ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Karl Hoerr

Victims of a former Catholic priest who sexually abused children in northern New South Wales in the 1980s have described the devastating impact of his crimes in statements read out in court.

John Joseph Farrell, 62, is awaiting sentencing for 62 offences involving 12 victims.

One victim said in his statement, which was read by his mother, the abuse was compounded by the fact that when he reported what happened to him, he was not believed.

“I felt completely abandoned by the institution I had put so much faith in,” his statement said.

The victim said he had enjoyed a happy childhood until the age of 11.

“When I met Farrell, all of that changed,” he said in his statement.

He said the Catholic Church merely protected Farrell.

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AUSTRALIA
Bay 93.9

A former priest convicted of 62 child sex offences involving the sinister abuse of 12 victims targeted kids in a church, a pool and during car trips.

A disabled girl repeatedly raped by a pedophile priest thought the abuse was “OK with God”.

The girl was one of 12 children groomed and molested by former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell, 62, in a decade-long period of abuse at Moree and Tamworth, in NSW’s north, during the 1980s.

She was abused from the age of 10 by Farrell, who had been moved from one parish after a “scandal that he had been sexually abusing the altar boys”, the victim, who can’t be identified, said in a statement tendered to Sydney’s District Court on Friday.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, April 8, 2016

Kevin Braney went through hell in the basement of a church rectory.

Braney says he was a devout 15-year-old altar boy when Msgr. Charles Eckermann first raped him in a rectory storage room at St. Ann’s Church in Manlius, a suburb of Syracuse. Braney says Eckermann assaulted him at least a dozen times in 1988 and 1989 on a mattress the priest had stashed in the storage room.

“I was taught to trust and believe priests because they were the closest thing to God on Earth, and he told me if I defied him, I was defying God,” Braney said. “He said he had a divine right to abuse me.

“He told me he would put my genitals in a vise if I resisted,” added Braney, now an executive at a mental health agency in Boulder, Colo., and an advocate for sexual abuse victims. “He said he would kill me if I said anything.”

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By Dave Collins The Associated Press

Posted Apr. 8, 2016

HARTFORD — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford is taking its dispute with an insurance company to trial, seeking reimbursement of more than $1 million in payments made to settle sexual misconduct cases involving priests and minors.

The case is one of many around the country in which insurance companies have balked at paying claims related to lawsuits against church officials seeking to hold them responsible for sexual assaults of minors by clergy — accusations that in many instances date back decades and involve priests who have since died.

A key issue in the Connecticut case and others is whether insurance companies can deny claims under assault and battery exemptions in liability policies. Many policies don’t cover intentional acts, but church officials have argued that they did not know about the alleged assaults.

A bench trial in the Hartford case is scheduled to begin Friday in federal court in New Haven before Judge Janet Bond Arterton.

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ILLINOIS
Daily Southtown

Ted Slowik

I see parallels in the case of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the sexual abuse of children by priests. As Hastert faces sentencing, a judge must weigh whether the damage to Hastert’s reputation resulting from the revelations of alleged sexual abuse is punishment enough.

I have to choose my words carefully, because Hastert isn’t charged with sexually abusing children, and he hasn’t admitted to it. As part of a plea deal, he’s pleaded guilty to a bank structuring charge for withdrawing large sums. When federal authorities confronted him about the withdrawals, he allegedly lied about it. But that charge was dropped as part of the plea deal, in which he also admitted paying about $1.7 million to someone.

The federal investigation and a Tribune report revealed the reason for Hastert’s alleged hush-money payments. The recipient of Hastert’s illegal bank withdrawals was a student and wrestler in the 1970s at Yorkville High School, where Hastert taught and coached. The individual is one of four men who accuse Hastert of sexually abusing them when they were teens, the Tribune found.

My past work as a journalist includes extensive investigation of sexual abuse of children by priests of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet. Most of the stories I wrote were about men who were abused as boys during the 1970s and 1980s. As I related heartbreaking tales from abuse survivors, I often wondered how the criminal conduct occurred in the first place, and why it remained secret for so long.

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UNITED STATES
Religion Dispatches

BY PATRICIA MILLER APRIL 6, 2016

e Catholic Church has been trying desperately to suggest that the days of rampant sexual abuse of minors by priests and subsequent cover-ups by bishops are a thing of the past and that the church has moved into a new, more transparent future. But to paraphrase a classic mob movie, just when they think they’re out, they get pulled back in.

First, it was Spotlight’s focus on the Boston-area abuse scandal that proved to be the tipping point for public awareness of widespread abusive priest-shuffling. It also reminded people of just how hard senior Vatican officials like Cardinal Bernard Law worked to keep the church’s complicity covered up.

And just when the publicity over Spotlight’s Academy Award dies down, now comes a hard-hitting report chronicling 50 years of abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in Pennsylvania. A state grand jury report determined that hundreds of children had been abused by at least 50 priests. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Hundreds of children were molested, raped and destined to lasting psychological trauma by clerics whose abuses were covered up by their bishops, other superiors and even compliant law-enforcement officials in Blair and Cambria counties.

It’s the conspiracy nature of the long-running pattern, with both church officials (including two consecutive bishops, and local authorities, including police, judges and district attorneys) colluding to cover up abuse, that led the authors of the report to call the whole mess “soul murder.”

One state legislator is calling for a RICO investigation of the conspiracy, calling it “nothing less than organized crime.”

Despite the pledges by Pope Francis and other Vatican officials to take a zero-tolerance position on abuse and to make a full reckoning of sins of both omission and commission, it appears that the church is still dedicated to protecting its power and privilege over seeking justice for abuse victims. The New York Times reports that lobbyists for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference have been working overtime to quash a move to open a “window” that would allow previous abuse victims to sue under a bill moving through the legislature that would remove the statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes and allow victims to sue past the current limit of their 30th birthday.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, April 7, 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 newspaper is reporting that an ex-priest who was convicted of child sex crimes is now at a North Carolina “spiritual center.” We think, this is a dangerous move and we urge his colleagues and supervisors to oust him.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

The Atlanta Journal Constitution spoke recently with William Groves, a now-defrocked priest who pled guilty to felony abuse and sheltering “runaway Indian and Hispanic kids and giving them drugs and alcohol.” In June 2015, he was vice treasurer at the Spiritual Light Center in Franklin, North Carolina. Two local citizens told us they began to be suspicious when Groves repeatedly offered to set up a children’s program at the Center even though there were few children among the members there.

[Spiritual Light Center]

The AJC says he’s now an office manager there.

In our view, “reformed” alcoholics don’t seek jobs in bars. Likewise, a purported “reformed” child molester who hurt kids in a church shouldn’t seek employment with youth.

And he shouldn’t be given such a position. Child predators shrewdly use any role or responsibility or job or title to help persuade parents that they are trustworthy. So officials at the Spiritual Life Center, by giving Groves any job or position, are making it easier for him to win the trust of unsuspecting families and sexually violate more kids.

Groves was also named as a predator in two clergy sex abuse and cover up cases in Colorado. Those suits settled for $175,000. (His victims were represented by Ft. Lauderdale attorney Adam Horowitz.)

Previously, Groves worked in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas and allegedly got abuse counseling at a center in Atlanta in the 1990s.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Mary Jo Noworyta

When I hear the media report a pastor’s sexual sin as an “affair,” it awakens a deep well of despair within me, remembering my own “brush with the devil.” Simple, lax descriptions such as, “falling from grace,” or “an act of indiscretion,” completely miss the mark on what is happening to religious communities throughout the world.

After my “indiscretion” with my pastor, I learned it was not an affair. There was no consent. It was merely an illusion of a consensual relationship when once we understand who is responsible to keep appropriate boundaries and why.

In every helping profession, the helpers are responsible to keep healthy boundaries between themselves and those they serve. One can argue that religious leaders are held to an even higher standard when you add the element of spirituality. By their very nature, they are representatives of God and hold a most sacred, trusted position.

An overwhelming majority of these leaders counsel those in their congregations. Those seeking help are the hurting, the confused, the broken, the lost; people without an answer looking for direction. The leader is fully accountable, working with the vulnerable and wounded. His sole purpose is to help. Never should he take advantage of the person under his care.

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BELGIE
The Post

[The Catholic Church in Belgium goes unpunished.]

Het spraakmakende onderzoek naar misbruik van minderjarigen door katholieke geestelijken in België lijkt geen straffen op te leveren. Alle misdrijven in de zogenoemde Operatie Kelk zijn verjaard, liet het federaal parket dinsdag weten.

Dat zou betekenen dan niemand meer kan worden vervolgd. De rechtbank in Brussel buigt zich op 28 april over de zaak.

Operatie Kelk begon in juni 2010 met huiszoekingen bij onder meer het aartsbisdom in Mechelen en de privéwoning van kardinaal Godfried Danneels, die van tientallen misbruikzaken op de hoogte zou zijn.

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BELGIE
kernet

Wat voorafging Sinds het federale parket het onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik binnen de Kerk coördineert, vanaf september 2010, hebben in totaal 261 slachtoffers rechtstreeks contact gehad met een magistraat van het federaal parket.

In het dossier Kelk werden tussen augustus 2010 en december 2012 in totaal 83 klachten met burgerlijke partijstelling neergelegd.

In het voorjaar van 2012 werden in het dossier Kelk een aantal huiszoekingen uitgevoerd onder meer bij alle bisdommen.

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SOUTH AFRICA/ISRAEL
Forward

(JTA) — An Israeli rabbi who has been on the run to avoid extradition back to Israel on sex abuse charges has been arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, 78, has been hiding out in South Africa for the past nearly eight months with several of his followers. Since the accusations in 2012, he has also hidden in Morocco, the Netherlands and Zimbabwe.

Berland’s followers confirmed to the Israeli media that he had been arrested this week by South African police. He reportedly had been hospitalized in Johannesburg and may have been arrested there.

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ISRAEL/SOUTH AFRICA
Haaretz

Three years after fleeing Israel, the head of the Shuvu Banim community, Rabbi Eliezer Berland has been arrested this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, his followers told Haaretz.

Berland was on the run for three years from Israeli police, skipping across three continents since 2013, among Canada, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Holland and elsewhere.

He is suspected of commiting sexual offenses, especially against women who were a part of his community, Shuvu Banim. Some complainants had been inside a room with him seeking advice or a blessing.

Berland’s lawyer Sharon Nahari confirmed his arrest and said Israel has filed a request for extradition.

“We are preparing to leave for South Africa and deal with the [extradition] request in court. Like we released him from detention in the Netherlands, we will fight now,” Nahari said.

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SOUTH AFRICA/ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post

Chief Rabbi of South Africa Warren Goldstein has warned the local Jewish community against cooperating with Berland or his followers

Fugitive Rabbi Eliezer Berland was arrested in South Africa on Thursday and is expected to face extradition to Israel, where he is wanted on suspicion of carrying out sex crimes.

Berland’s attorney Sharon Nahari on Thursday confirmed his client’s arrest, and said Israeli authorities had filed a request to extradite him.

Nahari vowed that he would fly to South Africa and contest his client’s extradition, as he did last year after he was arrested in Amsterdam. Nahari also represented Israeli underworld boss Yitzhak Abergil ahead of his extradition to Israel in January 2014.

Followers of Berland said that he underwent surgery a week ago and that local law enforcement may have pounced on the opportunity to arrest him.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)

Rosie Scammell in Rome
Thursday 7 April 2016

Pope Francis is likely to disappoint Catholic reformists on Friday with the publication of his views on family life, which observers predict will not change church doctrine on divorcees and gay people, despite presenting a more open approach.

The Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love) document, known as an apostolic exhortation, follows a two-year consultation with bishops to determine how the church should address the challenges facing modern families.

Francis is expected to adopt a positive tone and welcoming approach to Catholics who do not fit the nuclear family model; but in keeping with the outcome of the bishops’ synods, there is unlikely to be a dramatic shift in church teachings.

The pontiff is not expected to grant divorced Catholics who remarry the right to take holy communion, though he is likely to acknowledge that they should play an active role in church life and not be sidelined.

A similar stance will be taken on gay Catholics, whose relationships will continue to be described as “intrinsically disordered”. The focus instead will rest on the respectful engagement between the church and gay people.

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NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

Leaders of the Salesian Priests and Brothers have refused to settle a childhood sexual abuse claim against one of its priests, Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, causing the victim, who was abused in Indiana, to be re-victimized. The victim is being denied justice.

Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a leader of the Salesian Priests and Brothers, based in New Rochelle, NY, told advocate Dr. Robert M. Hoatson during a recent demonstration at a New Jersey church that the Salesians were settling the claim from a Salesian seminary in Indiana, but there has been no settlement and no settlement talks

At the “Will and Anthony” concert at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey, the Salesian Priests and Brothers will have another opportunity to keep their promise by announcing to concert-goers that they intend to settle the credible sexual abuse claim from Indiana against Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB

What
A demonstration alerting high school parents, the media, concert-goers and the general public that the Salesians of Don Bosco, a religious order of men, have refused to settle the credible claim of sexual abuse in Indiana by a man who was promised a timely and fair resolution. Thus far, it has not happened.

When
Saturday, April 9, 2016 from 6:00 PM until 7:30 PM before the “Will and Anthony” concert

Where
On the public sidewalk across from the main entrance of Don Bosco Preparatory School, 492 North Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, New Jersey 07446

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, former Archdiocese of Newark priest, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
A few weeks ago, Fr. Timothy Zak, SDB, a member of the leadership team of the Salesian Priests and Brothers of Don Bosco, approached Dr. Robert M. Hoatson at a demonstration at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, NJ, and told him that there was no need for a demonstration outside Our Lady of the Valley Church or any Salesian parish or school (like Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ) because the Salesians were “in settlement talks” with two men who were sexually abused, one by Br. George Sheehan, SDB, and the other by Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB. Fr. Timothy Zak was incorrect. While the sexual abuse victim of Br. George Sheehan received a settlement, the sexual abuse victim of Fr. Joseph Maffei, SDB, did not and has not received a settlement yet. No settlement talks have taken place in months, and no settlement has been reached. Demonstrators will demand that the Salesian Priests and Brothers do what they promised.

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer Posted Apr. 7, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — Saint George’s School placed an administrator on leave in January as an independent investigation into systemic sexual abuse at the elite Episcopal school was getting under way, the school said in a letter to alumni Wednesday. The widening investigation involves allegations against half a dozen former faculty members and several students, largely in the 1970s and ’80s.

The allegations against Bob Weston, current associate head for external affairs, stem from his conduct as a dorm parent in the 1990s, and concern “Mr. Weston observing appropriate boundaries with students,” the letter from Headmaster Eric F. Peterson and Board Chair Leslie B. Heaney says.

The school’s letter, obtained Thursday by The Journal, states, in part:

“As you know, the independent investigation into sexual abuse at St. George’s led by Martin F. Murphy is underway and fully supported by the School. While that inquiry proceeds, we are committed to keeping our community informed on these important matters.”

After the board and the administration received the allegations, “the decision was made to place Mr. Weston on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation, and the appropriate authorities were informed,” the letter states. “Since the independent investigation was beginning at this same time, we asked Mr. Murphy and his team, whose work is ongoing, to include this matter in their inquiry.”

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HAWAII
Hawaii Tribune-Herald

By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald

A high-ranking Catholic Church official arrested last August in Kona for drunken driving had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal threshold for intoxication.

According to court records, Cardinal William Joseph Levada had a blood-alcohol level of 0.168 when he was stopped at about midnight Aug. 19 on Hina Lani Street in Kailua-Kona.

According to a police spokeswoman, Levada was driving a 2015 Nissan Altima and was alone in the car when he was pulled over after a patrol officer saw him swerve while driving northbound on Queen Kaahumanu Highway north of Kealakehe Parkway.

Through his attorney, Levada pleaded no contest and was fined $300 on Jan. 25 in Kona District Court.

The 79-year-old Levada, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif., wasn’t required to appear at the hearing and was not present.

Levada’s driver’s license was revoked for a year and he was ordered to pay $162 in various fees in addition to the fine. He also was ordered to undergo substance abuse assessment and to follow any recommended treatment.

A proof of compliance hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. July 8. Levada will not be required to appear and his Honolulu attorney, Howard Luke, will be allowed to participate by telephone.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Church Militant

by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • April 7, 2016

Archdiocese has paid out $140 million in clergy sex abuse settlements

CHICAGO (ChurchMilitant.com) – The archdiocese of Chicago’s financial situation is being described as “unstable” amid sharp declines in parish and school attendance and a growing number of clerical sex abuse settlements.

In a financial statement released Tuesday the finance team for Chicago Abp. Blase Cupich admitted the archdiocese faces “continued financial pressure” and despite “recent progress, some of [their] parishes and schools have low parishioner and/or student counts, unstable operating results and unsustainable capital repair needs.” The 2015 report reveals a decrease of $1 million in parish collections compared to the prior year and a near $5 million loss at the diocesan parish center. Expenses at diocesan schools alone exceeded the tuition and fee intake by $40.2 million last year; the archdiocese of Chicago has nearly 250 elementary schools, seminaries and universities.

A further burden on the archdiocese’s wallet are the continually multiplying allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of diocesan clergy. Over the past 30 years the church in Chicago has shelled out over $140 million in abuse-related court settlements, with auditors reporting $10.8 million of that sum having been paid since June 2015. The number could also increase drastically in the near future, as a Cook County judge ruled in February an abuse victim will be allowed to petition for punitive damages on top of compensatory damages, paving the way for other victims who had previously settled to demand further recompense.

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UNITED STATES
WBUR

The critically acclaimed film, “Spotlight”, tells the story of the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation of what later became the world-wide clergy sex abuse crisis.

We’ve talked to members of the original Globe team, to a lawyer, and a priest. Now, we hear from someone who represents the most important group of people in this story: the survivors.

This conversation originally aired on Nov. 6, 2015.

Guests

Phil Saviano, founder of the New England Chapter of SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests.

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BOSTON (MA)
Poynter

By Benjamin Mullin • April 7, 2016

The Boston Globe on Thursday became the latest newspaper to announce it’s undertaking a major reassessment of its strategy and coverage priorities to keep pace with the ongoing tumult of the digital age.

The announcement, an internal memo from Globe Editor Brian McGrory, tops 1,000 words and touches on several major aspects of The Boston Globe’s operation. Among other things, it calls into question the viability of longstanding editorial processes at the newspaper:

There are important issues to raise and explore in what I’ll call a reinvention initiative: Do we have the right technology? Do we train staff in the right way? Should we remain in the current print format that we have now, same size, same sections? Do we have the right departments? Is our beat structure outdated? How can our work flows improve? Do we have too many of XX and not enough Ys? Should we publish seven days a week? Do print and digital relate in the right ways?

The questions could go on and on. They could become bolder still. …

At The Boston Globe, the changes come during an era of simultaneous pride and newsroom austerity. The dramatization of its investigation into the Catholic Church, “Spotlight,” recently won an Oscar and brought the Globe a measure of Hollywood fame. But The Globe has executed multiple rounds of staff cuts in recent years, once in 2014 through voluntary buyouts and again in 2015 through layoffs.

Meanwhile, the owner of The Boston Globe, billionaire Red Sox owner John Henry, has presided over a company on a mission to build standalone publications focused on specific coverage areas. STAT, a Globe publication that covers the life sciences, launched last year. The Globe also launched vertical focused on coverage of the Catholic Church, Crux, that it relinquished after failing to find enough advertising support.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Ines San Martin
Vatican correspondent April 7, 2016

ROME – Pope Francis’ highly anticipated document on the family will be unveiled on Friday. Called “Amoris Laetitia, on love in the family”, it’s expected to touch on several hot-button issues, including Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

The text, said to be close to 250-pages long and divided in more than 300 points, will be presented by Cardinals Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, and Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, at a press conference in Rome.

Set to begin at 11:30 Rome time, the news conference be broadcast live through the Vatican’s Television Center.

Secrecy surrounding the document is greater than usual, with no copies leaked in the media as of 24 hours before its unveiling. Vatican sources say the final version of the document hasn’t yet left the pope’s inner circle.

Some bishops have expressed their frustrations via Twitter over the fact they haven’t yet seen the text, including Archbishop Mark Coledrige, of Brisbane, Australia.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune APRIL 7, 2016

Bankruptcy court judge Robert Kressel approved a $3.3 million bid for the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Thursday.

The chancery and the archbishop’s residence has been on the market since last year, when the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a flood of child abuse claims.

The $3.3 million bid was submitted by the Minnesota firm 1777 Bunker Lake Blvd NW LLC. Donald Regan, chairman of Premier Bank is listed as the firm’s manager in state documents.

Premier Bank , which has 19 bank branches across the state, has not commented on the purchase. Court documents do not mention any specific plans for the property.

The firm was the top bidder at an auction for the property held Monday. It tops the previous high bid of $2.75 million by Minneapolis-based United Properties.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Joseph Serna

An Orange County religious nonprofit that prosecutors have linked to a former pastor accused of molestation has denied any ties to the suspect, the organization said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Orange County prosecutors announced that Douglas Dale Whinery, 80, had been arrested and accused of molesting two girls for years after he met them in Tustin in 2011. The girls are now 8 and 10, according to prosecutors.

Authorities said that Whinery had remained active at Olive Crest in Santa Ana, the Foothill Family Church in Foothill Ranch and the Grace Church in Yorba Linda until his arrest last week.

But an Olive Crest spokeswoman on Thursday said the faith-based nonprofit, which works with at-risk youths, has no record of Whinery working or volunteering with the group.

“Olive Crest is dedicated to guarding the safety and well-being of the children we serve,” the agency’s statement read. “Given our commitment to the safety of children, Olive Crest does not take allegations of this kind lightly. Our organization is always available to assist the District Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement entities. We have offered them our complete cooperation in this case.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

A Catholic monk has been found guilty of a catalogue of abuse to pupils at an East Lothian residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent.

Irish-born Murphy denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

A jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault involving eight boys over the decade up to 1981.

Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges on Thursday.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

BY DAVE FINLAY

MICHAEL Murphy, 82, was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent where he perpetrated indecency and violence.

A CATHOLIC monk carried out a catalogue of brutality and degrading abuse against pupils at a residential school during “a regime of fear”.

Michael Murphy was known as Brother Benedict or Brother Ben to children in his care at St Joseph’s List D School in Tranent, in East Lothian, where he perpetrated indecency and violence against youngsters.

Irish-born Murphy, 82, denied a string of charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh claiming: “I should not be here in this court at all.”

But a jury convicted him of 15 charges of assault and indecent assault on Thursday involving eight boys spanning the decade up to 1981.

Murphy was acquitted of a further two charges.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 07, 2016

Mount Cashel civil trial enters third day

Courtroom No. 2 at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John’s was gripped this morning with a soft-spoken man’s testimony of marriage that he says failed because of his abuse experiences at Mount Cashel and a once-promising career derailed by alcoholism.

The man, now in his 70s, spent 11 years at the infamous St. John’s boys orphanage, run by the Catholic lay order Christian Brothers.

