ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
SBS

Then foreign minister Kevin Rudd did not respond to a request asking how the government would help support victims of church sexual abuse.

The federal government donated more than $1 million to the Catholic Church towards the canonisation of Mary MacKillop but refused to acknowledge a request to contribute any money to sexual abuse victims, an inquiry has heard.

Abuse survivor Mark Fabbro approached then foreign minister Kevin Rudd at the canonisation celebrations in Rome in 2010 after hearing of the $1.25 million contribution made by the Labor government.

Mr Fabbro told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations on Monday that he wrote a letter to Mr Rudd while in Rome, asking him how the government would help financially struggling abuse survivor groups.

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UNITED STATES
Movieline

Alex Gibney On What The Pope Knew (And Why He Did Nothing) In ‘Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God’

By: Frank DiGiacomo

Sundays are a good time for soul-searching — which makes it a good time to check in with filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose chilling documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, is a must-see for anyone interested in the subject as well as the larger issue of what happens when religion becomes big business.

Gibney’s documentary, which is in its second week of theatrical release and will run on HBO in February, begins with the headlines-making case of Father Lawrence Murphy, who, in a letter to the Vatican in 1998, admitted to abusing some 200 boys since the 1950s at the St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wisconsin. Although the Vatican had been aware of Murphy’s actions since 1963, he was never defrocked and, in fact, was allowed to remain at the school until 1974 (when he was transferred). Mea Maxima Culpa, which translates to “My Most Grievous Fault,” takes Gibney all the way to the Vatican, and in this interview, the filmmaker talks about the surprisingly integral roles that the late Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) played in this tragic tale as well as his doubts that the church will ever openly confront this issue in a way that will bring some measure of peace to its many victims.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
Updated November 26, 2012

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has been urged to question Catholic Church employees about the whereabouts of documents that might show sexual abuse being covered up.

The American-based founder of an international victims support group appeared before the inquiry on Monday.

Barbara Blaine of the ‘Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests’, told the inquiry the church uses many of the same tactics to conceal abuse in Australia as it does worldwide.

She says the inquiry will need to do more than request documents from the church to prove senior officials chose to ignore to paedophilia.

“Bring in the employees and former employees and ask them to swear under oath what documents exist,” she told the inquiry.

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NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA
TVNZ

A former Catholic brother charged five months ago with hundreds of counts of sexual abuse against children and young adults is currently residing on a tea plantation in Sri Lanka because the authorities dragged their feet in extraditing him to Australia.

The former St John of God brother, Bernard Kevin McGrath, who recently served two years in a New Zealand prison for sexually abusing boys there, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in a Newcastle court on June 27.

The 65-year-old is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and 80s.

It is understood that a number of the charges relate to McGrath’s time as a brother at the notorious Kendal Grange College in Morrissett.

Yesterday, the Sun Herald revealed that McGrath was one of three brothers being sued by Sydney’s so-called “playboy rapist” Simon Monteiro, who is currently serving a seven year nine month sentence for aggravated rape and claims that the abuse he suffered has left him with severe psychological disorders.

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AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
The Press

PAUL BIBBY, RORY CALLINAN AND MARTIN VAN BEYNEN

A former Catholic brother charged five months ago with hundreds of counts of sexual abuse against children and young adults, is living on a tea plantation in Sri Lanka because the authorities dragged their feet in extraditing him to Australia.

The former St John of God brother, Bernard Kevin McGrath, who recently served two years in a New Zealand prison for sexually abusing boys here, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in a Newcastle court on June 27.

The 65-year-old is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and 80s.

It is understood some charges relate to McGrath’s time as a brother at the notorious Kendal Grange College in Morrissett.

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NEW ZEALAND/AUSTRALIA
7 News

NZ Newswire
Updated November 26, 2012

Police on both sides of the Tasman are staying quiet about how a former Catholic brother accused of sexually abusing children in Australia fled after tardy extradition attempts to bring him back from New Zealand.

St John of God ex-brother Bernard Kevin McGrath, who served two years in a New Zealand jail for sexually abusing boys, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in Newcastle court on June 27.

But the convicted pedophile flew out of Christchurch on the advice of a friend to Sri Lanka, with which Australia has no extradition treaty, Fairfax Media said.

NSW police wouldn’t comment on their investigation, telling media that “speculation may jeopardise current lines of inquiry”, nor confirm if they were investigating McGrath.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Maitland Walker

26 November 2012
The Supreme Court has unanimously held that a Catholic Institute (a brotherhood of teachers) was vicariously liable for alleged sexual abuse by brother-teachers of children at a boys’ school. Although the brother-teachers were employed by the school’s management rather than the Institute, the Institute was sufficiently closely connected with the brother-teachers to create an employment relationship for vicarious liability purposes. Further, the alleged abuse was sufficiently closely connected with the employment for the Institute to be liable.

The Supreme Court approved the recent Court of Appeal decision in JGE v Trustees of Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust [2012] IRLR 846, in which a bishop was held to be vicariously liable for a priest’s sexual assault on a resident of a children’s home. (Catholic Child Welfare Society and others v Various Claimants and others [2012] UKSC 56.)

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MALTA
Times of Malta

Possessing the innate ability of wise scrutiny, Mgr Charles Scicluna has never shied away from saying it how it really is. Ariadne Massa traces some of his significant quotes.

“The Catholic Church knows well that whenever one of its ministers… sexually abuses a minor, a tragic wound is inflicted on the community… it inflicts untold damage to the minor concerned… and is cause of scandal to Christians and non-Christians alike, a stumbling-block on many a pilgrim’s progress in faith.”
November 2011, speaking on the Church’s role in child protection during a historic meeting in Rome.

“Bishops who mishandle abuse cases should be punished using existing canon law… Church leaders must be held accountable to their people.”
February 2012, during a four-day symposium in Rome on sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
Blacktown Sun

By Callan Lawrence
Nov. 26, 2012

THE Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will touch the lives of thousands of victims across western Sydney.

Founder of Bravehearts Hetty Johnston said the public would be “shocked” by the extent of child abuse uncovered by the inquiry.

Ms Johnston, whose organisation has pushed for a national inquiry for more than a decade, said research showed one in five people were sexually abused before the age of 18.

“I don’t think the public has any real understanding of the extent of child abuse in the community,” she said.

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CANADA
CTV

[with video]

CTV Montreal
Published Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012

Former students of the Montreal Institute for the Deaf say they want justice after alleged abuse at the hands of priests.

About 200 people gathered outside the former Institute for the Deaf at 7400 St. Laurent St. Sunday to say want the Clerics of St. Viateur to held accountable.

In what could turn out to be one of the largest cases of sexual abuse against deaf children, 60 former students are now pursuing a class action lawsuit against the religious order, which includes 28 priests and six other employees.

Each victim is seeking $100,000 in damages for abuse they say dates back as far as the 1940s.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

OLIVIA KELLEHER

The newly appointed Bishop of Cloyne Canon William Crean, parish priest of Cahirciveen in Co Kerry, has said he will make every effort to bring healing and hope to the lives of victims of abuse in the diocese.

Speaking at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, Co Cork, on Saturday, the bishop-elect admitted he was experiencing a degree of apprehension about his new post.

“I am apprehensive because I am deeply conscious of the trauma of these years past. So much suffering endured by young people at the hands of a few.

“Sufferings compounded by the failure of those who didn’t believe them and of those who didn’t hear their cry for help. One thing I ask, however, is your patience to allow me time to grasp the full measure of this deep hurt.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

Church leaders and victim support groups are among those to suggest what terms of reference should be adopted for the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse.

The deadline for submissions into the royal commission’s terms of reference passes today.

A submission from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference says the commission should focus on preventing future abuse, promoting healing for past victims and identifying systemic institutional failures.

The bishops are meeting this week to discuss the church’s response to the royal commission and other matters.

Conference president Archbishop Denis Hart says victims must also be allowed to choose to give evidence in private.

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AUSTRALIA
CathNews

Published: November 25, 2012

BY MICHAEL MULLINS

For many Australians, the first media mention of clergy sexual abuse was broadcaster Derryn Hinch’s (pictured) vilification of Ballarat priest Fr Gerard Ridsdale around 25 years ago. Arguably Hinch set in motion a dynamic that would see offending abusers targeted rather than the institution of the Church. The announcement of the Royal Commission has seen that reversed somewhat, with the outpouring of anger towards the institution of the Catholic Church, with particular focus on the seal of confession.

The debate about whether to target “rogue” priests or the institution is alive in Ireland, where a prominent player is psychotherapist and UCD academic Marie Keenan. Her most recent book is reviewed in an Association of Catholic Priests blog titled “Vilification of abusers won’t contribute to solution”.

If we want to understand sexual violence, we have to get to know its perpetrators and the worlds in which they were formed… For their part, media outlets have helped uncover abuse, but they have also contributed to the vilification of clerical offenders, fixating on the category of pedophilia (at the expense of other abusive scenarios), and fomenting moral panic.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on November 25, 2012

Tomorrow (Cyber Monday), Jim Dunlap is launching his long-awaited murder mystery/thriller MILLSTONE. He’s also donating 10% of proceeds from the book to nonprofits that support victims of child sex abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church. Pretty worthy, don’t you think?

