ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
BBC Mundo

Rodrigo Bustamante
Chile, para BBC Mundo

Existe pesar en el mundo ligado a la defensa de los derechos humanos en Chile luego que el Vaticano apartara del sacerdocio a Cristián Precht, quien fue uno de los íconos de la oposición al régimen de facto de Augusto Pinochet.

La Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe comprobó la acusación de “conductas abusivas con mayores y menores de edad” contra el religioso, y le prohibió por cinco años el ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal y la potestad de confesar y dirigir espiritualmente a jóvenes y menores.

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CHILE
Terra

El obispo auxiliar de Santiago, Monseñor Cristián Contreras, lamentó los últimos hechos corroborados por el Vaticano contra personeros de la Iglesia en Chile por casos de abuso sexual y manifestó las intenciones de acompañar a las víctimas en estos procesos.

Recordar que la Santa Sede confirmó los casos de abuso sexual en contra del sacerdote Cristián Precht, lo que provocó que el Arzobispado de Santiago alejara de sus funciones al párroco, informó Cooperativa.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Post

Secret files on Los Angeles archdiocese priests accused of sex abuse could soon become public

By Associated Press

Updated: Monday, December 10

LOS ANGELES — Secret files kept for decades by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on priests accused of sexually abusing children could soon become public as a five-year legal battle over their release reaches its endgame.

A judge will hear final objections Monday from accused priests and is also expected to begin hashing out a timeline for the release of thousands of pages of top-secret church documents on abusive clerics. Plaintiff attorneys have been trying to gain access to the files since a $660 million settlement in 2007 called for their disclosure.

Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court declined to intervene after a lower court ordered the release of some of the files, setting the stage for a larger disclosure.

Both attorneys for the church and the plaintiffs said they expected the documents would be made public within a month and no later than February after Monday’s critical hearing. Private files on Franciscan friars accused of abuse were released earlier this year after a similar legal fight.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Central

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, December 9

A new Irish documentary has just made the 2013 Oscars shortlist. ‘Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God’ has been shortlisted in the Best Documentary Feature lineup.

An Irish/American co-production, Oscar winning director Alex Gibney helmed the documentary, which was shot all over Ireland, the US and part of Italy.

The film revisits the abuse scandal in the Irish Catholic Church, with first-hand accounts from victims. It has also reportedly uncovered a number of scandals that went beyond the abuse, including cover ups in the Church and the Vatican.

According to the Irish Film and Television Network, Northern Irish production company Below the Radar co-produced with Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Wider Film Projects

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
Irish Film and Television Network

By Eva Hall

Another Irish production has made the Oscars shortlist for 2013, with documentary ‘Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God’ being shortlisted in the Best Documentary Feature documentary.

The Irish/American co-production joins short animation ‘Head Over Heels’, which was produced by Irish woman Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, and made the shortlist last month.

Oscar winning director Alex Gibney helmed ‘Silence in the House of God’, which was shot all over Ireland, the US and part of Italy. The feature documentary revisits the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, with first-hand accounts from victims.

The documentary uncovered a number of scandals that went beyond the abuse, to cover ups in the Irish Catholic Church to the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Victorian Government’s inquiry into sexual abuse by religious and other organisations has been told a financial assistance scheme is needed for abuse victims.

The inquiry held a hearing in Ballarat on Friday.

Peter Blinkiron is a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and told the inquiry a scheme similar to that for injured soldiers should be set up.

He says many abuse victims are struggling to survive.

Mr Blinkiron says the Catholic Church could afford to fund the scheme.

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GERMANY
U.S. Catholic

By Bryan Cones

News that psychological profiles of German priests who abused young people are by and large “psychologically normal” is raising eyebrows overseas. While 12 percent of abusive priests could be classified as pedophiles (compulsively sexually attracted to prepubescent children) and 5 percent as ephebophiles (attracted to teenagers), more than 80 percent showed no signs of a psychological disorder. (If you are wondering, 54 percent identified as heterosexual, 37 as homosexual, and 9 as bisexual.) Victims advocate Norbert Denef of Netzwerk B blamed the results on the fact that the German bishops provided the statistics. “You wouldn’t ask the mafia to investigate its own crimes,” he said, according to Reuters.

The German church will doubtless have failed in many ways when the truth is fully revealed, but a piece of me isn’t surprised that most of the priests turned out to be “normal”–normal, that is, because the sexual abuse of young people is still fairly commonplace, and perpetrators are not likely to all be suffering some diagnosable psychological disorder. The problem with “normal” is that some adults, many of them men, think it is “normal” to have sex with someone underage when given the right place and time. In fact, it is so “normal” that as many as 1 in 4 woman and 1 in 7 or 8 men in the U.S. experience some form of inappropriate sexual contact before they are 18.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

For 40 years many boys placed in institutions run by the order of St John of God were molested, raped and physically assaulted by some of the men who were supposed to care for them. Now a former nun who worked for the order speaks out about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks.

Lisa Whitehead

Transcript

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is an issue with the video for this story that will be rectified on Monday 10 December, apologies for any inconvenience.

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Among the litany of accusations that led to the recent announcement of a Royal commission into the institutional child sex abuse, none have been more shocking than those surrounding the Catholic order St John of God. For 40 years boys placed in the order’s care were molested, raped and physically assaulted. The story has hit the headlines this week with the arrest in New Zealand of a former brother accused of molesting 35 children in a home for intellectually disabled boys. Tonight a former nun who worked for the order speaks out about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks. In a moment I’ll be joined by the head of the order, Brother Timothy Graham, but first this report by Lisa Whitehead.

LISA WHITEHEAD, REPORTER: This is former Catholic Brother Bernard McGrath. He’s now facing possible extradition to Australia on 252 sex abuse charges. He’s accused of abusing 35 children.

The alleged offences occurred at the Kendall Grange boys’ home in Morisset, south of Newcastle. It belonged to St John of God, an order of the Church that’s accused of covering up decades of allegations of abuse of vulnerable children in its care.

WAYNE CHAMLEY, BROKEN RITES: It’s behaviour that’s endemic within the order and it’s been allowed to go on for decades.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 11, 2012

Barney Zwartz

TWO paedophiles – one reportedly the youngest person ever put on the Victorian Sex Offenders Register – were ”roaming the Jewish community” with most members utterly unaware, the state inquiry into how religious groups handled child sex abuse was told on Monday.

Community leader and abuse whistleblower Manny Waks said there was overwhelming evidence that child sexual abuse was endemic in the Jewish community and ”the appalling way in which it has been mishandled”, including credible claims of continuing cover-ups.

He said that in the few months since his written submission there had been more serious allegations of child sexual abuse. ”Worse, in all of these new cases, those in positions of authority attempted to cover up these crimes.”

Mr Waks, a former vice-president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, last year became the first Jewish victim to publicly tell the story of his abuse, at Yeshivah College in Melbourne more than 20 years ago. He gave evidence with his father, Zephaniah Waks, but Family and Community Development committee chairwoman Georgie Crozier suppressed Mr Waks senior’s testimony.

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GERMANY
Irish Times

DEREK SCALLY

Germany’s Catholic Church has presented a report saying that only 12 per cent of priests who abused minors could be classified as paedophiles.

The report, commissioned in 2010 after a wave of abuse revelations, examined 78 abuse cases dating back to the 1960s. “There are no significant differences to results found in the general population in Germany,” said Dr Norbert Leygraf, one of the experts asked to review study results.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Catholic Insider

The Gospel today is a favorite of BCI and also has particular applicability to the Boston Archdiocese. This passage from Luke 3: 1-6 is the one that has always been powerful for BCI.

A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

During this season of Advent, in what ways in our own lives do we prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths? What things in our lives need to be straightened out? What mountains and hills should be lowered? What “winding roads” should be made straight? What rough ways made smooth?

Then there is the Boston Archdiocese. As discussed in “Is Boston Archdiocese Violating ‘Motu Proprio’ on Charity?” as of Monday, December 10, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, will be in violation of the new Motu Proprio issued by Pope Benedict XVI for paying salaries to 17 lay executives which are nowhere near “in due proportion to analogous expenses of his diocesan Curia.” As we know from “Bloated Payroll” and numerous other posts, seventeen people at the Pastoral Center are paid salaries ranging from $150K to $325K today–about 4X-8X more per person than clergy are paid. In aggregate, they are paid somewhere close to $3.5M a year in salaries alone. This is about 6 times more than was paid in 2006 in $150K+ salaries.

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ORANGE COUNTY (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP Volunteer Western Regional Director

As the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Orange, Bishop Kevin William Vann will preside over a transparent cathedral. It is now time for him to create a transparent church as well.

Bishop Vann steps into a legacy fraught with sex abuse and cover-up. While Catholic leaders will boast about former Bishop Tod Brown’s purchase of the Crystal Cathedral, we must also remember and reflect upon the other “accomplishments” of Brown’s tenure in Orange County.

After he nailed his “Covenant of the Faithful” on the front door of Holy Family Cathedral in 2004, Tod Brown has:
•Posted only a partial list of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics on his website
•Refused to keep the list up permanently or put in in parish bulletins
•Concealed his own sex abuse allegation, saying it was “embarrassing,”
•Sent a high-ranking church official to Canada to avoid a deposition, and
•Was held in contempt of court in 2007.

