ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
CBS Pittsburgh

[with video]

Ross Guidotti

ROSTRAVER (KDKA) – A youth pastor in Westmoreland County has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.

According to the criminal complaint, Brian Keith Smith, 33, of Belle Vernon, was arraigned on July 25.
As a youth pastor, Smith was supposed to show teens the value of faith and prayer, but police say he was a sexual predator.

“He was in a position of trust,” said Rostraver Police Chief Greg Resetar. “He should have discouraged activity like this as we know now he went to a different direction.”

Smith admitted to police that he and the girl engaged in sexual activities on multiple occasions inside the Journey By Grace church in Rostraver.

“Both of us knew it was wrong,” Smith told police.

The two also exchanged sexually explicit photos via text messages. Smith said the inappropriate contact began in February.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 28, 2014

By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A youth minister for a Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, church is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison after his arrest Friday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in his youth group.

Brian Keith Smith, 33, has been charged with the felonies of aggravated indecent assault of a minor younger than 16 and possession of child pornography, and with the misdemeanors of indecent assault of a minor younger than 16 and corruption of minors, for sexual acts with the girl at Journey By Grace Church on Route 51, according to a Rostraver police criminal complaint.

Mr. Smith and the victim began meeting at the church after the girl, who has not been identified, joined the church’s youth group, The Joshua Project, in September 2013, the complaint states.

Mr. Smith, of Belle Vernon, told police he first kissed the teen in or around February 2014, and that between February and mid-July he penetrated her sexually with his fingers on several occasions, exchange oral sex with her on several occasions, and had other sexual contact on at least three occasions in a back room of the church, according to the criminal complaint.

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

MICHIGAN
WZZM

Gregory Ghering, WZZM July 24, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) — US Attorney Patrick Miles has announced that John Balyo, a former host on a Christian radio station, is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges related to child sexual exploitation.

The US Attorney’s Office on Wednesday filed two counts against Balyo. The first one charged him with sexually-exploiting a 12-year-old boy to create child porn. The second count charged him with possessing child porn.

Under the plea deal reached Thursday, Balyo will plead guilty to both felonies and will forfeit “computers, photographic equipment, and material used to sexually abuse or exploit children,” according to the US Attorney’s statement, which also said the US Attorney will not seek more charges from a federal grand jury.

Balyo is scheduled to be arraigned and enter his guilty plea before US Magistrate Judge Ellen S. Carmody on July 29.

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

MICHIGAN
MLive

By Angie Jackson | ajackso3@mlive.com
on July 24, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — John Balyo, the former Christian radio host accused of creating pornographic images of a 12-year-old boy, is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges.

Balyo, 35, of Caledonia, on Wednesday was charged with sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. Balyo on Thursday, July 24, agreed to plead guilty to both counts, records show.

As part of the plea, Balyo will forfeit his computers, photographic equipment and material used to sexually abuse or exploit children. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will not seek additional charges.

The former morning show host for WCSG, a Christian station based in Grand Rapids, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 50 years. He will be arraigned and enter the guilty plea July 29.

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

MICHIGAN
SF Gate

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A former host at a popular Christian radio station in western Michigan is expected to plead guilty in a child pornography investigation.

Prosecutors say John Balyo is due in Grand Rapids federal court Tuesday, just weeks after his arrest on state charges at a Christian music festival in Gaylord.

The 35-year-old Balyo is charged with sexual exploitation and possessing child pornography. His signed plea deal was filed in court Thursday.

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

AUSTRALIA
Central Telegraph

A FOUR-year investigation by the ABC has uncovered shocking claims of abuse and torment in relation to NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).

Four Corners has revealed that self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams was using his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.

Courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a Christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.

The ex-members have remained in the shadows until now out of fear and shame, ABC News reports.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Fiona Henderson July 29, 2014

HORRIFIC claims of sexual and physical abuse by a former Ballarat teacher who founded religious cult Christian Assemblies International (CAI) have been unveiled by the ABC’s Four Corners program.

Pastor Scott Williams, now 70, is also accused of misusing vast amounts of money donated by CAI members and building up a worldwide multi-million dollar property portfolio.

Mr Williams taught at Ballarat East High School in the 1970s before heading to Germany, where he worked in Feldafing as a pool attendant at a military school for young men.

In the late 70s, he began recruiting German teenagers and young adults to CAI, claiming he was The Anointed One, filled with the Holy Spirit and a gifted healer.

However, Four Corner’s four year investigation showed Williams also carried out bizarre sexual rituals on males, including mass massage sessions and forcing men to perform sex acts on him, while financially, physically, verbally and spiritually abusing his members, particularly women and children.

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

AUSTRALIA
International Business Times

By Indrani Bhattacharyya | July 29, 2014

At the end of an investigation which took four long years, ABC News has found out painful details of incidents that used to take place within a NSW-based registered charity and religious group named Christian Assemblies International (CAI).

Four Corners brought out the truth to show that the self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams used his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a secret homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing enormous amount of member donations for personal purpose.

Heart wrenching true stories of abuse saw day light as former members decided to open up about the years of torment they went through at the hands of their ‘cult leader’.

A young woman named Emily Wassmann shared the devastating experience of being born into and growing up in a twisted religious cult.

The women were mostly treated as slaves and suffered both physical and verbal abuse in the hands of men members. They were monitored at every step of life.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Morning Times

Associated Press

ROSTRAVER, Pa. (AP) — A youth pastor has been fired by a western Pennsylvania church and jailed on charges he performed sex acts with a 15-year-old girl in their church building.

According to a criminal complaint, 33-year-old Brian Keith Smith told Rostraver Township police he and the girl “knew it was wrong.” Smith is charged with aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, corruption of minors and possession of child pornography — stemming from explicit cellphone pictures he received from the girl.

Journey By Grace Church Pastor Bill Bailey says church officials contacted police when they learned of the relationship earlier this month and fired Smith.

Smith’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call for comment Monday.

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

NIGERIA
allAfrica

Vanguard

A 53-year-old man who claims to be a Pastor, has been arrested by the Police in Nsukka, Enugu State, for allegedly impregnating married women and young girls in his church.

The Pastor, identified as Timothy Ngwu, is the General Overseer of Holy Trinity Ministry popularly called Vineyard Ministry in Umudikwere Community in the University town. Ironically, police sources said the suspect claims he was directed by the Holy Spirit to sexually abuse female members of his church in the name of God.

How he was exposed Crime Guard gathered that the alleged sexual exploits of the self-acclaimed man of God was blown open by his estranged wife, Veronica Ngwu, who hails from Udi Local Government Area in Enugu State.

The wife who has three children for the pastor was reportedly not comfortable with the ugly development and she lodged a complaint at the Anti-Child Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department, CID, Enugu.This led to the arrest of the pastor.

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

PARAGUAY
UCA News

Catholic World News/CatholicCulture.org Paraguay July 29, 2014 The Vatican has suspended priestly ordinations in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, according to multiple media reports.

Following an investigation of the diocese led by Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, ordinations have been suspended until Pope Francis resolves difficulties in the diocese, reports indicate.

No public announcement has been made about the reason for the action. The Vatican ordered an investigation of the diocese following the revelation that a priest who was accused of sexual abuse while serving in the US was serving as vicar general in Ciudad del Este.

That report brought to a head tensions between the diocesan leader, Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, and other bishops in Paraguay, and complaints from lay activists about alleged irregularities in diocesan affairs.

The accused priest, Father Carlos Urrotigoity—who is identified by the Scranton, Pennsylvania diocese as a “serious threat to young people”—was reportedly removed from his post as vicar general earlier this month, at the request of the apostolic nuncio in Paraguay, Archbishop Eliseo Ariotti.

However, Bishop Livieres has defended Father Urrotigoity in the past, saying that thc charges against him are unproven.

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

LOUISIANA
The Advocate

BY R. STEPHANIE BRUNO
SPECIAL TO THE ADVOCATE

In Gregory Alexander’s novel, “The Holy Mark: The Tragedy of a Fallen Priest,” Joseph Broussard is a lot like other boys growing up in New Orleans in the mid-20th century. He comes from a large Catholic family, he spends free time exploring with his cousins and he develops both rivalries and alliances with these other children that foreshadow his future.

The only obvious difference between Joe and his cousins is the “holy mark” on his scalp, or “segno sacro” as his Italian grandmother calls the red, chalice-shaped birthmark. To her, it is a sign that Joe is destined to become a priest, an ambition she has long harbored for one of her male descendants. But as the story unfolds, the reader comes to understand that the birthmark represents something chillingly sinister rather than holy and divine.

Alexander writes with pinpoint accuracy about the world that Joe (later Father Tony) inhabits, having experienced much of it himself. The author was born in New Orleans, lived here most of his life, and had an Italian great-grandmother who never learned to speak English. He attended Catholic schools and, after earning degrees in psychology and English, taught for 12 years at Cabrini and Jesuit high schools. Alexander’s life experiences have offered him a vantage point from which to observe first-hand the complex relationships that can sometimes arise in large families, as well as the political inner-workings of the Catholic Church.

More important to the theme of the novel, however, is the psychological portrait he paints of Father Tony, the “Fallen Priest” referenced in the novel’s subtitle.

Father Tony casts himself as mistreated by the Catholic hierarchy and grossly misunderstood, a priest following “in the footsteps of Jesus.” Moved from post to post because of his improprieties with teenaged boys in his care, he blames the politics of the Church, the rivalries in his family, and everyone but himself for his situation.

In his narcissistic world view, the Church and his conniving family are the ones responsible for his fate.

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

UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Martin Marty

Posted: 07/28/2014

This post originally appeared in Sightings, an online publication of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, University of Chicago Divinity School.

GRACE acronates “Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment.” Its story is well told in Kathryn Joyce’s “By Grace Alone,” an article in American Prospect (May/June; see “Sources,” below). Please read it, since it offers background and details vital to the questions of “abuse.”

I get asked, “Why doesn’t Sightings do more with the Catholic priest abuse story?” (It’s often blurted out as “Catholicpriestchildsexualabuse.”) Why doesn’t it? First, we don’t overdo overly-familiar stories. This one dominates elsewhere annually. Also, we are not anti-Catholic, so we don’t need it as an anti-Catholic pitch. In any case, the most persistent critics on this Catholic issue are themselves Catholics, wounded victims of abuse who hope to effect change.

Note, however, that the link “abuse=Catholic” obscures many realities, particularly accounts of abuse by perpetrators within other communions or movements. This week, inspired by the Joyce story, we focus on the non-Catholic world of Evangelicals and Fundamentalists.

We are not dealing with evangelical or fundamentalist outliers. The head of GRACE is Boz Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham, There’s no marginal evangelicalism in his family line! And note that Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell, is the school at which tireless Tchividjian teaches law. Also central to the Joyce story is Bob Jones University, the “mother ship” to some schools of fundamentalism.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Just as Jesus commanded pastors to leave their flock to find the lost sheep, the church must set out in search of all those who have been abused by clergy and offer them help, said one abuse survivor.

Victims of abuse should be the focus of a new pastoral ministry since they are isolated, hurting, vulnerable to self-harm and suicide, and in need of Christ’s true healing, said Mark Vincent Healy, one of the six abuse survivors who met Pope Francis at the Vatican July 7.

In his private meeting with the pope, Healy said, “I needed to tell His Holiness just how awful it is when there is no justice, no one listening on a humanitarian level,” and how all that isolation and guilt push people to suicide or self-harm and addictions.

He also told the pope how much spiritual help both survivors and the church need. Healy spoke with Catholic News Service by telephone from Ireland July 25.

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

PARAGUAY
GlobalPost

Alex Leff
July 28, 2014

The Vatican has ordered a church in eastern Paraguay to dismiss a priest accused of sexually abusing young men in the United States, according to Paraguayan press reports.

The Ciudad del Este diocese’s reported firing of Argentine priest Carlos Urrutigoity followed a recent investigative report by GlobalPost into his rise to power in the South American city, despite a string of molestation allegations against him.

The reporting, and local media coverage that followed, unleashed a flood of controversy over the priest’s continued work in the church — which had promoted him to the No. 2 post of vicar general.

According to legal documents reviewed by GlobalPost, seminarians in Minnesota and Pennsylvania made allegations against Urrutigoity that included his touching one young man’s genitals and asking another to insert anal suppositories in front of him. Clergy members from Switzerland to Scranton have issued warnings that the Argentine is “dangerous” and “a serious threat to young people.”

Urrutigoity has denied the allegations and never been criminally charged for them. But US activists have campaigned for him to be punished. That movement has gained fierce voices in Paraguay — and it appears to have gotten an answer from the pope.

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

UNITED STATES
Our Stories Untold

By STEPHANIE KREHBIEL on Jul 24, 2014

This is a strange time to be writing about Mennonites and sexuality. In less than a year, I’m scheduled to defend my dissertation on sexual diversity, LGBTQ Anabaptist activism, and the effects of heterosexism in Mennonite institutions. And just following the news cycle is keeping me so busy that I have to force myself to write.

Anyone who reads this blog is probably aware of all the things that have been happening in the Mennonite Church USA lately that both challenge and reaffirm the dominant heterosexist practices of its institutions and communities. What I’d like to talk about here is how those practices intersect with the enormous and still largely unrecognized problem that Mennonites have with sexualized violence.

You might be nodding now, if you know from experience how bad that problem is. Or you might be wondering, “Is it really as bad as all that?” Or—the question I sometimes get when I tell Mennonites about my research—“Are Mennonites really any worse than anybody else?”