From the Amazon page:

Detective Danni Pierce only wants one thing: justice for the victims of sexual crimes. But she never dreamed that one case–a case involving a Catholic Priest–would lead her down a twisted path of betrayal, cover-up, and murder. When confronted with a danger greater than anything she has ever faced, will her resolve be enough to save her life?

Based on true events, Millstone is the tale of one woman’s pursuit of justice, and the only way she will survive is by relying on her dogged perseverance and her faith in those she loves.

Jim is a good friend and a good writer. The book, which adapted from his screenplay of the same name, is loosely based on events surrounding his son. It’s definitely worth your time and your $4.99 (for the Kindle version – or $14.99 for the paperback).

You can buy the book at this link Monday, November 26. If you like the book’s Facebook page, you can also participate in their Abuse Awareness Event tomorrow, too.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

THE new Bishop of Cloyne is “apprehensive” about his appointment given the trauma in the diocese over clerical child abuse.

Canon William Crean, 60, vowed that he will use his appointment by Pope Benedict to try to bring “healing” to the sprawling Cork diocese which has been wracked by controversy over clerical child abuse for over a decade.

The diocese is still reeling from Judge Yvonne Murphy’s devastating Cloyne report, which last year revealed that children had been left at risk by the diocese’s failure to implement the church’s own child-protection guidelines.

Cloyne has been without a bishop for almost four years after Dr John Magee, a private secretary to three popes, first stepped aside and then resigned over the controversy.

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NEW ZEALAND
Newstalk ZB

By: Newstalk ZB staff

A spokesman for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse has serious concerns a former Catholic priest will re-offend against young children in Sri Lanka.

Bernard Kevin McGrath spent two years in jail in New Zealand, but he’s also wanted in New South Wales, where 252 sexual abuse charges were laid against him in June.

Authorities appear to have waited too long to file extradition procedures – and McGrath is now living on a tea plantation in Sri Lanka, where they can’t get at him.

The 65-year-old former St John of God brother is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and ’80s.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

Michael Vincent reported this story on Monday, November 26, 2012

TONY EASTLEY: The 42 members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference are meeting in Sydney to discuss the Church’s response to the national Royal Commission into child sexual abuse.

Submissions for the royal commission’s consultation period close today.

The head of the bishops conference and Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart says not only will they discuss the inquiry, they’ll also be talking about the Church’s own past responses to victims and allegations, including its Towards Healing doctrine.

And he says he wants a regime of mandatory reporting of abuse to police to be put in place.

Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The most senior 42 men of the Catholic Church in Australia will today hear that the royal commission is a “wake up call”.

DENIS HART: I think there has been a lot of attention to the Catholic Church, admittedly, but we’ve got to face that squarely and we do so and we are committed to doing so.

MICHAEL VINCENT: President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart:

DENIS HART: I welcome the Royal Commission because it will enable these matters to be faced by all of us, it will enable the victims to tell their story, and it will enable us as Church and community together to really do our best to put in place regimes for the future that will really care for our children and avoid these awful events of which we’ve heard more recently.

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VATICAN CITY
Columbus Dispatch

By Nicole Winfield
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sunday November 25, 2012

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI responded to criticism that the club of churchmen who will choose his successor is too Eurocentric, elevating six new cardinals from the United States, Colombia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria and the Philippines during a ceremony yesterday.

Benedict welcomed the prelates into the College of Cardinals during an hourlong ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, telling them that their presence among the other red-robed prelates was a sign of the “unique, universal and all-inclusive identity” of the Catholic Church.

The ceremony was both joyful and emotional: Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, seen by many to be a rising star in the church, visibly choked up as he knelt before Benedict to receive his three-pointed red hat, or biretta, and gold ring. He wiped tears from his eyes as he returned to his place.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

The Sacrament of Confession is the VCC Vatican (not Roman) Catholic Church justice system that’s totally contrary to The Hague, to our American justice system and to all democratic countries’ of the United Nations justice system. The Vatican’s Sacrament of Confession is a system of injustice — because it deletes the sins of criminals and sets them free instantly and it does absolutely NOTHING for their victims. The Sacrament of Confession protects criminals and persecutes their victims…for centuries. The Sacrament of Confession — neither seeks justice nor compensation for victims of — criminals it pardons.

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

[with video]

Friday 23 November 2012

THE Catholic Church in Victoria supports the extension of the current requirements relating to Mandatory Reporting under the Children Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) to ministers of religion and other religious personnel with an exemption for imformation received during the Sacrament of Confession.

In its submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non Government Organisations, the Catholic Church in Victoria also supports the reporting of all allegations of serious crimes to the Police in a way that does not infringe the confidentiality and privacy of victims who have come forward on that basis, or does not infringe on the sanctity of the confessional.

You can listen to Father Shane Mackinlay, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Victoria, discuss these two recommendations contained in the Catholic Church in Victoria’s submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry at www.facingthetruth.org.au or below.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By TOM MCILROY
Nov. 25, 2012

RELIGIOUS ministers in Ballarat should be subject to new laws requiring them to report suspicions of child abuse to authorities, the Catholic Church said yesterday.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart yesterday said an extension of Victoria’s mandatory reporting rules should be immediately made to include religious ministers across the state and for the establishment of new mechanisms for reporting offenders without exposing victims.

However, the proposal would not require priests to report information received during the sacrament of confession.

Archbishop Hart issued a statement in response to comments from Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu who forecast changes to the Crimes Act to compel priests to report suspicions of abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 26, 2012

Jane Lee

VICTIMS of clergy abuse should report allegations and suspicions to police rather than to religious organisations, victim advocates say.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) handed out flyers to parishioners as they left Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, asking for victims, witnesses and people with suspicions to contact the police, a therapist or a support group. Most people accepted the pamphlets.

”Come forward and get the help you deserve,” the flyers say. ”If you reach out healing, justice, prevention and closure are possible. If you stay silent, they are not possible. Please don’t suffer in isolation, shame, anger and self-blame.”

It comes as psychologists, suicide helplines and support groups said they had been flooded with victims’ calls for counselling since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission on child abuse on November 12.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Rowan Callick
From:The Australian
November 26, 2012

PARISHIONERS at morning mass at St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral in Melbourne yesterday politely received flyers handed out by members of the international Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests urging them to “come forward with any information or suspicions of child abuse”.

The president and founder of SNAP, American lawyer Barbara Blaine, said “many survivors are still suffering in secrecy and shame” and the group wanted to let parishioners know about its existence and encourage them to report crimes to police. The SNAP members were asked by cathedral security staff to remain outside the grounds.

Ms Blaine, who said she was abused when she was 12 and 13, has visited 12 countries in her campaign, and says SNAP has 12,000 members in 56 countries.

She said she remained a member of the Catholic Church. “My faith is in God, not in these church officials,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Abuse

The purpose of this document is to seek the input of interested individuals and organisations to the arrangements for the establishment of the Royal Commission, including the scope of the Terms of Reference, the form of the Royal Commission, the number and qualifications of Royal Commissioner/s and the reporting timetable for the Royal Commission. These factors will guide the Commissioner/s in their task of examining responses to instances or allegations of child sexual abuse in the context of public and private institutions or organisations in Australia. The explanatory material and questions below are provided as a guide to start discussions.

On 12 November 2012, the Prime Minister announced that she will be recommending to the Governor-General the establishment of a Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia.

Child sexual abuse is a horrific breach of a child’s right to a safe and happy childhood, with immediate and long term impacts on the victims and their families. Child sexual abuse is also a crime that requires the most serious and committed of responses by the whole community. It is important that claims of institutional and systemic failures be fully explored.

The Royal Commission announced by the Prime Minister will be asked to identify what can be done to ensure that child sexual abuse is prevented in the future and, where it does occur, that organisational responses are just and supportive of survivors.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Sarah Elks
From:The Australian
November 26, 2012

CHRIS Wetherall was just 11 when he was first sexually abused by his teacher — later described by prosecutors as a “master pedophile” – at an Anglican school in the early 1980s.

But it wasn’t until the general practitioner was 34, and then governor-general Peter Hollingworth was under pressure over his past handling of separate abuse allegations at Dr Wetherall’s alma mater, St Paul’s, and other Anglican schools in Queensland, that it dawned on him just how traumatised he was.

By then it was too late. The Anglican Church’s Brisbane diocese invoked a legal defence to block Dr Wetherall’s $3 million civil damages suit, arguing he had missed his window by failing to bring his claim by the time he was 21.

In a historic decision in 2008, a Supreme Court judge ruled Dr Wetherall could sue even though the statute of limitations had expired, but the Court of Appeal and the High Court backed the church’s time-limit defence.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Gary Adshead, The West Australian
Updated November 26, 2012,

He was a frustrated detective who should have been a fortune teller.

On September 16, 1996, Andrew Patterson wrote a memo to his WA Police bosses about the lack of resources for fighting the evil of paedophilia.

“Our current response to paedophile crimes, including the criminal use of computers by these persons, is insufficient,” he wrote. “In my view, this agency would be criticised should it become subject of an external inquiry similar to the Wood royal commission.”

That prophecy might soon be put to the test by a looming royal commission into how agencies and institutions across Australia have responded to child abuse.

Mr Patterson believes his old police force has a case to answer about the poor resourcing and eventual closure of the highly successful paedophile investigations team.

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AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

John White
adelaidenow
November 25, 2012

Public expectations of the royal commission into child sexual abuse may well outweigh what it can feasibly deliver, writes John White

THE Commonwealth Government has announced a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

But what is the commission going to do? The Government has released a consultation paper for comment and you can find it online [here]

The submissions deadline (unless extended) is 4.30pm today. The address for submissions is royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au. Read on, before you send off your submission.

