often argued that there is no way to distinguish descendants who have provable claims to compensation from those who do not, partly because enslaved people usually went unnamed in the United States census, which rendered them faceless in the historical record.

Bankers, merchants and manufacturers all profited from the slave trade, as did companies that insured slaving ships and their cargo. And more than a dozen universities have acknowledged ties to slavery. Even so, some will find ways to paper over the role that slavery played in their founding and early history.

Such denials are impossible in the harrowing history of slavery at Georgetown University that Rachel Swarns recounted recently in The Times. In 1838, the Jesuits running the college that became Georgetown sold 272 African-American men, women and children into a hellish life on sugar plantations in the South to finance the college’s continued operation. On that fact, there is no dispute.

The sale by the Jesuits stands out for its sheer size and the directness of its relationship to the existence and fortunes of one of the country’s top Catholic universities. The names of the people who were taken from the Jesuit plantations in Maryland and shipped to New Orleans are known. The fact that some of their descendants have already been found makes this a particularly salient case in the emerging effort to confront one of history’s worst crimes against humanity.

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OKLAHOMA
News on 6

LAWTON, Oklahoma – A survivor’s group says a priest who pleaded guilty in California to fondling a teenage girl in 2011 is now an administrator of three parishes in southwest Oklahoma.

KFMB, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, reports Father Jose Alexis DaVila, who admitted to abusing a 19-year-old woman, is working at at three churches in Caddo and Comanche counties.

David Clohessy, executive director for SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – is outraged DaVila vanished and resurfaced in Oklahoma.

A Lawton church’s website stated on March 29, 2016 Father Jose Alexis DaVila had been assigned as an administrator of St. Ann Church in Elgin, the Mother of Sorrows Church in Apache and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Sterling.

“I think it’s inappropriate, I think it’s insulting. We believe this priest shouldn’t be a priest at all, this priest should be behind bars,” Clohessy told KFMB.

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UNITED STATES
Crux

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service April 22, 2016

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the new nuncio to the United States, said he’s ready to learn about the Catholic Church in the country and will try his best to be Pope Francis’ emissary, particularly in promoting a church that is close to those who suffer.

The archbishop, who had a private meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis April 21, gave interviews the next day to the English and the Italian programs of Vatican Radio.

The 70-year-old French native has been in the Vatican diplomatic corps for almost 40 years and said a nuncio’s job is to help the pope fulfill his ministry of building up the local churches, respecting their diversity, while keeping them united with the universal church.

“The difficulty or the challenge,” he said, is “to listen, to be careful about what’s going on, to understand, to exercise dialogue — I think that’s very important — to discover the beauty, the richness of the culture of the people, the way the people live (and) to help the inculturation of the Gospel in a particular culture.”

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OSTERREICH
OTS

[At least 16,000 victims of clerical abuse have been identified in Austria.]

Treffen mit Betroffenen verweigert, aber Privatjustiz der Kirche noch schnell mit Goldenem Verdienstzeichen legitimiert.

Wien (OTS) – Bundespräsident Fischer hat kurz vor Ende seiner Amtszeit noch schnell ein würdeloses Zeichen gesetzt und unter Beisein von Kardinal Schönborn die „Klasnic-Kommission“ mit dem “Goldenen Verdienstzeichen der Republik“ ausgezeichnet.

www.katholisch.at/aktuelles/2016/04/15/bundespraesident-fischer-ehrt-klasnic-kommission

Die Kommission hat sich aus Sicht der Betroffenen kirchlicher Gewalt vor allem für den Schutz der Täter engagiert: „Die Klasnic-Kommission wurde von der Kirche eingesetzt, um teure Klagen abzuwenden und Opfer auszuhorchen“, moniert Sepp Rothwangl von der Plattform Betroffener kirchlicher Gewalt. „Sie hat den Opfern Almosen ausbezahlt, ihre intimen Daten klammheimlich mit der Bischofskonferenz geteilt und die Täter gedeckt, anstatt ein Justizverfahren gegen selbige zu unterstützen.“ Und sie habe eine Vernetzung Betroffener verhindert und damit eine zivil- und strafrechtliche Verfolgung massiv erschwert.

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FLORIDA
The Huffington Post

Ron Dicker
General Assignment Reporter, The Huffington Post

He wasn’t looking for a religious experience.

A Florida priest was busted for asking a male undercover officer in a public park to give him oral sex, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office says.

A Sheriff’s spokeswoman told The Huffington Post Friday that the clergyman, Stephen Glenn Charest of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, bluntly told the detective, “I want you to suck my c—k.”

Charest was charged with soliciting another for lewdness. According to arrest records, the 66-year-old priest was booked on April 19 and released April 20.

“I can’t believe it, I really can’t,” parishioner Shirley Schultz told ABC Action News. “He is so nice, nice with the kids, everything. My whole family, they are shocked over it. It hurts, it really hurts, it is a shame.”

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune

A North Aurora pastor who is a convicted sex offender listed on the state’s registry has been charged with sexually abusing a child, according to Kane County prosecutors.

Ralphael Robinson, 39, the head pastor at Kingdom Church, faces one count of criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

The alleged abuse took place at the church, which is located on Lincolnway and described in its promotional materials as a “multi-cultural truth assembly.” Prosecutors said Robinson knows the victim and the charges indicate that he had a “position of trust” in her life.

According to a biography posted on the church’s now-defunct website, Robinson runs Kingdom with his wife, Tamika. It also says that he has a master’s degree in Christian education and a doctorate in divinity, but does not provide the names of the schools where he studied.

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ILLINOIS
WLS

NORTH AURORA, Ill. (WLS) — A pastor at a North Aurora church is charged with sexually abusing a child according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Police say Ralphael Robinson, pastor of the Kingdom Church in the 100-block of South Lincolnway, allegedly sexually abused a victim under the age of 18 at the church.

Robinson is charged with one felony count of criminal sexual assault and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. His bail was set at $100,000 and if he makes bond he will be prohibited from having contact with the victim or any person under the age of 17, the State’s Attorney’s Office says.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Luke Wilusz
@lukewilusz

A North Aurora pastor has been charged with sexually abusing a child at his church.

Ralphael J. Robinson, 39, is charged with criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse, according to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Robinson, a pastor at Kingdom Church, sexually abused someone younger than 18 at the church last Monday.

After a warrant was issued Friday for his arrest, Robinson turned himself in at the Aurora Police Department the same day.

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ILLINOIS
CBS Chicago

(CBS) — A pastor has been charged with sexually abusing a child at his North Aurora church, according to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

Ralphael Robinson, 39, of Aurora is a pastor at Kingdom Church and is accused of sexually abusing the victim there last Monday, the state’s attorney’s office said.

A warrant for Robinson’s arrest was issued on Friday and he surrendered to Aurora Police that day. Robinson is charged with one count of criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Robinson appeared in court on Saturday and his bond was set at $100,000. His next court appearance is set for April 28.

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ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY
La Nacion

[Carlos Ibanez, a priest suspended by the church for allegedly sexually abusing minors, continued as a priest by officiating at masses, baptisms and other functions.]

El sacerdote argentino Carlos Ibáñez, denunciado en su país a principios de los ’90 por supuestamente haber abusado de unos 10 adolescentes, está actualmente suspendido “ad divinis” por el Obispado de Villa María, Córdoba. A pesar de ello, Ibáñez siguió oficiando misas, bautismos y casamientos durante años en varias capillas de nuestro país.

Si bien Ibáñez pudo zafar de las denuncias en su contra en el ámbito penal, ya que no se presentó en Argentina para afrontar los cargos gracias a las dos negativas de la Justicia paraguaya para extraditarlo, como mostramos en nuestra publicación de ayer, su situación con relación a la Iglesia quedó absolutamente definida.

El sacerdote Ibáñez está suspendido por la causa que se le abrió a principios de los ’90 en Bell Ville, provincia de Córdoba, como consecuencia de las 10 denuncias de adolescentes que aseguraron haber recibido pagos por mantener relaciones sexuales con Ibáñez cuando él se desempeñaba como sacerdote de la parroquia Virgen de Fátima. La carátula, contundente, decía: “Corrupción de menores reiterada y continuada y transmisión de enfermedad venérea”.

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ARTENTINA/PARAGUAY
La Nacion

[The Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See, Archbishop Eliseo Ariotti, said this morning at a press conference that the church authorities were aware of the case of the priest Carlos Ibanez (investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of at least 10 young people in Bell Ville province of Cordoba, Argentina) from a year ago and that the reference protocol was activated. No complaints had been made about the priest in Paraguay, he said.]

El Nuncio Apostólico de la Santa Sede ante nuestro país, monseñor Eliseo Ariotti, dijo esta mañana en conferencia de prensa que las autoridades eclesiales estaban al tanto del caso del sacerdote Carlos Ibáñez (investigado por denuncias de abuso sexual de al menos 10 jóvenes en Bell Ville, provincia de Córdoba, Argentina) desde hace un año y que se activó el protocolo de referencia.

“Este caso estaba en conocimiento desde hace un año y se recogieron elementos para poner a conocimiento de las autoridades. Se alertaron, pero quiero determinar que nunca fue presentada en Paraguay una denuncia (contra Ibáñez)”, dijo inicialmente Ariotti.

Añadió que las autoridades eclesiales “está haciendo todo lo posible para aclarar, para luchar contra estos casos y aclarar la situación tan penosa de este problema moral.”

“No debemos instaurar un momento de vamos a buscar ahora a los culpables. Debemos intentar colaborar con la madurez de la vida eclesial, encontrar los problemas, mejorar la situación”, agregó el representante de la Santa Sede.

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ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY
La Nacion

[Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina – BishopAccountability.org]

[Carlos Richard Ibanez Morino, a priest in Bell Ville, Argentina, was investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of at least ten young people in the early ’90s. The Diocese of Villa María suspended him and he went to Paraguay, where continued to serve as a priest.]

Carlos Richard Ibáñez Morino, sacerdote de Bell Ville, acumuló diez denuncias en su contra de jóvenes; la justicia intentó la extradición pero nunca la consiguió.

Gabriela Origlia LA NACIONSÁBADO 23 DE ABRIL DE 2016 •

CÓRDOBA.- Carlos Richard Ibáñez Morino era sacerdote en Bell Ville, estaba investigado por denuncias de abuso sexual de al menos diez jóvenes a comienzos de los ’90. El Obispado de Villa María lo suspendió en su cargo y él se fue a Paraguay, donde igual siguió ejerciendo como cura.

Llegó en 1992 y, hasta hace unas semanas, continuó oficiando misas y trabajando con jóvenes. La historia la revela el diario paraguayo La Nación. No era el único, según el medio, habría al menos cinco sacerdotes argentinos denunciados por abuso sexual que estuvieron escondidos y amparados por la Iglesia paraguaya.

La primera orden de detención contra Ibáñez data de julio de 1992; la causa era “corrupción de menores reiterada y continuada y transmisión de enfermedad venérea”. Buscado por policía, nunca lo encontraron.

El entonces juez de Menores, Miguel Viqueira, fue quien recibió las primeras denuncias. Al diario paraguayo le dijo: “Puedo confirmar que hubo denuncias concretas contra el padre por parte de unos 10 chicos, por supuestos abusos sexuales”.

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CALIFORNIA/OKLAHOMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 22, 2016

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Orange County, SNAP volunteer western regional director, 949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)

A San Diego priest who vanished after pleading guilty to committing “sexual battery” against and “unlawful sexual touching” of a teenager has just been put in charge of three Oklahoma churches apparently with no warning to parishioners.

This is a stunningly irresponsible and hurtful move by both Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley and by San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy.

In 2012, Fr. Jose Alexis Davila was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to stay away from a 19-year-old he victimized in the San Diego Diocese. Catholic officials there were harshly criticized for putting him back in a parish after he admitted his guilt.

[BishopAccountability.org]

Later that year, Fr. Alexis Davila was gone.

[BishopAccountability.org]

But late last month, Coakley said he was putting Fr. Alexis Davila at three Oklahoma parishes. Since December 2015, Fr. Alexis Davila has apparently worked at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Lawton, OK.

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CALIFORNIA/OKLAHOMA
CBS 8

[with video]

By Abbie Alford, Reporter

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – A convicted San Diego priest who pleaded guilty to fondling a teenage girl in 2011 is now serving in parishes in Oklahoma City.

Father Jose Alexis DaVila admitted to abusing a 19-year-old woman and now he is involved with three churches. It’s a move that is being called both stunning and hurtful.