This is a legacy that must end. Bishop Vann has the opportunity and the mandate to enforce real change to protect children in the Diocese of Orange. In order to restore faith in the diocese’s claims of child safety, Bishop Vann must, immediately:

•Remove all priests accused of abuse, such as Fr. Timothy Raemakers, from positions where they will encounter children,
•Remove all priests who actively enabled sex abusers to remain in ministry and fostered continued abuse, like Msgr. John Urell,

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PENNSYLVANIA
Radio Times

The Pennsylvania Task Force on Child Protection has been meeting for 10 months with experts in all facets of child care and protection, tasked with reviewing the commonwealth’s laws and procedures protecting children, and where and why they fail. Formed in response to the crime spree of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and what’s been called the “conspiracy of silence” by other Penn State administrators, the panel is recommending (link to pdf) that Pennsylvania create and fund a children’s advocacy center within a two-hour drive of every child in the state, among other reforms. Joining us to discuss the task force and its findings are its governor-appointed chairman, Bucks County District Attorney DAVID HECKLER and Dr. CINDY W. CHRISTIAN, director of the “Safe Place” program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and another appointee to the task force of Governor Tom Corbett. Plus, we’ll hear from DAVID CLOHESSY, executive director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, about what he feels the Task Force left out of their recommendations.

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PHILIPPINES
Preda

by Fr. Shay Cullen
Email: shaycullen@preda.org

(Fr. Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times,in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line.)

It’s great to have the good news of the rescue of children from sexual exploitation. The rescue this week of six trafficked and commercially exploited children by police of the Criminal Investigative Detection Group(CIDG) from a sex bar in Isabela, Quirino, a remote town in the Philippines, just shows that police can make a difference.

It also shows just how widespread the sexual exploitation of children is. Not only in the red-light districts of many cities but in small towns and beach resorts, it is a money-making business. The trafficking of children and women is a multi-billion dollar business world-wide. Over two million are trafficked each year and most never get back home, they are lost forever.

Good that CIDG Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr. and his team are serious minded about saving children from this horrific, life destroying experience. The rape and murder of a 7 year old child in Laguna this week is like that of 7 year-old Mykie Prado, raped and murdered in Aklan over two years ago and whose suspected murderer is still at large ought to cause public outrage. But it does not.

These heinous crimes are becoming more frequent due to the depravity of the abusers influenced by child pornography, the laxity of enforcement, the influx of big paying sex tourists and the bad influence it has on local communities. If the foreigners can do it without being arrested local men may say, then it’s OK for us. Government must review the permissiveness of local authorities that give permits and licences to dens of prostitution and the havens of child traffickers. It’s a blight and a shame on the dignity and respect of our nation.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Radio Vatikan

Katholische Priester, die Minderjährige missbrauchen, sind in den seltensten Fällen in klinischem Sinne pädophil. Das geht aus dem Abschlussbericht der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz zur Analyse forensisch-psychiatrischer Gutachten hervor. Der Bericht wurde an diesem Freitag der Presse vorgestellt. Darin wurden die Fälle von 78 Priestern untersucht, die durch sexuelle Übergriffe auf Minderjährige aufgefallen waren. Ein weiteres wichtiges Ergebnis der Studie: Die Beweggründe für sexuelle Übergriffe ließen sich überwiegend dem „normalpsychologischen Bereich“ zuordnen – genau wie bei nicht-geistlichen Tätern. Der Beauftragte der DBK zu den Missbrauchsfällen, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, erläutert, welche Aufgabe die forensischen Gutachten haben, die in der Studie untersucht wurden:

„Die Gutachten sollen den Entscheidungsträgern, d.h. in diesem Fall den Bischöfen, helfen, eine Entscheidung darüber treffen zu können, wo kann – wenn überhaupt – jemand, der sich des sexuellen Missbrauchs schuldig gemacht hat, in der Seelsorge noch eingesetzt werden. Natürlich ist das nur ein Aspekt. Es geht doch aber um die Frage der Gefährlichkeitsprognose.“

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DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Geistliche, die Kinder missbrauchen, sind nicht zwingend pädophil. Zu diesem Schluss kommt ein Gutachten im Auftrag der katholischen Kirche. Betroffene forderten eine kirchenunabhängige Aufarbeitung. Von Gernot Facius

Die Welle der im Jahr 2010 bekanntgewordenen sexuellen Missbrauchsfälle hat die katholische Kirche in Deutschland in ihre schwerste Krise seit dem zweiten Weltkrieg gestürzt. Eine jetzt von der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in Trier vorgestellte Analyse forensischer Gutachten kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass Priester, die Minderjährige missbrauchen, in den seltensten Fällen im klinischen Sinn pädophil sind.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Zeit

Die Katholische Kirche hat die bekannten Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs untersuchen lassen. Hauptergebnis: Die Geistlichen sind nicht anfälliger als der Bevölkerungsschnitt.

Im Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch durch katholische Priester hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz die Fälle von 78 als Tätern beschuldigten Geistlichen wissenschaftlich aufarbeiten lassen. Die Katholische Kirche ließ untersuchen, welche Täter homo- oder bisexuell waren: insgesamt 30. Neun der Täter waren pädophil und vier hatten eine Neigung zu pubertären Jungen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Focus

Drei Unis untersuchten 78 Priester, die sich hundertfach an Kindern vergangen haben auf pädophile Neigungen. Das Ergebnis ist beruhigend wie verstörend: Die Täter seien zumeist nicht psychisch krank – ungewöhnlich sei oft nur die sexuelle Neigung. Die Kirche verteidigt die Studie.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Augsburger Allgemeine

Trier Im Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch durch katholische Priester hat die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz die Fälle von 78 als Tätern beschuldigten Geistlichen untersuchen lassen. Demnach waren 30 der Geistlichen homo- oder bisexuell. Neun waren pädophil und vier hatten eine Neigung zu pubertären Jungen. Die Beweggründe seien nur in wenigen Fällen Folge einer psychischen Erkrankung, sagte der Leiter der an externe Sachverständige in Auftrag gegebenen Studie, Norbert Leygraf. Es gebe „keine bedeutsamen Unterschiede“ zur übrigen Bevölkerung, sagte der Professor für Gerichtspsychologie.

In der Untersuchung wurden Täterprofile erstellt. Dabei wurden Daten aus den Personalakten über die Persönlichkeit der Beschuldigten und deren Taten mit allgemein bei sexuellem Missbrauch bekannten Befunden abgeglichen. Bei etwa der Hälfte der begutachteten Geistlichen sieht die Studie keine Bedenken gegen einen erneuten oder weiteren Einsatz in der Gemeinde. Des Missbrauchs verdächtigte Geistliche, die weiter in der Kirche blieben, könnten durch ein soziales Kontrollnetzwerk vor Rückfällen geschützt werden, sagte Leygraf, der das Institut für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Duisburg-Essen leitet. Unklar sei aber das Rückfallrisiko ohne Therapie.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Psychologie-Actuell

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz und das Institut für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Duisburg-Essen haben heute in Trier die Ergebnisse der Studie „Sexuelle Übergriffe durch katholische Geistliche in Deutschland – Eine Analyse forensischer Gutachten 2000-2010“ vorgestellt.

Bereits im Jahr 2002 gab die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz für alle Diözesen verbindliche Leitlinien zum Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch innerhalb der katholischen Kirche heraus und beauftragte seitdem auch kontinuierlich forensisch-psychiatrische Gutachten. Die Institute für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Duisburg-Essen unter Leitung von Professor Dr. med. Norbert Leygraf, der Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin mit dem Leiter Professor Dr. med. Hans Ludwig Kröber und der Sektion Forensische Psychotherapie der Universität Ulm unter Leitung von Professor Dr. med. Friedemann Pfäfflin erstellten den Großteil dieser Gutachten. Unter Mitarbeit von Dr. Andrej König von der Fachhochschule Dortmund, Fachbereich Angewandte Sozialwissenschaften, Methodenlehre und Forensische Psychologie, begann im April 2011 die Erarbeitung der Studie zu sexuellen Übergriffen in der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland, in der Gutachten im Zeitraum 2000 bis 2010 ausgewertet wurden, und deren Ergebnisse jetzt vorliegen.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Forbes has lost its mind when it just published (the biggest joke of the year 2012) that Benedict XVI is the 5th Most Powerful Person in the World (after Obama, Merkel, Putin, Bill Gates) and he’s more powerful than Saudi Arabia King and China’s Secretary General of its communist party and all other world leaders and CEO – while he lives in a one-building ancient medieval museum with 800 people as his population – compared to millions of people in Saudi and hundreds of millions in China. Ironically Forbes does not mention Benedict in its main article and explanation (see in full with highlights below) but it does end with this question: “What did we get wrong?”

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CHILE
Radio Universidad de Chile

El defensor eclesiástico del presbitero Cristián Precht, acusado de cometer “conductas abusivas” en contra de adultos y menores presentará en los próximos días una apelación a la determinación de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe del Vaticano que acogió como verdaderas las imputaciones que pesan sobre quien fuera el fundador de la Vicaría de la Solidaridad.

Luego de conocerse la decisión de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe del Vaticano que confirmó que el sacerdote Cristián Precht cometió “conductas abusivas” contra adultos y menores, el defensor eclesiástico de Precht, el también hombre de Iglesia Raúl Hasbún, ya estaría trabajando en la apelación.

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CHILE
Cooperativa

Hernán Prech, hermano del sacerdote Cristián Precht, afirmó que el presbítero desea defenderse de las acusaciones que se le imputan por “conducta abusiva” contra adultos y menores, que le significaron un castigo por parte del Arzobispado de Santiago, pero que para eso necesita tener claro quiénes y cuántos lo acusan.

Este jueves se conoció la sanción eclesiástica contra Precht luego de que la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe confirmara que cometió abusos, por los que fue suspendido por cinco años del ejercicio sacerdotal y se le prohibió administrar la confesión a jóvenes y menores de edad.