What is a royal commission, and what can it, and can’t it, do? A royal commission is launched by a government, either state or commonwealth. The Commonwealth wants the states to join in the establishment of this commission. That is important for access to information.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

November 26, 2012

Barney Zwartz

CATHOLICS overwhelmingly support a royal commission on child sex abuse at nearly the same rate as other Australians, with 83 per cent approving the inquiry, according to a survey.

The survey shows that 88 per cent of Australians approve of the inquiry, 4 per cent oppose it and 8 per cent don’t know. Among Catholics, 6 per cent oppose it and the same percentage don’t know.

According to the survey, by Essential Media, 88 per cent of Anglicans support the inquiry, as do 93 per cent of Protestants, 86 per cent of people belonging to other religions and 91 per cent of those who profess no religion.

By political affiliation, 92 per cent of Labor voters, 87 per cent of Coalition voters and 95 per cent of Greens voters approve. The groups most likely to strongly approve were 65 and older (71 per cent), Greens voters (72 per cent), Protestants (68 per cent) and those on incomes under $1000 a week (70 per cent).

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 26, 2012

Judith Ireland
Breaking News Reporter

THE victims support group Broken Rites will call on the federal government to directly contact prison inmates and people on government benefits to make sure they are included in the royal commission on child abuse.

A Broken Rites spokesman, Wayne Chamley, said both groups were likely to have experienced high rates of child abuse but may not be inclined to participate in the royal commission, due to issues with literacy or low levels of trust in authority figures.

”They run the risk of being the forgotten ones,” Dr Chamley said, suggesting that a letter could be sent to individuals.

He said about 40 per cent of prison inmates had a background of child abuse. Last year, a Department of Juvenile Justice report found 60 per cent of those in the NSW juvenile justice system had a history of child abuse or trauma.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 26, 2012

Amanda Vanstone

The royal commission on abuse needs to confine itself to cover-ups.

THE federal government’s commitment to a royal commission on child abuse, and the Coalition’s support of it, are welcome. Nonetheless, as they say, the devil is in the detail.

The scope of the commission may be critical to its success or otherwise. The government needs not only to be seen to be doing something but to actually achieve something.

The terms of reference therefore need to ensure the commission can effectively complete its task. Terms that fail to demand a sharp focus might result in many stories being told but little being achieved to protect children.

The commission should not be a field day for lawyers holding out the carrot of compensation. The states generally provide the avenues for complaints of abuse to be heard and if they have been inadequate, the states should confront that.

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AUSTRALIA
Forward

By Dan Goldberg

Published November 24, 2012, issue of November 30, 2012.

Sydney — Another major Jewish organization in Australia is embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal, adding to the trauma triggered by recent revelations of similar cases involving students at two schools in Melbourne, run by Chabad and Adass Israel, respectively.

Because of a suppression order issued by an Australian court, the name of the organization, the alleged sexual abuser and the alleged victims cannot be disclosed.

The Forward can, however, reveal that a man faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on more than 25 counts of child sex abuse, including indecent acts with a minor and sexual intercourse with a child.

Despite the involvement of the unnamed Jewish organization in the case, the defendant is not believed to be Jewish. He entered a “not guilty” plea and is scheduled to face court again in December, with a trial date expected to be set for next year.

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AUSTRALIA
Failed Messiah

New Australian Child Sex Abuse Scandal Involves Multiple Counts Of “Intercourse With A Child”

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Australian journalist Dan Goldberg reports that the new branch of the Melbourne Jewish community’s child sexual abuse scandal involves 25 counts of sexual abuse, including multiple counts of “intercourse with a child.”

The defendant, who recently appeared in a Melbourne Magistrate’s Court and who has not yet been named publicly, is not thought to be Jewish. The abuse took place at a Jewish organization which has not yet been named because of a court suppression order.

However, FailedMessiah.com has learned that the organization involved is a Jewish community sports organization, and some of the alleged abuse may have taken place on a trip to the US approximately 10 years ago.

The accused pleaded “not guilty.” His trial is expected to begin next year.

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CANADA
Le Monde (France)

Par Anne Pélouas Montréal (Canada) – Correspondance Correspondance

Entre 1940 et 1982, 500 à 600 jeunes sourds de 8 à 17 ans auraient été abusés physiquement ou sexuellement dans un pensionnat de Montréal, par 34 pédophiles : 28 membres de la congrégation catholique des Clercs de Saint-Viateur et six employés laïcs. Carlo Tarini, porte-parole de l’Association québécoise des victimes de prêtres, est catégorique : “Au moins 300 ont été agressés sexuellement à répétition, ce qui en fait le plus gros scandale au monde concernant des enfants …

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

9:39 p.m. EST, November 24, 2012

The Catholic-school teacher had a pre-teen student pinned to the ground in his Baltimore classroom, the girl’s blouse open and her chest exposed when the doorknob suddenly turned and the school principal — a nun — burst in.

The screaming girl thought she was about to be rescued, according to court records that describe the scene at the Catholic Community Middle School in Locust Point. But Sister Eileen Weisman, who had a key to the room, merely chastised the teacher, John Joseph Merzbacher, for locking the door.

“[Weisman] looked down and her exact words were ‘John, oh John, I told you never to lock the classroom door,'” Linda Tiburzi, who described the incident in a civil court deposition in the mid-1990s, said in a recent interview. “And then she looked at me and said ‘I never want you staying after school again.’ … That’s all she said, that’s all she did, there was nothing, there was no investigation, there were no questions.”

That incident is one of several outlined in court documents, analyzed in a Baltimore Sun investigation, indicating that Weisman and other Catholic officials were aware of the lay teacher’s sexual abuse of students in the 1970s but did not report it until Merzbacher was criminally investigated in the 1990s.

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MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News

By Leslie Hittner | Winona

Now that the election is over, my wife and I have had to ask ourselves a couple questions. You see, we have not gone back to our old church since I walked out. We chose not to do so for two reasons: We didn’t want to be counted as a part of the Mass attendees (The Winona Diocese counts Mass attendees every October.) and I did not want to make “walking out” a routine that could disrupt the religious ceremonies of other parishioners during those pre-election campaign prayers.

But now the election is over. “Our side” won. October is past. What do we do next? We believe that our church is still on the wrong side of the civil same-sex marriage debate. The hierarchy is still refusing to take full responsibility for the sexual abuse cover-up in the church. Vatican II initiatives — the hope of the church — are still being increasingly misrepresented and pushed aside.

We are not willing to return to “business as usual.” We are not willing to accept a regression to a pre-Vatican II church. We are not willing to abide by the demands of a hierarchy that is more concerned about its own organizational success and appearances than it is about teaching the rest of us what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We aren’t willing to go back to that church.

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IDAHO
The Idaho Statesman

Documents related to the landmark case in Idaho show suspicions over pedophiles were kept quiet.

By MEGHANN M. CUNIFF — mcuniff@idahostatesman.com

The terms of the settlement of the Idaho suit against the Boy Scouts of America and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have not been disclosed, but a document filed Nov. 15 in U.S. District Court in Boise says both sides agreed to an undisclosed monetary settlement.

The federal lawsuit asked for $5 million. Lawyers for the LDS Church and the Scouts’ Ore-Ida Council were not available for comment Friday. Oregon lawyer Gilion Dumas, who sued on behalf of a Portland man who said he was sexually abused as a Boy Scout in Idaho, said she couldn’t discuss the settlement, which will be final once a judge approves a mutual request to dismiss the suit.

The lawyers began negotiating after U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill ruled the case could proceed to trial. At issue was not alleged sexual abuse by Scoutmaster Larren B. Arnold of Nampa, but what Dumas described as institutional fraud by the Scouts and the church to portray the organizations as safe places for boys, despite knowledge of a pedophilia epidemic within its leadership ranks. The case was detailed in a Nov. 6 Idaho Statesman article.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Farrah Tomazin
The Sunday Age’s state political editor.

PRIESTS who suspect a child is being sexually abused will have to report their concerns to police under a planned crackdown by the state government.

In an interview with Fairfax Media to mark two years in office, Premier Ted Baillieu foreshadowed changing the Crimes Act to compel priests and other religious workers to report suspicions of abuse within their organisations.

This would represent a shift in Victoria’s mandatory reporting regime, which currently exempts religious officials, and could involve clerics being prosecuted for failing to report.

But Mr Baillieu says he is yet to be convinced about the need for priests to disclose what is said in the confessional – an issue that is being considered by a parliamentary committee investigating sex abuse within the church and other institutions.

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VATICAN CITY
Salon

By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope on Saturday named a new bishop for the troubled Irish diocese of Cloyne, where for years its previous bishop ignored the Irish church’s own rules requiring suspected priestly sex abuse to be reported to police. The new bishop promptly vowed to do everything in his power to help abuse victims heal.

Cloyne has been without a resident bishop since John Magee, private secretary to three popes, resigned in disgrace as bishop in 2010 after a church-appointed commission found that he and his deputies fielded complaints from parishioners about two pedophile priests starting in 1995, but told police nothing until 2003, and little thereafter.

