ABUSE TRACKER

AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

November 20, 2012

Dan Harrison
Indigenous Affairs and Social Affairs Correspondent

Attorney General Nicola Roxon has defended the tight timeframe for feedback on proposed arrangements for the Royal Commission on Child Sexual Abuse.

The government has allowed just one week for comments on a discussion paper it released late yesterday which sets out options for the commission’s terms of reference and other details

Victims groups such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have said the timeline is too tight.

But Ms Roxon defended the process, hinting the government would take a flexible approach to late submissions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Premier Barry O’Farrell says it is disappointing there is only a one week public consultation period over the terms of reference for the Federal Government’s Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

The Greens say the public has not been given enough time to have a say about the terms of reference for the Commonwealth’s Royal Commission into child sex abuse.

Stakeholders will have seven days to make submissions about what issues they think should be investigated by the Commission and how different governments should work together to share information.

But NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says a week is not enough time for victims groups to give considered responses.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 20/11/2012
Reporter: Leigh Sales

Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has called for input into the establishment of the Royal Commission into institutional child abuse. She joined 7.30 to explain the process.

Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Many people who suffered sexual abuse as children in institutions will be desperate to tell their stories to the royal commission the Federal Government announced last week, but how many of those cases will be investigated? The Government has released a discussion paper on the inquiry and is calling on any interested parties to provide suggestions about how it should run. The Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, is in Sydney today to promote changes to the federal anti-discrimination laws but she made time to join me in the studio to discussion the royal commission plans.

Nicola Roxon, will every person who wants to tell their tale of sexual abuse to this royal commission be able to do so, and will every one of those cases be investigated?

NICOLA ROXON, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, our position and our starting point is yes, they should be able to, but of course there’s going to be a lot of work done – particularly with victims’ groups who are talking with us now about how you potentially might group people together, how you might find a selection of individual stories. We do think it’s important for people to have the opportunity to tell their story and we do think that that informs the sorts of recommendations commissioners will make – but it has to be manageable, so there’s a difficult balance there. Whether they will all be investigated is going to depend on the circumstances of every case. We’re really trying to make clear that a royal commission is not a police force, it’s not a prosecuting body, it’s not a court and the normal criminal processes should still continue. We don’t want people to see this as an alternative to pursuing, in the proper forums, criminal action if that should be taken.

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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono Australia

Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Federal Government has released a consultation paper on the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, announced last week by the Prime Minister.

The consultation paper asks for stakeholder views on:
• The scope of the Terms of Reference, including the issues the Commission should investigate and make recommendations on;
• The form of the Royal Commission, including how the Commonwealth and states and territories could work together to ensure full access to information;
• The number of Royal Commissioners and appropriate expertise; and
• The timetable and reporting arrangements.

Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Acting Minister for Families Brendan O’Connor said: ”We want all stakeholders, especially survivors of child sexual abuse, their families and their advocates, to help shape the development of the Royal Commission.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Adelaide

The Federal Government has recently announced a Royal Commission into institutionalised child abuse in Australia, and many are wondering just how it will work, and what the legal implications could be. Dr Rita Shackel is a senior lecturer at Sydney University’s Faculty of Law and she’s discussing the terms of reference for the Royal Commission, and the legal implications given that many new cases of abuse are expected to be brought to light as a result. She has been conducting research on the dynamics of child sexual abuse and the barriers to disclosure, and has a particular interest in historical cases of child sexual abuse, both in terms of the evidentiary, procedural and legal issues such cases throw up, but also regarding the rights and needs of victims. Dr Shackel is speaking here with Stan Thomson…..

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OKLAHOMA
KXII

COAL COUNTY, OK — A Former Coalgate youth pastor has been arrested for sex crimes against children. 28-year-old Dustin Werneberg was taken into custody Wednesday on several second degree rape charges.

An affidavit states the sexual abuse has been going on for more than a year. Kristen Shanahan spoke with the lead investigator of this case and the pastor who says he never believed his employee could be involved in something like this.

Police tell us Werneburg was arrested at Blanchard Middle School in McClain County Wednesday where he was serving as a teacher’s aid. He is now behind bars in Coal County on three counts of Second Degree Rape, three counts of Forcible Sodomy, a charge of Lewd or Indecent Proposals to a Child and Lewd Molestation. Investigators say all these crimes were committed against a girl under the age of 16.

Coalgate police investigator Richard Costantino says former youth minister Dustin Ray Werneburg was arrested on eight sex crime charges after a parent came forward saying Werneburg had inappropriate contact with their daughter.

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OHIO
WHIO

The Associated Press

CINCINNATI —

A Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia in 1991 so he could sexually abuse him.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, of the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, was released on his own recognizance following his not guilty plea Monday in federal court in Cincinnati.

An indictment last week accused Poandl of taking the boy on Aug. 3, 1991.

The religious order says the indictment is related to a June 2009 accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in Spencer, W.Va.

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OHIO
Fox 19

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19)- With a call for a bible verse written on his chest, a former Cincinnati-area priest appeared in court on Monday to plead not guilty for a child sex charge.

A federal grand jury has charged Robert Frank Poandl, 71, of Fairfield with one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for illicit purposes.

Poandl, who is also known as “Father Bob,” was arrested by FBI agents at the Glenmary Missioners in Fairfield.

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OHIO
San Francisco Chronicle

CINCINNATI (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to taking a 10-year-old boy to West Virginia in 1991 so he could sexually abuse him.

The Rev. Robert Poandl, of the Cincinnati-based Glenmary Home Missioners, was released on his own recognizance following his not guilty plea Monday in federal court in Cincinnati.

An indictment last week accused Poandl of taking the boy on Aug. 3, 1991.

The religious order says the indictment is related to a June 2009 accusation of sexual misconduct with a minor in Spencer, W.Va.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 19, 2012

Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace activist and priest who had come under scrutiny for his support of women’s ordination, has been dismissed from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, which he served for 45 years, according to the congregation.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made the dismissal in October, according to a news release issued Monday afternoon by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Dominican Fr. Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer acting on Bourgeois’ behalf, told NCR he was not aware of the move.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Calgary Herald

By The Associated Press
November 19, 2012

LONDON – A retired Church of England priest has been jailed for four years after admitting that he sexually abused three boys between 1983 and 1991.

The case against 75-year-old Rev. Ronald Johns revealed that the bishop of Carlisle had responded to another boy’s complaint in 1993 by moving the priest but taking no further action.

Judge Rabinder Singh, presiding Monday in Carlisle Crown Court, noted that a pre-sentence report described Johns’ behaviour as manipulative and predatory.

When a complaint was made in 1993, the late Bishop Ian Harland removed Johns from his post and reassigned him to a village church.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 19, 2012

Bishops, priests and religious should wear the formal long robes of a cassock during most occasions when visiting Rome, a high-ranking Vatican official has said.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, made the request for the formal dress in a letter released during last month’s Synod of Bishops.

It came at the bequest of Pope Benedict XVI, reports a posting at veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister’s site at the Italian newsmagazine l’Espresso.

Bertone’s letter, first made public Monday but dated Oct. 15, asks bishops and cardinals “kindly to guarantee” the observance of a 1982 letter by Pope John Paul II on the matter.

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OHIO
FBI

U.S. Attorney’s Office
November 15, 2012 Southern District of Ohio
(937) 225-2910

CINCINNATI—A federal grand jury has charged Robert Frank Poandl, 71, of Fairfield with one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for illicit purposes.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Edward J. Hanko, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); William Hayes, Acting Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Ohio and Michigan; and agencies in the Greater Cincinnati Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force announced the indictment today following Poandl’s arrest by FBI agents at the Glenmary Missioners in Fairfield where Poandl, known as “Father Bob,” lives.

The indictment alleges that in August 1991, Poandl took a 10-year-old boy across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity with him. The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

During Poandl’s initial appearance, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Muncy told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Bowman that Poandl had transported a 10-year-old boy from Cincinnati to West Virginia in 1991, where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted the child, and that he has substantial international travel and connections across the country, which makes him a flight risk. Muncy also told the court that the crime was not disclosed until the victim came forward. Magistrate Judge Bowman ordered Poandl detained and scheduled a detention hearing for Monday, November 19, 2012, at 1:30 p.m.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

AAP
November 20, 2012

A FORMER canon of a British cathedral has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing three teenage boys.

Ronald Johns, the 75-year-old former canon of Carlisle Cathedral in northern England, had pleaded guilty to sexual offences against three boys from 1983 to 1991.

The victims were aged between 14 and 17 at the time.

“As you accept, you have ruined your life and brought disgrace upon yourself,” judge Rabinder Singh said as he sentenced the former clergyman on Monday.

The court heard that when the allegations were first made in 1993, Johns’ bishop demoted him to a village parish instead of telling police.

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TEXAS
Courthouse News Service

By DAVID LEE

DALLAS (CN) – A regional body of the United Methodist Church has called for protective orders in sexual misconduct lawsuits against an allegedly abusive pastor.

Jeffrey Carson, a former church member at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in Dallas, filed suit eight months ago against St. Luke’s, the North Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and former pastor Tyrone Gordon in county court.

Last month, former St. Luke’s employees Anthony Bollin and Christopher Mosley filed similar, separate suits in county court.

All three men allege that Gordon engaged in sexual misconduct and harassment against male employees and parishioners at the church.

The conference filed three motions for protective orders last week, arguing that the claims exceeded the statute of limitations and that the plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies afforded by the federal Equal Employment & Opportunity Commission and Texas Workforce Commission.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 20, 2012

Lindsay Murdoch

PHNOM PENH: The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, says her government will need to be careful to handle high expectations of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Asked about a Herald/Nielsen poll showing the inquiry has the backing of almost every Australian, Ms Gillard said: ”The best we can do is to be consultative and be clear about what we are trying to do and what we are trying to achieve.