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CHILE
Terra

MARCOS FUENTES T

El sacerdote Alfonso Baeza, al enterarse de la resolución del vaticano que confirma la existencia de abusos a menores por parte del religioso Cristián Precht, manifestó que “en nada disminuye” su admiración por él.

La resolución del Vaticano fue a dada a conocer el jueves 6 de diciembre y en virtud de ella el arzobispado de Santiago suspendió a Precht durante cinco años el ejercicio de su ministerio sacerdotal. A través de un comunicado público, el cura anunció que apelará para demostrar su inocencia.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By JIM HINCH / FOR THE REGISTER

Incoming Orange County Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann will do just about anything to pastor his people.

Last August, Vann paid a visit to a burgeoning parish in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, where he has been bishop for the past seven years. Vann was there to consecrate a newly built chapel, including a 100-foot bell tower.

Brushing aside the trepidations of parishioners, Vann insisted on riding a hydraulic lift to the top of the tower so he could sprinkle holy water directly on the bells.

“Are you willing to do this?” parish pastor Richard Eldredge recalled asking Vann.

“Yes!” Vann declared. …

During his time in Fort Worth the diocese nearly doubled in size to 710,000 Catholics. Vann presided over $135 million in building projects, including renovation of the diocese’s 120-year-old downtown cathedral and consecration of the nation’s largest Vietnamese parish church in Arlington.

He made public the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse and called the diocese’s prior handling of abuse cases “a huge moral failure.”

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UTAH
God Discussion

By D. Beeksma
On December 7, 2012

CNN’s Gary Tuchman reports that he received a tip that convicted polygamist Warren Jeffs is having children pick pecans at a private ranch instead of attending school.

Tuchman and his team set out to investigate the lead and found that it was true. Hundreds of children, many of them small, were working at the Hurricane, Utah ranch. They were accompanied by a few mothers and some men.

When CNN’s camera crew was spotted, the children and the adults ran away. “The paranoia among FLDS leaders is intense,” Tuchman says. “That’s because they know we are here to ask questions, like why is it okay to pull all their children out of school so that they can toil as free laborers and what’s happening with all the money they’re making.”

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HAWAII
The Maui News

December 9, 2012

By LILA FUJIMOTO – Staff Writer (lfujimoto@mauinews.com) , The Maui News

A Maui man is suing the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii and the religious order that runs Damien Memorial School on Oahu, under a new state law providing a two-year window for child sexual abuse victims to file civil actions, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred in Hawaii.

The man, referred to as John Roe No. 5 to protect his privacy, was 14 or 15 years old, after entering Damien as a freshman in 1986, when the sexual abuse began, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in 1st Circuit Court on Oahu.

The lawsuit identifies his abuser as Brother John Paul Medvit, who was a teacher at Damien during periods in the 1980s and 1990s. He died in August.

The lawsuit alleges negligence and fraud by the Congregation of Christian Brothers of Hawaii and the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii. School and church officials didn’t tell students or parents “that they had or should have had information that Medvit had a pattern of grooming and molesting boys,” according to the lawsuit.

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UNITED STATES
The Pueblo Chieftain

Posted: Sunday, December 9, 2012 .

By DR. CHRISTINE NEVIN-WOODS

Sexual abuse has been in the news and on the public’s mind since the Jerry Sandusky, Catholic Church and Boy Scout scandals.

According to research, at least 20 percent of American women and 5 percent to 10 percent of men experience some form of sexual abuse as children.

But fewer than half of abused children disclose their abuse before adulthood. Why does this occur? Abuse usually occurs in private, threats are common, and children are ideal victims and often feel guilty and believe they did something to cause the abuse.

Most abuse occurs by someone the child knows: a family member, neighbor, friend, respected adult. The terrible cases of abduction, rape and killing are rare compared to the pedophile who builds a relationship with the child/family or just has easy access. Pedophiles are very good at “grooming” their victims and working or volunteering where they have easy access to children. Children are usually not able to easily get away or understand if the threats are realistic or not.

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CHILE
Terra

El sacerdote que luchó contra Pinochet y hoy es condenado por el Vaticano

Existe pesar en el mundo ligado a la defensa de los derechos humanos en Chile luego que el Vaticano apartara del sacerdocio a Cristián Precht, quien fue uno de los íconos de la oposición al régimen de facto de Augusto Pinochet.

La Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe comprobó la acusación de “conductas abusivas con mayores y menores de edad” contra el religioso, y le prohibió por cinco años el ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal y la potestad de confesar y dirigir espiritualmente a jóvenes y menores.

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BELGIE
De Morgen

De Senaat heeft vandaag het wetsontwerp tot verbetering van de aanpak van seksueel misbruik en pedofilie binnen een gezagsrelatie definitief goedgekeurd. Rik Torfs (CD&V) onthield zich omdat de bepalingen over onterecht verkregen stukken volgens hem in strijd zijn met de mensenrechten. Ook Inge Faes (N-VA) onthield zich wegens legistieke redenen. Beiden benadrukten achter de inhoud van het ontwerp te staan.

De tekst vertaalt een aantal aanbevelingen van de bijzondere Kamercommissie Seksueel Misbruik in wetteksten, en werd eerder door de Kamer goedgekeurd. Ook in de Senaatscommissie Justitie kreeg het ontwerp unanieme instemming. Maar Rik Torfs had een aantal bezwaren tegen de tekst waardoor hij de tekst niet kon goedkeuren.

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VATICAN CITY
Sacramento Bee

The Associated Press

Published: Friday, Dec. 7, 2012

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI moved Friday to shore up the papal household in the aftermath of the Vatican’s leaks scandal, naming his trusted secretary to also run the office that organizes his schedule.

German Monsignor Georg Gaenswein replaces American prelate James Harvey, who was recently made a cardinal, as papal household prefect. The prefect arranges the pope’s audiences and other events on his schedule and manages the papal household.

For nearly a decade Gaenswein, 56, was personal secretary to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He continued in that role after the German became pontiff in 2005. The Vatican said Gaenswein would likely remain on as papal secretary, adding the duties of the household prefect to his existing ones.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

POLICE have launched an investigation into the handling of complaints by a former school principal, who is still a senior teacher, of child sexual abuse for almost three decades.

The investigation comes after concerns were raised with the Victorian Institute of Teaching about Jewish communal leader and former Yeshivah College principal Rabbi Abraham Glick.

While Rabbi Glick is not accused of any sexual misconduct, it has been alleged he failed to handle complaints appropriately.

The former Yeshivah College principal still holds one of the most senior positions at the school despite being publicly accused of failing to report numerous alleged incidents of sexual abuse to authorities while in charge between 1986 and 2007.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Shannon Deery
From: Sunday Herald Sun
December 09, 2012

POLICE have launched an investigation into the handling of complaints by a former school principal, who is still a senior teacher, of child sexual abuse for almost three decades.

The investigation comes after concerns were raised with the Victorian Institute of Teaching about Jewish communal leader and former Yeshivah College principal Rabbi Abraham Glick.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8221

STOVER, MO. • Last Sunday, the Rev. Travis Smith paced First Baptist Church’s sanctuary, decorated for the holidays with poinsettias and a Christmas tree. He addressed his congregation, speaking to them about forgiveness.

Smith read verses from the Gospel of Matthew that follow the Lord’s Prayer:

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” he said.

Since Smith’s arrest in October on sexual abuse and statutory rape charges, which follow similar allegations from 2010, forgiveness from his congregation has become critical to his survival as its pastor. It is this group of about 100 souls — not a bishop, nor a disciplinary committee nor national church leaders at a faraway headquarters — who will decide Smith’s future in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Unlike members of many denominations — such as Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalian and Presbyterians — Southern Baptists don’t conform to a centralized, hierarchical structure.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By Alan Erwin
Saturday, 8 December 2012

A victim of a paedophile priest has received a five-figure sum to settle a lawsuit taken over the sexual abuse he suffered, his lawyer has revealed.

The man brought a civil claim against Daniel Curran (below) for assaulting him when he was a child more than 20 years ago.

Curran (62) of Bryansford Road, Newcastle, is known to have abused more than a dozen boys over a period of up to 17 years.

The former priest is currently serving a four-year jail term for attacks carried out at his family holiday home near Tyrella, Co Down between 1989 and 1994.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SWR

[Video]

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz hat eine Studie zur Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchs-Skandals vorgestellt. Dazu wurden 78 psychiatrische Gutachten über beschuldigte Geistliche ausgewertet. Die Kirche hofft, sich dadurch ein besseres Bild von den Persönlichkeiten der Täter machen zu können.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

VON EDGAR BAUER, 07.12.12

KÖLN/MZ. Nur die wenigsten katholischen Priester, die sich sexuell an Minderjährigen vergehen, sind im klinischen Sinn pädophil. Das ist das Ergebnis einer Studie des forensischen Psychiaters Norbert Leygraf (Duisburg) im Auftrag der Bischöfe. Es gebe im Vergleich zwischen Klerus und der männlichen Bevölkerung “keine bedeutsamen Unterschiede”, sagte Leygraf in Trier. Die weitaus meisten sexuellen Übergriffe von Priestern geschähen aus Gründen, die im “normalpsychologischen Bereich” liegen. Der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Bischofskonferenz, der Trierer Bischof Stephan Ackermann, sprach von der Hoffnung auf eine “neue Qualität in der Debatte um den Umgang mit Tätern im kirchlichen Bereich”.

