ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Stu Bykofsky, Daily News Columnist
Philadelphia Daily News

FOR CRIME VICTIMS, especially victims of sexual abuse, conviction of the assailant is only one point of satisfaction. There’s something more basic.

Former D.A. Lynne Abraham put her finger on it in regard to the conviction of predator priest protector Monsignor William J. Lynn on (alas) a single count.

“This was really very much a victory for the victims,” she said. “They came and testified and were believed.”

She could have been speaking for Judy Castille, whose case was different in many respects, including the outcome, but it was the same in not being believed.

Unlike the victims of priests and Jerry Sandusky, Castille is female, an adult, and her attacker was a woman in Florida, where Castille has lived since moving from Philadelphia in 2004. She is married to former Philadelphia restaurateur Sal Montezinos and is the ex-wife of state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille.

Like some of the boy victims of priests and athletic directors, Castille was angry and frustrated when she wasn’t believed.

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ESPANA
El Mundo de los A.S.I.

España debe hacer frente a los casos de abuso sexual a niños por parte de religiosos durante la dictadura de Franco, lo que podría crear un problema serio a la Iglesia Católica, según varios expertos.

España, país que visita este fin de semana el papa Benedicto XVI, contrasta con otros países de Europa y Estados Unidos, donde a la Iglesia le han estallado escándalos de paidofilia. En España no habido ningún gran escándalo y sólo se ha difundido una docena en los últimos 25 años.

Pero según un estudio de 1994 auspiciado por el gobierno, en la dictadura de Franco (1939-1975) hubo un buen número de casos de abusos a niños, especialmente en internados religiosos, según su autor, Félix López Sánchez, profesor de psicología de la Universidad de Salamanca.

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By HILLARY FEDERICO, hfederico@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

5:40 p.m. EDT, July 1, 2012
NORWICH—
— A Catholic pastor, who is at the center of a state police probe into criminal activity, has resigned from his position at the St. Paul Parish in Waterford, according to a spokesman from the Diocese of Norwich.

Rev. Dennis Carey’s resignation, which was formally submitted on Friday, is effective immediately.

Old Saybrook In a letter read during Saturday evening and Sunday morning masses at St. Paul’s, Michael R. Cote, bishop of Norwich, said that he has “received and accepted” Carey’s resignation.

“Yesterday, [Carey] and I both became aware of a state police Investigation into possible criminal behavior by [Carey]. [Carey] and I have both agreed that while this investigation is ongoing, it would be better for Father to step aside as pastor,” the letter reads.

Carey was ordained a priest in 1998 after a 25-year career as a certified public accountant in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, according to archived Courant articles.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT

BY HOLLIE-RAE MERRICK Sunday, July 1, 2012

IPSWICH: Churchgoers were asked to offer up prayers for all those involved in a court case in which a retired priest is accused of 12 sex assaults on a child and an adult.

Father Haley Dossor – who retired as priest-in-charge at St Mary at the Elms, in Elm Street, Ipswich, in November 2006 – also faces three further charges of gross indecency with a child.

The 71-year-old, of Kirton, near Felixstowe, is due to appear before Ipswich magistrates for the first hearing of his case next Monday.

The allegations against Dossor – a former southern area chaplain to Suffolk Constabulary – are said to relate to the period between 1990 and 2004, and involve more than one alleged victim.

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CONNECTICUT
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 01, 2012

NORWICH, Conn. — The bishop of the Norwich Diocese says he has accepted the resignation of a pastor who is the subject of a State Police investigation into possible, but unspecified, criminal activity.

The church said Bishop Michael R. Cote told parishioners of St. Paul Parish in Waterford on Sunday that the Rev. Dennis Carey resigned on Friday.

Cote says he and Carey became aware of the investigation on Thursday and that Carey stepped aside to focus on issues that may come up in the investigation.

Cote said the church is cooperating with authorities, but he provided no details.

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IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests

The Latest News on the Proposed New Lay ‘Umbrella Organisation’

Following the agreement at the All Hallows meeting on the 30 May to establish a Steering Group to develop a Policy Framework, the Steering Group met for the first time on Tuesday 26 June. The group is comprised of eight volunteers (four female and four male members) representing a number of the established lay groups and also includes individuals who are not aligned with any group. In establishing the Steering Group every effort was also made to secure age and geographical balance.

The meeting made considerable progress in reaching agreement on a number of key issues which will underpin the Policy Framework. In particular:

– The new organisation will be structured along the lines of an association or alliance (of Irish Catholics) open to both members of existing groups and individuals who are not aligned to any group – lay or religious.

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UNITED KINGDOM/MINNESOTA
MSNBC

LONDON — Minnesota prosecutors’ efforts to have a convicted sexual predator brought to trial in the United States were thwarted on Thursday when Britain’s High Court dropped extradition proceedings, saying the U.S. hadn’t guaranteed the suspect would be kept out a program some deem draconian.

Shawn Sullivan, 43, is accused of molesting two girls and raping a third in the 1990s in Minnesota. Sullivan fled the United States and eventually ended up in London, where authorities caught up to him two years ago.

Judges Alan Moses and David Eady said in a ruling finalized Thursday that if Sullivan were returned to the U.S., he could face a real risk of being placed in the state’s civil commitment program — which provides for the indefinite detention of people found to be sexually dangerous — and suffer “a flagrant denial of his rights.”

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WATERFORD (CT)
Patch

By Paul Petrone

With the heavy cloud of a state police investigation into child pornography laying overhead, today fill-in Rev. Joseph Whittel encouraged parishioners of St. Paul in Chains Rectory to pray for Rev. Dennis Carey, who resigned Thursday.

According to WFSB, state police seized a computer from the church on Thursday as part of a child pornography investigation. In a letter to parishioners, Most Reverend Bishop of Norwich Michael Cote said Carey, St. Paul’s head priest, resigned immediately following the state police action.

Sunday, mass was held at the Waterford church, with Whittel saying he would serve as priest of the church for the time being. Whittel read a letter by Cote, and encouraged parishioners to pray for Casey.

The Mass

Whittel began his mass by reading a letter by Cote. In it, Cote said the investigation was “a sad moment for all of us,” and said, “naturally, we all presume that Father Carey is not guilty of any wrongdoing and will continue to keep him in our thoughts and prayers.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Several journalists at the trial shared their own interactions with now-disgraced priests. Sometimes, we discovered ties we never knew.

I won’t forget the day prosecutors called a middle-aged man as their next witness.

The reporter sitting next to me was stunned. “I know him,” he said. They had grown up together near Norristown, he explained.

Over the next 20 minutes, the witness described being abused by his parish priest, Francis Trauger, when he was 12. He said Trauger took him to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary one weekend to play basketball and molested him in the showers.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Gegen Sexuelle Gewalt

München (dpa/lby) – Justizministerin Beate Merk (CSU)

will Sexualstraftäter mit Hilfe von erweiterten Führungszeugnissen abschrecken.

Diese können Arbeitgeber von Arbeitnehmern verlangen, die sich für Stellen mit Kontakt zu Kindern und Jugendlichen bewerben.

Merk forderte am Freitag in München, einschlägige Haftstrafen von bis zu einem Jahr sollten 30 Jahre lang im erweiterten Führungszeugnis erscheinen.

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OSTERREICH
OE24

Zwei aufmüpfigen Pfarrern wurde das Dechant-Amt vonseiten der Kirchenleitung bereits entzogen. Sowohl der Salzburger Pfarrer Josef Lehenauer (siehe Interview unten) als auch Pfarrer Peter Meidinger (NÖ) mussten ihre Posten aufgeben, weil sie der „Ungehorsam“-Initiative von Helmut Schüller angehören.

Zwar hatte Kardinal Christoph Schönborn in einem Brief an seine Mitarbeiter noch zu beruhigen versucht – „in der Kirche gibt es kein Redeverbot“ –, aber dennoch kocht die Stimmung jetzt hoch. Die Laieninitiative, eine weitere Reformbewegung neben der Pfarrerinitiative, wendet sich in einem offenen Brief an Kardinal Christoph Schönborn. In dem Schreiben heißt es, Schönborn solle dem Druck aus Rom standhalten. Die Laieninitiative findet deutliche Worte: „Wenn Sie weitergehen, vertreiben Sie Ihre besten Mitarbeiter und lösen eine neue Welle von Kirchenaustritten aus.“

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OSTERREICH
der Standard

Ungehorsam-Bewegung wächst, freut sich Landessprecher aus Oberösterreich – Mehr als 400 Mitglieder

Linz – Nach Ansicht der oberösterreichischen kirchlichen Reformgruppen geht es in der aktuellen Debatte nicht nur um den “Ungehorsam” von Geistlichen, sondern des gesamten Kirchenvolkes. Und die Bewegung wachse, berichtete der Landessprecher von “Wir sind Kirche”, Franz Salcher, in einer Pressekonferenz am Freitag in Linz. “Wenn sich bundesweit 400 Priester zusammenschließen, kriegen es die Bischöfe schon ein bisschen mit der Angst zu tun”, so Peter Paul Kaspar, Vorstandsmitglied der Pfarrerinitiative in Oberösterreich.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche

01.07.2012

Von dpa

Ihm wird schwerer sexueller Missbrauch in 18 Fällen vorgeworfen: Ein ehrenamtlich tätiger Messner einer Pfarrgemeinde im Landkreis Kitzingen soll einen zwölf Jahre alten Ministranten jahrelang sexuell missbraucht haben. Nun steht er vor Gericht.