The findings were particularly galling since the Irish church, under mounting pressure and lawsuits stemming from revelations of wide-scale priest sex abuse and cover-up, had adopted a policy in 1996 requiring bishops to report abuse to police. The Cloyne report, however, found that Magee took no hands-on interest in enacting the policy until 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named the Rev. Canon William Crean, a parish priest in Cahersiveen, to replace the apostolic administrator who has been running the diocese in Magee’s absence. Crean, 60, has been a director of religious education in several Irish schools and received his theology degree from the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 26, 2012

Paul Bibby, Rory Callinan and Martin Van Beynen

A FORMER Catholic brother charged five months ago with hundreds of counts of sexual abuse against children and young adults is now living in Sri Lanka because authorities dragged their feet in seeking his extradition to Australia.

Former St John of God brother Bernard Kevin McGrath, who recently served two years in a New Zealand prison for sexually abusing boys there, had 252 abuse charges laid against him in a Newcastle court on June 27.

The 65-year-old is alleged to have repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese during the late 1970s and ’80s.

It is understood that a number of the charges relate to McGrath’s time as a brother at the notorious Kendall Grange College in Morissett, New South Wales.

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MISSISSIPPI
Hattiesburg American

Written by
Robyn Jackson
American Staff Writer

When Beth Taylor decided to tell the story of her childhood sexual abuse, she knew she had to be brutally honest, but that didn’t make it any easier to bare her soul in writing for the world to read.

“As the author, I could not be honest about some parts and dishonest about others,” Taylor said. “The reader deserves to know the accurate story, or not be told the story. As a journalist, I was always honest with my viewers and readers. If a journalist is not honest, then she or he has no business being a journalist. The same was true in writing the book, honesty was a given.”

Taylor, a former Hattiesburg resident, business owner and WDAM sports reporter, shares the story of her abuse by a priest — and the lasting repercussions of the abuse in her life — in “Bless Them Father, For They Have Sinned.” She will speak about the book at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Oak Grove Public Library.

Taylor was 5 years old when she says a Catholic priest first molested her at St. Anthony of Padua Church and School in New Orleans, and was 12 years old when she says it ended.

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AUSTRALIA
SNAP Australia

WHAT
Handing out fliers to Catholics as they leave mass, child sex abuse victims will urge
–anyone who suffered, witnessed or suspects child abuse in institutional settings to “come forward, get help, and start healing,” and
–contact law enforcement officials “so that kids can be safer and cover ups can be exposed.”

WHEN
Sunday, November 25 at 11:45 a.m.

WHERE
Outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Gisborne St and Cathedral Place, in Melbourne

WHO
Three or four members of an international support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) including an American woman who is the organization’s president and founder and who has spent time in 12 nations dealing with the Catholic church’s abuse & cover up crisis

WHY
Over the past 24 years, members of SNAP have found that public outreach efforts encouraging child sex abuse victims to step forward can be effective. Now that the Catholic church abuse and cover up crisis is attracting more public attention in Australia, SNAP is strongly urging those with information or suspicions about clergy sex crimes to speak up.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

Author: Jerry Berger

Leaders of SNAP are blasting a Columbia University professor who publicly defended the just-ousted voice of “Elmo,” Kevin Clash, who’s being sued for allegedly molesting a minor. In Sunday’s N.Y. Times, professor Katherine Franke defends Clash as “the most recent victim” of a “sex panic,” adding that “At precisely the moment when gay people’s right to marry seems to be reaching a positive tipping point, sexuality is being driven back into the closet as something shameful.” SNAP says, “These callous remarks seem to equate gay sex with pedophilia, which is wrong, hurtful, and irresponsible.”

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MISSOURI
Fox 4

[with video]

November 23, 2012, by Gia Vang and Sarah Clark

GRANDVIEW, Mo. — In a Grandview murder case involving sex, drugs and religion, some have come to believe it parallels the novel, “House of Lies.”

FOX 4′s Gia Vang talked to the author, Susan Claridge, who agrees — the murder of Bethany Deaton has some similarities to her book.

“From my regular readers who knew more about me and from personal friends — they were saying, ‘Have you seen this? Like, this is your book playing out in real life’ and that was kind of scary,” Claridge said.

Claridge’s “House of Lies” was released in early October. It’s about a woman who tries to save her estranged sister from a religious cult, only to find murder and a political agenda.

Many readers, and some FOX 4 viewers, are wondering if Claridge knows more than she says. The book is based out of Kansas City, and one of the murders is eerily similar to Deaton’s.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Fr. Charles E. Curran | Nov. 24, 2012

The following is adapted from Fr. Charles Curran’s contribution to Not Less Than Everything: Catholic Writers on Heroes of Conscience, from Joan of Arc to Oscar Romero, edited by Catherine Wolff, which will be published by HarperCollins in February 2013. Redemptorist Fr. Bernard Häring would have been 100 on Nov. 10.

My appreciation for Bernard Häring was summed up in the dedication of my 1972 book, Catholic Moral Theology in Dialogue — “To Bernard Häring CSsR, teacher, theologian, friend, and priestly minister of the Gospel in theory and practice on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.” As a very young priest of the diocese of Rochester, N.Y., I was doing doctoral work at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome from 1959 to 1961. I was scheduled to teach moral theology at the diocesan seminary in Rochester. After four years of theology at the Gregorian University, I was opening up somewhat from my conservative theological orientation and my commitment to the moral theology of the manuals. I did not write my dissertation with Häring, but I was truly thrilled and nourished by his classes (in Latin) in which he developed his approach to moral theology. At my invitation many fellow priests living with me at the American college in Rome came to hear him and were greatly impressed. …

In the summer of 1979, I was informed that I was under investigation from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for my dissent on a number of moral issues. That fall I went to Rome to consult with Häring and others. Throughout the process I stayed in close touch with Bernard. After much correspondence back and forth it became clear in late 1985 that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was going to take action against me, which they ultimately did in declaring that I was neither suitable nor eligible to be a Catholic theologian. However, they did agree to have an informal meeting of myself with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and some officials of the congregation in March 1986. I was able to bring one advisor. All along Häring had agreed that if there were such a meeting he would accompany me.

Häring’s presence was a source of great strength and consolation to me. He began the session by reading a two-page paper titled “The Frequent and Long-Lasting Dissent of the Inquisition/Holy Office/CDF.” It was Häring at his forthright best at speaking to power. In the end he strongly urged Ratzinger to accept a compromise that I would not teach sexual ethics at Catholic University and there would be no condemnation. The meeting ended without any solution or action.

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ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald

A SEXUAL abuse scandal has been unearthed at the Anglican Church’s Shirley Cripps Children’s Home in Chikwaka that has led to the arrest of one care-giver. Police at Juru have arrested a man who worked at the home in connection with the case after a report made by the Church of the Province of Central Africa led by Bishop Chad Gandiya.

Bishop Gandiya told journalists on Wednesday that his church had to quickly send a team of care-givers after receiving reports that most workers had left the home following the church’s victory at the Supreme Court.

“The reports we received were that the sexual abuse was widespread. We alerted the police, although we were not yet in control of the institution. Police responded swiftly and a suspected male abuser was arrested. I understand that the man is now out on bail,” said Bishop Gandiya.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

[Taoiseach Enda Kenny: Cloyne Report – YouTube]

CITY | Sat Nov 24, 2012

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Saturday named the new bishop of the diocese of Cloyne, Ireland, to succeed the prelate who resigned more than two years ago over accusations of mishandling cases of sexual abuse.

The Vatican named the new bishop as Father William Crean, 60, a native of Tralee who is currently working in Cahersiveen.

The diocese has been run since 2009 by an Irish bishop acting as a special administrator for the Vatican.

The previous bishop, John Magee, stepped aside in 2009 and formally resigned in 2010 after allegations that he had mishandled sexual abuse cases.

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AUSTRALIA
The Mercury

BLAIR RICHARDS | November 25, 2012

MENTAL health support agencies say they will need extra resources to cope with demand from abuse survivors during the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in Australia.

Within six days of the announcement of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in religious institutions, state-based organisations, schools and not-for-profit groups such as scouts and sporting clubs, the Federal Government reportedly received 300 emails to its website and 180 calls from people and organisations wanting to make submissions.

Mental Health Council of Tasmania chief executive officer Darren Carr said Australians would be deeply shocked by what comes out during the inquiry.

Mr Carr said while the inquiry would be a time for healing, it could also trigger trauma in abuse survivors, and counselling services needed to be adequately resourced to deal with demand.

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NEDERLAND
Tubantia

ALBERGEN Kardinaal Simonis heeft in een ontmoeting met twee slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door wijlen pastoor Boonk in Albergen, zijn welgemeende en oprechte excuses aangeboden, zo blijkt uit een verklaring die na afloop is uitgegeven. ‘Als ik er aan denk welk een vreselijk leed u allen is aangedaan, dan spijt me dat geweldig. Het moet voor u afschuwelijk zijn geweest dat de pastoor zijn zilveren priesterjubileum zo groots heeft kunnen vieren in de gemeenschap waarin hij u als kinderen heeft misbruikt.’