Blessed Sacrament’s website in Lawton Oklahoma says as of March 29, Father Jose Alexis DaVila left to serve the following parishes in Oklahoma: Saint Ann Church, Elgin and Missions, Mother of Sorrows Church in Apache, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Sterling.

When the church welcomed DaVila in December, it made no mention the priest served in San Diego. DaVila was an associate pastor from Saint Jude’s Shrine of the West in Southcrest.

David Clohessy, executive director for SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – is outraged DaVila vanished and resurfaced on another pulpit in the Sooner State.

“I think it’s inappropriate, I think it’s insulting. We believe this priest shouldn’t be a priest at all, this priest should be behind bars,” said Clohessy.

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INDIA
Hindustan Times

The Ooty diocese on Friday denied that it had reinstated controversial Indian priest Joseph Jeyapaul, who served a sentence in the US for abusing minor girls.

Father Sebastian Selvarajan, secretary of Bishop House, Ooty and spokesperson for the Diocese, told Hindustan Times that Jeyapaul was not given any job or assignment or reinstated as was being alleged. He has been simply given a residence, a permit to stay, that is all, he said.

The diocese came under fire after a 26-year-old Minnesota woman sued it , alleging that Jeyapaul, who had sexually abused her and another girl while working at their local church, was reinstated to ministry after consultations with the Vatican.

Selvarajan said the diocese would legally tackle the federal lawsuit filed in Minnesota.

Asked if Jeyapaul would cooperate with investigations and subsequent action by authorities, Selvarajan said, “he has cooperated with the authorities in the past and why are you asking this question at all?”

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RHODE ISLAND
Fox News

Published April 23, 2016 Associated Press

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – An elite New England boarding school where dozens of alumni have reported sexual abuse is canceling a gathering it billed as a “healing” event to address sexual abuse after many victims objected.

St. George’s School headmaster Eric Peterson this week announced the event would be held during the school’s reunion weekend in May on its campus in Middletown, Rhode Island.

But many victims said it was inappropriate because of an ongoing investigation into abuse and cover-ups at St. George’s.

The president of the board of trustees announced Friday the event was canceled. She says officials are planning other ways to acknowledge the abuse during reunion weekend.

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GUAM
Guam Daily Post

A group of Catholics held a peaceful demonstration Thursday night at the Guam airport, protesting the arrival of Giuseppe Gennarini, who is said to be the highest official of the Neocatechumenal Way in the United States.

Gennarini, along with his wife Claudia, arrived aboard United Airlines Flight 197 which landed on Guam at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday from Japan.

The protesters were from the Concerned Catholics of Guam (CCOG) and the Laity Forward Movement (LFM) who staged their “reception” event at the arrival area at the airport.

According to the members of the groups, they want to let Gennarini know “in no uncertain words and through protest signs that we Catholics in Guam do not appreciate nor welcome the presence, influence and indoctrination that the NCW is making in Guam – havoc, dissension, division within our Catholic faith.” According to the groups, further protest events will be announced and held during Gennarini’s stay on Guam.

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RHODE ISLAND
Boston Globe

By Bella English GLOBE STAFF APRIL 23, 2016

After threats of boycotts and other protests from angry victims of sexual abuse, St. George’s School is altering its plans to hold a “Hope for Healing” session on its Rhode Island campus during an alumni reunion weekend next month.

On Wednesday, headmaster Eric Peterson wrote to alumni about a gathering to “address this deeply troubling and painful chapter in our school’s history.” The session was to be held in the chapel of the Episcopal prep school, during Alumni Weekend, scheduled for May 6-8.

But late Friday afternoon, board chairwoman Leslie Heaney sent out a second letter to alumni, stating that the initial letter about the proposed “Hope for Healing” session had “upset many survivors.”

“With the investigation into sexual abuse at St. George’s still ongoing, survivors and Day One have expressed their feelings that it is premature to talk about healing,” Heaney wrote.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Apr. 22, 2016

The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations says he will urge the Pope to press Catholic groups that ran Canada’s Indian residential schools to renew their efforts to raise money for healing programs that he says could provide real help to those who were abused.

Perry Bellegarde has been trying for some time to arrange a meeting with the Pope to ask for an apology for the church’s role in what happened at the schools, and also for a repudiation of the church’s 1493 papal bull and its “doctrine of discovery,” which gave Christian explorers the right to claim any lands they found that weren’t inhabited by Christians.

“So this is a third reason, because there’s a moral obligation on behalf of the church to do what’s right,” Mr. Bellegarde said this week of the failed fundraising bid. “I am going to be writing to Pope Francis and asking him to rectify this matter.”

The more than 50 Catholic orders that ran many of the schools were allowed to walk away from their commitment, written into the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, to try to raise $25-million for healing programs – a pledge crafted to demonstrate the church’s interest in reconciliation.

Pierre Baribeau, their lawyer, says they did their best – that a professional fundraising firm was engaged to run a national campaign to collect money, mostly from corporations but also from Catholic organizations. It was, in his words, “a fiasco.”

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SCOTLAND
The Times

The trial of five former staff members at a school run by a Catholic religious order who are accused of abusing dozens of boys over three decades has begun hearing evidence.

John Farrell, 73, Paul Kelly, 63, Edward Egan, 78, Michael Murphy, 76, and William Don, 61, are charged with 121 counts of physical and sexual abuse against pupils at St Ninian’s School, in Falkland, Fife, between 1967 and 1983.

They deny all the charges against them.

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PERU
Angelus

April 21, 2016 – Catholic News Agency

On Saturday an ethics commission created to investigate and offer proposals surrounding accusations of abuse against the founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae released its report, which detailed an internal culture of extreme “discipline and obedience to the founder.”

This culture was “forged on the basis of extreme physical demands, as well as physical punishments, constituting abuses which violated the fundamental rights of persons,” the commission wrote in its April 16 report.

The Ethics Commission for Justice and Reconciliation was formed in November 2015 at the request of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. It is formed of two lawyers, a bishop, a psychiatrist, and a journalist.

The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is a society of apostolic life which was founded in 1971 in Peru, and granted pontifical recognition in 1997. Alejandro Bermúdez, executive director of CNA, is a member of the community.

An apostolic visitor from the Vatican is currently investigating allegations of sexual abuse, mistreatment, and abuse of power against Luis Fernando Figari, founder of the community.

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HAWAII
Honolulu Civil Beat

Most of the claims target the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii and its religious affiliates. The deadline for such cases expires Sunday.

APRIL 22, 2016 · By Chad Blair

With a legal window scheduled to close Sunday, an estimated 25 lawsuits were expected to be filed at 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu by closing time Friday — the last business day to register the complaints.

Most of the cases list the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii or its affiliates, and concern allegations of sexual assault.

The plaintiffs are anonymous adults who say they were abused by priests when they were children.

As Civil Beat reported earlier this month, more than 60 people had already filed such lawsuits, and about half of those have been settled.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

A Queens Assemblywoman has announced plans for two days of lobbying in Albany to push for a bill that would make it easier for sexually abused children to bring lawsuits as adults.

The proposed Child Victims Act would eliminate the civil and criminal statutes of limitations in New York for child sex abuse. And it would create a one-year window for victims who have been time-barred in the past to file criminal charges or civil claims.

On May 3, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) and other proponents of the bill will hold a roundtable discussion on child sexual abuse in sports, families, schools and youth groups.

The next day, a roundtable will focus on abuse in the Catholic Church.

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MINNESOTA
DL-Online

By Becky Jacobs

BAGLEY, Minn. – A Clearwater County District Court jury found a former pastor in northwestern Minnesota guilty Wednesday of having sexual contact with children.

The Rev. Scott Morey, Shevlin, Minn., was charged in 2014 with eight first-degree, three second-degree and three fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charges.

All of the convictions are related to incidents with two minor children, according to a news release from the Clearwater County Attorney’s Office. The 43-year-old was acquitted of one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

After receiving the verdict, Judge Eric Schieferdecker revoked Morey’s bail and remanded him into custody of the Clearwater County Sheriff.

Morey had been a pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Winger, Minn., Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bejou, Minn., and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in McIntosh, Minn. He resigned as pastor at the churches on Dec. 12, 2014, according to the Rev. Lawrence Wohlrabe, bishop with Northwestern Minnesota Synod ELCA in Moorhead.

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WISCONSIN
WTMJ

[with video]

Rebecca Klopf

A new group in Milwaukee has started to combat sexual assaults of minors. The community coalition is from the Office of Violence Prevention.

Just this week a dean, a teacher, and a pastor, all charged with having inappropriate relationships with underage children.

Alice Belcher says something needs to be done.

That’s why she has teamed with other sexual assault groups in Milwaukee to create a new community coalition.

“The problem has been a lot of people don’t know that we are here and have been doing this work,” says Alice Belcher, Christian Woman Prospective Ministries founder. “So we decided instead of doing things disjointedly we would together as a new coordinated community response team.”

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WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — An emotional outburst by a victim and his mother followed the ruling of a judge Friday to allow an admitted child sex abuser to remain free on bond.

Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers declined to revoke the bond of Timothy Probert, 57, of Princeton, who pleaded guilty in Mercer County Circuit Court Monday to 37 charges related to child sexual abuse.

“What about the kids who live beside him?” the victim yelled to the judge following the adjournment of the hearing.

“You didn’t even hear about his trustworthiness!” the victim’s mother screamed, as she began crying hysterically.

Vickers was assigned to the case in 2015 after Mercer County Circuit Court judges Omar Aboulhosn, Derek Swope and William “Bill” Sadler recused themselves citing conflicts of interest. …

Probert, who was arrested in 2013, is a former youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY CHAUNCEY ALCORN, RICH SCHAPIRO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, April 22, 2016

A Connecticut screenwriter who says he was preyed upon by a notorious Jesuit priest brought his campaign for justice to the Upper East Side Friday.

Neil Gumpel called for an end to the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases in a one-man demonstration outside the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Ave.

“It just sickens me they’re allowed to flaunt this statute of limitations stuff,” said Gumpel, 58, who is seeking an official apology from the Jesuits.

“The night that happened to me, I as a person was pretty much murdered.”

Gumpel says he was beaten, strangled and raped by the Rev. Roy Drake during a college tour at the Maine Maritime Academy in 1974.

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INDIA
The News Minute

Geetika Mantri| Saturday, April 23, 2016

On Tuesday, Megan Peterson, a US citizen and a victim of sexual assault at the hands of church priest Joseph Jeyapaul, filed a lawsuit against him at the Minnesota federal court. Jeyapaul was accused of rape and sexual assault, pleaded guilty and was sentenced for a jail term spanning a year and a day. He was then deported to India in July 2015. However, barely six months later, he was reinstated as the head of the diocese of the commission for education in Ootacamund with the Vatican’s approval.

Megan Peterson, her attorney Jeff Anderson and the organisation SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) have since been trying to draw attention to the case. “I felt abused and degraded and victimsed all over again. it felt like a slap in the face to myself and to the other survivors of clergy sex abuse across the globe,” she had said in a statement earlier, speaking about Jeyapaul being reinstated to the ministry.

In an exclusive and detailed interview to The News Minute, Megan tells us why this case needs more attention and asks that Jeyapaul not be reinstated.

Q: You have fought a long and hard legal and personal battle against Jeyapaul. What do you have to say about him being reinstated as a priest and head of the diocese of commission for education in India?

Megan: Reinstating Jeyapaul back into priesthood is a disservice and a danger to children in India. Children are put at risk by putting a convicted, admitted sex offender back into the ministry and at a position of authority. I don’t want another child to go through what I have been through.

Q: What is your message to Bishop Amalraj, who reinstated Jeyapaul to the ministry?

Megan: Reverse your decision, disclose who in the Vatican approved such a reckless move, put Fr. Jeyapaul in a remote, secure treatment center for sex offenders where he’ll be very closely monitored. Aggressively seek out others he has hurt and prod them to call police.

Q: Do you think there should be more dialogue in India about this case so as to set a precedent for the Indian Church as well?

Megan: Absolutely! Open dialogue, transparency and accountability of officials and offenders are key in moving forward and protecting others. By having these discussions, survivors in India may also feel safer, supported and therefore encouraged to come forward.

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UNITED STATES
San Diego Union-Tribune

April is Sex Abuse Awareness Month. In light of this fact, it’s time we re-examine our state laws — particularly those that pertain to sexual abuse. More specifically, we need to take a hard look at the laws that can limit or bar a sex abuse victim’s ability to bring a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator and/or the institutions that failed to protect him/her. These laws are referred to as statutes of limitations. Though in place for a reason, statutes of limitations on childhood sex abuse cases frequently act to protect predators and harm victims.