Für die Erhebung wertete Leygraf mit zwei Kollegen 78 psychiatrische Gutachten aus den Jahren 2000 bis 2010 aus. Die sexuellen Übergriffe selbst, derer die Geistlichen beschuldigt waren, lagen meist vor dieser Zeit, die Mehrzahl in den 1960er bis 1990er Jahren. Das Spektrum der Vergehen umfasste zum einen den Besitz und die Nutzung kinderpornografischen Materials (zwölf Fälle). Zum anderen ging es um Vergehen mit und an Minderjährigen – angefangen von Umarmungen bis zum vollzogenen Geschlechtsverkehr. Die Opfer waren überwiegend Jungen im jugendlichen Alter.

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CANADA
St. Catharines Standard

By Tony Ricciuto, Niagara Falls Review

Friday, December 7, 2012

Police in Wyoming have concluded their investigation and no criminal charges are being filed against a former Niagara Falls Roman Catholic priest who was dismissed last month from his chaplain’s post at Wyoming Catholic College.

Lander, Wyo., police Chief Jim Carey told The Review Friday they have closed their investigation involving Rev. Stuart MacDonald.

“From the evidence and statements that we have received, we are not filing any criminal charges due to the fact we do not believe a criminal act was committed, however inappropriate, not criminal,” said Carey.

MacDonald, who was the pastor at St. Thomas More Roman Catholic church on Dorchester Rd., had been given permission in September by Bishop Gerard Bergie to leave the Diocese of St. Catharines to take up the position of chaplain at Wyoming Catholic College.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

The high priest of a witches’ coven in Cornwall has denied sexually abusing children over three decades wearing hooded robes and using daggers.

Peter Petrauske, 72, known as “German Pete” denies attacks on young girls dating back to the 1970s.

Next to him in the dock at Truro Crown Court is Jack Kemp, 69, also accused of taking part in the ritualistic abuse of young girls – he also denies all accusations.

Yesterday Petrauske, gave evidence during which he said he had been a pagan for 55 years taking part in “Sabbath” rituals, had an alter in his bedroom and books on the occult and witchcraft.

Petrauske, of The Beacon, Falmouth, admitted having robes, daggers, eye masks and a whip, insisting they were all for ceremonial purposes only.

Sean Brunton, defending, asked: “Have any of those items been used to frighten or assault children at any stage.”

He replied: “No never.”

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NEW YORK
Gothamist

After two weeks of intense testimonies at Brooklyn Criminal Court, the trial of Nechemya Weberman—the ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor accused of sexually abusing a teen girl in Brooklyn starting when she was 12—is almost at an end. Lawyers got a chance to present their closing statements yesterday as jurors began deliberating the case today. Defense lawyer Stacey Richman argued that Weberman had been unfairly vilified: “During the Salem witch trials, people would never be given a fair shake. In the 1950s, it took one word from a neighbor to get someone accused of being a Communist,” she said. “What’s the most we can say today? Child sexual abuser. And it is an awful thing. But the wrongful accusation of a child sexual abuser is even worse.”

Although many of the people who testified said Weberman was a leader in the Satmar Hasidic community—despite the fact he admitted to defrauding his own charity on the stand—Richman downplayed that aspect. “If Mr. Weberman’s so powerful, why can’t he keep [her] in school?” she asked. “They want you to believe Mr. Weberman is the Vaad-Father,” she added, referring to Vaad Ha’Tnius, the modesty committee that allegedly enforces the strict Satmar rules and dress codes.

She also attacked the teen who brought the accusations forward: “The only evidence in this case is the word of [the alleged victim.] That’s it,” Richman said, questioning why she didn’t come forward sooner, and why there were no other witnesses or DNA evidence. “Three years of oral sex? That’s a lot of semen!” she quipped, referring to the fact the teen saw Weberman four times a week over a three year period.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSH SAUL
Last Updated: 7:30 PM, December 7, 2012

One of the alternate jurors released today from serving on the explosive sex trial of a prominent Hasidic leader said she would have voted to acquit — and two other dismissed jurors said they would only have voted to convict him on some of the charges.

“I didn’t have enough evidence to nail the person. No video, no DNA,” said the juror, a middle-aged black woman. “There wasn’t enough evidence for me. Both sides were a little shady.”

Nechmya Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl for three years after she was sent to him for counseling, prosecutors charge.

The 12-person jury who will decide his fate began deliberations today, so the five alternate jurors were released from duty.

Two other alternate jurors said they would have voted to acquit Weberman of some of the 60 counts he faces.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSH SAUL
Last Updated: 4:35 AM, December 8, 2012

The Hasidic leader on trial for molesting a young girl could actually beat the charges if the jurors are as split on his guilt as the alternates released yesterday.

“I didn’t have enough evidence to nail the person. No video, no DNA,” said one of the alternates, who were excused as the jurors began deliberating.

“There wasn’t enough evidence for me. Both sides were a little shady,” said the middle-aged juror, who declined to reveal her name.

Nechmya Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on the girl, starting at age 12, for three years while she was being sent to him for counseling, prosecutors charge.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Beast

Dec 8, 2012

Allison Yarrow

The ultra-Orthodox “modesty committee” has allegedly used intimidation, threats, and even “arrests” to uphold strict community standards—but some won’t even admit it exists. Allison Yarrow reports.

Wearing masks, the men broke into her bedroom after dark to confiscate the evidence. They are not the law or the mafia, and she is neither a criminal nor a rat. Baila Gluck was just a 15-year-old girl, and it was just a cell phone, but to the Vaad Hatznius—the self-appointed arbiters of right and wrong in the Satmar Orthodox Jewish community—Baila might as well have been holding a time bomb.

The Satmars, who live in two extremely insular enclaves in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and in upstate New York, know and fear Vaad Hatznius, which means “modesty committee,” but most people have never heard of the group and its practices, which can include intimidation, threats and even “arrests”—for example, of a girl who attends a party with boys, or a religious man who shaves his beard. While its members have no official permission from the state to engage in law enforcement, Jews who live under the Vaad’s law say beatings, harassment and stolen property are all too common.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Alternate jurors excused from the trial say remaining jurors deliberating are ‘split down the middle’ on whether evidence proves Weberman is guilty of sexually assaulting a girl, 12 years old at the time.

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, December 7, 2012

A dozen jurors deliberating the fate of a prominent Hasidic counselor Friday have a long road ahead of them, judging by the reactions of three excused alternates.

The jurors, sprung from Nechemya Weberman’s two-week trial on Friday, gave wildly divergent opinions on whether he’s guilty of sexually abusing a Brooklyn teen for three years.

“It’s a tough one,” said one former juror who declined to give his name. “I think they’re split down the middle. I was split down the middle as well.”

But the man said he would have convicted Weberman, 54, on at least some of the 60 counts that he’s facing.

A woman, who was also excused from the panel, disagreed.

“I didn’t hear enough evidence to nail the person,” she said. “No video, no DNA.”

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DUITSLAND
De Morgen (Belgie)

dm Studie Het celibaat is niet de oorzaak van het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Kerk. Dat heeft de Duitse bisschoppenconferentie verklaard na een onderzoek waarin het psychisch profiel werd onderzocht van geestelijken die tot kindermisbruik waren overgegaan. Het onderzoek werd fel bekritiseerd, onder meer omdat het gefinancierd werd door de katholieke Kerk. Dat doet twijfel ontstaan of het onderzoek in alle onafhankelijkheid werd gevoerd. .

Het onderzoek werd in april 2011 opgestart, nadat ook in Duitsland commotie was ontstaan over het seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen in de Kerk.

Wetenschappers hebben daarop het profiel onderzocht van 78 geestelijken, die in totaal 265 kinderen hadden misbruikt. Drie kwart van de slachtoffers waren jongens.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Forbes magazine yesterday listed Benedict XVI as the 5th most powerful man on earth after Bill Gates of Microsoft as the 4th (Obama 1st, Germany’s Merkel 2nd, Russia’s Putin 3rd, Ben Bernake 6th , US chair of Federal Reserve, Abdullah, King of Saudi, 7th , Mario Draghi, President European Central Bank, 8th, Xi Jinping, Gen. Sec. Chinese Communist Party, 9th, David Cameron, Prime Minister of UK, 10th) Forbes measures everything in monetary value and so it must know something about the Vatican Bank which we don’t, because the secret Vatican Billions

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GERMANY
The Nation

By: AFP | December 08, 2012

BERLIN – Germany’s Roman Catholic Church revealed Friday that at least 66 clergy had been accused of sexually abusing children and adults over a 10-year period, with most of the victims male. The findings were part of a scientific study ordered after the Church was thrown into crisis two years ago when hundreds came forward alleging they were abused as minors between the 1950s and 1980s. Based on dozens of expert appraisals of Catholic clergy submitted by 21 of Germany’s 27 dioceses, it said the clergy had been accused of 576 cases of sexual assault between 2000 and 2010. Three-quarters of the 265 alleged targets of abuse were male, the German Bishops’ Conference said.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

[07.12.2012: Statement von Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann bei der Pressekonferenz zur Vorstellung der Ergebnisse der Analyse forensisch-psychiatrischer Gutachten 2000-2010 PDF (24,92 KB)]

[PDF (24,92 KB) 07.12.2012: Präsentation von Professor Dr. Norbert Leygraf bei der Pressekonferenz zur Vorstellung der Ergebnisse der Analyse forensisch-psychiatrischer Gutachten 2000-2010 PDF (130,90 KB)]

„Vermehrtes Hinzuziehen externer Sachverständiger ist ein wichtiger Schritt in Richtung transparenter Vergangenheitsbewältigung“

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz und das Institut für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Duisburg-Essen haben heute in Trier die Ergebnisse der Studie „Sexuelle Übergriffe durch katholische Geistliche in Deutschland – Eine Analyse forensischer Gutachten 2000-2010“ vorgestellt.