Here’s how I want to respond, sometimes: Are you asking because you don’t believe there’s anything interesting to say about Mennonites on this subject, or because you’d rather that people who write about Mennonites restrict themselves to topics that make Mennonites look good?

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

PARAGUAY
El Nuevo Herald

EFE

ASUNCION — El enviado del Papa en Paraguay, el cardenal Santos Abril y Castelló, anunció el sábado la suspensión de ordenaciones sacerdotales en el seminario de la Diócesis de Ciudad del Este, donde el ejercicio de un cura argentino acusado de abusos sexuales motivó un duro enfrentamiento dentro de la jerarquía local.

Durante una rueda de prensa ofrecida en la Nunciatura Apostólica de Asunción, el cardenal español declaró que la medida fue tomada por el Papa y dijo desconocer hasta cuándo será efectiva.

Abril y Castelló, que llegó hace una semana a Paraguay acompañado de Milton Luis Tróccoli Cebelio, obispo auxiliar de Montevideo, se negó a comentar los resultados de su investigación en la Diócesis, a donde fue enviado por el Papa para desempeñar una “tarea eclesial y pacificadora”.

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

PARAGUAY
Catholic Culture

The Vatican has suspended priestly ordinations in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, according to multiple media reports.

Following an investigation of the diocese led by Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, ordinations have been suspended until Pope Francis resolves difficulties in the diocese, reports indicate. No public announcement has been made about the reason for the action.

The Vatican ordered an investigation of the diocese following the revelation that a priest who was accused of sexual abuse while serving in the US was serving as vicar general in Ciudad del Este. That report brought to a head tensions between the diocesan leader, Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano, and other bishops in Paraguay, and complaints from lay activists about alleged irregularities in diocesan affairs.

The accused priest, Father Carlos Urrotigoity—who is identified by the Scranton, Pennsylvania diocese as a “serious threat to young people”—was reportedly removed from his post as vicar general earlier this month, at the request of the apostolic nuncio in Paraguay, Archbishop Eliseo Ariotti. However, Bishop Livieres has defended Father Urrotigoity in the past, saying that thc charges against him are unproven.

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

OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 28, 2014

Statement by Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo, SNAP Leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@aol.com )

A Toledo man is trying to profit from the brutal slaying of a nun by selling paraphernalia related to the convicted murderer, a Toledo priest who has also been accused of molesting a child.

Shame on him. Shame on anyone who bids on or buys this material.

Our hearts ache for anyone who was hurt by Fr. Gerald Robinson, especially the family of Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl, who was stabbed repeatedly and killed by Fr. Robinson. There seems to be no end to the suffering that callous individuals are willing to heap on this wounded family.

Most recently, it was Toledo Catholic officials who rubbed salt in their wounds by burying Fr. Robinson as a priest in good standing.

Before that, it was Vatican officials who refused to promptly defrock a convicted murderer.

And now, an entrepreneur seeks to make money off of this grisly crime.

Shame on everyone involved.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Belleville News-Democrat

BY JIM SALTER
Associated Press
July 28, 2014

ST. LOUIS — A minister is taking his own denomination to task, claiming in a lawsuit that the Presbyterian Church was partly responsible for sexual abuse he suffered as a teenager.

The Rev. Kris Schondelmeyer, a youth minister in Toledo, Ohio, is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit he filed against Louisville, Kentucky-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); the First Presbyterian Church of Fulton, Missouri; the Missouri Union Presbytery in Jefferson City; and his alleged abuser, Jack Wayne Rogers.

Schondelmeyer, 31, a native of Sedalia, Missouri, said he was sexually abused at a youth conference in Maryland in 2000. At the time, Rogers was a lay pastor in Montgomery County, Missouri. The suit alleges Presbyterian officials allowed Rogers to work as a chaperone despite Rogers’ 1992 conviction for child pornography.

An attorney for the denomination declined comment, citing the pending litigation. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Aug. 18 in Fulton. Rogers, 69, does not have a lawyer in Schondelmeyer’s lawsuit.

Rogers has a long criminal history. In 2004, he pleaded guilty in Missouri for practicing medicine without a license and assault for cutting off a man’s penis as part of a makeshift gender reassignment surgery at a hotel in Columbia, Missouri. That same year, he was convicted of federal child pornography and obscenity charges.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
The Times-Tribune

BY DAVID FALCHEK
Published: July 28, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest, who landed a powerful position in the diocese in Paraguay after being accused of molesting students at St. Gregory’s Academy in Elmhurst in 2002, has been removed from that post by Vatican envoys.

The news came during a visit by a delegation of Vatican officials to the Diocese of the Ciudad del Este in Paraguay that Rev. Carlos Urrutigoiti was relieved of his duties as vicar general of the diocese by Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Eliseo Ariotti.

According to media reports in South America, Vatican officials declined comment on the nature of the removal.

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

GUAM
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 28, 2014 i

I know it’s been a little quiet here at The Worthy Adversary. I have been pounding away at the manuscript for The Well-Armored Child (found a publisher!), and it’s summer, so there’s not a lot of quiet time around the house.

But things have not been quiet in the Archdiocese of Hagatna, Guam. And every time I think that things are winding down, something new happens.

Here’s the low-down:

Fr. John Wadeson is a twice-accused priest who was banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. A former member of the Divine Word Missionaries, Wadeson bounced around (New York, Trenton, LA, San Francisco, and Portland) until he found a home on Guam.

Although his past was well-known and posted on the internet, Guam Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron allowed the priest to live and work in the diocese. Apuron even made Wadeson a part of his inner circle, taking the priest to Honolulu to celebrate Apuron’s 30th anniversary.

Then word got out. Local Catholic blogger and whistleblower Tim Rohr started posting information about Wadeson’s past. Other Guam Catholics joined him in his outrage. Why was a twice-accused priest allowed to live and work on Guam? What about zero tolerance? Why was Apuron allegedly punishing whistleblowing priests, but protecting known predators.

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

UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

My readers complain a lot about SNAP – the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – but here’s their press release on a situation in Pennsylvania and Paraguay that some of my friends and I have been following for a long time.

This press release, if anything, is restrained. The level of indignation could be much higher. I am posting it here because the final paragraph (which I have highlighted in bold) is especially accurate and sums up where things are at with the scandal.

***
For immediate release: Monday, July 28, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

A controversial Catholic priest who has been accused of molesting boys in the US and had been second-in-command of a diocese in Paraguay has now allegedly been removed from ministry. [MY NOTE: Actually, the link here indicates that Fr. Urrutigoity has been removed as Vicar General of the diocese in Paraguay; it does not appear (from what I can tell with the help of Google Translator) that he has been removed from ministry.] If this is true, we are glad that this action has been taken but it should have happened months ago and he should never have been put back on the job, much less won a promotion.

Catholic officials let Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity move from Pennsylvania to the South American country even though a therapist recommended that Fr. Urrutigoity “be removed from active ministry; his faculties should be revoked; he should be asked to live privately,” because of “the credible allegation from (a victim)” and the priest’s “admitted practice of sleeping with boys and young men.” …

In a global institution, the real way to protect kids is to make sweeping reform, not to take individual half-measured steps, in case after case after case, and only when forced to do so by public pressure. That suggests a self-serving pre-occupation with public relations, not a genuine commitment to children’s safety.

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

MINNESOTA
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on yesterday’s editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune seeking the ouster of St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt:

He has been charged with offenses and found innocent. He has broken no law. He is the subject of unsubstantiated accusations. Most of his accusers remain anonymous. He has triggered several investigations of himself seeking exoneration. Why, then, has he angered so many people? Largely because he believes in marriage between a man and a woman. Make no mistake about it: if Nienstedt were perceived to be a friend of gay marriage, the campaign against him would not be happening.

Now the Star Tribune has jumped on the bandwagon. The editors know they are fishing in foreign waters. “We’ve been hesitant to make this call until now for two reasons. We consider it presumptuous for a secular news organization to advise a church about internal matters. And just two years ago, the Star Tribune Editorial Board and Nienstedt openly quarreled about the ballot question that would have constitutionally banned same-sex marriage in this state.”

The Star Tribune is twice right: it is presumptuous of a secular newspaper to busy itself in the internal affairs of any religious institution. If it were reversed, if Archbishop Nienstedt called for an editorial board member of the Star Tribune to step down, the word “presumptuous” would not be chosen: a word such as “obscene” would roll off their lips. And as indicated, it is simply impossible to understand this attempt to steamroll Nienstedt absent his embrace of marriage, properly understood. So it is hardly suprising that this newspaper would now choose to pile on.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Isle of Wight County Press

Maxwell Crosby Halahan, 84, committed a series of sex offences against the boy between 1974 and 1977, while he was the parish priest at St Faith’s Church, Cowes.

He was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday to 21 months in prison.

Richard Powell, senior prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Wessex Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said after the sentencing: “Maxwell Halahan abused his position of authority as vicar in his parish. He abused the boy, who is now an adult but was only 13 years of age when the abuse started.

“Halahan had already been convicted of similar offences in 2011. There is no doubt he is a sexual predator who did not hesitate to take advantage of his position as a ‘pillar of the society’ at the time to abuse young boys.

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

TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 28, 2014

Statement by Amy Smith of Dallas, SNAP leader (281 748 4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com)

Supporters of a convicted child sexual predator are holding a rally today to support him. We hope they will change their minds and cancel the event. We also urge officials at a Leander church to cancel a similar event set for Aug. 10.

This month, a jury found Greg Kelley guilty of sexually abusing a four year old boy. Before sentencing, Kelley voluntarily accepted a plea deal in which he admitted guilt. Two young boys testified against him. One mom testified that her son told her Kelley had molested him.

People who want to support a convicted and admitted predator should do so privately, not publicly. To hold rallies for a convicted and admitted predator endangers kids by making it harder for those who see, suspect and suffer child sex crimes from speaking up.

Those who believe Kelley is innocent should visit him, pray for him, write to him and help his family. But they should do so in ways that do not scare other victims of other predators into staying silent.

By mounting public displays of support for a convicted and admitted predator, these misguided individuals are rubbing even more salt into the already – deep and still – fresh wounds of abuse victims and making it harder for police, prosecutors and employers to catch and oust child molesters.

Adults must learn to accept a disturbing truth: child molesters don’t have forked tongues or devil’s tails or horns on their heads. They are usually not “creepy” people who give us “the willies” or seem socially inept. They are usually charming and charismatic and outgoing. That is often how they are able to gain the trust of children and adults.

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

PARAGUAY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Monday, July 28, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A controversial Catholic priest who has been accused of molesting boys in the US and had been second-in-command of a diocese in Paraguay has now allegedly been removed from ministry. If this is true, we are glad that this action has been taken but it should have happened months ago and he should never have been put back on the job, much less won a promotion.

Catholic officials let Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity move from Pennsylvania to the South American country even though a therapist recommended that Fr. Urrutigoity “be removed from active ministry; his faculties should be revoked; he should be asked to live privately,” because of “the credible allegation from (a victim)” and the priest’s “admitted practice of sleeping with boys and young men.”

SNAP has been demanding that this dangerous predator be ousted since March.

Instead, Catholic officials let a credibly accused child molesting cleric move abroad, live and work among unsuspecting families and potentially hurt more innocent kids.

Transferring predator priests to different dioceses or countries is dreadfully irresponsible. It is a dangerous and self-serving practice that two United Nations Committees have condemned. An investigation should be done to determine which Catholic officials were involved in this recklessness and they should be publicly and severely punished.

In a global institution, the real way to protect kids is to make sweeping reform, not to take individual half-measured steps, in case after case after case, and only when forced to do so by public pressure. That suggests a self-serving pre-occupation with public relations, not a genuine commitment to children’s safety.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Berlin Daily Sun

Frank J LaFerriere: Pope Francis asked priest abuse victims for forgiveness

Frank J LaFerriere
Gorham

Not so long ago, Pope Francis asked priest abuse victims for forgiveness.

Yet how do those of us, whom were raped and had our souls stolen from us, whom committed suicide because of it, can give him forgiveness, or any of us so harmed, when he refuses to clean house of all the Cardinals, Bishops and Archbishops whom covered up these evil crimes and are still sitting in the positions that they are in?

How can Paul Anthony Carson, whom upon seeing the priest whom raped him walking down the street and then going home and hanging himself, being found by his parents, forgive him?

How can Emma Foster, whom was raped by Father Kevin O’Donnell, while at a primary school whom committed suicide because of it, forgive him?

How can Daniel Neill, whom committed suicide because of his rapist priest, Joseph Gallagher, forgive him?

How can the 30 boys raped at the St Alipius primary school, whom committed suicide forgive him for their rapes?

None of them can. Matter of fact, they are supposedly in hell, burning for all eternity, because the pain and suffering brought on by their rapes by Roman Catholic priests, committed suicide, which the RC teaches that if you do commit suicide, then you will burn in hell for eternity.

No Pope Francis, until you do what you have promised us you would do. Clean house, stop fighting us victims when we seek justice for the crimes committed against us, with the church lawyers getting our cases dismissed using the statues of limitations.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

(An edited version of this Op Ed appeared in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Your Views”.)

War over Weakland is over

By Peter Isely

There was a weird phenomenon that persisted for decades after the surrender of imperial Japan to the allies in 1945 that became known in popular Japanese culture as “nipponhei” or “holdouts”.

Naponhei were Japanese soldiers who either adamantly refused to believe that Japan had lost the war and continued to fight, or were so cut off from communications on remote islands in the Pacific that they never received the news. The last confirmed nipponhei was one Hiroo Onodoa who lived in the jungles of the Philippines were he successfully evaded what he thought was capture for almost 30 years. When Onodoa finally marched out of the jungle and formally surrendered he was wearing an immaculately kept dress uniform. He was age 52.