It was an eerie atmosphere when the witness softly sang to the court one chilling song that a taunting fellow resident who disliked him would recite about him being a teacher’s pet and wanting to be coddled by the Brother that he now claims was fondling him in his bunk many nights.

But the witness said he never told of the abuse to other boys and initially denied it to police decades later.

The man said he might have had a normal, happy life — not one of drinking, depression and boarding houses — had it not been for the abuse. Instead he said while he married and had a son, his wife eventually left him for another man because of his inability to perform sexually.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Herald Express

A MAN who taught at a Devon school for three decades is to appear at trial where he will face more than 60 charges in connection with the alleged sexual and physical abuse of children.

Paul Kelly, aged 63, is one of five men accused of a series of assaults and indecent assaults between 1970 and 1983 at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife.

The Roman Catholic school was run by the Irish Christian Brothers organisation until it closed in the 1980s.

The men – Kelly of Glade Close, Plymouth, John Farrell, aged 73 of Motherwell; Michael Murphy, aged 76 from Dunfermline; William Don aged 62 from Leven and Edward Egan, aged 78 from Altrincham – face a total of 131 charges involving more than 40 alleged victims.

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ITALIA
Molisedoc

[The bishop of Cassino defends himself and said allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.]

April 07, 2016

Oggi arriva – forse – la parola fine rispetto alle accuse, direttamente dalla procura della Repubblica di Cassino.

Il vescovo della diocesi di Cassino-Sora, monsignor Gerardo Antonazzo, sarebbe indagato – secondo quanto riporta l’Agi – per presunte molestie sessuali a carico di 8 seminaristi.

Sabato il vescovo aveva parlato di “totale infondatezza delle accuse” attribuitegli. Antonazzo ha preso possesso anche della diocesi di Cassino, dopo che quella di Montecassino è stata sciolta per volere del Papa (un atto questo preso anche per altre realtà abbaziali italiane e dunque neppure qui c’è un collegamento diretto con fatti di cronaca). Oltre alla confessione scritta, la polizia ha ascoltato tutti i ragazzi che avrebbero subito molestie da parte del vescovo.

Titolare del procedimento è il procuratore capo Luciano d’Emmanuele che nei giorni scorsi avrebbe concluso le verifiche per poi procedere con la richiesta di rinvio a giudizio dell’alto prelato.

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NEW YORK
New York Times

By KATE TAYLOR
APRIL 6, 2016

A group representing parents and former students at ultra-Orthodox yeshivas accused the de Blasio administration on Wednesday of dragging its feet in investigating their schools, out of fear of alienating a constituency that the mayor has assiduously courted.

In July, 52 parents, former students and former teachers sent a letter to New York City’s Education Department saying that 39 yeshivas were violating state law by not providing students, particularly boys, an adequate education in secular subjects like English, math and science. The Education Department said then that it would conduct an investigation of the yeshivas, located in Brooklyn and Queens.

But on Wednesday, the group behind the letter held a news conference in front of City Hall to express its frustration with the lack of any apparent progress in the investigation.

“It’s eight months later, and there’s no sign of a serious investigation taking place,” Naftuli Moster, the leader of the group, Young Advocates for Fair Education, said. “In fact, all indications are that the D.O.E. is just stalling us. In the meantime, tens of thousands of boys — we estimate around 30,000 — are not getting a basic education.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline

Somewhere in an ultra-Orthodox enclave of Israel, former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer continues to evade extradition to face criminal charges in Australia. Now one of her alleged victims speaks out for the first time.

By Sophie McNeill

Malka Leifer’s role in Melbourne’s Adass community was all-powerful.

As head of the Adass Israel School from 2003 to 2008, she was highly regarded in the community, running day-to-day operations at the school and teaching Jewish studies.

Leifer is now under house arrest somewhere in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in central Israel, where she fled in 2008 — allegedly with the help of senior members of Melbourne’s secretive Adass community.

She is wanted by Victoria Police to face prosecution for 74 child sex offences involving the abuse of girls at the Adass Israel School.

For almost two years, she has managed to evade extradition proceedings and her latest hearing scheduled for today has been postponed to an unknown date.

Outraged at the failure to extradite Leifer, one of her several alleged victims, who we will call Rebecca, is speaking out for the first time.

“It’s still extremely difficult for me to go into detail in regards to what happened to myself and the other victims,” she told Lateline.

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FRANCE
Oest France – Religions

[Sexual abuse of minors: The Church in France must speak the truth.]

Les signataires de cet appel publié dans Le Monde, le 7 avril 2016, demandent que “la pleine lumière soit faite sur la pédophilie. Même sur les actes couverts par la prescription. L’institution doit appeler les coupables à se dénoncer et les victimes à témoigner.”

“A l’heure où nous écrivons cet appel, les versions s’opposent à propos des affaires d’abus sexuels sur mineurs qui touchent le diocèse de Lyon. Nous nous garderons bien d’empiéter sur le travail d’enquête en cours. Nous disons simplement que la justice doit passer.

“Mais elle ne doit pas seulement dire le vrai dans telle ou telle affaire particulière. Nous sommes persuadés que de trop nombreux cas d’abus sexuels de la part de membres de l’institution se sont produits dans notre pays depuis des dizaines d’années.

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FRANCE
Catholique 95

[After raising a controversy over the concept of sin in pedophilia, Bishop Stanislas Lalanne, Bishop of Pontoise, said that on Thursday, April 7 on RCF that the priority in these cases is the victims.]

Après avoir soulevé une polémique sur la notion de péché dans la pédophilie, Mgr Stanislas Lalanne, évêque de Pontoise, a rappelé ce jeudi 7 avril sur RCF que la priorité dans ces affaires, ce sont les victimes.

S’exprimant jeudi 7 avril 2016 sur RCF, l’évêque de Pontoise a tout d’abord demandé pardon à ceux qui auraient pu être blessés par ses propos, qu’il estime avoir été mal compris. “Si jamais mes propos ont été maladroits, j’en demande pardon à tous ceux qu’ils ont pu choquer” a-t-il tout d’abord déclaré, précisant que “ma première attention est d’abord et avant tout pour les victimes” d’abus sexuels au sein de l’institution religieuse.

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FRANCE
La Croix

[Bishop Stanislas Lalanne argued that pedophilia was a “bad” but not necessarily a sin.]

Marie Malzac, le 06/04/2016

Interrogé, mardi sur RCF, Mgr Stanislas Lalanne a soutenu que la pédophilie était « un mal » mais pas forcément « de l’ordre du péché », entraînant la condamnation du collectif de victimes La Parole libérée et l’incompréhension à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de l’Église.

Qu’a dit Mgr Lalanne ?

« La pédophilie est un mal. Est-ce que c’est de l’ordre du péché ? Ça, je ne saurai pas dire, c’est différent pour chaque personne. Mais c’est un mal et la première chose à faire, c’est de protéger les victimes ou les éventuelles victimes ». Ces mots, prononcés mardi 5 avril par Mgr Stanislas Lalanne, évêque de Pontoise, sur les ondes de RCF, ont soulevé très vite une polémique. D’autant que plusieurs auditeurs étaient revenus en direct sur ces propos pour les contester.

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FRANKREICH
katholisches

[The French Bishop Stanislas Lalanne said that pedophilia “evil,” but he “could not say” whether pedophilia is a sin. The statements of the bishop challenged the protest of a victim organization. The words of the bishop were “embarrassing” and for the victims “degrading”.]

(Paris) Der französische Bischof Stanislas Lalanne erklärte, daß Pädophilie „ein Übel“ sei, er aber „nicht sagen könnte“, ob Pädophilie eine Sünde ist. Die Aussagen des Bischofs forderten den Protest einer Opferorganisation heraus. Die Worte des Bischofs seien „peinlich“ und für die Opfer „erniedrigend“.

Diese Worte sagte der Bischof dem Radiosender RCF, einem Zusammenschluß von 63 christlichen, französischsprachigen Radiosendern.

Bischof Lalanne nahm an einer Sendung zum Thema „Die Kirche von Frankreich und die Pädophilie“ teil. Die Sendung fand angesichts der Vorwürfe gegen Kardinal Philippe Barbarin, den Erzbischof von Lyon statt, gegen den die Staatsanwaltschaft wegen des Verdachts ermittelt, einen Priester seiner Diözese nicht rechtzeitig wegen sexueller Gewalt angezeigt zu haben.

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BELGIQUE
CathoBel

[The hierarchy of the Belgian Catholic Church should not be prosecuted for culpable abstention in cases of sexual abuse in the context of a pastoral relationship. The federal prosecutor said that the facts were prescribed.]

La hiérarchie de l’Eglise catholique belge ne devrait pas être poursuivie pour abstention coupable dans les dossiers d’abus sexuels dans le cadre d’une relation pastorale. Le parquet fédéral a estimé que les faits étaient prescrits.

Débutée en juin 2010, l’opération « Calice » avait défrayé la chronique et provoqué un vif émoi au sein de l’Eglise belge. Il faut dire que dans une même journée, le juge d’instruction Wim De Troy avait ordonné des perquisitions au siège de l’archevêché à Malines (au moment même où se tenait une réunion de la Conférence des évêques), à la cathédrale Saint-Rombaut (où l’on fit ouvrir des tombes), au domicile privé du cardinal Danneels (qui fut entendu une journée entière), au siège de la commission dirigée par le pédopsychiatre Peter Adriaenssens (qui se penchait alors sur les faits de pédophilie au sein de l’Eglise), ainsi qu’aux Archives générales du Royaume.

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BELGIQUE
7 Sur 7

[Information about abuse in the Catholic Church obtained through Operation Chalice is beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution.]

L’ensemble des faits visés par l’Opération Calice, l’enquête du parquet fédéral chargée de faire la lumière sur des faits d’abus sexuels présumés commis au sein du clergé et la tentative d’étouffement de ces affaires par la hiérarchie catholique, sont prescrits et plus personne ne peut être poursuivi, selon le point de vue que défendra le parquet fédéral dans son réquisitoire final devant la chambre du conseil de Bruxelles. Cette dernière doit se pencher sur l’affaire le 28 avril prochain.

Le parquet demande ainsi de constater l’extinction de l’action publique étant donné la condamnation antérieure de 4 prévenus pour les faits dénoncés, les décès de 37 suspects et la prescription de presque tous les autres faits. En ce qui concerne les accusations d’abstention coupable, le parquet constate de même que les faits concernés sont manifestement prescrits.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Victims prod church to “take action”
Youth minister was arrested last week
He’s accused of molesting three children
SNAP: “Parents, ask your kids if they were hurt”
Group wants Methodist officials to “do outreach”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

–blast local church officials for their public comments in a pending child sex abuse case,
–urge them to “do aggressive outreach” seeking other “victims, witnesses and whistleblowers,”
–beg parents in the congregation to “ask their kids if they were hurt,” and
–prod anyone who may have “seen, suspected or suffered” crimes by the minister – or cover ups by his colleagues or supervisors – to “protect kids by calling law enforcement immediately.”

WHEN
Thursday, April 7 at 11:00 am

WHERE
Outside First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill, 128 North Roberts Road in Cedar Hill, Texas

WHO
Three members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including the organization’s Dallas-area director

WHY
Willie Lee Bell Jr., a youth pastor at this church, is accused of sexually assaulting two little boys behind their apartment on East Little Creek Road in February. And last week, he was reportedly caught in the act of molesting a third boy. The mom says bystanders attacked Bell to stop him.

Bell, 29-years-old, was arrested in West Oak Cliff.