”The royal commission decision has been well received by the nation, it’s a decision the nation needed,” Ms Gillard said in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where she is attending the East Asian Summit, a forum of 18 world leaders.

”People do want to see the tragic instances of child abuse addressed … people want to see our institutions of the future not repeat the mistakes of the past.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says the state opposition’s response to his comments about the royal commission into child sex abuse was wrong and inappropriate.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Sue Ellery called on the premier to apologise to victims of child abuse after he told ABC radio that the far-reaching national inquiry announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week could destroy institutions around the country.

Mr Barnett said he held grave concerns about the legacy the massive inquiry may leave on the organisations investigated and the victims involved.

The premier said he hoped the royal commission would achieve positive outcomes, “but I also fear for the negativity that could come out of it”.

“I think you will see many people’s lives destroyed. I think you will see many of Australia’s institutions – which may have been at fault – also destroyed, and great divisions in the community,” he told ABC radio.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

The federal government has allowed barely a week for Australians to help shape the terms of reference for a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The tight deadline reflects Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s wish for the inquiry, which is likely to take years and involve thousands of individuals, to be established by the end of this year so it can begin its work in early 2013.

Ms Gillard last week announced the planned a royal commission to investigate how child sex abuse allegations have been handled by religious, community and state institutions.

Labor on Monday released a consultation paper asking for public submissions on the scope of the terms of reference, the form of the commission, the number of commissioners and reporting arrangements, by close of business on November 26.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 20, 2012 15

Phillip Coorey, Jacqueline Maley

VICTIMS of sexual abuse would be able to sue the Catholic Church for compensation as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Child Sexual Abuse, legal experts say.

And any victim of sexual abuse would be able to give evidence, if they wished.

A discussion paper released late on Monday by the commission secretariat says the commission’s findings ”may extend to ensuring that there are no obstacles to the making of claims and that there is sufficient support for victims of abuse in pursuing those claims”.

Presently, the church is classified as an non-legal entity for the purpose of compensation claims, which means victims cannot sue.

The discussion paper, part of the consultation process to establish the terms of reference, has been sent to all state and territory leaders as well as the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, the Greens and the federal independents.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

A WEEK after Julia Gillard announced a royal commission into child sexual abuse, the challenge of satisfying community expectations is growing harder by the day. The government was right to respond to community concerns, but a nagging question still remains: what is the commission designed to do?

In the absence of a carefully defined brief, the commission – which is yet to be established – is being wildly misconstrued by politicians, lawyers and children’s advocates. Australians have overwhelmingly welcomed the commission, and so does The Australian. From the outset, however, we argued that the terms of reference and timetable for the commission will be critical. First and foremost, the government must be clear about what it wants from the inquiry. Should it be an investigative commission to uncover new cases of abuse and lead to police action or is that a job for another body? Should it have a therapeutic purpose, offering a forum for victims of child abuse to tell their stories? Or should it concentrate firmly on institutional failings and look at regulations, practices and procedures that could be put in place to help ensure that such abuse of children is not repeated?

Several lawyers have seized on the commission as an opportunity sign up new clients and to make money from it. This presents a risk that the commission could be turned into a legal circus. As reported in The Australian yesterday, at least one law firm is spruiking its services, asking victims of child sexual abuse to come forward so that they may have a “claim” to make to the commission once it is up and running. But as yet there is no procedure for hearing or investigating such claims, let alone any discussion of paying compensation. In addition, a number of victims’ advocacy groups have been contacted about new claims of abuse. Other well-meaning advocacy and victim support groups are recording a sharp increase in inquiries made to their organisations. The inflated expectations may be impossible to meet.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Royal commission into child sexual abuse will be asked to suggest new rules and preventive action

Phillip Hudson
Herald Sun
November 20, 2012

THE royal commission into child sexual abuse will be asked to suggest new rules to prevent future attacks, procedures to follow when allegations are raised and how to deal with abuse that has occurred.

A discussion paper released by the Federal Government also says the commission can suggest new laws as well as policies to make government agencies better able to respond.

It will also be asked to identify roadblocks inside institutions and organisations that prevent proper notification and investigation of claims.

State governments will be asked to hand over information to ensure no individual, institution or organisation “can avoid scrutiny”.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 20, 2012

Michelle Grattan

THE federal government’s royal commission into child sexual abuse is expected to be the biggest inquiry held in Australia, involving thousands of victims and hundreds of organisations.

A government consultation paper sent to premiers on Monday flags that the massive investigation – lasting years and probing religious and secular organisations as well as government bodies – is set to facilitate victims making compensation claims and will be able to refer matters to the police as it goes along.

With this week’s Age/Nielsen poll showing 95 per cent support for the commission, the government is asking the states and stakeholders to provide written feedback by next Monday on the terms of reference and the inquiry’s form and timetable. The paper has also been sent to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, Greens leader Christine Milne, crossbenchers and stakeholders.

Asked about the poll result, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government would need to carefully handle the public’s high expectations.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

Church bosses missed three chances to report a child sex abusing vicar to the police, the BBC has learned.

Between 1983 and 1991, the Reverend Ronald Johns sexually abused three boys while working in Cumbria.

In 1993 he admitted his crimes to his Bishop, but instead of reporting him to police the Church of England moved him to a different parish.

Archdeacon of West Cumberland, the Venerable Richard Pratt, said the church missed three chances to report Johns to police delaying an investigation.

In September, Johns, a former canon of Carlisle Cathedral, pleaded guilty at the city’s crown court to assaulting three teenage boys.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on November 19, 2012

This investigation is a huge step in the right direction. Too often, those with positions of authority within the church are able to avoid punishment for their crimes. We are grateful to police and prosecutors for their years-long effort to investigate these crimes and to apprehend those responsible.

It is rare for church officials in authority positions (like Bishop Peter Ball) to be arrested, so the fact that he has been shows us that secular officials are taking these crimes very seriously.

According to The Guardian, three more sex abuse cases against the Diocese of Chicester are set to be heard in the coming months. Now, more than ever, those who may have seen or suspected crimes within this diocese must come forward and make a report to police. A seemingly small bit of information may turn out to be the difference in any one of these cases.

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MICHIGAN
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on November 19, 2012

A former Catholic school teacher accused of inappropriate sexual activity with children has pled guilty to domestic violence charges and had the child abuse charges against him dropped.

According to Lansing prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III, the state believed their case against Christopher deMorrow was strong enough to convict without requiring the young children to testify and potentially re-traumatize themselves. DeMorrow, who had previously taught at St. Michael’s in Grand Ledge, had been accused of inappropriately touching and licking children, and allegedly masturbated in front of them.

It’s always easy to second guess police and prosecutors, and wanting abused kids to be spared the trauma of a trial is admirable. Still, we are troubled by the dropping of child sex charges against this Catholic teacher. Especially given the depraved nature of the accusations in combination with the fact that deMorrow was a teacher we would have liked to see the prosecutor’s office follow through on these charges as well.

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UNITED KINGDOM
In-Cumbria

A former Carlisle Cathedral canon who sexually abused three boys has been jailed.

Ronald Johns, 75, used pornographic films and whisky to groom his victims.

At Carlisle Crown Court today, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and was banned from working with children for life.

Earlier, Johns apologised for his crimes.

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MICHIGAN
Lansing State Journal

Written by
Kevin Grasha

A former Catholic school teacher accused of sexual crimes against two children has pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges, and prosecutors have dropped all criminal sexual conduct charges he faced.

At a hearing last month in Ingham County Circuit Court, 40-year-old Christopher deMorrow admitted kicking his former wife in the back in a dispute over what to watch on television. She suffered a severe bruise to her tailbone, court documents say.

He also admitted in court that he “ripped a rake out of” his former wife’s hand during a dispute, placing her in fear.

But testimony his former wife gave last year during a preliminary hearing — including descriptions of deMorrow allegedly masturbating in front of children, touching a child inappropriately and licking a child’s face — was not mentioned.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

One of the world’s leading advocates against clergy sex abuse has offered to help victims and their families at Australia’s Royal Commission.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

By David Young
Monday, 19 November 2012

No criminal charges will be brought against a west Belfast priest who stepped down after the Catholic Church received claims about his conduct.

Father Hugh Kennedy (55) was asked to temporarily stop working in St Peter’s Cathedral last year while Church authorities passed the information to the police and social services.

His decision to stop his work followed a meeting with he Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor in July 2011. Fr Kennedy (right) was already on sick leave at that point, and described his situation as a “personal crisis”.

Specific allegations were not outlined but at the time Fr Kennedy issued a statement insisting he was not a child molester.

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NEDERLAND
RKKerk

15-11-2012

Middels een brief reageren de Nederlandse bisschoppen op de eind september verschenen rapportage over de uitvoering van de aanbevelingen van de (voormalige) Commissie van Onderzoek naar Seksueel Misbruik van Minderjarigen in de RK Kerk in Nederland (Commissie Deetman). De brief is gericht aan de vaste commissie voor Veiligheid en Justitie van de Tweede Kamer die hierom had gevraagd.

De bisschoppen staan in hun brief stil bij een aantal in de rapportage (monitoring) genoemde verbeterpunten. Deze monitoring is voor de bisschoppen, zo stellen zij, aanleiding om hun betrokkenheid op het Meldpunt Seksueel Misbruik RKK actiever vorm te geven. Hierover zijn inmiddels afspraken gemaakt.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – Religion and Ethics

By Simon Longstaff ABC Religion and Ethics 19 Nov 2012

In 1077, a penitent Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, crossed the Alps by foot and knelt for three days in snow before the castle of Pope Gregory VII. Only then did the Pope emerge to forgive the excommunicated Emperor and readmit him into the body of the Church.

In this increasingly secular age, it is almost inconceivable that a head of state would bend the knee to a religious leader. So, what brought Henry IV to this point of obeisance – and what does this episode have to do with contemporary Australian life?