As a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a priest of the Milwaukee archdiocese, it is astonishing to read Todd Robert Murphy’s strange nipponhei like revisionist history of Archbishop Rembert Weakland (“A reappraisal of Archbishop Rembert Weakland”).

No one seems to have told Murphy that for nearly 25 years Weakland planned, directed and implemented a wide spread and systematic cover up of sex crimes against children by dozens of Catholic priests and religious clerics. Weakland’s record is one of the best documented in the entire history of the now global sex abuse crisis in the church, including tens of thousands of pages of recently court ordered released pages of internal church files, hundreds of hours of depositions of top church officials (including Weakland) and serial offenders, and the direct testimony, reports or admissions of what must now be well over 1,000 victims, among them 200 deaf youngsters by the infamous Fr. Lawrence Murphy. That number is likely a fraction of the actual total, since most victims of childhood rape and sexual assault never come forward and report the crime.

A few years ago, I received a call from a survivor of one of these predator priests that Weakland shuffled and sheltered around the archdiocese. He had a brother, let’s call him Michael, who was also molested by the same priest. Michael had just gone to the local Catholic cemetery to visit his mother’s grave. Michael also took his grandfather’s shotgun with him. He took his life, on his mother’s grave. The body, I was told, could only be identified because a business card from the archdiocese was found on his person. Michael, for whatever reason, had seeking some kind of help or relief from the archdiocese. The priest who assaulted Michael was known by Weakland and his second in charge, Bishop Richard Sklba, to have been a child sex offender.

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GUAM
KUAM

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam – Father James Wadeson paid for an advertisement in the Archdiocese of Agana’s weekly newspaper to respond to what he says are defamatory accusations that appeared in the blog Jungle Watch written by Tim Rohr. Archbishop Anthony Apuron a week ago removed Father Wadeson from active and public ministry after the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests expressed their concerns about the priest being on Guam because he was twice accused of child molestation in California. The day after his removal, Father Wadeson left Guam. In the Sunday Catholic Paper, the priest defended his reputation and also threatened to sue anyone who wishes to reiterate false accusations about him.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Monday, 28 July 2014

A Catholic priest who possessed child pornography bought some material to understand the concept of paedophilia, an Adelaide court has been told.

Sophie David, for Father Stanislaus Hogan, also said two of the five videos seized from her client were taped from SBS educative TV programs, but were classified by authorities as being in the most serious child pornography category.

Hogan, 69, has pleaded guilty to an aggravated count of possessing child pornography and a count of using a carriage service to access child pornography at Athelstone between April 20 and June 10 2012.

The 1555 images were found in his bedroom at St Ignatius’ College, where police also located magazines and videos which Ms David said were bought legally in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The ages of the children ranged between three and 16 years.

More than 70 per cent of the images were in the least serious category involving no sexual activity, but five images and two videos were in category five, the most serious.

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PARAGUAY
The Eponymous Flower

The first step has been reached after the apostolic visit to the Paraguayan diocese. Francis will soon decide the future of Bishop Rogelio Livieres

The following is part of a report by Andres Alvarez at the Neocatholic Vatican Insider at Italy’s anti-Clerical La Stampa. There’s no discussion that the courageous Bishop Livieres’ accusations of aberrosexuality on the part of one of his brother bishops, or his denunciations of Liberation Theology had anything to do with this as reported earlier here. Surely there are worse Diocese in Paraguay who produce no vocations, house Old Liberal Bishops and confuse the faithful endlessly with their heterodoxy? Nope, sorry, too much Catholicism it seems.

[VATICAN CITY, Vatican Insider] An immediate and forceful measure was undertaken in the Paraguayan Diocese of Ciudad del Este. In recent days two envoys of the Pope to the government conducted an audit of Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano and, before leaving the country, dropped a bomb: Francis has [stopped] all sacerdotal and diaconal ordinations in the diocese. So far no one has reported on the reasons for the freeze, but it clearly responds to a serious situation in the local seminary. [Like too much Catholicism, Latin, apostolic charity…]

The news was reported by the apostolic visitors, Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló and Milton Luis Troccoli, Auxiliary Bishop of Montevideo (Uruguay). They concluded their investigations “in loco” on Saturday July 26. Investigations conducted during intense week, in which they passed around. It included fainting and subsequent hospitalization of the cardinal.

According to the practice of the Holy See, the apostolic visits are usually reserved audits are often carried out in absolute discretion. But the case of Ciudad del Este was different. First of all because the conflict between its bishop and other members of the Paraguayan Bishops is public domain several years ago.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

Theresa May faced calls last night to appoint a self-described “radical lawyer” as chairman of the public inquiry into high-profile child abuse cases.

A group of abuse survivors, lawyers and care professionals wrote an open letter to the Home Secretary calling for Michael Mansfield, QC, to be selected to lead the inquiry.

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PARAGUAY
Ultima Hora

[Summary: Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello urged the faithful to respect and obey the decisions taken by Pope Francis for the good of the church in his final report to the Ciudad del Este diocese. The apostolic visit culminated yesterday with a short meeting of the cardinal and Auxiliary Bishop Luis Troccoli of Montevideo, Uruguay, with Bishop Rogelio Livieres of Ciudad del Este.

The bishop confirmed that Argentine priest Carlos Urrutigoity, who was accused of child abuse in the United States, was removed from his post as vicar general two weeks ago at request of Apostolic Nuncio Eliseo Ariotti. Urrutigoity spoke with Cardinal Abril y Castello for 15 minutes of Thursday. Issues were clarified but there currently is no accusation against him. The diocese yesterday published a document in which Maria Graciela Vera Colman, a district attorney, requested dismissal of the indictment aagainst Urrutigoity for lack to evidence. There are no charges against him at the Vatican.]

Por Wilson Ferreira

CIUDAD DEL ESTE

El cardenal Santos Abril y Castelló instó a la feligresía a respetar y obedecer las decisiones que adopta el papa Francisco para el bien de la Iglesia, durante su mensaje final a la diócesis de Ciudad del Este. Las palabras del cardenal se dieron al despedirse de los católicos del Este, durante la bendición final de la misa multitudinaria del jueves.

Pero la visita apostólica en la diócesis de Ciudad del Este culminó ayer con una breve reunión del cardenal Santos Abril y Castelló y el monseñor Milton Luis Tróccoli, con el obispo Rogelio Livieres Plano en la sede del Obispado.

La visita de los enviados del papa Francisco se inició el lunes con una recolección de datos y culminó ayer viernes con una última visita realizada por el obispo Tróccoli al Instituto de Formación Sacerdotal San Ireneo, que funciona en la parroquia Espíritu Santo.

Desde muy temprano se instaló allí para luego, a las 10.00, sumarse al cardenal para una última reunión con Livieres en el Obispado y luego partir rumbo a la capital del país.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Four Corners

[with video]

By Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Janine Cohen

Monday 28th July 2014

He is a self-styled evangelist who told his followers he was The Anointed One, chosen by God to convert the world to his beliefs.

Anyone who didn’t follow his word was told they would burn in hell, that he held the key to their salvation on judgement day.

In reality, Scott Williams was a cult leader who used his own brand of religion to warp biblical scripture in the pursuit of sex, money and power.

Scott Williams left Australia 38 years ago, converting hundreds of young people throughout Europe. On the outside, life appeared happy. But now, former cult members reveal to Four Corners a lifetime of secretive abuse, misplaced worship and horrifying punishments carried out under the guise of obedience to ‘The Overseer’, Scott Williams. Their stories are so shocking, their brainwashing so profound, it is almost unbelievable. As one former member explained:

“It’s not simple to walk out. No. I wish I could. I tried. I tried a few times. It’s a curious web and it was like he’s the spider and he’s got you there and you can’t get out of the bloody spider web.”

This week, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna investigates the rise of Scott Williams and his incredible path around the world and back to Australia, exposing how he created a hell on earth for many followers. Controlling almost everything they did, members say they were threatened, beaten, subjected to horrifying and bizarre sexual rituals – and even their children were taken away and given to others to raise for a time.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)

Manipulated, sexually abused and hidden in plain sight: Victims reveal the unspeakable horror of secret Australian cult ‘The Assembly’

By EMILY CRANE

Shocking claims of abuse within a secret NSW-based religious group have come to light after former members revealed the years of torment they endured at the hands their ‘cult leader’.

Self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams allegedly used his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a secret homosexual sex ring while misusing huge amounts of member donations for his own personal use.

The claims of horrific abuse alleged to have occurred within Mr Williams’ NSW-based religious group, Christian Assemblies International (CAI), were uncovered during a four-year investigation by the ABC’s Four Corners.

Dozens of former members said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by Mr Williams, who had been given authorisation by God to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and train his male member to be sexually obedient.

The abuse detailed by the men and women, who until now have remained silent out of fear and shame, ranged from spiritual, financial, verbal and physical abuse to sexual abuse of adult male members.

‘I haven’t come across anything like it,’ Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna told Daily Mail Australia ahead of the episode going to air on Monday night.

‘Former members describe it as a cult.’

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Four Corners reporter uncovers a secret religious society accused of physical and mental abuse

TOTAL control over every aspect of life. Alleged physical and mental abuse. Bizarre and depraved sexual rituals. A man who claims he speaks directly to God.

This was the way of life for hundreds of members of a secret religious group that started in a beach town in northern New South Wales and spread across the world.

Tonight, ABC journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna’s four-year investigation will expose the Assembly and its founder, Scott Williams.

Her Four Corners report hears from those who’ve escaped the group, plots the journey of Williams over nearly four decades and uncovers the vast fortune he has siphoned from loyal followers.

“I began looking at this story back in 2010 and have been following it since, but it wasn’t until this year that two key former members told me they were ready to go public,” Meldrum-Hanna said.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

Fr Brian D’Arcy: My battle with cancer, the Catholic Church and how my faith survived trauma of being abused as a boy of 10

Fr Brian D’Arcy is one of Ireland’s best-known clerics – controversial and frank. He speaks to Adrian Rutherford about the future of the Catholic Church and how his faith survived the trauma of being abused as a boy of 10 in Omagh.

8 JULY 2014

Q. You are one of Ireland’s best-known priests, but was religion always a part of your life?

A. I was born in 1945 and, growing up in the 1950s and 60s, not many families weren’t religious. By modern standards, there were exceptionally religious families back then.

It was a culture. It didn’t matter what religion you were, you went to church on Sunday, you had respect for your parents, the law and your community.

We weren’t a family that was always in church or highly religious. We were a very normal family.

We were highly involved in GAA affairs – my father was a famous footballer – and that was almost as big a religion as Catholicism.

Did we believe in a God, did we pray, did we keep the Commandments? Yes, we did that as simply as you breathed because there was no other way of life. …

Q. You were abused as a child – did that shake your faith?

A. I was abused when I was 10 and at school in Omagh. I didn’t realise what was happening at the time, but I still knew it was wrong. It had a great effect on me. It made me very nervous and insecure, unsure of what religion was or wasn’t because it was a religious brother who abused me for almost a year.

As a teenager, after I entered the priesthood, a priest tried to involve me in abuse as well.

I had more sense at that age and was able to get out of the situation much quicker.

I hadn’t the wit to tell my superiors because he told me that if I ever told anyone I would never be ordained.

It was only 35 years or so afterwards that I was even able to think about it.

Abuse affects you to the day you die. It leaves you very insecure, very hurt. You never actually get over it. You have to live with it.

Q. You could never imagine it had been so widespread in the church?

A. I thought I was the only child in the country that it had happened to. I genuinely thought that, which is why I convinced myself I wouldn’t be believed.

It was such a uniquely awful experience. Being abused by an adult who you trusted, especially by someone in religion, destroys your relationship with people, it destroys your relationship with others and it threatens to absolutely destroy your relationship with God.

Q. Pope Francis recently said he believes one in 50 priests is involved in child abuse – do you think that’s accurate?

A. He is underestimating it. It is more than that. At the very minimum, I would say three to five per cent, and I would say nearer 5%. But that is only the reported cases – I would contend that less than 50% of cases are ever mentioned or reported. So what is the real figure? It’s probably nearer 8% – about one in 12 priests. Certainly one in 15 have either abused, assaulted or had dysfunctional sexual relationships.

Q. It has been very damaging for the Catholic Church.

A. It has, but I would rather have the church now, with its less arrogant, less perfectionist attitude than a church which said there is no room for sinners.

You always have to accept that you have to live with sin, not necessarily in sin, but with sin.

Q. Do you think it will ever recover its old image?

A. I hope not, because when its image was best, its sinfulness was greatest. Its image now is far more healthy because the good will survive and the hypocritical will perish.

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ZAMBIA
Zambia Daily Mail

THE calls by many sections of the Zambian society for the government to apply stricter controls on the proliferation of churches are justified.

It will help curb the sexual abuse of unsuspecting female members by immoral clergymen.

In the last two years the country has seen an increase in the number of pastors and ‘prophets’ involved in criminal and immoral activities.

The men of the cloak are using their influential and privileged positions to prey on desperate women and girls under the guise of the so-called deliverance.

The rate at which churches are emerging, especially in densely populated communities and rural areas, is alarming.

As members of these communities grapple with various personal and social challenges, they are seeking help from the men of God.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

By Caro Meldrum-Hanna

A four-year investigation by the ABC has uncovered shocking claims of abuse and torment in relation to NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).

Tonight’s Four Corners reveals that self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams was using his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.

Courageous former members break their silence and tell of their torment living inside the group, which they say is not a Christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.