Bereits im Jahr 2002 gab die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz für alle Diözesen verbindliche Leitlinien zum Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch innerhalb der katholischen Kirche heraus und beauftragte seitdem auch kontinuierlich forensisch-psychiatrische Gutachten. Die Institute für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Duisburg-Essen unter Leitung von Professor Dr. med. Norbert Leygraf, der Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin mit dem Leiter Professor Dr. med. Hans Ludwig Kröber und der Sektion Forensische Psychotherapie der Universität Ulm unter Leitung von Professor Dr. med. Friedemann Pfäfflin erstellten den Großteil dieser Gutachten. Unter Mitarbeit von Dr. Andrej König von der Fachhochschule Dortmund, Fachbereich Angewandte Sozialwissenschaften, Methodenlehre und Forensische Psychologie, begann im April 2011 die Erarbeitung der Studie zu sexuellen Übergriffen in der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland, in der Gutachten im Zeitraum 2000 bis 2010 ausgewertet wurden, und deren Ergebnisse jetzt vorliegen.

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GERMANY
Oman Tribune

BERLIN Germany’s Roman Catholic Church revealed on Friday that at least 66 clergy had been accused of sexually abusing children and adults over a 10-year period, with most of the victims male.

The findings were part of a scientific study ordered after the church was thrown into crisis two years ago when hundreds came forward alleging they had been abused as minors between the 1950s and 1980s.

Based on dozens of expert appraisals of Catholic clergy from between 2000 and 2010 submitted by 21 of Germany’s 27 dioceses, it said the clergy had been accused of 576 cases of sexual abuse.

Three-quarters of the 265 alleged targets of abuse were male, the German Bishops’ Conference said, releasing the report drawn up by three forensic centres for research.

Most of the cases took place between the 1960s and 1990s “in a period when a different social awareness and a lower sensitivity to the theme of sexual acts on children and youths still prevailed”, Norbert Leygraf, of the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry at Duisburg-Essen University, said in a statement.

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GERMANY
Press TV (Iran)

More than 60 German clerics have been accused of sexually abusing minors and adults between 2000 and 2010, Germany’s Roman Catholic Church says.

According to a study conducted by three German forensic centers for research, at least 66 priests had been charged with 576 cases of sexual abuse of mostly male victims during the ten-year period.

The German Bishops’ Conference released the report on Friday, saying that nearly three-quarters of the 265 alleged targets of sexual misconduct were male.

The study further revealed that most of the priests found guilty of sexually abusing minors were psychologically normal.

The study was launched in April 2011 after hundreds of victims alleged that they had been sexually harassed as minors between the 1950s and 80s, creating a crisis for the church nearly two years ago.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Von Barbara Hans

Die meisten Priester, die sich an Jungen oder Mädchen vergangen haben, sind nicht pädophil. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine Studie der deutschen Bischofskonferenz. Die Autoren haben sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche systematisch untersucht.

Hamburg – Die Antworten sind beruhigend und verstörend zugleich. Die meisten Geistlichen, die Mädchen und Jungen missbrauchen, sind weder psychisch krank noch pädophil. Zu diesem Schluss kommt die Studie “Sexuelle Übergriffe durch Geistliche in Deutschland”. Die Autoren haben forensische Gutachten aus den Jahren 2000 bis 2010 ausgewertet. Welche Männer werden zu Tätern? Haben sie eine auffällige Biografie, ein auffälliges Sexualverhalten? In welcher Beziehung stehen sie zu den Opfern?

Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz hat die Untersuchung bei vier Psychiatern in Auftrag gegeben – dem bekannten Essener Gerichtspsychiater Norbert Leygraf und seinen renommierten Kollegen Hans-Ludwig Kröber, Friedemann Pfäfflin und Andrej König. Die Wissenschaftler werteten Gutachten über Priester und Ordensleute aus, die unter dem Verdacht des sexuellen Missbrauchs vor Gericht standen und psychiatrisch untersucht wurden.

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CHILE
Emol

SANTIAGO.- El Vaticano confirmó la existencia de “conductas abusivas” cometidas por el sacerdote Cristián Precht, en el marco de la investigación canónica llevada a cabo sobre el caso.

Así lo confirmó esta tarde un comunicado emitido esta tarde por el arzobispado de Santiago.

Según la determinación, la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe comprobó “las mencionadas conductas abusivas y la conformidad con la petición de derogar la prescripción, en atención a la gravedad de los hechos denunciados”.

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CHILE
La Tercera

Familia que denunció a Cristián Precht: “Esperamos que la Iglesia tome nota y revise su estructura”

por Angélica Baeza Palavecino – 07/12/2012

Luego de conocerse la sentencia de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, que sostiene que Cristián Precht cometió “conductas abusivas” con mayores y menores de edad, la familia de Patricio Vela Montero, que presentó una denuncia en contra del religioso, envío un comunicado de prensa en el que valoran de cierta forma la respuesta desde el Vaticano.

“Hoy, conociendo la sentencia de culpabilidad del presbítero Precht emitida por el Vaticano, tenemos la esperanza de que esto signifique un paso más decidido y claro hacia la protección de las víctimas de abuso sexual y de poder por parte de sacerdotes católicos”, sostienen.

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CHILE
Santiago Times

Written by Charlotte Karrlsson-Willis

The Vatican suspended Chilean priest Cristián Precht, in reaction to sexual abuse charges brought against him.

The suspension was handed down by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body of the Vatican charged with defending the Church’s doctrine and morals.

“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prohibits Cristían Precht from public exercise of the priestly ministry for a period of five years,” the Vatican decreed in a letter to Santiago’s Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello.

Precht was first accused of sexual abuse in 2011, and more than 20 victims have since come forward. Ezzati asked for a judgement from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “for the sake of people, plaintiffs and the need for justice.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A Catholic priest has been quizzed by police over allegations he sexually abused a girl from the age of eleven.

Father Tim Hopkins, 44, was interviewed under caution by detectives investigating allegations a girl was molested on three occasions between 2004 and 2007. It is understood he was not arrested.

He has been suspended from his church duties by the Salford diocese as a ‘neutral act’ while the police probe continues.

His parishioners in Denton were informed Fr Hopkins had been temporarily relieved of his duties just before Sunday services at St John Fisher and St Mary’s churches.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2012, 4:45 p.m.

In its landmark $660-million settlement with victims of sexual abuse five years ago, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to make public the confidential personnel records of all priests accused of molesting children.

Victims said the release of the files would provide accountability for church leaders who let pedophiles remain in ministry, and law enforcement officials suggested that the documents could lead to criminal cases against those in charge.

After years of delays and legal wrangling, the files are set to become public in coming weeks.

But the documents have been scrubbed of what many regard as the most important information: the identities of the members of the church hierarchy who reshuffled abusers.

The names of the former cardinal, Roger M. Mahony, and the bishops and vicars who handled molestation complaints for him have been redacted by church lawyers at the direction of a retired federal judge managing the files’ release.

In handing down that decision last year, the judge, Dickran Tevrizian, said that the archdiocese had endured enough criticism and that he wanted to prevent the files from being used to “embarrass or to ridicule the Church.” The documents in question include internal memos, Vatican correspondence and psychiatric reports.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Katholisch

Missbrauch | 07.12.2012 – Trier

Was läuft falsch bei Priestern, die Schutzbefohlene sexuell missbrauchen? Gab es Probleme in der sexuellen Entwicklung? Wurden bei der Ausbildung Fehler gemacht? Oder ist die Nähe zwischen Seelsorger und Schutzbefohlenem problematisch? Schwierige Fragen, denen sich Norbert Leygraf, Direktor des Instituts für Forensische Psychiatrie der Universität Essen-Duisburg, gewidmet hat.

Im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) hat er die forensischen Profile von Geistlichen ausgewertet, die sich an Kindern und Jugendlichen vergangen haben. Die Profile wurden in den Jahren zwischen 2000 und 2010 erstellt, die Taten lagen meist viel weiter zurück. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung wurden am Freitag von Leygraf und Bischof Stephan Ackermann, dem Missbrauchsbeauftragten der DBK, in Trier vorgestellt.

Das wichtigste Resultat: Die wenigsten Priester, deren Profile im Rahmen der Studie ausgewertet wurden, sind pädophil. Leygraf und sein Team haben 78 Profile ausgewertet und sind zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass sich auffällig viele Täter in einer Sinnkrise befanden – sowohl beruflich als auch privat. “Da mag Einsamkeit eine Rolle gespielt haben, das Bedürfnis nach Nähe. Auch Unzufriedenheit mit dem Beruf”, kommentierte Leygraf. Auffällig sei zudem, dass die meisten Vorfälle um das siebte und achte Berufsjahr stattgefunden hätten.

Der Zölibat als Schutz?

Bischof Ackermann zieht daraus den Schluss, dass Strukturen geschaffen werden müssen, um die Priester mit ihren Problemen nicht alleine zu lassen: “Einen Ort oder einen festen Ansprechpartner, wo man das Gefühl hat, willkommen zu sein und sich aussprechen zu können.”

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GERMANY
Reuters

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS | Fri Dec 7, 2012

PARIS (Reuters)- A German Catholic Church study showed most priests found guilty of sexually abusing minors were psychologically normal, according to survey results presented on Friday.

Only 12 percent of those surveyed were diagnosed as paedophiles, said the report released by Trier Bishop Stephan Ackermann, the church’s spokesman on abuse cases.

Psychological tests commissioned by priests’ dioceses around Germany found only five percent could be classified as ephebophiles – attracted to teenagers, it said.

“There are no significant differences to results found in the general population in Germany,” said Dr Norbert Leygraf, one of the experts reviewing reports on predator priests found out in the past decade.