Ein ehrenamtlich tätiger Messner einer Pfarrgemeinde im Landkreis Kitzingen soll einen zwölf Jahre alten Ministranten jahrelang sexuell missbraucht haben. Der heute 30-Jährige muss sich von diesem Montag an deshalb vor dem Landgericht Würzburg verantworten.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft ihm unter anderem schweren sexuellen Missbrauch in 18 Fällen vor. Druck oder Gewalt habe es aber nicht gegeben, sagte ein Gerichtssprecher. Zu den sexuellen Handlungen in der Sakristei der Kirche, der Wohnung des Angeklagten oder der elterlichen Wohnung des Jungen sei es zwischen Anfang 2004 und Herbst 2005 gekommen.

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WWLP

Published : Saturday, 30 Jun 2012

Heidi Voight

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – It’s been an entire year since the parishioners of Holyoke’s Mater Dolorosa began protesting the closing of their church.

In recognition of the one year mark, a celebration was held Saturday night in Chicopee.

Earlier this month the parishioners agreed to leave the church building while the Vatican investigates their appeal.

But the protestors told 22News that doesn’t mean they’re giving up the fight.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

hpd Humanistischer Pressedienst 29.06.2012

BERLIN. (hpd) Bei sexualisierter Gewalt an Kindern und Jugendlichen sind die Verjährungsfristen generell aufzuheben, dafür tritt das netzwerkB (B wie Betroffene) seit Jahren aktiv ein. Das Netzwerk und Norbert Denef, sein Vorsitzender, schaffen sich auch manchen Orts unerwartet und ungewünscht Gehör. Auch in der Politik?

Die Realität

8. Juni 2012
Norbert Denef, Vorsitzender des NetzwerkB.org teilt am 8. Juni 2012 über netzwerkB und den Medien direkt per Mail mit, dass er, Denef in einen unbefristeten Hungerstreik trete um an dem „Murks mit den Verjährungsfristen“ zu rütteln. Einen anderen Ausweg sehe er für sich nicht mehr. In den vorangegangenen sechs Monaten hatte Denef Kontakt mit den Bundestags-Fraktionen aufgenommen. Zuversicht hatte sich eingestellt, die Politiker würden auf breiter Basis ein Gesetz vorbereiten, um die Täter zur Verantwortung zu ziehen, die an Kindern und Jugendlichen sexuell Gewalt ausgeübt haben und das ohne Einspruch auf Verjährung.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Offener Brief an:

SPD-Parteivorstand
Stellvertretende Parteivorsitzende
Manuela Schwesig
Willy-Brandt-Haus
Wilhemstr. 14
1
10963 Berlin
Fax: 030 25991 119

Ihr Schreiben vom 28. Juni 2012

Sehr geehrte Frau Schwesig,

wir nehmen Bezug auf Ihr Schreiben vom 28. Juni 2012 in dem Sie uns mitgeteilt haben, dass Sie das Thema der Verjährungsfristen in der Sitzung des SPD-Parteivorstandes am 25. Juni 2012 angesprochen haben. Sie teilten uns weiterhin mit,

Zitat:

“Nach eingehender Debatte haben wir uns darauf verständigt, dass sich die zuständigen Rechts- und Familienpolitikerinn und –politiker der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion sowie aus dem SPD-Parteivorstand voraussichtlich in der nächsten Woche zusammen sezten werden, um über das Thema Verjährungsfristen bei sexuellem Missbrauch nochmals zu diskutieren.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Jeremy Roebuck
Inquirer Staff Writer

Ten states have rushed to toughen their reporting laws on child sex abuse in the eight months since Jerry Sandusky’s arrest set off a nationwide scandal.

One is conspicuously absent from that list: Pennsylvania.

And many of the state’s victim advocacy groups have worked to keep it that way – at least for now.

Amid pressure to pass headline-grabbing legislation in response to the case against the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach and the equally landmark trial of two priests from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, child-welfare advocates have urged lawmakers to show restraint.

Many worry that in the heat of scandal, the state runs the risk of overcorrecting – of passing knee-jerk bills with requirements that would overwhelm cash-strapped social services agencies, or worse, cast undue suspicion on families and individuals tenuously accused of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
The Columbus Dispatch

By JoAnne Viviano
The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday July 1, 2012

Some Roman Catholic nuns are being compared to Martin Luther and referred to as radical feminists for their views on sexuality and the ordination of women.

President Barack Obama is being likened to Henry VIII over a contraception provision in the federal health-care law. (The British king was excommunicated from the church because of his struggles with Rome.)

And bishops are being criticized as out of touch with their flocks for upholding traditional Catholic views despite society’s shifting morality.

Theologians say the disputes have led to what could be an irreparable break between Rome and some U.S. Catholics even as the church recovers from the priest sex-abuse scandal.

“There’s a moral schism going on in the Catholic church, and the bishops are the schismatics, broken from the laity and theologians,” said Daniel Maguire, a theology professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee.Such breaks often lead to membership upticks for other faiths, he said. “As long as the bishops are behaving this way, there are going to be more Unitarians.”

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CONNECTICUT
Digital Journal

Article provided by Kennedy, Johnson, D’Elia, & Gillooly, L.L.C.

Connecticut’s Statute of Limitations allows childhood sexual assault victims to seek compensation for their emotional injuries well after the abuse has taken place.

July 01, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — While witness testimony in the Jerry Sandusky trial and the ongoing developments in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal highlight the tragic consequences sexual abuse in childhood can have on adult victims, these cases also emphasize that justice can still be served years after abuse occurs. In Connecticut, childhood sexual abuse victims can seek civil damages for the abuse they suffered through the state’s generous statute of limitations on these kinds of suits.

How the Statute of Limitations for Civil Suits Works

Section 52-577d of the Connecticut State Statutes places a statute of limitations on the amount of time victims of child sexual abuse have to file a civil suit against their attacker or the organizations that allowed abuse to occur.

Victims have 30 years from the time they turn 18–the “age of majority”–to file a civil suit seeking damages for the emotional distress caused by the sexual abuse, exploitation or assault they suffered as children. Victims can hold responsible both their attackers and the organizations such as day care centers, churches or foster care systems that allowed the abuse to occur.

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STOCKTON (CA)
The Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

July 01, 2012

STOCKTON – The state’s highest court has dismissed four cases involving defrocked Priest Oliver O’Grady in a decades-long sex abuse scandal that has cost the Diocese of Stockton millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements.

O’Grady, a former Stockton priest, was deported to Ireland after serving time in the 1990s for committing sex crimes against children.

Years later, O’Grady continues to be a source of ongoing legal problems for the Catholic Church and Bishop Stephen Blaire, who joined the local diocese in 1999.

But late last week, the California Supreme Court dismissed four complaints, upholding prior lower-court decisions that found the alleged victims’ arguments did not meet legal statutes of limitations.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz Sentinel

By Karen de Sá
kdesa@mercurynews.commercurynews.com

Posted: 06/30/2012

Two years after a Los Gatos Jesuit center settled an explosive sex-abuse lawsuit, a Santa Clara County judge entrusted Russ Marshall to oversee the $2.5 million awarded to one of two mentally disabled dishwashers molested for decades by clergy.

Such a delicate and high-profile assignment seemed a natural fit for Marshall, one of Silicon Valley’s premier estate and elder-care managers, overseeing $76 million in assets.

But late last year, with questions mounting over his billing practices, Marshall resigned from the case as court officials made a troubling discovery: The $50-an-hour personal companion he had hired to take his long-abused client on outings turned out to be a former priest.

“Appalled” that a former priest had been anywhere near the traumatized man, Judge Thomas Cain blocked Marshall from charging his client’s estate $19,406 for the companion’s trips to ice rinks, ballgames and other events during a 22-month period. Cain said hiring the companion “shows all kinds of problems with regard to not only background checks but judgment and everything else. He never should have been there to begin with.”

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MISSOURI
Southeast Missourian

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Standard Democrat

CHARLESTON, Mo. — An East Prairie, Mo., church pastor arrested on child pornography and sodomy charges now faces an additional charge of sodomy.

Kenneth Neal Allen, 36, waived his preliminary hearing Thursday in Mississippi County and is due to appear at 1 p.m. July 10 in Mississippi County Circuit Court before Judge David Dolan. A bond reduction request was also denied.

Allen will appear before Judge T. Lynn Brown at 9:15 a.m. July 11 in Mississippi County Associate Court on a new sodomy charge which was filed Thursday.

Allen’s wife, Beth Lynnette Allen, 36, of East Prairie also appeared in court Thursday on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child. Her case was continued, and she will appear at 9:30 a.m. July 18 before Brown

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MISSOURI
The Times and Democrat

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A southwest Missouri minister who told federal investigators he was addicted to pornography has been sentenced for nearly four years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Michael Alan Crippen, 53, was sentenced Thursday to three years and 10 months in prison without parole for one count of possessing child pornography. He also will be on supervised release for 20 years.

The former minister of First Baptist Church in Duenweg told investigators he had viewed images of adult and child pornography for several years – usually early in the morning before going to work.

Federal authorities began investigating Crippen after being notified by the Dutch National Police that child pornography had been downloaded on his computer from a website in The Netherlands, which had been hacked.

Investigators said Crippen admitted downloading 10 images from the site on Aug. 23, 2009. A forensic examination of his laptop computer discovered more than 360 images of child pornography, including girls under 10 years old either posing nude or engaged in sexual conduct.