[Raw Story]

In a statement, First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill said it has no knowledge of any criminal acts happening at the church,” according to Fox 4 News. That’s designed to breed complacency, SNAP says, when just the reverse – vigilance and action – are needed now.

“Every current and former church employee or member who spent any time at this church should be

Beating the bushes and shouting from the rooftops, finding anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Bell’s crimes and begging them to call police,” said Amy Smith of SNAP. “Now is the time for United Methodist staff and congregants to step up and resist the natural but irresponsible temptation to be passive.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WESA

By MARY WILSON

The state House is poised to consider major changes to the statutes of limitations on child sex abuse cases in Pennsylvania, one month after the release of a grand jury’s findings that the clergy of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese covered up child sex abuse allegations for decades.

The bill, passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, would eliminate the time limit for bringing criminal charges in a child sex abuse case. It expands the timeframe for bringing civil suits, giving victims until they’re 50 years old, instead of 30.

Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), who has renewed his public crusade for statute-of-limitations reforms since the Altoona-Johnstown case was made public, said the plan should also include a two-year period when even expired cases can be brought by law enforcement and victims, since so many weren’t ready to confront their abusers until well after the statute of limitations had expired.

“When we talk about the hundreds of victims that have been abused,” said Rozzi, “this bill does nothing for them.”

He plans to amend the bill when it reaches the House floor.

Opponents of the two-year retroactive window for prosecution and civil suits said it’s unconstitutional and would create problems for insurers.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

April 6, 2016 Joelle Casteix

Yeah, even I was surprised.

Parishioners at Los Angeles Archdiocese’s St. Kateri Church were not pleased when they were informed that disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony was going to perform their parish confirmations.

From the Santa Clarita Valley Signal:

Brooke Bambrick is among the outraged. Growing up Catholic, her father was a deacon at St. Monica’s. When he found out about the widespread coverups and Mahony’s failure to hold abusers accountable and protect the abused, he decided the family should leave the Catholic Church.

“He thought it was hypocritical of the church,” said Bambrick. “Mahony protected the priests and shuffled them around, that’s a crime, and a crime against kids.”

Now that Mahony is coming to Saint Kateri, she is outraged and believes the church should request another Bishop for the ceremony.

“It is an atrocity that he is able to step foot in a church,” she said. “He ignored the facts and allowed people to do atrocious things to children. The Catholic Church didn’t handle it correctly and he shouldn’t officiate at such a large church here in the valley.”
But instead of just “taking it,” parishioners decided to do something.

Reports are now saying that the parish filed a formal complaint with Archbishop Gomez and that the Los Angeles prelate approved the removal of Mahony from their services.

Good job. Now it’s time to remove him from everything else. I wonder if there is a formal complaint form for that issue.

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CALIFORNIA
Signal

By Martha Garcia
Signal Staff Writer

Sex abuse and molestation charges have rocked the Catholic Church for decades. Amid the allegations, one man whose career was tarnished by the scandals was retired L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony.

On April 29, Mahony will confer the sacrament of confirmation to the teen class at Saint Kateri Catholic Church, and many parishioners and community members are outraged.

Brooke Bambrick is among the outraged. Growing up Catholic, her father was a deacon at St. Monica’s. When he found out about the widespread coverups and Mahony’s failure to hold abusers accountable and protect the abused, he decided the family should leave the Catholic Church.

“He thought it was hypocritical of the church,” said Bambrick. “Mahony protected the priests and shuffled them around, that’s a crime, and a crime against kids.”

Now that Mahony is coming to Saint Kateri, she is outraged and believes the church should request another Bishop for the ceremony.

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UTAH
KUTV

BY CHRIS MILLER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6TH 2016

The movie “Spotlight” won the Academy Award this year for Best Picture. It shined a light on sexual abuse and the importance of exposing it.

The film was based on the real life experiences of Phil Saviano, who was in Utah Wednesday, to attend a screening of the movie at the Salt Lake City Library and to encourage other victims to come forward.

“I’m finding that a lot of people want to talk to me and I do have some interesting stories to tell,” says Saviano, whose business card describes him as a “survivor” and “whistleblower”. “I was molested, assaulted repeatedly when I was 11 and 12-years-old.”

Saviano first told his story to the Boston Globe in 1992 and worked with investigative journalists for a decade to expose widespread allegations of sexual abuse within the clergy of the Catholic Church.

“I gave them names of 13 priests in Boston and another 14 priests in the next diocese over, who I knew were child molesters, but whose names had never appeared in the newspaper,” he says.

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MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Martin Moylan Apr 6, 2016

A private firm has bid nearly $3.3 million to buy the chancery of the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, offering about $500,000 more than a previous offer from United Properties.

Archdiocese attorneys plan to ask a federal judge on Thursday to approve the new offer.

The firm that made the higher bid is managed by Donald B. Regan, the founder and chairman of Maplewood-based Premier Banks.

If the deal goes through, proceeds would top $8 million, said Paul Donovan, who’s helping to sell church properties.

Once the chancery is sold, the church still will have to sell two more St. Paul properties: a vacant lot and a two-story building used for offices, both on the 200 block of Dayton Avenue near the St. Paul Cathedral.

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RHODE ISLAND
Providence Journal

By Associated Press

Posted Apr. 7, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (AP) — An elite Rhode Island boarding school embroiled in a sexual-abuse scandal said an administrator has been placed on leave over allegations concerning his conduct as a dorm parent in the 1990s.

St. George’s School said in a letter sent to alumni Wednesday that associate head for external affairs Bob Weston was placed on leave in January pending the outcome of an independent investigation. The Middletown school said it received “secondhand allegations” regarding Weston’s “boundaries with students.”

Weston’s lawyer Paul Kelly denied Wednesday that his client had done anything wrong, saying the allegations stem from a disgruntled former employee. He said no student has ever accused Weston of wrongdoing.

Kelly called claims that Weston violated students’ boundaries “dated and utterly specious,” adding that Weston has a 26-year unblemished record. He said Weston agreed to the temporary leave to allow the investigation to move forward and to handle a serious family matter.

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RHODE ISLAND
Patch

By MARK SCHIELDROP (Patch Staff) – April 6, 2016

MIDDLETOWN, RI—Alumni of the elite St. George’s School in Middletown were notified Wednesday that Bob Weston, associate head for external affairs, was placed on leave after the school received “secondhand allegations” about his “boundaries with students.”

Weston was placed on leave in January, the school said. It is not clear why alumni were notified about three months later in April.

A school spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

St. George’s has been mired by a sex abuse scandal since December scandal after dozens of former students came forward with tales of being raped and sexually assaulted by former athletic trainer Al Gibbs in the 1970s, former chaplain Rev. Howard W. White Jr., in the 1970s and 80s along with about five other former employees of the school.

A total of about 40 victims have since come forward reporting abuse dating back to the 1960s.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 06, 2016

Former Mount Cashel Orphanage resident testifies of terrifying shower beating
In excruciating testimony Wednesday at the Mount Cashel civil trial, a man in his late 70s told how he tried as a boy in the 1950s to get a Roman Catholic official to help orphanage residents who were being beaten constantly by Christian Brothers.

“We need help here,” he said he pleaded to the official.

But while promises were made, nothing was done, the witness said in Newfoundland Supreme Court presided over by Justice Alphonsus Faour.

The Roman Catholic Church is now fighting four test cases, representing 60 claimants, because it says it did not operate the orphanage.

In cross examination, one of the church’s lawyers, Chris Blom, pointed out the church official the witness spoke to as a boy may have been bound by confessional confidentiality rules and could not break that seal.

“Could be, yes,” the witness said.

But the witness had also said that official was “the last resort” and he’d hoped the official could go to the Christian Brothers’ superior and have a word about the beatings without mentioning names.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

AAP

Leading Australia child protection expert Freda Briggs has been hailed a “warrior for children” who took advocacy for their welfare out of the shadows.

Dr Briggs’ family on Thursday confirmed the “wonderful mother, grandmother and sister” died at the Royal Adelaide Hospital the previous night, aged 85.

“A fierce intellect and determination to change the understanding of protecting children from injustice has been a force that has propelled her onto the world stage,” they said in a statement.

Dr Briggs’ concern for the plight of children began when she first encountered victims of abuse while working as a policewoman in London in the 1950s.

It grew into social work and teaching, where she focused on the need for increased awareness of child abuse, and in 2003 she co-authored a major report into the Anglican church’s handling of sexual abuse complaints.

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IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Cathal Barry
April 7, 2016

Paranoia as a result of the clerical sex abuse scandals is “hampering” priests from engaging fully with society, a prominent psychotherapist has warned.

Kevin Egan, who has lectured in All Hallows College in psychology and pastoral theology, told The Irish Catholic that “the main thing that blocks mission in the Church today is paranoia or fear”.

“That is why the Church has difficulty now in engaging with groups in society, with statutory bodies, in the area of education and in others. The Church in its relationship with all these bodies acts in a quite a paranoid way.

“One of the functions of the Church in society is to engage for the good of society with all the other groups in society and so its ability to do that is hampered in Ireland particularly. You can’t go and reach out to people if you fear them,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WITF

Written by Mary Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Apr 6, 2016

State lawmakers are taking heat from Pennsylvania’s Office of Victim Advocate for their latest efforts to change the statutes of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

Jennifer Storm said she supports a House plan to abolish the time limit for criminal child sex abuse cases, but she’s not thrilled that lawmakers are merely extending the statute of limitations on civil cases, giving victims until they’re 50 instead of 30 years old to file suit.

Storm said that will add to the confusion surrounding Pennsylvania’s statutes of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

“You have to literally have a calendar and a calculator to determine which victims have which rights,” said Storm.

She also said she’s disappointed the proposal doesn’t apply to adult victims of sexual assault, some of whom can also take years to report such incidents.

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MINNESOTA
The Legal Examiner

Posted by Mike Bryant
April 6, 2016

Diocese of St. Cloud’s Secrecy Practices Cracked By Two Stearns County Judges
Judge Frederick Grunke gives green light to survivor’s public nuisance action against the Diocese of St. Cloud
Judge Kris Davick-Halfen orders release of priest files

(St. Cloud, MN) – Judge Frederick Grunke’s order, issued April 1, 2016, says that the Diocese of St. Cloud’s long-standing practices of concealment and protection of sexual abusers created a dangerous condition that threatens public safety. Judge Grunke wrote in his order that the “harboring and concealment of multiple serial child-molesters at large in the community is hardly a lesser threat to public safety [than harboring a dangerous dog.]” Sexual abuse survivor, Doe 65, who filed her lawsuit in August 2015, was sexually abused by Father Donald Rieder in the late 1960s when she was 14 years old. This is the second time a public nuisance claim has been allowed to move forward against the Diocese in less than a year. Judge Grunke also allowed Doe 65’s negligence claims to move forward.

A second judge, Judge Kris Davick-Halfen, days earlier ordered the Diocese of St. Cloud to turn over the files of any priests of the Diocese who have been accused of sexual abuse of children. Judge Davick-Halfen’s order follows her decision last summer to allow another survivor, Doe 50’s public nuisance claims to go forward. Doe 50 filed his lawsuit in January 2015. Doe 50 was sexually abused by Father James Thoennes in the early 1970s when he was 11 years old. Thoennes is currently retired and living alone in an apartment in St. Cloud. Judge Davick-Halfen gave the Diocese until April 25th to provide the files to Doe 50’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Bryant. Doe 50 v. Diocese of St. Cloud, 73-CV-15-276.

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ILLINOIS
Chicago Sun-Times

Michael Sneed
@Sneedlings
It’s a first.