The ex-members have remained in the shadows until now out of fear and shame. They detail shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.

They say bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by Williams, who described himself as “The Anointed One” with the Lord’s authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience.

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Guardian

Monday, July 28, 2014

Anna Lisa Paul

Hours before he met with investigators probing the allegations of sexual and physical abuse at the St Michael’s School for Boys, Diego Martin, the abused teenager who confirmed the wrongdoing by staff members said he was now “in a better place” after having gone public with his story. The teenager, 19, who lives in Port-of-Spain, made the statement as he waited to meet with police last Friday. The teenager was met at the Guardian Media Ltd office by three officers from the Western Division.

He and his boss were later taken to an undisclosed in Port-of-Spain for the interview, which lasted close to three hours. In a phone interview yesterday, the teenager confirmed that he had given police a sworn statement and was ready and willing to meet with police again any time. Asked yesterday if he was having second thoughts about revealing the abuse he suffered during his year at the school, or about meeting with police, the teenager replied, “No, I’m good.”

Investigators were eager to meet with him, as he is the first person thus far to come forward and testify about the kind and level of abuse he suffered while at the school. The investigation was launched after Attorney General Anand Ramlogan revealed the findings of a committee appointed to probe the death of Brandon Hargreaves. Hargreaves, 14, of Cascade, died on April 8, after he suffered a head injury. Initial reports said he was injured while trying to drop-kick another child.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Click here for the story.

Guam – Los Angeles Archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan says the LA Archdiocese told Guam church officials about the sexual abuse accusations against Father John Wadeson in 2011, according to a report on the ABC News website.

The ABC report also cites a 2004 Los Angeles archdiocese report which says “Wadeson was credibly accused in two cases between 1973 and 1977.” Between 1972 and 1985 Wadeson worked at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles. Verbum Dei is an all-male Catholic high school school.

The “Survivors Network Against those Abused by Priests” [SNAP] has previously reported that Father Wadeson was named in Los Angeles Archdiocese records from the early 1990’s, and in LA news reports, as having been accused on 2 occasions of being a predator priest. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has barred Father Wadeson from ministry in LA. The accusations against Father Wadeson were never brought to trial.

Father Wadeson was incardinated on Guam by Archbishop Apuron in 2000. Archbishop Apruon removed Father Wadeson from “active and public ministry” on Guam this past Tuesday, 4 days after SNAP issued a release calling attention to the decades old accusations against Father Wadeson.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

Adrian Rutherford
Published 28/07/2014

One of Ireland’s best known priests has revealed he is fighting cancer.

Fr Brian D’Arcy said he was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year.

The 69-year-old, who is also a prominent columnist and broadcaster, said he is overcoming the illness and is feeling “fine”.

“I was diagnosed earlier this year, but I don’t really like saying too much about it,” Fr D’Arcy told the Irish Independent.

“It’s prostate cancer, which any man can get at any stage.

“I haven’t said much about it because it’s putting yourself in the limelight, but thankfully I’m overcoming it.”

Some of the issues the Enniskillen-based priest discussed during the wide-ranging interview were:

* He disputes claims by Pope Francis that one in 50 priests are paedophiles, believing the true figure is actually closer to one in 12.
* The Pope would be wasting his time coming to Ireland.
* The priesthood must review its position on male celibacy if it is to survive for future generations.

Fr D’Arcy entered the priesthood when he was 17 and is rector of St Gabriel’s Retreat in the Graan, near Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Under the banner headline, “To heal church, Nienstedt must go,” the Editorial Board of the Minneapolis StarTribune Sunday called for the resignation of embattled Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt.

“Signs abound that the leadership crisis sparked by priest abuse of children in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has come to a breaking point, the editorial stated. Consider these developments just this month:

• A judge in St. Paul — a city whose history and culture are inseparable from the Roman Catholic Church — refused to set aside a lawsuit’s claim that the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona had created a public nuisance with their handling of abusive priests. District Judge John Van de North said he is seeking more information on that charge as he allowed a suit to go forward on claims of negligence.

• An affidavit by former archdiocesan canon law chancellor Jennifer Haselberger reported a “cavalier attitude about the safety of other people’s children” at the archdiocese’s top levels, leading to lax investigations and continued priestly service by suspected abusers. Haselberger resigned from her post in 2013 because, she said, she could no longer work for an organization that was not fully cooperating with an investigation of illegal activity within it.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 28, 2014

Chris Johnston
Senior Writer for The Age

Guilt can be a heavy burden – and this seems to be the case with the latest chapter in the disturbing story of a senior Victorian sect leader now in jail on child sex charges.

Ten days ago Chris Chandler, 56, drove to Melbourne from his property on French Island, in Western Port. Then he went to the Melbourne Magistrates Court to hand himself in.

Chandler was a leader of the secretive Bible sect known as Friends and Workers, or the Two by Twos, who have 2000 Victorian members. He had already admitted his guilt in eight charges in a Gippsland court including unlawful indecent assaults, indecent assaults and gross indecency on three young female victims.

But Chandler baulked at his sentence of a year’s jail with a non-parole period of three months, telling his lawyers that while he was guilty, he wasn’t guilty to that extent.

But then something changed. He decided he wanted to go to jail. When he turned up at Melbourne’s central magistrates court to surrender – not the Morwell court his hearings had been held in, and not the one closest to his home – he hadn’t told the policeman who made the charges stick what he was about to do.

Sergeant Darren Eldridge of Moe police was surprised to hear Chandler had given up his fight. He had been working on the case for two years. ”We were assisted in different ways by a number of congregation members,” he said.

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WASHINGTON
Catholic Sentinel

The trial date for a priest accused of luring a 14-year-old girl toward his car in Vancouver, Wash. has been moved to Oct. 6 in Clark County Superior Court.

Proceedings had been set for July in the case of Father Michael Patrick, who was removed from his post as pastor of St. Wenceslaus Parish in Scappoose soon after the March 10 incident came to light.

Father Patrick was released from jail in April and is under the supervision of authorities.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA0
CBS SF Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — The San Francisco Archdiocese has removed a priest from ministering in the city after he was removed from his post in Guam over allegations that he molested two boys four decades ago while serving in the archdiocese of Los Angeles, church officials said Friday.

The Rev. John Howard Wadeson was stripped of his duties in the Archdiocese of Agana on Monday after concerns in the community there about his past and he has since left the U.S. territory, the Guam Pacific Daily News reported. Wadeson, whose current whereabouts are unknown, told the paper he was innocent and was leaving to protect his archbishop.

A 2004 report on clergy abuse issued by the Los Angeles archdiocese lists Wadeson as being credibly accused of molesting two people between 1973 and 1977, while he was working as a priest with the Divine Word Missionaries religious order. Wadeson was in the Los Angeles archdiocese between 1972 and 1985 and spent many of those years at Verbum Dei High School, an all-boys Catholic school.

Wadeson’s religious order would have been responsible for dealing with the allegations at the time, said Monica Valencia, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles archdiocese.

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GUAM
Pacific News Center

Guam – The Archdiocese of San Francisco has announced that it has withdrawn permission for Father John Wadeson to practice his ministry in San Francisco after learning that Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron had removed Father Wadeson from ministry in Guam this past week, Monday, July 21st.

The statement was issued Friday, July 25th, by the San Francisco Archdiocese Victim’s Assistance Coordinator, Dr. Renee Duffey. [see the statement below]

Duffey writes that the San Francisco Archdiocese granted permission to Father Wadeson to practice his ministry “based upon assurances of good standing from his home diocese, in this case the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam.”

It is not clear from the statement when the San Francisco Archdiocese first granted Father Wadeson permission to practice his minitry. Nor is it clear when the Guam Archdiocese gave the San Francisco Archdiocese those “assurances of good standing” on behalf of Father Wadeson.

The Archdiocese of Guam announced that it had removed Father Wadeson from ministry on Monday “in response to concerns raised by the community.” Father Wadeseon left Guam for San Francisco the next day, on Tuesday, July 22ed. …

READ the statement from the Archdiocese of San Francisco below:

Statement Regarding Fr. John Wadeson:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(SAN FRANCISCO, JULY 25, 2014) As with all priests who hale from other dioceses, Fr. John Wadeson was granted permission to minister within the Archdiocese of San Francisco based upon assurances of good standing from his home diocese, in this case the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam.

On July 22, 2014, the Archdiocese of San Francisco became aware that the Archbishop of Agana, Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, had removed Fr. Wadeson from ministry on July 21, 2014, “in response to concerns in the community.”

Therefore, on July 22, 2014, Archbishop Cordileone informed Archbishop Apuron that in response to this information, Fr. Wadeson would not be allowed to undertake any ministry in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, unless and until his home Archdiocese confirms that he is suitable for ministry.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco has informed Fr. Wadeson of that restriction as well, and Fr. Wadeson has willingly agreed to observe it.

We welcome and encourage anyone who may have any information concerning any possible wrongdoing by Fr. Wadeson to contact the Victim’s Assistance Office.

For more information contact:
Dr. Renee Duffey
Archdiocese of San Francisco
Victim’s Assistance Coordinator
(415) 614-5506
duffeyr@sfarchdiocese.org

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ZAMBIA
Zambia Daily Mail

By NOMSA NKANA

HOLY Fire Christian Ministries Church has been deregistered following allegations of indecent assault and sexual abuse scandals that rocked the church.

Registrar of Societies Kakoma Kanganja has shut down the church based in Bulangililo, Kitwe, to stop any further abuses and disturbances to the public.

He, however, told the Sunday Mail that the presiding bishop of the church, Dominic Nyundu, last week resurfaced after going into hiding in 2010

Mr Kanganja, who was in Kitwe, said bishop Nyundu was allegedly embroiled in the sex scams between 2010 and 2013 when he was reported to be abusing women by taking them for overnight prayer meetings where he would have sex with them in the name of exorcising demons.

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DELAWARE
The News Journal

Thomas S. Neuberger July 26, 2014

The passage of the Child Victims Act in July of 2007 is proof that even the often maligned “Delaware Way” can sometimes benefit the proverbial “little guys.”

In 2012 about 900 sexually abused pre-adolescent victims of jailed Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley shared a Beebe Hospital fund of $123 million in Superior Court because of the CVA.

During a 2011 federal court bankruptcy reorganization, over $110 million also was distributed to 152 adult survivors who were sexually abused by Catholic priests of the Diocese of Wilmington, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and the Capuchins. For what some call “soul murder,” tens of millions of dollars also were paid in confidential settlements with dozens of other childhood rape survivors which occurred in families, other churches, nonprofit organizations or in public, private or religious schools.

Vital knowledge also was given to parents to enable them to make informed decisions and protect their children. For example, the names of living predator priests from Salesianum and Archmere were revealed, warning parents of the dangers they present to their children. At Salesianum school alone, twelve living or deceased priests were exposed, and at the Diocese more than 20. Even more co-workers and supervisors were revealed to have turned a blind eye.

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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: EDITORIAL BOARD , Star Tribune Updated: July 26, 2014

Archbishop cannot be a force for reform in Twin Cities archdiocese.

Signs abound that the leadership crisis sparked by priest abuse of children in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has come to a breaking point. Consider these developments just this month:

• A judge in St. Paul — a city whose history and culture are inseparable from the Roman Catholic Church — refused to set aside a lawsuit’s claim that the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona had created a public nuisance with their handling of abusive priests. District Judge John Van de North said he is seeking more information on that charge as he allowed a suit to go forward on claims of negligence.

• An affidavit by former archdiocesan canon law chancellor Jennifer Haselberger reported a “cavalier attitude about the safety of other people’s children” at the archdiocese’s top levels, leading to lax investigations and continued priestly service by suspected abusers. Haselberger resigned from her post in 2013 because, she said, she could no longer work for an organization that was not fully cooperating with an investigation of illegal activity within it.

• The archdiocese confirmed to the Star Tribune that Archbishop John Nienstedt is the subject of a monthslong investigation of sexual misconduct with seminarians, priests and other men.

• Minnesota Public Radio aired an hourlong documentary, “Betrayed by Silence,” detailing how three St. Paul/Minneapolis archbishops — Nienstedt and his predecessors John R. Roach and Harry Flynn — ignored or downplayed evidence and, until this year, concealed the names of priests credibly accused of molesting children.

• An editorial in the New York Times said that if Pope Francis is serious about holding bishops accountable for the abuse scandal that has rocked the church, a “good place to start” would be St. Paul and Minneapolis, with the removal of Nienstedt.

Today, with sadness, this newspaper joins that call. For the sake of one of this state’s most valued institutions and the Minnesotans whose lives it touches, Nienstedt’s service at the archdiocese should end now.

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AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

ROBERT Toreaux knows what it’s liked to be tortured; to spend each day in fear of being attacked and humiliated without being able to escape.

He’s also knows how child abuse can lead to long-term, chronic health problems for survivors.

The 66-year-old spent a good portion of his childhood living and working at the Riverview Training Farm for Boys.

The Salvation Army-run facility has proved to have a long and grim history as a place of abuse, where children were routinely physically and sexually assaulted by staff.

Mr Toreaux arrived at the training farm in 1960 when he was 10-years-old and resided there for four years.

“My mother died in 1956,” he said. “She was killed in a car accident when her vehicle collided with a drunk driver.

“After that, my father took off and left my brothers and sisters to fend for ourselves.

“I was separated from my seven siblings and spent a number of years bounced around 27 orphanages.”

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ALABAMA
WAFF

By Marie Waxel

Updated: Jul 26, 2014

COLBERT COUNTY, AL (WAFF) –
The Colbert County District Attorney was asked Thursday if church leaders violated state law by not immediately reporting abuse allegations involving a children’s pastor.