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WATERFORD (CT)
Patch

By Paul Petrone

WFSB-TV is reporting that state police seized a computer at Rectory of St. Paul in Chains Church as part of an investigation into possible child pornography, and Father Dennis Carey has resigned.

The news report said a computer was seized Thursday at the Waterford church, and Carey resigned, effective immediately. According to the article, a letter to members in the church by Most Reverend Michael Cote, Bishop of Norwich, said, “I have received and accepted the resignation of your pastor, Father Dennis Carey. His resignation is effective immediately.”

According to the news report, nobody has been arrested and state police are calling the matter part of a criminal investigation. The television station said church goers will get a letter during masses this weekend.

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WATERFORD (CT)
WFSB

By WFSB Staff

WATERFORD, CT (WFSB) –
State police are investigating the discovery of possible child pornography at a Roman Catholic church in Waterford. Connecticut State Police will only say this is a “criminal investigation.”

Sources say a computer was seized Thursday from the Rectory of St. Paul in Chains Church.

Today, communication from the Diocese of Norwich to Eyewitness News says parishioners will get a letter during masses this weekend. No one has been arrested.

In the letter, the Most Reverend Michael R. Cote, Bishop of Norwich said, “I have received and accepted the resignation of your pastor, Father Dennis Carey. His resignation is effective immediately.”

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WATERFORD (CT)
Fox News

Published June 30, 2012

Associated Press

WATERFORD, Conn – Connecticut state police officers are investigating the discovery of possible child porn at a Roman Catholic church in Waterford.

WFSB-TV reports that police declined to provide details, saying only that a “criminal investigation” is in progress after computers were reportedly seized from the Rectory of St. Paul in Chains Church.

Michael Strammiello, a spokesman for the Diocese of Norwich, did not immediately respond to a call and an email seeking comment Saturday.

WFSB-TV says Norwich Bishop Michael Cote will release a letter to parishioners during masses this weekend announcing that he has received and accepted the resignation of their pastor, Fr. Dennis Carey.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The rift between the Secretariat of State and the papal apartment is clearly felt in the Apostolic Palace

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

The Vatican’s two physical centres of supreme power are the papal apartment and the Secretariat of State. Both are located in the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace but are being driven apart by the Vatileaks scandal.

Benedict XVI’s right hand man Mgr. Georg Gaenswein is the “king of the castle” in the papal apartment while Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sets the rules in the Holy See’s “control room”. At the beginning of Benedict XVI’s papacy, when Bertone substituted Angelo Sodano it seemed as though the papal apartment and the Secretariat of State had reached a peaceful co-existence, a sort of silent agreement.

But then came a series of contested nominations, such as those for the Archdioceses of Turin and Milan. In both cases, Bertonian candidates were rejected in favour of those preferred by the Italian Bishop’s Conference team lead by Cardinals Bagnasco and Ruini who saw the Pope’s secretary, Fr. Georg, as an excellent support figure, apt for creating a power balance with the Secretary of State. This detachment between papal apartment and Secretariat of State is partly responsible for triggering surprise appointments and unexpected decisions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Edmonton Journal

By Maryclaire Dale, The Associated Press June 30, 2012

PHILADELPHIA – Lawyers for the first U.S. Roman Catholic church official ever charged for his handling of sex abuse claims will push to have him released on house arrest before his sentencing for felony child endangerment.

Lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn plan to argue Thursday that he has a good chance of having his conviction thrown out on appeal.

The 61-year-old priest has been held since he was convicted June 22. He faces up to seven years in prison at his sentencing in August.

Lynn oversaw clergy abuse complaints at the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
CT Post

John Burgeson

Updated 01:16 p.m., Saturday, June 30, 2012

BRIDGEPORT —- A professor at Fairfield University has criticized the process of choosing a new bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, saying it’s geared less to finding a leader committed to the faithful of Fairfield County than to choosing a man who will rise high in the ranks of the Church.

“This is not just an ordinary diocese,” said Paul Lakeland, the Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. professor of religious studies at the Jesuit university. “You have a diocese that’s quite dramatically divided between the wealthy and those in poverty.”

William E. Lori, who had been bishop of the diocese since 2000, was elevated to archbishop of Baltimore on May 16. On May 22 it was announced by church officials that Monsignor Jerald A. Doyle will administer the diocese until a new bishop is appointed.

Lakeland was quick to point out that the Bridgeport diocese has sent other bishops to high positions; Lawrence Shehan and Edward Egan both were elevated to cardinal.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Deutsche Bischofskonferenz

„Ein wichtiger Schritt zur Aufklärung und Aufmerksamkeit“

Die Heimkinder-Hotline der katholischen Kirche schließt am 30. Juni 2012. „Nach einer mehrjährigen erfolgreichen Arbeit ist dieses Angebot der Kirche nicht länger notwendig, weil unterdessen sehr gute andere Angebote geschaffen wurden. Die Hotline war ein wichtiger Schritt zur Aufklärung und Aufmerksamkeit“, erklärte der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, Erzbischof Dr. Robert Zollitsch. „Mit den Anrufen konnten Schicksale ehemaliger Heimkinder aufgeklärt werden. Vor allem hat die Hotline ein Gesprächsangebot für Heimkinder ermöglicht, das ihnen die notwendige und in der Vergangenheit oft versagte Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt hat.“

Seit Januar 2010 haben sich 909 Betroffene bei der Heimkinder-Hotline gemeldet. Die Hotline war das erste bundesweite Angebot dieser Art für ehemalige Heimkinder. Sie richtete sich an Betroffene, die zwischen 1945 und 1975 in katholischen Einrichtungen schlechte Erfahrungen gemacht hatten. Von den 909 Betroffenen haben 645 telefonisch und 264 im Rahmen einer Online-Beratung die Hotline genutzt. Insgesamt gab es 1.959 telefonische Beratungsgespräche, die meistens zwischen 15 und 60 Minuten dauerten. Unter den Anrufern, die überwiegend im Alter zwischen 40 und 70 Jahren waren, befanden sich mit 55 Prozent etwas mehr Männer als Frauen (44 Prozent).

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

In dem Artikel heißt es unter anderem:

“(…) Die Katholische Kirche hat in ihren Leitlinien zum Vorgehen beim sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern im Jahre 2002 festgelegt, dass ein Beauftragter der Kirche mit dem Tatverdächtigen Gespräche führt und mit dem (mutmaßlichen) Opfer oder den Erziehungsberechtigten Kontakt aufnimmt, um dann zu entscheiden, wie zu helfen ist und wie weiter vorgegangen werden soll.

Damit wurde eine außerstaatliche Ermittlungsinstanz geschaffen, die eine interne Handhabung entsprechender Vorkommnisse vorgab und dadurch zu einem verbreiteten Verschweigen und Vertuschen entsprechender Vorkommnisse beitrug. In den überarbeiteten und verschärften Leitlinien von 2010 wurde festgelegt, dass der Beauftragte das mutmaßliche Opfer bzw. seine Erziehungsberechtigten darauf hinzuweisen hat, dass ein Verdacht möglicherweise den Strafverfolgungsbehörden mitgeteilt wird (was durchaus als Drohung verstanden werden könnte). Diese Mitteilung erfolgt den überarbeiteten Leitlinien zufolge dann nicht, wenn es dem (möglicherweise nicht allzu schwer herstellbaren) Wunsch des mutmaßlichen Opfers bzw. dessen Erziehungsberechtigten entspricht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
SR

Im Bistum Trier sind im Jahr 2011 rund 5700 Menschen aus der Katholischen Kirche ausgetreten. Das sind nach Angaben des Bistums rund 1700 Kirchenaustritte weniger als im Vorjahr.

Bischof Ackermann sagte, es sei sehr schmerzlich, dass “eine gehörige Zahl von Menschen der Kirche den Rücken kehre”. Grund seien die Negativschlagzeilen nach den Kirchenskandalen.

Die Kirche müsse nun an Glaubwürdigkeit zurückgewinnen. Ein weiterer Grund für den Mitgliederschwund im Bistum sei die zurückgehende Bevölkerungszahl im Saarland.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times (Ohio)

June 29, 2012

By Kevin Pierson (kpierson@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

* Editor’s note – This article is the first in a series on child sexual abuse. Additional articles in the series will also run Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
———————————————

If the Washington County Health Department were to find that one in three people under the age of 18 had the flu, they’d say they had an epidemic on their hands.

But there’s one epidemic raging across the state and nation that has no vaccination to take care of it.

Statistics show that one in three girls and one in four boys are sexually abused by the time they turn 18.

That figure far exceeds the standard used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to determine medical epidemics.

“And those are the numbers we know of,” said Ginger Davey, a caseworker with Washington County Children Services who specializes in sexual abuse cases.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

June 30, 2012

By Ashley Rittenhouse – The Marietta Times (arittenhouse@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

Experts say since most sexually abused children don’t tell anyone about their experience it’s extremely important that parents, neighbors of children and others recognize the signs of abuse.

They also say since most sexual abusers don’t leave physical marks, it can sometimes be difficult to detect that the abuse is occurring.

“Most perpetrators are good about not leaving physical marks because they don’t want to get caught and that’s why it’s hard to prosecute them or find the evidence,” said LeAnn Bates, a Private Violence Project counselor at Washington County Children Services.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

June 30, 2012

By Ashley Rittenhouse – The Marietta Times (arittenhouse@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

Confusion, guilt and physical pain are just some of the things sexually abused children experience.