Sneed hears Archbishop Blase Cupich, who was handpicked by Pope Francis to shepherd Chicago’s 2.2 million Catholics, just sent his flock a renewal form.

• Translation: Cupich in recent weeks dispatched a survey to every Catholic in the Chicago Archdiocese to reassess the church’s mission.

The 39-question survey, which was made available to all parishioners, did not require a signature and could be filled out online.

“There is no doubt church membership is static, declining or changing — and the Archbishop is hoping to chart a new course for vibrancy and vitality,” a top Archdiocesan source said.

“The survey he [Cupich] just launched has never been done here before and asks parishioners to comment on a wide variety of parish life,” the source said.

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UTAH
Good4Utah

[with video]

By Glen Beeby | gbeeby@good4utah.com
Published 04/06 2016

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 Utah) – Phil Saviano is a sex abuse survivor whose story is featured in the movie Spotlight. He was in Salt Lake City Wednesday for a screening, and to talk about why it’s important for victims to speak out.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. The first Wednesday is known as Start By Believing Day. Advocates for survivors say it’s important for people to believe someone if they say they’ve been sexually assaulted or raped.

Saviano was the victim of a Catholic Priest in Boston and didn’t tell his story until 1992. That was a time he said when survivors were often believed.

“Couple of family members criticized me brining a scandal to my home town, but I’ve lived long enough to see the issue turn around,” said Saviano.

Judy Larson was also at the event. She was a victim of rape at the hands of her Catholic Priest back in 1957 when she was 10 years old. She didn’t tell anyone until January of this year, but was surprised by the reaction of police and the church.

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MISSOURI
The Courier

By Kellie Houx

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood and the Deanery XIV, which includes five Northland churches, will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at St. James Catholic Church, 309 S. Stewart Road, for a service to promote healing for those affected by sexual abuse from church leaders.

The five churches are Church of the Annunciation in Kearney, St. Andrew the Apostle in Gladstone, St. Ann in Excelsior Springs, St. Gabriel the Archangel in Kansas City North and St. James.

Father Joseph Nassal, the provisional director of the Kansas City Provence of Missionaries of the Precious Blood, will co-officiate the evening service with Father Mike Roach, lead pastor at St. James. Along with the two local men, the Rev. James Van Johnston Jr., the bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, will preach and be on hand to listen.

Roach said the Catholic Church has been affected by sexual abuse from priests. In the early 2000s, the issue hit a new level in Boston with the revelation of the widespread nature of the abuse due to the number of Catholic churches in that metropolitan area.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

THE ISSUE

House Bill 1947 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and House Republican leaders plan to bring the bill to the House floor next week, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The bill proposes to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations in future child sexual abuse cases and expand the length of time a victim has to bring a civil case. As the law now stands, a criminal case must be brought before a victim’s 50th birthday, and a civil case may be brought until a victim turns 30. If this bill passes, some victims will have until they turn 50 to press a civil case.

It’s progress, and we’re glad to see it.

But we’re still hoping that reform of the statutes of limitations in child sexual abuse cases goes further to help victims who suffered such abuse decades ago.

While we’ll be pleased to see the criminal statute of limitations eliminated in future cases of child sexual abuse, we were hoping that older victims of childhood sexual abuse would be given the opportunity to seek justice in civil court.

But House Bill 1947 would not apply to many past victims.

When, as we hope, this bill is signed, victims still under the age of 30 will be given until age 50 to press a civil suit. But if a victim is over 30 — by even one day — when the legislation is signed, they are excluded from being helped by this bill.

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

The Jewish Week has been named a finalist in two categories of annual awards contest of the Deadline Club, the New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“Don’t Know Much About History: Inside the Battle to Improve Chasidic Education,” the result of a six-month investigation by Hella Winston and Amy Sara Clark, is a finalist in the category for Reporting By A Newspaper With A Circulation Under 100,000, and a four-part radio series by the same name produced in partnership with WNYC is a finalist in Radio or Audio Reporting category.

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UNITED STATES
Jewish Journal

by Kylie Ora Lobell
Posted on Apr. 6, 2016

More than a dozen philanthropists and funding organizations have signed a pledge to only support Jewish day camps and schools that have child sexual abuse policies in place in the hopes of raising awareness and supporting best practices.

The pledge, which was introduced April 3 and can be viewed in its entirety at childsafetypledge.org, promises to “Create and Promote a funder pledge strategy for philanthropic giving only to those Jewish organizations which have taken adequate steps to prevent, report, and investigate sexual abuse of minors.”

Founding signatories include Lynn Schusterman, co-founder and co-chairwoman of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; Dana Raucher, executive director of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation; and Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

Jumpstart CEO Joshua Avedon and Los Angeles-based philanthropist Rochel Leah Bernstein-Deitcher were organizers of the pledge.

“Without an open, urgent and broad-based communal conversation about this issue, we will continue to see headlines about children being molested while in the care of our community’s organizations, which are supposed to keep them safe,” Avedon said. “This had to be addressed urgently, and we believe a child safety funder pledge is the way to address it.”

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KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal

Matthew Glowicki, @MattGlo April 6, 2016

A Louisville man has come forward nearly 40 years after he says his scoutmaster sexually abused him, alleging in a lawsuit that Boy Scouts of America officials knew about it but failed to tell police.

The man, only identified by his initials in the suit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, claimed former leader of Troop 364, Timothy Fleming, sexually assaulted the then-minor in the 1970s at Fleming’s Louisville home, on two out-of-town trips and on property owned by the troop’s sponsor, Aububon Baptist Church.

Both the national scouting organization and the Louisville church were aware of the allegations, according to the suit, and failed to report the allegations to police, prosecutors or Child Protective Services – as was required by state law.

The suit, filed Friday, also alleges both the church and the scouting group were told of “confidential reports of sexual abuse of minors,” yet allowed Fleming to continue leadership roles in both organizations.

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KENTUCY
WAVE

Joey Brown
Posted: 04/06/2016

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A Louisville church, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), and a former scout leader have been sued in Jefferson County Circuit Court by a man who says the scout leader repeatedly sexually abused him as a child during the 1970s. The church and BSA also are accused in the lawsuit of ignoring previous child abuse claims against the man, causing the plaintiff to become one of his victims.

According to the lawsuit, defendant Timothy Fleming was an adult church leader at Audubon Baptist Church (ABC) on Hess Lane and also served as a scout leader for BSA Troop 364, which the church sponsored during the period when the alleged abuse occurred. Church officials confirm Fleming was a member of ABC, but they have no record that he was a church leader.

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ARGENTINA
Big Bang News

[Confirmed: Priest Justo Jose Illarraz will be tried for allegations that they abused 50 seminarians between 1984 and 1992. The judges wrote they could not understand the attitude of his superiors who remained silent for years.]

La Justicia confirmó el procesamiento de Justo José Ilarraz, el cura acusado de abusar de al menos 50 seminaristas de 10 a 14 años entre 1984 y 1992. En un fallo unánime, los integrantes del tribunal de Apelaciones de Paraná decidieron así que avance el proceso por “promoción a la corrupción de menores agravada”.

La causa se inició en 2012 e incluye las declaraciones del arzobispo de Paraná, Juan Alberto Puiggari, y su predecesor, Estanislao Karlic. La investigación interna nunca fue elevada al Vaticano ni puesta en conocimiento de la justicia ordinaria.

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GEORGIA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Johnny Edwards – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Concerned that some victims of sexual abuse by clerics still may not have come forward, advocates have been pressing Atlanta’s Catholic leader to post the names of accused child predators on the archdiocese website.

But after a year of pressure from the nationwide Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, Archbishop Wilton Gregory has yet to act. Nor has he explained why he won’t post the names of any priests, deacons, brothers or nuns accused of molesting children who spent time working in the Atlanta area, whether the allegations arose here or not.

The group has already identified six who fit the profile, including two who worked at Marist School in Brookhaven. One was a science teacher and the other a school counselor, the school’s president said in an email.

“Archbishop Gregory has been doing the bare minimum,” said SNAP President Barbara Blaine, who was molested by a priest as a teen. “We’re asking Archbishop Gregory to be the shepherd and to reach out to the lost sheep.”

She was among about a half dozen SNAP activists, most of them victims, who staged a small protest earlier this week on the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Buckhead, holding up posters that said “Protect children” and “Keep kids safe.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Philly

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A former consultant to a pontifical commission vehemently denied giving private documents regarding the Vatican’s financial reform to two journalists.

Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, replied, “absolutely not” when asked by a Vatican prosecutor if she gave documentation to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

She also denied having had a sexual relationship with Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda, the secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

The trial resumed April 6 after the court granted Chaouqui, who is pregnant, a three-week postponement after her doctor recommended 20 days of bed rest.

Chaouqui is on trial along with Msgr. Vallejo Balda, Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant; and two journalists: Nuzzi, author of “Merchants in the Temple,” and Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of “Avarice.”

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VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse on Apr 6, 2016

An alleged night of sex at the centre of a controversial Vatican leaks trial never took place, accused former PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui told a Holy See court on Wednesday.

One of Chaouqui’s co-accused, Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, has admitted leaking classified documents to journalists but claims he did so under pressure from his former colleague after she made advances to him culminating in a “compromising” encounter in a Florence hotel in December 2014.

“I never had any sexual relations with him,” the heavily pregnant Chaouqui told the court as she gave evidence for the first time in a trial that was adjourned last month for her to have medical treatment.

“His mother was sleeping in the room while he was speaking to me,” the Italian said.

Chaouqui, who has previously implied that Balda is gay, added: “He confided in me about sexual matters which I will not recount in full out of respect for his status as a priest. The habit he wears has a value for me.”

In another bizarre twist to a case that has already thrown up claims of blackmail, computer hacking and contacts with Chinese spies, she went on claim that Balda had had a relationship with a male astrologer she had introduced him to.

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle PI

Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
Wednesday, April 6, 2016

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A communications expert testified in a Vatican court Wednesday that she never gave confidential documents to journalists. But she said a Vatican monsignor did after he was turned down for a promotion, began hanging out with an astrologer and confessed his sexual secrets to her.

Francesca Chaouqui took the stand Wednesday to defend herself against charges she passed confidential Vatican information to two journalists whose blockbuster books exposed waste, greed and mismanagement in the Holy See.

“Never, never,” Chaouqui testified. “I can assure you that no reserved documents ever passed from my hands.” She said she only ever gave journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi an invitation to a Vatican reception and a collection of newspaper clippings.

Chaouqui, Monsignor Angelo Lucio Vallejo Balda, a former high-ranking official in the Vatican’s finance office, and Vallejo’s secretary are on trial in the Vatican’s criminal court, accused of forming a criminal organization that provided top-secret documents to Nuzzi and journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi.

The two journalists are on trial too, accused of exerting pressure on Vallejo and publishing the material, which is a crime under Vatican City State law.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Post

Reuters

VATICAN CITY – A woman charged with leaking Vatican documents denied on Wednesday that she had had sex with a priest, telling a court he revealed secrets about his private life to her in a hotel room while his mother slept.

Francesca Chaouqui, 35, a married public relations consultant, and the priest, Spanish Monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, are two of the people on trial in the so-called “Vatileaks II” case.

The case centres on the publication last year of two books based on leaked documents that depict a Vatican plagued by graft and where Pope Francis faces stiff resistance to his agenda.

Vallejo Balda admitted during an earlier hearing that he leaked documents to journalists, but Chaouqui said on Wednesday that she had not given them anything more than press articles already in the public domain.

Vallejo Balda had told the court last month that his relationship with Chaouqui had been “clearly for me as a priest compromising,” and suggested that she had seduced him in a Florence hotel room.