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CALIFORNIA
The Press-Enterprise

Posted on | December 7, 2012

Long Beach police are not saying what a priest accused of sexual misconduct was doing in San Jacinto when he was arrested in July.

The Long Beach Post reported this week that Luis Jose Cuevas pleaded no contest to a felony count of committing a lewd act on a child and two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.

Cuevas was a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church in Long Beach and lived on the grounds of the church for the last seven years. The incidents occurred in Los Angeles County.

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NEVADA
Reno Gazette-Journal

Written by
Jaclyn O’Malley

A defrocked priest who moved to Reno and briefly ran a halfway house for parolees, could be pleading guilty Monday in federal court in Denver related to masturbating on a commercial air flight while viewing pornography on his lap top.

Daniel Drinan is expected to appear for an arraignment Monday on a misdemeanor charge of crimes aboard an airplane for exposing his genitals to crew members of a Southwest Airlines that left the Baltimore-Washington International Airport headed to Denver on Sept. 8.

The hearing could turn into a guilty plea and subsequent sentencing, court documents show. The maximum punishment is 90 days in jail, and a $5,000 fine.

Drinan could not be reached for comment on Friday.

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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on December 07, 2012

We’re disturbed by Rev. Stan Archie’s response to allegations that he sexually exploited a church member.

It’s disingenuous to claim that a church investigates its own pastor and that and some other anonymous body allegedly did so too. Why refuse to name the organization that supposedly checked out the accusations? Because Rev. Archie’s denial of sexual misconduct is so vague and is issued through his lawyer, it rings hollow.

It’s also troubling to see a minister attacking his accuser, crying “extortion.” Usually, that’s a sign that a predator is trying to intimidate other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from stepping forward.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

A meeting took place of Clogher ACP on Wednesday 28th November 2012. Eleven priests attended, seven sent apologies including our Bishop. Following on from our constant concern about the needs of our clergy, our topic for discussion at this meeting was our need for Pastoral Supervision/Reflection

A presentation was made by Fr. Declan Mulligan, a Down and Connor Priest. He spoke of how formal supervision/peer support was very much a part of the secular world. No comparable professional walk of life leaves the requirement for self-care absolutely to its own personnel; how essential it is then for a priest, who has to react to so many different and often challenging situations, to have this support/supervision, for to be human is to be in relationship with other people.

Declan presented supervision/reflection as a means of being accountable to ourselves, to our vocation, to our God. By connecting with our brother Priests we can share similar problems and experiences and receive support and a listening ear. It would be good to belong to a group that I value and that values me. It is of particular benefit to those who work in isolated situations, and can be very restorative.

There was also acknowledgement of some fears about opting into supervision/reflection, motivation, commitment, taking or getting time off, there is also the possibility that the support could remain on the margins of one’s experience, and so no growth in ministry might occur.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
The Association of Catholic Priests

Statement of Support for Fr. Roy Bourgeois

The Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland) is saddened and disappointed by the dismissal of Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois from the priesthood and from his religious congregation, and his excommunication from the Church that he has served for almost half a century. We believe that this type of action, ordered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and implemented by the Maryknoll Order, is unjust, and ultimately counter-productive. Dismissing people because they have sincerely held views that are contrary to those of the Vatican, but which are widely shared by the Catholic faithful, will not end discussion and debate on these topics. In fact it will only serve to highlight the urgent need to face the problems around ministry in the Church. Participants in a year long ‘listening process’ in the diocese of Killaloe, a mainly rural diocese in Ireland, expressed the opinion that the ordination of women should be openly discussed, particularly in view of the projected shortage of priests in the next few years. Surely this is yet another of many examples of the sensus fidelium calling for change so that, in future, the Eucharist can be available to the Church community.

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IRELAND/UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Coday | Dec. 7, 2012

The church reform group that represents about a quarter of Ireland’s Catholic priests issued a statement of support Friday for Roy Bourgeois, the U.S. Maryknoll priest that the Vatican laicization and dismissed from his order because of his support of women’s ordination.

The Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland) called on the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “to cease this type of abuse, to restore Fr. Bourgeois to the full exercise of his ministry and to allow for open and honest discussion on issues that are of crucial importance for the future of the Church.”

“We believe that this type of action, ordered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and implemented by the Maryknoll Order, is unjust, and ultimately counter-productive,” reads the statement from the association.

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MISSOURI
Missourian

Friday, December 7, 2012

BY The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY — The president-elect of the Missouri State Board of Education is denying allegations that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship years ago with a former member of his Kansas City church.

In the lawsuit, the woman alleges the Rev. Stan Archie, senior pastor at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, began a sexual relationship with her while he was counseling her. The lawsuit also names the church, saying officials failed to protect her and hid previous reports of impropriety by Archie.

Archie’s attorney, Michael McCausland, said Archie and the church deny the allegations. He calls the lawsuit “an obvious attempt to extort money.”

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Jessica Bock jbock@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8228

The president-elect of the Missouri State Board of Education is defending himself against a civil lawsuit that accuses him of an inappropriate sexual relationship years ago with a former assistant and member of his Kansas City church.

The Rev. Stan Archie, who has been on the state board since 2006 and currently serves as vice president, is senior pastor at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church.

The woman, whom a judge allowed to hide her identity and proceed as “Jane Doe” in court documents, filed the lawsuit in January in Jackson County Circuit Court. The suit says Archie abused his position in the church to take advantage of the woman, who was vulnerable and depressed, and begin a sexual relationship as he gave her counseling, according to court documents. It also names his church in the suit, saying officials failed to protect her and others at the church by hiding previous reports of impropriety.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Sid Maher
From:The Australian
December 08, 2012

THE states have agreed to give Julia Gillard’s royal commission into child sexual abuse maximum legal powers to conduct their investigations and have set an 18-month timetable for the inquiry to provide an initial report to the governments.

The Prime Minister said the state premiers were “predisposed” to issue letters patent to bolster the legal powers of the royal commission, declaring terms of reference would be announced before the end of the year.

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VATICAN CITY
Rome Reports

[with video]

December 7, 2012. (Romereports.com) The Pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein has two new titles. He’s been named Prefect of the Papal Household and also archbishop.

The dual appointment was carried out because the Prefect of the Papal Household, must also be an archbishop. Up until now, Gaenswein had not held that rank.

Previously the Prefect of the Papal Household was James Harvey. In November he left that post, when the Pope made him a Cardinal and the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

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VATICAN CITY
Zee News

Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI on Friday moved to shore up the papal household in the aftermath of the Vatican’s leaks scandal, naming his trusted secretary to also run the office that organizes his schedule.

German Monsignor Georg Gaenswein replaces American prelate James Harvey, who was recently made a cardinal, as papal household prefect. The prefect arranges the pope’s audiences and other events on his schedule and manages the papal household.

For nearly a decade Gaenswein, 56, was personal secretary to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He continued in that role after the German became pontiff in 2005. The Vatican said Gaenswein would likely remain on as papal secretary, adding the duties of the household prefect to his existing ones.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed:

– Msgr. Georg Glaswein as prefect of the Pontifical House, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Waldshutt, Germany in 1956 and was ordained a priest in 1984. He has served in the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he held the role of personal secretary to the prefect. He has served as personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI since his election to the pontificate.

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UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times

By Dominic Gover

December 3, 2012

Two men in Cornwall have gone on trial accused of a string of child sex offences allegedly carried out during witchcraft rituals in which they dressed in robes and brandished knives.

Peter Petrauske, 72, and Jack Kemp, 69, both deny they abused underage girls during ceremonies over a period of 30 years until 2009. Petrauske, who was said to be high priest of the coven, denies one count of rape.

Truro crown court heard that victims as young as three were plied with alcohol and then stripped naked in front of a group of men who were dressed in robes.

Jason Beal, prosecuting, told the jury that some victims had their hands tied behind their backs during the abuse. Some allegedly had wax poured on to their bodies. Afterwards, they were given sweets in exchange for staying silent.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

An alleged victim of two men charged with sexually abusing her as a child as part of a witches’ coven told a court she did not speak out until recently because she was afraid.

Peter Petrauske, 72, and Jack Kemp, 69, face charges of sexually abusing children during pagan ceremonies from the 1970s onwards.

They are standing trial at Truro Crown Court and deny a series of sexual offences against young girls.

In 2005 a friend of the pair called Stanley Pirie was tried and convicted at the same court of child sex abuse.

One of Pirie’s victims who gave evidence during the trial has since accused Petrauske and Kemp of also sexually abusing her during the same period of her childhood.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Packet

A murdered councillor with links to Budock and the Lizard Peninsula has been accused of child rape in a sensational turn of events at a trial into alleged sex abuse at pagan ceremonies.

Peter Solheim, who was murdered in 2004, was accused of raping the girl during a harrowing video interview, made by an adult woman during the trial of 72-year-old Peter Petrauske and Jack Kemp, 69.

Petrauske, who at the time of his arrest last December was living at The Beacon, Falmouth has denied raping one girl and three charges of assault.

Kemp, of Grenville Road, Falmouth, has denied aiding and abetting attempted rape and 15 charges of assault.

Giving evidence, a witness in the case has detailed the abuse and rape she allegedly suffered at the hands of men involved in a West Cornwall coven of white witches, during their trial at Truro Crown Court.

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UNITED KINGDOM
West Briton

ALLEGED victims of two Falmouth pensioners have told how they were “destroyed” by a witches’ coven where young girls were abused.

Peter “German Pete” Petrauske and Jack Kemp are on trial accused of a string of abhorrent attacks over three decades on girls between the ages of 3 and 15.