Children who have been sexually abused face a lifetime of psychological issues. The trauma inflicted on them in their youth reverberates into adulthood. Often it takes years for victims of childhood sex abuse to come to terms with what happened to them. Their struggle is real: a childhood sex abuse victim is more likely to turn to drugs or alcohol to help him/her deal with their emotional pain and low self-esteem. They may have difficulty forming meaningful relationships with coworkers and may find themselves in and out of romantic relationships due to trust issues.

In addition to the human cost of childhood sex abuse, there is a real cost to society. A 1996 Department of Justice study of child molestation victims determined that childhood sex abuse costs society an average of $23 billion annually.

There is one clear way that we can lessen the toll that childhood sex abuse takes on our society: increase and/or eliminate statutes of limitations on childhood sex abuse cases.

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FRANCE
France Inter

[Pedophilia in the church: The Conspiracy of Silence]

[avec video]

La stratégie de l’étouffement qui était à l’oeuvre depuis des décennies au sein de la hiérarchie catholique n’est plus tenable. A la lumière des récentes affaires de pédophilie impliquant des prêtres en France, l’enquête de Laetitia Saavedra en démonte le fonctionnement, en révèle la mécanique.

Depuis cette déclaration du pape en septembre dernier, l’église de France est confrontée à plusieurs scandales. L’affaire la plus emblématique est celle du cardinal Barbarin, qui est visé par une enquête pour non dénonciation d’agressions sexuelles sur des mineurs. Cette enquête de Laeticia Saavedra va démêler les fils de ce scandale, elle a rencontré l’homme à l’origine des premières révélations.

Une affaire lyonnaise

Il s’appelle Alexandre Dussot, il a 42 ans, et il est issu de la bourgeoisie catholique de Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon. Entre 9 et 12 ans, il a été agressé sexuellement par le père Preynat, prêtre de cette paroisse et fondateur du groupe de Scouts Saint Luc. Avec deux autres anciens scouts, il a créé une association de victimes La Parole libérée. Les faits sont prescrits mais Alexandre s’en souvient comme si c’était hier.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Wicked Local Needham

Posted Apr. 22, 2016

NEEDHAM

The Archdiocese of Boston recently announced that it has dismissed Thomas H. Maguire from the clerical state. According to his assignment history Maguire served at 10 Massachusetts parishes, including Saint Joseph Parish in Needham.

A March 31 press release from the Archdiocese of Boston stated that Maguire’s dismissal followed “allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct in the presence of minors.”

In 1998, Maguire served as a Temporary Parochial Vicar at Saint Joseph Parish for a brief period between Feb. 1 and March 30.

The initial allegation came in 2012 while Maguire was serving as Pastor at Saint Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine in Norwell. The inappropriate conduct was alleged to have occurred around that time.

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MISSOURI
Columbia Tribune

By THE TRIBUNE’S STAFF
Friday, April 22, 2016

A former Mid-Missouri pastor on Tuesday pleaded guilty to several sex crimes for having sex with at least three underage girls and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Travis R. Smith, 45, of California, Mo., pleaded guilty to two counts each of second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy and one count of sexual abuse. He appeared in Laclede County Circuit Court, where his case was transferred on a change of venue in 2015.

While he was a pastor and youth minister at First Baptist Church in Stover, Smith admitted to forcing himself on at least one teenage girl and having sex with two others. In one case he was accused of pinning down a 16-year-old girl and raping her in 1998. Smith also admitted to having sex with her again in early 1999 in the back of a friend’s truck.

The other cases happened in 2005.

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CALIFORNIA/OKLAHOMA
The Worthy Adversary

April 22, 2016 Joelle Casteix

So we can assume that OK City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley doesn’t bother with that whole “background check” thing.

Why?

A former San Diego priest who vanished after he pled guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery and “engaging in unlawful sexual touching” in 2012 has resurfaced in parishes in Oklahoma.

Fr. Jose Alexis Davila was sentenced to three years’ probation in 2012 and ordered to stay away from the 19-year-old victim. The Diocese of San Diego was harshly criticized for allowing the priest back in a parish.

By October of that year, Davila was gone.

Thanks to a tip from a reader, I learned that Davila was assigned to Blessed Sacrament Parish in Lawton, OK in December 2015—in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

Anne Sheridan
21 Apr 2016

FOUR sets of civil proceedings in relation to at least two priests and Bishop Eamon Casey have been entered in the High Court. They relate to a number of claims involving different parties in the Limerick Diocese, span-ning several decades.

The series of proceedings were initiated last November, with the latter two proceedings entered this February.

One of the cases is being taken by a Limerick woman against Bishop Eamon Casey, who was based in Limerick from 1955 to 1960, when he served at St John’s Cathedral as curate.

Bishop Casey, 88, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Limerick on June 17, 1951, and he is believed to have suffered a number of health setbacks in recent years.

Well known Limerick solicitor Tommy Dalton, when contacted by the Limerick Leader, confirmed that he had issued a summons on behalf of the woman.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

A Limerick woman has initiated civil proceedings in the High Court against Bishop Eamon Casey, among four cases regarding various members of the clergy in the Limerick diocese over several decades.

The proceedings against Bishop Casey, now 88, and living in a nursing home in Co Clare, are listed among four sets of civil proceedings in relation to at least two priests, regarding a number of claims in the Limerick diocese.

A summons has been issued on both Bishop Casey, and the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Brendan Leahy – in his representative capacity as the current head of the diocese.

One of the cases is being taken by a Limerick woman against Bishop Casey, who was based in Limerick from 1955 to 1960, when he served at St John’s Cathedral as curate.

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ARGENTINA
Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Prosecutors in Argentina are accusing a Roman Catholic priest of sexually abusing 3-year-old girl.

The Public Ministry in Santa Fe province said Wednesday that local prosecutors are asking for Nestor Monzon to be formally investigated. Under Argentine law, the request by prosecutors is the precursor to charges that must be decided on by a judge.

Monzon was detained late Tuesday after the parents of the child reported him to authorities. The priest led a parish in the provincial capital some 500 miles (800 kilometers) northeast of Buenos Aires.

Local TV footage showed images of the priest being arrested by police officers while a neighbor shouted insults and accused him of the abuse. Prosecutors are also probing whether Monzon abused the girl’s 5-year-old cousin.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

[The Würzburg public prosecutor completed the investigation of suspected abuse of a 17-year-old girl by a high church officials. The case is time-barred.]

Zu spät hat die Staatsanwaltschaft Würzburg offenbar vom Verdacht des Missbrauch einer 17-Jährigen durch einen hochrangigen Vertreter des Bistums erfahren, um sie noch verfolgen zu können. Dies bestätigte Thorsten Seebach, Sprecher der Behörde. Nach einer Prüfung des falles wurde die Akte geschlossen. Der Fall von 1988 ist verjährt.

Die heute 44-jährige Alexandra Wolf beschuldigt den früheren Missbrauchsbeauftragten des Bistums, sie zum Oralverkehr gezwungen zu haben. Der Beschuldigte bestreitet das.

Mutmaßliches Opfer: „Ich fühle mich wie erneut missbraucht“ (30. März 2016)
Der Fall kam erst durch Medienberichte an die Öffentlichkeit. Zuvor war das Bistum intern zu der Ansicht gekommen, „die behauptete Straftat“ sei „nahezu auszuschließen“. Die Behandlung des Falles trug dem Bistum den Vorwurf der Vertuschung ein, den man zurückwies. Doch der heutige Missbrauchsbeauftragte, der Kriminologe Klaus Laubenthal, hält die Vorwürfe für plausibel.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

[Abuse officer of the church as the perpetrator? If the recent allegations ever turn out to be true, one dimension would be achieved and that would leave people just stunned and in disbelief. The new case in the diocese Würzburg seems, however, to nourish an old prejudice: The church covered up rather than work up the allegations disclosed.]

Christine Jeske

Ein Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Kirche als Täter? Wenn sich die jüngsten Vorwürfe jemals als wahr herausstellen sollten, wäre eine Dimension erreicht, die einen nur noch fassungslos und ungläubig werden ließe. Der neue Fall im Bistum Würzburg scheint indes ein altes Vorurteil zu nähren: Die Kirche vertuscht, anstatt die Vorwürfe offen aufzuarbeiten.

Dabei hatte die katholische Kirche doch vor sechs Jahren so sehr Transparenz gelobt: Ende Januar 2010 wurde auch in Deutschland der Umfang des sexuellen Missbrauchs bei Kindern und Jugendlichen in kirchlichen Einrichtungen in der Öffentlichkeit bekannt. Die deutschen Bischöfe mussten reagieren. Sie hatten keine Wahl und reformierten ihre Leitlinien. „Sexueller Missbrauch vor allem an Kindern und Jugendlichen ist eine verabscheuungswürdige Tat.

Dies gilt besonders, wenn Kleriker oder Ordensangehörige sie begehen“, heißt seit 2010 ein neuer Passus der 2002 eingeführten Richtlinien. Und: „Die Täter fügen der Glaubwürdigkeit der Kirche und ihrer Sendung schweren Schaden zu. Es ist ihre Pflicht, sich ihrer Verantwortung zu stellen.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
POW

[After desecration of the a crypt in the church dedicated to St. Kilian, Bishop Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann held a penitential right at the tomb in Neumünster. The tomb had recently been vandalized.]

Nach Schändung der Kilianskrypta: Bischof Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann eröffnet mit Bußritus Gruft im Neumünster – Gebet um Heilung und Tauferneuerung – Frage des Bischofs: „Steht eine solche Entgleisung nicht doch in einem weiteren Zusammenhang mit öffentlichen Kampagnen gegen die Kirche?“

Würzburg (POW) Bischof Dr. Friedhelm Hofmann hat die Kilianskrypta in der Neumünsterkirche nach der Beseitigung der Schmierereien am Donnerstagabend, 21. April, wieder eröffnet. Mit einem Pontifikalgottesdienst und einem Bußritus gab er das „Herzstück unseres Frankenlandes“ wieder frei für die Öffentlichkeit. „Heile die Verletzungen, die uns die Schändung der Grabstätte der Frankenapostel zugefügt hat. Heile die Verletzungen, die Menschen einander zufügen, und lass sie ihren Hass überwinden“, betete der Bischof beim Bußritus in der Kiliansgruft. Beim Taufgedächtnis besprengte er die geschändete Kiliansgruft mit Weihwasser, deckte anschließend den Altar neu ein und entzündete die Altarkerzen.

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FLORIDA
The Weekly Challenger

An unholy war over claims of pedophilia and graft in the nation’s fifth largest Christian church has taken a vicious new turn with the main accuser publicly naming a man who, he claims, was molested by the church’s top bishop.

The new allegation from Florida Pastor Earl Carter was angrily denied by the alleged victim himself as well as his parents and the hierarchy of the 6-million-strong Church of God in Christ, including its top man Bishop Charles Blake.

‘It hurts,’ Sidney Lassiter III — who admits he was molested as a child, but not by Blake — told Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.

‘I have been trying to put the horrible thing that happened behind me for years. I repressed my memories for a long time and now it has all been made public.

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MISSOURI
Springfield News-Leader

Darryl Gates, Springfield April 12, 2016

A NICE BIG THORN:To the Knights of Columbus Missouri-wide. They just awarded a youth scholarship to whom I assume is a fine young man out in Bolivar. The only problem is that it is the Cardinal Bernard Law Scholarship. Certainly at this point in time and infamy, one would think that the Knights would be able to come up with a better name for a “youth scholarship.”

Perhaps Keith Milson, State Deputy up in St. Louis, might want to comment since this is a state function?

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 21, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

Victims blast big Catholic group
It honors “disgraced” church official
Scholarship is named after Boston’s Cardinal Law
He was forced to resign due to “horrific” abuse cover ups
Years ago, he headed diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
SNAP: “Such callousness encourages secrecy and hurts victims”
Group asks St. Louis archbishop to force K of C to apologize & stop

A large statewide Catholic group that meets this weekend just gave a scholarship named after a disgraced Catholic official who was forced to resign because of widespread abuse cover ups and a victims’ group is crying foul.

The Missouri Knights of Columbus donated money to a student for his education as the “Cardinal Bernard Law Youth Scholarship.” http://www.mokofc.org/programs/youth-activities/scholarships-grants

[News-Leader]

In 2002, Law became the first US bishop to resign for quietly moving predator priests. He’s been called “the poster child” for the church’s abuse scandal.