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CANADA
VOCM

Another former resident of Mount Cashel continued testimony today at Supreme Court.

The man, now in his 70s, says he witnessed other children being beaten about twice a day, every day, during his time at the orphanage. He says no one would dare report the abuse to anyone, because a Christian Brother would be present throughout every visit with relatives—something he says he always found to be strange. The man told the court he was once taken to hospital for a knee injury he received during a beating. He says children were regularly warned not to tell doctors or dentists that their injuries were caused by anyone at Mount Cashel, so he told the doctor he hurt himself on the softball field.

The man says he once reported a beating to a member of the clergy, and was told his abuser would be reprimanded, though nothing ever changed. He says after arriving late for showers one morning, the water was too cold for him to use. One of the Brothers forced him to shower anyway, and when he couldn’t bring himself to get under the freezing water, he was beaten with a strap, naked. The man says the pain was atrocious and that he “screamed like hell.” He says he felt like he had no dignity as a grown man watched and forced him to shower in freezing cold water.

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CANADA
The Telegram

Barb Sweet
Published on April 06, 2016

In excruciating testimony this morning at the Mount Cashel civil trial, a man in his late 70s told how he tried as a boy in the 1950s to get a Roman Catholic official to help orphanage residents who were being beaten constantly by Christian Brothers.

But while promises were made, nothing was done, the witness said in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

The Roman Catholic Church is now fighting four test cases, representing 60 claimants, because it says it did not operate the orphanage.

The man, the second former orphanage resident to testify in the trial in which abuse claimants assert that the RC Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s should be liable for physical and sexual abuse of orphanage boys from the 1940s to 1960s by certain members of the Christian lay order, said he pleaded the boys’ case.

Then he showed welts on his body to a Christian Brothers official.

This was after the man said he was belted by Christian Brother Ronald J. Lasik while he was nude and wet. He said Lasik, known by the boys to have a collection of straps, was frustrated because the boy had missed shower time for his class.

The man said there was something wrong with a grown man watching naked boys shower, referring to the Brothers who supervised the classes of boys during their turns in the shower room.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 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)

We’re grateful that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is joining the chorus pushing to reform New York’s archaic, predator-friendly abuse laws. He’s right when he says “By denying child sexual abuse victims their day in court, we are denying them their right to equal justice under the law.”

But worse, New York’s incredibly strict statute of limitations is also helping child molesters stay hidden and putting kids at risk. It’s almost always through the criminal and civil courts that predators are exposed and children are protected.

[New York Daily News]

To safeguard kids and prevent cover ups, we strongly believe that Assemblywoman Margaret Markey’s “window” bill is the best option in New York. Claims that public and private entities must be treated identically are a red herring.

We hope Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) are listening and will quickly allow a floor vote on this sorely-needed public safety legislation.

The civil statute of limitations for child sex crimes needs to be lifted for new and old cases. Those who enable and cover up these sex crimes need to be held accountable too. Otherwise, cover ups will continue and children will never be safe from being dealt this life sentence of trauma and pain.

Most victims of child sex abuse are unable to even speak of it until they are much older. Filing a suit gives victims the opportunity to warn others about and protect kids from their perpetrators.

It also enables them to deter future cover ups by having their day in court and expose those who concealed – not just those who committed – horrific child sex crimes.

Through civil “discovery,” victims can force high ranking officials to testify under oath, revealing their complicity.

Victims want the full truth to be exposed so that no other child is sexually abused. They should have that chance.

No matter what happens in Albany, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions in New York to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling journalists, get justice by calling attorneys, and get comfort 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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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 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 credibly accused Ohio predator priest has passed away. Now, we beg Bishop Frederick Campbell to aggressively seek out anyone else who may have been hurt by him” by using church bulletins, parish websites and pulpit announcements so that the wounded may be consoled and learn that they aren’t alone.

And Campbell should explain why he basically kept silent for more than three months, despite his repeated pledges to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes. Had Campbell done what many bishops do, and told the public about this predator priest’s passing, he might have brought comfort to some of the cleric’s victims.

[Columbus Dispatch]

We are glad that Fr. Raymond Edward Lavelle can no longer hurt kids. We’re glad too that his victims can hopefully sleep better at night knowing that he can’t assault any more children.

We hope that all of Fr. Lavelle’s victims – whether hurt long ago or more recently – find the strength and courage to step forward, get help, expose wrongdoing and start healing. And we hope they find consolation.

Now that he’s passed on, we hope Campbell Columbus Catholic officials will be more forthcoming about Fr. Lavelle’s crimes and about those who ignored, concealed and enabled them.

According to church sources, Fr. Lavelle worked in these assignments: Assistant Pastor, St. Agnes Church, (1957-1961); teacher, Holy Family High School, Columbus (1958-1961); Assistant Pastor, St. Dominic Church, Columbus (1961-1963); teacher, Bishop Hartley High School, Columbus (1961-1963); Assistant Pastor, St. Mary Church, Lancaster (1963-1968); priest in residence, St. Timothy Church, Columbus (1969-1969); priest in residence, St. Phillip the Apostle Church, Columbus (1969-1970); counselor, Bishop Hartley High School (1969-1970); Spiritual Director, Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus (1969-1970); Pastor, St. Agnes Parish (1971-1980); Pastor, St. Matthias Church, Columbus, (1980-91); Associate Pastor, St. Brendan Church, Hilliard (1992); Pastor, St. Vincent de Paul Church, Mt. Vernon (1992-1996); Associate Pastor, St. Joan of Arc Church, Powell, (1996-2000); sacramental and pastoral administrator, St. Catharine Church, Columbus (2000). He reportedly retired from active ministry in 2000.

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KENTUCKY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

For more information: David Clohessy (314) 566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Pam Palmer (240) 994-1278 cell, palmerp@live.com

Abuse victims to protest outside big church conference
They want preacher accused of concealing crimes “disinvited”
But event organizers are ignoring their request sent last week
Group says preacher’s role “will deter others from reporting abuse”
SNAP: “And it rubs salt into wounds of those who were hurt on his watch”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims will protest outside a religious conference in Louisville later this month that is expected to draw more than 8,000 church-goers and staff.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are upset because a controversial pastor who has allegedly concealed child sex crimes by at least 15 accused offenders will speak at the event, along with other officials from his troubled denomination.

He is C. J. Mahaney, the former head of a denomination called once called Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) but now known as Sovereign Grace Churches (SGC). It has roughly 70 churches across the US (mainly in eastern states) and in Australia, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Germany and Mexico.

Mahaney is accused in civil lawsuits of ignoring and hiding known and suspected child sexual abuse by church staff and members while he led SGM and Covenant Life Church in Maryland.

Last week, SNAP asked conference organizers to rescind their permission to let Mahaney and other SGM/SGC officials speak at the biennial international Together for the Gospel (T4G16) conference at the KFC Yum! Center on April 12-14. ( http://t4g.org ; http://t4g.org/speakers/ )

None of the three conference organizers has replied to SNAP’s letter. So SNAP members will picket and hand out fliers to attendees outside the main entrance to facility (near the fountain) at 1 Arena Plaza on Tuesday, April 12 from noon until 2:00 p.m.

“We’re sad but not surprised that these church officials won’t even reply to us, and feel like we have no choice now but to warn others about the reckless and callous actions of SGM/SGC officials by our presence outside the conference,” said Pam Palmer of Hagerstown, a former SGM member whose daughter was sexually abused in 1993 by a teenager and who plans to be in Louisville at the protest. “We’ll be a small, peaceful group and hopefully we’ll be able to teach some people about this secretive, reckless denomination and maybe even reach one abuse victim who is still suffering in shame, silence and self-blame.”

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UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

By NATE CARLISLE | The Salt Lake Tribune

In a hearing that dealt with polygamy and child sex abuse as much as alleged food stamp fraud, a federal court judge on Wednesday considered whether Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Bishop Lyle Jeffs should remain in jail until his trial.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart is expected to issue a ruling later Wednesday, or perhaps later this week.

Prosecutors want Jeffs, 56, to remain in jail where he has been held since indictments against 11 FLDS members were unsealed Feb. 23. Jeffs’ lawyer, Kathryn Nester, asked Stewart to release her client to a home his family or supporters have in Provo and to be tracked by a GPS ankle monitor.

The hearing was supposed to be about whether Jeffs, if freed, would return to court for future proceedings, and whether he would tamper with witnesses or evidence. In the course of those discussions, the 90-minute hearing veered into whether Jeffs had married three underage girls and how much contact he has with his infamous older brother, FLDS President Warren Jeffs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lund contended Lyle Jeffs doesn’t acknowledge court orders or the law. He presented Stewart with an excerpt from a revelation Warren Jeffs sent elected officials in February, saying he was wrongly being incarcerated at a prison in Palestine, Texas, and that laws should be overturned when they contradict religious beliefs. Lyle Jeffs, who at the time of his arrest was the bishop in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., signed the document.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 6, 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)

Under the headline “Hometown Team,” the latest issue of Catholic St. Louis portrays Bishop Robert Finn as one of several local priest who have climbed the clerical ladder to become prelates. But it makes no mention of Finn’s status as the only US bishop to be convicted for concealing evidence of child sex crimes from police and prosecutors.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

In a nutshell, this is one key reason why the clergy sex abuse and cover up scandal keeps roiling the church: because those who endanger kids, hide predators, stonewall prosecutors, deceive parishioners are almost never defrocked, demoted, disciplined or even denounced by their Catholic colleagues or supervisors.

Ignoring wrongdoing essentially encourages more wrongdoing.

Archbishop Robert Carlson should apologize for the deceptive and hurtful portrayal of Bishop Finn as some kind of “local boy who makes good.” And he should discipline the editor of Catholic St. Louis.

Finn is a criminal. Pretending otherwise rubs even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of Catholics whose kids were hurt by Finn’s priests, especially those whose daughters were shrewdly turned into child pornography pictures during the months Finn refused to give Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s huge photo collection of child pornography to the police. (Imagine how those moms and dads feel seeing their convicted bishop put forward as some sort of hero or role model in a Catholic publication.)

Last year, three years after having been found guilty, Finn voluntarily resigned as head of the Kansas City diocese. But he remains a bishop with all of the salary, benefits, honors and status that title and position confers. He has faced no disciplinary action for his law-breaking.

After a few months of “laying low,” several weeks ago, he resurfaced and is now ministering to nuns in Nebraska. Our group protested that move as reckless and callous. He has no business ministering to anyone.

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CHILE
Bio Bio

[The Catholic Church says it is concerned about cases of sexual abuse. The church sought ways to address the crisis and one of the ways was to instruct in prevention of child abuse . In the Diocese of Chillán, a session was held Monday and virtually no one was absent. Attending were 37 priests, 2 seminarians, religious and a deacon in transit. All bishops of Chile took the course in November.]

La Iglesia Católica asegura que está preocupada por los casos de abusos sexuales. Sin especificar si por los ocurridos al interior del clero o fuera de él, desde que se dieron a conocer, buscaron la forma de enfrentar la crisis y uno de los caminos fue la instruir un ciclo de formación en prevención de abusos de menores.

En la Diócesis de Chillán, el lunes se realizó una nueva jornada, en la que prácticamente no hubo ausentes. Asistieron 37 sacerdotes, 2 seminaristas, una religiosa y un diácono en tránsito. En enero recibieron instrucción los diáconos y sus esposas; en marzo las religiosas y funcionarios del obispado y el personal docente de un colegio católico.

El sacerdote Luis Flores, uno de los monitores, explicó que su tarea es la de entregar elementos para distinguir los signos de un posible abuso y saber abordar la situación.