This was a time before Luther and the Protestant Reformation, a time before the Enlightenment and the ascent of secular thinking, a time when the Roman Catholic Church enjoyed effective hegemony over the spiritual life of Western Europe – and with this, considerable influence, if not outright power, over large swathes of secular life. The Church controlled its own territory, put armies in the field, dispensed justice and in most respects acted as a “monarchical state” indistinguishable from others. But it was not these aspects of the Pope’s rule that brought Henry to his knees.

Rather, it was Henry’s belief that Gregory had the spiritual power as Christ’s Vicar to “bind and to loose” on earth. Whatever the realpolitik of Henry’s situation as an excommunicated person (to whom obedience was no longer owed by the faithful), there was also a personal reason for seeking the Pope’s forgiveness – to save the Emperor’s immortal soul. This was part of the calculation of 1077, that the cost of “this worldly” humiliation counted for little in comparison with eternal damnation.

It is something of this medieval world view that is at play today in the debate about whether or not Catholic Priests should break the “seal of the confessional” and disclose the identity of those who confess to the crime of sexually abusing children (and other vulnerable people). For many people, probably the majority, this seems like an easy question to answer – in the affirmative.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Godless Gross

Dick Gross has written and broadcast about living and dying without a god for over a decade

The Catholic train wreck is unfolding before us. An organisation that claims moral leadership ought to be a paragon.

The evidence of abuse has been compounded by a sordid protection of the guilty and the resistance to scrutiny and change. Weird and neolithic attitudes about obedience, sex and forgiveness appear to have produced strange and cruel consequences. The damage to lives is incalculable. This we all know and have known for years. It has consumed this blog on and off for some time.

But what is the damage to the church and its moral authority?

In all of the noise and fury, we may be witnessing a historical moment for faith in Australia. Apart from the damage to individuals, what does this crisis mean for Catholicism and other faiths? Will it destroy the credibility of Catholicism as we know it or will it galvanise the change agents in the Catholic kingdom and lead to adjustment and renewal? Can the reputational damage be limited to Catholicism?

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett fears the national royal commission into child sex abuse could destroy lives and various institutions around the country.

In a surprisingly frank personal assessment of the commission announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, Mr Barnett said he held grave concerns about the legacy the massive inquiry might leave.

The federal government expects the terms of reference for the royal commission to be established by the end of the year.

Speaking on ABC Radio National on Monday, Mr Barnett said those terms of reference were crucial.

‘My concern would be that this seems to be a very wide brief and not restricted in any sense in time,’ Mr Barnett said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Premier Colin Barnett has urged the Federal Government to impose a time limit on its royal commission into institutional child sex abuse.

He says while the State Government will co-operate with the inquiry, it will not be jointly running the investigation.

The commission was ordered by the Prime Minister following fresh allegations of cover-ups by the Catholic Church and police.

The Federal Government is yet to announce the terms of reference for its inquiry, announced last week.

Mr Barnett has voiced concerns about a number of issues.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett has been called on to apologise to victims of child abuse after claiming the royal commission into child sex abuse could destroy institutions around the country.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week announced a far-reaching national inquiry would be held into abuse and allegations of abuse across many years and institutions.

On ABC radio on Monday, Mr Barnett said he held grave concerns about the legacy the massive inquiry may leave on the organisations investigated and the victims involved.

But the state opposition said the premier’s reservations made light of the abuse suffered by many people over many years.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 19, 2012

Benjamin Millar

The Catholic Church in Melbourne has responded to one of the most tumultuous weeks in its history by urging parishioners to maintain the faith.

Sunday’s services, the first since Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission on child sexual abuse in the church and other institutions, avoided direct references to the upheaval facing the church.

But gospel readings and sermons drew attention to the impending day of judgment, reminding churchgoers of the strength that can be found in faith during testing times.

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart addressed a congregation of about 200 people at St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

TONY EASTLEY: There’s renewed scrutiny of the legal status of the Catholic Church and how it avoids being sued by victims of abuse.

A court case in New South Wales five years ago found that the Church could not be held legally liable for abuse cases because the Church doesn’t exist as a legal entity and it’s also not liable for its priests nor their actions.

As Emily Bourke reports there are now moves now to change the laws, making the Church legally responsible and its assets subject to damages claims.

EMILY BOURKE: It’s a legal technicality that dates back to the 1930s and it’s given the Catholic Church unique legal status.

Unlike other Christian denominations that have been corporatised, the Catholic Church is not recognised as a legal entity and as such can shield its assets that are held in property trusts from any civil legal liability.

ANDREW MORRISON: This is a defence that is peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church in Australia and it’s used as a very efficient weapon for beating down plaintiffs.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott believes the federal government should fund the lion’s share of the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the creation of a royal commission last week, and has promised to unveil its terms of reference before the end of the year.

“This is going to be a national royal commission and I think that does make it first and foremost the responsibility of the national government,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Royal commission into child sexual abuse will be asked to suggest new rules and preventive action

Phillip Hudson
From:Herald Sun
November 20, 2012

THE royal commission into child sexual abuse will be asked to suggest new rules to prevent future attacks, procedures to follow when allegations are raised and how to deal with abuse that has occurred.

A discussion paper released by the Federal Government also says the commission can suggest new laws as well as policies to make government agencies better able to respond.

It will also be asked to identify roadblocks inside institutions and organisations that prevent proper notification and investigation of claims.

State governments will be asked to hand over information to ensure no individual, institution or organisation “can avoid scrutiny”.

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AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

A GREENS MP has renewed his bid to introduce NSW legislation that would allow victims of sexual abuse to sue the Catholic Church.

Under state laws that have been in place since 1936, the Catholic Church does not exist as an individual legal entity.

Now that a royal commission into the abuse scandal has been announced, David Shoebridge wants victims to be offered a legal remedy and have larger compensation payments made available to them.

“We have achieved the royal commission, so now it is essential that we press forward with this legislation. It needs to be part of the commission’s terms of reference,” Mr Shoebridge said on Monday.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

19 Nov 2012 – Source: AAP

The government wants victims of child sexual abuse to make suggestions for the terms of reference for a royal commission into the matter.

The federal government has allowed barely a week for Australians to help shape the terms of reference for a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The tight deadline reflects Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s wish for the inquiry, which is likely to take years and involve thousands of individuals, to be established by the end of this year so it can begin its work in early 2013.

Ms Gillard last week announced the planned a royal commission to investigate how child sex abuse allegations have been handled by religious, community and state institutions.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The Federal Government is calling for public feedback on the terms of reference for its royal commission into child abuse.

The inquiry was announced last week after the latest in a series of paedophilia allegations, most of which were directed at the Catholic Church.

The Government today released a consultation paper that will be used to help frame the inquiry.

Stakeholders are being encouraged to give their views on how the commission should be conducted, who should be in charge and how long it should take.

“We want all stakeholders, especially survivors of child sexual abuse, their families and their advocates, to help shape the development of the royal commission,” Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said in a statement.

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UNITED STATES
Deadline

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday, 19 November 2012

Alex Gibney won an Oscar for his 2007 documentary Taxi To The Dark Side about U.S. policy on torture and interrogation. He was also nominated for 2005’s Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. His latest film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God, taps into a subject that has, in various forms, increasingly made headlines this year. As allegations of the sexual abuse of minors by trusted figures have continued to surface – think: the Penn State scandal and the ongoing crisis over BBC kids’ show host Jimmy Savile – Gibney’s film is a damning investigation into pedophilia in the Catholic Church. Shining a light on what it calls “an international conspiracy of silence” that reaches all the way to the Vatican, the documentary “teaches us that we must recognize that the worst predators often consciously use their own personal charisma and the prestige of their institutions to commit and cover up their crimes,” Gibney says.

At the outset, the story is told from the point of view of four deaf men who attended a Milwaukee Catholic boys school in the 50s and 60s where Father Lawrence Murphy abused them as well as what is believed to be over 200 others over time. Interweaving the boys’ saga, which the now-adult men recount in sign language voiced over by actors Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke, Jamey Sheridan and John Slattery, the story travels to two of the world’s most Catholic countries: Ireland and Italy. There, stories of similar sex abuse cases are revealed as well as the actions of members and friends of the Holy See. Mea Maxima Culpa debuted in Toronto and won the documentary feature prize at the recent London Film Festival. It was released in NY and LA on Friday for its Oscar-qualifying run and will air on HBO on February 4. It was also, surprisingly given the subject matter, picked up for distribution in both Ireland (Element Pictures) and Italy (Feltrinelli), although it was refused by recent Italian festivals. I recently had the chance to catch up with Gibney and our coversation follows:

DEADLINE: How will the film be released in Italy?
ALEX GIBNEY: Feltrinelli is a classic publisher. They will release it theatrically first and then as a DVD in bookstores. They really wanted to take this on after they saw it and liked it. They’re courageous and tough and imaginative. They may also do a simultaneous stunt release by beaming it out across Italy with Q & A sessions.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
KGO

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Catholic bishop issued an apology today to parents and community members after a registered sex offender was issued a letter allowing him to attend an elementary school festival last month.

Bishop Patrick McGrath, head of the Diocese of San Jose, said that it was a “mistake” that allowed Mark Christopher Gurries to attend and volunteer at a Saint Frances Cabrini Parish festival on Oct. 6.

“Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired as an employee or allowed to volunteer in any activity that involves children, young people, or vulnerable adults,” McGrath wrote.

“I am deeply troubled and I apologize to you that this policy was not followed,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
Armidale Express

By Phillip Coorey
Nov. 19, 2012

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is prepared to hear testimony from anybody who has ever been abused and will pass information onto police along the way, rather than than wait ”years” until the Commission has concluded.

A discussion paper released late Monday by the secretariat of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse says the Commission ”should provide an opportunity for those affected by child sexual abuse to share their experiences if that is their wish”.