While the physical pain may only be temporary, many feelings and emotions associated with the abuse last a lifetime.

“I don’t think a person can completely heal from that,” said Sheila Shafer, deputy director of programs at Athens County Children Services. “It’s part of their history, their existence, but it’s important as part of the healing process to come to terms that they were a child when it happened and they aren’t to blame and there are adults that were supposed to be protecting them.”

Shafer said there are many ways sexual abuse can impact a child, including physically.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

June 30, 2012

By Sam Shawver – The Marietta Times (sshawver@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

The typical child molester isn’t lurking around the playground wearing dark glasses and an overcoat, luring youngsters away with a piece of candy.

“These perpetrators don’t look like aliens-in fact they often seem OK. You could have a sex offender in your neighborhood and wouldn’t even know it,” said Karen Days, president of the Center for Family Safety and Healing in Columbus.

Sex abusers are often portrayed as older men, but she said that’s not always the case.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

June 30, 2012

By Kate York – The Marietta Times (kyork@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

When I was 5 years old, my mother was told by a relative who happened to be a pediatric nurse that I was showing the classic signs of being sexually abused.

I was.

But my mom dismissed the information, thinking it couldn’t be true. She didn’t ask me or follow up, and the abuse continued on for several years.

I wasn’t in a home with no supervision or left vulnerable to strang-ers. My mom was a very involved, loving mother, an educated person, and yet she thought there was no possibility this was happening, as many parents would. I was never left alone with someone that wasn’t a trusted family member, after all.

She wouldn’t find out for another 10 years, well after the fact, and all the impact it had.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

By Sam Shawver
The Marietta Times
sshawver@mariettatimes.com

The sexual abuse of a child often begins innocently enough-perhaps with just a simple conversation, according to Helen McGrail, Belpre clinic director for Tri County Mental Health and Counseling Services.

The clinic provides counseling for child abuse victims.

“Initially it seems there’s nothing inappropriate going on,” she said. “The abuser makes a child feel special, maybe buying things for him or her long before the victimization begins. And children love attention.”

McGrail said abusers can be very patient, noting that some pedophiles will take weeks or months to gain a child’s confidence.

But she said the sexual abuse can start without the child being involved at all.

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UNITED STATES
The Marietta Times

June 30, 2012

By Kevin Pierson – The Marietta Times (kpierson@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

When she was a little girl, “Sarah” found herself receiving some unwanted attention from her father.

Anytime the young girl needed a bath, her father wanted to join her and have her wash him in ways the little girl never understood.

Years later, Sarah, 27, of Parkersburg, began to understand that she was one of the thousands of victims of child sexual abuse, and it came from within the home and the people trusted to raise her. …

Most abusers are men.

According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report made to Congress in 2010, 97 percent of the non-biological parent or partners responsible for sexual abuse of a child were men. Eighty percent of biological parents who sexually abused a child were male and 86 percent of non-relatives were also male, the report says.

There were 55,313 substantiated reports of sexual abuse against children in 2010, the most recent statistics available from the Department of Justice.

State numbers weren’t available for cases, but a review earlier this year in Ohio found there were 7,426 people incarcerated in Ohio for sex-related offenses – the second highest total for any demographic.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

Published: Saturday, June 30, 2012

By Kevin Manahan/The Star-Ledger

MORRIS TOWNSHIP — He stood six feet from the microphone on the lawn of the Morris County Courthouse Friday, his wife’s hand clasped and his lips clenched as others spoke of him in the third person.

And when it was time to be heard, he didn’t even read his own statement.

His real name protected, he is known as “John Doe” in a civil lawsuit filed Friday, and as victim “W.P.W. II” in a criminal plea signed by a sexually abusive monk 24 years ago.

The Rev. Timothy Brennan’s victim, now in his 40s and living on the West Coast, remains silent, attorney Greg Gianforcaro said, because when the man asked in 2002 to be released from a confidentiality agreement that came with a seven-figure settlement in 1988, lawyers for Delbarton School and St. Mary’s Abbey threatened him. They vowed to sue for the return of the money and to seek financial damages on top of that, if he spoke out, Gianforcaro said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

There’s an exhaustive and authoritative new website that catalogues everything that moved during the priest abuse trial:

BishopAccountability.org timeline

Here’s what the introduction to the site says:

“The trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan in Philadelphia was complex and lengthy, and its conclusion was a watershed event: the first conviction of a church official for child endangerment. During the trial, witnesses and exhibits provided the jury with information on 21 other accused priests whom Lynn had managed.” …

— The judge during deliberations completely reversed herself overnight on the key issue of whether Msgr. Lynn had to have acted with criminal intent in order to have been found guilty of conspiring to endanger the welfare of children.

How was that not a story? A judge doing a complete reversal on key jury instructions regarding whether the main defendant had to act with criminal intent? How’d they miss that one?

If you’re doing this job right, at some point, you’re gonna piss everybody off. At various points during the trial, we’ve enraged the victims’ groups, the defense lawyers thought we hated them, we’ve ripped the judge, and now the prosecutors aren’t speaking to us. Get over it guys.

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ROMA
Il Messaggero

ROMA – C’è un nuovo conto sospetto nel mirino dei magistrati che indagano sullo Ior. Con movimentazioni milionarie sospette e, per la prima volta, con un l’intestatario, coperto da codice cifrato, che certamente non è un religioso, bensì un laico: un imprenditore o un politico particolarmente in vista in Italia. A parlarne ai magistrati romani che da tempo lavorano su altri cinque conti correnti, tutti intestati a prelati, è stato lo stesso ex presidente dello Ior, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. Che ha aggiunto di aver ricevuto la segnalazione dall’esterno della banca: «Il direttore generale Paolo Cipriani mi confermò il nome e aggiunse di non fare altre domande», ha detto ai pm.

Ma davanti alla richiesta dei magistrati di conoscere l’intestatario di questo conto, anche Gotti Tedeschi ha scelto di non rispondere, confermando le preoccupazioni e le paure che dopo le dimissioni l’avevano portato a scrivere un memoriale diretto a Benedetto XVI in persona. E’ da qui che sta ripartendo l’inchiesta della procura di Roma sulle operazioni di riciclaggio triangolate attraverso la banca Vaticana. Il conto, a detta di Gotti Tedeschi, ha visto transitare movimenti milionari; e secondo le prime valutazioni di piazzale Clodio potrebbe rappresentare il primo caso documentato di riciclaggio che passa per le mura Vaticane ma coinvolge anche politica e imprenditoria italiana.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

Kevin Fagan

Updated 10:58 p.m., Friday, June 29, 2012

For a trial that’s supposed to be about someone beating up a senior citizen, there’s not much being said about the beating.

The 2-week-old trial of William Lynch in San Jose is really about seeking the public humiliation of the man Lynch says raped him as a child – the same man, retired Catholic priest Jerold Lindner, he is accused of beating up two years ago.

And even more, it’s about clergy abuse in general, and rage over statutes of limitations that let molesters off the hook if their young victims don’t reveal the abuse until years later.

That, in essence, is what’s being said by Lynch, his lawyers and the picket-waving throngs who attend every hearing at Santa Clara County Superior Court and revile the priest and his representatives whenever they show up.

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WATERBURY (CT)
Republican-American

BY JONATHAN SHUGARTS
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — A former city man is suing the Archdiocese of Hartford, claiming that a priest sexually abused him 37 years ago when he was a boy being treated in Saint Mary’s Hospital.

A 47-year-old man using the name “Patrick Doe” filed the suit this month in Waterbury Superior Court, naming the hospital and the archdiocese as defendants.

Doe claims in the suit that he had been admitted to the hospital in about 1975 when he was abused by Raymond F. Paul, a priest assigned as a chaplain there.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Express-Times

Saturday, June 30, 2012

By Express-Times guest columnist

By ANNE ADAMS
Valley Youth House

The stories we heard during the trials of Jerry Sandusky for abusing teenage boys and Monsignor William Lynn for failing to protect children from predator priests were tragic for all involved — the defendants, the institutions they served, and especially the young people whose lives were ruined.

Perhaps the most damaging long-term result is the loss of trust in the many good people who work with our youth. Can we ever look at our teachers, coaches, ministers and others the same way again? These trials involved very sad stories, indeed. Do these events provide an opportunity to do more to stop child abuse? Can we learn anything from what we have read for these many months? I think we can.

Child abuse is traumatizing and leaves permanent scars. Long after abuse occurs individuals struggle to come to terms with their victimization. We saw adults struggling to deal with powerful emotions and psychological anguish. In the testimony of victims we saw the painful legacy of abuse.

Many said they knew they were in an uncomfortable situation but were afraid to come forward because they were embarrassed, did not believe they would be viewed as credible, or were offered gifts they had no other way of receiving. Even years later, many victims did not speak up because they did not think their word would be trusted against that of a powerful coach or priest.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Democrat and Chronicle

By Jessica Tully, USA TODAY

The recent high-profile child sexual abuse court cases involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and Philadelphia Catholic Church officials had a missing element unique to Pennsylvania.

During each of those trials, state law did not permit expert witnesses to testify about sexual abuse.

One week after the verdicts in those cases, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, signed a bill into law today that makes the state the last in the nation to allow such testimony. The law will take effect in 60 days.