The trial at Truro Crown Court, which is expected to last three weeks, has already heard evidence of wife-swapping and claims that:

murder victim Peter Solheim, a Budock councillor, was involved in the rape of one child, aged 10, who has given a harrowing account of her experience decades later;

one of the alleged victims was also attacked by a friend of the pair, convicted paedophile Stanley Pirie;

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UNITED KINGDOM
Western Morning News

A man accused of being part of a witches’ coven that sexually abused young girls more than 30 years ago has denied he was involved.

Father-of-nine Jack Kemp, 69, is charged along with his friend Peter Petrauske, 72, known as “German Pete” of a series of sex attacks on young girls.

The jury at Truro Crown Court has already heard prosecutors argue the abuse involved people in hooded robes, daggers and chanting at various large houses across west Cornwall.

After Petrauske was arrested, police seized long flowing robes with pendants, books on witchcraft, spells, a black leather whip, a gold and china dagger, black and red eye-masks and a black-handled sword from his house.

Petrauske, of The Beacon, and Kemp, of Grenville Road, both in Falmouth, deny all allegations.

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MISSOURI
Catholic News Agency

By Michelle Bauman

Kansas City, Mo., Dec 7, 2012 / 04:08 am (CNA).- Calls for the resignation of Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph that have gained media attention are exaggerated and do not depict the real situation in the diocese, according to local Catholics.

Jack Smith, interim director of communications for the diocese, told CNA that a Dec. 2 article by the New York Times was “inaccurate” in suggesting a widespread lack of support for the bishop.

The New York Times said that it had obtained 32 responses from a survey of priests conducted by a consulting firm hired by the diocese and that “half of them seriously doubted whether the bishop should continue as their leader, and several suggested that he resign.”

Smith explained that for some time, the diocese had been planning a capital campaign to build a new high school. However, after the bishop’s trial, they decided to have a consultant, Church Development, conduct a confidential survey to see if the campaign should be delayed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 8, 2012

Barney Zwartz

BALLARAT Catholic bishop Ronald Mulkearns repeatedly and knowingly moved a paedophile priest around his diocese and overseas, where the predator constantly found new victims, the mother of one victim said yesterday.

Helen Watson’s explosive testimony to the state inquiry into clergy child sex abuse came as the parliamentary committee left Melbourne for the first time and heard from victims in Ballarat, the epicentre of the paedophile plague where up to 50 victims have taken their own lives. One of them was Peter Watson, abused at 15 by Father Paul David Ryan, and dead by his own hand at 24.

Before her evidence, her husband Tim at her side, Mrs Watson told Fairfax: ”For years I was in shock, and I couldn’t be angry at anyone. Now, I have the anger and can be a strong voice for victims. I’ve got fire in my belly this afternoon.”

She told the inquiry that each time his abuse of children in the Ballarat diocese became known, Ryan would be sent to the US, and when allegations surfaced there, he would be sent back to Australia. He was sent to the US seven times, and in 1993 was considered beyond help by a program in Mexico for clergy sex offenders.

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MISSOURI
The New York Times

By ERICA GOODE

Published: December 6, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They found her, one leg curled under the other, in the back seat of a van at Longview Lake, a white plastic bag over her head, a purple pillow beside her, an empty pill bottle nearby.

Everyone assumed it was a suicide — the note found in the van seemed to indicate as much: “I did it because I wouldn’t be a real person and what is the point of living if it is too late for that?” it said, and, “Maybe Jesus will still forgive me.”

But in the weeks since the body of Bethany Deaton, a registered nurse who had ties to a charismatic Christian sect here that practices round-the-clock worship, was found, the circumstances of her death have become far less clear.

Three days after Ms. Deaton’s funeral, a 23-year-old man, Micah Moore, walked into the Grandview, Mo., Police Department and confessed to suffocating her.

“I killed her,” he told officers, according to court documents, adding that he had placed the bag over her head and “held it there until her body shook.”

Now, the authorities are investigating allegations that Ms. Deaton, 27, was drugged, sexually assaulted and killed on the orders of her husband, Tyler Deaton, 26, a man described by witnesses as a Pied Piper-like leader who gathered a band of young people around him and pressured them to engage in sexual practices under the guise of religious devotion. Mr. Moore has been charged with first-degree murder. Mr. Deaton and others are still under investigation.

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NEW YORK
New York Post

Satmar Hasidim — they’re just like everybody else!

New Yorkers got a look inside the insular culture of ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn this week thanks to the sexual-abuse trial of a prominent Hasidic leader in Williamsburg.

Despite all the outward oddities of the man on trial — his black suit, untrimmed beard and lengthy side-curls — it turns out he’s right smack in the mainstream of secular political life in New York.

He has a not-for-profit cash cow, too.

Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed counselor accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in his care, testified Wednesday that he ripped off a charity he founded ostensibly to help poor Brooklynites.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Joanna Molloy

If Nechemya Weberman had a guilty look in his eyes, the jurors never saw it. He didn’t look at them once as the prosecutor gave graphic details Thursday of the 88 counts of sexual torment he allegedly wrought upon a teenage girl he was paid to help.

If the jury finds Weberman guilty — now that lawyers have wrapped their case — the leaders of the insular Satmar Hasidic sect to which he belongs must ask themselves the same questions that dogged the Catholic Church in the wake of its own pedophilia scandals.

They must ask, did we enable him? Do our methods of reigning in rebellious young girls run counter to American law? Do we deny these girls freedoms they are entitled to, treating them as prisoners despite more than a century of hard-fought victories by women’s rights activists?

Instead, it seems this Williamsburg-based sect is operating under its own rules, some of which run counter to the law.

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CANADA
Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — It is an event that 68-year-old Cecil Condo views with some trepidation
Topics : Truth and Reconciliation Commission , Canada , New Brunswick , Nova Scotia

On Saturday, he and 17 other survivors of Canada’s residential schools will lead a community procession in Waycobah to unveil a special monument and exhibit dedicated to survivors. The event is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

“My emotions are running wild thinking about it. I will be reminded of it every time I pass by the monument,” Condo said in an interview Thursday.

But Condo has resigned himself to knowing that, monument or not, the memory of those years will never fade as he and others move forward, having survived one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 06/12/2012

Reporter: Chris Uhlmann

Provincial of the St John of God order, Brother Timothy Graham, joins 7.30 to address claims of abuse cover-ups levelled by a former nun of the order.

Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: A short time ago I spoke with the Australian head of the Brothers of St John of God.

Brother Timothy Graham, welcome.

TIMOTHY GRAHAM, BROTHERS OF ST JOHN OF GOD: Thank you, Chris.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Can you imagine a worse crime that could be committed before the law or before your god than to sexually abuse an intellectually disabled child?

TIMOTHY GRAHAM: Absolutely not. I mean, …

CHRIS UHLMANN: And yet members of your order did that.

TIMOTHY GRAHAM: And I think we’re on the public record in the media over 20 years acknowledging that.

CHRIS UHLMANN: When did the order first become aware of the fact that it was taking place?

TIMOTHY GRAHAM: Complaints first started coming to us in about 1992.

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WYOMING
County 10

By Joshua Scheer, reporter, county10.com

(Lander, Wyo.) – Lander Police Chief Jim Carey said the investigation into former Wyoming Catholic College Chaplain Father Stuart MacDonald has concluded and no criminal acts were found.

“No criminal charges will be filed,” Carey said Thursday morning, later adding, “Our case is now closed.”

After conducting interviews and gathering information, he said LPD found no crimes.

“We’re confident no criminal acts were committed,” Carey said.

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WYOMING
KUGR

Wyoming Catholic College officials say the Lander school’s chaplain has been fired amid allegations of improper conduct with students. School spokesman Matthew Brasmer says the chaplain was dismissed effective Nov. 19. The termination follows an internal investigation by the college, which revealed conduct and a pattern of behavior Brasmer called unacceptable as a Catholic college chaplain.

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WYOMING
KUGR

Lander Police Chief Jim Carey says there will be no criminal charges filed against a former Wyoming Catholic College chaplain fired amid allegations of improper conduct with students. Carey says that he’s confident no criminal acts were committed and the case is considered closed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY
Dec. 7, 2012

BALLARAT’S Centre Against Sexual Assault has seen a significant increase in reporting by victims since the establishment of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into clergy sexual abuse.

Senior counsellor Andrea Lockhart said Ballarat CASA had established special operating protocols to accommodate the increased reporting, which she said came as a result of media reports and community engagement.

“We have been prioritising victims of abuse who are making contact with us as a result of the Victorian inquiry, as it can be very difficult for those people to wait after they have made the first contact,” she said.

“Those people are seen almost immediately because we are aware of the sensitivity of this issue in the Ballarat region. We offer them the opportunity to talking about their experiences at their own pace, and allow them to remain in control of that process.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

December 7, 2012

Barney Zwartz

It was “another Eureka stockade moment, a massive day” for Ballarat on Friday as the state inquiry into child sex abuse came to town, one of the worst epicentres for paedophile activity by Catholic clergy, according to survivors spokesman Peter Blenkiron.

“But instead of being about gold and greed and licences, it’s about the greed of the Vatican protecting their gold-lined vaults. Rifles were used at the stockade, but we are using truth to fire the bullets.”

Today is the first time the parliamentary inquiry into how the churches handled sex abuse has left Melbourne, but there will be more regional visits, including a return to Ballarat next year.

Up to 50 child victims of clergy abuse in the Ballarat diocese have committed suicide.

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OREGON
Corvallis Gazette-Times

By CANDA FUQUA, Corvallis Gazette-Times

A Corvallis church is coming to grips with being named as a defendant in a $5 million sexual abuse lawsuit.