Jeff Eddie will spend the next 30 years behind bars after pleading guilty to sex abuse charges. One of the victims filed a federal lawsuit against Eddie, Highland Park Baptist Church and a non-profit organization connected to the church.

The lawsuit (PDF) claims church leaders knew about the accusations for more than a week before notifying police.

According to state law, clergy members are required to report known or suspected abuse to authorities immediately. The new lawsuit claims church leaders knew about the accusations for 10 days, and even conducted their own investigation before going to police. If proven to be true, that is a direct violation of the law.

The original arrest warrant against Eddie also noted the church’s internal investigation prior to police notification.

District Attorney Bryce Graham said because he is not connected to the civil suit that has been filed, he cannot comment on its details. However, he did release a statement:

“We prosecuted the criminal case and to my knowledge, the church reported it to us when they found out,” Graham said. “Nothing has been brought to me of any discrepancies of any church officials as far as delayed reporting goes.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/25/2014

Last week I wrote a piece calling for Archbishop John Nienstedt to step down or be removed from his position. I will not repeat here the arguments I made. You can look up the column, which coincidentally was posted online the same day a blogger for the National Catholic Reporter also called for his resignation and a New York Times editorial urged Pope Francis to reconsider Nienstedt’s fitness to serve. But essentially, the mishandling of recent clergy abuse cases in the Twin Cities archdiocese warrants his resignation.

My reasons have nothing to do with previous allegations that he inappropriately touched a minor during a confirmation ceremony.

My gut told me that was bogus, and cops later determined there was insufficient evidence to warrant charges.

There’s an internal church probe now into allegations that Nienstedt had inappropriate relationships with seminarians and others dating from the time he worked in Detroit. That also has little to do with my feelings since the investigation continues. Others within the church wanted him out after his somewhat obsessive and much-politicized crusade two years ago to support a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. …

Not surprisingly, I got quite a few responses to last week’s column. Most sided with me, but there were also strenuous disagreements. The following are but a handful of emails I received:

“You are ignorant and (Jennifer) Haselberger (former chancellor for canonical affairs who revealed the mishandlings after she resigned in 2013) hates the church for some reason,” wrote one reader. “There are a lot of people who want the Archbishop to ‘go’ because of his conservatism, particularly his support for traditional marriage. Don’t be another hater.”

“It is you and people like you who should resign from the Church,” fumed one letter writer from Woodbury. “I feel sick every time you and one of your ilk refer to themselves as ‘Catholics.’ I feel sullied and fouled by associating yourselves with my most basic beliefs.”

A frequent letter writer to me and the Pioneer Press snapped: “I wonder if you would also have been on the top of the list asking Peter to resign as head of the church? I am also sure that your choice to replace our Archbishop would be infinitely better than Christ’s.”

To be fair, I replied and thanked him for being someone I could always count on to make “asinine” remarks. I meant that in a Christian way. Maybe I’ll get a few extra Hail Marys as contrition at the next confession.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Burlington County Times

By Peg Quann Staff writer

Will Pope Francis come to Philadelphia in September 2015?

It looks more and more likely, as Archbishop Charles Chaput reportedly told Native Americans in North Dakota on Thursday that “Pope Francis has told me that he is coming.”

The Catholic News Service reported the archbishop mentioned the pope’s pending visit during his homily at the Tekakwitha Conference in Fargo.

Chaput — whose ancestors included Native Americans — told the Fargo conference, “The pope will be with us the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of that week,” according to the CNS report of the event in the Diocese of Trenton online newspaper, The Monitor, Friday morning.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia cautioned, however, on Friday it has not received an official confirmation from the Vatican that the pope will attend the World Meeting of Families in the city Sept. 22-27, 2015. The CNS updated its report to reflect that concern but the story was removed from the Monitor post on the Trenton diocesan website.

Archdiocesan spokesman Ken Gavin said he had a “very strange and hectic day” Friday as the archbishop’s comments became public.

“I was not in Fargo, so I can’t say he was misquoted. He has said things like that before. He’s said similar things, but every time, said we still were waiting for official confirmation from the Vatican … We’re extremely confident that he will be here.”

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MINNESOTA
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

Refusing to address a single one of the facts whistle blower Jennifer Haselberger has revealed in her deposition, in her interviews, and in the abundant documentary evidence that supports Haseblberger’s claims about the scandal in St. Paul, Catholic Defense League’s Bill Donohue instead goes after Haselberger personally.

And why not? This is a tactic demagogues of all shapes and sizes have used throughout history. Avoid the evidence, don’t engage on the issues, instead use personal attacks to discredit your opponents. It may not be the most Catholic or Christian thing to do – but hey, it’s us vs. them, so anything goes, right?

Now if Donohue wanted to come after me or pretty much any other Catholic I know, and if he did his digging, he could find a ton of embarrassing and incriminating details that would make it hard for any of us to show our faces in public again. I have yet to meet a perfect Catholic, and I am far from one myself. Should my insignificant blog posts pop up on Bill Donohue’s radar, he could find enough dirt to destroy me in spades if he put his mind to it.

But what’s the best he can come up with to smear the character of this woman, a woman who so loved the Church and was so upset at the cavalier disregard for children and other innocent victims in St. Paul that she sacrificed her own career to speak up about it? What’s the best he can come up with?

The best he can come up with is this.

* As a young woman she quit going to church, but then when she got older she started going again.
* One of her instructors at a very liberal feminist Catholic college in St. Paul happened to be, herself, a liberal feminist.
* A fringe church group has used one of Haselberger’s quotes (from a paper she wrote) in their promotional material.

That’s it.

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GUAM
Jungle Watch

We know now, as per the Associated Press story today, that Archbishop Apuron was contacted by the Los Angeles Archdiocese about Fr. Wadeson in 2011:

In 2011, Wadeson asked the Los Angeles archdiocese for authorization to minister once more in Los Angeles because he was traveling in California. The archdiocese refused and contacted archdiocese officials in Guam after learning he was working there, said archdiocese attorney Michael Hennigan.

Unless the Los Angeles attorney is lying or the AP is making it up, we now have solid evidence that Archbishop Apuron was aware of Wadeson’s issues at least by 2011 (even though he should have been made aware of them by Wadeson himself when he requested incardination in 2000 and certainly in 2004 when the Los Angeles report was published.)

Amazingly, while Archbishop Apuron did nothing in 2011 about Fr. Wadeson, even vouching for him so that he could serve in another diocese, in the same year, 2011, Archbishop Apuron ordered Fr. Paul to fire an employee from Santa Barbara who Apuron said was a “danger to children.”

Let’s restate that:

* Archbishop Apuron is contacted in 2011 by the Los Angeles Archdiocese about one of his priests.
* The priest had been accused of molesting children and was listed on an official Los Angeles Archdiocesan report.
* Archbishop Apuron not only does nothing about this priest, he vouches for the alleged child molester to function as a priest in another bishop’s diocese.
* At the same time, he demands that Fr. Paul Gofigan fire an employee from his parish who Archbishop Apuron says is a “danger to children” even though the man’s crime was more than 30 years ago and had nothing to do with children.
* Two years later, the priest accused of molesting children is still functioning in both dioceses unhindered and unreported, and Fr. Paul is fired for showing kindness to the man whose employment he had terminated two years earlier at the Archbishop’s order.

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UNITED STATES
JWVictims

Tens of thousands of former and current Jehovah’s Witnesses have lost their lives or have sacrificed their family, their health, and their emotional well-being due to the harmful policies of this religion. Some have refused lifesaving medical treatment including blood transfusions and organ transplants, while others are completely shunned by their family for simply leaving the religion, including young ones.

Still others must endure horrific violence on a daily basis, as women are encouraged to stay with abusive men in the hopes of converting them, and child sex assault victims must produce a second witness to their attack before their accusations are heard. Rape victims may face severe shunning for “fornication,” and child abuse in the form of extreme discipline is often encouraged.

July 26, 2014, marks the inaugural Watchtower Victims Memorial Day. On this day, people from around the world are invited to leave a flower and card or another small memorial at a local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is encouraged to take a picture or make a video of the memorial to post on the official Facebook page, and to be sure the card or memorial includes the Facebook page address so that others may learn its meaning.

For those who must remain anonymous or who do not wish to visit a Kingdom Hall, a memorial might be left in a public park. Participation should be in any way that is comfortable for each individual.

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IRELAND
Galway Advertiser

Ronnie O’Gorman

If there isn’t some dramatic change, and matters as they stand are allowed to drift, it is easy to see that the impact of the child abuse scandals within the Catholic church have had a very negative impact on the present and future generations in Ireland. Despite being one of the most generous generations ever when it comes to helping others, young people today are quite indifferent to the church. In fact many are openly hostile.

As for the institutional Church itself, Brenda O’Brien, The Irish Times journalist and a teacher of religion, writes that as an institution, it is bordering on clinical depression. Her son, 20 years old, has never known a time when it was held in high regard. She has taken her students to a mosque, where they met devout Muslims, and learned how they pray often, and try to remain in constant awareness of God. The Irish students were taken aback. They had not ever experienced that in their own everyday life. ‘We are still waiting for a model of Church where lay people are central,’ she says.*

Whatever structure is hammered out, and hopefully sooner rather than later, I cannot entirely blame the Catholic church for its present crisis. There was something in our psyche 50 or 60 years ago that allowed the horrors of the Magdalene laundry to continue all those years. It seems incredible now that some intelligent and influential citizens, who were aware of the Magdalene culture, or were at least conscious that unmarried mothers were cruelly marginalised by society, did not march in to the laundries, and demand that the ‘double-locked doors,’ be opened.

A kind of horror

Abbot Patrick Hederman OSB, in John Quinn’s honest and challenging book, puts the dilemma in an historical context. ‘ People,’ he writes, ‘ regard darkness as dangerous or different, but it represents half of our life. Problems arise when we try and pretend it’s all bright. One of the symbols of the newly independent Ireland was An Claidheamh Soluis, the Sword of Light, when Ireland was meant to be the brightest place on the planet.

‘That’s not enough. There are two sides to every story. Whereas other cultures like Russia over-emphasised the dark and the underside of the human condition, the whole project of de Valera and John Charles McQuade’s Ireland was to create a First Holy Communion dress for all of us, which would make us the envy of the planet.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
CBS Baltimore

Rick Ritter

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A former school teacher admits to inappropriate relations with three students decades ago. Now the Catholic community is in shock.

Rick Ritter has the latest on the investigation and the next steps now that the church, school and police know what happened.

The alleged victim says she had sexual encounters with Murtha when she attended the high school. The Archdiocese says Murtha admitted to those allegations and then confessed to similar behavior with two other students.

Not one, not two, but at least three students. That’s how many the Archdiocese says 58-year-old Helene Murtha sexually abused in the 1980s.

“We have absolutely no place in our church for anyone who would harm a child,” said Sean Caine, Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The alleged abuse occurred while Murtha was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School — an all-girls school in Baltimore that later became Seton Keough.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic Review – Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

July 25, 2014

Official Statement from the Archdiocese of Baltimore

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has learned of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against Helene Murtha, 58, a teacher at The Seton Keough High School in Baltimore. The alleged abuse occurred in the 1980s while Murtha was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School, an all-girls high school in Baltimore that merged with Seton High School in 1987 to become Seton Keough. Murtha taught at Archbishop Keough from 1977 to 1992.

The alleged victim informed the Archdiocese that she had a series of sexual encounters with Murtha during the years she attended the high school. The Archdiocese immediately reported the allegation to the appropriate civil authorities and will continue to cooperate fully with any investigation(s).

Murtha was informed of the allegations and admitted to them. She also advised the Archdiocese that she had previously engaged in similar behavior in the 1980s with two other students of Archbishop Keough High School. The Archdiocese immediately reported the additional information to the appropriate civil authorities.

The incidents reportedly occurred at Murtha’s home, at the high school, and at the Monsignor

O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, where Murtha helped to supervise retreats and other activities for youths and young adults.

Murtha’s employment has been terminated and the investigation is ongoing. Counseling assistance has been and will be offered to those affected.

Following her employment at Archbishop Keough, Murtha served as Associate Dean of Student Life at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) from 1992 to 2010. She began her employment at Seton Keough as a substitute teacher in 2010 and became a full-time religion teacher and a member of the school’s Campus Ministry Team in 2011. Murtha has periodically worked with the Archdiocese’s Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for over 30 years, serving in various roles related to youth retreats and other programs.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is committed to protecting children and helping to heal victims of abuse. We urge anyone who has any knowledge of any child sexual abuse to come forward, and to report it immediately to civil authorities. If clergy or other Church personnel are suspected of committing the abuse, we ask that you also call the Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection Hotline at 1-866- 417-7469.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is investigating allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against a teacher at Seton Keough High School in Baltimore.

The alleged abuse took place in the 1980’s.

The Archdiocese identifies the teacher as Helene Murtha, who has been informed of allegations and has admitted to them.

The alleged abuse took place while Murtha taught at what was then known as Archbishop Keough High School.

That school merged with Seton High School to become Seton Keough High School in 1987.

Murtha taught at the school from 1977-1992.

In a news release, the Archdiocese says the alleged victim said she had a series of sexual encounters at the high school, at Murtha’s home, and at the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, where Murtha helped supervise retreats.

The statement goes on to say that Murtha also admitted to having sexual encounters with two other students while she taught at Archbishop Keough in the 1980’s.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

[with video]

By Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun
July 25, 2014

A religion teacher at Seton Keough High School has been fired after a former student alleged that she had been sexually abused by the teacher in the mid-1980s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said Friday.