Simonis was van 1983 tot 2007 aartsbisschop van Utrecht. Het seksueel misbruik van negen misdienaars in Albergen vond plaats aan het eind van de jaren zeventig en het begin van de jaren tachtig.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

With the creation of the six new cardinals, Benedict XVI “purifies” the Church hierarchy and gives us a preview of his successor’s characteristics: non-European and a pastor of persecuted communities

GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Vatican City

The Filippino cardinal was in tears as a group of Nigerian nuns prayed with their hands raised towards the sky and Indian pilgrims kneeled down around the obelisk gripping their rosaries. Emotions and fragments of a special and unprecedented day. For the first time in history, a batch of cardinals that come from countries outside Europe. St. Peter’s Square, packed as it was with faithful from emerging countries, was the prophesy of a global Church of the third millennium. With today’s mini Consistory, Benedict XVI pointed towards an exit from the Vatileaks scandal, he “purified” the ecclesiastical hierarchies corrupted by scandal and outlined the characteristics of his successor: non-European and a pastor of persecuted communities.

The Pope essentially renewed the Church’s hierarchy and changed the face of his “senate”. “What makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity” and Christian Messianism proposes “a mission directed to the whole man and to every man, transcending all ethnic, national and religious particularities” the Pope explained in the homily pronounced during the Consistory for the creation of six new cardinals, his main collaborators in the Church government. “It is by following Jesus, – Benedict XVI remarked – by allowing oneself to be drawn into His humanity and hence into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom proclaimed and anticipated by the Church, a kingdom that conquers fragmentation and dispersal.”

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IRELAND
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cloyne

[Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Diocese of Cloyne]

Today, the feast day of Saint Colman, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne, the Very Reverend Canon William Crean, Parish Priest of the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahirciveen, Diocese of Kerry.

Saint Colman is the Patron Saint of the Diocese of Cloyne and his feast day is 24 November. Archbishop Dermot Clifford has been Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne since 7 March 2009. The Diocese of Cloyne has a Catholic population of over 150,000 people, comprises 46 parishes and has 107 churches. The diocese includes most of County Cork, see www.cloynediocese.ie.

Life and ministry of the Very Reverend Canon William Crean PP VF:

William Crean was born in Tralee on 16 December 1951, the son of the late Patrick and Margaret Crean (née O’Donnell). His primary and secondary education was in Tralee and later in Saint Brendan’s College, Killarney. As one whose family numbered several vocations to priesthood and the religious life, he too heard the call to the priesthood. Having completed his BA in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, he became a student at the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, while completing his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and he went on to obtain his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1977.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

OLIVIA KELLEHER

Canon William Crean, parish priest of Cahirciveen in Co Kerry and newly appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne, has admitted a level of apprehension about the appointment.

Speaking today at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, the bishop-elect said he was committing himself to do all he could with others in the diocese to bring healing and hope to the lives of all victims of abuse and their families.

“Because I am deeply conscious of the trauma of these years past – so much suffering endured by young people at the hands of a few – sufferings compounded by the failure of those who didn’t believe them and those who didn’t hear their cry for help,” he said.

“One thing I ask, however, is your patience to allow me time to grasp the full measure of this deep hurt,” he added.

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IRELAND
Irish Independet

By Brian Hutton

Saturday November 24 2012

POPE Benedict has appointed a Kerry parish priest as new bishop of the troubled diocese of Cloyne.

Canon William Crean will take over the role left vacant since John Magee, private secretary to three popes, resigned in disgrace in 2010.

The Cloyne report into clerical child sex abuse allegations in the diocese found that Bishop Magee did not follow proper child protection guidelines.

Most Rev Dermot Clifford has been running the diocese since as apostolic administrator.

Ireland’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, said he wished Canon Crean all the help he needs to take on the “challenging” role.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 25, 2012

Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie

ONE of at least 12 students who allege they were sexually abused by a priest at a New South Wales Catholic school has been awarded compensation by the state government.

Fairfax Media can reveal that Cameron Searl, a former student of Chevalier College in Bowral, was awarded $20,000 by the Victims Compensation Tribunal in December 2008 after it determined he had been sexually abused between 1984 and 1985 by a priest who taught music at the school.

”Having carefully considered all of the material on this file, I am satisfied on a ‘balance of probabilities’ that the incidents of sexual abuse occurred in the course of the commission of an offence and involved violent conduct on the applicant,” the Victims Compensation Tribunal concluded.

The head of Missionaries of Sacred Heart, Father John Mulrooney, last week confirmed that 12 students had told the school’s principal or the church that they had been sexually abused by Father Tony Caruana during the 1980s.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The parish priest of Cahirciveen, Canon William Crean, has been appointed Bishop of Cloyne by Pope Benedict today.

The Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has welcomed the news of the appointment.

Cardinal Brady said he believes the appointment of Canon Crean, augurs well not only for the parish of Cloyne but for the parishes and dioceses of Ireland.

Cardinal Brady was speaking from Rome ahead of the start of today’s consistory which will see the creation of seven new cardinals in Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope Benedict.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald

By Richard Weir
Friday, November 23, 2012

A Catholic chaplain assigned to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford has been suspended while the Archdiocese of the Military investigates “personal conduct matters” involving the priest, Boston church officials said in a statement today.

The statement, released by the Archdiocese of Boston, said the Rev. Luke Odor had been residing at the rectory of the Church of St. Isidore in Stow since 2007 while serving as a priest at the VA center.

“The Archdiocese for the Military has informed us that they have started an investigation into personal conduct matters involving Father Odor. The investigation does not involve any matters related to Saint Isidore’s Parish or the Archdiocese of Boston,” the statement noted. “As a result of this action Father Odor’s faculties have been suspended by the Archdiocese for the Military and in keeping with our policies, the Archdiocese of Boston has followed with similar action.”

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 24, 2012

Jill Stark

Suicide helplines, psychologists and victim support groups are struggling to keep up with a surge in demand for counselling, as the royal commission into child sexual abuse triggers renewed trauma for survivors.

Callers distressed by media coverage of the upcoming inquiry flooded Lifeline with requests for help in the week following Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s November 12 announcement.

The national suicide helpline – which usually manages 1500 calls a day – experienced a 16 per cent increase in calls, taking an additional 250 calls each day from abuse survivors, some of whom had never spoken of their ordeal.

While the number of royal commission-related calls has since dropped to about 40 a day, Lifeline chief executive Jane Hayden said the service is still over-stretched and warned demand is likely to increase further when proceedings begin.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Peter Jackson’s widow says an inquiry into child abuse triggered devastating memories.

Natalie Poyhonen

Transcript

CHRIS O’BRIEN: A warning tonight on how challenging it can be to deal with child sexual abuse, as the Federal Government prepares for next year’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Peter Jackson was a man who on the surface had it all – a loving wife, children, memories of a stellar international rugby league career and a burgeoning media role. But he was tortured by the anguish of sexual abuse as a teenager. His widow tonight reveals from a letter he wrote just before he died how media reports of a previous investigation into paedophiles triggered a downward spiral which lead to his death. Natalie Poyhonen reports.

SIOBHAN JACKSON, WIDOW: One of the powerful things about Peter’s story is that it’s not about one institution, it’s over institutions, it’s about a Catholic brother who was working in an Anglican boarding school, who was a football coach.

This is a supremely conditioned athlete. And this is an abused child. It’s easy to defend yourself when you’re a powerful football player.

NATALIE POYHONEN: Peter Jackson died at just 33 years of age leaving behind his wife and three children. As Australia prepares for the upcoming Royal Commission into Child Abuse, his widow Siobhan Jackson knows from bitter experience what can happen. In 1997 while in drug rehabilitation her husband wrote a letter about how he felt watching news reports of a Commission of Inquiry that was then underway.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

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

– Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez of Los Angeles, U.S.A., as members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

– Fr. William Crean of the clergy of the diocese of Kerry, Ireland, pastor of Cahersiveen and vicar forane, as bishop of Cloyne (area 3,440, population 164,500, Catholics 161,600, priests 118, religious 203), Ireland. The bishop-elect was born in Tralee, Ireland in 1951 and ordained a priest in 1976. He studied in Ireland and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and has held a number of pastoral roles.

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ITALIE
Volkskrant (Nederland)

In Milaan is een priester opgepakt wegens jarenlang seksueel misbruik van gedetineerden. Don Alberto Barin (51) maakte misbruik van de zwakke positie van arme buitenlandse gevangenen. Bijna 5 jaar lang eiste hij seks in ruil voor sigaretten, tandenborstels, zeep en shampoo. Hij had een voorkeur voor jonge Afrikaanse mannen. .

Dat hebben Italiaanse media dinsdagavond gemeld. Het OM heeft overtuigend bewijs verzameld met behulp van een videocamera. Die werd na een klacht van een slachtoffer geïnstalleerd in de ruimte waar de katholieke geestelijke gedetineerden placht te ontvangen.

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IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Saturday, November 24, 2012

A new bishop has been appointed to the diocese of Cloyne in Co Cork for the first time in two years following a scandal over the handling of abuse allegations.

The Pope has appointed Canon William Crean of Cahirciveen in Co Kerry to the post vacated in 2010 by Bishop John Magee.

An official report found that Bishop Magee had failed to fully implement the Church’s own child protection guidelines.

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AUSTRALIA
Jewish Chronicle

By Dan Goldberg, November 23, 2012

Another major Jewish organisation in Australia is embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal, adding to the trauma triggered by recent revelations of similar cases involving students at a Chabad and Adass Israel school.

The name of the organisation, the defendant and the alleged victims cannot be revealed due to a court suppression order.

But it can be revealed that a man has faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on more than 25 counts of child sex abuse, including indecent acts with a minor and sexual intercourse with a child.