”The Commission will be able to refer matters to the relevant police authorities. This could be done during the course of the Royal Commission, but investigation and prosecution would ultimately be a matter for the relevant authorities to pursue.”

The paper has been sent to state and territory leaders as part of the consultation process to develop the terms of reference and is open to comment for a week.

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UNITED STATES
PR Web

Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests, Athletic Coaches, Teachers, Family Members & Neighbors on Dr. Carol Francis Radio Talk Show for Sexual Abuse Awareness Event

Author James Dunlap’s newest novel MILLSTONE depicts the grooming of children by authorities such as Catholic Priests and Athletic Coaches for chronic sexual abuse. Dunlap’s novel, based on true events, bravely cracks the barrier of cover-ups which enable sex-offenders to be sheltered. On the Dr. Carol Francis Radio Talk Show, Author Dunlap is joined by Joelle Casteix and Officer Tom Townsend. Casteix is the leading national spokesperson for victims of child sexual abuse and the Western Regional Director for SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Geoffrey Robinson
November 15, 2012

In two weeks’ time the Australian bishops will meet in their biannual meeting. It is obvious the Royal Commission into sexual abuse will be a major topic. I respectfully suggest some matters for their attention.

I suggest they invite as many leaders of religious institutes as possible to be present and join in the discussion.

Individual bishops have already promised ‘full cooperation’ with the Commission, but the gathered bishops and religious need to have a serious discussion concerning exactly what ‘full’ cooperation will mean. It is vital that all agree in detail on this point.

I suggest that they invite a couple of experts to speak to them on what the Commission will probably require. For example, they might seek out some persons who were involved in the Wood Royal Commission in 1996. They then need to ensure that they are all on exactly the same page.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News

By Julia Prodis Sulek and Mark Gomez
Staff Writersmercurynews.com

Posted: 11/18/2012

SAN JOSE — Bishop Patrick McGrath apologized during a family Mass on Sunday for “a failure at the diocese level” that gave permission to a convicted child molester to volunteer at the St. Frances Cabrini parish festival last month.

“I take full responsibility,” McGrath told the congregation from the podium moments before the service began at Cabrini, located on Camden Avenue in San Jose. “I pledge to you I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Although the bishop said he hoped his remarks and a letter he included in the parish bulletin would “answer some of your questions,” neither explained how or why a letter was written and signed by someone at the diocese vouching for pedophile Mark Gurries. The 51-year-old engineer, married to a former teacher at St. Francis Cabrini, was convicted just two years ago of “lewd and lascivious conduct” on a minor under 14 years old. He served nearly a year in county jail and remains on probation. The victim was a relative.

“As a matter of record, it was a mistake that allowed Mr. Gurries to be a parish volunteer and to be present at the festival,” the bishop wrote in the letter included in the bulletin. “Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired or allowed to be a volunteer that involves children, young people or vulnerable adults. ”

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AUSTRALIA
Fraser Coast Chronicle

[M’boro priest would break silence to out child sex abusers]

Father Paul Kelly |
19th Nov 2012

I WRITE to clarify my position in relation to the Catholic sacrament of penance, (reconciliation), or “confession” as it is often called.

1. I am not at odds with my church, nor am I intending to go against my church or go outside of my church.

The issue of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults is one that is abhorrent to us all. It is an horrendous crime and the article rightly indicated that I and the church I belong to want no part in anything that even unwittingly hides or fosters the continuation of these devastating crimes that have far reaching and unspeakable effects on the lives of its victims.

In the interview, in which I felt I was not getting my thoughts on this at all clear because it is so complex and with many issues, I tried to indicate that confession is for the purpose of allowing those who have done wrong to admit and face the full reality of their wrongdoing in front of God.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 16, 2012

Bernard Toutounji

So once again we see the inner workings of the Catholic Church being dissected by an audience that has little understanding of, or care for, matters of faith. Interestingly while commentators are usually quick to point out perceived trespassing by the church into the domain of the state, there doesn’t seem to be quite the same concern about calls for the state to come wandering into the inner sanctum of the church. With a royal commission having being called into the sin of child sexual abuse, the latest target is, somewhat ironically, the very sacrament that exists to forgive sin – confession.

The criticism stems around the thousand-year-old church law which binds priests to never disclose anything they learn from penitents during the course of the sacrament. This confidentiality between priest and penitent is the oldest kind of confidential communication that exists. It has been upheld by priests down the ages and around the world regardless of where they may sit on the theological spectrum. It doesn’t take much logic to consider why the seal of confession is essential to the integrity of the sacrament. Without anonymity people would simply not pursue sacramental forgiveness. While some might respond “who cares”, the truth is that confession has a greater potential for effect on the citizens of a nation than a hundred royal commissions.

The sacrament of confession is easily mocked, especially by those who went once as a child but never came to understand its value in the faith of an adult pursuing a life of virtue. The sacrament involves the full disclosure of serious sin to a priest who, ordained to act in the person of Jesus Christ, becomes, in one sense, the channel of God’s forgiveness. Now of course Father X has no more power to personally forgive sin than I have the power to fly, which is why when he says “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” the “I” is referring to the direct forgiveness of Christ through the instrumentality of that particular priest.

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AUSTRALIA
Otago Daily Times

Mon, 19 Nov 2012
Editorial

The announcement by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week that its Government will set up a Royal Commission of inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse is a major step towards shining a light on the dark deeds, secrets, lies and cover-ups of the past – and hopefully providing victims with an opportunity for recognition and justice in the future.

Although its terms of reference are yet to be outlined, it appears the investigation will be the most comprehensive inquiry into child sexual abuse in Australia’s history, focusing not just on abuse in religious organisations, but also state-care providers and not-for-profit bodies. It will also examine the responses of child-service agencies and police.

There had been calls for a national and wide-ranging inquiry after allegations by a senior New South Wales police investigator that the Catholic Church covered up evidence involving paedophile priests, thwarting attempts to investigate hundreds of allegations of abuse in the Hunter region since the mid-1990s. Ms Gillard said “the allegations that have come to light recently about child sexual abuse have been heartbreaking”.

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MISSISSIPPI
WREG

[with video]

November 16, 2012, by Michele Reese

(New Albany, MS) It was the third day of school at Victory Christian Academy in New Albany when a father, who we’re not identifying in order to protect his daughter, says she got a Facebook message from her teacher 25-year-old Benjamin Bishop.

“He asked her to get on an app called Voxer and it is a highly encrypted cell phone app,” he said. “It’s very hard to trace. As a matter of fact police could not even pull those messages off of her phone they had to have the phone itself.”

He says more than a dozen messages were exchanged between his daughter and Bishop. He found them on his daughter’s phone after she confided in a family member.

The messages are so sexually explicit, he says, he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing them.

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AUSTRALIA
Central Western Daily

By LOUISE EDDY
Nov. 19, 2012

PRIESTS would likely go to jail rather than break the confessional seal, says Bathurst Catholic Bishop Michael McKenna.

A royal commission into child sexual abuse, announced last week, will have the power to compel priests to answer questions about what they have been told in the confessional.

But Bishop McKenna said priests had gone to jail in the past for refusing to betray the confessional seal, though he hoped it did not come to this in Australia.

“If a priest cannot give this assurance to people who approach him for the sacrament, he cannot hear confessions,” he said.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

A west Belfast priest, who stepped down after the church received claims about his alleged conduct, will not be prosecuted following a police investigation.

Father Hugh Kennedy was administrator of St Peter’s Cathedral when he stepped aside in September 2011.

At the time, the church said that information had been passed by church officials to social services and police.

Fr Kennedy, who was already on sick leave at that point, had said he took the decision after talks with Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican

By Elizabeth Roman, The Republican
on November 18, 2012

EAST LONGMEADOW – James Scahill, 65, has been charged with operating under the influence after a minor accident on the corner of Harnkness Avenue and North Main Street Friday, police said.

In 2010 Scahill, pastor at St. Michael’s Parish, attracted international attention for suggesting that Pope Benedict XVI should resign if he did not take stronger action to confront the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Sgt. Patrick Manley said Scahill was involved in a three-car accident on Friday at 5:20 p.m. There were no injuries.

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NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger

By Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger
on November 15, 2012

MORRIS TOWNSHIP — The Delbarton School in Morris Township is suing an attorney it says violated a confidentiality agreement by publicly disclosing terms of a 1988 settlement of a lawsuit filed by a teenager who was a victim of sexual misconduct by a monk at the school.

The suit, filed in Superior Court in Morristown by the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, says attorney Gregory Gianforcaro of Phillipsburg “breached the agreement” made with a previous attorney when, among other things, he “trumpeted a seven-figure settlement” during a news conference June 29 outside the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown.

The suit filed by Delbarton accuses Gianforcaro of trying to “advance (his) own financial interests by attempting to improperly inflate the value of cases (he) has pending” against Delbarton and by trying to attract additional clients.

Gianforcaro also represents six other men who joined a lawsuit earlier this year alleging decades-old sexual abuse and/or sexual misconduct by Delbarton monks.

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AUSTRALIA
Monash Weekly

By DANIEL TRAN
Nov. 19, 2012

THE Gillard government’s decision to launch a royal commission into child sex abuse in Australia has left survivors and their families elated.

Oakleigh’s Chrissie and Anthony Foster, whose daughters Katie and Emma were abused by a Catholic priest, last week welcomed the news.

The couple, who are ambassadors for Adults Surviving Child Abuse, have long campaigned for a royal commission into abuse.

Mrs Foster said the establishment of the commission was wonderful news. “All of us have been heard and believed,” she said. “This is justice … It’s wonderful.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 19, 2012

Barney Zwartz

LAWYERS for Susan Sharkey, who runs the counselling, co-ordination and support office for the Catholic Church in Melbourne, have sent threatening letters to two witnesses to the state inquiry into how the churches handled child sex abuse.