The archdiocese identified her as Helene Murtha, 58.

Attempts to reach Murtha were unsuccessful. She has not been charged in the incidents, according to online court records.

The allegations were forwarded to the Baltimore city and county police departments, archdiocesan spokesman Sean Caine said.

“We investigated it, and the suspect was not charged, based on the victim’s wishes,” said a Baltimore County police spokesman, Lt. Robert McCullough.

City police did not return calls for comment.

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NEW YORK
Post-Star

July 18, 2014

ROXBURY — The Rev. Robert H. Purcell, a former pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Margaretville, New York, who was responsible for fostering an interfaith initiative throughout the Catskill community, died Thursday, July 17, 2014.

Because of his ecumenical efforts, our region was blessed with good will and mutual respect among various religious factions. Friends enjoyed by the father were not exclusively Catholic parishioners, and his annual Passover celebrations were enormously popular.

He was 80 years old and resided in Villa Shalom in Roxbury, New York, where he had created an adoration chapel in honor of the blessed mother, to whom he held a special devotion his entire life.

Father Bob’s path to the priesthood was a circuitous one, unique from the typical calling heard by most young men.

Born April 13, 1934, to Francis J. Purcell and Aldea “Mim” Heroux, who were married July 30, 1933, in St. Joseph’s Church in Cohoes, New York, he attended and graduated from St. Joseph’s Academy in Cohoes, Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, St. Thomas Prep School in Bloomfield, Connecticut, St. Mary’s University in Baltimore, Maryland, Siena College in Loudonville, New York, Our Lady of Angels in Glenmont, New York, and St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York.

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NEW YORK
Watershed Post

By Julia Reischel
7/24/14

In an unusual move, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany condemned an obituary and mass for a former priest who died last week as “highly insensitive” to the people he is accused of sexually abusing while he was a minister.

Former priest Robert H. Purcell, who died in the Delaware County village of Margaretville on Thursday, July 17, was permanently removed from the ministry in 2011 after an investigation by the Albany Diocese’s Sexual Misconduct Review Board into charges that he had sexually abused minors.

In its investigation, the Diocese “found reasonable grounds to believe” that Purcell sexually abused minors, including a victim in Margaretville from 1995 to 2001, according to Ken Goldfarb, the director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, in a statement emailed to the Watershed Post today.

Purcell was removed from ministry in 2011, after the investigation. At the time, the Diocese said that it was because of an abuse allegation dating back to 1957, 17 years before he was ordained, according to the Albany Times-Union and the Oneonta Daily Star.

However, in a recent correspondence with the Watershed Post, Goldfarb confirmed that there was also a more recent charge of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Members of Theology Faculty of St. Thomas University, St. Paul: We Need “New Leadership at the Archdiocesan Level, Leadership That Includes Individuals Who Are Neither Perpetrators Nor Enablers of Abuse”

Brian Roewe reports today that five members of the theology faculty of St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota — Cara Anthony, Corrine Carvalho, Sherry Jordon, Sue Myers and Kimberly Vrudny — have issued a call for “new leadership at the archdiocesan level, leadership that includes individuals who are neither perpetrators nor enablers of abuse.” The letter does not name specific persons in its call for new leadership, but obviously addresses the crisis of leadership in the archdiocese under its current archbishop, John Nienstedt.

Two points in the letter (as summarized by Roewe) that speak strongly to me:

We teach a tradition that proclaims a God of love who cares for the downtrodden, and we find it difficult when that biblical message is met with skepticism and resistance in our classrooms because of the behavior of clerics who abuse their positions in the church.

And:

We recognize the hypocrisy of the clergy when they judgmentally rebuke congregants for sexual behavior they deem deviant when some of them are pedophiles, and when some of them have abused their positions of power to protect child molesters.

What the five theologians tell the officials of the archdiocese in this letter brings to mind a letter I wrote to Bishop William Curlin of Charlotte on 22 October 1998. This was five years following the destruction of my career as a Catholic theologian by Belmont Abbey College, in the diocese of Charlotte. It was also following the college’s hounding of Steve out of a position, and then a purge that the monastic abbot mounted when he seized the reins of the presidency of the college, and fired a slew of gay and lesbian faculty and staff, providing specious reasons for the mass firing.

I wrote Bishop Curlin to say the following:

Many among us are appalled at the anomalies in our church today, its willingness to use insinuations about sexual orientation to destroy the careers of lay ministers while sheltering priests who molest little boys and while collecting millions of dollars from the laity to pay hush money to those who bring forth such charges. Many among us are appalled that bishops can appoint to their staff priests who are widely known to be gay, who will then willingly participate in the ugly political games their bishops play with the lives of gay persons, to advance their own ecclesiastical careers.
Such stories sicken the best among us, and cause them to withdraw from the church in anger and sadness.

This was, of course, a number of years before the story of the abuse crisis exploded in the media with the revelations that came out of the archdiocese of Boston in 2002, when legal actions opened some of the archdiocesan files about the abuse cover-up. But by the latter half of the 1990s, I had already begun to feel in my bones that something of great importance was coming down the pike vis-a-vis the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic hierarchy, though, as an outsider to the clerical club, I only had intimations that such abuse was occurring and was being covered-up.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
SFist

The Archdiocese of San Francisco issued a statement today using some cryptic language about a priest named John Wadeson no longer being allowed to “undertake any ministry,” due to “concerns in the community.” After a quick Google search and call to the local head of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), SFist learned that Wadeson is a twice-accused child molester who was kicked out of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2003.

It turns out, after two “credible” allegations of child abuse in L.A., Wadeson took off to the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam, where he worked until recently. The Guam archdiocese suspended Wadeson from ministry on July 21, 2014, at which time he was already in San Francisco.

In the statement, the Archdiocese of San Francisco claims Wadeson arrived with “assurances of good standing from his home diocese” in Guam. But according to SNAP’s Tim Lennon, Wadeson served as a guest priest under the auspices of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (see documentation here), and returned to the Bay Area to minister at least twice: In 2011, at Saint Charles Borromeo Parish (3250 18th Street), where he “danced with kids and teenagers”; and in 2008, in the city of San Carlos. Lennon says Wadeson has a home in the Excelsior District.

“Both Archdiocese in San Francisco and Guam knew he was kicked out of L.A., but they allowed him to minister,” Lennon says, adding: “The San Francisco Archdiocese has accepted at least eight other priests that have credible allegations of abuse over the last five years. That practice has to stop.”

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IRELAND
Sunday World

FR. BRIAN D’ARCY

I’VE lost count of the number of people who were shocked when Pope Francis said that one in fifty priests were child abusers.

I’ve done nothing to alleviate their shock by telling them that it’s much more than 2%.

Studies across the world repeatedly show that paedophiles in the priesthood make up between 3% and 5% of all priests. If you ask me, it’s even higher because not all abuse is reported.

When you add it all up I wouldn’t be surprised if the real number of paedophiles within the priesthood is nearer 8%.

Priest abusers are only part of the story.

The vast majority of abuse takes place within families or by neighbours. What I want to concentrate on today is the devastating and lasting effects sexual abuse has on a child.

Unless you’ve been abused yourself it is impossible to understand the devastation that happens in your life. Personally I am convinced that it’s almost impossible to live a normal life after you’ve been sexually abused.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Houston Chronicle

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has been removed from his post in Guam over allegations that he molested two boys four decades ago while serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Church officials said Friday that the Rev. John Howard Wadeson left his post in the Archdiocese of Agana on Monday after parishioners there raised concerns about his past.

A 2004 Los Angeles archdiocese report says Wadeson was credibly accused in two cases between 1973 and 1977. Wadeson was in Los Angeles between 1972 and 1985 and taught at Verbum Dei High School, an all-male Catholic school.

Wadeson has told the Guam Pacific Daily News (http://bit.ly/1xdcWAe ) that he is innocent.

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MINNESOTA
National Catholic Reporter

Brian Roewe | Jul. 25, 2014 NCR Today

Five female professors at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn., say it’s time for new leadership in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, the latest to repeat a refrain already echoed by priests, donors, news publications and Catholics in the pews.

“For genuine healing to occur, we believe it is necessary to have new leadership at the archdiocesan level, leadership that includes individuals who are neither perpetrators nor enablers of abuse,” they said in a letter shared with several media outlets, including NCR.

The tenured theology professors — Cara Anthony, Corrine Carvalho, Sherry Jordon, Sue Myers and Kimberly Vrudny — did not name specific persons, such as Archbishop John Nienstedt, in the letter, but said they see a need to restore trust in the archdiocese following the near year-long abuse scandal that has hovered over the region.

“Because we believe in a God of justice and of mercy, restoration of community requires that abusers acknowledge wrongdoing and undergo the long, hard, arduous task of reconciliation. This entails sincere contrition, public truth telling, and adequate restitution,” they said.

The group, speaking their own views, said they could not keep quiet after learning more of the abuse scandal from a recent Minnesota Public Radio documentary and from the affidavit of Jennifer Haselberger, the former chancellor for canonical affairs who has disclosed much of the documents that has fueled near-constant reports since September.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

An anonymous commenter responded to my post here, with at least one question that I answered here. And yet he or she claims I’m dodging the points he or she has made.

So let me address them below:

1. Anonymous claimed that the sexual scandal in the Church is over. This was the point I responded to in my follow up post: It most emphatically is not. Bishops are still enabling sex abuse, and getting indignant when the press or the courts point this out.

2. Anonymous takes issue with the number of pedophile priests that are or have been active in the Church (reports range from 4 to 10%). But the number of abusers is not the point. The point is how the bishops continue to enable such abuse. Even if the number is half what Pope Francis suggests – i.e., only 1% – the point is not that number. The point is what should be done once a crime against a child is committed. This is what can easily be fixed, and this is what the bishops in their “knavish imbecility” continue to avoid fixing.

3. Anonymous is playing around with numbers from the John Jay Report. He or she seems to think that the only relevant number is the number of priests convicted of abuse in the court system. No one in the Church, not even the most untrustworthy bishop, would ever suggest that the number of priests who are criminally charged, much less convicted, is anything but the tiniest fraction of the number of priests who have actually abused children.

4. Anonymous seems to think I am claiming that the problem is more prevalent now than it was in the 1970’s. It’s certainly not as bad as it was then, and I don’t know how he or she got the idea I was claiming that it is.

5. Anonymous argues that SNAP is not a reliable source for information about the abuse crisis. SNAP certainly has a vested interest in this issue, but if Anonymous thinks they’re lying or fudging when it comes to the evidence, such as the documentary evidence released by dioceses, law firms and courts all over the country and readily available on the internet, he or she should compare the original source documents with what SNAP claims. Don’t believe SNAP? Don’t believe the New York Times or bishopaccountability.org? Fine. Check out the Graves Report in Kansas City, the source documents in St. Paul, the documents regarding the St. Louis cases, etc. Do a little Googling and you’ll find them. You don’t need a filter any more; you don’t need a middle man. This is the internet. Go straight to the source and find the truth. I have, and it’s very disturbing.

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UNITED STATES
Wall Street Journal

By LIAM MOLONEY and DEBORAH BALL CONNECT
July 25, 2014

ROME—Will he or won’t he?

The intense speculation over whether Pope Francis will visit the U.S. next year inched toward an answer Friday, after Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said the pontiff will come to the city for the World Meeting of Families slated for September 2015.

“Pope Francis has told me that he is coming,” said the archbishop at a mass in North Dakota on Thursday. In March, Archbishop Chaput met with the pope at the Vatican, along with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett.

The cleric’s comments, first reported by the Catholic News Service, ricocheted instantly Friday, underlining the fervor surrounding a possible visit by Pope Francis to the U.S.

The Vatican, which typically confirms papal visits about six months before they are due to take place, tried to contain the enthusiasm Friday. It issued a statement confirming that the pope has “indicated his willingness to participate” at the family meeting, but said that nothing had been formalized yet.

During his 16-month papacy, Pope Francis has seen no shortage of invitations to the U.S., which would be his first visit as pope. President Barack Obama invited the pope to the White House during their meeting at the Vatican in March. The pope replied, in Spanish, “certainly”—a response that instantly set the U.S. Catholic media abuzz

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), who is a Catholic, invited Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress, while United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in May invited the pontiff during a Vatican meeting. New York City Bill de Blasio extended yet another invite when he met with Vatican officials during his vacation in Italy this week.

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PHILADLEPHIA (PA)
U.S. Catholic

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) It’s been the worst-kept secret in Christendom, but this week Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput gave the strongest indication yet that Pope Francis will visit Philadelphia next year.

“Pope Francis has told me that he is coming,” Chaput said Thursday (July 25) before delivering a homily at a Mass in Fargo, N.D.

Chaput, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe, was in Fargo for a conference on Native Americans and invited his fellow Native Americans to the Eighth World Meeting of Families, set to take place in Philadelphia from Sept. 22-27, 2015.

“The pope will be with us the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of that week,” Chaput said, according to Catholic News Service. That would be Sept. 25-27.

Only the Vatican can officially confirm a papal visit, and such an announcement is not expected until six months or so before the visit. …

Also, in 2012, the Knights of Columbus, a leading Catholic charitable organization, donated $1 million to the archdiocese as a down payment on the enormous costs of the visit.

The money is key: Philadelphia has been hit hard by legal fees and settlements from the clergy sex abuse scandal, and declines in churchgoing and contributions have forced Chaput to make painful cutbacks to programs and to close parishes. It was unrealistic to expect the cash-strapped archdiocese to foot the bill for the trip.

The real question now may be where else the pontiff will visit: New York? Washington? Maybe even the border with Mexico to make a statement on immigration?