The law could come into play if prosecutors file additional charges against Sandusky or the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said State Rep. Cherelle L. Parker, D-Philadelphia, who began working on this bill in 2006. Parker said she thought it was “unjust and unfair” that such expert testimony was not allowed. The bill took about six years to pass through the House and Senate because case law, or rules established from previous cases, forbid expert testimony in the state, Parker said.

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FAIRFIELD (CA)
The Reporter

By Catherine Bowen/ CBowen@TheReporter.comthereporter.com
Posted: 06/30/2012

A well-known pastor at a Fairfield church was arrested Thursday night amid molestation allegations spanning as far back as 1994, police announced Friday.

The Rev. Robert “Silas” Ruark of Suisun City was taken into custody around 9:45 p.m., after Fairfield police officers served an arrest warrant at his home in the 1400 block of Spence Court, authorities reported.

Six alleged victims of the 65-year-old priest, known by many at St. Timothy Orthodox Church as “Father Silas,” have come forward. However, Fairfield Lt. Greg Hurlbut said police fear there could be others.

The investigation into Ruark began after members of the diocese contacted the Fairfield Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit when they learned of the alleged molestations, authorities said. The diocese provided police with the names of those believed to have been molested by Ruark.

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/29/2012

At times sobbing during emotional testimony, the suspect in the priest beating case took the stand Friday and admitted he assaulted the Rev. Jerold Lindner in 2010.

But Will Lynch said he did not plan to attack Lindner when he went to the Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos where the priest lives.

Instead, the 44-year-old San Francisco resident testified he wanted Lindner to sign a confession that the priest sexually molested Lynch and his 4-year-old brother more than 35 years ago on a camping trip sponsored by a religiou group. Lynch testified he hit Lindner after the priest “leered” at him the same way he did during the alleged molestation in the mid-1970s.

“I hit him more than once,” said Lynch, who began his testimony Friday morning after the prosecution rested its case.

Lynch is charged with two felonies that together carry a maximum sentence of four years — assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and also elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death. Lynch refused to negotiate a plea deal for no more than a year in jail because he wanted to “out” Lindner and expose clergy sex abuse.

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STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

By Maura Grunlund

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Vatican and a bishop have cleared Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life in New Dorp, of any financial wrongdoing but the damage — at least in terms of fund-raising — has been done.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy recently upheld Father Pavone’s position that he never was suspended from priestly ministry. Father Pavone had appealed to the Vatican after a dust-up with his superior, Bishop Patrick Zurek of the Diocese of Amarillo (Texas), over what was then an annual Priests for Life budget of about $10 million.

Priests for Life raised more than $40 million from 2004 to 2008, according to its tax returns. But the organization reported finishing 2010 with a revenue shortfall of $1.4 million.

Bishop Zurek recalled Father Pavone to Amarillo and temporarily suspended him from ministering outside the diocese in September 2011 amid questions about whether Father Pavone properly accounted for millions of dollars in donations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT 24

A RETIRED Suffolk priest has been charged with 12 sex assaults on a child and an adult.

Father Haley Dossor – who retired as priest-in-charge at St Mary at the Elms, in Elm Street, Ipswich, in January 2007 – also faces three further charges of gross indecency with a child.

The 71-year-old, of Kirton, near Felixstowe, is due to appear before Ipswich magistrates for the first hearing of his case on Monday, July 9.

The allegations are said to relate to the period between 1990 and 2004, and involve more than one alleged victim.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

A retired Suffolk priest has been accused of sex offences against children and adults between 1990 and 2004.

Haley Dossor, 71, from Kirton, near Felixstowe, is charged with six counts of indecent assault on a child and five counts of indecent assault on an adult.

He is also accused of sexually assaulting an adult and three counts of gross indecency with a child.

Mr Dossor is due before Ipswich magistrates on 9 July.

He retired as priest-in-charge of St Mary at the Elms, in Ipswich, in November 2006.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Sentinel

Most Rev. John Vlazny
Archbishop of Portland

We American bishops held our spring assembly in Atlanta earlier this month. That meeting marked the tenth anniversary of the approval by the American bishops in Dallas of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. When we bishops from the Pacific Northwest walked into our meeting room for a regional discussion, we found a bulletin from Atlanta’s “Voice of the Faithful,” telling us that, “the Charter to Protect Children and Young People is still fundamentally flawed.” VOF stated that the reforms were “not significant,” bishops still don’t welcome people who speak the truth about abuse, and there has been no cooperation with the recommendations from the bishops’ own National Review Board.

On the other hand, during the Atlanta meeting all bishops received a ten-year progress report on the Charter from our own National Review Board. In the report the members stated, “Ten years later, there has been striking improvement in the church’s response to and treatment of victims. Children are safer now because of the creation of safe environments and action has been taken to permanently remove offenders from ministry. Yet, much work still needs to be done.” The NRB reminded the bishops that we should never let our guard down. Vigilance should never be taken for granted, or worse, watered down.

Over the past ten years, more than 15,000 victims have come forward in Catholic dioceses across the USA to tell their secret about the abuse they suffered in childhood. The John Jay Study of the Nature and Scope of the Abuse reported that incidents of abuse began to rise in the 60s, peaked in the 70s and declined sharply in the 80s. Even the most recent reports tend to fall into that same pattern. In other words, most of the abuse is past history, but victims back then are still hurting. We can never presume that similar mistakes won’t be made again in the future.

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NEW JERSEY
Patch

By John Dunphy

Another person has come forward in the ongoing saga of allegations against Delbarton School and St. Mary’s Abbey involving years of alleged sexual abuse.

Except in this case, the person coming forward did not make a new allegation.

But, for “John Doe,” as his attorney Gregory Gianforcaro referred to him, a confidentiality agreement in place since settling in 1988 has kept the victim silent following former Monk Timothy Brennan’s guilty plea in 1987.

On Friday, in front of the Morris County Courthouse, Gianforcaro said his client wants to break the silence that has been legally required of him for 24 years. The confidentiality agreement was, according to the school and abbey’s attorneys at the time, in the best interests of the school, Brennan and the student whom Brennan had admitted in court to abusing.

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NEW JERSEY
Daily Record

Written by
Peggy Wright
@peggywrightdr

A man who admittedly was sexually abused by a Delbarton School monk when he was a student in 1984 joined victim’s advocates Friday in calling upon leaders of the prestigious school to be “transparent and open” about misconduct by its monks and allow him to speak freely about a confidential lawsuit settlement he reached with St. Mary’s Abbey in 1988.

Attorney Gregory G. Gianforcaro, who already represents four men who have accused Delbarton monks in a lawsuit of sexually exploiting them while they were students in the 1980s, held a press conference on the lawn of the Superior Courthouse in Morristown to announce another lawsuit — this one without any money damages being sought — against the school and St. Mary’s Abbey.

On behalf of a man who was at the conference but referred to as John Doe, Gianforcaro said he has filed a complaint in Superior Court to get a confidentiality clause section of a 1988 settlement agreement between the victim, Delbarton and St. Mary’s lifted. The victim, who was abused as a freshman when he sought counseling from the Rev. Timothy Brennan, then a guidance counselor and theology instructor, wants the freedom to speak about his experience and to support other victims.

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CANADA
CBC News

A man who alleges he was sexually abused by the late Father Camille Léger in the 1970s is suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moncton as well as three archbishops.

The man, who has asked the court not to release his identity, claims he was molested by the Cap-Pelé priest “on a regular and repeated basis” for five years, between the ages of 11 and 16.

He was an alter boy and member of the Ste-Thérèse-d’Avila parish during the period in question, according to his statement of claim, filed with the Court of Queens Bench in Moncton on Friday.

The man, now middle-aged and living in Saint John, claims he still suffers physical, emotional and mental pain and suicidal thoughts from the abuse he suffered.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press

By Mara H. Gottfried
mgottfried@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 06/29/2012

A St. Paul priest under investigation for a sexual assault involving a juvenile was convicted of DWI in 2009.

A Fillmore County, Minn., sheriff’s deputy received a complaint Sept. 29, 2009, of a man in his 40s “asking 18 year olds where they live, go to school, and if they wanted to party with him,” according to a sheriff’s office report.

Deputy Tim Rasmussen identified the man as the Rev. Curtis Carl Wehmeyer, and cited him for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor.

In the current case, St. Paul police arrested Wehmeyer, 47, on Friday, June 22, on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct. On June 21, police said they were told that Wehmeyer abused a juvenile male over a two-year period.

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press

Updated 01:09 p.m., Friday, June 29, 2012

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The man accused of assaulting a priest he says molested him decades ago is testifying that he lashed out with his fists after being overcome by a deep-rooted fear of the reverend.

William Lynch readily admits he punched Jerold Lindner, a retired Jesuit priest, on May 10, 2010. But Lynch says he initially planned only to compel the priest to sign a written confession of molestation.

Lynch testified that memories of the alleged abuse 37 years ago came flooding back to him after he looked in the priest’s eyes.

He says he felt threatened and began striking the priest. Lynch says during the confrontation, the priest grabbed him by the throat in the same manner he was grabbed during the alleged sexual assault.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK

[with video]

Written by
Brandie Piper

St. Louis (KSDK) – A St. Louis priest has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

On June 23 the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office began investigating a complaint from a 16-year-old girl who accused 29-year-old Father Xiuhui “Joseph” Jiang, an associate pastor at Cathedral Basilica, of inappropriately touching her.

Authorities say Jiang met the victim and her family through church and became close with them over the last year.

The victim’s family invited Jiang over for dinner at their home in Old Monroe, Missouri several times because he is from China and does not have family in Missouri.