The defendant, who is not believed to be Jewish, entered a “not guilty” plea and is scheduled to face court again next month, with a trial date expected to be set for next year.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 25, 2012

Paul Bibby, Rory Callinan

HE WAS dubbed the playboy rapist – a male model and occasional actor whose seductive charms hid a violent, narcissistic streak that eventually caused him to be jailed in 2009 for more than seven years over the brutal rape of a woman in the eastern suburbs.

But now Simon Monteiro claims that, years before he cut a swathe through Sydney’s high-society women, it was he who was the victim of violence and sexual abuse, at the hands of the notorious Catholic Church order, the St John of God.

And he says this abuse left him so traumatised he has been unable to have ”meaningful relationships” with women because of his ”inability to deal with conflict”.

Simon Monteiro, who has accused McGrath’s order of abusing him. Photo: Julian Andrews

Monteiro, 45, who once dated Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey, is suing the order and three of its brothers in the Supreme Court for at least $750,000 in damages over what he claims were years of rape, intimidation and abuse.

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ZIMBABWE
allAfrica

The Herald

A SEXUAL abuse scandal has been unearthed at the Anglican Church’s Shirley Cripps Children’s Home in Chikwaka that has led to the arrest of one care-giver. Police at Juru have arrested a man who worked at the home in connection with the case after a report made by the Church of the Province of Central Africa led by Bishop Chad Gandiya.

Bishop Gandiya told journalists on Wednesday that his church had to quickly send a team of care-givers after receiving reports that most workers had left the home following the church’s victory at the Supreme Court.

“The reports we received were that the sexual abuse was widespread. We alerted the police, although we were not yet in control of the institution. Police responded swiftly and a suspected male abuser was arrested. I understand that the man is now out on bail,” said Bishop Gandiya.

One of the girls, according to Bishop Gandiya, was unceremoniously transferred from the school.

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COLORADO
CBS Denver

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – A former youth pastor accused of sexually assaulting a member of the youth group was in court on Friday.

Matt Capranelli was advised in Douglas County Court that he’s being charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

Capranelli worked at Mountain View Community Church in Highlands Ranch. Court documents indicate the alleged abuse happened from 2004 to 2007.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

OLIVIA KELLEHER

Canon William Crean, parish priest of Caherisveen, Co Kerry, has been appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne by Pope Benedict XVI.

The previous Bishop of Cloyne, Dr John Magee stepped down in 2010 after it was revealed he did not follow proper child protection guidelines.

The Cloyne report, which investigated how clerical child sex abuse allegations were handled in the diocese between 1996 and 2009, detailed a catalogue of failures on the part of church authorities. It laid the blame squarely with the former bishop and Msgr Denis O’Callaghan.

In 2009 the Cork based Bishop said he was withdrawing from the running of the diocese in order to dedicate himself fully to the Commission of Investigation of Cloyne report.

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MALTA
The Malta Business Weekly

Mgr Charles J. Scicluna was this morning ordained auxiliary bishop during a ceremony delivered to a St John’s co-Cathedral filled to overflowing, in the presence of family members, visiting archbishops and bishops, representatives from across the Maltese diocese, among other dignitaries.

Today’s Episcopal Ordination – a ceremony led by Archbishop Paul Cremona celebrating Mgr Scicluna’s moment of renewed commitment to the Church – took centre-stage, overshadowing the political scene, with a string of activities held this week to the run-up to the ceremony. The ordination was televised live on TVM 2.

Following one of the readings, all present burst into applause.

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IRELAND
Huffington Post

November 24, 2012

VATICAN CITY — The pope has named a new bishop for the troubled Irish diocese of Cloyne, where for years its previous bishop ignored the Irish church’s own rules requiring suspected priestly sex abuse to be reported to police.

Cloyne has been without a resident bishop since John Magee, private secretary to three popes, resigned in disgrace in 2010 after a church-appointed commission found that he and his deputies fielded complaints from parishioners about two pedophile priests starting in 1995, but told police nothing until 2003.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday named the Rev. Canon William Crean, a parish priest in Cahersiveen, to replace Magee.

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CANADA
Radio Canada

[avec la video]

Exclusif – D’anciens élèves de l’Institut des sourds de Montréal dénoncent les agressions sexuelles dont ils disent avoir été victimes il y a une quarantaine d’années pendant qu’ils fréquentaient cet établissement dirigé par les Clercs de Saint-Viateur.

Pour la première fois, certains ont accepté de témoigner publiquement de cette période trouble de leur enfance dans le cadre d’un reportage qui sera diffusé jeudi à l’émission Enquête.

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CANADA
Radio Canada

Après la diffusion du reportage de Radio-Canada sur des allégations d’agressions sexuelles d’anciens élèves de l’Institut des sourds de Montréal, la communauté des Clercs de Saint-Viateur a réagi dans un communiqué rendu public jeudi.

« Nous condamnons tout acte pédophile. Si de tels gestes se sont produits, nous le regrettons », écrit le père Roger Brousseau, responsable des communications.

Mais la communauté des Clercs de Saint-Viateur précise qu’elle ne commentera pas la cause « par respect pour les tribunaux ».

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CANADA
Montreal Gazette

By Janet Bagnall, GAZETTE education reporter
November 23, 2012

MONTREAL — Another chapter of Quebec’s dark history of the sexual abuse of children in church-run institutions was aired this week by Radio-Canada. But this was not just any chapter. It threatens to be one of the most horrifying in an already heartbreaking record.

It deals with the sexual abuse of young boys, already vulnerable because of their age but doubly or triply so because they were also deaf and mute. Their alleged abusers were educated men who promised to set the boys free from their silent world.

Clerical and lay members of a much-admired Roman Catholic teaching order, the Clercs de Saint-Viateur, these men did not set the boys free. The boys who say they were abused ended up in a living hell, terrified of telling anyone what was happening to them. They remained trapped in that hell in adulthood, unable to erase the grotesque images in their heads of masturbating priests and anal rape.

This case may turn out to be the worst ever seen involving the abuse of deaf children. Unlike the previous record, held by a single Roman Catholic priest, Lawrence Murphy of Wisconsin, in Quebec more than 30 clergy are alleged to have abused the deaf children in their care, sometimes one after another. (Murphy, who may have sexually assaulted as many as 200 children at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin, was denounced in 1996 to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican took no action against Murphy, who died in 1998.)

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AUSTRALIA
The Maitland Mercury

By Margaret Dennis
Nov. 24, 2012

Patricia Feenan and her family were devout Catholics. They had complete trust in the godliness and integrity of the church and its leaders, until a black-hearted priest by the name of James Patrick Fletcher took away their son’s innocence forever.

There was a lot priestly business in the Feenan family home. John Feenan was the business manager of the Maitland Newcastle Diocese and Patricia was a special minister at the church in Clarence Town.

“I had a traditional Catholic upbringing where the priest was almost like God,” Patricia said.

“I guess [James Patrick] Fletcher groomed the whole family; he didn’t only did groom Daniel and his brothers – his brothers weren’t abused – but that was part of this thing . . . to groom us all and he had other families with sons.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Brian Ballou and Martin Finucane
| Globe Staff
November 23, 2012

A chaplain at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford who has been living at a church rectory in Stow is under investigation for “personal conduct matters,” the Archdiocese of Boston said today.

Reverend Luke Odor is being investigated by the Archdiocese for the Military, which supervises him, the Boston archdiocese said in a statement.

Odor has been suspended by the military archdiocese and the Boston archdiocese said it had followed suit, taking “similar action.”

It wasn’t clear what Odor allegedly might have done. The Boston archdiocese said the allegations did not involve any matters related to the Boston archdiocese or the church in Stow.

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CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

November 23, 2012 – 12:26pm By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau

An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused boys when he was younger has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Albert LeBlanc, now married and living in Bouctouche, N.B., pleaded guilty in May to six counts of indecent assault. His guilty plea came at the beginning of what was expected to have been a weeklong trial in Yarmouth.

LeBlanc faced 50 counts but pleaded guilty to six charges, each of which related to a different male victim.

The offences occurred between Jan. 1, 1970, and Dec. 31, 1985 when LeBlanc lived in Yarmouth County, where he worked first as a priest and later, after he left the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

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CANADA
CTV Atlantic

Published Friday, Nov. 23, 2012

A former Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for sex crimes in Yarmouth.

Albert LeBlanc faced 50 counts, all alleging the sexual abuse of boys during his days in Yarmouth County, where he worked first as a priest and later, after he left the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1970s – each with the name of a different victim attached.

Today, Judge James Burrill accepted a joint recommendation by the crown and defence.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Jewish Chronicle

By Simon Rocker, November 23, 2012

A leading member of London’s strictly Orthodox rabbinate this week resigned as a dayan after being confronted over allegations of inappropriate conduct with a number of women.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern, who runs a shtibl (house synagogue) in Golders Green, announced that he was stepping down from “public positions”, which include his seat on the presiding rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

The storm, which has been gathering around him for weeks, broke on Sunday after he attended a meeting at the home of former London Beth Din head Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, where six local rabbis examined the allegations.

The rabbis issued no public statement but a copy of Rabbi Halpern’s resignation letter, handwritten in Hebrew, surfaced on the internet on Tuesday.

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CANADA
CBC News

An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest, who pleaded guilty to molesting six children decades ago, was sentenced to five and half years in prison in a Yarmouth court on Friday.