All three venues are possible, even likely.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

EMILY BABAY, PHILLY.COM
LAST UPDATED: Friday, July 25, 2014

Archbishop Charles Chaput told a North Dakota audience Thursday that Pope Francis had assured him he will visit Philadelphia for three days next year, and the Vatican seemed to confirm it, but the Archdiocese of Philadelphia insisted Friday that Chaput’s remarks were off-the-cuff and unofficial.

“There has been no official confirmation by the Vatican or The Holy See of Pope Francis’ attendance at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia,” communications director Kennet Gavin said in a statement Friday Morning.

However, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi on Friday said Francis had expressed “his willingness to participate” in the triennial World Meeting, which is scheduled for September 22-27 of next year.

The international gathering is expected to draw about 300,000 visitors a day for its conferences promoting traditional family values and Catholic teachings. But but a visit by the pope to say Mass — traditionally scheduled for the final day — would likely draw more than a million.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

[the lawsuit]

By Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
on July 25, 2014

COLBERT COUNTY, Alabama – A man who says he was a victim of Jeffrey Dale Eddie, a pastor convicted of sex abuse in March, is suing the Colbert County Church that employed Eddie as a children’s minister.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, the unnamed victim named as defendants Eddie, Highland Park Baptist Church and Loving the Shoals United Appeal Fund, Inc., a non-profit group affiliated with the church. The suit claims church administrators waited 10 days after learning of the allegations of abuse before reporting them to authorities. The suit also claims the church is still paying salary and benefits to Eddie. No one was available at the church to answer questions this morning.

Eddie, 41, pleaded guilty in Colbert County Circuit Court to 36 counts of sex abuse and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Multiple victims came forward, authorities said.

The victim who filed the lawsuit, who is not named, says he was 11 years old when his abuse by Eddie began in 2001. The alleged victim says Eddie repeatedly touched him inappropriately until 2013. The incidents occurred at church events.

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UNITED STATES
Christian News Wire

Contact: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, July 25, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ — Bill Donohue comments on Jennifer Haselberger, the prime source of accusations against St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt:

The most viciously anti-Catholic group in the nation is the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). On August 1, it will celebrate its 25th anniversary at a Chicago conference. Jennifer Haselberger will be one of its featured speakers. This gives her a chance to reunite with David Clohessy, the anti-Catholic head of SNAP; they were both speakers at a 2003 conference sponsored by Rent-A-Priest (priests who left to marry).

She grew up Catholic, but quickly turned against the Church. According to her father, “after Jennifer was confirmed…she declared that she’d had enough and was never going to church again.” But she did. Indeed, she went to St. Catherine University. That’s where she met her mentor, Anne Maloney, known as “an outspoken Catholic feminist.” That influence was evident in Haselberger’s 2002 article in The American Feminist where she bemoaned the income disparity between men and women. More recently, she claimed that the Archdiocese wasn’t paying her enough, even though she was paid more than all the male canon lawyers in the organization.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Ryle Dwyer

An arrogant Church hierarchy has a long history of scapegoating and trying to cover up serious scandals, says Ryle Dwyer

RECENT revelations about the mother-and-baby home at Tuam — where 796 children died between 1925 and 1961 — shocked people, but few seemed surprised, because there had already been so many shocking revelations about abuse in Church-run institutions. Indeed, comparisons are being made with Nazi Germany.

During the Second World War John Betjeman, the British press attaché in Dublin, depicted the Catholic hierarchy as the real power in Ireland. “We should bother less about relations, good or bad, with the Government and more with relations with the Catholic Church,” he wrote in March 1943.

The same month Roland Blenner-Hassett, one of three undercover agents stationed to Ireland by the Office of Strategic Services —the wartime forerunner of the American Central Intelligence Agency — depicted the hierarchy as essentially fascist in outlook. He thought this posed a threat because Irish censorship had been so rigid that Irish people had little understanding of the true nature of fascism.

“I am convinced that what the Irish Church hopes to see as the outcome of this war is the military defeat of the Axis, followed by peace between the Allies and semi-authoritarian regimes in Italy and Germany,” Blenner-Hassett wrote. He went on to suggest that the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, could cause trouble over partition unless Irish neutrality was essentially discredited in the US.

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MISSOURI
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Friday, July 25, 2014

A sex abuse victim has sued a Missouri church that hired a convicted sex offender and allowed him to supervise children.

The suit claims officials with First Presbyterian Church of Fulton knew that Jack Wayne Rogers had been previously convicted on child pornography charges when they hired him as a lay minister but still placed him “in direct authority over minor children.”

Kristopher Schondelmeyer, who is now 30, said Rogers sexually abused him in 2000 during a Connection 2000 Youth Conference in Maryland, while the former Boy Scout leader accompanied him and several other teens from Presbyterian churches.

The suit claims Schondelmeyer and his family were taught by the church to trust and obey Rogers in his role as lay minister and chaperone, reported the Fulton Sun.

The lawsuit also names as defendants several national and regional Presbyterian groups, as well as Rogers and Bruce Berry, who appointed the sex offender as lay minister at the Presbyterian Church of Bellflower, California.

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CHILE
Diocesis de Copiapo’

El Obispado de Copiapó siente el deber de comunicar a la comunidad eclesial y a la opinión pública que la Congregación para el Clero de la Santa Sede, después de estudiar atentamente todos los antecedentes respectivos a la situación del sacerdote Casiano Rojas Viera, ha determinado –según las facultades especiales recibidas del Santo Padre el Papa – imponer de manera definitiva e inapelable la pena de dimisión del ministerio sacerdotal de dicho presbítero.

Las investigaciones seguidas al ahora ex sacerdote, se iniciaron a comienzos de 2012 bajo las indicaciones de la Santa Sede, para verificar diversas denuncias realizadas de forma responsable ante la autoridad eclesiástica. Cabe señalar que en el transcurso de este proceso el inculpado optó por no colaborar con las investigaciones; y, luego, en septiembre de 2012, se le impuso la prohibición de ejercer el ministerio como medida cautelar. Además hay que dejar constancia de que el ex sacerdote Rojas Viera se negó a solicitar formalmente la dispensa pontificia.

En reciente respuesta, la Congregación para el Clero ha comunicado al Obispo de Copiapó la resolución emanada de ese Dicasterio, en el que establece la comprobación de conductas abusivas con mayores y con un menor de edad, además de otros delitos graves, cometidos por el P. Casiano en el ejercicio de su ministerio.

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CHILE
Terra

[Summary: Two Chilean priest have been expelled from the Catholic Church after being accused of sexual abuse of adults and a child, according to the Copiapo diocese. Casiano Rojas Viera and Daniel Aurelio Pauvif Rojas were expelled by the Vatican according to two separate announcements published Thursday night on the diocese web site.]

Dos sacerdotes chilenos fueron expulsados de la Iglesia acusados de perpetuar abusos sexuales contra mayores y un menor de edad, informó el obispado de la ciudad chilena de Copiapó (800 kilómetros norte de Santiago).

La institución anunció la decisión de expulsar a los sacerdotes Casiano Rojas Viera y Daniel Aurelio Pauvif Rojas en sendos comunicados publicados por separado en su página web el jueves por la noche.

Las investigaciones contra los sacerdotes se iniciaron en 2012 y a ambos se les impuso la prohibición de ejercer su oficio de manera cautelar.

En el caso de Daniel Pauvif Rojas, las actas de la investigación preliminar y las del procedimiento canónico posterior consideraron “suficientemente probados los cargos presentados” contra él, calificados como “gravemente contrarios a la santidad sacerdotal, cometidos con mayores de edad y que han lesionado gravemente a la comunión eclesial”.

Como consecuencia, “la Congregación para el Clero ha determinado, de manera definitiva e inapelable imponer al Pbro. Daniel Pauvif la pena de expulsión del estado clerical”, lo que implica que no puede ejercer ministerio sacerdotal y “pierde todo oficio eclesiástico”.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online

By BRETT HAMBRIGHT | Staff Writer

A former local pastor and junior-high basketball coach has admitted to repeated sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.

Jonathan Masteller, 24, pleaded guilty Thursday to numerous felonies regarding the abuse which happened in 2012 and 2013 at his home in Kinzers.

He faces a mandatory 10-year prison term at sentencing, but the judge has the option of running up to 11 other charges consecutive to that term.

Masteller, in prison on $250,000 bail, will be sentenced after a background check is completed in about two months.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Courier-Post

Jim Walsh, Cherry Hill July 25, 2014

Pope Francis is expected to visit Philadelphia during a Catholic gathering next year, the Diocese of Trenton said in a statement today.

The Pope’s will come to the South Jersey-Philadelphia area for the World Meeting of Families from Sept. 22-27, 2015, the diocese said in a statement.

Bishop David O’Connell, leader of the Trenton diocese, said he was “delighted to learn that Pope Francis has expressed his intention to attend the World Meeting of Families.”

O’Connell initially issued a statement saying the Pope had confirmed plans for a Philadelphia visit. He later clarified his language to say Francis “is expected to be present.”

The Philadelphia Archdiocese, while expressing “sincere hope” for a papal visit, said Friday it has not yet received “official confirmation” from the Vatican.

“We still expect that any official confirmation will come approximately six months prior to the event,” the statement said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadlephia

July 25, 2014

There has been no official confirmation by the Vatican or The Holy See of Pope Francis’ attendance at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. We still expect that any official confirmation will come approximately six months prior to the event.

Archbishop Chaput has frequently shared his confidence in Pope Francis’ attendance at the World Meeting and his personal conversations with the Holy Father are the foundation for that confidence. We are further heartened and excited by the comments of the Vatican Press Office regarding Pope Francis’ “willingness to participate in the World Meeting of Families.” While Archbishop Chaput’s comments do not serve as official confirmation, they do serve to bolster our sincere hope that Philadelphia will welcome Pope Francis next September.

# # #

Contact
Kenneth A. Gavin
Director of Communications
215-587-3747

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NPR

by SCOTT NEUMAN
July 25, 2014

Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to visit Philadelphia in Sept. 2015, a trip that would mark his first to the U.S. as pontiff.

Catholic News Service quotes Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi as saying that the Pope has expressed “his willingness to participate in the World Meeting of Families” in Philadelphia and that he’s also received invitations to visit New York, the United Nations and Washington, D.C., which he’s considering.

Time magazine notes: “The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family sponsors the World Meeting of Families every three years in a different city. The upcoming gathering is still more than a year away, and Pope Francis is likely to push for more activity on the issues of family and marriage before then — at least if his workrate continues at its current pace.”

In March, a CBS News poll showed that Francis, who at that point had been pope for just a year, was more popular among U.S. Catholics than either of his predecessors, Benedict XVI or John Paul II, at the same point in their papacies.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — According to a report, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has confirmed that Pope Francis will be coming to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families in 2015.
A Catholic News Services article says that Pope Francis has accepted Archbishop Chaput’s invitation to attend the event to be held in Philadelphia in September 2015.

Despite the Catholic News Services article, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia released the following statement:

“There has been no official confirmation by the Vatican or The Holy See of Pope Francis’ attendance at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. We still expect that any official confirmation will come approximately six months prior to the event.

Archbishop Chaput has frequently shared his confidence in Pope Francis’ attendance at the World Meeting and his personal conversations with the Holy Father are the foundation for that confidence. We are further heartened and excited by the comments of the Vatican Press Office regarding Pope Francis’ “willingness to participate in the World Meeting of Families.” While Archbishop Chaput’s comments do not serve as official confirmation, they do serve to bolster our sincere hope that Philadelphia will welcome Pope Francis next September.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 25, 2014

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, Founder and President of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com )

It’s now confirmed: Pope Francis will visit Philadelphia – and maybe other North American cities – next year.

He’s done little or nothing substantial to protect kids and expose cover ups. So we hope that when he comes here, U.S. Catholics and citizens will grill him about the on-going, horrific child sex abuse and cover up crisis. We hope they will insist that he stop making apologies and start taking action, that he stop asking forgiveness and start firing enablers, that he stop shifting blame and start “outing” predators, that he stop making excuses and start making change.

In few countries on earth have so many wounded victims been stepping forward and have so many upset Catholics been pressing for reform for so long. If there’s anywhere on earth that Francis should face tough questions about his refusal to take tangible steps to prevent clergy sex crimes, it’s here.

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UNITED STATES
GlobalPost

Jason Berry

The complex story unveiled by MPR this week offers a clear look of Catholic clergy coverup of sex abuse

As Pope Francis’s confessional apology to clergy abuse survivors in Rome made global headlines in early July, Minnesota Public Radio was reporting on a scandal surrounding St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt.

The pope’s remark, “All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable,” soon receded from the 24/7 news cycle.

But Nienstedt’s reported behavior, and that of his predecessor, Harry Flynn, beg the lingering question of how Francis will hold bishops accountable.

Many dioceses have instituted safe-touch training for teachers and students. Bishops have removed scores of perpetrators who were never prosecuted. But the “zero tolerance” plank in the US bishops’ 2002 youth protection charter rests on voluntary compliance.

That flaw fueled the MPR investigation under lead reporter Madeleine Baran and producer Sasha Aslanian. The radio series explores how past mistakes become time bombs. Various reports were edited into in a one-hour documentary.

A lengthy web narrative, “Betrayed by Silence: A Story in Four Chapters,” based on the radio series, details the scope of coverage:

For decades, the archbishops who led the Catholic archdiocese in the Twin Cities maintained that they were doing everything they could to protect children from priests who wanted to rape them.

Reporters picked up those assurances and repeated them without question. Police and prosecutors took the assurances at face value. Parents believed the assurances and trusted priests with their children.