The letters warn victims’ advocates Helen Last and Judy Courtin that if there is ”any publication” by them to a journalist or anyone that defames Ms Sharkey ”our client will not hesitate to take legal action against you without further notice”.

The letters were sent on November 2, but Ms Last – a consultant for the Melbourne Victims Collective – only received it on Thursday due to various circumstances.

Ms Last, who gave evidence to the inquiry last Monday, said the letter from Wisewould Mahony partner Robert McGirr misrepresented her and intimidated her.

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AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Now

HEINOUS crimes such as paedophilia have devastating consequences that last a lifetime, writes Alexander Downer.
———–

One thing we can all universally abhor is paedophilia. For most people such disgusting behaviour is unimaginable.

But like murder and other forms of brutality, it always seems to be with us. Somewhere, there’s a paedophile out there.

The consequences for the victims and hence society can be horrific.

According to a study by America’s National Institute of Justice, abused and neglected children are 11 times more likely to be arrested for criminal behaviour as a juvenile, and 2.7 times more likely to be arrested for violent and criminal behaviour as an adult.

Studies have found abused and neglected children to be at least 25 per cent more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, drug use and mental-health issues.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

November 19, 2012

Michelle Grattan
Political editor of The Age

ALMOST every Australian voter backs the royal commission on child sex abuse in an Age-Nielsen poll that shows little change in support for the parties or leaders.

An extraordinary 95 per cent support the inquiry, which has bipartisan backing although it does not as yet have terms of reference. It is highly unusual for a political decision to have such a level of support.

The Coalition would win an election held now on a two-party vote of 53 per cent (up a point since last month) to 47 per cent (down one point). In Victoria, the split is 50-50.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP
November 19, 2012

THE decision by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to establish a royal commission into child sexual abuse has the backing of almost every Australian, according to a Fairfax/Nielsen poll.

The poll shows 95 per cent of voters support the royal commission, while only three per cent are against it.

Nielsen poll director John Stirton told Fairfax he could not recall a poll issue ever receiving such universal support.

The royal commission, which will inquire into all institutions, not only churches, has the support of all political parties, state and federal.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Gorey Guardian

Sunday November 18 2012

No criminal charges are to be brought against a west Belfast priest who stepped down after the church received claims about his conduct.

Father Hugh Kennedy was asked to temporarily stop working in St Peter’s Cathedral last year while church authorities passed the information to the police and social services. He was already on sick leave at that point.

Specific allegations were not outlined, but at the time Fr Kennedy issued a statement insisting he was not a child molester.

Police have confirmed that their investigation is now complete. No file will be passed to the Public Prosecution Service.

The priest will remain on leave from duties while a separate internal investigation by the Catholic church is conducted.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A police investigation into a well-known Catholic priest in Belfast has ended and he will not be prosecuted.

Father Hugh Kennedy stepped down as administrator of St Peter’s Cathedral in west Belfast more than a year ago.

When Fr Kennedy stepped down from his post, the church said it had received information about him which it passed on to the police and social services.

A spokesman said Fr Kennedy, who had been on sick leave, had agreed to step aside pending inquiries.

The details of the information in question was not disclosed, but the Church said it was not connected to the boys’ choir at St. Peter’s.

In a statement at the time, Fr Kennedy said that he had never violated or molested a child.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Greg Craven
From:The Australian
November 19, 2012

THERE are some ideas so bad they need to be killed quickly. Not just to protect those affected by them, but those pushing them.

Breaking the seal of the Catholic confessional is such an albatross. Pursue it, and Australia will carry a human rights cross through a constitutional minefield. The appeal is obvious. Why should a criminal priest unburden himself to his brethren without fear of disclosure?

The obvious fact that criminal clergy do not go to confession, and would not receive absolution unless they agreed to turn themselves in, is ignored. And if the seal is withdrawn, so will be the disclosures. But beyond this are immense constitutional and human rights problems.

First Section 116 of the Constitution bans the commonwealth from prohibiting the “free exercise of religion”. Few outside the Catholic Church understand confession. The sacrament is central to being a Catholic. Catholics must confess, and priests must hear their confession in absolute secrecy. The priest acts as the ear of God. In other words, a priest cannot be a priest and a Catholic cannot be a Catholic without the sealed confessional.

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LOUISIANA
Houma Today

By Katie Urbaszewski
Staff Writer

Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux officials have said they had not heard reports of any predatory behavior by a former priest before a man came forward, accusing the priest of molesting him as an altar boy.

However, people who claim to have had sexual relationships with the Rev. Etienne LeBlanc said they felt preyed on by an authority figure who took advantage of them, even if they were not victims in the eyes of criminal law.

A civil suit against LeBlanc and the diocese, filed by Morgan City native Jared Ribardi, was settled last month, and LeBlanc, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has never been arrested under any criminal charges.

The alleged encounters happened at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Morgan City, which is part of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. LeBlanc has also worked at Annunziata Catholic Church in Houma and is now retired.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
NBC Bay Area

A Catholic bishop issued an apology today to parents and community members after a registered sex offender was issued a letter allowing him to attend an elementary school festival last month.

Bishop Patrick McGrath, head of the Diocese of San Jose, said that it was a “mistake” that allowed Mark Christopher Gurries to attend and volunteer at a Saint Frances Cabrini Parish festival on Oct. 6.

“Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired as an employee or allowed to volunteer in any activity that involves children, young people, or vulnerable adults,” McGrath wrote.

“I am deeply troubled and I apologize to you that this policy was not followed,” he said. By state law, Gurries, as a registered sex offender, is only allowed on a school property around children if he can produce written permission from a school administrator, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Bay City News Service

Published 9:11 p.m., Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Catholic bishop issued an apology today to parents and community members after a registered sex offender was issued a letter allowing him to attend an elementary school festival last month.

Bishop Patrick McGrath, head of the Diocese of San Jose, said that it was a “mistake” that allowed Mark Christopher Gurries to attend and volunteer at a Saint Frances Cabrini Parish festival on Oct. 6.

“Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired as an employee or allowed to volunteer in any activity that involves children, young people, or vulnerable adults,” McGrath wrote.

“I am deeply troubled and I apologize to you that this policy was not followed,” he said.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Sunday, November 18, 2012

BY MARY JO LAYTON
STAFF WRITER
The Record

As Richard Schultz tells it, his childhood ended in a trailer at a Boy Scout camp when his troop leader stripped him, tied him up and took Polaroids of the 13-year-old boy “modeling” Stations of the Cross.

“Rape victims talk of having this disconnected feeling from the body and going numb, which is how I was,” Schultz said.

Seven weeks later, his younger brother Christopher was sexually assaulted by the same troop leader. It happened, Schultz said, on his brother’s 12th birthday.

The abuse is described in graphic detail in File No. 1524 in recently released documents from the Boy Scouts of America, which identify thousands of scoutmasters and other volunteers the organization suspected of molesting children.

The faded police statements, letters warning of a predator and other documents in the file tell the story of the Schultz family: The molestation did more than damage two boys, it triggered a series of events that ripped the family apart. A child was lost, a marriage imploded. Thirty-five years later, Richard Schultz continues to be haunted by what happened in that trailer.

Schultz is now a 48-year-old police sergeant in Fair Lawn, always in uniform, always on patrol, a voice for victims in the most recent sex-abuse scandal sweeping the nation. He speaks about the abuse in candid detail — how Robert E. Coakley, a Franciscan friar who also taught at the Catholic school the boys attended in Emerson — lured him into that trailer at the Scout camp in New York State.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe

By Martine Powers
Globe Staff
November 18, 2012

While watching the morning news recently, Jerry Sypek learned that the Boy Scouts of America had released its so-called perversion lists.

Then he heard one of the names on the list: Paul A. Hightower, accused in the documents of assaulting one scout and masturbating in front of others at troop meetings.

“I almost choked on my coffee,” said Sypek, 50. When Sypek was an orphan in a Jamaica Plain children’s home between 1968 and 1971, he was abused by a former seminary student by the same name. Decades later, he settled a claim with the Catholic Church. “I was horrified. I thought to myself, ‘This is not the same guy.’ ”

But it was. Hightower died in 1994.

“It brought back some really hard memories for me,” Sypek said. “When you have a name that’s so familiar to you come up in the news, it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ You think you’re going to be OK, but you’re not.” …

For David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the release of the Boy Scouts files was heartening — it is important for abuses to be uncovered and documented, he said — but he was also saddened.

“I wanted to believe desperately that the disclosures wouldn’t be as damning as, in fact, they are,” said Clohessy, who was abused by a Catholic priest for four to five years, ending when he was 16 years old.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Rene Romo / Journal South Reporteron Sun, Nov 18, 2012

LAS CRUCES – Federal court records show that the cash-strapped Diocese of Las Cruces lent its former contract attorney $385,000, but the money will not be easily recovered, because the attorney died in August, and his widow filed for bankruptcy protection a short while later.

A diocese attorney, however, disputes that the religious organization lent money to its former general counsel, the late Daniel Dolan.

Instead, what the bankruptcy case filed by Dolan’s widow, Linda, “lists as a loan to Mr. Dolan appears to be a loan to an entirely separate entity that the Diocese viewed as a land investment,” diocese attorney David McNeill Jr., said in an emailed response to Journal questions.

However, in a different part of the email, McNeill wrote that the money was advanced to Dolan. He said, “That matter is still under investigation.”

McNeill added that Bishop Ricardo Ramirez “had no knowledge of that transaction until recently and did not approve it.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Jimmy Savile abused schoolgirls in the vestry of a Catholic cathedral, new ­testimony claims.

In an appalling new low, the ­disgraced star is said to have lain in wait at a weekly Mass attended by girls aged between five and nine.