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FAIRFIELD (CA)
Fox 40

Zohreen Adamjee FOX40 News
5:28 a.m. PDT, June 29, 2012

FAIRFIELD —
A Fairfield pastor from St. Timothy Orthodox Church was arrested on multiple counts of child molestation on Thursday night in Suisun City.

The clergy of the diocese contacted Fairfield Police Department’s Major Crime Unit and reported possible molestations had been committed by one of their pastors.

The alleged molester is Robert Ruark, 65, from Suisun City, also known as Father Silas. He coordinated the acolyte program for boys eight years old and older.

According to Fairfield Police, Ruark had photographed the alleged victims naked and most of the incidents happened at the church when the pastor was alone with the victims.

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FAIRFIELD (CA)
KGO

[with video]

Katie Marzullo

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KGO) — A Fairfield pastor has been arrested, accused of a string of child molestations dating back as far as the mid-1990s.

Police arrested 65-year-old Robert Ruark at his Suisun City home Thursday night. Ruark also goes by Father Silas.

Police say they received disturbing information from clergy members at Saint Timothy’s Orthodox Church in Fairfield that Ruark molested at least five children in the mid-1990s.

Thursday, police interviewed potential victims, now adults in their 20s.

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FAIRFIELD (CA)
CBS San Francisco

FAIRFIELD (CBS SF) – A pastor at a church in Fairfield was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting at least five victims as far back as 1994, police said Friday.

Fairfield police were contacted Thursday by clergy of the diocese represented by St. Timothy Orthodox Church, located at 4593 Central Way.

The diocese had learned of possible molestations by one of their pastors, 65-year-old Robert Ruark, who is also known as “Father Silas,” according to police.

Detectives worked all day interviewing potential victims and witnesses in the case and eventually identified five victims, all of whom are now adults and said Ruark committed lewd acts upon them when they were as young as 13 years old, police said. …

Investigators were still trying to identify other possible victims in the case and were asking anyone with information to contact the Police Department’s investigations bureau at (707) 428-7600 or its 24-hour tip line at (707) 428-7345.

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CALIFORNIA
KRON 4

By: Brian Shields – Fri, 29 Jun 2012

SAN JOSE (BCN) — A man accused of beating a priest he says molested him and his brother began emotional testimony Friday morning at his trial on assault charges.

William Lynch, 44, told the jury that the Rev. Jerold Linder, now 67, raped him and his brother on a 1974 camping trip.

Lynch said the abuse has destroyed his life.

He is charged with assault and elder abuse for allegedly beating Lindner on May 10, 2010, at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

He admitted today to hitting the priest multiple times during a confrontation.

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

[with video]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A man accused of beating a priest he says molested him and his brother began emotional testimony this morning at his trial on assault charges.

William Lynch, 44, told the jury this morning that the Rev. Jerold Linder, now 67, raped him and his brother on a 1974 camping trip.

Lynch said the abuse has destroyed his life.

He is charged with assault and elder abuse for allegedly beating Lindner on May 10, 2010, at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

He admitted today to hitting the priest multiple times during a confrontation.

“I was angry, I was reverting back to things from my childhood,” Lynch said.

“I wanted him to admit what he’d done to me,” he said.

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OHIO
Newark Advocate

Written by
Jessie Balmert
Advocate Reporter

NEWARK — Their associate pastor sexually abused them. Friends ridiculed them. Churchgoers held a candlelight vigil for the man who assaulted them.

But after nearly a decade, a group of jurors believed them — to the tune of $4.35 million.

Two young women were vindicated after a jury found that former Licking Baptist Church associate pastor Lonny “Joe” Aleshire, 41, of Hebron, sexually assaulted them when they were 13 and 16 years old, said their attorney, Beverly Farlow.

The abuse, which occurred between 2003 and 2004, was reported in early 2005. Later that year, Aleshire pleaded guilty to six counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, three counts of sexual imposition and one count of rape.

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CALIFORNIA
KTVU

KTVU.com and wires

SAN JOSE, Calif. —

A man accused of beating a priest he says molested him and his brother began emotional testimony Friday morning at his trial on assault charges.

William Lynch, 44, told the jury this morning that the Rev. Jerold Linder, now 67, raped him and his brother on a 1974 camping trip.

Lynch said the abuse has destroyed his life.

He is charged with assault and elder abuse for allegedly beating Lindner on May 10, 2010, at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

He admitted Friday to hitting the priest multiple times during a confrontation.

“I was angry, I was reverting back to things from my childhood,” Lynch said.

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TEXAS
U.S. Catholic

By Catholic News Service

AMARILLO, Texas (CNS) — A Vatican decree allows pro-life activist Father Frank Pavone to minister outside the Diocese of Amarillo, where he was incardinated in 2005, but he still must obtain specific permission to do so from Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek.

The decree from the Congregation of the Clergy was dated May 18 and became public about a month later. Bishop Zurek said in a June 20 statement that the congregation “has sustained Father Frank A. Pavone’s appeal of his suspension from ministry outside the Diocese of Amarillo.”

“As a gesture of good will, I will grant permission to him in individual cases, based upon their merits, to participate in pro-life events with the provision that he and I must be in agreement beforehand as to his role and function,” the bishop added.

The priest, who is national director of Priests for Life, also must continue his ministry as chaplain to the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a religious order in Channing. He was appointed chaplain by the bishop.

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

The suspect in the priest beating case took the stand this morning and admitted he assaulted Rev. Jerold Lindner, according to ABC 7.

Will Lynch is accused of beating Lindner in 2010 at a Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos. Lindner allegedly molested Lynch 35 years ago when Lynch was 7 years old.

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UNITED STATES
Standard-Examiner

NEWTON, Mass. — The worldwide Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful is marking its tenth year with a conference in Boston in September.

The event is expected to draw supporters from across the United States and Europe, according to a news release from the organization.

“At the close of our first decade, we’re assessing where we’ve been and considering what we have left to do to bring healing and renewal to clergy abuse survivors, to conscientious priests trapped in such turmoil for so long a time and to our whole Church.

“VOTF is bringing together speakers whose work has given them in-depth knowledge and awareness not only of the Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal and the devastation wreaked upon victims and their families, but also of the clericalism in the Church’s hierarchy, theological and doctrinal underpinnings of Church teaching and the effects the reform movement has had on Catholics and the Church,” the release states.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Pressemitteilung Rechtsanwalt Dr. Christain Seiler 29.06.2012

Am 28.06.2012 fand vor dem Oberlandgericht Bamberg der 6 Jahre währende Rechtsstreit zwischen Alexa M. Whiteman und der Diozöse Würzburg sein vorläufiges Ende.

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AUSTRALIA
Canberra Times

Graham Downie
June 30, 2012

Retiring Catholic bishop Pat Power has been one of Canberra’s much-loved clerics not least because he has been prepared to take a stand on social issues, GRAHAM DOWNIE writes

Often seen as out of step with his church, Auxiliary Catholic Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn Pat Power retires today unrepentant, still willing to speak his mind across a range of issues and reaching out to those of other denominations and faiths.

He was at it again this week, taking on Cardinal George Pell no less, on the question of climate change. ”I think it’s important that another bishop shows that mainstream Australian Catholicism, and in fact the Pope himself, has been very strong in speaking in support of measures to take into account issues affecting the environment.”

But it is questionable whether the Pope would support his views on some of the big issues – including sexual abuse, married priests, the ordination of women and homosexuality – facing the church, which he sees as having missed opportunities for reform.

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UNITED STATES
Patrick J. Wall

Anniversaries are important mile markers. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Father Gerald Fitzgerald s.P. giving notice to the Holy See of the problem of child sexual abuse by the clergy in the United States. Fitzgerald not only informs the Holy See but suggests a low-cost simple solution to protect children:

“On the other hand, when a priest has fallen into repeated sins which are considered , generally speaking, as abnormal (abuse of nature) such as homosexuality and most especially abuse of children, we feel strongly that such unfortunate priests should be given the alternative of a retired life within the protection of monastery walls or complete laicization.” April 11, 1962

Father Fitzgerald’s solution to the Holy See is simple: assign priests who abuse children to monasteries. This classic Roman Catholic solution of assigning religious order and diocesan priests to the protection of a monastery was well known in the United States. Want an example? See the documents on Clement Hageman O.M.I. not being admitted to final vows.

The Holy See reacted to Father Fitzgerald’s warnings in line with tradition: The report was filed away in the Holy See’s Secret Archives and with no action.

The only published work about Father Fitzgerald, A Prophet for the Priesthood: A Spiritual Biography of Father Gerald M.C. Fitzgerald, by Father John Hardon S.J., tip-toes around the issue of fallen priests. Looking back, we know Father Fitzgerald was aware of the crime of stuprum (sex between an adult and a child) but there is no evidence he knew the work of Cardinal Peter Damien also warning the Holy See in the 11th century (Book of Gomorrah). Neither was Father Fitzgerald was aware of the various instructions from the Holy See such as Cum sicut nuper (1561 AD), Universi dominici (1622 AD) or Sacramentum (1741 AD).

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on June 29, 2012

A KC judge is letting a wrongful death lawsuit, stemming from childhood sex abuse by a priest, go ahead toward trial because the victim’s parents charge they were deceived by church staffers who “fraudulently concealed the clerics’ crimes.”

We applaud this historic ruling, and this family for having the courage and strength to seek justice and expose wrongdoing in court.