[Washington Post]

[WBUR]

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson is the Knights’ honorary state chaplain. They have an office in Maplewood (7318 Manchester Rd, 314 647 5529) and Jefferson City (573 584 3200). They are the “world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization” with 1.8 million members. http://www.kofc.org/un/en/news/releases/1point8_20100505.html

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says honoring those who conceal abuse encourages others to conceal abuse.

“Archbishop Robert Carlson is Missouri’s highest ranking Catholic official,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s director. “He should denounce this callousness and insist that the group apologize and rename the scholarship.”

“Ignoring wrongdoing encourages more wrongdoing,” said Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s outreach director. “And honoring a prelate who knowingly endangered hundreds of kids for decades makes victims who haven’t reported their abuse less likely to do so. It deepens the already deep feelings of hopelessness that so many of us already feel.”

“Keith Milson of St. Louis is the statewide head of the Knights. He is an engineer for MSD, so he’s not dumb. And he’s been involved with the Missouri State High School Activities Association, so he should care about kids,” said Clohessy. “So how can he and Archbishop Carlson and thousands of Catholics across Missouri turn a blind eye to the widely-understood and clearly-documented harm that Cardinal Law did to so many families?”

In 2003, the national Knights of Columbus loaned $38 million to Law and the Boston archdiocese to settle child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits.

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INDIANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 21, 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)

Indianapolis Presbyterian officials are “blaming the messenger” and being deceptive in an abuse case. We’re very sad that he and his staff are doing damage control instead of pastoral outreach.

[Fox 59]

Pastor Robert E. Hock of Southport Presbyterian Church (317-534-2900) is being deceptive and hurtful by describing child sexual abuse as being “between two teenagers.” That’s minimizing a horrific crime. That’s like calling a bank robbery a financial transaction between two adults.

If a 19 year old forces himself on a 13 year old, is Pastor Hock implying that this is OK? He and his lawyers and his public relations team knows that the power difference, not the age range, is what matters in sexual violence.

If a 42 year old rapes a 22 year old, will Pastor Hock call it “between two adults?” If a CEO sexually harasses a custodian, would Pastor Hock call this “between two adults?”

The word “between” implies consent. But there can be no consent when an older, more sophisticated person sexually exploits a younger, more vulnerable person.

And the word “teenagers” implies equality. In this case, there is not equality. The accused predator has far more power than his victim.

Pastor Hock says no abuse happened on church property, or at a church-sponsored event and no church employee was the offender. That’s his lawyer and his PR person talking.

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MISSOURI
Kansas City Star

BY TONY RIZZO
trizzo@kcstar.com

A south Kansas City man has been charged with sexually molesting a child younger than 14.

Jackson County prosecutors charged 48-year-old James M. Burton with sexual molestation of a child, sexual misconduct and two counts of statutory sodomy. A judge set his bond at $100,000.

The incident reportedly occurred earlier this month in the garage of Burton’s home, according to court documents.

It was reported to police April 8 after the girl told her mother that Burton “touched my privates,” according to the allegations outlined in court documents.

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

Click here to read the complete letter from St. Peter’s Parish.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man who worked as a maintenance supervisor at St. Peter’s Parish, 6415 Holmes Rd., has been charged with statuatory sodomy, sexual molestation and child molestation in Jackson County. The victim in the case is a girl, less than 14-years-old, who told her mother that ‘Mr. Buzz touched my privates.’

Mr. Buzz is a nickname James Burton, 48, is called by those who know him around his south Kansas City neighborhood. The girl says the abuse happened in Burton’s garage and that Burton touched her, asked her to touch him and sodomized her. From the girl’s description of what happened, technicians took swabs of spots in the garage that will be tested for semen. Burton denied ejaculating in the garage, as the girl seemed to describe.

The parish sent out a letter Thursday morning to inform parishioners that Burton had been charged with these offenses. Parish leaders said the alleged abuse did not take place on parish or school grounds. Burton is also not a member of the church.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, April 22, 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)

Another KC Catholic worker is accused of child sex crimes. Bishop James Johnston should visit the affected parish this weekend and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police so the predator can be convicted and kept away from kids for a long time.

[KSHB]

James Burton, a custodian at St. Peter’s parish, is charged with molesting a child.

It’s ironic that just hours after another church “healing service,” more child sex crimes by a Catholic employee are disclosed. Bishop James Johnston is desperately trying to “turn the page” and “move forward” and imply that the diocese’s abuse and cover up is largely over. It’s not. And it’s disingenuous to pretend it is.

Church officials claim they this quiet at the request of law enforcement. We hope but doubt that’s true. But what matters now is whether they help police and prosecutors build a strong case. We beg them to use church bulletins, parish websites, pulpit announcements and other ways to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Burton or cover ups by colleagues.

We fear Bishop Johnston will act just like Bishop Finn, and sit passively back, letting the burden of keeping this predator away from kids fall on his victims and the police. That’s wrong. It’s tempting, but it’s irresponsible.

Here’s Bishop Johnston’s chance to chart a new course. We hope he will. But we’re not optimistic.

No matter what lawmakers 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.

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SCOTLAND
The Courier

A teacher who worked at a Christian Brothers school where pupils were allegedly sexually and physically assaulted told a court she never saw any sign of abuse.

Margaret Nicol, 67, who taught part-time at St Ninian’s School at Falkland in Fife, from 1976 to 1981, told the High Court in Glasgow that she never saw anything untoward.

She was asked by prosecutor Kath Harper: “What would you have done if you had seen any evidence of the pupils being physically or sexually abused?” and replied: “I would have gone to their social workers, but at no stage did I see anything that caused me concern. “

The jury was told that St Ninian’s was a List G boarding school which took boys from Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Dundee and Edinburgh.

The court was told that the school was run by the Christian Brothers and there were a number of lay people including teachers and domestic staff.

Mrs Nicol was asked by Ms Harper: “Who looked after the boys at night,” and replied: “I know the Brothers were there at night, but none of the other staff were.”

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ARGENTINA
La Nacion

[The Catholic Church admits that priest Carlos Ibanez “escaped” from Argentina to Paraguay. Oscar Gonzalez, vicar general of the Asuncio archdiocese in Paraguay, said institutional weakness was the main cause in ignorance of clergy history. He said Ibanez did not have a direct relationship with the church but was devoted to teaching.]

Tras la investigación sobre el blindaje a sacerdotes argentinos acusados de abuso sexual y el silencio de la iglesia paraguaya frente a este suceso, salió al paso de las declaraciones, Oscar Gonzalez, vicario general de la Arquidiócesis de Asunción, reconociendo la “debilidad institucional” como causal principal en el desconocimiento del historial de los clérigos.

En conversación con la emisora radial 970 AM, la Arquidiócesis de Asunción sentó postura. Ante la consulta del periodista de la radioemisora -¿Como pudo actuar impunemente el Sr. Ibañez en el país por 20 años?, Gonzalez, manifestó que el cura investigado – Carlos Ibañez – hizo algunas celebraciones en algunas capillas del país pero, “nunca tuvo relación directa con la iglesia. Él se dedicaba mas bien a la docencia”

“La costumbre que tenemos es de encontrarnos en celebraciones masivas pero no nos conocemos entre todos, la confianza hace que entremos en las celebraciones sin conocer a todos”, se excusó.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

[Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina – BishopAccountability.org]

[La Nacion has revealed that Argentine priests accused of child abuse have hid for years in Paraguay.]

Al menos cinco sacerdotes argentinos denunciados por abuso sexual estuvieron escondidos en territorio paraguayo, amparados por la Iglesia de ese país. Así lo denuncia el diario La Nación de Paraguay.

En un informe del que hasta ahora se publicó solo una primera parte (de cinco previstas), el diario hace foco en el caso del sacerdote argentino Carlos Richard Ibáñez Morino, investigado por denuncias de abuso sexual de al menos diez jóvenes en Bell Ville, provincia de Córdoba, a principios de los 90.

Mirá también: La Iglesia reabrió la causa diocesana contra un cura acusado de abuso

Según La Nación de Paraguay, Ibáñez llegó a Paraguay en 1992 y aún cuando pesaba sobre él una suspensión de parte del obispado cordobés, igual ejerció sus funciones como sacerdote, oficiando misas, trabajando con jóvenes y “paseándose por varias comunidades religiosas” hasta hace apenas unas semanas.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

Joe R. San Agustin April 23, 2016

Archbishop Anthony Apuron claims that his deed of restriction, filed secretly with the Department of Land Management, in November 2011, did not transfer ownership and control of the seminary property in Yona. Not true. In my analysis, the advancement of the NeoCatechumenal Way’s agenda and the enthronement of its cultic religion on the Catholics of Guam is at the center of all this hoopla.

The Way, in the mid- to late-1990s, convinced Apuron that a seminary in Guam will enhance his leadership of the Church in the Pacific region. Thus, the establishment of a Redemptoris Mater Seminary … in Guam in December 1999 became a necessary prelude.

Serendipitously, the former Accion Hotel was put up for sale at a very low price of $2 million. Its value today, however, has been pegged at between $40 million and $75 million. The Archdiocese of Agana took out a bank loan to buy that property, which was shortly thereafter paid in full by a donor.

The archdiocese now has a seminary fully paid for, with The Way operating it. The title to the seminary property, however, was not in the name of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary corporation, something The Way wanted done to ensure perpetual ownership of the property.

In September 2011, the Archdiocesan Finance Council was asked by Apuron to agree to the transfer, since the council’s consent was required, as well as Vatican concurrence. The council voted against the transfer; Vatican approval/concurrence was not obtained. Even the archdiocese’s own legal counsel at that time advised against the transfer.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

[with video]

April 22, 2016

Beau Donelly

Melbourne’s most secretive Jewish sect, the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel community, has opened its doors to the public for the first time.

Made up of about 200 families who live over a square kilometre block in Ripponlea, the conservative religious group honours ancient rituals dating back to biblical times and follows the strictest interpretation of the commandments in the Torah.

The men wear mink fur hats and black silk coats. Women cover their hair in public. Boys and girls are segregated from kindergarten. Arranged marriages are common. Children in some families number in the teens. During the Sabbath, they refrain from using electricity – no phones, cars, lights. They don’t own televisions. Most shun the internet. …

The documentary briefly touches on the child sex-abuse scandal that has in recent years plagued the ultra-orthodox community’s reputation.

A court last year ordered the Adass Israel Girls School in Elsternwick to pay more than $1 million to a woman abused by former principal Malka Leifer, who fled overseas with the help of school authorities after allegations against her first surfaced.

In the film, retired importer and Adass elder Shlomo Abeles defends the community’s handling of the Leifer case, saying she was removed “the second we found out about it”.

“Whatever way we got rid of her, it’s correct or not so correct, but we got her away from the kids,” he said. “We didn’t want her in the community trying to abuse any more kids.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Melissa Cunningham

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a directions hearing next week to make further orders regarding the response of Catholic Church clergy to complaints of child sexual abuse in Ballarat.

The hearing to be held in Sydney on Wednesday and comes after former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns died at the age of 85 earlier this month following a long battle with colon cancer.

Bishop Mulkearns headed the Ballarat diocese between 1971 and 1997, when Catholic clergy, including teachers, abused hundreds of children.

Many clergy sex abuse survivors believe he could have stopped much of the horrific abuse that occurred in the region. He was bishop of the Ballarat diocese for almost 30 years.

The inquiry has previously heard the bishop moved priests, including notorious paedophile Gerald Ridsdale around the diocese despite being told they had abused children, and also destroyed documents in Ridsdale’s file.

The inquiry announced on Friday no participants of the commission raised any submissions in relation to his part-heard evidence which will now be taken into account by the commission as it stands.

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INDIA
India Today

Posted by Nivedita Dash
New Delhi, April 22, 2016

An Indian priest, who pleaded guilty last year of molesting a minor in the United States, has been rehabilitated by the Vatican in a church in Tamil Nadu.

The case came to light when the complainant, an American woman named Megan Peterson, who was allegedly raped by Father Jeyapaul when she was just 14, sued the Indian Church and claimed damages.

Megan Peterson, in her complaint, said she feels “abused, degraded and re-victimized all over again.”

While the Ootacamund (Ooty) Diocese in Tamil Nadu has remained silent so far, Megan Peterson herself has spoke exclusively to India Today putting forth her terrifying tale.

“It’s a well known fact that perpetrators or sexual molesters generally don’t stop at one victim. Infact there are multiple incidents involving him during his short stay in Minnesota. So, without a doubt children are at risk of being wounded by Father Joseph Jeyapaul,” Peterson told India Today.