An ex-pupil of the school involved, who wishes to remain anonymous, says Savile – given a papal knighthood by the Pope in 1990 – was banned from the cathedral in his home city of Leeds over claims he molested girls there.

The woman says pupils at her nearby primary school, now closed, were told by teachers not to sit near Savile, who always arrived before them when they visited ­Leeds ­Cathedral in the 1960s. She says there were ­rumours at the time that the DJ, whose flat was nearby, abused a young girl in the vestry only yards from unsuspecting priests.

“I remember it so very clearly,” she says. “As we trooped in he would be waiting. He would turn and grin. We were told to sit away from him, because of talk he had taken a girl into the vestry. Despite that, teachers and priests let him stay.

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VATICAN CITY
NEWS.com.au

WHEN Pope Benedict XVI announced last month he was transferring his respected sex crimes prosecutor to Malta to become a bishop, Vatican watchers questioned whether the Holy See’s tough line on clerical abuse was going soft – and if another outspoken cleric was being punished for doing his job too well.

After all, several senior Vatican officials who ran afoul of the Vatican’s entrenched ways have recently been transferred in face-saving “promote and remove” moves as the Vatican deals with the fallout from a high-profile criminal trial over leaked papal documents, a mixed report card on its financial transparency and its controversial crackdown on American nuns.

But in an interview on the eve of his departure, Bishop-elect Charles Scicluna insisted he wasn’t the latest casualty in the Vatican’s turf battles and Machiavellian personnel intrigues.

Rather, he said, his promotion to auxiliary bishop in his native Malta was simply that – “a very good” promotion – and more critically, that his hardline stance against sex abuse would remain because it’s Benedict’s stance as well.

“This is policy,” he said. “It’s not Scicluna. It’s the Pope. And this will remain.”

Besides, he said laughing over tea at a cafe on Rome’s posh Piazza Farnese, “If you want to silence someone, you don’t make him a bishop.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

When Pope Benedict XVI announced last month he was transferring his respected sex crimes prosecutor to Malta to become a bishop, Vatican watchers immediately questioned whether the Holy See’s tough line on clerical abuse was going soft — and if another outspoken cleric was being punished for doing his job too well.

After all, several senior Vatican officials who ran afoul of the Vatican’s entrenched ways have recently been transferred in face-saving “promote and remove” moves as the Vatican deals with the fallout from a high-profile criminal trial over leaked papal documents, a mixed report card on its financial transparency and its controversial crackdown on American nuns.

But in an interview with the Associated Press on the eve of his departure, Bishop-elect Charles Scicluna insisted he wasn’t the latest casualty in the Vatican’s turf battles and Machiavellian personnel intrigues. Rather, he said, his promotion to auxiliary bishop in his native Malta was simply that — “a very good” promotion — and more critically, that his hardline stance against sex abuse would remain because it’s Benedict’s stance as well.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
KTVU

KTVU And Wires

SAN JOSE, Calif. —

A Catholic bishop issued an apology Saturday to parents and community members after a registered sex offender was issued a letter allowing him to attend an elementary school festival last month.

Bishop Patrick McGrath, head of the Diocese of San Jose, said that it was a “mistake” that allowed Mark Christopher Gurries to attend and volunteer at a Saint Frances Cabrini Parish festival on Oct. 6.

“Our policy is clear: no one who has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult can be hired as an employee or allowed to volunteer in any activity that involves children, young people, or vulnerable adults,” McGrath wrote.

“I am deeply troubled and I apologize to you that this policy was not followed,” he said.

By state law, Gurries, as a registered sex offender, is only allowed on a school property around children if he can produce written permission from a school administrator, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Registered sex offenders who walk onto a school property without authorization when children are present are subject to arrest for a misdemeanor.

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AUSTRALIA
The Examiner

By CALLA WAHLQUIST
Nov. 18, 2012

THE church organisation that ran Burnie’s Marist Regional College when students were sexually abused is preparing to be called before the royal commission, the head of the Marist Fathers has said.

“I’m expecting the royal commission to be held all over Australia, and that when the Tasmanian part of it is held there will be a requirement for the Marist Fathers to participate,” Marist provincial Paul Cooney said.

“Certainly, we will participate in any way that we are asked to.”

Two Marist priests who taught at the school around the 1970s were charged in 2004 with sexually abusing students in their rooms at the school. Both men were convicted and have served time in jail.

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MALTA/CANADA
Malta Independent

Sunday, 18 November 2012

One of the two paedophile priests whose prison sentences were confirmed by the Appeals Court last Tuesday is still wanted in Essex County, Ontario to face sexual abuse charges.

Defrocked priest Godwin Scerri fled back to Malta from Ontario 20 years ago. Windsorstar.com, the website of Ontario daily newspaper Windsor Star, reported this week that, in 1993, a 22-year-old man had told Ontario Provincial Police that Scerri had abused him between 1983 – when he was 12 years old – and 1987 in the town of Emeryville and on Pelee Island, both in Essex County, Ontario.

Scerri had worked as a priest in Ontario from 1981 to 1991. He served as an associate pastor of St William’s Church, Emeryville, from 1981 to 1987 and then as pastor from 1987 to 1991.

He was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police in June 1993 on charges of sexual assault and gross indecency but fled to Malta before the case went to trial.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Alan Howe
From:Herald Sun
November 19, 2012

THE London newspaper shouted “It was The Sun wot won it” the morning after the slim, unlikely and widely untipped Conservative victory in Britain’s 1992 elections.

The Sun had robustly campaigned for the Tories and was boldly taking the credit for their unexpected win.

I thought of that amusing headline last week when Catholic Cardinal George Pell curiously blamed the media for the pressure that last week led Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

But it’s not “the Herald Sun wot won it”. Persistently unavoidable reports in this newspaper and others, and on radio and television, merely reinforced the fact that such an inquiry was needed, and inevitable.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

Another extremely important essay by Harvard-trained former Wall Street lawyer Jerry Slevin. Jerry argues that “it is the right time for President Obama to act” to protect children from childhood sexual abuse, as the Catholic hierarchy clearly remains intent on stonewalling, diverting, and covering up. What follows is Jerry’s essay:

This year, 2012, has been crucial in the horrible history of organized child sex abuse in the USA, especially in the Catholic Church. After over more than a quarter century of mainly Vatican diversions, distractions and/or deceptions, experts at a public Vatican abuse symposium in February estimated here that so far there have been over 100,000 young victims of priest child sex abuse in the USA alone, with no end in sight.

These abuse survivors and their families usually bear the painful psychological and other adverse effects of these sexual assaults for the remainder of their lives, often at great costs to society at large. Outrageously, most priest sexual predators and almost all predator-protecting bishops in the USA have so far escaped any accountability for their crimes, mainly as a result of the Catholic hierarchy’s political and media clout, as well as the lack of fortitude of most US political leaders and media executives and reporters.

This pressing and worsening problem is a national one and cannot be resolved adequately at the local state, county or city level only, since the bishops’ political clout has generally been very effective at controlling local lawmakers and prosecutors, as has been demonstrated repeatedly, most recently in Philadelphia, as noted here. While private lawyers for abuse survivors have caused some US bishops and their dioceses significant financial pain, the bishops often appear to settle the lawsuits before all of the stark details of the bishops’ cover-up misconduct reach the public record.

Private civil lawyers’ main objective in abuse cases generally is to get maximum payments for their abused clients, and not full disclosure for citizens of bishops’ misconduct.

With only rare exceptions, most US media organizations lack the staff, budgets and “appetite” for covering priest child sexual abuse cases consistently and in the detail often required. Unfortunately, there does not yet exist any national organization of lay Catholics that comes even remotely close to presenting a credible challenge to the US bishops’ political, financial and media clout.

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NEW MEXICO
Westport News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque man has settled a suit he filed against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a Catholic ministry group that helps troubled priests over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of a priest beginning in the mid-1960s.

The attorney representing Clifford Esquibel tells the Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/QP7TXD ) the diocese and the Servants of the Paraclete settled the case for an undisclosed amount.

Esquibel alleges the Rev. John George Weisenborn sexually molested him when Esquibel was a seventh-grade altar boy at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Albuquerque.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Secretariat of State’s computer technician, Paolo Sciarpelletti, is appealing against the Vatican tribunal’s sentence

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

He risks dismissal, has two children and will not accept being called a poison pen letter writer. Paolo Sciarpelletti, the Secretariat of State’s computer technician who was tried for his involvement in the Vatican document leak scandal, has presented an appeal against the sentence handed down from the Vatican tribunal. Sciarpelletti was sentenced to four months in prison but the court that granted extenuation reduced this period to two. The sentence was suspended for five years.

Sciarpelletti’s lawyer had stated that the defence would be appeal against the sentence because a suspension put his client at risk of being dismissed from his position. Sources close the Sciarpelletti say he had rejected jobs offering him 10 thousand Euros a month just to serve the Holy Father. Now, it’s back to the courtroom for a new chapter in the Vatileaks legal battle. Claudio Sciarpelletti set up the Vatican’s cloud system so the delicate nature of the documents handled makes the computer technician’s trial a very “sensitive” event.

Unlike the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, Sciarpelletti has decided to fight. He presented his appeal Tuesday, at the end of the three day deadline established by the Vatican Code of Penal Procedure. The reasons for the court’s decision will be published in the next few weeks. The Vatican Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi sentenced Sciarpelletti on charged of “obstructing the search for the truth” regarding the theft and publication of confidential letters belonging to the Pope, obstructing the course of justice.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

November 18, 2012

Peter FitzSimons

Amid all Cardinal George Pell’s bluster about the forthcoming royal commission, it is clear he does not have the first clue as to what is happening here.

Allow me, Cardinal, to spell it out. While you are free to worship whatever god you choose, it is now clear that generations of Australian children have been interfered with by your sex-maddened priests and, just as is happening all over the world, your church is now going to be called to account for both these actions and its appalling cover-ups.