It’s hard to imagine much of anything worse than the death of a child. But this case is indeed worse: a child died by his own hand because of a pedophile priest and the priest’s crimes were concealed from the child’s parents for years.

So we are glad that Judge Michael W. Manners sided with Donald and Rosemary Teeman. We are grateful that a trial is now possible, at which the heinous crimes of Msgr. Thomas J. O’Brien and the inexcusable complicity of church officials may be further documented and disclosed.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

A wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that a boy took his life decades ago because of repeated sexual abuse by a Kansas City priest can proceed, a judge ruled this week.

The statute of limitations for wrongful death is three years in Missouri.

But in his order, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Manners held as valid the argument of the boys’ parents that the statute of limitations should be suspended because of the defendants’ cover-up, fraud and concealment of the priest’s alleged abuse of their son and other children.

The judge dismissed the parents’ other claims that the priest and the diocese deprived their son of “a material chance of surviving.”

Don and Rosemary Teeman filed the case against Msgr. Thomas O’Brien and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph last September after a man who served as an altar boy with their son, Brian, told them of the alleged abuse.

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BAHAMAS
Bahamas B2B

Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder said he would never tolerate any abuse within his Archdiocese and added that he knows of no one in the local Catholic ministry against whom any allegations of sexual abuse exist.

His comments came amid allegations of abuse that have swirled in various circles.

Pinder said it is unfortunate that there are some members of the Order of St. Benedict against whom allegations of sexual abuse have risen.

The archbishop said in a statement, “The Benedictines (Order of St. Benedict) had a long and distinguished association with The Bahamas which extended over a period of 120 years. They have done a tremendous amount of good for the religious and social development of this community, particularly in education.”

Pinder said he would never tolerate abusive behavior period — whether sexual or otherwise.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Extrem News

In Deutschland und Österreich sind drei Frauen und drei Männer, die in ihrer Kindheit von Geistlichen missbraucht wurden, im Hungerstreik. Das berichtet das in Bielefeld erscheinende WESTFALEN-BLATT.

Den Anfang machte vor drei Wochen Norbert Denef, der Vorsitzende des »Netzwerks Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt e.V« aus Scharbeutz. »Ich nehme seit dem 8. Juni nur noch Wasser und Kräutertee zu mir«, sagte der 63-Jährige am Donnerstag der Zeitung. Er hungere »ohne Hass und Wut« und wolle auch niemanden erpressen. »Aber ich will mahnen und darauf aufmerksam machen, dass es uns noch gibt.«

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MALTA
Times of Malta

About 18 months ago, the government’s announcement of legislation to introduce a Child Offenders’ Register was hailed as a significant step forward. Coincidentally, the news came the day after the Church’s Response Team had concluded that there was enough evidence for the long-standing case of victims of clerical abuse at St Joseph’s Home to be sent to the Holy See in Rome for adjudication.

Whether by coincidence or not, the decision to introduce a Bill to set up a Child Offenders’ Register of course went far wider than simply dealing with clerical abuse, although this most heinous of crimes had stirred public revulsion. The idea of having a paedophile register had in fact surfaced about four years earlier in the wake of another nasty controversy involving the Malta Football Association. The MFA had kept a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman at a football ground that doubled up as a playing field for a nearby school.

Over the last five or six years, the legislative wheels have ground slowly forward to the point when, on January 20 this year, the Protection of Minors Act finally came into force.

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LOUISIANA
KPLC

The following is a Press Release from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office:

On June 27, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office re-arrested former priest Mark A. Broussard, 56, of Duson, who is currently incarcerated at the Calcasieu Correctional Center, and charged him 24 counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and six additional counts of sexual battery after further investigation revealed Broussard had inappropriate sexual contact with an 8-year-old victim between approximately 1986 and 1987 while he and his family were attending Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church in Lake Charles.

Judge Clayton Davis set his bond at $400,000, bringing his total bond to $3,420,000.

Broussard was first arrested on March 22 and charged with two counts of aggravated battery and 52 counts of sexual battery after an investigation revealed he had sexually inappropriate contact with an 8 year old boy between 1986 and 1989 while the victim and his family was attending St. Henry Catholic Church. Documents were located in the priest’s personnel file where the priest indicated sexual contact with at least four other male children. These incidents were not reported to law enforcement.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

By Paul Friswold
Fri., Jun. 29 2012

Reverend Xiuhui “Joseph” Jiang, 29, has been charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly fondling a girl younger than 17. Jiang is the associate pastor at the Cathedral Basilica, but none of the inappropriate sexual contact occurred on church property.

According to the girl, she was fondled on four separate occasions, each incident taking place in Old Monroe in Lincoln County. Jiang has been placed on administrative leave since the charges were leveled, according to the official statement made by Monsignor Richard E. Hanneke, Vicar for Priests.

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LOUISIANA
KATC

A former priest from Duson has been re-arrested in Calcasieu Parish. 56-year old Mark Broussard is in the Calcasieu Correctional Center, currently charged with 24 counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and 6 additional counts of sexual battery. Deputies say the extra charges came from further investigating Broussard. They say he had inappropriate sexual contact with an 8 year old victim between approximately 1986 and 1987 while he and his family were attending Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church in Lake Charles.

Judge Clayton Davis set his bond at $400,000, bringing his total bond to $3,420,000.

Broussard was first arrested on March 22 and charged with 2 counts of aggravated battery and 52 counts of sexual battery. In that investigation, deputies say Broussard had sexually inappropriate contact with an 8 year old boy between 1986 and 1989 while the victim and his family was attending St. Henry Catholic Church. Documents were allegedly found in the priest’s personnel file where the priest indicated sexual contact with at least four other male children. These incidents were not reported to law enforcement.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post UK

A former City lawyer who claims he made a mess of his life because he was sexually abused at a Jesuit-run school has taken the latest step in his claim for £5m damages.

Patrick Raggett was subjected to years of insidious abuse by Father Michael Spencer, a teacher at Preston Catholic College in Lancashire, who died in 2000 aged 76.

Between 1970 and 1974, the priest, who was his form teacher and coach of the football team he captained, observed him naked, filmed him, photographed him and touched him inappropriately.

The abuse, which began when he was 11, was not penetrative and resulted in no physical injury but Mr Raggett, who has waived anonymity, says it left him feeling “violation, dread, isolation, shame and humiliation”.

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IRELAND
Herald

By Niall O’Connor

Friday June 29 2012

FORMER RTE reporter Aoife Kavanagh was given a five figure golden handshake when she quit the scandal-hit station.

The national broadcaster has confirmed that Ms Kavanagh received a significant sum — believed to be in the region of €25,000 — following her resignation in the wake of the libellous Mission To Prey programme.

The Wexford woman was given a severance package equalling six weeks pay per every year she worked at the station.

The significant lump sum — partly funded by the licence fee — has never been mentioned by Montrose bosses.

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IRELAND
Donegal Democrat

Published on Friday 29 June 2012

A Moville born parish priest cleared of indecently assaulting a teenage girl in Derry two decades ago has spoken of his relief to end “the darkest two years” of his life.

On Wednesday a jury at Derry Crown Court found Fr Eugene Boland (66), of Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh not guilty by majority verdict on all five charges against him of indecent assault on a girl aged around 14 years-old. The charges related to alleged incidents in the parochial house of St Joseph’s Church, Galliagh between June 28, 1990 and June 30, 1992 where she worked as a volunteer.

There were cheers from supporters of Fr Boland as the verdict was delivered following an eight day trial and several hours of deliberation by the jury of four men and eight women.

Fr Boland said it was “the first day of the rest of my life”.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
NECN

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An associate pastor at St. Louis’ Cathedral Basilica is on administrative leave after being accused of fondling a teenage girl.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/LHfdlB) reports the Rev. Xiuhui “Joseph” Jiang is charged with first-degree child endangerment.

Court documents allege that Jiang repeatedly had sexual contact with a girl younger than 17.

The girl told police he fondled her as a priest and family friend on four different occasions this year in Old Monroe.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis says Jiang is on administrative leave because of the allegations.

Jiang is from Shandong, China.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis

For more information contact:
Angie Shelton
Community Relations Specialist
Phone: 314-792-7101

St. Louis —The Archdiocese of St. Louis has placed Fr. Joseph Jiang, who is the Associate Pastor at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, on administrative leave following a report involving alleged inappropriate contact with a high school aged minor. None of the conduct is alleged to have occurred at the Cathedral or on any archdiocesan property.

The Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection notified Missouri Division of Family Services immediately upon learning of the allegations and this matter is under investigation. The archdiocese is fully cooperating with this investigation.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis encourages all persons with reports of misconduct with a minor involving a member of the clergy or other church personnel to contact Phil Hengen, the Director of the Office for Child and Youth Protection at (314) 792-7704 or the civil authorities.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

Submitted on June 29, 2012

Father Joseph Jiang, associate pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Parish, was charged in Lincoln County June 28 with a felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree offense involving sexual conduct.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis had placed Father Jiang on administrative leave following a report involving alleged inappropriate contact with a high school aged minor. The Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection notified Missouri Division of Family Services immediately upon learning of the allegations.

According to a statement from Msgr. Richard Hanneke, the archdiocese’s vicar for priests, the archdiocese is fully cooperating with the investigation.