Albert LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault in May. Some of the crimes date back to when LeBlanc was a priest in Yarmouth County in the 1970s.

Judge Jim Burrill accepted the Crown and defence’s joint sentencing recommendation.

The Crown said at least one case of abuse started when the boy was only 8-years-old. The court heard how Leblanc would entice his underage victims with alcohol and allow them to drive when they were only 13.

Leblanc’s victims have filed victim impact statements, but none of them wished to read them aloud in court Friday.

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CANADA
CBC News

Posted: Nov 23, 2012

Sentencing is underway for an 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to molesting six children decades ago.

Albert LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault in May. Some of the crimes date back to when LeBlanc was a priest in Yarmouth County in the 1970s.

There’s been a joint recommendation from the Crown prosecutor and Lebalnc’s defense lawyer to sentence him to five and a half years in prison.

The Crown said at least one case of abuse started when the boy was only 8-years-old. The court heard how Leblanc would entice his underage victims with alcohol and allow them to drive when they were only 13.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

It is for all of us who make up the church, not royal commissions, to right these wrongs

Angela Shanahan
From:The Australian
November 24, 2012

THIS week, everyone I have met has asked me the same question. What are you, as a practising Catholic woman, going to say about the church and the royal commission into sexual abuse?

Some people have been very insistent. Like every other Catholic person I know, I am depressed and fed up with this scandal. My children and grandchildren are all Catholics and attended Catholic schools; my son-in-law is a Catholic school teacher.

I am a conservative Catholic, as one wit remarked, more pre-Council of Trent than post-Vatican 2, and hearing the likes of Craig “credit card” Thomson on ABC radio saying in outraged tones that a royal commission is needed because “they” can’t just “sweep it under the carpet” is enough to rile up the old church militant in me.

It is obvious to Blind Freddy that the sudden calling of a royal commission over sexual abuse within the church, when the police have convictions and are doing their job, is pretty suspect; particularly when royal commissions should really be looking at the workings of the state child welfare systems in this country, which are in an absolute shambles and have allowed children to die.

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Telegraph

Cardinal George Pell and senior members of Catholic Church had ‘sociopathic lack of empathy’ towards Foster family, parliamentary inquiry told

CARDINAL George Pell and other leaders of the Catholic Church had “a sociopathic lack of empathy” towards a family whose lives were ripped apart after a priest abused their daughters, a parliamentary inquiry into child abuse has been told.

It comes as victims speak about seizures, substance abuse and relationship difficulties stemming from childhood abuse in the church.

Anthony and Chrissie Foster, whose daughters Katie and Emma were abused after enrolling in a Catholic primary school in Oakleigh in the late 1980s, told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into church handling of child sex abuse how their family had been torn apart by the “hell” of dealing with the trauma.

Mr Foster said the late Father Kevin O’Donnell had been reported on three prior occasions but was not brought to justice.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Jill Rowbotham
From:The Australian
November 24, 2012

SCRAP it. That’s what Sydney lawyer and sex-abuse survivor John Ellis says the Catholic Church should do with its Towards Healing policy for dealing with sex-abuse victims.

Mr Ellis, who has first-hand experience of Towards Healing, said the main problem with it and the parallel Melbourne Response was an inherent conflict of interest: cases are managed by church-appointed personnel, although complainants are encouraged to go to police.

The policies will be discussed at an Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference meeting in Sydney starting on Monday.

“I think ultimately they are probably going to have to start again,” Mr Ellis said of Towards Healing, introduced in 1997.

Some victims struggled with “a perception and a reality of coming to the body that has been responsible for causing harm to you and asking them to do something about it”.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, November 23, 2012

Father Oliver Brennan, the former parish priest in Dundalk County Louth who was falsely accused of child abuse, said support from family and friends kept him sane during the two-year ordeal.

Speaking on the Marian Finucane programme on RTE Radio One last Saturday, he said,

“It was the worst thing in the world, to be accused of the worst crime of all.”

According to the Dundalk Democrat, Fr Brennan said that on August 14, 2010, the bishop, who was with a child safe-guarding officer, read out to him the accusation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Grandstand Sport

[with audio]

Peter Jackson was a star of rugby league in the 1980s and 90s, representing Australia and wearing the Maroon for Queensland. But in 1997 Jackson described in a letter the mental anguish he couldn’t shake throughout his life: he was sexually abused as a child. His wife Siobhan Jackson has agreed to read from the letter because, she says, his words have extra significance as Australia prepares for the royal commission into child abuse.

Natalie Poyhonen

Transcript

ASHLEY HALL: The widow of the former NRL star Peter Jackson says authorities must learn from the past and provide comprehensive support for victims who come forward at next year’s royal commission into child abuse.

While Peter Jackson was a champion sportsman, off the field he was crippled by the sexual abuse he endured as a schoolboy.

Siobhan Jackson says her husband struggled with memories of sexual abuse memories that were triggered by publicity surrounding the Wood Royal Commission’s investigations into paedophiles.

Natalie Poyhonen has this report. …

SIOBHAN JACKSON: One of the powerful things about Peter’s story is that it’s not about one institution, it’s over institutions. It’s about a Catholic brother who was working in an Anglican boarding school, who was a football coach. So that’s just a few of the institutions where these perpetrators managed to hide.

NATALIE POYHONEN: Siobhan Jackson says the commission is going to be hard for abuse victims and their families but she believes it will be worth it.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
November 23, 2012

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney has been accused of trying to do the job of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse, as he seeks access to court material.

Cardinal George Pell has applied to the court for material about the case of a boy raped by Christian Brother Robert Best.

It comes after submissions to the parliamentary inquiry heard he was present when the boy detailed what had happened to him to another priest.

Cardinal Pell maintains he was overseas at the time the boy detailed the abuse.

On Friday, lawyers for Best’s victim opposed the court releasing material about the case.

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AUSTRALIA
ZDNet

Summary: The NSW privacy commissioner has said that the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in Australia will test open government.

By Josh Taylor | November 23, 2012

New South Wales Privacy Commissioner Dr Elizabeth Coombs has said that the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in Australia will test the relationship between open government and ensuring privacy.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week announced that the government will conduct a broad-ranging Royal Commission inquiry into institutional responses to child sex abuse claims. The inquiry was launched after accusations mounted of cover-ups of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia. It is expected that the Royal Commission will take years, with the terms of reference not to be finalised until the end of 2012.

Coombs, who was appointed as the commissioner in 2011, told the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ (IAPP) Privacy Summit today that Ireland encountered issues in its inquiry into child sexual abuse in drawing a line between ensuring that the inquiry could do its job and protecting the information of the victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

A FEMALE Sunday school teacher who sexually abused a teenage girl in her care was seeking comfort and solace, a court has heard.

The devout Mormon, who cannot be named, repeatedly kissed and touched the girl in the Huntingdale home she shared with her sick husband and three children.

Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams told the County Court the teacher, now 39, met the victim when she was 11 through the Mormon church, where she led a Sunday school and youth group.

When the girl was 15, she moved in with the woman – who was also a senior school teacher – and her family, following her parents’ separation.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 24, 2012

Crispin Hull

The royal commission on child sex abuse is going to face major evidentiary and constitutional problems. In announcing the commission, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stressed the evil not only of the abuse itself, but also the cover-up. Indeed, in her eyes, the cover-up seems to be the core reason for the commission.

She said: ”Australians know … that too many children have suffered child abuse, but have also seen other adults let them down. They’ve not only had their trust betrayed by the abuser but other adults who could have acted to assist them have failed to do so.

”There have been too many revelations of adults who have averted their eyes from this evil. I believe in these circumstances that it’s appropriate for there to be a national response through a royal commission.”

Some immediate questions come to mind. Who did the covering-up? How did they know about the abuse that was covered up? Was that covering-up criminal?

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

November 24, 2012

Robert Van Krieken

Interested parties have until Monday to comment on the terms of reference into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Having spent time in Ireland recently reflecting on how the issue was dealt with in the Ryan, Murphy and other inquiries there, there are several problems arising from the proposed terms of reference.

It is still deeply problematic to focus entirely on sexual abuse without paying any attention to physical and emotional abuse. Everyone who works in this field knows how interlinked they are, and it’s invidious to construct a ”hierarchy of abuse”, where some kinds of harm are treated as unworthy of attention.

A second problem with the proposed terms of reference is they are almost entirely forward-looking. It will only be the testimony of witnesses that pulls the royal commission towards looking at how various institutions responded to child sexual abuse in the past.

What’s being proposed is the commission ”identify what public and private organisations and institutions should do to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in their midst; what should be done by organisations and institutions when allegations are raised, and what can be done by the relevant institutions, organisations and government agencies to alleviate the impact of abuse that has already occurred”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Annette Blackwell
From: AAP
November 23, 2012

IF you want your say on what the terms of reference should be for the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse in Australia you have until Monday to make a submission or comment.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) and the Catholic Conference of Bishops will make their submissions on Friday and advocacy group Broken Rites will be doing so on Monday, November 26 – the official government deadline.

Within six days of the announcement of the royal commission, the government reportedly received 300 emails to its website and 180 calls from people and organisations wanting to make submissions.

Groups such as Broken Rites say there have been significant spikes in calls to their organisations since the announcement.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

The Daily Telegraph
November 24, 2012

AUSTRALIA’S most senior Catholic showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy” in dealing with victims raped by clergy, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, had tried to compel victims into silence when confronted with evidence of wrongdoing by parish priests when he was the Archbishop of Melbourne, the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse was told.