As to those who, outrageously, support Cardinal Pell in his statement that ”the seal of the Confessional is inviolable” – as in all Australians should obey the laws requiring the reporting of sexual abuse, except the very group identified as being most responsible for that abuse – give yourselves an uppercut.

To be intellectually consistent on this, you would have to also support the imposition of the even more appalling sharia for those who worship Allah.

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IRELAND
WA Today (Australia)

November 18, 2012

What angers people most is the cover-up, writes Karen Kissane from Dublin.

MARIE Collins was 13 and in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children when she was abused. It was the hospital chaplain, a Catholic priest. He went to jail for it, many years later, like so many of his colleagues in Ireland, but only after decades of misery for Ms Collins.

”I never connected his abuse with the church,” she says. ”I thought it was somehow my fault and that I was a bad person who had brought it on myself. I had years of depression and agoraphobia that included nine admissions to psychiatric wards.”

As a young adult, anxious that other children not be hurt as she had, she told a priest in her parish. ”He told me it was probably my fault, that I must have led the poor man on, but that I was forgiven and I could go away and forget about it.”

Ms Collins did go away, into more years of silence and depression. The misery did not lift until after her attacker, Father Paul McGennis, was jailed in 1997 over offences involving her and another child he abused 18 years after Collins. He was later convicted of having raped a third girl, 24 years after he attacked Ms Collins.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler

It’s open season on Catholicism. In Ireland and in Australia, public opinion is being whipped into frenzy in crusades against Church teachings. In both cases the arguments are thoroughly irrational.

•In Ireland, Savita Halappanavar died a horrible, painful, needless death. But rather than mourning her death, and demanding a full accounting of where the doctors went wrong, pundits are blaming the tragedy on teachings of the Catholic Church. We really don’t know, at this point, what caused her death. But one thing is quite clear already: it was not due to Catholic teaching, nor to Catholic influence on Ireland’s laws.

•In Australia, there are angry demands for Catholic priests to break the confessional seal. This campaign is fueled by the notion that the seal has protected perpetrators of sexual abuse. There is zero evidence—zero—to support that notion. And there is ample evidence that the campaign against the Catholic Church is tinged by political motives.

Let’s examine each case rationally.

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UNITED STATES
Hitfix

Interview: Alex Gibney on exposing the Catholic Church and giving voice to the deaf in ‘Mea Maxima Culpa’

By Guy Lodge Friday, Nov 16, 2012

From misplaced questions to accidental transcription errors, interview fumbles are obviously to be avoided under any circumstances, but you particularly want to be on your game when the subject is one of America’s preeminent documentarians – someone whose own profession is built on a level of journalistic expertise. So you can imagine my mortification when my iPhone recently took it upon itself to wipe its own memory clean – deleting, among other things, all aural evidence of my face-to-face conversation with Alex Gibney at last month’s London Film Festival.

The prolific filmmaker, an Oscar-winner in 2007 for his devastating legalized-torture study “Taxi to the Dark Side,” was in town for the European premiere of his superb new film “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which would win him the festival’s Best Documentary award the very next day. The film, which hits US theaters today, is not the first to examine the horrific history of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, but it is arguably the most penetrating, methodically tracing a dense network of crime and cover-up all the way from Milwaukee to the Vatican itself. It could well earn Gibney a deserved third Oscar nod.

Speaking over the phone from his New York office earlier this week, Gibney casually waves off my apologies for having to restage the interview. “Trust me, I’ve been there,” he says with a light laugh, his crisp, deliberate voice sounding rather less exhausted than it did in the bar of London’s Mayfair Hotel a month ago. It’s hard to imagine interviews – or any information, for that matter – slipping through the director’s fingers, so keen and diligent is his filmmaking style across a broad range of subjects, from the fall of Enron to the fizz of Hunter S. Thompson. “Mea Maxima Culpa” is among his most perspicacious works: weaving a profoundly moving story of human heroism through a tough-minded analysis of a global scandal, he carves out new angles in a story he admits initially fearing had already been adequately exposed.

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MINNESOTA
Inforum

By: Erik Burgess , INFORUM

BARNESVILLE, Minn. – The teenager who was not confirmed at the Catholic church here after he publicly supported same-sex marriage was not the only student who was denied the religious sacrament for backing gay marriage, the church’s priest said in a letter made public Friday.

In the letter, addressed to the parish of Assumption Church at 307 Front St. N., the Rev. Gary LaMoine says “a couple of candidates chose not to enter into full communion with the Catholic community because of their disagreement with the teaching of the Church concerning marriage.”

LaMoine also apologizes in the letter for the actions of 17-year-old Lennon Cihak’s family, who went public Wednesday with their claims that LaMoine denied their son confirmation after he posted a pro same-sex marriage photo on Facebook last month.

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NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer on Sat, Nov 17, 2012

An Albuquerque man who filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest has reached a “mutually agreeable” settlement with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Servants of the Paraclete, his attorney said Friday.

Clifford Esquibel filed the lawsuit in October 2011, alleging the Rev. John George Weisenborn sexually molested him beginning in 1966 or 1967 when Esquibel was a seventh-grade altar boy at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Albuquerque.

The abuse continued until Esquibel was a 15-year-old student at Albuquerque High School, the lawsuit said.

Court records show that Weisenborn, who is now deceased, had lived since 1964 at Via Coeli, a treatment facility for priests in Jemez Springs operated by the Servants of the Paraclete.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

ABC breakfast radio presenter Eoin Cameron has urged all victims of child abuse to tell their stories to the royal commission.

Mr Cameron was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by a Marist Brother while he was student at a Catholic school in South Australia in the 1960s.

He says not a day goes by where he is not haunted by the memories of the abuse but he is prepared to give evidence to help ensure the full extent of institutional child abuse is exposed.

He has told the ABC’s 7:30WA he understands why many victims may feel reluctant to speak out.

“Now the Royal Commission has been called, it’s the opportunity for people not perhaps to go through something as stressful as I did,” he said.

“It’s a chance for them to tell their story, but already I’m hearing from people, I couldn’t, I want to but it would kill my Mum and Dad.”

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AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury

By PETER NEWELL
Nov. 17, 2012

When the sun’s first rays creep over the horizon this morning and gently kiss, warm and illuminate the Illawarra coastline, they may be on a special mission.

First, they will touch the Pacific Ocean, and then its foaming surf and the beaches on to which it cascades.

Seconds later they will make landfall, bringing the birth of another day to all, and to two places in particular – the Bulli and Lakeside Kanahooka cemeteries. There lie at rest two special souls and, after political events this week, their headstones deserve to be bathed in sunshine.

Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if both these grave sites seem to have a particular sparkle about them today – a sort of celestial salute to good men, if you like.

Bulli is the resting place of the earthly remains of Peter Hugh Cullen, former Illawarra Mercury editor and, I’m proud to say, my mate. At Kanahooka rests Father Maurie Crocker, a man of great courage who saw evil flourishing and felt it his duty to do something about it while others turned a blind eye.

Although no longer here, years ago each played his own particular role in this week’s announcement by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard of a wide-ranging royal commission into paedophilia across the country. It has been a long time coming, but I am sure each of them would cheer its arrival with gusto.

Peter and Maurie tackled this evil abuse of children in the Illawarra, and its cover-up, when it was not fashionable in some circles to expose such matters – back in 1993. I was the Mercury’s general manager at the time, having been its editor previously with Peter as my deputy, so our relationship was close.

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UTAH
Standard-Examiner

By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner staff

FARMINGTON — A Centerville man facing child sex abuse charges has a felony arraignment hearing set for Dec. 4.

Timothy William Bothell, 43, appeared in 2nd District Court on Friday. He is charged with two first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and four counts of Class A misdemeanor charges of lewdness involving a child.

Bothell served on a local Stake High Council for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was also employed by the LDS Church at the time of his arrest in August, police said.

According to court documents the abuse happened between Dec. 1, 2011, and Aug. 9, 2012.

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NEW YORK
Playbill

By Andrew Gans
16 Nov 2012

Theatre for the New City will present a reading of Frank J. Avella’s Vatican Falls, a play “set against the backdrop of the Catholic sex abuse scandal,” Dec. 3 at 7 PM.

Directed by Laura Caparrotti, the reading will feature the talents of Francesco Andolfi, Carlotta Brentan, Drew Bruck, Matthew Crooks, Joshua Dixon, Cali Gilman, Kalen J. Hall, Salvatore Infantino, Maggie LaMonica, Devon Talbott and Rob Ventre. Alexander Haynes will read the stage directions.

Based on factual material, Vatican Falls, according to press notes, “follows the life of one survivor who struggles with understanding how those closest to him could damage him the deepest. The multi-genre, non-linear play probes the conflicting feelings involved in most sexual abuse situations and dares to confront the truth about the ever-growing scandal and the Church’s complicity in it.”

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Mark Gomez
mgomez@mercurynews.commercurynews.com

SAN JOSE — Melanie Borrelli was home for the weekend, enjoying the annual festival at her old school, when she saw something that alarmed her. It was a familiar face connected with a horrible rumor.

The 19-year-old college sophomore recognized the man working a sound booth as Mark Gurries, who — she had heard — had been convicted of molesting a girl she knew. Borrelli took out her smartphone, Googled his name and found his mug shot on the Megan’s Law website.

She couldn’t believe it. Here was a registered sex offender working at a parish festival with hundreds of children around, including Borrelli’s two younger sisters. Melanie Borrelli found her mom.

“What is he doing here?” she asked her mom, pointing at Gurries and showing her the mug shot.