Bond set at $25,000.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By RAY RIVERA

Published: June 28, 2012

For years, Avrohom Mondrowitz counseled children out of his home in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. He was host of a call-in radio show popular among ultra-Orthodox Jewish listeners, claiming to be a rabbi and psychologist. But law enforcement officials say Mr. Mondrowitz, who fled to Israel in 1984 to avoid arrest, was also something else: “a compulsive pedophile.”

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, has repeatedly said that since taking office in 1990, he has vigorously tried to extradite Mr. Mondrowitz. Mr. Hynes has said his office was instrumental in bringing about a change in a treaty between the United States and Israel in 2007 that had thwarted early extradition efforts.

But newly disclosed documents from Mr. Hynes’s office cast doubts on his accounts of his role in the case, suggesting that for many years, the office paid little attention to it.

Michael Lesher, a writer and lawyer who represents several of Mr. Mondrowitz’s accusers, obtained 103 pages of files on the case from the district attorney’s office after a protracted court battle to secure them under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
WLS

ARLINGTON, Va. (WLS) – A Virginia woman came to a priest to be purged of her “evil spirits” in 2008 but claims the priest repeatedly molested her during the two-year exorcism that followed.

The woman — known only as Jane Doe — filed a lawsuit on June 19 in Arlington County Circuit Court against Human Life International, the Catholic Diocese of Arlington and one of its bishops, alleging they failed to stop the abusive sexual encounters. She seeks more than $5.3 million in damages.

The woman had already reached a private settlement with the exorcist, Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, who was the president of anti-abortion rights group Human Life International during the time of the exorcism, according to her lawyer.

In the lawsuit filed last week, she claims Euteneuer abused her in the Human Life International offices during working hours, and the employees knew the exorcism sessions were going on there. In addition, the suit claims the Diocese of Arlington should have been responsible for Euteneuer’s conduct because he was working within its jurisdiction.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on Friday 29 June 2012

A parish priest cleared of indecently assaulting a teenage girl in Derry two decades ago has spoken of his relief to end “the darkest two years” of his life.

On Wednesday a jury at Derry Crown Court found Fr Eugene Boland (66), of Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh not guilty by majority verdict on all five charges against him of indecent assault on a girl aged around 14 years-old. The charges related to alleged incidents in the parochial house of St Joseph’s Church, Galliagh between June 28, 1990 and June 30, 1992 where she worked as a volunteer.

There were cheers from supporters of Fr Boland as the verdict was delivered following an eight day trial and several hours of deliberation by the jury of four men and eight women.

Speaking to the ‘Journal’ yesterday, Fr Boland said it was “the first day of the rest of my life”.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

As the Catholic hierarchy calls its faithful followers in the United States to get down on their collective knees in prayer for the preservation of religious liberty, we believe the hierarchy owes its adherents a clear explanation as to why it allows convicted felons to retain the ranking of priest.

Monsignor William Lynn was convicted last Friday in Philadelphia on the felony charge of endangering children.

Father Gerald Robinson was convicted in Toledo, Ohio in 2006 of the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pal.

It was left to the survivors once again to raise the issue of justice, of a seamless garment of words matching actions, of simple reason.

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UGANDA
Red Pepper

A priest attached to Pakwach catholic parish in Nebbi Diocese has been locked up for 10 years for infecting a 15-year-old girl with HIV.

High court Judge Justice Yasin Nyanzi, on Thursday jailed Rev. Fr. Santos Constatino Wapokura , 47, for feeding his venomous whopper to the poor girl.

Court heard that Wapokura would lure the poor girl who was a maid at Pakwach catholic mission in his quarters and feast on her like a sex beast.

The girl said she told one of her friends about her nightmare and she encouraged her to report to her parents.

This according to court prompted her father Santo Onyai to report the matter to police leading to Wapokura’s arrest. Wapokura had been on remand since May 5, 2010.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY SUSAN WEICH • sweich@post-dispatch.com > 636-255-7207 | Posted: Friday, June 29, 2012

The associate pastor at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is accused of fondling a teenage girl in Lincoln County.

The Rev. Xiuhui “Joseph” Jiang, 29, was charged Thursday with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He is accused of repeated sexual contact with a girl under 17, according to court documents.

The girl told police he fondled her on four different occasions this year. She said that Jiang was her priest and a family friend. The incidents happened in Old Monroe, Mo., according to police, who began their investigation Saturday.

Jiang was placed on administrative leave after officials learned about the allegations, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

None of the conduct is alleged to have occurred on any archdiocesan property, the statement said. The archdiocese would not comment beyond the written statement, a spokeswoman said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) – A priest assigned to the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica parish has been charged with fondling a teenage girl.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Father Joseph Jiang is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The girl told police Jiang fondled her on four separate occasions in Old Monroe, Missouri.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
Catholic News Agency

By Benjamin Mann

Arlington, Va., Jun 29, 2012 / 02:11 am (CNA).- Former Human Life International President Father Thomas Euteneuer is accused of abusing a woman employed by the organization, in a lawsuit seeking damages from HLI and its local bishop.

In a statement provided to CNA, Human Life International spokesman Stephen Phelan said that the organization, from which Fr. Euteneuer resigned in August 2010, would “vigorously defend itself” against the “false accusations” of complicity in alleged abuse by its former president.

“To the extent Father Euteneuer has already admitted to engaging in highly inappropriate and gravely sinful conduct with a young adult woman, we can only emphasize that such behavior was never within the scope of his employment with HLI,” Phelan said.

The alleged victim worked for Human Life International for two years, during which time she says the priest repeatedly violated physical boundaries.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Harry Hairston and David Chang

Thursday, Jun 28, 2012

Less than a week since a hung jury let him go free in the priest child sex abuse case, Father James Brennan is speaking out and telling his story to NBC10.

Brennan faced more than 20 years in prison after prosecutors charged and tried him for the attempted rape of a 13-year-old boy.

Last Friday however, a hung jury left Brennan walking out of court a free man. Monsignor William Lynn was found guilty of endangering the welfare of the child and faces up to seven years in prison.
Brennan described how he reacted when he heard the verdict.

“I sat down at the table,” said Brennan. “That was the first time I cried.”

The verdict was far from an acquittal however and has done much to tarnish his reputation.

“I don’t think that will ever go away,” said Brennan. “I would like to have it go away but I don’t think it will ever go away.”

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HOLYOKE (MA)
WGGB

By Neil Carroll

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB) — For months there were wooden planks and metal beams that stood outside the Mater Dolorosa church because the Catholic Diocese of Springfield said the church was unsafe.

Now the scaffolding is gone and for the parish, that says it all.

“The diocese was claiming that the steeple was gonna fall down,” said Victor Anop, attorney for the Friends of the Mater Dolorosa. “As you can see today nothing is falling down here.”

Anop hired a private engineer to look into the safety concerns inside the church and it’s steeple and then present them to the city of Holyoke.

“So that showed that the scaffolding was up under false pretenses,” said Anop. ”There was no danger immediate or otherwise to the public or those who were in the church.”

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JAMAICA
Tribune 242

By KHRISNA VIRGIL
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau yesterday said no Benedictine monks serving in the Bahamas are under investigation over sexual abuse allegations.

Archbishop Patrick Pinder was responding to growing speculation over the departure of a monk from the Bahamas.

The Benedictines, the Archbishop said, have a long-standing and distinguished relationship with the Bahamas which has lasted for the past 120 years.

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NETHERLANDS
The Republic

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Thirty-seven boys who died in the early 1950s in a Dutch psychiatric hospital run by the Catholic Church were probably killed by a monk in charge of their care, prosecutors said on Thursday.

It was the latest in a string of scandals to hit the church in the Netherlands, where an independent commission found last year up to 20,000 minors were sexually abused in Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries between 1945 and 1981.

In a report released on Thursday, prosecutors said the boys who died between 1952 and 1954 in St Joseph’s psychiatric hospital in the southeastern town of Heel had likely been given morphine overdoses by Brother Andreas.

Prosecutors said Brother Andreas had died and there were no known living suspects. If he had been alive there was enough proof to launch a criminal investigation.

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CANADA
CBC News

A pastor at a Glace Bay church denies any wrongdoing, after police charged him with three counts of sexual interference.

Robert Lawther, 59, is accused of sex crimes against three children under the age of 16.

Lawther, pastor at Bethel Family Church, was arrested on Wednesday. He appeared in court in Sydney and was released under strict conditions.

“One of the main ones was that he not attend any area at schools, playgrounds, recreation areas, etc. where children under 16 would normally attend,” said Staff Sgt. Mike Kennedy, spokesman for Cape Breton Regional Police.

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IOWA
WCF Courier

WAVERLY, Iowa — A pastor accused of illegal contact with a 15-year-old boy this week admitted committing third-degree sexual abuse.

Dennis Brown, 67, of Eldora, will face sentencing at 10 a.m. Aug. 10 in Bremer County District Court.

According to court documents, the boy and Brown became acquainted online and met in Waverly. The teenager’s family learned of the encounter, however, and contacted authorities.

Brown’s attorney, Kevin Engels of Cedar Falls, had argued unsuccessfully that some potential evidence should be suppressed. The material included statements Brown allegedly made to investigators and his personal computer.

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NETHERLANDS
Boston Globe

June 28, 2012|Associated Press

A brother at a Catholic institute for disabled boys may have been involved in the suspicious deaths of 37 patients in the 1950s, Dutch prosecutors announced Thursday.

However, the prosecutors said they will not further investigate the deaths because the suspect, identified as Brother Andreas, has died and any alleged crimes happened too long ago to be prosecuted.

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