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ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY
La Nacion

[Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina – BishopAccountability.org]

[At least five Argentine priests accused of sexual abuse were hidden in Paraguayan territory covered by the local Catholic Church while being sought by Argentina Justice.]

Al menos cinco sacerdotes argentinos denunciados por abuso sexual estuvieron escondidos en territorio paraguayo, amparados por la Iglesia local y con una llamativa actitud del Poder Judicial, mientras eran buscados por la Justicia argentina. Hasta hace poco, uno de ellos seguía ejerciendo y otro continúa normalmente con cargos eclesiásticos.

El equipo de La Nación Investiga presenta desde hoy una serie de publicaciones que mostrarán el “sistema del silencio” de la Iglesia frente a los abusos sexuales cometidos por clérigos.

CAPITULO I: LA HISTORIA DE CARLOS IBÁÑEZ

Desde 1992, Paraguay cobijó al sacerdote argentino Carlos Ibáñez, investigado por denuncias de abuso sexual de al menos 10 jóvenes en Bell Ville, provincia de Córdoba, Argentina, a principios de los ’90. Estando suspendido por el obispado cordobés, Ibáñez igual ejerció sus funciones como sacerdote, oficiando misas, trabajando con jóvenes y paseándose por varias comunidades religiosas en nuestro país, hasta hace apenas unas semanas. Con la carta eclesial como respaldo, Ibáñez se metió de lleno al mundo académico, donde logró un status importante, pero que esconde otra trama: gran parte de los títulos que presenta son falsos.

LA HISTORIA DE CARLOS IBÁÑEZ

Corrían los años 1991 y 1992 cuando las vidas de al menos diez adolescentes argentinos cambiaron para siempre. Todos ellos eran pobladores de la tranquila ciudad de Bell Ville, un sitio anclado en la provincia de Córdoba. Por ese entonces, conocieron al sacerdote Carlos Richard Ibáñez Morino, un diocesano que llegó a la ciudad poco antes para ocuparse de la iglesia Virgen de Fátima.

Según la denuncia oficial a la que tuvo acceso el equipo de La Nación Investiga, una tarde del mes de diciembre de 1991, Tomás y Carlitos (utilizamos nombres ficticios para resguardar la identidad de los denunciantes reales) conversaban en las inmediaciones del predio del ferrocarril de Bell Ville, cuando se acercó a ellos el padre Carlos y los invitó a acompañarlo a un dispensario.

Entonces subieron al Fiat 147, color blanco –que el padre Carlos usaba para movilizarse en la ciudad– hasta llegar al lugar de destino: un consultorio llamado “Juan XXIII”, ubicado sobre la calle Echeverría Nº 102. Allí, en las habitaciones del local, ambos adolescentes tuvieron un encuentro sexual con el sacerdote. La paga para ambos fue de 550.000 australes, moneda que en ese entonces se utilizaba en Argentina.

Este relato forma parte de la denuncia presentada ante el Juzgado de Bell Ville. Si bien fue el principio, no tardarían en aparecer otros casos similares, engrosando la carpeta de denuncias en contra del sacerdote, y en la medida que transcurría el tiempo, la bomba seguiría creciendo. Para mediados de 1992, resultó imposible detener el escándalo y estalló ante la conservadora sociedad de esta ciudad cordobesa, con un total de 10 denunciantes, todos por abuso sexual contra el cura Ibáñez. Cuando la Justicia local intervino, ya era tarde. Gracias a algunas ayudas extras que habrían surgido desde el seno de la Iglesia, Carlos Ibáñez pudo huir de Bell Ville y se refugió en otro país: Paraguay. Aquí llegó a oficiar misas, casamientos, bautismos y se hizo docente de varias universidades.

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NEW YORK
Road to Recovery

JESUITS OF THE NORTHEAST PROVINCE ARE RE-VICTIMIZING A CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM

Jesuits of the Northeast Province are insensitive and re-victimizing Neal E. Gumpel, a childhood clergy sexual abuse victim of Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, a deceased, serial, pedophile Jesuit priest

Jesuits admit to having credible information from approximately five (5) persons (besides the victim) about Neal E. Gumpel’s childhood sexual abuse by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ and still refuse to settle Neal E. Gumpel’s claim reasonably

Jesuits have refused to reasonably settle the childhood sexual abuse claim of Neal E. Gumpel

What
A demonstration and leafleting alerting the media, parishioners of a Jesuit-sponsored parish, and the general public that the Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), has insulted and re-victimized a childhood sexual abuse victim of a Jesuit priest by refusing to settle his claim reasonably. The Jesuits have already settled at least one public claim against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ.

When
Friday, April 22, 2016 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm

Where
On the public sidewalk outside the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue (between East 83rd and East 84th Streets), New York, NY 10028 – 212-288-3588

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its Co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
The Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) knows that Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, was a serial molester of minor boys. The Province settled at least one public claim against Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, in the past. Neal E. Gumpel’s credible factual account of having been sexually abused as a minor child by Fr. Roy Alan Drake, SJ, at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, when Fr. Roy Alan Drake was a professor and Jesuit priest at Maine Maritime Academy, was credibly supported by approximately five (5) individuals, in addition to Neal E. Gumpel. Now, the Northeast Province of the Jesuits, which has found that Neal E. Gumpel’s claim is credible, has insulted and re-victimized Neal E. Gumpel by refusing to reasonably settle his claim. Demonstrators will ask parishioners and the general public to voice their outrage to the Jesuits of their parish and the Northeast Province (whose headquarters are around the corner on East 83rd Street) and demand of the Northeast Jesuit leadership that they treat Neal E. Gumpel with compassion, fairness, and justice.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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CAMBODIA
Cambodia Daily

BY BEN SOKHEAN AND ALEX WILLEMYNS | APRIL 22, 2016 | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

The chief monk of Kompong Speu province last month became the latest senior clergy member to be faced with a sex abuse case in his jurisdiction, with one of his monks jailed for attempting to rape a 9-year-old girl.

Coming little more than a year after an ex-monk shot dead his former pagoda chief just a few kilometers away from the pagoda now at the center of the sex abuse allegations, it was a sign that a severe moral sickness was going untreated among the clergymen provincial chief monk Dou Vandoeun had been tasked with managing.

The monk chief took no responsibility for the case, dismissing the attempted rape as an aberration, a crime committed by a “bad” monk, and he was neither disciplined nor told by his superiors to bring his monks in line.

Yet the same kid-glove treatment was not afforded to Dou Vandoeun on Thursday, with religious authorities deciding to strip him of his position for singing on stage at a post-Khmer New Year concert at his pagoda on Sunday night.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Recommended: New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein’s “Times Insider” report today on why the sex abuse story in the Catholic church remains a story. Be sure to listen to the podcast discussion between Goodstein and Susan Lehman about Goodstein’s report.

As Goodstein explains both in the podcast and in her written report, one of the most significant revelations from the Pennsylvania grand jury report regarding the horrific, long-covered-up abuse in the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown is that blatant, prevalent abuse of minors by clerics in this diocese was covered up for such a very long time because “there is a web of corruption that goes well beyond the church.” The grand jury has found that there was longstanding collusion between public officials, police, district attorneys, and church officials to cover up abuse of minors by Catholic clerics. As Goodstein notes, this is a new wrinkle in the story of the abuse crisis in American Catholicism.

As she also notes, the Pennsylvania findings suggest that the story of sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the Catholic church in the U.S. remains a story because these findings have “elevated the story once again.” As with any revelations of abuse by pastoral officials, these have encouraged more people who had remained silent to come forth. In her podcast discussion with Lehman, Goodstein says that anytime she writes a story about abuse in the Catholic church in the U.S., she receives a spate of communications from abuse survivors who are encouraged by the report to speak out.

She writes,

Pennsylvania shows how the sexual abuse story in the Catholic Church has evolved. The reporting now is often about accountability: Are bishops abiding by the reforms they agreed to in 2002, in response to the eruption of cases set off by the scandal in Boston? The American bishops agreed to report allegations to the authorities and to remove all credibly accused priests from ministry. They agreed to establish prevention programs in parishes and schools, teach children and adults about warning signs, and conduct background checks on employees.
Have they? The biggest church abuse-related stories in the United States in very recent years have been about bishops in Kansas City, Missouri and Minnesota who failed and eventually lost their positions.

And speaking of Minnesota: the story of Father Joseph Jeyapaul, who was convicted last year of sexually molesting a teenaged girl in the diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, is back in the news. I’ve commented on this story previously — here, here, here, and here. As I’ve noted, my husband Steve and I have followed this story with concern because he grew up in the Crookston diocese and has close family ties to the parish in which Jeyapaul raped Megan Peterson when she was 14 years old. As Jean Hopfensperger notes for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, another girl identified as Jane Doe 121 also filed a criminal complaint against the diocese in 2008, alleging that Jeyapaul raped her when she was 16.

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MINNESOTA/INDIA
Wall Street Journal

By KENAN MACHADO
Apr 22, 2016

A Roman Catholic diocese in southern India said Thursday it consulted with the Vatican before reinstating a priest who pleaded guilty last year to the sexual abuse of a minor in the U.S.

The suspension of the priest, Father Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 61 years old, was lifted by Bishop Amalraj Arulappan from the Diocese of Ootacamund in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, earlier this year, Father Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the diocese said.

Father Jeyapaul was deputed to serve in the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota in the U.S. in 2004. He returned to India in September 2005 and two years later, criminal charges were filed against him in the U.S. accusing him of sexually abusing a girl between 2004 and 2005. Father Jeyapaul was suspended from the Indian diocese in 2010.

He was arrested in India in March 2012 and extradited to the U.S. where he was held jail in Roseau, MN. In May 2015, he pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct, according to court documents.

He was released from jail, after having been jailed for three years and four months, and was deported from the U.S. in July 2015.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

GLORIA GALLOWAY AND SEAN FINE
OTTAWA and TORONTO — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Apr. 21, 2016

The Canadian government released Catholic groups from an obligation to try to raise $25-million for aboriginal healing so that it could hold the groups to other promises they made in the historic 2007 residential schools agreement, a draft of their agreement reveals.

In return for paying $1.2-million for healing programs, the 50 Catholic entities wanted to be released from any and all of their obligations under the residential schools settlement agreement, government officials told The Globe and Mail. Those include being required to disclose documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated what went on at the schools, participating in compensation hearings and taking part in planned reconciliation events, said the officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity.

Under the final deal struck in October, however, the Catholic groups agreed to continue with all but the financial obligations, the officials said.

Although the Liberals refuse to disclose the final agreement, a draft copy was given to The Globe by Archbishop Gérard Pettipas of Grouard-McLennan in Grande Prairie, Alta. The draft was undated and unsigned.

The government confirmed the document sent by Archbishop Pettipas was a draft of a final agreement signed on Oct. 30, but refuses to say how close it is to what was eventually signed.

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NEW JERSEY
Jewish Standard

BY JOANNE PALMER April 21, 2016

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck is no stranger to controversy.

A lawyer and the rabbi of the biggest, oldest, and arguably the most prominent Orthodox synagogue in town, Rabbi Pruzansky has strong views, which he often lays out strongly and at some length in his blog, rabbipruzansky.com.

Over the years, Rabbi Pruzansky has angered many people — and made many friends — with harshly worded attacks on Yitzhak Rabin, soon before he was murdered; on President Obama’s re-election, which he blamed on stupid greedy people wanting “free stuff”; on the Jewish Week, which he compared to the Nazi propaganda rag Der Sturmer (although later he said the comparison of course was purposely ludicrous), and on Israeli Arabs, for whom he advocated severe mass punishment, possibly including deportation. Earlier this year, dismissing Hillary Clinton as a “liar, a crook, an active participant in the largest pay-for-play scheme in the history of mankind…,” he also called her “an awful speaker, shrill when she tries to be passionate…” Instead, he endorsed Donald Trump.

In that endorsement, on March 17, he touched on a theme that has resurfaced in the last few weeks — the theme of victimhood, which he sees as an occasionally improperly assumed mantle. “People have had enough of the moral posturing of the faux victim, which has resulted in nothing less than in the increase of the numbers of faux victims and even the possible causes of victimhood,” he wrote in that March post. “People are tired of having to whisper the truth because murderers, evildoers, or sinners will have their feelings hurt by it, even unintentionally.”

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ISRAEL
Al-Monitor

Rape and sexual harassment have preoccupied the Israeli public over the last year. A post by a female journalist who had been working with Knesset member Yinon Magal accusing him of sexual harassment eventually led to his resignation from the Knesset. Former Minister and Knesset member Silvan Shalom also resigned following sexual harassment allegations by a series of women. Actor Moshe Ivgy has also been paying dearly career-wise in recent months for alleged sexual harassment.