Portland law firm O’Donnell Clark & Crew filed suit in Benton County Circuit Court on Tuesday, claiming that the Boy Scouts of America and the host of Troop 2 in Corvallis, the First United Methodist Church, did not install proper safeguards or take precautions that could have prevented alleged abuse between a Scout leader and an 11-year-old boy.

The lawsuit alleges that former Scout leader, James “JJ” Jones, abused the firm’s client, referred to in documents by the pseudonym “Henry Doe,” about 50 times over the course of roughly one year starting in September 1984.

According to the complaint, the sexual abuse took place in the leader’s Scouting office at the church, on camping and hiking trips with the Scouts, at Jones’ home and other locations.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Dec. 6, 2012

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s 200-plus parishes are separate legal entities and their assets will not be consolidated with the archdiocese’s as part of its bankruptcy, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley ruled Thursday in a major victory for the church.

But the parishes could still face separate lawsuits over more than $35 million in parish investment funds that the archdiocese moved off its books in 2005.

Kelley could decide as early as Friday whether to allow the bankruptcy creditors – including hundreds of sexual abuse victims, the archdiocese’s pension and health care funds, and others – to sue to recover at least a portion of those millions.

Attorneys for the creditors argued in a Thursday hearing that the archdiocese fraudulently transferred the money to shield it from sex abuse claims.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Updated: 09:07, Friday December 7, 2012

Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse by church members will hear evidence in Ballarat, the centre of some of the worst offending.

At least 40 former students of pedophile Christian Brothers Robert Best, Edward Dowlan, Stephen Farrell and priest Gerald Ridsdale at St Alipius Primary School in Ballarat have taken their lives and countless more are still scarred by the abuse they suffered as schoolboys four decades ago.

The conviction and 14-year sentence given to Best last year helped trigger the Victorian parliamentary inquiry, which on Friday will hear evidence in the central Victorian city for the first time.

Individual survivors of abuse will give evidence, while one man’s testament will be heard behind closed doors.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

HOUSTON – A Houston man accused of sexually abusing his ex-girlfriend’s young daughter over a four-year period once worked for CPS and as a minister.

Alexander Adams Jackson, 50, is charged with indecency with a child.

KHOU 11 News has learned that Jackson worked for CPS from 2008 to 2011 as a foster parent recruiter. He went to church congregations to recruit and train couples to become foster parents.

CPS said Jackson did not have contact with children during his time as a foster parent recruiter. But they are now looking further into his employment history.

We’ve also learned that Jackson once served as a minister at a small church in Galveston. The church rented a small chapel at the time, but is apparently no longer active.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

By Genevieve Gannon
From: AAP
December 07, 2012

A WOMAN whose son killed himself after allegedly being abused by a pedophile priest says powerful men in the Catholic Church should be charged for concealing the crimes of clergy.

Helen Watson has told an inquiry that Catholic leaders, including former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns, moved Father Paul David Ryan from parish to parish, as well as to America, where he “continually sexually abused innocent young males”, to save the reputation of the church.

She also voiced fears that gaps in the law meant her son’s alleged tormentor, who spent 12 months in jail on child sex offences after being charged in 2006, will never be tried for the crime because her son is dead.

“Bishop Mulkearns sent a known sex offender to Ararat where he sexually abused my son,” Mrs Watson told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse inquiry in Ballarat on Friday.

“This abuse ultimately led to his death.”

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
December 7, 2012

The Catholic Church has been described as having a medieval mindset at the Victorian inquiry into sexual abuse by religious and other organisations.

The first hearing of the inquiry outside Melbourne was held today in Ballarat.

Local Catholic Carmel Moloney told the committee she was part of a support group for victims and their family members.

She described the parents and siblings of victims as secondary victims who had their sacrifice, loving care and nurturing trashed by perpetrators of abuse, and victims have to be protected throughout their lives.

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MISSISSIPPI
WTVA

SENATOBIA, Miss. (AP) — A 71-year-old Mississippi pastor remains in jail on a $1 million bond after he was arrested on charges of sexual battery of a child. He is accused of having sex with a boy who is now 18.

The Commercial Appeal reports Larry Singleton, pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, Miss., was arrested by investigators with the Tate County Sheriff’s Department Monday after they received a complaint days earlier from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex.

Sheriff Brad Lance said the sexual abuse allegedly began when the victim was 11 years old and continued for several years.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

December 06, 2012

Elizabeth Ann Murphy

Regarding Baltimore Archdiocese Vice-Chancellor Sean Caine’s recent letter justifying the church’s response to allegations of child sexual abuse, I am glad that in 1993 Maryland’s attorney general made it clear that all abuse cases should be reported (“Archdiocese acted responsibly,” Dec. 2). So much for the Catholic Church being a moral leader.

When I returned to the archdiocese in 1993 to again report the abuse I had suffered, it was through Fr. William Mannion. At that point I had been in touch with 17 other victims of John Merzbacher.

I was never contacted directly by the diocese. Instead I was sent a message from the diocese through Fr. Mannion: “The diocese is going to contact the police and give them your name only.” Eventually I and the other victims reached out to an attorney, who contacted the Baltimore City police. They reported the crimes to the state’s attorney’s office.

The archdiocese knew full well of my fear of contacting the police on my own after the death threats I had received at gunpoint from Mr. Merzbacher. Nor did the diocese contact any other former Catholic Community Middle School students during this time.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY @TomMcIlroy
Dec. 7, 2012

MORE than seven months after it was established, Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse by members of religious organisations will hold its first regional hearings in Ballarat today.

Witnesses will tell the inquiry of the tragic legacy of abuse by Catholic priests and brothers in the Ballarat region as well instances of mishandled allegations which saw one priest offend against further victims in the United States.

Calls for an official inquiry grew too loud to be ignored after an internal Victoria Police report was leaked in April, linking as many as 40 suicides in Ballarat to abuse by Catholic clergy.

Witness Helen Watson will tell the inquiry that a Catholic priest who abused her son Peter in the early 1990s was moved around the Diocese of Ballarat before he abused children in the United States.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

A VICTIM of a paedophile priest who was “bullied” into accepting meagre compensation has told a parliamentary inquiry into church abuse that all cases of payouts should be reviewed by an independent authority.

As the inquiry headed by state MPs visits Ballarat where a “paedophile cluster” operated in the 1970s, a victims’ group has also called for a card scheme to be introduced so the Catholic Church can foot the bill for ongoing costs and distress.

Speaking at the inquiry this morning Philip Nagle, who was sexually assaulted by clergyman Stephen Francis Farrell at a Ballarat primary school as a nine-year-old in 1974, said the Catholic Church had coerced him and his family into signing release papers.

“We felt like we had no other choice,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the handling of the Sexual Abuse of Children has heard evidence in Ballarat where several paedophile priests have served. Victims and their families and supporters have told the inquiry that bishops were aware some priests were prone to abusing children but simply moved them to different parishes.

Samantha Donovan

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: Victoria’s inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse has heard more harrowing stories of clerical abuse today.

For the first time, the inquiry sat outside Melbourne in the Victorian town of Ballarat.

Police are investigating whether dozens of suicides in the town can be directly linked to abuse suffered at the hands of Catholic clergy.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: The Victorian town of Ballarat gained fame as a booming gold rush town in the 1850s. But now it’s also notorious as having been home to several paedophile priests.

One abuse victim, Philip Nagle, gave evidence at today’s inquiry.

PHILIP NAGLE: Ballarat’s St Alipius Primary School in Victoria Street was certainly not the place to be if you were a Catholic boy going to school in the 1970s.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTAQ

MILWAUKEE (WSAU) Over 200 Catholic parishes in southeast Wisconsin breathed a huge sigh of relief yesterday. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley said the parishes will not put all of their assets at risk, as she decides how much the Milwaukee Archdiocese must pay to sex abuse victims and other creditors in its nearly two-year-old bankruptcy case.

Kelley ruled that the parishes are their own legal entities – but they’re not out of the woods just yet. The parishes could still be sued, as the creditors try to obtain $35-million the local churches obtained from the archdiocese in 2005. The creditors say the archdiocese committed fraud by taking the money off its books, to reduce its future legal liabilities related to the nationwide sex abuse scandal by Catholic priests. Archdiocese attorney Frank LoCoco calls the creditors’ allegation “ridiculous.”

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NEW YORK
The Jewish Week

12/06/12

Young woman’s testimony reveals tactics of freelance ‘purity’ guardians in Satmar community

Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week

For more than a week, spectators and members of the press have been packing the Brooklyn courtroom where a prominent chasidic man is on trial for sexually abusing a girl from the Satmar community who was sent to him for counseling. The case is noteworthy for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that the young woman pressed charges in the first place.

Indeed, ever since she reported the abuse, the alleged victim of Nechemya Weberman — an unlicensed “therapist” to whom, testimony has indicated, Satmar schools referred “wayward” girls for “help” — has been subjected to intense pressure to withdraw her claim, including intimidation, harassment, social ostracism of her family and even a reported $500,000 bribe. Last spring, members of the Satmar community held a lavish fundraiser for Weberman’s defense. Not long after, four men were arrested and charged with witness tampering in connection with the case. And last Thursday, four chasidic men were arrested for taking the young woman’s picture — which was then posted online — as she testified in the courtroom.

The case is also significant for the amount of public support the alleged victim has received, if not necessarily from mainstream members of her community then from her family, close friends and advocates, many of whom have used social media to spread the word about the trial and appeared in court. After all, it was only three years ago that the late judge Gustin Reichbach issued a stinging critique of the religious community from the bench, noting at his sentencing of a bar mitzvah tutor convicted of molesting two of his students “a communal attitude that seems to impose greater opprobrium on the victims than the perpetrator.”

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