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MASSACHUSETTS
news@Northerastern

April 6, 2016 by Joe O’Connell

The final scene of the Academy Award-​​winning film Spot­light por­trays the reporters and edi­tors who made up The Boston Globe’s inves­tiga­tive team fielding a bar­rage of calls from sur­vivors of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal on the day in 2002 when the team broke the story.

Walter Robinson, AS’74, a former jour­nalism pro­fessor at North­eastern and a Globe editor who led the Spot­light team, described that day as the end of the begin­ning for his team. Col­lec­tively they wrote some 600 sto­ries on the scandal and earned the Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Ser­vice for their inves­tiga­tive work.

“I feel like our world exploded,” Robinson told a standing-​​room only crowd in the event space on the 17th floor of East Vil­lage. “And those phones rang for months. In just the first sev­eral weeks we had more than 300 vic­tims just in the Boston arch­dio­cese call us.”

Robinson shared those mem­o­ries during a thought-​​provoking event on Tuesday evening that exam­ined the making of Spot­light and how the work of those Globe jour­nal­ists con­tinues to impacted inves­tiga­tive journalism.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

Aimee Amiga Apr 06, 2016

The well-known advocate for child sex abuse victims in Australia recently moved to Israel. He talks to Haaretz about continuing his mission here.

Manny Waks has shared his personal story of being sexually abused as a child so many times that he appears almost numb to the trauma. He is well-known in Australia, especially within the Jewish community, as a resilient survivor and an outspoken advocate for victims who has brought the issue of pedophilia to national attention.

But the poise with which he crusades on behalf of others belies his own lingering demons. As the number of people who confide in him grows, he says, it gets harder to make peace with his own past.

“It’s destructive,” Waks, 39, tells Haaretz in Ramat Hasharon, the central Israeli city where he and his family have lived since November, after being forced to leave Australia. “It’s literally destructive to deal with these things on a daily basis. There are days when I’m paralyzed, when I cannot work.”

When that’s not the case, Waks runs Kol V’Oz, an organization he launched here in Israel that serves as an umbrella group for institutions worldwide dealing with child sexual abuse in the Jewish community. It plans to offer training, best-practice materials, advocacy and research, to map the prevalence of child sexual abuse across global Jewish communities and the services currently available to victims, among other things.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Kirsten Veness

A Melbourne lawyer who represented Yeshivah Centre child sex offender David Cyprys has apologised in court for telling an abuse victim not to assist a police investigation.

Alex Lewenberg, 75, was found guilty of two counts of professional misconduct at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in March and now faces possible suspension.

In 2011, Mr Lewenberg represented Yeshivah College security guard David Cyprys, who was charged with, and later convicted of, child sex offences.

Mr Lewenberg told one of Cyprys’ victims they should not assist the police prosecution of a fellow Jewish person, no matter what the accusation.

During a phone conversation the victim recorded in October 2011, Mr Lewenberg said “I’m disappointed that you would participate, and that was my disappointment and that’s why I’m not exactly delighted that another Yid would assist police against an accused, no matter whatever he’s accused of”.

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TEXAS
Raw Story

BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
06 APR 2016

A Texas youth pastor who was caught allegedly sexually abusing a 6-year-old child was beaten by witnesses who say they attacked him to stop the abuse, Fox4 reports.

Dallas police arrested Willie Lee Bell Jr., 29, who was a youth pastor at First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill. Authorities say he lured the kindergartner behind an apartment, where he molested him. Bell is also implicated in a February sexual assault of two other children, Fox4 reports. All victims are aged 6 and 7.

“It’s painful. It’s devastating. It’s a nightmare,” the mother of a 6-year-old victim told the station.

She said her child was playing outside with other kids when Bell lured him behind a building.

Fox4 reports that court records show it’s not the first time Bell has been accused of sexually abusing children — he was accused of showing pornography to a child in Tennessee.

One victim told authorities that the man abusing him was wearing “church shoes.”

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IRELAND
Newstalk

6 Apr 2016
Sinéad Farrell

The acting Taoiseach is being urged to apologise to the survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes.

The Coalition of Mother And Baby Home Survivors say an inquiry on the now notorious facilities is causing strife within their community. It was sparked by the discovery of hundreds of babies’ remains on the premises of a former home in Tuam.

The group are planning to hold a protest outside the Dáil later today. Paul Redmond, founder of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, says they will continue with their campaign until their demands are met.

“For a lot of people it would simply be the Taoiseach and Government acknowledging and aologising for what has actually happened.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

David Unze, dunze@stcloudtimes.com
April 6, 2016

A Stearns County judge has ordered the Diocese of St. Cloud to turn over the files of all priests who have been accused of the sexual abuse of children.

And in a separate order, a different judge has denied the diocese’s request to dismiss a claim that it created a “public nuisance” by not telling the public about child-molesting priests with connections to the diocese.

The orders, filed within the last week, mean that lawyers representing clergy sex abuse victims will have a chance to review those files and release portions to the public. In one other Minnesota diocese, the release of similar files led to criminal charges.

The two decisions are a “one-two punch to the long-standing practices of concealment and deceit by the Diocese of St. Cloud,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Church Militant

Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • April 6, 2016

Legislators seek abolition of statute of limitations

HARRISBURG, Pa. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Pennsylvania legislators are pushing for reform in the state’s sex crime laws.

In an action Tuesday the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee voted 26 to 1 to support a bill seeking to abolish the criminal statute of limitations. Spearheaded by Republican majority chairman Ron Marsico of Dauphin, House Bill 1947 would ensure “no one who sexually abuses a child … will ever be free from criminal prosecution merely because of a lapsed statute of limitations.”

“The issue of the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases is not a new one in the legislature,” Marsico explains in a statement released Monday.

The proposed changes would also raise “the civil statute-of-limitations age to age 50” from its current ceiling of age 30.

However the tentative reforms will have no retroactive effect. According to Rep. Marsico this is because of the potentially “huge negative impact” such clauses would have on many nonprofit organizations who could face catastrophic lawsuits “for actions that may have occurred decades ago by people who are no longer even affiliated” with the groups.

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MASSACHUSETTS

[assignment record – BishopAccountability.org]

Nov 1, 2014

PEABODY: Brother Damien P. Chong, O.Carm, died Friday morning at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center following a long illness. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 5, 1938, the son of the late Libert and Hannah (Akee) Chong and attended Saint Louis High School in Honolulu, HI and Archbishop Carroll High in Washington, D.C.

He made his Simple Profession on September 8, 1958 and his Solemn Profession on September 8, 1961, both in Akron, Ohio. From 1961 until 1991, he was assigned from Crespi High School, Mt. Carmel, La. and taught Tying, Drafter and General Science and was Pastoral Associate at St. Gelasius in Chicago.

Brother Damien had spent the last 15 years living at Our Lady of Scapular Priory in Peabody. He served in many different capacities at the Carmelite Chapel at the North Shore Mall and at the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Danvers. He maintained the grounds, decorated the church for the holidays and was an all around handyman, and he was a gourmet chef as well.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KEN LOVETT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, April 4, 2016

Here is the the lead item from my “Albany Insider” column this morning:

A state assemblywoman’s desire to use Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” to boost her fight to help child sexual abuse victims has run into a roadblock—her own chamber’s leadership.

Assembly Democratic leaders are refusing to allow Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) from holding a screening of the film at the Capitol complex during a two-day lobbying effort in May to build support for her bill to make it easier for people sexually abused as kids to bring lawsuits as adults.

Markey’s office, which received a Blueray copy of this year’s Best Picture winner that chronicles the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse by priests, was originally told it was a copyright issue.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY KENNETH LOVETT

ALBANY — A state assemblywoman’s desire to use the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” to boost her fight to help child sexual abuse victims has run into a roadblock — her own chamber’s leadership.

Assembly Democratic leaders are refusing to allow Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) from holding a screening of the film at the Capitol complex during a two-day lobbying effort in May to build support for her bill to make it easier for people sexually abused as kids to bring lawsuits as adults.

Markey’s office, which received a Blu-ray copy of the Best Picture winner that chronicles the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse by priests, was originally told it was a copyright issue.

Since then, Markey aide Michael Armstrong says he paid $200 to the film’s distributor for a license to show it one-time in a legislative hearing room.

But that is still not enough for Assembly leadership, who now say it’s about precedent.

“It’s just not something we do on government property,” said Michael Whyland, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. “It would open the door to showing all sorts of things that some people might find objectionable, not that “Spotlight” is. We just don’t want to go down that road.”

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Casey Seiler, Capitol bureau chief on April 4, 2016

Ken Lovett of the Daily News reported Monday that the Assembly’s leadership rejected Queens Democrat Marge Markey’s request to hold a screening of the Oscar-winning drama “Spotlight” at the Capitol.

The film concerns the Boston Globe’s coverage of the pedophilia coverup by the city’s Catholic Diocese. Markey has for years backed legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse in New York. The bill is opposed by the state’s Catholic Conference.

According to Lovett’s column, the Assembly initially claimed the screening would have violated the film’s copyright. After Markey obtained clearance and paid a fee for the screening, the Democratic leadership issued a backup objection.

“It’s just not something we do on government property,” Michael Whyland, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, told Lovett. “It would open the door to showing all sorts of things that some people might find objectionable. … We just don’t want to go down that road.”

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UNITED STATES
Forward

John A. Oswald
April 6, 2016

Disgraced spiritual guru Marc Gafni has suffered another black eye with the resignation of Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey from his vaunted think tank, The Forward has learned.

Mackey so far has issued no statement on his reason for stepping down from the Center for Integral Wisdom, but his departure comes as Gafni continues to be dogged by allegations of sexual improprieties stretching back years.

The Forward in January published an essay by Sara Kabakov, who alleged that Gafni molested her repeatedly, beginning when she was 13.

Gafni, who is now in his mid-50s, was 19 when the alleged abuse started, Kabakov said. The once-promising Jewish leader said the relationship with her was consensual.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 6, 2016

VATICAN CITY
A Vatican reading guide sent to Catholic bishops globally ahead of the release of Pope Francis’ widely anticipated document on family life says the pontiff wants the church to adopt a new stance of inclusion towards society and to ensure its doctrines are “at the service of the pastoral mission.”

The guide — sent by the Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops in preparation for Friday’s release of “Amoris Laetitia; On Love in the Family” — explains that Francis “encourages not just a ‘renewal’ but even more, a real ‘conversion’ of language.”

“The Gospel must not be merely theoretical, not detached from people’s real lives,” states the guide. “To talk about the family and to families, the challenge is not to change doctrine but to inculturate the general principles in ways that they can be understood and practiced.”

“Our language should encourage and reassure every positive step taken by every real family,” it continues.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Catholic

By A. B. Hill

HARRISBURG – Parish volunteers and employees who work with children know firsthand the measures now in place to protect the children in their care from abuse, including background checks and safe environment training about recognizing and reporting signs of abuse.

However, state lawmakers are considering amendments to legislation that could lead to the closure of parishes, schools, and ministries of today’s Catholics, who are in no way responsible for abuse that occurred decades ago.

The proposal would retroactively nullify the statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit alleging childhood sexual abuse. It would force parishes, dioceses, schools, and charities to defend cases that are 30, 40 or 50 years old, long after the perpetrator and possible witnesses have died or clear evidence is gone.

“Every nonprofit organization is at risk,” says Robert O’Hara Jr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, “Nothing in the proposed Pennsylvania legislation would send any perpetrators to jail. Rather, it will put individual parishes and neighborhood Catholic schools in the firing line for lawsuits that are nearly impossible to defend against.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Shawn Cohen, Jamie Schram and Kate Sheehy April 6, 2016

The gifts were lavish — Super Bowl tickets and vacations to China and London.