For quite some time now, complaining to the legal authorities has seemed to no longer be a necessary step in the public investigation of such matters. The complaints traditionally filed with the police are now often replaced by social media posts. One apt example is the Facebook page One Out of One, to which testimonies by women who have been sexually harassed are posted.

For the past 13 years, the Takana Forum has been operating quite discreetly in the national-religious community. “Takana” means both a rule and a remedy, and the forum addresses complaints against authority figures wielding power in the religious sector — spiritual leaders, influential officials or educators.

The forum typically appoints three or four of its members to handle reported harassment complaints. In each case, a panel of forum members hears the accused’s side as well as the accuser’s, and decides if and what sanctions to impose.

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PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

The state House of Representatives — spurred by the litany of horrors contained in the state grand jury report on child sex abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown — with overwhelming support advanced legislation that would allow victims of such abuse to reach deep into the past to seek civil damages for harm they suffered.

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FLORIDA
Daily Mail (UK)

By MARTIN GOULD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

An unholy war over claims of pedophilia and graft in the nation’s fifth largest Christian church has taken a vicious new turn with the main accuser publicly naming a man who, he claims, was molested by the church’s top bishop.

The new allegation from Florida Pastor Earl Carter was angrily denied by the alleged victim himself as well as his parents and the hierarchy of the 6-million-strong Church of God in Christ, including its top man Bishop Charles Blake.

‘It hurts,’ Sidney Lassiter III — who admits he was molested as a child, but not by Blake — told Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.

‘I have been trying to put the horrible thing that happened behind me for years. I repressed my memories for a long time and now it has all been made public.

‘All I want is to heal and for my family to heal and now this comes up. It’s like picking at a scab.’
Lassiter, 32, a church minister in Richmond, Virginia, told Daily Mail Online a now-dead worker in the Church of God in Christ — known by the acronym COGIC — molested him when he was 12 or 13. He has been through therapy for years to cope with the incident.

His father, Sidney Lassiter Sr., a COGIC elder from Suffolk, Virginia, mentioned in passing that a member of his family had been molested as a child during a conversation with a friend, Denise Hall. She allegedly reported that to Carter, who then claimed online that Bishop Blake was the molester.

‘Earl Carter needs to get his facts straight,’ Lassiter told Daily Mail Online. ‘I hate to say this because I was always taught to respect my elders, but this man is just ignorant.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

BY JAMIE MCKINNELLAAPAPRIL 22, 2016

The bishop of Rockhampton has restated an apology to the victims of abuse at a notorious Queensland orphanage after a royal commission found inadequate training of staff contributed to their pain.

A report by the sex abuse royal commission was released on Thursday after last year examining the St Joseph’s Orphanage Neerkol, near Rockhampton, which was operated by the Sisters of Mercy between 1940 and 1975.

The commissioners found punishments administered by nuns and other staff were “cruel and excessive” and contravened regulations.

The state government had also failed to supervise and protect the children because it didn’t properly train inspectors or provide adequate scrutiny of the orphanage.

The commission accepted Sister Berneice Loch, who became the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of Mercy in 1991, and retired Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan, didn’t receive training in how to detect and respond to complaints.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

Protesters were chanting and yelling, “Gennarini Go Home!”

Guam – An angry mob of protesters hounding the leader of the neocatechumenal way in the us, Guiseppe Gennarini last night at the AB Won Pat International Airport.

The protesters, yelling in Gennarini’s face, say they’ve had enough and they won’t back down to someone they believe is trying to overthrow their beliefs.

It was a riotous scene of angry mobsters made up of mostly Catholic man’ amko last night. At first just a few dozen showed up with signs. Just outside the arrival gate at the airport, the protesters were chanting and singing.

But as soon as Gennarini and his followers walked out the double doors, it turned into violent screams. Some were even yelling words like, “Satan go home! You’re satan!”

But not a word from the rattled and unwelcomed visitors. Gennarini, who’s responsible for spreading the neocatechumenal way in the United States and now Guam, is being blamed for causing the division within the Catholic Church on Guam.

Many Catholics accuse him of manipulating Archbishop Anthony Apuron into giving away the disputed Redemptoris Mater Seminary to the Gennarinis for the purpose of perpetuating their teachings—teachings that go against the traditions of the local church.

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FRANCE
La Croix

[Alain Christnacht has been asked to advise French bishops on sexual abuse. He will chair the national commission of independent experts in assessing situations where priest have committed sexual abuse.]

Nicolas Senèze (avec Gauthier Vaillant)

Ce haut fonctionnaire a été nommé pour présider la commission nationale d’expertise indépendante pour conseiller les évêques dans l’évaluation des situations de prêtres ayant commis des abus sexuels.

Son passage au cabinet de Christiane Taubira gêne une partie des catholiques.

Avec Alain Christnacht, c’est à un habitué des missions difficiles que les évêques de France viennent de confier la commission nationale d’expertise indépendante annoncée la semaine dernière pour les conseiller dans l’évaluation des situations de prêtres ayant commis des abus sexuels.

Et des missions délicates, ce grand serviteur de l’État en a mené de nombreuses. En Nouvelle-Calédonie notamment, où il été un des artisans des accords de Matignon (1988) mettant un terme aux affrontements sur le territoire où il est nommé haut-commissaire en 1991.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By FORUM NEWS SERVICE
April 21, 2016

BAGLEY, Minn. — A Clearwater County pastor was found guilty by a jury Wednesday of 13 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two male juveniles.

Scott Morey, 43, of Shevlin was arrested in January 2015 and charged with multiple counts of felony criminal sexual conduct for acts that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2014.

Morey was a pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Winger, Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bejou and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in McIntosh. Morey resigned as a pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America churches in December 2014 during the investigation.

Morey was convicted on seven counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree, according to a release from the Clearwater County attorney’s office. Morey was acquitted on one count of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

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INDIANA
Fox 59

APRIL 22, 2016, BY KYLE HICKS – DIGITAL PRODUCER

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (April 21, 2016) – Leaders of an Indianapolis church have responded to claims that they failed to report a sexual abuse.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, claims leaders of the Southport Presbyterian Church knew about an incident involving two of its members and did not take appropriate action.

Church leaders say they were not involved in the incident, other than trying to provide help and ensure the victim and families involved were supported.

The church says the incident occurred between two teenagers at a mutual friend’s house in a private gathering that included several youth. And the only connection to the church is that both individuals go there.

Church officials say they were informed of the incident several days afterward by an individual who heard about it from someone other than the victim.

Church officials say they talked to the individuals involved and offered support.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Sherwood Park News

By Ben Proulx, Sherwood Park News
Thursday, April 21, 2016

A priest withdrawn from duty and sent back to India — after an RCMP investigation that netted no charges — was being investigated for allegations of undisclosed abuse, the Archdiocese of Edmonton has confirmed.

Parishioners at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Fort Saskatchewan, just north of Strathcona County, were told on March 19 that Father Ashok Mascarenhas — who had been with the church since 2013 — has been withdrawn from service at the church, after complaints spurred an RCMP investigation.

“The Archdiocese of Edmonton was informed this week by the Fort Saskatchewan RCMP that their investigation into complaints made against Fr. Ashok Mascarenhas has concluded, and that no criminal charges will be laid,” reads the letter to parishioners, sent by Lorraine Turchansky, director of communications and public relations of the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton.

“Nevertheless, the Archbishop has determined that there was not full adherence to the code of ministerial conduct expected of all ministers of the Gospel.

“For this reason, the decision to remove Fr. Ashok from priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of Edmonton remains in effect. He has returned to his native India, where he is under the care of his religious community.”

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MISSOURI
KSHB

[with video]

41 Action News Staff , Cynthia Newsome
Apr 21, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City man who was employed at an area church has been charged with child sexual abuse.

James Burton was charged with two counts of statutory sodomy, one count of child molestation and attempted sexual misconduct, according to court documents.

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said in a statement the alleged abuse did not occur on any diocesan property and the victim is not a student at any diocesan school.

Burton is employed as a maintenance supervisor at St. Peter Parish in Kansas City. On Friday, April 8, the diocese was alerted to an allegation of abuse against Burton. It was confirmed that there were ongoing investigations pending with the Missouri Children’s Division and law enforcement. The diocese said Burton was immediately placed on administrative leave from St. Peter Parish. The diocese said to maintain the integrity of the ongoing police investigation, neither Burton nor the parish community was made aware of the reason for his leave at that time.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Frank Brennan | 21 April 2016

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has now published its Case Study 26 on the Neerkol Orphanage in Rockhampton.

The Commission finds that the response by the bishop and by the Sisters of Mercy to victims making complaints prior to 1996 was often inadequate and lacking in compassion. It also makes a damning finding that the bishop was dishonest in a letter he sent to the diocese.

I still have a problem with this commission making findings on issues like the want of compassion. When it reported on the Ellis Case, I said the royal commission (being appointed by the state rather than the church) had no business finding that Cardinal Pell ‘did not act fairly from a Christian point of view’. I thought they should simply have found that the Cardinal did not act fairly. Similarly I wonder about the competence, utility and power of a royal commission to make findings on compassion. Sure, the Christian churches espouse compassion as a Christian virtue, but I don’t see that it is something usefully to be assessed or mandated by a royal commission. To find how compelling the commissioners’ findings on compassion were, I would first want to know how compassionate each of them is, and that’s basically none of my business. They are royal commissioners performing a legal task for the state. Would the commission make findings that other institutions (like Swimming Australia or the State Department of Child Welfare) did not act compassionately?

The word ‘compassion’ or ‘compassionate’ appears 21 times in this case study report. I have no problem with church people or other individuals adversely judging church leaders for a lack of compassion. There may even be a case for politicians doing it, and then arguing the toss on whether they are more compassionate than the people they are criticising. But I don’t think it’s the job of a royal commission. If it is the job of the royal commission, why do they stop at compassion? Why not also offer judgments about whether the responses are loving, merciful and self-sacrificing? I think by over-reaching itself in this way, the commission actually blunts its findings about the adequacy of responses, including compliance with protocols and sensitivity to the needs of victims. The issue is not whether church leaders measured up to the ideals of the Christian virtue of compassion but whether they measured up to the standards properly expected by the Australian community, regardless of people’s religious commitments and views. You would hope that church leaders would do more to assist victims than merely to comply with community standards. To date, the commission has unearthed countless instances where the church leaders have not even complied with those community standards. But I am uneasy about a royal commission making assessments about virtue which go beyond the laws and protocols which might be set down for all institutions and for all individuals.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Clinton Herald

PRINCETON, W. Va. — As rows of victims and their family members watched in stoic silence, a former church volunteer quietly uttered the word “guilty” when asked how he was pleading to a myriad of child sexual abuse charges.

Timothy Probert, 57, of Princeton, pleaded guilty Monday morning to 37 charges related to the sexual abuse of teen boys while he served as an elder and youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bluefield, West Virginia and as a mentor for a program working to eliminate child abuse.

Probert’s plea brought an end to a more than two-year legal struggle that roiled a small city near the Virginia border and saw three judges recuse themselves from the case due to conflicts of interest.

Probert entered the plea before retired Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers, who was assigned to the case in 2015 after Mercer County Circuit Court judges Omar Aboulhosn, Derek Swope and William “Bill” Sadler recused themselves. According to the Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph, all three judges signed a letter to the West Virginia Supreme Court citing conflicts of interest. Steve Canterbury, administrative director for the high court, told the Daily Telegraph there were no additional details as to the specific conflicts of interest.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER APRIL 21, 2016

If anyone needed more evidence of just how cynical the U.S. Catholic bishops’ manipulation of the principle of “religious freedom” is, look no further than last week’s dismissal of Tony Spence, the editor in chief of Catholic News Service, for tweeting his opposition to bills that would codify LGBT discrimination.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops built its “religious liberty” campaign, which was largely responsible for creating the broad, corrupted definition of religious liberty that has resulted in a wave of anti-LGBT bills across the country, around the idea that religious liberty is the “first, most cherished liberty”—and that to deny it is a violation of core American values:

Freedom is not only for Americans, but we think of it as something of our special inheritance, fought for at a great price, and a heritage to be guarded now. We are stewards of this gift, not only for ourselves but for all nations and peoples who yearn to be free. Catholics in America have discharged this duty of guarding freedom admirably for many generations.