But the assurances were a lie, and the archbishops knew it. Three of them — John Roach, Harry Flynn and John Nienstedt — participated in a cover-up that pitted the finances and power of the church against the victims who dared to come forward and tell their stories.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

The government must find someone to lead its probe into historical child abuse allegations immediately, a children’s charity has said.

Barnardo’s urged ministers to act after fresh claims of an abuse “cover-up”.

Baroness Butler-Sloss stood down as head of an overarching inquiry nearly a fortnight ago amid concerns about her family links with the establishment.

Home Secretary Theresa May then said a new chairman and inquiry panel would be announced “as soon as possible”.

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ALABAMA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, July 25, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

A victim of a former children’s minister from Alabama, who pleaded guilty to child sex crimes, is now suing his perpetrator and the church. We applaud this man’s bravery for working to hold not just the perpetrator, but also those who should have been supervising, responsible.

Jeffery Dale Eddie was the children’s minister at Highland Park Baptist Church, where he admitted to sexually abusing a child there. Church officials at Highland Park Baptist church hired Eddie and allowed him to work with children and presumably did nothing to protect children. They should be held accountable and we are grateful to the brave victim for doing so.

We are also grateful to the brave whistleblower that altered authorities. It is through the brave actions of whistleblowers and victims that keeps dangerous predators away from children. We hope this lawsuit will give courage to anyone who may have seen, suspects, or suffered sexual abuse to call authorities and will motivate other officials to be vigilant about child sex crimes.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, July 24, 2014

Statement by Tim Lennon of San Francisco, SNAP Leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (415-312-5820, sflennon@gmail.com)

The Los Angeles Archdiocese evidently believes that Fr. John Wadeson is a credibly accused child molester. A decade ago, they listed him as an “accused” priest. We see no evidence that they’ve changed their minds or are even reconsidering.

And the Guam archdiocese suspended Fr. Wadeson this week. The Archdiocese of Agana announced Tuesday that Apuron has removed Wadeson from “active and public ministry” in response to “concerns in the community.” “The Archdiocese of Agana has a policy regarding sexual misconduct and sexual harassment and takes these matters seriously,” the local archdiocese stated.

But Provincial Fr. Tom Ascheman says that “the allegation was never substantiated, no formal accusation was ever made, and no settlement was offered, or made.”

So we fear that Fr. Wadeson may soon be back on the job here in San Francisco among unsuspecting colleagues, neighbors and families.

The archdioceses of Los Angeles and Guam are acting responsibly. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is acting irresponsibly. Fr. Wadeson should not be allowed to work as a priest here. If he’s already doing so, we urge Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone to suspend him.

Reluctantly and belatedly, under tremendous pressure, Los Angles Catholic officials have publicly released the names of hundreds of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests. As best we can tell, they’ve never gone backwards and said “We were wrong about this guy. We should have never listed him as ‘accused.’”

In fact, we don’t know of a single Catholic official on the planet who has disclosed child sex abuse allegations against a priest who has later said “Oops, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that.”

At least four church officials must step up here, tell the truth and warn others about Fr. Wadeson.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Nancy Wiechec Catholic News Service | Jul. 25, 2014

FARGO, N.D. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said Pope Francis has accepted his invitation to attend the World Meeting of Families in the U.S. next year.

Chaput made the announcement Thursday before giving his homily during the opening Mass of the Tekakwitha Conference in Fargo.

“Pope Francis has told me that he is coming,” said the archbishop as he invited his fellow Native Americans to the 2015 celebration being held in Philadelphia Sept. 22-27.

“The pope will be with us the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of that week,” he said.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Friday that Pope Francis has expressed “his willingness to participate in the World Meeting of Families” in Philadelphia, and has received invitations to visit other cities as well, which he is considering. Those invitations include New York, the United Nations and Washington.

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AUSTRALIEN
Deutsche Welle

Die Vergehen, die Max Davis zur Last gelegt werden, liegen 45 Jahre zurück: Vor seiner Priesterweihe soll er als Lehrer ein Kind unter 14 Jahren mehrfach sexuell missbraucht haben. Der 68-Jährige weist die Anschuldigungen zurück. Im Zuge der Ermittlungen legte er aber sein Amt als Militärbischof nieder, zumindest solange der Fall vor Gericht anhängig ist.

Lange hüllte die katholische Kirche einen Deckmantel des Schweigens über sexuellen Missbrauch durch Geistliche. Erst Mitte der 1990er Jahre löste der Fall eines irischen Priesters, der 40 Jahre lang Kinder misshandelt und sexuell missbraucht hatte, eine weltweite Enthüllungswelle aus: In den USA brachte das Buch “A Gospel of Shame” zahlreiche Missbrauchsfälle in der katholischen Kirche ans Tageslicht. In Deutschland erregte vor allem der milde Umgang der Amtskirche mit verurteilten Priestern die Gemüter: Mehrere Geistliche waren nach ihrer Haftstrafe in andere Pfarreien versetzt worden. Im Jahr 1995 leitete die Staatsanwaltschaft Kassel Ermittlungsverfahren gegen zwei Bischöfe ein, die solche Versetzungen jahrelang unterschrieben hatten – die Verfahren wurden jedoch wegen geringer Schuld wieder eingestellt.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Sex abuse victims seek help from archbishop
“Don’t let pedophile priest work here,” they plead
Years ago, twice-accused cleric was ousted from LA
This week, group caught him working on Pacific island
SNAP: “Now, he’s reportedly returning to the Bay Area”
Group discloses 8 other predators who have been sent here

WHAT
Holding signs and photos of themselves at the age they were abused, a support group for clergy sex abuse victims will urge the Bay Area’s Catholic archbishop to:

— Forbid an abusive priest who has been ousted from two dioceses from working here,
— Reach out to all parishes where the priest worked to seek survivors, and
— Put the cleric in a secure treatment facility, where he can have no access to children.

The group will also make public a list of eight other proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting clerics who have been sent to the San Francisco area from other states or regions.

WHERE
Outside of Archdiocese of San Francisco headautarters (“chancery”), One Peter Yorke Way in San Francisco

WHEN
Thursday, July 24 at 1:30 p.m.

WHO
Three-four men and women who are members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest and oldest support group for men and women abused in religious and institutional settings.

WHY
On Tuesday, Guam’s archbishop removed Fr. John H. Wadeson from ministry when SNAP publicly exposed that he has been accused of abusing kids twice and has been banned from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He reportedly molested two kids there in the 1970s.

According to news accounts from Guam, Fr. Wadeson is allegedly on his way to the Bay area, where he has worked in the past at the Neocatechumenal Center in San Francisco.

It is rumored that he may have “faculties,” which would enable him to keep working as a priest. A youtube video shows him in active ministry in 2011 with teens and children at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church (713 South Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, 415-824-1700). (he is in the video at 2:50)

After Fr. Wadeson was suspended from his position in Guam, he publicly said that the allegations against him “false” and “viciousness.’ Victims worry that Fr. Wadeson’s comments show that he has no understanding of his past and is an even greater risk to children.

SNAP wants Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone to ensure that a twice accused predator priest is not allowed to present himself as a priest when he arrives in the archdiocese. They fear that people in San Francisco are unaware of the cleric’s past and that he may be a threat to local children. They want to ensure that Fr. Wadeson is not allowed to act as a priest in ANY diocese and that he has no access to kids.

The San Francisco Archdiocese’s provincial superior, Fr. Thomas Ascheman, has written that “the allegation was never substantiated, no formal accusation was ever made, and no settlement was offered, or made.” SNAP counters by noting that the LA archdiocese kicked Fr. Wadeson out a decade ago and posted his name as an “accused” priest on its website (where it remains today). Neither step is taken lightly by Catholic officials, SNAP maintains. Ignoring credibly child sex abuse reports and letting predator priests go elsewhere and work among unsuspecting parishes violates the US bishops’ national abuse policy, SNAP contends.

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IRELAND
The Tablet

Calls for Cardinal Brady’s resignation after victim’s book reveals role in cover-up of priest’s abuse

25 July 2014 by Sarah Mac Donald

Survivors of sexual abuse have called for the resignation of the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady after a new book revealed details of his role in the cover-up concerning a priest who inflicted horrific abuse on an altar server.

The evidence appears in a memoir, Sworn to Secrecy, published this week by Brendan Boland, who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth for three years in the 1970s. The book reproduces for the first time the oath of secrecy which the 14-year-old was made to sign and which the then Fr John Brady countersigned. Fr Brady – who went on to become the Archbishop of Armagh and Ireland’s Primate – acted as notary for a secret canonical inquiry into Smith’s abuse of Brendan Boland.

Mr Boland acquired the transcripts through legal discovery procedures when he took a High Court action against the Archdiocese of Armagh and Cardinal Brady. They reveal the invasive questions the 14-year-old was asked during the inquiry, including whether he had participated in similar sexual activities with other boys or men.

Mr Boland told The Tablet that he would like Cardinal Brady to read his book. “He might go away and reflect on it and consider whether, in the light of his role in the events described, he should retire in the normal fashion, or resign,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 25 July 2014)

The Catholic Bishop of the Australian Defence Force appeared in court on 25 July 2014, charged by police with a child-sex offence dating back to 1969. Bishop Max Davis, now 68, is believed to be the most senior Catholic clergyman (and the first bishop) to be charged by Australian police with a child-sex offence.

In the Perth District Court, West Australian Police alleged that Max Leroy Davis indecently dealt with a 13-year-old boy while teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, north of Perth, W.A., in 1969.

Davis is charged with three counts of unlawfully and indecently dealing with a child aged under 14.

At the time of the alleged abuse, in 1969, Davis was preparing for the priesthood but had not yet reached the stage of being formally ordained.

In court, Davis’s lawyer indicated that his client will plead not guilty to the three charges. The lawyer indicated that the charges would ultimately need to be dealt with by a judge in a higher court, the West Australian District Court.

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IRELAND
The Journal

THE NEWS OF director Louis Lentin’s passing today was met with sadness in the arts world.

An important figure in television, film and theatre, the former Head of RTÉ Drama, is also remembered for the role he played in unveiling the cloak of secrecy around Ireland’s dark past.

His work opened a conversation on the residential institution abuse and broke the silence in which its victims suffered and had suffocated in for decades.

With his February 1996 documentary about the life of Christine Buckley, he revealed the extent of the atrocities that occurred at just one industrial school – Goldenbridge – but it moved the earth, creating an avalanche of information, testimonials and confessions.

Dear Daughter was the first television exposure of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children in Ireland’s industrial schools and it was Buckley’s courage to tell, retell and tell again her story that eventually pushed the truth onto the front pages and into television bulletins.

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GENEVA
Expatica

Ireland must launch a wide-ranging, independent probe into the past abuse of women and children in state and Catholic Church-run institutions, a UN rights watchdog said Thursday.

“Very important steps have been taken by the Irish government,” said Cees Flinterman, deputy chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee.

“But what is lacking is an independent, thorough investigation which would lead to bringing those who perpetrated those acts to justice,” he told reporters.

Ireland has been rocked by scandals over abuse in children’s homes and institutions for unmarried mothers that were mainly run by the Roman Catholic Church for the state.

Several inquiries have been undertaken or are in the pipeline, but the UN committee said it was time for an overarching effort to deal with past ills.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Evelyn Ring
Irish Examiner Reporter

Minister of State for Justice and Equality Aodhán Ríordán is to bring a damning United Nations’ report on Ireland’s human rights record to the “heart of the Oireachtas”.

He admitted that, while he agreed with many of the recommendations, he could not pretend to agree with all of them.

“This conversation belongs in the heart of the Oireachtas,” he said at a press conference in Dublin yesterday organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).

“We have to start talking on a deeper and more profound level on the type of country we want to live in so there isn’t people who look and sound just like me who are always at the microphone and always making decisions,” he said.

The ICCL welcomed the call by the UN’s top human rights experts for constitutional reform on abortion, as well as prompt, independent and thorough investigations into the abuses perpetrated on survivors of the Magdalene laundries and of the barbaric surgical practice of symphysiotomy.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

Half of the women at one Magdalene laundry in the 1950s and 1960s never left the institution again but died years later behind the convent walls, according to research which strongly contradicts the Martin McAleese report.

A founding member of Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) and the Adoptions Rights Alliance, Claire McGettrick, is due to speak at the Mother Jones Festival in Cork next week where she will discuss her concerns about the narrative adopted in the McAleese study into state involvement in the laundries.

“JFM research has found that 50% of the women who were resident at the Donnybrook laundry between 1954 and 1964 remained there until their death, never seeing freedom,” said Ms McGettrick.

“Similar research at Hyde Park laundry has revealed that 30% of the women resident at the laundry between 1954 and 1964 also remained under the care of the nuns until they died.”

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

AAP

Max Davis, first Australian bishop charged with child sex offence, in court over charge dating back to 1969 in New Norcia

THE head of the Catholic Church’s military diocese has briefly appeared in court charged with child sex offences dating back to 1969.

West Australian Police allege Bishop Max Davis, 68, indecently assaulted a 13-year-old boy while he was teaching at St Benedict’s College in New Norcia, northeast of Perth.

It is understood he is the first Australian bishop and the most senior Australian church official to be charged with a child sex offence.

He has been charged with three counts of indecently dealing with children aged under 14. Davis, who now lives in the ACT, was not an ordained priest when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and he emphatically denies the charge.

On Friday in the Perth Magistrates Court, Davis’ lawyer requested that his client not be required to turn up in person at his next appearance on October 17 and any other date that his presence was not essential because he resided in Canberra.

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