The favors were troubling — using NYPD cops to provide security for private cash and jewelry deliveries and police escorts for funerals and airport trips to transfer bodies to Israel.

New details emerged Tuesday in the FBI’s corruption investigation into the police department, including how deep-pocketed businessmen who were the original targets of the probe sought out high-ranking members who they knew could “get things done for them,” sources told The Post.

“They don’t go to police officers or detectives. They’re too far down the food chain,’’ a law enforcement source said of the politically connected businessmen.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By Shawn Cohen

April 5, 2016

The FBI is investigating suspected NYPD corruption focusing on the relationship between two politically connected businessmen and a slew of officers throughout the ranks, multiple sources told The Post on Monday.

The feds are grilling about 20 cops — including three deputy chiefs and the head of the Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct — over gifts and foreign trips that the businessmen may have doled out to them in exchange for favors, law enforcement sources said.

A grand jury also has been convened, sources said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY JOHN ANNESE, JOHN MARZULLI, ROCCO PARASCANDOLA NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, April 5, 2016

An NYPD officer tangled in the snare of a federal probe has been put on modified duty and stripped of his badge and gun, the Daily News has learned.

Michael Milici, a longtime community affairs detective in the 66th Precinct, was placed on restricted detail after he refused to answer questions from a grand jury, sources said Monday.

The trouble began when the feds launched a financial fraud inquiry within the NYPD. It grew out of an earlier probe by the FBI and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office that involved fraud and possible money laundering, sources said.

Now investigators are also trying to determine if some NYPD officers accepted gifts from Jewish community leaders — including a Borough Park activist with close ties to city officials, sources told The News.

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NEW YORK
Forward

Josh Nathan-Kazis
April 6, 2016

On the Jewish holiday of Purim, ultra-Orthodox big shots in Brooklyn invite police officials over for holiday meals. Then, they share the pictures on social media in an implicit contest over who drew the highest-ranking officer.

Now, those cozy relationships are drawing scrutiny amid a reported federal corruption investigation involving Orthodox businessmen and a raft of New York Police Department officials.

One informed source, a private security consultant who works in the Orthodox community, told the Forward that one of the businessmen named in press reports about the investigation, Hasidic activist Jeremy Reichberg, flaunted his ties to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to exert influence in the NYPD’s 66th Precinct, which encompasses Boro Park and other heavily Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods.

“He’s working with the Mayor’s office, so he had a little bit more connection than any other schmuck on the street,” said Joe Levin, founder of T.O.T. Private Consulting, a security consulting firm specializing in the Orthodox community.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle

By Liam Migdail-Smith

The push to give victims of child sexual abuse more time to take legal action against their abusers and the organizations that shield them has cleared a major hurdle.

With a 26-1 vote Tuesday, the state House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to overhaul the statutes of limitation for victims of child sex abuse. The bill had languished in the committee for years. The House is expected to consider the plan for final approval next week.

The bill would end time limits for criminal charges and give victims until age 50 to pursue civil cases. Now, the age limits are 50 for criminal cases and 30 for civil cases.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, who has led the reform push, called the committee’s bill a good but incomplete first step.

He said the plan would help future victims but not those who have already passed the current civil limit. He plans to propose an amendment that would make the changes retroactive, allowing victims who are now between 30 and 50 years old to file civil cases.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

April 05, 2016

The Vatican Secretariat for Communications has established a new bureau, entitled DotCatholic, to manage the new top-level internet domain by the same name.

In 2013, the Vatican sought and won exclusive control of internet addresses that end in “.catholic”. (This top-level domain includes the use of “.catholic” in English, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian.) The new Vatican office will be charged with using that domain to “share the teachings, the message, and the values of the Catholic Church with the broader global community in cyberspace,” the Vatican announced.

Mauro Milita, the former director of information technology for Vatican Radio, has been named to head the new office, which will have a staff of seven internet experts.

A top-level domain name appears last in the string of words used to identify Internet locations. For example, in this website’s name, “www.catholicculture.org”, the top-level domain name is “org”. This is supposed to give an idea of the general nature of the entity which uses the name—in this case a non-profit organization rather than a for-profit company. The lower level name “catholicculture” is an organizational identifier. And “www” designates the specific computer within the organization’s network which hosts the service in question (in this case, a world wide web server).

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Denise Calnan

06/04/2016

A priest who hit global headlines in 2006 for having an affair with a woman 42 years his junior has passed away.

Fr Maurice ‘Mossie’ Dillane shocked parishioners when he retired from the priesthood in January 2006 after his long-term affair with a local woman was revealed. He received a massive outpouring of public support and sympathy at the time.

He passed away peacefully on Monday in the care of UCH Galway. A private removal will be held on Thursday to St Brigid’s Church, Portumna for Requiem Mass at noon.

Fr Dillane was a native of west Co Limerick and was a late vocation who joined the priesthood after working in banking.

He later served as a missionary priest in San Antonio, Texas for several years.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

Editorial

They are survivors of Canada’s notorious residential schools. As First Nations children, many suffered psychological, cultural, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a racist system designed to “take the Indian out of the child.” Many fought back heroically.

The heart-wrenching testimony that many of them gave about their years of privation and worse in the schools — part of a process in which Ottawa and church groups have paid out $5 billion in compensation to 80,000 survivors — is sacred evidence, and a sacred trust.

It is only fitting that Ontario’s highest court has just upheld the right of 38,000 survivors who sought specific compensation for sexual and other abuse through a special assessment process to decide individually over the next 15 years whether to preserve their stories in an archive. Otherwise the records will be destroyed.

Granted, there is a compelling argument for preserving as much of the testimony as possible in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation archive as an indelible indictment of a shameful chapter in our collective history. The Star hopes that many survivors will agree, and deposit their records with the centre. The truth, in all its searing specificity, should not be lost to future generations.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Mark Shanahan GLOBE STAFF APRIL 05, 2016

Winning an Oscar is wonderful, but no one talks about the hassle of having to cart the thing around afterward. Josh Singer, who, along with director Tom McCarthy, won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for “Spotlight,” showed up in the Globe newsroom Tuesday with a Star Market bag containing a shoebox.

Inside the box, loosely sheathed in bubble wrap, was the golden statuette that Singer accepted on stage at The Dolby Theatre in LA in February. Not so glamorous, right?

Singer said the Oscar, which stands 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds, typically draws the attention of TSA agents, who worry the screenwriter might be carrying a bomb. It happened again this week on his way to Boston.

“The guy took it out of the box and wiped the whole thing without ever acknowledging what it was,” said Singer. “At some point, another TSA agent came over and said, ‘Hey, is that thing real?’ ”

Singer stopped at the Globe before giving a talk Tuesday night at Northeastern. He credited the newspaper for its Pulitzer Prize-winning series that exposed the child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. And he invited staff to take a selfie or two with Oscar.

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UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights

Look at how they distance themselves.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I can’t help it: Sometimes, I feel sorry for the public relations professionals who advise church officials on how to deal with clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

How do you defend the indefensible? You may be the smartest PR person in town. But how do you “spin” widely-documented and clearly devastating decades of deliberate deceit? Decades of callousness and recklessness that have caused horrific harm to more than 100,000 children (according to estimates by Catholic “experts” themselves)?

Well, these PR folks have settled on a standard formula they’re convinced works. It can be summed up as “Deny, duck, dodge and distance yourself.”

And it’s pretty clearly that church officials LOVE this approach.

It’s evident in how quickly bishops shout “He’s not our guy!” when a Franciscan or Marianist is caught molesting in their diocese. It’s evident in how quickly Jesuit staff say “He’s not one of us!” when a diocesan priest is arrested for abusing a child at a Jesuit facility.

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TEXAS
Fox 4

A Cedar Hill youth pastor is accused of sexually assaulting three boys. Up until his arrest, Willie Lee Bell Jr. ministered to children at First United Methodist Church of Cedar Hill.

Police say Bell lured and sexually assaulted the boys at an apartment in February and was caught in the act last week at a Dallas apartment. He is facing charges for two sexual assaults of little boys in Cedar Hill.

The mother of the most recent victim, who didn’t want to be identified, says her 6-year-old kindergartner was lured behind an apartment building while he was playing outside.

“It’s painful. It’s devastating. It’s a nightmare,” the mom said.

Witnesses caught a man abusing her child Thursday afternoon. The mom says bystanders attacked Bell to stop him.

“If it wasn’t for them, he probably would have done more to my child,” said the mom.

Dallas police arrested the 29-year-old in West Oak Cliff. Police say two young boys said a man abused them behind their apartment complex on East Little Creek Road in February. The boys said the man was wearing “church shoes.”

United Methodist Church of North Texas said, in a statement, it has no knowledge of any criminal acts happening at the church, and that it’s cooperating with police.

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IRELAND
Breaking News

The acting Taoiseach is being urged to apologise to survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes.

The Coalition of Mother and Baby home Survivors will hold a protest outside the Dáil later today.

The group has said an inquiry into the now notorious facilities is dividing their community.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

By IAN DRURY HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Questions about historical child abuse have been included in the Government’s official crime survey for the first time.

Thousands of adults have been quizzed by the Office for National Statistics to try to expose the full extent of such crimes in the past.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales has incorporated a new category of questions with officials asking respondents whether they had experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse while growing up.

The survey will attempt to uncover accurate figures on offending at places such as schools, sports clubs or in the family home, who carried out the attacks, the victim’s relationship to the culprit, and the age assaults began.

The ONS said it had decided to include questions on child sex abuse because the issue had become ‘topical’ after scandals involving Jimmy Savile and other celebrities were exposed.

The Government has also set up a landmark £100million inquiry into the blizzard of historic child sex abuse allegations, including against VIPs, churches, schools, local councils and MPs, led by High Court judge Justice Lowell Goddard.

The Crime Survey is seen as the most authoritative indicator of crime rates because it takes account of offences not reported to the police by victims.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Press Office of the Holy See has called a conference and briefing for journalists in connection with the publication of Pope Francis’ highly anticipated post-Synodal Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, on “The Joy of Love”, for 11:30 AM Rome Time on Friday, April 8th, in the John Paul II Hall of the sala stampa facility.

Presenting the document will be the General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn OP, along with a couple of married academics, Professor Francesco Miano and Professor Giuseppina De Simone, of the University of Tor Vergata (Rome) and the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy, respectively.

Below, please find the official announcement in English

*************************************
Accredited journalists are informed that on Friday 8 April 2016at 11.30 a.m., in the Aula Giovanni Paolo II of the Holy See Press Office, a Press Conference will be held for the presentation of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis, Amoris laetitia, on love in the family.

The panel will be composed of:

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops;
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., archbishop of Vienna;
The married couple Professor Francesco Miano, lecturer in moral philosophy at the University of Rome at Tor Vergata, and Professor Giuseppina De Simone in Miano, lecturer in philosophy at the Theological Faculty of Southern Italy in Naples.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Four elite Sydney schools are facing multimillion-dollar lawsuits by former students who say they suffered sexual abuse during their time at the colleges.

Ten damages claims have been filed in the NSW Supreme Court against four schools – Knox Grammar, Waverley College, De La Salle College Revesby Heights and The Scots College – according to Sydney lawyer Ross Koffel.

A former Knox student, Mr Koffel said he is preparing two further claims and is investigating another eight potential cases.

He said the students involved were allegedly sexually abused by teachers on school grounds or during a school activity, and the schools are accused of failing in their duty of care to the students.

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