Even as the Catholic hierarchy bewails the lack of respect for “religious freedom,” they demanded that Spence resign for daring to publicly oppose anti-LGBT legislation that the bishops back under the “religious freedom” rubric.

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INDIA
Bangalore Mirror

By Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Apr 22, 2016

On the complaint of a 10-year-old boy’s parents, the Vittal police of Dakshina Kannada district booked a priest for beating the child during a catechism class.

Speaking of the incident to Bangalore Mirror, Childline (Padi) director Renny D’Souza said the priest identified as Andrew D’Costa attached to the Lady of Fathima Church in Peruvai is accused of beating up the child. “The incident reportedly took place on April 15, and it was brought to our notice on April 18,” he said.

Before their first Holy Communion, a child is made to learn a lot of prayers. This child was reportedly slow in learning the prayers, which infuriated the priest, resulting in him beating the boy. The parents brought the issue to Childline.

A team from Childline visited the boy’s house, examined his bruises and recorded statements of the boy as well as his parents. The team also tried to meet the priest, but could not as he was not available. Childline will submit a report of the incident to the district child protection officer on Friday, it said.

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INDIA
The Times of India

Mangaluru: A Catholic church priest was charged with assaulting a boy after he failed to answer questions on the Bible, during his first communion catechism class in Our Lady of Fatima Church, Mangaluru. Police said the priest is absconding.

The incident occurred on April 12 and the case registered on April 18. The parents of the 12-year-old boy said parish priest Andrew D’Costa got furious with the victim during the first communion catechism as he failed to answer some Bible-related questions. Later, he beat him black and blue with a stick.

After the boy narrated the incident to his parents, who are from a poor economic background, they filed a case against the priest. Police said the priest was booked under the Juvenile Justice Act and IPC 324.

Rev Fr William Menezes, public relations officer, Mangaluru Diocese, told TOI the accused priest confessed he had reprimanded the boy, but denied manhandling him.

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NEW YORK
Syracuse.com

By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Federal investigators have discovered 10 photos of a naked student at a local elementary school on the cell phone of an accused child pornographer, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The photos show the child sitting on the toilet and standing naked in a bathroom at All Saints Elementary School in Syracuse, the sources said.

FBI agents have not found photos of any other All Saints students, the sources said.

The pictures were found on the phone of Emily Oberst, an aide at the school and daycare center, the sources said. Oberst was one of two people charged last month with sexually exploiting three children for the purpose of producing child pornography.

The photos of the All Saints student were among the pictures Oberst sent to Jason Kopp, the sources said.

Oberst and Kopp were indicted on charges of sexually exploiting three children to make child pornography. The All Saints student was one of those three victims, the sources said.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Josh Nathan-KazisApril 20, 2016

In Boro Park, Brooklyn, there are two police forces.

One drives cars with flashing lights, is dispatched over walkie-talkies, and has a blue-and-black shield for a logo.

The other is the New York City Police Department.

The Shomrim security patrol, as the local civilian force is known, is in part a pastime for traditionally observant Jewish men who like dressing up as cops, and in part a dead-serious police force that’s accrued immense power in this insular, Yiddish-speaking Brooklyn neighborhood.

The group’s 100-plus members rush through Boro Park streets in black SUV’s and police-style cruisers, responding to emergencies reported to their private emergency hotline. In one 2010 incident, they beat a man bloody before cops arrived. When the police do show up, Shomrim snap pictures as police arrest the suspects the Shomrim have, at times, already detained.

Now, a sprawling FBI investigation into corrupt relationships between Orthodox activists and the NYPD is drawing new attention to longstanding concerns about the group’s influence in the neighborhood, and its unusually close ties to the NYPD’s 66th Precinct in Boro Park.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson and Associates

To Reveal Truth, Abuse Survivor Releases Investigative Report to the Public

Investigative Report

(New York, NY) – Longtime teacher, coach and athletic director, Louis Tambini, abused girls at a prominent Jesuit, Catholic School in New York City. The yearlong investigation conducted by lawyers and school officials concluded with a report confirming both the reports of abuse and a lack of response by church and school officials.

The Report Findings:
* Investigation was sparked by a social media post on school Facebook page.
* Church and School officials protected Tambini for years before law enforcement was notified.
* Victims are barred from seeking justice in court because Statute of Limitations may prevent them.
* Tambini was quietly allowed to leave the school.

“The recent revelations memorialized in this report help us all to understand the gravity and urgency of the child protection movement,” according to New York City, Attorney Mike Reck of Jeff Anderson Associates. “Through the power of social media, one brave survivor of Tambini’s acts has sparked an investigation that shines a light on these dark acts. The mission of this survivor is shared by us advocates to ensure that a measure of justice is imposed on those responsible for the past and that children of the future are protected.”

One of the survivors interviewed by the investigators has chosen to release this report publically so that others will know they are not alone and in the hope that transparency will aid in the healing.

Contact: J. Michael Reck: Office: 646.649.4960 Cell: 714.742.6593
Jeff Anderson: Office: 651.927.7872 Cell: 612.817.8665

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 21, 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)

At least seven youngsters were sexually abused at a Jesuit school in New York, and Catholic officials have been keeping it secret for a year, according to a report being released today by a victim. We applaud that victim’s courage.

[Jeff Anderson and Associates]

http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/2102/7-Victims-Claim-Sexual-Abuse-at-Loyola-School-in-NYC.aspx

Cardinal Timothy Dolan should denounce and discipline Jesuit officials for their reckless and callous secrecy. He should use pulpit announcements, church bulletins and parish websites to warn others about Louis Tambini. He should insist that Jesuits do a thorough mailing to all current and former Loyola students, staff and alum, accurately describing the wrongdoing by those who committed and conceal this abuse and begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police.

The Jesuits should do all of this and more. But ultimately a bishop is responsible for the safety of his flock and for the actions of religious order clerics he allows to work in his diocese. So Dolan can’t duck, dodge and deny here. He must take clear, strong, public steps to expose wrongdoers, warn parents, protect kids and help victims.

No matter what 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 – especially in New York City – 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.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 21, 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)

The so-called “investigation” into abuse at a Catholic school is an arrogant sham designed for “damage control.” Shame on the Jesuits for hiring more lawyers instead of just telling the truth and contacting law enforcement.

The “report” shows that for at least a decade – and maybe three decades – Catholic officials hid abuse reports against Louis Tambini, a popular teacher and coach.

The private lawyers hired by the Jesuits arrogantly claim none of the wrongdoing they found could be prosecuted. That’s immoral and irrelevant. It’s the duty of every adult to tell police about known or suspected child sex crimes and cover ups. It’s law enforcement’s job – not the job of church-hired private lawyers – to decide whether any adult who committed or concealed child sex crimes can be prosecuted.

These “hired guns” echo the disingenuous excuse Catholic officials often spout – the claim that “societal understanding” of abuse in “that era” is a reason no one called the cops. That’s bogus. In the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, these highly educated Jesuits and their boatloads of expensive lawyers and public relations staffers all knew that raping or fondling or sodomizing a kid was illegal and should immediately prompt a call to police. But they chose to protect their own comfort, convenience and careers instead of protecting kids and helping victims.

This report is more proof that even now, Catholic officials work very hard – and usually with success – to keep child sex crimes and cover ups covered up. That’s one reason why New York’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations must be reformed and why every person who saw, suspected or suffered abuse and cover up should call secular authorities, not church officials.

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MINNESOTA
Advocate Tribune

Following the release of the names of 16 credibly accused New Ulm Diocese priests of sexual abuse on March 29, a joint press release dated April 15 from the New Ulm Diocese and law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates names an additional three priests credibly accused of sexual abuse––and yet another, Fr. Bernard Steiner, served amidst local parishes.

By Scott Tedrick
News Editor

Posted Apr. 21, 2016

Following the release of the names of 16 credibly accused New Ulm Diocese priests of sexual abuse on March 29, a joint press release dated April 15 from the New Ulm Diocese and law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates names an additional three priests credibly accused of sexual abuse––and yet another, Fr. Bernard Steiner, served amidst local parishes.

According to the release, Fr. Steiner was ordained in February 1961, for the Diocese of New Ulm. He served as pastor of St. James, Dawson and the mission of St. Isidore, Clarkfield from 1965-1969 and from 1981 – 1982 as an Administrator St. Andrews in Granite Falls. Additionally, he was pastor of St. James and Dawson from 1978-1981; St. Clara, Clara City from 1982-1987; and was Administrator at the Sacred Heart and Raymond parishes from 1982 to 1987,
According to the release, the credible case of abuse occurred at the Church of St. Paul in Comfrey, Minnesota in the 1970s. Steiner retired from assigned ministry in 2005.

With the Steiner revelation, 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.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 21, 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)

A spokesperson for the Austin-based Whole Foods Market claims the company’s CEO John Mackey is “no longer serves on Mr. Marc Gafni’s board and has no connection to (his) San Francisco-based Center for Integral Wisdom.”

Gafni, a former rabbi, has generated controversy by admitting to sexually abusing a youngster and essentially blaming her by saying “She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her.”

[New York Times]

We hope it’s true that Mackey’s distancing himself from Gafni. If so, however, we disagree with the public relations staffer who claims “there’s nothing else to say on this matter.”

NOTE – The comments made in an email yesterday, Wednesday, April 20, to San Francisco activist Nancy Levine from Whole Foods public relations staffer Robin Rehfield Kelly – Robin.Rehfieldkelly@wholefoods.com.

Mackey should apologize for his callousness and publicly announce his resignation from the board. He should also remove the link to Gafni’s CIW site on his Whole Foods blog.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
4.21.2016

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In a continuing effort to protect children, the Catholic Church’s focus is now turning to religious orders of men and women.

Much of the attention had been on how dioceses and national bishops’ conferences have been responding to victims and protecting children.

But, religious orders and congregations are sometimes left out of that picture, even though they, too, have a duty to make sure every person in their care is safe. Also, the majority of the more than 300,000 Catholic schools and orphanages around the world are run by religious brothers and sisters whose charisms are to promote human dignity and Gospel values.

Pope Francis last year authorized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate and judge claims of “abuse of office” by bishops who allegedly failed to protect minors and vulnerable adults from sex abuse. But that form of censure “wasn’t extended to superior generals, and it should be,” said Father John Fogarty, superior general of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

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CANADA/UNITED STATES
Jewish Community Watch

Canadian citizen Chisdai Ben-Porat pleaded guilty to indecent assault without the consent of others (18 Pa. C.S. § 3126) in 2014. His passport was taken from him and he was escorted to the Canadian border by U.S. Immigration upon his release. He was required to register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania under Megan’s Law and undergo a sex offender evaluation and treatments. Since moving back to Canada, authorities have been unable to locate him. He was last known to be in Montreal.

A civil lawsuit is being filed in conjunction with the child sexual abuse conviction. Until he is found, the victim’s family is unable to bring the lawsuit. If you see him, please contact JCW by phone at (718) 841-7056 or by email at info@jewishcommunitywatch.org

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UNITED STATES
Baptist News

BOB ALLEN | APRIL 21, 2016

Child abuse isn’t just a Catholic problem, it’s also a Calvinist problem, according to an April 20 podcast sympathetic to the so-called “young, restless and reformed” movement popular among evangelicals belonging to denominations including the Southern Baptist Convention.

Mortification of Spin, a weekly podcast from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals — a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen seeking to recover and promote biblical doctrines central to the Protestant Reformation — this week examined highly publicized scandals involving celebrity preachers accused of turning a blind eye at the expense of victims of child sexual abuse.

While they don’t say so explicitly, the program’s three cohosts appear to have in mind last week’s appearance at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Ky., by C.J. Mahaney, a T4G founder who for years has faced unanswered allegations of mishandling abuse as a pastor and ministry leader in a lawsuit thrown out of court on a legal technicality.

“When we’re dealing with pastors and elders, we’re not dealing with legal burden of proof,” Carl Trueman, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary said, referring to a qualification in 1 Timothy 3:7 that an overseer “must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil.”

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VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service

By Rosie Scammell

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has put a stop to the work of international auditors just months after they were hired to review the city-state’s bookkeeping — a move said to have surprised Pope Francis’ handpicked financial czar, Cardinal George Pell.

The suspension earlier this month of the audit, well underway by the global firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, was also viewed as threatening the pope’s broader efforts to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances.

Italian Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a top official in the Secretariat of State, announced the move in an internal Vatican letter dated April 12. In the note, Becciu said that previous orders by Pell to cooperate with PwC had been revoked by “superior provision,” according to the Catholic news site Crux.