Anthony Foster recalled meeting Cardinal Pell to discuss a priest who had repeatedly raped two of his daughters when they were at primary school.

He told the inquiry that Cardinal Pell said: “If you don’t like what we’re doing, take us to court,” and did not appear distressed by the incidents.

“In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy,” Mr Foster said.

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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV

The Church of England should be “deeply ashamed” of its failure to protect children from sex abuse.

Those are the words of Dr Martin Warner – the new Bishop of Chichester – speaking to ITV Meridian today.

The Diocese of Chichester serves both East and West Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove.

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ZIMBABWE
Nehanda Radio

By Fungai Kwaramba

HARARE – Shocking details have emerged of widespread abuse of orphans at an orphanage and schools which were run by disgraced and dethroned Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga, prompting human rights organisations to demand an investigation.

On Wednesday, the Anglican Church Harare diocese convened a press briefing where the dastardly endeavours which happened in the past five years under Kunonga’s watch were revealed.

Kunonga was in charge of the institutions after he seized them from the Church of the Province of Central Africa, often using violence and help from the police.

Chad Gandiya, who is the bishop of Harare, told reporters in Harare that the Anglican Church, which won a landmark court victory on Monday, was carrying out an inventory that will ultimately lead them to their vast properties which had been turned into “lucrative business joints” by the ex-communicated Kunonga.

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AUSTRALIA
Border Mail

By Mark Russell
Nov. 23, 2012

A judge today said he had “a sense of anxiety or discomfort” about a request by Cardinal George Pell for sensitive material relating to the trial of convicted paedophile and Catholic brother Robert Charles Best.

But County Court judge Roy Punshon said he recognised some of the material sought by Cardinal Pell was highly relevant to the allegations made against him.

Lawyers for Cardinal Pell have applied to the County Court for access to the transcript of the trial involving Best and one of his victims.

The victim, known as V2, claims Cardinal Pell was present when the boy had complained of being raped by Best.

Cardinal Pell has described the victim’s claims as “irresponsible, untrue” and said they were “absolutely denied”.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Kristina Keneally November 22, 2012

‘By their fruits you shall know them,’ says Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He is talking about the religious leaders of his time, and reminding people that actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to discerning holiness and devotion to God.

As a Catholic, I can’t help reflecting on and being challenged by this in light of recent events.

My soul has been wrenched reading the stories of abuse of children, many of them incredibly vulnerable, at the hands of Catholic priests and brothers. It’s utter horror to contemplate such crimes.

Stories of sexual abuse in the Church have circulated for years, and in America and Ireland the systematic horror has been exposed. Perhaps it was naive, but those of us in Australia — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — weren’t forced to face the potential scale and magnitude of the problem here.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

A lawyer for a victim of pedophile brother Robert Best has urged a court not to release the transcript of his trial to Australia’s most senior Catholic – Cardinal George Pell.

Cardinal Pell has applied for a transcript of the case as he prepares for an expected appearance at a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse.

The inquiry has been told Cardinal Pell was present when a grade three student at a Ballarat school in the 1960s described to another priest his alleged rape by Best.

On Friday, Timothy Seccull, a lawyer for one of Best’s victims, opposed Cardinal Pell’s application, saying the cardinal was in effect trying to do the work of the parliamentary inquiry by investigating the allegation.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: Victoria’s inquiry into child abuse has been told that Cardinal George Pell showed a sociopathic lack of empathy for a family whose two daughters were raped by a Catholic priest.

Today victims of child abuse by religious organisations gave evidence to the inquiry. They included Chrissie and Anthony Foster, whose two daughters were assaulted in the 1990s by a priest at their primary school in Melbourne’s south east.

Emma Foster eventually committed suicide. Her sister Katie was seriously disabled when she was struck by a car after binge drinking.

The fallout happened when George Pell headed the Catholic Church in Melbourne.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: After 16 years, Chrissie and Anthony Foster are exhausted but still very angry with the way the Catholic Church handled their daughters’ allegations of abuse at the hands of their parish priest, Father Kevin O’Donnell, in the 1990s.

ANTHONY FOSTER: O’Donnell left few physical scars, instead he left children emotionally tortured and spiritually ruined. O’Donnell and the church stole a part of their souls.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

By Tom McIlroy
Nov. 23, 2012

VICTIMS and family members affected by clergy sexual abuse yesterday used a Victorian parliamentary inquiry to speak of their trauma and fight for justice.

In a packed hearing room, the inquiry heard from parents Chrissie and Anthony Foster about the impact of abuse two of their children suffered from a parish priest in suburban Melbourne.

Their daughter Emma Foster took her own life after being abused by the priest, while her sister Katie was left with a serious disability after being hit by a car while drunk.

The couple said the Catholic Church and former Melbourne Archbishop Cardinal George Pell had failed to adequately deal with their complaints of abuse.

“We fervently hope you have the strength of character to stand up for the rights of children against the might of the Catholic Church,” Mr Foster said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

Sister Pat Kelly concedes it may “seem silly,” but she’s taken to street corners lately to pitch the Catholic faith.

Or rather to re-pitch it.

“Repropose it,” she said. Repropose the faith to those who already are familiar but, for reasons as varied as people and their perspectives, have fallen away from being practicing Catholics — or walked away or run.

You could find her sitting at a table outside First National Bank in Newtown on Mondays this month. And she wasn’t actually sitting at the table, but chatting up the guys painting the building or greeting passersby as she tried not to hover too near the table so people were free to browse it.

Nothing more unnerving than a hovering nun.

“I’ve had some really great conversations,” Kelly said last week. There are books on her table, pamphlets, parish calendars, magnets from St. Andrew Church in Newtown Township.

And a confidential survey, which really is the point of this column.

The deadline for participating is fast approaching. You won’t be asked your name, but can share it if you want.

The survey’s purpose? To learn more about why some of us have stopped attending Mass, stopped receiving sacraments, stopped identifying with the religious tradition in which we were raised.

In this week when we’re giving thanks, I’m kind of grateful someone in the church has finally asked.

Find the survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/standrewchurch or go to the St. Andrew website at https://www.standrewnewtown.com and click on “Welcome to a Confidential Survey.” The deadline is one week from today.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter

By Philip Bradfield
Published on Friday 23 November 2012

A VICTIM of clerical sex abuse has questioned why the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) has approved an inquiry that will only probe institutions which provided residential care.

The Executive’s inquiry into historical sex abuse will examine if there were failings by institutions or the state towards children in their care from 1922-1995 and OFMDFM says the inquiry will probe any organisation which “provided residential accommodation” for children.

But yesterday Michael Connolly, who has set up www.ClericalAbuseNI.com, to campaign for victims, slammed OFMDFM for, as he sees it, excluding clerical sexual abuse outside such institutions.

He said: “It is like they are telling us that only those people who suffered abuse in residential institutions count, while those of us who suffered clerical sex abuse outside of this don’t matter.

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AUSTRALIA
Online Opinion

By Sheleyah Courtney – posted Friday, 23 November 2012

As a social scientist who is interested in calibrations of power, religion and sexuality, my outlook on a discussion of the Catholic Church’s involvement in sexual abuse of Australian children is one that considers such a phenomenon as being situated and operative well within a wider psycho-social context. While there have been very recently published valuable sociological studies of such problems, for example last year Marie Keenan’s important “Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church” in Ireland, such works as this one focus especially on the institutional dimensions of the church itself. However, regarding this terrible issue, I view the intersections between the church and our society as seriously warranting greater consideration.

There are several issues that extend beyond the actual church’s internal cultural structures that are especially noteworthy to me. Firstly, child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has a factuality that has been taken for granted for some time in the public imagination both in Australia and abroad; this knowledge has been reflected in popular culture ranging from tabloid news sensationalism to Hollywood films such as “Sleepers” (1996) starring Brad Pitt and closer to home, “Oranges and Sunshine” which exposed several cases of the thousands of English children who were illegally transported to Australia and who were placed in homes run by the Christian Brothers, were sexually abused and or forced into virtual slave labour (2011).

The 2006 documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” which traces the notorious pedophile priest Oliver O’Grady and the corruption in the Catholic Church that protected him; it was Oscar nominated. In Australia there has been a victim support group, “Broken Rites” operating since 1993, and a book, “Hell on the Way to Heaven” published by Chrissie and Anthony Foster parents of two daughters who died due to sexual abuse by a priest of the Catholic Church.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Steve Lillebuen, AAP
Updated November 23, 2012

Australia’s most senior Catholic showed a “sociopathic lack of empathy” in dealing with victims who were raped by clergy, an inquiry has heard.

Cardinal George Pell, current Archbishop of Sydney, had tried to compel victims into silence when confronted with evidence of wrongdoing by parish priests, the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse was told on Friday.

Anthony Foster recalled meeting Cardinal Pell to discuss a priest who had repeatedly raped two of his daughters when they were at primary school.

He told the inquiry that Cardinal Pell, then the Archbishop of Melbourne, had told him, “If you don’t like what we’re doing, take us to court,” and did not appear to be distressed by the incidents.

“In our interactions with the now-Cardinal Archbishop Pell, we experienced a sociopathic lack of empathy, typifying the attitude and responses of the church hierarchy,” Mr Foster said.

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