Parents in the Saint Frances Cabrini Catholic Parish are still waiting for answers to that question first posed Oct. 6 by Melanie Borrelli, a former student at the parish’s Catholic elementary school in San Jose. She and others were even more incredulous that night when, they said, parish priest Father Lieu Vu told them Gurries — convicted in 2010 of molesting a young relative — had a right to be there. In fact, he possessed a letter from the church giving him explicit permission to be a volunteer.

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CANADA
London Free Press

By Randy Richmond, The London Free Press

Friday, November 16, 2012

A bishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church has waded into the debate about whether a Londoner with a criminal past is a priest.

Terry Mertick is indeed “a priest in good standing,” Bishop Gilles Tremblay said in a news release Friday.

“Father Terry Mertick is a validly ordained priest under my episcopal jurisdiction here in Montreal P.Q.,” the statement reads.

The Old Roman Catholic Church officially dates to 1870 and exists apart from the Roman Catholic Church, Tremblay said in his statement.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of London issued a news release Thursday that said Mertick was impersonating a priest and conducting services at area funeral homes.

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WASHINGTON
Kirkland Reporter

November 16, 2012

A child sex abuse claim, which involved a Kirkland church, has been settled. A trial was scheduled to begin against the Seattle Archdiocese next Monday but the parish district settled for $635,000 on Thursday.

Former youth minister Jim Funnell at St. John Vianney Church in Kirkland allegedly sexually abused the plaintiff, identified by his initials D.E., in the mid-1980s for more than one year. It is said others were abused as well.

D.E. was living in Kirkland at the time of the abuse but now resides in Bothell.

Funnell was hired, which the plaintiff claims, during the time when former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Haunthausen and other Catholic bishops were collaborating on how to address the emerging sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church.

However, the Archdiocese failed to adequately warn its employees and timely adopt the policies regarding child sex abuse, and Funnell slipped through the cracks because church officials failed to conduct a proper background check, said the victim.

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

[Bob Hoatson reflects on last night’s election results]

Tom Doyle

When I first saw Bob’s reflections on the election joined with his reflections on VOTF I was struck by how much on target Bob is with his thoughts on both. I suggested that his thoughts get as wide a circulation as possible.

The one aspect of the election campaign that irritated me the most was the clumsy and insulting intrusion of the U.S. Bishops. They viewed the campaign and the office of president pretty much the way they view everything: an entity subordinate to them and an entity that must submit to their scrutiny and their demands. For as long as anyone can remember the bishops have held themselves out to be the official, divinely instituted arbiters and interpreters of moral law, theology and the meaning of the scriptures. Whether their interpretation was true mattered little. If they said it was so that was it! In their way of thinking it is always been better to be right than to be true!

Well, they said what was true about a number of issues over the centuries and in time, usually much time, they were proven wrong and had to admit it. The clarion example is Galilleo who waited over three centuries for posthumous vindication and even then the mitered wizards led by the pope could not come out and simply say “we were wrong.”

The bishops’ collective efforts to unseat the president were an embarrassment to many Catholics who had come to the conclusion that they are adults and can make electoral choices on their own.

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UNITED STATES
The Wrap

By Sharon Waxman
Follow @sharonwaxman

Alex Gibney is ready to take on the Pope in his new documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which opens this weekend.

Gibney, who has taken on hot topics from lobbyist Jack Abramoff to biking champion Lance Armstrong to Enron, digs into a new aspect of the sexual-abuse scandal in which deaf children in Catholic boarding schools were preyed upon by pedophile priests.

One of those children, now grown, has sued the Pope. The film raises the tantalizing question of whether private individuals can sue the Vatican, which is a sovereign country.

“So you can understand the magnitude of this scandal, it’s a concerted systematic cover-up of childhood sexual abuse that goes all the way to top of Vatican,” he told me.

He said that the sins of the Wisconsin priest at the deaf school, Lawrence Murphy, “leads you on a journey, like the film ‘Chinatown,’ from Milwaukee to Ireland all the way up to the top of the Vatican, to the Pope himself.”

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell looked more like a politician than a priest this week, ducking and weaving and spinning his answers to lay blame everywhere but in his own backyard.

It’s been that refusal of the church and its hierarchy to deal properly and openly with decades of accusations that has led to the widespread public cynicism and criticism it now faces.

Its official response has been minimalist and reluctant, hidden in legalese and spin, all aimed at protecting the reputation of the church first, and helping the victim second.

Pell’s public performance shows nothing has changed, and that’s not only a sad indictment on the church (not its people, who do good things every day) but a hurtful and unwise approach before the royal commission.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

November 16, 2012

Posted by Eric Bugyis

Over at The Dish, Andrew Sullivan praises a new HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” by Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) on the perpetration and cover-up of sex abuse in the Catholic Church that traces the corruption all the way to the Pope. None of this, I think, will be news to many of us who have been following this horrifying story for more than a decade, but Sullivan offers an interesting comment on how the loss of moral credibility among the hierarchy has created two parallel churches:

One feature of this last election was the complete failure of the Vatican hierarchs to dictate the vote to the flock. American Catholics voted for Obama over Romney. The docile fools in dresses – from Dolan to Chaput – were ignored as they now routinely are, and should be. They actually think they still have moral authority. But moral authority has to be earned with each generation, and the corruption in the Vatican is so deep and so rotten and so incapable of self-reflection it has effectively created two Catholic churches in America: those few in the pews who still listen to the bishops and those who exist almost in a parallel church, focused on their own parish, their own priest, and their own faith, which remains, for many of us, undimmed.

I have also found the idea of inhabiting a parallel Catholic Church to be one way of sustaining my own faith through the dark time of scandal, pastoral malfeasance, and political cynicism that continues to undermine the hierarchical Church. The wonderful community at my local parish and the excellent priests that serve us have kept me coming back every week in spite of the continual heartbreak that comes from seeing certain bishops and their friends take the public stage with a militant defensiveness, a hunger for power, and a litigiousness that seems to be the very antithesis of the Gospel’s message of self-sacrifice, humility, and love. Now more than ever, I find that spending Sunday mornings in prayer with my spouse and our friends a the Church of Loretto is essential to sustaining a spiritual life away from the daily silliness that has become the public witness of institutional Catholicism.

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UNITED STATES
The Daily Beast

[with video]

Andrew Sullivan

Earlier this week, I was privileged to attend a screening of Alex Gibney’s latest piece of documentary brilliance, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.” It’s released today. To be honest I want to see it one more time before writing a length about it. It’s about the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis – and the criminal conspiracy reaching right to the current Pope that will one day surely bring the whole house of cards down, so that the church can be rebuilt amid the ruins created by deeply sick and psychologically crippled men at its core. No one is more implicated in covering up this institutionalization of sexual abuse and secrecy than the man who controlled and oversaw every single case of clerical sex abuse in the world from 2001 onwards: Pope Benedict XVI, who knows more than anyone else on the planet about the horrifying psycho-sexual truth beneath the ermined, bejewelled veneer.

One feature of this last election was the complete failure of the Vatican hierarchs to dictate the vote to the flock. American Catholics voted for Obama over Romney. The docile fools in dresses – from Dolan to Chaput – were ignored as they now routinely are, and should be. They actually think they still have moral authority. But moral authority has to be earned with each generation, and the corruption in the Vatican is so deep and so rotten and so incapable of self-reflection it has effectively created two Catholic churches in America: those few in the pews who still listen to the bishops and those who exist almost in a parallel church, focused on their own parish, their own priest, and their own faith, which remains, for many of us, undimmed.

But every now and again, that parallel church actually encounters – and cannot elide – the hierarchy. In Minnesota, where a third of the population is Catholic, the hierarchy insisted that the state amend its constitution to keep gay couples out of civil society and civil marriage. The hierarchy failed – as miserably as they failed in their trumped up “war on religion” nonsense. The Amendment didn’t pass. You cannot be exposed as an institution that is responsible for covering up the rape and torture of thousands of children and have any moral authority when it comes to the constitutional equality of gay citizens or the contraceptives that 99 percent of Catholic American women use at some point.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A network of Reformed church plants accused in a class-action lawsuit of covering up sexual abuse of children appealed to a First Amendment defense in a statement Nov. 14.

Sovereign Grace Ministries, which recently relocated from Maryland to Louisville, Ky., in the wake of recent internal strife, initially declined comment until receiving a copy of the lawsuit filed Oct. 17 in Montgomery County, Md.

An “updated” statement by Tommy Hill, Sovereign Grace’s director of administration, said the organization could not comment on specific allegations in the lawsuit, but upon review “it appears the complaint contains a number of misleading allegations, as well as considerable mischaracterizations of intent.”

Hill said the lawsuit, which does not allege child abuse by any current or former pastor involved with the network of about 90 churches, involved “biblical and spiritual direction” given by request of those seeking counsel.

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SCHWEIZ
Tages Anzeiger

Von Eva Waiblinger

Die Historikerin Francisca Loetz untersuchte Fälle sexueller Gewalt in Zürich von 1500 bis 1850. Männer hatten damals das Recht, ihre Sexualität auszuleben. Für Frauen zählte vor Gericht einzig die Ehre.

Überlandstrasse. Ein Zeuge hört Schreie und beobachtet, wie Jakob A. (24) mit offenem Hosenladen Reissaus nimmt. Im Strassengraben findet der Zeuge dann die junge Barbara U. (17): wimmernd, mit zerzausten Haaren und zerrissenen Kleidern. Der Fall kommt vor Gericht. Die Zürcher Richter erachten es als erwiesen, dass Jakob A. die Frau vergewaltigt hat, sehen jedoch von einer Bestrafung des Angeklagten ab, wenn dieser Barbara U. am darauffolgenden Samstag ehelicht. Barbara U. muss ihren Peiniger heiraten. Ein empörend ungerechtes Verdikt – nach heutigem Empfinden. Nicht so im Jahr 1656, als das Zürcher Gericht dieses Urteil fällte. Damals sah die Gesellschaft ein solches Urteil als angemessen und sinnvoll an.

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