The decision came just four months after PwC was appointed to review the financial statements at the heart of the Catholic Church. That moved followed years of scandals and misfeasance and the disclosure by the Vatican that 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in assets had not been declared by its various departments.

The Vatican did not provide further details about why the audit was suspended. Chief spokesman Federico Lombardi told RNS on Thursday (April 21) that an analysis was underway of “some aspects of the agreement” with PwC. The firm said it would not be able to comment on a client.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Thursday 21 April 2016

The Vatican has suspended its first audit by a major accounting firm in a move that raises new questions about the Catholic church’s commitment to cleaning up its finances. The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers had been halted pending an analysis of “certain aspects” of the auditing arrangement.

The surprise decision has exposed a deep rift between the church’s old guard – a powerful Italian bureaucracy resistant to greater transparency – and supporters of financial reform, led by the Australian cardinal George Pell. Pell, a controversial senior figure, was handpicked by Pope Francis to lead the drive for reform.

The Holy See’s finances have long been seen as a mystery, with Pell himself acknowledging in 2014 that “hundreds of millions of euros” had been discovered “tucked away” and off the city-state’s balance sheets.

In 2014, when Pell was chosen to become secretariat of the economy, a new role, Francis endorsed a plan for the Vatican to adopt globally accepted accounting standards and better internal controls, transparency and governance of the church’s vast finances. That included a decision to allow “senior and experienced experts” in financial administration to help manage and oversee the church’s finances.

But what was then seen as the first major structural reform of Francis’s papacy is facing stiff headwinds, despite a recent spate of embarrassing revelations about the alleged mismanagement of church funds by senior officials, including claims in two recent books that describe lavish living arrangements for senior clergy members in Rome.

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VATICAN CITY
Irish Times

Paddy Agnew in Rome

An external audit of Vatican finances being carried out by global firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has been suspended by the Holy See.

The move raises further questions about whether Pope Francis continues to encounter internal resistance in carrying out reforms of the Vatican’s often haphazard and chaotic administration.
Since his election in 2013 the pope has made cleaning up the Holy See’s finances one of the key elements of his reform process.

To that end, he created two new bodies in 2014, the Secretariat for the Economy and the Council for the Economy, which were to exercise “oversight for the administrative and financial structures” of the Holy See and the Vatican City state.

It now seems that the Secretariat for the Economy, which is headed up by Australian cardinal George Pell, is on a collision course with the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, the traditional engine at the heart of Holy See administration.

This week, two senior figures at the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, wrote to all Vatican entities to tell them that the ongoing audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers had been “suspended immediately”.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Times

CB Condez
21 APRIL, 2016

A survivor of sexual abuse is going to take legal action against a diocese in India for reinstating the priest that sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.

According to New York Daily News, Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson, the legal counsel of abuse victim Megan Peterson, will be filing a case against the Diocese of Ootacamund. Peterson believes that letting the offender, Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, go back to priesthood is akin to giving him the green light to prey on children once more.

“We hope Catholics in Minnesota, India and elsewhere bombard their bishops with calls and emails until this irresponsible move is reversed,” said David Clohessy, director of advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “This may well be the worst case of callous and reckless actions by Catholic officials we’ve seen in 15 years.”

The now 26-year-old Peterson, who is a member of SNAP, was a choir member and altar server at a church in Minnesota during her early teenage years. At 14, she was sexually violated by Jeyapaul in his parish office, and continued to abuse her in the following months. The priest, according to the report, even went so far as to blame his victim and made her confess for making him “impure.” The school counselor and law enforcement officials were subsequently informed and, in 2010, he was charged for assaulting not only Patterson but also another girl. He fled to India but was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in 2012. A plea deal was reached and charges filed by Patterson were dropped.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today

Harry Farley JUNIOR STAFF WRITER 21 April 2016

A victim of clergy sex abuse will not cooperate with a Church review because “bullying and silencing” were not in the terms of reference.

Peter Ball was jailed for 32 months after he was found to have abused his position as the Bishop of Lewes in southern England.

Rev Graham Sawyer announced his decision in a letter to Dame Moira Gibb, who chairs an independent review of how the Church of England handled allegations made against Peter Ball, former Bishop of Lewes.

Ball, now 84, was jailed in October for abuses against teenagers and young men in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Sawyer, who waived his right to anonymity before Ball’s trial, said he objected because his alleged treatment by current senior Church officials would not be covered in the inquiry.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

April 21, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Finally there is some good news.

A reauthorization bill in the US Senate has a new provision that extends the federal civil rights of victims of child sex crimes, including child sexual abuse and child pornography.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to reauthorize the Adam Walsh Act, a federal program enacted in 2006 that required states to classify sex offenders according to their crimes. The act also required states to implement a registration mechanism to monitor and control offenders’ whereabouts after (or in lieu of) jail time.

But the new provision added by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and supported by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) goes a step further in protecting the civil rights of victims by allowing them to use the courts to expose their abuse.

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MISSOURI
Lake News

By LAKE SUN
newsroom@lakesunonline.com

Posted Apr. 21, 2016

Laclede County

The outcome of a trial for a pastor accused of sex crimes involving teenagers took a last-minute turn when he pleaded guilty to the charges while the jury was deliberating following a two day trial in Laclede County on a change of venue.

Travis Ray Smith, 45, of California, will spend a total 4 years in prison on concurrent sentences for three different cases. The former pastor of a church in Stover and Pilot Grove, will be required to complete the Missouri sex offenders program wile in prison and register as a sex offender when he is released.

Smith’s trial got underway earlier this week in Laclede County. The plea deal was offered the jury had started their deliberations.

It was the second time Smith had been on trial for the same charges. The first proceeding, in December of 2015, was declared a mistrial after questions were raised regarding comments made by a potential juror about the defendant that that potentially tainted the entire jury panel.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Herald (UK)

by Ed Condon
posted Thursday, 21 Apr 2016

The blocking of the PricewaterhouseCoopers audit puts the Pope’s legacy as a reformer in peril

Yesterday, it was reported that the Vatican had suspended the independent audit of its finances by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company had been engaged only on December 5 of last year, and for the process to be halted this quickly, even temporarily, seems like a remarkable setback for Pope Francis’s crusade to haul the administration of the Curia, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.

As he broke the news, the always well informed journalist Ed Pentin linked the story to an article in yesterday’s Italia Oggi newspaper, which claimed that manoeuvres were underway to replace Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, a Frenchman and the current president of the IOR, or Vatican Bank, whose term was not expected to come to an end in the immediate future. According to the article, the move to replace De Franssu was also a proxy move against Cardinal Pell, the prefect for the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, who has been the major, if not sole, agent of real reform in the Vatican finances, and who has been the constant target of a campaign of leaks and gossip since taking office in 2014.

It has been suggested that curial officials are desperate to see Cardinal Pell removed and both the presidency of the IOR and the job of auditing the curial finances return to Italian hands, before the new rigours of full transparency get past the point of no return.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of yesterday’s news was the manner in which the suspension of the PwC audit was announced: by means of a letter circulated to all curial departments from the Secretariat of State and signed by Archbishop Giovanni Becciu, who oversees the day-to-day running of the Roman Curia from that department.

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NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on bias at the New York Times:

Yesterday, New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein wrote a blog titled, “Sex Abuse and the Catholic Church: Why Is It Still a Story?” Because reporters, especially those at the Times, love to cover such stories, even if almost all of the abuse occurred decades ago. By contrast, stories of abuse happening right now in the public schools are of little interest.

It’s actually more profound than this. Two months ago, the Times did a story on a seminarian from Ohio who was arrested for seeking out young Mexican girls to molest. Yet the Times did not run a story today on yesterday’s sentencing of a middle school teacher from West Harlem who was convicted of sexual abuse.

In October 2015, Adiyemi Prowell was charged with sexually assaulting six students. When school officials initially learned of his predatory behavior, they did nothing. Here’s how it affected one student.

An 11-year-old girl who was molested in 2012 tried to get out of his class, but was denied. Her grades suffered so much that many thought she had a disability. In the fall of 2013, Prowell was removed from the classroom, and shortly thereafter the victim’s parents learned of what had happened: their daughter opened up to them.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Jewish News

YESHIVAH–BETH Rivkah Colleges (YBR) will be governed by parents under the new structure that will be announced by the Governance Review Panel (GRP).

The proposal by the GRP – which was set up to restructure the Yeshivah Centre and its associated entities in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – will state that the members of YBR will be the parents, and that five of the nine board members will be elected by parents, with at least one of those board members being a vocational Chabad rabbi.

The other four board members will include Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner and three members appointed by Yeshivah Centre Limited (YCL), the centre’s overarching roof body.

A third organisation, Chabad Institutions of Victoria Limited (CIVL), will be established to operate the Kollel, Chabad Youth, Ohel Chana and shuls.

For all three organisations – YBR, YCL and CIVL – each board member must be halachically Jewish, while each board must comprise a majority of Chabad-adherent members and have at least three vocational rabbis, defined as a rabbi engaged full time in a religious vocation such as a pulpit rabbi, a Jewish studies teacher or someone retired from such a position.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

[The allegations of sexual abuse among children in a Catholic kindergarten in Mainz have not been confirmed by the investigations so far.]

Die Vorwürfe sexueller Übergriffe unter Kindern in einer katholischen Kita in Mainz haben sich nach den bisherigen Ermittlungen nicht bestätigt. Der polizeiliche Abschlussbericht liege inzwischen vor, bestätigte die Staatsanwaltschaft Mainz.

Demnach haben sich die Vorwürfe nach dem bisherigen Ermittlungsstand nicht erhärtet – dies war bereits das Ergebnis des Berichts zum vorläufigen Abschluss der Ermittlungen der Polizei vom November 2015. Darin hieß es auch, es hätten sich bislang überwiegend entlastende Erkenntnisse ergeben. Bei den Vorwürfen ging es um mutmaßliche sexuelle Übergriffe und Gewalt unter Kindern.

Der Skandal begann mit dem Brief einer Mutter: Darin war von massivem Missbrauch der Kinder die Rede, berichtet der SWR online. Die Mutter schrieb, mehrere Jungen hätten über Monate hinweg ihre Vorhaut zurückziehen müssen, damit ihnen andere Kinder auf den Penis schlagen konnten.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Allgemeine

[The Catholic Church in Germany is threatened with major financial turmoil: The pensions fund of the dioceses is missing 5.5 billion euros. At worst, it would result in insolvency of individual dioceses.]

20.04.2016, von DANIEL DECKERS

Die „Kirchliche Zusatzversorgungskasse“ (KZVK) des katholischen Verbands der Diözesen Deutschlands, mit 1,1 Millionen Versicherten und 150.000 Rentenempfängern einer der größten nichtstaatlichen Altersversorgungseinrichtungen in Deutschland, ist ein Sanierungsfall. Im vergangenen Herbst stellte sich heraus, dass die Bilanz der KZVK in einem Umfang von 22,5 Milliarden Euro zum 31. Dezember 2014 eine Deckungslücke von 5,5 Milliarden Euro aufweist.

„Veränderte Annahmen zur langfristigen Entwicklung der Verzinsung auf den Kapitalmärkten, die sich aus der Politik der EZB ergeben“, so ein Sprecher der KZVK gegenüber der F.A.Z., hatten eine Neubewertung der Verpflichtungen und die Bilanzierung eines Ausgleichspostens erforderlich gemacht.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

SEAN FINE AND GLORIA GALLOWAY
TORONTO and OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2016

The Canadian government abandoned an appeal of a controversial court ruling that let the Catholic Church out of its responsibility to raise millions of dollars for aboriginal healing programs, court documents show.

The appeal was dropped just six days after the Trudeau government took office.

The revelation comes in a week when the Liberal government has repeatedly said that it had no options for appeal. It did not mention, however, that an appeal had been commenced and then withdrawn.

The abandonment of the appeal means that a major element of Canada’s historic 2007 settlement – the contribution of the Catholic churches, which ran most of the residential schools, to the aboriginal community – was brought to an end by a lone Saskatchewan judge, in an informal hearing called a Request for Directions.

The ruling by Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson on July 16 found that the former federal Conservative government had inadvertently released 50 Catholic entities from their contractual responsibility to try to raise up to $25-million for aboriginal healing pro- grams. He ruled that there was a “meeting of the minds” between a federal lawyer, Alexander Gay, and a lawyer for the Catholic entities, Gordon Kuski, on a re-lease from all obligations. He also found that Mr. Gay should be presumed in this dispute to have had the authority to negotiate on be-half of the Canadian government.

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